Real Estate Talk Podcast with Jesus Castanon | RETalkPodcast
The Ultimate Real Estate Unveiling! Raw, Real & Revealing insights from industry experts
Dive headfirst into real estate's most electrifying depths with industry legends - Jesus Castanon, Josh Cadillac, and Richard L. Barbara. Why legends? With billion-dollar deals, groundbreaking innovations, and wisdom that's transformed the landscape, they've not just witnessed the game; they've been the game-changers. And if that's not enough, they're joined by a parade of industry-expert guests, spilling secrets and dishing advice that you won't hear anywhere else.
Expect RAW, REAL strategies that shook the market, REVEALING insights, and timely takes on today's market, coupled with actionable advice.
This isn't your typical real estate chitchat. This is RETalkPodcast - where the titans and top minds of the industry unite. Dive in, and prepare to have your real estate perceptions rocked!
Real Estate Talk Podcast with Jesus Castanon | RETalkPodcast
From School Closures to Remote Work: The Implications of a Global Pandemic | RETalkPodcast | Episode 6
Could you imagine a world where the power of public outcry can pressure politicians to make pivotal decisions? Well, hold on to your headphones as we explore this and so much more! Join us in a riveting conversation with Attorney Richard Barbra and author Josh Cadillac as we navigate the dynamics of reopening the country amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. From the role of local and national government to the knock-on effects on small businesses, this episode will leave you enlightened and informed.
Ever wondered how the media and social media influence public opinion during a pandemic? We delve into this, dissecting how clicks and headlines shape our understanding of events and the potential pitfalls this can lead to. But that's not all. We also examine the pandemic's impact on retail and real estate, and don't shy away from discussing the potential economic rebound once restrictions are lifted.
As we wrap up, we take a deep look at the implications of school closures and market opportunities. We consider the disparities between communities and the real costs these decisions have on individuals and families, all in the light of the current pandemic. Factor in an exploration of remote working and it's impact on the environment, and you've got an episode not to be missed. So, tune in as we discuss the power of the free market in encouraging human flourishing and overcoming the current crisis.
Real Estate Talk Podcast with Jesus Castanon - @retalkpodcast: The Ultimate Real Estate Unveiling! Raw, Real & Revealing insights from industry experts
Dive headfirst into real estate's most electrifying depths with industry legends - Jesus Castanon, Josh Cadillac, and Richard L. Barbara. Why legends? With billion-dollar deals, groundbreaking innovations, and wisdom that's transformed the landscape, they've not just witnessed the game; they've been the game-changers. And if that's not enough, they're joined by a parade of industry-expert guests, spilling secrets and dishing advice that you won't hear anywhere else.
Expect RAW, REAL strategies that shook the market, REVEALING insights, and timely takes on today's market, coupled with actionable advice.
This isn't your typical real estate chitchat. This is RETalkPodcast - where the titans and top minds of the industry unite. Dive in, and prepare to have your real estate perceptions rocked!
Meet The Legends:
Jesus Castanon: Visionary CEO of Real Estate EMPIRE Group, transforming property transactions into success stories.
Josh Cadillac: Renowned real estate coach, national speaker, and author; revolutionizing the art of 'closing for life.'
Richard L. Barbara, Esq.: Florida's legal luminary, pioneering change and setting the gold standard in real estate advocacy.
Alright, guys. So today's podcast it's going to be Alex. We can't avoid this coronavirus shit. I mean. I have a million different topics to talk about, but I think everything right now is relevant. You know, what's the point of talking about objections If, right now, we're trying to figure out if this business, if this whole thing, is going to reopen. So today's going to be about reopening the country, what we think about it and how it's going to affect real estate.
Speaker 1:So I got on the phone. I got Richard Barbra Esquire, my attorney for over 15 years now, Also very involved in real estate, has a title company and he's been a real estate attorney for a bunch of years. So we got Mr Josh Cadillac, our resident guest. It seems like you hear every day. So what's the name of your book? Again, Cadillac, Roadmap to the American Dream. Roadmap to the American Dream. So, alright, Rich, straight the fuck up. Man. When do you think I'm hearing? Let's talk locally for a second, because it's kind of weird. Obviously, New York and California and places like that are going to have a different timeline, but I'm hearing a lot of good things here, locally, in Miami, as far as it seems like the mayor is really the mayor of Miami Dade County, alright, is really gung ho about opening Miami Dade County. Our governor seems very aggressive, as far as you know, wanting to reopen it. So what are you seeing? What are you seeing on your side?
Speaker 2:Well, I agree that we have public officials that are gung ho on getting people back to work as quickly as possible and certainly more aggressive, or seemingly more aggressive than you know. For example, the mayor in LA saying he's saying no sports or large events till next year.
Speaker 1:I even heard 2022. I heard people. I heard that number being thrown around.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so you know some, our state and our city and our county seems to be a little bit more on the on the aggressive side. I think it ultimately remains to be seen what they really do.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so you're thinking that because I got this, you know, and I like to go to CNN. I'm not exactly a big CNN guy, but I like to go to. I like to go to both sides, I like to see what both sides are saying. And this list I got from CNN and it gives you the dates where every, every state is planning on opening up, and Florida is April 30th when they're planning on opening up. And so, richard, how does it work with and how does it work with who? Who runs the show? Does the president run the show? If we had a hierarchy of president, governor and mayor? So I'm here in Miami. Who do I care? Whose opinion do I care about the most?
Speaker 2:So there is an argument to be made that the president of the United States assuming that there had been or that there would be some kind of federal guidance there is an argument to be made that the president of the United States could theoretically have the authority that he claims. He has not absolute authority, but quote the authority to open. I personally don't believe that to be the case. I believe that it comes down to it's going to come down to issues of the states and the counties and the local city officials and politicians to basically declare the you know green lights to open. Now, this is not to say that challenges to restrictions imposed by local and state officials would not be dealt with in the quote federal system. So, just to try and oversimplify a complicated subject matter, we have state courts and we have federal courts. Okay, so if you get arrested for possession of marijuana, that's going to go through the state court system. Okay, that's going to go through the state court system, and the style of the case is going to be the state of Florida versus, you know, richard Barbara, for example. Okay, now if you commit a federal crime or if you were to get caught up in a federal indictment for, let's say money laundering, then that case would be called the United States versus.
Speaker 2:You know, as you've got that you know, for example, okay, in the inverse right, if someone were to file a lawsuit like those lawsuits that we're hearing about in Michigan. So let's say that Francis Juarez, that Donald Trump comes out and says, hey, may first, restaurants can reopen. And let's say that Francis Juarez says, hey, I don't give it, I don't care what Donald Trump says. On May 1, in the city of Miami, restaurants cannot be open. At that point, if you open, francis could theoretically send the city of Miami police department and they could shut you down. At that point you would have to file a lawsuit and your lawyer is most likely going to file that lawsuit in federal court because, right, because it involves a federal question. Specifically, you know, the freedom of assembly, let's say, or the, the rights of pursue happiness, right, or all these constitutional rights that are theoretically being infringed by these emergency declaration.
Speaker 1:It's very similar to what happens in California and a lot of these states where marijuana is legal where it's it's legal state. It's legal in the state, but federally hasn't been a legal yet. So the feds show up and right right, it's the other way around.
Speaker 2:So the rule ordinarily, as a general rule, as a guiding principle, states can give you more rights than the federal government can give you, but they cannot take away rights that the federal government has bestowed on you. Okay, so that's why rights like the right to assemble or freedom of religion, speech right, all of them.
Speaker 1:All of them will have which have been taken away, every single one of these or imputed in some way, certainly certain forms of religion right, right, 100%.
Speaker 2:So. So eventually there would be challenges right to these. The continuation of these orders, I think that you would lose. Any action to try to dissolve these orders that, say, a week after they were implemented, would have failed Again, because there are. The government has what we call police powers to kind of watch out for the health and and welfare of the people, and so any judge, I think, would have agreed hey, you know, we probably had to shut down for a time.
