Category Archives for "Real Estate"

Over the Christmas holidays, I was rereading The Mysterious Island by Jules Verne. I read it when I was a kid and enjoyed it, so I thought I’d see what I think of it now. It’s about five Union soldiers who escape Confederate captivity during the US Civil War in a balloon that is swept […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

Or what to do with underused parking lots and golf courses… OK, I’ll admit it. I am a bad (actually terrible) golfer and a not much better driver (of cars, that is). These days golf is a sport in decline (even before Covid-19 cratered much of the planet’s economy), which has triggered questions like: What […]

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 […]

I woke up on the Easter long weekend thinking I could help people become successful entrepreneurs by offering a new online course called: Pivot! Start a business in just 3-months w/ practically no money down. “Hi Bruce, I just wanted to say that I was on your Pivot! webinar this afternoon and it was awesome. […]