Templar Real Estate Radio Show Transcripts 4-10-2021

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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 J. Zoppi:
Hello. Welcome to the Templar Real Estate Talk Show. My name is Joseph J. Zoppi, a real estate investor, consumer advocate, author and managing partner of Templar Real Estate Enterprises. You could reach us at templarcashforhouses.com, that’s T-E-M, like Mary, P-L-A-Rcashforhouses.com, that’s one word or you could call us at 973-240-8593. Again, that’s 973-240-8593 and we could answer any questions you may have or you could email us from our website on any questions or any topics you want discussed for this radio show. 

For first-time listeners, my company is a real estate investment firm, we buy houses for cash, we purchase apartment buildings, we do joint ventures with other real estate investors, we loan money for rehabs and provide transactional and gap funding. We work with individuals that want to invest with us in single-family houses up to apartment buildings. We do not speculate, we’re very protective of our money and our investors’ money. I’m not a brokerage and I’m not a real estate agent but I have individuals on staff that are agents that could sell your house through the traditional Multiple Listing Service. 

The show will go over everything there is about real estate and those things that impact real estate. We’ll talk about our rehabs, some of our investments, what went well, what did not go well and especially, how we overcame those issues. We’ll talk about the economy and interest rates, we’ll discuss trends in the real estate market. Real estate is one of your biggest investments, so it’s important you know as much as possible about it. 

I will provide you with my opinion and it’s only my opinion. I ask everyone to do research on everything that I talk about or anybody else brings up. Make sure you do lots of research, make sure also, you get opinions from other individuals especially if someone recommends someone, as I would say every week, ask lots of questions because what might be fine with one person, might not be fine with someone else and that, I can’t stop preaching on and that’s very, very important.

To one of my favorite listeners, Paulette and Tim from Cedar Grove, thank you very much and also Cindy and John as well. I’d also like to thank some of my private investors that have invested in a couple of new deals we have and that’s Jenny and Sam. So, Jenny and Sam, thank you very much. Again, with private investors, these are normal individuals that want to invest money in some of my deals and it’s everyone from firemen to police officers, state workers, teachers, so on and so forth. If you’re ever interested, please give me a call, we could sit down, we could talk, we could do a zoom call, whatever the case may be. Again, if you’re interested in selling your house fast for cash, please give us a call. If you need sell your house through the traditional Multiple Listing Service, I got some great agents, so they’d be more than happy to help you and support you through the entire process. One of the biggest things I always talk about is the ability to negotiate and understanding the transaction, not just we’re going to list the house and show the house and market the house, you know? That’s very, very important but then the other part is when you get multiple offers, who should you take? Who shouldn’t you take? Maybe one offers better than the other from a monetary perspective but it’s not the best offer. 

So, those are all factors that we look at. Then comes everything from when they do inspections and they’re complaining about the doorbell doesn’t ring or whatever the case may be and all of a sudden, you have to negotiate those things. So, we work very hard with the seller on that. We look at it very closely. We have a team of individuals that could jump in, fix something if it needs to be. So, it’s an all-around solution that we provide. It’s just not we’re going to list the house and that’s it. So, I advise you, I think one of the best around especially, what we bring to the table. Our foundation is really through real estate investments and with real estate investments, there’s a lot of negotiation and there’s a lot of things that come up and we do that all day long. So, for us to sell a house and assist you with that is really right up our alley and we’re just not going to list it like I said. There’s a lot more to it and we have a great team of individuals from attorneys to anyone that needs to repair it really quickly and at a reasonable price which is kind of difficult these days.

