EP 590 – Thrive, Survive, And Recover In Chaotic Credit Times With Merrill Chandler

This is the no Closer show where you get the latest developments in distressed note investing and learn the secrets of how you can control millions of dollars worth of property for pennies on the dollar. Get educated and entertained by someone who has closed thousands of deals and lives to support you in achieving the same. Now here's your host, CEO of We Close Notes, Scott Carson.

Hi, this is Merrill Chandler. On this episode of the Note Closers show, we're going to be talking about the three fundamental principles of survive, thrive and recover from this pandemic and the mess that's coming as a result. Do not miss this show.

Good morning, good afternoon, good evening everybody. Welcome to this episode of the Note Closure Show. As always, Scott Carson. Excited to be here with you today. Whether you're watching this, listening to us, catching us live, catching us a replay or listening to your car, well, maybe you're just sitting in the driveway of your car because you're not really driving anywh, probably not at the gym. You're maybe outside like running around your block a little bit like I like to do. But we're honored to have you guys listening to this episode and I will tell you this is probably going to be one of the most valuable episodes that you're going to listen to because we've got our awesome return guest, Mr. Merrill Chandler joining us here again this month. And we're going to discuss something today that I think many of you are going to be interested in. We're going to be discussing the three pillars of pandemic pivoting to make sure you're profitable. Throw another P in there if I can think of profitable pivot to find funding piece, maybe, who knows. But as always, glad to have you here from the getfundable.com and the Get Fundable podcast, our buddy Merrill Chandler. What's going on today, Merrill?

Hey Scott. I'm so happy to be here. And there are at least seven Ps in a row, right? That's the pandemic profitability and the pillars to make sure that you don't pause in your potential program and prosper profit. Awesome. Yeah, glad to be here. So yeah, love it. Love your listeners. And we got some great things to talk about today. Oh my. We are pivoting like mad, people. I'm on my third of a four week sprint that where we're just reshaping and retargeting all of the vast amounts of tech, our FICO relationships, the coaching we are receiving and how we can prepare our listeners, your listeners, real estate investors, entrepreneurs, how we can prepare them to, to literally slingshot their way through and after this kind of oncoming recession. Right. So thrilled to be here.

Well, you just wrapped up, you just had a class this last weekend. I think you're probably our largest online class so far and got some new things that we'll talk about later on. But let's dive into those three pillars that we were talking about beforehand because that's the biggest thing. I think so many people out there are coming from a spot of fear, of panic, I guess you could say here, not knowing where to go, what to do. You know, they've been laid off from work, they, or they're cut back, furloughed, or their hours been dramatically reduced as they're online or working from home and, or one spouse is not working and they're trying to cover everything up here. So why don't we dive into that first and foremost, huh, Meryl?

Yeah. So the three pillars are, is thrive. How do you thrive? Because some people are prepared. Some people are in a position, either cash position, liquid asset position. They learned from previous recessions, including and especially 2008, they learned what it needs to take to thrive. Right. And so even though this may be bigger than 2008, this reset we're going through, none of us knew, none of us thought for a second that it would be, that it would be started or that it would be precipitated by a health pandemic. Right. We all knew there was a real estate reset, but we didn't know it was going to be a complete recasting of the marketplace based on a health pandemic. Right. So how to thrive, what are the strategies to literally be able to be ready to acquire the business credit lines, acquire the business credit so that you can take advantage of the things that are going to be available here, whether it's 6 months, 12 months, 24 months, it is coming. We are going to be able to acquire more assets. So thrive, some of us may not be quite at the thrive category. We're looking to just survive. Like you said, the people have been furloughed. There is a new number out today that 50% of folks who have three person households that make about $37,000 a year, 50% of them have or know someone who has been laid off. That is huge. Right. And so that's not going to take, it's not a V recovery. It's going to be more like an L recovery. Right. And so how do we survive? How do we protect our credit even if we've been laid up. What are the ways that we can do to take care of our families and our loved ones and protect the greatest asset we have, which is our financial relationships with lenders, our financial reputation. And then the third is for those, those of us who aren't quite able to even survive. And we're kind of sliding down the slippery slope. But we're ready to go late, we're ready to have a 30 day lates and collections and those things are coming at us. And there are a certain number of people where it is true, the twelve hundred dollars we got from the kind of the piecemeal distribution, that 1200 bucks is not going to pay our mortgage or our rent or our car payments for more than a month. Right? So if that. So we want to be able to recover, how do we do a soft landing? How do we establish ourselves in a position where we can have a soft landing and still maintain a relationship with our lenders that we can recover quickly after we get back employed, after we get back on our feet? How do we minimize the negative impact? So it's thrive, survive or recover quickly? Those are the three pillars and I'm on a mission. We are this, we're just bright broadcasting this everywhere we can because we all fit in at least one of those categories.

