Hello everyone and Welcome to another

episode of Selling Greenville your

favorite real estate podcast herein

Greenville, South Carolina I'm your host

as always Stan Mccune realtor right here in

the Greenville area of South Carolina

you can find all of my contact

information in the show notes if you

need to reach out to me for any of your

real estate needs and just a reminder as

always please silence your phones as

I as I just had to do because I

forgot to silence your phones so you

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review I'd appreciate any of you guys

that do that and if you need a

realtor in the Greenville area you can

find all of my contact information in

the show notes that is the

housekeeping for today I've got a lot to

talk to you guys about because

there's a lot of different things going

on here the government is cooking a lot

of different things I just came back

from DC the what we call the realtor

legislative

meetings this is basically a time for

realtors to converge I think there

were 10,000 of us on Washington DC

kind of take over the city talk

about home ownership related issues

realtor-related issues with

government officials and amongst

ourselves we also talked about the

National Association Realtors commission

settlements so we're going to be

talking about that in this episode I'm

also going to be talking about some

changes that are going to be made to

wholesaling on the state level in

South Carolina and then we're going to

be talking about elections and

candidates that are running for local

and State office I'm not going to be

talking about specific candidates but

talking high level on some of the stuff

so stay tuned if you're interested a lot

of people tell me that they enjoy my

content when I talk about politics

because there's not a whole lot of

people talking about local politics I

have to be more careful now than in

the past

because now I'm privy to some

confidential information whereas in the

past I was simply able to speculate

without any potential concern for

for repercussions I can't do that

anymore but I do have some good content

for you guys so please listen to the

entire episode but we're going to start

off with the

dcrm of course they've got to make

everything into an acronym realtor

legislative meetings some people call

it the media that's a common thing

that I learned amongst

Realtors but I went to DC last week

it was a really really good time for

this conference and it was about all

things national real estate and how

real estate interplays with the federal

government so we have these big sessions

with the whole group and then smaller

breakout sessions there was an expo

there was receptions for City region

and state groups so I literally had

three different receptions a Greenville

one a Region 4 reception and the state

of South Carolina

reception and then we also had

meetings with actual legislators at

Capitol Hill so that was

fun but in general I just want to

talk about more high level to start

here it was kind of a somber mood at

this conference and this kind of

permeated in a few different ways

there's just a lot of uncertainty right

now about the about the future of real

estate the future of our government

as well because obviously it's a it's

a big election year a lot of people

don't know what's what's going to happen

these next few months and you just kind

of got the sense that things were

just a little bit more somber than

than you would typically expect now this

was my first time at this conference so

I can't speak to how it compared but in

one breakout session I was in the

there was there were panelists and

they were taking Q&A and they said that

there were way fewer questions and the

group was way less chatty than normal

during Q&A so that leads me to believe

that it was a more somber time in

general than than typical so I found

that to be very

interesting a lot of this conference

in terms of the sessions were

alternating between the National

Association of Realtor Settlement over

commissions as well as artificial

intelligence so I've joked with some

people that we kind of alternate

constantly between saying the word

settlement and AI over and over and over

again in general I will say there

there were some helpful things that came

out of it with regard to the n

settlement for those of you

interested in that I'm not going to I've

talked about this before so I'm not

going to go into a lot of details about

it they're still very much in a state of

we're not sure we've got more

information but we're still not sure

what's going on that being said

there is still getting to be some

clarity so here here's an example of

where like Clarity is still needed

right now what the by the way the

settlement originally the changes were

as a result of the settlement were

going to be in July now that that's

gotten push back to Mid August I do

believe based on the fact that things

are are starting to move along in terms

of approval process for the

settlement I do believe that mid

August date I believe it's August 17 of

this year when when the big changes

are going to be made I do believe that

that is going to hold just based on

what I'm seeing but an example of a

of something that still needs

Clarity is that this settlement part of

what was mandated in the settlement is

that for a buyer agent to give a tour

to a home to a potential buyer that they

must have a signed agreement a buyer

agency agreement with that buyer well

the question comes up well what about

open

houses open houses are done on behalf of

the seller even though you're you are

kind of showing tours to buyers it's

different that doesn't require any

paperwork signed by the buyer for you to

do that okay great well what if the

buyer decides that buyer decides to make

an offer well this is where it really

gets to be a gray area because they

allow they say that you can perform

ministerial acts on behalf of the public

