Today's episode is a story of overcoming adversity when your neighbors try to block your project from coming to fruition. These types of things happen in the real world and are difficult to anticipate. They're even more difficult to overcome at times and can result in costly delays. The key is in developing the relationships within the community to help you develop creative solutions.

Today's conversation with Kathy Fettke is a first hand account of the evacuations from the wild fires in California. In this personal conversation, Kathy shares her perspective on what to do in an emergency.

The Raising Money Summit held each year in Denver is one of the premier capital conferences in the nation. We had 22 speakers from all over the country speaking on various aspects of syndication. My talk focuses on the 5 fundamental principles of raising money.

On Today’s show we’re talking about a new type of nomadic worker. When we talk about nomadic workers, it conjures up an image of a hipster twenty something in shorts and a T-shirt drinking a cappuccino from an Internet café in Fiji. They are living the lifestyle. I am not talking about these people. There's entirely another type of nomadic worker focused on the construction industry. These people travel around the country and work on major construction projects. Some of them specialize in heavy earth moving equipment. Some are welders, pipefitters, electricians, and truck drivers. In addition to having a high paying job, they also get a daily housing allowance. The construction companies understand that they are coming for only a temporary assignment. In areas where there are large industrial mega projects under construction, Hotels can be surprisingly expensive and in short supply. The daily housing allowance is not usually sufficient to cover the cost of the hotel or even a short-term furnished rental. These nomadic workers prefer to purchase an RV and use their daily allowance towards a monthly payment on an RV. It is a good deal for the construction workers because the housing allowance will cover more than the daily cost of an RV site and their monthly payment.

If you’ve been a long-time listener to the show, you’ll know that I’m a big believer in the law of supply and demand. It’s one of those fundamental rules that you ignore at your peril. Like any market, hotel room prices, and short term rental revenue comes down to supply and demand. In markets where there is nothing to constrain supply, the incentive exists for more and more property owners to remove properties from long term rental inventory and maximize revenue through higher nightly short term rates. That business only works if you can achieve high enough nightly revenue, and high enough occupancy. If there is no constraint on the supply, this market will become a race to the bottom like many other markets in the sharing economy. We’ve seen it in ride sharing with companies like Uber and Lyft. As more and more cars come onto the road, you have a surplus of drivers competing for not enough riders. When that happens, prices fall to the level of tolerable pain, but nobody’s making any money. Who are the winners in all this? The owners of the sharing platform make money on each transaction, and the end consumer gets the best possible price. The asset owners get left with all the risk and marginal profit. So how do you protect yourself from these downward spiralling market dynamics? Have a listen.

The residential market slowdown is here, and the signs are everywhere. Nowhere is this more evident than in the hottest markets in the country. We’re seeing the slowdown at the top end of the market, where the days on market have grown significantly, and price concessions are the new normal. What a difference a few months and a slightly higher interest rate can make. So many investors I know have focused on flipping houses. Let’s look at what the data is showing. When you look at the market averages, you can’t see a problem. There has been a slowdown compared with earlier in the year, but average prices are continuing to increase, and days on market are still respectable. Nothing to worry about right? Remember, real estate is hyper local. That means location, and market segment. For example, starter homes focused on first time buyers will have a different market dynamic compared with luxury homes, even in the same area. It’s dangerous to look at the market averages. But if you look closely, the signs are there. One leading indicator of the slowdown is the market inventory. In San Francisco, inventory is up 42% compared with a year earlier. Seattle inventory Is up 37%. Denver is up 35%. In Nashville, the median sales price has dropped 6% since the peak in July of this year. Inventory has grown by 32% in that time.

