“Learn from the mistakes of others. You can’t live long enough to make them all yourself.”
Having spent my entire career in commercial real estate (CRE), I have made more than my share of mistakes and witnessed countless others. There are literally thousands of decisions made in any commercial real estate transaction. Many of them are so small they are virtually unrecognizable. Early in my career, I was introduced to a very simple chart that I have grown to rely upon when making capital allocation decisions. It very simply shows that as time elapses, your ability to influence the outcome diminishes, and the cost to influence that outcome grows.
In simple terms, a dollar spent early in the process has a much greater influence on an outcome than a dollar spent later in the process. I’ve seen this simple truth repeatedly played out in my career. Not enough invested up front can be the difference between profit and loss. This concept leads us to the first mistake CRE sponsors[1] make: undercapitalizing the business plan.