At Y Street Capital, we are specialists in storage and light industrial. If you are interested in getting exposure to a portfolio of storage projects including retail, industrial and boat & RV, our storage fund might be perfect for you. To learn more visit ystreetcapital.com

On today's show we are talking about how pension funds manage asset allocation and whether individual investors can learn anything from mirroring what the world’s most professional money managers do.

Pension funds are the bedrock of retirement security for millions worldwide. Their primary mission is to ensure that future liabilities the pension payments promised to retirees can be met. Achieving this delicate balance between growth and stability hinges critically on their asset allocation decisions.

So the obvious question for each of us as investors is, what is our ideal asset allocation? Do you think of it consciously?

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**Real Estate Espresso Podcast:**
Spotify: [The Real Estate Espresso Podcast](https://open.spotify.com/show/3GvtwRmTq4r3es8cbw8jW0?si=c75ea506a6694ef1)
iTunes: [The Real Estate Espresso Podcast](https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/the-real-estate-espresso-podcast/id1340482613)
Website: [www.victorjm.com](http://www.victorjm.com)
LinkedIn: [Victor Menasce](http://www.linkedin.com/in/vmenasce)
YouTube: [The Real Estate Espresso Podcast](http://www.youtube.com/@victorjmenasce6734)
Facebook: [www.facebook.com/realestateespresso](http://www.facebook.com/realestateespresso)
Email: [podcast@victorjm.com](mailto:podcast@victorjm.com)
**Y Street Capital:**
Website: [www.ystreetcapital.com](http://www.ystreetcapital.com)
Facebook: [www.facebook.com/YStreetCapital](https://www.facebook.com/YStreetCapital)
Instagram: [@ystreetcapital](http://www.instagram.com/ystreetcapital)

Today’s show is the second in a mini-series on the changing face of business. On Friday’s show we talked about how Google is keeping search traffic on the Google platform and is not sending organic search results to the source pages in the way it used to. Traffic to businesses is dramatically reduced. This will cause many businesses who relied largely upon organic search to either adapt to whatever will replace organic search, or they will face bankruptcy.

This is also going to affect every aspect of retail. So much has been written about the retail apocalypse. There is no question that the footprint of traditional retail is changing.

There is much less diversity in shopping experience today than when I was a teenager. In the US we had numerous department store chains including Bloomingdales, Macy’s Sears, Kmart, Bergdorf Goodman, Filenes, Lord & Taylor, Neiman Marcus, JC Penny, Walmart Target Montgomery Ward, Ames, and countless others. Today, only a small fraction of those remain.

We are all familiar with the e-commerce revolution and how Amazon and Walmart are increasingly dominating this space. Even major retailers including Home Depot and Best Buy have a larger online catalog with products that are only a couple of days away from your home.

But the new revolution is in a form of shopping called social shopping. This has been in existence in China for more than 8 years and is still in experimental stages in the US on a limited basis with specific platforms.

So what is social shopping? It is a method of e-commerce that integrates the social aspects of human interaction into the online shopping experience. It leverages social media platforms and online communities to facilitate the discovery, research, sharing, and purchasing of products and services. Think influencers. Think buying events.

-----------

**Real Estate Espresso Podcast:**
Spotify: [The Real Estate Espresso Podcast](https://open.spotify.com/show/3GvtwRmTq4r3es8cbw8jW0?si=c75ea506a6694ef1)
iTunes: [The Real Estate Espresso Podcast](https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/the-real-estate-espresso-podcast/id1340482613)
Website: [www.victorjm.com](http://www.victorjm.com)
LinkedIn: [Victor Menasce](http://www.linkedin.com/in/vmenasce)
YouTube: [The Real Estate Espresso Podcast](http://www.youtube.com/@victorjmenasce6734)
Facebook: [www.facebook.com/realestateespresso](http://www.facebook.com/realestateespresso)
Email: [podcast@victorjm.com](mailto:podcast@victorjm.com)
**Y Street Capital:**
Website: [www.ystreetcapital.com](http://www.ystreetcapital.com)
Facebook: [www.facebook.com/YStreetCapital](https://www.facebook.com/YStreetCapital)
Instagram: [@ystreetcapital](http://www.instagram.com/ystreetcapital)

Jim Ross is based in Phoenix Arizona where he is a partner at the accounting firm Pro Vision. On today's show we are talking about the provisions of the latest US tax legislation that was signed into law on July 4. The focus of our conversation is the aspects that specifically affect real estate investors.

