Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to the Business Happy Hour radio show with your host,
Frank the Bank Koto, president of Lincoln Lending Group and
he won three mortgage for twenty years right here in
Tampa Bay, joined by his incredible co host Rosa Bahiti
and Senia Akishna, top producing real estate agents with Mahara
and Associates. These three bring nearly five decades I've experience
(00:21):
in the local real estate market. If you're looking for
real estate or business advice, no matter what your experience level,
the Business Happy Hour team has been there for you
for almost a decade right here on news radio WFLA.
Now sit back, relax, and get ready for some serious
real estate and business talk with three of Tampa Bay's
top experts.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
Here's Frank the Bank.
Speaker 3 (00:41):
Hey, Tampa Bay, welcome back to the Business Happy Hour,
your number one show for all things business and entrepreneurial.
I am Frank the Bank Koto, the owner of Lincoln
Lending Group and eight one to three mortgage guys going
on twenty five years in Tampa Bay. Yes, I started
this business when I was only eleven years old. That's right,
selling mortgages at twelve years old. Just kidding you guys,
know how old I am in studio with my amazing
(01:03):
co hosts. We have Senia and Rosa Sharon a camera today.
How you ladies doing?
Speaker 4 (01:08):
Hello? Hello, wonderful, excited for the show today.
Speaker 3 (01:11):
Yes, we have a great show and some great guests. Rosa,
how you doing? Put your face in there?
Speaker 2 (01:16):
I'm good. Hi, there's a Rosa. I love it.
Speaker 3 (01:19):
Rosa Vahiti and Senya Akesha from Mahara and Associates, my
two favorite real estate partners. Last week we had Ray
Mahara himself on the show. We had about forty million
listeners when they heard Ray Mahara was coming on, they
literally dropped Elon Musk came right in here, started listening.
Speaker 2 (01:37):
To our show.
Speaker 3 (01:38):
It was a great show, lots of fun real estate
stuff from that and today is no different. We have
a I would say I might even have a cooler
guest if Ray's listening. I'm sorry, Ray, but we might
have like forty eight million listeners today. We are very
pleased to announce our guest today. It is Carl and
Lida Lindell. How are you both doing today?
Speaker 5 (01:59):
Good? Great?
Speaker 6 (01:59):
Thank you fantastic, all right, all right to be here.
Speaker 2 (02:02):
Thank you.
Speaker 3 (02:02):
Lead So for some of you who are not chimed
in or tuned in early there on our Instagram channel,
don't forget like and share and get the Instagram out
there for all your friends. You may recognize the name Lindell.
I need you to start by going out to the
back of your car and look at your license plate
and see if you still have one of those silver
things going around the license tag and does it say Lindell.
If so, you might know one of the businesses that
(02:25):
Carl has been in for many years, and I am
very pleased to have them on the show. We're gonna
be talking all kinds of amazing stuff, some philanthropy. We're
gonna be talking about o their businesses. We're going to
talk about helping your families, tax things, charities. It's a
little bit of real estate, a little bit of market update,
a little bit of history. But just stay tuned here
(02:45):
to the Business Happy Hour, and please, if you are
watching us on social media, share it out so all
of your friends can join in the fun. So how
we normally start the show for Carl and Leda is
we like to do a little bit of a market update.
Carl made a great point before the show. He's like man,
Frank we just hear this left and right. We turn
on Bloomberg and all we hear is about the market.
All we hear about this, And Carl, I'm gonna beat
(03:07):
this dead horse. I'm going to just beat it into
the ground right now. And we're gonna ask Senia if
we have any new market updates, because we do like
to keep everybody apprize at what's going on. Yes, we've
had jobless claims report. Yes, next month, the feed is
going to meet a lot of that may already be
baked into the rates in the market. Yes, we know
rates are under six percent. You can always check that
(03:28):
out on the website of the posts we put out.
But what is going on with inventory and home sales?
Speaker 2 (03:34):
You know, Senny. I saw a post driving this morning.
I almost drove off to Howard Franklin and I saw it.
Speaker 3 (03:40):
It it listed out all these cities in Florida, Tampa
being one of them, and say, in real estate prices
are going down, real estate prices are dropping. But you
are the statistical expert, and every week you come in
and you tell me the actual numbers. And I'll be honest,
I feel like it was fake news. I think it
was a complete lie what I was reading you tell us,
you know what.
Speaker 4 (03:59):
You can't let's into everything you hear on the media. Yeah, yeah,
you know, like we've been talking. You know, we did
feel like July was a little bit slower for us, right,
June you know, was just traditionally a really busy month.
So I do have the July numbers in.
Speaker 2 (04:20):
Oh, is what we've been waiting on.
Speaker 4 (04:21):
It's what we've been waiting on. I mean, no, it's
not you know, like they say so bad, right, it's
just kind of stagnant a little bit, which is not
a bad thing. No, you know, it's not you know,
down that's a good thing. What happened, well, closed sales
were actually up four and a half percent.
Speaker 2 (04:39):
There we go.
Speaker 4 (04:40):
The median sales price though, did not see too much
movement there.
Speaker 2 (04:43):
Okay, Okay, I mean that's not a bad.
