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August 14, 2025 16 mins

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Ever wondered if there are hidden financial traps lurking in your next property investment? Cornell Nichols, founder of Ideal Property Consultants, pulls back the curtain on a specialized real estate niche that few investors know exists but could save them millions.

With a remarkable story of reducing a $2.5 million property lien to just $5,000, Cornell reveals how his unique background in both municipal government and real estate allows him to identify and negotiate municipality building and code liens that threaten to derail investments. He explains the critical gaps in the typical real estate transaction process—how home inspectors focus solely on physical conditions while missing permit issues, and how some title companies perform only cursory lien searches rather than comprehensive investigations.

The conversation delves into the common misconceptions property buyers face. Many purchasers assume their due diligence team has covered all bases, only to discover expensive surprises after closing. Cornell shares how his approach not only saves individual transactions but educates clients to protect themselves in future deals. He emphasizes the importance of asking specific questions about permits, documentation, and hidden liabilities before signing any agreement.

Beyond business insights, Cornell opens up about his personal journey—starting his business just before COVID, balancing entrepreneurship with family life, and how a chance opportunity to help an investor save millions sparked an entirely new career path. His passion for education shines through as he explains how he transforms what could be transaction-killing revelations into opportunities for buyers, sellers, and agents to reach mutually beneficial solutions.

Have you checked if your dream property has hidden liens? Connect with Cornell on Instagram or call 954-404-2166 to learn how to protect your next real estate investment.

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Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
This is the Good Neighbor Podcast, the place
where local businesses andneighbors come together.
Here's your host, Jeremy Wolf.

Speaker 2 (00:12):
Well, hello, hello, friends, family, great community
, wonderful universe.
We are back for anotherinstallment of the Good Neighbor
Podcast, your host, of course,jeremy Wolf, and today I'd like
to welcome to the show.
I am here with Cornell Nichols,and Cornell joins us from Ideal
Property Consult, so we'regoing to get into some investing
today, talk a little bit aboutreal estate.

(00:32):
We're in South Florida, got abit of a.
I feel like a hot market iscoming back.
I feel like we're about toexplode down here.
I don't know something in theair.
What do you think about that,cornell?

Speaker 3 (00:49):
Yes, yes, everything is tending.
Interest rate is going down.
Investors are still out thereinvesting in all types of
properties residential andcommercial throughout the
country.

Speaker 2 (00:57):
Absolutely.
We are in for a treat movingforward.
So, cornell, why don't we startwith some basics here?
Tell our listeners a little bitabout what you guys do over at
Ideal Property Consultants, andthen we shall proceed from there
.

Speaker 3 (01:10):
Yes, how you doing.
My name is Cornell Nichols,owner and founder of Ideal
Property Consultants.
What our company do is that wehelp investors clear
municipality building and coldliens to help that investor
protect their investment andmaximize their profit.

Speaker 2 (01:30):
That's an awfully particular niche that you're in.
So let's go elaborate on this alittle bit further, because
when you say we clearmunicipalities, what exactly is
it that you're doing on aday-to-day basis?

Speaker 3 (01:44):
kind of.
What exactly is it that you'redoing on a day-to-day basis?
On a day-to-day basis is thatonce an investor has a violation
and they get a lien on theirproperty, sometimes that lien is
not valid.
So what I do, I come in and Iassess their entire case file
and the lien to see if it wasappropriate on that property.
If the lien is appropriate onthat property, then our company

(02:08):
strategize on how to get thatfine reduced to a number that
the city will agree to and theproperty owner How'd you get
into this, this business,cornell?

Speaker 2 (02:23):
This is again.
This is such a.
I didn't even realize that thiswas a type of service that was
available out there.
Do you have a background inreal estate?

Speaker 3 (02:31):
Yes, I have a background in real estate and
also a background in working forthe municipality, that I've
been in the government sectorsince 2010.
And I started my company in2019 and when I came across an
investor who had a lien on theproperties at 2.5 million and

(02:54):
the city didn't want tonegotiate with him and, once I
got the case file, did the duediligence, it took about a month
and a half and from 2.5 millionI got that investor to pay
$5,000.

Speaker 2 (03:09):
Really, yes, huh, that's wild man.
I'm still trying to wrap myhead around this because, again,
this is really the first I'veheard of this and it's wildly
interesting.
Do you typically work with I'dimagine larger transactions, or

(03:30):
is this anything that's againstthe property?
Who do you typically work?

Speaker 3 (03:35):
with Anything against the property, but typically
it's investors.
It's investors who has multipleproperties and the lien is
higher.
But the lowest lien amount I'ddone was $10,000 and the highest
was 2.5.

(03:55):
So I work with any violationand anything dealing with that
property to help that investorwalk away clear and free of any
lien or any judgment against theproperty.
And it is like you say, jeremy,it is a different niche because
a lot of property owners,investors and some real estate

(04:16):
agents don't get deep down intothose requirements and the
information that themunicipality is providing.
So by my background and thatfield that I have for several
years, I know what to look forand how to look for it and also

(04:37):
when speaking to thatmunicipality on information like
that, on what information Ineed and what to say to try to
get that lien reduced.

