The I Love CVille Show With Jerry Miller! - More Analysis On Villas At Southern Ridge Sale; Henrico Firm Buys Majority Villas Stake For $11M

Episode Date: December 20, 2024

The I Love CVille Show headlines: More Analysis On Villas At Southern Ridge Sale Henrico Firm Buys Majority Villas Stake For $11M Villas & Cav Crossing Sold; What Complex Is Next? Rental Data Availability Democratizing Landlording? Rental Data Availability Price Fixing Landlording? College Inn Has A Ghost Kitchen At The Biltmore CNBC Ranks Value Of College Athletic Programs UVA #45 W/ $506M Valuation, $141M Revenue Read Viewer & Listener Comments Live On-Air The I Love CVille Show airs live Monday – Friday from 12:30 pm – 1:30 pm on The I Love CVille Network. Watch and listen to The I Love CVille Show on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, iTunes, Apple Podcast, YouTube, Spotify, Fountain, Amazon Music, Audible, Rumble and iLoveCVille.com.

Good Friday afternoon, guys. I'm Jerry Miller. Thank you kindly for joining us on the I Love Seville show. It's an absolute pleasure to connect with you guys through the I Love Seville network where long-form content is home. It's our bailiwick. It's what feels comfortable. I mean, I think long-form content is the future of media, frankly. Trying to cover a story in 30 seconds, 45 seconds, or 60 seconds with sound bites and short video clips is archaic. It's in the same breath as carrier pigeons and yellow pages and landlines and appointment television. Folks want content on demand on social and podcasting platforms, and they want the opportunity, if they choose, to go deep on a content vertical, and that's what we're trying to provide with the I Love Seville show. There's a lot we're going to cover on today's program. We broke the news for

you that the Villas at Southern Ridge, a condo and apartment complex off of Old Lynchburg Road, off of Fifth Street Extended, in the urban ring of Albemarle County, has been purchased by an out-of-market real estate firm. It's important to highlight this. They didn't buy the entire Villas at Southern Ridge. They bought majority controlling stake the entire Villas at Southern Ridge. They bought majority controlling stake of the Villas at Southern Ridge. I personally own one of the units at the Villas at Southern Ridge. It's a rental property. It's a three-bedroom, two-bathroom with no debt that rents for $2,600 a month. It has, as I highlighted on yesterday's show, from January 2014 to today, which is, frankly, what is that? Almost 11 years.

11 years next month. It's gone from $1,000 a month rent to $2,600 a month rent. Just an astonishing increase. I want to highlight more analysis. I'm going to give you more analysis on what's happening here. This company from Henrico, Levy & Co., has got a steel on its hands. They've got a fantastic deal here. I want to give props to the Henrico-based real estate firm, Levy & Co. They've done just a fantastic job. I would expect this company within the next five to seven years to exit its position. That's

what it does. It comes, it buys properties like the villas, it remodels the villas, its amenities, its landscaping, its pool, its clubhouse. It takes the properties, the individual units that it buys and it probably will paint them, put more carpet in them, change the cabinetry, the hardware, the appliances, the granite, and then sell them, sell them individually. And when you're buying units in a bulk purchase like this for somewhere between $90,000 and $100,000 a unit, and then you go and try to sell the individual units somewhere between $300,000 and $350,000, There's a lot of meat on the bone. It looks like it's frozen on LinkedIn. For those that want to watch the show, we've made it even easier. We encourage you to subscribe to our YouTube channel.

Just search the I Love Seville Network on YouTube. Search the I Love Seville Network on YouTube. Subscribe to our channel. It's the most consistent video platform of all of them. It's not even close. It's probably because they specialize in video where the other platforms we're streaming upon is more social media.

I want to ask this question to the viewers and listeners, okay? And it's a good one. Rental data now is so readily available. Rental data you can find on Zillow, you can find on apartments.com. There's just so many platforms that have rental data available. And because it's so available, anyone can get to know what's going on in any individual or any given rental market across the country, America. It's easy peasy Sunday breezy to get that data. I'm going to ask you this question. The rental data that's available on the internet,

is that democratizing the business of landlording? Does it give the small mom and pop landlords the same even playing field that say say, a major REIT has, like a Blackstone that has real estate positions all over the country? Has it even the playing field? Or has the readily available nature of rental data created a price-fixing marketplace where folks know what everything rents for and can adjust their rent so it's duplicatable or scalable or in the same conversation as what other landlords are doing?

Is it basically creating a price-fixing situation? I want to unpack that topic on today's show. I also want to unpack on today's show which complex could be the next one that is targeted. You have Cavalier Crossing that was purchased by an Alexandria-based RE estate firm purchasing the Ville's at Southern Ridge, which is right next to Cavalier Crossing. Which apartment complex, condo complex, which one could be next? Much easier to purchase apartment complexes than condo complexes. Which one is next? Out-of-market money within six months, within the last six months, out-of-market money

has spent north of $30 million buying multifamily housing. Which multifamily housing complex is next to be purchased? Is it easier? Here's a follow-up question for you. This is a hell of a follow-up question for you. Is it easier for a real estate investment trust, a REIT, someone that specializes in buying multifamily housing, is it easier? Is it more advantageous? Does it make more financial sense for them to purchase existing multifamily housing or build it from scratch themselves? That's a hell of a topic we should talk about on today's show. A lot we're going to unpack in the economics of real estate as it applies to quality of life, as it applies to housing affordability, as it applies to climbing the socioeconomic ladder. Folks, this is not just

about being a landlord and this is not just about playing Monopoly. This is about the look and feel of the Charlottesville and Alamo County community and how it's rapidly changing from a wealth standpoint, from a race standpoint, from an education standpoint, and from a transient standpoint. Hell of a topic today on the show. On today's program, we'll also talk a ghost kitchen, College Inn. I mean, I saw this on Reddit. Then we did some investigation after seeing it on Reddit. The College Inn is operating a ghost kitchen out of the former Biltmore Grill, now called Ellie's Country Club, on Ellywood Avenue. It's just a banana story here.

