Ten Pull-Ups, Zero Nonsense: The Eviction Expert Landlords Actually Like w/ Anne Michelle Francis

What if most “bad tenants” weren’t actually the problem? We bring on Anne Michelle Francis, CEO of Blueprint Evictions, to explore the hidden mechanics of landlording in California: the power of a clear lease, the limits of the Tenant Protection Act, and the practical moves that keep you out of court. Anne Michelle shares how education beats escalation, why 75% of well‑crafted notices resolve without eviction, and how small waivers snowball into big losses when owners stop enforcing their own rules.

We dig into one of the most emotional mistakes in housing: keeping rent low for years out of kindness. It feels generous until life happens and a tenant is suddenly priced out. We walk through a better framework—modest, regular adjustments, upfront communication, and even banking the difference if you want to help—so people aren’t blindsided later. From reviewing rental agreements before you buy multi‑unit properties to aligning insurance with the real use of a home, we map the proactive steps that protect cash flow and relationships. You’ll also hear a compassionate cash‑for‑keys blueprint, where clarity, safety, and milestones create dignified outcomes without dragging everyone through a slow legal process.

If you’re a landlord, agent, or investor, this conversation is a masterclass in staying compliant, avoiding common traps, and building a rental business that runs on structure instead of stress. We cover TPA 2019 essentials, the difference between residential and commercial obligations, and why renting to friends without a real lease is a fast track to uncovered losses. Want fewer headaches and more control? Start with the lease, document everything, and keep communication current.

If this helped, follow the show, share it with a landlord who needs it, and leave a quick review to help others find us. Got a lease clause or screening tip you swear by? Tell us—we might feature it next time.

Transcript

Welcome And Guest Introduction

SPEAKER_06 0:01

Welcome to the On the Coast Podcast. Come on, come on, come on, come on, come on. We're back, we're back. Thank you for being here. I'm Brandy Jones with Keller Williams Drive, and right to my right is Ryan.

SPEAKER_02 0:12

Ryan Buckkell with Cross Country Mortgage and I Dell Bodka. Can't forget, hide out. Can't forget.

SPEAKER_06 0:18

I know.

SPEAKER_01 0:18

I'm Jerry Seagrid with Seagrid Insurance.

SPEAKER_06 0:21

Woohoo! And we have a special guest. She's a dear friend of mine, and I love her. She's a powerhouse. How many push-ups, sit-ups, pull-ups are you doing right now? Ten strict pull-ups. Okay, but pretty. Okay, you're 6'1, right? No. 5'11. All right, well, she's 6'1 to me. Anyway, this is Ann Michelle Francis. She is the CEO operator of Blueprint Evictions. And although we're not going to go straight into the nitty-gritty of evictions, she's a Santa Cruz local, has four kids, and raises them by herself. And yet you love it here. So I love your story because Jerry and Ryan are second and third generation Santa Cruzians. But they also have parents that were in the same industry they're in. Can you tell us a little bit about how you got into the eviction and just property management role?

SPEAKER_03 1:10

I never thought that I would be doing evictions as my career, but we were in a backyard barbecue one day, and my dad, who was was an eviction attorney for 40 years throughout his career, about 20 years in, said, I'm buying an eviction business. Do you want to run it? And I said, No. It's not sexy at all.

SPEAKER_00 1:27

That's not even a trick question. It's just a hard no.

SPEAKER_03 1:30

I was working in a corporate job. I'd had my first child at that point. And he said, I'll match what you're making, and you can volunteer in your kids' school, and you can come and go when you want and pick up kids and bring them to the office. And I said, Okay. So I figured I'd try it for a few years. And 18 years later, he retired and I started my own business.

SPEAKER_01 1:49

Amazing. Wow, that's awesome.

SPEAKER_06 1:51

You do a lot. You are in the real estate community. You have your own podcast. You're athletic. Like I said, you homeschool your four kids.

SPEAKER_01 2:00

How do you like the room is silent.

Owning The “Ick” And Finding Community

SPEAKER_03 2:09

Right. Well, I the disclaimer is my two older ones are now 21 and almost 19. And so I'm no longer homeschooling four. I only have two at home that I'm still homeschooling, and I really see it more as a project manager of all of the different extra things that they do versus homeschooling. I I really never wanted to teach my kids to read or write. I didn't want to be the one that was teaching them that or math, but I wanted to use the resources in the community, and I've really been waiting for them to find that dangling carrot, that thing that they're obsessed with that I could get them to want to do all day long. So it would make them want to do their schoolwork. And it was around age 12, 13 that each of them found that.

SPEAKER_06 2:47

I love that. Well, you're local, you're by the ocean, you're considering moving more towards the mountains. But we all started talking before the person before is like we find that podcasts and social media and being here, there's a hidden aura or vibe of like community that may have been like it's not in your face, it's built. What about this community keeps you here?

SPEAKER_03 3:13

It's interesting. It hasn't been until I've reached out more in my business community and the networking and really admitting that I do evictions. That's something else. I was in the closet about doing evictions.

SPEAKER_01 3:24

Like I do paperwork for a living.

SPEAKER_00 3:26

There's no doubt.

SPEAKER_03 3:28

I still don't say I do evictions. I say I do landlord tenant law.

SPEAKER_00 3:32

I brokered debt portfolios for six years for national banks, and it's not something you just pop down at dinner. No, it's that I brokered bad debt to people to collect on. It's like the people are like, ew.

