Multigenerational Living - What should you do as a parent?

Foreign. Let's talk about kids and multi generational living and how that's going to impact our future. Hey, I'm Steve Valentine. Welcome back to the Real Estate Revolution podcast and show. Looking forward to having this conversation. And it's on the hinge of some conversations I've recently had with some parents. So My kids are 19 and 21. They're both boys. Typical boys at that age. But I also know that the conversation I'm having is like, our kids are saints in comparison to the shit that I did in high school. Reason I say that is because I have a conversation with an investor on Saturday morning. We were talking about his note, the money that he loaned me to buy a property. And we were kind of moving stuff around, having a conversation and catching up. And his kids are just about the same age as mine. One's a little bit younger. And we were just having conversations just about the kids staying home. His son's a Phoenix firefighter. His daughter's just graduating high school. My kids have both graduated high school, both have jobs, and it was about their living arrangements at home. And see, it's interesting. So I'm 45 years old. When I was 18, God, I could not get out of the house fast enough. I didn't leave until I was 20 when I bought my first house. The conversation is a little different, just about our kids and the relationships we have with our kids these days and. And how it's growing into the kids staying at home longer for two reasons. It's not just a financial thing. It's a company thing. It's a relationship piece. See, I have such a great relationship, Wendy and I do, with our boys, that I don't want them to really go anywhere at this point. We're just now getting the age where we've surpassed the parental stage, and now we're having the young man, mentor, mentee, father relationship where we're friends but not so close that, you know, we're not partying together or doing anything like that. But we're having such deep conversations about work, what's going on there. You know, we see each other on a daily basis, and I enjoy it. Now we've got a bigger house, so they're gonna stay longer, and I'm okay with it. So as you're thinking about this as parents, maybe you have younger kids. Just know as you're planning for your real estate that your kids, depending on your relationship, they may stay longer, which means you may want some different space to think about. Like, hey, my kids are 12 and 13 we're going to move in this house. Is this going to be enough space for them when they get bigger and they have friends over, they have girlfriends over, Is this going to be enough space for what we want to continue our relationship with our kids or are we going to grow out of it? I think that's a great question this day and age. I also realize that there are a lot of people coming into open houses and different things looking for that multi generational either guest house, guest room, something of that nature. And I think part of that has to do with our affordability. And some of the baby boomer generation may have not set themselves up so well and now they might be having to move in with family or the reverse where the kids are younger, they can't afford to move out on their own and they're staying longer with their parents and now contributing to the household as well. So as prices are up, you are going to see some more multifamily, some definitely some more co signing with things, you know, parents being on the mortgage with the kids or the kids being on the mortgage with parents, whatever that looks like as people start to cohabitate together in bigger spaces. For that one reason, it's just keeping everybody under one roof. So I do think that that's going to change our market a little bit going forward as you have more people. And I think if you're building or doing specs or doing flips that this might be an added bonus to really start thinking about in that is is there multifamily. It also helps, you know, when the multi generational guest house, guest room separate something of that nature that can be rented out to create some income. So that's, that's kind of a bonus too with some of those spaces when you buy them is that they potentially could be rented out to somebody that you know, traveling nurses are a big one. Those types of things where you have them close to the house so that that is a benefit to that. But just thinking about the kids and giving them some Runway to save some money for down payments and helping them in the aspect of finances so that they understand what they're working towards. So in our household, what I am realizing with the kids thing. Parents, listen up like I want to encourage you. This so interesting to see where our kids are 19 and 21, so all their friends are still around and we have the household. If you don't know this, that the kids are always there, it's just, it's a never ending revolving door at our house. So we've had this conversation twice and it amazes me. We had one girl that moved out of her house, parents are upset with her, she moved out. Just relationship with her parents wasn't great. So she's like, I'm gonna go do this on my own. So her mother, not super happy with her, cuts her off the car insurance. So now she's trying to figure out car insurance. She knows nothing about it, right? It's always just been added, taken care of. So when she comes to us and she's a little. All the kids know that we're fair game for any questions. I don't care what it is, whatever problems you're having, Wendy and I are fair game. So Friday night were sitting with her explaining insurance. Now what do I mean by explaining insurance? Well, she didn't have a clue. Coverages uninsured, underinsured, no insurance liability. Does she own her car? Like none of that. No idea. So we spent a half an hour going through her and she was going to be added onto her parents insurance and come to find out, well, well the parents insurance, her boyfriend's parents insurance she was going to put on was $700 a month. She was totally fine accepting that. So I'd have the conversation with her. It's like just because somebody says something, it's called trust but verify, which means you trust them but you need to verify what they told you and what you're signing up for. That means go to the Internet and search it out. What surprised me was is all the advertising that is done to the kids these days. Geico, Progressive, all state, State farm. She doesn't know where to start. So we go through geico, we get her quote done. It's half of what she was told. So she was very excited. But we also, we didn't just do it for her, we educated her in what she was looking for. So the next time insurance comes up, she can ask the questions. Here's why that's important. If we're not having those conversations with our kids, school didn't do it. If we're not doing it, they're just subject to whatever knowledge they get off the Internet or whatnot. And I think as parents we may or may not be having enough financial conversations around things and it's the little things that we take for granted that we know that we're not sharing with our kids or we're not helping them to understand and go to the next thing. So you know, as your parents, as they're growing, you want to start having those conversations when they turn 16 and they get a car, go through insurance with them, tell them what it is, what it costs, why they're doing it. They need to know these things. If we just keep doing it for them, you end up with a society that doesn't know how to do shit for themselves. And Wendy and I's goal was always with our kids and their friends to help them be independent so they're not reliant, they're not co dependent on us. So, you know, it's really important that we're having conversation with our kids in these aspects. And again, it's very interesting to have conversations with a lot of my friends where most of our kids are still at home. We're having a great time with our kids, relationship wise. And then you think about, and actually somebody mentioned me there, he's like, dude, you remember when 40 was old when everybody used to do the over the hill balloons and the black, like somebody died, like, oh my God, I totally forgot about that. My kids reminded me that 40 is the new 20. So as parents, we are a much younger version of what a parent was 20 years ago, which has changed our relationships with our kids. I think we're more active, I think we're healthy, healthier, I think we're more engaged. And it's not so much we had kids and we treated them like puppies back in the day, right? It was like, do as I do, not as I say and stop shitting on the carpet and all the things that our parents would tell us to do. And now it's just a little bit different relationship, at least in my household it is. And I'm certainly enjoying it. So I want to encourage you on those couple of things. Your kids are probably going to stay longer, make sure you're prepared for that and try to engage more with your kids and giving them the life lessons that we kind of know, right? Talking to them about insurance, talking about health insurance, car insurance, life insurance, all these little pieces. And hey, if you're a parent out there and you don't have those things for whatever reason, it doesn't mean you can't help your kids get set up better than you were. I know that I'm helping my kids be set up better than my dad helped me. And I know he helped me better than his dad because he didn't have a dad. So it's really important in this sequence of events that we are helping our kids understand these little things and teaching them to be adults, right, While we still maintain that relationship with them at home. Guys. I'm Steve Valentine and I love hanging out with you and just kind of sharing some of the different things that are going on life and it not all be real estate related. I really want to want you to know me on a personal level so we can connect better. And and I want to remind you every month I do a free call for the real estate industry. It is sponsored by Real Broker and it's through Real Academy and it's a monthly call. Follow my social or you can shoot me a DM with your email. We'll add you to that and I am looking forward to continuing connecting with you and bringing you value.