Chris Germain

When I tell people here on the coast that I invest in Midwest real estate, they almost always say "So, you like cheap real estate?" My response? "No, I like value."

@moseskagan @bendreyfuss Obliterated.

@bendreyfuss It's right up there Remember when Obama giving them a few billion of their own $$s back qualified as a big disaster?

How is this not the most humiliating military failure in US history? We didn’t accomplish any goals, we failed to stop a regional power from effectively stopping maritime trade, we had to ask China to even get that country to accept our ceasefire offer?

@credealjunkie POI

I made a Skill! Tired of spending hours (or telling your analyst to spend hours) putting together those POI maps no one ever looks at? Have Claude do it. Pop in the address, out pops a map you can drop into your deck or OM. Reply "POI" and I'll DM you the Skill.

@DallasAptGP And the parking fees for those things is not cheap either.

These big planes usually spend more hours of the day in the air than on the ground Wonder how long they’ll be sitting on tarmacs around the US

@resetbasis @moseskagan And if you're into maximizing the tax code, right back to default dead. Right now, my wife has both means and motive. Enjoy it while you can! For the record, she would never do that, I don't think.

Years ago, @moseskagan gave some of the best real estate advice I've seen on here. I'll poorly paraphrase. "As quickly as possible, you need to take your real estate business from default dead (needing to transact to survive) to default alive (business is self-supporting)." For newer GPs, I cannot properly express how important this is. The sooner you hit the tipping point, the better. It's not about wealth (that comes later) as much as it's about controlling outcomes and reducing stress. Your LPs become true partners, not lifelines. Your team focuses on buying good deals, not trying to jam through bad ones. You spend more time thinking about how to grow your business and less time worrying if you'll have one in a year. Every single decision you make should help you hit this target. Even if it means taking on less money and growing more slowly. Your life will dramatically improve as a result.

@LeylaKuni Looks like the "3 cap" hats from 2021

how cooked are we, chat?

@jdmiser Underscoring this point. Most "off market deals" are only off market because they've already been passed over (below grade or downslope units are a dead giveaway) or the asking price is a 3 pointer for ownership.

I spent the first few years building a list of owners to cold call so I could source deals directly off-market. The thought was I could snag good deals below market because the owners weren’t sophisticated. Now that I’ve got a few gray hairs and some experience, I’ve realized that model is mostly a waste of time. We owners know what we have. We’re not giving away the house just because you’ve been annoyingly persistent. Most buyers would be far better off spending their time on operations and building relationships with brokers in their markets.

@Jb2Investments Yikes. Had not heard about this.

SB 1507 is scheduled for a vote on the Oregon Senate floor on Monday. This bill, if it passes, will decouple Oregon from some of the new federal tax changes. For real estate investors who live in Oregon, that means not recognizing the 100% bonus depreciation for state income purposes. If it passes the state Senate, I highly recommend we fight for a carve-out of the depreciation portion through the House Revenue Committee. Like email the heads of that committee.

@DallasAptGP We suffered the consequences of residents failing to report running toilets. Not anymore. Above average water/sewer bills still trigger rigorous inspections, but our RUBS system recaptures the cost of resident indifference. Now, Residents now fix their own damn toilets.

Every apartment operator is hunting for margin right now. Rents are flat. Insurance is up. Taxes are up. Most owners stare at the revenue line and hope. The smart ones look at the expense line and act. The first place we look, in good markets and bad, is the water bill. Your water bill is not a fixed tax. It is a controllable variable. If your water bill shows use of over 200 gallons per unit, per day, you are burning cash. We see deals in due diligence averaging 500 gallons. That is not "old plumbing." That is system failure. We target 130 to 160 gallons per unit, per day. Hitting this number does not require a miracle. It requires a specialized crew and a checklist. You can cut usage by 50% or more in less than a week. A crew of eight plumbers can sweep a 200-unit property in days. The scope is surgical. Toilets. Replace tanks with high-efficiency models (Toto Entrada CST244EF). Regulators. Install low-flow showerheads residents won't notice. The "silent" leaks. Replace angle stops. These drip for years, rotting subfloors and draining bank accounts. Main line. Fix underground leaks that never surface but spin the meter. Now the math: Take a 100-unit property in Dallas. Current usage: 300 gallons per unit, per day. Annual water bill: $120,500. We spend $100,000 on a full conservation sweep. We drop usage to 160 gallons per unit, per day. New annual bill: $64,250. Annual savings: $56,250. That is a 56% return on capital in Year 1. But the savings are only half the story. Real estate trades on a multiple of NOI. At a 6% cap rate, that $56,250 in savings adds $937,500 to your asset value. $100,000 in. $937,500 out. In a flat rent market, this is how you force appreciation. If you operate 100+ units in Texas and need to find margin immediately, DM me. We run the analysis. We find the leaks. You keep the equity.

