Baird Kleinsmith

Routing mountain bike race through a brewery. Brilliant!

@phil_mcalister Underrated post.

Wait a minute...

$250 is a deal for 3 bags. I paid €497 one way to get 2 bikes (properly packed) home to the US from Ljubljana yesterday. They refused to give me a price over the phone - said I had to go to check-in to get the final price. Took them 6 calls figure out what to charge me. Never flying with them again.

Lufthansa, like Germany, is falling apart. They have been my favorite airline for decades. I have flown at least 50 times with them and will pay more to be with a competent company... with competent pilots and good services. But after more issues last years, now I am absolutely disgusted by the way @lufthansa in Frankfurt treated my parents yesterday. After missing their flight due to a horrible 3 1/2 hour line, they spent the day in Frankfurt waiting for their later re-booked flight exhausted from an overseas trip. So finally, while boarding their plane to Prague, they red-flagged my Father, separated from my Mother who boarded, treating him in an aggressive manner because they claimed that they did not pay enough for their bags (they paid over $250 for 3 bags!!). They claimed he never even paid for it and treated him like like a guilty criminal. Instead of treating them well after a horrible flight experience, you pull an elderly couple from one another accusing him of not paying enough for his bags? He couldn't believe how aggressive and nasty these people were acting towards him. After this, I am not sure I will fly with Lufthansa again. I am at a limit with their issues. My brother-in-law had to spend days more in Germany last month because of the strike, cost him $$$, they lost my bag from Frankfurt last time I was there, I have had long delays last flights. This is not the same company I used to admire. Especially after the nastiness towards my parents in Frankfurt yesterday. That is my red line. You just lost a loyal customer and supporter.

@A_Leutenegger @iotjosh We’re more into point to point exploration, so neither is great for that. Trans Pyrenees starting on Mediterranean and ending in San Sebastián is next on the list!

@bairdk @iotjosh Way too many cyclists 😭 Girona is a bit overrun also but 10x Mallorca in quality.

Diagnosed with cancer 18 months ago. Beat it, but lives with the effects every day. Today rode her bike 85 miles (up 7,200 feet), starting in Slovenia, crossing into Austria & Italy, before returning to Slovenia. Finished with a smile. One bad Mother of our kids! 😍

BTW, this was just day 5 of 7 so far. More highlights from the 4 days prior. The Julian Alps are stunning. 🤩

@iotjosh Yep it’s on our list!

@bairdk Amazing. Surprisingly Mallorca is another nice spot to bike if you’re into elevation and winding turns!

@bryantaucoin @MatznerJon The big climb of the day came at like mile 40 and was about as long as Coal Bank but 70% more elevation gained. 😳

@bairdk @MatznerJon 7,200ft?! What a badass

@bittrends Hoping for negative results for you! 🙏🏼

@bairdk I also had my first colonoscopy at age 41 with zero symptoms. They removed 8 polyps, and one was pretty advanced. Should have pathology reports back next week. Get screened!

@vrexec Please send those blue skies to Slovenia for the next 12 days.

Buongiorno. Guess where I am for 1000 points.

@Storage_Venture Thanks! Don’t see a text from you. Try again!

@bairdk Awesome man congrats! I texted you about an off market deal in your market, happy to introduce you to seller.

