Jonathan Billings

@Dirtdog @CaseyMericle It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends on his not understanding it." -Upton Sinclair

@CaseyMericle Not while the U.S. Gov’t is in a debt death spiral

Tell me how I can make money on a 5% cap?

@TKopelman You see this across all real estate investment strategies? Development seems the most capital intensive and stressful by far.

This couldn’t be more true The most stressed wealthy folks are those that are entirely allocated to real estate The more liquidity someone has, the less stress they have It’s that simple

@michaelpatron0 “Thanks for the 2% asset management fee!”

When I'm an LP in a RE syndicate that hasn't paid out in over a year but I see the GP buying his girl a Birkin bag and posting about it on IG...

@typesfast Can non Flexport customers use your service for a fee?

International trade attorneys that I’ve talked to said that they will be able to charge 15% of the tariff refund amount to claim the refund. Flexport’s tariff refund calculator will automate this, making us by far the cheapest, most accurate, and fastest way to claim refunds.

@mwmoedinger @DallasAptGP What's the best way to find a leak? My assumption is you turn off all the water valves, watch which valves makes the water meter move, then scope that line?

@DallasAptGP Yep...the cool thing is, this strategy works at any scale! In my (much, much smaller!) portfolio, changing out toilets is one of the first things we do. Carefully watching water bills lets us know when it's time to go on a leak hunting mission - it is *always* worth it.

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.

@drgurner @almostcmb Slack is playing work

@almostcmb I do not know how people get anything done with heavy Slack use.

@MehtabKarta Can I pay you to help me recruit a gangster Amazon Operations Manager in LATAM that is strong in E2E supply chain? Tried your SOP on using an ATS and posting direct, but didn't have much luck (definitely user error on our part).

If you're hiring in other countries, there's very good value in hiring woman because most other countries are outright misogynist. For example, even in 2nd world countries, we receive praise for being good about treating female employees fairly and promoting on an equal track relative to other SMBs we compete with. I don't even mean running some DEI program or something, I mean just treating people equally.

@realEstateTrent Do you typically do backup LOIs for your spaces while leasing up?

We bought a strip mall with 7 vacancies. Purchase price: $2.6M We leased the 7 vacancies. Sale price: $7.5M Leasing strategy is the key in retail.

@shawngorham @theryanjamesmil I've had several of these on different generation iPhones. Very happy with them. Handles drops well (so far).

@theryanjamesmil literally on amazon reading reviews, haha

Need an iPhone case (replacement) Ive always bought the apple one and paid $50 There must be a dupe that's equally as good, right? Which one is it?

@BoringBiz_ Proceeds to overwhelm and overbuild/overcomplicate Excel model for said non-finance person

Investment banking analysts when a non-finance person asks them for help in excel

@BarryRoland19 @Storage_Venture Sometimes a contract will lose money on a project due to underbidding. Thats part of the business for them. No money owed, unless you think it’ll be a long term relationship and the person has integrity (in which case you should try to help).

@Storage_Venture Would he have split the profit with you if he went under budget by 8k?

Concrete guy and I agreed to 96k. Signed the contract. Job is done. He comes to me saying he used way more gravel and had a lot more site prep than anticipated. He said he went over budget 8k and wants me to split it with him. What’s your move?

@aymanalabdul ALWAYS verify new wire instructions with a phone call

ALWAYS do a test send with new wires Send 1% and then call to verify receipt Fire your Finance Person. That money is gone unfortunately

@MultifamilyMad More companies go bankrupt from indigestion than starvation.

