They both lost their jobs on the same day.

Two corporate careers. Two salaries. Gone.

Instead of immediately running back to another paycheck, Mike Deaton and his wife Ligia asked a much bigger question:

What if we built a life we actually controlled?

That question eventually led them to one of the simplest—and most overlooked—business models in real estate:

Buying vacant land below market value and reselling it for a profit.

In this episode of The AI Edge Podcast, Louis Fernandes sits down with Mike Deaton, Co-Founder of Flipping Dirt, to unpack how a former corporate executive went from more than 20 years inside companies including Motorola, Nokia, and Microsoft to building a seven-figure national land investing business.

Mike and Ligia entered entrepreneurship with no guarantee the model would work.

They gave themselves a runway.

They started small.

They learned the market.

And once they proved the process, they began scaling.

Today, Mike brings the same operational thinking he developed running large corporate organizations into entrepreneurship, keeping the business intentionally lean while using systems, automation, data, and AI to move faster.

His philosophy is simple:

Eliminate. Automate. Delegate.

In this conversation, Mike and Louis break down:

• What happened when Mike and his wife were laid off on the same day
• Why they chose entrepreneurship instead of another corporate job
• How vacant land flipping actually works
• Why buying cheap land isn’t enough
• How Mike evaluates markets and prices offers
• Why timing can matter as much as price
• How some investors buy land at a fraction of market value
• Why owner financing can open the buyer pool
• How Mike keeps his business incredibly lean
• Where AI gives land investors a speed and data advantage
• Why adding software too early can destroy margins
• The difference between automating and simply adding complexity
• Why entrepreneurs must become comfortable testing and failing
• How Mike thinks about freedom, control, and real job security

Mike also explains why land flipping is simple, but not easy.

The mechanics can be learned.

The harder part is making the right decisions:

Is this the right market?

Is my offer right?

About Mike Deaton

Mike Deaton is an entrepreneur, real estate investor, and Co-Founder of Flipping Dirt.

Before entrepreneurship, Mike spent more than 20 years in corporate operations, including roles with Motorola, Nokia, and Microsoft.

After he and his wife Ligia were both laid off in 2016, they pivoted into real estate and formally launched their investing business full-time in 2017.

Today, they are active land investors and coaches helping others learn how to generate cash flow by buying and selling vacant land.

Their business is built around a simple principle:

Create more control over your income, time, and life.

Connect With Mike

Mike on LinkedIn:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelbdeaton/

Flipping Dirt:
flippingdirt.us

Instagram:
Mike & Ligia on Instagram

Flipping Dirt on LinkedIn:
https://www.linkedin.com/company/flipping-dirt/

Everyone is racing to automate more work.

But what happens when AI removes context, accountability, and the human experience?

Brooks Saye believes companies are asking the wrong question.

The goal should not be:

“How much can we replace with AI?”

It should be:

“How can AI help people make better decisions and spend more time with the people they serve?”

In this episode of The AI Edge Podcast, Louis Fernandes sits down with Brooks Saye, Partner at Varro Capital, to discuss why so many technology implementations fail, what multifamily operators misunderstand about AI, and why the renter must remain at the center of every operational decision.

Brooks has worked across multifamily operations, PropTech, revenue growth, partnerships, and go-to-market strategy. Today, she helps connect operators, lenders, asset managers, investors, renters, and technology founders through Varro Capital, Varro Technology, and Varro Studio.

Her perspective is clear:

The industry does not necessarily need more technology.

It needs better coordination between the technology that already exists.

Fewer disconnected dashboards.

Better workflows.

Clearer communication.

Less administrative friction.

And products built with both operators and renters in mind.

