Approach
How we underwrite.
Five principles govern every Telos acquisition. They are not aspirational. They are the filter every deal passes through before capital is discussed.
We start with the operator.
Our underwriting begins with the person who will stand behind the front desk, not with the spreadsheet. If we would not run the asset ourselves and enjoy it, we do not buy it.
We underwrite to what the asset earns today.
Not to what it could earn after our brilliant repositioning. If the deal does not work on in-place cash flow, we are speculating, and we say so, usually by passing.
We buy basis, not narrative.
A great story attached to a full price is a bad deal. We would rather own an average asset at an exceptional basis than an exceptional asset at an average one.
We name the buyer before we buy.
Every acquisition memo answers: who purchases this asset from us in seven years, and why? If we cannot name the profile (family office, regional operator, institutional small-cap fund), the exit is hope, and hope is not a strategy.
We tell you what we won't do.
No ground-up development. No brands with flag-mandated capex cycles we don't control. No markets where we lack local operating depth. No deals where the seller's story is the diligence.