On this episode of Best Ever CRE, Slocomb Reed interviews fellow host and Midwestern investor Joe Cornwell live from the Best Ever Conference 2025. They dive into the often-overlooked strengths of investing in the Midwest, especially in the multifamily space, contrasting its consistency and risk-adjusted returns with the volatility of Sunbelt and high-growth markets. Joe and Slocomb discuss how operator control, supply-demand dynamics, and avoiding negatively-levered deals have allowed Midwest i...
May 24, 2025•30 min•Season 1Ep. 3915
On this episode of Next Level CRE, Matt Faircloth interviews John Carlson, President of Mark-Taylor Residential, about scaling a property management company to 33,000+ units while staying committed to quality and culture. John shares how Mark-Taylor evolved from building and managing their own Class A assets in Phoenix to offering third-party management—always maintaining a luxury brand identity. The conversation dives into the operational impacts of geographic concentration, tech-driven central...
May 23, 2025•44 min•Season 1Ep. 3914
On this episode of the Passive Income Playbook, Pascal Wagner interviews Jim Pfeifer, founding member of Left Field Investors (now rebranded as Passive Pockets) and long-time limited partner (LP) investor. Jim shares his journey from high school teacher to financial advisor to full-time LP, highlighting the transition from stock market speculation to real estate investing for cash flow. They discuss the pitfalls of early passive investments, the importance of vetting operators (especially in vol...
May 22, 2025•1 hr 12 min•Season 1Ep. 3913
On this episode of Beyond Multifamily, Amanda Cruise interviews Brian Ker, President of Snowball Developments, about his value-add industrial investment strategy in the tri-state area. Brian shares his journey from institutional brokerage in Canada to running a 2 million square foot industrial portfolio in New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut. He explains why buying “ugly buildings on great dirt” in dense, urban infill markets creates the best long-term opportunities, and dives into the importa...
May 21, 2025•41 min•Season 1Ep. 3912
On this episode of Best Ever CRE, Joe Cornwell interviews Zasha Smith, a former engineer turned real estate investor based in Hawaii. Zasha shares how a Google search on “how to get rich” led her from burnout in a 70-hour workweek to flipping houses, raising over $9 million through Instagram, and eventually launching a debt and equity fund. She dives into her latest affordable housing development on the Big Island, where she’s building 32 kit homes on $4K lots to support local families. Zasha al...
May 20, 2025•28 min•Season 1Ep. 3911
On this episode of the Best Ever CRE Show, Joe Fairless interviews Dusty Eddy, founder of Eddie Capital Group. Dusty shares insights from his 20+ year real estate career, which began in institutional retail and development before shifting to multifamily. He discusses the founding of his own firm after a decade at 29th Street Capital, his nuanced understanding of markets like Phoenix and Las Vegas, and the importance of boots-on-the-ground intel. Dusty also details the challenges and strategies b...
May 19, 2025•33 min•Season 1Ep. 3910
On this episode of The Horizon, John discusses the rising risk of higher interest rates and their impact on commercial real estate. He breaks down recent shifts in FedWatch predictions, explains why inflation fears are growing despite current readings, and explores how political uncertainty—especially around tariffs and the stalled federal budget—is pushing markets into volatility. John also examines cap rate trends and evaluates whether investors and sellers should act now or wait, with a stron...
May 18, 2025•35 min•Season 1Ep. 3909
On this episode of Best Ever CRE, Slocomb Reed interviews Kyle McGee, a Pensacola-based real estate developer and investor, about how he's built a vertically integrated real estate company spanning construction, residential sales, multifamily investing, and property management. Kyle shares his journey from starting as a realtor to running a $22M business and highlights how implementing EOS (Entrepreneurial Operating System) has helped him scale while maintaining focus and culture. He discusses t...
May 17, 2025•31 min•Season 1Ep. 3908
On this episode of Next Level CRE, Matt Faircloth interviews Eddie Wilson, a third-generation real estate investor and prolific entrepreneur who has started and exited over 120 businesses. Eddie shares how growing up in a family of entrepreneurs laid the groundwork for his success, and how painful early business lessons taught him to manage fear and practice gratitude. He unpacks the structure behind his billion-dollar exits, explains why he prefers service-based businesses over e-commerce, and ...
May 16, 2025•39 min•Season 1Ep. 3907
On this episode of the Passive Income Playbook, Pascal Wagner interviews Michael O’Shea, Head of Private Wealth at Origin Investments. Michael shares how his firm has built a $3.3B portfolio offering institutional-quality investments to high-net-worth individuals, particularly through tax-advantaged vehicles like DSTs and Opportunity Zone funds. The episode dives deep into the mechanics, benefits, and misconceptions around both strategies—highlighting when each is appropriate, how they support e...
