Today, my guest is Dale Watchowski. Dale is the President CEO and COO of Redico. Dale has more than 30 years of real estate experience in both local and national platforms with a diverse spectrum of expertise in acquisitions, development, capital markets and operations. And in just a minute, we're going to speak with Dale about trends in real estate trends in commercial real estate development. 

 J. Darrin Gross

I'd like to ask you, Dale Watchowski, What is the Biggest Risk?

Dale Watchowski  

Yeah, so Well, I could speak on on this topic for hours. But but I'll start by by just you know, offering a general thought and it's it's nothing that that that I'm sure your listeners haven't haven't heard already and in know very well but, but risk is inherent in our business. Being in the real estate business as an investor is, is you know, we're no strangers to risk and, and, you know, as developers, you know, I'm part of a pretty optimistic lot. And I think you've probably heard it said before that you have to be a dreamer. And you have to be a very, you know, an optimist to be a developer. And, and I would say that I'm probably the exact opposite of that. So I tend to focus on the downside, and, and, you know, my team here, as always temper that, you know, because I'm always pointing out the risks inherent in everything that we do, but but I'd say that, you know, you know, speaking outside of, you know, the risk inherent, you know, that inherent in the insurance industry, I'm gonna, I'm gonna go to kind of market risks right now, and I'm going to tell you that, that to our conversation earlier, my biggest concern is around, you know, our Office users and, and, you know, are we going to be able to retain them? You know, will, you know, will we go back to the office? What form? Will we go back to the office? And what's it going to cost me, you know, to build out space that is attractive to my office users? And, and, you know, what did we do during this time of transition, you know, when your users are only looking to renew on a short term basis, which is really what's happening right now. So, you know, so what the, the impact of, of all of that might be is that is the capitals becoming much less scarce, you know, for Office owners and developers. And because the, you know, like, the capital markets are pricing in the risk inherent in that business. And so, and so I see the development of capital playing significantly into the office market. And, and so, I also see on the residential side, I'm gonna move to another area of our business. And in this translates into, you know, both our market rate, you know, traditional multifamily uses, you know, of any age, right through, you know, a multi generational platform, that will include senior housing, but, but affordability is a major factor. And, you know, while we were not acquiring bundles of properties, you know, in multifamily, you know, over the course of the last five years, you know, we certainly were looking at, you know, the trades that were being done out there, and, and you know, what had happened is we took a, you know, an affordable stop, and we said, Okay, we're going to, we're going to improve a kitchen, or we're going to improve the common areas. And what we're going to do is we're gonna increase the rent by 20%. Okay, and now you factor in inflation, and what's that going to do to, you know, the housing stock that's out there that would have otherwise been affordable? And then the other factor is, how are we going to build housing that, you know, that that our our tenants can afford, you know, given inflationary pressures? So, so I'd say that there's a lot of pressure on the residential space, in that, in that we're going to have to be responsive to the needs of the general population, which is, you know, how do I afford to live? And maybe that's why multifamily or rental housing is so, so attractive, and probably the reason why we're looking at single family rentals. You know, it's an alternative to single family ownership. And so, you know, what I see, you know, as a trend right now, in this is intergenerational, is that is that people are underemployed. And so that'll probably change, but, but then kind of moving over to the senior space. You know, what I've seen is a trend is that many of many of the boomers throughout this recession, or this throughout the pandemic.

