"Time To Sell!" Ben Mallah's Shocking Prediction For Home Prices, Falling Rents, & The Trump Economy

Every day I got to look for deals. Every day I got to do a thousand emails, but I'm done. Should I keep the house? These are big decisions you got to make in life. I got a $15 million [music] possible tax bill hanging over my head right now. Question is, am I going to have to pay it or not? It's very depressing to me, you know, and I just want to retire. [music] >> The next deal is what solves all my problems. It defers my taxes and it [music] creates more wealth. That's it's all about finding a deal with upside. That's all that matters. >> So, what do you think is going to happen in 2026 throughout the housing market? >> All the people that bought that shouldn't have bought are now stuck. I'm hoping and praying that I'll start seeing some distress in the market. [music] >> What exactly is driving the staleness in the housing market right now? >> You want to build up to a certain net worth of like hundreds of millions of dollars, right? >> Done. >> Not anymore. [music] >> Done. >> What made you realize you were done? Tell us what's going on. You got to pay a lot in tax. >> I got a $15 million possible tax bill hanging over my head right now. Question is, am I going to have to pay it or not? >> And what determines that? >> Finding a nice big fat 1031 replacement because we're selling, baby. We're selling off assets. We're readjusting the portfolio. I'm making my planning my exit, baby. I'm going to set the kids up with a nice strong multifamily portfolio and get out of a lot of different type of asset classes we're currently sitting in and then they can move on and move up and I can float away. So basically, I'm selling a lot of assets and you know when you sell my basis is extremely low. You know what basis even means? you diggling. >> Explain for the viewers. >> Okay. I know what it means. What it means. >> I know what it means. >> I don't want you to. >> It's the assessed value. >> It's what you paid for it. >> But if you 1031, all the tax you saved when you sold it. The key word is deferred. The government doesn't forget about that tax. It's deferred. You know what deferred means? >> It's pushed off, >> right? So basically, it lowers your t your basis. So if you bought a deal for $10 million, but you deferred 2 million in tax, you didn't buy, you don't get $10 million basis, you get a $8 million basis. The government don't forget. Okay? They'll forget when they can't collect when you die. Now I'm decided. I'm not waiting till I die. I'm going to pay him some money now. Maybe I'll 10:31 some. Maybe I'll pay him some. My whole life has always been about a balance. You know, you do a little this, you do a little that. It makes sense. Okay. Can I go out and find $100 million worth 1031 replace properties right now? No. Because the price is too high. Everybody asking $150,000 a unit. And you'd be lucky to get a return at a 100 a door. Now, all these people did pay $150,000 a unit. Why? Because the sky was falling. Sky was falling. We got COVID. We had low interest rates. Uh, you know, and they might have cash flowed back when rates were at three and 4%, but they don't cash flow now at six and seven. So, they can't get their money back what they paid unless you're an idiot and you want no return. So, every day I'm out there trying to look for $100 million worth of real estate. So, how much have you sold so far? >> Okay, the point is this. You don't wait till you sell. You start looking when you think you when you know you're going to sell and you're going through all the motions to sell. Some of my deals take anywhere from 90 to 120 days. You start looking before you sell. And if you find the right deal and you didn't sell yet, you know what you do? >> Take out a loan. >> You guys don't know about real estate. Oh, you could do a reverse. >> You know about your little house and your little duplex and all that. >> Can you do a reverse 1031? >> There you go. Winner winner chicken dinner and you want a chicken. >> Very good. Reverse 1031. Then you're you're clean cuz now you already bought your replacement property. You close that new deal. You're home free, baby. You can sell your property. I mean, you sell your property after you buy the replacement property. So what happens when you sell the property? >> No. money goes back to you. Why? Because you already spent it. The government has rules. It makes sense. If you play the game, right, it makes sense. But nobody can control opportunity. I can't create a deal. I can't, you know, this ain't the old days where you put a somebody said, "Hey, you're going to sell me that property at 10 million bucks." You can't do that. Don't work like that. I would never do that anyway. >> So, what's the story? You sold your real estate and now you need to 1031 it. Now you need to find the deal >> to replace the deals I'm selling. Otherwise, I got to recapture and pay capital gains tax on a low basis because I've been 10:31 in since I was a baby. >> When's the deadline? >> You got, you know, you got 6 months to accomplish the entire transaction. >> How far into that 6 months are you? >> The clock ain't started yet cuz I ain't closed yet. But if I don't worry about before I close and I close and the clock starts, the clock can run out. So, I got to be ahead of the game. Start looking for replacement property because I know I'm selling. I know I'm closing. I got bars. I got contracts. I got escrow. I got people hard. I got people ready to close. That's all in a contract. I know it's coming. It's coming, baby. But, you know, when it comes, what do I got as far as protection? I don't. I'm looking. I got some things in the fire, but you know, and then you don't want to buy stuff. And I used to buy stuff just to prolong it. Like, go out and buy a six cap. uh you know Harley-Davidson dealership or a Lowe's or Home Depot. I own all that [ __ ] you know, but I don't want to do that anymore. It just prolongs the pain. Listen, I got to I got enough to where I can just figure it out where everybody gets a piece, even the government. >> So, how do you deter >> everybody wins, the government gets something, my kids get something, I get something, I live out the rest of my life, and you know, I mean, it luckily you just spread it around, everybody will win in the end. >> Yeah. So, how do you determine these properties are worth selling? the ones that you are selling and who's the >> ones with no more growth. Oh, the growth is going to take too long to grow. >> So, what kind of buyer is interested in something that has no more >> 1031 guys [laughter] at 1031, he really doesn't want to pay that tax or he doesn't have the money to pay the tax. A lot of times they they maybe overlever the deal they sold. They ain't got the money to capture to pay the tax. You never know. So, basically, thank you. Basically, listen, there's always, you know, somebody might just want to invest in a a Home Depot at a nice seven cap, which is pretty nice. Used to be sixes. I remember when I couldn't buy one for a five, but now you're going to have to probably you probably I'm going to have to sell for a seven cap. Luckily, that's where I bought it. So, hopefully I'll break even. >> Yeah. So, what do you think is going to happen in 2026 throughout the housing market? >> Nobody's got a crystal ball. The point is, I'm starting to see the dogs coming. All the people that bought that shouldn't have bought that didn't know, you know, or joined all these groups and pulled all their money together that bought properties that were dogs. Overpriced dogs are now stuck. Okay? Cuz there are some $100,000 unit properties out there in Tampa. I looked at them, but they're dogs. >> I got to come in and spend millions of dollars. They need roofs. I don't like the way the metering system is or there's all kinds of issues in them. They're they're the gray market ones. >> Okay. uh the ones that might be in a flood area, you know, all the gray markets, the garbage comes first. But eventually, I'm hoping the good stuff will come unless those rates come down, but really gone down a lot. You know, they went down a little, but not much. Now, if rates come down, then the values will go back up. But if uh rates stay the same or go up, then there's going to be some blood in the water. There has to be. >> Why haven't we seen all these mass selloffs throughout commercial real estate yet? Are you noticing foreclosures? Are you seeing >> market? That's why. No. Okay, we all know what the is your problem. It fell on the floor. >> The cap fell on the floor and you clawed at it with your foot when it was like the lid side was up and then you put it on top. >> You could You don't need a a cap on it. >> My foot to push it. >> You grabbed it with your toenail. >> Well, I just don't want any of your germs getting in my body. My toenails are clean. I took a shower this morning, but I have been walking barefoot all around here. [laughter] All right. So, anyway, listen. it all because of the stock market and you're a stock guy. Okay. All right. Let's let's play with Jack a little. Maybe he'll learn something before this is over. >> Maybe he'll learn something. >> We try. >> All right. Basically, the value in a bank. You know what that is? >> It's the debt that they have. >> Exactly. It's not that stupid. The bank is only worth what the loans are. The deposits. deposits, deposits, deposit. They got to have they got to have liquidity requirements. They got to have deposits. But the bank makes money on loan and money. So basically, the bank is only worth the loans that they gave all that money to. If the loans suck, then the bank sucks. And when the bank sucks, the stock sucks. And they don't want that to happen. They don't want to see All right, we had a crash in 08. You know why we had a crash in 08? Because the banks gave out too much money. Can I say? >> Yeah. Mhm. Go for it. >> The banks gave out too much money to people they shouldn't have and there was a lot of crooked going on. That's what caused that crash. So, they had loans that were worthless, okay? Or worth pennies on the dollar. Now, we're not in the same situation. The people that they loan the money to, they weren't intentionally crooked or, you know, poor judgment or poor loans at the time. they made sense. The bank takes risk. The bank didn't think of the risk down the road of rates going up. They didn't hedge themselves enough. Maybe some of them did. So, basically, when they loan all that money out at 3 and a half, 4%, they were saying, you know, my home loan is 2%. >> Here, >> not this house. >> Oh, the other house. Oh, interest only, right? >> Yeah. Two flat. >> Too flat. >> But it's But it's interest only. It's all timing. >> For how many years? Only 15 years. >> 15. >> All right. So anyway, the bank's losing money on that because they can take that money they gave me and reinvest it at 6 7 8%. The point is this, you know, the banks are not making money on these loans now only because interest rates gone up and they underwrite a lot, you know, at a much more higher uh debt ratio. You know what debt ratio is, right? How much debt you have towards your principal. Anyway, long story short, if the loans, the property can't cash flow anymore or it's breaking even. See, I think what's happened is it's breaking even right now for all these people because the rates are going up. They can't refin if they refinance, they got to refinance at a higher rate. Okay? So, a lot of these fixed terms are up. Typically, commercial, I borrow money in my world, it's 3, five, 7, 10, depending on the asset. You pick your choice on how long you want to fix the rate for. So, you know, sooner or later all the people that took, you know, whatever loans, they're going to fix rates going to be up. They're gonna have to go to the market and they can't afford it because or they might break even. They'll say, "I'm not owning this big ass place for no one no return." If they're nonreourse loans, they'll throw the keys in. I'm starting to see that. Or because nobody's going to make a capital call and bring the mortgage down. So basically, they'll walk from properties, big groups that, you know, different individuals, investors, or the bank's going to take them back because they're not making a mortgage payment. I mean, you know, but we don't know. I mean, if rates go down or who knows, but the the banks don't want you to know. Believe me, the banks are sitting on a lot of loans right now that they probably wish they didn't have. >> So, what's your prediction, though? What do you think is going to happen over the next year? Are you are you bearish? Are you bullish on the markets? All I can do is tell you I'm hoping and praying that I'll start seeing some distress in the market. I'm starting to see it trickle down. Like I said, the dogs come first. So, you know, that's what I'm seeing. But hopefully I'm going