Biz Talk (Aired 01-17-2025) : Tax Strategies for Nonprofits vs. For-Profit Businesses

[00:00:24] Speaker A: Hey, folks, welcome back to another episode of Biz Talks. My name is Rick Gutierrez. I am your host and your business advocate. We are excited to be back with you. We've got a great lineup of business professionals, business owners that are going to be on the show and providing us with insights, tips, tricks to business and their very own line of business themselves. And so, without further ado, I want to really use this time very effectively because we've got one of our favorite immigration attorneys on this that we're going to be interviewing today, and she is visiting us, and we just have all kinds of questions for her to be able to educate ourselves a little bit more as to what's going on in the world of immigration law and all those great things. So, Tamina Walson, welcome back to the show. [00:01:09] Speaker B: Thank you so much, Rick. I'm so honored and grateful to be here. [00:01:12] Speaker A: Absolutely. I am glad that we got you back on the show. I know that 2025 has got a lot in store in terms of immigration and all of those, you know, folks that are, you know, seeking status and all of those great things. So I know that you are the, the perfect person that can lead us into a conversation where we can learn a little bit more about the changes for 2025. We've got a, an inauguration happening for the new president elect. It's going to take place in about a week or so. So we've got a lot going on in those realms, and we just kind of want to pick your brain when it comes to, you know, local economies, depend a lot on the workforce, people working all the time. Right. So hopefully we can dive a little bit into that and tell us what's going on and what's going to happen for 2025. So, but before we get to any of that, let's talk a little bit more about your particular law firm, where you guys are located, how we can get in touch with you and all those great things. [00:02:17] Speaker B: Well, thank you so much, Rick. I'm so excited to share some of my insights. My law firm is called Watson Immigration Law. We are in Seattle, Washington. However, for immigration, our clients are all around the country and all around the world. Because it's federal law, we don't necessarily need to be in the same area that our clients are in. So there are lots of clients that we've helped that I've never actually met in person. And of course, thanks to Zoom and Covid, I've now seen a lot of faces. But it was interesting that there were some faces that I had never seen But I knew their voices very well. We file H1B visas, O visas, green cards. We file for artists and musicians, for startup founders, entrepreneurs. We also do religious visas. A lot of our clients are temples and mosques and churches. So you name the business visa, we file those, and we can help anyone anywhere. [00:03:20] Speaker A: Okay, perfect. Thank you so much for showcasing that. You mentioned Seattle, Washington, but you have clients on all over the country. And just like in any city, local economies are important. Right. So I want to talk a little bit about the, the impact of small businesses to local economies and how immigration law, and particularly changes in immigration law. With the new president coming on board, what do you see that are going to be some of the challenges for small businesses to help those local economies? [00:03:55] Speaker B: Such a great question. And we are in sort of a wait and see mode. But before I go into the wait and see mode, let me just describe two or three different types of examples. It is so, right, Rick, that the small businesses are the backbone of the American economy. And often these small businesses are right in your local area. In my local area. So I'll give you some examples. There are clients who have started their own companies, and it could be any company. It could be a tech company, it could be a restaurant. The one example is during COVID a lot of businesses suffered and immigrant entrepreneurs, business owners, were able to save them. So one of my clients saved one of the beloved coffee shops in downtown Seattle, for example. There are those types of businesses. There are also small businesses, you call it a local, you know, health clinic, for example. They hire foreign talent. So the difference is, you know, are you a business owner who is hiring foreign talent or are you the foreign talent hiring local workforce? And these two different categories of people will be affected potentially by changes that we anticipate in the near future. So what kind of changes might we anticipate? That will depend on what happens in the, you know, after the inauguration, Rick. [00:05:30] Speaker C: Right. [00:05:31] Speaker A: Okay. Well, that kind of leads into my next question because I was going to ask you about the key challenges that you've seen some of your clients already facing when navigating those immigration pathways for employment. And I appreciate you sharing that because it's an important topic, because you're right, they are the backbone. But small business are the backbone of America, we believe. And it's important that we're able to provide that assistance and that help. So how do you see recent policy updates influencing the recruitment of international talent in the near future? [00:06:10] Speaker B: And I want people to think about sort of a line of before January 20th and after so in the last few months, particularly in the last few weeks leading up to Christmas, and now the current administration is putting a lot of regulation and policy updates to help particular types of visa categories like the O1 visa. This is for people who have excelled in their professional development and they can get an O visa. And just in the last few days, the Biden administration has made updates to specifically allow founders of companies to be able to prove that their businesses can support them and employ them. So there are currently the O visa has been updated. There's been a visa called a J visa. The J visa is an important visa category where people from different countries can come to the United States and train in an area that they have no experience in. But often some countries would be subject to what's called a, a two year residency rule, meaning that if they finish their visa program, they must go back to their home country before they can come back on a different visa category. So the Biden administration has removed some of those barriers. So people from India, China, I don't know if Mexico's on that list. I'd have to double check. But these people from these countries can actually come to the United States and actually stay here with different visa requirements. And their two year ban has gone away. The H1B visa is going through some regulatory changes. Anybody who pays attention to the news will know that during Christmas, there were a lot of national debates on H1BS. So there are some policies that are happening right now to strengthen the visa requirements and the evidence that you can submit, particularly for AI and the critical technology infrastructure that is coming up. So these policies hopefully will strengthen whatever changes we may see on January 21st and beyond. And we do expect some of those changes to happen pretty quickly. Rick. [00:08:38] Speaker A: Okay, well, it's good that you share that so that way folks can start preparing for what could happen as soon as January 21st. And speaking of January 21st first, I mean, you are in the field of immigration law, so have you heard anything in terms about how real is the closing of the border as soon as Mr. Trump takes over? Have you heard anything or do you think that will happen? [00:09:07] Speaker B: Yes. Immigration lawyers are talking among themselves a lot about what we anticipate. And, you know, we are privy to the same news that everybody else is, but we have to interpret that and use that for preparation. So our understanding is that there are executive orders that are being reviewed. And if people remember what happened in 2020, there were bans for people from coming to the United States from certain countries. We expect those types of bans to go in. I have been talking to some of my clients and this is, you know, something that a lot of universities are doing that they're suggesting that visa holders come back into the United States if you're traveling before January 20th so that you do not inadvertently become subject to any bans or even if the ban doesn't actually affect you directly, you get caught up in the chaos. What we saw in 2020 is a lot of people who are trying to board flights, people who are airborne, people who are just landing. They all got caught up in the chaos of who's banned and who's not banned. So if you have a visa, it is a conservative sort of guidance to maybe just come back. But we anticipate executive orders and policy changes and how visas are going to be adjudicated. There was an executive order called Buy American, Hire American. And even though that executive order didn't say much other than Hire American, we saw far reaching adjudication policy changes from that one sentence because it started to scrutinize every aspect of every business, business visa. So we anticipate a trickle down of these executive orders into how visas are looked upon. Now, you know, Rick, you mentioned border closing. There will also likely be a lot of policy changes regarding how people who are coming to our borders are going to be treated. And I know you're in Texas, there are, I'm in Washington state, a border, a joint. So we do anticipate a lot of changes going in immediately. And I think what people need to do is we have a blog at our office on our website called www.watsonimmigrationlaw.com. we have a blog, we write about these things. But people should really make sure that they keep abreast of the news. If you have a visa, make sure you're in close communication with your immigration lawyer. If you are a business holder owner and you have visa holders in your staffing portfolio, maybe stay in touch with your immigration lawyer. But staying abreast of the news is going to be very, very important. [00:12:05] Speaker A: All right, Tavmina, when we're having a great conversation, it typically goes by really quick. And I know that this time has gone by really quick. But we've come to the end of the segment and I want to thank you so much for coming on board and educating us on more on this topic as these changes are coming up in the near future. And we can't wait to hear more on when we have you on the show again. So thank you for being here. [00:12:27] Speaker B: Thank you so much for having Me, Rick, so grateful. [00:12:29] Speaker A: Absolutely. Oh, it's always a great conversation. All right, folks, we are going to take a quick commercial break. We'll be back with another guest. Stay right there. Hey, folks, welcome back. As promised, we are back with another segment with another business, professional business owner who is very, very well known, I think, around the country and she knows anything and everything that has to do with bookkeeping and she is an expert in that field. So, Ms. Nora, welcome back to the show. I'm happy that you're back with us again. [00:13:18] Speaker D: Thank you for having me. Happy to be with you again. [00:13:21] Speaker A: Absolutely. Every single time that you're on the show, we have a