Top 5 Tips When Negotiating with Your Contractor

Hello, investor community!

My name is Liz and I am Andresa Guidelli.

We are excited to be with you tonight. We've, we, uh, you know, we've been talking a lot about contractors and then negotiation, and we're like, let's do a Facebook Live tonight. So right on, Jess.

Yeah, especially nowadays, right? Real estate's a little crazy, and during contractors don't have the time to, you know, go around. So it might be a little challenging. So the goal here is to really be like confident on securing a good GC. Like, no GC is better than a bad GC, believe me. Believe me, I can tell you plenty of stories for that. But the goal here is to create just prior negotiation skills prior to getting the GC under contract. And also during the construction. That's super important.

Yeah, and it's such an important topic, right? Because you can really get taken and we want women to stand tall and stand proud. So you learn, you build the muscle and I feel like negotiation, right, is a muscle. But so as we jump in, Andresa and I just get right to the point 'cause that's just how we roll. But well, welcome again. It is 7:00 PM Eastern time. We're trying our Facebook Lives at different times of the day. We're trying to get even more consistent with doing these for our community. So please say hello. Hey, Rochelle, we were just— poor Rochelle. I have to tell a quick story since you're on here. So Andresa, you know how, you know, when you're on Facebook, it says recommend like a group, like, and there's like Facebook Messenger for kids and stuff.

Yes.

And they'll recommend people. Poor Rochelle popped up as a recommendation for like connecting with my son for Messenger on kids. And I clicked it because I'm thinking, I thought it was like for the Facebook community and I clicked it. I messaged her, I felt so bad, I'm like, this is completely random, I'm so sorry I messaged you about connecting with my 7-year-old son on Messenger, I'm so sorry about that. So bottom line is watch what you do because it's like social media gets so confusing sometimes.

Oh my gosh.

But anyway, hey Colleen, 2 times in a day, good to see you. And please accept StreamYard so we don't see Facebook user, we see your lovely names. Please. So please give us a shout out where you're from. I know they— does she want them to virtually babysit? I would love for your, your 3 teen daughters, Rochelle, to babysit my 2 young kids. I wish we lived closer. So when we come to Arizona, you can, you can, you can watch my kiddos. But please share. I know, I know Arizona is very well attended here tonight. Please tell us where you're from, you know, why you're here, and what you want to get out of tonight. Andresa Guidelli and I Everything we're doing is all about giving you value. We have really busy lives, all of us. So her and I don't like to do anything that doesn't seem to have value. So, um, so, oh, hey Elizabeth, how are you? Thanks for being here. Detroit.

Important that we're— Liz and I are always aware about what's going on in our Facebook group. And when we see over and over again certain topics, we want to jump in more and more to have those open conversations with you guys. So you can bring the situation to the table and then ask a couple of questions. Of course, we don't have all night to go over all the challenges that we all face in our lives, but I will be sharing with you guys tonight, uh, our, my top 5 negotiation tips, right? Is that enough? Maybe not, but you know, I just want to share with you guys what I went through in so many different projects and things that have helped me, right? By looking back at my mistakes and things that I have changed throughout the years. Because I'm telling you right now, negotiation was never something, uh, comfortable, uh, natural to me whatsoever. After I came to the US and graduated from my master's degree, I took a sales position because I knew how important it was to gain sales skills no matter what I do in life, right? But I was very like, like repulsed. It repulsed me, like salespeople that just shove things, uh, on your throat. Like, so I took door-to-door sales and I learned a ton during those things, those, those, that period of time, because I, I did door-to-doors with business owners. So it is just a game. It's just part of the process. It's just like brushing your teeth in the morning. It is part of the process. When I don't negotiate, I feel bad. I was like, why didn't I negotiate? It's just part of the process. So the more that you practice on your own way, in a way that feels good to you, you might not feel comfortable at the beginning. I'm telling you right now, but practice, right? Practice. And I'm going to share a couple of things that sometimes negotiation is not about the money itself. It can be about other things that might also impact your money at the end.

Yeah, love that. Someone had— someone asked about, can I watch this later? Yes, this will be in our community, so you're welcome to watch it and soak it in. So no worries. And then another question, how do we go— how do we go to StreamYard to set our name? You know, I'm not sure, honestly. I just noticed this.

Yeah, you can go to the StreamYard post that Liz did it there, and then you can click and add your name there.

It should be under announcements. I think I moved it up to announcements just to help promote this. Yeah.

Yep.

