The Real Estate Espresso Podcast

Free Help For Builders With New DOE Program 16.09.2026 5min

On September 11, the U.S. Department of Energy launched a new initiative called Building America New Construction Support program.The stated goal is pretty simple.Help builders build faster, reduce costs, and deliver lower-cost, higher-quality buildings.The program is available to residential, commercial, and industrial builders, and it connects participants directly with technical experts from the Department of Energy and the U.S. National Laboratories.According to the Department of Energy, the time and cost required to construct new housing, commercial buildings, data centers, and factories have become barriers to meeting demand.The new program is designed to address specific technical problems that builders are encountering in the field.A builder can bring a particular challenge to the Department of Energy, and DOE will attempt to match that company with subject matter experts who have the expertise to help solve it.And there is an important feature here.The technical assistance comes at no direct cost to the builder.This is not a grant program where the federal government is funding the construction project itself.The value being offered is technical support.-----------**Real Estate Espresso Podcast:** Spotify: [The Real Estate Espresso Podcast](https://open.spotify.com/show/3GvtwRmTq4r3es8cbw8jW0?si=c75ea506a6694ef1) iTunes: [The Real Estate Espresso Podcast](https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/the-real-estate-espresso-podcast/id1340482613) Website: [www.victorjm.com](http://www.victorjm.com) LinkedIn: [Victor Menasce](http://www.linkedin.com/in/vmenasce) YouTube: [The Real Estate Espresso Podcast](http://www.youtube.com/@victorjmenasce6734) Facebook: [www.facebook.com/realestateespresso](http://www.facebook.com/realestateespresso) Email: [[email protected]](mailto:[email protected]) **Y Street Capital:** Website: [www.ystreetcapital.com](http://www.ystreetcapital.com) Facebook: [www.facebook.com/YStreetCapital](https://www.facebook.com/YStreetCapital) Instagram: [@ystreetcapital](http://www.instagram.com/ystreetcapital)

Rules Don't Flow Downhill 14.09.2026 5min

On today's show we're talking about one of the quietest ways a deal gets killed. Not a rate move, not a cost overrun. A city council vote you assumed would never happen.Let's start with the constitutional plumbing, because it explains everything that follows.In the United States, municipalities are creatures of the state. They have no inherent sovereignty. Their zoning power, their taxing power, their permitting authority, all of it is delegated from above. Most states follow some version of Dillon's Rule, which says a city can do only what the state has expressly authorized it to do.Now, if you stop reading there, you would conclude something very reasonable and very wrong. You would conclude that when a state or the federal government creates a housing incentive, it flows downhill automatically. The state says multifamily is permitted near transit, so multifamily is permitted near transit. The state creates a property tax exemption for workforce housing, so the exemption exists.That is not how it works. And I see investors underwrite as though it is.Here's the thing. The fact that a city gets its power from the state doesn't mean the city is obedient. Let me give you real examples.Massachusetts passed the MBTA Communities Act. It requires 177 municipalities in the transit service area to zone at least one district for multifamily as of right. This is a mandate. Not a suggestion. The town of Milton hired a consultant, filed an action plan, and adopted the overlay district in December of 2023. Two months later the voters overturned it by referendum. The Attorney General sued. The Supreme Judicial Court upheld the law. And five years after passage, in January of 2026, the AG had to sue another nine towns for continued noncompliance.So even a hard mandate with an enforcement mechanism took five years and multiple lawsuits. If your pro forma assumed as-of-right entitlement in one of those towns in year one, you were carrying a multi-year hole.Florida' Live Local Act created a seventy-five percent property tax exemption for units between 80%-120% of AMI. Local taxing authorities were allowed to opt out, and thirty-four of the forty-nine eligible counties did exactly that. Their reasoning was straightforward. The state gets the policy win, the county writes the cheque. Because the exemption generally applies only after completion, lenders were discounting it at underwriting. So even where the incentive survived, it didn't reliably show up in the capital stack.Colorado is my favourite case, because it's the trap that looks like a win. Proposition 123 sent about three hundred and fifty million dollars a year at affordable housing. More than two hundred jurisdictions opted in, covering over ninety percent of the state's population. Looks like near-universal adoption. But the piece that actually matters to a developer is the ninety-day fast-track approval commitment, and as of early 2025 roughly five jurisdictions had implemented one. Opting in and building the machinery were two different votes, years apart.-------------**Real Estate Espresso Podcast:** Spotify: [The Real Estate Espresso Podcast](https://open.spotify.com/show/3GvtwRmTq4r3es8cbw8jW0?si=c75ea506a6694ef1) iTunes: [The Real Estate Espresso Podcast](https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/the-real-estate-espresso-podcast/id1340482613) Website: [www.victorjm.com](http://www.victorjm.com) LinkedIn: [Victor Menasce](http://www.linkedin.com/in/vmenasce) YouTube: [The Real Estate Espresso Podcast](http://www.youtube.com/@victorjmenasce6734) Facebook: [www.facebook.com/realestateespresso](http://www.facebook.com/realestateespresso) Email: [[email protected]](mailto:[email protected]) **Y Street Capital:** Website: [www.ystreetcapital.com](http://www.ystreetcapital.com) Facebook: [www.facebook.com/YStreetCapital](https://www.facebook.com/YStreetCapital) Instagram: [@ystreetcapital](http://www.instagram.com/ystreetcapital)

