Carson's Corner: Entrepreneurship & Investing

Send us Fan Mail

Shannon Robnett grew up on job sites. His dad was a builder and developer and his mom was a third-generation real estate broker. Over 35+ years he has gone from framing houses and building cabinets by hand to developing multifamily, industrial, and build-to-rent communities across Idaho, Texas, and Florida. On this episode of Carson’s Corner: Entrepreneurship & Investing, Shannon explains why his construction background gives him an edge in raising capital and running deals, and why he plans every project for decades, not quarters.

In this episode:
→ Why about 70% of Shannon’s investments are new construction, and how a 29–30% expense ratio compares with the ~52% some older portfolios are running
→ How he locked a $3.4M lumber package during COVID, watched it climb to $9M, resold it, and made $2.5M for investors before breaking ground
→ The short-term debt mistakes behind today’s asset price resets, and why 3–4% rates were never coming back
→ Why he tracks wage growth instead of rent growth when picking markets
→ How a $75 rent gap on a 200-unit property adds up to roughly $3M in terminal value, and why most property managers miss it
→ How to vet a property manager: ask for the before-and-after T12
→ Why he calls industrial “the bond of real estate”: NNN leases, sticky tenants, steadier cash flow
→ How his Strategic Income & Opportunity Fund mixes multifamily, industrial, and preferred equity for better year-one returns
→ Why build-to-rent works now: renters pay $3,200/month for a townhome that would cost $4,500/month to own
→ Class A vs. Class C in a recession, and what makes a deal worth rescuing

If you’re an investor, developer, or entrepreneur trying to build long-term wealth in commercial real estate, this conversation shows how an operator who has built through several cycles approaches risk.

▶️ Connect with Shannon: https://shannonrobnett.com/ (book a call with him directly) and LinkedIn

Support the show

For business or property evaluations you can reach me at 615-212-5524

Or  [email protected]

Connect with me:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/carsonjones/

Other Episodes:

https://carsonscorner.media/

https://passive.investments/podcast/

Watch all episodes with no commercials on Vimeo here: https://vimeo.com/showcase/12248178

https://rumble.com/c/Carsonscorner

Disclaimer: This podcast is for informational and educational purposes only and should not be considered professional advice. Always consult your attorney, CPA, or financial advisor before making any financial decisions. All investments and property ownership carry risk, including the potential loss of principal.

Send us Fan Mail

Most investors don’t lose money at closing. They lose it months earlier, in a spreadsheet, when they accept an assumption nobody questioned.

On this episode of Carson’s Corner: Entrepreneurship & Investing, Carson Jones sits down with Dr. Jason L. Williams, an active real estate sponsor and underwriter and the founder of Ironclad Underwriting. Jason has more than 20 years of investing experience and over $500M in transactions underwritten. After two decades of watching investors underwrite on gut feel, broker pro formas and fragile spreadsheets, he turned his own method into software any serious investor can use.

His philosophy is simple: better decisions come from disciplined analysis, not optimism.

In this episode, we cover:

• Why most investors only find the broken assumption after they’ve committed capital
• The first things to check in a broker’s pro forma
• Why default assumptions like 5% vacancy and a 40% expense ratio can mislead you, and what to use instead
• Doing rent comps and rent projections the right way
• Why cap rates don’t tell the whole story
• Stress-testing debt and modeling the downside before the upside
• Building underwriting you can defend to a lender, an investment committee or your LPs
• Turning 20 years of deal discipline into a software platform

Whether you’re a sponsor, a passive investor vetting a syndication, or an entrepreneur buying your first commercial property, this conversation will change how you read a deal.

Connect with Dr. Jason Williams:

• Website: https://ironcladunderwriting.com
• Free Masterclass: https://ironcladunderwriting.com/masterclass
• Ironclad Underwriting Podcast: https://ironcladunderwriting.com/podcast

••LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasonwilliamsphd/

Support the show

For business or property evaluations you can reach me at 615-212-5524

Or  [email protected]

Connect with me:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/carsonjones/

Other Episodes:

https://carsonscorner.media/

https://passive.investments/podcast/

Watch all episodes with no commercials on Vimeo here: https://vimeo.com/showcase/12248178

https://rumble.com/c/Carsonscorner

Disclaimer: This podcast is for informational and educational purposes only and should not be considered professional advice. Always consult your attorney, CPA, or financial advisor before making any financial decisions. All investments and property ownership carry risk, including the potential loss of principal.

