In episode nine of Real Estate Rescue, Cody Oakes interviews Josh Reyes and Meagan Reyes from Reyes Realty. They delve into topics such as stopping foreclosures, navigating probate, the challenges of buying and selling homes in today's market, and how they teamed up to create a successful business.
Tune in to learn more about their experiences and insights in the industry.
TIMESTAMPS
[00:02:10] Real Estate as a Cool Job.
[00:05:32] Uncertainty in the Real Estate Market.
[00:09:38] House Prices and Bidding Wars.
[00:13:13] The Best Time to Buy.
[00:17:28] First-time Buyer Advice.
[00:22:29] Airbnb Market Saturation.
[00:25:03] Owning Real Estate and Airbnb.
[00:28:49] Helping People in Difficult Situations.
In this episode, Cody Oakes together with his guests, Josh Reyes and Meagan Reyes, discuss the advice they would give to different types of buyers - first-time buyers and those who own multiple homes. They emphasize the importance of tailoring the advice to each individual's specific situation and stage in life.
Furthermore, Cody Oakes, Josh Reyes, and Meagan Reyes are dedicated to helping people in various aspects of real estate. They aim to assist individuals in preventing foreclosures by providing guidance and advice on how to avoid having their homes repossessed by lenders due to unpaid mortgages. Additionally, they offer support in navigating through probate, providing information and assistance to individuals dealing with the legal process of distributing a deceased person's assets. Lastly, they strive to help listeners better understand real estate investing, offering insights and knowledge on how to invest in properties for financial gain.
QUOTES
SOCIAL MEDIA LINKS
Cody Oakes
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cody-oakes-69089bb7/
Josh and Meagan Reyes
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SOLDBYRRG
WEBSITE:
Real Estate Rescue: https://www.realestaterescuepodcast.com/
Intro/Outro00:02 - 00:21
Welcome to Real Estate Rescue, a show dedicated to helping you stop foreclosures, navigate through the world of probate, and better understand the how-to of real estate investing. And now, here's your host, Cody Oakes.
Cody Oakes00:21 - 01:38
Welcome back to Real Estate Rescue. I'm your host, Cody Oakes. And today we have Josh Reyes and Meagan Reyes with Reyes Realty. And we wanted to, Obviously, guys, thank you for coming and kind of game-picking on this. It took a while to get everything set up here. Fun experience, but yeah, thank you. We've put a lot of time into this and changed the back wall like three times now. Yeah, this one's nice. The other one that we got was these rectangles that were not rectangles, but octagons. it just too much going on took forever so we ripped that off the wall and we got the other tire foam that was supposed to be really good it was really nice so we ripped that off sent that there yeah and then uh i just said you know what i'm just gonna do this and my office came they rearranged it well done yeah so anyway um i wanted to go into this and kind of just hear about your business hear about how you guys started into real estate what you what got you into real estate Also, why you guys decided to, you know, team up together and, and go on this journey. I know, Meagan, we were talking earlier, and you had mentioned that you actually have a finance degree. Is that right?
Meagan Reyes01:38 - 01:58
Yeah, yeah. So I went to Kennesaw. And I got a BBA in finance. But I couldn't get a job to save my life, nothing that I wanted to do anyways. So I took a different route here. And it goes hand in hand with real estate, though. So I definitely can apply it to what we do today.
Josh Reyes01:58 - 03:11
I had a background in facility maintenance. My family owned a facility maintenance plumbing electrical general contracting company for 10 years. So that's that's my background and I had always always kind of thought real estate was a kind of a cool job it seemed like. We were winding the business down and going through a career change and I was like, what is something that I can jump into right away and kind of just make of it what I want to put into it? And to me, that was real estate. I actually bought, it was actually a dream of Meagan's as well to be a real estate agent. So I had bought her a licensed course, bought her a course on Black Friday. Um, and it kind of just sat there, I think there's like a 6 month idea. I'm not sure what the expiration on it is, but it was winding down and I was like, all right, we're not going to do this. Then I'm going to do it. I think I completed the course, uh, maybe 3 months or so, uh, had my 1st deal within 18 days. Um, and then from that, that point, we can do this.
