The Real Estate Espresso Podcast

Brandon Cobb is based in Nashville where he specializes in affordable new home construction. Affordable housing is a topic that is making headlines almost daily. To connect with Brandon visit hbgcapital.net where you will find numerous resources that you may find helpful in your investing journey. ----------------- Host: Victor Menasce email: podcast@victorjm.com 

It’s official. The economy is shrinking The Commerce department announced yesterday that the economy shrank 1.4% in Q1. This is no surprise. If you’ve been listening to this show for a while, you know that I have been calling out the economic contraction for some time. Do I have any special powers? Do I have a crystal ball? The answer clearly is no. All I’m doing is paying attention to metrics tha...

Today’s show starts with the story of Deborah Hodge who recently married her cat, India, in a loophole scheme to avoid rental restrictions, which have barred Hodge from bringing animals into the unit. The 49-year-old woman from London devised a plan to marry her cat after already having re-homed three previous pets due to landlords who rejected pet owners from their properties. The single mom of t...

On today’s show we are talking about more signs of economic slowdown. Last week I made the assertion that we are already in economic contraction and further postulated that because we are in an inflationary environment, we are in fact experiencing a period of stagflation. The signs of this phenomenon are mounting and on today’s show we are going to take a look at some of the company financial repo...

On today’s show we are talking about the long term implications of the home affordability crisis. Ownership of real estate is expensive and the cost is rising faster than incomes are increasing. Back in the late 1970’s when had the last major bout of inflation, there was a massive erosion of household purchasing power. Single income households were common back then. But as prices increased, it bec...

Any time there are changes, there are winners and losers. Is there an anti-globalization trend?  On today’s show we are talking about globalization. We have experienced nearly five decades of globalization. Commodities like oil, wood and minerals have long trades globally. The most visible signs of the globalization trend was the rise of Japanese cars in global markets in the 1970’s. At the t...

On today's show we're getting George's perspective on how to evaluate investments, independent of what's happening in the current market conditions. I was not expecting his answer, but it makes sense. At 94 years of age, he's one of the wisest men I know. Enjoy... ---------------- Host: Victor Menasce email: podcast@victorjm.com

Jake Marmulstein is the CEO of Groundbreaker in Chicago, Illinois. This software company develops and markets an online platform for syndicators to manage their marketing, customer relationships, and investor relations. Anyone who has investors needs a platform like this to present a professional system for the breadth of activities related to investment management. To connect with Jake and to lea...

If we have learned anything in the past two years, it’s that our world is interconnected more than ever before. Countries that are close trading partners are rarely insulated from each other. In Canada we have a saying that when the US economy sneezes, Canada catches a cold. We’ve talked extensively on the concept of counter party risk on this show. Back in 2010, many European banks, particularly...

Today’s question comes from Chris in NYC. He writes: What are your thoughts in today's market on taking on bridge financing when acquiring a multifamily asset that has a CapEx renovation plan? My team is finding ourselves having to go this route either because A) the assets we're finding & underwriting have a DSCR that's not at levels to support traditional debt sources or B) the pro...

On today's show I'm making what I believe is a convincing argument that our economy is in recession despite what governments are calling a growing economy. Let me know if you agree with the thesis of my argument.  ------------------ Host: Victor Menasce email: podcast@victorjm.com

On today’s show we are talking about how to understand what the published measure of gross domestic product and how we measure inflation. Both are in fact misleading the voting public. The concept of gross domestic product is easy enough to understand. You add up all of the economic activity in a nation, and now you have the gross domestic product. Pretty simple. But not necessarily easy to calcul...

Today's question comes from Marc in Montreal who writes: We own a midtown Strip Mall where there is an adjoining property worth $1.3M which has 18 parking spots.  It has a restaurant on the property that will be shutting down in 6 months due to retirement.  A developer has an offer on the land for $2M, and would probably let me purchase it for $2.1M.  Our strip mall has long term le...

Today's show is a replay of an extraordinary conversation with Hollywood icon Lisa Haisha. She's an actor, a producer, a coach, a real estate investor, an entrepreneur. There are so many powerful lessons in today's conversation that I felt it was worth sharing again. ----------------- Host: Victor Menasce email: podcast@victorjm.com

Jake Harris is based in Sacramento California. From there he is active in real estate projects across the nation. On today's show we're talking about his new book "Catching Knives". It chronicles understanding the difference between buying a bargain versus buying a disaster. You can order a copy of the book or connect with Jake at his website catchknives.com.  ------------------- Host: Victor...

On today’s show we’re talking about what we can learn from the Boy Scouts and the Girl Guides. I was speaking with an investor this week who was placing an offer on an 80 unit apartment complex in a small town. We’re talking a town of 6,000 people where the nearest population center is four hours away. This investor is looking at this small town 9.5 hours from where they live. I asked why they wer...

Today’s question comes from Carlos in Los Angeles We are planning a 57-unit development student housing project at USC. We are now considering a relatively new product called C-PACE financing. The C-PACE financing + senior construction financing would achieve 85% Loan To Cost ratio at a blended rate somewhere in the 6% range. Are you familiar with the C-PACE product and in your opinion what are th...

The Federal Reserve has signaled that they’re going to be increasing the rates in 0.5% increments at the upcoming rate setting meetings. The market accordingly has priced in 0.5%, 0.5%, 0.5% for the next three meetings instead of ¼ ¼ ¼ as had been the previous guidance.  Over the past two years, the biggest buyer of US Treasuries has been the federal reserve itself. In addition to the rate in...

Today's question comes from Mike in Pennsylvania. He writes: Hi Victor, Thank you for your daily podcast! I find your show format insightful and your perspective extremely helpful. Our family has decided to sell a vacation rental we own on the coast of North Carolina that we purchased almost ten years ago. The market there is extremely hot right now and we are ready t...

This past week, the Federal government in Canada took the step of temporarily banning foreign purchase of residential real estate for two years. It’s no secret that real estate markets in Canada have been hot, much like in many markets in the US. On Today’s show we’re looking at housing with non-resident ownership, and whether the temporary ban will in fact have the desired impact of lowering home...

Mark McGuire is based in Westchester Pennsylvania where he specializes in acquiring and improving self storage assets across multiple states. To connect with Mark, visit investingwithmark.com.  --------------------- Host: Victor Menasce email: podcast@victorjm.com

Alexandria Ali hails from the Pacific NW where she is a real estate investor and a practicing nurse. Not only is she a practicing nurse, she is a traveling nurse who provides relief to hospitals that are searching for staff to manage staffing shortfalls. Today's show is a follow-on to last week's show where we were talking about the crisis in healthcare staffing.  To connect with Alex and to...

To infinity and beyond. That’s the line from the famous Pixar movie “Toy Story”. Here in the West we are concerned with climate change and the impact that our relentless consumption is having on the planet. We’re talking about some finite resources on our planet. But we have a moral dilemma. Those countries who are living with first world luxuries are consuming more than their fair share of energy...

A Bay Area startup just received a $300M funding round at a $3B valuation, triple its value from eight months ago.  San Francisco-based Remote Technologies Inc. helps businesses manage onboarding, payroll, benefits and other services for foreign workers that they hire, whether they are contractors or full-time employees. Remote solves those problems by becoming the employer of record for its...

On today’s show we’re taking a closer look at what’s happening in the world of senior housing. The folks at Fannie Mae recently published a market update on the sector which we look closely at. We also follow the daily updates at Senior Housing News which report both trends and news in the sector. We saw a rapid deterioration in senior housing occupancy since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Se...