The Real Estate Espresso Podcast

When I was a young boy, I studied martial arts. But not any martial art. The fashionable ones at the time were Karate and Kung Fu. They were full of very flashy strikes and kicks. No I studied Judo, the Japanese art form. One of the things we learned in Judo is that if someone is coming at you, you could expend a lot of energy trying to stop them. Instead, in Judo, you use the energy of your oppon...

Ryan from Arlington Texas asks Hi Victor, You always seem to be ahead of the curve, and you do a wonderful job informing your listeners about the trends you see in real estate and current events. Where do you like to get your news? What are some of your bookmarked websites (or other mediums) that you refer to most often? Love the show. Thanks for all the great content. Ryan, This is a great questi...

On today’s show we’re going to do an analysis that show how you can use numbers from the same data set to construct virtually any story that you want. We are continually exposed to data in the news and the news source will provide an in-depth analysis with lots of supporting data. Let’s say that you wanted to create a narrative on which country is experiencing the worst outbreak of Covid-19. For t...

Dana Samuelson is owner of American Gold Exchange, a national dealer of gold and other precious metals based in Austin Texas. On today's show we break down the way pricing is done in the physical metals market. His  analysis brings a tremendous clarity to pricing that may be otherwise difficult to understand. You can connect with Dana directly at info@amergold.com or through his website at www.ame...

Russell Gray is co-host of the Real Estate Guys Radio Show. He's a financial strategist and one of the smartest dudes I know.  On today's show we talk about the impact of counter party risk and where precious metals fit into the picture of real asset investing. It's an epic conversation as always. 

Today’s show is the book of the month. On the first day of each month we review a new book. In order to be considered for book of the month, the book needs to meet a very simple criteria. It needs to be impactful enough that it can change your life, or your perspective on the world.  The book this month definitely meets the criteria for book of the month. It is called “The End of Food” by Pau...

If you’ve been listening to this podcast for a while, you’ll know that I’m a junkie for Economics 101. What I mean by that is that so much of the market can be simply understood by watching the balance of supply and demand of any commodity. But markets are not always that efficient. They stumble from time to time and get temporarily out of balance. Prices can be highly elastic when it comes to sho...

On today’s show we’re talking about the difference between Main Street and The Fed. The bailouts of the economy have been making headlines over the past month. The Federal Reserve has agreed to buy back hundreds of billions of in mortgage backed securities from the banks and from the mortgage insurers. They have allowed banks to temporarily drop their deposit reserves from the traditional 10% rese...

One of the most powerful approaches to bring to any analysis is zero based thinking. Quite simply, it helps eliminate the emotions that often cloud our judgement. Zero based thinking means going back to the starting point of a decision, but armed with the knowledge and perspective of hindsight. Knowing what you know now, would you rush out today and purchase those shares of General Electric, or Bo...

On today’s show Anna from silicon Valley asks Is now a time to be investing in multi-family real estate? Surely there are deals coming up on the market. Anna, this is a great question. Some people have adjusted their criteria in terms of what is a deal as the market has heated up over the past decade. I’m a believer that the criteria for investing should not vary dramatically with market condition...

Loe Hornbuckle is founder and CEO of The Sage Oak Assisted Living with multiple locations in Texas and Louisiana. Loe shares his perspective on what the pandemic means from the perspective of an operator who truly has first hand contact with staff and residents.  You can learn more from Loe at loe@thesageoak.com and he has a free book "The Sage Oak guide to Residential Assisted Living "...

Russell Gray is co-host of The Real Estate Guys Radio Show, now in its 24th year. He's a financial strategist and today's show is part two of a multi-part conversation on the economy and how to understand what is happening out there.  If you haven't heard part one, you may want to go back and listen to last Saturday's show first. 

