Alex Holman

Building a beautiful new outdoor kitchen, pergola, and seating area at our old 1960s 70-unit property. You know, if you build nice things for residents they typically appreciate it, renew, and contribute positively to your community. Renderings of finished product in next post. (Bonus points if you can name the origin of the song in the video)

Real estate people are wired to build things themselves and solve problems relentlessly. Same culture that drives value-add investing is going to drive them to build their own AI tools (or at least try). The SaaS apocalypse will hit prop tech hard...

If you are on a budget or just graduating HS or college, does co-living appeal to you? Gensler explored the feasibility of transforming vacant office buildings into co-living microapartments in 10 U.S. cities: Denver; Minneapolis; Seattle; Los Angeles; Houston; Chicago; Washington, D.C.; Albuquerque and Santa Fe, New Mexico; and Phoenix. The Gensler design is to locate fully furnished rooms on a building’s perimeter, with windows. It also envisions shared kitchens, bathrooms, and laundry near the building’s core, where an office building’s plumbing already exists. In the 10 cities studied by the Pew/Gensler team, approximately half of all renter households are considered to be cost-burdened, spending more than 30% of their incomes on rent. In 2024, the Department of Housing and Urban Development reported a record 771,000 people experiencing homelessness in the U.S., an 18% increase from the prior year. There’s also a mismatch between the housing that is available and what renters need: There is not enough housing near jobs and amenities that is affordable for most workers. Many renters earn less than half the area median income and struggle to find housing in job-rich downtowns where median rents often exceed $2,000 per month. In addition, 40% of renter households nationwide consist of just one person; that figure was closer to 50% in many of the cities studied and reached 56% and 58% in Washington, D.C., and Seattle. Source: Pew Study

A Trump insider opened a $51,000,000 oil short position — hours before Trump announced a ceasefire with Iran. This guy is now 16 for 16. $170 million in profit. A perfect streak. This is not a talented trader. "We placed the bet." "The ceasefire dropped." "We cashed out." Sixteen times in a row. That is not skill. That is not instinct. That is not research. That is someone who knows what is coming before it comes. Think about what that actually means. A private individual is placing a $51 million bet that oil prices are about to collapse — hours before a sitting president announces a ceasefire that collapses oil prices. Not once. Sixteen times. Zero losses. There are only two explanations and both should terrify you. Either someone inside the White House — or with direct access to it — is leaking ceasefire negotiations to traders before diplomats, before the press, before the American people hear a single word. That is insider trading. That is corruption. That is a federal crime. Or the timing of the announcement itself is being shaped around the trade. Which is worse. This is not a genius investor who reads the news faster than you do. The news hadn't happened yet. He wasn't reading the news. He was getting a phone call. While Americans were watching the ceasefire announcement and feeling relieved — somebody already knew. Somebody had already bet $51 million on it. And somebody was already counting their winnings. You are not watching a free market. You are watching a White House with a side hustle. Via~ Really American

Knicks have 27 wins against teams over .500 this season. The only teams with more are the Thunder (34), Spurs (33), Pistons (33) and Celtics (29).

I don’t want a Lambo. I want to hang out with my 3 year old daughter at 1PM on a Monday while everyone else is at work.