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Linda Holtz arrived in the U.S. from France at 22 with no network, no real estate experience, and a door-to-door sales job. Today she syndicates 200+ unit multifamily deals across Texas with her husband through Married 2 Real Estate.

In this episode of Carson's Corner, Linda shares how a property management job taught her the operations side most investors never learn, how house hacking a Chicago triplex during COVID became her on-ramp to commercial real estate, and why she and her husband moved to Texas to scale into large multifamily syndications and even a ground-up retail development outside Houston.

Carson and Linda dig into what really matters in a deal — why "who's doing the deal with us" now drives 70-80% of their decision, how they vet a property's condition beyond the pretty pictures, why over communicating with passive investors beats surprises every time, and what it takes to build a real estate business with your spouse. They also get into where real estate is headed over the next decade: AI, automation, and why relationships and trust will still win.

Whether you're a busy professional looking at your first passive deal or an operator scaling into bigger syndications, this conversation is proof you don't need money, a background, or a network to start — just relentless work and the right partners.

Connect with Linda: LinkedIn (Linda Holtz), married2realestate.com, Instagram @M2RETX, or her weekly online networking call, Save the Chat.

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For business or property evaluations you can reach me at 615-212-5524

Or Carson@passive.investments

Connect with me:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/carsonjones/

Other Episodes:

https://carsonscorner.media/

https://passive.investments/podcast/

Watch all episodes with no commercials on Vimeo here: https://vimeo.com/showcase/12248178

https://rumble.com/c/Carsonscorner

Disclaimer: This podcast is for informational and educational purposes only and should not be considered professional advice. Always consult your attorney, CPA, or financial advisor before making any financial decisions. All investments and property ownership carry risk, including the potential loss of principal.

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Paul Shannon walked away from corporate America in 2019 and built a 200+ unit portfolio through deep value-add deals. Then he did something most operators never do: he stepped back — right at the peak of the 2021 euphoria, when floating-rate bridge debt and 18% IRR projections were everywhere. That unpopular call saved his investors from the wipeouts that followed, and it shaped the perspective behind his new book, Both Sides of the Table, out now on Amazon.

In this episode of Carson's Corner, Paul breaks down how he evaluates deals today as founder of InvestWise Collective — why yield on cost matters more than cap rates in value-add underwriting, how he builds margin of safety with multiple exit options, and why he's hunting distressed opportunities directly through lender workout departments. He also shares the story of pulling his fund out of a 14% debt fund when the sponsor denied access to the loan tape — a masterclass in reading red flags and acting on them.

Carson and Paul get into the mindset shift every passive investor needs: going from "syndication consumer" to capital allocator. Why the default answer to any pitch deck should be no, how misaligned fees and IRR-driven waterfalls pushed operators to over-promise, what counterparty risk really means as a fund manager, and how diversification across markets, asset classes, and sponsors builds an all-weather real estate portfolio.

Whether you're an LP writing your first check or a GP navigating a foggy market, this conversation is about pricing risk honestly — before it prices you.

Connect with Paul: investwisecollective.com, LinkedIn (Paul Shannon), his book Both Sides of the Table on Amazon, or the PassivePockets community.

Support the show

For business or property evaluations you can reach me at 615-212-5524

Or Carson@passive.investments

Connect with me:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/carsonjones/

Other Episodes:

https://carsonscorner.media/

https://passive.investments/podcast/

Watch all episodes with no commercials on Vimeo here: https://vimeo.com/showcase/12248178

https://rumble.com/c/Carsonscorner

Disclaimer: This podcast is for informational and educational purposes only and should not be considered professional advice. Always consult your attorney, CPA, or financial advisor before making any financial decisions. All investments and property ownership carry risk, including the potential loss of principal.

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What if you could earn the kind of returns banks make — without tenants, toilets, or 2am repair calls? In this episode of Carson's Corner, Carson sits down with Shawn Muneio of Bequest Asset Management to break down how everyday investors can "be the bank" and build genuinely passive income.

Shawn shares his journey from building some of the largest data centers in the world for Google, Facebook, and Microsoft, to chasing the passive-income dream through rental real estate — only to discover it was "just another job." That realization led him to mortgage notes. He tells the story of buying his very first loan, a non-performing mortgage on a duplex in Aurora, Colorado, meeting the borrower at a Starbucks, and watching a defaulted note turn back into reliable cash flow. That's when it clicked: being the lender is the real path to scalable, passive income.

