Good Neighbor Podcast: Cooper City
Bringing Together Local Businesses & Neighbors of Cooper City
Good Neighbor Podcast: Cooper City
EP #317: Ideal Property Consults with Cornell Nichols
Ever wondered if there are hidden financial traps lurking in your next property investment? Cornell Nichols, founder of Ideal Property Consultants, pulls back the curtain on a specialized real estate niche that few investors know exists but could save them millions.
With a remarkable story of reducing a $2.5 million property lien to just $5,000, Cornell reveals how his unique background in both municipal government and real estate allows him to identify and negotiate municipality building and code liens that threaten to derail investments. He explains the critical gaps in the typical real estate transaction process—how home inspectors focus solely on physical conditions while missing permit issues, and how some title companies perform only cursory lien searches rather than comprehensive investigations.
The conversation delves into the common misconceptions property buyers face. Many purchasers assume their due diligence team has covered all bases, only to discover expensive surprises after closing. Cornell shares how his approach not only saves individual transactions but educates clients to protect themselves in future deals. He emphasizes the importance of asking specific questions about permits, documentation, and hidden liabilities before signing any agreement.
Beyond business insights, Cornell opens up about his personal journey—starting his business just before COVID, balancing entrepreneurship with family life, and how a chance opportunity to help an investor save millions sparked an entirely new career path. His passion for education shines through as he explains how he transforms what could be transaction-killing revelations into opportunities for buyers, sellers, and agents to reach mutually beneficial solutions.
Have you checked if your dream property has hidden liens? Connect with Cornell on Instagram or call 954-404-2166 to learn how to protect your next real estate investment.
This is the Good Neighbor Podcast, the place where local businesses and neighbors come together. Here's your host, Jeremy Wolf.
Speaker 2:Well, hello, hello, friends, family, great community, wonderful universe. We are back for another installment of the Good Neighbor Podcast, your host, of course, jeremy Wolf, and today I'd like to welcome to the show. I am here with Cornell Nichols, and Cornell joins us from Ideal Property Consult, so we're going to get into some investing today, talk a little bit about real estate. We're in South Florida, got a bit of a. I feel like a hot market is coming back. I feel like we're about to explode down here. I don't know something in the air. What do you think about that, cornell?
Speaker 3:Yes, yes, everything is tending. Interest rate is going down. Investors are still out there investing in all types of properties residential and commercial throughout the country.
Speaker 2:Absolutely. We are in for a treat moving forward. So, cornell, why don't we start with some basics here? Tell our listeners a little bit about what you guys do over at Ideal Property Consultants, and then we shall proceed from there.
Speaker 3:Yes, how you doing. My name is Cornell Nichols, owner and founder of Ideal Property Consultants. What our company do is that we help investors clear municipality building and cold liens to help that investor protect their investment and maximize their profit.
Speaker 2:That's an awfully particular niche that you're in. So let's go elaborate on this a little bit further, because when you say we clear municipalities, what exactly is it that you're doing on a day-to-day basis?
Speaker 3:kind of. What exactly is it that you're doing on a day-to-day basis? On a day-to-day basis is that once an investor has a violation and they get a lien on their property, sometimes that lien is not valid. So what I do, I come in and I assess their entire case file and the lien to see if it was appropriate on that property. If the lien is appropriate on that property, then our company strategize on how to get that fine reduced to a number that the city will agree to and the property owner How'd you get into this, this business, cornell?
Speaker 2:This is again. This is such a. I didn't even realize that this was a type of service that was available out there. Do you have a background in real estate?
Speaker 3:Yes, I have a background in real estate and also a background in working for the municipality, that I've been in the government sector since 2010. And I started my company in 2019 and when I came across an investor who had a lien on the properties at 2.5 million and the city didn't want to negotiate with him and, once I got the case file, did the due diligence, it took about a month and a half and from 2.5 million I got that investor to pay $5,000.
Speaker 2:Really, yes, huh, that's wild man. I'm still trying to wrap my head around this because, again, this is really the first I've heard of this and it's wildly interesting. Do you typically work with I'd imagine larger transactions, or is this anything that's against the property? Who do you typically work?
