ROUND TABLE—Taxes Are Due—Different Counties, Different Rules

Hey, it's Mark Podolski, the land geek with your favorite niche real estate website, www.thelandgeek.com. and on this week's roundtable podcast, honoring us with his presence, the irascible Eric. No nickname Peterson. Eric, how are you?

I'm doing great.

Glad to be here. I think your nickname is gonna be Irascible.

It sounds that way. I think it's been three, four weeks in a row now.

Yeah, I'm just. I just, you know, and it's completely wrong, but it's just fun to say the word. We've got Jeannie Morum back on the podcast. Hi, Jeanne.

Hi.

How are you?

Great. Honored to be back.

So glad to have you back. We've got the Bear Land. We should actually have, like, a grr. Go off when we announce bear Land. Aaron. Bear Land.

They pretty good.

Good. And then, of course, we've got the terrorist hunter herself, Mimi Schmidt. Mimi, welcome back to the roundtable. How are you?

I'm doing great. Thanks for having me.

All right, well, let's just get into it because we've got a great topic to start the roundtable. And, Jeanne Morm, you want to just kind of lead us into it?

Sure. So, as we all know, you know, mailing is most important in marketing. So I'm back in mailing, and what's happening is I'm getting voicemails, and I'm getting very angry hate mails. So, for example, they're telling me to look off, and I don't know if you have to bleep that, but they're nasty, and they're telling me I'm insulting their intelligence. So trying to stay positive through all that.

Okay, so when you do get the hate, what is your initial reaction?

Mine, I'm kind of offended for a second. For a second. But I've been doing it long enough that I know I'm doing something right if they're responding to me. So I actually turn around and look at it positively. But another thing I do. I don't know if this is the proper way, but now I'm letting the voicemails go to. Or the phone calls go to voicemail so I don't have to sit and argue or, you know, debate on the phone, which makes it a lot easier. And then if there's any way I can negotiate with them, I'll call them back.

Yeah, Yeah. I mean, this is. This is really why we set up our intake process the way that we did using Ringcentral and Zapier was so that we could Literally qualify that seller. Are they confused with the offer? Do they like the offer, or they just want to call us to yell at us? And so it's been a really good process just to do that. Eric Peterson, what about you? What are some of the recent hate you've been receiving?

Well, first of all, I like Jeanne, you know, basically let all those calls go to voicemail. On occasion, I will pick one up. Um, and typically it goes okay. But if they're upset, I mean, and you do happen to pick it up, you know, I just try to calm them down and let them know, you know, what it's. It's a piece of paper in your mailbox. Like, it's nothing to get upset about. If you don't like it, throw it away. You're not going to hurt my feelings, you know, And I just. I try to talk them down and, you know, speak rationally and just calm them down. But the best ones are the ones that leave you a voicemail, and they act completely normal on the voicemail, and then you call them back and get them on the phone, and what do they want to do? They want to yell at you about that offer. Right? So they're the sneaky ones trying to, you know, trick you into calling them back. But I've had. I've had some really interesting responses. Probably one of the most interesting was, I don't know, it was some time ago, probably a couple years ago now. Went to my mailbox to get the mail and get this nice little envelope, open it up, you know, thinking, what offer is going to be in here? You know, what. What accepted offer? Where am I buying property today? And it was full of ashes. They burned my purchase agreement and sent it back to me in the mail. So that was a fun story.

Wow, that's huge bear land. Aaron, how about you? How do you deal with it?

I don't deal with it too often. I mean, we definitely do let them go to voicemail first. You know, sometimes it's in an email or a fax. You know, I've had one, luckily. I think the worst one I've had was just somebody that scribbled across the whole page, F O, C, K, U. And so, like, they were upset but not up. Fuck you. You know, they were upset, but not upset enough to cuss. Right. You know, or something. I don't know. But maybe they weren't quite sure, you.

Know, but they love Meet the Fockers.

Maybe.

But no, I mean, you know, sometimes when you. You can tell somebody's mad on the Voicemail and that sort of thing. Just, you know, really, I haven't had any in a long time, so that makes me believe that I'm offering too much. But yeah, I generally if. If they're just super mad, I don't even call them back because they're just calling to vent. I'm not like, say no where I'm, you know, I make a game of trying to turn them around because I don't know if I really want to bother. It's just not my personality to do that. But yeah, generally we just filter them out and move on.