SPEAKER_01 3:44

Yeah, I think a lot less of you now, dude.

SPEAKER_06 3:47

No, that's not true.

SPEAKER_00 3:47

I don't think that would be a thing. It's taken you this long.

SPEAKER_06 3:50

No, but it's interesting that whole world of bad debt and how it recycles.

SPEAKER_00 3:55

I'm super like, I'm feeling super, I can't wait to hear you talk about this. There's a psychology of this whole thing. There's there's a it's one thing to have a really successful business, but it's also very weird to be in what's perceived to be an ick business. For sure.

SPEAKER_03 4:08

You've nailed it. We need to talk. We need to have a lot of people.

Shifting To Self‑Managed Landlords

SPEAKER_00 4:10

No, I've this is a therapy session. She walked in on mine, now you're in on mine, but it's no, it's it's it's very fascinating. I mean, uh like we can can we go with that right there? Like that's what you just said. You don't tell people how have you processed that and how have you kind of come out of the ick closet?

SPEAKER_03 4:26

Uh it was really earlier this year, it was February, I think it was 12th this year, that I I had this realization that I just need to come out. This is what I do, this is my bread and butter, this is what I'm an expert in, and what am I hiding from? And so I finally just came out and started saying what I do at the sake of you know, people possibly judging me. And I'm this is what I do, though. So surprisingly, a lot of people need people like me, and and they don't know anyone else like me, and I know a lot about what I do. And so I've actually received more referrals from friends who say, Oh, my friend does that than I ever would have thought that I would have. And so it was it was opening up about that, sort of calming out about doing evictions, and then reaching out into the community. And Santa Cruz is so small that it's been a great community to reach out to. I go to one mastermind on Zoom, and then everyone starts referring me from that group where I never got that in San Jose or Santa Clara County or any of the other communities that I've served. I love that.

SPEAKER_01 5:24

Well, it's such a sticky process, too, for somebody like me to wrap my head around like how do I even initiate that? Right? Yeah. So I I think it's something that everybody would like knowing you for that, you know?

Management Failures Vs “Bad Tenants”

SPEAKER_06 5:36

Well, you I love the question, the ick business. How did you get out of it? February 12th, you're like, I'm gonna get out of it. I remember having you at some of events or masterminds, and everybody loves you. One is you're articulate, you're very knowledgeable. If there's a problem or a mistake, you you fix it, you're kind. And I saw you really flourish when you started stating not only who you are and like out of the closet. I know that's funny, but then you found another niche in there. And now you call your business, like you're helping self-managed landlords or owners really understand the ins and outs. And I feel like, you know, Ryan, you just recently had an ADU. You guys and Jerry are really working on kind of that add to your portfolio. I I don't want to own maybe a 32 apartment complex building, but I do have four or five rentals or one or two rentals. Where would you start with these guys?

SPEAKER_03 6:27

Oh, that's so much fun. I would I would start before you want to purchase a property that has four or five rentals because I would want to look at the rental agreements on all of them and see if they're covered by rent control laws or state protection laws, just clause laws and look at those and possibly get you a better price when negotiating that deal because I know what the laws are, and there's a really good chance that that selling agent doesn't know what they are. And so I'm sort of that secret, secret sauce thing that you have. Like it, why I'm saying that wrong. It's secret sauce, but I it's the sp the special recipe. I yeah, yeah. I'm like that's I I'm the person that you hold in your back pocket and you're like, oh, I've got this, and then you call me and then hey, what can we what can we do about it? And often when I say, when people come to me for that and I say, I want to see the rental agreement, the rent increases, they can't produce it. So right away I'm saying, I mean, you can reduce this price for sure. And most of the time people have already purchased the property, and so it's too late and they don't have enough documentation for me to even say, here's how you can move forward. So they think that they're buying these properties, they want to get the tenants out, remodel them, increase the rent, and often they can't.

SPEAKER_02 7:37

Right. Oh man. Wow, you're like the dog, the bounty hunter of eviction. Ten strict pull-ups.

SPEAKER_03 7:51

But she's not at. I'm not messing around. No, people see me there like, I'm not messing around.

SPEAKER_00 7:58

No, we're we're eight minutes in. That's very clear. Very clear.

SPEAKER_02 8:05

Okay, so victim specialist. I I understand what the words mean. But what exactly do you do? Like, so my my mom just went through the worst tenant possible, just like broke all the rules, did all the bad things, completely destroyed the house, probably$10,000 of the damage, did stuff that none of us would do, but had a hard time getting this person out and had to pay money and all that. Should she have called you a month ago when this all started?

SPEAKER_03 8:34

Well, here's the thing, and no one likes to hear this, but usually those bad tenants, yes, there are definitely bad tenants out there. Usually it's a management problem, and it's not necessarily a tenant problem. Because I guarantee that didn't all happen in one month. It happened in six, nine, twelve, three years. It's it's a long period of time for things to get that bad. So it's it's sort of ignoring the problem, being too nice, being too lenient, letting them do what they want to do. So instead, you need to enforce it. You need to communicate, you need to be consistent, you need to document and then enforce it. And so, yes, you could have avoided that years ago. I don't know how long this tenant was there. But usually those situations are lots and lots of waving of rules and then eventually getting to the point of saying, Oh my gosh, I'm so frustrated, but you're not acknowledging what was waived along the way. So it's an accumulation.

SPEAKER_00 9:22

Yeah. Okay.

SPEAKER_03 9:23

So it's like bad parenting.

