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- (5:10) What is a 1031 Exchange? — Learn how this powerful IRS provision allows you to sell investment property and defer paying taxes when reinvesting in another “like-kind” property.
- (9:28) Real-Life Example: Discover how one investor turned a $200K mobile home park into $3 million—and how a 1031 Exchange saved him over $1 million in taxes.
- (12:13) Understanding Delaware Statutory Trusts (DSTs): Why these trusts relieve investors from property management while keeping their income flowing.
- (14:16) How DSTs Work: Ben explains how DSTs allow fractional ownership in large institutional properties—making it accessible for mom-and-pop investors.
- (17:21) Passive Income and Tax Deferral Combined: How retirees can diversify across multiple properties, increase their income, and pass down wealth tax-efficiently.
- (18:52) The Mission of Perch Wealth: Ben’s journey from syndication to founding a firm focused on helping investors make informed, objective real estate decisions.
Connect with Ben:
- Contact Number: (818) 269-4972
- Website: www.perchwealth.com
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bencarmona/
Connect with Corwyn:
- Contact Number: 843-619-3005
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cmelette/
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MIKE:
As anyone knows out there who’s been through this you can send something to a bank 12 times and they don’t get it and adds to the frustration of the consumer. They feel like they’re doing everything that’s said that follow-up is crucial. So we submit the application and once it is deemed complete by the servicer or the lending institution the investors they will pause foreclosure proceedings while it is under review. It’s sort of a reverse underwriting situation, so instead of when you buy a house you go to underwriting when you’re trying to modify or remedy a past due loan situation it effectively goes to underwriting again. You send them your credentials, they all tell you it’s a 30-day review period and that’s pretty accurate sometime in three to four weeks, they will issue what’s called a results letter
CORWYN:
So Good morning and welcome to another episode of Exit Strategies Radio Show, I am your host Corwyn J. Melette, broker and owner of Exit Realty Lowcountry Group in beautiful North charleston, south carolina If this is your first time listening to this show You sir or ma’am are in for a treat because our mission here is very simple that is to empower our community through financial literacy and real estate education. We’re legacy building. That is what we do So if you’re out there making things happen with your family for the generations yet to come our word teaches us to leave a legacy to leave an inheritance for our children’s our children’s children and so forth and so on We want you to put a hashtag on that thing that says that you are legacy building because that is what you are doing You can find us on Facebook, Youtube, AnchorFM. You can also find us on Instagram at our website exitstrategiesradioshow.com You can catch us in a number of different places on your favorite podcast applications. We appreciate you listening. Please share this content with your friends your family your co-workers Even those in your groups your church groups, etc Guys, because sometimes the message and the word that we are speaking here today is for you Sometimes it is for someone else that you know again. We appreciate you listening. Let’s get started.
SPEAKER 3:
The Exit Strategies Radio Show welcomes back its listeners, host Corwyn J. Melette introduces the crucial second part of the conversation with their guest Mike Russell, founder of Hope 4 Hardship. Last week, Mike shared his powerful story of survival and taught the audience about the life-saving FHA partial claim mortgage. This week the focus shifts from strategy to the actual foreclosure law and process. If listeners are facing financial challenges, this episode equips them with the legal knowledge and timelines necessary to fight back. Mike breaks down the complex foreclosure process from the bank’s right to cure letter to the moment an auction is scheduled and discusses why common solutions like Chapter 13 Bankruptcy can sometimes prove to be the biggest mistake? [If listeners are facing financial challenges, this episode equips them with the legal knowledge and timelines necessary to fight back. Mike breaks down the complex foreclosure process from the bank’s right to cure letter to the moment an auction is scheduled and discusses why common solutions like Chapter 13 Bankruptcy can sometimes prove to be the biggest mistake]. Let’s dive in
CORWYN:
So there’s a process to foreclosure and most people don’t understand it, right? There’s laws each state respectively has their own some states are lean theory some states are d theory So there’s different things to kind of work in all of that But if you could might kind of talk us through What that process looks like and essentially those triggers if you will. Where the consumer needs to do something?
