Let me tell you an interesting story about a professor who teaches a course in entrepreneurship. He starts his course by reading the notes from the founding partners meeting from the original meeting of the founders (now about 70 years…
Sometimes someone tells you something that is so ridiculously obvious but so dramatic to everything you have ever thought about, that it kind of shocks the heck out of you. So here is something that just sent me for a…
Read More Failure in Business is (Mathematically) A Lot More Likely Than You Think
As you may have heard by now, real estate is set to become a separate asset class on the Global Industry Classification Standard (GICS) and the S&P 500, separating it from the Financials Sector. Notably mortgage REIT’s will be left…
Read More A Tectonic Shift is Happening in the Real Estate World
I was reading this morning about a superstar Olympic hopeful. A woman named Simone Biles (check her out). She is the top gymnast in the world right now – and the United States has high hopes for her in Rio.…
I am sitting here in New York reading goodness knows how many articles on the Brexit. It is getting more coverage than any other news right now. I recognize it is juicy for the media because there are all sorts…
I have now practiced real estate law for almost 35 years, which is a long time to do anything. I am not absolutely “sure” about many things; however, I am confident that no one has a crystal ball about what…
This is going to get really philosophical (even for the Real Estate Philosopher) so please stay with me – it is mercifully short, but very important….. In earlier articles I have argued the value of trying to “own” a smaller…
Read More More Thoughts About Value Creation – Melding Narrow and Broad Thinking
Heresy - according to a dictionary I found on-line, is a word that means Any belief or theory that is strongly at variance with established beliefs, customs, etc. I think it has become heresy to advocate a lot of leverage…
Michael Porter is a professor at Harvard Business School. He has spent his long career analyzing strategy and competition. His analysis is exceptional and probably just about everyone in the business world knows all about him; however, I have never…
I was going to have this article be about applying Porter’s Five Forces to the real estate world. That will be a great article when I write it; however, A very interesting value-creating idea just struck me this beautiful afternoon…
Bruce Stachenfeld 