Bon Vivant Chic - Life Well Lived

Ben Mallah's Journey: From New York's Tough Streets to Entrepreneurial Triumph

• Emorganbonvivant

Share episode
Ernestine:

Welcome to Bon Vivant Chic Live Well Lived the podcast. For anyone who wants to cut through today's noise and just listen for a few minutes to meaningful conversations on the human experience and the power of connectedness. I'm your host Ernestine Morgan, an advocate for kindness with a passion for showcasing human interest, stories that matter today I'm excited to be sitting with my friend Ben Mallah, and even though I thought I wouldn't be interviewing celebrities, Ben happens to be one with over 1 million subscribers on his YouTube channel, and over 200,000 followers on Instagram and a thriving real estate business. Ben has agreed to sit down with me for just a friend to friend conversation, which I am very grateful for. So let's get started. Please welcome Ben, a diehard entrepreneur, family man, and a man with a passion to help others succeed. Ben, thanks for sitting down with me today.

Ben:

Thank you for having me.

Ernestine:

You've built an amazing business. Anyone can Google your name and there is a lot out there, including your life for sale. What's all that about?

Ben:

Well, basically, in my opinion, everything's for sale and at one point I thought about how about if I package up everything I have and sell it and let somebody else step into my shoes, which are pretty good shoes to step in, and then I'll just start a new life.

Ernestine:

And

Ben:

nobody wanted to buy it. One Russian guy did, but, I didn't want to go down that road. It was basically, life of sale is just basically, a YouTube channel. We started mainly to empower people and to help them, achieve wealth in real estate our life and starting from nothing, I felt that everyone can do it and should do it.

Ernestine:

That's terrific. You have all these followers and you really are celebrity status I wouldn't say a celebrity. Oh, come on now. I've been to dinner with you.

Ben:

I'm more like an influencer. I try to influence people to. Do things to improve their life and their economic situation.

Ernestine:

You've been pretty open about your childhood what was it like, growing up?

Ben:

The real deal is that, my family was. I hate to say it, but it's true. We were pretty dysfunctional. They were. I wasn't though. I came from a very, very poor neighborhood. First, 12 years of my life was in Far Rockaway, New York. And my father, he just didn't make the right decisions. He grew up in a depression and he had a hard time parting with a penny. Everything he did. Was always trying to save every penny he could, and he let that, guide him in making decisions, which is not really the best way to go. Yes, I love to save money and yes, I have inherited a lot of his money saving, the mindset. He had a mindset of oh, but he went overboard. He was the ultimate cheapskate. Most people back in the fifties or sixties, they would purchase a property in New York and today, 20 years later or 30 years later or whatever, it'd be worth a fortune. No. He went to the cheapest property he could find and he bought, basically a summer bungalow that wasn't even made to live in year round. And New York winters are very tough. He bought a summer bungalow and tried to winterize it. And then shortly after he did that, they built enormous projects right down the block, which, were just filled with some of the most dangerous. Toughest people that I've ever encountered. It was a very, very tough neighborhood. I'm not gonna elaborate too much, but a lot of crime and a lot of negative things going on. And

Ernestine:

there's three of you, right? Your

Ben:

mom and dad had three kids. It was three of us. We all lived in a little house. I think the house was only about 560 square feet. I looked it up once on public records, very tiny house. You had the bay in the back of it, you had Jamaica Bay. Okay. Which was not a pleasant body of water. There were bodies in the water. Okay. That's how bad was when I was growing up. I literally would swim in water. And on several occasions, bodies would pop up, a head would pop up out the water. It was very, very bad. But back in like the thirties, the forties, the fifties, everything was nice there in the sixties even. But when the seventies came and they built all this, projects, then they just destroyed the neighborhood because we had the bay behind our house, and then we had the beach down a very long road. So a lot of people came to Rockaway Beach. Babe Ruth actually lived on that street at one time. Property back in the 1940s. So my father had the idea, we're gonna live there all year round. It was very, very rough. And everything with him was pinch and pennies, if I needed new shoes, my feet were too big for my shoes. He'd come home with some contraption and I'd say, what the heck is this? And it was a shoe stretcher. He would stretch our old shoes instead of buying his new ones. He grew up in a depression where he had to live off of a loaf of bread every day and be happy of that. So he had a very different mentality. My mother. Was, a handful, we're supposed to go visit her for her 90th birthday. She's a handful. My parents got divorced when I was five years old. And, it was a lot of, domestic violence. And that's why, growing up with all this violence and crime and, my whole life as a child was spent, as soon as I got away from it, I wanted to stay as far away from it as I could., I'm not, the violent type, unless I'm defending myself, of course,

