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Every page and article on Saul Zenkevicius in one place, organized by topic.

Best Posts

Start here. the essential posts from Saul.

The Rising Tide of Defaults: CRE Distress Report 2024 - 2026 : The commercial real estate (CRE) sector is currently navigating a period of significant distress, driven by a combination of elevated interest rates,…
What I'd Tell My Younger Self: What I'd Do Differently : Yesterday morning, I was scrolling through reader questions and one from Paul caught my eye: "If you started all over again, Saul, what would you do…
Italy 2025 : For entrepreneurs, "vacation" is a loaded word. It usually means one of two things: either you unplug and your business momentum stalls, or you stay…
Small Bay Industrial is My Favorite Asset Class of All Time : This is the 21st issue of Value Builder (damn, time flies, it seems I just started it). And it’s been a little over two years since we bought this small…

Community

Community posts covering our Industrial IQ Bootcamps, mastermind takeaways, and what happens when you get serious operators in a room together. From the Newport Bootcamp recap to selling out without a buy button, this is the side of my work I enjoy most. "Beyond the Brochure: The Newport Bootcamp Recap" came after we made a bold promise with our Newport Beach Bootcamp: host it in a venue that was a case study in itself. We followed through, and this post documents what happened.

Beyond the Brochure: The Newport Bootcamp Recap : When we first announced our Newport Beach Bootcamp , we made a bold promise: to elevate the experience by hosting it in a venue that was a case study in…
Industrial IQ Bootcamp: $20M Oceanfront Masterpiece : Our first Industrial IQ Bootcamp was an experiment. We threw out the conventional sales playbook and focused on just two things: delivering overwhelming…
Our Bootcamp Sold Out Without a "Buy Now" Button : We hosted our first-ever Industrial IQ Bootcamp . Twenty real estate operators flew in from all over the country. The event sold out in a matter of…
20 of the Best Wisdom Nuggets : I attended an awesome 3-day mastermind earlier this year; here are 20 of the best wisdom nuggets I noted down in my notebook. Money and Investing Here…

General

The general category. Reader Q&A, personal reflections, tech stacks, and whatever else I am thinking about. Posts range from advice to my younger self to why I stopped setting goals. "What I'd Tell My Younger Self: What I'd Do Differently" started with a reader question from Paul: "If you started all over again, Saul, what would you do differently?" I thought it deserved a real answer, not a motivational poster.

The Rising Tide of Defaults: CRE Distress Report 2024 - 2026 : The commercial real estate (CRE) sector is currently navigating a period of significant distress, driven by a combination of elevated interest rates,…
A Due Diligence Strategy That Closes Deals : One of our readers asked me something this week that deserves a full answer: "How much repair credit should I ask for during diligence?" There isn’t a…
My 2026 Tech Stack : Of the 5 million apps out there, only a rare few will actually make you faster. After years of trial and error, I hunted them down the same way I hunt…
What I'd Tell My Younger Self: What I'd Do Differently : Yesterday morning, I was scrolling through reader questions and one from Paul caught my eye: "If you started all over again, Saul, what would you do…
The 20-Year Partnership Test : Every week, I ask readers the same question: "What's your biggest challenge in CRE right now?" It's how I fill my bucket of ideas for my Sunday Value…
Why You Should Stop Setting Goals and Start Removing Obstacles : I've been setting goals for almost two decades. Tried every framework , tweaked it every year, and ultimately learned a very valuable lesson: The…
My 2025 Tech Stack : Of the 5 million apps out there, only a rare few will take your productivity to the next level. After years of trial and error, I hunted them down the…
Italy 2025 : For entrepreneurs, "vacation" is a loaded word. It usually means one of two things: either you unplug and your business momentum stalls, or you stay…
Mountain Adventures: Peak Moments with Saul : There's something magical about standing on top of the world, where the air is thin and the views stretch endlessly. Each summit tells a different story;…
The Reality of Real Estate : There's a cold, hard truth in real estate . It's a risky game. Now, that's not to say you shouldn't go into the industry. It's more about learning how…
5 Years of Proforma Lessons in 1 Email : This past Friday, we got about two inches of snow here in Chicago , and just like that, the roads turned into a mess. Some highways slowed down to a…
Advice to My Younger Self : What's one piece of advice you wish you could give your younger self in your career? After 15+ years in real estate, I've learned what truly matters in…
I Feared for 72 Hours: Hurricane Milton : They say you should prepare for the worst and hope for the best. I failed at it last week. I prepared for absolute chaos and was expecting the…

