Double R Flo-Town

Double R Flo-Town: Community concerns, market moves, and getting better together.

• Robert Thomas & Reeves Cannon • Season 1 • Episode 14

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In this episode of Double R FloTown, Robert & Reeves get real about the issues and opportunities shaping Florence and the Pee Dee. They discuss crime, family breakdown, affordable housing, and why local engagement matters more than ever.

Sheriff TJ Joy’s insights spark a heartfelt discussion on root causes, community leadership, and the need for practical change. Later, the hosts dive into the housing market, the controversial idea of 50-year mortgages, and the potential impact of crypto on real estate.

Finally, Robert speaks into existence a new segment — Counseling Corner with Reeves— tackling anxiety, routines, and digital burnout, reminding us that building stronger communities starts with healthier people.

SPEAKER_03:

Double R Flowtown, number one podcast into PD. Reeves, here's what is super encouraging to me. We've got people reaching out, commenting, saying, when's the next episode? I didn't know if anybody was listening or not. People are listening.

SPEAKER_02:

People are listening. I got a text last uh week. Hey, did I miss an episode? Why are we not seeing any more episodes? I said, Well, we actually had to skip a week because of some schedule conflicts, but we're back at it. We're filming today. We've got a jam-packed, awesome episode planned. And then next week we've got a really good episode with Brad Bill, the director of the airport.

SPEAKER_03:

Fly flow, baby.

SPEAKER_02:

Fly flow. We're going to fly flow all the time. That's really going to help Florence take off.

SPEAKER_03:

Yes, it is. Yes, it is. It is. Yeah, no, that airport, if they'll get consistent with the flights, it's going to be like the best little niche thing you can do. Go fly out of there and get through there in 15 minutes.

SPEAKER_02:

It is really amazing when you think about the travel opportunities Florence has. I-90, we talk about it all the time, but I-95, I-20, massive corridor. You've got train here that people can get to. I talked to somebody the other day who was he bought a house. He's from New Jersey. He was taking the train back up to New Jersey to drive some more vehicles back to Florence. So we've got train options.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

We've got the airport. We sit in a place where you can use any mode of travel that you would like to get places. We're still very affordable compared to other areas of the state that people would want to be at. Florence is a good place to live. We do have challenges though, as well.

SPEAKER_03:

We've got some challenges, and I want to talk about those challenges. Yeah, we need to. I don't want this podcast to be just rah-rah, everything's awesome.

SPEAKER_02:

I mean, we we were in a meeting yesterday, you and I both, and we heard the sheriff TJ Joy, who's a phenomenal guy. We're gonna have him on the podcast as well. We talked to him about that yesterday. But some of the things he was telling us were very disturbing, quite honestly. And we've got to address our crime issue in Florence. It is not good enough.

SPEAKER_03:

No, I mean, honestly, that's first. Everything else doesn't matter beyond that. If you don't have crime and safety at a manageable level, nothing else really matters.

SPEAKER_02:

Think about the industry that we have here in Florence. You know, we've got two awesome hospital systems. We've got Honda, we've got Newcore, we've got food service distribution centers. Big time food service. We've got a lot of, we've got a potentially a battery plant that's coming to town that's going to bring a lot of jobs. We've got a lot of opportunity for industry to come here. And we were touring a doctor around yesterday.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah. And spine surgeon.

SPEAKER_02:

A potential spine surgeon. And when they look at the crime statistics, it makes it very difficult for those industries to recruit good people to come live here because they they see the crime statistics and it is downright scary. Yes. And it's not the sheriff department, it's not TJ Joy, it's not the City of Florence Police Department that's the problem. They they're doing everything they can with the resources they have, but we've got to address the socioeconomic issues that are contributing to this.

SPEAKER_03:

You've got to fix the root cause.

SPEAKER_02:

And, you know, some people would tell us, well, that's just too big of an issue. You're not going to solve that problem. That you're wasting time talking about it, but we've got to talk about it because we have so much stinking potential in this city. But we've got to figure out as a community how to address that and how to move forward. And it's true that, you know, the I-95 corridor does bring a lot of that drug use, and that's not necessarily life in Florence. It's just happening right there on 52 and 95, and it's kind of segmented away. But it's still part of who we are, and we can do better. And we got to figure out how to do better.

SPEAKER_03:

No, it was interesting the few points he made yesterday. One being it's not as much murders as it is killings. You know, it's two guys disputing over a girlfriend and shooting each other.

SPEAKER_02:

Well, he said it. He said they fight over drugs and they fight over women.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah. I guess that's uh been happening since the beginning of time.

