Month: March 2026

Jewels of Wisdom Newsletter – Real Estate is a hassle

Real Estate is a HASSLE

Owning real estate is a hassle.
Selling real estate is a hassle.
Buying real estate is a hassle too.

That said, we all know & agree there are fortunes to be had buying, owning, & selling real estate!!

Owning real estate for rental income is a hassle because it’s actually NOT PASSIVE INCOME. In order to reap the benefit of rental real estate, whether commercial or residential, you MUST manage the deal closely.

Even when you have professional property management, you still must monitor their decisions & actions for effectiveness. When vacancy comes, especially in larger commercial & industrial property, the cost to bring in new tenants often runs multiple six figures not including the 1-2 year (or much more) carrying cost while the property is on the market for that lease.

Selling real estate is a hassle too. Many brokers read this email-and they’re handsomely compensated for each transaction because of their skill in navigating the market and getting the deal to closing. If it was as easy as selling a stock (click of a button), the brokerage business wouldn’t exist.

The difficulty in selling may also be the feature that saves you from panic selling on bad news-as so many stock investors are doing as you read this because of the war in Iran. The difficulty in selling builds a safetly into accidentally selling the real estate you wished you could keep.

That said, if you choose to sell me a property, I strive to make every aspect of our transaction much more like selling a stock.

After closing, I want you to say, “Wow, I never knew selling that property would be so easy & I cannot believe how fast we got to closing!” (We have closed some residential deals same day, most commercial/industrial deals close in 75 days or less-usually environmental is the hold up)

Buying real estate is a hassle too. First you make the offer, then it’s accepted. Often you run around like a headless chicken to obtain a loan. Doesn’t matter if it’s a hard money or conventional lender-it’s a hassle. Then the insurance…

On distressed property, like vacant houses, or much more challenging, vacant commercial & industrial property, obtaining ANY insurance can be difficult. Many insurers simply will not insure a high vacancy commercial property. Again, when we are buying, we are already aware of this challenge and have the resources to get the deal to closing anyway.

Why Am I Complaining About the Hassle of Real Estate today?

I’m in the middle of closing out a small residential 6 flat I own personally in Chicago. I renovated the entire building, owned it for 5 years, and am earning about a 2% profit on the deal.

The buyer is getting a great deal and is a much better person to own & operate this deal. He and his wife will be a much better manager than me & my property managment company because he manages himself.

Even though I’m basically breaking even on the deal, I am happy with the transaction. The price is fair and I am being released from the burden of owning & managing that property. The scale of Diamond Equity is dramatically larger than it was 5 years ago and the deal is a distraction.

Additionally, the new owner will find better tenants than I could. Those tenants will be happier with that personal managment structure than I could provide there. I feel like I’m leaving the neighborhood & building in a better position than I found it and am giving a solid foundation for the new owner to prosper there over the next few years. Grateful to be part of this deal.

Do you (or any clients) own any property that’s become a hassle? Here’s what I’m buying:

Currently Owned, and Buying throughout the US:

Value Add Deals, Ideally occupied with below market rents
Industrial & Commercial Property, 10K sq. ft. – 250K sq. ft.
Mobile Home Communities (50 pad minimum)
Well located Retail Development Sites
Residential MFR & SFR

If you’re selling a property that could use some “value add”, reply to this email with details including the address, size, price, & photos, if available, and we can get the ball rolling.

Jewels of Wisdom Newsletter – How did I name Diamond Equity?

My dad has been here in Florida with me often this Winter. He just headed back home yesterday. Of course we were reminiscing about the early days of Diamond Equity and the birth of the name popped into my mind.

“Diamond Equity Investments”

I remember handing my first business card back in 2006 to Craig Marvel, (a volume flipper, landlord, & private lender) ,a few weeks after we met and he said, “I like that name!” Those words of approval seemed to ring out in my ears as he said them. Those exact words I still remember nearly 20 years later.

(At the time I was broke, had bad credit, and not even a car. How dare I declare myself a real estate investor…)

That was summer 2006, just a month or two before my first fix & flip deal. Since then I’ve been a part of more than 3,000 myself, and well over 1,000 of those with Craig, who eventually joined Diamond Equity as a partner.

So How did I Come up with Diamond Equity Investments?

I remember the name coming in a flash. Like the future suddenly became visible in that moment.

I liked the Diamond for the reason that when you find a diamond, it is rough and requires an artistic investment of time & money to become something beautiful and more valuable than it was when you found it.

This is just like profitable real estate deals. You must artfully improve a property within the constraints of the budget to create something more beautiful & move valuable than it was when you found it.

You can listen to this past podcast my dad & I recorded about the early days of Diamond Equity and his career as a Private Money Lender.

Here’s What Diamond Equity Investments Does

Remember, Diamond Equity is a MARKET MAKER. We will make an offer an nearly any property anywhere in the country. We provide liquidity. When you want out quickly, without the repairs, lease up, inspections, time on market, etc, you call Diamond Equity & just sell it as is!

