Podcast: Increasing Risk-adjusted Returns on Real Estate Investments

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PODCAST TRANSCRIPT:

Daniel Farber Excerpt: Before the pandemic struck, we were working on an operating model. It’s a new brand that we launched called Layers, and it integrates a hybrid operating model on properties between conventional apartments and also what we call serviced apartments. And the exciting part of it is it also creates a whole community around these communities that we own. And so we leverage technology in order to bring the community together. We created a loyalty program and then we have the whole serviced apartment side, which from an operating standpoint, makes it highly attractive.

John Casmon: Welcome to Target Market Insights, multifamily, and marketing podcast. Each week, John Casmon interviews multifamily and marketing experts to teach you how to find the best places to invest and attract investors and grow your portfolio. You are listening to target market insights with your host, John Casmon. Welcome to Target Market Insights, the multifamily, and marketing show. I’m your host, John Casmon, and I want to thank you for joining us for another great episode. Now, if you’re enjoying this show, do me one quick favor and leave it at that five-star rating and review it.

John Casmon: Don’t forget to hit the subscribe button so you don’t miss an episode. Now, today, we’re going to be talking to Daniel Farber. Sick and tired of watching a retirement account go up and down with the stock market. What if I told you that you could take control of your money? No more stock market rollercoaster, no more Wall Street control. Well, today it’s possible you can leave the stock market casino and invest in real assets like physical gold, bitcoin, and, of course, real estate. And it’s all possible with the exclusive EQRP, the powerful secret investment tool we discussed with Damian Lupo on Episode 248. Now, this tool gives you checkbook control. And unlike using a self-directed IRA, the EQR allows you to avoid the UBA tax, which could be as high as 37%. Using an IRA to invest in real estate. Now learn more about taking control of your retirement money to invest in real estate, syndications, crypto gold, and more.

John Casmon: Just text the word EQRP to 72000 and you will receive the special report directly to your phone. Again, text EQRP to 72000 right now to get off the Wall Street roller coaster forever. Daniel Farber is responsible for the executive management teams and strategy and execution of growth for HLC equities investment portfolio. He’s also leading the group’s operating businesses inbreds. I’m going to bring on Daniel. Let him tell you a little bit more about himself. Let’s welcome to the show. Daniel Farber.

Daniel Farber: Hi there, John. How are you today?

John Casmon: Hey, I’m doing great, Daniel. Thanks for coming to the show. I went very, very high-level on your bio. Why don’t you take a few minutes to give us more context of who you are and your background?

Daniel Farber: Sure, definitely. Well, the quick snapshot is really Rockies’ raised, grew up loving journalism,  and all kinds of other kinds of liberal art type of fields. And I have a diverse international background where I eventually found myself in Israel and I actually served in the military there. And after that point in time, I was sure that I was going to be a diplomat or go into some sort of journalism or politics or something of that sort. And actually what happened is coming out of college, I started working for a strategic consultancy and I went to the consultancy thinking that I was going to be consulting mainly to organizations, but I actually started consulting more on the business side. So that’s something that really intrigued me, both the deal-making and helping some technology companies. So that’s really where I became more interested in business in general. Throughout that period of time, I had always kind of had a pulse on the family business, which was HLC Equity. And eventually, I decided that I would shift into the real estate field through a family business and got into the business. And since then, that was over a decade ago. It’s been really great and had great several years working in the business.

John Casmon: Wow, that’s awesome, you said the family business. So – HLC Equity. Tell me about kind of its origins and where it started.

Daniel Farber:  Sure. So we’re a multigenerational real estate investment company, have been in business for — in the real estate business for over 70 years –business in general for over a century. Going back to the days in Pittsburgh where a horse named Charley would take consumer goods from point A to point B in order to then be sold from wholesale to sell retail. And that eventually became a thriving business that then went into the real estate investment business. And that went through several economic cycles of buying real estate, owning and operating, developing and more recently over the last 10 years, whereas we used to be primarily in kind of shopping centers and net leased assets and all kinds of different asset types, we really shifted over the last 10 years to focus more on multifamily, whereas we used to primarily be a company that was focused on our own interests. When it comes to real estate investment, we really started bringing in partners and expanding the portfolio that way as well.