In this conversation, Brooks and Louis explore:

• Why AI should support decisions instead of replacing human judgment
• How companies confuse adding technology with creating innovation
• Why change management determines whether technology succeeds
• What separates great multifamily operators from average ones
• Where AI creates real value in rental housing
• Why PropTech companies fail despite having good ideas
• How regulation is becoming an operational challenge
• Why renter experience should remain the priority
• How technology can give on-site teams more time to build community
• Why the status quo is every technology company’s biggest competitor

Brooks also shares an important reminder:

Renters are not simply units, revenue, or expected demand.

They are people choosing where to call home.

They care whether maintenance requests are resolved, whether someone responds when something goes wrong, and whether their community actually feels like a community.

Technology should improve those experiences.

It should remove repetitive work so operators can return to service, relationships, and communication.

It should not create another login, another disconnected workflow, or another barrier between the renter and the people responsible for their home.

About Brooks Saye

Brooks Saye is a Partner at Varro Capital, where she focuses on revenue development, partnerships, go-to-market strategy, and connecting multifamily operators with technology and investment opportunities.

Before joining Varro, Brooks worked across multifamily operations and PropTech, helping companies grow while remaining focused on the real needs of on-site teams and renters.

Her philosophy is simple:

AI should help. It should not replace.

Connect With Brooks

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

Varro Capital:
https://varrocap.com

Varro Technology:
https://www.varroportal.com

Trillions of dollars in aging property infrastructure are still being managed through email threads, spreadsheets, phone calls, and human memory.

A pipe bursts. A manager starts calling plumbers. Residents wait for updates. Vendors send photos by text, sometimes. Board members have no visibility. And after the repair is supposedly finished, someone still has to ask:

“Did this actually get done?”

In this episode of The AI Edge Podcast, Louis Fernandes sits down with Sally Hamidi, Founder and CEO of ON Property Technologies, to expose the hidden operational breakdown inside the HOA and community-association industry, and explain why better technology is no longer optional.

Sally has spent more than 25 years working across real estate, property management, maintenance operations, vendors, boards, and management companies. After building her own management company, growing it to approximately 50 HOA communities alongside a rental portfolio, and eventually selling the business, she stepped into an executive maintenance role and saw the problem from an entirely new level.

The industry was responsible for protecting people’s homes and managing trillions of dollars in aging infrastructure, but critical information was still fragmented across inboxes, spreadsheets, disconnected systems, text messages, and individual relationships.

So Sally decided to build the system she wished she had.

In this conversation, Sally and Louis explore:

• Why the biggest maintenance bottleneck is not the repair itself
• How fragmented communication creates risk, delays, and distrust
• Why managers cannot scale while buried in manual coordination
• How vendor accountability can become measurable
• Why invoices should require photos and service reports
• How AI can help managers identify patterns across repairs and asset lifecycles
• What an emergency maintenance workflow looks like when automation handles the coordination
• Why reserve studies and property data often sit unused
• How management companies can improve service without continuously adding administrative labor
• Why connected systems can strengthen relationships between managers, boards, residents, and vendors

With an automated system, the request can be triaged to the correct vendor, escalated when the preferred vendor does not respond, tracked through arrival and completion, documented with photos, and shared with the appropriate stakeholders—while the manager focuses on higher-value work.

About Sally Hamidi

Sally Hamidi, GRI, CMCA, is the Founder and CEO of ON Property Technologies, a next-generation property-maintenance platform connecting management companies, property managers, vendors, technicians, and boards through a unified operating ecosystem.

Sally brings more than 25 years of hands-on experience across real estate, property management, maintenance, and community-association operations. She previously built a property-management company from the ground up, grew it to serve approximately 50 HOA communities and a portfolio of rental properties, and sold the business in 2023.

Connect With Sally Hamidi

Sally Hamidi on LinkedIn
https://www.linkedin.com/in/sally-hamidi/

ON Property Technologies
weareon.io

ON Property Technologies on LinkedIn
https://www.linkedin.com/company/on-proptech/

Most companies are still figuring out how to use ChatGPT.

Guillermo decided to build something entirely different.