to start seeing the, you know, the stuff that's worth me buying, you know, the good stuff. >> So far, what have you had to do to sell your places? Because you're also selling into the same market. I'm selling retail based on a cap rate. People buy shopping at tennis all day long at seven caps. If it's a good brand with good tenants, there's always guys out there that will only get 7% return 7 cap as long as you know they're not borrowing too much more money above the seven cap because basically if you're making 7% on the retail center and your mortgage is 7% then basically just getting 7% on your down payment. Correct? Some guys are happy doing that. You know, but right now if you buy a seven cap, you strong guys that buy shopping and says could borrow in the definitely around low sixes if not six. >> Yeah. >> So basically they make a point spread on the bank and they'll make 7% on their return on their down payment. There's always a market for that, >> you know. >> Yeah. So what would it take right now to see the market >> and hotels are just too much for me right now. I got too many hotels. >> What would it take for the market to fall? to start to see those distressed properties come up >> for the banks are going to have to say, "Okay, we already played the game, you know, pray and delay and now we got to figure out what we're going to do. We delayed. We delayed. We delayed." I mean, you know, how long are we going to have loans in, you know, being extended? I mean, I had some loans come due and the bank just sent me a paper saying, "Oh, please sign this and your loan is extended." I mean, you know, they don't want to with me. you know, they don't want to with the property. They don't want to go for the money. Let's just keep it the way it is so we figure out what the hell we're going to do here. I mean, it's all about money rates, you know. Uh hopefully we'll start seeing some people can't handle today's interest rates. Plus, in Florida, we got other issues. I don't know about other states. You know, it's for a while their insurance was killing us, >> killing us because of these hurricanes and all. You know, whenever there's a hurricane or a big expense insurance companies got to pay out for, what do they do? They come in and raise the rates and make all the new people that are getting insurance now pay them back all the money that they had to pay out in that hurricane or disaster. That's what they do. Insurance companies don't lose. We're insurance. We ain't taking a loss. >> So, what are you seeing with Florida real estate values? Because when I look at the map of the United States, Florida is one of the areas along with Austin, Texas that has been down like 20% from peak, especially for condos. just the Florida residential real estate market. >> Hey, Rafal just went out, rented a house because it was cheaper than buying one. >> Yeah. >> I mean, you know, I mean, uh, people, you know, right now is actually, I think, a decent rate. What is a 30-year mortgage for some average person like Jack? >> Five. Five and a halfs. >> He just borrowed money at how much? >> 5.7 or 5.5. >> You know, 5.7 is a reasonable price. So, if you go out and you buy a million dollar house, [clears throat] you know, you're going to pay um 57,000 a year in interest. Correct. >> It's probably still cheaper to rent >> for divided by 12 that puts you at about >> four or five grand property taxes plus maybe taxes, maintenance, utilities. Yeah. So, all in it's probably going to cost you 10 grand for the million by the time you're said and done, right? 10 grand. >> 10% give or take. Yeah, >> cuz you got to handle all the taxes, the insurance, the maintenance, the utilities, all. So anyway, [clears throat] I don't know. I mean, you know, and then I think that, you know, the economy sucks right now because people aren't people aren't spending money. I mean, you know how much it's supposed to go out to a decent breakfast? It's $15 plus tax and tip is 20 bucks. $20 to eat a couple of eggs and breakfast and >> breakfast has always been the most expensive meal though. I think out of everything $1.99 >> compared to what you're getting. Would you agree with that? >> Breakfast is always cheap cheap. eggs. Yeah. You get eggs, sausage, sausage, and a little something else and they they want to charge you $13.99, but then you get a sandwich that they have to cook and like all and it's, you know, less. >> The people who go out to breakfast though have the money like think of it. How often do people go out for breakfast? You're spending money. >> I'm just saying the lunch and dinner is more >> all all necessities are going up. Even the dollar store ain't the dollar store anymore. Breakfast, lunch, and dinner. It's all gone through the roof. I don't know where people people don't have the money for this. You're going to see a slowdown and spending. I think the car dealers getting hit hard right now. Every car lot I see is packed with cars sitting there. They can't stand selling. You know, it's all tied to interest rates, I believe. >> So, if you were the president today, what would you do different? tomorrow as a president. >> What would you do to fix it? >> Life would be so great. It's going to be marvelous. Oh, it's going to be fantastic. It's the best. It's going to be better than better. >> Make promises. >> I don't know. I'm not I don't even know. All I can tell you is that, you know, I think that no one person has the answer. I think it's has to be a, you know, a collective people, a lot of collective people with, you know, ideas and figure out what the smartest thing to do is because we need money. I think, you know, I don't know where's unemployment right now. Anybody know? >> 4.6. >> I mean, you know, I think, you know, we need to I just I always felt that the key to this c this country was what it was based on manufacturing. We started manufacturing. None of these countries know how to make [ __ ] until we taught them how. I mean, you know, like even though he was a Nazi Ford, a Nazi supervisor, um, you know, he he he started basically mass production of cars. Okay. All right. Um, I don't know. I think we need, you know, produce more of stuff and stop buying stuff from other countries. >> Now, really quick, we just read a report that Americans with a 4-year college degree now account for a record 25.3% of US unemployment, which is wild because college was supposed to be the safe bet. I just think a lot of people are realizing that the problem isn't with education itself. It's how people are getting educated. And that's why I want to tell you about today's sponsor, Peterson Academy. This was co-founded by Dr. Jordan B. Peterson. With a simple but radical idea, let the world's best professors teach the courses that they actually want to teach without bureaucracy, ideological fluff, or bloated tuition. 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What would you do with that money and that's all you had? >> $100,000,000 bucks. >> I mean, listen, having 100 grand is one thing, but it's all about the ability to borrow money because we all know 100 grand ain't going to get you unless you're in maybe, I don't know, somewhere maybe. Mhm. >> I mean, you got to have the ability to get a loan with that 100 grand if you want to get serious because that 100 grand is worth 500 grand deal. >> What about seller financing? >> Seller financing. Listen, if you can get it, take it. Absolutely. You know, I consult with a guy, you know, him even >> I think he owns I don't remember 800 houses that he all got by seller financing in Georgia. Uh, you know, listen, if you can get it and it works for you, fine. Do it. I've done I haven't done seller financing never, but I have done I've taken people's loans subject to I bought them subject to their loan. I say, "Give me that loan. I'll take it. Adios. Here's a few bucks. Get the hell out of here." You know, that's how I started when I was younger. You know, then they were happy. They didn't want to get ready to get away from that place. >> So, what's your strategy for the next year in terms of terms of find the next deal? All real estate is about finding the next deal. >> What makes a deal really good for you? the potential to have more NOI, net operating income, make more money. The house has property has to make more money so it's worth more money. Then you sell it for more money and you make money. Can you understand what I'm saying? >> Something about money. Let's say you have a property and a certain budget, a fixed budget to spend on it. Everything is Ctier in this property. All the components, the paint, the floors, the appliances, etc. What would you how would you allocate this fixed amount of money for the highest ROI on NOI? >> Listen, if you buy a piece of property, you talk about putting money into fixing it up, right? >> Mhm. You got to know before you buy that deal, I'm paying X amount. I'm spending X amount on improvements. Now, what did I do? All that [ __ ] I did to the property, how did it affect you in value? >> So, so what >> is it worth more money? Can I rent it for more? Where's the value in it? The value is your profit. >> Yes. But focusing on which components of a house, a renovation would be the best ROI. Like is it replacing the floors? Is it doing the walls? Like >> depends on the house. Every house different. You could go to a house say, "Oh, you know what? This house just needs a roof. Put a roof on it. Oh, this house is 1970s. It's outdated. I got to rip out the kitchen. I got to put a new appliances. I got to do all this new flooring, new windows, new this, new that. Is it worth doing all that work? And then what's it worth after you do all that work? Every house is different. Every deal is different. You got to figure out does it make sense? Does A plus B equals C? >> What type of deals are you just not touching right now? >> I'm trying to stay away from uh Listen, I my kids dragged me out the other day. In our neighborhood, we have one big office building cuz we live in a beach town residential neighborhood. We got this one big old giant office building sitting in a shopping center parking lot in the middle of town. And he made me go look at it cuz he probably give it away. I'm not near I won't touch office with a 10-ft pole. I never have, never will. And I mean I never did because I was never exposed to it. But then when CO came and it crushed it actually crushed me also because I had hotels that depended on the office business, a corporate business. So that crushed even hotel. But anyway, I don't deal with offices. We all know why. Because of COVID, because of technology, because people want to sit at home and work and blah blah. And everybody shrunk down. So, I don't do office. I'm kind of getting scaling down the hotels. You can't have too many hotels. I mean, it's just too much. It's a business. It's not really real estate. I don't really do storage facilities, but I would look at one. Basically, primarily, we're only looking for multif family, you know. I don't know industrial. Um, basically, it's just multif family. People always need a place to sleep, you know. >> Yeah. Is there a price though if office space got so cheap that you would want to buy it? >> No, because it's worthless. Okay. [gasps] Here's a true story. All right. All right. True as much as I could believe. Broker calls me up. Well, before he called me up, I saw online a Macy's for sale. I'm starting to get into retail. We're starting to chop up stuff. We're making it work. You know, splitting spaces. My son been pretty successful doing that, but on a small level. I said, "You know what, man? you get [clears throat] the whole building. I knew it was a cheap price. I said, "Let me go look at it." It was attached to a mall, okay? Part of the mall, but it was a separate piece of property that Macy's themselves owned. Okay? But it was attached to the mall, you know. Anyway, long story short, look at it and I think about what it was huge place. I mean, for the money, you're getting it for like free practically for price per square foot. And I'm saying, man, what the hell am I going to do with it? What can I do with it? Storage facility. It's in a mall. And then you got a mall to deal with. You know, I don't own the mall, so I got to deal with them. You know, people own the mall. Um, and they're not in a good place right now. Wouldn't buy a mall. I could buy them all right down block for $100 million right now. Probably one of the best pieces of dirt there is. But all the stores on top of it and ain't a good price at the price they want and all the [ __ ] they got to deal with. The return bad walls are dying. All right, we all know that. Um, walls, office is all dying. Anyway, long story short, I look at the property and um I just didn't know what to do with it. And then I kind of got a feel for the mall owners because I got to pay them cam >> the mall. I got to pay, you know, the property taxes