Is this the hardest time to run a restaurant since the Great Depression? A Houston hospitality insider weighs in.

Houston business owners are squeezed by rising costs, and many restaurant owners now want out of their spaces.

Misty Bacon, Broker-Owner of Bacon Realty Group, sits down with Jonathan Horowitz, who has spent 20 years in hospitality as an operator, CEO, consultant, and commercial real estate agent.

Hear what COVID changed for restaurant workers and customers, what to know before opening or growing a restaurant, and how Houston restaurant real estate deals really work.

🎧 Hosted by: Misty Bacon

🎤 Featuring:

Jonathan Horowitz – Hospitality expert, author, speaker, and licensed commercial real estate agent with Restaurant Realty Group. A former attorney and past CEO of Legacy Restaurants, he founded Convive, a hospitality consulting firm, and has chaired the Texas Restaurant Association.

💡 What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

✔️ Restaurant hiring now competes with gig jobs like Amazon and Uber

✔️ Delivery apps and online ordering now shape how diners order

✔️ Retaining women in hospitality means addressing childcare pressures

✔️ An SBA loan and a solid plan can get a first restaurant open

✔️Growing from 1–2 locations to 6 starts with a clear expansion plan

✔️ Small business founders should expect to do every job themselves

✔️Houston commercial real estate: restaurant sellers now outnumber buyers

💡Key Questions Answered

Q: How much more can commercial property insurance cost than a home policy?

→ A: About $15,000 a year was Misty Bacon’s quote to insure a small commercial building in Baytown, versus under $2,000 for her larger home two miles away. That gap pushed her toward a mobile business.

Q: Who steps up first to feed people when disaster hits Houston?→ A: The hospitality industry is among the first to jump in, right behind first responders, Jonathan says. Whether it’s a pandemic, storm, or flood, their first question is how to keep food going.

Q: What does a restaurant consultant actually help with?

→ A: Jonathan works on concept creation, finding locations, building out and designing the space, hiring managers and staff, daily operations, and marketing and PR.

Q: What makes Houston’s restaurant community stand out?

→ A: Its chefs and restaurateurs are unusually supportive, with very little cutthroat backstabbing, Jonathan says. They come together for competitions, charity work, and foundations that give back to the community.

⏳ Timestamps (Click to Jump to Sections!)

📌00:00 - Cold Open: Why Opening a Restaurant Isn’t Easy

📌01:23 - Leaving Law to Own a Houston Wine Bar

📌04:40 - Restaurant Trends: Fads vs. Evergreens

📌06:42 - COVID’s Impact on Restaurant Jobs & Costs

📌13:25 - Should Restaurant Owners Buy Their Property?

📌16:07 - Starting a Business Right Before COVID

📌18:23 - Why Do So Many Restaurants Fail?

📌24:41 - How Restaurants Are Valued When They Sell

📌27:30 - Career Advice & Houston’s Food Community

Connect with Jonathan Horowitz:

🌐 Website → https://convivehc.com/

📸 Instagram → https://www.instagram.com/jhorowitz_htx

💼 LinkedIn → https://www.linkedin.com/in/horowitzjonathan/

🎧 Follow Misty Bacon:

🌐 Website → https://www.thebaconrealtygroup.com/

👻 Facebook → https://www.facebook.com/thebaconrealtygroup

💼 LinkedIn → https://www.linkedin.com/in/mistybacon/

⭐ Produced by Icons of Real Estate - https://iconsofrealestate.com/

🔖 Don’t Forget to LIKE 👍, SUBSCRIBE 🔔 & COMMENT 💬 Below!

#BitsByBacon #MistyBacon #HoustonRealEstate #BaconRealtyGroup #HoustonRealtor #HoustonBusiness #CommercialRealEstateHouston #TexasRealEstate #LocalHouston #RealEstatePodcast

Hiring a painter in Houston? Three bids can mean three very different prices, and Houston’s heat, UV and moisture test every coat.

Host Misty Bacon Renner, Broker-Owner of Bacon Realty Group in Houston with GRI, ABR and SRES designations, sits down on Bits by Bacon with Joe Early, owner of Painter Bros of The Woodlands. The former award-winning NCAA football coach explains how he walks a property with customers, preps brick and wallpaper, and why he carries workers’ compensation even though Texas doesn’t require it.