SPEAKER_02:

But well, I remember me and a buddy of mine fighting over a girl in high school, but it never got to guns. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03:

We don't need to shoot each other. That's right. Punch each other and move on. Fight, just fist fight. There you go. But anyway.

SPEAKER_02:

Seriously, that's it's it is killings. It's not murders. And that's an important distinction. And that's one of the things the sheriff was was commenting on at the event we were at yesterday is you know, it's not like there's these thugs going out just looking to kill random people. That's not the the threat that we're facing necessarily in our city when you see the crime statistics. You're seeing, you know, friend on friend crime and murders, killings. And but that comes from pathetic families, pathetic parents, quite honestly. They're absolutely pathetic parents. Yes. And it's because of a government that is stupidly funding out-of-wedlock mothers. Exactly. And we've got to stop funding these mothers that are continuing to have babies out of wedlock. We need fathers to step up. And the government's got to understand and incentivize parents being parents and not de-incentivize that.

SPEAKER_03:

These kids are growing up in hell.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03:

Is what they're doing, Reeves.

SPEAKER_02:

When we go back to the Mike Rickenbaugh episode, we saw him nearly come to tears when he was thinking about the environment so many of these kids are growing up in. And and government has been enabling this for a long time.

SPEAKER_03:

Yes, it's gotta stop.

SPEAKER_02:

It's gotta stop.

SPEAKER_03:

So you've got to tell this story, Reeves, because it it is like really helps people fully get it. And it's the story that the teacher posted about the project that she offered to her kids. What was it, like a fourth grade class?

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, I think it was a fourth grade class. I saw it on Facebook that someone else had reposted about a teacher in our area.

SPEAKER_03:

In our area.

SPEAKER_02:

And if memory serves, you may remember it better than me because we talked about it. And but this teacher asked her students, four third, fourth grade students, to go home and instead of engaging in TV, media, various things.

SPEAKER_03:

This was their homework for that night.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

To go and talk to an adult.

SPEAKER_03:

And I think And ask them some questions, ask about their life, just ask them questions, just try to engage with their parents. I think the teacher was trying to prove a point. Yeah. And what happened?

SPEAKER_02:

Well, the point was proven, and it was a very sad, very damning point for this, at least these 20 students. I think there was two students that actually had adults in their home engage with them. And the others reported back that they were told to go away, they didn't have time for them, they didn't want to talk to them. And that might seem like no way did that happen to some of us who haven't been raised in that environment, but that is a wide swath of people who are living in Florence and the kids that are being raised in those environments. And we've got to figure out how to address that and um help parents be parents. Yeah. That's the number one job of parent. The moment you have a child, that becomes your first priority. It's got to be.

SPEAKER_03:

So one more story, and then we'll move on from this, but I think we need to make the point. So TJ Joy also told two stories of two different killings that happened, and as a result of those killings, one three-year-old child was shot and and then made it. The other three-year-old child got it killed. Because the parents are shooting people. I mean, uh think about what that three-year-old kid was living through. It breaks my heart.

SPEAKER_02:

Well, think about if that three-year-old made it, how difficult it would be for them to get to a place of success having been raised in that kind of environment. And so we're two, three, four generations into this now.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

And government has proven to not be the answer. Government has proven to, hey, to try to step in and solve these problems. But it's like Ronald Reagan. I think he's sitting over your head. Can they see Ronald Reagan? Is he you know the scariest words in the human language?

SPEAKER_01:

I'm from the government and I'm here to help.

SPEAKER_02:

Right. Private, private, the private sector has to figure it out. But the government has to be willing to get out of the way so we can help. And tax policy isn't allowing that, and that ticks me off.

SPEAKER_03:

So that, you know, when we post this video, I want people to comment. I want, I want to hear the comments, and not all comments have to be, yeah, you guys are right, or let we that's what this is for is to get the conversation going, get the community engaged, because we've got a good community here, but we got to get engaged and start making a different.

SPEAKER_02:

Well, two things about that. You know, TJ Joy talked about, I think he said he has 12 sheriffs on patrol at any given time.

SPEAKER_03:

Which kind of blew my mind.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03:

So in any shift, there's only 12? Is that what we said?

SPEAKER_02:

There are 12. That's what I understand.

SPEAKER_03:

And we'll confirm that when he comes on. We're gonna have him on in a month or so.

SPEAKER_02:

I heard him say he'd love to get to 20 in his lifetime, but he didn't know if that was even possible. And to be really fully staffed in Florence County, he needs 50.

SPEAKER_03:

But he said that'll never happen.