On today’s show, we’re talking about the notion of value. The market definition is that value is what people are willing to pay. But that’s too simplistic. As investors we seek to make investment decisions that are on the right side of history. Buy low, sell high is at the foundation. So then the right question is what is the intrinsic value of an asset? In a world of falling asset values, it’s hard to make sense of any investment strategy, if you adopt short term thinking. But if you step back a little, the problem is actually remarkably simple. We know that global gold production peaked a few years ago and is falling as the world runs out of gold reserves. Other precious metals are in similar shape. So why have commodity prices for gold, silver and platinum remained so low? We know the world is running out of oil, so why are oil prices falling so rapidly? Bitcoin has lost 80% of its value this year. It lost a third of its value in just the last 7 days. If you went back through history and walked into a village and asked the towns people who is the wealthiest person in town. They would almost all point to the person who had the most land, the most livestock, or the largest number of trees. These are all forms of primary wealth. Secondary value is derived from primary value. This includes things like cash in the bank. Tertiary value is the paper that is derived from secondary value. This includes all the stocks and bonds associated with secondary value. Tertiary value doesn’t exist without secondary and secondary doesn’t exist without primary. Problems get created when the primary, secondary and tertiary derivatives of value get separated from each other.

Hasbro has introduced a new Monopoly game this year "Monopoly for Millennials". In this game, instead of collecting cash, the winner who collects the most experiences wins the game. Whether it's a night on a friend's couch, the hottest restaurant or the weeklong meditation retreat, experiences are valued more than assets. The idea is to instead of getting out of the rate race, take a break from the rat race and pretend it doesn't exist for a while. That's one of the most dangerous ideas of our time. We have a responsibility to engage our young adults in a conversation that mirrors real life and shape their thinking so that they achieve true freedom. In both versions of the game, the winner achieves something that is a proxy for freedom. After all, having the complete freedom to do what you want, when you want is the ultimate expression of freedom.

George Ross was executive Vice President of the Trump Organization where he was Donald’s right hand man for 37 years. To be clear, I'm not a Donald Trump supporter. I value the wisdom and insight from George who has been at the top of the industry for 60 years. He taught at the law school at NYU for 20 years. The author of two best selling books on real estate and negotiation. George Ross is a frequent guest on the show. Earlier this week we reported on the Amazon announcements in Washington DC and in New York City. Today we’re going to get George’s take on the announcement. George lives on Long Island, not far from JFK airport, in a beautiful home overlooking the water and a golf course. He’s no stranger to the traffic jams on the Long Island Expressway. Even though he lives only 22 miles from the Trump Tower, NY traffic could easily make the trip take in excess of 90 minutes each way. He lives only a short distance from the new Amazon location. Listen to what he has to say about the Amazon announcement.

Chris is a former corporate executive who uncovered a number of inconvenient truths about our economy, our energy policy, and our exploitation of the environment. This was the genesis of Peak Prosperity and a new way of life, based on a deeper understanding of the science behind the systems that power our society. Chris is not a fringe futurist, despite the fact that his message is unpopular with mainstream economists. Once you've understood the mathematical relationships between elements of our society, you can't un-see it.

On today’s show we’re talking about the top 3 employee retention mistakes that I see employers make. It’s been said that people are the key to your business. That’s true of any business and Real estate is a business just like any other business. Employee turnover is incredibly expensive for any business for multiple reasons. Before someone leaves, they’ve already taken their foot off the gas and are coasting You will experience a period of time when the organization is short-handed You need to spend the time and money to train someone new after you’ve already spent that money once before, or perhaps more. So what are the three top employee retention mistakes that I see? Failing to train your staff and set expectations Failing to give employees a professional growth path Failing to trust employees We go into them in more detail. Have a listen.

Happy Thanks giving to our listeners in the US. Whether you’ve traveled to celebrate thanksgiving with family, or if you’re taking a it easy at home. It’s a time to reflect upon the year to date, and recharge your personal batteries. Take the time to revisit your goals from the start of the year. If you’re like most people, there are still a few that have yet to be completed. Perhaps there are a lot. Who knows? If you’re Canadian, you celebrated Thanksgiving back in October. What I’m talking about today is every bit as much for you as it is for people south of the border. The period between US Thanksgiving and the end of the year is one where many people’s priorities shift. Some people are thinking a lot less about work. They may be planning time with family over the holidays in December. Take some quiet time this weekend to write down a few vitally important things. These are so important that I don’t consider them optional for anyone who is serious about achieving their goals. Listen to find out what they are....

