The Work Starts at Closing

Buying the building is one transaction. Turning it into an operating system is a different job.

Closing gets most of the attention in an acquisition. In practice, some of the most important work starts immediately afterward.

Utilities have to be moved into the right accounts. Vendors need the correct ownership and billing information. Tenants need a reliable point of contact. Vacant units need scopes and schedules. Existing leases, deposits, rent balances, keys, service contracts, and property records all have to move from the seller's world into ours.

At 24 Pearl, that meant more than taking possession of ten units. We had vacancies to work through, unit work to complete, rents to reset over time, flooring and other capital items to finish, and utility and vendor accounts to put onto repeatable systems.

None of that is glamorous, but it is where an acquisition becomes an operation.

I increasingly think of the first 30 to 90 days as an extension of underwriting. The assumptions made before closing meet the actual building, actual tenants, actual vendors, and actual invoices. Good operations are what close that gap.