What If It Did Work?
What If It Did Work?
From Refugee to Reformer
What if you could access all your home equity without sacrificing future appreciation? Kyle Kamrooz, founder and CEO of Bonus Homes, joins us to reveal how his personal family story sparked a revolutionary approach to homeownership and wealth-building for middle-class Americans.
Born to Iranian immigrants who fled pre-revolution Iran in 1976, Kyle's journey is quintessentially American yet uniquely shaped by watching his father's financial struggles. After building multiple successful mortgage technology companies (including CloudVirga, which processed over $300B in loans annually before its acquisition), Kyle identified a fundamental flaw in how Americans build wealth: the requirement to sell appreciating home assets whenever life demands mobility.
The lightbulb moment came when Kyle's father sold his home in 2011 to access $100,000 in equity – a property that would be worth $1.2 million today. This experience revealed a stark inequality: affluent homeowners can maintain multiple properties when they relocate, while middle-class families must liquidate their most significant appreciating asset, forfeiting hundreds of thousands in future wealth.
Enter Bonus Homes – an alternative allowing homeowners to "bonus" their property instead of selling it. By targeting properties valued between $300,000-$550,000 in growing markets like Phoenix, Charlotte, and Nashville, Kyle's platform enables homeowners with coveted sub-4% interest rates to access their equity while maintaining ownership and future appreciation potential.
The implications are profound. Kyle envisions creating $5-10 billion in new wealth for 50,000 middle-class families – wealth that would otherwise be sacrificed through traditional home sales. At a time when America's middle class has been "pulverized" over the past two decades, this innovation offers a pathway to rebuilding generational wealth through smarter homeownership.
Ready to learn how your home could become a lasting cornerstone of family wealth rather than a temporary stopping point? Listen now to discover why Kyle believes America's middle class deserves better tools for building lasting prosperity.
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I never told no one that my whole life I've been holding back. Every time I load my gun up so I can shoot for the star, I hear a voice like who do you?
Speaker 2:think all right, everybody, another day, another dollar. Another one of my favorite pod episodes, my favorite podcast, because it's my own podcast season four. What if it did work? I've got a Persian with a mission. Kyle Camaruz, the founder and CEO of Bonus Homes and groundbreaking platform redefining how Americans hold generational wealth through homeownership. Man Generational wealth that's definitely something we need to talk about Prior to founding the Bonus Homes. To talk about Prior to founding the Bonus Homes. Kyle spent nearly two decades in the real estate ecosystem. By the age of 25, kyle had already built one of the largest direct-to-consumer mortgage lending companies in California. By 27, he built a 50-state national lender that processed over $7 billion with a B not million loans annually and employed more than 800 people across all 50 states. Seeing the clunkiness in the mortgage and real estate process, kyle developed a technology that would become cloud diving that's cloud diving.
Speaker 2:Cloud burger Cloud burger, dude, I need glasses. A groundbreaking technology that turned the proper, intensive home loan process digital Exactly. Cloudvirga quickly earned the trust of the country's largest lenders, set new industry standards and its cutting-edge digital processes that made getting a loan easy and less costly. Where were you, man, all these years ago? Man, I've done only the old clunky way. Platform saw over 1 million consumers in 2020, process over 300B again billion in loan volume 2021, kyle sold CloudVirga to Stewart Title, one of the world's largest publicly traded title insurance companies, cementing its impact in history. Man, I could go on and on you. You've got, you've got the bio from hell, man, congratulations on all that. And when, dude, it must be your persian blood, because when it says you have 20 something years of experience now in your pick, but it I, I was gonna be like dude. When did you start like?
Speaker 3:oh, it's so funny. Yeah, you know, what's funny is is I actually just turned 45 yeah, dude, you, you're good.
Speaker 2:Some people look like the walking dead man, uh, people that that were hot in my high school, uh, full disclosure. They're turning 52. Shit man, five years ago at our, at our 30th man some, some women look like the crypt Keeper and I can see why they use the filters so yeah, no congratulations. Thanks, dude. 20 years so and it says in your bio that your family now did. You grow up in Southern Cal.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so it's interesting. My parents came from Iran during the late 70s when, basically, you know, every Iranian that you see today in the United States of America came during 1975 to 1980, really, I mean, I would say every majority of them came. And my parents came in 76, so they came before the revolution. But they started seeing the writing on the wall and my father, they didn't speak any English, right, you know, typical immigrant story. Didn't speak a lot of English, very smart, but just didn't, you know, know English at the time and we spoke Farsi and Turkish and we ended up.
Speaker 3:My father came over in 1976, came to Atlanta, georgia. I was born in Georgia. My dad went to Georgia Tech University, so he was a Yellow Jacket, got his architectural degree. And here's a guy who you know again story $55 in his pocket, didn't speak a lick of English, worked as a busboy, worked himself up to as a captain in a very upper scale restaurant, put himself through school, had a kid, had a wife, you know, just just a gritty man, super, you know a lot of respect. Um, and then I was born in Atlanta and then came out to, uh, southern California, to Orange County, irvine, california, uh, basically I was two years old. So in essence I I've lived in Southern California since 1982, 1983. Dude, I've been to both places.
Speaker 2:Your dad, your dad chose wisely and all that. But, yeah, what a lot of people don't realize is that, besides it being Persia, the area you know, because we, you know, we try to whitewash ancient history and we believe that only Europeans were high tech, when in fact they're. You know, they're the ones that destroyed a lot of the technology by you know, all the indigenous people, by the Persians. Because you know it, it sounds better to say you know, the conquistadors came to south america and central america and they're like not only do we have christianity, but we're gonna teach you guys how to live life in the same thing. Yeah, and a middle east. And another thing people don't realize, man, is that it was like the United States Women were like with the miniskirts.
Speaker 3:It was fascinating and I encourage people to watch. I think it was on HBO Max. It was called Hostages. It came out like a couple of years ago. It's a fantastic documentary that really does a great depiction of basically the of the 50s and 60s and up to 70s, leading up to the hostage crisis, and really what happened right with the Shah and so forth in power. And for someone like me who's never been there, well, I wouldn't recommend it these days. No, and I tell people this is fascinating because it's interesting. I was in DC during the couple of months ago and I met the crown prince, the son of the Shah of Iran, who's alive and you'll see. You see him in the pictures when he was very young. He's here. You know he's trying to create some type of democracy in Iran. He's trying to try to figure it out Right. Obviously, we've got a bigger fish to fry over there right now, but it is fascinating as I've learned more about the culture, how transformative my culture, my culture, was um overnight literally overnight.
