Kondo Insider. My name is Jane Sugimura. I'm your co-host for the show today. And this is a show about Kondo living and for people who work with associations. And my guest today is Raylene Tenno. She's the program director for Hawaii Council of Association of Apartment of Knowledge. Hi, Raylene. Hello. Hi.  Raylene is going to be a co-host of Kondo Insider, and she starts her own show next week. Welcome aboard, Raylene. Thank you. So kind of excited to get that going. Yeah. And you know, our show today, our show today is about, you know, the 2021 Hawaii legislature that just started what two weeks ago, what January 20th has started. And so we're going to be talking about bills that have been introduced so far. And these are Kondo bills. And this doesn't mean that these are bills that are going to pass. In fact, two of them have already died. So I'm just going to refer to them in passing. But that shows you how quickly, you know, these things move. But before we start, you know, for those people who are listening and want to participate in the legislature, we have, we're going to show them how they can, right, Raylene? Yes. And it's actually, it's really simple, you know, so we created a PowerPoint that we can distribute to people to kind of stay on, on, stay abreast. And actually the website is the state website is so much easier now. You can even, so you have to create an account. And then from there, when you log in, you can submit testimony, you can even track individual bills that you can set up for yourself. And it will give you alerts when there's hearing. So it's, it's so much user friendly than it used to be before. So in order to submit, did you want to review the bills first? No, no, no, why don't we just go through how people can participate and submit testimony if they want to participate in the legislature. Okay, so up on the screen, you should show it's the welcome page of the white state legislature. So up at the top on the right hand side would be where you either sign in or you register to establish account. So next. And so that's just a bigger version. And on this PowerPoint is actually the link for the website, which is www.capital.holy.gov. And then on the next page, which show the whole page where you sign up so you would have your name, if you belong to an organization, if you want to fill that out, phone number, email address, which is a requirement. And then you create your password. And then you have to agree to the privacy policy. And then click create user. And then next. And then your page will look like this. So you have the recent updates. So you can, you can see everything that's going on with the legislature. And then you have these orange buttons in the middle of the page. So that's where you can create some do submit testimony. You can create a template for yourself to get hearing notifications on the bills that you're interested in. And also the measure tracking is where you can do a, it's a form you create all the, all the bills that you're interested in, and then it creates kind of like an Excel spreadsheet that has all the measure, all the bill tracking information. And then the next one. So in case you're having a hard time to even have a help section. So that's really good. And the next one. So to submit testimony, you need to know what the bill number is, whether it's an HB or an SB.  And then it will show your, you can do your testimony, but then there's also a help page, and I have it right up on the screen right next to it. It kind of shows how the testimony process works as well. So that's another help page that is useful. Next slide. This is again the, the how to submit testimony and the link that I put on the previous slide shows that link. And it also shows how to join into zoom. If you want to attend a meeting, a hearing, it's all via zoom, nobody's allowed into the capital. So let's review the bills that are upcoming. Okay, so, you know, really was referring to bills, they have a, excuse me, a HB number, HB means house, House bill and Senate bill is an SB SS and Sam be, and they, there are numbers. And that's because the house introduces certain bills, and the Senate also introduces maybe different bills, but in many cases, you have a house bill and a Senate bill that are identical, they're called companion bills. That means if one doesn't make it, you know, in the process that means there's a chance that the other one may so that's why the people who are advocating for bills will always, you know, will try to do a bill in both the house and the Senate. Like the first bill that I'm going to be talking about, and we'll be talking about non judicial foreclosure, and for people who live in condominiums. Maybe non judicial foreclosures is a good thing or a bad thing it depends. If you're on the board of directors, the non judicial foreclosure is a way for the association to collect its maintenance fees. In other words, if somebody doesn't pay their maintenance fees, and you know you don't want to pay a huge legal fees to go through a court foreclosure process, you can use a non judicial process, which allows you to do it by written notice to the owner, saying that you know you owe the association you haven't paid your maintenance fees, and you owe us money, and therefore we're going to take your unit. And so it's a way of taking getting control of the unit, and then they, the association then takes a unit, rents it out, and uses a rental income to pay the maintenance fees. This is a good thing because if you have a person, a unit owner who's not paying their maintenance fees. That means that you know everybody else who is paying you know all the other unit owners end up subsidizing the people who are not paying. So it's in everybody's best interest that everybody pay their fair share. I mean that's the whole whole reason for, for doing this and non judicial foreclosure is just a way that allows the board, the association to collect. And so there's two bills. There's one bill, and that's 606. Yeah, 606. And it's related, and it doesn't say condos it's related to housing. And anyway, it passed out of its first committee. And what it's, it's like the governor's moratorium on addiction, you know he's got a moratorium that says that landlords can't their tenants during the pandemic. And so this bill was introduced by a legislator to say that condominiums can't do non judicial foreclosures and I think they have a date of June 2023. And I think some of the opposition to this was, but that's an awful long time. And you know associations, you know can't wait.  