A Real Estate Investor's Guide to Maryland Politics with Mike Griffith

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to the Everyday Millionaire Show with
Ryan Greenberg and Nick Kalfas.
Alright, guys, welcome back toanother episode of the Everyday
Millionaire Show.
We are here at our new halfwaydone studio and we're with Mike
Griffith.
How you doing, mike?
Mike was here a couple weeksago, right?

Speaker 2 (00:19):
A couple months ago.

Speaker 1 (00:20):
yeah, A couple months ago.

Speaker 2 (00:22):
During the legislative session A couple
months ago.

Speaker 1 (00:23):
Yeah, A couple months ago During the legislative
session.
Time flies, so excuse theswitch.
That's next to Nick and there'ssome drywall.
That's not done, but we'realmost done.
We will have our new studio setup by the end of this week, so
next episode should be good.
Mike, thanks for coming back.
We covered a lot on the lastsession.

(00:43):
Now you're out of yourlegislative session, is that?

Speaker 2 (00:47):
what it's called Yep.

Speaker 1 (00:48):
So we have some fun bills and stuff to talk about
Nick and Chase.
We have some other stuff totalk about.
Chase and I finally did ourfirst Ironman race Well, kind of
Two-thirds of it so we can talkabout that real quick and then,
yeah, we'll get right into it.

(01:09):
So, chase, why don't you leadus off with the, uh, iron man
stuff?

Speaker 3 (01:13):
yeah, I did, it was super cool.
Um, chattanooga, tennessee, isa very interesting place.
It's not a place that I wouldhave expected an iron man to be,
but, um, you know with you knowwith some, with some, I guess
love, I would say for the, forthe city, it's a, it's a cool
town.
Um, do I want to go back?
Not really, it was a.

(01:34):
It was a very fun bike ride.
Uh, the the swim got canceledbut the flow was ridiculous.
We were watching, we werestanding there, mike.

Speaker 1 (01:46):
And um like logs, like pieces of like wood were
like floating down I don't knowthe river, um, and we were like
excited because like, oh, thisis going to be the fastest swim
ever.
And then they, we got anotification.
I think it was like fridaynight.
Yeah, they canceled the wholeswim, so it was because of the
flow and then, I guess, e coli,because of the rain in the water

(02:06):
.
So that was super disappointing, so immediately I signed up for
another one and I'm doing thaton Sunday.

Speaker 3 (02:14):
Yeah, the night after it got canceled, I signed up
for a full Ironman, which wasnot fun.
I signed up too, but Ryanconvinced me I was just a
pushover, to be honest.

Speaker 1 (02:24):
Yeah, it's a crazy, crazy thing, but it's super fun.
Ryan convinced me I was just apushover.

Speaker 2 (02:29):
To be honest, yeah, it's a crazy, crazy thing, but
it's super fun.
So, between doing the running,pull that mic up, pull that mic
up to you.

Speaker 1 (02:32):
You can just pull it, Yep there you go.

Speaker 2 (02:35):
So, between doing the bike and the run, where was
your fatigue level?
Because you do the swim first,right, typically.

Speaker 1 (02:43):
Yeah, so the swim luckily doesn't really do much
for your legs, like it doesn'treally mess up your legs too
much.
It's more, they just throw thatin there to like, I think, just
to mess with you more or less,like it messes with your
equilibrium and your calorieburn, um, but as far as like
your legs go, you really burnyour legs out on the bike in the

(03:03):
run.
That's the the majority Like.
The swim is only 40 minutes,the bike is close to three hours
and the run is two hours sowell, depending on your time.
So we started, we were crushingthe bike.
Chase and I rode together.
The bike was through likeNorthern Georgia, which was like
rolling hills.
We were cruising, we averagedalmost 22 miles an hour and that

(03:26):
was super, super fun.
Um, then the run was a littlebrutal.
It got hot, it was hilly andchasey boy started falling apart
.
He did, he had some crampingissues, um, so I think we
separated on the run around milesix six or so going over the
bridge and I was going up.

Speaker 3 (03:46):
Ryan was just getting further and further and he
looked back a couple of timesand I'm just like I was trying
to wait for him.

Speaker 1 (03:51):
I was slowing down.
I was looking at my pace and wewere doing nine-minute miles
and I was doing 10, and then Iwas doing like 11, and he was
getting further away and then Isaw him give me the signal to
like go ahead.

Speaker 2 (04:02):
So having different experiences, and I guess I'll
start with you because and nowI'm doing the interview you had
some cramping issues, what.
What are you going to dodifferent next time to make sure
you don't have those issues?

Speaker 3 (04:12):
yeah, it's funny water yeah, I mean right after
the race I went straight to ChadGBT and I told it everything
and I said what did I do wrong?
And I under fueled uh, undernutrition, uh didn't take in
enough sodium yeah so that was,that was the biggest part.
Ryan was giving me salt tabs.
I was popping like four salttabs.
Um, as soon as I got off thebike we were running, I looked
over at him and I was like, dude, I'm, I'm like gonna start

(04:34):
cramping.
My quads were starting to pulseand you just it's like that
feeling of like I'm about tostart cramping.
So for 13 and a half miles Iwent on and off of cramping,
walking up hills, like I wasjust like determined that I was
going to crawl across thatfinish line.
If I had to.

Speaker 4 (04:50):
So did it mean that you didn't have enough sodium
during the race or just likeleading up to it, you didn't
intake enough sodium.

Speaker 3 (04:55):
During the race.
And yeah, probably both alittle bit of both.

Speaker 1 (04:58):
So drinking water that's the problem Like you can
drink, like at the end of it.
If you looked at my belly, itlooked like I had like a baby
inside me Because it was full ofwater and the water doesn't,
like, through osmosis, get toyour muscles because it doesn't
have the sodium to do that.
So you have to figure out yoursodium basically what you're

(05:18):
losing when you sweat andreplace it with the proper
amount of electrolytes.

Speaker 2 (05:23):
So a couple of questions, so a couple more
questions.
So a couple more questions.
Let's just talk about this thewhole time, right?
So it's not a competition, butit's totally competition and you
guys are partners in this.
But what was the difference?
How far ahead did you finishthis time?
30 minutes ahead About 30minutes.
So what would you dodifferently in the next race?

Speaker 1 (05:40):
So this coming race, I upgraded my bike.
That was a big one.
We have very high-tech bikeswhere I have power meters in the
pedals.
It tells me how many watts I'mputting out, and I was putting
out above what my thresholdshould be, watching other people
just blow past us as if we weresitting still.
So I knew the bike was part ofit.

(06:02):
So I upgraded the bike.
I'm wearing this Quintana Rooshirt shirt.
Maybe they'll do something forme after spending.
Um, should I just say it?
so the bike was twelve thousanddollars, but when I saw these
people flying past me, I waslike, if I want to compete in

(06:24):
these kind of competitions, youhave to do what the pros do.
So I got a quintana rue.
Shout out to quintana rue.
Hopefully they can send me somelove or something for um, yeah
hook me up too, because I'mabout to buy one I was gonna say
did you buy one, didn't sell?

Speaker 4 (06:39):
and yes, not yet.

Speaker 3 (06:39):
But right, no it it did end, but the sale is still
there and I get militarydiscount.
So so, mike, if you want a bike, you get military discount.
Try to get under five figures.
Yeah, right, jeez.
So I mean, there's alldifferent price levels and me
and Ryan have been going backand forth, and I'm typically the
guy that either goes the cheaproute or I go all in for the
best, looking at like some otheroptions, and I could literally

(07:02):
talk about this for days.
But I wanted to answer yourquestion about what I would do
different completely, andthere's four parts to Ironman
right, you have the swim, youhave the bike and then you have
to run, but also you havenutrition, and so that's the
part that I really didn't do.
Right, I needed to be taken ina thousand milligrams of sodium
an hour.

Speaker 4 (07:21):
I took in during the race.

Speaker 3 (07:22):
Yes, yes, I only took in 250 milligrams yeah, that's
gonna cramp you up, so I blew.
I completely blew up.
I mean, I was walking up hillscoming down to the finish line.
It's all downhill.
Ryan can attest to this.
It's all downhill, so youshould be flying.
At this point I'm almostwalking because my legs are
locking up as I'm running still.

Speaker 1 (07:41):
So, funny enough, I will put we'll put a picture up
on the video of me, luckily,after the race.
So I got up, um, I stood up tocome see chase across the finish
line.
So we're all wearing GPStrackers so we could see where
everybody is all of our friendsthere was 11 of us that did this
race together and whereeverybody is, how fast they're
going, everything live, liveupdates.

(08:03):
So I knew chase was comingacross the finish line so I got
up and, um, I, I stood up, I got, we saw him come across the
finish line and then we werewalking out and there was like a
10 inch step up to this, likegreat, like a culvert kind of
thing that we had to step upover.
I stepped up on it and it feltlike at that point two people
like tased both my calves and mycalves just started and I fell

(08:26):
over like a, like a tree gettingcut down and I looked like he
just got shot.
I was in yeah, I was in suchpain, I was helpless, chase,
luckily like chase and I go tothe stretch zone and he knew
like how to stretch my calf andhe was like my calves were like
literally pulsating and Icouldn't control it.
Um, and all my wife did likepeople were there generally

(08:47):
concerned about my health andwell-being and my wife was like
take a picture of me and it wasme dying on the ground and my
wife holding our dog, kind ofphoto bombing me.
So I also needed to basicallyintake more sodium, more
calories.
Just in general needed tobasically intake more sodium

(09:08):
more calories, just in general.
Um, and I think part of my goalthis, this next um race on
sunday is faster transitiontimes and I just I have a couple
couple of goals fastertransition times and then
obviously my swim.
We I didn't get to see on thefirst one, so I want to get a
full sanctioned swim time.

Speaker 2 (09:23):
So you mentioned it was interesting.
You talk about water in yourmuscles, right?
So you know I use creatine.
You know for really forrecovery, right?
Because I'm 40 years old, Ilift heavy and when I lift, the
recovery time is my mind'swilling to buy?
It's not, but when I'm takingcreatine I recover almost 20

(09:45):
years younger, right?
So do you take creatine?
Do you think creatine?
Do you guys use creatine?
Yeah, and that, do you findthat, do you?
What is the experience when youare on creatine versus not?
At this high level, I'm neveroff of it.

Speaker 3 (09:58):
Okay, same.
So yeah, yeah, I haven't beenoff of creatine in probably a
year or two.

Speaker 1 (10:03):
Okay, yes, I have a very strict supplement stack
that we take and creatine isevery day, no matter what.

Speaker 4 (10:13):
Is that after the workout or is that like before I
take it?

Speaker 1 (10:15):
before.

Speaker 4 (10:16):
It doesn't really matter as long as it gets in
your system.

Speaker 1 (10:18):
Yeah, it doesn't really make a difference.

Speaker 2 (10:22):
It doesn't taste like anything, so you can mix it
kind of in anything and Iactually sometimes just throw a
scoop down chase with some waterand call it a day.
Yeah, no, no I don't do that itactually it actually dissolves
so quickly it's, it's not athing so yeah, so creatine's on
there.