John Casmon: That’s really interesting. Right? So you’re talking about this legacy, which a lot of our listeners are striving for, right. How do you build a company, a business, gather assets that can create generational wealth and allow different generations to prosper or get a leg up and continue to thrive, and your family’s been able to do that through HLC equity. I’m curious to learn more about I get why ,you guys are in triple net lease, which essentially means that you guys buy an asset and you don’t have to worry about the management. Right. And you don’t pay for anything. So the tenants in this case, usually big companies, they are leasing from you. They’re paying all the expenses. So you don’t have to worry about anything. You’re just getting a check for owning the land. Right. So I understand what your family was intrigued by that and what HLC Equity was there. I’m curious to learn why you started to pivot into multifamily and started to expand to bring partners and other investors into the fold. Can you explain it?

Daniel Farber: Yeah, definitely. So the net lease asset world, really is a great field within real estate, but it all depends on macroeconomics, right? Where interest rates are, where cap rates are, who your tenant is, and a whole bunch of other items. Well, we still are bullish on certain net lease assets. We really saw this opportunity and kind of 2013-2014 where multifamily was. First of all, you had attractive financing on the deals. Cap rates were at a rate that made a lot of sense in terms of buying and having future growth with the demand that we saw that was coming about. We’re going back to 2013/2014, and you could already see trends that are just obvious now, right?

Daniel Farber:  Like people wanted to live and work wherever they wanted to. So all of a sudden one day they may be in Dallas, the next day they wanted to be in Cincinnati, wherever they may have wanted to be — they didn’t want to necessarily, especially after the Great Recession. They didn’t want to be tied to a home. They didn’t want to take on a mortgage. They saw what can happen when people take on too large of a mortgage. They want to be flexible. They can work from their laptop wherever they wanted to be. So we saw those trends happening. It was just very clear that this was an asset class that had performed great over the last several decades and that we felt there was a lot of opportunity going forward.

John Casmon: Yeah, and starting to work with other investors. What drove that decision?

Daniel Farber:  It’s a strategic decision in terms of, OK, well, we have our own management and track record, how can we now expand the portfolio and so a natural way of expanding the portfolio — we had partners who had worked with for a long time, so those were obviously the first calls. And then word of mouth, people start hearing what’s going on and they want to get involved and they’ve wanted to join and so that created this reality that we had to build out a whole infrastructure in order to facilitate and serve investors. And that allowed us, obviously, to expand our portfolio as well.

John Casmon:  No, that makes a lot of sense because you’re going to expand. Usually, that means bringing on investors. We see big companies all the time. They go public, right? They start to issue shares of their stock, so they have more capital, they can expand, they can grow. It looks like that’s kind of where HLC Equity is headed, where it’s really about the kind of expanding, growing, and having more of an influence. So, you mentioned back in 2013, 2014, part of the reason you started getting into multifamily was you started looking at the trends, you start to look at what was happening in the landscape and seeing that interest rates were low, was really a good time to get into multifamily, and certainly over the last seven, eight years it’s been thriving, and I’m sure your company is doing extremely well or your investors are pretty happy over their performance over the last seven or eight years. With that said, as we look forward, what are some of the trends or projections that you’re anticipating and paying attention to?

Daniel Farber: So, you know, it’s interesting because you’re right, the entire industry, especially with the multifamily, was very spoiled over the last several years. And it was clear to us, though, at a certain point things were going to change. We didn’t know that it was going to be a pandemic, but it didn’t surprise us. I mean, it’s just like we knew it was going to come from somewhere, whether it’s some sort of disaster or some economic issues around the world or whatever it is, it was going to come from somewhere.

Daniel Farber: And so when the pandemic struck, our initial reaction from an operation standpoint was here is the reality. Our goal is we’re going to outperform the market. And so since then, we’ve taken some really great steps operationally. From a trend standpoint, though, it still has been at a point, and a lot of it has to do with government assistance where the government has basically brought in stimulus, which has helped all of our residents pay, or a vast majority of them pay the rents and so our collections, just like many others, are sometimes even better than they were last year. And so it’s an interesting turn of events. At the same time, when we talk about trends going forward, we are still very wary of what the future may hold when the government has to eventually pull back some of that stimulus. Can it last and can we bring employment back at the right time? So we have a hard time projecting forward because we don’t believe that we know what the future holds. We just try and sense what the various scenarios may be. In one scenario is that now that the election is over and everything is done being politicized, hopefully, the government will continue to step in and the properties will continue to thrive, both for multi-family and from all the various asset types, including hospitality, by the way, which has come back some because people feel a little bit safer now traveling. But we are still working on programs within our properties to try and make sure that we keep retention high and really focus on what the possibilities are, which are that it really could go either way.