This is 2024 effing being, where you don't need staff outside of the staff that's in a kitchen. You have a position on Grubhub. You have a phone number, a position on DoorDash. People order from your digital menu or call a phone number. You take the order digitally or over the phone. You make the food, and some third-party delivery service picks it up from your kitchen. This kitchen being on Ellywood Avenue, that's not even tied to your business. There's no shingle with your name or no sign with your name outside the kitchen.

And then the food is delivered to you and you get a cut of the money. This is a crazy story that I want to unpack on today's show. And I also want to talk on today's show, ladies and gentlemen, about the valuation of the University of Virginia, a $506 million valuation and a recent CNBC ranking of college athletic departments, their values, their revenues. A lot we're going to cover. I got a lot of apartments that are coming in, excuse me, a lot of comments that are coming in from the anonymous variety on this show, not just from Deep Throat, but someone else that's a mover and shaker in this space that I want to get to. First, Judah, let's thank Charlottesville Sanitary Supply for being a part of the program. Charlottesville Sanitary Supply, 60 consecutive years of business. John Vermillion, Andrew Vermillion, they are trusted,

trusted, trusted business owners. And Charlottesville Sanitary Supply is the place that you want to see survive another 60 years. Please, Charlottesville Sanitary Supply on East High Street is where you want to do your shopping for your sanitary supply needs. The first topic on the program, if we're having difficulties connecting on LinkedIn, I understand. Your opinion is valuable to the show, J-Dub. So at this point... I've got it up via RTMP, so... Oh, you do? I would love to just have you participate in the show. I appreciate your hard work. I sincerely mean that. I sincerely mean that. If you go to the studio camera and then a two-shot, because you had some questions. I got an Instagram direct message from someone that works in commercial real estate,

is a landlord, and is based out of Manhattan. He listens to the show, loves the show, and occasionally sends me Instagram messages on the topics that we're talking about. Oh, he is... Let's see. He calls himself a small potatoes investor

in Almar County and Hampton Roads. But he sends me commentary from time to time about the comments the topic matter that we cover on today's show his commentary today really got me thinking about um rental data and and it's readily uh available nature and and if it's democratizing uh landlording or if it's causing the price fixing of landlording. I want to unpack that on today's show. First, let me set the stage of what's happening here for you, the viewers and listeners. Yesterday, we broke the news for you. I would expect the legacy media to catch up on this story and eventually report it, just like they reported on Cavalier Crossing's sale.

The Ville's at Southern Ridge is workforce housing. I've owned a position in the Vills at Southern Ridge for nearly 20 years. There's a Henrico-based company called Levy & Co. that's been sourcing or scouring for deal flow for a period of time, and they pounced on this opportunity. They purchased a majority stake, not all the 240 units, but a controlling majority stake. I think that number's in the 130 to 140 range. I'm trying to confirm that exact number. Frankly, I should know the number as someone who has knowledge of the association as an owner. Here's what's going to happen. They buy it for $11 million. They're going to pump an additional $1 million into it.

That $1 million they pump into it is going to be improvement to amenities such as the pool, the clubhouse, the landscaping, and taking the units that they purchased and improving their look. These units, the biggest one is like 1,280 square feet. 1,280 square feet. So turning these units around, it's not very costly. I've turned my unit around, which is the biggest one available. It's the three-bedroom, two-bath with a den. They also have a three-bedroom, two-bath, no den.

And then they have a two-bedroom, two-bath, no den. And I've turned my unit around. Now, granted, I have a construction crew that does all our property for like $2,500 or $3,000. You're talking paint, you're talking carpet, some improved hardware, fixing the screen door, you know, the proverbial lipstick on the pig. Then you re-rent the unit, and you generally are raising the rent about 10%. That 10% increase, you hope you get 18, 24, 36 months with the tenant that you bring in, and then it more than covers the money that you put into flipping it. The true value is the

increase in rents. Whether people want to admit this or not, if you have a few units for rent or if you have a hell of a lot of units for rent, you've got to continue increasing the rents because they're expensive to maintain. So this company from Henrico is going to improve the landscaping, improve the pools, the tennis courts, the clubhouse, the weight room.

They're going to probably paint the outside of some of these units. They're going to paint the inside of the units that they bought, new granite, new carpet, new hardware. And then they're going to slow roll the sale of the units they purchased in various phases. The first phase is going to be probably with a three-handle, I would think, in the $300,000 range for most of the units. And then each phase that comes out after is going to have some kind of increase in what they're offering, price point-wise. And while they slow roll the sale of these units, roughly 130 of them, they're going to have other units that they're going to rent. And those units that they're going to rent, they're not going to renew leases.

Well, they may offer to renew the lease, but the lease that they're going to offer to renew is going to have a substantially higher price rate. Frankly speaking, they're not going to renew a lot of the leases because they're going to have to take some time to rehab the units before they're able to get a tenant back in. So this is how the deal is going to work out. They're going to basically buy 130-some units for somewhere in the neighborhood of $90,000 to $100,000 a piece. Then they're going to take those units and they're going to rehab them and bring them to rents that are perhaps 50% higher than they are now. So they turn the rent rolls into a profit center.

Then once they're leased, they're going to start slow rolling the sale of the apartments that are already condo. It's already condo. The condo documents are in place. It's already official, already completely above board. You're not having to go through the process of converting apartments to condos. It's already been done by Bart Fry, a developer who just sold his position in the villas for $11 million. He's in the Virginia Beach, Norfolk area, Fry Properties, very reputable guy. He's the guy that purchased the villas in the mid-2000s before the real estate crisis. When he purchased the villas in the mid-2000s before the real estate crisis, he basically took an apartment complex that was seen by the community as being unsafe, sketchy, crime-ridden, slummy,

and he converted them into condos, and his plan was to sell all the 240 units as individual condos. The real estate crisis hit 2008, 2009. He couldn't sell the condos. Banks weren't letting on this type of housing type. I bought right before the crisis, literally the worst time you could possibly buy, literally the worst time you can buy. And Mr. Fry and his team realized, Jesus, we got to make these rentals right now. So they go from condos to rentals. And he's had a sales office turn into a rental office and a good portion of them sold to people like me, but not a majority of them, not a majority of them. So now he's like, all right, I want to get out of this rental situation. He found a buyer for $11 million.

