Commercial Real Estate School

Karly Iacono is a Senior Vice President at CBRE in Saddle Brook, NJ, and one of the most active voices in net lease investing. She's spent years building an investor education platform through her podcast Commercial Real Estate Now while closing deals across the full NNN spectrum — from QSR acquisitions to eight-figure corporate sale-leasebacks.

In this episode, Kyle and Karly cover:

• What net lease actually means — and why every freestanding national brand you drive past is probably an investment property
• How cap rates are set and why the 10-year treasury correlation is breaking down
• Which tenants are compressing (Wawa, Sheets, 7-Eleven) and which are widening (CVS, drug stores)
• The $1 of rent = $16.60 in value math behind the corporate sale-leaseback
• Why private equity uses sale-leasebacks as a standard M&A tool — and how smaller operators are starting to catch on
• The most overrated NNN asset right now (spoiler: it's a car wash)
• What would actually shake the triple net market that no one is talking about
• Why the 1031 market has come alive in 2025 and where that capital is coming from

Whether you're eyeing your first passive investment or you're already in the NNN space and want to sharpen your lens — this is the episode.

🔗 Follow Karly: LinkedIn — Karly Iacono

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

Podcast — Commercial Real Estate Now

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/commercial-real-estate-now/id1543108221

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The average commercial real estate broker in the United States earns $132,000 in gross commission income. Massimo Group one-on-one coaching clients average $857,000. That is the 7x gap and in this episode, Rod Santomassimo breaks down exactly where it comes from.

Rod is the founder and president of the Massimo Group, the number one commercial real estate broker coaching and consulting organization in the world, with over 4,200 CRE professionals coached across the US and internationally. He is a CCIM designee and the author of five bestselling books.

In this episode, Kyle and Rod cover the real reason commercial real estate brokers in hit a plateau and stay there and the specific behavioral shifts that break the pattern. They get into the ignorance tax, AI prospecting tools for CRE brokers, the one-month listing agreement model, and the three intellects that determine whether a broker grows or stalls. Rod also defends the 7x income claim with specific numbers, explains what top producers like Bob Knakal are still working on with a coach, and shares the one client out of 4,200 who ever took him up on his money-back guarantee.

If you are a commercial real estate broker, investor, or operator i looking to grow your GCI and build a more structured business — this episode is for you.

Find Rod: massimo.coach | linkedin.com/in/crecoachKnowing Isn't Doing in paperback: $9.99 on Amazon

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Joe Killinger has spent over 30 years in real estate — rehabbing SoCal houses he was literally living inside of, running real estate auctions with unpublished reserves that almost got him swung at by angry buyers, getting laid off, laying his partner off, building three companies to over $5M in revenue inside 18 months. He's done $950M in transactions across more than 6,500 assets. But the move that should matter most to independent brokers right now is the one he made in 2021 — the CRE Affiliate Network. A no-fee, referral-only network designed so a five-person shop can hand off a deal in Dallas and get paid like a national.

In this episode, Kyle and Joe get into:

• The real estate auction playbook
• The losses that birthed the CRE Affiliate Network
• The 40-member milestone
• "What can you offer that we can't?"
• The business behind the brand
• The AI staffing reset
• The decision-tree system for protecting your time
• One asset class, one market

If you're an independent broker, a small shop owner, or a junior agent trying to figure out how to compete without the national brand on your business card — this one's the map.

🔗 Joe Killinger: joekillinger.co | YouTube: youtube.com/c/JoeKillinger🏢 Commercial Brokers International: cbicommercial.com🤝 CRE Affiliate Network: ping Joe direct via joekillinger.co📚 Free resources: "Your First 90 Days in Commercial Real Estate" and "Transitioning from Agent to Broker" at joekillinger.co🎟️ CREi Summit 2025 (Savannah): creisummit.com

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Topher Stephenson has spent his career at the intersection of technology and commercial real estate, from in-house property marketing to brokerage operations to building one of the most actively used AI learning communities in the industry. As founder of CRE AI Studio and the CRE AI Studio Newsletter (formerly chatCRE), Topher has built a community of hundreds of CRE pros who actually want to apply this stuff, not just talk about it. He's also one of the most in-demand speakers on AI in CRE a regular at CREi Summit and just about every other room that matters.

In this episode, Kyle and Topher get into:

• Why "AI won't replace brokers, but it will replace the ones who don't use it" is meaningless without the how

• The three-level progression every broker should follow: Test → Customize → AutomateWhy Claude Projects and Skills replaced Custom GPTs — and what that actually changes
• The Meeting Briefing as the gateway workflow that turns every skeptic into a user
• Why solo and boutique brokers have a structural advantage over the big firms on AI
• The big-firm data problem nobody's talking about (and why "AI on all our data" is mostly marketing)
• Deep Research as the most underused tool in commercial real estate

If you've been on the sidelines watching the AI conversation in CRE and haven't found a way in, this is the episode that gives you the on-ramp.

🌐 CRE AI Studio: creaistudio.com📩 Newsletter: free signup on the homepage🔗 Follow Topher: LinkedIn — Topher Stephenson

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Pat Carino is VP of Development at NRP Group, one of the largest multifamily developers in the country, operating across more than a dozen states. He's also the founder of Dealnav, a simple map-based deal-tracking platform built for real estate operators who don't want a CRM with 47 tabs they'll never open.