Good stuff. And you gotta get a chance to ask questions, but let's get rolling. And thanks so much for being here with us. I'm gonna jump in as needed, just offer my two cents if it is helpful, but if not, Jess is running the show here.

Yes, so feel free to put questions on the chat unless if you see a question that is— yeah, I'll moderate, just jump in, just feel free. So let's go, 5 tips when negotiating with your general contractor that you can use with all different teams as well, but we're talking specifically about general contractors. So tip 1, when you're receiving like 3, 5 bids, right, right now we're like begging for one bid, one estimate, right? But when you receive 3, if you are doing, uh, purchasing flooring, for example, and you, you, you get estimates from 3 floorings, that applies to anything, applies when you get 3. One, I used to just like, okay, this is the, the number 3 guy is, or girl, whatever it is, the highest. So I just ditch right away that person, and I didn't like, probably like the, the the lowest price was like, ah, don't like it, let me go with the middle guy. But hold on a second, the, the highest bid, don't throw it out right away because you don't want to negotiate with that person. Don't. I, I'm, I'm begging you, have the negotiation with all three as if you were moving forward with all three. First of all, you need to understand where— what is your threshold, right? What is your threshold and where you want to be or need to be with your rehab or whatever purchase you are. But make sure that you are negotiating with the top guy because you might get the top person lower and then fits your budget, and then you're good to go. You will pay a lot more for a sophisticated general contractor. But Andresa, what— how you're saying you will save much more with a sophisticated general contractor in with time. So what do I mean by that? If a sophisticated person has a higher price, but at the end of the day he can he has a bigger crew and can execute your project in less amount of time, guess what? You pay less in carrying costs, less with insurance, less with your private money or hard money lender. So everything you need to take in consideration, not just the price. One super important information that you need to get when you're negotiating with your general contractor is How big is your crew? Because guess what? If the guy that gave you a great price, but he only has 2 people working for, or he is, and he's one, he or she is one, right?

One more.

You need to take that in consideration because maybe the, the higher person is, has a crew of 5 people, 4 people working at the same time. So please don't take— don't just take the price itself and run with it, right? And believe me, they all add a cushion, right, for negotiation purpose. They, if they are running a business, they have to add a cushion for negotiation. They're not gonna put their best price up front. Nobody does. Nobody.

I love this. You know, you know why selfishly I love this? Because I'm getting, I'm getting bids for my landscaping. I'm like, I got some great ideas right now. I'm like, oh, this is gonna be fun. I'm gonna, I'm gonna work on my muscle negotiation because I got the highest bid and I was about to throw it out, but I'm not now, basis of what you're saying.

Oh, there we go.

Um, hey, can I ask another question here? And you got cut off here. I don't want you to— your face to get cut off, Andresa. But Elizabeth's asking, um, GC question: What should I be including in contract negotiations right now because of the giant leap in materials prices? How do I be sure to protect my project from their effort to protect themselves? Are you going to be covering this? Would this be better positioned later, or do you want to answer it?

Better positioned later. What I'm saying— you are talking about the pricing, right? Well, the general contractor is going to give me a price, and that's That's it.

Anything—

that's why I'm gonna talk about something very important a little bit that will affect that. Okay, it's all about what, uh, creating the expectations and make sure that you have the right documentation going in. Okay, you know, if the lumber changes, well, my price is my price. What I am not going to be responsible for if things go up or go down If things went down, would I get a discount? No. No. So that's what I'm saying. It's not your job. If you are paying a huge amount, $100 grand, it is included on that price. It is included. I'm not tracking how much lumber is going up or down. So your contractor, your contract, and a couple of addendums need to be all attached. All together, and I'm going to talk about it.

Okay, well, sorry, I just removed you from the stream. I will— we'll come back to that question here a little bit further. We'll get more insight for you, Elizabeth.

Okay, let's go to tip 2, seek to understand, right? So I put a couple of sentences here that I recommend that you practice using that instead of saying, What the hell is this? Like, you're killing me with this number. Or, you know, and then they get into a defensive mode. So let's talk about that. Like, I think we can make this work. I just wanted to clarify a few things because then they're like, okay, we can, we're going to make this work.

You say those words too to me all the time. Do I? Yeah, you do. You say that exact phrase to me all the time.

Behind the scenes, I have—

it's like your secret, um, your secret word. Sorry, I'm sorry to interrupt.

No, but then behind the scenes, I have this like, Liz, I think we can make this work. However, I have like 10 bullet points, right?

