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November 9, 2021 15 mins

Real estate entrepreneur Maja Sly joins us for this special Money Moves covering all things real estate. Maja runs a real estate empire, a chain of beauty salons in Atlanta, a hair extension store, and an entrepreneurial training and coach program. Anything in the real estate space you have ever wanted to learn about this woman is your go-to source. 


This is the episode for you self-employed entrepreneurs buying a home, Maja goes over your 1099 MISC, Lan Banks, tax hacks, underwriter preparation, and your debt to income ratio. 


Host: IG: @itstanyatime

Guest IG: @majasly

Gust Website: Majasly.com


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Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Alright, Maya, we are right back at it with another
question from one of our Money Versus Moves audience members. Okay,
this is actually a really good one, may They wrote in,
and this revolves around buying a home without a W

(00:20):
two income, which a lot of people have. We've got
up so many big economy folks, so many contractors. So
mone Rose wrote in, I've been self employed for about
three years. My taxes are paid on a quarterly basis,
and my credit is nearly sort of kind of dot
dot dot, just under seven hundred. And I don't know
what that means. I did not receive a W two,

(00:42):
but I have a ten ninety miscellaneous. How do I
go about buying a home? And will this hinder my
chances of being able to get into my dream house?
Where's the problem? I love her love If they all
look like that on paper, that's an underwriter's dream. If
you're self employed, you don't have to work for a
company and have a W two to be able to

(01:02):
qualify for a home, but you do need to be
careful of your write offs if you are a ten
ninety name Okay, okay, and then tell you more reason
being so if you are ten nine miscellaneous, that hundred
thousand dollars a year or fifty thousand dollars a year,
you haven't taken any of your deductions. So if you
haven't taken any of your deductions, that are legally and

(01:23):
rightfully yours. So you can write off your parking, you
can write off travel, you can write off food. Well,
that brings your adjusted gross income. That's your a g
I way down. So you can make a hundred but
your a g I B twenty four thousand, Well, you
can't buy a double wide trailers dollars are yeh wow.
So that's a really interesting almost like a conundrum because

(01:46):
you know you're a contractor, and you know a lot
of those businesses expenses are offset via your ins and
outs and you your expenses. But if you're trying to
build a home, you really have to be cautious about
that because at the end of the day, I can
make twenty grand again, double white trailer, and you can
we can put that on an acre lot and trick
it out, but it's gonna be Yeah, I mean, that's

(02:06):
a real way of life. So it's an amazing thing.
But um so for her, she would be an ideal
client avatar for an underwriter, three years, three years tax return,
paying your quarterly taxes. That's great, but this is again
always the long game. So if you know you want
to purchase, you need to look at what is my
justice gross income for twenty nineteen. Now we're heading into

(02:32):
two so this is a perfect time for you not
to take those deductions. So that's the hack. Just don't
take yeah, because don't take them because if you know
you want to purchase a home at a certain price point,
talk to the lender ahead of time and say, what
does my income need to be this is where I
was last year, because they will take the two years
in average of the amount, so you can still qualify

(02:54):
for the home you want. So that's the biggest challenge
with someone like her is the adjusted gross income because
people think they're doing everything right on paper, but they
haven't spoken to a lender. They're doing everything tax wise right,
and of course nobody wants these fifty sixty dollar tax
bills because at a hundred their tax bill would have
been twenty seven thousand dollars, So of course they took

(03:16):
their write ups. Well, next year it might be better
for you to take fear a tax write offs so
you can qualify for more, just pay it in the
tax because then you can get what you want. Oh,
I love this, and you know, I think people have
to understand it's really about the long game. And you know,
when we all set our intentions and do our vision
boards and stuff like, sometimes I feel like we need
to bring a real estaper agent or tax accountant or

(03:37):
broker so that they all can sit there and be like,
how are we gonna make this happen? Because you can't manifest.
You can't manifest the d t I. You're dead to
income ratio can't be manifested. So we have to have
the right information. So being self employed, most of us
mean just to speak real like this, A lot of
us are first generation business owners. Your parents couldn't have
prepared you for this now because they had no earthly

(03:59):
idea that this was even possible. You know. Oh, put
down so you don't have mortgage insurance, so you're gonna
put forty dollars down on a two dollar house to
say a hundred and sixty dollars a month. Yeah that
that that doesn't like, I'm fine with that. So I
always tell clients, let's just look at the real number.

