*Previously aired episode* John Chang interviews Joe Fairless, co-founder of Ashcroft Capital, about navigating today's complex commercial real estate landscape. Fairless, who manages over $2.8 billion in assets across 14,000 apartment units, shares insights on finding opportunities amid market distress by cultivating relationships with lenders seeking capable operators for distressed properties. They discuss the record-breaking apartment absorption in late 2023, the decreasing construction pipeline, and how these fundamentals create buying opportunities despite challenging capital raising conditions. Fairless also candidly addresses lessons learned from previous deals and emphasizes the importance of "extreme ownership" when communicating with investors during difficult market periods.

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 Connect with top operators, LPs, GPs, and more, get real insights, and be part of a curated network built to help you grow.

Apply now at⁠ ⁠⁠⁠www.bestevercommunity.com⁠⁠

Podcast production done by⁠ ⁠Outlier Audio⁠

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*Previously aired episode* Pascal Wagner interviews Brandon Cobb, a seasoned land developer and founder of HBG Capital. Brandon breaks down the highly misunderstood world of land development, revealing how value is created before a single house is built. He shares how his team entitles land and leverages national homebuilder partnerships to generate strong returns with mitigated risk. Brandon walks through real-world case studies, outlines the key due diligence steps LPs should take, and explains why the demand for affordable “little-a” housing remains strong despite market volatility.

Brandon Cobb

Current role: Managing Partner at HBG Capital

Based in: Nashville, Tennessee

Say hi to them at: ⁠https://hbgcapital.net⁠ or ⁠learnlanddevelopment.com

Join us at Best Ever Conference 2026! Find more info at:

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Join the Best Ever Community

 The Best Ever Community is live and growing - and we want serious commercial real estate investors like you inside. It’s free to join, but you must apply and meet the criteria.

 Connect with top operators, LPs, GPs, and more, get real insights, and be part of a curated network built to help you grow.

Apply now at⁠ ⁠⁠⁠www.bestevercommunity.com⁠⁠

Podcast production done by⁠ ⁠Outlier Audio⁠

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*Previously aired episode* Joe Fairless interviews AI-savvy investors Paul Hopkins, Perry Zheng, Lance Pederson, and Bo Barron to explore how artificial intelligence is reshaping commercial real estate acquisitions. The panel shares practical tools—like Google’s Notebook LM, ChatGPT, AI21, and Claude—and strategies for deal analysis, underwriting, parsing PDFs, and even creating custom GPTs to automate offering memorandum reviews. They discuss how AI streamlines market research, transforms spreadsheets into semantic data, and helps underwrite deals more accurately and efficiently, while also acknowledging its limits in replacing human decision-making and deal sourcing relationships.

Paul Hopkins

Perry Zheng

Lance Pederson

Bo Barron

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 Connect with top operators, LPs, GPs, and more, get real insights, and be part of a curated network built to help you grow.

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Podcast production done by⁠ ⁠Outlier Audio⁠

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John Chang shares a year-end perspective on where commercial real estate stands after 2025 and what he’s watching heading into 2026. He breaks down the sharp slowdown in job creation following tariff uncertainty, rising unemployment among young adults, and how those trends are already impacting household formation, apartment absorption, and overall CRE demand. John also explains why institutional capital is quietly coming back off the sidelines, why retail may be the most resilient sector near-term, and how pent-up demand could drive a powerful rebound once economic clarity returns. Despite near-term choppiness, he makes the case that 2025–2026 entry points could set investors up well for the long-term cycle ahead.

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https://www.besteverconference.com/ 

Join the Best Ever Community

 The Best Ever Community is live and growing - and we want serious commercial real estate investors like you inside. It’s free to join, but you must apply and meet the criteria.

 Connect with top operators, LPs, GPs, and more, get real insights, and be part of a curated network built to help you grow.

