On today’s show we’re taking a retrospective look at this most unusual of years 2021. The purpose of a retrospective is to extract the lessons that these memories can bring us. If you’re a lifelong student, then everything that happens can be framed in the context of learning. Sometimes, we humans get stuck in a defensive loop. It’s hard to admit mistakes. It’s hard to truly take responsibility for things that are seemingly out of your control. If 2020 was a year defined by uncertainty and surprises, then 2021 became the year where we learned to live with uncertainty and surprises. -------------- Host: Victor Menasce email: [email protected]

On today's show we're looking at the changes that have taken place in the past few months in rent growth, rental concessions, and interest rates. It's a bell-weather of changing market conditions. ------------------- Host: Victor Menasce email: [email protected]

Today is another AMA episode (Ask Me Anything). This question comes from Stephen. He asks, I am looking to develop a small build to rent community of 30 townhouses on a leased property. I’m just getting started in development and wanted to start small. By leasing the property, I can reduce the amount of equity required to complete the project. The land is already zoned residential, and I should be able to build the desired density with the current zoning. Does this strategy make sense? How would you advise me to proceed? ------------------ Host: Victor Menasce email: [email protected]

Today is another AMA episode (Ask Me Anything).  Mark writes:  I plan to build 12 townhouses in two sets of six. I’m wondering if its worth looking into setting them up as condos with an association instead of just long term rentals. I have experience with long term rentals but have never set up anything like condos. The real estate market looks like it would support selling the condos. Any advice? ------------------ Host: Victor Menasce email: [email protected]

Brian Briscoe was a US Marine Lieutenant Colonel who is now a full time real estate investor. On today's show we're talking about the skills bridge program that exists to help military personnel transition from service life to the private sector. Similar programs exist in both the US and Canada.  To connect with Brian and to learn more, visit fouroakscapital.com.  ------------------- Host: Victor Menasce email: [email protected]

This is the December 25 edition of the show. Merry Christmas to all our listeners of the Christian faith. On today’s show I’m doing some gratitude work. I was taught this by my good friend and mentor Kyle Wilson. Kyle is a past guest on this show and he’s best known for being founder and CEO of John Rohn International where he was Jim Rohn’s business partner for 17 years. There is no doubt that many of us lead stressful lives. My definition of stress is very simple. Whenever there is a gap between expectation and reality, that can be a source of stress. There is no guarantee of stress, only the possibility of stress. If there is no gap between expectation and reality, there can be no stress. Stress lives in the gap. Stress can evoke other emotions like anxiety or fear. But as 2021 draws to a close, I choose to focus on gratitude. It turns out that you can’t be grateful and anxious at the same time. It’s not physiologically possible. Kyle taught me the exercise of writing down 20 GREAT things from 2021. Writing 20 great things is different that simply saying what you’re grateful for. It’s more specific, more tangible. Otherwise you can simply fall into the trap of generic things like “I’m grateful for my health. I’m grateful for my family.” Take the time to write for yourself 20 great things that happened this year. It’s a more specific form of gratitude. ------------------- Host: Victor Menasce email: [email protected]

On today’s show we’re talking about math. That’s right math. We humans are used to linear thinking. It’s how many of us interact with our physical world. When you double the distance, it takes twice as long to get there. If the price goes up by a dollar, you need to take one more dollar out of your wallet. This is all linear thinking. This is the way we are used to seeing the world. We are not accustomed to thinking of geometric functions. Geometric functions accelerate. These are functions where the number in the exponent is greater than 1. Your parents no doubt taught you about the power of compounding. They probably used the example of compound interest, and how over time, with the power of compounding, you can multiply your earnings. We humans are really terrible at understanding this. Most people don’t save money because they can’t see the tangible benefit in the short term. ----------------- Host: Victor Menasce email: [email protected]