Speaker 4 (04:45):
Thing, right, Stable, very stable. Yeah, And everything's kind of
been a you know, across the board, the same with
the one thing that has been changing pretty much on
a monthly basis, our inventory is growing.
Speaker 3 (04:57):
Okay, okay, And you taught me something a few weeks
ago that I've told you I've used in some of
my presentations, which is a six month supply of inventory
is healthy, and we were a little over three.
Speaker 2 (05:08):
So we are we are we getting closer to four.
Speaker 4 (05:10):
We still to the MSA, you know, the TAMPAMSA which
is Hernando, Pasco, Panelas and Hillsboro three and a half percent.
Oh all right, I mean I'm sorry three and a
half months months.
Speaker 2 (05:21):
Yeah, you're right.
Speaker 4 (05:21):
I mean it's going up a little bit, but still
three point five.
Speaker 2 (05:25):
All right, So I not six, I promise, Carl.
Speaker 3 (05:28):
I wasn't going to beat this horse too bad, but
I'm gonna leave you guys with this. If the inventory
is still under what we can would consider a healthy
market and the rates go down again and you have
all these people running into the market, what would I
gotta ask Carl this question, what do you think would
happen to home prices?
Speaker 7 (05:47):
Well, they'll start going back up again when that happens,
I would completely agree. As soon as people start moving
on these rate movements. Inventory levels are very low, and
that's what's keeping the price is high. It's it's no
way the prices are going to go down very much.
Right at these inventory levels. People are not selling at
(06:09):
lower prices.
Speaker 3 (06:10):
Right, It's just it's just basic supply and demand exactly
it is. And and we we bring this up every
week because unfortunately, I feel like there's a lot of
information out in the media right now that is perpetuating
the thought that maybe you should wait to buy, maybe
maybe there's going to be a better time, and some
people think, oh, there's gonna be a foreclosure crisis again.
And being in the mortgage industry twenty five years, I
(06:31):
don't see the same factors. I don't see the same
indicators that we had in the two thousands. So I'm
a I'm a believer that it's probably smarter to get
in under today's prices than weight right.
Speaker 7 (06:42):
Well, you always hear the old saying it's hard to
time the market, and they're mostly talking about the stock market, right,
and uh, real.
Speaker 5 (06:50):
Estate's kind of the same way.
Speaker 7 (06:51):
If you're if you need some real estate and everything
else is in order. I don't I don't think we're
gonna we're going to have a bust or anything like that.
They're definitely asset classes that are going up and down
and side ways, but you have to be specific about
it when you discuss real estate.
Speaker 3 (07:08):
Obviously, I would a thousand percent and By the way,
I did not prompt Carl to say anything there. That
was all his own thing. Alita, what's your thinking on that, right?
I mean, and you can come just from a consumer
and investor.
Speaker 2 (07:20):
What would you agree with the way that?
Speaker 6 (07:23):
I totally agree. I mean, Tampa has just boomed in
the past couple of years especially, and we have so
many people coming into Floria, a thousand people a day
coming in and everyone that, especially the younger people that
I talked to, are having a hard time finding somewhere
to live.
Speaker 3 (07:42):
That is sad, and I agree, and I don't know
what the solution is there. You know, maybe they have
to They're gonna have to go a little farther away,
you know, get up closer to the spring Hill area,
maybe where things just a little bit cheaper. But that
is a problem about affordable housing, especially for first time
home buyers who are working a hard day's work, and
maybe the price point is above four or five hundred thousand.
Speaker 2 (08:02):
That's tough.
Speaker 6 (08:03):
It's real tough.
Speaker 2 (08:04):
It is tough.
Speaker 3 (08:04):
But to Carl's point, it's nearly impossible to time anything right,
you know, So we just give them the facts and
we basically say, you know, if this happens, then we
believe this is probably going to be the cause, and
prices are going to go up. And the one thing
you can control is what your loan is and you're
interest rate, but you can't control the price of the house.
Speaker 2 (08:21):
So maybe marry the house, date the rate.
Speaker 4 (08:25):
Absolutely I like that.
Speaker 2 (08:26):
Yeah, it's one of our little fun sayings trying to
get in people.
Speaker 3 (08:29):
It's like, you know, you can marry that house, but
I just keep that rate as your girlfriend for right now,
and then you can always switch that up late, but
you're not going to.
Speaker 2 (08:38):
Divorce the price of your house. That's absolutely true. So
anything else we have for real estate stats.
Speaker 4 (08:43):
Or anything, I think we'll have so much other information
to get into. I'm excited to hear from Carl and Lida.
Speaker 3 (08:50):
Yes, absolutely, Rosa, anything from your side of the coin.
How's it going on your world?
Speaker 8 (08:54):
It's been busy and listings are picking up. I just
got a contract on a how forty thousand under liss
price and it's only been on the market for one week.
Oh wow, actually less than one week.
Speaker 2 (09:05):
Forty thousand under underless price and they went under contract.
Yeah that's interesting.
Speaker 8 (09:11):
Wow, And they had another offer it was less I
made it appealing with less inspection days, three insection days
and closing fourteen days.
Speaker 3 (09:20):
That is very appealing. Yes, if I'm a seller, I
will take that contract. Yes, that's a great angle to use.
Speaker 2 (09:25):
So let's go.
