Real Estate Investing

Acquisitions with a reason

Real estate is the foundation under everything Travis Hermiz builds. It started straightforwardly — buying, fixing, and holding property in Michigan — and the approach hasn't drifted much since, because the fundamentals of the work haven't changed. Find a building that is worth less than it should be for a reason you can identify, fix that reason competently, and then own the improved version.

That means every acquisition needs a thesis specific enough to be wrong. "The market will go up" is not a thesis. "Rents here are twenty percent below comparable units because the interiors haven't been touched and the management has been absentee" is a thesis, and it comes with a checklist you can execute against.

Development and value-add execution

The value-add part is where most of the actual work lives, and it's unglamorous by nature: scoping renovations honestly, hiring contractors who show up, sequencing work so units come back online without stranding tenants, and controlling the two variables that quietly destroy returns — timeline and change orders.

Development projects follow the same discipline with a longer runway and more regulatory surface area. Permits, inspections, and municipal timelines don't respond to urgency, so the plan has to assume friction rather than hope for its absence. Budgets are built with room for the surprises that always arrive, because a deal that only works if everything goes right isn't a deal.

The long-game thesis

The underlying belief is simple: ownership compounds and trading doesn't. A good building that has been steadily improved, well managed, and held through a full cycle tends to outperform a series of quick transactions, once you count the friction, taxes, and attention that churn actually costs.

That patience is also a competitive advantage in negotiation. An investor who doesn't need a deal can pass on one, and passing is the most underrated skill in this business. Most losses come from talking yourself into a number, not from failing to find enough opportunities.

It's the same instinct that shows up in the brand side of his work. Detour is built to be liked for a decade rather than trend for a season, and the property portfolio is built to be held rather than flipped. Different assets, identical clock.

Michigan first

The focus stays on Michigan on purpose. Local knowledge — which blocks are turning, which contractors deliver, how a specific municipality actually handles approvals — is a real edge, and it doesn't travel. Chasing headline cap rates in a market you don't understand is a way to buy someone else's problem at a premium.