On today’s show, we are talking about buying in a fringe area. Today’s show is cautionary tale. As you know, I’m a proponent of the buy on the line, move the line strategy. That line exists in nearly every city in North America. On one side of the line is a hot neighborhood. There are expensive properties, desirable amenities like coffee shops and art galleries. On the other side of that line, you’re in the hood. You’re in an area where people on social assistance reside. The property values between these two areas can vary dramatically, even though they’re only a short distance apart. This strategy is based on the notion that you can redevelop just on the wrong side of the line. When you do, now the line is on the other side of your property. Which means you can go do it again and again and again. You can literally move the line. But for a line to move, the line needs to be arbitrary. If the line is a school district, or a municipal boundary or a railway line, that boundary is going to be a lot more difficult to move. If you go too deep into the hood, then you will probably fail. You won’t get people to bridge the gap to the hot neighbourhood. ------------------- Host: Victor Menasce email: [email protected]

On today’s show we’re talking about how the current labor shortage is affecting the world of employment, and therefore by extension the world of real estate. We’re still in the middle of a pandemic. But despite the historically low unemployment rate, we have a labor participation rate of 61,8% that is is down sharply from pre-pandemic levels. If you go back to the 1960’s we had labor participation rates below 60%. But at that time, many women were not in the workforce and stayed at home as homemakers. Labor participation peaked around 2000 – 2001 at 67%. Participation has fallen over the past 20 years to about 63.5%, and before plunging below 60% in the height of the pandemic. The people who are no longer in the workforce still need income to live, and a place to call home. You’ve seen the help wanted signs all over. You see the recruiting signs at big box stores, restaurants, grocery stores, retail shops. The signs are everywhere. -------------- Host: Victor Menasce email: [email protected]

On today’s show we’re talking about another spike in lumber prices that will affect housing starts and renovations all over North America. Anyone who has built anything in the past year has suffered the sticker shock of high lumber prices. Prices back in May of 2021 peaked at over $1,700 per thousand board foot. That measurement is the commodity price for softwood lumber on the futures exchange. Much of that price increase was driven by the pandemic and the labour shortages caused by the pandemic. Sawmill capacity was reduced during the pandemic which contributed to the shortage in the Spring of 2021. Capacity utilization of the sawmills peaked at 90% in the US in May of this year and at 88% in Canada. As demand and prices dropped in the summer, sawmill utilization fell to 80% in the US and 70% in Canada as builders used up their inventories of materials. About 30% of the softwood lumber used in US construction comes from Canada. Almost half of that amount or 14% of the US total supply comes from British Columbia. The month of November saw torrential rains in the interior of British Columbia. These storms exceeded previous rainfall records and created severe local flooding. That flooding washed out roads and disrupted transportation across the entire province of British Columbia. ------------- Host: Victor Menasce email: [email protected]

On today's show we're taking a close look at why the supply chain disruptions are not being solved.  ------------------------ Host: Victor Menasce email: [email protected]

George is a repeat guest on the show. He's spending time in Delray Beach to get some warm weather instead of being hunkered down in NYC. On today's show we're talking about how to underwrite in the current environment.  ------------------ Host: Victor Menasce email: [email protected]

Galen Hair is based in New Orleans, Louisiana where he specializes as an insurance litigator. On today's show we're talking about how to figure out if your insurance policy is worth the paper it's written on. To connect with Galen or to learn more, visit InsuranceClaimHQ.com. -------------------- Host: Victor Menasce email: [email protected]

On today’s show we’re talking about interest rate fundamentals. Some people come from the school that interest rates are set by central banks. While central banks play a leadership role in rate setting, they don’t actually set the interest rates. Those rates are set by the open market, irrespective of what the central bank dictates. On today’s show we’re going to look at examples which will hopefully prove that and what that means for real estate investors going forward.