Instead of relying on off-the-shelf software, he created his own AI-powered operating system that automates research, outreach, reporting, underwriting, legal documents, and client intelligence, giving his brokerage an advantage that's difficult to replicate.

In this conversation, he explains why he believes the future belongs to businesses that build AI around their own data instead of everyone else's.

Episode Description

What happens when a commercial real estate broker decides that the software on the market isn't good enough?

He builds his own.

In this episode of The AI Edge Podcast, Louis Fernandes sits down with Guillermo, Founder & CEO of Panther Capital Group, to discuss how he's using AI to transform the way commercial real estate deals are sourced, analyzed, and closed.

After closing more than $350 million in transactions before the age of 30, Guillermo made a bold decision: instead of adding more software subscriptions, he invested in building his own AI-powered operating system. Today, that platform automates everything from CRM and reporting to personalized outreach, legal documents, market intelligence, and deal analysis, allowing his team to move faster while delivering a better client experience.

In this episode, you'll learn:

• Why Guillermo chose to build AI instead of buying software
• How proprietary data creates a competitive advantage in commercial real estate
• The AI workflows helping his team source more off-market opportunities
• How automation is improving client relationships instead of replacing them
• Why execution, consistency, and data are becoming the new competitive edge

Whether you're a founder, operator, broker, investor, or business owner exploring AI, this conversation offers practical lessons on using technology to build systems that create leverage, not just save time.

About the Guest

Guillermo is the Founder & CEO of Panther Capital Group, a commercial real estate investment and brokerage firm specializing in industrial outdoor storage (IOS) properties across the United States.

Since entering the industry, Guillermo has closed more than $350 million in transactions, built a growing investment portfolio, and developed proprietary AI systems that automate prospecting, underwriting, reporting, and client relationship management.

His mission is simple: combine relentless execution with technology to create a better experience for clients while building one of the country's leading industrial real estate platforms.

Connect with Guillermo

🌐 Panther Capital Group

https://panthercapitalgroup.com/

💼 LinkedIn

https://www.linkedin.com/in/guillermo-de-nicolas-mba-sior-80b39614b/

🏢 Panther Capital Group

https://www.linkedin.com/company/panther-capital-group-llc/about/

Would you let AI make a $50 million real estate decision...if you couldn't verify where the data came from?

Episode Description

Artificial intelligence is moving faster than ever—but what happens when it's making decisions based on data that can't be trusted?

In this episode of The AI Edge Podcast, Louis Fernandes sits down with Matthew Schneider, President & CEO of Building, Inc., to explore one of the biggest challenges facing AI adoption in commercial real estate and enterprise organizations: data integrity.

While much of the industry is focused on AI, automation, and tokenization, Matthew argues that the real problem isn't the technology—it's the quality, structure, and trustworthiness of the information behind it. Without verified data, even the most advanced AI systems can confidently make the wrong decisions.

Matthew explains why trust has become the missing layer in digital real estate, how fragmented data creates friction across financing, compliance, transactions, and valuations, and why organizations must build stronger data foundations before AI and digital markets can reach their full potential.

Throughout the conversation, you'll learn:

• Why AI is only as reliable as the data behind it
• The hidden cost of fragmented real estate information
• How trusted data accelerates financing, compliance, and transactions
• Why governance and transparency are becoming competitive advantages
• The future of digital markets, tokenization, and AI-powered real estate

If you're a real estate owner, investor, operator, technology leader, or executive implementing AI, this conversation will change the way you think about data, trust, and the future of decision-making.

About the Guest

Matthew Schneider is the President & CEO of Building, Inc., a PropTech company building the data infrastructure that helps commercial real estate owners, operators, lenders, and investors organize, verify, and activate property information for financing, compliance, reporting, transactions, and emerging digital markets.

Matthew is also a board director at FIBREE (Foundation for International Blockchain and Real Estate Expertise), a researcher, speaker, and recognized thought leader focused on AI, data infrastructure, digital asset readiness, and the future of commercial real estate.

