EP 48: Amrit Saini-

Transcript

Cold Plunge Mindset And Catching Up

SPEAKER_04 0:19

Good morning, Kaylee.

SPEAKER_01 0:20

Good morning, Dan.

SPEAKER_04 0:22

Long time no see.

SPEAKER_01 0:23

It feels like it.

SPEAKER_04 0:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 0:25

How's your leg today? It's uh it's attached. Okay.

SPEAKER_04 0:30

I don't know. It's just frustrating. Um but we're getting better. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 0:34

I gotta every day a step in the right direction. Yeah. To use a good pun. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 0:38

I made it, I did, I made it um, I did make it for uh five minutes in a full cold plunge again, so I'm getting my tolerance back a little bit.

SPEAKER_01 0:47

I don't think I've ever made it past like a minute 30 in a cold plunge, so that's a long time for me.

SPEAKER_04 0:53

I'm trying to, you know, the do getting back into the doing hard things thing.

SPEAKER_01 0:56

So I love that mantra.

SPEAKER_04 0:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 0:59

I feel like I need to keep doing although life feels hard most of the time for you right now.

SPEAKER_04 1:04

Well, you know what? Then sometimes, sometimes that's the hard thing that you gotta do, and you just keep talking about it. Just life. Just I just have to. Absolutely, right? That's it. Just keep doing life. Sometimes it's hard. Life is life is hard, but it's so beautiful.

SPEAKER_01 1:17

So um, well, I'm really excited to introduce our guest today. Yeah. Because I I rarely get the honor. But uh, this is somebody that I met in my short stint, actually working for the Real Producers magazine.

SPEAKER_03 1:29

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 1:29

And he is a top 500 agent in the Greater Sacramento Valley. And when I got to learn his story, I was very impressed. Um, and he's I don't want to give too much away, but he has a great story, he's a brilliant mind. He's working on a lot of amazing stuff, um, both in real estate and kind of affecting homeownership as well. So I'm you know, without further ado, let's let's play away.

Meet Amrit And His Walkout Song

SPEAKER_04 1:56

Let's get it going. So, Amrit, thank you so much for being with us. Um, first and foremost, let's just get right to it. Montel Jordan, this is how we do it. The intro makes me think slick Rick, but we went Montel Jordan's.

SPEAKER_01 2:28

It's like so unsuspecting. Yeah, I think it's a good idea. I love it. Okay.

SPEAKER_04 2:32

So why, so why is this your walkout song?

SPEAKER_03 2:35

Well, first of all, thank you for having me. You know, giving me an opportunity to come here and talk to you guys on various real estate issues.

SPEAKER_01 2:43

Yeah, of course.

SPEAKER_03 2:44

Uh really appreciate it. About the song, it's like uh it's it attracts attention, gives energy, you know, fills the room with energy, positive vibes. So anything I put, I make a sale on real estate, I advertise, I put on social media. This is the background music. Got it. And everyone gets attracted and they want to see what I'm doing. So I like this song because of the positive energy brings.

SPEAKER_04 3:13

Excellent. Yes.

SPEAKER_01 3:13

Yeah, well, it definitely caught my attention.

SPEAKER_04 3:15

Absolutely. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 3:17

I always like to think that I could profile somebody by what music they listen to. So when I'm pleasantly surprised, it just reminds me that I don't know everything. I think I know.

SPEAKER_04 3:27

Right. It gives you that. It gives you that, like, oh my gosh, I didn't think I was making judgment, but I thought it probably made judgment. 100%. And you're like, oh well, okay. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 3:36

Leave it to be. Yes. When you're on social media, you know, some reels and some, you know, when people put their videos, it takes like a couple seconds. Do you want to really look at it or not? So there has to be some attracting factor in there. There'll be a hook.

Punjab Roots And Himalayan Views

SPEAKER_01 3:51

Well, you hooked me. I would say you've got the hook down. My goodness. Okay, so let's talk about a little bit. Let's start from where you're from. Because I love your, I guess we could call it your origin story. Yeah. Um, it's really, really cool. So, where where are you from originally?

SPEAKER_03 4:08

Okay, I grew up in India, uh, northern part of India, uh, Punjab state. I come from there. And during my uh holidays when school was off, my grandfather, maternal grandfather, lived in a place called Dharamsala, where Dalai Lama also lives. You heard about Dalai Lama? Yeah. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 4:31

I mean, I think we've all heard about the Dalai Lama.

SPEAKER_04 4:34

I mean, my reference is more from the movie Caddyshack, but yes, I've heard of the Dalai Lama.

SPEAKER_03 4:39

He's well known all over the world. Absolutely. And I met him a couple of times. And, you know, when I was young, I was in school days. I met him. He, my grandfather knew him, and they were kind of friends or neighbors or whatever. And I never got to know much about him because I as a kid I was not interested. But I used to go there during my holidays, Dharamsala, and you will see when you get up in the morning, the views were great. Snow peaked mountains, you know, Himalayas UC. I grew up in that environment. The views were million-dollar views. My dad my grandfather lived on a cliff, the house was on a cliff. And you could see hundreds of miles and all that. That's amazing. And when I came to States, here I found out the view has value. Yeah. Right. People will pay for a view. People will pay. Back there, people don't care because they, you know, that's it every day. Yeah. Yeah, they've seen every so when I went back, told my grandfather that if this house was in America, you would have been a millionaire. And he told my mom, he said, Your son has gone crazy. Who's gonna pay for you? So I this is the environment I come from. Very simple living and all that. But this was back in the 80s, you know, 80s, early 90s, and things have changed. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 6:06

Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_03 6:07

India has totally developed into with new generation and new things, bigger and better things. So I grew up in India. I got my education in India, I did my bachelor's in chemistry and biology from India. Then I came here in 91. 91 I came to States, uh, started working for uh companies like NEC, HP, and uh moved to Intel. And while I was working, I was going to school also because I found out in America companies pay for your schooling.

SPEAKER_04 6:45

You know, it was advantage of that for sure.

Corporate America Schooling And Stability

SPEAKER_03 6:48

Exactly. You know, people miss on it, you know. And I tell the new generation, hey, if your company is paying for it, go for it. Oh, yeah, go for it. Back those days, every I was going to national university, university, every class was thousand dollars. And my company paid for the entire degree, I think it was forty, fifty thousand dollars then. And they after as soon as I finished, they gave me the job in IT.

SPEAKER_01 7:17

And uh soon.

SPEAKER_03 7:19

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 7:20

Do they still do that these days? I feel like the economy, like with how expensive schooling is and everything, yeah, they probably pulled back on what they're willing to pay for. They'll give you like 25%, maybe.

SPEAKER_04 7:31

It just depends. I mean, you know, um my wife Marina had a had appetite. That's why we we moved to Kansas City. Uh, you know, that was part of her reload package, was to put her through grad school. Oh, I didn't know that. Yeah, so we had a commitment to you know, X amount of years to be out there for her to develop herself personally and professionally.

SPEAKER_01 7:49

And uh Dan, every episode, every episode I'm learning something about her.

SPEAKER_04 7:54

No, it's because I don't just throw it up.

SPEAKER_01 7:56

You are onion.

SPEAKER_04 7:58

You know what's wild? I actually, but what I do is I use how freaking super interesting my wife is and playing it as my own because I married her. You're you're there by affiliation. I mean marriage.

