Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to the Business Happy Hour radio show with your host,
Frank the Bank Kodo, President of Lincoln Lending Group and
he won three mortgage for twenty years right here in
Tampa Bay, joined by his incredible co hosts Rosa Bahiti
and Sinia Akishna, top producing real estate agents with Mahara
and Associates. These three bring nearly five decades of 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. Hey, Tampa Bay, welcome back to
the Business Happy Hour, your number one show for all
things business and entrepreneurial. We hope all of you made
it through those double storms as good as you could have.
Our hearts go out to everybody out there that has
displaced or has lost everything, whether it's a food, water, pets, house, anything.
(01:04):
We're thinking about you, guys. Today's show is going to
be focused all on the hurricanes. The double whammy that
we got from Hurricane Helene, Helen whatever they call it, Helene,
Hell Hell, just say hell, Hurricane Hell, and Hurricane Milton.
They came through the Tampa and West Coast area, Sarasota, Tampa,
(01:26):
Saint Pete, all the beaches. We're gonna be talking about
that today. We're going to tell our stories of how
what happened with all of us with Milton, which actually
could have been the first real doll it butt the
bullet dodge that we've ever had. I mean, that one
really was coming up Tampa Bay and we all thought,
(01:47):
you know, I know, waking up that morning, we thought
it was going to be a Category four that was
going to slam into us. And it was very scary
for a lot of people. So a lot of great stories,
a lot of positive stories. We're going to try to
stay positive today on the Business Happy Hour. As you know,
we're all in the real estate industry, so we're going
to give you some advice on what can you do
if you're an existing homeowner, maybe with damage, maybe you've
(02:08):
been displaced. We even have some things to talk about
if you're a renter and you have been displaced from
your place of rent. No matter what, if it's an
apartment or a house, or an Airbnb or what it was,
there could be some options out there for you to
get help. So we're gonna focus on the real estate side.
We're gonna tell our stories. We're going to talk about
generators and the importance of the generators in these situations,
(02:29):
because honestly, we dodged a bit of a bullet, and
you know, it could be a lot worse. You know,
there's still people without power right now. If you're watching
us live on Instagram, we are what how many days
out from the storm? Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, monthing five?
Five days? Six days out from the storm right now,
five and a half days. But if you're listening on
Sunday morning, you know we're over a week out from
the storm. So I hope by the time you guys
are listening Sunday morning, everybody has power. But I know
(02:52):
I'm still running into people left and right that do
not have anybody. We're gonna talk about neighbors helping neighbors,
and then we'll talk about these neat new internet options
called Starlink and what that could do to help you
if if you don't have internet. I have a multiple
people actually now that have power that don't have internet.
One of my employees is suffering from that right now.
(03:13):
I hate to say suffering, but he is experiencing that
right now.
Speaker 3 (03:16):
Yeah, it work right, I mean we're still relying on
the Internet.
Speaker 2 (03:19):
Now, right right. And by the way, Cinya and Rose
on my amazing co host. So I just started rambling
on there, how's every how y'all doing? Did y'all do
y'all make it out? Okay? Yeah?
Speaker 3 (03:27):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (03:28):
I left and evacuated just before the second storm, just
in case, because I have a big oak tree behind
me too, right in clear water, so in case it
flooded or the wind got really really bad.
Speaker 2 (03:39):
Now, were you a mandatory evacuation or no.
Speaker 4 (03:42):
So technically I was not in an evacuation zone and
I'm not in a flood zone either. However, I have
seen the water get pretty high in my neighborhood. The
drainage is good, but just in case.
Speaker 2 (03:53):
Yeah, and that oak tree. I'm sure you saw. I
got that big tree.
Speaker 3 (03:55):
That's what I was worried about. Even if you're not,
I mean we've seen so many, you know, huge trees
down I mean, if it crushes your property, you happened
to be in there.
Speaker 2 (04:04):
Yeah, yeah, I mean I saw a lot of stories
from North Carolina. It was very, very scary some of
those trees that just literally came through and crushed homes.
And you don't people don't realize just how big and
heavy those oak trees really are, and it's really scary. Yeah,
I mean they are. We had two come down. I'll
tell my story a little bit later, but to come
down in the neighborhood that one of them literally flattened
(04:27):
a section of a guy's house. And if the people
weren't in there, there's nothing they were to do. So
you did it, you'd know they were. They were in
that section of the house, Thank god. But I mean, good,
move on loose. Where'd you go?
Speaker 4 (04:39):
So I drove to Tennessee.
Speaker 2 (04:41):
Oh my god.
Speaker 4 (04:41):
I helped a friend who has a concession business, and
she was in an art festival in Nashville and Cententennial Park,
and so I helped her work that whole event. And
then I drove to Alabama yesterday and then I came
back last night.
Speaker 2 (04:56):
So question, when did you evacuate and how was the traffic?
Speaker 4 (05:00):
So I evacuated. I think it was two days before
the second storm, okay, and the traffic wasn't bad at all.
Speaker 2 (05:06):
That must have been Monday, right, Yeah, I think Tuesday
is the day it started to get get a little
rough on people of the traffic. So you either got
to go. From my Floridian experience, you either got to
go pretty early and I think you nailed it, or
you gotta go and please don't hate me, you know media,
but or you have to go kind of late, right and.
Speaker 3 (05:27):
You take side roads. My ex actually they went up
to Gainesville. Yeah, and I'm like, oh my god, because
they went, you know, just before it was almostly an
afternoon time and you're seeing all the news with all
that build up traffic. He said, two and a half hours.