The Perils Of Keeping Rents Too Low

SPEAKER_00 9:25

It is in a lot of ways, it is though. It is that they'll push people push boundaries, right? And and if you you know, if you don't kind of like crack down on it, there's a saying we always talk about, or you know, even around business and with our kids, is you know, there's no such thing as bad news. It's a current event uncommunicated. And that goes even for what we're talking about right here. Like, for instance, in that circumstance, if you let's say you did some damage to a house and it's not your house, and that's two years ago, for whatever, whatever the date is, and you're like, I don't want to call and tell them that they're gonna raise my rent. I don't want to do I have to pay for this or not. Well, the reality is you get so much respect from your landlord if you're like, hey, that window broke. And they're like, when that happened, you're like, just now it's happened to both of you at the same time. It's a current event that you're both working on. There's equity in that. And what happens is people like don't want to make that call, and then two months go by and say, I didn't tell them two months ago, what do I say? Now it happened this long ago, and now there's damage because the window's broken, now there's damage car. And my main point though is there's there is ways to handle that. And if people across the board sort of communicated current events more, it wouldn't be that bad news. And it wouldn't build up to be a thing where ten thousand dollars later you've had this kind of like ongoing thing. Whereas if it would have started, they made it would have learned something about that that landlord that would have said, we can figure this out. You know, we can figure it out because I appreciate you letting me know right now.

SPEAKER_03 10:46

Yeah, usually there's a direct relationship to keeping the rent low and not doing regular rent increases to the tenants who don't complain about anything and then live a certain way, and then you don't really know. I see this a lot when owners are trying to sell properties and the tenants been in there 10, 12, 15 years and they haven't raised the rent, and the rent's still$2,000 or$2,200. That's a psychological dilemma that I get in with them and say, you know, they you've outpriced them, they no longer can be in this market. So you not only have left them there because you feel bad raising the rent, now they can't afford to live in this market, and you're also going to have no choice but to evict them. So when they're coming and saying, I need to give them this termination notice and I'm selling the house, they have no choice to stay, then they hear that the sad stories, and it's you created that problem. So keeping the rent low is actually a disservice because it out it prices people out of this market.

SPEAKER_00 11:36

I I have a history teacher that we're working with right now from high school that's in that same spot, 27 years, one spot, little or no income, never raise the rent, and he's got a 60-day and he's so his world, his world is from 1998. Right. And you're exactly right, it's an incredible disservice because what happens when you raise it by 100, 200 or cost of living is people figure it out. That's the new I I guess it comes back to that. It's it's a current event uncommunicated, which is things are more expensive. This is more expensive incrementally over 27 years, he wouldn't be in the spot he's in right now.

Landlord Rights And TPA 2019

SPEAKER_03 12:13

Yeah. And I and I hear people who don't want to raise rent and they say, you know, that's fine if you don't want to raise rent. What you should do is raise the rent and then bank it for them then. Raise the rent$800,$200, whatever a percentage is every year. Bank it for them, put it away for them. And at the end of their tendency, give it back to them if you feel so bad. Like there are ways that you can do the same thing with letting your kids live somewhere for free. Why? Charge them the rent. Don't tell them you're giving it back to them at the end, but at least they're learning that accountability and how long how much it costs to live in this area. So if they choose to go somewhere else, they're not stuck. That's the last thing any of us want to feel is stuck. You want to constantly have choices. And keeping rent low is it's it's bad land learning.

SPEAKER_00 12:52

Yeah. It's it's denial. It's it's like it's like, you know, there's it's not it's a disservice, right? I mean, to do that in a lot of ways, the market's the market, and we can't get away from it. Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 13:03

Well, let's play devil's advocate. I 100% agree with you. I think we have to, I think we live in a world sometimes where you can live in the 2D, you're online all the time, and you're the philosophy of something overwhelms you versus the reality. So we're talking about the real world, and then somebody, the the key words are affordable housing. Well, who the fuck is it affordable for? Like, I'm just saying, like, that's such a blanket word, it's not fair. And then that's so emotionally charged. But again, as the devil's advocate, a teacher has had the luck of 27 years or whomever, somebody's gracious heart gave them that. And and so let's break it down softer. What you're saying is like, hey, if you want to help them, you still need to increase the rent because you still have to get them prepared to potentially one day maybe you pass or you need to sell. They need if you want to set them up to move off somewhere else, you can a option give it back to them, which would be super cool. Or B now, you know, they're they're prepared because they know what they need to make per se per se. But what would C be? Like, let's say somebody's already stuck right now, they have a tenant, she or he might be at that age group where they they're on social security or they're on some sort of retirement. How would you come in and help them? Like, what would that look like for you? Uh-oh. I'm I'm not the person to ask that.

SPEAKER_03 14:23

I'm the person that solves the problem when you have the problem tenant. So I I don't help in that okay, in that scenario. There is free tenant help, free tenant defense, free funding through state and city and organizations. Landlords don't get a single thing for free. I meant the landlord. Sorry, not the tenant. So, what would the landlord do for somebody for a tenant in that situation? Yeah. Again, that's not what my specialty is. My specialty is getting out the problem tenant or getting out somebody because they want to do the next thing. And at the end of the day, when you are renting, you are a renter and you can be given generally, depending on state local ordinances, you generally can be given a notice to leave at any point. And that's why some people are trying to buy homes because you you can stay.

