Henry Stimler of Newmark On Five Things You Need To Know To Succeed In The Real Estate Industry

An Interview With Jason Hartman

Don’t waste your time on deals that won’t happen, your biggest asset is your time. Many people will waste your time and resources you need to know and recognize these types of people and move on, especially if someone has wasted your time, promised you the business and then went with another group, that guy is going to do that all the time and just use you as a free resource, you need to have the courage to articulate what you want.

As a part of my series about the ‘Five Things You Need To Know To Succeed In The Real Estate Industry’, I had the pleasure of interviewing Henry Stimler.

Henry Stimler and his team focus on multi-family debt at Newmark and cover the whole US. The team is one of the most prolific at the firm and in the country, for 2021–2022 the team originated over $4.4 Billion dollars of debt and equity. Henry has done numerous portfolios including the Aragon portfolio for $1.85 BL the 5th largest multi-family trade in history as well as the Dasmen portfolio for $475m as well as the Cedar Grove Portfolio for $525M.

Thank you so much for doing this with us! Can you tell us the “backstory” about what brought you to the Real Estate industry?

I was in the nightclub and hospitality business running Jezebel, Madame Wongs and The Raven as well as parties at Capitale. My wife had had enough of me being in the business and asked me to go back to finance and meet with Anthony Orso who was at the time the head of Cantor Commercial Real Estate. He said he couldn’t give me a job since I had no experience in real estate finance but was prepared to offer me a non-paid internship at the age of 36 years old. I learned the business and quickly became the number one producer.

Can you share with our readers the most interesting or amusing story that occurred to you in your career so far? Can you share the lesson or take away you took out of that story?

There are so many, but in 2020 Newmark was selling a 2BL portfolio called the Aragon portfolio, my client was the top bidder and we ended up selling it and financing it for over $1BL dollars (it was the 5th largest MF trade in history). The backup bidder or bridesmaid as we call it was from Pat Carroll. I was desperate to track him down because while he didn’t win this portfolio I wanted to convert him as a client. I struggled to reach him, left him numerous messages etc. but to no avail, finally I saw on a friends social media that he was with Pat on his private jet flying to NYC and having dinner at Cipriani downtown. I got dressed and decided to ambush him at the restaurant and that’s what I did, I walked over, pulled up a chair, sat down and said, “I am Henry Stimler and we need to be doing business together.” At first he looked at me quite inquisitively. I explained and he found it funny that I had tracked him down and wouldn’t be deterred by the lack of previous responses. Eventually after that I converted him to a client and have closed over half a billion dollars of deals since.

Do you have a favorite “life lesson quote”? Can you share a story or example of how that was relevant to you in your life?

I have many life lessons all passed down to me by my father, “charm gets you in the door, but knowledge keeps you in the room” is one of my favorites, to stay in the room you need the answers, charm alone can only help so much.

Are you working on any exciting new projects now? How do you think that will help people?

We are working on many exciting deals, one is a $170M dollar construction loan for an apartment complex in Queens, where there is a dire need for housing. Nearly all our deals are Multi-Family and we help good sponsors buy and maintain apartments buildings, because we lend Fannie and Freddie loans and in its covenants one has to keep the property in good condition so that the tenants are living in safe decent places.

What do you think makes your group stand out? Can you share a story?

Our group today is one of the most active lenders in the space, we close billions of dollars of deals yearly, we are not a tradition group, we don’t stay in our lane, we view ourselves as an extension of our clients and it’s our job to find a way to drive revenue to them, we don’t wait for deals to come to us but are constantly match making, scouring the listings of what our investment brokers are selling to find and bring deals to our clients. This unique approach has allowed us to deliver and finance two 500M plus off market portfolios. One of those portfolios the seller was reluctant to transact, he had become emotionally attached to the real estate, finally I pulled out a line from Good Will Hunting saying, “You are sitting on the winning lottery ticket and you’re to p*&y to cash in,” he laughed and agreed to transact, we sold his portfolio for $525M and we financed it for $415M. Sometimes everyone needs some tough love.

None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?

I am incredibly grateful for Anthony Orso for taking a chance on a nightlife kid with no experience at all, completely not someone the firm would hire, I left high school at 16, didn’t finish college, he took a gamble that changed my life and I in turn paid him back in droves for that leaf of faith.

