Category Archives for "Finance"

I can’t believe that other landowners/property owners haven’t figured out how to repurpose their retail space to live-work-play-make spaces, all at grade. There is demand for these types of spaces from gigpreneurs who, for example, want to work in a street-facing studio and live behind their store, all on one level (ie, the ground floor). […]

Main Street Makeovers He must have received his law degree in the snail-mail. The guy didn’t know the difference between foreclosure and power-of-sale. Why is this even important? Foreclosure versus Power of Sale Because I advise a number of funds (REITs, MICs, Private Equity Funds, Mortgage Trusts, Mutual Fund Trusts, individual private lenders such as […]

[Excerpt from Gadgets and Gizmos—how to tell if you own a real business or just an expensive hobby  available from, https://brucemfirestone.com/product/gadgets-and-gizmos/] I realize this is a somewhat self-serving headline since I am a real estate investment and business coach and my spouse is a California-based CTI[1]-trained life coach, but don’t take my word for it—listen […]

Kind of a nice problem to have, n’est-ce pas? Well, this is the challenge that Apple is currently facing seeing as it is sitting on a mountain of cash that most of us can only dream about. CNBC reported in Q1 2020 that: Apple now has $207.06 billion cash on hand, according to the company’s […]

Book review of Pitch Anything, an innovative method for presenting, persuading and winning the deal by Oren Klaff, https://youtu.be/0ihMwKc2Sow With insights from Bruce M Firestone, PhD Plus, how a yoga teacher went from earning just over $30k a year to more than $100k Plus, how Prof Bruce successfully pitched the NHL for an expansion franchise […]

[This is an excerpt from Don’t Back Down, the real story of the founding of the NHL’s Ottawa Senators and why big leagues count written by Sens founder Bruce M Firestone, PhD, available from, https://brucemfirestone.com/product/dont-back-down/] You have to laugh at the expectations of leadership in the US where they expect their leaders to have a […]

Here’s an article I wrote some time ago. In it, I was trying to understand why someone might pay $171,000 more for an urban townhouse, which was essentially the same as a suburban, much less expensive one, except closer into town. Was it a rational economic choice? Here’s what I concluded… then. Today, in an […]

A client of mine asks, “Hi Bruce, what are your thoughts on real estate and the economy over the next 12-24 months?” Here’s what I answered: No one really knows what will happen, but in my view, there will be many opportunities for people with cash. I suspect several trillion dollars of real estate in […]

Purrdy Paws Mobile Grooming Spa founder Jayme Montero started with nothing. A teen mom, she had a “crazy” idea—to start a cat grooming mobile service when almost no one thought it would work—not her banker, her friends, no one. Her plan was to somehow finance and acquire a Mercedes Sprinter cargo van (which is tall […]

If you’d like to send the quiz (sans answers) to your friends, use this link, https://brucemfirestone.com/prof-bruce-real-estate-investment-trivia-quiz/. 1. in which decade from 1950 to present day did mortgage interest rates reach their peak? 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s 2000s 2010s [21.46% peak, 2nd half of 1981] 2. what does PIT stand for? planning and information technology […]

See how well versed you are in terms of real estate investing… try answering these 25 questions then check your answers here, https://brucemfirestone.com/prof-bruce-real-estate-investment-trivia-quiz-answers/. 1. in which decade from 1950 to present day did mortgage interest rates reach their peak? 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s 2000s 2010s 2. what does PIT stand for? planning and information technology principal […]

Traveling without moving, a new approach to downsizing Most realtors tell a person who is thinking of, say, downsizing, to list and sell their larger home and buy something smaller and presumably cheaper. This kind of talk is a bit self-serving because, if the client follows this piece of advice, the realtor gets another listing […]