Adam Gilbert  0:00  

Entitlements can mean a number of things. But specifically, it’s getting approvals from a city or a county or some municipality to do some form of real estate deal or development. And so that can be taking raw land and saying, hey, I want to build eight homes on it, that can be doing, you know, buying a building and then changing the zoning to allow for a different use that increases the value of the building. That can be you know, one product I’m getting a drive thru approved on a vacant piece of land that’s already in a shopping center surrounded by other businesses. So you know, if the land is worth, you know, we’ll make it easy 500,000 and then I can get these plans approved to the city to do a drive thru. Well, now I can maybe sell that piece of land for a million dollars, even though I’ve only invested some time at about $100,000 and architectural fees. So you really have the capacity if you can figure it out. To do these 5x and 10x type deals with minimal, you know, capital, but it is a bit on the riskier side.

Announcer  1:07  

Welcome to CRE PN Radio for influential commercial real estate professionals who work with investors, buyers and sellers of commercial real estate coast to coast whether you’re an investor, broker, lender, property manager, attorney or accountant We are here to learn from experts.

J Darrin Gross  1:26  

Welcome to Commercial Real Estate Pro Network’s, CRE PN Radio. Thanks for joining us. My name is J. Darrin Gross. This is a podcast focused on commercial real estate investment and risk management strategies. Weekly we have conversations with commercial real estate investors and professionals who provide their experience and insight to help you grow your real estate portfolio. Today, my guest is Adam Gilbert. Adam is the president of the firm commercial, where he leads a team of agents specializing in commercial real estate sales, leasing, land acquisition, development, government relations and value add entitlement deals. And in just a minute, we’re gonna speak with Adam about value add entitlement deals. But first, a quick reminder, if you like our show, CR e pn radio, there are a couple things you can do to help. You can like, share and subscribe. And as always, we encourage you to leave a comment. We’d love to hear from our listeners. Also, if you want to see how handsome our guests are, and be sure to check out our YouTube channel. You can find us on youtube at commercial real estate pro network. And while you’re there, please subscribe. With that I want to welcome my guest, Adam, welcome to CRE PN Radio.

Adam Gilbert  2:46  

Thank you. I’m happy to be here and excited to have a chat today.

J Darrin Gross  2:50  

Well, I’m looking forward to it. That makes two of us I guess now, the before we get started here if you could take just a minute and share with the listeners a little bit about your background.

Adam Gilbert  3:02  

Yeah, definitely. So most of the deals that I do are in Palm Springs, California area, big hospitality area, Midwest endeavor hospitality, hotels and vacations. So I was born and raised here and went to school, I actually became an attorney. And I moved back to Palm Springs to practice law and found this little thing called real estate and real estate investing, which kept driving me away from the law office and out onto the streets looking at buildings and doing deals. So about I guess it’s about six years ago now I left practicing law full time, I started a real estate brokerage. I started a vacation rental management company doing Airbnb, which I sold and now I both run the brokerage helping people find commercial deals and do a lot of investments myself.

J Darrin Gross  3:51  

Awesome. Awesome. So you were on the as far as the attorney work, were you doing courtroom stuff or corporate document or what what kind of?

Adam Gilbert  4:01  

Yeah, mostly, I mostly did civil litigation. So I would get the file and then go to the courtroom and you know, do my argument or be negotiating on the phone. So paperwork and stuff was never my forte, but getting down in the details and doing transactional stuff. I’m much more of a talker and get things done that way.

J Darrin Gross  4:21  

Gotcha. Gotcha. Well, the attorney thing, it’s kind of the you got to have them but it’s always kind of how the sausage is made kind of thing. And I always say I’m a recovering attorney. So there you go. So real estate, sounds like you were doing some investing in some air b&b. And he had the brokerage and and tell me a little bit about how you got started in real estate.