Ernestine:

so talk a little bit about that. How did you get out of that environment? Growing up in that poor

Ben:

environment, I was bounced around the city 'cause my family was very, dysfunctional. I lived in Hell's Kitchen, during some of my younger teenage years. I lived in Brooklyn, in Bensonhurst. I got a lot of exposure from every type of nationality and type of person there was. Growing up in New York. It wasn't very pleasant. Now that I look back, I think a lot of my skills and able to deal with different types of people on all levels and all different nationalities, it definitely helped me, 'cause I can relate to pretty much almost anyone. It was rough growing up, but, so basically I did get in a little trouble when I was a teenager and luckily I joined the Army at the age of 17. The Army pretty much saved my life and got me outta New York City. And, put me in a whole nother world. Thank God for the Army. I spent, five years in the Army. I did three years in Germany and I was very young going to a different country and living with Germans and working with them and it was a great experience. And then the Army gave me a lot of, skills. I chose a job that was more administrative type. I wasn't a tough guy and, an outdoors guy, so I didn't want to get into trenches and, dig holes and shoot guns and live in the woods. Luckily the recruiter, gave me some good advice. I took a test and qualified for some administrative type positions. I worked in transportation it gave me a lot of office skills and, taught me also how to make things happen. I was in transportation, moving anything we had by train, by plane, by foot, by boat. It also interacted a lot with private companies that we depended on for shipping, goods overseas. It was very educational. Gave me a lot of skills. And when you got an army of people behind you. You can do anything. That's right.

Ernestine:

So you have some strong roots here in Florida, in the Tampa Bay area. How did you end up getting here? The Tampa Bay area?

Ben:

The Army eventually sent me to California, Northern California, and I was thinking about reenlisting, but while I was there in the Army, I also got involved in real estate. And I started picking up the garbage around my apartment building for $50 a month. It was a big deal for me. It was a break. 50 bucks go every day. I get up, make sure the building was policed. That's an army term for clean up police, the area. And the manager gave me 50 bucks a month off my rent. Next thing you know, I started doing a little more of this, a little more of that and started really getting involved with the, either running the apartment building and, eventually, got to meet with the owner and, started, doing much more management. And then when it came time for me to RealList out in the Army, he was making more money. With me working with him, cause I was getting the units turned over quicker. I was getting them rented. I was helping he basically said, no, you really need to stay working for me and if you stay working for me, there's no reason why you shouldn't be a multimillionaire one day. I saw how he was living. This guy comes to the building, he's driving Ferraris. He invited me to his home. He lived in mansions and. He knew a lot about banking, which I didn't, and he was definitely a tremendous mentor to me. I took him on his offer and I didn't reenlist the army and I stayed working for him, and then he. Pretty much filled my plate with a lot of real estate to worry about. Really tough real estate too. I didn't know that he owned a lot of rough real estate, but then coming from New York and growing up in rough neighborhoods, it didn't really bother me. And I definitely saw the opportunity there. We became partners eventually. And then I did a lot of things on my own and at this point I always knew I didn't wanna stay in California. I just didn't like, the political arena. I didn't like, a lot of the way things ran. I didn't like the taxes. And, I was just newly married and we both did not want to raise a family in California. So I looked at the whole country and I said, well, where can I go in this country where I see growth and opportunity? It narrowed it down all the states. I looked at it, narrowed it down. I saw my biggest opportunity either in Las Vegas at the time, we're talking 2002 or three, and the middle section of Florida, Tampa Bay. I went to Vegas. I didn't care for it. I didn't wanna raise a family there. And then, me and my wife came here to Clearwater and as soon as we got off the plane, we actually flew in. Nonstop to Clearwater Airport. There was some airline called ETA or something like that. And as soon as we got off the plane, you know how it is when you get off the plane in Clearwater? You get off the plane, you're on the runway. You got off the plane on the runway, like a private jet. With and then we came down and stayed in Clearwater Beach and I started looking at some opportunities around here, already did my homework on, and we said, this is the place we need to live. So we decided, yes, we're moving here. And then I tied up a deal right away. And then I had, one of my sons, my oldest son relocate here before we even came here. I relocated him here. And then we moved here shortly after. And we've just been rocking and rolling ever since.

