Orange County Subject-To For Her First Deal! with Madeleine Of Red Homes
27 May 2024 · 74 min
In this episode of the Orange County Real Estate Investing podcast, hosts Alex Barnett and veteran investor Joe Homs interview guest Madeline Redifer to discuss the nuances of subject‑to (sub‑2) acquisitions and related creative‑finance strategies. The conversation covers a range of topics: the hosts’ philosophy of helping pre‑foreclosure owners without focusing on price; the pitfalls of relying on attorneys who push bankruptcy; historical short‑sale practices, agent greed, and regulatory changes; practical deal‑structuring advice for high‑price foreclosures, including seller financing and subject‑to tactics; personal anecdotes about licensing decisions and team dynamics; community engagement through meetups and live‑chat interaction; and logistical details such as loan amounts, timelines, and contact information for future deals. Throughout, the hosts emphasize the value of knowledge, the importance of ethical communication with sellers, and the collaborative nature of their investing community.
Chapters
Hey, what's up? What's up, you guys? Welcome back to the podcast, The New and Experienced Investor Podcast. We have an amazing show today, don't we, Joe?
Absolutely.
I'm one of your hosts. I'm Alex Barnett. I'm the new guy.
I'm Joe Homs and I'm the experienced guy.
And I forgot to mention, this is the podcast that brings real estate investors from all walks of life together. Isn't that special?
That is special. Very special.
Um, we're doing something different. We're taking the whole thing to YouTube. So, um, if you guys are on Facebook right now, jump on over into the YouTube and, um, meet us here, and we'll be here for the next hour or so. We have an amazing guest on in studio. She's gonna do a full breakdown of a deal that that she just got while everyone else is crying that there's no deals out there. People literally calling Joe up crying that there's no deals. And she comes in, she says, hold my beer, and then just takes down this amazing sub-2 in Orange County, California. So we're gonna talk all about that. But first, let's go ahead and talk about our meetup that we have next month.
We have a meetup. We don't have a guest yet.
Yes, that's right.
We have a meetup.
Right.
Yes. Same place. Same time.
Yep.
Same Bat Channel.
That's right.
All that stuff. But we don't have a guest yet. So—
What's the date?
We'll announce that, um, probably at the beginning of next month.
May 27th. And it is going to rain.
Is it? Oh, oh yes.
We're trying some reverse psychology.
Oh, I see. Okay.
Because every time I say it's not going to rain, it's cold.
Knock on wood.
And, um, it—
that's not wood, that's metal. But anyway, it was, it was cold, but it wasn't like it's not really raining.
I know, but I just want it to be nice and sunny.
Okay, so he was frolicking. Reverse psychology.
Yeah, got it.
That's what the meet of gods— yeah, please let it rain.
Okay, just kidding. So I think it's gonna be 90 next week.
I know, but on— for some reason, the last Monday of every month That's when like the cloud cover comes in and gotta turn the heaters on, but it's still a lovely night. And, um, this last meetup we were talking about all creative finance stuff. So this is a perfect segue.
Absolutely.
Yeah.
Yes.
So let's go ahead and bring her in. We got Madeline Redifer here in studio.
Hi everyone.
What's up? How you doing?
I'm fabulous. Thanks for having me.
Of course. Um, why don't you go ahead and kind of give everybody your background, what you were doing before you got into real estate, how you got into real estate and why.
Sure.
Well, let's see. I am, I still consider myself a newbie investor. I have done only one deal so far, but it was very lucrative. For the past 14 years, I have been doing industrial sales and mostly for European companies. So very experienced in building relationships and putting myself out there. And for the past, I'd say about 10 months, I really started learning a lot about investing in real estate, starting with some of the gurus and their free content, their free masterclasses. And yeah, I think I started last May. So it's going on a year now. And just very much exciting information out there. You know, you can take control over your future and build wealth that way. So I kind of started diving into it. And then we were living in the Bay Area and my husband lost his job, unfortunately. So we were looking to make a move and we decided on Orange County. So I kind of put a pause on those investing plans. I wanted to put down some roots somewhere and be really ready to hit the ground. So we made the move to Orange County last August, and I immediately looked online on Meetup, and I wanted to connect with other local investors to start helping me, you know, gain some experience and learn the market as well. So one of my first meetups was Joe's OC REI event. And just before that though, a couple days, I met you for a cup of coffee. And that was, I'd say, yeah, the best $5 I've ever spent.
Nice.
Because you were a wealth of information And I remember asking you, Joe, do you think I can do this? And you said, yes, you can. You just have to do it. You know, stop researching and looking through all the content that's out there and just start taking action. And I took your advice, um, kind of got going slowly. I started using PropStream. Pouring through the data, getting myself familiar with that system. And yeah, I think I went to another meetup or 2, then it was Christmas, took some time off. But then in January, I was invigorated to really start, you know, trying to do this. Not full-time. This is more of a part-time basis. I still have a full-time W-2 job that I have to keep going with for the time being. But yeah, I just started making phone calls, like taking an hour a day calling sellers whose properties were up for auction. At first, it was terrifying putting yourself out there saying, I'm an investor, when You've never invested in property before, so I felt like a fraud. But then I finally found a seller who was going to auction in about a week, and it was a very stressful experience. But it did work out, and I closed my first deal last last month. Thank you.
Yes.
And it was, yeah, a pretty big deal. I mean, subject to, so we just had the meetup on Monday.
Mm-hmm.
And that was the topic there, which was really interesting to me because I'm hooked. I want to do a lot more sub-to deals.
Perfect. I love that. That's a perfect like intro into everything. And of course, like your first deal being pretty freaking complex or a high level, Creative, I would say. Um, it being in a, uh, market that is, some people would say saturated and, and hard to break into, but you did it, you know? And what were the steps? What took you from saying like, okay, I'm just gonna keep like learning about this to really then you honed in on it and started, you know, reaching out to people? Like, what was that mindset shift?
Well, I think it was just that I needed to build up some more confidence and getting to know you, Alex, and Lauren and Joe, and knowing that I had a network of people that would help me and support me if I had questions or needed certain documentation. That really gave me the boost of confidence. Confidence to say, okay, I'm going to do this now and take action. And, you know, the more you do it, of course, the easier it gets. You're much more confident and comfortable. And now that I did my first deal, I do have that credibility where I can say I am a real estate investor. So that also gave me that boost of energy. And my full-time job is Very nice and comfortable. I make a very good salary, and it's a pretty flexible job. But it's not something that interests me as much anymore, and I've kind of hit my ceiling there, and I'm ready to see what's next. And I feel like real estate investing gives me the lifestyle that I want, and I've always wanted to be an entrepreneur. And just haven't really found the right fit before. Last year, my husband and I actually looked into a couple franchise opportunities because we thought, okay, well, we could start a business and then potentially could turn into passive income. But it just seemed like so much work and not enough money made.
