Bora Ozturk

Father, real estate junkie, wine&food lover, desperate golf student, fund manager, SF citizen, moderate

[Garry Tan @garrytan]

California is turning UC Berkeley (whose professors won 4 Nobel Prizes last year) into remedial school. No SAT for admissions and a new mandate to make everyone's "outcomes similar."

No mention of excellence.

This is how bureaucrats kill the nation’s best public university.

[Nathan Resnick @naterez94]

I spoke with a member of the technical staff at Anthropic yesterday who is about to make $17 million.

He's been there less than 2.5 years and is blown away by his equity value. His biggest worry now is tax strategy.

His CPA told him to "max out his 401(k) and consider a donor-advised fund."

While that's a great starting point, here's what makes even more sense:

He's acquiring a 48 unit apartment complex in Phoenix for $14.5 million.

We're running a cost segregation study to reclassify approximately 30% of the depreciable basis into 5, 7, and 15 year property.

Here's the math:
• $14.5M purchase price
• ~$12.3M depreciable basis (excluding land)
• ~$3.7M reclassified to short-life assets via cost seg
• 100% bonus depreciation under OBBBA = $3.7M accelerated to Year 1
Plus standard Year 1 depreciation on the remaining basis adds another ~$315K.

Total Year 1 deduction: approximately 4M.

His wife is qualifying as a real estate professional 750+ hours, more time than any other activity. The loss is no longer passive. It offsets ordinary income.

At a 37% federal bracket plus 13.3% California, that's a combined rate just over 50%.

$4M × 50% = 2M+ in tax savings. Year 1.

Layer in operating expenses, loan interest, and startup costs on the property, the total offset against his Anthropic income crosses $3 million.
Not deferred. Not spread over 27.5 years.

Meanwhile, the property cash flows. He's converted concentrated tech stock into a real asset producing monthly income. And he's done it all before he files the return on his equity windfall.

This is what real tax planning looks like for tech liquidity.

If you're an engineer, exec, or early employee sitting on a meaningful equity position and your CPA hasn't mentioned cost segregation, bonus depreciation, or REPS qualification, you're probably leaving seven figures on the table.

[Jack @jackunheard]

Tennis player Rafa Jodar SHOVES the ball girl out of the way.

He should never play another tennis match again in his life.

What a loser. https://t.co/h6a3RQ8H0a

[Bora Ozturk @hrbora]

@alvaro_maestro @PolicarBizar Would be ranked one in my opinion. Go to Beirut. You will lose you mind.

[Bora Ozturk @hrbora]

@TurkishAirlines @TK_TR thank you for breaking yet another record. Yesterday my kids and I left the house to get to the airport at 4pm. Flight is supposed to take off at 6:45pm. We were told at 2am (yes. 2am!!!) that flight is cancelled. We went back home at 4am. Exactly 12 hours after we left home. Longest delay and cancellation in history

Now, that same flight is rescheduled to 4pm. No announcement… nothing. Everyone is waiting at the door. For sure this one is delayed too. But is it one hour or five who knows. From now on the goal will be to avoid THY when we can.

[Bora Ozturk @hrbora]

@TurkishAirlines @TK_TR why is TK80
three hours delayed (and more)??? We all have connections in Istanbul.

[Bora Ozturk @hrbora]

@TurkishAirlines 2.5 hours delay and still waiting at the gate for the flight TK80. Will you ultimately take off? Or make an announcement on why we are still waiting? Really ridiculous.

[Bora Ozturk @hrbora]

@CollinRugg You know that they are about 12 times safer than human driving right?

[Andrew Jeffery @credealjunkie]

“The Bay Area is land constrained, there’s nowhere left to build housing.”

(green = undeveloped land)

[Bora Ozturk @hrbora]

@aakashgupta So practically where to where can you fly within those 17 minutes. Can you go from sf to sonoma for instance?

