“I’m Selling Everything!” Why Ben Mallah Is Cashing Out Of Real Estate

Summary

Summary of "The Iced Coffee Hour" Episode: “I’m Selling Everything!” Why Ben Mallah Is Cashing Out Of Real Estate

Release Date: June 1, 2025

In this compelling episode of "The Iced Coffee Hour," hosts Graham Stephan and Jack Selby engage in an in-depth conversation with real estate mogul Ben Mallah. The discussion centers around Mallah's unprecedented decision to exit the real estate market, providing listeners with valuable insights into the current housing landscape, investment strategies, and personal philosophies on wealth and success.

1. Current Real Estate Market Standstill

Ben Mallah opens the conversation by addressing the turbulent state of the real estate market. Highlighting a surge of homes for sale in the U.S., he states, "We're at a standstill. You can't even sell it or break even. All these newer buildings right now, homes." ([00:06]).

2. Rising Interest Rates and Loan Challenges

The discussion delves into the impact of rising interest rates on real estate investments. Mallah emphasizes the strain higher rates place on profitability: "Because your four is now a seven plus and they can't handle that. And then who wants to own real estate where you have no cash flow anyway?" ([07:17]).

3. Ben Mallah's Investment Strategies

Mallah shares his approach to navigating the challenging market, focusing on diversification and strategic investments. He explains his shift towards municipal bonds, comparing them to real estate: "I'm always looking at a property. Is this place making me money or if I sell it...put it in tax-free muni bonds?" ([17:19]).

4. Institutional Investors and Market Trends

The hosts and Mallah discuss the influence of institutional investors, who tend to favor low-cap rate investments: "Who wants to own a 50 or $100 billion asset and have all that responsibility... it's stupid, okay?" ([05:11]).

5. Homeownership vs. Renting: Advice for the Average Person

Addressing the general public, Mallah offers pragmatic advice on homeownership: "Rent a property right now for less money... I would suggest you wait." ([08:26]). He underscores that homeownership should align with individual financial stability and risk tolerance.

6. Impact of Tariffs on the Housing Market

When questioned about the effects of tariffs, Mallah dismisses their significance in real estate: "Tariffs is just political... It's a way to play a card." ([11:55]). He suggests that while tariffs may influence the cost of goods, their direct impact on real estate remains minimal.

7. Leveraging YouTube Presence for Real Estate Deals

Mallah discusses how his YouTube visibility aids in securing real estate deals. He notes, "If people know who I am, then I can get a lot more transparency in the deals really." ([22:55]). This exposure enhances his credibility and facilitates smoother negotiations.

8. Family Involvement and Succession in Business

A significant portion of the episode explores how Mallah involves his family in his business operations. He describes training his children to manage large properties: "My kids run everything... they'll take over that and they'll take over that and they'll take over that and they'll make money." ([25:01]). This strategy ensures business continuity and instills a strong work ethic in the next generation.

9. Philosophies on Wealth and Happiness

Mallah reflects on the relationship between wealth and happiness, asserting that financial stability significantly enhances quality of life: "It's a lot easier living with money... you don't have to worry about paying your bills." ([30:19]). However, he remains cautious about excessive wealth, emphasizing moderation and practicality.

10. Tax Strategies: The Importance of 1031 Exchanges

A critical element of Mallah's strategy involves utilizing 1031 exchanges to defer taxes and reinvest profits: "The tax system that we have forced me, pushed me to never touch the money and roll it into the next deal." ([72:21]). He staunchly defends the 1031 exchange, viewing it as a cornerstone of his real estate success.

11. Negotiation Tactics in Real Estate

Mallah shares his aggressive negotiation techniques, often offering significantly below asking prices to secure deals: "On average, I'm offering about 25% less than what they're asking." ([22:28]). He believes that effective negotiation is purely a numbers game, devoid of personal emotions.

12. Wealth Inequality and Capitalism

The conversation shifts to broader societal issues, with Mallah expressing strong support for capitalism and the potential for wealth accumulation: "If people are getting wealthy legally, that's what it's all about." ([73:15]). He argues that individuals have the power to improve their circumstances through strategic investments and hard work.

13. Legacy and Educating the Next Generation

Mallah emphasizes the importance of leaving a positive legacy by educating and mentoring others. He shares stories of individuals whose lives were transformed through his guidance, underscoring his commitment to impacting lives beyond his own financial success: "Teaching people is very important... I get the satisfaction I get when I can entertain and help people." ([74:26]).

14. Final Reflections and Future Outlook

In concluding remarks, Mallah contemplates the future of real estate and his personal strategies amidst changing market dynamics. While he acknowledges past opportunities he might have leveraged differently, he remains focused on practical, informed investment decisions: "You can't beat me down. But could I have done more? I could have leveraged a lot more stuff that I did." ([94:11]).

Notable Quotes:

• Ben Mallah ([00:00]): "We've been delaying. We've been praying. Eventually, the music has to stop."

• Ben Mallah ([07:17]): "Because your four is now a seven plus and they can't handle that. And then who wants to own real estate where you have no cash flow anyway? That's stupid."

• Ben Mallah ([08:26]): "Rent a property right now for less money... I would suggest you wait."

• Ben Mallah ([22:28]): "On average, I'm offering about 25% less than what they're asking."

• Ben Mallah ([30:19]): "It's a lot easier living with money... you don't have to worry about paying your bills."

• Ben Mallah ([72:21]): "The tax system that we have forced me, pushed me to never touch the money and roll it into the next deal."

• Ben Mallah ([73:15]): "If people are getting wealthy legally, that's what it's all about."

• Ben Mallah ([94:11]): "You can't beat me down. But could I have done more? I could have leveraged a lot more stuff that I did."

Conclusion

Ben Mallah's candid discussion provides a multifaceted view of the real estate industry's current challenges and opportunities. His strategic shift away from traditional real estate investments, emphasis on tax-efficient strategies, and dedication to mentoring the next generation underscore his adaptability and forward-thinking approach. Listeners gain valuable perspectives on navigating a stagnant market, the importance of diversification, and the enduring value of real estate as a reliable investment. Mallah's insights serve as a guide for both seasoned investors and newcomers aiming to thrive in an evolving economic landscape.

Transcript

[Ben Mala]

We've been delaying. We've been praying. Eventually, the music has to stop.

[Graham Stephan]

The housing market is flashing red.

[Ben Mala]

We're at a standstill. You can't even sell it or break even. All these newer buildings right now, homes.

[Graham Stephan]

For sale in the US surging to 500,000.

[Ben Mala]

The loan is due. What are we going to do?

[Graham Stephan]

How are you finding good deals right now?

[Ben Mala]

I'm looking every day, and I'm low balling, baby.

[Graham Stephan]

How do you lowball them without offending the seller?

[Ben Mala]

There's no offending in. In business. I'll sell Jimmy Hart to get that house. You wake up in the morning, what the are you going to do? That's the question. You got to be a machine.

[Jack]

Have you noticed any effects on the housing market from the tariffs?

[Ben Mala]

Tariffs? The tariffs. The tariffs. Tariffs is the most beautiful word to me in the dictionary.

[Graham Stephan]

What do you think of the biggest opportunities right now?

[Ben Mala]

Speaking of timing, I mean, opportunity is always out there. You got to look for it, and you got to be persistent. I love it. I just absolutely love it. If somebody was a genius, they could figure out.

[Jack]

Ben Mala. Thank you so much for coming on the iced coffee hour.

[Ben Mala]

That's all you got to say?

[Jack]

I'm just thanking you for coming on the show.

[Ben Mala]

But remember, this podcast is sponsored by carpool tables. Baby, you better get one. Can you put one in your house?

[Jack]

How much did this cost right here?

[Ben Mala]

They start at about 20 grand, and they go up to maybe 50, depending on what you want. Ford Mustang. 65 Mustang. You can get the 69 Camaro. This was the copy of the Indianapolis 500 pace car that Mario Andretti won and was personally here and blessed it. And we do the 59 Corvette, and we do Shelby's. We have them signed by Shelby before he passed away, and we can make them any color you want on the felt. We can do any body paint you want.

[Graham Stephan]

Could you do a Ford gt?

[Ben Mala]

Real bumper, but not real wheels? The wheels are real, but they're shrunken down. Okay, but the fenders are. I mean, the grille's real. The bump is real. The headlights are real, the emblems are real, and they're licensed by Ford and gm.

[Graham Stephan]

So what's your affiliation with them?

[Ben Mala]

With who?

[Graham Stephan]

With. With these pool tables?

[Ben Mala]

I created it.

[Graham Stephan]

You created it in another company?

[Ben Mala]

I did it because I wanted one in my house. Because the long story. The short story. The long story is this. Everyone was about three years old. All right? I wanted to get him a car bed. Why? Because I always wanted a car bed when I was A kid. But no, I slept on the goddamn FL. Or in a bathtub. Can you imagine a little kid? I slept in a bathtub. Can you imagine growing up like that when I was a little kid? Nowhere to sleep. Sleep in a bathtub. All right. Yeah, it was a tiny little house. My father bought a little bungalow. You know what a summer bungalow is? Okay. And he bought it where he made us live in it all year round. The shower was a hose hooked up in the backyard until he built us a real bathroom, finally. And that's the way we lived. And poor white, but we weren't. Thing was, he wasn't poor. He could have done better. He wasn't rich. He was, you know, a city worker. He made his salary, but he was the ultimate cheapskate. I told you about my father, didn't I? Well, it was the ultimate cheapskate. You know, he'd take two ply toilet paper and make two rolls out of it.

[Jack]

So would he save money then and invest that money or what would he do with all of his excess money?

[Ben Mala]

He did stash it away. You know, he put it away, like in, you know, bonds and like that or whatever. He did piss some away in some investments. But the point is, he had no quality of life. His mentality was he grew up in a depression and they want to hoard every penny they had. And even if they had a few extra bucks, they weren't going to spend it and make their family happy. They'd rather live with the ketchup bottles upside down, putting water in it and shaking it up to get every. Drop it off, catch up.

[Graham Stephan]

Sounds like me.

[Ben Mala]

You do that, don't you?

[Jack]

He likes you.

[Ben Mala]

Laziness because you're too lazy to go buying them.

[Jack]

He just does it for the thrill of shaking a bottle.

[Ben Mala]

Whatever turns them on and, you know. So anyway, that was where we grew up.

[Jack]

You've also been very Vocal about having $500 million in assets. I'm curious because we've now talked for a couple of years and that number has stayed consistent through those couple of years. How is this process going? When you pay all of these taxes, how much is that affecting your net worth and your equity?

[Ben Mala]

I mean, a lot of your profits are gonna be going towards tax unless you get 1031. Well, as you know, or you probably don't know, for the past few years, there hasn't been a lot of opportunity in real estate. And that's life. It's a market, it's a cycle, you know. So what do you do? You just Keep fine tuning the stuff you got. You sell some stuff off, you know, and you do whatever you can do. But there hasn't been a lot of opportunity in the past few years.

[Graham Stephan]

Why not?

[Ben Mala]

Because we're at a standstill. You know, everybody locked in a lot of low rates and, you know, prices went up, rents went up, and everything is just overpriced. And there's not a lot of action going on right now. I mean, you know, the institutions, they go out and they buy their 5 cap. Who the, can I say?

[Graham Stephan]

Sure.

[Ben Mala]

Who the wants to own a 50 or $100 billion asset and have all that responsibility and all that liability for a 5% return? And then if you know, and then if you leverage it. It used to be you'd make money on the bank, okay? But now you're not making money on the bank. The bank's, you know, losing money. Because it used to be you borrow money at 4%, right? And if you had, say a 6% return, then you're making money on the bank. You're making a two point spread. You got that? So now you can't borrow money cheap, so you're not making money. I made a lot of money just using the bank's money and now I can't do that because rates went up.

[Graham Stephan]

So why aren't prices coming down faster?

[Ben Mala]

Well, because, you know, we live in a world now where they keep finding new tricks and, you know, they don't want to hit the fan. Can you imagine if it was exposed to the market? I'm surprised these stock guys aren't smarter. Because, you know, if they really, really looked into. The bank is only worth what the loans are. Correct. Mm. If the loans ain't worth what they loaned them on, you know what I mean? Then the bank ain't worth what it should be because the loans ain't worth what they should be. So what happens? The stock goes down. Just like when I lost that million bucks on that California bank when I preferred stock. The loans weren't worth. They were only worth $0.50 in a dollar. Well, then the bank's only worth $0.50 In a dollar. And eventually if they hit such lows, then the bank just goes belly up.

[Jack]

So you think someone is going to forgive some of this?

[Ben Mala]

The price goes to zero. Listen, remember you weren't around in 2008. I used to trade Citibank at a dollar.

[Jack]

What happened?

[Graham Stephan]

It's worth a lot of money, man. You would have made a fortune buying life.

[Ben Mala]

It's a cycle and you just gotta ride the roller. Coaster.

[Jack]

Do you still predict though that when these loans come due, these people are gonna have to sell their properties because they can't afford. They didn't price in 7% to borrow for these commercial properties. Do you still think this is happening.

[Ben Mala]

And it's just delayed out happening every day? Every day I'm seeing more and more and there's a ton of on the market. But right now we're at the point where they don't want to sell at a loss, okay? And they can't get their money back, okay? They can't even sell it or break even all these newer buildings right now, they can't. And now they're going to have to eventually come to the point, or banks have to come to the point, say, okay, the loan is due. What are we going to do? We've been delaying and we've been praying and we've been doing all, you know, we can't. Eventually the music has to stop and this cat has to get out the bag. And unless rates, they're basically praying is that rates are going to finally come down and then these loans will be good again and the properties will meet the debt ratio and they'll have cash flow, okay? But right now at the new rates, they'll being a negative, okay? Because your four is now a seven plus and they can't handle that. And then who wants to own real estate where you have no cash flow anyway? That's stupid.

