How do some of the most wealthy RE moguls create such substantial wealth? I understand that compensation can be quite high, but even at the top level of REIT comp (somewhere around 20M/year) that’s nowhere near enough to lead to the net worth that some of the famous moguls have.
| +48 | Being asked to stay behind and train my replacement | 14 | 2d | |
| +36 | New Comp Database - Google Form (Now with Data Validation) | 24 | 2h | |
| +33 | Best CRE brokerage firms | 24 | 6h | |
| +30 | What does REPE actually do? | 12 | 7h | |
| +26 | Starting University LP Fund | 6 | 2h | |
| +24 | Public Homebuilders | 9 | 7h | |
| +22 | REPE/Development GPA | 15 | 23h | |
| +17 | MSRE/MSRED with no RE experience; Naive to think I’ll land a job afterwards? | 4 | 2d | |
| +16 | UC Berkeley MRED vs Columbia MSRED? | 2 | 4d | |
| +16 | Restoration Hardware | 4 | 2h |
Career Resources
Get instant access to lessons taught by experienced private equity pros and bulge bracket investment bankers including financial statement modeling, DCF, M&A, LBO, Comps and Excel Modeling.
Most wealthy RE moguls aren't c-suite type guys at REITs. The wealthiest people in real estate are typically the ones that went off & started their own firm and happened to be in the right place at the right time. That isn't to say that all these guys had was luck. Most of them are extremely intelligent and know how to raise capital. On top of that, they leverage their deals and when successful make a killing when they exit.
I don't know how true this is, but I feel like a lot of them aren't typically your rags to riches type. They don't necessarily have tens of millions of family wealth to deploy, however they may get a little jump start & have the smarts to turn a small family business into an empire.
Another thing about these real estate moguls is that you don't typically see young ones. Real Estate isn't tech where you can become an billionaire over night.
>I don't know how true this is, but I feel like a lot of them aren't typically your rags to riches type. They don't necessarily have tens of millions of family wealth to deploy, however they may get a little jump start & have the smarts to turn a small family business into an empire.
This is very accurate in the family office space. The family became millionaires in some other business (very commonly construction on most of the US, the jewish NYC families were often in the garment business during the turn of the 20th century) and then deployed that capital into real estate (often to support the family business) only to find that you can make as much money on real estate as their operating business but with far far less employees and headaches.
Fisher's were originally general contractors Durst's were in the garment business Kaufman's were in the garment business Stern's originally sold parakeets which turned into a pet supply company Rose family, another garment business Tisch's, surprise surprise another garment business Rudin's started with a general store chain Tishman, department stores
It takes a lot of capital to invest in real estate so its often those who made money elsewhere (with lower barriers to entry) who are the "real estate moguls" you see today. Also keep in mind all of these families are not rags to riches in one generation. They were wealthy enough to own their own business over 100 years ago, investing in NYC when it was a factory city. Now 100 years later, with the power of compounding interest, the families are the moguls you see today but built on the backs of a few dollars spent a long long time ago..
Looks like I'm changing fields and getting into the garment business
This goes for literally everything. The way to build "generational wealth" (as someone on here termed it nicely) is to own. Own a piece of a business, of fund upside, whatever that may be. Yes, you can make a lot of money pulling in those 2-3mm cash bonuses every year, but that won't make someone a "mogul". The wealthiest finance folks own a piece of a fund. Own their own bank. Etc. Wealthy people in general own their business. That's the only way to generate real wealth
Thanks for the response! Most of this makes sense. With that said, is most of their wealth then tied up in real estate ownership? Or are their funds/investments throwing of paychecks that dwarf the bonuses that REIT CEOs get?
On another note, why are founders of REITs typically not as wealthy as those who run large private shops?
J Kushner?! went hard af and ended up brokering middle eastern peace deals
Jared is a fucking slumlord who makes all of us look bad by association.
Josh is married Kloss and for that I give him props. Kloss is like a 10/10 on every scale I can imagine.
Through entrepreneurship, not by working at a REIT.
The moguls are a different breed from your typical real estate entrepreneur worth 50+ million
One example I’ve seen is a guy who is worth around $70 mil but isn’t Tishman level of rich. He started out building single asset senior housing with friends and family money with extremely attractive promotes and took fees as well. He would build, stabilize, refinance, pay back his investors + their required return with the refinance proceeds to become the sole owner of the building. Then he took what little cash he had and did it all over again. You basically double down over and over again and eventually you have a handful of properties with $70 mil of equity.
