The Chase Sapphire Dallas Fort Worth International Airport (DFW) Lounge is now open.
More lounge options are always a good thing even if you don’t have access as it helps with capacity at other lounges. This looks nice and it’s certainly big.
Spain just won the FIFA World Cup following a grueling match against Argentina. And it was all thanks to Ferran Torres scoring in the 106th minute, capping off a dramatic extra-time thriller. Now, he’s being hailed as the hero of Spain‘s triumph—but just four years ago, he found himself in the biggest career rut of his life.
In 2022, the Spanish forward was grappling with a mental health crisis; the then-21-year-old had hit rock bottom after his €55 million ($62.8 million) move from Manchester City to La Liga club Barcelona. Torres was struggling to handle the pressure that came with his talent’s high price tag, just as he was recovering from a preseason leg injury and crushing Europa League loss to Eintracht Frankfurt.
“I found myself in a bottomless pit, and I could not see a way out,” Torres told reporters in 2023. “It had never happened to me before. That was the moment when I decided to work with a psychologist.
“I lost my confidence. Everything was affecting me,” he continued. “Seeing [a psychologist] will become increasingly normalised in football. There are weeks when I don’t go and others when I go three times. We don’t always talk about football, we also talk about my private life.”
Torres credits therapy as “one of the best experiences” and making him stronger as a person. And his story can resonate with many; behind the trophies and multimillion-dollar contracts, many sports stars are fighting battles that most fans never see. As many as 51% of elite athletes struggle with mental health problems at some point in their lives, according to a 2020 study. Most commonly, they’re up against struggles like depression and anxiety, and may put off seeking help due to social stigma.
But the 26-year-old’s multimillion-dollar sports career and World Cup title is proof that prioritizing mental health doesn’t derail greatness—it can help unlock it.
Torres’ rise has been a story of early ambition turned into global success, with the young forward quickly becoming one of soccer’s most recognizable stars.
Born in the small coastal town of Foios, Spain (right outside of Valencia), Torres was destined for the world stage from an early age. At just six years old, he joined Valencia CF’s academy and made his professional debut at 17. After gaining a reputation as one of Spain’s top emerging talents, he signed with Manchester City in 2020, winning both the Premier League and League Cup.
Barcelona then paid millions to the English team to bring him back to Spain in 2022, and his high-profile transfer was followed by injuries, intense pressure, and a crisis of confidence.
Torres eventually rediscovered his spark thanks to his therapist, becoming a key contributor for both Barcelona and Spain. He went on to win multiple domestic trophies, including La Liga, the Copa del Rey, and the Spanish Super Cup. And what is sure to be one of the highlights of his soccer career, Torres scored the winning goal for his country in the 2026 FIFA World Cup.
The Gen Z footballer has also been raking in million-dollar contracts since his twenties. In 2020, Torres signed a five-year, $12 million contract transferring from Valencia to Manchester City. He spent several years on the English team before then making his return to Spain in 2022, signing a five-year deal with Barcelona for an initial €55 million ($62.8 million), with another €10 million ($11.4 million) in add-ons.
Estimates put Torres’ current base salary between $6.3 million to $10 million per year—or around $120,700 to $192,000 every week. It’s also reported that his sizable paycheck comes with at least another €3 million ($3.4 million) in bonuses every year; and off the pitch, he’s landed brand deals and partnerships with Under Armour.
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
Recently, a client came to me with a problem that turned out to be anything but small.
On paper, their business was thriving. Their clientele was loyal. The offer was polished, and the team was exceptional at what they did. Yet when people searched online for their business, particularly inside the newer AI tools, they were nowhere to be found.
This client did not need another generic marketing checklist. They needed a real strategy to be seen. They needed to appear where people actually search today, not where they searched a decade ago.
Today, people are not only typing business names into Google. They are asking ChatGPT. They are turning to Gemini. They are consulting Perplexity. They rely on AI to decide who to trust, where to go and which expert deserves their business.
So if your company is built only for old-school search, you are playing yesterday’s game.
I watch this every single day across all of my businesses. AI search keeps evolving and I have no intention of being left behind. More importantly, I refuse to let my clients be left behind either.
For a long time, search felt fairly predictable.
You chose smart keywords. You placed them across your site. You pursued a few backlinks. But that version of search is no longer the full picture.
The bigger question now is not simply, “Where do I rank?” A better question is, “Do new ways people search the internet trust my business enough to recommend me?”
That is an entirely different game. Now your business has to be more than findable. It has to be worth recommending.
I think of it this way: Old search was about landing on the list. Modern AI search is about earning the introduction.