Send us Fan Mail

Most first-time buyers fall in love with their first deal. David Jones says that's the one you should walk away from.

David spent 20 years in the Army and has built nine companies over 21 years. He started his first one while he was still on active duty. Today he owns self-storage facilities and runs the Veteran Business Community, where he helps veterans and entrepreneurs buy, start and grow small to mid-sized businesses. His rule is simple: test your assumptions, and fail small, early and cheap so you stay in the game long enough to win.

In this episode of Carson's Corner: Entrepreneurship & Investing, Carson and David cover:

• The VA's Veteran Readiness & Employment (VR&E) self-employment track, which can provide up to $50K in equipment and resources to service-disabled veterans starting a business
• How David bought his first self-storage facility for about $500K with his partners' own cash, proved the model, and now has it listed at roughly 3x. He used that track record to fund the next deal almost entirely with investor money.
• Why you should buy the building, not just the business, and how Carson paid over $1M in rent across his restaurants
• Testing demand before you spend a dollar, including the 19-year-old who pre-sold washer-and-dryer rentals and hit about $7K a month in 120 days
• What most people get wrong about SBA loans: 10% down, "SBA approved" listings, and why investors who own under 20% can avoid the personal guarantee (David's team calls them "the 19s")
• How bank underwriters actually decide, and why the first "no" shouldn't stop you
• Owner financing, skin in the game, and the deal David walked away from
• Using AI as a force multiplier in your business without letting it write your business plan

Connect with David:
 🌐 veteranbusinesscommunity.com
 💼 LinkedIn: David Jones214

Support the show

For business or property evaluations you can reach me at 615-212-5524

Or  [email protected]

Connect with me:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/carsonjones/

Other Episodes:

https://carsonscorner.media/

https://passive.investments/podcast/

Watch all episodes with no commercials on Vimeo here: https://vimeo.com/showcase/12248178

https://rumble.com/c/Carsonscorner

Disclaimer: This podcast is for informational and educational purposes only and should not be considered professional advice. Always consult your attorney, CPA, or financial advisor before making any financial decisions. All investments and property ownership carry risk, including the potential loss of principal.

Send us Fan Mail

What does it take to cut through the noise when the rules of media, marketing, and AI change every week? In this episode of Carson's Corner: Entrepreneurship & Investing, Carson Jones sits down with Dominick Miserandino, a serial entrepreneur and media advisor with seven partial and full exits who has advised more than 200 businesses, from startups to names like NASA, Hearst Magazines, the Wall Street Journal, and Dell.

Dominick explains why the rules of storytelling haven't changed since people gathered around the campfire, only the platforms have. He and Carson dig into why chasing virality can pull a business off-brand, how social algorithms reward controversy over substance, and why trust, not attention, is what leads to the transaction. They also get into over-automation and the flood of AI emails, and Dominick shares a real estate operator whose sales dropped after he replaced people with AI. Along the way he offers practical advice on picking one platform that works before expanding, and on "bucketing" your time with new tech so you don't lose your baseline.

The conversation wraps with exit strategy, including how to tell when it's time to let go of a business, and why in-person events with "no hard pitches" build better relationships than any sales script.

Connect with Dominick on LinkedIn or find RTM Nexus events on Luma.

Support the show

For business or property evaluations you can reach me at 615-212-5524

Or  [email protected]

Connect with me:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/carsonjones/

Other Episodes:

https://carsonscorner.media/

https://passive.investments/podcast/

Watch all episodes with no commercials on Vimeo here: https://vimeo.com/showcase/12248178

https://rumble.com/c/Carsonscorner

Disclaimer: This podcast is for informational and educational purposes only and should not be considered professional advice. Always consult your attorney, CPA, or financial advisor before making any financial decisions. All investments and property ownership carry risk, including the potential loss of principal.

Send us Fan Mail

Dusten Hendrickson has been building apartments since 2003 — and unlike most of the multifamily world, he never stopped. While Sun Belt developers overbuilt and syndicators scrambled to recapitalize, Dusten kept putting units in the ground across South Dakota, Minnesota, and the upper Midwest. Today he has roughly 1,350 stabilized units, 400+ under construction, another 1,000 in pre-development, and a path to 5,000 units inside five years.