This company out of Henrico buys in bulk. When you buy in bulk, you get a deal. You're basically getting these units somewhere, I think, I did some back of the napkin arithmetic, somewhere between 90 and 100,000 a unit. Pretty straightforward model. This company out of Henrico has got other profit centers. Their profit centers are going to be, they're going to make some money on the condo dues from folks like us. They're going to make some money on the maintenance team that they put over there when a maintenance call is placed. The maintenance technician is going to be working for X hourly rate, maybe $20 or $25 an hour. And then the maintenance call when the bill is sent to the tenants, it's going to be

probably like $75 bill. There'll be some elasticity in the hourly rate. He'll make some money on the property management crew that he puts over there. So he's got a number of various profit centers. The Levy & Co.'s primary profit centers, however, are going to be raising the rents 50% and then eventually selling the units for 3x of what they bought them for. Unbelievable opportunity and upside here. Unbelievable opportunity and upside. This should have you, the viewer and listener, asking these questions. These are the questions that you should be asking. What is the next complex that's going to come under the microscope? What's the next one that's going to be sold? Eagle's Landing intrigues the hell out of me. Eagle's Landing is right next to Cavalier Crossing. Eagle's Landing right now is the most affordable rent in the market since Cavalier Crossing and the Villas has been sold.

Eagle's Landing, if you're a REIT, if you're a Bonaventure who bought Cav Crossing, or if you're a Levy & Co. who bought the Villas, I would be looking at Eagle's Landing. That one has significant upside right there. I want to also ask this question to you, the viewer and listener. The data that's out there right now, is that evening the playing field, democratizing landlording, or is the data that's out there right now causing landlord price fixing,'s not intentional price fixing. Judah rolls his eyes on that. That's why I want to weave Judah in there. I did not roll my eyes. Okay, let's get you. You think it's intentional price fixing that's happening? And should I read the Instagram commentary that came in from the investor who I believe is based in Manhattan? Oh yeah, he's based in New York City. This guy is based in New York City. This is what he says to me. Can I read this to him? Yeah, he's got some great points. All right, he's got some great points.

I first get a message from him on December 10th. Ladies and gentlemen, I hope I get somewhere between, I don't know, 50 to 100 folks that I don't know from all over the area DMing us across all these platforms with this information, with deals, with acquisition opportunities, with deal flow, commentary about the show, people I've never met in my life, never met in my life. This guy is one of them. He says, Jerry, this is what he said on December 10th at 7.34 p.m. I agree with you, Jerry, on multifamily glut. See the writing on the wall in Northern Virginia as well. I'm a small potatoes, single family house investor in Alamaro County and Hampton Roads. SFH has been solid for me

and I'm uninterested in multifamily as an asset class. He said, we should play some squash next time I'm in Charlottesville. I'm a 4-0 or a 4-5, cheers. Literally a stranger. I respond to him, I'd say, I would love to play squash with you. Let's do it. I love a 4.0 or a 4.5. Cheers. Literally a stranger. I respond to him. I'd say, I would love to play squash with you. Let's do it.

I love playing squash. He then says, sounds good. I'll let you know when I'm down there. I'm based in New York City. Then last night at 12.16 in the morning, he sends me a DM. He says, think about it, Jerry. If all the CRE firms that are buying, CRE is commercial real estate. If all the commercial real estate firms that are buying across the

nation are based in New York, or if the regional commercial real estate investors are getting advice by centralized commercial real estate advisors, they're trying to bring rents up across the country and small and mid markets to New York rents and other prime market areas. That's the free market talking. I thought you said you liked the free market for landlording. If you think of the implications, rent control may be the only route to ensure reasonable fair housing. And I'm saying this as a landlord myself, he says. He also says the painful news is that New York market rents are knocking on Charlottesville's door and every other small and mid-sized city across the nation. He says

this is the consequence of Zillow. A banker in New York behind a keyboard now has market access to every small town across America. So he's basically saying he's a banker in New York who owns single family housing in Charlottesville, now Moreau County as an investor. And he's scouring data that he's finding on websites like Zillow to buy single family homes from his desk as a banker in New York. This is just effing crazy. This is just great. I mean, it's not great for the community, but I find it fascinating what's happening here. So let me try to unpack what he's saying for you, the viewer and listener. Judah, you jump in the conversation as well. He's saying this.

If the folks that are offering the bankers, the CRE, the real estate insiders, the sharps, right? If they're even offering counsel to the regional firms, like the one out of Henrico or the regional firm like the one out of Alexandria, on what to buy and what to do, they're doing it from a lens of what's best for their positions in big markets. And these concentrated advisors that may be living in Manhattan and Boston, right? Manhattan, Boston, Los Angeles, you name it. They want the rents to increase across the country

at levels that are synonymous with Boston, New York, Los Angeles, Chicago. Why do they want that? Well, they want this for the following reason, hybrid and remote work. Because of COVID and the pandemic, the average Joe and the average Sally, the middle-class white-collar professional, the upper-class white professional now can live wherever they want work wherever they want this put a pinch or created headwinds for commercial real estate

for rental real estate in the Big Apple, in Manhattan, in Boston in Chicago and Los Angeles in expensive markets because the people said why am I going to pay these obscene rents if I now can work anywhere that I want to pay these obscene rents if I now can work everywhere, anywhere that I want to, including much more affordable markets that may offer more quality