Right. And anyway, passed with amendments but that was only yesterday. So I don't know what amendments, you know they added to whether they're shortening the period, or you know, making exceptions saying with some, you know, non judicial's, you know can be, you know, pursued and others cannot. But anyway, there is a bill that's in the legislature and it's moving. It's still alive. And it's Senate bill 606 and its House bill 23. And they're both the same identical bill. And the next one for non judicial foreclosures. This is another angle. Okay. First of all, the legislature in 1999, you know, passed a law that basically told condominiums that you know they could do non judicial foreclosures. And then there were some lawsuits that says no no no, you can't do that, because there's something called a power of sale. And that's something that's in a mortgage document that you know when you go to the bank and you make a mortgage, and there's language in the mortgage document the contract between the borrower and lender that says that if you don't pay your mortgage payments, then I can take you or I can take, you know, your, your, your property without going to court. Okay, because that's part of the agreement. And there are, there was some litigation that went all the way up to the Hawaii Supreme Court that basically said, Well, no condominiums you can't do non judicial foreclosures, because you don't have this agreement, like you know the lenders do, but you don't have any document, you don't have like a mortgage document that has a power of sale language that allows you to do a foreclosure without going to court. And, and we don't care, and the Supreme Court said we don't care about that 1999 bill that you guys keep pointing to this says that and that bill basically said that condominiums could do non judicial foreclosure that that this the Hawaii Revised Statute was sufficient to create that right. And the Supreme Court said, Well, maybe, maybe not. So anyway, there is a bill in the legislature and it's Senate bill 199 and House bill 641. This bill basically says because of what the Hawaii Supreme Court did, and disregarded the 1990 legislation that said condos could do non judicial foreclosure even if they didn't have the power of sale language in an agreement between the homeowner and the administration. Now, this bill says that you can that a condominium can amend its governing documents, which means this declaration of the bylaws, which means you know you make a resolution and you send it out to the owners and you vote on it to say that you have a power of sale. Now you have an agreement. Right, because now you've got you're going to amend your declaration to say that you have a power of sale. But anyway, that bill is also moving it went through its first committee hearing, and it passed out with amendments. And the next bill we're going to be talking about is Senate bill 784 and House bill 599. And there's, there's several bills and I'm not going to go into every one of them but there I think there's two or three bills in the legislature now that are on the same subject matter, because of the pandemic condominiums could have a condominiums who could not have their you know who you know who's the annual meetings in 2020 were scheduled to occur after mid March. Right they never got to have them because the governor issued his order saying you couldn't have gatherings. Right and so so so there are many many many condominiums who you know couldn't have their annual meetings because of the gathering and you know so there these there are bills now who say that you know that condominiums can have their annual meeting electronically. And the reason why this is necessary is because the governing documents for condominiums don't have language that says that you can do it. The annual meetings remotely or electronically. There's a statute that allows board meetings to be held in you know in in in where all the board members can hear each other simultaneously. And so because that statute is there. You have all these board board, you know, board of director meetings being held by zoom and WebEx and go to meeting right because of the statute. And so because and and there was a concern that you know you have to include a 421 J which are the community associations and the co op co op of associations but both of them, both of those types of associations because they are most of them are incorporated as nonprofits. There is a provision under HRS 414 121 G's and George, that allows nonprofit corporations to have meetings remotely. Okay, so this one. So only the condominiums are the ones who aren't able to have remote meetings. And so you had a situation where, you know, people can have, they couldn't have annual meetings. People who wanted to get on the board or wanted to get off the board they couldn't have elections. And so so so these these two bills 748 and 599. They basically are saying that condos can have meetings remotely, and they can do electronic voting, or they can do voting by mail. And so I'm pretty sure that and one of the Senate bill had its first hearing, and it passed out with amendments. And I'm, and that's because that bill also included provisions for 421 J community associations and co ops, which we now know are covered by another statute. So it's only going to be condos. And then we're going to the next one, the next one, 729. Now this is interesting, smoking in buildings. Right. Really how many, how many people how many buildings you know that are concerned about smoking.  And this one is what they're what this one is doing is, there was a bill passed earlier that related to chap and not and this doesn't relate to the condominium statute this relates to chapter 328 J. The fact is that it prohibits smoking in public places. That law was passed, you know, several years ago. And there's a provision in there that says that you cannot smoke. You know, this is cigarettes, or anything like cigarettes electronic cigarettes and marijuana in public places in condominium so this bill already, you know, several years ago, said that you can't smoke in the common areas of hotels, and, you know, condos coops community association you couldn't do it in common areas. This bill now is prohibiting smoking in individual units of multiple unit residences. Okay, so now it's targeting the units. I think this one may run into some problems, even though, you know, it's a health and safety issue and we all know that smoke kind of moves, especially if you go up until your alumni, and you know here in Hawaii everybody has a nine doors open right and if your neighbor next door smoking and the smoke comes in it's very irritating. Right. And even I know in my building we have a you can't smoke on the alumni rule.  And you have people complaining, you have, you have people complaining, and they say it's a health and safety, but then on the other hand, you have people I mean buying a home is one of the biggest investments.  Is that fair. And so I think that's where the dispute is going to, that's where the discussion is going to be on these bills, whether it's fair to make, you know, to pass a law that makes something illegal that wasn't illegal yesterday. Right. Yeah, that one, this one is going to be a tough one, a really tough one. So anyway, but anyway, it hasn't had a hearing yet, but you know it was introduced. And then we have on this one's this one. 61 I think it's kind of it comes up every year. Yeah. Okay, Senate bill 61 house bill two to one. Okay, and this is about proxies. And what it does is, those of you who are listening, annual meeting time you get a proxy in the mail there are these boxes that they want you to check off. And there's like four boxes that I can't remember what all of them are. Well one of them is to the board as a whole. And to be, and to be shared. In other words, to the board as a whole and the board all gets together, and they vote and they say okay. How many people want to vote for Jane Doe and how many people want to vote for, you know, Robert Smith, and you know you divvy up the proxies and the board, then votes those proxies. But anyway, this bill says, let's get rid of that box. And really you and I both know this one comes up almost every year. Yeah, always proxies always. Yeah. And so what are you hearing as to why these, why would anybody want to get rid of that box. Because I've been hearing some people complain about giving it to the board as a whole because what if you don't like certain members of the board. You know, so now you've given your vote but, in my opinion, you also have the other box, where you can give it to an individual. You know so you may not want to give it to the board as a whole but you have one board member that you know you like and you, you know they think they're reasonable. So you can always give it to that individual board member. Yeah, I have a choice because that's one of the boxes is a blank. Yeah, you can name somebody. Right. And that one they're not saying let's get rid of that box. Right. So anyway, I don't know how that's going to go but and what I'm saying hearing, for some reason, people think that by marking that box you give the board a power to perpetuate themselves, right they vote for each other. If you mark, give it to the board as a whole they're going to just vote for each other.  