Market Madness: Rates, Fraud, AI & Starting Over

All right, what's up everybody? Welcome back to the New and Experienced Investor Podcast. Today we're talking about a lot of exciting topics. We got rates, we got fraud, AI, and what would you do if you had to start over today? Somebody asked you that recently. I thought that was a good question.

They did.

Yeah, I'm Alex Barnett. I'm one of your hosts. I'm the new guy.

And I'm Joe Homs, and I'm the experienced guy.

Very good. So yeah, this is, uh, Market Madness is the name of this episode instead of March Madness.

I like that. Yeah, yeah, it's creative.

Thank you. Yeah, guess what? I didn't make it up. AI did.

Oh, okay. And we're going to talk about AI.

We are. Yes. And how people are using that in real estate. And I hope you are already, because if you're not, you're getting left behind. But yeah, so we're basically going to be cutting through the noise, giving listeners some real actionable perspective, whether this is your first deal or it's your 100th deal, new or experienced. That's what it's all about. First up, we have the Fed. You know, you Predictively said that we would be at 5% by now.

Yes.

And according to old JP, he is not budging. Did you see anything about that? Are you keeping up with that at all?

He said something about the war. Are we in a war?

Apparently, yeah. You know, this is America. We're always at war. Gosh dang it. Yeah, we're about the American way.

It's, you know, we need to like rename Maybe like some sort of conflict.

Yeah, I know.

Yeah, you're like, war's like really rough.

No, yeah, we had like Desert Storm and all that stuff. Scares people. No, I thought it was called something like Epic Fury.

Fury.

Yeah, it's more like. Yeah, exactly. It's more like a.

That's like a kick-ass Stallone. Yeah, it's like Stallone movie. We're gonna go over there and kick your ass.

Epic Fury. Yeah, but so anyway, they're blaming it on that something with oil. I don't know. Let's take a listen to what he has to say.

Okay, so the Fed just made their interest rate decision for March, and this has the markets freaking out a little bit. So let's talk about what's going to happen to mortgage interest rates in 2026. The biggest news is that the Fed kept interest rates the same, no change. The Fed funds rate remains between 3.5% to 3.75%. Now, obviously, the Fed is concerned about what's going on in Iran and the persistent inflation, but careful about the lack of job growth. Jerome Powell did acknowledge that inflation has come down significantly, especially since 2021. And inflation, well, has gone up a little bit because of the disruptions in the oil supply chains, which is not a good thing for interest rates. But he also did say during the press conference that they expect towards the middle of the year more progress with goods inflation as the effects of tariffs go through the economy. And obviously, a decrease in goods inflation is definitely going to help interest rates. But he also did say that they have to see more significant progress with inflation before cutting interest rates. And look, as soon as he said that, bonds sold off and interest rates are now worse today than they were yesterday. Now, it is also important to know that on the Fed's dot plot, they revealed that 7 Fed officials want to keep interest rates the same throughout the year, but 12 officials see one rate cut later this year. And look, this is not great news if you were holding out for lower interest rates because the outlook of lower interest rates is not necessarily that great for the remainder of the year. But listen, this—

Boo-hoo.

Yeah, well, you know, they said that part of the reason was the jobs.

Yeah.

But if, if the jobs are going away, then he should be lowering the interest rate. That's the way it usually works. I mean, you know, get the economy moving back again.

Get it moving, moving and shaking. Hey, I got no problem with that.

And you know, this war and oil stuff, that's, that's going to be temporary.

I know, we got all the Venezuelan oil coming.

That's right. Yeah, I guess we have a really good deal with them that we take all the oil, we put it in our bank account, and we pay them back what, you know, is rightfully theirs.

We take the oil, you stay alive.

Yeah.

It's simple.

It's great. It's a win-win.

I like that.

I think they're trying to do the same thing with Iran. It's like, you know, hey, We take the oil, we'll give you back what, uh, you know, is your fair share, and exactly, we'll, we'll run things.

Yeah, it's what we've always done, people. Get behind it. Um, yeah, so I mean, obviously there's going to be a lot of people that see that, they're going to get scared, or I'm hoping people are just desensitized and not living their life by the, the interest rate at this point. I mean, there's still ways to do deals. Without this lower interest rate.

Yeah, we're doing deals.

We're doing deals.

You know, seller financing deals.

Go outside the bank system, man.

Right.

Make your own rates.

Yeah. And this guy was very happy.

Mm-hmm.

You know, he was like, yeah, I'm selling this piece of junk trailer mobile home, uh, and you guys just need like 6 months to do what you're doing and pay me. Yeah, I'm in. Yeah, I'm in.

And he's like, I'm gonna charge you a pretty aggressive rate, 5%.

5%.

All right, we can make that work.

Yeah.