Daniel Farber: Nobody has any idea, but we feel pretty confident, given what our current situation has been and the fact that the stimulus has been cut down a little bit in terms of what our residents have received and people are still able to make rent and to kind of eliminate the properties without major hardship.

John Casmon:   Yeah, and you mentioned just being able to retain tenants and making sure that they’re able to pay the rent and things like that. What are some of the things that you’re doing to both attract those tenants and then also to retain them and keeping them in your properties and trying to reduce the vacancy?

Daniel Farber:  Sure. So something that we’re really excited about is a brand that we launched. So we’re owner-operator from HLC Equity. That’s our investment arm. And then we also property manage all of our properties. And so before the pandemic struck, we were working on an operating model, which basically’s a new brand that we launched called Layers, and it integrates a hybrid operating model on properties between conventional apartments and also what we call serviced apartments. And the exciting part of it is it also creates a whole community around these communities that we own. And so we leverage technology in order to bring the community together. We created a loyalty program and then we have the whole serviced apartment side, which from an operating standpoint makes it highly attractive. So all of these things we launched right before the pandemic hit and then once the pandemic hit, we said, how are people going to react to that? Well, it turns out that thankfully we’ve been able to grow the brand, including the serviced apartment side of it, which was not a given throughout the pandemic. Now, on our serviced apartment side for our serviced units, we’re at one hundred percent(100%) occupancy, which is pretty crazy. So basically, we were able to pivot our operations to cater to essential workers during this period of time. And we do longer-term leases but furnished apartments and we’re able to furnish them that way or service our tenants that way. And then we also have a whole community aspect where we brought, and we developed a whole stack of technology, which includes community app and all kinds of different communication tools, and that stuff has really been great from the community standpoint, especially during the pandemic. And then we also at our properties, because they’re larger sized properties, they require a host team on-site. They’ve done amazing work in terms of creating virtual engagement for our customers throughout this period of time because we have a lot of residents who may be living alone and feel isolated during this period of time. They’ve done an amazing job at both using the technology and also just using good old hospitality. (A lot of the properties are in Dallas, so we call it “good old Southern hospitality”) to kind of bring people together and make people feel as warm and welcome as possible during this challenging period of time.

John Casmon:  Yeah, I love the fact that you’re using technology to keep people feeling connected. You do have a lot of people who are not able to see their loved ones, their friends, the family, travel like they would normally travel. And with holidays coming around the corner, things like that is tough on a lot of people, emotionally. So using technology as a means to keep people connected I think is a great way for apartment communities. And this is where the word community actually means something, right? It’s a difference between owning an apartment complex in an apartment community. And it’s really about how connected are the people, what events are you holding. Do people have pride of living there? That community is so valuable. If you can create a real community where people feel like they belong and they’re connected to their neighbors versus simply just living in a complex or a unit where this is a square box that I live in. You said a couple of things. I want to just make sure we are tracking with what you’re talking about.

John Casmon:  You said your traditional apartments and your serviced apartments, what exactly are serviced apartments?

Daniel Farber: Yeah, so the serviced apartments. It’s what we call them. It really actually is very popular in Europe. It’s a term that’s less used in the US. But we think that it best encapsulates what we’re trying to do, which is basically we use the model of furnished apartments. But when people come into our furnished apartments, they also want various services that may come along with it. So whether that’s cleaning, laundry, all kinds of different services that we can offer for folks who may be traveling. Now, these traveling, we’re not talking about short term Airbnb type of stuff. We’re talking about half a year, sometimes nine months, sometimes even up to a year. But people who may be going through something, whatever it is in life or that may require them, they don’t want to buy new furniture. So really, our competition on the serviced apartment side is less apartments and more extended stay hotels where we’re signing longer-term leases. But we’re able to offer people the flexibility that they need in terms of their lifestyle, and especially now in this period of time, they’re less keen on staying in hotels and they would prefer to have their own kind of private space. So that’s been particularly beneficial.