To connect with Jim, visit https://www.provisionwealth.com/

------------

**Real Estate Espresso Podcast:**
Spotify: [The Real Estate Espresso Podcast](https://open.spotify.com/show/3GvtwRmTq4r3es8cbw8jW0?si=c75ea506a6694ef1)
iTunes: [The Real Estate Espresso Podcast](https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/the-real-estate-espresso-podcast/id1340482613)
Website: [www.victorjm.com](http://www.victorjm.com)
LinkedIn: [Victor Menasce](http://www.linkedin.com/in/vmenasce)
YouTube: [The Real Estate Espresso Podcast](http://www.youtube.com/@victorjmenasce6734)
Facebook: [www.facebook.com/realestateespresso](http://www.facebook.com/realestateespresso)
Email: [podcast@victorjm.com](mailto:podcast@victorjm.com)
**Y Street Capital:**
Website: [www.ystreetcapital.com](http://www.ystreetcapital.com)
Facebook: [www.facebook.com/YStreetCapital](https://www.facebook.com/YStreetCapital)
Instagram: [@ystreetcapital](http://www.instagram.com/ystreetcapital)

Robby Butler is Managing Director and head of capital markets at Y Street Capital, our development company. On today's show we are talking about attacking complexity and simplifying business processes. To connect with Robby, he can be found on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/robby-butler/ or at Y Street Capital.

-------------

**Real Estate Espresso Podcast:**
Spotify: [The Real Estate Espresso Podcast](https://open.spotify.com/show/3GvtwRmTq4r3es8cbw8jW0?si=c75ea506a6694ef1)
iTunes: [The Real Estate Espresso Podcast](https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/the-real-estate-espresso-podcast/id1340482613)
Website: [www.victorjm.com](http://www.victorjm.com)
LinkedIn: [Victor Menasce](http://www.linkedin.com/in/vmenasce)
YouTube: [The Real Estate Espresso Podcast](http://www.youtube.com/@victorjmenasce6734)
Facebook: [www.facebook.com/realestateespresso](http://www.facebook.com/realestateespresso)
Email: [podcast@victorjm.com](mailto:podcast@victorjm.com)
**Y Street Capital:**
Website: [www.ystreetcapital.com](http://www.ystreetcapital.com)
Facebook: [www.facebook.com/YStreetCapital](https://www.facebook.com/YStreetCapital)
Instagram: [@ystreetcapital](http://www.instagram.com/ystreetcapital)

On today’s show we are talking about the changing face of business. This is the first in a two part series that explores the connection between the online world and the offline world. We live in the offline world, even though it seems at time that we spend much of our time with a device in our hand.

I need to first start with a distinction between marketing and sales. On today’s show we are talking about marketing. On Monday’s show we are going to be talking about sales which is a different process.

10 years ago they would scrape 2 pages for every visitor they would send to your website. That’s a pretty good trade. You would share your content with Google and Bing and they would send you traffic in exchange. They would also advertise along side your organic links and would provide themselves with ad revenue as part of the implicit arrangement. That remained relatively constant over much of the past decade. The Google crawl rate has remained relatively consistent over that entire time period, up until 6 months ago.

We have seen it get harder to attract traffic over the past decade. It feels like it is about 3x harder and that in fact lines up with the data. Up until the end of 2024 Google was scraping 6 pages for every visitor it sent you. But in the past six months, Google which still represents about 58-60% of all search traffic is now scraping 18 pages for every visitor it sends you.

