Real Estate Underground

400 1031s, Zero Failures: The Senior-Care Niche Hiding in Plain Sight with Dan Ihara

Dan Ihara has sold over $1 billion of real estate, moved 1,600+ units, and completed 400+ 1031 exchanges—without failing a single one. And he built the whole thing around a niche almost no operator talks about: senior-care real estate. In this episode, Dan and Ed get into the demographic inevitability that drives his business (“should we all be blessed to live long enough, we’re going to need some level of care”), why 1031 exchanges fail for everyone else but never for him, and his definition of success that has nothing to do with the billion-dollar number on his resumé. What you’ll hear: * The senior-care thesis: why aging boomers are an inevitability, not a trend, and the RE play sitting on top of it * How Dan closed 400 1031 exchanges without a single failure—the process, the team, the discipline * Why “success is doing what I want, when I want, with whom I want” is the only definition that matters once you have the numbers * The conversation every operator should be having with their family—and almost none are About Dan Ihara: 20-year real estate veteran. Billion-dollar producer. Built a specialty practice serving seniors transitioning out of long-held real estate, primarily through 1031 exchanges. Subscribe to Real Estate Underground for weekly conversations with operators who’ve been through the cycle and lived to talk about it. Elevista - Speed as a Service™ [https://www.elevista.com] Elevista Connect is the first AI-powered lead conversion system built for real estate investors. 🎧 Subscribe to Real Estate Underground for weekly insights on building wealth through real estate, without sacrificing your sanity. Additional Resources: * Clark St Capital [https://www.clarkst.com] -> Passive real estate investments for busy business owners and executives * Elevista [https://www.elevista.com/underground] -> AI SaaS for real estate investors * Clark St Academy on YouTube [https://www.youtube.com/@clarkstacademy] -> Learn how to invest in real estate Social Media: * LinkedIn [https://www.linkedin.com/in/edmathews] -> Ed Mathews (President at Clark St and Elevista) Heads up: If you find this week's book intriguing and you buy using our link, we receive a small commission that helps support the show. Thank you!

Internet Isn't a Tenant Cost...It's an NOI Lever - with Adam Bell

Most multifamily operators treat internet as a tenant problem or a cost line they grumble about. Adam Bell, Founder and CEO of Internet Subway, says they're leaving real money on the table. Adam runs a modern ISP focused exclusively on apartment communities. His company delivers fiber-to-the-unit (FTTU) in bulk to property owners, who pass it to residents as an included utility and capture the rent spread. Industry data shows 5 to 15% NOI uplift on well-executed bulk deployments. The math alone is worth the conversation. But the bigger reframe is the one Ed pulls out of him halfway through: the fiber itself is an asset. Billions are flowing into fiber networks nationally. Property owners are in a rare position to own a portion of that infrastructure, a 30-year asset hiding in their own buildings. In this episode: * The bulk internet math on a value-add multifamily deal, and how an owner should actually underwrite it * Why "managed WiFi" gets oversold and what to insist on instead * Bulk internet versus experience, and why the difference matters more than the price * Fiber as a 30-year asset class that scales in capacity, not maintenance * The contrarian take from his industry piece "Managed Wi-Fi isn't all it's cracked up to be" If you're an operator, syndicator, or value-add multifamily investor, this is the episode that turns a cost line into a revenue line and reframes the building itself as a fiber asset. This week's recommended book: The Confident Mind by Nate Zinzer [https://amzn.to/4uIH0Ie] Guest: Adam Bell, Founder and CEO, Internet Subway Website: internetsubway.com LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/adamlloydb Elevista - Speed as a Service™ [https://www.elevista.com] Elevista Connect is the first AI-powered lead conversion system built for real estate investors. 🎧 Subscribe to Real Estate Underground for weekly insights on building wealth through real estate, without sacrificing your sanity. Additional Resources: * Clark St Capital [https://www.clarkst.com] -> Passive real estate investments for busy business owners and executives * Elevista [https://www.elevista.com/underground] -> AI SaaS for real estate investors * Clark St Academy on YouTube [https://www.youtube.com/@clarkstacademy] -> Learn how to invest in real estate Social Media: * LinkedIn [https://www.linkedin.com/in/edmathews] -> Ed Mathews (President at Clark St and Elevista) Heads up: If you find this week's book intriguing and you buy using our link, we receive a small commission that helps support the show. Thank you!