Speaker 2:The longer this keeps on, the more of these protests and lawsuits you'll begin to see, and that's when it's going to start to matter whether or not you can demonstrate that there is a justifiable, what we call public policy reason for continuing to curtail these rights. And, and frankly I think, the longer this goes on with the current trajectory, the harder that will be to do Right, like it's just, it's. It's hard. You know when this first started you say listen, we don't know how many people can die. You know if we don't contain these measures and the same, look the model show millions of people dying. But now what we know is that the models were completely incorrect, at least the primary model, like the government.
Speaker 1:There's been two revisions. There's been two revisions to the models.
Speaker 2:Right, right, but the initial model was so wildly incorrect, like it's not like a hurricane where you know they said it was going to come in through Miami, ends up going down through the keys, you know, which is like a three degree mistake, and still everyone is very happy about it, unless you're down in the keys, right? I mean, this model was off like it wasn't even close, and so if that's the basis on which you're continuing these draconian lockdown measures, it's probably going to get difficult to continue to keep them in place, right? Courts will likely start striking some of these things down.
Speaker 1:So I'm a restaurant, I'm a restaurant owner and I just cannot continue. I cannot continue to stay closed and I decide to open and say you know what, let them come, fucking shut me down. They come and shut me down and I am going to sue in a federal court. How fast does that happen? Is that something that drags on for years, or is that something that that happens really pretty quickly?
Speaker 2:Well, the filing of the lawsuit is quick. There there is always procedural time periods. You know, like theoretically, if you sue someone they have, you know, 20 days to respond in matters like this and you can see sometimes these high profile cases that they get to the Supreme Court like in five minutes. So depending on how you file and the novelty of the issues at hand you can kind of express so probably these first couple that come out, when people start coming out, it's probably going to.
Speaker 1:It's probably going to be pretty rushed because people want to see precedence.
Speaker 2:Right, right, what I'm saying is you can seek relief on an expedited basis. And so you know you probably get some decisions quick, like you would if you're one of these restaurant tours. You would ask for immediate relief, like you file your lawsuit and then you would file a motion seeking, you know, emergency relief, saying, hey, judge, I know that I still have to prove my case, but I need you to enter an order in the meantime while we're litigating. I need you to enter an order and joining or stopping the government from enforcing its order right Of closing restaurants, like we need to. I need you to, in the meantime, put a hold on their ability to enforce that order because it's killing me while we litigate this problem. Now, that's a high burden because you're basically asking the judge to give you a win before you've won, okay.
Speaker 2:And so judges do enter that kind of order. Typically they're in the inverse hey, stop something from happening right, or stop a certain behavior from continuing, because you know we can't unring the bell. So you can seek that kind of relief right away. Whether or not the judge grants, it is usually pretty indicative of the strength of your case. So if I go in and say to the judge hey, I need you to stop Francis from sending the cops to my restaurant to shut me down. You know, while I prove why his order is, you know, overreaching, and the judge says, yeah, I agree, I'm going to enter that order, then the government is probably going to reply by immediately starting to negotiate, because the judge has sent a very clear signal that things are unlikely to get better for the defense in that case Right.
Speaker 2:If the judge were to deny such a request for immediate relief, it's probably not as fatal for the restaurant tour. But to answer your question, we're backing it taking a very long time, or an unsustainably long period of time, to litigate the case.
Speaker 1:Okay, but but here's the thing. So here's the way I look at there. This is pretty split down the middle. Right, there's about 50% of the people that say this is insanity. They can't shut my business down. Everybody has the right. Whoever wants to take care of themselves, take care of themselves. Right, it's pretty 50 50. I would think, as far as my friends and the people that I see.
Speaker 1:So Donald Trump says hey, everybody, we're opening up. So now that's a federal, that's a federal, I guess demand or to open up, mandate, mandate to open up. Now we have these mayors. Let's say our mayor says no, you cannot open up. I say I am going to open up Now, isn't this one? Attorneys this is the times where I love attorneys, right? So what an attorney's really quickly start creating a class action lawsuit and get you know 100 of these restaurant owners and start. So the only real, the only real thing that's going to get us to open up, because it is going to be everybody getting together and opening up and everybody's starting to sue the federal, starting to sue in federal court Is that basically?
Speaker 3:what it comes down to. I actually think there's another component to it, which is the media coverage of the protests. When it becomes, when it becomes unpolitically unpopular enough, it will put the necessary pressure on to take and make these decisions change. Yeah, that's if you look historically, politicians move when the cameras are on.
Speaker 1:That's a great way to put it, yeah, you know. But but if it's 50, 50, 50 percent of the restaurant and 50 percent of the restaurants sue and 50 percent of the restaurants are allowed to stay open while the courts move like, like, like Richard, just potentially, you know, mentioned then no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, any, any.
Speaker 2:For example, if there were an order, if you sought an order and joining or preventing the local government from like enforcing its, you know, stay at home order, that would apply to everyone subject to the order. They wouldn't actually need to be plaintiffs in the case. This is how, for example, when you know, maybe years ago, if you're old enough to remember, blockbuster Video got sued for charging those insane late fees and it was a big class action lawsuit and it was like 10 years later like there wasn't there wasn't even any Blockbuster anymore, and they were offering me like a dollar 50 refund in late fees if I joined the class, you know, or if I was, or you know, I was determined to be a member of the class. They had records that I had been, you know, overcharged for late fees. So, similarly, restaurants that don't join the lawsuit but that are subject to the order if we went into court and the judge agreed that during the pendency of the lawsuit, the city should be enjoined from enforcing the order, all restaurants would be allowed to open. Hmm.
Speaker 1:Really Interesting.
Speaker 2:Right, not just the one suing for the right to open, so okay.
Speaker 1:So I see none of this I understood, and that's why it's important we go over it. So what's now? It's a little bit more clear to me. What's going to get these restaurants and businesses to open. Is small business owners saying hey, you've been taking your sweetest times to send me those relief checks. I got bills to pay, right, I got to go and I have to work for my family. I have employees that have families. Fuck you, I'm going to start, I'm going to open up and come shut me down If enough of this happens.
Speaker 1:They're like, like, like, like, like, like, like like says you know, politicians are going to start moving when these cameras are on. The cameras are going to be on and they're going to be like hey, we're going to have to do something about this, and then it's going to become your choice. You want to wake up in the morning and you want to wear a mask and wear gloves and stay home? Okay, then that's fine. But if you want to go to a restaurant, then that's also fine. Is that the way you're seeing it?
Speaker 2:also, so I think that there are two problems with that that viewpoint. The first is this notion that everyone risks only damage to themselves by disregarding a stay at home order. Sure, that, that's unfortunately inaccurate. So same thing with the masks. You know, I was telling you, you and I personally, we're not mask guys, right.
Speaker 2:As kind of like as unpopular as that may be right Now, the reality of the matter is is that I won't, while I don't want to wear a mask, I won't force my way into a place where there are other people while there is an order from the mayor that we wear masks, because it's not for my protection. The masks are because people like me that are relatively young and in relatively good health and in relative shape, we can be infecting other people asymptomatically, without knowing. So the mask theoretically helps us prevent the infection of other people. If I were to sneeze and I'm wearing a mask, you know it's impossible to say that there's less. You know that there wouldn't be less spray than if I was not wearing a mask. Ok, so that's the problem, that's the extension here, with this notion of if I want to go out, I should be able to, because the issue is you're not just putting yourself at risk, it's not just like doing drugs. Ok, so that's number one. Number two I think that these things, that what you were suggesting will happen if, if the trend continues, and that trend being a relatively low mortality rate, right and the continued or the catching up of our health systems ability to deal with this problem. So you know, one school of thought for the lockdown wasn't hey, it's not so much that we want to save lives Of course that's a byproduct of what's going to happen it's just that we simply cannot handle it.
