Are Credit Card Payments Acceptable For A Cash Sale?

Hey, it's Mark Podolski, the land geek with your favorite niche real estate website, www.thelandgeek.com. and on this week's roundtable, we've got almost all the usual suspects, minus a couple people. But we've got dude buddy, the nightcap OG Scott Bossman. Scott, how are you?

I'm doing great, Mark. How are you?

I'm great. It's good to see you. We've got the most feared woman in the country, the terrorist hunter, Mimi Schmidt. Mimi, how are you?

I'm great. How's it going, Mark?

It's great. It's great. We've got the technician, Eric Peterson. Eric, how are you? I'm good.

I'm surprised no one has commented on your glasses yet. You've got 3D glasses on for anybody that can see this video. It's a little bit obnoxious, but it is what it is, and I'm happy to be here.

Well, I'm glad that you're. You're liking my filter because I will be changing it up all throughout the podcast just to keep you on your toes. So last but not least, you know him, you love him. The. The professor, the brain, your flight school sherpa, Scott Todd from Scott Todd.net landmodo.com and learn anything about anything. Investor ninjas.com Scott Todd. How are you?

Mark, I'm not feeling well right now.

Why? What's wrong?

These. These annoying filters are bugging me.

Really.

Like, I'm totally team Eric on this one. Like, I can't. Like, we're gonna. We're gonna have to. We're either gonna have to, like, hide your picture, like, Eric's working right now to hide your video, like, to shut it off. We can't even do this. We can't even. Like, I don't even want to stop talking because this is like a filibuster. If I stop talking, then the video will switch over to you, and I can't. I can't even. Like, I'm going to have to shut off my screen. So this is a filibuster. I now turn over my time to Eric Peterson. Go start talking. Why don't you introduce our topic? Just, let's, let's get going. Let's get going. All right, here's the topic. See, we're shutting Mark out. We're just gonna do this without Mark. We're just gonna over talk him. Eric, here's the today's topic. Ready? Is it acceptable to take or would you take a credit card for a cash Payment for a cash sale. Right. Like someone wants to buy the property in whole from. You pick the number. 10,000, 3,000, 1,000, 10,000, 20. $20,000. Would you take the payment on a credit card? What do you say? So before you go, let's. Let's go to Mimi. I can't even go to Mark. Like, I was hoping Mark would take it, but Mark's just being ridiculous. Mimi, what do you think?

Yes, I've done it, but I did have a guy come back and. And what do you call it? Contest the charge with his credit card company. And so I had to give, yeah, I had to give back three monthly payments, but he paid me for a year and a half before he defaulted, so. And, you know, I didn't even bother to try to dispute that, you know, react to the claim because I was concerned that they wouldn't like the type of business I was in. It was a couple hundred bucks. I let it go. But otherwise I take debit credit, debit credit or bank ach, Facebook paper. I mean, anything. But what about account.

What about a cash sale? Like, not term sale, cash sale.

Done it, done it, done it, done it. I just have to include. Make sure I include merchant service fees because, you know, if it's five grand, that's a big chunk of change to have to pay the merchant service fees on that. So I charge them extra to pay for that. But yes. Is it illegal? Probably.

I don't think it's illegal, but what do you. Okay, Boston, what do you think? Right.

So for us, we've done like thousand dollars, thousand dollar deals and less on a credit card. For more expensive deals, we prefer that they wire it to our account. So we have people wire us the money. As soon as that wire hits the bank account, we're recording the deed. They can't contest that. Right. Once it's out of their account, it's out of their account. The bank person, the teller has to screen them. You know, are you sending this money under any duress?

No.

So that money's coming to me. It's not going away. No one can contest it. That's how we do cash deals.

Peterson, what do you say?

Yeah, I mean, we will take a credit card payment for a cash purchase. I do kind of have some, I guess, limits in my mind of what I'm looking for. If it's probably less than about three grand, I'll do it. If it's going to be more than that, I would rather collect a deposit and, you know, have them send a cashier's check or wire the rest of the money because, you know, in the end, I don't want to risk losing my stripe account or my credit card processor account over a large transaction that caused them to look at my account further. So if I feel like it's within the normal confines of the type of payments I collect in that account, normally I'm okay with it. But if it's far outside of that, and especially if my account is brand new, I'm going to be overly cautious in collecting that kind of a large sum. But I'm not concerned for anything else other than just the potential of losing my credit card processor.

Yeah, Mark, what do you think?

