Episode 3 | Smoke & Strategy

Hello, hello, hello. And this is Sticks and Stones, the podcast where cigar lovers and dealmakers meet. So, what am I smoking today? Well, today I am going to be smoking the Grand Habano Persian King. I'm going to be doing the Punch. I usually do a straight cut, but I figured I'd do something a little bit different today. The straight the straight cut is my go-to, but sometimes we got to we got to change things up a little, do things a little different. This is a great stick. I have talked a lot about this. I've done Instagram reels and all kinds of posts about the Persian King. Um, it's a great stick. It's, you know, a 60 a 60 ring gauge, which, you know, is maybe a little bit on the on the bigger side, uh, for for most of your traditional cigar smokers. It's, you know, right in the sweet spot for me. I I hover between 60 and 70 on the ring gauge size. Going to light this up. I am going to be enjoying this with a cup of black coffee. I'm currently intermittent fasting. I've gone back on the carnivore diet, which if anybody's is older than 35 years old, you'll remember the Atkins diet. RIP Dr. Atkins. But the carnivore is exactly the Atkins diet. It's just rebranded, renamed. I recently lost 30 lbs on that diet and then got off of it for less than a month and I've put 10 lbs back on. So, I am back on the diet. I am intermittent fasting. So, I don't put any sugarfree cream in my coffee until about 11:00 a.m. So, enjoying this wonderful stick and a cup of strong black coffee. Having a great start to the day. So, today's episode is smoke and strategy. Strategy matters. whether you're choosing a cigar or evaluating a real estate deal. And today we'll break down both. So there are different ways to enjoy a cigar. So common pairings, you know, sometimes you're not enjoying a cigar with anything. You know, you're you're just smoking the cigar, which which is perfectly fine. But sometimes, you know, you're enjoying a cigar with a cup of coffee, a glass of whiskey, scotch, bourbon, rye, whatever it may be. Rum. I know a lot of guys that enjoy their rum with a cigar. Kgnac, there are some sipping tequilas that pair great. There are some sipping tequilas that pair great with a cigar. So, you know, it all depends on your preference. And it all depends on your mood. It all depends on what's going on at that moment in time because I have all kinds of favorites. I enjoy my cigars with coffee all the time. I will have, you know, an oldfashioned, although old fashions have a ton of sugar and right now I'm not doing sugar. But if anybody could figure out how to do a sugar-free old-fashioned, let me know without it tasting like, you know, complete crap, cuz I don't think a Splenda or any kind of a derivative of of a sugar-free sweetener would taste great. However, old-fashions, wonderful glass of scotch. I had one last night with my cigar. you know, just anything of what you're feeling. Rum, plum wine or a port wine. I had a I had a a stint where almost every night I had a glass or two of port wine with a cigar. So, it all depends on your pallet. It all depends on your taste. It all depends on how you're feeling at that time. This is your world, guys. This is your prerogative. There are no rights and wrongs. There's no rule book. You do with your stuff how you feel. If you want to smoke a cigar with an iced tea or Red Bull or whatever, that is completely up to you. That's your prerogative. It's, you know, it's your it's your world. We're just a squirrel trying to get a nut. Now, I will say that this Persian king is giving me a hard time on the draw, which is very unusual. I don't have many duds in this in this stick. It's also why I usually buy a box. And in this in this brand, this particular cigar, a box is is 50 sticks. All right. So, strategy in commercial real estate, evaluating deals. There are a lot of ways to look at deals. You can look at the numbers. You can look at the location, the risk factors. I recommend evaluating all of those factors, all those matrix. There is an important there is an importance to discipline, you know, not to not to infringe on any copyrights or anything like that. You got to know when to hold them and know when to you know what when you're doing when you're doing a real estate deal, you know, I I can't say this for cigars because it is very personal. It's not an impersonal thing, but when you're talking real estate deals, you are not, you should not be married to anything. And I would, in my personal opinion, I would also include any of your residences, whether that be primary, whether that be a beach house, a vacation home, whatever. You should not be married to anything. You should be able to walk away from any property or any deal for that matter. So I believe that everything has a price and that may not be financial either, but everything everyone has a price on an asset. So you have to know when to walk away from a deal. I get that you may be have some intrinsic value. You may really want a property. You really want this deal because it's in a specific town. It's around the corner from your house. There could be a million reasons why. However, you have to know when to walk away from a deal. You know, I can think of there's so many there's so many instances on where people that I knew should have walked away and I advised