SPEAKER_03 8:09

Guilty by association. Totally.

SPEAKER_01 8:11

Totally.

SPEAKER_03 8:12

By the way, Starbucks pays for schooling.

SPEAKER_01 8:14

Starbucks does pay for schooling. I know that. They've really increased their benefits.

SPEAKER_03 8:18

And I know a lot of kids who have gone to who worked for Starbucks have gone to school. They have taken advantage of this. So I I worked for Intel and then back Intel, like I told earlier, hires a lot of people, truckloads, and they fired truckloads. I needed a stable job. Yes. And back 95, 95.

SPEAKER_04 8:40

They create that competitive environment. And which it's is very common in tech, right? Because that's that's that competitive environment fuels the growth and the accelerated um you know technology.

SPEAKER_03 8:52

Yeah, much. And they hire young people. Intel, all these big companies, they Google they hire young people. They don't want 45 or 50 something. Yeah, they don't hire me.

SPEAKER_01 9:01

They've your tired mind. They need they need agility, okay?

SPEAKER_04 9:08

Physically and mentally too salty. I gotcha.

SPEAKER_03 9:12

But when you are young, you can do it, but uh time comes, you know, when you say, okay, I can. Absolutely. And then I moved to state. Uh started working for uh Department of Uh, I worked for Department of Motor Vehicles, Department of Correction, then I worked for Calpers. So I've been different. Department of Business Oversight that used to take care of title companies and all that.

SPEAKER_01 9:35

Well, that's a fun crossover.

SPEAKER_03 9:37

And and working for Department of Business Oversight, they told me there's a conflict because I was a broker. Uh so I had to leave that department for how long?

SPEAKER_04 9:47

Um, how long did you did you immediately start um working towards your broker license when you got licensed in real estate?

Real Estate Ambition Meets The 2008 Crash

SPEAKER_03 9:58

When I got my license in real estate, I I worked uh six months in as a real estate agent. I I picked up because I had real estate experience from India. My dad owned a lot of land and a lot of real estate, you know, a lot of shops were leased and all that. So I had some liking about real estate. And I think generally anyone from India real estate is in their blood. They want to do something with the real estate. It's built in us. Yeah. So I then I found out, you know, I wanted to be a broker, you know. And I found out that I already have a degree. After two years, I can. Oh. Generally you have to wait four years. Yeah. But if you have a degree after two years, you can apply for your broker.

SPEAKER_01 10:45

Okay. Yes. Oh, I didn't know that.

SPEAKER_03 10:47

But I waited four years because it's time to finish college, can't you? I know.

SPEAKER_01 10:50

Jeez, well, if there's any motivation, that's it. A broker Cayley. Please know.

SPEAKER_03 10:59

I don't know. You're gonna be one. I mean, I don't ever want to be, I just yeah, I'm probably not. But yeah. Anyway, this isn't about me. This isn't about me. So I think in nine in 2008, finally I became a broker.

SPEAKER_01 11:15

Oh, great timing.

SPEAKER_03 11:16

Yes. And I I was so busy from 2000 to 2008, 2004 to 2008. Real estate was booming. Oh, yeah. Money flow was you want to buy a house, all you needed was a social security.

SPEAKER_01 11:31

Yeah, yeah. Doesn't matter what you earn, you can just tell me that. Stated income. Stated income.

SPEAKER_03 11:37

You know, stayed and we made a lot of money. I was doing loans, you know, selling, buying homes, double ending deals, and did everything. But all that money we made, we put it in real estate. Smart. Kind of. It was smart, but uh the result didn't come out of the state.

SPEAKER_04 11:57

You would have loved hindsight, you would have loved to have sat on it for a few years and then put it in real estate in about 2012.

SPEAKER_03 12:04

So 2008 and all in my circle, we were buying properties with option arm loans. You know, option arm loans where you make minimum payment that doesn't even cover principal or fully interest, not fully. So when the market went down, those payments shut up. Oh, yeah. And it reset the we had no place to run. It was like, what happened? And you know, because my engineering background and all that, I I looked, I analyzed, and I was telling everyone, hey, this is deep. This is not gonna turn around six months. A lot of people around me saying, hey, you are just creating a panic, blah, blah, blah. I said, listen, I can see this is not going anywhere. So what happened was I short sale whatever properties I own, I just got rid of it. I was back to zero. Like I landed in America again.

SPEAKER_01 13:05

Starting from scratch.

SPEAKER_04 13:06

And then three days later you get the loan modification programs, you're like, damn it.

SPEAKER_03 13:12

It was it was an eye-opening experience. Oh, yeah. In 91, I landed in America with$200. 2008, I had made millions. But it was every penny was invested in real estate.

SPEAKER_01 13:26

Every penny. That's tough.

SPEAKER_03 13:28

And lost everything, even those$200 I brought.

SPEAKER_01 13:32

But you were negative. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 13:36

But you know, every downfall is an opportunity. Yeah. I've learned in life. You know, learn from the downfall. Yeah. So, okay, there was you go through the cycle depression, crying on the sofa.

SPEAKER_00 13:50

I'm sure there were a lot of tears shedding.

SPEAKER_03 13:53

And wife is mad, kids are mad, because you were flying.

SPEAKER_00 13:58

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 13:58

And now you are on the road, you know, trying to survive. Walking everywhere now, yeah. Coupons and everything for glossary.

SPEAKER_04 14:08

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 14:10

And and the embarrassment.

unknown 14:12

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 14:13

That thing brings in the ego plays in as well, right? Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 14:18

Surely to go from the top, it's easier to stay at the bottom because you never know what it's like. But when you lose it, there's a lot of shame that you carry because you affiliate that with your own capabilities, your own success. It's totally untrue, but it's the lie we tell ourselves. Trevor Burrus, Jr.

SPEAKER_03 14:32

And exactly when you're young and you're making too too much money, you're you have an attitude problem. Oh yeah. Right? And that time I- Yes. And at that time I realized the stuff I had said to other people. It came back and haunted me. That was a lot of lessons learned. So, okay, a year I was down and blah, blah, blah. Then finally, I was watching a show, and in the show, the host was saying about people who are complaining all the time. And he said, You guys are come always complaining, blaming others. Just sitting on a chair on a sofa and for your failures, blaming others, blaming circumstances. Get up and do something about it.

SPEAKER_04 15:21

My coaches always said, I played sports in college. My coaches would say, the problem is usually not who anybody you can point your finger at, it's in the mirror. Yes. And when you start looking in the mirror and asking the hard questions and having the tough conversations with yourself was when you notice things started to shift.

SPEAKER_03 15:40

Exactly. I'm coming to that. So when I heard that, I I that light bulb bulb just went on. I rightway called the bank and told them, hey, this is the situation. On my house that was left, I was living in. They say, okay, no problem. Let's forbearance and modify your loan and all that. Within a week, they modified my loan. And I was this close to losing my house. I was close to losing my house, and they modified, they changed my payments. Okay, a lot of confidence came back. Lot of confidence. You just needed a win. Yes. One you know, one thing, and that just, oh, this is not that tough. Then I started talking to people, and I was the first one who was down in my area, people I knew. Then I started talking to other people, and people were hiding this problem.