So let's dive into the survive category first before we get talked about. I think so many people realize, yes, we're gonna see non performing. I mean, I'm already getting bombarded from banks and lenders asking me if I want to buy their performing stuff right now at a bit of discount. I'm like.

We'Re not even started this process yet.

Exactly like, hey, are you buying? You want to buy our stuff? I'm like, no, you still want too much for it. I need a little bit more. But just because I haven't gotten a haircut in a month doesn't mean you don't deserve a haircut. Right, but not quite a buzz cut. But let's talk about that survive aspect. What are the big things for our listeners out there that are laid off, they don't have the money coming in. What are the things that they should be doing?

All right, first thing we want to know is that your behavior is being measured by the borrowers. If you've listened to any of my podcast, Scott's podcast, we've talked about borrower behaviors, right? And so your behaviors include paid as agreed, paying on time, things like that. If you're going late, not even 30 days late, you're not delinquent Yet. But if you're trying to scrap together the money, family and friends are helping whatever's going on. If you're a day late, two days, three days late, they're able to measure that there is something not, it's not all right in River City, right? So they're measuring this. So just know that your lenders know where you are. So the first and most important thing in survive mode is communicate. The problem with communicating with your lender is that the hold times are unbearably long. So start a game of chess or monopoly. A game of Scrabble is not long enough. Start a game of chess or monopoly and get on the phones and talk to them. The key is to get your notes, get your situation into the notes. You want to tell them this is what's happening, I've been laid off. I want to do right by you. Communicate that you want to honor and respect the money they have lent you, whether it's a mortgage, an auto loan, a student loan. We'll talk about the types of loans that have exceptions, your credit card payments. You want to establish a documented relationship that you are consciously aware. Because the way this system works is if you're just letting it, if you're just letting your 30 day late, 60, 90 collections and all that stuff, then you're going to be part of the machine. If you are in the risk department, if you are communicating with your lenders, you're going to be likely, you're going to be special cased, you're going to be where there is more consideration and more options will be available to you than those who are just letting something die a slow and painful death. So when it comes to survival mode, let's talk about student loans. Student loans have been given a moratorium both on interest being charged and on being able to until September 2020. So no payments are due on student loans and no additional interest is being charged. I believe it was from March onward. Now, part of your survive, if you have the resources and you can still make some of these payments, it's a great time to. And again, it requires communication, but you can actually call and lower. Some of you have student loans where the interest is above the original loan amount. Right. Because it's been a deferment or whatever, you can use money to pay down. Use this time period to actually pay down some of the interesting. Get it under that hundred percent loan amount because that's counting against you as well. So that's a wonderful, wonderful survive because you're sending a message to the lender hey, we're not charging them anything and they're making payments to put their house in order in their relationship with us. And let's go to auto loans. Auto loans are coming out. I mean, they're fire sailing these 0% interest has always been a thing, but they're actually, it appears in everything that I'm looking at, it appears that they're even lowering the standard for 0%. So instead of a 740, it's a 720 or a 710 credit score. In order to get the 0% financing, go to my bootcamp to learn how to actually make sure that you're not being taken advantage of because they're fire sailing these cars. What they're counting on is making money on the back end because you don't know this game and they're going to make a crapload of money off of you by the type of approval they give you. There's a whole thing about this. So if you're surviving, if you need to buy a car, if that's part of your game plan, then you guys, you've got to go to getfundablebootcamp.com and register for the bootcamp. There's one nearly every month. But you need to learn how to save money on the financing. Not just save money because they're giving the damn cars away. So that's part of your survive. Some lenders are allowing the forbearance of loans, auto loans or otherwise. Now, this is where the kind of the path diverges. You got to know which one you're going to look at. Number one, if you do not have to use a forbearance or a payment deferment, you're going to strike much higher on their fundability charts. With coming out of the recession, you're literally going to have more opportunities later because you had their back during the times of stress and pressure. Think of it. Every one of us have relationships. Every one of us. We know that when our spouse, our partner, a business is under stress, that's when we're the worst human beings, right? Generally speaking, we're horrible when and the greater the stress, the more aggravated we can be. Well, the bottom line is, is lenders are measuring this behavior. And if you show up, you have their back. Remember, they gave you money. That isn't some institutional thing. They're measuring the quality of your relationship with them. If you have their back, if you treat their money with deference and respect and you don't need to take advantage of the moratorium to survive. Don't do it or wait as long as you can to do it. It's not going to go away for a minute and everybody may get six months. Whether that six months is now or later. I would defer. Your survival strategy is to defer for as long as possible or to wait as long as possible to take advantage of those programs. They are not going to go away. But the longer you can wait, the more you're showing your lender that you guys are partners and you're in this together. And I'm telling you that may sound like, may sound strange to something as, as impersonal as Chase or Wells Fargo or whatever, but the algorithm that is measuring your behavior is not impersonal. It is dialed to the nth degree about how you are showing up in this relationship. So if you can avoid the mortgage deferral or the loan deferral or any of those things, do it for as long as you can. Now, part of survival is keeping food, keeping a roof over our head and money in our pocket. So to take care of the needs of our family and our loved ones. So do execute on these offered strategies if you need to. But. And only you can know when that's going to be and when to use that. But your survival strategy is based. Survival now is thrival. Yes, I just invented that word is being able to thrive later or next. So choose wisely on how to do this. And remember, wherever you can pay by the due date and time that the thing that your credit card, your car loan, your mortgage is due, pay it by the due date and time because that will continue to show that you're on it, you're on it, you're on it even if the world is falling apart around you. Now having said that, I also know people who went who to pay their mortgage to keep their credit good to all those things. They gutted their IRAs, they gutted their retirement plans in 2008 and they were left to destitute. I'm not saying do that. What I'm saying is come to the boot camp and find out how to navigate these waters. I've been through, I've been through this. My third big recession. I'm not even counting the dot com crisis. That's just a oops in the market. Find out how to navigate these waters because the more you protect your relationship now with your lenders, the more they're going to lend to you when we come out of this. And just like Scott was saying, they're already fire sailing properties guys and papers and notes get in a position to take advantage of this. That was a long answer to a very short question.