Speaker 3 (09:26):
We've got a two and a half minutes left in
our first segment here. I'd like to spend that getting
to know Carl and Lida. If you guys didn't guess,
one of the businesses that Carl was in for many
years here was Lindell Automotive.
Speaker 2 (09:40):
I'm calling it that.
Speaker 3 (09:41):
I don't know if that's what you could called it
or not, Carl, but I know you guys did Honda, Volkswagen,
and Mazda. And I'm quite sure that my mom bought
a Mazda Millennia from you guys.
Speaker 2 (09:50):
And I say that because I was joking about that tag.
Speaker 3 (09:52):
She definitely had one of those tags on the back
of her car, and I always remembered that. I think
it was like when I was in high school or something.
But if you don't mind, tell us a little bit
about who is Carl, and then we'll find out who
Alita is. And then I think when we get into
the next segment, we can start talking about some of
these awesome philanthrop ahtlanthro practice.
Speaker 2 (10:08):
I can't even speak to.
Speaker 3 (10:09):
You the philanthropy philanthropic. I am not an English major,
although I think Carl might have been, So.
Speaker 2 (10:16):
Who are you Carl? I might have done the research.
Speaker 3 (10:19):
By the way, there was a great article if you
guys didn't catch it in the Tampa Bay Business Journal
about Carl and Lida and their foundation. It was from
the August second issue. So while you're on our break
here in a minute, we should check out that article.
Is that's how I learned a lot about Carl. Carl,
who are you?
Speaker 7 (10:37):
I'm just a real lucky guy, I guess. Actually that's
kind of my nickname in college and probably probably has
carried on for quite a few years with some of
my good friends. Yeah. I was first came to Tampa
in April of nineteen sixty nine, so and I haven't left.
I have to do an occasional trip here and there,
(10:58):
So you're lovel I've got few like a local here,
and I wish i'd go into high school here, but
I went to the Bulls School in Jacksonville, which was
at a great place to start.
Speaker 2 (11:08):
Now, were you born in Florida.
Speaker 5 (11:10):
No.
Speaker 7 (11:10):
I was born out in the Aleutian Islands during World
War Two. My father was a pilot out there, and
I was born out there and during the war.
Speaker 5 (11:20):
Wow.
Speaker 7 (11:20):
Yeah, And then we moved back here after the ward.
Speaker 5 (11:23):
Ended up in.
Speaker 7 (11:24):
Jacksonville first and went to school at UNC and Carolina,
then went to Emory Grad School, and then I've been
here in Tampa ever since since April the first, when
I drove into town, not knowing that anybody.
Speaker 2 (11:37):
And what brought you to Tampa.
Speaker 7 (11:40):
I came down here to buy a car from my
father's dealership. To tell you the truth, that was ostensibly
why I came down here. And it ended up a
year and a half later buying the car dealership home
instead of a car.
Speaker 2 (11:54):
Okay, so that's a great spot to take a break.
Speaker 3 (11:58):
Actually, we're gonna take a quick break on the business, Appy,
and we're going to come back and find out I
guess this is we're about to figure out how Carl
Lindell got into the car business right here by coming
to Tampa to buy a car and said he decides
he's just got to buy a dealership, which is what
I always try to do, but they never sell me
the dealership. But anyway, we're going to come back to
the Business Happy Air in just a minute with Carl
and Leta Lindell. Stay tuned, we'll be right back now.
Speaker 1 (12:20):
We're back with some serious real estate and business talk
with three of Tampa Bay's top experts. Your host of
the Business Happy Hour, Frank Thebankkoto, Rosa Bihiti and Senia Akeishna.
Speaker 3 (12:31):
Hey, Tampa Bay, welcome back to the Business Happy I
are with your host Frank Thebankkoto, owner of Lincoln Lending Group,
and eight one three mortgage dot Com. Don't forget, guys,
we love that reverse mortgage product. We want to make
sure we educate everyone over sixty two on how that
could be a great savings vehicle and a great way
to get out of this crazy inflationary time. Go to
reverse guru dot com to check that out. And if
(12:53):
you are interested in buying a home, you want to
definitely talk to our ladies over here at Mahara and Associates.
Speaker 2 (12:59):
Is Senia and Rosa and.
Speaker 3 (13:01):
Their website is what is It the Real Deal Tampa
dot com.
Speaker 5 (13:05):
I love it.
Speaker 2 (13:05):
I did it for him.
Speaker 3 (13:06):
It's okay, And don't mind them that we're having We're
trying to get everybody on the screen at the same time.
It's a full studio today. Uh, so we want to
make sure we get Carl and Ledo both in the
same shot. And it looks like we pulled it off.
Speaker 2 (13:15):
Yay. So it's the real deal.
Speaker 3 (13:18):
Tampa dot com for real estate, reverse Guru dot com
for reverse mortgages, and eight one three mortgage dot com.
If you just want to do a regular old mortgage,
that's totally fine.
Speaker 2 (13:27):
Before the break, Carl surprised me and I a lot
of times.
Speaker 3 (13:31):
I'd like to get surprised in my interviews and it
gives a better reaction.
Speaker 2 (13:34):
But uh, born in the Illusion Islands. I'm gonna have
to google that when we get out of.
Speaker 3 (13:38):
Here because I can't remember where the hell the Ellution
Islands are.