When you are in the design and development world, the challenges are daily and the rewards are infrequent. Well, today was one of those days when I got to go to sleep feeling accomplished. Yesterday, our project, The Sage Oak of Lake Charles was announced as the national winner of the 2021 Senior Housing News Architectural Design Award competition in the Memory Care category. As a developer, I’m thrilled to be part of this team effort to bring this ground breaking project to fruition. A project like this is truly a team effort. I’m going to thank a whole bunch of folks who helped bring this project to fruition. In so doing, I’m certainly going to miss some who are worthy of mention. I’ve got to start with my partner Loe Hornbuckle who developed the expertise as an operator at a very high level. It was his brainchild to create refine the values the underpin the Sage Oak product offer. I’d like to recognize the architecture firm of Greenfield Lawson in New Orleans, the general contractor of Donahue Favret also from New Orleans, Valerie Malone and her interior design firm at Quill Design in Cambridge, our partners Pam Abide and Sharon Foreman at New Orleans Equity Partners, our supportive lender at B1 Bank, Dave Zook and the whole team at the Real Asset Investor, our expert staff under the leadership of Executive director Jeremy Fruge, and the entire staff at Sage Oak. When you walk in the door, after you take a temperature test, you can really feel the positive energy in the doors. You are the reason that we’re ahead of our occupancy projections this early into the startup cycle. We don’t build these projects to win awards. We’re not out there playing the comparison game. We build these projects to create a great product in the market that solves a real need. Where design competitions are useful is in looking at what other leaders in the industry are doing and helping to calibrate what best in class looks like in the industry. We’re not going to stop innovating, improving, strengthening the product offering for the new buildings that are under construction in other locations. Even as winners, we see room for improvement. Most of the time, those improvements are small details, like better positioning of a shower head in a shower. But we’re thrilled to receive the honor and recognition that comes from being the winner of this year’s award.

Getting products from A to B has always been an issue for anyone in business. It used to be the case that you had to buy products through a channel. In the good old days, stores like Sears, Kmart, Walmart and Bloomingdales were the channels of choice. Today, businesses all over are taking advantage of new channels. Channels that didn’t exist a few years ago are dominant. For home furnishings, Direct Buy, and Wayfair are growing quickly. The Ottawa based company Shopify is also playing an important role in the transition from the bricks and mortar retail channel to the e-commerce economy. Shopify now hosts more than 1.2 million ecommerce stores on its platform. While Amazon is the largest channel for e-commerce, it charges a hefty percentage for retailers who can often double their net profit margins if items a sold and shipped through their own channel. Last week, commercial brokerage house JLL gave its updated guidance for the industrial sector for 3Q 2021. On today's show we're taking a closer look at the data.

On today’s show we’re talking about uncertainty. We can all agree that not everything in life is predictable. Life is full of surprises, some of the pleasant, and some of them not. It’s been said that a confused mind doesn’t buy. That’s particularly true in the world of investing. Investors seek clarity. Things that are too complicated, have too many variables, or have large unknowns are off the table. Investors are a special breed. Professional investors are relying upon their money working for them. Professional investors truly attempt to quantify what their money will do. Investors hate uncertainty. Anywhere you see uncertainty, you see falling prices. Who would buy real estate in the Ukraine right now? Who would buy real estate today and take a variable interest rate loan? Anyone with a brain knows that interest rates are heading higher, but how much higher? -------------- Host: Victor Menasce email: [email protected]

Today is another AMA episode (Ask Me Anything). Today's question comes from Matthew. Victor! Your podcast provides a wealth of knowledge. I really appreciate your honesty and insight into this industry. I was curious if you had any episodes about your opinion of the type of real estate investment, other than REITs, that allows the least maintenance involved to keep the business operating/most passive income. I know there is no completely passive business out there but was just curious your thoughts of what will produce the most juice for the least amount of squeeze. I am looking to become an active investor in some type of real estate, and I have educated myself in various types of real estate including single-family, multi family, leasing farmland, self storage, short term rentals, etc. but would like to know what season investors such as yourself think about those investments that are easiest to operate for the long haul with less chance of burnout. I realize that hiring a team to help support the investor is going to be essential but are there investments that you feel have the least amount of moving parts/least complex? I know this is a vague question and probably provokes you to ask me multiple questions but was just curious your thoughts. Any insight you have would be much appreciated! Blessings, Matthew Well Matthew, this is a great question. As you correctly mentioned, all types of real estate investing have an active component. You’re describing the style of investing that most closely aligns with your lifestyle design. Money comes in one of three different methods. 1) Earned income – this is active income 2) Residual income 3) Capital Gains Your question is really centered around minimizing that first type of income, the earned income and maximizing the residual income or the capital gains.  