(04:20):
We're gonna buy based on payment, right, but that payment
meaning let's keep our cash. Because you are self employed.
Cash is king, credit is queen. We need them both together.
They have to rule the land together. So that is
for a client like that, that's super duper important. But
I'll tell you to piggyback off of that question. The

(04:40):
biggest challenge we have with self employed people they are
not set up properly terms of in terms of their companies.
They don't have the Yeah, they don't have their you know,
they're just going to a tax prepare to do their
taxes and they're taking all of these write offs and
they don't have their naces code identified correctly. The underwriter
is like working with an jine. You ever worked with engineers?

(05:01):
Very black and white, right, Yeah, they're like very binary. Yeah,
so they're like, what do you mean, what do you
mean your nace's quote isn't there? What do you mean Like,
there's certain things that I'm not a tax prepare, why
would I know that? So they treat the client as
if they're supposed to know all of these things. You
know so hard because you know, you are the sole
proprietor of a lot of these businesses and they're just

(05:23):
trying to get by and make revenue, and so it's
just broad. So I'm hoping that you guys are really
able to take some of the tips and trucks that
we learned today and really understand that. And you know what,
here's the thing. We're not hoping that everyone becomes an
expert in all these areas. But then you find the
information that's pertinent to you, and you seek out professionals
and make sure you it's like building the A team.
It's like literally like the A team. You've got all

(05:45):
your superheroes beside you, so that you can get to
your dream home, build some wealth, and do it in
the most savvy way possible. Do it in the most
savvy way, and then also know legally what an underwriter
can say or disallow. So if you're self employed and
you took all of your right offs, you know, if
you purchase a car six thousand pounds, right, okay, you
get to by the entire car off, so that same

(06:07):
they get to add that back. So now, so no,
which right offs are important to take because that's a
tax credit. So though it took their A g I
down the underwriter has to add that back as income.
So now that's sixty tho dollars plus you're now we're
at eight thousand dollars. So we're back up there. We
get to our dream home. We can make something shake

(06:29):
with a d something thousand. Yeah, I mean again, no
shade to the double wide. So but again let's just
be clear. And then also another thing for self employed people,
making sure you are licensed in the state that you're
trying to buy that home. A lot of people don't
know that or that your license at all. Do you
know any barbers and stylists aren't licensed? Okay, well that

(06:52):
is just like your own silly oversight. I'm just calling
I know, but it is. But come on, but this
has been going on for years generations and generations are
people who might have letten their license laps. There's things
of that nature. But when you get ready to purchase
a home, if you have hairstylists, they're gonna pull your
license if you are not licensed in that state. So
you could be licensed in California and buying a home

(07:14):
in Georgia, right, well, you have to go sit for
the board here again. Okay, now that I did not
know that makes sense because oftentimes you were like, what's
the big deal, I just crossed the border around every
Every state is different. So if you're not licensed, you
will not be able to purchase a home. It will
automatically disqualify you because legally you can't make an income

(07:35):
in this state. That is the t So if you
were a salon owner, yes, but not as a stylist,
if you're not licensed in that state, not as a barber,
if not as a realtor, if you're not licensed in
that state ass as your primary residence, as your primary residents.
An investor, yes, but even as an investor, if you're

(07:57):
not licensed in general, you can't do it. Oh my gosh,
this is liquid gold that you're pouring right now. Yeah, okay,
there's so many more questions. I've got a list of them.
Let me move on to our next one. Can you
walk us through the process of buying a tax lean
a property with a tax lan on it? Oh my,
that is because I mean that people love to find

(08:18):
They're like, oh, I found this needle in Haystock. I
see on this property it has a tax lean on it,
and it's just gonna be Yes, Yeah, I'm gonna get
five million dollars in equity, Yes, says everybody. It happens
almost never, Yeah, so I will tell you. But there
are some hacks to this as well. So if you
buy a property with a tax ling, you need to
know the laws in that state. So if it's two

(08:38):
years in one day, some um states is one year
and one day, some are three, so every state is different.
You need to know what the law is there. But
as soon as that day passes doesn't mean that you
get to go get a clear deep there's still a
process after that. Yeah, but as long as you know
the right information, so you don't start working on the
process that day, you start working on it before then.

(09:00):
Because I mean, I've had it happened millions of times
that the person comes and pays and you're starting over again.
But you just said as an investment tool, you didn't
do it for free. You're gonna make money off of it.
But I've been able to get properties that way land
specifically because they didn't pay their self, they didn't pay
the property tax, and you can get it that way,
and you can get a lot of value and and

(09:23):
really build up a real estate portfolio that way. So
tax LANs are great, but actually going to the land
bank because you get a deeper Wait. Wait, wait, First
of all, where do I find this list of tax
properties with tax lings? And what is the land bank?
So the landmank is different. So the land bank is
owned by the municipality. So this is land that property
taxes have gone unpaid or this municipality has taken them

(09:44):
back because they were condemned or abandoned that sort of thing,
so they own them. They're going to clear the title
for you, so you will have no clouded link, no
links anything and yeah, and you can make them an offer.
So they tell you it's called the outcry. So the
outcry amount means this is the amount that we want
for this property. So um in Albany, Georgia, for instance,

(10:07):
you can go and go meet with the person there
and say, hey, what do you have. It takes a
lot of work. You have to do the due delities.
We're not afraid of hard work on this podat Yeah,
so you gotta drive it. So you go, you're go
and take a look at it. And if there's typically
there's hundreds hundreds of properties on this list, but it
takes it takes about eight months from start to finish

(10:28):
for you to get a clear deed. But you have
something that you can actually go put up for sale
the very next day. That's good, all right. I hope
you guys are writing all this down because these are
good ones. I feel like you've actually done this before.
Can you walk us through a time when you've actually
succeeded at finding one of these needles in a haystack? Well,

(10:48):
I'm going to tell you one a little bit more personal,
so I can really you can see how this can
work in your favor. The laws are created in our favor.
They're not meant to take properties from people, so there
are rights of recision, which is seven years. I had
a lake lot that I purchased in a lake lot

(11:08):
across the street from a ten million dollar house sixty
years ago. So in two thousand and five, two thousand,
two thousand five, I purchased it. Crazy divorced later anyway,
loss of property, lots of property. I was like, you
know what, I had it once, I'll have it again.
Because the market had tanked and it was one of
those things like everything was just crazy and nobody was

(11:31):
lending money on land, so I had to let it go, well,
guess what happened. You got it back? Seven is are what?
That's God's number. Seven years later, six months and six years,
six years and ten months later, I get a letter
at my office, my office address, and like the law

(11:54):
offices of Greene County, I said, I knew what it was.
I knew what it was. This opened the letter. Hi,
miss Slide, We've been trying to reach you. No you haven't.
I lived in some mouse for nineteen years. They sent
the They sent the letter to every address that was
on record for me except my primary address. They had

(12:17):
quit claim the property to somebody. Look at God. The
least six months of home to sell in that neighborhood
last year was four point nine million. They had to
give me my lot back for the back taxes of
fourteen dollars. What so I got my lot back? Wow?
Come on? Yeah? So again I didn't have to pay

(12:39):
the taxes for all those years. Got my lot back.
Because people think they can go and quick claiming record stuff,
it's never a problem until there's a problem. Because in
these small markets that happens. It's in Grain County. They
were doing this for years. Well, they had to go
through me to clear the title. So when I called
to him to get the I was like, oh what.
I was like, Oh no, no, I want my lot back.
I'm sorry what it's like? Oh no, I've been praying

(13:01):
for the lakefront. Do you still have the lot of this?
You don't got it out the least of friends of
house four point nine millions. So when I say everything
that is for you, and things that happen don't happen
to you, but for you. So I've accumulated so much
information during this time that that's the reason I know

(13:23):
this because I've been through it. I've experienced upmarkets, down markets.
Sold forty four homes my first year in real estate
with seven point nine percent interest rates. So you can't
tell me what can't happen. But it's with the right information.
So tax sales super important. But they have a seven
year right to redeem in some states because they didn't
do the paperwork properly. I was able to redeem my property.

(13:47):
So when I say that two years and one day
you can do something with it, but someone else can
come come, they can come back, should be like a
feel good hold lark. Yes, he was like, yeah, I
put the good out there, and he came back and
I can't get it and just say happen, Yeah, just happened.

(14:09):
I just started back. I got it back two days
before my birthday, two days before my birthday. Our birthday
where dead exactly. That's a great birthday. Probably, it was
a great birthday precedent, and it was. It was a
price report because it shows you that you know, you
can go through things, you can lose property and you
can't get them back and better. So now it's worth
ten x just the land, it's worth ten x more
than a lot. Yeah, so it's amazing. So these have

(14:33):
these things happen so you can be on the receiving
side of this. Yeah, I know what can happen. So
you gotta make sure you have title insurance. What a
beautiful thing. So tune in again. We'll have more from
Maya and segments coming up. Money Moves is an i
heeart radio podcast powered by Great Executive produced by Sunwise Media, Inc.

(14:54):
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