All Forum Posts by: Eric Hornung

There are a ton of "big names" that have been mentioned on these forums repeatedly. Wondering if there are any niche, unorthodox, or emerging technologies that people use that they are really excited about.

Here's a non-real estate example: I love using Breaker for podcasts, it has a ton of potential and a lot of the key features I want in a podcasting platform, still some bugs and kinks to work out, but I'm excited about being an early user. 

Big names include, not limited to: MileIQ, Quickbooks, Property Radar, Google suite, Whats App, Dropbox, OneNote/Evernote, Trello, IFTTT.

@Ibn Abney that's great feedback. competition was one area we were very curious about. And, it's awesome that you like SpotHero (I've used it myself). So, I'm not sure that it can do anything "better" - it's just a different model.

Imagine a world where every commercial operator in Chicago used Parqex. Every resident of those buildings would have Parqex downloaded as part of their every day normal routine. So, when you (having 3 spots), decide to rent a spot, you'll pick the spot with the largest market place (i.e. highest chance of continuous passive income).

SpotHero has a different model - they raised $60M to subsidize parking as they grow market share. This is much like the Uber model (remember when you could get an uber from Lincoln Park to the Loop for $5-6? It's like $12 now). Their business model is to continually pull users - both parking supply and users - in. 

The goal in both cases is to create a large, robust market place. The assumption of the first is that real estate operators will value this product; the assumption of the second is that once the market gets big enough, no one will leave. 

If you are a multifamily or commercial property owner/property manager, I'd love your feedback on a new company (not mine) out of Chicago regarding parking services which recently was featured on my podcast. 

A little background:
I cohost a podcast called upside about startups outside of Silicon Valley. I also have listened to every BiggerPockets podcast. Recently, we had a parking startup on our podcast called Parqex which is positioning itself as a solution for multi-family and commercial property managers with parking as an amenity. This is a very different pitch than we typically hear as most people want to be the "airbnb/uber of parking" off the bat. Parqex appears to be going through a B2B parking management model en route to wider consumer adoption. 

So, my questions:
1. As real estate investors, owners, and operators, is parking management a significant pain point?
2. How come  you would or wouldn't use something like this?
3. What questions do you have about this idea?

A little more detail:
1. Parqex on Upside
2. "GuestParq by ParqEx is an app that property managers are using to eliminate the hassles of managing visitors. GuestParq streamlines the process of guest parking for everyone involved, while increasing transparency and improving security for property managers."
3. "With Access+, residents and approved visitors can open the garage door from their smartphones. Property managers and condo boards can simplify management and improve control of the garage."

Full-disclosure
I have no equity or other interest in Parqex. Jay, my co-host, and I are learning to think like venture capitalists. One way to do this is by calibrating our analysis (section 3 of the podcast) with market participant feedback. Your insight here helps me get better - and hopefully helps you think about parking. 

@Katrina Razavi In terms of investment, I find the opportunity fund concept to be the most intriguing, personally. You're definitely right that it seems there are few guidelines around the requirements to be an opportunity fund except that 90% of your assets are located in an opportunity zone and the investment vehicle has to be set up to invest in opportunity zone stock, business property, or partnership interest (not including other opportunity funds). 

I think we will get more information when the opportunity zones are certified in the next two months or so. Either way, this is a pretty sweet deal for people looking to raise a fund / invest in buy-and-hold. From what I can tell, the land tracts that were picked in most states aren't exactly "war zones"

Hey Katrina, I actually just spent a ton of time reading the actual bill here: https://www.congress.gov/bill/115th-congress/house... .... check out subchapter Z. I'm not a CPA nor would I consider myself an expert, but it's pretty straightforward after a few reads. 

Couple things to know not in the bill that I learned elsewhere: states submitted their nominated tracts a few days ago to the Treasury. 30-60 days from now they will be certified and good to go. 

There are 4 key dates:

year 5 -- 10% step up in basis

year 7 -- add'l 5% step up in basis

12/31/26 -- recognition of adj. capital gains as gross income

year 10+ -- basis = the price you sell it at

I think people are sleeping on the benefit of these zones for real estate development purposes. It's a little misleading to say "all cap gains tax" after 10 years, the EIG says that for every $100 of unrealized capital gains invested, you save $44 compared to similar investments. 

Most states have something like this, btw:

https://www.development.ohio.gov/bs/bs_censustract... 

It's very rare that one "party" causes a recession. Even the recent housing bubble of the late 2000s had multiple guilty players from the ratings agencies to pension fund financial consultants to strippers in Miami  - if you believe The Big Short.  Businesses and people are going to respond to the forces around them, incentives and disincentives.  Long-term macroeconomic shifts like generational housing preferences and population growth are going to occur with or without real estate investors. So, while the market may be a bit frothy, I wouldn't be too hurried to purchase an indulgence for your potential transgressions as a real estate investor.  

Hey @Abel Curiel, sorry for the delay. I sent out two rounds of postcards and received a few calls back (I believe 3?). We only targetted a very small selection of ~150 houses in Cleveland, Ohio though, so the number was originally expected to be low and I would say 3/150 (~2%) seems about right. 

Of those 3 calls, two went to voicemail (tough to answer while working my job) and didn't leave a message. Upon calling back, there was no answer, and I left a message. Did that twice. Nothing. The third call, the guy wasn't really interested in selling, moreso annoyed with the postcards... naturally that was the one I picked up. 

Although I'm looking to invest in Cleveland, I still live in NYC. Currently, I have a bit on my plate, so I'm just studying, running numbers, and learning in the meantime. So, I didn't move on to any more advanced strategies.

I will be there