Multifamily industry veteran John Sebree made a big move over the summer. He joined Lument to head up its newly launched market-rate multifamily investment sales platform. Sebree, who is senior managing director and head of real estate investment sales, will report directly to Lument CEO James Flynn.
“Recruiting a high-powered executive like John, with an exceptional record in conventional investment sales, reflects our determination to quickly make our mark in this increasingly important area of commercial real estate,” says Flynn. “It is the next step in our strategy of providing clients with a compelling mix of complementary services and solutions, whether they are buying, selling, or recapitalizing a property.”
Lument, a subsidiary of ORIX Corporation USA, recently has made a series of strategic moves. In the first half of this year, it expanded its real estate capital markets, adding a veteran team of specialists. It also added an affordable housing investment sales team last year to complement its affordable housing finance business.
Sebree has over 25 years of experience in the industry, formerly serving as senior vice president of multifamily investment sales at Marcus & Millichap and as national director of its Institutional Property Advisors division. During that time, 17 of those years were as a top-producing Marcus & Millichap originator.
He says he sees his new role as a “once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to build an investment sales platform from the ground up.”
“It’s a great fit and a great opportunity at this time in the market. One of my strengths is that I not only have experience as an executive overseeing a national investment sales platform, but I spent almost 20 years as a multifamily investment sales adviser. As a result, I completely understand the broker mindset,” he says. “My objective is to build this out in a manner so that investment sales professionals want to be here and feel like someone is walking with them in lockstep as a partner as well as assisting in the growth of their business and market share.”
He cites Lument’s strengths, which will help in his task ahead: “an amazing debt platform with an extensive suite of financing vehicles, a footprint that extends throughout the country, and experienced originators focused on multifamily.”
“They have not had a market-rate investment sales platform. My objective is to build out an investment sales platform that will work in conjunction with the debt origination platform to provide the most professional and effective service to multifamily investors,” he says. “The air space we are targeting is sophisticated private capital well into institutional properties—average deal size of $30 million to $60 million with the ability to be effective up to and beyond $100 million transactions. This targeted air space will allow us to truly leverage relationships with our clients but also with our originators to create a collaborative and complementary environment.”
Taking a big-picture look at the state of the multifamily market, Sebree says there’s an enormous amount of money on the sidelines from those who want to buy, and there are signs of pent-up demand from sellers who want or need to sell. Meanwhile, the 10-year Treasury has dropped, which has helped to narrow the bid-ask spread. Just in the past month, he says he has seen an increase in the number of deals moving forward.
He notes that many investment opportunities in the market are long term. “Multifamily fundamentals are strong. I really think the opportunity is picking markets you believe in for the long term, knowing that it may be a five- to seven-year hold, but the returns will be solid.”
While a handful of markets are experiencing softness due to increased deliveries—for example, Austin, Texas; Jacksonville, Florida; and Nashville, Tennessee—those markets are expected to be strong in the long term. “Their job growth drivers have not disappeared. They simply got ahead of themselves a little bit. Buying for the long term, people are going to do well because those markets will rebound.”
“If I were to describe the multifamily investing market over the next five years, it’s going to be safe and solid,” he adds.