Speaker 1 (10:39):
We have like a carb drink that, um that we take
that's full of like electrolytes, carbohydrates, quick acting
carbohydrates, um.
So I'm going to increase that Ihave my new bike has a built-in
hydration system, so it'sbasically got like a camelback
tube coming out of it so I canstay in aero position and drink.
So I'll have a concentratedversion of this uh carb drink

(11:01):
that I can mix in as we as we gothrough the race.
But there's a lot of sciencebehind how much like we burned
7,000 plus calories during thatday.
So just trying to infill thatis super difficult.

Speaker 2 (11:18):
Do I remember seeing it on social media?
Did you guys like eat a wholebunch of wings immediately
following this?

Speaker 3 (11:24):
We ordered 10 pizzas.

Speaker 1 (11:25):
There was like five of us and somebody was calling
in pizza orders and we all werelike we knew we were hungry, but
it's hard to eat after doingsomething like that.
And I think I was the one thatgot the bread.
Like I ordered just 10, justorder 10 pizzas.
And we ordered 10 pizzas andlike 50 wings and we ended up
eating like two pizzas out ofthe 10.

(11:46):
And most of the wings got eaten.
But yeah, it was.
I couldn't eat during it, I hadto force myself to like to eat
and the whole time on the bikeI'm talking to Chase like look
my threshold, like we're abovemy threshold, like we're going
to blow up, we're going to blowup.
And we were just going, we werejust like in such a zone that

(12:10):
we just said fuck it.
We just kept going and, uh, weboth ended up blowing up at one
point.
So that it's a learninglearning the bike was fun.

Speaker 3 (12:15):
I think that's the.
The challenging part is likewhen you're on rolling hills and
you're like competitive, it'sreally hard to like dial it back
a little bit yeah and so, likewe would say, we would literally
look over it and be like, dude,how fast am I going?
like are we going too fast?
And he'd he would be like, yeah, we're going way too.
Like we need to slow down.
I'd be like, all right, nope,it's like I couldn't do it.
Um, because we were justwatching the people in front of

(12:37):
us, trying to catch the peoplein front of us.
Right, yeah, it getscompetitive.

Speaker 1 (12:39):
There's over 3 000 people there in this race.
So you're seeing people thatyou're like competing with and
they could be in your age group.
They could not be, but like,there was a girl that we rode
with basically the entire timeand she turned out to be like in
the 18 to 24 category and shecrushed us on the run, but we
basically she was a better like,we had different strengths on

(13:02):
the bike so we would pass her onthe climbs and then she would
pass us and then we would passher and we kind of leapfrogged
back and forth and your bike wasprobably ten thousand dollars
more than hers.

Speaker 2 (13:09):
No, so so our bikes.

Speaker 1 (13:11):
That was part of the part of the thing.
We have nice bikes.
It's not like we don't havenice bike, we didn't have nice
bikes.
But these tribe, like aerobikes, are just built
differently.
Maybe I'll have carl put apicture of what I got on on the
video as well.
It's like the frame is likejust like an inch and a half
thick.
It's all carbon um ceramicbearings, like everything is

(13:33):
just like super, super dialed in.

Speaker 3 (13:36):
Techno technology is just out of control like these
bikes are specifically made fortriathlons and nothing else the
way that the stance is.

Speaker 1 (13:43):
Like you, I have elbow pads that hold and the
shifters are electronic, so it'sjust buttons.
So, like my shifters, don't.
There's no cables, there's noextra weight for the cables,
it's just you're sitting in thisposition and you got to
practice sitting in the positionwithout getting your heart rate
spiked.
There's a whole, um whole bunchof stuff to this ultra
endurance stuff.

Speaker 2 (14:03):
That's just like a whole nother world my response
to that is the last bike I ownedwas 1989.
I was 12 years old I was ahuffy sigma and the huffy sigma
had wheel discs, which was thisI don't know stupid little thing
that I got excited about.
So when a 12 year old, maybe.

Speaker 3 (14:17):
maybe we'll do a youtube challenge and we'll buy
like a beach cruiser orsomething and do a triathlon
with the beach cruiser.
That'd be fun.
Yeah, you guys enjoy that.

Speaker 2 (14:25):
Yeah, yeah no, I can narrate, I'll narrate.

Speaker 1 (14:29):
But no.
So that was super cool thoughwe got it done.
We've been talking about itforever.
Now we're both signed up forthis full in September in
Cambridge, Maryland, and I'mdoing another 70.3 Ironman on
Sunday.
We just actually had one onlast weekend over in Rock Hall,
Maryland and Chase came insecond in the military division

(14:52):
and I came in fourth.
I was in my age group.
I was very upset.

Speaker 3 (14:57):
I missed third by four minutes and first by six
minutes, so we were all kind ofpretty tight, that's pretty
close and to show you how, like,how much of a vantage ryan had
on the bike, he put eightminutes on me on the bike, um,
and I mean that's, that's a lotof time in a triathlon event,
especially in the shorterdistance, like the olympics and

(15:18):
normally chase and I are prettysimilar on the bike, like we'll
put I think almost every racewe've finished around the same
mile mile per hour average yeah,like at one race, miami, we
literally was like 21.9 or 21.

Speaker 1 (15:30):
We were both exactly to the 10th of a mile like mile
per hour, and this one I wasjust.
There was no way on that bikethat he could have got me like I
felt the machine take over itwas.
So now chase is about to buyone too there you go, yeah yeah,
it's a big investment.

Speaker 3 (15:49):
But somebody, uh somebody wise told me you can't
put a price on your house.
That was me.
Hey.

Speaker 1 (15:54):
I said there we go can't put a price on your health
.
I said you know what?
I stopped drinking alcohol.
I don't go out to bars likethere are people that spend
three hundred dollars a weekendjust going out to the bar.
I don't do that like I my hobbyis triathlons and I have some
other hobbies, obviously, butlike, if I'm gonna spend my

(16:14):
money on something I'd like, whynot be my health my?

Speaker 3 (16:19):
that's my goal we're gonna drag nick in you have a
balance.
I like drinking you can drinkafter the ironman yeah, I had.

Speaker 1 (16:26):
I had one beer and I was like oh wow, I can't do that
again.
So anyway, apparently you guysare not in politics so yeah, no
we are not, definitely not inpolitics.
So, mike, we brought you herebecause you're on a session.
We have a bunch of stuff totalk about.
There's some crazy stuffhappening in the real estate
world.
I guess the first thing let'sdive into because we were

(16:49):
talking about it before is thesquatter thing that's happening
in Maryland, and I guess we cancatch people up.
If they're not from Maryland,they're not listening in,
they're not a real estateinvestor.
Basically, maryland is I don'teven want to put it out in the
world that it's a super squatterfriendly state and we were

(17:10):
hoping that you can help us Imean.

Speaker 2 (17:12):
So we did pass the law.
This year.
There were several bills tryingto address the squatter issue.
They did a couple of thingsthat were kind of like you know,
nods nods towards the issuereally that if somebody files a
complaint for wrongful detainerwhich is the law that describes
squatting that they have to havea hearing within 10 days.

(17:32):
Now there's lots of ways tocircumvent that, but it still
doesn't address the main issuewhere judges are ruling that if
you're, you know you're right tothe property.
If your deed is not recorded inland records, then the judges
are just going to say hey, well,you don't.
Who are land records?
You don't own the property yet.
So we're going to go ahead andpunt this right and come back
when you own the property, butin almost every case that's out

(17:57):
of the homeowner's controlbecause in certain jurisdictions
Baltimore City, prince George'sCounty, to name two it can be
four or six months before thedeed's recorded.
So I'm going to actuallyintroduce legislation in the
upcoming legislative sessionthat will require judges to
recognize a ratified contractand submission of the deed to

(18:18):
the jurisdiction as ownership.

Speaker 1 (18:22):
Which they do in all other aspects of our world.

Speaker 4 (18:25):
So if we want to get permits.

Speaker 1 (18:27):
Right, we can get a letter, letter notified letter
what this goes back to is.

Speaker 2 (18:32):
I believe the law would allow for a judge to
recognize a ratified contractand submission of the deed as
ownership, but judges areinterpreting things in different
ways.
And maybe some judges are beingpro squatter in this case,
right, I mean, that's hard to wedon't know, but can't read

(18:55):
somebody's mind because it'ssuch an outlier right.
But the one thing I was taughtwhen I first got in the general
assembly is never let thejudiciary interpret the will of
the General Assembly.
So we just need to be, Ibelieve, more prescriptive in
what we want.
And if somebody owns theproperty legally, just because
it's not a land record right,it's their property and we

(19:17):
shouldn't let somebody stealtheir property because, listen,
squatters are stealingsomebody's property At the end
of the day day.

Speaker 1 (19:23):
That's what it is and and just so we're, we get it
out there in the world.
There is a, a person that ispromoting a quote-unquote
business, that she is literallyfinding properties for people
that are, um vacant and tellingpeople that how to get bg and e

(19:45):
put in their name, how to writea fake lease, and basically
teaching, holding seminars onhow the people can squat in
other people's homes andcharging them a fee Nick was
saying some sort of flat feewhere they can go in, move in
and then, especially if at thatpoint you don't have have like
sometimes when we're getting ahouse ready for turnover or

(20:07):
something, we have to get arental license in some
jurisdictions.
Right, if we don't have thatrental license, then you can
evict them.
So if we don't have that rentallicense and we always get it
prior to the move in but if it'svacant and somebody moves in
and then holds that placehostage, it could be six plus
months before we can get thatproperty back.

Speaker 4 (20:28):
And I want to go back to when you talked about filing
the wrongful detainer and withthe deed not being recorded yet
on public record.
I had that situation where oneattorney they told me they won't
even submit it until it recordsand I wasn't willing to wait.
It was a house that I boughtsquatter, occupied.
So I'm at the beginning stagesof getting that deed submitted
and get it recorded.
So I reached out to anotherattorney and they were like,

(20:51):
yeah, we'll go ahead and submitit, but there's a chance that
the judge will throw it out.
And I'm like let's just do it,we move forward with it.
We printed out, you know,letters indicating the deed was
recorded, the deed signed deedand we brought that to court and
they accepted it.
And that's like it's huge thejudges, the discretion that they
have.
You can get one judge that willsay we'll take this and you can

(21:11):
get others that may say theyhave to wait until it's recorded
.
And that really screws a lot ofpeople over because even if
they have 10 days to have thatcourt appearance, if they just
bought that property and peoplejust moved in, or if they bought
it with squatters, then theyhave to potentially wait three,
four months to actually see thatrecorded and I would say, try

(21:33):
it anyway.
Try it.
You might get the judge thatsays, hey look, we are going to
move forward with this.
We do see that you sent a deedof recording and just try to do
it.
That way I wouldn't wait.
There are attorneys that won'teven file initially because of
that reasoning, and if I didn'tgo to another attorney it would
have taken me probably five moremonths, but luckily the judge

(21:54):
was able to push it through.