SPEAKER_04 16:32

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 16:33

Everyone was like, no, no, I'm not sure.

SPEAKER_04 16:34

Yeah, that's not exactly something you're running around sharing with the neighbors, right? Yeah. Exactly. But you all we all knew it.

SPEAKER_01 16:40

We everybody felt it. My dad lost his house. Like everybody was affected by that.

SPEAKER_04 16:45

Irina and I bought our first house in 07. And it was a new, it was a con or townhouse. Yes. And I think we bought it for$318,000 or something. And we sold it, short-sold it three years later. We'd we had it rented out for a year and a half. We're taking a thousand dollar a month loss on the rent. And we finally short-sold it. It was the happiest days of our life because our daughter was born like the next day. And uh, but yeah, it was like we I I specifically remember we we had moved, we were living in Kansas City, and we had gotten to the point where financially we were we were doing pretty good and we had some money that we needed to we couldn't just stuff it in a savings account anymore. We needed people were telling us you gotta put this money to work. So we met with a financial advisor, and and the the the home that we'd owned in um in Lincoln came up and he goes, Why? And it was like this sense of pride, you know. I was like, Well, because I'm not gonna default on my loan, I'm not gonna give it back, I'm not gonna do any of these things. And he goes, Look around. He's like everyone, everyone, everyone. He goes, You're not alone in this. He goes, matter of fact, you're actually in the minority because you're holding on for so long. And that was like crazy to me. And and I and I I still in my heart of hearts still think that it was so wrong. Um just for you know, personal reasons. But then I looked back and the the person that bought that townhouse on a short sale. I mean, they made like$150,000. The market came back, they got the and they it was a great, it turned out to be a great investment for them. Yeah, they heard our credit for you know a few years. It wasn't crazy. We were able to, we were still able to buy another house in Kansas. It was crazy. I was like, oh, we just short sold on this, we just bought another one. Cool. We're just yeah, keep it moving.

SPEAKER_03 18:26

Actually, the government made it so easy.

SPEAKER_04 18:28

Yeah.

Short Sales As A Comeback Engine

SPEAKER_03 18:29

You know, everyone's saying, hey, I'm upside down. Okay, government made it so easy because on foreclosure and short sale, bank loses money, they give you 1099, you're supposed to pay income tax on that. The government said no income tax. So everyone started doing it. But I went around uh talking to people and they say, no, finally they started opening up, yeah, I'm having problem, I'm having problems. Okay. Then word got around in my friend's circle, and I started getting calls. Hey, how did you get out of this?

SPEAKER_01 19:03

So you became another advisor.

SPEAKER_03 19:04

Advisor, and they said, we want to do this, and I was a broker. Hey, can you short sale my house?

unknown 19:09

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 19:10

So I started getting business. Yep. You know, from my downfall, this opportunity came.

SPEAKER_04 19:16

And then Well Hut, I think there's something you said too you were the you were the first one to hit the bottom. Yes. Which means you're in prime position to be the first one to bounce back. Right. And there's and there's no traffic in front of you. It's just it's it's free sailing, right? Yes. It's it so yeah, it's great that you identified that then and were able to just grasp it and go. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 19:41

I was getting short sales from my friends, everyone, and I was doing short sales. Then while doing short sales, you know, okay, commissions were good, and all that banks were paying commissions. But it was a tough sale. You have to work with the bank and the seller and the buyer for six months, one year, and you know. Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 19:59

Especially compared to like right now. Yeah. In resident, I mean, these things are happening in days. 14 days, 14 days, eight days. It's like, holy cow, these were 60, 90, 180-day transactions.

SPEAKER_03 20:11

Some transactions, you know, banks were so busy. And it was a it the way you can live in a house free for three years. Some banks didn't care. You would call them and so I finally told some guys, hey, you can live for two, three, two, two to three years free. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 20:30

Wow. Before they even realize you're here. Yeah. They've got such a backlog of inventory. And remember that though? People were like ripping the cabinets off the walls and the countertops. We're gonna go sell their granite countertops on the black mark.

SPEAKER_01 20:46

Honestly, like looking back on it, what a what a crazy time. There's so many things we've lived through that I can't wait to look back on and be like, holy shit, we actually did that.

SPEAKER_04 20:57

It was totally normal. So crazy. I talk about it all the time with Marina. I'm like, we've got to fight you went crazy. We bought our first home six months before the bottom just fell out. Crazy. I mean, we bought at the peak and the valley was 18 months later. Like crazy.

SPEAKER_03 21:11

You know, some things are supposed to come. When I did my last sales before 2008, and I was telling my buyers, are you sure you want to buy it? Because I knew something is coming. I knew something. But people who are into buying house, no, we're gonna buy because everybody made money, we also want to make money. So when I was doing short sales, you know, uh, then I realized there's a money. They were Blackstone, BlackRock. Yep. Oh yeah. So they had their agents lined up and they were buying properties for me. Any short sale, they started coming to me. Hey, we'll take it, we'll take it. I said, what's going on here? Because they were holding it, fixing it. So I said, why don't I do a fix? So I started looking for short sales and I started buying properties, short sales, fixing it up and selling. So that thing just took off. Till date I have short uh flipped around 100 ohms of properties.

SPEAKER_02 22:06

That's insane.

SPEAKER_03 22:08

I've done 100, maybe a little more. And there was an opportunity I realized okay, there's more money to be made here. And I was lucky, I surrounded myself from the very get go with good people. My friends, my realities were very nice to me when I needed money because money was the biggest hurdle back then. Capital's huge for sure. Money was not available.

SPEAKER_04 22:29

And people and people were were hoarding it. I mean, we were talking about burying it in Folgers cans in the backyard, right? Because we didn't trust banks.

SPEAKER_01 22:35

Yeah. No. Nobody did. That was the first time. Well, in our generation anyway, that they realized you can't.

SPEAKER_04 22:41

That was when our grandparents were really like, hey, we've done this before. They're like, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 22:45

Trust me. Just money. They've all we've always said money's in the garden, you know.

COVID Fear Then A Fast Rebound

SPEAKER_03 22:48

Like it's in the pillow or the mattress. And another thing was when you're going through short sale, you would want to disclose that money to the bank because bank is gonna wants to know what's your financial status. Right. So you don't want anything sitting in the bank under your name. So that was you have to be a little creative, you know, how to handle that. So I started doing flipping. And then it just, but I have done so much flipping and then selling, buying homes, and I had some agents under my umbrella, you know, broker. So did fine till COVID hit. Right? COVID hit, everything just stopped. And I had five properties listed within 15 days and COVID hit. I said, oh my same thing is gonna happen again. And then the opposite. But but you know, for a month and a half it was dead. Two months ago. Oh, yeah. Two, three months, it was dead. Yeah. I sold everything I had. I took a loss of hundred thousand.

SPEAKER_04 23:53

But I was ready for that because you know You see, you you'd you definitely paint the you are not someone who sits around and waits for things to happen. I know, I know.

SPEAKER_01 24:01

Isn't it incredible? Like his story is just it's so inspiring too, because there's so many people who get stuck under life circumstances and then just sit under the weight of it all. And he's like, No, where how do I turn this into something good?

SPEAKER_03 24:14

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 24:15

We all need that.