[Graham Stephan]

Yeah. Now for the average person who's interested in the real estate market, who should not buy a home, if you can.

[Ben Mala]

Rent a property right now for less money, the equivalent property than owning it, I would suggest you wait, okay, and just rent it. Now by owning it, if it's a break even and the same, you might consider it. Just like we were talking earlier, if you think there's going to be future appreciation in the value of the home, then you say, okay, well, it doesn't matter whether I rent or home, but at least if I own, maybe prices will go up in homes and I'll make some money there. So, you know, everybody's got to, you know, has their own risk tolerance and, you know, and you got to just decide what's best for you.

[Graham Stephan]

Do you think that people need to own a home anymore? Do you think that maybe it's this.

[Ben Mala]

A home is personal, it's not business. So, you know, it's like this house, this house is somewhat personal to me. It's business. Everything's business. Yeah, but you know, homes are normally personal, you know, because you Got kids, you got wives, you got two cars, you got all these pools and all this. And it's a personal thing. So you're paying for the, you know, the amenities, the pleasure in life. You know, what the point of working if you're not going to enjoy your life?

[Graham Stephan]

See, I almost think that this myth of homeownership is going to go the way of a college education where people put it down your throat that you need a college degree. And I feel like there's that same sort of pressure for a lot of people that they feel like I need.

[Ben Mala]

To own a home.

[Graham Stephan]

Even though when, when I look at the prices, I'm like, it just doesn't make sense.

[Ben Mala]

The masses of people, the middle income, okay, the middle income, masses of people should buy a home because that's really their only way of giving themselves that extra protection down the road. It's a forced savings account. You keep paying down a mortgage, what happens in 20 years you're sitting around with a house, it's gonna be worth a half a million bucks or more, and you're not gonna have a mortgage on it. So it's a good thing for people that have trouble saving money, you know, and you know, look at the appreciation, you know, from the house and it's, it makes sense for the average person. Yes.

[Graham Stephan]

What do you think about the theories that home prices have PE overall and that we're having an aging population who's going to go into care facilities, there's going to be an influx of homes on the market and our population's somewhat declining and there's going to be less demand maybe for single family homes.

[Ben Mala]

I don't have a crystal ball, but I can tell you, you know, you don't know. I mean, listen, it's. You see it go up, then you see it go down. You see it go up, you see it go down, you see it's stable. I mean, you know, if it's your home and you're living in it and you can afford the payment, then, you know, of course you want to own a home.

[Graham Stephan]

You know, what's your overall read right now of the housing market right now?

[Ben Mala]

People are not, you know, there's not a lot of houses moving. Things are kind of like, you know, unless you're in some high growth area where things are booming, you know, I mean, it's pretty much, you know, just flat, flat houses sitting on the market. There's not five people making office firm like it used to be at the same time right away. And there's not bidding wars going on anymore. Rates are up, you know, and that's the thing, you know, typically if you buy a house for a million bucks, in today's rate environment, you know, you're going to be paying probably with taxes and insurance somewhere between 8,9000amonth.

[Jack]

Have you noticed any effects on the housing market from the tariffs?

[Ben Mala]

The tariffs, the tariffs, the tariffs.

[Jack]

Have you noticed anything?

[Ben Mala]

Listen, I'm so sick of hearing about tariffs. Listen, one day the tariffs are this. One day the tariffs are that. It's just, it's a game, okay? It's a game, all right? People in the market, just forget about tariffs. Tariffs is just political, okay? It's a way to play a card, okay? To scare people and negotiate to get something else. Or it's gonna, you know, if the tariffs do go through and get jacked up to the roof, then yeah, the cost of goods are gonna be more money. Okay? Do we get wood from China? I don't know. How do we get wood from our own country?

[Graham Stephan]

Canada.

[Ben Mala]

Canada. Okay, well, you know, I don't know. I mean, you know, listen, happens and it happens. You just got to deal with it. But I can tell you right now, the home builders, I know for a fact a lot of home developments they built were converted to btr, which they said, you know what BTR is? No to rent.

[Graham Stephan]

Oh.

[Ben Mala]

Because they couldn't sell them.

[Graham Stephan]

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[Jack]

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[Ben Mala]

True I'm showing on my computer. They were on sale right now you bought a whole development of houses.

[Jack]

So they're having trouble selling these houses. Why were they having trouble? Is it just like the rates?

[Ben Mala]

The same guy that used to. See, the point is, when they, when they. It takes years and years for them to go out, find the land, secure the land, get all the improvements done. The roads, the power, the water, all that. It takes years to put all that together when you build, like, say 100 or 200 homes. So when they did it, rates were low. That type of financing you typically, to my knowledge, don't fix. Okay. Banks don't fix them. They don't want the risk. So, you know, if they got bridge loans or if they got a bridge loan, they could have fixed it. Anyway. The point is, when they started this project, rates were low and people were buying out of homes. Why? Because there were home loans for three and a half percent. Okay? So that means you're going to pay $3,500, you know, on a. What is that? It's. It's on a million bucks. You only paid 35,000, which is only 3,000amonth. Okay? Now it's double or more. So, of course, you know, people are going to stop buying homes.

[Graham Stephan]

So a lot of home builders in Las Vegas. There's a lot of home builders in Las Vegas right now that are offering free incentives and free upgrades if you buy. And they're. Yeah, they're free upgrades if you.

[Ben Mala]

Or they buy this house today, we'll give you a free dishwasher and it'll.

[Graham Stephan]

Be stainless steel or they're discounting the price of premium materials by 50%.

[Ben Mala]

That's where it starts. That's where it starts. Okay? That's where it starts. And then they'll sit around. They'll sit around, but sooner or later, if they got debt, which they do, they're gonna have to discount that and hopefully walk away with their pants salon.

[Graham Stephan]

So who right now is buying and selling in the real estate market?

[Ben Mala]

I mean, there's not a lot of action going on. I mean, there's always deals going. Institutions are always moving money. Why? Because it ain't theirs as long as they. They don't want to sit on your money. They don't, you know, they want. They got to put your money to work. They got to tie that shit up, okay? So, you know, they'll buy. I don't know anybody buys on a 5 cap these days when rates are 7 is nuts. It's. It's stupid, okay? Unless you're in a 1031, you're going to save taxes. And you know, it could be some very strange, weird reasons, but on, on a big picture, it's stupid to buy borrow money at seven when you're only hitting five. It means you're two underwater, you idiot, and you know, whatever. And then you only get 5% on your portion. So right now we're in a standstill, you know, and we're waiting for the banks to finally, you know, fess up, you know what fess up means, and, and, and open it up and say, listen, you know, we got to get rid of, you know, we can't keep sitting here with loans that aren't, you know, you know, holding the value that they had when we loaned the money. And then, you know, then they'll have to sell them off, take a loss, write off their losses and hopefully the bank will stay intact and everybody live happily ever after and they'll do it all again.

[Graham Stephan]

So how are you adjusting your own strategy right now?

[Ben Mala]

What I'm doing, you know, everybody's got their own personal way. I run a portfolio, you know, all different types of diversified assets. You know, right now we're trying to, you know, move away from retail and you know, we're limiting the amount of hotels we have. And you know, what I'm doing is I'm always looking at a property. Is this place making me money or if I sell it and I take that money from the sale and would it make the same amount of money if I put it in say, tax free muni bonds? 5%. Okay, because you know, the money, I may be making more than 5% on the property, but then it's taxable. So what's my NOI after 37% tax, you know, paying tax on it, what does that number equal versus if I just take the money for the sale, put it in tax free beauty bonds and what's the difference? Well, I might take less money. Why? You know, why? Right.

[Jack]

Why would you take less money because you pay taxes on tax free bonus?

[Ben Mala]

No, I take a little less money because I don't have the responsibility and the time and the work and the liability of owning a big hotel when I could have the money safely sitting there getting me a return. I mean, you know, it's a give and take, you know, and then, you know, it's, it's. Everybody's got their own portfolio in life to manage, you know, but right now I'm waiting cause I know those apartments are coming. I see them every day. They're just sitting on the market. The brokers all Tell me. You know, they. They can't sell right now because the. The. The sellers know, but they don't want to swallow the fact that their properties don't cash flow and the banks aren't ready to do any negotiating short sales. You know, we're waiting. You know, we're just waiting and waiting.

[Jack]

So we talked to a lot of entrepreneurs on this show, just like this episode with Ben Mala. But one thing we haven't really covered is how do you actually get started? Like, what's the first step? How do you set up an llc? And where do you even go? Well, fortunately, we've actually partnered up with Bizzy to sponsor this episode because I've used them myself. And I got to be honest, it couldn't have been any easier. Setting up my LLC took less than 10 minutes, and I had utter confidence that everything was getting filed properly and professionally.

[Graham Stephan]

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[Ben Mala]

Index funds are taxable, too.

[Jack]

Yes, but they can grow at more than 5% and probably more than 37%. What?

[Ben Mala]

They could also not grow. Right?

[Jack]

That's true. Yeah.

[Ben Mala]

I mean, the thing is this. I'm not saying I do everything in bonds, but I keep a safe haven of bonds. So at least I know I got that to protect me. Why? Because they're 100% safe and they're tax free. Anything else I have to pay 37% on except capital gains. That's 20% or 22%.

[Graham Stephan]

So how are you finding good deals right now?

[Ben Mala]

I'm looking every day, and I'm low balling, baby.

[Graham Stephan]

How much time?

[Ben Mala]

I'm lowballing at everything. And if you don't like the offer, then write me the one you look like, and then I'll go back and show you. You Know, it's a game you play. The more you put into it, the more you're going to get out of it. You got to play the game.

[Graham Stephan]

So how do you lowball them without offending the seller?

[Ben Mala]

There's no offending in business.

[Graham Stephan]

Wouldn't they just say, oh, this guy's not serious? This guy's not serious.

[Ben Mala]

Listen, I'm not making crazy offers. My kids. My kids underwrite this stuff. They have formulas, they have underwriting. They plug the numbers in, how much is bringing in, how much is going out, and we figure out what is the proper price for us to pay. And do we have to make capital improvements to the property. That's another factor. Okay, I negotiated a deal. We just went into contract or going under contract. You know the place I could blink an eye and really make the place the way it should be with a million bucks. And I asked for that million bucks. We ended up splitting it. They're going to give me a half a million credit. I mean, you know, it's a game you play, but I'm going to have major 1031 benefits by buying that, you know, so, you know, there's a lot of factors involved. You got to figure out what's important to you and what are you accomplishing. But it's all about. There's no offense. All right, this is the number I came up. Well, how'd you come up with that number? This is how I came up with. Should be a 7 or 8 cap. Am I saying too much?

[Graham Stephan]

Now, here's the thing. You could say as much as you want for the members version. If you guys want to see these episodes completely uncensored, join the membership. And we're not going to bleep anything. Everything.

[Ben Mala]

Beep. You know, basically, it is. No offense. Listen, I'm not making stupid offers, but on average, I'm offering about 25% less than what they're asking. That's what. That's what their fat is.

[Graham Stephan]

Does it help or hurt to have your YouTube channel? Do people ever see your offer and be like, wait a second, this is Ben Mala. I saw him on YouTube yelling at the homeless guy behind the. The Rite Aid. Does it help you at all? Or does it give you credibility? Or do they just say, ah, this is Ben. He's. He's probably filming this?

[Ben Mala]

They never say, this is Ben. He's filming it. Everything I do is real. And they know if I tell them I'm going to make up an offer on that property, I'm real. It's a one page Loi, it has my name and signature on it. They take it very serious, you know, because my name's not Jack. I got the money. I mean, the YouTube thing, I don't. I don't, you know, does it help in people knowing who I am? Yes. Okay. Yes. Most people, most brokers especially, they know who I am and they will respond to me where they probably wouldn't respond to him. So it does help me because it shows who I am. I mean, there's nothing fake about me. There's nothing, you know, it's all real. So they know this guy's the real deal. Okay. You know, like my wife said, what'd you do all day? What'd you do today? And I told her, you want to know what I did today? Why don't you read the paper? You know, there's a news article about what I deal I just closed. Anyway, the point is, it does help.

[Graham Stephan]

How often is it that someone comes to you with a deal from YouTube that they just want to sell?

[Ben Mala]

I get them, I get them, I get them. And I almost had one, but I didn't want to go out of state. In fact, I fed it to the guy that me and you were going to visit. Yeah, in Georgia. Okay. I do get opportunities, but they're mostly out of state. You know, anything going on in Florida, I pretty much know about.

[Graham Stephan]

Got it.

[Ben Mala]

And I don't really want to branch out, you know, but I don't do deals from, you know, I don't get a lot of deals from YouTube now.

[Jack]

So you're saying you're trying to get more liquid, but at the same time, you're still buying a lot of deals.

[Ben Mala]

Well, I'm always going to be buying if the deal makes sense because I got kids to run. My kids run everything. I don't do it. If I tell them tomorrow, hey, go take over that 250 units over there, I'll say, fine, they'll go over there and they'll take over that and they'll run it and they'll make money. They'll actually do something to make money. I said, I'm not going to pick on Jack. I'm sorry. Well, how do you tell you, or they could be like Jack and do nothing.

[Jack]

How do you. How do your kids stay motivated to actually go and kill managing a 250 unit apartment complex?

[Ben Mala]

I don't.

[Jack]

But how do they. Like, how do they.