This past weekend, I was in Denver speaking at an investment conference. I received the same question repeatedly from several attendees at the conference. Since this question comes up so frequently, I thought I would share the answer with our listeners. Many investors who invest in multi-family apartments are looking for cash flow. How can you deliver cash flow to investors on a new construction project when the property isn’t generating income yet? Several of you indicated that you didn’t undertake new construction because your investors would want to see a rate of return from the point of investment and would not be willing to wait 2 years to see income coming back from the investment. The answer I’m going to give you here is a game changer. We’ve been using some variation of this approach for close to 8 years now, on virtually all of our projects. When you undertake a new construction project you put together a budget for everything to complete the project. That includes all of the elements of the physical construction, often called the hard costs. You also need to budget for all of the soft costs. The soft costs include your architectural design, your holding costs such as property taxes, insurance, loan interest, and any fees such as building permits. If you’re borrowing funds from a bank, you’re going to have a line item in your budget for those interest reserves. If your investors need to see cashflow during the construction period, you can construct your budget to include a payout during the construction period. You will include a second interest reserve line item in your budget to pay your investors. Before you run out and copy what I’m proposing here, you will want to seek professional advice from an attorney who specializes in securities law to make sure whatever you offer is fully in compliance with the law. You will probably also want to get accounting advice to make sure you are not creating an offer that has adverse or unexpected tax consequences. If you plan to use retirement funds, you’ll also want to double check with your advisor who specializes in self directed retirement accounts to make sure there are no issues with using retirement funds for such an investment.

We humans have an incredible inability to see bubbles when we’re in the middle of one. They seem to make rational sense in a strange sort of way. At least some highly educated people can speak at length about why the value should be so high. They can explain the science behind it. It’s hard to believe that people thought tulip bulbs would be the path to riches. But in 1636, valuations went into the stratosphere, only to come crashing down in 1637. At the peak, some tulips were worth 10 times the annual wage of a single worker. After a long period of real estate prices increasing, of rents increasing, and of prices increasing, it’s easy to become conditioned into thinking that prices only go up. Rents only go up. Salaries only go up. But they don’t. We’ve seen periods of time when rents went down. We’ve seen prices fall. We’ve seen incomes fall. In each of those cases, there was an explanation as to why that happened. It’s too easy to look back at history and explain away what happened. That will never happen again.

Active residential listings (that’s condos, townhouses and single-family homes) finished October with 8,539 total units—a 35-percent increase over the same period in 2017. Anecdotal data from realtors I spoke to this weekend suggests that the average days on market is now getting longer at 35 days, but still favours sellers. That’s typical of a balanced market. Something Denver hasn’t seen for some time.

Bob Burr is the President and CEO of Panther Exploration, and oil exploration firm based in Bowling Green Kentucky. Bob explains many of the facets of the oil industry from a real estate perspective. In many ways, you can participate in the oil industry from a real estate play, not with the risks of oil production

Yesterday the new Ontario conservative government issued their first fiscal update. Of interest to real estate investors, The government is also eliminating rent control on new rental units to increase housing supply across the province, but says rent control will remain in place for current tenants. The new policy will be a reversal of sorts from an initiative the previous Liberal government put in place, which imposed rent control on all buildings constructed after 1991. Under rent controls, landlords are limited to rent increases of 1.8% this year. Electricity rates went up an average of 14.8% per year from 2008 to 2017 for a total of 133% over that 9 year period. Interest rates are landlords largest expense. Interest rates have nearly doubled in the past two years and will go up again in the next year. Yet landlords are limited to increases of 1.8% per year. There is a solution to the root cause. Listen for a creative solution.