SPEAKER_03 24:16

I believe cut your losses. Always, you know, see, you know, don't foolishly, but you know, don't panic, but analyze it and cut your losses. If something is long-term, get rid of it.

SPEAKER_05 24:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 24:30

I had homes, it's bad inventory of homes. Get rid of it. But I have budgeted myself that if the market goes down, 100 to 200k I had left to the side, hey, I'm okay to let it go.

SPEAKER_04 24:43

You weren't gonna be left with your two pennies rubbing your two pennies together again. You learned that lesson.

SPEAKER_03 24:47

I learned my lesson. And then uh and then within three months, after three months, the properties I sold at a loss, I would have made a lot of money.

SPEAKER_04 24:56

Oh, yeah. Oh, God, when the interest rates went down. I I had a um so I at that time I was uh um I was a partner in a home and termite inspection company. We also had pest control division. Um pest control was deemed an essential service um from the get-go, right? And that was the big rub back then was real estate essential or not essential? And um I think I I made a post on Facebook like the the the second I heard the announcement that real estate had been declared an essential service. And I mean I think to this day it was the most popular thing I've ever put on social media in any regard, and not like I'm a frickin' influencer or anything, but I was like, And we influence all eight of our listeners, okay, every week. All right. Um but it would but it was wild. Like when when when real estate was a term essential and just the the the energy and the the joy and the happiness and the the determination, right? Because I mean we were on pins and needles for I think it was like five or six weeks from like the onset. And I mean, everyone was dealing with their own personal.

SPEAKER_01 26:03

I think everybody it doesn't matter what in this industry you were in, everybody always like, what is happening? When do we get to go out of our houses? Do we are we scared to leave? Like there was just so much happening.

SPEAKER_03 26:14

I learned the difference between an epidemic and a pandemic. And and we are the generation, people don't realize we are the generation who have seen wars.

SPEAKER_04 26:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 26:24

Right? Yeah, we have seen Great Depression, yeah. And we have seen pandemic. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 26:30

You've seen it all.

SPEAKER_03 26:31

So you have seen all. Yeah. This these three things, four things don't come quite often. Right. No. We have seen it all.

SPEAKER_01 26:38

How lucky of us. Oh, so fortunate.

SPEAKER_03 26:44

But but everything brought, you know, when we came out of wars, more money was yeah.

SPEAKER_04 26:49

Yeah, I mean, like because like you said, I mean, the baby boomers for sure. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 26:53

I mean it changed America back, you know, World War II, America changed because of the defense industry and all that, you know. Absolutely. So so when that that thing hit, you know, and what happened was my kids just graduated from college in the world. Uh 2020. And what happened? It's a chance I got. The jobs they landed, they were making more than I was. They're starting salaries. Working from home. Working from home. Wow. They were making more than what I've been working for 20 years, and they're selling. I was like, what's going on? The companies couldn't find people, and they were paying these kids a lot of money working from home. Wow. And what I realized at Sacramento that time, the medium home price was$300,000,$350,000. You can buy a good house. And when I saw all this, you know, new kids coming out for with uh$150,000 salary.

SPEAKER_04 27:49

Yeah, I mean, it was a miniature kind of a dot-com boom where you got these kids that have got all this money all of a sudden.

SPEAKER_03 27:54

New generation, husband, wife, new kids, a boyfriend, girlfriend buying a house, they were making$250,000 to$300,000. And the houses price, how home prices were$350,000 in Sacramento. I realized these home prices are gonna go up. Oh, yeah. And interest rates are subject to the state. They started dropping. And the I I was telling everyone, my friend's circle, hey, buy a home because the prices are gonna go up. Yeah, because the incomes have gone up, the prices will catch up.

SPEAKER_05 28:21

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 28:22

Yeah. Yep. And oh no, no, they say it's gonna fall. People are thinking, no, it it the incomes are just I I saw income. And then I started grabbing any property I could get hold of. Grab it.

SPEAKER_01 28:36

Smart.

SPEAKER_03 28:38

Just hold it rented. Hold it rented. And uh flipping also flip flipping model works when the prices are going up. Yes.

SPEAKER_04 28:46

As soon as they start to stabilize, it gets real, real tough. And if they're going down, you're screwed.

SPEAKER_03 28:51

Yeah, you are screwed. So this market, what we are going through, it's not good for flipping.

SPEAKER_01 28:55

No.

unknown 28:56

Right.

SPEAKER_04 28:56

It's not.

SPEAKER_01 28:57

You don't, yeah, the margins just don't make sense.

SPEAKER_04 28:58

Yeah, the only the the handful of flippers I know right now, if they can't get something that they really like wholesale, forget it. Yeah, there's no way you're buying, you're paying retail and flipping a home in this market.

Interest Rates Stagnation And ADU Upside

SPEAKER_03 29:10

I I I get calls daily from wholesalers and I tell them, hey, first look, there's a meat on the bone. Don't just call me this ARV is gonna be this. You know, we are a seasoned real estate guys. We're gonna do our own analysis. And then they kind of first rode. Yeah, yeah. So don't. But I'm not buying. But after this, you know, all happened, we are c we are coming to a point where there's a price stagnation in real estate. And I think it's gonna continue for some time to come.

SPEAKER_04 29:39

Yeah. I think my personal belief is we're at a we're at a place where where interest rates are gonna be very, very challenged to get below five, let alone below four. Yeah. Um my my personal opinion is over the next 10 years, you see interest rates staying a lot closer between five and seven, than above or below that.

SPEAKER_01 30:01

And it's just it's just really it's gonna depend on what home values do.

SPEAKER_04 30:06

Well, it's so unaffordable. Yeah, if we just increase inflation, whatever, but it's it's just that's not the answer. It's an affordability. Exactly. If it's an affordability issue, it's an affordability issue. You can only afford what you can afford.

SPEAKER_03 30:17

I know. I think the home values will continue to rise, but at a slower pace. At slower pace, that doesn't make much difference for a flipper or investor.

SPEAKER_05 30:26

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 30:27

They will keep on going up.

SPEAKER_05 30:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 30:29

The reason I'll tell you why they will keep on going up, but they'll keep on going up at a slower rate. So after you know, finally the home values in Sacramento caught up, you know, from 350 to 550 now.

SPEAKER_04 30:42

200,000.

SPEAKER_03 30:43

200,000.

SPEAKER_04 30:44

Six years.

SPEAKER_03 30:45

Very quick. If at that time, if a new couple, new young couple, they are making 250 to 300,000, they can qualify for eight or nine hundred thousand mortgages. So, you know, and why won't they buy it? And the interest rate went down to two percent. Oh, yeah. So the prices are started going up. Yeah. Started going up. So it was just analysis, okay. This is gonna happen, and it it happened. Now we are at a stagnation. Yeah. And what I am seeing is I'm buying properties with land behind it where I can build ADUs. The value is there. You build an ADU. I can I know Dan, you build ADUs, and I have my own team. It's very economical for me to work with my team. And and the return on ADU if you rent it out is ten percent plus.

SPEAKER_04 31:39

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 31:40

Impressive.

SPEAKER_03 31:41

And you then you gain equity with time.

SPEAKER_04 31:44

Yep. Right. Well, especially now, and the rules are kind of changing. They're allowing you to like sub-parcel out these lots. So now you can actually now it's actually its own property.