Apply now at⁠ ⁠⁠⁠www.bestevercommunity.com⁠⁠

Podcast production done by⁠ ⁠Outlier Audio⁠

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John Casmon interviews Keith Miller about scaling from small backyard ADU and infill development projects into large-scale modular and manufactured home communities as a way to solve affordability and construction bottlenecks. Keith explains how subcontractor shortages, cost overruns, and timeline risk pushed his team toward factory-built housing, which offers faster delivery, more predictable pricing, and comparable quality to site-built homes. They break down the real differences between manufactured and modular housing, how Freddie and Fannie financing has changed the game, and why these homes can appraise and sell like traditional single-family residences. The conversation also covers Keith’s transition from a full-time teaching career to real estate, the importance of building a rental income base before going full time, and how thoughtful development can create both investor returns and meaningful social impact.

Keith Miller
Current role: Co-Founder, Upslope Group
Based in: Montana
Say hi to them at: https://upslopegroup.com/

Get 50% Off Monarch Money, the all-in-one financial tool at www.monarchmoney.com with code BESTEVER

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Join the Best Ever Community

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 Connect with top operators, LPs, GPs, and more, get real insights, and be part of a curated network built to help you grow.

Apply now at⁠ ⁠⁠⁠www.bestevercommunity.com⁠⁠

Podcast production done by⁠ ⁠Outlier Audio⁠

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Matt Faircloth interviews Maurice Philogene about designing a life around time freedom, personal fulfillment, and intentional investing, drawing from Maurice’s journey from corporate executive, military officer, and police officer to real estate investor. Maurice explains how buying and systematically paying down small condo assets created early financial freedom, why ego-driven over-leverage nearly derailed him in 2008, and how discipline and simplicity became his long-term edge. They explore his transition into multifamily syndication, lessons from scaling too fast, and why he ultimately chose to deleverage, simplify, and prioritize lifestyle over endless growth. The conversation also dives into overseas investing in Cyprus and Lebanon, emphasizing relationships over spreadsheets and redefining success beyond net worth.

Maurice Philogene
Current role: Real Estate Investor, Syndicator, and Founder of Try Life On
Say hi to them at: https://trylifeon.com/

Get 50% Off Monarch Money, the all-in-one financial tool at www.monarchmoney.com with code BESTEVER

Visit bestevercrypto.com today to get started and earn up to $2,500 in bonus crypto.

https://www.besteverconference.com/ 

Join the Best Ever Community

 The Best Ever Community is live and growing - and we want serious commercial real estate investors like you inside. It’s free to join, but you must apply and meet the criteria.

 Connect with top operators, LPs, GPs, and more, get real insights, and be part of a curated network built to help you grow.

Apply now at⁠ ⁠⁠⁠www.bestevercommunity.com⁠⁠

Podcast production done by⁠ ⁠Outlier Audio⁠

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Pascal Wagner interviews Matt Faircloth, John Casmon, and Ash Patel in a year-end roundtable reflecting on the biggest lessons from 2025 across their own portfolios and hundreds of investor interviews. The group digs into why distress has been slower and more “behind the scenes” than expected, how liquidity, discipline, and deal structure mattered more than macro predictions, and why many LPs are now prioritizing cash flow and capital preservation over appreciation. They also debate bridge debt, LP risk assessment, and where opportunities may emerge in 2026—from small-cap multifamily inefficiencies to deeply discounted office assets—while emphasizing accountability, conservative underwriting, and adaptability as the cycle evolves.

Get 50% Off Monarch Money, the all-in-one financial tool at www.monarchmoney.com with code BESTEVER

Visit bestevercrypto.com today to get started and earn up to $2,500 in bonus crypto.

https://www.besteverconference.com/ 

Join the Best Ever Community

 The Best Ever Community is live and growing - and we want serious commercial real estate investors like you inside. It’s free to join, but you must apply and meet the criteria.

 Connect with top operators, LPs, GPs, and more, get real insights, and be part of a curated network built to help you grow.

Apply now at⁠ ⁠⁠⁠www.bestevercommunity.com⁠⁠

Podcast production done by⁠ ⁠Outlier Audio⁠

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Amanda Cruise interviews Chris Streit, CEO of CSA Partners, about where cost segregation stands at the end of 2025—why “100% bonus depreciation is back” doesn’t remove urgency, because cost seg is fundamentally tax deferral and the time value of money still matters. Chris explains how investors can run look-back/catch-up depreciation on properties bought in prior years without amending returns, and why doing accelerated depreciation “wrong” increases audit risk (including IRS use of AI). They also dig into the often-ignored pain point—1245 recapture—and Chris shares how a “1245 exchange” approach can revalue short-life assets at sale to potentially reduce ordinary-income recapture and shift more into capital-gains treatment.

