Strip Mall Guy

He's a syndicator. He uses his Twitter to get retail money to buy strip malls.

That's disappointing. he keeps referring to his business as private equity. Is he as good as he says he is?

Wait is this all related to the "Low ball offer $70k" thread from the other day.....Amazing.

For those of you giving strip mall guy a hard time, $70k in SF/NYC is totally doable. Just see the below thread as proof…

https://www.wallstreetoasis.com/forum/off-topic/living-in-carofficetravel

I liked some of his content but I think he officially jumped the shark for me when he posted that $70K thread.

Personally I've never seen "training" in this industry. It usually means the company is going to give you outsized responsibility for your skill set and salary, but we'll tolerate some minor mistakes along the way. In fact my first boss told me it was a sink or swim environment, and to spend at least 30-60 minutes googling questions before I ask anyone else. I don't think there is inherently a problem with this, but I would not say this type of mentality constitutes training someone when you require them to figure out 90% of their job on there own.

Now if you were joining a company that had an organized management training program (schedule of activities, dedicated mentors, etc.) with a path to a specific position/promotion at the end, I'd say taking a lower salary is fair. There are companies out there in other industries that do have these types of programs, but it's certainly not the norm in real estate. Going to work for a syndication that is likely to tell you things like the above and taking a small salary is laughable.

Yes. He went public for a hot minute and then went anon again. He runs a small $100M fund. Buy strip malls with no leverage. 

All the kids on this thread jealous of strip mall guy. He’s done well for himself. Stop hating on him. Everyone has a different path in life. Big institution isn’t the only way. You wouldn’t catch me ever at a blackstone / Starwood etc. screw that lifestyle. 

Stopped following him after he said he never interviews tenants during DD...

Man some of y'all are massive haters. Did you get rejected from interviewing at Blackstone coming out of college and you can't ever come to terms with smaller players finding success in this business because they didn't raise a $22bn fund to work 70 hr/weeks at age 50 to buy 5% IRR deals to skim 0.5% asset management fees from CalPERS?

I met someone at a CRE brokerage event in NYC who was telling me about neighborhood strip center investing and that he raised funds via Twitter. We had a great conversation as I work in retail acquisitions at a REIT doing less value add deals and not investing my own personal money. We compared the two and he gave me great advice on taking the right steps on starting a company. He was very motivating and had done very well from what he told me. I later heard about strip mall guy and connected the dots that it was him. Have been a fan ever since.

RElawyer You and Ozy have been going at it quite a bit on this thread and the other, so I'm just going to comment here for both. But before I provide my opinion, I have a couple questions for you.

1.) How old are you? I ask because some of your opinions/thought process sound like that of a college student...but you sound like you're in your mid-30's - 40's with your obsession with prestige and that the only thing in life that matters is money, which is a kind of sad.

2.) You say that you have done deals on your own, can you expand further on these deals/your operation? I don't know much about StripMallGuy but if he really has been around for 20ish years and has raised $100mm in capital, then it seems that he has been successful enough for investors to continue investing in him. If it's been 20ish years, that means he survived 08', which says something. Clearly you think his achievements are unremarkable, which probably implies that your achievements are much more remarkable, so I think it would help if you shed some light on your operation. Or are you one of those people who say "my operation isn't as big/successful as his..but it could be if i tried?"

3.) Last question and it might be a touchy subject, but it would provide a lot of context and possibly help me and the rest of this forum understand your perspective. Did StripMallGuy fuck your wife? Once again, I'm not trying to offend you, but your answer does provide a lot of context regarding your hostility towards StripMallGuy...especially if the answer is yes

Now in response to some of your responses:

1.) Honestly in my opinion, $70k really isn't that egregious for a entry level position. Sure you're not going to be living in a 1BR in NYC/SF, but why is it on StripMallGuy to provide that luxury? People who want the job and think it is worth it will apply and those who do not will not. That is what is so great about capitalism. You have a choice. If those who end up taking the job believe they have been misled, then they will quit and find another job. Such is life. People quit jobs due to role/responsibilities being different from what they expected all the time. It happens whether you are 1 year into your career or 20 years

2.) Regarding your definitions on words such as "expert" and "passion." Could you please provide your definition for them? And even if you provide your definition on them, you do understand that these are subjective terms? That means that others can reject your definition. Why should your definition be law? Regarding "expert," I would say 20 years working on the same asset class with seemingly successful results (measured by continued business for 20 years and investors that re-invest) would qualify someone as an expert. Why does it require a large, sophisticated platform to be considered an expert? Regarding "passion," once gain, could you please define? Actually nvm, I don't care what your definition is because I will likely reject it and I have every right to. Who are you to tell me what my passion is? If you hate your job and have no passion for it, that's on you. Don't project it onto the rest of us. If you gave me a $100mm or even $1B, I would continue investing/developing real estate because I love it. I would just pursue larger projects/investments. Is that not passion? I would still pursue my other passions such as soccer or chess. I don't need to give up everything and spend 24/7 on real estate for it to be my passion. By that definition, no one has passion. If you have never had a passion, which it sounds like you have not, then it will probably be very difficult for you to grasp what passion is, which is why you can't relate when others say they have passion for real estate or whatever job they work.

