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Show Summary
In this episode, host Dylan Silver sits down with Jeff Lavin, Managing Director at Oberon Securities and former professional snowboarder. Jeff shares his unique journey from competitive snowboarding to entrepreneurship, private equity, and real estate investment. He discusses how early exposure to finance and agriculture shaped his perspective on investing, his first industrial and self-storage real estate deal, and how public mandates and institutional capital can be used to de-risk real estate projects. Jeff also shares insights into opportunity zones, market growth in Dallas-Fort Worth, and strategies for managing risk in large real estate investments. The episode wraps up with a memorable and humorous snowboarding story and a motivational takeaway about perseverance.
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Jeff Lavin (00:00)
Absolutely. So I’ll just tie, I’ll break it into the sense of football and sports, just being a sports guy. Operators, they’re more in the front side, the offensive coordinators. It’s more everything that you do on the back end. So having a good fund management team as you kind of create your syndications or your funds, what can you do on the back end of those things to de-risk it?Dylan Silver (01:54)
Hey folks, welcome back to the show. Today’s guest, Jeff Lavin, is a managing director at Oberon Securities, advising sponsors and operators on real estate, ⁓ &A, recapitalizations, and private capital solutions. He’s a former pro snowboarder. You can find him on his YouTube channel, Jeff Lavin. Jeff, thanks for taking the time today.Jeff Lavin (02:13)
Yeah, pleasure Dylan. Thanks for having me on.Dylan Silver (02:16)
I’d like to start at the beginning of this story, know, former pro snowboarder that really caught my attention. How does one go from snowboarding into real estate and asset management and, you know, expanding in multifamily acquisitions and the like?Jeff Lavin (02:33)
Yeah, that’s, that’s a whole episode in itself, but we’ll keep it at the quick 30 second overview. yeah. So when I was a snowboarder for a profit, pro snowboarder for about eight years, you get injured, you get banged up, you see all those awesome clips where we, land successfully, but unfortunately that’s not always the case. And quite a bit of times here, you season ends early with injuries. So I had the.Maybe fortunate, but unfortunate at the same time, I went through back to back ACL surgeries, started one of my own company’s database, expanded that out to snow skates, surf mota with all the cool places and things you can do, took an exit with that. ⁓ And then slightly more than I was making it snowboarding at the time, was able to go back to snowboarding, but it kind of opened up that door of, there might be something after this. ⁓ Then, ⁓
when you’re you have about I had about 10 or 12 different sponsors at the time. So you get to see mergers and acquisitions and all sorts of things happening with each and every single company as with Monster Energy. So I was there during that transition when they went from from Hanson to Coca Cola. So I saw that kind of happen. Then I had an opportunity to start my own brand and expanded that into
a holding company with about seven different subordinate entities underneath it. And then took a carve out from a 4PL with two of those sub entities. then it’s as an athlete, we’re, and especially this, this sport, when I was getting out of it and retiring, it was kind of the triple cork was the thing. Now you got kids fitting 2340s or
God knows what, like six and a half spins, that was like a whole run altogether. Goodbye to they’re doing it off one jump now. So, but you get the mindset, right? Where we’re just addicted to progression of what’s the next spin? What’s the next extra inverted rotation that we could add or what’s the next thing we could create? So fast forward, I started out as an acquisitionpreneur. What could I buy and build?
And then that kind of leads you into the private equity sector of what can I buy, vertically integrate, add value, and then exit that.
Dylan Silver (04:56)
family, other snowboarders who were involved in the space. How’d you like bridge the gap there?Jeff Lavin (05:49)
We’re a generational family in the agriculture space as well too. And then we were early syndicators, placing that land into REITs right after the 1934 Securities Act. So there was that going on. There is something familiar and then on my mom’s side, a lot of them are lawyers and investment bankers. Those two kind of go hand in hand. And we had a cousin in New York City who was a private equity real estate attorney.Dylan Silver (06:03)
Okay, so this was something familiar to you.Jeff Lavin (06:18)
⁓ so you, I was exposed to the space, but it was more of a dinner table conversations versus being in it firsthand. Yeah, a different path and it’s a, you know, retire, you expire. ⁓ that’s unfortunately this career has been probably even better than, you know, my previous one as, as an athlete, what I’ve done here is just.Dylan Silver (06:28)
Pro snowboarding was really a different path.Yeah.