Speaker 2:It's like if you invent a great new product on day one and you want to bring it to market and you're going to get a million orders and you can only fill 10,000. Like the beating that your company is going to take, the image beating, you know, when I order and I got to wait six months and this, and that by then it's a disaster. Like you've ruined the launch. It's like you launch health care dot gov and so many people needed health insurance that they collapse the system and then you gave them that ability to laugh at you because you weren't ready to go so. So I think that what's going to happen is that we're gradually getting more and more capacity to deal with more and more sick people. So the combination of you don't really die from it. You could just get really sick and while that sucks, life must go on because we just can't be closed till 2022. Like, just can't do it.
Speaker 2:OK, it's just not sustainable, you know so.
Speaker 1:so what's going to happen is you're going to get can't be close to June, like you, just that's the way.
Speaker 2:I know Well, well and, but, exactly, but, exactly but. But they can't tell people, june, because you'll throw too many people off a fucking ledge. So they got to start with these messages. Remember we were going to be in lockdown for 14 days. They knew damn well it wasn't going to be 14 days. They were telling us we needed to lock down for 14 days when Italy was at 19 days.
Speaker 2:The problem is, people just don't count. They don't think, they don't put two and two together. So if you come out and tell people, hey, guys, listen, even if we lock you down in your fucking houses for a month, we're still going to lose 100,000 people. People would have gone fucking bananas. You have to tell people that if we lock you down, you know no one's going to die. And then, after everyone's locked down, they tell you, oh, two million were going to die, but now we're only going to lose 100,000 people. Like, oh, I'm less likely to be one of those 100,000.
Speaker 2:So so you know governing is very abstract. It's like lemmings. So you know people are like, well, trump doesn't listen to the doctor. It's like, well, because we don't run the country with doctors. The doctor's just thinking medical. So you know he's got to talk to the doctor, he's got to talk to the economists, got to talk to the psychologists, you got to talk to the military, because you know like he's got to consider it all when he makes a decision. That's what governing is all about. So I think what we'll see is patches of openings. Ok, you're hearing a lot of this talk now about how restaurants are going to be told to operate at 50% capacity. I don't believe that that kind of restriction is going to be possible.
Speaker 1:Or enforceable. How the hell are you going to go to every restaurant?
Speaker 2:Not just that, not forget, the enforceability is a very good point, but even practically speaking, it's like yeah, I can only run at 50% capacity. Well, are you going to talk to all my creditors to make sure they're only billing me at 50% because my landlord you?
Speaker 1:know in his mind.
Speaker 2:I still got all the rentable square feet, you know. So if I can only like, how can I pay my rent? How can I do these things? So what I think will happen is that they might hold restaurants out a little longer. Hey, restaurants can't open till June 1. Ok, or June 15. And then it's going to be people over 65. You should avoid restaurants and they'll encourage big business to have early bird hours. So right now, public Tuesday and Wednesday from six to eight. You can only be. You have to be over 65 to walk in, right, and I think you'll see that kind of thing continue. So you know, these big companies will be incentivized to have times for higher risk populations to come in. The menus will be disposable, kind of like.
Speaker 2:You're seeing this guy talk in California masks. Believe it or not? Man, I was telling you yesterday are here to stay. So this is how they're going to get people back out there in waves. You know, with the risk theory you're talking about, hey, if you want to go to a restaurant, we're telling you, if you're over 65, it's probably not a great idea. And then guys, like the old guys we know they're going to be there, but like 65, I died. Now Fuck it.
Speaker 1:And and or, or, or or you say, ok, I'm going to figure out, I'm going to do the numbers and I'm going to realize, if I just do simple math and I divide the amount of deaths by the population that I live in, ok, let's go county wise, and you realize that it's a point zero, zero, zero, zero something percent. You have a chance of point zero of dying from this. Then you're going to be like, well, I'm going to take the country at a risk because I can't stay in my fucking house forever, so you're going to go out. But you have the right to do those numbers and you have the right to go out there. Right, it's like you just you just do it. It's just American that you just do it.
Speaker 2:It's your risk. I just think that you, I just think that you have an exaggerated sense of people's courage and bravery.
Speaker 1:But if you don't, then stay home. If you're the guy who drives around in your car by yourself with a mask stay fucking home, and that's what they'll do.
Speaker 2:Fine, they will stay home.
Speaker 1:But I don't, I don't want to, I am.
Speaker 3:OK, so I want to go to a restaurant at the end of the day. After 9 11, a bunch of people wouldn't get on airplanes. I was on a plane the day they opened up the fly.
Speaker 1:How long did it take people to get back on airplanes? That's a good. That's a good one.
Speaker 3:It wasn't that long. It was a few months when everybody got their thumb out of the rest and they realized, hey, driving places takes an awful long time. Yeah, I mean, the reality of it is people react to peer pressure. They have their ideals and whatever, but what Americans are addicted to more than anything is their own comfort.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and that mask is really uncomfortable. I'll tell you that.
Speaker 3:Oh yeah, Now you want to make a billion dollars. Come up with a comfortable mask. Well, and here's another thing.
Speaker 1:Ok, so let's again. We're you know I'm assuming I don't have too many listeners in Wichita, kansas, right? So let's talk Miami Dade County. If, if, if, right here, miami Dade County opens up, richard, and the city of Miami does not open up restaurant wise, and all of a sudden, everybody's going to the Miami-Dade County restaurants. The city of Miami guys are gonna be saying what the fuck? What's going on here? Everybody's going, everybody's mask free, walking into these restaurants, because you can't eat with a mask and you can't drink with a mask. Okay, so they're going to these restaurants. How's that gonna work out?
Speaker 1:What's the amount of pressure that the city of Miami is gonna start getting from these business owners when, when Miami-Dade County is opened up? Because the Miami-Dade County guy is straight up saying, hey, we need to, this has, we need to take measures to protect, but we need to continue on. We have to figure this out. We can't stay closed. He's seeing it very clearly. I'm seeing Francis Suarez saying doesn't matter how long we close, I don't care who has businesses, we have to stay close to 2022. So when that starts happening, man, it's gonna be a lot of divide and it's gonna be a lot of dress. It's gonna be a lot of pissed off people in the streets man.
Speaker 3:I think, if you go back, the example that I think is largely shaped the president's view of how politics gets done is the Wallman rink story. There was the wallman rink. That took him a decade that the city of New York was not able to get it open.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, I remember.
Speaker 3:Trump had secretly gone to the mayor and met with Ed Koch and said hey look, I'll do this for you for nothing. My daughter wants to go ice skating. I see it outside of my window every day. It drives me nuts. This is this is a disgrace literally 10 years. It is a disgrace that this city, the greatest city in the world, can't get this ice-scraping skating rink working. Koch told him no All the way up until a little bit time later, trump got the news the media around and said hey look, I offer to do this thing to this guy for nothing.
Speaker 3:This is the situation he made everybody aware. I Think when people start screaming about it, when the media starts having to cover the protests which they already are to some extent yeah, the pressure is gonna get on the politicians, just like they. Believe me. They wanted to hold out on that money as long as they could because they didn't want there to be any kind of Response to point to, and they put all kinds of extra things in there Because, again, we're a very polarized political community right now. All that being said, they still had to come to the table and get it done Because there was so much outcry that this needs to happen. They respond. They respond to public outcry and it's just uniting that that's really going to be the thing, because at the end of the day, you know, the flu and other things kill a whole lot of people every year. Right, we've come to terms. We bake that into the cake. We figured out how to get around that somebody sneezes. I mean, unless they sneeze on you You're not offended.
Speaker 1:You know, like it's just life, you drive on well, I've had people sneeze in front of me and I fucking walk right through that. I got walking to farts. I've walked into a couple farts in my life. I've walked into a couple of those misty sneezes. You know what I'm saying. I mean, it's just part, it's just part of life. But now all of a sudden, man, you, you, you much rather walk into a fart than then walk into a sneeze. You walk into a sneeze. People are starting to start, are gonna start freaking out. You know that's another face with Lysol so so.
