Follow Me: StripMallGuy on how to make 180k friends and influence deal flow

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Follow Me: StripMallGuy on how to make 180k friends and influence deal flow

6.6.2023

Spencer Levy
This year's ICSC event in Las Vegas welcomed tens of thousands of industry professionals. Among these many attendees, I got the chance to connect with one unusual, eccentric and successful character, a real estate veteran who was both an anonymous face in the crowd and one of the best known players in the retail space. On this episode, an innovative investor who's used social media to build an influential following and fuel his business in unexpected ways. 

StripMallGuy 
An audience is important for anybody, no matter what you do. So in real estate, it's about networking. 

Spencer Levy 
Yes, that's the voice of StripMallGuy. His Twitter handle has a following of almost 200,000 people, and counting – an audience who plug in for his candid takes and the perspective of more than 20 years in a sector where he's an active investor. I was sworn not to reveal his name, but after an engaging and enjoyable conversation, I'm happy to share his story, his insights, and his unique take on social media marketing and commercial real estate. Coming up, a conversation with the one and only StripMallGuy. I'm Spencer Levy, and that's right now on The Weekly Take. 

Spencer Levy
Welcome to The Weekly Take. StripMallGuy, thank you for joining the show. 

StripMallGuy 
Nice to be here. Thank you so much, Spencer. 

Spencer Levy
Great to have you. So, for our listeners, why don't you start off easy. Tell them who you are and what you do.

StripMallGuy 
Sure. So, 20 years into my career, about two years ago, I was on an airplane killing time, and I went on Twitter, opened an account anonymously. “Real estate bill” was taken, so I went with realEstateTrent, and just started tweeting about things that everyone in our industry knows: option renewals, how do you make an offer, first right of refusal. Things like that. And the account started getting traction in the industry and was really growing in the last two years. And here I am today. 

Spencer Levy 
So when did you change your nomenclature to StripMallGuy? 

StripMallGuy
The first day. Well, so, realEstateTrent is the actual name, but Twitter gives you a nickname also. So, StripMallGuy came from, TheHotelGuy is another account, so I thought of that. So I figured, hey, I specialize in strip malls. Why not just go with StripMallGuy and get right to the point? 

Spencer Levy
You would have gone with Sting. But I think that's taken. Is that correct? 

StripMallGuy 
It was taken. Yeah. I tried that one. 

Spencer Levy
Okay, so let's go big picture first. Why is it important in today's world to have a social media presence in the real estate business? 

StripMallGuy 
Sure. So I think an audience is important for anybody, no matter what you do. So in real estate, it's about networking, right? So if I go to this event today, ICSC, right? Let’s say I meet with 20, 30 people maximum. Well, on Twitter, I get a million impressions a day. So my message that's delivered one by one to people individually gets, just, sprayed out everywhere, kind of worldwide and industrywide. So I would say by now, I'd guess maybe 20% of the brokers in the retail business have heard of the strip mall brand in some way, shape or form, and being top of mind for brokers, that's what it's really all about for deal flow, and it really magnifies that. 

Spencer Levy
So it starts with mass marketing. Then it works its way down to deal driven marketing, and that can come from being known by the brokers or by people sending you direct messages. Is that correct? 

StripMallGuy 
Correct. So for example, about a month ago, there was a property listed in Philadelphia, a suburb, right? Which is a market that I don't know well. So I called that broker. A nice enough guy. And then I said, hey, by the way, are you familiar with the account StripMallGuy on Twitter? And he says, I actually am. I’m a follower. So I said, Oh, actually that's my account, funny enough. And it went from just another buyer to, we have this many offers or let's meet or what have you. So I realized that top of mind is scaling nationwide, and that was definitely not the case before, because in the first 20 years of my career, we really focused on just one market and we are top of mind, I would say, in that smaller market. But Twitter and social media has allowed me to really scale that. 

Spencer Levy  
Why Twitter versus any of the other social media platforms? Why does this work for you? 

