When Seth Barnett started at Affordable Housing Advisors (AHA) as an intern, he found a good working rapport with the team and has never looked back.
The 37-year-old has helped grow the firm, a specialty group within Marcus & Millichap that represents owners of government-subsidized multifamily properties, since he joined in 2006. And he’s seen his role grow as one of the most active brokers of affordable housing in the nation.
Barnett serves as a senior national director and member of the executive team, overseeing business development from the Midwest to the West Coast. He has been responsible for the sale of more than 60,000 government-subsidized units in 39 states, with an aggregate value of over $3 billion.
He has represented clients ranging from original developers of project-based Section 8 properties to institutional clients maintaining large portfolios.
“We are working on a lot of transactions representing nonprofits on the sale and further preservation of affordable housing properties across the country,” he says. “If someone doesn’t have security in their housing, then they can’t begin to grow as a person. It makes me proud to do the work that I do.”
Barnett is also proud of the firm’s nonprofit education initiative that helps inform groups, such as archdioceses and labor organizations, about the options available for their 40- or 50-year-old properties that they can no longer properly care for.
“We have started to engage with the nonprofits and let them know that although we’re brokers, we are not here to sell them, but we are here to help maximize their proceeds,” he says. “It’s something the whole team has done to make great inroads across the country to assist groups that don’t know what their options are.”
Another cause outside of the industry near and dear to him is the fight against congenital heart disease. His wife has a congenital heart defect, and the family has been actively involved in chairing an annual heart walk and fundraising in Michigan for the past decade.
“My family is one of the largest donors and supporters for The Children’s Heart Foundation,” he says.
Barnett met his wife at Michigan State, and they, along with their two young daughters, can be found in East Lansing cheering on the Spartans football team.