So yeah, because you're even negotiating people's ideas. I think that's what my point is. Like, you and I could come at things very differently And, but you do start that, which is great, and, and it actually like helps mitigate the differences. It's just not even about price, it's more about just your ideas here, my ideas there. So that's cool.

Exactly. So it's like right versus right, there's no like right versus wrong. So both are right. So let's start with that because that's what the person is going to be thinking. Okay, we're gonna make this work, but she just have a couple of questions. I didn't say 1 or 2 or hand, right? But, you know, let's get to there. Like, instead of saying why, use, can you tell me more about X, Y, and Z? Tell me more about it. I'm just curious to understand that. I learned from Liz. I'm just curious to understand, right? I'm just curious to understand why your drywall price is 3 times more than it was supposed to be. I even say that, right? Just curious to understand your drywall price. And shut, shut, right? You don't need to explain why you're asking, right? We talked a lot. Ask your question, then shut and let the person go. And if the person does not have an answer there, you can say, it's fine, you can, you can do your, your homework or whatever, due diligence, or your calculations. You can use the, the word that you desire. And we'll get back to— you can get back to me on, on that later on, because he's like, oh, I need to look at whatever paper or, or documentation. If that's the case, that's fine. Let's table this and then come back. Um, in order for you to be able to have those discussions, there's no such a thing as a lump sum estimate. I have allergies. I have like Despise lump sum estimate. Lump sum estimate is just like a lot of words and one number at the bottom. I don't like that for rehab, for new construction. You know, if the guy, if your guy of the list is doing your landscape and he's having, you know, descriptions of it and have a number at the bottom, that's fine. But for a house, a triplex, you know, whatever property you are doing, a lump sum, you won't be able to understand where the prices are. I don't care about like the nails or the small stuff and spackle. No, I'm talking about chunks, right? I want to know those in order for me to be able to negotiate and understand and then negotiate the first price.

Good stuff, right?

Let's go to tip number 3. Negotiate beyond price. Terms are also important, right? Because we think about negotiation and every— all the terms at the end of the day, it will affect the price. The price of your project is overall price of the project, right? So keep that in mind as well. Sometimes a good term is better than like a $5,000, $10,000 discount, because if that happens, you're saving much more than that. So let's go, I'll give you a couple of, um, examples. Construction period, if you have somebody that instead of 6 months can accomplish things in 4 months, how much those 2 months cost to you, right? Your PITI, how much does that cost to you considering our your principal, interest, uh, tax, insurance, every single thing. How much? I like to calculate my weekly cost. How much am I spending in a weekly basis? No matter what, if the project is moving along or if the project is on hold, this amount is how much I am spending every week. So that you can calculate, okay, if you can, you know, reduce the, the construction period 2 months, oh my gosh, I saved that. You don't need to share that. This is just like internal, you know, and you can leverage that to your payment plan. Absolutely. You can always, because if you're dealing with somebody that wants 25%, 50% upfront Not a good thing, right? First, I don't like that at all because I don't like to fund anybody's business, and I want to break down on payments. So when you are negotiating, once you're negotiating the value, you're going to negotiate the payment plan. It's as important as the value that you are paying to that person. If the payment plan, in my opinion, right, In my opinion, if I don't get on the same page regarding the payment plan, I'm not moving forward with that person because it's just a matter of time for that person to be requesting another payment without having to be completed. Work hours. What is the work hours? How many hours? Guess what? How many days? Some people work on Saturdays, others don't. How about if you're behind the schedule? Would you and your team work on Saturdays to catch up? All those conversations. Bonus versus penalties. It's a little tricky if you are just doing business with the person for the first time. It might scare them, but you know, have those conversations. People that are very confident, general contractors that are very confident, they know they're going to deliver and they're going to get the bonus. So they don't care about it. They're like, yep, put the bonus over there. And you can do it per week, right? You know your week cost, so you can add that. Okay, if it is $500, for example, if you every— for every week that you are, uh, you deliver on time, it's $500 in your pocket. And you can, you know, establish the number that, that you want. And when you have multiple projects at the same time, Hell yeah, I am negotiating even more. Because if you have 3, 4 projects going on in either close proximity or next to each other, guess what? The general contractor that is hiring all the subs, he or she is negotiating every single sub over there and saying, listen, you give me a good price, you're not going to get one job, but you're going to get 3 or 4. So you got to negotiate. You can't just like, um, the cost of one house instead of three cannot be multiplied by three. It needs to be much less if you're having several projects at the same time.