Adam Gilbert  4:48  

Yeah, definitely. So I have, you know, ADHD to the nth degree in terms of starting businesses and getting involved in different endeavors, which I think was why Real Estate Investment is so great for me because I can do a few different projects at any given time and move on. But I was practicing law, I sat down for my broker’s license, and I did a deal is like 2012, the market was, you know, just coming out of the pits of 2008. And my uncle wanted to, he wanted to do a flip property. And so he’s like, hey, Adam, like, write it up, you know, you just got your broker’s license. And so I did, it took like, 10 hours, we found the property, I wrote it up, and I get this commission check. That’s like, 25% of my yearly pay as an attorney. And I’m just like, Whoa, there’s like something to this like, thing if I could figure it out. And so that’s kind of where the spark was born. And, you know, I can’t rely on my family to buy all the properties that to keep a career guy. So I had to, you know, hang a shingle create a company. And you know, I’ve been doing this now for about 10 years. And so I’ve been able to kind of mark my way on the brokerage side. And then as I learned from other people getting paid to do brokerage, what type of deals they were looking at, and where they can make money. I got a great education marketing paid, and it gave me the opportunity to start doing deals myself.

J Darrin Gross  6:19  

Awesome. And, and so you started off though, kind of like in real estate doing the the brokerage side of things? Yeah. And then started investing yourself.

Adam Gilbert  6:28  

Yeah, I mean, I started off, you know, at the beginning, you start off kind of where everyone does, you know, you’ll take any, any, any client that will work with you. So it started off in single family, residential, you know, kind of entry level homes, condos, things like that. And then, quickly, you know, I was able to kind of move into larger scale luxury vacation homes, and then moved into commercial where there’s just very few people, especially in our market, you know, if there’s 5000, residential realtors, there’s like 20, commercial realtors who are doing things, so I’m like, okay, like, if I’m going to do something, I should go into that space. And, you know, just kind of really fell in love with the deal making aspect and kind of all of the, you know, seller carry notes, and, you know, all these different ways to really make commercial deals work. And then I really found value out of title mints, which I know we want to we want to talk about, and that’s where I’ve really carved my niche as one of the very few people who are, you know, kind of doing these types of deals.

J Darrin Gross  7:29  

Gotcha. So, let’s talk about the value add entitlement deals. Can you give us some sort of a definition or give us an example of what a value add entitlement is?

Adam Gilbert  7:45  

Yeah, so you know, entitlements can mean a number of things. But specifically, it’s getting approvals from a city or a county or some municipality to do some form of real estate deal or development. And so that can be taking raw land and saying, hey, I want to build eight homes on it, that can be doing, you know, buying a building and then changing the zoning to allow for a different use, that increases the value of the building. That can be you know, one product, I’m getting a drive thru approved on a vacant piece of land that’s already in a shopping center surrounded by other businesses. So you know, if the land is worth, you know, we’ll make it easy 500,000. And then I can get these plans approved to the city to do a drive thru. Well, now I can maybe sell that piece of land for a million dollars, even though I’ve only invested some time at about $100,000 and architectural fees. So you really have the capacity, if you can figure it out, to do these 5x and 10x type deals with minimal, you know, capital, but it is a bit on the riskier side.

J Darrin Gross  8:55  

Got it. So the the raw land and its use, and the drive thru as a as a, an option. Do you find that most of the the value add entitlement work you do is with raw land? Or is it common to have an existing built out structure? And the the use just be changed from you know, a to b?

Adam Gilbert  9:22  

Yeah, I would say when, when talking about entitlement. I think most people default to raw land on that’s how most people think about it. I’ve really got I’ve now in the process of doing my third zone change. And so that’s kind of a little niche, even with the entitlements that I’ve kind of carved out to be able to try to achieve. And you know, every person, whatever town you’re in, you’ve got that piece of land or that building and you’re just like, why hasn’t anyone done anything with that? Or what why is it sitting vacant, right? And so for me that sparks some creativity is like okay, well probably doesn’t work how it is. But if we can change the use and allow something else there, maybe there could be some value that’s created. And so, you know, if you can buy it when it’s not approved for that, and then sell it what it is, there’s the opportunity to create the value add of the entitlement, you know?