Speaker 1:Richard, I'm seeing it as that. I'm seeing it as city of Miami is gonna stay closed and Miami-Dade County is gonna start opening up and then there's gonna be a huge cluster fuck of of pissed off my city of Miami people. Do you see that also?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think that that the more under control Things seen from a virus standpoint, the the less patient folks will become with the stay-at-home orders and you're gonna start to see tensions just like you see in Michigan. I mean, you know the Gretchen chop a cock off the governor. I Mean she, she banned the sale of non-essential goods. I mean I it's insane to me that that's insane in the United States of America and people, and people are reacting to it.
Speaker 2:You know, and, and I think that that's Well, that'll continue and we'll see more of it and It'll be interesting to see how long it takes there, you know, for the reactions to come and and for things to happen. And even when you do reopen, you know a lot of people are scarred. You know there are people that they swear they're worth a zillion. Okay, I, they say. I know that they think they're acting like they're worried about the mom and grandma and all that. They're not, but they're worried about themselves. People's concern for themselves is particularly depressing at this point in time, and so I mean there are people that they're like, no, no, like, I don't, like, I don't want to get sick and it's like. And then, and the same people, you see them posting about herd immunity and all this shit, and it's like herd immunity, but you don't want to be part of the herd, right? I mean it's like it's, it's unbelievable. So you know it's, yet we're all gonna have to get it. It's not going anywhere. Okay, I've been saying it for a long time.
Speaker 2:They're not gonna eradicate it, okay you know, there's gonna be free corona, it's, it's just not like that. It's not gonna be novel anymore. Admittedly, next outbreak it won't be novel corona virus, you know. But you know, and that's part of the fear, their novelty. But but I gotta tell you I mean, it's it's, you know, it's just gonna be something we're gonna have to learn, you know, learn to deal with.
Speaker 3:Well, I mean, I think that the then, if the numbers and the numbers that I've been seeing continue to get, start to get some publicity, which is the fallout numbers from this? The actual Unintended consequences of sticking people at home, which is a 300% increase in suicides, tremendous increase in opioid deaths, more issues with alcoholism.
Speaker 2:Domestic abuse has absolutely just spiked as as horrible, catalyzed not to not to interrupt you. But that point is so, is so accurate, as sad as it is, you know what we need.
Speaker 1:I let me rephrase Say I've known you long enough to know what you were gonna say.
Speaker 2:This show ever makes it in any way, they'll take this shit up. Okay, but but let me tell you the, let me tell you the. The reality of the matter is, as soon as you get like a 33, 43 year old All American poster boy, super dad that jumps off a fucking building because Everything he fought and worked for his family's business and the whole thing burned to a fucking cinder and he was on his ass and he couldn't feed his family and he shot himself or threw himself off a building because of, like, his business being closed down, one of these Lockdown orders, and then they do a feature on that guy, that's when it'll be hands across a fucking America for small businesses and people like that, and that's when you'll start to see, you know, toll versus benefit and it's like who are we killing versus who are we saving, and all this shit will start to happen. It's like it's, it's disgusting, but that's just the way it is right now.
Speaker 1:You know it's it's whatever we start getting more clicks, when we start getting more clicks for the positive stuff than for them, because negative stuff, if you notice news gets real quick and then it just starts dying down and then then they got, then they got. If they got to get clicks, they got to get clicks. So now, all of a sudden, what's gonna get clicks? It's we need to reopen and people are killing us, so that really it's the media is running the country. I mean, at the end of the day.
Speaker 3:It is what it is.
Speaker 1:I don't want to be conspiracy theory guy, bro, but it's.
Speaker 3:It's. It's more than just the media. It's the media and the, the Incessuous relationship with social media, that has allowed the, the idiots, to run the asylum. I had a good friend I think I said may have said this at one time on here a good friend. Politically, she and I could not be more opposite. We, we sit down she's an attorney, we sit down and we argue for hours and we walk away. We love each other. Everything is great, but we'll argue a little too in the morning. But she said something to me one time and I was like you know, that's so good. She said to me you know, every family's kind of got that crazy, uncle Joe, the guy in the tin foil hat that's got all the conspiracy theories and everybody knows he says anything. And it's crazy, uncle Joe. You don't listen to him because he's he's crazy, right, but now he's got a social media account and nobody knows that. It's crazy, uncle Joe, that's saying it. So they're all like oh wow, there is a civilization under Antarctica that the government is keeping secret On this flat earth. You're kidding me? Oh well, now that we know that and so We've I keep saying we've lost context.
Speaker 3:Nobody looks for context in anything anymore. They just believe what they're told, because there's so much data that we're buried in all the time that nobody has the time or the patience. We're not taught or headline driven, we're headline driven and we're not taught to go get the context. You know like hey, have we ever done this before? Hey, has China ever like not told the truth before?
Speaker 2:maybe some will be this people are stupid. People are stupid and they're getting dumber by the second man. You could say that when I was a kid, burking started rolling out like the, the numerical Number, like the number for an order. So before you have to get to burking and say, hey, I want a whopper large fry and a small coke, then they started to make the combos. You know, and I remember that my dad used to get offended with that. He was like people don't speak English, they don't speak Spanish and soon they're not gonna speak at all. They just get there now they say one, two, three.
Speaker 1:Hey, he was right on the money. He was right. He was right on the money.
Speaker 3:Well, I mean, I think that it's actually. I mean, if we want to get into the systemic problem that exists, it's the way that we teach in general. You know, you, you, you. You study for a test. Here's a study guide, here's all the answers that are gonna be on the test. So go study that. And when you study that, now you know what the test answers are gonna be. Nobody has to go out there and go say, hey, you know what effect. Go write an essay. What effect did the Great Depression have? On Fill in the blank.
Speaker 1:Hey, I tell you what, since we're real estate podcast, let's talk about the ass kicking that retail is going to take from this shit. Retail office Retail is going to get destroyed from this. I don't think.
Speaker 2:I really don't office gonna take it.
Speaker 3:No office is gonna get. I think retail gets killed in the short term. I think retail bounces back because, you know, while people will shop for things online, people went when the economy was going when they were making money. The thing that actually blew my mind was the statistic that in the let me two years ago that brick and mortar actually did better for the first time in a decade that online did, and it's because people actually had money in their pocket, richard, your background noise is loud as shit.
Speaker 3:They wanted to go to. Brick and mortar actually outpaced Online sales for the first time in a decade, and it was the first time in a deal, was this? This was about two years ago, really and it was the first time that that the lower income earners really got a major pay raise. Their incomes were up like 5%. People want to go out and go to the mall and walk around. I mean.
Speaker 1:I know I had an. Absolutely. Do you want to go out? Exactly that just walk around, sit somewhere and have a drink.
Speaker 3:I mean, you know look at, look at up something in the mall that you normally couldn't afford and say you know what? My buy it today. Yeah, and you know what? I'm taking you a movie tonight, you know. But that wasn't going on for a long time I buy 90.
Speaker 1:I would say 90% of my kids Like shoes in particular. Let's say, because it's for this example, I buy 80, 90% of it online. But I did. I went to the mall the other day to go eat. It was a well restaurant, was it? Whatever was a restaurant? I was a max Newrex Mexican restaurant. They opened in a mall and then I'm like, hey, you know what, let's go to the van store, you know, and I ended up buying myself some van sneakers. Actually, I'm on right now and I bought both my kids some sneakers and it was like a big party and everybody, everybody, was boxes of sneakers and everything like that. So, and it was, it was an enjoyable thing.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's a good thing, you know. You see, you feel like I have worked hard, sure, and here's my cookie. I get a cookie the kids got cookies you know, and yeah, I mean it makes you feel good as a dad to be like there's all kinds of positive stuff that comes from that that you know getting the packaging on in online, yeah, it feels good when the package oh yeah, that's that thing, not that instant gratification.