So, first of all, I really did my best while all of you were talking to distract you, and no one took it. I mean, it was like video filter after video filter. That being said, it is a serious question, and I'm going to seriously answer it, despite the 3D glasses. So in my experience, it's okay if someone wants to pay cash for a. Or, you know, like, use their credit card to pay for a cash transaction. Now, as Mimi alluded to, if they're going to pay monthly via credit card, that's no bueno. That is really not good. And that's why we created Geek Pay. But you won't get those monthly transactions via ach. So that's the first piece. Now, the second piece is what Eric said. If the cash transaction is outside of the limits when we first set up our banking relationship with the credit card company, because they're going to ask you, what's your average transaction? What's on the low end? What's on the high end? And let's say $10,000 is on the high end and they want to pay $20,000 on a credit card. Well, like Eric said, the most I would take is $10,000 on a credit card and have them wire or send a check for the balance, or they could make that second payment the next month of $10,000. Now, when does fraud come in, like what Mimi alluded to on a chargeback? So we've got a land contract. We have a promissory note. We have a purchase sale agreement or. And that's on a. On a terms deal. But because I won't do terms deals with credit cards, that's irrelevant. And I know I'm speaking a lot. Scott Todd. So if you want to interrupt me, you can. I'm already sick of my own voice.

No, go ahead.

Okay, so in this case, let's say let's just pretend Mimi's my buyer, and she's like, mark, I love that Colorado property. I'm going to pay you $5,000 cash. I want to get the cash discount. It's within my limit for my credit card, I think. Okay, great. Now, 120 days later, Mimi just disputes the transaction. And I have deeded her the property she's going to lose because she currently owns the property. That has happened to us in the past. So no problem there. The only way that she could defraud me, because this has happened to me, if she calls me up and using her very sweet, innocent voice, says, oh, Mark, I went out to the property. I really didn't like it. But you know what? I changed credit cards. Would you mind just sending me a check for the 5,000? I'd really appreciate it. And I think, oh, such a sweet voice. I'll write Mimi a check. 5,000, we'll be good. Not a problem. Right? And then she's going to go ahead and I haven't deeded her the property yet in this example. Well, it turns out Mimi stole the credit card, and now she's just gotten my $5,000. So anytime that there's a refund on a credit card, you have to refund in the way that they paid, which would be back on the credit card. Eric, why are you shaking your head?

I can't believe Mimi would do that to you.

Well, that's just an example. I don't think Amy would ever do it to me. Yeah, I mean, a realistic example would be, like, bossman, because that's something he would do, right?

I thought he's already done that to you.

Oh, well, Bossman, did you try to do that to me back in the day? You might have. Yeah. No, I'm. You know, obviously I'm just joking, because the only person in this group that I'm truly upset with based on any kind of land transactions is Eric Peterson. We all know that story.

Yes, we do.

Okay.

All right.

So, I mean, like, it's a very relevant topic, right? Because people. People can't imagine that. That we would actually sell real estate on a credit card. And the thing about land that's really, really cool is oftentimes, and you guys hit on, like, Eric, I think you said your numbers. 3000. Boston was a thousand. Like, oftentimes we can sell. I call them singles, right? Like, they're not home runs. They're not huge transactions. There's a lot of singles that take place. 1,000, 2,000, $3,000 sales. That's like a. That's like people buying something like, Like, I don't know, what can you buy for a couple thousand dollars? People do it all the time. And they go into a trend. Furniture, for example. They go in, they buy some furniture, they spend $3,000, and bam, they're off to the races. It's. It's. It is that low level. And what's cool about it to me is that you can actually do this and sell real estate with a credit card and bam. Next thing you know, you. You're moving at the speed of sound. So I think you got some good advice there, Mark, what do you think?

No, I. I agree.

I can't. I can't even. I can't. I wish the people could see this. Like, I know that it's being recorded. I know they'll be able to go to YouTube and look at it. But, like, you want to talk about distraction?

Oh, man. The tip of the week is to not use the new zoom mask filters.

You have to be the tip of the week.

Right?

Like, I think we're over with, right? 1, 2, 3, left, freedom, ring. Like, that's it. What else is there to go? I mean, if you just want to annoy people, I mean, Mark must just want to annoy us today. I don't know.

I really woke up today and I, you know, and I thought, well, what would be the best way to annoy Scott Todd? I'm like, video filters.

I think you found it. I think you found a big pet peeve of mine.

I don't know.

People are gonna start doing this to me now.

No, but it is a really good topic, and I think what Mimi brought up is really important. You don't want to finance the land via credit card. And I thought what Eric brought up was really important as well. You don't want to take such a large transaction and it's going to get flagged if it's outside of those setup limits. And then what everybody else, you know, the Scotts brought up, I really wasn't listening because I was playing with video filters. But I'm sure if I were, it was really important information.