I agree. Let's talk about the dreaded phone call. So walk us through that conversation.
The one specifically with my seller?
Yeah, specifically for that one. And how far along into the calling process did you get to that phone call? Was it days, months?
What?
You know, actually, I didn't even talk to her for a while. I was Calling, leaving messages, but also texting and emailing. And this particular seller prefers email. So I would continue every week. Hey, just checking in. And finally one day she said, "I do need help, and I would like to talk to you." So I think yeah, I think it had been a couple weeks that I had been messaging her. And when I finally did talk to her, I just said, tell me what's going on. What's your situation like? And she just kind of ran through that during the pandemic, she got furloughed from her job, stopped making the payments. Then I think she was able to like do a loan modification or something, or there were COVID benefits to help with your mortgage.
Mm-hmm.
And she just took advantage of all of that, but still never paid. So she hadn't paid her mortgage in like 4 years, I think. And I know it's crazy. Like, how does someone get away with that much time? So when I talked to her, she told me she owed $117,000 and she was working with the bank to get, Like the statement of, you know, demand statement, right, to get paid up.
And this was $117,000 on top of her loan. This is what she was in arrears, correct?
Right.
Okay.
Right.
So what is left on the loan is $250,000 at a 4% interest after those arrears were paid off. She, yeah, she was just kind of paralyzed by the whole situation. Her father was a signer on the loan as well. So I kept saying, okay, does your dad know? Yes, he does. And I believed her. Learned a lot through this process.
Yeah.
Generally a very trusting person.
Yeah.
And I've learned that, yeah, you can't really trust your sellers, especially if they've gotten this far. Her biggest wish of the whole thing, and this is kind of what set the stage, was her daughter is like 17, and she wanted her daughter to stay in her high school for another year plus. and graduate. And her daughter did not know about any of this stuff. So she was hiding that from her daughter, her dad, and then I found out later, her boyfriend, who also lives with her. So she had a lot of secrets.
Mm-hmm.
And she needed somebody to help keep those secrets for her. And that's why I said, well, hey, I'll buy your house. I'll pay the $117,000. And then take over your loan subject to. You can rent back from me for 2 years at a discounted rate. And it's the amount that covers the mortgage and the insurance. Once the escrow gets caught up, then it'll, I think I'll cash flow like $500 a month. So nothing major, but— That's amazing.
Like, that is amazing.
Yeah.
Yes.
Yeah.
That's good. That's actually really good.
Yeah, the loan was like $1,500 a month. But I also wanted to create a win-win situation. You know, that's the goal. You're not trying to like scam people out of all their money. So I did offer her $200,000 of equity after 26 months. So the rental contract is 2 years and then I gave a buffer of like 2 months to, you know, sell the house or take out another loan. Or as you suggested, Alex, perhaps renegotiate the terms and pay her amortized over the years.
Yeah. I mean, at that point, maybe she'll want some passive income from her payout.
Okay. So she had $200,000 of her own equity in this deal. Okay. And where's that money now?
It's, uh, we created a deed, title deed for it, and it's just still in the property.
So it's basically in escrow.
Okay.
Yeah. Yeah.
Okay.
Yes.
No, sure. I think so.
That's her portion.
But Well, but I don't have to pay it for 2 years.
Right. Understand.
Yeah.
So it's like a second lien?
I think so. I think it's a second lien. If you look at the property, like, sale online, it shows that amount.
Okay. Yeah.
That, that's what it was sold for.
Okay, so not in escrow, you created a second trust deed.
Yes.
Okay.
Yeah.
Thank you.
Okay.
I'm a total newbie.
I don't know. I know, I know. This is amazing. That's what I'm like.
So now when you're going through this transaction, I know you were talking to Alex and you were talking to me as well.
Yes. Thank you both. Without you, I probably wouldn't have put this deal together.
And, uh, we had given you access to our purchase agreement contract, which is a 2-page agreement.
Yeah.
Because I don't like to get, uh, sellers confused with a normal CAR form, which is 16 pages. Your husband, you haven't said so yet what he does for a living, but you had called me and said, my husband's a little concerned with this 2-page. What was that conversation like with your husband?
Yeah, so my husband has 3 advanced degrees, one of them being a law degree and another a master's in law. He doesn't practice law, but he's very well versed in it and also Uh, just more risk-averse. And I'll back up a little and say that we've been together for 11 years, and the past, I would say, probably at least 4 or 5 years, we have wanted to buy some like rental properties. We were in Wisconsin and in Chicago, Illinois, then in the Bay Area, and we looked at so many deals and we never pulled the trigger because— We're just generally very risk-averse. And we also like our money. We want to keep our money, even though, yeah, you can make way more in real estate. But in our minds, we just could not get over that. And then we learned about the 1%, you know, rule in rentals where you need to earn 1% of the home value.
Mm-hmm.
per month in rent. So we were just so stuck on that. And it sucks because we passed up, I think, some really good deals because we just never got over that hurdle. So now we're, you know, looking at this deal that looks very risky, right? We've got some contracts we're not familiar with, but I'm telling him, Cameron, I trust Joe. He's been doing this a long time. Let's use these forms and not question it. And he kept saying, we need to hire a lawyer, you know, ask him for a contact. And I'm like, he doesn't have one. He doesn't use one.
He doesn't like them.
I don't like them. Nothing against your husband, but—
No, no, no offense. He never practiced law in the US. He practiced in England for 3 years and he didn't like it. So he left. And then he did investment banking for 10 years. And he didn't like that. So he left.
Yeah.
Don't they call them barristers in England?
Yeah, yeah. Like the Whigs and stuff. He did corporate law. So it was a little different.
Okay. So real quick, you were in Chicago.
Yeah.
And then you moved over to Frisco. And now you're here. So you went from like Democrat, Democrat to Republican. Are you okay in Orange County now?
Well, no, we were in Oakland.
Oh, that's even worse. Are you okay? I mean, we're not stressing you out down here, are we?
No, I like that it's a balance down here, actually.
I—
we're kind of more independent leaning anyways, so I think it's a good fit. And you guys really— I mean, from my perspective, People don't really talk politics here like they do in other areas that I've lived. And I like that because things can get heated.
Sure, I know. And you're like, why are we talking about that?
We don't have heated conversations around here. No, because we are all on the side of the good.
You decide which side that is.
Right?
If you have any doubt—
I mean, come on. Is anyone happy with our No.
Coming up.
No.
Yeah, I know.
Oh, I am.
Yeah. Oh yeah, there's plenty of shows coming.
Yeah.
Okay.
I'm happy.
He's got an option.
He's getting that. I'm not happy with what's there, but anyway.
Yeah, yeah.
Let's get away from politics. Back to your deal.
Yeah.
Yes.