Well, but you covered a lot. Defer the deferment as long as you can. And forbearance are great, but deferments, that's the thing. People need to know that, hey, deferments just means that you don't have to pay for 90 days, but when you do go back in like 90 days, you got to pay the full 90 days pounds versus a forbearance agreement total. Different philosophy.

Correct. And make sure because some of the big banks have advertised. Oh yes, it's gonna be. It'll say current or paid as agreed. Right. I'm gonna give you that. In fact, the fair debt collection practices. No, I'm sorry, the Federal Consumer Protection Bureau. Thank you very much. FP cbc. Yes, the Federal Consumer Protection Bureau literally suspended the law. Just so you know, most people don't even know. They think it's just the bureau's doing their thing. There is a law that states that you have to report the activity and then you can navigate or negotiate to have an item removed or whatever, but they're supposed to report the activity. So that's lots. It can't be just will o' the wisp. Oh, I think I'm going to report these guys. So they suspended that. They suspended that regulation so that the bureau's wouldn't be breaking a law to not report the truth that you missed a payment. And it's not technically paid as agreed. So all that had to happen in the background for us to be able to get these deferments or these renegotiations. Now the other thing is be careful, be very careful that your bank has in writing that if you take advantage of a deferment or a moratorium on the payment, is interest still accruing or and is the payment just added in the background? Because that's what most of them are doing. Whereas the student loans is no charges on interest and no payments and none will be added to the back. Right. So make sure what the terms are of your deferral or your moratorium. And then once you know what you're talking about, make sure it has in writing that it's paid as agreed or current. I put a slash in there because different bureaus report differently. So is it, will it say paid as agreed or will it say current? If they're willing to do that, then it's safe. Way back I was talking about before they started announcing that I was the guy yelling, make sure you know what the rules of engagement are so that they don't say, yeah, don't pay and you get a 30 day late. So it's been very, been efficient. They've been awesome. The banks are being very, very proactive because they don't want another 2008. They closed down the markets. They stopped lending for like nearly 16 months. They just stopped lending. They don't make any money. We need to keep this partnership going. Borrowers and lenders.