When you perform a search using AI, the AI tool gives you the link to its references at the end of each AI result. But how many people actually click on the little link icon. They don’t share an entire web address with a blue link, it’s an anonymous icon of two chain links. You don’t know where the link is going to take you unless you click on the link and almost nobody does. The ratio of content scraping to website visits has now risen to 1500 to 1. A decade ago we were at 2:1 then 6:1, then 18:1. Now we are at 1500 to 1.

Who is going to invest all of that time and effort to create content with a 1500 to 1 ratio?

-----------

**Real Estate Espresso Podcast:**
Spotify: [The Real Estate Espresso Podcast](https://open.spotify.com/show/3GvtwRmTq4r3es8cbw8jW0?si=c75ea506a6694ef1)
iTunes: [The Real Estate Espresso Podcast](https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/the-real-estate-espresso-podcast/id1340482613)
Website: [www.victorjm.com](http://www.victorjm.com)
LinkedIn: [Victor Menasce](http://www.linkedin.com/in/vmenasce)
YouTube: [The Real Estate Espresso Podcast](http://www.youtube.com/@victorjmenasce6734)
Facebook: [www.facebook.com/realestateespresso](http://www.facebook.com/realestateespresso)
Email: [podcast@victorjm.com](mailto:podcast@victorjm.com)
**Y Street Capital:**
Website: [www.ystreetcapital.com](http://www.ystreetcapital.com)
Facebook: [www.facebook.com/YStreetCapital](https://www.facebook.com/YStreetCapital)
Instagram: [@ystreetcapital](http://www.instagram.com/ystreetcapital)

On today’s show we are looking at a divergence between lumber futures prices and current lumber composite prices.

These two graphs always tend to track each other, sometimes with a small delay. But the prices always follow the futures. However, this is a moment in time when the lumber futures are diverging.

The week-to-week framing lumber composite price fell by 0.5% on June 27, 2025, declining to $422 per 1,000 board feet. This was the 12th consecutive week of declines, and the lowest price since October 2024. The falling prices reflect falling demand for lumber as construction starts continue their steady decline. Production also fell in response to the fall in demand.

But the July Futures price is $615, September is $664 and November is $675. That's a 60% premium over the current spot price.

Holding physical lumber (spot price) incurs costs. This includes warehousing, insurance, and the cost of capital tied up in inventory. Futures prices reflect these "carrying costs" that would be avoided by buying a contract for future delivery rather than purchasing the physical commodity today and storing it. Storing that lumber incurs interest costs if the inventory is financed. So part of the difference in price is explained by the cost of carrying physical inventory.

There is anticipation of future increase in demand for new construction later this year and into next year. So the market is forecasting growth, even though the market is clearly experiencing a decline over the past 6 months.

Finally, the trade war is anticipating supply side constraints as we have already seen a 6% decline in lumber from Canada entering the US. This is further anticipated to amplify as the trade dispute continues.

This will make forecasting of construction costs more difficult for the foreseeable future in the US which will put downward pressure on new construction until the uncertainty is removed.

------------

**Real Estate Espresso Podcast:**
Spotify: [The Real Estate Espresso Podcast](https://open.spotify.com/show/3GvtwRmTq4r3es8cbw8jW0?si=c75ea506a6694ef1)
iTunes: [The Real Estate Espresso Podcast](https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/the-real-estate-espresso-podcast/id1340482613)
Website: [www.victorjm.com](http://www.victorjm.com)
LinkedIn: [Victor Menasce](http://www.linkedin.com/in/vmenasce)
YouTube: [The Real Estate Espresso Podcast](http://www.youtube.com/@victorjmenasce6734)
Facebook: [www.facebook.com/realestateespresso](http://www.facebook.com/realestateespresso)
Email: [podcast@victorjm.com](mailto:podcast@victorjm.com)
**Y Street Capital:**
Website: [www.ystreetcapital.com](http://www.ystreetcapital.com)
Facebook: [www.facebook.com/YStreetCapital](https://www.facebook.com/YStreetCapital)
Instagram: [@ystreetcapital](http://www.instagram.com/ystreetcapital)