StripMallGuy 
The direct messaging on Twitter is a game changer, right? So there are folks lurking on Twitter who run private equity firms, who are pro athletes, who are billionaires, okay? And they're lurking and reading and following people on there. And after a while they see how you think and then they'll just message you out of nowhere. So one of the DMs I got was a gentleman that's got, I think, five followers. He's the head of global banking for one of the largest banks in the world. And now we're friends and friendly. On LinkedIn, the lurking effect doesn't really happen. Like no one's surfing LinkedIn who is not in the industry, where they are on Twitter, and LinkedIn messages are usually a solicitation, or someone wants to sell you something. And on Twitter, it's very much not like that. It's, hey, let's meet in person. I like your stuff. And so for whatever reason, it's the more casual version of LinkedIn, where talks actually happen. Connections actually happen on Twitter, where on LinkedIn, it's more formal. It's more, hey, we're at work, whereas the after work bar scene more is the Twitter DMs where more interesting things happen and connections occur, I would say more. 

Spencer Levy 
So, take us back for a moment. 

StripMallGuy
Sure. 

Spencer Levy
When did you send your first tweet? When did you start to get this critical mass of followers? 

StripMallGuy 
The first tweet was in June of 2021, almost two years ago. 

Spencer Levy 
Only two years ago. 

StripMallGuy 
Yeah. About two years ago. 

Spencer Levy
Yeah.

StripMallGuy
Yeah. And then I think it resonated with people in the industry who, you know… A lot of people on Twitter, right, just, maybe you're not experienced and maybe can grow a social media platform without much behind it, right? Fair enough. And for me, I think being 20 years into my career doing 37 deals or whatever it is in this small, niche space, it allows people to see, okay, this guy knows what he's doing. He understands the niche and larger accounts that are following me and saying there's some value here. And I share very openly. So some of the bigger accounts will start retweeting me, putting it out there, and then it just grew and just blew up kind of exponentially. And all we’re doing, really, is just posting my day to day thoughts as I see things happening in the industry. It's not that unique other than just sharing content and it just grew from there. It changed my life, which we’ll get into, but it’s absolutely changed my entire life in two years. 

Spencer Levy 
Changed your entire life for the better, from a business perspective.



StripMallGuy
100%. You know, a lot of fun things have happened as well. I mean, I spoke at Harvard two months ago. Doing this podcast today with you guys. I was in The Real Deal last month. But beyond that, you're making connections with people, which is what real estate really is all about. And then I started getting DMs that were like, hey, do you have a fund? Do you take outside capital? Right? And so I called our attorneys and we filed the 506(c) with the Securities and Exchange Commission. And what happens is, someone follows you for six months, understands how you think, says hey, let's meet. I'll go on LinkedIn. I'll see who they are. I’ll meet in person, and they'll say, hey, I want to give you a million dollar check, and then it becomes GP, LP. There's diligence, right? They're serious. I mean, our minimum is pretty high, so, very high net worth individuals. 

Spencer Levy
What is your minimum? 

StripMallGuy 
250, but the average is probably around 600,000, I would say. And there's folks on Twitter who have written two, three million dollar checks because, you know, normally if you go invest with a GP, maybe you get one meeting, one call for an hour. Here, they can read my thoughts for months and months and months, right? And then after they invest, they also can follow me. What's he up to? How's things going? So it gives a sense of comfort. But of course it's still sophisticated investors who do their diligence, talk to other LPs, put me through the ringer like they should on the onboarding. But the initial connection coming from Twitter is something I never would imagine would ever happen. 

Spencer Levy 
So we're here at the ICSC, the biggest real estate conference in the world. I often say we're here with 30,000 of our closest friends. How much are you going to be on Twitter today? 

StripMallGuy
It's an hour a day minimum. Okay. It's no joke. Probably 90 minutes. And, you know, you sort of get what you put into it. So, Twitter is a very much interaction platform. Followers want you to interact with them, answer their questions, engage. It's not like Instagram where you're posting and then nothing happens. So, if you don't engage with them and respond to DMs, it doesn't really work. That's why it's hard for corporations to really grow on there, because someone wants a personality behind it, who's interacting with them. Crumbl Cookie does a really good job. They have a huge account because they interact, they're funny, they respond to things, so. 

Spencer Levy 
And I like their cookies. Which is the one they make that has, like, the frosting on top?

StripMallGuy
They're all good. We have done a deal with them before. I like them as a tenant and as a business. 

