Thoughts on The Wolff Company in AZ?
Does anyone know much about The Wolff Company, or even has worked for them/with them? Looks like they're a multifamily family office based in AZ and do a good amount of volume both with dev and acq.
Looking for info on culture, comp, investing thesis/equity source, etc. Thanks!
Bump
They had big ties to Katerra. Curious if anyone else knows more. I think parse capital is their LP arm.
I knew a guy that worked there and he is really bright.
You knew a guy that worked at The Wolff Company? Just curious which vertical he worked in - acq, AM, etc? That's promising to hear though!
Good group. I have heard a lot about them. We have toured some of their age restricted stuff "Revel" its a good product. Would be interested in working there if an opportunity ever came up. No idea on hours or comp though.
Many Revel projects were overbuilt for the market. Super nice, but IL without continuum of care didn't seem to land. Might want to check CoStar for current occupancy.
Regarding the rest - just about everyone I know there is pretty sharp. Leadership that I've met are cool guys. The funds that I'm aware of have performed well, though I'm not sure about Kandle. If you're junior, you'll probably work pretty hard and underwrite a ton. Likely more active on the credit side vs. development for now.
My two cents: for this group and others, if possible I'd ask or the younger guys questions about (or try to figure out) that and future activity - what headwinds they've encountered internally to getting deals done, general sentiment at the shop (are they overly cautious/leadership made enough to not push hard, where have they seen the business grow, etc.)
Thanks for the insight here! To be clear, this is essentially the family office (Wolff family) that specializes in multifamily in kind of the Sunbelt and West, right? Are the principals (i.e. family members) sharp as well? Do you know what allows them to attract talent, given that they seem like a smaller outfit?
There's a separate family office, though yes, the keys to the core multifamily platform (The Wolff Company) are still largely retained by the brothers & managing partners. The bros are definitely sharp, and like the guy below said, appeared to have sharp elbows too. At least in the past. I've heard it both ways.
I can't speak to appeal at the senior level but it's probably the same as any other larger, well-established shop for a young guy. Big platform, track record & brand, a lot of reps to learn quickly with the systems in place to train you, and the dream that you can make it big like the older guys did. Also helps to never be crunched for dry powder when you have a guy that can make a call or two to raise it.
I heard very negative things about junior roles.
Specifically, in the great years the Wolff executive team would do what it took to retain their main guys compensation wise. Then instruct them to go tell their analyst / associate that they were not getting a bonus this year.
The senior guy I was talking to said this happened year after year and it was a shitty position to be in. He would come out of his own pocket to give them $10k or something.
He specifically said this happened even when they crushed it as a team.
Therefore, they had to hire a new analyst/associate every year or so, which was also challenging.
This was 4-5 years ago. Maybe different now.
That does seem like a shitty way to operate a company. I guess you wouldn't exactly vouch for their culture then.
Do you or does anyone else have any additional insights into their workplace culture? So far I've heard that they (1) work their juniors hard and (2) don't reward with bonuses, but also that (3) the talent (maybe only upper management?) is top notch.
Good chance I'm doxxing myself, but I have direct knowledge of Wolff's platform for the last ~10 years, and this is categorically false on every front.
Only year they ever didn't pay majority of bonus during that period was COVID in 2020, and that was not just juniors...was the entire organization.
There was one team with a shitty/cutthroat culture back in the late 2010's, but that was quickly rectified with cuts to the senior leadership of that specific group.
Overall culture there is top notch, sharp people all around, and analyst/associate workload is 100% related to dealflow for each particular region...but is overall very manageable even in the busiest of times (virtually never more than 65-70 hours/week, and generally more like 45-50). Turnover the last four years has been almost non-existent at the junior level.
That's reassuring! Are the Wolff family members themselves sharp and understand RE fundamentals? Curious how involved they are in the day-to-day (like in IC), or are they removed from the business and just collecting checks? Also, any knowledge of their industrial platform "At Industrial Company"?
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