Commercial Real Estate Pro Network

Today, my guest is David Blumenfeld. David is the co founder of Next Rivet, a Silicon Valley based consultancy dedicated to assisting traditional physical businesses and leveraging digital technologies. And in just a minute, we're going to speak with David Blumenfeld about how AI is transforming real estate. david@nextrivet.com https://nextrivet.com/  

J Darrin Gross I'd like to ask you. David Blumenfeld, what is the BIGGEST RISK?    David Blumenfeld We're going to answer it a couple different ways, if that's okay. So I think I mean, and this, this first one might, might seem like a self serving answer, but I think the risk for real estate companies in general for not looking at technology. And again, it doesn't have to be the biggest, you know, the biggest, the newest, the the flashiest, but if you're not incorporating technology into your your your day to day operations, whether it be from a marketing perspective, a company, a leasing perspective, Building Management, etc, you are getting left behind and and the good news for you is that the real estate industry moves slow, but as it gets more and more competitive from insert certainly In certain asset classes, office being one of them to not be investing in kind of future proofing your building and your company is going to come back and bite you in the long term and so and both from a just an operational perspective, but also eventually, eventually from a recruiting perspective, where people who are going to you're going to want In your company are not going to want to work. Want to work at your company if you're not forward thinking. From a tech perspective, I think the biggest concern right now, excitement and concern certainly is with AI and things like conversational AI, like chat GPT, we have, we have clients who their legal departments come in and we can't use AI at all. And I think the concern, the practical concern there is, there is a risk of, if you're using kind of a, you know, chat GPT, or Microsoft co pilot, one of these, or Google Gemini, is it, depending on the information you're putting in to have, let's say you're like, I want to put, you know, I use it a lot for writing better copy, maybe of writing a better email than I wrote already, because I realized I'm just not saying that quite right. But you know, there's it's much more powerful than that. You can put in financial data, for example, that would spit back a spreadsheet for you, or different analysis that might you know normally take hours on in Excel. There is risk when you start to upload proprietary information from a financial perspective, but the but you need to kind of balance that risk with what you're what you're using those tools for, because they are very powerful and very efficient as well. So I think it's making sure you don't swing the pendulum one way or the other, like you need to certainly use AI in your business. But I think if you're going to start to do a lot of things through AI, you know, there are ways to protect the information that you're you're putting out there, and you don't have to just throw something in chat GPT. You can have an application that's specific to your company, that leverages AI, but may be able to spit out kind of your your own private version of chat GPT, so to speak. So you just need to be, you just need to understand the implications and the risks of of if you're using kind of a generic service, you know, be, you know, there is a risk that you're putting that data, not it's not necessarily means that those companies are going to use it against you, but you are uploading that information into into the cloud. And I think it's funny, you've seen a lot in America around like, Oh, we're going to ban Tiktok because we're worried about China, you know, stealing all this data. Well, China's come out with a lot of new AI platforms. Lately, nobody's talking about the data privacy implications. Like, I would be much more concerned about using, putting anything in a in a Chinese AI software platform versus, you know, my social media via Tiktok. So it's, it's just funny how people are not thinking about things holistically. And I think that's, that's just what you need to make sure you need to do. But again, as I said in my earlier very common beginning of, you know, the beginning of the conversation, don't get into analysis paralysis, where you justify doing nothing because you have to overthink it over and over again. david@nextrivet.com https://nextrivet.com/  

Today, my guest is Simon Isaacs.  In 2015 Simon moved his family from London to West Palm Beach, Florida, where he became more involved in the local real estate market after seeing an opportunity, and in just a minute, we're going to speak with Simon Isaacs about the real estate market trends.   https://isaacsrealestate.com/  

J Darrin Gross  I'd like to ask you, Simon Isaacs, what is the BIGGEST RISK?   Simon Isaacs Wow, I would say the biggest risk here. Big Question, the big question.  Demand. I. Demand is the biggest risk here. You know, demand for properties, demand, if you know you only need one event, one weather event, and everybody ends up leaving. So I would say demand and weather are the biggest risk in my book, yeah, clearly, in Florida, you're, you're one, you know, one, one major weather event, or something like that from, you know, sour people souring on the on the place, or at least, and it doesn't even need to be a major weather event. It just has to be enough that people are concerned and they don't want to deal with it, right?   And let me ask you this, do you feel that that's a a local attitude, or do you think it's more of a public perception that gets promoted, you know, news, etc, after an event, public perception, you know, we end up, you know, whether it's the tornadoes, the winds, etc, it stays on the news, which obviously we want to be alerted, you know, you want the warnings and things like that. But, um, the news definitely makes it drag out a little bit longer. But it is a serious it's a serious event, you know. And the tornadoes were an eye opener last year, because everybody thinks it's hurricanes and flooding, but that's not the case. So it's that public perception is, you know, https://isaacsrealestate.com/

David Codrea, co-founder of Greenleaf Capital Partners, discussed the hidden opportunities in small strip malls near new construction developments. He emphasized the importance of long-term cash flow and the resilience of retail despite negative perceptions. Codrea highlighted his investment strategy, focusing on retail and office spaces, and his preference for smaller, local service-oriented businesses. He noted typical investment sizes of $2-4 million and a preference for 3-5 year leases. Codrea also stressed the importance of efficient operations, quick tenant turnover, and the role of time as a critical risk factor in his business. https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidcodrea  

J Darrin Gross I'd like to ask you. David Codrea, what is the BIGGEST RISK?   David Codrea For me, what I see as the biggest risk that impacts my business the most is time. So it looks at it, there's a huge benefit to time, but there's also a huge risk if you are not able to get the ball moving on things so extended vacancy or or even just time to make a decision if it takes too long for your organization to get things through, to make, get, get approval for something, or make a decision on what you're going to do with this tenant or that tenant. I think that that can lead to a lot of risk. Because one, you've got an organization that doesn't really know, like, hey, which? How are we making a decision? When? When are we going to make the decision? And no one knows you have, you know, opportunities that can be missed because of inability to move.   And I think we've, if you look at business as a whole, a lot of times, really, really big companies. These look like the 10 biggest companies that are out there. It used to be that big companies would get slower, and now the more the shift is, some of these big organizations are just getting faster and faster and faster. If you look at Amazon, they're they've just been pushing to go faster. It used to be you get something delivered in a couple days, and then it became next day. And now it's like, Hey, can we do the same day? Like they're getting faster. I think they're realizing that time is time is the biggest risk that they have to for them to lose a customer in my business, you know, I'm not Amazon, but if we don't get back to people, we're going to lose them. You know that that mentality is shifting through to everyone. Everyone Everyone wants everything right now. So if you don't have a way to do things faster and avoid that loss of time, that's the biggest risk that's out there. And probably for any business. https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidcodrea

Today, my guest is Joel Miller. Joel Miller is the author of the best selling book, Build Real Estate Wealth. Enjoy the Journey of Rental Property Investment, and in just a minute, we're going to speak with Joel Miller about the Journey to Real Estate Wealth. https://www.joelmillerbooks.com/

J Darrin Gross  I'd like to ask you. Joel Miller, what is the BIGGEST RISK?   Joel Miller Well, I'm going to surprise you with the answer, but it's going to be two pronged here. From a financial standpoint, I will say that rental property can be a source for risk, which is why you typically should form an entity that you hold your properties in that protects your personal assets from things that might happen within your entity related to those properties. And on top of that, you know, I do recommend carrying replacement costs insurance on your properties and. A commercial liability insurance. You know, on top of that, to pick up where the liability coverage on your your underlying insurance is. So that's my financial part of that answer.    But the other prong I want to talk about is relationships. The risk is in losing relationships. You know, I am well known when I'm talking to like teaching the landlord one on one classes and masterminds and stuff like that. I am known for saying this thing, that if I had a choice of losing all my money or losing all my relationships, I would lose all my money in a heartbeat, because my relationships will help me get my money back. And if I have no relationships and a pile of money, what good is that? You know that that's failure. You know, as far as I'm concerned, so it's important to build and maintain relationships that are sometimes lifelong and sometimes might be for one project or something like that, because those are the people that are going to get you from point A to point B, and you've got to be that person to somebody else as well. You know it goes both ways, and so what I say is, don't make a withdrawal from a good relationship just to make a deposit in your bank account.   https://www.joelmillerbooks.com/  

Today my guest is Creek Stewart. Creek is an expert survival instructor and author of survival hacks and the best selling Build the Perfect Bug Out Series has been featured on The Weather Channel. The Today Show, Fox and Friends are just a couple places where Creek's been featured, and in just a minute, we're going to speak with Creek about get down to this Mastering the Art of Preparedness. https://www.creekstewart.com/

J Darrin Gross  If you're willing, I'd like to ask you Creek Stewart, what is the BIGGEST RISK?   Creek Stewart That's a great question, and I think most people would probably expect me to say that it's being lost in the woods or being struck by a natural disaster. But I guess I'm going to get real personal on this one I me personally being a wilderness survival instructor and a preparedness consultant. I see all of the bad things and think about all of the bad things and think about all the scenarios, right? And it's really easy for me to get caught up, just too much in all of the things of this world. And so I think my biggest risk is thinking that they, that they, I don't know, giving, giving them too much value, versus the things that are eternal, right? The things that last forever our life and these little natural disasters that happen, even though I'm in this business and even though I sell books on the subjects, they're just little tiny blips in this lifetime of eternity. And so for me personally, it would be to consume myself with the thoughts of the temporary things versus the eternal things. And I'm going to quote scripture on you. I always, I always think about this verse from Colossians, you know, set your mind on the things above and not on the things of this earth. And so my strategy for navigating that is to take time each day and try to spend time in solitude and prayer and reading scripture, and, you know, try to dig in a little bit deeper to the eternal side of things, so that I just don't focus so much on the negativity and the temporary. https://www.creekstewart.com/

Tilden Moschetti, an investment fund and syndication attorney, discussed Regulation D (Reg D) exemptions for raising capital. Reg D allows unlimited funds from accredited investors without advertising, with 98% of deals using it. Rule 506(b) allows non-accredited investors, while Rule 506(c) requires accredited investor verification. Accredited investors must earn $200K annually or have $1 million in net worth. Moschetti emphasized the importance of communication to mitigate risks and maintain investor trust. He noted that only 1-2% of cases lead to legal action if proper documentation is in place. His firm's turnaround time for Reg D filings is two weeks.   https://www.moschettilaw.com/  

J Darrin Gross I'd like to ask you Tilden Moschetti, what is the BIGGEST RISK?   Tilden Moschetti I'd say that it's lack of communication. So and that's which is unfortunate because it's also the easiest to fix, right? So lack of communication will lead to failure to identify risks, whether it's, you know, the kind of risks we think about in in the insurance game, like, you know, fire and hazard risk, right? We know those things are there, but communicating with your property manager, communicating with your tenants, communicating with those kind of people, can all help identify, hey, yeah. And by the way, the sprinklers never work when we do the testing, or  whatever those those things are that can help reduce that risk. But certainly in my world, things go bad when you don't talk to people. So if I could have the best deal in the world, send people their regular checks, but all I'm doing is sending them money, and if it just looks like a black hole, then investors are always going to be thinking, there's something wrong, you know, I don't I don't have any kind of transparency. I don't understand what's going on. Maybe this guy is ripping me off where it could be completely not true. But if I don't communicate, there's no way that they can ever know. And so I'd say, you. By far, almost every risk kind of boils down to that lack of communication, or at least communicating a lot, and really kind of understanding and listening and talking and kind of figuring out what's going on on any kind of asset is going to, at the very least, you know, reduce that risk, or help you identify it, or help mitigate it in some manner.   https://www.moschettilaw.com/  

Today, my guest is Rich Lee. Rich Lee is a top lawyer, or was a top lawyer for two companies, and richly experienced the reality that dispute resolution today is driven by pain due to legacy dispute resolution forums and courts. Rich set out to change this with New Era Alternative Dispute Resolution, or ADR, and in just a minute, we're going to speak with rich Lee about dispute resolution.    https://www.neweraadr.com/  