[Ben Mala]

How did you hire an on site manager? They have an on site maintenance person. But still, what Jack is saying, how are they?

[Graham Stephan]

How Are they so motivated? How are they motivated?

[Ben Mala]

Hungry.

[Graham Stephan]

Why are they hungry when you've done so much that they could theoretically just be a bit lazy?

[Ben Mala]

My kids came from nothing, the older ones, and they're hungry and they want to do it on their own too. They wanted. Listen, I couldn't count the number of deals my kids have done or places they've lived in. Like gypsies all over the place. I couldn't even. I tried to think about all the places my middle son lived. I couldn't figure, I lost count. I couldn't remember. It was too many of them. Anyway. I trained them, they grew up with me. They came from nothing like me. So they have the same motivation of hunger, of being able to know that they've made millions of dollars and they can take care of their family. They can enjoy their life. I mean, I'm gonna get, I'm their example. Well, look where the I live. They all live in million dollar houses. Not like this, but they live in multi million dollar houses. They got boats, you know, not. They'll get to my level when they're at my age, but anyway. What are you talking about?

[Jack]

What about your youngest?

[Ben Mala]

Your youngest?

[Jack]

Yeah, your youngest. He grew up in affluence. So how do you cultivate that like that hunger?

[Ben Mala]

Well, he's not spoiled. I mean, you know, he appreciates whatever he gets. And I, I still, I, you know, my youngest son, you know, I'm constantly giving him things to do. Okay, yeah, he's the one that's going to go to college. He's graduating high school in a couple of days. He's going to college here in Tampa and he's interested in the stock market, you know, but I think he's really gambling. He just go, oh, you know, like if this is gambling. That's why I like stock market. Who you bullshitting? But anyway, he, he, he, he's definitely money driven, likes to make money. He, he has that, he has that bug that we all have.

[Graham Stephan]

Is he born with it or you.

[Ben Mala]

Can spend money or.

[Graham Stephan]

That was taught.

[Ben Mala]

He's been around me and he knows that money makes your life a lot easier, you know, or helps. And it definitely, you know, it's nice to go out to dinner and not worry about what the bill is, right? Well, you don't know. But you know, luckily I'm lucky with all my kids. My kids have all got the bug to make money. And if I tell the young one, listen, go do this, go do that. Listen, during the hurricane here, he was out there, filthy dirty Shoveling sand, pressure washing, whatever the we had to do, we do, you know, and he also. We go on a yacht. He works the boat with the captain, you know, he wasn't with us when you went, did he? No. Anyway, you know, I try to raise my kids to where they're. They're definitely. What's the word I'm looking for?

[Graham Stephan]

Motivated.

[Ben Mala]

Huh? Motivated.

[Graham Stephan]

Now, what would you say to parents whose kids are not hungry or motivated?

[Ben Mala]

I think kids. When you live with your kids, you spend a lot of time with your kids. Typically, a lot of them follow in whatever you do. You have to set the example and you have to put them in the environment. Okay, I put my kids in the environment. When Ben Jr. Was in his first year of college and I saw he was just partying and having a good time, I told him, college is not for you. You know, here's an address. We just bought the apartment building. Ship your car from California to Florida, Go get an apartment over there, this building, and take the shit over and start collecting the rents and make sure everything's fixed. And he did. Why did he do it? He was 19. He was 19.

[Jack]

Why did he do it? Did you, like, offer to pay him a lot of money?

[Ben Mala]

Well, he had no choice. I mean, it was either that or I had to walk away from him. I mean, I wasn't gonna keep paying 50 grand a year for him to party in school, you know, I mean, what are you going to do? You're not going to school. You're not getting. You take a course. You're not getting good grades. All right, you had a good time for a year. I'm glad you had a good time for a year. Now go. And then this way, I'm also protecting myself by helping my kids. I'm protecting myself because Now I'm almost 60 years old and I want to take a break. I want to enjoy life, you know, now let them take over and run everything. And now they all have the experience to do that.

[Jack]

Did he resent you at all during that time where you pulled him out of school?

[Ben Mala]

No.

[Jack]

How did he feel when you said, sorry, no more partying, but you have responsibility.

[Graham Stephan]

Such an abrupt change.

[Ben Mala]

Listen, he did what I asked him to do. I told him, go over here to Largo, Florida, move in the building. He did. He took it over. And he was already grew up in the business, around the business, so. And he saw that how the business has helped the quality of our life because he remembers being dirt poor. I remember, you know, living really rough with my I had him when I was 18, so I was, you know, bad shape. I was, you know, I was in the army and, you know, Billy and Biggins meet. But anyway, I'm lucky, you know, all my kids step up to the plate. They do whatever I tell them to do because they know it's the right thing and they get rewarded. Okay? They all live in, like I said, million dollar homes. They all have boats, they all have fancy cars. They all can go on vacation. They all take. All their kids are in private schools. They all do very well.

[Jack]

Does being rich make you happier?

[Ben Mala]

I mean, I, I've lived without money. I wasn't very happy. So, I mean, you know, listen, it depends with, you know, am I happy all the time? No, I'm. Sometimes I'm unhappy because I got issues I'm dealing with. But it's a lot easier living with money. Yes, my kids are getting a quality education. All of my nieces, my nephews, my grandkids, you know, my kids, whatever, they're all getting great educations. Why? They go to great private schools and, you know, and yes, they go on vacations and they enjoy their life. And it's a lot nicer having money than sweating and struggling and worrying about paying your bills.

[Jack]

At what point do you notice that quality of life change most dramatically?

[Ben Mala]

I mean, when you feel like you're not worried about the dinner bill anymore. I remember accounting pennies to buy lunch for my kids. Pennies. Making sure I don't have to pay the California tax. When you get two tacos for a dollar at Jack in a Box, they remember it too. I mean, you know, when you cannot worry so much about paying your house note and you don't have to worry about stuff on your cars. I mean, that's, you know, you're at a level in life where you can kind of relax. At least, you know, you got enough money to pay your necessity bills and you ain't got car payments and all that, you know, and you can handle an emergency when it comes up. I mean, it gives you some sort of comfort of having that stability in life.

[Graham Stephan]

Is there ever a point of having too much money where it just invites problems?

[Ben Mala]

I don't know, I. I don't know. I mean, you know, not really because I got kids that I have to think about leaving it to. So I always wanted to make as much money as I could so I have enough to spread it around everybody, you know, and then I want to, you know, be able to live without worried about getting on my plane, you know, Whenever I want. And using a plane, a couple of thousand an hour, whatever, you know, when I go on my boat. And of course, $3 a gallon, I need 2,800 gallons of gas or diesel. I mean, I don't know. It's nice to have money and not have to worry about it. You know, my American Express bill came in today and, you know, it was, you know, probably double what it normally was. I didn't give a. I saw what it was. It was logical things. We don't piss money away. We don't waste money. I'm not a degenerate gambler, you know, so, you know, look, I got, I got a carpool table, you know, it's nice.

[Jack]

And a lot of people, when they first start making money, they're like, okay, I just need to make this amount and I need to have amount of money to finally be happy. And then they get there and then they raise that number. And then they get there and they raise that number.

[Ben Mala]

Yeah, that's what I did. I always thought I should have. When I remember when I was younger, I always said when I first became a millionaire, I said I should have. If I'm 35, I should be worth 35 million. That was my weird way of, of, of of setting my goals. And then when I'm 40, I should have 40 million. And I went, 50, I should have 50 billion. But maybe the timing was right for me because a lot of timing has a lot to do with it. Or call it luck, I don't know. I don't really believe in luck. I believe in timing. He just happened to be at the right place at the right time with the right money, do the deal, you know, and then it grew to be, you know, I exceeded my goals, put it that way. Okay.

[Jack]

But even once you exceeded all of.

[Ben Mala]

Those goals, I didn't really think about it anymore. You don't think about it. You just keep accumulating. You just keep doing it. If you're hooked on what you do and you're hooked on growth, money is the reward of busting your. And making deals and making shit happen. I mean, it comes. That's the reward. And your bank account grows and your wealth grows. But, you know, was I money driven? Yeah, because money was the reward. But I always had the hunger to find the next deal, or better yet, have three or four deals going on at the same time. That's what I like to do.

[Graham Stephan]

What do you think are the biggest opportunities right now? Speaking of timing, I mean, if somebody.

[Ben Mala]

Was a genius, they could Figure out do all these empty office buildings. But I ain't seen a genius yet. I mean, opportunity's always out there. You gotta look for it and you gotta be persistent. I mean, you know, I was on the phone today with the same deal. It was 160,000 a unit about three or four months ago, all right? And the broker's calling me today saying, you know what? I get the guy there at 130 a door, it's 30,000 a unit. It's a couple hundred units. That's $6 million less he's willing to take. But even at buck 30, I didn't like it. And, you know, I'm more comfortable at about a buck 10 or a buck 15. You know, I gotta be comfortable with the deal. So, you know, but. But the point is, I'm gonna keep waiting or I'm gonna keep making offers and I'm keep low balling until the right deal comes, you know. And right now, it's just moving slow, but it's moving. And if I can't buy, then I'm gonna sell. If I ain't spending my time finding deals, then I'm gonna be selling deals. What. Would you stay away from office buildings? I don't have any knowledge in industrial. Industrial always scared me because they're such large spaces that if they ever went empty and you need a specific type of business to be in it, it would be very dangerous. So offices, you gotta know what you're doing in industrial. I mean, you know, it's all about finding a deal. Apartments are great. Retail's another animal. All right? There's only one way you're gonna make money on retail. You gotta buy it with vacant space. Because when you buy it with vacant space, you're getting it for free. You're buying it on a cap rate. If you go out tomorrow and you buy 10 shops, okay, but only seven of them are rented. You're buying that property based on the rental income of those seven units. The other three that don't have any income, they just come with the deal, and then you rent them out, and then your cap rate goes up, up, and you made money.

[Graham Stephan]

I always see those places that have like a 50% vacancy, and they have these pro forma rates on them that they're just trying to price it because.

[Ben Mala]

They'Re living in a dream world. All right? Nobody buys on a pro forma, okay, that I know of that has any sense in real estate. Unless Apartments. Yes. Because with apartments, you pretty much know you can rent it. You know, what the Market is, you know, the guy down the block is charging $200 more a month. Okay? So, yes, that's apartments. Yes, you can buy a pro forma if you're 100% sure that you could raise the rents and the market's higher by throwing in some new appliances or whatever you got to do. But pro forma, typically, you don't see ever in retail. If you do it in, the seller's just dreaming and he's got his head stuck up as. You know what.

[Jack]

When you're negotiating in real estate, is money really the only thing that has any value in terms of negotiation? Or have you seen people win or lose deals due to personality or any other factors?

[Ben Mala]

I mean, everything in real estate is contractual. Okay? You got your terms, they got their terms. As long as your terms come to meet together, you got a deal. All right? If people. It's not. I've never been emotional or anything, you know, like that with a. With a real estate deal. I mean, I've done deals with snakes, guys that I knew were crooks, guys that went to jail for being crooks in real estate and other things. And I still did business with them, all right? Because as long as you know that the guy's a crook, then, you know, you gotta watch every little thing you do and then cover your ass a lot more than you would normally. But the point is, it's not emotional. I've come across people with all kinds of personalities, you know, and you just, you know, you ignore it. It's not number one in my world. It's all done by brokers and lawyers. I don't really get involved. I mean, you know, I get involved by making sure it's a great deal, making sure it's what I want to buy. But as far as making a deal, I just, like. I don't know if you were there, right when you were there eating your hot dogs. I. I was telling. I said, let me. I told my lawyer, let me get the broker on the phone. Let him deal with it. Oh, these people want this, they want that. And the broker says, okay, I'll handle it. All right? That's why you deal with brokers. You have lawyers. That's their job, you know, to make the deal happen. You just, you know, make the decisions.

[Graham Stephan]

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[Ben Mala]

No, I've never seen it happen on buy side or the sell side, it doesn't matter. It's all numbers. There's nothing, you know, personal about real estate. It's numbers how much money's coming in, how much money's going out.

[Graham Stephan]

But you're talking about commercial real estate. How does this apply to residential?

[Ben Mala]

I mean, you know, homeowners are a different breed. But even with homeowners, it's the salespeople that are handling the transaction. Okay. Unless you're doing you're buying from an owner direct. Okay. You know, that's different, I guess if you're buying from somebody and you schmooze them over and you win a war.

[Graham Stephan]

There was a crazy one I saw on Twitter recently. It was a handwritten letter to a family who had owned this home for generations in Hancock Park. And it was an old home from the 1920s, and their only wish was not to sell it to a developer, but sell it to a family who's going to keep the home and its character. And this person wrote this incredible letter and the seller posted this on Twitter saying, this is the letter we got and they seem perfect. They were going to take care of it. They were going to make this their own.

[Ben Mala]

And they did a deal and they fucked up. Them?

[Graham Stephan]

Yep, they tore the house down immediately after closing. You know, they had pulled permit. They were getting everything started the second the deal closed.

[Ben Mala]

Reminds me of that old nursery rhyme or whatever, or the old kitty Thing with the three little pigs, they'll huff and they'll puff and they'll blow your house down.

[Graham Stephan]

But similar situation happened here.