without them having a buyer agency

agreement in place per se but at one

session I was at they said well if

you're at an open house a buyer comes

through it's fine for you to show it to

them but if they want to make an offer

then you have to have them sign a

written agreement well that is very much

against what the industry has always

been about because that isn't your

client right if I'm representing a

seller and someone shows up at the house

they want to look at the house for

during an open house, I'm not

representing them I have not represented

them at any point during the process and

I shouldn't represent them right because

representation implies you've been

working with this person up to this

point and we have in South Carolina

something called transaction brokerage

that allows Realtors to do ministerial

acts and other things on behalf of

parties that that they don't

represent and so this came up in

session and the panelists were just kind

of like yeah we need to get back with

you on that I don't know if they've

updated yet their FAQ to account for

that I haven't had a chance to look at

it but those are the sorts of things

that are still being figured out still

being worked out obviously a lot of

attorneys are working through the

legal and trying to nail things

down but that's kind of what's going on

there now with regard to meetings

with legislators we had a lot of

great meetings I personally met with

William Timmons with Jim C Burn with

with Ralph Duncan with Congressman

Norman went to a reception where

Nancy Mace was there and Lindsay Graham

and a few others so there were a lot

of different things where we got to

meet with legislators and and tell them

what

we thought was going on in the

industry and we would actually bring

them a printout of here are our top

issues and here are statistics that

talk about these issues and kind of what

we're seeing boots on the ground and

again you might think that this is all

just about realtor stuff no a lot of

this is about home ownership and

affordable housing kind of things

because at the end of the day, those are

the things that impact our business

we're not asking for the government to

pay us right unlike so many businesses I

mean I saw you know people being on

strike trying to get the government to

do all sorts of things for them in order

to correct their pay Realtors aren't

asking for that Realtors are just asking

for the government to not Stonewall

the real estate industry as it pertains

to home buyers and sellers well it was

interesting talking to some of these

legislators that they actually do

kind of have an idea of what's going on

and that's because they are impacted by

these higher mortgage rates multiple of

these legislators that we spoke to told

us that they the past couple of years

have either been looking for a house or

or decide to purchase the house or

decide not to purchase the house and we

impacted by more mortgage rates and I

found that to be really fascinating that

that was great Intel for me personally

that's okay our legislators understand the

high rates are impacting people because

they're impacting our legislators now we

just need to get them to understand some

of the other pieces of the equation and

some of the things that they can do they

can't impact rates obviously that's

something that is at least for the

time being outside of their control

because the FED nonpartisan group

nonpartisan organization

at least for now right and so the

FED controls essentially what happens

in mortgage rates

indirectly or directly depending on

how you look at it but but our

legislators are aware that housing

affordability is really really bad now

some of them have Solutions I agree

with some of them have Solutions I don't

agree with and some of them have no

Solutions at all they just have guesses

m and there was one person that we

spoke to I won't mention this person's

name but this person not even going to

say if it was he or she I this

person said a few things that clearly

they did not they had a superficial

understanding of our issues so I was

able to pick up very quick on whether

whether the people we were talking to

seem to have a grasp of real estate

related issues or whether they were just

kind of you know being political and

just kind of being us ran definitely

ran into that as well but those

meetings went really well

it was cool to to get in there we

actually had to wait outside the capital

for a while because the president

was actually giving a speech and then we

got to we got into the capital into

one of the Senate buildings or

yeah I can't remember exactly which

building we ended up getting into

because we ended up going in a back way

because William Timmons got Us in and

so that that was kind of interesting

then then we got on the steps of the

capital and from there we got to see

the presidential motorcade go by and

so that was all very interesting and

and I enjoyed my time in DC I'm

glad that I got to go there and

and experience all that and it's a

yearly thing so hopefully I will get

to go in future years as well but

let's talk about the state of South

Carolina more so than the federal

federal government what's going on

there we've had some changes in the

state of South Carolina that have

happened it within the past week and

I've talked about some of this in the

past but there's one thing in

particular I'm going to discuss here and

that is South Carolina finally

passed a law that now goes to the

governor's desk he may have signed it by

the time this recording is published I'm

not sure but among other things

this law says that in order to do real

estate wholesaling in South Carolina you

must be a real estate agent a

licensed real estate agent or broker in

the state of South Carolina okay

provision number one to wholesale you

must be a realtor and then provision

number

two this I'm kind of oversimplifying how

this law is worded because it's not that