Cool. I'm going to hold off on questions, ladies, just so you know. We are going to do questions. Um, so I saw a couple come through, but just know we're going to get to them so we can get through, um, this, uh, first All right, number 4: what can I purchase?

What can you purchase yourself, right? Because the goal is like, okay, this I do it strategically. I don't tell them what I'm going to purchase, but I know for sure in everything else, in every single project, that at least the kitchen cabinets, the countertops and the appliances is going to be on me, but I don't tell right away. I ask the general contractor to break down those values because I want allowances for those. And if I see it that those numbers are lower than what I can get, and, and I can get good deals, I can, especially with appliances, right? Then I take that out, right? And then my price the estimated price is reduced over there. So think about everything that you, you can build relationship with kitchen, local kitchen guys, and leverage your Home Depot account or Lowe's account or whatever other supplier you can get. But don't tell right away that you're gonna do that. Add that to the list and then request an allowance. For that. The kicker over here is you must be giving all the specs, all the finishes. It's like, okay, it's— I want Samsung appliances, or whatever appliances you want. You gotta be apples to apples, otherwise they were pricing something else and you needed something completely different. So give the specs so you can switch over there. And then take that from, from the project. And it's a sales strategy too, like negotiation strategy, that you put it over there and you pick and choose a couple of things, and you are responsible for— they are responsible still for the installation of appliances. The kitchen is just a kitchen company that does everything, and it's much quicker because I also want to look at that. Slab for the countertop.

That's a great suggestion.

Yes. Tip number 5: do not avoid tough conversations. And why do I say like tough, tough conversations? Because we feel it. We feel it. Something is not right. And I don't feel like, oh my gosh, I thought we were going the right direction. And I just don't want to ruin it, and then I'm not gonna have it. But I know that they were supposed to be working today and yesterday, and they're not here, and what should I do, right? So it's just a matter of time. It's just a matter of time. I don't want to compare to my 5-year-old, but hang on that. My 5-year-old, my 5-year-old tasked me right? He's testing me a lot because he's testing to see what he can get and where I put my foot down, right? Not comparing the GC to a 5-year-old. I'm telling you that the behavior itself is similar, right? You set the standard. You are not a babysitter. If you were to babysit somebody, that person is not the right person. For you, to be quite honest, right? It's not about being bossy or whatever stereotype. It's just, I am paying and the expectations are very clear. So if the person is supposed to be working over here, I expect them to be working. And all of those expectations need to be talked to what? Prior. Prior. So that's why I said, like, set the expectations. A lot of those conversations you should have prior of signing a contract, because what— because then if things go south, then it goes south prior of you guys getting into an agreement. So back everything with contract. So that's the— Elizabeth, this is the, the answer for you. Everything that you are doing You got to back it up with your contract. We're not lawyers, attorneys, financial advisors, so we cannot give you specifics on the contract itself. Highly recommend you to talk to your local attorney, local real estate attorney that can look at your, your local and state laws that might differ, right? So please take a look at that. And then your scope of work. Scope of work will determine if you're going to get a good bid or like a completely wrecked— you got to be clear on what you want, how you want, right? It got to be clear. Do you want 2-bedroom, 1-bath, or a deck, no deck? What is it? You've got to be very clear on that. It— does your bathroom needs a jacuzzi or not, stand-up shower, tub, all of that good stuff. You gotta be very clear because then you give— you paint a very clear picture to your general contractor, and the person has a much easier job when putting the estimate together. The schedule needs to be there too, right? When is the start date? And why am I talking about start date? Because Many times I didn't put a start date there. So, right, so it took how many days?

