Our Thoughts: Black Lives Matter, Renting vs Buying, & Housing Market

In this episode, Sam Parr and Shaan Puri discuss the current state of the housing market, the impact of remote work on urban centers, and the broader societal implications of recent social movements. They explore the shifting dynamics of real estate, the concept of “de-urbanization,” and share personal anecdotes about their own experiences with property ownership and investment strategies.

Topics: Housing Market, Remote Work, Real Estate, Black Lives Matter, Urbanization, Investing, Entrepreneurship

The State of the Housing Market and Remote Work [00:00]

Sam Parr: Do you regret buying your home?

Shaan Puri: Yes.

Sam Parr: Uh, Sam, what’s up?

Shaan Puri: What’s going on? Let me pull up some of our documents. Um, I’m in Austin still.

Sam Parr: And what’s going, what’s, what’s uh, what’s the world like in Austin right now?

Shaan Puri: It’s crazy. Everything’s crazy. I don’t think it’s as bad as San Francisco, but the world is crazy. I uh, I decided to, we got a new office down here and so I rented a house uh, to see everyone and uh, it’s cool. Austin’s a great city. What do you think’s going to happen to San Francisco? Do you think it’s going to, like, is this going to be the end of uh, San Francisco being like the place?

Sam Parr: Uh, I think so, yeah. I, I think so for a couple of reasons. Um, you know, right now I’m selling my house.

Shaan Puri: Oh. Yeah, I was going to say, your, your house looks different. You’re decorating it to sell, aren’t you?

Sam Parr: Yeah, I am, I am trying to sell my house right now, so it’s about to go up for sale. Uh, and I’m trying to move to the, to the suburbs of uh, the Bay Area. But, and so right now, because I’m doing that, I’m in the middle of the market and listening to people and hearing, you know, what are they, um, what’s it like? Am I, is the market hot to sell? Am I going to get a good price? When I try to go look for something else, is there a lot of stuff available or is it a bidding war? And uh, you know, just like you would expect, there’s sort of a, you know, a flight to the, a flight to space right now. Uh, and, and not like the SpaceX kind. I’m talking about like physical house space. Um, people are leaving.

Shaan Puri: The de-urbanization.

Sam Parr: Yeah, de-urbanization. People are leaving cities, um, they’re leaving San Francisco for sure. So, a lot of people who are in San Francisco are here because of the career opportunities. And um, now that the tech companies are saying, you know, either we are already remote or we’re going remote or we’re way more remote friendly, and your work from home for the sort of foreseeable future, there’s basically no the premium, the extreme premium, I mean like one bedroom for four grand a month, two bedroom six grand a month, you know, type of rents, um, to be in the city. And so like, you know, when a, when a studio condo is a million dollars in the city, uh, you know, if you don’t have to pay that, you’re not going to. And so people want space, people want more affordability, uh, and people want to be away from like a whole bunch of other people from this virus. And so that is driving a lot of people out of the cities. Now, some people say, oh, that’s just temporary. Personally, I don’t think so. I don’t think you can put the genie back in the bottle. Once the companies start letting you be remote, and it doesn’t matter where you’re physically located, why would you live in a more expensive area? Only if that lifestyle really appeals to you, which it will for like 20-something-year-olds, right, to be in cities. But right now, you get the 20-something-year-olds and the 30-something-year-olds because the 30-something-year-olds are there for their career. And that’s going to go away.

Shaan Puri: I feel like I’m, I’ve been in Austin for a week now. I’m, I’m going to stay for another week. Maybe I’ll stay one more week. Down here, it is definitely happier. Like the way of life is, like it, I, for me and for many others, I understand why you’d be happier here. Um, like Dude, my new house, I got, I got a pool. I’m like, a swimming pool. Like, what, what is this? This is, this is amazing. That, it makes me happy just looking at a swimming pool.

Sam Parr: I like it too. My thing though is I miss San Francisco. I want to come back. I do miss a little bit of a struggle. Um, I also miss the people. Uh, San Francisco, like, I hate the people and I love them.