On today's show we're coming Live from Banff in the Rocky Mountains and we're talking about the dynamics of short term rentals. 

Scott Carson is an expert in buying distressed loans and engineering value improvements to these loans.  You can connect with Scott at WeCloseNotes.com. Or you can sign up for a complimentary seat at their weekend note closing workshop at noteweekend.com where you can attend the workshop for free with the promo code "victor".  ------------------------ Host: Victor Menasce email: [email protected]

On today’s show we’re talking about underwriting multi-family apartment deals. Earlier this week I attended a presentation from the CEO of a software development company that had developed tools for real estate investors to analyze the investment quality for multi-family apartment deals. The software seemed fairly sophisticated and capable of analyzing a number of scenarios. But if you remember last week I spoke about software tools on December 2. The episode was called Wasted Software. In that episode I spoke about the software making assumptions about your business process. Well, this particular software was making an assumption that I fundamentally disagree with, to the point where I would outright refuse to use the software. ----------------- Host: Victor Menasce email: [email protected]

On today’s show, we’re talking about a topic that is near and dear to my heart. This week and all week, my company is offsite working on goal setting. This is a process of values clarification and values alignment. Once you’re clear on your values, then setting goals is much easier. But along the way, you might discover that you’re not living your life in alignment with your values. This is a deep introspective process that requires heavy lifting. In that process you can learn things about yourself that sometimes it’s difficult and painful to confront. Anytime we confront something that fundamentally challenges core beliefs, there is a natural human process. The first step is denial. No way! That can’t be true about me. You don’t understand. Then when the truth is inescapable, the next step in the process usually involves anger. Some people stay stuck in a loop of anger and denial and never move past that step. The third step in the process is moving to acceptance. Once you are at acceptance, you have a chance at growth or transformation which is the final step. But moving from acceptance to transformation involves work. It requires an inherent desire to grow, to become aware of blind spots and eliminate those blind spots. We all have them. By definition, you can’t see yourself the way others see you, because we don’t spend our entire lives looking in the mirror. Those rare people who do spend all their time looking in the mirror are self absorbed and hopelessly ineffective at much else. If you’ve been listening to this podcast for a while, you’ll have heard me say that you require three things to accomplish anything in life. 1) Knowledge. There are many people who focus all their energies on taking courses and getting more information. If more information was the differentiator, then everyone with a smartphone in their pocket with instant access to virtually all the world’s information would be excelling. So clearly that’s not the ticket 2) Emotional fortitude. You often hear people talk about mindset. Not to downplay this aspect. Mindset is important. Having the emotional drive and the emotional fortitude to overcome the difficult moments you will encounter along the way is absolutely important. But it’s not enough. You need a third element, 3) You need to be in the right environment. Its that third element which is the game changer, the secret to superior performance. Environment is the game changer. I often get questions from aspiring developers, and from listeners to this podcast. How do I find the right environment? I’m here to tell you that you might find the right environment. The perfect environment for you definitely exists out there. But no one environment will fulfill all your needs in every dimension of your life. You might find an existing mastermind group full of people who are smart, driven, generous, uplifting, and encouraging. But if you don’t, then go create one.

Central governments have become experts at coming up with good excuses for doing the wrong thing. On today’s show, we’re talking about the impact of a changing world order and how this will feed further inflation and the possibility of economic collapse. The global geopolitical landscape is changing as China’s ambition to become the dominant global empire will change global trade, Russia’s ambitions to regain the Ukraine as subject territory, and more instability is brewing in the middle-east. I’m not talking about any of this to dive into politics, but to highlight the impact of these forces on Investors. Wars are inflationary. If you look back through history, governments have the world over have used armed conflict as a justification for emergency spending. But these days any emergency is sufficient justification to print money. ----------------- Host: Victor Menasce email: [email protected]

