Peace & Permanence in Asset Management

It’s late at night, or early morning, I can’t tell. I’m tired but I’m not getting any sleep. No point in trying.

My bloodshot eyes are darting back and forth from screen to screen.

On one screen is my twitter feed, it’s open tabs, it’s the price of various crypto currencies: FTT, USDT, BTC. It’s someone called CZ attacking someone called SBF, it’s the unraveling of the FTX exchange, it’s the revelation that the story we were sold about a boy wonder genius, about crypto arbitrage and about the ability to build unimaginable wealth in just a couple years, it was all a lie.

On my other screen is a youtube video. It’s a four year old interview from the Swiss Alps. It is Tony Deden talking to Grant Williams. Well, more philosophizing than talking. It is contemplative, meditative and thoughtful. Tony speaks slowly. Deliberately.

Tony talks about capital preservation. About investing for the long term. About understanding what companies do and how they earn money. He talks about the difference between the game of stocks and the game of business.

And I’m in the middle. Eyes darting back and forth. Unfathomable wealth that had come so fast and easy, now imploding even faster. Blink. Wealth that has slowly and steadily been managed and protected over decades. Blink.

And I’m tired. And I can’t sleep. I can’t sleep because my hands are on fire.

There are two screens in front of me. Two worlds. Two paths.

The business of asset management is a strange one where very few get the luxury of agency. Very few get to offer funds or manage money in a manner of their own design. And fewer get to design in a manner congruent with their personal philosophy.

And here I sit, unbelievably fortunate to be one of those few. And I’m watching the news of the day unfold, and it is frenzied, angry, dishonest, painful. And just at that moment I hear Tony Deden explain his path.

Armada ETFs manages the HAUS ETF. We hold residential REITs, that’s it. We don’t hold financialized assets, growth promises or the fleeting trend of the day. We hold rental properties. And when I woke up the next day, I needed to see them. I needed to see that they were real.

Sun Communities is the seventh largest holding in HAUS. Sun manages Northville Crossing, which means that I have invested our clients in Northville Crossing. And it’s one hour away from my house. And I’ve never even seen it.

Northville crossing isn’t fancy. It’s practical. It is safe, it is clean. But it ain’t fancy. It’s what we in the industry call manufactured housing.

There are lots of American flags. Lots of wheelchair access ramps. There are dog walkers, kids coming home from school, and friendly smiles.

I see one guy putting up Christmas lights so I pull over for a chat. His name is Brock, he and his wife are both medical residents at University of Michigan. They wanted to live somewhere safe and affordable so they could pay off their student loans.

He says he likes it there. I ask about complaints and he says he doesn’t really have any. One time the garbage pick-up skipped his house. A neighbor’s amazon package went missing once last year. It’s a nice place. Good value. Nice neighbors. 

I get back home and settle back in at my desk. My hands are no longer on fire.

HAUS is the Residential REIT Income Fund. It is small, it is new, and I am proud of it. We are investing in tangible assets. In homes. In real properties for real people who pay real rent while they live their lives.

We aren’t selling pie in the sky dreams about a future vision of the world. That works for some people, but it is not me. There is a durability and a permanence to these properties. And there is peace in it.

The next night I slept like a baby.