MIKE:
Sure, so every bank every loan written in america traditional loan from a traditional lending institution Gives the consumer something called a right to cure Upon notification that you are in default of the terms. They give you a period of time Typically I see 90 days where the consumer has a right to cure The debt and the bank cannot move forward with a foreclosure proceeding until that date has passed Banks are outstanding at watching timelines. They are absolutely fantastic. That’s that may be the only thing they’re fantastic at okay They don’t miss the fine print. You know, it’s us. We miss the fine print They don’t and so once you’re deemed in default, which typically happens at about 46 days past due and that is because most banks have a 15 day grace period And so if your payment was due on june 1st, and you didn’t pay by july 16th The bank is going to kind of declare they’re in default. They are one payment behind Now will the bank issue a right to cure letter right then no But you’ll usually see it at 70 days about 70 days without a payment They will initiate like to cure rights Which tax on another 90 days before they then have the right here in the state of massachusetts to hire a foreclosure attorney to record something called a notice of intent to foreclose And it is the depending on who you are. I call it the soldier and sailors act It’s really called the service members act of 2001 Maybe or something. I don’t know but and what that is that the one protected class in america When it comes to this stuff are active duty service members Active duty service members get a reprieve of sorts. And so they serve this notice And they serve it very quickly So figure about 150 days since you last made a payment because they got to give you that 90 day right to cure you do nothing You don’t do anything to cure it satisfactory to the bank They’re going to issue that notice of intent to foreclose and that’s going to have on it a court date And it’s about halfway down the page and it says if you are in the active military Please come forth to this court by this state and we will stop the proceeding I got to tell you every single person I’ve ever worked with says I got a letter It says I have to go to court It doesn’t say you have to go to court. Are you in the active military? Everyone thinks that’s a court date that they have to this is just a human we don’t actually read it. We just see that You know what i’m saying? And so once that date passes once that date passes and no one shows up to say that prove that they were in the active military Then all bets are off And I’ve seen banks schedule an auction within a month of that date passing I’ve seen banks schedule a foreclosure auction Maybe 60 days because they have some title cleanup work They have to do some assignments get some affidavits go back and clear title Make sure there’s no missing discharges or assignments or affidavits on title Banks like to clean up title Before they potentially take title To real property and so that is often why things get delayed a little longer But what I just described is 200 days And so it creates an unreasonable Sense of security in the consumer, you know I haven’t paid my mortgage in nine months. Nothing’s happened yet And look the public phone calls the door knocks the letters That doesn’t start until this becomes public record and it becomes public record upon the filing of the notice of intent to foreclose Then it’s public at that moment is when Everybody comes out of the wood and I don’t listen I don’t disparage anybody’s business model man It is what it is people make a living doing whatever they want but from where i’m standing in the work that i’m doing the vast majority of the people who are banging on the doors and Calling these homeowners and doing this stuff are seeking to capitalize on the perceived misfortune of others They are either to buy that property cheap get them to send a five thousand dollar retainer So I can we got a guy here in massachusetts who likes to tell people that he’ll sue their bank The same form letter that goes out it says I was reviewing your mortgage documents And I think there’s something wrong. The bank did something wrong. If you pay me five thousand dollars. I’ll sue your bank for you and People actually do it Unaware of a successful suit and I’ve yet to meet an attorney who will do that on a contingency fee basis so So they look everyone comes out of the woodwork because they see an opportunity To either buy a property cheap get those people to sell their property or file bankruptcy or sue the bank And so they are being barraged by people Who may sound pretty good may look pretty good May have a story that sounds like it’s something and most people are in sales mode, right? And the reality is i’m just not a I don’t judge it. I get it. It’s capitalist society. That’s what people do But the reality is I believe that it is worth exhausting every possible Measure available to you to retain your property in a market like this with a low interest rate and rent so high Before you make any decision about whether or not you should sell your home And personally as you can imagine being through bankruptcy. I’m not a big proponent of it I filed bankruptcy prematurely I saw Path of least resistance is what I saw in a bankruptcy. You didn’t have to tell me much All you had to tell me is I don’t know it. Where do I sign man? Can I digital sign like let’s do it uh No, and look a lot of people are like that because they’re uneducated and my biggest concern about bankruptcy with folks Is what people fail to recognize when you file chapter 13? For the sole purpose of putting a stay on an auction on your property and let’s be real That’s why people file chapter 13 when they’re facing foreclosure It’s to put a stay and what they fail to recognize is just how temporary that stay is because once you get with your attorney And you put forth your bankruptcy case you’re filing Which is effectively a story of your finances and your debt And you walk on the mercy of the u.s trustee at the bankruptcy court and you say here’s my story, please help me Six times out of ten the bankruptcy court kicks that case back and says we’re not going to approve your case you can’t afford to both pay your mortgage payment and Pay us for three to five years On the crammed down value of this pile of debt if you sell your house And so often people end up in a place where they file bankruptcy to get a stay They don’t follow through because they got the case kicked back. They lose contact the attorney and there are bankruptcy attorneys and they’re all fantastic right up until the check clears I mean ish right and then they can’t get them on the phone and then oh, I don’t know I don’t know. There’s a missing piece of paper. I hear these stories all the time and they end up getting foreclosed on anyway And so now they have a bankruptcy public record on their credit report and they eventually get foreclosed on anyway, it’s a horrible thing. Let’s take a short break.
