Templar Real Estate Radio Show for July 11, 2020
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The following program was paid for by Templar Real Estate. The views and opinions expressed on this program are not necessarily those of the staff and management of WMTR. As always it is advisable to consult a professional before making a major decision. It’s time now for the Templar Real Estate Talk Show. Here’s your host for the program, Joseph J. Zoppi.
Joseph Zoppi:
Hi, welcome to Templar Real Estate Radio Show. My name is Joseph J. Zoppi, real estate investor, consumer advocate, author, and managing partner of Templar Real Estate Enterprises. You can reach us at templarcashforhouses.com that T-e-m-p-l-a-r cashforhouses.com or you could call us at 973-240-8593. Again, that’s 973-240-8593. We can answer any questions you may have, or you can email us from our website. We’ll try to address any topics that you have. Some of the topics that I talk about are based on individual’s questions or certain things they would like us to cover, so we’re more than happy to answer those questions on the air.
My company is a real estate investment firm. We buy houses for cash. We purchase apartment buildings. We do joint ventures with real estate investors. We loan money for rehabs and provide transactional and gap funding. We work with individuals that want to invest with us for single-family houses up to apartment buildings. We do not speculate and we’re very protective of our money and our investors’ money.
I’m not a real estate agent and we’re not a brokerage, but we have individuals on staff that are agents and they can obviously list your property through the Multiple Listing Service. The show will go over everything there is about real estate, those things that impact in real estate. We’ll talk about our rehabs, some of our investments, what went well, what challenges had and what we learned from them. We’ll talk about the economy, interest rates and general real estate trends. Real estate is one of your biggest investments, so the more you know about real estate, the better it is.
This show is based on my opinion and just things that occurred in our business. Okay. It’s just my opinion. I ask everyone to their research and their due diligence for anything they do, any financial transaction, always do your deal due diligence. Also when you do that, and I say this every week, and I’ll preach on this all the time is that, you need to understand when you’re doing the research, the perspective of the information you’re getting in terms of is the author a slant towards one belief or another belief. So, you need to understand that and get a balanced approach to the best of both worlds and then see where it really is. And that’s sometimes very difficult.
As I’ve said before, and I know a lot of people reading about COVID and there’s just so much information out there and who knows really what’s true. First, they talk about not wearing masks, this is in March and it’s not going to help you. And then they said, oh yeah, you need to wear masks and now they’re pushing for mandates to have masks. And back in March, when the CDC was saying that, I firmly believed they had an ulterior motive about saying, you don’t need to use masks and it’s not going to help you is because I think we were low on masks overall and they wanted the first responders and nurses and doctors to have those masks. That’s what I believed from day one. And no one’s ever said anything otherwise, but I just scratched my head that they’re saying you shouldn’t have masks, but the individuals that are dealing with the patients should have masks. Well, if it wasn’t going to help you, then why would it help them? So it just did not make sense to me.
This past week I was interviewed by Forbes and there’s an article out on the internet called Here’s the Secret to Finding Low Mortgage Rates and you’ll see me quoted a number of times in that article. So, I get interviewed probably two times a month, three times a month for different magazines or publications and certain ones are published and certain ones are not. Again, that has to do with, a big part of it has to do with the slant of the article. So, if the author wants a certain slant and my responses aren’t supporting that, they probably not referenced me in those articles. So again, you have to understand the publications and what they want to portray. That’s where you’ll see someone supporting the author’s premise. Sometimes you’ll see a balanced approach, but a lot of times you will not and that’s the reason. I’m not faulting it, but again sometimes you rather have a balanced article than one that’s slanted and in a particular way, but in some ways you kind of need that, so I do understand that to some extent.
If you’re worried about losing your house, please give me a call, we could talk about certain things in terms of preserving your house. We don’t charge anything for that. A lot of times people call us, we’ll give our opinion on certain things when they’re having problems. That’s just what we do. That’s what we’re built on and that’s the premise of our organization is really not only to make a profit and profit for our investors, but also to help people out. And that’s our guiding principle and our mission, really. If you have any questions about trying to save your house, please, please give us a call. If we could help, that would be great. You know, I can’t always help. Certain things have always been taken into account for certain people and they go, we did this, we did this, we did this.
So, I said, yeah.