SPEAKER_05 31:51

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 31:52

It's not even just an ADU on on a on a home.

SPEAKER_03 31:54

It's it's yeah. Build one and wait five to ten years. Yeah. You're gonna make good money on it. 100%. Yeah. And I think counties and cities are making building ADUs difficult now. They're adding, they are just because a lot of people are also complaining and all that, you know, parking is an issue and all that. Oh yeah. But if you build right ADU with parking, yeah, you're set.

Hard Truths For New Agents

SPEAKER_04 32:18

That's the secret. I think what we've seen from our side is having is having enough space, having the land, and just not being egregious on your your lot lines, and you know, but I get it, like the business side of that is you've got to maximize that that property value. So it's it's a it's a it's a fine line. It's it's kind of a balancing act, in my opinion.

SPEAKER_01 32:42

Aaron Ross Powell So in the current market that we're in right now, what advice would you give to someone who is just getting started in real estate?

SPEAKER_03 32:51

As a real estate agent. As a real estate agent. It's a very tough environment right now. And when I started in real estate, there were not that many agents. Becoming an agent has become very easy.

SPEAKER_01 33:03

A very low bar.

SPEAKER_03 33:05

Right. And you know, every household has an agent sitting with them, or you know, their relative or someone. So if long term, if you want to be a real estate agent on your I think make it a side jaw. Interesting. Make it a side job. Because now technology allows you to complete a deal, start and complete a deal from with your computer. Yeah. Earlier when I started on your phone, earlier when I was started, you had to print the forms. Hand sign. Even fill it with with your hand. There used to be 10 pages carbon copy. You had to fill it out, take it to the seller buyer, get it signed, take it to the title company, fax it and all that fax.

SPEAKER_04 33:52

The buyer and seller would be sitting at opposite ends of the same table, but they'd be in the same room.

SPEAKER_01 33:57

Weird.

SPEAKER_04 33:59

When was the last time you had a buyer and seller? Have you ever had buyer and seller in the same room? Literally never. Yeah. You probably never will.

SPEAKER_01 34:05

No. The only time I've ever had buyer and seller run into each other is either it it's mostly on inspections.

SPEAKER_03 34:11

I prefer to keep them apart because of ego issues.

SPEAKER_01 34:14

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 34:15

If the buyer says, hey, your house is not good, blah blah blah, and the seller gets angry. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 34:21

So you don't know everybody has pride in their house, even when they don't take care of it.

SPEAKER_04 34:25

It's like getting loose-lipped in front of the ring camera.

SPEAKER_01 34:30

I tell everyone, I'm like, listen to their recordings, so we'll wait to talk about how we feel when we get to our cars. Exactly. I think that's interesting advice. I do think that technology is making it easier, but I feel like also as the full-time agent, it's oftentimes the part-time agents that give us a bad rap because they don't know things like the contract well enough. They don't know things like how do I adequately negotiate this and be available for my clients when they need it. Now, maybe that'll change.

SPEAKER_04 35:01

I think and I think well, and and I'll just interject because I think this Amrit's Amrit's point is probably a little jaded because he obviously knew the contract. He obviously did got it all of his I's and crossed all of his T's, even when it was a part-time thing for him, which isn't the norm. Like because your example is the part-timers that are just blindly filling out docu-signs and everything screwed up. Yeah, they don't explain it to the professional, seasoned agent who has who has you know discipline and you know all the all the other professional components. Right. That's where you run into run into the rip.

SPEAKER_03 35:37

Yeah. Let me rephrase what I said. I said be part-time, but even if you are part-time, be under a nice broker or nice mentor. Yeah. Yeah. That's so crucial. You know, that's very important.

SPEAKER_04 35:49

Go to some big 500 agent team or brokerage where you're just a you're just a a number. Yeah. Yes. Go to someone who's gonna answer your phone calls, respond to your text messages. Exactly.

SPEAKER_03 36:00

Everything. Exactly. I a lot of people come to me, they want to be my agents, and I tell them, I cannot babysit you.

SPEAKER_05 36:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 36:06

You need to go find someone, and I'll tell them these are the people you should go work under, get your training.

unknown 36:12

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 36:13

And then spread out and do whatever you want to do. For two years, they need to be mentored. At least, yeah, you know, because that's where you can make big mistakes. And let me tell you, I have, with my experience, I have ran into agents. I bought properties. I knew if the seller had got a nice agent, this property would have gone 50,000 more because the agent doesn't know what he's doing. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 36:42

That's sad. See? And that's exactly what happens when you use your best cousin Vinny. Hey, I know you got your license. You've sold three houses in the last five years, but you're gonna give me a great deal.

SPEAKER_03 36:54

Yeah. People go after commissions. They don't look at the big picture. I tell everyone when you hire an agent, tell him, I'll give you bonus, I'll do this, give me the best offer. Don't cut on commissions. You lose big time. You lose big time on your couple thousand dollars you want to save, and the big picture, you know, you need a best offer.

SPEAKER_05 37:18

Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 37:18

Do not, I tell everyone, but only 20, 25% people listen to it. I I have sold properties where the sellers listen to me. We're gonna list it a little bit below the market, we're gonna stage it, we're gonna do this, this is the time we're gonna come in the uh up for sale. And I knew if they people who listened to me, 90% they did very well because of my experience. And sometimes a lot of people start telling me how to do this. Then I know it's a difficult sale, and okay, you want this, we're gonna do this way. But you know, always go for season realtor. Yeah, you're not seasoned realtor is gonna make his own commission. Yes.

SPEAKER_01 38:01

Every time.

SPEAKER_03 38:02

Seller, you are not paying his commission. He's making his own commission by bringing a much better offer. Yeah. I talk to agents, sometimes I know I cannot fool the agent. You know, it's it's a negotiation. You're feeling each other, you know, where he stands and he knows. And I can tell I can fool this agent. He doesn't know what he's talking about. And sometimes I know, oh no, no, I can't, you know. So I have negotiated so many deals. So uh if you can do because so many agents, you know, you have to survive.

SPEAKER_01 38:34

Yeah, it's so hard. People don't understand. So you need to. Aren't getting a check for the first three to six months. Until it closes. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 38:42

Until it closes. Crazy.

SPEAKER_03 38:44

Crazy. And you you have to pay your rent and all that.

SPEAKER_04 38:46

So your bills don't your bills don't wait for you to make a commission.

SPEAKER_01 38:49

It turns out, unfortunately.

California Fees And The $7k Exemption

SPEAKER_03 38:53

So uh try to get some uh steady source of income. Yeah. And then work on your real estate. Yeah. Once the real estate picks up, drop it, yeah. And go do it. You know?

SPEAKER_01 39:04

So I want to talk about this stack of papers here. Oh. Because I feel like the last time that you and I spoke, you were explaining some very interesting things that have to do with property tax values and the money that the county is making and the money that homeowners are losing.

SPEAKER_05 39:23

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 39:24

And you talked about this very passionately and and with a purpose, and it sounded like the beginning of a crusade in a real way. And I think that it's a really important topic that people should hear about.

SPEAKER_03 39:36

Yes. Thank you.

SPEAKER_01 39:37

And I love that you're bringing this to the surface.