Speaker 3:It's not the same thing and it's not that you know like, I came in here not intending necessarily to buy this thing, but I'm going to get it. Sometimes that happens online, but it's not the same experience. And so I think that retail and there's also the other piece of this While we're getting up close to maybe 20% unemployment, that still means 80% of the people are working, that are probably eating at home. They can't go out and go to the movies, they can't go to shows, they can't go to concerts, they can't go to all these things. They may have a little bit of money that as soon as this thing opens back up again, they're going to want to go out and spend, and so what that does is what we would. Our economy right now is suffering, is government mandated lack of demand. People would go out to restaurants, but they've been told they would go shopping.
Speaker 1:They don't go Exactly, they would do all this.
Speaker 3:Don't go out or you will die, which means that this is not a real reflection of demand. This is demand that has been curtailed. Are we at 20 already? We're close to it. We don't have the 5.5 million today, so I think the numbers got to be 17, 18% somewhere in that neck of the woods. It was right. Now it is. It was 13 the other day, so I'm pretty sure it's around there.
Speaker 1:I didn't actually get a chance to read the article and get the actual Right, and by the end of the month I mean we're what like mid month really yeah, we've still got another. Another half a month left will probably end up when this opening is going to happen. We're probably end up at 20. But look, the good news on that is that it's not real. It's not a. It's not like the economy was doing so bad that all of a sudden we're at 20. That's a fucking problem and I have that's. That's a. That's a hole that you really got to dig yourself. Now, is it possible that that 20 ends up being a 10 when things open back up again Pretty damn quickly from month?
Speaker 3:to month. Well, I mean, what's Macy's employment employee number? Right now it's probably zero. Yeah, nobody's probably working, um, maybe only at the home office, as they're planning, or something like that. As soon as they do any kind of an open right, they have to call their employees back or they have to rehire.
Speaker 1:And so the furloughs and that real.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so even if it's not a hundred percent of the employees, if it's 80 percent of the employees, well, that's eight out of 10 of their employees are going back to work. So their, their impact is not 10 out of 10, which is it is. Right now, 10 out of 10 of their employees are on unemployment. Now it goes to eight out of 10. So only two out of 10 employees are on unemployment.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and most so we'll, we'll. So we'll probably end up month, month one. We'll end up probably at a. We'll probably end up at um at 10 in another month. Well, where were we before we were at two we were at three points, something. Three points, three points, we end up at seven percent in the next 90 days.
Speaker 3:It would be. It would be excellent, it would be excellent. Is it possible? I look, I think that as soon as they start to open, there's going to be tremendous demand for employees to come back, because, I mean, you, you got to think about the, the number of sectors that are completely shut down. I mean, there's a lot of play you can't. There's no movie theaters, all the people that work at movie theaters.
Speaker 1:So you already know the restaurant you're going to, the first one you're going to when it opens up. I'm waiting for my Chinese guy to get back.
Speaker 3:I want. I want to order me some fried bad. I haven't really Chinese food in so long. Luckily, all my Italian places are open. I have to keep doing pickup.
Speaker 1:Oh, are they a pickup? Yeah, that's. That's another thing. You know, um, those, a lot of restaurants have stayed open, you know, and and the reason why I keep on mentioning restaurants and bars and everything like that, because I think that that's the the hardest hit gyms, oh my God, yes, Gyms are getting their asses kicked, you know. So let's talk about real estate. So, and the reason why that matters is because, yeah, retail, uh, for gyms, a lot of the warehouse space, industrial space, is occupied by gyms and everything. So, but the reason why unemployment matters, I know that there's a lot of deals that we have right now as a company, and and you know like I've been doing this for long enough that all my friends are pretty much are in real estate.
Speaker 1:Or I mean Richard, he's, yeah, he's my attorney, but he's also my, uh, my, my, my daughter's uh, godfather, you know, and, and I met him through real estate. You know, a lot of my friends have met through real estate. So, um, you know, when you're having conversation, you're having conversation about real estate. Cadillac, you know, a friend of mine, real estate. We met straight up real estate in a real estate class. So, you know, you start talking about that kind of stuff and you start realizing, you know, you start getting all this information from these different sectors, you know, and, and, and. What I think is that residential right now, today, if you ask me, right now, residential real estate, 500 K and under, is going to feel it very little. Okay, it's going to feel it very little. The deals that I'm seeing right now that are falling through or on, I see a lot on hold, I see a lot on on on. Well, they're not employed right now, so banks are asking okay, well, yeah, I was employed till right now, but I'm not employed right now, all right.
Speaker 1:So until they get back to employment, which is rational thought by the bank, say well, listen, you know, if you're not, if you're a non-essential employee in an unessential field, then you're seeing, you know, you're going to see that gap. So what they're saying is well, I'm seeing a lot of extensions on deals. So what was a 30 day deal Now is a 90 day deal right, because they're getting extensions. And I was talking to them. I had a sales meeting yesterday, you know, and I was telling people they were complaining, oh, because I'm having to do extensions. I'm like so fucking, do extensions. What are you complaining about? Do the fucking extensions do a 60, do a 90 day extension? Do you rather lose it or do you rather do an extension? Be the agent that figures out how to get it done. Yeah.
Speaker 3:You don't never. Be the one that's there complaining. Be the one that's saying, okay, this is the crappy hand that I got dealt. How do you do that? How do you get the hand that I got dealt? How do I make this work? Because I mean, if you're the customer, what kind of agent do you want to work with? I mean, when they're sitting there whining, having to run to their broker every five minutes, anything goes wrong. Or the kind of person that says, okay, this is what happened, guys, coronavirus, it happened. Okay, how do we? How do we deal with it? How do we move forward? The answer is not to take and dig a hole in the backyard and bury ourselves, not coronavirus.
Speaker 1:I'm choking on my water, yeah.
Speaker 3:It's the first symptom. Now what?
Speaker 1:I'm choking on water for symptoms. Oh, and spilling it all over yourself as the second one. So the two for two. Okay, so retail definitely taking a hit Luxury, luxury stuff. Who owns the shopping centers that are getting their asses asses kicked by people not paying rent, who aren't?
Speaker 3:getting their rents Well, even though your little landlords aren't getting their rent. And so, like again, one of the one of the good conversations is an agent to have right now is to bring ideas to the table. Hey look, have you let your tenants know what's involved with getting their money from the government? Have you sought to go after the government? If you're, if your properties are held in a corporation? Have you? If you have any employees, you have any maintenance guys or anything like that? Have you? Have you sought money for the paycheck Right?
Speaker 1:But if you have an apartment building, you have a 200 unit apartment building you probably have. If you have a 200 unit apartment building, you probably have a million plus home. Let's say okay. And if you have three of them, you're right around there one and a half, two million dollars.
Speaker 1:And if your tenants know that the courts are closed till June I mean here locally they're till June, right, because it's government workers and government workers are going to do their least possible that they possibly can. They won't go back until they're absolutely obligated and then even then they're going to use all their sick days and they're going to fucking milk the shit out of this. So people are probably not going to get evicted till like July. So somebody who now there's the people that that's good, they need that, okay, because now there we're working at a restaurant and they have two kids and their kids are not in school right now. And here's another thing. Let's talk about the school thing. I'm sorry I got, I got to jump, but here locally we have the school board superintendent, right, is that? Is that what he is? That very easily just said hey, no school for the rest of the year. Fancy motherfucking suit on Perfect hair. Know what, you know what, guys, even though there's been less than a handful of kids, that that, that that kids appear to be immune.
Speaker 3:I mean it's, it's crazy, even though we're going to just close down schools.