Shaan Puri: Dangerous. San Francisco has like actual, you know, real problems with crime and homelessness and stuff like that. I don’t, I don’t think anybody wants that in where they’re living. And so I think, you know, there’s part of it that’s the energy of a city. It’s like, oh, I love being in New York. I love being in San Francisco. I’m around all these energizing, interesting, ambitious people, a bunch of single people. But then there’s just like crime and homelessness and like extreme expenses that put a burden on you. And I think that’s, nobody likes that.

Sam Parr: I almost feel like, and not in a real way, but just because I can’t think of a better word, a little homeless where I’m like, well, where the fuck is my place now? Like, where’s my, like, you know, because I’m, yeah, you and I, we’re not quite similar. You’ve done it more than I have, but me to a lesser extent, I’ve lived in many different cities and I finally felt like I had a home in San Francisco and now I’m like, shit. It like, it’s way, damn, it’s way different. And so, uh, I’m, I’m pretty sad about it to be honest. Like I’ve been like depressed over it. I’m also sad, obviously, about all the other shit going on. Is it, are you seeing unrest and protesting and looting where you live?

Shaan Puri: I’m seeing it because I’m just glued to Twitter and, you know, I’m just scrolling and I, I can’t believe my eyes and, uh, it is, it is so sad. There’s so many different things going on at the same time and then the, the shitty part about that to me is that, um, everybody pulls a different meaning away from it. So like, if your bias going in is, um, you know, the, you know, if you’re a racist in one way, you’re going to look at this and say, oh man, they’re rooting in, they’re, they’re looting and, and rioting and this is awful. What did those small business owners do? Why are they, why are they getting their stores smashed? And then if you’re somebody else and you’re looking at this and you’re like, dude, people are sick of it. They’ve hit their breaking point because it’s been going on for so long, this police brutality, and I totally understand what’s going on. And then other people are looking at it and they’re sort of like, hey, what’s like, why are these other malicious groups kind of hijacking the movement and just inciting violence and, you know, Antifa or some people believe, you know, Russia, China, whoever it is, who’s dropping these pallets of bricks off trying to bait people into violence? And you know, some people are just trying to make the world burn. And so there’s all these things mixed together and I think whoever you are, you’re going to select the evidence that supports your feeling and you’re just going to get stronger, you’re just going to see more evidence towards your view and it’s going to make people more divided.

Discussing the “Idea Generation” and “Idea Flux” [05:30]

Sam Parr: My friend shared something and uh, it was like four circles and it was like, uh, I’m pissed off about the racism in our country and Black Lives Matter, Black Lives Matters has a point. I’m pissed off that businesses are getting ruined. This is not the right way to do it. I’m pissed off at the police because I think most of them are good, but a few bad uh, cops ruin shit for everyone. And then I forget the fourth one. And then it was like, at the center, all the circles had a little bit of everything and like, you can be here. And I was like, that’s how I feel. I’m angry and I’m sad. And so,

Shaan Puri: What, what was the fourth one? What was the fourth circle?

Sam Parr: I don’t know what the fourth one was. Let’s see. Uh, it was really great though. Uh, did, did you didn’t happen to see this go around?

Shaan Puri: I didn’t see that. But no, that explains like exactly how I feel, you know, and how many people feel. And, um, you know, I, I think it’s really crazy. You know, there’s a whole bunch of things that that you hear, you learn from these experiences where you’re like, oh, you know, that is a sort of a nugget of wisdom or and and a bit of empathy that I didn’t have before. And so, you know, when you see people that are, um, you know, I one great quote I saw was, when you have a thousand good cops and 10 bad cops, but the good cops don’t police the bad cops, then you have a thousand and 10 bad cops. And, uh, you know, I, I, I believe that. And then that that sort of applies to my life too. Like in what anytime I sort of stand by and do nothing while injustice is happening, that makes me sort of complicit in my own way, right? And, um, you know, I think about little minor examples of that in my own life. And then, you know,

Sam Parr: It was George Floyd’s, George, George Floyd’s death was murder and the police should be held responsible. I think most cops are good, but police departments are corrupt and there are some bad cops looting businesses and destroying properties is immoral and it hurts the cause. I empathize and I agree with Black Lives Matter protester and believe in them and their right to be heard. And then right in the middle was like, I am here and this is sad.

