Great Operators, Detail Orientation and New Deals
The traits necessary to be a great success
Hello Timeless Investors.
Grateful as always to get to write to you, and hope the content is still resonating.
I want to start off with our first official poll. I was given feedback by a close friend and investor (amongst the Timeless Investor ranks) that the pace of articles & content production on our side is a bit too much. So I want to ask you all - what’s your preferred pace?
I think what I will probably do is segment you all so that those of you who prefer one primary article + the Timeless Five email will get it, those of you who want everything can get that too.
I really appreciate your response to the poll, it will help us make The Timeless Investor better!
Onto the Timeless Five:
Upcoming Podcast - An Exclusive
My dear friend and mentor in Seattle, Ron Danz, is a quietly unsung real estate hero. He personally owns or controls 2,000+ apartment units and over 400,000 square feet of commercial real estate in Seattle. Been in the business for 53+ years. And this is an exclusive - Ron has never been interviewed!
Here’s a short clip from our interview - Ron discussing debt. Worth a listen. And make sure you tune in on Monday when we drop the full episode.
The Tech Hub Effect
From this week's "The Tech Hub Effect"—everyone's betting against expensive tech hubs, but history says they're wrong. Austin shows both sides: landed Oracle, Tesla, Samsung's $17B chip plant, home prices shot up 69%. Then reality hit—prices corrected 1.7%, office vacancy hit 24.3%, more people left than moved in. But here's what the doom crowd misses: these markets always recover and reach new heights. The dot-com bust eliminated 46% of tech jobs, yet Silicon Valley emerged stronger.
Why? Tom Perkins nailed it—you can't engineer what developed organically over decades. Universities don't move. Network effects compound. The AI revolution favors major hubs, not second-tier markets. Cash flow is gravity. Location is leverage.
Read the full article here —> The Tech Hub Effect
Andrew Carnegie Podcast
"Watch the cost and the profits will take care of themselves." — Andrew Carnegie
From this week's podcast: Carnegie started at 13, working 12-hour days in a Pittsburgh cotton mill for $1.20 a week. 53 years later, he sold his steel company for $480 million (roughly $15 billion today). His secret wasn't boardroom deals—it was operational obsession. He installed weighing scales at every point in his steel mills, demanded daily cost reports from every plant worldwide, and hired chemists to understand his blast furnaces. Most investors focus on acquisitions and exits. Carnegie focused on cost control. Wealth isn't built in fancy boardrooms. It's built in the boiler room through day-to-day operational discipline that compounds over decades.
Listen to the podcast here.
This Week’s Big Realization
I’ve been really focused over the last few months on operations. Really digging into every aspect of this business. And I’ve come to a realization.
Love any counterpoints here - but this is my firm conclusion as an investor at this juncture.
We’re Raising a Fund and Closing Deals!
If you are an active investor in real estate (as an LP) and you are interested in participating in some of our upcoming deals, please reach out. Here’s what we’re working on:
Two Portland-based deals with nearly 10% cash on cash yields out the gate
A new Fund designed to pursue this style of deals and acquire a portfolio of 8 - 10 such assets
Several really awesome properties in Seattle that are slightly lower on the CoC profile, but well located and primo assets
Either email me directly (arie@lombardequities.com) to setup a call, or indicate interest formally here.
Reminder: we can only work with Accredited Investors.
That’s it for this week, my friends.
Act Well. Think Wisely. Build Something Timeless.