How—

it took much longer because they said, okay, we started on day X. I was like, no, but you— and we're on time, but you were supposed to be starting like 2 weeks prior. So all of this miscommunication starts happening. Uh, your payment plan, as I said, it gotta be there. So you got the estimate, right? and then you have the deposit and 4 or 5 phases over there. Once they're completed, you give the check. You don't give a check to anything that is incomplete. And when I say complete, I mean delivered and installed. If windows are delivered but not installed, that does not mean it's completed. And I'm using the example of windows because it happened to me. 3 new construction Hope Street list, 3 new constructions, the windows were all delivered was a big chunk, right? They were all delivered, they were on site, but they were not installed. Guess what? When the bank inspector came, he's like, it's not installed. So it's not in. And he pushed that to the other, other draw. So I was like, okay, good. So it's, it's install everything. So your final payment, you do it after a punch list is completed. The next one over here, I know we are, you know, in the middle of a pandemic, and many of us used technology to, you know, our favor. Negotiation is not one of them. They've got to send text messages. Text messages are for yes or no. What is the lockbox? Things like that that are very simple, less than one sentence. It's funny because Liz and I and our team, we have this rule, right? If there's two or three back and forth in a text, it has to be moved to a call. Or if the text is long, like a paragraph, It's a call because you gotta interpret things and then starts going completely different direction that it might not even be your intention, right? Especially as they come from different countries, have different, you know, interpretation of things, very literal. So it's just complicated. It becomes complicated. Uh, same thing with emails, right? Um, sometimes you don't want to put a lot of you know, back and forth, you want to make sure that you have, listen, I saw your email, but I think it's better if we are on the same page here. And then you paraphrase, you paraphrase, I'm hearing, here's what I'm hearing on your email. Did I get that right? And then you go from there because you might be not getting that right. So instead of saying, what the hell you're talking over there, I'm hearing this, what I interpret is this, and then you get the the feedback. Expect adjustments, expect pivoting in the middle of your construction job. It's just something that really happens. I've never had a project that I didn't have to make adjustments, but when things are not working, that's when you gotta reset the button. You reset and say, okay, moving forward, here's what we're going to do. And here's the kicker at the last tip over here. After I have a conversation, right, I send a quick email saying, hey, just want to make sure we're— this is what we came up. And this is something that I cannot stand when I get an email with like a huge paragraph. I like, like, okay, bullet points over there, because then it's very clear. Here's why I'm asking you to do bullet points, because I want an answer from the general contractor to say, do we agree this is what we have talked and we are on the same page? Is that correct? Because I want that. Why am I sending this? Because worst case scenario, the person might say, we never had that conversation. Or that's not what we talked about. So all of this important documentation is just a documentation, right? I, uh, we interview, uh, Bonnie, uh, Gollum this week, and she said something. She's an attorney, real estate attorney. She said something very important. She said when you write an email, always think how would a judge look at that. Worst case scenario, you are in court against that person? How would a judge look at that? So make sure you document, not that you are being negative or like, oh gosh, you are just doing your business, just in case, right? To avoid being there. But that's what I will highly recommend you guys to do.

Love it. And that's what you got, right? Okay, cool. Do you want to answer some questions or you want to Okay, let me, let me, um, let me remove this because if I don't, your face gets cut off. We'll throw, we'll throw one or two. You go ahead.

I can't read it. I can't see it. You go ahead.

I'll just read the question to you.

No, you can pause.

What do you say?

I'm sorry, you can pause the question.

Okay, but you, your face is getting cut off with that, so I feel bad. Once— oh no, this one's okay. Um, so Erica, Erica's asking, what do you do about contractors who want to give you A not-to-exceed number versus a line item scope of work estimate. He kind of answered that before, but well, uh, again, how—

then you can throw the, the question to the person: how do you expect me or us to put together a payment plan? It's based on what? My goal with the payment plan is to make sure that I am paying for things that are being done. Right, how can I— don't like when they say, oh, it's 25% or 5, 25% of what, 40% of what, right? The person is giving me the percentage, but how does that put together? I want like a very clear expectation. If he does a not to exceed number but have a very clear payment plan, That's fine. But I want the payment plan. I don't want this like, we do a third, a third, a third. Not doing a third, a third, a third. I want to pay for things that are completed. Certain things are— I'm gonna be a big check. Other things are not going to be a big check. So yeah, it's just a matter of the payment plan. I just don't see how to do a payment plan without breakdown.

Yeah. I like that. Do you typically pay a bonus to all contractors?

No, no, I don't. You know, because it's rare, it's rare that they can get things on time and even earlier. So no, it hasn't worked for me. Usually the contractors that I use, they're working multiple jobs. And I usually put 2 weeks of cushion on my mind because it just doesn't work. And with COVID and everything else, you know, suppliers are all behind, deliveries are behind. So the time frame, we need to be very cautious with that.

Yeah, it's great. Michelle is asking, do you have a standard percentage for bonus or penalty? I think you mentioned that.

I do it based on my cost per week, right? So if my weekly cost is $500, $700, that's what I use to kind of like, okay, if you save me a week, that's what it means to me in my backend, right? But you can play with that number. And if you feel that, oh my gosh, this person went you know, beyond my expectations, and I can eat from this floor over here, right? I have guys that like, they clean the day, every single day, and they did a beautiful job. You can put a $1,000 bonus over there. I— there are guys that has nothing to do with the time, but the quality of the project too, right? I feel compelled to do that, and I trust them. Very much because they really went beyond.

