Blake Okland is Vice Chairman and Head of Multifamily Investment Sales for Newmark Knight Frank. His role is to increase collaboration and improve client services nationwide by identifying and executing strategic initiatives. He previously served as president of ARA Asset Management, led the company’s governing body, the National Executive Committee, and is currently an Executive Committee member of the National Multifamily Housing Council (NMHC). Blake has also worked as an acquisitions and dispositions analyst with Archstone-Smith Communities Trust, where he was directly involved with transactions totaling $500 million.

Today, Realty Mogul’s CEO, Jilliene Helman, and Blake discuss what the US Multifamily trade expectations were prior to COVID-19 and how the pandemic impacted on those expectations. Blake shares what he is seeing in investments, which global investors continue to invest in the US, how the pandemic has altered the US multifamily market, and what is happening to global demand because of travel difficulties. Drawing on his experience of seeing Multifamily from many different angles, Blake also gives his opinion on whether now is the right time to sell Multifamily assets and discusses where you should put your money if you do decide to sell.

“We’ve got a lot of headwinds that COVID-19 has created, we’ve have a ton of workarounds which are going to make this messy middle of the rest of 2020, 2021 and into 2022, for Multifamily a lot more manageable than any of us would have imagined.” - Blake Okland

This week on The Reality Mogul Podcast:

• Blake’s thoughts on distress in Multifamily housing and why we haven’t been inundated with widespread COVID discounts
• Whether now a good time to be a net buyer, and why
• Another financial cycle this time reminds Blake of and his recommendations of how operators should navigate through it from an assets management point of view
• Why government intervention is affecting Multifamily - how should they underwrite the stimulus package drying up, and why the eviction moratorium is troubling
• Human, underwriting, and operational elements of why foreign investors decide to invest in the US and how current government regulations will affect that confidence
• What brokers are enjoying about the situation right now and the advancements that would come out of the pandemic
• How Newmark Knight Frank is evolving and developing to continue to be a successful brokerage in this downturn
• Newark Knight Frank's orientation to managing assets that will potentially be exposed to climate change problems
• Opportunity zones and why they’re an added area of interest rather than a focus

Connect with Blake Okland:

• Newmark Knight Frank Website
• Blake Okland on LinkedIn
• Newmark Knight Frank on Instagram
• Newmark Knight Frank on Facebook
• Newmark Knight Frank on Twitter

Connect with Realty Mogul:

• Realty Mogul Website
• Realty Mogul on LinkedIn
• Realty Mogul on Instagram
• Realty Mogul on Facebook
• Realty Mogul on Twitter