The Best Ever CRE Show

John Chang shares a solo market update from ICSC New York City, outlining what he’s hearing from top researchers and brokers across the retail real estate world. He breaks down why uncertainty and slower job growth are stretching decision-making, while consumer debt headlines look less alarming when viewed against income levels, savings/money market balances, and delinquency trends. He also highli...

John Casmon interviews Yonah Weiss, a cost segregation expert known as the “Cost Seg King,” about how cost segregation works as an advanced form of depreciation and why it can be a powerful cash-flow tool for real estate investors. They break down who benefits most, plus other scenarios like the short-term rental “loophole” and income-based exceptions that can allow depreciation to offset active i...

Matt Faircloth interviews Lindsay Greene about how the Brooklyn Navy Yard evolved from a historic shipyard into a modern 300-acre industrial ecosystem that now houses 550+ businesses. Lindsay explains the Yard’s transformation—from 1800s wooden-ship buildings to today’s mix of TV/film soundstages, food manufacturers, tech incubators, and light industrial tenants—while highlighting its deep legacy...

Pascal Wagner interviews Rod Khleif, a 40-year investor who has owned thousands of units and trained operators responsible for more than 260,000 multifamily doors. Rod breaks down today’s confusing multifamily environment, explaining why conservative underwriting, realistic assumptions, and deep operator due diligence matter more than ever. He shares the biggest mistakes GPs are currently making—f...

Amanda Cruise interviews Logan Fullmer, a Texas-based investor who specializes in distressed property acquisition and solving complex title problems. Logan shares his journey from blowing a seven-figure inheritance and getting sober, to rebuilding his life in the oil fields and then parlaying small, risk-adjusted land bets into a multi-division commercial real estate business. He breaks down how h...

Richard McGirr walks listeners through his 2025 retrospective using the “four L’s” framework—what he loved, learned, lacked, and longed for. He explains how abandoning distractions and doubling down on a single, high-performing debt fund produced seven to eight consecutive record-breaking months and over $24 million raised. Richard breaks down how this focus created operational mastery, recurring...

Richard McGirr interviews Bruce Stein, uncovering how his early dream of becoming an architect evolved into a decades-long career in real estate development, syndication, fund management, and now portfolio consulting. Bruce shares his path from working for a real estate syndicator, to a 16-year tenure at a family office deploying $300M, to running nationwide bridge-construction lending, and finall...

John Chang interviews the commercial real estate market itself as he breaks down how healthcare hiring is propping up national job growth while most other sectors soften, and why that makes medical office one of the strongest asset classes going forward. He explains how an aging population and persistent healthcare labor shortages are driving durable demand, limited new supply, stable vacancies ar...

John Casmon interviews Dani Lynn Robison, co-founder of a vertically integrated “Freedom Family” of nine real estate businesses, about how she moved from Ohio turnkey rentals into larger multifamily and fund management. Dani walks through why she brought renovations, property management, acquisitions, brokerage, and capital raising in-house, and how that 56-unit “drugs, thugs and bugs” deal became...

Matt Faircloth interviews Andrew Cushman, founder and principal of Vantage Point Acquisitions, in a fireside-chat style episode that ranges from partnerships to banks to skiing 20,000-foot peaks. They break down why Andrew has avoided the typical “GP partner” model, how he instead built a tightly aligned internal team, and why operational control matters more than flashy capital-raising. The conve...

Pascal Wagner interviews Soren Godbersen, exploring the evolution of real estate crowdfunding, how platforms vet deals, and why LPs should understand platform incentives before investing. Soren breaks down the differences between aggregator platforms and vertically integrated operators, sharing lessons from his decade at EquityMultiple and his new work at Lightstone Direct. The two discuss LP psyc...

Amanda Cruise and Ash Patel interview Scott Lurie, a Milwaukee-based investor, developer, lender, and syndicator who has scaled from single-family flips to $700M+ in AUM. Scott explains how discipline, conservative leverage, and a long-term mindset helped him not only survive but aggressively buy through the Great Recession—including a 410-unit acquisition for $9K per door. He shares why he focuse...