John Casmon: So these are, I guess for most people listening, this is probably more comparable to furnished rentals, maybe corporate housing type situations where shorter time frame? Or you saying that this is something that is an option because you mentioned like someone traveling. Right. So I know that my life may change or I’m on a temporary assignment or whatever the case may be. Is that kind of the ideal person or is it more the inverse where, hey, I just need some flexibility. I might get called to go somewhere else in six months and I just want to have some flexibility so I’m not having all my furniture and everything else.

Daniel Farber: So really, it’s a mixture of both. I mean, when we say travel, we don’t mean like traveling over the weekend. Right? We mean like a traveling nurse is a big market that we’re trying to cater to right now. People who may be on assignment, like you said, in the Dallas market for six months to a year, or we have people who have gone through life changes, whether that’s they’re buying a home or they may have gone through a divorce and they need a period of time where they don’t want to buy furniture.

Daniel Farber: They know that they’re going to need several months. And to go along with that, there are also professionals who say, “Hey, I want to just live in this place, have my wi-fi and all the furniture and get services that I need.” So from an operational standpoint, when we look at the big picture, so Layers is about both, right? So our whole concept today is that you need to provide both and so somebody can come to one of our properties or online and they get the benefit of having either-or.

John Casmon: No, that’s awesome. So the furnished side, the service side is a combination of both having the furniture and the physical things that are furnished. Right. But then these additional services, can we talk more about the services? Because you think every apartment owner, especially on the higher end of the spectrum, where maybe you’ve got pet owners, you have packages being delivered, you have all sorts of different things. What are some of the services that are covered within the serviced apartment?

Daniel Farber: Sure, So through our loyalty program, which is called Layer’s Unlimited, through the Layers brand, our team has been great at creating all kinds of different partnerships with local businesses. So those businesses could be anything from the local restaurants to local trainers. Health is obviously a big item. Pets is another big item, so dog walkers or whatever it may be, because they’re busy professionals, then need somebody in the middle of the day. So there are all these types of services that we basically our team has worked at creating a network within the properties. And we’ve streamlined the process through technology of creating this network of professionals that we can work with in order to help service on the serviced side. And by the way, what we call our conventional apartments are normal every day to day residents. They also benefit from Layers unlimited, and to bring it all together is our technology that we’ve implemented at the properties. So when a serviced apartment person comes in, they get the same benefit of the technology of our app and so forth. So they’re able to benefit from that stuff as well, which is something that they wouldn’t necessarily benefit from if they were going to an extended stay hotel or something else. So you hit it right on target when you said kind of like corporate housing. So it’s not corporate housing in the sense that we’re not setting up the contracts necessarily with the corporations. But it is the same idea. In order to develop this whole program, we brought on some of the best minds in corporate housing because they understood the space.

John Casmon: Yeah, no, it makes a lot of sense there. There’s a lot of opportunities. And we’re always talking about how to add value to apartments. Right? Thinking of value-add strategies. And I love what you’re talking about with the Layers platform because it really is more about the service side of it. So it’s not about renovating the units, right, and granite counters or this thing here, there, it’s really getting at more of the core of what it means to be in a community and get these different amenities that my guess is, aren’t being offered at some of the competitive properties.

John Casmon: The million-dollar question I’m sure most listeners are thinking right now is that sounds cool, but is it profitable? Is it going to make me money, right, as an investor? So what does that look like? What’s the premium for maybe a traditional unit versus a serviced unit? Or if you want to just talk about how Layers works in general from a cost standpoint, could you give us a little bit more context there?