But we're gonna pay it all at the end. So yeah, yeah, still, still ways to do it. I mean, you've gone through high rates, I'm sure, right?

Yeah. What do you do with those high rates?

What do you do at that point?

14%, 18%. Yeah, I mean, the world doesn't stop. It keeps revolving, you know. Real estate gets a little bit more creative, which I think is where we're kind of at right now.

Right.

You know, because that's what we're doing, creative deals and stuff. But deals need to get done. People need to sell. They need to move on. And we're there ready to go.

What about all the people that said— I don't know what the agent talk is, but it's like, marry the something, date the rate, and then you can always refinance.

Yeah. Yeah.

Like, so who bought properties thinking that the rates were going to come down by now and they're stuck? You know, a little bit of a higher situation.

Yeah, but, you know, hopefully they thought this out and they said, well, you know, we can do this, you know, we can afford this. I mean, we don't like it, but we can afford it. Just hold on another year or two. We'll get down there.

It's gonna come.

It's coming. I predicted it. Yeah, it's coming. Everything I predict comes true.

That's right. Haven't been wrong yet. Yeah.

Are you not having a child here in the States? I am, yes. And I predicted that.

Predicted that, exactly. It's all coming true.

And I did predict it was going to be a girl.

Oh, that's right.

But I always said that I wanted a boy for you.

Thank you.

And that's what you're getting.

There we go.

I thought you'd be a good girl dad too.

I will. That's the next one.

Okay. Wow, we're planning already. Does she know?

Uh, yeah, I'm pretty Yeah, I'm letting her know.

Yeah.

But it's not up to me.

Okay. Producer, you hear that? I hope you're at home watching this.

She said, let's start with the one first 'cause you don't know how hard it actually is. So that's fair. Well, what's interesting is because, you know, the rates are staying higher, there's a lot more sellers, a lot more properties available. So 44% more sellers than buyers right now. That's a pretty high, pretty high number.

Yeah, but I think the problem that I'm seeing is the sellers are still stuck at the high sales price and they don't want to drop it. I'm in a negotiation right now with a property that was at $405,000 and we offered $390,000 and they came back at $405,000. And it's like, really? You've been on the market for 60 days and you come back at full price? Like, hello?

You know, it's not happening.

So we're probably going to end up moving on.

Okay.

It's like, okay, if that's what you want, then you don't get it.

Yeah.

At least from us, you don't get it.

Well, you can always revisit them, you know. And, and Lauren reminded me of this— the, the ones that we got on seller finance, they had been on market for 6 months.

Yeah.

So I had talked to them 7 months ago.

Yeah. And nothing happened. You know, um, You tried to sell it at the price they wanted and it didn't sell.

Right.

And so you— we were able to put more of a, um, you know, um, a deal together that worked for everybody.

Right.

That's good. Yeah.

So sometimes you just got to wait them out.

Yeah.

And with the feds staying where they are, you know, it's going to happen. So yeah, it's kind of interesting how that he said whenever they do these things, the mortgage rates actually jump up a little bit. Because they're tied to the bond and all that. But the Fed shouldn't be your business plan, especially if you're flipping, you're wholesaling, you're buying and holding. The Fed should not be your business plan. Your numbers are. Just make the numbers work.

Mm-hmm.

So speaking of all the interest rates that you've been through, we went and met with a new investor the other day and he asked, Yes, both of us, but mine was pretty recently. Yours was, if you had to start over again, what would you do?

What did I tell him?

I don't remember.

I don't remember either.

Yeah. I thought it was pretty good though. Yeah.

Whatever it was.

I don't exactly remember.

Yeah. Maybe we ought to name this the young and the old investor.

Right.

Yeah.

No, I told him, I believe I remember I told him to start out with the basics and, you know, what is it that you're looking to do?

Right.

And the easy, the easy, let's, you know, press the easy button. It's not really that easy, but wholesaling is the easy button and start there. And it's not a big expense. And, you know, start to pull a list, pull a list of pre-foreclosures, which is, you know, the low-hanging fruit and start with cold calling. Texting, right? Emailing.

Yep.

Whatever. Door knocking.

Door knocking.

And, uh, and then go from there.

Yeah.

You know, and once you get the hang of doing that, and especially when you're cold calling, find out what they're asking and how you can resolve their issues. At that point, you'll start putting deals together and selling them off to us. And then, uh, once, once that's done, once you got the hang of that, then you can start into flipping.

Yeah. Build up some of your own reserves.

Yeah.

And then you actually have the knowledge. That's the biggest part.

Yeah.

You know, you have the knowledge, you have a little bit of a network.

You have to do it. You have to put one step in front of the other and actually do it. You just, you know, you, you have to start.

Yeah.

A lot of people just don't start.

I know.

I don't know why, but they just don't start.

They don't start. Scared of something.

Just self-limiting beliefs, people.