Shaan Puri: Right. Yeah, it’s really crazy. And I know people don’t listen to this podcast to hear like, you know, um, talks about socioeconomic issues and racism and whatnot, but, um, you know, this I think affects everybody. This is is very different than anything that’s happened in in my lifetime where you have riots breaking out across the nation, um, all simultaneously and things really do feel like they’ve hit a breaking point for many reasons. I think also the fact that people were pent up at home for the last three months, um, I don’t think that helps necessarily because that’s a sort of, um, a bunch of a bunch of, uh, you know, it’s just water boiling over, you know, at a certain point as well.

Sam Parr: I agree. I so I I agree. I I don’t even love discussing this stuff because I don’t think about it a lot and I also tend I try to like talk about the positive. But let me bring something up that I don’t think I have bring up brought up and I want to hear your opinion. So, um, I don’t this doesn’t matter and it doesn’t change, I don’t think it should like validate or not validate anything I say. So like my wife’s black, my family’s black, I’ll have black children and this was the first time or half black or partially black children. This was the first time that I was at my house with Sarah, my wife, and like she broke down. She was like, I don’t, I don’t know how, she’s like, I don’t know where I fit in on this because she’s like a successful black woman. She’s like, I haven’t had a lot of racist stuff happen to me or if any, like I and and it was and she’s like, but I yeah, it was it was it was just a total mind fuck because I’m like, fuck, what am I supposed to, how am I supposed to, I don’t I didn’t know what to feel. I didn’t I was like, I don’t I don’t know what to do. And it was incredibly exhausting. Do you, you, you’re Indian. Do you consider yourself white or not white or what?

Shaan Puri: Definitely don’t consider myself white. Uh, and no nor does anyone who sees me think I’m white. But Well, I don’t know, like how No, but but I get I get what you mean in the sense of like, in in some ways like do you feel that you’re uh privileged or or prejudiced against? I think that’s a different way of looking at it. And like, you know, my sister, so we I was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma, which is like, you know, not the most open-minded and racially friendly place. And so my sister, when she was in kindergarten, uh, you know, students would would draw a picture of a pig and then write her name on it and cover the pig in mud and brown mud, and then they would give it to the teacher and the teacher laughed. And my sister always remembers this. Like she was, I don’t know, six years old and she vividly remembers the teacher sort of looking at this and laughing and saying, no, no, no, put it away, but like being, you know, involved in it. And I never experienced I don’t understand that. What what’s the pig have to do? Is that because you’re not eat pig? Just like brown brown, dirty in the mud, you know, that sort of thing. And um, and you know, I remember, you know, when she went to my mom and was like, why can’t be we be white? type of thing where it’s like, you know, asking questions as a kid, just trying to understand why am I different? What does that mean? Why do other people think we’re worse than than them? That sort of thing. I personally never experienced that because I luckily moved out of Oklahoma when I was really young and went to different places where it was it was less so. Uh, or just got lucky in sort of my experiences around who I was around. Um, but I I I guess I would say like, you know, when 9/11 happened, you know, it’s not fun to be a brown guy in America, right? Are you are you any religion? Are you Muslim? No, I’m well, I’m not religious, but I would be Hindu. Yeah, I would be Hindu, but um, you know, just that’s typically what most Indian people are. Um, but yeah, I you know, I’m not religious, but you know, I do grow a beard pretty quick and so like, yeah, you know, like when you go to the airport, I don’t think you think about how do I look today, whereas I think about that because I’m like, look, I’m not trying to get hassled for no reason here. So let me shave before I get on this flight. Or like, you know, I had friends who like are are Muslim who had like keys, their house keys taken away from them in TSA because it was like, this is uh, you know, potentially a dangerous thing. And they’re like, this is my apartment keys. What are you talking about?