They just took a different route. You can go seventy
five and he was pleasantly surprised that nobody was on
the way. Did he go Tuesday?
Speaker 2 (05:48):
Tuesday? Okay? God? And that was the day I think
that had the bad job.
Speaker 3 (05:50):
Yes, I mean it looked really bad, and I was
thinking they're going to be on the road forever. But
you know, get creative. But yeah, always best I think
to leave, especially if you're in a flood zone. Yeah,
evacuation you just have to do it. And well we
look just for peace of mind. It's just go.
Speaker 2 (06:05):
Well a lot of times my my niece called me
the morning of and wanted to evacuate and she was
going to drive to Atlanta with with the kids by herself,
and I had her just drive to my farm. But
it was it's one of those things that it's nothing happened.
They were not in an evacuation zone or anything. But
there's just peace of mind, you know, and there's nothing
wrong with that. But going back to the advice on
(06:28):
when to leave, you know, like what Rosa did, great idea,
and I was actually I was kind of poopooing the
governor and everybody on Monday on Sunday, I'm like, why
are they closing on Monday. It's not going to be
here till like Thursday. That's ridiculous. But in hindsight, I
think it was really smart. It really took a lot
of stress off of the gas stations and the stores
and people stocked up, and then this traffic wasn't as
(06:51):
bad as it was a few years ago. When I
can't remember which one that was. I thing Urma. That's
the only hurricane I've lived in Florida four generations, right,
that is the only hurricane that my family has ever
evacuated for. And a similar thing happened to us on
this one where we woke up in the morning and
it had strengthened and we thought that one was going
to co write up our gut at a category four.
So we got in the car. And this is my
(07:13):
accidental evacuation story. We had no plans on evacuating. We
had a house of fifteen people. Everybody came to our house,
and when we saw that the storm was way more powerful,
my wife's like, listen, we just got it. We got
to get out of here. I'm like, am I god,
we have fifteen people, this is insane. We decided to
go to a friend's house in Jacksonville and we left.
I would say, I don't know seven hours before the
(07:34):
storm was supposed to hit something like that. There was
not a car on the road, nobody. The only downside
was you couldn't get gas until you got like pretty
far north in the States, but if you had a
full tank you were fine. But I found it really interesting.
So then when that storm as soon as it passed
over us in Jacksonville, which ironically we lost power up there,
but we didn't at my own house, but I didn't
(07:55):
have a generator either. We got on the road immediately,
and yes, you had some trees down and some things
you had to avoid, some dangerous things, but there was
no traffic. So just advice to people, if you can't
get out early, still leave but you might find less traffic,
and then when the storm passes, get your butt home.
Don't sit and wait on vacation unless you want to
be in that ten hour gridlock. So any other advice
(08:18):
for you on leaving.
Speaker 4 (08:20):
I just think that our government and all the officials,
they did a really good job prepping everyone in our community.
And the people I was speaking with in Tennessee, they're like,
we love your governor. The santis did such a good job.
I was like, yes, yes, thank you, say we live
in a great place. But yeah, I think they did
(08:41):
a great job prepping everyone, and a lot of people
seem to follow their advice and just got ready for
it and prepared.
Speaker 3 (08:48):
I think during hurricane season, man, just keep your gas
tank full at all times. That was crazy because I
mean people started running out of gas I mean before
the storm, and I think initially I was supposed to
come what like Tuesday.
Speaker 2 (08:59):
Night was yeah, because it was like the weekend that
they started the whole evacuation stuff. That's probably the best
advice sending it that I think anybody, I think, take
that next to the next level. For God's sakes, go
buy some ten dollars gas cans. Put them outside your house,
put them in your garage. Wato. Gas is stable. It's
not going to explode. Housewives. Okay, yes, if you throw
(09:20):
a match on it, it's going to explode, But just
sitting there it's not going to do it. Put it
somewhere safe. But in all seriousness that I saw that
as a problem, like how do these how does nobody
have any gas? Like how are you not prepared? And
then how are the lines so bad just in the
last day or two.
Speaker 4 (09:37):
That's what I was hearing. And so some one of
my friends is like, I set an alarm for three
AM and I went to the gas station filled up.
Speaker 2 (09:44):
Yeah, so he didn't have to sit the car sitting
they were going to stay overnight. The gas station was
shut down and I'm driving by an eleven PM and
I'm like what are they doing and what are they
to sleep in their car to get gas? Guys? I mean,
first of all, where were they driving in the last
few days? Another thing I was saying, Yeah.
Speaker 3 (10:00):
Where you go wasn't It's not even just for your
car generally, so many people were using you know, just
at least a little generator seeking power, you know, a
fridge or you know, you're a starlink, Yeah, we say,
but I mean no, I have friends that were without power.
I mean they just got it back on on Sunday,
and I mean they had to get creative. You know,
they had a neighbor that owns a gas station. And
even then, like do you see all the policing with
(10:21):
the gas stames?
Speaker 2 (10:22):
Oh my gosh, there were some terrible things going on.
Speaker 3 (10:24):
Some terrible things going on. Yeah, people are getting very angry, and.
Speaker 2 (10:27):
Which had a lot to do with people cutting in line,
to be honest, and that's what I heard all those
fights were coming from, and people just being jerks and
just put But you have to put people in mindset
is survival of the fittest, and that's the way some
of those people are thinking. But it's like, come on, guys,
like you don't need to go jump in front of
the line, in front of everybody and the rest are waiting.
Speaker 3 (10:44):
But ultimately, yes, get the gas rules. Have a couple,
you know, just in your house, I mean, Franny kind.
