Affordable Housing vs. Affordable Cadillac Escalades (HA 1645)
Affordable Housing vs. Affordable Cadillac Escalades (HA 1645)
Transcript:
Steven Jack Butala:
Steven and Jill here.
Jill DeWit:
Hi.
Steven Jack Butala:
Welcome to the Land Academy Show, House Academy Show today. Entertaining real estate investment talk. I’m Steven Jack Butala.
Jill DeWit:
And I’m Jill DeWit, broadcasting from the Valley of the Sun.
Steven Jack Butala:
Today, Jill and I talk about affordable housing versus affordable Cadillac Escalades.
Jill DeWit:
Do you know before we start, I would like to follow up with something from yesterday, because I’m sure you are dying to know. I checked on Milli Vanilli, and let me tell you what happened here. In case you weren’t sure, they were German-French R&B band from Munich founded in 1988. So what all happened everyone? Well, here it is. In July of 1989, they were doing fantastic by the way. I liked them, who didn’t like them?
Steven Jack Butala:
Me.
Jill DeWit:
Okay well. But it was fun, easy to dance to, good music, right? Well, what happened was, they were on stage during an MTV concert and there was something wrong during the audio course. And they found out that they were lip syncing is how it all went down. And I will have to say too, one of them is still with us. One passed on and they actually performed in July of 2021 at some kind of a festival. And if you really want to know how it all panned out, the one, I will tell you, the net worth of the one who is still with us. I don’t know his name here. But anyway, the one that’s still with us. Oh, Fab Morvan. His net worth is, ready for this, everyone? And you decide if this worked out. $250,000. Not a million. $250,000.
Steven Jack Butala:
Oh my gosh.
Jill DeWit:
I know, bless his heart.
Steven Jack Butala:
I don’t know how they know that, but.
Jill DeWit:
I know. He lives in France. Well, it’s expensive in France. So anyway.
Steven Jack Butala:
I don’t usually say stuff like this, but we have cars worth more than that.
Jill DeWit:
Yeah. Anyway, that’s the update from yesterday. I thought that was funny.
Steven Jack Butala:
Oh, before we get into it, let’s take a question posted by one of our members on the LandInvestors.com online community. It’s free. And don’t forget to subscribe on the Land Academy, YouTube channel and comment on the shows you like.
Jill DeWit:
Charlie wrote, “I was told today the buyer and seller can use different title companies for the same transaction. Is this right? It came up because I want to use a title company that I bought the property with. But the seller requested a different one.” Excuse me. “Anyone ever done this? I guess they’re saying, do the title work with their escrow company and use mine for escrow slash closing.” I wouldn’t do this. Okay. So here’s the scoop. Can I cover this?
Steven Jack Butala:
Yeah.
Jill DeWit:
Alright.
Steven Jack Butala:
Because, in all my years-
Jill DeWit:
[crosstalk 00:03:00].
Steven Jack Butala:
All my years I’ve never heard of this. It’s not like real estate agency.
Jill DeWit:
No, you don’t. This is not how it goes. You’re going to be paying double. If you’re hiring. Because if you think you’re using their title company for all the work and then your title company’s doing something else. They’re just acting as your transaction coordinator or doing double. Usually they’re just going to go, “What?”. They’re going to go, “Why are you talking to me?”.
Steven Jack Butala:
I think the answer to this is no.
Jill DeWit:
Right. [crosstalk 00:03:24]
Steven Jack Butala:
So everything else that Jill says after this is just information. In a good way. Not in a bad way. She’s explaining why. But let’s answer the question.
Jill DeWit:
No.
Steven Jack Butala:
No you don’t ever really have two escrow and title companies.
Jill DeWit:
No, but let me clarify something, because I think this is where this gets confusing. What I do is I’m going to buy a property with tile insurance. And if I can get a hold open clause or carryover policy, there’s different ways that they call it. Where I’m kind of leaving the escrow ready to go for me to quickly sell. So it saves time and money and energy on the sales side. I do that.
Jill DeWit:
So what happens sometimes, most of the time it works out great. My buyer comes along. I say, “Hey, by the way, everybody, I’ve got this title company ready to go. It’s going to save both of us $500 and we can get it done a week earlier.”. Everybody goes, “Oh, yippee ki-yay, thank you for doing that.”. But now and then there are some weirdos. Usually it comes with an agent who’s a weirdo.