Speaker 2 (13:41):
I'm sure it's out.
Speaker 5 (13:42):
Like it's still in the United States. Is it really?
Speaker 1 (13:46):
Oh?
Speaker 2 (13:46):
I thought he's messing with me over here.
Speaker 1 (13:48):
No.
Speaker 7 (13:49):
Would be Islan actually, okay, base there, okay, and they
were flying out. It would be island on the Pacific campaign, okay.
And so my mother was out there with about other
and and.
Speaker 5 (14:02):
So as things would happen. A year or so later,
I was born.
Speaker 2 (14:07):
And we don't have to go into how that happens.
Speaker 5 (14:09):
A great place, beautiful, beautiful country.
Speaker 2 (14:12):
I'm going to check this out. Now.
Speaker 3 (14:13):
Hey, I just noticed a couple of I think you
guys should be in class, but there's some Jesuit boys
tuned into.
Speaker 8 (14:19):
I saw your son was on there sun Is. I'm like, oh,
it's lunch break, it's acceptable.
Speaker 2 (14:27):
Yeah, So hi, hey to Tampa Jesu. A good job kids.
Speaker 3 (14:30):
Now'll makes you get back to class. I'll be getting
in trouble using your phones over there.
Speaker 2 (14:34):
So, Carl, I asked you how you got to Tampa.
Speaker 3 (14:37):
You you came back to Jacksonville during the World War
two times, and then you just had to drive into
Tampa to buy a car, and you decide to buy
a dealership.
Speaker 2 (14:47):
How does that happen?
Speaker 7 (14:49):
Oh, well, that's that's a story. Well, I just got
out of graduate school.
Speaker 2 (14:52):
You know.
Speaker 5 (14:53):
It was during it was during the Vietnam.
Speaker 7 (14:55):
War, okay, and my first thing I had to do
was do the service, and and I was in the
Florida National Guard. I went out to Fort Bliss, Texas
and learned how to him forty tanks and everything. Fortunately
I didn't have to go to Vietnam.
Speaker 5 (15:10):
I ended up in.
Speaker 7 (15:11):
Fort Hesterly homer Hesterly Armory here for my monthly meetings
for the next six years, and then we would go
to start Florida for the two weeks in the summer.
We actually did camp outs and stuff military. It was
kind of something that we didn't look forward to, but
I did it for six years. But anyway, so that's
how I got down here. I'd gotten into the National Guard,
(15:34):
and so I was able to stay in Florida. That
was fantastic. And I was just coming down to trade
in the Chevrolet convertible I had in Atlanta. And when
I got down here, the man that was running my
father's dealership had some crazy idea that maybe if I
(15:54):
stayed down here and learned the car business, it would
help his career go figure that that wasn't a very
good decision.
Speaker 2 (16:02):
Oh boy.
Speaker 7 (16:03):
So I did decide to stay, and my father was
quite surprised. As a matter of fact, he didn't even
know about it until after mister Otto called him and said,
guess who I hired. My father was not entirely happy
about that, because he had just gotten into an agreement
to sell the dealership to somebody else. Oh no, which
(16:26):
after he heard I was coming down here, he actually
put that on hold and then we just let things
play out from there.
Speaker 2 (16:34):
Interesting.
Speaker 3 (16:35):
So your father, I would assume, thought to himself, well
maybe this is a legacy business. Maybe my son would
like to do this. So he eventually canceled that sale.
Speaker 7 (16:44):
Never never occurred to him before that because we never
talked about it. Everybody was going in their own direction.
But anyway, that's how I got to Tampa and it's
been fantastic ever since.
Speaker 2 (16:58):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (16:58):
Well, I mean I think the rest is hitty, but
we can definitely get into it. But I find this
very interesting because I'm looking to bring somebody new into
my company. And a question was presented to me two
days ago, and was going to go to our show
that we're going to do eventually, but talking about she said, well,
if we go in here and I build this in
this and you know, you sell what you know, what
do I get? And it made me have think about
that question that I hadn't really thought about in a
(17:19):
long time, and I slept on it and I woke
up saying, you know what, I want to leave this
business to one of my kids. I want to build
it up and see if one of them are interested.
So I told her it's too early for me to
make that decision. That you know, that would have to
be a future decision. But I, much like your father,
he never thought about it, you know, at least I
was forced to think about the question. But my other
answer was everything's for sale, so.
Speaker 9 (17:41):
We'll have to find out how that goes.
Speaker 2 (17:45):
So get So you got it.
Speaker 3 (17:47):
And so this is obviously your your first venture into
the car business, but you've done so much since then.
Is there an abbreviated way to say, what did Carl
Lindell get into besides Mazda and Volkswagen.
Speaker 2 (17:59):
And and many many successful car dealerships.
Speaker 5 (18:04):
Well, that is hard to abbreviate all that, you know.
Speaker 7 (18:08):
I remember when my father came down and fired a
couple of people and said he wanted to see me
in his office, which he rarely ever went to he
lived in Jacksonville. He says, well, I'm firing Auto and
a couple of these other guys, and I'm just going
to leave you in charge now here. I am just
(18:28):
out of graduate school, and I did. I was a
pretty good salesman. I sold Kirby vacuum cleaners, for three
years in Jacksonville. And my father says, well, what's the problem.