I’ll tell you that much because the prices have gone up so much with material costs as well as labor costs, it’s just really through the roof. A couple other things, I’m still looking for some underwriters for our bigger deals that we’re going to do and we’re in the process of doing and those individuals have to have a strong financial background, preferably a former CPA possibly, doesn’t have to be current CPA, it could be individuals that are very good at crunching numbers, knows Excel spreadsheets really well, those types of things and very logical and hardworking. So, we’re looking for individuals to help underwrite these deals and it’s for mostly for apartment buildings, a hundred plus units throughout the country and it’s, I think, really exciting what we’re doing right now. The other thing is, is I’m looking for apartment buildings. I’m looking for single-family homes. If you have anything, please give us a yell. Also, provide finder’s fees and everything’s very discreet, so I’m not going to be saying it if you don’t want me to use your name, that’s fine and yeah, just give me a call on that. 

So, last week I missed last week in terms of doing a radio show, it was kind of difficult because the radio station was closed on Friday and I usually do my recording on Fridays and then that was going to push it up and that was Holy Thursday and I was really busy between the job, just everything going on in the business and then going to church and everything. So, I just couldn’t squeeze it in and unfortunately, I couldn’t. I would have, I was looking forward to it. I look forward every week to do a broadcast and share content and hopefully help people out in terms of that while saving money and some just good tips. The other thing is, is that, I was looking back and Easter, I had gone to church in the morning and then I picked up breakfast from him, my kids and we had breakfast and after that, I didn’t do anything on Easter except some dinner and it was the first time since, I think, Christmas that I didn’t work a day. So, I was like… it was like really just… it was just really relaxing and I really didn’t think about anything to do with the business or anything like that and it was just really, really good and I didn’t realize how much I really needed that day off because usually I’m going literally seven days a week.

I’m working at… every day. Maybe sometimes on Sundays, I’ll work half a day but I still am working probably a good half day at least, even on a Sunday which I really shouldn’t be but it was really just great to take off. I was talking to a prospective client last night, she had filled out a form from my website. It was like 9:30, I was just finishing breakfast… dinner, excuse me and I called her up. It was about 9:30, quarter to 10 and she says, “I’m glad you called. I didn’t realize you’re still work.” I said, “Yeah, I’m still working there. It doesn’t matter when it is.” So, I’m going to be looking at her home Sunday and she said, basically, she needs to sell fast and I said, “We could also list it.” and she says, “No, it’s just going to be… in terms of the financial situation, it’s really not worth it.” and there’s, I guess, some pending bills due, so I’m going to see what we could do with her. She said the house needs a lot of work and we’ll see where we go with that but yeah, it doesn’t matter if it needs a lot of work or it doesn’t need a lot of work. If we come to an agreement, that’s great. Or we could always sell on the Multiple Listing Service. 

I had another individual, she filled out a form, I called her up this week and I said “If you don’t mind, why are you interested in selling?” And she says, “I hate my neighbors” She says, “I don’t know if there’s a word that’s stronger but I just hate them.” I was like, “Okay, don’t worry about that and we could handle it.” and I said, “I get a lot of calls more often than not on family members that live in houses that they’ve rented out and then they’re not paying and they just want the family member out.” And I told her that and she says, “Yeah, I know about that also.” So, she went through a lot and we went there yesterday, I didn’t, my partner, she went and went over everything and what was… we looked at the house on Google maps and it was setback pretty far compared to all the other houses. The other houses were fairly close to the street but this one was set back really far. I’m looking at that and then I look and there’s a shed in the front yard and I’m like scratching my head on that and then I get an aerial view from Google maps and that’s what’s so great about the internet and Google. You can do a lot of things ahead of time and I looked at the property lines because you could see that also through Google maps and it looked like it was right against the back of the property line. 