Speaker 2 (04:48):
Got it and are you doing this mostly in South
Florida?
Where do you typically helpwith this process?

Speaker 3 (04:55):
More it is South Florida, but some clients that I
helped in South Florida theyalso have properties in other
states and I helped them inthose states, such as New
Hampshire, california and inAlabama.

Speaker 2 (05:10):
OK, and how are you typically finding these cases?
Are the clients coming andseeking you out or are you in
some way able to access thesetypes of liens that are coming
up through municipalities andlike reach out to people to
offer assistance?
How do you typically work that?

Speaker 3 (05:27):
I'm doing everything from word of mouth and also when
I attend real estate meetupsand real estate events.
Okay, so a lot of and and someand um and I've been promoting
on on Instagram.

Speaker 2 (05:42):
Okay, what are some things that you typically hear
when you're working with clients?
Some things that they'reconfused about, maybe some
misunderstandings or myths ormisconceptions that folks have
around surrounding what you dospecifically, a property owner
not a property owner but a homeinspector.

Speaker 3 (06:14):
The property was inspected by a home inspector
and that the title company did alien search.
And why did this not come up?
And I do tell them that when ahome inspector inspects a
property they just dare to checkif everything is there
correctly, if it's working ornot working, yes or no.
They don't go into the permits,they don't go that this was
installed incorrectly and thoseitems could have liens on it

(06:37):
from the municipality.
Then also with the titlecompany, mo some title companies
not all, but some titlecompanies when they say they do
a lien search, they pull in theinformation from the city
website, then they put in thelogo onto a word document and
they providing that to theproperty owner.

(06:59):
So it's not an official liensearch that they pull in all the
records from the city to catcheverything.
So that's why I come in at mycompany, come in at the due
diligence period with thatproperty owner and we go over
all those details and we findthe hidden gems and the hidden

(07:21):
items that wasn't listed on thatlien document to bring that to
light for the property owner.

Speaker 2 (07:28):
Okay.
So let me just see if I gotthis straight, as my mind is
spinning here.
It seems to me like there wouldbe two scenarios where you
might get involved with thistransaction.
One would be and correct me ifI'm wrong, but this is just my
again my brain spinning you havesomebody that's looking to sell
their property and they knowthat they have liens against the
property, whatever that mightbe, and they're unresolved.
At that point you could thencome in and, rather than just

(07:52):
pay all these liens, you couldkind of act as a negotiator and
try to negotiate that price downat that time.
Or on the other side of that,you'll have somebody that is
unaware that there's even lienson the property and they get to
the due diligence phase and theyrun the title and they find
these liens.
It's like, oh, we got theseproblems, what are we going to
do about this?
Rather than torch the deal, youcome in and again do the same
thing.

Speaker 3 (08:11):
You yes, fairly accurate, accurate, yes, and and
what I tell the agent, anattorney or a title company that
let's extend the closing and wecan get this done, for both
parties can be satisfied at theend, instead of killing the deal
.
And sometimes some lenders,some agents didn't know that it

(08:35):
can be done, but I can get itdone.

Speaker 2 (08:41):
So it's not the typically I would think.
If I'm going to buy a propertylet's say I'll put on my buyer
hat here and I'm working with aseller I expect that that seller
knows what's against theproperty.
I don't want to get to the duediligence phase on title and
then find out that there's allthese unaddressed liens.
My reaction to that as a buyerwould be like all right, we'll
take care of it.
To the seller Is that ascenario?

(09:02):
I guess it depends on howmotivated the buyer is and it
depends on each transaction youwork.
I imagine you're working withsellers and buyers in these
situations, right?

Speaker 3 (09:10):
yes, sellers yeah, working on working with sellers
and buyers, and sometimes yeah,and sometimes the buyer really
want it and and sometimes theseller don't want the budge.
But then we, you know, we tryto work it out because if this
buyer doesn't take it, the nextbuyer is going to run into the
same issue.

Speaker 2 (09:33):
So how long have you been doing this for?
When did you start the business?

Speaker 3 (09:36):
I started the business in 2019 after I helped
that investor save from 2.5.
And when I helped him do that,I was just doing it reference to
the knowledge that I know tohelp him out.
But then, after I completedthat and he mentioned to me, he
said that I'm an investor.
My job is to go look forproperties.

(09:58):
I went and never known aboutthis is other investors out here
.
That's probably running to thesame issue.
I never heard of anyone doingit like this as a niche that you
can do, you should open up andconsult with investors to help
them and educate them on thistype of process.
And from after that 2019,that's when I created an LLC,

(10:23):
got a laptop, business cards andword of mouth from there and
I've been doing everything withno website Got it Now.