of life, less traffic, less headache, and allow me to save more money, right? So the free market, this guy is saying, this banker in Manhattan is saying, this investor in Manhattan is saying, that's buying real estate in Charlottesville and Alamaro County. He is saying the free market has figured out the collateral damage from COVID. And this is how the free market has figured out the collateral damage from COVID. The advisors that are in New York, Manhattan, Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, the expensive markets are advising the regional players on what to do and where to rent. And they're doing this because they want the rents in these smaller markets, these mid-tier markets that are perceived to be more affordable, to increase, which would create less of a

rental delta between their big-tier markets, their expensive markets, and the mid-tier markets and the smaller markets, which would then send the demand back to the Manhattans, Los Angeleses, Bostons, Chicagos of the world. Because if the prices are the same, if the rents are the same, if the price points are the same, they have less incentive to leave the expensive markets. Effing, effing unbelievable thing to unpack. I'm not saying this is unbelievable in a good way,

but I'm just saying you've got a banker in front of a keyboard that's saying he's scouring data that's readily available on the internet to buy single-family houses in Charlottesville and Alamaro County that he's renting, just using the data that's at his fingertips, and he's saying what's happening, the primary people that are offering advice even to the regional firms,

the Henrico and Alexandria-based firms, for example, Bonaventure and Levy & Co., they're basically colluding intentionally or unintentionally to raise rents and price points in small-cap and mid cap markets to help further demand into the top tier expensive markets. I just, I find it fascinating. I find it absolutely fascinating. Okay, you jump in here. I've been talking for 30 minutes right here. You jump in here, then we'll get to the comments

from the sharps on our show. I I mean does it even have to be advisors? How do we know that? That these firms haven't folded them in and that's their you know, their strategy is now Just like you said or some version of it Raise prices make equalize equalize housing across the states. And like you said, it makes it more attractive to stay where you are. There's also the old, actually it's not that old, eight years,

the phrase, you'll own nothing and be happy. I mean, what happens when, you know, you've been talking about doubling rents and sale working for the company? What's the old song? Working for the company store? Georgia Gilmer, Ginny Hu. Ginny Hu said that I had the pleasure of meeting Georgia Gilmer yesterday, and we had a lovely conversation.

Albert Graves, thank you for the retweet. Deep Throat's comments. Then I'm going to go to another anonymous comment via Facebook message. Deep Throat says the Department of Justice would call RealPage price-fixing. That's basically a

software... How would I describe RealPage? RealPage is an American property management software company owned by the private equity firm Tama Bravo and known for its algorithm of rent-sending. This type of software exists in other verticals. Hotels utilize this type of software to set hotel room rates yeah okay so it's it's it's now readily available

for mom and pop landlords to big pop to to the biggest landlords in the world okay everybody gets the software and then you don't have to worry about it and the software just uh raises prices to uh get the the most you can get deep throat Throat says, personally, I think the bigger issue is the services teaching landlords, the lesson airlines learned decades ago. You don't aim for 100% occupancy. You will do better having rent and leaving a higher rent and having 5% of that housing stock vacant. That's an opposite theory that I use with my holdings, but that's a conversation for another day. Make sure you're rotating those lower thirds on screen if you could, please, sir. He says, in some ways, that is good. Makes the market more fluid. Always some apartments available, but makes rents higher.

Deep Throat also said, I've said again and again that detaching labor market from property market has huge consequences. Some people got to live cheap and beautiful places because there were few jobs there. Not anymore. Just what it's what's happening in Montana, which he's flying to as he's speaking right now. So he's listening to the show on the plane. He's flying to Montana as we speak. This comes via Facebook message. This individual asked for super anonymity. This individual said, don't forget the old Woodrow apartments on the backside of the stadium by the engineering school when you say 30 million of outside funds recently. Unbelievable. So how much would you say the old, how much the old Woodrow apartment sold for? And interestingly,

we're working an interview. They reached out to us. I can't, I was, I was gladly willing to do the interview. I copied you on that email, helping you, you know, you set up this interview to us. I was gladly willing to do the interview. I copied you on that email, helping you set up this interview for us. They reached out to us. It was Subtext, a national real estate company focused on elevating the resident experience. They announced their largest development, which is going to be Verve Charlottesville. Verve Charlottesville is a 12-story project featuring over 1,300 beds and 25,000 square foot of amenity space located by UVA on grounds. They, Subtext, reached out to us and want to do an interview on the show.

This is coming at 100 Stadium Road. Is this the one you're talking about, Super Anonymous Guy? Give me some more intel, Super Anonymous Guy, via Facebook Messenger. But the subtext, the National Real Estate Company is going to come on the show in January to talk about Verve Charlottesville. This building is a behemoth. 7,000, it's going to be multiple buildings, I believe. 7,299 square feet. 729,000 square feet. Massive building. 1,332 beds. 463 units, ranging from studios to four-bedroom apartments. The Verve Charlottesville coming to Charlottesville. The project represents Subtech's sixth deal in 2024, and it's first in Virginia, setting a new standard for urban living.

More details on that interview as Judah, who's all over this, I can tell, is setting this up for January. Try to make that a Wednesday in January, not the first week we're back. Maybe later in the month on a Wednesday in January, we'll do it with Skype with one of the key folks from Subtext. I'm going to ask you this question. I'll ask you, the viewer and listener, this question. Is the readily available real estate data democratizing landlording or causing the price fixing of landlording? It's a good question. I mean, why can't it be both? It's certainly democratizing in the way that more people have access to information that would have in the past only been available to,

like, say, someone with access to, like, the giant MLS book. That's when realtors really lost a lot of control of the profession. Listings were previously in a book that realtors carried around. When the listings were given away for free on a multiple listing service online, and then they really got bananas when they start letting third parties syndicate or basically RSS the listings onto their third-party websites like Zillow or Trulia. Same mistake the news business did. The news business said, we're going to give away our content for free online, but we still want you to pay for our content in print. And then they realized, oh my God, we made a humongous

mistake here. Now they're trying to get people to pay for their content online, but they already trained human behavior to get that content for free online. So not many people were willing to go back and pay for it. So then they just become forgotten. And there are other places. I mean, it's an impossible business model considering the fact that you can find the news from so many different... Well, considering the fact we just broke a... We just broke a... Everything good over there with the audio?

