🏕️ Why REITs are betting big on this niche

👋 Happy Sunday, Best Ever readers!

In today’s newsletter, REITs fall in love, Hilton’s big bet, moving season changes, homeowners flee insurance, and much more.

Today’s edition is presented by Tribevest. Capital raising is becoming more structured, regulated, and professionalized — and sponsors who adapt early gain a real advantage. Learn how experienced Lead Sponsors are building compliant, scalable capital programs by joining the waitlist for the Institute for Structured Capital.

🌀 Stop spinning your wheels trying to figure out every next step. Conference Plus at Best Ever Conference gives you the strategies, systems, and partnerships you need to accelerate your business — all in one upgraded experience. Get your ticket.

Let’s CRE!

🗞️ NO-FLUFF NEWS
CRE HEADLINES

📅 Changing Seasons: Summer's reign as peak moving season has collapsed as remote work and new supply have spread demand year-round, shifting rent growth's annual peak from May to March while cutting the growth window from seven months to six.

🔥 Climate Exodus: Nearly half of U.S. homeowners are considering relocating in 2026 due to climate risks as insurance premiums have jumped 24% from 2021 to 2024 and 11 million Americans were displaced by disasters in 2024, with Florida and California topping avoidance lists.

🏙️ The Good Life: Washington D.C. has topped RentCafe's livability rankings, but Midwestern cities Kansas City, Des Moines, and Ann Arbor have claimed three of the top five spots across 149 metros for affordability, wellness amenities, healthcare access, and short commutes.

📦 Adaptive Surge: Self-storage conversions now account for 10% of U.S. inventory with 179M SF repurposed from industrial, office, and retail buildings as developers chase urban markets where adaptive reuse costs 37-50% less than ground-up construction PSF.

🏨 Hilton’s Bet: Hilton has partnered with Placemakr to add 3,000 furnished apartment units, as 28-day-plus bookings have surged 136% since 2019, reaching 46M nights in 2025, driven by contract workers, relocating families, and traveling healthcare professionals seeking flexible rentals.

🏆 TOP STORY
WHY REITs ARE BETTING BIG ON RV PARKS

The RV resort business is shedding its trailer park image and emerging as one of the more compelling niches in the REIT universe. Dominant players are reporting occupancy gains, pricing power, and demographic shifts that would turn the heads of even the most staunch multifamily advocates.

A big reason behind the momentum is that younger, higher-earning RV owners discovering "glamping" culture are willing to pay premium rates for resorts that feel more like country clubs than campgrounds. Amenities like pickleball courts, movie theaters, swimming pools, and clubhouses are becoming standard — and the REITs are capitalizing with aggressive rate increases heading into 2026.

Here's a look at the trends driving the demographic shift:

• The Young and the Wealthy: The median RV owner age has dropped from 53 to 49 since 2021, with 46% of owners now falling in the 35-54 age range. First-time owners make up 36% of the market, and a larger percentage now earn more than $100,000 annually.

• Domestic Staycations: Finance professionals and other high earners are swapping overseas trips for extended family RV vacations — a pandemic-era shift that's proven sticky. The RV space has become more sophisticated, with larger and more luxurious vehicles attracting people who previously dismissed the lifestyle.

• Class-A Amenities: Beyond standard utility hookups and dump stations, resorts now feature tennis and basketball courts, biking and hiking trails, boat rentals, libraries, wi-fi, and banquet halls. The advantage: many properties already sit in mountain, desert, coastal, and lakeside destinations.

The demographic upgrade is translating directly into pricing power and occupancy strength:

• Locked-In Rate Growth: Equity LifeStyle Properties, which owns more than 90,000 RV sites across 200+ campgrounds, has already set 2026 annual rates for more than 95% of its RV sites, locking in an average 5.1% increase. The company filled approximately 475 annual RV sites in Q3 2024 — described internally as a very high watermark.

• Retention Over Acquisition: Sun Communities is taking a similar approach with estimated 4% rate increases for 2026, with retention as the key operational focus. The guest experience at properties drives more value than external marketing for maintaining occupancy.

The window for smaller operators to break into the RV park space isn't completely closed, but it's narrowing. Big players have locked up prime locations near national parks, coastlines, and mountain destinations. Finding developable land in these areas, then navigating local permitting, creates a real barrier. But for operators willing to bet on secondary markets or off-the-beaten-path spots that could benefit from tourism growth, there's still room to build — though competing head-to-head with the REITs on amenities is tough.

THE BOTTOM LINE

For passive investors, RV resorts offer exposure to experiential real estate with genuine pricing power. For operators, the play is identifying emerging destinations before the REITs do — or acquiring underperforming properties in established markets that need operational upgrades. Because the shift from budget camping to upscale resort living is here to stay.

🤝 TOGETHER WITH TRIBEVEST
BUILDING THE NEXT STANDARD FOR CAPITAL RAISING

As more sponsors work with capital partners and Independent Capital Aggregators (ICAs), structure and compliance are no longer optional — they’re foundational.