So I was, I used to be a banker for JPMorgan Chase. Most people might know that or don't know that before I was a mortgage banker on my own and I was a banker from Chase for three years. Did really well, top banker in all of Texas, actually big state. But I still friends with the regional vice president or the Texas manager, the guy that managed all of Texas in 2008 and nine or you said 18 months there. They did not approve a single commercial loan or commercial line of credit during those 18 months in all of Texas to anybody because they were like, we're going to hunker down. Now going back to Chase, Jamie Dimon, big honcho over there, says he expects to see the next year or two to be very similar like it was in 2008, 9 and 10. Not only with the unemployment losses, but some of the defaults that we're seeing and are expecting to see as well out there. So you need guys to be heeding this advice that Meryl is giving you because it's very valuable. We're going to do an episode here recently. Hey, it's 2008 all over again. What would I do if I go back and do things differently?

Well, hey, I would now have that exact opportunity to do it differently. Guys, be positioned. We were able to help so many clients to be able to thrive or to break even. When I say break even, just no credit loss, no credit gain, but just stay alive, right? Keep their current status. And there are formulas, guys, to how the lenders are going to lower your credit limits or completely close accounts. There are formulas for all of that. It's called the fssi, the FICO Score Stress Indicator. So this is why we have to know what the rules of engagement are, so we can dodge these bullets and know what the insider secrets are, what they're measuring so that we can behave in a way that keep our credit lines open and get new credit. I wanted to tell you that think of fundability, getting funding approvals as a target if you're not fundable, regardless of the financial situation of your personal Life or the world. You're not going to even hit that. That's what denials are. You're not even going to hit the target. But if you're fundable, you can. It's a little more sloppy. You can hit the outer rings of this target and still get money. They may be lower limits, they may be test limits, but you're still getting funded. Right. We help people build personal and business fundable targets where your scatter chart is the first two rings and the bullseye. If you're not hitting that bullseye, you're not going to get funded in a recession. But you will get funded like mad if you are in that a tight scatter chart for your fundability. That means you're doing all the right things. And that's the kind of. The thriving part of this is tighten up your borrower behaviors. And lenders will continue to lend. They want to lend to safe borrowers. And there's an entire fic anew fico FICO algorithm that measures how much stress you're under. And we happen to have the inside scoop on that as well. Right. So that's what we need to do to make sure that we're. If we're what I'm now calling bullseye borrowers. If we're bullseye borrowers, lenders are going to keep giving us money and we can prepare to swoop all of these performing notes, non performing notes. Whatever your wealth strategy is, you're going to be able to execute on it with very capitalized, very well capitalized in.

The target as we need to. That so question for you. They're just getting my. If somebody is sitting out there and they've been through a rough time, they've got a balance on a credit card, they've got some outstanding debt. Would now be a good time to reach out and try to negotiate that down on a discount?

