Craig Ustler Development
Video Lecture: Craig Ustler
Craig Ustler, UF alumni and owner of Ustler Development, Inc., lecture is about the benefits of urbanism and how take is that the “American Dream” has changed. He believes that people no longer want the “Leave It to Beaver” or “Brady Bunch” lifestyle of living in the suburbs, rather, people now want the type of lifestyle of sitcoms such as Seinfeld, Friends, and Sex in the City, or those showing city life. The market is now demanding commercially, socially, and financially sustainable communities. Communities need to be mulit-purpose and centrally located, prompting people to move away from suburbs and move towards urban planned communities. Urban communities, once considered crime ridden, are now hip and are …show more content…
covered with Starbucks and Whole Foods. Banks are noticing the trends and allowing up to an additional $135,000 for home loans in these communities. Politicians are even getting in on the game, making urban planning the solution to the eight biggest social and political issues.
What is interesting to me is that communities that used to be riddled with crime are now hip and trendy and part of the solution. What nobody wanted, everyone now wants. How long will it be before nobody wants it again, when does the cycle start over? Ustler states that 50% of the real estate needed in 2050 is not built yet. He believes that everything will be urban communities and encourages students to become social scientists and live the life of an urbanist to find what the people want.
Video Lecture: Dale Dignum
Dale Dignum is a 1970’s UF graduate returning to UF to lecture. He attended UF when there were only four schools that offered a degree in Real Estate and entered his career in real estate during a recession similar to the one we are in now. His lecture details why he chose the real estate profession and the journey to his current position as a commercial construction lender. The remainder of the lecture discusses what he feels makes a good commercial lender. He also discusses the highs and lows of the profession.
I liked this lecture because Digum showed why he enjoyed real estate, and why he chose to stay in the profession. I like learning how people start out and how they got to where they are now.
Video Lecture: Duane Stiller
Duane Stiller is the founder and CEO of the real estate business Woolbright Development. Woolbright invests in strip centers throughout Florida, concentrating in six major metropolitan areas: Miami, Tampa, Orlando, Jacksonville, Ft. Lauderdale, and West Palm Beach. Stiller believes in five rules. Rule #1 is to do your homework. Rule #2 is to begin with the end in mind. Rule #3 is to buy right and be proactive. Rule #4 is to master the execution. Rule #5 is to follow the law of the farm.
I really enjoyed this lecture. Having lived in Florida my entire life, and living in Miami, Ft. Lauderdale and now Orlando, I am familiar with these markets. I think Stiller’s rules are very logical, and the rules are a strategic approach to life as well as business.
Video Lecture: Fredrick Scarola
Fredrick Scarola is the managing partner of Covenant Capital Group, a private equity firm that does value-add apartment housing. The lecture discusses management of funds that finance the procurement and renovation of multiple apartment complexes located throughout the country for resale. Covenant raises required capital, the company’s strategy is to acquire well located apartments. These properties are typically purchased at 50% to 60% of replacement cost. Next, Covenant converts the B- apartments to B+/A-grade assets through exterior renovations and interior upgrades to kitchens and bathrooms over a 2-3 year period.
I liked this lecture because it reminds me of the shows I watch on HGTV, Buying and Selling or Flip or Flop, but on a corporate commercial scale. I find it intriguing and you really have to know the market and know what people in that areas likes and dislikes are, and how much they are willing to spend.
Video Lecture: House of Cards
The purpose of the lecture discusses the housing crisis, tracing it back to the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center on the September 11, 2001.
Alan Greenspan cut interest rates after the attacks to encourage Americans to spend more. As a result of the reduced interest rates, mortgage rates also were reduced, encouraging many Americans to buy homes. As the number of homes purchased went up, the prices of the home went up. Home prices got so high, many people could not afford to buy them, to fix this California created the sub-prime mortgage. These new mortgages allowed Americans who did not qualify for traditional mortgages, due to insufficient income or poor credit, to be able to buy a home. These sub-prime mortgages were then packaged into Mortgage Backed Securities (MBS) and became a popular commodity on Wall Street. With such a high demand, Wall Street was trying to get lenders to make more home loans, which enticed Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to become involved in the sub-prime mortgage market. Lenders soon started making no income, no asset mortgages. And with lenders ready and willing to lend more capital, homeowners began tapping into their home equity to go shopping. Wall Street quickly developed a new security, the CDO, to package and sell to their customers around the world. These CDO’s were given inappropriate top ratings by the rating companies, and investors scurried to buy them. Unfortunately, most investors did not understand the CDO and …show more content…
therefore did not know what they were buying. During all of this, there was no intervention by the Fed or SEC.
