"Don't Buy A Home!" Ben Mallah's Final Warning For The 2026 Real Estate Market

23:18They applied for FHA Finance. And we go through the whole thing. I mean, you know, and I've had so many people call me back and say, listen, I took your advice. It worked out. We're doing great. I mean, listen, helping people is a great thing. You know, really helping them, affecting their life. You know, all these, listen, I don't knock actors and sports guys and all these people, entertain people, which is fine. We need entertainment in life. It's a human thing. Okay. But I like actually helping people improve their life. A big point of our last discussion was that you're trying to lean into retirement.

23:58But by retirement, you mostly mean being done with real estate. No, not done. I'm always going to be around until the day I die. As long as my brain's working, my kids are going to get on the phone with me. They're going to ask me questions. We're going to make decisions. You don't really ever retire when you have a real estate portfolio and you plan on turning it over to your family. You don't retire. But I could be on my boat anywhere or I could be in any country on the phone and I can consult from anywhere. I enjoy doing consulting. Consulting is going to be a big part of my retirement. helping people.

24:30Are you trying to lean away from value-add, like distressed assets with high operational carry, and lean more into like triple net, safer, like the Tesla? It's a combination of both. In my position, and this is not for everybody, in my position, you have to be diversified. You can't just focus in on one type of assets. You got to be diversified, So that gives you stability, okay? Something you need to learn about. Stability. You're very unstable. Unstable. Mentally, maybe not physically, but financially. How many house hacks do you, how many people you got living in your freaking house? You wake up in the morning and you got people strangers in your goddamn house.

25:15I got four people living in my house. Five, because one of them has a girlfriend. One's moving out, though. I'm also going to be moving out and maybe selling my property, too. So if you want a sub two, a sub 3 % deal in Las Vegas, let me know. It's not worth his time to be sub twoing a deal. The only sub I want is a turkey sub. What do you buy me for lunch today? I'll buy you a turkey sub. Turkey sub. Yeah. So basically, listen, I like diversification. I feel like I'm stable. I've got money in triple nets like the Tesla dealership. We just closed a$43 million apartment building where my son's a partner.

25:51All right. He's rehabbing it. He's getting it all going. He's actually physically there being the manager. He hasn't done that in years. He normally has a property manager. He's supervised them. But this project, he's moved into the apartment building. My son lives in a million-dollar home. He's a multimillionaire. He packs his family up, and he moves into the building. Does that make you proud? He's processing maintenance requests. He's collecting rents. He's doing marketing. He's got a construction project going on. I mean, listen, when your kids act like that, you know, you got to keep backing them.

26:22and you got to keep supporting him. And then the other son is in Tallahassee on a project he's a partner in, rehabbing it right next to the university. I saw that video that Ben Jr. did. I was really impressed by it. It's really good. Yeah, yeah. And it's real. Yeah. And I was out there the other day with him. It's real. So he's living in the apartment complex. He's living in the apartment complex. Why? Because he's got his hands on it. He's got control. He's going to get that place running right, stabilized. Of course, eventually he'll bring a manager in, but he's going to make sure that it's in the right stage to bring a manager.

26:56Plus he's got major construction to do there. He's got about 50 apartments he's got to build from a shell. You think that always makes sense if you're getting started in, not that he's getting started, but for those that aren't experts in the field, if you want to get into your first deal, especially if it's multifamily, it makes sense to actually live in the property. You don't necessarily have to live in it depending on the size of it. It was such a big project. He said, I'm not traveling. I'm just going to stay here. Otherwise you have to drive two hours each way. So you don't think that you'll ever fully like be mostly done.

27:25Like you're always going to be working because it seems like. I am contemplating and thinking about hiring a sharp kid that I met, um, trained in New York, um, on a corporate level to help me manage the portfolio because he has a lot of the skills that, see, my kids have been in the trenches. and we need to add a little more corporate type structure to the management of Port what would that do for you? I got a kid that you know I call him a kid he's no kid he's probably I don't know well he's not even 30 yet anyway you know so I'm trying to get him aboard because he I like what he can do what he what I've seen him I have him come down here sometimes what he can do in a matter of a couple of hours on a computer and spreadsheets and all this stuff and formulating things takes

28:17Graham Stephan:me days well he's just using claude most likely he's using claude most likely and he's just typing i can have a conversation with him about basis taxes returns leverage i can have a conversation and we can have a serious discussion claude could do the same thing you just talk to claude it's And it's not the same. It's not reality. It's artificial. Would you say that doing one individual big deal requires a completely different skill set than managing a bunch of different portfolios and relationships with the bank and this and that? Like, what is the main differentiating factor between half a billion dollar portfolio?

28:59Graham Stephan:Now really quick, I just gotta say, I've not had a piece of technology blow my mind in a long time, but these glasses that I'm wearing right now are actually insane. For those unaware, we partnered with Even Realities. They sent Jack and I each a pair of the Even G2 glasses, and it genuinely feels like the next evolution of technology and AI. Even G2 is a real-time co-pilot for the conversations that matter. It keeps deal context, live prompts, and real-time translation right in your view so you can stay present, prepared, and effective from the first call to the close. And unlike most smart glasses, they look and feel like premium eyewear.

29:32They're comfortable enough to wear all day, and they really just feel like a pair of prescription glasses. I'm actually reading this script right off my glasses right now, looking straight at you with nothing in my hands.

29:41Graham Stephan:There's also not a camera in these, so no one's ever filming anybody. You could wear them anywhere, even walking into a restroom, and it's never a concern. And the videos playing are actually how it looks and works in real life. I messed around with the translation for about an hour the other day. I put on a Japanese podcast and I kid you not, I understood every single thing that they were saying and I kept up the whole time. I'm genuinely so excited. Next time I go out of the country, I'm going to bring a second pair of these glasses and hand it to a local and then we can have a full on conversation while speaking completely different languages.

30:11Graham Stephan:To me, this really just feels like when flip phones changed over to smartphones. It's one of those things you just know you're early to it. So if you want to get yourself a pair, just head to evenrealities.bio slash icedcoffee and use the code icedcoffee for 10 % off EVEN R1 and or EVEN clip when you add them to your EVEN G2 order. Once again, that is evenrealities.bio slash icedcoffee or scan the QR code on the screen right here or also click the link down below in the description and make sure to use promo code icedcoffee. Last October, I was flying to Japan with a couple of friends and after a delay, I was positive that we were going to miss our connection.

30:46But the flight attendants moved us up to the front of the plane when we were deboarding to get off quickly. They called the other gate to let them know that we were coming. And they even gave us a pep talk because we had to sprint, I kid you not, across the entire airport.

30:58Graham Stephan:We made it. It may not seem like much, but when someone goes the extra step, it makes a positive impression. And if you're hiring, great candidates could also go the extra step and tell you why they're interested in your job on ZipRecruiter as a way to stand out from the others. And right now, you can try it for free at ZipRecruiter.com slash ICH. ZipRecruiter's powerful matching technology does the searching for you. It pulls in the people who actually fit the job. And ZipRecruiter has a new feature that shows you the most interested, qualified candidates first, so you meet the right people faster.

31:29It's no wonder why ZipRecruiter is the number one rated hiring site based on G2.

31:33Graham Stephan:Try ZipRecruiter and meet great candidates who will go the extra step for you. Four out of five employers who post on ZipRecruiter get a quality candidate within the first day. Try it for free today at ZipRecruiter.com slash ICH. That is ZipRecruiter.com slash ICH. ZipRecruiter, meet your match on ZipRecruiter. Would you say that doing one individual big deal requires a completely different skillset than managing a bunch of different portfolios and relationships with the bank and this and that? Like what is the main differentiating factor between half a billion dollar portfolio and doing it? Zeros, it's all about money in, money out.

32:07So it's the same skills, same - It's all the same, whether you, you know, you just got to add zeros and add more, you know, there's more things to add on a bigger property. You got more expenses. You have more income streams. You got different things that come up, you know, with the property. But basically, if you want to buy real estate, you want to own real estate, I highly recommend you run it yourself. Get your hands dirty. That's the best experience you will ever get. If you want to go out tomorrow and stop being a house hacker with all these strangers walking around in their underwear every morning in your house, Go out, buy yourself a fourplex.

32:44I don't believe in less than a fourplex. You got four tenants paying your rent, okay? And you should cash flow fairly well if you buy it right. And it's not a lot of management. But manage it yourself. You collect the rents. If there's a problem, send the handyman over to fix it. There's not much else to it than paying bills. And there aren't any bills on a fourplex. Your tax bill, your insurance bill, your mortgage bill. And then you got some maintenance. That's about it. I got so tired of doing that, though. It was just exhausting. You're lazy. You don't want to work. I can look at a guy like you in a minute and say, this guy ain't going to work.

33:18Graham Stephan:I like to wake up and not have a single care other than just, here's a task I got to do and that's it. You're from California. You want everything easy. I got to say, I just sold two of my multifamily in Los Angeles. And every day I wake up that I think I don't own that anymore. Well, that's because you've experienced it. but we're talking about somebody starting out. You've experienced it. You looked at the situation. You said, you know what? These things are a pain in the neck. I live far away in another state. I've already, if I sell it now, the numbers probably made a lot of sense, even with the tax ramifications.

33:56And you made a decision. You managed your portfolio. That's what I do all the time. I look at a property and I say, okay, is this property a pain in the ass? Well, whether it is or not. It's not going to be a pain in the ass to me, you know, too much because, you know, I got people to run it. But do the numbers make sense? Is it best to keep it? Is it best to refinance it? Is it best to sell it? You got to make decisions when you're managing a portfolio. But if you're just getting into real estate, you got to get your hands dirty and run your own stuff. You have to. That's the way you'll know whether you want to grow in real estate or you don't.

34:31A lot of people don't.