Speaker 3:with Anything against the property, but typically it's investors. It's investors who has multiple properties and the lien is higher. But the lowest lien amount I'd done was $10,000 and the highest was 2.5. So I work with any violation and anything dealing with that property to help that investor walk away clear and free of any lien or any judgment against the property. And it is like you say, jeremy, it is a different niche because a lot of property owners, investors and some real estate agents don't get deep down into those requirements and the information that the municipality is providing. So by my background and that field that I have for several years, I know what to look for and how to look for it and also when speaking to that municipality on information like that, on what information I need and what to say to try to get that lien reduced.
Speaker 2:Got it and are you doing this mostly in South Florida? Where do you typically help with this process?
Speaker 3:More it is South Florida, but some clients that I helped in South Florida they also have properties in other states and I helped them in those states, such as New Hampshire, california and in Alabama.
Speaker 2:OK, and how are you typically finding these cases? Are the clients coming and seeking you out or are you in some way able to access these types of liens that are coming up through municipalities and like reach out to people to offer assistance? How do you typically work that?
Speaker 3:I'm doing everything from word of mouth and also when I attend real estate meetups and real estate events. Okay, so a lot of and and some and um and I've been promoting on on Instagram.
Speaker 2:Okay, what are some things that you typically hear when you're working with clients? Some things that they're confused about, maybe some misunderstandings or myths or misconceptions that folks have around surrounding what you do specifically, a property owner not a property owner but a home inspector.
Speaker 3:The property was inspected by a home inspector and that the title company did a lien search.
Speaker 3:And why did this not come up? And I do tell them that when a home inspector inspects a property they just dare to check if everything is there correctly, if it's working or not working, yes or no. They don't go into the permits, they don't go that this was installed incorrectly and those items could have liens on it from the municipality. Then also with the title company, mo some title companies not all, but some title companies when they say they do a lien search, they pull in the information from the city website, then they put in the logo onto a word document and they providing that to the property owner. So it's not an official lien search that they pull in all the records from the city to catch everything. So that's why I come in at my company, come in at the due diligence period with that property owner and we go over all those details and we find the hidden gems and the hidden items that wasn't listed on that lien document to bring that to light for the property owner.
Speaker 2:Okay. So let me just see if I got this straight, as my mind is spinning here. It seems to me like there would be two scenarios where you might get involved with this transaction. One would be and correct me if I'm wrong, but this is just my again my brain spinning you have somebody that's looking to sell their property and they know that they have liens against the property, whatever that might be, and they're unresolved. At that point you could then come in and, rather than just pay all these liens, you could kind of act as a negotiator and try to negotiate that price down at that time. Or on the other side of that, you'll have somebody that is unaware that there's even liens on the property and they get to the due diligence phase and they run the title and they find these liens. It's like, oh, we got these problems, what are we going to do about this? Rather than torch the deal, you come in and again do the same thing.
Speaker 3:You yes, fairly accurate, accurate, yes, and and what I tell the agent, an attorney or a title company that let's extend the closing and we can get this done, for both parties can be satisfied at the end, instead of killing the deal. And sometimes some lenders, some agents didn't know that it can be done, but I can get it done.
Speaker 2:So it's not the typically I would think. If I'm going to buy a property let's say I'll put on my buyer hat here and I'm working with a seller I expect that that seller knows what's against the property. I don't want to get to the due diligence phase on title and then find out that there's all these unaddressed liens. My reaction to that as a buyer would be like all right, we'll take care of it. To the seller Is that a scenario? I guess it depends on how motivated the buyer is and it depends on each transaction you work. I imagine you're working with sellers and buyers in these situations, right?
Speaker 3:yes, sellers yeah, working on working with sellers and buyers, and sometimes yeah, and sometimes the buyer really want it and and sometimes the seller don't want the budge. But then we, you know, we try to work it out because if this buyer doesn't take it, the next buyer is going to run into the same issue.
Speaker 2:So how long have you been doing this for? When did you start the business?
Speaker 3:I started the business in 2019 after I helped that investor save from 2.5. And when I helped him do that, I was just doing it reference to the knowledge that I know to help him out. But then, after I completed that and he mentioned to me, he said that I'm an investor. My job is to go look for properties. I went and never known about this is other investors out here. That's probably running to the same issue. I never heard of anyone doing it like this as a niche that you can do, you should open up and consult with investors to help them and educate them on this type of process. And from after that 2019, that's when I created an LLC, got a laptop, business cards and word of mouth from there and I've been doing everything with no website Got it Now.