[Ben Mala]

Similar situation happened right here in Clearwater beach, right on the main ocean front here. The developers came in. This little old lady owned this nice house right on the intercoastal here. And some developer came in, he bought up everything around it. She wouldn't sell. So now she. And they did everything they could to piss her off. And they cut off her power while they were building. They cut off her water. They did all kinds of things to make her life miserable and make her sell. She wouldn't sell. And she actually stuck it to him. I don't know what the name of the document was, but she recorded a document while she was alive saying that that house could never be anything but a single family residential house, ever. And to this day, you had all these apartments and condos all around it. And her house sitting right there on the. On the tip of the land, on the water. I always think about that whenever I try buying my boat. But yeah, I mean, you know, some people have emotional. You know, some people, you know, they're, you know, just. To me, never was emotional. I don't care. It's all about numbers. It's just estate is a. Is a. Is a thing. It's material, it's an asset. You know, it's tangible. Is the right word. Right.

[Graham Stephan]

Would you place any value? Let's just say you're selling a shopping center or a gym and someone comes to you and says, I worked out at this gym 18 years ago, and I was broke. I was coming up and I said, one day, I want to own this property. And I saved, and this is all I could afford. You're asking 12. All I have is nine. And this would be a dream, and I'll forever be appreciative to this.

[Jack]

Would you do that?

[Graham Stephan]

Depends.

[Jack]

On?

[Graham Stephan]

Yeah, I think it really depends on the situation. I think. I think there are certain ones where I'd be like, all right, screw no.

[Jack]

Over five, ten bucks.

[Ben Mala]

He's such a lawyer. Okay, you're such a lawyer.

[Graham Stephan]

Okay, maybe not me.

[Ben Mala]

You are the biggest picture I know. You're not shaving off a penny. Who are you?

[Graham Stephan]

Graham sold me a T shirt that.

[Jack]

Didn'T fit him and hardly fit me.

[Ben Mala]

I know.

[Jack]

And he never wore it once. And he sold it to me for like.

[Ben Mala]

It was a great Vegas.

[Jack]

I wore it three times.

[Ben Mala]

California, Softy, Whatever. Or what do you call it? Radical, liberal, whatever the hell they are. Anyway. The point is this. It has nothing to do with real estate in my world, except the numbers. How much am I paying? How much is it worth? You know, what's the cash flow if I'm selling? What's my taxes? How much? You know, it's. It's all about me. It's not about you.

[Graham Stephan]

For the average person, how do they negotiate? What would be your advice to teach people how to best get a good deal on something?

[Ben Mala]

You gotta. You gotta start low. But I'm not saying go ridiculously low. Where it's, you know, just total nonsense. Where somebody wants 500,000 for a house and you can offer them 250. No, but you have to, you know, get it to a point where you know you're gonna be happy as the buyer and they're gonna still be happy as the seller. It's just a matter of two people finding the number. It's all about money. It's all about numbers. You know, I don't. Honestly, I don't rem having deals that were emotional. I mean, you know, oh, one lady was emotional once. It was right near here. But we didn't do the deal because what happened was she was an old lady. Inherited a bunch of apartments from her father. And she never ran them, right? She ran them like. And she milked them for everything she could. And then I bought one of her buildings and I went in and Vincent handled it. My middle son, he moved. He was the manager and everything. He fixed the place up, made it really nice, raised the rents, ran it really like a nice building. And we sold it and made a lot of money. And she found out. She got mad. She told the broker on the next building she was selling right near here that he could sell the building to anybody but Ben Mallor. Because I made money on a building. What are you stupid, lady? You should have went in there and fixed the place up. You should have raised the goddamn rents. You should have added value and you would have made more money, but you didn't want to do it. You la crazy old. What the you been mad at me for? It's stupid to even be personal with real estate. It makes no sense. It's all about dollars and cents. You hear me?

[Jack]

You said that in transactions, the only thing of importance is dollars and cents. When in your life have you made emotional based financial decisions? Have you ever had like a crazy rich person purchase that didn't make any numbers sense, but you just did it?

[Ben Mala]

Well, you buy personal things. That's different. Different. Real estate is not emotional. Never Ever. I never bought a place because I. Oh, I like this place. I like the numbers now. Cars, you know, boats. That's. That's totally emotional. That's 100% emotional.

[Jack]

What about other rich guy purchases? Like, this would be an ex. Like, I don't know how much that lion costs, but I can't imagine that it's very inexpensive.

[Ben Mala]

Anyway. These are just things that bring you some sort of pleasure. You like a painting. Why do people spend 100 million on piece of artwork or 5 million to 10 million? Why? Because they feel like they enjoy it. They like it. That's emotional tax evasion.

[Graham Stephan]

You know, tax evasion. Money laundering.

[Ben Mala]

Money laundering. He's always got a. He always thinks everybody's up to something. There's always a cynical agenda behind everything. There's a word for that. You always think that there's a conspiracy. You're a conspiracy.

[Jack]

So what are some of the crazy rich person things that you've done?

[Ben Mala]

Crazy rich person things?

[Jack]

I saw.

[Ben Mala]

I saw. I came up and created a car pool table. I mean, not much. I don't do crazy.

[Jack]

Not much. I saw you in a video. You got stuck in the Bahamas because of bad weather. And so you flew cigarettes in a private jet. To you, like that's.

[Ben Mala]

It was cigarettes, which are very important. It was tequila, which is very important to my wife. And see, the plane also had to get my kids back to school, which I wasn't ready to go back, but they had to go back to school spring break. So the plane had a lot of missions. It brought the camera guy out there. It brought my barber out there. Cause I needed a haircut. It brought cigarettes and necessities. We needed. It brought a couple of friends I had that were coming on a boat because my kids are getting off the boat. I mean, I was a traffic management coordinator, United States Army. You know that. I know how to coordinate things. It's all about managing, coordinating things, making shit happen without wasting money or time.

[Jack]

Okay. I was under the impression that you literally just flew cigarettes and the barber.

[Ben Mala]

I flew them in because, I mean, all right, it made sense. There was a seat on the plane. The plane lands. Okay? He gets off the plane, he comes to my boat, he gives me a haircut. He gets with my kids back on the plane, he gives my son a haircut while he's on the plane going home. I like time management. I love to manage my time efficiently because, you know, you're getting done and saving time can be saving money.

[Jack]

What is the cost of owning a plane?

[Ben Mala]

Well, you Know, everybody has their own way of owning, owning them. You know, do I own it outright? I don't have a loan on it, but I have partners. So me and a couple of guys that I know really well, I trust, we share the cost of the plane. You know, you could buy planes anywhere from a couple of million up to, who the fuck knows, 50 million or whatever. You know, ours is probably worth, I don't know, a couple, few million. Okay. It's good enough for what I use. I used to have two planes. I got rid of one because I never used it. So, you know, I got one plane, I got a couple of partners. We're into it for the planes today. Probably worth, I don't know, a couple million, few million. Then we're into it for say, 750 a piece or a million a piece. And, you know, we pay for. We split the expenses and we pay for what you use. If I'm going to fly somewhere, I got to pay for the gas. I got to pay for the pilot.

[Jack]

How expensive is the gas and pilot?

[Ben Mala]

I mean, you know, the gas is going to run about. If I go to Fort Lauderdale and back, that's about 500 miles. That's going to cost me $2,500. So what's that come out to be? About $5amile. Anyway, so whatever. That's what it is. That's typically what it costs. And it's about an hour. Oh, wait, it's 2,500 bucks an hour with gas and pilot, you know. Well, no, not an hour, because pilot you got for all day. You know, you can use a pilot for up to the 12 or 14 hours a day, but after that, you got to give them a break.

[Graham Stephan]

For how long? 12 hours, 8 hours?

[Ben Mala]

I think so or something. But anyway, are there any safety issues.

[Graham Stephan]

Of having your own plane? I hear just the standard they're all being.

[Ben Mala]

We have a management company that manages the plane. They meet all the requirements to make sure you get all the inspections and they checking everything. And the pilots are fabulous, they're brilliant. And my plane only takes one pilot, my jet. So, you know, that keeps the cost down too, a lot. But hopefully they're all young guys, so hopefully we're in good shape.

[Jack]

One thing I really admire in you is your ability to negotiate, appreciate everything, like icu. I saw you in this one video where you're getting an Uber somewhere in like, the Bahamas, and the guy was like, oh, yeah, it'll be 35. And you're like, how about 20? And then the Guy's like, okay, yeah. And then you're Gilligan, you know, you're like, deckhand or whatever. He was like, it's 35. Like.

[Ben Mala]

But the guy that makes, you know, 20 bucks an hour, whatever he makes, you know. Yeah, Big shot with my money. Right.

[Jack]

So do you negotiate every single price that comes your way?

[Ben Mala]

Nearly. I grew up with the mentality of, you shouldn't give away your money or you shouldn't have to overspend. I mean, if you want to make a lot of money in life, you can't go around wasting it. You got to, you know. So, yeah, I have that. You know, I'll call it the Jew in Me. I could say that I'm Jewish, but, yeah, I don't know. It's just natural because I know for a fact, listen, does it really matter that there's six of us or four of us in a culture car? No. So why am I paying more? You know what they do in the Bahamas? They charge by the head, mon. I charge you by the head. If you have six heads, I charge $5 a head. It's $30, man. Well, what the difference whether it's four of us? If you order an XL Uber, you could have one two people, because they want a big vehicle. You have six in it. Because that's their mentality. They want to get you for everything they can. And I'm there to say, well, wait, let's be fair now. Okay, you know, need $5 ahead.

[Graham Stephan]

When is it ever not worth your time to negotiate?

[Ben Mala]

I mean, you know, it's always worth a try, but if the person is just an and doesn't want to negotiate, and you just say, well, how important is it to me to appease this person? And you do, you know, and then sometimes you give a little extra and you really get some benefits in life, you know, My wife was telling me, she said, oh, my God, she got six little kids whenever in Hawaii right now, she says, oh, they're going crazy. And the lady's acting like, you what that's works here? And she's telling us about rules and all this. My wife learned from being married to me for 22 years. You know what she did? She slipped her $100 bill the rest of the week. The lady treated her like royalty. Kids can do whatever the hell they want.

[Graham Stephan]

You know, it's interesting. Owen Cook was saying something that nobody does, and that's negotiate higher. And so what he says, if you want to get the best deal on something, is if someone quotes you a price. Price Give them more and say, well, how about I pay you double? What could I get for that? Depending on what it is, of course, it could be a service. It could be if it's a car.

[Ben Mala]

You know, the price is the price. What are they going to do? Throw in free oil changes? Maybe, but I don't know. I mean, listen, every situation is different, but I don't believe in overpaying for. Because saving money, making money. Bank you. He learned something today.

[Graham Stephan]

What do you think is the weirdest thing that you've negotiated?

[Ben Mala]

A guy once told me he hated the price I offered for the property. He really was, he was, he was emotional about it. Well, he was getting less money and honestly, he could have sold that building for more money. Okay, he wasn't getting my terms. See, but you got to understand, terms have a lot to do with money. But we'll get into that. The point was in the story was he watched my videos. And that's the one time the video actually hurt me. He said, I'll take your offer, but you got to give me a Batmobile. And I. It came out of like nowhere. It's just like, you know how somebody says something to you that you never expected them to ever say, right? And the Batmobile, that Batmobile he got was, was a really one of the nicest ones I ever had. And it was signed by the real Batman and Robin and everything. It wasn't the one for the TV show, but it was worth, it was worth a couple hundred grand. And I thought about it and I eventually gave in and I shipped it to him. So, you know, but I still felt like I was buying a building for a million dollars less than he probably could have sold it on the market if he would have. You know, I mean, that place needed a couple little things done. But whatever. The point was, I'm open to anything. Put it on the table. It's all about two people agreeing. You know, that's it.

[Jack]

What's the most you've ever gained from a negotiation?

[Ben Mala]

Typically the best negotiating I've experienced was with banks buying their real estate or I bought loans from banks. I bought loans for 50 cents on a dollar.

[Graham Stephan]

How do you do that?

[Ben Mala]

When a bank has an un. Non performing loan, they want to get rid of it and they'll write off the loss. They don't care. They just want, they don't want to go in front of their board or they don't want their investors or anybody. They don't want it. They don't want non performing loans on their Books. So they want it gone quick. Makes the bank look bad. And once it's gone, everybody forgets about it. It, and you write off the laws and then blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, and that's the end of it, and you move on. So I've had most of my success with banks buying foreclosures, buying, Doing short sales, buying notes. And then I foreclose or go make a deal with the. With the borrower and do a friendly foreclosure. You know, I mean, but that's pretty much where you probably get your most benefit is when you're dealing with. Because it's not personal. The banks just want to get rid of it. It was a deal that went bad. They want it gone. They're not in real estate. Banks don't want to be in real estate. They don't want to own this. Then they got to have management companies. Then they got to have receivers. Then they got to. They're open to lawsuits. They have the liability. They don't want to be in real estate. They just want to loan the money. They don't want to be involved in this. So, you know, banks are pretty much the ones that are most vulnerable when you're doing a job, you.

[Graham Stephan]

So you've been doing a lot of consulting lately?

[Ben Mala]

Yes.

[Graham Stephan]

What's a common question that people come to you with?

[Ben Mala]

I mean, you know, typically is everybody wants to know based on what their situation is, what's the next step in the right direction? Okay, I get people from all different levels. I'll get a guy. I get kids, you know, in high school, graduating or whatever, or even younger. And, you know, and they want to know what the next move is. You know, they want to plan. They want to get cooking, baby. And, you know, so I look at what they are, what they got, who they are, where they're at in their life. And what would I do if I was in their shoes? And that's what I try to tell them to do, you know, whatever. I have guys that have 100 million to consult with me. I got people that have nothing. They're first getting their first house, and they got to go to fha. You know, I got some people that can't even raise the FHA deposit. You know what I tell them to do because they have an interest in real estate anyway. Get your license. Okay, you go buy that house and you represent yourself and you found a house yourself. Well, FHA is three and a half percent down. The commission's three percent. How much are you going to put down on that $200,000 house. Thousand bucks.