Considering the fact that the I Love Seville Network broke an $11 million deal yesterday. The news of an $11 million deal. People didn't read about that in legacy media. What do you mean? Anyone has a platform and a megaphone now.

Anyone and everyone can create content and news. I mean, take the Reddit, Charlottesville Reddit. So much stuff originates there. There's a lot of... Jerry doesn't like Redditors. I do like Redditors. I do like Redditors. I find the content, it's a place that needs to be sourced now. You've got legacy media reporters

that have no ties to the community, and how could they? They're just hiring 22 and 23-year-olds, paying them no money, and saying, go work and find us stories that are literally posting on Reddit, I'm a reporter for so-and-so media outlet, and I want to interview somebody on this story. As opposed to working sources or a Rolodex

that they have. Yeah. I mean it's we're back to profits over people and we're talking about it in news media, we're talking about we're talking about it in news media. We're talking about it in housing.

I don't really see how there's any surprise that these things are happening. When everything, I mean, you know, before the show, we talked about, well, what do we do about all these people coming in from out of the area and buying up housing? You can't do anything. So we just lie down and take it. you've got one company buying up Cav Crossing wanting to 2x the rent

you've got another company buying up the Villas wanting to renovate and 2x what they can get for selling 2x the rent and then 2x the sales price after they've 2x what they can get for selling. 2x the rent and then 2x the sales price after they've 2x the rent.

And you say that there's a glut in the market of multifamily housing, but when you double the price, do we still have a glut? Or are we just going to have a different version of it where the people that need housing still need housing, but they just can't afford it here? Kevin Yancey says this. The multifamily housing that's being built is student housing because no one living or working in Seville will be able to afford it.

Think about that. Definitely. So what do you do about it? What do you do about it? I mean... Is Eagles Landing next? Right? After these ones, is Eagles Landing next?

I don't know the names of all the places. Eagles Landing is primed for this. But how long before they come in and start buying up one piece after another? The majority of the Woodlands is owned by Aaron Laufer and my friend Trip. Trip Stewart. They're not going to relinquish that position. It's a fantastic position for them. Those are condos to control the association.

Especially when they don't have to do anything and someone else is going to be raising the prices in the area. And there's, you know, this is a different version of rising tide raises all ships, right? If somebody comes in and starts

manipulating the market so all the prices go up, well, as you've said before, it's not my choice. I'm just going along with the market. So everybody starts going along with the market, and does Charlottesville become a place for rich playboys? Because I certainly can't afford the prices now. I'm lucky. I'm blessed to have – You purchased at exactly the right time. Yeah. afford the prices now. I'm lucky. I'm blessed to have – You purchased at exactly the right time.

Yeah. Exactly the right time. Incredibly lucky. Yeah. And it's just a small townhouse. But you are riding – you're home. You're riding the appreciation with your house now. You get the –

What would I do with it though? I mean if you – I certainly can't sell it and move it into something else the alternative is would you rather the alternative and it goes down in value oh i didn't say that i'm just saying it doesn't it's on paper there's a lot of stuff you can do with it you can you could use the equity. You could pull the equity out. You could rent it and then buy something else. The same stuff I did. You just are more risk adverse. There's a lot of stuff. To say what would I do with it is not a... I know, but I'm in the same boat that a lot of people are in, looking around saying, hey, my house is worth a lot more than it was four or five years ago, but if I sell it, where do I move? You don't have to sell it. I know, I know, Jerry.

You never, ever, ever sell that position. I know, I know. Never sell it. All right. You just rent it. You cash flow. That's what you do. All right.

Would you not want to do that? I'm sincerely... I don't know why we're getting into what ifs. You brought it up. You live there seven years. You build equity on it. You rent it for $4,000 to $5,000 a month. You've got a massive delta in what your overhead is because it's fixed,

creates massive revenue every month for you, and you do it again. But never sell it. Fascinating, fascinating, fascinating stuff. Not fascinating in a good or bad way. Just fascinating stuff. Right? I say some of this in a bad way.

I mean, the alternative, though, is we don't have dynamics like this, and we're in a very depressed or demoralized economy. At least it's a strong economy, right? Yeah. Kind of. Why you say kind of? Because it's only a strong economy for a certain group of people? That's why you say kind of?

Because it's only a strong economy for a certain group of people? That's why you're saying it? I didn't necessarily mean it that way, but, I mean, while the economy may be strong, that doesn't rule out the numerous issues. We've just got forward guidance on less rate cuts next year because obviously inflation has been more sticky than they had hoped. We've had, even though inflation has, the rate of inflation has declined. We still have high inflation.

It's not like any of the inflation that we've experienced in the last, it's not like any of the inflation we've ever experienced in the U.S. has been pushed back. It's just a matter of hopefully building a, you know, shoveling a little bit less onto the pile than we were last month. Such is life. Okay. Fascinating story.

Curious of Eagle's Landing. Curious of Barracks West. You drive around Urban Ring, and you focus primarily on the multifamily housing that's close to the University of Virginia. And if it's rental and not owned, you've got to know that folks are kicking the tire. I'll ask you this question. Should government have jumped in and purchased either the villas or cab crossing? Because it's certainly more affordable to buy existing multifamily, the villas and cab crossing than to build from scratch.

This comment comes in. Judah, I hear you on you can't trade in your house for better if you stay local, but the appreciation has created options and leverage for you. You can use it to invest in additional assets, or I advise you as a risk adverse stance to go get a big equity line right now. You have equity and you have a job. Hopefully you'll never need to use the equity line. But go get a ton of free equity for $400 in fees

when you don't need it. That gives you a parachute if dumb Jerry chooses to fire you or if the world stops again. First thing I did in April 2020 was increase my equity line just in case. I've offered him that exact advice, Mr. Rob Neal. The exact advice I've offered him. The advice that I would give him, and the man is family.