Ernestine:

We're glad you're in our community.

Ben:

I love being in this community here. This community is very special.

Ernestine:

What are some of the, most rewarding moments, in building your business?

Ben:

Real estate in my opinion, has always been about one thing. Finding something you can add value to. Finding an opportunity when you can do something to the property and make it more valuable, increase the cash flow, make modifications to the property and make improvements. And then typically, I've been a big fan of borrowing money. I like to own real estate to cash flows without any of my money invested, meaning that I bought the property initially. I invested money. I improved the property, I invested more money, but then it took me to a level where I could refinance it and get all my investment money back and have no financial investment in the property. And it still creates a good cash flow. That's always been my goal to create, value add and. Take the money that I had invested initially, get it back from the bank to refinance, and then invest in other projects and keep, rolling the money into the next deal. That's what you do.

Ernestine:

Speaking of banks remember back in the old days When you opened up a checking account, they would give you a toaster. Right? Remember that?

Ben:

I remember. I'm old enough for that. My mother used to scream and yell at him and say, no, I don't want this. I want that mixer. I already got a toaster.

Ernestine:

Oh my goodness. Your banking relationship, I know that, in your, educational series there is a lot about this relationship with banks. So can you elaborate on that a little bit?

Ben:

Based on my opinion if you want to be in real estate or do any type of business that requires, a lot of money and financing your bank has to be the most important relationship in your life. Okay. Next to your wife. You gotta balance the two. Those are the two most important. Having a relationship with a bank if it wasn't for having a relationship with a bank and continuously doing business with banks, there is no possible way I could achieve the wealth that we've achieved. Because typically, if I do a deal from start, the bank would loan me 80% of the money. If I go out and buy something for $10 million, banks can loan me $8 million. I only gotta put up 2 million. Who's got all the risk? They do, but if you fail, you lose your 2 million I never failed, so I never thought about that. I always had a no fail mentality and I wouldn't go into a deal unless I really felt in real estate, there really is no risk if you do your homework. So yeah, the bank is very, very important. And then the more you do with the bank, the more they like it. Because the banks make money off a loan and you money. That's why they exist. The banks are only worth what the loans are worth. I always believed in a good relationship with, as many banks as I could, but then once you get to a point, you just want to narrow it down to a couple of banks that you do a lot of business with.

Ernestine:

Were there any pivotal moments or decisions that changed the course of your life besides, of course, getting out of your home environment in New York? Were there any other really turning points for you?

Ben:

When it came to Florida, that was a major turning point because now I had the ability to buy real estate in, California, where I was, was very, very also dangerous. I had an opportunity to raise my family in a nice place, without them being exposed to all the things I had to be exposed to and, give them a future. Luckily, my children, follow me, in the business and now they actually pretty much run the business. So I've been very fortunate with that. Coming to Florida was the smartest thing I ever did. And then picking this,. Little paradise that we live in, was, even better. That was the icing on the cake.

Ernestine:

Absolutely. So you mentioned family. What lessons about family and relationships would you pass along to younger generations?

Ben:

Everybody has a different path in life. Unless my kids wanted to be doctors, or scientists or something that was really gonna make a major impact in life or on people's lives, encouraging them to join the family business was a very smart thing to do for them and myself. Because I spent my whole life working to build up this business. I started from nothing. And now, we've accumulated, quite a bit of real estate and, we have the ability to compete with people on a large scale. And now they have grown into the business with me and I've seen the changes in them and, when you have a business, I think, really great when you can have your, children, and your family members. Also grow into the business because, I don't wanna work forever and it gives them, a good future.

Ernestine:

And, a stable life. And Karla, who's also just a sweet, lovely person, and you have shared in the past how your opposites so talk a little bit about that and how she's really helped you in your success.

Ben:

Karla's been a very supportive wife since, we've been married. She's always maintained the stability, helping with making sure that, we had a stable life, and was always there to support me in any manner that she could. Being opposites can pay off because a lot of the things that I don't like to do, she likes to do a lot of things that I like to do, she don't like to do. It worked out. It's like a real team effort,

Ernestine:

what are some life lessons you've learned that you wish you knew earlier?