J Darrin Gross I'd like to ask you Rich Lee, what is the BIGGEST RISK?   Rich Lee I'll answer that kind of in like two parts really quickly, right? The first is, I think, you know, in the real estate industry, and actually in business in general, I think the biggest risk, you know, in a lot of just kind of business dealings is the relationship, right, and and maintaining good relationships, whether it's with an existing, you know, Counterparty, or, you know, a future counterparty or a former Counterparty. Relationships are everything you know. And so all the things you do right to mitigate that you know both before, and then, of course, you know during a relationship. And then, God forbid, you know if something sours in that relationship, I think that's, you know, it's critical. And something that I think is is often overlooked for us as a business, right? The thing that I will think about all the time, and that we obsess about is, you know, frankly, and it's, it's still related to the relationship, it's the user experience, you know, both on the platform, you know, on our actual technology platform, but also just the experience overall, and the experience for all the people that would be involved in in, you know, in a dispute on our on our platform, which is both, you know, the plaintiff, the defendant, the two sides who are actually in a disagreement, their lawyers, Right? So that's two more parties, and then the arbitrators and mediators themselves, you know, and their experience, you know, administering and adjudicating a case on our platform. And so it's something that we obsess over a lot in terms of, you know, both the people we hire, you know, finding the best people who are smart, bias towards action empathetic, right? So even your interactions with us are positive. And then, of course, everything, every product we design, every feature we add, every additional process we create, even every new rule or any rule change we make right to to our arbitration rules, always with that kind of end user in mind, and like what the experience is going to be. And, of course, fairness above all else. https://www.neweraadr.com/ rich.lee@neweraadr.com  

Today, my guest is Kelly Stratton. Kelly Stratton is the President and Chief Product Officer and founded Quire in 2010 to transform the manual, air prone Technical Report development process she experienced for more than the first 10 deck the first decade of her engineering career. And in just a minute, we're going to speak with Kelly Stratton about three trends that will define technical report management for project driven businesses in 2025. https://openquire.com/ Kellys@openquire.com  

J Darrin Gross I like, to ask my guests if they can look at their own situation. Could be your clients, the economy, you know, whatever it is that you, you identify and consider to be the BIGGEST RISK?   Kelly Stratton Yeah. And when you ask, like, the first thing that pops in my head, because I, you know, as the chief product officer, and I kind of help drive like, what is our product going to be, you know, today, versus, you know, six months from now, a year from now, and you know, we have a really strong feedback loop with our users, and they have a mandate for us about, how can we make a difference in their work lives and in their work product? And both those things are really important to me, because this is a bit like our platform, is a space they spend a lot of time in. And, you know, so, so you have that, but then you also have this, this powerful energy around AI, and how do we incorporate that intelligently and effectively into our product? And again, the mandate from our customers is, you know, is pretty specific. They want to be able to access their past experience. They want to be able to interact with their and harvest their intellectual property, and it that that you know, you know, again, I use the phrase institutionalize that knowledge that's really important to them. You know, in the past, it's just, you know, write the report and put it in the file folder, and then it's on to the next one. But there's an awakening around this, like, hey, no, this isn't just an archive this that that we never look at again. How can we use this as a tool to make train our team and improve our reports and our process going forward? So I think just getting creating products where we give them access to their content, smart, yeah, powered searching, and we, we don't step outside of that too much, right? That we give them kind of the the access to their historical information, that that can really make a difference, and we deliver on it. So I think for me, is continuing to keep purpose built as our North Star, and we introduce risk if we spread ourselves too thin and are not incorporating kind of that feedback with our customer for things that they want, and then the things that we know how our product makes a big difference in how AI kind of supports both of those things. So. That's how I'd say that risk is getting AI right for our customers, helping lead them away being lead the way for them, being their innovation partner, and not spreading ourselves too thin. https://openquire.com/ Kellys@openquire.com  

Today, my guest is Steve Austin. Steve Austin is the founder and CEO of Revitalization Unlimited, where he focuses on structuring the company's investments to maximize value for the portfolio. He has a diverse entrepreneurial background and has started companies in several different sectors. And in just a minute, we're going to speak with Steve Austin about preserving historically significant real estate. https://www.revitalizationunlimited.com/

J Darrin Gross  I'd like to ask you, Steve Austin, what is the BIGGEST RISK?   Steve Austin That's a good question, I think right now for specifically for us, there's a tremendous uncertainty around the future tax policy. There's a lot of talk about, you know, closing the IRS and putting in tariffs, and so there's a lot of speculation and and stuff swirling around right now. So I think that presents a significant risk to us, but, but just, you know, kind of getting away from, you know, the regulatory risk, you know, I think, for for anybody who's out there in business, in in particular, raising investor capital right now, the, I think the biggest risk is, is just, you know, are you able to build a repeatable, scalable process in your business, you know? So for us, that's, you know, how do we source deals? How do we underwrite deals? How do we close deals, you know, what? What are the right structures for the deals, you know, and kind of systematizing that is, is kind of my view of risk mitigation from from a business perspective, because, you know, at the end of the day, investors, you know, they have a lot of options with their money, and you know what, what you're asking them to do is to trust that you have the right process to consistently, you know, generate. Returns. And you know, my answer to that is often risk management. You know, to your point, you know you can, you can avoid a lot of risk just by being cautious in, you know, not using a lot of leverage and debt and things like that. So, you know, we while, while taxes are a component of what we do, you know, we're also trying to generate returns, you know, without a lot of risk. You know, a lot of lot of folks refer to that as risk adjusted returns, right? And you know, so when you're buying buildings debt free, it certainly gives you a much wider, you know, birth to operate in, in my opinion, https://www.revitalizationunlimited.com/  

Today, my guest is Tudor Vasiliu. Tudor is an architect turned architectural visualizer and the founder of Panopticon, an award winning high end architectural Visualization Studio serving clients globally. And in just a minute, we're going to speak with Tudor Vasiliu about virtual storytelling, how narrative driven property marketing is replacing traditional showrooms. Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tudorvasiliu/