SPEAKER_02:

He said that'll never happen. I would love for us to be able to fund that. And part of it's a funding issue, right? Which means the people, the community, we've got to be taxed so that we can fund that. But part of it's also education and give empowering our community to a brighter future, which sounds like a stupid political stump speech, but there's a lot of emphasis and teeth behind that that I think we can we can do in small ways.

SPEAKER_03:

Cut back on 10 other things and less get the right police force in town. Because, like we said at the beginning, beyond that, nothing else matters. If people don't feel safe, nothing else matters.

SPEAKER_02:

And when you commit a crime, you go to jail, you stay in jail, and it's painful as hell.

SPEAKER_03:

But what did he tell us? The damn jail's full.

SPEAKER_02:

And they've got to let them out. They've got to let them out.

SPEAKER_03:

They're gonna expand for the murderers. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

But anyway, but going back to comments, we got some a comment about the last episode.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I wanted to read it because I thought it was interesting, and it it, you know, hey, let's comment on it some more. So Kevin Yocum, who came and spoke, that was he did a great job. Yeah, awesome man. You know, we got a ton of action on his segment on the Christmas lights, the lights for paws. That's right. I mean, we've uh we've had almost 60,000 views on that. So people are all about it. But one comment we got was it said, pro tip. Because this is talking about how we're moving the lights to Lynch's River Park, which I think is cool. Yeah, he's this is what the comment said. Pro tip. Drive to the beach for their light show. The original owners left for a reason. You're welcome. Or by humbug.

SPEAKER_02:

But what do you think about that comment, Robert?

SPEAKER_03:

I don't know. I mean, we had a call on the way here, somebody moving back here from the beach. I mean, you know, we aren't gonna be the beach. The beach isn't the best thing for everybody, but I don't know.

SPEAKER_02:

I mean, there's pros and cons. One, we appreciate the comment.

SPEAKER_03:

I love all of it.

SPEAKER_02:

I love all the comments, and I especially appreciate the the negative or the kind of bah humbug.

SPEAKER_03:

Because that gets things going.

SPEAKER_02:

Let's get the conversation going. We we're doing this podcast because we want to move Florence forward in the ways that we are able to do it.

SPEAKER_03:

Exactly.

SPEAKER_02:

You know, we only have limited ability, but wherever we can help Florence move forward, we want to move it forward because we will we do believe in Florence. Yeah. Florence is never going to be Charleston.

SPEAKER_01:

No, sir.

SPEAKER_02:

Florence is never going to be the Grand Strand. Florence is never going to be the capital city. There are certain things that those cities offer that Florence will never be able to offer. But we do have a lot to offer, I believe. And, you know, but so do those other cities. We've got an awesome state. But, you know, I I've been to the beat to the to the light show in Ory County. I've been to the light show in Charleston. Those are really cool. But so is the light show that we've had in Florence.

SPEAKER_03:

It's the small town quaint vibe, and and that's what draws a lot of people here. We kind of got to keep our small town charm.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, you do. We have to know who we are. It's not exactly, it's not that Florence is trying to become the next Myrtle Beach. I mean, God help us if we do. Talk about really having a crime problem. That's that's when we'll really have one. Or becoming the next Charleston. But let's be the best version of Florence that we can be. And that begins with every community member having pride, you know, spending money here instead of other places. And let's be proud of the fact that the county is is trying to take this light show for whatever reason these people left. It doesn't really matter.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

The county's taking over this light show, and they're going to give us an opportunity as community members to go and enjoy a night out with our family, a night out with our friends, to celebrate the holidays, and to do it in a small town way. It's going to be great.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah, but I that but the whole point is keep commenting. If you know, this is the platform for us to talk about it. Hey, if we see people really moving from Florence, well, let's talk about it.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03:

If people are moving for certain reasons, I'd like to know.

SPEAKER_02:

And and people are moving, but like you said, people are moving here as well. Yeah. You know, we've helped several people this year move from the beach to Florence.

SPEAKER_03:

We had a you we had a call on the way to the podcast this morning, moving back to Florence from the beach. He's been at the beach, he's tired of it.

SPEAKER_02:

Yep, they're selling their condo, they're coming here. And not only are they moving from Myrtle Beach area to Florence, but they're coming back to Florence after having lived in Florida, Tennessee, I think he said Georgia. I mean, they've lived in almost every state in the southeast, and they're coming back to Florence.

SPEAKER_03:

Because Florence is home.

SPEAKER_02:

Florence is home.

SPEAKER_03:

But we do need some new developments that cater to this person. You know, the older person that wants single-story brick home. Not vinyl siding track home.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03:

Because honestly, that's mostly what's getting developed here is track homes. Vinyl siding.

