Podcasts about Great Recession

Rich Fettke has a passion for helping people improve their businesses, grow their wealth, and live more fulfilling lives. He is the author of The Wise Investor, Extreme Success, and the audio program Momentum. Rich is also a co-founder of RealWealth®. Since 2003, the company has helped over 60,000 members improve their financial intelligence and acquire cash-flowing income properties — so they can live life on their own terms. As a licensed real estate broker and an active investor, Rich was selected as a Rich Dad Author for his expertise as a Wealth Mindset Expert.   The real estate industry is not easy for everyone to jump into. If you have just gotten your real estate license and feel you need extra support before getting your feet wet, or if you are an experienced agent looking to take it to the next level, you may decide to get a real estate coach. Rich who is a coaching mentor and investor will discuss the value of having a coach and mentor and what you can expect to find in his new book.   Episode Links: https://realwealth.com/ https://realwealth.com/the-wise-investor-book/ --- Transcript Before we jump into the episode, here's a quick disclaimer about our content. The Remote Real Estate Investor podcast is for informational purposes only, and is not intended as investment advice. The views, opinions and strategies of both the hosts and the guests are their own and should not be considered as guidance from Roofstock. Make sure to always run your own numbers, make your own independent decisions and seek investment advice from licensed professionals.   Michael: Hey, everyone, welcome to another episode of the Remote Real Estate Investor. I'm Michael Albaum and today I'm joined by Rich Fettke, who is an author, investor, coaching mentor, surfer, among many other things, and Rich is going to be talking to us today about some of the mistakes he seen investors make the value of having a coach and mentor as well as what you can expect to find in his book, which is soon to be released. So let's get into it.   Rich, what's going on, man? Welcome to the Remote Real Estate Investor. Thanks for hanging out with me.   Rich: Good to be here. Great hanging out with you.   Michael: Super excited. So before we hit record here, you and I were chatting a little bit about some sports where you both share in common, but I would love if you could give our listeners a little bit of insight into who you are, where you come from and what it is that you're doing in real estate today.   Rich: Sure, absolutely. My name is Rich Fettke and yeah, interesting. The way we got into real estate investing, I'm an I'm an investor and my wife and I also have a company that helps investors but that was what really got us into it was despair. It was about it was exactly 20 years ago, I was on top of my game, I had a book deal, just signed with Simon and Schuster. I was a business and personal coach had a thriving coaching practice, I was giving keynote speeches all over the country. It was like I was just crushing it and I felt so good. I was 37 years old and then I was diagnosed with melanoma, which is an advanced skin cancer but that's not the biggest deal is that they thought it spread to my liver.   So they had me do a CT scan and ultrasound and it kept showing these masses on my liver and so I met with an oncologist and he said, you know, it looks like you got about six months to live and we had a 10 year old daughter. Yeah, it just rocked my world, I had a 10 year old daughter, a three year old daughter. My wife is amazing but she was a stay at home mom and so she was freaking in the sense of what am I going to do financially if Rich dies and so she started to she had a as a coach, we were doing things together, she was also a trained coach and so she had this small radio station in San Francisco that she used to do a radio show on about all areas of life being your best self and personal development and all and she said I gotta figure this out. So she started to help people on that were financially successful, and was interviewing them about how do they create wealth and how do they create financial success and most of them turned out to be real estate investors. No surprise, so she came home all excited. One of them was a mortgage broker and he said, if you get your license, you can come become a mortgage broker. This is about 2003. So you know, things were still the mortgage world is pretty easy back then. So she went and did that. In the meantime, we figured out I had a PET scan, which is the most advanced scan for cancer, and it showed me cancer free. So it was just it was a false diagnosis. It was just hemangiomas little clusters of blood vessels on my liver but that was enough for me to go for those three months of not knowing if I was going to be alive, it was enough to give us the kick in the butt to get out and, and make things happen. So Kathy, and I see after that after I was healed, we started to invest together. We bought a bunch of properties in the Dallas, Texas area and it just took off from there and then Kathy started to help other investors with their mortgages. We had a bunch of friends and family saying, tell us how are you doing this? We you know, how are you doing this out of state investing and so we started we formed a group that we thought would be just a small group of family and friends and people that listen to the radio show. We thought it'd be a couple 100 people and today it's over 64,000 members now at real wealth that we're helping invest.   Michael: It's pretty amazing. Richard, good for you guys, so I I'm curious in your coaching business before you got diagnosed, did you ever come across real estate investors?   Rich: That I coached? Yes. Yeah and my mindset was, I want to invest in real estate someday when I have enough money and so and I was thinking I needed, you know, several $100,000 you know, to buy that first rental property or first investment, not realizing the power of leverage and how much banks love to lend money on real estate and so that was that was the eye opener for us.   Michael: Okay, I love it and what made you go remote? I mean, you're in California and your wife live in in San Francisco. Why did you pick to invest outside California?   Rich: Actually Robert Kiyosaki. It was she because Kathy was on the San Francisco radio station she was and it got bigger and bigger or she was able to attract some pretty big names and then this guy who had just written a book called Rich Dad, Poor Dad, not long before that, and he had this cashflow game that he was promoting and we had a friend who was his distributor for crypto cash flow game back in the day and so he was on the radio show, and he warned Kathy's listeners to sell their overpriced California properties and to invest in Texas and so we took his advice. Not we didn't sell all our expensive property, sadly, because 2008 crushed us with our California properties but it was, you know, he just saying for cash flow and what's going to happen, he was currently kind of calling out what was going to happen in 2008-2007. That's what sent us out of state.   Michael: Love it. So you also recently have written a book, haven't you?   Rich: Yeah, I just finished my second book. 20 years later, well, I have an audio program back then, too but yeah, it took me 20 years to write my second book and it's called the wise investor and it's a lot different than my first book that was mostly coaching focused. It was a nonfiction, basically a personal development book and this book is a modern parable. So it's story forum, and it tells a story of creating financial freedom and but also living your best life.   Michael: That's awesome and why did you decide to write it?   Rich: Interesting process, you know, I've had my own coach, to walk the talk to over the last 25 years now, I started coaching 25 years ago, and this coach that I that I still talk to every week, or every other week, now, he kept kind of he had read my first book, so he's always kind of knocking on me saying, when are you going to write your next book? When are you going to write your next book and I was like, I'm too busy running this company, you know, we have 27 employees and but then what we did is we applied story branding to our company. Are you familiar with that story branding?   It's a guy named Don Miller. He wrote a book called Building a story brand and it's all about basically telling the hero's journey, Joseph Campbell's work, using the hero's journey, just like great movies, do great books do weaving a story where your customer is the hero, and you are the guide. So the company is the guide, you help your customers and so we changed everything on our marketing around that, and how we served our members as being the heroes and I just got into this whole storytelling thing. I'm like, this is fascinating the structure of how to write a story, a compelling story that engages people that elicits an emotional change all that and so one day when in a coaching session, I said, you know, if I was going to write a book, I'd probably tell a story and then he heard that and you just like, What do you mean, tell me more and then that was the spark. So then then I get obsessed with it and I'm like, I could write a parable about what I've learned over the last 20 years as an investor, what I've learned in the last 25 years as a coach, yeah, and kind of weave them together into a story.   Michael: How cool and without giving away too much of the book. I mean, what could people what should people expect to find when they when they get a copy?   Rich: Basically, it's about this family, man, his name is Ryan Brooks and he's like a hard worker. He's got a wife, he's got a couple kids, and he's making a decent six figure income maxing out his 401k but he has no time for his wife or his kids or even his life and he's not investing. He's basically what we call today, Henry, right? A high earner, not rich yet. So he's…   Michael: I love it.   Rich: Yeah, they're out there does a lot of people you know, especially in California, where I'm based, and that make a lot of money, make a good income, but they're not rich, they're not wealthy, and they're not investing their money. They're spending it on things and so this guy is, is in that same trap. So he just starts to learn from he meets this new friend and mentor, who takes him out on adventures. Of course, it takes him out climbing takes him out mountain biking in in the sessions, when they're having fun together. He teaches him about investing about how wealthy people think, how rich people operate, and how and how poor people operate and think and he really goes over the difference between, you know, truly wealthy people, and people with a lot of money. He even says, you know, I know some people who are so poor, all they have is money and I see that in Malibu, you know, where I live there's a lot of has a lot of money and some of the people are really stoked and really happy and getting the most out of life and investing their money at some of the people are grumpy and miserable and, you know, that's rich in money but not in life.   So there's a lot of lessons about helping Ryan Brooks and his mentor walks them through this on how to invest how to how to really look at life through a different lens. One of my favorite things a mentor says to his mentor is about assets and he just kind of puts it in a different frame. He's like, you know, assets is are anything that will provide you income, or better health or happiness or two time and liability is anything that detracts from your income, or your health or your happiness or your time. So it's kind of a cool that type of perspective is this mentor is like, he's the me I hope to be in the future. He's that in that wise investor who's you know, he's got it all together, he's got this sage advice. He's very stoic, but he shares these lessons. So it covers the journey of five years of when they first met, and Ryan Brooks is struggling and just doesn't know what to do and it shows five years later, what happens and how he becomes wealthy in more ways than just money. I love it in money, too.   Michael: I love it. I love it enrich. Where can people find the book?   Rich: It's on Amazon, all major booksellers, published through Rich Dad advisors. So Robert Kiyosaki wrote the foreword for me, which I'm very grateful for… Come full, full circle, right.   Michael: Totally.   Rich: Yeah. So it's on Amazon. It's called the wise investor. Subtitle is a modern parable about creating financial freedom and living your best life. I got the cover right here. So it's out on eBook. This is what the cover looks like. Perfect. So it's out on eBook. But the printed version, the hardcover and the audio book won't be out until August and it's because of just like real estate supply chain issues. There's not enough paper at the printers, so it's a long wait six, seven months now to get a book printed.   Michael: Holy smokes…   Rich: Isn't it wild?   Michael: Yeah, okay. Well, I'm interested, get your order in now, because it might be a while.   Rich: Right, yeah. So hopefully it all comes out in August. Hopefully it comes out earlier in August but yeah, and the audio book was, that was a fun challenge for me. Big goal, because, you know, it's a story and there's 10 different characters, females, older people, young kids, so I had to become, I had to learn some voice acting skills over the period of a couple of months and really practice it. Oh, how can I think I pulled it off, we'll see how the reviews are.   Michael: Right on. That's great. Well, Rich, I'm curious to get your opinion on something because you're a coach, I will also work as a coach and there are folks out there that say you can take the horse to water, but you can't make him drink and so thinking about kind of the Henry's out there, and I think a lot of our listeners might find themselves in this boat, too. They have friends, family, folks around them that don't get real estate investing, right? I have a six figure job, I got a great job, why would I bother investing, I can make more money at my job. So what do you say to all those people and really, how do you position investing in general or real estate investing specifically to the people that think they haven't really good as things stand?   Rich: Yeah, I mean, first of all, you know, as a coach, I'm going to help point out what is good first, you know, this is the way I coach, the gratefulness piece and, you know, it's like, well, you know, be stoked on that six figure job, or whatever it is and it's about creating freedom and so many people don't have that freedom and that's what the Henry's don't have. If they have a short runway, if they stopped if they lost their job, which we've seen happen, they don't have many months left of cash flow, to be able to live their lifestyle, or any type of lifestyle. So that's the biggest thing would be that, do you want to create freedom for yourself, and not have the stress of losing your job, or wanting to move to a different job, if you're not loving what you're doing, a lot of people stay trapped, struggling, just trapped in their jobs, because it's like, this is my income, this is the way this is what I need to make ends meet. So that's the biggest thing, it's really about having your money, make money, so you can create freedom in the future freedom of time and everything. I think that's the biggest one and then so then flipping on the other side, there's something too about America, in the world that we are preprogrammed.   When we think invest, we think stock market and you know, I have nothing against it and Kathy and I are and my wife and I are invested in the stock market, but our major focus and the big aha, back through that story is, you know, we were doing that we were contributing to our IRAs and, you know, doing everything we were supposed to do investing in the stock market. But when we learned about leverage the power of leverage and how you can like 5x your money, just through the power of leverage. I mean, that's a standout and that's one of the lessons the mentor goes over in the book. He, he has Ryan compared to say, say you have $200,000 to invest and you invest 200,000, and gold, you put 200,000 and you buy, you buy maybe 400,000 in the stock market on that, you just leverage it and then you invest that same amount into real estate and then he kind of plays it out over five years, and over 10 years, sorry. So he's like 10 years later, and he said, so how much would the gold be worth at the same appreciation that's gold has been at and they look at that outcome and he said, oh, now let's look at your stocks and he looks at that. It's like good, he's got a decent return. Another investment, you know, he's got home and he's like, almost tripled his money but then the real estate, he looks at it, and he's 5x his money and more and then he's like, and that doesn't include the cash flow. It doesn't appreciate all the depreciation write offs and the tax benefits. So it's kind of like an eye opener to be like, oh, wait a minute. Now I see the, you know that the angels sing about investing in real estate and all those amazing, amazing benefits.   Michael: Totally, totally. Yeah, that makes that makes complete sense and curious, rich to get your thoughts on when looking for a coach because I think that that's something that some people have trouble wrapping their head around, it's like, oh, I you know, I don't have a coach in life and so I would never be inclined to go get a coach or pay for coaching and so if people are inclined to do so if people are okay, accepting that, what are some things they should be looking for when selecting a coach, or a mentor or whatever, you'd have someone to help walk them through their journey?   Rich: Yeah and that's a great question. It's like, I'd actually like to start step back a little bit, because you said what if they want to coach I would even go as far as there's a lot of people that I meet who say, Why do I need a coach, you know, I can hold myself accountable. I, I know how to set goals. I know how to go after what I want and everything in so why would I… Yeah, like you said, Why would I even pay someone or do anything like that and it's, you know, it's that age old metaphor or an analogy of an Olympic athlete, right? Did they get to the Olympics without a coach? No, you need someone to point things out. So for me, I know the power of coaching has been incredibly amazing because I have a coach to basically hold up the mirror to ask me the questions that I'm not asking myself, to help me look at myself and be like, you know, asking those tough questions. How are you operating? Are you being your best self? Are you, where are you getting in your own way? What's that inner Gremlin in your head saying to you? What's your limiting beliefs and what are you going to do here, what and look at new perspectives, new ideas. So there's a power in that, that it's called, I'm certified in CO active coaching, which is two people, you know, when you come together, you come up with ideas that you neither would have thought about their own? So that's another powerful piece of coaching. So that's, that's the first part of my answer and then the second part is, when you're looking for a coach, I think it's really what you're looking for.   So are you looking for a mentor, which is I think, different than a coach, a mentor has kind of been there, done that, just like the mentor, and in the book I wrote, he's been there and done that. So he can say, if you just do what I did, you will be where I am, which is awesome, and very valuable and that's a mentor and I think some people are looking for training and consulting, where they sign up for a coaching program. But it's more about teaching to learn a specific skill and that's very valuable to so and then the third one would be looking for a coach who's more like that coactive approach where it's someone who I first shared, and what I've gotten from coaching is someone to ask the most powerful questions, someone who's intuitive, someone who can really help you shift your mindset and be your best self and operate at your best self. So that would be a another type of coach or a peer coach in my eyes and sometimes it comes together, you know, I'll say to my clients, do you mind if I throw on my consulting hat right now or my mentoring hat? So they know that I'm stepping out of that coat peer coaching role and be like, you know, I've invested in real estate for a while I can give you some advice here, I'm not going to have you, you know, go and search it and try to learn it elsewhere when I've got it right here, and I can share it with you. So I think that's it, it's like looking for what is it that you want? What are you looking for and that would be the first thing and when I was interviewing for a coach and looking for I've had several coaches over the past 25 years, when I interview a coach, I'm always coming from the place of like, what's the vibe? What's it feel like to be coached by this person?   Do they? Do they ask powerful questions? Are they really hearing me and are they into my vision? You know, I think the biggest thing would be connecting with that coach, and really, really noticing, like, is this coach, really seeing my vision? Do they really get me who I am and what I want what's going to help me be fulfilled in my life, and in my career, and it's just a sense thing. So you can get that sometimes you you're talking to a coach, it's like, oh, this guy's or gals just coaching for the money, you know, just looking for another client. Sometimes you talk to a coach, it's like, wow, this person is really like, wants to coach me on their ideal client and so you can sense that   Michael: Interesting and how should people be thinking about it for themselves? If maybe they're not sure if someone is just getting started out in this journey, they know they want to invest in real estate, that's the goal but they don't know how to approach it to the to coaching and mentoring a consultant. I mean, what are some questions that they could be asking or things they could be thinking about, as they're starting?   Rich: That process gets great, I mean, experience, I would ask for experience and you know, I think it's great, you can find you can definitely find a coach, you know, or whatever they call themselves. They might call themselves a mentor, but it's like asking those questions. and talking to that person, just you know. So here are some of my goals. I know that you invest in real estate, can you tell me about your real estate background? What's your investment, investment philosophy? What have you invested in and I would even ask the coach, you know, what's been your biggest challenge your biggest failure as a real estate investor, you know, get see how vulnerable and real they are and if they're willing to, you know, to share that, and what's been your biggest, you know, what's been your biggest win as a real estate investor and what's your greatest strength? So I would ask some of those questions of a coach and then also like, what's, where do you I mean, real estate investing so broad, right and so it's like, what do you specialize in? What do you know best? When it comes to real estate investing?   Michael: Yeah, I love that. You mentioned tell me your biggest failure, biggest flop. I had a mentor back in the day, and he said, I don't trust anybody without a limp. Yeah, because like the people that have only had successes don't know how to do save no right to ship when things go sideways, and they will go sideways.   Rich: They will, they will. Yeah, I know that people who got into real estate in 2010-2015, who are just, you know, knock it out of the park, and they think they're, you know, superheroes. Sometimes I'm like, oh, careful, careful   Michael: We are all superheroes in this, you know, the last decade.   Rich: Exactly. Yeah, yeah.   Michael: So Rich, talk to us a little bit about what you've seen. Some of your coaching students or mentees get right and what have they gotten wrong because you really we have the beauty of hindsight now…   Rich: When it comes to investing, specifically?   Michael: When it comes to investing specifically…   Rich: Yeah, wrong and it's the same mistakes that Kathy and I made too. And it's that you try to talk people out of it and it's like buying an overpriced property in a non-landlord friendly state that is maybe slightly negative cashflow, or just breakeven, and they're looking at and say, but look at how this is appreciating in five years, it's going to be worth this much and it's like, no, so honestly, that's the biggest mistake I can see and I can see it in single family all the way up to multifamily. You know, just speaking at these conferences and meeting with a lot of people are doing multifamily. They think they're superheroes. They're doing this short term, short term lending short term loans, and bridge loans and really dangerous stuff at this time in the market because it's what's worked in the past and they think that they just like, Well, yeah, it's like, I know, this is a I know, it's only a you know, 2% cap rate, but that's okay because, yeah, just a one in three years… Yeah, exactly, so there's something there's something about, there's something about that. Yeah, it's just it's fundamentals, I think that's what it is, is comes down to investing fundamentals and that's what we preach at our company. It's how we help our investors, it's just really coming back to the fundamentals. Make sure you're doing it right.   Michael: Yeah, that makes sense and what about the other side of that coin for the folks that you've really just seen knock it out of the park? What are they doing and you can't say the fundamentals, you have to pick a different answer go?   Rich: That's great. I love that. Agreed, yeah, what value is that? Really, it's the people who, what I've seen, it's the people who take the long term game plan to the boring investors, the ones who are not trying to do this rapid growth, and trying to 10x their portfolio or 20, exit, or whatever it is. So it's keeping that long term perspective and just, you know, making sure that you can control the properties through any type of downturn and so the lessons learned that that, you know, being going through the whole recession, the Great Recession, and the whole mortgage meltdown, and all that big lessons came from that and so that it's the people who take out long term, continuously reinvesting to so it's like, you start this small, small portfolio, whether it's passive or active, and then you just start expanding and expanding and expanding it and I would say, it's the people who focus on the overall cash flow, not just I mean, brink weaving into appreciation, but looking at it, like five years from now, this is what my portfolio will most likely be doing based on everything, even if there's a recession, or whatever and then looking out 10 years and looking at it 15 years.   So it's that big picture and then reinvesting. The opposite of that would be someone who's I have some friends who were only flipping, so very transactional, and they had to find the properties either flip it and that's where their income was coming through into constantly flipping it and they adjusted the wise ones and the smart ones adjusted and switch to the bur stead strategy and so they started to find these properties, fix them up, but then they would hold them and rent them out and now they're the ones that have amassed a good amount of wealth, whereas the other people who are flipping are still in the transaction game.   Michael: Yeah. Ah, that makes sense, that makes sense. Okay. We've had a pretty good debate on the show over episodes about something called an alligator, which I don't know if you know Michael Zuber at all he's an author of one rental at a time. He's a good friend of the podcast, but in his definition alligators any property, that's negative cashflow, you have to feed it every month to keep continue owning it. So as you're talking about big picture, are you okay? If you say for instance, take out a cash out refinance a property to make that property a go negative, but to buy property B and now your global cumulative cash flow is greater than that a property a alone.   Rich: I'm in the camp of no, don't, do not no, no negative cashflow and negative cash flow and I'll be completely honest and transparent that the house at Kathy and I were in in Malibu before this, we bought it, we fix it up, we bought it for $747,000 in Malibu, which is rare, hard to find, it's like unheard of. Yeah, it was like it was a one bedroom, one bath built in 1927 and we had to completely gutted it and rehab and we put about 300,000 into it and then we didn't get permits. So we got busted in that process and now there's still a lien on title from LA county building department and so we can't sell that place and we can't even get a refi until we get those liens off title and get it all permanent everything which is a, that's a whole different stories…   Michael: Trying to get us to do an entire podcast series…     Rich: Coastal Commission and all that stuff. So oh my gosh, so we have a tenant in there and it's slightly cash negative cash flow. So that's like 150 to 200 a month negative cash flow.   So being completely honest, we do have a negative cash flow, it drives me crazy and that house has gone up probably $400,000 over the last couple of years in value. So we could look at it that way. But we can beyond that everything that we hold is positive cash flow, even if it's just like $100 a month positive. That's fine and if we're going to do a cash out refi we make sure that it's appreciated enough where we can do that cash out refi and not have the loan payment, PTI go over what we're gonna get for rental income.   Michael: Yeah, makes sense. Well, I appreciate you sharing the misstep and the vulnerability here on the show but it wasn't intentional, that was just a series of consequences. That hadn't be negative. You wouldn't you would intentionally do that.   Rich: Yeah, we did bring it on ourselves and but yeah, wasn't intentional. We didn't want to get caught.   Michael: I've played that game before, too. It's a risky one.   Rich: It is. Yeah, so you're always looking out the window and yeah…   Michael: Who is coming in, roday gonna be the day get caught o maybe tomorrow?   Rich: Exactly. When we were almost done. We were building the final deck in the back and all of a sudden, this building inspector shows I'm investigating you because one of your neighbors called…   Michael: I was gonna say but it's probably one of your neighbors.   Rich: Yeah, because it would make the cut and concrete and it was so loud or for the whole week. I think it just drove this neighbor crazy and so it is what it is.   Michael: As soon as a quick aside one of the other hosts on the show with me, Tom he, one of his neighbors called on him he was adding an offer a small prefab office in the backyard of his property. neighbor called he gets in trouble. Same thing didn't pull permits. So now he's going through that whole rigmarole. But the funny part is the neighbor that called Tom found out that their fence is on Tom's property, it's on the wrong side of the property. He's like, thanks for calling and alerting me to that little fact.   Michael: Unbelievable.   Rich: So he's, he's playing that game. How do I how do I want to you know, play my next hand?   Rich: The revenge game…   Michael: That's it, that's it, best served cold on ice. Okay, Rich. Let's wrap up here. I'm curious to get your thoughts. We are in this very unique time in our economy in our market in this country and I'm just curious to kind of get your thoughts on what are you doing, personally as an investor and what are you doing in your business and what are you telling your students to do, as well?   Rich: Absolutely, yeah. I have the benefit of being married to Kathy Fettke, who has been around for a while she's on the on the market podcast on Bigger Pockets and so she's constantly doing her market updates every year, she does predictions and has done that for the last 15 years and then at the every quarter, she doesn't investor update and at the end of the year, she puts herself on the line says okay, here's what I predicted back in January. Let's see how accurate I am and yeah, and she's been really good. She's like almost 95% on her predictions, which is awesome. So I just listened to her. You know, she's always interviewing experts and she's connected with like John Chang from Marcus and Millichap and so many just, you know, experts, as I said, with Kiyosaki and all that. So what she's saying I'll just speak, you know, because I get to hear through her office door when she's doing all her interviews and everything she think He said interest rates are not going to go up that much more, maybe even dip a tiny bit for mortgages, and then maybe level off.   But even though the Feds gonna keep raising the rate, the lender and great mortgage rates can't kind of withstand that going up too much. So she thinks mortgage rates are going to hold around where they are and then there's such a glut in such a need for properties and not enough inventory. It's like a whole different world than 2008-2009. So yeah, I think we're, it's estimates are between three and 5 million homes shy right now, for housing units. So inventory still low and also, there's that whole thing where people are locked into these amazing interest rates, so they don't want to sell. So they just, it doesn't make sense to sell something and when you got a 3% mortgage or lower and go into a higher mortgage, so the real estate is gonna hold strong is what she's predicting, it's even going to increase a little bit rents are even going to increase a little bit surprisingly, even with, with the economy and inflation, rents are still gonna go up a little bit, that's her prediction and then a recession will hit well, most likely, sometime around late 2023, early 2024 but it will be a mild one, just kind of more of a correction that that's needed.   Michael: Okay. Okay and does either her or you think that there will be any kind of pullback in demand as folks go back into the office or are we going to be seeing remote work kind of indefinitely, which I think was a big driver of that single family rental demand?   Rich: Yeah, that's a big one. Yeah and the cool thing is like, we have teams that are like the boots on the ground. So there's different 15 different property teams in our company that find properties and so and we just did a mastermind with them in Tampa, Florida and we spent two days and we really talked about all this exact same stuff. So it's, it's something around not like a big hit on it. There still will be some availability, but not much different than if you look at today's current market right now is not going to be a lot different than that over the next year and a half.   Michael: So for instance, we don't expect there to be much pullback in terms of demand. Dude, because we're expecting people to continue remote working basically…   Rich: There's definitely a return to the office. There's there are definitely companies that are saying no, it's time to come back now that we want to look over your shoulder, we want to hold you accountable and all that stuff. It's so funny, because it's like the surfing lineups are getting a little bit lighter thinning. So funny. Go Oh, it's like why are so many people surfing? Oh, they're supposed to be orange. They think they're working. Their bosses think they're at work right now. Yeah. So I'm seeing a pullback there. So that's my gauge.   Michael: So funny.   Rich: Yeah, but not as much. There's definitely, with so many people how they've learned to use Zoom and GoTo Meeting and being remote and all that stuff. It's we're in a new world, there's no doubt about it. So I think there's going to be a slight pullback on buyers and transactions and all that. As far as the rate, but it's still not going to it's not going to drop to like dismal levels.   Michael: Okay, sweet. Well, we will definitely have to stay in touch and see how you do how you and your wife do on those percentages. Rich, this has been so much fun, man. Thank you again, if people want to learn more about you want to learn more about real wealth, where can they do that?   Rich: For the book? Like I said, it's on Amazon or if people want to learn more, before they buy it, just go to https://realwealth.com/the-wise-investor-book/  and then our website is just simple, real wealth: https://realwealth.com/   Michael: Perfect. Alright, thank you again and I'm sure we'll be chatting soon.   Rich: All right, man. Thank you, it was fun.   Michael: All right, everyone a big thank you to Rich for coming on. Super, super insightful. I know I learned a ton as a coach myself in what to look for in a coach and mentor going forward as well. So as always, thank you so much for listening, and we look forward to seeing the next one. Happy investing…

