Bobby Shokri

CEO @MyAbodu. Turnkey Backyard Homes (Prefab ADUs) for California homeowners.
Design, Permits, Build & Install — handled.
See if your lot qualifies 👇

[Bill Ackman @BillAckman]

Never give up

[Jobob @JobobTaeleifi]

LA spent $418 million on homelessness in 2025.

A city report found only 10% went toward permanently getting people off the streets. 

The other 90% paid salaries, middlemen, and nonprofits.

If they solve it, the money stops.

Nobody accidentally builds that system.

https://t.co/nY1yIMyKUR

[California YIMBY @cayimby]

RAND: Measure ULA blocked 9,000+ new homes and cost LA $452M in forgone revenue.

Fewer homes mean higher rents for everyone.

Targeted reform could produce 19,000 more homes while preserving 72% of revenue.

https://t.co/Be2oNqtiEp

[Nick shirley @nickshirleyy]

What's happening in LA is extremely abnormal. How did Spencer Pratt go from a 77% chance of advancing to now a 0.5% chance?

California is now blocking the Feds from checking into the election.

Prior to the election in May, Governor Newsom signed SB 73. This law, effective immediately before the June 2 primary, prohibits unauthorized access, disruption, modification, or seizure of voter rolls, voter lists, or certified voting technology by law enforcement (including federal agents) without a court order or specific state election law investigation.

GIVE THE PEOPLE TRANSPARENCY

[Elon Musk @elonmusk]

The reason ID is banned in California (and New York) elections is to enable large-scale fraud.

When you combine no ID and mail-in voting, fraud is de facto legalized.

[California YIMBY @cayimby]

LA's wildfire rebuild lags badly—only 55 homes completed across Altadena and Palisades combined, vs. ~165 at the same point after Santa Rosa's 2017 fire.

Survivors report a ~$600K average gap between insurance coverage and actual rebuild costs.

https://t.co/V4Es1zFeuh

[Bobby Shokri @bobbyshokri]

The fix is not another bill. It is standardization. Pre-approved plans and factory-built units that lock the price and the timeline before anyone signs. That is how legal becomes built.

[California YIMBY @cayimby]

ADUs are legal in 18+ states, but legalization alone isn't enough: fees, fragmented permits, and unpredictable costs still block many homeowners from building.

CA went from 1,300 permits in 2016 to 25,000 in 2022 by streamlining approvals.

[Bobby Shokri @bobbyshokri]

Spot on, from the production side.

What scaled California: ministerial approval killed local discretion, statewide standards overrode the bans, and fee limits cut the cost of entry. Result was 26,648 ADUs permitted in 2024, about 21% of all new housing and nearly 38% of new single-family.

What still caps it: the median ADU permit ran 115 days in 2025, close to double a standard residential permit. The spread runs from 9 days to 600 depending on the city. A homeowner cannot underwrite a project when the all-in number swings tens of thousands between jurisdictions.

The next unlock is not more laws. It is standardization and production. Pre-approved plans, now required statewide, plus factory-built units that fix the price and timeline before a homeowner signs. That is how you turn legal into built.

[Mayor Matt Mahan @MattMahanSJ]

Here's why nothing gets built in California:
❌Impact fees
❌Utility hookup fees
❌ Permits & reviews
❌ Frivolous lawsuits

It’s often $150K before a single nail hits the ground. That’s what my housing plan aims fix: https://t.co/bbYt2XpgnD

[Taylor Avakian @TAYVAY_]

His Bel Air house dropped from $2.1M to $1.1M in three years.

He owed $1.8M on it.

Then his lawyer told him: "Go confront your creditors. Don't run from them."

Richard didn't know it yet, but that one piece of advice would build 3,300 LA apartments.

Deepak Richard Mehta is the co-founder of Xenon Investment Corp. and WESTSIDE HABITATS, LLC.

3,300 units across the Westside, Mid Wilshire, Koreatown, and the Valley.

65 employees. Over a $1.5B in real estate.

But in the early 90s, he had nothing.

He started with a little seed money from family and friends.

Riots. Earthquake. Defense industry collapse. The RTC.

He lost it all.

The Bel Air house was the last domino.

