Last week, our team attended The National Multifamily Housing Council, better known as NMHC in Las Vegas. From the outside, conferences like this can look routine. Panels, receptions, and familiar faces. For us, the value is not only in the stage content, but in the connections and calibration with our peers.
NMHC is one of the few places where operators, lenders, equity groups, developers, and capital markets professionals are all in the same room, speaking candidly. In a market like this one, those conversations can make all the difference as you are negotiating your next deal.
Our purpose in attending was not visibility. It was rooted in alignment.
The Real Reason We Attend Conferences Like NMHC
Markets do not shift because of headlines. They shift because underwriting assumptions quietly change. Lenders adjust terms. Equity revises return expectations. Operators recalibrate risk, often well before the data reflects it.
Being in the room allows us to pressure test our underwriting against real capital feedback, validate where pricing has actually reset versus where sellers remain anchored, understand how lenders are approaching extensions, restructures, and new originations, and hear directly how other operators are navigating the same challenges we are facing.
This avoids making decisions in a vacuum, and keeps us present to what is happening around us.
Why These Connections Matter Most Right Now
The most valuable conversations we had were not on panels. They happened during dinners, in between meetings, and in unstructured time spent with long standing professional partners and new relationships alike.
We intentionally sought out conversations with lenders and capital advisors who are actively navigating today’s challenges, particularly those focused on structuring defund style workouts rather than forced liquidations. We also spent time comparing notes with operators across both Sun Belt and other markets who were candid about what is working, where pressure remains, and how they are adjusting in real time.
What stood out was the consistency of the messaging. Different geographies. Different strategies. Similar conclusions.
That level of alignment is not common in uncertain markets, and it is exactly what builds conviction when deciding where and how to deploy capital.
Pictured left to right: RSN COO Ben Gray, Northmarq’s Noam Franklin, RSN CIO Christian Macellari
The Feedback That Confirmed Our Approach
The dominant tone at NMHC was pragmatic, not fearful. B and C assets are still working through dislocation. Cap rate adjustment remains uneven across markets, and new supply continues to pressure certain submarkets. But the consensus view was clear. The market is digesting, not breaking, but rather progressing through the beginnings of a new growth cycle.
2025 is widely viewed as a transition year. Many expect 2026 to be stronger as pricing finishes adjusting, capital structures normalize, and new supply is absorbed.
Underwriting conversations were candid. Sun Belt B and C rent growth remains flat to down in many areas. Collections pressure and elevated bad debt persist. While the future is bright, and rent growth is picking up, we must be pragmatic in our approach and avoid strategies underpinned by a need for market rent growth.
What has changed is how deals are getting done. Simple capital stacks are harder to justify. Structured equity, preferred equity, joint ventures, and debt optimization are becoming standard tools rather than exceptions.
This mirrors how we have been approaching risk.
Why this matters
We attend conferences like NMHC to make better decisions before capital is deployed, not to explain them afterward.
The feedback we gathered reinforces why we prioritize disciplined entry basis, underwrite conservatively on rent growth and expenses, avoid forced timing and over leverage, and remain flexible in how we structure capital to protect downside.
In this environment, liquidity alone does not create opportunity. Execution does.
Being in these rooms helps ensure we are not reacting to the market. We are staying in step with it.
Looking Ahead
The opportunity set is expanding, particularly in B and C assets. But this is not a market for shortcuts. The operators who succeed will be those who combine realism with patience and creativity.
Our role is to stay close to capital, close to operators, and close to the reality of what is actually happening, even when it is uncomfortable.
NMHC was not about optimism or pessimism. It was about clarity.
And clarity is what allows us to move with confidence when the right opportunities emerge.
Reed Goossens is an Australian-born real estate entrepreneur, investor, author, public speaker, and an all-around good bloke. Reed got his start in real estate investing back in 2012 when he moved to the US.