Spencer Levy
Yeah, no, they have great stuff there. So without being negative, I have found on LinkedIn, on occasion, there will be… let's just get right down to it. People that will troll you. They'll send negative comments. They will say negative things about you and what you say. And I don't mind people taking me on and disagreeing with me, no problem. But I don't like them doing it in a certain way. I'm sure you see a lot more of that on Twitter. Tell us about that and what do you do about it? 

StripMallGuy 
Yeah, it's not fun. It's not something that you really get used to, but it's something that you have to learn to tolerate. It does come up pretty regularly and it stings a little bit. We're all human, but ultimately it just comes with putting yourself out there and nothing to really do about it. And so as long as you understand that that's part of the game, I would say, go for it. But I have a friend, a really smart guy in VC. Opened his Twitter account and started growing and got one negative remark that was like, pretty mean. And he just stopped. He said, you know what? It just wasn't worth it for me. So it just depends on your personality and how much you want to tolerate. But that definitely, unfortunately, is part of it and it's probably never going away. 

Spencer Levy 
The strategy that I employ, I'm not saying it's the right one, but the strategy I employ is just complete ignoring. I just don't even respond to it. Nothing. But I guess in your situation, somebody could send a really negative tweet. It can go viral. What do you do when you get one of these negative tweets? 

StripMallGuy
You try to ignore it. I mean, they want it to go viral. And so once you respond, it gets a lot of eyeballs. I've DMed them, saying hey man, like, you know, I'm not sure what I did. I'm not sure how you targeted me. But they enjoy that. You know, it really doesn't work. They don't, like, rationalize with you. And that does happen and they do go viral. But you just have to move on. There's just no other way of stopping it. Do I lose sleep over it sometimes? Yeah, I do. It's part of the game, unfortunately, so. 

Spencer Levy 
I get it. I get it. So, there's a lot of listeners out there that are on social media. LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter. What's your advice to somebody who wants to be the next StripMallGuy? 

StripMallGuy 
Just post what you know, don't worry about if it's interesting or not. Just go on there and share things that you come across that you think are interesting, right? Do less scrolling, more sharing, right? And if you do that, you'll grow an audience. It just will happen. And then the life changing things will happen. Your horizons will be broadened. I mean, you’ll meet a lot of new people, and it's about networking, right? And so, just go out there and share what you see. If you hear a funny joke, share it. If you, like, yesterday I landed in Vegas and saw a sign that said “baggage that way, liquor store that way”. I was like, Oh, I guess I'm in Vegas, right? I shared that, and it got, like, 40,000 views or whatever it is. And so, just share things that you see and magical things happen, and the reach is beyond what you can believe. For me, it's a million impressions a day. That's, what? 25 Yankee Stadiums full of people. And so that's valuable, whether it's 30,000 a day, a million a day, folks are reading it around the world and you suddenly have friends around the world. I can land in any city and say, Hey, I'm in Dubai, I'm in whatever, in Portugal, whatever it is, and I have followers there. I threw an event with Crexi at Soho House two months ago in New York. One guy flew in from Brazil, came to the event. The next morning, woke up, went back to Brazil. I think we had a hundred and twenty people fly in from around the country who follow me on Twitter, and I've never met them or anything. I don't know. It's kind of like yelling into a dark room, in a way. And so they're out there. They're silent, but it's heavy hitters. I mean, I had – the president of one of the NBA teams reached out and said, Hey, I'm a big fan. I'm like, Is this real? So next thing I know, he invites us to an NBA game. We fly out, we sit courtside, he comes out. And I'm like, how is this possibly happening? And that's just one example of what happens when you just put your content out there, and it will resonate with somebody. I guarantee it. 

Spencer Levy
Narrowing down to how a professional can best position themselves professionally online, should they be a generalist real estate expert? Should they be the leasing person? Should they be the salesperson? Should they be the property manager person? How does somebody best get themselves noticed from a Twitter or other social media audience? 

StripMallGuy 
It's all about the niches, 100%. Folks with interest in a certain, whatever it is, want to follow someone who knows that better than anyone else, right? So some hotel guy on Twitter, all he does is hotels. So like, you'll learn more from him than a generalist, right? So, there's a million niches out there. And I think that the more narrowly you focus, the better your odds of success will be, because you will be seen as the expert. 