Okay, so I'm preparing an entire section of the bootcamp. We call it the recovery. So let's cover. These are great recovery questions. So let's talk about that. First of all, there is a, I call it a degradation process. A paid as agreed account starts degrading if we don't make the payments. And it goes 30, 60, 90, somewhere between 90 and 180 days, it goes to collection, then it can go to judgment. Right. And depending on your financial situation, you may go to bankruptcy. Well, there is a soft landing. There are strategies to minimize the negative effect effect at every single one of those stages. By being able to communicate with your lender, by being able to navigate. So one freebie I want to give everybody, if you're going to settle for less than full balance, a particular card because you're just you've got the money now, but you're trying to negotiate it. The language you want to read on your credit report is settled in full, not settled for less than full balance. Settled in full will actually give you more opportunities. You won't. That language won't burn your relationship when the lenders looking at you in the future. If it's settled in for less than full balance, then many times they'll keep you on their blacklist and you'll what we call the burned list. And they may not offer you money until you pay the difference. So there's an entire strategy that the bootcamp is going to be sharing about how to protect yourself and how to do a soft landing. Most people go to a bankruptcy attorney to find out how to do a bankruptcy. And since a bankruptcy is attorney is a hammer, everything's a nail, right? That's the only solution. There are bankruptcy alternatives depending on your situation where you don't have to burn the relationship with the lenders. If you do a bankruptcy, here's what something that nobody knows. Most people believe that because the law says you can do a bankruptcy, that when you come out of that bankruptcy x amount of time, even if the bankruptcy falls off 10 years later, that the bank can lend you money again. No, you burned that bank just because the law lets you be forgiven of the debt. What is it I forgive but never forget? That's exactly what the lenders. Lenders are not going to give you more money in the future until you've made it right with them from the past, even if you are legally able to absolve yourself of that debt. So be very careful about throwing around the bankruptcy word because there are bankruptcy alternatives that allow you to because you're in communication, you're treating their money with deference and respect. You're being honest about your circumstances. There are ways in which you can every step of the downgrading process, you can insert yourself or with comments, risk department narratives and be able to keep your relationship at least with a heartbeat. It may not be a big heartbeat, but it's not dead. And then you can navigate and build that relationship with better results in the future. And so that's what we call a soft landing. So don't just go throwing around bankruptcy, guys. That is a 10 year event and no one's going to lend business lines of credit, commercial loans, real estate, real estate Takes it legally. Legally, it takes three years before Fannie Freddie will backstop a bankruptcy or approve somebody who went through a bankruptcy. And then it's based on other factors as well. And then those lenders aren't going to give you a penny if you burned them or their sister company like bank. You burned bank of America. And Wells Fargo will look at you and go, okay, you didn't treat my sister bank over here very well. We're all on. We're white listed, gray listed or blacklisted. So you guys gotta know where you're gonna end up if you make these decisions. So be careful. Go to the Bootcamp, the getfundable bootcamp.com and find out what the rules are. Rules of engagement, I call. It's like I don't wanna make. Cast it as a war. Cause that's what rules of engagement usually sounds like. Right. It's not a war. How do we do a legal separation from our partner that is the lender? That's what we have to negotiate with them. And then how can we come back together and be productive partners again at some point in the future? So that's, that's the recovery side. We're talking about how to evaluate a credit repair firm. What does credit repair do for you versus fundability optimization? We. There's a whole slew of things that people are going to be facing and we want you to be educated on what that means.

Yeah, that's great, great insight there because some people don't realize that they said, oh, I can get a loan straight out of bankruptcy. Yeah, you could. You're not going to like the interest rate. You're not going to like what you've got to bring to the table as down payment.

And it's going to be a tier four loan. It's going to be a predatory lender who's. Who knows how to appeal to your. I need to build new credit profile. And you have Tier 4 loans on your profile. Tier 1, Tier 2 and Tier 3 are not going to look at you. And you're going to be creating a FICO negative indicator that'll follow you for 10 years. Even if you didn't do a bankruptcy, it follows you for as long as that account is reporting on your profile. It's not good. Guys, you got to know what the hell they're measuring and what you can do about it so you can navigate these treacherous waters. Yep.

Now what if somebody finds themselves where their accounts, their lines of credit have been declined or reduced or closed. What are some things they Would I don't want to take too much secrets away from the boot camp.