Speaker 1:What that motherfucker is not realizing is that there is single mothers or there is a family with three kids, young family with three kids, that they need both incomes in order to survive, to stay with a roof over their head, to have food on the table, and now all of a sudden, that mom has to stay home to assist all of these kids in their zoom presentations and all the class stuff and everything like that. Listen, I'm lucky. Well, whatever, not lucky, I've earned it. But you know, my wife could stay home with my kids and struggle with them because it's a huge pain. I went in the other day for lunch. I was like, oh, let me go home. You know it's cool, kids are home, lunch and everything, dude, I ate quick and I got the fuck out of there because it was a war zone. So imagine. But again, she doesn't have to go back to work.
Speaker 1:If I had a situation where they had to go back to work, I'd be very, very stressed out right now. And if that government check is not coming, I'm starting to freak out. And if this extends another month and now all of a sudden I could go back to work, now everything opens up. My employer is telling me come to work, but I can't go to work because I have three kids at home that need to go to school. And now I'm a teacher. Fuck you. Well, I'm straight up, fuck you.
Speaker 3:I apologize for having to go to the sarcasm well here, but I'm going there. Do you mean to imply to me that a government official did something without considering the consequences? You mean there were unintended consequences of what he did and somehow he magically did? Guys, the reality of it is, when the government intervenes, there are always unintended consequences because no one is smart enough to realize all the fallout. And somebody like this is going to say, oh, I'm protecting the children, I'm protecting my employees, and they can use that fig leaf to do what, pretty much whatever, they want to. But the reality of it is there is a real social cost to all of these things. And guess who pays the bill? The actual parents, the actual kids who aren't getting the education that they're supposed to, the actual parents who can't go to work, can't take care of the things that they need to take care of.
Speaker 1:All of these costs are now passed on to them because somebody said it Well, and I'm hearing from very, very good source I don't know if this source would like me to spell out his name and everything but a very, very good source in the school system is telling me that 25% of people are not even logging in, are not attending school. Now there's a 25% absence rate from people that are just saying, dude, I'm not doing, I'm home. A lot of them are like, well, I just don't feel like doing it. Or hey, my mom has to go to work and I'm just have to stay home alone at the house and I don't feel like doing it. But something I didn't even consider there's people that can't afford Wi-Fi. So if you can't afford Wi-Fi, okay. And here's another thing. So if we start going into the demographics, okay, and we start going into these areas where people, all of a sudden, it's Hispanic and it's more Hispanic and it's more black and it's more everything, now all of a sudden coronavirus starts getting. Now, all of a sudden, coronavirus is racist. Of course it is Right. Right, it's that's when things are gonna again. Things are gonna have to get normal again, because this shit is just wrong. It's just, it doesn't make sense.
Speaker 1:And you know, we are in the United States and people have rights and, like you said, people are used to comfort. Man, listen, if you kids are at school, they're eating. Here's another thing. So, my, I'm trying to say this without revealing who it is, I don't even, I don't think it matters, but just in case, I have to ask for permission. But you know there's, there's a lot of kids that have to go to school to eat, since these schools are closed, they have. Yeah, what they're doing is they're setting up during lunchtime. They're setting up like the food outside the school so people can come and pick it up.
Speaker 1:Fuck, man, listen, I've been dirt poor. It sucks. I've, you know, been. I've. I know what it feels like to look around and seeing the kids. You know wearing, you know the nice stuff and you can't have it. And and and and and. You know people go into restaurants and you know going out was was going to McDonald's. I know how that feels and I'm telling you there's a lot of people that are suffering right now because of this, when the numbers just don't make sense, when it's a.00 and guys, you want to know how I'm doing this math, so you don't fucking think I'm crazy. If they're right, here in Miami-Dade County there is, I think, 150 deaths. Okay, miami-dade County.
Speaker 1:I'm not gonna, first of all, I'm not even gonna go into the fact that I know for a fact from very good sources that if you come in with a fucking samurai sword through your chest, coronavirus, coronavirus. I saw a beam, a meme, the other day, so I got flattened by a, by one of those, those concrete asphalt flatteners and it says, oh, this guy just died of coronavirus, you know? And also it, let's, let's assume those numbers are real. Samurai sword is the third, is the third sentence, right? So let's assume those numbers are real.
Speaker 1:You divide the number of deaths in your county, in your city, the places that you're going to okay, because you're not going to Pensacola, florida, if you live in Miami, right, maybe you are so then you count it and you divide it by the amount of the population. So in this particular case, I think it's like 2.8 million, 3 million, and what you get is a.000 something chance of dying from coronavirus if you go out into the street. So if that's happening and you're seeing kids are not going to schools, kids are going hungry, families are suffering, shit's going to have to get back to normal. And now, you know, going back to real estate, those. What's going to affect real estate more than anything else is mom's not being able to go back to work because they got to take care of their kids the whole the whole feel of the families just thrown off.
Speaker 3:I think what you're going to have is a market opportunity for what would be the normally the summer camps to jump in sooner because it's a low risk population. Children have approved approved to be well. A lot of times they're more susceptible to things Are they going to allow summer camps?
Speaker 3:Well, that should be one of the things that they allow soonest, by virtue of the fact that why? Why summer camps and that schools? Well, because the schools have already agreed to close. So now you have to go to the NEA and beg them, you know, please, to have your people come back. Well, you know, this guy decided to go on a you know a trek to find himself in the middle of the Dakotas. We can't find those teachers, you know. So they've already been told they're not going back to work. So, unring that bell. That's one of those things. Again, once you ring that bell, you can't unring it.
Speaker 3:But as far as the ability of the entrepreneurs in this country to see a market opportunity and insert themselves, to take and come with up with some childcare matrix to help people to get back to work, that's what we need Absolutely. Look as soon as they say okay, watch, this is the cool thing, listen to summer camp city, this is. This is what I love about this country as inept as governments are doing things. The innovators, the folks that show up on Shark Tank. They figure how to get a. They find a problem and they figure how to fix it. Yeah, and that's 100 percent. What we need is to let the entrepreneurs loose, to figure out once we determine that and I mean it seems like it seems like this should be doable, at least based upon the way the numbers are, the projections I mean right, the projections now are. The end of August is like 61,000 deaths is what they're projecting. That's down from 200,000. And previous to that it was a million from millions, right?
Speaker 1:So yeah, by the way, guys, I want to make sure everybody understands that the way we got into this, the reason why this hysteria started, is because, at the beginning, they were saying that millions of people were going to die this year, like this year correct, that's that. That was the numbers that were out there, that they was going to be people in the streets dying. That's how we're in this mess. And now, all of a sudden, they're scaling back and they're going to continue to scale back and they're going to continue to. But guess what? The damage is done already. So what we're talking about right now is how we're going to fix that damage right. How are we going to reopen? The good thing about real estate is that it's stayed open.
Speaker 1:There's a lot of people like us that realize this is just something weird that's happening right now, and the reason why real estate is becoming an essential business is because people have to move. People have to live. If your lease is up and you need to move, you got to get out. If you were under contract when this shit happened and you closed, and you closed, you got to find another house. So people have to move. If you got relocated because of your job and you need to move. You need to move. So that's what we're essential.
Speaker 1:So we're going to see real estate is not going to go. Residential real estate 500 and under is going to take a hit, just like everything else, but it's not going to take a great hit. Million luxury real estate is going to take a hit because again, because that's shopping center owner or that prop, that guy who owns a bunch of multifamily real estate is not collecting rents right now. So that guy is not going to be. As he might not upgrade to a $3 million house from a $1 million house, he might start. He's starting to hold back on stuff.
Speaker 3:So he might put his house in the market, and then that game further dilutes the inventory. He might.
Speaker 1:He might now need to sell because, I mean, I've heard people that were making, you know, a hundred grand a month on rents are making zero, right? So if you're a guy that your lifestyle you know, I'm not here. I'm not expecting you to feel sorry for the guy you know, but but but yeah you do, because that guy's worked his ass off probably to get to that position and all of a sudden you're collecting a hundred grand a month in rents and now you're at zero. What does the debt?