34:32Graham Stephan:Well, one thing that's pretty clear is that you have a beautiful home here. 20 ,000 square feet that you're selling. It's for sale. What's the asking price? It was asking$35 million. Why? Because if you go anywhere on this, we're in a special little city here on a private beach. If you go anywhere in our area on this beach, people are paying$8 to$10 million for a lot, a single lot, and knocking down a house. This house, the land alone is a value of$20 to$24 million. Okay? It's just, I can prove it. to build this house with the qualities that this house has. I haven't even had the contractors' bills that built it.

35:16Okay. You're going to spend minimum$25 million. You have to with the bowling alleys and the lazy rivers and the quality of all this stuff. Okay. So here you are. You're somewhere in the neighborhood of$45 plus million. So I put it on the market for$35. And you'd have to wait four to five years to build it. So here we go. You could turn key, walk into this house, less than what the replacement cost is. Okay. Right now, we lowered the price to$31 ,000. Have you had any offers? I've had about a half a dozen showings. But honestly, nobody has made me a realistic, legitimate offer that I would even consider.

35:56Why? Because people want you to carry or, you know, people want to do some creative stuff. They all had the money to buy the house because we pre-qualified before we let them look at the house. But listen, it takes time. The market is so small in this price range and in this area. Now, if this area was in South Florida, I mean, if this house was in South Florida, forget about it. It'd be worth$100 million in certain areas, like the area you were talking about earlier. Okay. I mean, it is what it is. It's a great house. You just got to find the right buyer for it. What happens if you can't sell it?

36:32I just keep it. You know, what am I going to do? I can't sell it. You know, I keep it. Would you sell or finance it? No, I'm not like, listen, why would I have to sell or finance? I always say to myself, when people offer seller financing, beware. There's a reason why. Maybe it's helping them tax-wise, maybe. But typically, let them go to a bank. Why do I need to be the bank? Why can't they just take the down payment and go to a bank? If the bank, maybe the bank won't qualify them. Well, if the bank won't qualify them, why the hell would I qualify them? What's your interest rate on this property?

37:07Oh, I locked in a good rate on this thing. 2 % interest only, right? Two and a half. So you could sell it, seller finance at three and a half. I'm good at interest only for 15 years. That's incredible though. Seven years have gone by for 15 years now. So you get seven years at two and a half percent. Wait, I got about nine years left at a fixed rate loan, interest only on this. But you could make a percent or a percent and a half if you seller financed it at 4 % or three and a half percent. For seven years, yeah. Yeah, but I wouldn't do it. Listen, I don't want to be the bank. I don't like loaning people money.

37:36That's not what I do.

37:37Graham Stephan:Yeah, but you're loaning the bank's money. And if that person goes belly up, then what? Then you take back your clothes on them. Then you take back the property. I don't like doing that. I don't want to go after people. I don't want to be in a bad situation. I don't like to be - You want people going after you? Banks. You want people going after me? Yeah. What do you mean people going after me? I pay all my bills, so nobody goes after me. Right. You'll take on debt, but you will not release the debt. I'll take on debt all day long because that makes sense for me. I make money on the bank's money.

38:06Plus, I'm able to spread my money out much more by using the bank's money. How much money do you have to have to buy a$30 million mansion? I mean, typically, you're going to have to qualify. But if you're going to buy a$30 million mansion, you're probably going to have to go out and get a jumbo loan. A jumbo loan is probably going to be at least 25%. Okay, 25 % of$30 million. 10 % is$3,$3,$6,$7,$8 million down. And you have to qualify for the loan. You've got to prove how am I going to pay the loan. And then you got taxes and then you got insurance. You got to make a substantial income to be able to buy a house like this.

38:42Or a lot of people that own houses that will buy a house like this typically, you know, have that kind of cash that they want to just buy it or put a lot down, have very little mortgage. So you're selling a$30 million mansion. You've had a handful of showings on average. The people that come see the property want to buy it. How much money do they have? I mean, typically, I would think that the rule of thumb in banking is if you buy a, if your mortgage, let's figure it out. If your mortgage is going to be, let's say,$20 million, right? $20 million, today's rate's probably about 6%. Okay. So that's going to put you at$1.2 million a year.

39:19Correct? Mm-hmm. Is that right? Yeah. $20 million is$1.2 million a year. Correct. $100 ,000 a month. Multiply by three. If you're making, if you've got to pay a mortgage of a million to a year, you probably got to be making over$3 million a year to qualify. But even so, I heard that if you're buying like anything over$15 million, you don't really fit the 33 % rule because those people kind of spread their money out a little bit more. They're on your assets. So realistically, like wouldn't they, like you have to have like$100 million bucks like to justify a$30 million. No, you wouldn't need$100 million.

39:47Listen, if you have a, if you have a. If you can prove you have stable income coming in or a few million a year, the bank will loan you, you know.

39:55Graham Stephan:I don't think someone who's worth$20 million is buying a$30 million house, even if they have the income to do that. I don't know. I mean, but no, listen, yeah, you got to be somebody that it's not going to hurt you. And, you know, to buy this house, it's got to be somebody worth probably, like you said, 60, 70, 80, 100 million. What about buying a$10 million house? How much do you have to be worth? I mean, a$10 million house, I mean, I would think you have to be worth maximum, minimum 20 million. You think that's responsible if you're worth$20 million to spend$10 on a house? It depends on what your income is, too.

40:28It's not just a question of your worth. Okay, you can be worth a lot of money, but what's your income? What's your returns? What's your investments? The bank looks at the whole picture. Also, I'll caution you again to this hitting the - Hit Jack instead. Just because I know our editor is going to be like, yo, just - Oh, this fucking bad guy is always on the table.

40:49Graham Stephan:Just hit Jack instead. Put my head down here. how much time do you guys have? I need a cigarette. I didn't even smoke a cigarette. Yeah, if he needs to take a break, we'll just, we can pause whenever. Yeah, I'm going to go have a cigarette, man. In Scotland, I just came back from Scotland. You know what they call cigarettes there.

41:14So, in owning a$30 million, 20 ,000 square foot house, how much does this cost you per year for random things? I mean, you know, number one, a house like this, it pretty much requires two full-time housekeepers. So you have two full-time staff members here that - I always had two full-time housekeepers for 20-something years. But yeah, this house definitely, you need it, you know, because you got to maintain everything. What's the cost of that? What do you use the house or not that much? What does a housekeeper do? I mean, you know, what do you mean? Every day they got to wash clothes, they got to clean bathrooms, they got to make beds.

41:48Laundry, I mean, you know, everything. Go through the whole house, make sure everything's neat, clean, and kept up.

41:55Graham Stephan:So that's got to be$100 ,000 a year just in cleaning the house. I mean, it could be, you know, yeah. I mean, I don't know how much they make, but it's a significant expense. Then you're always going to be on top of all the maintenance and stuff. You got to have money for maintenance. Now, I did rip out all the lawns, put fake lawns in, so I cut the landscape down to zero. You know, and I'm lucky my guys could pop over here and trim whatever I need. Once a year, you got to do the trees. That's going to cost you no more than a few grand. It's not tremendous, you know, but the tax bill is significant.

42:28It's over a quarter million a year. And in insurance, you have insurance, you know. How much is the insurance? Insurance, I don't think as much. You know, it's probably about 25 grand a year. I don't have much insurance. Typically, somebody would probably spend more than that. Probably 40 or something like that. And what about pricing the neighborhood? Like different contractors, when they give you a quote to replace a door as opposed to someone else, if they're walking into a 20 ,000 square foot massive estate, like they could jack up the prices a lot. Have you noticed any of this? Yeah, of course.

43:00You always got to know what the industry cost is for anything you're fixing in life. You know, no matter what. You got to know what's the industry. And with AI today, I'll even tell you. But, you know, you got to be careful not to get taken advantage of people that want to over-inflate your bill because you live in a big, fancy place. What's the craziest quote you've ever gotten for repair? From small to big. I've had companies that, you know, we have what they call a Crestron system here. All that was run by computers. You know, they want to charge$100 an hour just to talk to you on the phone.

43:37So, you know, that seemed a little ridiculous to me. I got a simple question for you. You're going to bill me for$100 minimum, you know, to talk to you. Anyway, I mean, you know, listen, everything you do, you got to look at your options, what your options are. Basically, whenever I hire anybody, in any aspect, I think about time, how long does it take to do the job, materials, overhead and profit. okay and i come up with a realistic price that should be fair for everybody okay if it's a two hour job and the guy's making whatever to be bills the guy out at you know 50 bucks an hour i don't know these days with plumbers electricians i don't know all right so you got a couple hours with a plumber you know that could be 100 200 bucks then you got the materials is a toilet all right what toilet do i want to be another 200 bucks then you got overhead and profit even though he's already making money over billing out the guy from what he's paying him.

44:38So you come up with some sort of, you know, realistic, uh, number that makes sense. People are kind of scared to ask the contractor, like, how much did this cost you? How much upcharge are you having? Like to see how much you even trust. Yeah. Can you even trust? The problem is number one, you can do a lot of homework on your own. All right. With today's technology, you can figure out what it takes to fix almost anything. And then basically, listen, if a contractor is not willing to be transparent with you, nine times out of 10, he's ripping you off. So you should ask. And you should be able to figure it out for yourself.

45:13The other day, on top of our LA Fitness down the road here, we have this giant metal crown thing that's like a design that just sits on a roof. Some special design they came up with. All the LA Fitnesses have them. It needed a paint job. All right. The guy throws me some crazy number out there. I said, listen, is it because it's on top of Anality Fitness? You know, anyway, the long story short is we sat on a phone and I said, okay. He says, well, I need a lift. I said, okay, how much is the lift going to cost you? All right. I'm going to need a lift for two days to do that job. Fine. How much is the lift going to cost you for two days?

45:50I can call up and find out myself. All right. We figured out what that was it was like i don't know be delivered and picked up thousand bucks then what's the paint cost all right we do need special paint so it doesn't rust again like it did and it might be some prep work it's probably a two-day job for about a couple of guys all right a couple of guys a couple of painters maybe they're worth 300 bucks a day that's three six nine twelve make it 1500 labor. What the hell? I'm always a little, we got 1500 labor. We got a thousand bucks for the lift. It's 2 ,500. The paint is probably only a couple of hundred, few hundred bucks or up to two grand.