J Darrin Gross  10:19  

Yeah. So if there is that property that you identify, and and it’s just been sitting there, and the question comes up, why has nobody done something? Where that property? Is you and your own creative mindset that kind of thinks of what the alternatives are? Or do you go to the city and find out what, you know, what the limitations are? And is like, based on what neighboring properties are zoned, or their use? Or how do you how do you approach assuming you can’t go to the middle of a suburban block and in change it to a, you know, some sort of a, you know, way outside of the zoning news, but more of like a corner lot, or something’s on like a busy street or something like that is more of a target for something like this?

Adam Gilbert  11:10  

Definitely. And so the answer is all of the above, it really hot, you have to one know what the community needs to you have to make sure that the use you’re changing it to is not going to be a nuisance to the area, it should actually be an improvement, you should be able to get your you know, if you’re trying to change to do his own change that people I mean, people complain about all sorts of things, but is a negative impact on the community to make money, you’re not going to be successful, because they’re going to go to their city council, and they’re going to go to all the levels, and they’re going to complain, and your projects going to get shut down. And then three, you know, yeah, you got to go to the city, you got to make sure it complies with different parts of the of the specific or general plan, you have to make sure that there’s no environmental impacts. I mean, I’m in California, and it’s, you know, we have a very high barrier, you know, in terms of making sure that we don’t have environmental impacts. So you got to be very careful. But you really have to check all of those boxes, and make sure that it’s a project that fits the community and the area.

J Darrin Gross  12:15  

So in each one of these scenarios, where you you know, you have a piece of property that’s zoned in a historical way that’s kind of limited its use, nobody’s using it or doesn’t recognize the opportunities, because it’s not available right now. Is there like one, you know, governing body that you have to approach? Or is it a series of bodies that you have to get the checkoff approval and, and go through a sequence? Or is it every property is different? Can you talk a little bit about that?

Adam Gilbert  12:50  

Yeah, so each city is going to have their own process. And you’d be surprised if you go to the planning desk of your city, they’re going to be very knowledgeable about this process and what it takes in that very city. Typically, what you would do is, you know, there’s applications to do different things. And if you find out what you’re going to need from your architect and engineer to do this, but most cities have, you know, like an architectural Review Board, which is the first step. And then secondly, a planning commission, which is volunteer people who, you know, review planning projects. And then finally, for like a zone change, you’re going to have to go in front of your city council and Mayor. And, and get those approvals. Now, sometimes, like in my particular jurisdiction, we have tribal lands, here, Native American tribal lands. And so we actually have to get our projects signed off and approved by the statewide tribal authority before we can do them. And sometimes they’ll, you know, ask for certain things. I have one project right now, that’s very close to the airport. And so I had to go through the airport land use commission. So every project is different, every city is unique. But those are the typical steps that you’ll have to go through for most entitlement deals. And sometimes, you know, Planning Commission is the end all you don’t have to go to city council. So it really just depends on the project and the municipality.

J Darrin Gross  14:16  

Got it. Now, and you mentioned, you know, the public you know, always has, I guess the opportunity to voice their opinion for usage. Jeannette, do you find that if you are working within the system and and approach to kind of moving through the system into a, and you’re getting greenlights from everybody that public usually goes along, or do you find it that it is or is there something you found that’s like, you know, good luck with that the public?

Adam Gilbert  14:52  

Yeah, the public is always the public. So I mean, I mean, you can find the best projects in the world and you’ll find people who will complain about it. You know, and that’s across the board. You know what I tried to do on all my projects, especially, you know, in Palm Springs, it’s very community driven. And we have a large neighborhood, active neighborhood organization groups. And so I, before I did my project, my most recent project, I went to the neighborhood during their, their annual meeting, and I said, Hey, this is the project that I’m proposing, I want to get your guys’s feedback, what are some issues that you’re having? Are you having negative impacts that I can address through my project? And they’re like, Yeah, actually, we have all these trucks coming from ups that blow through our neighborhood early in the morning, every day. And I’m like, Okay, well, maybe I can propose some speed bumps, or some speed humps, or you know, something along those line lines in my project that will alleviate that. And so you know, as a developer, you have the opportunity to solve problems, you can create a lot of problems, too. And so, you know, you have to be aware that, you know, you have an impact in the community, and you’re coming into someone’s existing home or business or, you know, commercial area, and having an impact. So, you know, you can try to kind of sneak through, and a lot of people do that. But it really depends on the community that you’re in. And that’s going to be in the developers discretion as to how they want to pursue it.