SPEAKER_03 39:40

Yes. Thank you for bringing it up.

SPEAKER_01 39:41

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 39:42

Here um, you know, we are talking about affordability. You cannot afford to buy a house. This is not only the problem in California. I don't know the other states also. The next problem is maintaining that affordability. You buy a house to maintain that house because the taxes and all that they are coming. Oh, yeah. HOAs and the way they maintain. Oh, yeah. It's it's getting EGE. EGE's. Okay. What do we get when we buy a house? In California, the home exemption is$7,000. Okay. Where who came up with this$7,000?

unknown 40:26

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 40:26

You know, this was implemented for a$100,000 house or a$3 million house.

SPEAKER_01 40:32

$7,000 across the board. Yeah. Across the board.

SPEAKER_03 40:35

This started back in 68, then 74 they implemented, they said, okay, we're gonna give every homeowner$7,000 home exemption in property tax.

SPEAKER_01 40:45

And this was in 1978.

SPEAKER_03 40:46

74.

SPEAKER_01 40:48

And the average home value back then was about$35,000.

unknown 40:51

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 40:52

So on$35,000, 20% was an exemption.

SPEAKER_04 40:55

I mean$7,000 on 35, you're that's a fifth.

SPEAKER_03 40:59

Yeah. Yes.

SPEAKER_04 41:00

20 percent on the same.

SPEAKER_03 41:02

20 percent. And then I looked at it, I said, why has this not increased? From 74 via 2026 is 52 plus years. That 7,000 is still there.

unknown 41:14

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 41:15

I can tell you right now, you're gonna have no problem getting me behind the percentage because I love the house right now.

SPEAKER_03 41:21

I got your attention, right? I got your attention. So but to build a house,$35,000 was including the permit fee and all that. Yeah. The permit fee, now the median home price is$550 in Sacramento County. Our exemption is still$7,000. The permit fee back in 74, 70s, early 70s was less than$2,000, around$2,000 to get the permit. Sacramento County was always high. It's still the highest in California. It's one of the highest. So the permit went up, permit fee. All of our taxes went up. Our HOAs went up. Right? Everything with sales tax went up. 50 years, we are still sitting at 7,000. Okay. The other problem I'm seeing is you're buying, we are buying a house for$550,000,$550,000. Included in that$550,000 is the permit. To get a permit in Sacramento County to build a house 1200 scale feet, basic three bed and two bed is$100,000.

SPEAKER_02 42:36

That's insane. That's insane.

SPEAKER_03 42:39

It's$100,000 to$125,000, depending on what age. Right? From$2,000 back in 74, the permit cost has come to 50x. Right? 100,000 50x. Then you buy materials to build a house. You buy lumber, agewack, tiles, countertops, everything. That's about on a 1200 square feet, about$250,000 worth of right? What's the sales tax on that? 9% of that is right. So 25, 20,000 to 25,000 is in sales tax. So now you're paying a permit which is 100 to 125,000. You're paying sales tax, which is 20 to 25,000. So 150,000 you have given to the government. Just to just government saying that's one third of the cost. 150,000 is almost uh yeah, a little bit less, but let's say 25, 30 percent is the cost of this paper government imposed, and they're talking about affordability. You are the problem. You have created the problem. Yeah, it's not the home builders, it's not the sales agents, not realtors.

SPEAKER_04 44:01

Well, because those are because the price of a home when it sells is determined by the market. Yes. What someone's willing to sell it for and what someone's willing to pay for. Now, obviously, we go on some of these runs and people are willing to pay more because interest rates are going down, they're making more money, whatever. But yeah, you're 100% right.

SPEAKER_03 44:19

Like So ha hundred fifty thousand is given to the government. That's a fixed cost.

SPEAKER_04 44:24

That's a set that's a set cost.

SPEAKER_03 44:26

That can be reduced. Yeah. It should be reduced. Then then the government should say, okay, we have reduced our cost. Builders, what can you do?

SPEAKER_01 44:35

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 44:37

Always running to the builders, hey, reduce cost. How can they reduce costs when your permit cost everything is going up every week? Okay.

SPEAKER_04 44:44

Now just playing devil's advocate though with that analogy, because I feel like it's fair. If those builders decrease the costs, you are going to see investor activity increase as well, right? Because those guys are looking for the deals. And if they feel something's a deal, they're going to pounce on it. Which then gets us back into that escalating price carousel. So yes, I 100% agree with what you're saying.

SPEAKER_03 45:11

And the government is putting brakes on investments now. Yes. They are they are doing their part too. Okay. But my going back to this point,$150,000 you're paying to the government. When you buy a property for$550,000, you pay tax on$550. My point is that$150,000 I have given to the government should be off the price. My price should my taxes should be based on$550,000 minus$150,000,$400,000.

SPEAKER_01 45:41

Because you already paid it.

SPEAKER_03 45:42

I already paid and and now I'm bringing you a point that will raise your eyebrows. That$150,000, the government is taxing you 1% every year. What you gave to the government, the sales tax, the government is taxing you 1%, which goes by 2% every year also.

SPEAKER_01 46:07

So they're taxing you on the money you already paid them. Yes.

SPEAKER_04 46:13

Well it's like when you get it's like when you get a uh it's like when you get a tax refund. Yeah. And then the next year you have to claim it and pay the taxes on the tax. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 46:22

Yeah. On top of that, they have added malaruse. Right.

SPEAKER_04 46:27

Right? My neighborhood has a uh non-expiring Melaruse. It's never going away.

SPEAKER_02 46:32

That's insane.

SPEAKER_03 46:33

They are mostly non-expiring. When it's time they go off, they add new or they extend it. They extend it. I I just brought a property tax uh house in Folsom. The guy buys a house for$1.3 million.$13,000 is his tax, 1%. But his actual tax is$20,000. So they have added Folsom Cordova, this fee, Folsom Cardova IMP3, Los Rios College fee, then CFT. The acronyms are you don't even understand.

SPEAKER_01 47:04

CFD, yeah, the CFD 20. Community facilities district. That's my title background coming in there. Yeah, that's what they that's what they blanket label a lot of the Melarus now. Oh, it's it's for the community facilities. Yeah. I don't even know what the CFD is. CFD is but they're collecting a whole shitload of money right now. Trevor Burrus, Jr.

SPEAKER_03 47:21

CFD 20, CFD 18, CFD 17, SA fees, SAF CEO, and total all that thousands of dollars.

SPEAKER_04 47:30

7,000 additional dollars. Right? On top of the 13. Okay. I'm already okay. And the state's broke.

SPEAKER_01 47:38

I know. Where does it go? Like where does it go? And this is just one portion of all of the taxes they're collecting. But the function is a good thing. But you know what, guys, if we're going too deep here, we might get the whistleblown on us. I hear they're trying to stop people from uncovering corruption these days.

SPEAKER_03 47:52

So But someone someone has to see.

SPEAKER_05 48:00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 48:01

The society has been nice to me. I have made something out of myself. Time to pay back. Give back to the community. I'm gonna start this in a year or two. Go to the senators, assembly men. What are you guys doing? Because you are also paying. Your dad is paying, your mom is paying, your brother, everyone is paying, and you're not doing anything about it. Yeah, yeah, on your campaigns you're saying home affordability. You have created the problem, buddy. Yeah. And if I dig deep into this, there's a you know, when you uh apply for the permit, I'm gonna take a minute. So library impact fee, program development fee. Library impact fee.