@CoachNoella @robbiehendricks Who's paying for these boring bot comments??

@steppedupbasis @robbiehendricks lol I’m sure they sold something… they sold their life once in jail.

We bought a deal from a guy that: • raised tens of millions from LPs • lost it all • bank foreclosed • but he had non-recourse debt, so no bankruptcy and kept all acquisition and asset fees Here he is leaving the closing dinner to go start a new distressed value add fund:

@robbiehendricks @jw_hou Fiction.

@ErnieBrownII @PerrySolem @robbiehendricks Well done Ernie!

@CoachNoella @robbiehendricks Wrong question. Let's get you back on track with what did they sell.

@steppedupbasis @robbiehendricks that’s wild, well deserved!! What did they steal?

@ErnieBrownII @PerrySolem @robbiehendricks Haha! To be clear, I DO think Ernie must have sold life insurance to this guy, but I am sure the premiums have been sent to collections

We were next door, with units that added up to 200 combined. So I naturally said "let's share maintenance guys!" Little did I know their maintenance guy was also a criminal. When he was ultimately arrested and thrown in jail, the other crook called me on a Saturday morning asking me for money to bail Ed out of jail. I said "Sorry, John, Ed is right where he needs to be."

@steppedupbasis @robbiehendricks how did you meet this guy?

@robbiehendricks He does not look anything like your John Travolta character, I'll assure you of that. Way more donuts and anti-perspirant.

From the 10th Amendment: any powers not given to the federal government by the Constitution, nor forbidden to the states, are reserved for the states or the people. I remember reading the Federalist Papers in 11th grade and being amazed. I shouldn't have been. They were meant to guard against moments like these.

@ScottMechkowski Can you tell me where you believe states rights exist and where they don’t? Which federal laws extend beyond explicit limits and which don’t? A clear list would be good for future reference.

Immigration policy is not a local preference. It is not a city ordinance. It is not a state experiment. Under the Constitution and federal statute, immigration law is national law under Article I, Section 8, Clause 4. It is written by Congress, enforced by the executive branch, and applied uniformly across the country. City councils and statehouses do not get to decide immigration policy for the rest of the nation. Congress does. That distinction matters, because much of what now defines the immigration debate is not coming from Congress. It is coming from municipalities and state governments attempting to carve out “sanctuary” regimes that limit cooperation with federal enforcement, restrict information sharing, and in some cases actively obstruct federal immigration operations. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is not a private agency. It is an enforcement arm of the federal government. Entering the U.S. without inspection is a federal offense. Overstaying a visa is a civil violation. In both cases, the legal remedy established by Congress is removal from the country. Cities and states are free to advocate changes to that law. They are not free to nullify it. Yet across the country, local governments have adopted policies that do exactly that.

@credealjunkie Yet it drives short term thinking and short term structures. Real estate is a long lived asset.

@steppedupbasis Not really. It’s actually the most important. But very easy to manipulate

I’ve come to believe that there’s no worse hold period for real state than 7 years. Yet that’s exactly what most GPs pitch. Up cycles tend to last 8-10 years, so for a 7yr hold you’ve got to time the bottom and top perfectly. Short, IRR-chasing holds are a feature, not a bug.

@genzrentroll @DDrolapas It's a tax-deferred annuity for all involved -- without the commissions.

@steppedupbasis @DDrolapas Just learned about crystallization 3 months ago - fascinating!

We've owned this beauty for 20 years and just getting started. We're installing new fiber cement siding, new entryways, new door canopies, new ButterflyMX video access control, & new managed wifi. Low day one basis & positive leverage means you get to have fun everyday.