Andrew Dick: Hello, and welcome to The Healthcare Real Estate Advisor Podcast. I’m Andrew Dick, an attorney with Hall Render, the largest healthcare-focused law firm in the country. Today we will be speaking with Collin Hart, the CEO and managing director of ERE Healthcare Real Estate Advisors. ERE is a healthcare real estate consulting and brokerage firm.

We’re going to talk about Collin’s background, the company he leads, and trends in the industry. Collin, thanks for joining me.

Collin Hart: Andrew, thanks so much for having me today.

Andrew Dick: You bet. Collin, before we talk about your role at ERE, let’s talk about your background. Tell us where you’re from, where you went to college, and what you aspired to be.

Collin Hart: Sure. I actually happened into the real estate business by chance, but I’ll kind of start at the beginning and give you a little bit of understanding of where I come from.

Collin Hart: So I originally grew up in the Carolinas, and I started my undergraduate degree at NC State University in Raleigh, North Carolina, and I was going for business. But sometime between my sophomore and junior year, I was looking for an internship, and I basically was late in the game. I didn’t have anything lined up for the summer. And I was kind of looking at my options and figured I, I wasn’t sure what I was going to do.

Collin Hart: So I ended up going to a family reunion and I ran into a cousin of mine. And I mentioned to him that I was looking for an internship and he said, “Well, that’s perfect. We’re looking for an intern. We run a real estate business in south Florida. We own a bunch of shopping centers, and we’d love to have you down.”

Collin Hart: So I didn’t have any other options, and I thought this might be a good one. So I decided to move down to Palm Beach Gardens for the month of July. And basically, I was working at his company. It’s a family office. And so during the day I was learning all about property acquisitions, management, leasing, working with tenants, and then in the evenings he was mentoring me.

Collin Hart: And so at the end of that internship, I moved back up to NC State and I’m reflecting on that experience. And I decided that I learned more in that month working with my cousin and be mentored by him than I learned in my first two years of university. And so with that, I decided, hey, I really want to have a career in real estate. And I moved down to Florida to continue school,