Evan Rosenfeld Profile picture
Texas Industrial & Multifamily CRE | $120M AUM | 7-fig app business destroyed by Apple | I own a tropical fruit farm | YC
Shtuot Profile picture Dais Lelonson Profile picture 2 subscribed
Apr 27, 2023 14 tweets 3 min read
Property Tax Appeals: Homeowner Edition

Before you panic from the shock of your latest noticed value, read this guide to determine whether you have an appeal case and what to say. There are three appraisal methods: cost approach, income approach, and comparison approach.

The comparison approach is most relevant, so let's toss the other two.

Even a rental house will be assessed based on its value to a homebuyer rather than an investor.
Jan 12, 2023 32 tweets 7 min read
When a $10M property is sold, 20+ parties split $1M in fees.

Want to get involved or reshape real estate? Watch the money flows.

Here's the lowdown on who gets paid and how much 👇👇 Listing brokers represent the seller and create a market to find the best buyer.

Compensation is 2-3% of sales price, with a bonus for exceeding the target sales price.

They can also represent the buyer to earn even more.

Comp: $200 - 300k NoneNone
Jan 8, 2023 22 tweets 5 min read
Apple destroyed my 7-figure business, unjustly, and threatened to report me to the feds.

To clear my name, I had to reach deeper into Silicon Valley than ever before.

Here's the story, AKA how I learned about platform risk. During the early days of the iOS App Store, I built a thriving business.

Our apps had millions of downloads, were pushing 7-figures in revenue, and had been featured by Apple multiple times.

I was playing on easy mode.

Jan 6, 2023 19 tweets 4 min read
Want to get started in commercial real estate? You need money!

Here's how I earned the seed capital that got me off to the races:

The iPhone App Store gold rush The story starts in 2009. I had taken leave from grad school to do a startup with two friends.

My partners and I had some backing, it was the strongest team I had ever worked with, and we had unlimited potential.

It was also my first miserable failure experience.
Sep 4, 2022 25 tweets 5 min read
Exactly three years ago, a private equity firm acquired Wehner Multifamily, a DFW-based property management firm with 25,000+ units.

A few weeks ago, they went out of business.

I was a customer for much of this time, watching them burn down the company they spent eight figs on. The charismatic founder started the company to manage his own properties after bad experiences with other 3PMs.

Growth really accelerated post 2015. They built a suite of three synergistic businesses:

Property management, construction, and supply imports.
Jun 7, 2022 9 tweets 2 min read
Case Study: Vacant Lease Up

20k SF industrial warehouse in a desirable Houston submarket Recently closed on this, upleg #2 of my latest 1031.

Came via broker connection. I had bid on one of his listings, then let him buyer rep me on another. Lost both.

Having built rapport, he let me take an early look at this deal, one of his listings.
Jun 3, 2022 45 tweets 8 min read
Post Mortem: My Worst Deal

128 units in Daytona Beach, FL

Someone took a loss, but it wasn't my investors

👇 Early into my real estate career, having enjoyed a taste of success, I became known in my small circle for doing deals involving 1031 exchanges with TIC structures.

Like the Dallas project.

Jun 1, 2022 24 tweets 8 min read
Case Study: 106 Unit Dallas Multifamily Image It began with a 4-unit in Silicon Valley, which I owned from 2013 to 2017.

I executed a very difficult 1031 exchange to roll ~$2M of pre-tax sales proceeds into this building.

My wife and I literally put all of our eggs into this one basket.

May 31, 2022 30 tweets 9 min read
How I made my first million in real estate

I bought a money losing fourplex and made every mistake in the book.

With a lot of luck and hustle, I sold it a few years later, netting $2M. Image Summary

• Bought in 2013 for $2.53M
• Sold in 2017 for $4.3M
• Initial NOI $60k (2.4% cap)
• Final NOI $183k (4.25% cap buyer adjusted) ImageImage
May 22, 2022 5 tweets 1 min read
Floating rate, bridge loans are becoming less attractive, and that is changing the market.

Why? Exploding rate cap pricing An interest rate cap is a financial derivative that pays out when the interest rate index exceeds the strike.

Borrowers are commonly required to purchase a cap to protect their ability to service the debt if interest rates rise.
May 21, 2022 11 tweets 3 min read
The most asymmetric real estate investment I've ever seen is a dirt pit A dirt pit is a piece of land, often on a hillside, with large deposits of high quality dirt that can be sold off.