On today’s show we’re talking about how to secure product in a time of scarcity. Supply chain disruptions are happening all over North America right now. This is affecting everything from electrical switches to plumbing fixtures to windows. Several window manufacturers are quoting 16-20 weeks lead time. Subcontractors are busy and scheduling the labor component is also challenging. Construction projects can’t sit exposed to the elements waiting for windows and doors. The envelope of the building must be completed fairly quickly otherwise you risk weather damage. So you have to carefully schedule the project so that it doesn’t stall midway through construction. So how do you secure your supply when many components in a construction project require custom manufacturing. You don’t necessarily have the luxury of component substitution. You’re going to commit to a single manufacturer and you will be at the mercy of their lead time. A single critical item on the critical path to completion can increase the cost of your project significantly. ---------------- Host: Victor Menasce email: [email protected]

As investors we’re on the lookout for assets that escalate in price over time. If that price escalation is predictable, then you have the makings of a sure fire investment. Many investors take the stance of looking retrospectively and attempt to use history as a predictor of future performance. Imagine looking at the chart of a commodity like copper or gold or lumber or platinum. You would see a general long term upward price pressure, largely driven by devaluation of the currency. But short term supply and demand fluctuations dominate those trends. You see price spikes followed by periods of depressed prices that can last a decade or more. Some have argued that the path to increased value is scarcity. Remove supply from the equation and prices increase as long as demand remains strong. There is a relatively new product designed to create financial incentives to reduce pollution and green house gasses. Governments all over the world have introduced a tax of sorts on carbon emissions. This tax is in the form of carbon credits. I know, there are some purists out there who will argue that there is a difference between a carbon tax and a carbon credit. These carbon credits can be purchased and traded on the open market. Virtually all companies will eventually need to purchase carbon credits so the demand for the product is virtually assured. ------------- Host: Victor Menasce email: [email protected]

Dr. Allen Lomax is the host of the Steed Talker Podcast. On today's show, Allen is the host of the show and I'm the guest. We're talking about how to create opportunities at will.  --------------------- email: [email protected]

Cody Bjugan is based in Scottsdale Arizona where he specializes in land entitlement nationwide. His education company vestright.com is entirely dedicated to value creation by converting raw land to land entitled for development. You can learn more by downloading his white paper at vestright.com/land101. ---------------- host: Victor Menasce email: [email protected]

You might own a parcel of land free and clear. You have a construction project planned for your property and you know that you will have to eventually get a construction loan. Securing a construction loan can be a lengthy process and it’s tempting to get start the construction before you get the loan in order to save time. But contrary to what might seem like common sense, this time saving tactic could ultimately cost you time and delay your project significantly. -------------- Host: Victor Menasce email: [email protected]

We often business owners buy a software package or subscribe to a software service and then fail to properly integrate it. The software is sold on the basis of offering a solution to a problem. But there is a fallacy in this way of thinking. Software can only implement a business process. Sometimes the software assumes a business process that doesn’t match the business process in use in the business. When that happens, the software will go unused. The purchase of the software might create the false illusion that the problem has been solved. You can sometimes adapt your internal business process to match the process that is assumed in the software. If that meets your needs then everything will work out fine. But as is often the case, the assumed process in the software doesn’t quite match the process required by your business. This can be seductive because it looks like your system almost works. But something that almost works doesn’t work in practice.

Our Book of the Month is called "$100M offers: How to make offers so good people feel stupid saying no." By Alex Hormozi The core of the book is based on the notion of making Value-Driven vs. Price-Driven Purchases You can grow your business by three axes, more customers, selling more value, and getting them to buy more often. The simplest way to increase the gap between price to value is by lowering the price. It’s also, most of the time, the wrong decision for the business. Getting people to buy is NOT the objective of a business. Making money is. And lowering price is a one-way road to destruction for most — you can only go down to $0, but you can go infinitely high in the other direction. So, unless you have a revolutionary way of decreasing your costs to a fraction of the competition, don’t compete on price.

Today is another AMA episode (ask Me Anything). Today’s question comes from Carl in Austin. I’m looking at a mobile home park with quite a bit of vacancy and am wondering if its possible to put RV’s on those spaces. What are some of the considerations that I should be aware of? Carl, this is a great question. First of all, I’d like to address why I might be qualified to answer your question. I happen to own an RV Park that is currently about 50% RV’s and 50% mobile homes. In order to answer your question, there are two things you will need to consider. 1) Is what you are proposing allowed in the zoning for the property? 2) What upgrades will be required in order to physically accomplish what you’re proposing?.