Daniel Farber: Yeah, sure. One hundred percent. So, I mean, obviously, it has to be profitable for it to work. Right. So we’ve made a major investment at the company level in terms of being able to implement this operating model. And now we’re rolling it out at the properties and we’re seeing that the profitability is significant. So on just one of these units, we can eas– well, I shouldn’t say easily because it takes work, but we’ve accomplished two hundred percent lifts on rents. Right. So there’s no doubt in terms of the premium that you can get, there are costs that are involved in that, obviously, but we’re talking net margins of 20 to 30 percent. We’re not doing full properties. We’re not even doing large majority of units. We’re doing, call it 10-20 %. But when you combine that in the macro, it’s highly attractive. And so now when we’re going into properties and we’re looking to buy new properties, we’re able to add that calculation into our investment analysis. And so in the meantime, as owners, we’re benefiting from it. New investments and new investors are going to benefit from it. And we also have a whole team that’s working on a Layers model for third party owners as well. So now we have a business development team that is offering this now to other property owners where we don’t take over management necessarily. We have both the Layers management agreement, but we also can just do it, what we call Layers Lite where we help and it’s in many ways kind of like a franchise arrangement just without all the strings attached, where we just help bring in the Layers brand, which is another thing that we can talk about is being very consumer-oriented. So people like that, because, let’s face it, day to day owners and operators don’t have the time always to say, “Hey, I want to build an Amazon consumer-centric type of business”. Right. So we’ve actually spent the time and money to build that. And now other owners are able to take that and try to implement it at their properties as well.

John Casmon: Yeah, I think it’s awesome. And if you can get 10 to 20 percent of the units, that’s going to certainly drive the NOI and drive the value of these properties. Rolling out to a third party. Now you’re offering up this technology that you’ve built, the approach that you’ve built to engage with residents and you’ve got best practices you talked about of being customer-centric, or consumer-centric, which really just means that you are starting with that individual and building it for them versus having a product and just jamming it down their throat. Right. And telling them, “Hey, this is it, go buy it.” So I think that makes it really adjustable and focused on their needs and challenges. Just to come back a little bit, I know we mentioned Dallas is the main market where a lot of these apartments are. But can you just talk about the profile of both the apartment as well as the resident base where you think this is most ideal?

Daniel Farber:  Sure. So our focus right now in Dallas has actually been on Class B garden-style apartments. We’re working currently on some more urban sites that we are going to probably roll out Layers branded buildings on those sites, which will probably cater to a kind of like the higher-end professional crowd. But at the same time, we’ve been very pleased with the performance that we’ve been able to drive with just your Class B garden-style workforce housing type of product. So there’s two factors, there’s the serviced apartment side, but there’s also just the overall Layers brand.

Daniel Farber: And so when you bring a brand to these communities that are used to just any old management company, I think that it’s very meaningful. And our brand motto is inspiring connections, built to thrive. And so when you bring that energy into these buildings, I think that the residents obviously appreciate it very much, especially when it comes to just your general garden-style apartments. We won’t try this on Class C as much, honestly, but for Class B and Class A, it’s a good fit.

John Casmon: Yeah, there’s a price break. Right. There’s a certain price point where no matter how great of services resident just doesn’t have that additional money to pay for that. So sounds like that B property is really kind of where it starts and obviously going up to A you can really push and it sounds like you’re seeing great returns. And keep in mind that, again, if this is money that directly flows to the bottom line, the net operating income, not only will you see a better cash flow by being able to increase rents or being able to increase these services. But you’re driving up the overall value of the property, which is going to help you, your investors and everyone else. So lots of value in offering a service like this. Last question. We talked a little about the first piece. What are some of the other services? Right. Or are we talking about dog walking services or things like that? And then you talked about different partnerships. So maybe you could just give us a little bit more context to some specifics as far as the kind of partners or the kind of services that are included.

Daniel Farber: So we can talk pre-pandemic and now, because a lot of those services were affected by the pandemic. So we were creating, like I said, this whole network of kind of professionals in the area that could help to cater to like, dog walking, let’s say. But what we found is once the pandemic struck, so people weren’t going to the office as much, they weren’t going to work as much, and they also didn’t necessarily want as much interaction with whoever the dog walker is. Now, I think that’s loosening up a little bit, but that was certainly the case over the summer.

Daniel Farber: So those types of services going forward are services that we did offer and that we would probably bring back. But what we found in health is another big one. We were bringing trainers to the properties and that just stopped, obviously, as people started isolating themselves. So a real benefit that we found is trying to get discounts to all of the businesses. Right. So it’s just a win win. We get discounts to local businesses. We view that as a service, because if you live in one of our properties, hopefully we’re able to drop down your cost of living. And it helps the businesses because the businesses know that they have a loyal customer. And then that helps us also as property owners, because something we’re very much focused on is retention. It helps us with retention because people don’t know if they have this network that they’re able to kind of purchase everything through. They’re less likely to jump ship the next day.