Ladies and gentlemen we have an economy built on smoke and mirrors, built on a house of cards. Let's not forget that currency is lent into existence and today, Jason Hartman shares exactly how much outstanding credit the United States has.  Also, house inventory levels are starting to move in an upward direction. We're still a far cry from normal market levels, but Jason gives you the latest numbers from Altos Research.   Joseph Wang, aka The Fed Guy, former senior trader on the open markets desk at the Federal Reserve is back for part 2 of his interview today. Joseph gives his take on the Fed's response during times of economic crisis such as the Great Recession and the recent pandemic. Was it right of the Fed to get involved and stimulate the economy, or should they have let the economy and markets work themselves out? FedGuy.com Key Takeaways: Jason's editorial 1:03 Introducing Joseph Wang part 2 2:00 Based on Altos Research, housing inventory is going up up up! 3:03 Download our slide decks; just go to JasonHartman.com/Slides 4:15 The 90 day average; going back to a 'normal' market 5:18 Segmenting the market by price 9:45 Raffle Winners last week and pausing the raffle- for now 11:50 An economy of smoke and mirrors Joseph Wang Interview 17:52 The Philipps curve debate 20:43 Debt to GDP ratio and the dollar collapse 23:03 Why do other countries buy dollars?  26:35 Bloodbath in the cryptocurrency markets 29:10 Understanding the Fed - is there a man behind the curtain?  31:14 Was the Fed right to interfere during Covid and the Great Recession?  33:41 What is a shadow bank?  35:55 The story behind Long Term Capital Management 37:04 Be cautious with financial assets 38:47 Joseph Wang's book Central Banking 101, Learn more at FedGuy.com follow Joseph on Twitter @FedGuy12   Follow Jason on TWITTER, INSTAGRAM & LINKEDIN Twitter.com/JasonHartmanROI Instagram.com/jasonhartman1/ Linkedin.com/in/jasonhartmaninvestor/ Learn More: JasonHartman.com Get wholesale real estate deals for investment or build a great business – Free course: JasonHartman.com/Deals Free White Paper on The Hartman Comparison Index™: HartmanIndex.com/white-paper Free Report on Pandemic Investing: PandemicInvesting.com Jason's TV Clips in Vimeo Free Class: CYA Protect Your Assets, Save Taxes & Estate Planning: JasonHartman.com/Protect Special Offer from Ron LeGrand: JasonHartman.com/Ron What do Jason's clients say? JasonHartmanTestimonials.com Contact our Investment Counselors at: www.JasonHartman.com Watch, subscribe and comment on Jason's videos on his official YouTube channel: YouTube.com/c/JasonHartmanRealEstate/videos Guided Visualization for Investors: JasonHartman.com/visualization Jason's videos in his other sites: JasonHartman.com/Rumble JasonHartman.com/Bitchute JasonHartman.com/Odysee Jason Hartman's Extra YouTube Channel Jason Hartman's Real Estate News and Technology (RENT) YouTube Channel

Co-Founder and Senior Vice President of Homebuilding Jay Byce with ResiBuilt Homes joins the Atlanta Real Estate Forum Radio podcast to share the benefits of renting and dive into the Atlanta build-to-rent market. Byce joins host Carol Morgan on the All About Real Estate segment. An Atlanta native, Byce grew up in Tucker and received his undergraduate degree from the University of Georgia. Holding a strong interest in architecture, Byce later transitioned to banking and started a development company at 28 years old. In 2002, Byce made a name for himself by developing and selling lots to home builders and entered the private equity sector following the Great Recession. In 2011, the company Byce opened an office for in Atlanta decided to aggregate foreclosures. Each month saw the acquisition of 500 to 600 homes during a time when no buyer desired to purchase a home or complete renovations. In this venture alone, around 30,000 homes were purchased across the country. Byce said, “We formed the floor, we stopped the price fall from the residential home market, we renovated hundreds of thousands of homes as an asset class and then made them good homes for people to start renting.” Through this progression, Byce ran several investments in that space while securing builders to develop “mothball subdivisions.” Originally in development around 2005 to 2006, “mothball subdivisions” halted construction during the Great Recession and largely remained untouched until secured by another builder. In 2018, Byce formed ResiBuilt Homes to satisfy the entry-level market abandoned when the surviving builders transitioned to higher-end markets following the Great Recession. The first 300 lots produced by ResiBuilt Homes were marketed as rental properties with the option for sale. Byce said, “To our surprise, when people would call inquiring about buying a home [and learned] they can rent it and not have a long-term obligation…more people converted and began renting our homes.” To date, ResiBuilt Homes has constructed around 1,200 homes mainly in metro Atlanta. Following the first 300 homes, the company decided to use them as inspiration for its business model. While retaining ownership of the subdivision, the dedicated rental communities enjoy yard maintenance, clubhouse events and more courtesy of ResiBuilt Homes. The company now stands as the ninth-largest private builder in metro Atlanta, with expansions in Orlando, Tampa, Charlotte and Greenville. All four markets outside of Atlanta are currently in development, with homes coming out of the ground in the next six months. Tune in to the full interview above to learn more about ResiBuilt Homes or visit http://ResiBuilt.com. Never miss an episode of Atlanta Real Estate Forum Radio! Subscribe to the podcast here. You can also get a recap of any past episode on the Radio page. Listen to the full interview above! Georgia Residential Mortgage Licensee, License #22564. NMLS ID #6606. Subject to borrower and property qualifications. Not all applicants will qualify. New American Funding and ResiBuilt Homes are not associated. Click here to view the terms and conditions of products mentioned during the show. Corporate office 14511 Myford Rd., Suite 100, Tustin, CA 92780. Phone: (800) 450-2010. (June/2022) New American Funding is a family-owned mortgage lender with a servicing portfolio of over 216,000+ loans for $56.8 billion, 171 branches and about 4,500+ employees. The company offers several niche loan products and has made Inc. 5000's list of Fastest-Growing Companies in America seven times. For more information, call 678-898-3540 or visit https://branch.newamericanfunding.com/Atlanta. The Atlanta Real Estate Forum Radio “All About Real Estate” segment, presented by Denim Marketing, highlights the movers and shakers in the Atlanta real estate industry – the home builders, developers, Realtors and suppliers working to provide the American dream for A...

It's been more than a decade since the Great Recession, the most severe economic and financial meltdown since the Great Depression, but the impact of that period in time can still be felt today. An entire generation in the architecture and construction industries was affected, some leaving the profession altogether. In the light of another global, earth-shattering event, we want to take a moment to reflect on the last. This episode is the first in a new, ongoing series, where we interview people to hear their stories of how their lives and careers were forever changed. We start by interviewing the hosts of the show: Shawn Swisher, Matthew Tehan, and James Wesala.