Speaker 3:It is unbelievable what happened where one day you had, like you said, you know, in the sixties and seventies I mean it was very progressive Women were educated, very well educated. I mean my mother got her PhD, master's degree in chemistry right and just was like the rate of their learning. I remember my father would say, like you know, I was learning calculus when I was taking AP calculus in high school, which I thought was really cool, and my dad was like what you learned this? I learned this in eighth grade. You know what I mean.
Speaker 3:He's like I'm like sorry dad, you learn this. I learned this in eighth grade. You know what I mean. He's like I'm like sorry dad, I can't help the education system here, but anyways, it's fascinating how progressive they were and when you really like again, I encourage you to watch that show because it is probably one of the best depictions of just historical accuracy in regards to what happened in the 70s, especially with the hostage situation. But it is crazy how now, 45 years later, we are still in the same you know just environment over there, where everything has gone back 100 years.
Speaker 2:Well, the and the Ayatollah Khomeini has been dead for like what? 30 years. Yeah, it is. He's been dead forever. It's bananas.
Speaker 3:It's crazy.
Speaker 3:And when you look at history, yeah, we've had regime changes throughout history, of course, conquering and when you go back to you know the different empires and stuff, but to have something go this far, radically back, right, I mean, they made so much, Iranians made so much progress in the 60s and 70s, 50s, 60s and 70s in so many ways, and to just have them all of a sudden just evaporate in a matter of literally six months and go back to the Stone Age, where women now had no right to leave their leave, leave their spouse.
Speaker 3:Women had to leave school right away. I mean, literally the next day. They couldn't go to school, no more education, Some couldn't work anymore and it just was like what just happened. And so I feel for so many of those people and it is pretty amazing and I say this because you know, I don't, I don't have a lot of Persian influence in my life today and when I come across some of these, you know, uh, women who are my mom's age and whatnot, Like I, I have a lot of respect because, like I can't imagine what they grew up with and then to have that taken away like that.
Speaker 2:So, uh, it's pretty crazy, but you know it, uh, it's yeah it's just dude, it's just your dad man, if that's not the American story man.
Speaker 3:That's exactly right.
Speaker 2:Hungry immigrant that came here, you know, and to you know. Just think, man, the world wouldn't have known you. You wouldn't have been able to write any loans or do anything or help out anybody.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that's exactly right.
Speaker 2:And my father.
Speaker 3:You would have been what an Iman maybe? Yeah, that's exactly right. And my father, my dad, was a great dad, but he instilled in me in early days two really big lessons, which was, you know, it's funny you typically think when Iranian families it's you know, you're either going to grow up to be a doctor, you know, a lawyer, right, or someone in that trade. And my father was very progressive in the sense of just being like, be an innovator, you know. Question the status quo, always ask why, solve big problems and don't let anyone ever tell you otherwise, right, just always keep pushing forward. And that was probably one of the biggest lessons my dad taught me.
Speaker 2:Now here's something I've always wondered. I mean, I'm the history guy, that's why I know all about the Shah Ayatollah, whatnot. Unfortunately, that's my second degree, so good thing I didn't. I'd be working at a museum or I'd be like saying, kyle, would you like a tall or would you like an extra skinny? What would you like with it? No, no, but I never pursued that. But what? Why such a iranian influence in southern cal?
Speaker 3:great question. Um, you know, that's actually a great question. I'm surprised at how many I mean if you think of the los angeles predominantly right. So I, I grew up in orange county, which is obviously about, um, my my, my antler is uh Laguna Hills, so I visited, since I was like five.
Speaker 3:I was right there. So I live in Newport beach and and and Irvine is right next door and you know LA is about 45 minutes to an hour depending on traffic North. So it is fascinating how a lot of the Persians migrated to Westwood Encino. You know you got the Beverly Hills.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you even had the. I've never watched an episode but I've seen and I swear because you know at least people and you know fighting iran and you know everything. It's funny that you know. We're led to believe that you know just savage people. It's never. You never hear somebody go oh yeah, that's, that's persia, that's modern day persia. When you hear of iran, it's only the ayatollah.
Speaker 3:It's all. Yeah, it's axis of evil, right.
Speaker 2:You know. But, dude, you know we've. I mean, you're right at that age man.
Speaker 2:We were still with the Soviet Union. We had to have the movies. You know, all the women from Eastern European look like transgender dudes and they could bench press and they were just angry, angry, ugly people that just wanted to come and take over america and take over democracy. You gotta, you gotta love propaganda in general, man, what I I realized traveling the world is people don't give a shit about anything except themselves. Man, yeah, right, right now, some kid in ira, iraq, iran, afghanistan. They're not like, oh man, what are they doing in the US? We need to conquer them. No, man, you know they're thinking about what most teenage kids do. Or, you know, if you're a parent, hey, man, your dad wanted to hustle. If he would have migrated to Amsterdam, the Netherlands, have the Netherlands, he would have still had that.
Speaker 3:A hundred percent yeah.
Speaker 2:He wasn't like plot, he was like oh, I'm going to the evilness you know it has. That's just like crap we watch in movies. But two people in general, man, your dad wanted to give your family a better life. He wanted to give you that choice so you can create, you know, bonus homes.
Speaker 3:Yeah, exactly right, and the stemming of that, which is interesting, right. So bonus is my, I say my newest venture, but it's my most passionate, and reason is is because it's so closely tied to my dad and my dad and I, unfortunately, you know, today we kind of just have. You know, we haven't talked in a little bit. It's a long story, but he's still alive, he is. Yeah.
Speaker 2:And there's plenty of time. Man, I was hoping you weren't telling me, yeah, he's dead.
Speaker 3:Well, then yeah, there's no, no, there's plenty of time. It's a culture shift right.
