Morgan

You’re absolutely correct. I was looking at early/mid eighties Porsche 911 SC and they were 15-25k for a pretty good one. Now they’re 45-100k for anything. I don’t think I need one at those prices lol.

It seems like it has been growing a lot, but I don’t know as much as I’d like. That’s part of why I haven’t invested in any self storage so far, plus I haven’t found the right deal yet.

All multifamily properties. I'm thinking about getting into self storage and/or multi-tenant industrial space. We shall see.

Not to sidetrack the conversation, but in the last 5-7 years it seems like vintage/classic cars have gone up 2-3x. I should have splurged back then lol I have 100% of my investments in real estate. The last ten years have been good (an increase in units, property values, and rents), but I’m anticipating a solid drop in prices at some point, but don’t know what causes it or when. Over the next ten years I’m assuming a bit more inflation (rent raises) than the last ten years. We’ll see.

Looks like opportunity to me. Within reason, I’ll buy almost any piece of property at the right price. Especially large collections like this. Buy it all, improve it and turn it around. If the current owners optimistically purchased these buildings at 2-3x what the rents will realistically support, they will have to pay for the mistake through long term vacancies or selling at a loss. Eventually they’ll be forced to be rational.

Charlie Munger faced a similar issue if I remember correctly. Wesco had a large amount of non-core assets/securities and the SEC said the same thing. Wesco and their lawyer replied that because Wesco and all of its marketing materials were for the main public facing business, the rule did not apply. They just happened to have a lot of investments. Of course, I can't for the life of me find the letter. I was just reading it a week or so ago! Ugh.

Poorvu was one of the original investors in the Baupost Group. Poorvu wrote a 4-5 real estate books and I believe is a professor at Harvard. You should read all of his books and see if he’s written any papers. I agree with what the others have said. Study what things are selling for in the market you're interested in and eventually you’ll find a deal that you think is good. I’ve been investing in real estate for 15 years now and have looked at hundred of deals and only purchased 12 properties. In other words, 95% of the properties I looked at weren’t attractive enough for me to buy. Everyone in RE wants you to buy and sell. They don’t care if you go broke from owning the property. Their incentives aren’t aligned with yours to buy attractive property, but only to generate commissions for themselves. Realtors/brokers are a necessary part of RE, and there are good people in those businesses, but listen to your own analysis. If the deal is so good, why wouldn’t the realtor or broker buy it? Cheers and good luck!

Could you share any book titles about Lloyd's?

When hiring for my company, it’s been more difficult to find employees and we need to pay higher wages just to get them to start, then give raises to keep them. It seems like everyone is strapped for workers, so wages are going up. Typically 25%-50% higher for the same positions as last year. Excluding lumber which is up 3x, basically everything from wire nuts, to Egg McMuffins, to Pepsi, HVAC parts, to anything and everything else is up at a minimum 10% and most up 15% or more. My city just raised water prices by 45% too (oh joy). Fortunately though, because all of my competitors are facing similar cost increases, we’re all raising our prices so it’ll even out on our end.

I really like Acquired. I’ve listened to all of them while commuting. They have a long backlog as well. Primarily focused on tech companies and their history, but it’s good and the audio quality is good too.

It might be one of those neighborhoods where they pay a seemingly crazy price for an old shed like this, tear it down, and build and sell a McMansion for 4x the price. Maybe this seller will flip a few sheds and then have enough cash to build a McMansion.

I bet this sells. Looks like it has new lipstick on the pig, and has a decent sized yard from the pictures. Someone who doesn’t know anything about buildings will buy it. I’m glad I don’t need to spend 400k for something like that where I live.

Another excellent one!

I remember the issue of paying for entry was brought up maybe ten years ago and it didn’t happen. I would probably pay now that I’m not in college and broke, but I’d prefer not to. I think having the site for free with some ads, plus affiliate links, and a donation button is a good balance. I know the internet is changing from everything is free, to pay for access, but I think this is a bad trend in general. For what it’s worth, I don’t think many young people would join if they had to pay, and over time this would damage the site. Pay to enter would likely also reduce the number of infrequent posters, who over time add a different viewpoint. Just my two cents. I say no pay, plus have ads, affiliate links, and a donation button.

I enjoyed the transcription of the talk as well. I really enjoy basically anything Bruce Greenwald and Li Lu write or say. The Dollar General book is a new one for me, but I’ve read the others. Lots of good info in them. Titan is very good (every Chernow book I’ve read has been excellent). Another interesting, and perhaps more of an opposite view is Ida Tarbell’s, The History of The Standard Oil Company.