On today’s show we’re talking about the hidden taxes that result from printing money. Those who have studied history will know that any time you debase the currency by printing, it has the effect of destroying the fabric of a society. This has happened throughout history time and again. While the rate of inflation has been somewhat low over the past decade, we’ve been living with it. But we’ve also gone through two major movements that have caused a reduction in costs. The first movement has been the technology revolution. If you think back to the 1980’s, even the most basic of personal computers was priced at $4,000. That was a huge sum of money at that time. It was the equivalent of two months of salary at that time. Today, you can buy a much more powerful computer for under $1,000. Each generation of technology innovation has in fact lowered the cost of many durable goods and lowered the cost of many capital expenses. The second movement has been the globalization of manufacturing. In the 1970’s, most manufactured goods were sourced locally in the same country. China was still a captive economy. Japan was the first country to start exporting manufactured goods in a large way. Today, most of our consumer goods are made in low cost geographies in Asia. Manufacturing was outsourced to Japan until Japan was too expensive. Then manufacturing was moved to Taiwan until that was too expensive. Then manufacturing went to China in search of lower cost labor. With its vast population, China seemed like an infinite pool of low cost labor until costs in China went up. Manufacturers then went to Malaysia then Thailand and the Philippines and Vietnam and India. Today, Bangladesh supplies more than its fair share of clothing. We kept driving down manufacturing costs with access to lower cost labor. But eventually, that band-aid solution eventually runs out when there is no more cheap labour left to exploit. We are not there yet. There are a lot of people still earning a lower wage than in the west. But it will happen eventually. When you have inflation, there are six hidden taxes. But these taxes don’t apply equally to everyone in the economy. 1) There is a transfer of wealth from the lender to the borrower. 2) Some Assembly Required 3) Government is the biggest borrower of all. See #1. 4) Capital Gains Tax on assets priced higher due to depreciating currency. 5) Understating CPI means less money for entitlement programs 6) Holding bonds on central bank balance sheet skews market forces for interest rates.

On today's show we're talking about how to ensure your construction site is 100%, perfectly level. The tools that surveyors use are also readily available and can save your project and save you money. You don't need to be a licensed surveyor to use them. We often use these tools to double check the work performed by a surveyor and ensure no mistakes are made.  -------------------- Host: Victor Menasce email: [email protected]

Jim Pfeifer is based in Columbus, Ohio. He has transitioned from being an active investor to being a passive investor. Today's show is a lesson in self awareness and how to design your own personal investing philosophy around your own strengths and weaknesses.  To learn more, connect with Jim at leftfieldinvestors.com. 

On today’s show we’re going to take a look at a day in the life of Victor. A number of you have asked questions about how I spend my day. So I’m going to outline my day, chosen at random. Today was not a fully typical day because it was US Thanksgiving which meant that our US team was out of the office and our Canadian team was still hard at work. But in essence, today was like any other day, filled with communication with team members and suppliers. -------------- Host: Victor Menasce email: [email protected]

Happy Thanksgiving to our US listeners. On today’s show we’re preparing for 2022. I find that towards the end of the year people often get an uneasy feeling that there are only a few weeks remaining in the year. Many of the goals that were set at the beginning of 2021 remain incomplete. You might be traveling home to visit family, unsure of how to answer the question – How has your year been? This is a time when you might be thinking about the upcoming year, wondering when you will find the time to set goals for the upcoming year. If you’re like most people, you won’t set any goals at all. After all, if you don’t set goals, you can’t fail. I take the time to set goals every year. In fact, most years I host a transformational goals retreat which we hold on the beach in Mexico on the Mayan Riviera. But this year we decided instead to host a corporate retreat where we will spend four full days on goal setting and planning for our organization. This will set us up extremely well for next year. In preparation for those four days, there is a bunch of work that we will be doing. You can’t go into goal setting, at least you can’t do it effectively with no preparation. On today’s show we’re going to talk about the first step in preparing for goal setting for 2022. The first step is to run a retrospective. If you're serious about achieving your goals, I can recommend two different programs.  1) The Real Estate Guys host a live event in Lake Las Vegas in the first week of January. I've attended personally and it's excellent.  2) Michael Hyatt has an excellent online program called "Best Year Ever".  Both these programs are excellent and I highly recommend them.  ------------- Host: Victor Menasce email: [email protected]

