Super 8 Motels in Iowa can inspire greatness.
Join us as we chat with Hemal Patel, a young, ambitious real estate investor who leaps into a competitive industry and shares his inspiring journey.
From leaving the pre-med track in college to following his passion for real estate, you'll be inspired by Hemal's story that challenges the conventional path.
Hemal offers valuable insights on what hotel operators and sponsors should consider when purchasing a motel, such as location, long-term relevance, and creating memorable guest experiences.
Lastly, Hemal and I emphasize the importance of education in real estate and discuss how better to prepare young individuals for careers in this dynamic industry.
From middle and high school programs to college courses, we envision a comprehensive approach to cultivating the next generation of real estate professionals.
Hemal’s Profile
linkedin.com/in/hemal-patel-0a8215176
Live free. Get Educated. Master Your Money.
Subscribe to our Podcast here!
https://investingstuffyoushouldknow.buzzsprout.com
Youtube Videos now up as well! Subscribe here:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC1kV60Yxx4ntgLqAwOCR1Pg
Super 8 Motels in Iowa can inspire greatness.
Join us as we chat with Hemal Patel, a young, ambitious real estate investor who leaps into a competitive industry and shares his inspiring journey.
From leaving the pre-med track in college to following his passion for real estate, you'll be inspired by Hemal's story that challenges the conventional path.
Hemal offers valuable insights on what hotel operators and sponsors should consider when purchasing a motel, such as location, long-term relevance, and creating memorable guest experiences.
Lastly, Hemal and I emphasize the importance of education in real estate and discuss how better to prepare young individuals for careers in this dynamic industry.
From middle and high school programs to college courses, we envision a comprehensive approach to cultivating the next generation of real estate professionals.
Hemal’s Profile
linkedin.com/in/hemal-patel-0a8215176
Live free. Get Educated. Master Your Money.
Subscribe to our Podcast here!
https://investingstuffyoushouldknow.buzzsprout.com
Youtube Videos now up as well! Subscribe here:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC1kV60Yxx4ntgLqAwOCR1Pg
Hey everyone here on the Investing Stuff You Should Know Podcast, where we bring you expert insights into the world of investing and beyond. My name is Johnny Nelson. Today we are thrilled to have Hemel Patel as our special guest. We had some scheduling conflicts, but today we're finally connecting. So, Hemal, thanks for being with us today.
Hemal Patel:Yeah, absolutely happy to have you to be on here.
Johnny Nelson:Beautiful man, beautiful. So give the folks a little bit of your background. You're one of all on the younger side of our guests, which is really exciting because I like where there's people that have decades of experience, people into various sectors. So share kind of where you're calling from and that you're on the younger side, and then kind of what you're focusing in as well.
Hemal Patel:Yeah, yeah. So I'm calling from Chicago and I'm here, as I said before, work in my downtown building, i think, for my perspective, being sort of a younger guest and being definitely towards the younger end of folks in the real estate industry and especially in the career I'm in I mean heck, the average age of the person in my office is probably in the north of 50 years old And I think being young, being from kind of a non-traditional real estate background and coming from Iowa to Chicago has all been a huge learning experience for me And personally, I think When did you make that shift, Hemel?
Hemal Patel:Yeah, So that was about a year and a half or so ago now. probably like fall of 21 is when I first moved here.
Johnny Nelson:Yeah, Do you. You don't have to. Would you be comfortable sharing your age with the folks, or approximate range there?
Hemal Patel:Yeah, absolutely So. I'm 22 years old.
Johnny Nelson:Awesome man. That's so exciting to see someone that. And the younger end, like you said, a lot of people are 50 plus that have been doing this for a long time and to see someone fresh or fresh face, fresh idea, fresh perspective, literally probably from somewhere in a cornfield in Iowa not to denigrate Iowa, but I mean like Chicago is a giant world class city And then of course Iowa is a lot of farms. So that transition in itself has got to be. There's a lot just to adjust there without even taking on a new career. That itself has been kind of adjustment. What's been your biggest? I guess more of on the fun side, a little bit less from the just focus, just from real estate here. What has been kind of your? what has clicked with you in the large city? What have you enjoyed the most since moving there a year and a half ago?
