BiggerPockets Real Estate Podcast - 864: Seeing Greene: How to Make Even MORE Cash Flow Off Your Rental Properties
Episode Date: December 29, 2023Want to make multiple streams of income? Well, guess what? You DON’T need to buy more properties to do it. Instead, you can turn an existing rental property into a cash cow…but it has to meet the ...right qualifications. This is precisely what today’s first guest, Stacie, is looking for. She’s got multiple properties, and some have enough land to add a second rental property. But is doing development worth the high cash flow? Welcome back to Seeing Greene, where David and Rob answer real estate questions from BiggerPockets listeners just like you! First, we’ll talk to Stacie about her buy vs. build dilemma, and which makes MUCH more sense in today’s market. Then, an investor struggling to save up down payments asks what he should do: save, invest elsewhere, or pay down his mortgages. Finally, David gives some swift advice on using a home equity “agreement” and how to make the MOST money on your house hack. Want to ask David a question? If so, submit your question here so David can answer it on the next episode of Seeing Greene. Hop on the BiggerPockets forums and ask other investors their take, or follow David on Instagram to see when he’s going live so you can jump on a live Q&A and get your question answered on the spot! In This Episode We Cover: How to turn one rental property into multiple streams of income Building an ADU (accessory dwelling unit) and how much one can make Whether to save, invest, or pay down your mortgage with your cash flow Home equity “agreements” and whether they’re worth the risk in 2024 The ONE thing David looks for in ANY house hack that’ll turn it into a cash cow And So Much More! Links from the Show Find an Agent Find a Lender BiggerPockets Youtube Channel BiggerPockets Forums BiggerPockets Pro Membership BiggerPockets Bookstore BiggerPockets Bootcamps BiggerPockets Podcast BiggerPockets Merch Listen to All Your Favorite BiggerPockets Podcasts in One Place Learn About Real Estate, The Housing Market, and Money Management with The BiggerPockets Podcasts Get More Deals Done with The BiggerPockets Investing Tools Find a BiggerPockets Real Estate Meetup in Your Area Expand Your Investing Knowledge With the BiggerPockets Books Be a Guest on the BiggerPockets Podcast Ask David Your Question David's BiggerPockets Profile David's Instagram Rob's BiggerPockets Profile Rob's Instagram Rob's TikTok Rob's Twitter Rob's YouTube BiggerPockets Podcast 840 BiggerPockets Podcatst 853 Is it Better to Build New or Renovate Existing Homes as an Investor? Click here to listen to the full episode: https://www.biggerpockets.com/blog/real-estate-864 Interested in learning more about today’s sponsors or becoming a BiggerPockets partner yourself? Email advertise@biggerpockets.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Transcript
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This is the Bigger Pockets podcast.
What's going on, everyone?
It's David Green,
your host of the Bigger Pockets Real Estate podcast.
Coming to you from Kauai.
And that's one of the things I love about real estate is I get to bring you guys questions
from our listener base from everywhere in the world.
My hope is that more of you can get to the same position.
And we're going to share some advice today that will help you do just that.
Today's Seen Green episode has a lot of good stuff,
including what a home equity agreement is and if one should be used.
The best ways to reinvest the cash flow that you're making from your current portfolio today
and how you should be thinking about it. And a live call with one of our listeners where we go back
and forth helping them determine if they should take the money they've made in real estate and
improve the properties they have or if they should buy new properties. And if so, what to be
thinking about when going back and forth with that decision. A lot of people in today's market
have equity and they're trying to figure out how they should use it. And sometimes that means buy more
real estate, but sometimes that means improving the real estate they have. I especially like this
topic because a lot of people have equity and they're tapping into it with helix, but they're not
sure if they should use that heloac money to scale into a bigger portfolio or improve what they've got.
So we tackle that and more on today's episode of Seeing Green. We're going to bring in our first
guest in a second, but before we do a quick tip for you all, you're going to hear more about it in the
next question, but I am a firm believer, especially if you've got a short-term rental, that tapping into
your equity and using that money to improve the property, improve the decor, add amenities to it,
make it look nicer, get better pictures taken is a quick way to get a return on your capital that can
then be used to pay the equity line of credit back down. I don't love in today's market taking $200,000
out of a house at a pretty high interest rate and using that for the down payment on a property,
that you then have to get another loan for the other 80% and stacking up debt when rates are higher.