People, get over it. What would you do— what would you not do again if you had to start over?

If I had to start over, what I would not do is partner up with extremely inexperienced people.

Whoa, whoa, whoa.

Wait, wait, wait. Let me finish. Let me finish. Partner up with extremely inexperienced people without having full control of the deal. So what I've learned is if we're partnering up, we're 50/50. I still have to have maybe 51/49. Okay. Because if I need to drop the price, I can't call you every 5 minutes and say, can I drop the price? And you're saying like, no, hold on, Joe, hold on. The market It's turning, you know, the Fed's going to lower their rates. It's going to turn any minute. And then 6 months down the road, we, we're still at the same price.

Yep.

You know, so acting, acting more like a regular consumer than an investor, right?

Yeah.

If, if it's priced too high, even if it's not priced too high and you're not getting any leads or you're not selling, it's time to start dropping the price. That's the number one thing.

Yeah.

Price, and then condition of the home, and then location. Those are the 3 things that are going to sell something if you're, if you're thinking about selling.

Absolutely. Yeah, yeah. No, I think that's— I mean, that was a rule, I think, when we started too. You said—

I— well, I was a little bit more experienced by then, right?

Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly.

But you kind of went through the same thing when you started teaching. I won't mention his name, but Kind of, kind of the same thing. Yeah, you know.

Yep.

And that's— I guess that's something you just need to learn for yourself.

You just gotta run into the wall yourself, bust your head open, and then you're like, oh yeah.

I tried to save you, but you just kept running and you hit that wall. I know you hit it hard.

Yep. Yeah, I know sometimes I have to learn like that. Uh, you can ask Lauren many times. You're like, I told you that 2 years ago. I was like, but now it makes sense. I don't know why that is. Um, yeah, I guess I would say just as a mindset thing, have— keep in mind that this is, you know, if you're getting into real estate, it is a long game, you know. And just give yourself that time to, you know— but you still have to put in the action. That's the hardest thing for people. You got to put in the constant action with sometimes no return in the beginning.

Yeah.

Yeah, and yeah, but you're educating yourself along the way, you know, that's, that's very important.

Exactly, to educate yourself. Right, but I mean, we're so used to just hitting a button and then getting some sort of feedback.

That's your generation.

Yes, yeah, yeah, for sure.

And even the younger ones are even worse. I know, I'm scared. It's like, if it's not on my phone and I can't press like this button, like it's not gonna work.

No.

You know, so yeah, yeah.

But, uh, yeah, so, so if you're, if you're looking at getting started, um, those are, those are some areas to look at especially. I mean, I've given— I've had the same list, I don't know, for the last 6 months, 8 months, and I've given to people and they've gotten deals off of them. It's AI driving for dollars. Oh, and a mobile home list. But I just gave them the list and they took the action and they made some perfect made some dough for their first deal, and that's that's a cool feeling. That's a cool feeling.

I didn't realize.

Yeah, giving people their first deal.

It is.

Wow!

I remember your first deal.

That's right.

We were talking about it today. Yep.

Yeah.

Yeah. Instead of five grand, you charged me thirty.

It was fifteen.

It was fifteen.

Yeah.

Oh, you didn't want to correct me at lunch. Oh, that's nice of you. That's okay, but still it was three times more than I was willing to pay him. Yeah, yeah, and because he was a nice guy and his wife was a nice person, I said, "Okay, well let's just pay him fifteen and move on." Yeah, maybe maybe he'll go away, but no, you never went away.

I mean, that was like my year's salary for like or whatever my year's income.

Okay, that was COVID.

Yeah, so yeah, because I think. I think the year before, or, um, that year I'd made like $19,000 or something.

Yeah.

Somehow able to live off that.

I don't know how.

Yeah.

I don't know how. Uh, so yeah, interesting. What if somebody— and this is like Undercover Billionaire— what if somebody dropped you in Arkansas with no money? How long would it take for you to make your first mil?

Um, well, I, I check in with Bill and Hillary.

Yeah.

Okay.

Mena. We drop you in Mena, Arkansas.

And make sure that I— it was okay for a Republican to be there.

Right.

Okay. I would definitely not do Little Rock.

No.

Trenton, you want to come over here? My grandson's here. Trenton?

Yeah, come here.

Say hi to everybody. Come here.

Family pod.

Yeah.

Hi.

Hi.

Hi. Say hi to everybody. Say what's up.

Hi.

Okay. And tell them how old you are. I'm 6 years old. Go to Christian school. Okay. And then your favorite sport?

Um, basketball.

Okay. Sounds great. Thank you. Appreciate it.

Nice. Heck yeah.