Why The Lease Rules Everything

SPEAKER_00 15:11

It's too much for you to do both sides of it. I will tell you that same story I'm telling, keeping it anonymous. Immediately me and my buddy looked up and we came up with 12 local services for him.

SPEAKER_05 15:20

Oh, good.

SPEAKER_00 15:21

He's in trouble, but there's there's some that will take an appointment tomorrow. Feels overwhelming. He's on a four-year wait list for affordable housing, whatever that means. But there they're to answer, I guess, your question for that side of it is it's too much for I think somebody to do both sides. But from this podcast, and if people are hearing this, there's a tremendous amount of services out there, you know, proactive services for when that occurs to you.

SPEAKER_06 15:45

Well, that's interesting you say that, because I do know a baby boomer. Unfortunately, her husband passed many, many years ago. Her income's very limited. Four months ago, she applied for a rental property for her age and low income, and she got it, and she'll be moving in November. So it didn't take four years to be on a wait list. So it moved pretty swiftly for her.

SPEAKER_03 16:03

I actually will say something that I see a lot is the accidental landlord. So that's when you have a tenant who's living in a property, and then the tenant decides to sublease a room or move in, a move, a live-in caretaker, even through section eight, and then they become a landlord. They lose all of those tenant rights once they start renting to someone else. So they have the tenant rights as long as they're talking as their communication with the landlord. But once they're the landlord and they want someone out that they let move in, they become a landlord and they lose all those rights. That's fascinating.

SPEAKER_06 16:34

So I've heard you speak, and you there's a lot of knowledge, and we won't go over all of that knowledge, but kind of go over that that like what what's the difference between a tenant and a landlord?

Education Over Eviction

SPEAKER_03 16:46

And then what do you do? So that's actually a scenario I have going on right now. There was this man who section eight tenant moved into living caretaker agreement for no rent. They got approval through section eight to have this woman move in, and she, according to him, is insane and they can't live together, and it's toxic, and he just wants her to move out. And again, he's just a tenant and he's on low income. So he doesn't have the money to move out. He needs her out. Well, she's not going, but he doesn't have the money for the eviction. And so we served a 30-day notice to her, she didn't leave, and then it's been a year and he just came back. He's like, she's still here. I can't afford the eviction. So I said, look, I'll talk to you like we can figure something out because I own, I, I sympathize with you. I'm actually shocked that he has gone through the extent that he has to find out that there are no resources for him because he's now a landlord. So every single free tenant advocacy group has told him, you are now a landlord. And I've never heard that before. That's brand new to me. I just figured he's a tenant, and of course, all that applies to him. And it does not, and they're pushing him away, but he's also section eight. So it'd be, I even feel like it'd be different if he weren't section eight and them pushing away, but he's section eight on top of it, which is subsidized housing. His rent is very, very low. So he has if that is actually what I hear from him about regularly is where are all the rights for for landlords? I'm like, well, welcome to that this side. Yeah. Yeah. Well, not every landlord.

SPEAKER_06 18:12

Right. Well, not every landlord is this rich, evil person. A lot of times, I mean, generational wealth wasn't, we have a it was earned over generations, like not in one generation. And we happen to live in an area where sometimes people make it all in one generation. And so I think landlords became evil. And I think there was a balance of power where bureaucracy stepped in. And like anything, sometimes it swings and it's never always potentially fair for one side or the other. But landlords don't have a lot in California. In fact, you you have a lot on your plate when you were working.

SPEAKER_03 18:47

Landlord rights, you mean they that they don't have a lot of rights.

SPEAKER_06 18:50

Yeah, landlords don't have a lot of rights. And then COVID happened. And then there was a big surprise there.

SPEAKER_03 18:56

The eviction moratorium. You just couldn't collect rent.

unknown 18:59

Oh man.

Consulting Process And Documents

SPEAKER_03 19:00

Yeah. So you just weren't allowed to collect rent. So imagine if people had stocks, you say, oh, you just don't get that money anymore. That's not yours. And that was exactly what happened to landlords. Still pay your mortgage, still pay everything you have to, but you don't have to be paid rent.

SPEAKER_06 19:12

And then they're not going to pay you, but there's this other thing we need to have in your lease or your rental agreement by a certain date. What was that?

SPEAKER_03 19:20

So that's the Tenant Protection Act of 2019. So that is a major law that passed in California in October 2019, went into effect January 2020, and then in March 2020, when we all shut down for COVID, that law was still in place, and landlords needed to know about that law and give this certain document so that so that their properties were exempt from this law. Most landlords were not thinking about this law. And so most properties were became covered by it. And then that's another side effect that a lot of realtors are dealing with now, because there are only certain reasons you can get tenants out of properties under this law if your property is not exempt. And selling the property is not one of them.

SPEAKER_00 20:12

Do they have more rights than it appears? Because it feels like with, you know, you're right, it doesn't feel like they have rights, but do they have rights if they're managing their properties a certain way? More rights than you would think?

SPEAKER_03 20:22

No. They don't they don't have many rights. They have very few rights.

SPEAKER_00 20:25

So they are hung out.

Residential Vs Commercial Nuances

SPEAKER_03 20:26

There are very, very few rights. And the the few rights they have are at the inception of the rental agreement, the inception of the tenancy. However, that's also the main time that they will get hit with a discrimination lawsuit as well. So they have to do it in a very, very specific way, screening their tenants, having a solid rental agreement. Because the rental agreement is one of the only things that the tenant doesn't have a say in. So the rental agreement is that really, really powerful. It has to be compliant with California law. And that is going to be your contract for the whole tenancy. And it's important that the owner abides by that contract and goes rule by rule and doesn't waive anything. That's the only way landlords are going to have rights. As soon as a tenant has a pet and it's you didn't approve the pet, but you saw the pet, but you didn't say anything about the pet. And then a year later they have two pets, you're like, now it's a problem. Well, is it? You've known about it.