I mean, you got a graduate degree or a great salesman.
You know, there's that and the other. What are you
waiting for? And I got to thinking, well, I'm only
making six hundred dollars a month. I said, so what
(18:50):
was mister auto making? And he told me, and I said, okay.
Speaker 5 (18:55):
I'll do it.
Speaker 7 (18:55):
Yeah, And my father left that afternoon and he went
off to Europe for a month or so on some
kind of a business deal. And I just left me there.
I mean, I didn't have anybody teaching me the car business.
I had to figure it all out myself.
Speaker 5 (19:12):
Wow.
Speaker 8 (19:13):
So you stopped door knocking and selling vacuums at that point, Well.
Speaker 5 (19:17):
I did that before I came here.
Speaker 7 (19:19):
That was all something I did during my school years
in Jacksonville. Yeah, and so I was quite comfortable training
people and selling things.
Speaker 5 (19:28):
I was pretty good at knocking on doors.
Speaker 4 (19:31):
Yeah, I'd showing you the ropes. So I mean you
turned that company into I mean, that was the most
common car dealer you know, I heard of growing up.
Speaker 2 (19:39):
Yeah. So I mean he must have had a lot
of trust in you.
Speaker 5 (19:44):
No, he probably didn't. Actually he was surprised.
Speaker 7 (19:48):
But when I found out that everything was so messed
up that almost anybody would have looked good, you know
in my place. You know, if you go in behind
some great businessmen and to take over his company, most
likely a lot of people going to say you never
could quite you know, hang in there, right. But there
was a lot of things that needed to be fixed,
(20:10):
and fairly common sense figured it out, and I made
a bunch of changes and the first year was was
sort of an epic here. So you know, it's too
long to go into all that stuff, but it was
a It was a great introduction to Tampa and the
business world, and I never regretted a minute of it.
Speaker 2 (20:29):
I love it.
Speaker 3 (20:30):
So on that note, we're going to take a quick break.
We'll be back in a minute, and we're going to
learn about I'll lead to Lindell and what is your backstory,
and then we're going to talk some really exciting things
on philanthropy.
Speaker 2 (20:39):
So stay tuned to the Business Happy Hour.
Speaker 1 (20:42):
Welcome to the Business Happy Hour radio show with your host,
Frank the bank Koo, president of Lincoln Lending Group, and
he won three mortgage for twenty years right here, in
Tampa Bay, joined by his incredible co host Rose of
Bahiti and Sinya Akishna, top producing real estate agents with
Mahara and Associates. These three bring nearly five decades of
(21:02):
experience in the local real estate market. If you're looking
for real estate or business advice, no matter what your
experience level, the Business Happy Hour team has been there
for you for almost a decade right here on news
radio WFLA. Now, sit back, relax, and get ready for
some serious real estate and business talk with three of
Tampa Bay's top experts.
Speaker 2 (21:21):
Here's Frank the Bank.
Speaker 3 (21:23):
Hey, Tampa Bay, welcome back to the Business Happy Hour,
your number one show for all things business and entrepreneurial.
We have heard a great story from Carl Lindell of Lindel,
Honda and many other things. Carl Lindell has been in
business in Tampa for nearly sixty years now, and he
does have a collaboration with Community Foundation Tampa Bay that
has created a roadmap for turning complex estates into philanthrotropic impacts.
Speaker 2 (21:48):
I have figured out how to say that word today.
Thank god, it was in writing in front of me.
Philanthrop phalanthro tropic. I love it. I can.
Speaker 9 (22:00):
Hell, I'm thinking, I'm thinking this island that Carl was
born on a is tropical.
Speaker 2 (22:10):
That's all It's going through my mind. God, what can
I just go to the beach for pizzeg guy?
Speaker 1 (22:16):
It is?
Speaker 7 (22:17):
What is it?
Speaker 2 (22:17):
Labor Day coming up this weekend?
Speaker 3 (22:19):
And by the way, this show is playing on Sunday
morning as well, So happy Labor Day everyone, if you're
waking up listening to the show, I don't want to
waste any time. I would like to introduce Leita Lindell.
I know you have a great backstory as well. I'd
like to hear a little bit about where you came
from and maybe how you guys mad some fun stories there,
and then I would really like to spend the second
(22:40):
half of this segment, in the whole last segment of
the show, talking about what you guys have done with
that word felthropic.
Speaker 2 (22:48):
Yeah, that's what I got. Philanthropy.
Speaker 3 (22:50):
I'm just gonna say philanthropyy over here, there you go, philanthropy.
Speaker 2 (22:53):
All right, Liita, how are you today?
Speaker 6 (22:56):
Fantastic? I just love being here. This is an experience.
Speaker 2 (23:00):
I love it.
Speaker 6 (23:02):
My backstory is I think a little unusual. I was
born in Africa in Tunisia, and then I moved We
moved to Bogota and finally came to New York City
when I was five. So the reason we were in
Africa my father escape. We're Ukrainian, both my parents are Ukrainian.
(23:25):
And I can typhilanthropy into this too. But so my
parents escaped from Ukraine after World War two, really left everything.