Speaker 2 (10:49):
Of right, like we keep I think, I keep like,
I don't know, fifteen gallons, you know, something like that,
And the way I look at it is God forbid.
I could throw that in the back of my wife's
suv and we could go, you know what I mean,
and I believe be able to mean, you get twenty
miles to a gallon, right, so you can make it
pretty far. But anyways, that's some good advice. Get your
gas early, fill up some tanks. It's really not about idea,
(11:12):
especially if you have a generator and you're on a
gas generator and you've you've got to run that. Cindya, Okay,
we only have a minute left. When we get back,
let's find out what you did during the hurricane. Let's
see what else. We'll talk about some generators. Then we're
also going to get in some real estate stuff. There
are some really cool things. I'll throw one of them
out there right now. If you're a current if you
(11:34):
have a mortgage right now and you have been displaced
because of the hurricane. You can't work, you've been your
house's been damaged, you can't live in it. Whatever. Call
your mortgage company right now and request a four barance.
You can request a temporary four bearance and they will
basically take your mortgage payment and tack it onto the
end of your balance, so it's not going to hurt you.
It's not going to hurt your credit. A lot of
(11:54):
mortgage companies are giving you like a sixty day grace
period on your payment. So you got a call to
get this done, and a lot of them are not
just doing it right off the bat. We'll answer more
of those questions later in the show when we get
to the real estate portion, but now we're going to
focus on hurricane stories and the Business Happy Hour. We'll
be back in just a minute. Stay tuned.
Speaker 1 (12:12):
Now we're back with some serious real estate and business
talk with three of Tampa Bay's top experts. You're a
host of the Business Happy Hour, Frank Debangkodo, Rosa Bihiti,
and Senia Akishna.
Speaker 2 (12:23):
Hey Tampa Bay, welcome back to the Business Happy Hour.
We're glad you guys are joining us and we hope
everybody is safe. If you're listening on Sunday morning, we're
over a week out from Hurricane Milton, and we dodge
a little bit of a bullet there, guys. But I
think it did teach everybody here in the Tampa Bay
area just how bad things could be. You got to
get a good taste of the winds from the hurricane,
(12:44):
but kind of blows my mind. The rains from this one,
we're unbelievable. I mean, look what the previous one, what
it did up to North Carolina, which is still an
umber unbelievable tragedy, a lot worse than some of the
stuff we've taken down here. But these these rains causing
these floods and these things had nothing to do with
storm search. Did either of you have any any issue
with any flooding from the rains in your head?
Speaker 3 (13:05):
Yeah, but listen, the bullet dodging maybe where we're at,
because we're like, you know, North Tampa, you're in Linen Clearwater.
Speaker 2 (13:10):
But I mean Saint Pete, Yeah, yeah, they got hammered.
Speaker 3 (13:13):
No, I mean there are definitely people that I'm sure
don't feel like they dodged a bullet and that this
is probably the most devastating, you know, hurricane they've seen.
Speaker 2 (13:22):
That's a great point. That's a great point. And in
the south of there, Sarasota Bradenton.
Speaker 3 (13:25):
Oh my god.
Speaker 2 (13:26):
Well yeah, it's it's just like this double whammy, you know,
had you had one with the water, the other with
the rain and the wind, and it's I don't think,
you know, statistically, I don't hope this could never happen again,
you know, but like two and two weeks that happened
almost in the same track. I don't know, but I
know we got another one in the Atlantic. So who
stay away from us? Cinya, What happened to you? Did
(13:46):
you evacuate? You stay home with you know.
Speaker 3 (13:48):
We decided to stay because, like you, I think it
was I in a couple of years ago we did
end up doing you know, drove up to Georgia. Yeah,
that's why we got the starlink because up in Georgia
we had a great little cabin or whatever, but internet
service was terrible.
Speaker 2 (14:00):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (14:00):
So yeah, Husbando was all mad. He had stocks going
didn't make a trade in time or whatever, and we
went out and bought a starlink the next day. But
you know what that starlink came in so handy not
for us. We only lost power for about a day.
Internet was actually still up. But we have the whole
house generator like you which that was the first time
we got used out of it, and I'm like, wow, yes,
(14:20):
I mean, fank goodness. You know, we didn't have it
for about thirty seconds while things slipped over, and then
it automatically kicked in. Everything was working. We had ac
you know, fridges. We had two fridges, so we actually
have family and friends that had to bring over, you know,
food to store in our fridge.
Speaker 2 (14:37):
That happened.
Speaker 3 (14:38):
Yeah, but no, we got lucky. I mean, our friends
came down, you know, lots of tree debris. You know,
even now there's piles and piles. It's a wood fence,
so honestly, I mean I was kind of anticipating it anyway, Yeah,
you know, but we patched it up. We had a
friend that you know, came and stayed with us with
his two cats. He was a huge help because, yeah,
after the storm, lots of people do and work, and
(15:01):
what I love to see is all of our neighbors
being out helping each other out. You know. The kids
actually decided to do like a kickball tournament. You know,
that night nice and it was just nice to see
everybody coming together helping each other out. You know, we
were We had like a little portable generator too, you know,
slinging it around from like neighbor to neighbor, right, you know,
who needs that? The starlink was getting passed around and nice,
(15:24):
so you know it was we definitely got lucky.
Speaker 2 (15:27):
Well, I think so. I think I think a lot
of people did. And you know, if nothing else, that'll
teach us to prepare, you know a little bit better.
I know that that post that I put out about
the generator, right, I was giving Generaic a shout out.