to walk away did not walk away and they probably should have. One in particular, somebody that was an astute and this is this is not this is not for just firsttime investors in commercial real estate. This is not for the quote unquote rookie investor or novice investor. This is for anybody. Everybody has to self- evvaluate and constantly look at readjust your motives, your goals, your incentives because you can get involved in something and your ego might make you sign a check that your butt can't cash. There's a lot of things that that can go into a deal. For instance, this one particular instance that I'm thinking of, this this example that I'm thinking of, an investor that owned properties, not that this person was new to real estate investment, new to commercial real estate, never got into a particular asset class, would always hover around, you know, asset classes that he was comfortable with. Got involved with a different asset class because it was a quote unquote good deal. And it was a good deal for someone who knew how to run that asset class, someone who could manage a building of that nature, for someone familiar with that type of asset. It was a phenomenal deal. But this person had never maintained, run, managed a building of that nature. And it wasn't 2 years later the bank foreclosed on that property. you know, just poor management of resources, poor management of tenants, poor vetting, undermarket rents, you know, things of that nature, and the bank foreclosed on the property. So, you have to know when to walk away from a deal, no matter how bad you want that deal. And for whatever reason, when you set your systems up and you set the matrix, you set all of your deal particulars. If this all lines up, I'm going to go ahead with this deal. When you let your heart take over and drive the boat, that's when things start to go south because you have to have this property because you love where it's located or you love the color or you had some sort of sentimental attachment to the building, to the area, to the town. That's when things start to go sideways really quickly. So, don't have an attachment. have your guard rails in place before you get involved in a deal. And once the deal goes outside those guardrails, ditch, you need to pull the rip cord 100%. Or you're going to be in big trouble. So if we draw a comparison to cigar profiles and real estate deals, like let's do that, right? You've got full body cigars, you know, you've got something like the old school Johnny Tobaconaut. That was a that was a really full body cigar. The Padron Family Reserve 1926. Do not smoke that cigar on an empty stomach. That is a fullbody cigar. I would compare that with a high-risk highreward deal. You know, you're taking you're taking a risk smoking one of those cigars on an empty stomach. When you get into a risky deal, it's it's high risk, but it's also high reward. If you turn that around for a profit, it's going to be a high profit. Then you have mild cigars. Then you have like your your standard Ashton. You have the Purdomo Champagne. Those are steady. Those are safe. Those are cash flow deals. You know that that it's not risky. You don't have a huge value ad, but you've got a cash flowing deal. Then you've got something mediumbod like the Grand Habano Persian King where it's got good body, good flavor, it's a good balance. That would be in my opinion a good balanced opportunity. So you have a little bit of value ad. You have a little bit of cash flow and you have a little bit of risk. There's there's a way that you could make a ton of money. There's some value add there. You know, you could build onto the building. Um you can you've got some tenants that are about to vacate and now you can do a little rena and charge more rent. So, you've got a little bit of a value ad there and you've got that steady cash flow. You've got those tenants that just signed up for 5 10 years and you're going to be solid with the cash flow for a good bit because they're good, strong tenants. I think there are strong parallels in commercial real estate in the cigar world. Obviously, it's the whole purpose of this podcast. So, this is where I'm going to turn over to any and all listeners that we have. I pose a question. What is your go-to pairing with a cigar? I want to know what you're smoking and what you're drinking with that. Even I'll even go as far as I know some people that they prepare a specific meal or they're they will go out to a specific restaurant with a specific dish in mind before or after they're going to smoke. If you've got if you're that type of person, I want to know. I also encourage anyone who listens to this to constantly shout out, you know, your favorite cigars. Anything that you think is worth a try. I'll try anything. I am a to the core hardcore cigar fan. So, now we come to a section called the cigar spotlight where we talk about boutique or or under the radar sticks. I don't know if you would call this I know it's not it's not under the radar. I know they're very boutiquey and my only my only beef with this brand is that they only roll cigars that are like maximum 52 ring gauge and that's warped cigars. The first warped cigar that I tasted was the Comeda. Fantastic. Then they've got the I mean and the names that they pick are awesome. Uh Cloud Hopper is another