Commercial Real Estate Pro Network

Today, my guest is Travis King. Travis is the founder and CEO of Realm, where he is responsible for overseeing all aspects of the organization with a particular focus on culture, strategy and investments.  https://www.realmlp.com/  

J Darrin Gross I'd like to ask you. Travis King, what is the BIGGEST RISK?   Travis King It's a great question. It's actually really hard to try to encapsulate it in one thing, so maybe I might give a multifaceted answer, if that's okay with you. One thing I would say that is paramount in real estate, and I alluded to it earlier, is the only real way I know to lose money in real estate is to lever inappropriately. So leverage at the end of the day, that's how you lose control of your properties, right? And that happens. So then I you peel that onion a little bit and say, Okay, well, how does that happen? Right? How do you run into problems there? And I think there's two main areas that I would focus on as kind of sub points. Number one is going to be making sure that you're checking your assumptions and making sure that they stand up in a lot of alternative scenarios you might not have considered, right? A perfect example was back in, remember, during the housing bubble of of 2008 when everything popped, they

Today, my guests are Bill Kannatas and Ben Salzberg with Self Storage Developers. And just a minute, we're going to speak with Bill Kanatas and Ben Salzberg about Self Storage from Dirt to Doors.  https://self-storagedevelopers.com/  

J Darrin Gross I'd like to ask you Bill Kanatas and Ben Salzberg, what is the BIGGEST RISK?   Bill Kanatas I look at two different risks, one as an investor slash investment, and one is a developer slash development. Um, so if we're talking about the development aspect first, because, as I mentioned earlier, Ben and I spend our money up front first, before we go to the investors looking for their money, we do a lot of work upfront to mitigate that risk, and in any development, nothing ever goes perfect, as much as we think it's going to be great. It's not going to rain tomorrow. We're going to have sunshine for three weeks, and the bulldozers will be out there, and all sudden, we get rain for three weeks, and the holes we just dug flood, right? So you gotta be able to have that in your underwriting. Right? So when I tell somebody it's going to be 10 to 12 months, you know, I underwrite it 14 months, in case we have an additional four months of interest reserve or operational losses. So we try to mitigate all

Today, my guest is Philippe Lanier. Philippe Lanier is the principal at East Bank Inc, a DC based developer with 2 million plus square feet of trophy office, luxury retail and residential assets in the greater DC region. And in just a minute, we're going to speak with Philippe Lanier about commercial real estate's evolving intersection with technology and culture. Eastbanc.com  

J Darrin Gross  I'd like to ask you, Philippe Lanier, what is the biggest risk?   Philippe Lanier Just to answer, because you gave me a little bit of a chain, one of the first important steps sitting in my feet. And to simplify for your audience, if you are an owner, you are an owner of real estate, is to recognize that the world changed and you lost a lot of money, and not bury your head in the sand. The value was fundamentally changed, and it's not coming back. And once you can emotionally get over that, you know, then you're then you're thinking about how to apply what I know and what I have left to rebuild it and to create something great. And that's where we are right now. I think the worst is in theory over and then, how do we reassess where we are as owners, what we've had lost, and how do we build something new? The you know, the biggest risk is if you haven't absorbed that, but you think that help is around the corner, if you run out of time, then you're out of the game. If the banks foreclose, then

Today, my guest is Josh Bauchner. Josh is a partner in the landlord tenant and litigation practices at Mandelbaum Barrett PC in New York. He brings a depth of experience and dedication to his practice, where he's involved in complex commercial litigation and class action lawsuits, and in just a minute, we're going to speak with Josh Bauchner about the Nuisance ADA Lawsuits. https://mblawfirm.com/  

J Darrin Gross I'd like to ask you. Josh Bauchner, what is the BIGGEST RISK?   Josh Bauchner Well, the biggest risk here is getting sued by one of these serial plaintiffs, with one of these attorneys who's just in it for for the fees. To answer your question, I think ADA compliance planning, bringing in one of these testers, like we discussed, to assess the premises and make any determinations as to what's not compliant, then do an assessment as to what the cost would be to potentially bring it into compliance. Is it something that you could readily do, putting up the handlebars in the bathroom stall, for example, perhaps changing the front entrance door to provide handicap accessibility, or is it cost prohibitive? If the bathroom is downstairs and you can install an elevator, there's really no way around that to gain access. And then the challenge becomes with respect to shifting that burden, the landlords are doing that right. So in most lease agreements, most commercial lease agreements, the landlords are

Today, my guest is Jennifer Brener Seay.  If you're a developer who wants your projects to become more than just buildings, today's episode is for you. Jennifer Brener Seay is the founder and CEO of Art Plus Artisans, who's rewriting the playbook on real estate development by transforming commercial real estate. And in just a minute, we're going to speak with Jennifer Brener Seay about the ROI of Art. https://artplusartisans.com/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/jennifer-brener-seay/  

J Darrin Gross If you're willing, I'd like to ask you, Jennifer Brener Seay, What is the BIGGEST RISK?   Jennifer Brener Seay So I'm going to give you two Darrin, one of the biggest risks, I think, is just having solid contracts, and the contracts are there to protect you from all different kinds of risks. So, you know, we're a small business. We've been in business for for 23 years. I think for a long time, I had a very simple contract that I don't think was probably protecting me from what could go wrong. And it was actually a real estate developer friend of mine, as we were going after and winning these bigger and bigger projects, you know, 15 floor ground up brand new builds, and we were going to be installing huge sculptures, he was like, You need a better contract. You need a better contract than this. So we really have worked to strengthen our contracts, to protect us, to protect the artists, to protect the clients, and in addition to that, or as a risk to the business and the economy, I, as a business