We bicker like brothers, but he's worked here 15 years. I consider him family. I sincerely mean that. The advice I've offered is to live there five to, how long? You bought in 2019? Yeah. Live there five to seven years, build a significant equity position, watches the rents go up every year, rent your spot, cash flow off the rents, and do it again. If I was offering advice to any first-time homebuyer out there, some in our family, some in my family, this is the advice I would offer over Christmas as they're looking to pursue a first-time home. I would say this. Ready for this? I would say, buy the most affordable home in the best school district possible. Buy the most affordable and ugliest home

on the nicest street. Most affordable and the nicest home. The most affordable and ugliest home on the nicest street. Buy the most affordable home in the best school district possible. Make sure you purchase something where the rents exceed your mortgage costs.

Buy something where rents, if you need to rent, exceed the mortgage costs from day one. You follow those three rules of advice for a first-time home purchase, you will buy a very wise investment. And then another piece of advice if you're in a hot market like Charlottesville a hot market that's driven by obviously UVA the defense sector, the tourism and hospitality you never ever ever ever ever ever sell the position. Advice that was given to me by my mentor

Bill Nitchman. You know Bill, he's in here all the position. Advice that was given to me by my mentor, Bill Nitchman. You know Bill. He's in here all the time. Literally getting a phone call right here from a commercial developer on my phone. You see it, right? Literally. Yeah. Bill offered the advice, everyone always underestimates the opportunity cost of buying something.

They never remember how difficult it was to buy something, especially that first position where the lenders and the process is so rigorous that it often feels like you're giving a pound of flesh or a firstborn to acquire the house. He says, never underestimate the opportunity cost you spent, you had, you went through of buying your first position. And he also said, in a market like this, you never, ever, ever, ever, ever sell.

You never sell. I said on yesterday's program why a lot of real estate is owned by the same people, like institutional owners. And I should highlight this. There is a massive amount of real estate in the city of Charlottesville that is owned by individuals that are 70 years old and up. Real estate that I'm following very closely. And I follow it very closely because is that real estate that's owned by these folks that are 70 years older and up, is it going to be passed down to their next generation?

Or is that next generation going to say, I don't want the headache of managing it. You sell it. I'd rather take the cash. Even if the cash is at a significant discount than the paper value of the real estate, because taxes are going to have to be paid on those sales. Significant amount of taxes. We're in a time of Charlottesville, in Charlottesville city specifically, where somebody that is like, what's my generation? Am I Gen X? No, I'm a millennial. Millennials and younger.

Millennials and younger have massive opportunity to acquire real estate in Charlottesville City that is in the hands of 12 to 24, and I could rattle them off the names for you, 70 plus year olds. Lou Wig Kutner, obvious example. Alan Kajin, a good example.

Bill Nitschman, good example. Right? This is just off. Joan Fenton's a good example. Just off the top of my head. Joe Geeks, good example. Just off the top of my head right now, what is going to happen with that passing of the torch

and that transition? And how will millennials and younger seize the day? Carpe diem. How will they seize the day? I follow stuff like that extremely closely. Deep Throat says, can you believe the Charlottesville City Council agreed to fund the habitat buying land

with trailers on it for $7 million when they could have had 130 actual units for $11 million at the villas? Now granted, the City Council funding the Carleton Mobile Home Park is the city, and the Ville at Southern Ridge is Alamaro County. But he's making a point. The point is this.

The point is this. What's the cost of construction? I was talking about this with Deep Throat and DM capacity yesterday. The cost to build something, hard cost and soft cost. Back of the napkin, probably 300 bucks a square foot if you want to build multifamily, $300 a square, right? Right around there. Okay. To build something like the villas or cab crossing at today's expense, at today's $300 a square foot, is astronomically expensive.

We were talking about if Jeff Levine wanted to buy, wanted to build that 18 tower where Violent Crown was, you're looking at like $180 to $200 million. Right? What is the Verve? I should ask those people that question when they come on the show. I doubt that they would answer it for me.

What's the cost per square foot? What's the cost to build this 700,000... How many square feet was it? It's in the release they sent us. 729,262 square feet. Verve, Charlottesville will feature 1,332 bedrooms, 463 units with layouts ranging from studios to four-bedroom apartments, two-story fitness and wellness center, outdoor fitness lawn, private study spaces,

a dedicated library, a coffee cafe, a fireside lobby lounge, social and recreational spaces such as a club room, marker space, multi-sport game simulator, pool terrace, pet friendly, dog spa and park. Situated directly next to grounds, Verve Charlottesville offers unmatched proximity to UVA's academic core. In addition to this transformative design, Verve Charlottesville will contribute $6.8 million to the Charlottesville Affordable Housing Fund as part of a project agreement. They reached out to us about coming on the show. Building something like that,

I would love to know how much it costs to build a 729,262 square foot project. I would literally at 100 Stadium Road. I would love to know the cost of that. That's a question for you, Deep Throat. That's a question for the super anonymous person that's sending me DMs on Facebook, who I won't utilize their name. How much do you think that costs them to build? That is out of my purview. That is out of my pay grade right there. I do not know that number. I do know this, that if I had known that the Vills at Southern Ridge, that Bart Fry out of Norfolk wanted to sell 130 some units at the Vills at Southern Ridge for $11 million. I could have,

I could have done a cattle call and raise the money. I let an investor team to do, to buy that. I do know that. And I would have jumped on it in a heartbeat, 90 to a hundred thousand dollars a unit. Yeah. Insane,

insane. The values of, of the units, even during the time of great unpleasantness the real estate recession never never even dropped to that level yeah i saw the unit i paid like a buck 85 for mine when i was in my mid-20s like 24 25 when did i buy it i'd say i bought it at yeah like 24 25 the only thing i could afford i barely could afford it i barely could afford it. I barely could afford it. I had to rent rooms out to help cover the mortgage when I was 24, 25.