✍️ The Institute for Structured Capital is a new education initiative designed for experienced real estate sponsors who want to move beyond one-off raises and build durable, repeatable capital programs. Through practical frameworks, real-world examples, and infrastructure-first thinking, the Institute helps sponsors understand how to structure Fund-of-Funds programs, work responsibly with ICAs, and scale capital raising without increasing risk.

If you’re focused on doing more deals — and doing them the right way — this is where it starts.

👇 Join the Institute for Structured Capital waitlist.

💰 CRE TRENDS
CRE ACTIVITY INDEX SHOWS RECOVERY DESPITE DIP

The LightBox CRE Activity Index dropped 13% in December to 86.9, but don't mistake the dip for weakness — it's a typical year-end slowdown that looks nothing like the sharp 30% drop after the 2024 election.

The real story is the year-over-year strength. December 2025 closed 49% higher than December 2024, with listing volume up 55%, appraisals jumping 41%, and Phase I ESA activity rising 48%. These aren't just recovery numbers — they signal genuine seller and lender engagement heading into 2026.

Deal flow stayed surprisingly active through the holidays:

• Large Deals Accelerated: Nine-figure CRE transactions climbed 44% from November to December as elevated Index readings from September and October translated into stronger late-year execution. Investors pushed through major deals across multifamily portfolios, hotel trades, and land acquisitions tied to data center development.

• Lending Stayed Constructive: Q4 bank earnings, led by JPMorgan Chase, pointed to resilient credit conditions and sustained refinancing demand. CMBS issuance remained near multi-year highs, and easing interest rates continued to unlock sidelined capital for both stabilized assets and capital-intensive projects.

• January Rebound Expected: The Index typically rebounds 40-50% in January, making this month a critical test for Q1 deal flow as loan maturities and pricing resets bring more assets to market.

The market enters 2026 in materially stronger condition than a year ago, with modest, selective gains likely as capital deployment continues. With pricing resets narrowing buyer-seller gaps and loan maturities bringing more assets to market, the stage is set for steady, disciplined activity throughout Q1.

🎉 BEST EVER CONFERENCE
UPGRADE YOUR EXPERIENCE WITH CONFERENCE PLUS

📈 Ready to take your BEC experience to the next level? Our Conference Plus ticket ($1,195) is our most popular option — and for good reason.

You'll get everything included in General Admission, plus exclusive access to five game-changing workshops on February 17th:

• Before You Wire: The LP’s 3-Step System for Vetting Deals & Operators with Pascal Wagner

• The 2026 Capital Raising Playbook: What's Working, What's Not, and How to Scale with Chris Lopez and Richard McGirr

• The New Playbook for Value-Add Multifamily with John Casmon

• Install a Predictable Investor Acquisition System with Marcin Drozdz

• Beyond Multifamily: Why the Best Opportunities Aren’t in Apartments Anymore with Ash Patel

🕵 You'll also join our exclusive Partner Hunting session — a high-impact experience that helps you identify your role (Visionary or Integrator) and connect with the right people to accelerate your business growth.

Use code HURRY10 at checkout for 10% off your Conference Plus ticket today. If you’ve already purchased a General Admission ticket and would like to upgrade to Conference Plus, please email us at [email protected].

🎙️ THE BEST EVER CRE SHOW
HOW ELITE SPONSORS THINK ABOUT IRR DIFFERENTLY

The investors who survived the last three years weren't chasing 22% IRRs. They were the ones projecting 15% returns, underwriting to worst-case scenarios, and watching aggressive competitors implode.

Adam Gower, who has helped sponsors raise nearly a billion dollars, joined the Best Ever CRE Show this week to explain why the highest projected returns often signal the highest risk — and where distressed opportunities are finally surfacing after years of extend-and-pretend.

Gower describes IRR as "the tail that wags the dog" — a metric that's conditioned investors over the past decade to prioritize headline returns over sponsor quality:

• The Survival Gap: The 22% IRR sponsor layers on high-octane debt and aggressive rent assumptions. When markets turn, those deals go from 22% to zero. Meanwhile, the sponsor who projected a conservative 15% is still paying distributions and hunting for distressed deals at 50% discounts.

• Three-Outcome Underwriting: Elite operators underwrite to best-case, worst-case, and most likely scenarios. If the deal doesn't survive a worst-case scenario — think 30% value drops like the GFC — it doesn't move forward. This approach inevitably produces lower projected returns but dramatically higher survival rates.

• Patient Capital Wins: One of Gower's clients just raised $100 million in three months from existing investors despite extraordinary market distress. That same sponsor recently closed deals at nearly 50% discounts to prior sale after sitting patiently for three years waiting for genuine opportunities.

Distressed deals are finally emerging, Gower says. Extensions from 2021-2022 vintage loans are coming due throughout 2026, and the sponsors positioned to capitalize are the same ones who underwrote conservatively and built alternate capital pipelines during the boom. 

"The guy who stretches the numbers to attract investors based on IRR is more likely to fail — you go from 22% to zero,” Gower says. “The sponsor who projected prudently a 15%? He's still there. He might not be hitting the 15%, but he hasn't lost your money."

🎙️ Listen to Adam's full episode here.