Shopping Center Revival with Michael Flight 13.09.2026 17min

Michael Flight has been specializing in shopping centers since the mid 1980's. On today's show we are talking about how shopping centers are going through a revival of sorts. We're talking about where the demand is and how to create value in shopping centers. To connect with Michael, you can find him on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/michael-flight/ or at his company Concordia Realty. ------------**Real Estate Espresso Podcast:** Spotify: [The Real Estate Espresso Podcast](https://open.spotify.com/show/3GvtwRmTq4r3es8cbw8jW0?si=c75ea506a6694ef1) iTunes: [The Real Estate Espresso Podcast](https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/the-real-estate-espresso-podcast/id1340482613) Website: [www.victorjm.com](http://www.victorjm.com) LinkedIn: [Victor Menasce](http://www.linkedin.com/in/vmenasce) YouTube: [The Real Estate Espresso Podcast](http://www.youtube.com/@victorjmenasce6734) Facebook: [www.facebook.com/realestateespresso](http://www.facebook.com/realestateespresso) Email: [[email protected]](mailto:[email protected]) **Y Street Capital:** Website: [www.ystreetcapital.com](http://www.ystreetcapital.com) Facebook: [www.facebook.com/YStreetCapital](https://www.facebook.com/YStreetCapital) Instagram: [@ystreetcapital](http://www.instagram.com/ystreetcapital)

Software Innovation in Apartments with Eddie Fong 13.09.2026 16min

Eddie Fong is based in Seattle and he started his career at companies like Microsoft, Dropbox and Salesforce. In the past year he has taken that software development expertise and started applying it to the world of multi-family investing. On today's show we are talking about the US of AI in real estate and how the capabilities are evolving. To conenct with Eddie visit https://mistryos.com/ or reach out to him at [email protected]**Real Estate Espresso Podcast:** Spotify: [The Real Estate Espresso Podcast](https://open.spotify.com/show/3GvtwRmTq4r3es8cbw8jW0?si=c75ea506a6694ef1) iTunes: [The Real Estate Espresso Podcast](https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/the-real-estate-espresso-podcast/id1340482613) Website: [www.victorjm.com](http://www.victorjm.com) LinkedIn: [Victor Menasce](http://www.linkedin.com/in/vmenasce) YouTube: [The Real Estate Espresso Podcast](http://www.youtube.com/@victorjmenasce6734) Facebook: [www.facebook.com/realestateespresso](http://www.facebook.com/realestateespresso) Email: [[email protected]](mailto:[email protected]) **Y Street Capital:** Website: [www.ystreetcapital.com](http://www.ystreetcapital.com) Facebook: [www.facebook.com/YStreetCapital](https://www.facebook.com/YStreetCapital) Instagram: [@ystreetcapital](http://www.instagram.com/ystreetcapital)

Should Foreign Buyers Be Banned? 12.09.2026 6min

Canada has a housing shortage. But at the same time, parts of the country have too many condominiums for sale.Those two statements sound contradictory. They’re not.Toronto has experienced a historic collapse in new condominium sales. In 2025, only about 1,600 new condos were sold across the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area. That was down roughly 60 percent from the previous year and approximately 95 percent from the peak recorded in 2021.This is more than a slow market. It represents the failure of the financial machinery that produced much of Canada’s new urban housing.A condominium project is usually financed in stages. Before a lender advances construction financing, the developer must demonstrate that a significant percentage of the building has been sold. Purchasers sign agreements and provide deposits. Those presales give the lender confidence that the completed units will generate enough revenue to repay the construction loan.The foreign-buyer ban was politically simple. Foreign buyers were portrayed as part of the affordability problem, so excluding them appeared to protect Canadians.The emerging condominium crisis reveals that capital performs more than one role. It can inflate the price of existing assets, but it can also finance the production of new ones.Canada may now be forced to decide whether it wants less foreign ownership or more housing badly enough to accept the capital required to build it.That is the tension.The country did not eliminate the need for investor capital. It merely reduced the number of investors allowed to provide it.------------**Real Estate Espresso Podcast:** Spotify: [The Real Estate Espresso Podcast](https://open.spotify.com/show/3GvtwRmTq4r3es8cbw8jW0?si=c75ea506a6694ef1) iTunes: [The Real Estate Espresso Podcast](https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/the-real-estate-espresso-podcast/id1340482613) Website: [www.victorjm.com](http://www.victorjm.com) LinkedIn: [Victor Menasce](http://www.linkedin.com/in/vmenasce) YouTube: [The Real Estate Espresso Podcast](http://www.youtube.com/@victorjmenasce6734) Facebook: [www.facebook.com/realestateespresso](http://www.facebook.com/realestateespresso) Email: [[email protected]](mailto:[email protected]) **Y Street Capital:** Website: [www.ystreetcapital.com](http://www.ystreetcapital.com) Facebook: [www.facebook.com/YStreetCapital](https://www.facebook.com/YStreetCapital) Instagram: [@ystreetcapital](http://www.instagram.com/ystreetcapital)

