Strip Mall Deals: Pay Full Price, End Up Flat
Was pitched a strip mall deal this morning. It’s around a 4% cap based on today’s income. The pitch: If I can get back a space where’s there’s a non-paying restaurant tenant, spend a year releasing it, pay TI and leasing commissions, then it becomes a 6.75 cap, or $5M. Which is roughly market. The price they’re asking: $5M. So, I’m supposed to pay $5M today… Do all the work… take all the risk… spend the time and money… And then it’s worth $5M when I’m done? Correct. The strip mall world right now, in a nutshell.
Buy by Price per Foot, Sell by Income
We bought a 6% Cap building for $1.95M and sold it for $5.5M. Lesson: Buy based on price per foot, sell based on income. https://t.co/cMiaf6dKzV
CRE Success Requires Value Creation, Not Passive Holding
I don’t believe in holding commercial real estate long-term. Doing so means you are relying on two things to happen in order to get appreciation: Interest rates going down, or rents going up I don’t have control of either. “Buy and hold” made...
2026 Demands Higher Caps—Don’t Wait for Naive Buyers
Dear sellers stuck in the past: A property we’re about to list with a broker would’ve sold at a 4.75% cap in 2021. It will be listed at a 6.25% cap. Why are we selling at a 24% discount to 2021? Because it’s...
Spouse’s Employer Coverage Can Save Small Business $40K
Health insurance for a family of five can easily cost $30,000–$40,000 per year. So -- If you run a small business and want to recruit an employee who expects fully paid health insurance, that’s a really big number. If that same candidate...
Future Self Craves This Moment, So Treasure It
I do this thought exercise often when I’m playing with my two-year-old daughter: I think about myself as a 75-year-old, wishing to be back to this very moment. And grant myself that wish.
Cold Calls Fail; Find New Ways to Connect
That’s it. People have stopped answering their phones. So now what? It’s all-hands-on deck to find deals right now for our team, and I’ve joined them to cold-call brokers. Out of 10 calls I made yesterday - zero picked up. So I leave...
Skip TSA Chaos with PreCheck and CLEAR
Public Service Announcement: The hack to getting around this TSA madness is TSA PreCheck + CLEAR.
Own the Small Details, Lead the Big
During the first year of my career, I met my mentor at one of his properties. As we walked in the parking lot, I was surprised to see him stop to pick up a piece of trash. “That’s the landscaper’s job,” I...
Choose Battles Wisely: Sometimes Walking Away Wins
A dry cleaner ruined one of my shirts recently, and I decided not to do anything about it. Why? They would have pushed back and insisted they didn’t do it. I would have explained why they were wrong, and they would have...
Celebrate Small Wins Daily to Reduce Fund Stress
When you're running a real estate fund, there's lots of balls in the air, the stakes are high, and you deal with a healthy level of pressure and stress. Something I came up with to help balance things: I ask my team...
No Agenda, Pure Value: The Secret to Viral Growth
This account happened by accident. I was bored on an airplane in 2021, randomly decided to start posting, and it has completely changed my life. What was the strategy, and why did it work? For a very long time I had no idea,...
Airport Pickup Backs Out over Rising Gas Costs
My Monday airport pickup service in Charleston just called to say they can’t honor the rate we agreed to because of the jump in gas prices. Here we go.
Savoring Precious Moments Before Sibling Arrives
Never worked as hard in my life as I have for the first 2.5 months of 2026. Decided to take the day off tomorrow so I can go skiing with my son. Three months from now, he will have to share my...
Fast All‑Cash Fund Closes Retail Deals in 35 Days
A broker recently asked me how we’re different than all the other value-add retail buyers he hears from. Fair question. Well, we’ve been doing this since 2006. We’ve purchased 45 of them. We buy every deal all-cash. We can close anywhere in the US...
Brokers Often Push Their Own Asset Focus Over Your Needs
Actual call with a broker today: Me: Great to meet you, would love to do a deal with you. What type of retail deals do you focus on? Broker: I actually wanted to convince you to buy industrial assets instead, which is what...
Rockefeller Center Hits 98% Lease at Record Rents
The iconic Rockefeller Center. Ben Epstein and his team handle the leasing, and they’re crushing it. 6.5M square feet, 98% leased. Rents? The highest they’ve ever seen. Fun geeking out on the market - hard to imagine a more incredible leasing assignment anywhere. https://t.co/yBZqAs7D2v
Property Manager: The Toughest Role to Fill
I’ve found the Property Manager position to be, by far, the hardest role to hire for.
Rent Rolls Must Always Include Options and Option Rents
hey guys, I can't do much with a rent roll that doesn't show options and option rents/fmr - including that stuff should be standard 100% of the time
Capital Raising Is the Real Estate Bottleneck
The biggest bottleneck in real estate is raising capital for your first deals. In my case, I raised $400k from eight friends after calling everyone I knew when I was 26. Others who’ve built real estate portfolios, how did you raise the...