We get into how Bequest invests today — performing and re-performing junior-lien mortgages on owner-occupied residential homes bought at a discount, why residential debt carries different risk than today's troubled commercial notes, and how the team still leans on hard-won experience to fix loans when they go bad. Shawn also opens up about Bequest's commercial holdings (including a 61,000-square-foot medical office building in Houston), why local knowledge matters in CRE, and his candid take on the AI build-out boom from someone who knows the brutal economics of data centers firsthand.

Finally, Shawn explains the Bequest Bond — a Regulation A offering approved by the SEC that opens this private-credit strategy to the general public. It's a fixed-income vehicle paying a higher yield than a savings account, backed by the mortgages Bequest buys, with audited financials and annual filings like a public company. Six years in business, 400+ investors, 70+ consecutive monthly distributions, and a track record of never missing a payment.

Whether you're an entrepreneur, a real estate investor, or just someone tired of watching cash sit in a savings account, this conversation is a masterclass in building income that actually works while you sleep.

https://bqfunds.com/

Support the show

For business or property evaluations you can reach me at 615-212-5524

Or Carson@passive.investments

Connect with me:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/carsonjones/

Other Episodes:

https://carsonscorner.media/

https://passive.investments/podcast/

Watch all episodes with no commercials on Vimeo here: https://vimeo.com/showcase/12248178

https://rumble.com/c/Carsonscorner

Disclaimer: This podcast is for informational and educational purposes only and should not be considered professional advice. Always consult your attorney, CPA, or financial advisor before making any financial decisions. All investments and property ownership carry risk, including the potential loss of principal.

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Brian Walter has been trading markets since 1996 — through the Russian crisis, the dot-com bubble, the '08 financial crisis at the epicenter of credit at UBS, COVID, and the fastest rate hike in recent memory. Today he's Co-Founder and Managing Partner at Fairbridge Asset Management, where he runs portfolio management, finance, and operations, and sits on the credit committee.

In this conversation, Brian breaks down how private lenders are filling the void left by regional banks pulling back after Silicon Valley Bank and First Republic — and why it's the same playbook that reshaped corporate credit after Dodd-Frank and Basel III, now playing out in real estate.

We get into:

• Why private credit wins on speed, certainty of close, creativity, and proceeds — closing in 30–45 days versus a bank's 90–120
• The sub-$50M (and even sub-$30M) lending sweet spot the multi-billion-dollar managers won't touch
• Why every default Fairbridge has ever had came down to one thing: execution, not valuation
• The bridge lending life cycle — land, construction, rehab, and lease-up — and how risk and pricing shift across it
• Where we are in the real estate credit cycle: Sun Belt oversupply in Austin, Vegas, Nashville, and Atlanta versus a tight, strong Northeast and California
• How foreclosure timelines (2.5 years in NYC vs. 30 days in Texas) directly shape LTV and where they'll lend
• Why the Rust Belt revival — Columbus, the Intel plant, Kansas City — is beating the overcrowded Sun Belt trade
• Reading migration through cell phone and U-Haul data, and what immigration enforcement is doing to construction labor

A masterclass in risk, discipline, and finding the less-competitive corners of the market — for entrepreneurs, investors, and anyone watching commercial real estate. Connect with Brian on LinkedIn or at brian@fairbridgelc.com.

Support the show

For business or property evaluations you can reach me at 615-212-5524

Or Carson@passive.investments

Connect with me:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/carsonjones/

Other Episodes:

https://carsonscorner.media/

https://passive.investments/podcast/

Watch all episodes with no commercials on Vimeo here: https://vimeo.com/showcase/12248178

https://rumble.com/c/Carsonscorner

Disclaimer: This podcast is for informational and educational purposes only and should not be considered professional advice. Always consult your attorney, CPA, or financial advisor before making any financial decisions. All investments and property ownership carry risk, including the potential loss of principal.

Send us Fan Mail

What happens when you buy a business, do everything "right," and it still blows up in your face? Jed Morris knows. After 10 years in Air Force financial management and acquisition (rising to the Pentagon), an NYU Stern MBA, and software engineering work at Microsoft, Jed jumped into entrepreneurship through acquisition—and his first deal, a landscaping company, failed spectacularly. Instead of hiding it, he's interviewed 100+ buyers who lived through the same thing, and the patterns he found will save you from making the same mistakes.

