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

In this episode of The Business of Real Estate, Lucas and Luna explore a striking new trend: developers are scooping up vacant shopping malls and turning them into mixed-use neighborhoods. They dive deep into the case of the former Rolling Acres Mall in Akron, Ohio, which sat empty for over a decade before a developer proposed a $400 million redevelopment into apartments, offices, and green space....

Lucas and Luna dig into the growing impact of rent control policies on multifamily real estate investment. Using the recent 2025 rent stabilization expansion in Colorado as a concrete case, they explore how institutional investors are recalibrating underwriting models, shifting toward rent-regulated assets with predictable cash flows, and whether rent control actually stabilizes neighborhoods or c...

Episode 30 of The Business of Real Estate explores how fractional ownership platforms are breaking down the barriers to commercial property investment. Lucas and Luna examine the rise of crowdfunded real estate deals, from a $15 million industrial park in Phoenix to a $22 million multifamily complex in Charlotte, explaining the mechanics of minimum investments as low as $5,000 and the trade-offs i...

Episode 29 of The Business of Real Estate breaks down real estate tokenization — the practice of converting commercial property ownership into blockchain-based digital tokens. Lucas and Luna explore a specific case: a $54 million office tower in Manhattan that was tokenized and sold to over 200 investors, some of whom put in as little as $10,000. They discuss how tokenization lowers minimum invest...

Across the US and Europe, developers are converting vacant office towers into state-of-the-art laboratory space for life sciences companies. Lucas and Luna dig into the economics behind one such conversion in Boston's Seaport District, where a 1980s office building was gutted and rebuilt as a wet-lab facility. They discuss the cost per square foot — around $600 to $800 for lab conversion versus $2...

Lucas and Luna dive into the rising cost of property insurance in high-risk areas, using the example of California's wildfire-prone regions. They discuss how insurers are pulling out, how premiums are doubling, and what this means for real estate investors. Lucas breaks down the concept of 'climate-adjusted valuations' and how Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are starting to factor climate risk into mor...

Episode 26 of The Business of Real Estate with Fexingo dives into the growing number of cities imposing transfer taxes on high-value homes, known informally as 'mansion taxes.' Lucas and Luna examine the case of Los Angeles's Measure ULA, passed in 2022, which adds a 4% tax on sales above $5 million and 5.5% above $10 million. They look at early data showing a drop in luxury sales volume, shifts i...

As cities grapple with declining commercial property values, many are raising tax assessments on vacant office buildings to close budget gaps. Lucas and Luna examine how Los Angeles County reassessed a downtown high-rise at 30 percent higher despite 60 percent occupancy, sparking lawsuits from landlords. They discuss the ripple effects on investment strategies, the rise of tax appeal firms, and wh...

In this episode of The Business of Real Estate, Lucas and Luna explore the powerful yet often overlooked role of homeowners associations in suburban real estate markets. They examine how HOAs can impact property values through enforcement of restrictive covenants, management of common area maintenance, and their growing influence on community development. Lucas highlights a specific case study fro...

Real estate syndications used to be for accredited investors only. But a little-known structure called a Delaware Statutory Trust is changing that. Lucas and Luna break down how DSTs work, why they've grown from niche to over $30 billion in assets under management, and what the typical investor should watch out for—including the illiquidity trap and the advisor fee that can eat a third of your ups...

Lucas and Luna explore the surprising trend of converting struggling suburban office parks into medical office buildings. With office vacancy rates hitting 20% in some markets and healthcare real estate growing 3x faster than traditional office, developers like HCP and Ventas are snapping up former corporate campuses. Lucas walks through a specific case: a 1980s office building in Schaumburg, Illi...

Episode 21 explores the growing trend of converting vacant big-box retail and strip-mall space into mixed-use residential developments. Lucas explains how shifting property valuations make these conversions economically viable, using the example of a former Sears anchor store in a mid-sized city being redeveloped into 200 apartments with ground-floor retail. Luna discusses zoning hurdles and commu...