Yeah. Yeah. Mimi Schmidt, what do you do?

My acquisitions manager has to deal with it. But honestly, I don't get many of them. I only had one and the person wasn't mad about the offer. The person called to insult my name. So the guy. The guy even accepted the offer. He put a down payment on, told me to go ahead and put together tubes. He wanted to buy two properties. And then he emails me back and he's like, I'm gonna have my agent call. And the agent calls me. Hi, this is Mimi with Part and Parcel Property. I knew from the number who it was. What kind of name is Mimi? And he started. He got personal with it and it really. I had a really hard time managing my anger with that one. I learned my lesson that it's just not worth it. I should. I actually just ended the phone call after I realized I wasn't going to get anywhere and I fired the guy. The. Fired the buyer. I've never written fired the buyer call, but people. Because the agent, I think the agent felt threatened that US investors were treading on their turf, invading in their turf. And so it was personal. It wasn't just the offer amount. You know what I mean?

But.

Well, different type of situation, but because it was personal, it bothered me a lot more. But I learned that I just need to cancel the conversation when I get people who are mean on the phone and just end that transaction with whether it's a buyer or seller situation and the transaction. There's too many other transactions to have.

You didn't pull the. Do you know who I am? Do you know my full.

I did. I said, I actually have a top secret security clearance. I'm a completely trustable person. Right. I work for the Department of Defense. But he actually called me. I had said that to the guy who wanted to buy the properties for me and he told the agent and the agent said, well, that suspect. And I just thought the military is suspect. I mean it was Just really odd. So, yeah, I learned my lesson.

Yeah, you should be like, you know what? Go outside your window right now and watch the circling drone and then tell me. Right, right.

Those are those times you wish you could.

So I'll tell you. You know, when I first started, I dealt with so much hate, and I almost became immune to it. Now I have the acquisition manager. But what I would do is I would start to classify people as angry, crazy, and then angry crazy and super mean. Right? So the angry ones I would actually take the time and try to convert. And the way that I would do it is I had. You know, I had younger kids at the time, and so the first thing I would do is a pattern interrupt so they wouldn't think I was a telemarketer. So I would yell at my son before they even. Like, I even started talking to them. Like, do they say, hello? I'm like, noah, put that toy down.

Right?

And then I say, oh, I'm so sorry. I just. My son's, you know, three years old and looks like he's about to have a choking accident. Anyways, hey, it's Mark Podolski with Frontier Properties. Received your voicemail. And I totally understand why you're angry about the offer. You must have done some type of improvement. Did you drop a well or did you add power? Because oftentimes I don't know that, and your neighbors are actually selling for that price. So I am so sorry. What improvements have you made? And I can adjust my offer. Silence. Well, I haven't made any improvements. Oh, you haven't? Okay, so why do you think that the price should be xyz? I'm just curious. And they're like, well, I don't know what the price should be. I just know what I paid for. I'm like, oh, okay. And they're like, yeah, I totally get it. Nobody likes losing money. But this is what I call a sunk cost. And then I go through my whole thing about my grandfather was building a building, and we all thought we were going to be millionaires, but it found he turned out the hundred thousand dollars he invested in the area was on the ground was faulty. Right. So it was a sunk cost. But instead of just losing 100,000, my grandfather kept building and trying to make corrections and fix the foundation. There was a bad foundation, and he ended up spending about a half million dollars. And to this day, now I have to work, even though we thought we would have to. So this happens a lot, right? Like, the market turns on us. We keep paying our Taxes. I'm like, you can keep taking the tax on it for the next 10 years. I get it. And then call me back again and hope that the price has gone up. And then eventually, like, they're like, okay, fine. Will you take. And then they start negotiating. But, you know, that would be my. My sort of M.O. on doing that. The other thing was if they were crazy and crazy angry at me, like, I had somebody wish me ass cancer. That was a fun one, right? I've had people leave voicemails. So, like, you know, unbelievably, just crazy. And, like, I mean, I should actually set our separate website of just their. Their voicemails of, you know, things that I should be doing to their body parts or their animal body parts. I mean, just so angry. I'm like, just throw the. Just throw the offer out. So those people don't really deserve a response. But I do think that if they're just angry, there is a way to turn them around. What do you think, Mimi?