One of the most common missteps I see owners make is assuming every search platform behaves the same way. They do not. Google, ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Claude and the rest each have their own way of finding, reading and sharing information. They overlap, but they are far from identical.
Some lean heavily on indexed web content. Some look for trusted sources and citations. Some study reviews and reputation closely. Some want clear, structured details so they understand exactly what you offer.
Picture each platform as a different customer. One wants credentials. One wants social proof. One wants receipts. One wants to hear what your clients think. One simply wants everything explained plainly. Your task is to make certain they all leave satisfied.
I build genuine proof across the web: clear messaging, strong content, accurate business details, press signals, reviews and a consistent story. When that foundation is right, your visibility begins to travel.
Your customers look for four signals: trust, authority, relevance and reputation. Get those four things right, and you give every engine more reasons to notice you and recommend you. If they are weak, even a beautiful website can struggle.
Trust is the starting line. Before anything recommends you, it needs to feel certain you are real and consistent. Your name, address, phone, website and profiles should match everywhere. You would be amazed how many businesses have mismatched versions of themselves drifting around. To clients, that looks careless. To search tools, it looks risky.
Authority is when credible sources vouch for you. Press, interviews, podcasts, articles, partnerships and recognition all help. You can praise yourself all day, but when a respected source says it, that carries real weight. I would rather earn one strong mention in the right place than 50 weak ones nobody trusts.
Relevance is clarity. Engines need to understand what you do, who you serve and where you operate. Vague phrases like “solutions for modern businesses” sound impressive but say nothing. Be clear in your messaging.
Reputation is what people say when you are not in the room. Reviews, testimonials and social proof shape how you are perceived. You cannot fake it for long. You earn it by doing exceptional work, inviting delighted clients to share positive reviews about your business.
Here is the part people do not love to hear: AI search is not a fix-it-once-and-forget-it affair. There is no finish line. Platforms change. Results change. Competitors improve. Reviews arrive. Signals shift.
So I treat visibility as an ongoing part of every business I touch. AI search evolves daily and I refuse to wake up six months from now to discover a competitor became the answer to their question while I ignored the question. I check. I test. I ask AI tools what they recommend. I watch who appears and why. It is like glancing at your dashboard. You do not stare at it all day, but you want to know the moment the warning light flips on.
If you own a business, the truth is simple: Your clients already use AI search, ready or not. They ask for recommendations and weigh their options. If the tools they trust never mention you, you may never get the chance to compete.
Start by seeing what is actually happening. Ask Google, ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity about your industry and local market. Notice who appears. Then strengthen your foundation. Refine your information. Build real reviews. Create clear content. Earn credible mentions.
The winners in this new era will not be the loudest. They will be the clearest, the most trusted and the easiest to recommend. I am not chasing rankings like it is 2012. I am building trust across the entire web.
Recently, a client came to me with a problem that turned out to be anything but small.
On paper, their business was thriving. Their clientele was loyal. The offer was polished, and the team was exceptional at what they did. Yet when people searched online for their business, particularly inside the newer AI tools, they were nowhere to be found.
This client did not need another generic marketing checklist. They needed a real strategy to be seen. They needed to appear where people actually search today, not where they searched a decade ago.
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The housing market looks very different than it did just a year or two ago. Home prices are softening, rates have eased slightly from the highs of 2023 and 2024, and sellers are more willing to negotiate than they’ve been in years. But rookie investors still want to know: Is 2026 actually the right time to buy?
Welcome back to another Rookie Reply! Today we’re answering three pressing questions from the BiggerPockets Forums. You just got your first rental property under contract–what’s the next step? Is out-of-state investing the answer to areas that don’t cash flow, and if so, how do you manage a property from afar? But perhaps most importantly, does it even make sense to invest in real estate in 2026?
Ashley and Tony break down the 2026 market, the contract-to-closing checklist every rookie investor needs, and the exact steps Tony took to build an investing team over 1,000 miles away!
Ashley Kehr:
The housing market in 2026 is starting to look different than it did 12 months ago. Prices are softening in some markets, rates have eased slightly and sellers are more willing to negotiate than they have been in years. The question is whether you are positioned to take advantage of it.
Tony Robinson:
And if you finally got a property under contract, c ongratulations, but the work is not done. We are going to walk you through exactly what needs to happen between now and closing day so nothing slips through the cracks.
Ashley Kehr:
This is The Real Estate Rokie Podcast. I’m Ashley Care.