In this episode of The Business of Real Estate with Fexingo, Lucas and Luna break down the quiet force reshaping private real estate transactions: side letters. These confidential addenda — once reserved for the largest institutional investors — now ripple through mid-market funds and even single-asset deals. Lucas walks through a specific case where a side letter gave a Canadian pension fund the...

In this episode, Lucas and Luna explore the growing co-living trend, where landlords convert traditional apartments into shared housing with private bedrooms and communal spaces. They focus on the case of Common Living, which raised over $100 million from institutional investors like Blackstone. The hosts break down the economics: how co-living generates 20-30% more revenue per square foot than tr...

Lucas and Luna explore how AI-generated virtual agents are transforming the traditional open house. With the US market seeing a 40% rise in AI-assisted property tours in early 2026, they drill into one specific case: a Houston brokerage that replaced human agents with photorealistic avatars for weekend showings. They break down the cost savings — about $800 per open house — and the surprising push...

Episode 17 of The Business of Real Estate explores the rise of institutional single-family rental (SFR) investors. Lucas and Luna break down how firms like Invitation Homes and American Homes 4 Rent have amassed over 300,000 homes since the 2008 housing crisis, turning scattered suburban houses into professionally managed rental portfolios. They examine the economics: 5-7% cap rates, operational e...

In this episode of The Business of Real Estate with Fexingo, Lucas and Luna explore the rise of co-living as a serious asset class. They examine the business case behind operators like Common and Ollie, which have raised hundreds of millions to convert traditional apartments into shared living spaces with private bedrooms and common kitchens. The conversation drills into the numbers: how co-living...

Episode 15 of The Business of Real Estate with Fexingo digs into green leases—contracts that require tenants and landlords to share energy data, efficiency upgrades, and cost savings. Lucas and Luna walk through a real example: a 500,000-square-foot office tower in downtown Chicago where a green lease cut electricity use by 18 percent in the first two years. They explain how the lease structure wo...

In this episode of The Business of Real Estate, Lucas and Luna explore how the data center boom is transforming rural communities across the American Midwest and South. They focus on one specific county — Loudoun County, Virginia, often called 'Data Center Alley' — and examine how its real estate market has evolved from farmland and suburban sprawl to a global hub for cloud infrastructure. The con...

In this episode, Lucas and Luna explore the growing value gap between industrial and office real estate. Using the case of a 40-acre former industrial site in New Jersey that sold for $120 million in 2025, they unpack why warehouse and logistics land now commands premium prices even as office vacancies hit record highs. They discuss the rise of e-commerce, the reshoring of manufacturing, and the r...

In this episode of The Business of Real Estate, Lucas and Luna explore the conversion of a 150,000-square-foot former Amazon fulfillment center in Newark, New Jersey into an indoor vertical farm operated by AeroFarms. They break down the economics: the $40 million retrofit cost, the 80% water savings versus traditional agriculture, and the 2.5 million pounds of leafy greens produced annually. The...

Episode 11 of The Business of Real Estate dives into the growing trend of hotel-to-apartment conversions. Lucas and Luna explore why investors are buying underperforming hotels and turning them into rental housing, using a specific case study: a 1980s-era Holiday Inn in suburban Denver that was recently converted into 180 studio and one-bedroom apartments. They break down the economics, including...

Lucas and Luna explore the rise of tenant opportunity to purchase laws and limited-equity housing cooperatives as a solution to the affordability crisis. They examine a specific case: a 48-unit building in Washington, D.C., sold to its tenants in 2024 through a combination of city subsidies, a below-market loan, and a community land trust. The episode breaks down how the deal was structured, what...

Lucas and Luna explore the concept of a land value tax and its potential to reshape urban development. They use Pittsburgh's experience from 1979 to 2001 as a case study, where a two-tier property tax led to increased construction and reduced land speculation. The hosts discuss how LVT differs from traditional property taxes, its theoretical benefits, and why it hasn't been widely adopted despite...

In this episode of The Business of Real Estate with Fexingo, Lucas and Luna dive into the emerging world of real estate tokenization—where blockchain technology turns property ownership into digital shares. They break down how a single commercial building in New York City was tokenized into 1 million tradable tokens, allowing investors to buy in for as little as $500. The hosts walk through the me...