That thing keeps flying out there, and I've got tons
of people calling me from that post saying, okay, explain
to me how this works. Like if I buy one
of these, what do I gotta do? And there's a
(15:48):
lot of advice to people. Can you can do different things?
Let me ask you on your generator did you did
you guys buy the tank, the propane tank or did
you rent one from one of the gas companies like where.
Speaker 3 (15:57):
You got one? So there's two huge one mounted on
the side to the house close to the generator. So
I mean supposedly it should last, you know, five days.
We only used it for a day. But yeah, Generaic
just came in and did whatever they did.
Speaker 2 (16:09):
Okay, so you bought. So that was a good decision,
and that for people out there thinking about generators, that
that was probably the biggest decision that I made. It's
whether you purchase the tank or you or you just
sign up for a service for the gas company. And
here's the biggest difference if you if you buy your
own tank, and you own your own tank tank like
Senny and I do, you can call any gas company
(16:31):
to fill up your tank. So think about after a storm.
Certain gas companies may be operational, certain ones aren't. A
certain price is one thing. You know, there is a
big difference. But I'll actually give you some advice. I'll
air here. But there is a company I found that's
based out of Orlando that seems to be like a
whole dollar cheaper for propane than anybody else. So that's
(16:52):
another thing. If you own your own tank, you can
save money on your gas. But it's I think it's
important that in an emergency situation, you need to be
able to use any company, right, So that's a big benefit.
I would recommend people buy their generator both you have Generaic, Yeah,
so we both have Generaic, so they turn on automatically,
work automatically. Other advice I'll give to people is oil.
I don't know if you and your husband checked the oil,
but do that when you get home. You should check
(17:14):
the oil after every twenty four hours of use, because
the number one thing that shuts down generators is you
run it and you don't think about it. And it's
just like a car engine. You got to pour oil
in it, and usually every seventy two hours they can
go bone dry. And if that happens, it's done right.
So five w thirty cost you eight bucks. Go buy
a little can. It'll last you a month in a generator.
(17:36):
So that's other.
Speaker 3 (17:36):
Some of that I had no idea because we actually
this will be the first time when we do fill
it up.
Speaker 2 (17:40):
I learned on the previous one because we actually did
lose power for a short time on the previous hurricane,
but then this one we lost it for almost three days.
But how about the rest of your story? Was everything
else good? In the neighborhood, kids played everybody's everything was good?
Speaker 3 (17:54):
I mean like you, We did have a huge tree
that came down right in the front of our neighborhood,
so everybody was blocked in, but you know, they were
quick to get somebody over there to chop it up
and at least move it off.
Speaker 2 (18:04):
Nice.
Speaker 3 (18:04):
You know, it was nice because it's actually a vacant lot.
So there's this gorgeous home that just sold for like,
you know, a million and a half. Oh my god,
And I'm like, man, they got really lucky that that
tree was a little bit further away that.
Speaker 2 (18:15):
You know, look, could go one way or the other.
Speaker 3 (18:17):
Yeah, can you imagine you just bought your new home,
haven't even moved in yet, and I.
Speaker 2 (18:21):
Can't no, I can't even imagine. I don't know if
there's a way I could share the picture on our
Instagram or something. But so we had two trees come down,
and when I mean giant oaks. So you girls saw
the pictures like these things I got, I can't even
describe how big they are. But one of them blocked
right in the middle of our neighborhood. Anybody on my
side could not get past that tree with a car.
But the worst one happened later in the storm. We
(18:42):
lost power pretty late in the storm. Actually it was
really like kind of like the next day. It was
really strange. A tree went out and it landed on
a power line, a huge oak. I cannot I have
to give a shout out to Tiko or whoever the
hell to design these power lines. You ever heard that
they have lack in them that they can like take
weight from something. This power line literally held up this tree,
(19:08):
and it did cause a fire, kind of sucked right
in the tree and stuff like that because it was
a live power line, but it supported the weight. The
power line itself did not snap. The pole actually snapped.
The freaking power line pole snapped, but it was suspended
by these anchors that went into the ground. And it
blew our mind how powerful they were. So all of
our neighbors we got to find out everybody who has chainsaws.
(19:30):
Literally I found out like fifteen neighbors have giant chainsaws.
We went out there as a neighborhood and when I
mean shredded both trees. It probably took five hours between
the two trees and shredded them. We even took off
a giant branch and braced the power pole with the branch.
I gotta send you as a pitcher and then the
power company comes out the next day whatever two days later,
(19:51):
and they said, boy, if you guys hadn't cut that
tree down yourselves, we would have just gone on to
the next job, and we wouldn't have restored your power
because we couldn't have touched the tree. They're not equipped
to do that. So there you go.
Speaker 3 (20:00):
Another hurricane prep teb get a giant chainsaw. We don't
have one of those, luckily, so all the neighbors did.
We have the little mini, but I mean that I
could see how that would definitely come out.
Speaker 2 (20:09):
Well, when we get back, we'll give some more advice
on the equipment you need for a hurricane. Gas is
one of them, starlinks another, and we might talk chainsaws
on the Business Happy Hour.
Speaker 1 (20:16):
Stay tuned, Welcome to the Business Happy Hour radio show
with your host, Frank the bank Kodo, President of Lincoln
Lending Group and eight won three mortgage for twenty years
right here in Tampa Bay, joined by his incredible co
hosts Rosa Bahiti and Sinia Akishna, top producing real estate
agents with Mahara and Associates. These three bring nearly five
(20:37):
decades of 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 (20:57):
Here's Frank the Bank. Hey, Tampa Bay, welcome, come back
to the Business Happy Hour. We hope all you guys
made it out from that storm, okay, both of those storms.