Speaker 3:Of course, he's a stubborn man, but regardless, one of the interesting things is that I grew up trying to his. It's a culture shift, right? I mean, he's a he's a stubborn man and but regardless, like one of the one of the interesting thing is is that, you know, I grew up my parents divorced when I was six years old and, um, uh, my dad really raised me. I mean, it was, I was a single dad and I have no family united states. So, unlike most iranians who came out here with the entire tribe of family grandparents, cousins, aunts, uncles and you know, you had 95 people move into you know, a community. Literally I was the exact opposite. It was just me, my mother and father, and then, when my mother left, it was just my father and I, and no siblings, never met my grandparents. Um, you know no family united states, literally just me and my dad.
Speaker 2:I mean, my dad and I are the only Kamroos in the United States and, um, well, did you at least like grow up near other Iranians, or were you just like so like you?
Speaker 3:know my dad? Yes, early on we did, but I, I, I, I grew up down in in in Irvine and in Dana point, uh, so my, my, so my middle school and high school years were in Dana Point, which is basically like on the way to like San Onofre, oceanside, south Orange County, and it was very much like a surfer town, predominantly Caucasian. It was Caucasian and Hispanic. And in the 90s when I went to school I'll never forget I was such an introvert I would go to school. My real first name is actually I change it to Kyle, but my real first name is Kambiz, my Persian name, so it's K-A-M-B-I-Z and then my last name is K-A-M-R-O-O-Z. And the reason why my name is now Kyle is because, true, true story, I literally I, freshman year in high school, I I played basketball.
Speaker 3:I had a pretty prejudiced coach and he was just, he was brutal. I mean there was literally two Persians in the entire school. Literally Everyone else was either, you know, bob Smith, matt Mathewson, or you had, you know, you had Jorge, or Jorge Juan, and a lot of them were my friends. Mean, I had so many Hispanic friends I had, I had Caucasian friends and so forth, but he just one day came to after practice, after scrimmage, and he's just like you know, you know, trying to say my name. You know, come, come, come, come, bit, you know what I'm just gonna call you, kyle, from now on. In front of like my buddies and everybody, we're sitting around in the gym and he didn't even ask me. He just decided, right, and my whole world at a moment, right, I'm a 16 year old, 140 pounds, dripping wet, you know, kind of a kid, and I'm just sitting there and my, my buddies are like, actually, I kind of like that.
Speaker 3:And so I came home to my dad and this, this kind of defines who my dad is. I came to my dad that day and I said, hey, dad, you know, I had this coach and whatever, and obviously he wasn't happy about that, but he, he, uh, I said, you know, I think I want to change my name to kyle. I want to fit in because kyle's a lot easier, because no one can say com b's. It was so hard to teachers roll call at a. You know, it just was. It was embarrassing at a time where now, if I go back to school, back to my old community, there's plenty of odd names that are in there. Of course, man.
Speaker 3:It's a melting pot. It's a melting pot everywhere, and so it just during that time it was very unique, and so I changed my name legally to Kyle. But here's my point my father was was the kind of dad that you know, appreciated his Iranian culture but also allowed himself to learn and embed himself in the new community that he was building, which which is which speaks volumes, right. And so his answer was sure, you want to change your name? I don't have a problem with that. I understand your concerns in school. Yeah, your name is. I have no ego. Whether you keep that or not, I can always call you Combees, but if you want other people to call you Kyle, no problem.
Speaker 3:One week later I go and change my social security number and have a Kyle, and it's been that since, you know, and that's the kind of father that I grew up with, and so I got very Americanized at a young age, in a sense of just the culture, and that Persian influence was little by little, over time it wasn't really there. And then my dad's closest friends from just you know in general, were just all you know John, doug, tim, tom, so they were just all great men, and these were all like little, like little uncles for me in a sense, and so it was a very interesting dynamic, growing up and having very little Persian influence. But that also helped me, you know just it just helped me, gave me another, another forte into, into, just, you know, experiencing Well, dude, you got, at least you know your roots.
Speaker 2:Dude, you got, at least you know your roots. You know well, and that's exactly that's.
Speaker 3:That's exactly right, because what? My first english is my third language, which is funny, because I, I don't you're not an american man.
Speaker 2:Yeah right, and so it's one language yeah so.
Speaker 3:so my first language was turkish and then farsi and then english, but I but I basically stopped speaking those because I didn't want to have an accent. I told my, my, my, my dad and even my mom at a young age as I started speaking, I'm like no, I don't want to have an accent, because they have accents. And I just again I was kind of like embarrassed but also I just I needed to fit in because I had so many like I feel like I had marks against me.
Speaker 2:You know you also. You also were yeah, dude, you're a young kid also. It wasn't like you logically were like the reason why my parents have an accent is because they moved here, yeah, when they're adults, and not because they're little kids. Yeah, exactly right, that's exactly nothing to do with what you know, they could have spoken 20 languages yeah, that's right.
Speaker 3:That's right. Yeah, and, uh, and, and, and. That was that. And then, like I grew up my father, we grew up middle class and my dad didn't own a home. We always rented. You know, if you think about this, he came in the 70s, late 70s. He didn't buy a house until, I think, 2004, 2005 now?
Speaker 2:now, was it because just the cost of living, or I think it was a lot of things.
Speaker 3:He had some business choices, some poor business choices that you know happened, someone screwing them over and this and that, and you know I I'm not gonna. You know, he he had some. He had some tough runs, right. Um, he was in real estate. By the way, he got me into real estate, my father was actually the one who initially taught me, you know, doing mortgages, lending, et cetera. He was my, he was my Mr Miyagi, at a time Really yeah, I was a time that, you know, I went to school up in LA. I went to Pepperdine University, I went there.
Speaker 3:Malibu, yeah, and I was gonna go to the East Coast, but I didn't want to go far away from my dad and I didn't want to leave the coast because I was a surfer, I wore board shorts and flip-flops all day, so, like I, just I was a, I was a surfer, bro. And anyways, um, my father was such a great just influence on me because my goal was to go to wall street, do mergers and acquisitions, go to new york, and my dad was like, hey, I'm doing this thing in real estate. And I'm like, oh, no, that's, I don't want to do that. It's like that seems like it's like, you know, just, that's too easy. Anyways, I learned to love it and and, anyways, my dad was in real estate for for for a long time and and, uh, had ups and downs but never really made it, made it right, and we lived in a bit. He was an amazing father, rented but never really made it, made it right, and we lived in a bit. He was an amazing father, rented homes we never really owned. And, um, he finally bought a house. Um, you know, I think 2004, 2005, he bought a house. So at that time I was 25 years old. I've already been gone and moved out and everything, and he finally bought a home after after I left, and so we grew up.
