The Off-Market CRE Investor Guide
How sophisticated investors find real estate deals before they reach the market, and how to tell a real off-market opportunity from a widely shopped one with a better story.
Get the free guideWritten by Speedwagon Capital Partners, a Chicago firm focused on off-market, distressed and special-situation real estate since 2007.
What the guide covers
What off-market really means
Off-market is a spectrum, from fully marketed to proprietary, plus the six situations that create a have-to-seller.
Why some sponsors see deals others don't
Why reputation with lenders, brokers, owners and receivers is the real sourcing mechanism, and how to test it.
How a disciplined sponsor says no
The three filters that do most of the work: why am I seeing this, how many ways out, and what would make us walk.
The investor's deal screen
Ten yes-or-no questions to put to any sponsor bringing you an off-market deal.
The evidence
What the data says about forced sales, investing through dislocation, and where this cycle's distress is going.
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Owners rarely leave money on the table by choice
An off-market deal is priced by direct negotiation among a few parties, not by a broad auction. Sellers accept that when something matters more to them than the last dollar.
Speed
A loan maturity, a partnership dispute or an estate needs a closed deal in weeks, not a six-month marketing process.
Certainty
A lender holding a defaulted loan wants a buyer who will close as agreed, not a high bid that falls apart in diligence.
Discretion
A public listing can unsettle tenants, employees or other lenders.
Complexity
Assets that are mixed, scattered or hard to explain draw few serious bidders in a public process anyway.
Off-market removes the auction. Underwriting discipline has to do the work that competition would otherwise do. The guide shows what that looks like.
"How did you source this deal, and who else has seen it?"
It's one question to ask any sponsor. A good answer is specific: the type of relationship, the reason the seller chose a private process, and the timeline that forced the decision. The guide covers what to listen for, and what a vague answer usually means.
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