SPEAKER_02:

There's a place for those. Yeah, there's a place. But you know, honestly, Robert, I've I've thought a lot about this. We've talked a lot about it. I think the fact that we have, you know, track builders are here and they can build more efficiently than a local builder because they're doing it on a larger scale. And when you build on a larger scale, you can control costs better. You can offer uh the end user a better cost. Um but I think the reason these track builders are gaining so much steam all over the country, and we're moving away from these local mom and pop type you know contractors building properties is because of our overall economy. Our economy on a national level is not as healthy as it needs to be. Uh we've got massive debt, we've got you know low wages, the cost of living. Um, I we were talking about this on a church level and and just tithes and offerings to a local church. And it's hard for a young family to make it, much less make it and be able to have you know money to be able to give to a local church. All of that just is a cyclical and erodes the fabric and the foundation of a community. And you know, I again I don't know the answers, but I know that we're in a difficult spot. And I think the track-built homes are just one part of industry.

SPEAKER_03:

Affordable homes. Which, I mean, the silver lining is we're gonna have a lot of affordable homes in this town, we will, which maybe will drive industry because when the industry comes and looks and says, hold on, we can recruit people and they can get a house for$250, where I don't think in Greenville, Charleston, any of those cities that's possible. No, we will have probably the most affordable housing in South Carolina for this size town.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah. Which is a really good thing. But but getting back to your point, we do need some new development. I think there's opportunity for local builders, and we're very well connected to most of the local builders here to build some, you know, whether they're town homes or patio homes or just some brick ranch homes that are a little bit bigger, that you know anyone, but especially older clients can move into and feel very good about, very comfortable. There's not a place right now for that to happen.

SPEAKER_03:

Well, and I think we've also got, and I and I got invited by the city to go to a meeting talking about revitalizing some of our existing neighborhoods. Okay, especially some of the neighborhoods that are trending down. And so the city has hired a third-party company to really put focus and talk about what we can do to revitalize some of these neighborhoods, which I think is awesome. And that and and I think there's a lot of people that like the idea of the older neighborhood with mature trees, and and that's a way to further make the city nicer. But the thing I went back to, the the biggest point I tried to make is the first thing you gotta do is get those streets safe. Because without that, who's gonna go spend money fixing up a house on a street you don't feel safe?

SPEAKER_02:

Well, you do. I mean, crime is we going back to our conversation, crime is a you know, and feeling safe. And there's I think there's a long-term way to fix that, which is government stopping the incentivization of breaking up the nuclear family.

SPEAKER_03:

That's the root cause.

SPEAKER_02:

That is the root cause. That's a generation or at least a a 15 to 20 year plan. And I don't think our politicians are courageous enough on the national level, especially, but very likely on the state level either, to allow that to happen. Yeah. So but maybe, I mean maybe, maybe, maybe let's have a hopeful outcome. But yeah, I I certainly don't think I mean our politicians in DC are absolute cowards. I mean, the reality that the government shut down, they're cowards and they're children, and it s is stupid.

SPEAKER_03:

It really is.

SPEAKER_02:

Um, the more local we get, the better we get, and I'm very thankful for that. Yes, but that's the long-term way to fix it is to quit incentivizing the the degradation of the nuclear family. The short-term way is to have prisons that are big enough to house the criminals and to keep them in prison when they commit crime and make it painful for them to be there.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

And that's how we fix these cities, and then we can then begin to revitalize these neighborhoods.

SPEAKER_03:

So, one of the the other thoughts that I threw out there, and I wasn't really in love with the feedback I got, but I said, So what if we really incentivize, give a great deal to police officers and teachers, yeah, in and put them in these communities. And I know that would work. I know that would have to help. A police presence, his car sitting there, you know, that seems like a pretty easy first move to make. The comment I got back was, well, we we haven't haven't ever done a study on that. We don't need to study it. I don't need a study on that.

SPEAKER_02:

Let let's let's give sheriffs. Give them a house. We've got so much dang government overspend.

SPEAKER_03:

Give them a house they deserve, they deserve a house.

SPEAKER_02:

Give them a$125,000 house.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

And don't and give them 10 years of free property taxes. That's a better use of government funds than anything else.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

And and put a cop there and let them patrol and give them a fair wage. I mean, the two things TJ Joy said to us yesterday was he can't recruit officers because who wants to come work for a tough wage and face the hell they're facing.

SPEAKER_03:

So when he started, the wage for the big the starting wage for a sheriff officer was 35,000, somewhere in there. And he's got it up to upper 50s, which is all which is very good.

SPEAKER_02:

It's much more respectable.

SPEAKER_03:

But putting your life on the line every day for$55,000,$60,000.