I'm a much bigger fan of a get-in and get-out strategy, kind of like using a jet ski instead of a battleship.
Take out some equity, fix up your house, improve the revenue, and then pay the equity loan off with that revenue, and then ask yourself how you can do it again.
How can you recycle that same $20,000 or $30,000 to improve the properties you've got and win in the short-term rental wars?
All right, let's get to our first guest today. Let's welcome Stacey to the studio.
Stacey, welcome to seeing green.
A little bit of background about you.
You've got a single family property, a duplex, and a piece of property in the Austin area and New Bronfels, Texas.
So, funny story here.
I almost invested in New Bronsville's myself about five years ago and wish I would have because I'd have done very well.
I fell prey to that same problem of, well, when I first heard about it, it was this much.
And now it's $50,000 more.
I don't want to get in too late and made the same mistake that I tell everyone.
everybody else not to make because I learned it in that example. So congratulations on doing the right
due and having a new Bronfels property. So tell us what's on your mind today. Thank you. Yes. So
considering those properties we have in our long term strategy of buy and fold, which we're 100%
in on. So we have this property in New Bromples. We actually bought it site unseen and it was
a very good purchase for us. It's zoned multifamily. It's one block from the Guadalupe River.
So it has a single family home on there where we have a long-term renter,
but we have the opportunity to develop it because it's already zoned for multifamily.
It's half an acre lot.
And then we have this plot, this quarter acre plot and Lago Vista near Lake Travis that was given
it to us from family that also has development opportunity.
So we have these two properties that we own that have development opportunities,
but also we're, you know, tempted to buy our next investment property.
So we're at the point of trying to decide, do we stay the course, leave those properties
as is because we have a long-term renter in New Bromples.
We're cash flowing about $600 a month there, so it's well-paying for itself and then some.
And then we have this lot that's just sitting there vacant that we're trying to figure out
to do with.
Our duplex in South Austin is cash flowing about $2,100 a month.
So we have two long-term rentals there.
We're not looking to develop or do anything with that right now.
So we're at that kind of inflection point.
Do we buy our next investment property or is now the time that we actually do some forced equity and develop the Nebraska's property or build something in Lagavista?
All right.
My first question here is what is the reason that you want to get into the next property?
Is the reason you want to get into the next property simply for the sake of growth?
And you're like, hey, I just want to like add to the point.
portfolio, I don't really need the cash flow, or do you want to get into another property
because you want more cash flow because you need an extra couple hundred bucks every month?
We don't need the extra cash every month. We want to grow the portfolio, right? And we also
want to invest sort of, I know, you know, it's not about timing the market, it's time in market,
but it still feels like now is a good time before everyone's back in the market. Should rates come
down. So we're kind of feeling that, right, wanting to get the next property because we do want to
grow the portfolio, but also when is it time to actually develop these properties that we're
sitting on too? So we're kind of don't know which way to go necessarily. So I think if you're not
pressed for the cash flow and you've got a lot and you've got a property that is zoned for more
property, I'm a big fan of making as many streams of income off of one property as possible.
And so if you have the steam and if you have sort of the dedication and I guess the open mind
to just, you know, go through a new construction, then I think you should do it. A big fan,
I actually think that new construction is just the best way to sort of combat a lot of things
that are happening right now because, yes, you will be getting something at a higher interest
if you buy a property. And so for me, I'm like, I think if you can go and build something at your
cost without the markup of someone, you know, if you go and buy a new construction off of Redfin,
you're paying their cost and you're paying a premium for it, right? So if you can go and build
something at your cost, it's not really that same markup as getting it off the end.
MLS. And, you know, when you refi out and get your money out, you'll have a higher interest rate
on that, of course, but it won't hurt quite as bad as having gone and purchased a property
straight off the MLS, if that makes sense. So if you have the ability to wait it out for,
let's say, 12 to 18 months, then I definitely think building from the ground up is a really
smart thing to do right now. All right. I will weigh in on this too. I love the question. It comes
up a lot where I live in the Bay Area. You typically see this in more expensive areas.
where the question is, do I build an ADU or do I buy a new house? And the tricky thing is,
you can't finance the build. If you could finance the build, it would almost always be an easy.