They just have to understand the rules, you don't have to get me. I think because a lot of times for new people due to condominium, they're taught to give it to the board as a whole. I've seen a news that'll go out where it said to give it to the board as a whole and not to give it to an individual, because that individual might have a different agenda than the board. So, so under that thought process, I think people just have to be re educated that you don't automatically give it to the board as a whole if you don't want to, you can give it to an individual member of the board. You can give it to your neighbor if you want, right. Or if you have friends in the building you can give it to your neighbor or to your friend downstairs. Right. Anybody. Yes, right. Because if you if you give it to the board as a whole, you are continuing that you're part of the problem. You know, so. And then the next part of the bill I think is, is a good thing because they're changing some language. And there are where it says that, you know, the old language says no managing agent resident manager, or their employees shall solicit proxies, you know, for the meeting. And what they've added now, which I think is a good thing is association employees because, you know, what it what what this was saying is you couldn't have the managing agent which is like a Hawaiian or an associate or a touchstone. Right or any of their employees solicit proxies, you know, for people who are on the board in other words, I guess what you know some people are afraid of is that you know the board, once they're in, they become all powerful. And if you've got a managing agent and a resident manager, that the board will use those people to get proxies and that's not right. And it's not fair. And I guess if, if it's happening, it's wrong. It has happened. I mean, I, there was one. And it happened to me too. I mean, I got a proxy and then the resident manager solicited I'm like, he's been there for 10 years does he not know the rules, but the managing agent caught it and wouldn't allow that proxy so I still remain I still retain that proxy.  And sometimes you have an office manager. Right. And, you know, or maybe you have a maintenance manager, but you have people who are always talking to people, always talking to the owners and the residents because they're on site, and they see them every day. But you don't want these people, you know, soliciting proxies, because it kind of looks bad, because it's supposed to be a democratic process and every owner is supposed to have a vote, and their vote should count. And, you know, you don't want the perception that the board that's in power is using association staff to solicit proxy because that's an awful. That's an awful thought that, you know, that that might be happening. Right. Right. So I, you know, I think this bill, you know, other than the elimination of the box about the proxy to the board as a whole. I think the rest of it is fine. And so, you know, and that one is also moving. The next one. Oh, the upkeep, the upkeep of that's a big condominium. The unclaimed possession. This is the one about, you know, if you if you have, if you have people who move out and they leave stuff. And I guess the example that we heard about was the bicycles right somebody moved out they left their bicycle, and then the association had to get rid of it. And under the statute now, if somebody moves out and leave stuff, the association has to run an ad other besides trying to contact that person by mail or email or telephone call, you're required under the current statute to run an ad in the newspaper, which runs you several hundreds of dollars. Right. I mean, I think I heard that in one case it was $1500. Yeah, and a bike is probably worth $10 right. And anyway, so now what this and the landlord tenant code, you know, talks about disposing of tenant personal property has a provision that's similar, but it doesn't require publication. It still does it just eliminates the publication. It still requires the association if the tenant leaves something that you have to take a diligent steps to try to contact that person before you dispose of it. And, you know, and, and I, I, you know, tell condominiums if you're going to be doing this, you need to, you know, keep records if you're going to, you know, give it to donate donated to a charity, you need to keep, you know, records on on on what happens with it. But anyway, that one, how did it went through a hearing and it passed out with amendments and because that was only yesterday I don't know what amendments, you know, were made. So we'll have to look on that one. And then, okay, Bill House bill 307 is Oh, this is another bill that allows for electronic electronic meetings. So that's just like, you know, bill 708. But this one allows for the electronic or machine voting, which is going to be interesting how that gets implemented if it passes. And that's going to be a big cost for the equipment and the software. And that's going to be passed on it would be the manager you're probably buying it but it's but that cost is going to be passed on to all the associations under their umbrella. That will be kind of crazy. And yeah, and you know, there is a pet bill. And I don't have the number of that. But you know it's it's not anything, you know, very earth shaking and and what they've what this bill does, but what it is it's an opening whenever there's a bill with the subject matter. Right. That's it allows you to submit testimony. And what this bill is doing is saying that if you if you have a you know how the internet has these vests, and they have these certificates, and they say, you know, this animal is a sort of is a service animal. And this bill basically says it's bogus we all know it's bogus. And this bill says it's bogus and you don't have to pay any attention to it. And so I think, you know, for. And I think, you know, with our group or we're going to do is submit some testimony that says, and besides that, what you need to do is beef up the law to say that you know, when whenever request for reasonable accommodation is made that somehow we get assurance that the person who's the request has actually seen the person and, you know, made an evaluation that the person is disabled, and it truly needs this emotional support animal to alleviate the symptoms of the disability but anyway, that gives us an opening, and we're kind of running out of time. I know. So, so anyway, stay tuned and we will keep you, you know, posted on on what happens and and Raylene this could be one of the subject of one of your condo insiders down the road right. So anyway, good luck next week, and welcome aboard new co host of condo insider, and thank you for the people who are listening to the show thank you for joining us and please join us next week for Ray Lee's debut her first show. So please tell your friends, next week Ray Lee is going to be on the show, and she would really really love for you to tune in and listen. So thank you and Mahalo for joining us. Thank you.


