The Real Estate Espresso Podcast

Latest Episodes:

AI Document Verification with Lisen Kaci Mar 02, 2025

Show notes

Lisen Kaci is the lead developer of Discrepancy AI, a suite of tools that provide financial document analysis and verification. On today's show we are talking about the state of the art in using AI tools to streamline the financial document due diligence process. To learn more, visit discrepancyai.com.

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BOM - The Mountain Is You - by Brianna Wiest Mar 02, 2025

Show notes

On the first day of each month we review the book of the month. Our book this month is "The Mountain is You - Transforming Self-Sabotage Into Self-Mastery" by Brianna Wiest.

Coexisting but conflicting needs create self-sabotaging behaviors. This is why we resist efforts to change, often until they feel completely futile. But by extracting crucial insight from our most damaging habits, building emotional intelligence by better understanding our brains and bodies, releasing past experiences at a cellular level, and learning to act as our highest potential future selves, we can step out of our own way and into our potential.

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Hotels Versus Short Term Rentals Feb 28, 2025

Show notes

On today’s show we are taking another look at the changing landscape of hospitality. AirBnb disrupted the hotel world with the gig economy’s answer to a short term stay. Legions of property owners saw the potential for higher income and went all-in on the rental win-fall.

The hotel industry has relied on Online Travel Agents to bring them a lot of traffic. Pricing in the hotel industry tends to follow dynamic supply and demand principles. Those who are coming to town for a large convention and properties are full can expect to pay more. Coming during low season when hotels are empty and you’re likely to find a bargain. But who wants to spend a lot of time browsing through dozens of hotels in order to save a few bucks? This is where the OTA’s can add a lot of value to customers. In my personal experience, I have often booked higher quality hotels using an online travel agent at prices that are lower than you can find on the hotel’s own website. I know they say this should not be possible. I’ve just lived that experience too many times to call it a coincidence.

The online travel agents responded to the threat of short term rentals by offering to list short term rentals on their sites as well. This offers customers the option of seeing branded hotel listings in the same search results as a short term rental.

Companies like Expedia and booking.com are now carrying private listings in addition to hotels. But these online travel agents offer none of the safeguards of the Airbnb platform. Even if the same property is listed on both AirBnb and Expedia, the terms of those two contracts are vastly different.

The hotels are definitely fighting back. The biggest drawback of Airbnb is the wide variation in quality. We have probably all experienced that really bad property that frankly should have its occupancy permit revoked, let alone be removed from any short term listing site.

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How Is Panama Real Estate Different? Feb 27, 2025

Show notes

On today’s show we are taking a look at what I see in Panama after having spent three weeks here touring the country. There are some lovely aspects to the country. The climate is amazing. The people are warm and inviting. The country has amazing beaches.

The country has properties for sale everywhere. I mean everywhere. We are here during high season. This is the dry part of the year when expats spend the most amount of time here.

Panama is known for its favourable tax regime and for its rules which allow for foreigners to gain residency in exchange for investment in the country. This has given rise to a lot of new properties being built. The current government in Panama is very business friendly.

There are a few communities that I would consider to be well developed. Incomes here are pretty low by US and Canadian standards. Properties that are built for expats are generally higher quality. But these too are not up to North American standards. Even in high end condo buildings, the windows are single glazed windows for example.

If there is one word that summarizes real estate in Panama, it would be “oversupplied”.

Real estate in Panama is unlike real estate in the US or Canada. Some properties are not titled. That is to say, there is something called the “right of possession”. This gives the owner of the right of possession, that is the right to purchase the title from the state. But they don’t actually own the property until they purchase the title. This is an administrative process that can take a long time. More on that later.

Panama has no centralized MLS like the US and Canada. As such, some properties are listed on their own brokerage websites. realtor.com is one of the larger multi-brokerage websites and you will find a lot of listings there. But this too is not an MLS system.