So yeah, Rochelle, you got an exciting project. I've been seeing all the progress. Beautiful. Yeah, it's really, really exciting. Excited to see that come alive.

When I saw the lumbers, I was like, oh, there you go.

The smell of lumber. Andresa loves the smell of lumber. What kind of terms have you seen on stolen materials? Should it be covered in a GC contract in terms, or should we get insurance to cover our projects?

Well, here, two different things, right? Storing materials, it's kind of complicated because I usually don't store anything at the project that is not going to be installed right away, right? So I don't have finishes delivered to the property or purchased until they are ready to be installed. That's pretty much it. If I am purchasing it, it's my responsibility to replace it. If the GC is purchasing it, it's on him. So that's the difference over there, because if I am purchasing it, it's my job to secure the property to make sure, and it's on me if it is not there, right? But the key is to do not leave things there that don't need to be there. Shouldn't be there if they're not going to be installed in 2 or 3 days. They should not be there, especially, you know, lamps and, you know, hardware that can easily be carried over.

Yeah, insurance. I mean, you know, you definitely want to be talking to your insurance agent to, you know, to get, you know, to get that kind of set up, obviously, because, you know, rehab projects different than a rental and single family is different than a multi-family. I mean, There's so many different— they're the best experts there.

Builders insurance when your project is in construction is a must.

Yeah, good stuff. Let's take one more question, then we can talk a little bit about what's coming up next week. Have you ever made adjustments or addendums to the contract during the project? Is this where the bullet point email would be suffice? Yeah, suffice.

Absolutely, yes. And sometimes is unforeseen, right? Something unforeseen to me is unforeseen, meaning we couldn't see it. Yeah, right, we could not see it because it was behind the wall and that beam was, you know, horrible and that needs to be replaced. So every single change order needs to be an addendum And everything needs to be signed prior of execution, purchase and execution. So absolutely, there are unforeseen things. You know, that's why I really, at the beginning, I was really scared to buy a shell because there was nothing there. But then there's no unforeseen on the shell, right? Everything, you can see everything, right?

Yeah.

I was more concerned to buy a property that I cannot see behind the walls or anything. Anything, then it's unforeseen. And one important thing, you gotta read the contract, because if you're not doing the contract, if you're signing the GC's contract, you've got to look at what is not included, right? Everything here on this, it's included. I always say it's as per finishes list, scope of work, it's all there. If I miss something, if I miss a toilet, it's not there, so it's on me, right? I didn't miss a toilet. Yeah, I missed like hardware or things like that, didn't count it right, but everything is included. If something is not included, it needs to be in writing too. So what is not included in my— usually it's kitchen cabinets, the hardware, countertops, sink, and then appliances. That's usually the standard because I want to take care of that. And then if I want to do a very fancy backsplash, I pick the backsplash. That's, that's, that's something that I—

yeah. It's a great question. So we have like 3 or more, 3 or 4 more questions, which I, you know, we could definitely knock out. We want to also mention that next week, Why is this not working? Um, we have a charity event and it has to do with negotiation, so it would behoove us not to just share that with all of you since we're talking about negotiation. Um, Andresa, you want to talk a little about that? Yeah, you know, we'll get to some more questions.

Absolutely. Um, Liz and I, uh, had a plan about everything that we do in real estate to live the financially free life that we all aim. Um, We want more people to have the opportunity to live their, their, their best life. And this is our first charity event, and we will have more. Really, I have over here on my, on my vision board, we're gonna get really, um, into charity, um, in the future. But this is something, a very important cause. It is supporting other, other women. All the proceeds, all the proceeds from this charity event is going to Women for Women International. This is a legit charity, right? Oprah supports this charity, and I've got in contact with them to analyze what they're doing, and this will really support women in need across the world. It's $150. We are coming to a 90-minute live event. If you want to move to the next— yeah, sure, like this. So it's a 90-minute— if you guys didn't read this book over here about Never Split the Difference, I always say, oh, it's fair. Well, the guy was a hostage negotiator, so he couldn't split the difference. So I got in contact with his company, and we're going to have a 90-minute training, live training, is not recorded, so we can ask questions, uh, with Sandy Haine. She's one of his top negotiators And she customized this training for us. I spoke with her and I said, I want you to address our biggest issues, what I see over here on our community, in our real estate investor world. I want you to address it. So this is an event that you're going to gain. If you get one tip, one—

so you don't know how excited I am to even just to participate, right? And also, good, good news too is that you'll have access to the recording 21 days after. So if you're not going to be there physically and we could just, we really would just appreciate you spreading the good word here because this is just a give back and it's going to be like high content. So just get the word out because we want a lot more, you know, a lot of women. This way we could support a lot of women with this organization.