Yeah, just improve the property you've got. The problem is you got to put a lot of capital down to do it.
So I like to try to simplify this turning into apples as much as I can. And I asked the question
for the capital I'm going to put into this thing. How much cash flow am I going to receive?
What's the ROI on that? And how much equity am I going to build? What's the return?
turn on investment on that. So if you were to add to the property that you already have, how much money
would you have to put down to do this? And do you think it would increase the equity? For the New
Brockles property, we probably would have to put down about $200,000 in capital to build an ADU,
at least an ADU, right? A prefab ADU would probably be about $200,000 all in. For the Lago Vista property,
we're looking at probably $250 to upwards to half a million of capital to put in to develop that
property because it is raw lands. It's going to require a lot more clearance and work to get
that property ready for a building. So, you know, I don't think we would do both at the same time.
I think we're kind of anxious to really look at, I think the New Bromples property has the most
potential because it is such a growing area and the location of it is prime, being a block from
the Guadalupe River. So I think there's a lot of upside to developing New Bromples from all that I can
tell. So if you put the $200,000 into New Bronfels, would you add equity to the property?
Yes, I believe we would add equity to the property. How much do you think you'd be adding?
I think we probably would be adding, like right, we bought it two years ago. We have probably
I'm saying about 40,000 in equity in just the past two years in the property. So if we add an
ADU, we'd also have to configure the front house a bit too to put the ADU in. I'm, you know,
I don't know, but I'm going to guess that we would probably add about immediately about
$100,000,000 in equity in that property.
Does that sound about right with the numbers I've shared?
I don't know the area.
Yeah, it could.
It could work.
What about the cash flow?
If you build an ADU for $200,000, what will it rent for?
Yeah, because right now we're renting, you know, all in PNI is like 1,800, 1,900.
We're renting for 25 on the single family home.
So we've got nice cash flow there.
We can build up to a thousand square foot ADU without it being considered a second principal
structure on the property.
So a thousand square foot, we could probably rent that.
I'm going to say around 18, 1900 and today's market for a thousand square feet.
Okay.
Would this increase the property taxes on the property?
If you do this work, make it worth more?
Most likely.
And then where are they in new broadband?
2.5% or so? No, it's right around 2%. It's like 1.9. Yeah, 1.97, something like that.
Yeah. So that is a pretty healthy return. I mean, you're having additional property taxes and there's
going to be more insurance, but still, I believe you said it was 1,800. You think that you'd rent it for?
Yes. So let's say you keep, say, 1,400 of that to invest 200,000. That's not a bad deal there.
You're not too far off from the 1% rule. The downside would be you're spending $200,000 to add $100,000 of
equity. So you're actually losing equity in a sense because you're transferring that money from your
bank account into the property. You're going to lose $100,000 of value there, but you're going to
gain the extra cash flow of, say, $1,400 a month or $1,300 a month. Here's why I framed it that
way. I think your job here, Stacey, is to ask yourself, with this $200,000, if I put it into a
different investment vehicle, but could I get better than, say, $13 or $1,400?00.
a month and avoid losing $100,000 of equity.
Like, could you put $200,000 into building a new home construction that you might gain
$100,000 of equity at the end instead of losing it?
That's a $200,000 swing.
Or maybe you get better cash-law or maybe the cashel's not as good, but you don't lose as
much equity.
Have you looked into opportunities like that?
I haven't.
No.
Okay.
That's how my mind goes to it.
Like, what if you paid cash for something that was $200,000?
Maybe a fixer-upper.
You fixed it up and then you refinanced out of it.
You could do it again.
or you could buy a million dollar property, put $200,000 down.
So you've kind of got those in my mind.
You've got the three options.
You put it as a down payment on something.
You pay cash for something or you put it into the property you have.
Rob, what are you thinking?
Yeah, I guess I'd really want to, and we're not going to be able to solve for this on this episode, unfortunately.
