The Real Estate Espresso Podcast

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.------------**Real Estate Espresso Podcast:** Spotify: [The Real Estate Espresso Podcast](https://open.spotify.com/show/3GvtwRmTq4r3es8cbw8jW0?si=c75ea506a6694ef1)   iTunes: [The Real Estate Espresso Podcast](https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/the-real-estate-espresso-podcast/id1340482613)   Website: [www.victorjm.com](http://www.victorjm.com)   LinkedIn: [Victor Menasce](http://www.linkedin.com/in/vmenasce)   YouTube: [The Real Estate Espresso Podcast](http://www.youtube.com/@victorjmenasce6734)   Facebook: [www.facebook.com/realestateespresso](http://www.facebook.com/realestateespresso)   Email: [podcast@victorjm.com](mailto:podcast@victorjm.com)  **Y Street Capital:** Website: [www.ystreetcapital.com](http://www.ystreetcapital.com)   Facebook: [www.facebook.com/YStreetCapital](https://www.facebook.com/YStreetCapital)   Instagram: [@ystreetcapital](http://www.instagram.com/ystreetcapital)  

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. --------------**Real Estate Espresso Podcast:** Spotify: [The Real Estate Espresso Podcast](https://open.spotify.com/show/3GvtwRmTq4r3es8cbw8jW0?si=c75ea506a6694ef1)   iTunes: [The Real Estate Espresso Podcast](https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/the-real-estate-espresso-podcast/id1340482613)   Website: [www.victorjm.com](http://www.victorjm.com)   LinkedIn: [Victor Menasce](http://www.linkedin.com/in/vmenasce)   YouTube: [The Real Estate Espresso Podcast](http://www.youtube.com/@victorjmenasce6734)   Facebook: [www.facebook.com/realestateespresso](http://www.facebook.com/realestateespresso)   Email: [podcast@victorjm.com](mailto:podcast@victorjm.com)  **Y Street Capital:** Website: [www.ystreetcapital.com](http://www.ystreetcapital.com)   Facebook: [www.facebook.com/YStreetCapital](https://www.facebook.com/YStreetCapital)   Instagram: [@ystreetcapital](http://www.instagram.com/ystreetcapital)  

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. -------------**Real Estate Espresso Podcast:** Spotify: [The Real Estate Espresso Podcast](https://open.spotify.com/show/3GvtwRmTq4r3es8cbw8jW0?si=c75ea506a6694ef1)   iTunes: [The Real Estate Espresso Podcast](https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/the-real-estate-espresso-podcast/id1340482613)   Website: [www.victorjm.com](http://www.victorjm.com)   LinkedIn: [Victor Menasce](http://www.linkedin.com/in/vmenasce)   YouTube: [The Real Estate Espresso Podcast](http://www.youtube.com/@victorjmenasce6734)   Facebook: [www.facebook.com/realestateespresso](http://www.facebook.com/realestateespresso)   Email: [podcast@victorjm.com](mailto:podcast@victorjm.com)  **Y Street Capital:** Website: [www.ystreetcapital.com](http://www.ystreetcapital.com)   Facebook: [www.facebook.com/YStreetCapital](https://www.facebook.com/YStreetCapital)   Instagram: [@ystreetcapital](http://www.instagram.com/ystreetcapital)  

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"?-------------**Real Estate Espresso Podcast:** Spotify: [The Real Estate Espresso Podcast](https://open.spotify.com/show/3GvtwRmTq4r3es8cbw8jW0?si=c75ea506a6694ef1)   iTunes: [The Real Estate Espresso Podcast](https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/the-real-estate-espresso-podcast/id1340482613)   Website: [www.victorjm.com](http://www.victorjm.com)   LinkedIn: [Victor Menasce](http://www.linkedin.com/in/vmenasce)   YouTube: [The Real Estate Espresso Podcast](http://www.youtube.com/@victorjmenasce6734)   Facebook: [www.facebook.com/realestateespresso](http://www.facebook.com/realestateespresso)   Email: [podcast@victorjm.com](mailto:podcast@victorjm.com)  **Y Street Capital:** Website: [www.ystreetcapital.com](http://www.ystreetcapital.com)   Facebook: [www.facebook.com/YStreetCapital](https://www.facebook.com/YStreetCapital)   Instagram: [@ystreetcapital](http://www.instagram.com/ystreetcapital)   