Currently Owned, and Buying throughout the US:

Value Add Deals, Ideally occupied with below market rents
Industrial & Commercial Property, 10K sq. ft. – 250K sq. ft.
Mobile Home Communities (50 pad minimum)
Well located Retail Development Sites
Residential MFR & SFR

If you’re selling a property that could use some “value add”, reply to this email with details including the address, size, price, & photos, if available, and we can get the ball rolling.

Jewels of Wisdom Newsletter – Details on Recent Deals

Diamond Equity is a MARKET MAKER. We Buy & Sell Real Estate of all asset classes throughout the U.S. from our office locations in each Atlanta, GA, Philadelphia, PA, & Chicago, IL.

We don’t focus on one asset class, we focus on providing liquidity, a quick, private, direct sale for properties that usually have some type of problem: vacancy, needs work, under market rents, etc. We’ll buy it as is, in it’s current condition.

Here are a few examples of current deals:

(We occasionally offer Limited Partner participation on deals like this)

$20M Small Bay Industrial, Washington, DC– This is 90% occupied & under contract at an 8.5% cap rate. There are good tenants, including the US gov’t. This is a fair deal with upside in leasing the other 10%. There may be a small space remaining in the capital raise once we clear due diligence in the next 3 weeks.
63 Unit Apartment Development, Edgewood, WA– We are currently working on an entitlement deal in Edgewood Washington which targets a $48K per unit exit ($3.024M) after getting plans approved (shovel ready). Based on past deals, the soft cost is estimated at $250K-$400K and likely to take 12 months or more. We would consider selling this parcel now for $1.217M in the event you’d like to work on this $1M profit deal.
87,000 Sq. Ft. Self Storage Development, Lawrenceville, GA- 3rd floor is going up as we speak. We are shooting for a 5/15 certificate of occupancy date. This project will be rented & stabilized by the end of next year. Grateful to those readers who are my partner in this project.

Here are a few examples of recently closed deals:

60,000 Sq. Ft. Shopping Center, Las Vegas, NV – Bought at 65% occupancy and sold at 95% occupancy 3 years later. We invested about $4.075M in capex, including tenant improvements. It sold for $16.75M.
30,000 Sq. Ft. Warehouse, Memphis, TN – We sold this property on a rent to own contract with a 5 year lease and a 3 year option term. The price increased at the end of each year before expiring at the end of year 3. This incentivized the tenant to become the owner quickly, which they did in December 2025.
37 Miscellaneous Residential Deals, throughout the U.S. – We have been aggressively scaling our residential flipping business throughout the entire US – even Alaska!! (a surprisingly vibrant & expensive market)

Here’s What Diamond Equity Does

If you’re selling a property that could use some “value add”, reply to this email with details including the address, size, price, & photos, if available, and we can get the ball rolling.

Currently Owned, and Still Buying anywhere in the US:

Value Add Deals, Ideally occupied with below market rents
Industrial & Commercial Property, 10K sq. ft. – 250K sq. ft.
Mobile Home Communities (50 pad minimum)
Well located Retail Development Sites
Residential MFR & SFR

Jewels of Wisdom Newsletter – Do You even Deserve the Deal?

Let’s talk about MAKING deals today. This is different than “presenting” offers. Making Deals implies ACTION. Presenting offers is passive. Deal Maker’s show 3 qualities which make most people uncomfortable.

A Deal Maker is:

Decisive – They can decide quickly what they’ll offer. Deals don’t wait. They move quickly.
Bold – They take on more risk when buying “as-Is.” That’s how they win better deals.
Annoying – Offer “presenters” email the offer and never sent a follow up email, let alone a phone call. (think, weak, newer agent who hasn’t learned the game & has zero confidence in their offer). Deal Makers FOLLOW UP after the offer is made. They are borderline annoying, but, you remember they made that offer, you remember the exact purchase price they offered, and, of course, you know their name because they just keep showing up. This annoying persistence MAKES deals.

A lesson on Deal Making from the Bible, Luke 11:5

5. Then Jesus said to them, “Suppose you have a friend, and you go to him at midnight and say, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves of bread; 6 a friend of mine on a journey has come to me, and I have no food to offer him.’ 7 And suppose the one inside answers, ‘Don’t bother me. The door is already locked, and my children and I are in bed. I can’t get up and give you anything.’ 8 I tell you, even though he will not get up and give you the bread because of friendship, yet because of your shameless audacity he will surely get up and give you as much as you need.

9 “So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.”

In those days, when a traveler arrived at your home from afar, it was the custom to feed them immediately. Imagine, it’s like 3:00 am, and you have to go knock on your neighbor’s house to ask for bread. Sounds annoying, right? Yet, you knock, they say no. You knock again, they still say no. You knock a 3rd time, they say “Yes”.

The Greatest Deal Makers live this Biblical principle. “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.”

Here are 31 Pre-Made Deals For Sale

Worth noting, we routinely accept Offers that are NOT the highest dollar amount. The strength of these deals is certainty. Buyers who place large, non-refundable earnest money deposits, waive inspections, and close quickly win those deals over slow closing, due diligence heavy offers which are expected to die, or at minimum, renegotiate the price prior to close. I’d accept the offer from the known Deal Maker at a lower price over a “presented” higher offer any day of the week.

Currently Owned, and Will Buy More anywhere in the US: