"Time To Sell!" Ben Mallah's Shocking Prediction For Home Prices, Falling Rents, & The Trump Economy

Summary

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Podcast Summary: The Iced Coffee Hour

Episode: "Time To Sell! Ben Mallah’s Shocking Prediction For Home Prices, Falling Rents, & The Trump Economy"
Date: January 22, 2026
Guests: Ben Mallah
Hosts: Graham Stephan & Jack Selby

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Episode Overview

In this candid, energetic episode, Graham and Jack are joined by real estate tycoon Ben Mallah. The conversation digs into the turbulent reality of the 2026 housing and commercial real estate markets, Ben’s evolving investment philosophy, tax strategy, family business, and his colorful take on life, business, and legacy. Ben offers no-nonsense advice on selling, reinvesting, family succession, and why he's winding down his empire. The episode is laced with his signature humor and sharp wisdom.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Ben’s Current Moves: Selling and Strategic Exit Plans

• Major Asset Sell-Off: Ben is actively selling off large portions of his real estate, citing a potential $15 million tax bill and a desire to simplify life and set up his children.
  • "I'm making my exit, baby. Setting up the kids with a nice, strong multifamily portfolio... I'm selling off assets, readjusting the portfolio." (01:50)
• 1031 Exchange Strategy: Ben explains using the 1031 exchange and reverse 1031 to defer capital gains taxes—though “the government never forgets” deferred taxes.
  • "If you do a reverse 1031...you buy your replacement property before you sell and then you're clean." (04:50)

2. State of the Market: Commercial & Residential Turbulence

• Stagnation & Distress: Ben thinks those who overpaid in the low-rate COVID era are “stuck,” and expects distress sales to increase, particularly poor-quality multifamily assets.
  • "All the people that bought that shouldn't have bought are now stuck. I'm starting to see the dogs coming." (07:59)
• Why Panic Hasn't Hit Yet: He attributes the lack of mass foreclosures to banks “praying and delaying”—extending loans, avoiding write-downs, and not wanting another ’08 crash.
  • "How long are we going to have loans being extended? Banks don’t want to with the property." (15:54)
• Financing Has Changed: Many properties no longer cash flow at today’s high interest rates. Ben expects defaults as fixed rates expire.
  • "A lot of fixed terms are up...people can't refinance and break even, so they'll walk from properties." (12:24)
• Florida Market Update: Insurance costs due to hurricanes, plus falling condo prices (down ~20% from peak), have made renting more attractive than owning in markets like Florida.
  • "It was cheaper than buying...all in, it's probably ten grand a month to own a million dollar house." (17:10-17:52)

3. Real Estate Investment Advice

• What He’s Selling & Keeping: Ben sells stagnating properties with little growth left, holding onto multifamily and select retail, avoiding office and over-leveraged assets.
  • "Who’s buying? 1031 guys who really don't want to pay tax." (07:17)
• What He Won’t Touch:
  • "I won't touch office with a ten foot pole. Offices and malls are dying. Only looking for multifamily." (24:51, 26:05)
• How to Find the Best Deals:
  • "You gotta find the next deal with upside. That's all that matters." (37:04)
  • Brokers bring him the best off-market opportunities, and retail only makes money when you lease empty space cheaply and fill it.
  • "You get real estate for free [with vacancy]. That's how you make money in retail." (32:09)

4. Personal Philosophy: Wealth, Legacy, and Family

• “I’m Done.” Ben emphasizes he’s out of growth mode; now it’s about smooth succession, minimizing taxes, and enjoying life.
  • "Done. I just want my kids to grow--but I'm done." (45:40)
• Family in Business:
  • "Employees aren't like kids. Ownership interest is what grows a business." (56:05)
  • To ensure his kids took responsibility, he gave them real tasks managing properties as teenagers, cutting them off financially if necessary.
  • "If I thought my kids weren't capable, they wouldn't be in that position." (58:35)
• Quality of Life & Retirement:
  • His focus is on a steady, safe income (municipal bonds), downsizing personal assets, and reducing daily stress.
  • "I just turned 60. Clock’s ticking...I just want to consult, help people, spend time with my family." (45:56)

5. Market Predictions & Opinions

• Market Outlook: Ben is bearish in the short and mid-term, anticipating more distress if rates don’t come down.
  • "I'm hoping to start seeing some distress. The dogs come first—eventually the good stuff will come." (13:08)
• Tax/Estate Strategy: Recommends balancing between reinvesting (1031), paying some taxes, and utilizing muni bonds for tax-free income.
  • "Bond funds pay monthly, and tax-free." (53:39)
• Why He’ll Never Invest in California Again:
  • "Even if it’s free, not worth it for taxes and government interference." (86:22-87:28)

6. Practical Real Estate Tips & Learnings

• Drilling Down on Returns: Always underwrite for net operating income (NOI) growth—refuse deals with low upside.
• Renovation ROI: Assess each property uniquely; focus on upgrades that lift rent/value, not just cosmetics.
  • "Every house is different, every deal is different—does A plus B equal C?" (24:20)
• Leasing Retail: Value is in repurposing vacant space, like splitting a failed bank into dual units.
• Corporate Tenant Lessons: Learned tough contract negotiations (view easements, use restrictions), with help from AI legal review.
  • "My son relies on AI for contracts...lawyers are in trouble." (33:49)

7. Life, Motivation, and Enjoyment

• When Did Ben Feel Wealthy?
  • "100 million. That’s when I didn’t worry about anything major." (98:00)
• Life After the Big House:
  • He's selling his palatial home, willing to reduce the price incrementally until he finds a real buyer.
  • "Every week, drop it a million 'til I squeeze you dry." (39:59)
• On Retirement: Enjoys his yacht, plans to downsize to a 4,000-square-foot intercoastal home, sees no point in more luxury or a bigger boat.
  • "This boat is the right size...not too big, not too small. It's like going from B-class to A-class." (95:13 - 95:41)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

Taxes and Wealth

• "I've got a $15 million possible tax bill hanging over my head right now… The next deal solves all my problems. It defers my taxes and creates more wealth. It's all about finding a deal with upside." (00:42, 37:04)
• "The government doesn’t forget about that tax. It’s deferred. They only forget when they can’t collect—when you die." (02:32)

Market Insight

• "The sky was falling…People paid $150,000 a unit in multifamily that don't cash flow at today’s rates…They can't get their money back." (03:28)

Family & Legacy

• "I want my kids to grow…but I’m done. I started working at 12…joined the Army at 17…Do I get to stop working and see what life is like?" (45:56)

Advice for New Investors

• "All real estate is about finding the next deal." (23:03)
• "It’s all about supply and demand...Everything is supply and demand." (76:05)

Humor & Philosophy

• (On his house) "If it was in Palm Beach or Miami Beach, it'd be 135 million…in my neighborhood, it's better." (40:23)
• (On consulting and helping others) "I like to help people. Even today, a guy bought my whole lunch because he said he listened to me and now he’s doing million-dollar refis from nothing." (46:56)
• "I want to consult...Get me on the phone and get some real honest advice…That's the only work I want to do." (45:56)

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• $15M Tax Headache, Selling Assets — 00:42, 01:50
• 1031 Exchange & Reverse 1031 Explained — 02:32, 04:45
• State of Multifamily & Overpriced Deals — 03:28, 07:59
• COVID-Era Buyers Stuck, Market Outlook — 07:59, 13:08, 14:25
• Why Office, Retail & Malls Struggle — 24:51, 26:05, 29:16
• Banks “Pray and Delay” on Bad Loans — 12:24, 15:54
• Florida Rental vs. Ownership Math — 17:10 - 17:52
• Family Business Approach, Children as Successors — 45:56, 56:05, 58:35
• Best Deals Come from Brokers, Not Subscribers — 88:19
• Municipal Bonds and Tax-Free Income: Why He Loves Them — 53:39, 99:46
• Living Large, Downsizing for Peace of Mind — 95:13, 96:08
• How Ben Feels About “Wealthy” — 98:02
• Using AI for Contracts and Operations — 33:49, 74:17
• Favorite Luxury Purchase (Yacht) & Lifestyle Philosophy — 91:33, 95:41

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Conclusion

Ben Mallah delivers a masterclass in real estate realism—mixing sharp wit with hard-earned wisdom. He's weathered every market storm and now embraces a strategy of simplicity, leaning into muni bonds and multifamily, eschewing over-leveraged or dying asset classes, setting up his family’s legacy, and seeking only “deals with real upside.” For investors and entrepreneurs in any market, Ben’s blunt advice about taxes, cycles, family, and lifestyle offers clarity and a refreshing departure from hype-driven narratives.

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Transcript

[Host]

Fiscally responsible financial geniuses, monetary magicians.

[Co-host]

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[Ben Mala]

Who switch their car insurance to Progressive and save hundreds. Because Progressive offers discounts for paying in full, owning a home and more. Plus, you can count on their great.

[Host]

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[Ben Mala]

So your dollar goes a long way. Visit progressive.com to see if you could save on car insurance, Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and affiliates. Potential savings will vary. Not available in all states or situations. Every day I gotta look for deals. Every day I gotta do a thousand emails, but I'm done. Should I keep the house? These are big decisions you gotta make in life. I got a $15 million possible tax bill hanging over my head right now. Question is, am I gonna have to pay it or not? It's very depressing to me, you know, and I just want to retire. The next deal solves all my problems. It defers my. And it creates more wealth. It's all about finding a deal with upside. That's all that matters.

[Host]

So what do you think is going to happen in 2026? Throughout the housing market, all the people.

[Ben Mala]

That bought that shouldn't have bought are now stuck. I'm hoping and praying that I'll start seeing some distress in the market.

[Host]

What exactly is driving the staleness in the housing market right now?

[Co-host]

You want to build up to a certain net worth of like hundreds of millions of dollars, right? Not anymore.

[Ben Mala]

Done.

[Co-host]

What made you realize you were done?

[Host]

Tell us what's going on. You gotta pay a lot in tax.

[Ben Mala]

I got a $15 million possible tax bill hanging over my head right now. Question is, am I gonna have to pay it or not?

[Co-host]

And what determines that?

[Ben Mala]

Finding a nice big fat 1031 replacement? Because we're selling, baby. We're selling off assets, we're readjusting the portfolio. I'm making my planning my exit, baby. I'm gonna set the kids up with a nice, strong multifamily portfolio and get out of a lot of different types of asset classes we're currently sitting in. And then they can move on and move up and I can float away. So basically, I'm selling a lot of assets. And you know, when you sell, my basis is extremely low. You know what basis even means? You diggling.

[Co-host]

Explain for the viewers.

[Ben Mala]

Okay, I know what it means.

[Co-host]

I know what it means.

[Ben Mala]

I don't want you to.

[Co-host]

It's the assessed value. It's what you paid for it.

[Ben Mala]

But if you 1031, all the tax you saved when you sold it is. The key word is deferred. The government doesn't forget about that tax. It's deferred. You know what deferred means?

[Co-host]

It's pushed off, right?

[Ben Mala]

So basically, it lowers your basis. So if you bought a deal for $10 million, but you deferred 2 million in tax, you didn't buy it. You don't get $10 million basis. You get an $8 million basis. The government don't forget, okay? They'll forget when they can't collect, when you die. Now I'm decided. I'm not waiting till I die. I'm going to pay him some money now. Maybe I'll 1031 some, maybe I'll pay them some. My whole life has always been about a balance. You know, you do a little this, you do a little that. It makes sense. Okay, can I go out and find $100 million worth 1031 replacement properties right now? No, because the price is too high. Everybody asking $150,000 a unit, and you'd be lucky to get a return at 100 a door. Now, all these people did pay $150,000 a unit. Why? Because the sky was falling. Sky was falling. We got Covid. We had low interest rates, and they might have cash flowed back when rates were 3 and 4%, but they don't cash flow now at 6 and 7. So they can't get their money back what they paid. Unless you're an idiot and you want no return. So every day I'm out there trying to look for $100 million worth of real.

[Co-host]

So how much have you sold so far?

[Ben Mala]

Okay, the point is this. You don't wait till you sell. You start looking when you think you get when you know you're gonna sell and you're going through all the motions to sell. Some of my deals take anywhere from 90 to 120 days. You start looking before you sell. And if you find the right deal and you didn't sell yet, you know what you do?

[Host]

Take out a loan.

[Ben Mala]

You guys don't know about real estate.

[Host]

Oh, you could do a reverse.

[Ben Mala]

I already know about your little houses and your little duplex and all that.

[Host]

Couldn't you do a reverse 1030?

[Ben Mala]

There you go. Winner, winner, chicken dinner. And you want a chicken. Very good. Reverse 1031. Then you're clean. Because now you already bought your replacement property. You close that new deal, you're home free, baby. You could sell your property. I mean, you sell your property after you buy the replacement property. So what happens when you sell a property?

[Co-host]

No tax.

[Ben Mala]

That money goes back to you. Why? Because you already spent it. The government has rules that make sense. If you play the game right, it makes sense. But nobody can control opportunity. I can't create a deal. I can't. You know, this ain't the old days where you put a. Somebody said, hey, you're going to sell me that property at 10 million bucks. You can't do that. Don't work like that. I would never do that anymore.

[Host]

So what's the story? You sold your real estate and now you need to 10:30 want it. Now you need to find the deal.

[Ben Mala]

To replace the deals I'm selling. Otherwise I gotta recapture and pay capital gains tax on a low basis because I've been 1031 in since I was a baby.

[Host]

When's the deadline?

[Ben Mala]

You know you got six months to accomplish the entire transaction.

[Host]

How far into that six months are you?

[Ben Mala]

The clock ain't started yet because I ain't closed yet. But if I don't worry about before I close and I close and the clock starts, the clock will run out. So I gotta be ahead of the game, start looking for replacement property. Cause I know I'm selling, I know I'm closing. I got bars, I got contracts, I got escrow. I got people hard, I got people ready to close. That's all in a contract. I know it's coming. It's coming, baby. But you know, when it comes, what do I got as far as protection? I don't. I'm looking. I got some things in the fire, but you know, and then you don't want to buy stuff. And I used to buy stuff just to prolong it. I go out and buy something. Six cap, you know, Holly Davidson dealership or a Lowe's or Home Depot. I own all that shit, you know, But I don't want to do that anymore. It just prolongs the pain. Listen, I gotta say, I got enough to where I can just figure it out where everybody gets a piece, even the government. So how do you determine everybody wins? The government gets something, my kids get something, I get something, I live out the rest of my life. And you know, I mean, luckily you spread it around. Everybody will win in the end.

[Host]

Yeah.

[Co-host]

So how do you determine these properties are worth selling? The ones that you are selling and.

[Ben Mala]

Who'S the ones with no more growth or the growth is going to take too long to grow.

[Co-host]

So what kind of buyer is interested in something that has no market?

[Ben Mala]

1031. Guys. Guys in 1031, he really doesn't want to pay that tax or he doesn't have the money to pay the tax. A lot of times they may be over leveraged the deal they sold and they ain't got no money to capture to pay the tax. You never know. So basically. Thank you. Basically. Listen, there's always, you know, somebody might just want to invest in a Home Depot at a nice 7 cap, which is pretty nice. Used to be sixes. I remember when I couldn't buy one for a five. But now you're gonna have to probably I'm gonna have to sell for a 7 cap. Luckily that's where I bought it. So hopefully I'll break even.

[Host]

Yeah. So what do you think is gonna happen in 2026? Throughout the housing market, nobody's got a crystal ball.

[Ben Mala]

The point is I'm starting to see the dogs coming. All the people that bought that shouldn't have bought, that didn't know, you know, or join all these groups and pool all their money together that bought properties that were dogs, overpriced dogs are now stuck. Okay. Cause there are some hundred thousand dollar unit properties out there in Tampa. I looked at them, but they're dogs. I gotta come in and spend millions of dollars. They need roofs. I don't like the way the metering system is or there's all kinds of issues in them. They're the gray market ones. Okay. The ones that might be in a flood area. You know, all the gray markets, the garbage comes first. But eventually I'm hoping the good stuff will come. Unless those rates come down, but really gone down a lot. You know, they went down a little but not much have rates come down and their values will go back up. But if rates stay the same or go up, then there's going to be some blood in the water. It has to be.

[Host]

Why haven't we seen all these mass sell offs throughout commercial real estate yet? Are you noticing foreclosures? Are you seeing the market?

[Ben Mala]

That's why. No. Okay, we all know what the is your problem.

[Co-host]

The cab fell on the floor and you clawed at it with your foot when it was like the lid side was up. And then you put it on top. You could. You don't need a cab on it.

[Ben Mala]

I used my foot to push it.

[Co-host]

You grabbed it with your toenail.

[Ben Mala]

Well, I just don't want any of your germs getting in my body. My toenails are clean. I took a shower this morning but have been walking barefoot all around here. All right, so anyway, listen. It all because of the stock market and you're a stock guy. Okay? All right, let's play with Jack a little. Maybe he'll learn something before this is over. I would like that.

[Host]

That's the goal.

[Ben Mala]

Maybe he'll learn something.

[Host]

We try.

[Ben Mala]

All right. Basically, the value in a bank, you know what that is?

[Co-host]

It's the debt that they have.

[Ben Mala]

Exactly. It's not that stupid. The bank is only worth what their loans are. The deposits. Deposits, deposits, deposit. They got to have liquidity requirements. They got to have deposits, but the bank makes money on loan and money. So basically, the bank is only worth the loans that they gave all that money to. If the loans suck, then the bank sucks. And when the bank sucks, the stock sucks. And they don't want that to happen. They don't want to see. All right, we had a crash in 08. You know why we had to crash in 08? Because the banks gave out too much money. Can I say? Yeah, go for it. The banks gave out too much money to people they shouldn't have. And there was a lot of crooked going on. That's what caused that crash. So they had loans that were worthless, okay, or worth pennies on a dollar. Now, we're not in the same situation. The people that they loaned the money to, they weren't intentionally crooked or, you know, poor judgment or poor loans at the time. They made sense. The bank takes risk. The bank didn't think of the risk down the road of rates going up. They didn't hedge themselves enough. Maybe some of them did. So basically, when they loaned all that money out at three and a half, 4%, they were saying, you know, my home loan is 2% here. Not this house.

[Host]

Oh, the other house. Oh, interest only, right? Yeah.

[Co-host]

Too flat.

[Ben Mala]

Too flat.

[Host]

But it's interest only.

[Ben Mala]

It's all timing.

[Host]

For how many years?

[Ben Mala]

15 years.

[Host]

15.

[Ben Mala]

All right, so anyway, the bank's losing money on that because they could take that money they gave me and reinvested at 6, 7, 8%. The point is this, you know, the banks are not making money on these loans now only because interest rate's gone up and they underwrite a lot of, you know, at a much more higher debt ratio. You know, debt ratio is right. How much debt you have towards your principal. Anyway, long story short, if the loans, the property can't cash flow anymore or it's breaking even. See, I think what's happened is it's breaking even right now for all these people because the rates are going up. They can't refinance. If they refinance, they got to go refinance at a higher rate. Okay? So A lot of these fixed terms are up, typically commercial. I borrow money. In my world it's 3, 5, 7, 10 depending on the asset. You pick your choice on how long you want to fix the rate for. So you know, sooner or later all the people that took, you know, whatever loans they're going to fixed rate's going to be up, they're going to have to go to the market and they can't afford it because or they might break even. They'll say I'm not owning this big ass place for no return. If they're not recourse loans they'll throw the keys in. I'm starting to see that. Well, because nobody's going to make a capital call and bring the mortgage down. So basically they'll walk from properties, big groups that you know, different individuals, investors or the bank's gonna take em back because they're not making a mortgage payment. I mean, you know, but we don't know. I mean if rates go down or who knows. But the banks don't want you to know. Believe me. The banks are sitting on a lot of loans right now that they probably wish they didn't have.

[Host]

So what's your prediction though? What do you think is going to happen over the next year? Are you bearish, are you bullish on the markets?

[Ben Mala]

All I can do is tell you I'm hoping and praying that I'll start seeing some distress in the markets. I'm starting to see it trickle down. Like I said, the dogs come first. So you know, that's what I'm seeing. But hopefully I'm going to start seeing the stuff that's worth me buying the good stuff so far.

[Host]

What have you had to do to sell your places? Because you're also selling into the same market that you're buying.

[Ben Mala]

I'm selling retail based on a cap rate. People buy shopping centers all day long at 7 caps. If it's a good brand with good tenants, there's always guys out there that are willing to get 7% return, 7 cap. As long as you know they're not borrowing too much more money above the 7 cap. Because basically if you make a 7% on the retail center and your mortgage is 7% then basically you're just getting 7% on your down payment. Correct. Some guys are happy doing that, you know. But right now if you buy a seven cap strong guys that buy shopping centers could borrow in the definitely around low sixes, if not six. Yeah. So basically they make a point spread on the bank and they'll make 7% on their return, on their down payment. There's always a market for that, you know.

[Host]

Yeah. So what would it take right now to see the market and hotels are.

[Ben Mala]

Just too much for me right now. I got too many hotels.

[Host]

What would it take for the market to fall, to start to see those distressed properties come up?

[Ben Mala]

The banks are going to have to say, okay, we already played the game, you know, pray and delay.

[Host]

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[Co-host]

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[Ben Mala]

And now we got to figure out what we're going to do. We delayed, we delayed, we delayed. I mean, you know, how long are we going to have loans in, you know, being extended? I mean, I had some loans come due and the bank just sent me a paper saying, oh, please sign this, your loan is extended. I mean, you know, they don't want to with me. You know, they don't want to with the property. They don't go for the money. Let's just keep it the way it is so we figure out what the hell we're going to do here. I mean, it's all about money and rates. You know, hopefully we'll start seeing some people can't handle today's interest rates. Plus in Florida we got other issues. I don't know about other states. You know, for a while their insurance was killing us, killing us because of these hurricanes and all this. You know, whenever there's a hurricane or a big expense, insurance company's gotta pay out for. What do they do? They come in and raise the rates and make all the new people that are getting insurance now pay them back all the money that they had to pay out in a hurricane or disaster. That's what they do. Yeah, insurance companies don't lose. We're insurance, we ain't taking a loss.

[Host]

So what are you seeing with Florida real estate values? Because when I look at the map of the United States, Florida is one of the areas along with Austin, Texas that has been down, down like 20% from peak, especially for condos. Just the Florida residential real estate market.

[Ben Mala]

Hey, Rafael just went out, rented a house because it was cheaper than buying one. Yeah, I mean, you know, I mean people, you know, right now is actually I think a decent rate. What is a 30 year mortgage for some average person like Jeff?

[Host]

5, 5 1/2.

[Ben Mala]

He just borrowed money. And how much?

[Co-host]

5.7 or 5.5 ish.

[Ben Mala]

I know 5.7 is a reasonable price. So if you go out, you buy a million dollar house, you know you're going to pay $57,000 a year in interest. Correct.

[Host]

It's probably still cheaper to rent for.

[Ben Mala]

Divided by 12, that puts you in about four or five grand plus property.

[Host]

Taxes, plus maybe tierras, and HOAs, maintenance, utilities.

[Ben Mala]

Yeah. So all in, it's probably gonna cost you 10 grand for the million by the time you're said and done. Right. Ten grand Temptations, give or take.

[Host]

Yeah.

[Ben Mala]

Because you gotta handle on the taxes, the insurance, the maintenance, the utilities. So anyway, I don't know, I mean, you know, and then I think that, you know, the economy sucks right now because people aren't, people aren't spending money. I mean, you know how much cost to go out to a decent breakfast? It's 15 plus taxi tip is 20 bucks. 20 to eat a couple of eggs for breakfast.

[Co-host]

And breakfast has always been the most expensive meal though, I think out of.

[Ben Mala]

Everything compared to, compared to what you're getting.

[Co-host]

Would you agree with that?

[Ben Mala]

Breakfast is always cheap, cheap, cheap, cheap, cheap. It's never been a day.

[Co-host]

Yeah, you get eggs, sausage and a little something else and they want to charge you 13.99 for. But then you get a sandwich that they have to cook and like all that and it's, you know, everything is gone.

[Host]

The people who go out to breakfast though, have the money. Like, think of it, how often do people go out for breakfast? You're spending money.

[Co-host]

I'm just saying the cold for lunch.

[Host]

And dinner is more of a social thing.

[Ben Mala]

All, all necessities are going up. Even a dollar store ain't the dollar store anymore. Breakfast, lunch and dinner, it's all going through the roof. I don't know where people don't have the money for this. You're going to see a slowdown in spending. I think the car deal is getting hit hard right now. Every car lot I see is packed with cars sitting there. They can't sit and sell. And you know, it's all tied to interest rates, I believe.

[Co-host]

So if you were the president today, what would you do different?

[Ben Mala]

If I was the president, what would.

[Co-host]

You do to fix it?

[Ben Mala]

Life would be so great. It's going to be marvelous. Oh, it's going to be fantastic. It's the best. It's going to be better than better.

[Host]

Make promises.

[Ben Mala]

I don't know. I'm not. I don't even know. All I can tell you is that, you know, I think that no one person has the answer. I think it has to be a, you know, collective people, a lot of collective people with, you know, ideas and figure out what the smartest thing to do is because we need money. I think, you know, I don't know, where's unemployment right now? Anybody know?

[Host]

4.6?

[Ben Mala]

I mean, you know, I think, you know, we need to. I just, I always felt that the key to this computer country was what it was based on, manufacture. We started manufacturing. None of these countries know how to make shit until we taught them how. I mean, you know, like even though he was a Nazi Ford Nazi supervisor, you know, he started basically mass production of cars. Okay, all right. I don't know, I think we need, you know, produce more stuff and stop buying stuff from other countries.

[Host]

Now really quick, we just read a report that Americans with a four year college degree now account for a record 25.3% of US unemployment, which is wild because college was supposed to be the safe bet. I just think a lot of people are realizing that the problem isn't with education itself. It's how people are getting educated. And that's why I want to tell you about today's sponsor, Peterson Academy. This was co founded by Dr. Jordan B. Peterson with a simple but radical idea. Let the world's best professors teach the courses that they actually want to teach without bureaucracy, ideological fluff or bloated Tuition, you'll get access to more than 600 hours of brilliant lectures from professors at Harvard, Oxford, Cambridge, Stanford and others covering psychology, philosophy, history, economics, neuroscience. Basically courses that let you think clearly, understand the world and build a meaningful life. This is not about collecting credentials, it's about learning how to think on your own schedule at a fraction of the cost of traditional college. And if you're wondering who this is for, over 50,000 like minded learners have joined Peterson Academy. These are people who care about responsibility, clarity and building something meaningful. So if you feel like the system promised one thing but then delivered another, then this is worth checking out. Just head to petersonacademy.comiced coffee to get started today and learn more. Again, that is Peterson Academy.comiced coffee with the link down below in the description.

[Co-host]

So let's say you had $100,000 liquid right now, what would you do with that money? And that's all you had?

[Ben Mala]

A hundred thousand dollars?

[Co-host]

A thousand bucks.

[Ben Mala]

I mean, listen, having 100 grand is one thing, but it's all about the ability to borrow money. Because we all know 100 grand ain't gonna get you unless you're in maybe, I don't know, somewhere maybe. I mean, you gotta have the ability to get a loan with that. A hundred grand if you wanna get serious. Cause 100 grand's worth. 500 grand. Deal.

[Host]

And what about seller financing?

[Ben Mala]

Seller financing? Listen, if you can get it, take it. Absolutely. You know, I consult with a guy, you know him even, I think he owns, I don't remember, 800 houses that he all got by seller financing in Georgia. You know, listen, if you can get it and it works for you, fine, do it. I haven't done seller financing, never. But I have done. I've taken people's loans subject to, I bought them subject to their loan. I say give me that loan, I'll take it, adios, here's a few bucks, get the hell out of here. You know, that's how I started when I was younger, you know, then they were happy. They didn't want to get ready to get away from that place.

[Host]

So what's your strategy for the next year?

[Ben Mala]

In terms of strategy is find the next deal. All real estate is about finding the next deal.

[Host]

What makes a deal really good for you?

[Ben Mala]

The potential to have more noi, net operating income, make more money. Has to make more money so it's worth more money. Then you sell it for more money and you make money. Can you understand what I'm saying?

[Co-host]

Something about money. Let's say you have a property and a certain budget, a fixed budget to spend on it. Everything is C tier in this property. All the components, the paint, the floors, the appliances, et cetera. What would you. How would you allocate this fixed amount of money for the highest ROI on Noi?

[Ben Mala]

Listen, you buy a piece of property, you talk about putting money into fixing it up, right? You got to know before you buy that deal. I'm paying X amount. I'm spending X amount on improvements. Now what did I do? All that shit I did to the property, how did it affect you in value? So, so what is it worth more money? Can I rent it for more? Where's the value in it? So the value is your profit.

[Co-host]

Yes, but focusing on which components of a house a renovation would be the best roi. Like is it replacing the floors? Is it doing the walls?

[Ben Mala]

Like, what's on the house? Every house different. You could go to. Oh, you know what? This house just needs a roof. Put a roof on it. Oh, this house is 1970s, it's outdated. I gotta rip out the kitchen, I gotta put a new appliance, I gotta do all this new flooring, new windows, new this, new that. Is it worth doing all that work? And then what's it worth after you do all that work? Every house is different, Every deal is different. You gotta figure out, does it make sense? Does A plus B equals C?

[Host]

What type of deals are you just not touching right now?

[Ben Mala]

I'm trying to stay away from. Listen, my kids dragged me out the other day. In our neighborhood, we have one big office building because we live in a beach town residential neighborhood. We got this one big old giant office building sitting in a shopping center parking lot in the middle of town. And he made me go look at it because probably give it away. I'm not near. I won't touch office with a ten foot pole. I never have, never will. I mean, I never did because I was never exposed to it. But then when Covid came and it came crushed, it actually crushed me also because I had hotels that depended on the office business, corporate business. So that crushed even hotel. But anyway, I don't deal with offices. We all know why. Because of COVID Because technology, because people want to sit at home and work and blah, blah, and everybody shrunk down. So I don't do office. I'm kind of getting scaling down to hotels. You can't have too many hotels. I mean, it's just too much. It's a business, not really real estate. I don't really do storage facilities. But I would look at one basically. Primarily, we're only looking for multifamily, you know, I don't know, industrial. Basically, it's just multifamily. People always need a place to sleep, you know.

[Co-host]

Yeah.

[Host]

Is there a price though, if office space got so cheap that you would want to buy it?

[Ben Mala]

No, because it's worthless. Okay, here's a true story. All right, all right. True. As much as I could believe. Broker calls me up. Well, before he called me up, I saw online a Macy's for sale. I'm starting to get into retail. We're starting to chop up stuff. We're making it work, you know, splitting spaces. My son been pretty successful doing at but on a small level. So you know what, man, you get that whole building. I knew it was a cheap price. I said, let me go look at it. It was attached to a mall. Okay, part of the mall, but it was a separate piece of property that Macy's themselves owned. Okay, but it was attached to the mall, you know. Anyway, long story short, look at it and I think about one, it was huge place. I mean, for the money, you get it for like free practically for rice per square foot. And I'm saying, man, what the hell am I going to do with it? What can I do with it? Storage facility. It's in a mall. And then you got a mall to deal with. You know, I don't own the mall, so I got to deal with them. You know, people own them all and they're not in a good place right now. Would buy a mall. I could buy them all right down the block from here for $100 million right now. Probably one of the best pieces of dirt there is. But all the stores on top of it and a good price at the price they want and all the they got to deal with the return. Bedroom malls are dying, all right? We all know that. Malls office is all dying. Anyway, long story short, I look at the property and I just didn't know what to do with it. And then I kind of got a feel for the mall owners because I got to pay them cam out of the mall. I got to pay, you know, the property taxes on it, all right, I have insurance, you have security. I got all the expenses involved. So I'm walking into a deep negative, okay? And I don't have a plan. What am I going to do with this? Hundreds of thousands of square foot of nice but space. So anyway, I says there's no way I could take that risk in life. So not too long goes by the broker calls me up and I'm just going to tell you. He led me to believe that Macy's corporate told him or insinuated that they would be happy if somebody, they signed up the deed over to somebody just to get away from it so they didn't have to pay the common area maintenance expenses, the utilities, the property taxes, all the dealing with the mall owner management, the parking lots, all that security. They just wanted to get away from the expense. They didn't give a big company and write it off their books. Anyway, we all know Macy's went through some kind of reorganization, right? So anyway he actually I could have got a free Macy's but I would have stepped into it. Deep bill pain every month, you know, costs. So I didn't do it.

[Host]

So what do you think is going to happen to that? Do they just sit on it?

[Ben Mala]

A lot of malls are getting knocked down, you know and then you know, it seems like what works is. It seems like what works is in these mall areas they have to mix the use. Mix the use, mix the use. Give me some multifamily, give me some retail. Give me, you know, give me a nice gas station over here in the outparcel. Give me, you know, some fast food around, you know, independent. They gotta re. Re configure the entire property and come up with a whole new plan.

[Host]

So it's interesting, we just had Rick Caruso on the podcast and he builds malls. Caruso, Rick Caruso, whatever, is a Val.

[Ben Mala]

On the end of the day he is the.

[Host]

He is the biggest mall guy in California. All of his malls fully booked. He says he has a wait list for tenants trying to get in. It is the place of places for malls. We asked him about a place in Santa Monica.

[Ben Mala]

Different place too.

[Host]

Yeah, A place in Santa Monica that just went into foreclosure and they owed like a hundred million dollars on this whole big structure. It's a big three story mall, half indoor, half outdoor.

[Ben Mala]

How come? Crusaded by to fill up a tennis.

[Host]

He said he was offered but he turned it down because he said they needed to start over. They needed to tear down the entire thing and build what he said was multifamily.

[Ben Mala]

Multifamily. But he's a big shop mall guy. Why can't he fill it up with tenants?

[Host]

He said the design was flawed. No one wants to be second, third floor.

[Ben Mala]

Exactly.

[Host]

Ground floor is where it's at.

[Ben Mala]

If you're in real estate, you can feel the pain when you walk into a mall. When I toured the mall down the block here you could feel the pain.

[Host]

I went to a casino in Vegas that has a section that's.

[Ben Mala]

You don't go to casinos. You hate casinos. You hate the street.

[Host]

Only if I lose. Only if I lose. There was a show there, so we went for the show. But there's a whole section that was dedicated. Like mall space, like retail. All empty. And there was only one place. It was like a burger spot on the second floor that was open. Everything else you just walk by empty stores for like a hundred feet and there's one burger spot at the end. That's it.

[Ben Mala]

That's where it was going to be.

[Host]

No, I think we had to walk in line.

[Ben Mala]

Is a dangerous game. You got to play it right. Okay, I just. Luckily I'm selling a property and. Luckily. You ever heard of floor and decor?

[Host]

No.

[Ben Mala]

Ever heard of floor and decor?

[Co-host]

Floor and decor.

[Ben Mala]

Floor and decor.

[Host]

Floor and decor.

[Ben Mala]

Anyway, every homeowner that's fixing up their house goes to floor and decor. Okay. For flooring mainly. That's why it's called floor and decor. You know, remodeling. We're all at contractors go there. Anyway, listen, you know, thank God stores like that. He just renewed a lease for me and you know, he's got a big lease. You know, I don't know what they pay hundreds on hundreds of thousand dollars a year. Can you imagine that store went empty. What it would have do to me. Yeah, so anyway, luckily they renewed and I'm able to sell property because they have now a nice long contract. Retail is dangerous. You gotta know what the you're doing in retail. And the only way you can make money in retail is renting empty space. You know why? You know that the retail space. Typically in a retail world, if you buy a retail property, shopping center, mall, whatever you're buying, the vacant space is free. You get free real estate. Did you know that? No.

[Co-host]

They don't assign anything free baby free.

[Ben Mala]

Because the real estate is sold to you based on a cap rate. You're only going to buy the property based on the income it's generating. It's simple. So if it's only generating X amount of dollars and you got all this empty liar. That's how you make money in real estate. Because you come in now and you rent the empty space out. Instant equity instantly. My son took a empty bank. They sat empty for five years with the guy I bought it from. Nobody wanted to buy rent. This bank amongst a bunch of stores comes in that didn't work. That bank that size for that Market threw a wall down the middle. Instead of 4000, now it's 2, 2000s. He rented them like that. And one side had a drive through and he put a smoothie in there. That's how you make money in retail. The only way I've ever seen anybody make money in retail. The leases are for many, many years, especially for the big corporate tenants. You may not get no increase for who knows how many years. And they're very small. All right? The money's in renting the empty space. But you gotta have the balls to come out there and either reach out, configure it, come up with a new plan, or be able to have the ability to find a tenant. But you get real estate for free.

[Co-host]

Are you still learning new things about real estate investing?

[Ben Mala]

I mean, you learn every day. You're always learning. Me and my son always say to ourselves, man, we didn't know that. Especially when you deal with corporate. When you deal with corporate. Oh, my God. Thank God. AI. Now, I'll tell you the honest truth. My son, he relies on AI. You could tell AI to do a lot of when it comes to these contracts, and it helps a lot.

[Host]

How so? Do you put the contract in there?

[Ben Mala]

So you need a lawyer now. Now you just. He does something with the contract, he feeds it AI, whatever, and he sits there and asks all these questions that he has about the contract and the thing spits all the answers out. And now when he goes to my lawyer to change the contract, my lawyer ain't got no work to do. AI did it all for him. Lawyers are going to be in trouble. But anyway, you know, what was your question anyway?

[Co-host]

Still expanding your knowledge in real estate?

[Ben Mala]

I mean, we learn every day. I don't think a day goes by we're going to learn. Every dealer is still learning new stuff, especially the corporate stuff. When you're dealing with big shot corporations, they got every trick in the book.

[Co-host]

What are some of the main things that you've taken away from working with corporations?

[Host]

What are the tricks?

[Ben Mala]

Listen, they got all kinds of stuff rules in their contracts that make a head spin. You can't. If you have out parcels on your property you want to build out, they have a view clause. You can't block their view. Me and my son didn't know that he had to move a building that he was building. Wow. Because the head of the camp blocked their view. He was like a foot into their view. He had to redesign the whole plans and have everything redone with the engineer and move the whole building over why.

[Co-host]

Would a company insert that into.

[Ben Mala]

Because they want to protect their business. They want to make sure people drive it by. It's all about traffic.

[Co-host]

Oh, so they had only sold by.

[Ben Mala]

They want to be able to see that store all the way back there, thousands of feet away at the end of the shopping center.

[Co-host]

So they had only sold you the out parcel.

[Ben Mala]

I own the out parcel.

[Co-host]

I know, that's what I'm saying. So, like, they had the shopping center, you only had the out parcel or whatever it was.

[Ben Mala]

I own the whole place. And I have my tenant. I got a place. He was a corporate tenant. Oh, I got all kinds of shops for the tenants, whatever. Then I want to add an out parcel in the front.

[Co-host]

Yeah, I understand.

[Ben Mala]

Okay.

[Host]

But blocking the.

[Ben Mala]

I got permission to do it.

[Co-host]

Yeah.

[Ben Mala]

Okay. We cut out that piece, we throw up a building, we rent it out, we make the money. That's what developers do. So anyway, there was things we learn every day. I've heard all kinds of things, you know, that, that, that surprised me. And they're so smart. I mean, you know.

[Host]

Now, first, running a business seems manageable. But slowly, over time, everything winds up being on your plate. I'm talking customer service, emails, sales calls, you name it.

[Co-host]

Once every day feels completely packed before it even starts. Doing it alone just isn't really that realistic anymore. And that's probably a pretty good sign you might need some help.

[Host]

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[Co-host]

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[Co-host]

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[Host]

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[Host]

That's up w o r k.com upwork.com with the link down below in the description. Enjoy. What's something you wish you had done differently this year?

[Ben Mala]

This year? Yeah. I mean, listen, all I can say is that I did everything I thought I could do to find the next deal. The next deal solves all my problems. It defers my taxes and it creates more wealth. It's all about finding a deal with upside. That's all that matters.

[Host]

What about selling your house? How much are you asking for? That you're asking?

[Ben Mala]

I didn't buy the house anyway because I'm a big shot. I bought the house because it was a hot deal at the time. It was a good deal to buy for 50 cents on a dollar. And now I held it for five years and now I want to sell it because based on the market, it's worth more than I'm selling for.

[Host]

And what are you asking? What do you buy it for? What are you asking?

[Ben Mala]

No. Yeah. Bend it. I don't know what to tell you about. Nobody's been buying my house now because I'm telling them. Anyway, long story short is, five years ago I bought a house that the Guy spent over $32 million to build with land and building and lazy rivers and bowling alleys and movie theaters and over the top, top of the line. Right?

[Host]

Right.

[Ben Mala]

I got it for 50 cents in a dollar. But I was at the right time, at the right place, okay? Now, five years later, people are my neighbors or all houses are getting knocked down for $10 million. And I got three of those lots. My house is three times. You've been to my house. My house is three times the size of my neighbors. That makes my land worth 30 million. And you'll never find three lots together on the Gulf of America. Who changes the name of Body of Water? He does that just to piss people off and shock them. See, us New Yorkers, we like to shock people. We get a pleasure out of saying something that just shocks the out of you or irritates you a little. We don't care. We. We can take it any way you want to give it. So he. That's why he does it. Golfer America.

[Host]

Anyway, any bites on the house?

[Ben Mala]

We still. We just listed it. You know, I figured I did it. It was, you know, just stir the pot a little before the holidays.

[Host]

Sure.

[Ben Mala]

You know, and then we'll see what happens. And, you know, if I gotta adjust the price, I'll adjust the price. The last house I had in California I sold before I moved to Florida. I put it on the market for a million five. Cause that's what it was worth 20 years ago sitting on top of a hill looking a whole San Francisco Bay. Million five. And I told my wife Carla, and we had a sales sign outside every week. Go out there and put a line through the price and not lower it 100 grand. It was a tough market back then. So every week she did that. She lowered it at 100 grand. Thank God. Because I really didn't want to go below a million. Thank God. Right. When she put it at a million bucks, somebody came in and bought it because that was my bottom them.

[Host]

You should do that with this house, the new one.

[Ben Mala]

I might. I told my agent and that I would probably. We're probably going to do something every week. All right? Million bucks a week until I squeezy bleed. We'll figure it out. But if I put something on the market to sell, I'm a real seller.

[Host]

What about auctioning the house? Auction or doing like a sweepstorm.

[Ben Mala]

It's a little too high price for an auction. A house like mine is going to be somebody with googles of money that wants to live on the beach. If my house was in Palm beach or Miami beach, it'd be 135 million. Okay. And my neighborhood to me is better. So anyway, it just takes the right. Listen, you know the old saying, there's an A for every seat. Okay? You just gotta wait for that right person. It fits their needs, it fits their. It's a personal thing. It's emotional, it's not business.

[Co-host]

But your house is technically a little personal. It's not like to me.

[Ben Mala]

And so sell it a minute.

[Co-host]

You're going from.

[Ben Mala]

I'm not personal when it comes to. Like that.

[Co-host]

That's fair.

[Ben Mala]

I live there for five years. I'm tired of the place too.

[Co-host]

But.

[Ben Mala]

But I like to sit in the same place forever.

[Co-host]

Arguably you're going from the nicest house I've ever been in my entire life.

[Ben Mala]

How are you?

[Co-host]

Where? Where?

[Ben Mala]

Smaller. Nice house. You can always make a house nice. Listen, you know, once you've been there, you say, oh, big deal. I lived. You know how many houses I lived in worth big money? What like five, four or five? It's no big deal. When you get to be. As you get older, you don't give a either. You don't care. It's like, I don't want a bigger boat than that. That boat is big enough.

[Co-host]

Then why do you think some people aren't the same?

[Ben Mala]

I mean, you know, some people just. They may have a need for that house being that size. I don't need a house that big. My son just went into college and I'm getting old. I don't want the maintenance, I don't want the responsibility. I don't want the expense. It has to fit your lifestyle. A house fits your lifestyle. Like you bought a house and you let somebody else live in it. That fits your lifestyle just so you can play ping pong in the back room.

[Co-host]

That sounds creepy.

[Ben Mala]

You're the same person. You're weird.

[Co-host]

I think. I think what you're doing is a little. I wouldn't say.

[Ben Mala]

How many roommates do you have in.

[Co-host]

My house right now when you live in. I live with four others.

[Ben Mala]

Four roommates in a one bedroom house?

[Co-host]

No, no, no, no.

[Host]

It's a poor guy.

[Co-host]

Five bedroom house. Yeah, I have my own bedroom.

[Ben Mala]

Partition walls. You see in offices.

[Host]

It's a place to live.

[Co-host]

It's more rent.

[Ben Mala]

That closet the guy sleeps in, it's a walk in closet.

[Co-host]

One of them is a very, very small room. Yes, but he pays very cheap rent.

[Host]

Okay.

[Co-host]

No utilities, 750amonth.

[Ben Mala]

He's such a cheap. You know where he sleeps? A cheapskate on a couch.

[Co-host]

I would be. I mean, in fairness. The couch is disgusting.

[Host]

It's.

[Co-host]

We've had it for a few years. We bought it from Alex.

[Host]

You know Alex.

[Ben Mala]

I wouldn't even think about sitting on a couch Alex has ever passed gas on.

[Co-host]

Well, it's ours now.

[Ben Mala]

I guess I won't be sending him all the clothes I got.

[Co-host]

If you want a BL couch, I will sell it to you. You can come pick it up from my house in Las Vegas. It's the most comfortable couch you'll ever sit on, but it is gross and it does need to be cleaned.

[Host]

And Alex is sat on it.

[Co-host]

Yeah, everyone is sat on it.

[Ben Mala]

Why don't you burn it?

[Co-host]

I'm just saying, if you want a blue couch, please. JLS SE L B Y Anyway, listen.

[Ben Mala]

I'm going to say honestly, what I heard was he called the Salvation army to pick it up and they refused to take it. That's how bad.

[Host]

Did they call and they asked it.

[Co-host]

Would be on this couch?

[Host]

Yes. Sorry, we can't.

[Ben Mala]

They told him take it to the dump.

[Host]

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[Ben Mala]

Ooh. Trust and Will. My dad and I were always close, but some things we just didn't talk about. Like his will.

[Host]

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[Ben Mala]

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[Host]

It was easy and affordable and I.

[Ben Mala]

Got peace of mind knowing my wishes are clear. Trust and will get 20% off when you visit trustandwill.com future that's trustandwill.com future to get 20% off off trustandwill.com F U T U R E if you're.

[Co-host]

Interested, you know what to do.

[Host]

How much is it?

[Ben Mala]

And that's a pull out couch that he sleeps on every night.

[Co-host]

I would, I would. I would sell the couch. I mean, I think I paid over a thousand bucks. No, I think I did. Yeah.

[Host]

Or around a thousand dollars.

[Co-host]

Yeah. To the highest bidder. Wait, I can buy those.

[Ben Mala]

I'll sell them to. Everything's for sale. Those things recline all the way. You got recliners, the heads, everything, the back.

[Co-host]

How are you going to get it to Vegas?

[Ben Mala]

And that's real sheepskin.

[Co-host]

What would you sell those couches for? Oh, sheepskin. I can't afford it.

[Ben Mala]

Or is it alpaca? No, it's sheepskin. Sheepskin in Florida.

[Co-host]

I am curious to you know what that means?

[Ben Mala]

I got a good deal for it. Yeah. Who the f buys sheepskin in Florida?

[Co-host]

Okay. How much did you pay for those couches?

[Ben Mala]

None of your business. I don't remember. My wife walks in the store, she sees something on sale. She says that look in the house. Those couches are probably, I don't know, a couple of grand apiece. Probably. You. Couple of grand, baby. Couple of grand.

[Host]

So how much would you sell it for?

[Ben Mala]

5 grand. Make a thousand bucks.

[Host]

You got to make a profit to sell it.

[Ben Mala]

I got overhead.

[Co-host]

I am curious because it's so fascinating to talk about. You want to build up to a certain net net worth of like hundreds of millions of dollars, right? Not anymore.

[Ben Mala]

Done.

[Co-host]

You're done.

[Ben Mala]

Done.

[Co-host]

And how did. How did you realize you to figure.

[Ben Mala]

Out who gets what and take care of the government, take care of the kids, and make sure I got enough money to fill my boat up and leave my wife enough money so she'll have some young Mexican guy when I die.

[Co-host]

What made you realize you were done?

[Ben Mala]

Because I'd done enough. I don't, you know, listen, I want my kids to grow. Don't get me wrong. My kids want to grow and they Will grow, but I'm done. I started working. I left home when I was 12 years old. I joined the army at 17, went home. Do I get to stop working and see what life is like? Not worrying about. Imagine waking up in the morning knowing you got enough money in the bank to pay all your bills, do whatever the you want. Which I'm not a big extravagant person, you know, I got a plane with one pilot. I only got two pilots on my plane, you know, and I got my boat and you know, that's it. So I'm enjoying my life. I just turned 60. Life is only last so long. The clock's ticking, baby. I don't want to spend it working now. Some guys do and God bless them, they feel like that's keeping them going and you know, 80 years old, still working. Hey, power to you. Not me. I don't have to drive anymore. I don't have to. I like helping people. I just want to consult with people. I want people to consult with Ben. Go to bitmail.com consult with Ben, get me on the phone and get some real honest advice on what I would do if I was in your shoes. That's the only work I want to do. Help other people. I want to help other people. Even today on the way over here, I tell you they got Guy bought my whole lunch today for a whole crew of us because he said I just listened to you and did what you did and see what he said. And now he's doing million dollar refis from nothing. I like helping people.

[Co-host]

I will say the consult with Ben is a good deal. I think you're undercharging, but we already discussed that. You're charging too little for your time, but that's fine. But it is interesting because last time we spoke you made it seem like you still had some ground to move.

[Ben Mala]

Listen, I got to do things in a logical way. I can't walk away tomorrow. I got to take the assets sold. I gotta make sure I limit my tax bill, tax hit as much as possible to preserve our wealth. And then I have to figure it out. I may have to pay the government some money. I might replace some of it. I gotta help the kids buy assets that they want to do. Maybe they'll start building multifamily. I gotta get things organized. All right? And then I can. They can always reach me by phone. Anybody can reach me by phone. Anybody. Go to bitmail.com, you can reach me by phone. You know, my kids can reach me. I mean, as long as they got A phone. I'm good.

[Host]

I help more than Jack. I cannot reach Jack.

[Ben Mala]

I wouldn't want anybody called Jack. He.

[Co-host]

He just wants me for this. The most insignificant.

[Ben Mala]

No, little things, Jack. Where.

[Co-host]

Where is this thing? And I'm like, have you looked over here? No, I haven't. And he goes, and he finds it.

[Ben Mala]

You would have no purpose if he didn't ask you to. Do who? You have no purpose in life.

[Co-host]

Oh, I disagree.

[Ben Mala]

He disagrees.

[Host]

I disagree.

[Co-host]

I would. My purpose. Pickleball and ping pong.

[Host]

Yeah, that's what it would be. It would just pickleball and ping pong.

[Co-host]

And I'd live a really good life.

[Ben Mala]

What would you be doing right now if he turned around and said, you know what? I'm tired of your. You're fired. Don't ever talk to me again.

[Co-host]

He wouldn't be able to.

[Host]

Or partners on the podcast.

[Ben Mala]

Partners on the podcast.

[Host]

It would take. It would take a lot to get to that point. And even then, he can make it.

[Ben Mala]

On his own without you. You can't.

[Co-host]

I would be able to. I probably wouldn't do YouTube, but I would probably do some sort of a consulting thing.

[Host]

Jack could do consultants.

[Ben Mala]

Consulting. You'd be consultants? Yeah.

[Host]

Pickleball instructor.

[Co-host]

You could use pickleball.

[Ben Mala]

Consult, in other words. Another definition of consult. Like if somebody dies, you consult them.

[Co-host]

That's consult.

[Host]

Consultant.

[Ben Mala]

You'd be consoling, not consulting.

[Co-host]

I can console.

[Ben Mala]

Yeah.

[Host]

I'm curious. What do you think of me selling off my real estate? I'm slowly just getting rid of everything. I sold my house in west la. I know we talked briefly about that.

[Ben Mala]

I knew it wasn't in east la.

[Host]

I sold it. I got three offers. All of them were over asking. Two of them were cash sold. The buyer's fantastic. The buyer is actually a subscriber, believe it or not. Yeah.

[Ben Mala]

And they made you sign a refrigerator too, I heard.

[Co-host]

A what?

[Ben Mala]

They made you sign a refrigerator.

[Host]

I would do that. Yeah, absolutely.

[Ben Mala]

I mean, that's great. But if you sold it with three offers for quick cash, then, you know, you probably left money on the table. No, no money on that table. You don't want to admit it, so.

[Host]

I purposely unders you up, doesn't it? See, here's the thing.

[Ben Mala]

I thought all that money on that.

[Host]

Table, I thought the home was worth anywhere from 2, 6 to 2, 8, depending on who. Who buys it at what time of the market. We priced it 2499 purposely on Zillow. It was like a trending home in that zip code. It got more views in the first 48 hours. I was checking the views on Zillow.

[Ben Mala]

I was checking those views.

[Host]

Baby, you to save ratio on my house was higher than any other listing in Santa Monica.

[Ben Mala]

Any other list in Santa Monica.

[Host]

And so I knew it was going to be. We got a lot of activity. We had so many showings. We got three offers pretty quickly and we just counted countered. So I, I feel like it got.

[Ben Mala]

A price where this did the house for 2.5, right?

[Host]

Yeah. 2 4, 9.

[Ben Mala]

You said you sold it with 2.8.

[Host]

2650 is what I ended up getting.

[Ben Mala]

Very good.

[Host]

Which I, I was happy you can.

[Ben Mala]

Work by going low. And it was in my range. I like to rather play the old game. I'm selling, I'm up here, you coming down here. We meet in the middle. I mean I always like to leave a little cushion room to bargain with people when I'm selling, selling, you know.

[Host]

But see, here's the thing. I had more leverage because we could say to the buyer, listen, we have two other offers. We have, you know, these cash offers here. You got to remove your contingency. So we did no loan, no appraisal. I think we only did a three to five day inspection window and we opened escrow I think on a Tuesday and all contingencies removed on a Friday. Otherwise we're going with the backup box.

[Ben Mala]

Money, baby. Quick money. He sold it for over listing and he got quick money.

[Host]

But then honestly, selling that property was a weight lifted off my shoulders. It felt so good. I'm just paying the tax on it, just getting it over with, but just not having to think about, you know, the gardener didn't show up and then the squirrels were chewing through wires and I have to fix this or the pump in the fountain broke. And now I have to figure out how to fix that when I don't live there or Jack. Just all these little things like, oh, I had a, a car back up into my gate, the gate that's in front of the driveway, it backed up and it, the gate was crooked coming out. And I had to figure out how to fix that from another state. I hated doing that. And oh, and then the property tax bill would come and that's $26,000 gone. And I don't know where the money goes. And that upsets me. And then it's seeing what happens in the Palisades and insurance companies dropping out and they didn't drop my house. But I'm worried about it.

[Ben Mala]

It.

[Host]

All they got to say is, hey, we're not.

[Ben Mala]

Single families to me only make sense if you live in them. If you're not living in it or you're not buying it to fix and flip, forget about it. Single family house is a waste of time. So you did good. You got rid of it because you didn't need it. You weren't making money on it. And now you got all that money sitting in the bank, not in your greedy little hands.

[Co-host]

So for your family's sake, though, you wanted to exit all of your real estate and what, put it all in bonds, put it in treasuries?

[Ben Mala]

No, I'm not going to exit real estate. I'm going to turn over assets that I feel have some future value upside to my kids. And, you know, if I have to stay in a portfolio with them, I stay in. Who cares? But, you know, I just. Bonds are definitely a way to go. Tax free municipal bonds is the safest, smartest thing anybody could ever do if they really want to truly protect their future and their life. Because it's the safest, smartest thing to do. And then the bond funds are really good. You know why? Because the bond funds pay it monthly, baby. You don't have to wait. Bonds only pay twice a year. Year. You know that, right?

[Host]

But bonds, I'm invested in one of your bonds, bond funds, I get paid 5.3%. No taxes, no federal income taxes.

[Ben Mala]

Now imagine if every million bucks, you get over 50 grand a year. Let's say you got 10 million bucks. 10 million bucks sitting in a tax free Munich bond is going to get you $500,000 a year.

[Host]

Tax free.

[Ben Mala]

Tax free, that's like a million if you're in California. You got to make a million dollars to get 500,000 to have taxes. You get it tax free, baby.

[Co-host]

What have you noticed in your life is the perfect amount of money to have?

[Ben Mala]

I mean, everybody's life is different. Depends on how many kids you got. Depends on your future for those kids. Depends on how much money you got to think about, you know, leaving people when you're gone. I'm at the point in life now where I got to just try to live the rest of my life with good years you got left when you hit 60. Because let's face it, nobody's ever a good time. 70, over 70 years old. Come on, stop. Even in the 60s, you know, I feel like 70.

[Host]

I see a lot of 70 year olds that are young looking, you know.

[Ben Mala]

Listen, when you're, when you're, when you hit 60, your body's given out okay, let's face it, it's natural, it's life. Oh yeah, you can do this, you can take some of this, you can work out whatever, you might extend your life a little bit, your quality of life might improve a little. But let's face is not that many 60s year olds and 70 year olds having a good time, you know. You know, it's just, you know, so basically you make the best of it and try to enjoy what makes you happy. But anyway, I'm just gonna do what I gotta do to preserve my family. Every family's got a different situation, you know, that's it. I gotta make sure I put the right money in the right place and make the right investments and smart moves to where I keep everything stable and you know, an easy transition. Anyway, listen, everybody needs to try to get ahead in life. Everybody needs to buy some sort of real estate. It's like part of being in, part of being part of civilization. You know, you need a house, you need rental units, you need whatever you want, whatever fits you. You're doing very well now. You're renting houses out your cash flow and you get a good return on your investment. And you get to play ping pong too. That's pretty good. Good. That fits your life. You're happy with that, aren't you?

[Co-host]

Very happy.

[Ben Mala]

Well, there you go. And it makes sense because it makes money.

[Co-host]

How did, how did having a family affect the quality of your life?

[Ben Mala]

I mean, my kids helped me grow to the level I'm at. If I didn't have the kids, I never would have grown on this level.

[Co-host]

Why?

[Ben Mala]

Couldn't do it on my own. No way.

[Co-host]

How would they take time away? And could you have.

[Host]

And what about employees who. You could have employees?

[Ben Mala]

No, employees aren't like kids or people that are serious about really being part of something. Employees get paid a salary. Salary, okay? Employees, they'll do their time and they'll do their job, but they ain't going outside their job, okay? It's the people that have their ownership interest that are really going to take you and make it grow.

[Co-host]

So you went into business with your kids. How was it a right decision for you? But for so many other people it's just like what ends up ruining a business?

[Ben Mala]

What do you say? Ruining a business?

[Host]

Sometimes people hire their kids and the kids just run it into the ground. How did it work out so often.

[Ben Mala]

You can't let happen. I mean, if I thought my kids weren't capable of being in a position, then they wouldn't be in that position, they got to show that they can handle a position. You know, we got the girl in our family called, her name's Brenda. I raised her like my daughter. She's really my sister in law, long story. Anyway, Brenda decided she wanted to go in a hotel business. Well, Brenda went to college and got her master's and worked in this and we bought one while she was in college. So we had a hotel for her to work in while she was going to college. And she demonstrated her determined, you know, her seriousness about it. And she made us money. So we kept growing. Ben Jr. He went apartments, you know, and if I said, ben, I'm in trouble over here in Texas, Ben backed up. He moved to Texas for three years. He was stuck there. I really didn't want him to do that, but you know, he needed to be bailed my ass out, totally bailed me out. Got in Texas, Houston, all over that area, took over thousands of units and, and, and, and took care of that for me, you know, other I'd have to do it then. I mean, I'm be failing over here. I can't be everywhere. And management companies I don't trust because they piss away your money. They don't care. It's not their money. So, you know, my kids played a very important role. Vincent is saying I can't even count the number of places my kids have packed up and moved into on site, lived in the buildings. Ben Jr. Lived down the block near a hotel that was closed up when we bought it, just to remodel. He lived in a boarded up hotel a few blocks from here. And now somebody we sold it to and he made it a flag. He made it nice. It was all great. We sold it and then the guy bought it and came up with some boutique instead of using the franchise we gave him. And then he went belly up and then out of the place, had a fire and now it's closed down and it got tore down. Anyway, I mean, anyway, my kids played a important role. They all lived around many places and paid their dues and you know, what's.

[Host]

Your advice to other parents who want to do business with their kids?

[Ben Mala]

You got to bring them into business, you got to make them, give them, give them tasks, give them responsibilities. You got to say, Listen, when Ben Jr. Was playing around in college his first year, you know, I could see he was just partying. His first year in college, he was partying in California. And I said, what are you doing? He showed me his grades. I said, this is ridiculous. You know, I never Even heard of some of these classes. Witchcraft. It's a class. Never heard of such a thing. Witchcraft or religion or something, he said. Anyway, I said, listen, he missed all the real classes anyway. I said, college ain't for you. Smart kid, but you gotta go back up, ship your car. I just bought a building in Largo, Florida. Go in there and take it over. I gave him one nice little 150 unit building to move into and become the manager. He already knew the ropes, or he knew the basics. He could learn. It's all, you know, clean, collect the rents, rent the units, fix the units. What he asked him to do anyway, he did it at the age of like 19.

[Host]

What if he didn't want to do it? What if he said no, he didn't.

[Ben Mala]

Want to do it? Then I told him I had to turn my back on him, which exactly my words were to him. I said, listen, this is what you're going to do. You're going to pack up everything you got here, which ain't much. You're going to ship your car to Florida and you're going to go to this address and you're going to take over this building and be the manager. And otherwise, I don't know what to do. I'm not going to sit here and fund you partying. I got no time for that. So he said, aren't you done?

[Co-host]

Did he hate the idea of it, though? He was fine with it.

[Ben Mala]

Listen, it was either that or maybe go get a job at Radio Shack, which he liked, he wanted to do because he was good with electronics back then. I mean, that's basically the story. It's true, you know, he said, okay, I'll do it, you know, what's he going to do? Turn down, want to be run the family business? And in fact, by him doing that, it put him way ahead of the game because I didn't have to wait four years for him to graduate college, okay? It helped me because I got him now, you know, so it was a great thing that he didn't go to college. But, you know, you would never know it by not talking to him. He's brilliant.

[Host]

Was he naturally motivated to do that or did you have to kick that into gear?

[Ben Mala]

I just gave him a choice. I'm not going to keep paying for you to be fooling around here in college and not accomplishing anything. You're over 18 now. You're a man, you know, simple. He's either I cut you off, you know, I'm not going to pay your rent, I'm not going to pay your bills. I'm not going to pay for anything. Car insurance, none of that, you know, that's it done. Tuition, nothing, because you're not doing anything.

[Host]

But what if he was skating by enough, like not partying but just doing very average? Would you have had the same reaction?

[Ben Mala]

Yeah, if he was doing average and he wanted to stay in college, it's fine, you know, I don't expect my kids to be straight A's. I never went to the ninth grade. I just realized the other day I always thought I went to the ninth grade. I never did did because my school, I looked up the school I went to in Brooklyn. The last school I went to ended in the eighth grade. And then they told me I couldn't go to 9th grade unless I took some special test over the summer. I never went to the ninth grade, only the eighth. All these years I thought I was.

[Host]

Do you think people would be better off just stopping school at ninth grade and then going?

[Ben Mala]

Depends on the desires. Listen, school is great, you know, It's a balance. You got to have everything in life. You got to know how to work your way in a real world, in business and the streets, whatever you want to call it. And you got to have some education. You can't be. You got to have a balance. You can't be an idiot and just be an idiot with street smarts. You got to have some education, you know, Jack, I don't know what the. You got one day we're going to figure out because I ain't seen you demonstrate any type of abilities to do anything.

[Co-host]

I almost graduated college.

[Ben Mala]

I'm surprised you graduated high school.

[Host]

Jack's good at delegating. If there's something he doesn't want to.

[Ben Mala]

Do, he's gonna have someone he don't want to do. He wants to figure out an easy way to make somebody else do.

[Co-host]

It's about working.

[Ben Mala]

He just wants to stand around and be the guy who knows everything. Hi, I'm Jack. I know everything. Just ask me.

[Co-host]

I, I ask the questions.

[Ben Mala]

Yeah, and then you find somebody to do whatever the answer is. I'm just kidding. I don't even know what the Jack does. He plays ping pong. He's, he's. He must be the banks alone the money. So. You know, on paper he must look pretty good, him and his 18 roommates. He thinks he's Mexican, I guess.

[Host]

Is that true?

[Co-host]

My roommates think I'm Mexican.

[Ben Mala]

No. What? Mexicans only have 18 people in the house, you know. Oh, yeah, yeah. I married into Mexican family. I know.

[Host]

So what do you think?

[Co-host]

The role had a I'm the whole family aspect is what's really interesting to me. Because, you know, all things considered, I hate to even admit this, but it seems like you're a decent father.

[Host]

Father.

[Co-host]

It seems like you. You knew what you were doing because all of your kids so far turned.

[Ben Mala]

I was not a good father when I was too young. What you say I was not a good father when my kids were young.

[Host]

But they all seemed. Turned out great.

[Co-host]

But then how did that end up working out for them?

[Ben Mala]

Because I had no choice, you know, my situation happened to be a single father for long periods of time in my life till I married Carla, you know, and, you know, my kids didn't have a lot of things other kids had. You know, they played a little sports, but I wasn't the real sports. Dad signed them up for Flag and all this other. And, you know, they did sports if I could swing it. Most of the time when they were very young, they spent in the backseat of my car while I was working, running around town, working. That's the quality time we spent together, you know. And maybe, you know, they. Back then I could afford a Happy Meal. And you never know what the toy is in a Happy Meal. They had some good toys for a while. They used to, until some kids started choking on them and, you know, all that. But anyway, my kids did not grow up with silver spoons in their mouth. Except the youngest, you know, and we'll plan it by ear with him. He showed me his grades today. Okay? He's having a good time in school. Let me tell you. He's having a good time at school. I see my credit card, I know every. How bad I track him on my.

[Co-host]

Credit card, how much he's spending per.

[Ben Mala]

Month in college, you know, I don't know. But his tuition's, you know, I don't know. What's that, 50 grand a year for tuition, probably. Then he has to live in a big fancy apartment across the street with two roommates. You know, that's cost to me at least a couple of grand a month. And then he's out eating out all the time. Cause, you know, well, he ain't gonna cook. And he's like to hang out and go to party places, you know, and cost money. And I had a nice little talk with him over a weekend about it, you know, but his grades are okay, but they could be much better. He's probably a B student. He's, you know, he's A B. He's not an A. So we'll play it by year. He's only got six months in. I think we'll play it by year and see what the rest of the year goes.

[Host]

And why does he want to go to college? To me it seems like so such a no brainer to come home in our world.

[Ben Mala]

It definitely, you know, will prepare him and give him some basic knowledge and tools on business. He's taking mostly business courses.

[Host]

Really? I feel like you get more business just doing it, right?

[Ben Mala]

Well, yes and no. I mean with today's technology and reports and underwriting, it's good to learn the basics. It's like I could never do if I didn't learn the basics in math, if I never took math.

[Host]

Yeah, but it's going to be chatgpt pretty soon. Like you know, know, just as long as he knows how to type on.

[Ben Mala]

A computer, you know, we'll see, we'll play it by ear. If his grades go down, he ain't gonna stay in college. And I still got him going to a hotel when he didn't, when he ended up class to go work behind the desk, you know, so see it's.

[Host]

Crazy to me because I would love the opportunity just to, just to work like that and like be immersed in it with this YouTube channel too.

[Ben Mala]

Real estate is really, you know, listen, management is not that difficult until you get a corporate level. Can be. But the point is it's all about finding the next deal. Deal. You could give me the biggest schmuck in the world and the biggest loser in the world, but if he had some knack of finding the next deal, that's all it takes. You could pay for everything else. You could pay for accountants, you could pay for property managers. We have 600 employees. You have people doing all these jobs. Somebody has to watch everything and everybody and the money. But we got bankers, we got brokers, we got lawyers, we got everybody we need. Finding the deal is all that matters.

[Host]

Now really quick, I just want to say that we've been using our sponsor today Notion for years to keep the iced coffee hour running smoothly. I'm talking about guest planning, sponsors, workflow. It's where everything lives for us.

[Co-host]

And with Notion Agent built in, they've become so much more powerful. So honestly, we were just really excited when they reached out to sponsor this episode.

[Host]

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[Co-host]

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[Host]

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[Co-host]

And I kid you not, Notion is used by over 50% of Fortune 500 companies and teams like OpenAI, RAMP and Versal already use Notion Agent to move faster. Honestly guys, as a Notion user for at least the past five years, it's really cool they offered to sponsor this episod and when they released the agent it has gotten so much better. So I highly recommend you guys try it out.

[Host]

So try Notion now with notion [e-mail] Iced Coffee all lowercase again, that is notion.com Iced Coffee with the link down below in the description. Enjoy. Now I gotta say, when you first start a business, you think you're starting something cool. But pretty quickly you recognize that you've become the HR department compliance officer and.

[Co-host]

Payroll manager and none of that stuff actually makes your business any money. It just to be done over and over so your business doesn't fall apart. And that's exactly why we are excited to be sponsored by Gusto.

[Host]

Gusto is an online payroll and benefits software built for small businesses. It's all in one remote, friendly and easy to use so that you could pay, hire, onboard and support your team from anywhere.

[Co-host]

What really stands out is just how much it simplifies things. From direct deposit to payroll runs to onboarding, it's all in one place and it just works. I've actually been a paid user of Gusto since I first set up my S Corp back in 2021. I haven't stopped since and it's been huge timesaver for me genuinely.

[Host]

They handle the payroll taxes automatically and you get unlimited payroll runs for one monthly price. On top of that, they also have no surprise fees, which honestly removes a lot of stress.

[Co-host]

And if you ever get hit with an HR question that you're unsure about, Graham Gusto gives you access to certified HR experts, which is huge when you want to do things the right way.

[Host]

It's also really quick and easy to switch and you don't pay anything until you run your first payroll.

[Co-host]

So try Gusto [e-mail] ICED and get three months for free when you run your first payroll. That is three months of free [e-mail] ICed I highly recommend it. There's also a link down below in.

[Host]

The description one more time gusto.comiced.

[Co-host]

I'M curious your thoughts on Mamdani winning the Merill election in. In New York.

[Ben Mala]

You know, all I know is everybody keeps calling him a communist. Right. Yeah. I don't really get into politics too much because all I. I mean, you know, most people in politics are not business people. So if you haven't been a business person, it's hard for me to respect that. You know what they hell to do. If you didn't run a business, how the hell you know what to do? Because when you run a business, you're running people, you know, and you're controlling, you know, numbers and money and I don't know. I don't know the guy. What is his background, Doctor, what is he?

[Co-host]

He was a rapper, a rap.

[Ben Mala]

An Indian rapper style.

[Host]

He's very charismatic.

[Co-host]

I don't. Is he Indian?

[Host]

I don't know.

[Ben Mala]

I don't think he's going to have a career.

[Host]

I got the letter, by the way. I'll tell you about this. Got a letter, a certified letter from the city of Los Angeles. Signature delivery with receipts. So they know I received the letter. I final found out was in the letter. I got a permit to remove a tree in front of a property from Urban Forestry. It took us almost a month to get the permit. We removed the tree, apparently. Now even though I got a permit, I got a notice of violation for removing a protected tree. Even though they told me the tree has to be removed because it's diseased. And now I got a notice of. Of like, I have to comply with this thing because it's a protected tree. Even though I got the permit to remove the tree, they told me I had to remove the tree.

[Ben Mala]

Bureaucratic.

[Host]

But it's a. It's a notice of violation dated after I removed the tree that now I like. It's. And so now we have to set up another meeting with Urban Forestry. That's what the. The notice was.

[Ben Mala]

I have to get Urban Forestry division.

[Host]

I have to comply by January 9th, otherwise I'm going to be issued fines.

[Co-host]

Do you have to physically be present at this meeting?

[Host]

Me? No. The contractor does. I'm not doing anything. But just the fact that like, I removed the tree and this and this said like either a neighbor or a tenant or someone like filed a. A complaint with the city and now they're cracking like I don't know what it. Even though we have a permit makes no sense. And my understanding is that the departments at the city of Los Angeles don't talk to each other. So even though you go this one to get a permit to remove the tree. This one could issue a fine because they don't talk to each other and they don't know what's going on. So it's going to get resolved. It's just insane. The city of Los Angeles you're going.

[Ben Mala]

To court AI is incredible. It can teach you how to fry.

[Host]

An egg and even write a poem.

[Co-host]

Pirate style, but it knows nothing about your work. Slackbot is different. It doesn't just know that facts, it knows your schedule.

[Ben Mala]

It can turn a brainstorm into a brief.

[Co-host]

And it doesn't need to be taught.

[Host]

Because slackbot isn't just another AI.

[Co-host]

It's AI that knows your work as.

[Host]

Well as you do. Visit slack.com meetslackbot to learn more.

[Ben Mala]

Looking to create the bath you've always.

[Co-host]

Dreamed of without all the hassle? The Home Depot makes it easier.

[Ben Mala]

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[Host]

Whatever it is, at this point I'm just like, it's good content like this gives you.

[Ben Mala]

Washington, did you chop down the cherry tree?

[Host]

Video topics. Topics at this point.

[Co-host]

What, chopping down the tree?

[Ben Mala]

Yeah. You never heard about George Washington chopping down a cherry tree?

[Co-host]

No.

[Ben Mala]

I thought I was in history class.

[Co-host]

What is the story?

[Ben Mala]

I don't know. Google it like everybody else.

[Co-host]

You don't know what it is?

[Ben Mala]

I know somebody, his parents asked him, george, did you chop down that cherry tree? And he said, I cannot tell a lie. I did chop down a cherry tree. I don't know anything beyond that. But you can Google it, I'm sure you will because it's fascinating, fascinating, fascinating story about our father of our country.

[Host]

Now, you were talking earlier about finding deals. Do you think that AI will eventually get so good that it will be able to just bring you deals and say, hey, this is the best deal on the market? Based on these photos, based on this location, based on where it's priced, our AI says this is the deal for you.

[Ben Mala]

I've seen a lot of stuff with AI now, so I wouldn't. It wouldn't surprise me. It would not surprise me if you can go into AI and say, okay, show me me, you know, every property under this price, this return or something. I don't know. But the thing is with real estate deals, they don't give you enough data. Sometimes at first, you know, you have to Kind of.

[Host]

But here's the thing.

[Ben Mala]

Password.

[Host]

But here's the thing. If there's 100,000 properties listed, it could just say, hey, here's the top 100. Probably that we think is good.

[Ben Mala]

I'm not tech guy, but it wouldn't surprise me. I've seen a lot of AI cut out a lot of time in people's, you know, work that they're doing underwriting. My son has questions all the time, and he seems to get an answer that may be 100% on target, but it'll put him close to the right direction he needs to go.

[Host]

So we use it quite a bit, even for design. I'll take a photo of something. I'll say, stage this and make it look like it's on the COVID of a magazine. The height is this. The width is this, this design something. And it just gives me these incredible.

[Ben Mala]

Illustrations within, like, technology, you know, and that's it. So, you know, that's where the world's going.

[Host]

How do you save so much money in some of the renovation projects? I saw on John's past, your recent video being involved. Well, your recent video, I think you got like an $80,000 quote to paint the exterior, and you said you got it done for 30,000.

[Ben Mala]

Yeah, because, you know, listen, that contractor's got to make money. He's got overhead. He's got all kinds of costs involved running a business. Business, you know, but, you know, my son goes out and he just hires people that know how to paint, you know, on our payroll, under our employees, and puts in the work, painting and buys the paint himself, negotiates a good price on the paint, rents the lift and does it. I mean, you know, it's always going to be cheaper to do stuff yourself. I mean, we all know that, you know, I mean, that's why these guys are in business, to make money. You know, they got to come out there and, you know, be a company. We go out, we just hire people and supervise them and buy the paint, rent the lips and do those else.

[Host]

What do you think about alternative investments like storage units, parking lots, campers, seniors?

[Ben Mala]

Parking can be a very good revenue if you have the demand. It's all about supply and demand, you know, everything's supply and demand. If there's a demand for storage rooms, then, yes, you'll make money. But if you build them out in the middle of nowhere and you sit and have empty, there ain't no money in storage. Every deal is different. It's all about, is there supply? Are you putting a supply in for what the demand is and then are you making money? Money added? I mean, you know, you go in urban areas, storage places do very well because everybody's living in a tiny little place, they got nowhere to store their stuff. But if you go in an urban suburban area, they don't do that well. And the prices are a lot different.

[Host]

You know, it's interesting. They're starting to pass or, or initiate proposals to crack down on storage unit evictions. Have you seen this?

[Ben Mala]

No. Holy California made be well, well, what the.

[Host]

What, what the argument is is that they need to have stronger protections against evictions with rent increase limits. And then what they want to do is protect the areas where storage units are going up for residential because they're saying the storage units are going up in prime real estate locations that you could be building more units. They don't contribute so much to the economy because they don't hire that many people. You could have one person overseeing all these hundreds of stor that's better purposed for residential. I think it's only like a seven days. If you're late, you're all your stuff could be kicked out. Like there's certain things that they say needs to be protected.

[Ben Mala]

Well, you know, I haven't heard of that yet, but you know, definitely possible. Especially if you talk about California or New York. I mean it is what it is. I mean, you know, basically if you go an open storage place, you're going to make money or you're not. You know, they can't come in and change you from not to not be a storage place anymore. As far as people don't pay their storage bill, you know, they got the right to auction them off, you know, and I don't, I think it's more than seven days. I think it's, you know, probably like 30 cent notices to you. Yeah, there's a process. But the point is if you don't pay it and you ignore it, then yeah, they're going to auction your crap off.

[Co-host]

What do you think about the 50 year mortgage?

[Ben Mala]

The 50 year mortgage, I mean, is a long time. You know, who's going to really keep a 50 year mortgage? Even if you buy a house in your 20 and it paid off when you're 70, it's. I mean, who's going to stay with the same house for 50 years?

[Host]

But who's going to keep the same loan?

[Ben Mala]

50 year mortgage would keep the payments down. That's a fact.

[Co-host]

Then wouldn't it just raise prices though again?

[Ben Mala]

I mean, yeah, it would Definitely raise prices because we would spread the payments out and bring the payments down pretty low, you know, but still, at the end of the day, you know, you're going to be paying 50 years worth of interest.

[Host]

Well, let's. Assuming they keep the mortgage for 50 years, my understanding is that if they did implement it, you would keep it long enough to be able to refinance into something else else maybe at a lower interest rate.

[Ben Mala]

Typically people always refinance during the course of their loans. Nobody keeps a loan 50 years. I mean the old days it was the old 20, 25 year thing. Yeah. Then they came up with 30, now they got 50.

[Host]

Do you think they'll ever do a 99 year mortgage?

[Ben Mala]

Making no sense, does it? Not humanly. What? A person doesn't live that old.

[Host]

Yeah, but then the bank could eventually take it over and at that point you're just renting basically.

[Ben Mala]

Isn't that what a reverse mortgage?

[Host]

They could call it creatively a 99 year mortgage.

[Ben Mala]

The only thing I see in 99 years leases. I've had 99 year leases.

[Co-host]

What does that look like? What a 99 year lease means that.

[Ben Mala]

You'Re entitled to have this property for 99 years providing you pay in accordance with the terms of the lease. You see it more in ground leases. In New York City, most all those buildings are all on land leases. They own the building, but they don't own a land. Some smart guy said, oh, you want to build a building here, fine, I'll let you build a building here. But you know, you're going to have to pay me X amount of dollars per year at lease the land, I'm not going to sell it to you.

[Host]

Then what happens at year 100 the building just belongs to the person owning the land.

[Ben Mala]

It's a different clause in the contract. You know, I mean some leases say that you have to tear that building down. Some say you can just walk away and just you walk away. I see a lot of hotels on land leases. I turned down one yesterday. In Dis. Disney actually holds a land lease to it. They own land but they let somebody build a hotel on it. But the land lease is up in like 40 or 50 years, something like that. But that means it becomes a depreciating asset because as that building or hotel gets closer to the end of that land lease and its time's going to expire, it's going to have no value because you can't have a hotel anymore. Lease leases, you know, play a big thing and big thing with leases. Most McDonald's are on land leases.

[Host]

Yeah, because McDonald's corporate owns the land. McDonald's, I heard, is one of the largest corporate landlords in the entire world. They own more land because they buy the land and then they lease it to the franchisee that pays them rent. So everywhere they buy, they own it, and they get paid rent and they.

[Ben Mala]

Make the franchisee build a building. I mean, you know, it's all real estate, but you gotta find the deal that's gonna make you some money.

[Host]

Do you think it's possible to eliminate property taxes?

[Ben Mala]

I mean, DeSantis has been talking about it here on Florida. What he's talking about, he's only talking about doing it for the people that are homesteaded. People have been living in a house many years. The price of values have gone up, and they'll never own their house because the property taxes should keep going up with the values. It cost them more money. I mean, I think that he should come back and just do a logical adjustment. Okay. Don't eliminate it. You might cut it in half. If you're homesteaded, you know, your property should be half the value. That makes sense. Okay. Should have homeowner benefits, but then the county still has the revenue. You got to do everything in a balance. See, these guys are not business people. I meant DeSantis. He's a nice guy, you know, but he's not a business guy. Okay. Basically, you got to do things in moderation and balance for them to work. So every side is taken care of, because if you cut out home, if you cut out property taxes, and one side is doing really good, but then the county is getting screwed because they got no money to operate. Fire department, police department, schools, whatever, all their expenses. You know, they got bills to pay. They got to run a whole county. But I think they need to do a smart approach to it. You know, how much my tax bill was this year on my house? On the over a quarter billion, maybe 270. It's about the house.

[Host]

Well, that's about 1%, though. One percent of the property's value.

[Ben Mala]

I mean, normally they take the price of the value of the house and you buy it. Then they take an 80% value of that, and then they multiply it by close to 2%. But it is what it is, you know, and then you. You know, but that's a pretty big tax bill. Don't you know?

[Co-host]

How has the quality of your life changed over the past few years?

[Ben Mala]

Physically, it's gone down.

[Co-host]

What about overall?

[Ben Mala]

I mean, you know, listen, I'm I'm always making moves. You know, quality of life is okay. I mean, you know, I got a new boat, you know, I'm doing okay. I'm paying my bills, you know, everybody's doing well, you know. Has it skyrocketed? No. Has it gone down? No. Everything is just like stagnant right now. That's the right word.

[Host]

What would it take for it to skyrocket?

[Ben Mala]

I mean, it would take, I don't know, let's see it skyrocket. It would take all these idiots to start selling their real estate for what it's worth and not over inflating it like people like you.

[Host]

Underpricing.

[Co-host]

Would you say the quality of your life has remained pretty stable throughout the entirety of your. Your life?

[Ben Mala]

No, my life was a straight. Like if you looked at me as a stock, you'd see you going like this.

[Co-host]

And then it kind of leveled out. At what age?

[Ben Mala]

I mean, yeah, it's pretty much leveling out now because there's no opportunity. How could it grow if I have no opportunity?

[Co-host]

So the opportunity determines the quality of your life.

[Ben Mala]

I mean, I determined quality of life is growth. How much money you got in a bank? More money, you got a bank, the better quality of life is. That's the way I'm interpreting what you're saying, your quality of life. What are you talking about? Fancy cars, fancy houses, that quality at restaurants, that's like. I'm way above all that. I'm just talking about protecting your family wealth. One day you may have a kid. Possible.

[Co-host]

I hope I have many.

[Ben Mala]

It's possible. Feel sorry for the person that has it with you, but it's possible.

[Co-host]

I. I am curious now.

[Ben Mala]

You were artificially inseminated, right?

[Co-host]

Inseminated, whatever. Inseminated artificially. I have. I never been inseminated.

[Ben Mala]

You're an artificial baby baby, right?

[Co-host]

No.

[Ben Mala]

You don't know who your parents are, do you? You're a test tube baby.

[Co-host]

I think I know them.

[Ben Mala]

But you were out of a test tube, right?

[Co-host]

I. I hope I wasn't.

[Ben Mala]

You grew in some kind of brown.

[Host]

Plastic, developed some lab somewhere.

[Co-host]

Coming from you.

[Ben Mala]

What? Coming from you.

[Co-host]

You look like you were born in a lab more than I do.

[Ben Mala]

That's right. The. What do you call it? The evil lab of Dr. Frankenstein. First he made my mother, then he made me.

[Co-host]

I. I do wonder, though, in terms of the quality of your life.

[Ben Mala]

What do you mean, quality? What do you mean?

[Host]

Enjoy.

[Ben Mala]

Whether we go to Burger King or go to a restaurant, what's the quality like?

[Co-host]

Like happiness. Enjoyment. Of life.

[Ben Mala]

I mean, listen, you know, I try to enjoy my life as much as I can. Yeah. And I'm still working, so I can't just walk away.

[Co-host]

What changes in your life determine or change the quality the most?

[Ben Mala]

Less responsibilities, less, you know, getting my portfolio in a position where call me if you need me. Not have to be around every, you know, too much, not to be too involved, you know, not always out there hunting for the next deal. Every day I gotta look for deals. Every day I gotta do a thousand emails and maybe catch one or two decent deals worth my time pursuing. And I don't want to go out of state. So it's just challenging right now to find the next deal and if not, pay the government tax.

[Host]

What would it take for you to invest in California?

[Ben Mala]

Nothing.

[Host]

I mean, is there any opportunity?

[Ben Mala]

I don't care if you offered it to me for free. For free. I mean, it's like somebody said, well, would you ever move back to New York? I said, I don't care. If I was a billionaire, to have to definitely forcibly stay in New York would never happen. It's just not worth it.

[Host]

But what if it's just your money? You don't have to live there, but there's a good opportunity somewhere in California.

[Ben Mala]

Who's going to run it? If it's a good opportunity, it's going to require some sort of management. It's going to require some sort of something applied to add value to it, I would assume. I mean, I turned out an Amazon warehouse the other day, I could buy something like that in California. But the problem with California is, number one, my basis is low. So I don't get any depreciation, barely. So that means I pay 37% tax on any money I make there. And then if I think about making the money in California, I pay another, what, 10?

[Co-host]

Yeah, give or take.

[Ben Mala]

That I'm not giving. Why am I going to work making half the money there when I can go somewhere else and I have to, you know, I don't know.

[Host]

Are there any downsides?

[Ben Mala]

I did 20 years, almost 18, 17, 18 years ago, California. I did my time, I served my time, and now I got paroled to Florida.

[Host]

Are there any downsides to posting the deals and the things you're looking at on social media?

[Ben Mala]

I mean, if I don't want to give it to people I could be competing with, you know, if I find deals, I'm not going to share them with other competitors. You know, I was thinking about starting a commercial listing service, but I'm Too old. Old now. Like, you know, lube Net sucks, okay? They throw every piece of crap in the world Loop. Now I want to come out with a serious one. Bennett. You know where it was for serious people with, you know, looking for serious deals that made some sort of sense. Not all crapola that they just throw online for sale at stupid prices.

[Host]

Where do you get the best deals?

[Ben Mala]

Brokers.

[Host]

And they just email to you off market.

[Co-host]

Yeah.

[Ben Mala]

He'd reach out and say, listen, you know, this looks like a deal for you. We know. They know how I operate. They know I come in quick, quick, don't waste no time, but won't pay top dollar. So if they know they have a seller that kind of matches with me, they're going to call me up and make the marriage. We just closed on 88 units in Fort Myers. I was trying to buy 300 units of Fort Myers, and the guy and me just can't come to terms. They're not realistic on their price.

[Host]

How often does a subscriber come to you with a deal?

[Ben Mala]

Subscribers? I don't really take deals from subscribers. I have people that may do a consult, throw a deal my way, but I don't, you know, I. I try to tell them right up front I'm not looking to invest in anybody. I don't like to invest in anybody, all right? I don't like mixing my money with other people's money. That's a game. You gotta be very careful. Play it. Why do I need anybody? If they find me a deal, I'll give a referral, right? I'll pay them a commission. You know, the deal was that great, and I felt like the person was genuine. And maybe, I don't know, my kids could. I could deal with it. I just push it to my kids.

[Host]

Have you had any unique calls lately? Any consulting that stood out?

[Ben Mala]

A lot of my calls are pretty unique. I get them all over the board. I get the people that have absolutely nothing to the people that have a couple hundred million dollars. Most people just need to learn. The biggest calls I get is people have real estate and they need to know what's my next step? What do I do? Here's my portfolio. Portfolio, okay. What do I do now? Okay, Do I borrow against it? How much money do I have in the bank? I gotta find out. What do they got? What do they want to do and how can they get there? You know, that's what. People just need a push. People know what to do. They all know what to do. They just need a push, you know, you need, you want to do a deal, you need money. How much money you got? How much money you willing to risk right now to do a real estate deal? We got to establish that. If it's 100 grand, fine, let's look for $500,000 deals and then you have to look in your area of what makes sense. $500,000 with some upside. Or I get a guy with, you know, a couple hundred million and say, you know what, I really want to get rid of some of this, I want to keep some of this. We have to determine which assets you want to keep, which assets are worth keeping, which assets. I see that he's already exhausted most of the value in. It's time to let it go before it could become a problem. You know, when you own these big department stores, if there's only a couple of years left on a 10 year lease and you don't know for sure if that tenant is going to renew that lease, you're in bad shape, you're in a purgatory.