I think that strategy is brilliant. I think that's absolutely brilliant. Talking about the kid, it kind of humanizes you. Right?

Right.

And. Oh, I'm sure I misunderstood, right? When you apologize first, that's always disarming to folks.

Yeah, absolutely. I took responsibility right away, and I empathize with them. Like, I feel angry, too. If I spent $30,000 on a well and I put in power and I made all these improvements, and I got this terrible lowball offer. Totally get it. What improvements have you made? Yeah, barely. And Aaron, what are you. What about you?

I love it. I mean, I'm definitely gonna start doing something like that on the. The angry ones. You know, you talked about crazy and mean, though, so. And that, you know, I know what you're talking about. And the scary thing is those people are driving around in traffic with us, too.

No, absolutely. That's why, you know, especially out here, we don't honk because the road rage. Like, okay, how about Eugene?

I love it. And, you know, I think. I think the reason that they're angry is because they're afraid and they don't trust you yet. So what you did is you're gaining their trust by calling them back and building a relationship with them. And I have found that as well. You know, a couple of my calls, we've called back and actually bought their land because they trusted us. And again, they're scared because they did pay more. The area I'm in, they did pay more. And, I mean, it's embarrassing how much I'm offering And how much they paid? I mean, they paid, you know, some of them, seven, $8,000 per property, and I'm offering less than a thousand. So they're pissed. And it's not. They're not pissed at me or mad. I should say mad. They're just mad at the situation. And they, you know, they want their money that they. They invested, and they're not going to get it.

Yeah. And you can always say, look, you can take that tax write off against a gain on your taxes, so it's not going to, you know, you're not going to feel it as much. So take that $6,000 loss towards a $6,000 gain on another investment and have it just even out on the taxes. Irascible Eric Peterson, what do you do? How do you like that strategy?

I think it's great. I think you made some great points about, you know, different ways to kind of turn people around. You know, I think when I have had those conversations in the past, it's been very similar in approach, starting with the apology and trying to understand where they're coming from before trying to defend a certain price or something that you're offering. So I think that's definitely a good tactic to use if you're out there, you know, looking to kind of resolve some of those issues that come up from the mailing.

Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I mean, it also sort of illustrates the mental health aspect of our country. Like Fairland. Aaron said, like, we're living with these people. Mimi's like, yeah, absolutely. So I think maybe a new nonprofit should be Prozac in the workplace and just have, like, Prozac sort of dispensers. Having a tough day. Just pop it. Right. Take the edge off. Or, you know, wine Wednesdays every day.

Right.

You just come in.

I'm up for that one. Sign me up.

Yeah, yeah. Like you're having a tough day here. Glass of Chardonnay, Mimi. Just take 20 minutes. You know, no worries.

Have my own business. I could do that now, you see.

Exactly.

They're even selling wine in cans now, so.

Right. I do want just to mention to the listeners that this podcast is not sponsored by Prozac or any kind of wine company. And we certainly are not suggesting that any of you become raging alcoholics or.

Or mix the two.

Yeah. See a licensed professional. Anyways, let's move on to the next subject. Mimi Schmidt, tell us what's going on with you and county taxes.

So I knew I had a couple of lots I had to follow up on to pay their taxes. And I got some money in the bank, went out to the website today to do a little online tax paying. And there was this big red blurb across the top of my property that said that the payments had turned up, been turned off on the website and that my property was going to be have a tax certificate sold for it. And my stress level went through the roof. And so I learned about this particular property that I need to pay the taxes by May 31st or they're going to issue a tax certificate. So next year I'll know. I think it's going to hike up the price on three of my properties. This past year's tax is 100 bucks. So I paid 2016 on one of the ones that I had owned at the time. So, yeah, so I'll be better next year about knowing that. Of course I know when they're due in each county, but I need to know more of the specifics. You know, sometimes I like for the taxes to go unpaid to see what kind of offers I get from other investors in the area. Right. That's a great idea to see what other people are offering.

Sellers.

So yeah, won't do that past May 31st in that particular county next year.

Yeah.