By the way, I happen to believe that we're probably in a recession right now, but at least the real estate recession but, but that said, many of the boomers have have retired, or they've left the workforce. And, and then those same boomers that we're trying to attract into our senior business. They're not like, you know, the greatest generation in World War Two generation, they don't have savings. They don't have equity in their homes. They don't have pensions, and they don't have 401 K's, you know, which is what really drove our business and enabled us to maintain occupancy levels, you know, over the course of the last 10 years. So we have very few of those residents left and, and very few of our residents now, you know, how the kind of money that they would need to move into one of our properties. So what's happening is that they're moving in on a need driven basis, and they're moving in at, you know, 85 rather And then 75, which is where they were 13 years ago when I came into the business. And so and because of that, they have more health needs. So we have to find employees to serve their needs. Okay. And, and those employees are out there. You know, so, you know, how do you, you know, how do you mitigate that risk, and I think you mitigate the risk by trying to play in the middle markets and build a product that's affordable, you, you know, you try to, you know, not just attract and pay your employees well, but you, you try to retain them by, by offering them a great, you know, work environment, and, and then what you're going to have to look for is a way in which to retain your talents, even after they, they don't have the ability to pay any longer. And so we're, we're looking for different forms of assistance to bring into our business. So a lot of factors play into this. And I think I could, you know, as I said, I could talk about it for an awful long time. And, and that doesn't even, you know, bring up the risks that we have today, that present themselves, you know, as a result of, you know, geopolitical pressure and in the environment that we're dealing with. In the US, we started our conversation before this call, the environment that we're dealing with is one that's quite obvious through, you know, the heat that were that were incurring right now. And in the fact that we have to keep these buildings running well, throughout, you know, extreme temperatures. So So there are a lot of challenges. I think you hit on a interesting topic.

Today, my guest is Vimal Patel. Vimal is the President CEO of Q Hotels Management, which develops and owns and operates hotels in Louisiana and Texas. He has been featured by Fox Business News Week, the Associated Press nerd wallet, authority magazine, nola.com, and others. And in just a minute, we're going to speak with Vimal about hospitality real estate.

J. Darrin Gross

I'd like to ask you Vimal Patel, what is the Biggest Risk?

Vimal Patel  

Yeah, so as I mentioned, right now, the biggest biggest risk right now is again, having having the personal guarantee that you have on your debt, right, the loan, you know, the cost of operations has gone up, you know, the fixed cost has gone up, the revenue has not gone up in that percentage. So, so coming out of the COVID, getting extensions, and now dealing with inflation and rising interest rates and the rising costs and so forth, you want to maintain that because again, if you start slugging lagging on your, on your mortgage payments, if you can pay and your your liquidity during the network is digging up, you know, that that's a huge concern, because that pretty much underlines your future your assets that you hold your your future for kids. You know, that's that's the biggest, biggest, biggest part of it. Obviously, the other part Hand in Hand goes with it again, as I mentioned about the hurricane, right, we went to the hurricane, you know, and again, we dealt the billing and insurance companies is a huge challenge in this part, it took us, you know, seven months to kind of settle the claim and get the funds. In the meantime, we had to use our own line of credits, and get more debt to rebuild, continue rebuilding, and while while we were negotiating and fighting the insurance company, you know, having having the M the property coverages is the biggest factor because we just went through that part, right coverage, the right deductible, knowing your coverages and be able to ability to to have a plan in place should disaster occur, right, you're not scrambling to find the right resources who to sue to get into this, but as a public adjuster with his attorney, or whether it's a mitigation company or whatever the case may be right so you got to have those plan in place because absolutely the day of the disaster the after the disaster. There'll be a million other people lining up and digging a great job for you and then you will overpay them that job, you know, and they'll run away so so those are the two bad to experience a huge aspect of the latest my experiences in fire the risk mitigation risk factor that Family, you know, we used to be concerned about this, why the dad is concerned, you know, you had to start building reserves to have knowing COVID. And then situations that Makara you know, minimum in that building six months worth of results for your mortgage payment that way that we need to down in our period, you're still able to kind of manage it and then hang on to your, your, your, I guess the credit part of it your net worth and then you know, your credit scores.

Today, my guest is Raphael Collazo. Raphael is a licensed commercial real estate agent who specializes in investment in investment properties. He's also the author of before you sign that lease. And before you buy that building comprehensive guides to leasing and buying commercial real estate. And in just a minute, we're gonna speak with Ralph about how to analyze and assess retail real estate investment opportunities. 

J. Darrin Gross:

I'd like to ask you, Raphael Collazo what is the Biggest Risk?