Spencer Levy 
Got it. Got it. And I think that's true in life. The most successful professionals I know do one thing and they are the best in the world at that. And people shouldn't be shy about being great at one thing. The other question I want to ask, and this is something I follow very closely for myself on LinkedIn, is what metrics matter most? Because I can do a post and get forty, fifty thousand impressions, but no forwards. I like, personally, when somebody reposts my thing. That to me is like the highest level of compliment. That they liked it so much they’re doing it themselves. Second best is a comment, and maybe along with that is a DM, a direct message to me. How do you look at the different metrics of success and which ones are most valuable? 

StripMallGuy 
So for me it’s, number one, am I growing my network? How are DMs going? Right? And bookmarks are big on Twitter, because if someone's bookmarking your tweet, even though it's not public, I don't think, you can see it. And it means that folks want to read it later. They're saving it for a reason. So bookmarks are more important than likes, for sure. And impressions. The algorithm is good. A really good tweet will get more impressions, right? A tweet that’s not so good won’t. So, if you're suddenly getting less engagement, impressions, on your tweet, it probably wasn't that great. 

Spencer Levy
So let's talk about your deals now. Tell us about the types of strip malls the StripMallGuy likes.

StripMallGuy
Yeah. Well, I think, basically, retail is grouped into one bucket a lot of the time, right? But of course, there's the mall, there's big box, there’s grocery anchored. We're that neighborhood service-oriented small format strip center, right? It's hair salon, nail salon, dentist, Starbucks, what have you. And we haven't been impacted by the Amazons of the world over time. So, it's small format retail. I think, unique about this asset class or this niche, is 95% of these properties are not owned by institutions or funds. It's local families and folks who normally have something else going on in their life that's the main focal point. And strip malls are maybe a side business. And so a lot of times there's inefficiency that we see and address. Also, many times, that liquor store or hair salon tenant with four locations is a better business person, I would say, than the part time strip mall owner who's doing something else, and can out negotiate them. And so, if someone's paying a rent that's 30% below market, right? That's reducing the value of the property by 30%. And so for us, we believe that a viable business should pay at fair market rent, right? Nothing high. Nothing low. Just fair for everyone. So we see that gap between what they're paying and what market rent is, I think, more in this category than anywhere else in all of real estate, I would say. 

Spencer Levy 
So the inefficiency there is twofold. One is fundamental, where, so, let's go to StripMallGuy for just a moment. We had some fun with this and I'm sure you're having some fun with it as well, I hope. But prior to this episode we said, oh, why don't you just dress up like Gene Simmons from KISS, put the makeup on, or the unknown comic, who used to wear a paper bag over his head. But you're not going by your actual name. Tell us why. 

StripMallGuy 
Look, I started this account 20 years into my career. A career that I'm proud of. I've raised $100 million and 35 deals going into this. And so I'm not sure what it looks like to make a big change and be a public person. I'm not sure how that works for our investors or really what that does. I don't want to rock the boat. Also, it's privacy, right? I live in Manhattan. We have a three year old son. I walk around a lot and the thought of someone saying, oh, StripMallGuy, and stopping us, just maybe it's my personality or whatever is it? It freaks me out a little bit. So, the privacy thing is really important to me. I mean, yesterday, I'm here at the Wynn and I was FaceTiming with my son and he liked all the colors of the trees in the lobby. And so then, last night, someone tweets, oh, I saw StripMallGuy facetiming at the Wynn and videotaping the trees. And so I responded. I said, look, that was me facetiming with my son. And this is a reason why I want to be anonymous, right? And I don't know how they knew it was me or what have you, but I think I'm maybe an introvert. I just don't want to be a public person, whatever that means, because once that happens, there's really no going back. I mean, look, I have some investors that, if they walk around, they're recognized. And during COVID, wearing a mask, in a way, they wouldn’t admit it, but I can tell they didn't mind going to the store wearing a mask and not worrying about the privacy element of it. So, it's kind of a one way street. And frankly, it scares me a little bit. 

Spencer Levy 
Let's go to another angle within social media and influencers, and some people out there, that make a lot of money doing that

StripMallGuy
Yep.