Jeff Lavin (06:48)
the accolades and accomplishments. ⁓Dylan Silver (06:51)
Do you rememberthe first real estate deal? The first real estate deal, was it multifamily? Was it commercial residential, like apartment complex? I know there’s a lot of people right now that are interested in industrial real estate. Walk me through that first deal.
Jeff Lavin (06:55)
Hmm.Yeah.
So there was a, was industrial real estate, your industrial parkways, and then self storage. The simple things where you get your triple net leases. ⁓ You get the, you get the overrides on those, and then self storage in conjunction on a similar, it was a similar offering where it’s tied together. ⁓ That was, that was, yeah, that was my first.
Dylan Silver (07:15)
Yeah.Jeff Lavin (07:31)
I guess we’d call a transaction in MySpace. So that was my first transaction acquisition.Dylan Silver (07:37)
Now, when we talk specifically about some of these segments, know, self storage, industrial, right? They’re seeming to be very popular now, but I think as well, one of the difficulties with that, and I would say less so industrial just because the barrier to entry seems a little bit higher, you have to have a little bit more granular knowledge, but certainly self storage is like really in vogue right now. So it does feel like, especially if you’re in some markets, I would throw Texas in here where I’m licensed. You do have to be cautious.Jeff Lavin (07:39)
Hmm.Dylan Silver (08:07)
of going into a market where there’s not hyper competition and lots of self storage existing already, right?Jeff Lavin (08:14)
absolutely. I was lucky to be in a spot where it was an opportunity that just kind of popped up more of a distressed asset play where needed a lot of capex. And I had the time and the know how to ⁓ take that under or do the undertaking with it, put together a good plan behind it. ⁓ We had syndicated that. And then I also had some of my own money from my exit.⁓ that we had to go reallocate before tax time and go park it. So we were kind of rushing to, to find some things very quick. Yeah.
Dylan Silver (08:48)
Put some money in, yeah.Now when we talk
pivoting a bit here, Jeff, when we talk about, you know, investing in larger assets, commercial deals, one of the things that I hear regularly is, know, and this applies to single family too, is you really have to know where you’re buying and buy at the right price, right? Like a deal, for instance, I know a lot of people right now that are buying mobile homes and RV parks, you got to understand how to manage these deals. You also have to know where you’re buying them, right? And buy them for the right price, right? Now,
Jeff Lavin (09:13)
Mm.Dylan Silver (09:20)
Are you in New York?Jeff Lavin (09:21)
We’re based out of New York. ⁓ Yeah, we’re allowed to be free range humans as I call it. I go to New York a few times a quarter to enjoy our lovely office space, but most of us managing directors at Oberon, we’re all hybrid remote. ⁓Dylan Silver (09:23)
based out of New York.Are there any specific geographic markets
that you’re looking at maybe a lot of deals in or that you’re particularly bullish on? Or is your approach like, hey, I’m agnostic to location, but what really matters is the fundamentals of the deal itself. I’m not looking at an extra number of deals in like the Sun Belt, for instance. What’s your approach to finding a good deal?
Jeff Lavin (10:02)
I’vebeen agnostic for the most part. then bullish is just based on where we’re finding opportunities within the market. One of the things I specialize in is taking public mandates. So whether it’s with the state or with the federal and then overlaying those on top of the private offering that we create and de-risking that within the capital markets standpoint of view.
Dylan Silver (11:04)
So public offerings is the term. Public mandates.Jeff Lavin (11:07)
Public mandates. that’s⁓ yeah, yeah. So case in point, ⁓ you were familiar last was it 2024. We had the Eden fire in California. ⁓ And then there’s several other ⁓ wildfires and stuff like that. So the state of California has created some mandates to rebuild some of those areas within the palisades.
