Bow Tie Edge: Real Estate Unraveled

Your tax bill is not as fixed as your accountant told you. In this episode of The Bow Tie Edge Real Estate Unraveled, Acqu Loftin of Luxury Tax Group joins the show for a wide ranging conversation about the bridge between taxes and real estate, the strategies high income earners are using to legally cut their tax bills, and the moves every W2 worker should be making before the year ends. Acqu is t...

What does 26 years in Chicago real estate actually teach you? In this episode of The Bow Tie Edge Real Estate Unraveled, designated managing broker Tiffany joins the show for a wide ranging, candid, and deeply practical conversation about pricing, property management, client education, and the business mindset that has kept her closing 90 percent of her deals for over two decades. Tiffany is a des...

The inner game runs the outer game. In this episode of The Bow Tie Edge Real Estate Unraveled, Chicago real estate legend Frank Montro joins the show for a raw and deeply practical conversation about the mindset behind every real top producer. Frank has been through nine major market shifts, scored a rare 100 percent D on the DISC personality test, lost 132 pounds, and built his career on the prin...

What does it take to win Rookie of the Year in your very first year in real estate? In this episode of The Bow Tie Edge Real Estate Unraveled, Juan L Mendoza of Realty of America shares the story behind his 2025 Rookie of the Year award from the Chicago Association of Realtors, his Top Producer recognition, and the hospitality first approach that fuels his husband and wife team Homes by Team SJ. J...

Most homeowners and investors in Cook County are paying more in property taxes than they should, and most of them have no idea what to do about it. In this episode of The Bow Tie Edge Real Estate Unraveled, Dillon Nichols of Relias Law Group breaks down the entire property tax appeal system in Illinois. Dillon walks through the three levels of the appeal process, the assessor, the board of review,...

This conversation goes everywhere. In this episode of The Bow Tie Edge Real Estate Unraveled, Elizabeth Wright of E Lux Real Estate Corporation joins the show for a wide ranging, candid, and sometimes spicy talk about Chicago real estate, the politics buried inside every deal, and how to protect your wealth across generations. Elizabeth has been in the business since 2003, is a certified residenti...

Two bald guys in a bow tie talking shop. Dain Laverty of Property Pals returns to The Bow Tie Edge Real Estate Unraveled for a brutally honest look at running a Chicago wholesaling operation in 2025 and what is changing in 2026. Dain unpacks why his return on ad spend dropped from 5x to 3x, the people and training lessons that finally clicked in his sixth year of business, and how stacked lead lis...

What if your rental property could earn above market rent, fill a real human need, and give you a second exit strategy when the regular rental market slows down? In this episode of The Bow Tie Edge Real Estate Unraveled, Chantelle Kelly breaks down exactly how that works. Chantelle is a real estate broker licensed in Indiana, Illinois, and Jamaica, and the incoming managing broker of Living Legacy...

What if your tenants paid your mortgage? That is the promise of house hacking, and in this episode of The Bow Tie Edge Real Estate Unraveled, we break down exactly how it works. Victoria Marie Garay of Exit Strategy Realty joins the show for a no fluff masterclass on buying a multi unit property, living in one unit, and renting out the rest. We run live numbers on a 400,000 dollar three unit in Ch...

Insurance is one of the most misunderstood pieces of every real estate deal. In this episode of The Bow Tie Edge Real Estate Unraveled, Cody Wiswasser of Community Partners Insurance pulls back the curtain on how the insurance world really works in Chicago and beyond. Cody is an independent broker who specializes in unusual risks, from bulky portfolios with 20 to 30 single family homes to harm red...

Mikey Tenerelli knows real estate from both sides of the table. He is a broker, an investor, and a flipper, and in this episode he gets honest about the project that nearly ate the whole profit. We talk permit delays, GC problems, hidden costs, and what happens when a deal that looked solid starts getting away from you. We also get into what he is seeing with upsizers in this market and the mindse...

Kayla Easley did not take the usual road into real estate. She went from military boot camp to dance to building a career in real estate, and you can hear all of that in the way she works. In this episode, she talks about pressure, resilience, sales, and the wild second transaction that tested her fast, when burst pipes flooded the home right before closing. This is a conversation about grit, rein...

A bad foundation turned into a full blown disaster. In this episode, Mahmoud talks with Drew Wischhover about the build that went completely sideways, from a foundation that was off, to bad framing, to a village shutdown, demolition, and a painful loss that changed how he looks at development forever. It is a sharp, honest conversation about contractor risk, due diligence, and the expensive lesson...

We get into the real playbook behind that jump. Social media done daily, relationships built the right way, and the mindset that keeps you consistent when deals fall apart and the DMs go quiet. Leo also tells the story of buying his first 2 flat when everyone said it was a bad idea, and how he negotiated credits and used first time homebuyer programs to walk out of closing with a check.

A client brought a “subject to” deal that looked like a win on paper, low rate, fast close, easy spread. Then reality hit. The foreclosure was still open, there were extra liens, and the paperwork was a mess. In this episode, we talk about how these deals go sideways, what to look for before you get deal frenzy, and how to slow down just enough to protect the buyer and the seller.

This episode starts with 203(k) loans and ends somewhere much bigger. The Bow Tie Attorney sits down with Tiffany Watkins, a Chicago broker, property manager, and straight shooter with 25 years in the business. They break down how 203(k) loans and HUD homes can help buyers get into neighborhoods they thought they could not afford, why FHA standards are stricter than people think, and what most bro...

Chicago might be sitting on one of the best small multifamily opportunities in the country. In this episode, The Bow Tie Attorney sits down with Nico Apostal to talk about why 2 to 12 unit buildings are such a powerful entry point for investors, owner occupants, and anyone trying to build real wealth in Chicago. What makes small multifamily less intimidating than people think, where the real value...

In this episode, broker Jamie McDaniel joins The Bow Tie Attorney to talk process, scams, and the details that keep investors from getting burned. Jamie shares a deal story where someone tried to change the agreement at the last minute, and we break down the habits that protect you, paperwork, timelines, and clear roles!

A dad in Italy says, “The world doesn’t owe you anything.” A kid goes out and earns it. That mindset shows up in every deal. In this episode, Dane Labardine of Property Pals USA joins The Bow Tie Attorney for a straight shooting conversation about Chicago wholesaling, distressed sellers, messy title problems, and why empathy and communication close deals faster than ego. They talk growth pains, ov...

Esme Gonzalez shares how her family went from renting to owning, and how she now guides first time buyers, many of them Hispanic, through the full home buying process. We also talk Aurora deals, what new buyers miss, and how she is growing as an Illinois real estate broker.

In this episode, The Bow Tie Attorney, Mahmoud Faisal Elkhatib, talks with Florida family law attorney Francesca Sarmiento about what protection really means when conflict turns personal. They break down injunctions versus orders of protection, civil versus criminal paths, stalking and safety planning, and what to do when private images are shared after a breakup. Francesca also shares a personal...

Could real estate lower your tax bill more than you think? CPA Nish Rawal joins attorney Mahmoud Faisal Elkhatib for a sharp, practical conversation on opportunity zones, bonus depreciation, and how investors think about timing, structure, and write offs. Then Nish shares the story behind his rise, the mistakes he learned from, and the habits that helped him scale.

In this episode of the Bow Tie Podcast, attorney Mahmoud Faisal Elkhatib sits down with commercial real estate broker Rosalind Astorga from Realty of America to talk about property management, immigrant hustle, and why Rockford, Illinois might be one of the most underrated markets for investors right now.