In today’s commercial real estate market, deals are moving fast—but not always in the right direction. Rising interest rates, compressed returns, and shaky underwriting have created an environment where one wrong move can cost investors millions.
That’s why understanding what not to do has never been more valuable.
In this conversation, seasoned capital advisor and syndicator John Azar of Peak 15 Capital shares three critical red flags he sees investors and operators overlook—mistakes that can quietly erode returns, stall deals, or worse, wipe out equity entirely.
Whether you’re an active sponsor, passive investor, or preparing for a major exit, these insights will help you sharpen your deal filter, protect your capital, and move forward with confidence.
Episode Highlights Here:
Brett
Before we jump into this episode, I want to invite you to join our community to help you become a better steward scale to billions and ultimately give more or all of it away. All I want
you to do is to click the subscribe button right now. I love your support. It’s incredible to see your comments, and we’re just getting started. I can’t wait to go on this journey with you.
Thank you so much for subscribing. It means the world to me. Welcome to the build to billions podcast where we got successful entrepreneurs and investors are on the journey from millions to billions. We believe the key to scaling and compounding your wealth and life starts every single day with a mindset and practice of stewardship, of ownership and applying billionaire biblical principles. Each and every guest we have on the show is an entrepreneur, millionaire, billionaire, and they share their insights and they share their insights and wisdom with us. And I’m Brett Swarts, and I’m excited to be a host today, and grateful the opportunity to bring on our next guest. He’s the founder and Managing Partner of peak 15 capital, a private equity firm specializing in equity and debt across various commercial real estate classes with a keen focus on high alpha returns through deploying capital from in house discretionary funds, peak 15Capital Partners with developers, sponsors and operators on the fire asset types in geographical locations and so much more. Please welcome the show thing, Mr. John. John Azar, John, how you doing?
John
Thanks, man, I appreciate it. Brett, thanks for having me on the show. Almost sounded like a you could probably do a double for like that, non-disclosure statements that usually, ads have at the end of it. You can, you can definitely, you can definitely do a double on one of those things.
Brett
Yep, great. Looking for that, man, I’m looking for another side hustle here for our listeners, get to know you for the first time. Would you give us a little more about your story and your current focus?
John
We are, we are, we are private refund. We’re based in Charlotte, North Carolina, but we’re national coverage. We have offices in LA and New York, and we focus on providing liquidity to sponsors, operators, developers, across a wide spectrum of commercial real estate asset types. We are asset type agnostic to large part we have few assets that we are completely not touching, but for the most part, we are multifamily, industrial, self-storage, built to rent communities, Built to Sell communities. That type of focus, our focus is really sort of there turns and the viability to the deal and the people behind the deal, it’s, it’s, it’s, it’s, and I want to emphasize the people part, because that’s, that’s a huge part of our that that goes even above and beyond our underwriting is the people have to be writing every single deal, not the deal itself.
Brett
Excellent. And today we’re going to be talking with John about the three red flags that you ought to be aware of when any kind of commercial real estate deal. Let’s dive right into it. John. John, what’s the number one red flag when it comes to, you know, investing into commercial real estate with a sponsor, operator or fund?
John
Well, these are things that you’ve got to watch out for, for sure. I mean, you have to, you have to an it’s the experience of the of the operator, of the sponsor. I mean, that is, that is the very, very first thing that are that could either be a red flag or could be a green light. It just depends on how you’re looking at it. But the experience is hugely important in the experiences not necessarily in just how to execute that particular deal, but it’s how to manage it and usher it, and, as you said so aptly, earlier, steward it into fruition and into a profitability at the end of it. And these are two separate things, buying and acquiring a deal people because people mistake buying and acquiring a deal is the same thing as operating it and seeing it to its full fruition. That is not the same thing. People can, a lot of people can buy deals, but not a lot of people can. Can actually stick there and operate it and see it through until it’s until it’s kind of the end cycle, which, you know, kind of cycles out of their portfolio. So, you have toto have that experience. That is the first red flag. If they have not done that type of deal in that type of market, that’s, that’s, that’s a that’s, that’s our first red flag that we generally talk about. So, the experience is huge. The experience can create these, like I said, either red flag or green light,
Brett
Right to that point, before you go number two, like, I can agree with you more. I mean, that’s, that’s so key, because this marketplace has seen those who are we called the Warren Buffett skinny dipping, right? The tide has come out, and straights have jumped. Gosh. I mean, it’s tough, and I have some compassion for him, because we got, we got caught on a couple things, smaller, smaller positions for some of our clients and passive deals. So, if you like this little, short clip of the interview I just did, click over here to watch the full interview, and please don’t forget to subscribe. Thanks so much, everybody.
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About John Azar
John Azar is the Founder and CEO of Peak 15 Capital, where he leads a team focused on helping commercial real estate sponsors raise capital, structure joint ventures, and execute complex transactions across multifamily and other asset classes. With more than 20 years of experience spanning investment banking, structured finance, and real estate investing, John has played a role in over $1 billion in deal volume.
Prior to founding Peak 15 Capital, he co-founded Boston Venture Partners and served as a managing member of MACC Venture Partners, gaining hands-on experience as both an operator and capital advisor. Today, he is a sought-after speaker and podcast host, recognized for his insights on capital markets, syndication strategies, and building scalable real estate investment platforms.
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