SPEAKER_04 21:13

Yeah, you saw that. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 21:15

So now you've sort of waived it. I wouldn't do a notice to a tenant who, if you've seen the pet for a year. So then you start waiving things if you're not enforcing things, and that's where landlords start losing some of those, losing more of those rights. Wow.

SPEAKER_02 21:30

So it sounds like you're not only an eviction person, you're also maintenance during the life of the tenant, correct?

Staying Current And Weekly Updates

SPEAKER_03 21:38

I actually love the education side of it more than evictions. I don't necessarily think that evictions are the future in California. I mean, evictions are necessary, but they're very, very long. It's essentially the eviction moratorium that's a little bit faster than the moratorium, but it's not the solution anymore. They just take too long. So you I love the education side to teach landlords how to landlord better, how to use the few rights that they have, how to screen their tenants well, how to get good rental agreements, and then really enforce them throughout the tenancy rather than using an eviction. I mean, it's there because sometimes you need it, but there it really, like I said, is a management problem.

SPEAKER_00 22:13

Most of the And do you do that in consulting? Is that is that a part of your business? Like so that you're saying like the eviction should be used as the last resort, and possibly the other side of it is where it's more that's reactive. Eviction is reactive to a certain sense. You're talking about making money in a business on the proactive side. I think we're moving out of the ick.

SPEAKER_04 22:32

Yeah, it sounds really powerful.

Teaming With Realtors, Lenders, Insurance

SPEAKER_03 22:37

Wow, you're allowed on the podcast now. We're out of the ick. I I will say before we move out of the ick, I'll say I love the the education side to say stop being a bad landlord, because I also don't work for bad landlords. I just don't. And you have to serve a notice before you can start an eviction. So you can't just evict because you want to evict. There has to be some sort of notice that a tenant hasn't performed according to. And when that notice is done well, you don't need an eviction most of the time. So 75% of our notices do not result in evictions. Yes, 25% do. But the majority do not because the land the tenants never been told well. They've never been told clearly. They've never been taken seriously. The owner's never been taken seriously. And we make it very clear.

SPEAKER_01 23:19

It's kind of similar to firing a bad employee, is what you're saying, is documenting along the way, citing where possible, creating the narrative, then evicting. Hopefully they don't they leave on their own at some point. So do you do property management also?

SPEAKER_03 23:35

I I am a certified property manager. I am a licensed realtor. I don't practice either one. I use them to help me understand my clients better and to understand the industry better. So I can if I wanted to, but I am not a property manager.

SPEAKER_02 23:48

So my wife and I have quite a few rental properties. We need to come talk to you, like just to give us education on what's going on, what we should do better, stuff like that. So preventive maintenance.

SPEAKER_03 23:57

Yes, absolutely. And I could always start by looking at rental agreements and saying, okay, it's covered by these laws, or it isn't, or this is how much you can raise the rent, or you can't, or if you ever do want to sell the property, this is how you would terminate tenancies, or you can't. So I can give you those things super fast because I've been doing it for so long.

SPEAKER_00 24:14

It's super smart, Ryan. It's reverse engineering your investment. It's it's it's it's a super smart way to look at it, which is like it's all just blue sky and you got your investment, you're kind of leaving yourself out there, but it's it's one of the fundamental things you should do is look at that part of it and cross those T's and dot the I's Well, so where does somebody go to find you?

SPEAKER_06 24:33

Like right now, you're shocking everyone because you have this ick now niche, niche.

SPEAKER_00 24:38

I really regret saying that now.

SPEAKER_05 24:40

We're gonna go the nick. We're gonna make it niche. Niche industry, niche. It's very niche.

SPEAKER_00 24:46

It's only because I was from ick.

SPEAKER_05 24:48

No, it's it's very niche.

Cash‑For‑Keys With Compassion

SPEAKER_06 24:51

So we're gonna rebrand you as niche now. Okay. Well, so Ryan's super excited. He and his wife do have rental properties. They come from a family, obviously, as he just talked about his mom. What would something like that consulting with you, or how would you, let's just say with Ryan, what would that look like? Walk us through that.

SPEAKER_03 25:06

Yeah, so usually it's he would hear about it from someone. It's not something that I go out when I advertise. So someone would say, Oh, I know someone who does that. Or you would hear me speak, or I speak at the realtor meeting association meetings, and then I would do a consultation. So I would always say, Can I see a rental agreement first? And that's where it all begins. I can see based on the types of rental agreement that you have. If you have a California apartment association or California Association of Realtors rental agreement, I know what we're dealing with. Versus if you have the free car one from 2015 that's online.

SPEAKER_01 25:37

Or look mine. He's turning red.

SPEAKER_03 25:42

I know. I know. I've seen them all. So so what you don't know is that I can tell everything by that rental agreement. And then that's really the framework. That's where we start it from the rental agreements. Hey, everything, everything looks great. This is just a couple things, or maybe you want to think about updating your rental agreement, or hey, these you're pre- you're not protected, uh, the tenants protected by these laws because of this lease or those those kind of things. I'm able to tell that for you.