They were able to bring my mother's parents over but
not my father's and there were a lot of displaced
citizens at the time after World War two, and my
(23:47):
father had a job with a French company building a
dam in tunis He spoke seven languages and he was
an engineer, so he was the project manager for building
the sedam in Tunis And he brought over two hundred
Ukrainian families that were displaced to help build this dam,
and they had a whole community there. And he did
(24:09):
the same thing in South America as well. And really
his whole life he was working towards a free Ukraine
and helping Ukraine and helping his Leviv where he was from,
helping his high school, started the first cardiac surgery unit there.
Just amazing stuff. So anyways, we moved to the United States,
(24:33):
and we're just I love this country so much and
I am so thankful they made that decision. But I've
also tried to give back. So when the war broke
out between Russia, when Russian in bade a Ukraine, I started.
I was on the board of the Community Foundation of
(24:55):
Tampa Bay and I started the Ukraine Crisis Relief Fund,
and up till now, I've been able to raise a
million dollars to help people on the frontlines in Ukraine,
and we donate ambulances ATVs that have saved lives. One
ambulance I just heard today saved sixty lives, portable generators.
(25:19):
And I'm in touch with people in Ukraine on the
front lines every day and they tell me what they
need and I'm trying to fund as much as I can.
But I always think of my father too.
Speaker 2 (25:30):
Yeah, I mean, this is amazing.
Speaker 3 (25:32):
There's so people A lot of times, I don't think
Leda realized that you can make an impact from so
far away. A lot of people just see this as
a place on the other side of the world, and
what the heck.
Speaker 2 (25:41):
Can I do? You know, I'm not going to send
a can of soup. I'm not going to do anything.
Speaker 3 (25:45):
But there are places right here. What is the organization
that you're using again.
Speaker 6 (25:50):
To well, I through the Community Foundation and everything is
vetted through them. Okay, so I have the fund there.
And then at first I was giving two large organizations
you know, the World the Kitchens, United Way Children's Funds
(26:10):
and Doctors Without Borders. Just different different organizations. But now
I'm working with TAPS Ukraine Tragedy Assistance Program for survivors.
I know Bonnie Carrol who started it, and they are
in Nipro. They have eleven people there and they know
(26:31):
exactly what's needed, so it's very easy to get supplies over.
Ahmed is there who's a philanthropist from Ukraine and he
just donates his time going to villages and delivering these
portable generators or I got a water truck after the
Kodovka dam collapsed and it's given water to eighty five
(26:52):
thousand people through him. That's amazing, and it's really every
penny goes towards those grants, and so that it's just
been I try to do a little bit as much
as I can, but it's it's it's a little I
can do.
Speaker 2 (27:08):
Yeah, I think that little is a lot.
Speaker 4 (27:11):
That's a lot. Yeah, so thank you very much. I mean,
that's that's a huge help. And you know, it's sad
that that situation is going on, but it's great that
we have people like you that donate to causes like
this to help.
Speaker 6 (27:25):
Yes, yeah, they're fighting for us too, It's how I feel, right,
I mean, so we need to support them.
Speaker 3 (27:30):
It's freedom around the world, and you know, you have
to maintain freedom even outside of our borders for us
to remain free here as well. So I commend you.
I think that's amazing. I know we could probably talk
hours on your story, but you you, the two of
you created an amazing foundation and that's what that article
was about that that I got to read in the
Tampa Bay Business Journal, and it's it's so big and amazing,
(27:52):
and I'm not sure exactly where to start.
Speaker 5 (27:56):
You know.
Speaker 3 (27:57):
I took from this for both you and Carl is
you're giving away a lot of your fortune from through
this foundation, and you're getting to choose the causes that
are most important to you. I mean, how should I
speak to that, Carl, what's the best way to start?
Speaker 7 (28:14):
Well, I'd be happy to try to start with it.
I think The structure of the deal started a few
years ago when my lawyers told me that I didn't
have my state properly papered. And I said, well, I
thought I did. I have a will and I was
going to leave so much to my children and so
lead us so much for the rest of it was
going to go to charity. And they said, well, you're
(28:35):
a very complicated state, is not. You can't just give
that because you have fifty five different companies, You have LLC's,
you have debt, you have partners, you have this, you
have some construction, some private equity, some of its overseas.
You know, you can't just give that to from any foundation.
And I said, well, then what happens? Well they said, well,
(28:56):
then you know, if you died tomorrow, probably owe the
government forty or fifty million dollars, Oh my god, which
means you all that would be that would be a
disastrous for our company, right And they said, well, you
know you've got to find a way to protect it. Well,
since the intent was always to channel it through a
(29:17):
charitable organization.
Speaker 5 (29:19):
And leave it in an endowment for the next.
Speaker 7 (29:21):
One hundred or so years for my family downstream for Lida,
while she's alive. And then my kids, Rust and Lane
and their children, and that's the long term deal. They're
going to have to all learn how to be philanthropists
rather than spending the money out of my estate because
they already have. They already have what they're going to get.
Speaker 2 (29:42):
Interesting.
Speaker 7 (29:43):
So in order to solve this problem, work with the
Community Foundation. And we found I said, you've already approved
while Lida was on the board, bringing outside advisors in
and manage and let's say you have stocks and bonds
and things like that. Community foundation can manage that very
well on at very fair prices. They got good people
doing that. But some people want to keep their own advisors, right,
(30:07):
and if you're trying to attract biggest states, you need
to let them do that or else the advisors are
not going to be on your side. So they've made
that change.