On today’s show we’re talking about  the evolution of many cities. You will find pockets of development outside the urban core. These pockets are disconnected from each other in one very important respect. They don’t have city supplied utilities. The cost of extending roads, water, sewer, electricity, internet, gas can be incredibly high. You might have two similar sized properties with the same entitlements. One has utilities at the property line. The second has the utilities a mile away. The cost of ripping up the streets and laying the new infrastructure can be prohibitive. I recently went through a costing exercise for one of our projects. The real cost of each foot of roadway is not the expensive part. Bringing the utilities to your property from far away is by far the most expensive. In the language of developers, we call these “offsite improvements”. Offsite improvements are among the most painful expenses for a developer. They ultimately are donated to the city. If the city is sympathetic, they will give you a credit against property taxes or a credit against development impact fees for any offsite improvements that you make. But in a lot of cases, you end up making those improvements at your own cost for the benefit of the city and other developers that come behind you. Just how much can those costs add up to? On today’s show we’re going to construction a budget per linear foot of roadway that you can use to estimate the cost of those offsite improvements.

On today’s show we’re talking about how the pandemic is affecting business development. Business development relies heavily on personal interaction. Markets don’t buy, only people buy. Relationship building is a key component of business development in any industry. That’s particularly true in the world of real estate investing. We recently conducted a survey of approximately 400 members of our local Ottawa Real Estate Investors Organization. The basic question was whether people feel ready to return to live in person events? ------------- Host: Victor Menasce email: [email protected]

On today’s show we are talking about when to fire a consultant. You hire consultants for specific expertise in a narrow domain. These folks are supposed to be subject matter experts in their area. There can be upwards of twenty of these consultants involved in a major project. The consultants we most often associate with a project include Architectural Environmental Geotechnical Civil Wind Noise Mechanical Structural Elevator Electrical Planning consultant Window washing design Building envelope Mature tree consultant Appraiser Ground water or riparian rights Heritage Traffic studies Landscaping design Energy efficiency 3D rendering artists All of these people are subject matter experts and could have specific deliverables to your project. That’s a lot of people to manage who ultimately don’t work for you directly. These experts are working simultaneously for multiple clients, on multiple projects. Some of their other clients have their own schedule deadlines and there is no guarantee that you will come out on top of a priority decision is made. Usually the hiring process for these consultants is based on referrals. The architect can often be a primary source of introductions to these consultants. If there is a pre existing working relationship, that can often be a strong endorsement of a particular consultant. When there are so many specialized disciplines, the odds are that you will eventually encounter someone you will need to fire. How and when to make that decision is critical in a project.  ----------------- Host: Victor Menasce email: [email protected]

Ken Gee is based in Cleveland Ohio. But his business today is focused in Northern and Central Florida where he buys and repositions apartments. Over the past several years, he has amassed a portfolio of approximately 2,000 units. On today's show we're talking about strategies that work in today's environment.  You can connect with Ken at kripartners.com. Download a copy of his free e-book on value add investing at kripartners.com/ebook -------------- host: Victor Menasce email: [email protected]

On today's show, I'm speaking with George about the impact of inflation on predicting the financial performance of a multi-family apartment project over a multi-year window. This has become more difficult since we've seen inflation jump to above 6% in the past few months. 

