Commercial Real Estate Pro Network

Today, my guest is George Thomas. George Thomas is the founder of Financial Freedom Builders, an organization helping families build confidence with money. And in just a minute, we're going to speak with George Thomas about Money and Wealth Building Concepts.   https://www.thefinancialconstructor.com/  

J Darrin Gross If you're willing, I'd like to ask you, George Thomas, What is the BIGGEST RISK?   George Thomas By far, the best the biggest risk, is not investing. You know, to darrin's point about, can you avoid it? You could try to avoid it. You can put it into the savings account, and you could, you know, avoid the market because you're worried about what could happen with your money. You could, but you run the risk of having to work tirelessly and getting nowhere the rest of your life. So that that so that moves that, that moves that away. The second piece is, is, can you? Can you mitigate it in some regards? So you, you can do things to help you mitigate some by understanding what the strategies are when it comes to investing, right? Does carry risk? Yes, you could be in the wrong investment, and it could turn into a true disaster. So what you do there to mitigate is to get the education you need to be able to use what you know is necessary for you to get to your end destination, which is financial free

Today, my guest is Nick Deangelo. Nick Deangelo is known as the Fixed Income Goat in real estate circles, with a $206 million plus portfolio, and in just a minute, we're going to speak with Nick Deangelo about fixed income. https://saintinvestment.com/ saintinvestment.com/book  

J Darrin Gross  I'd like to ask you, Nick Deangelo, what is the BIGGEST RISK?   Nic Deangelo The biggest risk, I'll give you the biggest front side and the biggest backside. Biggest front side is always going to be due diligence on our side, we have beaten that to death. We have overlaid many economic factors. Our due diligence confidence is at an all time high. But what I see in the marketplace is many people not doing the due diligence to a real, true conservative estimate of outcomes that is the biggest risk. And we saw that the last few years. And we see the back end of what that looks like, the optimistic, the rosy projections, things like that, and that's consistently what we see. And then on the back end, let's talk portfolio strategy. We have over 600 mortgages. We got, you know what, 19 syndications that we've done, the number one risk that I've seen on that side is not thinking long term. I know I beat that to death, but in the same vein of the underwriting and being over rosy with your projections

Today, my guest is Cary Prejean.  Cary Prejean, is the founder of Strategic Business Advisors LLC. Cary vision is to work with business owners to dramatically improve cash flow and profits, business autonomy and long term strategic planning. And in just a minute, we're going to speak with Cary Prejean about maximizing profits and cash flow.   https://strategicbusinessadvisors.org/ cary@strategicbusinessadvisors.org  

J Darrin Gross I would like to ask you, Cary Prejean, what is the BIGGEST RISK?.   Cary Prejean You talk about big risk for business owners,   J Darrin Gross yeah, however you want to, however you want to identify it.   Cary Prejean Well, I mean, that that's why I deal with business owners, right? The biggest risk for them is, is not paying attention. You know, not paying to get lost in the weeds, not paying attention. What's out there, not. Not, not anticipating some threat, as you call it, and they don't know they have they haven't even thought about it. They haven't even seen it. So there's no mitigating it. There's no transferring it. There's no navigating around it. It just hits you like an iceberg. You know, you have to pay attention to that kind of stuff, and that's why it's good to have, as you said, you know, you come in and you you take a very risk, Central, centric approach to what risk are out there, and what can you mitigate? What can you alleviate? What do you what can you transfer? I think that

J Darrin Gross I'd like to ask you, Charles Gaudet, what is the BIGGEST RISK?   Charles Gaudet Well, we mentioned risks earlier, of you know, between the marketing risks and the operational sales risk and all that other stuff. But right now, there's the risk of the unknown. And when I say that every single business is being disrupted by AI already, as it sits right now. The thing is, is, if you look back at 2025, and you ask most people, have you been disrupted by AI? Most people will say, No. You'll ask them, okay, what have you found about your business? And they might say, well, leads have been harder. Sales have been harder. Business just feels harder. And when you ask them why, they'll say things like, make a political maybe it's Trump, maybe it's the economy, maybe it's this, maybe it's that, but it's this. Is the thing that they don't realize. They actually have been disrupted by AI. You see, 60% of all their organic traffic has disappeared between January of 2025, and December of 2025 that traffic dis