on it, right? I got have insurance. You have security. I got all the expenses involved. So, I'm walking into a deep negative. Okay? And I don't have a plan. What am I going to do with this hundreds of thousands of square foot of nice but space? So anyway, I just I says, "There's no way I could take that risk in life." So, not too long goes by, the the broker calls me up, and I'm just going to tell you, he led me to believe that Macy's corporate told him or or or insinuated that they would be happy if somebody they signed a deed over to somebody just to get away from it. So they didn't have to pay the common area maintenance expenses, the utilities, the property taxes, all the dealing with the mall owner, management, the parking lots, all that security. They just wanted to get away from the expense. They didn't give a big company right off their books anyway. We all know Macy's went through some kind of reorganization, right? >> So anyway, he actually I could have got a free Macy's, but I would have stepped into a deep bill paying every month, you know, costs. So, I didn't do it. >> So, what do you think is going to happen to that? Do they just sit on it? >> A lot of malls are getting knocked down, you know, and then, you know, it seems like what works is it seems like what works is in these mall areas, uh, they they they have to mix the use, mix the use, mix the use. Give me some multif family, give me some retail, give me, you know, give me a nice gas station over here in the out parcel. Give me, you know, some fast food around, you know, independent. They got to re reconfigure the entire property and come up with a whole new plan. >> So, it's interesting. We just had Rick Caruso on the podcast. And he builds malls. >> Caruso. >> Rick Caruso. Maybe there's a val on the end of the air. >> He is the He is the biggest mall guy in California. All of his malls fully booked. He says he has a wait list for tenants trying to get in. It is the place of places for malls. We asked him about a place in Santa Monica. >> A different place, too. >> Yeah. We asked him about a place in Santa Monica that just went into foreclosure and they owed like a hund00 million on this whole big structure. It's a big three-story mall, half indoor, half outdoor. >> How come Cruer didn't buy to fill up a tennis? >> He said he said he was offered but he turned it down because he said they needed to start over. They needed to tear down the entire thing and build what he said was multif family. >> Multif family. >> But he's a big shot guy. Why can't he fill it up? >> He said the design was flawed. No one wants to be second, third floor. Ground floor is where it's at. >> If you're in real estate, you can feel the pain when you walk into a mall. When I toured the mall down the block here, you could feel the pain. >> I went to a casino in Vegas that has a section that's casinos. You hate casinos. You hate the street. >> Only if I lose. Only if I lose. There was a show there. So, we went for the show, but there's a whole section that was dedicated like mall space, like retail, all empty. And there was only one place. It was like a burger spot on the second floor that was open. Everything else, you just walk by empty stores for like 100 ft. And there's one burger spot at the end. That's it. >> That's where he was going to burger spot. >> No, I think we had to walk is a dangerous game. You got to play it right. Okay. I just luckily I'm selling a property and luckily you ever heard of floor and decor? >> No. Ever heard of floor and decor? >> Floor and decor. >> Anyway, it's it's a it's a every homeowner that's fixing up their house goes to floor and decor. Okay. For flooring mainly. That's why it's called floor and decor. Um you know, remodeling, all that. Contractors go there. Anyway, listen, you know, thank God they they they you know, stores like that. He just renewed a lease for me and he, you know, he's got a big lease. You know, I don't know what they pay hundreds hundreds of thousands of dollars a year. Can you imagine that store went empty, what it would do to me? [snorts] >> Yeah. >> So, anyway, luckily they renewed and uh I'm able to sell property because they have now a nice long contract. Retail is dangerous. You got to know what the you're doing in retail and the only way you can make money at retail is renting empty space. You know why? You know that the retail space typically in in in a retail world, if you buy a retail property, shopping center, mall, whatever the you're buying, the vacant space is free. You get free real estate. Did you know that? >> No. They don't want to sign any free because the real estate is sold to you based on a cap rate. Mhm. >> You're only going to buy the property based on the income it's generating. It's simple. So, if it's only generating X amount of dollars and you got all this empty space ain't worth, that's how you make money in real estate because you come in now and you rent the empty space out instant equity instantly. My son took a empty bank that sat empty for five years with the guy I bought it from. Mhm. >> Nobody wanted to buy rent this bank make amongst a bunch of stores comes in that didn't work that bank that size for that market through a wall down the middle instead of 4,000 now it's 22 2000s he rented them like that and one side had a drive-thru and he put a smoothie in there >> that's how you make money in retail the only way I've ever seen anybody make money in retail the leases I've for many many years especially for the big corporate tenants You may not get no increase for who knows how many years and they're very small. All right, the money is in rent in the empty space, but you got to have the balls to come out there and either reconfigure it, come up with a new plan, or be able to have the ability to find a tenant, but you get real estate for free. >> Are you still learning new things about real estate investing? >> I mean, you learn every day. You're always learning. Me and my son always say to ourselves, "Man, we didn't know that." Especially when you deal with corporate. when you deal with corporate. Oh my god. Thank god AI now. I'll tell you the honest truth. My son, he he relies on AI. You can tell AI to do a lot of when it comes to these contracts and it helps a lot. >> How so? Do you put the contract down? >> You need a lawyer now. Now you just he does something with the contract. He feeds it to AI, whatever. And he sits there and asks all these questions that he has about the contract and the thing spits all the answers out. And now when he goes to my lawyer to change the contract, my lawyer ain't got no work to do. AI did it all for him. lawyers are going to be in trouble. >> But anyway, um you know, what was your question anyway? >> Still expanding your knowledge in real estate. >> I mean, we learn every day. I don't think a day goes by when learn every dealer still learning new stuff, especially with the corporate stuff. When you're dealing with with big shot corporations, they got every trick in a book. >> What are what are some of the main things that you've taken away from working with corporations? Like, what are the tricks? >> Listen, they got all kinds of stuff, rules in their contracts to make your head spin. You can't if you have out parcels on your property you want to build out you they have a view clause you can't block their view me and my son didn't know that he had to move a building that he was building. >> Wow. Because they had can't block their view. He was like a foot into their view. He had to redesign the whole plans and have everything redone with the engineer and move the whole building over. >> Why would a company insert that into >> because they want to protect their business. They want to make sure people drive by. It's all about traffic. >> So they had only drive by. didn't want to be able to see that store all the way back there uh thousands of feet away at the end of the shopping center. >> So they had only sold you the out parcel. >> I own the out parcel. >> I know. That's what I'm saying. So like they had the shopping center. You only had the out parcel or whatever it was. >> I own the whole place and I am my tenant. >> I got I got a place I got stores whatever. >> Then I want to add an out parcel in the front. >> Yeah, I understand. >> Okay. >> But blocking and I got permission to do it. Mhm. >> Okay. We cut out that piece, we throw up a building, we rent it out, we make a money. It's what developers do. So anyway, there was things we learn every day. I've heard all kinds of things, you know, that that that surprised me and and they're so smart. I mean, you know, >> now first, running a business seems manageable, but slowly over time, everything winds up being on your plate. 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And now I want to sell it because based on the market, it's worth more than I'm selling for. >> And what are you asking? What do you buy it for? What are you asking? >> No. Can't bend that nut. I don't know what to tell everybody. Nobody's buying my house now cuz I'm telling them. >> Anyway, the long story short is 5 years ago, I bought a house that a guy spent over $32 million to build with land and building and lazy rivers and bowling alleys and movie theaters and over the top top of the line, right? >> Mhm. >> I got it for 50 cents in a dollar. But I was at the right time at the right place. Okay. Now 5 years later, people are my neighbors are all houses are getting knocked down for $10 million and I got three of those lots. My my house is three times You've been to my house. My house is three times the size of my neighbors. >> That makes my land worth 30 million. And you'll never find three lots together on the Gulf of America. [laughter] Who changes the name of body of water? He does that [ __ ] just to piss people off and shock them. See, us New Yorkers, we like to shock people. We get a pleasure out of saying something that just shocks the out of you or irritates you a little. We don't care. We We can take it any way you want to give it. So he that's why he does it. Gulf of America. [laughter] Anyway, >> any bites on the house, >> we still we just listed it, you know. I fig I did it was you know to stir a pot a little before the holidays. Sure. you know, and then we'll see what happens. And you know, if I got to adjust the price, I'll adjust the price. The last house I had in California that I sold before I moved to Florida, I put it on the market for a million5 because that's what it was worth 20 years ago, sitting on top of a hill, looking at the whole San Francisco Bay, million five. And I told my wife Carla [gasps] and we had a sales sign outside. Every week go out there and put a line through the price and not lower it 100 grand. It was a tough market back then. So every week she did that. She lowered it 100 grand. Thank God cuz I I really didn't want to go below a million. Thank god right when she put it at a million bucks, somebody came in and bought it [laughter] cuz that was my bottom. You should do that with this house, the new one. >> I might. I told my uh agent and uh that uh I would probably we're probably going to do something every week. All right. >> Million bucks a week until I squeezy bleed. We'll figure it out. But if I put something on the market to sell, I'm a real seller. >> What about auctioning the house? >> Or doing like a sweep st it's a little too high price for an auction. A house like mine is going to be somebody with googles of money that wants to live on the beach. If my house was in Palm Beach or Miami Beach, it'd be 135 million. >> Okay. And my neighborhood to me is better. >> Yeah. >> So anyway, it just takes the right Listen, you know the old saying, there's an for every seat. Okay. You just got to wait for that right person. It fits their needs. It fits their It's a personal thing. It's emotional. It's not business. But your house is technically a little personal. It's not like >> to me I'll sell it in a minute. >> You're going from >> I'm not personal when it comes [ __ ] like that. >> That's fair. >> I live there for 5 years. I'm tired of the place, too. I don't like to sit in the same place forever. >> Arguably, you're going from the nicest house I've ever been in my entire life. How are you [ __ ] where you >> buy a smaller nice house? >> You can always make a house nice. Listen, you know, once you've been there, you say, "Oh, big deal. I lived you know how many houses I lived in worth big money?" A lot. Like five. four or five. It's no big deal. When you get to be as you get older, you don't give a either. You don't care. It's like I don't want a bigger boat than that. That boat is big enough. >> Then why do you think some people aren't the same? >> I mean, you know, some people just they may have a need for that house being that size. I don't need a house that big. My son just went into college [snorts and clears throat] and I'm getting old. I