[Graham Stephan]

Does FHA allow you to use commissions on a closing towards a down payment?

[Ben Mala]

Of course. Because, number one, it's in the closing. The money's going to you.

[Graham Stephan]

Correct.

[Ben Mala]

It's your money. You earned it. And FHA loans to real estate people and agents and everybody. Yes, they will. If you show them, you know, they're not illogical. It would be illogical for them not to.

[Graham Stephan]

That's what I was doing when I was an agent. I would use my commission. It was a hassle.

[Ben Mala]

Well, back then, things have changed a little.

[Graham Stephan]

Yes, sure.

[Ben Mala]

But I always had. Questioning everything, you know, but if the lender is a real lender and they understand, listen, it's your money, you know, you earned it, you know? Know.

[Jack]

Yeah.

[Graham Stephan]

What are the most frustrating calls that you get? Frustrating calls or people that you see?

[Ben Mala]

People that have just got too much going on in their life and they're not ready for it. Like, you know, I, I have consults with people that just, they're, they're, they're, they're trying to be big shots and they didn't earn it. We had the video about the guy in Vegas. He's driving a Lamborghini, okay? But he ain't got no money in the bank. Does that make any sense? Stupid. Why do you drive a Lamborghini if you got no money in the bank? All right, when I say no money, I mean, like at least 50 grand, 100 grand. Sell a Lamborghini and get your. Together, you know, you don't need it and you don't want. Everybody wants to be a big shot before they earn it, you know?

[Jack]

How did he justify buying the Lamborghini?

[Ben Mala]

How do you justify it?

[Jack]

How did he. Like, what was his reason? When you're like, why did you do this?

[Ben Mala]

Listen, you know, listen, I'm sure you have done it. We've all done. Done it. When I was young, I bought a Ferrari I shouldn't have bought, okay? I really wasn't financially ready for it. When you're young and you're impulsive and you want to look cool and it's. The only way you're going to get a girl is to have a nice car, you know, I mean, you do things that don't make sense and you have to, you know, you have to discipline yourself that, you know, yeah, it would be nice to have his Lamborghini. And, yeah, you know, I could have the. I make the payment, but then I want money for, you know, something else or I'll never be able to grow or I'll never be able to save money. Money. I mean, you can't make stupid decisions in your life. I've made them. I'll be the first to admit I made plenty of stupid decisions, you know, when I was younger. But I learned from my mistakes. And I try to let people learn from my mistakes, like my kids especially. I always tell them, listen, I've been there, I've done that. Okay? That was my mistake and don't do it.

[Jack]

And if you want consulting from Ben, that'll be linked down below.

[Ben Mala]

I'm not bragging, but I don't know anybody out there that the average person, not the big shots, maybe can call to get real advice, that I'm not looking for anything I don't want to. You know, they're going to pay the fee because, you know, my time is valuable. I could be working on a $10 million deal. Rafael crying he needs to make money running the channel and coordinating and making appointments and all this stuff. The point is this. I. I don't ever give people bad advice, okay? I just tell them my opinion, what I would do if I was in issues, and I truly try to help them. How many other people do you know that you can, for a few hundred bucks, get on the phone, it's worth whatever, 500 million or whatever, and get really good advice to me. I become your friend. I'm like a friend. I'm a real friend that you could trust and call to get, get solid, logical advice on your real estate.

[Graham Stephan]

See, I. Honestly, I was, I was telling you off camera, I. I think you're underpriced for where you are. I mean, if anyone books you, it. It's at a bargain, like they are getting the better deal.

[Ben Mala]

That's it.

[Graham Stephan]

All things.

[Ben Mala]

Now I can help people that don't have a lot of money.

[Graham Stephan]

Yeah.

[Ben Mala]

You know, because sometimes people do get on the phone, I feel bad and I'll say, well, okay, because right away I'm going to ask them, what do you make making? What do you own? What do you got? I gotta understand that person's life. And I'm making notes, okay? He's this age, he lives here, he's got this much coming in a year. He owns his house, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Okay? And a lot of them ain't got. And you know, for them, the extra few hundred bucks is a lot, you know, to spend. So I try to really help these people. And I've gotten so many compliments and so many people have come back and come back to me and said, oh, my God, I'm so glad I listened to you and I did what you said. I had people, families in the Bahamas coming up to me. You know, they were traveling from Miami, families coming up to me and found they heard I was there. They came to my boat, which I love, and they were just thanking me, thanking me, thanking me. A Spanish family from Miami that listened to me, and they made money and the kids were there, and the kids. It was great.

[Graham Stephan]

I can attest to this. We were in the Bahamas and someone came up and you invited them on the boat, him and his wife.

[Ben Mala]

I'm nice to everybody. You're nice to me. I'm nice to. To you.

[Graham Stephan]

Carla made them margaritas.

[Ben Mala]

When somebody wants to say hello to me or take a picture or whatever, it's the most flattering thing in the world. I love it. And everybody I meet is always super nice. Always. I've never met an yet. Okay. There was one Hasidic crazy Jew, but he was mentally ill in New York City. Once I had tell him, go away.

[Jack]

So you grew up poor and now you've made a fortune. What would you say are the biggest mentality shifts around money, money that you've.

[Ben Mala]

Experienced, you know, when you have money? For me, it was being exposed to other people that worked hard, their lives, and made and were successful. And, I don't know, you could say it's, you know, moving up a class. It showed me the better way of living. Okay. Yes. When I moved here, I still was kind of rough. I made a lot. I made some good money before I moved here, you know, but I was never around, like, a lot of classy people, you know, people that I was never around. Country clubs. Now I belong to three of them. Okay. I wasn't able to expose my kids to a finer life, you know, where people, just good people, nice people, they're not stuck up. I mean, you know, there's a lot of rich people in this area here that are just genuinely really super nice people. And a lot of them came from nothing, like me, but, you know, but they carried themselves and they lived a certain way, and I respected it and liked it, you know, nice house and, you know, enacted to raise their kids respectful, you know, and he talked like normal people and. And respectful people and had manners. You know, it's like I noticed my son, Every time my youngest son talks to any adult, it's always, yes, sir, no, sir, you know, and very respectful. And it really brought our.

[Graham Stephan]

Our.

[Ben Mala]

Our quality of life and the way we felt, how we lived a lot better.

[Graham Stephan]

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[Jack]

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[Graham Stephan]

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[Ben Mala]

I mean, when you start making money, you ain't got time to be around losers. People that are just negative or people that are going the opposite way. I have no tolerance whether I'm in business with these people, doing with them or not. I can't even be around people that just don't give a. They don't care. They're just going through life not trying. And they have the ability to try. That's the one, the part that really pisses me off. I've had people that I've. That worked for me that were smart. They, they had. And they had me to back them and they still didn't do it. But they're worried about stupid like partying and chasing women or whatever, chasing men or whatever. The, you know, the priorities aren't in order. The kids ain't living like they should. They just, you know, I don't like being around people that don't. They're going through life with just the bare necess and not really trying, you know. And they have the ability to try, you know, if somebody doesn't have the ability and a nice person, I could tolerate them like you.

[Jack]

How do you balance staying financially secure while also enjoying life? Is it much of a calculation in your brain anymore? Like you budget a certain amount for certain things?

[Ben Mala]

I'm not a wasteful person, you know, it's just like when I took my kid this weekend for his graduation present to the Bahamas, you know, I could have stuck us in the van and made him drive four hours to Fort Lauderdale. Okay, I could have done that. And I would have saved whatever the few grand, five grand, 2,500 there could have send the plane back. You don't pay to keep it there and whatever. Anyway, I would have saved the five grand if I would have made him drive the van and he would have done it and he would have been happy, you know. But you splurged. But you know, for me, five grand, it's not going to make a break. Break me, you know, it was, it made our life easier, impressed him, impressed his friends, you know, made us feel like they were special. And it was definitely, you know, convenient, you know, so, you know, I don't waste money. I do things in moderation. You live your life in moderation, you know, and then sometimes, you know, I correct myself. I had a half a million dollar Phantom sitting in the garage. And when the rates were going up and I'm saying, oh, what the. I have $500,000 sit in the garage. I barely even used the goddamn car. All right? I went through the whole car phase, you know, So I sold it. 500 grand, you know, sitting in a bank at that time is 5% even in a money market account. That's a couple of grand a month. I don't know. I just like doing what's practical and logical. That's the way I try to live my life. Do I live in a $30 million house? Hopefully it's 30 million. I don't know what market right now is to going, going down, but in Florida you get a weird sense of buyers. It's different when you have a high end house in Florida. You know, there's always people with money who want to come to Florida because if you homestead it, they can't take it away from you. The bank can, the IRS can, but nobody else can.

[Graham Stephan]

Is there ever a price tag for you that just doesn't make any sense or just out of, out of your league where you just wouldn't even consider it?

[Ben Mala]

Like what?

[Graham Stephan]

Could just be any.

[Ben Mala]

Like a boat?

[Graham Stephan]

Sure.

[Ben Mala]

I mean, yeah, I would not go out like I want to buy another boat. I'm selling mine right now. You need to buy my boat. You know that.

[Graham Stephan]

You need those losses. So if, if I buy it low enough.

[Ben Mala]

That's not that you keep mixing personal with, with, with, with taxes.

[Graham Stephan]

No, I think you could charter it temporarily and then it's. But then it's now an investment. Depreciate it and then sell it to me at a law, a substantial.

[Ben Mala]

You have to do that when you buy it. I think you have to already Be in a business. We'll talk about that.

[Graham Stephan]

You could transfer it to a Montana LLC for the purposes of Charlie.

[Ben Mala]

You guys can come up with all. You do this and do that and do this. I know don't do to all that shit. You know why? Because I sleep at night knowing the IRS will never with me. They got nothing to with me on. So I don't cross the line or I don't even get close to the line when it has to do with taxes. I just play it clear cut. You know why? Because it's the tax system that made me who I was today. If it wasn't for the 1031, there is no possible way I would have grown to the level I've grown to. No way. The tax system that we have forced me, pushed me me to never touch the money and roll it into the next deal and defer the tax that forced me to grow.

[Jack]

How much do you think you'd have if you couldn't utilize the 1031?

[Ben Mala]

I mean, I know right now if I was to say I'm going to sell everything and just pay the tax bill, I probably owe about 50 million bucks. Fine. And, and I'm, you know, it's definitely a possibility I consider sometimes. But I'm not going to do the whole 50 on 1031. Some. I don't know, I might pay, I may not sell. You know, it's, it's a combination of a lot scenarios. You know, you have to. When you're managing a portfolio and you're managing your wealth, it's a job. And you're constantly thinking about what's the right move to make. You gotta make, you gotta do your homework, you gotta sit down, you gotta calculate. You gotta calculate the tax ramifications on it. You gotta calculate the appreciation, recapture, depreciation, cash flow. There's a lot of things you have to consider before you decide to buy or sell a property.

[Graham Stephan]

What do you say to the people who want to get rid of the 1031 exchange? Exchange.

[Ben Mala]

They're absolutely out of their crazy mind because the 1031 is what capitalism is all about. All right? It pushes you to grow, okay? It's making you want to do more. Do you know by 1031 and enforcing me or not forcing me, but pushing me to buy more, more materials, I'm buying more jobs, I'm creating more everything. It's just growth. Growth. Okay? And, and, and, and that's how a person can grow on a personal level by. That's, it's, it's a Ticket to growth. You know, without the banks and without the 1031, I would be a garbage man today.

[Graham Stephan]

Do you think that capitalism has gone too far? That maybe some people are getting really, really, really wealthy and other people are just getting left by.

[Ben Mala]

Listen, if people are getting wealthy legally, that's what it's all about. They're the ones putting forth the effort. They're the ones that are putting out the risk, you know, they're taking the risk, you know, so how can you knock somebody. Listen, I'm sorry, but I believe because of the life I've lived that everybody can try. They may not succeed as well as I did, but they can and better their life. Okay? When you can go out and anybody can take one course and one test for what, a few hundred bucks and get a license and then get a loan from FHA and only have to put a half a percent down because your license could. Or three and a half percent, you know, you can go out and buy a four plex for 3.5% down, right? I mean, we have these types of tools in our country that, you know, enable you to get ahead. Then you should take advantage of them.

[Graham Stephan]

Now, what about the theory that wealth inequality, as it grows to a certain point, can't sustain itself? And you do get just a demise of the entire country when it becomes so unsustainable between the rich and poor that overall countries do better. Rich and poor when it's a little close.

[Ben Mala]

We've been rich and are poor, so now more people are rich? Is that what you're saying?

[Graham Stephan]

More people are rich and. And isn't it better?

[Ben Mala]

I never seen unhappy people being rich.

[Graham Stephan]

You have the rich extremes, couple, cuckoos more extreme and the poor more poor, basically. I don't see there's becoming such a bigger divide.

[Ben Mala]

There's plenty of jobs out there for people. You know, it's the individual, I think, that really keeps them down and keeps them poor. It's them. They need to train their brain to do positive things that are going to make their life financially more secure, okay? A lot of people just don't have the mindset they're worried about. Stupid. Okay? Or they get hooked on drugs, or they get hooked on gambling, or they get hooked on alcohol, or they're worrying about keeping up with their Joneses and her friends. You know, people need to focus on themselves, forget about the rest of the world. Who cares what the somebody's doing? Who cares? What are you doing? What do you got? That's what matters. You gotta get a plan for Your life, and everybody's got a different life. You know, I never went one day to high school, okay? But I always knew that if an opportunity came my way, I'm gonna take it. And that's what I did. I just kept taking opportunities and maybe be going a little further than the average person wanted to go.

