“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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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?…
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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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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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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We are coming up on our 2018 Annual Investor Meeting. This week’s blog is a look back at my 2017 speech focusing on the principles that have served CWS well over the years. You can enjoy the video and or read the highlights below. Here’s a modified transcript of my keynote:
Each year we do an annual report and this year the cover is timeless principles the artwork shows some of the parables that cover these timeless principles of long-term thinking.
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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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With the tax overhaul now being law, I wanted to do a granular analysis of what the changes mean for those who own and those who rent in a high tax, high-cost state (California) and one residing in a low cost, low tax state (Texas).
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In some ways, it is understandable why the subprime meltdown took place. Prior to 2006 home prices in the United States in the post World War II era rarely, if ever, declined materially on a sustainable basis. Based on this rearview mirror modeling investors in mortgages were led to believe that default rates would be manageable and if they did default then losses would be negligible because recovery rates would be strong because home prices kept rising.
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I typically wouldn’t discuss Tax Reform until it has passed since it would usually be speculative, I am making an exception given that many of the parameters are known and because of its potential impact on housing. The basis of the plan was to cut the corporate tax rate first and then work around the constraints that Senate rules and supposed deficit hawks impose on the process.
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