The Real Estate Private Equity & REIT Investment Apprenticeship

Forming Vertical Teams:

At the end of Week 2, Cohort members form vertical deal sourcing teams focused on Residential Real Estate, Commercial Real Estate, Industrial Real Estate, REITs based on each cohort members interests, expertise, and background.

 

Case Studies & Start Reviewing New Opportunities:

Week 3 is where VU's investment leadership team reviews case studies and new opportunities.

 

Deal Flow Assignment:

Each cohort member is assigned opportunities to evaluate and channels to reach out to. These opportunties are sourced and identified by VU's internal deal flow tracking system of top opportunties.

 

Market Landscape Development:

Each cohort member identifies, builds, and evaluates their own market landscapes within the sub-verticals of their core vertical team's focus. Example: Residential Real Estate --> Ground Up Development vs. Value Add vs. Buy & Hold.

 

Sourcing Proprietary Deal Flow:

Each cohort member generates their own proprietary deal flow after being trained in core deal sourcing methodologies and adds to the overall total deals sourced per quarter.

 

Weekly Pipeline Meetings: Mondays

Each Monday, VU has a weekly Pipeline Meeting where each vertical team presents their top 1-2 opportunities to the General Partners. A decision is then made to pass or move forward into deeper due diligence on each opportunity. Each vertical team competes their prior weeks top deal flow with the current weeks top deal flow, narrowing down to their best investment opportunities over ~3 months.

 

Sponsor / Investor Meetings & Due Diligence Meetings: Mondays-Fridays

Each week the vertical teams meet with real estate sponsors / investors and discuss their due diligence with VU's senior investment team to ask questions, get feedback, and request introductions to help with deal sourcing and due diligence.

 

Weekly Vertical Team Meetings: Fridays

Each vertical team meets internally to select their top 1-2 opportunities to present at next week's Partner Meeting.

 

Investment Committees:

If there is an investment opportunity that has the conviction of one or more members of the cohort and investment team, the opportunity can be brought to the Investment Committee for review and approval. The Investment Committee includes VU's senior management team and the entire cohort. Each quarter there are usually 2-5 Investment Committee meetings, and each member of the cohort has the opportunity to pitch to as well as vote on the Investment Committees.

 

Green Lighting Investments:

Once an investment opportunity has received the "green light" at the Investment Committee, the investment opportunity is shared and presented to VU's Investor Syndicate, Bonded Capital VU's investors in the Investor Syndicate then select investments on a deal-by-deal basis. VU invests ~$100K-$1M+ per real estate opportunity and additional capital from committed funds.

 

If there is availability in the investment rounds, at VU's sole discretion, and with no obligation, current cohort members, VU alumni, and close relationships of cohort members and VU alumni may participate in the investment rounds if they are accredited investors. If a current cohort member participates in an investment round through VU's Investor Syndicate, there is no management fees or carried interest on their investment.

 

Investments:

Each cohort makes ~1-2 real estate investments per quarter.

 

There is no requirement for a vertical team to make a real estate investment during the quarter. Having the strength to pass on making an investment, and not feeling the need to make an investment, is an important lesson and skill to gain. Equally important is gaining the strength to pull the trigger when you've identified a truly extraordinary opportunity that has ability to yield a strong return and is worth the risk with real capital.

 

At the end of day, the goal is to make the best possible investments in any given quarter. It is important each cohort member acts as a team player, as all cohort members equally share in the upside across all investments made during the quarter.