My Adventures in Finance Real Estate: From Whistleblowing Fraud to Big Wins for Residents

FP&A Today

CFO Seth Zimmerman faced a triple blow of tests in his decades-long real estate career. Firstly, he witnessed the Lehman collapse first-hand from within a real estate division of the famed bank (“We just got a call from our New York office, a guy in New York. He’s like, well, it’s done. We’re bankrupt.”). Secondly, being forced to blow the whistle when his CEO boss pocketed $1m into his bank account–the day after a $10m raise (the startup is now defunct). Finally, being the finance person when a developer absconded with $12m. “One of the things that I’ve learned is that when it comes to money, you never know what somebody’s going to do”.

In this episode, Seth Zimmerman, CFO at Invest with Roots, explains the core metrics in finance real estate and why things are never cookie cutter (“Every deal is, is different and you have to look at them individually”)

Zimmerman talks:

• Life as CFO at Invest with Roots, one of the hottest companies in Atlanta,the only real estate portfolio that creates wealth for renters.
• The role of finance at a REIT (Real Estate Investment Trust) – a security that trades like a stock on the major exchanges and reports to the SEC.
• Blowing the whistle in finance when a former CFO pocketed $1m
• Creating $700,000 for residents at Invest with Roots
• Becoming CFO and bringing in budgeting and FP&A processes
• Love of modeling and how I am using modeling skills to get into the multifamily space
• How to find great finance staff +the accountant recruitment challenge
• Favorite Excel function
• My motorbike crash

Follow Seth on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/sethazimmerman/