Speaker 1 (21:55):
I think one of the big problems, though, too, is
Nick has access and means to goto multiple attorneys where
there's a lot of mom and poplandlords.
As somebody that owns aproperty management company, I
have people that we manage forthat rely on that rent very
heavily to pay their mortgage.
For us full-time real estateinvestors, we kind of understand

(22:18):
okay, you have two dozen plusproperties, a couple of them are
going to be vacant.
You have to account for that.
Some of these people arerenting out their house out of
necessity because, like the onegirl that we're doing in Hubert
in Locust Point, she's in themilitary or a contractor of the
military and got stationed downin Hawaii.
So she has to move, she has torent out her place.

Speaker 2 (22:41):
Right, she can't sell it right now.

Speaker 1 (22:49):
She can't refi because she probably got a first
time a va home, uh, at threepercent right, and she can't.
She's not going to refi at fiveand a half six and her mortgage
is two thousand three thousanddollars a month, so she's got to
cover the nut for the, themortgage, right, right.

Speaker 2 (22:57):
But then any margins not used for her pocket, any
margins used for upkeep andrepair, and these things right
so those people are.

Speaker 1 (23:03):
People are getting screwed the most, and that's
where we need to like-.

Speaker 2 (23:07):
And our laws don't discriminate.
They're going.
Our laws hurt the professionallandlord and the person just
trying to make sure their housedoesn't go to foreclosure in the
same way.

Speaker 1 (23:18):
Yeah, and I don't know the percentage of landlords
that are professional,full-time real estate investors,
but I would imagine that it'smore than 50 of the houses that
are rented out are mom and poplandlords.

Speaker 2 (23:29):
They're not institutional, I would I would
say higher than that.
I wouldn't say about units, butI would say there has to be
significantly more individualswho are mom and pop landlords
versus.
So we're not talking units.
You'd probably say there aremore units that are owned by
professional landlords, right,but talking about professional

(23:49):
landlords, the volume versus thenumber of non-professional
landlords, you're probablylooking at many, many times more
individuals who have one or twounits or one unit.
So we're talking about thenumber of people.
It affects is going to affectmore of the Ma and Pa landlords.

Speaker 1 (24:05):
A hundred percent, so we need to do something.
It feels like our localgovernment and state government
is working against people thatare working hard.

Speaker 2 (24:18):
When it goes back to the issue we talked about on the
last podcast.
We kind of talked about thelegislative process and why it's
important for the investorcommunity to be involved and
have a voice and show up.
Right?
So, like the bill we passed afew years ago that raised the
filing fee for evictions from$15 to $55.
That $30 balance, or $40balance, goes to the fund to

(24:42):
provide legal assistance topeople being evicted.
Right?
So, as a landlord, you'refunding the legal defense
against yourself, and weexpanded that fund this year.
We passed a bill that increasedthose dollars to $14 million.
So now landlords are funding$14 million in legal defense
against themselves.
Think about that, yeah, andwhere else do you pay for legal

(25:06):
defense against yourself ifyou've been proven innocent?

Speaker 1 (25:10):
just the great state of maryland here, right, um, and
that's, I think that's a hugeum, I don't know, demotivate, I
don't even know the right termis, but it's making people like
me not want to do thisdemoralizes you yeah, right for
sure, and it's.
It's like well, why would I goand and try to buy more

(25:31):
properties when, quite literally, the state is working against
you?

Speaker 2 (25:36):
and it's like I don't know, write down many ways
states working against all of us.
I mean, if you, if you payattention to the budget and the
1.8 billion dollars in taxes andfees we raised this year uh,
including fees that hurt ourindustry uh, yeah, like they are
working against us and I'mworking against us not saying me
as an investor, because I'm notan investor, right, but me as a

(25:57):
marylander who wants to raise afamily and do right and would
love to be able to retire hereuh, yeah, they're working
against us everywhere so,speaking about the budget, can
you talk about a little bit?

Speaker 1 (26:09):
so we had, uh, I don't know if we talked about
this on the last podcast, Idon't even know if it was really
big news, but our new governorhas blown a what eight billion
dollar like had a what's eightbillion dollar swing, right,
sure.

Speaker 2 (26:22):
so I mean, we talked about some talking about the
looming budget and the $3.3billion shortfall that was
coming, and then there's someargument on what caused
shortfall.
I mean, losing the $5 billionyou have certainly is a
contributing factor, right, butwe've spent money for years that
we haven't had the educationbill and again, again, politics

(26:44):
plays a role.
If we don't support the kirwinbill, the blueprint and the 40
billion dollars in, uh, the billthat we didn't have the money
for, uh, if you say you opposethat, then some people say
you're, you hate teachers.
No, I don't hate teachers,teachers, frankly, we've created
laws in maryland that made hasmade the teaching profession
much more difficult, right, and,and we should be doing more

(27:05):
things to make sure there'sbetter discipline in schools and
things that interest We'veactually made, through policy,
the teaching profession muchmore difficult and they deserve
more money.
But how are we going to pay forit?
Right, and they talk about well, your budget's your priority,
right?
Well, if our budget's ourpriority, then you've got to
make the hard decision.
If we're going to spend moneyhere, we've got to take money

(27:26):
away from here.
It's taking money fromtaxpayers.
To spend more money on otherthings is not the hard thing.
That's not a priority.
Your priority is what am Igoing to sacrifice to do this?
And we don't do that.
In Maryland, we spend more andmore and more.
And you'll hear things that,well, there was cuts in the
budget.
There was no cuts in the budget.

(27:46):
There was less spending than wewanted.
But in your life, right?
If your annual household budgetgoes up year over year, did you
make any cuts?
Not necessarily, right?
So when the budget goes up by abillion dollars year over year,
you're not making cuts.
You're spending less than youwanted to, right.
And then you hear the linewhere 50, spending less than you

(28:06):
want it to, right.
And then you hear the linewhere 94% of Marylanders are
getting a tax cut, right?
Well, that's true.
94% of Marylanders are getting,on average, a $50 tax cut to
their income tax $50.
But I can give you two or threethings, right now that we
passed this year, that eat thatup on its own.
So no one's getting a net taxcut in Maryland at all.
You don't raise $1.8 billion intaxes and fees on a state of 6

(28:30):
million people and that doesn'taffect every single person in
the state.

Speaker 1 (28:34):
So how did Larry Hogan end with a surplus when it
seems like, from what you'resaying, it's like almost
impossible, based on the waythat we spend money?

Speaker 2 (28:45):
It was a couple of things.
So there were some federalfunding came in through COVID,
but also at the time, thegovernor had a lot more power
over the budget.
So Maryland wall requires wehave a balanced budget.
So if any governor or thelegislature claims that, yeah,
we balance the budget, we'll buythe constitution you're
required to.
Now, do you do it on the backsof cost savings and efficiency

(29:06):
or are you on the backstaxpayers?
Maryland, for the last you knownumber of years, has chosen to
do it on the backs taxpayers.
Um, but it was not only we hadsome more money coming in um,
but also he was able to set thebudget and set the priorities,
and the legislature only had somuch power to affect the budget.

(29:27):
Well, the majority party in Imean, I don't want to be
partisan Democrat party themajority party, the party in
power put in a constitutionalamendment in 2022 on the ballot
saying that in order to have abalanced budget, we must move
this power basically from thegovernor to the legislature

(29:49):
right, which basically it was.
They wanted the governor tohave less power of the budget
and more power of thelegislature.
Now, the line in there that Ifelt was questionable was in
order to have a balanced budget.
Well, we're required to have abalanced budget anyway.
That constitutional amendmenthad nothing to do with balancing
the budget.
It was just a transfer ofauthority from the governor to

(30:09):
the legislature.
It's not.
A legislature has a lot morepower to affect the budget and
move money around, things ofthat nature.
So that's also a decisions thatsay we want to spend more and
then when we overspend, we'regoing to just, instead of

(30:29):
cutting the budget, we're goingto do tax more and take it off
the backs of Marylanders andwe're facing additional budget
shortfalls in the coming years.
This wasn't the first bite ofthe apple.
It's going to get a lot worse.

Speaker 4 (30:40):
What are some things that we can take away from,
instead of just adding to it?

Speaker 2 (30:43):
I mean so?
I mean some of these arepolitical footballs, but I mean.
One example is free health carefor non-citizens, right?
So we've passed laws that givefree health care to a large
number of folks, many of themnon-citizens, and that created a
half a billion dollarunforeseen increase in our
health care costs as a state.
We knew that was coming.
My party projected that.

(31:05):
We were told that wasn't goingto happen.
That's what happened.
That number's going to go upand up and up and up.
Also, our energy policydecisions right, because when
you make a policy decision, youshut down our power generation.
That doesn't only impact thecost of energy for homeowners
and citizens, it impacts theenergy costs of government,
right, because government hasbuildings and infrastructure

(31:27):
they have to pay for.
Those costs go up.
So you're going to see it there.
Kirwan was one of the biggestones, right.
A $40 billion unfunded mandatefor education, right.
That mostly goes to teachersalaries, but when you spend
that money without a vehicle topay for it, you're going to have
to raise taxes.
So those are.
I mean there's other things too, but those are probably the big
three that we feel the most.

Speaker 1 (31:51):
Where is the money?
I think we probably touched onthis a little bit the last time,
but where's the money for frommarijuana tax?
Where's the money from thesports gambling, sports betting
and casino betting, Becausethat's new in the last decade?
Those were all supposed to bethings that go and fund.

Speaker 2 (32:12):
But remember, sports betting and sports gambling was
to pay for education of the lawswe already had in place.
So this money is above andbeyond that.
And then, as far as formarijuana revenues, a lot of
revenue was diverted, originallyfor education.
Now it's been moved to, uh, afund to fund a fund to support
mine already owned businesses.

(32:32):
So, but even then, those tworevenue streams wouldn't begin
to scratch the surface of this,this 3.3 billion dollar
shortfall.
We face this, which is going toescalate to over $6 billion in
the next few years.

Speaker 1 (32:47):
So, with that much of a deficit, the government
people, the team that hasimplemented these things, how
are they going?
How do they plan on winning thenext election?

Speaker 2 (33:02):
Well, I mean, this is a blue state, so I think the
only person that could probablyreally legitimately challenge
Wes Moore would be Larry Hogan.
So if Larry Hogan got in, thatwould be interesting.
But as far as the elections go,maryland's arguably the most
gerrymandered state in thecountry, so most of these
elections aren't going to switchRepublican to Democrat.

Speaker 1 (33:28):
So it's really not going to largely affect the
state at the legislative level,but isn't it evident that we are
failing, like the citizens andmostly the blue collar or middle
class and that makes up themajority of voters?

Speaker 2 (33:46):
I mean yes, but at the end of the day it falls back
into politics and people havedifferent reasons for voting the
way they do and the the makeupof the state.
Um, I don't see a flip in thelegislature.
Remember, this has been aone-party state for 150 years,
with the exception of thegovernor's mansion a few times
in that mix.
So I think only four years inthe last 150.