Carson sits down with Dusten for a candid look at how development actually works when the easy money is gone.

What we cover:

• Why he builds instead of buys — and why a 2005 asset priced at a 5 cap makes new construction the better trade
• The contrarian case against a multifamily crash: syndicators own less than 10% of the market, most owners sit at 50% LTV or lower, and banks quietly move failed loans rather than disclose them
• "Death by a thousand paper cuts" — what a slow grind looks like instead of a reset
• Stripping out the pool and the parking garage: Class A feel at half the rent, with no LIHTC, no Section 8, and no government subsidy
• Vertical integration as a margin strategy — owning the wall panel factory, hiring electricians and plumbers in-house, and the push toward modular
• Expanding in rings: 50 miles, then 100, then 300, then 500, then national
• His advice for anyone who wants to develop: start with a duplex, do the entire deal yourself, over-reserve, and assume no cash flow for five years — then double each time
• When you should skip all of that and just be a limited partner instead
• The AI detour neither of them planned: data center regulation and cost, why "everything looks better but nothing converted to revenue" yet, and why the phone call is more valuable now than it was five years ago
• Sobriety, faith, and building a company where you're the one still in control when everyone else isn't

Dusten Hendrickson is the founder of Mailbox Money,  mailboxmoneyre.com, Real Estate, a multifamily developer focused on attainable workforce housing in the upper Midwest. 

Support the show

For business or property evaluations you can reach me at 615-212-5524

Or  [email protected]

Connect with me:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/carsonjones/

Other Episodes:

https://carsonscorner.media/

https://passive.investments/podcast/

Watch all episodes with no commercials on Vimeo here: https://vimeo.com/showcase/12248178

https://rumble.com/c/Carsonscorner

Disclaimer: This podcast is for informational and educational purposes only and should not be considered professional advice. Always consult your attorney, CPA, or financial advisor before making any financial decisions. All investments and property ownership carry risk, including the potential loss of principal.

Send us Fan Mail

Brandon Eaton came to Knoxville in a $600 car with holes in the floor and slept in it off North Broadway. Today he runs Eaton Construction Services, a commercial general contractor covering the entire Southeast, from Texas and Arkansas across to the Carolinas, with offices in Knoxville and Charleston and a current project at the University of Tennessee's student union.

In this episode of Carson's Corner, Brandon walks through how it happened: a painting job that led to a small GC doing 100 flips a year for developers, striking out on his own at 18 with a PVC sign and a Sharpie, forming the LLC in 2018, earning his GC license in 2021, and then tripling two years in a row and doubling again this year. He explains why the company left residential behind, how public-bid municipal work gave a young firm its first real exposure, and why design-build with owners, where Eaton sits at the table before the architect, is now the model he prefers.

Carson and Brandon dig into what actually drives that growth (discipline, consistency, and a willingness to step outside your comfort zone), how a new VP of Construction from a top-five ENR firm is positioning Eaton for colocation data centers and scaled projects, and where the data center debate really stands on zoning, community benefit, and the AI race. They walk through a stack of Eaton's projects on screen, including an 81-room hotel renovation, a 50,000 SF strip center overhaul, medical office buildings, a Maynardville pickleball and basketball community center, an 11-unit public housing development in Maryville, and a state contract on the oldest wood-frame house in Tennessee. Carson also pulls up 255 Broad Street, the 1927 First National Bank of Kingsport, and the two of them talk through the loft conversion math.

Whether you're a developer looking for a construction partner, an investor eyeing historic redevelopment, or an entrepreneur building a business from nothing, this one is a reminder that there's no secret sauce beyond showing up, working hard, and dotting your I's.

Connect with Brandon: eatonprojects.com, or call the Eaton Construction Services office in Knoxville at (865) 236-0054.

Support the show

For business or property evaluations you can reach me at 615-212-5524

Or  [email protected]

Connect with me:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/carsonjones/

Other Episodes:

https://carsonscorner.media/

https://passive.investments/podcast/

Watch all episodes with no commercials on Vimeo here: https://vimeo.com/showcase/12248178

https://rumble.com/c/Carsonscorner

Disclaimer: This podcast is for informational and educational purposes only and should not be considered professional advice. Always consult your attorney, CPA, or financial advisor before making any financial decisions. All investments and property ownership carry risk, including the potential loss of principal.

