🏙️ 3 years of productivity tech in 1 email (2026 edition)

Good morning.  It’s Sunday, Mar. 22, and in this week’s edition, we’re covering why the Iran war hasn’t rattled CRE yet (but could soon), the Fed holding rates steady with Powell pushing back on cuts, and 3 years of productivity tech in 1 email…

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The U.S.-Iran conflict hasn't rattled CRE dealmaking yet, but the clock is ticking.

At MIPIM in Cannes, attendance was noticeably thinner (particularly among Middle Eastern delegates grounded by canceled flights), though the consensus is this will be a short conflict and more of a speed bump than a full stop.

The backdrop heading into the war was strong: LightBox's CRE Activity Index hit a four-year high in February, and foreign investment in U.S. commercial real estate posted $10 billion in Q4 2025 alone.

The concern is what happens if fighting drags past eight weeks, when rising oil prices (Brent already topped $109) start cycling through as higher cap rates, spiking utility costs, and compressed NOI across multifamily and retail.

For now, institutional capital is holding steady, but the margin for error is shrinking fast.

🔗 Walking a Hurricane-Damaged 100+ Unit Complex in Florida: Ben Mallah tours a gutted apartment complex, breaking down rehab costs unit by unit (minimum $35K per door) and running the numbers on whether the deal pencils at $130 per door all-in. A masterclass in staying disciplined when a big, messy value-add deal is staring you in the face. Watch here

🔗 Starting Over from $0 to Millionaire in 12 Months: Ken McElroy explains why losing everything wouldn’t slow him down, and it has nothing to do with money. He walks through leveraging your network, spotting deals others miss, and why most people can’t raise capital because they don’t have great deals, not because they lack sales skills. Watch here

🔗 Williams Equities’ 100-Year Legacy, the Flatiron Building, and the Rise of NoMad: Michael Cohen (Principal at Williams Equities) joins the No Cap by CRE Daily podcast to discuss his family’s nearly century-long run in Manhattan real estate, the Flatiron Building redevelopment, and how policy shifts like City of Yes could reshape New York’s office market. Listen here

The Fed held rates steady at 3.5%–3.75% this week, and Chair Powell’s message was clear: inflation isn’t cooperating.

Powell acknowledged the central bank isn’t seeing the progress it had hoped for, with oil prices surging past $109 a barrel amid the Iran war and the latest producer price data coming in hot.

The dot plot still signals one cut later this year, but Powell tied that directly to actual inflation improvement, noting that if progress stalls, the cut doesn’t happen.

CRE Impact: Borrowing costs aren’t coming down anytime soon, and anyone underwriting deals on rate-cut optimism should probably recalibrate.

Of the 5 million apps out there, only a rare few will actually make you faster.

After years of trial and error, I hunted them down the same way I hunt for the right avocado at the grocery store.

I wrote this email in 2024, then again in 2025, and both times it was one of my most-opened emails ever.

I didn’t plan to write it a third time, but the stack changed enough that I had to.

Last year, AI got smarter. This year, AI got hands.

It stopped answering questions and started doing things: sending emails, building spreadsheets, updating your CRM, booking meetings, running outreach 24 hours a day without taking a vacation or making a mistake.

That’s the shift. Here’s what’s running my operation now 👇

This is where I spend the most time and money: $850/month, and it’s worth every dollar.

Every morning at 7 a.m., Manus scans my calendar and inbox and sends me a debrief of what’s on for the day. Every night, a Telegram DM lands with what got done. It builds spreadsheets, builds reports, and I train it by voice: I speak the skill, it builds the skill, and it remembers forever.

Still the sharpest LLM for complex work. I use it in team mode with shared threads, saved knowledge, and ongoing projects. I dumped ChatGPT because it was too glitchy, too robotic, and too unreliable for the specialized tasks I need. Claude is more consistent, more precise, and just sounds more human.

This is the most exciting thing I’ve built this year, and I built it with my son.

OpenClaw is a Claude-powered agent running on a Mac Mini on a second desk. It’s connected to a model router, so it automatically picks the best AI for each task: Claude for writing, GPT Codex for code, a lightweight model for the fast and cheap stuff.

It has its own email, its own WhatsApp number, and its own phone number.

Right now, we’re building a 24/7 outreach workflow where it prospects, follows up, updates the CRM, and tags the right team member: nonstop, no mistakes, no days off.

Our in-house small bay acquisition software with an AI layer you command by voice. This is where the deals get found and underwritten.

The Supporting Cast (Still pulling their weight)

Here’s how the evolution went:

2024: We used these tools to ask questions and get answers. Super Google.

2025: We started using them to organize and speed up our work.

2026: We’re telling them what to do. And they’re doing it.

Next 6 months: We’ll tell them the outcome we want. They’ll figure out the tasks to get there on their own.

We’re early, but not that early.

Use the stack. Abuse it.

And let the machines do the heavy lifting while you stay focused on the deals.

Until next Sunday.

Be well,

Saul

P.S. Missed my podcast with Michael Kuritnik? Here is the full episode.

Videos & podcasts: I publish them weekly. Subscribe on YouTube, Apple Podcast or Spotify.

Random Saul Fact: This past week, I was at Small Bay Summit with the IndustrialIQ team.