The Commercial Investing Show

Jason Hartman talks with Arthur Margon, partner at Rosen Consulting, about Chinese investments in the United States, the state of real estate in the USA and more in this episode. Arthur recently co-authored a report with the Asia Society on the topic of Chinese Investment in U.S. Real Estate

Arthur is in charge of Rosen Consulting's New York office and has more than 20 years experience in real estate consulting and market analysis. He has developed securitization models, restructured bank loan portfolios, and served as an independent fiduciary in a major pension fund reorganization.

Key Takeaways:

[1:20] What's happening with Chinese investors in USA real estate at the moment

[4:30] Whether the Chinese government wants to discourage investment abroad or not

[9:20] How bad the slowdown in China actually is

[12:50] How China's crackdown on corruption, and the change to a consumer economy has impacted both China and the rest of the world

[16:50] What the next 10 years look like for China as they try and do a number of things economically which no government has been able to pull off

[21:30] Why a war with China makes no sense for anyone, and what sort of thing would actually spark an incident

[24:10] Arthur's real estate forecast for the USA

Website:

www.rosenconsulting.com
Free Asia Society Report: Breaking Ground - Chinese Investment in US Real Estate

Direct download: Commercial_Investing_61_Arthur_Margon.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 11:02pm EDT

Mark Jaffe, a former senior executive at The Walt Disney Company, spent many years creating happy moments. At a young age he realized that his happiest life was not something out of reach. He studied, observed, cultivated, and ultimately enjoyed an enduring happyness through a singular focus on identifying what worked and what didn’t.

Along the way, he had a life journey, perhaps like yours, that included career successes and career failures. A marriage that succeeded until it didn’t. Two fabulous kids. A dog. And the learned ability to be very happy, which has kept him happy now, consistently, for over 40 years.

Key Takeaways:

[2:10] What led Mark to write Suitecase of Happyness

[5:40] Overcoming the barriers that we create for ourselves, and the barrier the pursuit of success can create

[8:55] The importance of balance and perspective

[12:45] The word that stops us from having some of the best times of our lives

[14:35] The power of passion

[17:35] Why Mark spelled it "happyness"

Website:

http://www.suitcaseofhappyness.com/
http://twitter.com/markjaffe
http://instagram.com/markjaffe1

Direct download: CI_60_Mark_Jaffe.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 3:06pm EDT

Kenneth D. Campbell created and edited an influential investment newsletter for twenty years; co-wrote The Real Estate Trusts: America’s Newest Billionaires, first full-length book on REITs; and co-founded a global firm managing $22 billion in assets. He is also the author of the new book Watch that Rat Hole: And Witness the REIT Revolution

Key Takeaways:

[2:26] The history of REITs

[7:16] The market of REITs

[10:55] What type of REITs Kenneth prefers

[14:50] A rundown of Kenneth's interactions with billionaires such as Sam Zell, Warren Buffett and more

[18:55] The outlook on the regulatory impact on REITs

[20:45] The impact Brexit will have on the real estate market

Website Mentioned:

www.watchthatrathole.com

Direct download: CI_59_Kenneth_Campbell.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 8:00am EDT

Christian Stadler is a Professor of Strategic Management at the Warwick School of Business, strategy contributor to Forbes magazine and is author of the book Enduring Success: What We Can Learn from the History of Outstanding Corporations. He offers his thoughts and insights about the perception vs. reality of Brexit, immigration and Jason’s second favorite subject, the self-driving car.

Key Takeaways:

[3:00] Economists agree that Brexit is not a good economic idea, here’s why.

[7:04] It could also be more difficult more difficult to battle terrorism with open borders.

[16:27] Current political positions are considerably right compared to the former government.

[17:56] Immigration is still considered a good thing for the country who accepts the immigrants.

[23:51] Poor immigrants can understand markets and create products that others don’t.

[25:04] Talking points of the possible benefits of the self-driving car.

[30:19] Contact information for Christian Stadler.

Mentioned in This Episode:

http://www.christianstadler.org

Direct download: CI_58_Christian_Stadler.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 4:51pm EDT

Rod Khleif is a passionate real estate investor who has personally owned and managed over 2000 apartments and homes. As an accomplished entrepreneur, Rod has built several successful multi-million dollar businesses. Khleif has combined his passion for real estate investing with his personal philosophy of goal setting, envisioning, and manifesting success to become one of America’s top real estate investment professionals.

As Director of Investments at REM Real Estate and Management, Khleif uses his expertise to guide the firm in identifying and acquiring undervalued apartment complexes and mobile home parks. Khleif specializes in implementing efficient management and communication to ensure profitability.

Giving back to the community is a major passion for Khleif. He is founder and long-serving president of the Tiny Hands Foundation, a children’s charitable foundation that leads several annual community charitable initiatives including: Back-to-School Backpack Brigade; provides thousands of new Backpacks filled with school supplies to community school children in need. Teddy Bear Brigade; provides thousands of Teddy Bears for community police department patrol cars to be given out by police officers to comfort children in distress. Holiday Basket Brigade; provides thousands of Holiday Gift Baskets filled with food and Christmas toys to community children and families in need.