Tony Robinson:
And I’m Tony D. Robinson. And with that, let’s get into our first question and our first question today comes from the BiggerPockets Forums. And it says, “I’ve been reading that 2026 could be a good year to buy because the housing market is starting to loosen up a little after a few tough years. Mortgage rates have come down slightly from 2023 and 2024 highs, and I’m seeing more price reductions in my market than I was a year ago. My question is, how do I actually read what is happening in a local market to know if conditions have genuinely improved? I do not want to convince myself the timing is right just because I want to buy. What data should I be looking at and how should a rookie be adjusting their strategy going into 2026 compared to what was working or not working in 2024 or 2025?” It’s a fantastic question.
I agree with a lot of what this person who asked this question has said, but I think there’s one caveat or maybe correction that I want to add. From pre – COVID, if you call it 2018, 2019, all the way through the peak of COVID 2020 to that moment afterward when things just were going crazy, super low interest rates, 2020, call it to maybe late 2022. And even through 2023 and 2024, we saw different versions of the real estate cycle. We saw incredible competitives coming out of COVID. We saw really, really low interest rates. Before COVID, it was a little bit more of a stable real estate market. But I share that to say that during all of those different versions of the real estate market, people were still buying. Investors were still investing. And I think if a rookie investor gets too caught up on answering the question of, is now a right time to buy?
They may inevitably talk themselves into the answer always being no and that they’re always waiting for maybe a better time to get started and better conditions and better interest rates and more willing sellers and whatever it may be. As someone who’s done a decent number of deals and had the good fortune of talking to people and way more successful than I am in the world of real estate investing, one thing holds true is that while maybe the volume and speed of your transactions may ebb and flow over time, the idea is that you’re continuing to look, you’re continuing to purchase. And what dictates whether or not you buy a deal is not necessarily what are interest rates today or how willing are sellers to sell something. The bigger question is, if I’ve underwritten this deal conservatively, does it work? And as long as you can say yes to that question, everything else kind of doesn’t matter.
So I just want to highlight that first just from a mindset perspective because I feel there’s a lot of rookies who are probably hearing this question thinking, “Man, I’ve been thinking the same thing,” when really the question should be slightly different.
Ashley Kehr:
Yeah. I really think that you can’t time the market, so you shouldn’t even be considering if right now is the good time have conditions genuinely improved because you should be basing it off the numbers of now. So if you’re going to wait for the perfect timing, you’re never going to know. You can have every expert tell you what they think is the perfect time to buy, but really any time can be good to buy if you find a good deal. And you’re looking at if you’re running the numbers based off of what the actual numbers are and the property still cash flows, then it is still a good deal even if you’re paying 8% interest rate. And all that means is that, especially, and I want to also clarify that this stays true for long-term buy and hold. So that could be a short-term rental, that can be a long-term rental, but a property that you intend to hold for a long period of time and have multiple options with so that you’re not going to have to sell this property in a couple years because that’s where you do get into trouble where you purchase the property and you did pay higher because the market was up, but now you need to sell it two years later and the market is down and you’re not going to be able to recap what you put into it, let alone get enough to pay off your mortgage.
But if you are going after a deal where you’re able to hold it for a long time, interest rates may come down, they may not, but your deal needs to work at whatever percentage you’re buying it at.
Down the road rates drop, you can refinance and that’s a bonus. You should never buy the deal based off of the fact that you can refinance later on and it will make money then. So don’t get caught up in what’s happening right now. If the market is bad in your area, there’s probably going to be good deals. If the market is hot in your area, it’s going to be harder to find good deals. So don’t get caught up too much on what’s actually happening as far as interest rates and things like that. Look at specifically the deal and do the numbers make sense? And yes, you want to take into all of the things for market consideration such as is there growth rate? Are there people coming to this area? Will you have renters and all of those things? But if you get caught up in timing the market, you’ll either never invest or when you do invest, it will surprisingly be the perfect time that you bought a property or it will not be, but there’s no way to actually time the market.
So I would not let that be the deciding factor whether you purchase a deal or not.
Tony Robinson:
All right guys, we’re going to take a quick break, but when we come back, we’re talking about what happens after you get a property under contract because this is where a lot of rookies make expensive mistakes and we want to make sure that you are not one of them. We’ll be right back after this.
Ashley Kehr:
Okay. Welcome back. Here’s our second question for today. I just got my first investment property under contract last week and I am equal parts excited and terrified. I did a lot of research before making an offer, but now that I am actually under contract, I am not sure what I am supposed to be doing. I know I need an inspection, but beyond that, I feel a little lost. What the full checklist of things I need to do between now and closing day? What are the most common mistakes rookies make during this period and what are the things that can kill a deal that I should be watching out for? Okay, well first of all, I want you to go to biggerpockets.com/resources, make sure it’s plural because they’ll also take you somewhere else. And this is where we have a whole rookie library of different checklists and templates for you.