Hemal Patel:Yeah, absolutely. I think the biggest change is just there's more things to do than just go to the one or two kind of local mom and pop bars that are at the center of town, close to Iowa. I mean, i grew up not like in a bigger city of Iowa, call it like Des Moines. I grew up in a town of 5,000 people before moving to a town of like 30,000 people, so it's been not just kind of like a medium-sized city in Iowa, it's a small town, it's rural, it's mostly agricultural and farming community. So the change here to kind of just being able to do what you want when you want and really being kind of invisible really, which has been a change for me And honestly I'd say I prefer being visible.
Hemal Patel:In the small town you go to the grocery store you go anywhere, you run into people you know, or at least you know of them, whereas here it's like and I can do whatever I want. I can walk around and sound like I'm ever not afraid to whatever. Concern that shit. Am I gonna run into someone here? go into the grocery store.
Johnny Nelson:That's so true man, so that's good stuff. So the target audience that might resonate with this particular episode, of course, is I'm gonna share this with like hey, if you're a younger person, then like hey, listen to Hamel's story. But also could encourage people that are older as well. Like, hey, you know this is, you don't have to be part of this, you don't have to necessarily have a real estate background to get into real estate. Right, and maybe I'll also be just being encouraged to hear someone on the younger side is taking this bull by the horns to use a bad analogy and just dominating, you know, getting right into the space here. So give us that. And this is kind of just your own story here. I think that you were in college for a little bit, or maybe I'm more than a little bit and then you decide like hey, this is just not for me. Can you share that story with us?
Hemal Patel:Yeah, absolutely. So, you know, kind of typical as an Indian-American first generation kind of born here kid, you know my parents wanted me to get a, you know, a fancy education and be a doctor. You know their whole dream for me was always to be a doctor And so, you know, that's what I figured I'd do. So I went to the University of Wisconsin and started off you know, my freshman year of, you know, just taking courses that would be, you know, on the pre-med track, and really after my first or second, kind of after my first, and then, you know, definitely, when I transferred out, i realized like, ah shit, this really isn't for me, right, cause those can be 10 plus years of schooling. It wasn't what I was interested in.
Hemal Patel:You know, i always had sort of a passion for real estate because my, you know, folks did operate a small motel in our town we grew up in. So I kind of we lived in there for a few years, you know, while we were operating it. So that's really what my passion was in. And so I said, you know, i mustered up the courage to say hey, i don't want to do this.
Hemal Patel:I had transferred back to the University of Iowa and started, you know, studying economics which, while I say was helpful slightly in the real estate field, i think the biggest, you know, push or jumpstart really I got was, you know, my first internship, you know, in Des Moines, iowa, a principal financial group on their real estate equity team, And you know that was a credit to University of Iowa because, you know, principal almost solely recruits from either the two big universities in Iowa or call it three big universities in Iowa And really, you know, i would say that that's what propelled me forward And then kind of, you know, solidified my stance that hey, this transfer wasn't just I'm going from, you know, wanting to be a doctor to just studying econ and not going to do anything else, and just, you know, to live without exceeding or meeting the expectations that my family had for me and certainly I had for myself as well.
Johnny Nelson:For sure, for sure. So then, sherith, did you actually this is just I don't know the story did you then finish like go the full four years, Or did you just call it quits even after that first internship and just jump to something you felt more aligned with out there in the work world?
Hemal Patel:No, so I did end up finishing my education.
Johnny Nelson:Oh, amazing. I was just like, yeah, sweet, and you ended up with econ degree, that's right, okay, beautiful man, beautiful. Well then, yeah, so tell us, just because you've just piqued our curiosity here, what was the story, the background story on that maybe they're still doing it or they did it for us. Just a stint of your parents operating a small motel in Iowa. Give us a quick story there of like hey, how do they buy it, stumble into it, operate it Like what was? there was success, and that plant had to see deep down, probably even subconsciously, in you, like, hey, maybe that's a space that I want to be in.