don't want the maintenance. I don't want the responsibility. I don't want the expense. It has to fit your lifestyle. A house fits your lifestyle. Like you bought a house and you let somebody else live in it. That fits your lifestyle just so you can play pingpong in the back room. >> That sounds creepy. [laughter] >> You're the same person. You're weird. >> I think I think what you're doing is a little I wouldn't say >> How many roommates do you have >> in my house right now? I have >> one you live in. >> I live with four others. >> Four roommates in a one-bedroom house. >> No, no, no, no. It's a poor guy. Five bedroomedroom house. Yeah, I have my own bedroom. partition walls you see in offices. >> It's a nice place to live. It's more in fact my rent is very low >> closet. The guy sleeps in it. It's a walk-in closet. >> One of them is a very very small room, but he pays very cheap rent. Okay. No utilities a month. You know where he sleeps? >> Cheap skate >> on a couch. >> I would be I mean in fairness, the couch is disgusting. It's We've had it for a few years. We bought it from Alex. You know Alex? I wouldn't even think about sitting on a couch Alex has ever passed gas [laughter] on. >> Well, it's ours now. >> I guess I won't be sending all the clothes I got. >> If you want a blue couch, I will sell it to you. You can come pick it up from my house in Las Vegas. It's the most comfortable couch you'll ever sit on, but it is gross and it does need to be cleaned. >> And Alex has sat on it. >> Yeah, everyone sat on sat on it. Sat on it, too. >> Why don't you burn it? >> I'm just saying if you want a blue couch, please DM JL Slb Y. >> Anyways, >> listen. I'm going to tell you honestly what I heard was he called the Salvation Army to pick it up and they refused to take it. That's how bad the couch. Yes. Oh, sorry. We can't take >> They told him to take it to the dump. >> If you're interested, you know what to do. How much is it? >> Um, >> and that's a pull out couch and he sleeps on it every night. >> I would I would I would sell the couch. I mean, I think I paid over a,000 bucks for it. >> I think I did. Yeah. Or around >> a,000,000. [clears throat] Thousand dollars to the highest bidder. Wait, I can buy those. >> I'll sell them to you. Everything's for sale. Those things recline all the way. You got recliners, the heads, everything in the back. >> How would you get those couches for? >> And that's real sheepkin. >> What would you sell those couches for? [screaming] >> Oh, sheepkin. I can't afford it. >> Or was it alpaca? No, it's sheepkin. [sighs] >> Sheepkin in Florida. >> I am curious to understand. >> You know what that means? I got a good deal for it. >> Yeah. >> Who the buy sheepkin in Florida? >> Okay. How much did you pay for those couches? None of >> your business. I don't remember. My wife walks in the store. She sees something on sale. She says that look in the house. Those couches are probably I don't know couple of grand a piece. Probably couple of grand baby. Couple of grand. >> So how much would you sell it for? >> Five grand. Make a thousand bucks. [laughter] >> So you got to make a profit to sell it. >> I got overhead. >> I am curious because it's so fascinating to talk about. You want to build up to a certain net net worth of like hundreds of millions of dollars, right? Done. >> Not anymore. >> Done. >> You're done. >> Done. >> And how did how did you realize you >> Now I just have to figure out who gets what and take care of the government, take care of the kids, and make sure I got enough money to fill my boat up and leave my wife enough money so she'll have some young Mexican guy when I die. >> What made you realize you were done? >> Cuz I'd done enough. I don't I don't You know, listen, I want my kids to grow. Don't get me wrong. My kids want to grow and they will grow. But I'm done. I started working. I left home when I was 12 years old. I joined the army at 17. When the do I get to stop working and see what life is like, not worrying about Imagine waking up in the morning knowing you got enough money in the bank to pay all your bills. You go do whatever the you want, which I'm not a big extravagant person, you know. I got a plane with one pilot. I got two pilots on my plane. Um, you know, and I got my boat and uh, you know, that's it. So, I'm enjoying my life. I just turned 60. life is only lasts so long. The clock's ticking, baby. I don't want to spend it working. Now, some guys do and God bless them. They feel like that's keeping them going. And, you know, 80 years old, still working. Hey, power to you. Not me. I don't have to drive anymore. I don't have to, you know, I like helping people. I just want to consult with people. I want people to consult with Ben. Go to benm.com, consult with Ben. Get me on the phone and get some real honest advice of what I would do if I was in your shoes. That's the only work I want to do. Help other people. I want to help other people. Even today on the way over here, did I tell you the guy bought my whole lunch today for a whole crew of us because uh he said, "I just listened to you and did what you did and said and now he's doing million-dollar refies from nothing. >> I like helping people." >> I will say the consult with Ben is a good deal. I think you're undercharging. We But we already discussed that you're charging too little for your time, but that's fine. >> Uh but it is interesting because last time we spoke, you made it seem like you still had some ground to to move. I got to do things in a in a logical way. I can't walk away tomorrow. I got to take the assets I sold. >> I got to make sure I limit my uh >> tax bill >> tax hit as much as possible to preserve our wealth. >> And then I have to figure it out. I may have to pay the government some money. I might replace some of it. Uh I got to help the kids buy assets that they want to do. Maybe they'll start building multif family. I got to get things organized. All right. And then I can they can always reach me by phone. Anybody can reach me by phone. Anybody. Go to bmail.com. You can reach me by phone. You know, my kids can reach me. I mean, as long as I got a phone, I'm good. I help. >> That's more than Jack. I cannot reach Jack. >> I wouldn't want anybody to call Jack. >> He He just wants me for this most insignificant. >> No. >> Good old things. Jack, where where is this thing? And I'm like, uh, have you looked over here? No, I haven't. And he goes and he finds it. >> He would have no purpose if he didn't ask you to do >> who purpose in life. >> Oh, I disagree. He disagrees. >> I disagree. I would my pickle ball and ping pong. Yeah, that's what it would be. It would just pickle ball and ping pong and I'd live a really good life. >> What would you be doing right now if he turned around and said, "You know what? I'm tired of your fire. Don't ever talk to me again." >> He wouldn't be able to. Or partners on the podcast. >> Partners on the podcast. >> It would take It would take a lot to get to that point. And even then, Jack, >> he can make it on his own without you. You can't. >> I would be able to. I probably wouldn't do YouTube, but I would probably do some sort of a consulting thing. Jack could do consultant. >> Consultant. You could be a consultant. >> Yeah. Pickle ball instructor. You could use >> consult. In other words, another definition of consult. Like if somebody dies, you consult them. >> That's consulting. >> Consoling. >> You'd be consoling, not consulting. >> I can consult. >> Yeah. >> I'm curious. What do you think of me selling off my real estate? I'm slowly just getting rid of everything. I sold my house in West LA. Know we talked briefly about that. >> I knew in East LA. >> I sold it. I got three offers. All of them were over asking. Two of them were cash. Sold. The buyer's fantastic. The buyer is actually a subscriber, believe it or not. >> Yeah. >> And they made you sign a refrigerator, too. I heard >> a what? >> They made you sign a refrigerator. >> I would do that. Yeah, absolutely. [clears throat] [laughter] >> I mean, that's great, but if you sold it with three offers for quick cash, then you know, you probably left money on the table. >> No. No money on that table. You don't want to admit it. >> So, I purposely underpriced. >> Makes you up, doesn't it? >> I see. Here's the thing. Makes you kind of have money on that table. >> I thought the home was worth anywhere from 26 to 28 depending on who buys it, at what time of the market. We priced it $2499 purposely. Uh, on Zillow, it was like a trending home in that zip code. >> Trending. >> It got more views in the first 48 hours. I was checking the views on Zillow. He was checking those views, baby. view to save ratio on my house was higher than any other listing in Santa Monica. >> Any other listing in Santa Monica >> and so I knew it was going to be we got a lot of activity. We had so many showings. We got three offers pretty quickly and we just countered. So I I feel like I got a price where >> you listed the house for 2.5, right? >> Yeah. 249. >> You said you sold it for 2.8. >> 2650 is what I ended up getting. >> Very good. >> Which I I was happy. I mean, your strategy can work by going low and I try I like to rather play the old game. I'm selling, I'm up here, you come in down here, we meet in the middle. I mean, I always like to leave a little cushion room to bargain with people when I'm selling, you know. >> But see, here's the thing. I had more leverage because we could say to the buyer, listen, we have two other offers. We have, you know, these cash offers here. You got to remove your contingency. So, we did no loan, no appraisal. I think we only did a 3 to 5 day inspection window and we opened escrow I think on a Tuesday and all contingencies removed on a Friday. Otherwise, we're going with the back >> quick money, baby. Quick money. He sold it for over listing and he got quick money. >> But that honestly selling that property was a weight lifted off my shoulder. It felt so good. I'm just paying the tax on it. uh just getting it over with, but just not having to think about, you know, the gardener didn't show up and then the squirrels were chewing through wires and I have to fix this or the pump in the fountain broke and now I have to figure out how to fix that when I don't live there. Or >> just all these little things like, oh, I had a a car back up into my gate, the gate that's in front of the driveway, and it backed up and it the gate was crooked coming out and I had to figure out how to fix that from another state. I hated doing that and oh and then the property tax bill would come and that's $26,000 gone and I don't know where the money goes and that upsets me and then it's seeing what happens in the palisades and insurance companies dropping out and they didn't drop my house but I'm worried about it. All they got to say is families to me only make sense if you live in them. If you're not living in it or you're not buying it to fix and flip, forget about it. Single family house is a waste of time. So, you did good. You got rid of it because you didn't need it. You weren't making money on it. And now you got all that money sitting in the bank. Not in your greedy little hands. >> So, for your family's sake, though, you wanted to exit all of your real estate and what? Put it all in bonds, put it in treasuries. >> No, I'm not going to exit [clears throat] real estate. I'm going to turn over assets that I feel have some future value upside to my kids. And um, you know, if I have to stay in a portfolio with them, I stay in. Who cares? But, you know, I just bonds are definitely a way to go. Taxfree municipal bonds is the safest, smartest thing anybody could ever do if they really want to truly protect their future and their life >> because it's the safest, smartest thing to do. And then the bond funds are really good. You know why? Cuz the bond funds pay monthly, baby. You don't have to wait. Bonds only pay twice a year. You know that, right? But >> I'm invested in I'm invested in one of your bonds. >> Bond funds. >> I get paid 5.3%. No taxes, no federal income tax. >> Now imagine if every million bucks you get over 50 grand a year. Let's say you got 10 million bucks. 