May 15, 2025•1 hr 3 min•Season 1Ep. 3906
On this episode of Beyond Multifamily, Amanda Cruise and Ash Patel interview Drew Dolan, fund manager at DXD Capital, a self-storage-focused CRE firm based in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Drew shares how his background in engineering and technical sales led to a pivot into development, and why he now prefers building over buying due to the greater margin for error and control over entitlements. He breaks down DXD’s national development strategy, current projects in 20 states, and why fully entitled ...
May 14, 2025•36 min•Season 1Ep. 3905
On this episode of Best Ever CRE, Joe Cornwell interviews Greg Farricielli, a multifaceted investor and broker with a deep background in land development, hard money lending, and multifamily properties across Florida, Tennessee, and Kentucky. Greg shares his journey from starting as an agent in Nashville to partnering on high-profit entitlement deals, including a $1M acquisition flipped for over $5M. He breaks down the mechanics of land development and entitlement, emphasizing patience, proper s...
May 13, 2025•45 min•Season 1Ep. 3904
On this episode of the Best Ever CRE Show, Joe Fairless interviews Vanessa Alfaro, Bonny Wayman, and Rebecca Themelis in part three of a three-part series on AI in multifamily real estate. This installment focuses on how operators are implementing AI in property operations such as leasing, maintenance, asset management, and investor reporting. Vanessa discusses creating AI agents and chatbots for asset analysis and KPI tracking, Rebecca explains how tools like MeetElise and Claude AI have accele...
May 12, 2025•47 min•Season 1Ep. 3903
On this episode of The Horizon, John discusses the complex forces influencing interest rates, inflation, and investment strategy in today’s real estate market. He breaks down Wall Street’s predictions for Fed rate cuts, explains why the Federal Reserve is likely to hold steady due to policy uncertainty—especially around tariffs, immigration, and supply chains—and challenges the idea that waiting to buy or sell will yield better opportunities. John also explores how cap rates, treasury yields, an...
May 11, 2025•35 min•Season 1Ep. 3902
On this episode of Best Ever CRE, Slocomb Reed interviews Lee Yoder, a multifamily owner-operator based in Cincinnati, about the transformative impact of bringing property management operations in-house. Lee shares how managing his own 283-unit portfolio led to lower vacancy and delinquency rates, a drop in turnover expenses, and significantly improved cash flow. He also details how internalizing operations enabled him to build a reliable team and scale his business more confidently—culminating ...
May 10, 2025•37 min•Season 1Ep. 3901
On this episode of Next Level CRE, Matt Faircloth interviews Michael Episcope, co-founder of Origin Investments, about his journey from trading commodities to building a real estate firm with over 10,000 multifamily units transacted. Michael shares how his grandfather's scrappy approach to West Side Chicago buildings shaped his foundational real estate mindset, and how he applied those principles to launch Origin during the 2008 financial crisis. The conversation dives deep into why Origin focus...
May 09, 2025•48 min•Season 1Ep. 3900
On this episode of the Best Ever CRE Show, Pascal Wagner interviews Christian Busch, a seasoned real estate investor and managing partner at Glass Cube Investments. Christian shares insights from his 12-year journey navigating both active and passive commercial real estate investments, starting with crowdfunding platforms like Fundrise and eventually building direct relationships with sponsors. He breaks down his thesis on market selection, the risks of single-tenant assets, and his preference f...
May 08, 2025•47 min•Season 1Ep. 3899
On this episode of the Best Ever CRE Show, Amanda Cruise and Ash Patel interview Suja Shyam, Managing Partner of Lux Capital Investment Group. Suja shares how her firm has expanded beyond multifamily real estate into alternative assets, including private equity and small business acquisitions. She explains the appeal of cash-flowing businesses amid rising interest rates, the underwriting and due diligence involved in these deals, and her preference for durable, low-volatility industries. Suja al...
May 07, 2025•37 min•Season 1Ep. 3898
On this episode of Best Ever CRE, Joe Cornwell interviews Michael Kramer, founder of Freed by Real Estate. Michael shares his deeply personal journey from losing his father and building businesses to ultimately discovering a more balanced, family-centered life through real estate. He discusses how a life-altering accident and a failed first marriage reshaped his priorities, leading him and his family to scale a vertically integrated multifamily investment and lending firm. Michael also explains ...
May 06, 2025•47 min•Season 1Ep. 3897
On this episode of the Best Ever CRE Show, Joe Fairless interviews Dr. Adam Gower, Tim Mai, and Irwin Boris to explore how AI is transforming capital raising in commercial real estate. The panel shares their most effective AI tools and how they use them for investor outreach, appointment setting, and content creation. Tim explains how he automates prospecting via Facebook and LinkedIn, while Irwin details his lead generation workflows through LinkedIn scraping and email campaigns. Adam emphasize...