SPEAKER_04 48:48

This is one that just blows my mind. I mean, even when even when I was hanging out at the library, it was because that's where the kids were smoking and doing stupid shit, right? We were not inside the library, unfortunately.

SPEAKER_01 49:02

Your presence is an impact fee.

SPEAKER_04 49:05

Impact continue to just throw thousands or millions of dollars at library projects. I'm like, I mean, who goes there? It's not it's on Google. We're gonna chat it. Like, whatever.

SPEAKER_01 49:16

Libraries are like a museum.

SPEAKER_04 49:18

No offense, no offense to libraries. I mean, I don't I don't want to downplay the significance or the importance, but I mean for the amount of money that's invested and spent on library.

SPEAKER_03 49:26

Yeah, so these are all fees that are you're paying in for the property when you get a permit, then you pay for transportation mitigation fee, which is in thousands, it's like twenty thousand or something for a house. Then you pay antelope pro fee program in Antelope, there's an Antelope fee program development fee, thousands of dollars. Metherfield has their own fees. You're paying for them to create more fees. Then that's the most beautiful title ever. There's a water resource fee. You don't parks development fee. There are so many fees in this uh when you get a permit. And then when you look at your PGE bill, smart bill, there are fees on that. There are so many. So it's it's coming to a point that people will not be able to afford it.

SPEAKER_01 50:15

Yeah, it already is.

SPEAKER_03 50:17

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 50:17

You start looking around, you people are struggling right now for sure.

SPEAKER_03 50:20

And you can buy a house, but to maintain that house is gonna become is becoming very expensive. Now HOA is another headache. Oh, just uh just just painting.

SPEAKER_04 50:30

Yeah, exterior of power of my house ten years ago would be like four grand. Yeah. I think if we wanted to paint our house, it'd be like 12 years insane.

SPEAKER_03 50:41

When I started uh flipping back in 2010, the bucket five gallon used to be 40, 45 bucks. Now it's 160.

SPEAKER_04 50:49

160?

unknown 50:50

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 50:51

For a five-gallon bucket of paint?

SPEAKER_03 50:52

Yeah.

unknown 50:54

Jesus.

SPEAKER_03 50:54

Wow. So uh it's it's it's a gamut, and if you look at the taxes, so somebody has to talk about it. Hey, come on. And the quality of that paint is in the you gotta be. And on top of that, you pay for the bucket also, the recycling fee for the bucket and the recycling fee for the paint also. You know, it's just coming to everything you it's if you look at the bill, you say, what's going on?

SPEAKER_04 51:24

So we we went back and forth on uh not to interrupt, sorry. Um, but when I had ownership of the pest control company, we we went back and forth for for years about the the the credit card charges. I mean, there were months we had we'd pay five to ten thousand dollars in credit card fees. On, you know, on I mean, you know, half a million dollars in revenue, which is great. Yeah, but it's like, holy cow, like you're paying a yeah, ten thousand dollars in credit card fees, and we would struggle with that. We're like, okay, we're seeing a lot of companies passing this fee along to the consumer, um, you know, because we don't think it's fair. But I mean, good luck fighting Visa or Chase or MasterCard. They don't, they don't give a shit. No. But it's like, so you see, like in you said when you start looking around, the the the amount of companies that have had to pass that on. And we as consumers, we pay it because we either want or need the product. Yeah. And we don't really have a choice. But it's again, it all ties into that affordability snowball.

SPEAKER_03 52:21

Exactly. And you know, my kids they pay their bills online. They all pay their bills with credit cards. And I tell them, don't do it because the credit card company has their own fees. Uh-huh. And uh but my kids don't listen to me and they uh it's so easy, just do it and send it. Yeah. They don't add up. And I thought the current administration in Washington, they had they had said that they're gonna reduce the interest rate, they're gonna put a breaks, but nothing has happened. No. You know, 25 to 30 percent. And the funny part is 25-30 percent you are paying, but when you charge at grocery store gas station, they are paying four to five percent again. Yes. It's a double dipping.

SPEAKER_04 53:04

100 percent. Yeah, oh yeah. That's what I'm saying.

SPEAKER_03 53:05

This is the business we should be in.

SPEAKER_04 53:07

I know. Yeah, oh yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 53:09

Right? This is the business we should be in. So, anyways, coming back to the taxes, this is a someone has to get up from his or her chair and go down downtown, talk to this assemblyman, and if it comes down to file a case in the court, let these people come to the judge and explain it to them what's this what's going on here.

SPEAKER_01 53:33

Right. Where does it all go?

SPEAKER_03 53:35

And why is uh okay, why is traffic mitigation, transportation department, how did the county or building department approved um transportation department to charge fee for the permit?

SPEAKER_01 53:49

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 53:50

Who authorized this? How did it it has become so much and then you know all these impact fees? They have set it up that they go up one or two percent, three percent every year. It's built in the system.

SPEAKER_01 54:01

That's crazy.

SPEAKER_03 54:02

But our exemption is seven thousand dollars.

unknown 54:05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 54:06

See? It's the only one that hasn't grown. It's the only one that hasn't gone up. No one has talked about it. So while in a year or two, this is my project. If I can give back to the society, hey, it's a big fight.

SPEAKER_04 54:18

Hopefully, one of our listeners will will will will grab onto this and reach out to you. We'll make you uh, you know, we'll provide your contact.

SPEAKER_01 54:25

And I'm sure that every homeowner listening right now is going, wait a second. Yes. Like and and I don't even know that if that exemption goes to uh oh, we lost it again. Um, goes to Placer County.

HOA Insurance And Staying Affordable

SPEAKER_03 54:40

Yeah, yeah. It's it's it's California. It's all California. It's California. Yeah, that's crazy. I didn't mention about the school fees. School fees when you will, it's a seven to eight dollars per uh square feed. That's in thousands. No, we pay for school, you know, gas tax, blah, blah, blah, and all that. Another thing I was gonna touch upon, our HOA and our home insurance should be tax deductible.

SPEAKER_02 55:04

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_05 55:04

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_03 55:06

Why I'm on board. Yeah, I know. I got both of those.

SPEAKER_01 55:10

Support for us. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 55:12

Right? Yeah. And our insurance cost has gone up so much that a California.

SPEAKER_01 55:16

Yeah. And so is HOA. I mean, they're both just insane.

SPEAKER_03 55:19

What's the reason? Why is it has gone up? Oh, there were fires. Okay, insurance is they have funds to cover for disasters. So if there's a fire, you cannot raise the fee for everyone.

SPEAKER_04 55:28

Yeah, I think that I think there's a lot to that. We've had um and we've had some insurance, uh one insurance guy on the on the um pod as well, and he got into it. And and you do, you start to see it because like those insurance, like their hands were tied as far as what they could do with rates, and that was that was probably the biggest part of the problem. But it's just all the same reasons. The lumber's more expensive, the root, the cost of replacement is way more expensive, and and it did, it just outpaced what they were allowed to, you know, because insurance is an industry, it's a business. At the end of the day, they have to be profitable in order to be aware of it.

SPEAKER_03 55:59

Yes, yes. That's let me know.