J Darrin Gross  16:20  

Yeah, I had a little bit of experience with that. And you get a angry mob, and it’s tough to tough to beat on me. Oh, yeah. Yeah. So you identify a property, you kind of you get your creative thinking hat on you, you approach the different bodies that kind of regulate the decision making you get some direction. What What have you found kind of a timeframe. I mean, this is, this is not like, you go down on a, you know, a Thursday and Monday, you’ve got a permit and you’re ready to, to pray or you can sell the property, you kind of say, What, is there any kind of a rule of thumb, do you just kind of like in your head, kind of assume that it’s going to take X amount of time to get something done?

Adam Gilbert  17:13  

Definitely. And you know, the old real estate agit adage, it always takes twice as long and costs cost twice as much as you originally expect. It’s kind of the same here. So I mean, if you’re not doing his own change, and you really just want to like get some you say, Hey, this is a great piece of residential land, residential, Real Estate’s going through the roof right now, let’s get some new homes approved. And again, this is California, I’ve heard that there’s other states that are way easier on this. So this is probably the hardest, except for maybe like Hawaii, which I know has their own process. It’s usually about six to nine months, if you’re on top of it to get products like that approved, if you’re trying to do something a little extra, like a zone change, anticipate about 12 to 18 months. But the way that I structure my deals to give me the most flexibility and hold by cash and not get too tied down to a deal is that I structure my purchase to have very long escrows to allow me to do these entitlements, or do an option that gives you a long enough amount of time to be able to exercise that option once you get those entitlements approved.

J Darrin Gross  18:22  

Got it? No, I was going to ask you about that as far as the time goes, and how you structure the deal, because I’m assuming that when you identify a property, and you need to gain control of it, so that somebody else doesn’t figure it out, or you know, figure out that you’re doing all this work and jump ahead of you and tie up the property. So step one to be gained control of the property is that

Adam Gilbert  18:48  

is that kind of the definitely and making sure that you, you have options to extend as much as you can? You know, because the last thing that you want to do is to all these entitlements to a project, your time runs out, and you can’t sell it or you can’t do anything with it, and you can’t close on it. And now all these entitlements go to the property holder and the owner, right? So timing is always, you know, people talk about location, location, location. My business is timing, timing, timing, and making sure you have enough time. And one of my first deal we actually had, I’d say the fair market value was probably around 3 million, but we sold it at 2.6. Because we needed to close it within 30 days. And so that was a timing issue because we didn’t want to do all this work, spend all this money and get no return. So flexibility is key.

J Darrin Gross  19:44  

And is that pretty common with land deals as far as just kind of the understanding of the way the deal works is that you’ve got somebody and the seller I’m assuming there’s some sort of compensation money he goes hard and or whatever, as far as When you write up a deal that there’s a fee that you’re putting down, and then the option fees, and do those options then apply to the purchase if you execute, or can you talk a little bit, then

Adam Gilbert  20:13  

Yeah, 100%. So typically, I’ll have a 60 to 90 day initial due diligence period, at which point, depending on the size of the deal, you know, 20, or $30,000, will go hard. From there, I’ll have maybe another six months after that, to kind of do some more due diligence, at which point, I would have to put in another 20 or 30,000, to get another three months. So that there gets you your year, essentially. And but all of those become non refundable, but applicable to the purchase price. So that if you do close that, you know, the those count towards it. But you know, most of the time, with land, it’s just sitting there anyway, so the owner has really not many expenses. And if you give them their price, they’re willing to give you terms if you’re, you know, if you’re trying to come in and lowball them, they’re gonna want you to close really quick. Same thing with a building, you know, when I did the zone change on on that the building that was referring to the 15,000 square foot warehouse, he had it on the market, it was overpriced. And so it wasn’t doing anything, but I gave him his price, but I got my terms, and I got my time to be able to do it, so that I was able to create that additional value.