J Darrin Gross If you're willing, I'd like to ask you Tudor Vasiliu, what is the BIGEST RISK?   Tudor Vasiliu Oh, that's that's a hard one. Um, I mean, I can speak about so many things, but at the end of the day, the base of of of how we how we interact with people and how people interact with each other. I believe, you know, from my standpoint, is empathy, empathizing with your with your family, with your friends, with your clients, with everyone around you. I think that's a great way to navigate life and the loss of empathy is when the bad things happen. And I think, you know, we can be seeing that across the world, and nowadays it's everywhere, and we're asking ourselves, why is that happening? I don't think there's a, there's a easy answer to that, but there, you know, the the answer for me is try to keep that, keep alive that old sense of of old time, empathy that we were educated with, you know, the values that our parents instilled in in us and the education instilled in us, and even if you know the world is so much faster nowadays and so much more selfish and so on. Why not? You know, stick into those. Um, good old love and appreciation for the other. And I think this is the way we can make a better place, or make the world a better place, not losing that empathy. If we do lose it, I don't know, just slap, slap out ourselves over the head and snap out of it. Because it's not by being selfish and by being self centered that we will, you know, make the world a better place or make an impact. So just caring for for the other next to you, and with that attitude, it's just you would probably achieve a lot in life. That's how I'd see it. Darrin Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tudorvasiliu/

Today, my guest is Mike Cossette. Mike is a world traveler and a REMAX broker, owner in Central Texas. He has 20 years as an agent investor who owns and manages multi family, short term rentals, commercial assets, a Florida Island and recently has had four kids in less than four and a half years. And in just a minute, we're going to speak with Mike Cossette about long term success with market volatility.   https://www.linkedin.com/in/mikecossette/ YouTube: askmikecoss@gmail.com

J Darrin Gross I'd like to ask you, Mike Cossette, what is the BIGGEST RISK?   Mike Cossette Well, Darrin, I appreciate all your insight, and I really appreciate that that question. And I like the three phases that you just went through, because that is going to help me restructure how I think about my own risk. I really that that was a nice little light bulb you gave me my personal risk. And I think a lot of investors might be seeing this now, and if they're not, if they're new investors, this is something that is vitally important is over leveraging. I think everyone you know says, Keep X amount of dollars, six, nine months of you know, costs, you know, capex, or what have you in the account I want. I think everyone should increase that because, as you mentioned with the global warming and fires and hurricanes and those black swan events. Everything can be going perfect, but it's what you don't and can't expect or predict that can sink the ship. And we're experiencing that now. Everything you know, even tough, markets going fantastically, you know, fine, and then boom, hurricane hit, no money coming in six months before insurance can even lift a finger, and that can sink a lot of ships, and it almost sunk ours so, and we're still waiting, waiting to see if it will. So I think that is the biggest thing is for so long, we've been going fast, borrowing 232, and a half, three and a half percent interest. Then, why wouldn't you buy this? Cash Flows? Everything makes sense, and capital is available. Government's printing money. Everyone's got their hand out. People are moving fast and not stopping, and assessing their portfolios the way they should be, and really setting aside the emergency funds that are necessary. I think that is, in my opinion, the biggest risk and my biggest risk.  

Today, my guest is Matt Buchalski. Matt is a serial business builder, sales leader and multi family investor with nearly two decades of experience, and in just a minute, we're going to speak with Matt Buchalski about strategies for establishing quality returns and passive income in commercial real estate investing.    https://www.linkedin.com/in/matthewbuchalski/ matt@ownwell.com  

J Darrin Gross I'd like to ask you. Matt Buchalski, what is the BIGGEST RISK?   Matt Buchalski I think the biggest risk as an owner, slash general partner, is reputation risk. And I think reputation risk comes in two different forms. Right? Number one is your own personal reputation, right? How do you handle yourself during the hard times? How do you screen opportunities as they come into your inbox and really gage which ones are worthy of you putting your name reputation on, and frankly, capital into, because I put capital into every deal that we do, right? So I think there's reputation risk from that perspective, the other perspective, though, and this is kind of the little further downstream, but the reputation risk of. How you run your assets right? What happens to you and your community ecosystem by putting the wrong resident profile into your units? What happens if you're not screening your residents properly and they throw parties or they you know, they have bad actors that you know frequent your communities, other people are going to want to move out, and other people will move out, and they won't tell you necessarily why in most cases, right? That's your reputation on the line. That's your your sign at the edge of that asset that carries, you know, kind of your branding on it, and so you need to make sure that everything that you do on running that asset helps build and enhance the reputation of that asset. Otherwise, it takes a long time to undo that. https://www.linkedin.com/in/matthewbuchalski/ matt@ownwell.com  

Anne-Michelle Wand, an international real estate expert, discussed her journey to financial freedom and her investments in Panama. She highlighted the ease of property ownership for foreigners in Panama, the use of attorneys for contracts, and the stability of the US dollar. Anne-Michelle detailed her strategy of raising all capital upfront to minimize risk, avoiding mortgages, and ensuring solid land investments. She plans to build a multi-family project targeting the over-55 and digital nomad markets, raising $6-7 million. She emphasized the importance of minimizing risk through solid financial planning and the potential for passive income through real estate investments.   https://www.passive-profit-partners.com/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/cr8grtsuccess/?originalSubdomain=pa  

J. Darrin Gross If you're willing, I'd like to ask you, Anne-Michelle Wand, what is the BIGGEST RISK?   Anne-Michelle Wand Well, I think I touched on it before. I think the one of the biggest risks is over leveraging your product and the so that's how I've created this whole business model to minimize risk by having all the money paid up front and owning the building outright and then having the ability to refinance it when conditions are favorable, in order to pull out investors money that that's that's that allows you to to withstand any downturns, delays or economic factors that may be happening in the outside world. And still, you're still going to have cash flow the way I've designed the project. It's going to break even at 23% so anything above that should be cash flow back to the investors.  You know, it'll start out small, it'll grow and people will also have the ability there'll be a section in there where people can actually come and enjoy a vacation or or for the over 55 live there full time. So your amount of return will vary depending on how much you use your. Property. You know, that's, that's how I see. You know, minimizing risk is putting the solidarity there of the land. Land, you know, generally doesn't go down in value. And if it does, it goes back up on a on a scale. You know, may go up and down a little, but if you crack it over 20 years, goes up. They're not making any more of it. And especially land on a Caribbean island that's a very desirable land, whether it's right on the ocean or not. Another wonderful factor about Panama is we don't have hurricanes, so people can get out of the hurricanes. We don't have earthquakes. It's it's safe there for your land too. You just need to make sure it's elevated and not right on at sea level for the rising seas that is happening. https://www.passive-profit-partners.com/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/cr8grtsuccess/?originalSubdomain=pa  

