The Real Estate Espresso Podcast

On today’s show we’re talking about the challenges that many property owners will be facing during this unprecedented time in modern history. We don’t know if the Covid-19 crisis is merely a blizzard or an entire winter. Depending on the answer to that question, the extent of the economic damage can vary widely. Most people can survive an economic blizzard. Things slow down for a few days. Everyon...

The markets woke up this morning to a new era of zero interest rates in the US, and a coordinated effort with 5 other central banks to ensure liquidity in international markets. The Federal Reserve slashed its benchmark interest rate to near zero on Sunday and said it would buy $700 billion in Treasury and mortgage-backed securities in an aggressive bid to prevent market disruptions from aggravati...

On today's show we take a live look at my own website from a digital marketing perspective. Adam has some powerful insights on how content can be repurposed to create additional searchable content that can expand the digital reach. Adam can be reached at gowercrowd.com.

Cynthia Cummins is a residential realtor in San Francisco who specializes in luxury properties. Her wildly successful blog called "Real Estate Therapy" www.realestatetherapy.org has set her apart and allowed her to dominate her segment in the market. 

On today’s show we’re talking about the fallout of the current covid-19 crisis on real estate investors. The news media have filled the airwaves with news of the virus outbreak. The Federal Reserve and central banks the world over have responded by lowering interest rates. Under normal conditions, we would expect to see interest rates falling. But in a strange twist, mortgage rates have actually i...

We are living through a moment in history where circumstances seem to be changing almost daily. With that less certainty, there’s less that you can count on. When you’re negotiating a transaction between two parties, there are three sources of uncertainty. There’s the uncertainty that I bring to the transaction for items that are within my control. There’s the uncertainty that the other party brin...

On today’s show we’re talk about the Everything Bubble. Bubbles have formed throughout history and all it takes it a pin prick to burst a bubble. On today’s show we’re talking about all kinds of bubbles and how they form. The year was 1554 and tulip bulbs were sent from the Ottoman Empire to Vienna. By 1593, a botanist in the Netherlands figured out how to create a varietal that would be hardy in...

What a difference a few weeks can make. A month ago we were in an economic boom. Unemployment was low. The stock market was at all-time highs. Sure there were a few cases of Covid-19 in China, but all was good in Europe and in North America. In a few short weeks we’ve seen the travel industry’s world turned upside down. The first airline casualty was FlyBe, a regional airline in the UK that repres...

The Corona Virus is making headlines all over the world. Many people are out there thinking that it’s an over-reaction. On today’s show we’re going to take a departure from real estate and talk about the major factors that you need to consider during this unprecedented moment in history. There’s no question that the disease and the threat of the disease are having a major economic impact. Events h...

Matt Faircloth is the author of "Raising Private Capital: Build Your Real Estate Empire Using Other People's Capital". He can be reached at the DeRosa Group. www.derosagroup.com.

Eric Bowlin comes to us from sunny Puerto Rico where he is looking out over the water during our interview. On today's show we're talking about how Eric designed his life to manage his investments remotely and live in the location of his choice. 

On today’s show we’re talking about the fallout from the gold rush in Cannabis. As more and more states and countries have decriminalized marijuana, investors have rushed into the market to plant acreage, build greenhouses, and create indoor manufacturing using vertical hydroponics. All of this was in anticipation of an increase in demand. To be clear, in states like Colorado, Washington, and Cali...

On today’s show we’re talking about how to make sure the budget for a construction project has integrity. I regularly receive questions from new developers looking to grow from buy-hold investment into new construction. The first thing I ask for is to see their budget and the pro forma. On today’s show we’re going to highlight the most common mistakes that I see in a construction budget. Understan...

Yesterday the Federal Reserve cut interest rates by 0.5%. As real estate investors who are about to refinance a project, we can raise a glass and make a toast to Jerome Powell. The Fed has been saying for some time that they intend to address a downturn with aggressive monetary policy. Today’s announcement was not at their regularly scheduled meeting that happens every 6 weeks. The last time the F...

Just in case you thought being the owner of a retail storefront location wasn’t difficult enough, the City of San Francisco is going to punish those bad landlords who are responsible for the vacancies in retail. That’s right the government is here to help you with additional incentives to run a successful real estate business. According to a report in the Wall Street Journal, the City of San Franc...

On today’s show we’re talking about the fallout from last week’s stock market correction. Investors hate uncertainty. Whenever there is uncertainty investors go running for the hills. This is why investors finally woke up to the earnings warnings that have been resounding through the back alleys of Wall Street in the past 10 days. Is the drop in corporate earnings going to represent a V shaped bli...

Our book this month is Prosper!: How To Prepare for the Future and Create a World Worth Inheriting written by my good friends Chris Martenson and Adam Taggart. They run Peak Prosperity, and organization dedicated to helping people live a rich and sustainable life. Their book Prosper! is a companion to The Crash Course. It shows the way that our society is living in a way that is destined to break...

Adam Carswell is with Concordia Realty, specializing in anchored shopping centers. His story is how someone with little experience came into the world of commercial investing by adding value to the business.  Adam can be reached at carswell.io.  

David from Anchorage in Alaska asks 1. AirBnB was founded in 2008 at the height of the Great Recession. In the past 12 years, the travel and leisure sectors of the economy have exploded. There have been various dips in the economy, but the modern short term rental market has not been tested against a major downturn. Hotels and resorts have historically taken a large hit during economic declin...

Today’s show is a personal story of why I canceled a trip to Italy today. I was scheduled to fly to Italy today to attend a wedding in Rome. It’s a study of what can happen in times when there is a major civil disruption like the one caused by the current Covid-19 pandemic. Italy is working hard to get the outbreak under control. Italy’s health care system is pretty strong by global standards. But...

A new report was presented at a conference of global central bankers last week in New York that has multiple authors including several of the top economists.  The report advocates that central banks act early and aggressively when confronting a downturn. These crisis-era stimulus tools follow monetary policy. That is to say, the Fed, or any central bank tries to create stimulus in the economy by m...

On today’s show we are talking about stock market valuations and how Wall Street justifies these high valuations. A year ago the Dow Jones Industrial average was trading at an average of 18.17 x earnings. Value investors the world over were fretting about how such a high valuation could be justified. As of Friday, the Dow was trading at 22.56 x earnings. First of all, let’s unpack what that means....

We are in the middle of a black swan event. We have a serious global health risk. The scope and magnitude of the impact is yet to be understood. Unfortunately, we have seen bureaucrats with zero understanding of scientific information making decisions that have put entire countries at risk. For example, the US State Department over-ruled other government departments and put 11 infected passen...

Bob started his career in professional hockey where he played in the US and internationally. His brother played 15 years for the Montreal Canadians. Then after a start in real estate investing, he moved into the world of managing real estate projects with the help of virtual assistants. Today, he manages a team of virtual assistants based in the Philippines.  Real Estate Virtual Assistants is...

Bruce Firestone has been developing real estate for many years. He is best know for his role in creating a National Hockey League expansion franchise and creating the Ottawa Senators NHL team from an idea. Today's conversation in packed with powerful lessons on overcoming adversity.