I mean, this deal, I feel like, so whatever you passed up in Wisconsin and Illinois and all that other stuff, I feel like this deal makes up for all those. You know what I mean? Because—
It probably does.
This is like, it gives you so many options at this point. And you're sitting on equity. You've got someone in there still paying it down, you know? And then when those 2 years come up, you can look at the landscape and say, what do we want to do from here? That's a good place to be in. You got multiple, multiple exits.
I know. I loved that we didn't have to like make any big decisions right away. We didn't have to start rehabbing a house. I told her I'm not going to because she does have 5 dogs and she also has like 10 snakes and a monitor lizard or something. It is fucking ridiculous.
Oh, sometimes you step into people's worlds and you're like, wow. Yeah, I could have been so different.
You know, this, this property is in the canyon in Orange County. So, it's a little bit different culture out there than, you know, what we have over here. You know, with basically cookie-cutter houses and, you know, things like that. So, it's a little different. So, I can understand her having all these animals.
The neighbor behind has horses. The neighbor next door has alpacas.
Yeah, those are expensive. So you get a snake.
And the house is zoned for horses. So, you know, you could do a lot with it, but it's only a 5,500 square foot lot.
Oh, you have like a pony back there.
That's not that bad. I mean, the lots around here are maybe 6,500 around there.
But it's not like horse property, I guess. No.
But even the horses behind it, they don't have a lot of room. And then they even put in a pool. So that took half the horse space away.
Then you can ride it around out there.
Well, that's just it. People ride their horses on the trails, and you can get on the trails right there.
Is the road paved?
Um, actually, so she's right off the main road. And that one, no, it's like a little tiny connector. She's in like an alleyway, but it's not an alleyway.
That's what I'm looking for, a description of the area. And it's like, pretty It is.
It is.
It's pretty rural.
Yeah. But there's a steakhouse. There's a cantina, Mexican. There's a general store. I grew up with a general store half a block from my house in Wisconsin. So I think that's pretty cool.
That is cool. No, I love it down there.
And if you've never been to the steakhouse, you have to go. Yeah.
Oh, really?
It's been there forever.
Well, they changed it.
Mandatory dress code that you wear a tie when you go as well.
Yes, absolutely.
Is it really?
Yes.
Wow. Okay. Yes. Please wear a tie.
Oh, the lore behind the steakhouse down there is that if you wear a tie, they will cut it off and—
They hang it on the wall.
They hang it on the wall. So when you walk in, there's just like hundreds of ties. And my dad actually pranked his dad, my grandfather, when he was still alive and made him wear a tie to the restaurant and they cut it off. And my grandfather was pissed because it was like his favorite tie.
Of course.
All right. I'm glad I found out that it was Joe.
We took my son-in-law and did the same thing. We made him wear a tie because he's never in a tie, but we made him wear a tie and they did the same thing to him.
Yeah.
It's, if you're local, you know all that stuff.
But yeah.
Well, I feel like I'm a local now.
You are.
You absolutely are.
Because I own an exact part of Trabuco Canyon.
The Mexican restaurant is really good as well. So if you haven't eaten at there, at those 2 places, you need Yeah, stop by.
I'm a huge foodie. I'm totally going to go. And a couple months ago, we did the Holy Jim Falls hike.
Oh, cool.
Which is like the next little kind of canyon over. And that was beautiful. But getting there was ridiculous because it was down a gravel road with a lot of pits and people, I guess.
Off-road.
Off-road, exactly. And I mean, we were in our Subaru so we could manage, but it was bumpy.
Yeah, it gets pretty bumpy back there.
Yeah.
That's cool.
But it's cool.
So I mean, shit, we can even move in the house if we want to. There you go. We have so many options. We currently rent in Irvine and rents are very expensive there, but a lot cheaper than buying.
Right.
But I would love to find an Irvine property. That's something I'm on the lookout for.
There you go.
If you're looking to get rid of your place, please contact Madeline.
Mm-hmm.
She'll take it off your hands.
I mean, I see some foreclosures go up in Irvine sometimes, but I can never get ahold of those people.
It's a different language totally.
You know what?
I door knock.
Really?
Yes.
And what did they do? What is that experience? 'Cause I've door knocked there.
Okay.
Let's see if you had the same experience.
So, so far I have not had anyone answer the door, but I drop off letters. I had one guy respond back to me via text, And he was like, oh, I need to find, you know, $15,000 to pay off my credit card by Friday. That's like, apparently he thought that that's why his house was going into auction, which I found out later that that's not the case.
Right.
And then I was texting with him for a while and then he ended up, he said he got it figured out, but I was like, all right, I'll help you out. I wanna buy your condo if not. It's a really nice condo.
Yeah.
So I'm going to continue, you know, if it's right in my local neighborhood, I can pop by once a week or a couple times a week and drop off a note. And that's what I did.
Totally.
Yeah. Because I want, I want to get out and see people and meet them and see if I can help solve their problems.
So you, you took what I told you at coffee to heart. And got out there and actually started doing something, which is what I tell everybody. But, you know, they go back home and it's like, it's another day, it's raining out, you don't want to do that, you know. So good for you.
Yeah, thanks.
That's awesome.
I mean, I'm fortunate that I have a flexible job and I start really early because I work with the Europeans. So I start at like 6, 7 AM and then I'll get off at, let's say, I mean, off, right? I stop work around like 2 or 3, and then I can get an hour or 2 of calling in before I have to go pick up my daughter from preschool. And then on the weekends, I'll usually go driving and door knocking for a couple hours during nap time.
And—
If you have any more excuses, it's like, I don't want to hear them at this point.
No kidding.
That's crazy.
I know.
But it has been hard to focus on my day job because it's not as interesting and fun anymore, but it's paying the bills and the insurance.
I was going to say, focus on your day job too. That's paying the bills right now.
Well, I think, I mean, the transition obviously is going to be like, you know, kind of like a rubber band effect. You know what I mean? Because it's amazing that you had the cash reserves to be able to take down this deal.
Okay.
So absolutely.
Let's give props to the To the corporate job. And then as you're moving into the— to your new life, you know, like just wait as long as you can, I would say, so you have that income coming in.
Yeah, but you're right. You're right. I'm not making any sudden moves.
No, no, I think you're doing it perfectly. I mean, you're already setting yourself up and you'll know when the time is right.
You're right. Yeah, I've kind of given myself until the end of the year. Not that that's like a There we go. Fast rule. But yeah, if I can do, I don't know, a deal a month.
Yeah.
Wholesaling or—
I like that.
Yeah, working part-time.
Yeah.
Are you kidding?
And Alex is helping me automate my business. So I think, you know, I won't have to use as much time to make as many connections. The manual dialing, that is what I hate them all. So I really need to automate those types of things and the follow-ups, the texting and the emailing.