Uh, yeah. So, um, the, the first thing I would do is I would, uh, go to the local meetup and meet all the people that are there meeting up. And I would find out, okay, like what's going on, right? Like in California, you know, we, most of us do flips. We don't obviously do buy and holds. We don't do BRRRRs. So, so maybe in Arkansas it's a little bit different, but that's what I would do is, you know, get the lay of the land, find out what's going on. And then it's literally just start putting my team together.

And just start flipping the Ozarks.

Flipping, buying and holding, BRRRRing. Yeah, whatever.

Heck yeah.

Whatever works.

All you need is that knowledge.

Yeah. That's all it takes. The local knowledge.

The local knowledge.

The local knowledge, yes. Because I would be like you, a newbie coming in. You know, I wouldn't be the experienced guy.

Right.

Experienced in that I know how to put together, you know, my action plan and my team.

Yeah.

But I need the local knowledge as well.

That's right. Good old boys.

Good old boys.

Good old boys in Arkansas.

Excellent.

Stay out of Hillary's path.

Yeah.

Yeah.

You don't wanna be on her list.

No, you don't.

Long list.

No.

Okay. Next we're going over to a subject that I absolutely love. It's sort of true crime, but it's in real estate. It's fraud schemes that are happening throughout.

Okay.

And when I see these, it's surprisingly easy to commit fraud in real estate.

If you're that type of person, let me bring it back to banks. You don't want to be a bank robber. Oh my God, don't ever be a bank robber. You know, you do white-collar crimes, you know, check kiting, you know, just different things that white-collar people do.

Yeah.

And you'll get away with it for a long time.

Yeah.

You start doing bank robberies and they develop a pattern, you're gonna get caught right away.

Yeah, exactly.

And spend a lot of time in jail, especially if you use a gun.

Yeah.

You don't want to do that.

I don't even think you make that much from— or the average guy.

No. So what's, uh, what's the newest one?

So we have, um, well, let's just play the news clip really quick.

Okay.

An early morning FBI fraud takedown across LA County.

Oh, I saw this.

Fox 11, the only TV crew there as federal agents and police storm a North Hollywood home, zeroing in on a man they say is tied to a sprawling mortgage fraud scheme.

It's a complex fraud scheme in which people are using private citizens' homes to leverage that to steal money.

Moments later, the suspect walks out barefoot and in pajamas, placed in handcuffs. Parked outside, high-end cars, a Range Rover and Lexus. The home itself appearing freshly remodeled. This image from Apple Maps compared to how it looked Thursday morning.

They live a very elaborate lifestyle based on the ill-gotten gains of this type of fraud.

This arrest related to about 10 others happening simultaneously across LA County and as far away as Florida and Canada.

This organized crime network has their minions, so to speak, uh, on the lending side and the theft side of it.

I mean, nobody likes to It's hard to see somebody get a bunch of money for nothing, basically. People who've— they've paid off their mortgages on their homes, they should feel confident that, you know, they still own those homes free of encumbrances.

According to charging documents, the suspects stole identities, often from elderly victims, then used those identities to access property records. From there, they convinced private lenders to hand over millions, falsely claiming those homes as collateral. Total losses around $17 million in fraudulent loans.

We're certainly focusing on fraud in all its forms, not just fraud against the government or, you know, whether it's the state or the national government, but it's also, you know, in this case you have fraud against private citizens and, you know, private lenders as well.

A years-long investigation now turning into a wave of arrests with potentially more on the way tied to fraud.

It is a priority for us based on what's going on nationally in this, in this lane, trying to recover those funds. And get them back to the taxpayers is a priority. We're working closely with the IRS in that as well.

Reporting in North Hollywood, Matt—

Ooh, you never want to hear that, working closely with the IRS.

That's not a good thing.

That's not a good thing. So, I mean, they don't really explain at all what was happening. He's just like, he's using people's homes to— so it sounds like they're creating fake documents to say that they own these houses. Um, and then just getting like a HELOC or—

Yeah.

Yeah. DSCR. And then taking that money out.

Yeah.

Yeah. So, yeah. So it's classic.

Do you know that, um, 40% of homeowners in Orange County own their home free and clear?

Ooh.

Do you know what the national average is?

20?

45. 45?

45.

Wow.

Okay. Yeah. 45. I heard that statistic the other day at a, um, A breakfast that we had.

Interesting. Okay, so we're under the average.

That's, that's a perfect explanation as to what's going on. And so much so that I've always been concerned about that because I've, you know, I've owned properties for a long period of time. And, you know, maybe I shouldn't say that.

It's a sitting duck.

I'm a sitting duck. But you know what? I corrected that.

Right.

I did. I did. What's called equity stripping.

Okay.

So I put my own loan on my properties.

Right.

And so now it shows that I'm encumbered all the way up to here.

Yeah, low equity.

So like, if somebody looks at my stuff and they say, well, let's get Joe's properties and do this, the lender is going to look at it and they're going to go, well, shoot, he has a loan on there already and it's over what the value is. I don't know how he got that loan.