Spencer Levy
And maybe that's their sole job. But if your sole job, or your primary profession, is to buy, sell, lease, real estate, maybe that's not the right way to go because you would lose that large funnel at the opening saying, oh, this person is just selling their services rather than being, keeping it real.

StripMallGuy
Right.

Spencer Levy
And so, I guess keeping it real is sort of the motto. 

StripMallGuy 
Yeah. I mean, for me, right, the oxygen for me is to keep buying deals and executing for our investors, right? If I stop doing that, StripMallGuy goes away. I lose credibility, right? And so, I've got to keep executing and finding deals, because that's what's most important. And, you know, like, later on in life, if I'm going to go give talks or write a book or what have you, I'll look into that. But right now, the most important thing is finding deals, buying properties the right way, adding value. 

Spencer Levy 
Got it. Got it. Well, maybe you'll change one day, but for right now, a million impressions a day, it certainly has monetizable value if you ever chose to go in that direction. So what advice would you give to somebody that wants to be the next StripMallGuy? We asked that question, but I want to ask about the anonymity thing. I don't know that anonymity works for most people. 

StripMallGuy
Yeah. 

Spencer Levy
Do you agree with that? 

StripMallGuy 
Correct. I think that being anonymous reduces your chances of success, overall. For me, it was kind of a unique situation because being an account that's anonymous, you're really a channel where the followers know right away what they're getting. So there’s, you know, StripMallGuy. CarDealershipGuy is blowing up, also, because everyone knows, okay, I’m getting data, content, whatever it is. But for brokers, you want your name out there so that buyers and sellers will think of you and DM you, etc. It's harder to grow, I think, anonymously. And there's a trust element. It’s part of the reason I'm doing this podcast. I did an event with Crexi, because there is that question, always, which, it's tough, right? And so turning these connections that you make online into real life connections is really the whole key to Twitter. And doing it anonymously is more challenging. So I would say to keep your real self out there and tweet about things that you see everyday as you. And I think most large accounts in the real estate space are not anonymous and they're growing fast. And I think I'm leaving opportunities on the table, for sure, by being anonymous. 

Spencer Levy 
I’m gonna tell you a funny story. So in the last, I would say, year, two years, two of my most popular posts were a photograph of me eating a hamburger, and it was at the Minneapolis airport. It's called a Juicy Lucy. I don't know why it resonated, but more hits than some of my really thoughtful, at least, and yes, I do try to be thoughtful about these things. I used to write blogs. I stopped doing that because there was no engagement. But some of the more thoughtful ones aren't the most highly engaged. But nevertheless, I still do them. What's your point of view on the more comedic versus the more substantive? 

StripMallGuy 
Correct. Okay, so there is the pond of real estate Twitter. And then there's the ocean of Twitter. Okay? So, my tweets that are for the pond of real estate Twitter resonate well and they do well within the folks that are more, I guess, relevant to what I do every day. And they appreciate that. But, those bore the rest of the world, quote unquote. And so I try to have a balance. And so the folks that follow the account for the real estate nuggets don't love when I tweet about my son or whatever it is, even though I like putting things out there. But there's a subset that love those tweets. And so I kind of have to do all of the above, I think, in order to really maximize the potential on there. 

Spencer Levy 
And I do post some personal stuff, and I note, for the record, we are sitting here in a studio with my son, Will, and he’s sitting next to me. And I bring him to these business events and he's got to put up with the old man once in a while. But I post pictures of me with my kids on LinkedIn when I'm at an event, and I give a business purpose. But, how important is it to bring you, the whole you, to the show, given your concern over anonymity? 

StripMallGuy 
I think, very important. So, it's not as much, I mean, the content’s important, but it's also, who is behind the content? So a lot of the followers want to know who's behind the account, want to know about them, because it makes the actual content mean a lot more. Yeah. And back to your point earlier, I never know what tweet is going to do well. So some tweets I'll spend 3 hours on a thread and it'll get no views, or I'll tweet a photo of something I see and get 3 million views, and, like, you know, Bill Ackman will retweet it or whatever it is. So it's very hard to predict what's going to do well and what's not going to do well. So you just gotta keep going and basically create content for all your audiences and just see what happens. 

Spencer Levy 
So, if a person who’s high profile retweets your tweet, will you ever DM a guy like that and say, hey, I saw you like my tweet. You like real estate? Do you do that? 