I actually am so amazed at how clear, oh sorry about that. Hello everyone, welcome back. Today I want to share with you this awesome, super easy to make, two ingredient face masks to help keep that skin looking healthy, strong and glowing. Now the reason why I wanted to start making my own face masks rather than purchasing one from say the shops or other places online that you can get face masks and things was because one, it's cheaper than purchasing them from somewhere else because you can make more of it for like a lesser price because you get the ingredients in bulk and two because you also know exactly what's in it so there's no nasties that sneak their way in or preservatives because they want to make the face mask last long enough for you to use it and three it's super fun like what's more fun than on the weekend having a nice spa day getting your face mask on reading a book lying out in the sun or just relaxing on the couch with your beautiful face mask on helping that skin to glow. Not much more that's fun than that. So today I'm going to make a pink clay face mask. I had to check which way that was so the label wasn't upside down. So I looked around at health food stores and other places where they usually stock awesome varieties of the clay and things and they didn't have any pink clay so I ordered this from Biomi online it's an awesome Australian company I get so many products from them. This is the pink clay that I ordered just now it's just arrived which is awesome I'm so excited to use it. This is so great to use as a face mask because it's fantastic for sensitive skin I'm going to pair it with rose hip oil so I'm going to pair these together and make a face mask with I love getting it from Biomi because they are a zero waste store and they're also all their products are palm oil fruit which is just such a win. If you guys are living in Australia or if they ship overseas I'm not sure about but they're such a great store to order from and their packaging is awesome too it's just simply a cardboard box with some brown paper so it's all recycled which is so fantastic. Answers down here how much single-use plastic or single-use items you save from landfill. It's conveniently packed in a jar so I can reuse this later on when I'm finished with it. You only need a little bit to make the face mask today so you can reuse the clay from many face masks to come and I'm going to pair it today with some rose hip oil. So rose hip oil is a fantastic anti-aging oil it's been shown to be rich in vitamin A which is shown to help fight against age spots and wrinkles. The molecules in rose hip oil are also small enough to penetrate the skin so to get into your skin and to rehydrate to clump up to help bring moisture to the skin so they help to rehydrate your skin and improve collagen levels in your skin. So rose hip oil is also shown to help improve skin tone so overall skin tone on your face as well as help reduce scars caused by acne so that's why it is a great oil to use if you do have acne or acne scars it can help with that. It's also rich in vitamin E and omega 7 which is shown to help rebuild the cell structures in your skin which helps to improve the softness of your skin. So there's many benefits to rose hip oil so I'm going to use that today. Now if you'd like to check it out I have written a blog post on many many different clays you can use to make face masks with and what type of skin say oily dry or sensitive skin is best paired with certain clays and how those clays can help benefit your type of skin and how it can help rejuvenate and keep your skin looking healthy happy vibrant. So if you'd like to check that out I will link that in the description down below always I'm just going to talk about pink clay today. So pink clay is a great clay for sensitive skin it's actually quite gentle on the skin which makes it a great choice for those who have dry and sensitive skin. So why do we use clay face masks? Good question. I usually just used to use it just because friends were using it and you do it spars and I thought well it must be good for your skin in some way so I started researching it and this is what I found. Wait for it. So a clay face mask can actually help to absorb excess oils on your skin and your skin feels incredibly soft and smooth when you've removed the mask afterwards and and added benefit of removing the excess oils from your skin is that it can help reduce breakouts. So moving on to the pink clay DIY face mask recipe so what you're going to need today is simply rose hip oil and some pink clay. In my blog post that link below you can also learn about the different liquids you can combine with different clays to help enhance the effect of that clay and of the effect it can have on your skin. So if you want to check that out again it'll be in the description down below. So to make the pink clay face mask today you're going to need about one tablespoon so just one heaped tablespoon of pink clay and then you're going to need to pair that with an equal part of liquid so I'm going to use rose hip oil today so I'm going to get a heaped tablespoon of that and just mix that together. So when you're applying it you can use either a brush or a clean makeup brush or a clean brush and apply that to your face or you can use clean fingers just make sure it has it's clean you want to put bacteria into your skin. Now when you're mixing the clay together you want to make sure that it becomes like a paste. If it's too liquidy just add more clay or if it's still too powdery just add more liquid to the face mask mixture. So when you're applying it on avoid your eye area and your lips. Then once it's on you're going to leave it for 10 minutes until it starts to harden and then once it dries you're gonna remove it with a clean clean cloth. So once you've reached your face you can pat it dry and voila it's all done. Just a note to remember once you've added liquid to the clay that's when it will start to spoil so you can't keep it for a few days. You have to use it straight away and then whatever's left you can just pop it into the compost. So only mix your face mask ingredients together just before you're going to use them because once you mix them together that's when it invites other things like bacteria and stuff into the mask. So you want to mix together the ingredients just before you're about to use it. Another really important note to remember is that if any face mask you're using all these face masks feels like it's starting to burn or sting on your skin don't mistake that for the fact that it's working it shouldn't be burning stinging or hurting on your skin so you should immediately wash it off as soon as possible. So you want to rinse it off as quickly as you can right away and then apply some aloe vera gel to the affected areas just to help cool the irritated skin. If irritation persists though you want to see a doctor. So to help prevent this is a great idea just to do a tester of the clay mask on your skin to begin with to see if you have any kind of reaction to it. Now if you do try this clay mask recipe yourself and you share it on Instagram or other social media please tag me in it I'll leave my social media name down below for you guys please share it with me I'd love to see how it goes for you what you think of the mask and if you guys do make it and you want to share how it goes for you please share with me in the comments below I love reading all your comments it's just fantastic. Now enough of my talking let's get straight into making this clay mask. Sexy or what? Now just to relax for 10 minutes. See I've washed it off my face I actually am so amazed at how clear or sorry about that I'm actually so amazed at how clear my skin looks now like my pores are so clear I'm like and it's so easy to wash up you don't need to scrub it or anything and it's so gentle on your skin I really really love pink clay masks they're one of my favorites and it doesn't stain like charcoal doesn't stain the sink which is like a big one so you have to clean up a huge mess yeah so that is the result of the pink clay mask that I made today. I hope you guys enjoyed this video if you did like it please give it a thumbs up and if you make this mask and you share it on Instagram or any other social media please tag me in it I'll leave my name down below so you guys can share it with me I love seeing your creations and recreations if you want to join our tribe our squad our fam here on YouTube you know just to subscribe down below in the corner make sure to hit that bell button right next to it to keep up to date with all my future videos later on thank you so much for watching today and sticking out this whole video with me I'm so so grateful and hope to see you guys in my future videos bye