[Graham Stephan]

So what's holding so many people back?

[Ben Mala]

Mentality.

[Graham Stephan]

And what's causing that mentality, do you think?

[Ben Mala]

I mean, you know, I don't know. I mean, you know, could it be they spending too much time worried about, you know, Instagrams and all this online now? I don't know, but a lot of people online making money, so there's two stories, two sides to everything. It's the individual. It's. It's their time management. What are you doing with your time? Did you accomplish anything positive today? Today? Okay, let me tell you something. I'll get depressed and pissed at myself if a whole day goes by and I feel like I didn't do enough that I could have or should have or, you know, I didn't do enough. Okay. I need to prove to myself, you know, I wake up in the morning, I'm thinking about, okay, I got this deal on contract. Is there anything I need to do on that deal? Do I need to call a broker? I need to call a lawyer? Do I need to find out what's going on? Do I need to get repairs done over here? What do I need to do? Do? All right. You got to keep your brain focused on what you can do and what accomplishments you can make, and then you move on to the next thing. And next thing you know, you keep attacking things, you keep knocking things out, and next thing you know, you, you, you. You know, then you look for more opportunities because you. You took care of the stuff you had to do.

[Jack]

Where do you think lack of motivation comes from? Like, all of those friends that you had when you were a kid and you were growing up poor, you're probably surrounded by a bunch of other people that were broke, and maybe they went in a different direction. Did you notice any strong distinc I grew up was.

[Ben Mala]

They had the ability, they had the intelligence, even even though they weren't educated on. I grew up on the streets, but they just didn't know how to leave that world and apply the energy that they had and the talents they had, you know, from the street, they didn't know how to apply it in a legitimate way. If they would have taken the effort and been a little more patient and put it towards something Positive and legal. Then they all would have been multimillionaires. You know, I ran into a guy the other day, and this guy, he made me a lot of money and made himself a lot of money. I won't say his name, but he was a Cuban guy from Miami. And this guy just had a personality where he talked and he was. We became great friends. We were, like, close. Our families were close, everything. We loved it. We'd go on vacations, we'd party. He loved to party. He was full of life. We had a great time, times. And he was bringing people, buyers from Miami, and I was buying up the. Out of Orlando, and he was just finding buyers, doctors, these people and selling deals. And he was getting me really good prices, and I was cutting them in with good commissions. And then I think we even. I even let him come in as a partner once. And he was great about dealing with people and getting. You know. But he liked to party. He just. He. I said, why aren't you here? You should be running this building. Let's get these units turned over. Let's get the carpet guy in here. Let's get the. You know, get on top of the rents. We got to collect, you know, what are you doing? Oh, you know, he's having a good time in Miami, you know, with the girls and the booze and the boats and. And that's what he wanted to do. And, you know, he always hustled and made a good life. Enough living, but he never made, you know, where he could have been. He could have been major. Major.

[Graham Stephan]

Does that frustrate you to see that. That people can't live up to their.

[Ben Mala]

It doesn't frustrate me. I just know that when you show me that you're not on the same road as I'm on, then I got to get off the road or you got to get off or whatever. I mean, the way I live is. Listen, if I feel you're a productive person and you're positive to be in my world, then I'll give you the shirt off my back. I'll work with you. Listen, I love to help people. I mean, that's. That's been. Honestly. All right, it may sound corny, but put it this way. Money can't buy it. I'm not going to say it's better than money, but money can't buy the satisfaction I get when I take somebody and help them go to another level or. Or. Or better, their life. I've had some serious stories of people personally coming to my events and Telling me, you know, I've had, like, guys that I know had a wicked past, a very bad past, or they were in the game or gang ban, whatever you want to call them. And they tell me this story because of watching me and knowing my story and doing what I did. And they now take care of the kids, and now they're not getting in trouble. And now they're living. They feel so good about themselves that they'd be dead or in jail like I was going to be, you know, if I didn't leave New York, I would be dead right now. Guaranteed. Guaranteed. Or rotten away in jail if I was lucky. I mean, you know, it's. It's a mentality. You got to want it. You got to want a good life. We're not here that long. Listen, you know, who knows? Knows. 10 years from now, 20 years from now, I probably won't even be here, okay? It's going to be over. So, you know, make the most of it. And the people that you brought into this world while you're here, that's what you should do, you know, and maybe my kids will remember me, my grandkids will remember me and say, hey, yeah, I'm living good. Because, you know, my father did something when his was here. He made it happen. And then we make it now we're making it happen. And we all lived our life on this planet, you know, in peace and happiness and, you know, enjoyed it.

[Graham Stephan]

Do you ever have concerns that maybe a few generations down, they just start wasting the money?

[Ben Mala]

I mean, you know, they've said that about every generation. You know, they say it in the 60s. They said the 60s generation suck, and they said the 70s suck. But meanwhile, listen, you're either a loser or you're a winner. It's up to you. You can be whatever you want to be. You have the power. All right? You wake up in the morning, what the are you going to do? That's the question. Do you know what you're doing? Are you doing something smart? Are you doing something that's going to lead to a better life? You know, are you helping anybody? Are you making money? And it's up to you, but how.

[Graham Stephan]

Do you ensure that you're like, great grandkids don't go and take that money. Instead of going to college, they go and buy like a.

[Ben Mala]

You can't. There's only so many things you control in life. All I'm saying is I'm doing the best I can to set them up for success. Now, hopefully, my kids now are going to set their kids up like I set my kids up, and then their kids will be in more. All keep living and growing in that same mentality. Okay, by, you know, our living experience.

[Jack]

Has it always been very easy for you to become motivated or have there been spells where you've lacked motivation for a couple months or a year?

[Ben Mala]

I've always been motivated by making money because I knew money would make my life better. Okay. And make my life easier and make my family happier and get my kids better educations and lifestyles. I mean, I don't know. I've always been motivated since a very young age, even 10 years old. I remember thinking about, you know, because we grew up in a place where we had no money, so it was all about hustling and trying to think about how can we next, you know, make the next dollar.

[Graham Stephan]

Do you notice any difference between generations in terms of motivation or work ethic?

[Ben Mala]

I mean, my kids, you know, which. I don't knock them for it, but I, they don't have. Well, maybe because they don't have to. See, I sacrifice being a, a parent. When I was very young, I had to. I wasn't the best parent. I wasn't mean in my kids. I took care of my kids, but my kids spent a lot of time in the backseat of a car while I'm running around in the worst neighborhoods buying boxes, fixing them up or. And then when they got old enough, I put them to work. I mean, you know, instead of taking them to baseball, which I tried to do that, but they sucked anyway. I mean, I, I, I, I, I didn't. Maybe I could have been a better pair, you know, but now, luckily, they're in a position where they can have the best of both worlds because of my struggle, you know, and they suffered and they struggled when they were young. So now it paid off in the long run because now their kids don't have to struggle like they did or like I did. I don't know. Hopefully. We always talk about our kids being not spoiled. You can't spoil your kids. You can treat them good. You can give them whatever you want and can. But you got to make them appreciate it and realize it didn't come out of the air magically. We earned it. Okay.

[Jack]

What childhood experience impacted you the most in terms of how you behave now?

[Ben Mala]

I mean, by growing up so bad and it's such a terrible place. I always wanted a better life. I wanted to escape New York, you know, I mean, so that, that always. And then when I went to California, that was Just as bad. When I was in Oakland for 17 or 18 years, was there ever a.

[Jack]

Specific experience that happened? Like you mentioned sleeping in a bathtub or something, Maybe that happened where you're like, okay, I'm never going to do this.

[Ben Mala]

Or, you know, I've slept on trains, okay, I, I, I've been around. I watch people get actually right in front of me in Manhattan and New York and Hell's Kitchen. Um, I mean, the whole life experience of me growing up was no fond memories, just negative, negative, negative to people, the atmosphere, everything. So I was always motivated to get the hell away from it, get away from these people, get out of here, go, move on. There has to be a better life, you know, and luckily the army saved my life.

[Graham Stephan]

If you were to restart today, how would you do that? If you wanted to make a hundred million dollars over the, over the course of a lifetime, assuming you're starting over.

[Ben Mala]

Right now, I mean, you know, these days things are different. You know, I would still, you know, listen, I started by working for other people. I manage other people's real estate. And then common sense told me, well, if you're making them money, you can make your own money. So I went from managing and learning to ownership, you know, and then anybody can do that. You know, anybody can pick a field, any field, and say, okay, I'm going to work for somebody else, learn that field, be really great at it and have a passion for it. And then I'm going to become my own. You have to become your own boss or you have to have your own company. You have to, what do they call it, you know, self employed, Self employed proprietorship, whatever. You have to be your own person and your own, create your own growth. You can't let somebody else, you can't work for a paycheck for the rest of your life. You can't, you know, you got to have some opportunity. Okay? It's like he's got opportunity to bring in you. You grow, the more he grows.

[Jack]

What sector do you think you'd end up pursuing? Would it be real estate? Would you try something new like AI, or do you think you'd go more the YouTube entertainment route?

[Ben Mala]

Entertainment? I do, because, you know, it's just, we enjoy it.

[Jack]

Well, it's highly lucrative. You're making a lot of money.

[Ben Mala]

Yeah, it makes good money. Yeah.

[Jack]

If you were to restart today, where do you think the most opportunity would lie and what you would pursue?

[Ben Mala]

I mean, nothing would compare to real.

[Jack]

Estate, that you'd still do. Real Estate 100.

[Ben Mala]

It's the only. It's the oldest profession in the world next to. You know what. You know what the oldest one is?

[Jack]

I'm sure it's the one that Graham is a frequent patron of.

[Ben Mala]

But they had, hey, they had to go rent the space somewhere, right?

[Jack]

True.

[Ben Mala]

I don't know. I always looked around and the real estate's always been the most solid way of making money. Listen, I could have been a car business and buy cars and fix them and flip them too.

[Jack]

I could see that.

[Ben Mala]

I did. I used to survive before I owned real estate. I sell one Mercedes a month because I wasn't making much money in real estate. I was managing for other people. I would buy to San Francisco where nobody could park. Parking's impossible in San Francisco. And people would sell their cars, just say, get rid of it. I'm tired of paying for parking. I'm tired of dealing with it. And I'd buy them. I'd drive it over one bridge, Bay Bridge to Oakland. I'd put it in a newspaper ad and some doctor out of Haywood somewhere would come make fun of five grand. That was my little hustle. And, and I used to finance it. Imagine that. I would finance it because what the hell do I care?

[Graham Stephan]

Yeah.

[Ben Mala]

I mean, for one month I'm gonna owe the bank, you know, I think the cars were like 10 grand. I'm selling for 15. $10,000, even at 10% is a, it's a big thousand bucks. It was like nothing. I was using the bank's money.

[Jack]

I'm curious. Why do content at all, at least now in this stage of life? Is it for fun? Is it for legacy? Is it money?

[Ben Mala]

I, I, I, I always, I wanted to be an actor when I was young. I liked entertainment. I always liked being into, you know, entertaining and, you know. But then now I'm doing entertainment and I'm teaching people. You see, you can look at all these big shot actors, okay? And I'm not knocking them. I'm not, you know, all the guys, you know, you know, I'm talking about all the whatever. And you can look at all the ball players. Players, okay? And you can look at all these singers and you can look at all the dancers and all these people. Listen, they're very talented people, all right? And they bring amusement and entertainment into your life, but it's nothing, Nothing. Not one minuscule of the satisfaction you get when you can entertain and help people, okay? Yeah, they're great actors and they tell a great story. Story. But once the movie's over, that's it. You know, you saw the movie, you laughed, you enjoyed it. What else? That's it. I get to help people go through their life and improve their life. You know, educating people is very important. Okay? Everybody needs education. I need education. I learn it every day. You know, we all learn. So when you can help people and entertain them, it doesn't get any better than that. And make a few bucks while you doing it.

[Graham Stephan]

Now, what about implementing bitcoin? Because I saw Grant Cardone, when it comes to real estate, is now doing real estate funds that are tied to bitcoin, where he takes the rents to buy bitcoin. And when you buy one of his buildings, you're also buying bitcoin.

[Ben Mala]

I can't get involved with something I really don't understand. And I would never ever risk anybody's money in something that I don't know what I'm doing. So, you know, I'm not knocking it and I'm not for it because I don't understand bitcoin. And I've seen it all over the place and I know it's a new thing. And yeah, my son told me to buy it when it was a dollar. Ben Jr. He told me to buy bitcoin when it was a dollar, even with the dollar.

[Graham Stephan]

Why didn't you buy it?

[Ben Mala]

I think he was in college. Why didn't you? Don't know. You know, because the bull, it could have been a fraud. And it's run by computers and you know, who controls the computers? People. And then if the wrong people get in there, I don't know. You know, I heard all kinds of stories. You hear good, you hear bad. I don't know. It's not my generation, technology. I came when technology was born, okay? I didn't really grow with it. That's the problem. Guys like you have grown with technology and understanding is more part of your life. So, you know, what are you going to do? You can't do everything in life.

[Graham Stephan]

But do you think it's worth it to take the time to understand it or to diversify 3% into it?

[Ben Mala]

It's always good to diversify because when you diversify, if something hurts you, it's okay because you got some diversification there of other things to protect you. So I'm not against it. And maybe if my son insisted or Aaron insisted, hey, let's open up a bitcoin account or whatever, I'd say, fine, open it up. But I be doing it more for him than me. I'm in real estate. Just like I don't Loan money. I don't play the stocks anymore. I just do what I know. Because if I focus on what I know, I know I'm going to do well. I know what I'm doing.