So, there was really literally no backyard and so I said, “Okay, that makes sense.” but again, that impacts the marketability of the house that you can’t even go in the backyard and your backyard is really the front yard and then there’s no privacy. So, my partner, she was there and before I go any further, I need to take a break and then I could continue with this very shortly but I want to bring up two other things before the break. So, two weeks ago I brought up a couple of restaurants, a restaurant and a deli and I’m going to use their names again and one is Mara’s Italian Deli, 263 Changebridge road in Pine Brook and her phone number is 973-808-7480 and her name’s Teresa. So, use my name and you get 10% off all the lunches, lunch and catering orders and she got a lot of responses to that. So, I’m going to continue that at least till the end of the month of April. So, that’s an effect till the end of April and the other one is Basilico who’s one of my favorite restaurants. Gentlemen, the owner is Mario, speak to Mario, tell him I recommended you and he’s located on 324 Millburn avenue in Millburn and his phone number is 973-379-7020. Again, I want to bring up some people that I do a lot of business with in terms of going to their facilities and they have great food, great people and I want them to succeed. So, I want to make sure that of that. So, I’m going to close out this segment but again, if you need to reach us, call us at 973-240-8593 or templarcashforhouses.com. I’ll see you in a couple. Thanks.

Joseph J. Zoppi:
Hello. Welcome back to the Templar Real Estate Talk Show. My name is Joseph Zoppi, managing partner of Templar Real Estate Enterprises. You could reach us at 973-240-8593. Again, that’s 973-240-8593 templarcashforhouses.com, that’s T-E-M-P-L-A-Rcashforhouses.com and if you want to sell your house fast or you want to sell it through the traditional Multiple Listing Service, please give us a call. 

So, as I said before, this woman contacted us and my partner went out to her house and walked the property and like I said, the house was really set back and it was right against the property line. Usually, it’s not that close to the property line but it was really, really close and the house needs work and she said it was in fair condition. It was probably in fair condition and she was really accurate with that and we asked her basically, what she wanted for the house and it was a very fair and reasonable offer and we said, yeah, we could go forward with that and we went through the contract with her and one of the things in the contract states that you have three days to get out of it and if it has to be more, it has to be more but it just, in there, it says three days and she said, “There is no way I’m getting out of this transaction. I hate those neighbors. They’re nosy. I’m a very private person. They always want to know everything going on.” So, it was kind of funny but there’s a number of things we have to do to the house and we need some good paint and redo the cabinets and some of the bathrooms could be partially salvaged, I think, some of the tile work but we’re going to have to replace vanities and a number of things like that as well as there’s work that needs to be done in the basement.

One of the things we’ll probably do is she has some new or fairly new appliances. So, a lot of times we swap out the appliances but they’re in pretty good shape but they’re kind of soiled and everything. So, one of the things we do and this is a little trick that I’ve picked up over the years is like on a gas stove, the grates for the gas stove and the burners and everything, you take them, usually you soak them but one of the easiest ways to clean them is you put them in a big plastic bag like one of those trash bags and you put some ammonia in it and, yeah, you just put a few splashes, three, three or four and it really doesn’t have to cover it and then you seal it up and just do that for overnight and then you open it up and you have to watch the fumes because it’s very strong from the ammonia but make sure when you seal it, you seal it really well and what happens is those fumes eat away at all the grease and everything and basically, you could just almost wipe it off and they come really, really cleaned. So, that’s a little trick. Now, also, around the grates and everything which I haven’t done before but we’ll probably do it with this is just pour a little ammonia and then cover them with, I think, cookie trays, invert them and then maybe some masking tape around it and let the fumes, again, clean all around it and then just wipe it away but it’s an easy trick, it works really, really well, it probably works with a bunch of other things too that are dirty. 

I wouldn’t do it maybe on Teflon pans or anything like that. We really don’t need to but maybe regular pans you could even do it and it just… the fumes just eat away at it and it’s really pretty cool and the other thing we had, there’s like a fence also in the front yard and it’s a split rail fence. So, split rail fence is basically one of those fences where you have the two posts and then you have the three pieces of logs or wood that go across and you see that sometimes on farms and things like that and it’s pretty old and traditional. So, one of the challenges with that is, we always like to make the lawn really nice and the fence kind of distracts from it and it just doesn’t look good, especially because the front lawn is so big and the fence is okay but we want to remove that and one of the ways that we remove that, it’s pretty cool too, is that we get a couple two by fours, maybe like 18 inches, about 18 inches, so get two of those and we drill holes, we put them together and drill some holes through it and the holes are usually about a half an inch to three quarters of an inch wide and we hammer them together and then what we do is, we take that piece of two by four and put it against the post and then drill the hole with a long bit that goes through the two pieces of the two by four which already have a hole in it and then through the post and all the way through the post and then we get three long screws basically, with nuts and push them through. 