46:31He's got to make, you know, 20%, another 500 bucks. Jobs cost$2 ,500. And what do you quote you? Five thousand. We settled at three. So you fully went on, hey, itemized expenses. Tell me how much everything - You know, everything is accessible these days. You know how much stuff costs? You simply go online and figure out how to buy it. Even a part from my boat, I will look up the part number and see what it would cost me to buy that part. Okay? And in boats, you got to be really careful. Boats, planes, I can't do much about it. You can't argue with the plane guys. Cars, I do. I do. My son, my partner that raised me in real estate, left my son when he passed away his Rolls Royce.

47:18Vincent, the black one. He loved the car. But the car was starting to get old. And, you know, fixing an old Rolls Royce can be very expensive. He went to the dealership because he needed some kind of turbo injectors and this and that. $40 ,000. That's what the dealership wanted. Luckily, I got a friend down in Orlando who is in the car business. And he knows a mechanic that used to run a dealership. But started his own company, his own auto repair. You're right. We had the car, put it on a truck. We shipped it down to Orlando. And the guy looks at it. He says, you know what? I could rebuild these.

48:01We spent$4 ,000 instead of$40. And then we sold the car. There's more shit going to keep it going. Yeah, of course. And then I gave him my Bentley. I said, I'll tell you what. Sell your Rolls Royce. I'll give you my Bentley. There you go. Done. um so that just goes to show you 40 000 compared to 4 000 that's the way it goes with everything you gotta money you gotta you gotta spend your money wisely you can't spend money you know on anything significant unless you do your homework everything is home oh stop just hit jack instead all right you gotta do your homework all right anything you spend your money on before you part with a penny, do your homework, make sure you're not getting ripped off.

48:46You know, in our company, we have a rule. We have to get three bids on everything. I got a million dollars worth of AC work I got to get done on a university I bought. Well, I had contacted three different AC companies and see and make sure they're all bidding on like when my son built a building, I was impressed. He had seven contractors bid on exactly what he needed done. and then he compared each bid. Now, they played their little games where they're higher on one thing and low on another, but in the end, you got to pick the guy that you know he's not sticking it to you, at least not too much.

49:24Graham Stephan:How do you know that they're not going to quote you really low and then go in and say, well, actually, when they're halfway through the job? Well, those are considered change orders. I mean, once you got a contract, you got a contract. When you're building, you got a contract, okay? This guy has to build it for this price. Now, if you stop making changes, that's a different story. But he's got to bid it based on whatever the prices are, the materials at the time. He's got to bid it on the labor. I mean, you got a contract in writing. He can't go up in the price. Always get things in writing. Always.

49:58Graham Stephan:So what are you noticing then throughout the entire real estate market right now? How has it changed in the last six months? We're in this weird zone right now. Okay? We're in a weird zone. But if you want to make money in real estate, it's all about 99.9 % of it is finding a deal. Find a deal and make sure you bought it for the lowest possible price the seller would sell it for. You have to come in and low ball. I'm not saying you're going to end at that price and get at that price, but you got to play the game. You got to get in low. So you're down here, he's up here, and then you got to set your maximum price you're willing to pay.

50:40You have to buy it right.

50:42Graham Stephan:If you don't buy it right, you get screwed. What type of real estate has the best deals right now? Is it apartments, hotels? All right. Number one, you want to run away from office space because nobody's leasing it. All right? It's a bloodbath in offices. Okay? Unless you have some magic wand that you can rent the space out, you'd die. And you can't convert them to anything else. Everybody's tried. Appotments. I thought maybe storage, but listen, it's far-fetched. Stay away from office. Multifamily is always a great sector of real estate, okay? Because it's not very difficult to run. People pay you rent.

51:19You fix something if it's broke. You maintain it. You pay your bills. You're done. And the banks love to loan on them. But you have to buy them right, okay? You can't go on strictly projections. A lot of people buy because they say, oh, yeah, rents are going up. Rents aren't always going up. Right now in Fort Myers where we just bought, rents are going down. My competition is giving away two months free. So how do you compete with that? We try to, you know, go beyond the normal marketing leasing. Well, number one, the product we bought was Builders Condos. That's why I felt good about the property.

51:54There is not one apartment building that you can rent in Fort Myers that's going to give you the square footage and the amenities that we have because it was built as condos. You're basically renting something somebody typically would buy to own with garages, with private elevators, with big square footage, you know, things like that. So I felt like we can market that property above everybody else, regular apartments. Plus, we're going to think out the box. We're going to go right to the big employers. We're going to do stuff management companies won't do because we're the owner. A management company, and don't get me wrong, there are good management companies out there, but there's still, even the best management companies are not going to cross the line and go beyond the call of duty.

52:42They don't care. They're going to charge you a fee based on the gross rents that they collect, and they're going to do an average job of industry standards. But we as the owners, we're going to go beyond that. You know, there's a guy named Paul that works for me, right? I gave him a building out in that senior building I have, and there was a problem filling the vacancies there. Why? Because it was in a very rural area. What does he do? He buys those cheap bandit signs. He drives around all maybe a 20-mile radius or a 15-mile radius. He's sticking signs out in high-traffic areas, grocery stores.

53:24He's contacting senior centers and programs. We do stuff that nobody else is going to do because we're the owners, all right? Average people, employees won't even do it, you know? I mean, we as owners will instruct employees to do it and they have to do it. But a management company, they're not going to lose sleep. We lose sleep when we lose money. So, you know, multifamily is always the best, smartest thing. If you're small, try to get into a fourplex. Why? Because up to four units is still considered residential. It's very easy to get a loan for. You can get FHA. You can get VA if you're a veteran.

54:01Four units is a great place to start. Retail, the only way you're going to make money in retail, I'm telling you right now, you have to buy with vacancy. I mean, otherwise you're buying for a good cap rate. You buy the cap rate, that's the end of it. You get your little increases over time, and that's it. Retail is strictly about buying it with vacant space that you could fill. That's your upside.

54:22Graham Stephan:How much does bad management ruin a deal? Management is everything in real estate. Management is everything. Maintaining a property, keeping it rented, making sure you're at market rents, taking care of your tenants. I mean, management is, after you buy it, 99 % of real estate is finding the deal, then 99 % of it, once you have to buy it, is managing it. And if you're doing rehab, you really got to make sure you got a good plan. And then you talk about hotels and storage facilities, those are more of business. That's all based on supply and demand. You have to buy real estate like that where you know there's a demand, okay?

55:06Because I've seen plenty of places, hotels and storage places do well in a high demand area. And I've seen them go belly up because there was no demand.

55:15Graham Stephan:What's the worst situation you've seen an owner be in? I mean, typically they overpay. That's the biggest problem you're going to see in real estate. You overpaid and now something came up and you're going to be underwater. Okay. You didn't do your homework. You didn't check the roof. You didn't prepare for, you know, everything has a life expectancy. Okay. That's why the, on your tax return, everything is depreciated. Residential is 27.5 years. They depreciate your rental income. Why? Because they feel like these things are losing and so eventually they're going to have to be replaced or money's got to be pumped into them.

55:52On commercial, it's 40 years. So basically, you know, everything has a life cycle. You got to be prepared for the end of that life cycle. If I walk into a 200 unit building and we look at all the ACs and the ACs are all 20 years old, Ding, ding, ding. I may have to be replacing a lot of ACs soon. Same with appliances. You got to check the roof. You got to make sure, you know, you got to do your homework, plumbing, electrical, equipment. You got to take all these things into consideration when you buy a piece of property. You got to look at the future. You got to protect your for what could and will eventually happen.

56:26Graham Stephan:We all know nothing lasts forever. How quickly could you tell if a seller is motivated? Are there any signs to look for? But really quick, baseball fans, do you think you know who's going to hit a home run today? Well, FanDuel is giving you a chance to call your shot with Daily Dingers. Joining the action is easy. Just make your free pick on who's hitting a home run in their game. If you're right, you'll get a profit boost to use on your next bet for a chance at extra winnings. And don't forget, you can make a free pick every single day during the MLB season. It's just another reason why FanDuel is the home for home runs.

56:53So are you ready to play your game today? Join all the action at FanDuel.com. That's F-A-N-D-U-E-L.com to play Daily Dingers and make your free pick on who's hitting a home run. Once again, that is F-A-N-D-U-E-L dot com, or just click the link down below in the description. Play ball and swing for the fences on FanDuel, an official partner of the MLB. And as always, just make sure this comes out of your entertainment budget. Transparently, I do like sports betting, but I always make sure that it's just a little bit of fun money that I put on the side. It's not an investment. 21 plus select states for Kansas in affiliation with Kansas Star Casino.

57:2118 plus DCKYWY. No purchase necessary. Opt-in required. Bonus issued as non-withdrawable profit boost tokens. Restrictions apply, including any token expiration and max wager amount. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER. 1-800-MY-RESET. Call 1-888-789-7777. Visit ccpg.org slash chat. Connecticut. Visit mdgamblinghelp.org Maryland. Visit gamblinghelpline ma.org. Call 800-327-5050 Massachusetts. Call 1-877-8HOPENY. Text HOPENY New York. Call 1-877-770-7867 Louisiana.

57:58Graham Stephan:How quickly could you tell if a seller's motivated? Are there any signs to look for? If it's on the market, okay? I don't believe in all that off-market. Off-market, off-market, please. I ain't got time for off-market. I want something on the market. The seller's ready to sell, okay? I mean, every deal has a different story. The first question I ask a broker, or I don't even ask the question, they tell me right off the bat, what's the story here? What's the story? There's a story behind every real estate deal. Is the partnership split? up? Did the guy pass away and the family don't want it? Does the place need work?