great conversation and we always end up learning a little bit more every single time that you're on board. So we appreciate your time and your knowledge when it comes to bookkeepings and having all of those books nice and neat so that when it's time to file taxes, everybody has a better time. [00:13:43] Speaker D: Not that it's like this is a prerequisite, right? Prerequisite for taxes. [00:13:49] Speaker A: I know. And that's what I was going with that, you know, the beginning of the year must be a really busy time for you, right? I mean, I guess maybe the first quarter of the year is a very busy time for you. But one of the things that we're doing differently, Nora here, is that we're providing you a, at the beginning of the segment, an opportunity for you to showcase you your company. Where can our listeners, our viewers get in touch with you so they can jot those in that information down and potentially get in touch with you? So tell us a little bit more about you and your company. [00:14:17] Speaker D: Oh, sure. Thank you. So my name is Noor Al Masri, tax and accounting professional. I'm a tax advisor. So technically I help business owners stop overpaying in taxes and keep their high, hard earned money with them. I established Noora's books back in 2021 mostly. Like I get so inspired talking about taxes and helping you keep your money with you. So I do everything around that, including bookkeeping, CFO services, budgeting, KPI, measuring, everything you can think of. Obviously, tax season is now and you want to make sure like we always, I always do a lot of educational things to remind people of the deadlines and we can help clients with all deadlines they can think of in tax and accounting and they can connect with me@nora's books.com contacts. [00:15:10] Speaker A: Awesome. Thank you for providing that information. We certainly do appreciate it. One of the reasons for this show today is to kind of Educate all of those folks that have been in business for a very long time. And then at one point they got so profitable they said, you know what? Maybe it's time to give back to the community. How about we build a non profit organization and help their communities around our town, around our city, and be more connected with the community. So Nora, believe it or not, I had a conversation with a good friend of mine who decided to do just that, became successful, decided to give back to the community, so decided to create a non profit. So when I asked him about his tax strategies between the two different entities, one is obviously for profit and the other one is nonprofit. And one of the things that he said to me was I did not know that there was a difference. And I said, oh my God, you need to talk to my friend, Ms. Nora. So this particular segment I want to talk about exactly that because there are many companies out there and many individuals decide to do the right thing and help the communities and reach out and give back. But how do we do that strategically, particularly when it comes to the tax strategy point? Because there's a lot of people that are not educated on this. So tell us a little bit about the major differences in tax strategies from nonprofits versus for profit businesses. [00:16:32] Speaker D: Sure. So technically when it comes to nonprofits, you want it's, it's tax compliance. But you can benefit from having a nonprofit within your overall tax plan. So if you have a business and you want to start a non profit wing or any type of non profit, you want to know something? It's a great tax strategy to have a non profit beside your business. Because technically you can donate up to 60% of your adjusted gross income every year to a non profit and that's going to reduce your tax liability. So who's going to donate 60% of their income to and just any non profits. Right. It's a lot, it's more than a half. But you may want to do that for your non profit or you know you can, you have up to that. So you have what we do with the clients. So usually I do a tax analyst as make sure like give them all the strategies they can, it's available to them to benefit from the tax, tax, tax saving. For example, if they have a non profit or if they wanna consider a non profit or if they support a nonprofit, it doesn't have to be theirs. They want to support a nonprofit, they trust it. Like we recommend an amount to give to a nonprofit and based on how much tax saving they can save. This is just one of the strategies, this is one of the tax strategies but it's a great strategies because it's a lot, you can save a lot of money. But of course like I always like recommend other way of income shifting income distribution in a different way. And having a non profit is one of the income shifting strategies. Well the only, the only difference between non profit and for profit for profit business is obviously you're gonna have a profit. But in that you are you are you as a person or the family like your company benefit from that. But for non profit you still can have a profit but not for you. So it's for the business. It's tax free but not always. So you have to make sure like you are not falling until into the unrelated business income. So it's, it's a wide subject. It's a lot to, to understand about non profit. And people don't realize that they got excited excited. They get excited to do the good but they don't know about the complication and compliance. And the work they have to do is often much harder and more time consuming than just the regular for profit business. But it's very rewarding when it comes like to use it as a tax plan and a service for the community. [00:19:21] Speaker A: Sure. So this is the reason why we have you on the show because you are the expert in this field and you're enlightening a lot of people that are you know, wondering how to go about these things. And so thank you so much for being here and providing us with those insights. I want to talk a little bit more about the. For new for profit businesses. How do you guide those new businesses or your new clients that have new businesses in navigating tax laws and maximizing in their financial outcomes especially for those new businesses. [00:19:58] Speaker D: So yeah, often new businesses like they have to really make a budget to do their finances. Like a lot of people like they, oh okay. They don't mind being a lawyer, they don't mind paying for marketing. But they forgot a very important thing which is finances accounting. This is, this is the piece that's going to help you grow. So if you ignore it, you're gonna lose a lot of money thinking that you are saving money. And that's what I help people understand. Like you're really not spending money when you, when you put it in tax strategies and your bookkeeping, a good bookkeeping because there's a lot of services that are not good bookkeeping. And, and you know that from the pricing. Usually if you price shop, I guarantee that you do not have a good service and probably you're doing your book wrong and therefore your taxes are wrong. So I try to explain to people this fact because if you don't know, you don't know how who to pick to help you, what to look for. So one of the things I make sure to talk to my audience, to the people who ask about the information on tax and accounting, I make sure that they understand the difference and what they have to be looking for and to prioritize doing tax strategies, to prioritize doing the bookkeeping. Because you can't really utilize tax law. You cannot really benefit from the tax law if you do not have an organized book. Good numbers in order to make sure you have all the deductions, and not only all the deductions, all the other strategies that makes you money because like deductions eats your money. You don't just want to deduct just so you don't save, you don't pay in taxes. You want to make sure you are keeping your money. So that what I try to help people understand. [00:21:57] Speaker A: When talking to the right people, to the experts, we can get the answers that we are looking for rather than just listening to a bunch of people that are just telling you things, you know, from left to right. But my next question for you is basically the question that a lot of people have in their mind. We are in a new year. This is 2025. It's not 2024 anymore. And there's gotta be some tax law changes. There's gotta be some new things that are happening. What are some of those tax law updates or changes that business owners, both nonprofit and for profit, should be looking out for? That's completely new and it's, you know, catching people off guard. [00:22:40] Speaker D: So technically what you what we have to do now with the 2024 taxes is already on since last year, the standard deduction, everything. But usually like they update the standard deduction like every year, but you don't have to worry onto that like when doing the taxes for last year. But moving forward, like you need to have like someone to work with you on updating with the tax flow. Especially now things no significant change, like everyone needs to worry about right now, but you want to watch out because we're gonna have a new administration and I'm sure soon we're gonna have a lot of changes. So we want to keep an eye on that. And don't just listen to news, work with a tax professional to make sure you have updated and see how that new law is going to apply to your situation, because not everything is going to apply to everyone. And you want to make sure you interpret the law the way it should be. We're expecting a lot of new laws now, like with the new administration. [00:23:44] Speaker A: Yeah. And that's where I was going with my question. I know that, you know, we've got to take care of 2024 and those tax laws, but 20, 20, 25, especially being with, you know, a new administration coming on board, there's going to be tons of changes for a lot of people. And there could be good changes, there could be challenging changes or perhaps not so good changes, but that's just, you know, the way that it rolls. And we have to have the right people in our court to help us and navigate through those things. And so, Nora, we have come to the end of this segment, and it feels like every, every time we have a conversation, it goes by really quick because we learn so much from you. So thank you so much for being on the show. We appreciate you. And I can't wait to continue this conversation because it's going to be challenging for a lot of folks and we need you to not make it so challenging. [00:24:34] Speaker D: Of course. Thank you so much for having me. It's my pleasure to be with you, as always. [00:24:38] Speaker A: Yeah, absolutely. I look forward to seeing you again. Thank you for being here. All right, folks, we have come to the end of this segment. We're going to take a quick commercial break. Stay right there. We'll be right back. Hey, folks, welcome back to another episode of Biz Talk. This is a new episode for the year of 2025. We hope that everyone had great holidays and a happy new Year. So we're back with another amazing lineup of business professionals, business owners that are here to showcase their expertise to help you in continued growth of your business. And this week, we've got none other than the expert when it comes to bringing your LinkedIn profile to life. Mr. Evan Chi, welcome back to the show, sir. [00:25:25] Speaker C: Hey, Rick. Happy New Year. Great to be here. [00:25:27] Speaker A: Happy New Year to you. It's glad. I'm glad that you are here. We're excited that you are here because we could always learn a little bit more or potentially start from scratch on how to bring those profiles to life and how to use and or leverage LinkedIn to our advantage. So I want to use this, the beginning of this opportunity to basically give you the platform to showcase, you know, who you are, your name, your company name, what it is that you really focused on, even though I just alluded to it. But I want you to tell our audience exactly what regenesis is all about and the great things that you guys are doing. [00:26:02] Speaker C: Sure, absolutely. So what we do is we essentially help brands solve their sales and marketing by using and creating funnels around LinkedIn. So we basically do two things. Again, the first piece is helping brands solve that sales and marketing. And then the second piece is we do a lot of personal branding and we do this through three unique tools that we have. The first one is called Post Booster. That does, is it brings virality to any LinkedIn post. Right. So that's important because, you know, to be at the top of your game in social media is to be influential and to become influential. Those people, all the influencers, they, they just had a viral post and, and it went from there. So we have that tool, that's our awareness piece tool. So that again brings virality to any post on LinkedIn, making sure that your brand is being seen and heard on a consistent basis. The second tool that we have is LinkedIn outreach automation with a lot of really cool AI tools embedded. And so that helps increase your network as well as highly targets people, prospects, sponsors, investors, whatever it might be that you're looking for with customized messages to elicit a conversation and ultimately get them to schedule a call with you. The third tool that we have is for email and that's for email at scale, where right on the app it's really easy to create mirror domains, create your inboxes, all of your mailboxes and emails and everything and then start to do newsletters or emails or whatever you want to do at scale. And that's kind of what we do in a nutshell. [00:27:57] Speaker A: Okay, wonderful. Thank you for showcasing the three layers of what your company basically provides for business owners. You touched a little bit on, I believe it's number two, the, I believe it's the email outreach or I think it was the automatic automation piece of it. How much of AI are we using now in using your, your, your program, your softwares? [00:28:22] Speaker C: Quite a bit. We have a lot of really cool stuff. So we have an AI agent that will essentially go in and respond to all of your messages and help you book appointments, essentially acting as a VA or an appointment setter. And so that's, that's really interesting. So we're definitely starting to use these AI agents more and more. We're going to be, you know, releasing our email agent as well soon. So right now we have our agent doing all the LinkedIn responses and then soon we'll have our agent doing the email responses as well, so there's a lot of stuff going on. Of course, all the other tools that are embedded, they're already there, you know, to help you auto create campaigns, auto create and respond to messages. The AI will take actions on your behalf. Like it can essentially engage with other people's posts, endorse them for skills, view their profiles, all kinds of different stuff. [00:29:20] Speaker A: Okay, wonderful. And for those that are watching or maybe listening, what would you say are the most common challenges that your typical instrument? Individuals who are using social media for brand awareness, particularly LinkedIn. What are the common challenges that you've seen out there? When a client's come to you and they say to you, this is my challenge. A, B and C, what are those typical challenges? [00:29:49] Speaker C: Well, you know, I would say that, like there's really two, and the first one is a lot of companies will be able or want to do automation and then they get really bad results through that automation. So that's the first problem that people ask us to help solve. And that's typically because of one of two things. Number one, the targeting, and number two, your actual messaging just really isn't good. So we have a lot of data, a lot of insights on what works and what gets responses. And so that's the first piece of it. And it usually has to do with the targeting or the outreach. The main thing that I think most people are not getting is that kind of awareness piece. You know, everyone wants to post on social media, but to actually get good engagement, to get really good visibility, it takes a lot of work, a lot of strategy. And so it's really not that easy to achieve. So that's really why we built this tool, so that, you know, it can really help, say, democratize LinkedIn outreach and LinkedIn reach and engagement. Right. So instead of just being drowned out by kind of all these big profiles and, and paid ads, we can make sure that any message, no, no matter how small, can get out there to a good amount of people on a consistent basis. [00:31:17] Speaker A: Okay. And I, I just, you know, everything that you said is, it's spot on. And the thing that kind of stood out for me is like, in order for us to be able to detect whether something is working or not working is data collection. Right? So analytics and all of those great things. So how do you guys go about collecting that data and being able to analyze it with your clients? [00:31:41] Speaker C: Everything that we do is all on the app, so everything is tracked. You're able to track everything from your open range rate to your reply rate to your email open rate to your bounce rate. And it's all right there in a snapshot. You can look at that for anything, any campaign. And so, you know, that's really important because we do a lot of testing. So, you know, anytime you change anything in a campaign, a color, an emoji, the subject line, a question, whatever it might be, you can see its effects on the campaign if you have enough data. So that's what we're able to see. And so I think, like, for us, we're able to help start campaigns for our clients out, like, at a high level instead of starting at a 0 or 1. Because of all the insights that we have, we're able to start off with like an 8 or 9. [00:32:26] Speaker A: Yeah. So numbers don't lie. Right? So having the proper data and having the proper analytics in order to determine, you know, the open rate and the bounce rate and all of that good stuff is crucial for any social media platform. And being able to measure that, to see how we can continue and build, to build that and. And find success. And I don't believe that there is. There is a company out there that is more detailed than ReGenesis and Evan and his team over there to help all, everybody, you know, reach the success that they want to reach in social media. Evan, we want to thank you for being on the show. I know the time flies when we're having great conversations and you're enlightening everybody that's listening and watching with, you know, how to bring this. These things to life. And I think it's really important. But I want to provide you an opportunity to showcase how our viewers and customers can potentially get in touch with you to talk about potentially you helping them with their social media. [00:33:25] Speaker E: Thank you. [00:33:26] Speaker C: Certainly you can find me on LinkedIn. Evan Chi. That's E V A N C H I. Or you can just send me an email at Evangenesis IO. [00:33:39] Speaker A: It looks like amazing website. You got tons of information on there. And we definitely do appreciate you being on the show, as I mentioned. And we look forward to additional conversations coming up in the near future with you so you can enlighten us a little bit more. So thank you for being here. [00:33:55] Speaker C: Thanks for having me, Rick. [00:33:57] Speaker A: Absolutely. All right, folks, we are going to take a quick commercial break. We're going to come back with another guest, so stay right there. We'll be right back. Hey, folks, welcome back to Biz Talks. In case you are just now tuning in, my name is Rick Gutierrez and I am your host and your business advocate. We are continuing our show here today. We've got another expert in his own field and no, no stranger to the show as well, doctor, Dr. Ricky Chavez, who is a phenomenal real estate professional and has been in business for quite some time and he's going to bring us some knowledge as to what's going on towards the year's end. So, Ricky Chavez, welcome back to the show. [00:34:52] Speaker E: Hey man, I really like that introduction. I wish I was a doctor, I mean, but no, not yet. [00:34:57] Speaker A: You know what? [00:34:58] Speaker E: I appreciate reaching out to me. David, how's it going? [00:35:01] Speaker A: Yo? You know what, I think of you as such an expert that I, you know, you're almost like a doctor to me. That's the reason why that rolled off like that. [00:35:07] Speaker E: But is that what it was, man, I feel really blessed right now. [00:35:12] Speaker A: But you know what, we've had some great conversations on this show in the past and we're just going to continue those conversations. Conversations. But right now, towards the end of 2024, there are some really amazing things happening in the real estate market. And I know these personally because my wife is a realtor. But you know, there are some really great things. Let's talk about first about new construction, these builders and what they're, what they have on inventory, what they have on incentives and things like that. So you're the expert, Ricky, tell us what's going on in the new construction world. [00:35:46] Speaker E: Well, you know, the first, I want to make sure that everybody understands specifically actually not even just the new, new first time homebuyers, but if you go to see a new construction location, take a realtor, use a professional. The individuals there that are working at the offices, they are, have the fiduciary responsibility to the builder. They provide guidance for the builders. They present it to you. But you need somebody that also has your interests and may be able to answer the questions that you don't know. Now coming back to Rick's question as far as incentives, you know, right now, the 31st of December, many of the builders that finishes off their year, some of the builders end in October of their year, some in November. But the ones that are in December right now, their incentives have to do with closing costs. Maybe packages for washers, dryers and refrigerators, maybe sprinklers. Just a host of different opportunities out there for individuals to go find the home of their dreams and get some assistance in purchasing it before the end of the year. So it's really important that, you know, don't count your eggs now. Go ahead and go out there, find what's going on with the new bills and see how they can help you take. And take a realtor with you because they can answer the questions. [00:37:14] Speaker A: I 100% agree. I cannot tell you how many times we have come across, we've met people where they say they bought new construction. And I said, well, did you, were you able to tap into all of the great incentives that a home builder could potentially offer? And they were like, you know what? They only offered us like, you know, $3,000 towards closing costs or something like that. And I'm like, well, did you have a realtor with you? And they're like, no, we didn't. I'm like, that's the very big difference. Because I know many realtors across the city of Houston. As you know, I do professional networking for a living. And so taking a professional real estate expert like Ricky Chavez or anyone on his team could potentially end up saving you thousands of dollars. And I'm not exaggerating. I mean, Ricky, you can tell me if I'm wrong, but many times when you take Ricky or somebody on Ricky's team to visit a new home builder site, you could potentially end up saving thousands. Am I pretty close on the dotted line? [00:38:11] Speaker E: You can, you can definitely, definitely get some definite incentives. I think the one thing that you want to also think and understand, okay, when you buy a pre sale home, the house is built already, but maybe, maybe you decide to build your own ground up. So you have the opportunity to bring a third party inspector in that there's three levels they'll inspect at foundation, then pre drywall, where they have all the frames up and then at the end so that, you know, let's be honest with each other. Homes are built by man. Man has good days, man has bad days. So believe it or not, throughout the years that we've done new construction, we've had many opportunities where inspectors have come in and found maybe possibilities, things that are wrong. I'll give you one example we had where the homeowner, they bought a water softener and the water softener, this is pre drywall. The water softener, it was running to the outside faucet. So it was also, the water softener was bringing water to the outside versus just within the house, which in some people they can start, they're concerned about the environment. I'm not really, really versed on that. But we're paying the extra, putting the extra salt in and water softeners and things like that. We need to make sure that it stays within the home. But the inspector found that we would have never seen that or Known that had, had they not done that, you know, pre drywall inspection. [00:39:42] Speaker A: Absolutely. So I'll tell you my story briefly. I purchased a new home about four years ago and I had three inspections from my own independent, you know, third party inspector. And it was inspection from foundation to pre drywall. You know, all of the structure, systems, ACs and everything was done prior to pre wall. And then once the the project was completed, we had him come back out again a third time and give us one final inspection on everything. It makes a very big difference. I happen to be a big believer that if you're going to go purchase a new home, to each his own, but for me personally is buying a new home is quite an experience. You're going to go from potentially designing your home, going to a design center to pick out tiles and, and cabinets and color of carpet and things like that. And that's one thing that most new first time home buyers don't know that that's available to them. You can design a home to your liking instead of settling for something that's already been pre built. Right. So tell us about your first time home buyers experience Ricky, when you take a new home buyer to a builder's site to take a look at their model homes. [00:40:57] Speaker E: So one of the things we do, we want to make sure that we understand what price range we're in. Because right now, believe it or not, there are new homes out there as, as affordable as $250,000 and maybe even a little bit less than that up to the million. So you can buy any kind of new construction you really want based on your budget. Right. So that's one thing. Number two is a lot of builders probably I'm going to Gamble here about 95% plus they have a lender that's tied in so they can get you pre approved. You'll understand kind of what the payment will look like, what the incentives are. I mean some of the lenders right now are offering a 4.99 interest rate when in a pre sale home it could be as high as 6% or better considering the fact that you know you're going with outside lender. So these lenders are tied in. Now then we sit down with the new home counselor. At that point the individual will sit down and kind of they'll ask you questions based on what you want. I'll tell you, and I'm not going to put a plug in for lgi. They got probably one of the best sales process ever. The new home counselor brings the individual in, takes them to A map kind of points out where that neighborhood specifically is. And then they start asking, so where is your, where do you work? Okay, where's most of your family at? Where do you do most of your activities at? They try to make sure that the neighborhood that you're at fits your way of life. Right, that's. And that's a big deal. Instead of trying to figure out, oh, I want to get you into this house, they want to make sure the location makes sense. Then they take it and start talking about what your needs are. And it keeps going. You know, early on in my first couple years, I was fortunate enough to do mystery shopping for builders. What I basically did was I was able to review the videos that people were going in to look at houses and grade the counselors on their techniques. And from that I was able to learn a lot. There's a lot of agents out here that know a lot. There's actually a qualification that you can get for new construction. So it's really important that you know who you're talking to when you go to see the counselor. [00:43:14] Speaker A: Absolutely. So let's transition a little bit to that first time home buyer. When Ricky, when you or someone on your team first gets that phone call or that referral, you