ABOUT THIS EPISODE
Eric Sussman on multifamily syndication, Los Angeles real estate, and Clear Capital. Taylor Avakian talks with the UCLA Anderson adjunct professor and founding partner of Clear Capital about Amber Capital, early syndications, and buying outside Los Angeles.
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Sussman walks through a path from Price Waterhouse to a Stanford MBA, then Amber Capital, Sequoia Real Estate Partners, and Clear Capital, plus how a CPA review class and David Ravetch led to teaching accounting and real estate at UCLA Anderson. The conversation covers the early-1990s deal market, Resolution Trust, a Palm Springs ground lease on Native American land, and raising capital in small checks from doctors before a track record existed.
Topics include cash-for-keys brick deals in Los Angeles, Washington Mutual and Hawthorne Savings, pref and waterfall structures, information asymmetry versus CoStar-era comps, and niches in multifamily, industrial, office, and retail. They also cover Miracle Terrace in Anaheim, Section 8, Loretta Sanchez, a bulk sale to Blackstone and CityView, Sun Belt supply, cap rates, and 2020–2023 syndications.
Later segments touch rent control, RSO, inclusionary zoning, housing policy in Los Angeles and New York, population and jobs, entertainment and aerospace, immigration, expert witness work, single-family versus multifamily, industrial vacancy, tariffs, and advice on networking, hard work, and pivoting. Joel Peterson, Trammell Crow, the Ziman Center, Rick Caruso, and Karen Bass come up along the way.
Chapters
0:00 Eric Sussman and Clear Capital
1:09 Career path from Price Waterhouse
1:41 Teaching at UCLA Anderson
5:13 First interest in real estate
7:04 Advice for a high school senior
9:25 First deal in the early 1990s
12:27 Asset types in the deal decade
14:41 How to pick a market and niche
16:42 Information and efficient markets
19:04 Postwar real estate versus today
23:25 Early LA syndications and structure
28:10 Miracle Terrace in Anaheim
33:41 Selling out of Los Angeles
36:50 Buying in LA now
38:03 Rent control and housing policy
42:00 Vacancy control and RSO risk
44:43 Population, jobs, and immigration
46:49 Call or put on Los Angeles
48:04 Getting back into the LA market
49:00 Education versus common sense
53:55 Expert witness work
56:10 Syndications from 2020 to 2023
59:50 Macro and real estate outlook
1:04:14 Cars, spending, and the game
1:08:42 Advice for the next generation
Keywords: Eric Sussman, Clear Capital, UCLA Anderson, multifamily syndication, Los Angeles multifamily, Taylor Avakian, Amber Capital, real estate syndication, rent control, RSO, Section 8, Miracle Terrace, Blackstone, CityView, cap rates, multifamily investing, LA real estate, Sequoia Real Estate Partners, expert witness, industrial real estate, housing policy, Sun Belt apartments, 2026
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