My firm, FFCM, is an alternative investment company that provides investors superior access to US housing. We create long-term value for investors through careful stewardship of their capital.
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Allow Me To Introduce Myself
My name is Ben. I am the oldest of 6 kids from a military family. Bought my first house at 18 while going to the University of Arizona. House hacked before house hacking was a thing. Got a BS in Accounting and JD from UofA. While in College I started buying homes around campus (2009 was a great year to be a buyer), fixing them up and renting out to my college buddies. Used seller financing, friends/family money, and savings from selling security systems door to door to acquire the homes.
During this time I saw a demand from mom-and-pop investors who wanted to invest but needed help finding, renovating and managing the properties.Being young and entrepreneurial I decide to start a company that would do just that. Brokerage, Property Management, and Construction. If I wasn't in class or at the bar, I was working on houses. By the time I graduated Law School I had 25 employees and 500 units under property management, mostly college rentals. This was 2014.
From 2015-2017 I grew these companies and helped a few small private equity groups build portfolios of Single-Family rentals in Tucson. They used my company to find, renovate and manage the homes. Recognizing the real money seemed to be in private equity and having a close friend graduating from a top MBA program where he focused on Real Estate PE, things lined up and we formed a Real Estate PE firm at the end of 2017.
We launched our first residential fund in 2018 ($7 Mil) and a second fund at the end of 2019 ($9 Mil). Both were very successful, but lacked clarity and a specific buy-box. At the same time we continued to grow our third party service businesses. 2020 was, well you know... We continued to deploy our 2019 fund and made some incredible buys. In early 2021 we sold a home to one of the nations largest SFR Firms. They overpaid. We sold them 5 more from our portfolio. They overpaid again.
We asked them how many more are you looking to purchase? They said as many as you can bring us. Fast-forward 6 months and we were sourcing them and other SFR Funds 80 to 100 homes a month across 10 markets (This is a story for another day). From early 2021 until middle of 2022 we sourced just under 1,000 homes and averaged 8% profit per home.
During this stretch we learned how institutional capital viewed the SFR asset class and realized our skillsets aligned extremely well with institutional grade SFR. We had grown our third-party service companies to 50+ employees, but these business lines felt like a distraction. At the end of 2022 we exited those businesses and doubled down on building a Real Estate PE firm.
Our firms focus would be to raise capital to assemble and manage portfolios of quality single-family homes in aspiration neighborhoods in targeted markets across the U.S. We now have a team of 6 whose sole focus is doing just this. At the end of 2022 we identified Louisville, Ky. as an attractive market and formed a $20 Mil. fund to acquire homes there. To date, we have purchased, renovated, and leased 65 homes in Louisville.
Going into 2024 we have $45 Mil. of assets under management (mostly SFR and a few legacy multifamily assets). We are in the process of launching our next fund, that will buy quality homes in great neighborhoods in Louisville, Kansas City, Phoenix and Tucson and hold them for the next 10 years. We believe there are significant tailwinds for the asset class over the coming years.
I am 34 years old, happily married with my first baby (BOY!) due in March. I love real estate and always down to talk shop. Love hiking, snowboarding and spending time on the lake.