Today, my guest is Charles Gaudet. Charles is the CEO of Predictable Profits. He has helped clients generate over a billion in revenue by solving The Founders Trap where successful entrepreneurs become their businesses biggest bottleneck, and in just a minute, we're going to speak with Charles Gaudet about escaping The Founder's Trap.   https://predictableprofits.com/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/charlesgaudet  

Today, my guest is Christopher Tiessen. Christopher is the president and CEO of Klaus Multi Parking America Inc, Christopher Tiessen spearheads the US sales and operation subsidiary of a global leader in premium parking systems, Clos multi parking, GmbH.    https://us.multiparking.com/  

J Darrin Gross I'd like to ask you. Chris Tiessen, what is the BIGGEST RISK?   Christopher Tiessen The biggest risk, in my mind, is for our industry, that we're seen as a commodity is as seen as somebody that is not necessary between because before they go into the risk of getting mechanical parking and maybe the system not working, I will just, you know, let the whole project go away and not do the project. So that's our biggest risk that all of our companies in this industry are working against, and also that conventional parking is more attractive still than mechanical parking, even though we have so many advantages to it, and it's more of the company behind it to actually manage these risks, and, you know, take on these risks of the uncertainties of our client, and just put them in ease. That mechanical parking is the step to the future. It's only the step to the future. It is always already present here, and that with this, you can open doors to your development that you did not think before. And typical

Today, my guest is Ashley Garner. Ashley is a seasoned real estate entrepreneur and founder of ABG and Associates with over 30 years of experience, he combines analytical rigor and hands on property management to consistently deliver strong, cash flowing returns to his investors. And in just a minute, we're going to speak with Ashley Garner about value add, deal making, real world stories and lessons from transforming underperforming properties into profitable, high yield investments.   https://www.abgmultifamily.com/

 J Darrin Gross If you're willing, I'd like to ask you, Ashley Garner, what is the BIGGEST RISK?   Ashley Garner I think the biggest risk is to be under capitalized and and ultimately, you know, a property can go up in value, or the the P and L can show a profit, but if you don't have enough cash flow to pay the bills or make the repairs that you need to make, or make the improvements you need to make, then you you're in a tight spot, and that puts everything at risk, and that's an avoidable risk to not be under capitalized. But the temptation is so great a lot of times to say, I'm going to just manage this myself and save that money, or I'm going to turn units out of operations. I'm going to use the money from operations to improve units. And then, unfortunately, then a water leak happens, or something happens, and you need to do 10 at once. Well, you don't have enough money to do 10 at once, and now you can't rent them, and you're in trouble and so, but if you've got a nice. Just reserve pile of cash, so to

Today, my guest is Kenny Bedwell. Kenny Bedwell is a seasoned real estate investor and entrepreneur known for helping high income professionals identify and acquire short term rental properties that generate strong cash flow. And in just a minute, we're going to speak with Kenny Bedwell about short term rentals versus boutique hotels.   https://www.instagram.com/kenny_bedwell/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/kenneth-bedwell-9680a8113/ https://www.strinsights.com/  

J Darrin Gross I'd like to ask you. Kenny Bedwell, what is the BIGGEST RISK?   Kenny Bedwell So you know, I the biggest risk. I think that this the answer I was going to give you originally, and I kind of talked about it, so I'll move on from it, but it's regulation. Regulation changes. You're in trouble that is a huge risk to any investment. But the risk that I don't really hear often talked about. In our space is actually safety, guest safety. So I'll give you a stat. This is a real stat by there's a there's a guy Justin Ford, he's a safety expert in a short term rental space, and guests are so people are more, 10 times more likely to have an accident in a short term rental than in a hotel. And so there is an inherent amount of risk with hosting people in a property, especially people on on vacation. 70% of people that go on that stay at short term rentals admitted that they like to, you know, drink when they're on vacation. There's nothing wrong with that, obviously, but like, 70% of people, adults who are