His work centers on creating trusted, verifiable data systems that enable faster decisions, greater transparency, and more efficient capital markets.

Connect with Matthew Schneider

🌐 Building, Inc.
https://building.inc

💼 Matthew Schneider on LinkedIn
https://www.linkedin.com/in/realmattschneider/

🏢 Building, Inc. on LinkedIn
https://www.linkedin.com/company/building-proptech/

Everyone is selling more data.

But what if the real competitive advantage isn't having more information.

It's making better decisions faster?

Most real estate investors spend hours bouncing between spreadsheets, comps, rental estimates, financing calculators, and market reports trying to answer one simple question:

"Is this actually a good deal?"

Andrew Weiss believes AI should eliminate that uncertainty—not create more of it.

Episode Description

In this episode of The AI Edge Podcast, Louis Fernandes sits down with Andrew Weiss, Founder & CEO of HomeStream, to explore how AI is transforming real estate investment analysis by shifting the focus from raw data to confident decision-making.

Andrew's entrepreneurial journey began at just 15 years old, when he launched an e-commerce business with only $300. After scaling that business into a six-figure operation, he turned his attention to real estate investing—only to discover that evaluating investment properties was still painfully manual, fragmented, and dependent on endless spreadsheets.

That frustration became the foundation for HomeStream.

Instead of simply giving investors more property data, HomeStream combines dozens of public and private data sources with proprietary AI models to generate comprehensive investment reports in minutes—helping investors, agents, and brokerages move from analysis to action with greater confidence.

In this conversation, Andrew and Louis discuss:

• Why "more data" doesn't always lead to better investment decisions
• The biggest mistakes investors make when analyzing properties
• How AI can dramatically reduce analysis paralysis without replacing human judgment
• The difference between data platforms and decision platforms
• Building an AI-first startup in one of the most competitive PropTech markets
• Why speed matters when evaluating investment opportunities
• The future of AI-powered underwriting, property analysis, and real estate investing

Whether you're an investor, real estate professional, founder, or simply curious about how AI is changing traditional industries, this episode offers practical insights into building technology that helps people make smarter decisions, not just faster ones.

Andrew Weiss is the Founder & CEO of HomeStream, an AI-powered property analysis platform that helps residential real estate investors, agents, and brokerages evaluate investment opportunities with greater speed and confidence.

A lifelong entrepreneur, Andrew started his first business at age 15 and later applied that entrepreneurial mindset to real estate investing after experiencing firsthand how inefficient and fragmented the property analysis process could be.

Today, HomeStream combines AI, machine learning, and property data to simplify underwriting, improve investment analysis, and help users make better real estate decisions.

Connect with Andrew Weiss

🌐 HomeStream: https://www.homestream.io

💼 Andrew Weiss on LinkedIn:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrew-weiss11/

🏢 HomeStream on LinkedIn:
https://www.linkedin.com/company/homestreaminc/posts/?feedView=all

Most people think real estate has already gone digital.

You can search for a house online, but once the search ends, the experience fractures across agents, lenders, insurers, contractors, rental platforms, service providers, and ownership tools.

Bobby Bryant believes that entire system is ready to be rebuilt.

After operating across mortgage lending, brokerage, title, education, and real estate technology, Bobby is now building Homhub: an AI-native marketplace designed to connect the entire lifecycle of homeownership in one place.

In this episode of The AI Edge Podcast, Louis Fernandes sits down with Bobby Bryant, Founder and CEO of Homhub, to examine why one of the world’s largest industries still feels disconnected, and what it would take to create an operating system for the home.

Bobby’s journey did not begin in technology.

He started as an educator, entered mortgage lending, worked his way up to becoming a successful broker, and says he became a millionaire before the age of 30.

That experience eventually led him to a much bigger question:

Why does a consumer need six to eight platforms to manage one home?