SPEAKER_01 26:10

Aaron Powell Are the rules similar for habitational versus commercial tenancy?

SPEAKER_03 26:16

Commercial is far easier than residential because commercial, there's no guarantee of habitability.

SPEAKER_01 26:22

Okay. And residential Yeah, they they need that as a guarantee for what is it, the basic fundamental rights or human rights. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 26:33

I mean, uh again, I'm not picking on the laws that are affecting landlords. There was a time where those were helpful so that people would have a landlord that's responsible. Okay, let's say Ryan and Jerry start working with you and it's a year later. Do you have like some sort of like yearly check-in?

Insurance Gaps And Friend Tenants

SPEAKER_03 26:50

I don't because it's the laws do change. So I have a private Facebook group for landlords only. It's called handling problem tenants like a pro. And that is for landlords. I go live every Tuesday at 11 a.m. and I talk about something that's going on in the industry. Actually, this week was, no, last week was accidental landlords becoming an accidental landlord. So I go live about some topic, whether it's late fees or something that's happening in court. So that's the best way to say up to date because I do that every week and I have for five years. And then, but once I get up to date on a rental agreement, then it's really the laws that change, it's you see if they apply to you or not. And I really I go live talking about those. But it's the rental agreement tells you everything. So you just want to make sure you know how to fill out a rental agreement well. And then the laws that change and affect rental agreements, usually they're major, and it's something that I would talk about.

SPEAKER_00 27:41

Does it ever tie into your guys? I'm curious about all your world because it feels like it's in the ecosystem of foreclosure, eviction. We're talking about rentals and things like that, but I know there's opportunities in foreclosure. I know there's possibly people that get evicted. And maybe Brandy to Jerry to Ryan, like I just think it's a really interesting one to kind of go on your side of it now and talk about that, those two worlds, because there's clearly opportunity. An eviction can hold up the you know, there's a lot of moving parts. How does this conversation work in your world, Brandy?

Annual Checkups And Proactive Habits

SPEAKER_06 28:20

So this really excites me because you're right. We have all sorts of we have a pretty stable market, so you don't see a lot of short sales or foreclosures, but they're out there and you know, however that is. But what I do love that Anne Michelle does is that she can take you as a realtor, sit down with your client, and if you are a buyer, so if your client is a buyer, again, she will go in, take a look at the address, look at the rental agreements, and say, this is what you can and can't do to make this an income-producing property. So she is like the linchpin into making the right decision of what you can do. Because, like she said, and I'll let you chime in on this piece, she gets to have a relationship with the realtor, educate the realtor because a lot of realtors just think, oh yeah, you can remodel. Oh, yeah, they're not up to date. I can say I wasn't when we talked. Two, you look like a professional as a realtor, bringing in that third-party person who the client is going to look at as the expert.

SPEAKER_04 29:13

Right.

SPEAKER_06 29:13

And then three, for example, then Ryan, I can take the client because you're the lender and say, Well, this is what it looks like. Do they still qualify? And then, hey, Jerry, this is what have you seen, or what is the kind of insurance you'd have on that? We, the the three of us, she would be the linchpin to our team for a buyer who's looking for rental income properties.

SPEAKER_01 29:32

Yeah, that's great.

Purpose, Family, And Work Balance

SPEAKER_03 29:34

So I have an example that this was today, and I actually feel like you referred this realtor to me. So this client called this client has this kind of messy case, but it's a property in Santa Cruz, and there's three units on it, and one seems like it's not permitted, one seems like it is, one, another one is, but the father passed away, and the mother, the girlfriend is left in the property. Girlfriend is 77 years old. He wants the dad wanted her to live there for the rest of her life, but it's not. financially feasible to do that and they need to sell the property. And so they're calling me to say what kind of notice can I give to her. And this was not about terminating that tenancy. I so I had to take it and that's this is where 20 years of my experience is this is about how are you going to make this woman feel safe enough to leave. She's been here for 15 years. Her partner passed away. You're saying I'll move all of her stuff and I'll pay for that and I'll give her a security pay for her security deposit in the next place. And that's generous. She doesn't have to do any of that. And I'm saying okay let's put a dollar number on this like how much are you actually willing to spend to make this woman feel comfortable and safe? Is it 5,000, 10, 20, 100,000? What is it? And we came up with 35,000. And so I said so now you need to work backwards. You're saying oh okay what what are the laws? Well I can get her out in 60 days and then do the eviction and we can do a but on the other hand she will willingly go if she feels safe in another place. And now you know that you're willing to spend up to$35,000 to get her there. Wow. So that's the conversation and the realtor was on it and he and I kept checking in with him hey how's this sound? But what I loved about having him on is it's not just me and her. And now how is she going to go back and tell him that she can't tell him that. Right. Now he's on this call I'm helping him with the sale because she's not going to be stuck in two months and say she still hasn't left and I moved all of her stuff and now what? Instead they're moving, they're making progress towards something. And so that's a conversation with all of us and then it's let me let me know check in because I can't this becomes therapy right I can't do this every you can keep paying me to do this, but you don't need to you have your real turnout and he now knows how to walk you through the rest of this and I can do the actual eviction but this isn't about the eviction. This is about how can you place her somewhere else so you don't need to actually evict her.

SPEAKER_06 31:44

That's very that that gave me chills. That's very kind does that take the ick out at the way not all the way that's your fault.

SPEAKER_00 31:55

I'm the keeper of ick. Jerry did you have a thought on this the the you kind of were talking about a little bit like how the word eviction makes its way into your world.