John Casmon:  Yeah, no, thank you for clarifying that. And then I want to transition a little bit. Right. We talked about some of the investors that you’re working with right now from a technology standpoint, we know crowdfunding is kind of a huge place where people are raising lots of money. Tell me a little bit more about HLC Equity. Where are you getting your investors from and what are the resources you’re tapping into to attract more investors into your network?

Daniel Farber: Sure, definitely. So it’s actually funny because just this week we released a blog post where I detail this and further details. But really what it comes down to is when we started syndicating our deals and serving that sponsorship role, we did the common thing that many people do, which is especially real estate folks, which is OK, first you bring in any partners that you may have and then you just kind of start calling it people who may want to invest with you. Right, and so that’s how we really started. And through word of mouth, people started contacting us as well. It is so much different than right now being in that kind of capital raising mode than 10 years ago or 15 years ago, because obviously the Internet has changed everything. And so I’m inspired by — if I go on Instagram or Facebook or any of these platforms and I see these folks who are now buying 10 units, even though for us the scale that we’re working, that’s considered kind of on the low side, but that’s still like for me, you get these folks who are buying 10 units, 20 units, whatever it is, four units even. And they’re doing that through just building their network on Instagram or on Facebook. I mean, to me, that’s phenomenal. Prior generations had absolutely no chance of getting into the real estate business. And now it’s just right out there. They put themselves out there and they’re able to build that way. So for me, that’s very inspiring. So taking some of that inspiration, we said we’ll widen our network and build some of these relationships to scale. And how do you build stuff to scale today? You’ve got to use technology. So that’s when we started exploring how we can utilize technology, utilize the regulation to bring private investors into our real estate investments from all over the world, really. And so we just launched this platform, HLC Direct, which basically allows, it’s direct to consumer investment platform, differentiated from crowdfunding because it’s just directly to us, to HLC Equity. We have worked with some crowdfunding groups and I think that some of them are great at what they do for us, as the principals and the owners and operators, and this kind of goes along with what we discuss with Layers also. We always want to be in touch with our consumer as close as we can, so whether it’s to our investors where an investor can email us or write us or we can just say, hey, yeah, this is where things are, we feel like the communication is so much stronger that way.

Daniel Farber: So that was really one of the driving forces in saying, hey, let’s create this direct to consumer platform where investors can come directly through us and that way we can build out further relationships, and some of my colleagues think that we’re crazy because we don’t necessarily have to do this. But for us, it’s a long term investment and it’s also, in our eyes, a more transparent way of growing the platform.

John Casmon:  Yeah with that, HLC Equity Direct, with a platform like that, you mentioned just more direct to the investors. So you’re not going through one of these crowdfunding websites or one of these other sources where you really don’t get that level of engagement. Right. They’re kind of the gatekeeper between both sides of it. So you’re able to get these people direct. What are you doing? You mentioned some technology, but what are you doing to drive more people there? Are you doing like ads or you just showing your work or how are you actually driving new investors to this platform?

Daniel Farber: Sure. No. 100%. And so it’s interesting because I think that we’re kind of like this. We were this classic example of multi-generational that we didn’t necessarily need to. And then it’s like we better get our act together and start. Right. So there are some groups that are doing great work that I look towards, and I say, wow, that’s really awesome. What we’re doing and what we need to invest more in is really generating content that’s meaningful for people. So that’s what we’re focused on. How can we create content a lot like what you’re doing in terms of helping people along in a genuine way, so doing that, which helps us to build trust, like people that I know and that I speak with most, I like to think that they trust me, especially the ones that invest with us certainly do. And so how do you do that at scale? Right. So the way you do that at scale today is you utilize technology. So we are generating content and we’re doing it in what I think is a unique way because we’re not going out and hiring some content provider. Rather, we’re reaching in — each one of our team members now is adding to the content. So we have our operations team adding to our content. We have our accounting team adding to our content. We have our whole Layers brand is adding to the content. We have our investor relations adding to the content. Everybody’s adding to the content. And so that really helps to show the genuine face of the organization. And I think that that really is kind of a differentiator today.