So why property? That's because it's the only asset class that will give you all of this before you buy. Good evening and welcome back to The First Time Homebuyer Show. As you know, I'm your host, Estee Klaassen. And tonight I'm sitting with an absolutely amazing guest. But before we get there, you know that we have amazing content coming to you live every night this week. So I'm on Tungua Kumala with the Private Property Podcast. And the guest we have tonight is no stranger to that as well. And of course, every Tuesday and Thursday night, that's Mbali, an award-winning farmer. That podcast is amazing for you. If you're looking to invest in land farming, if that's your goal, definitely tune into that. And every Monday and Friday night, we travel South Africa with Chad Vaviros, our host from The Home Shopper Show. Are you looking to invest in amazing townhouses, mansions across Bryanston, all the way to Camps Bay? Well, be sure to check into that show every Monday and Friday at 8 p.m. And without further ado, I'm sitting with the absolutely amazing Ebo Qua Crane. Correct? That's correct. I got that right for the first time since being here. But yeah, I'm sitting with the absolutely amazing Ebo. His title, what he carries, what he does is a mouthful. So I'm going to hand it over to Ebo to explain. But before we get there, this is a man that I've been surrounded by his presence from a few weeks back till today. And I feel just being in his presence every day, you're learning so much more every single day. That's pressure. Yes, Ebo. Lots of pressure. And I thought that it's a perfect opportunity to share this education and the knowledge that this man carries with all of you at home. So without further ado, Ebo Qua Crane, good evening. Good evening, Estie. And thank you so, so much for the opportunity to be here. Thank you so much, Ebo. You know, when we first met, you were like, ah, you spoke to my brother. And the show was so amazing. When is my turn? I hope he doesn't hear this. He needs to.  They're both men of power. We're hungry. We're hungry for success. We've come from a family that has taught us that, you know, where you start does not really determine where you end up. And also every gift that you've given is not really your gift, but it's an opportunity for you to basically expand on because there's so many other people that need to benefit from your presence in this world. 100%. And with that being said, Ebo, today is youth day. Yes, it is.  And I feel like this is something that today, as someone who can vouch and confidently speak about it, it's something that we're still overcoming, right? And for you to say, you know, that sharing success and sharing these moments is something that I think at a young age, we need to already start thinking about. And just even before we start and just dive deep into it, how are you actually sharing your success? So at properties.com, what we've always done is to make sure that we surround ourselves with the youth, right? So as a 100% black youth owned and managed company, having youth around us is one of the reasons that we're growing so well. Because, yeah. And on the note of youth, what are the first three things that come to mind when you hear youth? CDE. So basically it's curiosity, it's dynamism, and it's energy. Everything that you're doing. You know, somebody, there's this thing about curiosity kills the cat. If you've read my post in the recent weeks, you'd have heard me put out that curiosity did not kill the cat. Actually, the cat died because it was ignorant. You need to learn always. You need to always ask questions because the more questions you're asking, the more your mind opens. Exactly. So that's that. Dynamism, the mere effect of being youth is that you are allowed to make mistakes. You're allowed to change. You're allowed to discover yourself. There's no pressure to be anything, right? So you need to be dynamic in every approach and everything that you're doing. And the last part, of course, energy. Energy wins every single day. If you're doing something passionate about it, you're going to be flat. And if you flat, what's going to happen is that people will pick it up and then you become that lukewarm person that everyone spits out.  So that's curiosity, dynamism, and energy. Nice. And you speak about energy and I feel like, you know, today you still need to carry that energy. And just to the viewers, you weren't here before the show started. Ivo was playing, you know, some tracks in the background and I asked him why.  You pick me up songs. And I think that as the youth, we need to figure out what it is for us. That, yes, of course we have our down moments. Of course we might not always be so energetic, but figure out what it is for you that is your pick me up moment. So that's my question to you viewers at home tonight. What is it that you can use as a mechanism that picks you up when you're feeling a little bit down? And I'm sure Ivo, you sometimes do not always have that energy. Of course, of course. So the trick in life is that you need to know your abilities, right? And you also need to understand yourself.  I remember when I was sitting back in the days when I used to take the metro buses, right? I would sit on the top floor always and I would insist to sit on the top floor. And because you get to see the city. Right. And when you look at it, you get to dream. And I had this dream of being on Forbes magazine. You know that song, I want to be a millionaire. Yeah. For real, that song is stacking my head from that time till now. Yeah. And there's this pressure, you want to be on Forbes magazine, which is not a bad dream. You shouldn't have it. However, in having these pressures is being able to allow yourself to make mistakes and acknowledge those mistakes and say, I fell here, I can rise again. I made that because I did that. So I can change that because I, you know, the human journey is fluid. And you need to allow yourself to, to feel it and to know yourself and to be better at it. And when you flat, like always happens, you saw me pick up my pick me up song. You need certain things. When I was in sales, it was my perfume. There's, it's just a trigger. You're about to click that deal to spray something and you automatically you zoned in. Right. The pen that you hold in your hand before you hand over to the client and say, please sign on this dotted line because I'm making a hundred thousand. It's those little things. Right. You call it rituals if you would. Yeah. But you need those things because they reset your mind and get you to grow further. Definitely rituals. I like, I like that because I have similar rituals that I use, you know, in my spare time, whether it is that you're moving into a new home.  Whether, you know, burning sage, get rid of that negative and whatever it may be. And I think it's so important to, to, to have these things because it does kind of have you, it allows you to reset when anything happens. Right. And then my next question to you, we just spoke about youth, the three things, you know, energy, curiosity, dynamism. And energy.  