I found this video very powerful. After 9/11 I felt the banking industry took advantage of people. Many people took out loans that they could not handle. I remember reading of a school bus driver in California who had a $700,000 mortgage, and eventually foreclosed on the property because he could not afford the mortgage payments. It is sad to know that that the government did not step in and do anything about the outrageous loans going out the door, or the SEC doing anything to regulate the trading.
Video Lecture: Jacques Gordon
Jacques Gordon is the Global Strategist for LaSalle Investment Management, an investor in 30 countries, and a provider in 60 countries. The firm manages nearly $40B of real estate and capital. Jacques Gordon is an expert in investment management comprising of endowments and pension funds. His portfolio is increasing participation from 401K retirement plans. His area of expertise is the investment management of pension fund endowments, and increasingly 401k plans and mutual funds Jacques discusses trends in real estate globalization and provides great examples of China, India and Latin American countries of Brazil and Venezuela. He believes that this is now an international industry because of finance, tenants or the final product could be international in origin. Real estate investment is a significant asset class, and is now listed on the stock exchanges of many countries. Within this asset class there are “low-low-low” countries with low growth rates, low interest rates, low inflation and lower returns, which leads to lower risk. And there are “grow-grow-grow’ countries with higher growth rates, rising interest rates, and rising inflation where growth strategies work best. These different rates of growth means that investors will want to invest differently.
I found it really interesting to learn about the real estate trends in China, India and other economies. Laos learning about the effects of the Tsunami was also interesting. This lecture increases my interest in REITS, as I have prepared countless 1120REIT returns over the years, and I am currently interviewing for a Senior Tax Accountant position at CNL
Video Lecture: Jim Motta
Jim Motta is a UF alumni and the President of Starwood Land Company. He discusses placemaking in this lecture. Placemaking is the process of creating diverse and livable communities that meet the needs of diverse demographics. Mr. Motta describes Placemaking as a sort of social infrastructure and emphasizes that people and relationships are the most significant metrics. Placemaking creates value by offering options for every lifestyle from starter homes to retirement homes and mentions that as demographic patterns change, it will shift the makeup of future communities. Mr. Motta gives example of Westin, Florida for Placemaking. The Westin is an affluent south Florida municipality comprising of over 30 communities. Mr. Motta then goes on to outline the three stages of Placemaking that is Stage 1 – raw land, Stage 2 – builder parcels to finished lots, Stage 3 – finish lots & finish houses
Placemaking itself was the most interesting item. The idea of a developer working with education experts in order to improve schooling and curriculum resulting in increased value of community is very interesting.
Video Lecture: Martin Hap Stein
Mr. Martin Stein is a graduate of Tuck school of business at Dartmouth and CEO of regency centers. The lecture focused on real estate investment trusts (REIT) and the business model and success of regency centers. REIT’s have on average outperformed Dow Jones, S&P500, and Bonds market. REIT assets are over half trillion dollars in the United States. The REITs is growing phenomenon across the globe. REIT is trusts, therefore tax exempt. REIT distributes 90% of their taxable income as dividends to the shareholders. One important factor in REIT success is due to requirement of owning at least 75% real assets. This allows for depreciation expenses to be added to operational income to generate a very high Net Operating Income. Furthermore, the REIT stock is much more liquid than owning real asset itself. The REIT stocks are readily traded while selling a real asset will take longer. The second half of lecture provides an overview of Regency centers. The overall strategy of firm to be successful is based on five points: 1) High quality portfolio with dominant Grocery 2) Develop properties 3) Recycle capital 4) Strong Balance Sheet 5) Strong Management Team
I found this video intriguing as I have done countless REIT tax returns over the years and am currently interviewing at CNL. Learning more about REITs helped in the interview process. Video Lecture: Robert Carmichael
Robert Carmichael lectures about “The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly” with respect to the economy and Commercial Real Estate (CRE).
Carmichael believes the “good” is that the economy is finally starting to stabilize and is actually predicting minor growth in GDP. The “bad” being no job growth in the near future and a double dip recession. He also feels that consumers will not spend their money, rather they will continue to save. Carmichael defines the “ugly” as the demand for CRE is at all-time lows and that job growth will be necessary before we see any sort of recovery. CRE faces major challenges over the next few years and needs to develop a strategy. This can be accomplished by restructuring loans, short sale, note sale or foreclosure. Each strategy has its positives and negatives. Carmichael finishes up by expressing that though the environment for CRE is bad, there are still opportunities to make money, either through brokerage or property management. Carmichael feels that this is a period in which it is a buying opportunity, and people should be
disciplined.
The most interesting part of this video to me was to learn about the costs associated with the foreclosure process. Even though this was not the main focus of the video, it caught my attention. I liked this video because he talked a lot about Orlando, which is where I live.
