A Voice of Experience
Michael Fralin knows what it means to scale. He was the first hire at SomeraRoad Inc., a real estate private equity firm that went from zero assets to over $2 billion in transactions in five years. As General Counsel, he helped build the structure, manage risk, and guide deals from the ground up. His mix of legal insight and business experience makes him a trusted voice on how to grow something big—fast, and with care.
Start Before You Feel Ready
Most founders think they need the perfect plan. They don’t. What they need is action and adaptability.
“When we started SomeraRoad, there were no systems,” Michael Fralin said. “No properties. Just a few of us and a lot of urgency. We built the deal flow and the infrastructure at the same time.”
Step one: get your first deal. That means being creative. Take a smaller deal if it teaches you the process. Look for opportunities where others hesitate. Learn the closing cycle before you scale it.
Build a Lean Team That Can Handle Chaos
You don’t need a big team to start. You need people who can stretch. On early deals, one person may need to wear four hats.
Michael Fralin explained how the team worked in early SomeraRoad days. “You might be structuring the deal, reviewing the lease, talking to city officials, and handling the title problem—all before lunch.”
Hire people who are generalists first, specialists later. Look for team members who stay calm when plans shift.
As you scale, keep track of which roles need to become full-time. Invest in operations before you feel the pain of disorganisation.
Legal Is Not a Bottleneck—If You Use It Right
Legal often gets blamed for slowing things down. But smart legal work speeds up scale by avoiding future problems.
Michael Fralin handled all legal aspects of SomeraRoad’s early deals. He stressed the value of knowing when to push and when to pause. “You have to be fast, but not careless,” he said. “The right structure at the start saves months later.”
If you’re scaling a real estate platform, bring in legal early. Use lawyers who understand both transactions and business goals. Ask for templates. Build your own closing checklists. Reuse language that works.
Make the First Ten Deals Repeatable
To scale, your deals need to move from custom to system. That doesn’t mean one-size-fits-all. It means creating patterns.
Fralin’s team tracked which terms worked across lenders, what language caused friction, and which closing partners delivered on time. That data shaped how future deals were negotiated.
Create templates for:
- Purchase agreements
- Joint venture docs
- Due diligence checklists
- Investor memos
- Lender term sheets
Standardise what you can. Keep room for flexibility when needed.
Relationships Move Deals Faster Than Capital
Money matters. But relationships matter more when you’re scaling fast.
In a 2023 survey by ULI and PwC, 72% of real estate executives said existing relationships were the key factor in winning off-market deals.
Michael Fralin saw this firsthand. “Our second and third deals came from people who saw us do the first one well. If we had fumbled that early trust, we wouldn’t have had a shot at the next round.”
Keep your word. Move fast but be transparent. Respond to problems like a partner, not a vendor. This builds deal gravity.
Creative Financing Can Be a Growth Lever
Every deal needs funding. If you want to grow faster than your capital stack allows, get creative.
One of Fralin’s proudest projects was helping structure a tax-exempt bond issuance for the redevelopment of Lightwell Tower. That approach opened up new funding and made the deal viable when conventional loans weren’t enough.
Learn how to mix:
- Senior debt
- Mezzanine financing
- Historic tax credits
- Tax-exempt bonds
- Public-private partnerships
Not every structure works for every deal. But creative financing lets you win deals others skip.
Scale Culture, Not Just Capital
Culture is easy to ignore when you’re closing deals and raising money. But it’s what keeps your team together when deals get messy.
Michael Fralin says team culture was a secret advantage. “We worked crazy hours, but people stayed because they believed in what we were building—and each other.”
Make time for feedback. Celebrate quiet wins. Teach your team to think like owners, not just employees.
Scaling isn’t just about more—it’s about better.
Don’t Over-Optimise Too Soon
It’s tempting to automate everything early. Don’t. Early-stage growth is scrappy for a reason. Systems can come later. Early wins are about speed, trust, and closing real deals.
Document what works. Improve slowly. Avoid getting stuck in software or process when what you really need is focus.
Final Checklist for Scaling Your Platform
If you’re serious about scaling a real estate platform, start here:
- Land the first deal with urgency and care
- Build a team that thrives in high-speed, high-stress environments
- Create repeatable systems without removing flexibility
- Invest in legal early to avoid bottlenecks later
- Build strong relationships and protect your reputation
- Use creative financing to unlock capital
- Pay attention to culture before it slips
- Stay lean until you have the volume to support scale
Real growth doesn’t happen all at once. It happens deal by deal. Document by document. Relationship by relationship.
And as Michael Fralin has shown, it’s not about building fast—it’s about building smart.