way but a simple way to think

about is that then provision number two

it says real estate agents can't

participate in wholesaling technically

we've not really

been able to participate in wholesaling

in a very long time but they've had to

clarify some of these things now a

reminder for those who don't know what

is wholesaling wholesaling is a way to

sell real estate simple way of

thinking about this is how you can sell

real estate without being a realtor

so you can get a home under contract for

$100,000 and then find someone that's

willing to buy it for $ 120,000 before

you even purchase it and then what

happens is you go to the closing table

with all three parties and of course

a lot of wholesalers will do this to

where it's not all three parties at the

table together but it can be done that

way and the end seller gets

100,000 the end buyer pays 120,000 and

then the wholesaler gets the what's in

between those two numbers the 20,000

which is then their assignment fee is

the terms that's frequently used and

so that is very Loosely speaking how

wholesaling works now in case my

wholesaler friends are listening I do

have some of them I am not against

wholesalers and if you are one of my

wholesaler friends you know that but I

am against predatory wholesaling and

that is ultimately what this bill is

trying to curtail and it's trying to

protect the public from predators

unfortunately, it's very difficult to do

that without impacting all of

wholesaling and I'd love if any of my

wholesaler friends could give me ideas

for how we could impact the

wholesaling Predators without impacting

the people doing it well and doing

wholesaling ethically

so anyway let's just ask the question

right that wholesalers have on their

mind right now and that is will this ban

wholesaling in the state well this

actually it is a ban will it actually

work now let's just say that word in the

wholesaler Community got around rather

quickly after this past and generally

speaking I think most wholesalers think

it's a big nothing Burger they're

already figuring out loopholes and ways

of getting around the rule because

importantly the bill doesn't ban

contract assignments due to those being

necessary in other aspects of real

estate such as commercial real estate

1031 exchanges and the like that

being said there are really two main

concerns that I have about this bill

and how I don't think it will impact

Predator predatory

wholesaling first off the bill which I'm

not going to get into a lot of specifics

about it we're just going to talk

high level here it essentially bans

wholesaling by stating you can't

advertise real estate with

the expectation of compensation unless you

have a written listing agreement right

that specifies what your compensation

is I don't know if that really does the

job because wholesalers they can still

do double closings right and in a

double closing you purchase it and then

you immediately sell the home to

someone else the end buyer and you

can claim perhaps that the end buyer is

a business partner I

mean there's a lot of different

ways that this can be

done and even if a wholesaler

doesn't go about it that way you know

defining advertising advertising real

estate to me that's going to be tricky I

I feel like there are going to be

loopholes there and the bill also

differentiates between between

advertising real estate which can only

be done with a listing agreement and

advertising and a contractual position in

a sales agreement now I'm no attorney

and this none of nothing in here is

legal advice nothing on this podcast at

all up to this point or after this point

is going to be legal advice so get an

attorney if you need that if you need

legal advice but I have a hunch that

little difference that little

differentiation is going to be a

big money maker the differentiation

between advertising real estate

versus advertising a contractual

position in sales agreement that little

differentiation between those two things

is going to be a big money maker from

for some lawyers involved in wholesaling

I have a feeling that there's going

to be some lawyers that figure out a way

to weaponize that language and use it in

order to make themselves some money the

attorneys have been making all the money

in all of this and I think that

that's going to keep going and really at

the end of the day the closing attorneys

are the ones who hold all the keys when

it comes to wholesaling in my opinion

they enable predatory practices when

they keep assignment fees off of seller

settlement statements so standard

practice is that the buyer and seller in

a standard real estate transaction the

buyer and seller both sign the same

settlement statement if you've ever

bought or sold real estate you have

signed a settlement statement and like

the other parties' signatures are on

there as well and that shows how much

money the buyer is paying and how much

money the seller is receiving that's a

legally binding document now law firms

that specialize in helping wholesalers

will give different settlement

statements to the seller where they hide

how much money the wholesaler is making

in their assignment fee and then the

buyer will get a different settlement

statement that does have that number on

it

now does that sound fishy does that

sound predatory well if you're a

wholesaler, you probably think no that's

not predatory that's just the way to

make sure that we don't have closing

table

confusion let me ask you if you're not

doing something predatory why do you

need to hide how much money you're

making me as a realtor I have to have

the conversation of my compensation

upfront with my clients right away and I

feel like a lot of these wholesalers if

they're not predatory but they're not

willing to have how much money that

they're making be shown to the seller

it's because they're not good at

explaining their value as a wholesaler

to the seller right us as agents we have

