Brad Thomas

Brad Thomas has over 25 years of experience in the commercial real estate brokerage, development and investment sectors and the majority of his experience has been research and consulting. Over the years, Mr. Thomas has provided nationwide real estate brokerage, construction services, development services, and capital market solutions for a variety of clients, many of which are Fortune 500 clients.

Mr. Thomas researches and writes on a variety of real estate based income alternatives including both publicly-traded and non-traded REITs. Given his background in sourcing and originating income producing assets, Mr. Thomas has broad experience and understanding in capital markets and evaluating the most intelligent ...More REITs - with a keen on “distinguishing between an investment operation and speculative one.”

Mr. Thomas currently writes frequently for Forbes, The Street, Seeking Alpha, and The Motley Fool, whereby he maintains “real time” research on many publicly-listed and non-traded REITs. In addition, Mr. Thomas is the editor of The Intelligent REIT Investor, a monthly subscription-based newsletter published by Forbes Media. Mr. Thomas also owns a research website called The Intelligent REIT Investor where his company, Rhino REIT Consultants, provides research and current REIT valuation analytics.

As a lifelong student of Benjamin Graham (1894-1976), Mr. Thomas conducts all of his research and writing based upon Mr. Graham’s principles and investment strategies. Mr. Thomas focuses his writing platform on value investing and his primary objective is to determine whether “an investment operation is one which, upon thorough analysis promises safety of principal and adequate return. Operations not meeting these requirements are speculative.” (Security Analysis - Ben Graham)

Mr. Thomas considers his research and analysis to be described as the heart of Ben Graham’s investment philosophy, and its primary impetus behind his development and promotion of the “margin of safety” principle. As Graham believed, the “margin of safety” is the essence of value investing because it is the metric by which hazardous speculations are segregated from bona fide investment opportunities. As Graham defined it, the “margin of safety” constitutes a “favorable difference between price on the one hand and indicated or appraised value on the other.”

In addition to writing and lecturing, Mr. Thomas is Managing Director of Capital Markets with commercial brokerage firm Bull Realty, Inc. (Atlanta). He was most recently Director of Strategic Markets for Embree Group and he was a Senior Vice President for Thompson National Properties, Phillips Edison, and Wilton Partners. Mr. Thomas was also a partner in a regional development company and also a multi-unit franchisee for two International franchisors.

Mr. Thomas received a Bachelor of Science degree in Business/Economics from Presbyterian College where he played basketball and he was member in ROTC. He has been a member of ICSC for over 25 years and he is active in many speaking panels including Real Share, France Media, and The Money Show. Mr. Thomas resides in South Carolina and he is married and has five children.

Check out the special edition Forbes REIT newsletter: http://bit.ly/RdbmPT Dec 4, 2012