About two years ago, two clients of mine (partners) came to me asking for some real estate advising (I advise for free to any of my current or future clients if we have a signed agreement). These guys were buying smaller apartment buildings for cheap off market, renovating them and then they would have me list and sell them. When I got to their office they showed me all the numbers. I was astonished. These guys were buying way too much and too fast. They had 16%+ interest rates on all of their deals and everything was vacant as it was all mostly in the construction phase. They had so much property sitting vacant because they didn’t have enough workers to complete the construction so nothing was producing income. I wrote it out in black and white for them literally on their own whiteboard in their office. I explained to them that they owned too many vacant properties at too high of interest rates. At the rate they were going they wouldn’t make it 18-24 months. I said they needed to slow down, stabilize what they had and either sell or refi into lower rate debt. Or even sell off some of the vacant property they didn’t have the works to get to so they could get rid of the high rate debt and free up the capital. They listened to me while I spoke and agreed saying they will slow down the buying and stabilize what they had. They didn’t. Fast forward to today, unfortunately the partnership is in turmoil and 75%+ of their portfolio has been foreclosed on. Moral of the story. Just because you can’t buy more property doesn’t mean you should. Pace is how you win the race.

@FitFounder No lychee?!?

My top 7 best fruits on the planet 1. Mangoes 2. Pomelos 3. Blueberries 4. Avocados 5. Mangosteen 6. Strawberries 7. Watermelon Anything you'd add?

We’re dealing with a tough situation on Amazon right now, and I’m sharing it because other brands heading into Q4 may face the same thing. One of our flagship products was approved for a 12-day Best Deal (11/20–12/1). We built inventory, planned our strategy, and launched exactly at the price Amazon approved - the lowest Q4 price we've ever offered. A few days into the deal, the system suddenly changed the discount requirements with no notice. Our deal badge disappeared, and Amazon started requiring an additional ~30% off beyond the approved deal price - a price point where we’d lose money on every unit. We’ve never sold anywhere near that price. The choice became: run the deal at a loss or lose the deal entirely. Sales dropped immediately. And because the change happened after inventory was already shipped in, we now have a large amount of stock stuck in FBA during the most expensive storage period of the year. While we wait in appeal limbo, every day adds: • High Q4 storage fees • Risk of long-term storage fees • Capital tied up • Lost ranking and deal momentum The bigger concern: if the system locks in this ultra-low price as the “correct” discount baseline, it may become impossible to run profitable deals this season. Small brands can’t absorb sudden algorithmic price shifts like this. We followed the process, agreed to the terms, shipped the inventory and the requirements changed mid-deal. At this point I don't know what to do - been panicking all day and feeling kind of stuck.

@kelsey_brian @michaelpatron0 What do you mean during T12?

@michaelpatron0 Shut it down Bro. I don’t need to tell you this.. especially during T12

Amazon PPC performance has been absolute ass the last 4 days. There have been HUGE increases in spend while CVR has gotten noticeably worse. Terms that used to convert have turned to crap. Not sure how this plays out yet but find it a bit concerning.

Mo is one of the most kind, selfless and giving people I know. He’s helped me a ton over the years and I’m heartbroken for his family. An easy donation to make.

@dirtdog @moseskagan Doesn’t Slack show up on all those devices also? I haven’t tried iPad but have the others.

We moved to telegram about two years ago for all inner office messaging. We now have more of our regular outside brokers and consultants using telegram for the various projects we have working. I think that platform is much easier to use because it shows up on the phone, iPad, laptop, desktop.

We have avoided purchasing Slack or any of the copycats, bc I can't believe adding yet another inbox people have to monitor would result in net additional productivity. Am I crazy?

@damonhemmerding @moseskagan Asana is great and I use it. It can slow down the*pace* of work though compared to Slack, which is more real time communication. That said… Slack is distracting to people’s work. So, not sure what setup is ultimately better.

Consider using Asana (or a competitor) for project management - the goal should be zero emails within the company because everything happens inside asana. You may be able to get key vendors to participate that way as well. (We have not achieved that goal.) Lots of reasons that’s a better system - happy to connect.

@TaylorEldredge @investingcre This is legitimately a tear down situation, right? Can't image the structure and MEP are in better condition. Probably would cost more to fix than build new.

@investingcre Agreed. Just got sent these today

Everyone wants distressed opportunities until they see what it actually looks like