Why You Look For Discount Value And Not Cap Rate

Why do you look for discount value - how much a property or note is discounted from regular market value - and not the cash flow generated from the real estate via cap rate?

I don’t know - but I have a guess!

You are REITs and hedge funds and want to have enough spread to make money and provide yield to your shareholders when you flip your real estate to charities. That may be true - it may not be. But when I spoke and emailed one Acquisitions Manager for a REIT/hedge fund - that’s the impression he gave me when he was deciding whether he wanted to deal with me to do a deal and take the deal to due diligence after meeting the seller.

I just don’t know. I was taught in business school to look at cap rates and last night at the monthly Edmonton Real Estate Investors Association we were taught about investing in apartment buildings - it’s all about yield and cap rate - comparative to bonds.

Why do you look for discount value - like this deal is 70 cents on the dollar. No wait! This one is better it’s only 35 cents on the dollar. (I omitted discount value in the marketplace because it’s no longer a key metric used for matching.) I know wholesalers look for discounted property because they want to make a profit margin on their contracts - make a spread when they buy low from the seller and sell high to the buyer - but leave enough room that the end buyer can still make enough money rehabbing the property.

I think discount value is used for flipping real estate and cap rate is used for buy and hold situations.

Do you think that deals should have cap rate or discount value when first evaluating them?

Birds of a Feather