Speaker 3:Like I said, we grew up middle class, make a lot of money and whatnot the middle class of the 90s and the 2000s, which is a vastly different. One of the reasons why I started Bonus is a vastly different middle class than what we see today. There is no middle class today and that is fundamental to why I'm very passionate about Bonus Homes and this company that we started, because it really is a mission and it really stems from my father, because my father at the time had to just to kind of go into that. Like he literally had a yeah, he ran into some financial trouble. 2008 financial crisis crushed him like it crushed a lot of people 2008 financial crisis crushed him like it crushed a lot of people.
Speaker 3:My dad, trust me, I remember, yeah, and I mean I it was, oh, my goodness. So my dad, um, you know he. So he had the, he had his property and, uh, in 2010, 2011, he had to sell his house, not because he was like late on it or anything, he just needed the equity out. He had about a hundred thousand of equity in that home and he needed it because he needed to move. And I'm like talking to him, I'm like dad, this is, and he's like, he's like combis, he's like this in his accent this house will be worth one million. It was 500,000 dollar house. Million, it was 500 000 house. He thought this house would be worth a million in minimum or maximum, 10 years.
Speaker 3:And he says I hate the fact that I have to sell it, but I have no other choice because there's no other option other than selling your home if you want to move and ever since then, I've always had, and it happened with me and think about the homes that you grew up in and your family and whatnot. These houses appreciate in value, especially living in, you know, miami, um, you know, and my dad had to sell his most prized possession just because life happened and he needed a move. How many millions of people out there have to move because of a job? Move because they just want to move? You know, I'm going to try something different. Move because of kids meaning like you, for whatever reason, I have more, whatever.
Speaker 2:Or a divorce.
Speaker 3:Yeah, exactly that's right, for all the myriad of reasons why we have to have mobility, and yet selling and any tools thereabouts makes mobility financially punitive. It's basically telling you, omar, hey, you want to go move to another property Great, look at all this equity you've got in your house. Oh, but you've got to get rid of this asset that's going to go up in value just because you need to move. That's what you've got to do Pretty much, and that's not fair, right, Because you know this. Now, guess who doesn't have to sell that asset? The rich people right?
Speaker 2:No, because they have multiple.
Speaker 3:They have cash. They have cash. They don't need the $100,000 of equity that my dad did out of his house, because they can just go tap into their thing. They can leave this as a second home, they can turn it into a rental and if they want manager or someone else manager, they've got disposable ways to be able to do it and still keep that home. And, by the way, a lot of people in the upper class keep homes because they know that over time that wealth is going to build. So middle America, or what we have remnants of it today, everyone has to sell and they're selling and they're missing out on hundreds of thousands of future wealth.
Speaker 3:That was my dad. My dad today is 73 years old and he has missed out. If he kept that property, that house would be worth $1.2 million right now, today, and my dad would have had an extra $300,000 to $500,000 of equity, of cash that he can have, and that would mean volumes, speaks volumes, for what he can do in his life because he's got Well, especially at his age, especially at his age. And so that's just one example, but there's so many permutations of this that you hear throughout life. Or you go back and look at Zillow and you're like honey. Look at that house that we sold 12 years ago. We sold it for $400. It's going for $710.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I don't do that.
Speaker 3:I don't look at all the old properties I've ever owned that's exactly, and the reason is because you're just like, oh my god, I can't get by when you look at that, you know what I mean, because there's nothing good that's going to come out of it no, there's no property that can be, oh shit.
Speaker 2:I'm glad I sold it at at 500,000 ounce worth's right.
Speaker 3:That's right and that is the core of bonus. Bonus is basically giving people an alternative to sell. It says, hey, you can now bonus your home where you don't have to sell and give it up and you still get all your equity out, but you also get to participate in the future upside. And so what's really fascinating is amazing how life just works out this way. It's like 10 years later. I mean, I started several companies, I had CloudVirga and stuff, and then all these tailwinds started happening, especially if you think about what happened during COVID, where all these interest rates went really low and you've got half of America that has a rate below 4% and those people are sitting on gold. 4% and below interest rates are like gold. No one can offer that kind of. There's no cost of capital that low. The government is borrowing higher. So people are sitting on a gold mine and we created an instrument that allows them to be able to take advantage of it so that they can basically make money today, cash out all their equity, move on with life, not to worry about this house ever again, and then make money again in the future.
Speaker 3:And so, again, this is all stems because of my dad and, unfortunately, his situation. But I believe, truly honestly, omar. I do believe because my dad has an ego and he's stubborn, uh, like I think most fathers we would say are. I do believe because he didn't, he failed in his eyes. I believe our relationship rifted, not because he was jealous or any of that kind of stuff, but it rifted because he didn't have that security of knowing that he did all these things that I can, and I kept on telling my dad you know, I, I of that stuff matters to me, but I do feel that there was a sense of bruised ego in the sense of it too, and that kills me.
Speaker 2:He's a success all around brother. Yeah, he raised you. Yeah, you know single father, which you know. You usually only see that in movies. It's very rare, rare. He moved here with not a pot to piss in. All right, dude. Yeah, I've got a master's degree, but to get into georgia tech and I speak english, that's my first language and at 18, at 21, at not even for my master's degree, I I think georgia tech would be like come on, yeah, come on. We don't want to keep your 40 bucks for the application man that's exactly right.