Phones, Boredom, And Entrepreneurial Kids

SPEAKER_01 32:03

Well no I just I see a lot through home purchasing where it's purchased for the wrong use. In other words like say a lender would say like this has to be your primary to get this loan but we all know it's a secondary dwelling it's going to be a rental. Maybe they say it's a seasonal property and they don't realize that the policy that they're buying doesn't include the landlord protection in it. And that's what I see most of the time hey I'm renting this out to my friend uh oh right like immediately I'm like red flag like I'm trying to be that good insurance agent that catches things early on but there's problems with their lender because they don't know maybe the use of this house. They don't accept the policy that we send over whatever it is. And so they end up just having the wrong policy on this and then a claim occurs and there's no coverage for it. And it's you know bad situation all the way around. You know these these are costly claims. If it's a discrimination claim it can go on forever and ever usually settles out because the insurance companies don't want to defend you know forever it's costly for the insurance companies so they'll end up settling out if there is coverage but if there isn't the the customer's on the hook 100% for everything.

SPEAKER_06 33:12

So I don't think people realize that even having your buddy or your friend I I say this in the real estate world it's your family and friends that can eff you the most yeah I mean I think family would count as well as a tenant right like if you have like a brother or sister in there they have the same rights.

SPEAKER_01 33:28

We get that all the time. Oh well it's my secondary home like my brother's living there and I'm like immediately like they're a tenant you need to treat them like one.

SPEAKER_00 33:35

As long as there's an exchange of rents yeah have a lease Ryan does eviction make its word into your world?

SPEAKER_02 33:41

No actually not at all. Yeah that's why they're honestly that it that's probably true right yeah in my world correct in real estate transactions I'm not part of that at all. But now as a now as an owner on my own property he's never had to do it yet on wood I do want to just I did one time rent to a friend a a friend and that was the worst experience ever. And all my other tenants who I've never had a relationship with except for this business not you it's me. Perfect.

SPEAKER_06 34:10

It's like you know you all have kids I don't have kids. You know when you pick up your child and they're like they're such an angel and they're like what?

SPEAKER_01 34:18

Yeah that's somebody I've never known before.

SPEAKER_06 34:20

I know I know so now you have I I love what captivated me most about this and something I learned just today and I always learned from you is really bad management. Not, you know, I hate to call it bad management but there is a difference between proper management and lazy management in everything building a business building your body and then building this this is one of those ones and I say this about Jerry's business every year a homeowner should or anyone who has insurance should call their insurance person or call Jerry and go go over this with me. Is there anything you think I should change? You know so on and so forth because for a homeowner insurance it's 25 pages of a legal contract.

SPEAKER_01 34:56

It's a massive document and it's written very can in confusing language.

SPEAKER_06 35:00

And like legal ease at like exactly six points.

SPEAKER_02 35:03

I mean it's insane and then same for your loan documents when do people usually get their loan documents to sign them at the very end right before the document when the document email comes you need to sign 67 pages now.

SPEAKER_06 35:15

Yeah and I feel like there's a place where we hide until those hard conversations show up and then you know you're great. You'll send people their docs before so they can read it but you also walk them through it and then here you are looking at in the business of real estate there's so much documentation I'm gonna just say for the state of California you just want to get to the finish line. I want the home I want to live in I want the home that I want as a rental whatever it is and there's thousands of pages of documentation. All I'm trying to say everyone is keep looking every year at your insurance and keep looking every year at your your lease agreements and I think that could save you the 10 and the$10,000 could have been 30 or whatever it is.

Homeschool Pathways And Socialization

SPEAKER_00 35:57

It's it's your time and energy and the suffering because if there is a relationship between a self-managed landlord and a tenant it's usually positive until all of a sudden it's not it is a tough business though and the Scotty was in here for the podcast we had last time and he's a mural artist in town and he gets contracted he works and he has this deep satisfaction that he made something amazing in this business it does pay the bills you're professional what you do but I don't think it's necessarily your left brain I don't think it's your artistic how do you balance what you do for work like how do you become yourself outside of work how do you find yourself I am the financial provider for my kids.

SPEAKER_03 36:40

And so that is huge to me that I'm looking for one in college and I still have three at home but that I'm able to help them become entrepreneurs and watching them grow and flourish into that. And so this business allows me to do that. It also I work from home and I have a small house and so I'm in I have a microphone like this at home. And so they see me working all day they hear me talking they hear about the Tenant Protection Act they hear about evictions. We actually have a next door neighbor who decorated their house for Halloween and there's stuff all over and then two eviction notices. My 10 year old comes home she's like mom what's an eviction notice and I'm like you know what an eviction notice is why she's like they have an eviction notice on their door I'm like no they don't so she takes a picture and it's all decorated I'm like what 10 year old even yeah so so they're aware of it and even though that's in my world they we all start ping ponging off of each other. And so it's your average of the five people you're surround yourself with the most and I realized this also this year that I am one of theirs for their average and they are some of mine. So my oldest is a social media guru and my third has a monetized YouTube account and so they're all my second is in construction. So they're all driven to do their own thing. So yes I do evictions and they're proud that their mom owns a business and is a hard worker. Now does that fulfill my soul that's what I'm asking no so it has it has a reason that I'm able to keep on doing it but no I mean I go to the gym most mornings a week and I have a trainer and my community is at the gym and because otherwise I work remotely and it's just my staff and we're all different locations.