10 million bucks sitting in a taxree imun bond is going to get you $500,000 a year. >> Taxree. >> That's like a million if you're in California. >> Yeah. >> You got to make a million dollars to get $500,000 to have taxes. You can taxree, baby. >> What have you noticed in your life is the perfect amount of money to have? I mean, everybody's life is different. Depends on how many kids you got. Depends on your future for those kids. Depends on how much money you got to think about, you know, leaving people when you're gone. I'm at the point in life now where I got to just try to live the rest of my life with good years you got left when you hit 60. Cuz let's face it, nobody's having a good time 70 over 70 years old. Come on, stop. Even in the 60s, you know, >> I feel like 70 I see a lot of 70 year olds that are young. You know, >> when you're when you're when you hit 60, your body's giving out. Okay, let's face it. It's natural. It's life. Oh, yeah. You could do this. You could take some of this. You could work out. Whatever. You might extend your life a little, but your quality of life might improve a little, but let's face it, there's not that many 60s year olds and 70 year olds having a good time. just, you know, you know, it it's just, you know, so basically you make the best of it and try to enjoy what makes you happy. But, um, anyway, I'm just going to do what I got to do to preserve my family. Every family's got a different situation. You know, that's it. I got [clears throat] to make sure I put the right money in the right place and make the right investments and smart moves to where I keep everything stable and, you know, an easy transition. Anyway, listen, everybody needs to try to get ahead in life. Everybody needs to buy some sort of real estate. It's like part of being in part of being part of civilization. You know, you need a house, you need rental units, you need whatever you want, whatever fits you. You're doing very well now. You're renting houses out. You're cash flowing. You're getting a good return on your investment. And you get to play ping pong, too. That's pretty good. That fits your life. You're happy with that, aren't you? >> Very happy. >> Well, there you go. And it makes sense because it makes money. >> How did How did having a family affect the quality of your life? >> I mean, my kids helped me grow to the level I'm at. If I didn't have the kids, I never would have grown to this level. >> Couldn't do it on my own. No way. >> How would they have time away? And what about employees? >> Who? >> You could have employees. No. >> Employees aren't like kids or people that are serious about really being part of something. Employees get paid a salary. Okay. Employees, they'll they'll do their time and they'll do their job, but they ain't going outside their [ __ ] job. Okay. It's the people that are have their ownership interest that are really going to take you and make it grow. >> So, you went into business with your kids. How was it a right decision for you, but for so many other people, it's just like what ends up ruining a business? >> What are you saying? Ruining a business. >> Sometimes people hire their kids and the kids just run it into the ground. How did it work out so >> that happen? I mean, if I thought my kids weren't capable of being in a position, then they wouldn't be in that position. They got to show that they can handle a position. You know, we got uh the girl in our family called her name is Brenda. Uh I raised her like my daughter. >> She's really my sister. Long story. Anyway, Brenda decided she wanted to go in a hotel business. Well, Brenda went to college. She got her masters and worked in this and and and I we we bought one while she was in college. So, we had a hotel for her to work in while she's going to college. And she demonstrated her determined, you know, her seriousness about it. and she made us money. So, we kept growing. Ben Jr., he went apartments, you know, and if I said, "Ben, I'm in trouble over here in Texas." Ben pack backed up. He moved to Texas for three years. He was stuck there. I really didn't want him to do that, but, you know, I needed bailed my ass out. Totally bailed me out. Got in Texas, Houston, all over that area. Took over thousands of units and and and and took care of that for me. You know, otherwise I'd have to do it. Then, I mean, I'm be failing over here. I can't be everywhere. and management companies I don't trust because they piss away your money. They don't care. It's not their money. So, you know, my kids played a very important role. Vincent the same thing. I can't even count the number of places my kids have packed up and moved into onsite. Lived in the buildings. Ben Junior lived down the block here. A hotel that was closed up when we bought it just a remodel. He lived in a boarded up hotel few blocks from here. And now somebody we sold it to and he made it a flag. He made it nice. It was all great. We sold it. And then um the guy bought it and came up with some boutique instead of using the franchise we gave him. Uh and then he went belly up and then now the place had a fire and now it's closed down and it got tore down. Anyway, I mean anyway, my kids played an important role. They all lived around many places and paid their dues and you know >> what's your advice to other parents who want to do business with their kids? >> You got to bring them into business. You got to make them give them give them tasks. Give them responsibilities. You got to say, listen, when Ben Jr. was playing around in college, his first year, um, you know, I could see he was just partying. His first year in college, partying in California. And I said, "What are you doing?" He showed me his grades. I said, "This is ridiculous." You know, I never even heard of some of these classes. Witchcraft is a class. I've never heard of such a thing. Witchcraft or religionism. He said, "Anyway, I said, listen, uh, he missed all the real classes." Anyway, I said college ain't for you. Smart kid, >> but you got to go back up, ship your car. I just bought a building in Largo, Florida. Go in there and take it over. >> I gave him one nice little 150 unit building to move into and become the manager. He already knew the ropes or he knew the basics. He can learn it's all, you know, collect the rents, rent the units, fix the units, what he has to do. Anyway, he did it at the age of like 19. >> What if he didn't want to do it? What if he said no? >> No, he didn't want to do it. Then I told him I had to turn my back on him, which I exactly my words weren't him. I said, "Listen, this is what you're going to do. You're going to pack up everything you got here, which ain't much. You're going to ship your car to Florida and you're going to go to this address and you're going to take over this building and be the manager." And uh otherwise, I don't know what to do. I'm not going to sit here and fund you partying. You know, I got no time for that. So he said, "All right, done." >> Did he hate the idea of it, though? He was fine with it. Listen, it was either that or maybe go get a job at Radio Shack, which he liked. He wanted to do >> because he was good at electronics back then. >> I mean, that's basically the story. It's true. You know, he said, "Okay, I'll do it." You know, what was he going to do? Turn down want to be run the family business? And in fact, by him doing that, it put him way ahead of the game because I didn't have to wait four years for him to graduate college. Okay? It helped me cuz I got him now, you know? So, it was a great thing that he didn't go to college and but you know, you would never know it by not talking to him. He's brilliant. >> Was he was he naturally motivated to do that or did you have to kick that into gear? >> I just gave him a choice. I'm not going to keep paying for you to be fooling around here in college and not accomplishing anything. You're over 18 now. You're a man. You know, simple. Either I cut you off, you know, I'm not going to pay your rent. I'm not going to pay your your bills. I'm not going to pay for anything. car insurance, none of that. You know, that's it. Done. Tuition, nothing. Because you're not doing anything. >> What if he was skating by enough? Like not partying, but just doing very average. Would you have had the same reaction? >> Yeah. If he was doing average and he wanted to stay in college, it's fine. You know, I don't expect my kids to be straight A's. I never went to the ninth grade. I just realized the other day, I always thought I went to the ninth grade. I never did because my school I looked up the school I went to in Brooklyn. The last school I went to ended in the eighth grade and then they told me I couldn't go to ninth grade unless I took some special test over the summer. I never went to the ninth grade. Only eth all these years I thought I was >> Do you think people would be better off just stopping school at 9th grade? >> Depends on their desires. Listen, school is great. You know, it's a balance. You got to have everything in life. If you got to know how to work your way, you know, in the real world, in business, in streets, whatever you want to call it, and you got to have some education. You can't be you got to have a balance. You can't be an idiot and just be an idiot with street smarts. You got to have some education. You know, Jack, I don't know what the you got. One day we're going to figure out cuz I ain't seen you [clears throat] demonstrate any type of abilities to do anything. >> I almost graduated college. I'm surprised he didn't graduate high school. [laughter] >> Jack's good at delegating. If there's something he doesn't want to do, he's going to have to lazy. >> He don't want to do. He wants to figure out an easy way to make somebody else do. >> It's about working. >> He just wants to stand around and be the guy who knows everything. Hi, I'm Jack. I know everything. Just ask me. >> I I asked the questions. >> Yeah. And then you find somebody to do whatever the answer is. >> I'm just kidding. I don't even know what the Jack does. He plays ping pong. He's he's he must be the bank's alone money. So, you know, on paper, he must look pretty good. Him and his 18 roommates, he thinks he's Mexican, I guess. >> Is that true? My roommates think I'm Mexican. >> No. [laughter] >> Mexicans only have 18 people in a house, you know. Oh, yeah. I married into Mexican family. I know. >> So, what do you think the role [laughter] had a >> I'm I'm curious. The whole family as aspect is what's really interesting to me because you know all things considered, I hate to even admit this, but it seems like you're a decent father. It seems like you you knew what you were doing because all of your kids so far turned out father young. >> What' you say? >> I was not a good father when my kids were young, >> but they all seemed neglected. >> Turned out great. >> But then how did that end up working out for them? >> Because I had no choice. You know, in my situation, I happened to be a single father for long periods of time in my life till I married Carla. Um, you know, and um, you know, my kids didn't have a lot of things other kids had. You know, they played a little sports, but I wasn't the real sports. Dad signed them up for flag football and all those other and you know, they did sports if I could swing it. Most of the time when they were very young, they spent in the backseat of my car while I was working, running around town working. That's the quality time we spent together, you know, and maybe, you know, they back then I could afford a happy meal. And you never know what the toy is in a Happy Meal. They had some good toys for a while. They used to >> until some kids started choking on them and you know all that. But um anyway, my kids did not grow up with silver spoons in their mouth except the youngest one, >> you know. And we'll we're playing it by ear with him. He showed me his grades today. Okay. He's having a good time in school. Let me tell you, he's having a good time in school. I see my credit card. I know every what the every track him spending per month in college, >> you know. I don't know. But his tuition's, you know, I don't know what's that, 50 grand a year for tuition, probably. And he has to live in a big fancy apartment across the street with two roommates, you know, that's cost to be at least a couple of grand a month. And then he's out eating out all the time cuz, you know, well, ain't going to cook. Um, and he's like to hang out and go to party places, you know, and it cost money. And I had a nice little talk with him over a weekend about it, you know, and um, but his grades are okay, but they could be much better. He's probably a B student. He's, you know, he's a B. He's not an A. [gasps] So, we'll play it by year. He's only got six months in, I think. We'll play it by year and see what the rest of the year goes. >> And why does he want to go to college? To me, it seems like such a no-brainer. >> In our world, it definitely, you know, will prepare him and give him some basic knowledge and tools on business. He's taking mostly business courses. >> Really? I feel like you get more business just doing it, right? >> Well, yes and no. I mean, with today's technology and reports and underwriting, it's good to learn the basics. It's like, I could never do if I didn't learn the basics in math. If I never took math, >> Yeah. But it's going to be Chad GBT pretty soon. Like, you know, just as long as he knows how to type on a computer. >> We'll see. You know, we'll see. We'll play it by ear. If his grades go down, he ain't going to stay in college. And I still got him going to a hotel when he ain't when he