StripMallGuy 
I do it all the time. It's actually amazing. So, I will reach out to folks that follow me and do that. There was – one of the top tennis players in the world liked one of my tweets. I reached out and said, Hey, I'm a fan. He said, Oh, I'll be in New York next month. And, you know, we had dinner. We're friends now. One of the, I think captains even, of the Buffalo Bills is a follower. I said, Hey, I'm a fan. He's like, actually, we're playing the, I think it was the Jets in New York. Let's have dinner. So now we had dinner. So, like, I very much follow who is following the account, who's engaging, and I reach out. And so the magic is turning those Twitter connections into real life friendships and relationships, obviously.

Spencer Levy  
Well I think that's a great story because I do, on LinkedIn, I occasionally get a professional athlete, CEOs of big companies, and I have DMed with them on occasion. But it's not developing the personal touch, personal relationships like you are, really, at the forefront of creating, through your terrific work on Twitter. So let's talk about where we are right now. We're in a room right now in CBRE’s booth at the ICSC in Vegas. 30,000 of our closest friends. Why are you here? I met you actually at the ICSC New York, if you recall, in January. And so what is important about this event? This is sort of the human version of Twitter, if you will. 

StripMallGuy 
Correct. So, real estate, the most important thing by far is deal flow, right? So for me, I've got to do everything I can to be top of mind for brokers as they come across real estate and deals that they think I should look at, right? So, every broker who I meet here, and put a face to the name, right? I'll be more top of mind, and then when I call them next week or in two weeks and say hey, what do you got? They obviously met me, so it's more meaningful. But for us, being top of mind for the brokers is why we're here, is why we go to ICSC, because everything else is much easier. Leasing is not rocket science, right, and selling a property, etc. But it's deal flow, deal, flow, deal, flow. And that's the best ROI of my time. And Twitter is helping me with that, as well. 

Spencer Levy 
Well, let me defend my leasing professionals because, it may not be brain surgery, but no, we're not going to cut it out because, I'll tell you what, it is a lot harder than people think because, look, you got a landlord, you got a tenant, you got a rent. Bam. Our top professionals are some of the smartest, most engaged people. And the thing that makes them great is they bring their whole selves to their jobs. Some of our top professionals that we've had on this very show, there's no real separation between the personal and the professional, and that's how they're able to land the million dollar commission type deals. 

StripMallGuy 
Correct. So I've worked with your leasing brokers. They're great. I like them a lot. We've cut checks to CBRE. We're happy to do it now. Now, leasing, I think, is the hardest part of the operation of real estate. But overall, finding deals is kind of where it starts. I think that's harder. I tweet a lot about how hard leasing is and how proactive you have to be and how an elbow space and an end cap, like, you know, can't use the same rents. And so totally agree as far as the operation goes, that's a very difficult thing, and no one can just jump into it. It takes real expertise to lease in retail, I think, more than many other niches in our industry. So I don't want to take anything away from that. I was making the point that deal flow is really, really hard, but leasing is challenging as well and definitely a valued strategy for us. 

Spencer Levy 
So let's go back to real estate for a moment. How many properties do you own today? What's the long term plan for StripMallGuy, and his budding real estate empire? 

StripMallGuy 
Sure. So we're a close ended fund. So that means that we sort of legally have to sell everything within seven years, right? And so, over the years, we purchased 37 deals now. And I think we own half a dozen at the moment, and it's growing rapidly. We're deploying capital like crazy right now. It's a $100 million fund right now. And so we're a quarter deployed. And part of the reason I'm here is to let your brokers know to DM me on Twitter. We're buying deals. We close every deal all cash. We just did a deal with a large institution and their PSA comments came back to them in 4 hours. We closed all cash in 30 days. We make it easy for the brokers because we understand this asset class. So we'll buy any property, anywhere in the country. To me, retail, no matter where. 

Spencer Levy
And so what's the smallest size? Biggest size? So this is the opportunity to tell the world. Beyond, you’re already telling the world on Twitter, what works for you? What doesn't work for you? 