With Wall Street reporting bad day after bad day, jittery investors are experiencing panic and irrational anxiety they haven't felt since the Great Recession. Enter a voice of reason and the voice behind some of Australia's most popular financial podcasts to set us Yanks straight. Philip Muscatello -- creator-host of “Shares for Beginners,” “Stocks for Beginners,” and “The Equity Investor Journey” to name a few --shares how he got into the investment game and what financial advisors can take to their clients to reassure them at a time of crisis. And a bit of summer kickback, Lou and Phil chat about their mutual love of music making and Romantic poetry. As Bankadelic episodes go, a splendid beach podcast if ever there was!

Today on the podcast, we tackle 3 recession myths every JMO should know. As I write this post, I am flying from El Paso to Denver for a week-long trip through the Southwest US to meet with Junior Officers preparing for their transitions.  In my one-on-one meetings, officers are asking more questions about the economy. This makes sense with non-stop news about record inflation, the Fed raising interest rates to combat inflation (which will "cool" the economy), and a wildly fluctuating stock market.  The news pundits and some key business leaders are warning that the risk of a recession in the next 12 to 18 months is increasing. With 23 years of experience with Cameron-Brooks, I have experienced several significant events that sent our economy into a recession. These include the Tech Wreck and subsequent 9-11 attacks, the Great Recession of 2008 and 2009 and the Covid recession of 2020.  There have been some other slowdowns during my time, but those are the big ones.  My colleague and fellow Transition Coach, Rob Davis, has 22 years of business experience across the tech, building materials and military-to-business recruiting industries.  He has similar experiences. To help JMOs understand what we see happening in the market right now, where we think it might go, and what the past has taught us to expect, Rob wrote a Transition Guide: 3 Recession Myths Every Transitioning JMO Should Know. We also decided to record a podcast to expand on the Transition Guide and share our personal stories. Our goal with the podcast is to help you learn that a successful transition, even during a recession (if and when it comes), is possible.  Rob and I also explain why companies will continue to hire and how you can prepare. During the podcast, we tackle recession myths and discuss: Despite the economic uncertainty and fluctuating stock market, the job market remains strong due to the supply chain challenges caused by the pandemic, Baby Boomers continuing to retire, and dynamic changes from people changing careers during the pandemic.  Unemployment remains at historic lows - well below 4%.  That is the current situation, and it will take a seismic event, something like what Covid did to us in March of 2020, to drastically change it. IF we have a recession in the next 12 to 24 months, companies will continue to hire talent because they always need leaders and to build their leadership teams for the future.  How do we know that? Because during all of the other recessions, even the brutal ones, companies continued to recruit and hire. There will be a recession at some point.  That is why they call it an economic cycle.  Nobody can predict when they will occur, so it is impossible to time the market. Your best strategy is to pursue your goals and be well prepared.  Avoid "kicking the can" down the road. You won't need to settle for a second-tier company or position if you do transition in a down economy. Top-tier companies will recruit for their most important positions. Finally, you will learn how to recession-proof your transition strategy. If you're interested in learning more about why companies hire from Cameron-Brooks, contact us! You can also check out our Transition Guide on "3 Game-Changing Strategies for JMOs Making the Jump to Business" for additional transition tips. To stay connected, we'd recommend subscribing to our YouTube Channel and following us on LinkedIn.

As quickly as mortgage rates are rising, the once red-hot housing market is cooling off. Home prices are still historically high, but there is concern now that they will ease up as well.All of this has people asking: Is today's housing market in the same predicament that it was over a decade ago, when the 2007-08 crash caused the Great Recession?LIKE & SUBSCRIBE for new videos everyday. https://bit.ly/3KBUDSK

Brian Hamrick began investing in single-family homes in 2002. During the Great Recession, he purchased his first multifamily property and has since worked with private investors to acquire apartment communities, self-storage facilities, and non-performing notes. In 2012 he founded Hamrick Investment Group ("HIG") to help other qualified investors take advantage of the lucrative returns real estate has to offer. Self-storage properties enjoy high demand from Baby Boomers in need of extra space as they downsize and from Millennials who would rather pay less for storage than pay rent for more living space. During the last decade, self-storage investment returns have outpaced most other property types, which means investors should take note. Episode Link: https://www.higinvestor.com/ --- Transcript   Before we jump into the episode, here's a quick disclaimer about our content. The Remote Real Estate Investor podcast is for informational purposes only, and is not intended as investment advice. The views, opinions and strategies of both the hosts and the guests are their own and should not be considered as guidance from Roofstock. Make sure to always run your own numbers, make your own independent decisions and seek investment advice from licensed professionals.   Michael: Hey, everyone, welcome to another episode of the Remote Real Estate Investor. I'm Michael Albaum and today I'm joined by Brian Hamrick with Hamrick Investment Group and Brian is going to be talking to us today about note investing, as well as self-storage investing, two topics that are super interesting. I wish I could say that they are near and dear to my heart, but I'm a total newbie at them and have no experience. So really excited to chat with him about that. So let's get into it.   Brian, what's going on, man? Good to see you again and thanks for coming on the podcast.   Brian: Appreciate you, Michael. It's great seeing you again, too. Thanks so much for having me on your show.   Michael: No, absolutely. I think we're gonna have a lot of fun today as you are a very interesting person with an interesting background. So I'd love for anyone who might not be familiar with you. Can you give us quick insight who you are, where you come from, and what is it you're doing in real estate today?   Brian: Yeah, thank you. So my, my name is Brian Hamrick. My company is Hamrick Investment Group and what I what I am I started off as a multifamily apartment investor syndicator and over the years have also expanded into performing and non performing notes, self-storage, vacation rentals, office, a little bit of retail. Basically, if I have a rockstar strategic partner that I can partner up with, I'm the one who raises the money brings the equity and I partner up with someone who's got a great track record knows how to make money in their space and that's, that's kind of my business model for the past five years.   Michael: Right on and I don't know if I've actually met or spoke to anyone that got their start with multifamily syndication? Is that really where you got your teeth cut or did you start out with single family kind of like so many of us did?   Brian: Yeah, so going way back in 2001. When I first read Rich Dad, Poor Dad, I did get started in single family. I was living in Los Angeles at the time and everything in LA back then was way overpriced. So I started investing in a network that was investing out of state. So I bought single family in North Carolina, South Carolina, and Albuquerque, New Mexico and I got my portfolio up to seven separate single family properties and quickly realize, you know what, this is the very, very slow way to financial freedom and that's when I started looking into multifamily, because I realized you can get that economy of scale by having more units under one roof.   Michael: Yep, makes total sense. Okay, well, let's shift gears here entirely and talk about note investing and self-storage and if we have time short term rentals, because it's just like a super fascinating space and we always joke in the show that these podcasts are very self-serving, I hate to ask all the self-serving question. So talk to us what is note investing and what attracted you to it initially.   Brian: So I also host a podcast and just like you, I love talking to different investors, who have different asset classes, different skills and one of the investors who came on my podcast, his name was Jean Chandler and I was just so fascinated with his systems of buying non performing notes and basically a note is like a mortgage or a land contract or a contract for deed and you're so when you buy a note, you're not buying an actual property, you're buying the paper on that property, that the IOU, and there's a lot of value to those IOUs, especially if you can buy them at a discount. So let's say there's a property that is that has $100,000 balance on their loan, and you can buy that note for $80,000, you know, 80 cents on the dollar. Well, now, whatever that interest rate was that was being paid, you're actually making more than that interest rate and if that note pays off, you know, sooner rather than later. Well, I just paid $80,000 for $100,000 note that's $20,000 that I could profit.   So Jean and I , Jean Chandler, I had him on the show and I was just really interested in notes and I had a little bit of experience With notes previously, so I called him up after the show and first of all, I said, How many people have called you, since this show has come out to invest and he said, no one's called me and I said, well, that's interesting, because I'd like to invest with you. So we started off by buying 10, different non performing notes and a non performing note is basically, if someone's not paying their loan, that and over after three months, if they're not paying, it becomes non performing. So, the, the strategy that Jean had at the time was to buy these non-performing notes, like 30 cents on the dollar and the goal is to get them re performing because if you can, if as of note is paying, say 10%, and you buy it at 30 cents on the dollar, while your yield if you can get it REIT performing is going to be well above 30%.   Michael: Holy smokes.   Brian: Yeah, so there's, there's so much value there and that delta between what you pay for note and what it's actually yielding anyway, we bought 10, non performing notes, and we lost money on two of them but our average return on all 10 notes was over 80%.   Michael: What?.... That's insane. Like, as you were describing the nonperforming of it, I'm sitting here thinking to myself, like, what do you guys like bounty hunters, you go out and they okay, you got to start paying your notes like, how do you what does that process look like to get a nonperforming to a performing because there's a reason that's being sold at a discount?   Brian: Yeah, exactly, exactly. Now, don't go out and try this on your own. That's necessary, have the experts on your team that know how to do it properly, because there's a right way to do it and a wrong way to do it but the what we're able to do as private investors quite often what Jean does, I, I leave the heavy lifting to Jean, but what he's able to do, quite often is contact the borrower directly and the larger institutions have guidelines and rules that they have to follow that, that basically puts all the borrowers in a certain box, and they have to be treated a certain way. But as private investors, Jean can call them up and just have a real conversation of person to person conversation and usually it starts with, do you want to stay in your home? Yeah, that's the first question he typically asked and then that's when kind of the guard comes down and they're like, nobody's ever asked me that before. So then gene can have a real conversation and say, Well, what is preventing you from paying your mortgage, how do we get you back on track, and sometimes that means might mean modifying the loan, so that their balance stays the same, or maybe there we take off some of the fees that have been charged over time but maybe we modify it so that their monthly payment is lower, you know, by stretching out the amortization, or we allow them to get caught up, because they just weren't getting anywhere with the previous servicer or lender.   So it starts with that conversation and quite often, that's a successful conversation and we've luckily been able to help a lot of borrowers who have had some sort of distress stay in their homes and that is our goal. But at times people go dark, you know, there's, believe it or not, there are people out there who want to be in denial, or just keep not even be consciously aware of what's going on around them and they either don't respond to us, or tell us that they're going to send us a check, and they never do. So they don't perform and in those cases, we actually go through with foreclosure and when you buy a non performing note, and we buy performing notes to but I'm focusing on buying non performing right now, when you buy a non performing note, there's two values that I like to look at. One is what's the what's the unpaid balance that is owed and then what is the actual cash value? So if you go through foreclosure, what would you sell that property for on the okay market and quite often, on average, over the years we've paid, we've paid roughly 45 cents on the dollar for the unpaid balance and 35 cents on the dollar for the actual cash value. So if we do have to foreclose, take something through that process, and then sell it. Quite often, we're seeing you know, 50 to 100%. In one case, we had a 550% return on a property we took through foreclosure.   Michael: That's on believable, Brian, I've got I have so many questions. Let's start with like, who is selling these non-performing notes? Are these coming from banks? Are these coming from other private lenders because you mentioned interest rates in the 10%? I mean, that's probably not your Bank of America, Wells Fargo type of loan, or are they?   Brian: Well, 10% is kind of the limit on that you can charge under Dodd Frank rules. So we're huge guy. Like, if we're striking a new note, it's 9.99 and the reason the reason people are willing to pay that is because these are our lower value properties, where the loan amount is under $50,000. So we're kind of in this market where the normal, the typical borrower can't go to a typical lender or bank, because banks don't want to make loans that are less than $50,000. It's the same amount of work on a loan, that they that would be a million dollars, and they make a lot more money off the million dollar loan than the 50,000 loan. So when you get to that price point, you're quite often dealing with four private company, private capital, that's making these loans. But a lot of our loans are trickling down, some of them come from Fannie Mae, and then they trickle down to hedge funds, who buy them up in bulk, you know, billion dollars to take up 1000s of loans in default are performing.   Michael: A big short, right, that's what the whole movie was about?   Brian: Yeah, exactly and yeah, and that, that that movie is a good kind of a good touchstone because a lot of the opportunities that we were seeing, and this was five years ago, that I started working with GE and a lot of those opportunities we were seeing had trickled down from the larger institutions, to the hedge funds to the private equity groups and then we were still picking them they had they had run got all their value out of them and we were then picking them up for like, 30 cents on the dollar. At that point.   Michael: Oh, my gosh…   Brian: But yeah, so they're trickle down. We're buying them typically from hedge funds and then sometimes we're we've have situations where we're we are possibly taken up a property through foreclosure. In some cases, we buy these notes, and it turns out that they're Oreos, and we've bought notes that we thought were non performing, only to find out that they're Oreos, and we own the property. It's already gone through foreclosure. In those cases, then we can turn around and resell it and generate a new note.   Michael: Interesting. So talk to me again, about that the foreclosure process specifically, because you mentioned, being able to buy the note for 45 cents on the dollar, and then the physical property for maybe 35 cents on the dollar but if you buy the note and then take the property through foreclosure, don't you then own it or is there another step involved in that process something else you have to buy or pay for?   Brian: So there again, always have an attorney to help you take through go through this process. But yes, quite often, when we take a property through foreclosure, we will end up with the property and owning the property and then we can go ahead and just sell the property. Sometimes you do have to you know, it's not it's not an easy process, because sometimes the borrower might declare bankruptcy, and that sort of sets you back, you know, six to 12 months, or whatever it takes to work through that bankruptcy. Every state has different rules and laws, and sometimes different municipalities in that state have different rules and laws. So it's always important to have an attorney who knows those rules and laws in that state, working with you through this process.   Michael: Makes total sense. Okay, man, so now let's say you, you buy the note, it continues to nonperforming take you through foreclosure, they don't declare bankruptcy, everything checks out, you own the property. I mean, literally, like your name is on the deed and title now, or like whatever entity bought the note or took it through foreclosure. So like, it's yours, you can do whatever you want with it?   Brian: It's ours and yes, we can do whatever we want with it. Quite often, we find a local broker or realtor who can just put it up on the market and sell it for us. So we I'll give you an example, we had a property and this is kind of a general example that takes into account a number of different properties. So this isn't just one specific property, but it's kind of like the typical homerun scenario that we encounter, okay and by the way, we could buy 10 notes. Two of them will be complete dogs and losers. Six of them will be breakeven or make a little bit of money, but it's those two kind of grand slam home runs out of the 10 that really make the whole thing work. So some of the winners that we've had is there was one property where we bought the note for, I think that the balance was around $35,000. Okay, we bought the note for $20,000.   Michael: And it's not you got to pay cash for this right or is there a lending institution that I'll give you?   Brian: There's no lending institution where yeah, we're we are buying our notes with cash, we pay $20,000 for a $35,000. unpaid balance really just blows my mind, and I don't understand, but that we do everything we can to contact the borrower, we will call them, we will send them mail, through the post office, we'll do whatever we can, sometimes gene will even buy a burner phone and fax it to them. So that when they open it up, there's it says call me and there's the number, and then they'll actually call on the burner phone. So he will do everything bend over backwards to establish contact. In this case, we never established contact, they never responded to us. So we went through the foreclosure process. At the end of that foreclosure process, we showed up to the house, it was broom swept in incredible condition and we listed it for $125,000 and sold it for $110,000 and this is a note that we paid 20,000 for. So after legal fees, broker fees, we ended up with about $80,000 in profit, and our money back and our original $20,000 back.   Michael: That is mind blowing. So and let me know if this is like a legal question but I'm just curious from a high level, let's say we'll use this property as an example. Let's say they bought the property for 50 grand, they pay down their mortgage over the years. So they have 15,000 and equity for the 35,000. unpaid balance and let's say you could establish contact, you knew the person you'd but you still went through foreclosure does that person lose out on their 15,000 in equity or do you have to make them whole for kind of their ownership stake in that property, you know how that works?   Brian: Yeah. So they lose that you would you would hope that that $15,000 in equity that they have is enough incentive for them to try to get that loan re performing again, right and quite often that is the case and we will we will do everything we can to work with them to make that happen but sometimes, people just they go dark, and they bury their head in the sand. They don't respond and then they end up losing the property and the equity that they have in that property, which is unfortunate but it does happen.   Michael: Wow! Well, Brian, this like a blew my mind. But let's shift gears here because you also invest in self-storage, which is another really interesting asset class, and folks at the IRS Academy have expressed some interest in learning more about it. So can you give us the high level of again, what should we know about it and what attracted you to that investment class?   Brian: Initially, self-storage, once again, is an asset class that I got into because I had a rockstar strategic partner who brought me a deal in self-storage that was just looked amazing on paper and the more I looked into it, and by the way, so this is my partner, Tim puffer in this case, he took Scott Myers course, okay, on investing in self-storage. I don't know if you know who Scott Myers is, but he's one of the trainers out there and he started cold calling self-storage facilities in the area and like the second call he made, he landed a property is 28,000 square foot with a 63,000 square foot office building and the owners were like, Yeah, we're thinking of retiring and moving to Florida. So Tim made them an offer of $1.3 million and we picked it up and we immediately a lot of times you look for the value add in self-storage and one of the value adds is when you buy a property that's been kind of mom and pop operated. You know, they've been proceeding with under the same systems for the past 10 years or so. Right. So they quite often they don't have like an online presence.   They're still doing like paper checks and mailing out bills every month. So right away, the first two things we did was we started bumping the rates up to market rate, okay, and we started putting in systems like having a website having automatic booking, you know, so someone could go to our website at 2am Lisa space, and at 2:30am, enter the their number on the keypad and get in and store their stuff. So we automated everything, so we don't need on site management. After a year of that we boosted the value of the property enough that we were able to tear down our office space 3000 square foot of office and put up another 15,000 square foot of storage, this is all drive up storage. So we brought our square footage up to 43,000 square foot, no money out of our pocket, we were basically pulling cash out from the value that we had added in just 12 months and that was about $700,000. So we got it up to 43,000 square foot and then with another two years go by this property we paid $1.3 million for we sold it for 3.5 million.   Michael: What…?   Brian: So our investors were very happy there.   Michael: That is outrageous, that's outrageous…   Brian: Yeah, self-storage is probably my favorite asset class just on the principles that it's very easy to manage quite often. Very, very, when you add value, if you have a clear path to adding value, you can add a lot of value and I liked that it's automated too. You don't have to have you. I know some people have on site people to maybe sell boxes and, and locks and stuff. But you don't have to have that you can automate that as well. So I really like self-storage from that those perspectives, that is   Michael: Just remarkable and how can people get access to those types of deals? I mean, can somebody go out and buy a self-storage facility and do this themselves? It is something that they should be thinking about doing with that experience, syndicator and operator? What are your thoughts there?   Brian: Yeah, so if they want to do it themselves, I highly recommend getting coaching from like a Scott Myers and I know there are other people out there teaching it, if they want to invest with experienced operators like myself, I'm there's a lot of us out there. So, you know, I wish I could say I have tons of self-storage opportunities. But sometimes I do sometimes I don't and I know there are other people out there who are who are buying self-storage as well.   Michael: Okay, and what are some, like canary in the coal mine type of things to look out for or red flags to look out for when it comes to both the self-storage facility as an opportunity, as in addition to the operators themselves because like, I don't know anything about self-storage. So other than someone's track record, if they're showing me their offering memorandum? I'm like, I don't know that sounds good. What should we be looking out for?   Brian: That's a good question. That's like, how do you judge someone like myself, someone like some of the other syndicators out there who are doing it, I think you need to look at the track record, look at their communications with investors really dig into that what is their expertise in that area and that's why I partner with people who really know their space. I, I don't claim to be a self-storage expert, but I partner with people who are self-storage experts. As far as the facility, here are the metrics you want to look at. Because you're looking at the square footage. First of all, how much square footage is available. A lot of people asked me well, how many units do you have and like I have no idea how many units we have because they're you know, some are five by 510 by 30s 10 by 40s 10, by 10s.   You know, so they you can have any configuration of units, it's really the rentable square foot that you want to look at. So we always do a feasibility study because we want to look at how much square footage is in the facility that we might be buying or considering to develop and then what's our competition how much square footage is already available in that area and you want to look at kind of a one mile radius, a three mile radius and a five mile radius that's where most of your customers are going to come from and within that one, three and five mile radius, what's your competition look like? How much square footage is out there already? Then you look at how many people live in that area. What and then what is the square footage per person that's available in that area. So, these are kind of loose metrics not to be taken you know, as a hard and fast rule. But if you have, say, less than four square foot per person in those areas, then you're probably under supplied and you can compute on paper, how much more square footage can be absorbed in those areas. If you have over say, five, seven, you know, closer to 10 square foot per person, then you're probably over supplied, and the absorption rate is going to be a lot slower. The other thing you want to really pay attention to in the feasibility study is the income in the area, you know, you want to see incomes that are at least over 40,000 per year, on average, over 60,000 per year on average, then you're really in a good area to add more or to buy that buy that supply and then of course, you want to look at well, what might be coming online. So you want to check with the city and the municipal municipality to see what's been approved. That may not have been built yet, but it's out there waiting to be built and become a competitor to you.   Michael: Okay, I used to live down on the central coast of California and down there, there was like, tons and tons and tons of storage facilities. Is that bad business or is that common practice that were there's one, there's many…   Brian: You know, here's probably a huge density of population there. So there's definitely in some of the primary cities, you hear about oversupply, they're over building self-storage and hopefully, those are companies that are building the self-storage that have deep pockets, because eventually that space will lease up, and they'll meet their pro forma but it's going to take longer, because there is this oversupply. So that does it, it is justified, because you have more maybe you have more and more people moving to those areas, there's a lot of density. I prefer secondary and tertiary markets, where you don't have nearly as much competition. But you still be if you when you look at the demographics, and the absorption rate, and you know, the amount of square footage available. There's still a need. So we've recently bought some facilities and I have I have several Self Storage partners. I have another cell storage partner, his name is Charlie Gao and we bought a facility in northern Michigan, that was already 52,000 square foot, we immediately we purchased that, and then we bought 10 acres next to it and we immediately more than doubled the size of that facility and it just came on line two months ago, and it's leasing up three times faster than we anticipated and projected.   Michael: People got lots of stuff and they need somewhere to store it.   Brian: Yeah, they do. They say self-storage is good in all economies, when the economy is good people buy stuff and they need to store it. When the economy is bad people downsize and they need to store their stuff.   Michael: Yeah, I remember that.... My wife and I got a unit when we were traveling in our van because we had moved out of our primary home rented it out and then we were living in a van full time and we hadn't yet bought a new primary to move into so we got a storage unit and I walked into this facility and I'm like, these people are printing money and like I'm a tenant, I'm never gonna call landlord say my toilets broken or my lights broken or I have a clock. You know, like, so many of the problems that people run into or hear about traditional real estate. I don't think exist in self-storage. I'm sure it has its own sets of problems but like man to not have to deal with tenants in the middle of the night. Sounds awesome.   Brian: Yeah. Yeah, the calls we might get are the gate is stuck and I can't get out but no one's gonna say the toilets busted. We don't we there's no gas. There's no water and sewer, there's electricity and then there's security cameras and a gate and you know, it's so simple and done, right…. Self-Storage, I think is like an ATM machine. It just, you're right it just you print money with it, if you do it right…   Michael: Oh my god. I love it, I love it, Brian. We didn't have a chance to get to short term rentals love to have you back to chat more about that. But for those interested in your podcast in investing with you in reaching out learning more about you and your company, where's the best place for them to do that and what are the names of some of those things we just mentioned?   Brian: Yeah, thanks, Michael. So I also host a podcast and you're a guest on there. I'm not sure when this episode comes out, but your episode will come out sometime this summer. The podcast is rental property owner we're in real estate investor podcast, and I host that on behalf of the Rental Property Owners Association here in Michigan and then you can also go to my website to find out more about me. It's my company is Hamrick investment group and the website is H I G investor.com, that's https://www.higinvestor.com/   Michael: Awesome. Well, Brian, thank you so much for coming on here and helping me pick my jaw up off the ground from the things that you were sharing with us. Really appreciate you taking the time.   Brian: Thank you, Michael. It's been a pleasure.!   Michael: Likewise, take care. We'll talk soon.   Okay, everyone, that was our episode a big thank you to Brian, for coming on. If you're watching this on YouTube, you saw my jaw dropped several times. Super, super interesting stuff that Brian is working on and was sharing. So thank you again for coming on as always, if you enjoyed the episode, feel free to leave us a rating or review wherever you get your podcasts and we look forward to seeing on the next one. Happy investing…

