Podcast Summary
Insights on Real Estate Investing and Business Success from Sam Zell.: To succeed in business and real estate investing, it's important to zoom out and see the bigger picture, understand basic fundamentals, balance drive and ego, remove personalization and emotions from decision-making, and find backdoors that others might have missed.
Sam Zell is a legendary investor and entrepreneur known for his many bold moves and investments, including founding Equity Office Properties Trust in 1997 and selling the company for a record-breaking 39 billion dollars in 2007. His book, 'Am I Being Too Subtle?', offers insights into real estate investing, entrepreneurship, and business success. In an interview with Trey Lockerbie and David Greene, Sam shared his wisdom, revealing how he avoids risk by zooming out and seeing the bigger picture, understanding basic fundamentals or principles, and foreseeing challenges before they arise. He also demonstrated the importance of balance between drive and ego, being able to remove personalization and emotions from decision-making. Lastly, he shared literal negotiation strategies and found backdoors that others might have missed to increase the purchase price of his sales.
The Evolution of REITs: A Brief History and Future Growth Prospects: REITs were created to allow small investors to own part of commercial real estate market; today, they are an attractive investment option, but maintaining transparency and liquidity is essential for further growth.
Sam Zell explains the history and development of REITs, initially created to provide an opportunity for small investors to own part of the commercial real estate market. However, for many years, the private market was more attractive than the public market. In the late 80s, accessibility to capital markets of real estate disappeared. This led to a situation where public markets became the only source of capital for the real estate industry. In this context, the REIT industry experienced growth and became an attractive investment option. However, to improve the industry from here, it is essential to maintain transparency and liquidity that REITs set out to achieve and also support the growth of REITs as an attractive investment option.
The Birth of Modern Real Estate Investing: Sam Zell's emphasis on creating desirable products, transparency, and liquidity paved the way for the explosive growth of real estate investment trusts (REITs), which still offer significant opportunities despite current challenges.
The modern era of real estate, or the REIT business, began when Sam Zell gave a speech in 1993. Zell emphasized the importance of creating a product that the public wants to own and creating an environment where it can grow. He also emphasized the need for transparency and liquidity, which led to a demand for cash flow emanating from real estate. Zell predicted that the industry would be a trillion dollar industry in 10 to 20 years, and it ultimately happened. Real estate is a business that goes through cycles, and the pandemic has caused oversupply and industry-wide challenges. However, the demand for transparency, cash flow, and participation in the real estate market still persists.
Successful investing through supply and demand analysis: By understanding supply and demand, conducting proper research, and avoiding baseless optimism, investors can make informed decisions. Paying attention to market trends prevents investing in inflated prices and reduces the risk of being led astray during uncertain times.
Understanding supply and demand, doing proper research, and avoiding being overly optimistic can lead to successful investing decisions. The oversupply in workspace is being eaten by companies like WeWork, resulting in less valuable office space during work from home periods. Sam Zell's successful analysis and decision-making resulted in selling office assets at the right time. Similarly, the entry of online shopping was obvious, and more people started buying everyday items online, leading to a decline in physical retail stores. Paying attention to market trends and making informed decisions can prevent investors from being part of the problem like those who continue trading properties with short-term leases at inflated prices.
The Importance of Fear, Supply and Demand in Wealth Creation: Understanding supply and demand is crucial for successful investments. Keeping fear as a driving force can help prevent losses. Buying real estate below replacement cost is a safer investment strategy in the current environment.
Maintaining a level of fear is an incredible element in the creation of wealth. Sam Zell emphasizes the importance of understanding supply and demand and recognizing the reflection of monkey see, monkey do approach to business, leading to market flooding, low-interest rates, and excessive supply. With high inflation and low unemployment in the current environment, investment strategy must be informed by past experiences. Sam Zell highlights the significance of buying real estate below its replacement cost, guaranteeing a safer investment. Investors must remain vigilant and skeptical and not get carried away by available funds, fearing that they will be left with losses.
Supply and Demand of Capital and Its Impact on Banks and Money Market Funds: The imbalance of supply and demand of capital can lead to risks for banks and money market funds. Parking money or moving it around may not be a solution, as the real challenge lies in safely storing the increasing debt and demand for services.