That's what I was going to say. You're already having success reaching people. It's like once you automate it, that's all working in the background. So then you can work on new leads, new contacts, especially if you're door knocking and make contact that way.
So far the door knocking has not proven successful, but I've only been doing it, you know, a couple weekends and—
Yeah.
Just haven't done it consistently.
What times and days are you door knocking?
Saturday and Sunday from like 1 to 4 or 5.
Saturday, it's too late. You need to do it in the morning. Sunday, it's actually a good time because people get home from church and lunch and everything. So, Maybe do Saturday mornings instead of afternoons.
True. Yeah. It's hard because I want to spend time with my 2-and-a-half-year-old daughter.
Wow, that's selfish.
Yeah, I know. So I try to work it around her schedule.
You're like, you're going—
she's like, I just got up. You're like, you're going to nap again. Okay, 9 to 11.
Yeah. And because I work all week.
Yeah, of course.
I want to spend time with her on the weekends and she has dance class. Yeah.
I mean, if you can leave notes, um, I mean, you could even try mailing them. I don't know. But I guess door knocking, you're physically there. There's no way they have to kind of turn you away at that point.
I do want to start doing some mailings, but just more like letters or personal notes.
Yeah.
And not just like mass mailings, but I saw you guys were doing one. So I'm excited to hear your results from it.
Yeah.
I got to show you. It's pretty funny looking. I've just, I made it really big. And then when you see it in person, it's just like ridiculous. So I don't know if that's going to work exactly, but maybe.
Trying something new.
Yeah, trying something new.
Yeah.
I love that.
Yeah. So yeah, I mean, I think you're doing it all. It's like you got to hit these people from every angle. There's no other way around it because they got their head in the sand.
And that's just it. My seller, she was paralyzed by the fear of, What comes next? I don't know. She was so overwhelmed. And I have to tell you, so Friday we talk and she— I send her the offer. I sent her a cash offer as well as my offer, which I didn't have, you know, $500,000, $600,000 cash to pay her. I would use an investor like Joe. And then the second offer was, well, this is what I can pay. I can pay your $100,000 off. I did have that liquid.
Yeah.
And then the rest are, you know, just kind of these other moving parts. I thought about doing like amortized payments for her equity or reducing her rent payment by that. And you know what? It was just too complicated. So I just streamlined it, made it a bit more simplified, sent her the paperwork. She said, I'm going to talk to my dad. He's a lawyer. He's going to go over these documents.
I love when they say that. Oops.
No, but he really is.
Yeah, I know.
I know.
For sure.
Is he non-practicing?
He's retired. He's 75.
Thank God.
Yeah.
And he's old school, so that's good.
So I send him the doc, or I sent her, and she's supposedly sending them on to her dad. And she keeps telling me, oh yes, he's aware. I'm telling him, you know, So Saturday morning comes along and I like gave her the deadline of Saturday. This is the day we have to sign because your auction is Wednesday and we have no time to figure this out. Like our escrow company was going to start drafting the documents over the weekend. They were kind enough to do that. So I wanted to give them, you know, some leeway on it. So all morning, no response from her. Finally, in the afternoon, I'm like, I can't deal with this. I'm going to end this. Like, good luck to you. This is stressing me out. I didn't sleep last night. And she finally texts me back and just says, I still need your help. I'm like, Okay.
It's like—
You gotta keep calling me. You know, you have to communicate. If you ghost me, then the deal is off. Well, she fucking ghosts me again.
Yeah, of course.
Yeah. Oh my God.
So then the next day, I'm like stressing about it. You know, I already told her it's done because now I'm pissed.
Yeah.
And then I decide I'm going out door knocking. And I'm like, okay, I'm going to drive by her place and I'm going to go knock on her damn door. And I did. And she came around and she's like, oh, my boyfriend's home. Meet me on the street.
Oh, okay.
I know, I know.
In the back alley.
Yeah. So I go over there and she's like, oh, I'm so glad. You caught me. I just got back from a hike with my daughter. Oh, sorry. Yesterday I was at a softball game all day. And I'm just like, wake the fuck up. What are you doing? Your house is going to be sold. Your daughter will be out on the street and you're just oblivious. So anyways, I kind of slapped some sense into her and said, okay, I'm on your team. But you got to follow through. Like, do you want to do this or not? And she said, no, I really need to. I need your help. You know, I appreciate you. You're an angel investor, she told me. That's what I was for her.
Nice.
I appreciated that comment. So I was like, let's call your dad right now. And she was like, oh no, we can't do that. You know, I'm like, You have to. This deal cannot be done. I mean, as it was, it was Sunday and her auction was on Wednesday. And Joe, you were like, oh, that's a little too close.
It is close.
But we had called the bank 3 times together. I called, I dialed the bank number and she talked and they verified, yes, if you pay this off before the auction date, we'll reinstate the loan. So I had that at least confirmed verbally from the bank 3 times.
Mm-hmm.
So I felt comfortable. So finally, oh, and I even pulled her dad's information. This is another interesting piece. Her dad owns a $3 million house in Orange County, and there's $2.5 million of equity in it. He would've gladly helped her, but he could not access it because his credit was screwed from—
Yeah, yeah.
He couldn't access it without selling his home because of her not paying her bills. So there were just like so many oddball pieces to this. So I was like, hey, I'm close by. I will stop by your dad's place. And I will go there and introduce myself. And she was like, no, don't do that. He will be very upset. And I'm like, okay, well, what do you want to do here?
Mm-hmm.
So she said, just give me a few more hours. Of course, she didn't respond all Sunday night. And then Monday morning, she said, okay, let's do this. My dad has the papers. He will meet us. And I said, okay, let's try it. I don't know if it's going to work, but I'm going to come over right now. And she did sign the papers. She did a walkthrough the house with me. And then we met her dad over at the escrow place, and he had just found out the night before. He knew that it was going into pre-foreclosure because he looked on Redfin. Oh my God. And he saw it there. But she didn't share any details.
Yeah.
And he did tell me, though, that if they would have foreclosed, he probably would have sued them because they never contacted him.
Doesn't matter.
Yeah.
Which escrow company were you using?
Corner Escrow.
Thank you.
Yeah.
Thank you.
And did you use Christy De La Torre?
Yes.
Christy was fabulous. I felt bad because I strung her along all weekend.
Yeah, she's easy.
And then she came in on Monday.
She's amazing.
On her day off and put this thing together within hours. And then guess what? I was traveling to Pittsburgh on a business trip. So I literally met them there and had to go straight to the airport.
Oh, that's fun.
It was so stressful. And then, and then during my whole trip, I'm like, is this gonna go through? Did we just send $100 grand into the wind?
For sure.
For 2 days. I was like, because, you know, they, they still had to confirm that they were stopping the auction. That's not like immediate. They didn't get the wire for like a day or 2. They didn't see it in their system.