  Landaas & Company newsletter  June edition now available. Advisors on This Week's Show Kyle Tetting Steve Giles Chris Evers (with Max Hoelzl, Joel Dresang, engineered by Kevin Lofy) Week in Review (June 20-24, 2022) Significant Indicators & Reports Monday Markets closed in observance of Juneteenth Day Tuesday The National Association of Realtors blamed rising mortgage rates in part for the fourth consecutive decline in existing home sales in May. The seasonally adjusted annual rate sank 3.4% to 5.4 million houses, down 8.6% from the year-earlier pace. The trade association said sales levels were back to where they were in 2019 and the balance between sales of houses and condominiums suggested a slowdown in the pandemic trend of urban dwellers moving to suburbs. Even with falling sales, the inventory of houses on the market was about half of what's considered enough to be sustainable. Because of tight supply, the median sales price rose nearly 15% from May 2021 to $407,600, the 123rd month in a row of year-to-year increases. Wednesday No major reports Thursday The four-week moving average for initial unemployment claims continued to rise, up for the 11th week since hitting a record low in early April. The Labor Department reported that the average level of new claims was at its highest point since January, though it was still 40% below the 55-year average. Another measure, the moving average of insured unemployment, reached a 52-year low. About 1.3 million Americans claimed  unemployment insurance benefits in the latest week, up 1% from the week before but down from 14.8 million the year before. Friday The Commerce Department and Department of Housing and Urban Development said the annual rate of new home sales rose 10.7% in May, the first gain in five months. The sales pace of 696,000 new houses was down 5.9% from May 2021, just above the level entering the pandemic and near where it was just before the Great Recession. The supply of new houses for sale rose to the highest point since April 2008, and the median sales price rose to a new high of $449,000, up 15% from May 2021. The University of Michigan's consumer sentiment index fell to its lowest mark ever in June. The survey-based gauge measured 50, down from 58,4 in May and 85.5 in June 2021. Consumers continued to cite inflation as their chief concern, with 47% blaming it for lowering their standard of living. During the Great Recession, a record 48% made that claim. Consumers expressed more confusion over long-term price increases than at any time since 1991. Even so, they forecast inflation to settle at 3.1% in the long run, which was consistent with the range in the last 10 months of surveys. MARKET CLOSINGS FOR THE WEEK Nasdaq – 11608, up 809 points or 7.5% Standard & Poor's 500 – 3912, up 237 points or 6.5% Dow Jones Industrial – 31504, up 1615 points or 5.4% 10-year U.S. Treasury Note – 3.13%, down 0.11 point Send us a question for our next podcast. Not a Landaas & Company client yet? Click here to learn more. More information and insight from Money Talk Money Talk Videos Follow us on Twitter. Landaas newsletter subscribers return to the newsletter via e-mail.

Everyone needs a break from their routines and daily stress. But for many people, a big summer vacation away isn't affordable or even desirable.  The idea of a “staycation” became popular during the Great Recession of 2008.  It returned during the COVID pandemic as people reluctant or unable to travel rediscovered their neighborhoods and nearby tourist attractions. As we head into summer, inflation and lingering COVID concerns are making nearby vacations appealing again.  MPR News host Angela Davis talks with two travel writers about finding Minnesota's hidden vacation spots and low-cost ways to find rest and renewal close to home.  Guests:  Lisa Meyers McClintick is a travel writer and photographer based in St. Cloud and author of the guidebook “Day Trips from the Twin Cities.”  Lizanne Dooner is a travel writer and blogger and creator of the blog Lizanne Lately. 

Alex Rogers graduated from the University of Minnesota with degrees in finance and economics in 2009 after watching the Great Recession unfold in real time. However, that didn't deter him from teaming up with a friend to launch his real estate investing career. Today, Alex serves as principal at Gray Duck Companies, a fully integrated real estate firm specializing in multifamily real estate. In this episode, he shares why he decided to take on third-party property management, how he selects clients, and his advice for scaling to the point of hiring full-time staff. Alex Rogers | Real Estate Background Principal at Gray Duck Companies, a fully integrated real estate firm specializing in multifamily real estate. Portfolio: GP of: 200 units through syndication 100 units and approximately 50,000 sq. ft. of commercial acquired outside of raising capital with his business partner and additional JV partners. LP of one fund, one multifamily syndication, and one storage syndication. Based in: Duluth, Minnesota Say hi to him at: GrayDuckCapital.com Instagram Linkedin Best Ever Book: Who Not How, Dan Sullivan Greatest lesson: One of the greatest lessons I've learned was the strength of your immediate network and those you spend time with. A common saying is that "you are the average of the five people you surround yourself with.” I take this to heart and try to surround myself with people that are smarter than I am. If you're the smartest person in a room, you're in the wrong room. Stay in touch with us! www.bestevercre.com YouTube Facebook LinkedIn Instagram Click here to know more about our sponsors:  Cash Flow Portal | Cornell Capital Holdings | PassiveInvesting.com

Welcome back, to another clip from Doc's Thought of the Day. Today Doc dicusses the fact that despite historic inflation the Fed still wants to raise its interest rates rather than eat the costs for the good of the economy and nation.Website - https://www.thatsonpoint.infoFollow Us On;Bitchute-https://www.bitchute.com/channel/8SXcz1rqDyu7/YouTube-https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCRNHroldv9kuaatarS7uclAMinds-https://www.minds.com/thatsonpoint/ToP Clips: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCn_fZ4JhHN05YLijsdmkYSQ/Paler:https://parler.com/profile/DocComeauSupport Us On;Subscribe Star-https://www.subscribestar.com/that-s-on-pointPatreon-https://www.patreon.com/ThatsOnPoint?fan_landing=tru

Welcome back, to another clip from Doc's Thought of the Day. Today Doc dicusses the fact that despite historic inflation the Fed still wants to raise its interest rates rather than eat the costs for the good of the economy and nation.Website - https://www.thatsonpoint.infoFollow Us On;Bitchute-https://www.bitchute.com/channel/8SXcz1rqDyu7/YouTube-https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCRNHroldv9kuaatarS7uclAMinds-https://www.minds.com/thatsonpoint/ToP Clips: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCn_fZ4JhHN05YLijsdmkYSQ/Paler:https://parler.com/profile/DocComeauSupport Us On;Subscribe Star-https://www.subscribestar.com/that-s-on-pointPatreon-https://www.patreon.com/ThatsOnPoint?fan_landing=tru

Welcome back, to another clip from Doc's Thought of the Day. Today Doc dicusses the fact that Housing Prices have begun to stagnate.Website - https://www.thatsonpoint.infoFollow Us On;Bitchute-https://www.bitchute.com/channel/8SXcz1rqDyu7/YouTube-https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCRNHroldv9kuaatarS7uclAMinds-https://www.minds.com/thatsonpoint/ToP Clips: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCn_fZ4JhHN05YLijsdmkYSQ/Paler:https://parler.com/profile/DocComeauSupport Us On;Subscribe Star-https://www.subscribestar.com/that-s-on-pointPatreon-https://www.patreon.com/ThatsOnPoint?fan_landing=tru

Welcome back, to another clip from Doc's Thought of the Day. Today Doc dicusses the fact that Housing Prices have begun to stagnate.Website - https://www.thatsonpoint.infoFollow Us On;Bitchute-https://www.bitchute.com/channel/8SXcz1rqDyu7/YouTube-https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCRNHroldv9kuaatarS7uclAMinds-https://www.minds.com/thatsonpoint/ToP Clips: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCn_fZ4JhHN05YLijsdmkYSQ/Paler:https://parler.com/profile/DocComeauSupport Us On;Subscribe Star-https://www.subscribestar.com/that-s-on-pointPatreon-https://www.patreon.com/ThatsOnPoint?fan_landing=tru

Welcome back, to another clip from Doc's Thought of the Day. Today Doc dicusses the fact that the Crypto Market is also seeing a historic crash.Website - https://www.thatsonpoint.infoFollow Us On;Bitchute-https://www.bitchute.com/channel/8SXcz1rqDyu7/YouTube-https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCRNHroldv9kuaatarS7uclAMinds-https://www.minds.com/thatsonpoint/ToP Clips: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCn_fZ4JhHN05YLijsdmkYSQ/Paler:https://parler.com/profile/DocComeauSupport Us On;Subscribe Star-https://www.subscribestar.com/that-s-on-pointPatreon-https://www.patreon.com/ThatsOnPoint?fan_landing=tru

Welcome back, to another clip from Doc's Thought of the Day. Today Doc dicusses the fact that the Crypto Market is also seeing a historic crash.Website - https://www.thatsonpoint.infoFollow Us On;Bitchute-https://www.bitchute.com/channel/8SXcz1rqDyu7/YouTube-https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCRNHroldv9kuaatarS7uclAMinds-https://www.minds.com/thatsonpoint/ToP Clips: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCn_fZ4JhHN05YLijsdmkYSQ/Paler:https://parler.com/profile/DocComeauSupport Us On;Subscribe Star-https://www.subscribestar.com/that-s-on-pointPatreon-https://www.patreon.com/ThatsOnPoint?fan_landing=tru

Welcome back, to another clip from Doc's Thought of the Day. Today dicusses the fact that a veteran of Wall Street is certain an economic collapse is coming.Website - https://www.thatsonpoint.infoFollow Us On;Bitchute-https://www.bitchute.com/channel/8SXcz1rqDyu7/YouTube-https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCRNHroldv9kuaatarS7uclAMinds-https://www.minds.com/thatsonpoint/ToP Clips: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCn_fZ4JhHN05YLijsdmkYSQ/Paler:https://parler.com/profile/DocComeauSupport Us On;Subscribe Star-https://www.subscribestar.com/that-s-on-pointPatreon-https://www.patreon.com/ThatsOnPoint?fan_landing=tru

Welcome back, to Doc's Thought of the Day. Today Doc talks about the fact that economy is crashing and the Powers That Be keep doing things designed to make it much much worse.Website - https://www.thatsonpoint.infoFollow Us On;Bitchute-https://www.bitchute.com/channel/8SXcz1rqDyu7/YouTube-https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCRNHroldv9kuaatarS7uclAMinds-https://www.minds.com/thatsonpoint/ToP Clips: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCn_fZ4JhHN05YLijsdmkYSQ/Paler:https://parler.com/profile/DocComeauSupport Us On;Subscribe Star-https://www.subscribestar.com/that-s-on-pointPatreon-https://www.patreon.com/ThatsOnPoint?fan_landing=tru