to explain our value to our clients if

you're a wholesaler and you're scared

about the seller finding out how much

money you made on a wholesale deal then

your explanation is not very good I'm

sorry that's how I feel and I've

never had a wholesaler give me a good

answer to the question of it how if

you're not doing something

predatory then why do you need to hide

how much money you're making if you

explain to the seller that you're going

to make money doing this assigning the

contract to someone else then what's

the big deal did you not explain to them

that you might make a lot of money you

might make 30 or 40 or

50,000 it it I don't I don't know I

don't I don't know what wholesalers are

doing I used to do wholesaling before I

was a realtor and I would always explain

that to the people that I was holing I

never had anyone give me pushback on

that they understood it and they knew

how much money I made at the end of

the day when it when it all worked out and

that was that nobody gave me push

back so my concern is that the ones

who pray on others in real estate will

find loopholes and closing attorneys

will enable those predatory practices

by letting them exploit these

loopholes and then hiding the

assignment fees on those settlements

statements that was all one concern I

have another concern I have is who's

going to police this like is this going

to be on agents to police

wholesalers I feel like that's an

additional burden like are we going on to

have to be giving statements and

providing proof nope no realtor is going

to do that let me tell you that right

now no realtor is going to police this

and so who's going to police it is the

Real Estate Commission going to police

it Are brokers going to police it are is

is the are the Association of

Realtors the local the state the

National Association are they going to

police I don't know who's going to

police this and so and that's a

whole separate thing that's just kind of

like okay if nobody's going to police it

yeah you might say it's illegal but what

are the ramifications for this being

illegal and a separate question I have

is will this impact Realtors who do

deals with wholesalers right there's

some pretty vague language in this bill

that says that Realtors can't assist

others in the practice of wholesaling

well what does assisting entail if I

answer a question someone asked me about

real estate and then later find out that

they use that information that they

gathered from me to do a wholesale deal

did I assist them if I answer a

question on a Facebook group to a

wholesaler did I assist them as a

realtor I'm very concerned about the

language being used here what if I

have a client that wants to buy a deal

off of a wholesaler and they want to use

an agent to help them with that do I

have to say tough luck you're on your

own deal with the predatory wholesaler

because I can't help you because that's

assisting the wholesaler I don't know

it doesn't seem that way to me but that

language assisting in the practice of

wholesaling I really don't like it and

I've expressed it to people that I don't

like it unfortunately it still snuck its

way in there and we'll see what happens

now okay moving right along let's

talk about the elections we have primary

elections coming up very soon actually

early voting is oh boy early voting I

have it on my calendar because I'll be

out of out of town for the normal voting

early voting is May 28th through 31st

and then I believe election day

proper is is the next week I I don't

want don't I'm not going to say what day

it is because I don't want to steer you

wrong but look it up if you're a South

Carolina voter or a non-s South Carolina

voter as well we have primary elections

coming up really soon just few weeks

with many County Council State House

State Senate races not a ton of things

in the upstate that are going to be a

city-related we already had a lot of

that earlier this year so this is

going to be mostly County state house

and state senate now most of the primary

races are Republican races because well

Greenville is a heavily Republican area

for the most part and I'll mention this

in case you're you're the type of

person that's inclined to wait to vote

into a general election rather than a

primary election a lot of these races

are going to be decided in the primaries

because a lot of these are a one

party race usually Republican but

there are some democratic there are

there are some County Council and some

other seats that are up for election

right now where it's basically only

Democrats running as well and in those

instances when it's only one party

that's running the primary decides who

wins and we've had some of these races

decided by fewer than 10 votes in the

past so it's really important that you

guys go out to vote for these primary

races I'm very passionate about that as

you can probably tell so please

please please go out to vote in a few

weeks and make your voice heard I

don't even care who you vote for we just

need to see people participate in

democracy so all that to be said

Greenville is obviously a very

heavily Republican area that's no

surprise to everyone to anyone and so

obviously a lot of these primaries are

Republican parties are the

Republican Party dominating the primary

or the only party in that specific

primary well you may or may not know

that the Republican party in South

Carolina and this is true of the whole

country but it's it's definitely true in

South Carolina is more split than I can

ever remember in a very clear theme is

emerging where we have the so-called

Freedom Caucus Republicans which are

kind of a spiritual successor to the Tea

Party of yesteryear they're not quite

Maga, they're not quite libertarian

they're kind of something in between all

of that but predominantly they're just

very socially conservative they're very

focused on on gun rights the pro-life

movement library books things of that

nature and and and so you have those

