Author Archives: vivcapital

Real Estate 101 – a Primer from the Lens of an Tech Engineer

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Welcome to my first Blog Post, through this medium I’m going to give an up close and personal perspective of my Journey – wading through all the challenges, anguish and triumphs accomplished through Real Estate Investment , which I believe is the single most underutilized strategy (by the vast majority of US Immigrant community). 


The possibilities are unlimited, the only limiting factor to accomplish your “Financial” Freedom and get your “Time” back is “YOU”. Real estate doesn’t have to be complicated and doesn’t involve saving a Million Dollars (trust me on this).


This is a post for all Newbies out there thinking about what the Fuss is about Real Estate and why many are slowly learning that there are other ways to build wealth apart from the Stock Market (read going all in on NVDA or TSLA) – don’t get me wrong, the Stock Market has made millionaires overnight. But Real Estate has made Generational Millionaires when done with the right guiding principles – and more often than not this isn’t a Russian Roulette where you are betting your Life Savings on hoping for a miracle. Its a slow game, one in which there is a steady amount of learning – not Rocket Science or a 600 Level Phd Course.


Key Principles – which we will call the M & R rule the game of Real Estate. 

M – stands for Math

R – stands for Relationships/Resilience 


Math part should come naturally to people in the Tech space, we use certain main ideas when hunting Real Estate Investments – whether big or small.

Real Estate Revenue  :  Income From rents + Ancillary Income (Amenities/Miscellaneous )

Operating Expenses: For Operations and Personnel



Capital Expenditures (Cap-Ex) : Budgets for Renovation/Make Ready

There are several factors that determine the Yield/Return on an Investment using Proforma (or Projected) Valuations which we will get to in future Posts, these Projected numbers  can be very deterministic in finding deals that “might” make financial sense with some Probabilistic Modeling.  The Monte Carlo simulations is one such example  which shows “Expected Rate of Return” calculation with a range.

Cap Rate is always the guiding Rhetoric in REI world, it dictates Valuation based on where we are in the Investment Cycle.


Here is one such Graph which compares Commercial Asset Cap Rates v/s US Treasuries (10 year)


Cap Rates is directly Proportional to NOI, which implies that if there is an Increase in Rents – the Cap Rates will go up, but with Negative Rent Growth or Stagnation (through 2023 and most part of 2024) in several Key markets – the Cap Rates will stabilize in 4-4.5% Range. But the Treasuries are likely to hover around same range (unless Fed Steps in with downward pressure to relieve current Rate environment) creating a very unique situation – we are going to have Operators with Variable Rate Lending, unable to service the Debt Obligations or having to figure out Strategies to further infuse Capital to keep the Ship afloat. On the other hand there are going to be multitude of Amazing Opportunities to acquire such Assets – using creative methods or find more Deals ticking Buy Boxes again. A word of caution though – this isn’t going to be a Fire-sale of sorts , there are more than one way for Operators in Large Multifamily or  Commercial Asset classes to keep pursuing and steering this mostly Wild Unknown Territory.