On today's show we are continuing our series on Amazon and the implications of the company's seemingly unstoppable growth. Yesterday we looked at Long Island city, an area of the Queens borough of NYC. Today, we talking about how Amazon also announced that Northern Virginia would be the site of their technology hub expansion. Specifically, Crystal City, a small compact development sandwiched between Reagan National Airport and Highway US 1 is the chosen site. This area has seen major tenants including the department of defence leave the area in the past decade. But employees will not live in Crystal City. The surrounding areas of Arlington, Reston, will be the beneficiaries of this new growth.

On today’s episode we are examining the larger implications of Amazons Second headquarters or HQ2 to the company's expansion plans. Last week Amazon announced that they plan to split their planned Technology hub expansion between two cities instead of one. Key to Amazon growth is access to talent. The 50,000 jobs that Amazon points to create over the next several years are technology jobs. They’re looking to hire software developers, mobile content developers. This isn’t just about hiring. Let’s think ahead. If Amazon is doubling their core technology workforce which makes up the backbone of the company, they are forecasting at least a doubling of the size of the company as well. Imagine a world where Amazon has twice the market footprint compared with today. This week New York City, and Washington DC are celebrating the coming influx of 50,000 high paying technology jobs. Where there is a big winner in this game, there are numerous small losers spread all over the country.

A team of New York City law-enforcement officers swarmed a Manhattan condominium last month, issuing 27 notices of violations for illegal hotel use in one of the largest single crackdowns on short-term rentals. The raid was at the Atelier, a 46-story Midtown luxury tower located on 42nd street near Times Square. This may be a sign of what’s to come. New York and other cities are seeking to limit short-term rentals that can run afoul of local laws designed to limit hotel-style stays in residential buildings. The latest twist in the war on short term rentals is a new bill, which becomes effective in February requiring online rental services, like Airbnb, to disclose the addresses of its listings and the identities of its hosts to the city’s Office of Special Enforcement on a monthly basis. Failure to do so is subject to a $25,000 fine per listing not disclosed. How can you influence your local politicians to implement sensible controls? Listen for some ideas.

Today is another AMA episode "Ask Me Anything". Adam from Riverside asks “You mentioned on previous shows that you are vegan. You seem passionate about it. Would you help us understand your rationale?” That's a great question Adam. In truth, it wasn't a single decision. It was a series of small decisions made over several years. The net result of which I feel better. I have more energy. But there's a resource component to this question that is pretty compelling. Check it out.

Darren Doyle is the General Manager at Agronosotros, the parent company of International Coffee Farms. They specialize in agricultural real estate development where they own a total of 16 farms between Panama and Belize. In this wide ranging conversation, Darren educated me on both coffee and chocolate production. This was a fun and fascinating interview. Enjoy. If you want to learn more, check them out at https://agronosotros.com

Keith Weinhold is the host of the Get Rich Education Podcast and is a contributor to the Forbes Council on Real Estate. His new book is "7 Money Myths That Are Killing Your Wealth Potential". On today's show, we discuss two of the seven myths. Check it out.

On today’s show we’re going to look at the Cannabis industry. Before we jump in, many of my friends outside Canada have asked me if I’ve gone out and bought some weed yet. Sorry to disappoint you. The answer is no. It’s just something I’m not that interested in. In spite of that, the investment community is very interested in cannabis and On today’s show we’re going to look at the industry from a real estate and investment perspective. Whether you are pro or against the cannabis industry, you may feel the economic impact regardless. There is going to be demand for agricultural land and for industrial space as a result of the cannabis industry. If you have any exposure to either of those segments, you will feel the impact.

Today is another "Ask Me Anything" episode. Karla asks "Many syndicators require investors to be “accredited “ . Can you share a few ways to become accredited using real estate investments? I.e . Buying SFH, etc." That's a great question, and has a legal component to it. I'm not an attorney and can't give legal advice. So please consult an attorney who specializes in securities law. But I can offer a perspective that hopefully is helpful. Have a listen.

