Home builders are feeling slightly more optimistic this month, though they're still pretty worried about the housing market. To attract buyers despite 7% mortgage rates and high home prices, builders are getting creative with deals—38% cut prices (averaging 5% reductions) while 62% offered perks like mortgage buydowns and closing-cost assistance. Florida markets are seeing particularly aggressive deal-making, with builders rolling out comprehensive incentive packages to attract buyers. While current sales conditions improved and six-month outlook brightened, builders are taking a pragmatic approach: clear inventory now with strategic pricing rather than wait out uncertain market conditions. Instead of panicking, builders are making smart business moves to win over picky buyers who have plenty of options.

A 600-lot mobile home park in Des Plaines just sold for $52 million, proving that Chicago's red-hot multifamily market isn't just benefiting luxury high-rises downtown. Northbrook-based manufactured home specialist Ravinia Communities snagged the Oasis Mobile Home Park for about $87,000 per lot, backed by a $42 million loan from Berkardia. The deal reflects how strong regional rent growth is attracting buyers to every corner of the multifamily universe—from manufactured housing to mid-size courtyard buildings on Chicago's far North Side in Rogers Park ($140K per unit) to sprawling suburban complexes like The Westlyn in Warrenville, IL ($245K per unit). With half a dozen new large-scale multifamily listings in June alone, the question is whether this momentum will last.

New York Fed President John Williams threw cold water on rate cut expectations Wednesday, saying Trump's tariffs are already pushing up inflation and will likely add about 1 percentage point to price growth through early 2026. Williams forecasts inflation hitting 3-3.5% this year—well above the Fed's 2% target—before potentially cooling to 2.5% next year. The remarks came amid market chaos over speculation Trump might fire Fed Chair Jerome Powell, though the president later said he wasn't "planning" such a move. With the Fed's July 29-30 meeting approaching, both Williams and Atlanta Fed's Raphael Bostic signaled they're in wait-and-see mode, essentially ruling out immediate rate cuts despite Trump's calls for rates "closer to 1%." For CRE investors, this means higher borrowing costs are sticking around longer than hoped.

Jeff Bezos once said, "You have to be stubborn on your vision, but flexible on the details."

I keep coming back to this quote because it's the difference between operators who build empires and those who get stuck spinning their wheels.

Most real estate operators get this backwards.

They're flexible on their vision (or don't have one at all) but stubborn on the details—refusing to adapt their strategy, pivot asset classes, or change course when the market shifts.

Grant Reaves from Stoic Equity Partners?

He got it right.

And it took him from $0 to over $100 million in small bay industrial assets in just three years.

Here's how he did it—and why his story should make you rethink everything about pivoting in real estate.

Grant started exactly where most of us do—chasing the hot asset class.

Fresh off a successful brokerage career in 2021, he and his partner Jeremy launched Stoic Equity Partners.

Their first move?

Self-storage.

Four facilities.

220,000 square feet.

Classic value-add plays.

But here's where Grant separated himself from the pack: he didn't fall in love with the asset class.

While everyone else was doubling down on self-storage, Grant was watching the horizon.

"We pretty quickly saw how much supply was coming into self-storage, especially on the Gulf Coast where we're located," he told me.

"Everything through COVID was red hot housing. And if you weren't doing housing, you were doing self-storage. There was just so much building going on."

Early 2022—less than a year into their self-storage journey—Grant and Jeremy made a decision that would define their company.

They pivoted.

Hard.

Not because self-storage was failing.

Not because they were losing money.

They pivoted because they could see where the market was headed, and they had the guts to act on it.

Think about that for a second.

Most operators would have said, "We just got into this business. We have systems. We have relationships. Let's stick with what we know."

Grant asked a different question: "Where is the next opportunity?"

"We sat down and started looking at what asset class we felt was in high demand and very low supply," Grant explained.

Their answer?

Small bay industrial.

From their brokerage days, they knew smaller office-warehouse space was nearly impossible to find.

So they tested the thesis across the Southeast.

The story held true in every market.

Here's where most operators would stumble. 

Pivoting from self-storage to building a $100M+ small bay industrial portfolio across six states in three years?

That's not just growth—that's exponential momentum.

Grant's secret?

He stayed stubborn on the vision but flexible on the details.

Instead of trying to be everywhere at once, Grant leveraged local expertise.

His strategy:

"A lot of times that broker already knows the owner. All he has to do is call him and say, 'Hey, I've got these guys out of Alabama. They're legit. You ought to sell your property to them.'"

Result?

Deal flow without the overhead of building teams in every market.

While others chased cap rates, Grant focused on replacement cost. 

His portfolio basis: $91-92 per square foot.
New construction cost in his markets: $150-165 per square foot.

That gap isn't just profit—it's protection. 

"If somebody comes and builds $160 a square foot next to us, we're at $85 a square foot. We can charge a lot less rent and still get the same or better yields."

Grant uses third-party property management but with heavy oversight. 

An in-house asset manager and controller sync monthly with property managers and talk bi-weekly with leasing agents. 

This allowed them to scale across six states without losing control.

The results speak for themselves:

Their first deal?

48,000 square feet in Little Rock for $3M ($70/sq ft). 

They underwrote rents at $7.75.

They're signing leases at $8.50.

Here's what separates great operators from good ones: Great operators fall in love with the vision, not the asset class.

Grant's vision was always building wealth through undervalued commercial real estate.

Self-storage was just the vehicle—until it wasn't.

Grant moved when the data moved.

Most operators get nostalgic for Disneyland times, clinging to what worked when markets were hot. 

They forget: asset classes are tactics, not your North Star.

As he put it: "Sometimes asset classes get overbuilt. That's kind of what happened to multifamily. That's kind of what's happened with self-storage."

Be stubborn in your vision.

Be flexible on the details.

Grant's vision: Build a portfolio of cash-flowing commercial real estate.
Grant’s flexibility: Pivoting from self-storage to small bay industrial when the data told him to. 

The result?

$100M+ in three years.

If you're sitting on a portfolio in an asset class that's getting crowded, ask yourself right now:

Are you holding because the fundamentals still make sense?

Or are you holding because it's what you know?

What is your take on this?

(Hit reply with your take. I read every email and genuinely want to know what you think.)