Right.

But Yeah, we can't do this one. Ah, so I've got myself protected now. Nice.

Now you're not just a sitting target.

Thanks to my attorney.

That's good.

And, um, that's a good move. Paperwork that he provided me to do that.

Yeah, you don't realize. I mean, let's just say, you know, you bought your house in the '60s, you paid it off, you know, you're not thinking anything of it. And what's crazy is, you know, there's software where you can look at how much people owe on there. So It's just like—

I didn't buy my house in the '60s, just to clarify that, because then I'd be like 90.

Sorry.

Okay, whatever.

Yeah, yeah.

So '80s.

'80s, right? '80s. Yeah.

Okay.

That's right.

Not '60s.

So thank you.

Yes, but aging me more than I am. Okay.

But, uh, yeah, you can just look these things up and it's almost like having your door unlocked. I mean, a robber is just going to go by and check the door. If it's unlocked, he's probably going to steal it. If it's locked, They're just going to keep on going.

So yeah, now your package is out front and they're going to walk by and take it, right?

So yours is all locked up nice and tight now.

Yeah, locked up nice and tight.

Um, that's similar to another, uh, it's, it's another SoCal woman, uh, behind multi-million dollar liens arrested for filing false documents. Kind of interesting.

Rita Ortiz, the woman dubbed the Lien Queen, has now been behind bars for weeks. 7 On Your Side Investigates has been digging into multi-million dollar mechanics liens that Ortiz filed. Homeowners say they came out of nowhere. Now at 5, the LAPD calling those liens fraudulent. Eyewitness News investigative reporter Kevin Ozubek is here with an update on this tonight. Kevin?

And Michelle, it was just a few days ago that Rita Ortiz was right here at ABC 7 defending herself. Now she has been arrested and she is facing a whopping 25 counts of filing a false or forged document in a public office.

Nice. I remember her.

Really?

Yes, I remember.

To get her in jail. But I'm happy. It's a good start.

She was filing false documents that these people owed millions and millions of dollars. And like this person here, they, they couldn't even sell their house because there was a lien on there.

Clouded by more.

That doesn't.

Yeah, see. Right.

Plus mechanics liens.

Twenty-four million dollars. Come on.

After we first met Marjorie last month, Ortiz then hit Marjorie with another lien.

Yeah.

This one for more than ninety-eight million.

Oh my goodness.

All the liens claim Ortiz did cleaning services she was never paid for.

That's expensive cleaning. Yeah.

Imagine it.

Pick it up. Heavy, heavy, heavy.

Destroy property, a lot of, a lot of trash.

An emotional Ortiz came to ABC 7 this week, but multiple homeowners say she wasn't truthful. Those hit with massive liens for unpaid cleaning have told 7 On Your Side they never hired Ortiz to do any work. The LAPD and Beverly Hills Police both told us they have active criminal investigations into these liens. Are you worried with these investigations?

No, no, no, no.

You know why?

That's not true.

But it was true. The LAPD says Ortiz portrayed herself as a real estate consultant, and it is believed that Ortiz may have offered services to unsuspecting victims through a nonprofit organization named Make Your Dreams Come True. Ortiz is not licensed by the Department of Real Estate to perform During our 7 On Your Side investigation, we went to the LA County Recorder's Office, pulled all the liens Ortiz has filed, and found she has made more than $568 million worth of claims of unpaid work. Andrea Knowles also has a $24 million lien on her home thanks to Ortiz.

My husband and I are really grateful for the help that we got from the county. For all of, all of what you've done and what ABC 7 has done. And really, thank you, Kevin. Thank you. Thank you for putting this problem out there so that we can begin to solve this issue.

And both Marjorie and Andrea say this fight is not over because they do want state laws to change so it's not so easy to file one of these liens at the county recorder's office. Meanwhile, the LAPD says its investigation into Rita Ortiz Is not over, and the department is urging any victims to call police. Live in the newsroom, Kevin.

So I mean, what does she get out of it though?

Who? This lady?

Yeah.

Oh, that's easy. She's got a lien on your property that you want to sell, and you want to sell it right away, right? Made her first appearance before. Alex, I know the lien's for $94 million, but if you give me $10,000, I will take it off, and then you can sell your house. Yeah, that's fraudulent.

That is fraudulent. And it is pretty easy to file these things.

Well, the recorder's office, they'll record anything you give them, you know, because they get money for it. They don't look at the documents. They don't care what it says. They're relying on the fact that you're recording this document that you Say that is truthful.

Could you out fraud the fraudster and just record a reconveyance that it's free and clear, and then the fraudster would have to defend themselves against you?

Right. You may. You may be able to do that. Yeah.

Just out fraud the fraudster.

Out fraud the fraudster. Yeah. You may be able to do that. But again, then you're committing fraud. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah.