If you come to a point where you need to sell your house quick, please give us a call. We’ll be more than happy to help you in that and provide you a fair quote in terms of that. And you could close as quickly as you want or a slow. But as time progresses, there are certain things that we can’t always guarantee and that’s the price. We could guarantee the price for like four weeks, maybe five weeks, something like that. But once it starts getting into months, we can’t guarantee the same price. And the reason is we don’t know what’s going to happen two months from now. We’ve always been that way. But especially in this market, you really don’t know what’s going to happen into two months, three months, whatever the case may be.
That’s why, you know, I keep saying to push on, if you’re going to sell your house, sell faster than slower and don’t wait. Even if you don’t have everything lined up, the market is really hot right now and I’ll talk a little bit about it later, but I would seize on that opportunity as quick as possible. Also, if you’re interested in investing passively in real estate, please give us a call. We’d be more than happy to work with you. And we’ll talk and we don’t do any hard sells on anything we do. So it’s a process we want to get to know you, and then we’ll talk money and we’ll talk investments on later meetings. But it’s more of to really understand who you are and for you to understand who we are. That’s really, really important to us.
I’m looking for apartment buildings, 100 plus units, preferably. I’ll do less, but if you have any, if you want to sell directly to us, great. If you know of anyone, please give us a call, I’ll give you a finder’s fee. We’re very discreet so we’re not going to use names if you don’t want names thrown around. So if it’s either for a house that you have down the street that you see needs repair, and it’s overgrown, you could give us a call and we’ll sign an agreement so if we do buy it and we will give you a finder’s fee and the same thing for apartment buildings or any other type of investments. That’s something that we’re always looking for.
A couple of things that we went over this week. The first one was we were talking about and talked about it last week is we had some leaks in basements, we installed French drains, and now we’re installing sumps for that one house that we have. We have two, some pumps going and there wasn’t a lot of water, but it was just coming through the seams and the sumps aren’t really going to be going too much if at all. But it was entering the basement and we needed to do something before we sold it. And we wanted to be upfront with the individuals that were buying the house. They’re a nice couple, they have a small baby and we always want to do the right thing. I think when you’re selling a house, you’ve really got to do that. I know not everyone wants to do that, but that’s kind of important.
When we buy the house from someone, we just buy it as is, so whatever problems there are, that’s the way it is. We have no issues with encountering problems and fixing them, that’s what, that’s what we do. But when you’re selling it to a homeowner, especially a first-time homeowner, you always really want to do the right thing. And I think we always get it back tenfold when we do the right thing and I’m a firm believer in that. In terms of townships, in terms of permits, things like that, a lot of the townships are still closed so they’re on a different way of doing things. Sometimes we’re submitting permits and after the work is completed, we’re just sending him pictures. Same thing for COs and fire inspections. All we’re doing is signing agreements saying we did this and we’re sending him pictures and the townships are fine with that.
Other ones do want to still go onsite and that’s great too. We have no problems with that, but some of them say if you have two entrances, one like case in point for the basement which we’re working on, they said, do you have a second entrance? And then we said, yes so then they were going to come out and look at it. If we didn’t have that second entrance, I don’t think they would have went out to take a look at it and inspect the work that needed to be done. So that that’s something that they continue to push on and I think it’s, it’s a good thing. We have to make sure that people are protected and it’s just a vicious disease.
We have a friend that the entire family got the Corona Virus and there was about eight people and it was the immediate family plus extended friends, girlfriends ex-husbands. So, it’s really crazy and it’s really scary how contagious this disease is. There’s a lot of care that needs to be put into that as well as when we show houses. People have to leave while someone goes in and takes a look at the house. Open houses aren’t as big right now, it’s kind of everything’s a one off. So, people want to go, you know, after hours and come and take a look at a house and the open houses aren’t really as busy as they used to be. And that just started up again in terms of open houses, but that’s the way it is. People are very, very cautious and you can just even see it in the restaurants. You look and I’ve eaten outside numerous times and it’s still not like crowded and filled to capacity. So, it’s kind of disheartening for the businesses and what they’re encountering. Well, we’re coming to a conclusion of my first segment. So, I’ll be returning shortly. Thank you very much.
