Niche Real Estate Products
Ok, fellas. I'm bored to tears in real estate and am looking for new interesting paths and new challenges. What are some niche real estate products that people rarely think about? Self-storage was the trendy niche that, in my view, is now overbought in a lot of U.S. markets. What are some other interesting niches? Section 8 housing, military housing, data centers, etc. Thoughts?
Racetracks seem fun/interesting. What about power plants? Missile silo->doomsday bunker conversions?
I don't think any asset classes are boring, but rather it is various risk profiles that are boring. If you're buying a stabilized Class A apartment building, sure there isn't a whole lot of interesting analysis to do there. But if you're building a Class A apartment building on an environmentally contaminated site, now you've got all kinds of "interesting paths and challenges" as you put it.
Well now my investment criteria will actually have competition... the gig is up
Not sure if this qualifies as niche or flat out creepy but I know a group that specializes in funeral homes and cemeteries. In talking with a few guys who work on this platform the returns were pretty compelling. Not exactly what anyone in undergrad might aspire to be but cash flow is cash flow. I mean if nothing else talk about a reliable sector!
Really? I always heard that was a dead-end career path....
Do you model the average death rate instead of vacancy?
Private Prison reits have always made me uneasy and def stick out to me.
I'd imagine the average tenancy is pretty long there....
lol yah and now that they’re expanding in partnership with ICE to house detained illegal immigrants they must be making a killing. Anything for that roi you know what I mean?
Return on Incarcerated?
Outdoor industrial storage (Specifically container yards with close proximity to shipping ports).
Very high barrier to entry use as most municipalities don’t want to give land owners new CUPs to allow them to stack shipping containers. Also, there is largely a lack of land in these markets.
I know of a family office that bought 44 acres near the Port of Long Beach and ground leased it to a container yard operator. I think they were into it for like 8% unlevered.
I suspect the likes of Evergreen or some of the Dutch shipping outfits would be very keen on the ground leasing these types of sites.
Speaking of shipping… I think owning the shipping terminal/port would be bad ass. More of an infrastructure play than real estate though.
My problem with that space is that I fundamentally reject tax credit housing as immoral and inefficient. So I can't do a product that I think is bad for individuals and for my country, even if it is profitable.
Historic tax credits is something I could look into more, however.
God, this thread is like a trip down memory lane. All this crap seems like a great idea when you are chasing yield late in the cycle. Three years later, when you are the workout officer trying to put the broken pieces back together, these will all seem like the most hair-brained ideas in the world.
"I used to be a bartender, now I own a boat!"