Oh God, when they pull that stuff, they're like, we've figured out wires already. We've— that's a technology that's taken care of. There's no, we didn't get the wire anymore.
We paid for the same-day wire. You know, we did.
Yeah, you have to follow up. Yeah, if that teaches you anything, it's following up.
Oh, and we did. We did. Jenny was a good advocate. I, to this day, she is my partner. Yeah, we are partners in this deal.
Totally.
Because Jenny's the seller.
Jenny's the seller.
Okay, let me caution you.
Um, you're right.
Please do not fall in love with Oh, okay. It's like, you're gonna, you're gonna fall into that same trap that every investor does. Joe, I got my first house. I rented it out the other day. Then I talked to him a couple years later. How's it going? Did you raise the rent? Oh no, Joe, they're really nice people. You know, I don't want to raise the rent on them.
It's like, no, no, no. We have in our contract 2 years. At a discount, I understand. And then it's market rate. I understand our contract.
But no, don't worry. Please treat it as a business. No, for all of you out there, treat it as a business because you know here. Let me give you an example. One of my tenants called the other day, and none of them know that I own the property. I'm I'm the property manager, so that's how they know me.
Ah, okay, okay.
And so she calls me and she says, Joe, it's been like five years and. We haven't had new carpet and carpet's kind of getting bad. And I go, what do you want? And she goes, well, maybe you can ask the owner for new carpet. I said, okay, well, I'll ask them. So I went home and I looked in the mirror and I said, you know, they want new carpet. And the mirror answered me back and said, Joe, you know what to tell them. So yeah, so I went back and I go, hey, I've got good news and I've got bad news. What do you want first? Oh, the good news, Joe. He said, yeah, he said, fine, we're gonna put new carpet in. Well, what was the bad news, Joe? Your rent's going up by $300 a month. What would you like to do? Oh, Joe, I think the carpet's okay. We'll live with it like this.
Wow.
Yeah.
You're tough, man.
I'm not going to give anybody anything for free. As you were talking earlier, I don't trust anybody. No, nobody. I barely trust Alex.
Yeah.
You know, it's taking me a long time to weasel in here. Yeah. So in fact, I would rather talk to Lauren about a deal, the producer, than Alex, because Alex, I don't know that he knows the word no. It's, it's yes. Can we do this deal?
Yes, we can. We can do anything we put our minds to, people.
Yeah. Well, Lauren, Lauren, what do you think? Can we do this deal?
She's like, no.
Alex is just very optimistic, which is a good thing.
Not always. I found out not always. So you gotta just check your numbers twice.
All those guys, the creative investors, like they're buying stuff and doing deals where I'm like, I don't think I'd do that.
Right.
But good for you. That $5 million deal?
I know.
I mean, if you're looking for something, that's a great deal.
Yeah, I was looking at Lauren like, is there any way we could—
Yeah, but you know, $5 million, it was on the beach.
You only have to put $1 million down.
Yeah, you got that in your hip pocket, don't you?
Well, no, but I could find it somewhere.
I mean, I think at that house, like, Lana Del Rey would be our next-door neighbor, which is pretty crazy.
Who?
Famous singer.
Oh, I didn't hear.
She's the queen of Malibu.
Yeah.
But yeah, I don't know. It seemed cool.
I mean, they gave us a lot to think about, like how to do things.
Especially with the foreclosure stuff, right? Like where they said you could do a partial claim, put it on the back end. There's a bunch of tricks that I didn't know about.
Yeah, but you need time, right? That's the thing. Like with this deal, no, there was no time. I had 2 days.
Yeah. And that's where you're—
You've obviously been in contact with your new tenant.
Yeah.
Old seller. Has she asked you for anything yet? Okay, believe me, she's going to. I'm preparing you for this.
I already told her in the beginning, I'm not doing anything, any improvements, unless it's necessary, unless it's like a major fix, because it's my asset that I own now.
Right.
But she has 5 dogs and like 10 snakes and the house stinks like dog. No, I'm not doing any cosmetic work. Plus the beauty is her boyfriend and her daughter have no idea that the house was sold right from under them.
So what do they think? You're like her new best friend or something?
She just keeps everything very private.
She's like, yeah, but this is the insurance thing.
A home Yeah, during the day when everyone's at school.
Really?
Wow.
Yeah, she's very sneaky. So, you know, you can't trust her because she's been lying to me all week. I've been trying to get in front of her the past month because we had a couple more documents to sign. I needed a key to the house. And she just kept ghosting me, basically. And after, I think, almost 3 weeks, she responded, oh, sorry, I've been busy at work. I'm like, No, you have 2 minutes to text me back. And I've been trying to call her. So this week, this week I got serious though. And I was like, we have to get it done this month. This is the deadline. I've learned that she needs deadlines. You know, the auction, that was a deadline.
Yeah. And she'll wait till the 2 days before.
So I was able to go today and did the inspection.
So give us some good news. The first month her rent is due, did you get it?
Yes.
Oh, that's good.
She paid on time.
Nice. That's a good sign.
It is a good sign. And guess what? I have $200,000 of her equity as a guarantee. And it's in the contract that if she doesn't pay or if she messes up the house, Further. Like, of course, I'm not gonna charge her for things that have already been done to the house. Like, it's fine. It's like some dog chewed, you know, baseboards and whatnot. But, but that is my guarantee. And her dad also told me, if she doesn't pay the rent or you don't get ahold of her, let me know.
Oh, you get to tell on Dad.
And I actually did this week. And he was like, yeah, I've been trying to talk to her for 2 weeks. And she hasn't responded. So I think she was— she's, she's a day drinker. I think she was kind of on a little bender.
Yeah.
Walking through the hills.
Wow. What a deal. I mean, yeah, this is so fun. Any more moving parts on this deal? It's like amazing.
I want one of these now again.
I know.
Me too.
You want it at the beach?
Yes.
Oh yeah.
Not the Trabuco Canyon. No, I mean, whatever.
I just want the The thrill of the—
I could maybe trade the ocean for a Shetland pony.
Okay.
Just saying.
Really? There's news to me.
That would be so bad.
Yeah.
I'd be like, I gotta go home and feed the pony.
What do you do with a Shetland pony? It's like you can't ride them.
No, it's for Instagram only.
Well, aren't you guys like used to farm animals now with your recent deal where they had a pig in the garage?
Exactly.
Yeah.
We were gonna have a barbecue and producer would not let me have a barbecue. So, but the, but the pig went back to their family in the RV. So it was a good, good ending to that story.
It's a happy ending. They took care of the pig.
They did. Yes, they did.
Oh, it's hilarious. I looked at the, um, you know when you see the street view for properties? Um, so the newest updated street view is the RV in front of the house.
Oh, is it? Oh my gosh.
So they parked their RV after we got them out. They parked their RV for like 2 months outside of the house and we're like, no, this, this counts as you guys still living here. And they were like using our, or using the electricity and all that stuff. So now the updated Street View is just this giant RV in front of the house.