Cody Oakes03:13 - 03:16
So you guys used yours. Exactly.
Meagan Reyes03:16 - 03:54
Exactly. Yeah. I think Josh is the type where he just hits the ground running and doesn't even question it and just does it. And I'm like paralysis, like I get analysis paralysis and then I'm like too scared to do anything. And so, yeah. And we were, like you said, we were both going through career shifts and we had a mortgage and bills to pay. Yeah. Just built a brand new home and we we had credit card debt and everything else. And the idea of going into a commission only career was just terrifying to me. So I was bartending waiting tables. I was like, I'm not going to, you know, risk it.
Cody Oakes03:54 - 06:08
Yeah, no, it makes sense. So I'll say this, you know, real estate, taking that risk in doing real estate because it is not guaranteed. Some are guaranteed income and it's commission based. it's probably pretty stressful, but the skills that you get with real estate, being able to really make your own money based off of what you put out, right? You work hard, you get what you're worth, you don't work hard, you also get what you're worth. You see, you know, I actually went to, I started real estate class like 10, 12 years ago, and then I went to school for it and then, you know, I never took the test. And that's kind of how this all started was a phone call to a Jordan Peterson concert. And then it emerged into you guys, Meagan and Josh, our preferred real estate agents with real estate rescue. So it's worked out very well for us to be able to contact this group. They're so professional and they're so quick at being able to get back to us in a quick response on what's going on with the market and just being able to pull comps and doing walkthroughs with each other and figuring out where we need to spend the money or we don't need to and really just building this great relationship with, you know, purchasing and selling homes. So, I think a lot of people, you know, obviously we know that the real estate is, you know, kind of, it goes through a certain balance, it goes through cycles, you know, it's nothing new, but there is a lot of uncertainty in the market. So let's go back to, you know, You guys started off in real estate and what you guys have seen up until now, I know 2020, 2021 was probably pretty crazy for you guys.
Josh Reyes06:08 - 06:09
Super crazy.
Meagan Reyes06:09 - 06:45
Really, since we've been in the business. So we've been in the business for almost six years. We got in in March of 2018. So really, the bulk majority of our careers in real estate has been just caught at crime market, you know, loans going under contract quickly. we haven't experienced the full ups and downs of actually being in the business. But like you said, in 2018, it wasn't as hot as it was pre-COVID. Homes were still sitting and buyers were actually able to get some closing costs out of the seller. Yeah. Yeah.
Josh Reyes06:45 - 07:27
Back then, maybe a couple of weeks, maybe 10 to 15 days was typical average days on market. And by the time that 10th day rolled around, we started really sweating. Yeah, which is crazy. But then, I mean, come to 2020, 2022, I mean, three days, you're sweating. Because it was really that quick. I mean, you would put in the special notes of the FMLS, like, hey, here's clothing attorney we want to work with, here's kind of what is important to our sellers, here's yada yada, whatever it is, and you would request it. And there were the buyer that would fulfill whatever your wish was.
Meagan Reyes07:27 - 07:47
And multiple buyers, I'll say that that would fulfill those wants. And, you know, you would list it on a Thursday, show us through the weekend, highest and best by Sunday, make a decision by Monday. And we locked in with one or two backup offers. I think a spring just Yeah, it's um, you know, I didn't get to, um,
Cody Oakes07:53 - 09:34
enjoy that chaos. We just got into it December really of last year is when we started trying to stop foreclosures and trying to help people. So I didn't get to experience that, but I know it was a crazy time. I was in the stock market and we kind of knew that real estate, everything was going to go up because when you have rates that are literally almost nothing and they're pumping so much money into the economy. People are getting stimulus and you know it's like everybody was just balling. Your next door neighbors are buying those, they're buying second homes, VRBO, Airbnb was taken off like crazy. I think that sometimes people forget that what goes up also must come down. reelevate. So I didn't get to experience it, but it was, it didn't seem like a heavy, crazy time. I had a lot of friends who were purchasing homes and, you know, just getting outfitted. I actually did, this was before that craziness. It was in 2019, really 2018, we went to go look at a house in Woodstock and it was part of the HOA, but they We sub-divided the clubhouse. It had a pool, a tennis court, basketball courts, and I don't remember exactly what stock it was, but we went over there, and wow, it was such a cool house, and we ended up making an offer, I think, at the time. Offered like $470,000, and this Asian couple came in, and they offered like $510,000. Closing in 10 days, paying it all cash.