Good stuff. Good stuff.

Yeah.

There it is. I can't wait until we have something, like, serious going on. I don't know, like something serious. And you really need to concentrate. And I'm just going to start, like, I don't know, maybe I'll hire some, like, ballerinas or something to come in here and start dancing in front of my camera. Something that is just like. Or maybe like monkeys or something.

I don't know, like during boot camp we'll just be constantly raising our hands on the zoom call.

Yeah, yeah.

I'd be curious though. How often is this an issue where somebody does a chargeback on the down payment or on a big cash payment? Eric Peterson, in all the years you've been doing this, how often does that actually occurred?

I don't think it's ever occurred for me.

Okay, Scott Bossman.

I think it's occurred three times on down payments.

Right, Mimi?

For me, just that one time.

Just the one time, Scott. Todd.

I actually had it happen one time. And what happened was the, the, the, the guy's wife, the guy who bought the land, his wife didn't know what happened. She saw the charge on the credit card. She immediately fired up the dispute machine without like even talking to him. So she immediately fires it up. And then I caught him, I'm like, yo, dude, what's going on? He's like, yeah. And we'd already transferred the deed and everything. And I just said like, what gifts? And he called the credit card company back and told them they took the money out, called the credit card company back and said, hey, we figured out what it is, please cancel the charge. And then about 10 days later the money came back to me. So it's the way that it is.

Yeah. I will say though that of all businesses, this one is pretty much fraud proof of every any business you can think of because we're not dealing with any physical. We have a contract in place that's been recorded with a government entity. So when they do dispute, they're going to lose. Despite the fact that the credit card companies knee jerk reaction is to take the money out of your account. But all you have to do is submit your proof and then they take it and you win the dispute. And it's not that big a deal. That being said, in the 20 years that I've been land investing, this has happened to me. I was defrauded once, so I learned from that mistake. And then I believe that I've only had one person dispute a charge, which was a cash transaction. We deeded the property, they simply forgot about it. And it wasn't an issue because they once we submitted the proof, like, oh yeah, I do own that property. So you know, sometimes people just, they get busy, you know, kind of like with Eric Peterson and music, just, you know, he's buying music left and right and you know, in guitars and he just probably forgets like, oh yeah, I did, I did buy that, you know, Led Zeppelin Platinum album, whatever it is.

Yeah, he got the new Taylor Swift album.

Boy, Eric, are you gonna take that?

I don't even know how to respond.

So I think it was a really important topic, even though we kind of went through it very quickly and for myself in a very silly way yet the topic I think is important. Hopefully people are really going to get value from that. But speaking of value, as is the roundtable tradition, usually we pick on Mimi for the tip of the week. But this week we're going to the technician, Eric Peterson for your tip of the week. A website, a resource, a book, something actionable for the art of passive income listeners to go improve their businesses, improve their lives. But, but let me interrupt you before you give that answer and just remind the listeners that today's podcast is sponsored by flight school. Learn how the next 16 weeks can literally transform your life. Start building passive income without renters, rehabs, renovations or rodents. It is the best passive income model. What's great about flight school is that it's free education guaranteed because you're going to make back your tuition investment in 180 days or less, guaranteed. All you have to do is show us the work. It's that simple. And what's even better is Scott Todd is taking you up that mountain of land investing over 16 weeks. You couldn't have a better Sherpa. How do you get more information? Easy. Just go to landgeek.com training thelandgeek.com training okay, Eric Peterson, what is your tip of the week?

All right, so I have a website, a web app for us to take a look at today. It's gecko board.com. that's gecko, like the little green guy that you see in TV commercials and the word board dot com. And it's basically a dashboard visualization type tool where you can connect, let's say a Google spreadsheet with data in it and create some visualization around that. So, you know, I was thinking we talk to our coaching students a lot about tracking their metrics and, you know, knowing their numbers. This is a good resource. It's free. There are paid versions, but it is free to start. And you can create some nice visualizations with your data and it could help you interpret it a little bit more quickly.

Pretty geeky. Mimi, what do you think?

That's super cool. Always trying to find ways to make data easily absorbable into information, right?

Yeah. Scott Boston, what about you?

Yeah, I like it. Gonna give it a try. And it's free. It's all good.

Can't be free.

No. The only thing that beats free is easy, according to Steve Jobs. Rest in peace, Steve Jobs. Scott Todd, how's it. How about you?

I'll reserve judgment until after I take a look at it.

Yes. And that is the proper answer with any Eric Peterson tip, Actually.