It's like okay. These documents are notarized. So then you'd have to get a notary involved. And are you really Rita? You look like Alex, but are you really Rita? Yeah, no, I'm not. But, you know, here's a couple thousand dollars to make me Rita. Yeah, then, yeah, you don't want to go down that road. Don't go down that road. Okay.

That makes sense.

Yeah.

Huh. That's interesting. Well, it's all coming to fruition now. She's busted. It'll be interesting to see what she gets because it's, you know, white collar.

Oh, it's white collar. She's not going to do more time than what she spends in jail.

Yeah.

You know, it probably— it's probably going to take the police probably 4 to 6 months to investigate this enough where the district attorney says, oh yeah, I'll prosecute this. This is a slam dunk case.

Yeah.

And then she goes into court and she's been in jail. Maybe she's been in jail that time. I doubt it, but If she has, then the judge is going to go, ah, time served. We're done.

Move on.

Next case.

Yeah.

Like, yeah.

Wow.

That's it for that much havoc.

That's it. Dang. Yeah.

She— and I wonder if these people even knew her and she— or if she was just—

No, one person said they'd never met her. They don't know her. And then, you know, turn the tables around, you know, them trying to sue her. She doesn't have anything. She's actually pretty smart. She put it into an LLC. And so all they can do is go after the LLC, right? Whatever funds are in there, if anything. And I doubt if anything's in there. You know, she, she gets— maybe she gets money, she puts it in there, and she pulls it right back out. That's how she lives her life. Whatever.

Yeah, um, that's, that's pretty crazy. Um, I mean, what is a mechanics lien act actually?

Like, what is it?

Yeah.

A mechanic's lien is from a contractor who says, I've done work for you at your home and you did not pay me. And those are all valid. And she's acting like she's a valid mechanic lien person, but for $94 million, what the hell did you do? That's like 100 times more than the house is worth. Like, how does that make sense? And maybe that's what they should do. They should say, okay, Wait a second, $94 million? How much is that house worth? Right, it's worth like a million. Like, no, this, this is, this is fake. This is fraudulent.

Yeah, you should at least have to prove with invoices. Yeah, or something.

Something. Yeah, something. Wow.

Okay.

Yeah, we'll see what they come up with.

Yeah, that's, uh, if anything, the Lean Queen is finally behind bars.

I doubt if they're going to come up with anything.

I know. Yeah. So I mean, they should be able to clear them somehow, but I guess not. I don't know what the process is, but you should be able to clear the lien if you have— if you can prove that it's fraud.

Yeah, but that's the thing. You have to go through the court process to prove it. Yeah, because it's, you know, he said, she said type thing.

Dang, these people be meddling. Yeah, they be meddling. Yeah, and the more you have, the bigger target you have on your back. That's the scary part.

Yeah.

So that's why billionaires dress like they're homeless.

Yes.

That makes sense.

Yes. Now it makes sense to you? Are you gonna start dressing more homeless now?

You'll see, I'll start dressing worse. No chain, no, a little bit of dirt even, like makeup. Yeah, like I just came out of the bushes. Yeah, definitely gonna be doing that. Or they could use AI to sort of, you know, verify some of these things. Which brings us to our next subject.

Okay. You got it.

AI tools for real estate investors. Hype or game changer? What are your thoughts?

I think a little bit of both, but I'd lean, I'm leaning more towards the game changer.

Okay.

Yeah. I use it. I like it.

How do you, what do you use it for?

I use it for everything.

All right.

Honestly, you know, it's like, I'm pretty smart, but I'm not like 100% smart. And if somebody asks me a question, I literally just put it in the chat and then I can see the answer and I go, oh yeah, that looks like the right answer here. It's not like, yeah, that's a good response, send it back.

Yeah.

So, yeah. So, you're using it for like email responses or help out with specific questions and stuff like that. Yeah.

Would you say, why are you asking me? Why don't you just chat GPT agent?

Because then they don't need me anymore. You know, it's like, I, I like to be needed. Right.

Okay.

You know, like everybody, I'm human.

Yeah, exactly.

You know, it's nice you're calling me and asking me and—

Well, plus you have the experience.

Exactly. That's what I was just gonna say. Plus I have the experience so that I can look at it and say, yeah, this, this is not AI hallucinating. This is actually what You should be saying what I should have said, but boy, you're like really intelligent. You're saying it in a really good way.

Right.

So yeah, you know, that's what it's for.

And that's where I think the hype comes in because when it first came out, it was so novel. People used it for everything to the point where apparently lawyers were using it and citing case law that never existed and they were getting in trouble during proceedings.

It was hallucinating.