Hemal Patel:Yeah, it was sort of a bizarre story because my dad had just immigrated here in like the late 1990s Like I think it was 1999 to be exact And he was working a job at an electronics factory, i think, doing assembly for circuit boards, which I don't know what that exactly entails, but that's what he was doing. And so shortly after he realized he didn't just want to work this factory job his whole life And so he started looking around for businesses and what he found was I don't know how he found it or why, what made him do it, but he found a small super eight motel, 34 rooms, like eight hours away from where they lived in Milwaukee in this random small town in Northwest Iowa called Estraville Iowa.
Hemal Patel:And so then he kind of got loans from my uncle and other folks he knew to get the money to put a down payment down on that hotel or motel, call it, to buy it. And the craziest thing is looking back at it now. I mean there was just a tremendous amount of luck for him. He bought that motel while there was another new hotel under construction across the street And in the small town. Right, he doesn't need that many, there's not that much demand in the small town And so it was kind of a scary time buying it but got a decent price And so thankfully that all ended up working out and it was kind of a success story. I certainly look up to him and I think folks around my family and our friends see this story and it's really resonates with people as well.
Johnny Nelson:Yeah. So there's that element of getting out there and elements of luck. We of course good luck to go, bad luck and you can have good luck, but then if you're not trying because we both know, amel, that nothing will happen unless you're out there hustling trying to make something happen here. So that in itself is really, really encouraging And, of course, the things work together for that story. So I don't know if that's very motivating and it seems to be a common theme among many immigrants and they're hardworking, they're just gonna try something.
Johnny Nelson:The household got together, got the loans wherever we could, and yeah. So all that is just a very compelling piece, part of the story. So it can kind of segue from that story, which I think is amazing and awesome. From your family that perhaps planted some seeds And I think you mentioned this somewhere in your online collateral that kind of gave you some like hey, maybe I would wanna do this as well, be in the hotel space, something in that space here. So share with us that journey, that story, and kind of the step into that And I know you did some other analysis and some other real estate stuff and give us kind of a progression into the real estate, the hotel real estate space that you're now kind of in.
Hemal Patel:Yeah, absolutely. So. It was kind of. I started out as like as I mentioned, as an intern or principal financial group doing just on the real estate equity team where they really did all asset classes. And then I got my first big boy job out of college at JLL on their hotels group, which was focused solely on hotels.
Hemal Patel:And then after a short time there, admittedly, i felt like I actually wanted to further my knowledge in all of real estate right, instead of just super niche into hotels, and so I joined MetLife and I'm on their real estate debt team where we do all asset classes And, funny enough, it's been a lot of hotels since I got here, because that's really the focus right now. I think, generally in the real estate space as well, people are seeing emerging opportunities in the hotel sector as we come out of the pandemic and people kind of reshuffle their priorities in life really right, and I think recently and especially coming out of the pandemic, everyone's been laser focused on a lot more experiences over materialistic things, and so it's really been an emerging trend in the travel industry for everyone to kind of travel more while they have the whether it's the time or just the energy to do it before you get older, and that's not really an option.
Johnny Nelson:So I know you have some expertise in the hotel space, So talk to us about that, what you see and why that is. And just a couple of business points there as well what operators or potential sponsors might be looking at when they're considering buying a motel.
Hemal Patel:Yeah, absolutely So. I think, as I mentioned earlier, the biggest trend now is this shift from materialism to experiences, right? I mean, we have a finite amount of time on this earth, obviously, and so sometimes it doesn't make sense to buy that new car. You'd rather go see the new country, which is something you'll remember forever, versus buying the car, which is going to get old in a few years, and so I think it's very important.
Johnny Nelson:By the way, i'm buying another car right now, just like this very day. Yeah, i love it, it's my need. I swear it's only because I need to. It's I need to, it's not because I'm like, oh, i'm just training off for the next shiny one. I do need it. So just saying that.