Yeah. Yeah. Oh, that's one thing you'll find from most of my conversations. I always think in alphabet. I always ask myself this question, why is it that, you know, when you're like four or five, you start reciting the alphabet, right? Why is it that we do that? It's actually a way of getting the mind to program things in a chronological order. Order, yeah. So I've always, whenever I need to bring a concept that would burn within me, I put it in alphabet. Yeah. That's amazing. Smart move. I might use that. We talk about youth and the first thing that came to mind, as you mentioned, and then I wanted to know what you think about what, what comes to mind when I say youth and property. Youth and property. So for youth and property, it is endless possibility. Because think of it this way. You have come into this world with no pressures, right? And even if there is pressures, you know, because I must be honest, we've got black text at home. 100% Thank God, my family's never burdened us with that. Okay. I'll be honest. Yeah. My mom and dad, they've always said, we are giving you the best so that you can be your own. Right. And they've never burdened us. So that's one thing I'm very, very grateful for. We do have endless possibility, whether we are burdened at home or not, because you are a canvas and you determine what you want to paint when you're six feet under. Because when people are looking at that painting and they're painting you, everything that you have been is what will be on that canvas. And that's the endless possibility you have. So it's up to you to say, up to what limit is my possibility? Exactly. Yeah. It's endless. The possibilities are endless. You said something earlier that, and I solely believe in this, that before I reach the age of 30, I can make as many mistakes as I want to right now. And I should be making those mistakes, you know, whether it's whatever it may be, of course, I mean, as SD, I overthink everything. And I'm like, no, I need to do it this way, that way. But I'm just like, if it goes wrong, it's okay. And it took me years to get to that point where I could be okay with my flaws and mistakes that I make. And I think that that's something we need to take. Very true. And also just leveraging others. So one other thing is it's not every mistake you have to make. Yeah. I mean, my mentors, when I started out, were telling me about how they slept in your cars, how they've had 10 marriages and all of these little things. And I made a decision that I actually don't want 10 marriages.  Right. And that's my wife, by the way. Oh, wow. We've been together since metric. So you don't have to make the mistakes that other people make. You can learn from their mistakes and do better. Same thing with property. You can, if there's things that's running through your head and like, can I make this mistake? Will I make this mistake? Feel free to contact a mentor. If you have one, if you don't, my office is always open. Hit me up on social media wherever you would. And I'm willing to share. I mean, we've done some bad deals. Right. Very, very bad deals. Right. But the trick of these is the moment you realize this deal is bad, get out of it. So you find along the way that I always have an exit strategy to every single deal I make. Nice. If it goes bad in one month, I'm out. Yeah. Let's talk about that because, as we mentioned before, the show is for educational purposes and sharing knowledge, imparting knowledge on the youth specifically today. And you talk about you've made many mistakes. And if you could just share one mistake, right? Because the point is for us not to make the same mistakes. So let's just share one mistake. And what was your exit strategy for that particular mistake? You know what's funny? The one mistake I'm going to share with you is actually the mistake that helped us build properties.com. Wow. So we entrust everything of ourselves to the people that surround us. And we sometimes then feel that they are too knowledgeable to lead us wrong. Sometimes the things you need to do is actually educate yourself a little bit. So this was in 2010. I was doing very well in my banking career. And we decided, oh, great. Let's just hand all these properties that we've bought to this certain agent to manage them for us. And in the process, we went to sleep. I totally went to sleep. I never checked the bank statement. I never checked whose tenant is paying me. I never followed up. It took me about six months when I really, really needed something. And I checked this and I realized, wait a minute, this tenant has not paid me for the last three months. What's my agent doing about it? And then confronting the agent and the agent went, I don't know. And I said, are you for real? OK, give me my keys. I'm going to do it myself. And that's how I became an estate agent from the very beginning. And we set a rule at properties.com. There will be no agent that will owe us more than a rental. One man said rental not paid you out. And we have our strategy in place to actually ensure that our clients always get their rental all the time. Oh, wow. Because so, you know, you started properties.com. But just before that, at the age of 29, if I'm not mistaken, you did something absolutely, I mean, out of this world. And because I'm that age now. And I'm just like, OK, what do we do? Why can't I just so ever retired right at that age? And what was your, we spoke about exit strategy, but like, yeah, what was your exit strategy? Retiring at the age of 20. 2013. So it all started with, can I share this? Yes, please. 2009, December the 22nd. I'm sitting having a conversation with my banker. And then I say to her, you know what? We need to really start buying property. I've learned enough. I really want to go all out. How much do I qualify for? And she goes on the system. And she comes back and she's like, hey, able for 775,000. You could go out shopping. Said, OK, thanks. Then it took us about a month later. And we went shopping for a million rent of property. Now, what that did when people go, why do you go?  Because I could and you must because you must negotiate. Right. I sat down and I said, how much money do I need on a monthly basis to be able to survive? And I found these two properties was funny enough together when the tenants paid what have paid me exactly how much money I needed to be able to not push for bigger deals in the bank. But to become a person and it's weird, but just calming down and knowing that I'm not chasing the next big deal, but I'm rather going to be in touch with my clients, made me the next year thereafter the best financial advisor in standard bank at the time. So it's yeah, things work out that way. Now fast forward to 2013 and I'm retiring. There's a trick. We all as financial advisors ask you guys this question. Yeah. When you turn 65, what's the life you want to live? And then you tell us the whole life and we paint it down. And we say, start saving 10,000 in a month. And you go, what? And then you walk away. So having done that so many times, I started asking, why should I wait till 65? Yeah. I've got these properties, they do pay me what I want. Yeah. So what is the life I want to live? And I wanted to live a life of meaning and purpose. What does that mean? It means that every single thing that I'm doing, I must know that I'm happy with it. I must know that it is leading me towards that bigger goal of the people around me being more successful. Right. Where people, you know, when they call your name, when you're six feet under, and I refer to this a lot. But for me, it's all about when you are no more, what do people say about you? Right. What have you lived here? When you're gone, what are they saying, you know? And I love that. And we talk about imparting knowledge and imparting, yeah, what we've learned on others, right? And I feel like, you know, again, in the spirit of youth day and in the spirit of us trying to educate people, I'm sure there are youth out there who are wanting to retire. Yeah. And you've used property to do that, right? Yeah. And I think that there's a way that we all can get into, and that's one of my questions, right? And you even asked me just before the show is like, what was my question? Why invest in property? And you were like, why don't you even ask me that?  