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HANNA MUSIDI:
Hi, my name is Hanna and today we have our US tax expert, Derren. We also have our US real estate and legal expert, Jay. We will be discussing Us real estate forensic.
VOICE-OVER:
This podcast channel it’s about you, successful international entrepreneurs, successful ex-pats, successful investors. Sponsored by HTJ.tax
HANNA MUSIDI:
Hi, we’re live. Hi, my name is Hanna and I’m based in Indonesia and I’m working in an international tax consultant team. And today we will talk about your US real estate forensic. And this episode is about a real estate scam. So right now I’m here with two of our experts. So first of all, Derren, would you mind introducing yourself?
DERREN JOSEPH:
Hi, thanks, Hannah. Hello everybody. So we continuing this series. My name is Derren Joseph, and I’m an international tax consultant with a team called Moores Rowland and my specialty is an international tax in general, but US international in particular. Good to be here.
HANNA MUSIDI:
Jay, would you mind introducing yourself?
JAY KNIGHT:
Yeah, sure. My name is Jay Knight. Thanks very much for having me again. I am an international real estate investor and I also am a real estate broker from California, so great to be here. Thank you.
HANNA MUSIDI:
Okay. Right now, the next topic is going to be an emphasis on the motivational material, did i say it right? So, every successful person I know has benefited from a motivational book. For example, power of positive thinking or something like that, so, do you have anything to say about this Jay?
JAY KNIGHT:
Well, yes, I mean, I think in general, anything that anyone can derive motivation from is a good thing. And we should never say, getting motivated about something is not a good thing. I think the issue is here and I think that what we need to have people be aware of is that when you’re selling something, normally we all have our own source of motivation and we could always use more motivation perhaps. But if the emphasis is clearly on the motivation and not on the content of what they’re selling, that is where we have to be raising an eyebrow and wondering whether or not this is actually, legitimate or not. Because I think, we play sports and, you know, I like hearing motivational talks from all. I listen to Ted talks and got motivated about certain things. And there is value in that for sure. But I think what we have to be aware of is that a very common tactic is that these gurus, these so-called gurus and these experts and so forth and so on, they will really push the motivational side of something at the expense of really having any real content to what they’re selling. And so you get worked up into a frenzy based upon their motivation, and then you do some sort of impulse buying, which is what they’re looking for based off the motivation. And it’s not based on the actual content. So, we just have to warn people and make sure that they are very cautious. Don’t get in an emotional sense where you buy something impulse-based off motivational speakers and motivational talks that they really try to push towards
HANNA MUSIDI:
So, do you have anything to add Derren?
DERREN JOSEPH:
I think Jay hit the nail on the head. Normally what they’re trying to do and these guys aren’t just random as you think they are. They read a lot of science to it. They understand that decisions really are based on emotions as opposed to logic for most people. So, they walk into that room determined to hit your emotional centers as opposed to trigger a logical thought process. So they start with the stories. When I was younger, I was an immigrant. I was, or my parents lived on this, we were homeless, they push it as far as they could. And look at me now, I’m rich. I know the president, I know the prime minister or whatever country. This is a picture of me. This is a picture of me and so can you. So, I’m giving you an opportunity or without encouraging you to evaluate the project on its own merits, it’s just all about, what you deserve to be wealthy or you deserve to be happy and just stick with us or we can make it happen.
JAY KNIGHT:
Yes, its very true. And also, just to piggyback off that, it’s funny because they will often do a lot of name-dropping. Like you mentioned, whether it’s either name dropping or picture dropping, maybe they’ll have these pictures of themselves, like you said, with famous people or so forth and so on. And they also really understand, I mean, these are people that studied this. And so they understand that most of the people, the majority of the people that are coming to these are ruin novices. When it comes to real estate, they don’t know how it really works. I mean, they know that most people don’t know how it really works, so they can kind of sell them on this idea that, hey, this isn’t that hard. You just need to have a little bit of information and you can be off and be rich in a couple of years, just like I am. And so they really play on this idea, because they know people are not that sophisticated when it comes to real estate, so they can sell them these kinds of dreams and with the right motivation, almost anybody will drink it up and it’d be all for the money. And then that’s why they really pushed that emotional motivation aspect to it. So be careful, always say no, the first day, and don’t ever buy anything the first day, let that emotional high come down and they’ll do anything impulsively, no matter what they’ll say because they will just push you and push you and push you and push you and get it that first day because they know once you go home and sleep on it, then that emotional, motivational aspect to it so be careful, be very careful. Always say no on the first day. Don’t ever buy anything on the first day. Let that emotional high come down and don’t do anything impulsively no matter what they’ll say because they will push you and push you and push you to get it to you that first day because once you go home and sleep on it then that emotional high will come down, logic will start to kind of kickback in order to make more rational decisions.
HANNA MUSIDI:
That actually happened to make up those times, many times when they have, they promote some new compounds and then they invited me to go there and they say like, come on, if you sign right now, if you sign my note to buy this house, and then you will have this benefit, this benefit, and this benefit. And then, so that’s when you’re going to save a lot of money. So, you have to buy it and they think you can rent it or something like this. I’m thinking, okay, I’ll talk to you tomorrow. No, why tomorrow just sign right now. No, because tomorrow I have my partner, I need to talk with my partner first. And then we’ll talk to you after that. I always say like this. And then when I sleep on it and I was thinking again, it’s like, kind of like too good to be true. And then again, how it can be like that. So, I think about it again it, my emotions already drop-down and then I think rationally already.
JAY KNIGHT:
Yeah. You know, it’s a big tactic and it’s a very successful tactic. That’s why they keep doing it. And that’s why they hire, and they’ll pay motivational speakers to come to these events and they’ll pay him a lot of money because they know people will buy off these motivational talks. So, and again, I’m not saying that motivation is bad. I’m not saying that it’s not something that we should, use in our own life. All I’m saying is that be cautious when the overriding substance of what they’re doing is based off the motivation and not based off of actual knowledge that they’re trying to impart. That’s where we have to look at the balance of it.
HANNA MUSIDI:
I see.
VOICE-OVER:
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