Tyler Bindi

Just got out of an Uber on the way to LAX, headed to New York

Driver asks where I’m going, I say NYC

He goes, “I’ve got a crazy story for you”

He’s originally from Africa, moved to London, then moved to New York in the 90s for school

Young, broke, living in Manhattan

Ends up becoming close with his neighbor, older Jewish woman. They’d talk all the time.

She kept telling him, “You should buy an apartment here”

He laughed it off for years.

One day she’s getting sick and says, “I’ll tell ya what, you can buy the one you live in”

He had no clue she owned it.

Asks what she wants for it.

She says, “Whatever you have.”

He gave her everything. About $20,000.

For a 5 bed apartment in Manhattan

Few years later she passes

He finds out she owned the whole block. No kids, no family.

Just decided to sell it to him because she enjoyed him as a neighbor

I ask him what he’s doing out in LA

He tells me he’s visiting his two daughters at UCLA, one pre med and the other in medical school

Says his daughters love going back to New York to visit with friends and staying in that apartment, same place where it all started

Whole trajectory of his life changed off that one decision

As I’m getting out he goes:

“If you turn off social media and the news, you realize the world’s actually a pretty good place, and there’s a lot of really good people out there”

Whole lot of truth in that

My dream job has always been to be a Spirit Halloween leasing broker

Crush deals for 3 months straight, fill every vacant big box in America, make cash hand over fist

Then spend the next 9 months on a beach somewhere

In 2024, Spirit signed over 1,500 short-term leases and pulled in $1.9B in revenue

Not bad for a few months of work

Now that's "lease-life balance"

Just got an email from LoopNet

Christmas came early!

My rate is going up by $152.83/month (~17% increase)

But wait, there's more...

Not a single new feature is being introduced to justify the increase

Their pitch: We "influenced" $380 billion in transactions in 2024!

Interesting stat considering we're in 2026

I'll be honest, I laughed

I guess wasting brokers time with bots, scammers, and people who think they can buy a property with no money down is technically considered "influencing"

If you've ever gotten a LoopNet inquiry, you know exactly what I'm talking about

And while LoopNet has been busy writing price increase emails, their competitors have been building better products

Better data, better interfaces, actual buyers. It's not close

Raising prices when your competitors are lapping you is an interesting growth strategy

Just closed a deal with a guy who never sent a single email

Not one to me (his broker), not to his attorney, not to escrow, not to title

He claims he’s never sent an email in his life

If you wanted to reach him, you picked up the phone

That’s it

In an era of inbox overload and endless threads…

This man is a trailblazer, a rebel, a purist, a minimalist

And an absolute legend

Episode 2. The Utah Listing.

How it started vs. how it's going (RIP Spirit Airlines Edition)

Whenever you are flying commercial, especially on Spirit Airlines in seat 29B, always wear your best business suit and tie

When someone boards a Spirit flight and sees a guy in a full suit wedged between two strangers fighting over the armrest, I guarantee they'll think to themselves:

"What the hell is that guy doing here?"

It's human nature

If you work in commercial real estate, especially brokerage, it's a bold power move

People will ask, "What do you do for a living?"

(Right after they ask to charge their vape in your seatback USB port)

With Spirit officially gone, it felt right to evolve the strategy

Now, when someone boards and sees a guy in a bright red sweatsuit sitting in 1A, comfortable as can be, I guarantee they'll still ask:

"What do you do for a living?"

Same question, but there's a difference

On Spirit in a suit, people assume you lost a bet

On Delta in a sweatsuit, people assume you can make them cash...

...and that you have the meats

Sales is exactly like baseball

You’ll have slumps
You’ll have streaks

Some days you go 0-4
Others you go 4-4 with two homers

Will Klein wasn’t even on the Dodgers playoff roster a week ago

Then he got the call...

He threw 4 shutout innings in the World Series when his team needed him most

That’s what staying ready looks like

100 calls with no traction? Keep swinging
Because the next one might change your career

The law of averages never fails
But only for the ones who stay in the game

One of the wildest trademark stories in fast food:

There's a town in Illinois where Burger King is banned

Except one "Burger King" is allowed

And it has nothing to do with the chain

A family named the Hoots started it in Mattoon, IL in the 1950s

They trademarked "Burger King" in Illinois in 1959

Two years before the national chain ever entered the state

So when Burger King came to Illinois, the Hoots sued to protect their name

They mostly lost. The chain kept the rights across the country

But the court carved out one exception:

Burger King can't operate within 20 miles of Mattoon

The chain later offered the family $10,000 to let them in

They said no

To this day the nearest Burger King is 23 miles away

And Mattoon still has its own, flipping burgers under a name the giant can't touch

"I picked commercial real estate because you don't have to deal with emotion, it's all dollars and cents"

Every time I interview a potential junior agent, one of the first questions I ask is why they chose commercial over residential

99% of the time, this is the answer

But to be honest, it couldn't be further from the truth

From the outside looking in, you'd assume selling a home is more emotional because that's where people raised their families and built their lives

But commercial real estate has just as much emotion

Sometimes more

You're dealing with the owner who spent 20 years building equity in a property they were counting on to fund their retirement, and now you're telling them buyers won't pay what they expected

You're dealing with the developer who spent years fighting through permits, construction delays, cost overruns, and every other challenge imaginable, only to bring a project to market and realize the exit won't deliver the returns they promised investors

You're dealing with the CEO who was counting on a certain sale price to fund growth, acquisitions, or new locations, and now has to rethink those plans entirely

The stakes are bigger

The egos are bigger

And the emotions are usually bigger too

Commercial real estate doesn't lack emotion

It's just emotion wearing a suit

Dear 1st-time ICSC Vegas attendees,

You’ll hear a lot of “don’ts” from the veterans:

❌Don’t drink
❌Don’t gamble
❌Don’t stay out late
❌Don’t forget to drink water
❌Don’t overbook meetings
❌Don’t wear uncomfortable shoes

My advice:

✔️Absolutely send it (responsibly)

Why do most salespeople fail?

Because they treat their work like a homework assignment

They show up

Half-ass some calls

Half-ass some emails

Turn it in

And expect a passing grade

But sales isn’t school

You don’t get points for "doing the assignment"

You don’t pass with a C

In sales you either get an A or an F

You make the sale or you don’t

So act accordingly

Everyone keeps asking for an update...

90% of my business is done over the phone

So why do I wear a suit and tie everyday?

As the great Deion Sanders once said:

“If you look good, you feel good, If you feel good, you play good, If you play good, they pay good"

Senior broker: "We close tomorrow...where's the estoppel?"

Junior broker:

Single family rentals are the worst way to make money in real estate

I'm working with a family who just moved from Southern California to Florida

They did what everyone tells you to do:

They kept the California house and rented it out

Nice house. Awesome area. Worth $3 million today. No debt on it.

I asked them what they actually make on it every year

After taxes, insurance, maintenance, etc. they end up netting...

$60,000

Sixty thousand dollars on three million dollars of equity

That is a 2% return

The house is in escrow now and we're going to 1031 exchange them into a net lease property with a national credit tenant at a 6% cap rate

That property is also worth $3 million

The difference is it will pay them $180,000 a year instead of $60,000

That's $15,000 a month instead of $5,000

A 3X difference in income

The lease is absolute triple net, so the tenant pays for the taxes, the insurance and maintenance

The house was never an investment

It was a part time job that didn't pay well