Charlie Munger has a famous quote: "Show me the incentives, and I'll show you the outcome." Both political parties have made homeownership a key priority while decrying the rise of build to rent communities funded by Wall Street. One big driver is that the tax code is nearly twice as favorable if new homes are sold to investors vs. homeowners. Today in the @washingtonpost I argue that by creating tax parity, we can incentivize developers to build hundreds of thousands of starter homes without the need for subsidies, creating 2-3 new good paying construction jobs for every home built.

In 2024, a young software engineer named Devon Zuegel arrived in Sonoma County with renderings of a village that she wanted to build along a bend of the Russian River. Esmeralda, as she named it, would be a West Coast version of Chautauqua, a hamlet in western New York “where kids run free and people gather for intellectual talks, music and plays.” As officials prepare to formally consider the plan, some locals are energized by the dream of a new utopia. californiasun.co/newsletter/…

The Sphere lights up after the USA win. Probably the boldest/coolest thing anyone has built in America in 50 years. With the Knicks a win away from the title, it’s a good time to be James Dolan.

Adding some color to our latest closing. Grateful for the clients that trust us and excited to keep sharing these wins from the @_TurboHome team!

When we started, we weren't sure if high end buyers would embrace flat fee homebuying. Today, a buyer closed on a $12M home in Beverly Hills with TurboHome. Our agent negotiated the deal to $1.7M under list and saved the buyer $270K in commission vs. a 2.5% agent.

My 14 yo nephew is officially taller than me :-/

This vacant lot in Rockridge is almost exactly the same orientation and size as the Flatiron Building in New York. Just saying🤔

CA supply side housing idea: state sponsored remediation fund. There are A infill sites all across the state that are too risky/expensive for the private market to develop. As an example, this former gas station site in prime Rockridge could fit hundreds of units, but has been vacant for years.

Liftoff Mobile, formerly Vungle, IPO'd today at a $4B valuation. I joined Vungle in 2012 as a 24 year old with no Silicon Valley experience. We had <$200K in the bank and were doing <$1K/day in revenue. Within 2 years, I was leading global revenue and we had grown to a $70M run rate with offices in 5 countries. One of the first senior hires I made was Jeremy Bondy. Jeremy and I had worked together at a tutoring company, so it took some convincing for our board to see him as leadership material for a fast growing tech startup. I stuck to my guns because I had never met a more perceptive leader in my career. He’s the best I’ve ever seen at getting ambitious young employees to run through a wall together. My pitch to Jeremy at a Santa Monica coffee shop in 2013 was simple: Vungle was a chance to play in the majors. Today, Jeremy is the CEO of a public company. The best startup talent is often obvious only in hindsight. Congrats to Jeremy and the entire team 📈📈

We’re really thankful for the collaboration between @cayimby and @BuildCasa. Passing supply side housing policy is an iterative game where good intentions aren’t enough to get units built. It requires a tight feedback loop between practitioners, advocates, and forward thinking politicians like @CASenCaballero and @BuffyWicks. Thanks to the hard work, there are brand new homes available minutes from downtown SD for ~$700K. Pre-sales are open here: turbohome.com/buildcasa

Laws change, housing gets built. SHRA (SB 684-1123) could kick off an ADU-scale starter home boom in coming years, and it'll get stronger with SB 1116. California YIMBY has been proud to work with @CASenCaballero and allies! We benefited from feedback/examples from BuildCasa.

Don’t sleep on the starter home revitalization act.

I moved to California specifically because of SB684 Long road to get here but excited to get these and marketed for sale

BuildCasa is on track to deliver California’s first completed SB 684 project. In the past, a project like this would almost certainly be a rental. We’re using the latest tools to create four new fee-simple townhomes plus a renovated existing unit, each sold separately to homeowners at ~30% below average. SB 684 is opening the door to a new generation of small-scale infill housing, and we’re proud to be proving what’s possible. Congratulations to everyone on the team who helped permit, design, and build this project.

Exit #40 yesterday Here’s how an actual missing middle development deal happens: This was before St. Paul officially up zoned so we had to get a variance to build duplex Our GC began a screaming match with the concrete sub who then demanded to be paid prior to any work being done filed a lien on the property The lien was completely bogus but it is infinitely more difficult to remove a lien then it is to put on Cost like $60 10 mins for him to record it. I spoke with an attorney and would have cost me about >$15k in legal fees plus 12 months Since liens will show up prior to the lender issuing a draw, that means it needs to be resolved or else the other subs won’t get paid (which can start a flywheel in the wrong direction) So I stepped in and negotiated with the sub directly and told him he doesn’t have to talk to the GC ever again and that I will handle payments directly to him Released the lien and got the foundation poured After it’s framed and roughed in we have a break in where all the wire was ripped out As I have a lot of experience from Houston with that we filed a police report, took a bunch of pictures and video then filed the insurance claim As we got to drywall, similar situation happened where the GC and drywall sub hated each other threatening to file a lien I handled this the same way by not allowing the two to talk to each other and instead all communication through me (as if they’re not both 50 years old) After the drywall and flooring were installed the water line in the house cracked and flooded part of one unit which was quickly fixed Every time I post an exit on here you can assume some version of challenges come up like this

This might be the first realistic post about what investing in real estate is actually like in the history of social media If you’re doing anything real estate related, please assume you’ll face at least this many issues and that’s if things go well!

BREAKING: Victor Wembanyama has joined Anthropic.

Allowing more homes makes cities money. Starter homes on smaller lots makes them substantially more money. @AEI: we put report the revenue cities would earn by lowering minimum lot sizes and legalizing by-right starter homes. For LA, around $9 billion. For Seattle, about $1B 1/

1 -> 11 homes in LA Super proud of the work @PaulSteidl and our @BuildCasa team are doing to bring infill stater homes to great neighborhoods where people want to live like this project in Echo Park. Because of SB1123, this project is by right with a 60 day permitting shot clock. Even better, this project keeps the existing home and mirrors the historic zone look from the street.