We're sharing some of the stories today and really some
of these stories, you know, luckily none of us had
it really bad like some of you out there. But
we hope you guys listen to these stories and it
helps other people just prepare for the next storms, because
I really think that's what it's about, is we have
(21:18):
to learn something from what we went through. And you know,
in the beginning we talked about gas, you know, evacuating
at the right time, where to go, preparing and having gas.
Now we're talking about chainsaws, and in both Senny and
I would have been stuck in our neighborhoods if it
wasn't for having the saws. And for the first day,
you're like, oh, okay, we're stuck in the neighborhood. This
(21:39):
is kind of fun, right, all the neighbors are out,
we're playing kick Paul, right whatever. Then the next day
you're like, okay, well, you know what if somebody gets hurt,
you know what I mean. That's what we started worrying about.
The lady across the street. Her husband is on this
medical equipment and they do have a generator and they
could probably last a week and stuff like that. But
I'm like, my god, what if something happens, like an
ambulance isn't getting in or out. So by the time
it gets to the second day, you're like, all right,
(21:59):
there could be problems. And that's the point where I
was like, okay, kids, nobody doing anything stupid because I
can't get you to a hospital if something does happen.
But the chainsaw thing is is a big thing. You
should definitely chat with your neighbors. I think a thing
to take from this is have a neighborhood meeting. You know.
We kind of did that during the storm, is like
very inadvertent, but we got to know so many of
our neighbors and we found out who has what, who
(22:21):
has these resources. Who has what skills? You know, you're
talking about your aunt.
Speaker 4 (22:25):
Who has volunteers for the Red Cross.
Speaker 2 (22:27):
Yeah, and she's got a skill.
Speaker 4 (22:28):
So yeah, she's a therapist and she was in Virginia
and the Red Cross flew her out to Tampa to
be on site and ready to go to help support
with the shelters and mental health and just being there
for them.
Speaker 2 (22:42):
The shelters that is. I don't know if you remember
what happened in Katrina where they put everybody in the
superdome and it turned into like insane chaos, and probably
they learned from that, you know, these counselors. That's a
great thing to happen because people are in a stressful situation.
You need people to know how to deal with the
stress and how to call people down and how to
You got to have leaders, you know, in these situations,
(23:03):
which you know, God God blessed Ronda Santis again because
I think he prepared us properly and he got us
through these storms. And the one thing I love about
him is he doesn't he cuts red tape like nobody,
you know, all the like repairs and everything. He's like, guys,
I hate to say it, like this. Forget permits, forget
the government, get out there and fix your communities.
Speaker 4 (23:22):
But he has all those stops on the tolls I
noticed too on the roads, Like that's awesome.
Speaker 2 (23:27):
Yeah, it's just those smart little things that you have
to be prepared to handle. So generators we do recommend generak.
They've worked out for Sinny and I check them out.
Chainsaws we recommend gas and with long blades over small poles. Alls.
Speaker 4 (23:43):
I'm going to go out and have to buy all
these things now because I don't have.
Speaker 3 (23:46):
Any of them. Well, you definitely need one with that
big tree in your backgard right now, I.
Speaker 4 (23:49):
Have huge branches. I don't know if I'm going to
be able to lift them this time and put them
out in the front.
Speaker 2 (23:54):
Chainsall there. You get.
Speaker 3 (23:56):
This is where friends you really know, you know how
many friends you got out and help. And that's been
a nice thing to see, you know, everybody offering up assistance.
Hey what can we do? You know? And the other
thing I like is even the people that you know
have it worse than we do. Hey, I feel lucky.
I still feel like I'm the lucky one because you know,
there are so many people that have it worse. And
(24:19):
you know, in times like this, you really just kind
of see communities come together and just that's been the
heartwarming part. Definitely a lot of heartbreak, you know when
you're driving through these streets and just seeing you know,
the devastation and the damage. But there are heartwarming stories
out of it.
Speaker 2 (24:33):
They really are. There's some beautiful stories. But if nothing else, guys,
learn from this. Prepare for next time. This is you know,
because there's going to be a next time. It's quite inevitable.
Other thing to mention, oh the starlink. Let's talk about
being prepared. So you bought yours from the previous evccuration
from IRMA a few years ago. So I listened to
(24:55):
you and I ordered mine right after Helene Helene lean,
hell right after hell he lean. I can't I get
that right every but I ordered mine, and sadly, so
here's a cool shout out to Elon Musk. Is ordered
mine and it shows is going to get delivered on
like October twenty fourth, and right after the hurricane, Like
the day the hurricane was hitting here, I got an
(25:16):
update saying we have expedited your starlingk system. Like literally,
I was like holy, I.
Speaker 3 (25:22):
Was wondering that because they're probably what like on back order.
I mean, are these things selling out now?
Speaker 2 (25:26):
I'm sure they must be. And so people have to
know this that if you're interested in it, Elon's doing
a wonderful thing. It is half off. So it's two
ninety nine for their fully functional system. Everything you need
two hundred ninety nine dollars. And he just extended the
free service for anyone in the impacted disaster ARA, which
is basically Florida, Georgia up to North Carolina for free.
(25:48):
So you're getting one hundred and twenty dollars monthly service
for free through January. So that's nice.
Speaker 3 (25:53):
Mine's getting passed around right now. We luckily didn't lose internet,
so then you know, we gave it to another friend
that didn't get power a few days. I still have
one that's out of power, you know, no internet, So
it's over at his house now and it's definitely coming
in handy.