Dylan Silver (11:20)
Right.Jeff Lavin (11:34)
⁓ those communities, Malibu, et cetera. So we’ll take a look at those public mandates. What can we use those public mandates for? What funds are allocated for projects like that? ⁓ Then we’ll go to our private capital markets where I have institutional clients. How can we de-risk this from our institutional client standpoint of view? Where essentially we can make them whole or how can we tie this in the deal to create more revenue within the security or within the fund?there’s a number of different ways that we kind of look at stuff like that from that, angle or that standpoint of view. And then, yeah. Then you have all areas like Dallas, Fort Worth, where it’s, it’s exploding too. So, you could look at those as well too, where they have, some of those are what’s called opportunity zones. Where those are, you know, they’re trying to develop these areas or these new areas. Like, you’ll see some of that stuff out in Denver, Colorado as well too, like by the airport.
Dylan Silver (12:09)
You know?Yeah.
Ozies.
Jeff Lavin (12:31)
opportunity zone. Then in those instances, you’re interfacing with lot of folks that are, you know, former mayors, sometimes are in office. So you’re not working with both sides of the aisles interfacing with those folks. And really just figuring out how you can get the community buy in as well to in conjunction, just to just to paint that good story from the institutional standpoint and where you make everything a win win.Dylan Silver (12:57)
Yeah, I mean, you ultimately want to be partnering with the area that you’re…Jeff Lavin (13:03)
HmmDylan Silver (13:03)
you’reoperating in, right? And I think one of the things that people often say that can be tricky is permitting and getting approvals and this type of thing, whereas when you’re working in public mandates and partnering with city officials or people who are well connected to city officials, that’s a different approach entirely, right? Rather than working against them, which is sometimes it feels adversarial, you’re really working with them.
Jeff Lavin (13:29)
Yeah, absolutely. ⁓ You’re working with them and you want as many of those people ⁓ that can grease the wheels and be on your side as possible.Dylan Silver (13:41)
You mentioned also DFW. I’m a big fan of DFW. I’ve lived in Denton, which is considered DFW, even though it’s really closer to Oklahoma than it is Dallas, Fort Worth. One of the interesting things that I’ve noticed from from being over there, and this is no shade on any other Texas market, but it does feel like the middle class and the job market is is is more resilient than in some other areas. And I felt like there was a mini recession that I was experiencing living in San Antonio inJeff Lavin (13:47)
So, yeah.Dylan Silver (14:10)
the 2023, 2024 timeframe, I moved to DFW and I felt that that was not the case there. felt, there does seem to be more happening for small businesses, medium-sized businesses, and that was one of the reasons why I love that market and still do.Jeff Lavin (15:09)
Yeah, DFW, it’s ever growing, ever expanding. You got the Fort Worth stockyards and a lot of stuff out there. I don’t see that market slowing down anytime soon in the next several years. mean, even if we go through a bit of a recession, that area will always kind of be poised for growth. You got to look at your other supply and demand and your other numbers and stuff like that as well, too.where there’s a high demand of developments and projects and stuff like that out there. And a lot of these things aren’t, you might be going through a recession in a certain area, but still these projects are slated and it’s not just a three month turnaround. It’s sometimes some of these things are three years. So they’re going to forecast everything with your, your analysts and your quantitative analysts and stuff like that. You’re going to forecast that.
Dylan Silver (15:55)
Right.Jeff Lavin (16:06)
within everything that you’re creating, whether it’s your offering or your mandate, just to weather those storms.Dylan Silver (16:13)
That’s a really goodpoint. I’ve had guests talk about this before, but I think it’s worth highlighting.
Jeff Lavin (16:20)
Then.Dylan Silver (16:21)
when you start these deals, things can change in six months, let alone two, three years, right? And so part of the risk is, especially at economies of scale, you don’t know what rates are gonna be in two years, right? So if you’re taking variable rate debt and then cost of materials, and then you can’t predict that everybody else is gonna be, let’s say, doing multifamily ground up construction as well. And so when all of these factors converge, it becomes tricky.or to operate in some markets for sure. How have you been able to manage that balancing act? And then also, do you have any advice for folks who might be looking at getting into multifamily acquisitions and the like?
