WEBVTT
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The topics and opinions expressed in the following show are
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solely those of the hosts and their guests and not
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those of W FOURCY Radio. It's employees are affiliates. We
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make no recommendations or endorsements for radio show programs, services,
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or products mentioned on air or on our web. No
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liability explicit or implies shall be extended to W FOURCY
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Radio or it's employees are affiliates. Any questions or comments
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should be directed to those show hosts. Thank you for
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choosing W FOURCY Radio.
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Welcome to to Ask Good Questions Podcasts, broadcasting live every Wednesday,
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six pm Eastern Time on W four CY Radio at
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w fourcy dot com. This week and every week, we
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will reach for a higher purpose in money and life,
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as well as a focus on health and wellness. Now,
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let's join your host, Anita bell Anderson, as together we
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start with Asking Good Questions.
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Hello, this is Benita bell Anderson and welcome to the
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Ask Good Questions podcast. I am so glad that you're
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here today, and today we're going to be talking about
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being divorced or being a widow, and real estate. Now
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it may not apply to you right now, but listen not,
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because who knows when it might apply to you in
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the future. So I would love to welcome to the
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proverbial podcast stage my guest for today Joe Pellegrino Benita.
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Hello, Hello, thank you for having me.
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Thank you for joining me today. Joe is coming at
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us from Maryland. I'm Anna Maryland, Nnapolis, Maryland, and I'm
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coming at you from Hawaii. So we couldn't be further
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apart in the United States. True, but technology is an
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amazing thing.
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Isn't it when it's working for me?
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So let you know, our time is always feels like
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it's so short. So let me give you a little
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bio about Joe. He empowers women to confidently manage their
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real estate portfolios larger, small, specializing and helping those navigating
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property management special responsibilities, sometimes for the first time. So
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today we're going to be focusing on those who are
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divorced or those that have lost their spouse. So he's
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the co founder of Pantheon Group, and he's developed streamlined
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systems that eliminate the overwhelm of managing properties. So I
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want you to be thinking about the principles we're going
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to talk about today, Whether you have more than one
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or just one property that you know, you have a
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spouse that manages, and you don't he The thing is
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that this we want to make this so it's streamlined
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for you and give you some good things and ask
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some good questions about how to navigate this particular challenge.
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He works alongside families across the United States, and he
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and his team serve as trusted advisors, handling everything from
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staff management to maintenance decisions, ensuring their clients can focus
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on what matters most building their new chapter with confidence.
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So this is one of those areas. I don't think, Joe,
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that it really gets talked about much at all, do
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you No.
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You know a lot of people going through divorces talk
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a lot about financial independence, and I think the property
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independence is overlooked. And we kind of came about this
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just through dealing with friends and clients, and it has
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become a separate consulting for the Pantheon Group to really
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empower women who in the past hadn't had to deal
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with the property management to be able to become successful
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and become heroes in their own story doing so well.
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Okay, let's let's kind of get in and discuss this
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and dig into it a little bit. What what are
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the first real estate related challenges that you think someone
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typically faces after a divorce or after the loss of
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the spouse.
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I think there's four main areas. It's vendor management, so
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the folks working in your house. It's the finances of
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the home, so you know, paying the bills and you know,
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doing repairs and things like that. There's transactions, so buying
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and selling. And then there's building a trusted team of advisors.
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So you know there's legal and accounting problems that come
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with all parts of divorce, but they also relate to
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the property and so you should have trusted advisors in
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real estate as well, so that could be real estate
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agents and property managers like myself.
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Wow, well why do you think? Why do you think
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home related decisions often can feel so overwhelming during one
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of these types of life transitions.
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You know, I listened to one of your episodes and
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it was Rochelle Smith from April, and Rochelle is a
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financial advisor, and she said something that really resonated with
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me and I think it would resonate with your audience,
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and that was that a lot of times women in
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a divorce have a very emotional connection to the home.
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You know, it's where there is their families, and they
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often want to keep the home, but that may not
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be in their best interest according to her. And you
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also made a great comment you said that you know,
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during your divorce that kind of came up and it
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said that it made you angry and it made you
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resent your student to be ex husband even more. So
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you know, it can come up very early in this transition,
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and I think it's important to start thinking about it
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because it is a big element of most people's financial
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you know, it's a there's too much.
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I know that a lot of times it's just too
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much to think about. Well, do you have a story
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of someone that you've helped who suddenly had to take
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on this sort of thing.
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Sure, so, so the first client that we took on
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in this sort of advisory capacity was a friend of
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mine's family. He lives on my street. They have a
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beautiful home and they actually have a guest house on
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the property. And he passed away very suddenly in his sleep,
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and his wife was now thrust into this role. And
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they owned four homes and so her husband handled everything
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property wise. He was very successful, obviously, and so he
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was retired and this this was his kind of identity
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or part of his identity or the relationship. And when
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he died, this fell upon his wife and his son
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in law, who son in law has a young family.
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The wife doesn't want to be in the property management business.