Republicans and then you have the more

moderate Republicans who are campaigning

on issues like budget reform

infrastructure functional government etc

etc now I'm not going to make any

endorsements on the show as I've already

said I'm now privy to far too much

confidential information that could get

me in trouble if I reveal it on here

but I think you need to strongly

consider I'm going to encourage you to

strongly consider which side you vote

for if you're voting for Republicans if

you're going to vote for the freedom

caucus members or if you're going

to vote for the more moderates I'm not

going to tell you which one to vote for

but I am going to say if you're on the

freedom caucus side and more focused on

social issue that's totally fine but I

would encourage you to look into the

voting records of those running for that

group or that claim to be a part of

the freedom caucus or have shared values

with the freedom caucus to see what

they've done in recent years and as you

can probably sense I have some

concerns with the Freedom Caucus and

their approach and I'll say that in

general I'm troubled because I have

seen situations where our state

legislature in particular could not even

get a motion to adjourn past because

there was so much dysfunction and

infighting in the State House

specifically among Republicans like it

or not compromise is necessary in

government and those running on

platforms that are saying that they

won't compromise are either lying or

essentially admitting that they will

contribute to dysfunction that's what I

keep hearing people saying you know well

I'm not going to compromise blah blah

blah blah blah and when I hear that you

know that's that's some great red meat

for certain people when I hear that I

hear this is the person that doesn't

understand retail politics because

the reality of the fact is democracy only

works in compromise if you know anything

about history, you know that

the constitution that we have today was the

result of intense compromise between

parties and that compromise

created something not perfect but

something that served our country really

really well and had we veered off in

either direction from where that

compromise went it might not have turned

out the way it did in our country now

you might be a cynic and saying our our

constitution isn't good and our

country's not good whatever I'm not

going to argue with you on that I'm just

saying compromise in government is

necessary because you're never going to

get a bunch of people to agree on every

single point if someone says they're not

going to compromise that's a big big red

flag for me and a lot of these people

that I'm concerned about are either

saying that directly or buying it but

more to the point when we have crumbling

roads people trying to raise the price

of real estate by stonewalling

development people in the state and

County intentionally allowing certain

Builders to do certain things because

that helps them out helps out their

campaign helps out their District it

does bother me when someone comes along

and thinks it's a bigger deal that we

make a symbolic social gesture gesture

like saying that Greenville County is a

second amendment Sanctuary or a right to

life count or whatever buzzwords you can

think of that isn't anything more than

red meat to the base that bothers me

it's not even meat it's fluff because

those are meaningless distinctions that

are not decided by the county literally

the county does not have jurisdiction in

these sorts of social issues it those

are state-level or federal-level issues

to me I prefer it to be on the

state level right I'm I've always been

pa roponent of states' rights that is

something and that's the kind of

conservative that I am and I do

identify as generally speaking most

people would consider me to be a

conservative but we've got to stop

government overreach and we've got

people that want to weaponize Greenville

County Council to overreach and to step

into state issues even if they're just

being symbolic and a lot of this is just

symbolism well guess what I don't pay

taxes and vote for people in County to

do symbolic gestures I just don't and I

don't think our issues lie in a lack of

social conservatism anyway right South

Carolina listen if you think South

Carolina isn't socially conservative

enough then I don't know what state to

tell you to move to right maybe Florida

I don't I don't know Florida's pretty

has a diversity of political views in

that state so I'm not even sure if

you'll find what you're looking for

there Texas I don't think you'll find

what you're looking for in Texas either

so I don't I don't take it seriously

when someone if someone is really

focused on they think that South

Carolina that the big problem is social

issues to me that's not a serious person

that's not someone that has really dug

into the actual issues facing south

Carolinians in my opinion and yes I

am I'm going on a rant here absolutely

that I feel like I'm entitled to a

Grant every now and then and I'll

mention as well the social conservatives

in our government have caved over and

over again to other things that aren't

traditionally conservative such as added

taxes on gasoline sales added taxes

on development etc etc and so they claim

to be conservative but they don't

they're only conservative on a few very

specific things and those things happen

to be social issues but then you're not

conservative about the issues that are

actually part of what your part of the

government are supposed to be addressing

that to me seems like a double standard

particular on the county level what

about the state level, I thought

conservatives were for lowering

government involvement so increasing

government involvement in social issues

is a concern for me as well because if

the government flips to people with the

social agenda I don't like I don't want

them to have the power to ram a bunch of