3.) You have a very warped (immature) definition of success/successful business. Yes, businesses are about profitability and making money, but that is not necessarily what they are all about. Many business owners choose to limit their size/growth/profitability for various reasons, that doesn't make them less successful. I'm sure if In-N-Out expanded into the east coast, they would make far more money, but they choose not to. Are you saying they are not a successful business?

4.) As for building a business, you seem to advocate for strategies such as "Building Castles in the Air" and "Greater Fool Theory." Are you so dense that you can't see the problem here? I mean just read the names...Greater..Fool...Theory. This goes back to my question on what your business operation is. Because if you run your operation with these strategies and think that betting on interest rates is a good strategy then you're going to have a very bad time. I mean even you called it "betting." Do you not inherently see the problem with this strategy? It might do you some good to read about Long Term Capital Management. Myron Scholes was on the board of directors btw...you know...the same Scholes from Black-Scholes. He had all the "PrEsTiGe" in the world but that didn't save him from the Russian financial crisis. Even from a completely selfish and greedy mentality, the problem with the Greater Fool Theory is that you could be the fool. And if these strategies I just listed is how you've been running your operation then I'm sorry to inform you that you are probably the fool and just don't know it yet.

5.) On your one and only post regarding if you should pursue an MBA for RE, I'm inclined to say no. My reason being that you already went through 3 years of law school, do you really want to pursue more schooling esp in an industry that quite frankly doesn't care that much about school? Also if you are a real estate lawyer, I'm sure you should have plenty of experience and transferable skills to make the transition. Just don't walk into the interview advocating for Greater Fool Theory and Castles in the Air

It's so funny how these employees on a salary are talking so much shit about an entrepreneur who is leveraging all the resources he got to get real deals done. UNDER HIS NAME WHILE BUILDING A PERSONAL TRACK RECORD.

Retail money or institutional capital, doesn't matter. At the end of the day, money is money. Your LPs 20% IRR is 20% IRR.

If he has 1 home run return on a $15m deal, his GP promote is going to be 10x more than what these employees made in bonus in all the deals they worked on in the last 3 years. Real ones know what I'm talking about here.

He takes real risks and he will benefit from the unlimited upside. Meanwhile, these Analysts/Associates/VPs who like to label themselves as the “real institutional guy” or “I'm the real REPE guy” (with their limited upside) will slave away their lives while making 200-400k thinking they are some big shot.

Put your Egos aside and give credit when credit is due.

Generally despise the influencer stuff like Strip Mall Guy but 70k base with potential to make up to 150k is solid entry level comp. Don’t know why the PE bros are losing it over that pay.

He's a lower (lower) middle market operator, it's not like he's rolling in dough, $70K offering salary makes sense for what he can afford.

There are good opportunities that start with "come work for me, you won't get paid much, but the experience is worth more than the money." There are 1 in 1,000,000 type of opportunities that begin with that statement. But, IMO this is not one of them.

I've got to say - I'm super jealous of these guys that are able to put out great content and raise capital advantageous terms. Assuming a deal goes well - yeah, he might leave with 50-60% of the profits, but his investors are still getting above average S&P500 returns (beyond the average 7-8% historical return depending on how you measure it). If you look at what compounding wealth does over time, an 8% return vs say a 16% return is astronomical ($100,000 at 8% for 30 years is $1,006,000 vs 16% is $8,584,000). This is how some retail investors are going to view this.

I think we have become way too accustomed to the business model where we as GP's do all the back breaking work to hit our promotes, just to earn what might be at best 25% of the entire profit. Thinking back at my old firm, we would spend weeks and over $100k in legal fees with their highly paid NYC attorneys to just negotiate our operating agreement. We do all the work for a few years constructing an apartment and then perhaps a year of lease up  (which was more common pre-covid at least before the real estate market got crazy and properties were purchased at delivery), and then we hand over 75% of the profits. 

And somehow most of us are ok with this.