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So I said, you know, why don't I take over
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the two properties here. You can help you. I can
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help you find someone for the other properties. But it
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was kind of an Aha moment because it was a
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great example of how we can help people who It's
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it's kind of a separate segment for us, but it's
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an important one. And I think a lot of people
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going through what is already a really tough time in
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their life don't want to have to start thinking about
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taking on new roles. You know, a lot of my
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clients want to spend time with their children and their grandchildren,
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and they don't want to spend time, you know, managing
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the landscape, right.
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They don't necessarily want to. Well, you'll all, like, in
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my divorce, I got a cabin that was very special
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to all of us up in northern Idaho. But I
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can remember the feelings of going in and feeling like
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it was just overwhelming because all of a sudden, I
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have to take care of everything. And it's like, huh yeah.
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I mean most people buy homes and second homes because
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they want them for a specific purpose. Right. They want
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to raise their children there, they want to entertain their
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children and grandchildren there. So it's an asset, right, this
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is supposed to enhance your life. But when it's a
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role that you don't want, that asset becomes a liability,
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and it's a liability that eats a lot of your time.
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Most of my clients say they spend between two and
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four hours a week on their property management, which that
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really adds up quickly. And if you could put the
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right systems in processes in place, our clients see a
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reduction down to about an hour a week for property
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if that and it's mostly reactive. So something broke, uh
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you know, they'll send me a text and we'll figure
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out how to fix it. So uh yeah, I mean
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it's really about turning those liabilities back into assets.
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Right, Well, how do you think emotions like great for
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stress or maybe maybe maybe the biggest one would be uncertainty?
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How would that impact your decision making process?
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So I think you talk about the stress of owning
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a property or multiple properties and having a new role
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as as the property manager. Uh. The way we tend
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to approach that and to reduce that stress is, well,
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let's let's put some pen to paper here and let's
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do a budget. Right, So first things first, let's look
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at the finances and make sure that you know, we
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have the financial means to maintain this property. Yeah, right,
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And then let's look at some other stress factors like maintenance.
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So let's make a list of our vendors and kind
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of attach those vendors to assets. So who's going to
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fix the refrigerator, who's going to fix the roof? If
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we have a leak, who works on the generator? And
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that way we have a list so that when something
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goes wrong, we already know who we're going to call.
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And then the other kind of element that we use
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our checklists. So we like to do checklists for everything.
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So seasonal checklist, Right, how do we get the house
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ready for winter? How do we get the house ready
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for storms? A lot of people, a lot of our
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clients have houses in Florida and you know down south
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in the Carolinas. Yeah, I mean we have Hurricane Andrew, right,
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now on the East coast here, and so we do
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a lot of storm prep and then storm repairs. So
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what do you do after the storm? How do we
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bring the house back? So those are the elements that
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we focus on to reduce the stress of being in
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this new role.
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Well, what do you think that the biggest mistakes are
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the people make? They maybe they rush into some real
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estate decision after a major life shift and do it
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too quickly. What do you think the biggest mistakes are.
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So a lot of people think of property management, it
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doesn't matter if you have one home or five. Most people,
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especially first generation, well think of themselves as like, I'm
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just a normal person, right, Like I don't need to
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have staff for all of these things, and so they
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try to manage these these elements themselves. So you know,
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the thing I hear most is, well, I have a
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guy for this, and I have my builder does that
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for me. And so you have this odd ad hoc
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solution that you think is saving you money, but it's
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actually costing you a lot of time. And you know
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time is all our most precious assets. So in the
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long run, it ends up hurting you. So I think people, again,
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if you take a step back to build a budget.
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You start looking at how much time you either are
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spending or anticipate spending on property management and think about, well,
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maybe that's impacting your career or your relationships with others?
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Can you outsource that? And it doesn't have to be,
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you know, a full blown property management solution. It could
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just be talking to some of your again, your trusted advisors,
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on what can we do to make this better?
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I know some of the biggest mistakes I've made. You know,
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here I am being a financial advisor, but I can
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draw on the mistakes I've made in my life when
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you're talking about those financial considerations like mortgage obligations or
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property taxes, how.
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To WAT fees?
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Yeah, how do you think that all factors into a
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big decision like this on what to do?
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Again? I think you have to really put pen to
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paper and say, you know, just be really honest with yourself.
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Do you are you budgeting properly to do the things
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you want to do? And let's say, stay in the
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house that used to be a marital asset and it's
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now you know, it's it's a single asset. So if
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you really look at your situation and again you're being
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honest with yourself, like how much debt do you have
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or you know, how much money do you have and saved?
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And can you continue to live in the house that
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you you have a very strong emotional attachment to.
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Right when I started this podcast, I was asked, well,
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what do you want to call it? And one of
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the reasons, and one of the reasons that I call
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this ask good Questions is because it was around real
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estate questions, like right before two thousand and eight happened,
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right right, and I had not asked some of those
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good questions which got me into trouble, and it was
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around different real estate things that I was involved in,
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and so it was kind of a no brainer when
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I started this, was like, I think there's a whole
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bunch and it's really playing out to be a good
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title because there's what you're basically saying is you need
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to ask some good questions.
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Yeah, and I think you know, it's not just ask
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the questions of let's say your attorney or your account