Meagan Reyes09:34 - 09:35
I'm like, who are these people?
Cody Oakes09:36 - 10:01
Yeah, no appraisal. So they end up scooping that up from us. But yeah, we did start here. We bought our house finally in Dallas. And you know, what I thought we paid was a lot, you know, almost double in a couple of years. What are you guys seeing now that, you know, obviously, you know, house is going in three days, bid more. Now that, you know, rates are climbing, what are y'all's thoughts with the market? What are you guys seeing with flyers?
Josh Reyes10:05 - 10:23
thinking of our buyers that we had been in, how I mean, it seems like it was a great time for real estate. But looking at these buyers looking at, we might make six offers, six different offers on six different homes, and not win any of them.
Meagan Reyes10:23 - 10:55
Great time to work with sellers, a terrible time to work with buyers. Now the waters are starting to calm and things are shifting, the buyers are they're getting a little bit more, they have more leverage, they're getting a little bit more incentives from the sellers. But with that comes the higher interest rate. So it's still a tricky time for buyers, definitely having to readjust budget and be a lot more smarter and strategic with their offers.
Cody Oakes10:55 - 11:55
So I know that real estate is really shot up. And I think that, you know, as far as a buyer news, you think, well, when is the right time? Well, when rates are low, you're probably thinking, well, I don't know right now is the right time because prices are so high and people are going through crazy bid wars, right? Now, rates are high, housing is falling down, and they're like, well, I'm still too skeptical. Kind of like, you know, you got a risker and you got someone that just does it. So if I can say anything, what I think is, you know, right now it's not about time because you don't have as much competition. And if you don't have as much competition, you know, when I sell my houses, you know, right now it's just offers. Maybe an offer and we'll work something out. And then obviously, then you're able to get a good deal and you're able to refinance that house.
Josh Reyes11:58 - 13:06
So you kind of got to think about what kind of got to put yourself in each by hold off right now. Let's say interest rates are too high for me. First, first and foremost, it never changes in the market, regardless of what interest rates are, what prices are for a home buyer. The best advice is to get in touch with a lender, even if you might be six months down the road or you want to want to buy it. You just are thinking about it. Get in touch with if you have an agent that that is your go-to, find out who their go-to lender is, someone that they trust, and find out what those numbers look like. What's a mortgage gonna look like? What's a mortgage gonna look like if interest rates do drop? Keep in mind, if interest rates do drop, more and more buyers are coming out there, the price is gonna be elevated. So maybe see what a mortgage looks like at that higher cost. But having those conversations is how you make the best informed decision. But yeah, like what you were saying, buyers now aren't having to compete as much. They're able to negotiate sales price, negotiate inspection items.
Meagan Reyes13:06 - 14:13
They don't have to pay a lot of appraisal. They don't have to give their kin to purchase a car. Exactly. And I think everyone wants to pitch, oh, now is the best time to buy, or wait until it crashes, that's the best time to buy. It's like, the best time to buy is when it makes sense for you, when you have your financial pictures established, when you're secure in your job, you've got your down payment, you've got the closing costs, and you're not scrambling to find pennies to pay for an inspection. You know, you're that buyer going in and you're like, I can't afford to get an HVAC company out there after the inspection, I've already wasted all, then it's not the right time for you to buy. And that's truly what we preach to our clients. And, you know, rates will come down, prices will come down, rates will go up, prices will go up. So you just have to know as a homeowner going into it, it's an investment. And if you're going to be holding on to a home for five to seven years and it's going to be your primary residence, then now it could be an amazing time, a good opportunity for you to buy. Because the minute rates go down, there's still so many buyers out there in the market that you're going to get eat up when rates come down.
