Working notes on real estate, operating, and the long view.

Why Atlanta.

When I started Monument Equity, the obvious primary metro was Raleigh-Durham. The Triangle has the demographic story, the universities, the growth, and I knew the market personally. So I spent six months running the buy-box numbers and walked dozens of properties on the ground.

The math told me to look elsewhere.

The Triangle is too thin in the unit-count range I want — small-to-mid multifamily, B-/C+, 8–24 doors per building. The inventory at scale isn't there, and what's there has bid up faster than the rent gap can support. Atlanta has the depth Raleigh doesn't, with the same demographic tailwind underneath.

Three submarkets I'm focused on: College Park (30337), East Point (30344), and Hapeville (30354) — what I'd call "send me everything." Selectively, I'll also look at West End and Adair Park (30310, 30311) and South Atlanta and Lakewood (30315), with a careful eye on displacement dynamics. Grant Park, Vine City, and Edgewood/Kirkwood (30312, 30314, 30317) are case-by-case — I'll look but won't lead.

The other thing Atlanta has that the Triangle doesn't is volume of off-market opportunity. Tired-landlord ownership runs deep here. A patient buyer with a clear box and a fast LOI gets in front of inventory that never reaches MLS.

Goal for 2026–2027: 2–3 closings, $1.5–3M of capital deployed. I'll be on the ground 10–15 multi-day trips a year. Kickoff trip is May 18–21.

If you work in metro Atlanta and any of the above is across your desk: I'd like to hear from you.

The operator's first question.

When I sold Posto Property Management at the end of 2024, what I took with me wasn't the financial outcome — it was a decade of running buildings.

The single most useful thing operating taught me is that the questions an underwriter asks and the questions an operator asks are different. An underwriter asks: what's the in-place NOI, what's the rent gap, what's the exit cap? An operator asks: who's actually here on day 60, what does the boiler sound like in February, does the on-site team know the difference between a vacancy and a turnover?

Most institutional capital — even good capital — asks the underwriter questions first. Monument Equity is set up to ask the operator questions first. Conservative leverage. Long hold horizon. Hands-on management. Decisions made by one principal.

This shows up most clearly in what I'm willing to buy. Not heavy turnarounds. Not structural deficits. Not properties that require a full property-management rebuild from day one. Light-to-moderate value-add, a clean rent-gap thesis, occupancy at 75% or above, vintage I can underwrite confidently. The deal has to pencil for an owner who plans to be there in year ten — not for an underwriter optimizing for a year-five exit.

It's a slower way to deploy capital. It's also the only way I know how to do it.