J Darrin Gross  21:24  

Now, this whole kind of entitlement deal thing just makes me think about how many times and I’ve seen something, you know, and that God that, like you see a property, there’s a structure, and there’s a big lot that’s vacant, you know, I’m thinking like God, if you cut that off and sell that, and do this and do that, and and i’m assuming there’s some entitlements, most the time that haven’t been figured out, that’s why there’s no movement, or there’s, I don’t know, maybe there’s just not enough demand or whatever. But it seems to me like a lot of fun, but also probably kind of test your patience just on the on the time it takes to make a deal as opposed to like your first deal with 10 hours of work and a big paycheck kind of thing in it.

Adam Gilbert  22:09  

Yeah, it’s, it’s, I describe it as Hurry up and slow down, right. So you’ll have like something and you know, you’ll have this hearing coming up, and you’re working 10 to 20 hours, you know, on that week, getting everything ready. And then you don’t do anything for three months, right as it’s like going through the process. And so it’s a lot like that. And these deals allow me to do them on the side of my, you know, regular business, which is the the brokerage that pays the bills and keeps it going and funds, essentially some of these investment deals. And so, but yeah, exactly to your point, you know, people, there’s always things that can be done, but people either don’t have the imagination, the time, the money or the patience to do it. So if you see that raw piece of land with a defunct building on it, but you’re like, man, I could put a drive thru on that corner and then build a strip center around it, you don’t have to actually build it, if you just get it approved, you know, and you get that like drive thru pad approved, you sell that to a developer who does Carl’s juniors, or Wiener schnitzels, or Starbucks or whatever it is. And if you think about it, and you know, it’s like, Okay, well I paid a million for this land. Well, now I just sold that pad to Starbucks for a million dollars. And though everything else that I’m going to do on it is now gravy. And so that’s how I think about it and not every deal works that way. But you can really create a lot of value if you can think outside the box and then do the work that you know the guy who’s developing Starbucks he’s doesn’t want to learn every city council and what they want and to go through all the meetings he wants to develop Starbucks so if you could become an expert in your jurisdiction of what you’re doing there’s going to be a lot of opportunity for you to create those relationships over time

J Darrin Gross  23:57  

No, that’s that’s a good good insight there do you with a knowledge and local knowledge does it help you then kind of look out in the in the community to see where like a path of progress is or identify you know, if there’s a one a new expressway or the one to create a certain zone or whatever it’s give you kind of insight as to you know, if you hunt down that area you find something that’s good this could work or or is it more in your real estate? Business a your you’re familiar with the area and then as you hear these ideas from the I guess the knows a planning commission or whatever, they want to change some zoning stuff that or I guess I don’t know, it makes sense but he is or his or one that leaves the other or like, Is it the the the planning commission that leads or is it just your basic knowledge of the real estate that leads or is it kind of a combination of the both, you know,

Adam Gilbert  24:56  

it really is a combination of the of the both, you know, you have to think Long Term about things and not where things are today. But where will they be three to five years from now. And so if you find out that, you know, we’re having an arena built in our in our jurisdiction for a minor league ice hockey team, right, so Okay, well, they’re building an arena. Well, now that’s underserved for fast food in that area, right. And so when, if you pay attention to things that are coming in, you know, once they build they’re in, it’s too late, you know, but if you can keep your eye to the local newspaper, you’d be amazed how many people don’t follow the local city council meetings, you know, I’m not saying that you have to, you know, sit there and watch them because they’re exceedingly long and, you know, boring unless your particular project is on there. But getting a quick update about what the decisions are, or even just looking at the agenda, Oh, wow. Like, you know, this developer is trying to get a chick fil a approved, they’re like, Okay, then I’m going to take a look what’s going on around there are there any lots that I can identify that, you know, I can now try to tie up and, you know, so doing a lot of that work, and just thinking ahead, and being proactive, instead of reactionary, is gonna lead to, you know, in my experience, a lot of success.

