Forget Multifamily. He’s Scaling with Small Industrial and Winning.

From House Hack to $50M AUM: How Brock Mogenson Built a Focused Industrial Fund

Brock started like many others, saving aggressively from his W2, buying a duplex with an FHA loan, and renting out rooms on Facebook Marketplace to live for free. But unlike most, he wasn’t trying to build a rental portfolio one unit at a time. He wanted scale.

So he pivoted early into syndication and co-founded Smart Asset Capital. After a bumpy start, including a Class C property that went sideways during COVID, he and his partners refocused their energy around a niche they believed in: Class B industrial.

Today, they manage 16 properties with nearly $50M in AUM, all acquired within five years, and are raising a dedicated fund to double down on the opportunity.

The Play: Class B Industrial in Wisconsin

Smart Asset Capital focuses on buying 20,000 to 150,000 square foot industrial assets in Southeastern Wisconsin. These are not the shiny Amazon warehouses you see off the highway. They’re smaller, older buildings with sticky tenants and solid bones, often overlooked by institutional players.

What Brock looks for:

• Strong Midwest markets with manufacturing tailwinds

• Triple net leases to reduce operating risk

• Buildings that are too small for institutional buyers but too large for individual investors

They’re not trying to buy everywhere. They’re trying to be the best buyer in one niche.

Why This Works

1. Supply and Demand Gap
No one is building small industrial. Development costs are too high and margins are too thin. But tenant demand remains strong, especially from manufacturing and logistics tenants that need 10,000 to 50,000 square feet.

2. Triple Net Stability
Tenants cover taxes, insurance, and maintenance. That means rising costs don’t kill returns, and longer leases reduce turnover risk.

3. Operational Focus
Smart Asset Capital is vertically integrated. They control property management, leasing, and investor communications. That gives them speed and margin edge that third-party managers can’t match.

The Risks (And How They Avoid Them)

Vacancy Risk:
Brock underwrites at least 12 months of vacancy and fully bakes in tenant improvement costs, commissions, and downtime.

C Locations:
His first multifamily deal was in a rough area. It tanked during COVID. Today, they avoid C-class locations entirely and focus on stable industrial corridors.

Debt Discipline:
They conservatively underwrite debt service and maintain strong spreads between interest rates and cap rates. A recent deal locked in a 6 percent fixed rate loan on a 9 cap asset.

What You Can Learn (and Steal)

1. Own Your Lane
Brock started with multiple asset classes, but scale came from focus. If you want to win, pick one niche and become the best operator in it.

2. Partner for Your Weaknesses
Brock didn’t have capital. His partners did. He had underwriting and ops. Together, they scaled. Find partners who complement, not copy, your skill set.

3. Tell the Truth in Updates
During his first deal, things went south. But they kept LPs informed, were honest in monthly reports, and even personally floated the property with a line of credit. It paid off.

Listen to the full episode

🎙 Groundbreakers with Brock Mogenson

In it, we cover:

• How Brock scaled from a house hack to a $50M fund

• His strategy for sourcing and underwriting Class B industrial

• What he learned from nearly losing money on his first deal

• The shift from syndications to a fund model

• How he’s preparing for the next phase of the market cycle