How to scale your investment business using Bullpen

5 min read
Tyler Kastelberg
Founder & CEO
Published on
April 1, 2021

If you’re like most commercial real estate investors, you struggle with too much to do and too little time. You're constantly evaluating new deals while balancing relationships with brokers and limited partners. 

Your job only gets more complicated when you put a deal under contract. On top of your regular sourcing activities, you’re required to run a full diligence process, including a detailed property underwriting.

It doesn’t get easier after closing. Once you buy a property, you have to manage it. You have to keep track of the on-site management team and value-add strategy while updating your investors with regular progress updates.

What you need is a team. However, the ebbs and flows of the real estate investment business make hiring full-time employees risky. 

... the ebbs and flows of the real estate investment business make hiring full-time employees risky

That’s where we come in. Bullpen is the perfect place for real estate investors to hire freelance team members for their business. Using Bullpen, you can find the exact expertise you need for your business. Hire on a flexible, hourly contract for one-time projects, or build a long-term relationship by hiring on a part-time basis.

As an investor, you can hire for various roles in your business. We’ve listed below common tasks that freelancers on Bullpen regularly perform.

7 Common Acquisition Analysis Tasks Hired For On Bullpen

Quick Deal Analysis

As an investor, you see hundreds of deals. However, most of them won’t meet your investment guidelines. Use Bullpen to hire a freelance analyst who can manage your deal flow. They can vet broker memos and run a quick analysis to help you triage your deal leads.

Market Research

Information and data is a scarce resource in commercial real estate. It’s especially hard to keep up-to-date on every city you invest in, especially when you’re not a local investor. Use Bullpen to hire freelance research professionals who have up-to-date, local knowledge on major cities around the US. Do you live in Charlotte, NC and invest in Dallas, TX? A freelancer local do Dallas can give you the information edge that only locals have.

Detailed Underwriting

Every potential acquisition should be underwritten by an experienced expert. Many times, a sponsor will hire an experienced freelance analyst on Bullpen to complete a deep dive underwriting on a property. A full analysis should have a complete sources and uses, detailed financial projections, and explicit sale assumptions. An analysis of a property’s rent roll and T12 should be a part of the underwriting process as well. Calculate return on investment of your value-add strategy.

Acquisitions Management

Eventually, you’re going to want to build an infrastructure under you as the sponsor to run the acquisitions process. Bullpen has freelance acquisitions managers who can integrate into your business and help run your investment team.

Third-Party Opinions

Due Diligence

In addition to underwriting, an acquisition should go through a full diligence process. Most of the time, you’ll hire local experts to manage on-site inspections. However, Bullpen has freelancers who can help keep you organized during the process. Hire a freelancer to manage the due diligence checklist and collect all of the necessary information from key stakeholders.

Equity Waterfalls

When raising money on a deal, you’ll need to establish the distribution of cash flows between investors and the management team. Equity waterfalls can be complex, and you can hire an experienced freelance analyst on Bullpen who can help you map out the cash flows in excel.

Common Asset Management Tasks for Bullpen Freelancers

Capital Expense Planning/Management

Part of the typical asset management tasks include managing your capital expenses. You’ll need to make sure you’re setting aside enough funds to cover planned and unplanned expenses in future years. A freelancer can help manage this process.

CAM Reconciliations

Commercial leases typical have shared CAM costs between ownership and tenants. CAM reconciliations are time intensive and can be a big headache. Bullpen has a number of freelance lease analysts who can help run your CAM reconciliations each year.

Value-add management

Budgeting

Budget vs. Actual Analysis

Operations Analysis

Refinance Analysis

Sale Analysis

Eventually, you’re going to need to sell your property. Sometimes, the sale of a property requires some financial creativity. Hire an experienced acquisitions analyst to help underwriting various sale scenarios.

Common Investor Relations Tasks for Bullpen Freelancers

Offering Memos

Property Performance Reports

Investor relations can help you build a sustainable money-raising part of your business. You can hire freelance investor relations experts on Bullpen who can create your reporting materials. Make them consistent parts of your team to speak with investors on your behalf.

Distribution Management

Coupled with investor reporting are investor distributions. Some sponsors find it helpful to hire a team member who manages all the wire instructions and distributions. Hire an experienced investor relations professional on Bullpen who can do this in your business.

Relationship Management

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