Speaker 2:Were you prior to kind of doing this business and I guess you could call it taking the entrepreneurial leap? Were you working for somebody else back then, or were you always kind of starting your own businesses?
Speaker 3:I know I was working in the private sector. I was doing municipality inspections for the private sector.
Speaker 2:Right, you mentioned that. Okay. So I always like to ask this when somebody kind of takes the leap and starts a business and you did it right before COVID, it sounds like right. Yes, you did it right before COVID. It sounds like right, yes. So what was one of the biggest challenges that you faced when you started the endeavor? And then, on the other side of that, what would you say is one of the biggest rewards that you've experienced throughout this journey?
Speaker 3:The biggest challenge at starting and also still continuing to do the consulting business is that some agents will mention that I'm here to kill the deal and some of them didn't like that.
Speaker 3:And I explained to them that I'm not killing the deal.
Speaker 3:And how do you not want to know what's best interest for your client? And that can be from the seller part or the buyer part. But now the good side of it, that I do educate agents, educate buyer and seller and that's the good thing about on what I'm doing that that when they go buy another property and they can have that idea on what to look for, what to ask, and just let in the title company or the lender or the agent to do everything, they know what to ask and what to see, so that that do help them in the future. Reference to when they buy in another property. And I do tell, and I do tell the buyers and sellers that and sometimes, when they don't contract with me, I do tell them that in the future you may want to look for XYZ. Then then at times that they do do that and sometimes they do contact back and say I did this but I still haven't figured out this part, then that's when I help them out on those issues.
Speaker 2:So are you from South.
Speaker 3:Florida. Yes, born and raised in Hollywood, florida.
Speaker 2:How old? Eight years old twins and a 17?
Speaker 3:year old.
Speaker 2:I got. Both of mine are in middle school now. My son just entered middle school, 11 and 13. So I stopped at two. Two was a two was enough for me.
Speaker 3:Yeah, what do?
Speaker 2:you, what do you, what do you guys like to do for fun when you're not working?
Speaker 3:We like. We like to travel and we like to do board games at home. Go bowling, go to talk golf, movie theater we like to enjoy ourselves as the household and also with our family around the summer times and the holidays Favorite place to travel to the Caribbean, the Caribbean nice weather. Nice weather in the Caribbean any part in the Caribbean.
Speaker 2:Nice weather, I could use a nice vacation. Yeah, what would be? Before we wrap up here, what would be one thing that you'd like to leave our listeners with? Now? It could be about the business, or, if you just want to leave a little nugget of wisdom, little life advice, that would be fine too.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I like to. I like to let the listeners know, gain knowledge on your investment property and on your primary home. Always ask questions on does this need a permit? Where's the document showing that this was already installed? And also do your research before signing anything.
Speaker 2:You hear that everyone Do your research, Do your due diligence.
Speaker 3:Yes.
Speaker 2:Always read those 60-page agreements before you sign.
Speaker 3:Yes.
Speaker 2:Now, certainly when it comes to a big transaction, you want to definitely read over everything, and it doesn't hurt always to have an attorney look over any legal documents, as always, of course. All right, brother. So how can our listeners learn more? What's the best way to connect with you? For anyone out there that is listening to this that the need comes about, how could they reach you? What's the best way to connect?
Speaker 3:Yes, to connect with me. You can follow me or reach out to me on Instagram, as I am Cornell Nichols, or you can also contact me at 954-404-2166. You can call or text message. I'm always available.
Speaker 2:All right, very cool, and we will, of course, drop a link down in the description below to all of your contact information. Everyone, thank you so much for tuning in and, cornell, thanks for your time. Appreciate you coming on the show and talking a little bit about what you do.
Speaker 3:I'll thank you, Jeremy.
Speaker 2:Of course, man, and we will catch everyone next time on the next episode of the Good Neighbor Podcast. Everyone, take care and have a blessed day.
Speaker 1:Thanks for listening to the Good Neighbor Podcast Cooper City. To nominate your favorite local business to be featured on the show, go to GNPCooperCitycom. That's GNPCooperCitycom, or call 954-231-3170.