Better Than My Used To

January is like the off-season for the Dallas Cowboys – everything is possible, no matter the reality!

At the end of each year, for now over 55 years, I generate from what I journal daily in a written log, a “Franklin T” of what went well and where I failed to make progress.

Best Stuff In My Files!

Hope your year is ending up well! 

It has been a great year helping with client “strategic growth” challenges and opportunities. “Transact, Transform, and Transition” has served well as my game plan for their success.

Buckle up, though, for 2026; it is going to be a WILD ride!

Pick your lane for 2026

Look at our business, our portfolio, and ourselves.

What lane is best for us to travel in 2026?

“ONE SIZE” does not fit all. To grow, we need to select a specific lane appropriate for each aspect of our business, portfolio, and self.

The “…all things to all people all of the time tends to result in being nothing to nobody…”

Do You Know Where You Are Going To?

At the end of each year, I prepare two documents for only my review –

1. What went well, and what did not?

2. Where am I heading in the new year, and why?

This is a process I have performed for over fifty (50) years.  The self-assessment can be brutal, as there is no one else to blame for what I did or didn’t do!

LIES, DAMN LIES …AND REALTY!

What is behind the story?

What is worse – an outright lie or a half truth?

An outright lie can be verified, and the liar can be (eventually) exposed…or elected to higher office!

EVERYTHING OLD…IS STILL OLD

Development is a great play for those who can handle multiple years of no cash flow and the real risk of 100% loss of their investment.  Opportunity Zone investing helps lower capital gains taxes…but there needs to be dramatic success to ever get to that “lovely problem”!

Good Short Insights

WHY BRING IN AN ‘EXPERT” WHEN YOU ALREADY KNOW EVERYTHING?

Sometimes an outside expert provides a fresh set of eyes. Sometimes, they just reflect to you what you already know. In theory, they will provide an unbiased assessment of your situation. 

IT DOESN’T ALL STAY

What happens in Las Vegas may well stay in Las Vegas.  But lessons learned linger for a long time.  Hope you find something interesting from my visits to Sin City. 

NON TRADED SECURITIES

ADISA is the “Alternative & Direct Investment Securities Association”.   I am a prior President of the group (2010 – 2011).

Half Thoughts and Lost in Files

My “clean out the files” days result in my favorite REALTY REALITY articles! None alone are going to move the needle; all deserve to see the light of day.

SENIOR HEALTH CARE FACILITIES. In 1985, a major national consulting firm affiliate of a major CPA firm project OUTRAGEOUS growth in the demand for Adult Congregate Care facilities.

Every day a new reality!

Exploring the direction for real property in 2026 requires a nuanced examination of conflicting trends.

As with political rhetoric screaming from every direction, be prepared for the same in real property. 
Pundits will say, “best time ever to invest” and “the end of the real property world as we know it”!

Say Yes to One, and Leave the Other Behind

All things to all people, leaves you with being nothing to nobody.

A Wall Street real estate firm decides to sponsor energy securities. Are they now just a huckster of offerings?

A broker of HVAC firms decides to sell a pizza store. Have they become desperate for business, and now take whatever walks in the door?

Hire slow; fire fast!

How do we hire the best person for an entry level investment real estate position?

With a “green pea” hire, what they can become is far more important than what they can accomplish on day one. 

The habits they bring in will be what you spend most of your time either overcoming, or in a few special situations, enhancing.

Cycle of Success

“It’s not what you make; it is what you keep”.

Without “making it”, though, there is nothing available to keep!

What then are the critical steps to growing…and what do we need be doing to prepare for exit?

Consider where you are in the T6 CYCLE (aka the “business circle of life”!)—

TREASURE.

Aggregate capital to grow. Capital can be financial, human, or intellectual.

Everything old is new again! 

Do you remember the hard lessons we learned following the 2008 collapse of the economy and the long multi-year slog following?

Our best hope is that the 9 – 12 months ahead will move quickly, each month covering what took years following 2008. There were (on average) 200,000 new jobs created per month; 100,000 in 2024.

HALLOWEEN REFLECTIONS

Our readers universally tell us they learn more from well executed failures than from lucky successes. 

What are your “deadly life lessons” which haunt you as we start preparing for Halloween? 

Please share you “best of” failures for inclusion in a future editions of REALTY REALITY.

Paul Simon sang “…fifty ways to leave your lover…”.

There are NOT 50 (at least legal!) ways to “checkmate taxes on exit” from the sale of realty, company, or other assets.

Consider the following, though, as an outline of what you may want to consider.

A “catalyst” enables change at a faster rate, without the catalyst being changed by the consequences.

Is completing your goal valued above the potential side effects of success?

I prefer to invest in real estate with fungible tenants (so losing one does not crush my repositioning plan). I want a short hold (get in, get it done, get on to the next investment). And having invested over $2 billion in real estate, the best returns were where the owner was in a challenged position (so that a quick and certain close had a value greater than a higher price).

Office has been proven to have great potential to be a very lucrative investment. Investors new to the asset need adjust their approach to due diligence. What you see and perceive may not be the driving factors in making a good investment decision. Bring in experienced qualified support early in the process to avoid wasting time chasing an opportunity which just does not fit your investment profile.

You need to listen to different voices to figure out whether your targeted investment succeeds no matter the national trends. Run quickly in another direction if your numbers only work with an interest only loan for the life of the investment and some miracle event must occur to drive further down the likely capitalization rate on your ultimate sale. Properties, like people, tend not to get stronger as they age!