Speaker 6 (30:17):
Was we went from three hundred million assets to nine
hundred million.
Speaker 2 (30:24):
I saw that in a few years.
Speaker 6 (30:26):
Just by allowing the private wealth advisors to manage their money.
And it just makes sense. It one wins.
Speaker 7 (30:33):
Yeah, so Frank to take take that and I tried
to take that path and use that to solve my problem.
I said, well, since you've approved certain managers. You know
out there there's a lot of good money managers. I said,
what we need to do is create a management company
to manage.
Speaker 5 (30:50):
My estate.
Speaker 7 (30:52):
After we give it to you. They said, well, how
would you do that? So we decided basically to take
my a team that runs my family office and create
a management agreement. This took about a year and a
half to sort all this stuff out, and we had
to make it fair to everybody and of yes, so
(31:12):
what we've done now is protected my entire state that way,
because everything is going to be managed by a outside
management company while it's still owned by the foundation.
Speaker 1 (31:26):
Right.
Speaker 7 (31:27):
That's the unique thing that has not happened before. It's
a big deal for the business world. That's while we
got into the Business Journal because we want to take
this template and you take it forward and grow the
community Foundation and help others with complexes states that they
may not have ever thought about this. If I didn't
thought about it two and a half years ago, I'm
(31:47):
sure a lot of other people haven't either. Because if
you have a very disparate sort of a bucket of assets,
it's not easy just to leave them because if you die,
somebody's got to figure out how to deal with all that.
Body's going to know how to do it unless you
put a team in place.
Speaker 3 (32:03):
And if there's a tax liability, then what was going
through my mind when you started saying that at the beginning,
was all of a sudden, your children have this tax liability.
The government's after him for forty million dollars. They've got
all these businesses. They're not going to try to take
the time to figure out how to run the businesses
and pay that.
Speaker 2 (32:16):
They're going to liquidate.
Speaker 3 (32:19):
Right at the wrong price, right, and people are going
to lose their jobs. Bad things are going to happen.
This this is is this a first of its kind.
Speaker 7 (32:27):
We didn't want, you know, that's that's right. This is
this is this is hopefully going to happen many more
times in our in our community. But you know, otherwise,
it would have been unfair to lenders or partners or
investors or are my employees or even the charity that
was going to get what was left right, because if
you had to dispose of all these assets within nine months,
(32:50):
which is what RS Things seemed to think that you have,
and that's a short amount of time, we would have
probably ended up having half of what we were exactly. Now,
that's that was that was what we were facing.
Speaker 3 (33:04):
On that note, We're going to take a quick break
on the Business Happy Hour and come back and we
are going to find out how this organization can change
not only your lives, but the lives of so many
people using the philanthropy. I could say that we'll be
back in just a minute on the Business Happy Hour.
Speaker 1 (33:18):
Now we're back with some serious real estate and business
talk with three of Tampa Bay's top experts. Your host
of the Business Happy Hour, Frank Bangkodo, Rosa Bahiti, and
Senia Akishna.
Speaker 3 (33:29):
Hey, Tampa Bay, welcome back to the Business Happy Hour.
I hope you even having a great time. I tell
you what, Rosa, myself and Senia are learning a lot.
We are going to have to build up this organization
so that we can utilize some of these strategies. But
I know we have a lot of great questions of ladies.
You want to ask Carl and Lieda. This is Carl
and Leda Lynn Dell. You might know the name from
(33:52):
all of the amazing auto dealerships, but it is so
much more. Makes sure you check out that article in
the Tampa Bay Business Journal from I think it was
all I guess second it came out. It's not super long,
it's an easy read, but it'll really open your mind,
especially if you have a complicated estate or tax situation.
Speaker 2 (34:09):
You own a bunch of businesses.
Speaker 3 (34:10):
You don't have to be worth hundreds of millions of
dollars to benefit from this and to find out how
you can benefit your community as well as maintain your
assets for your family for generations to come.
Speaker 2 (34:20):
That's what I took from all of this.
Speaker 5 (34:22):
Ladies.
Speaker 4 (34:23):
Well, since we're in real estate, you know real estate
questions and any kind of advice you have. So I'm
curious how you went from, you know, car dealerships to
real estate because you do have Lindell Investments, which I
know funds lots of big projects. You're a developer. Can
you tell us a little bit more about Lindel Investments.
Speaker 7 (34:46):
Well, that's a company that's sort of evolved over time.
But to start off in my real estate, I've always
been interested in real estate, and in nineteen seventy two
I was just getting going as a car dealer. Seventy
three those actually pretty good years for the car business,
and we were just starting to make some money and
do well. And dal Sherwood was the owner of the
(35:08):
village in Pancake House and the Showboat Dinner Theater, a
great human being who lived in Tampa. We became friends,
and he introduced me to some people he knew, and
everybody was introducing to me because I was new in town.
And we got involved with a developer who said we
can build apartments, and we could. I think, we build
an office building and all this stuff. And I guess
(35:30):
he needed our money. And actually we went ahead and
tried all that. In nineteen seventy two, we started building apartments.
Speaker 5 (35:38):
We bought an.