Hemal Patel:Yeah, that's what matters, right, We want to keep the needs but let go of the wants. And yeah, so I think that's especially prevalent in the millennial generation and Gen Z. That's kind of the next up and coming majority of the spender, majority of the consumer of the US economy. And going forward, the experiences and travel that we crave is not necessarily the same as before. Right, i mean, if you look at a lot of the hotel brands originally Marriott, hilton, their Blackship brands, kind of call it the Hampton Inns, the Fairfield Inns, the Hilton Darden Inns, the Courtyards those were essentially the same whether you go to Iowa or New York City or Boston or LA, if you stay at a Hilton Garden Inn or you stay at a courtyard, you're going to get relatively the same experience the same room, the same lobby, the same breakfast, everything right.
Hemal Patel:And I think that was indicative of sort of an older generation's trends that are now changing and credit to the hotel companies that are adapting with the new trends. Right, you see all these soft branded collections that the new brands are now putting in place. That you go to Chicago or you go to NYC, you go to LA, you're going to get a different experience, a different feel a different vibe. All great experiences, but just different and unique in their own way, which is something that our new generation really wants, right? I don't want to go everywhere and get the same experience that I could get here in Chicago. Why would I go elsewhere if I can get the same thing in Chicago? I want the new things and the unique experiences that can be provided in different areas, and I think that's what the future of the industry is, and I think companies will have to adapt to it sooner than later.
Johnny Nelson:I didn't send and I just like my own ignorance here. I didn't even realize that And as you were speaking I thought about it like, oh yeah, when I do travel they are starting to curate more of like the local, whatever the local thing is or local things are. if you go to Sedona then it's like Desert Team in Chicago.
Johnny Nelson:And it's like sandwiches and the skyline and the canal trip and all that kind of stuff. So they're certainly bringing those elements. And then, like you were saying, which is obviously the professional expertise that you have is like they made it like McDonald's or Starbucks. So I don't care where you are. When I get a cup of coffee, a grande blah, blah, blah, blah, it's exactly the same whether it's Chicago or Miami or LA Versus, and I think they just adopted like well, that's what people want. But then, like as you're kind of suggesting, like with the influence of Airbnb, which obviously they just rebranded about a year ago with the experience theme, the reset, then they're like hey, no, no, we need to incorporate the local culture, the local flavor into, like you said, the soft branded hotels And even though it's like it's the level of service more or less will be the same, we're adding these unique local ideas and concepts into the brand And then that gives an much more regional flavor, i'm assuming.
Hemal Patel:Yup, 100%, that's spot on.
Johnny Nelson:Awesome. So are you bullish on from what the professionals and all the things that you're saying? Are you bullish on the hotel class?
Hemal Patel:I would say that's a complicated question and I don't want to give a simple answer to that. I'd say I'm bullish on well-located and long-term relevant hotels that are in markets that people want to go to, in markets that are in the stage of growth from both a leisure and business travel perspective, and hotels that can really offer, as we talked about, those unique and authentic experiences that the next generation of travelers really crave. Now I'm bullish on some sort of 1,000-room box in New York City that has the same room across all 1,000 rooms and doesn't have anything special to offer? probably not. But if you go to a nice boutique hotel in Soho that might be only 40 or 50 keys and has an awesome food and beverage experience, along with additional add-ons that can be monetized, such as just tours and different things across the city that the hotel incorporates into itself, then yes, i'm 100% bullish on those, because that's what the future of international travel is going to be, along with the future of domestic travel.
Johnny Nelson:Awesome. That's very, very interesting here. What do you think? How do hotels or hotel positions themselves across generations? So we have, clearly we have a massive boom, a wave, let's say a wave of baby boomers retiring and they like to travel, They like to have that, Oftentimes they're pretty well-heeled and they have resources to sustain. But then also we are catering to the Gen Z or the millennial class, like more experiences. Are the boomers just coming along and just like, hey, this is cool too, We'll just go with this And it's just aligned with people in general driven by the younger generation, Or what's the insights there?
Hemal Patel:Yeah, and I'm glad you mentioned the resources fact right, because it's obviously no secret that Gen Z and millennials don't have nearly the resources of boomers.