Speaker 3:It's it's it's mind-boggling and but it's sad. Though you know what I mean, it it's still. And this is why, to me, look, obviously this is a business to be able to make money and whatnot, and but but to me, I believe, and I'm I I'm super blessed to be able to have an opportunity to chase a purpose and create a product that I have a big passion towards. And I have a story behind right when I, every time we do a bonus home, or every time I talk about this, I always try to remember the North star, which was really him, right? Because I'm just like, if I only would have done this not that I'm beating myself up, but if I would have had this back, then how would my dad's energy be, how would my dad's just you know world be, where he has an extra look? I mean, we all let's not kid ourselves Having a couple hundred thousand dollars in the bank is not a bad thing to have when you're 70 something years old, at least to be able to just know that it's there. So like that is what drives me because, to your point, my dad raised me you know, he's 27 years old when my mom I think he's 27 or 28 years old. When, when, when they, when they broke up 20 year old guy raising a kid.
Speaker 3:And what about mom? Is she still alive? My mom is still alive. She went back to Iran. Really, yeah, she's in Iran and she is. We talk every couple of weeks. She's the most sweetest person, but I can't have intellectual conversations really for her because she just doesn't understand. She lives very it's a very simple conversation with her.
Speaker 2:Well, it's impressive just just saying she moved back and you said you know, for a woman? I am woman, hear me roar yeah and believe it or not, they took her spirit away well, and that's exactly right.
Speaker 3:it is fascinating and I think you know it's so interesting. You say that because my mom is, oh, she's 1953. So my mom, my mom's actually 72. Wow, it's funny. I think the past couple of years I see remnants of what you just said, which is and I didn't see this before which is this she does feel like that her spirit like was broken and stuff, and and and I think the biggest part is just because you know she has no Internet, because she, she, for whatever reason you know she's in the Iranian government doesn't allow you to turn it on and off all the time, which I think is true. But my mom's not a very. She doesn't have a cell phone. It stresses her out like a lot of stuff she worries about people, like listening into her phones. I mean it is a very I'm like Mom.
Speaker 2:You're 72 years old. I don't think you're high on the Rhode Island.
Speaker 3:Yeah, you're not high on the Iranian special force special force list over there Like they're going to be watching. But you know my my, you know it's hard because my mom has, you know it's a calling card. We talk on the phone. If I don't answer, I can't just go ahead and send her a text message saying I'll call you right back. I can't Faceetime her, so it's like, you know, we're talking like it was 1985, right, and there's there's, there's a sense of like she can't physically see me, right, at least with facetime and all that technology you could. So I know that gives her a lot of anxiety and I wish I can help change her that because I'm like, look, I'll get you a phone, let's get you and I, and just she won't do it.
Speaker 2:You know what I'm saying and it's kind of sad you know it's all fear, living in fear, dude, because and so it's crazy.
Speaker 3:She's just like, look, I mean, tabriz is a northern province, it's closer to azerbaijan, that's where my parents are from, and uh, it's not tehran. But boy, you know, every time I talk to her and she's I'm like well, I'm like hey, how's it, how's it going right? And and like, realistically, I mean, I know what the world sees like, what do you see when you're there?
Speaker 3:And she's just like combis, this place is bad, you know, and um, but she's at peace because she, she has her market, she can walk, you know where she's from and she's where she's from, yeah, and she's at peace because she kind of feels like that, you know she doesn't need a, she's like I'll never get married again, doesn't? You know? She doesn't want any friends, she's she likes being a loner and she's okay with that. She just wants to make sure that I'm okay. So that's kind of her vibe right now and she's not did she know that you're the the ceo? She doesn't know any of this stuff, which is really you never tell her did.
Speaker 2:Did she know that you graduated at least from no, no, she knows all that, yeah, she knows that I've done okay.
Speaker 3:But I don't go into the details because the amount of worry and anxiety that creates for her to think, like if I tell her I'm an entrepreneur or I started my own thing, for her it's hard to comprehend that I don't work for somebody and I have a stable, you know this, it's like nine to five, you know kind of thing, right, and I, as I've gotten older, I kind of try to meet her where I, where she's at.
Speaker 2:And so the conversations are simple and she's just super proud of you. She's's like does she know you changed your name? Do you say I'm?
Speaker 3:oh yeah, she knows that she's good and she's she's great about that, right. But the conversations are very, very simple, which is like, very simple, how are you eating? My mom is very health conscious. Make sure you take your omega-3s, you know your b12. Uh, walnuts are good for your brain. I mean, these are literally the conversations we're having, right, and it's great. And, by the way it is, it is nice to just be able to, for those five, 10, 15 minutes of time talking with her, be able to just kind of bring myself to kid levels in a sense and being like a child again. It's kind of cool, cause it's your mom.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and she'll always. It doesn't matter if you're 50, 40.
Speaker 3:That's exactly right.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's right. That's right.
Speaker 3:It's like don't eat too much sweets, don't eat sugar, right, you know it's like. Eat organic, you know it's like. So she says the same stuff over and over and and you know she's happy with it. She'll never ask me to come there because she says, no, don't come here, and nor will I, you know. So, anyways, the relationship is, is is good with her. I have a relationship with her and but yeah, that's, that's really it.
Speaker 3:I mean, like I said, I I've never met my grandparents. I met my grandmother one time when I was like five years old, and I've never met my grandparents. And you know, family to me Looks very different than a typical nuclear family, because my family are some of the people that are around my significant other and you know her family and just some of my close friends have become family people at bonus. I mean these are, these are some of my good friends and stuff, that we're building something together. And so for me, you know that the Iranian family of blood and this whole you, it never, it never was able to kind of filter through me well, dude, I'm sure your woman's kind of excited that she doesn't have to share, yeah I was married, I was like oh man, no, we, that's right that's right.
Speaker 3:That's right. Well, mom's calling me over for Sunday dinner. I got to go. Oh yeah, yeah, wait, can I come? No, she just wanted to be there.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, it's like 100% man, she doesn't have to be like, so we're. Oh yeah, we have to go to Christmas at your family. No, she's like oh, you know, everything's that that's right at my family. So of course she's, she's gonna be like that's a no-brainer man, that's like awesome yeah, yeah, it's an easy, it's an easy.
Speaker 3:Uh, holidays are very easy, but where are we going? Where do you want to go?
Speaker 2:exactly, exactly. But you know what you had your dad. Yeah, you had your mom and, believe it or not, man, there's people who had war stories and and the shit that you had to confront and the stuff that your, your parents, had to confront. That's what created your dad, that's what created your mom, that's what created you, man. So, in the end of the, if you had a different upbringing, maybe we wouldn't have the middle-class people being able to go through with bonuses. That's the way you have to look at it.