stuff through the state legisl because

we've gifted them all of this power over

our society over the social aspects of

of our area, we don't want in my

opinion we don't want the the government

to have its fingers over everything

that's happening in our society and so I

don't even like the government being

super involved in social issues me

personally I know they're going to be

listeners that are going to disagree

with me on that and that's fine we can

agree to disagree but you need to

seriously concern seriously consider

whether the people who are claiming

to be conservative whether that

conservatism is robust or narrow because

a lot of the conservatives running in

the state and County right now are what

I would call narrow conservatives they

are single or two-issue conservatives

and you that that's just not what

being a conservative is in my

opinion okay now I apologize if you're

listening and you're not a conservative

but the reality is that if you're

listening to this and you're not a

conservative you're that probably

means that you're interested in

investing in South Carolina real

estate from outside of the

state and you need to understand that

South Carolina is a very conservative

State okay you need to understand

it's good for you to hear this stuff

so I I'll just throw that out there as

well and again this is not an Endor

or or lack thereof of an endorsement

to anyone and I'm not saying I won't

vote for someone just because they

affiliate with the Freedom Caucus or

hold to certain social conservative

views or or anything like that I'm not

I'm

not drawing a that kind of line in the

sand at this point but I have concerns

with the approach of people that make

these social issues the dominant thing

and will not compromise and are

inconsistent Within their own viewpoints

all right that's all I'm gonna say about

that specific thing with the elections

let's talk about candidates for a second

I'm not going to name names but

I'll say this everybody who isn't an

incumbent is winging it and that's

pretty normal okay I think people don't

fully understand that those running for

state and local governments have no idea

what they're doing like there's very

very few people who have genuine

experience that CR over into the

political world who's running for

state and local office and that's

totally fine and even those who do have

that experience from commissions or

whatever the you know whatever they

might have that experience from they are

still really really green I've talked to

a lot of these candidates super duper

green they they're still figuring out

the issues they're still figuring out

where they even stand on the issues

you've got to know the issues first

before you can figure out where you

stand on them they're trying to listen

to constituents and formulate their own

opinions based on based on that so

there's just just understand that

understand that these people that are

running they don't know what they're

doing will they figure it out I hope

we've had a bad history of of

people running for government and

winning elections that never learn and

never figured out but I'm hopeful I'm

hopeful we've got some smart people

running for office this year and

I'm actually excited about that I'm

excited about several people running

for County Council for state house

for state senate and I think that

that's going to be I think it's going to

be great but just understand from the

outset these most of these people are

very very

green now I've spoken with many of these

state and local candidates about home

ownership housing affordability Etc very

few of them truly understand the

borderline apocalyptic scenario we could

experience 15 to 20 years from now if we

Stonewall Builders the way many are

demanding the government do there's

very much a we need to stop development

now and figure that out later sentiment

in Greenville and in the state of South

Carolina but remember demand gets pent

up every year right every year that we

have less development than we have

people moving into the area demand gets

pent up the dam the the water keeps

building in the dam and eventually has

to be that Dam eventually gets broken at

the very least the water eventually

starts to trickle over and eventually if

even if the dam holds up the water flows

over and causes issues that way as

well but every year development is at

record lows in this area and despite

what people tell you it is at record

lows in the upstate I'm telling you but

demand continues to grow and with

growing demand comes growing prices that

is just the reality of the situation if

if Supply doesn't keep up with demand

prices go up

and currently the average first-time

home buyer is 35 to 36 years old and if

home prices continue to outpace

inflation which they will if we don't

build more we could see our children

needing to be in their 40s

Basically, before they can afford a home

without parental assistance that's the

reality of where we're at and that's why

I call it a borderline-apocalyptic

situation that's not healthy for our

economy That's not healthy for our

children for the Next Generation and

so why is development being Stonewall

well there's two primary reasons that

I hear most frequently one is that

people don't like the way track built

communities look understandably and

number two they're concerned about roads

not being not being fixed talk

about the track belt communities for

just a second I actually agree with this

concern to a certain

extent what has been shown is that

actually more high-end housing will does

have a trickle down effect to the

cheaper communities so right now what a

lot of these you know developers are

doing is they're trying to find a middle

class a cheap middle-class product that

they can sell and maybe Greenville is

kind maybe we are Tapped Out development

wise in that specific thing if I'm

willing to concede something it is that

that maybe we need to move to kind of