J Darrin Gross  26:12  

I love it, the just kind of really thinking outside of the box. And I think also, there’s got to be a discipline of time, and just kind of, I don’t think that most people have that sense of time. Yet, or the willingness to wait for something like that, for the payoff, it seems more like I mean, you know, if you’re, if you’re talking, you know, flipping, they’re looking for a payout, you know, right away, or even just as a real estate broker or list sell, you know, get paid kind of thing. But more of kind of that, that long term, in, you know, what we’ve talked about, so far, as you’re not even doing the work, you’re just getting it all, you know, greenlighted so that the work can be done and making the sale. And then there’s the whole nother level of, of getting the permits and doing the work and all that. So I mean, if you had an idea for a party, you know, you tie up a property, you go through your year long process to get it to the point where it can be approved, then whoever buys that property has another permitting process. So you could be an in construction process, you could be literally two to three years from your idea to the actual product that’s, you know, the public is able to see and use and go visit is that pretty terrible,

Adam Gilbert  27:31  

Very easily. And that’s why if you can do that first step of getting that pad approved, it makes the, you know, the tension for whoever wants to develop that pad in the future. So much easier. So it’s not a three year process. for them. It’s now a one year process, like Oh, the pad is approved, we’ve got it, now I just need to build my, you know, Etch A Sketch model of it looks the same, and I pop it here in each different place. And you can even get to the point, you know, I can’t even screw in a light bulb, but you can be that you can develop it yourself, you know, be a contractor or team up with a contractor and build it out and lease it out. There’s lots of developers who go the Full Monty, but I really tried to specialize on the, on the first part of the equation. That’s that’s what I like to do.

J Darrin Gross  28:19  

Yeah, that’s interesting, as you mentioned, that being the first part, or being you know, near the first part kind of thing is really where the opportunity lies. I know, years ago in college, I remember I was working for a landscaping crew and we were out in these new developments. And I remember that, at every exit ramp off the freeway, the first thing that would go in was like a quick trip or some sort of a, you know, convenience store with Yeah, that was that was the landmark that said there was you know, progress was coming. And, you know, I guess if you would have you know, bought on the other side of the street or you know, put another gas station in or I guess this is you know, it fills in there but just kind of one of those cues, I guess for you know, progress and, and how to recognize them and be you know, something to learn and recognize them and find so

Adam Gilbert  29:13  

That’s definitely any and each city or each jurisdiction is going to have their own cues. You know, I know as soon as a chick fil a comes into certain place, you know, like everything blows up around it or in and out is what we have it’s like you get an in and out like boom, your property values all around it up because didn’t know is going to drive the traffic. So if you follow it say hey, look, you know, they’re proposing this or this is coming. You know, you can you can predict the future.

J Darrin Gross  29:43  

Yeah, well, it is, you know, it’s a different lens to look through. I think that you know, most people are, you know, when I think of investing in more of a ready, built property, not something that’s ground up for construction or With it, it’s more of kind of a the the surrounding area, kind of the demographics, the ability for people to pay, you know, what, what’s there that’s going to attract somebody to the property and make it make it valuable? And then if you have the opportunity increase rents, or, I mean, typically, when I think of, or when I talk with people about value add, it’s more about how can you reposition the property, from a physical standpoint, or even operational management standpoint, you know, if the sellers kind of tired, and it hasn’t really been keeping up with, you know, the market, or if the property is tired, and it needs to refresh, those are typically the things that I hear from people that are doing, quote, value add, you know, investment strategies, but what I love about yours is it’s, it’s, it’s basically just how, you know, how far can you think outside the box. Now, it does sound like there’s a fair amount of capital you have to have available to, you know, tie up the property. And then exit exercise a number of extensions, if needed, in order to get it. And, like, I’m assuming, you know, either know, somebody like you or be willing to walk through all the steps to get it to the finish line, so that you then can, you know, have that potential sale or so many in that, there’s also the need to have some further conversation with potential investors, buyers, developers that would want to develop a property like that. So it sounds like it’s I mean, there’s, there’s a lot of hats you’re wearing there. And but it’s kind of cool, I like the kind of the way your, your, you know, what you what you go through to get the property to the next stage.