Speaker 3:I totally agree with you and I and I do look at it that way and that's the reason why you know we're building a new product, right and anytime when you're building something that's never been done before, what's going to happen? Right, human mind, skepticism and fear because they you know we're used to. You know imagineicism and fear Because we're used to imagine. Think about when Uber came out or Airbnb. It's like what? You want to go into a stranger's car? Are you freaking, kidding me? You want to go rent someone's house? It was just foreign to us when these things happened, but now they become table stakes.
Speaker 3:And so, for us, we're new. We're just getting ready to. In essence, we're launching now and we've been building When's the big launch? Well, in essence, we've technically launched in several markets late last year. We're going to now start making some announcements and kind of getting out there, because we wanted to perfect this and we wanted to get a bunch of homeowners. We've got testimonials, we've got reviews, we wanted to get a bunch of people that just said, wow, this works and it actually, it actually we deliver. And so, um, for us, just like with anything new and hard and never been done before, you're always going to have skepticism and you're always going to have negativity in the sense of just like well, I've never heard of it Sounds. Whatever, it's stupid man.
Speaker 2:It just takes time. It takes time.
Speaker 3:I mean, and that's the reason why, look, being able to kind of get out there, and I tell people they're like, look, yeah, am I building a company? Sure, but I said, at the end of the day, I'm just telling a story and I think the story is very clear. My dad had went and many, many people have gone through. What my dad is is very clear. No one disagrees with it, and and and, and.
Speaker 3:You know, I think we came up with a good solution to help a bunch of people like my dad. That is the story. And if we can do that and help tens of thousands of people and put billions of dollars back into their pocket that they never would have had, and and and give them a chance, so when they're 50, 60, 70, or even past that, when their kids are now, you know, going to take their property or going to be able to, you know, take their, their wealth, they've got wealth that goes, you know, across multi-generation in a sense, that they never would have had otherwise. And that that, to me and I think the biggest, biggest thing, which is the biggest shocker, and no one denies this the middle class has been pulverized over the past 10 to 20 years.
Speaker 2:I'd say 20 years, man, 20 years is when it it's unbelievable.
Speaker 3:And, if I can, if bonus and what we built can have a small impact on some people, to allow middle class folks and people who own these homes in some of these markets and I'm talking typically, we do houses in the markets are like in Phoenix, we're in Charlotte, great markets, columbus, cleveland, dallas, houston, nashville, memphis and we'll go to several others Colorado Springs, colorado and we're doing houses between $300,000 to $500,000, $550,000. Middle America we're not doing $2 million houses. If we can help these people move on with their life, get what they need today, but also not miss out on this future wealth. Middle class is what built America and being able to help these people get this wealth that they never would have got this quote unquote. Second payout in essence it's a big deal and I think it's something that if we just have a small piece in that to help would be amazing. And look, I mean regardless of what you think of the government and whatever again, not getting political here on both sides everyone agrees that middle class, we need them to build wealth.
Speaker 2:Nobody looks out for the middle class man. No one's really looking out for them, Not the Republicans, both parties.
Speaker 3:In a deliverable way. I think programs like the 401k being able to do a 401k I think that's a great program I really do and that's something that is awesome, that people should take care of. But most people can't build wealth with their homes. They'll build wealth as their primary residence and again, you know these people who own homes. They'll build wealth of their primary residence but then they leave I like to say carnage on their journey of life because they sell it to buy a new one, sell it to buy a new one, sell it to buy a new one. Where, if they would have just been able to hold those assets wow, you're talking about middle class now, truly building wealth well, that's that's.
Speaker 2:Definitely. Think about how many trajectories like you're creating new legacies. Yeah, trying to her family, yeah, that's exactly you're someone, if you sell, if you sold a house and you know just like real estate's been going through the roof, yeah, and you miss out on all that equity. Yeah, and you're in your late 60s, 70s hard, hard to make something yeah.
Speaker 2:Like Chuck, you better hope that you know someone left you some money, or you know you better hope that you hit it with a scratch off or the progressives in Vegas, because you know Social Security's like your SOL If you're you think that is exactly right and so that is fundamental.
Speaker 3:That's the reason why we're just like look right now as a low-hanging fruit on a you know v1 of bonuses journey. If you got a rate below four percent and you've got this, you know home, that fits in our, in, our, in, in these markets and whatnot. Take advantage of something because it's like you're getting a golden ticket. It's it's, it's something that you, it's something that you got, fortunate at a time when the market was kind of crazy, obviously, with COVID and rates and all that kind of stuff. Take advantage of it because you can actually build a future. And let's be honest with you I have a low interest rate on my house. I didn't earn it, I got lucky, I really did. I just refinanced three times because every time, you know, my, my bank was like rates went down. Another point they're like also, I hope, right and they're just like all right, keep refinancing.
Speaker 2:And I just Refinances it. Huh, Well, they're also like we hope he refinances it and does something stupid like piss it away, like most people. Yeah, yeah, Unfortunately.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that's right, and so, anyways, let's try to build something pretty cool. And then the other part of this is where bonus is going and what we want to be able to do is we really want to be able to. Again, it's this concept of this asset economy. Just, you know, we're trying to introduce, like you know, owning appreciating assets and having good debt. Having a low interest rate mortgage is a good debt. Having credit card debt is not a good debt, but, you know, having a 3% fixed for the next 30 years is great debt. Sign me up all day.
Speaker 3:And tied to an appreciating asset like a home, you can't ask for anything better, right? And so this is also an education for a lot of people who you know we want to be able to say, hey, this is, this is, this is one way to build wealth. Income can help. That helps you get with your day by day Savings accounts, of course, investing in the stocks and bonds and whatnot, but that requires disposable cash to go put in to a S&P 500 mutual fund or, you know, bitcoin, or investing in you know some stock. This is your home and we're able to just make it like turnkey and so you don't have to really do anything about it, and so we're just trying to. It's an education, but we're trying to help people promote an asset economy, because assets is what builds the middle class promote an asset economy, because assets is what builds the middle class.
