On this episode of the Heartland Multifamily Show, I explain what I call The Mamdani Effect.

Zohran Mamdani, the recently elected mayor of New York City, has promised to bring down rent prices. While the intention may be political or social, the economic reality of real estate tells a different story.

In multifamily investing, expenses rise over time. If rent growth is capped or restricted, the math eventually breaks. When income is frozen and costs continue to climb, investors respond in predictable ways.

That response is the Mamdani Effect.

Serious investors avoid the market entirely. Capital moves elsewhere. And what’s left are two types of owners:

1. social-mission investors who are willing to accept poor returns, and
2. owners who are stuck and can’t sell.

New York City doesn’t make the list of top places to invest—not because investors dislike the city, but because the numbers no longer work. Policy changes drive behavior, and markets adjust accordingly.

That’s why I tell investors this: your investments must align with your politics.

If you’re a social-worker investor, NYC may make sense for you. There’s nothing wrong with that. But that’s not who I am—and it’s why I continue to focus on the Heartland, where the economics, incentives, and long-term fundamentals still align.

This episode isn’t a personal attack. It’s an analysis based on decades of real-world experience in multifamily real estate—and why policy decisions matter more than headlines.

Today, we’re talking about AI on the Heartland Multifamily Show. Along with my guest, Isaiah, I talk about the pros and cons of AI. I am in favor of AI. It’s made my life easier, and I expect it will continue to do so in the future. I look forward to the day when computers can clean my house and do my dishes. But at the same time, there’s one thing that AI can never give you, and that's authenticity. As an owner-operator, even if an AI chatbot can report a problem and set an appointment with a plumber on their website, AI won’t be able to give the tenant the empathy it requires to make her feel like her business matters. I don’t think AI will ever be able to do that, and hopefully, it won’t.

On this episode of Ask Uncle Darin from the Heartland Multifamily Show, I answer a question I get asked a lot: Why is it always so hard to run a business/invest/achieve your dreams? The answer may surprise you, but it shouldn’t: It has to be hard. If you expect things to be easy in life, all you have to do is have an average life and never pursue your dreams. In this episode, I teach you how to adjust your expectations so when life gets hard, you don’t give up.