Steven Jack Butala:
That’s the problem.
Jill DeWit:
That dig their heels in.
Steven Jack Butala:
That’s what this is.
Jill DeWit:
And they promise Susie over here. They’re always going to use Susie. So I say, “Fine”. So I tell my person, “Thanks very much. Yeah. I wasted a couple hundred bucks. I know. I’ll call you on the next one. Bye.”. And then I go with their one because is they’re adamant about using Susie and do their things. That’s what happens.
Steven Jack Butala:
You know, speaking of Millie Vanilli class action lawsuits. That industry is riddled with kickback class action lawsuits.
Jill DeWit:
Oh god, makes me so mad.
Steven Jack Butala:
That’s why [inaudible 00:04:57] emphatic about Susie. Because, she pays them 2000 bucks at the end.
Jill DeWit:
Something. I don’t know what it is, but it makes me mad. So anyway.
Steven Jack Butala:
Today’s topic, affordable housing versus affordable Cadillac Escalates. This is the meat of the show. Every Thursday, Jill and I hold a Land Academy Thursday webinar. And at the very beginning I spend about an hour, maybe two hours every week, usually on Thursday morning, before we do the show, do the webinar, collecting information from my favorite sources around the internet about what’s going on with real estate. Sometimes it’s land. Sometimes it’s houses. Sometimes it’s things like forbearance and how it’s all going. But it’s just a 10, 15 minute update to take the temperature or the pulse of what’s going on in the real estate industry in our country that week.
Steven Jack Butala:
And it’s for the last… Since COVID started, it’s been impossible for me to do this and not mention affordable housing, because it’s so prevalent. It’s such a thing. And why everybody’s so upset with increased and increasing rent and house prices. When in reality, yeah, it’s going up. It is pretty dramatically going up. It’s setting markets, quite honestly. All that. And it’s always gone up. This [crosstalk 00:06:20] has always gone up with few exceptions. [crosstalk 00:06:22]
Jill DeWit:
So much that people are saying, we talked about that, they’re saying that I can’t buy a house now. You know, the kids are thinking I’m out.
Steven Jack Butala:
Right. Which is a bunch of garbage. You can absolutely buy a house. Anyone here. Anyone. And I proved a few months ago. I proved it. I mean yesterday, I proved it. If you have two people making federal minimum wage, you can buy a house. You just can’t buy it where you want.
Jill DeWit:
In Southern California.
Steven Jack Butala:
So no, I want a new Escalade and I have to ask myself if I can afford it. In lot of cases, the dealership’s going to tell you if you can afford it or not. And the answer’s going to be an emphatic, “No”. So is there any such thing as an affordable Escalade? No.
Jill DeWit:
Why is it people do that? They jump up and down and say, “This isn’t right. They shouldn’t charge us much rent. They shouldn’t do”, but they don’t jump up down and say, “Crap, I’m paying $800 a month for this car.”. They go into it like, “I wanted the car. I guess that’s what it cost.”.
Steven Jack Butala:
Or, maybe they’re a little bit smarter about it and say, 800 bucks is too much-
Jill DeWit:
I hope so.
Steven Jack Butala:
600 would be better. Or if I’m really smart and trying to get ahead, 200 is better.
Jill DeWit:
Do you know what’s sad?
Steven Jack Butala:
Or if I can get my dad’s old car for free. So everybody approaches that correctly, but everyone… You’re right. And this affordable housing thing. If somebody could explain this to me, I would love for you to write in, please.
Jill DeWit:
But some people don’t… Not to be your yang to your yin, but… The yang to your yin. But-
Steven Jack Butala:
Whatever that is.
Jill DeWit:
I used to like to be yin and you’re yang, but this time we’re reversing it. So what are we up to now? Aren’t there like nine and ten year car loans? Which is ridiculous.
Steven Jack Butala:
I think it’s seven.
Jill DeWit:
Is it seven? How did you afford the Cadillac? I’m going to do that. That would be really funny. How did you afford that? “Well, I have a 1022 month loan, and so I still pay $200 a month. Sure it’s until my kid graduates from high school, but”.
Steven Jack Butala:
I saw a Volkswagen ad for a seven year loan. And this is like a year ago.
Jill DeWit:
Yeah. Like why?