Yeah. And it's $150. And if you can use one tip that this woman will teach you, You can save much more, much more than that. Yeah, but this is a charity event. You can go to the next slide, Liz, and this is the last final event. And why I put this quote over here, because I want you guys to understand the impact of you being active and participating, right? So just as ripples spread out when a single pebble is dropped into water, the actions of individuals can have far-reaching effects, right? So it's not about you paying $150 and getting your negotiations. You are really affecting the lives of other women and children and around the world. And, uh, we, we've got to step in. And we, we have privilege to— we're all healthy and live in a country where there's freedom, and we really need to step in. It's It's our duty, and I really, I'm asking you guys to join us hand by, you know, hold hands on this. This project is very dear to our heart, and moving forward, we'll be supporting other charities that also support women. So if you have something that you support that you want us to take a look, please send it our way for future projects.

Very cool. And, um, yeah, is there anything you got that— so I'm going to remove this here, um, and then we can get to a few more questions. But yeah, just go to our website, therealestateinvestor.com, guys, and just— it's right on the home page—

and just go there.

But, and even if you just share it on your Facebook, you know, your messages— some of you ladies have been doing that, so thank you. Please keep sharing it whether we're a week away. Um, this is a big topic.

I put the link on the private chat. Okay, but you guys can find it on our website very easily.

Yeah, you know our website, it's really easy. Uh, it's actually The Real Estate— that's actually spelled wrong.

That's right, don't go there, don't go there.

I don't know why that's, that's there. Um, I have to spell our website correctly. That's, that's correct. Okay, awesome. Correct. All right, cool. Let's, let's do a few more questions. Okay. Um, uh, I want to make sure we get to everybody.

Um, what do you got?

All right. When you call a new GC that you have not worked with before, do you tell them upfront that you're looking for a GC that will have an itemized estimate so that you don't waste their time and your meeting at the job site if they, if they can't meet the base, that basic request?

No, I don't even know if they qualify. I don't even know if they're gonna show up.

Yeah.

You know, here's the thing. One of the biggest things that I've learned with door-to-door sales is to keep short and simple, or short and sweet, right? Keep short and simple. You are writing the check. You are evaluating them, right? So it is just a conversation. He might be somebody that if you ask that question, he says, yeah, I'll provide it, but you didn't like the vibe or something rubbed you off. It doesn't really matter, right? So your goal is to see if the person is going to show up, if the person is taking notes, is interested. What is the energy that you're getting? That's very important to me. I want to bounce— I want to— like, you're going to be working with that person for 3, 4 months, 6 months, and sometimes much longer, right? I need to get along. Is he like loose or super serious and like rough on the edges or whatever, right? If we match, good. If not, so take one step at a time. Don't overwhelm anybody because you are evaluating them first and they might not qualify. You might not be a good match.

Yeah, great, great suggestion. Erica, um, hey Erica, um, how do you not feel like you are at the mercy of the contractor in this market? How do you take a bit of the power back? Yeah, because that's a really good point, right? Hot market. And the really good point—

I know, I know completely. Here's what I will say to you. I will make sure that you have— we have our shit together when we're talking to them. Be quick. Hey, meet me at this time. I just have 10 minutes. I know you are busy too. Acknowledge that I know it's busy. I'm telling you, I'm not going to waste your time. I have a clear scope of work here. What's going on? What needs to be done? And speed, speed, speed, speed. If you have your things together, your scope of work is ready to go, your finish is ready to go. The person doesn't need to do a lot of work. You already know more or less what's— he or she already know more or less what's going on. I think that when we are prepared and not wasting people's time, they understand and they perceive the value, right? Now, if we're like, I'm not sure if I want a stand-up shower or a tub, or if I should build a roof deck or not, or if you're not clear, person is not going to like, okay, who, who is going to pull the trigger? You got to have your lender good to go. You're going to have like, okay, all the permits, all of that good stuff already lined up. So it's, it's all about being effective and showing effective. But I get it. It's not, it's not an easy, it's law of average, right? You might have to call more people and, and reach out to more people. That's why it's always important to be always in communication with contractors. Call your architects, rock stars, no rock stars. Who do you recommend? Your attorney, who do you recommend? Who do you recommend? Call 5 people tomorrow that you haven't talked and say, who do you recommend? Do you have somebody?