Can ICE Impact Your Construction Project? 10.09.2026 5min

On today's show we're talking about a construction risk that may not be in your pro forma.You might say, "Victor, I only hire legally authorized workers. Why should immigration enforcement affect my project?"That's a perfectly reasonable question.But it misunderstands how a construction labor market works.Construction pricing is not determined solely by who works on your job site. It's determined by the depth of the entire labor pool competing for the same work.Over the past several months, immigration enforcement in the United States has accelerated considerably.ICE arrests increased from 32,545 in May to 43,021 in June, and then to 49,571 in July.Nearly 40 percent of the July arrests occurred in Texas and Florida.Now, those numbers by themselves don't tell us much about construction. But when you look at what is happening in individual markets, the picture becomes more interesting.In Austin, Texas, one large homebuilder reported that framing labor costs increased between 25 and 50 percent in a matter of weeks.-----------**Real Estate Espresso Podcast:** Spotify: [The Real Estate Espresso Podcast](https://open.spotify.com/show/3GvtwRmTq4r3es8cbw8jW0?si=c75ea506a6694ef1) iTunes: [The Real Estate Espresso Podcast](https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/the-real-estate-espresso-podcast/id1340482613) Website: [www.victorjm.com](http://www.victorjm.com) LinkedIn: [Victor Menasce](http://www.linkedin.com/in/vmenasce) YouTube: [The Real Estate Espresso Podcast](http://www.youtube.com/@victorjmenasce6734) Facebook: [www.facebook.com/realestateespresso](http://www.facebook.com/realestateespresso) Email: [[email protected]](mailto:[email protected]) **Y Street Capital:** Website: [www.ystreetcapital.com](http://www.ystreetcapital.com) Facebook: [www.facebook.com/YStreetCapital](https://www.facebook.com/YStreetCapital) Instagram: [@ystreetcapital](http://www.instagram.com/ystreetcapital)

Which Auto Plants Will Close Next? 09.09.2026 6min

On Sept 10 at 8PM EDT, 5PM PDT, I'm hosting a live conversation with Jacob Blackett, CEO of Sponsorcloud. We are going to be talking about how software can improve the investor relationship for private investments. If you can't attend, register anyway and we will send you the recording. CLICK HERE to register. -------------For generations, automobile manufacturing has been one of the great economic anchors of North American cities.Think about Detroit, Windsor, Oshawa, Toledo, Louisville, Georgetown, Kentucky, or countless smaller communities throughout Ontario, Michigan, Ohio, Indiana and Tennessee.The automobile plant was never just a factory.Thousands of people worked inside the plant. Thousands more worked for suppliers making seats, dashboards, transmissions, brakes, electronics and stamped metal components.Then there were trucking companies, warehouses, restaurants, hotels and service businesses.Those paychecks eventually found their way into houses, apartments and shopping centers.But something fundamental is changing.China has become the world's dominant electric-vehicle manufacturing center. In 2025, nearly 22 million electric cars were produced globally. China manufactured about 16 million of them.That's nearly three quarters of global EV production.More importantly, China produced about 20 percent more electric vehicles than its domestic market consumed.VW just laid of 50,000 people and announced another 50,000 workforce reductions. Nissan is in trouble. Honda is in trouble. Stellantis has excess capacity. We will see major changes in the auto industry globally. Are your real estate investments reliant on auto manufacturing or some portion of the supply chain as the employment base? -------------**Real Estate Espresso Podcast:** Spotify: [The Real Estate Espresso Podcast](https://open.spotify.com/show/3GvtwRmTq4r3es8cbw8jW0?si=c75ea506a6694ef1) iTunes: [The Real Estate Espresso Podcast](https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/the-real-estate-espresso-podcast/id1340482613) Website: [www.victorjm.com](http://www.victorjm.com) LinkedIn: [Victor Menasce](http://www.linkedin.com/in/vmenasce) YouTube: [The Real Estate Espresso Podcast](http://www.youtube.com/@victorjmenasce6734) Facebook: [www.facebook.com/realestateespresso](http://www.facebook.com/realestateespresso) Email: [[email protected]](mailto:[email protected]) **Y Street Capital:** Website: [www.ystreetcapital.com](http://www.ystreetcapital.com) Facebook: [www.facebook.com/YStreetCapital](https://www.facebook.com/YStreetCapital) Instagram: [@ystreetcapital](http://www.instagram.com/ystreetcapital)