class to go work behind a desk, you know? [clears throat] So, uh, >> see, it's crazy to me cuz I would love the opportunity just to just to work like that and like be immersed in it with a YouTube channel, too. >> Real estate is really, you know, listen, management is is not that difficult until you get to corporate level. It can't be. But the point is, it's all about finding the next deal. You could give me the biggest schmuck in the world and and and the biggest loser in the world, but if he has some knack of finding the next deal, that's all it takes. You could pay for everything else. You could pay for accountants. You could pay for property managers. We have we have 600 employees. You have people doing all these jobs. Somebody has to watch everything and everybody and the money. But, you know, we got bankers, we got brokers, we got lawyers, we got everybody we need. Finding the deal is all that matters. >> Now, really quick, I just want to say that we've been using our sponsor today, Notion, for years to keep the iced coffee hour running smoothly. I'm talking about guest planning, sponsors, workflow. It's where everything lives for us. And with Notion Agent built in, they've become so much more powerful. So, honestly, we were just really excited when they reached out to sponsor this episode. Notion Agent feels like having an AI teammate built directly into your workspace. It understands your notes, pages, and documents, and takes care of the things that usually take you a lot of time. With one single prompt, it can organize notes, create new pages or databases, or summarize projects, and even troubleshoot on its own. and everything it does is transparent, editable, and undoable. It's flexible, powerful, and honestly fun to use. Plus, it cuts way down on having to jump between tools. And I kid you not, Notion is used by over 50% of Fortune 500 companies. And teams like OpenAI, Ramp, and Versil already use Notion Agent to move faster. Honestly, guys, as a Notion user for at least the past 5 years, it's really cool they offered to sponsor this episode. And when they released the agent, it has gotten so much better. So, I highly recommend you guys try it out. So, try Notion now with Notion Agent at notion.com/iced coffee, all lowercase. Again, that is notion.com/ iced coffee with the link down below in the description. Enjoy. Now, I got to say, when you first start a business, you think you're starting something cool, but pretty quickly you recognize that you've become the HR department, compliance officer, and payroll manager. And none of that stuff actually makes your business any money. It just has to be done over and over so your business doesn't fall apart. And that's exactly why we are excited to be sponsored by Gusto. Gusto is an online payroll and benefits software built for small businesses. It's all-in-one remote friendly and easy to use so that you could pay, hire, onboard, and support your team from anywhere. What really stands out is just how much it simplifies things. From direct deposit to payroll runs to onboarding, it's all in one place and it just works. I've actually been a paid user of Gusto since I first set up my escort back in 2021. I haven't stopped since and it's been a huge timesaver for me genuinely. They handle the payroll taxes automatically and you get unlimited payroll runs for one monthly price. On top of that, they also have no surprise fees which honestly removes a lot of stress. And if you ever get hit with an HR question that you're unsure about, [clears throat] Graham Gusto gives you access to certified HR experts which is huge when you want to do things the right way. It's also really quick and easy to switch, and you don't pay anything until you run your first payroll. So try Gusto today at gusto.com/istic and get three months for free when you run your first payroll. That is 3 months of free payroll at gusto.com/istic. I highly recommend it. There's also a link down below in the description. One more time, gusto.com/istic. I'm curious your thoughts on Mom Donnie winning the Mel election in in New York. You know, all I know is everybody keeps calling them a communist, right? >> Yeah. >> I don't really get into politics too much because all I mean, you know, most people in politics are not business people. So, if you haven't been a business person, it's hard for me to respect that you know what the hell to do. If you didn't run a business, how the hell you know what to do? Cuz when you run a business, you're running people, you know, and you're controlling, you know, numbers and money. And I don't know. I don't know the guy. What is his background? Doctor. What is he? >> He was a rapper. >> A rap. An Indian rapper. Stop. >> He's very charismatic. >> I don't Is he Indian? [sighs] >> I don't know. I don't I don't think he's going to have a career. >> I got the letter, by the way. I'll tell you about this. Got a letter, a certified letter from the city of Los Angeles. Signature delivery with receipts. So, they know I received the letter. I finally found out what was in the letter. I got a permit to remove a tree in front of a property from urban forestry. It took us almost a month to get the permit. We removed the tree. Apparently now, even though I got a permit, I got a notice of violation for removing a protected tree, even though they told me the tree has to be removed because it's diseased. And now I got a notice of like I had to comply with this thing because it's a protected tree even though I got the permit to remove the tree. They told me I had to remove the tree. Bureaucratic [ __ ] But it's it's a notice of violation dated after I removed the tree that now I have like it's and so now we have to set up another meeting with urban forestry. That's what the the notice was forestry division. >> I have to comply by January 9th otherwise I'm going to be issued fines. >> Do you have to physically be present at this meeting? >> Me? No. The contractor does. I'm not doing anything. But just the fact that like I removed the tree and this and this said like either [clears throat] a neighbor or a tenant or someone like filed a a complaint with the city and now they're cracking like I don't know what even though we have a permit makes no sense. And my understanding is that the departments at the city of Los Angeles don't talk to each other. So even though you go this one to get a permit to remove the tree, this one could issue a fine because they don't talk to each other and they don't know what's going on. So, it's going to get resolved. It's just insane. The city of Los Angeles. >> You're going to court. >> Whatever it is, at this point, I'm just like, it's good content. Like, >> George Washington, did you chop down a cherry tree? >> Video topics. >> You know that? >> What? Chopping down [clears throat] the tree? >> Yeah. You never heard about George Washington chopping down a cherry tree? >> No. >> I [clears throat] thought I was in history class. >> What is the story? >> I don't know. Google it like everybody else. AI. I know. Somebody his parents asked him, "George, did you chop down that cherry tree?" And he said, "I cannot tell a lie. I did chop down a cherry tree." I don't know anything beyond that, but you can Google it. I'm sure you will because it's fascinating, fascinating story about our father of our country. >> Now, you were talking earlier about finding deals. Do you think that AI will eventually get so good that it will be able to just bring you deals and say, "Hey, this is the best deal on the market based on these photos, based on this location, based on where it's priced." Our AI says, "This is the deal for you." >> I've seen a lot of lot of stuff with AI now. So, I wouldn't it wouldn't surprise me. It would not surprise me if you can go into AI and say, "Okay, show me, you know, every property under this price with this return or something." I don't know. But the thing is with real estate deals, they don't give you enough data sometimes at first. You know, you have to kind of >> password. But here's the thing. If there's a 100,000 properties listed, it could just say, "Hey, here's the top 100 >> that we think is good." But it wouldn't surprise me. I've seen a lot of >> AI cut out a lot of time in people's uh, you know, work that they're doing underwriting. My my son has questions all the time and he seems to get an answer that may not be 100% on target, but it'll put him close to the right direction he needs to go. >> So, I >> we use it quite a bit even for design. I'll take a photo of something. I'll say, "Stage this and make it look like it's on the cover of a magazine that the height is this, the width is this, design something." and it just gives me these incredible illustrations within like technology, you know, and that's it. So, you know, that's where the world's going. >> How do you save so much money on some of the renovation projects? I saw on John's past your recent video >> being involved. >> Well, your recent video, I think you got like an $80,000 quote to paint the exterior and you said you got it done for 30,000. >> Yeah, because you know, listen, that contractor's got to make money. He's got overhead. He's got all kinds of courses involved running a business, you know, but you know, my son goes out and he just hires people that know how to paint, you know, on our payroll under our employees and puts in the work painting and buys the paint himself, negotiates a good price on the paint, rents the lift and does it. I mean, you know, it's always going to be cheaper to do stuff yourself. I mean, we all know that, you know, I mean, that's why these guys are in business to make money, you know, they got to come out there and, you know, be a company. We go out, we just hire people and supervise them and buy the paint, rent the lips and do it ourselves. >> What do you think about alternative investments like storage units, parking lots, campers, seniors? Parking. Parking can be a very good revenue if you have the demand. If it's all about supply and demand, you know, everything's supply and demand. If there's a demand for storage rooms, then yes, you'll make money. But if you build them out in the middle of nowhere and you sit half empty, there ain't no money in storage. Every deal is different. And it's all about is there supply? Are you putting a supply in for what the demand is? And then are you making money at it? I mean, you know, you go in urban areas, storage places do very well because everybody's live in a tiny little place. They got nowhere to store their stuff. >> But if you go into urban uh suburban area, they don't do that well and and the prices are a lot different. >> You know what's interesting? They're they're starting to pass or or initiate proposals to crack down on storage unit evictions. Have you seen this? >> No. Holy California, baby. >> Well, well, what the what what the argument is is that they need to have stronger protections against evictions with rent increase limits. And then what they want to do is protect the areas where storage units are going up for residential because they're saying the storage units are going up in prime real estate locations that you could be building more units. They don't contribute so much to the economy because they don't hire that many people. You could have one person overseeing all these hundreds of storage units that's better purposed for residential. Um I think it's only like a seven days. If you're late, your all your stuff could be kicked out. Like there's certain things that they say needs to be protected. >> Well, you know, I haven't heard of that yet, but you know, definitely possible, especially if you're talking about California or New York. I mean, it is what it is. I mean, you know, basically if you go to an open storage place, you're either going to make money or you're not, you know, they can't come in and change you from not to not be a storage place anymore. As far as people don't pay their storage bill, you know, they got the right to auction them off, you know, and I don't think it's more than seven days. I think it's, you know, probably like 30 >> and they got to send certain notices to you. >> Yeah, >> there's a process. But the point is, if you don't pay it and you ignore it, then yeah, they're going to auction your crap off. What do you think about the 50-year mortgage? >> The 50-year mortgage? I mean, I don't know. 50 years is a long time. You know, who's going to really keep a 50-year mortgage? Even you buy a house in your 20 and it pay off in your 70. It's I mean, who's going to stay with the same house for 50 years? >> But who's going to keep the same loan? >> 50-year mortgage would keep the payments down. That's a fact. >> Then, wouldn't it just raise prices though? again. >> I mean, yeah, it would definitely raise prices because we would spread the payments out and bring the payments down pretty low, you know, but uh still at the end of the