Richard McGirr shares why facts alone don’t move investors and how a well-crafted personal story can radically improve your marketing and capital raising. He walks through Russell Brunson’s Epiphany Bridge script, showing how it builds on the classic Hero’s Journey to turn your backstory, “wall,” and breakthrough into a compelling narrative that breaks your audience’s false beliefs. Using his own...

Richard McGirr interviews Hiten Samtani, founder of ten31 Media and creator of The Promote. Hiten shares how his background running the newsroom at The Real Deal shaped his approach to storytelling, why he built a media company that treats real estate like the character-driven, high-stakes world it truly is, and how entertainment is the secret ingredient missing from most industry coverage. He and...

John Chang shares why commercial real estate data has become less reliable following the DOJ’s settlement with RealPage, and how losing access to more precise rent and vacancy feeds weakens investor decision-making. He walks through the market’s wildly shifting expectations for a potential December 10 Fed rate cut and argues that political pressure and policy uncertainty—not the cost of capital—ar...

John Casmon interviews Ed Mathews, a former Silicon Valley tech executive who walked away from a high-flying software career to build a more family-centered, freedom-focused life through real estate. Ed shares how missing too many “18 summers” with his daughters pushed him to leave DocuSign and go all-in on multifamily after seven years of flipping houses and small-building rehabs on the side. He...

Matt Faircloth interviews Robert Beardsley, partner at Lone Star Capital (LSCRE), about navigating the current multifamily cycle, surviving 2021–2022 acquisitions, and why the most resilient opportunities today hinge on debt structure, affordability incentives, and supply-constrained submarkets. Robert breaks down how Texas multifamily has shifted from a “prices only go up” environment to a more b...

Pascal Wagner interviews Bronson Hill, founder of Bronson Equity, about how LPs can invest confidently in today’s noisy and divided market. Bronson shares how raising $50M+ across multifamily, oil & gas, and alternative real estate has shaped the way he vets operators, evaluates risk, and structures deals more conservatively after recent market challenges. He explains why understanding your true i...

Amanda Cruise and Ash Patel interview Thomas A. Kucharski, president and CEO of Invest Buffalo Niagara, about how his organization has helped transform Western New York from a legacy manufacturing market into a growing tech and advanced industry hub. He explains how their team centralizes regional data, builds commercial listing systems, and acts as a neutral connector to incentives, infrastructur...

Matt Faircloth sits down with Ben Lapidus for a deep-dive into the origins, evolution, and future of the Best Ever Conference as it approaches its tenth year. Ben shares how a chance Skillshare class with Joe Fairless in 2012 sparked their partnership, how the conference grew from 175 attendees to a premier commercial real estate event, and why it remains intentionally focused on capital-raising a...

Richard McGirr interviews Nick Jones, founder and CEO of Alakai Capital, about how he scaled his commercial real estate company from a solo operation into a multi-department organization. Nick shares how he transitioned from land brokerage into development, why retail provided the best entry point for his early deals, and how cultivating tenant and broker relationships became the backbone of his g...

John Chang breaks down the September jobs report, the ripple effects of tariffs, and what current economic uncertainty means for commercial real estate investors. He explains how healthcare employment is propping up national job growth, why stalled hiring across most industries is signaling caution, and how policy unpredictability is weighing on business decisions. John also outlines the markets m...

John Casmon interviews James Faillettaz, a Minneapolis-based investor who scaled from five units in a spreadsheet to restructuring an entire real estate company after an ambitious early strategy nearly collapsed. James shares how he over-hired, over-built, and over-extended while trying to operate like a Silicon Valley startup—then completely rebuilt his structure with the help of mentors and mast...

Matt Faircloth interviews Christian Macellari, Head of Acquisitions and CIO at RSN Property Group, about how their team has grown more than 20% in the past 15–16 months by staying disciplined, data-driven, and relentless in sourcing opportunities. Christian explains how RSN underwrites roughly 400 deals a year to close just a few, why top-down market conviction matters before drilling into individ...

Pascal Wagner breaks down how the IRS categorizes income into three buckets—active, portfolio, and passive—and why high-income earners often misunderstand how tax write-offs actually work. He explains common investor mistakes, including expecting real estate depreciation to offset W-2 or stock-market gains, and shares the simple rule that changed his entire tax strategy: “you can only offset like...