$270,000 for a nursing degree from a private college with an 88% acceptance rate!?

We need a lot more nurses in this country, but this is not the way. *necessary caveat

My wife studied nursing at at Ivy League school (expensive) both undergrad & grad and she, obviously, loved it

Nursing is a *fantastic* career path. I could not have been an entrepreneur if not for her paying our bills for the first 3 years of my company

BUT

How it started. How it's going.

Eicher homes have my favorite floorplans for single family homes

Look at this amazing 4BR/2BA

In 40 years, we’ll look back on allowing dogs in downtowns the same way we look at cars … as a terrible mistake for the way that it molded the rest of the environment

https://twitter.com/nimbypatrol/status/1680722758228131840

But there will be too many people who already live downtown with dogs to be able to change it

This is the kind of startup that we need more of in Proptech

Owners and Managers in real estate essentially throw out their prospects as soon as someone says "NO"

A basic Salesforce/Hubspot that does auto followups 9-10 months after a prospect said No.

https://twitter.com/JohnJBlatchford/status/1677316421464760322

It's also easy to get started with customers, bc you'd be going to an owner, and simply asking for their old leads. They're doing NOTHING with them, so for them it's all upside f you can pull in a new customer ... you get 5 or 10%

Owners are glad to pay for success

This might sound a bit 🌹… but apartment developers only make money by capturing % of value that’s created by others

No one ever chose an area due to amazing apartment finishes. It’s because of benefits of an area: whether nature (beach, mountains) or society (culture, schools) Single use residential projects doesn’t “create” in nearly the same way that retail, office, hospitality does.

Housing, by itself, itself isn’t a draw

Outlets Malls are incredible at Placemaking

Getting tens of thousands of people to drive to remote locations … insanely impressive

https://twitter.com/iononrecourse/status/1662086299270905857

And also proves how much people crave walkable mixed-use.

Fun fact: The National Parks Service also controls the federal historic tax dollars for Office to Residential conversions

https://twitter.com/NatlParkService/status/1635659550429704194

In order to be eligible for the tax credit, the building either has to be on this list

A building owner is allowed to nominate their building … but inclusion on the list is determined by @NatlParkService

nps.gov/subjects/natio…

As a former LSAT Tutor, I'm really surprised that GPT-4 scores a 163

All the reasoning is inside each individual question

The Games section is literally just permutations, so GPT has to get 100% on that ... which means they miss 17+ questions on the other sections I could, and did, train any student to solve every single of the Games perfectly. You just need to solve out every possibility first, and then answer each question. It's a very rote process

The only difficulty that people run into is time ... which shouldn't be an issue for GPT

Here's the easiest on-boarding to understand shared light/windowless bedrooms:

Here are two floorplans in same new construction apartment building in California. Both are ~500SF

Some people prefer an open unit. Others prefer a separate sleeping area Which would you, personally, prefer?

Pennsylvania's beer laws "drive" quite a bit of car dependency in Philly

Bars can sell bottles, but costs >2X as much. Some grocery stores have license to sell 6/12 packs

Only an official Beer Distributor can sell by the case. These are the only ones in Center City Philly. And these locations aren't the easiest to get to/from via public transit ... and a case is decently heavy.

I've made plenty of walks with the stroller to go pick one up a case from Bella Vista Beverage. Even when relatively close it takes a good 20 min each way.

Since Office & Industrial buildings are so deep, Windowless Bedrooms are critical part of most conversions to housing

Here’s a thread of projects (from last ~8 years) of nearly 2500 apartments built just in Philly

None would have been financially feasible w/o skillful BR design 1700 Chestnut

Before: Department store (Daffy’s)
Apartments: 95

pearl-apartments.com/properties/170…

The clearest "defense" of Shared Light/Windowless BRs/Dens is this comparison:

These units are the same shape & size, 700SF. They cost the same to build. Given the same location, the rent is the same

Which one should we build more of? Clearly some people will not accept a sleeping area without a window. And others who require a large walk-in closets and an en-suite bathroom.

Those preferences are well served. >99% of 700SF 1BRs under construction in the US are the variety on the Right (in color)

That's a lot of people with negative opinions of Windowless Bedrooms!

I think most of it comes from folks not understanding what it's actually like in NEW buildings

Though challenging, great architects can deliver creative (and compliant) results

Here are some 1BR/1BAs 👇 Here's a unit from an industrial to residential conversion

If you can't wrap your head around HOW people could like Windowless Bedrooms, look at some real life examples:

The Apollo is one of the best apartment buildings in DC market. Whole Foods on ground floor. Beautiful patios

Link to arch page:
skiarch.com/projects/the-a… Here are two floorplans in the building

LEFT: 550sf, $2400
RIGHT: 710sf, $2800

Windowless Bedrooms reduce rents … by reducing unit size

And while they can be bad, they don’t need to be. I’ve worked with many great architects who make it work creatively

And the results are that (some) renters actually like them Here are two floorplans from DC. These units are in a brand new building on top of a Whole Foods.

LEFT: 525sf, 1BR/1BA
RIGHT: 1185sf, 3BR/2BA

Just had *another* floorplan data meeting where developer said "We'll figure out the apartments, give them to the architect and they'll just do what we tell them"

Why are architects being sidelined? Because they (often) don't know how to translate designs into numbers (And this was from a developer who has executed best-in-market projects for decades, referring to an arch firm with initials we'd all know)

I’ve now talked to dozens of architects & GCs about building a development proforma for them and one thing has become increasingly clear … they all understand that it’s a lot, but few seem to really understand how *much* value is being created at the beginning of the project The compensation model of trading the insight and free or low cost work at the beginning of the job for the benefit of winning the arch design is wrong

Now that doesn’t mean that architects just “should” be paid more. The fees for drawing, stamps and risk assumption are separate

Exactly. It's a flaw in Missing Middle housing chart. Fixating on density, setbacks and facades rather than the interior spaces on where people actually live

We cannot have real "neighborhoods" without demographic diversity (kids). Otherwise, people will eventually NEED to move

https://twitter.com/ErnieBrownII/status/1615733130593243138

However, it will almost always make sense for the young/childless to be the first to move into newly created neighborhoods. They don't have the same needs for parks, schools, and a diversity of retailers.

A great coffee, bar, maybe some shopping, near a transit stop is perfect

Not only are office to residential conversions very difficult due to deep floorplates, since they need new utility systems, the building needs to be 100% vacant before you start construction

Tremendous leverage to any tenants who don’t want to move … or just want a large buyout So during due diligence, you're not only doing building & maintenance things ... but the lease audit takes on a uniquely important angle

In our first conversion, I spent the first week scanning in every lease (borrowed from my dad) and looking for landlord friendly clauses

I got started in real estate development without any money. I dropped out of grad school and had some unspent tuition $$. Used that to fund personal expenses for 4/5 months

My parents had paid for undergrad so I had no debts … but most importantly my wife was in nursing school

https://twitter.com/evanmr/status/1609611867176984576

When I decided to leave Applied Math, my wife was going into her senior year. She took summer classesto finish a semester early

It was honestly touch and go that first year. I had stared all-in around May. We personally ran out of money in January. Started using credit cards.

Taller elevator cabs

Less than <$10K to add. Every potential tenant notices/comments on them. And actually improves operations for move-ins.

https://twitter.com/JWurzak/status/1609204041728380936

Just be sure to talk to your elevator sub early. It’s trivial to add up front. And complicated after the fact.