Of course it is. But Ebo, why? So why, why, why property as an investment? Can I teach you? Yes. So this is what we're going to do. Ebo's going to actually, this is like I said, this platform educational. It's time for us to learn. So let's take it back to the classroom, sit down, relax, and let's head on over to the board. What? So you were asking why property? So this is something that we were taught when I started out in financial planning, right? So rule number one in investment management is we are given the asset classes, right? And it started off basically saying cash. Then it goes to bonds. So basically somebody is lending you money based on interest rate, then it's property. So let's build a house with the foundations. And then basically we say business slash stock.  And we always told our clients as you go down this curve, the risk gets lesser and lesser. Well, sorry, as you come this side, the risk is less, but the returns are higher. And as you go this way, higher returns, higher risk. Now you're asking why property?  Property is actually the only asset vehicle that number one, a bank will give you money for to go and do.  So we've always said real estate is ideal. Because from your property, you get income. As it depreciates, you still earn money. You are able to build in your equity. It appreciates in value. And you are always able to leverage.  So why property? That's because it's the only asset class that will give you all of this before you buy. Without putting in money, you already know, will I make an income? Will it be higher? Okay, yes, no. If the answer is no, I'll walk away from the deal. Okay, the property is depleted. It looks ugly. Will I be able to fix it and be able to build in equity? Yes. Or it looks great if I, you know the story of Harlem, how Harlem was run down. Right. Yeah, and now Brooklyn is one of the most expensive cities in New York. Why do you think that happened?  So that's why property and not any asset class as a start. Right.  So let's talk a little bit more about how we can make this happen. How do we, what is, is there a formula to this? So the next question you were asking me was, what were my assumptions before I actually got into the property game? Funny enough, it is the same graph because you know, in investment management 101, you taught, oh by the way, so you probably know that by now that I did major in investment management as one of my courses. So you always believe that what they teach you in those books is the Bible, you know. So I thought, okay, let me get a bit of cash, then let me basically participate in the RSA retail bonds and stuff and then I can get interest, then I'll go into my property. And my assumption was, when it comes to property, because it is the third asset class from here, it actually has higher risks and a little bit of return, that was my assumption. However, as I've grown in the property game, I've realized that property actually comes here, it is the lowest asset class in terms of risk than anything else, because you don't need to go back too long to realize that African Bank went bust when 2009, yeah, and now 2013 to 2019 for Ubusani and them to build it back up. What took them down? It was the money market, right? So everybody that was investing here thinking that, oh, I've invested money in money markets, it will never ever crash. They felt the risk, so there's risk there, because you're not in control. What you're not in control of is actually more riskier than what you're in control of. Property, you're in control of it from the very beginning. You bought the property, you have the tenant, and if you don't have the acumen to manage the tenant, you've got us. That's why it's teamwork and makes the dream work. So yeah, so that was my assumption that property is a little bit riskier, but as we've aged, we've realized that property is actually the foundation of all of these things. So in other words, it should actually be here in your portfolio. So you build everything else on top of property. That's why we've built properties that come on top of property. Now it's the business section. So I just want to quote something that Evo says, because as he said before this, I dived into his DMs and I literally deciphered his entire LinkedIn profile. And that's how I do my research, right? You said you've mastered the art of successful real estate investing. And so Evo, I'd like to, you know, find out what is the art of successful real estate investing? You know what? I'm really grateful that you did this work, because there comes a time where you have to break things down into the most core so that it gets embedded in your DNA. Come I show you on the board how this really looks like, all right? I don't know if you've read the book by P.T. Berman, The Art of Getting Rich. But when I read the book, and this was sometime back in 2008 as well, I realized, gee, everything in this world is actually a science. And if you really, really take time to know what to do, you can duplicate it. So what is the art of real estate investing? Number one, I think we shared this in the other question about having ideal in the foreground of your mind always, right? So I need income. I need depreciation. I need equity. I need appreciation. And then I need to leverage. So let's start. What is the art? The first part is knowing what you want. Okay? Do I want income or do I want capital? What am I going to do with it? So the first part is therefore then having that goal. What am I going to get out of this? The second part is I want to have as much education as possible to say, wait a minute, depreciation. How do I get depreciation? My education tells me that as a property investor, everything that I do to produce income, I can claim back from sales, right? Because it's a tax deductible expense. So when I go and I hire a real estate agent to manage my property, I'm not losing because sales will have to pay that portion that I give to properties.com when I take it out from the income that I've received. So now I pay less tax. So it's the education. The third part is and I wouldn't say it's the biggest, but it's very, very important and that is strategy. If you don't have a strategy, what type of properties do I buy? Am I buying to flip? Am I buying to, or am I renting to rent? Am I doing what we now do at properties.com? That is, we take in your property, we manage it and then we're able to get our service fee from it so that you can benefit longer. Am I trading in that game? Because maybe I have a terrible credit record. I have a terrible credit record. You know everybody says when you invest in property, you must have a great credit record. No, you don't need that to start investing in property. Let me bust that bubble for you right here. You don't need that. And you joined us two years ago. You just turned 21 by the way, last year. Now, she's already in real estate. She's never sent to start off with but she leveraged other people's skills, other people's assets. Did she need a good credit record for that? No. She just needed the hunger to go to someone and say, I am ABCD and I want to help manage your property. I have a good mentor who is going to make sure that I give you the service you need. That's all you need. So let's not go too far. Have a goal. Have education. Have a strategy. But very important have a team. Get people to support you. Get people to do the work that you cannot do. Leverage, leverage, leverage. This is the hidden secret of success in property. Leverage, leverage, leverage. And you can always leverage through a team. That's it. You talk a lot about leveraging and that is the secret ingredient. If you had to write a book and the secret ingredient was leveraging. Actually let's double tap on that. If you had to write a book but everything you've achieved and accomplished thus far, what would your title be? You just gave me the title The Art of the Leverage. The Art of the Leverage. You should charge