This has always been a fatal flaw in U.S. real estate: the volume of development has been related to the availability of funds, not to demand. - Sam Zell

Further, as a huge perpetual consumer of capital, I respected the fact that there is no more consistent source of capital than the public markets.

At some point the guy I was sitting next to turned to me and asked, “So what do you do?” I replied, “I’m a professional opportunist.” And that has been my response to that question ever since.

My takeaway was a whole new respect for simplicity. Development required multiple steps, and every step meant one more chance for something to go wrong. When Jay and I liquidated the Tahoe investment years later, I noticed that we had forgotten something critical, so I called him. “Listen,” I said, “the deal is closed, but I just realized we never drew up a formal partnership agreement between the two of us. If the IRS comes and reviews this thing, we’re going to look like idiots if we don’t have documents.” “Yeah, yeah,” he said, not really interested. That was indicative of Jay. Trust was one of his abiding principles. He’d always bet a lot more on the person than on the deal.