No, no, no. This is this one. We got to know this. First of all, when I met with fico, the chief scientist, Ethan Dornhelm, who's the chief scientist at fico, we asked this question specifically, Brad and I, when we were back and we said, so 2008, we're meeting with him in 2016, 17 and 18 and 19. And we said, what is the. When a bank reduces a limit, let's say you got a $20,000 limit, you got $15,000 balance, and they reduce it to 10 grand. Normally that over limit, it's called an over limit. And it's horrible on your fundability. It kills your profile and your score when you're over limit. Do you guys account for that if it's part of a recession or part of things? And he goes, nope. Because if you're a, what we call a professional borrower, he said, if your performance data is in alignment, they're not going to reduce the limit. So you did something, you're doing something that is what causing them to protect themselves against you. So as I always say, we're in charge of our own approvals. We're in charge if we know the rules of the game, if we know what behaviors they're doing. So just know if they reduce a limit and you're over limit, your new balance or your balance is now over the new limit. You're getting killed in future fundability. So the ways to do this is while we have the resources now we have what are called doomsday protocols. We introduced it in this last bootcamp, the very first time. Doomsday protocols about surviving. Right? And I'm telling you we can't, we don't have enough time because it was like a two hour section of the bootcamp. But when you implement doomsday protocols, you can actually use your current cash flow and or assets to imagine if your financial reputation is the most important asset you have and you're sitting on some properties and you're like, I don't want to let go of my properties, thinking that it's okay to trash your financial reputation just to keep on to a house. I'm telling you right now, the house is easier to reacquire than your financial reputation. So liquidate a property, lower your limits, lower the things. Know what the, the bootcamp. We talk about knowing the difference between what gets reported on your personal profile versus a on your business profile. And you're ratting yourself out. If you're carrying balances and even if it's fix and flip, buy and hold, whatever it is and you're putting things on your personal credit, you're going to get caught with your pants down. At some point we've got to make that move over to True Business Credit. And a Spark Card and a Discover business are not that answer because those report to your personal. I know I'm way off in the weeds now, but the point is, is that you've got to know what's going on. I've been telling my clients if you are liquid or if you have a property, just one that you can liquidate, pull that even. Sorry, even at a. Because it's not. You're not going to get everything you wish you could out of it. But it puts another 10,000, 20, $50,000 or more in your pocket to put your financial reputation, house in order. I'm telling you, it's the greatest thing that you can do. The next thing I tell people to do is put three months minimum, six months preferable, and if you can afford it, 12 months of prepayments on your mortgage, your car, your student loans. And don't put it in a savings account, put it as credits on your loans. Those credits on your loans guys are going to be, are going to be lifesavers because they feel safe that they get to tap your money to take care of your payments. There's so many strategies we're going to be talking about, guys in the boot camp of literally what to do when you get out of the boot camp to go do and take care of it. And that house, you, if you have to sacrifice something on that, on that asset. I use the example. It's easier to sell a yacht today than to ruin your credit and never have a yacht again. So let's contract. If we have to contract, let's contract intelligently and deliberately to protect your reputation. That's the bottom line. Because your reputation is going to put money in your pocket for literally years to come. We got to protect it, but not give away all of our cash to survive if it comes to that. So that's why we have the three areas. Thrive strategies, survive strategies and then recover strategies.

Yeah, that's the big thing is there will be a lot more assets, there'll be a lot more yachts. You can get a lot cheaper here. Yes.

So many yachts to buy. So many yachts to buy.

I'll tell you a funny story. During the 2008, 2010, I was down in Florida. I spent a big chunk of time down in South Florida, around Miami, around Naples, Marco Island. High dollar rent down in Marco island. Okay. And I started getting bombarded especially from Oceans bank and U.S. treasury Banks with list of notes on boats and in dry dock like boat storage companies who were storing and people weren't paying the rental fees, weren't paying the storage fees each month. So they take the, they basically repo the boat and then sell the boat off for discount. And so we actually flipped a couple boat loans, a buttload of boat loans we saw. But boats are one thing that don't work very well if they're not being operated. That was the biggest thing is if it's not being operated, a lot of people go in and rip out the radio and the satellite stuff and a boat is not being operated since it's still in the water. Deteriorates correct depreciating ash it. So if you've got a yacht right now and you're overpaid, you might get it sold because you can always go back. As they say, the best two days in any type of boat owner's life is the day they buy the day they sell their boat.