one of theirs and everything they do is great. Everything that they that they roll is fantastic. My only my is that they don't they don't roll anything a little bit bigger on the ring gauge. I would say their price point is kind of median like right in the middle there. You know, you have their cigars that are, you know, between 10 and 15 bucks, which is not bargain basement for sure, but there are others that, you know, are are way more than that that aren't as good. So, I would say my boutique pick for this cigar spotlight would be Warped Cigars. I would check it out. I would visit their website and see who the nearest retailer is to you. I would definitely check it out. Now, the CRA spotlight for market or sector. One thing that I would share is, and this may be beyond the popular opinion, this is only my specific opinion. I think that office is going to make a comeback. I think that the office market is going to rebound and for a lot of reasons and one of the main reasons is I think a lot of companies are going to be calling people back to the office now agreed a lot of people I got to relight this thing this is this is not like this cigar but true to form I don't hold back everything I do is real talk I am going to tell you when something is good when something's bad indifferent you know the good bad the ugly I'm going to give it to you straight dope getting back to the commercial real estate spotlight. I think that I don't know, you know, cuz no one has a crystal ball, but I don't know if Office will get back to preandemic leasing and or sales prices. However, I know that Office is going to rebound and it's going to be a lot higher than what it is now. I think that companies making people come back to the office is going to have a big part of that. Sure, a lot of people are going to quit their jobs because they're so used to telecommuting and being remote. There are places for that. There are industries for that and companies that welcome that. There are a lot of reasons to come back to the office. I think that office is going to make a rebound. I think that there's going to be a slight variation to the office market, but if it were me betting on a solid market, it would be the office market. that would be something that I would put my money on. Again, and and I broker all asset classes of commercial real estate, whether that be land, multifamily, investment properties, retail, office, warehouse, industrial, manufacturing spaces. I do it all. But for the short term, I would say within the next two to 3 years, I think office is going to make a big move. So, you know, that's my own personal opinion. It's from what I'm seeing in the marketplace. You know, what I'm reading in the ether, you know, there's just a lot of movement going on in a lot of different situations in office. Even if it's not huge expansions or huge moves in the in the office world, you know, you've got you've got headlines like Google is renewing leases on smaller office space. You've got companies taking complete floors and office buildings. You've got developers that are putting huge facilities up and mixed use. And when you when you think mixed use, you're thinking what comes to mind to a lot of people is living space and retail space. You've got people that are developers that are now putting big office parks, plans together to to build an office park that includes living space, it includes restaurant space, it includes retail space. Those are not coming to fruition because office space is going to be dying. People are putting together these complexes because it gives you the best of all worlds. You know, when when retail is struggling a little, you got the office. When office is struggling a little, you've got the hospitality, the restaurant side. when maybe all of that is is having a little bit of a struggle. You've got the living space, you've got the living units, the apartments or the town houses, the condos, whatever is being built. People have to live somewhere. They're going to pay their rent. When they may not have the money to pay that month's office rent, they're going to pay their apartment. You know, they people have got to live somewhere and they've got to eat. So, I think developers are being more diverse in what what they're putting up, and I think that's good for the real estate market in general, but if I were to put my money on it, I would say it's definitely going to be office is going to be a big mover. So, you've heard it here, you know, quote me on that. So, I would say that's about it for for this episode. We talked about strategies and cigars and deals. Key takeaways is it's it's all about you. what you're feeling and what your risk tolerance is. Have a plan in place. Have your incentives, your motives, your goals, and stick to it. Don't be afraid to walk away from a deal. Next episode, episode 4 is going to be legends, lessons, and next episode, episode 4 is going to be legends, lessons, and lighters. So stay tuned for that. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for everyone sticking in and watching this podcast or listening to this podcast. Again, I say it every single episode and I I hold me to this. This will ring true. This podcast is only going to get bigger and better in the future. So, I am signing off. This is Sticks and Stones. Let's keep rolling.