There are lots of privately marketed properties. Sometimes this is nothing more than a handwritten roadside sign with a phone number. Many of these privately marketed properties are listed in the online classified ads in places like Encuentra24.

Since there is no MLS system, it is possible to find the same property listed on multiple websites at different prices. It is possible therefore that the agent promoting the listing is not the actual listing agent.

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The End of a Funding Source Feb 26, 2025

Show notes

Today is another episode that is tracking the initiatives coming from the White House. There is a lot to report on. In fact way more than we can cover in a single episode. Even the mainstream media is struggling to keep up and quite frankly, the reports I’m reading in the media are extremely superficial.

On today’s show we are looking at the end of an investment vehicle that brought about $9B in new investment funds annually to many real estate investors. I’m talking about the EB-5 investor visa. This program has been plagued with problems over the past few years. The idea behind the EB5 program is that an investment in an EB5 fund that generates 10 jobs for every $900,000 in investment would fast track an individual and their family to landed immigrant status in the US in six months or less.

However, during the pandemic, the backlog of EB5 applications grew to such a degree that the wait times were similar to other visa programs. The is an annual quota of 10,000 visas under the EB5 program. Since each investment requires spending a minimum of $900,000 and in some areas $1.8M and the guarantee that the investment creates a minimum of 10 jobs which must be audited at the 2 year mark and the 5 year mark in the investment. These EB-5 investments were not particularly useful for real estate development projects because they didn’t drive enough employment at the 2 year and 5 year audit points in the program. Where these programs did see fairly strong adoption was for investments in thing like hotels that hire a lot of staff. Now you can wonder about the quality of jobs created by a hotel. But a hotel does create jobs. We also saw a lot of EB-5 funds going into gas stations that also have a McDonalds counter, or a Dunkin Donuts counter. A single gas station with a fast food counter could employ easily between 15-20 people. The metric for the ROI on the visa was job creation.

Now the White House is talking about ending the EB5 program. What replaces it will go directly into government coffers.

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AMA - How Much To Offer Partners? Feb 25, 2025

Show notes

Today's question comes from Eddie who asks: Out of a 50/50 split how much should be allocated to "bringing investors, bringing property or bringing deal know-how"?

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AMA - Breaking The Power Monopoly Feb 24, 2025

Show notes

Today is another AMA episode (Ask Me Anything). Today’s question comes from Joseph who asks:

This is kind of a real estate question as well as tech question, that may be up your alley. Electricity delivered to a house/business; is currently monopolized by a single company in whatever territory it located. I’m sure there are some government regulations, they still seem to do whatever they want. (e.g. every time I upgraded my solar on my house; I lost incentives; that made it less profitable for me recoup the install cost.) Allowing someone to pick who delivers their electricity would make it competitive with pricing; though would that even be possible with the deliver method being somewhat analog?

Appreciate your wisdom and insight.

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Accelerating Construction with Travis Fox Feb 23, 2025

Show notes

Dr. Travis Fox is based in Henderson Nevada where he is focused on development of Structured Insulated Panels for new home construction. Love this conversation about how to apply new technologies to accelerate home construction.

To connect with Travis and to learn more, visit buildyourfortress.com

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Investing in Panama with Melissa Darnay Feb 22, 2025

Show notes

On today's show I'm coming to you live on location at the entrance to the Panama Canal with guest Melissa Darnay. We're talking about what's happening in real estate in Panama. Melissa is a real estate broker here in Panama and she hosts The Panama Podcast on Youtube which can be found at https://www.youtube.com/@choosepanama. You can also download a free e-book at her website choosepanama.com.

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Year One Of Our Storage Fund Feb 22, 2025

Show notes

On today's show we are talking about the benefits and drawbacks of investing in a fund. We are also looking at the first year in our fund where we have made three investments.

To find out more about our opportunities, visit https://ystreetcapital.invportal.com/login

There you will have access to information about all of our projects. These offerings are by prospectus only and are open to accredited investors only in compliance with SEC regulations.

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