Yes. Oh, well, I heard a different, different way if it flies, floats or something else rent it. So that's my go to. But I'm going to tell you there are, there are so many powerful things that we can do that to literally protect ourselves, insulate ourselves from loss that are all perfectly that we can, that will help us, right? And then it's like sweeping, cleaning our financial house and then we're ready to go back at it again. All it is is a calculated retreat. I call it a contraction, right? A deliberate contraction, a strategic contraction. And then we just start growing again and we. Because your financial guys, if you've heard me say this before, your financial reputation, I'm not talking your credit report, talking your financial reputation, your relationships with bank and your reputation with your vendors, your sale, the people in your lives that you buy homes from, buy notes from, et cetera, treat them with deference and respect, communicate and we can leverage those relationships for a massive win here over the next two to five years.

Yeah, definitely. Definitely. Now let's, let's talk about. Because you've tweaked the bootcamp a little bit. When's the next boot camp? And let's talk about.

Yeah, the bootcamp is two weekends from now. So today's Thursday. It's on May 1st and 2nd. It's a Friday and a Saturday this time. So Friday and Saturday, May 1st and 2nd and we had over 100 people in our last one. And the demand is really, really high because people are like, what do I do right? And we had one group that said, I've heard you three times. I thought your presentation was awesome. But now I want you to talk to all my real estate goddesses down in. Down in la, because I want to know now. It's like credit isn't just a nice city because people are doing their own thing, building their real estate businesses. It's like, how do I save my soul? Right? So that's why we're pivoting on the bootcamp and making sure everybody has the tools to. Tools to thrive, tools to survive, and tools to recover. So it's soft landing, guys. It doesn't have to be ugly. It does not have to be ugly.

Three pillars of pandemic credit is what we should probably call this episode.

Oh my word. Yes, yes, yes.

Now you are. You've been busy on that. So we got the May 1st and 2nd to Friday Saturday for you.

Correct.

Get signed up. It's an on thing online there. Yeah.

GetFundable Bootcamp.com GetFundable Bootcamp.com Yep.

Great website. Therefore you go there.

What's been.

Is there been any surprises that have popped up? And I thought of something the other day and I want. Last night that I wanted to ask you about. Today is a couple months ago, JPMorgan Chase forgave and closed all their credit cards for their Canadian clients. They literally forgave the debt. Like that. You don't owe us anything anymore. And we'll refund your most recent payment back to you. Do you think anything like that will happen here in the United States with anybody?

Okay. The difference between Canada, because remember, the banks are nationalized in Canada. Chase is basically on. It's like there's a mama bear and there's an elk coming in to feed forage in the same woods. Right. So weird, weird metaphor. So I believe that was part of the structure because first of all, it's a write off for Chase and Chase is going to be able to not pay taxes for however many millennia with these kind of moves. Right. Because the money was lent from the United States, but to folks who are spending it mostly in Canada. So I do not know if that's going to occur here because our banking system is not nationalized. And so that would occur likely and only if the federal government or the Fed says we will compensate you for. For just like on. Because notice the mortgages. Mortgage. Fannie, Freddie, you don't have the payment moratoriums broadcast as much. When you're on the double jumbos for their portfolio loans for Chase or Wells, you're getting it for your Fannie. Freddy's right. So. Because they're being backstopped by the Feds. But if the feds were to say, hey guys, backroom conversation too big to fail. We will compensate you for a principal and or interest. If you literally just say forgive the debt, then that is the only scenario that I see that it would happen. Now, I'm not saying it was so funny. One of the. And this is not a political statement, I'm not a politico. I just found it funny that there were individuals who were running for office saying everybody needs a national income. And then one month later, a pandemic sweeps the country. And now we have a national income either through business or at least a one time people are actually saying we need to do this for several months in a row. Right. So neither here nor there. But I find it interesting that our entire national perspective will change based on keeping everybody afloat and in the game. Because if people are not spending that part of the reason why we've never hit the depression level, the aggravation of the depression level wasn't the just the same percentage loss in the markets. It's that our ability to communicate, travel, move. We are so much more connected that we can rebound more. I can make a call or get online to Amazon and buy a new thing today over yesterday and keep things moving. Back then it was literally cars and food and it was an agrarian society and we were not connected at all. So that's why it was a true L recovery. Right. It was just long and we had to go to war to get out of that one. I believe that the connective tissue is the Feds may come in and say, oh, by the way, we did it with Fannie Freddie. We did it with student loans. We're backstopping those. Well, we're gonna do a $5 trillion payout to the markets and everybody stop paying. Stop paying their things for six months or 12 months and it'll be auto loans or whatever the banks are carrying. I don't see it not happening. I just know that it won't be the same way that did in Canada because Canada is a nationalized banking system. And now you got foreigners who are being. I don't know if they're being told to leave, but it was like, hey, get the hell out of here. We're drawing a wall against American, perhaps Even banking system until this sorts out.

