CrowdStreet’s Brent Hieggelke is joined by Jim Myers, a CrowdStreet investor, to discuss why he became a commercial real estate investor, what he learned about investing from The Great Recession, and why he thinks now is a great time to invest, even with reduced deal flow.
Brent Hieggelke, Chief Marketing Officer
CrowdStreet
CrowdStreet
Brent is a high-growth tech marketing executive focused on start-up and early category innovators and disrupters. He is a seasoned evangelist, and public speaker across a wide-range of topics.
He is a former CMO of several leading SaaS companies such as Urban Airship (mobile), Brandlive (video), Webtrends (data and analytics) and Touch Clarity (AI, machine learning), which sold to Omniture. In 2009, Brent co-founded a real estate start-up, Second Porch, which built the first sharing vacation rental site and ultimately exited to HomeAway, now Expedia. Brent has keynoted and led panels at global events like SXSW, Mobile World Congress, Cannes Lions, Advertising Week, Adtech, and hundreds of other conferences. Brent has been featured or quoted in The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Advertising Age, and hundreds of other publications.
Brent holds a BA in Economics with honors from the University of Chicago.
00:00:05 Hello again, everybody. I'm Brent Haki, Chief Marketing Officer of CrowdStreet, and welcome back to StreetBeats our short video series to keep our community connected in this time of Covid 19. So, uh, really excited today to welcome one of our investors, Jim Meyers, with us, and, uh, he's gonna talk about what he's seeing out on the East Coast. So, Jim, welcome. Thanks for taking time, and if you wouldn't mind, uh, give a little bit of your background and where you're located and, uh, how you found CrowdStreet and what you think of it so far.
00:00:37 Well, thanks for having me. My, my name's Jim Myers. Um, I, uh, have worked as a lawyer for over 45 years, uh, doing a lot of litigation and corporate work, uh, primarily in technology for major financial companies. Um, I'm currently the general council for a consumer products company that I've worked with for the last 27 years.
00:01:06 Wow, okay. That's great. Well, uh, how did you first discover CrowdStreet and what, uh, track platform?
00:01:14 My son, um, has decided he wants to become a real estate developer. So, uh, three years ago I created a family real estate development company, and we've built, uh, six luxury homes in, uh, Bethesda, MaryAlAllander. And I wanted to, uh, diversify, um, our real estate investments in get, uh, uh, deeper training, uh, for, uh, my son's, uh, future career.
00:01:48 That's very noble of you. That's great. What a way to dive in. And, um, so you were developing luxury homes in the residential sector and, uh, what, what intrigued you about the commercial real estate, uh,
00:02:00 Industry? Well, I, I think the, the first thing is these, until CrowdStreett, I didn't have access to, uh, this type of deals on the deal flow and the size on, you know, I'm, I'm not a large corporation. I don't have, uh, the resources of Wall Street. And so, um, I wasn't given, uh, the opportunity to invest and the minimums were awfully high on many of these, um, investments. It's, so CrowdStreet offered me access in a way that it just didn't exist before that.
00:02:41 Excellent. Yeah, that's a pretty common, common way, uh, people discover us. And so, uh, what's been your experience so far, just in terms of sort of how many deals you've invested in and what type of assets have you chosen so far?
00:02:55 Well, I've been, I've invested in seven properties so far. Um, eight more deals I want to do before the end of the year.
00:03:03 My next question was gonna be, are you currently, uh, evaluating the new deals that are launching the platform? Uh, even in, you know, in the midst of the, the Covid-19,
00:03:12 Uh, I've set aside the funds for it and, you know, I, over my career, um, I've had the opportunity to invest in private equity. And one of the things I learned in the Great Recession was that, um, you didn't make a lot of money if you invested the year or two before the bottom fell out. But if you had the cash and the nerve to examine deals and place, um, solid bets once the downturn had happened, that the returns were quite substantial. Um, and so I think anyone who, you know, invested in 20 10, 20 11 in a variety of assets after the bottom hit in the great Recession did extraordinarily well. And my hope, um, it may be misplaced. I mean, you know, but my hope and I is that, uh, we're gonna see, uh, uh, an upturn, uh, I don't know whether it'll be very fast or whether it'll be more slowly or bumpy, but I suspect that now's actually a great time, uh, to make investments. The biggest problem is the deal flow is a little bit reduced.
00:04:31 Are you, uh, are you more, are there certain asset asset types that you are particularly, uh, interested in over others?
00:04:39 Um, I, I'm interested in high quality, um, deals and I take a pretty holistic approach to it. Um, it's, you know, a combination of things. Um, one, you know, the sponsor, how long they've been at it, where's the geography? Is it located in a place that I believe in? Um, you know, I've gun deals and, um, you know, Washington DC near where I live, I've done them in Austin. Um, I'm doing them in North Dallas. I'm doing 'em in Milwaukee. Um, I'm Atlanta, um, Northern Virginia. So I, I like to invest in places that I know something about, um, that I have some personal experience and prejudices about. Um, and, um, that makes a, a big difference.
00:05:34 Well, that's great. Well, Jim, uh, you've definitely said some kind things, so we appreciate that and, uh, glad your experience has been, uh, so positive so far, and exciting to hear that you're getting your sun up to speed and involved and, uh, giving him an education as well as a great experience. Uh, I'd love to, uh, hear any final thoughts or what you're looking for next as we kind of, of come into summer.