Adam Gilbert  31:47  

Definitely, and I know, you always discuss the factor of risk, you know, on your show, and in any given deal. And just to point out like, this is an ancillary part of my business, because the amount of capital that you have to put in, as you mentioned, with the non refundable deposits, with the architect, with the engineers with the city fees, if you are unsuccessful, and getting your entitlement or your zone change, that all goes away, and you have no tangible asset left, because all you had was an escrow or an option. And so this type of work is on the riskier side.

J Darrin Gross  32:25  

Right, right. So let me ask you, the question that I do ask people is, what is the BIGGEST RISK? Is that what you? Would you? You would, you know, your BIGGEST RISK would be just that?

Adam Gilbert  32:40  

Yeah, I mean, yeah, this is probably on the riskier side of the type of investment deals that I do. So I mean, I have a shopping center that I’m doing a value add facade enhancement on, you know, that’s a tangible asset, these entitlement deals, I would say they’re on the risk there, they are probably the biggest risk in terms of deals that I do. Because again, if I’m unsuccessful in getting the entitlements, I’ve now just pissed away all my money for something that I was able to create no value on. But the if I am successful, then the returns are high enough, you know, 5x 10x, to justify that risk. And, you know, what I equated to is off playing poker, you know, I try to do as much due diligence as I can. And if I’m holding two kings, if I’m holding a great hand, I can still lose, you know, but I’m taking a calculated risk. And knowing that I’m willing to make a bet, because I’ve, I think that this is where this particular property and this project needs to go.

J Darrin Gross  33:45  

No, that’s cool. That’s cool. I like that. In your line of work, when you mentioned, like, there’s 5000, residential, real estate agents in the area, and like 20, you know, commercial, or some sort of ratio like that. Yeah. Do you find that there’s even fewer that work in the entitlement place? I mean, I’m assuming not all of those commercial brokers work in the entitlement

Adam Gilbert  34:15  

era. Yeah, very few. I’m always surprised how few commercial brokers actually even own commercial real estate. I’m like, come on, man. Like, this is your business like you should be you should be picking up all the best deals, right. But yeah, they’re, I would say even fewer, you know, there are like consulting companies that do this, you know, large usually for larger developers or big corporations. And you know, they’ve got engineers, architects on staff are typically very expensive to be able to, and that’s why projects cost so much, but if you’re building like a Walmart, like me, you know, like hire a big company with like all of the staff and the relationships to do that. What I do is, again, I say I’m not looking for homeruns I’m looking for singles and doubles. I’m looking for small projects that are probably too small for the big guys. But fit right into my little niche of where I mean if I can create $500,000, or you know, to a million dollars on a project and value and that’s usually where I’m going for, I can do a couple of those every year I’m set. You know, that’s, that’s, that’s great. I do one of those in a year that you know, you’re having a great year, but that’s kind of the small niche area that I look into. And there are opportunities there because they’re too small for the big guys. And most people don’t have the knowledge to be able to take it to the next level and do what I do.

J Darrin Gross  35:35  

So, well, Adam, where can listeners go if they’d like to learn more connect with you?

Adam Gilbert  35:41  

I’m on all the social media platforms Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, I’m either at Adam Gilbert 13 or Adam Gilbert ESQ as an Esquire and feel free to follow me, chat with me. Go to my website, Adam Gilbert, Esquire, ESQ dot com or the firm commercial.com.

J Darrin Gross  36:04  

Adam, I can’t say thanks enough for taking the time to talk today. I’ve enjoyed it. Learned a lot, and I hope we can do it again soon.

Adam Gilbert  36:12  

Awesome. I’d be happy to be back any time.

J Darrin Gross  36:15  

All right. For our listeners. If you liked this episode, don’t forget to like, share and subscribe. Remember, the more you know, the more you grow? That’s all we’ve got this week. Until next time, thanks for listening to Commercial Real Estate Pro Networks. CRE PN Radio

Announcer  36:34  

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