Speaker 2 (26:06):
So we're we're considering getting for the office, you know,
and we didn't have internet at the office and whatnot.
And I'm gonna do some testing kind of like you said,
and just see is is it is it as powerful?
Can I do everything the same that I do do.
So that's some benefits anyway. So check out starlink dot com.
Shout out to Elon Musk for expediting those shipments. It
blew my mind how they did that and got it
(26:27):
to us. Now luckily we didn't necessarily need it, but
now we have it for the future.
Speaker 4 (26:31):
So now we need a starlink to the list.
Speaker 2 (26:34):
Okay, so Rosa gas cans, chainsaw, starlink, new cat, you
get the new cat.
Speaker 4 (26:39):
All I got a Ukane and I named her Hershey Milton.
Speaker 2 (26:43):
Oh, now I get it. You really named it Hershey Milton.
Speaker 4 (26:47):
Because she's a girl. So I'm like, I can't name
her Milton, so kind of after Milton Hershey, but Melton
the hurricane. So it's Hershey right over my head?
Speaker 2 (26:55):
Why do you do it? Helene Milby?
Speaker 3 (27:01):
There you go, Helene Milton. That's even better.
Speaker 4 (27:03):
He Hello Helene.
Speaker 2 (27:05):
But it's not it's not too late.
Speaker 4 (27:07):
They could change it. She still doesn't know her names.
Speaker 2 (27:09):
So I always wonder at what point do they I
don't know. It's a cute, the cutest little kiddy cat ever.
All right, so what else? Let's why don't we talk
about Actually I wanna. We're going to get into some
some of the the things we can do, uh program
wise to help people out. One thing we mentioned was
(27:29):
for barons. But I just want to ask the U
two ladies if from the real estate world, and I
know obviously nobody's doing anything in the last week, but
the market and maybe it's all started, you know with
with hell right, it has seemed very strange, Like when
I say strange, almost like nothing moving, like no activity
(27:50):
are you Is it? Is it the election? Is it
the hurricanes? What is going on right now?
Speaker 3 (27:56):
I think, I mean it's been yeah, multiple factors. I
think the election is deaf definitely a big one. But
I mean Helene didn't help, like the areas that were
really hey, you know, you got those homes by the
water that have suffered major losses. Like I'm seeing listings
that are beautiful homes on pictures and you get your disclaimer,
oh you know pictures post you know before the hurricane, right,
and prices getting slashed on those because a lot of
(28:17):
people just don't want to, you know, go through that
huge rehab of one hundred thousand dollars, So they're probably
just going to take a loss and a lot of
people didn't have them under it those Yeah, I mean
that's so sad.
Speaker 2 (28:29):
It is, it is, it's and I think a lot
of things are going to change after that flooding stuff.
But it's it definitely seems kind of like a mental pause,
which also brings up the question just in general, what
about people working right now? Like you know, I know,
I had this big event scheduled for tomorrow Wednesday, are
supposed to be seventy five agents at the Pinalas Realtor Organization.
We decided to cancel it right before I walked into
(28:51):
the studio today because the responses we were getting it
seemed rather uniform. It's people are not ready, like there's
too much displacement right now.
Speaker 4 (28:59):
I think also so realtors. We don't know. I mean
some of us might our homes might have been affected too,
and so they're not quite ready yet either to get
back to business as usual.
Speaker 2 (29:09):
Yeah, it's it's just a tiny bit too soon.
Speaker 3 (29:11):
Yeah right.
Speaker 2 (29:12):
I think next week, I think we'll feel pretty normal.
I think this week is is still just kind of
a not just a physical but a mental cleanup week.
Speaker 4 (29:19):
Yeah right.
Speaker 2 (29:20):
And I know kids, I know, I think they go
back to school tomorrow. Across all counties are years going on.
Speaker 3 (29:25):
No, actually, I just got the call before we walked
into the studio. We're in Hillsboro and ours is going
to be Thursday, so they just need one more day.
I think tomorrow they're having the teachers and staff back
to kind of prepare to reopen Thursday. But what Panela's
pass go is reopening.
Speaker 2 (29:40):
I believe tomorrow. Yeah.
Speaker 4 (29:42):
My cats don't go to school, so I'm not sorry.
Speaker 2 (29:45):
Well, I know a good private cat school.
Speaker 4 (29:48):
I'm going to send them to Frank's Cat. They need
some training.
Speaker 2 (29:52):
I do like cats, but my cat dog would not
appreciate your cat. I don't think it might. I don't
know maybe, but yeah, so I know. So my son's
actually back in school today Jesuit start, yeah, which it
was private school. And then my daughter's school, CDs is
starting tomorrow. And then now we've obviously heard the update
from Hillsborough County. It's going to be Thursday. But you
got to remember the public schools were used as shelters. Yeah,
(30:12):
that's they need time to clean that up. I'm sure.
Speaker 3 (30:14):
Well that's a big part of it. I think the
message today because yesterday there were still sixty schools out
of power.
Speaker 2 (30:19):
Oh wow, today it's thirty five.
Speaker 3 (30:20):
But they said that, you know, Pico I think is
the majority provider for Hillsboro. But they promised that, you know,
the remaining schools, they'll get it all, you know, working today.
That way everybody can be ready for Thursday.
Speaker 2 (30:32):
Have you heard anything? In my household? The kids are
all freaking out. They're like, we got a week off.
Does this mean we're going to get a week lesson Christmas?