Today, my guest is Carl Moose. Carl is a seasoned executive with nearly 30 years of experience spanning business development, mergers and acquisitions, real estate and energy solutions.  And in just a minute, we're going to speak with Carl Moose about how renewable energy can turn your property into a high performing asset.   Ph: 630-785-0031 Web: greenlightenergy.solar E: carl@greenlightenergy.solar

J Darrin Gross  If you're willing, I'd like to ask you, Carl Moose, what is the BIGGEST RISK?   Carl Moose Yeah, so as a property owner. And when I'm dealing with property owners, anytime you make a change to the building, or you install something on the building, like solar, you know, there's, there's some risk there. I mean, you know, obviously their first concern is, you know, are you going to put poke holes in my roof, and is my roof going to leak? So that's one of, one of the considerations. The other is, you know, weather, you know, they ask, well, you know, are these going to blow off if we get a, you know, big weather storm, or is hail going to damage these? And you know, the answer is, possibly, you know, if the storm is big enough, and if the hail is big enough, you have that, you have that risk. And then, of course, you know, they they ask about, are they going to work, right? And so there's enough data out there with regard to whether the solar panels are going to work, and we know the sun's going to be there, right? So that's not, that's not an issue.  The question then becomes, you know, are these things actually going to work? And there's enough data out there that to support, you know, our response to that, which, yeah, they're going to the way that we install them, the way that they're designed, they they will perform. So those are the questions that we get from business owners, you know, with regard to, you know, if I, if I make this change and go ahead and put solar panels up there, those are typically their concerns.   Ph: 630-785-0031 Web: greenlightenergy.solar E: carl@greenlightenergy.solar

Today, my guest is Matt Spagnolo. Matt is a former residential and commercial agent turned capital raiser now in capital markets with Colony Hills Capital as fund co manager, and in just a minute, we're going to speak with Matt Spanolo about capital markets and alternative investments.   https://www.colonyhillscapital.com/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/matt-spagnolo/  

 J Darrin Gross: I'd like to ask you, Matt Spagnalo, what is the BIGGEST RISK? Matt Spagnolo: Yeah, I would say the biggest risk in multi family has to be interest rates, right? Interest rates are something in I like to say the biggest risks, at least with what we do at colony, is something that we can't control, right? We believe in our team and the systems and processes that we've put in place, what we can control, we can live with with that, right? But what's tough is the items that we can't control, like you said, insurance and interest rates. So we've made a shift to help on the insurance side of things. Right? If the properties we had invested in Texas and in Florida in the southeast that maybe are seeing a higher jump in insurance, we are going to these properties in the northeast, like I mentioned, we're making that shift geographically. The insurance number itself might be high in the northeast, but the only thing that we care about as an operator is what is the year over year change? As long as that's consistent and relatively predictable, that's what's important to us, right? Because we can underwrite to that. But if you're in some of these states where it's very unpredictable, you could see a huge increase one year, and then it flat lines for a year or two, and then there's another massive increase. That volatility is something that that worries us. So we are going to markets where the year over year change, regardless of how expensive it is, is consistent and is relatively predictable, and has been for 15 to 20 years. So that's something that we're doing to try to eliminate that insurance risk, however, interest rates, one, nobody knows where they're going. And two, if they did, they probably wouldn't, wouldn't be working. They'd be they'd be on wall street somewhere. But right, it's up to the Fed to kind of control the Fed funds rate, and then that will also affect some of the other rates that we see in multifamily right? And even with Fed funds rate coming down, we've seen that the 10 year has has gone even higher recently. So that's that's something that we can't control. What we can do is make sure that we're buying our deals right at a good cost basis, but the sale right our cap rates, what we're buying and what we're selling at, really just depends on what the interest rate is. I mentioned earlier. We want to buy with that positive leverage. If the buyer on the back end of a deal that we are selling is using the same strategy, their purchase price is going to move not depending on the income of the property, but on what the interest rate is, right, if they have to get a new loan. So that's that's such a risk, and it's a very big one. But if we think that interest rates are going to find some sort of normalcy, or flat out, or flat line here, between that four to 6% range, I think that's something that we would, we would love to see, is, is some stability, right? Regardless of what the number is, just again the year over year change being consistent. So to answer your question, I'd have to pick interest rate risk.  

Today, my guest is Katie Kim. Katie Kim is a visionary real estate developer and educator specializing in transforming overlooked urban spaces into thriving community enhancing developments, and in just a minute, we're going to speak with Katie about how to scale your real estate portfolio. https://www.katiekim.com/ https://www.linkedin.com/company/thekatiekim/ https://www.instagram.com/thekatiekim/ https://www.youtube.com/@TheKatieKim  

