Wisdom in Wealth with Stephanie Fox

Exit Strategies for Tired Landlords: 1031 Exchanges, DSTs, 721 UPREITs, and Oil & Gas with Ashley Romiti On the Wisdom and Wealth Podcast, host Stephanie interviews Ashley Romiti, president of GCA 1031, about tax-deferred exit strategies for “tired landlords” and real estate investors seeking passive, institutional-quality investments while deferring capital gains. Romiti explains Delaware Statutory Trusts (DSTs) as a hands-off 1031 exchange option that can diversify across asset classes and markets, sharing an example of a California duplex sale with $2 million in equity reinvested into five DSTs, including oil and gas, for monthly passive income. She outlines the 721 UPREIT two-step strategy (1031 into DST, then 721 into a REIT) and discusses 1031-eligible oil and gas mineral rights investing and its volatility. They touch on refinancing pressure, “extend and pretend,” DST sponsor due diligence, and common investor discomfort with illiquidity and relinquishing control. Romiti urges investors to plan exits early and explore options before the 45-day exchange clock starts. Learn more about Ashley's services at gca1031.com. Landmark Title is proud to sponsor the Wisdom in Wealth podcast. Learn more about the leading title and escrow experts at ltaag.com.

Stephanie sits down with Alex Taylor, founder and CEO of CommercializeIQ, a serial entrepreneur who has owned and operated commercial real estate and is a seasoned investor in deals nationwide. Alex talks about the 90 days after he sold his last company, asking CRE professionals one question: what doesn't work for you today? The answers kept pointing to scattered, outdated data, a problem he knew firsthand as an investor having to log into multiple different portals simply to view PDFs.  That became CommercializeIQ, an AI platform that brings leases, contracts, and relationships into one place, answers questions like "Can I bring a certain retailer into this center?" in seconds, and assigns the work that follows. He and Stephanie also cover why CRE is still in "batting practice" on AI, the security risk of putting leases into a $20 chatbot, and why companies that try to build it in-house tend to call back six months later. Wisdom and Wealth is proudly sponsored by Landmark Title — Arizona's title and escrow experts. Learn more at LTAAG.com. Learn more about CommercializeIQ at commercializeiq.com Keep up with Alex on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/alexandertaylor86/

What does it take to break a cycle you lived as a child? Stephanie sits down with Dawn Marie, founder and executive director of HELP Now AZ, and Kristi Smith, Executive Vice President of Landmark Title of Arizona and President of HELP Now AZ's board. Dawn Marie opens up about growing up homeless in Arizona from ages 5 to 15 — moving schools repeatedly, sleeping in parks and cars — and how as an adult, a homeless man's cardboard sign led her to found a nonprofit six months later with no experience and no plan, but a lot of faith. Fourteen years later, HELP Now AZ has multiple programs and serves 22 school districts and roughly 300 schools, delivering more than 18,000 handwritten-note snack bags a month to at-risk and homeless kids, runs an annual car-giveaway program, and is building toward a campus model with transitional dorms for youth aging out of the system. Learn more or get involved at helpnowaz.org. Wisdom in Wealth is proudly sponsored by Landmark Title — Arizona's title and escrow experts. Learn more at LTAAG.com.

Everyone in commercial real estate knows title insurance exists. Far fewer understand what it actually covers, and where the gaps are. In this episode, Landmark Title's Stephanie Fox and Chris Maddox take the floor at the June Ladies in Land Phoenix Chapter Lunch & Learn for a candid, case-study-driven conversation about what title insurance actually does when a deal gets complicated. Chris draws on 30 years of title and underwriting experience to walk through real situations: the California investor who skipped the survey and paid for it when an unrecorded Southwest Gas easement blocked his development plan, the desert site with CC&R conflicts that took months of creative underwriting to resolve, and the scenarios where a title claim actually results in a check versus a defense. The conversation covers standard versus extended policies, off-record matters, mechanics lien exposure, zoning coverage limitations, utility easements that don't show up in public records, and how to think about title insurance as a risk transfer tool rather than a formality. If you work in land acquisition, development, or commercial brokerage, this one is worth a listen before your next closing. Wisdom in Wealth is proudly sponsored by Landmark Title — Arizona's title and escrow experts. Learn more at LTAAG.com.

Kurt Nishimura started his career on the accounting side of a family office, watching realtors outpace him on the income statement. When he made the switch, he brought something most agents don't have: the ability to underwrite across every asset class — land, industrial, office, retail, multifamily, hotels — because the market cycle doesn't move the same way in all of them at once. In this conversation, Kurt and Stephanie cover what it actually takes to survive the first three years in real estate, how Kurt called the 2005 market peak and sold before the crash (and got yelled at for it), and why his background in construction and data gave his investor clients a different level of confidence. Kurt also shares his work with AREAA (Asian Real Estate Association of America) and why closing the homeownership gap in Arizona's growing Asian American community comes down to one thing: education delivered before the moment of crisis, not during it. Plus: how mentorship is already sending business back to Kurt from the people he's mentoring, what the TSMC ripple effect actually looks like on the ground in Arizona, and why workforce housing in places like Payson and Sedona may be one of the most underserved opportunities in the state right now. Wisdom in Wealth is proudly sponsored by Landmark Title. Learn more about their title and escrow services at LTAAG.com.