day, you know, you're going to be paying 50 years worth of interest. Well, that's assuming they keep the mortgage for 50 years. My understanding is that if they did implement it, you would keep it long enough to be able to refinance into something else, maybe at a lower interest rate. I >> mean, typically people always refinance during the course of their loans. Nobody keeps a loan 50 years. I mean, the old days it was the old 20 25 year thing. Yeah. Then they came up with 30. [gasps] Now they got 50. >> Do you think they'll ever do a 99-year mortgage? >> Make no sense. Doesn't that humanly What? A person doesn't live that old. >> Yeah. But then the bank the bank could eventually take it over. >> And at that point, you're just renting basically. >> Isn't that what a reverse mortgage is? >> They could call it creatively a 99-year mortgage. >> The only thing I see in 99 years is leases. I've had 99-year leases. >> What does that look like? >> What >> a 99-year lease >> means that you're entitled to have this property for 99 years, providing you pay in, you know, in accordance with the terms of the lease. Like you see it more in ground leases. Like in New York City, most all those buildings are all on land leases. They own the building, but they don't own land. Some smart guy said, "Oh, you want to build a building here? Fine. I'll let you build a building in here, but um you know, you're going to have to pay me x amount of dollars per year and lease the land. I'm not going to sell it to you. >> And what happens at year 100? The building just belongs to the person owning the land. >> There's a different clause in the contract, you know? I mean, some some leases say that you have to tear that building down. Some say you can just walk away and just you walk away. I see a lot of hotels on land leases. I turned down one yesterday in Disney. M >> Disney actually holds a land lease to it. They own the land, but they let somebody build a hotel on it. But the land lease is up in like 40 or 50 years, something like that. But that means it becomes a depreciating asset. Cuz as that building or hotel gets closer to the end of that land lease and it's time to expire, it's going to have no value because you can't have a hotel no more. Lease leases, you know, play a big thing and big thing leases. Most McDonald's are on land leases. >> Yeah. Because McDonald's corporate owns the land. McDonald's, I heard, is one of the largest corporate landlords in the entire world. They own more land because they buy the land and then they lease it to the franchisee that pays them rent. So everywhere they buy, they own it and they get paid rent >> and they make the franchisee build a building. I mean, you know, it's all real estate, but you got to find the deal that's going to make you some money. Do you think it's possible to eliminate property taxes? >> I mean, the Sanders has been talking about it here in Florida. What he's talking about, he's only talking about doing it for the people that are homesteaded. People have been living in a house many years. The price of values are gone up and they'll never own their house because the property taxes could keep going up with the values. It cost them more money. I mean, I think that he should come back and just do a logical adjustment. Okay. Don't eliminate it. You might cut it in half. If you homesteaded, you know, your property should be half the value. That makes sense. >> Okay. So, that homeowner benefits, but then the county still has the revenue. You got to do everything in a balance. See, these guys are not business people. I meant the Santis. He's a nice guy, you know, but he's not a business guy. Okay? Uh, you basically, you got to do things in moderation and balance for them to work. So, every side is taken care of. Because if we cut out home, if you cut out property taxes, the one side is doing really good, but then the county is getting screwed because they got no money to operate. Fire department, police department, uh, schools, whatever, all their expenses, you know, they got bills to pay. They got to run a whole county. But, um, I think they need to do a smart approach to it. You know how much my tax bill was this year on my house? >> On the over a quarter million, maybe 270. >> That's about >> house. Well, that's about 1% though. 1% of the property's value. >> I mean, normally they take the price of the value of house and you buy it. Then they take an 80% value of that and then they multiply by close to 2%. >> But it is what it is, you know. And then, you know, but that's a pretty big tax bill, don't you think? >> How has the quality of your life changed over the past few years? >> Physically, it's gone down. >> What about overall? >> I mean, you know, listen, I'm I'm I'm always making moves. You know, quality of life is okay. I mean, you know, I got a new boat. You know, I'm doing okay. I'm paying my bills. You know, everybody's doing well. You know, has it skyrocketed? No. Has it gone down? No. Everything is just like stagnant right now. That the right word. >> What would it take for it to skyrocket? >> I mean, it would take uh I don't know. Let's see. Skyrocket. It would take all these idiots to start selling their real estate for what it's worth and not overinflating it like people like you >> underpricing. >> Would you say the quality of your life has remained pretty stable throughout the entirety of your life or >> No, my life is a straight like if you looked at me as a stock, you'd see going like this >> and then it kind of leveled out at what age? >> I mean, yeah, it's pretty much leveling out now because there's no opportunity. How can it grow if I have no opportunity? So the opportunity determines the quality of your life. >> I mean, I determine quality of life is growth. How much money you got in a bank. More money you got a bank, the better the quality of life is. That's the way I'm interpreting what you're saying. Your quality of life, what are you talking about? Fancy cars, fancy houses, that quality, eating at restaurants. That's like I'm way above all that. [gasps] I'm just talking about protecting your family wealth. One day you may have a kid. Possible. >> I hope I have many. It's >> possible. feel sorry for the person that has it with you, but it's possible. >> I I am curious. >> You were artificially inseminated, right? >> Inseminated. >> Whatever. >> Inseminated. Artificial. >> I have I never been inseminated. >> You're an artificial baby, right? >> No. >> You don't know who your parents are, do you? >> You're a test tube baby. >> I think I know them. >> But you were out of a test tube, right? >> I I hope I wasn't. >> And you grew in some kind of brown plastic thing. You developed >> some lab somewhere. Here's a lab >> coming from you. What? Coming from you. You look like you were born in a lab more than I do. >> That's right. The what do you call it? The evil lab of Dr. Frankenstein. [snorts] First he made my mother, then he made me. >> I I do wonder though in terms of the quality of your life. >> What do you mean quality? What do you mean? >> Whether we go to [ __ ] Burger King or go to a restaurant, what's the quality? >> Well, like like happiness, enjoyment of life. >> I mean, listen, you know, I try to enjoy my life as much as I can. Yeah. still working. I'm still working so I can't just walk away. >> What changes in your life determine or change the quality the most? >> Less responsibilities, >> less, you know, getting my portfolio in a position where call me if you need me, not have to be around every, you know, too much. Not to be too involved, you know, not always out there hunting for the next deal. Every day I got to look for deals. Every day I got to do a thousand emails and maybe catch one or two decent deals worth my time pursuing and I don't want to go out of state. So it's just challenging right now to find the next deal and if not pay the government tax. >> What would it take for you to invest in California? >> Nothing. I mean any opportunity. >> I don't care if you offered it to me for free. For free. I mean it's like somebody said, "Well, would you ever move back to New York?" I said, "I don't care if I was a billionaire. To have to definitely possibly stay in New York would never happen. It's just not worth it." >> But what if it's just your money? You don't have to live there. But there's a good opportunity somewhere in California. >> Who's going to run it? If it's a good opportunity, it's going to require some sort of management. It's going to require some sort of something applied to add value to it, I would assume. I mean, I turned out an Amazon warehouse the other day. I could have buy something like that in California, but the problem with California is number one, my basis is low. So, I don't get any depreciation barely. So, that means I pay 37% tax on any money I make there. And then if I think if I'm making the money in California, you got to pay another what, 10? >> Yeah. Give or take. >> [ __ ] that. I'm not giving Why am I going to work making half the money there when I can go somewhere else and I have to, you know? Yeah. >> I don't know. >> Are there any downsides? >> I did 20 years almost 18, 17, 18 years in California. I did my time. I served my time and now I got parrolled to Florida. >> Are there any downsides to posting the deals and the things you're looking at on social media? >> I mean, if I don't want to give it to people I could be competing with. You know, if I find deals, I'm not going to share them with other competitors. You know, I was thinking about starting a commercial listing service, but I'm too old now. Like, you know, Lubnet sucks. Okay. They throw every piece of crap in the world on LubNet. I want to come out with a serious one. >> Mhm. >> Ben net. Um, you know, where it was for serious people with, you know, looking for serious deals that made some sort of sense, not all crapola that they just throw online for sale with stupid prices. >> Where do you get the best deals? >> Brokers. >> And they just email to you off market. >> Yeah. They reach out and say, "Listen, you know, this looks like a deal for you. We know they know how I operate. They know I come in quick. Don't waste no time, but won't pay top dollar. So, if they know they have a seller that kind of matches with me, they're going to call me up and and and make the marriage." >> Yeah. >> Like, we we disclosed on 88 units in Fort Myers. You know, I was trying to buy 300 units in Fort Myers, and the guy and me just can't come to terms. They're not realistic on their price. How often does a subscriber come to you with a deal? >> Subscribers. I don't really take deals from subscribers. You know, I I have people that may do a consult and throw a deal my way, but I don't, you know, I I try to tell them right up front, I'm not looking to invest in anybody. I don't like to invest in anybody. All right? I don't like mixing my money with other people's money. That's a game you got to be very careful playing. Why Why do I need anybody? If they find me a deal, I'll give them a referral. I'll pay them a commission, you know. If the deal was that great and I felt like the person was genuine, then maybe I don't know. My kids could deal with it. No, >> I just push it to my kids. >> Have you had any unique calls lately? Any consulting that stood out? >> A lot of my calls are pretty unique. Um, I get them all over the board. I get the people that have absolutely nothing to the people that have, you know, a couple hundred million dollars. You know, most people just need to learn. The biggest calls I get is people have real estate and they need to know what's my next step. What do I do? Here's my portfolio. Okay, what do I do now? Okay, do I borrow against it? How much money do I have in the bank? I got to find out what what do they got? What do they want to do? And how can they get there? You know, that's what people just need a push. People know what to do. They all know what to do. They just need a push. You know, you need you want to do a deal. You need money. How much money you got? How much money will you you willing to risk right now to do a real estate deal? We got to establish that. If it's a hundred grand, fine. Let's look for $500,000 deals. And then you have to look in your area of what makes sense for $500,000 with some upside. Or I get a guy with, you know, a couple hundred million and say, you know what? Uh, I really want to get rid of some of this. I want to keep some of this. We have to determine which assets you want to keep, which assets are worth keeping. Which assets I see that he's already exhausted most of the value in. it's time to let it go before it could become a problem. You know, when you own these big department stores, if there's only a couple of years left on a 10-year lease, and you don't know for sure if that tenant is going to renew that lease, you're in bad shape. You're in a >> purgatory. >> The boat, you just