033. Adaptive Reuse and Renovations with Mike Sowers

Adaptive Reuse and Renovations with Mike Sowers

Mikes mission is to humbly and gratefully find pathways to creatively unlock potential in people, places, and ideas. He is the Founder and CEO of Commercial Investors Group whose core business is repositioning commercial real estate assets in the Midwest. Mike is the author of the book "Commercial Real Estate Investing: A Step-By-Step Guide To Finding & Funding Your First Deal" being released Q2 2021. Mike heads the commercial investing mastery program where he coaches implementers of his 7 step system across the country. This proven system helps investors transition from residential investing to commercial and structure real estate partnerships using equity partners. Mike hosts the "CREative Commercial Real Estate" Podcast and the "This Old Building" TV Show. He is also an acclaimed keynote speaker. His passions outside of work are traveling the world with his wife Lisa and children Andi and Brody, playing guitar at Creative Church, volleyball, kiteboarding, snowmobiling, boating, and writing.

Adaptive Reuse and Renovations with Mike Sowers
The Commercial Real Estate Investor Podcast
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391. I Bought an Abandoned Mill Outside Chattanooga (Peerless Mill Update)
391. I Bought an Abandoned Mill Outside Chattanooga (Peerless Mill Update)

Four years ago, I took on one of the biggest projects of my career: a 1.5 million-square-foot abandoned textile mill just outside Chattanooga.

At the time, a lot of people thought it was too risky. Environmental concerns, vacant buildings, financing challenges—you name it. But I saw the opportunity to create something that could transform an entire community.

In this week's episode, I'm giving you a behind-the-scenes update on where the project stands today. I walk through what's been completed, why we chose to build self-storage before tackling restaurants and retail, how we're thinking about cash flow versus long-term vision, and what comes next as we continue redeveloping the 29-building campus one phase at a time.

390. Why Single Family Rentals Will Never Replace Your W-2
390. Why Single Family Rentals Will Never Replace Your W-2

If your goal is to buy enough single-family rentals to eventually quit your job, you may be chasing a strategy that was never designed to get you there.

In this week's episode, I break down what I call the W-2 Paradox—why your paycheck is actually one of the most valuable tools for building wealth, why trying to replace it too early can slow your investing down, and why so many residential investors eventually hit a ceiling.

389. He Found a Commercial Building on Facebook Marketplace (Yes, Really)
389. He Found a Commercial Building on Facebook Marketplace (Yes, Really)

Bob spent 13 years as an electrician and quietly built a 75-door residential portfolio on the side. Then his first daughter was born, the tenant calls at night burned him out, and he decided to make the jump to commercial.

A year after he joined the CRE Accelerator, Bob closed on an 8,000 square foot flex industrial building in Lansing, Michigan. He paid $200,000 for it. And he found it on Facebook Marketplace.

388. Watch Us 5x Our Returns in Self Storage (Deep Dive)
388. Watch Us 5x Our Returns in Self Storage (Deep Dive)

Self storage is one of the best asset classes out there, but most investors leave the biggest gains on the table. They buy a facility, raise rents, run it a little better, and call it a day.

That works. It just doesn’t get you to a 5x return. The real money is in adding units. In this episode I sit down with Jamie from Storage Designer to walk through a 105-unit facility we bought in Madison, just outside Nashville, for about $1.7M. It came with extra land, truck parking, and a couple of vacant lots already graded and ready to go. We pull up real CAD designs and work through three different layouts live, weighing unit count against truck access, customer experience, and code. Then we run the numbers.

387. The Real Reason the Best Deals Never Hit the Market
387. The Real Reason the Best Deals Never Hit the Market

Most commercial real estate investors are fishing the same picked-over pool on Crexi and LoopNet, then wondering why nothing pencils. The best deals never get there. In this episode I'm breaking down the three channels off-market CRE deals actually live in, why brokers preview the good ones to a small list of buyers before any listing site sees them, and a real deal from inside the CRE Accelerator: a $1.5M off-market RV park that's projected to be worth over $5M after a turnaround. The seller never listed it. No broker ever marketed it.

A member of ours found it through direct outreach to the owner. If you're an active investor who keeps losing bids on listed deals or feels like everything you see is already overpriced, this one's for you.

386. How I Bought My First Commercial Property at 25 (just copy me)
386. How I Bought My First Commercial Property at 25 (just copy me)

In February 2019, I wired $575,000 to a title company and closed on my first commercial property. A former community bank in a Nashville suburb that two different buyers had already walked away from. For the next year, I questioned whether I'd just made the biggest mistake of my life.

385. The 1031 Move That Lets You Buy Before You Sell
385. The 1031 Move That Lets You Buy Before You Sell

Most investors hear "1031 exchange" and immediately think the same thing:

Avoid capital gains taxes.

And while that's true, it's also why so many investors use the strategy incorrectly.

A 1031 exchange is one of the most powerful wealth-building tools in real estate, but it should be part of a long-term portfolio strategy, not a last-minute reaction when you're getting ready to sell a property.

384. Watch Me Underwrite a Real Industrial Deal in 30 Minutes
384. Watch Me Underwrite a Real Industrial Deal in 30 Minutes

Before most investors ever make an offer, they convince themselves there are no deals left.

The market is too competitive.
Prices are too high.
Everything worth buying is already gone.

So in this Office Hours session, I decided to test that theory.

383. 100 Doors. 35% Returns. Why He's Walking Away.
383. 100 Doors. 35% Returns. Why He's Walking Away.

Ray Smith built a portfolio of 100 single-family rentals paying him 35% a year. He's a year and a half into a three-year plan to sell every single one.

This conversation is the most honest take I've heard on what it actually costs a residential investor to make the jump into commercial.

381. He Doubled His Cash Flow Without Buying a Single New Property
381. He Doubled His Cash Flow Without Buying a Single New Property

Chris Thorndike bought a rundown $400K warehouse in Gainesville, Florida and converted it into six micro retail suites. Over 120 people applied to rent the six spaces. It has not had a single vacancy in two and a half years. Most investors would have moved on and gone hunting for the next deal. Chris almost did too. Then he looked a little closer at what he already owned.