SPEAKER_04 56:00

Yeah, but it's but it's it's the way that that all unfolded has been very, very unfortunate. And not that I'm like a bleeding heart sympathizer for the uh for the industry, for the insurance industry, because trust me, I mean they take yeah, you know, they take a nice chunk out of my paycheck every month, especially with a 16-year-old driver on just got on the roads.

SPEAKER_03 56:19

I had three, so I paid a lot. So I know. So this these are some of the issues that now in Sacramento County, another big issue is coming with HOAs. HOAs with condos. Have you seen they are going 100? I bought a condo November in Sacramento. HOA was 425. I fixed it, uh it was for full. January, they raised it to 625 for 425 to 625, no news service, nothing. And I looked and what's going on? This is uh another big problem. All the older condo units, HOAs are gonna go bankrupt. They are collecting money, not doing anything. And one day it will be all, you know, it has to be. They're gonna have to reset.

SPEAKER_04 57:07

Like we can we can go down that the reserve study, the funding of reserve studies, all that is.

SPEAKER_01 57:12

That's a whole nother episode.

SPEAKER_04 57:13

Yeah, that's why.

SPEAKER_03 57:14

Yeah, it should it has to be HOAs have to be owned by homeowners. I I I was in India, I was talking to my friends' families who have HOAs. None of the corporations is handling HOAs, it's the homeowners handling them.

SPEAKER_01 57:27

I think it's supposed to be literally called the homeowners association.

SPEAKER_04 57:31

What I see in that though, and again, like we're not gonna go too far down this road, is there's so much legal liability that it it's it's it's so dangerous. And and and this is like because we do a lot of work in that space. These HOA management companies have actually become paramount, and their fees are are nominal. Um, but I tell you right now, like if they keep you out of a single lawsuit, it's it's worth it. Because um it's just it's like I said, it's a it's a it's a deep dark hole. Yeah, deep dark hole.

SPEAKER_03 58:03

Yeah. So I think I think overall real estate in California is gonna keep on going up at a smaller slope, which is which is good. It's okay. It's okay. We need to breathe. Yeah. And and another thing is we are good at this point just because inventory is low. Yeah. We are blessed. Supply is low, supply is low, demand is high, that's keeping prices stable. And it's gonna continue to be like this because I think builders also learn their lesson not to overbuild.

SPEAKER_04 58:39

I've said it so many times. The greatest lesson that came from the pandemic was manufacturing less. Yes, create your own demand. I mean, if you can be on that side of the table, you can win. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 58:51

Airline industry has done it. Yeah. There are fewer planes.

SPEAKER_04 58:55

Oh, yeah. I mean they're all planes are flight. They just bankrupted spirit. They just bankrupted. They took out one of their own. And guess what? I mean, they're just talking on the news. They're like, this is gonna take four to six months for the other airline companies to catch up with the demand that this is gonna create. Because I mean, that's the bottom of the mark. Spirit was no more. I know.

SPEAKER_01 59:14

I had a lot of friends who would use Spirit for short commuter flights. Yeah, 40 bucks gets you between here in LA or here in Las Vegas.

SPEAKER_04 59:22

The best meme of the week that I saw was like it was the picture of uh uh someone's garage, and there was a an old spirit, a spirit little plane in there. Airplane parked in front of the driveway. It was like, just pick this up off of eBay. It's fantastic. Yeah, so good. Yeah, people that's where it's good. Internet's undefeated. Internet. Internet's undefeated.

SPEAKER_01 59:41

It's where we go for all our woes and pick me up.

SPEAKER_03 59:45

So it it used to be fun flying, you know, back in the 90s, early 2000s. It used to be fun on the plane. But now, with yeah, going to the airport is oh forget. It's everybody has the whole experience.

SPEAKER_01 59:58

It's about as it's about as fun as going to the DMV these days. Like everybody just is already miserable because they know what they're gonna have to deal with.

SPEAKER_04 1:00:05

Yeah, and I'll tell you this. I actually um I will say that my last three experiences at the DMV have been flawless. Wow, I wouldn't say flawless, painless, painless, painless. Make an appointment.

SPEAKER_03 1:00:18

Make an appointment. Make an appointment.

SPEAKER_04 1:00:20

If you make an appointment, you you should be in and out in an hour. Yes. And I mean, for what people have experienced at DMV, an hour is nothing.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:29

Some change. Yeah. Still have your whole day ahead of you.

unknown 1:00:32

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:32

Well, this has been a very enlightening conversation. I feel like there's a lot that we're talking about that are gonna make people perk an ear and realize that there's so much going on that we are not paying attention to. That if we just have one voice stand up and say, why is nothing happening about this? It's all it takes, is one person to bring the idea and the attention to it. And then a lot of people are gonna get on board. I'm really excited to see how this unfolds. And you and I, we we're here at the we're at the forefront.

SPEAKER_05 1:01:01

So I've got an assemblyman that can introduce you to.

SPEAKER_03 1:01:04

Sure, sure. Uh I I would like to meet as many as I can, yeah, but it's it's down the line, year and a half, two years. One once my obligations, I'm done with my obligation, then full scale, I'm going to go. I love it. Um and if it's an assembly mail, they don't do it and up in court. Let them come to the court and explain to the judge what is all this about. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:24

Well, now's the time to start slowly spreading awareness. And the first step is.

SPEAKER_04 1:01:28

Well, I just love the angle that you know you've taken you've taken this thing that is so public and such a public outcry for affordability, and and we're shining the light on on a potential other reason because the media has controlled the narrative and said this is what we're going to focus on. This is why. Yes. And that's not necessarily just because everyone, just because that's what they say doesn't mean it's true.

One Day Of Power To Fix It

SPEAKER_01 1:01:52

Are you saying the news isn't honest and accurate, Dan? Oh my God. My whole life is upside down. It's a lie. Everything I thought I knew. There it goes. That's right. I know. Well, before we end, Dan has a question for you. I hope you paid attention to this one on the on the sheet because it is our most exciting question. Yes.

SPEAKER_04 1:02:14

I'm sure Amrit did his homework. So we ask everybody, it's the last question we ask of every guest we have on here. If you could be someone for a day, dead or alive, who would it be and what would you do?

SPEAKER_03 1:02:26

One person for a day. One person for a day. I don't read that question. But if you didn't read the question, you know. One person for a day, this is my passion, what I talked about. If I get an authority to change it for one day, if I can do this thing. No, go a governor cannot do this. It has to be no going by board of equalization, doing this and all that. Someone, let's say a judge or something with a pencil, stroke of his pen, hey, this has to be 150k exemption.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:06

Oh, I love that. Talking into the future. He wants to be the guy who's going to be the guy that's going to change all that. But you already are. That's so exciting.

SPEAKER_03 1:03:13

One day I can do this, you know. Yeah, I want to be a very rich man. You know, there are other things, you know. I want to, I want to travel and I want to do all the time.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:23

You were, it didn't work out so this is gonna change and impact the lives of millions of people, which is a far. I mean, that's like the greatest cause you could ever ask for. That's incredible.

SPEAKER_04 1:03:34

Yeah, and he and he meant the Dalai Lama.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:37

He meant the Dalai Lama.

SPEAKER_03 1:03:39

Thank you. Thank you for having me.