Welcome back, to another clip from Doc's Thought of the Day. Today dicusses the fact that a veteran of Wall Street is certain an economic collapse is coming.Website - https://www.thatsonpoint.infoFollow Us On;Bitchute-https://www.bitchute.com/channel/8SXcz1rqDyu7/YouTube-https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCRNHroldv9kuaatarS7uclAMinds-https://www.minds.com/thatsonpoint/ToP Clips: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCn_fZ4JhHN05YLijsdmkYSQ/Paler:https://parler.com/profile/DocComeauSupport Us On;Subscribe Star-https://www.subscribestar.com/that-s-on-pointPatreon-https://www.patreon.com/ThatsOnPoint?fan_landing=tru

If you were to lose half or more of your income in the next few months, what would you do? I ask you this question because that's exactly what happened to me during the Great Recession of 2008, and many financial experts are forecasting that the next recession could be right around the corner. Today, I want to share with you the four (4) things I did in 2008 to turn my financial situation around and literally double my income (in only two months) at the height of the Great Recession, so you can be prepared to do the same. In today's podcast, I want to share the story of my financial journey. Then, I want to present four strategies you can use to thrive during a recession, what I'm doing now to prepare for a potential economic downturn, and how you can use these same techniques to thrive no matter what happens! KEY TAKEAWAYS How a listener's critical comment inspired me to record today's episode. My financial journey from painting decks at 9 years old to becoming a full-time entrepreneur. Why it took me many years to establish a meaningful passive income—and the experiences that taught me the value of thinking outside the box. Why my coaching business fell apart in the wake of the Great Recession and led me to the concepts and ideas behind the Miracle Morning. The ONE question I asked in 2008 that I'm asking again now. How optimizing your mindset, learning new strategies, asking for help, and getting creative can help you establish new sources of income, even during a major economic recession. Get The Full Show Notes To get full access to today's show notes, including audio, transcript, and links to all the resources mentioned, visit MiracleMorning/435 Subscribe, Rate & Review I would love if you could subscribe to the podcast and leave an honest rating & review. This will encourage other people to listen and allow us to grow as a community. The bigger we get as a community, the bigger the impact we can have on the world. To subscribe, rate, and review the podcast on iTunes, visit HalElrod.com/iTunes. Connect with Hal Elrod Facebook Twitter Instagram YouTube

We welcome YOU back to America's leading higher education podcast, The EdUp Experience! It's YOUR time to #EdUp In this episode, YOUR guest is Sheila Bair, Senior Advisor to Student Debt Smarter, YOUR host is Dr. Joe Sallustio, & YOUR sponsor is Anthology Together 2022! What is Student Debt Smarter & how can it help prospective students & their families demystify the student aid process? Listen in to #EdUp! Sheila Bair has had a long & distinguished career in government, academia, & finance, & was twice named by Forbes Magazine as the second most powerful woman in the world. Bair was Chair of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) from 2006 to 2011, when she steered the agency through the Great Recession; is a frequent commentator on financial regulation & the student debt crisis; & is the author of the NY Times Best Seller, Bull by the Horns, her memoir of the financial crisis, as well as the Money Tales picture book series for children. Thank YOU so much for tuning in. Join us on the next episode for YOUR time to EdUp! Connect with YOUR EdUp Team - Elvin Freytes & Dr. Joe Sallustio ● Join YOUR EdUp community at The EdUp Experience! We make education YOUR business! --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/edup/message

Today's RealTrending features Long Doan, CEO of Realty Group LLC in Minneapolis. Doan was named a 2022 RealTrends GameChanger for achieving 292% growth by transaction side percentage over the past five years.Coming to the U.S. as a 13-year-old refugee during the Vietnam War, Doan had an aha moment. "The first night I was at the refugee camp, it hit me. I found a spot on the beach and I remember crying all night. I was a 13 year old boy, alone. I thought to myself, 'Wait a minute. Am I lucky, or am I unlucky?' The sun was coming up, and I remember telling myself that, 'Just put your big boy pants on and go to work,' because I decided that I was a victor, not a victim. I actually was lucky, not unlucky. And your mind is powerful. When you decide something, you are right."

Today's RealTrending features Long Doan, CEO of Realty Group LLC in Minneapolis. Doan was named a 2022 RealTrends GameChanger for achieving 292% growth by transaction side percentage over the past five years.Coming to the U.S. as a 13-year-old refugee during the Vietnam War, Doan had an aha moment. "The first night I was at the refugee camp, it hit me. I found a spot on the beach and I remember crying all night. I was a 13 year old boy, alone. I thought to myself, 'Wait a minute. Am I lucky, or am I unlucky?' The sun was coming up, and I remember telling myself that, 'Just put your big boy pants on and go to work,' because I decided that I was a victor, not a victim. I actually was lucky, not unlucky. And your mind is powerful. When you decide something, you are right."

Subscribe to The Realignment on Supercast to support the show and access all of our bonus content: https://realignment.supercast.com/.REALIGNMENT NEWSLETTER: https://therealignment.substack.com/BOOKSHOP: https://bookshop.org/shop/therealignmentEmail us at: realignmentpod@gmail.comThis episode and our expanded coverage are made possible thanks to our Supercast subscribers. If you can, please support the show above.Michelle Wilde Anderson, Stanford Law professor and author of The Fight to Save the Town: Reimagining Discarded America, joins The Realignment to discuss how the Great Recession devasted working-class community's across America, how bankrupt local governments struggle with decline, effective models for reform and renewal, and how local politics can make a difference. 

We have witnessed a massive shift in Federal Reserve policy over the last several months and a tightening of the money supply and it is having profound effects on the real estate market and on all the financial markets, whether it be precious metals, stocks or cryptocurrencies. It's been a rough ride for stock and crypto investors, with an absolute bloodbath in these markets recently. But where is the real estate market disaster that everyone is expecting? Where is the real estate market crash? First of all, we've got to distinguish real estate from income property. Are we talking about linear markets, cyclical markets or hybrid markets? Are they markets with good Land to Improvement Ratios? Also, in order to have a real estate crash, there are several things that have to line up, including distressed borrowers and high unemployment rates. Jason takes a closer look at all of these factors to see if a crash in the real estate market is on the horizon.

We all know the expression Be The Change You Want To See In the World. Most of us would say we agree with it, but how do we live it? All we have to do is look around and see wrongs that we feel need to be righted. Do we do something about it? Or do we just go on with our lives and tell ourselves that someone else will take care of it? It just may be that we want to do something but don't know how to get started. That's why I turned to someone I consider an expert in this area to join me on this episode. Chad Cooper is an accomplished speaker, coach and entrepreneur with more credits than I have room to list. But above all he believes his mission in life is to be a servant and gives of himself in many philanthropic efforts. Chad tells us:•Why now is the time to look outward•The conversation we all should be having now•How to be a changemaker•The qualities to nurture so you can be of service•Why comparison is the theft of joy•The answer to the statement: But I don't have enough timeWhether you feel the need to change something in your community, your country or the world, you will be inspired by this episode of Dream Power Radio. Chad E Cooper is the Managing Director, Partner of EarthWind Technologies. Top ranking High-Performance Coach and Speaker. Strategic advisor to private equity and Fortune 500 companies as well as called on by top professional athletes in NHL, NFL, MLB, WBO, USAT, MLS, USL, USAS, and Olympic Medalist. A Former U.S. Marine who embodies discipline, resourcefulness, and achieving objectives consistently, he applies these principles in his career, companies, and family successes. Chad has been awarded Top Ranking High Performance during his service record. A servant leader for 15 years as Former City Councilman, Mayor Pro-Tem, and retired 33 Major Sponsored Semi-Pro Ironman triathlete. Chad is formerly registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) as a registered broker and license holder of several investment and financial licenses. Retired from Microsoft at 35 as an ITIL Master certified practitioner advisor to Fortune 50 CXO's. Chad architected and advised IT Operational service design, operation, and strategy on how to position and define services as strategic assets. His accomplishments in the IT industry and throughout his final years landed consistent bottom-line results as acknowledged through Gold Club Sales Award, Healthcare Great People Great Performance Award and Top Contributor Award. He knows what it takes to become financially independent. He applied these principles and leadership while serving in various roles through elected and appointed local and state government; Chad has served as a Board member State of Michigan Energy and Technology Committee, Board member of Michigan Municipal League Legislative Governance Committee, Development Financing Authority as well as the Financial Budget Sub-committee. Chad was instrumental in leading these municipalities and The State of Michigan into financial prosperity pre-and post The Great Recession by implementing sound fiscal management practices to ensure long-term sustainability. As a business owner and property owner of housing within multi-story, multi-building complex's he understands business operations leading to profits. Founding Board member to three global foundations of nearly 20 years that are empowering the underprivileged through education and resources in Central America, South Pacific Rim, Eastern Europe, and North America; Chad is living his childhood dream by traveling the globe teaching people how to use resourcefulness and their strength of purpose to generate stability for generations to come. Chad understands that mastery of life consists of four primary quadrants: physical, logical, emotional, and spiritual. What has allowed Chad to achieve and receive so much is the understanding that the spiritual must align and inter-weave within the other three quadrants; it is not separated entity, rather an integral aspect to all of “success”. His primary question is “Who do you want to be (being), regardless of what you decide to do?” There is a fundamental and critical difference between a “leader” of today and “servant leaders” which we require much more of in the world. Therefore, his foundation work has been pivotal and at the center of all his other work. Website: https://chadcooper.com/If you have the desire to be of service but feel that something's blocking you, the answer may lie in your dreams. Dreams are the fastest and clearest way to understand yourself. Sign up here for a complementary Dream Discovery Session with me and never leave your dreams on your pillow again!https://calendly.com/thedreamcoach53/30min