Ben:

My biggest problem, I think, was that, maybe I had a little too much of my father in me, where I maybe shouldn't have played it as safe as I did. I have been very successful, but there were times where I look back now and say, I could have done better. I could have done more. I was in the right place at the right time, in the right position, and, I just didn't do it. I guess everybody experiences that somewhere in their life. I kind of regret that I didn't, do more and take advantage of more opportunities that, I had. I drive down the street and, my son's are quick to point it out. We could have won that bill for their purse. Now look at it, I should have grown more. I could have grown more than I should have.

Ernestine:

What do you think is the secret to a happy and fulfilling life?

Ben:

I've always been big on making money. I'm sorry. They say money can't buy everything. Well, it can't, but. It helps. I've always tried to stay focused on increasing my wealth. Just felt like if I made more money then I could share the money with my family and build my business more. I felt like,, I gotta keep growing you gotta keep moving, you gotta keep making the next deal. You gotta make the next move. You gotta win the game, and now I'm at the point where I should be able to hopefully retire soon comfortably and protect all my children in the future.

Ernestine:

But you're having a great time, aren't you?

Ben:

I actually enjoy helping people. To me, if the whole world helped each other, it would be a perfect place. So the satisfaction that I get when people tell me that I've helped them. Achieve wealth or made money or improve the quality of life, money can't buy that, that's where I do it. 'cause you can't just buy that feeling, only comes from doing it. And, I just, I really love knowing that I help some family or help some guy, or got a young person on the right start. It just, feels like it's the right human thing to do. It just feels human like helping another human.

Ernestine:

Yeah.. It

Ben:

just makes me, I love helping people, I mean, as long as they're willing to help themselves too. That's the main reason why I do it, and I enjoy it.

Ernestine:

What words of wisdom would you have for a young person in their twenties or thirties?

Ben:

Typically they need to have a career. They need to have a career that they're target on. They have to have a plan. It's all about having a plan in life. If you're in your twenties, you gotta determine what are you gonna do for the next 20 years of your life at least. What are you gonna do? What's gonna protect you for the rest of your life? You gonna be a doctor, you're gonna be a lawyer. Typically the people that wanna go into real estate. If they don't have much money, the first thing they're gonna wanna do is you're gonna have to have some sort of employment. Yes, you can become a real estate agent. See, people don't realize to become a real estate agent, it's only one course online and one test that the state gives you, that's all it is. There's no limit to the money that you can make. It's as far as you wanna take it. There are local people in this area that are multimillionaires just by selling real estate. And then selling real estate can lead into owning real estate. So if you're young, even whether you're going to college, no matter what you're doing, you should try to get your real estate license if you have an interest in real estate. Now, i'm trying to get the point across to the whole country that everyone should know. That you're allowed to make up to $250,000 on a residential home if you lived in it for two years tax free. And if you're married up to 500,000. So if somebody buys a house and they fix it up and they wait a couple of years, historically, the market has always goes up on your home. Historically. Sure there are all these crazy periods in time where prices may stay the same or go down, but historically prices do go up on homes. So if you buy a home, you live in it two years, you fixed it up, the neighbor got better, the prices went up. You could make up to $250,000 with no capital gains tax. As long as it was your residence for the past two years. And when you're married, when I left California, you had a beautiful little, modest home on the top of a hill. It's called Skyline Boulevard. You could see the whole San Francisco Bay from it. Basically I bought the house for half a million dollars. I did a little repairs to it, not much, and then I got married. And then we sold it for a million. We made a half a million dollars in that house, and there was no tax whatsoever. Even California couldn't tax it. So that's the federal, law. So everybody should think about that you can do it every two years.