Speaker 3 (34:09):
Um, uh, republicans controlled the legislature what
do you say to the people thatsay maryland is the next
california?
I think maryland is california.
I think we're already therescary thought california and
chesapeake.
I think we're already there.

Speaker 2 (34:22):
It's a scary thought.
California and Chesapeake Ithink we're already there, yeah.

Speaker 1 (34:27):
What's funny is like we have some from New York and
there's a lot of people from NewYork that are moving to places
like Delaware, places likeFlorida, and then they're moving
to those places but stillvoting the same way that they
did in New York.
Which is the reason that theyleft New York is because it got
so highly taxed and so highlyover.

Speaker 2 (34:46):
We're seeing in Texas , a lot of people are leaving
California because the climatethere, the economic and
political climate, and then theygo to Texas vote the exact same
way they did in California.
That created the environmentthat made them flee California.
So these are great questions.
But just because you're aRepublican or Democrat state,
like you know, Delaware is ablue state.

(35:07):
It's a deep blue state, right,but they don't have any remotely
the economic policies that wehave here in Maryland and it
makes us so hilariouslynon-competitive with the states
that surround us non-competitivewith the states that surround
us and the people that are outthere voting this way?

Speaker 1 (35:27):
do you think they're just uninformed, like?
Why do you think people wouldvote against their own wallets?

Speaker 2 (35:33):
I mean, I guess I can't speak for them.
You know, I'm not going toattempt to speak for someone's
voting patterns.
I mean for me.
I me, I feel like, you know,maybe I'm not the best person to
manage my own finances, but Ishould have the right to choose
if I'm the best person to managemy own finances.
And the more money you take outof the economy through taxes

(35:57):
and fees, the less you allowpeople to not only, you know,
establish, you know, financialindependence.
Right, the opportunity forhomeownership and again, this is
one of the things that a lot ofthe investors get a bad rap on,
like you guys are taking, youknow, properties that are
otherwise, you know, you know,useless.
Making them livable, makingthem affordable and giving

(36:21):
people access to home ownership.
And the number one indicator inAmerica for economic mobility
and lasting wealth is homeownership.
Home ownership is the key tothe American dream.
So, by us not allowing peopleto have more money in their
pockets to have an accessopportunity to buy a home,
things of that nature is reallytough.

Speaker 3 (36:41):
You also mentioned earlier, before we jumped on,
that short sales from your titlecompany are going up.
Do you think that has a directcorrelation with the cost of
living and taxes and everythingelse that's going on in Maryland
?

Speaker 2 (36:53):
I mean, this is really anecdotal.
We've seen data that showsthere's a couple of things.
Shows there's a couple ofthings.
The one number that I dislikethe most in all of economic
policy and politicalconversations is the
unemployment rate.
So the unemployment rate isbased upon a sample size largely

(37:13):
provided by the payrollcompanies, and it's really tied
to the number of people that areapplying for a job versus jobs
out there.
Right, and some of that's drivenby people that are on
unemployment insurance, becausewhen you're receiving
unemployment, you're required toapply for two jobs a week right
, but there's no real mechanismto really verify if you're

(37:36):
accepting these jobs or not.
So some of it's driven bypeople that are receiving
benefits and some people thatare actually applying for jobs.
I believe the real number is anumber called labor
participation rate, or now theycall it workforce participation
rate the number of Marylandersversus the number of Marylanders
that are working.
So in 2020, 2019, we were atbasically an all-time high of

(37:57):
labor participation rate inMaryland.
So of six Maryland Marylanders,68% were working right.
Today that number is 62%, whichis the lowest in my lifetime,
which means out of roughly300,000 Marylanders have chosen
some may not be able to, butlargely 300,000 Marylanders, for

(38:18):
whatever reason, have chose notto go back to work thousand
Marylanders, for whatever reason, have chose not to go back to
work right now.

Speaker 1 (38:25):
Is that number skewed due to like?
Okay, take me, for example.
I quit my job as a teacher.
Does that put me in theunemployed category?

Speaker 2 (38:34):
well, if you're, if you're reporting that you have
an income right and you'refiling taxes with income right,
then you're working.
Whether you're an employer ornot, you're showing that your
word counts right 100.
Okay so that doesn't counttowards it.
But there are 300 000marylanders that were receiving
an income before covet that arenot receiving an income now from

(38:56):
, you know, from something notan entitlement, right?
We also saw in the DC DMA or DCarea that we have a record
amount of credit card debt over13,000 per household, right?
So?
And also, you have a lot ofpeople that bought homes before

(39:16):
interest rates got up.
You know, bought them at fourand 3%, so on and so forth.
Now, if people aren't working,if costs are rising and if debt
is skyrocketing up, you know,bottom at four and 3%, so on and
so forth.
Now, if people aren't working,if costs are rising and if debt
is skyrocketing with, now peopleare starting to hit a breaking
point.
What do I do?
Right, and refine your house isout of the question.
You can't just refi your house,because if you refi at a higher

(39:37):
rate, I mean you're in a worsesituation than you are now.
So either I have to make moremoney, I have to make money,
plus I have this debt.
What am I going to do?
So it feels like you're seeingand there's data to support this
that people are just kind of introuble and they're getting
foreclosed upon.

(39:57):
The one thing I feel isdifferent from now than what
happened in 2008,.
I don't think it's going to bethe same level of catastrophe,
but it feels like the banks aremore willing to short sale than
to foreclose upon, because Ithink in 2008, they wanted to
foreclose and keep the asset.
I think now they want theassets off their books.
So I think that's why it's atleast what it feels like that
banks are more willing to bewilling to short sale and get it

(40:17):
off the books then, that banksare more willing to be willing
to short sale and get it off thebooks then, which also helps
preserve individuals' credit,because it's much less of a
credit hit to somebody to shortsale than be foreclosed upon.
So I think people are moreinterested in doing that.
So it just feels like that'swhere things are going, and I've
seen a significant uptick in mybusiness of short sales, of

(40:38):
short sales, yeah, and, andpeople were, and even the banks
are being extraordinarilyaccommodating to being willing
to delay a foreclosure if theythink they have a short sale,
and that's just.
That's just anecdotal from whatI've seen, you know, but
there's some.
I feel like there's starting tobe some more and more data.
I was out in LA at the, the,the the Milken.
I was going to bring that up toyou.

Speaker 1 (40:59):
That was that was.

Speaker 2 (41:00):
that was ridiculous, Crazy.
Uh, that was awesome experience.
Uh, way out of my league.
I was definitely the poorestperson in LA.

Speaker 1 (41:08):
that day I saw your picture with Ben Shapiro.

Speaker 2 (41:10):
Yeah, yeah, that was pretty awesome, my mother-in-law
is a huge Ben Shapiro fan.

Speaker 1 (41:13):
Yeah, I got.

Speaker 2 (41:22):
I got just as fast in person.
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah and youget that much time with them too
.
Yeah, I just saw them walkingthrough.
I'm like, hey, snap, go boom,um, uh, and I'll get into some
of the politics around thatstuff too.
So um.

Speaker 1 (41:33):
Can you just tell what is the milken institute?

Speaker 2 (41:36):
it's basically the super of money.
It's where every individual, uh, it's where all the financial
institutions and financialexperts come together A lot of
business gets done, but it's alot of knowledge sharing.
I took a lot away from how tohelp, you know, lead my company,
lead employees, develop andretain talent.
I took more because obviouslyyou know, you know, you know

(42:01):
help lead a title company and alaw firm here and you know you
know timonium, uh.
So obviously I'm not dealingwith dollars and cents remotely
where these guys operate, but Icould still take their business
practices because these are someof the most successful people
on the planet and, like everybillionaire was there, I mean
elon musk was there, uh, the ceoof blackstone, the ceo of

(42:25):
apollo, I mean like that'ssomething you have to be invited
to uh, uh, no, no, uh, um.
You have to pay to be anassociate there, um and uh, it's
not cheap either.
But I mean, like we can talkabout it.

Speaker 4 (42:43):
You can talk about it .

Speaker 2 (42:43):
The ceo of apollo, you know, manages 1.2 trillion
dollars in assets and has 100000 employees, and I'm there in
this room not, you know?
You know a pretty small area,getting to hear him talk about
what's important to him and howhe grows his company and the
people he needs to retain andhis indicators of when he's in
trouble and if he's losing thesekey people, then he's in real

(43:04):
trouble.
Like it was just it all comesback to basic nuts and bolts of
how you lead a team and run acompany.
Even at that level, um, and Itook a lot about how to run a
business and lead a team out ofit.
That was because I will never.
And where was the event held at?
Uh, it was at the Beverly HillsHilton.

Speaker 4 (43:23):
Is that once a year?
Yes, yeah.

Speaker 2 (43:25):
Yeah, yeah, very heavy security.
It was a little bit out of myleague, if I'm being honest.
I was definitely like a fishout of water.

Speaker 4 (43:34):
So I'm just trying to gobble up my guts.
Did you get to go becauseyou're a delegate?

Speaker 2 (43:37):
No, no, no, no no.

Speaker 1 (43:45):
I no, no, no, I got to go with uh, uh, um for for a
work event.
It was work related, so we canI mean we could talk about the
law firm a little bit now.
I'm working with you guys, um,for my law needs and you guys
have hooked up us with some somecool stuff recently.
So I want to give you guys ashout out to albers and
associates.
Albers and associates albers,albers and associates um, I've
been saying that wrong for thelast that's close enough albers,

(44:06):
albers.
Um, anyway, we've gone to thesuite at the orioles game and
then these crazy seats for thecaps.
Um, that was a wild game.
That was, yeah, game five.
They won.
Um, that was super, super cool.
So, thank you for that, rossalbers.
Yes, thank you, ross andassociates.
Um, we got to meet a couple ofthe other lawyers at the um, at

(44:29):
the office that, oh, speaking of, we have an event coming up on
july 31st, our next podcastevent, mid-atlantic title, and
albers and associates, owned bythe same person right, yeah,
same same same umbrella they'rehosting generously hosting our
next event, so we'll not be atcvps.
Um, so take note of that.
Everybody that's listening, wewill be in.

Speaker 2 (44:51):
What's the address?
95, 15 deer co road with theentire fifth floor.
Our company occupies um, whichis, if you know where liquid
libs is in timonium samebuilding, kind of next to
mcgoobies.
If you know where that Libs isin Timonium same building, kind
of next to Mugubi's.
If you know where that is?
Tall building.
It's great.
Tons of parking, threeelevators to get up and down.
We're going to have a greatbartender, my good buddy,

(45:11):
jeannie Bishop, providing thelive music there.
Our food Awesome, it's going tobe a great time.

Speaker 1 (45:16):
Yeah, we appreciate that and it's funny.
I was talking to anothersponsor, current cabinetry, one
of our longtime sponsors and shewas like, oh man, I'm so happy
to be out of cbps, like weneeded to change, and I was like
nothing against them greatvenue, great folks this would be
a cbps has been good to us, butit has gotten we've done.
I don't know yeah, yeah, atleast six, seven, maybe so, uh,

(45:38):
it's time that we change it up,and why not make it even further
away from where Chase and Ilive?