So one of them is an actual acquisition checklist, so things that you should be doing when you’re under contract on a property. We have your first deal checklist. We have a property walkthrough checklist, what you’re going to be looking for when you do your due diligence. We also have another due diligence checklist. We have a property closing checklist. So all of those are free for pro members. Go to biggerpockets.com/resources, download them all and use them however you’d like. So really what these checklists do for when you’re under contract is they go over the things that you should be doing when you get your offer accepted. So like in New York State, you have an attorney, so you’re going to need to notify your attorney that you have a real estate deal that you’re doing. They get the contract and then they do an attorney aproval on it.
So if you’re not in New York State, you would just use the title company directly. It’s setting up your inspection. You need to call an inspector. Sometimes your agent will do this for you. Then you go ahead and do your due diligence on the property. We have the due diligence checklist that shows you everything you should be looking for in the property and it’s not just maintenance items too. After you’ve gone through the due diligence, if you’re doing financing, then it’s time to work with the lender, get them everything that they need to actually make this deal cross the finish line. Any utilities, set up accounts with the utility providers. If you’ve never had a gas account before, go ahead and set one up so that when it’s time to switch the utilities on closing day, you have that all set up. Then when it gets closer to closing, you’re going to get your insurance in place.
You’re going to have your utilities to start on that day that you take ownership. And then you’re going to set up any contractors to start right after closing that you need changing the locks on the property the day that you take ownership. So if you just go to biggerpockets.com/resources, have a ton of guides that you can just download that go through each of these steps that you need to take. And it makes it a lot easier than having to listen to me ramble on and read them off to you. So we’re going to take a short break, but when we come back, we’re going to be getting into the question that almost every investor in a high cost market eventually ask, “Can I make out – of-state investing work? And where do I even start?” We’ll be right back.
Tony Robinson:
All right guys, welcome back. The last question today, and this one is for anyone living in a high cost of living market who’s been staring at deals that just don’t make a ton of sense and they’re just wondering if there’s a different path forward. So the question says, “I live in Southern California and the numbers on any property I look at locally just do not work. A decent rental in my area costs 700,000 to $900,000 and it rents for maybe 3,000 to 3,500 per month. There is no realistic scenario where that cash flows. I’ve been researching out – of-state investing in the Midwest where prices are lower, but I’m nervous about managing a property from 2000 miles away, not knowing the market, not having a contractor and not being able to physically check in on things. How do other investors actually make this work? What do I need to have in place before I pull the triger on my first out – of-state deal and what market should a SoCal investor be considering in 2026?
Okay, all great questions. As someone who’s invested both closer to home and long distance also living in Southern California, I feel like I can speak to this from my own experience. I think there’s a few things I would say first is are you not investing in California simply because the numbers aren’t working or are you not investing in California because you can’t afford to buy there? If you can’t afford to buy in California, then maybe what I would challenge you to do is can you choose a different strategy aside from a traditional long-term rental? Can you short-term? Can you midterm? Can you do assisted living? Can you do a sober living facility? There are so many other ways that you can leverage real estate to still get an amazing return on your investment. Obviously I do short-term in California. We interviewed Han Stone who does assisted living facilities and he’s gotten the benefit of amazing appreciation and amazing cashflow.
We interviewed Devonna, I can’t remember what episode Devonna was on, but she did sober living facilities in Southern California and she gets great appreciation, great cashflow. So there are other strategies that might work better than a traditional long-term rental where you get both the upside of long-term appreciation and you get the upside of increased cashflow. Now, if you do want to go out of state, again, my very first deal, I live in California, I invested in Louisiana. Didn’t really know that market well at all, but I built a team out there that gave me the confidence to be able to execute. Like you mentioned, physically checking on things, and I hear that often from aspiring rookie investors. But my question is, are you going to be the person swinging the hammer? If a pipe burst, are you going to be the person fixing it? Probably not.
You’re going to pick up the phone and call a plumber anyway. So it doesn’t really matter if you’re there or if you’re remote because you’re going to pick up the phone and call someone regardless. So the first thing that I would do is if you want to get familiar with the market, go to the market, book a weekend trip, get there on Friday morning, leave late Sunday night, have an agent or multiple agents or property managers walk you around, show you the properties, give you the lay of the land. That way you get a better sense of what the city actually looks like. And then once you have your agent, have them start sending you deals that match your buy box and then ask your agent, “Hey, do you know a good contractor? Do you know a good HVAC person? Do you know a good plumber?
