Zach Lawless

Your asking price does not set the loan. The valuation does. Under the new SBA rules, total debt supporting a change of ownership cannot exceed the business valuation amount, and that includes seller debt not on full standby. If the price you agree exceeds what the valuation supports, the difference has to come from equity. That means buyer cash. Not a larger loan, and not a larger seller note unless it goes on full standby for the life of the SBA debt. Sellers should sit with what that does to the buyer pool. A price above valuation does not fail. It quietly filters out every buyer who cannot write a bigger check. The buyers who can are usually the ones who negotiate hardest on everything else. #sba7a #buyandbuild

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ChatGPT Astra is the first time I've seen a model build a commercial market survey in dang-near one shot. -Gave it for random properties to find intel on (though it'd be more efficient to just hand it the brochures) -API to build the map -Bullet points on functionality -Brand.MD file Produced an on-brand, interactive survey in about 20 minutes. Would it need some tweaks? Probably, but way less back and forth needed than I've ever seen before. This is my typical approach with model releases. What can you do now that previous models have failed at? Or, what can you do faster and with less friction than ever before? Full tutorial, prompt & API config available in CRE AI Studio PS: Why does no one talk about the convenience of the ChatGPT Sites plugin?

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We spent $1,000 on self-guided tour technology. One month in. Zero leads. We've also tried: → Free scooters with lease signing → Amazon gift card raffles → Free Murphy beds Most of it didn't move the needle. Here's what I've learned managing through this market: Self-guided tours crushed it during COVID. People wanted zero human contact. The technology made sense then. Now? People want to see units, but they also want answers. Questions about parking, noise, neighbors, move-in timing. A self-guided tour app can't answer those questions in real time. So we're going back to basics instead of chasing the next shiny thing: Unlisted YouTube videos of vacant units. Our leasing agents can text the link immediately. Prospects see the unit from home. Then when they're ready to tour, we're there to answer questions and close. Extended evening and weekend hours. Meeting prospects when they're actually available. Systematic follow-up on every lead. Twice. Not once. The scooters and gift cards feel good to offer. But they don't fix conversion problems. I'd rather spend time improving our lead-to-showing rate from 5.9% to 30% than offering prizes. Not every test works. That's fine. But we track what actually creates value versus what just feels like we're doing something. For our investors, this matters. Marketing gimmicks don't pay distributions. Operational discipline does. Still figuring out what works in this market. It's a process. $1,000 on self-guided tours. Zero leads. Free scooters, gift cards, Murphy beds, most didn't work. Our newsletter documents these tests: what we tried, what flopped, and what actually moved conversion rates. Subscribe to see what we're testing and what we're scrapping.

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Multifamily delinquencies just hit their highest level since the post-GFC recovery. Delinquent balances went from $2.4B to $8.9B in that same window. For investors and operators paying attention, the next 12–24 months will bring a meaningful pipeline of restructurings and note sales. That's not a crisis — it's a market clearing. The question isn't whether distress exists. It's whether you have the discipline and insight to act on it. #CommercialRealEstate #Multifamily #CRE #RealEstateInvesting #DebtMarkets #DistressedAssets #RealEstate #InvestmentBanking #MarketInsights #CREFinance

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The data is in, and the picture is finally coming into focus as delayed reports roll in. In this week’s RealPage Economy Express, we break it down what we know so far:   • Inflation & Spending: Core PCE rose 2.8% year over year. • Housing: Home price growth continues to slow. • Jobs: ADP reports 32K private-sector job cuts in November. • Consumers: Sentiment remains divided.   Watch the quick recap and share your thoughts! #RealPage #EconomyExpress #HousingMarket #USEconomy #LaborMarket

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🎧 Just dropped a new episode of the Freedom Real Estate Podcast! Starting young, scaling smart, and mastering off-market deals — that’s what this episode is all about. I sat down with Axel Ragnarsson to unpack how he built his multifamily portfolio. Here’s what we cover: 🏘️ How Axel got into real estate at a young age 💰 His first deal — and where he found the money 🧠 Mentorship: how he earned guidance from his main mentor 📞 Off-market tactics to grow a portfolio 📈 Raising capital the right way 🏢 Becoming a vertically integrated operator & building his property management company 💥 Advice he’d give his younger self If you’re serious about scaling multifamily, this episode is packed with actionable lessons. 👉 Listen now. Link in comments 🎧 #FreedomRealEstatePodcast #MultifamilyInvesting #OffMarketDeals #CapitalRaising #RealEstateGrowth #WealthBuilding

Most people think raising capital starts when you find a deal. Evan Holladay knew that it starts years earlier. When he was ready to do his first independent development, he had no institutional backing, no big-name co-sponsor, and no track record raising money on his own. Just a mission, a reputation he’d built quietly, and a small audience that had been following his journey. And that’s what made this moment terrifying: If this email didn’t work, the deal was dead. Still, he hit send. Twenty-four hours later, he had over $1M in soft commits. No webinars. No cold calls. No family office roadshow. Just one email backed by years of trust. People didn’t invest because the deal was shiny. They invested because they already believed in him: his values, his consistency, his mission. That’s the part most first-time investors get completely backwards. Here’s what Evan did right (and what you can replicate): 1. He started building his brand long before he needed capital. If you wait until you need money to become visible, you are already too late. 2. He led with value, not the ask. Years of spotlighting others created goodwill long before he ever needed anything in return. 3. He made his mission impossible to ignore. People didn’t just know what he built. They knew why. And they wanted to be part of it. 4. He raised trust before he raised capital. When the deal arrived, the decision was easy because trust was already in the bank. Raising money isn’t about the pitch deck. It’s about everything you did in the years leading up to the pitch deck. The easiest way to raise capital is to build trust long before you ever ask for a dollar.

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Do you ever have clients ask about the holdings in the portfolio? Not the return. The actual construction. "Why is this here?" "What does this position do?" "What happens when this one goes down?" That's when someone is paying attention. It's easy to build something that looks sophisticated on a screen. It's much harder to explain every position in plain English and show the client exactly what job it has. That's one of the things I try to teach newer advisors. Don't outsource your understanding. Research is great, but if you're the advisor, YOU need to understand what the client owns and why. You should be able to explain the portfolio without hiding behind a fact sheet. That's ownership.

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Education: Resilient, Defensive — and Evolving The education sector continues to demonstrate its resilience across economic cycles. Demand remains structurally strong, underpinned by demographics, rising income levels, and parents’ long-term commitment to quality education. There is increasing shift towards asset-light operating models. Many operators are moving away from heavy real estate ownership and instead partnering with capital providers. This allows them to: • Focus on delivering academic excellence • Invest in teachers, curriculum, and student experience • Improve capital efficiency and return on equity • Accelerate expansion without balance sheet constraints In volatile markets, this combination of defensive demand and scalable growth makes education particularly compelling. For investors and operators alike, alignment between educational quality and capital structure is becoming a key differentiator. #Education #AssetLight #PrivateEducation #K12 #Investing #RealAssets #GrowthStrategy

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