58:35He doesn't want to fix it up. Does he have a problem managing it? There can be a million different reasons why it's selling. You've got to find out the story behind why he's selling. And then you have to act accordingly. And then you've got to come in and lowball the s*** out of it and make sure you're buying it at the lowest price possible. Do you ever walk away from a deal just so that

58:56Graham Stephan:they'll chase you? I've walked away from plenty of deals and they chase me back down. Does that work? Is that a good strategy? It happens because, you know, I know this guy is not getting 150 ,000 a unit when his rents are only 12 or 1300 a month. He's dreaming. Okay. He thinks he created his own lottery. It don't work that way. It's all numbers. It's all underwriting. So I'm going to say, listen, I can't pay him more than a hundred a door. Simple as that. You won't hear from him. We'll go through his marketing process. The broker will come up with no offers and he'll either move on to another broker, which is a waste of time, or he'll have to come down to reality.

59:37Okay. And a lot of times they'll come back to reality. The broker will call me up and say, all right, he won't take you a hundred, but he'll take 110. If you will move quick and show him some hard money. I get my deals because I move quick. I get in there. I get all my inspections done right away. All right. I I have bridge loan that I can do myself with a line of credit. So I don't need to wait on no banks. Okay. And I can move quick and quick money normally gets you the best deal.

1:00:04Graham Stephan:What's the most insulting offer you've made that's been accepted? I mean, I don't, I don't think there's anything. I mean, a lot of people say that, oh, he was insulted by your offer. This is business. This is numbers. This is not a personal. But do you ever just throw out a number? I've low-balled the shit out of stuff. I've low-balled the shit out of stuff. and I've lost them. Why? Because I didn't want to pay more. I've gone to my max. I always determined this is the maximum I can pay for property to keep me in a safety zone that I feel safe in. Okay. I just offered four and a half million dollars on a 16 story empty building over here.

1:00:44Not far from here. It was room by the flood. The broker said, listen, yeah, you're going to give quick cash money, but I got other guys who are real players offering six and eight and all that. I said, well, it's not for me. The place needs a$10 million rehab. I knew it for a fact. I already calculated it. My son had to walk up 16 flights to the roof because the power is totally shut down in the building because of the flood. And we figured it out. We need 10 million bucks. We need all new power. We need all new plumbing. We need the hot water heater systems. We needed new elevators. We needed everything.

1:01:20We need to fix up all the units. We figured 10 million bucks with parking lots, landscape and all that shit. And I said, if I pay more than$4.5 and I got to throw$10 million into it, I'm into it for$14.5. Well, it's only like 180 units in the small units. So it don't make sense. You got to set your comfortable price and not exceed it.

1:01:41Graham Stephan:Do you ever buy anything you don't want just because it's a good price? I mean, if it was a good price, then I should always have the option of flipping it. If I got it for a good price, I could always flip it. But I mean, listen, I bought deals. Maybe I shouldn't have bought it. I'm dinner maybe because of the tax reasons, but I don't know. I mean, you really never should never buy a deal that you're unhappy with. If you're not happy the day of closing and you feel like you made a smart decision, you shouldn't be closing that deal. What's the quickest you've ever flipped a property? I've flipped properties.

1:02:14I've sold them before I even bought them. So you like wholesale it? Wholesaled it? I bought a package of properties and somebody wanted to buy one piece out of a five package deal. So when it came to closing, I bought it at a certain price, but then I let the other guy take over that piece at a higher price. How much did you make on that deal? Probably about$30 ,000 a door. It was about 20 doors. I made about$600 ,000. I've also flipped deals at the—when I was young, I would do foreclosures on the courthouse steps. That's the way I used to do them. We'd all stand on the courthouse steps, and the property's going up for auction, and the guy comes out from the county and he's taking bids and all that and we're all bidding against each other.

1:02:59And I would win properties in California. And as soon as the auction's over, the guy comes up to me and says, you know, I should have overbidded you. I really wanted that place. I was willing to pay X amount of dollars more. Here, give me the money. I wouldn't even take title to it. Wow. Give me the money. I tell the guy, put it in his name. I mean, there's always opportunities there. if you find the right deal. So purchase price is the most important thing. Most important thing. How much are you paying for that property? That's all that matters. What do you think about using AI to evaluate this?

1:03:35AI, AI. What do you think? I'm coming out with BI, Ben's intelligence. And you go to benmail.com and get me on the phone and you can get some of Ben's AI. That would actually be interesting. BI, Ben's intelligence. I like that. That's a good idea. So people are making, you know, chat GPT, they have other GPTs where you could put in all of your information, like how you analyze a deal, everything, and record for three hours straight, five hours, however much it is. Just upload all of your videos, by the way. Upload everything. And then ChatGPT can make a BI, and people can ask it questions, and it's like you're getting an answer from Ben.

1:04:09We use AI a lot, especially with Sun now when it comes to contracts and leases and things like that. It's actually killing the lawyers right now. Really? It's cutting down lawyers' hours and their bills.

1:04:18Graham Stephan:What about for evaluating cash flow? It's like, what's a good price to pay for this? Is it accurate in comping? I mean, I don't know. When it comes to cash and money, I don't trust anybody but my own self and a calculator and a pen. I'll sit there, old school, and I'll write down, how much money is this place going to bring in a month, realistically? What are my costs going to be? Okay? I'm going to tell you. You can do all the underwriting in the world, and I'm always right. and my son just doesn't, he likes to do all the, put in the numbers and do all the calculations and spreadsheets and all the stuff.

1:04:54And it's great. He gets it to the penny almost. Me, the no fail sure way of being safe. If you're dealing with a hundred plus unit buildings, okay, this really doesn't work as well. It's too safe for less than a hundred units because less 100 units typically don't have the same expenses okay but for 100 plus units real simple you figure out what your gross rents are let's say the place making a million dollars a year gross rents right okay that's reasonable million dollars a year you cut it in half half your money is going to your all your expenses include your property taxes insurance half the money is going to operate That's the way it typically works.

1:05:42Then you have to calculate your debt. So you got a million bucks coming in, a half a million dollars to run the place. Then you got to figure out how much debt you're taking on and what the interest payment is going to be to come off that half a million. Then that's going to be your return. It's always going to be so close, it's going to blow you away. They say for single family homes, it's usually about 15%. 15 is a lot. Yeah, single-family homes, smaller buildings that don't work. You have less expenses. You don't use the 50 % rule. Is that what you use? You don't use the 50 % rule because now you don't understand.

1:06:17The 50 % rule works for 100-plus units because you have managers. You have maintenance. You know, you got a payroll. You got grounds. You got all these expenses that you won't have with a single-family house. Single-family house is really nothing. You collect the rent, and if something's fixed, you send somebody over to stop a toilet. Typically, you can make the tenant take care of their own grounds if it's a single-family house. You don't pay no utilities. It's all on the tenant. There are no expenses. But single-family houses don't cash flow. They're the worst investment you can ever buy for cash flow.

1:06:48You flip single-family houses. You buy them. You fix them. Sorry, you flip them. Don't ever buy a house for cash flow. It's stupid. It makes no sense. I've never seen it make sense. And then some people end up with a ton of them. Now you sit with all these single-family homes. You're not going to be able to package them together and sell them. Very rare. Okay? Very, very rare. You have to sell them individually. And they're not going to cash flow, especially if you've got debt on them. And if they don't cash, and if they don't have debt on them, you're going to get a return.

1:07:22Graham Stephan:Now, a lot of people say in terms of single-family that we are in a housing crisis. But there does seem to be a lot of inventory right now on the market for single-family homes. Sure, because nobody's buying houses right now. Why? Because it doesn't fit their budget at 6.5 % interest rate for the house they want. They got to pay 6.5 % interest rate. They got to pay principal. They got to pay insurance. They got to pay taxes. Now is the time to rent. Now is definitely the time to rent. So what are you telling people when they say, should I buy a house right now? I mean, if your budget can handle it and your lifestyle requires it, you know, or it's a necessity, you know, and you can handle it, then yeah, you always buy a house if you can afford it because it's a personal thing.

1:08:06You know, it's not really an investment. Houses are not investments. Typically, yeah, you buy a house and you live in it for five years. It typically appreciates. You make some money. After two years, you don't have to pay no capital gains tax up to$250 ,000 or$500 ,000 if you're married. It works. It works. but it's not an investment really. A house is a personal purchase and never buy them for investment unless you're flipping it. I mean, typically the best, smartest thing to do is you buy a house and you improve it because the house is that, there's a reason why a house is not selling too, okay?

1:08:40Because there's something wrong with that house. Maybe it doesn't have enough bathrooms. Maybe it's too small square footage. You come in and add value to the house. Maybe it needs to be fixed up. Whatever the story is, is there a solution to the fix? You've come up with a solution. Do the numbers make sense based on what you're buying, based on what you're spending or approving and what the market will pay for it? And you want to be below the market so you know you can sell it quick.

1:09:04Graham Stephan:This is the first time though that I've ever seen it where people are getting less than the price that they spend fixing it up. Because it seems like the prices right now for materials and labor, people are overspending. So they might put, I've seen$500 ,000 into a property, but they might only get back$375,$400. So they're taking a lot. Things change. Nobody knew that the price of gas was going to go to$5 a gallon. Okay. That affects every aspect of our human life. Everything you need is tied to oil, you know, because the cost of making stuff, the cost of shipping stuff. So now because the price of that went up, the price of everything goes up.

1:09:43You have to, you know, nobody has a crystal ball.

1:09:45Graham Stephan:This is what I thought that would really help the housing market. I wish they do this. Imagine if they said for people that build a house in the next 10 years, if you build, your profits could be tax free. Imagine how many people would build a house everywhere they could. It seems like that would completely solve the housing shortage. If they just - You're talking about profits for who? Somebody buying them just to sell it? Yes. A builder. A builder. Building, adding a new housing unit onto the market. If you're able to add, if you take the risk, the time, the capital. How is that going to help anybody except make the builders more money?

1:10:19Graham Stephan:Because it adds more supply to the market. More supply should lower the prices. Well, it's not so much. I mean, listen, the cost of building is not cheap. There are so many developments right now. I bet you if we looked at it, you go to Lenore's or you go to all these places, I'm sure they got plenty of developments where they can't sell those houses and they already built them. Or they had plans to build them. Stop kicking me. Jack. I didn't know that was your foot. Want everybody to eat? Yeah. All right, let's have a bite to eat. Right now? Sure, if you're hungry. Yeah, we can take it. I mean, we'll eat quick and then we'll knock it out.

