The developer should be willing to have their own money exposed to the same risks as their investors. Oak IQ Investments sits in the equity alongside its investors. That means the developer is not simply putting a deal together and standing on the sidelines. The team co-invests in the deals…
A development deal has different layers of capital, and each layer carries a different level of risk. At the bottom is the construction loan. The bank or lender provides the debt needed to improve the land and build the project. It is usually the largest and cheapest part of the…
Real estate value can increase before a single dollar of cash flow shows up. That starts with entitlement. A piece of land may begin as an agriculturally zoned property with limited use. Once the approvals are in place to build hundreds of units, the same land can become far more…
One of the biggest risks in a development deal can be hiding in plain sight. Entitlement is often just one line in a pitch deck. But it can take months or even years to get the approvals needed to build a project. A deal can look great on paper and…
The cheapest part of a development project can also be one of the most dangerous. The land may look perfect, but there can be major questions hiding underneath it. The zoning may not allow the project you want to build. The soil may create problems. Utilities may not be where…
Most real estate investors are trained to look for cash flow. They buy rental properties or stabilized deals because they want steady income and mailbox money. Ground-up development works differently. The investor may put money into a deal that pays nothing for several years. That does not mean the investment…
There is another tax benefit oil and gas investors need to understand. It is called the depletion allowance. 15% of the cash flow from an oil investment can receive this tax treatment. So if an oil deal generates $100,000 in cash flow, the taxable portion would be $85,000. That means…
One reason investors look at oil and gas is the potential tax benefits. Certain investments can include intangible drilling costs, tangible drilling costs, and a depletion allowance. These tax benefits may be used against earned income, including W-2 income, when the requirements are met. That means a large portion of…
Spreading your money across many wells also protects you if something goes wrong. If a fund owns 10% of an $18 million well, that is very different from owning the whole well. For a lawsuit to reach you, it would have to be huge. Think over $250 million. First, the…
Oil and gas investing can come with a risk most new investors do not think about. Liability. With a non-operated working interest, there may not be entity-level liability protection between you and the well. That means an environmental incident could create exposure. You cannot remove that risk completely. But diversification…
Putting $200,000 into one oil well means a lot depends on that one well producing. A fund can take that same capital and spread it across 20, 30, or even 40 horizontal wells. You may have a small interest in each one. Maybe 7% in one well, 3% in another,…
For decades, private equity was the gold standard—outperforming public markets and building massive wealth. But something quietly broke. Today, the biggest funds are underperforming, capital is getting stuck, and the old playbook isn’t working anymore. In this episode, we break down exactly why that shift happened—and more importantly, where the…
A horizontal oil well can reach oil that a straight-down well cannot. It goes down about 20,000 feet, then turns sideways and goes up to three miles through the rock. When it reaches the right spot, the well is filled with sand and water is pushed in with high pressure…
Why are investors putting money into oil and gas funds? There are a few reasons. Higher early cash flow can create income sooner. There are also tax advantages that can make these investments more attractive to certain investors. Then there is the power of collective capital. Instead of putting all…
Most people think buying an oil stock means they are investing in oil. It does not give you direct ownership of the oil. You own a piece of a company that may be involved in the oil industry. That means the price of the stock can move for many reasons…
If you want asymmetric outcomes in your portfolio, if you actually want to build durable wealth instead of just hoping the mainstream financial system works out for you, here's the trade. You have to put in the time to get educated on alternative assets. Not surface level, actually understand how…
Ben Oberg wrote a whole chapter in his book called Average Is An Anchor, and here's why. He said he never looks at the term average, because he knows he's not average in anything he applies himself to, and if he's not average, he's not going to attract anyone average…
Ben Oberg told me why he stopped managing his own rentals, and it's the same reason a lot of serious investors eventually make the switch. He said, I've got a team, the property management, the underwriting skill, the deal valuation, and honestly I don't want to do any of that…
Ben Oberg said something on the show I haven't been able to shake. Unless you want to stay in the middle class your whole life, work forever, never have options, never have financial freedom, and basically be a sheep, doing what you're told and never questioning any of it, then…
What if the best deal in your portfolio paid you absolutely nothing for three years? No cash flow. No distributions. Just silence. In this episode, we break down why that might actually be a sign you’re in the right deal—and how most investors misunderstand where real estate profits really come…
I talk about this all the time. Most people don't have a portfolio problem, they have a bucket problem. It doesn't matter how much income you pour into that bucket, there are leaks. Lifestyle creep. Taxes, one of the biggest leaks there is. Some people throw a little into an…
Ben Oberg walked me through something most people investing through a financial advisor have never heard of. Independent advisors write their insurance business through something called an IMO, an insurance marketing organization. Think of it like Sotheby's for real estate agents. The IMO takes a wholesale commission, two to two…
Ben Oberg said something on the show that's hard to argue with once you actually run the numbers. There's more than enough data to show the standard advice, max your 401k, buy an annuity, count on eight percent in the stock market, mathematically cannot work the way people think it…
Ben Oberg runs The Capitalist Network, a community of accredited investors, and he told me something that still doesn't feel real. They opened up an oil fund raise. Before they even dropped the link to invest, prior investors had already committed one point eight million dollars. They capped the fund…