Speaker 2:Mike GREEN, now Kyle, where would you like to see the company? In every major market, kyle.
Speaker 3:BASSETT. I think our big thing is we would love to be, yes, we'd like to be across the country. I would say not every major market, because there are some markets like a lot of this depends on, also, home price appreciation. So we want to be in markets where home does develop in value. So are we going to be in Alaska? Probably not right. Are we going to be in places like Montana? Probably not. We're looking at where you skate, where the puck's going.
Speaker 3:A lot of people are moving to Arizona. I'm actually one of them. I'm actually going to be leaving Southern California and moving to Arizona. I love it there. A lot of people are going to North Carolina. A lot of people are in Ohio, florida, atlanta. So you're just starting to see this mobilization across some of these other markets and people are going to these and you're looking at a lot of job and infrastructure being built in some of these communities. So we're just kind of trying to go where these areas where we think home values will definitely go up over the long run.
Speaker 3:But we do believe there's probably 30 to 40 cities across the country, major cities that that we can be in no-transcript wealth that these families will get later on, separate from the money they got today. And if you take that number, you're talking $5 to $10 billion of new wealth to 50,000 middle-class homeowners. What will that do to these communities? That's a lot of money and that's just 50,000 people. And if we can just somehow get that injected as this new way for them to have wealth again, I would say they have their 401k. They might have Social Security.
Speaker 3:If they're older, they might have a pension or a PERS. They might have Social Security. If they're older, they might have a pension or a PERS. And then they got this bonus home portfolio, this home asset. That bonus is managing on their behalf. And now they've got a portfolio that defines their net worth, and we all want to be able to have net worth over time. So we're just trying to add up. We're one of the sleeves in that net worth. Right, we're not Vanguard, we're not Fidelity doing stocks and bonds and crypto and all that. We're the other side of the fence, we're real estate and we want to be the the the home. You know. You're not BlackRock, no, and that's exactly right, we're not.
Speaker 3:The beautiful thing about what we're doing. Yes, are we a corporation? Bonus is a corporation, absolutely. We're not buying these houses. We don't own these houses, so we are not a corporation coming into these communities and buying these houses, these homes. When we do a bonus, Omar, you're still the owner of that home. This is your house. We're just your partner in this. We're basically like look at us as almost your home wealth advisor. We're going to manage this asset on your behalf. And that is a big deal, because no one likes having corporations coming into communities.
Speaker 2:Oh, no, man, especially something like that buying neighborhoods.
Speaker 3:Yeah, exactly right, and it's fascinating. We've got some homeowners where, when they move out and then we end up in essence turning the properties into a rental property for them, and their neighbors are like, hey, I'm glad at least Bob still owns this property, I'll watch out for this. They might call us and be like, hey, we noticed someone driving, you know, blah, blah, blah. Whatever, they're still helping because they know Bob, their neighbor, who they've known for 10 years, still owns that property. It's pretty cool You're still keeping the remnants of the community, even though in this case Bob has already moved on because he needed to move for whatever reason.
Speaker 2:Well, I on because he needed to move for whatever reason. Well, I mean, think about this man, just that horrible story about your father. Yeah, you're, you're helping people, yeah, and the story. You know there's two things. You guys could have played the the victim. I know your dad's not, you said he's, he's a. He's not like out there. You know, on social media I got screwed. No, please give me cyber hugs and the likes. No. And you, you could have been better too. You could have been. A lot of people live in their trauma but do nothing about it. They stay there, you know they. They live in the past. That's right you you.
Speaker 2:You got up and you used it because you're like I don't want something like that. I see what it did to my father, that's right. I don't want to see this happen. Especially middle Dude, middle class people, what people don't know in general, highly they're educated, you know. It's not like they're just sitting at home waiting for the government phones yeah, dude, they're the ones I mean engineers, teachers, doctors exactly, they are.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and it's just like it's. Like you know, they have successful jobs and, like you know, they're doing it. What we like to call they're the aspiring wealthy yeah, of course we're just trying to give that we're just trying to, we're trying to help them right in that sense of it.
Speaker 3:And, and you know, you said something which was really good. You know, I always say this and I and I don't do a good job sometimes, I try not to time travel right, looking, looking, looking in the past and and I do remember, like, if you, you know, winston churchill, one of the greatest orators of all time in my opinion, said you know, we make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give. And you know, I look at it in some quirky way. I didn't really have a family and I look at it in a situation that basically, you know, in some way or another, did cause a little bit of this rift with my father, because he just basically lost everything, I mean after 2008,. He wasn't the same.
Speaker 3:Unfortunately, rightfully so His life hasn't been the same for 20 years and I've seen so many people in life live life and things might be good, but things get bad. You have, you know, health issues, job issues, just the unknowns of life. And if we can just be able to help build this little nest egg to give you a little bit of what is it cushion or just breathing room or the sense of just peace. That's a lot, you know, and and that's what I hope we get, because, because you know, I've lived it, I mean I've had so many failures you can't even imagine and it's just like if I knew that there was this little piece over there that I know that this asset that I have or this money, eventually will come and I can, and it'll be worth more. That can help, you know, and if we can help with that and help some people in the future for life's on you know, surprises, thenprises then that's what we're trying to do. So we're trying to do the right thing and we try to build an instrument that does sound too good to be true but it actually works and when you look at the mechanics it makes a lot of sense and we've got believers and little by little we'll get more.
Speaker 3:But we're just trying to do the right thing and I do believe that my experience in housing and just putting all the pieces together, it's like a little bit like a mad scientist that you know, do this If I didn't have my experiences, and I'll tell you what if I didn't have my dad experience, where I just always question selling your home as being just so dumb. If I didn't have that desire for such a long period of time, I might not have actually followed through with trying to do this. You know what I mean. I might've just been like it is what it is. It is what it is, you know you got to move. You got to give up that home. Too bad, so sad. Move all of life.
Speaker 2:Kyle, you would have been successful in some other aspect, but you wouldn't have been. Well, you're in service. You would have been something else. That's right, yeah, but this I mean talk about bonus man is you're helping people. But you want to know something, kyle all these people that you're the 50,000, they're your extended family man.