Speaker 2 (10:34):
Were you prior to kind of doing this business and
I guess you could call it takingthe entrepreneurial leap?
Were you working for somebodyelse back then, or were you
always kind of starting your ownbusinesses?

Speaker 3 (10:47):
I know I was working in the private sector.
I was doing municipalityinspections for the private
sector.

Speaker 2 (10:56):
Right, you mentioned that.
Okay.
So I always like to ask thiswhen somebody kind of takes the
leap and starts a business andyou did it right before COVID,
it sounds like right.
Yes, you did it right beforeCOVID.
It sounds like right, yes.
So what was one of the biggestchallenges that you faced when
you started the endeavor?
And then, on the other side ofthat, what would you say is one

(11:17):
of the biggest rewards thatyou've experienced throughout
this journey?

Speaker 3 (11:21):
The biggest challenge at starting and also still
continuing to do the consultingbusiness is that some agents
will mention that I'm here tokill the deal and some of them
didn't like that.
And I explained to them that I'mnot killing the deal.

(11:41):
And how do you not want to knowwhat's best interest for your
client?
And that can be from the sellerpart or the buyer part.
But now the good side of it,that I do educate agents,
educate buyer and seller andthat's the good thing about on
what I'm doing that that whenthey go buy another property and

(12:03):
they can have that idea on whatto look for, what to ask, and
just let in the title company orthe lender or the agent to do
everything, they know what toask and what to see, so that
that do help them in the future.
Reference to when they buy inanother property.
And I do tell, and I do tellthe buyers and sellers that and

(12:24):
sometimes, when they don'tcontract with me, I do tell them
that in the future you may wantto look for XYZ.
Then then at times that they dodo that and sometimes they do
contact back and say I did thisbut I still haven't figured out
this part, then that's when Ihelp them out on those issues.

Speaker 2 (12:45):
So are you from South .

Speaker 3 (12:49):
Florida.
Yes, born and raised inHollywood, florida.

Speaker 2 (12:52):
How old?
Eight years old twins and a 17?

Speaker 3 (13:05):
year old.

Speaker 2 (13:08):
I got.
Both of mine are in middleschool now.
My son just entered middleschool, 11 and 13.
So I stopped at two.
Two was a two was enough for me.

Speaker 3 (13:19):
Yeah, what do?

Speaker 2 (13:19):
you, what do you, what do you guys like to do for
fun when you're not working?

Speaker 3 (13:22):
We like.
We like to travel and we liketo do board games at home.
Go bowling, go to talk golf,movie theater we like to enjoy
ourselves as the household andalso with our family around the

(13:45):
summer times and the holidaysFavorite place to travel to the
Caribbean, the Caribbean niceweather.
Nice weather in the Caribbeanany part in the Caribbean.

Speaker 2 (13:54):
Nice weather, I could use a nice vacation.
Yeah, what would be?
Before we wrap up here, whatwould be one thing that you'd
like to leave our listeners with?
Now?
It could be about the business,or, if you just want to leave a
little nugget of wisdom, littlelife advice, that would be fine
too.

Speaker 3 (14:13):
Yeah, I like to.
I like to let the listenersknow, gain knowledge on your
investment property and on yourprimary home.
Always ask questions on doesthis need a permit?
Where's the document showingthat this was already installed?
And also do your researchbefore signing anything.

Speaker 2 (14:41):
You hear that everyone Do your research, Do
your due diligence.

Speaker 3 (14:45):
Yes.

Speaker 2 (14:46):
Always read those 60-page agreements before you
sign.

Speaker 3 (14:51):
Yes.

Speaker 2 (14:53):
Now, certainly when it comes to a big transaction,
you want to definitely read overeverything, and it doesn't hurt
always to have an attorney lookover any legal documents, as
always, of course.
All right, brother.
So how can our listeners learnmore?
What's the best way to connectwith you?
For anyone out there that islistening to this that the need
comes about, how could theyreach you?
What's the best way to connect?

Speaker 3 (15:13):
Yes, to connect with me.
You can follow me or reach outto me on Instagram, as I am
Cornell Nichols, or you can alsocontact me at 954-404-2166.
You can call or text message.
I'm always available.

Speaker 2 (15:31):
All right, very cool, and we will, of course, drop a
link down in the descriptionbelow to all of your contact
information.
Everyone, thank you so much fortuning in and, cornell, thanks
for your time.
Appreciate you coming on theshow and talking a little bit
about what you do.

Speaker 3 (15:44):
I'll thank you, Jeremy.

Speaker 2 (15:45):
Of course, man, and we will catch everyone next time
on the next episode of the GoodNeighbor Podcast.
Everyone, take care and have ablessed day.

Speaker 1 (15:54):
Thanks for listening to the Good Neighbor Podcast
Cooper City.
To nominate your favorite localbusiness to be featured on the
show, go to GNPCooperCitycom.
That's GNPCooperCitycom, orcall 954-231-3170.
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