How did you end up finally getting them out?
We just had to evict them. Yeah, we evicted them.
The sheriff came. He was a little disappointing, honestly, because he came and said, okay, you guys get out of the house. They got out of the house, but they literally moved into the mobile home that they had parked in front of the house. And then they stayed there, like he said, for a long period of time. The pig— the sheriff said, I'm not doing anything with the pig. I can't—
what?
I can't evict the pig. So the pig was there for, what, another week or so?
Mm-hmm.
Yeah, we had locked them out of the house. At least tried, but at the most we can. But, um, yeah, but I mean, it all ended up well.
But the finished product was beautiful. I saw the listing this week. Congratulations, all of you guys.
Thank you.
And I did ask my brother-in-law, who's very well connected in like the Sober Living rehab world.
Nice.
And he was going to reach out to a rehab center that he knows of in the area.
Cool.
But I guess the rest of them, so they're contracted and licensed with the state, but the rest of the Sober Livings are not. So those ones are a little tougher to find.
Oh, sure.
If you're looking for—
Right.
Those types of properties.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. It's kind of— it's a weird setup, but I mean, people like it. Um, it's just a matter of the right offer coming through.
Yeah, cool.
Well, we've been getting offers, so that's great. It's just up to these two.
Do we have some videos?
We do.
We got some videos. All right, so take a look at these and let us know what you think.
So speaking of squatters, she took all my paperwork and everybody else know it.
If I left my house, say, for a month and a half, and a half, uh, you think you would be entitled to move in there?
Well, take my stuff?
Well, it's a lot of, um, I'm not the only one that is squatting. It's a lot of other people on the block, if you want to be technical, you know, and a lot of people encourage But she wants her place back. Yeah, but I have put a lot of work in here and I spent a lot of money. I am on a fixed income.
Is that power hooked up legit there?
Um, my power is—
That's not legit.
It's not legit.
No, you, you stealing a little bit of power. I am blessed. It's so good.
I love that lady. I'm not gonna lie, I love that lady.
She's like a career squatter.
Well, yeah, that's the thing. It's like, I mean, I looked at the video. This is from like 9 years ago, but, um, I think—
I love his bathrobe. Yeah, he's just making himself at home too.
But I mean, people are becoming more and more privy to the laws and, you know, how to get into these houses and stay there and But the mentality is like, she's like, well, the lady wants her house back. She's like, well, I put a lot of money in here. It's like, that's not your house.
I mean.
I just don't understand how the laws are on the squatter's side. I read an article about some like serious, like aggro squatters who would like come and rent and then they would like torture and, you know, terrify the people they were living with. It took a year or 2 to get them out. Maybe they even were violent against them. And it still took a year or 2 or longer to get them out. And there was this one guy in particular in New York who was a serial squatter, but he was a violent one.
Yeah, because I mean, what are you going to do? You're not going to stand up to those people. It's like, And the laws are just too slow. That's, that's the part. But I think they're starting to change that to where there's actual ramifications.
Florida just changed, so there's no such thing as a squatter in Florida anymore. If you're, if you're in a house and you don't own it or have a lease, and you're a valid lease because they make up their own, um, they'll take you out.
Not literally, but I was like, oh wow, that's hard.
Literally.
But California is so lenient.
Yeah.
I mean, I was living in Oakland for 3 years before this.
Sorry.
Let me talk about lenient.
Oh, yeah.
Like, people just popped up tents wherever they wanted. I'm sure squatting is a huge issue up there. And California is so lenient. They're not just going to kick people out on the street, you know?
Yeah. No, they just want another billion dollars to throw at the problem. Not solve it. That's what they want. That's what they got, actually, with the last proposition.
Wasn't that a couple billion? Like five?
It's good money, though. Imagine that. You just take scrape a little off the top.
It depends who you know. Yeah.
You start making up titles. Oh, you want like three hundred grand a year to be the homeless counselor?
The homeless czar. Yeah.
It's like. I mean, it works.
I read that the mayor, I think, of LA, she did get Venice Beach cleaned up. Like, she was successful at that. Was it Venice or Santa Monica?
Oh, I haven't seen that yet.
I haven't heard it. And Venice has always been that type of attraction.
Yeah, but you had your happy homeless. This is what I liked. A guy would learn a skill or like he would be able to juggle something. Like when I was on tour, it was like guys would come up and they'd be like, yo, you guys, I wrote a poem. And like he'd start strumming a guitar and like having a poem or he made flowers out of something. We're like, that's cool. Here's some money. Now it's just like demanding and—
Yeah. You dress like a tree and you've, you know, you're like stiff. Somebody walks by and, you know.
Yeah.
That's what San Francisco used to be. Yeah, it's like yeah, like a little kind of like now battle of the bands with like the homeless people.
Now they hit you over the head.
Yeah, exactly.
Here's your money.
Yeah, it's gotten a little kind of crazy.
Yeah, really good.
That's why we left Oakland. Yeah, it was not good.
Yeah, it's kind of scary.
All right, you guys ready for the new proposed capital gain?
Oh yeah. So this is a little just a little tweet from. SMB attorney, what do you think about increasing capital gains tax this much? So he's got some pros and cons. The pros are increased tax revenue, decreased income inequality. Are those pros?
Sure.
Okay.
Yeah, absolutely.
Okay, good.
If you—
And it shows 44%.
No.
44% capital gains.
Yeah.
44% capital gains. And they're also proposing an unrealized gains tax as well. So for example, if your home value goes up, you would have to pay more taxes on your home value, even though you didn't financially benefit from it.
Because we trust them to spend the money we send them. That's why. That's, that's, that's a pro.
How does this, how does this look for investors? I mean, all of us deal with capital gains as far as flipping. Um, and then unrealized gains, it like, is that going to totally short the value of real estate?
Yeah, that's a good question.
Yeah. Yes.
Cons: investors hesitant to realize gains, investors discouraged from deploying capital, particularly in small business. Uh, it's, it actually sounds like the current administration.
Mm-hmm.
Increased tax avoidance strategies.
That's where I'm going to live right there.
That's where I want to live.
That's going to be my whole life is this.
Decreased foreign investment in the US. Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I don't know if they're investing much in New York right now.
Yeah.
You know, after what they're doing, it's like, why would you? I know. It's crazy.
Yeah. I mean, if you make a pros and cons list, there's a lot more cons than pros. Seems like.
There's no point.
Has it gone through or that's just a thing they're talking about?
No, it's just, they're just talking.
It's just proposed.
Well, good news is most of the people making the decisions are wealthy and guess what? They don't want to be taxed.
That's true.
These capital gains taxes.
Yeah, yeah, really. Somehow they'll get around it, but I guess you just do the same things they do. You have like these crazy trusts and no, I don't own anything. All that stuff.