Ok. Thank you for all that. Let’s now jump to the main core of our interview. Can you share 3 things that most excite you about the Real Estate industry? If you can please share a story or example.

Real Estate is an incredibly exciting business especially in my seat, my job is to hold the hands of the buyer, the bank and many times the seller (with the help of the investment sales broker). When you are dealing with egos, emotions and personalities it’s always a juggling act and you have to keep everyone happy and in line, that involves persuasion, aggression, and a host of other skills.

Along with that there is no bigger satisfaction of converting a hand to win a client, getting his business and executing on the business. It’s also amazing to see deals getting round tripped, 2 years ago we did a $215M construction loan for a condo/hotel building, we have watched it getting built and now it is complete, we are refinancing out the construction loan for a $460M perm loan. It’s an amazing experience seeing a deal come to completion and seeing your work has changed the landscape in that area.

Can you share 3 things that most concern you about the industry? If you had the ability to implement 3 ways to reform or improve the industry, what would you suggest? Please share stories or examples if possible.

Rising interest rate, decline in rents, lack on lenders in the current environment, lack of affordable housing. If I had my druthers I would find ways to incentivize developers to build more affordable housing with tax breaks and upside so they would be motivated to do more to help with this shortage. I also love financing deals where there is an altruistic part to the deal, like buildings that provide English lessons or education programs to help their tenants.

What advice would you give to other real estate leaders to help their teams to thrive and to create a really fantastic work culture?

Make it fun but competitive, lead by example when it comes to work ethic, be responsive and there to help with advice or guidance but most importantly teach your teams that you need courage all the time, courage to make the approach to win the business, if things go bad don’t go into your shell, have the courage not to hide but to deal with it. It’s not always going to be roses and one needs the courage to be able to deliver both good news and bad news.

Ok, here is the main question of our interview. You are a “Real Estate Insider”. If you had to advise someone about 5 non-intuitive things one should know to succeed in the Real Estate industry, what would you say? Can you please give a story or an example for each?

There are a million different parts to the real estate business but as brokers these are the five things you need to have to be successful.

1. Don’t be scared to go after whales, they are just people like me and you.

I found by biggest client standing at the bar all alone at a conference and made a bee line for him and said, “I have one question for you? He smiled and said what? “I said you did 4BL last year and we didn’t do any of it at my firm, why? He smiled and said, “because we haven’t found the right person at the firm, now maybe we have.” We have closed billions of deals since that first fateful meeting including the 2BL portfolio.

2. You need to be out there, your next work is your net worth, you need to be constantly talking and meeting people, you can’t do that by just sitting at a computer.

I was at Cipriani and saw a gentlemen wearing a $400K watch, I walked over and told him how much I loved his watch, we started talking and it turned out he is a huge developer, I am now working on 7 deals for him.

3. Be responsive, it shouldn’t take 3 hours to answer an email or to return a call.

I wake up in the middle of the night and respond to emails, you can always reach me.

4. Deliver bad news straight away, don’t let it fester inside of you and be in the trenches with your client.

We had a $115M deal meant to close Friday, Thursday night I got a call saying the lender is retrading us, I called the client straight away and told him we have an issue and because of the issue we will waive our sizable fee, the deal got closed, we didn’t get paid, a few days went by and our client called and said I don’t feel right about this, I am sending you half your fee.

5. Don’t waste your time on deals that won’t happen, your biggest asset is your time.

Many people will waste your time and resources you need to know and recognize these types of people and move on, especially if someone has wasted your time, promised you the business and then went with another group, that guy is going to do that all the time and just use you as a free resource, you need to have the courage to articulate what you want.

Because of your position, you are a person of enormous influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the greatest amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. :-)

I think the best thing I can do now is help others, my father always says, “someone took the time to teach you, take the time to teach others” along with “if you have been blessed with great success, use that success to help others” and finally “if one can do, one must do.” My phone is always open, I respond to all requests for advice or help. It’s the least I can do.

How can our readers further follow your work online?

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/henrystimler/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/henrystimler/?original_referer=

Thank you for your time, and your excellent insights! We wish you continued success.