Yeah, I think that's the key is like, it's really in this market, it's like observing what most people are doing and just doing something different. I mean, even just finding rehabs, you know, sidebar, I was driving around today and I found a commercial property for sale and it's in a great area. And immediately I thought, that's an opportunity. Most people are not going to think about converting that commercial building to a residential. I don't know if it's going to work. I don't know what the township's going to say. It's in a great area around my house. I'm going to call them. Like, that's an opportunity. Wouldn't have thought that because it's such a hot market that, you know, you just keep thinking differently. Think of like, where are most people looking and doing, finding a contractor, and how can I do it differently? How can I look differently? How can I— if people are going right, how do I go left? You know, I mean, that's really— I feel like we all need to be more creative and out of the box in this market if you want to keep participating in the market. Yeah, it's so crowded.

If you are walking around and you see projects going on, I'll stop and talk, talk, talk, say, who is the general contractor here? What's his number? Right? If you like what you're seeing, right? Because you can spot a good rehab and a bad rehab, right? How messy things are, or how organized things are, the truck, how it's all cool. Look around and get numbers. Law of average. Yeah, door-to-door sales kicking in.

This is another good one. What do you recommend to do for a GC that did not deliver and threatened to hold up the sale without payment? Placing liens? I'm sure that's happened.

Well, that is a partial lien waiver. You got to do partial lien waivers, which is I'll give you a payment and I get a partial lien, right? With your payment plan schedule and partial lien waivers in place, that will never happen because you're on the same page. If the person threats to, uh, put a lien on the property, will be for the final payment, and you have on the contract the final payment will be only after punch list is completed. Again, take tons of pictures because if you ended up in front of the judge and say it's very clear here on my contract that says the final payment will be after punch list, and here are all the items that are still pending and all the pictures. Simple.

Yeah, I love, I love that. Um, Colleen's giving you a shout out. I've seen where Andresa recommends providing the GC. The scope can be refined, but at least you have a template to compare bids on the same SOW. Um, cool. Colleen, thank you for your support. Can we share the charity event for Never Split the Difference with other groups that may not be women member only? Absolutely.

Absolutely.

It's going to help women at this point. That's our goal, you know, and that's the, the idea. So we appreciate any, any, any promotion you can because it's—

yeah, we have a lot of allies, right?

Absolutely.

We are, we are here, uh, to support women. That doesn't mean that we're like, no to, to men. We— I work with men all the time, right? My best friends are men. Clearly I have my best friend over here, but I have great relationship with men and they are allies for us and they want the best for, for their wives, daughters, partners, and everybody else. So absolutely, this is just to support, uh, the, the, the charity event and to support other women. So it's, it's open.

Yeah, absolutely. I think that's all of our questions. So great, we, we appreciate you so much being part of this. Hopefully you got some nuggets, the more you have Andresa talk about this topic. I learned a couple of things. I wrote, I actually wrote something down. I never heard you talk about the start date before. That's really— no, I, I'm like, that's a really—

because I asked up.

That's a really, really good point. So, you know, as, as, as we evolve as, as women in this business, we always can learn, we can always grow, um, be open to that. Take one, at least one thing that you got from tonight and use it. And we'd love to hear how you use it in our Facebook community. And we— a lot of our members are SOAR and STRIVE members involved in tonight. So thank you for being here. And for the women who have never seen us do anything, thanks for joining us. We're really appreciative and looking forward to getting to know you more. And join us next Thursday. Join us. It's money going to a wonderful cause. So spread the good word.

One more thing before I go. I know we have a ton of different events coming up. So I created a page on our website, uh, therealsainvestor.com/events. That's where you guys gonna find all the, the, the paid, the free events. Everything that is coming up is going to be there because we are growing and we are doing different things to add more value to you. So always refer to that. I created today, so it's kind of cool.

Yeah, awesome, awesome. We have meetups going on, we have lots of things going on. So thanks for joining us. We'll be doing more and more of these as we hear chatter going on. We will just kind of on as needed and on demand kind of keep trying to add as much value as we can. So have a great night. Thanks for joining us and we'll see you soon.

Bye-bye.