forgetting about trying to trying to

to build new housing for that you know

lower middle-class to middle-class

demographic and focus on the much

cheaper affordable Workforce housing

whatever you want to call it end the

Spectrum where you've got like people

that can can can get housing at 60% or

55% area median income that type of

thing that would be government

subsidized housing which some may agree

with some may not I'm just throwing

options out there on the other end of

the spectrum we need more communities

that are really really nice like

$750,000 plus communities here's what

happens with those communities people

step up into those communities so

someone that's currently in a $500,000

home they're looking for something nicer

and they're looking for that $800

$900,000 home well not a whole lot of

those exist so what happens when you

get homes like that built the person

moves out of the $500,000 home and then

buys that home well then who buys the

$500,000 home someone that's currently

living in a $300,000 home they step up

and they purchase that $500,000 home

well then what happens to the $300,000

home now that becomes available to the

person that's stepping up from a cheaper

home or to the person that perhaps is

currently renting and so there is th and

I'm not just making this up this isn't

just theoretical there is a ton of data

I can throw data at you guys all day if

I really want to that shows that this

dynamic happens it even happens with

apartments and this is the part there's

a whole study done recently in San

Francisco about this that building

apartments high-end apartments luxury

apartments causes the cost of housing to

go down for everyone else in the

business this is why I like to say all

housing is affordable housing people

like to pigeon-hole affordable

housing to one specific thing but no

all housing is by definition affordable

housing because all housing that is

built makes the market more affordable

at all price points but Greenville is

tired of these production-built track

communities I get it I totally get that

and so maybe it is time that we start to

try to attract more luxury housing

higher-end sort of communities to give

people a way to step up I mean look at

how successful harness has been right

harness has been wildly successful

other communities similar to that that

was you know communities built

originally with the idea of being higher

end communities and people love

those communities and they've had no

problem selling out m that is the sort

of thing that I think we need to be

maybe more focused on in this area now

let's talk about the second thing that I

mentioned development why is development

being just as a whole Stonewall and

and the sorry that wasn't the second

thing that was the question the second

thing was the roads not being fixed

now there will be a penny sales tax on

the ballot this

year basically allowing voters to vote

on whether they would approve a 1% sales

tax increase which by the way that

won't there are some certain

things that will not be taxed as part of

this tax including groceries we don't

want to we don't want to harm

obviously those on the

lower-income end of the spectrum they

have to buy groceries that's not a

luxury item that will be excluded from

from the sales tax but this 1%

sales tax or Penny tax as they're

calling it to make it sound

even less than 1% it's going

to be on there in order to fund roads

and this is really really important all

right if you're a cynic if you're just

like yeah they're not going to use the

to fund roads they tried that with the

gas tax they messed up with the gas tax

a few years ago this time they're

going to put on the ballot the exact

roads to be improved by this tax and

they already have the

debate they there were people that

wanted there to be more stuff paid for

besides just Road roads on the penny

sales tax and thank goodness the

committee they held their ground they

said this can only be for roads so it's

only going to be for roads and they're

going to put the exact roads that it's

going to be for on the ballot now

they're still figuring out how they're

going to squeeze all of that into

into a ballot so so we'll see how

how it plays out obviously you can't

have people reading 20 Pages while

they're voting so we'll see how how

all that plays out but we got this

Penny sales tax and the penny sales tax

is very divisive all right and here's

what we're seeing right the the

candidates I've talked to they have to

really walk a fine line here because I

think they realize that this tax

unfortunately is necessary but as I've

already said I've already called out

some of them for flip-flopping on on

conservative values and a lot of them

are are wrestling with they don't really

want to be positive about the penny

sales taxt they want to run on a fiscal

responsibility platform but a lot of

them realize they kind of have to like

we kind of need this more tax revenue

and that might come as as a surprise if

you know me well you know I am not a big

tax guy I am a small government person

generally speaking you probably figured

that out from some of the comments I've

made but this is a different scenario

and I'm gonna try to convince you guys

real quick on my perspective on this

so the long story short is if you want

the roads to be fixed you have to be in

favor of the penny sales tax I'm sorry

I'm not a fan of these taxes but we've

dug too deep a hole no no pun intended

no I'm not going to make a pothole joke

but we have dug too deep whole when

it comes to the roads things and I've

heard candidates say we don't need to

raise taxes we just need for the

government to be more efficient with the

money that the county and state already

has I'm sorry but people have been

saying this for at least a decade now

and it's time to realize that even if we

had the money and I actually don't

believe that we do because it's a

multi-billion doll problem hope you guys