The Recreation Segment is Bleeding 08.09.2026 7min

On today's show, we're looking at what boats, recreational vehicles, and cottages can tell us about the economic cycle.The pattern is familiar. Demand exceeds supply. Prices rise. Producers expand. Buyers accelerate purchases because waiting appears expensive. Lenders become comfortable financing assets whose prices keep climbing.But supply takes time to arrive. By the time factories expand, subdivisions get built, or boats leave the shipyard, demand may have changed. Yesterday's shortage becomes tomorrow's inventory problem.We've seen this in many segments of the economy like real estate, semiconductors, and oil. High prices encourage the investment that eventually undermines those prices.The pandemic added another ingredient. We pulled future demand into the present. Families bought the cottage, boat, or RV several years earlier than they otherwise might have. Suppliers could mistake that temporary rush for permanently higher demand.Once you've bought a boat, you don't need another one next year. Tomorrow's customer already bought yesterday.Consider the catamaran market. One market commentary puts used inventory at 1,161 boats, against estimated annual sales of approximately 290. Those figures imply that only about 25 percent of today's inventory would sell in a year at that pace. Roughly 871 boats, or 75 percent, would remain, before accounting for new listings or withdrawals.That's approximately four years of inventory.Many of these boats are structurally upside down. They depreciated faster in the first five years than the principal paydown on a 20 year amortized loan. So if you have real estate that is linked to the recreation business cycle, you want to pay close attention to what is happening in this segment. --------------**Real Estate Espresso Podcast:** Spotify: [The Real Estate Espresso Podcast](https://open.spotify.com/show/3GvtwRmTq4r3es8cbw8jW0?si=c75ea506a6694ef1) iTunes: [The Real Estate Espresso Podcast](https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/the-real-estate-espresso-podcast/id1340482613) Website: [www.victorjm.com](http://www.victorjm.com) LinkedIn: [Victor Menasce](http://www.linkedin.com/in/vmenasce) YouTube: [The Real Estate Espresso Podcast](http://www.youtube.com/@victorjmenasce6734) Facebook: [www.facebook.com/realestateespresso](http://www.facebook.com/realestateespresso) Email: [[email protected]](mailto:[email protected]) **Y Street Capital:** Website: [www.ystreetcapital.com](http://www.ystreetcapital.com) Facebook: [www.facebook.com/YStreetCapital](https://www.facebook.com/YStreetCapital) Instagram: [@ystreetcapital](http://www.instagram.com/ystreetcapital)

Tour The World of Interest Rates 07.09.2026 7min

On today’s show we’re going to take a trip around the world through one very specific lens: the yield on the 10-year government bond.This is not just a tour of interest rates. The 10-year bond is one of the clearest places where investors collectively put a price on inflation, fiscal policy, monetary policy, currency risk, and increasingly, geopolitics.As we record this, the U.S. 10-year Treasury is around 4.8 percent. Germany is around 3.35 percent. The United Kingdom is above 5.1 percent. France is around 4.2 percent. Italy is also around 4.2 percent. Japan has crossed 3 percent, and South Korea is around 4.4 percent.Those numbers are interesting individually. But the comparison between them is where the story starts to emerge.And there’s another dimension to these numbers that I think makes the story even more interesting.Ask yourself: When was the last time these countries were paying this much for 10-year money? Some of these date back 20 years, and in some cases 30 years. What does that mean for the global demand for US Treasuries, independent of geopolitics? Why take currency risk if you can get decent yield at home? If there are fewer buyers for US bonds in Germany or Japan, those bond prices fall and you will pay more for a loan in the US. That's the link. ---------------**Real Estate Espresso Podcast:** Spotify: [The Real Estate Espresso Podcast](https://open.spotify.com/show/3GvtwRmTq4r3es8cbw8jW0?si=c75ea506a6694ef1) iTunes: [The Real Estate Espresso Podcast](https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/the-real-estate-espresso-podcast/id1340482613) Website: [www.victorjm.com](http://www.victorjm.com) LinkedIn: [Victor Menasce](http://www.linkedin.com/in/vmenasce) YouTube: [The Real Estate Espresso Podcast](http://www.youtube.com/@victorjmenasce6734) Facebook: [www.facebook.com/realestateespresso](http://www.facebook.com/realestateespresso) Email: [[email protected]](mailto:[email protected]) **Y Street Capital:** Website: [www.ystreetcapital.com](http://www.ystreetcapital.com) Facebook: [www.facebook.com/YStreetCapital](https://www.facebook.com/YStreetCapital) Instagram: [@ystreetcapital](http://www.instagram.com/ystreetcapital)