You’ll learn how to read painting bids, protect exterior paint in Houston’s climate, handle brick, wallpaper and color choices, and stay connected like a former coach.

🎧 Hosted by: Misty Bacon

🎤 Featuring:

Joe Early – Joe Early is the owner of Painter Bros of The Woodlands. He is a former award-winning NCAA football coach who brings 19 years of leadership to the painting industry. He specializes in educating the greater Houston area on proper preparation and climate impacts.

💡 What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

✔️ Painting estimates: a low bid doesn’t mean the worst

✔️ Workers’ compensation isn’t required for painters in Texas

✔️ Exterior repaints in Houston: 7 years is good, 10 years is fine

✔️ Water damage left unfixed will make new exterior paint fail

✔️ Painting brick needs a masonry coating or primer, not plain exterior paint

✔️ Painting over wallpaper calls for an oil-based bonding primer

✔️Phone calls feel more intimate than texts with old friends

💡Key Questions Answered

Q: Why doesn’t a long paint warranty always hold up in Houston?

→ A: Joe Early, owner of Painter Bros of The Woodlands, says long paint warranties read like insurance policies, with caveats for excessive heat, wind and other extreme conditions, and Houston’s weather falls right into those caveats.

Q: What should I do if removing wallpaper damages the drywall?

→ A: Joe Early says the wall then needs to be retextured or skim coated so everything is smooth again. In Misty Bacon’s own condo half bath, some wallpaper came off cleanly and some came off with the sheetrock.

Q: What paint colors will be popular in 2027?

→ A: Joe Early says no one knows the 2027 color yet, but he doesn’t expect anything dramatic, because colors change only a little and drift, and he keeps hearing the same shades from customers. He notes that the 2026 interior color of the year from a major paint store was in a light beige color scheme.

⏳ Timestamps (Click to Jump to Sections!)

📌00:00 - Paint Is the Icing on the Cake

📌01:01 - NCAA Coach to Painting Business Owner

📌02:59 - Exterior Paint Lifespan in Houston Heat

📌05:19 - How to Paint Brick: Lime Wash & German Smear

📌06:36 - Painting Over a Child’s Mural

📌07:52 - Painting Over Wallpaper the Right Way

📌10:20 - Growing Into Commercial Painting

📌11:12 - Why Painting Estimates Differ

📌12:55 - Walk the Property Before You Hire

📌14:34 - 2027 Paint Color Trends

📌16:19 - Advice to Your 22-Year-Old Self

📌18:19 - A Coach’s Legacy: “I Tried to Help”

Connect with Joe Early:

🌐 Website → http://painterbros.com/the-woodlands

📸 Instagram → https://www.instagram.com/painterbrosofthewoodlands/

⭐Facebook → https://www.facebook.com/p/Painter-Bros-of-The-Woodlands-61553238535926/

💼 LinkedIn → https://www.linkedin.com/in/joseph-m-early/

🎧 Follow Misty Bacon:

🌐 Website → https://www.thebaconrealtygroup.com/

👻 Facebook → https://www.facebook.com/thebaconrealtygroup

💼 LinkedIn → https://www.linkedin.com/in/mistybacon/

⭐ Produced by Icons of Real Estate - https://iconsofrealestate.com/

🔖 Don’t Forget to LIKE 👍, SUBSCRIBE 🔔 & COMMENT 💬 Below!

#BitsByBacon #MistyBacon #HoustonRealEstate #BaconRealtyGroup #HoustonRealtor #HoustonBusiness #CommercialRealEstateHouston #TexasRealEstate #LocalHouston #RealEstatePodcast #LaurenRogers #MultifamilyInvesting

Selling a business or property? Up to 50% of your gain could go to taxes. Here's how one owner grew cash flow from $120K to $190K instead.

What if swapping one rental for a bigger one isn't the path to freedom at all?

Misty Bacon sits down with Brett Swarts, founder of Capital Gains Tax Solutions and author of Building a Capital Gain Tax Exit Plan, who helps founders and investors defer tax with a deferred sales trust.