Chris Streit
Current role: CEO, CSA Partners
Based in: Dallas–Fort Worth Metroplex
Say hi to them at: https://csap.com/ | YouTube | LinkedIn

Get 50% Off Monarch Money, the all-in-one financial tool at www.monarchmoney.com with code BESTEVER

Visit bestevercrypto.com today to get started and earn up to $2,500 in bonus crypto.

https://www.besteverconference.com/ 

Join the Best Ever Community

 The Best Ever Community is live and growing - and we want serious commercial real estate investors like you inside. It’s free to join, but you must apply and meet the criteria.

 Connect with top operators, LPs, GPs, and more, get real insights, and be part of a curated network built to help you grow.

Apply now at⁠ ⁠⁠⁠www.bestevercommunity.com⁠⁠

Podcast production done by⁠ ⁠Outlier Audio⁠

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Matt Faircloth interviews Ash Patel, and the two hosts do a 2025 look-back / 2026 look-forward on what they’re seeing across major commercial asset classes—plus where they think real estate operators are headed after the last couple years of “extend and pretend”.

They start with why triple-net retail has stayed surprisingly strong (including the “no new supply” reality) and why office still feels “toxic” for many banks—creating an “office tsunami” of opportunities and pain as debt resets and distressed deals trade at steep discounts.

From there, they dig into multifamily as a tale of two outcomes (legacy fixed-rate wins vs. floating-rate fights), the competitive “insiders only” nature of mobile home parks as private equity pours in, and why self-storage may be overbuilt—while still leaving room for niche plays like wine/boat/RV storage and service-heavy concepts.

Get 50% Off Monarch Money, the all-in-one financial tool at www.monarchmoney.com with code BESTEVER

Visit bestevercrypto.com today to get started and earn up to $2,500 in bonus crypto.

https://www.besteverconference.com/ 

Join the Best Ever Community

 The Best Ever Community is live and growing - and we want serious commercial real estate investors like you inside. It’s free to join, but you must apply and meet the criteria.

 Connect with top operators, LPs, GPs, and more, get real insights, and be part of a curated network built to help you grow.

Apply now at⁠ ⁠⁠⁠www.bestevercommunity.com⁠⁠

Podcast production done by⁠ ⁠Outlier Audio⁠

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Richard McGirr interviews Maria Zondervan, a fund-of-funds operator who pivoted from a career as an endangered-species wildlife biologist into multifamily investing after realizing she needed to build legacy wealth for her special-needs son. Maria explains why she disliked directly operating multifamily and instead built a model where she partners with other fund managers to write larger checks, negotiate better tiers/terms, and put more “eyes on the deal” during due diligence. She also breaks down how her group manages risk and investor expectations—doing fewer, higher-quality equity deals and leaning on an income fund for liquidity—plus how she qualifies investors to avoid placing “all their savings” into illiquid syndications. Finally, Maria shares her investor lead-gen approach: primarily in-person education and speaking, with social media used mostly to stay top-of-mind rather than as a primary acquisition channel.

Maria Zondervan
Current role: CEO, Blue Vikings Capital
Based in: Orlando, Florida
Say hi to them at: https://www.bluevikingscapital.com/ |

Get 50% Off Monarch Money, the all-in-one financial tool at www.monarchmoney.com with code BESTEVER

Visit bestevercrypto.com today to get started and earn up to $2,500 in bonus crypto.

https://www.besteverconference.com/ 

Join the Best Ever Community

 The Best Ever Community is live and growing - and we want serious commercial real estate investors like you inside. It’s free to join, but you must apply and meet the criteria.

 Connect with top operators, LPs, GPs, and more, get real insights, and be part of a curated network built to help you grow.

Apply now at⁠ ⁠⁠⁠www.bestevercommunity.com⁠⁠

Podcast production done by⁠ ⁠Outlier Audio⁠

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices