Office Hours: Why Cars are the Next Battleground for Attention, Advice to a Young Real Estate Investor, and Balancing Fun with Frugality in Your 20s

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1:33Welcome to the Property Pod's Office Hours. This is the part of the show where we answer questions about business, big tech, entrepreneurship, and whatever else is on your mind. If you'd like to submit a question, please email a voice recording to officehours at propertymedia.com. Again, that's officehours at propertymedia.com. First question. Hey, Scott. This is Matt from Madison, Wisconsin. And I have a question. It's about the automotive industry and app stores. It seems to me that the automotive industry with hundreds of millions of users in the U.S. and billions of users worldwide has an opportunity to build the next great big app store in the sense that these panels that are in cars, new and old, could represent a dumb terminal that you could just hook your phone to and display anything you want on it.

2:24I realize There's some safety issues and things along that. But like, why don't they open up that SDK that Microsoft did years ago or the way Apple does or Google with their app stores and just simply allow any developer who wants to to write apps for your driving experience? Right. Whether that's a new kind of radio or new kind of navigation or just the entire managing of your interface in your car and then take a cut just like the app store does. It just seems to me that this is a really easy, I shouldn't say easy, obviously, like things are always harder than they seem. But this seems like a huge cash cow waiting to be milked by the automotive industry.

3:04And is it just simply that they don't have the vision or it's not in their DNA to think that way? Like, why are they letting Apple CarPlay and Google run that experience when they themselves could be taking a cut from every single person who would download a custom experience via their own app store? Thanks so much for your opinion. I really value it. I love it. I listen to you. I look forward to all your different shows and podcasts. I think you're just a great thinker, and I really appreciate the work you do. Take care, and I hope to hear an answer. Hey, Matt from Madison, Wisconsin. Madison has one of the best brands in the world.

3:40I don't know if it's because of the University of Wisconsin or the, what did they call you guys, Wisconsinans? Anyways, it just has such a nice brand. A bunch of my friends from UCLA sent their kids to be badgers. And I've always thought at some point I have this image that I'm going to retire to a university town and just teach and be universally loved. And other professors will give me pens and will play football in the yard. Anyways, I think your thinking is right on and you're clearly an innovative person and it's super interesting. So we live and I think this is where you're getting to. We live in an attention economy.

4:16So for years, there were all these charts showing that the Internet occupied 40 percent of our time but had 5 percent of advertising revenue. And we knew that the two would over time develop an equilibrium and that television was capturing 70 percent or the traditional media. Newspapers were capturing 8 percent of our time but had 18 percent of ad dollars. And we knew that they were up Schitt's Creek. Simply put, attention calibrates with money. You can monetize attention. And we're in our cars a lot. Some people are in their cars one to two hours a day. Some people two to three hours a day. So it makes sense that if you have a captive audience for two to three hours a day, you should be able to monetize it.

5:00And that's one of the reasons that outdoor advertising, specifically billboards, have actually held their own in a world of branding and advertising that has been in structural decline. Now, in terms of the players, this brings up kind of the battle or sort of the world the world's here. And that is auto industries, the auto industry isn't stupid and they don't want to let similar to what newspapers did and every media company did and say, OK, let Apple and Meta and Facebook pretend they're your friend. And they come in and they partner with you the way a virus partners with a host. And it ends really poorly from one of those entities.

5:35They've said, OK, fine, we'll let you in for a little bit. But now they're trying to develop their own operating systems, which is likely not going to work. But anyways, General Motors recently announced it plans to remove support for Apple CarPlay and Android Auto in its future EV lineups. Apple CarPlay and Android Auto technologies is what enables drivers to mirror their smartphone screens onto a vehicle's dashboard display. And according to Reuters, GM is doing this with the intention to transform its forthcoming EVs into platforms for digital subscription services, along the lines of what you're talking about, Matt.

6:01GM's infotainment system will be co-developed with Google and provide a range of services and applications, including Spotify and Audible. GMCO Mary Barra reportedly believes these subscription services can generate up to$25 billion in annual revenue by 2030. So it feels like mad. It feels like they're sort of on to your idea, if you will. And the battle of the operating systems is now moving. The ultimate place for attention was your computer screen, then your phone, a little bit or less your television screen. And now it's moving to your dashboard, if you will. So it's not lost on them. We are going to see kind of the next battleground is going to be in cars.

6:40I just think that Apple should go vertical and have their own car with basically every sort of Apple iOS touchpoint. Anyways, Matt, great question. Congratulations on living in such an interesting, progressive, cool part of the world and one of the great public institutions. I think one of the top five public institutions in America, the University of Wisconsin at Madison. Anyways, thanks for the question, Matt. Next question. Hi, Prof G. My name is Nagin. I'm 26 and I'm based in Kitchener, which is in Ontario, Canada. And my question for you is about finances. I'm fortunate enough to have already purchased my first home, which I did prior to COVID and prior to the prices just skyrocketing.