like that I never I never talk like that

into my mic

multi-billion dollar problem just in

Greenville County alone billions of

dollars are needed to fix these roads

it's been it's been studied it's been

assessed it's been quoted it will be

billions of dollars okay finding ways of

completely restructuring the way tax

money is spent on the county or state

level is far too ambitious of a project

for a newbie on County Council or in the

state house to tackle they're not going

to be able to somehow find a way way to

completely restructure County or state

budgets in order to come up with two or

three billion dollar it's not going to

happen I'm sorry it's a pipe dream you

can you can say that you're going to do

it you're not going to do it come back

to me two years from now and show me

that you did it you're not going to be

able to show it to me I promise you I

challenge you and hey if you do if you

do find a way to do that I will forever

support your campaign and I will bring

you more support than you could ever

have guessed because I've got

connections I've got ways to get you

money but guess what you're not going to

be able to do it because the money isn't

there and similar to the development

concern that I've already mentioned

where every year we're digging a deeper

hole and things are getting more

expensive for the prev for the for the

future Generations similarly every year

we don't fix the roads they get worse

and then fixing them becomes more

expensive and then there are more roads

to fix so this becomes a

compounding problem and a problem that

gets more expens ensive every year and

people don't like when governments get

into debt and run a deficit I certainly

don't but these roads are a deficit

these roads are similar to if our

government was running this huge fiscal

deficit and and and had a huge budget

shortfall and was taking on tons of

debt not fixing these roads creates more

of a road deficit in a similar way to

to creating a a budget deficit that has

a bunch of debt and not fixing them is

going to hurt the economy which

long-term impacts tax revenue negatively

and creates a spiral that is impossible

to stop without then major tax increases

not a penny sales tax a 5% tax a 10% tax

things that people wouldn't really like

obviously they never do a 10% tax they

will start taxing a bunch of different

things oh we need to do sales oh we need

to do

oh we need to do another gas tax all

these different things that's what

ends up happening but if we keep going

on this

trajectory we're going to find ourself in

a situation where we have where the only

way we can fix our our road situation

is with major major tax increases and

roads are a quality of life thing right

this is this is a big deal this isn't a

small problem this isn't like okay we

can just ignore that

I have I drive more or less for a living

right not exactly I'm not a chauffeur

but but my job involves heavy heavy

driving so I see these roads they're not

good they need to be

addressed and even if this tax death

spiral somehow we're avoided right you

might be listening to me and you're just

like yeah there's no tax death spiral

it's not going to happen listen even if

even if that is a fantasy world that

doesn't come to fruition the cost of

fixing roads as I've already said they

go up each year more than our tax

revenue is increasing and so something

has to be done these roads are not going

to fix themselves and the tax revenue

currently coming in is not enough it's

just not this is not a problem that

we're just going to fix by saving money

it can only be fixed by spending money

as much as I as much as it pains me

to say that and the cost is higher than

what the county can currently afford

and I've thought about this a lot I have

thought about this a lot because I do

not want to have to spend more money in

taxes it has to happen I'm sorry it has

to happen and after much debate as I've

already said the county agreed but

they're they're putting this on the

ballot they want the people to agree

with them because they don't want the

backlash because they know that there

will be backlash that they just put on

here and here's the interesting thing is

that they're holding town halls and and

getting in from people on what roads are

important to them as soon as people

realize that roads that they drive on

are going to be fixed they're they're

suddenly okay with the penny sales tax

they come into those meetings angry I

don't want to pay more taxes and then

they realize that the taxes are actually

going to help them and help them in a

way that if they just save that money

over the course of the year they

wouldn't be helped as much all of a

sudden their the tone changes and

that's that's a positive but that shows

you I mean we're inherently selfish

right we don't want to spend money we

we only want to get money but at the

same in the same token we want to make

sure our tax dos are spent towards

something good and towards something

that we'll benefit from and so this is

this is something that we're finding

that people their their tone changes

once they realize that they're going to

be positively impacted by this bill

and so I will be holding my nose to

make another weird sound on here I'll be

holding my nose and voting in favor of

the penny sales tax assuming caveat

assuming there are no major changes made

to it between now and the election based

on what I've heard this far and I

don't think that there will be and I

will be voting for candidates who hold

to my political values while also

holding to a spirit of cooperation which

is necessary for a functioning

government in today's climate and I hope

that you guys will too all right this

has been a long episode but we covered a

lot of ground I hope you guys liked it

please if you did like it actually

physically Like It by hitting the like

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notes thank you guys we will talk again

again next time