[Bora Ozturk @hrbora]

I am a big Tesla fan but your conclusion is different than mine. So instead of a two hour flight, you drove for 13-15 hours. Right? With airlines let’s factor in a possible two hour delay, TSA, etc you are still behind a flight timeline by like 8 hours by driving. How is that better? My back would kill me sitting down that long.

[GrowSF @GrowSF]

San Francisco isn’t building housing right now because projects simply don’t make financial sense.

If we want housing to be built, the finances need to work: cut the transfer tax, lower impact fees, speed up permitting, and reduce inclusionary rates.

https://t.co/EGHdXPk2zC

[Dimitris Drolapas @DDrolapas]

What the turnout for a $2500 studio in San Francisco's Pacific Heights looks like right now:

[Andrew Jeffery @credealjunkie]

Rent simply measures the balance between supply of and demand for apartments, adjusted for income.

And by that measure San Francisco has completely decoupled from the rest of California.

[Bora Ozturk @hrbora]

@AmericanExpress this is the line at the Miami airport few days ago at access the centurion lounge. To get in, one need some scan a QR code. Get a number. Wait in line. And access the lounge in an hour if you are lucky. I am ok paying a premium to get the card with its benefits. But those benefits are a scam so far. Take the feedback from a customer who’s been with you for almost 30 years.

[@jason @Jason]

Gorsuch on 🎯:

“For those who think it important for the Nation to impose more tariffs, I understand that today’s decision will be disappointing. All I can offer them is that most major decisions affecting the rights and responsibilities of the American people (including the duty to pay taxes and tariffs) are funneled through the legislative process for a reason.

Yes, legislating can be hard and take time. And, yes, it can be tempting to bypass Congress when some pressing problem arises. But the deliberative nature of the legislative process was the whole point of its design. Through that process, the Nation can tap the combined wisdom of the people’s elected representatives, not just that of one faction or man.

There, deliberation tempers impulse, and compromise hammers disagreements into workable solutions. And because laws must earn such broad support to survive the legislative process, they tend to endure, allowing ordinary people to plan their lives in ways they cannot when the rules shift from day to day.

In all, the legislative process helps ensure each of us has a stake in the laws that govern us and in the Nation’s future. For some today, the weight of those virtues is apparent. For others, it may not seem so obvious. But if history is any guide, the tables will turn and the day will come when those disappointed by today’s result will appreciate the legislative process for the bulwark of liberty it is."

[Garry Tan @garrytan]

California spends $150B more per year than 6 years ago, but what do we have to show for it?

Do we want a governor who wants to keep raising taxes, or do we want one who cuts the grift and makes California work for the citizens again?

I know my choice

https://t.co/p7wkfNQva9

[Andrew Jeffery @credealjunkie]

Imagine you rented a nice little 1-bed in Nob Hill in 2023 for $2,400 just before word got out San Francisco was no longer a shithole.

Nice.

Now, because of rent control every year your landlord is allowed to raise rents around 2%, and you can stay in that apartment for as long as you want.

Meanwhile AI blah blah blah and three years later the apartment next door just rented for $3,800 and you’re paying $2,550.

Because, rent control.

You want a bigger place but you don’t want it that much, so you delay moving.

Just like the other 40,000 people who moved into new apartments in SF that year when once again the world started moving to SF to strike it rich.

Supply drops at the same time as demand is increasing.

So when people do move out of their rent control SF apartments, (life happens), open houses get flooded, bidding wars break out, because in all of Nob Hill you have maybe one or two decent apartments for rent at any given time.

Thank you, rent control?

And this is why in cities with rent control, rents go absolutely bananas which leads to crazy headlines and politicos seizing the opportunity to push for - you guessed it - more rent control.

Because they can’t seem to understand this simple story.

[Bora Ozturk @hrbora]

If @DanielLurie is serious about housing creation, one of the first things we need to do is to reverse the 6% transfer tax to what it was before. Our transfer tax currently is three to four times higher than other comparable cities. It makes or breaks a project. And current tax levels kills most projects..

[Bora Ozturk @hrbora]

@garrytan How can we create an alternative to her?