The Real Estate Espresso Podcast

On today’s show I’m going to answer a question that I’ve received from several of our listeners in recent weeks. I’m not going to attribute the question to any one person. The basic gist of the question is “How do you do it?” How do you come up with so much highly varied content on a daily basis? A lot of the content has been clearly researched and was not just off the cuff verbal opinions. So the basic question is how do I come up with this wide array of content? ------------------ Host: Victor Menasce email: podcast@victorjm.com

Today is another AMA episode (Ask Me Anything). Today’s question comes Karen. I have a property that has a proposed road allowance on the city plan. The city has not yet forced the road to be built, nor have they expropriated the land for the road. I want to consider subdividing my property for a small residential subdivision and to get the property rezoned for residential from agricultural. I’m concerned that agricultural land will be worth less than residential land in the event of an expropriation. Residential lots that are builder ready are selling for $150,000 a lot in my area. What would be the best way to preserve the value of my property? How would you advise me to proceed? --------------- Host: Victor Menasce email: podcast@victorjm.com

On today’s show I’m going out on a limb to give you information about the pandemic that is not making headlines. This will help you with your business planning for 2022. I want to be clear that I’m not a doctor and I’m not providing medical advice. I’m merely reporting the results of scientific studies that have been released for publication and are currently undergoing peer review. Once complete the peer review process, this information would be officially published whereas today it’s available as a pre print paper. You can draw your own conclusions about what this might mean for the course of this pandemic. There are numerous public health and governmental bodies sounding the alarm over 0Micron. This pandemic has taught us that anything is possible. First of all, the 0Micron variant is vastly more transmissible than its predecessors. You have been hearing that in the news for weeks. But the good news is that it is producing much less severe disease than it’s predecessors. We also know that if you have antibodies to one of the previous variants, you are not protected from catching 0Micron. The big question is whether antibodies from 0Micron will protect you from Delta, and that is what this study looks at. It was conducted by the Africa Health Research Institute in Durban South Africa. A number of institutions participated in the study. I’ve included the link to the paper in the show notes. https://www.ahri.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/MEDRXIV-2021-268439v1-Sigal_corr.pdf We have already seen that the existing vaccines do not provide any antibody immunity against the 0Micron variant which is why many people who have been fully vaccinated are getting 0Micron. What they did is that they took samples from newly infected people at the onset of symptoms when the number of antibodies to protect against the virus is low because they have not yet been developed by the body’s immune system. We are not talking about Tcell immunity, but antibody immunity. The researchers measured the immunity from the initial sample against 0Micron and against Delta and then compared with a second sample taken 14 days after the onset of symptoms when presumably the body would have generated enough antibodies to fight off the disease. The question is whether the antibodies produced by 0Micron protect against Delta? That is what they looked at in this study.

On today’s show we are talking about the next great innovations in internet applications. In fact every Monday in the month of January we will be talking about some aspect of these new technologies. There is a disproportionate amount of venture capital being focused on blockchain technology. This is not only in Silicon Valley, but in Singapore, London, New York, Berlin, China and India. When we think of blockchain, images of crypto currencies like bitcoin and etherium come to mind. We’re not talking about digital money today. We’re going to look at how this next wave of digital applications are going to differ from the last generation. Today’s internet based applications are centrally hosted. There is a relationship between the host server and the client device which these days is usually a mobile device or a laptop computer. Most of the processing is happening in that centralized data Center. Applications like zoom which is in wide use are actually hosted by Amazon web services. These so-called Web 2.0 services have been concentrated In a handful of companies. We are talking about Google, Facebook, Amazon, Twitter. Microsoft continues to have a strong presence. The biggest difference between a centralized application and the blockchain is that the blockchain applications have their processing distributed among the clients. The idea behind this so-called Web 3.0 and the 2.0 is the centralized versus distributed processing. The hope and the promise of these distributed applications is that they don’t require a data Center in order to scale. It means that the adoption of new applications can be democratized.

Bob Couture lives in Los Angeles and invests in the North East. Not a typical situation. This is a fascinating story of remote investing with a twist. There are some excellent lessons on the importance of team in today's conversation. To learn more or to connect with Bob, he can be found at cp-propertygroup.com -------------- Host: Victor Menasce email:podcast@victorjm.com

Our book this month is a paradigm shift in a way of thinking that is deeply engrained in our society.  --------------- Host: Victor Menasce email: podcast@victorjm.com

On today’s show we’re talking about a new trend in protectionism that has been brought about by scarce resources around the world. I predict new waves of political protectionism happening all over the world as scarce resources become more vital. In an effort to bring more control the a country’s economy, governments sometimes interfere with free markets. This can sometimes bring more security to a country’s critical resources. On today’s show we’re talking about a wave of protectionism that is not making headlines, but is sure to figure largely in the weeks and months to come. ------------------- Host: Victor Menasce email: podcast@victorjm.com

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: podcast@victorjm.com

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: podcast@victorjm.com

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: podcast@victorjm.com