[Graham Stephan]

This is going to either sound really stupid or really amazing 20 years from now, but I see a lot of people online, a lot of real estate investors on Twitter saying, I don't see the point in real estate anymore, anymore to try to bust my making 6,7% when I believe Bitcoin is going to average 20 to 40% annualized returns over the next 20 years. Why am I going to do that? But even, even at 10, why take the risk, the work, the.

[Ben Mala]

Everybody's different. Whatever works for you, you're in control of your life. If you have a risk tolerance for bitcoin and go for it, you know, I hope you make a fortune. I know guys that have made millions and millions of dollars of bitcoin, millions and millions, and I'm happy for them. But it wasn't my route. I focused on what I knew and I focused on necessity. People always need a place to live. People always need a place to shop. People always need a place to work. People need. Real estate is the world. You can't live without real estate. You know, if bitcoin, something happens and the computers go cuckoo tomorrow and everybody's bitcoin can't find it, or whatever happened, computer chips or whatever break down. Whatever happens, or somebody figures out a.

[Graham Stephan]

Way to it up, someone turns it.

[Ben Mala]

Off, you know, you still got your house, you buy your house, you got your house, you buy that building, you know, the people are going to pay your rent every month. I mean, listen, it's everybody. It's just like, why didn't you become a doctor? You know, you choose your path in life and you choose where you want to put your efforts and your time and you go for it. You know, it just, you know, it wasn't me. Even stocks aren't me anymore. My youngest wants to, you know, we will over the summer for his people benefit, to trade some stocks. But I have no interest in it because I don't do 6 or 7%. I do value add. I take garbage and I try to turn it to gold physically, mentally, I create it. I make it happen. I'm in control. I'm not just saying, oh, bitcoin should go up. I'm going to make money. You're not. What are you doing? You ain't doing. I mean, to me, I like to make my money happen. Make it, create it. You Know, and just like, you know, you work for. For a living. You're creating your wealth. You're in control. If you make money, it's because you did it, not because you invested in Bitcoin. Yes, we got to have investments. And you pick your. And choose your investments. I choose muni bonds. You might choose Bitcoin. Whatever works for you is fine. It's your money. You earned it.

[Jack]

Looking back, is there a life lesson or philosophy that you've adopted that you wish you implemented earlier in life?

[Ben Mala]

Sometimes I. I could have took more risk, and I didn't do it. I. I always played it a little too. I didn't. I could have bit off more than I could chew. Did I say that right? I could have bit more off and I could have chewed it, could have swallowed it. I could have. Well, I don't know if you like to swallow, but that's another thing. I don't answer that. The point is that, you know, my sons do it to me all the time and. And it actually gives me a physical pain. We're driving down the street, you know, we could have bought that building five years ago for half of what it's in this now. You know, we could have bought that building. I could have bought.

[Graham Stephan]

Why do they say this, dude? They just rub it in or what's.

[Ben Mala]

No, but listen, you know, the facts are the facts and the truth of the truth. Did my kids tell me to buy more property back in the day, and I said, no, I don't think so. The markets, the market's already at a height. I didn't see it coming. I didn't see rents going from 800 to 60 in such a short period of time. You don't have a crystal ball now. I did pretty good, so you can't beat me down. But could I have done more? I could have done a more. I could have been a multi billionaire. If I would have leveraged all the assets, I could have leveraged a lot more stuff that I did. I had the down payment. I could have bought up a ton of. But I didn't do it. I didn't want to over, you know, bite off more than I could chew. And I could have chewed it, but, you know, it could have went the other way. My kids always say, well, you know, it could have went the other way, way dead. You know, the market could have went down or could have stayed the same, and you'd be stuck with all this. So, you know, nobody's got a crystal ball. You don't know what the Future is, you can predict it, you can sometimes apply logic to it. Like, yeah, if an Amazon place gets built up in an area where it's a deserted area and you know they're going to have 2,000 employees there, then you know damn well it pays to build. Right? And you know, it pays to build retail and you know, it pays to create a community, a housing community. That's common sense.

[Jack]

It's interesting. I hear that a lot actually when I ask people what their biggest financial regret is, especially people that are like doing well financially, they always say, I wish I could go back in time and have bought more equity, more assets and invested more aggressively. But I also wonder if that's a little bit of survivorship bias. Because they're here, they're doing great, by all means, sure, they could be doing better. But to do better you have to have a completely different framework. Instead of being conservative and calculated, that applies to every action in your life. You would then become risky and aggressive and then that's what it would take. Mistakes and you don't know where that would have also led you. Yeah, and so it's like, but I.

[Ben Mala]

Came from a being a risk taker. But even though it really wasn't risk, I don't know, it's hard to explained. You know, I always tried to do deals that I knew for a fact I was going to make money. I knew that if I bought this property, I know I can raise the rents if I do A, B and C to it and manage it better than the last guy. So there was no risk in everything I did. You know, I always knew ahead of time I'm making money today. I buy this place because I know what I got to do. I know it's going to work because I already know what the market's going on now to predict the future. Future, that's a different story.

[Graham Stephan]

Now what about rising insurance costs right now? Because I know that's it actually came down this year.

[Ben Mala]

I just insured my whole portfolio and we got about a 15% savings.

[Graham Stephan]

How did that happen?

[Ben Mala]

Because insurance got so high people stopped using it. In fact, you know what I stopped doing? If I didn't have a loan on the property, I didn't get insurance. I only got a liability in case I get sued if somebody got hurt. I said, I'll beat a insurance company if there's a fire and it costs 50 grand or 100 grand or, or you know, God forbid, the whole place burns down, which never happens. I'd rather take the risk than just give that kind of money to the insurance company. Insurance on apartments were always 3, $400 a unit. Right now they're 15 at 1800 a unit. All right. In Florida, we get hit hard because of the hurricanes and all that. The problem is this. The insurance companies are the biggest crooks in the world. I'm sorry, it's true. Because they don't have no risk. You know why? Because if they do get hit with big claims, okay, and I've seen it time after time again, they get hit here in Florida with big claims and hurricanes, what do they do immediately? They raise everybody else's rent and make us pay for it. That's what they do. So they recapture all the money they paid out.

[Graham Stephan]

I heard another strategy that they use is not to pay out the full amount. They claim some sort of loophole or whatever. They expect a certain amount of to settle. And then the lawsuits they expect, they're going to spend X amount fighting this, and we're going to spend X amount fighting this. So therefore it's better for us to fight this thing to try to settle for less.

[Ben Mala]

Most insurance companies like to settle if they can because they don't want to deal with lawyers and they don't want to run up legal bees. We deal with this all the time. I mean, and the lawyers have driven the claims up so high now they make no sense. They've been just totally ridiculous with something. A lawsuit that should be 100,000 is now 500. I mean, you know, it's crazy. The courts and the lawyers have gone nuts with lawsuits.

[Graham Stephan]

Is there any solution to this?

[Ben Mala]

Stop. You know, the lawyers want to make a fortune. You know, if somebody has a million dollar claim in a car accident, you know how much the lawyer gets?

[Graham Stephan]

30%?

[Ben Mala]

40 maybe they can negotiate 30. You're right. Imagine that they're going to make 300 grand off of somebody's car accident. The lawyers have driven the settlements all the way up to the top. And who runs the courts? Who are the judges? Ex lawyers. They control the whole system. The system is, you know, they're not going to go against their own people. And lawyers kind of have this like, bond.

[Graham Stephan]

Well, the hard part is that it costs so much to defend a lawsuit, even if it's baseless.

[Ben Mala]

Yeah, lawyers are charging ridiculous money an hour now and then they got to hire people they got to charge for. This is crazy. You know, a good lawyer is going to charge 500 bucks an hour now. It's ridiculous an hour.

[Graham Stephan]

Do you think it could ever be feasible that we implement the system in the United States where if you pursue a lawsuit and you lose, you are responsible for the other person's legal fees.

[Ben Mala]

You know, sounds logical, but technically, sometimes you can lose and really not, you know, deserve to lose. Or maybe it was you shouldn't have lost so much or, you know, know, I don't know. I, I try to stand in the court system because it's just very, very tricky.

[Graham Stephan]

But do you think that might cut frivolous?

[Jack]

I feel like instead of having to.

[Ben Mala]

And then. Yeah. The frivolous lawsuits. Yeah, publics, you know, Publics. Right. I think they get sued like, I don't know how many. If you count all the lawsuits, they have a slip and falls. And most of them. All right. You know, like constantly, like every day they have lawsuits coming in. It's crazy.

[Jack]

It would be interesting. Instead of having to resu. For legal fees, to sue them back for legal fees. It could just be a part of the dismissal process where the jury then decides, okay, you sued. It was frivolous to this degree. 70% frivolous. You pay 70% of the.

[Graham Stephan]

Here's what you're going to have.

[Ben Mala]

But then if somebody sues you for a frivolous lawsuit, nine times out of 10, they ain't got to pot the pistons. They ain't getting anyway.

[Graham Stephan]

That's true.

[Ben Mala]

So what's the point? It's just the problem is, is you got the people in life that are always trying to over and, and, and, and, and, and have some slick way of beating the system or doing something that's crooked or doing something that's shady. And they're the ones that everybody really tries to do the right thing.

[Jack]

What if there's a, A database for lawyers and you can go back and see their history of performance in the court of law and that evidence and data could be used maybe.

[Graham Stephan]

No, because most lawsuits settle outside of court. They're not going to go to a jury trial. It's easier just to settle and get 20.

[Jack]

Either way, we don't need. I don't think we have a solution.

[Ben Mala]

The lawyers get paid regardless.

[Jack]

Yeah.

[Ben Mala]

Unless they took it on contingency and.

[Jack]

Lose to single guys out there. Because that's a lot of our demographic is like men 18 to 35. 5. You have had plenty of experience dating, Right. What would you say?

[Ben Mala]

Not dating, mating.

[Jack]

Okay. What would you say most guys are getting wrong in terms of dating?

[Ben Mala]

You know, you can't get too caught up in a relationship at a young age. You just can't.

[Jack]

What is a young age?

[Ben Mala]

How old 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 18 to 25. And it depends on what you've accomplished while you're 18 and 25. You can't get into a relationship relationship unless you got your together and you got your life on track and you're, you know, you're, you're moving in the direction you need to be and you're, you're self sufficient, you know, and you're stable. And then the other person should be stable too. I mean, you know, and then, you know, I mean really, you shouldn't really be getting. I wouldn't see people having kids till like 30. I think 30 is really the right year to maybe start thinking about having kids. If you're successful and stable and comfortable.

[Graham Stephan]

In your life isn't that early. Because if you're 20, let's just say you're 26, you got your life together and you meet someone, then it's also like, well, you gotta date them for a few years and then you gotta get married and then it's like another year and then, and then you're 35 grams.

[Ben Mala]

Everybody's different. You never know. You know, it's all about meeting somebody that's gonna make your life pleasant and productive, whether it's money wise or home life. Like my wife, she don't work, but I still feel like she's productive because she's got her responsibilities. She's got the house, she's got the kids, she's got our life, she's involved. Okay, you know, it's gotta be people that. And we're opposites, 100% opposite in every way. Imagine that. You know, it's funny how you say, oh, this person likes doing this and I like doing that. Me and my wife are opposites. And it works. I mean, everybody's different. We're all human. But you know, you really shouldn't get caught up in a relationship. So you got your own together and you got some money, you got your career going, you got your goals set, you're on the right track, you take care of yourself, you know, and you know, because Dayton, you know, you can start dating, you can start spending money, you know, you want to wine and dine, you want a fancy car, you know, you want to have a nicer place. A lot of people don't want to struggle. They don't want to. They want it right now, they want to live it now. And that's how they up their credit and you know, and put themselves in a hole they can't get out of. That's the worst thing in the world is to dig yourself in a hole where it's almost impossible to get out of.

[Jack]

Do you think guys should pay for taking the girl out every single time?

[Ben Mala]

I mean, yeah, I think that, you know, he's still a man. Okay. You know, I mean, I think, you know, it depends. I mean, you know, to me, yeah, you're a guy and you're dating a woman. Listen, no matter all the crap that goes on these days, it's still pretty much expected. You know, it's funny, all these women, women's lib, and they want to be equal, but when you go out to dinner, they sure want you to pay the bill, don't they? Yeah. So, you know, I don't know, it's just, it's. It's the human custom, I think, that's been just the man's man still, you know, and typically, let's face it, you know, men make more money than women and men, Women ain't going to do a lot of jobs. Jobs men do.

[Jack]

So. Are there certain things, though, in a relationship that you would say, look out for this, beware of this, that you've learned this is like a bad characteristic or a red flag.

[Ben Mala]

You got to know when the flags pop up and the signals pop up.

[Jack]

So what are signals that you should.

[Ben Mala]

Be privy to anything that you feel is not, you know, conforming with your life. I mean, you know, when you stop seeing, like, people, you know, like, you know, you like a girl and she's, whatever, super hot and she got a lot of good qualities. Parties. But maybe she drinks too much, you know, maybe that's, you know, not, you know, a good sign. You know, if they overindulge in anything, you know, moderation or, you know, I mean, you know, the person's got to match you and what your goals are in life. You know, if they want to constantly worry about party, party, party, then, you know, you know, it's not going to get, you know, where it's going to take you down the wrong. The road, you know, because the party's over the next day and you forget all about it anyway. So what the hell, how much more.

[Jack]

Did it motivate you to make money and be successful? Having a wife and having kids, I.