Ernestine:

You're very, very passionate about real estate. What keeps you motivated and inspired, to get up every morning and do what you do? I mean,

Ben:

I run a portfolio of properties., every day I have to get up and think about what can I do on, each asset. To improve my position. Should I refinance it? Should I sell it? Are there work needs to be done to it? Are there vacant places? Spacing it to have to be rented? Is there any construction that needs to be done? And I manage about 25 different assets anywhere from a Home Depots, which require. No management? They're called triple net and they're pretty much passive income. Mm-hmm. Alright. But then we have our tougher projects, like we own, John's Pass here. We're building hotel rooms, we're doing all sorts of things, renting to vacant spaces, raising rents when they need to be raised. Just all kinds of moving parts. So basically it's about just constantly adjusting your portfolio. Everyone normally goes into real estate in some form or fashion in their life. Somehow everybody lives in a house or,, owns something

Ernestine:

I'm very interested in the word luck. Or lucky people say, oh, he's so lucky because he lives in that big house. Or, he must have a lot of luck on his side because he is making a lot of money. Yeah. What's your response to that?

Ben:

I don't really believe in luck. Everybody does, but basically you have to recognize when you're at the right place at the right time, you have to recognize it and you have to take advantage of the opportunity. Luck didn't make me contact the seller and make him an offer. I had to do that. I had to initiate that now. Was it luck when I heard about the property, you can call it that, but basically I caused the luck to happen because basically I was in a meeting True story, I was in a meeting with a local person here very well known in real estate. And, we were meeting over a shopping center, he wanted to sell me. And I just casually asked him, 'cause I knew he lives a few doors down from here. Hey, by the way, what's up with that big giant house They've been spending five years on building. And it wasn't public knowledge that it was for sale. They wanted to keep it quiet. So he said, oh, that place, oh, it's been on the market for a year now and you can't sell it. I said, oh yeah, when I hear things like that, those are the signals you see. The thing in life is you gotta watch the signals. When the little signals come in and the lights pop up, you have to act on it. And that could be good. And also bad, like when I see signals that if something's bad. Then I run away, or I deal with it accordingly. As soon as I left the meeting I got on the phone, I called one of my people and said, Hey, go find out what the story of that house and how much they want and what's the story. And then I made him an offer and. They eventually accepted and we bought it.

Ernestine:

So you were very intentional and strategic about it. You have

Ben:

to act,

Ernestine:

you

Ben:

know,

Ernestine:

you don't get

Ben:

anywhere in life unless you act. You have to act on things.

Ernestine:

Yep. I agree. Just

Ben:

make sure you're making the right act.

Ernestine:

Philanthropy means different things to different people. What does philanthropy mean to you?

Ben:

I like to give, but. Most of my philanthropy. I do it whenever I can help somebody. I help 'em. But monetarily is what philanthropy means to me. How much money are you, donating? That's basically what it means to me, and honestly, I will tell you, I wasn't as charitable a person until I moved into this community. And when I say this community, I'll say Belleair when I moved into Belleair I was now exposed coming from having barely any social skills or ever being around, nice, friendly family people. Mm-hmm. And well to do people. When me and Karla moved here, we were welcomed by a lot of. Genuinely wealthy, super wonderful, nice people. And I sat around and watched, they spend a lot of their money and time giving and helping the community.

Ernestine:

That's wonderful. And that

Ben:

really put us on the road to doing it. My wife decided after looking at every single school in this area to put our son in kindergarten. In St. Paul's. And the people there other parents there, these are people that come from very, very long histories it put us into an area, a group of people. We'd learned, we felt like we were actually like just bettering ourselves, being around them and being part of the family there at the school.

Ernestine:

A real sense of community.

Ben:

And then what I loved about donating money was When you donated the money, you saw where the money went. If the school said, we really need to upgrade our technology, or We really need to build this room, or We really need a new theater, or we, whatever we need. Need a playground. A school needs a playground. What better thing could you, donate to? Every penny I ever spent. Helping the school, which my own children went to and my other family members went to, brought me a lot of happiness and satisfaction, that was my philanthropy. I've tried to support something that I had a direct connection with. I'm well aware of the tremendous, I don't even know the words that you were, responsible for in the whole community as far as the hospital and, everything.

Ernestine:

Thank you. We do have an amazing community, this was fantastic. Thank you so much, Ben, for sitting down with me. You have such a kind soul, and I'm so grateful to call you friend,

Ben:

and I feel the same about you.

Ernestine:

Thanks for listening to Bon Vivant Chic Life Well Lived. I hope you'll tune in for more meaningful stories on the human experience and share with family and friends. All the episodes are available on Spotify Buzz Sprout, Apple and on my website, bonvivantchic.com. Till next time, remember, every day is a gift. Live it. Kindness matters.