So, then you have a post with two, two by fours connected to it through these three screws and then we get a jack and it’s one of those jacks, you get it at a couple of different places, you get at Home Depot or there’s another place, I forget off the top of my head and they’re called a truck jack or in the old days, we’ll say they used to be a bumper jack that used to put on your bumper and then ratchet it up all. Well, it’s basically the same type of jack and you put it underneath the pieces of wood and you keep jacking it up and it pulls out the whole post with the concrete and everything. So, it’s really, really pretty cool and it’s basically one person could do all the different posts very easily and it takes probably about 10 minutes, about 10 minutes per post, maybe a little bit longer and you really don’t have to be that strong, the jack is really doing the work and you could also see that example, I think, on YouTube. I saw it once a long time ago, so those are two good tricks, one to clean a stove and a few other things and the other one is to remove posts from… wood posts from a yard and lift them out without killing yourself. So, the last thing I want to talk about and I only have a few minutes is about a gentleman, his name was Bill Wang and I’ve talked about before about margin with stocks, I’ve said that you really got to watch it and I would strongly say to you not to use margin when you’re buying stock because what you’re doing is basically, they’re loaning you money and you’re purchasing more stock, then you could really pay for in cash.

So, when things go up, it’s great. When things go down, it’s really bad and you could really multiply the losses considerably, you could… it’s just crazy. Well, this gentlemen, Bill Wang, from what I understand and I’m going to tell probably next week a lot more about leverage in the stock market versus leverage in real estate but with Bill, I think he had like started out with $50 million and he grew it into like it was approximately… they’re not quite sure, anywhere between $5 billion and $20 billion and he’d used leverage with a product called Swaps and I’m not going to get into what a swap is right now but it’s kind of what you think it is. You’re really basically swapped and trading a bank’s position or a underwriters position on stocks and you’re going to get certain amount of money as a result of it and you have to pay a fee but I’ll get into and make it a little clearer next week but this individual purchased these swaps and he leveraged them and probably… probably, he definitely leveraged them more than he should and I don’t know if his hedges, so sometimes what you do is if you are going to go in a certain direction with certain stocks or options, you do certain things to have like a safety net in case things go the wrong way. So, you don’t lose as much money. 

Well, it doesn’t look like he did a really good job with that and within two days, he lost whatever it was, $5 billion or $20 billion and so he’s in bad shape and the different institutions that were holding that position took really big hits also and these are big players like Goldman Sachs, I think there’s Nomura which is a Japanese investment firm and a number of other ones and they took major hits because of this. So, it doesn’t matter if you’re a little guy trading on margin or a big guy, margins, if they go the wrong way on you are wicked and they are not forgiving at all and that’s why I preach always against that. Again, I have the scars to feel that. So, it’s not just out of reading about it but it’s occurred to me as well. So, really impacted me. So, please no margin, okay? So, I got to close everything out. Again, before we do that, go see Theresa at Mara’s Italian Deli in Pine Brook. Again, she’ll give you 10% off on any lunch orders as well as catering orders through the month of April. Again, make sure you just say that I called or I spoke to you about this and the other one is Basilico which is in Millburn, great Italian restaurant and speak to Mario on that. So, thank you very much. Again, you can call us at 973-240-8593 or templarcashforhouses.com. Thank you very much. God bless, have a nice weekend, take care. Bye

The preceding program was paid for by Templar Real Estate. The views and opinions expressed 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. 

END OF RECORDING