Bobby argues that today’s dominant real estate portals primarily own the beginning of the funnel.

This conversation explores:

• Why real estate is still fragmented despite looking digital
• How Bobby went from teaching to becoming a successful mortgage broker
• What the 2008 financial crisis taught him about the industry
• Why Homhub is positioning itself as an operating system rather than a listing portal
• The difference between an advertising portal and a transactional marketplace
• Why Airbnb owns more of the customer experience than traditional real estate platforms
• Why Bobby chose to build independently from MLS data
• How legacy rules can restrict product innovation
• Why companies cannot simply bolt AI onto old infrastructure
• What it means to build an AI-native company
• Why technology teams and business teams often struggle to communicate
• How AI could improve the experience for consumers, agents, brokerages, and homeowners
• Why real estate’s fragmentation may become both its greatest weakness and its greatest opportunity
• What incumbent industries can learn from Uber, Amazon, Netflix, and Airbnb

This is not just a conversation about proptech.

It is a founder’s argument for rebuilding the infrastructure behind one of the most important financial decisions people make.

About Bobby Bryant

Bobby Bryant is the Founder and CEO of Homhub, an AI-native real estate marketplace designed to connect the complete lifecycle of buying, selling, renting, investing, financing, and owning a home.

Before building Homhub, Bobby worked across education, mortgage lending, real estate brokerage, title, real estate education, and technology.

His experience operating across multiple sides of the industry shaped his belief that real estate does not need another isolated tool—it needs a connected, consumer-centered ecosystem.

Connect With Bobby

Homhub:
homhub.ai

Bobby Bryant on LinkedIn:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/bobby-bryant-m-ed-x2-53249610/

Homhub on LinkedIn:
https://www.linkedin.com/company/homhub-ai/

At 28 years old, Kassie Smith walked into a business and offered to buy the company.

She had no money and no idea how she would make the acquisition happen.

When the owner refused to sell, Kassie gave him an answer he probably never expected:

“Okay. I’ll be your competition.”

That decision became the beginning of an extraordinary career building companies, shaping luxury destinations, and helping turn raw land into ambitious real estate developments.

Episode Overview

In this episode of The AI Edge Podcast, Louis Fernandes sits down with Kassie Smith, Founder and President of KS Global Development, to explore what it actually takes to transform a vision into an iconic project.

Kassie has spent nearly three decades working across luxury real estate, hospitality, branded residences, private clubs, master-planned communities, capital strategy, and global development.

Her work begins before the building exists.

It begins with a blank piece of land, a complicated collection of stakeholders, and a question:

What could this become?

Kassie explains why the most successful developments are not created by buying land first and figuring out the concept later. The vision, brand ecosystem, customer experience, capital strategy, approvals, and operating model must work together from the beginning.

She also reveals why some of the hardest parts of real estate development happen long before construction starts—and why even a brilliant idea will fail without the right capital stack, government relationships, team, and execution strategy.

This conversation explores:

• How Kassie built a competing company after an owner refused to sell
• What separates an ordinary development from an iconic destination
• Why developers should create the vision before selecting the land
• How raw land can become significantly more valuable once it is entitled and shovel-ready
• Why luxury is now defined by lifestyle, service, and ecosystem—not simply architecture
• How investors evaluate complex real estate opportunities
• Why capital and approvals remain the biggest obstacles to development
• How to assemble teams across markets and jurisdictions
• Why transparency is essential when managing investor relationships
• How AI can improve infrastructure, predictive maintenance, operations, and asset value
• What entrepreneurs can learn from billion-dollar development projects
• Why bold ideas still require rigorous financial execution

Kassie’s story is a reminder that ambitious projects are rarely built by people who wait for perfect conditions.

They are built by people who see what others miss—and are willing to move before the path is obvious.

About Kassie Smith

Kassie Smith is the Founder and President of KS Global Development.