Send us Fan Mail

Whitney Elkins-Hutten is the Director of Investor Education at PassiveInvesting.com and the author of Money for Tomorrow: How to Build and Protect Generational Wealth (BiggerPockets). She's done 40+ fix-and-flip projects herself, and today she helps investors diversify across the capital stack instead of stacking all their chips on equity.

In this episode of Carson's Corner, Whitney breaks down why her firm launched a real estate debt fund in 2020, why short-duration single-family fix-and-flip loans carry a different risk profile than long-dated commercial bridge debt, and the two risk factors she wants every private credit investor to understand first: loan duration and asset valuation. She also explains why separating the capital-raising team from the origination team creates the check-and-balance most investors never think to ask about — and why the debt funds in trouble right now almost always shared the same two flaws.

Carson and Whitney get into hard money pricing (why a borrower happily pays 13.75% when banks are at 6%), how fix-and-flip lenders close in ten days or less, the truth about MCA and short-term business loans dressed up as "helping small business," and the four stages of building generational wealth most people skip. They close on what's ahead: whether a real wave of multifamily foreclosures is coming, why being a year late beats being six months early, protecting your compounding curve, and how to think about diversification with the AI trade running hot.

Whether you're a passive investor sitting on idle capital or an operator waiting for the right entry point, this one is about getting paid to stay patient.

Connect with Whitney: passiveinvestingwithwhitney.com (book a one-on-one), ashwealth.com for coaching. For fix-and-flip lending: rehabwallet.com (Southeast) or https://consistentcapital.com (nationwide).

Support the show

For business or property evaluations you can reach me at 615-212-5524

Or  [email protected]

Connect with me:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/carsonjones/

Other Episodes:

https://carsonscorner.media/

https://passive.investments/podcast/

Watch all episodes with no commercials on Vimeo here: https://vimeo.com/showcase/12248178

https://rumble.com/c/Carsonscorner

Disclaimer: This podcast is for informational and educational purposes only and should not be considered professional advice. Always consult your attorney, CPA, or financial advisor before making any financial decisions. All investments and property ownership carry risk, including the potential loss of principal.

Send us Fan Mail

Most real estate owners treat insurance like a tax — money you light on fire every year and hope you never need. Nicolas "Nico" Lares built a company that hands it back.

In this episode of Carson's Corner, Nico breaks down the model behind Insur3Tech: "real estate insurance, syndicated." Instead of paying premiums to a carrier whose shareholders are somebody else, owners join a group cell captive where the customers are the shareholders. Whatever's left after claims and expenses gets distributed back pro rata — the same structure as an LP syndication, except the asset is an insurance company. He's reporting a roughly 20% average decrease in insurance costs, over a million doors insured, and a projected ~32% return to members this year.

Carson and Nico get into the mechanics most owners never see: why there's no minimum premium to join a group cell, why the sweet spot is $10–20M TIV per property instead of trophy high-rises, how reinsurance means a bad year costs members nothing extra, and how insurance companies actually make money — underwriting spread plus float. Nico also explains how he learned this world building a captive for Amazon's logistics network when traditional carriers walked away, and how the same playbook now runs across multifamily, self-storage, industrial, IOS, retail, triple net, and single-family rentals — including resident renters policies and tenant GL written into the lease.

They also cover the part that makes the model work: incentives. When your profit distribution depends on the group's claims, you stop filing nuisance claims and you only refer operators you'd trust with your own money. It's why Insur3Tech doesn't buy stadium naming rights — and why the referrals it gets are better than the leads it would.

Whether you own five units or five thousand, if insurance is eating your NOI, this one's worth the 40 minutes.

Connect with Nico: insur3tech.com (that's "insure tech" — I-N-S-U-R, the number 3, T-E-C-H), [email protected], or find him on LinkedIn. Schedule a call or submit your portfolio details right on the site — quotes typically turn around in 48 hours to a few days.