Middle Housing with Jared Jones 07.09.2026 20min

Jared Jones is based in Riverside California. On today's show we are talking about the newest housing legislation and the impact it is having on adding supply to the housing stock. To connect with Jared, visit middlehousingpartners on Instagram or Jared Jones on LinkedIn.**Real Estate Espresso Podcast:** Spotify: [The Real Estate Espresso Podcast](https://open.spotify.com/show/3GvtwRmTq4r3es8cbw8jW0?si=c75ea506a6694ef1) iTunes: [The Real Estate Espresso Podcast](https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/the-real-estate-espresso-podcast/id1340482613) Website: [www.victorjm.com](http://www.victorjm.com) LinkedIn: [Victor Menasce](http://www.linkedin.com/in/vmenasce) YouTube: [The Real Estate Espresso Podcast](http://www.youtube.com/@victorjmenasce6734) Facebook: [www.facebook.com/realestateespresso](http://www.facebook.com/realestateespresso) Email: [[email protected]](mailto:[email protected]) **Y Street Capital:** Website: [www.ystreetcapital.com](http://www.ystreetcapital.com) Facebook: [www.facebook.com/YStreetCapital](https://www.facebook.com/YStreetCapital) Instagram: [@ystreetcapital](http://www.instagram.com/ystreetcapital)

After The Fires with Bronson Hill 06.09.2026 13min

Bronson Hill is based in Pasadena California. On today's show we are talking about how accelerate the rebuilding process after the devastating fires that destroyed thousands of homes in Los Angeles County and in communities like Altadena. To connect with Bronson and to learn more, visit https://bronsonequity.com/ or send test message to with the word "Cashflow" to 33777 he will send you a copy of his 3 favourite cash flow ideas for 2026. ------------**Real Estate Espresso Podcast:** Spotify: [The Real Estate Espresso Podcast](https://open.spotify.com/show/3GvtwRmTq4r3es8cbw8jW0?si=c75ea506a6694ef1) iTunes: [The Real Estate Espresso Podcast](https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/the-real-estate-espresso-podcast/id1340482613) Website: [www.victorjm.com](http://www.victorjm.com) LinkedIn: [Victor Menasce](http://www.linkedin.com/in/vmenasce) YouTube: [The Real Estate Espresso Podcast](http://www.youtube.com/@victorjmenasce6734) Facebook: [www.facebook.com/realestateespresso](http://www.facebook.com/realestateespresso) Email: [[email protected]](mailto:[email protected]) **Y Street Capital:** Website: [www.ystreetcapital.com](http://www.ystreetcapital.com) Facebook: [www.facebook.com/YStreetCapital](https://www.facebook.com/YStreetCapital) Instagram: [@ystreetcapital](http://www.instagram.com/ystreetcapital)

Can AI Revolutionize Property Management? 05.09.2026 7min

Traditional property management software digitized filing cabinets: it recorded payments, stored documents, and logged complaints, but did not change how work moved through the process.Managing a community is not one job. It is a constant relay race among residents, boards, managers, accountants, banks, vendors, and regulators. A homeowner reports a leak. Someone identifies the property, checks responsibility, alerts a vendor, gets an estimate, seeks approval, schedules the repair, pays the invoice, updates the books, and closes the loop with the resident. Every handoff is a chance for delay, duplication, or failure.Vantaca offers a useful glimpse of what comes next. Founded in 2015 and focused specifically on community association management, the company says its platform now supports more than 550 management companies and 6.5 million homes. Its big idea is to become a “system of action,” not merely a system of record.----------**Real Estate Espresso Podcast:** Spotify: [The Real Estate Espresso Podcast](https://open.spotify.com/show/3GvtwRmTq4r3es8cbw8jW0?si=c75ea506a6694ef1) iTunes: [The Real Estate Espresso Podcast](https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/the-real-estate-espresso-podcast/id1340482613) Website: [www.victorjm.com](http://www.victorjm.com) LinkedIn: [Victor Menasce](http://www.linkedin.com/in/vmenasce) YouTube: [The Real Estate Espresso Podcast](http://www.youtube.com/@victorjmenasce6734) Facebook: [www.facebook.com/realestateespresso](http://www.facebook.com/realestateespresso) Email: [[email protected]](mailto:[email protected]) **Y Street Capital:** Website: [www.ystreetcapital.com](http://www.ystreetcapital.com) Facebook: [www.facebook.com/YStreetCapital](https://www.facebook.com/YStreetCapital) Instagram: [@ystreetcapital](http://www.instagram.com/ystreetcapital)