1:10:54All right. What time you guys got to get out of here or what? We don't have a...

1:10:57Graham Stephan:Today is your day. I mean...

1:11:09What do you want to talk about? Banking? Why is banking the most important thing if you're trying to build wealth then? Because you need their money. You got enough money to buy a piece of real estate? No, average person don't. The bank is your best friend in the world. Your bank comes before your wife.

1:11:31Graham Stephan:Really? So if your banker calls at the same time as your wife, which one do you pick up? The banker. My wife knows. Well, banker calls, done. Nobody's more important than your banker. Okay, what about your wife and your banker? Both want to go out on a Saturday night, 9 p.m., who has priority? Typically, bankers, you don't have to take out on dates. It's not a date. It's just a business meeting. They just say, hey, Ben, I want to - Yeah, you don't do banking after hours. You do lunch meetings, stuff like that. But the point I understand trying to make is, If you're in real estate, banking is the most important person in your life as your banker.

1:12:14So if you're trying to develop a relationship with a bank, do you pick a specific bank or do you try to have relationships with multiple banks? Do you get to a point where you don't shop the rate they provide you anymore? You'll get to a point where you don't need to shop around. But at first, you got to kind of see who's giving you the best deals. And whoever gives you the best deals, the best rates, the most LTV. You know what LTV is? What? Loan of value. The people that are going to make your life easiest with the best terms, the best rates, then you'll end up throwing more stuff their way.

1:12:45Of course, common sense. But, you know, I used to work with 10 different banks. Now I only work with one. Who's the best bank? In my world? Yeah. B of A. Bank of America? Biggest bank in the country, in the world, I think. Why not Chase or Wells Fargo? I've dealt with Wells Fargo. I've dealt with Chase. I've dealt with them all. The problem is when you get to my level, you need to have a brokerage relationship and a banking relationship. So you need two companies. Basically, B of A is the parent company. B of A owns Merrill Lynch, right? So Merrill Lynch knows the brokerage. B of A knows the banking.

1:13:36Right? So basically, my broker technically works for B of A because he works for Merrill Lynch. Merrill Lynch is under B of A. They tell Merrill Lynch what to do and control everything. It's a relationship. ship. The broker goes to bat for me to get my loans. Why? Because I'm his client. And the more money I make, the more money goes in his brokerage, the bigger he is. It's all ties together. But I've actually believe I made it to the top level. I've been with every big shop bank there is. Okay. And I'm going to tell you, they've been the best and easiest to me. Not only that, once you have that kind of money to be in a brokerage, wealth management side, you're basically getting a lot of help because these people care about you.

1:14:29They care. They have to care because your wellbeing is their wellbeing. Okay. If you make more money, more money goes into the brokerage and they get credit for all the loans they throw B of A through the brokerage. Everybody's making money. That sounds very similar to my second loan that I got. The first loan I got, I shopped it around with like 10 different places, got a really good loan at 2.875 during COVID. And then now I bought last year and the problem was I shopped it around. First of all, couldn't get qualified because like YouTuber income is very hard to show, but I shopped it around a bunch of different places.

1:15:04I was getting six and a half percent, six and three quarters. And the best rate I got was actually through my brokerage. So I used Schwab. Did you tie your assets up to get the loan? I actually don't think that I did. I think I was able to leverage my relationship.

1:15:19Graham Stephan:discount he got a discount because of the assets with schwab i didn't but i didn't i don't have to keep my assets there no it just showed because i was also having trouble qualifying but having assets in schwab i was able to use returns what you don't do tax returns tax do you file tax returns oh yeah the problem but but as an entrepreneur you have like weird money flows and routing and stuff like that and this was confusing them and it wasn't like getting their seal of approval And so I had to shop it with Schwab and Schwab has rocket mortgage there. You know, that's like their rocket mortgage parent company is Schwab.

1:15:52And so I was able to get the best deal by miles actually using the brokerage.

1:15:57Graham Stephan:There you go. It's all about relationships. So if someone's just starting, where do they begin? Do they go to Bank of America? Credit unions. They just like. Listen, when you first start, it's a whole different picture. Yeah. You go wherever you can get in. Okay. You know, because if you just start now, you're not going to walk into the bank like a big shot and want to get a loan. It's not going to happen. Okay. Like I said, it goes back to risk. You know, if you're still a high-risk person, then, you know, you're going to have to shop around. You should definitely, if you're a first-time buyer, you should be doing FHA with low money down and the government backing a percentage of that loan.

1:16:33Okay. Typically, most people start with FHA when they want to buy one of four units. That's what I think. You know, but when you're first starting out, you just got to shop around, get the best rate, like we all did. I used to borrow from hard money guys when I was in my 20s. Why? There was no bank would loan to me. And then once I got established and I made a few bucks, then I went to the D paper. Then I moved up to the C paper. As I move up the ladder, the interest rate comes down and the terms get better. You know, and then I eventually went to B and now I'm at A.

1:17:06Graham Stephan:B of A. So why is it that you want to do so much consulting? I'm curious why you enjoy it so much. to help other people, you have to do it to understand it. Okay. When I get off the phone with somebody knowing that I made an impact in their life and I helped them, I get a certain human feeling that money can't buy it. You can't buy a kind of feeling, you know, it's just like, I felt that I really did something in life. I accomplished something to help other people while I was on this planet. Okay. I just, I know it's the right thing to do. Okay. It's like religion. Some people believe, you know, in the religious part of it.

1:17:46They get some kind of special religious feeling. I get a great feeling by knowing that I helped people while I was here. I did it and I showed them how to do it and helping people improve their lives. If the whole world acted like that, it would be a beautiful, peaceful world. I mean, honestly, you know, helping people that generally just want to improve the quality of life. I came from nothing. From the most dangerous neighborhoods in the world. I should have been dead or locked away in jail growing up in New York back in the 70s and 80s. And luckily the Army saved my life. And I just know that helping other people is the right way of living.

1:18:31That's the way humans should live. Always try to. I'm not saying give away shit. I'm not saying, you know, I mean, helping people help themselves. that's the greatest thing in the world because then they don't need you it's interesting to me

1:18:44Graham Stephan:because uh when we're taking breaks between the podcast the one thing you get so excited about you just want to talk about is a consultant i like even when we're just hanging out you want to talk about their problems and helping them resolve their problems or putting together a plan that they're going to be successful it's i'm passionate about that okay and not a lot of People, like I said, I've had some sports guys, you know, come and tell me, you know, you're really lucky. You know, yeah, we go out there, we entertain and we score and people clap and applaud. But you're actually helping people.

1:19:20I mean, what greater gift is that in life to help the next person come up and enjoy their life and live a better life? It just makes everybody happy when everybody's doing well, doesn't it? Why don't you write a book? I don't know how. I never went to high school.

1:19:36Graham Stephan:You don't have to write it, though. You could have someone else write your book. I need a ghostwriter. Yeah, you could have someone who just follows you around for a year. But I have to find the right person and sit there and go through my life story with them, and it's fine. I mean, there's a lot of things I could do, but, you know, I need the right people to help me. I think you could make, I think, one of the best real estate, money, wealth books in existence. I mean, you know, listen, to me, it's just something that I really enjoy. you know if i could stop even being in real estate tomorrow and just help other people i would definitely love doing that plus i could do it excuse me from anywhere you know so it's just it's a great thing you know imagine if the whole world just had that you know if all the successful people in the world helped other people it's like the old saying you know the oldest saying in the world give a man a fish he eats for a day give the man efficient pole, he eats for life.

1:20:32You ever heard that before? Yeah. All right. So there you go. It's perfect sense. Teach people how to help themselves. Get them a push to where they can help themselves and they can grow as big as they want. That's what you should do in life. Now it's up to them how big they want to grow. But if you help them, at least they can't say nobody ever tried to help them. How do you know who is worth helping and who is not? You can tell why, you know they explain their situation you know people the average guy calls me up he tells me you know he's married he's not married he's got kids he owns a house he doesn't own a house he's got this much in a bank this is what his annual salary is what do i do and we sit down and we go over your options i don't tell him what to do i just tell him what his options are what he could do if he applied himself and what i would do if i was in his shoes like all these young guys in college I got a big audience of college kids.

1:21:30That's what my audience is. I've even talked to colleges. And I tell every one of these young guys in college or girls, get your real estate license while you're in college. Okay? You're already going to school. What's one more course online going to hurt? Take the course online. Take the four-hour test. Right? And it's a license to make money. but not only is it a license to make money it's gonna put you in a circle of people that are in real estate you got that license you can walk into a busy brokerage that's doing deals you could hang your license there you latch on to a team or other people who are seasoned in real estate you learn from the ground up and and you're in it you're in the mix that's how we say in the street.

1:22:22You got to get in the mix. You know, it puts you around what's happening if you're serious about being in real estate. And once you learn to sell for other people, then you end up buying your own. Or in my case, I went the management route. I didn't go the sales route. I went the management route. I started managing other people's properties. And then if you can manage other people's properties, you could manage yourself, your own, as long as you had the money to buy the property. So my entrance to real estate was management. People would pay me to manage their properties and I did very well. Then I just moved on to ownership.

1:23:00I mean, you know, it's up to the person to just take that ride and drive that car in the direction they want to go. But pushing people, giving them some gas to do it, that's what is a great thing to do. Because once they get the gas in the car and they start the car and they start driving and they start But traveling and accumulating real estate assets and making money, I mean, they're on their way to a great life. Listen, we all know, or maybe he doesn't know. I know you know. Listen, going through life without money sucks. Let's face it. I feel sorry for all the people that have to go to bed at night wondering how the hell are you going to pay their bills.