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CORWYN:
I see along that vein along that same storyline I’ve heard it witnessed it a number of times where people because of that will pull the house out of the bankruptcy So they file bankruptcy on everything else but pull the house from it So now you got to try to figure out if you will this whole workaround or workout And now it’s a challenge or an issue because now you filed a bank rupsee credit’s tanked So you can’t do anything to reposition Releverage or do anything? So now you’re trying to figure out a workout with the bank and you filed a bank rupsee They already have a tendency to believe that you have the propensity to fail on So it’s more difficult to get a workout once you’ve done that at times. Yes. Is that what you’ve seen?
MIKE:
Thousand percent absolutely and what it leads to oftentimes is Renting a place you really don’t want to live in and that’s certainly where I ended up My landing was not soft by any stretch of the imagination My landing was hard and abrupt and I ended up living in a place that I did not want to live I didn’t think I deserved to live there And it was I was one of the hardest things I ever went through having that foreclosure and that bankruptcy on my public record By the time I was able to be a viable bet in traditional lending and buy a house again That may have been the happiest day of my life
CORWYN:
So my you’ve obviously anything cannot go the way that you want it to go, right? But when it works it works So if you don’t mind share a story of someone hardship, please edit out whatever content you need to edit out But you know when it works when you have the hardship And you have the right story the right mindset the right pieces of the puzzle if you will So that your portrait looks a lot different than what it could have looked Share one of those for our listeners if you don’t mind
MIKE:
Listen, one of the first people that I helped became one of my best friends And when I first met him, he didn’t trust me as far as he could throw me And I was sitting in the living room of this house I was sitting in the living room of this house talking to him and his wife and his two children and they Trusted me and they wanted to move forward with what I was proposing to them But he didn’t and he was in such a place. There was some substance abuse at play Which is a very commonality a thread amongst a lot of this And he couldn’t see where he was living and what it was doing to his family He simply couldn’t see the forest through the trees He couldn’t see that there was a better life on the other side of this. That is a tremendously common bond among folks Is oftentimes you’re in a housing situation. The house was falling apart and you’re so Committed to it and it’s been your life for so long that you can’t even see How much simpler and better life could be somewhere else starting over? It took me a long time to get him to a place to do that But we weren’t able to save that property he was too far behind and we couldn’t prove that his hardship was over And they were underwater They were underwater in that home. They owed more than the property was worth And so both of their credits were in the 500s. One of them might have been high fours And so we ended up short sailing that property so they would avoid a foreclosure event on their credit We pulled that off the skin of our teeth He really didn’t want to do it But we did and my wife and I just kept kind of looking for rentals For a place for he and his family to land And we found one in the same city in a much nicer neighborhood And the way that we were able to get them to get into that property is we proposed to the landlord a three-year lease And they agreed to it. And that’s why we won the lease And about two and a half years later once their credit had restored We were talking and I approached the landlord and I said, hey these tenants want to buy your home and the wife Had a 401k that he didn’t even know about. Thank god And she was able to take some money out of that 401k for a 10 down payment And they bought that property And they still live there today and they couldn’t be happier these years later Life is so much improved the house is so much They became homeowners again, and I did every stitch of that without ever charging them a single penny It was my honor to do it And every time I go over there, he thanks me for helping you So yeah, man There are stories like that and people struggle to see the other side and there’s the greatest inalienable truth Is uh struggles just a chapter unless you make it permanent not like that That’s the reality of it And so it’s just a chapter and he wasn’t able to see it He didn’t have the foresight to see that there was a better life on the other side Oh boy, and look, you know what? I have a ton of those stories Not everybody becomes my best friend, but there isn’t a single person That we’ve helped That would walk by the street and not say hello
CORWYN:
I was just thinking the same thing at least they probably but i’m they may not be your best friend But i’m pretty sure they still talk to you So Mike this journey for you, you know is bigger than I you know and it’s been a while since I’ve kind of shared or put this out there, but Always talk about the things being bigger than us At least I used to say that a lot that things that we do The things that we’re successful at the place where we have impact in people’s lives. It’s not us It is god working through us in order to be of service and help others You took a trap what some would deem to be a tragedy And you turned it into triumph but not for you but for others so kudos on that But this has become a mission and a life calling for you at this point. Is that correct?