So are we going to get it? And that might
be how it goes. Hopefully they don't do it on Christmas, but.
Speaker 3 (30:44):
Yeah, I hope not. But they're going to have to
figure something out. That's a lot of days to make
up summer.
Speaker 4 (30:49):
Summer, isn't it usually added into that.
Speaker 2 (30:51):
They extend school or they start you know, I think
I don't have a choice. You have to extend. You
can't start early in another freaking grade, right.
Speaker 3 (30:57):
I think first, they'll probably do away with the money
day earlier release, so usually every Monday, you know, it's
an hour earlier, so get.
Speaker 2 (31:04):
Those holidays, any teacher work days, things like that. They
might mix. I don't think they're going to kicks federal holidays.
I would hope not, and I.
Speaker 3 (31:12):
Think they might forgive some of those two. That's another
thing I've heard. So, I mean, it's quite a.
Speaker 2 (31:16):
Lot of days. Is it really a big deal? I mean,
you get to it's like it's not like one student's
missing something the other one Isn't you know what? Sorry, guys,
you're not going to learn letter R this year. All
the kids here, you're moving on to S. Is that right?
I don't know. So a little fun, A little fun
today on the business Happier when we get back, we're
(31:37):
gonna spend the end of the show we're going to
talk about things you can do from forbearance requests from
your existing lender, renovation loan. Yes, renovation loans are out there,
and the most important one that people do not know about.
It's called the two three h the Disaster Loan for
Displaced People by f h A. Stay tuned if you
(31:59):
want to hear about that. We're going to tell you
how you can get one hundred percent financing and not
count your departing primary or rent against you when you're
buying that new primary for one year from the date
of the disaster. So this is going to be great information.
There are programs that our government, believe it or not,
is helping you with to help you stay in a
beautiful home. So stay tuned on the Business Happy Hour
(32:21):
and Rosa, Senia and Frank we'll be back in just
a minute to tell you about these exciting opportunities.
Speaker 1 (32:27):
Now we're back with some serious real estate and business
talk with three of Tampa Bay's top experts. You're host
of the Business Happy Hour, Frank the Bangkodo, Rosa Bahiti
and Senia Akeishna.
Speaker 2 (32:38):
Hey, friends of Tampa, we're back on the Business Happy Hour.
Hope you guys did a good through the storm. Here.
We've shared some stories in the beginning. Give you guys
some advice. Rosa has a new list, Rosa, what's on
your list?
Speaker 4 (32:50):
Okay, so I need to get a chainsaw, guests tank,
what else? A generator, A generat generator, starlik a Starlik
and and Captain got a stock up on that cat
food for those kiddies.
Speaker 2 (33:06):
That's all right, it's so funny, yes, but that is
a good Listen. Listen, there are I think through these terms,
there's certain things you learn that are definitely important to have. Uh,
you know, generator guys, it is I mean, it is
well worth the investment. I mean it's it's it is
thousands of dollars and you're you can finance them. Now,
I've seen that through generack and whatnot, but I definitely
(33:28):
think that is that is a game changer because when
the crap hits the fan, just the fact that you
can have some normalcy in your home and your food
and think about people lost thousands of dollars of food.
You freezers and stuff full of stuff, and that that
generator and and I'm not just talking those little portable
ones is better than nothing.
Speaker 4 (33:46):
Right, Maybe I'll start with that.
Speaker 2 (33:47):
Start with a little portable one. You can do that,
I think, I think you need whole house now, I
need the whole thing, the whole bay. Anyway, and buy
your tank. That's what we recommend, if you can afford it.
If not, just rent the tank and you'll be okay.
Something can last you probably a week or maybe. Diduld
I tell you how long years would last?
Speaker 3 (34:05):
I mean they said at first, I think I heard
seven days, but I think we were banking on hopefully
at least five, right, but I think five to seven
depending on how much use you know, you're getting obviously
you don't want to run. You know, you're dryer and
stuff like I made sure all of our laundry was
done before the storm.
Speaker 2 (34:19):
And you can shut it off like if you leave
the house or during the day if it's nice, you
can shut it off. You want it on at night
obviously in sleep, I think, but you can always shut
it off and on.
Speaker 3 (34:27):
Well, I was even like the second fridge. I'm like,
all right, we might not need that. So we did
kind of have a list of things that would go.
Speaker 2 (34:33):
You know, yeah, if you needed to. But I think
you know, what I was starting to think is that
you know that you have a limited amount of fuel, right,
and you obviously can watch a fuel, but it's going
to get you through the roughest days. And if you
still don't have power after three or four days and
they're telling you it's gonna be another week, Okay, now
it's time. Okay, now I can go somewhere, I can
do something else. But at least I get through that
the time I need to get through.
Speaker 3 (34:51):
And I think, you know, the other thing I was
thinking about though, because you have your tesla. Yeah, and
my husband also has an electric car, which I'm not
an electric car girl yet, but now you are, you know,
with all the gas issues and stuff like that, having
that whole house generator, I mean, that was a priority
that we have a charged car.
Speaker 2 (35:06):
Yep, yep. And that's what we did. We drove the
Tesla when there's you know, as long as you know,
is a debris or anything, we could get around. But
that was that's exactly what you did.
Speaker 3 (35:13):
I charged it up. Those are nice to have too,
as long as you have power obviously to charge them up.
But we're like, you know what, worst case scenario, it's
super bad and we have to leave. Yep, you know,
at least we know we've.