Raphael Collazo 

Yeah, no, I think we kind of touched on it a little bit early on. And I think that's just a broader risk as a whole. I mean, you know, it's somewhat out of our control what's going to happen over the next six to 12 months, I mean, the Feds gonna have a part to play but, you know, geopolitical issues that have been arising and supply constraints or, or things that we're at work trying to work through, but it's going to be reality for quite some time. So as far as the risk is concerned, if you're a property owner, and you're in the retail space, in particular, just working with your tenants understand getting a pulse on how they're doing, you know, talking to them, just being that that their relationship, because again, they as tenants are supporting you as landlord, and vice versa, it should be that type of relationship. So in situations where we go into a, you know, an economic recession, which is likely going to be the case, you know, working with your tenants to try to get them through it if you can, and if not, then obviously repositioning the space to be, you know, attractive to to particular users, and understanding that, you know, what you could maybe charge two years ago, may not be realistic today. But that's going to change going forward. I mean, as you know, we go through recessions, and then we eventually come out of recessions. And so, you know, again, it's better to keep a tenant that's good than to lose one and then have to replace them. And I'm sure that's the case that you've dealt with in all different property types.

Today, my guest is Matthew Baltzell. Matthew is the former host of the real estate journeys podcast, a top 400 business podcast. And he is a real estate investor with a portfolio of 743 units and four years of asset management experience.

J Darrin Gross

I'd like to ask you, Matthew Baltzell, what is the biggest risk?

Matthew Baltzell 

Yeah, so I thought about this. And I didn't know I was formulating this thought. I mean, I've had this thought before, and it's always constantly stuck with me. And so, you know, there's a movie called Schindler's List, right. And in the movie, somebody asks Schindler, and they say Schindler, like why do I never? Why do we never see you drink? And he says, You know, I never drink. Because the reason why I don't drink is because when I drink, I give up all my power. And when I first heard that, I was like, Whoa, I was blown away, right? And so when you have your power, right, you have leverage, you actually have power. And when you say things, like, I can't go to the movie, right? It's like, you're giving up like, your power instead of like saying, I choose not to go to the movie. Like, I don't want to go to movie Hey, can you come over for dinner tonight? I can't make it like you can make it but you choose not to make it right. So basically, giving up your power is one of the greatest risks. So if you're giving up your leverage within your business, you're giving up your risk, right? If you're, if you're, if you're giving up, you know, cutting corners on underwriting deals, you're you're giving away you're giving away your risk, you're giving away your power. So I would say giving up your power is the greatest detriment that a person could do. And giving up my power, my voice, my opinion, my skill set. That to me, would be the greatest risk.

Today, my guest is Kurt Uhlir. Kurt is a globally recognized marketer, operator and speaker. He's built and run businesses from startup to over 500 million in annual revenue, assembled teams across six continents and been a part of the small team leading an IPO of $880 million.

J Darrin Gross:

I’d like to ask you, Kurt Uhlir, What is the biggest risk?

Kurt Uhlir 

The big key is risk in my personal business. And I think in most people's businesses, actually, what am I wrong about today? And I like I don't know what I'm wrong about in my business today. But I can guarantee I'm wrong about at least three fundamental things. And I say that from too many decades is already working and not enough hours sleeping, realizing. Like I know one thing and feeling right and feeling wrong feels exactly the same until you realize your wily coyote out over the ledge and you realize in that moment, I've been wrong about a fundamental belief in my business for the last three months, three years, and something's come out wrong. And so I do a lot to in my personal life or my business life there to try to de risk that by putting people around me that have full transparency into what I'm doing and the decisions and my thought process in business. Some cases, those are paid mentors and coaches, other times or masterminds where people that are in similar, often non competitive businesses that are trying to accomplish the same growth trajectory, tried the same things, and fully exposed, hey, here's why. Here's how I'm making this approach. And be very give other people permission to speak into cordite. I think this is what you're missing. Comana that times where it's like, you realize, oh, God, I've been putting in a lot of resources, millions of dollars in some cases. And I realize I've been fundamentally wrong, and I just lost it all, man. And we've been really nice to somebody could have given me that insight beforehand. So I've, I've been in that wrong situation too many times. But I've also saved millions of dollars, by having close people in those relationships, point out things to me that I really thought I was right about, until they started pushing me on it. And I realized through kind of that discovery, now, there's much more riskier than I think, and I need to change path before I write that next check.