May 05, 2025•1 hr 1 min•Season 1Ep. 3896
On this episode of The Horizon, John discusses key insights from a high-level meeting with ten of the nation's top commercial real estate investors. Topics included the rising threat of stagflation driven by tariffs and shifting trade policies, and the broader implications for inflation, interest rates, and apartment demand. Despite macroeconomic uncertainty, John notes that investor sentiment remains bullish, with many planning to be net buyers in 2025. He emphasizes that this is a cycle where ...
May 04, 2025•32 min•Season 1Ep. 3895
On this episode of Best Ever CRE, Slocomb Reed interviews Gary Holloway Jr., CEO of GMH Communities, to discuss how his second-generation company evolved from local syndications to large-scale institutional student housing developments. Gary shares insights on identifying top-tier markets for student housing, the economics behind $100K+ per bed projects, and the importance of partnering with experienced operators for success. He also introduces GMH’s “Innovative Living” model—a flexible blend of...
May 03, 2025•27 min•Season 1Ep. 3894
On this episode of Next Level CRE, Matt Faircloth interviews Neal Bawa, known as the “mad scientist of multifamily,” live from Best Ever Conference. They dive into Neal’s preparation for the BEC real estate debate on whether the Fed has stuck a soft landing, highlighting key data points like wage growth outpacing rent growth and the Fed’s dual tools for market intervention. Neal also shares his actual market outlook—separating his debate stance from his real views—stating he is bullish on rent g...
May 02, 2025•23 min•Season 1Ep. 3893
On this episode of the Best Ever CRE Show, Pascal Wagner interviews Jeremy Roll, a full-time passive investor since 2002 with active investments in over 60 deals. They discuss how to strategically read market cycles, why Jeremy prioritizes predictability and cash flow over chasing high returns, and how his portfolio has evolved to favor asset classes like multifamily, mobile home parks, and senior living. Jeremy also shares his approach to cycle timing, his cautious stance since 2016, and specif...
May 01, 2025•1 hr 3 min•Season 1Ep. 3892
On this episode of the Best Ever CRE Show, Amanda Cruise and Ash Patel interview Jaimee Keene, founder of Peaks Commercial Real Estate. Jaimee shares her journey from commercial real estate appraiser to top-performing broker and now investor, focusing on Colorado’s resort markets. She discusses building a specialized commercial brokerage, navigating the nuances of resort town investments, and lessons learned from the appraisal world that shaped her cautious investing philosophy. Jaimee also high...
Apr 30, 2025•37 min•Season 1Ep. 3891
On this episode of Best Ever CRE, Joe Cornwell interviews Phillips Wagner of Mill Street Partners. They dive into how Phillips is making ground-up multifamily and industrial development deals work in today’s challenging market, including creative land entitlement, vertical integration to control construction costs, and the use of steel framing to save on insurance and build times. They also discuss the importance of municipal incentives, the long-term outlook for DFW development, and advice for ...
Apr 29, 2025•27 min•Season 1Ep. 3890
On this episode of the Best Ever CRE Show, Joe Fairless interviews AI-savvy investors Paul Hopkins, Perry Zheng, Lance Pederson, and Bo Barron to explore how artificial intelligence is reshaping commercial real estate acquisitions. The panel shares practical tools—like Google’s Notebook LM, ChatGPT, AI21, and Claude—and strategies for deal analysis, underwriting, parsing PDFs, and even creating custom GPTs to automate offering memorandum reviews. They discuss how AI streamlines market research, ...
Apr 28, 2025•45 min•Season 1Ep. 3889
On this episode of The Horizon, John discusses his takeaways from the conference he just attended, emphasizing the resilience of commercial real estate amidst economic uncertainty. He highlights positive investor sentiment, particularly around multifamily, medical office, and necessity-based retail assets, while noting caution about tariffs, stagflation risks, and global trade impacts. John also dives into demographic trends favoring long-term rental demand, especially among millennials, and str...
Apr 27, 2025•32 min•Season 1Ep. 3888
On this episode of Best Ever CRE, Slocomb Reed interviews Stephen Predmore, an engineer-turned-investor and owner of Talbot Investments. Stephen shares his journey from small single-family rentals in Baltimore to JV, LP, and co-GP multifamily positions across the U.S. He highlights key lessons from a challenging 33-unit JV in Alaska and contrasts it with a more successful, nearby JV in West Virginia. Stephen also explains why he chose to syndicate a 54-unit North Carolina deal and discusses his ...
Apr 26, 2025•27 min•Season 1Ep. 3887
On this episode of Next Level CRE , Matt Faircloth interviews Lon Welsh, founder of Ironton Capital and seasoned real estate investor managing over $80 million in other people’s money. Lon shares how his journey began with house hacking and fix-and-flips before scaling into brokerage, syndication, and ultimately launching multiple real estate funds. They dive deep into market segmentation, the risk-reward spectrum of different neighborhoods, and why investor matchmaking is key. Lon also unpacks ...
Apr 25, 2025•1 hr 4 min•Season 1Ep. 3886