MIKE:
No question about it, man. This is what gets me up in the morning You know, I was a different guy man if we knew each other 20 years ago. Look I was chasing that top line number That ego Right. Yeah, that’s all that mattered to me. That’s all that mattered in my whole life I chased money more than I chased anything in my whole life and it’s all that really mattered and it’s funny when I stopped chasing money Great things happen You know what else happened? I stopped worrying about money I stopped worrying about money and I worry more about other people And how I can just interject myself in their lifeline And be like a positive trajectory point from the moment we met and from the moment You started listening to a little bit of my guidance The trajectory of your life began to improve That’s a tremendously rewarding thing and I cannot say with any honesty.
CORWYN:
That’s always who I was That’s fair and that’s true That’s the thing so Mike Look, I want to make sure let’s take this an opportunity to get Your contact information out there for our listeners for them to be able to reach out to get in contact with you So where can our folks reach you at?
MIKE:
Yeah, man. Listen anybody out there can call me directly anytime 508-501-5800 You can call me direct man. That’s my cell and I don’t care where you are in this country. I’m helping somebody right now in California that was a fire victim. That is ugly and listen I’m just an ear and I got a whole bunch of useless 30 years of useless real estate and banking knowledge rattling around in my brain, so i’m a resource and you can go learn my story and what we do at hope the number four hardship.org. [hope4hardship.org] anytime
CORWYN:
So Mike, thank you for that That dude say he got 30 years of knowledge just rattle around ain’t doing that He just you know, maybe maybe we can do something with it, but just call me. We’ll see. I love it Yeah, absolutely. I love it So for our listeners guys, please go visit the website again [hope the number four hardship.org]. Mike I’ve been playing around on the website as we’ve been on the show and it’s definitely chock full of resources and opportunities for people to have a greater understanding of The situation they may be facing or get more insight into to what may be going on if you will around them So definitely so Mike, I want to ask you this. I mean i’ll kind of frame it is that’s that might drop question at hindsight because you’ve had a lot of You went through a lot of things that people some people may not would probably wouldn’t have ever recovered from But short version is but one of the things that you were saying early and I want to interject this Out of all the things that you’ve been through You still yet live, you know Sometimes people think that going through a financial hardship such as bank repsy foreclosure Or the like is quote unquote end of their existence like the day’s over is done That’s not the case because you’re sitting here. You’re here with us today as living proof. That’s not the case But if you were to be able to knowing what you know now What would you have done differently way back yonder when? That and not saying that you should have because I really believe that what you’re doing is your calling But what would you have done different back then that would have completely? changed your Trajectory.
MIKE:
Well, geez man, you know my story’s not unique But look what I would have never done is pick up a drink or a drug That’s the first thing I never would have done But no, I wouldn’t have been so selfish if I could just been less self-seeking Things would have gone much differently for me and i’m just grateful by the grace of god. They’re going different for me now That’s huge.
CORWYN:
That’s huge. Thank you for sharing that so Mike. Look we’ve had an amazing show man I thank you for sharing the story. We definitely got to break this up into two parts because you have like You got that story But you also have that willingness to share it Sometimes people go through things in there. They just bottle it up. They just keep it inside They don’t do anything with it They don’t share the experience with others so they could trustfully avoid or either improve their situation So thank you so much for being willing to be raw and put it all on the line. So thank you so much for that
MIKE:
Absolutely, man It’s been an honor and listen for you and your listeners I’m going to say a prayer that you get a good football team down the carolinas Maybe that well my lips to god’s ears, you know what I mean? It’s getting up entitled down here in boston You know what? I mean? I feel like we want them ready You know what I mean like we can send one down I love it.
CORWYN:
I love it. I love it So Mike look again, thank you so much from the bottom of my heart man being part of Exit Strategies Radio Show family as well Man, yeah, anytime you ever want to do something again, let me know We’ll do so for our listeners guys. Look y’all know y’all know y’all know y’all know how I feel You know what? Always putting two of those things together and I give it to you this way which is to tell you that I love you I love you And we’re gonna see you guys out there in those streets.