SPEAKER_02:

That's a that's a tough, tough ask.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah, it's a tough ask. But we've got some awesome, awesome sheriff officers that are truly passionate about it.

SPEAKER_01:

And we want to find more of those.

SPEAKER_03:

We gotta find more.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, and um and I want we gotta pay them well.

SPEAKER_03:

And I want to put them in some houses in the city.

SPEAKER_02:

But the other thing, teachers, I sent you what did I send you a video of last night?

SPEAKER_03:

Fight at West Florence.

SPEAKER_02:

A fight at West Florence happened this week. I mean, they probably happened. They happen all the time. They've been happening forever, whatever. But sent you a video of a fight that my kids, you know, they had a video of it that happened at West Florence. But TJ Joy said yesterday to us, what? Teachers need to be wearing vest to school. That hurt. Our sheriff said that teachers in our public schools need to be wearing vests because it's that dangerous in our public schools. That can't be. That just cannot be. And again, the two ways you fix that. One is the long term, don't de-incentivize it. But two, punish the people who need to be punished and quit, you know, patting them on the back and moving them down the line. Punish them.

SPEAKER_03:

They need to be there, they need to be working. There needs to be a real punishment. There's no real punishment. Yeah, and and I again I mean, I think they kick them out of school, which I I don't know. I mean, that just keeps them down the wrong path as well.

SPEAKER_02:

I'd we'd love to be in some conversations on some real constructive ways that we can help.

SPEAKER_03:

I want to get some teachers on.

SPEAKER_02:

Okay.

SPEAKER_03:

I want to get some teachers on the pod to really help us round out our knowledge of what's going on and then how we can start helping them.

SPEAKER_02:

That'd be good. I think going back, you know one person who's doing a phenomenal job helping young men in our community?

SPEAKER_03:

Who's that?

SPEAKER_02:

Drew Marlowe, South Florence football coach. Definitely. We had him on the podcast. He's having an incredible impact. And we're seeing the fruits of it both on and off the field. And let's take that model and let's empower teachers, not just coaches, but teachers. And I had a meeting with uh Jonathan McKnight, who's the new area director for FCA and in the PD. And there's some really good ideas and opportunities that Fellowship of Christian Athletes is bringing to Florence to get into schools and impact students. And I I really love that organization and what they're doing, and I'm hopeful for what Jonathan's gonna be able to do. And he's got a whole leadership team, and there's guys who and girls who've been there even longer than he has in that role that are are doing good work.

SPEAKER_03:

Let's get him on.

SPEAKER_02:

So let's get him on.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah, yeah. Yeah, that's what we gotta do. It's um, you know, there's always gonna be work to be done, but you know, one other comment that we got that really was awesome and kind of refueled my fire for this was Tim Norwood said, I see the future leaders of Florence talking about this podcast, which you know, I really appreciate him saying that, but hey, if that's our role, I'd like to step into it and do it well.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, again, it's not that we want Florence to become Charleston or Florence to become Columbia, but we do want Florence to become the best version of itself. And and we we've you lived in Charleston for a time. I lived in Dallas, Texas for a time. We've come back here and we believe that this city has incredible potential.

SPEAKER_03:

And this city's been good to us. It's been very good to us. I mean, we've this this city has blessed us a lot.

SPEAKER_02:

We were sitting in the office earlier today, and your dad was with us, and we we love Bobby. We're gonna get Bobby on the morning. Yeah, try to get him on this morning. He wouldn't come back. No, he didn't. But um, we're gonna get him. But he was reminding us, he said, Boys, you're blessed.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

Don't be, you know, griping a moment.

SPEAKER_03:

Don't be too hard on Florence because Florence has been good to us. That's right. And he's right. He's right. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

What about real estate? What's happening in real estate?

SPEAKER_03:

Real estate is in an interesting spot. It's is, I think you're really starting to see the time of year come back into play. Yeah. You know, historically, any time you got into Thanksgiving and the holidays, it slowed way down, and that's happening. But things are still moving. I mean, we had a house, Jackson had a house on Damon. Yeah.$350,000 house that sold in 24 hours. So it's it's it's it's weird and interesting.

SPEAKER_02:

It's a little, you know, you it's would it be fair to say maybe it's not quite as predictable?

SPEAKER_03:

Very fair to say. Very fair.

SPEAKER_02:

As it used to be. It's not, yeah. Um, you know, we've got you know, the the house Jackson listed at 350, boom, it was gone. And and it there it was a nice house, but nothing that would have made us think it was gonna go in 24 hours. Especially based on the houses we have listed around it that are sitting and and not being shown at all.