Industrial

Industrial real estate is my world, and these posts get into the specifics. Small bay investing, the shifting office market, and profiles of people who have built real wealth in this space. If you are in CRE, this is probably the category you want. "The 20-Year Partnership Test" asks a question I hear every week from readers: what is your biggest challenge in CRE right now? Partnerships come up more than anything else, and after 20 years I have seen the patterns.

The 3-Step Leasing Framework That Actually Works : The year is 2022. Shea and I just closed on our first self-storage deal. We had the acquisition dialed in: off-market sourcing, cold calling, direct mail…
The 20-Year Partnership Test : Every week, I ask readers the same question: "What's your biggest challenge in CRE right now?" It's how I fill my bucket of ideas for my Sunday Value…
Fixing Small Bay Investing with Industrial IQ : As an operator in the small bay industrial space , I've spent countless hours digging for deals and trying to make sense of the market. My business…
My Thoughts on the Shifting Office Market : The commercial office real estate sector has undergone a seismic shift in recent years, and I've been watching this transformation unfold from the front…
How Sho Kabani Built Wealth Through Small-Bay Industrial Properties : In a world filled with get-rich-quick schemes and flashy investment trends, some entrepreneurs find lasting success by looking where others don't. This…
Small Bay Industrial is My Favorite Asset Class of All Time : This is the 21st issue of Value Builder (damn, time flies, it seems I just started it). And it’s been a little over two years since we bought this small…
Is Self-Storage Losing Its Shine? : Before we jump in: Whenever you're ready, there are 3 ways I can help you: Investing in Our Next Deal . If you are an accredited investor interested in…

Investing

Investing posts covering deals, strategies, and the stories behind actual transactions. Self-storage, commercial real estate pivots, and the math behind turning properties into real returns. "Turning A Year Older" started with a reader asking, "How do you find deals?" I answered it honestly, including the parts that are not glamorous.

From an Hour to 45 Seconds: How I Generate LOIs From My Phone While Driving : A commercial real estate broker shares the Claude workflow that turns a one-hour LOI into a 45-second job done from your phone while driving.
Turning A Year Older : This week, a reader asked me: "How do you find deals?" It's a great question. It’s also a question I've answered a hundred times in one form or another.…
How We Turned $1.07M into $2.125M with Self-Storage : We bought two self-storage facilities for $1.07M. We Sold one for $2.125M. Here's a full rundown of what happened. The Acquisition In July 2021, we…
From Residential to Commercial Real Estate: My Strategy in Chicago : In 2020, I sold off my residential portfolio and pivoted into commercial real estate . I was done with flips, tired of patchy rehabs, and ready to play…
How We Made $338K Profit on an Unexpected Property Deal : We turned a non-ideal property into a $338K profit over just 2.5 years. Located at 5805 S. Archer Avenue near Midway Airport, this high-traffic spot…
Transforming an Innovation Center : In November 2023, we paid $4.5M for the innovation center. If this were an office building, it would've been a so-so deal. If it were small-bay…
4 Value-Add Deals That Can Level Up Your Real Estate Game : Value-add investments follow the same principles, whether you’re turning around a 200,000 sq. ft. industrial building or a flipping a home. From my own 2…
Our Commercial Property Rescue Mission : Here's the story of how we turned a money-draining property into a success that had generated 5x returns in just two years. 2 years ago, we were pouring…
From Communist Dorms to $100M+ CRE Portfolio : I own a growing CRE portfolio valued at $100M+. I have purchased many great deals. I have 20+ years of experience. Here’s my story. My Humble Beginnings…
3 Marketing Channels Crushing it for Off-Market Deals Right Now : When I started this newsletter seven months ago, I set out to find the best value-add model possible. I became obsessed with studying case studies. I…
Breakdown of 165K Sq Ft Industrial Redevelopment : I don't know much about wine or cars... ...but I'm a collector and (dare I say?) a buff of real estate models. For years, I've collected commercial real…