Speaker 4 (45:44):
Well, you guys open this office down here.
It's an hour drive, but it'sliterally 30 seconds off 83.

Speaker 2 (45:50):
Very easy to get to.
We're really excited.
It's going to be a great venue,so we appreciate you guys
partnering with us and allowingus to host everybody and share a
good time.

Speaker 1 (45:57):
Yeah, I look forward to it.

Speaker 3 (45:58):
Hopefully we can break our summer record.
For attendees, summers aretypically a little slower,
vacations yeah.

Speaker 4 (46:07):
We tried to schedule it early in July and you were
going somewhere.
I was going somewhere in adifferent way and you were going
somewhere.

Speaker 1 (46:13):
Yeah, but we always get a good group of people show
up, so I don't know how manyfree tickets have sold so far,
but we'll have.
We'll have a good turnout.
Um, we'll start promoting itmore and more.
So thank you, ross, and um teammike obviously, for linking us
all up, so that's going to bereally cool, appreciate it.

(46:34):
Um, all right, what's what'snext on the on the docket?
I know I had some other, someother stuff.

Speaker 2 (46:39):
You have some stuff that yeah, I can run through a
couple things.
Obviously, we have issues withthe budget coming up.
Just a couple things.
Let me put on my glasses.
Here comes my age man.
I got to do this on camera.

Speaker 3 (46:52):
We definitely got to talk about my experience with
Cold Plunge oh.

Speaker 2 (46:56):
God, I've done Cold Plunge.

Speaker 3 (46:58):
Yeah, we'll talk about that.

Speaker 4 (47:01):
What's the brand of it?

Speaker 3 (47:03):
we'll talk about it.

Speaker 2 (47:04):
so I'm really going to talk about some of the bills
that you know are relativelyunpopular with with our folks.
So here's one um uh, latepayment penalties and
calculation uh, residentialleases.
If you're following home it,it's House Bill 273.
You can look it up online.
This bill will alter aprohibition concerning the

(47:25):
maximum penalty for late paymentof rent.
So basically, you can no longercharge more than 5% of the
unpaid amount rather than theamount due for late charges.
So that caps what you cancharge for late fees.
So that's a bit of interferenceinto, um, uh, our industry.

(47:49):
Uh, in the the, the BRFA, whichis the budget reconciliation
bill, that they put all the feesand the taxes into, they didn't
pass tax bills.
They put all in this one budgetbill and shoved the whole thing
through, which was kind ofinteresting.
One of the things is the leadrental registry fee went from
$30 to $60.
Oh, wow, I didn't know that.

(48:11):
Yep, that's coming.
And the fee for an MDE leadfree report increases from $10
to $50.
So, yes, Plus $400 to get theinspection done yeah, and then
the 75 for the lead rentalregistry fee paid to every year
is now 75, but these werereduced I'm so confused.

Speaker 3 (48:31):
Does baltimore city want to grow?
This is maryland maryland ingeneral this whole state.

Speaker 2 (48:36):
Yes, yeah, um, here's one.
Real property landlord tenantprocedures for failure to pay
rent, breach of lease, tenantpossessions recovery act.
You're going to love this.
As amended, this bill requiresthe landlord to provide a
written notice to the tenant ofthe date on which the warrant of

(48:56):
restitution is scheduled to beexecuted on at least six days in
advance.
Notice and localities may amendlower.
The notice must provide astatement of the potential for
loss of property as outlined inthe legislation, and be
delivered through sending thenotice via first class mail
certificate.
Blah, blah, blah.

(49:17):
The landlord fee may charge afee not to exceed $5 for
expenses that actually occurred.
So basically, you have to givethem a notice of restitution.
So that's not great.

Speaker 1 (49:39):
So we did have a law, though already.
We had to send them a letterbefore we filed right yeah,
10-day notice to file well, sonow we have to do a 10-day
notice and then, when we get thejudgment, we have to do another
notice of yeah, before thewarrant, yep.

Speaker 2 (49:54):
And then here's one.
Uh, this bill allows landlordwill only allow the landlord to
enter the property between 7 amand 7 pm, monday through
Saturday, unless the tenantagrees to another time.

Speaker 4 (50:06):
I don't mind those hours.
I mean, I don't think I'm goingto come to your property after
7, unless there's an emergency,and I don't see myself being
there before 7 am.

Speaker 1 (50:13):
But so it takes a yeah.
I mean I guess that doesn'treally kill us in any way, but
it's still like it's kind ofit's our property yeah our
rights.

Speaker 3 (50:27):
I mean you should be able to post a 24-hour notice
and be able to go.
I do have a question about that.
So my wife's cousin, littlecousin, called her the other day
crying and she lives in LongIsland, ryan, so this will hit
home for you.
The landlord she was changing.
The landlord walked in aftergiving her a 24-hour notice but
didn't tell her that they werecoming.
He knocked and then quicklyentered, saw she was changing,

(50:49):
turned around and walked out andshe was, you know, obviously
very upset and I was thinkingback to it and I was like, well,
in maryland do we have to, like, set a time or is it 24-hour?
No, it's 24 hours.

Speaker 4 (51:02):
I don't think I mean you.
You can, you, you want to.
If they're good tenants, youwant to give them a good time.
If they're just.
The only reason you typicallypost that 24-hour notice is
because they're not willing tolet you in.
Let's say you have a Section 8tenant who has an annual
inspection coming up and they'renot responding, or they don you
want to try to get into thatproperty.
I'll go and post a 24 hournotice and you know, take a

(51:26):
picture of a timestamp photo andI'll enter the property.
I'll have my guys enter theproperty.
You know, within that thatnotice timeframe Cause if you
sit there and, and you know,wait, if you give somebody and
they say, okay, we'll be here,there's no need to give them a
24-hour notice.
The 24-hour notice is typicallyposted to their door, taking a
photo proof that you were there,that, just in case they take

(51:49):
you to court, you can say, look,I posted a 24-hour notice.
My lease says I just have togive them 24-hour notice to
enter the property.

Speaker 1 (51:56):
I mean you should like.
I always say knocksignificantly, knock a couple
times, try.
I always say, you know, knocksignificantly, knock a couple
times, try to call them.
If they don't answer the phone,they don't answer the door,
then just go in.
But I don't know, in thatsituation I don't know, I don't
want to make any judgments.

Speaker 2 (52:12):
Well, here's a big one, and no one should ever,
ever, ever, falsify a lead,testing or inspection.
But if you do, this creates a$50,000 fine for doing it.
So don't do that.
Here's another one.
This increases Senate Bill 820,increases the maximum amount of

(52:35):
a civil criminal fine that maybe imposed by a municipality to
enforce local laws from 1,000 to5,000.
So if you're violatingmunicipal laws when it comes to
landlord-tenant relations orhome inspections of that nature,
that increases the fine up to$5,000.
Here's what I talked aboutearlier access to counsel and
evictions.
The special fund increases theappropriation of $14 million to

(53:00):
fund the legal defense againstyourself, and this is something
we talked about the last time Iwas on the show um 2021, I
believe it was.
We increased uh, we created, weincreased the eviction fee from
15 to 55, not me, the generalassembly.
I voted against it.
It because we should not becharging people as much we do

(53:23):
anyway.
But that balance that $40balance now goes to a fund to
fund the legal defense againstlandlords.
So that $40 difference is yourpain.
To file for an eviction is nowa pain for legal defense against
yourself, which is interestingbecause typically in a typical
court matter, if you areexonerated or judge rules in

(53:45):
your favor, you get legal feesback, but now you're having to
pay more legal fees to defendyourself against legal defense
against you.

Speaker 4 (53:53):
And, with that being said, that just kind of makes
you want to get an attorney and,in turn, you're going to end up
paying even more right.
If you 100%, if anyone knowswho's following following they
know that they have free legalaid.
They might say well, it mightmake you know, be my best
interest to for me to get alawyer to represent me and
that's just going to drive thecost of you know more.

Speaker 2 (54:11):
What's happening is non-profits are gobbling up this
14 million dollars and theyhave people just sitting around
in rent court and they seesomebody ever represented.
They run up, grab and say Igoing to represent you, walk to
the front of the court and nowyou're in a dogfight and all
they're going to do is finddifferent mechanisms to extend
the process, which is more moneyout of your pocket.
I believe people have a rightto counsel, but the person that

(54:36):
is an adversarial should not befunding it.
But I do believe in a right tocounsel, so that's obviously a
challenge.
Here's one that's interesting.
I'm still trying to fullyunderstand it and I think that's
why they made a work group.
But there's a push to preventlandlords from using ai, from
setting um, uh, rents, rents,because ai is picking up on

(55:02):
different data and it's.
I still don't completelyunderstand what they're trying
to do they put together a studybill to try to understand, but
apparently some people are usingAI to manipulate rents and
things of that nature.
So it's a study to figure outwhat's happening and try to
address that.

Speaker 1 (55:16):
Well, how can they say are they going to audit our
chat gpt accounts, like I meanwho?

Speaker 2 (55:24):
knows how they're gonna.
Who knows?

Speaker 1 (55:26):
we use chat, we use this for all sorts of stuff to
do with investing.
I mean, that's how I figuredout price per square foot on
what this place is going to beworth after we do the refinance
and all that stuff.

Speaker 2 (55:38):
It's it goes I mean, it's public record, it's
something to and, again, I'mtrying to understand the issue
more and I think the GeneralAssembly doesn't really
understand the issue, which iswhy they made the bill a study,
but they're trying to, from myunderstanding, prevent landlords
from using AI to set rents.

Speaker 3 (55:54):
So I mean Ryan does this down in Florida, you're a
property manager for your Airbnb.
Airbnb has an automatedsoftware, an AI, that will look
at you know the current dayrates and adjust the day rate
you know per the situation.

Speaker 4 (56:09):
That's for short term ?
Yeah, I haven't seen that.
For long term, I mean, youwould think that AI would do the
same thing that we would do,which is take us much longer,
which would be go and find thedata online gather that data and
figure out what the rent shouldbe in that particular property.

Speaker 2 (56:22):
Well, so this is gonna be a study bill.
We'll get the results back tothe study and what their
recommendations, what theirthoughts are.
And then this obviously, if I'mever invited back and we
continue this conversation overthe next few years, uh, we'll
see where this goes.

Speaker 1 (56:33):
Um, yeah, that's I do feel like it's interesting.
Ai is like I don't think thelegislation and government can
keep up with what's happening inthat space to begin with, but
for them to start putting inlike laws in place seems a
little bit of like an overreach.

Speaker 2 (56:52):
Well, I mean.
I mean, AI definitely needs tobe regulated, but the use for
small business isn't where weshould be going.
And why are we picking onlandlords when every business
out there is using ai for theirbenefit?
Why are we saying, oh well,landlords, they're the bad guys,
they can't use ai, when weshould be worried about you know
ai doing much more terrible andhorrible things to people,

(57:15):
right?
So, yeah, this is where this iswhere we're going to regulate.
Ai in maryland is setting rents?

