We go from 16 interviews to 8 people showing up, to roughly 2 failing because of equipment. Either their computers are not fast enough, and I give them a chance, I basically say I’ll hire you, but within the first week, I need you to be at 8 GB of RAM. I need your internet connection to be 15 MB per second, and it needs to be stable. If I really like them, I give them that opportunity, but a week later, if they haven’t done it, then goodbye. I want to work with people for years and my staff typically tends to stay for two years or longer and so I give them the opportunity to fix the technology.

Neal has a very interesting model, has been in the business for a very long time, so I’m excited to have him on. Neal, if you want to go ahead and introduce yourself. Talk a little bit about your background and current focus.

I’m Chris Prefontaine and my focus weekly is to bring you an expert who is going to help you make a quantum leap in your business, your finances and/or your life. Buckle in here with us while we bring you the next Master’s Class. You guys know if you’ve been listening to the show for a while that on purpose, I don’t bring you just people in our niche. I know a lot of people that run podcasts do that. I on purpose bring you variety, bring you people from all different niches in the real estate industry and there’s a reason for that. It’s not so that you can get caught up in the next shiny object. I don’t want you to do that.

There’s a huge amount of opportunity that is not being allowed into the space because the technologists are not getting their due. Because we’ve managed to successfully disrupt most industries in America, but we haven’t managed to disrupt large multifamily yet. My opinion is, it’s only a matter of time. I’ve only invented one saying in my life, Darrin, but I’m very fond of it. My saying is, that the Bible got it wrong by one letter. One letter. It’s not the meek that shall inherit the earth, it’s the geek!

The short answer is no, because rent growth is usually provided by enterprise-level companies that are selling data for $25-250,000 a license. CoStar, Yardi Matrix, Axiometrics, that’s where the data comes from and they don’t agree all the time. Right now, Yardi Matrix has Las Vegas as number one in the U.S., but at number two, CoStar is still at number two. So, it’s not going to be number 16. The rent growth data is purchased for very expensive prices. There really aren’t any hacks in that marketplace.

Thanks for being on the show and a little bit more about Neal. Neal Bawa is the CEO and founder of Grocapitus, a commercial real estate investment company. Neal sources, negotiates and acquires commercial properties across the U.S. for 200-plus investors and currently has a portfolio over a thousand units, which is projected to be at 2,000 in 12 months. The portfolio includes multifamily and student housing properties in over six states.