Speaker 3:Yeah, over time. That's the goal, right. I mean it's funny, we talk to some of these folks and try to touch base with them and you know it's, we're, we're basically, you know, partners with them for a long period of time, because we're going to hold this house for a while to build this wealth. It's just it's. I call it like the Buffett of real estate housing Long term wins the game, right.
Speaker 2:Always. It does, yeah, always wins the game.
Speaker 3:When Buffett came out and said I'll bet with the hedge funds, I'll invest in the Vanguard S&P 500, not touch a single thing and in five years or whatever the time frame, let's see how everyone else does against me, and he won, Because it's like you hold the long term. You don't do this gambling and day trading and all that stuff. You're going to win.
Speaker 2:He won when he told everybody to sell when he was selling a few months ago. Did you read that he's a frigging moron? Finally, you know he's an old guy.
Speaker 3:And now he's like oh my gosh this guy is like genius, yeah, so so so we're just, we're trying to introduce these long term hold of appreciating asset values Always long term. Hold man, Always long term. Hold hold of appreciating asset values.
Speaker 2:It's always long-term hold man, always long-term hold, even with real estate, instead of the flippers and everything, whether it's the stocks or whether it's real estate, it doesn't pan out, man, it doesn't pan out, and you might hear about the winners, right? Oh, it's because it's the rush man, it's a dope rush, it's the rush, it's the same reason why Caesar's Palace is huge. That's exactly right.
Speaker 3:But for the family who has full-time jobs, two kids, they don't have time for this stuff and they don't need that rush. They just need to go build wealth when they're built wealth, when their kids are now three, they're 18 years old and they're going to have a couple hundred thousand dollars to put towards college, because by then you're going to have colleges be 150, 175 thousand dollars a year.
Speaker 2:Oh, yeah, dude, I, I, I, I my my youngest or my oldest, is a freshman and it's like holy, she goes to the same school I went to and I'm like my mom didn't pay that. You know, just 30 years ago yeah, and then like private schools now like 90 to 100k a year, and it's like where, where are people getting this? I, I went to pepperdine, which you know we consider. If you think, if you look at pepperdine, it's like it looks like a resort.
Speaker 3:It's one of well, where, where are people getting this? I went to Pepperdine, which you know we consider. If you think, if you look at Pepperdine, it's like it looks like a resort. It's one of the nicest campuses.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah.
Speaker 3:But but let me tell you, I mean, you know, I took out, I think when I went there it was like 37 a year, 37,000 a year, and it took out a lot of student loans. I got a lot of scholarship money because I'm, you know, valedictorian and all that stuff, because I needed to do something Right, because it's like my dad's, like I only have this much, so I'm like all right, but now that school I just found out it's like 90,000, 95,000.
Speaker 2:Like you said, it's just like yeah, I got my master's degree University of Miami. My, my youngest, is going to be a senior, yeah, and that's like $92,000. Wow, it was $20,000.
Speaker 3:But University of Miami is private right.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah. No state school would add the gonads. Hey, we're 100K. Kyle. Dude man, you are a rock star, Thanks for having me.
Speaker 3:This was great.
Speaker 2:How do people find out if they're in the market? Yeah, I find you man, because because you're, you're ultimately dude. You're a very charismatic guy, man.
Speaker 3:I appreciate it. I think the best way you know I say on socials bonus dot homes is our Instagram. We're on YouTube bonus homes website, bonus homes dot com, and then you know I'm I'm probably on linkedin, really, um, and so yeah, I mean go check out our website and um you know any questions, let us know. But thanks for having me. I really appreciate it and it was actually really nice to kind of not talk all businessy um and just kind of have a huge.
Speaker 2:I knew that's what you know. That's what everybody talks to you about. Yeah, yeah, I'm. Believe it or not, I'm usually the guy that, when it comes to people, you think they're gonna hear like an inspirational or motivational story. I, I, I just like doing things different, man. That's why I love it. Your story is what sells you. People don't understand an origin story. If you're a great guy, people will do business with you. Kyle, you could have the cure for cancer, your bonus homes could be the answer. But if you're a dick, if you're a douche, dude yeah, dude. Your personable. Your story about your father, you would have to be one emotion, emotionless MF-er and not be like oh yeah, I like this story and I like this guy.
Speaker 2:I mean, you would have to be like Ted Bundy, like. I know no, I yeah Like a unibomber and be like yes, I got nothing out of any of this. These guys, these, these two idiots wasted an hour of my life, Wasted an hour of my life.
Speaker 3:I know no, I appreciate it and then you know no, thank, thank you for asking the question. It was awesome, it's so good to meet you and, um, yeah, that's definitely I know you're.
Speaker 2:You have a riff with your father. Yeah, you guys need to quit the bullshit, dude. I've never met my father, so you know he's only on social media when he wants to creep and all that. So do that. Your mom and dad both love you unconditionally and they're both proud of you. Your dad might not be, he doesn't have the tools to say, well, he wouldn't call you Kyle, yeah, yeah, but but if he, you know he would be. He's, he loves you and he's proud of you, mom's proud of you. Dude, they're old school. Not only are they old school, but they're just setting their ways. Man, they're very proud of you in general. And, dude, what's not to be proud of? You're, you're you. You are doing things that people just talk shit and do absolutely nothing. You are a doer. And what if it did work? You, you took something, a hardship, and you said why can't I?
Speaker 3:yeah. Well, there you go. Yeah, there you are. If, if other people can do it, why can't I?
Speaker 2:that's exactly right all right kyle, I know a jet setter like you, dude. Thank you for the hour, man.
Speaker 3:Yeah, thank you, I appreciate it. Yes everybody.
Speaker 2:I teased him because he's the only person that booked the next day, but I appreciate it. I read all the notes and I knew it was going to be a great story.
Speaker 3:No, this was great Omar.
Speaker 2:I appreciate it.
Speaker 3:Let's stay in touch.
Speaker 1:Have a good one, all right, thank you Bye, bye, bye, bye, bye, bye, bye, bye, bye, bye, bye, bye, bye, bye, bye, bye, bye, bye, bye, bye, bye, bye, bye, bye, bye, bye. You gotta take action. Just imagine what if it did work.