Guest: John Gochberg, President & CEO, TGM Associates; and Bob Nicolls, Owner, Monarch Investment and Management Group
John Gochberg is President and CEO of TGM Associates, a multifamily investment manager founded in 1991 that runs separate accounts for large pension funds. Bob Nicolls is the owner of Monarch Investment and Management Group, a Midwest-based owner and operator of mostly B and C apartments across 25 to 26 states, funded by individual investors. Both are vertically integrated operators who have spent decades in the business, and they have been friends since a principals-only dinner they now co-host at the National Multifamily Housing Council conference.
Gochberg and Nicolls run very different capital structures, pension-fund separate accounts at TGM and individual investors at Monarch, but share a playbook: operate in-house, hold for the long term, and pass on deals that do not pencil. They take on how the industry measures vacancy, why building more will not fix affordability, and whether some of today’s trades are the next bubble.
Key Takeaways
Passing on the wrong deal is part of the job.
“Some of the best deals we’ve ever done are the ones that we haven’t done.”
John Gochberg, [23:21]
Monarch’s individual investors stay because the track record is clean.
“We make a high return for folks. We’ve never had a capital call. We’ve never had an issue with a lender, never, ever, not once.”
Bob Nicolls, [14:35]
Industry vacancy figures can understate how much space is empty.
“The first piece of the puzzle that upsets me is that there’s a lot of fake data out there.”
Bob Nicolls, [27:57]
Resident turnover is one of the biggest line items operators control.
“[Turnover] on average, no matter what municipality you are in, sort of works out to a month and a half worth of rent.”
John Gochberg, [34:41]
Some of the deals trading today give him pause.
“I wonder sometimes whether some of these are the next bubble.”
John Gochberg, [43:59]
