The Business of Real Estate with Fexingo: Commercial, Residential, and Investment Properties

Lucas and Luna break down the economics of master planned communities — the large-scale residential developments that function like their own small cities. Using The Woodlands, Texas and Irvine, California as durable case studies, they explore how developers make money on land banking, builder lot sales, commercial land leases, and ongoing amenity fees. They unpack the upfront capital required, th...

Lucas and Luna dive into the quiet transformation of manufactured housing communities—mobile home parks—from fragmented mom-and-pop assets into a sought-after institutional real estate class. They unpack the economics: why land ownership makes these properties recession-resistant, how operators have pushed lot rents 40% higher since 2020 while residents own their homes, and the tension between inv...

Episode 80 of The Business of Real Estate with Fexingo dives into the booming life sciences real estate sector. Lucas and Luna explore how lab space has become a distinct property class, drawing on the case of Alexandria Real Estate Equities — the first publicly traded life sciences REIT — and its impact on cities like Boston and San Francisco. They discuss why traditional office-to-lab conversion...

Episode 79 of The Business of Real Estate with Fexingo dives into the growing influence of infrastructure investment funds on property development. Lucas and Luna examine how the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, passed in 2021 but still distributing funds, is reshaping commercial real estate around transit hubs and utility corridors. They focus on a specific case: the redevelopment of rail...

In this episode, Lucas and Luna break down the mechanics of triple-net (NNN) leases—a structure where tenants pay property taxes, insurance, and maintenance on top of rent. They explore why this model has become a favorite among passive real estate investors, using the example of a Dollar General store leased for 15 years with 1.5 percent annual rent escalations. The hosts discuss the trade-offs:...

Lucas and Luna explore how the explosion of cloud computing and AI is transforming the industrial real estate market. With data center construction hitting a record $60 billion in new starts in 2025, this episode digs into why investors are pivoting from traditional warehouses to powered-shell facilities near grid substations. They discuss the specific infrastructure requirements, the competition...

This episode of The Business of Real Estate with Fexingo examines the growing tension between short-term vacation rentals and long-term housing availability in coastal resort towns. Lucas and Luna dive into the specific case of Ocean City, Maryland, where over 70% of single-family homes are now STRs, driving median home prices past $700,000 and pushing out year-round residents. They explore the ec...

In this episode, Lucas and Luna dive into the surprising economics of rent control as of mid-2026. They focus on Oregon's statewide rent cap — the first in the U.S. — and how it has reshaped development patterns, property valuations, and investor behavior since its passage in 2019. Lucas breaks down the numbers: a 7 percent annual cap plus inflation, and how that has slowed new construction in Por...

In episode 74 of The Business of Real Estate, Lucas and Luna dive into a fast-moving force that is quietly reshaping property values across the country: the skyrocketing cost of insurance. From Florida condos seeing premiums triple to California apartment buildings losing coverage entirely, insurance is becoming a deal-breaker for investors. Lucas breaks down the numbers: how insurers are pulling...

Lucas and Luna drill into ground leases—a niche commercial real estate structure where you own the building but rent the land. They unpack a specific case: a 49-year ground lease on a downtown office tower that traded at a 23% discount to comparable fee-simple properties. They explain why institutional investors are piling into ground-lease assets for yield, how leasehold financing works, and the...

Lucas and Luna explore why ground leases — where an investor owns the building but not the land — are quietly becoming a favorite structure for pension funds, endowments, and yield-hungry institutions. They break down the economics: how a 99-year lease on a downtown site can produce equity-like returns with bond-like stability, why the University of California's endowment has been piling into them...

Lucas and Luna dive into the surprising economics behind self-storage real estate, explaining how a niche industry turned into a $50 billion institutional darling. They break down the key drivers—low operating costs, recession resilience, and changing consumer habits—using specific examples like Extra Space Storage and Public Storage. The hosts discuss how self-storage REITs have outperformed trad...

Lucas and Luna explore the booming trend of converting struggling hotels into residential apartments, co-living spaces, and extended-stay properties. With downtown office vacancies still high and hotel occupancy lagging pre-pandemic levels, developers are buying distressed assets at deep discounts. The hosts break down the economics: how a Marriott in Denver became a 200-unit apartment building, t...