Johnny Nelson:They haven't lived, they haven't had a life of living and earning and all these things like they just haven't gotten there yet, right.
Hemal Patel:Yep, 100%, and we will eventually right 20 years down the line. And so I think it's kind of a tough spot to be in from the hotel industry because, on one hand, do you cater to the new generation of travelers who don't have a lot of money, or do you cater to the generation of travelers who are kind of not on their way out but maybe going to start cutting down on travel as they get older and maybe don't have the energy or really want to do it and just want to settle down. I think it's tough And I think hotels are doing an interesting job. Obviously, the recent inflationary environment has caused hotel prices to go up significantly. Adr's average daily rates across almost all segments, whether it's low scale motels or especially the high scale luxury hotels, the prices per night have just gone through the roof And I think that's troubling for Gen Z.
Hemal Patel:I think the boomers who are traveling and still want those unique and authentic experiences do get them at the luxury hotels, especially because luxury hotels when you're paying $1,000 a night, there's more room for them to cater to your needs, whether that's design or just personable needs that people have. And it's interesting, right, because I think this is one of the reasons and not to go off on a tangent, but a trend I've noticed amongst young folks like Gen Z is like it's almost cheaper for me to go and say, hey, i want to just go travel to Guatemala and stay at nice, unique local places versus hey, i want to go to Miami and stay at a nice, unique local place. Because if I want to go to Miami and stay at a nice, unique local place, it's a $300 flight plus $1,000 a night, really $1,000 a night for the kind of luxury experience that maybe I'd want And obviously I can't afford that And probably most of the other Gen Z and millennials can't yet either.
Johnny Nelson:But your average person cannot. that's something that they could do. swing It's like we just know that That's not something they can do easily.
Hemal Patel:Absolutely, and on the flip side, though I could get a $400 flight to Guatemala and maybe pay 40 bucks a night to stay at such an equally nice and unique local experience, that may be more worth it to me right now than going to Miami, and so that's what I think is tough And, as this country a battle is an inflationary environment. It's hard to balance the wants of millennials and Gen Z with really what's economically feasible for hotels to provide them at a rate that they can afford.
Johnny Nelson:Awesome. Yeah, that's interesting, and then is there a solution within that. So yes, like we just say, it hits inflation. However, is there a new way, perhaps more of it, on the? this is like looking at it inwardly, at the operators, the sponsors as operators. Is there a newer way of accommodating some of this and not having quite those such high operating costs? Is there a way of building a cheaper, more automation? Is there a push there to try to keep money and those people in the States but then not have to have such a premium price tag to go with it?
Hemal Patel:Yeah, that's a great question And you know, honestly, I think the answer is no. I mean, I don't think there's a way to provide the top-knocked service and the luxury level of feel and authenticity to a hotel in the best location in a Miami or in New York or Chicago or LA. Yeah, And also, on the flip side, make it affordable for Gen Z, And I think that's a real problem. But at the moment the operators and owners aren't really concerned because you do have the demographic of boomers who can afford it and who are willing to pay for it. Stay there. So until the boomers say, hey, we're not paying this anymore and we don't want to stay at hotels anymore, I don't think that changes And I don't think there's really a fantastic solution all around that can really solve this problem.
Johnny Nelson:Yeah, what do you think of this? This will be my final question on this. We've gone fairly nuanced on it. What do you think? Is there a problem the fact that maybe old and this has been like every generation has this? I mean, we're probably discussing something not that novel necessarily, but just keeping confining our thoughts to today or this current environment is there necessarily a problem in the fact that the younger generation can't maybe go to a class A area in a major American city And they're being compelled to go to Guatemala or Costa Rica or whatever else, some other place? Is that necessarily a problem? And if there is, what are those kind of like down those second, third order consequences of that of having older, older, older folks and then the younger folks are going to be more creative and like fly it up more unique spots?