Jed brings a rare depth of knowledge to this space, and this was one of the most genuinely enjoyable conversations I've had on the show.

In this episode, Carson sits down with Jed (founder of Sunset Coastal Partners and Searcher School) to pull back the curtain on what nobody tells first-time buyers:

• Why roughly 60% of failed acquisitions involve direct seller fraud—and how to spot a shady owner before you sign
• The off-market search playbook: building lists, cold outreach at 10x the scale most searchers attempt, and why "off-market is just sales"
• Why bigger businesses are actually SAFER than small ones—and how the SBA 7(a) program's incredible leverage can become "an anvil around your neck"
• The truth about personal guarantees, insolvency, and why you need to call a bankruptcy attorney in YOUR state before you ever sign
• What an SBIC is and how government contractors raise capital without losing small-business set-asides
• Why the legal system won't save you (70% of civil judgments are never collected) and how purchase agreements are really just "legal insurance"
• How to actually run diligence—taking info at face value pre-LOI, then hunting red flags the first week after
• Carson's hybrid off-market approach: flyers, NDAs, and deadlines that make serious capital move
• Cutting through the fin-fluencer noise (yes, Cody Sanchez comes up) and why "buying a portfolio of small businesses to run passively is just stupid"

Whether you're a first-time searcher, an investor, or a commercial real estate pro curious about the world of business acquisitions, this is an honest, no-hype conversation about risk, integrity, and what it really takes to win.

Connect with Jed Morris: Find him on LinkedIn (send a DM—he replies personally) and join his free Searcher School community, with a paid coaching program available through the same platform. His book, Buyer Beware, is on the way.

Support the show

For business or property evaluations you can reach me at 615-212-5524

Or Carson@passive.investments

Connect with me:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/carsonjones/

Other Episodes:

https://carsonscorner.media/

https://passive.investments/podcast/

Watch all episodes with no commercials on Vimeo here: https://vimeo.com/showcase/12248178

https://rumble.com/c/Carsonscorner

Disclaimer: This podcast is for informational and educational purposes only and should not be considered professional advice. Always consult your attorney, CPA, or financial advisor before making any financial decisions. All investments and property ownership carry risk, including the potential loss of principal.

Send us Fan Mail

Most investors think you have to be a national homebuilder to profit from America's housing shortage. Brandon Cobb built a business proving otherwise.

In this episode of Carson's Corner, Carson sits down with Brandon Cobb — founder of HBG Capital and creator of the Land Development Accelerator — to break down what he calls the fastest-growing secret in real estate: American land development.

The opportunity is hard to ignore. More than 33% of homebuyers are searching for their first home, yet fewer than 10% of new homes being built are actually affordable to them. Brandon's playbook is to take raw land, move it through development, and deliver finished, build-ready lots to national homebuilders — often pre-sold before a shovel ever hits the dirt.

Brandon walks through the three phases of development that drive value: entitlement (getting raw land approved for a new community), infrastructure (grading and installing utilities to create a ready-to-build neighborhood), and vertical construction (building the homes). He explains his "reverse engineering" strategy — identifying where national homebuilders are already buying and targeting larger parcels nearby to create forced appreciation before he ever purchases the asset.

In this conversation, Carson and Brandon get into:

→ How land development creates value in a corner of real estate most investors never look at
→ Why entry-level housing is one of the most recession-resistant assets in the country
→ The three phases that move raw land from dirt to a finished community
→ How pre-selling to a national homebuilder mitigates risk before you close
→ The due diligence that protects beginners — geotech, phase one environmental, and endangered species reports
→ Why Brandon prefers private lenders over banks for flexible terms and fewer called loans
→ How AI agents are now automating bookkeeping, due diligence, and admin work in his deals
→ Who the Land Development Accelerator is really built for — and who it isn't

Whether you're a builder looking to scale, a land flipper hunting bigger deals, or an entrepreneur searching for a real asset play, this conversation lays out the model from the ground up.

Resources: → Free course — Land Development 101: https://learnlanddevelopment.com → Passive investment opportunities: https://hbgcap.net/waitlist → HBG Capital: https://www.hbgcapital.net

Connect with Brandon Cobb at HBG Capital.