I’m simplifying the process, but this is one way it’s done. Cheap Country Club equity + high leverage development built at such an attractive basis you can take out most or all of the equity with the stabilized financing + timing works out such that you can do it multiple times within a bull market
This right here is probably the goal of 90% of the guys on this forum working in development or hoping to start getting into development (myself included). This is how its done. Thanks for putting it so eloquently.
Mind expanding on what Country Club JV Structure consists of? Is it basically a single hurdle with a 5-8% pref and 50/50% split of cash flow thereafter? Is the only real difference that it has far fewer hurdles and a far larger split above the hurdle?
You basically nailed it but it’s not as generous as 50/50 (at least in my short experience). One I’ve seen recently is a GP who puts in 10% of equity, but takes 30% of cash flow above an 8% IRR (this was not for development however). Look at CrowdStreet as well if you’d like to see how these developers structure their promotes with non-institutional money
Work a "Country Club" type real estate shop. We are getting 6-8% pref, 50/50 on the back end. Charging a 1-2% acquisition fee and 5% to manage the GC during the development process. But the real money is in your basis. It's about your ability to have hyper local knowledge of the land development code, property owners and construction costs. We have made some of our investors very wealthy over the years, so the money flows both ways. Good luck!
del
I find it extremely hard to believe that 90% of self made millionaires achieved their wealth through rental properties. Someone’s trying to sell you something if they say that.
You mean someone like this!?
Just bought his seminar. Super excited to learn!
All this MS for some light hearted sarcasm... Tough crowd.
Haha is that Grant Cardone?
On a scale of 1-10 how full of shit do you think he is?
What net worth do you need to achieve to be considered a mogul? over a B? I have a lot of low 9 figure guys in my data base and they seem pretty comfortable..
Over $250mm or $500mm should be the cut off.
Why those numbers? There's a big difference between a quarter of a billy and half a billy.
I think it is more of a range than a hard and fast number. Is the person dominant in their market? Someone worth $250mm in NYC isn't a mogul, there are plenty of guys hitting those numbers. If you're a developer in Austin and you're worth that? Then you're probably one of the bigger players.
Also sort of matters how you got there, what you're doing with the money, how active you still are, etc.
That is how I would define it too, although perhaps one would need to be dominant in a couple markets or at least a force to be reckoned with wherever they go.
I would venture to say that anyone that owns positive cash flowing real estate equal to 3-5x the UHNW classification could be considered a RE Mogul ($90MM-$150MM of RE property). The discussion then becomes: Do those figures include debt or not? Hmmm.
Absolutely not. If you're "worth" a billion dollars but you have 99.9% leverage, then you aren't wealthy at all. Any time someone quotes you a number that isn't net of debt, especially in a high leverage-reliant industry like RE, laugh them out of the room
Sam Zell is the ultimate business man and RE pro. If you are younger and looking to learn about business and how to become a millionare, read his book and listen to everything he says on Youtube. even his bad bets will shed light on how to think within the constructs of today's and yesterday's economy, and how to adapt and what to watch out for in the future
Just bought his book
legend. and he never wants to touch development.
Debitis ea et facilis iure. Ipsa expedita saepe amet cum veniam ea est.
Molestiae eligendi fugiat nesciunt dolores. Nihil neque accusamus sunt. Ut esse quae numquam amet aut dolores temporibus.
Enim fugiat magnam quidem alias facilis. Nemo reprehenderit delectus cum doloribus sint perferendis quaerat.
Asperiores repudiandae est eligendi molestias. Optio doloremque quam impedit accusamus laudantium voluptas et. Ut consequatur dolorem mollitia ea vitae eius consequatur inventore. Voluptatibus vel saepe inventore assumenda aliquam rerum et itaque.
See All Comments - 100% Free
WSO depends on everyone being able to pitch in when they know something. Unlock with your email and get bonus: 6 financial modeling lessons free ($199 value)
or Unlock with your social account...
Quasi natus ratione consectetur reiciendis maxime voluptatem molestias sed. Enim voluptas fugiat enim porro tenetur. Ut velit blanditiis voluptatem unde. Explicabo similique corporis provident. Exercitationem culpa similique omnis consequatur.
Ut voluptate qui unde omnis et consequatur officiis. Distinctio ducimus facilis doloribus delectus sapiente est. Et sit non iure quia iusto. Quis quia et placeat. Facere eveniet est enim impedit rerum officia dolor.
Qui ut laboriosam voluptatem enim vitae atque tempora. Cum qui quisquam id quos vitae.