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Catching the Wealth Transfer Wave with David Perlleshi
Plus the importance of niches and the power of partnership
Q&A with David Perlleshi of Franklin Street
We sat down with David Perlleshi, a leader of Franklin Street’s National Self-Storage Investment Sales Platform, to discuss how he and his partner transitioned from regional players to a national self storage team, the power of strategic partnerships, and why they're pioneering social media in their niche.
Let’s get to it!
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Jake: You and Frank DeSalvo have been together for a while and made multiple firm switches as a team. What's the strategy behind moving as a partnership versus going solo?
David: The transition from Sands Investment Group to Franklin Street was critical for us. Sands was positioned as a company where you're really an individual producer - you work in the triple net space or retail brokerage, and go out there, grind, and eat what you kill without needing a team behind you.
But self storage is very different. It's closely related to the multifamily asset class and requires a high level of understanding on the underwriting side. There are so many moving pieces - cap rates, price per square foot, development sites, lease-up product, certificate of occupancy product, and stabilized product. You need a support staff and structure to handle that complexity.
Franklin Street was willing to give us the support staff necessary to grow as a team versus just eating what you kill as individual brokers. Frank and I already had synergy from working together at Houston Street Capital, where we were partners. We were friends and colleagues before even working as brokers together, so we understood each other on both personal and professional levels.
You need somebody pushing as hard as you are, helping establish market presence and marketing strategy. Just this week, Frank was challenging what territories our team is calling on, asking why we're having juniors call tertiary markets when those deals are so difficult to sell right now. That balance of disagreement within the partnership is critical to building a top national sales team.
Jake: How did you end up specializing in self storage - was it intentional or did you fall into it?
David: We kind of fell into it. I was in the multifamily space on the principal side for about five years. My mom's best friend from New York City - her son was in the self storage space. At a dinner party, she explained that I did multifamily, and he said he did the same thing for self storage. We should meet.
We decided to partner up and start buying facilities. As a small family office based in New York City, we bought about 13 deals in the Carolinas, all with either expansion components where we could add more square footage, or CapEx components to bring them up to institutional quality and size.
We did that at Houston Street Capital for about three years, then transitioned into brokerage. A lot of those deals we were buying were direct to seller, so that naturally led us into the brokerage business.
Jake: You wrote on LinkedIn recently: "The game has changed. Capital is mobile, information is instant, and waiting around for a deal in your backyard isn't a real plan. Become great at your niche, then go everywhere." Walk me through that philosophy.
David: Self storage is such a specific and alternative asset class that it's difficult to be limited to one state. If you're limited to one state, chances are you probably aren't eating, and you're definitely not eating good.
We started calling on the Carolinas and noticed there wasn't enough sellable inventory in those two states or enough motivated clients. Naturally, a lot of the buyers calling on those deals were market agnostic. They'd say, "We like this type of deal and want this type of deal. It doesn't need to be in the Carolinas - it could be anywhere in the Southeast."
What pushed us over the edge to go national was when we had a client with properties in both the Carolinas and the Midwest. We sold one of his deals in the Carolinas and were forced to list one in the Midwest. We sold that one no problem, which opened it up for us.
Now when we compete on deals, some clients resist the idea that we're a national brand. But I push back every time, saying, "You're going to have every single self storage group in the business looking at your property because those are relationships we have." We can sell deals in Texas, the Midwest, Northeast, Southeast because our range of buyers are national - they're not looking at particular markets, they're looking at markets that hit the metrics they want.
Jake: How do you manage these national deals? Are you traveling constantly or managing remotely from Tampa?
David: I'm probably on the road every two weeks - either to a different state or within Florida. Usually quick 36 to 48-hour trips. Last week I was in Newport Beach, California for four days for what was mostly a one-day afternoon event. But I had lunch and dinner meetings three of those days with clients that buy deals in the Southeast from us.
That's the nature of where the business has evolved - you have West Coast-based groups buying deals in the Southeast because that's where their capital is chasing opportunities right now.
Jake: You’re social media manager, Bryce Josepher, is joining us on this call. Tell me about finding Bryce and the decision to invest heavily in social media and content creation.
David: We have a boomer generation that is starting to retire and really kind of get out of the business and starting to kind of fade away. And you start to see the largest wealth transfer in American history in our country right now. And people need to place money and capital into hard assets. The idea behind this was recognizing the evolution of where the new workforce and investor base is coming from.
People in the millennial and Gen Z generations access information strictly through social media. Nobody's watching the news anymore - half our generation doesn't even have cable TV. So if you want to communicate to the next cohort of principals, buyers, and employees working in underwriting, acquisitions, and asset management, this is how you reach them.
I saw what Bob Knakal created - he's a veteran in investment sales for 30-40 years, and he got into social media because he saw how valuable it was. The way he broke it down was perfect: "Would you rather speak to 50 to 100 clients a day by calling them, or would you rather be speaking to a stadium full of people every single day?" That's the reach you have in social media.
There's fear involved - people are naturally judgmental, and you know they'll be critical of your content. But in self storage specifically, there aren't many people doing this. I'm kind of the pioneer. There's probably a handful of others, but when I go to shows and meetings now, people know who I am. When people think about investment sales and brokerage in self storage, they think about me.
The industry is still behind on social media, so there's still time to pioneer this. We're trying to stay ahead of the game for years to come.
My takeaway: Specialization, strategic partnerships, and early adoption marketing channels are almost as nasty as Jacob Degrom’s fastball, slider and changeup combo. By becoming the go-to experts in self storage and embracing social media before his competition, David’s positioned himself as an industry leader in an evolving market.
Want to be featured in a future edition? Have a story or strategy worth sharing?
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