Support the show

For business or property evaluations you can reach me at 615-212-5524

Or Carson@passive.investments

Connect with me:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/carsonjones/

Other Episodes:

https://carsonscorner.media/

https://passive.investments/podcast/

Watch all episodes with no commercials on Vimeo here: https://vimeo.com/showcase/12248178

https://rumble.com/c/Carsonscorner

Disclaimer: This podcast is for informational and educational purposes only and should not be considered professional advice. Always consult your attorney, CPA, or financial advisor before making any financial decisions. All investments and property ownership carry risk, including the potential loss of principal.

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What does it look like to buy a business with zero industry experience, nearly go broke twice, and still build a 10-company HVAC roll-up out of McKinney, TX? Nathan Lindley lived it.

In February 2020 — just weeks before COVID shut down the world — Nathan closed on his first HVAC acquisition using his own equity, his dad's retirement, and an inheritance loan from a friend. The business came with exactly one technician who held all the leverage, an owner-dependent customer base, and a model that almost ended Nathan's entrepreneurial career before it started.

After 15 years running a book publishing company, Nathan wanted something more consistent. What he got instead was a crash course in why buying a $250K mom-and-pop with no operational experience is one of the most dangerous moves in small business acquisition.

In this episode, Carson and Nathan break down:

• Why his first acquisition almost killed the entire vision
• The straight-commission overhaul that turned the business around and unlocked scale
• His "buying at-bats" framework — why he ignores current profitability and targets call volume instead
• How he competes against private equity-backed HVAC giants without paying their Google ad prices
• The roll-up playbook he'd use if he had to start over today
• What he'd buy instead of HVAC — and whether he has any regrets
• Why he believes most PE firms in the trades can't actually operate the businesses they acquire

Now working on acquisition number 11 and eyeing a potential exit within the next year, Nathan shares the hard-won lessons that only come from almost losing it all — twice.

Whether you're an aspiring acquirer, a roll-up operator, or an investor looking at the home services space, this conversation is a playbook in survival, incentive alignment, and building real enterprise value in a fragmented industry.

Connect with Nathan Lindley: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nathanlindley/

Support the show

For business or property evaluations you can reach me at 615-212-5524

Or Carson@passive.investments

Connect with me:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/carsonjones/

Other Episodes:

https://carsonscorner.media/

https://passive.investments/podcast/

Watch all episodes with no commercials on Vimeo here: https://vimeo.com/showcase/12248178

https://rumble.com/c/Carsonscorner

Disclaimer: This podcast is for informational and educational purposes only and should not be considered professional advice. Always consult your attorney, CPA, or financial advisor before making any financial decisions. All investments and property ownership carry risk, including the potential loss of principal.

Send us Fan Mail

A bucket on a fishing pole. That's how Gregg Trosper first watched a Nashville band collect tips, and that's the moment Band Buddy was born.

In this episode of Carson's Corner, I sit down with Gregg Trosper, founder of Band Buddy, the mobile platform turning live performances into interactive, cashless, revenue-generating experiences for artists and venues. After a five-month beta across 295 live shows, artists using Band Buddy saw an average 42% lift in tips. Now Gregg is scaling the platform to power everything from neighborhood bars to stadium crowds.

We get into:

• Why traditional tipping feels like "begging" and how digital changes the artist-fan dynamic
• The gamification mechanic that lets fans bid up song requests and drives total tips higher
• Building "stage mode" vs. "crowd mode" — designing one platform for bars, theaters, and festivals
• Reducing friction with QR-code and text-based access instead of app store downloads
• Why 60% of venue patrons stay longer and return when interactivity is higher (and what that means for bar owners)
• The power of surrounding yourself with mentors, advisors with prior exits, and the right development partner
• Building a startup inside Nashville's music ecosystem

This conversation is bigger than live music. It's a case study in spotting a real-world problem, validating it with data, and building technology that aligns the incentives of artists, fans, and venues all at once. If you're an entrepreneur, investor, or anyone curious about where fan engagement and creator monetization are headed, this one is for you.

Learn more or get Band Buddy at your venue: https://bandbuddylive.com

Support the show

For business or property evaluations you can reach me at 615-212-5524

Or Carson@passive.investments

Connect with me:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/carsonjones/

Other Episodes:

https://carsonscorner.media/

https://passive.investments/podcast/

Watch all episodes with no commercials on Vimeo here: https://vimeo.com/showcase/12248178

https://rumble.com/c/Carsonscorner

Disclaimer: This podcast is for informational and educational purposes only and should not be considered professional advice. Always consult your attorney, CPA, or financial advisor before making any financial decisions. All investments and property ownership carry risk, including the potential loss of principal.