Steven Jack Butala:
I’m like, first of all, does a Volkswagen last seven years?
Jill DeWit:
That part, that’s the other thing. Yeah. That’s so funny.
Steven Jack Butala:
So all kidding aside this whole, and this is kind of the world that we live in now. This complaining about stuff, instead of doing something about it is very prevalent. And for some reason, people love to write about it. And so I would like to ask the next person who says it’s not affordable here anymore. I have like a bunch of questions.
Steven Jack Butala:
Number one is, if it’s not affordable here, why do you want to put yourself through that? Why would you want to live some place where you can’t afford it? You don’t want an $800 car payment. I bet an Escalade payment is like $1,200.
Jill DeWit:
I bet you’re right.
Steven Jack Butala:
So no. You buy a different car or you take public transportation or God forbid you get a better job. A better job that pays better. There’s never been more jobs than there are right now.
Jill DeWit:
You know what’s funny though, people-
Steven Jack Butala:
This isn’t for the people who are listening to this show. This is for the people who aren’t listening to this show.
Jill DeWit:
To help them please.
Steven Jack Butala:
Yes.
Jill DeWit:
It’s so interesting. I always remember that learning that as a kid, growing up, you see these people living in not nice houses with really great cars. Why do you do that? Even now I bet if you drive through the apartment complex down the road from you, you’ll find BMWs and this and that. And that’s the choices that they make. They say they can’t afford it, but they can. You’re just saying, they’re just making that choice to put their money here instead of there. Sell the BMW, move to an area that you can afford, and have a good life.
Steven Jack Butala:
Yeah. And get some education where maybe you can work remotely and then you can live anywhere you want.
Jill DeWit:
Remember that car I drove for a while, a hand me down Lexus from you that you got for what, six grand or something maybe?
Steven Jack Butala:
Yeah.
Jill DeWit:
And it was old, but it was great. It was a tank. I felt very safe in that car, because it was just solid and big. And I liked that car. I got the windows tinted. I kept it very nice and clean.
Steven Jack Butala:
I’m not here to judge anybody. I’m not, but this is just the lifestyle that we’ve chosen. And I have a gut feeling that the vast majority of the people in Land Academy choose this type of lifestyle. And so I’m not judging anyone. I’m just saying, let’s just look at some facts. Don’t just jump on some bandwagon and say it’s not affordable to live in Manhattan anymore. Yeah. Then don’t live there. Yeah. But my parents are there. Then get some face-time in.
Jill DeWit:
It’s funny. I get it. That’s perfect.
Steven Jack Butala:
Or get different jobs or however it works.
Jill DeWit:
Happy to join us today. Five days a week, you can find us here on the Land Academy Show.
Steven Jack Butala:
Tomorrow the episode on the Land Academy Show. Well it’s Jack Thursday and I’m going to talk about your land investing niche and how it chooses you. Not the other way around.
Jill DeWit:
I love talking about that by the way.
Steven Jack Butala:
You are not alone in your real estate ambition.
Jill DeWit:
It is really interesting how people like, “I am now doing this kind of deal. Is anybody else doing this kind of stuff over here? And did you know, this is how you solve this problem and that problem?” And a lot of us are like, “What are you talking about?”. They’re like, “I just figured this out, I had a great run with it. That’s your niche”. So it really does find you.
Steven Jack Butala:
Yeah. I mean, here’s a little prelude. This is how it finds you. You’re off doing a real estate deal somewhere. And you find out that if you put a mobile home on it-
Jill DeWit:
There’s a good example.
Steven Jack Butala:
Buy for 10, sell for 25 or 30. If it was just a land, put a mobile home on it. It’s going to take an extra six months, sell for 300. That’s a niche that-
Jill DeWit:
How great is that?
Steven Jack Butala:
That’s a niche that found me. And that was an accident. And these niches are accidents.
Jill DeWit:
I love that. That’s the best way. Did you know that you could talk to us every first and third Thursday of the month on Clubhouse? Yep. So go on Clubhouse. Find the Land Investing Club, follow it. Find us. Follow us and you’ll get notified when we go live and you can tune in, call in. Well, just go live on your phone with us and have a chat with us. It’s really fun. We are Steven and Jill, information-
Steven Jack Butala:
And inspiration-
Jill DeWit:
To buy undervalued property.
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