7:20But as I think about retirement, I would love to have some investment properties. The only problem is that I am a commissioned employee. I work in executive search. And so my earnings change month over month and year over year. Because I work in the tech space, tech's having a rough time right now, and so my earnings are a little unpredictable. With that in mind, the average home in my city is about$800 ,000. And as we know, interest rates are really high right now. So A, I would love your thoughts on if you think now is the right time to enter the market for investment property, I should say.

7:52And B, any advice that you can give to a commission employee or even a small business owner whose earnings aren't predictable and who might be a little afraid of now adding a second mortgage to their expenses, especially because my first mortgage is also on a variable term. Thank you so much. And thanks for the amazing podcast. Nagin, let's just review. You're 26 and you own a rental property or you own a house. So first off, let's just let's just take a moment to recognize what a baller you are and that you You are basically ahead of where most people are at 36 because very few people at your age are able to figure out a way to buy a home.

8:32So just take pause and recognize how well you're doing. So let's speak specifically to your question. According to Statistics Canada, in 2020, one fifth of all residential properties in the Waterloo region, which includes Kitchener, were owned by investors. So it appears that it's been identified probably as a place that has decent cap rates. What's a cap rate? It's the percentage of the total cost of the house you get back in rent. So a 5 % cap rate, am I doing this correctly? It means that if a property is generating$5 ,000 in rental income a year, I believe that's after expenses and taxes, is worth about$100 ,000.

9:10And as cap rates go up, properties are worth more. As cap rates go down, it's a good time to buy. It means the yield on that property in terms of rents as a ratio of the total investment or total principal cost of the home. am I using all these big words? The ratio of rent to the cost of the house is essentially kind of how you determine if you want or the yield on a rental property. Now, that yield has gone way down because residential real estate has attracted a lot of capital. As you referenced, the prices in different areas have skyrocketed. So to your question, to your question, it is near impossible to time the markets.

9:46What I can suggest is the following. That is, real estate is a local business and you always want to be looking and you want to always want to be prepared to strike. So try and get pre-approved for a mortgage, if you will. And also something that is happening more and more is you might find a property that's right. Maybe you'd like to get it for a little bit less money, but contact the owner and say, would you be willing to do seller financing? And that is you're looking at a rental property that cost, say,$500 ,000 Canadian. And the owner might be willing to say, okay, if it was going to cost you 7 % to get a mortgage from the World Bank of Canada, maybe I'll loan you the money at 5%.

10:27Or maybe I already have a mortgage on the house at 2.5%, and I will sell you the house and keep the mortgage, and we'll enter into an agreement where you get to keep my mortgage. And maybe you pay a little bit more for the home, or maybe he or she gets to sell the home in a market where people are having trouble finding financing. But one, I would be in a position to strike. Two, I would think about unique ways of financing a new property. Three, make sure that it's in, I would put it into probably an LLC. That way, if the economy crashes, you can hand the keys back to the bank, quite frankly, and create some distance between you and the property in case something bad happens in the property.

11:10But I think you are absolutely thinking the right way. And I would always look at what is the ratio of rents to the cost. In 2011, I bought a bunch of residential real estate in Florida because no one wanted it, bought it out of foreclosure. And these properties cost about$100 ,000. And you could rent them out immediately, put in$10 ,000,$20 ,000, and immediately rent them out for$1 ,000 a month. So you were getting kind of 10 % cash on cash. And I'm not a real estate guy, but I knew enough about math to go, that's a great return. And I had the capital, so I didn't even put any leverage on them.

11:45You're not in a position to do that. So you want to come up with creative ways around seller financing. But here's the bottom line. Here's the bottom line. You should be mentoring me. You're 26, and you already have real estate. You're doing so well. And just the fact you're thinking this way, you're obviously living below your means, trying to save money. There are few ways to build more wealth over the long term that's enduring and intergenerational or multi-generational than real estate. But my sense is you want to be constantly assessing the local market. I would stay local. I think real estate's a local business.

12:19I try and get approved for pre-approved for a mortgage. But again, let's finish where we started. Let's finish where we started. Nagin, you are doing so well. Congratulations. Keep learning about real estate. Keep thinking about ways to add value, supposedly it's kitchens and bathrooms that add the most value. And I hope we stay close because I think you might be able to take care of me when I'm older. Well done, my sister. Well done. We have one quick break before our final question. Stay with us.

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13:55Let's be honest. Are you happy with your job? Like, really happy? The unfortunate fact is that a huge number of people can't say yes to that. Far too many of us are stuck in a job we've outgrown, or one we never wanted in the first place. But still, we stick it out, and we give reasons like, what if the next move is even worse? I've already put years into this place. And maybe the most common one, isn't everyone kind of miserable at work? But there's a difference between reasons for staying and excuses for not leaving. It's time to get unstuck. It's time for Strawberry.me. They match you with a certified career coach who helps you go from where you are to where you actually want to be.