[Host]

The boat. You just got a new yacht.

[Ben Mala]

We got a new yacht.

[Host]

How is it? I haven't seen it so far.

[Ben Mala]

It's great. You need to come take a tour.

[Host]

I want to see.

[Ben Mala]

I mean, this is the yacht that has the things that I wanted on it. The last shot that you went on didn't have any bow seating, you know what I mean? Bow seating, the front with a table. And you're relaxing and you're cruising and you see all the water coming and you're part in the seas like Moses. You ever see a boat like this go down the ocean? It's parting the sea, it's like a bee to be. And the seated water just going away.

[Co-host]

What did you pay for the yacht?

[Ben Mala]

Out the door. It ended up costing me 4.8 million.

[Co-host]

And how much is it worth?

[Ben Mala]

I'd say that boat's about a six plus billion dollar boat.

[Co-host]

What does it cost per month to operate a boat like that?

[Ben Mala]

I mean, I don't have any payments on it, but you know, you have a captain. A boat like that, you need a full time, full time captain, you know, So a full time captain is going to charge you. A good captain is going to charge you about thousand bucks a foot a year.

[Co-host]

Thousand bucks a foot?

[Ben Mala]

Yeah.

[Co-host]

So how many feet is that?

[Ben Mala]

92.

[Co-host]

So it's 92 grand.

[Ben Mala]

I got a break. Test them out.

[Co-host]

That's interesting. People say though that boats are. What do they say?

[Host]

It's like, oh, if it flies new.

[Co-host]

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[Ben Mala]

Hexperience.

[Co-host]

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[Ben Mala]

And he sends just for me, pieces.

[Co-host]

Plus outfit recommendations and styling tips. I keep woodworks and send back the rest. It's so easy. Make style easy. Get started today at stitchfix.com/Spotify. That's stitchfix.com Spotify or floats.

[Host]

You're supposed to rent it.

[Ben Mala]

Yeah, I did rent belts for a long time. But you know, once you get to a certain income level, it's not going to hurt you to own a yacht. You want your privacy. It's just like a house. You buy a house, you rent a house. Some people rent, some people buy, some people say I have to buy. You know, I want my own place. I don't want. I want to own this thing. And plus, with my own boat, I go wherever I want. I got to schedule nothing with some other body's boat. You know, I like owning a boat. It's one of the things that you home. The quality of my life.

[Co-host]

And what's the purpose of this house that we're in right now?

[Ben Mala]

It's a boathouse. You got to park the boat somewhere. So I parked the boat at the house. Why? Because it makes sense. It's cheaper to me to keep the boat here at this house than just take that boat to a marina and pay.

[Co-host]

It's cheaper to keep it here than at a marina.

[Host]

Wow. Because if you sold the house, you put this in a muni bond, wouldn't that just pay for the.

[Ben Mala]

A place that I would have to keep that boat would cost me a couple hundred thousand a year.

[Host]

Really?

[Co-host]

So you bought a house for it?

[Ben Mala]

Well, yeah, I have a house that serves its purpose. So, you know, I save a couple hundred thousand dollars a year, Dunkin and I rather just have the house.

[Co-host]

Why don't you Airbnb.

[Ben Mala]

Plus, with that, if I go to a dock, I ain't got the pool, ain't got the privacy, you ain't got a house you can use. I could Airbnb this sucker for probably a grand a night.

[Co-host]

Why don't you.

[Ben Mala]

I'll let you stay here for 9.99. I mean, because I ain't got time, you know, for that. I mean, you know, I don't live near here. You know, something's just not worth my time or aggravation. Maybe my cabin gets good. But then with the boat here, I don't think I want Airbnb. Because if my boat's sitting here while they're partying or whatever, I don't. I don't feel good about that. I don't like strangers. I don't trust strangers for this boat. But the boat's great. The boat's great. Has everything I need. The last boat you remember, you were on, it didn't have the mouse seating. It didn't. It had that kind of closed in upstairs, which is really benefited to Captain. It didn't have the outdoor entertainment area upstairs, top deck like this one. It didn't have an on deck master where I could just walk onto the boat and without going down the stairs to my room. I got my room all in the front. It didn't have.

[Host]

Do you want to go bigger?

[Ben Mala]

No, no, this is the right size for me. I could buy bigger, but this boat's the perfect size. Not too big, not too small, just right. And it's newer, much newer boat and it's classier and I like it. It's got a garage. Put the tender in the garage to have it sitting on the platform. You know, it takes me up a notch. Okay. This boat is notch up. You know, it's like going from B class to A class. Okay, in that, in that size range.

[Co-host]

Is there any other luxury in life that you want that you don't have? Because I remember the boat seemed to be the last thing I got the boat.

[Ben Mala]

I'm happy with the plane I got and cars. I got a new Rolls Royce. I got rid. I traded a couple of cars, a Ferrari and a Dawn for a nice Phantom. I got a. I got the nice cars to drive. I mean, I'm just going to sell my house and shrink down to a small house. That's it.

[Co-host]

How big of a house, how nice of a house are you going to be moving into?

[Ben Mala]

No more than about 4,000, tops.

[Host]

DOPS on the beach?

[Ben Mala]

No, I hate the beach.

[Co-host]

Really?

[Ben Mala]

I Want, I want a house on the intercoastal. She likes to be, but I like in the coastal water. It'll be on the water. Yeah, it'll be in the coastal water. Maybe keep a small boat behind here.

[Co-host]

Why don't you move into like this house?

[Ben Mala]

Why don't I move into this house? Because it's too far from where my base operations is right now. I'm not ready to make that move. Once I get my portfolio adjusted, then yeah, I get to run a boat all year round.

[Co-host]

So, so this is in Fort Lauderdale area and then your base of operations is in Clear, Clearwater area. Why don't you buy a house that you can dock this boat at in?

[Ben Mala]

Clearwater is not a yachting place. There's no fishing type boating place. You know, you're too far from everything. There's nowhere to go. There's nothing to do but fish. I mean, here I could shoot right out here. Two hours, I'll be in the Bahamas. I go to West Palm Beach, I go to Miami, I can go Hollywood. There's a lot of. This is a boating community. This is a boating mecca.

[Host]

How much does it cost in gas? Total cost of running to go to like Bahamas? How much?

[Ben Mala]

100 gallons an hour.

[Host]

100 gallons an hour.

[Ben Mala]

And I just bought gas today. I couldn't believe how cheap it was. My Diesel was only $2.60 a gallon. Guy comes here with a truck, he fills up the tank so fine. If it's, it's, it's at least a three hour safely. I'd say ride, play it safe.

[Host]

So you're paying about $1,000, so $600 to get there, 600 backs, you're paying about $1,200 in gas.

[Ben Mala]

There you go. But gas used to be $4 a gallon. And when you go to Bahamas, it's five. Wow.

[Co-host]

Why do some people that have money for a good portion of their lives never feel wealthy?

[Ben Mala]

I don't know. I mean, it's a personality. I, I, I mean, do I feel wealthy? Yes.

[Co-host]

At what point did you feel wealthy.

[Ben Mala]

In your life, comfortably wealthy.

[Co-host]

At what point did you finally feel wealthy in your life?

[Ben Mala]

100 million.

[Co-host]

100 million. It was what it took to feel.

[Ben Mala]

Wealthy, to feel like I didn't have to worry about anything major happening. You got to understand, I may have had 100 million, but I probably owed 300, 200. 300 million. You know, when you start becoming equal with the bank, then you're pretty good. And when you start becoming worth more than what your loans are Then you even better. But borrowing money is a way to save taxes because the more you borrow, the less you make, the less taxes you make. Okay, real quick, if I go out tomorrow and I buy a building, or let's say I own a building, tomorrow I go out and I refinance a building and pull a million dollars out of it, right? Fine, I owe the bank another million dollars. That million dollars is going to cost me roughly about $60,000 a year, right? So now that 60 grand a year is going to come off of my income that I made that I can write off, right? So the place made $100,000 a year. Now it's only gonna make 40 grand a year because I'm giving the bank 65 million bucks. So now I'm gonna write off that money and only pay tax on the $40,000. But what am I gonna do with that million? I'm gonna put it in tax free muni bonds, which five. So now I'm going to get paid 50 grand, right? But the 50 grand is non taxable. It's 50 grand. If I would have made the 60 that I'm giving the bank, I would have to pay tax on it 37%. You guys follow that. So basically by borrowing money in a bank, you eliminate your tax bill if you properly invested.

[Host]

But the muni funds could go down.

[Ben Mala]

The value go down, but they're always going to pay you true, going to pay whatever the agreed rate is, whatever that muni bond says it's paying you when you buy it based on that price, whether it's par or below or above, that's the rate you're going to get. So yeah, the funds can go, the funds rates could probably change. But you know, that's what you do to lim to the more you borrow, borrow the better. Providing you reinvest the money you borrowed in a vehicle. Like muni bonds that are going to eliminate your tax on the same money, give the money to bank, take the money the bank gave you, put it in muni bonds tax free. And now you eliminated 37% or California 50% of the $60,000, which would be $30,000.

[Host]

Yeah, I understood that.

[Ben Mala]

He understands that. You, I don't think you'll ever understand.

[Co-host]

That's interesting. Honestly, I never even even thought about that.

[Host]

Some of it's not worth your time though to like spread and it might be like a half a percent. And the point is if you're paying.

[Ben Mala]

A lot of taxes, it helps.

[Host]

Big large numbers. Yes.

[Ben Mala]

If you want to lower your taxes, borrow from the bank. Take the money you borrowed and invest it.

[Co-host]

How is your weight loss going?

[Ben Mala]

My weight loss is not going well. It went okay for a while, but I got to, you know, discipline myself on. I need to come out, out all the starches, you know, no bread, no cake, no pasta, no rice, no potato, all that kind of stuff. If I could do a diet without any starches, you know, definitely no cakes. If I could do that, then I would be in. Really?

[Host]

Why don't you do it? Why don't you just do it?

[Ben Mala]

Because I don't have the discipline. When I go to a restaurant and the owner brings out this hot, delicious basket of bread where it just smells and the butter melts all over the soft inside pot with the crust, I'm hungry. I mean, you bite into that bread.

[Host]

When you're hungry, but why don't you just make an agreement with. And you say, hey, every time I have a piece of bread, I give you a thousand dollars. Oh, you could do the deal with.

[Co-host]

Me, too, if I were you at this point.

[Ben Mala]

I've been trying. We heard about sharing meals lately. 2026. My New Year's resolution is to lose £50. But then some fat people lose weight and are unhappy because you know why? Just like you guys. There's nothing special about you. All right, now listen, seriously, you guys aren't into heavy commercial real estate. That's my shtick.

[Co-host]

Correct.

[Ben Mala]

All right. You need to let people know because you know and I know that I'm not full of. I don't want people's money, and I feel sorry for people that don't come consult with me. Too many people call me up after the. After the fact that they made the mistake and say, what do I do? Call me before you make the mistake. That's what I want people to do.

[Host]

We think you're undercharging, too. We said this the last time. I've also spoken with a few people who say that they even paid to come to your house and show up and consult. Every single person I've talked. I think it was like, two or three people I've talked to said that they had a great time, and they say you were very hospitable. And they said you went, like, above and beyond beyond. And he said you showed him, like, a whole house tour. I think, afterwards.

[Ben Mala]

Listen, I try to, you know, really treat people right that want help. I like to help those who want to help themselves. I don't like just helping somebody. And, you know, they didn't do, you know, like, you do with Jack? You know, I'm going to start doing the yacht consulting. Get on the yacht, cruise down the up and down the coastal, stop for lunch. You know, like big shots. So. But you know, if you know anybody has a real estate issue, tell them to call me up. They got nothing. They never have to worry about me trying to screw them over. Get their money, sell them some just good, strong, honest, hard advice from somebody that's been doing it a long time.

[Host]

What's the website?

[Ben Mala]

Benmala.com Consult with Ben.

[Host]

Link is down below in the description.

[Ben Mala]

Phone is awake.

[Host]

And don't forget that we have a members episode where we don't bleep all the times you're swearing. Fully uncut. Fully uncut. So if you want to see those episodes, join as a member. It helps us out too. And Mikey has put a lot of time making those members episodes and you get early access. So enjoy.

[Co-host]

Thank you guys so much for watching. Seriously. Thank you guys. We would not be able to do this if not for you. We would not have the pleasure of sitting across from the one and only. So thank you guys.

[Ben Mala]

Amigos.

[Co-host]

Adios this one.

[Ben Mala]

Adios amigos.