Learn how to plan a capital gains tax exit before you sell, how a deferred sales trust compares to a 1031 exchange, how to build truly passive income, and how leaders avoid drifting off course.

🎧 Hosted by: Misty Bacon

🎤 Featuring:

Brett Swarts is founder of Capital Gains Tax Solutions, an eXp Commercial multifamily broker, and author of the Amazon best-seller Building a Capital Gain Tax Exit Plan. Raised building custom homes in the Bay Area, he later ran multifamily sales and 1031s at Marcus & Millichap. He hosts the Capital Gains Tax Solutions and Build It to Billions podcasts.

💡 What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

✔️ Capital gains tax can take 20–50% of the gain on a large sale

✔️ Exit planning applies to businesses, Bitcoin, IPO stock, and real estate

✔️Deferred sales trusts defer tax with no cash taken at closing

✔️Repeated 1031 exchanges often trade 15 problems for 30 new ones

✔️Truly passive income is to freedom what compound interest is to money

✔️ Leadership failure usually happens slowly, not all of a sudden

✔️Consistency over intensity turns good habits into second nature

💡Key Questions Answered

Q: Who is a good fit for a deferred sales trust?

→ A: Business owners, founders, and investment property owners with multimillion-dollar gains, says Brett Swarts, founder of Capital Gains Tax Solutions. Primary homes fit only at $3M+, with $1–2M in gain and no replacement home.

Q: How can I stop managing a rental property but keep the income?

→ A: In Brett Swarts' client example, Warren sold his 15-unit property, deferred the tax, paid off debt, and diversified into passive investments, raising cash flow from $120K to $190K and freeing his time. Investments still carry risk.

Q: What's the difference between a deferred sales trust and a 1031 exchange?

→ A: Per Brett Swarts, a 1031 exchange swaps one property for another, while a deferred sales trust makes proceeds diversified and liquid, in stocks or back in real estate. He calls it the Netflix to the old Blockbuster 1031.

⏳ Timestamps:

📌00:00 - Capital Gains Tax: 20–50% of Your Gain at Stake

📌00:31 - Meet Brett Swarts: Custom Homes to Marcus & Millichap

📌02:16 - Tax Planning: 10,000 vs. 5 Hours

📌03:23 - Who Qualifies for a Deferred Sales Trust?

📌04:32 - $10M Sale: Become the Bank (IRC 453)

📌05:59 - Selling With a Loan: Debt Over Basis & 1031s

📌08:30 - Broke in 2008 to Passive Income

📌09:54 - 15 Units, 15 Problems: $120K to $190K

📌12:19 - Seller Financing: When Buyers Default

📌13:57 - Why Only 1 in 3 Leaders Finish Well

📌15:22 - Awareness, Isolation & Pace

📌17:45 - Consistency Over Intensity & Mentors

📌20:00 - Cold Calls: Add Value or Waste Time

📌23:46 - Legacy & Serving the Most Vulnerable

📌26:16 - The $124 Trillion Wealth Transfer

Connect with Brett Swarts:

🌐 Facebook → Company: https://www.facebook.com/capitalgainstaxsolutions

💼 LinkedIn → https://www.linkedin.com/in/brett-swarts

💼 LinkedIn → Company: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brett-swarts

📸 Instagram → Company: https://www.instagram.com/reel/Ci3t976AIXR/

🎧 Follow Misty Bacon:

🌐 Website → https://www.thebaconrealtygroup.com/

👻 Facebook → https://www.facebook.com/thebaconrealtygroup

💼 LinkedIn → https://www.linkedin.com/in/mistybacon/

⭐ Produced by Icons of Real Estate - https://iconsofrealestate.com/

🔖 Don’t Forget to LIKE 👍, SUBSCRIBE 🔔 & COMMENT 💬 Below!

#BitsByBacon #MistyBacon #HoustonRealEstate #BaconRealtyGroup #HoustonRealtor #HoustonBusiness #CommercialRealEstateHouston #TexasRealEstate #LocalHouston #RealEstatePodcast #LaurenRogers #MultifamilyInvesting