know, and you make first contact with that, you know, first time home buyer, what is the qualifying process? What are your first talk tracks in terms of what does the conversation look like when you first initiate contact? [00:43:39] Speaker E: Well, amazing enough, we definitely want to know, determine their needs and interests, you know, what home kind of fits their needs. But even before that, we want to find out what is a comfortable monthly payment. You know, because you may be qualified for three, $400,000 and a home purchase, but not want the payment that goes along with it. And when people pre qualify you, they take a look at like the major things, credit cards, loans, they take care of any bills like that, but they don't look like cell phone bills if you had 10 kids or they don't take of your utilities, all these other things. So you really need to factor in kind of what is a comfortable monthly payment. The second piece is what area makes sense to you. Because in, you know, in Houston, there's a bunch of different neighborhoods. Each of the different neighborhoods usually have different tax rates. Tax, tax rates is very important to the buyer or what the buyer can spend. The last, another piece is if you're a veteran. Now I'm a disabled veteran and my buying power is a little different based on the fact of what I have to pay taxes or do not have to pay taxes in different neighborhoods. So we take all that into effect. Into effect. We start mapping out the schools, the areas, kind of the activities where they need to be and we start showing them what new builds are in that area and then we start walking out to them. You know what I like to say is my team, the team of eight and they, we do a lot of visits to home builders. We have to learn because incentives change, you know, what they, what they build changes. So it's really important that we know what's going on in our areas so that when you sit down and talk to us, we can say, oh, you're looking for a three bedroom, two bath, one story ranch under 300. Well maybe we need to come to this area and this what's around so we better help fit what you need, not make you fit what the houses are selling for. It's really important that a person is comfortable and not we call a house. [00:45:40] Speaker A: Yeah, absolutely. And you have no idea how much it pleases me to know that you and your team are going about having these educational conversations with, you know, the first time homebuyer because there are many times to where yeah, they'll come in pre qualified from a, you know, third party lender and say, for example, they're, they're Pre qualified for $500,000. But that doesn't mean that you have to purchase a home of that value. Right. It all has to coincide with what is your budget, where do you want to be and what's the best situation for you and your family. And I'm glad that you guys are having those conversations because it's, it's crucial for, for the buyer and then you want those buyers to continue to be clients for you for many years, Is that correct? [00:46:23] Speaker E: 100%. Right. And I think something you said earlier, now I'm very involved in networking also so I make sure that I network myself with like lenders. What I mean by like lenders, Individuals that care about the well being of the buyer. You know, I tell my team, you know, don't chase money, take care of people, you take care of people. Let's just multiply and multiply with the lenders that we like to take our time to get to know and refer out to our clients. We want to make sure that they have the same mindset so that they can sit down with them. They can kind of go over everything, their qualifications and maybe they're not qualified today. They have what if programs where they can coach a person through paying different things off. So that they can meet the requirements to buy a home at a later time. I will tell you this. I always tell new buyers or even anyone I talk to, do not try to do it on your own. You need to sit down with somebody that does it for a living and let them help you tell you what to buy. I had one incident a couple years back where a guy got a good lunk of money and paid off a credit card instead of his car. The car was a $500 a month payment, but he only owed 3,000. The credit card was 10,000, but only $160 a month. He paid the 10,000 off and the debt to income was a big factor in him qualifying. So you need to let somebody who knows what they're doing help you do that. [00:47:51] Speaker A: Absolutely. Well, hey, Ricky, it's always a great conversation having you on the show. I mean, you're educating us. You're educating everyone that's watching and listening. But we want to thank you for being on the show. But before we go, we want to give you an opportunity for those folks that are listening, they want to get in touch with you. How do they do this Home? [00:48:08] Speaker E: Yeah. Well, you can reach me at 832-541-7545. You go to my website, Ricky Chavez at Better Homes and Gardens, Gary Green or the Ricky Chavez team in Google again, I have a team of eight. We speak eight languages. So we can kind of help you on your terms. And we want to do that because it's important for us to make sure that you guys get the best support necessary to buy your dream place. [00:48:37] Speaker A: All right, my friend. We appreciate you being on the show again. Thank you for being here. And like always, we'll. We'll catch up with you on. On other episodes, I'm sure. And we'll see you next time. [00:48:47] Speaker E: I appreciate you guys have a happy holidays. [00:48:50] Speaker A: Likewise. All right, folks, we've come to the end of this particular segment. We'll be right back with another guest. Stay right there.