By Scott Fetter, Principal – NorthPeak Commercial Advisors | March 8, 2021 | 5:03 pm MST
Pandemics don’t have birthdays. But March 12, 2020 certainly felt like the arrival of Coronavirus in my life.
On March 12, 2020 my family went to dinner to celebrate my son’s seventh birthday. Little did I know that would be the last restaurant I’d visit for almost a year or we probably would have gone somewhere else. But maybe not. We went to Benihana, and my son was thrilled. I, too, was in a good place. I had recently helped launch a new brokerage firm with three colleagues I liked and respected. I had just returned from ten days of skiing in Japan with my wife for her 40th birthday. We had a full pipeline of new business, a cool new company and my kids were watching a guy named “Larry” flip knives and light food on fire. Things were good.
Then I checked my phone. The NBA cancelled their season. What? I shared the news with my father-in-law sitting next to me. Coronavirus is here. After dinner he decided to go to the grocery store to “stock up on some basics”. I came to learn he meant “canned tuna fish, peanut butter and toilet paper”. One hour later he came back with news of empty shelves and long lines. He couldn’t buy any canned tuna fish, peanut butter or toilet paper. Suddenly, things weren’t so good.
The next day, March 13, I had a closing. I began to wonder what impact Coronavirus would have on the other deals I had under contract? By the end of the following week I had my answer. Every deal terminated. My entire pipeline went empty.
My conversations with family and clients took a new tone. They were worried for me. How was my new business going to survive? “How long is your lease?” 4 years. “Oh, I’m so sorry. What are you going to do?” I don’t really know. I began to wonder when I would put another deal together? For the first time in my brokerage career there were no buyers.
Fast forward. My son turns eight this week. It’s been twelve months since Covid 19 upended my life and my career. The pandemic continues but there’s light at the end of the tunnel. One year into this mess I can now look back at the wildest year of my brokerage career and see lessons I learned navigating a global disaster.
Lesson #1: Who you do business with matters. I am one of four Principals at NorthPeak Commercial Advisors. Over the past twelve months the four of us became much more than co-signors on a lease. During a dark time our partnership brought empathy, perspective and, most of all, humor. It brought leadership. As brokers skipped town and took extended vacations our brokers stepped up, hit the grindstone and plowed through a stagnant market to find opportunities when it seemed like there were none. I’m proud of our shop to say the least.
Reflection #2: Being a buyer when the market is selling is a lot tougher than it sounds. It’s easy to be a “hind-sight investor”. Everybody now sees what opportunity there was in Denver after the financial crash of 2008. But 2020 reminded us all how scary it is to actually buy into a market during times of uncertainty. As we see buyers return to the market, those who stepped up and bought during the peak of the pandemic are surely seeing rewards for being willing to do what others would not do.
The third lesson: Nobody can predict the future. In April 2020 I was playing Uno with my kids (again) while reading article after article of the impending doom coming to our real estate market. It sounded like Ghostbusters stuff…“Fire and brimstone, rivers and seas boiling, dogs and cats living together… mass hysteria!” I bought in and waited for rents to crater. But they didn’t. I assumed nobody would buy a deal all year. But they did. “Hey” I said to myself “maybe this is the year I finally can afford a mountain home”. Ha! Wrong again.
The fourth and final lesson of this past year: (the one most of us learned): Don’t take what you have for granted. Life. Business. Family. Whatever you are into, 2020 showed us that it can easily be taken away, or at least put on hold.
In another year, when my son turns nine, I hope I’m again at a restaurant, preferably not wearing a mask and enjoying the company of others. For now, I’m happy to have lived through the past twelve months and come out a wiser investor, business owner, husband and father.
Scott Fetter is co-founder and Principal at NorthPeak Commercial Advisors.