You know another strategy, Mamie, is if you just bought it, right, you could do the overage strategy where if it's going to go to auction, right, let's say that you paid $1,000 to the property and it sells for $4,000 at auction because of the back taxes, there's now a $3,000 overage, which is just go to you. So you've just made your turn without having to do anything. So it is a strategy that you could employ. The problem is it depends on the state. Sometimes it takes six months to get your money, sometimes it takes a year to get your money. It's a whole different strategy. I don't love it because you don't have total control, but it is something that you could also look at worst case. And is that okay? I'm not going to lose my money on this property. I might lose the property, but I could always apply for the overage from the county. The counties won't tell you about the overage laws, right. Because if you don't apply for it, they keep all the money.

And this county does both, right, the tax certificate. So tax certificate and make money off me when I do pay the taxes. And then if you go about three years, then they can actually sell it and have a tax deed. So check that out.

Yeah, barelyn. Aaron, how do you avoid sort of this issue that Mimi just went through?

Well, just knowing when the taxes are due and when you buy property, if it has, you know, tax liens on it, the certificates, find out what, you know, make sure you know what the law is on how long you have before those things go to tax sale and so forth. Because I will admit I made a mistake on a property we bought. And the notices went to the person I bought it from. And I never saw the notice that these. This property was up for or was going to be redeemed because the person that had the 10 tax certificate for three years or something, I'd sold the property to somebody on terms and they had made a significant number of payments or dollar amount of payments so far. And I got a letter from the guy who had the tax certificate on it and said, hey, I just want to let you know that I own this property now. And, you know, so that was a pretty scary moment because I didn't pay attention to all those things. And luckily he was willing to sell me that property for, you know, kind of like, let's say, I'll tell you some numbers. Let's say I bought the property for like $2,000. It had, let's say, $1,200 in back taxes. And then I sold it for 10 grand on terms. So I had some room in there. It wasn't too bad. He sold me back the property for. Like $4,000. He made some money. I, you know, I spent more than I should have. But I. I also didn't lose my payments. You know, I didn't lose my terms. I made goodwill with my buyer who had bought two more properties from me after that. Cause he knew I was the type of person that would make things right. And now I'm still getting the payments on that property, so. And I'll still make money. Not as much as I would have, but I'll still make money. So that was a pretty tragic mistake without any real financial loss. I mean, I lost a little bit of capital buying it back, but, you know, I did also didn't have to pay the taxes because, you know, I, money wise, I still spent that money. But, you know, when I got it back, it had a zero tax liability. So, you know, that was a bonus, I guess, no penalties and stuff. So anyway, that was a scary thing. But I've learned to, you know, watch out for those things. You got to know when those redemption periods are and you got to know when the time taxes due for your county and when you start getting A bunch of properties. You need some order in that. You need a way to figure, like to be able to keep track of all that.

So.

Right, right. Jeanne. Jeanne Morum, is there a way. Let's just get granular with it. Are you doing this in your due diligence to know on the front end? Okay.

And because I do everything myself, I'm not at far along as the rest of you guys here, but so I'm doing it all myself. And I'm not saying this is right either, but when I do my due diligence, I ask what the taxes are, and I always pay everything right away. And I'm. And I'm selling them quickly, so I probably wouldn't even need to, you know, pay the taxes, but I just do. And so I'm just doing everything along the way so I understand how to do everything. And my properties aren't as much as what you guys are paying for your properties. So I can sell them quick. And so I'm trying to speed it up and sell more and work myself up to properties that are costing thousands of dollars. So I haven't run into what, you know, Mimi and Aaron are talking about yet because I'm just paying them pay the taxes right away.

Right, right. I mean, knowing Eric Peterson, he probably has like a web scraper that automates the when the taxes are due and puts it into a Google sheet which then has a zap which then alerts him via email, which then goes filtered into a different email list which then alerts him via sms. But I just am projecting his geekiness onto him. Eric, what do you do?

Well, I was just thinking about a system I need to build. Um, I actually, I don't have a real solid system in place for tracking the taxes. I kind of get all those bills and I just kind of keep them in one spot and then lump them together and, you know, make payments as needed. In the past, I have come across kind of like Mimi mentioned, certain counties where there's a period of time where you're basically locked out of paying the taxes no matter what. I mean, they don't care if you haven't paid them by that point, you can't pay them for the next two months. I mean, you can send them cash in the mail, you could send them a cashier's check, whatever it is, they're going to return it to you and not accept it until that time period has passed. So I remember when I ran into that, I was very frustrated and tried to talk to the treasurer and say this is crazy. I want to give you your money. You won't accept it, but. But that's just how it is. So you gotta be aware of those kinds of things. Obviously that doesn't happen in every county, but in some places it does.

