September 23, 2025
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What are the biggest mistakes in real estate investing, and how can they be avoided?
In this episode of Conversations with the Best Minds in Real Estate, Taylor Mammen, CEO of RCLCO Fund Advisors, sits down with Randall Zisler, Ph.D., Co-Founder of Zisler Capital Associates, LLC, a research, investment banking and expert witness firm that serves global institutional investors and managers, about his new book Commercial Real Estate Investing: An Evidence-Based Approach to Risk Management, Strategic Valuation, and Enhanced Returns.
“The book is about, well, let me put it this way: it’s not an attack. I think attack is the wrong word. I would call it a full frontal critique of an industry that has been slow to join the capital markets, and what I focus on [in particular] is the conspicuous inattention to risk.”
– Randall on what to expect from the book, and why he wrote it
Randall discusses his career path through real estate and academia, detailing experiences that inspired him to write the book, including the biggest myths and mistakes he has observed over his career, what can be done to avoid them, and what can happen if they are left unchecked.
“Real estate is not hermetically sealed from the political and social context in which it I immersed. And, you know, I often say that anything that occurs over the ground, on the ground, or under the ground, has a spatial dimension — and that’s real estate.”
– Randall on real estate’s place in, and impact on, society and our political climate
About Randall Zisler
Co-Founder of Zisler Capital Associates, LLC
Randall Zisler, Ph.D., is Co-Founder of Zisler Capital Associates, LLC, a research, investment banking and expert witness firm that serves global institutional investors and managers.
He was a Princeton University professor who taught economics, finance and planning; real estate research director at Goldman Sachs and Nomura Securities; co-head of investment banking at Jones Lang LaSalle; a partner at Pension Consulting Alliance; and CIO to Merv Griffin.
Randy has consummated over $6 billion of transactions, written hundreds of papers and advised numerous pension funds, money managers and developers.
He holds an undergraduate degree, two master degrees and a Ph.D. from Princeton University; he also holds a master degree in civil engineering and risk simulation.
About Taylor Mammen
CEO, RCLCO Fund Advisors (RFA)
Taylor Mammen is Chief Executive Officer of RCLCO Fund Advisors (RFA), which advises institutional investors on all aspects of their complex real estate investment portfolios, from strategy development to underwriting and asset management. Taylor helped pioneer this business beginning in the aftermath of the Global Financial Crisis, when several prominent pension funds turned to RFA with the goal to construct better performing and more resilient real estate portfolios, and has grown it to become a highly respected institutional real estate advisor, working with some of the largest and most dynamic institutional investors in the world. In the process, Taylor and RFA have sourced, underwritten, and overseen investments on behalf of clients well in excess of $10 billion. Taylor leads the firm’s institutional investor client relationships and is responsible for the firm’s growth and development, in addition to serving on the boards of clients’ portfolio companies.