Cody Oakes14:13 - 16:48
Yeah. So we, um, you know, I call, I call Josh probably at least two, three times a week. Hey, what do you see in the market? You know, what do you notice? We also work with some mortgage lenders, and some pretty successful individuals who we know the market pretty well as well and do the research. What I'll say is, yeah, absolutely. You know, the thing about real estate is, you know, I wish I would have gotten into it sooner. I remember when I was young, my boss told me, you know, go buy a fourplex, rent out the other three You live in that. He said if you do that by the time you're 30, you'll be a millionaire. I said, yeah, well, you know, in my head, I probably won't qualify. It's really just not being educated and not understanding that buying a house, obviously, it's a big commitment, but if you do get with a lender and you do get with an agent and you do get with these individuals, and that's what we're trying to bring We have a real estate team, we have mortgage lenders that offer 0% down, zero money down, 100% financing. And then you have a rural development that you can buy outside that you can get approved for. So there's a lot of great programs to be able to take away from, but where I was going is that real estate over time, you're always gonna be on the upside. You're always gonna make money and you can, you have so many different ways. You can, you know, write it off on taxes, appreciate it. So the biggest thing is just to get in. Because what a lot of people are saying is stay alive until 25. And that's not to scare anybody. But what that means is that rates do finally decide that when the Federal Reserve and decides to stop raising interest rates, and 10-year deal goes down back down, and they're saying that the real estate market is going to explode. Because everybody is scared right now. So the people that are out there saying, oh, I'm too scared of the 7% or the 8%, well, if you're scared now, wait until 2025 or whenever that time actually happens, because you're gonna go back to 2021 all over again. I mean, this already went up. They're not thinking that, you know, obviously the market's gonna come down a little bit. I don't see it doing anything that it did in 2008.
Meagan Reyes16:48 - 17:28
And just to piggyback off what you're saying with people being scared, not only are buyers scared, but sellers are scared because they're locked in at a 33.5% interest rate. Who wants to sell their home and go look for a house at a triple or double interest rate? No one's gonna do that. So even though rates are high, Inventory is still pretty much low because sellers are not selling. People are holding on to their homes right now. The minute rates drop, people are going to start selling. Things are going to start going. Buyers are going to come out. So yeah, I agree. I don't think it's going to get too far down.
Cody Oakes17:28 - 17:35
What advice would you have for first-time buyers, people who are trying to get into their first home life?
Josh Reyes17:36 - 19:01
So for first-time buyers, as I mentioned before, the first thing is speaking to a lender. Find your agent, find a agent, a friend that's bought a home before, they had a good experience with their agent. First place that we would point you is to a lender. And that lender will serve as an advisor as far as taking your information and saying, hey, here's what things will look like. And from there, we're able to say, all right, here's what we have to work with. And then we guide you throughout the transaction. But really, yeah, the advice I would give to a first-time buyer is completely different than maybe advice I'd give to someone who owns a few different homes. So it's definitely case by case. Everything's catered to your personal where you're at in your life. And what's what's I mean, what's cool with our businesses, I'd say 85 plus percent of our business comes from our spirit influence of people that know us, people that we know, referrals from those same people. So it's a real kind of intimate. Relationship that we have with our clients, we're looking out for their best interests because there's someone we're going to see on the holidays next next week. And so we look after them like they are our own because they are our own.
Meagan Reyes19:03 - 19:38
kind of holding their hand and not just like, oh yeah, you want to buy a house, go look tomorrow. Like we want to set them and put them in the right place so that when that time comes, they're not, you know, stricken with, wait, I have to pay an appraisal. I have to pay an inspection. I have like, we want to throw all that information at them up front so that they can prepare. Cause that's really all. First time home buying is, it's a big deal and it's a huge investment, but it's really pretty straightforward. You just have to make sure that you have all the information and you're ready when that time comes.