1:23:41Do you know what the hell? I pay. I'm not kidding you. I pay five or six, seven, eight kids. I pay for eight kids to go to private school. How much is that? Each kid is over 30 grand a year. Oof. The ones in college, oh, my God, that's going to jack me up with room and board to 50 or 60. Okay? I mean, you want to, making money, it's definitely, it's part of our life. It's our system. It's part of being human and, you know, in our world. Okay? We don't live out in the woods. We're not hunters. We're not killing for our food. You know, having money does make your life easier. Knowing that you got enough money to pay your bills, get your kids a good education, live in a decent house, not worry about your car breaking down.

1:24:27You can't fix it. Insurance. You know how expensive it is to live these days? It's crazy. I don't know how my employees do it. Okay. They got rent. They got utilities. They got cars. They got clothes. They got food. It costs a fortune to live these days. So anything I can do to help people make their lives easier and better by making money is a great thing. And like I said, it would be so great if everybody thought that way and everybody tried to help other people get ahead. People that want to get ahead, they got to have what they want. You can't waste your time with somebody that just doesn't want it or have the drive.

1:25:06What do you say to people, though, that want to tax you more? Listen, running a country is running a business. we need leaders in charge that are more like accountants that's what we need we need accountants to be politicians because it's all about money you know like de santis is talking about you know giving a bunch of property tax relief well if the counties can handle it and not collect as much as they collected because they have a surplus like you know i see them doing a lot of stuff that I don't think, I don't know. I don't. The problem is people in politics are not business people. That's the biggest problem we got with politics.

1:25:47Okay. And then we do get a business person. We get some of the, I'm going to say a cuckoos, you know, cause you know why we can't find good leaders in politics? Why? Cause nobody wants a job because of all the bureaucratic bullshit and all the people in politics that don't know about business and they all got their wacko ideas on how things should be. They don't just look at what is, makes sense, okay? What is the make sense that we need to do here that is just normal and pretty much is fair to everybody, okay? Taxes, listen, I got to pay 37 % of all the money I make and earn, okay? I think that's a bit high.

1:26:28But the first thing we need to do is let's look and have a real budget, okay? Where are we spending money at? Where are we wasting money at? but nobody wants the job because it's too much bullshit goes on all the ceos of companies successful companies they wouldn't touch politics with a 10-foot pole because you got all the people that don't belong in politics in politics because they just want to have a ride to system job and they want to you know push their ideas on you and it's how they think things should go you know listen and i'm sorry to say people who are not successful do not belong in politics If you never ran a business and you never created anything and you never had any experience running anything, you know, with employees, then you shouldn't be in politics.

1:27:13I would vote for you. Would you ever run? Never. Because there's too many cuckoos. I tried to get a—Downtown Clearwater, right? It's occupied by a Scientologist. It's a fact. I'm not talking bad about them. It's a fact. They bought up all the real estate and everybody's crying, oh, they own everything, oh, they own everything. Well, you let them. Now, we don't have no tourism, and downtown is dead, okay? Well, they're always crying about that. Everybody's bad. Well, do something about it, okay? I went to the mayor, and I said, you know what we need on? It's across from the beach. The beach is here.

1:27:50We get tourism. But on the downtown side and the bay side, we get no tourism. And we had this beautiful waterfront. I said, let me, I burn in the designs and everything. Let me put a Ferris wheel right here on the waterfront. The kind that's air-conditioned, good all year round. It'll be a great draw. And the people will come to Ferris wheel. Just like in Orlando. They'll come to restaurants. They'll come to all the stores and shops around there. And we'll create a buzz. Okay? Number one, the mayor straight out told me he doesn't have the power to approve it. Great idea. But he doesn't. I was going to pay for it.

1:28:27All they do is give me a little piece of land, Elise. I would have put them there, bought it there. I would even have shared profiting with them, profit sharing with them. He says, well, this city has a no power mayor. The mayor can't even make a decision. Has to go in front of like seven or eight board members. And these people, these people aren't qualified to run an ice cream store. I've seen them. They've never done nothing their whole life, but maybe a government job. and they had no clue about business. They had no vision of the future. All they want to do is complain about everything. We have the wrong people in politics.

1:29:05That's the problem. We don't have educated business people. Is this ever going to change? Unfortunately, the way our society is, we got half the country that are doers and half the country that just want to ride the wave. We got doers and takers. You got Democrats, you got Republicans, and then you have your cuckoo, whatever. What do you call the other people? Anyway, the point is this. You know, everybody needs to come together and just do what makes sense and be fair to everybody. Of course, we need services. We need police. We need fire. We need the roads. We need everything. Schools. It takes a lot of money to run a place.

1:29:45Yes, you need taxes. Absolutely, positively, we have to have taxes. But do it reasonable. You know, do it where you get what you need. All this waste that goes on. You know, we got people. How many people in this country have jobs that we probably don't even need in politics or in bureaucrats? You know, I mean, I'm just saying it is just with technology. You know, these people should be more in private sector. Private sector is what makes this country run. Without private sector, you got nothing. You wouldn't have government without private sector, right? Private sector employs the people and then gives the money to government.

1:30:26And then the government employs people because they're getting the money for the private sector. But, you know, it starts with the public, you know, and we just got to get rid of all these people running for office that just don't belong there.

1:30:39Graham Stephan:Do you think it's easier than ever right now to get rich? Hey, by the way, really quick, if you want extra content just like this, as well as early access and a bonus post show posted every single week, feel free to join as a channel member to get immediate access to all of that, as well as early access to everything else that we post, along with priority responses to all of your comments. So if that sounds cool, feel free to join. Would love to have you on board. Thanks so much. We'll get back to the podcast now. Do you think it's easier than ever right now to get rich? I think it's always easy to get rich if you find what you really have a passion for doing and have a good plan.

1:31:17I think, you know, listen, I get consult calls from kids. They're in their 20s. They're making millions. E-commerce. E-commerce. They don't even touch the product. I don't know much about e-commerce, but they're making millions of dollars online with technology. I think it's even easier today. I mean, you know, but if you have a passion for something, you're real serious about it, you know, and it has the potential to make you rich, you know, I mean, the world needs everything. So what do you think then is the main thing that's stopping people if it's easier than ever to get rich right now from becoming rich?

1:31:53There's a lot of people getting rich. And then there's a lot of people that just want to sit on their and don't have the drive. And that's fine. I don't knock these people. Listen, you know, I was told a long time ago, I think the guy, he told me when I failed at whatever shitty job I had, he says, well, don't worry. The world needs dishwashers. It's true, but you have to stay and dishwash your whole life? No. Maybe you make it up to sous chef. Maybe you make it up to chef. I don't know. It depends on the individual. Not everybody's cut out to be rich. That's a fact. You've got to have that burning desire inside of you.

1:32:28just like you know i don't know about you but he has it where he knows he wants to get up every morning and he wants to create and he wants to grow and you want you know he wants to be wealthier that's the reward getting rich is the reward for hard work you work hard you get rewarded so you think the main obstacle in becoming rich then is mostly just a motivation and like a want How badly do you want it? It's a frame of mind. Okay? It's a frame of mind. If you have your frame of mind, and you don't waste your time with nonsense. If you have a logical frame of mind that says, okay, if I do this, this, and this, it's going to get me to this point here.

1:33:10It's just like if I get off my ass, like I tell everybody calls me, get off your ass and get an agent to help you look for the deals that you can afford. Okay? Why not? Why? Sitting around talking about buying something or looking on your own. Why? Get a professional to help you. Find a tool that's going to help you. Find an agent. And then if you don't like the agent, find another one that's dedicated and motivated to finding you the type of real estate that you want to buy and you can afford. Okay. It understands what you're looking for, what you're trying to accomplish. Okay. It's like when I sit down with lawyers, accountants, wealth managers, bankers, I got to really feel that when I'm talking to you and we're discussing my situation, that you understand what I'm trying to accomplish and you're going to be instrumental and help me accomplish that.

1:34:02Okay. You got to get with people that are on the same page and then you got to just keep moving forward. Get your ass out there. Get a list from your realtor. Look at all the deals in your area. Draw a circle on a map. All right. In your price range, understand the market and look for opportunity. Is real estate still one of the easiest ways to build wealth? I mean, it's all I know. I don't know how to make money doing anything else. Anything else I ever tried or really barely tried in life, you know, I never put forth the effort. Real estate's worked for me. That's why I like to talk to people and help them with real estate because I know from real life experience that it's helped me.

1:34:43And I am more than happy to share that knowledge and share my experiences with other people so it can help them. Right here. I created that. Oh, I banged. I created this. It was a thought. I said, you know what? I looked at a Mustang one day and said, that's a boxy car. You know, that would make a cool pool table. We just whack off the roof, right? And we did it. I put together the right people that had the right skills. This one's a Camaro, by the way. And it was just something I wanted to have for myself. What happened? It came out so great that we started making them and selling them. I shipped these all over the world.

1:35:25I shipped these to Dubai. I shipped them all over, you know, and it has real parts from cars. This is real. This is real. Emblems are real. Lights are real. We make this. We use a good table, you know, and we make it, and it comes in pieces, and we have them put together. And somebody, Tommy Hilfinger bought one from us. Okay. How much was it? How much? How much? I mean, they start at the bottom of it, I think, $15 ,000, which is not a lot. This is a real item. And this is quality. The paint, the table, the fiberglass, the parts. We have a license from GM and Ford to produce these. I didn't have the time to put one in a trailer, go to all the classic car shows, like, you know, Mecham, Barrett-Jackson, you know, travel around the country.

1:36:15I didn't hire a salesman. I didn't market it. So, you know, we sell quite a few, but not nowhere near the level it could have been if I would have put my heart and soul into it. But I couldn't because real estate is where I need to put my heart and soul in because real estate is big numbers, big numbers. It's very, very possible. I could go out tomorrow. I could buy a deal for 10 million bucks and I could turn it into 15 million bucks. In real estate, that's not hard to do if you apply yourself. So I focused on that. But my dream in life was to sell carpool tables. Step right up. Step right up.

1:36:57Eating a ball at the big show. People flocking around. Look at that. It's a car and a pool table. the ultimate man cave toy to have. Are you good at pool? I used to be in the Army. Yeah, in the Army I was good. Now I haven't played for a while. Practice. You got to practice, practice, practice.