SPEAKER_03:

There's there's ultimately not a lot of buyers out there at the moment.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, I mean, we've got some you know very good new construction homes. I talk about them all the time, priced between 220 to 240, which is starter price homes now. Some people who are older may not believe. And we're offering 5,500 in closing cost assistance. We're offering 2.5% plus a$2,000 uh agent bonus plus a refrigerator if these homes close and a 50-year mortgage? Let's talk about that in a second. We're offering a refrigerator, not a 50-year mortgage. And I sent this to dozens, dozens of agents, dozens of mortgage brokers, and they don't have buyers because that is by far, if you've got a buyer anywhere near that price point, you're not gonna find a better house. But there's nobody looking to buy, so it's a very mixed market. I I think back to the comment I made, Izzy, and maybe you want to pull this up when you do some editing. I talked about how starting in September rates are gonna drop and this thing's gonna heat back up really good. Wow. I do think the last quarter of this year has the potential to be really hot. Well, that that was that that that didn't happen. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. It's not heating up. So I'm gonna get out of the prediction business.

SPEAKER_03:

We gotta keep um I don't think anybody saw things playing out quite like this, but I still think the future's bright.

SPEAKER_02:

Oh, I think and I think 2026 is going to be bright. Um, good or bad, you know, talking about the 50 year mortgage. Trump's gonna do whatever he can to manipulate this thing.

SPEAKER_03:

He's gonna energize it however he can make it look good and make it be.

SPEAKER_02:

Good. And so, I mean, what do you think about this proposed idea of a 50-year mortgage?

SPEAKER_03:

I hadn't fully wrapped my mind around it. I mean, first blush, you're like, wow, that I don't know. Um, but I do ultimately think families that can own a home are better off. It grounds them, it gives them a stake in the American dream. So if that's the only way they can do it, it might be the best thing to do.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, I think the the pro is that it's a lower uh cost to enter, which which means it's a you know a lower barrier to enter. It's more expensive over the a lot more expensive.

SPEAKER_03:

Nobody's living there for 50 years. Nobody lives in a house more than seven years anymore.

SPEAKER_02:

But the danger with a 50 versus even a 30 versus even a 15 is the longer note you have, the longer term you have, the less uh principal you're paying at the beginning. Yeah, which means you live in this home seven years and you've got a 50-year mortgage and you've paid$125,000 or$200,000 in payments, and you've knocked out$10,000 of principal.

SPEAKER_03:

You know what I think would be the best play? And it'd be something they'd really have to force the banks to do is make more mortgages assumable. So and some are, and a lot of agents and don't think about that. Like there's houses that sell that that mortgage could have been assumed at the 3.5% rate, and nobody knows about it or talks about it. But what if more of those were assumable?

SPEAKER_02:

Well, I think we need to get a banker on here to talk about it. They're not gonna like it. Oh, and they're not gonna allow it. I mean, that's just the but I it would be wonderful. It would be good for the consumer. But banks may banks did a three percent mortgage because they knew you wouldn't hold that for 30 years. But a lot of people are holding. They're gonna do their best and they're gonna hold them longer than they traditionally would.

SPEAKER_03:

That's part of why there's not as many buyers because all the people with a 3% mortgage rate, I wouldn't encourage them to move either. If you can stay, stay.

SPEAKER_02:

You've gotta stay. Yeah, you've gotta stay if you can. But I don't think we're ever gonna get to a just a fully assumable mortgage environment because it really uh it cuts the banks out at the knees. Yeah. And and and that's not gonna be.

SPEAKER_03:

I think Trump's gonna cut the banks out at the knees in a whole other way.

SPEAKER_02:

Okay, tell me.

SPEAKER_03:

I think he's gonna I I really think he is gonna push crypto into everything. And and and I don't fully have my mind wrapped around it, but it's starting to make sense to me. Like what let take this as the example, Reeves. Let's say we've got a townhome building with five townhomes in it, and it's worth$800,000. And now, if we wanted to take that building and make it like a real estate investment trust for other people to invest in, it's really clunky and hard to do. What if it's tokenized to where you basically we could sell Izzy a damn$50 share of that thing through a crypto token? And how does that change the game? How does that completely change it?

SPEAKER_02:

Well, you've heard the phrase, hell hath no fury like a woman scorned. Well, you know what's even more true, Izzy? Hell doubly has no fury like Trump scorned. And that man is absolutely livid at the banks.

SPEAKER_03:

Because they tried to debank him. They they basically did debank him.

SPEAKER_02:

And that's why they hate him. That's why everyone hates him so much. I mean, it makes no sense unless you pull the covers back a little bit. Why do they really hate him so much? Well, because he is going after them in a way that no one else has ever been able to afford to go after. Yeah. And and maybe he's gonna rig it back for himself.