That's what I want to do too.
Yeah.
This year I'm getting a new CPA that'll help us to strategize on how to have tax savings now that we have the business.
Yeah.
And a lot of expenses that go along with it.
Absolutely.
So we can capitalize on that.
Yeah.
Yep.
You may just have to buy extra cars is what I found out.
That's what I heard too, but that just seems dumb.
It's like, You gotta do it.
I'd rather have like 6 new cars.
Yeah, okay, okay, let's move on.
How to talk to foreclosures.
What are you gonna do? I think you told me you're just gonna let the bank take it, which I don't want that to happen, but what are you gonna do if you don't— you're not able to sell it for what you want?
Basically, the house will go into foreclosure. I mean, it's a pre-foreclosure right now because I haven't gotten any, right, letters stating anything of that sort. But coming back from vacation, I went and got Phillip's mail, and there's almost $3,000 in taxes due. So it's like even more money.
No, it's got a $3,000 tax lien on it too. So you'd have to catch up the, the grant, the solar, $12K behind, and $3,000 in taxes.
Well, yeah, he has to come up with, which we don't have. I'm rounding off, but It's a little under $3,000, but yeah, that— those are due November 30th.
We've been kind of reaching out to the, the top buyers in, in Utah trying to figure out what's the best offer I can get you and trying to help you get your house sold. What are you gonna do?
Okay.
I mean, it sounds like a pretty good deal. $3,000?
Yeah, I know. Out here, that means $300,000.
You're the new expert, so how do you solve that?
I think so. Well, I also listened to one of your call recordings with a seller and they had a solar package and I didn't really know much about that before I listened to your call. And yeah, so I mean, I guess it's kind of a subject-to thing, right?
Well, we tried to, and that's a little bit harder because it's more of an assumable thing. So they have to get approved and they told us it was going to take like a couple months and we were trying to close in a couple weeks.
We could have done subject to on it. The buyer was not comfortable with that.
That's what it was.
Yes.
Thanks for reminding me.
And it depends on the type of solar because you have leased solar and then this was owned solar. It was just financed.
So, and by the way, that interest rate was ridiculous. Wasn't it like 8%?
Yeah, I think it was something really high. It's just because it was on a small amount that the payments were still like $200.
Okay.
So I don't know if you heard the same thing I heard. Did you hear something that, uh, the seller was saying?
No.
I just got back from vacation. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, excuse me. You're on vacation. That means you have money to pay this. It's like, hello.
Yeah.
Instead of taking that $3,000 vacation, you gotta Put that in there.
She's like, I don't know what we're gonna do. And pack the bags, honey.
And okay, my seller, she didn't pay her mortgage for years. Oh yeah, uh, you should be super wealthy.
Yeah, no, no, not at all. Yeah, no. What do we have next?
All right, this is the last one. Prices don't matter.
For me as the investor, I don't really look at price when it comes to pre-foreclosures. I look at how can I help this person that's in need regardless of price. And I think when you have that, and it took a while to, you know, overcome that fear of, oh gosh, I don't know, that's like an expensive house, you know. Look, they may live in an expensive house, but you have the knowledge to correct it and they don't. And to me, that's the home run. That's way more valuable than the house that they live in. Is knowing how to save that situation, and they don't. The first thing they'll do is contact an attorney. Oh, and the attorney—the very first thing they tell them is, "Oh, file bankruptcy! File bankruptcy!" And I'm like, "Good lordy! These people are just getting suckered into this stuff. It's absolutely crazy. They're not looking for help; they're just looking for another problem. But they don't understand that that's worth." Millions of dollars to people.
For me, as okay, interesting take.
Yeah, I mean, I think price is a big factor in this equation. Hello. Hello. Your knowledge. I mean, look, big heart.
Okay, but I don't think this guy's doing any deals.
He might be. Why? What do you mean? Knowledge is worth trillion dollars.
He is.
He's not making any money if he's doing any deals. Yeah.
That's crazy.
Yeah, I think it was just a hot take, but yeah.
Oh, I'm such a good guy. I don't care about the price. You know, I'm here to help you, whatever it is. And I have the knowledge.
Yeah.
To help you. That's worth millions.
Yeah.
Maybe he was saying like, don't be intimidated by the more expensive homes in foreclosure, like approaching them because you got the knowledge. You got the knowledge and that's worth something. That's maybe worth giving up some of this It's equity you're going to lose anyways to get help. I don't know.
Oh, I'm a nice guy. I can help you.
It's a home run.
I just don't understand how people think that going into foreclosure is their best option. There are so many options out there.
Yeah, well, that's the part. I mean, that is one thing he hit on is they just don't know. They go, I'm going to go to an attorney. And then like the attorney's like, okay, I'll take $5,000. And then that's it. And then you're like, what do we do? Yeah, file the bankruptcy, or they're going to talk to the lender for you. That's about it.
And then what happens? It just gets postponed for a couple months?
Be careful. You know what her husband does.
No, no, I love attorneys. Honestly, some of my best friends are attorneys, so I absolutely love them. But I'm just saying, in these cases, people don't know what to do, and that seems like the most logical person to go to. They got to get their retainer. That's how the biz works.
And then it'd be nice if we got paid. Because he says our knowledge is worth millions of dollars, right? So yeah, I think we should get paid too. Yeah, up front, whether the deal goes through or not, because the attorneys are the same way. Exactly. You know, they file bankruptcy, 30 days later the bank pulls it out of bankruptcy and forecloses on them. Well, You know, what did they end up with? A $5,000 attorney bill. That's it. Yeah, I think we should get paid.
But I— the few sellers that do respond back to me, half of them do say that they've hired an attorney. So it's good advice to keep them on the list. Oh yeah, because after a couple months, yeah, they might be back on the list.
And yeah, I talked to a guy and he was like, yeah, I got the attorney. And he's like, I just never heard from him after I paid him. And he's like, I ended up having to call the lender and all this stuff. And he's like, he literally did nothing for me.
Yeah. When I was door knocking, uh, people would answer and I, they'd go, oh, I, I hired an attorney. I go, okay, when's the last time you spoke with your attorney? Oh, it's a couple of months ago. Do you know that your house is going to go for sale Tuesday? Oh my gosh. Okay. Oh, I didn't know that. Or another good one, I hired a real estate agent. Oh, okay. When's the last time you talked to your real estate agent? Yeah. Did he call and tell you your house is going to foreclosure sale 2 days?
Wow.
No, no. So yeah. And it used to be when the world fell apart in 2008, We went through a period of time where real estate agents were actually being very greedy and they were doing short sales and they were taking an upfront commission, whether the property, property closed or not.
Oh yes. Good.