royalties for this. And you at home you don't steal this book. I'm going to ISBN now. You have to actually start writing. The Art of the Leverage. And then how would it end? How would it end? It would end with how we ended up taking a generation of people that believed in themselves but did not really know the possibility of the end. And now they all grew from not just thinking, hey I'm black I come from a very bad home my mother didn't have money my dad didn't have money so therefore I went to go and take a job and blah blah blah. No. It would be these group of people who decided to take fate into their own hands went into real estate and accumulated massive wealth that would provide for them three generations beyond. Because it's all about what you leave behind when you're six feet under. It's a title for your book. But I want to add a little something. Let me help you. You just spoke about how just because we are people of Kali in South Africa and we come with black tax we come with poverty we come with this mindset but it's about breaking the narrative changing the narrative and breaking the barriers that have been put out. I feel like it's so difficult for us to shift because whether it is example you move from let's say you grab in the hood the Kasi and you move from there and you're like ok now I live in the burbs but I'm still paying my own rent but I still have black tax and I still have to do all these things but at the end of the day you still have to go back home and it's not to say I don't want to say that you need to act almighty because I think that humility is very important it's to know where you came from know what your goal is and what you do and then just keep manifesting that and I do believe that for me changing the narrative does not have to be that you need to go out there and be an activist changing the narrative can be within as well Certainly, certainly I don't know if you ever had this conversation with my brother about where our family really began but if you've had that conversation with him and anyone in my family you'd find that we hold the main track of our family we hold in the highest regard because here was an uneducated lady who was actually in our view and in my eyes a symbol of how entrepreneurship is supposed to be because she would go deep into the farms and initially she used to sell pepper, tomatoes onions and everything and then she realized but wait everybody brings the same goods to the market why don't I specialize but I'm going to specialize and still not leave these guys behind so she'll still go and collect and then come and give them the peppers and all of that so basically she moved on to become the whole sailor for the other people but then she'll keep a certain fruit for herself and she'll be the only one in the market with it so people come to her she sells off her waste and she'll always refer them you want pepper go to that lady go to that one go to that because we seem to think that entrepreneurship is all about me me me no it's not it's an ecosystem it is being able to understand that I'm good at this or I have this that makes me unique but I can facilitate for other people and that's how it is in the community so you've made it don't be all high and mighty be here because yes your brother told us echo told us the story but I didn't stop you because the show is about sharing stories and you're telling it in a very different way and that's what I wanted to get across and I think what you just said about you know how your grandmother it's an ecosystem one of your pinnacle points when you were teaching us a little earlier when you showed us was the last point was team and power team we always have this chat the power team who is your team whether it's your mentor who is even just and I hate saying that this person is below you because I believe when I work with people we're all colleagues I'm all on this so also there's this notion of team that the people have to be working for you or working with you all the time no they don't so you find that in my sphere I have people that I just rely on for just like you call it accountability partners I just bounce things off them hey I'm going to do ABCD this time can you check in with me and hold me accountable then there are those that you know okay I am going to let's look at sectional title schemes when we decided we're moving into the sectional schemes industry right you now go who is the best at it or who has been doing this the longest so we realize Professor Graham Paddock is actually the author of all of these who do we have in our network that can get us to him because you always want to go closest to the source of course so that now is the people in our team so if I need anything and I feel like you bounce it off the best and you come back and you know that you are right and I think that's also one way to figure out if your team is for you at the end of the day because you can have a team that is totally against you that doesn't want to see you then you don't have a team but I think that we especially again youth we mistake that we have these you know circles friends whatever maybe if you can't hold me accountable if you can't call me out on my actions or if I'm doing something wrong whatever the case maybe you're not you're not there for me the UCL just happened right and I remember posting that I wish Pep wins but then at the same time I was torn because I wanted Chelsea to win now here's a person that is supporting both teams at the same time and yet I'm part of the team of both of them right when it comes to teamwork you would have realized that all those people and when Pep lost what happened the people called him out they said you selected the wrong team to start off with being the great leader that he is he went maybe I shouldn't have but it's the best I thought at the time so it's also being able to know that your team can give you feedback and if you're confident about the decisions you made you hold yourself up to it yeah unfortunately that's all we have time for this evening but this is not the end the best is yet to come next week Wednesday part 2 still sitting with Ebo having these amazing chats again this is dedicated to the youth but do trust me everyone there is something for everyone to learn on this show so that's next week part 2 tune in again 8pm on Facebook, Instagram and YouTube we'll see you there take care and stay warm


Does effective networking always have to be personal? In these Engineering Manager 80-20 Shorts videos, we help engineers become better managers and leaders. And in today's video, I'd like to answer a question from a female participant of our recent Engineering Management Accelerator course. In the course, we help engineers learn how to build relationships and network. An effective way to do that is getting to know people, learning about them, not just learning about strictly what they do as an engineer. So this participant asked the question, how can she do that effectively if she's a female and she's dealing with male managers and she's not really comfortable talking about personal things with them? It's a great question and this is what I recommend in that situation. Focus your conversations around that manager's careers or goals as a professional. It doesn't have to be personal. You can ask them how they got their start in engineering. What discipline they're in. What's been their most exciting project that they worked on?  It doesn't have to be a really personal relationship. It's just a professional relationship that will allow you to work better with that individual. And this can also go for clients or prospective clients or other consultants and other companies that you work with. Learn about their career goals and aspirations and that will build a bond between you that will help you to build better teams and better relationships. Remember we do these videos weekly so please subscribe to our channel here at the Engineering Management Institute and we will help you continue to engineer your own success.