Today, my guest is Blake Rogers. Blake Rogers is the co founder at Steel Peak Properties. Steel Peak is a Southern California based real estate investment firm focused on acquiring and improving industrial outdoor storage assets throughout the western US, and in just a minute, we're going to speak with Blake Rogers about outdoor storage properties.    https://steelpeakproperties.com/  

J Darrin Gross I'd like to ask you. Blake Rogers, What is the BIGGEST RISK?   Blake Rodgers Sure. So I think in in our space, we say this all the time to to our investors, because they ask us this question as well, what? What's, what do you think the biggest risk is here, guys with this asset class? For us, it's really, since we're buying single tenant deals. I think it's the single tenant nature of these deals. We're buying vacant sites a lot of the time. So the risk for us is you either lease it or you don't, and you either do it in the amount of time that you said you would or you don't. So that, I think that for us is just being hyper focused on, you know, how long is it going to take us to do this. What are all the other, you know, properties in this market leasing for making sure we have all the data and that we're and we're underwriting the amount of time that we need to to lease these up, and that we're buying a product that these tenants want, and that's not going to sit there for a long time, becaus

Today, my guest is George Otel. George is the seasoned entrepreneur with over 10 years of experience in real estate and finance, and in just a minute, we're going to speak with George Otel about business finance. https://bizfunding.net/lander https://www.linkedin.com/in/georgeotel/  

J Darrin Gross If you're willing, I'd like to ask you, George Otel, what is the BIGGEST RISK?   George Otel The biggest risk when it comes to funding, is not looking for funding early enough, because the biggest risk is when people call me that they need funding yesterday. So it's I tell people you always have to look for funding, even if you don't need it, because when you need it, you may not find it where you may be. Tweaks. Expensive because of your situation. Let's say you got to look for funding when you're doing good, when you're doing great, because the lenders see less risk in you, because when, when you desperate, you you have a need your fire, fire you're burning, then that's a risk. So for the risk, they want to get more premium. So that's, that's how it works. The biggest risk is like, if, if you always got to look for funding, because it's you got to have funding options lined up, because you always growing. You're looking for equipment, you're looking for working capital, even lines of credit.

Today, my guest is Pete Neubig. Pete is the co founder and CEO of VPM solutions, and in just a minute, we're going to speak with Pete Neubig about the Benefits of Hiring a Remote Team.    https://www.vpmsolutions.com/  

J Darrin Gross If you're willing, I'd like to ask you. Pete Neubig, what is the BIGGEST RISK?   Pete Neubig So the biggest risk for VPM, well, I would say for us, the biggest risk is, at the end of the day, we're a payment processor, okay? You know, even though we have all these whistles and bells where you have this marketplace and you have these searches and you have this training, you have this video, if I can't pay people, I'm out of business. And so my biggest risk is that we are connected to stripe, and if stripe decides to cancel or go belly up. You know that I cannot process payroll. So to me, that's my biggest risk. So I do what I can to make sure that my relationship with stripe is good. And you know the challenge with having a payment processor, it's not normal to have two of them, and so we don't have to payment process. That's my biggest risk.   https://www.vpmsolutions.com/  

Today, my guest is Marcy Sagel. She's the founder and principal of MSA interiors, with over 30 years of experience shaping multifamily housing, student living and senior housing and more. And in just a minute, we're going to speak with Marcy Sagel about From Blueprints to Brilliance, designing multi family spaces that rent.  https://msainteriors.com/  

J Darrin Gross I'd like to ask you, Marcy Sagel, what is the BIGGEST RISK?   Marcy Sagel I'm going to answer that in a few parts, because there's different aspects of the job that can be different risks. So when we pick materials for a project, we have to make sure we're working with tried and true materials, okay, materials that are not going to fail on a job, for instance, in the units, if we select a, you know, vinyl plank flooring, we want to make sure it's going to last. So we only work with manufacturers that we know are going to give us a solid product, not we're not trying to test some new product on different people. We really want to make sure that those stand the test of time from a risk standpoint. So that's probably one of the biggest things. The second thing is the furniture. We also specify all of the furniture, and are an installation. So we put all of the furniture into warehouses, and we have to make sure that the warehouses are bonded and insured and going to be doing replacement if there's

Today, my guest is Lissette Calderon. Lissette is the founder and CEO of Neology Group, a vertically integrated, lifestyle driven residential and commercial real estate firm that specializes in transforming undervalued neighborhoods into sought after communities, and in just a minute, we're going to speak with Lissette Calderon about solving for housing's greatest need, a focus on workforce communities.  https://neologylife.com/  

J Darrin Gross If you're willing, I'd like to ask you. Lissette Calderon, What is the BIGGEST RISK?   Lissette Calderon Well, I think in today's world, probably the biggest risk you have is uncertainty. And how do you underwrite uncertainty? You know what happens next? How do you underwrite whether it's Harris insurance numbers, construction costs, what does that uncertainly look like, and what, how do you underwrite that? So, you know, how do we do it? You know, we really can't avoid it because, you know, we're developers. So of course, our job is, you know, we really think about a how do we minimize it? So we make sure that, you know, every project, you know, is built, oftentimes, by the same team, the same architect, the same project, and, you know, same contractor, and so forth. And then, you know, we enter into a guaranteed maximum price contract, so ahead of time, we already know what that number is going to look like. Of course, we're building contingencies. So we minimize those uncertainties, so that