Who buys it? Developers.

And they pay a lot of money for it.
Mar 15, 2022 19 tweets 3 min read
🧵 Reverse 1031 Exchange

Compounding gains, tax-deferred, via an endless chain of 1031 exchanges can seem romantic.

The problem is each successive 1031 ups the ante. If an exchange fails, the tax burden could be game ending. Talk about pressure!

Enter the reverse 1031 First the sequencing of events.

In a forward exchange, the relinquished property is sold first, and the qualified intermediary (QI) uses the proceeds to purchase the replacement property.
Mar 6, 2022 32 tweets 7 min read
🧵 Commercial Real Estate Money Reveal

Few people know just how much money flows through our ecosystem. Time to change that.

Follow me behind the scenes of a $10M apartment sale.

You won’t believe the number of parties involved or how much they earn. Listing brokers represent the seller and market the property to find a buyer.

Compensation is 2-3% of sales price, with a bonus for exceeding the target sales price.

They can also represent the buyer to earn even more.

Comp: $200 - 300k
Feb 11, 2022 24 tweets 5 min read
🧵 How to start your own real estate private equity firm. Four key roles:

• Acquisitions
• Transaction coordination
• Asset management
• Investor relations

It's a lot for one person, but help is available 👇 1️⃣ The acquisitions team sources and secures great deals.

Many shops bid on marketed deals from a preferred network of brokers.

Being best buddies with 5 brokers in 4 cities doesn't scale, so relationships are often divided by region.
Dec 30, 2021 10 tweets 2 min read
🧵 Here's a tip worth $100K minimum to CRE buyers in Texas, Utah, and 10 other states

Make sure the recorded documents don't specify your loan amount

Your attorney WILL NOT do this for you! As the largest expense line item, the GP's fiduciary duty is to manage property taxes.

Without knowing exactly what you paid, the assessor will rely on methods that tend to underestimate. If they overassess, you can always reveal the actual, lower, purchase price. Optionality!
Nov 24, 2021 5 tweets 1 min read
🧵 A masterpiece in vertical integration

In 2013, I learned that a friend was buying a house in TX every month.

I couldn't believe that he could handle that while working his tech job.

"What about management, repairs, and leasing?" I asked. "Oh, my broker handles all that". I signed up for the broker's buyer list. It had curated deals in which they offered to:

• be your buyer agent
• line up financing
• estimate and perform repairs
• lease and manage the property

It was full-service, one-stop shopping.
Oct 15, 2021 27 tweets 9 min read
🧵 Case Study: 106-unit multifamily in Dallas

See how the deal was structured, our results, and the opportunity for the next owner.

PS: Want it to be yours? It's currently for sale! Short recap. I started with a 4-unit in Silicon Valley, which I owned from 2013 to 2017.

Oct 14, 2021 12 tweets 4 min read
🧵 A personal 1031 exchange story

This beleaguered rule has helped me and countless others compound wealth faster

But pulling it off successfully was one of the hardest things I had ever done Background: the 1031 exchange allows you to defer taxes if you sell a property and use the proceeds to purchase another property.

It is currently under siege as a "tax loophole". Here is a good discussion.

Oct 12, 2021 32 tweets 9 min read
🧵 How I made my first million in real estate

I bought a money losing fourplex and made every mistake in the book.

With a lot of luck and hustle, I sold it a few years later, netting $2M. Summary

• Bought in 2013 for $2.53M
• Sold in 2017 for $4.3M
• Initial NOI $60k (2.4% cap)
• Final NOI $183k (4.25% cap buyer adjusted)
Aug 19, 2021 20 tweets 5 min read
SMB story 🧵: Last year, I nearly bought a $20M electrical subcontractor in the Southwest.

Here's what I liked about the deal, how I structured it for downside protection, why it fell apart, and a surprising coda. My interest started with clogged pipes at my apartment buildings. I figured, as a frequent customer, I could buy a small plumber and use my portfolio and network to grow the business.

More on the vertical integration strategy

Aug 2, 2021 21 tweets 5 min read
Developers and general contractors get all the glory

But the unsung heroes of construction are the subs who make it happen against incredible adversity.

Thread: Inside the brutal world of trade subcontractors 👇 Background. In the building trades (plumbing, electrical, HVAC, etc), there are several possible business lines:

• incidental service calls
• recurring service contracts
• small projects (e.g. an installation)
• large contracts (e.g. new construction)