To support independent ski journalism, please consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Paid subscribers receive thousands of extra words of content each month, plus all podcasts three days before free subscribers.WhoJoe Hession, CEO of Snow Partners, owners of Mountain Creek, Big Snow American Dream, Snowcloud, and Terrain Based LearningRecorded onJune 15, 2022About Mountain CreekLocated in: Vernon Township, New JerseyClosest neighboring ski areas: National Winter Activity Center, New Jersey (6 minutes); Mount Peter, New York (24 minutes); Campgaw, New Jersey (51 minutes); Big Snow American Dream (50 minutes)Pass affiliations: NoneBase elevation: 440 feetSummit elevation: 1,480 feetVertical drop: 1,040 feetSkiable Acres: 167Average annual snowfall: 65 inchesTrail count: 46Lift count: 9 (1 Cabriolet, 2 high-speed quads, 2 fixed-grip quads, 1 triple, 1 double, 2 carpets – view Lift Blog’s inventory of Mountain Creek’s lift fleet)About Big Snow American DreamLocated in: East Rutherford, New JerseyClosest neighboring ski areas: Campgaw, New Jersey (35 minutes); National Winter Activity Center, New Jersey (45 minutes); Mountain Creek, New Jersey (50 minutes); Mount Peter, New York (50 minutes)Pass affiliations: NoneVertical drop: 118 feetSkiable Acres: 4Average annual snowfall: 0 inchesTrail count: 4 (2 green, 1 blue, 1 black)Lift count: 4 (1 quad, 1 poma, 2 carpets - view Lift Blog’s of inventory of Big Snow American Dream’s lift fleet)Why I interviewed himTwenty-five years ago, Vail Resorts was known as “Vail Associates.” The company owned just two mountains: Vail and Beaver Creek, which are essentially right next door to each other in Eagle County, Colorado. The resorts were, as they are today, big, snowy, and fun. But they were not great businesses. Bankruptcy threatened. And the ski media – Skiing, Powder – was mostly dismissive. This was the dawn of the freeskiing era, and the cool kids were running the Circuit of Radness: Snowbird, Squaw, Mammoth, Jackson Hole, Whistler, the Powder Highway. Vail was for suburban dads from Michigan. Beaver Creek was for suburban dads from New York. If you wanted the good stuff, keep moving until you got to Crested Butte or Telluride. Vail was just another big Colorado ski resort, that happened to own another big Colorado ski resort, and that was it.Today, Vail is the largest ski company in history, with (soon to be) 41 resorts scattered across three continents. Its Epic Pass transformed and stabilized the industry. It is impossible to talk about modern lift-served North American skiing without talking about Vail Resorts.There was nothing inevitable about this. Pete Seibert, Vail’s founder, did not enter skiing with some snowy notion of Manifest Destiny. He just wanted to open a great ski resort. It was 18 years from Vail Mountain’s 1962 opening to the opening of Beaver Creek in 1980. It was nearly two more decades until Vail bought Keystone and Breck in 1997. It was 11 more years until the Epic Pass debuted, and a few more before anyone started to pay attention to it.What Snow Partners, led by Joe Hession, is doing right now has echoes of Vail 15 years ago. They are building something. Quietly. Steadily. Like trees growing in a forest. They rise slowly but suddenly they tower over everything.I’m not suggesting that Snow Partners will be the next Vail. That they will buy Revelstoke and Jackson Hole and Alta and launch the Ultimo Pass to compete with Epic and Ikon. What Snow Partners is building is different. Additive. It will likely be the best thing to ever happen to Vail or Alterra. Snow Partners is not digital cameras, here to crush Kodak. They are, rather, skiing’s Ben Franklin, who believed every community in America should have access to books via a lending library. In Snow Partners’ version of the future, every large city in America has access to skiing via an indoor snowdome.This will change everything. Everything. In profound ways that we can only now imagine. The engine of that change will be the tens of millions of potential new skiers that can wander into a Big Snow ski area, learn how to ski, and suddenly train their radar on the mountains. Texas has a population of around 29.5 million people. Florida has about 22 million. Georgia has around 11 million. Those 61.5 million people have zero in-state ski areas between them. They could soon have many. There are countless skiers living in these states now, of course, refugees from the North or people who grew up in ski families. But there are millions more who have never skied or even thought about it, but who would, given the option, at least try it as a novelty. And that novelty may become a hobby, and that hobby may become a lifestyle, and that lifestyle may become an obsession.As anyone reading this knows, there’s a pretty direct line between those first turns and the neverending lines rolling on repeat in your snow-obsessed brain. But you have to link those first couple turns. That’s hard. Most people never get there. And that’s where Big Snow, with its beginner zone loaded with instructors and sculpted terrain features – a system known as Terrain Based Learning – is so interesting. It not only gives people access to snow. It gives people a way to learn to love it, absent the broiling frustration of ropetows and ice and $500 private instructors. It’s a place that creates skiers.This – Big Snow, along with an industry-wide reorientation toward technology – is Hession’s vision. And it is impossible not to believe in his vision. Hession announces in this podcast that the company has secured funding to build multiple Big Snow ski areas within the foreseeable future. The combination of beginner-oriented slopes and simple, affordable packages has proven attractive even in New Jersey, where skiers have access to dozens of outdoor ski areas within a few hours’ drive. It makes money, and the business model is easily repeatable.Mountain Creek, where Hession began working as a parking lot attendant in his teens, is, he says, a passion project. The company is not buying anymore outdoor ski areas. But when Big Snows start minting new skiers by the thousands, and perhaps the millions, they may end up driving the most profound change to outdoor ski areas in decades.What we talked aboutThe nascent uphill scene at Mountain Creek; “most people don’t realize that this is what New Jersey looks like”; celebrating Big Snow’s re-opening; the three things everyone gets wrong about Big Snow; the night of the fire that closed the facility for seven months; how the fire started and what it damaged; three insurance companies walk into a bar…; why six weeks of work closed the facility for more than half a year; staying positive and mission-focused through multiple shutdowns at a historically troubled facility; New Jersey’s enormous diversity; skiing in Central Park?; “we’re creating a ski town culture in the Meadowlands in New Jersey”; everyone loves Big Snow; the story behind creating Big Snow’s beginner-focused business model; why most people don’t have fun skiing and snowboarding; the four kinds of fun; what makes skiing and snowboarding a lifestyle; what Hession got really wrong about lessons; the “haphazard” development of most ski areas; more Big Snows incoming; why Big Snow is a great business from a financial and expense point of view; looking to Top Golf for inspiration on scale and replicability; where we could see the next Big Snow; how many indoor ski domes could the United States handle?; what differentiates Big Snow from Alpine-X; whether future Big Snows will be standalone facilities or attached to larger malls; is American Dream Mall too big to fail?; finding salvation from school struggles as a parking lot attendant at Vernon Valley Great Gorge; Action Park; two future ski industry leaders working the rental shop; Intrawest kicks down the door and rearranges the world overnight; a “complicated” relationship with Mountain Creek; Intrawest’s rapid decline and the fate of Mountain Creek; leaving your dream job; ownership under Crystal Springs; how a three-week vacation will change your life; transforming Terrain Based Learning from a novelty to an empire; “I’ve been fascinated with how you go from working for a company to owning a company”; the far-flung but tightly bound ski industry and how Hession ended up running Big Snow; how much the Big Snow lease costs in a month; an Austin Powers moment; this is a technology company; an anti-kiosk position; the daily capacity of Mountain Creek; buying Mountain Creek; the art of operating a ski area; the biggest mistake most Mountain Creek operators have made; the bargain season pass as business cornerstone; “we were days away from Vail Resorts owning Mountain Creek today”; bankruptcy, Covid, and taking control of Mountain Creek and Big Snow in spite of it all; how much money Mountain Creek brings in in a year; “a lot of people don’t understand how hard it is to run a ski resort”; a monster chairlift project on the Vernon side of Mountain Creek; “a complicated relationship” with the oddest lift in the East ( the cabriolet) and what to do about it; “no one wants to take their skis on and off for a 1,000 feet of vertical”; which lift from Mountain Creek’s ancient past could make a comeback; bringing back the old Granite View and Route 80 trails; why expansion beyond the historic trail network is unlikely anytime soon; Creek’s huge natural snowmaking advantage; why no one at Mountain Creek “gives high-fives before the close of the season”; Hession is “absolutely” committed to stretching Creek’s season as long as possible; the biggest job of a ski resort in the summertime; the man who has blown snow at Mountain Creek for 52 years; whether Snow Operating would ever buy more outdoor ski resorts; “variation is evil”; the large ski resort that Hession tried to buy; “I don’t think anyone can run a massive network of resorts well”; an Applebee’s comparison; whether Mountain Creek or Big Snow could ever join a multi-mountain ski pass; why the M.A.X. Pass was a disaster for Mountain Creek; why Creek promotes the Epic and Ikon Passes on its social channels; changing your narrative; not a b******t mission statement; why the next decade in the ski industry may be the wildest yet; and the Joe P. Hession Foundation.Why I thought that now was a good time for this interviewI’ll admit that it can be awfully hard to appreciate the potential of Big Snow from the point of view of the casual observer. For anyone living in the New York metro area, the place spent a decade and a half as a vacant laughingstock, a symbol of excess and arrogance, an absurdly expensive novelty that was built, it seemed, just to be torn down. As I wrote last year:On Sept. 29, 2004, a coalition of developers broke ground on a project then known as Meadowlands Xanadu. Built atop a New Jersey swamp and hard by Interstate 95, the garish collection of boxes and ramps with their Romper Room palette could be seen from the upper floors of Manhattan skyscrapers, marooned in their vast asphalt parking lot, an entertainment complex with no one to entertain.It sat empty for years. Crushed, in turn, by incompetence, cost overruns, the Great Recession, lawsuits, and funding issues, the building that would host America’s first indoor ski slope melted into an eternal limbo of ridicule and scorn.I didn’t think it would ever open, and I didn’t understand the point if it did. This is the Northeast – we have no shortage of skiing. At four acres on 160-foot vertical drop, this would instantly become the smallest ski area in nine states. Wow. What’s the next item in your master development plan: an indoor beach in Hawaii?But eventually Big Snow did open: 5,545 days after the center’s groundbreaking. And it was not what I thought it would be. As I wrote the month after it opened:For its potential to pull huge numbers of never-evers into the addictive and thrilling gravitational pull of Planet Ski, Big Snow may end up being the most important ski area on the continent. It is cheap. It is always open. It sits hard against the fourth busiest interstate in the country and is embedded into a metro population of 20 million that has outsized influence on national and global trends. Over the coming decades, this ugly oversized refrigerator may introduce millions of people to the sport.I wrote that on Jan. 13, 2020, two months before Covid would shutter the facility for 177 days. It had only been open 94 days when that happened. Then, 388 days after re-opening on Sept. 1, 2020, fire struck. It caused millions in damage and another 244-day closure. After endless negotiations with insurance companies, Big Snow American Dream finally re-opened last month.So now what? Will this place finally stabilize? What about the disastrous financial state of the mall around it, which has, according to The Wall Street Journal, missed payments on its municipal bonds? Will we see more Big Snows? Will Snow Operating bid on Jay Peak? Will we ever get a real chairlift on Vernon at Mountain Creek? With Big Snow rebooted and live (take three), it was time to focus on the future of Snow Operating. And oh man, buckle up.Questions I wish I’d askedI could have stopped Joe at any time and asked a hundred follow-up questions on any of the dozens of points he made. But there would have been no point in that. He knew what I wanted to discuss, and the narrative is compelling enough on its own, without my input.Why you should ski Mountain Creek and Big SnowBig SnowIf you’re approaching Big Snow from the point of view of a seasoned skier, I want to stop you right there: this is not indoor Aspen. And it’s not pretending to be. Big Snow is skiing’s version of Six Flags. It’s an amusement park. All are welcome, all can participate. It’s affordable. It’s orderly. It’s easy. And it has the potential to become the greatest generator of new skiers since the invention of snow.And that will especially be true if this thing scales in the way that Hession believes it will. Imagine this: you live in Houston. No one in your family skis and so you’ve never thought about skiing. You’ve never even seen snow. You can’t imagine why anyone would ever want to. It looks cold, uncomfortable, exotic as moonrocks, and about as accessible. You’re not a skier and you probably never will be.But, what if Big Snow sprouts out of the ground like a snowy rollercoaster? It’s close. It’s cheap. It could be fun. You and your buddies decide to check it out. Or you take someone there on a date. Or you take your kids there as a distraction. Your lift ticket is well under $100 and includes skis and boots and poles and bindings and a jacket and snowpants (but not, for some reason, gloves), and access to instructors in the Terrain Based Learning area, a series of humps and squiggly snow features that move rookies with the ground beneath them. You enter as a novice and you leave as a skier. You go back. Five or six more times. Then you’re Googling “best skiing USA” and buying an Epic Pass and booking flights for Denver.And if that’s not you, how about this scenario that I face all the time: nonskiers tell me they want to try skiing. Can I take them? Given my background, this would not seem like an irrational request. But I’m not sure where to start. With lift tickets, rentals, and lessons, they’re looking at $150 to $200, plus a long car ride in either direction, just to try something that is cold and frustrating and unpredictable. I’m sure as hell not teaching them. My imagination proves unequal to the request. We don’t go skiing.Big Snow changes that calculus. Solves it. Instantly. Even, as Joe suggests in our interview, in places where you wouldn’t expect it. Denver or Salt Lake City or Minneapolis or Boston. Places that already have plenty of skiing nearby. Why? Well, if you’re in Denver, a snowdome means you don’t have to deal with I-70 or $199 lift tickets or figuring out which of the 100 chairlifts in Summit County would best suite your first ski adventure. You just go to the snowdome.The potential multiplying effect on new skiers is even more substantial when you consider the fact that these things never close. Hession points out that, after decades of refinement and tweaking, Mountain Creek is now finally able to consistently offer 100-day seasons. And given the local weather patterns, that’s actually amazing. But Big Snow – in New Jersey or elsewhere – will be open 365 days per year. That’s three and a half seasons of Mountain Creek, every single year. Multiply that by 10 or 20 or 30 Big Snows, and suddenly the U.S. has far more skiers than anyone ever could have imagined.Mountain CreekThere exists in the Northeast a coterie of unimaginative blockheads who seem to measure their self-worth mostly by the mountains that they dislike. Hunter is a big target. So is Mount Snow. But perhaps no one takes more ridicule, however, than Mountain Creek, that swarming Jersey bump with the shaky financial history and almost total lack of natural snow. Everyone remembers Vernon Valley Great Gorge (as Mountain Creek was once known), and its adjacent summertime operation, the raucous and profoundly dysfunctional Action Park. Or they remember Intrawest leaving Creek at the altar. Or that one time they arrived at Creek at noon on Dec. 29 and couldn’t find a place to park and spent half the afternoon waiting in line to buy a bowl of tomato soup. Or whatever. Now, based on those long-ago notions, they toss insults about Creek in between their Facebook posts from the Jackson Hole tram line or downing vodka shots with their crew, who are called the Drinksmore Boyz or Powder Dogzz or the Legalizerz or some orther poorly spelled compound absurdity anchored in a profound misunderstanding of how impressed society is in general with the antics of men in their 20s.  Whatever. I am an unapologetic Mountain Creek fan. I’ve written why many times, but here’s a summary:First, it is close. From my Brooklyn apartment, I can be booting up in an hour and 15 minutes on a weekend morning. It is a bargain. My no-blackout pass for the 2019-20 season was $230. It is deceptively large, stretching two miles from Vernon to Bear Peaks along New Jersey state highway 94. Its just over thousand-foot vertical drop means the runs feel substantial. It has night skiing, making it possible to start my day at my Midtown Manhattan desk job and finish it hooking forty-mile-an-hour turns down a frozen mountainside. The place is quite beautiful. Really. A panorama of rolling hills and farmland stretches northwest off the summit. The snowmaking system is excellent. They opened on November 16 this year and closed on April 7 last season, a by-any-measure horrible winter with too many thaws and wave after wave of base-destroying rain. And, if you know the time and place to go, Mountain Creek can be a hell of a lot of fun, thanks to the grown-up chutes-and-ladders terrain of South Peak, an endless tiered sequence of launchpads, rollers and rails (OK, I don’t ski rails), that will send you caroming down the mountain like an amped-up teenager (I am more than twice as old as any teenager).I don’t have a whole lot to add to that. It’s my home mountain. After spending my first seven ski seasons tooling around Midwest bumps, the glory of having a thousand-footer that near to me will never fade. The place isn’t perfect, of course, and no one is trying to tell that story, including me, as you can see in the full write-up below, but when I only have two or three hours to ski, Creek is an amazing gift that I will never take for granted:Podcast notesHere are a few articles laying out bits of Hession’s history with Mountain Creek:New VP has worked at Creek since his teens – Advertiser-News South, Feb. 22, 2012Mountain Creek Enters Ski Season With New Majority Owner Snow Operating – Northjersey.com, Nov. 23, 2018I’ve written quite a bit about Big Snow and Mountain Creek over the years. Here are a couple of the feature stories:The Curse of Big Snow – Sept. 30, 2021The Most Important Ski Area in America – Jan. 13, 2020This is the fourth podcast I’ve hosted that was at least in part focused on Mountain Creek:Big Snow and Mountain Creek Vice President of Marketing & Sales Hugh Reynolds – March 3, 2020Hermitage Club General Manager Bill Benneyan, who was also a former president, COO, and general manager of Mountain Creek – Dec. 4, 2020Crystal Mountain, Washington President and CEO Frank DeBerry, who was also a former president, COO, and general manager of Mountain Creek – Oct. 22, 2021Here are podcasts I’ve recorded with other industry folks that Hession mentions during our interview:Vail Resorts Rocky Mountain Region Chief Operating Officer and Mountain Division Executive Vice President Bill Rock – June 14, 2022Mountain High and Dodge Ridge President and CEO Karl Kapuscinski - June 10, 2022Alpine-X CEO John Emery – Aug. 4, 2021Fairbank Group Chairman Brian Fairbank – Oct. 16, 2020Killington and Pico President and General Manager Mike Solimano – Oct. 13, 2019Here’s the trailer for HBO’s Class Action Park, the 2020 documentary profiling the old water park on the Mountain Creek (then Vernon Valley-Great Gorge) grounds:Hession mentioned a retired chairlift and retired trails that he’d like to bring back to Mountain Creek:What Hession referred to as “the Galactic Chair” is Lift 9 on the trailmap below, which is from 1989. This would load at the junction of present-day Upper Horizon and Red Fox, and terminate on the landing where the Sojourn Double and Granite Peak Quad currently come together (see current trailmap above). This would give novice skiers a route to lap gentle Osprey and Red Fox, rather than forcing them all onto Lower Horizon all the way back to the Cabriolet. I don’t need to tell any regular Creek skiers how significant this could be in taking pressure off the lower mountain at Vernon/North. Lower Horizon is fairly steep and narrow for a green run, and this could be a compelling alternative, especially if these skiers then had the option of downloading the Cabriolet.Hession also talked about bringing back a pair of intermediate runs. One is Granite View, which is trails 34 (Cop Out), 35 (Fritz’s Folly) and 33 (Rim Run) on Granite Peak below. The trail closed around 2005 or ’06, and bringing it back would restore a welcome alternative for lapping Granite Peak.The second trail that Hession referenced was Route 80 (trail 24 on the Vernon side, running beneath lift 8), which cuts through what is now condos and has been closed for decades. I didn’t even realize it was still there. Talks with the condo association have yielded progress, Hession tells me, and we could see the trail return, providing another connection between Granite and Vernon.Creek skiers are also still obsessed with Pipeline, the double-black visible looker’s right of the Granite lift on this 2015 trailmap:I did not ask Hession about this run because I’d asked Hugh Reynolds about it on the podcast two years ago, and he made it clear that Pipeline was retired and would be as long as he and Hession ran the place.Here are links to a few more items we mentioned in the podcast:The 2019 Vermont Digger article that lists Snow Operating as an interested party in the Jay Peak sale.We talked a bit about the M.A.X. Pass, a short-lived multi-mountain pass that immediately preceded (and was dissolved by), the Ikon Pass. Here’s a list of partner resorts on that pass. Skiers received five days at each, and could add the pass onto a season pass at any partner ski area. This was missing heavies like Jackson Hole, Aspen, and Taos, but it did include some ballers like Big Sky and Killington. Resorts of the Canadian Rockies, which includes Fernie and Kicking Horse and is now aligned with the Epic Pass, was a member, as were a few ski areas that have since eschewed any megapass membership: Whiteface, Gore, Belleayre, Wachusett, Alyeska, Mountain High, Lee Canyon, and Whitewater. Odd as that seems, I’m sure we’ll look back at some of today’s megapass coalitions with shock and longing.This podcast hit paid subscribers’ inboxes on June 19. Free subscribers got it on June 22. To receive future pods as soon as they’re live, please consider an upgrade to a paid subscription.The Storm publishes year-round, and guarantees 100 articles per year. This is article 67/100 in 2022, and number 313 since launching on Oct. 13, 2019. Want to send feedback? Reply to this email and I will answer (unless you sound insane). You can also email skiing@substack.com. Get full access to The Storm Skiing Journal and Podcast at www.stormskiing.com/subscribe

