There are three simple rules to success when investing in real estate today, Wait, Pass, and Sprint. There is a vast portfolio of heavily discounted distressed commercial real estate deals under the surface, hidden from view and moving towards making their debut on the market on heavily discounted terms either through foreclosure, note sale, rescue capital, or litigation. Inexperienced sponsors who have built large portfolios quickly in the last few years are panicking, figuring out how to save their assets, wondering what to say to their investors, and thankful they charged excessive fees earlier on because they’re going to need them to cover legal fees if they don’t handle investor relations effectively, right now. Seasoned professionals, however, are sitting pretty. They have cash and they are waiting, patiently, for the inevitable surge of off-market distressed assets.   That’s Part One to success in a distressed real estate market: The Wait. Deals are coming to market but truly professional sponsors are watching as other, less experienced buyers, have been and continue to make unrealistic assumptions to justify their purchases: overly ambitious rent growth projections, aggressive exit cap rates to juice returns, unrealistically short projected deal timelines (to pump up IRR projections). That’s Part Two: Pass on deals that are being overbid on and acquired by amateurs. And that brings us to Part Three: The Sprint. When there is a deal that makes sense and you have the chance to buy a heavily discounted distressed deal, you’re going to need to move with blistering speed on due diligence, underwriting, and capitalization to give a seller, desperate to be relieved of their misery, certainty of close and to win the deal from other aggressive, professional buyers. Brad Ahrens, President of Concord Development Partners, and I discuss these three aspects of successful distressed deal investing in the latest episode of The Real Estate Reality Show, available on YouTube here: https://www.youtube.com/gowercrowd?sub_confirmation=1 on all podcast channels, and via the (free) GowerCrowd newsletter, here: https://gowercrowd.com/subscribe  *** In this brand new podcast series at GowerCrowd, The Real Estate Reality Show, we take a realistic view of commercial real estate investing, providing pragmatic insights for passive investors who are looking for sponsors they can trust and distressed opportunities they can invest in. You’ll find no quick fixes or easy money ideas here, no sales pitches, big egos or hype. You’ll learn how to build your wealth while protecting your capital investing as a limited partner in commercial real estate investments, even and especially during an economic downturn. Subscribe to our YouTube channel here: https://www.youtube.com/gowercrowd?sub_confirmation=1