Craig Ustler, UF alumni and owner of Ustler Development, Inc., lecture is about the benefits of urbanism and how take is that the “American Dream” has changed. He believes that people no longer want the “Leave It to Beaver” or “Brady Bunch” lifestyle of living in the suburbs, rather, people now want the type of lifestyle of sitcoms such as Seinfeld, Friends, and Sex in the City, or those showing city life. The market is now demanding commercially, socially, and financially sustainable communities. Communities need to be mulit-purpose and centrally located, prompting people to move away from suburbs and move towards urban planned communities. Urban communities, once considered crime ridden, are now hip and are …show more content…
covered with Starbucks and Whole Foods. Banks are noticing the trends and allowing up to an additional $135,000 for home loans in these communities. Politicians are even getting in on the game, making urban planning the solution to the eight biggest social and political issues.
What is interesting to me is that communities that used to be riddled with crime are now hip and trendy and part of the solution. What nobody wanted, everyone now wants. How long will it be before nobody wants it again, when does the cycle start over? Ustler states that 50% of the real estate needed in 2050 is not built yet. He believes that everything will be urban communities and encourages students to become social scientists and live the life of an urbanist to find what the people want.
Video Lecture: Dale Dignum
Dale Dignum is a 1970’s UF graduate returning to UF to lecture. He attended UF when there were only four schools that offered a degree in Real Estate and entered his career in real estate during a recession similar to the one we are in now. His lecture details why he chose the real estate profession and the journey to his current position as a commercial construction lender. The remainder of the lecture discusses what he feels makes a good commercial lender. He also discusses the highs and lows of the profession.
I liked this lecture because Digum showed why he enjoyed real estate, and why he chose to stay in the profession. I like learning how people start out and how they got to where they are now.
Video Lecture: Duane Stiller
Duane Stiller is the founder and CEO of the real estate business Woolbright Development. Woolbright invests in strip centers throughout Florida, concentrating in six major metropolitan areas: Miami, Tampa, Orlando, Jacksonville, Ft. Lauderdale, and West Palm Beach. Stiller believes in five rules. Rule #1 is to do your homework. Rule #2 is to begin with the end in mind. Rule #3 is to buy right and be proactive. Rule #4 is to master the execution. Rule #5 is to follow the law of the farm.
I really enjoyed this lecture. Having lived in Florida my entire life, and living in Miami, Ft. Lauderdale and now Orlando, I am familiar with these markets. I think Stiller’s rules are very logical, and the rules are a strategic approach to life as well as business.
Video Lecture: Fredrick Scarola
Fredrick Scarola is the managing partner of Covenant Capital Group, a private equity firm that does value-add apartment housing. The lecture discusses management of funds that finance the procurement and renovation of multiple apartment complexes located throughout the country for resale. Covenant raises required capital, the company’s strategy is to acquire well located apartments. These properties are typically purchased at 50% to 60% of replacement cost. Next, Covenant converts the B- apartments to B+/A-grade assets through exterior renovations and interior upgrades to kitchens and bathrooms over a 2-3 year period.
I liked this lecture because it reminds me of the shows I watch on HGTV, Buying and Selling or Flip or Flop, but on a corporate commercial scale. I find it intriguing and you really have to know the market and know what people in that areas likes and dislikes are, and how much they are willing to spend.
Video Lecture: House of Cards
The purpose of the lecture discusses the housing crisis, tracing it back to the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center on the September 11, 2001.
Alan Greenspan cut interest rates after the attacks to encourage Americans to spend more. As a result of the reduced interest rates, mortgage rates also were reduced, encouraging many Americans to buy homes. As the number of homes purchased went up, the prices of the home went up. Home prices got so high, many people could not afford to buy them, to fix this California created the sub-prime mortgage. These new mortgages allowed Americans who did not qualify for traditional mortgages, due to insufficient income or poor credit, to be able to buy a home. These sub-prime mortgages were then packaged into Mortgage Backed Securities (MBS) and became a popular commodity on Wall Street. With such a high demand, Wall Street was trying to get lenders to make more home loans, which enticed Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to become involved in the sub-prime mortgage market. Lenders soon started making no income, no asset mortgages. And with lenders ready and willing to lend more capital, homeowners began tapping into their home equity to go shopping. Wall Street quickly developed a new security, the CDO, to package and sell to their customers around the world. These CDO’s were given inappropriate top ratings by the rating companies, and investors scurried to buy them. Unfortunately, most investors did not understand the CDO and …show more content…
therefore did not know what they were buying. During all of this, there was no intervention by the Fed or SEC.