Yeah, I mean, I feel like, you know, Mimi should start a new business called countytaxlaws. Dot Mimi. And then we just know based on this county, here's the redemption period. Here's how long you have to pay your taxes before you lose the property. A tax deed state, it's a tax lien state, it's a hybrid state. Here's the treasurer. And I think that'd be a cool website.

Yeah, I agree. And I also think a lot of work, but I probably ought to add it to my due diligence checklist. I mean, I know when the taxes are due, but when's the last time I can pay them before a tax certificate is put upon them? And then how many years can I go till a tax deed? You know, whether. Yeah, tax deeds tax hybrid state.

Yeah.

And it would be good to know if you know what the overage policy is as well. So it's not a bad idea, actually.

Yeah, that's a good idea.

You know, I don't mean I don't know if you guys do this, but I love working with my buyers, just building that relationship. So I send them everything that I have because I'm the one doing due diligence. So not only do I send them the deed, but I send them the receipt of the taxes that I've paid. So I send them everything that I have. And I'll tell you something, maybe that's why I've been building great relationships with them, because I'm so transparent to fault, I think. But I'd rather be that way.

Yeah, no, I think it's great, Jeanne. And you know, it's so funny because I don't want to embarrass Eric, but we were just talking about Eric Peterson. The last podcast we had a guy who is an expert on referral marketing and his strategy is don't ask. Right. Don't be self serving in any way. So if you have a contact, then basically all you're going to do is send them a handwritten note or some type of glue gift, giving a little unexpected extra that is actually, you know, very personal to them and you can go on Facebook and figure out what that might be. Right. So if I wanted to get, let's say barelyn Aaron a glue gift, I would get him something. You know, related to motorcycles. And he would be really thoughtful. But what I would do then is avoid the Land Geek logo completely. It would just be a blank handwritten note, not asking for anything. And Scott and I were saying, you know who's an expert at this is Eric Peterson. Every year I get a handwritten note from Eric, right? And he just expresses his gratitude. And Matt said to us, he's like, he's like, think of all the contacts you have out of the 250, 300, 500 people, right? You guys are both talking about one guy. That's how powerful it is. And one year, Eric got me, like, he knew, he knew I liked to juice. He got me a gift, gift card to my favorite juice place. Like, he's like these little things. And Eric was really cheap about it. I think it was like five bucks, but I still remember it.

Right.

I'm just kidding, Eric. It was more than that, but, you know, it was the thought that counts. And what Jeannie is doing, I think is really, really great as far as building her business to the next level, because those people are going to refer her more business. She's not asking for it. She's just giving more than they expect. And I think it's a really a phenomenal strategy. So, Jeanne, if you added onto that a handwritten note thanking them, I think even that would go really far as.

Well, you know, And I'm trying to Google the speaker's name, but he's a very well known entrepreneur and his name has left me. But he's done the same thing Eric has done, and he got a major contract with an NFL team with the coach, and he, everybody was trying to pitch him and he waited to the right moment and was kind of looking at what he liked in Facebook. And it was like, I think something like a coffee shop or something very simple. And sent him something from that coffee shop and that man called him back and he got like a $50 million contract just doing something very simple like that.

It was amazing. Absolutely. And Eric could even argue, like, that relationship now between Scott and I is worth way more than $50 million. Right, sure. So, Eric, I mean, how did you develop that strategy? Not that it's a strategy, could just be you, but it is something that puts. That does differentiate you.

Yeah, I think it's just maybe a little bit of just who I am, my personality. You know, I've always been, I guess, someone that likes to give people gifts that, you know, have made an impact on me in some way, whether that's friends or Family or whatever, the writing of cards and notes and stuff, I actually, I dislike doing that more than anything, but my wife loves it when I write her a card. So I continue to try to get better and better at that. And, you know, I guess it's just a combination of those two things. And, you know, I think it's important to show people that, you know, you're thinking about them or that you value the relationship you have with them. And oftentimes, you know, a little note or, you know, small gift of some sort may help communicate that.