But I'd want to know what kind of equity we'd be adding because I think it's, I'm not going to say rare,
but I feel like if you're building something on your property such as an ADU or a secondary unit,
I feel like the equity that you're building should be pretty commensurate with the amount of money
that you're investing, right? So it's like, I think if you were going to spend 200, but you're only
getting $100,000 in equity, then yeah, I would agree with David. I probably wouldn't do that.
I'd go find somewhere where I'd get the one-for-one ratio on that. But I do wonder if you would
get that full equity out of adding an addition to the property. If the answer is yes, I would go
that route and then build it and then do a cash-out refi and try to get as much as that money back,
because if you do that and you get a pretty significant portion of your money back,
then your ROI skyrockets in that point.
Like, I'm a big fan of this strategy solely because you get to stack income streams
on one property.
And it really makes a huge difference.
I had a property in L.A. when I bought it, it was a, you know, a $4,400 mortgage.
I've since refinance.
It's like $4,200 now.
But I now rent out the main home, which goes for anywhere from like $3,500 to $5,000 a month.
I've got an ADU in the backyard that goes for anywhere from $2,300 to $3,000 a month.
And I even have a third unit that I don't rent out, but I used to.
And that was like another $2,000 for that unit.
And so when you added it all up, it was like $8,000 on one property.
And your profit margins on that are just so healthy.
Your landscaping bills are all consolidated to that one property.
All of your bills are just consolidated into this one business.
And that's why I'm a big fan of building up, you know, basically as many income
streams on one property as possible, assuming that your equity that you put in is one for one
on the investment that you put in. That's the key there, Stacey. I don't love the deal if you're
putting in more money than you're gaining in equity. Hearing that, what's going through your mind?
Yeah, I know. That makes a ton of sense. I'm not 100% on all the numbers, right? This is as far as
I've been able to get. But I will dig deeper in terms of like the actual equity we'd be able to
get out of that property. Yeah. And just to throw a curve,
here, right? Our house in Los Angeles, we're in the San Fernando Valley, we're in Encino up in the
hills, that's why my internet's a little spotty. But I mean, we were originally going to keep this
house and sell it, or not sell it, but use that as sort of like our investment property here,
rented out. But our latest thinking was to sell this house to buy more properties in Texas.
So, right, so we're trying to treat all of our homes as sort of, you know, part of the
portfolio and how do we leverage them, right, to the money?
maximum. And I know, David, you're up in Northern California, but I don't know, we were sort of
starting to think that we just wanted to get out of California. Shocking. I've never heard anybody say
this. Yeah, never, right? Yeah, it's something to think about because you probably have a lot of equity there.
I don't think it would benefit you to sell it and put the money into Texas unless you know where
you're going to put the money. And it sounds like you got to figure that problem out first. Where are we
going to deploy our capital and how are we going to deploy it? I don't think it's going to be as simple as
let's just build on to what we already have. There may be,
something where I would want to take some of that cash and look for a way to buy something that
was maybe distressed that I could fix up and add value to it.
Although it's not bad, building an ADU in that area where you know you're going to have
tenants, you know the values are going to be going up.
It's not going to hurt you.
I just hate those high Texas property taxes, right?
If the property value does go up, that those taxes hurt out of the cashier you'd be getting.
They do.
And insurance is going up too.
So that's every year.
Steadily insurance is going up.
That's right.
Well, thank you, Stacey. This was a good question. I think more and more people are asking this question because rates are high.
So it's not an automatic, yes, I should go buy another property. Now the rates are getting really high, it's hard to make them cash flow. So we're starting to ask questions like this. So thank you for bringing this up.
Thank you, guys. Thank you, Stacey. Thank you.
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All right.
Thank you, Stacey, for joining us today.
I just dropped Rob off at a Chipotle.
So I'll be flying solo for the rest of today's episode.
But big thank you to Rob for joining.
I was so appreciative that I actually left him with a dollar
so he could get some extra guac on that burrito that he loves so much.
His tip for getting the most out of one property is a great takeaway.
And I appreciate him sharing that.
If you would like to have Rob and I or me or anyone else in the BP universe,
answer your specific questions.
Head over to biggerpockets.com slash David where you can submit them.
