Associate Member Spotlight
by Robert J. Rosenthal
As a Bay Area property owner or landlord, do you ever wonder if your goals and the goals of your property management firm are the same?
No need to wonder. The answer is that they aren’t. The main reason is that, as an owner, you occupy a different position on the real estate ladder. While you stand firm on the upper level of ownership, your management, a few rungs down, is primarily interested in profitably fulfilling a business contract. Different goals, different results.
AGI Capital Group looks at real estate through a vertical lens. As an integrated real estate developer and asset manager, the San Francisco-based company knows what it’s like to own real estate assets and develop plans based on an owner’s objectives. On the other hand, as a manager of commercial and residential properties, AGI is intensely focused on making the most out of the market’s moment. That means that the company shares your goals.
Announcing AGI Capital’s Strategic Asset Management Services
In the past, AGI Capital’s property managers have supported only the company’s property portfolio. This summer, AGI Capital is proud to extend its strategic asset management services—including fee-based property management—to other income property owners in the Bay Area.
For owners and other asset managers, this means that a full-service team with deep and relevant experience is now available to take on the burden of hands-on, day-to-day management.
The AGI Advantage
AGI Capital Group, Inc. was founded in 1998 by Alexis Wong, who was later joined by partners Frank Chan and Eric Tao. In just a few years, AGI Capital has rapidly grown from a small portfolio of properties into a company managing a multi-million dollar portfolio of real estate investments. Today, AGI is led by executives with seasoned experience, vital insight and a compelling real estate vision.
How does experience in asset management benefit fee-based property management clients? Significantly.
“By having managed our own portfolios as private investors for over a decade and a half, we understand what owners want and what's best for owners,” said Wong.
Approaching property management from the perspective of an asset manager is a key tactic for increasing investment values in both the short- and long-term. By being vertically integrated, AGI Capital has the ability to carry out property management functions much more efficiently and cost-effectively through in-house expertise. Further, the company is equipped to tackle the wide variety of situations and issues that arise during the course of a management contract—which in many cases are contracted out by fee-based managers.
Explains Wong, “Our approach to property management is always to maximize income and optimize building value. Therefore, every decision is based on both short-term goals and long-term objectives. Many fee-based managers only focus on minimizing work and keeping vacancy low, which often results in a reduction of rents with no added value. They also are less resourceful in handling maintenance and improvements. That’s not the way we manage properties.”
Most property owners and landlords are already feeling the pinch of a residential market that is stable but less profitable than in the past, and a commercial market that has gone from bad to worse. In 2002, owners need to have strong brokers, and to employ aggressive marketing both to tenant prospects and to other brokers. They also need to anticipate when to offer attractive terms such as tenant improvements, free rent, special amenities, or competitive rates—all examples of the creative steps AGI takes on behalf of its clients.
“Normally, we maximize the rental rate on paper but offer abatements on the side,” says Wong. “By doing that, we maximize the value of the building because market value is often based on income. A higher rate on paper always benefits the building’s market value in the long run.”
Lastly, AGI prides itself on maintaining good relations with tenants, brokers, maintenance and other vendors, and other property managers. Simply put: the good feelings work to ensure attentive, responsive service for our tenants and our property management clients. In economically challenging times, good public relations are a key to success.
AGI Capital’s fee-based management services can make today’s market not just a tenable one for clients, but an opportunistic one. And the company aims to prove it. AGI is willing to discussperformance-basedmanagement relationships with any potential client.
The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the viewpoint of the SFAA or the SF Apartment Magazine. Contact AGI Capital’s Martin F.X. Ryan at 415-202-1818 or to learn more about AGI’s fee-based asset and property management services.