SPEAKER_01:

But we don't know, yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

But talking about getting away from traditional banks and moving into the blockchain and crypto and making things easier to transact, if anyone can pull it off, he can. We'll see if he does it. But it would be interesting to talk to a banker to understand how concerned the banks are about all of this that he's doing.

SPEAKER_03:

I think a lot of them don't think it's gonna actually happen. And maybe it won't. And I'd love to get the banker that's kind of on the cutting edge of really understanding all of that.

unknown:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03:

Because I don't know how many of us fully really understand how that's gonna play out. But I'm I I research it a lot and I'm starting to see the road. And I mean, it's not like this is way far fresh. They they fetch they passed the Genius Act, which is all about that. They're pushing it. The Trump family's heavily invested in it. I think the odds of it happening are decent.

SPEAKER_02:

Well, and you know, you've got all of this happening, and and is it happening because Trump and his family were just ticked off because they were debanked? And how much of it's happening because the dollar is the world's currency, and the dollar stinks. The dollar isn't worth the paper it's printed on, and that's why we've had rapid inflation, and we've had that in our nation's history, and we've kind of recovered, and and Lord willing, we'll do it again. But the dollar is being devalued, you've got this new emerging uh money system coming into play, and and then I always like to then think about it in worlds uh in in view of you know revelation and end times, and try it may mean have nothing to do with any of that, or it may have everything to do with that. I don't know, I don't pretend to know, but I find it's just a very fascinating, interesting conversation.

SPEAKER_03:

It really is. I'd love to we gotta find somebody that knows more about it than we do, and I'd love to dig deeper in it.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03:

So one other, one other I I want to do monthly, and you're not gonna like this, okay?

SPEAKER_02:

You're not gonna like I have no idea what you're getting ready to say.

SPEAKER_03:

I want to do uh counseling corner with Reeves.

SPEAKER_02:

Oh goodness, oh goodness.

SPEAKER_03:

Because you really, I mean, you know, that was a big part of your life, and you're really good at it. I mean, you you know, you're kind of anointed as a counselor, and you still get to do plenty of it. So I want to kind of tell a little bit of a story of of how you counseled me in the last year, and I think it could help a lot of other people because I think a lot of other people deal with this. So a year ago, I get an ear infection, and then my ears start ringing with tinnitus or tinnitus, I don't know how to say it. And it it was driving me crazy.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, you were you were struggling.

SPEAKER_03:

I was, I mean, it was it was I was like, I don't know if I can live like this. I mean, this thing's ringing and I can't stop it, and then it kind of grows. But you very quickly told me, you said, Robert, and I you correct me on how you say this, something about a sumo wrestler.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, starve the sumo.

SPEAKER_03:

Starve the sumo. And basically you gotta not dwell on it. And then the other thing you told me, which I do, and like I couldn't think about life without this, exercise. Get out every morning, walk, exercise, and it will just change you. And I do it without the phone, yeah, and it is amazing. Every morning I love walking the rail trail. I'll sometimes I walk around a neighborhood and with no phone, and it's like the clearest thinking you can do. But anyway, so tell me a little more about because I really the more I I've talked about tinnitus, a lot of people have it. Hell, your ears started ringing after a little bit. They did. They didn't think you starved the sumo quicker than I did.

SPEAKER_02:

Well, I don't know about that, but yeah, the idea of starving the sumo is we all have different issues, challenges, problems in our life, and it's gonna happen. It's gonna happen. It's living in this side of eternity, you know, as things come our way. And it's very natural for us to dwell on those things and to think about those things and for them to become all-consuming. And it's it's not the idea is not to it avoid or ignore, but it's to right size and understand, okay, this this may not be as big of a problem as I'm allowing it to become in my life and in my heart. And it and maybe I'm allowing it to consume me in ways that it it really it's a self-fulfilling prophecy at that point. I need to I need to just right size this and then I need to deal with it. And so, you know, it's talking about cognitively right sizing and understanding more rightly our the issues that we're facing. And then in a very pragmatic sense, the physiological components of health, sleep, exercise, and diet, tracking those, getting in healthy rhythms and healthy ranges within you know what exercise routines you have, what's your sleep patterns. You've challenged me on this, Robert, putting the phone down, uh, not at at all times, but also especially before bedtime is really, really important. And that's something. In fact, what'd you say before the podcast started today?

SPEAKER_03:

I said, let me grab it. I said true wealth is not needing this anymore. Yeah. That's a that's a big part of well, you know, this this is consuming too much of our time.