Yeah, absolutely. And I don't think it works if you're Machiavellian about it. I think as you grow your heart and you really authentically want to create joy in that person's life with the expectation of you're going to get nothing back, that's even better, right? Then seeking out, like writing grant Cardone a handwritten note saying, hey, I really love your stuff, or hoping that he says, hey, why don't you go tour the world with me and let's buy land together and be in my fund or whatever it is. Right. So I think when you do it from that place, it really multiplies the impact much more. But I want to thank you guys for being on this week's roundtable, and hopefully the listeners are getting value out of it. I don't know. Mimi, what do you think? Covered a lot today?

I gained value out of it. I learned some things.

Yeah. Barryland. Aaron, are we good?

We're definitely good. I love. I hope everybody gets a lot of value from these, because I know I do, and it kind of gives me a little bit of pump for the rest of the week. So I really enjoy doing it, and I hope everybody enjoys listening to them.

Yeah, absolutely. Jeanne, are we good?

Yeah. Do you. Do you hear feedback from the listening audience?

You know, I have to bribe them for it. So I asked them to subscribe, rate, review the podcast screenshot of that review to support thelandgeek.com and we send them the passive income launch kit course, which is normally $97 for free. So please do that and give us feedback if you're getting value and we'll give you even more.

You know, can I just shoot you an idea real quick? Maybe fun, maybe to give a shout out to our listeners that do give you feedback so we can hear what they're saying.

No, that'd be great. And if you actually leave an Amazon review for the Dirt Rich book, like, you can get the Kindle book now for 299. But if you send me a screenshot of the review that you left on Amazon, I'd love to send you a signed copy of the paperback as well. So just send me your address and let me show some appreciation for that, because it. I love getting that kind of feedback and do it. But I got a bribe, Jeannie. I like to bribe. Nothing wrong with it. But look, people are busy. If you don't do that, like, oh, whatever, you know, I'll get to it. So, you know, that's. That's different. That's marketing versus, like, what we were talking about earlier, what Eric does. So I am expecting something in return, but nothing wrong with marketing. We're always mailing marketing, right? It's the core.

Yeah.

Eric Peterson, how about you? Are we good? We're good. All right, well, I want to thank everybody. I want to thank the listeners. And are we gonna do it? We're gonna be. We're gonna geek out on it.

Mm.

One, two, three. Let freedom ring. Oh, my gosh.

That was pretty bad.

I didn't do it.

We missed our other guys.

You didn't do it?

Oh, no, no, no, no.

He's in the sticks. His Internet's so laggy. Right? I wonder if we're gonna get, like, hate from, like, please stop doing let freedom ring at the end.

Well, now that you said it, someone's gonna have to put it in the review.

Right?

Love the podcast. Hate the end of it. Thanks, everybody. All right, well, thanks, everyone. And Jeanne, hopefully I'll see you at Mavericks this week.

Yes.

Yeah, I'm really. Okay. This is my order now. I'm getting a sugar free vanilla latte with the breakfast burrito, which is super spicy, so it cuts the spice with the latte and their gluten free cookie. Have you had the cookie?

No.

Oh, it's crazy.

Well, I'm going that.

Yeah, I don't think you can have a cookie for breakfast.

Why not? What about lunch or dinner? Burritos all the time. Doesn't have to be breakfast. I don't know. I'm really letting myself go these days. I'm 47. I don't even care anymore. I'm eating cookies and candy next. You know what? At Scottsdale Boot Camp, literally, I'm gonna look like Elvis right before he died, and I'm so excited about it.

You're gonna wear leather suit. You're gonna wear a fancy leisure suit.

Oh, Mimi, I'm in a serious. I'm getting, like, one of those big belt buckles that hides my big belly. I'M just gonna. You know, I'm gonna go out there, and I'm like, let freedom ring. And just.

Right now.

Yeah. Yeah. So if you want to see me and my expanding waistline, go to thelandgeek.combootcamp and register for Bootcamp. Mimi's gonna be there. Jeanne's gonna be there. You gonna make it.

Not making this one. Next one.

Okay. So you guys will see and. All right, well, thanks, everybody. See everybody next week.

Thank you.

Thanks.

Bye.