1:37:16Graham Stephan:So what do you do all day with your time these days? I wake up in the morning. My phone starts ringing at 8 o 'clock in the morning. Brokers are calling me. I got all kinds of brokers calling me. What's the latest deal? What are we working on? What are we writing an offer on? I'm talking to bankers. I got different three, four different refinances going on right now. I'm talking to, you know, management I got to go through all my assets in my head Make sure I'm on top of everything that needs to be done The school we bought When I bought that school, the university Part of the deal was I have to put on a new roof on that place The seller gave me a credit for it But I have to get on the phone I got to get biz on the roof I got to get a roof lined up to get that done We need a million dollars worth of AC work That was promised to the tenant to be done I got to get biz on that And get that job cooking I got to go through my whole portfolio I'm managing, uh, you know, a whole bunch of assets and I got to be on top of everything those properties need.

1:38:08And whether it's financing, whether it's, uh, improvements, rehab, whatever it is, you got to be on top of everything, you know? And, um, and then I try to, you know, take time out and he books, uh, consulting calls, which I probably do better off in the evening time when the day is kind of slowed down. I'm on the phone with my lawyer every day. I'm on the phone doing deal my 1031s. I'm dealing with all kinds of stuff. Do you enjoy that? I mean, it's my life. It's my career. I mean, yeah, do I enjoy it? I enjoy it when I'm productive. I like at the end of the day to think back and say, okay, what did I get done today?

1:38:43That's what I really need to have that feeling. I hate the day to go by and I didn't really get done. To me, that's depressing. I like to, you know, time management is very important. You know, me and Aaron drove around all the properties. We took pictures of everything that we need to be done. He wrote up a big fancy report. We emailed it out to all the people that were pertained to. We need this done. We need that done. We don't want that fixed. We want that painting. We need hotel rooms built over here. What's going on with the permit? Do we have all the subs lined up to do the build out? I mean, it's managing a portfolio.

1:39:18That's what I do. Run a portfolio and make sure every asset gets the proper attention to maintain that asset and make it grow or maintain it. What is the greatest success in your life? The greatest success of my life was being able to sit here with Jack and do a podcast. I mean... Well, I'm glad to give you that success. Mine too. You're welcome. If I dropped it tomorrow, I could say I sat at the table in my house, my table with Jack and did a podcast. Well, I'm honored. Thank you.

1:39:52Graham Stephan:How do you like the new boat? It's a great boat. I love it. You know, but, you know, that requires management too. I got a captain and then we need somebody to help him a lot of times, a mate. We got repairs that have to be done all the time. We got to maintain it. It needs all kinds of stuff done and I pretty much have to manage it. He helps me and does it, but I got to oversee and make sure everything's being taken care of. We're not overspending. You know, if we go on a trip, we got to hire a stew. We got to stock the boat. We got to plan where we're going to go. We got to get dockage here.

1:40:25We got to get fuel delivered. I mean, you know, I have the captain that helps me do all that, but I still got to be involved. He has something that needs to be repaired. Is this the best, cheapest way of repairing it? Sounds stressful. Or should you replace it? It is. How much is it? Everything in life is stressful if you want to really take it to that level. Could I hire somebody to handle all that? Yes. But I like to be involved. This way I know people do make mistakes when it's not their money. I don't, I always, I'm not saying I don't trust people with money, but I like to, you know, monitor it.

1:40:59you know, and make sure that everything is right. Just like I told you about the Rolls Royce story. You know, if I would have told somebody that worked for me, an assistant, hey, get that Rolls fixed. They would have took me to the dealer, would have cost 40 grand, and there you go. But no, I thought about other ways and other alternatives and options, and it cost me four grand. Saving money is making money. Is the bigger yacht worth it? I mean, the yacht that I have now is, it has different features than that yacht you were on. Like this one has bow seating, real bow seating with tables in the very front.

1:41:34This one has the on-deck master. So I don't have to hurt my knees going down the stairs. This one's got a big open top deck. I mean, you know, it's a step up. I mean, yeah, I don't need a$20 or$30 million yacht because then you need a big crew and then you have a tremendous amount of maintenance and expenses. That's not my lifestyle. My lifestyle is basically what I got now, 92, maybe pushing to 100 one day, and that's good enough for me. But everybody has their own comfort zone. My comfort zone is the boat I got now. I did buy it right. Maybe I'll sell it. Maybe I'll get something a little faster, a little newer.

1:42:11If there's something out there, I don't know. But I like to be in my comfort zone. What's something that I could improve on? High-platform shoes. Okay. I think the extra few inches will make a big difference in your life. Okay. What's something I can improve on? I don't think there's much hope for you. So I'm already perfect. The thing is, you can't go any lower. Perfectly. I don't want to pick on you too much. I mean, listen, everybody really knows what they need to improve in their life. I know I'm overweight. I know I smoke. Okay. I mean, but am I doing anything about it? Am I changing? Everybody knows what part of their life they need to improve.

1:42:56It's just a matter of doing it. You think those are the two main things for you? Me? Health and smoking? Those are the two things that are going to kill me quicker. What do you think if you were to really, like you said - We're only here for a short period of time. Your favorite phrase, gun to your head.

1:43:09Graham Stephan:Gun to your head? Obviously mute the G word. Yeah. What do you think is the first thing that comes up that you need to improve on? Probably getting over spending anxiety. That's what it is. I get a lot of anxiety spending money. What is the last thing you got anxious spending money on? I didn't buy. It sounds so bad. It sounds awful when I say this, but there was a SpongeBob animation cell that I really wanted to buy, and I set a price for myself where if it goes beyond that, I'm not going to bid on it. I really wanted the thing. And I lost it over like$150. This is dumb. Why do you regret it?

1:43:44Graham Stephan:Because it was a great piece of SpongeBob art. It's from the first season. it's a master key cell of spongebob himself would you pay 300 right now to have it well it's 300 yeah extra yeah i would listen you know i used to have a lot of problems spending money too i always had to buy something cheapest cheap cheap cheap uh you know everything and now once you get to a level that you know you've never been at before uh now you have to enjoy life too. You do, within moderation. It's like, you know, me and my wife and a kid were sitting in a car last night, and I said, you know what? We've traveled a lot, but I'd never been to Monaco.

1:44:27And let me tell you something. If I open up my wealth management account on any given day, it could be up or down by millions of dollars. Not a lot of millions, but a few, depending on the market. Bonds fluctuate. Values fluctuate. I do have stocks that I let them manage. Okay? So if my account can fluctuate by millions of dollars a day, and it doesn't really change my life, whether it does or not, is it really going to matter if I blow 50 grand to go to Monaco? It's not going to change my life. It's not going to affect me, not one single penny. If I saw$50 ,000 less in my account tomorrow, it has no impact on my life.

1:45:16Is it going to make me and my wife and my kid and family a lifetime rememberable experience? Yes. So you got to spend money when it comes to quality of life and if it's not going to hurt you.

1:45:32Graham Stephan:You also went out and bought a Ford GT. How much did you pay for that? $306 ,000 and it's worth$500 ,000 now. How much did you pay for it? $306 ,000. Sell it. No. Have you seen the prices of these things lately? I think you're at a height. No, no, no, no. They're only going higher. No. When you bought it, you didn't buy it as an investment, did you? You didn't buy it as an investment. I did buy it as an investment. I know. I walked into the dealership and I could have bought the same car. You didn't buy it. It's not a brand. Why did you? I couldn't fit in it. I was too fat. Ben, where are you invested?

1:46:04Okay. Let me explain to you what I did. I used to be a day trader. I got my ass handed to me in a crash when you guys were still selling in a Boy Scout.

1:46:19Graham Stephan:Was that the 1920s crash? No. Anyway, the point is this. You can't do everything in life, all right? You got to pick something and do it the best you can. You can dib and dab a little. but you know what I did was goes back to relationships okay I let the experts do it so basically my relationship with Merrill Lynch is yes I'm mostly in tax-free muni bonds that's where I like to be at because it's safe and I can bar against it and it's tax-free all the interest on that five percent tax-free is really like eight or nine percent to me but I give them a piece you know I don't know whatever it is you know 30 20 30 million whatever it is and they have their models where they have a team that discusses what's going on in the market, where they think that they should be investing in, what's good, what should they sell.

1:47:13They got like a dozen people that sit around a table and discuss this like pretty often. And then they manage their customers' money, which they get a very, you know, a reasonable fee for. Maybe, I don't know. It's not much. It's probably the, yeah.

1:47:27Graham Stephan:But don't you think you could achieve the same thing just buying an index fund i mean yes you can do that but i ain't got time to worry about any of that because the reason why i'm successful in real estate is because i'm focused on what i know i can do okay stock market investing leave it to the experts but you got to be with the right experts and they're going to have their ups and downs but i believe they've in the past couple of years they've doubled my money i mean i know it for a fact i didn't give them 20 or 30 okay i I think I gave them half of that two years ago. You gave them$15 million and they got you$30 million?

1:48:03The market's up a lot, though, too. I think it was like really new. Honestly, to be honest with you, I think it went from$10 to$25. A couple of years. Everybody's done well in the market recently, especially with tech. So, you know, listen, everybody's got their own lifestyle, their own time management. You know, my son likes stocks. I let him play with my little edge account. They have it called an edge account where I can trade myself. I let him play around with that because he showed an interest. but you know does he have an interest or is he just like gambling that's the question when it comes to stocks are you going to do your homework are you going to look at the news listen i was offered spacex by merrill lynch and its ipo 135 and i should have bought it but i was busy that day with real estate so i didn't buy it then i saw that thing go right up to 200 yeah and i said oh i should have done something but yeah i didn't ipos are very rare lately and then it came back down.

1:48:57I don't know where it's at now. $155. $150, okay. So whatever. It goes up and down. Listen, I got no time to be on a roller coaster. The only way I could trade stocks is if I sat in that office and watched CNBC all day long and kept doing research. Absolutely. Oh my God.