On today’s show we’re trying to get inside the mind of your tenants and figure out if they want to pay rent in a little more than a week on the first of May. The messages from politicians have been confusing to say the least. Whatever your taste, you’re sure to find a politician who is saying something you resonate with. There’s Senator Mike Gianaris, deputy leader of the Senate in NY state callin...

So many people are trying to read the market conditions and restore a sense of certainty in their own minds, despite the current reality. Frankly, it’s hard to make sense of it all. In an effort to gain greater insight, I’ve been in discussion with family offices, and attending invitation only meetings to get a reading on what some insiders are thinking. On Tuesday evening I attended an invitation...

Markets are becoming increasingly hyper-local. That’s more true today than ever. Global transportation has been the great equalizer and has made so many things appear to be commodities. That’s why real estate is hyper-local. You can’t just pick up an office building that has high vacancy and move it to a place where there is a shortage. In the absence of a differentiated value, the discussion alwa...

On today’s show we’re talking about the mental aspects of navigating these uncertain times. I find myself going through all kinds of emotional swings in these days. Those who know me would describe me as someone who is very tempered, pretty unflappable. Over the past several months, I’ve been asking myself a lot of questions. I’m asking questions like: Will there be a shortfall in rental income, a...

On today’s show we’re talking about investing versus speculating, and we’re answering a listener question about where to invest in today’s environment. This question comes from David in Great Falls Montana. David asks, I want to thank you for all the hard work you put in on putting out great content that is filled with such helpful information. I had a question on the podcast you put out on April...

Reed Goossens moved from Australia only 8 years ago. In that short time he has assembled a portfolio of 2,000 apartments in San Antonio and Austin, Texas. On today's show we're talking about the current market conditions and how he sees the market unfolding, rent collection, and managing the lender relationships.  Very valuable conversation for anyone who invests in multi-family apartments. You ca...

Russell Gray is a financial strategist and co-host of The Real Estate Guys Radio Show, now in its 24th year on the air. In this first part of a multi-part conversation, Russ and I discuss whether the pin is to blame for popping a bubble, or whether the construction of the bubble is in fact the problem. You can hear more from Russ at realestateguysradio.com 

Last week Colliers International had a private webinar for its clients focused on the state of the hotel industry. The numbers of are absolutely devastating. There is no comparable period in history. During SARS in 2003, the occupancy fell to 42%. We saw a 10.9% reduction in Revenue Per Available Room (REVPAR)  during the financial crisis. In the aftermath of the 2001 terrorist attacks REVPAR...

We haven’t had a lot of good news lately. Or, more precisely, we haven’t seen a lot of good news lately, though it does exist. We don’t see it because both regular media and social media usually focus on the bad. That’s not entirely wrong. The survival imperative makes humans watch for threats, and sometimes threats are real. One of the powerful lessons of this past month has been that you really...

Today’s show not about real estate. We’re talking about taking action to protect your family’s food supply. I remember watching the news on television in the 1970’s as a teenager seeing the two hour long lines as people waited patiently to get a loaf of bread at the bakery in Moscow. The notion of food shortages in the US, Canada or Western Europe seemed unimaginable. Well last week, I waited in l...

On January 29 I reported to you that we were in economic recession, weeks before any economists uttered the words. I didn’t have any magic crystal ball to predict the future. It was just obvious that we had negative growth. On today’s show we’re talking about the consequence of the government handouts. In the next 5 minutes I’m going to build the case to show you that we are now in a period of sta...

Adam in Riverside California asks, Hi Victor, I hope you and your family are safe and well.  I enjoy listening to your daily podcast.  Thank you for educating your listeners! The COVID-19 pandemic will certainly have a deep and lasting impact on our society. Covering nose and mouth in public is now the norm.  Fewer cars on the road due to shelter in place orders has led to a reducti...

Jason Pero owns and manages a portfolio of apartments in Erie Pennsylvania. He's a dominant player in the market and he favors secondary and tertiary markets. Today was a fascinating discussion on another perspective of multi-family investing. You can reach Jason at perorealestate.com.