The Real Estate Espresso Podcast

Earlier we talked about the economics of solar power compared with purchasing electricity from the power grid. On today’s show we’re talking about another form of power co-generation.  Many larger commercial facilities are turning to co-generation as a way of reducing high electricity costs. This only makes sense in areas where the cost of natural gas is considerably cheaper than the comparab...

Have you ever had a situation where you had purchased something and then couldn’t find it? So you went out and bought another one? It happened to me. I couldn’t find my tape measure. It was in my toolbox. Eventually, I really needed it so I went out and bought another one. A few weeks later I found my tape measure. Now I have two.  The latest bit of insanity to come out of Albany New York is...

Billy from Barcelona Spain asks: I’ve been listening to you RE Espresso podcast recently and I really enjoy your perspective and the content… I’ve been thinking of starting a podcast and have gotten stuck on the design of the show, and some of the technical aspects of creating a podcast. What has been your experience in producing a daily show? Billy, that's a great question.  I had three main...

I’m a huge fan of solar energy. My boat has solar panels and I can go weeks without plugging into shore power. I love everything about it. So today I’m going to share an analysis of solar power economics that I recently undertook. I do this every few years, because someday soon, I hope, it will make sense for me to install solar power on every project I undertake. It hasn’t happened yet.  In...

Thank you to all the loyal listeners. I’m truly astounded that The Real Estate Espresso Podcast now has listeners in 114 countries. Whether you are located on an island in the Pacific, central Africa, South America, Europe or the good ol USA. Thank you for listening.  On today’s show we’re talking about the opportunity trap. We’ve all seen it happen. Maybe some of you have done it. I’ve falle...

Devin Redmond is with Stessa, a new property management software startup based in the San Francisco Bay area. On today's show we are talking about some of the limitations of many of the established applications in the market and how a bigger picture can help investors manage their business overall.

Tom Krol is a specialist in Wholesaling. He has raised the art of wholesaling above real estate and totally separated it from the science of real estate investing. This is a perspective on wholesale transactions that you likely have never heard before. Check it out.

The Yale endowment is  considered as one the best institutional investors. In 2018 it earned a 12.3% return, beating the average endowment return in 2018 at 8.2%.  For 2019 they are allocating 49% to illiquid / alternative assets (VC, leveraged buyouts, real estate, natural resources). I'm somewhat surprised to see that real estate only takes up 19% of their alternative assets and not mo...

On today’s show we’re talking about how properties disappear from the market. No, they weren’t demolished. I’ll tell you where they went.  Harry Dent is an economist who bases his entire thesis about the economy on demographics. Demographics can predict so much about human behaviour. We know that there is a range of ages when people spend the most money on education. That’s usually between 18...

On today's show we’re talking about President Trump’s visit to a project located just down the road from several of our own new development projects. The president was in lake Charles Louisiana to promote the expansion and job creation opportunities associated with liquified natural gas. The oil and gas industry in America has evolved over the years from conventional oil that some of the very firs...

Today’s show is about protecting rookie investors from making bad investment decisions.  This weekend I was speaking at an investment conference. I had several people approach me and ask advice about buying properties in markets where purchase prices were low and tenants don’t have the funds to pay the rent.  Yes folks, don’t get ahead of me now. I know many of you have seen this movie b...

 What can we learn from the Uber and Lyft Initial Public Offerings? Both companies have grown to the point where they have a strong share of the market globally in just a few short years. Both companies have seen Luke-warm demand for their stock post-IPO. Uber and Lyft have never been profitable. One of the stated reasons that both Uber and Lyft have not achieved profitability is that the two...

Kyle Humphreys oversees the building of new construction projects in the high arctic. The considerations there are completely different from the dense urban projects most of us are involved with. Join me for this fascinating conversation.

Rod is one of the most well known apartment real estate investors with a large following. On today's show we had a wide ranging conversation about goal setting and setting life priorities. His upcoming bootcamp in Denver is always widely attended. If you go to rodsbootcamp.com and enter the discount code "espresso" you can get $100 off the admission to the bootcamp.  

On today’s show we are talking about some low-cost improvements that can build tenant loyalty, and create a lot of goodwill between landlords and tenants. When tenants are late with their rent, it’s often because there is something about their accommodation that isn’t right. Maybe they haven’t told you about it. But somehow they have the feeling that they’re not getting their money’s worth. Of cou...

Frank from Portugal asks: “I’ve had my eye on a 6 plex that has been on the market for 5 years. The original owner who built them went into bankruptcy 8 years ago and only completed 60% of the project. I’ve spoken with the local bank manager that owns the property and I explained my reasoning for a low offer and we agreed on a reasonable figure for the property. The property is listed at 855,000....

On today’s show we’re going to talk about how many people in business are confusing their customers with their business cards. In particular, I’m talking about real estate investors.  I was sitting with a client today having an intellectual conversation about what should be on a business card. So I reached into my briefcase and pulled out a stack of business cards that I’ve received over the...

The front page of the wall street journal this week had a story on Dean Foods. Dean Foods is America’s biggest milk dairy. Milk consumption has been declining for nearly 30 years and the company is starting to feel the pinch. Multiplying the problem, Walmart used to represent 15% of the company’s sales, and Walmart is now building their own captive supply chain for Milk and opening their own milk...

Nicholas asks: "I see you having interviews with lots of celebrities. These are not people I ordinarily run into. If I’m looking to elevate my game and build relationships with successful people, how would you suggest that I go about connecting with those people?" That’s a great question. The first thing I’ll tell you is that it doesn’t happen overnight. I’m not out there networking, I’m relations...

On today's show I'm answering questions on capital raising because it's not easy to raise funds if you've never done it. 

Today's talk was recorded live in Lancaster Pennsylvania. We're talking about the laws of supply and demand. 

Today we're talking about the Inflation Deflator.  The rate of inflation in the US, Canada, Europe and much of the industrialized world is reported by each respective central government. These statistics follow a methodology that is publicized, but highly complex and rather difficult to understand. The measure of price inflation is the consumer price index. In the good old days, the statistic...

Today’s episode is another AMA episode. That is ask me anything.   Dominic asks While I am new into real estate investing, I do have prior business experience. I am primarily interested in passive investing, for now, with a main interest being multifamily projects. With that in mind, your podcast “Money without a clue” really struck a chord with me. I have been listening to fundraising confer...

The book of the month this month is "The Miracle Morning” by Hal Elrod.  Hal is a human enigma. He’s the cat with 9 lives. When he was 20 years old, he barely survived a car crash that should have left him crippled for life, and with permanent brain damage. After six minutes with no pulse, he was brought back to life, evacuated by helicopter to the hospital. After six days in a coma he awoke...

Today’s show is about how a bad appraisal can adversely affect your business.  Appraisers determine the value of your property in the eyes of a lender and they help the lender independently justify the loan to their loan committee and to the bank regulators. This independence prevents the kind of loan manipulation that unfortunately became far too commonplace in the 1970’s and 1980’s.  T...