Right? Only thing I could afford. Paid like, I think, 185 for it. I saw him during the Great Recession, the real estate bubble, drop to like $1.20. Never $90,000 to $100,000. That's the power of buying in bulk. Effing insane. What a deal.

Deals like this, I find, I get invigorated by it. It sounds cheesy, but I find it invigorating. I like seeing how they structure this. Should the government, should Albemarle County and the city of Charlottesville just be like, instead of buying,

building the crossings, that's the housing for the homeless next to the Wendy's and McDonald's over here? Yeah. Should they be building something from scratch or should they just be buying existing? Should they tell Habitat and PHA, what are you people doing developing

at 250 to 300 a square? Just go buy something instead? No, seriously. I know, I know. It's not a bad thought. Why are they building something from scratch when this stuff is available at a much lower price per square foot?

Like, do you have that? Does anyone have that answer? Do you have that answer? I certainly don't have that answer. Are they sophisticated and nuanced enough to know that? Well, like I said, I think they're largely reactionary. We saw it with the Ravenna deal, and we saw

it with the Carlton trailer park deal. They're reacting to things, but I don't see them looking forward and thinking, hey, we could... I mean, did they even know that the Cav Crossing was going up for sale?

Probably not. Here, I'll try the question from a different way. God, we're clearly not going to get to the UVA valuation story today. I do want to get to the College Inn ghost kitchen concept because I find that fascinating. I'll try it a different day, different way. Did the owners of Cav Crossing and Fry Properties with the Villas, did they go to Albemarle County and say, are you interested in buying this?

That's a good question. Somehow I doubt it. Cav Crossing, a lot of people knew it was for sale. A lot of people knew it was available for purchase. I'm disappointed in myself as someone who makes his living with being on the pulse. That's how we make our living, is being on the pulse of deal flow, right? I'm disappointed in myself

that I did not know about the Villa's opportunity. I'm disappointed in myself that I did not know about the villa's opportunity. I'm disappointed. Especially having a position there. It makes me even more disappointed in myself. That kept me up last night. Anything else? I feel like we're covering this well. I don't have anything. I appreciate the banker from Manhattan who got the conversation going with the Instagram DMs. I love the DMs from the viewers and listeners. And as you can tell, and why I do get this information, I understand the concept of respecting anonymity. Respect being, having discretion. All right. Next topic I want to get to to if you put that lower third on screen do you not find this fascinating as well that the college inn has reincarnated itself

has risen from the dead a la pet cemetery and it's reincarnated itself on a kitchen line at the old biltmore Grill, now Ellie's Country Club on Elliewood Avenue? As someone aptly put it, it really is a ghost. We have a ghost. It's not just a, I mean, yes, it's a ghost kitchen as that term is understood. But it's also a ghost of a lost, ghost of a lost legend on the corner. Deep Throat says the local Habitat is a developer,

not an investor. It's stupid, but it is what it is. If you're in business, people are like, you know, you got the business brokerage that's doing really well. You got this venture fund that's doing well.

You got this real estate company that's doing well. This branding and advertising company that's doing well. This consultation company that's doing well. You're using the same workforce. You're using the same podcasting network

to talk about it to get the deal flow. Content is currency. How do you come up with these concepts to stay relevant? It's because if you're a savvy and sophisticated business owner or entrepreneur or visionary, C-suite, whatever the hell you want to call it, you have to be adaptable. You have to be adaptable. You have to understand the market. In 2000, excuse me, in 2020 and 2021, during COVID and the pandemic, I saw all, I saw clients. I saw clients of ours with the branding and consultation agency. I saw renters of ours with the real estate portfolio taking all these idle loans out.

They're like, I can get these hundreds of thousands of dollars on two, three, 4%. Some were unfortunately taking loans against their house, their equity positions in their house to keep their business surviving. And I knew then, I knew then that it was going to create an incredibly fragile local business ecosystem. And I also knew that the age a lot of the owners in this ecosystem was already nearing retirement. So I'm like, if the prediction is correct, that they're taking on all this debt that eventually is going to come be due, and they're doing it at a time where they're nearing retirement or close to retirement. And they're doing it through a period of our life that is creating a level of frustration and anxiety and

a level of burnt outness that we've never seen before. And it's all happening at a time when people are choosing to reimagine their lives professionally. Remember, what was the movement called during COVID where people were just like refusing to work? What was it called? There was a fancy moniker for it. And then those people realized that they actually needed to work. So they went back to the jobs that they were spitting and urinating on. What was that called? You remember what I'm talking about? Vaguely, yeah. I know there was soft quitting, but... It's like revolting from work or something like that.

Someone monikered it with some kind of sexy moniker. All this stuff was happening at the same time. Of course it made sense to launch a business broker division. A business broker division that you could talk about opportunities and deal flow on a podcasting network that was growing constantly by the day. Right? It's a complementary, vertically integrated division to what you're already doing. Use the branding and advertising division to build the brand and to market it.

Podcasting division to keep it top of mind. Venture fund to help raise the capital for those who want to buy. Commercial real estate to get them into real estate they need. It applies to the habitat. Habitats waving the flag of being a developer. Consider positioning that flag or reimagining that flag

as a flag of an investor. As a flag of an investor where you can bring projects to market faster, not have to take bottom of the ninth inning $7 million loans from the city, keep trailers around for three years before you can actually do something with it, Carlton Mobile Home Park, and spend obscene amounts of money. Or is the concept to keep doing as a developer because that's where the profit center is?

That's a story for another day. Philip Dow says, Judah, take Jerry's advice with your house, please. I think you will. I think you will, right? Rent it out? Five to seven years, and then rent it out. And then do it again.