  J Darrin Gross: I'd like to ask you. Katie Kim, what is the biggest risk? Katie Kim: The biggest risk is it all not working out right and not going to plan, pretty much. So we when we step into a development, I want to answer in two parts.    I want to answer an insurance side of risk, because I think insurance is a great way to do risk, and it's definitely part of our risk mitigation plan. But when we and when we step into putting together the development structure, it's more than what are you offering your investors, right? It's who's on the team in the development and what are they seeing as a risk and putting all those feedbacks and comments into that risk mitigation plan for the development itself, and communicating that to our investors and our bank and all of our team, and then also contingency, contingency, contingency on the financial side, for sure, but how do you make sure you have plan? A, B, C, D, you know, really, EF all the way to Z for each item in the plan, in the process.    So, you know, a couple of the projects we started, I mentioned Keller station as one of our developments. You know, we were in the middle of construction when COVID hit, you know. So now you gotta look at, okay, you want businesses to come into a place where they can't open, they can't get going, they can't launch. And some of them are retail, some of them are customer facing, some of them are restaurants and coffee shops. And looking at that plan and how do you shift and pivot? And that's where I really go back to network. And who do you have in your network?    How are you building your network? Because they're your biggest resource. They're your biggest cheerleaders. They're going to really, you know, think outside the box, bring their their expertise in their lane to really help the Miss risk mitigation. You know, we were the success story at Keller station was, you know, our, our coffee shop there, CXC coffee. They have grown 3x you know, since COVID, they pivoted. They actually did some really cool marketing during COVID. They did a curbside pickup because they didn't have a drive through.    We had a couple retail businesses. Hello, headband. Who does headbands and scrub apps? They have the softest fabric. They they actually moved into their first retail location from their home in March 2020, so you think, like right during the COVID shutdown, and they were actually so busy online, they would sell out within like three minutes, sometimes 30 seconds, and they couldn't even open their store because they couldn't keep inventory in they were just so it's, it's, how do you leverage your team to really enhance whatever the goal is, if it's growth, if it's risk mitigation, if it's, you know, avoiding that, that issue, leveraging that, and one way we do It, specifically with insurance, is we have our insurance agents, look at our contracts, look at our policies, where we where we, you know, at risk, right? And some of the policies, when people put together investment deals, as you know, is, you want to make sure you have a policy to protect your investors, protect your officers, as well as the building like it goes past just that physical structure and sitting down with someone you know, like yourself, where you can say, okay, hey guys, I want to show you where you're exposed, right. Here are some things. Here's some ways we can cut your premium without cutting a coverage. And that is where I see a lot of people.   Such as yourself coming as a strategic partner to the team, versus, hey, I'm just selling this product. I'm just selling this, this policy, right? You're coming from contribution, you know, with, you know, everything you're doing with the podcast and educating your audience. You're educating them to be, you know, again, to walk with you and then run with you. So where they come back and say, Hey, how can we get our monthly payment down, but not give exposure, right? Not given to more risk and and I think if people start to ask questions, right, and come from Curiosity, bring their team as truly strategic partners in their plans, then it really changed the game.    And that's that's where I would encourage people to go, especially when they're looking at risk. And risk mitigation is you're paying these people for their service, yes, but are you leaving money on the table by not leveraging their mind and their strategy and their strategic capability in your deals and into your network, and that is where I think a lot of people do leave a lot of money on the table. https://www.katiekim.com/ https://www.linkedin.com/company/thekatiekim/ https://www.instagram.com/thekatiekim/ https://www.youtube.com/@TheKatieKim  

Today, my guest is Jamison Manwaring.  Jamison is a multi family real estate expert and CEO of Neighborhood Ventures, a leading real estate investment company utilizing crowd funding to enable investors to invest in multi family properties.    https://neighborhood.ventures/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamison-manwaring-a8188625/  

J Darrin Gross:  I'd like to ask you, Jamison Manwaring what is the BIGGEST RISK?   Jamison Manwaring: The biggest risk that I see today is continued oversupply of housing. And we always go back to econ 101, that it's supply and demand. And we have a lot of demand in our markets that we cover for housing. There are not enough people who can afford to buy a home, so more and more people are renting. But we've built a lot of apartments also. So if the supply of new apartments is stronger than the demand, then price either stays the same or can potentially move down. And so as I'm looking out the next few years, it really is when this new supply starts to go away and we get to more of an equilibrium with our supply and demand. The past few years, the biggest risk has been what would happen with interest rates, and where do we where do we land? And I think now we've kind of gone through that. Right now, what I'm looking at is future supply, what will happen in 2025 and as a appears right now, 2026 2728 the demand, the supply falls off a cliff. I do think, besides the the supply, what happens with insurance, is a hot topic right now, because we just saw what happened in with the fires in California, we're having a big blizzard right now on the southeast that is, is freezing people, and it's going to cause cause problems. And insurance is in some people think insurance is kind of a broken model when it comes to commercial real estate and how many and how you make insurance work. In some cases, when you buy an older building in Arizona, you might get one bid from an insurance broker, and that's all you can find one company who will will put insurance on the 1960s building, even if the building is all up to code and has updated electrical panels and other things, maybe one, one person, so one company where six, seven years ago, you'd have three or four quotes. So insurance is in a really precarious spot. And I do know it's hard in some places to get insurance. In Florida and Texas, with the hurricanes, and now with California, so that that we think it, I think it'll figure itself out, and whether that means higher premiums or or adjusting risks in other ways, so that there'll, there'll be a marketplace. But it is definitely a hot topic in something if you're an investor or an operator, you need to stay on top of because it's a changing landscape right now.  

Today, my guest is Justin Goodin. Justin is the founder of Goodin Development, a multi family development firm based in Indiana that enables busy professionals to invest in real estate without the demands of being a landlord, and in just a minute, we're going to speak with Justin Goodin about multi family development.

J Darrin Gross: I'd like to ask you, Justin Goodin, what is the BIGGEST RISK?.   Justin Goodin: So I mean, my job as a developer is to obviously build a project on on time, on budget, you know, multiply my investors equity. The biggest risk for for my position is the uncertainty in the market in that, you know, three year time frame down the road when we go to, you know, one, lease up the property, sell the property. But you know, we have no idea where interest rates are going to be, where Cap rates are going to be, how the market is going to be in in three, four or five years down the road. So that, I think, is the biggest risk to me as a developer. I could build an amazing project on time, on budget, but when I get to the finish line, I go sell the property. Who knows where the market is going to be, who knows where interest rates are going to be? But I did everything right on my part for the past three years. It just so happens now that cap rates expanded values are down. Maybe that affects my refinance proceeds. Maybe that affects the what the buyer can pay for my property. So I would say, yeah, just the uncertainty of how the market is going to be in three years is my biggest risk as a developer. https://goodindevelopment.com/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/justingoodin/ https://www.instagram.com/justin.goodin/  