Do you know a good this? Do you know a good that? ” And if you’re connected with the right agent, oftentimes they can be your conduit to then get you connected with all the other folks in that market. So biggerpockets.com/agentfinder, best place to go find an agent and they can be your starting team member to help you build confidence and build your roster in that market. So there’s a quick two-minute crash course on how to be successful, either investing locally in a high cost of living area or going to another market where the prices are more reasonable.
Ashley Kehr:
Well, thank you guys so much for joining us today on Real Estate Rookie. If you have a question, make sure you head over to the BiggerPockets forums and it may be featured on our rookie reply episodes. I’m Ashley Heystony, and we’ll see you guys next time.
Help us reach new listeners on iTunes by leaving us a rating and review! It takes just 30 seconds and instructions can be found here. Thanks! We really appreciate it!
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The Bank of Canada held interest rates steady for a sixth consecutive meeting as policymakers see the economy rebounding and oil price-driven inflation fading.
Since the 2022 bear market bottomed nearly four years ago, Wall Street’s historic rally has been driven by two catalysts: the evolution of artificial intelligence (AI) and the leadership of the “Magnificent Seven.”
The beauty of the Magnificent Seven is that they all possess one or more sustainable competitive advantages, providing them with ample cash flow to undertake intriguing growth initiatives. This includes social media maven Meta Platforms (META 2.79%), which is among the 13 publicly traded companies on U.S. exchanges to be valued at north of $1 trillion.
But sometimes high-growth initiatives require sacrifices. Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta appears set to abandon a $174 billion investment that’s had a decisively positive impact on its bottom line to further its AI ambitions.
Image source: Getty Images.
Make no mistake: Meta’s billionaire boss has aggressively invested in several high-growth initiatives, including the metaverse and, more recently, artificial intelligence. But it’s Meta’s hearty share repurchase program that’s done some heavy lifting over the last decade.
Although no share buybacks were undertaken in 2016, the company has been purchasing its own stock on a regular basis ever since:
Today’s Change
(-2.79%) $-18.53
Current Price
$646.01
Market Cap
Day’s Range
$626.00 – $652.21
52wk Range
$520.26 – $796.25
Volume
1.4M
Avg Vol
18.2M
Gross Margin
81.94%
Dividend Yield
0.33%
Collectively, Meta Platforms has spent approximately $174 billion to retire nearly 12.7% of its outstanding shares. For companies with steady or growing net income, such as Meta, a steadily declining share count can result in higher earnings per share over time. In other words, share repurchases have made Meta’s stock more attractive to value-seeking investors.
But with the company increasing its forecast for AI-related capital expenditures (capex), it hasn’t repurchased shares since the third quarter of 2025. Furthermore, reports have suggested that Meta is weighing the option of issuing equity and undoing some of its share buybacks to fund its AI infrastructure build-out.
Image source: Getty Images.
Historically speaking, Meta’s all-in approach with artificial intelligence isn’t without risks. Every game-changing technology for more than three decades has endured an early stage bubble-bursting event. Meta shareholders are especially aware of this historical correlation, given the company’s poor performance in 2022 after the metaverse bubble burst.
The puzzle pieces for an AI bubble are firmly in place. If history were to rhyme and the AI bubble bursts, Meta Platforms’ stock would likely be weighed down, at least over the short term.
Big Tech CapEx has reached unprecedented levels:
The combined CapEx of Amazon, $AMZN, Google, $GOOG, Meta, $META, and Microsoft, $MSFT, is expected to surge +98% YoY, to a record $715 billion in 2026.
This is nearly 3 TIMES the amount spent in 2024 and more than 5 TIMES 2023… pic.twitter.com/L29Dx8JaAi
— The Kobeissi Letter (@KobeissiLetter) May 2, 2026
At the same time, Meta is one of the few companies enjoying immediate benefits from the integration of AI solutions. Incorporating generative AI into its advertising platforms has enabled Meta’s clients to tailor static and video messages to users. This can improve click-through rates and enhance Meta’s already impressive ad pricing power.
Zuckerberg’s company also recently unveiled plans to sell excess AI data center compute capacity. This should help ease the sting of Meta’s otherworldly AI capex, especially given its sustainable competitive edge and robust cash flow tied to its social media assets.
Meta’s AI investments should pay off in the long term, but the ride could be bumpy without share buybacks as an added catalyst.
A wave of “non-toxic kitchen” advice is spreading online. Here’s the science behind why people are swapping out plastic – and what’s actually worth changing.
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