An Interview with David Thompson

By Christina Suter on Feb 29, 2020 at 07:00 AM in Real Estate Issues
An Interview with David Thompson

David Thompson is a former corporate manager who started Thompson Investing, which provides investors opportunities to invest with experienced operators in MF apartments, self-storage and manufactured home parks. David is a real estate expert, but the thing I trust most about him, and why I recommend people to him, is due to his integrity. David said his interest in finance began early and in college as one of his first programs was in financial planning. He graduated in the midst of a recession when he graduated and he didn't know anyone with money. He got into selling life insurance and failed at it for 6 months before going back to school for his masters and joining the corporate world. After leaving the corporate world he realized his passion never went away and one day, while on the social media networking site, Bigger Pockets, he began to learn about syndication. David joined the experts and completed 30 syndication deals in 4 years. 

David was incentivized to go from his corporate job to go into personal investing because his corporate life had run its course over 20 years. Because of his financial planning background he and his wife were strong savers and investors, which afforded David had the luxury of leaving his job and exploring real estate for 12-18 months. David says there is nothing better than being able to control his time and spend that time with whom he wants. David's company, Thompson Investing is commercial real estate and passive investing that educates investors who are new to the space. Typically, it's a husband and wife who are both working and who know real estate is important, but they don't have the time and need experts to show them the best areas of commercial real estate. The couples like the low risk and the benefits of passive income without having to be involved with the tenants or day-to-day responsibilities. David says if you look at stocks through 2019, self-storage, mobile home parks, and apartments have outdistanced in the last 25 years 2x the stock market and with far less volatility. David found some peers who were doing what he was and expanded his business by reaching into different niches, geographies, and operators. 

David is very specific about what companies he chooses to work with and says he vets and does background checks for partners and that those people become his friends. David looks at deals and asks whether it's a good deal for him and his family first and he never shows his investors a deal he hasn't gotten intimately involved in. Once you do a deal with one operator, he says, then it's about communication. Are they upfront with things, do they submit monthly and quarterly reports? David says one thing that's really important to him is an operator who is singularly focused (though maybe in one or two markets). David says the investor, the partners, the community and the residents all have to win. Thompson says he wants to have a greater social impact with his deals and he's finishing a book called, 'The Second Mountain' and it has helped him want to make a bigger impact. 

"When you're doing something you love you think about it a lot and you get more efficient so you can scale. Don't hide-- share stuff you learn."

David said his hardest learned investing lesson as he didn't have the temperament for trading and investing. David says, obviously the goal is to not lose money, so he does a lot of research on the deals, niches and the partners and the downsides of deals. He's confident he's in the right markets and he vets people by sending them away for a few years when they first present a deal to him and if they return in a few years he knows they're still in it. 

David has a website, blog, podcast, 2 books, and he can be found at ThompsonInvesting.com and you can download his free ebook and leave your information. His email address is [email protected]








Sign Up for our Newsletter!