Writing
Essays
Nobody Would Ask the Landscaper to Work for Free, Would They?
The work of a real estate broker is real. The way the work gets paid, or more often does not, is the strange part. No landscaper, housekeeper, or tailor would sign the agreement an agent signs several times a year.
ReadFifty Ways a Deal Dies. Forty-Six of Them Still Get Paid.
I took one commercial sale and listed every way it could fail, then matched each failure to the person whose work it was and asked one question: were they paid anyway? Here is the whole list.
ReadThe Seller Wants 14 Days. The Developer Needs 14 Months.
A land deal dies in the gap between a seller who will not wait and a developer who cannot hurry. I close that gap by owning the land in between.
ReadThe Product Works. Insurance Will Not Pay for It Yet.
The most dangerous moment in a medical company’s life is the one after the regulator says yes and before the payer does. I fund the step in between.
ReadI Do Not Bid at the Auction. I Hold the Note.
When an income property goes bad, most investors line up on the courthouse steps. I would rather be the one everyone at the auction owes money to.
ReadEveryone at the Table Gets Paid but the Brokers
I spent years as a broker, paid only if the deal survived. Now I invest my own capital in real estate, and I am the one who writes the checks. This is why I pay the brokers and advisors who bring me judgment, and why the profession that feeds everyone else at the table is the one left hoping.
ReadCase Studies
The Raise I Walked Away From
Sometimes the most valuable thing you can do on a deal is refuse to bring it to the people who trust you. One example, anonymized.
ReadA Logo Wall Is Not a Track Record
A track record is a claim until someone asks what it actually means. One example, anonymized.
ReadThe Decisive Vote Was Not the Biggest Owner
In contested co-ownership, the documents and the math decide the outcome, not the loudest voice. One example, anonymized.
ReadNo Ordinance Yet Is Not Approval
The absence of a prohibition is not the presence of permission. A discretionary approval lives in the gap between the two. One example, anonymized.
ReadThe Lease Renewal No One Tested Against the Market
Value left on the table is invisible until someone tests the number against the market. One example, anonymized.
ReadLand Marketed for a Use the Code Did Not Allow
A representation can outlive the facts for a long time when no one tests it against the controlling record. One example, anonymized.
ReadHe Was Selling Real Estate He Did Not Own
A confident belief about ownership, left unchecked, can send a seller, and any buyer who relies on him, down a road the records closed years earlier. One example, anonymized.
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