Cody Oakes19:38 - 21:09
Yeah. So, and the other, the other thing too is, you know, with, with Reyes Realty and us also having vendors, we're also finding houses that we're putting in and, you know, Some of these are, you know, creative. Some of them are taking over loans. Some of them that's already got a fixed loan, 3%, 4%. And then you also have that for VAs, too, you know, being loans where people can sue, which is something that, you know, what we're wanting to do with with raised realty and with our mortgage brokers is have buy enough homes for, you know, somebody who's looking for a 3-2 or, you know, we're also a general contractor in Georgia, which is nice because you can kind of set your house up, you know, however you want it. Because any house that we take over, we're pretty much doing rehabs on almost every single one. So, yeah, I think the biggest thing is, you know, if you're looking for a home, then reach out to Reyes Realty. And then, you know, if you guys are looking to see what we have available through Real Estate Rescue, we can show you guys. you know, or if you're looking for something in Pacific, you know, particular that we can look for for you as well. And, you know, Ray's Realty could represent you because, you know, we, we were wanting to create this community with, with our agents and then with our brokers to pretty much get into a house. With a real quick on, with second homes, I mean, I know that we kind of talked about Airbnb market and ERBO, what do you guys see on that side of
Josh Reyes21:10 - 21:52
And in my opinion, I think that the, again, it would vary location by location, but I just think that Airbnb market is, I mean, it's a great option. I know 2021, 2022, a lot of people were struggling with, okay, I want to sell my home, but I also want to buy this home. And we know how easy it was to sell, but we know how hard it was to buy. So that little transition period of short-term rentals of having somewhere to stay short term. I mean, Airbnb was booming. I personally think it's kind of oversaturated. I think there's a lot of Airbnb.
Meagan Reyes21:52 - 22:29
We've never... Well, and too, I mean, any secondary home, I think it's going to take a hit as the market starts to turn and shift a little bit. You know, Airbnbs, VRBOs, things like that are going to kind of slow down because as we get into a recession, or if we go into a recession, people don't have the money and the luxury to go spend two weeks in a cabin in L.A. or whatever. Some people do, but I think that's if you are looking to get into an Airbnb or BRBO, you might want to adjust your budget and your vacancy rate and kind of plan for, hey, it might not be as booming as it was two years ago.
Cody Oakes22:29 - 25:01
Yeah, preparation, you know, the biggest thing that, you know, I was of 18, 19, whatever, 2008 recession happened, right? And a lot of people, that's all that they remember, so that's what they compare it to. I don't think that the housing market is gonna go through what it went through in 2008. It was a different, it was different for us. Mortgage-backed securities that they were giving loans, you know, on faculty credit scores, what do you expect? I'm not being, right. Yeah. And they're packaging up, you know, and sell them off. So it was kind of like this perfect store now, commercial mortgage-backed securities, that might take a big hit, especially with rates going up as much as they are. People didn't expect in five years for, you know, because it's based off of the interest rates. So I think mortgage-backed securities, definitely going to take a hit, huge hit, huge buying opportunity. But yeah, being able to kind of see what these cycles are, and I also think that media propaganda really popped this Airbnb thing up, where everybody's, anybody was just buying Airbnbs late, right? Going to Rosemary 38. We go there every year, love that area. Bracket Ridge, Colorado, we go there. And man, those prices have just skyrocketed. So, you know, Those are something where we work with each other and we do real estate rescue a lot to be able to assume those loans. And you guys are agents, so I know that a lot of agents aren't very familiar with this, but basically if you had a house that sold for 800,000 in 2020, 2021, whenever it was, and it went up to 1.4 and now it's starting to drop down in certain areas, not all areas right now, And those houses sit on the market for a very long time. And maybe it drops back down to $800,000. If the homeowner sells that house, traditionally, they're going to take a loss. Because they're paying commission fees, closing costs. What we'll do is we'll just take over the loan directly from them, still pay the commissions to the agents. But as far as Airbnb goes, I think that, yeah, certain markets, certain areas,
Josh Reyes25:03 - 25:26
But I mean, the cool thing about owning real estate, so you are in the driver's seat of, okay, I can't Airbnb this or, or, hey, that's not working, let me pivot, we'll do long term rentals. But I mean, I mean, I mean, even over, over this kind of crazy year, home prices are still increasing in our area 4%. So I mean, you're still you still have an asset that
Cody Oakes25:26 - 25:49
That is, yeah, maybe it's not, it's like, Oh my God, we're making so much money. You know, now they're not making anything, but we say all the property, you know, again, this is, you know, as long as you, you're not, as long as you're not selling at the bottom and buying at the top, then you'll be in a good situation.
Josh Reyes25:52 - 26:31
Yeah, yeah, I mean, we have a rental property from the idea of a short term rental around or whatever. To me, I think it kind of depends on your level of involvement that you want. It might not necessarily be passive income if you're having to restock everything on weekends or clean. So it might be a little bit more involved, but maybe that's what you want. So we've just gone the long-term route, the cash flows, and we have a good tenant in there. And so we're sitting tight.
Cody Oakes26:31 - 26:37
Yeah, maybe some people's perception of real estate has gotten scattered based off of their B&B and the B&O.
And I'm like, man, we should make those crazy future decisions. Long-term, that's not.
Cody Oakes26:43 - 27:23
And the other thing, too, is whenever you have disavowals in cities that aren't making money off of us, they're going to find ways to weed out charge more money because they're missing out on tax dollars. Yeah. So the whole reason originally to buy real estate was to make your money, but you're only able to ride it off. You're able to appreciate it. And over time, you pay the property off and then you've got multiple assets and you can also cash on cash refinances. So just because you're not making that crazy amount doesn't mean that real estate still doesn't pay a good amount.
Josh Reyes27:24 - 27:46
Yeah, as independent contractors, we don't have a retirement, and so our retirement's sitting there with the tenant in it right now, and that's kind of our retirement vehicle, and we hope to have more. It's definitely the goal to handle the loans, yeah.
Cody Oakes27:46 - 27:52
Well, look guys, I appreciate you guys coming out to Real Estate Rescue. Is there anything that, you know, drop your information, who you guys are,
Josh Reyes27:55 - 28:17
make a plug for yourself. We are a Reyes Realty Group with Keller Williams Realty Partners. You can reach us either on my cell at 706-381-02 or on Meagan's cell at 404-372-3742 or shoot us an email with any questions that you guys may have. Sold at reyes-realty.com.
Meagan Reyes28:17 - 28:22
We appreciate you having us on, Cody. And we appreciate you teaming up with us as well.
Cody Oakes28:24 - 28:35
Yeah, absolutely. I'm going to put the information below as far as our podcast goes for anybody to reach out to you guys. It's been a pleasure working with you guys.
Josh Reyes28:35 - 29:04
I'm glad to have you guys. Yeah, I'll throw in there that when you were talking to me about what you were doing, I thought was, I mean, I don't understand. These people have equity in their homes. Why don't they just, whatever, They just sell it. But to hear some of the stories of how you're helping people get out of the situations that they unknowingly or knowingly got themselves in, it's cool to see what you're doing and we love being a part of it.
Cody Oakes29:04 - 29:10
Yeah, I appreciate it. Yeah, anybody again looking for a house, reach out to Ray's Realty. Until next time.
Intro/Outro29:14 - 29:28
Thanks so much for tuning into this episode of Real Estate Rescue. We sure do appreciate it. If you haven't done so already, make sure you're subscribed to the show wherever you consume podcasts. This way you'll get updates as new episodes become available. And if you feel so inclined, please leave us a review. Until next time, friends.