She is a third-generation real estate and construction professional with nearly three decades of experience across real estate development, hospitality, luxury branding, master planning, capital strategy, and project advisory.

Connect With Kassie

KS Global Development:
http://www.ksglobalco.com

LinkedIn:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/kassiesmith1/

Company LinkedIn:
https://www.linkedin.com/company/ks-global-consultants/

Most people think construction projects fail because of bad labor, missed deadlines, or problems in the field.

Nick Johnson says they're looking in the wrong place.

According to Nick, the biggest failures happen long before construction begins—during planning, communication, and coordination.

In this episode of The AI Edge Podcast, Louis Fernandes sits down with Nick Johnson, Director of Business Development at RYZEC Building Group, to explore what really separates exceptional construction companies from average ones.

Nick shares why trust is the most valuable asset in commercial construction, how a 15-person team manages roughly $30 million in annual revenue, why relationships consistently outperform low bids, and how every successful project begins with operational excellence—not simply great craftsmanship.

The conversation also explores Nashville's booming commercial real estate market, AI's impact on estimating and development, why permitting delays can derail projects, and the leadership mindset required to consistently deliver successful builds.

In This Episode

• Why projects fail before construction starts
• Building trust in commercial construction
• How relationships outperform price
• Managing complex commercial projects
• The future of AI in construction
• Nashville's commercial real estate market
• Operational excellence in construction
• Leading lean, high-performing teams
• Why communication is everything
• Lessons every entrepreneur can apply

About Nick Johnson

Nick Johnson is the Director of Business Development at RYZEC Building Group, a commercial general contractor specializing in ground-up construction and tenant improvements across the Southeast.

He is also the author of When the Pipeline Lies and leads the Nashville chapter of Contractors, Closers & Connections (CCC), one of the country's fastest-growing commercial real estate networking communities.

Nick focuses on helping developers, owners, brokers, and contractors build long-term relationships that drive successful projects.

Connect With Nick

Website: http://ryzecgroup.com

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nick-johnson-1abba6b2/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/ryzec-building-group-llc/

Everyone is waiting for interest rates to fall.

David Huey believes they're waiting for the wrong solution.

After helping finance billions of dollars in residential construction and thousands of homes across America, he argues that the housing crisis isn't being driven by interest rates, it's being driven by one simple reality:

We aren't building enough homes.

In this episode of The AI Edge Podcast, Louis Fernandes sits down with David Huey, Founder & CEO of Sound Capital, to discuss the real forces shaping America's housing market.

David shares why banks are pulling back from construction lending, how private credit is stepping in, what builders are actually struggling with, and why the next decade could determine whether an entire generation is priced out of homeownership.

The conversation also explores David's entrepreneurial journey—from building one of the first nationwide MLS aggregation companies that helped shape modern online real estate to leading a company that has financed billions in residential construction.

Whether you're an investor, builder, entrepreneur, or simply wondering where housing is headed, this conversation offers a thoughtful perspective on one of today's biggest economic challenges.

In this episode

• Why housing affordability is really a supply problem
• Why lower interest rates may not solve the crisis
• Banks vs. private credit
• The future of homebuilding
• Lessons from the 2008 housing crash
• How regulatory costs impact housing prices
• What builders actually need to succeed
• The future of construction finance
• Dave's journey building one of the earliest MLS technology companies
• Why entrepreneurship is about solving problems

About David Huey

David Huey is the Founder & CEO of Sound Capital, a private lending platform focused on financing residential construction projects across the United States.

Before launching Sound Capital, David built one of the nation's earliest MLS aggregation technology companies, helping lay the foundation for modern online real estate search before its acquisition into what became part of Zillow's ecosystem.

Today, his team works with builders, investors, and capital partners to help finance the creation of thousands of homes while addressing America's growing housing shortage.

Connect With David

Website: http://www.soundcapital.com

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/david-huey-sound-capital/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/soundcapital/