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Affordable Housing and Navigating Housing Programs · The Academy Presents podcast

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  dreamed of all through real estate investing.
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  You're already taking the first step. just by
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  joining us here today. I think this is one of
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  the issues. There's so many people that want
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  to help people find a place to live. You know,
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  our personal goal is to provide the best housing
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  we can at the price point that each person can
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  afford. So like we have one property that's very
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  much a B property, so it's a little bit higher
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  priced. And for the people that can afford to
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  live there, we want to provide the best living
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  we can at that price point. We have another property,
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  absolutely a C property and it's pretty skinny
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  already, but we want to offer the best we can
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  at that price point. And if you bring in like
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  a section, if you bring in section eight, they're
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  usually not to market rent anyway. But when I
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  hear these horror stories and yours is not the
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  only one, it makes it really scary to get into
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  those programs. And there's such a need for affordable
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  housing. But the way that the whole program is
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  being handled makes investors afraid of it. Because
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  we're just average people. We can't float $20
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  ,000 a month for the next six months. We just
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  can't. And our investors can't either. Even if
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  we went to the investors and we said, hey, Section's
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  not paying this month, we're going to have to
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  cap call, they're not going to be happy about
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  that. Because yes, they have the heart and want
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  to offer housing, but at the same time, why do
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  we have to pay for the government shortcoming?
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  So it just makes it hard. And number one, I'm
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  sorry you're going through this. Thank you. Because
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  it stinks. And I think that it's actually fairly
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  common for these kinds of larger programs, even
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  though it's It's one city. New York City is huge.
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  So I think it's fairly common for big programs
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  to be a little antiquated in their processes
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  or process -y. I don't know what the plural is.
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  I think that's right. Process -y. They tend to
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  be a little more like algo as opposed to digital.
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  Why? And that's the problem. Like this whole
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  digital world now. This is not like the post
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  -COVID type of you should get with the movement.
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  This was like, you should have been digitized
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  a long time ago. Like how long have computers
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  and the internet been out now? Like why? Why
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  are you still manually processing paperwork?
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  Why do you not have a portal? We pay our taxes
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  on, it's New York City. We have so much other
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  online stuff and I'm not sure why this one program
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  can't be online, can't be digitized. There's
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  a case file sitting on somebody's desk but nobody
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  knows where it's at because there's no way to
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  track it in the computer. And so unless you,
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  can go through the thousands of however many
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  hundreds of case workers they have and go through
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  everybody's death. Like, do you have this case?
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  Do you have this case? Like, no one's doing that.
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  But like, New York City, we pay our taxes online.
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  All our real estate deed and information is online.
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  You know, like, all that stuff, I can go online
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  and find almost everything else when it comes
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  to real estate and systems and, you know, just...
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  Property taxes insurance or whatever else But
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  I can't do a program online like I just and every
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  single phone number that look, you know, it's
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  so funny At the bottom of the letter. They sent
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  me it was like if you have any questions or concerns
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  about a lot call this number So I called the
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  number and it said do do this number No longer
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  in service. Said, call blah, blah, blah, blah,
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  blah instead. So I'm like, what? If you had enough
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  time to put into the voice recording that this
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  number's not working, but this is the new number
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  you should call, why don't you just print that
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  new number at the bottom of the letter and bypass
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  this old number altogether? Like, why are you
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  printing this automatically on an automated cancel
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  letter? with an old phone number but the recording
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  says the new number to call so there's already
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  a new number why not just put that on the letter
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  the first time i'm sorry i just it can't no i
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  mean it just makes no sense it's like what you're
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  saying so you've got somebody who's like their
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  whole living situation is hanging in the balance
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  and it's on some random person's desk whereas
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  if it was in a system at least it could be found,
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  they'd be able to say, oh, hey, well, it's with
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  Caseworker, you know, Jones over here at XYZ
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  location. So if you just go to XYZ location and
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  look for Caseworker Jones, you're going to be
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  able to find the case you're looking for and
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  we can get it, you know, brought today or brought
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  current or whatever has been done. Exactly. Exactly.
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  So something of that. So I guess at the end of
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  the day. This needs to be more than just complaining
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  about antiquated systems. It's kind of, is it
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  worth it? And how, if you're going to do it,
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  how do you navigate it so that you can still
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  be successful with it? Because, like I said,
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  the pay is so much better than what I was charging
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  my tenants previously. until they started a rate
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  heist, that was like my financial freedom number.
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  So I need the Fed to, everyone's messing me up
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  right now. I need the Fed to come back down and
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  I need city clubs to pay me, then I've got my
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  financial freedom number. But in any case, yeah,
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  so I think I mentioned it a little bit before,
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  just making sure that you, really know how the
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  system works. Sometimes it's hard to find out
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  how the system really works until you get into
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  it. But talk to other landlords who are in it
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  and really try to dig deeper beyond their discontent
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  if they are discontented with the system. Try
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  to find out more why and what happened and details
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  about it and talk to as many people as you can.