Today, my guest is Joe. Downs. Joe is a lifelong entrepreneur with business ventures spanning securities, mortgage, hospitality and real estate industries. He co founded the bell Rose group to pursue opportunities within the niche Self Storage sector of commercial real estate, and in just a minute, we're going to speak with Joe downs about pro storage. What is it and why we need it. Joe@Belroseam.com https://selfstorageacademy.com/  

J Darrin Gross If you're willing, I'd like to ask you, Joe downs, what is the BIGGEST RISK?   Joe Downs To me, it's, I'll give you, I'll give you, all right, you just want the biggest I'm gonna go right to base. To me, it's change. It's sort of what I just alluded to, if we were, if, if we still thought, because we weren't out there interviewing and investigating other third party management companies. If we refuse to do all that and just head in the sand, we would probably start falling behind other storage facilities, other competitors, who are managing their facilities better than we are. And the reason for that is because of technology. And I alluded to that earlier, and so that's just a small example, but to me, the biggest reason is AI. The single biggest reason is of change. The biggest change agent is AI. So if we're not, and you might say, What does aI have to do with storage everything? Because AI has AI can infiltrate if you allow it and choose to. And I highly suggest you do every, every part of y

Today, my guest is Peter Roisman. Peter Roisman is the CO founding principal, President and CEO of REV, the multifamily leasing company, a Houston based venture established in 2019. Under his leadership, REV has become a trailblazer in multifamily leasing management and training, and in just a minute, we're going to speak with Peter Roisman about leveraging data for improved multifamily leasing results.   rev-leasing.com https://www.linkedin.com/in/peterroisman/  

J Darrin Gross If you're willing, I'd like to ask you, Peter Roisman, what is the BIGGEST RISK?   Peter Roisman Well, the biggest risk, in my mind, for besides physical property itself, is the occupancy and and and the rental rates. So if you have an underperforming leasing team. And your occupancy drops into the 80s, you know. And at one point, 15% of the properties in Houston were under 85% you're at risk. That is, that is a high risk, too. So in to flip that, to address that risk, you have to be high performing at leasing, which, which means you're not at risk at all. You're lowering or reducing or removing risk. If you're a stabilized property performing at a high level, leading your sub market, yeah, that that one, you can check off the risk. You can still have storms, you can still have the other things that happen on a property. But if your revenue streams are solid. You You should never have a financial risk that way.   rev-leasing.com https://www.linkedin.com/in/peterroisman/  

Today, my guest is Brent Kesler. Brent Kessler was a chiropractor, and after implementing the money multiplier method, Brent paid off $984,711 in third party debt in 39 months, he became so passionate about how powerful this concept was, he began sharing it with others, and in just a minute, we're going to talk with Brent Kesler about Infinite Banking through the Money Multiplier Method.   https://themoneymultiplier.com/ https://themoneymultiplier.com/brent-kesler  

J Darrin Gross And so if you're willing, I'd like to ask you. Brent Kesler, what is the biggest risk?   Brent Kessler Yeah, well, let me answer it a couple different ways on there. But so as far as a risk, okay, as far as in our business, and what we do when you have this type of policy, I tell people all the time, there is no risk at all, because nobody's ever lost money in a whole life insurance policy. But then I stop, and I say, wait a minute, there is one risk. The risk is you, the risk is you the client and how you use the policy. So you're the only one that can screw this up. You are the only one that can screw this up. The insurance company is not going to screw it up. So who do you know better than you. So you're the risk factor now, as far as a risk also when I because, again, I invest in in properties. I have short term rentals, long term rentals, Airbnbs, vrbos. I have raw land. And I do a lot of private lending in the real estate world. I lend to individuals for houses, even to cars. And I also l