Yeah, that's. It'll be interesting to see what's going on there. I noticed immediately you mentioned a couple of things I've got in the last two weeks, weeks I've had more emails from our mortgage origination buddies and companies like talking about, hey, we're no longer doing jumbo loans, but they could bosh and jumbo loans or now instead of going with requiring zero reserves, we now want six 12 or 18 months of.

Reserves before we'll cover it because there's no federal backstop. Right. Fannie? Freddie is taken care of. If they keep writing loans, it's because the Fed's telling them that we're open for business and we just want to keep people moving into their homes or taking advantage of lower interest so their payments are more manageable, blah, blah, blah. Right. So, yeah, there's a lot of. I do not like to celebrate things that are harmful to my neighbors, my friends, my tribe. But when we're prepared, when we know the rules of the game, all of this becomes fascinating. It becomes like a chess game. What's the next move? What's our next move? Right. How do we know the playbook, the lender playbook and anticipate their moves? This is awesome. When we know what game is afoot.

Exactly. Merrill, what's the best way for people to get signed up or connect with you that are listening to this? Maybe the first time or new.

Yeah. Okay, so guys, I'm going to rattle this off because I've got something for everybody. Free getfundable podcast.com free of charge. Just getfundablepodcast.com just start listening to stuff now. Some of it is going to be applied to last month and 20 months from now may not necessarily apply here. So that's why I refer to the bootcamp for $8.77, I believe is what the shipping cost is. I'll pay for the book. Go to getfundablebook.com or you can go to getfundable book or just getfundable.com and that you will be able to see the podcast links, the book links and the bootcamp links. But go to the boot camp if you're in a position to thrive. Find out how to thrive according to what lenders are going to lend to now, not what they're lending to a few months ago. If you need to survive, come and get your your doomsday protocols in place so you know how to make this happen for yourself and at least break even. Credit Wise, Right? And then if you're already on that slippery slope, come and find out how it's worth it. It's so inexpensive. Just come and find out how to prepare yourself for a soft landing so that you recover quickly and take advantage of what's happening on. So go to go to getfundable.com and you'll find the book, the podcast and the bootcamp links are all right there. Guys, do something because this is going to be bigger than 2008. I believe it. I believe it.

I think you were right onto that. You're hitting the nail on the head there, Meryl. I agree with you too. So we're doing things here and to take advantage of that. I love what you shared with us today. We should take listen to that and take heed from the credit Messiah, as we like to call Meryl. I'm going to find, I'm going to create and put your face on Jesus's body.

Well, that's probably that might be a little far for our beloved Christian friends. But do know this, do know this, that messiah or not, credit your fundability is your salvation financially in this world. So do prepare to take care of that. Guys, just make sure that you're ready. This is. We keep around the office, we call it the zombie apocalypse. Right? And so, hey, just make sure you know how to thrive. Survive and prepare for a soft landing, please. I just, I don't want to catch you mid slide if we could prevent it all right now. Okay.

Thank you so much, Meryl. Guys, gals, go take some action. Listen to what Meryl had. Tap into the resources he's provided there, get signed up for his next two day bootcamp. You will love it. It will be two of the most impactful days. And I say this as a not only just a friend, but also a client of marijuana.

A mutual. Yeah, you've been to how many now? I mean, you check in all the time.

At least three or four.

I know, I love it. And they're never the same, guys, because this is a moving target. What FICO is measuring here, what lenders are funding here, what's going to save your skin, it depends on where you are in the spectrum. So let's find out where you are and then solve it.

Exactly, guys. So go check it out. GetFundable.com Guys, gals, thanks for listening and we'll see you all at the top, everybody. Bye.

Sam.