Ben Bear

Cofounder, CEO @_TurboHome + @BuildCasa. Tweets abt housing, policy, and startups. Prev CEO @ Spin (acquired by @Ford) + VP @ Vungle (acquired by @Blackstone).

[Ben Bear @BenBear]

Charlie Munger has a famous quote: "Show me the incentives, and I'll show you the outcome."

Both political parties have made homeownership a key priority while decrying the rise of build to rent communities funded by Wall Street. One big driver is that the tax code is nearly twice as favorable if new homes are sold to investors vs. homeowners.

Today in the @washingtonpost I argue that by creating tax parity, we can incentivize developers to build hundreds of thousands of starter homes without the need for subsidies, creating 2-3 new good paying construction jobs for every home built.

[Ben Bear @BenBear]

@moseskagan @dtmorgan18 This was legendary after the game https://t.co/zcQU9hYhGp

[Hater Report @HaterReport]

Jalen Brunson IMMEDIATELY going after Scott Foster and a fan as soon as the clock hit zero 😂🤣

[Ben Bear @BenBear]

@JoshuaOgundu So relaxing

[Ben Bear @BenBear]

Link to article: https://t.co/m0WfZATnG7

[Ben Bear @BenBear]

Today's @BusinessInsider piece called San Francisco's housing market "off the rails."

Despite the competition, TurboHome buyers won 55% of SF offers last month by leveraging the ~$30K average savings from our model to boost their offer.

The article features our agent Michael Williams who explains how he goes above and beyond to get signal on price from pending listings when comps are no longer a reliable indicator.

This is one of the reasons we launched https://t.co/Gbtw4tOAlY to help buyers better understand how to win by predicting home prices in real-time.

[Ben Bear @BenBear]

@rohindhar Congrats!

[Ben Bear @BenBear]

@dropalltables Is this built into chat gpt or are they just powering it?

[Ben Bear @BenBear]

We’re really thankful for the collaboration between @cayimby and @BuildCasa.

Passing supply side housing policy is an iterative game where good intentions aren’t enough to get units built.

It requires a tight feedback loop between practitioners, advocates, and forward thinking politicians like @CASenCaballero and @BuffyWicks.

Thanks to the hard work, there are brand new homes available minutes from downtown SD for ~$700K.

Pre-sales are open here: https://t.co/p2okhbVrAv

[M. Nolan Gray 🥑 @mnolangray]

Laws change, housing gets built. SHRA (SB 684-1123) could kick off an ADU-scale starter home boom in coming years, and it'll get stronger with SB 1116. California YIMBY has been proud to work with @CASenCaballero and allies! We benefited from feedback/examples from BuildCasa.

[M. Nolan Gray 🥑 @mnolangray]

Laws change, housing gets built. SHRA (SB 684-1123) could kick off an ADU-scale starter home boom in coming years, and it'll get stronger with SB 1116. California YIMBY has been proud to work with @CASenCaballero and allies! We benefited from feedback/examples from BuildCasa.

[Ben Bear @BenBear]

@teddyschleifer Big Balls Capital incoming?

[Max Dubler 🏳️‍🌈 @maxdubler]

Don’t sleep on the starter home revitalization act.

[Donovan @DonovanBuilds]

I moved to California specifically because of SB684

Long road to get here but excited to get these and marketed for sale

[Paul Steidl @PaulSteidl]

BuildCasa is on track to deliver California’s first completed SB 684 project.

In the past, a project like this would almost certainly be a rental.

We’re using the latest tools to create four new fee-simple townhomes plus a renovated existing unit, each sold separately to homeowners at ~30% below average.

SB 684 is opening the door to a new generation of small-scale infill housing, and we’re proud to be proving what’s possible.

Congratulations to everyone on the team who helped permit, design, and build this project.

[Donovan @DonovanBuilds]

Exit #40 yesterday

Here’s how an actual missing middle development deal happens:

This was before St. Paul officially up zoned so we had to get a variance to build duplex

Our GC began a screaming match with the concrete sub who then demanded to be paid prior to any work being done + filed a lien on the property

The lien was completely bogus but it is infinitely more difficult to remove a lien then it is to put on

Cost like $60 + 10 mins for him to record it. I spoke with an attorney and would have cost me about >$15k in legal fees plus 12 months

Since liens will show up prior to the lender issuing a draw, that means it needs to be resolved or else the other subs won’t get paid (which can start a flywheel in the wrong direction)

So I stepped in and negotiated with the sub directly and told him he doesn’t have to talk to the GC ever again and that I will handle payments directly to him

Released the lien and got the foundation poured

After it’s framed and roughed in we have a break in where all the wire was ripped out

As I have a lot of experience from Houston with that we filed a police report, took a bunch of pictures and video then filed the insurance claim

As we got to drywall, similar situation happened where the GC and drywall sub hated each other + threatening to file a lien

I handled this the same way by not allowing the two to talk to each other and instead all communication through me (as if they’re not both 50+ years old)

After the drywall and flooring were installed the water line in the house cracked and flooded part of one unit which was quickly fixed

Every time I post an exit on here you can assume some version of challenges come up like this

[Rohin Dhar @rohindhar]

This might be the first realistic post about what investing in real estate is actually like in the history of social media

If you’re doing anything real estate related, please assume you’ll face at least this many issues and that’s if things go well!

[Ben Bear @BenBear]

@brookeleblanc Popovers and good bread generally are a restaurant arbitrage. I don’t know why more places don’t do it.

[Ben Bear @BenBear]

A founder friend once warned me against joining a super hot startup because the CEO was high on money. It’s an epidemic compounded by how easily funding + credibility come to archetypes VCs love to insider track who have limited work/life experience (MIT/Stanford/Waterloo dropout, Thiel Fellow, etc).

[Ben Bear @BenBear]

@taobanker Be really smart, get a few wins early, and have a personality/vibe that makes the senior people see you as a younger version of themselves and want to mentor you.

[Ben Bear @BenBear]

Frank Slootman from Snowflake had a great description of this. Companies/markets are like elevators. Some are going up fast, some are going up slow, and some are going down. Getting on the right elevators has a bigger effect than almost anything else on career outcomes.

https://t.co/257rAROUx8

[Ben Bear @BenBear]

@rohindhar True but 200M MAU is hard to replicate without doing something much better. https://t.co/aPfiTqpqZT burned billions and couldn’t get meaningful portal market share.

[Degen CPA @DrewVento]

BREAKING: Victor Wembanyama has joined Anthropic.