Hemal Patel:Yeah, that's a great question. I think it's kind of interesting because the folks who are older now and have the money, 40 years ago they probably also wouldn't have had the money to go to the Miami's and then live up and travel in this luxury style. And I think what they did in the previous generation and maybe I'm ignorant, but what I think they did was they just didn't take as many call it even any international trips or take any far trips on a plane. Right now it'd be like, hey, let's go to the lake or the lake town or the nice where I lived is called Okabogy. I mean, that's where people came to vacation from for at least a five hour radius around And that's sufficed, which was great before social media or the internet, where now I can see oh hey, by the way, i can go to Central America and have this awesome travel experience, whereas 40 years ago people probably didn't A know they could have that or, b, it might not have been there at the moment when the world wasn't so globalized, and I think the one consequence of the globalization in the travel industry and maybe more towards America, is, with people in America having the power to go elsewhere.
Hemal Patel:I think it's kind of a detriment, right? because 40 years ago if a 20 year old would have taken a trip three hours away to the lake town and spent a weekend there, those dollars would have been spent in America in the local economy. Whereas now that same person, who's in the same shoes, that's 20 years old, is thinking I can spend $1,000 on a weekend trip to this lake, or I can spend $1,000 on a week long trip to Central America. And it's a tough choice to make, right? because I mean, and I've went to Central America and I think I'd want to go to Central America again versus going a few hours away to a lake town.
Johnny Nelson:It's a different culture and there's new food and it's very exciting and all these different things. And one other thing this is more of an aside is the proliferation of cheap airfare. That's why there's like Boeing, just this out of a bit of a tangent here, boeing and Airbus And like why is there such a huge demand for these planes and why has this kind of this new, this low cost air care has been so popular? Just this very thing plays into that where you want to go bare bones of the backpack to some exotic spot and you can get there for, like you said, a couple hundred bucks, which is like relatively to like, you know, maybe 400 bucks, whatever, relative to what travel has been, that's incredibly cheap to get yourself from one point A to point B. It's a really long range, awesome, and so we'll leave that one alone.
Johnny Nelson:That's been a great awesome discussion, actually, by the way. So, as we kind of turn the final into the final chapter of the show here, talk to us about kind of the career opportunity that you see ahead of you. So we talked about, you know, obviously, family, and then you know kind of your college life and you step into the large city and then kind of work carefully through some of the new ones of hotels and the current market here. Final chapter obviously from the perspective of a young person and as a career, what do you see in the kind of as occur option and where you might go and where you can go and where you want to go, looking, of course, with a lot of older colleagues you know around, all around you. So that's an interesting position to be in and see those other people.
Hemal Patel:Yeah, absolutely. And I think you know this is one of the mention of the older people. you know this was kind of instilled on me for my internship at Principal, right. I mean you know my boss there had really said to me like look around you, right? I mean, everyone here in the next five, 10 years is really going to be looking to retire and move on to the next chapter of life And there wasn't really that sort of, you know, people in the middle left to fill in their shoes, because those folks had been at that company for you know many 20 plus years And there was no one else that can really fill in their shoes.
Hemal Patel:And he said, you know, this is where the opportunity is in real estate and in careers in real estate. Because you know, that's kind of like I think there's a lot of people at both ends of the spectrum right now. There's a lot of folks who are nearing the retirement age and, you know, kind of on their way out. And then there's a lot of young folks, you know, eager to enter. But maybe there's I don't know if the way to say it is kind of like the lost, you know, the lost middle management or the lost kind of middle.
Johnny Nelson:You feel like there's a gap there.
Hemal Patel:Yeah, absolutely. You know there's outliers on both sides And I think that's real, the real opportunity, where you know it excites me that in the next five, 10, 15 years there's going to be a huge, you know, shift in the industry. You know, traditionally, and even currently, real estate, you know, and currently real estate is a very old school, call it industry, right, you know it's, it's more traditional. We're not, you know, progressive, forward-looking, like like tech or some sort of other industries And and that's, i think, kind of an opportunity for us young folks to be in in different companies and bring about change and embrace sort of the new technologies. Obviously, the talk of AI and stuff, you know I don't really don't understand it as much as I probably should, but I mean it probably will find its way within real estate too.
