Viet Ha Do on Current Real Estate Conditions and Potential Opportunities

Viet Ha Do is currently the CEO and Chairman of Habringer Group, Inc, a Tennessee-based real estate investment and advisory company. She is a graduate of SUNY Geneseo with cum laude distinction and also has an MBA from NYU Stern School of Business.

In November of 2013, Viet Ha Do joined forces with seasoned real estate investor, Paul Folkes, to form Habringer Group, Inc. Since its founding, Habringer Group focused its activities on identifying and investing in underperforming multi-family and commercial real estate assets located in the Mid-South region of the United States.

The company was initially headquartered in Midtown Manhattan. In 2016, headquarters were moved to Memphis, while retaining a presence in NYC until March 2020. While active primarily in the Mid-South real estate market, the company maintains strong ties with its New York City roots and international investor partners.

Throughout her career, Viet Ha Do has played a central role in value-add processes by bringing superior organizational skills, attention to detail, and a positive attitude to daily work. She does not rest when a real estate project’s goals are met. Instead, she seeks new and innovative ways to continually improve day to day multifamily and commercial property management.

We met up with Viet Ha Do who spoke to us about the current conditions of the real estate market, including the effect of COVID-19 and inflation. She also identified what she sees as potential opportunities in the current residential real estate market environment.

What are the primary drivers of returns for the assets in your portfolio?

At Habringer Group, we are very focused on realizing operational efficiencies wherever possible. Our primary focus is not on maximizing rental revenue, but rather on keeping our occupancy levels very high. We also strive to keep operating costs as low as possible by optimizing all of the property management and maintenance processes.

We plan many of our purchases ahead of time and purchase bulk maintenance supplies as well as various equipment and parts commonly used in apartment communities.

How did the pandemic impact your portfolio and rent collection? What about leasing activity?

As tragic as the pandemic has been overall, the multi-family real estate sector experienced unprecedented growth rates both in rental rate increases and strength of rent collections.

Most of this was a direct result of various stimulus programs making their way directly to end consumers as well as businesses that were able to increase both wage rates and head counts.

What parts of the state have posted the best performance over the past 12 months?

The multi-family sector continued to be the leader looking at an overall return basis. From a pure price appreciation perspective, single-family residential properties performed best overall.

What changes have you seen as inflation has risen so rapidly?

During the past few months, the impact of inflation has been very noticeable. With prices of energy and food rising rapidly, the purchasing power of consumers is noticeably dwindling.

For the past two years, rent collection rates have been extremely high. Now, during the past few months, delinquencies have been rising. I believe that this unfortunately is just the beginning of a trend to come.

What opportunities do you see in the current market environment?

It is difficult to spot any truly unique opportunities in the current market environment; however, during the past few months, it appears that the market has started to make a turn. This may very well create some attractive opportunities looking down the road in a one to three-year time horizon.

I believe that patience is key for real estate investors at this very moment in time.

This article does not necessarily reflect the opinions of the editors or management of EconoTimes