David Goodhart is a British journalist. In 1995 he founded Prospect, the center-left political magazine, where he served as editor for 15 years, and then became the director of Demos, the cross-party think tank. His book The Road to Somewhere coined the terms “Anywheres” and “Somewheres” to help us understand populism in the contemporary West. We also discuss his latest book, Head Hand Heart: The Struggle for Dignity and Status in the 21st Century.You can listen to the episode right away in the audio player above (or click the dropdown menu to add the Dishcast to your podcast feed). For two clips of our convo — on why elites favor open borders, and why smart people are overvalued — head over to our YouTube page. Early in the episode, David discusses how his adolescent schooling in Marxism was “a bit like how people sometimes talk about the classics as a sort of intellectual gymnasium — learning how to argue.” Which brings to mind the following note from a listener:I feel compelled to tell you how much I enjoyed listening to your episode with Roosevelt Montás. I’m a retired lawyer in my 60s, and although I had a decent education growing up, my experience did not involve a full immersion in the classics. Hearing you two talk was like sitting in a dorm room in college — except the people talking are older, wiser, actually know what they were talking about. What a treat. I’m a pretty regular listener of the Dishcast, and this was the best yet in my opinion.Much of this week’s episode with David centers on how our capitalist society ascribes too much social and moral value to cognitive ability. That theme was also central to our episode last year with Charles Murray, who emphasizes in the following clip the “unearned gift” of high IQ:The following listener was a big fan of the episode (which we transcribed last week):I must tell you that your conversation with Charles Murray was the single best podcast I’ve ever heard. So deep, broad, and thought provoking. Thank you both for your willingness to explore “unacceptable” ideas so thoughtfully and carefully.I have read two of Charles’ books — Human Diversity and Facing Reality — and, among other things, I am stunned by how ordinary a person he seems to be. That sounds odd. What I mean to say is that, while few people could analyze and assemble so much data and present it so compellingly, his conclusions are what the average person “already knows.” I suspect that most people couldn’t plow through Human Diversity, but given a brief synopsis, they would say “duh.”When you mentioned your deep respect for black culture in America, you touched on something I wish had been more developed in Charles’ books: the option we have of celebrating human diversity rather than resigning ourselves to it or denying it. I would like to develop that idea a bit further:Conservation biologists understand (celebrate) the value of genetic diversity in nonhuman species, because each population potentially brings to the species genes that will allow it to flourish under some future environmental challenge, whether that be disease outbreak, climate change, competition from invasive species, etc. Humans too, as living organisms, have faced and will undoubtedly continue to face many unforeseen challenges, whether environmental, cultural, economic, etc. Hopefully, we will continue to rise to these challenges, but we have no way of knowing which genes from which populations will carry the critical traits that will allow us to do so. So, all the better that races DO differ and ARE diverse — in the aggregate, on average. Population differences are GOOD for a species because they confer resilience!Oh, and for the record, I tend to be center-left, with most of my friends leaning further to the left, so the ideas you presented are forbidden fruits. I cannot discuss them with anyone other than my husband, who can hardly bear to listen because they are so taboo in our circle.Here’s another clip with Charles, bringing Christianity into the mix:This next listener strongly dissents:Charles Murray, and you as well, seem to believe that you can magically separate out the effects of culture and poverty, and determine the effect of “race” on intelligence, which you define as IQ. The problem is, everything you’ve discussed here is nonsense.First, you assume that the term “race” describes a shorthand for people who share a common genetic background, and I suspect this is garbage. Most American Blacks have multi-ethnic backgrounds, with skin melanin being the main shared genetic feature. So, there’s little reason to believe that there’s a correlation between melanin content and other genetic features.Second, you assume that IQ describes general intelligence, that G factor Murray talks about. But intelligence is clearly multi-dimensional. My wife and youngest daughter have a facility with Scrabble, and general word enumeration games, that is way beyond me, and they’re better writers than I am. On the other hand, I have a general facility with mathematics that they can’t match (though my oldest daughter might be able to). And that’s just two dimensions; I’d bet there are many more, encompassing things like artistic talent, architectural design and talents in other arenas. You yourself are an excellent writer and interviewer, but I’ve read your writings for years, and I’d bet your understanding of statistics is elementary at best.Finally, you have no answer to the remarkable changes in IQ in Ashkenazi Jews over the past century. Supposedly IQ is supposed to represent an innate and unchangeable measurement of intelligence. And if you believe that average IQ of an ethnic group is a meaningful measurement, then you have to explain the changes in average IQ among American Jews over the past century. Goddard in the early 20th century claimed that 83% of tested Jews were feebleminded, while today, the great grandchildren of those feebleminded Jews now have IQs 1/2 to a full standard deviation above their co-nationalists. There’s an obvious answer here: IQ tests simply don’t test anything fundamental, but instead test how integrated into American culture the tested subjects were at the time.These are serious challenges to the idea that specific ethnic groups have unchangeable intellectual talents: some of your ethnic groups are non-homogeneous genetically, your definition of intelligence is simplistic, and there’s clear evidence that social integration greatly overwhelms any inter-group average differences. It is obvious that some people are more talented in one area than another, and that a significant amount of these differences are determined genetically. But when you move from the case of individuals to trying to correlate American racial groups with intelligence, I truly believe you’re just making a big mistake. Many Blacks in this country have grown up with the expectations that they simply can’t succeed on their own. I find it impossible to believe that we can filter out the effect of being raised with the expectation of failure. I work in tech, and it seems that a seriously disproportionate number of Blacks at my Gang of Five company come from the Caribbean — where, of course, Blacks are a majority and don’t face the same expectations of failure. We had a panel discussion on race and all the panelists came from the Caribbean, and all had stories of parental expectations that you’d expect from a stereotypical Asian-American family today.That said, right now, the Woke are acting more patronizing (and in my view, racist) than anything since the ‘60s. At this point, the Woke (I refuse to apply this label to the whole Left) treat Blacks as incredibly fragile beings who can’t handle any discussions of problems that aren’t laid at the feet of white people’s racism. It’s pretty disgusting.Instead of going point for point with my reader, here’s a comprehensive list of Dish coverage on the subject from the blog days. Another listener recommends a related guest for the Dishcast:After ruminating on some of your recent podcasts, I’d like to suggest a future guest: Paige Harden, author of The Genetic Lottery: Why DNA Matters for Social Equality and professor of behavioral psychology at the University of Texas-Austin. I imagine you’ve read her profile in The New Yorker. Since your conversation with Briahna Joy Gray, the tension between matters of structure and personal agency have been echoing in my head.When I listen to other guests of yours, other podcast hosts, other conservatives, I see everywhere the tension between structure and personal agency. And having read Harden’s book this fall, I’ve been thinking of her work more and more as a bridge between these seemingly divergent world views. She swims in the same research waters as Charles Murray and Robert Plomin — but she (a) is explicitly clear that this research has, as of yet, no value in studying ethnic groups and (b) treats environmental factors differently than they do. On the latter, Harden makes some compelling arguments about the interplay between environment and expression of individuals’ genes (and thus abilities). It’s easy to see the corollaries in personal ability and responsibility (both with strong roots in genetics) versus the leftist tendency to dismiss people’s actions vis a vis blaming structural inequalities.Harden sometimes trades in some language verging on woke, for lack of a better term, but her more nuanced philosophical references are to John Rawls, not neo-Marxists. She’s really quite convincing. Also, I’ve always appreciated that you ask your guests to reflect on their upbringing and how they got where they are. Having read that New Yorker piece and her book, I think hers is an interesting story in and of itself.It is indeed. Harden is a great idea for a guest. I’ll confess that I felt I needed to read her book thoroughly to engage her, and didn’t have the time so put it off. Thanks for the reminder.A reader responds to a quote we posted last week praising Mike Pence for standing up to Trump after the assault on the Capitol:Pence had innumerable chances over years to expose Trump for exactly what he was. Besides one forceful speech since, there hasn’t been much else from the MAGA-excommunicated, nearly-executed veep. How about a live appearance before the Jan 6 Commission, Mr Vice President? Probably not. While I agree that Mike Pence may have saved the republic on Jan 6, he only did so with a gun to his head — with an actual gallows erected for him, while the Capitol was being stormed and people were dying. Better late than never, but he really cut it close, no?Liz Cheney and Mitt Romney are the profiles in courage here, along with all those Capitol police. Pence doesn’t deserve this lionization … at least not yet.Points taken. But to be honest, any mainstream Republican who opposed the attempted coup is a hero in my book. Another reader quotes me and dissents:The early Biden assurance that inflation was only a blip has become ridiculous, as Janet Yellen herself has conceded. No, Biden isn’t responsible for most of it. But some of it? Yep. A massive boost to demand when supply is crippled is dumb policy making. And imagine how worse it would be if Biden had gotten his entire package. Larry Summers was right — again.European countries did not have stimulus like we did, yet they are experiencing similar levels of inflation. This would indicate that inflation is a world-wide phenomenon and not tied to our particular stimulus packages. Also, Larry Summers has been pretty much wrong on everything — here’s a synopsis from 2013 (or just google “larry summers wrong on everything” and see the articles that pop up). Money quote:And Summers has made a lot of errors in the past 20 years, despite the eminence of his research. As a government official, he helped author a series of ultimately disastrous or wrongheaded policies, from his big deregulatory moves as a Clinton administration apparatchik to his too-tepid response to the Great Recession as Obama's chief economic adviser. Summers pushed a stimulus that was too meek, and, along with his chief ally, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, he helped to ensure that millions of desperate mortgage-holders would stay underwater by failing to support a "cramdown" that would have allowed federal bankruptcy judges to have banks reduce mortgage balances, cut interest rates, and lengthen the terms of loans. At the same time, he supported every bailout of financial firms. All of this has left the economy still in the doldrums, five years after Lehman Brothers' 2008 collapse, and hurt the middle class. Yet in no instance has Summers ever been known to publicly acknowledge a mistake.Sorry, but the EU provided a Covid stimulus of $2.2 trillion. And Summers was clearly right in this case, and Janet Yellen wrong. Another reader also pushes back on the passage I wrote above:I have a bone to pick with you when you discuss the Biden economic policy. Your contention is that the American Rescue Plan was “dumb policy making” because it exacerbated inflation. Fair enough — but if we are going to discuss the economy, then we need to have a full exploration of the policy choices and their implications. Yes, we have had six months of multi-decade high inflation, but we also have had about a year of near-record lows in unemployment and record-high job creation. Before you dismiss that as simply due to the reopening of the economy post-COVID, it’s worth noting that the American economic recovery has vastly outperformed all prognostications, as well as other Western economies. So in sum, the result of Biden’s policy is high inflation, high growth, high job creation, low unemployment. Let’s be clear then: when you criticize the ARP as too big and thus causing inflation, you are advocating for stable prices at the cost of a low growth, high unemployment environment. It’s a fair argument, I suppose. But after having lived through the weak economic recovery engineered by Larry Summers during the Obama administration, one that choked the early careers of many millennials, I’m not sure Biden’s choice was particularly egregious. But what we may well be about to get is stagflation — as interest rates go up even as inflation continues. It’s possible we fucked up both times: in 2009 with too little stimulus and in 2020 too much. I understand why those decisions were taken and the reasons were sane. But they were still wrong. Tim Noah has been doing great work lately on these questions of inflation and recession, including an interview with Summers. This next reader defends Biden’s record on the economy and beyond:The pragmatic counter-argument to your criticism of Biden is this: his economic program, while inflationary, produced unprecedented job growth after a recession, reductions by 50% in child poverty, more than five new business startups, and increases in business investment and personal bank balances of more than 20%. It’s among the reasons the American economy is outperforming China’s for the first time in two generations.Biden’s signature foreign policy achievements in Central Europe have led to the enlargement of NATO and awakened Europe to its responsibilities to its own security, all of which will contain Russia over the long term. This precedent, coupled with the Aussie-Brit nuclear deal, opens real possibilities for containing China’s potential regional expansion in Asia. At home, Biden’s Justice Department, like Gerald Ford’s, is fumigating the fetid stench of politics it inherited. The Biden White House has re-opened the doors to governors and mayors who need help from Washington in a disaster, regardless of partisan affiliation or views of Dear Leader; and it is laying the groundwork for a much-needed affordable-housing boom in our cities. Your hopes for a politics of dynamic centrism, which I share, does not take into account that as many as 10 million of our fellow citizens are prone to political violence due to the real-world influence of Great Replacement Theory, according to Professor Robert Pape of the University of Chicago. There is no comparable threat from the illiberalism on the left — which is a problem, nonetheless. In the wake of Trump’s loss in 2020, leading Republicans, including the governors of Florida and Texas, are competing for those constituents. That’s a movement my fellow classical liberals and I — stretching from the center-left to the center-right — can and should live without. Bill Buckley wouldn’t have sucked up to them. In the real world, the GOP wooing of the violent right poses an existential threat to our quality of life. It’s why I am voting straight Democratic in 2022. And it is why I would gladly vote for Biden, again in 2024, if he sought re-election.Happy to air your perspective. This next reader is bracing himself for Trump 2024:I know it gives you a warm feeling all over to write a column about the revolt against the woke, but it won’t be wokism that propels Republicans into office in 2022 and returns Trump to power in 2024 — something I agree will be a disaster for the republic. Trump’s return to power feels inevitable to me today. The January 6th hearings will make no difference to Trump supporters.Don’t get me wrong; I think wokism is annoying and stupid, but it is not the threat to the nation that you believe it is, and it never was. Wokism has destroyed the left and that is the real tragedy. Instead of a populist left railing against the rich, we have a bourgeois left railing against heterosexual white men, leaving the working class in the thrall of an American Orban. The working class now feels that the left and Democrats have failed them; and they are right, they have.Americans will vote for Republican for one reason: inflation. It should be no surprise that inflation is out of control, but both Biden and Trump spent billions helping people who were unable to work during Covid (the right policy) without raising taxes (the wrong policy). Now, to fight inflation we need to raise taxes and that is impossible; there aren’t the votes in the Senate. American tax policy is insane. You can have low taxes, or you can solve social problems like helping people who can’t work because of a pandemic, an inadequate public health system still unprepared for the next pandemic, homelessness and addiction, and crime. But you can’t have both. It really isn’t that complicated.Grateful as always for the counterpoints, and you can always send your own to dish@andrewsullivan.com. Another dissenter gets historical:I agree wholeheartedly with your clarion condemnation of the odious Trump. But you are wide of the historical mark when you state that Trump is “the first real tyrannical spirit to inhabit the office since Andrew Jackson.” Jackson was authoritarian in character. He was a product of the trauma of the Revolution and he brought his military identity to the White House. But he was not a tyrant or dictator. (There is more historical evidence for Lincoln as dictatorial than Jackson.) More appropriate — if non-American — comparisons for Trump would be Henry VIII, Wilhelm II, Mussolini and Nixon.Mind you, an interesting Dishcast guest would be Jon Meacham to discuss US presidents with authoritarian tendencies: Adams Sr., Polk, Andrew Johnson, Teddy R and Wilson. All expressed some form of authoritarianism, but sometimes the presidency and the nation derived benefitAnother digs deeper into the Jackson comparison:I suggest you interview W.H. Brands, who wrote a biography of Andrew Jackson. There are many ways to judge a history book, but to me an important criterion is, did I learn anything I did not already know?  Reading this book I did.I am only going to mention one of a good number events in Jackson’s life that Brands brings to the forefront. After the Battle of New Orleans, Gen. Jackson had ordered that a curfew remain in effect and that the city was to remain under martial law. For good reason: while the British offensive on one flank was a disaster, they had relative success on the other flank, and their remaining commander could have ended the truce and ordered another attack. But the British never did a follow-up attack. One New Orleans business man then took Andrew Jackson to court, claiming he endured an unnecessary economic loss on account of the military curfew. The court ruled in the businessman’s favor. AND, incredibly, Andrew Jackson paid the fine! Now stop and think, what must have been on Old Hickory’s mind. Here he risks life and limb to save the city from British domination, and he’s fined. Andrew could think, why should I pay?  I’ve got the Army in my control, I’m not just a commander whom soldiers fear, but also one that has the adulation and respect of my soldiers and the populace at large.   To me, that episode reveals that Jackson was hardly the tyrant he is portrayed to be by most modernists steeped in presentism. He should never be placed in the same sentence as Trump unless the word “contrast” or “opposite” is used. Let's keep Old Hickory away from any such comparisons and let his image remain on that $20 bill!Well I learned something from that email — so many thanks. Meacham is a good idea too. Get full access to The Weekly Dish at andrewsullivan.substack.com/subscribe

Reported by Inside Higher Ed, many institutions are raising their tuition at the greatest rate since 2008 in response to a current inflation rate of 8.3%. This comes after two years of fairly minor tuition rate increases or even holds during pandemic years and lowered enrollment.