00:05:59 Well, I, I, I think that there are a lot of opportunities that will appear, uh, on the site. And I think, um, more investors are gonna want to have access to, um, the investor base because we're interested, we're engaged, we're easy to manage with this platform. And I'm, you know, I think as a group we're able to sort out the really good deals and the not so good ones. I'm excited, my son is about participating. This is, uh, a really wonderful shift in how real estate can be invested into by, um, by people like myself. So thank you very much for the opportunity you've created.
00:06:52 Well, you're very welcome, and thank you so much for taking time out of your schedule to speak with us and our entire community. And for our audience, you can subscribe to the StreetBeats series and we'll send you an email once a week with the new additions. Thank you so much, Jim, for taking time, and we'll see you all very soon.
00:00:37 Well, thanks for having me. My, my name's Jim Myers. Um, I, uh, have worked as a lawyer for over 45 years, uh, doing a lot of litigation and corporate work, uh, primarily in technology for major financial companies. Um, I'm currently the general council for a consumer products company that I've worked with for the last 27 years.
00:01:06 Wow, okay. That's great. Well, uh, how did you first discover CrowdStreet and what, uh, track platform?
00:01:14 My son, um, has decided he wants to become a real estate developer. So, uh, three years ago I created a family real estate development company, and we've built, uh, six luxury homes in, uh, Bethesda, MaryAlAllander. And I wanted to, uh, diversify, um, our real estate investments in get, uh, uh, deeper training, uh, for, uh, my son's, uh, future career.
00:01:48 That's very noble of you. That's great. What a way to dive in. And, um, so you were developing luxury homes in the residential sector and, uh, what, what intrigued you about the commercial real estate, uh,
00:02:00 Industry? Well, I, I think the, the first thing is these, until CrowdStreett, I didn't have access to, uh, this type of deals on the deal flow and the size on, you know, I'm, I'm not a large corporation. I don't have, uh, the resources of Wall Street. And so, um, I wasn't given, uh, the opportunity to invest and the minimums were awfully high on many of these, um, investments. It's, so CrowdStreet offered me access in a way that it just didn't exist before that.
00:02:41 Excellent. Yeah, that's a pretty common, common way, uh, people discover us. And so, uh, what's been your experience so far, just in terms of sort of how many deals you've invested in and what type of assets have you chosen so far?
00:02:55 Well, I've been, I've invested in seven properties so far. Um, eight more deals I want to do before the end of the year.
00:03:03 My next question was gonna be, are you currently, uh, evaluating the new deals that are launching the platform? Uh, even in, you know, in the midst of the, the Covid-19,
00:03:12 Uh, I've set aside the funds for it and, you know, I, over my career, um, I've had the opportunity to invest in private equity. And one of the things I learned in the Great Recession was that, um, you didn't make a lot of money if you invested the year or two before the bottom fell out. But if you had the cash and the nerve to examine deals and place, um, solid bets once the downturn had happened, that the returns were quite substantial. Um, and so I think anyone who, you know, invested in 20 10, 20 11 in a variety of assets after the bottom hit in the great Recession did extraordinarily well. And my hope, um, it may be misplaced. I mean, you know, but my hope and I is that, uh, we're gonna see, uh, uh, an upturn, uh, I don't know whether it'll be very fast or whether it'll be more slowly or bumpy, but I suspect that now's actually a great time, uh, to make investments. The biggest problem is the deal flow is a little bit reduced.
00:04:31 Are you, uh, are you more, are there certain asset asset types that you are particularly, uh, interested in over others?
00:04:39 Um, I, I'm interested in high quality, um, deals and I take a pretty holistic approach to it. Um, it's, you know, a combination of things. Um, one, you know, the sponsor, how long they've been at it, where's the geography? Is it located in a place that I believe in? Um, you know, I've gun deals and, um, you know, Washington DC near where I live, I've done them in Austin. Um, I'm doing them in North Dallas. I'm doing 'em in Milwaukee. Um, I'm Atlanta, um, Northern Virginia. So I, I like to invest in places that I know something about, um, that I have some personal experience and prejudices about. Um, and, um, that makes a, a big difference.
00:05:34 Well, that's great. Well, Jim, uh, you've definitely said some kind things, so we appreciate that and, uh, glad your experience has been, uh, so positive so far, and exciting to hear that you're getting your sun up to speed and involved and, uh, giving him an education as well as a great experience. Uh, I'd love to, uh, hear any final thoughts or what you're looking for next as we kind of, of come into summer.
00:05:59 Well, I, I, I think that there are a lot of opportunities that will appear, uh, on the site. And I think, um, more investors are gonna want to have access to, um, the investor base because we're interested, we're engaged, we're easy to manage with this platform. And I'm, you know, I think as a group we're able to sort out the really good deals and the not so good ones. I'm excited, my son is about participating. This is, uh, a really wonderful shift in how real estate can be invested into by, um, by people like myself. So thank you very much for the opportunity you've created.
00:06:52 Well, you're very welcome, and thank you so much for taking time out of your schedule to speak with us and our entire community. And for our audience, you can subscribe to the StreetBeats series and we'll send you an email once a week with the new additions. Thank you so much, Jim, for taking time, and we'll see you all very soon.