Today, my guest is Jon Howard. Jon is currently pushing the boundaries of architecture, as the associate principal science sector leader at HED of America's oldest and largest architecture engineering design firms, and in just a minute, we're going to talk with Jon Howard about the future of scientific workplaces. https://www.hed.design/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/jon-howard-aia-cdt-6056604/  

J Darrin Gross I'd like to ask you, Jon Howard, what is the BIGGEST RISK?   Jon Howard I think the BIGGEST RISK, from my perspective, and I'll take, I guess, my client's perspective on this, is making sure that if you're a science based tenant or or even a owner, like a you own a building and you want to attract science based tenants, making sure that the whatever facility they're going into can meet the needs of those types of tenants. I think we've seen, luckily, not too often in my own personal experience, but we have seen in the industry, you know, a building being built for maybe a single tenant, even if it was a lab tenant, being built for a tenant or a tenant type that doesn't have the kind of the metrics that a science based tenant will be looking for. So, you know, making sure that the Structural base spacing is adequate, or is on 11 foot module, that's kind of the rule of thumb, so that you can have all your bench benches laid out efficiently and have enough space to walk around and not run into a column, making sure you've got enough floor to floor height. So typically, what we try to look for with a prospective tenant is making sure that the building can accommodate a 15 foot floor height so that they can accommodate all the ventilation systems and everything that go into a lab space. Or sometimes, if it's not that high, designing enough floor mechanical space in the floor area to kind of make up that kind of lack of ceiling area that you you would be missing. So I think just from my own perspective, especially with investors that are real estate developers that are looking into getting into the sciences, I think the biggest risk is landing that tenant and then the tenant not being able to get into the building, or having some serious issues with the building that they weren't cognizant of. So what we do here at H, E, D is often we'll work with landlords or tenants to to help them assess in a building asset and make sure that it can accommodate whatever tenants they're looking for, or if it doesn't recommend. Some upgrades that might be needed to attract those tenants. Or in the tenants perspective, you know, create a list of things that need to change before you can sign a lease or or what have you so, because if, if you're locked in and the building doesn't work, then that that can be a major issue, especially for science tenants that have, you know, an ROI that they have to adhere to, and, you know, develop a product to market at a certain time frame.   https://www.hed.design/   https://www.linkedin.com/in/jon-howard-aia-cdt-6056604/  

Today, my guest is Christopher Schlierman. Chris is based in Arizona with a background in tech and real estate, and today is the president of Corona capital. And in just a minute, we're going to speak with Chris Schlierman about how to align your heart and mind.   https://thec2way.com/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/chris-schlierman-b03bb391/  

J Darrin Gross If you're willing, I'd like to ask you. Christopher Schlierman, what is the BIGGEST RISK?   Christopher Schlierman Uh, two things on a personal front, the person you marry is the BIGGEST RISK. On the professional front, it's choosing the place you're going to work. And getting that would go with investment too, of like, who you're going to invest with, the person, not the company, putting an emphasis on the people that you're going to align with, if you're going to partner with somebody, if you're going to go take a job from somebody, you're going to invest in somebody. There's a person behind it, right? Like, there's always, it's always a person you're investing in a company, well, there's a CEO, there's a founding team, there's a real estate project that you're going to invest in. Well, there's somebody who's running point on managing that project. If it's a taking a job somewhere, it's taking a job working for somebody, whatever, there's always a person that's behind every deal. The BIGGEST RISK is always on the people side, whether it's personal or professional, it's, do you actually know this person? Or now are you going to go in to, you know, get in lockstep with this person? Is always going to be the BIGGEST RISK.. https://thec2way.com/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/chris-schlierman-b03bb391/  

Today, my guest is Jamie Seale. Jamie is the is a content writer at Clever Real Estate, the leading real estate education platform for home buyers, sellers and investors, and in just a minute, we're going to speak with Jamie Steele about Rent versus Buy cities.   https://www.linkedin.com/in/jaime-dunaway-seale-660028158/

J. Darrin Gross If you're willing, I'd like to ask you, Jamie Seale, what is the BIGGEST RISK?   Jaime Seale That's a tough question. I will tie it back to real estate, because I feel like that's, you know what we're talking about here with this study, what I do, and I think buying a home is a huge financial decision. It's a lot of a lot of money, a very long term commitment. So I think the biggest risk is probably just getting yourself into a situation where you have more house than you can afford. Maybe it's, you know, buying a a. And a half million dollar home in San Francisco when there are much more affordable options and in Cleveland. But I think it's very important to stick to your stick to your budget, crunch those numbers ahead of time and know what you can afford, know what interest rate you can, you can afford, and what sort of mortgage you're going to be able to afford, long term, taking into account the unexpected and hidden costs of homeownership. You know, you don't want to find yourself, you know, house poor, I guess, for lack of a better word, but just Yeah, doing your research ahead of time, and really not getting yourself into a situation where you can't, you know, afford a place to live, I think is it would, it would. It's a great way to minimize that risk. https://www.linkedin.com/in/jaime-dunaway-seale-660028158/  

Today, my guest is Kevin Bupp. Kevin Bupp is a seasoned commercial real estate investor, top podcast host and author of the Cashflow Investor with over 1 billion in real estate transactions under his belt, and in just a minute, we're going to speak with Kevin Bupp about the real estate market, specifically the mobile home park investment strategies he uses. https://sunrisecapitalinvestors.com/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/kevinbupp/  