Joseph J. Zoppi:
Welcome back to The Templar Real Estate Talk Show. My name is Joseph J. Zoppi, Managing Partner of Templar Real Estate Enterprises. You can reach us at templarcashforhouses.com that T-e-m-p-l-a-r cashforhouses.com or you could call us at 973-240-8593. Again, that’s 973-240-8593. A couple of other things that happened this week, we’ve had a lot of listings. Traditionally, we’ll buy a lot houses and we do some listing, but that number has increased substantially. And that’s a good thing because like I said, the market is really hot and there’s not a lot of inventory out there. I strongly recommend that you do it sooner than later. We do not know what’s going to happen at the end of the year or even two or three months from now. No matter what you read, they do not know. There’s possible second wave, or there is a second wave right now, but we still don’t know what’s going to happen and the repercussions of everything that’s going on. And that, that’s the scary thing.
I’m going to talk a little bit later about the commercial market, real estate market and things like that and I think that’s going to get hit really hard. Certain things in terms of certain cities, that’s going to also hit hard, especially in New York City, I think he’s going to get hit really hard as well. That’s something that you have to always be cognizant of and it’s not always going to be everything’s going to be great just because the newspaper says it and you really got to manage your risk. One of the things that I always tell anyone that’s selling their house, whether I’m going to buy it, or they’re thinking about selling in the future is that you’re carrying costs. You’re paying a mortgage and you’re paying interest and that interest is going to the bank.
For the most part, depending on how old the loan is, a large portion of what your pain goes towards interest. As a result of it, you’re just giving money to the bank and you’re not benefiting at all. So if you’re thinking of selling your house and you have an extra house, we’ll say, your parents’ old house that you just have, and you’re still paying a mortgage on it, you’re giving money to the bank, as well as property tax. You’re not gaining for any of that, it’s just money that’s being paid to the Township or to the bank. It could be substantial amount of money, if you start calculating that and you start calculating your water bill, even if you’re not using water for the most part, you’re still paying like some sewer charges and then you have your insurance as well that you have on the house. All this adds up.
When we’re rehabbing a house, we look at those carrying costs all the time and we see how much money is going out. So, we want to fix those houses as quick as possible and get them on market and sell them and close as quick as possible. Even when we sign an agreement, it could take two months almost before we close. That’s still with the property tax and insurance and electric and water, it all adds up. I always, always push on individuals tell them to think about those carrying costs and whether they could sell the house faster. Because again, you always want to seize the opportunity because you never know what’s going to be in the future, if it’s going to be better, maybe, but it’s also could be less. And that’s the thing is I always want to close our houses as quick as possible. Even if we have to take a little bit more of a reduction, we always do that.
Most of the time we sell close to asking and sometimes over asking, but that doesn’t matter. So, if we’re going to take a little bit of a reduction, we will do that for the most part, I’d rather have money in hand. And I think when you’re selling your house, you have to think of those things. With the listings we’re having right now, a lot of the homeowners are pushing the envelope even higher and we’ll see where it goes. Some of them aren’t going to sell and then we’re going to have to reduce the price. And we made it very clear, we said, this is the price you’d go in at, a lot of the homeowners, well no, I’m going to push a little higher, I’m like, okay, that’s fine with us. We will be more than happy to work with the seller in terms of the price they want. There’s just that caveat that it might sit on the market for a while and we need to reduce it.
But in this market, relatively speaking, because there’s not that much inventory, it’s not as bad to do that. And we have been going a little higher in terms of what we normally recommend because of that, because the inventory is not there. But if you have a market where there’s a decent amount of inventory, we really frown upon it, but we always do what the customer wants in the end anyway, that’s just our opinion. We don’t know everything, sometimes we’re right, sometimes we’re wrong. More times than not we’re right because we know the markets really well. But there are those times where I couldn’t say we’re right, 100% of the time because that’s not the case, but probably 80% of the time, 75, 80% of the time we’re on point with the numbers because we know the markets really well, what it’s selling for, how many days on market, all those things. And they’re all factors that we look into and decide in terms of a price.
One of the things that we got a call this week on, an individual, they have a house and their parents have a house they need to sell and they just want us to buy and we get that a lot. We have the financial ability to do that and a lot of investors don’t. So that’s something that if you have a house and your parents have a house, or there’s a couple of houses that you want to sell quick, please give us a call. We do that all the time and it works out well. So, there’s no burden in saying we sold one of the houses, but the parent’s house, we didn’t sell and they’re still in it and they want to come live with us. And that’s the case for this family is that they’re trying to sell the house and their parents are trying to sell the house and they’re going to pull the money together and move somewhere and get a house where they can live together, which is a great idea. It’ll work out well for both of them.