Sam Zell highlights the issue of supply and demand of capital resulting in banks parking money with the Fed and depositors moving money to money market funds leading to the risk of smaller banks losing depositors. However, this is not a solution as it just moves the pegs in the game. Zell predicts that the next thing we will see is big money market funds getting in trouble due to the significant challenge of not being able to safely put money away today. The increase in debt and demand for services that banks cannot earn enough to justify it can cause subprime loans or some other new methodology to cause themselves their own problems.
The Principles of Supply and Demand in Real Estate Investing: Identify markets with lower supply and higher demand for better investment opportunities. Don't mistake a flipper for an investor, who focuses on long-term growth. The excess supply of money is causing a decrease in value for all assets.
The principle of supply and demand affects everything, including the prices of hard assets like real estate. The issues in the economy stem from an excess of supply of money which has led to the deterioration of the value of everything since everything is measured in terms of dollars. When investing, it's not about identifying a market or opportunity as being the right place. It's about identifying the market with a lower supply and higher demand to create competition. Competition is great for consumers but not necessarily for investors. Also, a flipper is not an investor, whereas an investor is focused on the long-term growth of their investment.
Long-Term Investment Strategies: Importance of After-Tax Yield and Price Discovery: When considering long-term investments, prioritize after-tax yield and price discovery. Re-evaluate investments regularly and consider the tax implications and potential selling prices. A small breakup fee can encourage competitive bids and protect investors.
Investors who aim for long-term appreciation should focus on after-tax yield, not pre-tax yield. They should consider the tax implications and selling prices of their investments. Buy and hold strategies can work, but investors should constantly re-evaluate their investments and ask themselves if they would buy at today's price. Billionaires like Bill Gates and Chuck Bezos made their fortunes by not having to mark to market and pay taxes on their stock until they sell. Price discovery is critical in selling assets to protect investors and oneself. The breakup fee should be small enough to encourage competitive bids and price discovery.
The Importance of Strategy in Business Deals: To succeed in business deals, fear the seller, create competition, and avoid being the last one to buy. Remember to consider antitrust laws and negotiate for favorable financing sources.
In business deals, there is always a strategy and thought process involved in both buying and selling. Creating competition is important for sellers to get the highest price. In the case of EOP acquisition, Blackstone raised the price and requested higher breakup fee to avoid outbidding from potential competitors. They also tied up financing sources which hindered the entry of another group. However, Sam Zell reminded them about antitrust laws and ultimately negotiated with them for new financing sources for a competing bid. The deal was finally closed with a breakup fee of $700 million. Blackstone was able to liquidate two-thirds of the portfolio at higher prices. The lesson learned is to fear a seller, create competition, and not be the last one in buying something.
Sam Zell's Philosophy on Success and Money: Success is not just about money, but finding purpose, pushing limits, and achieving goals with pride and excellence. Money equals freedom and liquidity equals value.
Sam Zell believes that his purpose is to be the best he can be, to push his limits, and to achieve his goals legally and with pride. He does not view his success as a competition with others, but as a personal challenge that he enjoys. He also believes that money equals freedom and liquidity equals value, which has led to his investment decisions throughout his career. Sam's philosophy teaches us that success is not just about making more money, it's about finding purpose, pushing limits, and achieving goals with pride and excellence.
Sam Zell's philosophy on freedom and direct communication: Money is a means to achieve freedom and eliminate constraints. Direct and honest communication is crucial in any industry, especially where there is a shortage of expertise. The ability to make choices and live life on one's terms is invaluable.
Freedom is the most important thing for Sam Zell. Money is a way for him to achieve his objectives and eliminate constraints. He believes that liquidity equals value and without constraints, he can make choices and spend money on what he thinks is important. Sam Zell emphasizes the importance of being direct and unsubtle in communication. In the real estate space, there are a shortage of people with broad perspective and experience who can offer valuable advice through multiple market cycles. Sam Zell's advice is to be direct and honest with people and never leave anyone guessing. Overall, Sam Zell believes in having the freedom to make choices and live life on his terms.