Support the show

For business or property evaluations you can reach me at 615-212-5524

Or  [email protected]

Connect with me:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/carsonjones/

Other Episodes:

https://carsonscorner.media/

https://passive.investments/podcast/

Watch all episodes with no commercials on Vimeo here: https://vimeo.com/showcase/12248178

https://rumble.com/c/Carsonscorner

Disclaimer: This podcast is for informational and educational purposes only and should not be considered professional advice. Always consult your attorney, CPA, or financial advisor before making any financial decisions. All investments and property ownership carry risk, including the potential loss of principal.

Send us Fan Mail

In this episode of Carson's Corner, Carson sits down with Mark Khuri, co-founder of SMK Capital Management, a private equity firm invested across 32 states in mobile home parks, self-storage, industrial, and multifamily. With 21+ years of real estate investing experience, Mark breaks down how his team reviews two to three deals every single day — roughly 700 a year — and invests in only the top 1-2%.

Mark explains why secondary and tertiary markets beat the big metros for cash flow right now, why he avoids the coasts and ultra-cheap housing markets, and the "delta" rule he uses to make sure his affordable housing communities stay the low-cost provider in town. He also pulls back the curtain on how AI and dynamic pricing are transforming self-storage operations, why triple-net industrial sale-leasebacks with 20-25 year escalating leases are one of his favorite inflation hedges, and how his operating partner landed a portfolio at a 28% discount to appraised value after cold calling the same family for 20 years.

Plus: Mark's biggest early mistake — a "printing money on paper" Cleveland fourplex that turned into a war-zone nightmare — and the lesson every investor should take from it: if the cash flow looks too good to be true, it probably is.

Topics covered: mobile home park investing, self-storage automation and dynamic pricing, triple-net industrial sale-leasebacks, secondary and tertiary market selection, supply risk in overbuilt metros like Nashville and Texas, direct-to-seller deal sourcing, and passive investing for accredited investors.

Connect with Mark: smkcap.com | Find him on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/mark-khuri/

Support the show

For business or property evaluations you can reach me at 615-212-5524

Or  [email protected]

Connect with me:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/carsonjones/

Other Episodes:

https://carsonscorner.media/

https://passive.investments/podcast/

Watch all episodes with no commercials on Vimeo here: https://vimeo.com/showcase/12248178

https://rumble.com/c/Carsonscorner

Disclaimer: This podcast is for informational and educational purposes only and should not be considered professional advice. Always consult your attorney, CPA, or financial advisor before making any financial decisions. All investments and property ownership carry risk, including the potential loss of principal.

Send us Fan Mail

Tim Elizer started sweeping floors at a 1,500 sq ft sign shop at 16 years old. Today he owns that company — Magnitude — and has done over $30 million in business, wrapping national vehicle fleets and handling signage for 30,000+ multifamily doors across 20 states. But the road there nearly cost him everything.

In this episode, Tim opens up about getting rejected by 11 banks before finding financing to buy the business, growing 400% in his first two years as an owner, and the chaos that came with it — cash flow crunches, bad accounting data, COVID hitting two months after tripling his building, and the moment he came home to a big, beautiful, empty house. He shares how he earned his wife's heart back, rebuilt his family stronger than ever, and restructured his company around culture, EOS, and a team empowered to run the numbers without him.

We also get into why he niched down from "everybody's a client" to just two verticals (multifamily signage and fleet wraps), why he hires talented creatives over industry experience, how his team interviews and effectively hires their own coworkers, ADA-compliant signage most apartment owners don't know they need, and his move from LP apartment investing into funding businesses through alternative lending.

Tim's book, Signs of Success, covers the whole journey — the wins, the losses, and the comeback.

Connect with Tim:

 Magnitude: wearemai.com
 Book: TimElizer.com
 LinkedIn: Tim Elizer

Support the show

For business or property evaluations you can reach me at 615-212-5524

Or  [email protected]

Connect with me:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/carsonjones/

Other Episodes:

https://carsonscorner.media/

https://passive.investments/podcast/

Watch all episodes with no commercials on Vimeo here: https://vimeo.com/showcase/12248178

https://rumble.com/c/Carsonscorner

Disclaimer: This podcast is for informational and educational purposes only and should not be considered professional advice. Always consult your attorney, CPA, or financial advisor before making any financial decisions. All investments and property ownership carry risk, including the potential loss of principal.