Beyond any given deal, it’s the market that matters most.
Before choosing a deal we focus on choosing a market. We use national research reports from CBRE, Marcus & Millichap, Bureau of Labor & Statistics to name a few, to examine trends such as job, population, and labor force growth. Other important factors we review are median income and rent to determine the affordability of a market and its potential growth. We dive deeper by analyzing the market’s economic development plans and review the programs for attracting businesses and jobs to the area.
Once we feel confident about this initial research we fly to the city and talk to local investors, property managers, lenders, attorneys, accountants, and residents to get their perspective on the market. This is also how we start building our team. We foster relationships with these people, many of whom we recruit for our local team, while exploring the different neighborhoods and cities. We cross reference our research with our observations and make note of all the details including the number of multifamily construction sites. We pull the number of building permit requests from the cities and check them against the market’s absorption rate to help us better understand the trajectory of the rental inventory.
The approach described here is certainly not comprehensive but it highlights the level of detail we strive for at First Chair Capital. Beyond any given deal, it’s the market that matters more. We care about the community and the people we do business with and that’s why we spend so much energy and effort up front to ensure our stakeholders, from our local team to our investors, are on a path to progress.
Check out our raw research data below. To learn more about our market research process, contact us.