I’m admittedly obsessed by pandemics. I’ve been listening to the course on the Black Death via the Great Courses, I was in China at the tail end of SARS in 2003 and was intensely focused on what life was like during that time there, and of course,
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Blog Archives
Revisiting the Spanish Flu: What Can a Dire Pandemic Look Like?
by 
Gary Carmell Posted in Economy, Housing, Stock Market, Trends, Uncategorized, Wealth No Comments ↓
Gary Carmell Posted in Economy, Housing, Stock Market, Trends, Uncategorized, Wealth No Comments ↓ Finding the Bottlenecks and Pain Points
CWS has a sister company that focuses on corporate housing. They provide temporary housing for business people, interns, long-term, special projects for companies, etc. I am one of the advisory board members and it’s been such a treat to see how the company has grown and prospered over its 25 years in business.
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The Power of Mindset
Last week we completed seven of our eleven State of the Company meetings that Tracy Hayes, the president of our sister company CWS Corporate Housing, and I have been doing for 26 years. And while it’s a lot of travel in a relatively short period of time,
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Rent Control - Then and Now
With rent control being passed in California, Oregon, and New York, government intervention in rental housing is heating up. This is something we have been predicting for a number of years given the housing shortage and relatively stagnant wages for lower to middle-income earners. We also had a lot of experience with it when we owned manufacturing housing communities where it was much more widespread than apartments so we had a sense of the conditions that would lend itself to rent control pressures.
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Strangers Stopping Strangers: 7 Benefits of CEO's Having Hobbies
“Strangers stopping strangers
Just to shake their hands”
-Jerry Garcia & Robert Hunter
I recently went to listen to a Grateful Dead cover band at a local bar/restaurant. I was immediately impressed by how good they were and the joyous atmosphere they helped create.
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One Mis-Step Away - Answers Come After the Question is Posed
by Gary Carmell Posted in Economy, Housing, Investing, News, Taxes, Trends, Uncategorized, Wealth 4 Comments ↓
Gary Carmell Posted in Economy, Housing, Investing, News, Taxes, Trends, Uncategorized, Wealth 4 Comments ↓ 
Answers can only come after a question has been posed. Thus, formulating great questions is the first, and most important, step to growing one’s base of knowledge. As I have written in my book, the two most important questions I need the answers to in terms of our investments at CWS are:
What is going to happen to our Net Operating Income?…
Single-Family Housing: No Bubble But There Is A "But"
It has been our belief at CWS that housing in totality has been undersupplied. This does not mean that apartments may not be over-supplied in certain metro areas, particularly in the urban core. This is the case because these properties are often very dense and result in the delivery of a lot of units at one time that can often result in rent discounts to entice people to rent at these communities so developers can expedite getting out of their construction loans and/or be in a position to sell their properties.
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Quantum Phases & Locking Rate
The last few weeks have been a good representation as to why I have an aversion to fixed-rate loans when doing a refinance or an acquisition. Assuming fixed rate loans from sellers when acquiring properties, however, is a different story and worthy of its own write up so I won’t address the distinctions here.
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The Ever Growing Importance of Ideas
As property values have escalated greatly in major cities, particularly with a tech orientation, I ask myself if secondary markets make more sense as the cost of living is cheaper and yields are initially higher. The tradeoff historically has been far less growth potential and lower appreciation.
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Fake News - The Reality Is Not What You Think
I recently completed Titan: The Life of John D. Rockefeller, Sr. by Ron Chernow and it is a wonderful read about the fascinating life and times of John D. Rockefeller. Ida Tarbell, one of the great muckraking writers and profilers who gained her fame while writing for McClure’s was personally impacted by Standard Oil’s brash business tactics.
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