Speaker 4 (57:21):
yeah, that's the problem.
They should regulate them.
Increasing taxes then, becausewe have to get the most rent
that we can because of the taxesincreasing property taxes, we
use AI to figure out how we'renot going to raise taxes this
year.

Speaker 2 (57:33):
But, like I said, we just raised $3.3 billion in
taxes and fees.
It's affecting every singleMarylander across the board and
no matter what people say.
You know hear that rhetoricthat you know 94 of maryland
receive receive a tax break.
It's only a 50 tax break onyour income tax, but all the
other taxes and fees you'repaying everywhere are going to
outpace that everywhere.

Speaker 1 (57:52):
So no one's getting a net tax decrease in the state
of maryland period and why don't, um, why don't the republicans
do in the state, do a better jobof getting this info out to the
public?
Why aren't they putting thisstuff?
We're sitting here, a littlepodcast.

Speaker 2 (58:10):
We do.
We push it out.
We do press releases, we'vedone press conferences during
session.
We push out on social media.
But part of it is the mediadoesn't cover it in some cases
as much as we wish they would.
Um, some of it's just peoplearen't paying attention as much
and sometimes it's just a matterof like, oh, this is a tax

(58:30):
increase.
Like, does it affect me?
Do I feel it?
And we become kind of uh,acclimatized to some of these
things.
So it's hard to say whatindividual voter would do.
But I know us as a caucus, wepush very, very hard against
these things.
One of the things.
So it's hard to say whatindividual voter would do.
But I know us as a caucus, wepush very, very hard against
these things.
One of the things I push veryhard against.
I mean, I've pushed very hardagainst many of these things.
One of the things was in theBudget Reconciliation Act.

(58:52):
They removed itemizeddeductions for those making over
$200,000 a year, includingcompanies, and some people say,
oh well, they're rich, theydon't need itemized deductions.
But right, $6.7 billion ofcharitable donations in the
state of Maryland are made byentities and individuals making
over $200,000 a year.

(59:13):
So we've just de-incentivized$6.7 billion of charity in the
state, because what people aregoing to do?
They're going to make thosesame donations, but they're
going to do that out of state.
So our nonprofits and I don'tcare if you're a Republican
Democrat, you know green, purple, blue doesn't matter Like
everyone has a nonprofit, acause they care about, and every

(59:35):
cause that everybody caresabout, no matter your political
affiliation or level ofpolitical activism in the state.
A cause you care about is goingto be hurt by this law that we
passed Full stop.

Speaker 3 (59:48):
Yeah, we're doing an event tomorrow actually for
Alzheimer's.
Ryan's a part of it.
He's helped raise a lot ofmoney.

Speaker 1 (59:58):
Just kidding, that was on me.
I raised a lot of money.
I roped this in, I got a thingand I passed it on to Chase, and
Chase has done a fantastic jobputting it all together, because
I probably would have.

Speaker 3 (01:00:08):
But yeah, I mean so that event I just saw today we
raised over like $80,000.
That's great, that's great andit's, you know, it's very good
cause.
But my one question for you wasI talked about this on one of
the podcasts, about the kid thatpointed out that there was not
an American flag in hisclassroom, and I wanted to see,

(01:00:30):
because I saw rumors that in thestate of Maryland you have to
have an American flag in everyclassroom in every school.
Is that an actual law?
I don't know if that's anactual law.

Speaker 2 (01:00:42):
But what I do know is this kid and Chris Papps, who's
covered a number of my bills,uh, this year he covered a lot
of the bills I was working on,um, especially around, uh, some
of the tragedies we had inharford county with some school
violence and sexual assaults andmurders and stuff.
Uh, in harford county schools.

(01:01:02):
Um, he covered the story andit's a kid who's going to the
Marine Corps and he went to, hepointed out and he got suspended
by Baltimore County PublicSchools.
What I do know, according tothe reporting, is that they they
settled with him in like 10days right, have you ever heard

(01:01:22):
of a 10 settlement in 10 days?
And there's two-year gag order.
So he can't talk about thecircumstances for two years.
So he's not allowed to sayanything't talk about the
circumstances for two years.
So he's not allowed to sayanything negative about
Baltimore County Public Schoolsfor two years.

Speaker 1 (01:01:31):
Put it on your calendar, we've got to get him
on the podcast in two years, butthey settled with him in 10
days.

Speaker 3 (01:01:37):
Something was wrong there.
But he also got trespassed fromthe Board of Associations.

Speaker 2 (01:01:42):
Yeah, board of Education.
So yeah, he got suspended andyeah it was.
It was for trespassing, likeabsolutely insane right you said
he was.

Speaker 4 (01:01:52):
What grade was he in?

Speaker 2 (01:01:53):
I think he's a senior and he was going into the
military or he's trying, he's,he's, I guess he signed up or is
going to go in the marine corps.
Um, and we reported was amarine corps hopeful.

Speaker 1 (01:02:03):
I'm not sure what that means, but like you know so
so going back quickly to therepublicans and getting more
word out there.
Like we found out about thisstory through social media, we
are, I wouldn't say, a bigpodcast, but how many views are
we doing?
A month?
A couple million?
now, yeah, close to a couplemillion, so we're doing a couple
million views a month now andwe're just a little podcast.

(01:02:26):
There are so many avenues forpeople to get the news out and
the this, the word out aboutthese bills, about what's going
on, and I feel like our party isnot doing the best job, because
when I go on facebook, I seegovernor moore talking all the
time and I don't.

Speaker 2 (01:02:44):
My algorithm should not be showing me that, like as
far as what you know, butthere's some questions as to any
influence social mediacompanies may have in pushing
content right, like the onegreat thing about x is x really
it seems to be pretty, you know,non-partisan and delivering
content right.
But I do see, like on some ofthe other platforms, it does

(01:03:06):
create an echo chamber and feedsyou the information that you
want to hear.
So there's that.
We are the Maryland RepublicanParty, so we're out number two
to one in terms of voterregistration.
So that's going to affectengagement.
Clearly there's some media biasout there.
We've seen that as well.

(01:03:27):
I mean that certainly affectsour reach.
Also, funding and the ability tofundraise.
When you're a 2-1 Democratstate.
We're at number 102-39 in theHouse and 34-13 in the Senate.
We're in a super minority, so alot of the fundraising dollars

(01:03:48):
go towards the majority partyand that would be whether that's
not a partisan thing.
That's, whoever the party inpower is is going to have more
of an ability to fundraise,which then allows them to
amplify their message, becausefundraising is about how do we
get our message out throughmailers and social media and ad
buys and things of that nature.
So they have way more of anability to push that out right.

(01:04:14):
Um, and there's apathy, you know, on the republican side of
donating in maryland, becausewe're the super minority and you
know how much can we win, howmuch can we move the needle
forward now if, like a larryhogan ran for governor.
Well, that would change things,because if larry hogan ran for
governor against west Moore, Imean I would think the Maryland
governor race would be the mostinteresting race in America,
because you have the formergovernor, two-term, who's never

(01:04:35):
lost, versus the currentgovernor, one-term, who's never
lost, wes Moore, somebody who'sstarting to rise, who could be
the presidential nominee for theDemocrats in 28.
Larry Hogan, republican star,could be the presidential
nominee in 28.

Speaker 4 (01:04:49):
like it's like how many times can you run for
governor?

Speaker 2 (01:04:53):
so in maryland's interesting, in most chief
executive positions like countyexecutive, mayor, governor
president, it's two terms total.
In maryland it's twoconsecutive terms.
So he ran two consecutive.
Takes a term off, he can runagain oh, okay, so if larry
hogan decided to run again, Imean, you'd see a lot of
political dollars pour into thestate for a variety of reasons.

(01:05:15):
So if you uh, if that happens,I hope you guys enjoy uh
political ads and mailers do youknow if that's on his agenda at
all to run again?
I mean, I mean probably, wegotta hope probably spend less
and tax less.
I would imagine imagine wouldbe all that really matters.

Speaker 3 (01:05:33):
You got to get Larry Hogan on the podcast, the other
thing about social media rightis we can have a million views a
month, but we don't control whoviews.
What of our viewers could be?
California, idaho, like allacross the board, versus, like
you know, when they'recampaigning.
If you campaign and you spendmarketing like that's marketing
dollars you're targeting thestate of maryland, so you need

(01:05:55):
funds to be able to do thatexact thing.

Speaker 2 (01:05:57):
Sure, I think that's what mike's saying, is you just
got to have more money andthat's the thing for and that,
and that's certainly a piece ofit, um, and it's also what's
important to people, right, andsometimes it's social issues,
sometimes it's economic issues,uh, but you know, it's uh james
carville who ran clinton'scampaign.
He said it best it's theeconomy.
Stupid, you know.
I mean like it's it all comesdown to people's pocketbooks.

(01:06:19):
You know, no matter how hundredpercent, no matter how people
feel about, and that's why Imean that's how trump got in
again.
Right, it had, you know, hadnothing to do with him, his
personality, his social issues.
It was all about what makes mefeel like I can be in a better
position to feed your familyright at the end of the day.

(01:06:40):
That's what it comes down tofor most people.
Not everybody, um, but for mostpeople, um.
And that's why, even in a statethat's two to one democrat,
with super majorities in thehouse and senate you know, two
of our last four governors wererepublicans right, so I know
you're local and not national,but can we touch on the fact

(01:07:01):
that?

Speaker 1 (01:07:01):
um, I think it's coming out now that Biden
actually was not super coherent.

Speaker 2 (01:07:09):
The fact that doctors , even MSNBC, said that he had
cancer.
There's no way this cancerdeveloped after the election.
It's too far spread, it's gonetoo far and you had.
I mean, jake tapper is on thisbook tour blowing them up on you

(01:07:31):
know.
Yeah, I saw that today.
I mean it's really hard toknowing the facts now as they've
been presented.
It's really hard to believethat the, the nationally, the
democrats, didn't misleadamericans on uh biden's health.
It's just hard to.
I mean, you know, nobody,nobody's health, is scrutinized

(01:07:56):
more internally than the presentconstant health checks,
constant examinations.

Speaker 1 (01:08:01):
If so there were so many people.
That's what that's.
My problem is like, how can webelieve anything at all when
they were able to keep thatunder wraps so well, when there
was no whistleblowers there wasnobody that came out.
I mean, I guess there probablywas, but nobody listened to them
.
I guess Now we know that forsure.
They they covered up a massive.

(01:08:24):
It's a scandal of all scandals,I mean the guy was mentally
unfit to.

Speaker 2 (01:08:31):
The only thing that's going to determine if it
happens again is the voters, youknow.
You know the voters will decideif that's acceptable behavior
or not, based upon how they votein the midterms, right?

Speaker 1 (01:08:41):
do you think there's any chance of somebody getting
in trouble for this, like peoplegetting blown up, um, I mean?

Speaker 2 (01:08:50):
about it?
Did they break laws?

