www.wealthandfinance-news.com 36 Wealth & Finance International - October 2017 Founded in 2004 by M. Patrick Carroll, the company has acquired, developed or sold over $5.5 Billion of Multifamily properties on behalf of its institutional partners, private investors, and its own principals. Carroll’s investment strategy utilizes the team’s in-house capabilities to unlock value in properties that the firm perceive to be underperforming and undervalued. Through proactive management, redevelopment, and specific submarket selection, the team aim to generate attractive risk adjusted returns. Mr. Carroll outlines the firm overall mission, explaining the steps he believes the firm needs to take in order to reach its goals. “Embedded in the company culture are our four values and the motto that we work by, beginning with Excellence. We know perfection is impossible, but to us, excellence is reaching a level where we constantly set new standards not only for our competition, but also for our team members to surpass. Regarding our focus, distractions are abundant. We understand what is needed to achieve our goals; every day we stay clearly focused on doing the right things for our residents, employees, partners and investors. The team act with the utmost integrity, as we aim to treat everyone we come in contact with in a fair, respectful, and honest manner. Lastly, we are passionate, as what separates our company from our competitors is our passion for what we do. We enjoy and take personal ownership of our work. Every time we undertake an endeavor, we take pride in delivering a quality finished product deserving of the Carroll brand.” Telling us about his firm’s approach to working on a project, Mr. Carroll describes the key areas which the team focus on in order to ensure its success. Part of the company’s approach to projects and clients is what helps the firm to distinguish itself from other similar firms. “Summing up the company’s approach to a new project, we know we are in a crowded industry, and must therefore differentiate ourselves from others. From an investment, and overall direction of the business, I think that starts with someone sitting back and thinking about long term trends and fundamentals. That person happens to be me, so I do a lot of question asking, and research. I talk to people financing transactions, I talk to investors, and I talk to our Operating Teams to gauge the health of the overall Multifamily Market. Also, I try to apply common sense, which is a companywide basic belief. We look at what the supply is, what the end user wants and can afford (the demand), and where the changes will be over the next five years. That has historically led us to focus on middle income and upper middle-income families that want good housing options, but can’t afford to buy a home. The demand for this product continues to grow, but there is not much being built to meet this need (due to cost of land, labour and materials). So, common sense tells us that this is a good place to invest. Also, we focus on markets that have the wind behind their backs (cities that we think are positioned to grow over a long period of time, again using mainly common sense and research to choose these markets. The cities and states that want to invest in want to bring in new business growth, and know how to attract and keep it. They are out competing for major corporate relocations, and winning. The markets are extremely business friendly, offer a high quality of life, have low taxes, and an abundant and educated work force. Again, applying common-sense leads us to want to spend the majority of your time in these areas. “From there, I think you can come up with an Investment Thesis to act on. We express to our investor that this is a well thought out thesis, but no one can predict the future. So, we apply as much focus on protecting the downside of our investments as the potential upside. Lastly, we are always significant investors in our Funds. We do this not because we have to, but this is where we see the best Risk/Return Fundamentals.” Finally, Mr. Carroll predicts what the future holds for Carroll Organization, describing the future plans for the company and its team. Continuing to focus on growth in markets, Mr. Carroll refers to the thought that he is expecting the markets to grow significantly. “Looking ahead, we will continue to focus on growth in markets I described that we target. We are certainly not in all of them yet. In particular, to highlight markets we are not in, but aim to be, are the Western Markets outside of California. We feel these markets are set to grow significantly, and they want it. Unfortunately, California is making relocating a business to a market like Denver, Salt Lake City, or Phoenix not only wise move, but a necessary one for a company to survive.” Carroll Organization is a fully integrated real estate investment company focused on acquiring and managing high quality multifamily properties. We invited M. Patrick Carroll to tell us more about the firm, and find out more about it being featured in Real Estate 100. Unique in Real Estate 1710WF12 Company: Carroll Organization Contact: M. Patrick Carroll Email:
[email protected] Address: 3340 Peachtree Road, Suite 2250, Atlanta, GA 30326, USA Phone: 001404 812 8272 Website: www.carrollorg.com