🗞️ News&Moves 🏠

Trump's tariff tornado is shredding retail—but grocery stores? They're bulletproof.

While electronics shops and discount retailers get hammered by import costs, grocery-anchored centers just collected 31% of all retail deals in Q1.

Why?

People still need to eat, even when everything else costs more.

Here's the kicker: grocery rents are often tied to sales.

So when tariffs spike food prices, landlords automatically get a cut of that inflation.

It's like owning a fund that never closes.

Vacancy rates dropped to 3.5% while major chains expand.

Investment firms just dropped hundreds of millions on grocery real estate.

Even grocery chains are buying their own buildings now.

The brutal truth?

Trade wars are accidentally creating grocery retail winners.

Sure, you might skip the premium smoothie for regular juice, but you're still shopping.

And that's pure gold for landlords who picked the right anchor tenants.

Chicago metro suburbs just became the hottest multifamily play nobody saw coming.

While urban cores drown in property tax chaos, suburban deals exploded 65% year-over-year.

Price per unit jumped 18% as buyers throw down competitive offers like it's peak market again.

Here's why it's working: you benefit from a strong local economy and a skilled workforce.

Plus, there are no political headaches.

Family offices are piling in—suburban properties are pulling triple the out-of-state buyer interest versus last year.

The twist?

Properties are sparking bidding wars with 14+ offers while urban cores face a construction drought—new supply has collapsed to just a fraction of normal levels.

Smart money is betting suburbs offer better cap rates than urban core properties while dodging the tax uncertainty that's scaring institutional buyers away from major cities.

🚨 The Fed Pulse 🚨

The Federal Reserve noticed April's housing and automotive softness, creating conversations about potential policy flexibility.

Fixed-rate mortgages at 6.86% remain historically reasonable, while the 10-year Treasury's move to 4.508% reflects market confidence in economic resilience.

Recent trade policy announcements bring welcome certainty to manufacturing and supply chains.

Clear tariff structures on technology and European goods create predictable cost frameworks that businesses can finally plan around, eliminating months of uncertainty.

Weekly economic indicators show April's hesitation was simply businesses recalibrating for new opportunities.

Companies adapted quickly, demonstrating the market's remarkable flexibility and underlying strength.

My take on it - FED will stay put for quite some time.

Most deals come wrapped in spreadsheets and seller decks.

But every now and then, a deal shows up that's so obviously off—mismanaged, mispriced, misaligned—that it practically screams: fix me.

That's exactly what Dustin Maher noticed in a quiet, under-the-radar listing in Platteville, Wisconsin, which he bought in March 2022 and sold two years later.

It wasn't turnkey.

It was a distressed student housing deal with 112 leases, a collapsing management system, and enough upside to make the chaos worth it.

Most investors would panic.

Some would throw in the towel.

But Dustin Maher?

He rolled up his sleeves, fired the management company, and decided to learn property management on the fly—while dealing with 17 evictions and a complete tenant base overhaul.

This is how a $2.925M acquisition became a $4.05M exit in under two years—with no fancy tricks, just grit, market awareness, and fast execution when everything was falling apart.

The Deal

The portfolio was made up of three separately parceled apartment buildings:

Together, they held 29 total units—27 four-bedrooms and 2 two-bedrooms—leased by the bed to students at the University of Wisconsin–Platteville. That's 112 individual leases, managed independently.

The numbers looked solid at first glance: $2.925 million purchase price (about $25,000 per door), 100% occupied, and what appeared to be stable cash flow with 85% bank financing at 4% interest-only for the first year.

But here's the opportunity: Rents were averaging $275 per bed.

The market?

Closer to $400+.

"It was like 6.5% cap, but the rents were low," Dustin explained.

The seller was out of state, probably in his mid-60s, and he'd been butting heads with his property manager.

He just wanted out.

Dustin moved in quickly, closed the deal, and stepped into the driver's seat.

The Reality Check

The transition was rocky.

The plan was to keep the third-party management company in place for a smooth handoff.

But as Dustin checked in monthly, something wasn't right.

By March, just two months before the next lease cycle, the team had filled… zero new leases for the following school year.

Even worse?

Retention was just 14%.

The entire portfolio was about to go 86% vacant.