So you just got to check it sometimes. It's not fully there, but—

Yeah, you should check it all the time. In fact, uh, the DRE just put out a bulletin basically saying that, that ChatGPT is just a tool and it should be checked out before you take any action on it. And I agree with all that. Yeah, yeah. And so that's why they're sending it to me, you know, I'm their broker. And yeah, and I look at it and I go, yeah, ChatGPT it. And, you know, I get the response back and I go, yeah, yeah, that's good, that's good, let's send it back.

It shaves off all the time of you having to like physically type out.

Yeah, or call an attorney who's gonna basically say, well, you can do it or not do it. Which side are you representing? And, you know, yeah, maybe you ought to look at this. 'Cause if I was representing the other side, yeah, I don't know, that'd be a different story. 'Cause if they were paying me, then I'd, you know, tell them to do it this way instead of this way.

Thanks for nothing.

Why did I call you?

Sure.

Well, yeah, and, you know, more and more people are using it. Um, there's a lot of— there's a lot of free, low-cost AI tools that you can use for deal analysis, market research, simple things like that. And I think it's, it's eventually going to get pretty crazy. Like, watch, watch this thing.

Oh, let's watch.

Let's watch this. So Well, I thought I was gonna have something on there, but, uh, basically this guy is using, it looks like Photoshop or something, and he's typing in a prompt that says, make this look like a drone shot from 100 feet away. He has a, he has a, a picture where he's on the ground.

Mm-hmm.

He's asking it to make it look like a drone shot from 100 feet away. He plugs in his prompt, he picks which model he wants it to use, and then You guessed it. It creates it.

Oh, look at that.

Yeah.

Nice.

Right? So yeah, I mean, that's—

But that house wasn't there. They just— looks like they just put it there. That's what you have to watch.

What do you mean?

Like, was there a house to the left of it? Yeah, there was. Yeah. Okay. Yeah, because I didn't see that in the original picture, but then they put one in next to it. So you have to watch that, make sure.

Oh yeah, it'll add stuff.

Yeah. Make sure that's not adding something that's not there.

Especially when—

Which is another thing that, uh, you know, the MLS came out with the other day. We're not allowed to use AI staging. Do things like that unless you actually put the original picture.

Okay.

Yeah.

So you have to put the original and then you can put the, you know, the green grass.

Yeah.

The staging and all that. But the original picture has to be—

Yeah, no, absolutely. Because I, I remember Lauren was doing that staging it and you'd say, I want a chair over here, but then it would like fix the paint on the wall. You know, and you're like, no, don't fix anything. Just put a chair there.

Just put a chair there. Okay. And then it wouldn't ask you to do that.

Yeah.

Try to make everything nice. So then you go and see it and you're like, this was not the picture that I thought it was. So that's kind of smart.

Yeah.

Here's another instance, something similar.

A simple photo of a house with a pool. Looks nice, right? But there is room for improvement. And instead of jumping between apps, I'm using LoveArt. It combines Nanobanana Pro with a full suite of design tools all in one workflow. So my prompt is luxury modern estate, infinity pool, golden hour lighting, Hollywood Hills style, ultra sharp architectural photography, 4K quality. Here it is, but we are just getting started. This is where LoveArt exclusive features make all the difference. Using, for example, the new touch edit feature, I can point to any element and modify it naturally. Add luxury poolside loungers and ambient lighting for evening atmosphere. Yeah, the AI gets it. It knows what fits.

But see, that's like no good anymore because you have to put the original photo.

Right, right, right.

So it's like, why? Why even do it?

I know. Well, and apparently they're taking— you can take photos and then you can make a, like, a walkthrough video based off the photos somehow. I don't know.

Wow.

But it's like, it's getting to the point you can't trust anything you see.

Yeah.

So that's getting scary. But, um, so basically real estate photographers, you're fired.

You're fired.

It's gonna be a lot of people. I mean, website designers.

Yeah.

SEO guys.

Yeah.

So what are they—

A picture like that would be okay if you had like a website.

Yeah.

You know, that's fine.

Oh yeah, yeah, yeah.

But if you're like selling that house, right, then again, you'd have to put the original photo. So that's, that's, that's a good tool to enhance something that is there but really not there, right? And so, uh, you know, making a, a website would be, would be okay.

Yeah.

Oh yeah, making a website would be fine.

Yeah.

Well, and that's what staging is essentially. It's like you're showing somebody, this is the living room, this is where your couch would go. Because if you walk into an empty house, a lot of people don't have an imagination to see.

They don't? No.

They actually don't.

Really?

So I never noticed that. When you put all that there, they're like, oh, I can see myself having, you know, lunch with the kids and all that stuff. So that's what staging is for. Now you can do it with AI without ever leaving your underwear.

The staging companies are done.

No, I think you should still do it.

Okay.

Yeah, no, I think you should still do it, but I'm just saying that that was the point of staging. Yeah, people don't have imagination. So you could do the same thing in Photos, get them there, get them out, and then they can, you know, do whatever things you did on the, the internets.