Can AI Speed Up City Council? 04.09.2026 5min

I spent some time this week looking at a new playbook out of the AI world, describing what they call the "AI-native software development life cycle." And the more I read it, the more I realized: this isn't really a software story. It's our story. The steps engineers use to build a software application are almost identical to the steps we use to take a piece of dirt and turn it into a building. Plan, design, build, test, deploy, maintain. Swap "code" for "construction drawings" and you're reading our world in real estate development.-------------**Real Estate Espresso Podcast:** Spotify: [The Real Estate Espresso Podcast](https://open.spotify.com/show/3GvtwRmTq4r3es8cbw8jW0?si=c75ea506a6694ef1) iTunes: [The Real Estate Espresso Podcast](https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/the-real-estate-espresso-podcast/id1340482613) Website: [www.victorjm.com](http://www.victorjm.com) LinkedIn: [Victor Menasce](http://www.linkedin.com/in/vmenasce) YouTube: [The Real Estate Espresso Podcast](http://www.youtube.com/@victorjmenasce6734) Facebook: [www.facebook.com/realestateespresso](http://www.facebook.com/realestateespresso) Email: [[email protected]](mailto:[email protected]) **Y Street Capital:** Website: [www.ystreetcapital.com](http://www.ystreetcapital.com) Facebook: [www.facebook.com/YStreetCapital](https://www.facebook.com/YStreetCapital) Instagram: [@ystreetcapital](http://www.instagram.com/ystreetcapital)

BOM - Learned Optimism 01.09.2026 6min

Our book this month is “Learned Optimism: How to Change Your Mind and Your Life” by Martin Seligman. It is an influential book about the way people explain success, failure, adversity, and disappointment to themselves. Seligman, one of the most important figures in the development of positive psychology, argues that optimism is not simply a personality trait that people either possess or lack. Instead, he proposes that optimism can be learned by changing the habitual explanations people make about events in their lives. The result is a book that combines psychological research, practical exercises, and personal reflection to explore how our thinking patterns influence performance, health, relationships, and resilience.A pessimistic person is more likely to view a setback as permanent, believing that the problem will continue indefinitely. The same person may also view the problem as pervasive, assuming that failure in one area means everything is going badly. Finally, the pessimist may personalize the setback by concluding that it happened because of a fundamental personal weakness. An optimist, by contrast, is more likely to see the same problem as temporary, limited to a particular situation, and caused by factors that can potentially be changed.-----------**Real Estate Espresso Podcast:** Spotify: [The Real Estate Espresso Podcast](https://open.spotify.com/show/3GvtwRmTq4r3es8cbw8jW0?si=c75ea506a6694ef1) iTunes: [The Real Estate Espresso Podcast](https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/the-real-estate-espresso-podcast/id1340482613) Website: [www.victorjm.com](http://www.victorjm.com) LinkedIn: [Victor Menasce](http://www.linkedin.com/in/vmenasce) YouTube: [The Real Estate Espresso Podcast](http://www.youtube.com/@victorjmenasce6734) Facebook: [www.facebook.com/realestateespresso](http://www.facebook.com/realestateespresso) Email: [[email protected]](mailto:[email protected]) **Y Street Capital:** Website: [www.ystreetcapital.com](http://www.ystreetcapital.com) Facebook: [www.facebook.com/YStreetCapital](https://www.facebook.com/YStreetCapital) Instagram: [@ystreetcapital](http://www.instagram.com/ystreetcapital)

