The journal
Working notes from the week: the decision, the document, the site visit, the number. Written when there's something worth writing, not on a content calendar.
Recent entries
Boise's vacancy rate is 2.8%. It's also 8.1%.
Eight research desks published a Boise apartment vacancy rate this year, and the spread between the highest and the lowest is 5.3 points. Here's what they actually measure, what they agree on underneath the noise, and what our own two buildings are actually renting for.
What you get to see after you invest
Most investors wire the money and then hear nothing for a quarter. Here's the view we think you should have instead: what the building earns against the plan it was bought on, every lease we sign as we sign it, and the reasoning behind each move.
Buy your own building, or invest in someone else's
Most people asking me about apartment investing are really deciding one thing: do I buy a building myself, or put money in with someone who already does it? I own a $25 million portfolio outright and I also syndicate deals. Here's the honest comparison, including the parts that don't flatter my side of it.
How I build a downside case
Every projection was built by someone who wanted the deal to work. So before I wire money, I run the version where my two biggest assumptions are wrong. The method, with the real numbers.
How I pick who runs my buildings
The property manager decision moves more dollars than almost any other call an apartment owner makes. The one question that did my vetting for me, and what the relationship looks like written down.
How I read an offering memo in 20 minutes
An offering memo is a sales document. Here's my twenty-minute first pass, the entry cap on real income, the three places stories hide, and the habit of checking claims against the paper underneath.
A lender spent six weeks talking itself out of my loan. Here's what it taught me about debt.
We spent six weeks working a local credit union for the debt on a couple of our deals. None of it turned out to be a deal term. It was a credit committee slowly talking itself out of the loan. Here's what that taught me about the part of a deal nobody markets to you.
I've been buying in Boise for two years. This week the leasing data started to agree.
A breathless "pricing power is back" alert from my property manager hit my inbox this week. I delete most of these. But two numbers in it confirmed the thesis I've been buying Boise on for two years.
I built my entire financial plan in one morning
I spent a morning not chasing anything. I sat down with Claude and built one view of my entire financial picture, off my actual bank statements instead of my estimates. Two things surprised me, and one of them stung.
How I built a property management comparison dashboard in 30 minutes
Three PMs in Boise, a day's work each to evaluate the hard way. I asked Claude Code to build me a dashboard instead. The dashboard was running before my coffee was cold.
Why the Wealthy Invest in Real Estate
Most high-income earners are told the formula is simple: work hard, save money, max the 401(k). Watch how the wealthy actually build wealth and you see a different pattern.
What Is a Real Estate Syndication?
A plain-English explanation of the structure most accredited investors have never heard of, but that wealthy families, private equity firms, and insiders have used for decades.
How Real Estate Creates Tax-Advantaged Income
Real estate is one of the few asset classes that lets you earn cash flow and show a paper loss in the same year. Why that works, and what the K-1 actually shows you.
How You Actually Get Paid in a Real Estate Syndication
The mechanics of distributions, preferred returns, profit splits, and refi/sale proceeds. A simplified worked example showing where the money actually goes.
The Friday letter
A short personal note most Fridays about what actually happened that week. Not a newsletter.