I had an individual that called this week and uh, she was talking to the agent and then the agent passed it onto me. And I was talking to him and he has a house in the town Hudson County. And he says, “Joe, the house is not selling, will you buy it?” And I’m looking at it. He says, “It’s on the MLS” I said, “How long it’s been on there for?” And he says, “Like 20 days” I go, “Twenty day is not a lot.” And I said, “You should stick it out.” And he was very adamant about certain things. Usually we want to make sure that we work very closely with the client, but I set it straight down with him. I said, “Listen, you need to listen, and you need see what’s going on here.” Because he just wasn’t listening at all. I said, “I’m trying to help you out.” I said, “I don’t care if I have a sale or not. I’m trying to help you out. And I’m telling you what the issues are” because the price was too high. I just knew the price was too high. And I said, “Also you have a pool in the backyard” I said, “That’s going to limit the number of individuals that want to buy the house.” He goes, “Well, people like pools.” I go, “I’m not saying that. I’m saying some people like pools.”
When we purchase a house, if it’s an above ground pool, we knock it down every single time, because it limits the number of individuals that want to buy the house. Some people don’t want pools. They don’t want the maintenance. They have little kids, they have to worry about. And this, this house has an in-ground pool, which adds complications to it because if the family has little kids, they have to worry about the kids running out the backdoor and falling into the pool or playing in the backyard. So that adds a lot, the complications to it and you’re going to limit the number of individuals that want to buy the house.
After talking to him about some of this stuff, he goes, “Yeah, Joe says, I liked the way you do business. I want to do business with you. Can we do that?” I said, “Yeah, let’s wait 10 days, see if the house sells and then come back and we’ll talk some more and we’ll list it and we’ll list it at the right price and we’ll take it from there.” Because he had a friend, I think that originally listed the house for him or he had the listing because he was apart-time agent, something like that and it wasn’t working. So, we’re going to always do the right thing and we’re going to tell you the truth, whether you like it or not. That’s just the way it is. In the end, I think we, we garner a lot of respect because of that. We don’t want to say, yes, yes to everything. There are certain things we will and there are certain things we’re going to tell you straight up why it’s not a good idea. So that’s really important.
We had one house, a gentleman was selling the house, it was on the Multiple Listing Service and couldn’t sell it beautiful house, beautiful. I looked at it and I said, “I’m not going to be able to buy it. It was probably around $700,000 and we’ll buy some of those houses. But with that being said, is that the house was pristine and the money I was going to have to buy at, he wasn’t going to settle for that. Because I knew I was going to have to hold it for a long period of time and I was concerned about that. Those types of houses sit on the market longer just historically they do. I was just telling him that the price is too high because the house was immaculate. He says, there was a problem with the roof. I said, “That that’s not why you’re not having the house sold.” And then he was saying that he went through a discount brokerage and that all the agents in the area did not want to show the house. And I said, “That’s not the case.” I said, “What is the commission rate?” And it was a fair commission rate. And I said, “That’s not the reason either.” But he had these things in his mind, and he said, “No, that’s not the case.” I’m said, “I’m telling you, that’s not the case.” So, he was super strong type A personality. And I said, “Listen, I’m just telling you what it is. Those aren’t the reasons you’re not selling it.
I had the address, I put it into our file and uh, reduce the price a little bit a couple months later, but he never sold it. He took it off the market and that was last year. Now he put it back on the market and he raised it another $75,000 and we’ll see if he sells it. Again, the market strong so he might. But also, his carrying costs were really high on it. He might make out, but if he sold it, I think a year ago at the reduced price, I think he would have probably made her better. But that’s the way it is.
Well right now I’m coming to a conclusion of our radio show. Thank you very much for everything. Again, if you’re interested in selling your house, please give us a call. If you know of anyone, please give us a call. And if you’re want to do business with us in terms of investing, please give us a call. You call us at 973-240-8593. Thank you very much and have a nice day. Bye
The preceding program was paid for by Templar Real Estate. The views and opinions expressed on this program are not necessarily those of the staff and management of WMTR. As always it is advisable to consult a professional before making a major decision.
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