Lucas and Luna unpack the 1031 exchange—the IRS provision that lets real estate investors defer capital gains taxes indefinitely by rolling profits from one property into another. They walk through a concrete example: an investor who bought a $2 million apartment building in 2015, sells it in 2026 for $3.5 million, and uses the exchange to avoid a $300,000 tax bill. They explain the strict timelin...

This episode of The Business of Real Estate explores how Housing Choice Vouchers, formerly Section 8, are transforming apartment building economics. Lucas and Luna examine a case study from Atlanta's West End, where a 200-unit complex saw vacancy drop from 15 percent to 2 percent after accepting vouchers, while rent collection hit 98 percent. They break down the math: steady government-backed reve...

In episode 67 of The Business of Real Estate, Lucas and Luna explore how community land trusts are gaining traction in 2026 as a tool for affordable housing and neighborhood stability. Focusing on the Champlain Housing Trust in Burlington, Vermont—the oldest and largest CLT in the US—they break down the model where a nonprofit owns the land while residents own the buildings. Lucas explains how thi...

In this episode of The Business of Real Estate, Lucas and Luna unpack the high-stakes world of converting empty office towers into apartment buildings. As of June 2026, office vacancy rates in major U.S. cities have hit 22 percent — a record high. But conversions are expensive, slow, and often run into zoning and structural hurdles. Lucas explains the math behind a typical conversion: why a 1970s-...

Episode 65 digs into a surprising force driving commercial real estate value in 2026: the grocery store anchor. Lucas and Luna examine how grocery-anchored retail centers are outperforming other strip malls, with cap rates compressing by 75–100 basis points over the past two years. They look at the math behind a typical 50,000-square-foot grocery tenant—paying below-market rent but driving double...

In this episode, Lucas and Luna explore the rise of mixed-use zoning as a strategy for revitalizing American downtowns. They focus on the case of Nashville, Tennessee, where a 2025 zoning overhaul allowed residential units in commercial corridors for the first time. The hosts break down how developers are responding, the impact on retail rents, and why cities from Portland to Cincinnati are follow...

In this episode of The Business of Real Estate with Fexingo, Lucas and Luna explore how Opportunity Zones have evolved since their creation in the 2017 tax bill. With the 2026 deadline for capital gains deferral looming, they examine a specific case: a mixed-use development in a low-income Atlanta neighborhood that transformed a vacant lot into 200 affordable units plus retail. They break down the...

Lucas and Luna dive into the co-living trend that's quietly transforming urban housing. In this episode, they focus on the rise of co-living operators like Common and Ollie, which are leasing entire apartment buildings and renting out individual rooms with shared common areas. They examine how this model is attracting institutional investors like Blackstone, which poured $300 million into Common i...

Lucas and Luna explore the rapid growth of corporate housing — the segment between hotels and traditional apartments that serves traveling nurses, consultants, and remote workers on temporary assignments. They break down the economics of a furnished two-bedroom in Phoenix that generates $6,200 in monthly revenue versus $1,800 for a conventional lease. They explain why institutional investors like...

In Episode 60 of The Business of Real Estate, Lucas and Luna examine the build-to-rent (BTR) phenomenon: single-family homes built and owned by institutions, not individuals. With BTR now accounting for 8% of new home starts nationally—up from near zero a decade ago—they drill into one developer's pivot from for-sale to for-rent subdivisions in Phoenix. They break down the economics: how BTR opera...

In this episode of The Business of Real Estate, Lucas and Luna explore how top-rated Airbnb superhosts are leveraging their platform data to acquire single-family homes as short-term rentals. They break down the strategy used by a superhost in Phoenix who bought 12 homes using revenue projections from his own booking history to secure financing. The hosts discuss how lenders are now accepting Airb...

Episode 58 of The Business of Real Estate with Fexingo explores why medical office buildings are now considered core institutional assets. Lucas and Luna break down the demographic tailwind of aging boomers, the recession-resistant lease structures, and the specific case of Healthcare Realty Trust (ticker H-R) merging with Healthcare Trust of America in 2022 to form a $13 billion portfolio. They d...