The sad story of two crappy self-storage deals... sourced on-market via LoopNet, bought near the peak in 2022 and 2023 at 5.8% and 5.6% going-in cap rates, sold this week at 9.2% and 8.5% exit cap rates, but managed to return 22.2% cash on cash, 67.8% IRR, 5.1x MOIC, and $1.8m net proceeds to roll via 1031 exchange into a $6.5m purchase of less-crappy assets in a less-crappy market. Property 1 Purchased: Sep ‘22 Price: $1,000,000 Initial Investment & Capex: $81,597 Cashflow (after debt svc): $188,466 Annualized Cash on Cash: 63.0% Sale Price: $1,750,000 Net Proceeds: $861,047 MOIC: 12.9x IRR: 128.4% Property 2 Purchased : April ‘23 Price: $1,400,000 Initial Investment & Capex: $337,799 Cashflow (after debt svc): $152,613 Annualized Cash on Cash Return: 14.7% Sale Price: $2,000,000 Net Proceeds @ Sale: $940,340 MOIC: 3.2x IRR: 48.7% *Fun Fact: I have only ever seen this property in photos, never in person. Combined Hold Period: 44 months Initial Investment & Capex: $419,396 Cashflow (after debt svc): $341,079 Annualized Cash on Cash Return: 22.2% Principal Paid Down: $174,916 Net Proceeds: $1,801,387 MOIC: 5.11x IRR: 67.8% Okay, not that sad. The actual sad part: I was originally under contract to sell for $4.1m early last year. Buyer's primary business was imports. Tariff Day cratered the deal the day before DD ended. They came back after a few months at a lower price, I begrudgingly agreed, they couldn't close after multiple extensions, left me with $20,000 hard earnest money (not included in my return metrics). I'm not sad. It all worked out perfectly in the end. Why did I sell? You get rich by holding forever, right? 1) I enjoy most the part of adding value. I added my value. Stabilized is boring. 2) I'm making a deliberate effort to consolidate and expand my portfolio closer to my home market. Figured I could find some deals closer to home (and I did). These were an outlier in my portfolio. 3) The sold properties were generating a combined 8% cash return on net equity and 11% if you also consider principal being paid down. I can do better (read on). Now the deal I'm rolling proceeds into: 100k sq ft across 3 locations in my home market, where I am already the largest single owner of storage. Sourced via a multi-year courting process, consummated magically 3 weeks before close of this sale. $6.5m purchase price, $65/sf, in a market with comps for well-run assets that are, um, higher than that. Conservatively, I expect to generate 16-23% cash flow return on the rolled proceeds and 20-30% if principal pay down is considered. Double the returns if I just held. May 27 close, $150,000 earnest money hard (from the start). Let's f_cking go. I'll leave you with something that gives me a lot of pride - what these deals were doing before they were mine, what I told my lenders they would do, and what they actually did. Mic drop.

@bryantaucoin Heading to Slovenia on Monday for 7 days dedicated to riding bikes and eating food!

@bairdk I don’t know what most of that means but sounds like you’re crushing and it’s time to ride some bikes!

No seller financing. It was an SBA 7a loan. Can’t remember exactly what went down. Think appraisal came in high and bank adjusted the loan amount for me. I remember that deal being the first where I covered initial investment entirely from my prior purchases’ excess cash flow. That’s a cool feeling.

@bairdk Where you able to get seller financing in the first and that is how your initial investment was on the lower end? Both great deals but that first property was a grand slam

@DaveDemarinis Thanks Dave! Prop 1 was driven by maintenance costs related to two residential units on the property. I hate residential. Prop 2 was driven by unanticipated flood insurance costs. Good news for new owner is I did most of the work to get the flood zone revised to remove it.

@bairdk Great job Baird and you deserve it! Why couldn’t you be better forecasting expenses? Just kidding, but curious what expenses drove the significant increase vs. forecast? Obviously some are a function of the higher than expected revenue (insurance, possibly management, etc.)

@MrJonesSTRs Might have to change my handle back in a few months.

@bairdk There's a reason you're the Sultan of Storage! Job well done

@MarcTheAardvark It's not at all humble. It is stupid. You didn't read the whole thing.

@bairdk this was a humble brag, stupid post. 5x MOIC is not a crappy deal

@Wickie218 Full when acquired. 90% and 99% occupied at sale. Increase came from adjusting rates to market.

@bairdk Where the properties you bought below on occupancy and that’s how you got the revenue to jump up in your time owning them?

@therobertleonar Couldn't build for less than that, but you'd never get it approved in the first place. The secret sauce is my in-house operations team. This is not a passive real estate business. It's a very actively managed customer service business delivering exceptional results.

@bairdk $65 seems cheap! Gotta be less than replacement cost? Do you self-manage them all or have third-party managers?