John Casmon: Now, if you’re interested in multifamily and you want to review a sample deal, you are in luck. We have a special download on our website of a sample deal package. Just go to CasmonCapital.com/sampledeal and you’ll also join our mailing list to get tips and exclusive investment opportunities. Again, that’s CasmonCapital.com/sampledeal.

*[And now it’s time for the bull’s eye round]*

John Casmon: Give me a failure or an apparent failure that set you up for later success.

Daniel Farber: I guess the one that comes right away to my mind is right before I was about to go into the military, I had a major back injury and I was a young 18, 19 years old, and I had no idea why it happened to me. And I was very upset about the entire thing. And I thought that it kind of like ruined the whole trajectory of what my future held. And I was through that able to focus on my health, on physical therapy and a lot of ways also meditation in terms of visualizing myself becoming better.And through that process, even though there were points of depression and so forth, I was able to come out much stronger, both mentally and physically. And so it taught me on life through a real occurrence, the challenges we go through, and how you can kind of come out of them stronger if you really have the right mindset.

John Casmon: Give me a digital or mobile resource you recommend for your business.

Daniel Farber: There are a lot in our business for multifamily specifically. We use co-star, which we like a lot. It’s expensive, but if you’re able to get the scale to be able to utilize it, it is a very strong resource.

John Casmon: All right, give me the book you’ve recommended for Gifted the most of the last year.

Daniel Farber: I really like essentialism the disciplined, the disciplined pursuit of less. I’ve just found that book to be very helpful in my day to day handling of things and mindset.

John Casmon: Give me a daily habit. Helps you stay focused on your goals.

Daniel Farber: So as part of my Jewish tradition, first thing in the morning, I pray, I think that that has always been a big anchor in my life. And lots of people talk today about whether it’s writing in a journal or meditating. And what’s interesting is people are just there talking about it now. But many religions and spiritual paths have been doing that for centuries. And so I think that it’s really important and it has helped me.

John Casmon: What’s one thing, you know, now that you wish you knew where you were started out

Daniel Farber: Time, you think you know that time is important, but if you can figure out how to spend the right amount of time doing the right things, that’s crucial.

John Casmon: What are you curious about right now?

Daniel Farber: When are going to get a vaccine?

John Casmon: That’s you and the whole world, right?

Daniel Farber: Right. Right. I mean, I know that’s an easy one, but it’s the truth.

John Casmon: All right. So you are up in Aspen right now, but I know you are an international traveler, so you can take anywhere but you the best place to grab a bite.

Daniel Farber: The great best place to grab a bite is a little falafel stand in Jerusalem called Shalom Falafel.

John Casmon: All right. All right. There you go.

Daniel Farber: Next time you’re there, check it out,

John Casmon: We’ll definitely have to put that on the list. I think that might be the first one in Jerusalem. So we’ll have to double-check that and see. Well, listen, you’ve given us a lot of great information. I really appreciate you sharing just everything that you’re working on, your transition, your family’s transition, taking HLC Equity from being the triple net space to multifamily, working with investors. What you see right now on the horizon and really the platforms that you and your team have created to serve your resident base. And ultimately, it’s going to drive revenue and help your investors as well. For anyone who wants to get in touch, maybe learn a little bit more about what you do or HLC Equity, what’s the best way for them to reach out?

Daniel Farber: I think the best way is to sign up on our website, go to our website. We have resources there. We have a newsletter, and we have ways that you can contact the various departments in our company. And we’d love to hear from you, love to connect and be helpful however we can.

John Casmon: Excellent.Well, listen, Daniel, what a pleasure talking to you. I hope you have a great day. Take care.

Daniel Farber: Thanks a lot. Have a good one.

John Casmon: Thank you for listening to this episode of Target Market Insights. We tap into the top experts of multifamily marketing to uncover the top insights, the strategies you need for your business. Now, if you’re enjoying this show, leave us a five star rating and review it. Don’t forget to subscribe so you don’t miss an episode. We look forward to bringing more great insights, so just chill to the next episode.