Speaker 1 (01:08:52):
is the question.
That's what I'm, that's I guessthat's my question did they
break laws by hiding the factthat he was sick I don't know.

Speaker 3 (01:09:00):
I mean part of me with my like military background
thinks that it was like betteroff that they didn't disclose
his health.
But the fact is is that theyallowed him to run another
campaign and didn't disclose it.
That's, that's my biggest issue.

Speaker 2 (01:09:13):
I mean I mean for me, like I want to know as much as
possible about the candidateright.
You know, I mean um, especiallyat the presidential level.

Speaker 1 (01:09:21):
You know, I mean when you do have control of nuclear
codes and things of that nature,and um, I mean we're the plant
like we're, like a massiveplayer in the planet of, like
the whole planet, like it's notjust the country we have foreign
policy that affects people allover the world.

Speaker 2 (01:09:38):
I mean that office is the most powerful person on the
planet, right, you know, I meanby far and, and, as time goes
on, the most powerful person inthe history of the world.
And, um, this wasn't just likehe had a cold or had COVID or
something like terminal cancer.
And if you have terminal cancer, to the extent he has, they

(01:10:00):
knew he wasn't going to make itthrough another term.
So at some point, who was goingto be the person that filled
that role?
There's no way he'd be healthy,for be shocking if he was
healthy for four years, right,um, of a second term, and I saw
a doctor on msnbc state thatwhere the cancer is today,
there's no way he didn't have it, you know, early in his first

(01:10:24):
term.
Yeah, that's, that's wild uh soit's republican, democrat,
partisan, non-partisan, you know.
You know where people vote isgoing to say whether or not
they're okay with it or not, andthat's an individual decision.
I know how I feel about it, butthe voters will decide if
they're okay with uh, thedemocrat party enabling that

(01:10:46):
behavior, which is amazing howthey could cover it up for that
long.

Speaker 1 (01:10:49):
That that's what makes me go back to aliens.
I think aliens are real and Ithink they've been covered.

Speaker 2 (01:10:54):
I mean I mean, who knows about that?
But I mean, but when you getinto a certain level, yeah right
, like, and the stakes are highand you're, you know somebody
who's ambitious, who wants tomove with a political career,
you know, you know you're goingto play the game to not be on
the outside because once you'rein the outside like for me in my
political career, like I'm adelegate now the second, I'm out

(01:11:15):
of politics.
No, all the people thatapproach me and lobby me and ask
me questions and want my helpof things vanish.
I've seen over and over again.
I've seen very prominentpolitical figures.
The second they're out ofoffice.
Poof, you know, I mean becauseyou don't have a vote, you don't
have a say anymore, right, andit becomes very transactional
and it's, you know, and it makesfriendships.
You have lifelong friendships,but in terms of people needing

(01:11:37):
you or needing to lobby you orask you questions or you know a
lot of that just kind of goesaway.
The second you're out of office.
So a lot of people and for,like me, being a politician is
not my identity, right, you knowit's something I do, I'm
honored to do.
It means a big deal to me, youknow.
You know it's.
It is the honor of a lifetimeto do it.

(01:11:58):
But whenever this goes away, itgoes away, and I'm going to be
at peace with it.
Whether I decide to or myvoters decide, I'm no longer
representing them.
When this goes away, it goesaway.
But for some people, it istheir life, it's our identity,
it's their ambition, it's allthey fight for.
You see, you know, people gofor these jobs, sometimes
recklessly and so.

Speaker 1 (01:12:20):
So now we could talk about fundraising for you.
Oh no, I'm talking aboutfundraising, Whatever I mean.
We should, because I thinkthere's importance in getting
the word out there for peoplethat want to fight against these
laws that you're fightingagainst for us, Not even just
for real estate investors, justfor regular everyday citizens.
So I guess my question is if wedon't vote, I can't vote for

(01:12:45):
you, right, Because it's justpeople in your district.
But if you get voted out, doesthat mean that a Democrat is in
your place or just a differentRepublican?

Speaker 2 (01:12:54):
Probably a different Republican.
My district's pretty heavyconservative, which makes my
life easy in some ways becauseI'm able to.
I feel like my core values arealigned with my voters so I can
just be myself and do my thing,which is great.
But the one thing good about myconstituency and having

(01:13:17):
somebody with some experiencesome time down there is I do
have the relationships downthere.
I'm able to get bills passed.
I'm able to kill some of thebills my constituents may not
like, because it's aboutrelationships and credibility
and I felt like I've built thatamongst my colleagues, not only
the Republican side but on theDemocrat side too.
So when I tell folks down there, hey, this is really really bad
, it's not just me, you know,trying to get a gotcha.

(01:13:40):
It's like I have a legitimateconcern about this and it takes
time to build that up and tobuild some seniority in some of
those relationships.
So I'm able to get some thingsdone for my constituents, you
know, financially in thecommunity, I'm able to get some
things done for themlegislatively, for my
conservative values, for myconstituents' conservative
values, but also things justpractically that are better for

(01:14:01):
the state, and you can only dothat through relationships and
time.

Speaker 1 (01:14:06):
Do you have any aspirations?
I know I asked you this beforeto do anything further than the
Delicate.
I mean, who knows?

Speaker 2 (01:14:14):
I'm going to run for re-election in 26, you know, and
then we'll see how things playout from there.
I mean, you know and it's,would I like to see where this
would go.
Sure, but first and foremost,it's doing the job that's in
front of me and at the end ofthe day, you know, it's up to
what my constituents want.

(01:14:34):
You know it's not, it reallyisn't about me.
You know I have to do a greatjob, but it really is about the
voters.

Speaker 1 (01:14:41):
Yeah, at the end of the day.
Right now you're not doing like.
You just are working threemonths out of the year.
What are you doing on the offtime?

Speaker 2 (01:14:50):
So I mean I have my job where I'm director of
business development for AlbersAssociates law firm and then
mid-laying title, and then threemonths of the year I'm in
legislative session.
So it's about like 80%, 20%, 80%I'm doing my legislative role

(01:15:10):
and then 20% doing my regularjob.
Like anytime I find spare timeI'm doing my day job.
You know, and people forgetabout that, like we, we work
regular jobs, most of us andthen now it kind of switches
where I'm doing about 20 of mypolitical job, which is and I
have a chief of staff it handlesa lot of my constituent
services, things at the groundfor my constituents.
But I'm still involved inthings that need to rise to my
level, you know, uh, meetingwith community members, meeting

(01:15:33):
with community groups, uh, um,visiting like the farms in my
district and just making sure myconstituents are taken care of.
But at the end of the day, youknow, uh, it's very hard to make
a living just being alegislator, so I have to have a
job in addition to that don'ttake this the wrong way, but

(01:15:53):
there's, but there's normalpeople in our legislation making
economic decisions for Marylandwith no economic backgrounds.
I mean I would just suggest, ifyou have any questions about
that, look at the individual'sresume.

Speaker 3 (01:16:12):
But as somebody who's ran companies and um, yeah, I'm
not, I'm not saying you but I'mjust, I can only speak for
myself, right, right, right, youknow I mean that just blows my
mind is like there's probablydoctors or nurses or whoever
they come from, all differenttypes of backgrounds, but
they're making economicdecisions for the state of
maryland without an actualdegree in economics or anything

(01:16:35):
of that nature I had thisproblem with the school system
when I was a teacher.

Speaker 1 (01:16:39):
We had um like a principal who was maybe a math
major, maybe a history major,maybe an english major, whatever
.
Um was in charge of thesemassive budgets.
Like I was at a charter schoolfor enrola county public schools
and she was in charge of like10 million dollars.
Like this lady has no and andthe laws are so messed up where

(01:17:00):
you have to spend the money oryou lose it the next year.
So they were just spending waysspending finding ways to spend
it, and they would come come outwith these meetings like oh
we're we're spending fiftythousand dollars in this new
curriculum because we have tospend it or we'll lose it in the
budget next year.
What?
How do we fix that?

Speaker 2 (01:17:17):
I mean it's.
It's our system's broken thatway.
Um, I mean that that's that'scertainly broken, that you have
to spend the money.
Like I have a budget for myoffice and I never feel
compelled to spend every dime inmy office.

Speaker 1 (01:17:28):
Like we should be able to like if.
If you get a 10 million dollarbudget and you can invest it in
a whatever index fund, somethingsafe, and not spend it,
wouldn't that be like beneficial?

Speaker 2 (01:17:40):
I mean well, I mean like for me, like, and I can
talk.
I can only talk about mypriorities, I.
I can't talk about differentvoters.
Right, for me, and anybody whodesires to run for office should
run for office.
Right, we need more peopleinvolved in the process.
For me.
I'm going to want especiallythe number one thing we deal
with in Maryland is crime issuesand economic issues.

(01:18:04):
Right, and we have a $67billion budget.
I'm going to vote for somebody.
I'm not going to vote forsomebody who lives at home with
their mom.
Right, I'm going to vote forsomebody that you know has
economic experience, maybe ran acompany, you know somebody
who's signed the front of apaycheck and not always the back
of a paycheck, somebody withthe skin of the game and
somebody that understands whatit means to make a buck, or

(01:18:28):
somebody, skin of the game, um,and somebody that understands
what it means to make a buck,also by who knows what it's like
to lose a buck.
Right, and especially, and andthe impacts of the decisions
that governor makes on oneconomic development.
One of our biggest issues hereis we're too dependent on
federal government.
Right, like, and and this ispart of the conversation
happening in annapolis right now.
Well, all these things arehappening in m All these
deficits and shortfalls are tiedto Trump.

(01:18:50):
Yada, yada, yada.
Well, maybe a little bit, butour deficit before Trump even
got into office was $2.7 billioncoming into this year, after
losing a $5 billion surplus, andthen it rose to $3.3.3, partly
due to inflation, maybe becausesome of the decisions come out
of DC.
But Virginia, just to our south, who is impacted in the exact

(01:19:14):
same manner as decisions in thefederal level, not just has a
surplus, they're giving tax cuts.
So how's Virginia able to do itand navigate decisions coming
out of Washington?
But for us it's completelycrippling.

Speaker 1 (01:19:31):
Yeah, doesn't make sense, doesn't make much sense.
Well, I think we have to letChase ramble about cold plunge
real quick before we close thisout Mike, have you ever done a
cold plunge?

Speaker 2 (01:19:47):
I have done a cold.
I have done a cold plunge andthe only thing I can't figure
out about getting it right is my.
My body's cold, but my feet arefreezing.
It's like my feet.
That can't take it.
If I could find a way to keepmy feet warm and the rest of me,
because my, the rest of my bodyis feeling the experience the
cold plunge, yeah, but my feetare like about to fall off, yeah
.

Speaker 3 (01:20:04):
So if I could find a way to keep my feet warm and get
the same experience, I would doit more often so me and ryan
have a mutual friend down inflorida and we went and stayed
with them and we did the coldplunge for the first time with
them and, um, they talked usthrough sitting in the the
plunge and like helped usbreathing, breathe, yeah it's,
it's a lot, it's, it's moremental right.
And then, like you know, foryour feet, the thing is like you

(01:20:27):
rub your feet together to tryto like warm them up.
But I'm with you.
I can't do my wrists as soon asmy wrists go in the water.
It's like the excruciating pain, yeah everything with my feet.