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.--------------**Real Estate Espresso Podcast:** Spotify: [The Real Estate Espresso Podcast](https://open.spotify.com/show/3GvtwRmTq4r3es8cbw8jW0?si=c75ea506a6694ef1)   iTunes: [The Real Estate Espresso Podcast](https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/the-real-estate-espresso-podcast/id1340482613)   Website: [www.victorjm.com](http://www.victorjm.com)   LinkedIn: [Victor Menasce](http://www.linkedin.com/in/vmenasce)   YouTube: [The Real Estate Espresso Podcast](http://www.youtube.com/@victorjmenasce6734)   Facebook: [www.facebook.com/realestateespresso](http://www.facebook.com/realestateespresso)   Email: [podcast@victorjm.com](mailto:podcast@victorjm.com)  **Y Street Capital:** Website: [www.ystreetcapital.com](http://www.ystreetcapital.com)   Facebook: [www.facebook.com/YStreetCapital](https://www.facebook.com/YStreetCapital)   Instagram: [@ystreetcapital](http://www.instagram.com/ystreetcapital)  

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---------------**Real Estate Espresso Podcast:** Spotify: [The Real Estate Espresso Podcast](https://open.spotify.com/show/3GvtwRmTq4r3es8cbw8jW0?si=c75ea506a6694ef1)   iTunes: [The Real Estate Espresso Podcast](https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/the-real-estate-espresso-podcast/id1340482613)   Website: [www.victorjm.com](http://www.victorjm.com)   LinkedIn: [Victor Menasce](http://www.linkedin.com/in/vmenasce)   YouTube: [The Real Estate Espresso Podcast](http://www.youtube.com/@victorjmenasce6734)   Facebook: [www.facebook.com/realestateespresso](http://www.facebook.com/realestateespresso)   Email: [podcast@victorjm.com](mailto:podcast@victorjm.com)  **Y Street Capital:** Website: [www.ystreetcapital.com](http://www.ystreetcapital.com)   Facebook: [www.facebook.com/YStreetCapital](https://www.facebook.com/YStreetCapital)   Instagram: [@ystreetcapital](http://www.instagram.com/ystreetcapital)  

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.--------------**Real Estate Espresso Podcast:** Spotify: [The Real Estate Espresso Podcast](https://open.spotify.com/show/3GvtwRmTq4r3es8cbw8jW0?si=c75ea506a6694ef1)   iTunes: [The Real Estate Espresso Podcast](https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/the-real-estate-espresso-podcast/id1340482613)   Website: [www.victorjm.com](http://www.victorjm.com)   LinkedIn: [Victor Menasce](http://www.linkedin.com/in/vmenasce)   YouTube: [The Real Estate Espresso Podcast](http://www.youtube.com/@victorjmenasce6734)   Facebook: [www.facebook.com/realestateespresso](http://www.facebook.com/realestateespresso)   Email: [podcast@victorjm.com](mailto:podcast@victorjm.com)  **Y Street Capital:** Website: [www.ystreetcapital.com](http://www.ystreetcapital.com)   Facebook: [www.facebook.com/YStreetCapital](https://www.facebook.com/YStreetCapital)   Instagram: [@ystreetcapital](http://www.instagram.com/ystreetcapital)  

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/loginThere 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. ----------------**Real Estate Espresso Podcast:** Spotify: [The Real Estate Espresso Podcast](https://open.spotify.com/show/3GvtwRmTq4r3es8cbw8jW0?si=c75ea506a6694ef1)   iTunes: [The Real Estate Espresso Podcast](https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/the-real-estate-espresso-podcast/id1340482613)   Website: [www.victorjm.com](http://www.victorjm.com)   LinkedIn: [Victor Menasce](http://www.linkedin.com/in/vmenasce)   YouTube: [The Real Estate Espresso Podcast](http://www.youtube.com/@victorjmenasce6734)   Facebook: [www.facebook.com/realestateespresso](http://www.facebook.com/realestateespresso)   Email: [podcast@victorjm.com](mailto:podcast@victorjm.com)  **Y Street Capital:** Website: [www.ystreetcapital.com](http://www.ystreetcapital.com)   Facebook: [www.facebook.com/YStreetCapital](https://www.facebook.com/YStreetCapital)   Instagram: [@ystreetcapital](http://www.instagram.com/ystreetcapital)  