SPEAKER_02:

And you know what's fascinating about that statement is you just said that, and I expect 90% of the people who are listening to us went, that's exactly right. I would love to be able to get rid of that stupid phone. But we've created a culture that is again, it's self-fulfilling, it's feeding itself, and we don't know how to get rid of it. But true wealth really would be being able to disengage and not have to be tied to that device that is just kind of here's the challenge I give everyone.

SPEAKER_03:

And I'm doing it, I'm trying, I don't do great. I'm trying to do it on Sundays.

SPEAKER_02:

Okay.

SPEAKER_03:

Put this phone, turn it off, put it in the drawer, and don't look at it on Sunday and engage with your family, engage with your friends, and I promise you, you'll start seeing that that's the best day of the week for you by far.

SPEAKER_02:

I was talking with a good friend of mine yesterday, Jeremy Emmert. He is with Helping Florence Flourish, and we were having this conversation yesterday morning at an event we were at, and he does that on Sundays, and he's made the comment to me, I bet that's really hard for you to be able to think about putting your phone away with the business you have. And I said, Yeah, I mean it feels impossible, but you're doing it. And um, he said, but I Jeremy said this to me, he said, but I bet if you set that expectation and you just let everybody know, and and you kind of created a rhythm and a routine for that, you could do it.

SPEAKER_03:

And I think ultimately it would make us better real estate agents.

SPEAKER_02:

Here's the one thing that I've I've experienced in my life, both when I was you know working as a licensed professional counselor and as a pastor, and even now, when I go away for a little one, two, three-day retreat to just kind of be still before the Lord, pray, study, think about goals and objectives, decompress, I come back with so much energy, I come back with so much clarity, and it propel has propelled me forward in seasons of my life that if I had not decompressed, I would have never been able to do that. And so, and I do think, I think we have to have rhythms of that in our life weekly as well as maybe quarterly and annually, and and so that's that's a good challenge for all of us.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's the other so counseling corner, good counseling corner. Well, I I like I like and I'd like for our counseling corner, usually ends up becoming partly talking about health as well, because that's a huge part of it. So I think we need to continue to challenge each other. Like, I want to see more people on the rail trail in the mornings walking. That thing needs to be packed. Yeah, it's beautiful, the leaves are falling, and there's four people out there walking. Like, why aren't there people walking and running all over the place every morning? I don't get it.

SPEAKER_02:

Izzy, you live behind the rail trail. Why can't you get up?

SPEAKER_03:

I see him every day.

SPEAKER_00:

I do almost every morning.

SPEAKER_02:

Okay, what time are you out there?

SPEAKER_00:

I'm usually out there about uh 7:55, 8, right before I go into the office.

SPEAKER_03:

Do you see a good are you seeing a lot of people out there?

SPEAKER_00:

There are people that are consistent. I think people that have created habit. Yeah, we'll see the same 10 people almost every morning.

SPEAKER_02:

You said a very key thing, I think, Izzy. You said there's people who have created a habit.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

And we all know with the new year approaching, everybody's gonna begin thinking about New Year's resolutions, and that's a very dangerous thing to think about. And everybody makes jokes about resolutions and they end up being broken by January 15th. But set some goals for yourself and understand that it takes 21 to 30 days to set a habit and be ferociously committed to setting these habits. And I'm I'm talking to myself first right now. Whatever those habits are, whether it's better sleep, better exercise, you know, spiritually, certainly, um, healthy eating, whatever those things need to be, and let's make a commitment to being healthier. That will help the city as well.

SPEAKER_03:

Absolutely. There needs to be 500 people in the morning on that rail trail, walking, running, exercising. Here's I'm gonna challenge you on one, Reeves. Uh-oh. So you get a lot of people pulling at you for meetings in the mornings, and it's probably derailing because you were doing really good working out in the mornings.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03:

And you gotta, I hate to say it, but if you'll set the expectation of look, in this time in the mornings, I'm working out. Yeah, if you don't, you're gonna just continue, you get derailed. I've it was hard for me to do, but now if I don't do my morning stretch, exercise walk, I feel horrible. I I hate the days I don't get to do it.

SPEAKER_02:

You're I appreciate that challenge, and you're right. I I like to wake up at 6 a.m. I like to be at the gym by about 6.20, and I like to be walking out of the gym by 8 30. Yeah, but I allow so many people to do derail that, and and that's a that's I need some accountability on that, so keep holding me accountable.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah, yeah, I will. You know, thank you. Well, this is I love the I love the times we get to just talk. Um, you know, looking forward to next one with Fly Flow. That's gonna be super interesting. That's right. Everybody keep commenting, like comment, tell us what you think, tell us who you want to be on this, tell us what what we need to be talking about. Let's move Florence forward.