$2.1M purchase. $250K down. A $1.85M loan from First Los Angeles Bank.

Three years later it was worth $1.1M.

He stopped making the mortgage payment.

The RTC packaged his loan into a pool and sold it to Berkeley Federal Savings Bank for pennies on the dollar.

His lawyer gave him advice he still quotes 30 years later.

"Go confront your creditors. Don't run from them. This is going to be the most valuable experience of your life."

So Richard called the bank.

They offered to sell him back his own loan.

He flew to Palm Beach with a cashier's check for $580,000 and bought back the face value of $1.5M+.

By the late 90s the market turned.

His neighbor, who had started CNet, bought the house from him for $3.3M.

$580K turned into $2.8M.

That was the nest egg. Everything else built off it.

What I took from the conversation:

1. Confront, don't run. The temptation to ghost a creditor is real. Picking up the phone is what creates the option.

2. Cycles are slow trains. "It comes down slowly and it goes back up slowly." If you see it early, you have time to act.

3. Cap rate is not the only language. "I never understood cap rate to be honest. I still don't today." He's used gross rent multiplier and price per square foot to buy 3,300 units.

4. Decisiveness is the moat. "I can't decide where to have dinner. I can't decide what to order. But I can decide what to buy." Big cashier's checks. Non-contingent offers. Answer the phone.

5. Location holds. The buildings he bought in the late 90s in better pockets are still the foundation of the portfolio today.

Most people would have walked away from that Bel Air house and never come back.

He bought his own loan back.

That's the kind of move you only make once. But once is enough.

Full episode live now.

[Sen. Jerry McNerney @SenMcNerney]

SB 1196 would direct the CA Public Utilities Commission to establish clear timelines for utility hookups for ADUs and institute penalties for utilities that fail to provide timely service connections.

[Bobby Shokri @bobbyshokri]

Couldn’t agree more

[Palmer Luckey @PalmerLuckey]

It is time for the United States Postal Service to ban junk mail.

Unsolicited spam calls are already prohibited by the FCC. Emails are heavily regulated by the CAN-SPAM Act of 2003. Junk mail is the majority of mail, 100 million trees per year. Enough!

[Bobby Shokri @bobbyshokri]

Modular housing is going to help with this.

[California YIMBY @cayimby]

Homeownership has dropped by 8–10% across all age groups since 2000, not just among millennials.

Home prices now run 6x median income, up from 4.3x in 2003. And lower-income households at every age are getting squeezed out.

Fix: smaller lots, more starter homes.

[California YIMBY @cayimby]

Homeownership has dropped by 8–10% across all age groups since 2000, not just among millennials.

Home prices now run 6x median income, up from 4.3x in 2003. And lower-income households at every age are getting squeezed out.

Fix: smaller lots, more starter homes.

[Ramin Ekhtiar @raminrealtalk]

They named it the “Billionaire Tax” so you wouldn’t read it.

I read it.

Page 26 lets Sacramento convert it to a tax on EVERYONE without your vote.

Same people. Same trick. They did it with AB 130.

Newsom said he’d never sign a mileage tax.
Page 137. Already signed.

Now page 26.

Your house. Your 401k. Your savings.

No vote required.

Watch before they bury it 👇
https://t.co/bYQD11T69M

[Bobby Shokri @bobbyshokri]

Wise words

[California YIMBY @cayimby]

LA's Measure ULA was sold as a tax on luxury homes.

Three years in, 56% of its revenue has come from commercial real estate — office buildings, industrial sites, apartments — raising concerns about who the tax is really hitting.

https://t.co/iOEKRYLeyC

[Chamath Palihapitiya @chamath]

On page twenty-six of “The Billionaire Tax” proposal in California, it explains how the state legislature can convert from a Billionaire Tax to an Everyone Tax without voter approval.

They can also adjust the tax to be a yearly tax, not just one time…again, without your approval.

Intelligence test for you: if this was meant to just target Billionaires, why did they write this in?

[Bobby Shokri @bobbyshokri]

@Jason I’m in

[Bobby Shokri @bobbyshokri]

@DoctorProfit Did you watch NBA in the 80s and 90s? Stop.