The syndication and fund scene is red hot. I’m hearing “oversubscribed,” barely a day or two after I’ve read the deck. One syndication was oversubscribed in 15 minutes!
“Can you squeeze me in?” I ask.
“NO. We’ve already cut our favorite clients down. And they’re livid.”
I’m too old to become a real estate developer or syndicator. But if I were a little younger, I’d eye today’s cheap money, plentiful investors and great areas to develop in, e.g. South Boston.
And I’d go for it big-time.
More glimpses of incredible investment opportunities in South Boston
Lots of dumpy neighbors that need to be bought out and developed:
I like this one because I managed to squeeze in three construction cranes. These things ain’t cheap to rent.
Nice looking apartment development.
Weekend reading
From the New Yorker, an excellent long piece.
A couple of paragraphs from the long piece:
Alexandre Mansourov, the former Soviet diplomat in Pyongyang, told me that Kim’s role in the attacks reassured élites that he wasn’t averse to confrontation. “It was domestic positioning,” Mansourov said. “He needed to prove to them and his father that he could stand up.” That fall, Kim was promoted to the rank of general and made his first public appearance by his father’s side, signalling to the world that he was the chosen successor.
In his rapid rise, Kim acquired defining habits of mind. Mansourov said, “He’s a person who was never told no. Nobody drew the red line, and said, `Not a step further.’ Nobody punched him in the face, made him feel hurt. We say, `A man begins to grow his wisdom tooth when he bites more than he can chew.’ With Kim Jong Un, he has never yet bitten more than he can chew. Whatever he sets his sights on he gets. He keeps pushing, and pushing, and pushing. We don’t know where his brakes are, and I suspect he doesn’t know where he can stop.”
For the full piece, click here.
What little I know of marketing.
Our local country store sells:
I’m the marketing whiz. I suggest they change the sign to “Day Young.”
They did. Customers complained they were being mislead and cheated. So, we’re back to Day Old. I don’t make this stuff up.
Useful stuff
+ In the old days, you opened this manually:
Now you push a button and bang your head — because it no longer opens as high as it used to. Don’t do stupid, like I did this morning. My head still hurts from hitting it on a brand-new BMW X5 hatch. Surely, not all Germans are midgets?
+ There isn’t a product or service anywhere in the world that can’t be made better. Hence, reap the rewards yourself. Start your own business and make better stuff. If you tell your boss how to make it better, he won’t listen. So, don’t bother. Do it for yourself. Examples coming.
+ Most useful travel tools: Slingbox (for watching your home TV from anywhere), and Mophie add-on battery packs for giving your cell phone the added battery boost it needs when WAZE runs you out of juice on your trip.
+ Equifax is a disgrace. They get hacked to the tune of 143 million records on July 29,but wait until September to report the hacking, thus giving their executives oodles of time to dump their shares, which some do. Lessons:
— The Cloud is not safe. Don’t trust your life to it.
— Give your social security number to as few as possible.
— Watch your credit cards for strange transactions. Close all the credit cards you’re not using. I just closed three.
— Watch for new mortgages you’ve just “signed up” for. Your personal identity is at stake. I’ve been through identity theft with my son, Michael. It’s not pleasant. Nobody wants to believe you, especially call center operators in India. Remember any Tom, Dick and Harry can now buy your credit card and credit information on the dark web. (Easy to get into with a different browser.)
U.S. Tennis Open
The men’s semi-finals are this afternoon.
Women’s finals are on Saturday — 4 PM ESPN.
Men’s are on Sunday — 4 PM ESPN.
Tennis is a running game. The faster you get to the ball, the more options you have. Moving the ball around gives your opponent fewer choices.
I like tennis because I get exercise without the boredom of running on a treadmill or bicycling in place, which is called spinning because they’re spinning you a yarn you’ll enjoy going nowhere.
Harry Newton, who finally had a haircut after being told by Susan my hair was a “disgrace” and I looked like “a homeless person.”
Did she notice my new, pricey Boston haircut? Not one bit. Did I just waste $16.95? Yup!
Zoe celebrated her one week birthday today. She’s home from the hospital. I promised to pay for her wedding. If that’s 30 years from now, I’ll be 105, happy to be alive and ecstatic to pay for her wedding.
Being vertically challenged has it’s advantages…my new Subaru auto-open tailgate has 71″ clearance when fully opened…having now shrunk down to 66″ I have plenty of head room.