Last month RealPage paid a $3.3M settlement with the Federal Trade Commission over allegedly failing to take adequate care during criminal background checks for potential tenants. Earlier this year, Ascenda paid $1.1M in a class action lawsuit for failing to get proper consent during employment background checks. Property owners and property managers in Illinois have received judgements against them in the thousands for failing to pay interest on security deposits usually amounting to under $10.00. All of these systems are being managed by the experts that you have hired, often blindly assuming they're doing things properly. What should you do?

On today's show we're showcasing a different way of developing through private public partnerships. Some transportation authorities have control over land without requiring the usual public consultation and zoning process for entitlements. If you have a dream of building a waterfront marquis property, you'd be amazed at what might be possible.

We all face choices. The decision to accept a problem is made in an instant. It’s an instinctive reflexive reaction usually made on the basis of an emotional response rather than a rational response. If you’ve chosen to downplay the problem, then chances are you won’t deal with it until it mushrooms to the point where the problem is large enough you can no longer ignore it. Let's say you accept the problem exists and you undertake to fix it. But you're only fixing that single instance of the problem. In truth, creating a band-aid solution. But in truth there is a third type of solution that requires a different way of thinking. It requires systems thinking In systems thinking, you don’t solve a discrete problem. You create a solution that solves the immediate problem and prevents the problem from ever occurring again.

Dr. Bryant took a departure from dentistry after selling his multi-location practice and ventured into the world of real estate investing and wealth management. The High Speed Alliance is a group of Doctors and Dentists who come together several times a year in exotic locations to mastermind on investment. Listen to this great conversation on the beach on location in Sandestin Florida.

Generally speaking people are willing to be educated. They don’t want to be sold. They’re willing if its an area they’re interested in. If they’re not interested, it’s spam. In the movie star wars, Luke Skywalker is the hero of the story. But he needs a guide, in this case Yoda who will team him. Yoda isn’t the star of the movie. He’s in a supporting role. The problem arises when the ethics of the guide are compromised. They call it education, but they’re really training you to buy their stuff. It’s a version of bait and switch. In my mind there is a fundamental conflict of interest when you sell your product under the veil of education.

We are delighted to announce that Ravi Ghanta is the winner of the 100,000 download contest and has won an autographed copy of Robert Kiyosaki’s book “Second Chance”. On today’s episode we review Benjamin Hardy’s book “Willpower Doesn’t Work”. Benjamin Hardy is a PhD student in psychology at Clemson University. His groundbreaking book shows conclusively that everything you’ve tried and failed using willpower could never succeed. It’s not your fault.

Recent reports from numerous data sources are showing that homeowners in the US are living longer in the same place between moves. In fact, the average time in the same home has more than doubled in the last decade. In particular, the coastal areas have experienced the lowest inventories, the worst affordability and the lowest mobility.

John from Huntsville Alabama asks "I'm contemplating a large new multifamily development. What questions should I be asking the city to determine if my project is viable?"

I’ve been talking to a number of investors who are interested in getting into development. Today’s episode is an advisory talk on what you may want to consider before jumping into the world of development. The first thing is that you should avoid development if at all possible. If you can get the equivalent product in the market by buying and repositioning an existing asset, then that’s what you should do. An existing asset is the fast and lowest risk path. In many cases, you can buy an existing asset below replacement cost. My recommendation is a 3 step process to evolve from your first simple development project to full green-field development where you have to build everything from raw land including the infrastructure.

This week I spoke with George on a wide range of topics, starting with the stock market volatility. George was Executive Vice President in the Trump organization for over 30 years and he brings a unique perspective. He's been in business for over 60 years, taught negotiation at the law school at NYU for over 20 years, and is the author of two best selling books on real estate and negotiation.

Two weeks ago hurricane Michael tore a swath of destruction through this coastal community. We toured the area and spoke first hand with local residents.