StripMallGuy 
So for us, the lower cap rate deal with the stabilized assets we can't really add much value are great, but it's not part of our niche game plan. We like a little bit riskier properties than that, so vacancy doesn't scare us. I call it Class B retail, right? So older buildings. I don't mind noncredit. I don't mind unanchored. And so, it's really that B property that, over seven years, we can make it look nicer, fill the vacancy, maybe divide a space that's 8000 feet and make it more leasable, address the elbow space. So, it's really a roll up your sleeves, true value-out approach of getting down and dirty and figuring out how to turn some of these sites around. 

Spencer Levy 
What about minimum size, maximum size?

StripMallGuy 
Million dollar minimum. A thirty million dollar maximum. We can go more than that, but I can't close in 30 days if we go more than that. I think probably 60 days. We don't get loans until after we close escrow. And if we buy a property, we have to resell it within seven years, meaning that as long as we're in touch with that broker that sold it to us, we'll list it with them again, of course. 

Spencer Levy 
So let me ask you two wrap up questions, if I could. So first, what's the future of StripMallGuy on social media? And the second, what's the future of your real estate strategy? 

StripMallGuy 
Yeah, sure. So I think as far as my social media goes, I talked to a guy named Chris Powers who runs The Fort podcast. He's out of Fort Worth and he's like, look, at some point, it's got to go somewhere for you other than this Twitter account. So, I'm now just telling a lot of brokers who I am, right? And so that's changed in the last kind of a month and a half. So that makes us more top of mind as far as our company, not just the brand. So I think I'm going to do more of that so that next year, as I walk around, I don't mind being recognized in this setting, right? I think it's actually beneficial. So that's the future, I hope, there. Beyond that, I don't know. It's sort of exciting that I don't know where else this goes, right? So if it's a million impressions now, what is it in five years or ten years or whatever it is? 

Spencer Levy
You think you might try a new platform or expand to LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram? 

StripMallGuy
I started a LinkedIn recently. It's actually growing at like, 300 a day, recently, which really surprised me. So it's not much interaction there, but it's definitely growing and resonating with some brokers that, funny enough, I know them in real life and who don't know it's me. It's like my old colleagues when I was a broker when I started. And so, sort of funny. It doesn't really work on Instagram because you don't have the interaction piece. So for now, I don't have time to really look into all of that. I have to find deals, but, very open to it in the long run. 

Spencer Levy
So, let's talk about your real estate strategy going forward. I love the type of real estate you're buying. I love your strategy. And I say this not just because you're here, because I've said for years, unanchored neighborhood centers that are below the institutional radar, are the most undervalued type of real estate. And now that I've given you the unsolicited compliment, where are you going? How big do you want to be? Do you want to change your capital strategy? What's the future look like? 

StripMallGuy 
Sure. So I think once you get over ten million dollars in deal size, and a lot of the inefficiency goes away, it gets harder. It doesn't make much sense for a lot of the larger companies to buy a three million dollar deal like we do, and make deals on 7,000 square foot spaces. So for me, it's a niche that I'm pretty good at. Like, I haven't graduated to grocery anchored and big box because I feel like I have an advantage if I don't, right? And so for me, I want to keep focusing on finding these smaller deals under 10 million, but do it more nationwide. 

Spencer Levy 
Great. On behalf of The Weekly Take, what a privilege to have StripMallGuy here today, talking real estate, talking social media, and hopefully some tips that can work for our audience so they, too, can be the next StripMallGuy. 

StripMallGuy 
Can't thank you enough, and find me on Twitter. Everyone DM me and I’d love to connect in real life. 

Spencer Levy
Thank you very much, StripMallGuy. 

StripMallGuy 
Thank you, sir. 

Spencer Levy
For more, please visit our Website, CBRE.com/TheWeeklyTake, and follow us on LinkedIn and other sites as well. Also, don't forget to share the show and use the “Talk to Us” feature to send feedback, questions or requests, which we might follow up on in a future episode. And of course, we hope you'll subscribe, rate and review us wherever you listen. We'll have more from the 2023 Las Vegas ICSC event in the weeks ahead, and we'll keep on covering a wide range of topics and welcoming inspiring thought leaders from commercial real estate and the wider world of business. So stay tuned for lots more to come. Thanks for joining us. I'm Spencer Levy. Be smart. Be safe. Be well.