Good morning. It's Sunday, Mar. 29, and in this week's edition, we're covering Australian pension funds betting $330M on American strip malls, the Trump administration quietly tightening its grip on Fed bank oversight, and a due diligence framework that actually closes deals...
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Australian pension money is flooding into American strip malls, and Nuveen Real Estate just locked in $330 million for its U.S. Cities Retail Fund to prove it. The headline commitment came from Rest, an Australian retirement fund managing $74 billion, which dropped $250 million on the strategy targeting grocery-anchored neighborhood centers in high-growth markets. Nuveen already put capital to work, snagging Elston Plaza (a 93,000-square-foot, 95%-leased grocery-anchored center in Chicago) for $27 million this month. With five more properties under contract and $8 billion in retail AUM, Nuveen is betting that daily-needs retail in young-family corridors is the new institutional darling.
🔗 Ben Mallah's Life on Retirement: Ben Mallah negotiates a Tampa hotel acquisition on the fly, explains why fractured condo deals are almost never worth the headache, and drops gems on buying depreciating assets secondhand. Watch here
🔗 90% of Her Warehouse Deals Come from Social Media (Not Cold Calling): Tyler Cauble sits down with Aviva Sonenreich of Warehouse Hotline, who went from posting cat videos on TikTok to closing a $9.5M industrial deal sourced entirely through social media. They dig into what content actually works for brokers, why LinkedIn is still wide open, and why tenant-friendly content outperforms landlord-friendly content every time. Watch here
🔗 How Eddie Wilson Built a Billion-Dollar Empire Through Business Exits, Real Estate & Purpose: Nick Lamagna talks with Eddie Wilson, who has racked up over 120 business exits totaling more than $1B. Eddie breaks down the Empire Operating System, why systems always beat hustle, and how to scale through process rather than personality. A good one for anyone thinking beyond the next deal and toward building something that runs without you. Listen here
The Trump administration is quietly tightening its grip on how banks gets regulated. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has stepped up efforts to steer the Fed's rulemaking agenda, while a 2025 executive order requiring independent regulators to submit rules for White House review has left Fed officials scrambling over whether to comply. Meanwhile, new regulatory chief Michelle Bowman is reshaping the supervision division with banking industry hires (including a longtime Davis Polk partner now directing supervision) and headcount cuts that have pushed out long-tenured career staff.
CRE Impact: The guardrails on lending standards could look very different by the time Kevin Warsh potentially takes the chair.
One of our readers asked me something this week that deserves a full answer:
"How much repair credit should I ask for during diligence?"
There isn’t a one-size-fits-all formula, but there is a framework 👇
Most buyers treat due diligence like a courtroom.
They collect the evidence, build the case, and drop the hammer at the last possible second.
The old-school move is to collect everything, say nothing, then let your attorney do the talking with a hard legal letter dropped at 4:30 pm on Friday before due diligence expires, like a grenade.
I always hated this type of game.
It works maybe 10% of the time when the seller caves in.
The other 90% of the time, you blow up the deal, kill the relationship, or both.
I had to make a mindset shift that changed everything for me…
The moment you sign a purchase agreement, you haven't bought anything.
You've been awarded an opportunity to buy.
That may sound like a small distinction, but it's not.
That reframe changes how you show up for the next 45-60 days. Instead of going into war mode (collecting intel, hiding your findings, waiting to ambush) you go into partnership mode.
Because if there’s one thing that we know about CRE, it’s that something always comes up.
Every single deal.
Phase 1 findings, roof inspections, wrong lease language, easement or access issues, HVAC reports, or that second layer of roofing that was never supposed to be there (improperly installed, quietly leaking, and the seller has no idea you found it).
Ryan Holiday calls it The Obstacle Is The Way.
In CRE due diligence, the obstacles are the deal.
Here's what I do instead…
I get the seller's cell number, take him to breakfast, and check in throughout the process. As things come up, I share them. Not as ammunition, but as information.
Odds are, the seller already knows about that second roof layer. He just doesn't know you know.
When you bring it up calmly and collaboratively, you're not attacking him. You're solving a problem together.
That shift does two things:
Problems get smaller when you look at them together. What feels like a disaster in your head is often a known, solvable issue with a clear cost.
The seller starts to feel accountable, not defensive. He understands he's passing these problems to you, and there's validity in that.
If you want to hear a masterclass on this, listen to my conversation with Jaime Contreras.
Jaime is one of the best relationship builders I know in this business, and he actually pre-schedules a dinner with the seller after closing.
Some of his sellers have since become his lenders.
Worth every minute.
Will you leave a little on the table sometimes?
Yes. You'll get emotionally attached, you'll like the guy or gal, and you'll eat a repair cost you wouldn't have touched if it were negotiated the old way through legal channels.
But balance that against the deals you close that you would have otherwise killed, the sellers who become your lenders, and the reputation you build as someone people want to sell to.
The best deals aren't the ones where one side comes out a winner and the other is a loser.
They're the ones where both sides walked away thinking they left just a little on the table.
That's the deal worth doing 🤝
How do you handle diligence negotiations?
I'm really curious what works for you.
Hit reply, I read everything.
LET ME HEAR IT
Until next Sunday.
Be well,
Saul
P.S. Missed my podcast with Paul Frank? Here is the full episode.
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Random Saul Fact: Spring is here, and the season is officially underway. Got out for my first bike ride last week.