[Ben Mala]

Mean, you know, having a kids definitely was a motivation. Knowing that I need money, I gotta put. I gotta pay for these kids. Food, I gotta pay for these kids, I gotta have a decent place to live. I gotta have a decent car to get around with. I gotta have them in school. It costs Money. Kids are not cheap, you know, and you don't want to, you know, have a kid and raise them like, you know, a piece of, like I was raised, you know. See, coming from such a bad upbringing made me, you know, have a more. Bigger desire to really do well for my kids and give them a good life.

[Jack]

We're going to go on to some rapid fire questions if you're ready. Perfect.

[Graham Stephan]

Yeah.

[Jack]

So what's the most ridiculous thing you've ever bought that you absolutely, absolutely love?

[Ben Mala]

Probably my statues. Like the pelican out there. There's a pelican out there that looks over the beach. And there's an eagle.

[Jack]

How much were those?

[Ben Mala]

I don't know. Somewhere between more than five, less than ten. Batmobiles. Cars.

[Jack]

Yeah. Batmobile is definitely.

[Ben Mala]

I had a lot of them. I had the ones from the movies with the wings. I had the one when it shot fire out the back. I had the machine that came up and shot. You know, you get in these little kicks. But I made money on it. Stuff, too. Yeah. You know, creating this thing. I mean, I've done crazy things, you know, mostly cars.

[Jack]

What's one thing you refuse to spend money on, no matter how rich you are?

[Ben Mala]

Refuse to spend money on air. I hate that. When you go to a gas station and now you got to put your card in, you don't pay for air.

[Graham Stephan]

I thought it's free if you just go on for it.

[Jack]

It's in California.

[Ben Mala]

No, but now they got machines on every gas station.

[Jack]

I always.

[Ben Mala]

You can walk. That's.

[Jack]

That might be a California thing, though.

[Graham Stephan]

I just walk and ask. Hey, could you shoot on the air? Sure.

[Ben Mala]

No machines normally at gas stations. And now you got to pay for them.

[Graham Stephan]

Right there. Yeah.

[Ben Mala]

There's always a compressor in the ground. Yeah. Give us some kind of convenience for ripping us off on the gas.

[Graham Stephan]

I always walk in and just ask. And the guy's like, all right. Clicks the button, it turns on.

[Ben Mala]

Not here. It's error. You got to pay for here.

[Jack]

Which do you enjoy more? The chase and negotiation and structuring of a really good deal or the moment you close?

[Ben Mala]

Finding the deal. Once you find a deal, everything else is programmatic. Programmatic, whatever the word is.

[Jack]

So it's the.

[Ben Mala]

Once you find that deal, and you know you got that deal, everything else, you get it. You close the deal. You got the money to close the deal. You fix it up, you know, and then you can start making moves. But finding the deal is the key to real estate. Everything else is easy. You can hire Somebody to fix it. You can hire somebody, you know, to manage it. You can, you can, you know, finding that deal with value. Bad components in one sentence.

[Jack]

What is one piece of advice that you would love to give to your 20 year old self?

[Ben Mala]

Focus on making money and not, you know, having a good time, you know, worrying about having a good time. I mean, that's the biggest problem that 20 year olds do, you know, they just, you know, and it's natural, it's human nature, I guess. You know, you can have a much better time when you're 30, 30 and you're rich, okay? Spend your 20 to 30 years, 20 to 30 to 10 years doing everything you possibly can to get ahead so you won't have to work so hard when you're 30. And then when you're 40, you'll be even better. And when you're 50, you'll be even better. I mean, really put the time in because you got the most energy when you're 20 years old. I worked well, you know, I partied, but when I first started when I was 20, I know day damn well. I worked constantly from the time I got up, you know, except the weekends, your party. I was working probably 16, 18 days.

[Jack]

And you would have wanted to work on the weekends to add that time.

[Ben Mala]

I did work on the weekends and I, you know, really started getting hooked on, you know, knowing, hey, I gotta get done, because the quicker I get it done, the quicker I can make that money. So, you know, but partying was always the biggest problem when I was chasing, you know, when you chase you out dating and, you know, all that and going out and clubs and drinking, what do you feel?

[Graham Stephan]

How do you feel about that, Jeff?

[Ben Mala]

It's really a waste of time, you know, I mean, you can do a little, you can do it in moderation, but you can't do a lot of it. And you can't get hooked up on what your friends are always doing and trying to keep up with your friends, you know, who's having money in the bank. I'm telling you, that'll protect you for the rest of your life and lead to a great life.

[Jack]

I mean, I don't party and go out that much.

[Graham Stephan]

It's a pretty talking, like pedal to the metal, like head down 10 years, 20s.

[Jack]

I disagree. I think 10 years is a really big sacrifice. I think if you're like, you should do everything within reason. So like, if you know the general idea of the life that you want to live when you're 30, when you're 40, when you're 51, you're 60. Add on like 30%, maybe 40%, and shoot for that.

[Graham Stephan]

Oh, I'd say double it.

[Ben Mala]

It's like, I got friends, people I, you know, I'm friendly with, and they say, oh, yeah, When I was 20, I was backpacking and traveling the world and, you know, all that great experience and sleeping in hostels and, you know, they claim it was a great time, but today they're broke. If I want to go travel to all the places you were backpacking to and all that, I'm going to get on a plane, I'm going to stay in a nice hotel, and I'm really going to enjoy the place and enjoy the experience. You should have been working when you were 20 years old, not sleeping in the street and traveling all around. I mean, you know, but. And now. And now they cry to me how broke they are. Well, you're broke broke because you controlled your life. Okay.

[Jack]

You know, and, well, in fairness, we hear a lot of the other side of the token as well. So a lot of other people say, I wish that I enjoyed my 20s a little bit more. Gary Veep, actually, we asked him, like, well, what is if you could go back in time, what would you have done? And he's like, I just wish that I would have let myself enjoy my life a little bit during the 20s.

[Ben Mala]

So it's hard to say then he might not be enjoying as much now.

[Jack]

True. Yeah. But then again, your body.

[Ben Mala]

He might not have what he has now to help his. If he has kids. I don't even know what you're talking about. But, you know, and you know, listen, I don't know. I think you got to earn. You earn and you make happen, then you enjoy life. That's the way I think it should be.

[Jack]

I agree, but I don't.

[Ben Mala]

I made my mistakes. Don't get me wrong.

[Jack]

You know, I don't think it's zero. Like on or off. Like a light skill, you find a balance.

[Ben Mala]

Yeah, Moderation. Everything is good in moderation. Drinking is fine, eating is fine, traveling is fine, fine. Everything, partying, whatever, in moderation. But the main focus of your life has to be moving ahead because the clock's ticking. And one day you're not going to be able to do it. Time is up, clock's ticked, and you're done, you know, or you're too old to do so. Time is so valuable. People don't appreciate the value of time. That's the biggest problem that people don't realize because by the time you know, it's. You're going to be 30 and you're going to say, oh, I still got my together. You know, I don't have money in the bank and I don't have, you know, where I really wish I was at.

[Jack]

I would agree with that. I think it's the main focus that you should have in your.

[Ben Mala]

I'm not saying you should never go out to a restaurant, you should never go out on a date, you know, but you do it within. You know, you have a little entertainment in your life. Yes, it's important. You're human, but you can't do too much.

[Jack]

Yeah, I think, I think I sound more like a contrarian than I actually am because I agree it should be the main focus. It just shouldn't be the only focus.

[Ben Mala]

Everything is right in moderation. Everything is right in the proper place. You know, you have a proper time set aside to focus on growth. You have a certain time where you have to maintain your responsibilities. You have certain time where you can spend with your kids. You know, you have to allocate your time accordingly and logically. But growth has to be a driving, most important thing. You never sacrifice the time you need to spend growing and pushing to get ahead on stupid. That ain't gonna do for you the next day. Oh, wow, I went to a concert. Big deal. You had a good time at a concert, is it? How's it gonna help you tomorrow when your is broken? You spent all the money on a concert. I mean, you know, you gotta think logically and sensibly and hopefully one day you will.

[Graham Stephan]

I hope so too.

[Jack]

Ben, Mala, thank you so much for coming on the ice.

[Ben Mala]

Thank you for coming to my house and occupying it.

[Jack]

Thank you for having us here. I gotta say, I've seen this house in plenty of different, different videos. This is way more impressive and I had very high expectations. This is way better.

[Graham Stephan]

It's beautiful than I thought.

[Ben Mala]

All could be yours as long as it has a three in front of 12020.

[Graham Stephan]

How about it could be a three in front of the 1 13.

[Ben Mala]

Well, because you're a cheap bastard.

[Graham Stephan]

That's one behind a one.

[Ben Mala]

You always want a bog if you want a bargain, but, you know, that's fine, you know, but the people I'm going to sell this house to are not really going to care that much. Then they're going to say, well, I'm paying what the going rate is. If I wanted three lots on the Gulf of America. My wife's pissed about that. You know, why does he do that? Does he do it just to irritate people? Adult for America, probably. Is that just part of his obnoxious ego? Don't get me wrong, he does things on purpose because he knows he likes to. To shock you. New Yorkers like to shock you. They like to stick it in there and start some. That's the New York mentality, I think.

[Graham Stephan]

He just likes it.

[Ben Mala]

It helps a lot. But sometimes he goes a little too far also.

[Jack]

It's like cementing his legacy. Like, if that sticks, then he's the.

[Ben Mala]

Guy that changed it to Gulf America. Anyway, it is what it is. But where were we at?

[Jack]

I was saying thank you for coming, thank you for inviting us into your. Your house. And guys, if you're interested in some.

[Ben Mala]

Consulting, go to benmall.com and consult with Ben, okay? Because you're not. I'm not bragging, but I'm just gonna tell you right now, you're not gonna find anybody with 30 years experience has accumulated all the real estate wealth I have that's gonna give you a straight answer. Not with a hidden agenda and looking to take anything from you. Just help you out and get you on the right, right track and answer questions if I can. If I can't, I'll try to find the answer or, you know, find somebody that does have the answer.

[Jack]

And you need to raise prices because I think you're underselling yourself. But if that's crazy, that's an opportunity for you guys.

[Graham Stephan]

This is arbitrage.

[Ben Mala]

I'm not looking.

[Jack]

We're not making any money off this, by the way.

[Graham Stephan]

Your call. And then upsell it somewhere else and then profit the difference.

[Ben Mala]

I'm not looking to get rich, you know, I already am considered rich. I guess so, you know, it helps a little, but I like to helping people, okay? Imagine if the whole world helped each other. Can you imagine that? How better a world we'd all live in. I don't even know why are we fighting wars anymore? Why are we. Why are we even going to violence and destruction and all? Why are there so many world. If you are in charge, can't they solve any problem by pretty much money, you know, or, you know, necessity? They need. I mean, I don't understand. I don't understand war. Makes no sense to me whatsoever. How they can take something that's running and good and destroy it. Blow up buildings, destroy people's lives. Where does it benefit? I don't understand. There's no benefit in it. There's no. There's no positive. There's nothing in it for anybody. And then if you do win, all right, now you're stuck with a bombed out place. What the is the point? What is the problem here? And whenever people have conflict, they need to sit down, okay? And there's two sides that we story. But, you know, the problem is that I think we're dealing with people who are just irrational. The Middle east has always been irrational. They just. They're not rational. And then the communists are not rational because they want to control everything. It makes no sense to control people for what? You're not here that long. What is Putin in the 70s now? He ain't going to be around that long.

[Graham Stephan]

He's in the 70s.

[Ben Mala]

He's pretty good shape. He's in good shape.

[Graham Stephan]

Wow.

[Ben Mala]

But you know why? Why? There's no reason in the world to kill people and destroy people's lives. There's no logical reason for that. I can't think of one. I just don't. I can't. When things are peaceful, let them be peaceful. If you have differences, then figure out how you can work those differences out. But to kill people and destroy places makes no sense to me whatsoever. It just makes no sense. Humans, I'm sure with all the technology we have, we're going to planets and all the AI and the computers and all this, we, you know, let's face it, humans evolve very quickly lately too, if you notice. I mean, think back only 50 years ago, how the world was so different. But we can't be human and treat each other with respect and, you know, and just get along peacefully and understand it. It's like we're animals, you know, we got to get rid of that animalistic mentality, okay, and not even let it be tolerated in society, you know, and all the criminal. There's no room in this world for criminals, people that want to hurt you or, you know, rob you. There's just no room for that. There's just no room in the world anymore. I'm surprised that we. We haven't evolved into a more peaceful society. You know, some believe believable.

[Jack]

You guys gotta vote. Mala 2028, not the job for me. I feel like you'd be a good president. We'd at least have really good infrastructure and housing.

[Graham Stephan]

Good negotiations too.

[Ben Mala]

I mean, listen, affordable. I believe in everything. I believe in affordable housing. I believe in helping people and it makes the world a better place. But the people that don't want to act right, this is no room for them. It's society. I'm sorry, you know, how many millions of people are in jails. It's ridiculous. And why are they there, you know? And how did they grow up and how did they get there? We need to change our whole society. And eventually all the cuckoos and bad people will just eventually die off from that. Hopefully natural causes or whatever, kill each other and. And then you'll just have good people left in the world. I don't know. It's. I don't know. I'll be asking, but maybe you guys do.

[Jack]

Maybe one.

[Ben Mala]

You're the new generation.

[Jack]

Work on it.

[Ben Mala]

You're the new generation.

[Jack]

AI will figure it out. AI guys, thank you so much for watching. It really means a lot. Thank you, Ben, for inviting us in your house.

[Ben Mala]

Thank you.

[Jack]

And until next time, see you guys.