Arixa Capital Advisors » Blog

February 8th UCLA Discussion Panel

admin — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 22:47:17 +0000

Audience listening to our Panelists' insights into the current real estate environment

To all who registered for and/or attended our event last week, thank you for coming. If you were able to attend, we hope you found it valuable.

If you are interested in the photos that were taken of the event, please click here.

To read more about the event, please click here.

The unique value proposition for this event series is the high quality networking and educational opportunity combined with the very low registration fee ($15 for pre-registration or $20 at the door). The fact that beer, wine and appetizers are included in the price is also popular with participants.

For those of you who were unable to attend, or would simply like to listen to the discussion again, the UCLA Ziman Center was kind enough to record the event again this year. We plan to post this video very soon, so please check back on this blog for that link.

If you have suggestions for making the event even better next year, or would like to reach us for any other reason, we would love to hear from you. Please email Jan Brzeski at jbrzeski@arixacapital.com.

2012 Annual Real Estate Panel Discussion

admin — Mon, 26 Dec 2011 19:10:23 +0000

This year’s event is set for Wednesday, February 8 at 6:30 p.m. at the Anderson School. For details, including speakers and registration, please visit the conference website: http://arixacapital.com/conference.

What Makes this Event Special
Last year, our event drew over 220 attendees for networking, refreshments and a lively panel discussion among some of Southern California’s most established and interesting real estate investors. The reason our event has succeeded while other conferences sometimes draw limited attendance include three main factors:

(1) Great Panel. The panel discussion is unusually candid, as we track a core group of investors through the full real estate market cycle. This “longitudinal study” aspect of our event is unique. We are told each year that our panel is one of the best, or the best, among all the California conferences.

(2) The Price is Right. At only $20 per person ($15 with pre-registration), including food, beer and wine, there is no better value than our conference. We thank our key sponsors including the Ziman Center at the Anderson School, and Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, for keeping the cost to a minimum.

(3) Excellent Networking. Our event starts with a one-hour reception during which you will meet valuable contacts in a collegial atmosphere. At the reception and after the discussion, you can meet the panelists and other professionals and investors in our industry.

Case Study of a Commercial Real Estate Bridge Loan

admin — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 15:46:24 +0000

This podcast outlines a recent loan we originated, secured by a strip shopping center located in Ohio. This loan was compelling based on the income of the property. The attractive income outweighed the negative factor of the property being far from our office.

Register for the 2012 Annual Real Estate Roundtable Discussion

admin — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 15:28:03 +0000

Join Arixa Capital Advisors and five established real estate investors for our seventh annual real estate investment panel discussion at the Anderson School at UCLA on February 8, 2012.

To learn more, click here, or register at http://arixacapital.com/conference/

Jan’s New Article Appears on Seeking Alpha

admin — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 19:16:33 +0000

Jan published a new article on Seeking Alpha last week, entitled “Apartments—A Contrarian View.” The article analyzes a recent prediction by Moody’s Investor Services that apartment values will increase substantially in the next few years. While Jan is not bearish on apartment values, he believes that the projections reveal a substantial misunderstanding of the market and that the projections are very unlikely to prove accurate. To read the article, please click here.

Arixa Capital’s Fourth Quarter 2011 Newsletter is Here

admin — Tue, 08 Nov 2011 23:05:57 +0000

Please click here to see news about Arixa’s latest activities including:

the growth of our investment programs,
upcoming events and Arixa’s first assignment as a receiver for a shopping center in Phoenix; and
Information on our 2012 Real Estate Round Table Discussion

Jan’s First Article for AllAboutAlpha.com is Published

admin — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 18:08:47 +0000

AllAboutAlpha.com is the online publication of the Chartered Alternative Investment Analyst (CAIA) Association. The CAIA is devoted to training investment professionals who focus on alternative asset strategies such as hedge funds, commodities, private equity and real estate. Jan is writing a series of articles about today’s real estate investment environment. Because AllAboutAlpha attracts readers from Europe and Asia as well as North America, Jan will curate articles by real estate investment experts from outside the U.S. about which investment strategies are working and why in their respective regions.

In Jan’s first article, he discusses how yields are compressed for many popular real estate investment strategies, but remain attractive on a risk-adjusted basis for other, less well known strategies.

To access Jan’s article, “What Los Angeles Traffic Can Teach Us About Investing in Real Estate Today ” please click here.

“Gotcha” Issues with Income Property

admin — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 14:27:56 +0000

This podcast presents a list of “gotchas”–things that can make what appears to be a good investment actually turn out to be a bad investment, because the income stream ends up being less than what it appears to be. The podcast also presents a critical and at the same time enjoyable step in the process of researching an investment, namely, visiting the property and driving around the property in concentric circles to get a feel for the neighborhood.

Loan Amortization Worksheet—My Pick for #1 Most Useful Excel Spreadsheet Ever

admin — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 11:20:57 +0000

Nine years ago I began working full time in the real estate investment field. While I use an HP 12C calculator and I like it a lot, I find it cumbersome to use for common real estate calculations. With a little help from Google, I found the attached spreadsheet online which I have adapted for my own use. Perhaps you will find it useful, too.

Please click here to download the excel file.

What is it good for?
This spreadsheet comes into play when you are interested in determining the cash flow you will receive from buying income property and financing that purchase with a loan. To do this, it is really helpful to know the mortgage constant for the loan given the interest rate and amortization period. This spreadsheet gives you that information, and it shows you exactly where all the money goes (unlike the HP 12C which just gives you the amount of the payment, if you are able to remember the sequence of buttons to press correctly).

How it works
On the tab entitled, “Worksheet,” you enter the items in red. Specifically, you need the interest rate on the loan that you can obtain; and the amortization period. You can enter the actual loan amount, although I usually don’t bother because I am interested in the mortgage constant, not the actual monthly payment.

Why does the mortgage constant matter so much?
As a buyer of income property, investors should be very interested in the relationship between the capitalization rate and the mortgage constant on the loan they can obtain for the acquisition. We like situations where the cap rate is higher than the mortgage constant, because this means our cash-on-cash return will be higher than the cap rate. This situation is known as “positive leverage” in the world of income property investment.

If you are interested in learning more, please contact us and we would be happy to go into more detail on this subject. The topic is addressed in some detail in my book, which is available on Amazon (click here if interested).

How Investors Are Restoring Equilibrium To The Housing Market

admin — Tue, 04 Oct 2011 14:04:44 +0000

In a recent article on Seeking Alpha, Jan explains how investors are buying homes from banks, rehabilitating them, and either re-selling them or renting them. In doing so, they are both earning tidy profits and also performing a crucial service for the recovery of the housing market, by repairing homes that have been through the foreclosure process and have substantial deferred maintenance.

To access the article, click here.