Speaker 2 (35:22):
And I was checking the charging stations going up the
state by the way, and they were all open. Nothing
nothing from Elon got shut down. So as long as
they've got power to the gas station where the chargers are,
you're good to go. All right, So let's talk about
some solutions here. Programs. So we're all learning about this
program which which we used way back in the day.
You haven't seen it since I think it was IRMA.
We did some stuff north of Tampa the two three
(35:45):
h This is an FHA loan program. Specifically designed to
help disaster victims. We'll just say hurricane h downs for
hurricane that's what we're going to say today. Right, here's
what it does for you. If you were displaced, and
you have to prove that you were displaced, either through
an insurance policy or maybe picture something a landlord letter
(36:06):
or something like that, if you were displaced, whether you
are a renter or an owner, all right, you are
going to be qualified and in the disaster area, you
are going to be qualified for one hundred percent financing
for the next twelve months, starting from the date of
the disaster. Right, so you've got a year from now
to buy with no down payment FHA loan. Now, you
(36:26):
can't just do it because you want to. You have
to not be able to live in your house.
Speaker 1 (36:31):
Right.
Speaker 2 (36:31):
It may not mean your house is totally wiped off
the map. You know, you had a flood, you can't
live in your house. You know, maybe that that hell
hurricane that came through washed everything out and now your
house has got it. You can't live in it.
Speaker 4 (36:42):
So this loan, because there's a two oh three k
rehab loan. So does this mean that it can be
a home that is moveing ready or needs work.
Speaker 2 (36:52):
Great question, So this house needs to be move in ready.
Speaker 3 (36:55):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (36:56):
So to Rosa's point, the two three K is an
FAHA rehab loan that will give you up to ninety
six point five percent of the total cost of rehabbing
the value of the house. Right that's to rehab. Whether
it's a purchase or a refi.
Speaker 4 (37:11):
Could that be utilized in this scenario like almost like
a refinance for some of these people.
Speaker 2 (37:18):
One hundred percent. That's exactly what it's used for. It's
it's if your house has been destroyed and you didn't
have the proper insurance or you need more than the
insurance is going to give you FHA two oh three k.
And we also have a conventional version of that program
it's just called a renovation loan. And guys, this is
also for investment. This is not just for primary. So
if you have an investment property or rental and it's
(37:39):
been damaged in the storm and you need funds to
fix it, an insurance for whatever reason is not covering
it or you didn't have it, there is a product
for you. Go to contactfrankdbank dot com. That's the easiest
way to request a call or you can always text
eight one to three seven sixty five one two three nine.
But the best and easiest is contact frankdbank dot com
for your refinance needs. The ladies will be here to
(38:00):
answer any of the purchase questions, but I'll help you
on the financing side. The two oh three h again. Oh,
here's the other special about the two three h people
are stressing and saying, well, wait a minute, I'm not
going to qualify counting my other house, my other parting
primary and the new house. Yes you are, because we're
not going to count that messed up house against your
(38:21):
debt ratio.
Speaker 4 (38:22):
That debt will not be considered.
Speaker 2 (38:24):
Will not. And here's the other benefit. You have to
hear this guy's four barans. You need to call your
existing mortgage company right now and request of four barance.
They will give it to you. They're going to take
your mortge pay. Let's say yourtgage payment's two thousand dollars
a month. They're going to just add it to your balance.
So if you, oh, two hundred thousand next month, you'll
ow two O two and then two O four and
then two O six. Right, But who cares. They're not
(38:47):
changing your mortgage payment. They're just tacking it on the end.
So whenever you sell it or refile, you'll pay that,
you'll pay that back. Does that make sense to and
I explained that, well.
Speaker 3 (38:54):
Yes, all right, yeah, that's nice and people could really
use that cash right now immediately.
Speaker 4 (38:57):
Especially people that can't also if can't be in their
homes and they can't.
Speaker 3 (39:01):
Work, absolutely yeah, I mean, what are you gonna do.
You're gonna have to probably pay rent somewhere for a
little bit, or I don't know if they're in hotel rooms.
Speaker 2 (39:07):
So four bearans. First, if you're a homeowner with a mortgage, first,
request you for a Barons. Second, contact frankdebank dot com
to find out what you could do possibly on the
on the loan for for getting into a new house,
or if you're going to stay in your house and
everything's okay but you need money to renovate it. It's
two o three K or conventional renovation loan. Other than that,
(39:30):
I'm trying to think of what are the questions we
could answer for everybody here.
Speaker 3 (39:32):
Let I guess on the real estate side, because I mean,
right now, we did have you know, homes that were
under contract. Oh yes, I mean after any major storm.
I mean you do have to go out there and reinspect. Yes,
for one, you know, you keep your fingers crossed that
things didn't change. But you were asking me about like
the forced mature clause. Oh, yes, you know in our contracts.
So I mean, say you do go to that house
(39:55):
that you're about to buy, and I mean there is
you know, major damage they have to extend roof for well,
it's not even that. I mean our contract reads that
you are going to close on the home and it
has to look and be in the condition when you
went under contract. Right, So if there is damage, especially
major damage, I mean, you can go back with the seller,
try to discuss it. Say, hey, are you going to
(40:17):
be fixing all this stuff? What's your plan? If the
seller is not really in a position to do that,
and they're like, you know what, I can't, I'd rather just.
Speaker 2 (40:25):
Yea, you know, so you can do it, Talk to
your realtors, talk to your seller's force. Mazur will save
your contract the seller. We'll have to sell you the
house in good condition and contact Frankibank dot com and
therealdeal Tampa dot com for more info. We'll see you
guys next week, stay safe.