14:41Your coach helps you get clear on your goals, create a plan, build your confidence, and keeps you accountable along the way. So don't leave your career to chance. Take action and own your future with a professional coach in your corner. Go to strawberry.me slash unstuck to claim a special offer. That's strawberry.me slash unstuck. Welcome back. Question number three. Hi, Scott. Huge fan of your podcast and longtime listener. Your insights into business get me to think about things in different ways, and I've always learned something new when I listen to your podcast. I also liked your thoughts about young males and the mentoring they need in order to grow.

15:23These things really resonate with me as I grew up without a father figure and had to play father figure for my brothers as my mother was a school teacher making a poverty income for a single mother raising three kids. However, my question is what to do now. Some background. I am 28 and my girlfriend is 25 and together we make roughly$165 ,000 a year. Together living in Kansas, so really low cost of living. We have almost$250 ,000 in investments saved up and put around $45 ,000 away each year, most in Roth IRAs and Roths. We have always been very gung-ho on putting money away for retirement, but recently we are traveling more and more, smaller trips, and we love it and would like to do more of it, but it would hamper our ability to make larger purchases such as paying for weddings, putting down house payments, and whatnot.

16:15Are we insane to put this much emphasis in retirement, or should we spend more money now and enjoy our younger years? We both come from families that never vacationed much or spent much on nice things, so the frugalness is embedded deep in us both. I one day hope to have a job as cool as yours with a fraction of your knowledge to impart on the world. I've read all your books and can't wait for a new one. Thanks for everything you do. I truly believe you have left a lasting an impression on many people. Jesus Christ, what is this? Future ballers of America and Canada Day? Let me get this. Let me get this.

16:47You're 28. Your girlfriend is 25. By the way, being a 28-year-old male and just having a girlfriend is impressive. Our society doesn't appear to be producing men that women are interested in. So congratulations on having a girlfriend. Congratulations on a combined income of$165 ,000, which I think puts you in the upper decile of all Americans, much less people under the age of 30 and being smart enough to do what very few of us do under the age of 30, and that is live below your means, such that you can put, let me get this, you have a quarter of a million dollars in investments. So, I mean, you're just doing so well.

17:22And around the tension that we all face, living below our means and enjoying life, what I would suggest is that when you're young, you find joy in things that may not require the level of lubrication around economics. The thing I remember most about my 20s was backpacking through Europe. I had a rail pass. I stayed in shitty hostels, but I was with my best friend, Lee, and we spent three months in Europe and we didn't spend any money. I think I spent a total of like, I don't know,$8 ,000 over the course of a summer and just had an amazing time. So I don't want to say you can have it all, but I would suggest that, you know, the opportunity to do cool stuff, I would try and think about how can we do cool stuff that doesn't break the bank?

18:11And we live in such an Instagram society where it sort of says, go to Tulum. Well, here's the thing. Tulum is really fucking expensive. So are there other ways, other adventures you can take and make sort of a game out of it, whether it's an inexpensive Airbnb, staying in an earth at Burning Man instead of a trailer. But I wouldn't say give up on experiences or scale back on experiences. I would say let some of that frugality come through because when you're young, just seeing the Eiffel Tower for the first time, you know, staying in a$30 a night thatched hut on the beach in Phuket, you can get away with that shit when you're young, because here's the thing with a girlfriend and that youth and some some drinking and some good music.

18:56My brother, you can have a fucking amazing time. Whereas when you get to my age, if I don't have 600 thread count Egyptian cotton bedding, I break out in a rash and need to be airlifted by American Express. I mean, just being in Kansas, making 165 grand a year and saving money again, you should be giving advice. You're killing it, my man. You're killing it. So don't give up on adventure travel with someone you're into. That is a gift. Oh my gosh, but Christ, I don't know, camping? I don't know if they have your rail passes anymore. Just make a gamify it, but try and figure out a way to bust out of this addiction we have towards the Luxon where all these young people on Instagram with this wealth porn of pictures of them on a jet or drinking Dom Perignon bottle service.

19:43What fucking douchebags? Guess what? You're not going to have any money, you idiots. You are the baller. You are the baller. You're going to have great memories to look back on with your girlfriend. And then you're going to have several million dollars when you're older and you're going to be able to do really nice things with your kids. And you're going to be able to do it in style, which will become more and more important as you get older. Well done. Well done.

20:08That's all for this episode. If you'd like to submit a question, and please email a voice recording to officehours at propgmedia.com. Again, that's officehours at propgmedia.com.

20:26This episode was produced by Caroline Chagrin, Jennifer Sanchez is our associate producer, and Drew Burrows is our technical director. Thank you for listening to the Prop G Pod from the Vox Media Podcast Network. We will catch you on Saturday for No Mercy, No Malice, as read by George Hahn, and on Monday with our weekly market show. 300 sensors. Over a million data points per second. How does F1 update their fans with every stat in real time? AWS is how. From fastest laps to strategy calls, AWS puts fans in the pit. It's not just racing. It's data-driven innovation at 200 miles per hour. AWS is how leading businesses power next-level innovation.

21:37make it easy in stores or online. It's time to go shopping at Nordstrom.