Key Takeaways:

[3:11] The origins of Rod's real estate investing and lessons learned in 2008

[7:44] The possibility of a contraction coming in the real estate market

[10:54] The kinds of investors who will get clobbered in a contraction

[13:05] The struggles of owning a whole lot of single family houses

[16:20] What size apartment complex you need to get for on-site management to be plausible

[17:40] The class of apartments Rod is looking at and what cities he likes

[19:45] Finding a good multifamily deal (and a tip from Rod about how to go a step farther than everyone else and find a seller that other people won't)

[22:55] Rod's advice for a brand new investor with a long term hold strategy

Website Mentioned:

www.lifetimecashflowpodcast.com

Direct download: CI_57_Rod_Khleif.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 9:00am EDT

Kenneth Brown has been a real estate broker for the past 25 years and his team has bought and sold over $1 Billion Dollar in Commercial Real Estate. Ken holds the prestigious CCIM designation (Certified Commercial Investment Member), the highest designation in commercial real estate one can achieve.

Key Takeaways:

[2:45] The start of Ken's real estate journey

[5:08] Ken walks you through his first commercial transaction

[7:32] How Ken found his first deal (and it wasn't through a listing)

[9:04] How little Ken had to raise rent on his storage units to drastically increase the value of the facility

[11:57] Whether there are still deals for the mom and pop investor in storage facilities

[14:12] The word that best describes the search for a storage unit deal

[15:32] What you should know about triple net leases and why it would be attractive to investors

[17:45] How you can use triple net deals to make 12-18% cash on cash return

[20:20] Where a new investor without much money can find investors rather easily

[21:15] Where you can find triple net deals

[23:27] The typical structure of a triple net deal

[25:44] Picking which asset class to be in

[28:08] What happens with your triple net lease if the big companies (like Circuit City and Barnes & Noble) go under

Websites Mentioned:

www.triplenetcompanies.com
www.cresuccessacademy.com

Direct download: CI_56_Ken_Brown.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 5:38pm EDT

Jason Hartman talks about the current state of the American economy, stock market and housing market with Megan Greene, Chief Economist of Manulife & John Hancock Asset Management.

Key Takeaways:

[4:06] If high frequency traders really bring liquidity into the market

[10:57] The cure all for our economic inequalities, and why you'll never see it come to fruition

[13:10] Why we may not want to be relying on housing for our economic revival

Website Mentioned:

www.johnhancock.com

Direct download: CI_55_Megan_Greene.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 1:35am EDT

Jason Hartman talks with his client Greg Scott, a real estate investor living in Detroit and employee at Ford, about the current state of the Detroit real estate market, whether it might actually be a GOOD investment now, the future of self driving cars and more.

Key Takeaways:

[4:09] Where Greg currently owns rental properties

[6:29] The peak of metro Detroit's population and what's going on right now that might be making the population grow again

[8:37] One of Detroit's suburbs is actually the 11th wealthiest county in the USA

[10:53] Some demographic trends in Detroit

[12:40] Why Greg is the most optimistic about the future of Detroit than he's been in his entire life

[17:12] Some areas of Detroit that go along with the automotive industry and some that don't

[19:40] Greg's road to preparing to do multifamily investing in Detroit

[24:27] What Greg does for Ford

[27:57] How quickly we're approaching self driving cars and the new city built to be a self driving car test ground

[30:15] How self driving cars can change the landscape of cities

[33:45] If cars didn't need parking spots, what would we do with the 40% of the city that's currently being used for parking

[36:25] If Greg would buy any of the $1 houses in Detroit

[39:10] Greg's investing history and why he doesn't do the stock market anymore

Direct download: CI_54_Greg_Scott.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 8:00am EDT

Jefferson Lilly is a mobile home park investment expert, educator, and industry consultant who has been featured in the New York Times, Bloomberg Magazine, and on the 'Real Money' television show.  Prior to co-founding Park Street Partners in 2013, Mr. Lilly spent seven years investing his own capital at Lilly & Company where he acquired and continues to operate mobile home parks in the Midwest.  Prior to becoming an investor full-time, Jefferson spent 10 years in sales leadership roles with several venture-backed startup companies in Silicon Valley that were acquired by Openwave Systems and VeriSign.  Earlier in his career he held operational roles at Viacom and was a consultant with Bain & Company.

Key Takeaways:

[2:30] The history of Jefferson's investing and value investing with mobile home parks

[4:38] Whether the mobile home park scene is too crowded or if there's still room

[7:07] How to find a broker for mobile home parks

[11:22] If Jefferson prefers park or tenant owned homes

[14:02] The interest rates being charged to tenants when they're buying homes

[18:20] Why mobile home parks aren't being built anymore

[19:25] The biggest mistake Jefferson made in the mobile home park real etate market

[22:20] How Jefferson went about turning a mobile home park into a better investment after purchase

Websites Mentioned:

www.parkstreetpartners.net
www.tulsaestatesmhp.com

Direct download: CI_53_Jefferson_Lilly.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 8:00am EDT

Jeff K. Johnson is the President of Black Commercial, Inc., one of Spokane’s largest property management and commercial real estate companies. Jeff is a licensed REALTOR® and has worked in the real estate profession since 1975.