Speaker 2 (01:20:37):
I mean it's it, it sucks and when you get out you
feel like a million bucks.

Speaker 3 (01:20:41):
Oh my god, for my feet it was like so I don't
believe in like the bigself-help thing or like I do
believe in self-help but likenot like the blue pills and all
that stuff, but like the firsttime I got in there and got out
I felt like my legs just werereset and we just had run like
three miles or something, um,and I felt like I just had a
brand new set of legs.
So we're in chattanooga ryan'stalking about buying a bike.

(01:21:02):
I'm obviously talking aboutbuying a bike.
My wife looks over and she saidyou're not buying a bike until
you buy my cold plunge.
So I'm like, okay, well, whatcold plunge do you want?
She says plunge.
Um, it's like an establishedcompany they have like the
actual big tub.
It's like 73 inches long anddoes it come with a little
device that cools water?
yes it comes with the chiller.

(01:21:23):
This is a six thousand dollarunit, um, and it, it.
It's the one that we testeddown in Florida.
It's a great unit, um, so I'mlike all right, cool.
So I order it in the car withRyan.
Ryan gets a little salty.
He wanted to buy one too.
Um, I get the unit on Wednesdayafter we get back open it up

(01:21:45):
and I'm looking inside and thechiller is like dirty.
It's got scratches all over it.
There's fingerprints.
I immediately sent it in ourgroup chat and I'm like I think
plunge sent me a used unit.

Speaker 1 (01:21:58):
Well, let's back up and say first, chase haggled
with them.
So that's what happened, Ithink he haggled with them and
said I'm not, not ready to buyit, can you give me a discount?
And they were like yeah, I'llgive you a discount, let's send
you a used.
Joe, you offered me the $500discount.

Speaker 3 (01:22:14):
The sales rep texted me.
He said what else can I do tomake this more appealing?
I was like, well, I didn't wantto spend whatever $5,800.
I was like I'd like to be at 54.
He, I was like I'd like to beat 54.
He's like, oh, I got a $500 off.
I'm like, all right, cool, putit in, we get military discount.
I put in the military discount.
Cool, we're good.
So it's under 54.

(01:22:34):
I get my unit.
Still a lot of freaking money.
It's $5,400 for a tub and achiller is an extraordinary.
There's 100 different coldplunge brands out there.
You different cold plungebrands out there.
You can buy an inflatable one,you can DIY one with an ice
freezer chest.
You can do one with Yetis now.
So I buy this expensive unit.
It's the one my wife wants.

(01:22:55):
We get it on a Wednesday.
I had to wait eight hoursbecause they give you a time
frame from 9 to 4 pm.
So you sit around, you're notworking, you're waiting on them
to show up and they finallydeliver it and I'm getting a
fucking used unit.
I message Cold Plunge the firstday.
Ask them hey, like I'm going tosend you pictures, can you guys

(01:23:17):
send me a new unit.
It takes them six days and meblowing them up on Instagram and
following the director ofsports on LinkedIn, for for me
just to get a call back, and sothey finally called me back in.
The best they they could offerme was hey, we'll give you a new
chiller and a three yearextended warranty for a dollar

(01:23:37):
Send my man his money back.

Speaker 1 (01:23:40):
So I just all I see is in our group chat with our
YouTube, the guy that runs ourYouTube channel and our social
media stuff, and Chase is likesend me stats of how many views
we've had.
And this man just posted onsocial media and one of, I guess
, the company that screwed me,poseidon Marine, that I got like
2 million views on one video inone day and it was me blasting

(01:24:04):
this company that basicallyrobbed me and I could be soon in
a legal dispute with them.
And Chase is like send me thestats so I can send it to Cold
Plunge.
So now Cold Plunge is the nextcompany on the chopping block
here, so I just don't.

Speaker 2 (01:24:18):
So you're saying that I got to make sure that all of
the deals I do for you guys intitle.

Speaker 3 (01:24:23):
Time need to be good, because you'll destroy them.
Just have good customer service.
That's it.

Speaker 2 (01:24:28):
No, our best customer service.
I'm going to deliver pizzas toyour house.

Speaker 4 (01:24:31):
Yes, I'm going to text you my address.

Speaker 1 (01:24:35):
Mike was texting me on Memorial Day with business
stuff and I appreciate that.

Speaker 3 (01:24:42):
Listen, just like a text, an email Did you call the
rep.

Speaker 4 (01:24:45):
I mean what happened with that guy, oh my God.
You call support you go throughthe automated.
Well, no, don't you say you'rein touch with the sales rep guy?

Speaker 3 (01:24:52):
No, you don't, you can't, it's a robot thing, oh,
okay.

Speaker 4 (01:24:55):
Is that the person who said that you can get $500
off, or whatever?

Speaker 3 (01:25:08):
I mean, like I said, in the morning, late night, now,
oh yeah, yeah I mean, but it'sso simple, right?
And this is what I told thelady when I finally talked to
her on Monday after six days ofnot hearing from Cold Plunge
Absolutely ridiculous, like wecalled them every day from
Wednesday to Friday.
I get on the weekends, youdon't work whatever, but it took
me blowing you up on Instagram,following the director of
support on linkedin, just to geta fucking call back what I love

(01:25:31):
is, whenever you mention them,you look at the camera.

Speaker 2 (01:25:33):
You're in their soul like and cold plunge yeah, but
it's not cold punches, it'splunge yes and just call this
guy right and so well.

Speaker 3 (01:25:42):
They finally did and they offered me a new unit or
three-year warranty for a dollar.
So you're still gonna make mepay a dollar for the three-year
bullshit warranty, when it tookyou six days to get in touch
with me about your used unit.
Why do you think I want athree-year warranty with you?
It just it didn't make sense.
So I was like, all right, justreturn me the money.
And I went and right, we foundone that iron man sponsors and I

(01:26:04):
bought it from them, orca.
So so I mean, at the end of theday, I'm a real estate agent.
I own a couple of businesses,ryan owns a couple of businesses
, nick does stuff himself.
Like customer service is at theforefront of everything you do.
Just be responsive.
You don't have to have asolution right away, but just
say, hey, we're looking intothis, we'll give you a call
within 24 hours and then do whatthe fuck you say you're going
do.
Don't keep telling us wednesdaythrough friday that you're

(01:26:26):
gonna call us and never call usback, and we have to call you
every day and then I have toblow you up on social media.
Just doesn't make sense.

Speaker 4 (01:26:32):
Too much time wasted.

Speaker 2 (01:26:33):
Do the right thing yeah, you've been waiting to get
that off your chest for oh mygod, it's so hot man.

Speaker 1 (01:26:39):
It's just like what's really funny is what also
drives these views um to likecrazy viral numbers is the
comments usually blasting us.

Speaker 2 (01:26:48):
So, like I had, I didn't even I never even read
the comments about our firstconversation.
I got blew up.
I got blown up no, I don't.

Speaker 1 (01:26:54):
I had to stop reading the comments.
I need to go back and watch it.
But let's go read the comments.
I I complained about a card, astory about a car dealership.
I was buying three cars andthey, they basically screwed me
over.
And I was, I was there andthese people were.
That was the first one, or thatwas the first one that went
viral second.
Second one about this.
So first one was the boat.

(01:27:14):
Oh yeah, the boat thing peopleare calling me out for like just
commenting the worst thingsabout me ever, like they don't
even know, they didn't evenlisten to the story, they just
started, heard a one minute clipand they are roasting me,
calling me a rich cuck, callingme all these things like and,
but that's what's driving theviewership up so much, because
so many people are commenting,and then people are coming and

(01:27:36):
defending me and then they'refighting with each other in the
comments.

Speaker 2 (01:27:40):
Well one, no one's ever, ever going to call me a
rich anything, so you know soknow.
So I'm, I'm okay there.

Speaker 3 (01:27:47):
Well, I think I think most people can relate to like.
I'm not complaining aboutbuying three cars.
I'm complaining about spending$6,500 at like a premium level
of service that you think you'regoing to get because you're
spending more money when there'sa hundred different
manufacturers you could go withand not know if you're going to
get the same quality of service.

Speaker 2 (01:28:08):
Give me $6,500 and I'll make sure your bathtub is
full of ice Every morning $6,500.

Speaker 1 (01:28:16):
Hey, that's not a bad deal.

Speaker 2 (01:28:18):
Let's get the personalized touch yeah that is
yeah, Now I um, I'll put somecucumbers in there for you.

Speaker 1 (01:28:26):
I said, chase, is that plunge going to make you
Faster on the bike, like thisnew bike would?
And Can't defend that.
So now he's got to buy a bikeand a cold plunge.

Speaker 3 (01:28:36):
Yeah, it's rough, but I'm spending half the money now
, so I'm only spending $2500 ona cold plunge Versus $6000 on a
cold plunge.

Speaker 1 (01:28:45):
So stay tuned to see if Orca Screws over Chase Kinzer
or becomes the latest a coldplunge versus six grand on a
cold plunge.
So stay tuned to see if orcascrews over chase kinser or
becomes the latest sponsor orbecomes the latest sponsor next
sponsor.

Speaker 3 (01:28:53):
They do sponsor ironman.

Speaker 1 (01:28:54):
Yeah, you're ironman and everyday millionaire podcast
and real estate, yeah, I weneed to start implementing more
triathlon talk in here, so thenironman and quintana root can
start sending us money, becauseI'm spending way too much money.

Speaker 3 (01:29:10):
These races are thousands of dollars every time
we go to one, so whatever lovewe can get online from these
people, yeah, my wife alreadysaid that I've spent more than
her engagement ring was worth,that I have to upgrade her
engagement ring and I was likedang, that's rough.

Speaker 2 (01:29:28):
Just the bike alone, just to spend six to twelve
hours suffering and you hear thenext line is that bike worth
more than your love for?

Speaker 3 (01:29:38):
me?
Yeah, it's rough, and what'sthe and don't my answer is.

Speaker 4 (01:29:46):
You can't put a price on your not, you can't put a
price on your health?
You can't put a price on yourhead to be around for you yeah
so or on your alimony.

Speaker 1 (01:29:55):
My yes, it's definitely cheaper to buy the
bike and the cold plunge and anew ring yeah, the new ring
might be cheaper.

Speaker 2 (01:30:01):
Yeah, yeah, for sure, yeah well, mike.

Speaker 1 (01:30:04):
Thank you so much for coming on.
We'll wrap it up here um july31st addresses again 95, 15 deer
, co-road and timonium, and sixto nine.

Speaker 2 (01:30:13):
Six to nine we'll be we got music, we got food, we
got drink.
It'll be a good time.
Yep, you know, midland.

Speaker 1 (01:30:18):
Title all free associates law yeah, thank you
for uh hosting ross and mike.
Um, we look forward to it, anduntil next time, guys.

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