What Do We Know For Certain? 01.09.2026 6min

Back in 2018 we made the decision to invest in Lake Charles Louisiana. The thesis behind investing in this market is that the community is at the epicenter of a network of natural gas pipelines. Like some things in the energy industry, the timelines can be long and major projects often get delayed. As a result, not all of our projects in Lake Charles have gone as planned. The south coast of the US is blessed with a lot of oil and natural gas. In fact, there is so much natural gas that US prices for natural gas are consistently among the lowest in the world. There are lower prices in the middle east in there Persian Gulf, but these are often government subsidized prices. So anywhere you have very low energy costs, you will find energy intensive industries setting up shop. This is why most of the LNG plants in the US are along the gulf coast. You will also find petrochemical plants than manufacture chlorine for swimming pools, fertilizer plants, ethane crackers for manufacturing polyethylene, to name just a few.Let’s go through an inventory of the current projects that are underway in this small town. There is the Louisiana LNG project where the first phase of the project consists of a $17B investment. There is the Venture Global CP2 facility which is a $32B investment. Then there is Commonwealth LNG which is a $12B project. The Cameron LNG project recently entered production and is now exporting 15M metric tons of LNG. The first phase of Venture Global is also in production and pumping out 12 million tonnes per year of LNG. Last week SpaceX announced their Louisiana Space port with Governor Landry in attendance. SpaceX plans nearly 30 launches per day from 10 launch pads once the spaceport is fully built out. This $100B investment will bring 10,000 permanent jobs to the area. But if you are going to be launching a lot of rockets into space, you will also need a ready source of propellant. SpaceX uses natural gas and oxygen as the propellants involved in the reaction. They need a few things to build a launch site on this scale. They need to be south facing with ready access to a coastal area to the south. They need a massive supply of natural gasThey need about 125,000 acres that are far from population centres so as not to interfere with residents. This location in Vermillion Parish in Louisiana is almost exactly equidistant between Lafayette Louisiana and the location of our property in Lake Charles. Now the market conditions seem to point to bringing a new apartment project into our construction pipeline. We are actively getting quotes and arranging financing for this project. We don’t know what the future holds. After all, we live in an unpredictable world. But if the current demand persists, this project is going to make a lot of sense, not just for the next few years, but for the longer term outlook.-------------**Real Estate Espresso Podcast:** Spotify: [The Real Estate Espresso Podcast](https://open.spotify.com/show/3GvtwRmTq4r3es8cbw8jW0?si=c75ea506a6694ef1) iTunes: [The Real Estate Espresso Podcast](https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/the-real-estate-espresso-podcast/id1340482613) Website: [www.victorjm.com](http://www.victorjm.com) LinkedIn: [Victor Menasce](http://www.linkedin.com/in/vmenasce) YouTube: [The Real Estate Espresso Podcast](http://www.youtube.com/@victorjmenasce6734) Facebook: [www.facebook.com/realestateespresso](http://www.facebook.com/realestateespresso) Email: [[email protected]](mailto:[email protected]) **Y Street Capital:** Website: [www.ystreetcapital.com](http://www.ystreetcapital.com) Facebook: [www.facebook.com/YStreetCapital](https://www.facebook.com/YStreetCapital) Instagram: [@ystreetcapital](http://www.instagram.com/ystreetcapital)

State of MultiFamily Apartments in 2Q 2026 30.08.2026 31min

Today's show is a talk that I gave to the members at American IRA last week. We're talking about how the old value add playbook for apartments is broken and a different asset segment that we believe is working instead. --------**Real Estate Espresso Podcast:** Spotify: [The Real Estate Espresso Podcast](https://open.spotify.com/show/3GvtwRmTq4r3es8cbw8jW0?si=c75ea506a6694ef1) iTunes: [The Real Estate Espresso Podcast](https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/the-real-estate-espresso-podcast/id1340482613) Website: [www.victorjm.com](http://www.victorjm.com) LinkedIn: [Victor Menasce](http://www.linkedin.com/in/vmenasce) YouTube: [The Real Estate Espresso Podcast](http://www.youtube.com/@victorjmenasce6734) Facebook: [www.facebook.com/realestateespresso](http://www.facebook.com/realestateespresso) Email: [[email protected]](mailto:[email protected]) **Y Street Capital:** Website: [www.ystreetcapital.com](http://www.ystreetcapital.com) Facebook: [www.facebook.com/YStreetCapital](https://www.facebook.com/YStreetCapital) Instagram: [@ystreetcapital](http://www.instagram.com/ystreetcapital)

SE Market Perspective with Michael Bull 30.08.2026 15min

Michael Bull is based in Atlanta and he heads up Bull Realty. He is also the host of America's Commercial Real Estate Show. To connect with Michael email him at [email protected] or visit bullrealty.com. The podcast can be found at https://www.creshow.com/-------------**Real Estate Espresso Podcast:** Spotify: [The Real Estate Espresso Podcast](https://open.spotify.com/show/3GvtwRmTq4r3es8cbw8jW0?si=c75ea506a6694ef1) iTunes: [The Real Estate Espresso Podcast](https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/the-real-estate-espresso-podcast/id1340482613) Website: [www.victorjm.com](http://www.victorjm.com) LinkedIn: [Victor Menasce](http://www.linkedin.com/in/vmenasce) YouTube: [The Real Estate Espresso Podcast](http://www.youtube.com/@victorjmenasce6734) Facebook: [www.facebook.com/realestateespresso](http://www.facebook.com/realestateespresso) Email: [[email protected]](mailto:[email protected]) **Y Street Capital:** Website: [www.ystreetcapital.com](http://www.ystreetcapital.com) Facebook: [www.facebook.com/YStreetCapital](https://www.facebook.com/YStreetCapital) Instagram: [@ystreetcapital](http://www.instagram.com/ystreetcapital)