J. Darrin Gross If you're willing, I'd like to ask you, Kevin Bupp, what is the BIGGEST RISK?   Kevin Bupp It's a great question. Darrin, and I would say that I'll take it. I'll answer from a from an investor's perspective, and and I'll use a reflection back on 2020, 2021, 2022 when rates were incredibly low, there was lots of transactional activity, lots of transactions probably being overpaid for lots of risky debt that was put into place that ultimately didn't seem risky, but it had a timing risk associated with it. And if I don't execute this business plan, or if rates go up, or things that are outside of my control, if they occur, then my business plan, you know, gets flushed down the toilet, basically doesn't work. And so I i. So I think being a disciplined investor, I think that's it, that just just, you know, sticking to the fundamentals have never changed, right? I mean, the fundamentals have not changed. They didn't. They don't change when the rates go down. They don't change when the rates go up. We can all financial engineer a deal to make it look like it works on paper. But you know, when the tide rolls out, which it, which it has, you know, now we're seeing a lot of, lot of, what, what, what? We were praising people for Great job. Great deal. They were buying it. Now tide went out, and now there's a lot of distress deals because of the capital stack was a big risk. The timing of rates, when, when they, you know, went, you know, to historical, I guess at the historical rate, they rose in a very short period of time. And so for us, it's a, you know, just staying disciplined, being very disciplined with our Buy Box, looking at a lot of things and getting beat out in a lot of offers back when, when, when the when, times are crazy. A lot of transactions were happening. We didn't buy a lot. We weren't competitive buyers. It was very frustrating. But saying discipline to that allowed us to and not not skipping the fundamentals of, does this thing actually, cash flow does? Does this make money? Or is this a is the only way that makes money is if the market, at the timing of the market works in my favor and nothing, no black swan events happen. Rates don't go up. They stay the same. Is that the only way I make, I make money, and if that's that was, if the answer was yes, then we would pass on it. And so I think to stick into the fundamentals. They never change. They never will change, being honest with yourself and just sticking to that Buy Box. I think, I think that's how, that's how we avoid risk. We didn't grow like everyone else did during those couple of years. We grew, but not by gangbusters, like a lot of our competition has, but that put us in a great position. Last year was a one of our biggest year. It was, it was our biggest year until this year, as far as acquisitions and new opportunities and deals that truly fit our Buy Box. But it we were prepared. We were ready. We've never stopped distributions to investors. Our investors have continued received you know, quarterly distributions on a regular basis. And so us mitigating that risk back during the heyday, you know, and when things are going crazy, allowed us to really capitalize and take advantage of the opportunities that have presented themselves now over the last couple of years, so, and I think will continually allow us to do so in the coming years. So don't know if that's a good answer for you, but hopefully that, hopefully that's something. https://sunrisecapitalinvestors.com/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/kevinbupp/  

Today, my guest is Dan Lopez. Dan Lopez is the Chief Technology Officer at Neural and in just a minute, we're going to speak with Dan Lopez about Neural's ability to better prepare and predict extreme weather events.   https://www.neural.io/earth

J Darrin Gross I'd like to ask you. Dan Lopez, what is the biggest risk?   Dan Lopez I love that question. Darrin, I think we always go back to the Donald Rumsfeld, the unknown unknowns, and to peel away the unknowns so that you have more insights to make better decisions more rapidly. Give you a a position and essentially the high ground where you can now make decisions with a clear head. I think that is the biggest risk, is shoving our heads in the sand and hoping that it all goes away and it's just not and we have to, especially for risk transfer. How do we get local to state to federal to global markets to understand how to interplay with each other? Because this is not going away.  https://www.neural.io/earth

Today, my guest is Kyle Kuderewski. Kyle is the operations manager at Web Street, an investment platform allowing people to passively invest in online businesses and digital assets. Kyle is an engineer turned investor entrepreneur. He's leveraged his attention to detail and knowledge of systems to create a well oiled operation at Web Street as they scale. And in just a minute, we're going to speak with Kyle Kuderewski about investing passively in cash, flowing digital assets. https://www.linkedin.com/in/kkuderew/ kyle@webstreet.co  

J Darrin Gross I'd like to ask you, Kyle Kuderewski, what is the BIGGEST RISK?   Kyle Kuderewski Yeah, I think this one for me, thinking about the investing risks all the time and whatnot, but I have to zoom out. And I like to go on a personal level, level here, and this is kind of why I got out of more of a corporate role, and what kind of led me down this investing path and this entrepreneurial path. So to me, I think the biggest risk is becoming too focused on immediate tasks and losing sight of long term strategic goals. So it's easy to get caught up in day to day demands and miss those opportunities for innovation, for growth. And what I mean by that is like, what am I doing day in and day out at my previous engineering job is that getting me where I want to be long term with the way my life's built? If I want to be able to work remote, or if I want to spend more time with family, or whatever the case is, I need to craft a life around that. So you talked about mitigating it. This is actually written here on my desk. I I schedule regular big check, check in big picture, like review sessions, where I assess my progress against my goals and identify where I need to adjust. And then the other way I mitigate that is I build accountability by sharing these goals with a colleague or a mentor. Mentors are huge, huge tool I use so that they can provide feedback and tell me, like, Yo, you're getting out of line here. This is not leading you toward the goals you want. You're too focused on the day to day, whatever the case may be. So to me, that's a really big risk, and it can you can lose tons and tons of time, years and years of your life if you're not paying attention to those big picture goals.   https://www.linkedin.com/in/kkuderew/ kyle@webstreet.co  

Today, my guest is Edie Weintraub. Edie Weintraub is the visionary founder of Terra Alma, a boutique real estate advisory dedicated to shaping walkable, community centered spaces and fostering local connections. And in just a minute, we're going to speak with Edie Weintraub about creating vibrant hubs where people gather.   Website: https://www.terraalma.com/ Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/edieeverywhere/

J Darrin Gross I'd like to ask you. Edie Weintraub, what is the BIGGEST RISK?    Edie Weintraub Yeah,I think for us, you know, we are commercial real estate brokers for real estate agents, and so we are typically paid on commission only. And so if that deal doesn't come to fruition, that lease doesn't get signed, we don't get compensated. And so here, what I have to offer is my my network, my knowledge and my time, and so we are taking a significant risk every day in choosing who are the clients that we opt to work with. Because, you know, we might put a lot of time, energy and effort into deals that might not come to fruition. So it's, it is definitely the roller coaster. It's not a merry go round. And so I know that our field is not necessarily for everyone, but I do think that we're able to mitigate it in regards to balancing out our portfolio with some consulting opportunities where we're educating brands as well as developers on how to go about creating. Spaces that ultimately will attract the right tenants that they want. So we do try to balance that as much as we can, but I think it's important and we share with all of our clients that how we get compensated and why they should opt to work with us, but also realizing that we're investing in our time in them as much as they're investing their time in us.

Today, my guest is Jay Connor, the private money authority, and in just a minute, we're going to speak with Jay about raising private money.