Episode 300 of the Nadlan BeShidur podcast came out around my 66th birthday. Shoham Levi sat me down at the Playcast studio in Yavne and turned the tables: this time I was the one being interviewed, about the army, the falls, and what all of it taught me about buying real estate.
The conversation is in Hebrew with English subtitles. If they don’t appear, click CC on the video, or choose English under Settings > Subtitles.
We recorded in late June 2025, during the war with Iran. We talked about what shaped me, from my service as an officer in Unit 8200, through the buildings I built and the business I lost, to the way I work with buyers today.
In this episode
- Commanding a base on Mount Hermon as a young officer, and learning to listen to people
- Why a market researcher is really an intelligence officer
- A 2009 Tel Aviv municipal tender in the Hatikva neighborhood: a broken building nobody wanted, and why I saw potential
- What building projects taught me about judging an apartment before you buy
- The fall of my cosmetics school, and the debt I chose to repay rather than declare bankruptcy
- My yearly debrief, and the day in 2009 I walked away from project management
- Where I think prices are heading after the war with Iran
Market research is intelligence work
An intelligence officer gathers information from every source, analyzes it and decides what it means. When I research a neighborhood for a client, I do the same job alone: I am the field officer, the researcher and the analyst. I look at the street, the building, the whole area around it, and the signs of what is going to happen there.
Seeing what others miss
In 2009 the Tel Aviv municipality put a building in the Hatikva neighborhood up for tender. It was broken inside, with no water, no electricity and no sewage connection. The room was full of experienced investors, and they all saw the problems. I saw what could be done with it. It took about a year and a half to connect everything, and the property did very well for my client.
“It doesn’t matter when you start. What matters is that you start, and that you do it right and do it smart.”
Tzachi Quatinsky
What I tell buyers
Most people look at an apartment at the most superficial level. You don’t need to be an engineer to see the warning signs, but you do need to know where to look, and when to bring in a professional. Every investment has to fit the person who is buying it. We buy the property that fits the buyer. We never fit the buyer to the property.
Buying in Israel from abroad? Start with the Fit Profile, or write to me on WhatsApp.