Plan A, B, and C: Buy More Land with Brandon Cobb

Brandon Cobb's business model is simple: take farmland, get it approved for housing, and sell it to national home builders like Lennar and DR Horton. The builders have no choice but to buy. They're publicly traded. Plan A is buy land and build houses. Plan B is buy more land and build more houses. There is no Plan C that doesn't involve buying land. Brandon returns to Real Estate Underground to break down how HPG Capital creates new housing neighborhoods in Nashville, why he stopped building homes but kept developing land, and how he structures deals that pay investors 18% preferred returns with no personal guarantees. What you'll learn: - The three phases of land development and how to profit from each one without ever building a house - How to de-risk a deal by lining up your buyer and getting city approval before spending real money - Why "big puzzle pieces next to small puzzle pieces" on a GIS map is the buy signal - How he gets 20% deposits from national builders, released day one, to fund development - Why he ditched vertical integration after hitting $22 million in annual development - The biggest mistake he made with strategic partners and how to avoid it - His "Body, Being, Balance, Business" framework for measuring success Books mentioned: The Surrender Experiment and The Untethered Soul by Michael Singer Learn land development: learnlanddevelopment.com (free 8-hour course) Invest with HPG Capital: hbgcapital.net/waitlist Elevista - Speed as a Service™ [https://www.elevista.com] Elevista Connect is the first AI-powered lead conversion system built for real estate investors. 🎧 Subscribe to Real Estate Underground for weekly insights on building wealth through real estate, without sacrificing your sanity. Additional Resources: * Clark St Capital [https://www.clarkst.com] -> Passive real estate investments for busy business owners and executives * Elevista [https://www.elevista.com/underground] -> AI SaaS for real estate investors * Clark St Academy on YouTube [https://www.youtube.com/@clarkstacademy] -> Learn how to invest in real estate Social Media: * LinkedIn [https://www.linkedin.com/in/edmathews] -> Ed Mathews (President at Clark St and Elevista) Heads up: If you find this week's book intriguing and you buy using our link, we receive a small commission that helps support the show. Thank you!

It's Not Gambling, It's Building: A Billion-Dollar CRE Playbook with Ben Reinberg

Ben Reinberg has done over $1 billion in commercial real estate transactions. He didn't get there chasing returns. He got there by treating CRE as what it actually is: a hard asset that produces cash flow, not a bet. Ben is the Founder and CEO of Alliance CGC, where he's built one of the most respected portfolios in the country, with deep focus on net-leased properties and medical office buildings. In this episode, Ben and Ed cover: - Why medical office is recession-resistant in any market (the "human body never goes out of style" rule) - The over-leverage mistake that taught Ben the real lesson of commercial real estate - Cash flow, tax efficiency, and long-term security as the only three goals worth chasing - How to navigate one of the most chaotic markets in decades - The difference between treating real estate as a commodity vs. a hard asset - What old-school CRE investors do that the new wave gets wrong Connect with Ben: benreinberg.com Real Estate Underground is hosted by Ed Mathews of Clark St Capital. Elevista - Speed as a Service™ [https://www.elevista.com] Elevista Connect is the first AI-powered lead conversion system built for real estate investors. 🎧 Subscribe to Real Estate Underground for weekly insights on building wealth through real estate, without sacrificing your sanity. Additional Resources: * Clark St Capital [https://www.clarkst.com] -> Passive real estate investments for busy business owners and executives * Elevista [https://www.elevista.com/underground] -> AI SaaS for real estate investors * Clark St Academy on YouTube [https://www.youtube.com/@clarkstacademy] -> Learn how to invest in real estate Social Media: * LinkedIn [https://www.linkedin.com/in/edmathews] -> Ed Mathews (President at Clark St and Elevista) Heads up: If you find this week's book intriguing and you buy using our link, we receive a small commission that helps support the show. Thank you!

Obscurity is the Enemy: AI, Marketing, and the Operator's Edge with Clay Lehman

Clay Lehman spent 20 years in real estate, starting at Arthur Andersen, running the Ocala controller desk for Pulte Homes, and eventually building Lehman's Strategic Partners to help agents grow their businesses. He runs an AI Facebook group with members in 65 countries and now spends most of his time helping real estate pros turn AI from a shiny object into a revenue tool. If you're still using AI to write listing descriptions and calling it a day, this one will push your thinking. In this episode you'll learn: - Why Clay calls obscurity, not competition, the biggest threat to any real estate business - How the "eliminate, automate, delegate" framework turns documented processes into leverage - Which AI tools Clay actually uses daily, and how Gemini, Claude, and ChatGPT scored in his blind writing test - How Ed built an AI voice agent that gets a lead on the phone in 45 seconds, across five languages - Why the Harvard 391% rule makes speed-to-lead the single biggest edge in real estate today - How solo operators and small teams can look and act like companies many times their size Resources Mentioned: Google NotebookLM for deal prep and process documentation. Gamma for instant presentations. ylopo for lead nurture automation. Takeaway: AI is a force multiplier, not a crutch. It levels the playing field on access, but experience and wisdom still do the heavy lifting. Use it as the spotter at the gym, not the guy lifting the weight. Elevista - Speed as a Service™ [https://www.elevista.com] Elevista Connect is the first AI-powered lead conversion system built for real estate investors. 🎧 Subscribe to Real Estate Underground for weekly insights on building wealth through real estate, without sacrificing your sanity. Additional Resources: * Clark St Capital [https://www.clarkst.com] -> Passive real estate investments for busy business owners and executives * Elevista [https://www.elevista.com/underground] -> AI SaaS for real estate investors * Clark St Academy on YouTube [https://www.youtube.com/@clarkstacademy] -> Learn how to invest in real estate Social Media: * LinkedIn [https://www.linkedin.com/in/edmathews] -> Ed Mathews (President at Clark St and Elevista) Heads up: If you find this week's book intriguing and you buy using our link, we receive a small commission that helps support the show. Thank you!