Short Term Rental Rules Are Changing 29.08.2026 6min

On today’s show we’re talking about short-term rentals, and more specifically, a change in how governments are enforcing short-term rental regulations.For years, most short-term rental regulation focused primarily on the property owner.Do you have a license? Are you collecting the correct lodging tax? Are you violating occupancy limits? Are you operating in a location where short-term rentals are even permitted? Some places enforced permitted uses through the zoning code. Some chose to overlay special regulations for short term rentals independently of the zoning code. Increasingly, governments are asking a different question.Why chase thousands of individual property owners when you can regulate the handful of technology platforms where nearly all of these transactions take place?That shift is happening right now.-----------**Real Estate Espresso Podcast:** Spotify: [The Real Estate Espresso Podcast](https://open.spotify.com/show/3GvtwRmTq4r3es8cbw8jW0?si=c75ea506a6694ef1) iTunes: [The Real Estate Espresso Podcast](https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/the-real-estate-espresso-podcast/id1340482613) Website: [www.victorjm.com](http://www.victorjm.com) LinkedIn: [Victor Menasce](http://www.linkedin.com/in/vmenasce) YouTube: [The Real Estate Espresso Podcast](http://www.youtube.com/@victorjmenasce6734) Facebook: [www.facebook.com/realestateespresso](http://www.facebook.com/realestateespresso) Email: [[email protected]](mailto:[email protected]) **Y Street Capital:** Website: [www.ystreetcapital.com](http://www.ystreetcapital.com) Facebook: [www.facebook.com/YStreetCapital](https://www.facebook.com/YStreetCapital) Instagram: [@ystreetcapital](http://www.instagram.com/ystreetcapital)

The Changing Regulatory Landscape 28.08.2026 6min

There is a strange thing happening in rental housing across the United States.If you looked only at national statistics, you might conclude that the business of owning an apartment is largely unchanged. Since January 2025, more than forty states have passed, published, or court-decided something that touches deposits, notices, fees, or evictions. Each individual change can look small.Taken together, they represent something much larger.---------**Real Estate Espresso Podcast:** Spotify: [The Real Estate Espresso Podcast](https://open.spotify.com/show/3GvtwRmTq4r3es8cbw8jW0?si=c75ea506a6694ef1) iTunes: [The Real Estate Espresso Podcast](https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/the-real-estate-espresso-podcast/id1340482613) Website: [www.victorjm.com](http://www.victorjm.com) LinkedIn: [Victor Menasce](http://www.linkedin.com/in/vmenasce) YouTube: [The Real Estate Espresso Podcast](http://www.youtube.com/@victorjmenasce6734) Facebook: [www.facebook.com/realestateespresso](http://www.facebook.com/realestateespresso) Email: [[email protected]](mailto:[email protected]) **Y Street Capital:** Website: [www.ystreetcapital.com](http://www.ystreetcapital.com) Facebook: [www.facebook.com/YStreetCapital](https://www.facebook.com/YStreetCapital) Instagram: [@ystreetcapital](http://www.instagram.com/ystreetcapital)

Why Electricity Rates Are Rising 27.08.2026 6min

On today’s episode, we’re taking a deep dive into an issue that is quickly becoming one of the most critical factors in site selection, underwriting, and property development across North America: the state of our electrical grid.If you’ve been reading the headlines, you’ve probably seen a lot of finger-pointing. The mainstream narrative goes something like this: artificial intelligence and hyperscale data centers are single-handedly overwhelming our power grid, driving up energy prices, and threatening to break our infrastructure. But if you dig just one layer beneath the surface, you realize that AI isn't the underlying cause of this crisis—it’s simply the catalyst that exposed a multi-decade backlog of underinvestment.Today, we are looking at the real drivers behind grid modernization, why Public Utilities Commissions kept the system running on borrowed time, and what this means for you as a real estate investor.To understand why billions of dollars in capital expenditure are suddenly flooding into grid modernization, we have to look back at how public utilities have operated for the past forty years.-------------**Real Estate Espresso Podcast:** Spotify: [The Real Estate Espresso Podcast](https://open.spotify.com/show/3GvtwRmTq4r3es8cbw8jW0?si=c75ea506a6694ef1) iTunes: [The Real Estate Espresso Podcast](https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/the-real-estate-espresso-podcast/id1340482613) Website: [www.victorjm.com](http://www.victorjm.com) LinkedIn: [Victor Menasce](http://www.linkedin.com/in/vmenasce) YouTube: [The Real Estate Espresso Podcast](http://www.youtube.com/@victorjmenasce6734) Facebook: [www.facebook.com/realestateespresso](http://www.facebook.com/realestateespresso) Email: [[email protected]](mailto:[email protected]) **Y Street Capital:** Website: [www.ystreetcapital.com](http://www.ystreetcapital.com) Facebook: [www.facebook.com/YStreetCapital](https://www.facebook.com/YStreetCapital) Instagram: [@ystreetcapital](http://www.instagram.com/ystreetcapital)

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