And then do it again. And then do it again. And then at that point, you'll be on a beach in Vietnam drinking Mai Tais. In Tahiti. You go on Grubhub and you see collagen is an option on Grubhub. 977-2710. The phone number is burned into my brain.

Collagen kept me fed during my time at UVA. Nice. It's operating out of the kitchen at the old Biltmore Grill, now called Ellie's Country Club. Why the owner who purchased the business from Annie McClure chose to rebrand the Biltmore Ellie's Country Club, I will never know. Yeah, I don't either. Changing, rebranding an institution, an icon, makes no sense. And you're trying to pay homage to Ellie Wood Avenue with Ellie. That's beyond the point. What the point is, is whoever has the recipes for College Inn is using the Biltmore kitchen to make food. And then they're using Grubhub and DoorDash

to have that food delivered to you and I. And is it effing genius? Is this effing genius? Is this effing terrifying? Genius would be renaming the Biltmore, the college inn, and just using the kitchen to cook all that food

that they're sending via Grubhub. Is it genius what they're doing? Is it terrifying what they're doing? Is it headwinds for F&B businesses that are sit-down restaurants or quick-serve restaurant? Is this genius, scary, forward-thinking,

or predictive of the demise of what's to come? I don't know why it would be scary. I think if they're, depending on what they're... I mean, is the next... I don't know what their affiliation is to Ellie's Country Kitchen. Is that what it is? Ellie's Country Kitchen? I would imagine this is what the affiliation is. The folks that have the collagen recipes

are paying the owner of Ellie's Country Club, the old Biltmore, to rent their kitchen and giving them money each month. Yeah, obviously. I don't know what their relationship is, but depending on how much they're paying, yeah, it could be genius.

There are enough people, I think, who still remember college in and crave the, I mean... Steak and cheese, the chicken parm sub, the cheesecake, the fries, the onion rings, the salads. I mean, I crave it. I'm going to order it. Is this the future? Is this the future, the ghost kitchen concept?

Limited rent, next to no staff, digital platforms for home delivery? And how far can this go? Are we going to head into a world where when you call Xfinity or you get on the customer service line, you get sent to a phone bank in India or Vietnam? Are we going to head to a world where institutional F&B brands

are going to have their food created by any Tom, Dick, and Harry? At any Tom, Dick, and Harry venue? You've got the recipe. Let me throw this to you here. This is where I'm going with this. What would keep

an institutional food brand, right? And how would government even enforce what I'm about to say? An institutional food brand doesn't even rent kitchen space at Ellywood or Ellie's Kitchen, Ellie's Club, Country Club, whatever the hell it's called, the old Biltmore.

What if they just say, I have five actual houses with just normal kitchen and families? Stay-at-home dad and a stay-at-home mom, whatever it is. And I'll say to stay-at-home mom on Park Street, stay-at-home mom on Cherry Avenue, stay-at-home dad in Belmont, stay-at-home dad in North Downtown, stay-at-home mom in Jefferson Park Avenue. There's my network

of cookers every food here's the recipe book here's the menu here's how you make the stuff we're selling any order that comes through your normal home kitchen I'm gonna give you 15% of the take yeah and you just created a side hustle, a house hack. And then Grubhub's going to come to your place, they're going to pick it up, and they're going to deliver it to somebody. What would prevent an institutional restaurant brand from creating a network of kitchens

in regular people's houses? I know it's against the... Who's the people that enforce it? The health department? I know it's against the health department. I know it's against the health department. But we all know that people are running food businesses out of their houses and then selling

them at farmer's markets or other locations. We all know that's happening. And the health department doesn't have the personnel at the time to enforce it. What would keep a food and enforce it. What would keep any entrepreneur in the food and beverage space from saying, I'm not going to rent a physical location. I'm going to use Grubhub. I'm going to do some branding on social media, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok.

I'm going to put some menus on DoorDash and Grubhub, and I'm going to have five or six houses in the community strategically placed at different spots in the community working out a percentage of each transaction that comes in for a set period of time each night. That's effing crazy. That is an effing business model right there. That is a business model right there. That's why people come to us and pay us $2.95 an hour.

That's a business model right there. That's why people come to us and pay us $2.95 an hour. That's a business model right there. Who had chefs being the next people to start work from home on their 2024 bingo card? That's legitimately, and then the only exposure and risk you have is what? Health department? How's the health department going to enforce it? If the health department enforces it, you just rebrand the brand. Change the names of the Instagram accounts. They still know where you live. They don't know where you live. It's not

you doing the cooking. Oh, you're talking about the owner. Yeah. The person that's going to get popped in that case is the person doing the cooking? Oh, you're talking about the owner. Yeah. The person that's going to get popped in that case is the person doing the cooking, probably. It's not the owner. Okay.

Seriously. Seriously. college in ghost kitchen out of the former Biltmore selling on grub hub recreating the chicken parms the steak and cheese unbelievable it's a crazy time we live in 2024. We just gave you 72 minutes straight of content without stopping. Judah Wickhauer was absolutely on point all week long. We have one more episode of the I Love Seville show in 2024, and that is on Monday at 1230 p.m. Then we are taking off and spending the holidays with our families and returning back to the network

and back to the office on Monday, January 6th. It's going to be a nice respite, nearly two weeks. We will miss connecting with you, the viewer and listener, but we look forward to spending the holidays with our families. Thank you kindly for joining us today. We hope you enjoyed this program. And we encourage you, please, to spread the gospel of the show. That could be you leaving a comment wherever you're watching.

Great show today. Thank you for the show. Subscribing to our YouTube channel. Just search on YouTube, the I Love Seville Network, and click subscribe. Or just let somebody know about what we're doing. I'm grateful for you, the I Love Seville Network, and click subscribe, or just let somebody know about what we're doing. I'm grateful for you, the viewer and listener. I sincerely mean that. Got some serious drama happening outside in the studio right here. All right, guys. So long, everybody. Bye. Thank you.