Jeff specializes in the sale, leasing, and development of office buildings. Much of Jeff’s work includes assisting Fortune 500 companies with the acquisition and disposition of corporate real estate. Jeff is also the managing general partner in numerous real estate investment partnerships. Prior to moving to Spokane, Jeff grew up in Iowa and attended Waldorf College in Forest City. Jeff has consistently been one of the top producing commercial real estate brokers in Spokane.

Key Takeaways:

[1:52] Jeff's start in the real estate business

[4:02] If paying off your mortgages is really a good idea

[6:40] The benefits of asset accumulation

[8:35] The positives and negatives of leverage

[10:04] Debt coverage ratios

[12:30] Whether cap rates are really that important

[16:00] An important key to being a successful real estate investor

[18:41] The false expectation paradigm

[21:30] Why zoning is so much harder to change today (and how that impacts buying land as an investment)

Website Mentioned:

www.naiblack.com

Direct download: CI_52_Jeff_Johnson.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 12:32am EDT

Joshua Simon founded SimonCRE in 2010 in order to carry out his vision of building a real estate development company that focuses on using impeccable service and superior technology to assist clients. A seasoned real estate professional with over 10 years of experience in leasing, development, and finance, Joshua leads SimonCRE’s growth strategy.

Prior to founding SimonCRE, Joshua spent over six years as an independent contractor for Sandor Development in the capacity of a Developer and Senior Leasing Associate.  With his help and guidance, the Sandor Arizona office opened and grew from three employees to more than twenty.  His primary role was the due diligence, acquisition, design, development, and leasing for more than 1.6 million square feet of retail space located throughout the country. In addition, he also managed the construction portion of Sandor’s projects.

Key Takeaways:

[3:10] The importance of Entrepreneurs Organization in Josh's life

[5:06] How an internship helped Josh get started

[8:02] What Josh started his business doing

[9:33] Josh's first deal

[12:27] Josh's surprise business partner

[14:51] The best business mistake Josh ever made

[17:41] How Josh has scaled up his business and what kind of development he does

[20:08] How shopping centers have changed from the big box draw to places of entertainment, thanks to the internet

Website Mentioned:

www.simoncre.com

Direct download: CI_51_Josh_Simon.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 8:00am EDT

Howard Blum is an American author and journalist. Formerly a reporter for the The Village Voice and The New York Times, Blum is a contributing editor at Vanity Fair and the author of several non-fiction books, including the New York Times bestseller and Edgar Award winner American Lightning: Terror, Mystery, the Birth of Hollywood, and the Crime of the Century. His new book is entitled The Last Goodnight: A World War II Story of Espionage, Adventure, and Betrayal

Key Takeaways:

[3:52] Howard's angle in The Last Goodnight that differentiates it from other World War II stories

[7:10] Betty Pack's impact on the war

[9:29] The making of Hollywood

[12:17] If government agencies are hiring more "honey trap" women for spying and the growth of women in the field world wide

[16:08] Howard's belief of the possibility of contact with extraterrestrials

[18:08] Howard's world take about how it's a different view depending on if you're a reporter or citizen

Websites Mentioned:

www.howardblum.com
www.facebook.com/theauthorhowardblum

Direct download: CI_50_Howard_Blum.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 8:00am EDT

Marc is the founding partner and managing director of both the American Home Recovery Fund and NoteWerx, the cutting-edge note portfolio management cloud ware.

Marc brings over 20 years of senior management and transactional experience in the paper business of mortgage banking and real estate. Marc co-founded American Home Recovery Fund, a multi-million dollar private equity multi-fund, whose primary mission is to purchase NPLs and modify the current borrowers. With the expansion and success of the fund’s business, AHRF developed their own note portfolio management platform, but when it became clear that their software filled a huge void in the note space, NoteWerx was born and turned into its own business channel.

Marc also serves as president of American Home Veterans, a non-profit organization in formation to convert distressed housing assets into donation homes and provides sustainable housing for our nation’s disabled veterans.

Key Takeaways:

[2:08] How the American Home Recovery Fund buys distressed assets but tries to keep people in their home

[5:03] Why investors are crossing over into new territory when traditionally they've specialized

[7:33] Why banks are selling the notes rather than collecting the money from borrowers themselves

[9:32] Why banks haven't gotten more organized since the housing collapse

[11:34] What kind of inventory is still available on the market

[15:02] Great properties available in middle America

[17:49] Where Marc sees the market going in the next few years

[19:24] If the Dodd-Frank revisions have impacted his business

Websites Mentioned:

www.ahrfund.com
www.note.guru

Direct download: CI_49_Marc_Gold.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 4:07pm EDT

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