The people at Feedspot just published a list of the 100 Best Real Estate podcasts for 2025. I am honoured to be on #13 on that list of 100 best podcasts. If you are loving what you’re hearing on the podcast, then go out and tell two friends today. Show them how easy it is to subscribe to the show. I’m amazed that some very sophisticated real estate investors still don’t know how to find podcast on Apple Podcasts or on Spotify, or any of the other twenty podcast platforms out there which carry the show. Why keep all this goodness to yourself. Spread the love around and tell two friends today. To access the Top 100 Best Podcast list, visit: https://podcast.feedspot.com/real_estate_podcasts/On today’s show we are talking about benchmarking your organization against the best in class in your industry. When you are looking to develop and mature as a company, it is often helpful to examine how the industry’s best companies conduct their affairs and to use them as a benchmark. If you are a specialist in value add apartments, you might use Greystar or the MC companies as a benchmark. If you are in the world of residential assisted living, you might use The Sage Oak as a benchmark. If you are in construction of single family homes, then you might consider Pulte Homes or Lennar.  If you are in storage, then you might examine public storage and so on. Well we are a  development company, and many of our projects involve land development. So then who would we hold up as an example of a company that does it well? A few companies come to mind. There is the Irvine Corporation which developed Irvine Ranch into the modern day city of Irvine. But this was essentially one giant 90,000 acre project that became expert at working in a single regulatory environment. Our company is active in 9 states across the US and two provinces in Canada. We would want to look at companies that are active across multiple jurisdictions.The Howard Hughes Holdings company is one such example.----------------**Real Estate Espresso Podcast:** Spotify: [The Real Estate Espresso Podcast](https://open.spotify.com/show/3GvtwRmTq4r3es8cbw8jW0?si=c75ea506a6694ef1)   iTunes: [The Real Estate Espresso Podcast](https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/the-real-estate-espresso-podcast/id1340482613)   Website: [www.victorjm.com](http://www.victorjm.com)   LinkedIn: [Victor Menasce](http://www.linkedin.com/in/vmenasce)   YouTube: [The Real Estate Espresso Podcast](http://www.youtube.com/@victorjmenasce6734)   Facebook: [www.facebook.com/realestateespresso](http://www.facebook.com/realestateespresso)   Email: [podcast@victorjm.com](mailto:podcast@victorjm.com)  **Y Street Capital:** Website: [www.ystreetcapital.com](http://www.ystreetcapital.com)   Facebook: [www.facebook.com/YStreetCapital](https://www.facebook.com/YStreetCapital)   Instagram: [@ystreetcapital](http://www.instagram.com/ystreetcapital)  

On today’s show we are looking at the changing environment for government incentives, specifically for green energy. We’re going to look at the incentives for solar power and what has changed under the new administration and more importantly what has not changed. President Trump’s executive order during the first week of the administration rolled back many of the provisions of the inflation reduction act which affects clean energy programs. There are some key elements that remain unaffected and it's important to distinguish what remains from what's been cancelled. ---------------**Real Estate Espresso Podcast:** Spotify: [The Real Estate Espresso Podcast](https://open.spotify.com/show/3GvtwRmTq4r3es8cbw8jW0?si=c75ea506a6694ef1)   iTunes: [The Real Estate Espresso Podcast](https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/the-real-estate-espresso-podcast/id1340482613)   Website: [www.victorjm.com](http://www.victorjm.com)   LinkedIn: [Victor Menasce](http://www.linkedin.com/in/vmenasce)   YouTube: [The Real Estate Espresso Podcast](http://www.youtube.com/@victorjmenasce6734)   Facebook: [www.facebook.com/realestateespresso](http://www.facebook.com/realestateespresso)   Email: [podcast@victorjm.com](mailto:podcast@victorjm.com)  **Y Street Capital:** Website: [www.ystreetcapital.com](http://www.ystreetcapital.com)   Facebook: [www.facebook.com/YStreetCapital](https://www.facebook.com/YStreetCapital)   Instagram: [@ystreetcapital](http://www.instagram.com/ystreetcapital)