Mm-hmm.

Pretty interesting. So yeah, I'm using— yeah, I'm using the basic ones. Somebody was in the Sub 2 group the other day showing how that you can hook Claude to your GoHighLevel now. It can go through all your conversations and then it'll tell you like, hey, you never responded to this guy who was interested. And then it can give it like a score of like people who are motivated and have you kind of tweak all your leads you already have.

That's awesome.

Yeah, it's pretty cool. So that's one way to do it. And then, you know, for comping, obviously, So yeah, for writing descriptions.

Writing descriptions is good.

Save you a lot of time.

Unless, unless you write the description that I did on one of my rentals, and then I got yelled at because I made it like—

Too nice.

Too nice.

Yeah, it makes it so nice.

And then, uh, I won't mention her name, Stephanie, yelled at me because I was like over-describing the property. And I go, hey, Am I getting people's attention with this? Yeah, isn't that the point? It's like, that's like staging, right?

Right, yeah.

It's like, okay, look, this is a beautiful— wow, that's a beautiful description. Let's go take a look at it. Oh shit, this is what he was describing? Yeah, this is not good.

That's subjective. Maybe you don't think so.

That's right. It is. It is subjective. Somebody's living there. Somebody wants to live there. Doesn't have to be you.

Now that you've used it, when you're reading descriptions, can you tell when it's written by AI?

Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. No, absolutely, yes, you can, you can tell. Yeah, uh, but I mean, you know, that's a good thing that, uh, you know, that's happening, right?

Yeah, no, I think it's good. Yeah, I think it's good. Um, yeah, so I mean, I'm using it for like Video, video prep. Um, yeah, pretty much, pretty much everything all the time, actually.

Did you have the script written by AI? I did.

Yeah.

So like, what are we talking about today, Alex? I don't know, let me plug it into AI.

Give me some trending topics.

There you go.

I know, it's pretty cool. It is pretty cool.

It is.

Um, it's hooked in the cars now, you know.

Oh yeah, Grok. Yeah. Grok is in my Tesla and I love Grok.

Yeah.

Yeah.

It's pretty cool.

I'm trying to get it to talk in a more sexy voice. It's still refusing. Yeah.

And I mean, and I wonder, it's like, if we want to learn AI and to fully use it to its full capability, that's a whole, I mean, it's a whole thing. It's basically a side job.

It's called Optimus.

Oh yeah.

Yeah, Optimus. And you just look over at Optimus once you buy him, look over and say, hey, you know, let's do this.

Yeah, fold the laundry.

And then Optimus will say, you want me to do what? You want me to do the dishes? You know, hey, that's it. You program it like your wife. Yeah, Optimus, Optimus, go do the dishes. What? Why don't you do them today?

You get a cleaner over here.

What the heck? Why don't you hire somebody to do this? Hire a maid to do this. Then, you know.

Yeah, yeah, I know. It's gonna be pretty— it's gonna be pretty weird. So, um, what are you guys using AI for? I'd love to hear it.

Oh yeah, me too.

Yes, editing photos. Editing video, writing descriptions, comps, market analysis, shopping. There are some apps where apparently you can scan a room and it'll give you a, like, an estimate for rehabs, but they're not good.

No, apparently. So it'll get better.

It'll get better.

It'll get—

but yeah, don't believe all the hype, you know, just like anything. Don't believe all the hype.

It'll get better.

So just keep an eye on that. But, uh, I just wanted to remind you guys we do have an event on April 27th. David Silverman's coming out to Hangar 24. He's gonna be talking about commercial insurance.

Are you gonna make it?

No, I will not be there.

No?

No.

You'll be with baby?

I will be with child.

Yes, I was about— my wife was telling me this morning that one of her friends Actually, it's a cousin of ours, and her daughter's having a baby, and they're three weeks overdue. Oh, and they're inducing today. Yeah, it's like three weeks overdue. Okay, that's a long time.

Yeah, yeah. I don't think they would let Lauren go that long.

Yeah, I don't know. That's probably why they're inducing. Yeah, but okay.

That means he's gonna be there.

I'll be very sad.

I know it's gonna be, but I'll be happy for you. Thank you. Yeah, I just don't know how it works, so I'm giving myself the room to like figure it out.

Okay.

So, um, okay. But, uh, yeah, so that'll be a good time, and we will be here next week.

Should we start a new— the New and Experienced Dad?

Yeah.

Podcast?

Yep. Yeah, let's do it. We can make it part of the show. Do you need some training? Yeah, I do. I have no idea what I'm doing.

Okay.

So playing it by ear.

Yeah.

But, uh, thank you guys for joining us. We'll be back next week and we'll see you soon.

Thank you. See you later. If you want some more advice on real estate investing, reach out to us one-on-one.