Speaker 3:service. Look like that on the. Do you get the bank to take and put back? Get back loaded which?
Speaker 1:is what it's been doing, but still your lifestyle was built on the hundred grand coming in which it was pretty damn sure it's like the most secure thing in real estate. You purchase real estate and you put it out to rent and all of a sudden your country has told people don't pay rent.
Speaker 3:The government you've been paying, you've been paying taxes to this entire time to sustain, has said don't pay rent.
Speaker 1:It has said guess what? We're going to close the course that throw you out for eviction. We're going to close those things down, okay, so all of a sudden, that guy who owns the shopping center, that guy I mean, I know, I know of a guy and I know a person who owns 20 something shopping centers right, classic car collection, the whole situation, everything like that. That guy has built a lifestyle around this. By the way, that guy, this guy that I'm talking about, started from scratch as a mechanic. This guy is zero, started as a mechanic, opened up his own shop and then he ended up buying a shopping center with a mechanic shop and then, all of a sudden, this you know, doesn't barely speaks English owns 20 something shopping centers. So this guy has built, he has earned and deserves a lifestyle fitting of a person who owns 20 fucking two shopping centers or 20 something shopping centers. All of a sudden, I mean, I know a couple of his shopping centers that are shut down and the only thing that are open are essential businesses.
Speaker 3:Yeah, no, look and I mean, how far up the chain can you kick this? Okay, so you go to the, you go to the banks you borrowed money from the buyer, the shopping center, and say, hey, look, can you take any? Can you kick this back some, so at least you're not going to lose the shopping centers that you have? But then what about your personal debts? I mean, I know American Express had been, uh, has offered to push back payments without any interest, but they won't let you charge anymore, so you don't have the access to capital. Um, all of these things. You know, seeing where the capital is going to come from, because this is a game of musical chairs, right, the money is constantly changing hands. When the music stops, it's a problem, because the money needs to keep moving.
Speaker 3:Um, and so there's, there's really not a good, a good place to sit there and say I mean, like I was talking to somebody the other day. They were talking about, you know, the, this building that he's, that he's in, and he couldn't go to his office. They're not letting anybody in. His father wouldn't work. I said, okay, so they won't let you go make money at your business, but they still want you to pay the rent. Well, he says you know, if you don't pay the rent, then the re.
Speaker 3:The real estate investment trust that owns the building doesn't make their money, and so grandma winds up getting screwed out of her uh, her income because she's invested in the real estate investment trust, you know. And there's this big circle because the capital comes from somewhere and moves somewhere else. So whoever is not getting paid in this whole circle, circle of life, if you will, they're hurting, and so it's going to be a matter of seeing how this, this pain, gets spread out, and the biggest thing we can do really is stop the pain as soon as we can by getting everybody back to doing the thing. It is that they do.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so yeah, residential real estate shouldn't take a hit. Commercial is definitely going to take a hit. It's mostly going to take a hit in office and uh and retail. Retail should bounce back Sure At to some extent.
Speaker 1:I think retail bounces back pretty quickly pretty quickly and and and and it'll be semi-whole to what it used to be. Um, and the reason why we keep on pointing out office is because one I guess good byproduct of this is that people are starting to realize that they could do business remotely, remotely. They could do business what I've known for a while, that we've been doing here and in the office for. For a couple of years I think already that we've been doing stuff virtually and teaching classes and everything. So the struggle that we've had is having our realtors adopt and understand and feel comfortable with that. Get over the hump of actually doing it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and realize what I. I remember one day I came in and I had a recruiting meeting with an agent that couldn't come in. So I, you know I was one of the ones that I wanted to. No, I want face to face, I want to come in and the whole situation right, because it's a different feel and everything. What I thought to that extent, you know. But what I started realizing is that as long as they're seeing my face and I'm seeing their face, that connection is there. The body language is there. When I smile, they smile. When they smile I smile. If I yawn, they'll yawn. You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1:So that connection is I'm not going to say it's a hundred percent there, because I guess there's a touch and a smell and there's. You know, a person comes in with a nice perfume and you know that type of stuff, I get it and you know, and maybe there's a lot more chit chat because of it. Okay, but fuck, dude, it's in the nineties. As far as connection is concerned, it's in the nineties. So I'm happy about that. I'm happy that my realtors are going to be a lot more comfortable with that because, for example, if they're meeting with and they want to talk to a client today and show them properties. They should be going on go to meeting and sharing a screen. Oh, they should be going on Zoom and sharing a screen and showing them properties, right, you know? Virtually while they're seeing their face and making that connection I mean having a virtual consultation.
Speaker 1:Virtual consultation right, there's doctors doing virtual consultations right now. I had, I had, right before the virus, I had my, my, my, my yearly checkup, the blood and the whole situation Did you have a virtual prosthetic exam that would have been better than the real one.
Speaker 3:I tell you that.
Speaker 1:But but um, there was, I forgot there was a. There was a. There was a prostate exam joke that I had to get one. Um, I got some like weird infection and everything like that. And uh, I remember I had a fool, I mean it was. It felt like at least three fingers were, were, were, and I remember the uncomfortableness. When I left there, the only thing I could think to do was I blew the guy a kiss and I gave him a thanks. He started laughing. You know it was a whole thing. But uh, um fuck.
Speaker 3:I forgot where I was going. Well, I think the place that we have right now is really the place to show, to talk to agents out there that may be watching this about the conversations they should actually be having with customers right now, because they probably have a little bit more time on their hand, because they can't go out and really show property other than virtually, which is a great suggestion. But I think encouraging customers to go out there and and look at refinancing now that the interest rates are as low as they are, yeah, um, it may be a good way to take and keep your finger in the game, kind of keep your foot in the door with the customer and show hey, look, you know what? I'm the resource to come to. I have customers that call me, sometimes about questions out of the state all over the place, but I'm the guy they know to talk to about real estate and I earned that by by just looking for opportunities, the other option, the other thing that's. That's going to be a good thing. I agree with you that residential real estate is going to be okay.
Speaker 3:I think investment real estate as far as residential investment real estate is going to clean up longterm from this for the inflationary reasons that I discussed before. So talking to your customers and getting them thinking about hey, there's an opportunity coming, because with investment real estate residential investment real estate you win three ways on inflation. Both the the property value goes up to keep pace with inflation, which we've talked about before. When you're paying the bank back, you took the money out from the bank, you borrowed it. At today's valuation of that money, the money you're paying them back with is future money.
Speaker 3:If that money is being devalued. You're giving them the same number of dollars, but those dollars don't buy what they used to. Those dollars represent less and less value to you. So you win on that. And then the other thing is the rents go up with inflation. Those three things give you a very powerful case to say hey guys, look, refinance your house, take a little bit of extra money out, let's go get some investment property, let's start building a portfolio for you so that when inflation does hit, you're not sitting there with $100,000 in the bank losing money every single day.
Speaker 3:Absolutely, and the other. The other line that I think I like to talk to customers that are a little bit more savvy about is the idea of, rather than sitting there with with idle savings and a savings account, is to invest that money in something whether it's a mutual fund, something where it's going to make some money, and instead, for their, their, their safety net, have a home equity line of credit. A home equity line of credit If the money goes down in value, it's the bank's money. It doesn't affect the person. If you have a 100,000 sitting in the bank and that goes down two or 3% in value, that directly affects you.
Speaker 1:You know I'm kind of like I'm thinking cause, you know, obviously you and I have business ventures together. You know, we've we've had some resistance in recruiting virtually. Sure that shit might go away, those roadblocks that we've had recruiting. I mean we right now we're recruiting virtually. We've done great with recruiting virtually right now during the Corona virus, but I'm saying prior to it, getting somebody who was 50 miles away, there was a little bit of resistance to it. I think that resistance is going to is going to go away.