I found this video very powerful. After 9/11 I felt the banking industry took advantage of people. Many people took out loans that they could not handle. I remember reading of a school bus driver in California who had a $700,000 mortgage, and eventually foreclosed on the property because he could not afford the mortgage payments. It is sad to know that that the government did not step in and do anything about the outrageous loans going out the door, or the SEC doing anything to regulate the trading.
Video Lecture: Jacques Gordon
Jacques Gordon is the Global Strategist for LaSalle Investment Management, an investor in 30 countries, and a provider in 60 countries. The firm manages nearly $40B of real estate and capital. Jacques Gordon is an expert in investment management comprising of endowments and pension funds. His portfolio is increasing participation from 401K retirement plans. His area of expertise is the investment management of pension fund endowments, and increasingly 401k plans and mutual funds Jacques discusses trends in real estate globalization and provides great examples of China, India and Latin American countries of Brazil and Venezuela. He believes that this is now an international industry because of finance, tenants or the final product could be international in origin. Real estate investment is a significant asset class, and is now listed on the stock exchanges of many countries. Within this asset class there are “low-low-low” countries with low growth rates, low interest rates, low inflation and lower returns, which leads to lower risk. And there are “grow-grow-grow’ countries with higher growth rates, rising interest rates, and rising inflation where growth strategies work best. These different rates of growth means that investors will want to invest differently.
I found it really interesting to learn about the real estate trends in China, India and other economies. Laos learning about the effects of the Tsunami was also interesting. This lecture increases my interest in REITS, as I have prepared countless 1120REIT returns over the years, and I am currently interviewing for a Senior Tax Accountant position at CNL
Video Lecture: Jim Motta
Jim Motta is a UF alumni and the President of Starwood Land Company. He discusses placemaking in this lecture. Placemaking is the process of creating diverse and livable communities that meet the needs of diverse demographics. Mr. Motta describes Placemaking as a sort of social infrastructure and emphasizes that people and relationships are the most significant metrics. Placemaking creates value by offering options for every lifestyle from starter homes to retirement homes and mentions that as demographic patterns change, it will shift the makeup of future communities. Mr. Motta gives example of Westin, Florida for Placemaking. The Westin is an affluent south Florida municipality comprising of over 30 communities. Mr. Motta then goes on to outline the three stages of Placemaking that is Stage 1 – raw land, Stage 2 – builder parcels to finished lots, Stage 3 – finish lots & finish houses
Placemaking itself was the most interesting item. The idea of a developer working with education experts in order to improve schooling and curriculum resulting in increased value of community is very interesting.
Video Lecture: Martin Hap Stein
Mr. Martin Stein is a graduate of Tuck school of business at Dartmouth and CEO of regency centers. The lecture focused on real estate investment trusts (REIT) and the business model and success of regency centers. REIT’s have on average outperformed Dow Jones, S&P500, and Bonds market. REIT assets are over half trillion dollars in the United States. The REITs is growing phenomenon across the globe. REIT is trusts, therefore tax exempt. REIT distributes 90% of their taxable income as dividends to the shareholders. One important factor in REIT success is due to requirement of owning at least 75% real assets. This allows for depreciation expenses to be added to operational income to generate a very high Net Operating Income. Furthermore, the REIT stock is much more liquid than owning real asset itself. The REIT stocks are readily traded while selling a real asset will take longer. The second half of lecture provides an overview of Regency centers. The overall strategy of firm to be successful is based on five points: 1) High quality portfolio with dominant Grocery 2) Develop properties 3) Recycle capital 4) Strong Balance Sheet 5) Strong Management Team
I found this video intriguing as I have done countless REIT tax returns over the years and am currently interviewing at CNL. Learning more about REITs helped in the interview process. Video Lecture: Robert Carmichael
Robert Carmichael lectures about “The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly” with respect to the economy and Commercial Real Estate (CRE).
Carmichael believes the “good” is that the economy is finally starting to stabilize and is actually predicting minor growth in GDP. The “bad” being no job growth in the near future and a double dip recession. He also feels that consumers will not spend their money, rather they will continue to save. Carmichael defines the “ugly” as the demand for CRE is at all-time lows and that job growth will be necessary before we see any sort of recovery. CRE faces major challenges over the next few years and needs to develop a strategy. This can be accomplished by restructuring loans, short sale, note sale or foreclosure. Each strategy has its positives and negatives. Carmichael finishes up by expressing that though the environment for CRE is bad, there are still opportunities to make money, either through brokerage or property management. Carmichael feels that this is a period in which it is a buying opportunity, and people should be
disciplined.
The most interesting part of this video to me was to learn about the costs associated with the foreclosure process. Even though this was not the main focus of the video, it caught my attention. I liked this video because he talked a lot about Orlando, which is where I live.