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Pam Hill is a Harvard and Dartmouth-educated entrepreneur and CEO of a multi-million dollar real estate company, a business and money expert, a former Fortune-500 executive, and the founder of My Smart Cousin.  Her main goal is to help people understand money, increase their accountability and build generational wealth. Today, Pam shares her story of how she became a professional real estate business owner, how she purchases homes for the price of a car and how you can start your real estate business. Episode Link: https://mysmartcousin.com/tag/pam-hill/ --- Transcript Before we jump into the episode, here's a quick disclaimer about our content. The Remote Real Estate Investor podcast is for informational purposes only, and is not intended as investment advice. The views, opinions and strategies of both the hosts and the guests are their own and should not be considered as guidance from Roofstock. Make sure to always run your own numbers, make your own independent decisions and seek investment advice from licensed professionals.   Michael: Hey, everyone, welcome to another episode of the Remote Real Estate Investor. I'm Michael Albaum and today I'm joined by a very special guest, Pam Hill, who's talking to us about my smart cousin, and how she purchases homes for the price of a car, or maybe sometimes even an expensive bike. So let's get into it.   Hey, Pam, thank you so much for taking the time to come hang out with me today. I really appreciate you coming on.   Pam: Thanks so much, Michael, really looking forward to engaging conversation.   Michael: Oh, my gosh, me too. So, Pam, so excited to have you here. If you could give us a quick intro bio about who are you? Where do you come from and what is it you're doing in real estate today?   Pam: Absolutely. So I'm Pam Hill with my smart cousin. The nifty name comes really from family coining that for me, because I am that smart cousin at family reunion to always follows up make sure that folks do what they say they're going to do on their finances on their real estate and that, of course, is now brought in to my clients as well. How I got into real estate was about 10 years ago. So during the Great Recession, my husband at the time we were dating, he was looking for his first home and he was looking in Wilmington, Delaware, and we were stupefied at just how cheap there's, there's not a better word inexpensive to the wrong word, cheap houses were in Wilmington, Delaware to the tune of 20,000-25,000. In perfectly rock solid working class neighborhoods. Once I saw it, I definitely could not unsee it and that's what led me down the real estate rabbit hole since then I've bought 21 houses totaling 25 houses totaling 31 units, and have loved every step of the journey.   Michael: That is so cool and so Pam, were you living in Wilmington, Delaware or was this something that you were doing from afar?   Pam: No, so I was living not too far from Wilmington, Delaware in a suburb and so I was used to six figures and not 100,000 as in six figures. But in fact, what the average price of real estate is in the United States, some 321,000, I think I've read is the average price of real estate across all 50 states. So I was used to seeing those kinds of numbers. I had already owned real estate before as a homeowner and I really couldn't believe that there was this whole other world and once I saw it, I became committed to helping others who are looking to start their real estate investment journey and feel like they just don't have enough coin to get there. Or those who are aspiring homeowners and thinking the same thing that it's got to be a generation, three decades, 30 years slog My goal is the number of fingers you've got on your hands, 10 fingers 10 years or less. That's when the house should be paid for and everything is cream after that.   Michael: I love it, I love it. So was it just a function of where the economy was at that point in time that you and your husband were able to find houses for that price point or were you doing something different or looking in a different way than everyone else?   Pam: Yeah, no, it's a great question, because it kind of begs whether that opportunity is still there and very much still is. There are hundreds of houses listed on any given day that are maybe not as cheap as what I got them for that takes a little bit of digging, although they are that cheap still to just not in Wilmington, Delaware. So my cheapest house was 2500 in Jersey that included the all four walls.   Michael: …a roof....   Pam: Yeah, absolutely. Goal number one is don't buy anything that is best addressed through the services of a wrecking ball company. So only things that maybe they're going to take a new furnace, okay, a new furnace, but not a new every single thing you can think of and my most expensive house was 35,000 and that includes I'm really kind of a an adherent of eating your own cooking. So that includes the house of my husband and I live in the house we bought in a suburb of Philly was $35,000. So and that was in 2016. So it's still there and there are many homes in states like certainly New York, Wisconsin, Michigan, quite a number of homes that are in that 60-50-40 neighborhood and even multi families and small commercial, that price point.   Michael: And so I mean, I've got to imagine at that price point the homes are in really rough areas or need tons of rehab. Are you finding that to be the case or is there something there's something that you know that that we don't?   Pam: Right, so the homes are in areas, how would I think about it. areas that aren't so rough that no one at all lives there, I've yet to find a neighborhood that that is on livable, I suppose everyone needs a home that it's just a flat out the truth and so there are really three things that any person who's renting is looking for one is the neighborhood. So they aren't going to be concerned if crime, for instance, is a big problem and where it is, for some of my houses I work closely, you know, first thing I do is find out who the police captain is, and introduce myself, I asked the tenant to let me know if there's any kind of roughness going on, so that they don't have to feel like they're the one making the call that I can be the person making the call. If there's a car that has sat abandoned in front of their house or near their house, I call the licensing and inspection agency, so they will tow it. So those are the things I do to make the neighborhood better than how I found it. Then the other things that a renter is going to look for, is going to be the landlord as well as the house itself, those two things I can absolutely control. So I control the neighborhood, only at the barest of margins, but the house and the landlord, absolutely within my scope. So that's what I do and to your question of where are these houses? I think that the I think that the issue is that most folks don't look from the bottom up, they look from the top down. In other words, they're used to asking themselves or allowing their bank to suggest to them that they start at what they have qualified for and what you have qualified for is probably far more than you have to pay. So if your salary and such qualifies you for that average price of a home in the three hundreds, first thing you should do is tell your real estate agent, only show me houses that are 60 to 100,000. In fact, don't even give them a range. I don't want to see anything. That's more than six figures. If I do if it's more than $99,999, you're fired and they will quickly show you the houses that meet that criteria and that way you accustom yourself to that to that look and you tell the realtor, just a look where the neighborhoods makes sense for you school district wise and so on.   Michael: Interesting. There, I've got so many questions. There's so much there to unpack, Pam but and Vicki about the price point, if someone goes to buy a $20,000 home, are they able to get financing on that home right?   Pam: Going to be difficult, that's the honest truth. The easiest source of financing, if they buy a house like that is going to be if they are also looking to be a home owner, and really a multifamily home owner. So for a person who tells me, they really don't have much, much in the way of savings, but they want to do something now and moreover, they're not too satisfied with where they are living as either a renter or possibly as a homeowner, then I would help them find homes, let's say in that lower price point of that 20 that you mentioned or 30,000 that are in the areas that they are okay with, we would look at the land banks listings, for instance, sometimes there are more than 200 land banks across the US. So sometimes a land bank will have a house that is in terrible, terrible shape, but it's in a good neighborhood, that house is going to qualify for some financing that can help the homeowner if it's not that kind of house, and instead, it's something owned by Fannie Mae, by Freddie Mac, by US Department of Agriculture by Veterans Administration, all these wonderful government agencies that you didn't know we're in the real estate business, well, then that's good news because they can now become your lender, in addition to selling you the home.   Michael: Interesting, okay, so someone can just google or your online search for the local land bank and whatever market they're interested in living or investing in, and it'll pop up with listings, just like the MLS.   Pam: That's exactly right. Just type in name of your state. If nothing comes up name of your county, if nothing comes up name of your city. So try it in that order and if nothing comes up in your county, then look at the surrounding counties. I would also just type in something like land banks, United States map sometimes, you know, some set of words like that and then that should uncover all of the line land banks and help you see For your state, for instance, if you're in New Jersey, what are the land banks in New Jersey and then find it that way.   Michael- Interesting. Wow, this is so cool, Pam and so you are you self-managing all of your properties that you own?   Pam: I am, so when I first got started with this, I was working in a really demanding job in corporate America as an exec and that was not feasible to be self-managing. So I worked with a property manager and perhaps someday I will go back that route except this go round, of course, creating my own property management company. But right now, I'm right in the thick of it. So all of the units are self-managed and that includes units that are two family, three family and even four family, again, all bought for 35,000 or less.   Michael: And what are the rents that you're seeing on these types of properties?   Pam: Yep. So for a house, that's a four family that well, that particular one is all studios. So of course, the rents there are going to be a lot less, so that's 850 each for a house…   Michael: Wait, wait, wait, wait, sorry, timeout back one second, 850 each on per unit on a four family that you bought for 30 35,000?   Pam: Yeah, for 26,000, yes, that particular one.   Michael: I've been thinking about people talking and saying there's you can't find properties that are the 1% that meet the 1% rule. This is like the 678 percent rule.   Pam: And that's why I encourage folks to come to come to my smart cousin.com where I will hold you by the hand and help you not only find these, but much more importantly than just like, hey, that one there? How about that one? But to really evaluate them and see, does it meet? What I hope is a set of criteria that you've given some thought to? So for instance, you asked me a really important question, which is do I self-manage? That's a question that anyone should think about, do they have the ability to self-manage and moreover, do they have any interest in self managing or do they think that's going to lead them to hate all of humanity and…   Michael: A one way ticket…   Pam: One way ticket straight to? Why am I already 30 years of my life before I was headed downstairs? So that's how they're built. Don't do it, don't do it, turn it over to someone else, pay someone else to 10% 12%, even 15% to do the property management. But if you're built for it, then go ahead and do it. So that's one. Second is are you looking at long term rentals, which is what I do? Are you looking at short term rentals, meaning the Airbnb ease of the world? If so, well, then we need to look at a different set of properties. Are you looking to have something have tenants essentially under your feet, in other words, a to family where they're next door to you or underneath, right underneath you? So those are the kinds of questions to think about before you just run in and buy the first thing that you say.   Michael: Yeah, that makes a ton of sense and such great tidbits and advice, but I'm so sorry, I interrupted you because I would just like my mind exploded. You have to forgive me. I hope it didn't get too much on the screen here.   Pam: Oh, no, no, not at all…   Michael: So, that was your for family lower rent at 850. A unit studio? Let's get that. Let's jump back to other side….   Pam: Yes, right. Okay, so probably the standard size is going to be your three bath, three bedroom, one bathroom, right and so that I have a lot of those and I suppose the lowest cost one is 1025 and there I just keep it there because it's, you know, a great family. They've lived there a long time and I'm not interested in changing anything for them. But I have another one where someone just moved in and that's 1500.   Michael: So that you bought for 28,000-30,000?   Pam: Right, that I bought for that one within a paper that one 345, 345. So yeah, it's a it's good pickings right now, but like anything, you just have to stay strongly tethered to the ground planning for other variabilities that could occur in the market for the two family that I have there. That's two beds, one bath, and that rent is 1000 for each. So I guess I just say that to say that in the north east. Generally the rents are going to be higher however, prices I mentioned a couple of states earlier, I mentioned Ohio and I think I mentioned Michigan and so certainly the Midwest is many, many more houses for the price of a car prices for rent are lower. But that said, Certainly you would target I think, the Midwest for a good solid multifamily, perhaps a three family that you might buy in that 40 $45,000 neighborhood. This is and then it won't hurt as much to have those lower rents.   Michael: Right, this is amazing. Pam, what are some of the risks or the downsides that either you've seen or learned about that folks should be aware of and hope to help mitigate?   Pam: Absolutely, so the risks, certainly one risk. You mentioned this earlier, when you asked about obtaining a loan and I would say more broadly, the risk is ensuring that you have sufficient cash to whether all of a sudden something is needed on that house, oops, I thought I could just put something to repair this roof and in fact, what do you know the roofer went up there, he said, it's like an eight layer cake made of asphalt shingles and so now I've actually have to replace that roof at a large cost or some other thing. So that's one risk is that you need to have the pocketbook, or access to a home equity line of credit or some other string to pull on. A second risk is how you start. I don't advise anyone to start in the deeper end of the pool, deeper and meaning, let's say auctions, auctions are site on scene, you are not able, at least not legally to go into the house and see it…   Michael: I think it might be a story there…   Pam: …And see it, it is Buyer beware. So I would never advise someone to do that as their very first house. Start instead with you mentioned MLS, lots listed on MLS, start their land banks, they will allow you most of them anyway, to go inside and bring someone with you to tour the home. I'd say another one, I suppose if I had this to do over again and so like a 2020 hindsight, it's think about when you're looking at homes, if something is in a much better neighborhood, or has some other vein of silver running through it, for instance, it is in a commercially zoned area. But maybe it costs a little bit more not a ton more. So for instance, it doesn't costs 55,000 Instead of cost 65. This thing that's a little better, I would have, I would say to young Pam Hill isn't worried. Those are what you should target the ones where you've got to spring for a little more and the reason why is even though that 10,000 or 15,000 will seem like a lot in the moment, the appreciation value is significantly higher. So that is something I would suggest to folks as well, to not just pick as many as you can dollar store style. But to instead look at where it makes sense to go a little bit higher, and that includes more multi families. 2-3-4 families are always going to be a little better than a single family because that is just one piece of infrastructure in the case of the roof. In the case of the sidewalk in front of the house versus two, I've also found that with multifamily is oftentimes the person who is living in unit one, as soon as unit two becomes empty, they refer you to a friend of family or someone else for unit two and that way you have a self-reinforcing mechanism for rent being paid by both parties because neither wants to see the other get into the terrible shape.   Michael: That is very interesting, that's very interesting. Pam on the property that you purchased, and I think I know the answer, but I'm going to ask it anyhow. What has the appreciation been like because as investors we talk about cash flow or appreciation, it tends to not be both or that's what kind of land somewhere in the middle. So what have you seen with your properties thus far?   Pam: That's a great question and it even gets back a little bit to the other question around the risks. So I would say First answering the question, the appreciation is not as high when you are buying for the price of a car and thus that is also the risk. If you are looking for a flip opportunity, you would do better to buy your standard $200,000 home, for instance, that is in a $400,000 neighborhood and needs $80,000 worth of work, you are going to be able to obtain, maybe not from a percentage perspective, you might not think, gee, that's returning as much, but absolute dollars are what matter in that example, not the percentage. So percentage wise, my houses have all appreciated quite a lot relative to others to the tune of two or three or even four times as much but think how low the base is. So those houses are really two things. Thing one is cashflow, thing two is lottery ticket for appreciation value. So as a for instance, the houses that I own in Wilmington, Delaware, I would imagine that when the Joseph R Biden library is built, I'm presuming that is going to happen in Wilmington, Delaware. Given President Biden's long experience there as a senator, that neighborhood is going to see some significant appreciation value. So that's where I see the upside, should there be a cash sale as it were of these houses. Something else that you can consider this is more of a risk. But it is something that you can consider when you buy a number of houses that have a common macroeconomic theme to them, like house for price of car, you can think about either a real estate investment trusts, so putting them under a REIT, or putting them under a hedge fund and for those investors who are interested in that higher level of return, you mentioned the 1% versus the six or seven, those investors kind of like low, low investment grade high yield bonds, might have some interest in that kind of portfolio and that can be another way to both obtain cash flow, or certainly to, to get out of the market as it were all together without selling them off one at a time.   Michael: Interesting and this has been so eye opening and so insightful. We chatted before we hit record last time we spoke about some of the things that you're doing to be an advocate for some of your tenants and people might hear that and think well, how can I be an advocate as a landlord and also have a tenant relationship? It seems almost counterintuitive, so can you speak to a little bit of the work you're doing?   Pam: I'd say first is that I do it, I do it because I feel driven to do it. In the same way that the community that I focus on mission wise is black and brown people, women, but certainly there's room under the tent for everyone. But I think about who has been disenfranchised, certainly by FHA and others, some many decades ago and still there's some of that rattling around in our system. So as I think about tenant rights, there are two in particular in Delaware that I'm passionate about. One of them says that you should not be able to discriminate against a tenant, because they receive a Housing Choice Voucher. In other words, because they receive section eight, it is legal to do that to advertise your home and say I do not accept section eight. That strikes me as a very strange, legal rule, since it is not legal to discriminate for other reasons, including economic source, I certainly couldn't tell a nurse your money doesn't spend here, missy, where are the firefighters? That's who I want. So it strikes me as the same with that and so I am advocating for that. A second one is a right to paid representation for very low income tenants who are facing eviction. This is a one year pilot of sorts that Delaware is looking to implement and that I approach from a perspective of fairness. It seems only fair, that folks who more than likely cannot afford not just a lawyer, but even a day off work to come to the eviction hearing in the first place. It seems only fair that some sort of representation for them just the same way that it's within my scope, should be available and second is from a landlord perspective, my hope is that with that representation, and usually it would not be a lawyer, it would be some sort of legal advocate. But the hope is that, that gives the tenant someone else to listen to, rather than thinking, Oh, Pam Hill, you're just talking your book, I do not want to listen to what you have to say, I'll just take my chances in front of the judge. But by hearing another person, look over their case and tell them, You owe the grant. It's just that simple. Let's work out an arrangement to make a payment. I think that that could help us both, so that's the reason that I am behind these.   Michael: It makes so much sense and it is so interesting, and frankly startling to hear that these laws exist, and it does seem so punitive to the tenant and so I really applaud you and thank you for being such an advocate for your tenants and I'm sure that they appreciate it as well. So keep up the good work.   Pam: Yes. Thank you, thank you.   Michael: Absolutely. Well, Pam, this as I've been saying it the whole show, the whole episode has been so interesting, so insightful. So much fun. Thank you again, for coming on. If people want to learn more about you want to learn more about my smart cousin, where's the best place for them to do so?   Pam: Come to my M Y, smart S M A R T cousin C O U S I N.com. Certainly follow me on instagram or twitter with the handle @mysmartcousin. If you go to my site, you'll be able to see a couple of things. One is a free eBook. Second are free webinars that I do and then third, paid courses. So look forward to seeing you there. Look forward to helping you on this journey. Please take action, even if you listen, and then tune out from any sort of hand holding from me or anyone else as quite alright. Just get going on your slice of this American Pie.   Michael: Love it. Pam, thank you again. I'm sure we'll be chatting soon. Take care, alright!   Pam: Thanks so much, Michael.   Michael: Okay, everyone. That was our show a big thank you to Pam super, super interesting story and pretty amazing what she's been able to accomplish at the price points that she has really amazing stuff and really cool work that she's doing being a Tenant Advocate where she invests locally. As always, we would love to hear feedback from you all on things that you'd like to hear future episodes on and the reviews are really helpful for us. We look forward to seeing our next one. Happy investing…

Sheila Bair, Member of Banking Advisory Group and former Chair of the U.S. Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, joins the podcast to discuss the policy response to the Great Recession, concerns about today's U.S. economy, including student debt. Student Loan Debt CalculatorFor more from Sheila Bair follow her @SheilaBair2013Follow Mark Zandi @MarkZandi, Ryan Sweet @RealTime_Econ and Cris deRitis on LinkedIn for additional insight.

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President and CEO David Chatham with Chatham Neighborhoods joins the Atlanta Real Estate Forum Radio podcast to share the company's 74 year history and current product offerings. Chatham joins host Carol Morgan on the Legends of Real Estate series and compares the post-pandemic market to the Great Recession. Growing up learning the business of Chathambilt Homes, Chatham recalls working for the his father early in his life. He  started with tasks such as sweeping houses, stacking lumber and more. During this time he received hands-on education and learned the crucial principles of the industry. Chatham said, “My dad always taught me that a clean, neat, well-kept house would always sell faster and for more money.” Through high school and college, Chatham spent summers working on framing crews and in other various trades. In 1972 during a meeting with his father, he expressed his wish to make a personal mark on the Atlanta housing market by starting his own business and was met with his father's disappointment. Howard Chatham worked tirelessly and built a family business from the ground up. This business, Chatham Neighborhoods will celebrate its 75th anniversary next year. When David Chatham expressed to his father that he wanted to start his own building company after graduating form College, Howard was disappointed and expressed his strong wish to partner with his son.  Chatham said, “From that moment, it was like a light came on in my mind and I thought…I've got the greatest opportunity to work with my dad and to continue to build this company.” From then on, Chatham worked together with his father, and eventually his sons, to continue building the legacy of Chathambilt Homes.  In 1948, Howard Chatham stumbled into the homebuilding business. After coming home from WWII, he temporarily returned to his family farm in Milton, Georgia. He secured a job on the Fulton County survey crew, met his future wife and decided to build a home in the Northern Buckhead area. Working nights and weekends with the help of friends and family, and the family mule, the two worked tirelessly for the next few months to build their family home from the ground up.  After finishing the home, Howard Chatham was approached by a buyer interested in purchasing the Chatham residence. After discussing the potential sale with Mrs. Chatham, the two agreed to sell the home and acquire the lot next door to begin construction on their second home. While their next project was in the works, the Chatham family rented the basement of their first house. This pattern continued through a third and fourth home. Chatham said, “My earliest memory is…we would build a house and move into it, sell it and build another one. We moved around a lot in my early years.” Howard Chatham caught the beginnings of the post-war baby boom generation and accidentally began a homebuilding business. He took a leave of absence from his Fulton County job and began building during a six-month period, procuring advice from anyone in the business on whether to leave his position and start a homebuilding business. With only one exception, most advised him to keep his government position versus entering the Atlanta housing market as a new business. Most offering opinions placed great importance on the security and benefits that accompany a government job. Chatham's grandfather, Fred Chatham, offered his son his approval, his life savings as well as financial help from a neighbor to start Chathambilt Homes. Over 75 years, Chathambilt Homes has built over 6,000 homes in 150 neighborhoods across the metro area.  Howard Chatham expanded into many other businesses, including grating, building supply, plumbing, electrical, lighting and appliances as well as several True Value hardware stores. The most notable venture occurred in 1950 when Howard Chatham possessed an inventory of houses he couldn't manage to sell. After deciding to open a real estate brokerage company,

We all know the world has changed dramatically in the 21st century. The opportunities that defined past generations and steered their course through life aren't out there for us anymore. You and I were told we've got to go to college and get a degree if we want a chance at having a good job. But is that still true? Did you know that today, 54% of college graduates regret investing in a degree? Over 70% of Americans detest their jobs, hence the Great Resignation. Yet, 2 out of