1:49:13Graham Stephan:Look at the price yesterday. I looked at the price. The price yesterday was$137. No, it wasn't. No, no. Go back more than a day. Go back more than a day. It was$155. Yesterday it was$137. Keep going. Keep going back. That was several days ago. No, it wasn't. Right there. That's what I was looking at. What day is that? July 9th, and today is July 15th. That was a week ago. There's no way. What is it now? That was a week ago. $135. Okay, so it's back to the IPO price. Holy crap. I'm just saying, how do you just write off what I say without having any idea what you're talking about? Okay, it's the last thing I looked at.

1:49:43Graham Stephan:Apparently, you need to look at things a little more often. It trades during the day. Trades during the day. That was a week ago. Tell me if you agree or disagree. It did not trade during the day. Okay. The people that are in the stock market, serious players, serious stockbrokers, they're doing all this trading okay don't you think it's like a game you're playing when you're one of them okay things go up things go down they dry i i always have this i always think i have i always had this conspiracy theory about the stock market i could be wrong but i think they all kind of know what they're doing when something comes out they buy the out of it dry the price up and then they When it goes up to the price they want, they sell it, take money off the table, and they have their own system of making money.

1:50:34Okay? I really believe that. And I don't think they even communicate with each other. They don't have to. They just all know that, yes, IPO comes out. Everybody's emotional. Ooh, it's SpaceX. He's a trillionaire now. Blah, blah, blah. That thing goes through the roof to 220. And it's all hype. There's nothing. I think the problem I have with the stock market is it's not logic-based. If you look at their income, there are companies that the stocks go through the roof based on speculation of the future. Okay? There's so many companies that don't make a dime and their stock keeps going up. Am I right or wrong?

1:51:11Graham Stephan:Right. I don't believe in that. I mean, yes, it's just a whole other world that I can't be in. If I was in that world, I have to be in an office every day while the stock market's open, trading like I've done. You don't have to. And when the stock market's not open, I've got to be doing research. You just buy an index fund and you average 6 % to 8 % a year, 20 years. Well, not necessarily. Index funds go down. They do. What about airlines? Airlines are getting crushed right now. The price of fuel. They're going out of business. But if you look at the global stock market, like a big fund that covers the global stock market, Even if airlines go down, something else will take its place.

1:51:49Tell us a fund to invest in.

1:51:51Graham Stephan:VT. V-T-I. V-O-O. The Vanguard Index Funds. All right. You're happy with it? Yeah. You recommend it? I believe it. You know, because, but, yeah, they got tons of people behind that making the decisions. They're experts. They might have invested more aggressively in a lot of tech. The MAG-7. I'm just saying an index. Like, I wouldn't even be doing that. I've lost money on BlackRock. Or Blackstone. One of the two. probably BlackRock you know because they had some fund that you know was speculative too speculative on startups yeah but if you owned BlackRock itself the company itself has done incredibly well it's true if you know everybody should do their homework and get their comfort zone and invest where they want but there's no way that I could sit here and start buying individual stocks on a daily basis it would drive me nuts but I have to totally but here's what you're doing my real estate portfolio go down.

1:52:45Graham Stephan:Your muni bond because we're invested in the same one. That's a piece of... But... It's a walk in the park. But I'm saying the reason it's a walk in the park is because that muni bond that you bought is a collection of bonds. The fund. The fund is. So the index fund would be the same thing of stocks. Yeah, but the muni bonds fund is only muni bonds. Correct. Muni bonds and I know somebody's going to say I'm wrong because they've been very, very, very minuscule occasions don't fail unless you go to Puerto Rico. Mini bonds don't fail. They may go down. They're tied to interest rates. Yes. But at the end, you're going to get paid back.

1:53:27Okay. So I like mini bonds because I believe in the government. I believe in the municipalities. I'm going to, you know, fault on a debt. And 5 % tax-free to me, like I said, it wasn't always 5%. When interest rates are really low, you only get 3%. okay so i'm upside down in some of those mini bonds but who cares at the end of the day i get my money back and it's tax-free income but right now if i buy a mini bond for five percent in fact i bought a million dollar one yesterday i know i'm getting 50 grand a year tax-free and i could borrow up to nine hundred thousand dollars at like three percent if i want to borrow against it or three and a half.

1:54:10It works for me. It may not work for everybody else, but everybody's got to figure out what works for them. You know, that's it. But, you know, stock trading is something you've got to be totally into if you're going to do it. We're real money. I used to go to bed at night and sometimes wake up in the morning and lose millions. And that would crush me. It would drive me nuts. I can't do it. I don't have the tolerance for that.

1:54:35Graham Stephan:That's why I stick with index funds. You're not going to lose millions. You might be down the worst in a day. The worst might be like a few percent, 5%. If you look at the bond funds, the combination of all kinds of bonds managed by a bond manager, that's all he does. A muni bonds, different grade levels, different classes, but they're never going to fluctuate more than 5%. And then they go up and down and up and down, but no more than 5%. You're never going to lose. Do you have any real life advice for either Graham or I? I mean, you know, listen, if you have money that you don't, you want to put away like, or I call a war chest, you got to have a war chest.

1:55:16In case the bottom falls out or in case some super great deal comes your way, you got to be able to tap into something so you don't lose the opportunity. See, the biggest problem in life is that a lot of people get opportunities, but they can't execute it. that's the worst thing in the world i've been in that position a greatest deal in the world came up when i was younger but i didn't have the money to do it i didn't have the wherewithal to do it you got to stash that money so you have the muscle the strength and it's always there to

1:55:48Graham Stephan:protect you covid comes your hotel's empty what do you do here's a question for you what percentage should you have as a war chest and doesn't matter let's just say if you have margin i think you should basically you should definitely stash as much cash as you can all right you always got to have enough money to pay your bills and live but besides that i mean and it could be an investments like you like like your index funds whatever it is you've got to have something liquid that you can access like that you never know when you're gonna need the money whether it's for emergency whether it's an opportunity you never know you gotta you gotta stash like 10 percent 20%, 25%, 30%.

1:56:32As much as you can. As much as you can. Now, me, I spend my money on real estate, a lot of it. So it's a different story. You know, I may have, you know, whatever, a couple hundred million in real estate, a couple hundred million here, you know, a couple hundred million, whatever. I mean, you know, I'm more diversified because real estate's my profession. But everybody needs to have something put away for that rainy day. Graham is saying how much in cash for someone like Graham, who has a diversified portfolio and index funds and stuff like that. Nothing should be sitting in just cash. No, cash equivalents, Mooney Bonds.

1:57:07Tax-free Mooney Bonds. If it's invested in something that you are comfortable with and you're happy with the return, that's good enough.

1:57:15Graham Stephan:So I'm 25%, 20-25 % tax-free Mooney Bonds. The rest is real estate and most of the stocks. Everybody's different. It's tolerance. I don't need to have a risk tolerance. I don't want risk. that's why I lean towards muti bonds. I mean, you know, I don't need to worry about really growing. I made enough money to last me a lifetime. Now I got to figure out how I'm going to pass it down to my family and generations, you know. So, you know, it's whatever you're comfortable with, where your money's at. Me, I just happen to be a big believer in muti bond funds and muti bonds because I like the comfort of the safety and knowing when I go to bed tomorrow, even if you look them up in the worst crash possible they're not going to go down more than 10 percent you know it wasn't a total hits the fan okay even when interest rates go way down which ain't gonna happen again they're still not gonna crash it's still valuable because the government's gonna pay back that loan or the state or the county or the city or the hospital whatever everybody's got their own you know taste me my taste is being safe i have a little risky you know i let meryl lynch play with but they've turned out good main thing is my focus is real estate the point is make as much money as you can and stash it away in things that aren't risky or too risky you know but if a real estate deal does come your way you want to be able to run that cash and snatch that real estate up.

1:58:48If you know you're going to make money on the real estate, that's what I do. Is there anything else that you want to mention, like consulting or? We try really hard to put out good content, you know, that's entertaining and helps educate people and show them what the real life is. Listen, I'm not knocking anybody, but how many real estate guys go out there? I mean, yeah, you got your house people, you know, but I don't really consider them in my world. You know, they're doing houses, which is great for the people that want to do houses. I don't do houses, you know, but I would like to, you know, educate more people in the world.

1:59:25So, you know, we focus on our videos. We go out there and show you what we're doing, how we're buying, what we're looking for, and analyzing deals, underwriting deals. We try to explain that and teach people that because you know why? They don't teach it in school. They don't even teach you in school how to run a bank account. Do you believe that? Kids are graduating high school, 18 years old, never walked into a bank and made a deposit. I had to teach my kid how to make a deposit or, you know, now it's online or even online. I mean, you know, listen, educating people so the world could all be grow together is what I'm looking for.

2:00:03And that's it. You know, we try to put out good content, you know, share our video. and the consulting, I love helping people and I'm looking for the next deal. It's all about finding a deal, baby. Finding a deal.

2:00:19Graham Stephan:We highly recommend the consulting. I've been saying this for a while. I think you're undercharging. So for anyone interested, what's the website? BenMalla.com. Consult with Ben. Link down below. Yeah, we'll just link it down below. Of course, all of Ben's stuff is linked down below in the description. Guys, thank you so much for listening to this podcast. We would not be here without you. So endlessly grateful for you guys watching, especially if you made it to the end. Thank you. Oh, and also for the members, there's a lot of content in here that we did not include in the main episode. So if you want to see it uncensored, by the way, join the membership.

2:00:56Graham Stephan:You're going to get extra content, early access, uncensored. And I personally respond to all the comments. I think that's pretty good. That's a good deal too. If you want to know the latest styles and haircuts, here you go. thank you guys for watching till next time

2:01:43Graham Stephan:Thank you. expertise. Learn more about their active ETFs at TROPrice.com slash explore ETFs. Exchange-traded funds ETFs are bought and sold at market prices, not NAV. Investors generally incur the cost of the spread between the prices at which shares are bought and sold. Buying and selling shares may result in brokerage commissions, which will reduce returns. T. Rowe Price Investment Services, Inc.