And finally the state said, no, no more. You cannot do that. You cannot do that no more. Where are all these loopholes now? Because they're taking advantage of I did. I was doing probably 15 to 20 short sales a month back then. I never charged my client a dime. Never. I thought, oh my gosh, you're like in a world of hurt. Why would I charge you for this? You know?
I mean, you get your commission when it sells.
Yes, absolutely. Yeah. No, I wasn't doing it for free.
Okay.
You know, but that commission was also paid by the bank, right? Paid by them. Yeah. So yeah. That's a question they used to ask me. It's like, because I told them, I said, I'm not going to charge you anything. And they go, well, why are you doing this? Well, because at the end of the day, if I put this deal together, the bank's going to pay me my commission. Oh, okay. Come on in. Come on in. Let's talk.
Do you still do short sales?
No, there's not very many of them out there right now. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, you know, I think every investor is wishing we'd go back to 2008, I don't see that happening.
Okay. You know, missed it. Freaking missed it.
I had to sell my own home in a short sale. Oh, 2009. Yeah. Sorry. Yeah, I know. I think now, oh man, I should have figured out how to hold on to that house. Yeah. But I bought in 2007 at the height of the market, and then unfortunately Yeah, I was— Due to circumstances, had to sell it.
Yeah, I was doing 10 to 15 a month back then, and it was taking the banks 7 to 8 months. How long was yours before you actually closed the deal?
From— I think it was only a couple of months.
Really?
Yeah.
Yeah, I don't recall it being that long. Out here, I mean, this is California, so we had like 10 times 20 times the amount that everybody else had in the United States. So it was taking 7, 8 months. And I had a client, I was sitting down with him and he goes, Joe, can you postpone this like for a year or 2? Can it take that long? I go, no, it takes as long as it takes. Usually— I was telling him 6 to 7 months at the time. Oh, well, if you can let me stay in here longer, that would be okay with me. I go, okay, I'll try to do my best.
There you go. Nice.
Yeah, yeah. I just came across a property today that is on the MLS. They just dropped the price. It's probably way too expensive. It was for sale for like $3 million. But the auction is on the 16th. So I'm wondering, how would you handle that? Like, would you make an offer? I mean, it's, it's a very high price. $3 million is probably not—
But your knowledge is worth $6 million. Just remember that.
Well, I mean, what's the loan amount that's foreclosing?
I think it's like $1 million.
Oh yeah, that's, that's a big spread.
Exactly.
There should be a major motivation from that seller to get this done. So if they want three, I'd offer two.
Okay. Yeah, absolutely. And subject to.
If possible, that would be nice.
You may have to reach out to the seller.
Subject to seller financing. Not the agent. Yeah. Now is that illegal to circumvent?
No. Okay. Not if you if you're not an agent, which I know you're not. I'm not. Then it's not illegal. Okay, cool. That's That's why we sit— One pro for the non-agent. Yeah, we sit gallucks on all of them. Yeah, I can't do that and producer. We're both agents and that would be unethical, so we don't do that.
You know, my husband and I have talked about whether or not one of us should get our license, and I am an advocate for him getting it because I'm more the people person. He's like the finance guy.
He's the student. He apparently likes going to get all these degrees.
He does. 3 advanced degrees.
Man, I got bored after getting my AA. I said, I ain't going to go back to do anything else.
No. And now he wants to go to veterinarian school.
Oh.
That would be his dream. And I said, hell no. We just paid off like $500,000 of student loans. A couple years ago. Let's see, I guess it was probably six years ago.
You mean it wasn't forgiven? No. Oh wow! Okay, we're not going to go back to politics. Yeah, yeah, yeah. We'll stay away from that.
So who do we have? You already know who's up first.
We got Liz in the chat.
You know what I was thinking today? We should have Liz as a guest. Yeah, yeah. Should when she's like she can teach people how she stalks people. Exactly. Who is Liz?
The chat. It's my cousin. Oh, she's in every single one of my live streams.
That's so nice.
You have a fan base.
Yeah, exactly. That's so nice.
She says, hi, how is everyone doing? She changed it up today.
Doing well.
Wow.
Yeah.
We're doing really good.
We got Grant Walker in the chat. He says, sup fellas?
Oh.
And then replying to Madeline, he said, damn, dad dropping the bomb.
Yeah.
Get to call in dad for reinforcements. On your deal.
Okay. Yeah. Yep.
Yep. But you know, no, not your dad. I think Jenny's dad is. Yeah.
I think that dad.
I thought you meant Cameron. Yeah.
He's a dad too. Grant, Dad, that's what dads are there for. You know? So obviously he put his name on the loan to begin with. You know? So yeah, call me and I'll try to do something with her. But I don't know if he can.
We've been trying for years.
Yeah, I don't know if he can, but he's a dad. So that's, that's part of his job description, you know? So.
And then we've got Stefty in the chat and she says, Joe, can I get some new carpet?
You know the answer.
Is she one of your tenants?
You can't.
You know the answer.
No, she's not one of my new tenants. But, uh, yeah, you know the answer. If, uh, I can raise the rent up by $3,000— I'm sorry, $300. That'll pay for the cost of the carpet, which is about $3,000 a year. So I'll be back positive cash flow in less than a year. Great.
It's all math.
No, it's all math. You know, nothing wrong with that. It's all math. You can't— I mean, the only, the only people that expect something for nothing— um, oh, we're back to politics. No.
Yeah, don't, don't. I was like, where is this going right now? Maybe we should Sign off here. Yeah, I think we're getting to the end. Madeline, how can people reach out to you if they have deals, if they have foreclosures or subject tos?
Yeah, subject tos would be amazing. I'm all about them. My email address is Madeline, M-A-D-E-L-E-I-N-E, at redhomes.org. .org, not .com. Nice, cool. Thank you. Yep, finally got my business email. Okay. My website is hopefully launching next week. Amazing.
Heck yeah. Very cool.
I'm very excited.
Well, and you guys, if you have a deal that you need to get through the finish line, Madeline will get it there. I promise you that.
Sure. Yeah. Let me know. And I'll probably also need the help of Joe and Alex too.
Either way, we're going to get it done. So that's great. Well, I appreciate you so much for coming.
Thanks for having me. This was really fun.
Yeah. You're not nervous anymore, right?
No, I'm not.
Okay. Yeah. I told you it's going to be very easy. It's like, you know, Alex is the bad cop. I'm the good cop. Exactly. You did good. You did really good.
Really good job.
Yeah, no, you guys asked great questions. Hopefully I described the deal appropriately.
Oh yeah, you did.
Yes, perfect.
And come to the meetups. They're super fun, informative. The guests are always amazing. You guys do a great job. Thank you.
Thanks a lot.
So I do my best to make it, even though it's not always easy, but It's very worthwhile.
Love that. Thank you.
Very cool. All right, you guys, we'll be back next Thursday with Travis Hall, and, uh, we'll see you guys then.
See you later.