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  Talk to tenants who are there like go go in person
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  to different like offices trying to find the
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  right location for like your zip code and like
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  try to find someone who's willing to talk to
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  you maybe even if you have to treat somebody
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  to take them out for dinner because you just
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  need to know how it works you know because some
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  of you go in the government office in the middle
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  of the day people are busy with all the other
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  caseloads that they have to get through at the
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  end of the day hey do you want to go out for
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  a drink you want to go out for dinner like i'm
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  willing to treat because i really i don't want
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  to take up your time during the day but i really
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  would appreciate you know just if from someone
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  who is experienced in how this process works
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  kind of thing. So whatever you can do or have
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  to do to find out as much as you can and don't
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  be scared to ask tenants when they come in. What's
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  your, when is your cases, your case due every
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  year? When's the next time it's due, it's gonna
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  expire? Just like. getting as much of that paperwork
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  and documentation because even with CityFeps,
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  my tenants' payments come from sometimes from
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  different departments. So the majority comes
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  from CityFeps and then some of them have shelter
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  allowances also comes from a different department
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  with HRA. So those like that, I found that out
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  just from like going through it and learning
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  it. But if you can try to front load that curve
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  and just be on the ground and not just rely on
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  Trying to call and do whatever is on the internet
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  because that being in person is still very powerful
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  to meet people in person and have that contact
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  person that you can you can call because I did
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  call my contact person and she was able to look
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  up some stuff in the computer and see What was
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  missing so we don't I don't know if the case
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  that was missing was on somebody's dick last
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  But at least I know that she could see that it
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  was missing, you know I mean, so I kind of like
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  what the next step so she informed me what the
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  next steps were for my tenant to go in and rectify
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  things so Things are moving but it's just a shell
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  -shock to get a letter like that in the mail
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  and not know what's going on or how to handle
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  it because I can't just Kick a lady out with
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  two kids on the street and how do I even get
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  her to move? like I can't enough to pay for her
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  to moving costs because I don't I don't have
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  that you know what I mean, so it's um It's something
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  I could go on and on About do I still think is
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  worth it? Yes, I do. I I don't know. I think
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  Yeah, when it works it works well So I made a
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  list of questions and I may have gotten them
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  out of order, but so I put lessons learned Who
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  is the caseworker? Where are they located? What
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  is their phone number? How do I keep my residents
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  case current? And then to the tenant, when is
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  your case renewal? And do you know who your caseworker
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  is? And then what is missing from the file? So
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  if you know those things, you should be able
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  to keep it smooth. Yeah. Yeah. And one thing
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  that is another loop, and I don't know how section
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  eight works when it comes to this, but for city
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  FEPs, because I did ask my tenants this as well,
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  but they don't have a caseworker per se. There's
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  no one assigned to them. They have a case number.
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  So if you can get the case number, which is also,
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  I never knew how to find the case number because
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  I thought it was something that was not provided
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  to the landlords because it's like, I can't go
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  in for my tenants. It's the tenants' case. They
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  have to go in for themselves. So, like, that's
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  another thing that sucks. Like, I can't go in
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  advocating for them. But I asked the lady on
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  the phone. She asked the case number. I said,
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  I don't know. They don't provide that to us.
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  She said, it's on the check that you get. And
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  I'm like, oh, shit. I didn't know that. So I
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  just happened to have the checks with me. And
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  I looked, and I was like... Oh so I see where
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  the case number so anyone out there who has it
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  look on the checks it might have the case number
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  might be there if the tenant doesn't know it
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  and at least you have that number and there's
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  normally a process okay for this For this particular
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  voucher, the tenant has to go to their local
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  office for this, like I said, either home base
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  or HRA. Where is that at? If you can get an address
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  for where the local office for you is, or a list
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  of offices and which one is for your zip code.
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  The first time I went running around, I had...
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  different, I had a sheet that had like what should
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  have been for my zip code and it wasn't there.
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  Cause after I went there and then they told me,
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  Oh, go to the other place. I went to the other
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  place. It wasn't there. Then they told me, Oh,
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  go to this other place. And so I went to the
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  third place and that was it. So sometimes it's
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  going to be running around, but how, how worth
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  it is it to you? What's your ultimate like goal
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  in being an investor? I know we all want to make
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  money, but if you also have. a deeper why for
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  what you're doing, then sometimes it's worth
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  going through. And in real estate, no matter
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  what you're doing, there's going to be headaches
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  and there's going to be obstacles and roadblocks
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  to get around and loop -de -loops to travel through.
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  And it's just pick your poison, you know? Yeah,
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  no, absolutely. You know, Nicole, I just want
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  to thank you for being here and just for being
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  willing to talk about Some of the crap that goes
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  along with trying to trying to provide affordable
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  housing I think there's a lot of us that we would
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  love to do it, but we get scared I mean how many
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  how many hours are there in a day and I have
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  to go here there and everywhere and Maybe my
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  maybe my residents maybe they know their numbers.
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  Maybe they know the contact. Maybe they don't
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  I mean, there's just so many what ifs So just
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  thank you for bringing the reality of what it
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  could be, but to also bring the reality of what
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  it is when it's working. Because it's super easy
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  to just moan and complain about things when they're
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  going bad, but you also brought the beauty of
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  when it's working well and being able to collect
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  a higher rent and that money be in there and
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  coming and you had residents with skin in the
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  game and you had some that didn't that just weren't
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  there yet. And so I think that you really brought
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  a whole picture and just thank you. Oh, thank
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  you. Thank you for having me again. And I, you
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  know me, I'm an open book. I love to be transparent
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  about the good and the bad because I just think
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  people who are looking to get into it needs to
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  just be aware on all fronts. And just because
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  there's bad doesn't mean you shouldn't do it.
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  It just means be prepared for it and just go
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  in with your eyes wide open. Absolutely. So thank
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  you again. And guys, if you're staying on this
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  side, there's tons of information here. If you
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  want to join us on the live side, you can get
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  side. And we'd love to see you there either direction
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  until next time. And thank you again.