Mark Rea Baker

Lots of new followers, so I'll share the time I jumped scale, went WAY outside my comfort zone. Bought a vacant SEARS store, did an office-to-housing conversion (had already been re-worked in 1990). 54,000 sf of drywall, drop ceilings, and second guessing... 🧵

@dig_deeper1 @Back40Ventures It's the R-3 designation, right?

@Back40Ventures I’m telling you. I’m learning and they just make sense

The more you learn about duplexes the more they make sense.

@BlackLabelAdvsr It's missing the 911.

I finally updated my garage. Did I nail it or would you change anything?

@credealjunkie Why do you say you missed your window? What changed?

Sometimes I walk around downtown San Francisco at 7pm on a Thursday and see the empty streets and wonder what it would be like with people living here. There was a window to create thousands of housing units from empty offices. But we missed it. Damn shame.

@rocknrao @credealjunkie It depends on the building. For a narrower floor plate, it can be quite clear cut and profitable. Adaptive reuse is my specialty.

@credealjunkie I’ve read that it’s hard to convert offices to residential and not necessarily cost efficient. It doesn’t pencil out as they say.

@bobbyfijan @americanhousing These are great! Crank 'em out. I'm sure the middle room can be an office in middle row situations. Carry on!

Here's the floorplan of the first rowhome @americanhousing built 4BR/2.BA -Dining nook (banquette) -Floor to ceiling triple pane windows -3 (small!) rooms for kids, nursery, home+office -top floor master suite and balcony

@retjan2022 @elonmusk You may not care, but Elon does. He cites population collapse as the biggest threat to humanity.

@markreabaker @elonmusk I personally don’t care. The man earned his money.

Quick! Name a large charitable action by @elonmusk You probably got stumped! Now that he's the first trillionaire, I've got the perfect way he can give back. He's always talking about population decline, and studies show that the high cost of housing is causing smaller households and directly related to the declining birth rate. So Elon should create a grant or discount lending program for developers of housing, targeting the most expensive cities. It's a win-win-win and it'll help repair his aura too.

@jamiebeckett @elonmusk Oh yes, I'm out here doing it. Check my feed. Imagine the scale if Elon got behind it. The world can't stop him.

@markreabaker @elonmusk Or you could. Why put your dreams on Elon? Work toward your own solutions.

@mattbnelson @Kingkiko61 @elonmusk Reread it. There's no lie there. The point is that he is not known for a significant charitable contribution (yet!), but that's an opportunity! Imagine fixing population collapse as his ultimate legacy. Or one of his many legacies.

@markreabaker @Kingkiko61 @elonmusk But your opening implication is a lie. I don't care what you say after that.

@thetomcane @elonmusk @grok can you tell us how housing costs are affecting birth rates?

@markreabaker @elonmusk ok, then explain how there are more vacant houses than homeless people.

@Toadkiller @elonmusk Sorry I triggered you. This is an important issue; Elon considers it the greatest issue of our time.

You are a dumb ignorant dipshit spreading toxic nonsense. StarLink provides life saving communications in innumerable disasters all over the planet. Do you even know any FEMA personnel? Don’t take my word, take theirs. Can you name any of the hurricanes where StarLink provided aid? No. Did you know that Tesla makes their superchargers free during hurricane evacuations? No. You are probably an ignorant American or a Chinese sock puppet eh? Do you know that StarLink single handedly saved Ukraine? No. Why should Elon "give back" at all. We don’t need your communist mumbo jumbo and fake economics. What we need is for Elon to keep doing exactly what he is doing. Have you even read about the native tribes who are now on fast internet and connected instead of on nothing at all despite the billions in government fees and taxes wasted on not getting them connected. Shut up and let capitalism work.

@maxij84 @elonmusk I am! Check my feed. I'm out here providing housing the best I can at my relatively tiny scale.

@markreabaker @elonmusk Why don’t you do it? With your money, resources and time 🤷🏻‍♂️

@thetomcane @elonmusk Trust me, as someone in the industry for 30 years, that's not it. It's an easy scapegoat but not it.

@markreabaker @elonmusk There is a housing shortage because blackrock keeps buying all the single family houses. It’s not because of an actual shortage.

@filtedxenon @elonmusk I don't get these name-callers. Like, what is this, 5th grade?

You are retarded... how about we change the zoning laws in and around cities and let the market adjust properly? The artificial scarcity that zoning laws create is the reason housing costs are so ridiculous. If Elon gave money to developers, that wouldn't change It is not a lack of capital that is stopping people from building housing.

@AndPuns2 @elonmusk Thank you for this. It definitely seems like I triggered a certain section of the population. The only reason I suggested it is because I know Elon cares about this AND I know he could get it done. And the rep thing wouldn't hurt his legacy either.

@markreabaker @elonmusk My apologies for my previous reply. I had just read a bunch of posts from people whining about Elon's wealth and suggesting ridiculous things, so I didn't scrutinize your post fairly. Upon revisiting, I think your post has merit. And perhaps Elon will address it, in his own way.

@Josh_E78 @elonmusk That's not a bad idea at all; but it puts the work directly onto his shoulders. A housing fund on the other hand could be administrated by a 3rd party; it's not rocket science (excuse the pun.)

I would much rather that he create a new company that specializes in inventing new ways to automate the building of safe and affordable homes on a massive scale. Just imagine what could be done with specialized robots that can build homes from top to bottom with extreme precision and no breaks or time off to rest and sleep. A home that is built entirely by robots could in theory cost half as much to build and there would be very few mistakes compared to a house built by humans.

@Tim99247060 @elonmusk @grok That's actually not what the studies say.

@markreabaker @elonmusk @grok Americans are not having enough children to buy more houses. You're just making a plan to house all the 3rd world over-breeders. No thanks. Broke peanut gallery types always have great ideas for someone else's money.

@LongBeachBum @elonmusk Never underestimate Elon!

@markreabaker @elonmusk Hes already working on the things only he can do, and optimizing his ability to contribute to the world. The resources he has at his disposal are already allocated very efficiently.

@DrinkRedbull1 @elonmusk Elon can do almost anything, but single-handedly reversing population decline is even too much for him.

@markreabaker @elonmusk Quick! Name a large charity that manages money really well, produces a lot for the people they claim to support, and has transparency into their expenditures. Quick! Don't look it up! Yes, he's talking about population decline. That's why he's trying to have lots of kids.

@robdubparker @christoph_wertz @elonmusk That's not true. I've been building for 33 years and one never changing fact is that when lower rates are available, construction increases.

@markreabaker @christoph_wertz @elonmusk Addressing the 3rd without addressing 1 and 2 will only make 1 an 2 worse and drive costs up further, hence removing any benefits of the 3rd, Elon fund.

@brohanski2 @christoph_wertz @elonmusk Don't underestimate Elon; he can do anything as long as his heart's in it. Population collapse seems like an issue close to his heart: "the biggest problem the world will face in 20 years is population collapse"

@markreabaker @christoph_wertz @elonmusk Take Elon’s money out of the equation and it still works. This is not an “idea”. Elon is not a bank. He builds companies that employ people.