Johnny Nelson:I mean I can say right now, you know, there's really no talk or no, you know no sort of implementation of AI currently, as I see it in the, in the industry, at least from you know, not a serious discussion, not a serious discussion, although we both know, like, like you said, in the edge cases, if you would there's lots of chatter and a lot of people going on, something that AI I follow quite a bit as well, but also I think it's reflective of the older demographic they're like.
Johnny Nelson:well, i mean, we're going to be out of here in five or 10 years anyway like we didn't grow up with it And so like that's like going to suppress the amount of conversation that's going on around that topic here, amazing. So the final question that I'll ask you and obviously because the college experience has been recent for you, but then also the you know the full, you know all gas no break here into the real estate space is going on. What do you think that we could do differently and how do you think there's a gap or a shortage in the educational space to keep people interested, especially the younger folks, into the real estate space and the potential there?
Hemal Patel:Yeah, absolutely. I think you hit the nail on the head. I mean, the education is the biggest part, right? I mean, even right now, if I tell someone you know younger, like, hey, what do you do? They ask me, hey, what do you do? And I say, oh, i'm in real estate. Like, oh, are you selling houses? or you know, like that's I feel like with real estate, the go to for most of the you know the population is, oh, you're selling houses.
Johnny Nelson:Then right, It's like no Very, very, very narrow confine of what this is what that is right.
Hemal Patel:Exactly, and so I think you know there definitely should be more education from it.
Hemal Patel:You know, from the start, in the younger, you know in the younger generation, call it high school or middle school to you know just kind of explore what commercial real estate is, the industry as a whole, and you know really what the needs are for the industry in the future as well.
Hemal Patel:As I think you know, even colleges are sort of lacking in the field. I mean, I know, you know, as a freshman I went to Wisconsin. They had a huge real estate program and you know well world renowned real estate program for undergrads. But transferring to Iowa, you know the reason I majored in econ was because there was no real estate you know department or sort of path of education for me to enroll in. So I think you know it also needs to be sort of changed at the collegiate level, where you know colleges need to recognize that this industry is one that, honestly, is obviously never going to go away, right, people need places to stay, people need places to work and companies likewise also need, you know, places to work and places to stay and house their you know their industrial warehouses and whatnot. So you know, i think colleges need to recognize that this is an industry that's profitable, is here to stay and should be at the forefront of curriculum in their you know sort of minds.
Johnny Nelson:Yeah, that's an awesome place to conclude, Hamel. And then I totally agree with you as well And like what I? it's such a key part. I mean, there's like many important parts of our economy and our life. you know, there's the arts and there's STEM and all this different thing, But, like you said, you know, recognizing, like every, you know, the reason we're doing all this setting aside, like set aside AI, like that's, you know that's that has its own, you know non, you know non human aspects to it.
Johnny Nelson:But, like people were providing habitation for humanity, for what's the purpose of anything? It was not just for that kind of the most fundamental level. So, like, how could we not have more emphasis? and that key key piece of our society, you know, and that's the real estate and the varied and the highly interesting career paths and opportunities within that space. So, absolutely Thank you for that. So, anyway, so thank you for, oh, let's share with the folks. if you would like, any of the best place and method to get in touch with you could be on, you know, social media or maybe even website or a blog. you know, share, share that with the audience.
Hemal Patel:Yeah, absolutely. I think the best, probably the best place to get in touch with me would be via LinkedIn. You know my DMs are always open and I'm, you know, super eager and willing to kind of especially help out the you know next generation of folks in real estate. I know I'm still the younger generation in real estate but you know, college students, anyone who's looking to just you know dabble into the industry. Yeah, linkedin DMs are probably the best place.
Johnny Nelson:Also absolutely man. Hey guys, follow on him out on LinkedIn. He's been doing a great job out there. I'm active on LinkedIn. He's active on LinkedIn. He's been been putting in some great corrals and some other things that he's learned and sharing a lot of excellent, excellent knowledge here. So, anyway, so, as I wrap the show up here at the Investing Stuff Fusional Podcast, we thank you for listening to an entire another episode with us. We love bringing guests like this on, and until next time, give us a like, give us a follow, share the word. So hey, later.