Jeff Lavin (17:03)
andAbsolutely. So I’ll just tie, I’ll break it into the sense of football and sports, just being a sports guy. ⁓ Operators, they’re more in the front side, the offensive coordinators. It’s more everything that you do on the back end. So having a good fund management team as you kind of create your syndications or your funds, what can you do on the back end of those things to de-risk it?
specifically within funds, bringing in the right fund manager where they’re going to have a good, it’s called the reinvestment strategy. So there’s a lot of things they can do to create liquidity from day one, where your project on the front end, it might not be able to create liquidity for a year or two or something like that. Your fund manager is going be able to do that within their reinvestment strategy, recycling mechanisms to create that liquidity from day one to de-risk everything on that front end.
⁓ That way you’re protected. It’s defense wins championships. Case in point, look at the last Super Bowl.
Dylan Silver (18:09)
Yeah, I mean, that’s a great point, right? How often do you find, especially in your space, people having the operators themselves become the source of the stress, not the property, right? But it can be the property manager, it could be the syndication itself, right? And so it’s just communication can wear a project in.Jeff Lavin (18:12)
Hmm.Yeah.
Yeah, communication. Or if you’re looking at your assets, you know, like we calculate everything down to the zero. If you see two zeros in one line item, that’s kind of a red flag from an analytical standpoint. Triple zeros are a major red flag as you kind of see stuff, because then it’s based on assumptions. You want your factual data.
as much factual data as you can have within that. And obviously we’re going to still have assumptions, but we’re going to do the best that we can to predict what those assumptions are going forward. Data is your friend and your ally.
Dylan Silver (19:06)
We are coming up on time here, Jeff. I would be remiss if I didn’t ask you, what was the highlight of the snowboarding career?Jeff Lavin (19:11)
⁓highlight of this. Okay. Actually, this is more motivational. And it’s inspirational. It’s a bit of humor. ⁓ So I was out at Mount Hood, Oregon. ⁓ We had just we were competing in a summer competition, had a bit of fun the night before some pizzas and beer and stuff like that. ⁓ The jumps were pretty icy being, I think it was July.
Like early July, the snow, you get that slush snow, 60 degrees, so they have to solve the jumps. But anyways, I’m going in for my first run and I go a little bit too hot on the first jump, land it, do a 540, land and then I go in to do a 720 and I completely overshoot the first or the second jump. I go bored, but don’t think of it because adrenaline’s kind of flowing and it was in a jam format. That’s where you kind of run up and…
and cycle and stuff like that. So I had to take my second run. So I go do this different, I do a switch for unsigned 540 or a cab 540 as we call it. And then I do a backside 720 and driving truck driver and I feel stuff running down my pants and I’m like, Oh no, I just did what I think I did. But I can stop right now. And it still has happened. I still pood my pants.
or I can go to this third job and I can do a frontside 10 and I’ve never done that before. I’ve done nines, but I’m like, you already did that. So you might as well just go for that. So land that on the third job. Everything’s just boots, nastiness. And then I hit a couple of rails. had to do a, I did a 270 on, 270 off and then a board slide went down, cut off all my gear at the utility knife and jumped in the lake.
But I got third place. So, you know, here’s the saying, don’t let a little bit of literally or metaphorically, we all deal with crap. Don’t let a little bit of crap hold you back or slow you down.
Dylan Silver (21:08)
Let’s go.Amen to that. Amen to that. Jeff, any way or what’s the best way where folks can reach out to you if they’re interested in reaching out to you?
Jeff Lavin (21:27)
Yeah, Oberon Securities has a great website, but also I have my own too as well. Jeff at jefflavin.net. You can find me there. And then all the various social stuff. Jeff Lavin, or the Shredneck on Instagram, but Jeff Lavin is kind of my handle all over socials, YouTube, TikTok. It all eventually ends up down the pipeline, all gets back to my phone sometime. ⁓fastest way is usually through website or email. But yeah, feel free to find me where you’re comfortable finding me and we’re happy to connect with you, myself and my team.
Dylan Silver (22:02)
Jeff, thank you so much for joining us today. Thanks for taking the time.Jeff Lavin (22:06)
Yeah, man, pleasure.