got a new yacht. >> We got a new yacht. >> How is it? I haven't seen. >> So far, it's great. You need to come take a tour. >> I want to see. >> I mean, this is the yacht that has the things that I wanted on it. The last shot that you went on didn't have any bow seating. You know what I mean? Bow seating seat in the front with a table and you relax and you're cruising and you see all the water coming and you're parting the seas like Moses. You ever see a boat like this go down the ocean? It's parting the sea. It's like a bee. The bee and see the water just going away. >> What did you pay for the yacht? >> Uh out the door. It ended up cost me 4.8 million. >> And how much is it worth? I'd say that boat's about a six plus billion dollar boat broke. >> What does it cost per month to operate a boat like that? >> I mean, I don't have any payments on it, but you know, you have a captain. A boat like that, you need a full-time captain, you know. So, a full-time captain's going to charge you a good captain's going to charge you about,000 bucks a foot a year. >> Thousand bucks a foot. >> Yeah. >> So, how many feet is that? >> 92. >> So, it's 92 grand. >> I got a break. >> Test them out. >> That's interesting. People say though that boats are What do they say? It's like, >> oh, if it flies or floats, you're supposed to rent it. >> Yeah. >> I did rent boats for a long time, but you know, once you get to a certain income level, [clears throat] it's not going to hurt you to own a yacht. You want your privacy. This is like a house. You buy a house, you rent a house. Some people rent, some people buy. Some people say, "I have to buy. You know, I want my own place. I don't want I want to own this thing." And plus, with my own boat, I go wherever I want. I got to schedule nothing with some otherbody's boat. Uh, you know, I like owning a boat. It's one of the things that, you know, a quality of my life. >> And what's the purpose of this house that we're in right now? >> It's a boat house. You got to park the boat somewhere. So, I parked the boat at the house. Why? Cuz it makes sense. So, it's cheaper to me to keep the boat here in his house than just take that boat to a marina and pay. >> It's cheaper to keep it here than at a >> How? Because if you sold the house, you put this in a mun bond. Wouldn't that just pay for the >> a place that I would have to keep that boat would cost me a couple hundred thousand a year? >> Really? So, you bought a house for it. >> Well, yeah. I have a house that serves its purpose. So, you know, I save a couple hundred thousand dollars a year doning and um I rather just have the house. >> Why don't you Airbnb? >> Plus, with if I go to a dock, I ain't got the pool. Ain't got the privacy. You ain't got a a house you can use. I could Airbnb this sucker for probably a grand a night. >> Why don't you? >> I'll let you stay here for $9.99. >> I mean, cuz I ain't got time, you know, for that. I mean, you know, I don't live near here. you know, something's just not worth my time or aggravation. Maybe my cabin gets good, but then with the boat here, I don't think I want Airbnb because if my boat's sitting here while they're partying or whatever, I don't I don't feel good about that. I don't like strangers. I don't trust strangers >> for this. >> But the boat's great. The boat's great. Has everything I need. The last boat, you remember, you were on it didn't have the the mouse seating. >> It didn't It had that kind of closed in upstairs really benefited the captain. It didn't have the outdoor entertainment area upstairs, top deck like this one. >> It didn't have an on deck master where I could just walk onto the boat and without going down the stairs to my room. I got my room all in the front. >> Uh it didn't have >> Do you want to go bigger? >> No. No. This boat's the right size for me. I could buy bigger, but this boat's the perfect size. Not too big, not too small. Just right. And um it's newer, much newer boat. And it's classier. And um I like it. It's got a garage. Put the tender in the garage to have it sitting on the platform. You know, it it takes me up a notch. Okay. This boat is a notch up. You know, it's like going from B-class to Aclass. Okay. In that in that size range. >> Is there any other luxury in life that you want that you don't have? Cuz I remember the boat seemed to be the last thing. >> I got the boat. I'm happy with the plane I got. And um you know, I got a new Rolls-Royce. I got rid of I traded a couple of cars, a Ferrari and a a Dawn for a nice Phantom. I got a I got the nice car you can drive. I mean, I'm just want to sell my house and shrink down to a smaller house. That's it. >> How big of a house? How nice of a house are you going to be moving into? >> No more than about 4,000 tops. Dopps >> on the beach? >> No, I hate the beach. >> Really? >> I want I want a house on the coastal. She likes to be, but I like in the coastal water. It'll be on the water. >> Yeah, >> it'll be in the coastal water. Maybe keep a small boat behind here and move home. >> Why don't you move into like this house? >> Why don't I move into this house? Cuz it's too far from where my base operations is right now. I'm not ready to make that move. Once I get my portfolio adjusted, then yeah, I could live on a boat year round. >> So So this is in Fort Lauderdale area >> and then your base of operations is in clear water area. Why don't you buy a house that you can dock this boat at in Clear Water? Clean water is not a yaching place. Clear water is a fishing type boating place. You know, you're too far from everything and there's nowhere to go. There's nothing to do but fish. I mean, here I could shoot right out here in two hours. I'll be in a balance. I go to West Palm Beach. I go to Miami. I can go Hollywood. There's a lot of This is a boating community. This is a boating mecca. >> How much does it cost in gas? Total cost of running to go to like Bahamas. How much? >> 100 gallons an hour. >> 100 gallons an hour. And I just bought gas today. I couldn't believe how cheap it was. My diesel was only $2.60 a gallon. Guy comes here with a truck. He fills up the tank. So fine. If it's it's it's at least a threeh hour safely, I'd say ride. Play it safe. >> So you're paying about $1,000. So $600 to get there. 600 back. So you're paying about $1,200 in gas. >> There you go. But gas used to be $4. When you go to Bahamas, it's five. >> Wow. Why do some people that have money for a good portion of their lives never feel wealthy? >> I don't know. I mean, it's a personality. I I I mean, do I feel wealthy? Yes. >> At what point did you feel wealthy in your life? >> Comfortably wealthy. Huh. >> At what point did you finally feel wealthy in your life? >> 100 million. >> 100 million. It was what it took to feel wealthy. >> To feel like I didn't have to worry about anything major happening. You got to understand, I may have had 100 million, but I probably owed 300, 200, 300 million. You know, you when you start becoming equal with the bank, then you're pretty good. And when you start becoming worth more than what your loans are, then you're even better. [sighs and gasps] But borrowing money is a way to save taxes cuz the more you borrow, the less you make, the less taxes you make. Okay, real quick. If I go out tomorrow and I buy a building or let's say I own a building, tomorrow I go out and I refinance a building and pull a million dollars out of it, right? Fine. I owe the bank another million. That million dollar is going to cost me roughly about 60 grand a year, right? So now that 60 grand a year is going to come off of my income that I made that I can write off, right? So the place made 100 grand a year. Now it's only going to make 40 grand a year cuz I'm giving the bank six for that million bucks. >> So now I'm going to write off that that that money and only pay tax on the 40 grand. But what am I going to do with that million? I'm going to put it in taxfree mun bonds at five. So now I'm going to get paid 50 grand, right? But the 50 grand is non-t taxable. It's 50 grand. If I would have made the 60 that I'm giving the bank, I would had to pay tax on it 37%. You guys follow that? >> So basically, by borrowing money from the bank, you eliminate your tax bill if you properly invest it. >> But the MUN funds could go down. >> The value could go down, but they're always going to pay you. >> True. >> It's going to pay you whatever the agreed rate is. Whatever that mut bond says it's paying you when you buy it based on that price whether it's par or below or above that's the rate you're going to get. So yeah the funds can go the funds rates could probably change but you know that's what you do to li the more you borrow the better >> providing you reinvest the money you borrowed >> in a vehicle like mut bonds that are going to eliminate your tax on the same money. Give the money to the bank. Take the money the bank gave you, put it in mini bonds taxfree and now you eliminated 37% or California 50% of the 60,000 which would be 30,000. >> Yeah, I understood that >> he understands that you I don't think you'll ever understand. >> That's interesting. Honestly, I never even thought about that. Some of it's not worth your time though to like spread and it might be like a half a percent in between. >> The point is if you're paying a lot of taxes it helps >> big large numbers. Yes. If you want to lower your taxes, borrow from the bank, take the money you borrowed and invest it. >> How is your weight loss going? >> My weight loss >> is not going well. It went okay for a while, but I got to, you know, discipline myself on. I need to cut out all the starches, you know, no bread, no cake, no pasta, no rice, no potato, all that kind of stuff. If I could do a diet without any starches, you know, definitely no cakes and all that. >> If I could do that, then I would be a really good >> Why don't you do it? >> What? >> Why don't you just do it? >> Because I don't have the discipline. When I go to a restaurant and the owner brings out this hot, delicious basket of bread where it just smells and the butter melts all over the soft inside part with the crust. I'm hungry. I mean, you bite into that bread when you're hungry. But why don't you just make an agreement with Rafal and you say, "Hey, every time I have a piece of bread, I give you $1,000." >> Oh, you could do the deal with me, too. >> If I were you at this point, >> I've been trying. We've heard sharing meals lately. 2026, my New Year's resolution is to lose 50 lbs. But then some fat people lose weight and they're unhappy cuz you know why? They're just like you guys. There's nothing special about you. [ __ ] >> All right. Now, listen. Seriously. >> Yeah. >> You guys aren't into heavy commercial real estate. That's my stickick. Right. >> All right. You need to let people know cuz you know and I know that I'm not full of I don't want people's money and I feel sorry for people that don't consult with me. Too many people call me up after the after the fact that they made the mistake and say, "What do I do?" Call me before you make the mistake. That's what I want people to do. >> We think you're undercharging, too. We said this the last time. I've also spoken with a few people who say that they even paid to come to your house and show up and consult. Every single person I've talked, I think it was like two or three people I've talked to uh said that they had a great time and they say you were veryospitable and they said you went like above and beyond. And uh he said you showed him like a whole house tour I think afterwards. >> Listen, I try to, you know, really treat people right that want help. I like to help those who want to help themselves. I don't like just helping somebody and you know they didn't do, you know, like you do with Jack, you know. I'm gonna start doing the yacht consulting. Get on the yacht, cruise down the up and down the coastal, stop for lunch, you know, like big shots. So, but you know, if you know anybody has a real estate issue, tell them to call me up. They got nothing. They never have to worry about me trying to screw them over, get their money, sell them some. Just good, strong, honest, hard advice from somebody that's been doing it a long time. >> What's the website? >> benmala.com. Consult with Ben. >> Link is down below in the description. >> Phone is awaiting. >> And don't forget that we have a members episode where we don't bleep all the times you were swearing. Fully uncut. >> Fully uncut. So, if you want to see those episodes, join as a member. It helps us out, too. And uh Mikey has put in a lot of time making those members episodes, and you get early access. So, enjoy. Thank you guys so much for watching. Seriously, thank you guys. We would not be able to do this if not for you. We would not have the pleasure of sitting across from the one and only. So, thank you guys. Thank you for the hospital. >> Adios, amigos. Adios. This one. Adios, amigos.