Blog

May 21, 2025

Market View 2025: MLG Capital’s Strategic Outlook for Private Real Estate

Timothy Wallen

Each year, MLG Capital issues its Market View commentary to offer a clear, data– driven perspective on the state of the private commercial real estate market. In Spring 2025, CEO Tim Wallen, President Billy Fox, and CIO Dan Price convened to discuss market trends and where they see opportunity in the market today.    The following highlights from our 2025 Market View discussion explore where we see risk, where we see resilience, and why we are actively deploying capital in the current environment.  Key Themes from the Spring 2025 Market View Discussion Soft net operating income (NOI) is creating tactical entry points, not permanent impairments.  Operating income across multifamily assets has come under short–term pressure due to record supply deliveries in 2023 and 2024, particularly in high-growth markets such as the Sunbelt. This temporary imbalance has generally reduced occupancies, flattened rent growth, and increased concessions. MLG views this softness not as structural deterioration, but as a cyclical occurrence that is already beginning to normalize in select markets. As operational performance recovers, assets acquired during this window may benefit from meaningful NOI growth over the mid– to long–term.  The supply and demand imbalance is correcting and setting the stage for future…

April 15, 2025

Navigating 2025 Market Volatility: Why Private Real Estate May Offer Stability for Investors 

Timothy Wallen

The public markets are experiencing high volatility—driven by sweeping tariffs, geopolitical uncertainty, and investor anxiety around a potential economic slowdown. In this kind of environment, many high-net-worth investors are re-evaluating their asset allocation strategies. One increasingly popular question: Is it time to move beyond the public markets? While publicly traded REITs (Real Estate Investment Trusts) offer exposure to real estate, they behave more like stocks than the underlying real estate itself. This is because public REITs trade on exchanges and are subject to the same sentiment-driven swings as the broader equity markets. This disconnect highlights the key difference between public REITs and private real estate investments: private real estate is less correlated to public markets. At MLG Capital, we track and compare the performance of public equities, REITs, and private real estate using trusted benchmarks like the S&P 500, the IYR ETF (for public REITs), and the NCREIF Property Index (for institutional private real estate). Historically, and continuing into this volatile 2025 environment, private real estate has shown considerably lower volatility and less correlation with the ups and downs of the stock market. Overexposure to highly correlated, and currently volatile assets, may result in increased risk when compared with a…

January 14, 2025

Meet Our Newest Principals

As we begin a new chapter at MLG Capital, we are proud to announce an expanded leadership structure under the continued guidance of CEO Tim Wallen. This change reflects our commitment to fostering long-term growth and ensuring a sustainable future for our company. Effective immediately, we are excited to welcome five outstanding team members as Principals within our organization. Billy Fox: President and Principal Billy Fox, a dedicated member of MLG for the past decade, has been named President and Principal, and will remain a key member of the Investment Committee. In this role, Billy will lead efforts to enhance team building, refine investment strategies, and improve the overall customer experience. Known for his intelligence, empathy, and hard work, Billy exemplifies the qualities of a true leader. His vision and dedication will strengthen MLG’s culture and continue the tradition of providing exceptional service to our clients and investors. Dan Price: Chief Investment Officer and Principal With 16 years in the commercial real estate industry, including four years at MLG, Dan Price has been named Chief Investment Officer and Principal. As CIO, Dan will oversee the development of diversified and attractive real estate funds, bringing his deep industry relationships and market…

January 13, 2025

2024 Year in Review

Timothy Wallen

As we close the chapter on 2024, I want to take a moment to reflect on a year defined by purposeful growth, resilience, and the pursuit of excellence. Guided by over 37 years of experience, our team has remained steadfast in our mission: to provide access to a variety of investment opportunities that deliver tax-efficient cash flow and long-term appreciation. Thank you to our investors, deal partners and industry partners for your trust and partnership. To download our 2024 Year-end newsletter, click here or on the image below, and join us in celebrating the collective accomplishments that would not have been possible without your support.

April 30, 2024

How Investors are Paid: MLG’s Private Fund Return Structure

David Binder Jr.

The series of MLG Private Funds provides investors with access to investment opportunities that aim to produce tax-advantaged cash flow and appreciation over time. The Funds focus on growing investors’ wealth, capital preservation and diversification within private real estate investment.   Understanding how and when returns are sent to investors is perhaps one of the most important elements of any investment structure. Within the private markets, there are a myriad of different structures that may exist. These structures can be frequently misunderstood.   Our Funds utilize a “European equity waterfall return structure”. This is specifically designed to be an investor friendly return structure. This demonstrates our firm’s commitment to investors and our confidence in our ability to execute.   MLG Private Funds Return Structure:   Our latest Fund, Private Fund VI, intends to underwrite potential investments to a target internal rate of return of between 11% and 15% (net of Fund expenses and fees), on a leveraged basis. Each of our funds utilizes a three-tiered return structure. 100% of available distributions are paid to investors as follows1;   (Tier 1) 8% cumulative preferred return on invested equity  (Tier 2) 100% return of original principal invested, after a full 8% cumulative preferred return is paid   (Tier…

April 11, 2023

Understanding the K-1: A Guide for Real Estate Investors

As an investor in a diversified private real estate fund, you have likely come across the term “K-1” and have wondered both what it is and what it means to you. The K-1 is an important tax form that every investor in a partnership, including a real estate investment fund like the series of MLG Private Funds, receives annually, and is a very important document needed for filing your taxes.   Let’s break down what a K-1 is, and more importantly, how this document can impact real estate investors personal tax filings. What is a K-1? A K-1 is a tax form that is used to report a partner’s (investors) share of the income, deductions, credits, and other allocable items of a partnership. It is required to be filed by every partnership (including a real estate investment fund) with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and provided to each partner (investor) annually. The K-1 reports the investor’s annual share of the partnership’s taxable income and is used to prepare the investor’s individual tax return  What information is included on a K-1? A K-1 form typically includes the following information (see an example 2022 K1 from the IRS): Your tax basis calculation…

July 26, 2022

The Tax-Efficient Power of Reinvestment

Rick Reuter, CPA, CGMA

Private real estate is a tax-advantaged asset class. At MLG, we first focus on making smart real estate investment decisions, then wrap strategic tax planning around those decisions. One financial strategy our investors can take advantage of is the power of reinvesting over time. When one of our older funds produces a large distribution following the sale of a property, many of our investors consider making new investments into our newest fund. New investments generally create fresh tax losses that could be used to offset taxable income from prior funds within the same year. To illustrate the power of reinvestment, let’s see what potential tax savings could occur from an investor using their proceeds from a distribution in an older fund to make a new investment into our latest fund offering. This scenario is hypothetical, and it is always wise to consult your tax professional before making any investment decision. Let’s assume an investor made a $250k investment in one of our prior funds. Let’s also assume that a property sale produced a return of capital of 20% of their original investment amount, or about $50K. Lastly, let’s assume this investor has a high income, and is taxed at the…