Prospecting for Arizona Value-Adds
Real estate pros Peter Thomas and Mitchell Bradford are betting that multifamily won't be cooling down for awhile. (As long as they don't bet on the Knicks, they should be fine.) The duo founded Thomas Bradford Communities to buy multifamily in Arizona, SoCal and Nevada.
The company plans to acquire $100M in multifamily assets in the near future with a focus on existing properties ranging from 50 to 400 units. Peter tells us that if you keep your eye on the market continuously, opportunities come up. “I’ve been in the market since 1968, and it’s always been the same. I call it ‘prospecting for predisposition.’” Over the course of his career, he’s developed several billion dollars of projects, including shopping centers, apartments and condominiums; locally that includes the Four Seasons Resort in Scottsdale.
Rates continue to be at historical lows, so the spread between cap rates and interest rates creates returns that are favorable, Mitchell notes. But the strength of apartments is more fundamental than that. “The housing crisis has created an environment in which many cannot buy, but also many Millennials with solid incomes are renters by choice,” he says. During the recession, Mitchell formed partnerships to acquire distressed assets in California, Nevada and Arizona. With the recovery of the real estate market, he continued to acquire multifamily assets.
