My understanding is that they own some properties and rent others on long term contracts. Therefore, WeWork lives off the arbitrage between long term and short

My understanding is that they own some properties and rent others on long term contracts. Therefore, WeWork lives off the arbitrage between long term and short term obligations so it's basically a REIT. Most REITs are highly leveraged and almost entirely debt funded. I think it's actually weird that they have VC and try to act like a tech startup. There is no new technology in WeWork and there are no legal ways to create or corner markets in real estate; people have been trying for millennia. Unless they have a highly scalable revenue stream hidden somewhere, we can expect that their valuation will, at best, grow on a similar curve to other REITs. If I owned their equity, it would be because I got it super cheap and expected them to start paying a dividend sometime soon. I would not own their debt except through a broad based ETF. It's really hard to make long term profits on junk bonds except by playing the law of averages.