"They spent like $20,000 to $30,000 on advertising—apartments.com, all these platforms," Dustin recalled. "And here I come in, spend $0 on advertising, and get it filled."

At that point, Dustin and his wife Tessa made a crucial decision: fire the management company and take control themselves.

"We'd never even managed a duplex before," Dustin admitted. "But we're like, 'We gotta do this ourselves.'"

Their strategy was gritty but effective:

• Facebook Marketplace posts in local groups (no ad spend)

• Pet-friendly policies (including large dogs)

• Simple, bilingual leasing for underserved renters

• Furnished units and short-term options for cash-paying working families

But it wasn't all smooth sailing.

Tessa walked into units with drawers full of beard trimmings and trash-packed bathrooms.

There were 17 evictions in the first year alone—though most left without legal proceedings.

Dustin and Tessa were tested, but they never paused.

The Rebuild

Once the dust settled, the strategy clicked.

With the student market window closed, Dustin had to pivot fast.

He opened the property to anyone who needed housing—and it worked.

Occupancy rebounded to 80%+ within months.

Better tenants moved in—many working-class families looking for affordable, flexible housing.

The new tenant base was primarily working families—paying cash, fitting six people into four-bedroom units.

"They never missed paying, and it was great," Dustin noted.

Market rents hit $400+ per bed.

Some furnished units were leased at $1,850–$2,000/month to contractors and families needing short-term stays.

They also implemented:

• High-speed internet pass-throughs (tenants paid directly)

• Trash and recycling bill-backs

• Light renovations with new flooring, paint, and fixtures

And within 12 months, the entire rent roll had turned over.

The Team

One of Dustin's smartest operational moves was replacing the expensive, ineffective maintenance setup.

The previous management company had hired a full-time maintenance worker for $5,000/month who was delivering poor results.

Dustin's new part-time contractor team was more efficient, more skilled, and cost half as much.

The Exit

Dustin never officially listed the property.

Instead, he set a target number with Marcus & Millichap  and waited for the right buyer.

And they got one!

The buyer was a local operator who already owned about 600 units and wanted his first property in Platteville.

He offered $4.05 million with a $100,000 credit for parking lot repairs.

The offer was an 8.5% cap rate on the stabilized income.

The deal closed soon after with no big surprises.

After paying back investors and covering expenses, Dustin and Tessa walked away with approximately $800,000 in profit from their $50,000–$70,000 investment.

Their investors received a 65% return over the two-year hold period, with 8% preferred returns paid throughout the process.

Key Takeaways for Operators & Investors

1️⃣ Look for Management Misses, Not Just Market Mispricing

The previous owner wasn't greedy—they were disengaged. That left margin on the table.

2️⃣ Speed Matters More Than Structure

Dustin didn't build a leasing pipeline—he became the leasing pipeline. Facebook groups and direct outreach beat fancy CRM tools and expensive advertising.

3️⃣ Don't Be Afraid of the Mess

Drawers full of beard trimmings. Evictions. It's easy to look away. But inside those messes is where value lives.

4️⃣ DIY Done Right

This wasn't some massive syndication machine. It was a hands-on, family-led operation.

The Bottom Line

There are deals that come dressed up and look fantastic in pro formas.

And then there are deals that come in tired and wrapped up in a duct tape.

This was the second kind.

The Platteville deal wasn't pretty.

It was messy, stressful, and required Dustin to learn property management on the fly while dealing with challenging tenants and a failed management company.

But that's exactly what made it profitable.

It wasn't easy.

But with hustle, vision, and a willingness to say "we'll fix it", Dustin and Tessa turned a mismanaged student portfolio into $800K win—and gave their investors a 65% return in less than two years.

Sometimes the best deals aren't the ones that look perfect on paper—they're the ones where you can see the opportunity hiding behind the problems.

And if you're willing to roll up your sleeves and fix what's broken, those problems can become your biggest advantage.

No gimmicks. Just execution.

Be well,

Got questions about this deal or want to share your own turnaround story?

Hit reply—I read every email and love hearing from you.

Random Saul Fact: This week I'm traveling with my son Marty on a post-graduation trip to Thailand.

Here's a photo from our one-day stopover in Tokyo at Shibuya Sky Deck observatory, overlooking the Greater Tokyo Area — home to 37 million people and the world's busiest pedestrian intersection below, where one million people cross daily.