Personal blog of Jake James — writing on real estate, careers, and life.https://jakejam.es/https://jakejam.es/posts/now-04jun2025/https://jakejam.es/posts/now-04jun2025/This is what I'm up to nowadays, as of June 2025.Wed, 04 Jun 2025 16:52:00 GMThttps://jakejam.es/posts/a-trip-to-the-ocean/https://jakejam.es/posts/a-trip-to-the-ocean/Last week we took a trip to a seaside town down in North Carolina. A beautiful and charming little place called Southport. My girlfriend's family has a...Wed, 24 Jul 2024 22:31:00 GMThttps://jakejam.es/posts/when-to-hit-publish/https://jakejam.es/posts/when-to-hit-publish/As I begin this blog-writing experiment, my first instinct is to just write, ramble, type whatever, and hit publish. Which I did with my last post here....Tue, 11 Jun 2024 11:49:00 GMThttps://jakejam.es/posts/the-skill-of-writing-first-draft/https://jakejam.es/posts/the-skill-of-writing-first-draft/My girlfriend is a voracious reader. I knew others read more than me, but I thought I read a fair amount. But after dating her, I realize I've got to do...Sat, 08 Jun 2024 13:11:00 GMThttps://jakejam.es/posts/just-write/https://jakejam.es/posts/just-write/I've been sitting here for several days now tweaking my new website and wanting to post something. But, I can't seem to think of something to write about....Wed, 05 Jun 2024 18:05:29 GMThttps://jakejam.es/posts/finally-choosing-a-personal-website-platform/https://jakejam.es/posts/finally-choosing-a-personal-website-platform/I started with Squarespace, but something about the blogging part didn't quite do it for me. Then I moved on to Ghost. Loved the blogging editor, but to...Tue, 21 May 2024 00:22:42 GMThttps://jakejam.es/posts/walkable-neighborhoods/https://jakejam.es/posts/walkable-neighborhoods/I recently moved to a new neighborhood in DC and found a great place with my girlfriend. When I first moved to this city, I was already pleasantly...Thu, 16 May 2024 00:00:00 GMThttps://jakejam.es/posts/asymmetric-risks-are-still-risks/https://jakejam.es/posts/asymmetric-risks-are-still-risks/If one can recognize a clearly asymmetric bet, it is almost always worth the risk. However, one needs to recognize that asymmetric doesn’t mean there...Sun, 24 Mar 2024 00:00:00 GMThttps://jakejam.es/posts/looking-at-real-estate-differently/https://jakejam.es/posts/looking-at-real-estate-differently/Once you start learning about commercial real estate, you reach a point where you start seeing the world around you through a whole other lens. Buildings...Mon, 11 Mar 2024 00:00:00 GMThttps://jakejam.es/posts/failure-and-response/https://jakejam.es/posts/failure-and-response/I've had a lot of failures in my life. My initial, natural inclination is to analyze and explain to myself somehow how the situation wasn't entirely my...Sun, 03 Mar 2024 00:00:00 GMThttps://jakejam.es/posts/acting-goofy/https://jakejam.es/posts/acting-goofy/Whenever I'm with my daughter, I try to make sure that I don't hold back and show her that it's ok to be goofy and not be self-conscious in front of other...Fri, 23 Feb 2024 00:00:00 GMThttps://jakejam.es/posts/parallels-of-financial-markets-trading-and-real-estate/https://jakejam.es/posts/parallels-of-financial-markets-trading-and-real-estate/As part of my career path, I worked for an algorithmic trading firm. The kind of firm that hires Caltech and MIT kids to come in, learn the markets, and...Wed, 10 Jan 2024 00:00:00 GMThttps://jakejam.es/posts/misunderstanding-what-it-takes-to-succeed/https://jakejam.es/posts/misunderstanding-what-it-takes-to-succeed/I was re-reading John McNellis' "Making it in Real Estate" and came across his discussion on the famous Woody Allen Quote about success: 80% of success is...Mon, 18 Dec 2023 23:00:00 GMThttps://jakejam.es/posts/am-i-making-the-right-move/https://jakejam.es/posts/am-i-making-the-right-move/There seems to be seeds of doubt in any big decision, but usually there's a clear inclination towards the side you're leaning on. But sometimes, there's...Sat, 16 Dec 2023 00:00:00 GMThttps://jakejam.es/posts/about-post/https://jakejam.es/posts/about-post/It started with me asking the question “What is the coolest job you can possibly have?”. My answer to that was an astronaut. So I thought, ok, seems like...Mon, 05 Jun 2023 04:00:00 GMT