Well, I think it's that. I honestly think that it's the proper answer with anything, because how many times have someone said to you, like, oh, man, I'm sitting there and I've spent all this time creating something in, like, airtable, but, like, I don't know what I'm supposed to be creating? Well, nothing. You don't create anything in Air Table until you have a problem. And you know that Air Table will provide you with a solution. So have the problem first, and then go seek the solution. Don't have the solution first, and then go seek the problem.

Yeah. So, Eric, are you using this?

I am not using it. I came across it actually today before our podcast, and I am using Google Studio or Google Data Studio, which is a similar. It's a little more complicated to use, but same type of thing where you can kind of visualize data. But this one caught my eye, and I thought it was worth telling people about.

Very cool. Very cool. All right, well, I want to thank the listeners and just remind them that the only way we're going to be able to convince Eric even to do any more tips of the week is if you do us three little favors. You got to subscribe, you got a rate, you got to review the podcast. Send us a screenshot of that review to support thelandgeek.com we're going to send you for free the $97 wholetailing course, how to double your money, 30 days or less. So please do that. And hopefully everyone's getting a lot of value. And by the time everyone's listening to this podcast, we already have completed our first virtual bootcamp, which I'm really excited about. I don't know about you guys. Mimi, are you ready?

I'm ready. You know me, I love boot camp. I can't wait. And I'm really interested to see how the whole online boot camp goes.

Yeah, it's. It's gonna be really, really interesting and hopefully fun and cool and it'll be cool.

It's not what I prefer, but since I've got crutches, it, you know, I couldn't have gone. It would have been hard for me to do a boot camp in person anyway, so it works out for me. Sorry, go ahead.

Yeah. Scott Bossman, Are you ready?

I am ready. Just no video filters, please. But yeah, I'm very ready for boot camp. Excited.

Okay. Scott Todd, I'm ready to go, man.

Like I'm gonna miss, I'm gonna miss, be like being there live in person. But ah, what can we do? This is it.

Well, yeah, and you know, I'm gonna be safe. I'm definitely gonna be video filtering the entire time, even though bossman doesn't want me to, because, let's face it, it's kind of cool. Right, Eric Peterson? No. So we're all agreed, no video filters during boot camp.

Absolutely correct.

We agree. No video filters.

How about background? The Star wars background?

That one's terrible. That movie thing is terrible.

So no backgrounds.

I don't know. I think you want to reduce any. You want people listening, Mark. You don't want people like concentrating on something else. Right. Like it's going to be hard enough to listen for, for the whole time, let alone like now we introduce like filters and background and movement and oh, it's like, oh, look at that. What's that? What's, what's behind them? Where is he? Where's that picture taken from? Is that real?

Yeah, that's true. That's true. All right, are we, are we going to do this together then?

Since you took off the filters? Yes.

Okay.

What? Two, three. Let's let freedom ring. Pretty good. That was really good. We're definitely ready for boot camp for sure. Scott Bossman, not to put you on the spot, but you know, to Scott Todd's point, because it is virtual and it is going to be hard to keep people's attention. What about like, you singing during like breaks or, you know, at some point?

That's funny.

I mean, good.

Well, thank you. I appreciate that. But usually there's only singing on Nightcap, so maybe we are gonna have a nightcap or two. So maybe, maybe a song will be sung.

All right.

Push people toward that event.

Yeah, we gotta get Alien to Augustine back on.

Yeah.

You know, a little musical entertainment. All right, well, great. So it's, it's 95 degrees here, which means like, like cold. I'm putting on a jacket. Yeah, it's usually like 120. It's really, it's really nice actually. So after, after Colorado, you know, any, any respite from the heat? I'll take it. Definitely made me soft for sure, you know. Mimi, did you get hit by that storm?

Yeah, well, we were in St John at the time. Right. Wednesday night of our week vacation. We were up all night long. All night long. Because the windows and the doors were whistling because of the wind and just bang, ban. Bang, bang. Oh, but it was exciting.

Cool.

You know, those houses are built for us, though.

Yeah. Scott, Todd, you weren't hit at all, were you? No. No. All right, cool. Well, the Midwest guys I know weren't hit at all, so. All right, well, this is fun. I'll see everybody next week. No filters, I promise. Well, come on, one filter. Like, at some point, we'll see you.

We don't see it.

Not even next week. We're gonna see you Friday.

Oh, that's right. That's right.

You can. You can use filters in your next meeting with Tate and Mike Zano, because they haven't seen them yet, but we've all seen them, so we're good.

Okay, fair enough. All right, well, thanks, guys. And see everybody on Friday. Here comes boot camp. Ready or not, here we come. Yeah.