Who is the wealthiest person you know in real estate? What did they do and where are they now? A friend of my dad owns a handful of apartment buildings (like 300 units) he bought them in 2013 I think but he didn't really start in real estate. Made his money in the restaurant business and bought real estate later.
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I know of this guy - not personally but know people who work with/for him. He owns this development company out of Long Island and its crazy how good he done. He personally owns at least one investment property in like 46 states and has done a development project through his company in every single state. This dude is nuts, he's like 92 years old and still shows up to work every fucking day and puts in time - kind of crazy but he just loves what he does so its hella respectable, flies around place to place on his private jet to look at property, all that shit. Like I said, I don't know him personally but have gotten to know of him through mutual connections. He started by saving enough money to buy a small duplex in Brooklyn and then things just compounded into him purchasing his first apartment building and then at that point he got into the development business. For sure crazy what he's been able to do but after 60 something years of doing something id be pretty pissed if I wasn't successful as fuck, especially in real estate
That's amazing. What does he build/invest in? or is he a generalist?
Pretty sure that the development company does primarily commercial and industrial work. Last time I heard about him the firm was working on building a massive commercial campus in LI - sorta like a strip mall but with everything included. So you would have like apartment complexes in one corner, then a big supermarket in the middle, then a line of restaurants on one side, doctors/dentists offices, and everything else you could think of - like a big fucking community where people on the "campus" rarely have to leave the area because everything is just right there. Pretty sure this is going to be the majority of their work for the foreseeable future its pretty promising
Parents friend owns like 5 apartment complexes (10-20 units), and a few dup/tri/fourplexes. She lives in one of them with her family and grandchild.
She used to own three jewelry stores and a restaurant but gambled them away. Still, she’s worth a lot despite everything.
A college professor of mine has like 300 beds in the college town. Must easily be worth 20-40 million. All he does is student housing. Think large state school.
He’s in his 40-50s
I kind of suspect you're overvaluing those 300 units/rooms/etc. $100,000/door is really expensive, especially for what is likely a very small town (outside the student population).
Just a few examples of prices per door in college towns, obviously it depends on how the doors are being counted. If it is per bedroom then yes, if it per apartment then no. In Austin for example the average apartment around UT is selling for about 350 - 400K each. In NYC that could easily be 650 - 1M per door. There are plenty more examples even in the midwest where units are more than 100K each.
Cool, what sport?
Know quite a few billionaires, some of which are forbes.
Most insane "normal guy" was a retailer I know who bought a building for 600k in 1990, during the mini recession. The building has since appreciated to 50 million. He had a couple of other RE investments, would peg him at around 120 million at 85 years old. Did it all through one store in a tier 1 city.
My boss is 43 years old, has been doing development for the past 15 years. Not sure about his net worth but he owns a challenger 350 worth around 25 - 30 million
Wow, 43 is really young to own a jet, albeit a Challenger 350. Does he run a firm that raises funds or does he finance everything himself?
He runs a development shop, he purchased the jet to write off taxes under the name of his company
Last two companies the principals have been worth mid 100mms. One was a genuinely good person.
What were their backgrounds?
one was 3rd gen real estate magnate e.g. Zeckendorf, the other bought real estate after making like 100mm in the 70s.
My uncle lives right next door to this family that owns $400 mil in hotels, and it's so interesting how small the CRE world is because I just started at a lender recently and it was crazy when I saw the guy's company requesting financing for a hotel he was planning on buying.
The ‘mid size’ CRE world is actually really interesting. Yields are a bit juicer than institutional as the cost of capital isn’t as low. So on top of that, lenders get half decent spreads as well in this space. An institutional deal (value add) may be a loan at L + 150 while the mid market level (lets call it $5-30MM) may be L +200/225.
I’ve found when operating in this area, it’s much more difficult as the brokerage community doesn’t have as good access to information from sellers when selling deals. You also may be buying from inexperienced syndicators who wound up upside down, or HNW who just didn’t know what they were doing. So there is much more best guessing and than re-trading before closing. I found, for me, it wasn’t worth banging my head against the wall on these smaller deals, but some people love it. And the returns are there.
Not to hijack the thread - but how long did it take before these guys saw the financial rewards of their hard work? Was it just after one home run deal or was it an accumulation of hitting singles?
In hindsight, RE was so "cheap" back then it but probably was thought of as expensive for those that were looking to purchase during that time period. Makes you wonder where it will be in 20 to 30 years.
Not sure how you define "financial rewards" but I've seen development shops achieved 150% IRR (for sponsor) with 5 years holding period. Net around 15m - 50m profit each deal. So to answer your quesiton, one great home run deal can make you relatively rich without considering taxes or 1031. Guys running the shops are typically mid-40s or 50s
I guess my question comes more from an entrepreneurial perspective. Not looking at large, established development shops that are deploying millions of dollars. I'm talking about the guys that started doing small deals on their own. Did the guys that bootstrap their way into the millions take 10 years hitting singles or hit a homerun on their first deal which set the stage for the subsequent growth?
By financial rewards I mean $$.... be it $5-10M or even $50M. In either case, that's worth more than I am right now :(
Ted Turner & John Malone, media tycoons who compete on land ownership amount... Have heard Ted almost owns enough land to privately connect Mexico to Canada
Does anyone have an example of people under the age of 50?
Well the question was "wealthiest". If you want to cap it at 50, what number are you looking for? Technically anyone could be the wealthiest person you know in real estate under 50... they just won't be particularly wealthy
Only in proptech, or inherited + growing.
I have met some of the third gen of the Hines family, they are probably pretty wealthy. Laura is like the CEO in waiting of the firm.
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