WASHINGTON, DC-A growing number of the deals that Joe Friedman, VP of director of Investment Sales at McShea and Co., closes involves what he calls "new generation buyers." That is, they were in between 30 to 40 years old and had previously left big company jobs to build their own real estate portfolios. They tend to live in such urban neighborhoods like Columbia Heights or Adams Morgan. They like texts over emails and prefer to network at bars during happy hour as opposed to a golf course on a Saturday. It is not that this group doesn't like golf, Friedman adds—it's just that they tend not to have that long of an attention span or that much of a block of time on their schedules. Did I mention they prefer texting over email?
"There is definitely a change in the landscape in terms of who are the up-and-coming buyers," Friedman tells GlobeSt.com. But ten years from now, he predicts, "These will be the big players in the market."
For the moment the deals they are involved in are in the $2 million to $10 million and under range. But how they approach these transactions, Friedman says, is very telling. For example:
They are very active in 1031 exchanges. "They are willing to get aggressive but are disciplined, not doing 'stupid deals," Friedman says. "They are willing to pay the taxes if the right deal doesn't come along.
They are leery about CMBS. It is coming back even for small deals, Friedman notes. "But the buyers are gun-shy about them because of the restrictions."
They are conservative about fundamentals. Near-term lease roll over is a four-letter word in this group, Friedman says.
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