If you're a broker tracking deals in Excel, a developer running a market in Google My Maps, or anyone who's ever stared at a wall of CRE software and thought "I just want one good map" — this one's for you.

🌐 Dealnav: deal-nav.com

🔗 Connect with Pat:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/patrickcarino/

X: https://x.com/acquisizioni

📩 [email protected]

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Gino Barbaro was shoveling snow outside his restaurant at midnight — no gloves, no customers, no paycheck, when he looked up and saw a light on in the apartment above. His mother was home, asleep, getting paid. He wasn't. That was the moment. From that parking lot, Gino went on to co-found the Jake and Gino platform, scale over 1,500 multifamily units in under five years, and transact north of $350 million in assets all anchored to a framework that fits in three words: buy right, manage right, finance right.

In this episode, Kyle and Gino get into:

• Why the restaurant business is the best and worst training ground for real estate
• The buy right, manage right, finance right framework — and exactly where operators violated every tenet of it in 2021 and 2022
• Why no deal is better than a bad deal, and how hope became the most expensive underwriting assumption in the last cycle
• The "I'm-a mentality" — why the instinct that gets you started is the ceiling that caps you
• Values-based investing: the deal Gino walked away from that would have made him over half a million dollars
• What Gino learned as a Certified Money Coach about why some investors close and others — with better balance sheets — never do
• Legacy as something you activate today, not something you leave behind

If you've ever wondered whether the grind is worth it, whether the timing is right, or whether you're building something that actually lasts — this one's for you.

🔗 Jake & Gino: jakeandgino.com🔗 Barbaro 360: barbaro360.com🔗 Follow Gino: @ginobarbaro on social

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Ken Ashley has spent 30 years as a top producer at Cushman & Wakefield, but his real legacy is the people he's built. As founder of CREi Summit and now bestselling author of The Prescription, Ken has spent decades writing custom 6–8 step action plans for aspiring brokers, signing them, and saying "call me in 90 days." Less than 5% ever did. Now he's written the book so no one has an excuse.

In this episode, Kyle and Ken get into:

• Why AI won't take the commercial real estate career — and where it will make a dent
• The signed prescription ritual that became a book two years in the making
• The follow-up framework that makes you impossible to ignore (hint: send the sailing article)
• Cold calling reframed , why Ken calls it "direct contact calling" and how to lead with value instead of an ask
• The 24-hour mourning cycle for handling lost deals
• The point system: a gutter guard for your week that gamifies business development
• Why right now, at the bottom of the cycle — is the best time in a generation to get into this business
• CREi Summit 2025 in Savannah: digital tools, AI search optimization

If you're in the first third of your career, considering the leap, or just need a reminder of why this industry is worth the grind — this one's for you.

📖 Get The Prescription: theprescription.pro🎟️ CREi Summit: creisummit.com🔗 Follow Ken: @kenashley on X | LinkedIn: kenashleyatlanta

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In this series, Kyle sits down with Carson Baird, an industrial broker from Southwest Florida, to uncover the hidden pitfalls in industrial deals. They discuss how overlooked zoning details and unexpected easements can derail transactions, and share strategies to navigate these challenges. Carson offers insights on managing client expectations, leveraging local relationships, and using technology to streamline deal processes. Whether you're a broker, investor, or developer, this series provides practical advice to close deals efficiently and avoid costly mistakes in the competitive industrial market.

Connect with Carson

LinkedIn

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

X

https://x.com/Carson_CRE

Follow CRE School on Social

LinkedIn

https://www.linkedin.com/company/commercial-real-estate-school/?viewAsMember=true

Instagram

https://www.instagram.com/creschoolshow/

In this series, Kyle sits down with Carson Baird, an industrial broker from Southwest Florida, to uncover the hidden pitfalls in industrial deals. They discuss how overlooked zoning details and unexpected easements can derail transactions, and share strategies to navigate these challenges. Carson offers insights on managing client expectations, leveraging local relationships, and using technology to streamline deal processes. Whether you're a broker, investor, or developer, this series provides practical advice to close deals efficiently and avoid costly mistakes in the competitive industrial market.

Connect with Carson

LinkedIn

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

X

https://x.com/Carson_CRE

Follow CRE School on Social

LinkedIn

https://www.linkedin.com/company/commercial-real-estate-school/?viewAsMember=true

Instagram

https://www.instagram.com/creschoolshow/

In this series, Kyle sits down with Carson Baird, an industrial broker from Southwest Florida, to uncover the hidden pitfalls in industrial deals. They discuss how overlooked zoning details and unexpected easements can derail transactions, and share strategies to navigate these challenges. Carson offers insights on managing client expectations, leveraging local relationships, and using technology to streamline deal processes. Whether you're a broker, investor, or developer, this series provides practical advice to close deals efficiently and avoid costly mistakes in the competitive industrial market.

Connect with Carson

LinkedIn

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

X

https://x.com/Carson_CRE

Follow CRE School on Social

LinkedIn

https://www.linkedin.com/company/commercial-real-estate-school/?viewAsMember=true

Instagram

https://www.instagram.com/creschoolshow/