Profession/Title: Founder and Chairman

Company: Encore Enterprises

Date of Interview: 09/28/2017

My second informational interview was conducted with Dr. Bharat Sangani, Founder and Chairman of Encore Enterprises, a commercial real estate investment company. As founder of the company and current chairman, Dr. Sangani is responsible for the executive tasks of the company. In the beginning, he cultivated his knowledge in real estate through his cultural background. He is from India, and he stated that he learned how to run and manage hotels, which led to his first engagements in the real estate world. He previously practiced cardiology for over 10 years but later switched to real estate because of the abundant prospects he believed the investment world would offer.

At the beginning of the interview, I was very compelled to learn more about Dr. Sangani’s journey and the secret to the success of Encore Enterprises. I wanted to gain insight on how Dr. Sangani was able to find such confidence in his strategies and analysis of the market. He mentioned that three important factors were cause of success: location, leverage, and management. He stressed the importance of property location and the wide impacts it may have on an investment. Leverage, or capital, was also very crucial to ensure greater potential return on investment. Lastly, Dr. Sangani emphasized that management was crucial to safeguarding return because the investor must understand the microsystems of commercial activities in restaurants, hotels, apartments, etc. if he/she was to be sure that the property would not reduce in value or income flow. In addition, I wanted to learn more about exactly how Encore makes decisions on which properties to invest in. I found out that Encore Enterprises has a research department that conducts market research and location scoping, vastly contributing to great returns. One thing that stuck with me was when Dr. Sangani said that if chosen correctly, a property will “almost never lose its value. It may go down, but will always come back up.”

Moreover, I wanted to learn more about the qualities that contribute to success in real estate. There are so many factors that can contribute to the prospects of a project, but I was curious to find specific factors that could influence projects the most. Dr. Sangani was able to answer my question and expressed that capital, time, and the ability to manage people were the three most important traits that developers should possess. Because developers act as the mediator of all the people involved in a site, they must have the management skills to make sure everyone is not only doing their part, but doing it 100% efficiently. Furthermore, time is a very important aspect of development. Property developments are (for the most part) very large-scale, long-term, large-capital projects that require months to years of time to complete. This is why patience and trust in the process are extremely necessary traits for both developers and investors.

To continue, I questioned the academic pathway that real estate investors and developers should take in college. Many have a business background in finance or accounting, but a direct path and study in real estate would be most beneficial as the courses would be very specified for real estate. Dr. Sangani also provided me advice to directly study under a real estate major for a bachelor’s degree in college. Before, I was planning on majoring in finance, but a shift in perspective has persuaded me to directly major in real estate at a college that provides such a program. Ultimately, as I continue my study in real estate, my meeting with Dr. Sangani has inspired me to take a more direct path into real estate with my college education. He emphasized to me the importance of perseverance and knowledge, which are key traits I will hold myself accountable for manifesting as I continue on in my ISM journey.

Bharat Sangani