SPEAKER_00 38:18

I had my daughter I have the conversation with her she's thinking about the wrong way she always talks about going to work. And I say no there's about 120 waking hours in the week 40 of those ish you generate income. It's not going to work. Part of our world is you have to generate income now if you can find a spot where you get like some kind of like satisfaction from it but if it's not my point is it leaves 80. It leaves 80 hours outside waking hours outside of generating income to live your life it's not who we are there's things we do to generate income if it so somehow coincides with you know deep satisfaction that's amazing but it's not expected. And I think that that's the part of it we're still these humans outside of how we generate income it's an essential thing you're doing to be honest and you have heart in it. So that's the part I'm more interested in is not sometimes this is the business of how you generate income and it serves people but then there's a whole other 80 hours a week. You know and that's the you know homeschooling and all the other things that you're doing.

SPEAKER_03 39:17

Yeah and so my my kids I'm so close with my children and I love watching them thrive and grow and so I didn't give them cell phones till they were 15 and a half and I never allowed video games. So they were bored they spent a lot of time being bored. So that's why age 12 and 13 like mom I'm gonna read this fiction book a little bit they'd actually do a lot more about you probably realized no they they spent so much time being bored out of the house because they didn't want to hear it anymore. So they they it forced them to be bored and to find things that they love to do. And so outside of work it is helping them thrive and it's been really fun watching them grow businesses and think about what they want to do and how that's evolving their future and so that is a lot of my free time in addition to you know the science is catching up to you.

SPEAKER_00 40:05

There's policies there's a lot of movement right now to take those cell phones out to move some of those those numbers back as far as what we've done the last 20 years I think there's a lot of movement right now to move more towards no phones, move more you know away from uh screen times, things like that.

SPEAKER_06 40:20

Aaron Ross Powell Well what I really love about and this is now leaning into your like hobbies hobbies as a parent is that you you you went against the system. The system is designed for you to get in stream and to go and I'm not saying there's anything wrong with that but for you it was not okay. And you take I would say in your extra time just being friends and what I see is that you take extreme observation of how your children are thriving intaking content using both sides of their brain I mean I I guess a mother and father can do that because they can sense it and you're around them.

SPEAKER_03 40:56

I I mean there had to be a point all of you have kids the cell phone thing I mean was that a hill you were willing to die on or oh yeah I mean everyone was getting them in third and fourth grade my oldest is 21 and so third fourth grade everyone started getting them I said we're not everyone and then she's you know fifth sixth grade everyone's got them and then my my next child everyone has video games mom everyone has them we're not everyone go skate go do something outside go play go find your friends well my friends are playing video games find new friends go do something on your own so they've really gravitated toward individual type sports horseback riding my daughter trained a horse before she was 18 and my son was competitive skateboarding so they they all started doing a thing because everyone else was doing it by I would say eighth grade my oldest kind of gave up like okay I just don't have one and then the rest followed suit they just got it because the older ones led the way so it was definitely a struggle and then they always came back and said thank you for doing that like more recently I taught them to drive stick shifts so they can the older two can drive stick shifts. I have a car with a stick shift and so they hated me learning how to drive a stick shift and now as the kids say like it's a low-key flex mom. Oh for sure dent in my car from one of your kids the stick shift no I'm just kidding I know my son's first car was a four speed manual and you know he was like I hate this I get stuck in the middle of intersections all the time I'm like it builds character keep doing it yeah now he's thinks he's so hot driving that old truck you know takes it every friends took me up to San Francisco 1967 Volkswagen fastback 67 fastback i was I was sitting on other cars catapulting off of them I was rolling into cars behind rolling into cars catapulting up the whole traumatic I yeah I still get like I still get little PTSD from that see those are stories in video games like no one's talking about video games like that but everyone knows when they that summer that they learned to drive a stick shift or what what it was like and what's fascinating to me is that no one around you knows that you're learning to drive a stick shift they like forgot what that what that's yeah we we blew by but no the the your decision during this window of time with those age of kids is going to it time's gonna show it's gonna serve them well.

SPEAKER_00 43:14

Your decision to do that there's there's no downside you know probably a whole other podcast to talk about how you handled socialization homeschooling to your comfort level that would be interesting to me but I think you know no phones, less screens you're not gonna you're not gonna regret that.

SPEAKER_06 43:30

So that is a whole nother podcast because there are so many cool things like socialization just happens. You don't have to here nor there anyway I want to point out that they weren't homeschooled all the time.

SPEAKER_03 43:43

So the oldest didn't start getting homeschooled till high school the second is the one I homeschooled first and that was fourth grade and then the third didn't start getting homeschooled till about third or fourth grade that was during COVID. And the youngest has never been to school.

SPEAKER_06 43:54

So they well we did live in Mexico for two years so she was in school in Mexico but otherwise they they actually were in school and then pulled them outcha even more formulated like you can get your basics here and then we can start working on the more your kids are going to be like like you said entrepreneurial. Well we are ending this episode I love you so much and Michelle Francis I really appreciate how you help the community I love that you live over here and all your stories. So this is Brandy Jones with Keller William Thrive. I'm at 831 588145.

SPEAKER_02 44:28

Ryan Buckwold with Cross Country Mortgage 831 818239.

SPEAKER_03 44:33

Jerry Seagraves with Seagraves Insurance 831 2399425 and Anne Michelle and Michelle Francis Blueprint evictions 408 260 2253 evictions with a heart no ick no