Speaker 7 (35:39):
Office building, actually built it from ground up, and then
we bought five hundred and eight acres of land. All
this before the Great Recession of seventy four to seventy five.
So I have been in real estate all my life. Wow.
And I had to get in and out of that
because of the great recession of seventy four and seventy
five require some hands on.
Speaker 5 (36:03):
From me. I had to get in and do a lot.
Speaker 7 (36:05):
Of stuff to fix some things. But anyway, so that
was how we got into it. Then the car dealerships
grew went back there. We ended up with seven different
franchises over the time I was in the car business.
But towards the end of the towards the late nineties, well,
I was in Young President's Organization when I was in
(36:25):
my mid thirties, and that helped me meet a lot
of new people and learn a lot of things about
business that I probably would have never learned. But I
met a guy named Ron Wiser, who is a terrific
guy and a lifelong friend. He moved to Tampa because
I told him he should. He was in Miami and
he was getting ready to make a change. He came
up here. Then he was hanging around my office, and
(36:47):
I guess that's how the real estate really started. In
the late nineties, we were riding motorcycles one day found
this six hundred acres out in Land of Lakes and
it looked like it was for sale, but it might
have already bit under contract. But we rode out there
and looked at it. Orange groves and lake and gorgeous,
so we ended up buying it. We bought the contract
(37:10):
from a company out of Boston and ended up it
was my first big development, and I was so afraid
that I was going to fail because I thought, I'm
not I'm going to give this the people exactly what
they want when we build this community. And that's what
we did. We started off by picking a team to
do this. That's the key to any success in businesses.
(37:32):
First you've got to have the right people involved in
and we did make the right decisions and we planned
that whole community, and then we promoted it. We hired
five big developers. We won a lot of awards national
and three local awards over the years for the Wilderness
Lake Preserve community which is out there today. There's four
(37:53):
thousand people lived there with this piece of property that
we saw that that was kind of the big start.
And I don't think we've done anything citizen that was
more satisfying. But I guess that started at real estate.
And then I was really till ron. I said, we
got to get some business cards or something. We're in
(38:14):
the real estate business.
Speaker 5 (38:15):
You know.
Speaker 7 (38:16):
I didn't have an office, so I was working out
of the car dealership and making all the people up
there help us with this stuff. And it all worked out.
I had to go learn about how to finance all
this stuff. I had to go see some developer Charlie
Funk was a great developer, so I went to see him.
He said, oh, Carl, you can't do all this by yourself.
You've got to get CDD bonds. So I had to
(38:37):
learn how to get then, so we got permission to
issue CDD bonds, sold them on Wall Street. That helped
us do all the infrastructure. And that's another you'll know
what those things are. So I learned all about that
and so yeah, anyway, so that was sort of the
beginning of all that real estate and then and then
(38:58):
after that, I sold the car dealerships. Now then things
really changed. So about two thousand and one, I had
a lot of liquidity and everybody seemed to find out
about it. To every real estate deal in town seemed
to come through my office. Dick Greco was working for me,
(39:19):
and Ron Weiser, ron Weiser's son, and a couple of
other people. And I really didn't have any particular training
in all this, but it seemed like we were doing
pretty good. We might as well keep going. And you've
got to use common sense. You've got to try to
put the right people together, and also you've got to
(39:39):
have the right partners if you decide to branch out
and for the most part, we've been very successful at that.
But between two thousand and one in two thousand and eight,
we got into hundreds of millions of dollars worth of projects,
hundreds of millions of dollars.
Speaker 5 (39:57):
I'll give you a few examples.
Speaker 7 (40:00):
The Plaza high Rise on oarbri Allen I had bought
four acres from Post Properties, and so we built that
on the center part of that. I had a partner
out of Houston that did most of the heavy lifting, but.
Speaker 5 (40:14):
I was a partner.
Speaker 7 (40:16):
So that was going on while we bought the forty
four acres called Independence Park, which is just west of that.
Was the largest project, largest project in Tampa, and so
we got that all entitled for a huge community, and
Dick Greco was working with me and helped me with
all those entitlements. Ron Weiser did and it's a fabulous community.
(40:39):
But then of course two thousand and eight came along.
We had an island in the Bahamas that I was
with the three other guys, and we were developing the island.
We had a hotel in Miami Beach, the Saxony Hotel.
We bought, we borrowed sixty five million dollars from Lehman
Brothers at sixteen percent and bought that property.
Speaker 2 (40:59):
And see, the guys are not that bad, and so I.
Speaker 7 (41:02):
Had many there's many more things inners. So it just
didn't look like I ever wanted to slow down because
I really hadn't had any really big setbacks in my life,
and this was all I thought. We're just gonna keep going,
and then eight came two.
Speaker 3 (41:18):
On that note, we are going to invite Carl and
lead Up back on the show because there is so
much more that we need to cover about this and
we really need to get into the philanthropy as well.
So we'd love for you guys to come back on
the show. And I think we could even pick this
up in a podcast to finish this up.
Speaker 2 (41:34):
But thank you so much for coming you guys. I'm
so sorry the show has gone so fast.
Speaker 3 (41:38):
It's over, but we'll be back and we're gonna have
Carl and lead it back and we will pick up
right we were left off.
Speaker 2 (41:44):
So thanks for watching the business Happy. How are you guys,