Speaker 3:I'll tell you what it is Just from yesterday. Yesterday I taught my first CE class online, a first virtual CE class for Orlando, sitting in my office. I taught in Orlando. We did the Cahood and everything. I got told it was the best CE class. That is something some of the several of the people that I ever had. So you're right, you don't lose a ton. I mean, I lose something as the speaker. Yeah, yeah, we do, our speakers, we do.
Speaker 1:That feedback is is is a problem for me. It is. If I make a stupid joke, I. What keeps me alive is is somebody laughing.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that's one person.
Speaker 1:I gotta at least say, yeah, this guy got the joke. And I could continue on.
Speaker 3:Well, there's just fucking, you say a joke, and there's crickets, or you know, it's, it's, it's, it's yeah, you start to question yourself question yourself, and, and, and the enthusiasm and the smiles you need to see that shit, it's it's hard to keep your energy level up too, because we do, as speakers, we do borrow it from the, from the audience. And so for me, like I know that I experienced for me when I finished the class, actually, because I mean I, I definitely I've been on the other side, I've taken so many classes that I know what it's like to be in a room when the speaker's energy is garbage. So I really really focused on keeping my energy up. Man, I felt like I had taught for 10 hours straight.
Speaker 3:When that class was over, I mean, I went home and I was like moping around and just completely spent because it was. It was a lot harder. But I think the boards, the various boards of realtors, are seeing now and they're surprised at how well it went and they don't have to pay. It saved them an overnight. When I go to Orlando, they pay for a hotel.
Speaker 1:For me they pay for a car for me and that huge headquarters that they have. Do they need it that big? Do they need the classroom that big? Do they need that space that? Big and that's where retail, and that's where office starts taking a hit.
Speaker 3:But again, I you know I go back to the other piece of the equation when I sit there and say you know, look, I could go watch Aerosmith concerts on on YouTube all the time. I'll still go pay 150 bucks to go see them.
Speaker 1:Yes, but if you, if you are an employer and have 50 employees and you've heard that Google does great with people working from home, but you're like dude, no way, fuck that. I want them here. But all of a sudden you've been forced to do it for 30, 60 days and all of a sudden they're as productive or more.
Speaker 3:This is going to be another market opportunity, because the people that are able to come up with ways to monitor production, so like, if I need eight hours of production from you and you're my employee, let's say, how do I gauge that? Is it so many PTS 1345 forms I need filled out that day? Like, how do I gauge that? Because if I can put a metric on that, I don't care where you are, as long as I get my 15 PTS 35, four B forms done, I don't care. And so there's going to have to be. And because I mean, I think even from a green perspective, from an environmental perspective, it's great if that person doesn't have to get in the car and go drive to work every day. Or maybe, instead of having to go to the daycare then to work now, they just go to the daycare and come home, right.
Speaker 1:Well, and you have to meet a client to show them properties on your, on your laptop. You don't have to drive to a Starbucks, you don't have to meet them at the office, you don't have to go to their house, you could just do it whenever you want. The scheduling doesn't have to conflict or work around traffic and all that kind of stuff. You could just be like hey, you want to do that Three, I'm at three, I'm at work, but I could do that three. Okay, perfect, let's do that work.
Speaker 1:Absolutely and you're done and you drove less. It might be even good for the environment. No, no, that's what I'm saying.
Speaker 3:There's for a corporation to sit there and say, hey, you know what? We cut our, our carbon footprint by 40% by having, you know, 80% of our employees work from home. Yeah, what does that do? Well, there's people that genuinely care about that stuff. Um, and it means a lot to me and that maybe is the thing that makes them pick that company over the other one. Maybe that's the target versus Walmart decision that somebody makes.
Speaker 1:Um yeah, we have a space. We have a space you could come to work if you want to come to work. But you don't have to come to work, you can work from home. Just make sure you do what you got to do and as long as the productivity is there, you know it's there.
Speaker 3:So you know, and there's a lot of industries where they do that and and they have ways of measuring the productivity.
Speaker 1:Factories can't do that. People have to go there and have to do stuff, you know.
Speaker 3:but but the their accounting department can probably do it, that's the other kind of silver lining to this rain cloud that we have of coronavirus, which is there are industries that are going to come back to the United States of America because they have proven to be so vital. We've outsourced them because, again, unintended consequences we never thought China would do what they did, hoarding materials and things like that and also threatening to cut off our pharmaceutical supply.
Speaker 1:Can you imagine? They gave us this, this, this issue, and now they're they're, they're holding these pharmaceuticals uh, uh, hostage, basically.
Speaker 3:Well, they've been master manipulators for a long time of both the public relations front and and also behind the scenes with within governments like the United Nations and things like that. But there's another big component to this too, which is my. My uncle's a pharmacist. He tells me all the time the problems they have with, um, sub potent drugs they get from China. China verifies, the government verifies what the pharmaceutical companies send over as far as the potency of it. So you're expecting 80 milligrams of your cancer drug. Well, the thing is it comes over and it's only 57 milligrams strong. So you're not getting the results that doctor expect. Like everything is all screwed up. The problem is the Chinese government and the Chinese manufacturer are the same person.
Speaker 1:It's a communist government, you know in my world and, uh, I'm a huge fan of the UFC and and and um, what you see a lot is uh, these guys, uh, they're, they're, they're. You know they pop uh for for uh, performance, enhancing drugs and, and time over time it's been supplements that get made in China and the same VAT that they use for testosterone and illegal shit they're using it for. So what you get is a contaminant from the illegal stuff because they use the same mixing machines and everything like that. So, yeah, I mean the quality control it was there, is, is not is, is basically non-existent.
Speaker 3:No, 100%. I mean, I know that I would talk to the guys that were weight lifters back in the day I used to be a bodybuilder and I would talk to my guys that were serious. You know juicers and the difference between things they would get from China and things they would get from Europe and places like that. You know, when you got a European product you knew if it said 80 milligrams, it was 80.
Speaker 3:It might have been 81, even Right, and so the Chinese product you'd make these guys would be taking two, three times as much of this same thing. What's supposed to be the compensate to get the same result. And you know, that's again, that's a bit anecdotal, but my, my uncle has a, has six pharmacies that he owns out there in which to talk Kansas, oh sure, and he's kind of a big deal out there actually, and he says that I mean they have had huge. I mean people have died, died because the drugs that we get from China, which is like 90% of our pharmaceuticals, are sub potent, they're not as strong as they're supposed to be, because the verification is corrupt and that has proved to be, and I think that it's going to fall under almost a military like preparedness thing that we can't have that kind of obligation or that kind of weakness where China is concerned. We have to be able to produce for ourselves in time of war, because there's so many people on prescriptions in this country yeah, it's huge, all right, man.
Speaker 1:So, all right, guys, I hope we shed some light. I tell you what I learned some stuff here, just on the on the way the federal stuff works and and just by talking through it, I have a lot clearer vision on how I think this is going to work. I think that they're not going to be able to hold this down. I mean, I think that people are just going to start hitting the streets and restaurants are going to start opening because they have to. People are going to start going to work because they have to. You know, the thing that's stopping us is schools. But I think, yeah, you're right. I think people are going to start, you know, having these summer camps and everything like that, and we're going to have to fix that problem. So it's going to be interesting to see what happens. Man, it's going to be a this is a once in a lifetime hopefully once in a lifetime thing. It's going to be super interesting to see what. What bounces back and what doesn't, and how it bounces back. So it's going to be really cool.
Speaker 3:It's going to be beautiful to watch how a free market responds. Because there's one great thing about a free market it means every individual person is using the gray matter in their head to figure out how to make somebody else's life better so that they can make their own life better, and that has been the best tool, the best source for human flourishing in the history of the world.
Speaker 1:We'll figure it out.
Speaker 3:Absolutely, we have to. That's it, that's it.
Speaker 1:All right guys. Thank you very much, kind of like you're the man. Thank you very much again, bro, the best. Appreciate it, man, all right.
