On the last day of December in 2021, Erez Liebovitz and his co-founders at Triple Alpha celebrated their 100th fix-and-flip of the year.
One hundred flips in a year is impressive, but it’s even more impressive when he reminds you that they did their first-ever deal at the end of 2020.
When you ask Erez to start from the beginning and tell you how he and his team scaled a real estate investment business so quickly, he really does start at the beginning.
“We met in kindergarten,” he says, gesturing to his co-founders, Uri Hagay and Kfir Almog. “I introduced Kfir to his wife when we were 22.”
Fast-forward a few years, and in 2019, the three childhood friends from Israel left their full-time jobs and spent nearly a year studying how to invest in real estate in the United States. They developed a business model they believed would be successful.
“I had dreams,” says Erez. “I needed to follow them.”
The team raised money and bought their first property, in Pittsburgh, at the end of 2020. “We learned a lot with that first flip,” says Uri. “We didn’t lose money, but we didn’t make any, either.” The venture went well enough to prove that their model could work. They were ready for scale. To do that quickly, they’d need to diversify. “We knew we couldn’t rely on one company, one lender or one market. We needed to expand,” says Erez. While networking in the real estate investment community, Erez was introduced to Stoa. “Stoa fit our needs exactly,” he says.
The Triple Alpha team was initially drawn to Stoa because of the detailed scope of work they’re provided in every deal.
“One big obstacle for us was that we didn’t have a scope of work for the contractor,” says Erez. “There was always disagreement about what needed to be done, and there were always surprises. We don’t like surprises.”
With Stoa, the team knows ahead of time exactly what work to do and how much they’ll need to invest in renovations.
“Simplicity is an important value to us,” says Kfir. “We want things to be copy-and-paste.”
The Triple Alpha team also appreciates how quickly they can move deals thanks to their Stoa partnership.
“We are acting fast together,” says Uri. “From the time we find the house to when we sell it to Stoa, it’s no more than two months. It’s very fast.”
Because Stoa can close on a house less than a week after renovations are complete, the team can get more deals done and achieve a better return on equity.
“With other funds, it took up to a month after we finished the renovation to close on the house,” Uri says.
Triple Alpha enjoys focusing on their core business of buying and renovating homes, and they appreciate that Stoa is fast, easy and straightforward to work with as a buyer.
“We love to work with Stoa,” says Erez. “It allows us to focus on improving our process in other parts of the business.”
They enjoy the responsiveness, friendliness and mutual cooperation they experience with their partners at Stoa.
The Triple Alpha team also appreciates how quickly they can move deals thanks to their Stoa partnership.
Triple Alpha enjoys focusing on their core business of buying and renovating homes, and they appreciate that Stoa is fast, easy and straightforward to work with as a buyer.
While Triple Alpha initially started working with Stoa because the numbers made sense, they’ve been excited to grow the partnership for another reason: shared values.
“The communication between us is amazing,” says Kfir of his relationship with the Stoa team.
The Triple Alpha founding team all spent time in the Israeli armed forces, where Kfir was a commander.
“As a commander, you know that loyalty is the most important value of all. We value the friendship, loyalty and flexibility we’ve experienced from the team at Stoa.”
The team isn’t slowing down any time soon. Their goal is to do 500 flips in 2022, and they’re making strong progress toward that goal.
“We’re improving our processes daily,” says Uri.
“Whenever Stoa opens a new market, we’ll be there,” adds Kfir.
Erez just grins.
“I’m having fun,” he says.