On today’s show we’re taking a deep look at the 1970’s inflation narrative and seeing if there are any history lessons for us. This past weekend, Treasury Secretary and former Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen was on PBS Face The Nation. The discussion centered around inflation.  Back in the 1970’s the politicians blamed the consumer for inflation. Politicians blamed union leaders for demanding higher pay. The White House blamed the middle eastern nations for holding back oil. In fact, the OPEC nations didn’t want to be paid in Monopoly Money. They were used to being paid in a gold backed currency. They trusted the US dollar. But when Nixon took the dollar off the gold standard and started the slippery slope of printing more money than could be accounted for, the OPEC nations quite rightly concluded that they were being cheated by being paid in a devaluing currency.  We now know that the inflation was not the fault of OPEC, or the unions, or greedy businesses. It was the result of grave mistakes that were made in central bank monetary policy. That was the cause then, and it’s exactly the same cause today.

On today’s show we’re talking about rent growth. There are rising rents in many submarkets. For those who own their own home, they’re probably glad that their housing costs are fixed. We have seen near record setting price increases for single family homes in many major markets across the US. The fact is, you can’t have price increases in the housing market and then experience no effect in the rental market. The two markets are not strongly linked together, but they are not completely isolated from each other either. If the cost of owning a new single family home goes up, you will also eventually see those costs reflected in the rents. This dynamic environment has made it difficult for apartment investors and developers to forecast their business plans. If rents increased 20% in 2021, what should they forecast in 2022? Historically, widely accepted inflation metrics used a 2% escalation for rents over the past decade. What should you put in your numbers for 2022? Would you use the 6.1% CPI that we have experienced so far in 2021? Should you use zero? Should you use 2%? You can make an argument for any of those choices. But they will all be incorrect. -------------- Host: Victor Menasce email: [email protected]

Today's question comes from Vishal in Ottawa. He writes: "As you know I am long time listener and fan of your podcast. Earlier in previous episodes you have mentioned of the growing concern of price increase of natural gas due to various changing conditions. How do you perceive this in light of the information contained in this article in Forbes Magazine entitled Could U.S. Natural Gas Prices Crash? Published on November 9. Do you still believe we will see the price increase?" Vish, this is a great question.  My discussion of natural gas prices was within a context. The author of the article is taking a slightly different US centric view of supply and demand. Everything the author says is accurate from a US centric perspective. Prices will fluctuate in the short term based on supply and demand, and the size of the local inventories. As I’ve said, the local price for natural gas is a function of transportation. Natural gas is incredibly inconvenient to transport. Approximately 10% of the US production is being exported in LNG form through sea ports along the Gulf Coast, principally Corpus Cristy in Texas and Lake Charles, Louisiana. Right now, the price differential between gas on the beach in Louisiana, versus gas on a ship destined for Spain or China is at an all-time high. We’re paying about $5.50 per mmbtu in the US for natural gas, and Spain is paying over $30 per mmbtu. The cost to transport the gas from Louisiana to Spain is about $1.50. So the profit margins for those in the LNG business are astronomical. ----------- Host: Victor Menasce email: [email protected]

Today's show is a look at some egregious abuses of the protections being afforded to residential occupants. All of the examples come from the State of New York. In the worst case, a homeowner who defaulted on his loan in 1998 and lost ownership of his home through the foreclosure process in 2000, was finally evicted 23 years later.  --------------- Host: Victor Menasce email: [email protected]

On today’s show we’re taking a closer look at the supply chain disruptions that are making headlines. The situation at the Port of Los Angeles has gotten worse, not better. There are currently approximately 110 ships waiting at anchor for a berth to unload their cargoes. There are other sea ports in the US. Why don’t these ships divert to other locations like Houston Texas, Tampa Florida, Savannah Georgia or Newark New Jersey? The simple answer is money. --------------- Host: Victor Menasce email: [email protected]

Kevin Shtofman is based in Dallas Texas. On today's show we're talking about the backlash against student housing as an asset class and how that backlash may be appropriate in some cases and an over-reaction in others.  You can connect with Kevin on LinkedIn.  --------------------- Host: Victor Menasce email: [email protected]

Eddie Speed is a specialist in Notes. He started buying notes in the 1980's, and today is focused on a particular segment that is largely overlooked. You will love this contrarian strategy.  To learn more, visit noteschool.com/getstarted ----------------------- Host: Victor Menasce email: [email protected]