This week, The Bank of Canada increased its benchmark interest rate 0.25% to 1.75%. They also signaled increases in the future might be necessary. So Why do interest rates rise?

Fair Isaac Corporation, the creator of the FICO score will introduce the Ultra-FICO score early in 2019. It's designed to make it possible for millions of borrowers who marginally don't qualify for loans today to have access to credit. The idea is that it will make more credit available without increasing risk to lenders. Is this a good idea? Listen and find out.

Could there be a situation where prices increase, but asset values decrease? On today’s episode we will examine this very question. In an inflationary environment, the cost of construction goes up. In fact we’ve seen very real increases in the cost of construction over the past several years. In 2014, you could routinely build new B class apartments for $88 per square foot. That’s exactly what I was building for in 2014. Today, prices are closer to $120 per square foot. It amounts to an average 9% increase per year over the past 4 years. This is during a time when government is telling us that inflation is running close to 2.5% over that same time period. The price of any item is not determined exclusively by the intrinsic cost, but in fact by people’s ability to pay. We've seen real estate prices fall all over Europe. Could this happen in North America?

In celebration of 100,000 downloads, we're going to be giving away an autographed copy of Robert Kiyosaki's latest book "Second Chance". If you would like to enter to win, send an email to [email protected] and put 100,000 in the subject line. Today is another AMA episode - Ask Me Anything. David from Pittsburgh asks "How much passion do you need to consider moving from a passive investor to a full-time active investor?" Such a great question.

The broad economy seems to be performing strongly, but we are also seeing weakness in new home construction at the same time. At the root of this is money. On today’s episode we’re going to follow the trail of the money and see some of the factors that are influencing the housing market. We will eventually see this slowdown reflected in the macro economic numbers.

Tammy Mitchell is an expert in relational capital. If you're not familiar with that term, we break it down in detail and describe the power of developing deep and meaning relationships with people of significance.

Russell Westcott is a Canadian from Western Canada who has built a reputation as an investor, an educator, and a specialist at raising capital. In today's episode we're talking about exploiting new zoning rules to attain higher density and lower the cost of development.

The question of rent control centers around the broader issue of affordable housing.. The rates for housing have increased faster than wages have grown in the same time period. This is particularly true in major markets we're we have seen dramatic increases and real estate prices. Governments cannot force investors to make investments that lose money. When rent controls are in place, existing buildings experience deferred maintenance and new rental stock doesn’t get built. The economics don’t support new investment. Rent control is a well intentioned, but misguided solution to the the affordability problem by treating the symptom and not the root cause. Listen for some new ideas.

Back in the day, items you could not find in a local department store could be ordered from the Sears Catalog. They owned the market. The Sears brands became synonymous with quality. The Sears Kenmore appliances were a rebranding of other appliances from Maytag and Amana. Sears Craftsman tools were as good as any tools on the market. They were well positioned as as retailer and in the culture of a generation. Sears problems go beyond money. The problem is that they stopped being relevant to shoppers a long time ago. An injection of cash won’t fix that. They kept looking at the retail business as a numbers game and not as a customer experience. It’s a sad story of missed opportunities. They sat on the sidelines and watched as Internet commerce devoured their catalog business. Even Walmart, late to the party has recognized that the Internet is key to their survival.

In the past couple of months I’ve seen a dramatic uptick in the number of deals that are coming into my email. I’m getting an average of 10 deals a day being offered to me. Most of these are not a fit. On today's episode we do a deep dive on two deals that we passed on and explain why.

On today's show we are talking about making the transition from full time employee to full-time real estate investor. This is one of the most difficult pathways to navigate. Some people think that they will wait to accumulate enough real estate to replace their employment income and then they will quit their job. After all, real estate brings passive income, doesn't it?

In two days last week, the stock market lost 5% of its value, and then rebounded partly on Friday. There's no question that over 100m, a sprinter is faster than a distance runner. But life isn't a sprint, and you can't sprint a marathon.