Meet Summer's Head of Acquisitions, Pedro Zevallos. A self-proclaimed real estate nerd, Pedro loves learning about new businesses with innovative ideas in real estate and Prop-tech. When he first read about Summer and its mission to change the way people buy and use second homes, Pedro immediately found it to be a compelling real estate idea with a lot of opportunity for growth. Given his background doing acquisitions in both the hospitality and single-family rental spaces, Pedro was naturally and immediately excited about the emerging short-term rental asset class. Now an integral and invaluable part of our team, Pedro helps to grow the network of Summer homes in both new and existing markets.
What is underwriting, and why is it such an important step in the process of acquiring new homes?
At Summer, we take a disciplined, conservative and data-driven approach to the acquisitions process, as it's imperative that we only purchase homes that bring good value, are in excellent locations, meet the Summer design standards, and that will outperform as short-term rentals. Underwriting is the step where we build a financial model for a home using inputs from our scrupulous market research and analysis, which allows us to move confidently forward with an investment.
"It's imperative that we only purchase homes that bring good value, are in excellent locations, meet the Summer design standards, and that will outperform as short-term rentals."
What does "a day in the life" of the acquisitions team look like?
In addition to performing market research and underwriting homes, our team spends a lot of time sourcing new homes for the Summer platform. We do this by looking for on/off market deals, connecting with our broker network, and speaking with prospective Summer members that bring us homes that they've found. We're also responsible for negotiating the purchase of new homes, conducting rigorous due diligence on homes we put under contract, as well as facilitating the closing process.
What part of the process do you enjoy the most?
I love working with the best-in-class Summer team! Summer takes a cross-functional approach to problem solving, which means I get to work closely with my amazing colleagues in operations, construction, sales, marketing and finance.
"We're responsible for negotiating the purchase of new homes, conducting rigorous due diligence on homes we put under contract, as well as facilitating the closing process."
There's certainly no shortage of tasks for Summer's acquisitions team on a daily basis as we continue to build out our network of homes and members, and we're grateful to have "real estate nerd" Pedro as the driving force.
