Before Billy Cundiff was kickstarting development projects, he was kicking off football games in the NFL. Prior to his retirement in 2015, Cundiff played for multiple teams including the Dallas Cowboys, Cleveland Browns and Baltimore Ravens — and was voted to the 2011 Pro Bowl as the AFC placekicker.
Today, Cundiff is managing director of development for Greystar, where he handles all ground-up activities in Arizona and Southern Nevada. Cundiff sat down with the AZ Big Podcast to talk about the parallels between CRE and the NFL, along with housing affordability in Greater Phoenix. Responses have been edited for clarity and length.
AZRE: How did you make the switch from NFL kicker to managing director at Greystar?
Billy Cundiff: When I came into the NFL, I was taught it wasn’t a career, a career is something you do your entire life, so I was trying to figure out what I wanted to be when I grow up. Being from a small town in Iowa, nobody was a real estate developer — I’d never been exposed to that before. But the NFL had an internship program with CBRE and I did that in my 2013 and 2014 off-seasons.
That’s when I started to think development could be something for me. I didn’t go the broker route because I wanted to establish a new identity outside of football. I used my education benefits and got my master’s in real estate development at ASU.
AZRE: What gave you the discipline to go this route and not become a broker where you could talk football all the time?
Billy Cundiff: It was intentional. I was making sure I could create a second career. I wanted to be challenged, and I found development challenging — it was a natural fit. As intentional as I was in trying to stay away from football I also lucked out and found something I am passionate about.
LISTEN NOW: AZ Big Podcast: Billy Cundiff talks about parallels between CRE and NFL
AZRE: Are there any parallels between being a professional athlete and working in the commercial real estate world?
Billy Cundiff: There are, and I’ve especially seen that as I hire people to build out our team. I’m now a coach of developers. Facing adversity and being solution-oriented are what make you successful in professional sports, and the same goes for developing. Good athletes deal with problems all the time and they don’t complain about it. I found that mentality works well in development.
In football, you get a test every week when you play the game and you’re able to look at film and learn. In development, you don’t get that every week, but we’ve implemented a hotwash where we discuss what we can do better at every major milestone. We give everyone a platform where they can tell us where to improve just like sports.
AZRE: How critical would you say the need for housing in Arizona is?
Billy Cundiff: The need is huge across the entire spectrum of housing, whether we’re talking about people trying to buy a home or just trying to find basic shelter. In Phoenix, we’ve got affordability issues and problems with getting the housing stock to increase. It affects all kinds of people too.
Projects are also taking more time to complete. If you talk to any developer, they’re going to complain non-stop that projects are taking eight to 10 months longer. There are also construction costs — it’s hard to deliver a product that is cheap enough so we can make sure rent is low but also fits what the renter needs.
