Buy vs. Build: The Decision Behind Growing Wealth
From LIFE WITH MIKEY by Mikey Taylor
March 31, 2026 · 33 min
About this episode
Mikey Taylor and Michael Michalov discuss the complexities of real estate development, focusing on the decision to buy or build and the associated processes.
Most people think real estate development is just construction. It’s not. The real game starts years before a shovel hits the ground and that’s where fortunes are made or lost. In this episode, Mikey Taylor and Michael Michalov break down the complete development cycle from raw land to stabilized asset. They cover how to assess whether buying or building makes sense for your situation, the entitlement process that can take years and cost hundreds of thousands before you build anything, how to work with cities to avoid expensive dead ends, the capital stack breakdown on a real development deal, and why they believe Southern California’s difficulty is potentially an investment advantage. They also get into a heated debate about when value is actually “realized” in development and share the real numbers on a North Hollywood project tracking from a targeted $9.5M cost to $17M projected stabilized value. Whether you’re considering your first development deal or deciding between buying stabilized assets and building from scratch, this episode gives you the operator-level framework. #RealEstateDevelopment #WealthBuilding #RealEstateInvesting Timestamps: 0:00 — Buy vs. Build: Two…
People in this episode
Host: Mikey Taylor
Guest: Michael Michalov
Topics covered
- real estate development
- wealth building
- investment strategies
- buy vs build
- development cycle
Keywords
- real estate
- development cycle
- capital stack
- entitlement process
- investment advantage
Mentioned in this episode
Places: Southern California, North Hollywood
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