And that will make me like you.
If you've submitted a question to seeing green,
you can consider yourself my friend.
And when we see each other at BPCon,
I will take a picture with you,
hug you, and say something nice.
I hope you're getting some value out of today's conversation.
and our listener questions so far.
But we've got more coming up after this section.
I like to take a minute in the middle of our shows to share comments that you all have left
on YouTube or when you review the podcast.
Our first review comes from 1981 South Bay.
Love the Seeing Green episodes.
I love these episodes.
And it's a great addition to having Rob on the series.
My wife and I have been listening to Bigger Pockets for two years.
We finally just bought our first two duplexes and are planning to acquire more properties.
We could not have done it without this podcast.
and the community. Thank you, David, Rob, and the entire BP community.
Well, thank you, South Bay, for a five-star review. That's freaking awesome. I hope some over our
listeners go and follow your lead. And also, if you're in the South Bay of the Northern California
Bay area, we're basically neighbors. I live about an hour away from you. So make sure that you
reach out on Instagram. Let me know you are the one who left that comment. And let's see if we
can get you coming up to some of the meetups that I do in Northern California. We've got some comments
here from the Seeing Green episode 840 that came directly off of the YouTube channel.
The first one comes from Dan Cohen.
Thanks for sharing this awesome video.
I really relate to the struggles of estimating renovation costs,
especially when you're investing in real estate from far away.
And then Lara Pfeffer added,
yes, please do an entire show on to cash flow or not to cash flow.
Well, you've spoken and we've listened.
We actually did record a show on when it's okay,
or maybe not okay to buy non-cash-flowing properties.
And I will talk to our production staff about putting a show together that says,
is cash flow the only reason to invest in real estate or is it okay to not invest in it?
Maybe we'll have a back and forth where we have the cash flow defenders and the appreciation Avengers,
or however we're going to call that.
In case you missed it, go back and listen to episode 853, which was released on December 6th,
where we break down three negative cash flow deals.
All right, let's get into the next question.
Our next question comes from Roy Gottsteiner.
He is a foreign national living abroad, so he's having a difficult time getting financing.
He can only get 60 to 65 percent loan to value ratios and no access to products like FHA or HELOC.
Roy started four years ago investing in North Carolina and Ohio and currently has a portfolio of 10 single family housing rentals.
He does mainly Burr and long-term traditional rentals and recently started doing some medium terms.
Roy says, hi, David, these episodes are extremely helpful and are helping me to constantly
adjust my thinking based on the current market dynamics as well as my own position in the investing
journey. So thanks for everything. I built a portfolio of 10 units, which cash flow two to $3,000
a month. I'm 35 and I have a great job so I don't need this income and intend to reinvest all
of it. I'm trying to think of the best way to use that money to further enhance my progress
towards financial independence. Here's some options I had in mind, but happy to hear your thoughts
if there's anything else I need to be thinking of.
Investing it regularly into a stock index and dollar cost averaging for a long-term hold.
Dollar cost averaging basically means you just keep buying stock even if the price is dropping.
It's funny that we came up with this phrase dollar cost averaging to say,
well, just keep buying even if the price is going lower because eventually it's going to go up
and you will have bought it at a lower average than the prices when they were high.
Number two, paying off mortgages on my investment properties to reduce leverage and increase
cash flow. Number three, save the money and try finding a creative finance deal with a $30,000
entry each year. My last purchase was a sub two with a $42,000 entry and it was a great one.
Looking forward to your sage advice. All right, thank you for that question. I appreciate that.
I can answer this one pretty quick. I don't love the idea of paying off your mortgages,
especially because if you bought them and you have 10 of them, they probably have pretty low rates right
now, so you're not saving a ton of money doing that. You also have to pay a ton of mortgage off before you
actually don't have to make the payment when it's owned free and clear. So you don't really see
the return on that money for years. It might be 10, 15, 20 years of trying to pay these things off
before you actually get rid of that interest on your mortgage. So what will happen is you'll build
the equity in it faster, but you won't put money in your bank faster. So I don't love that idea,
and I don't love investing into the stock index because I don't want to give advice about
something that I don't really understand. And I don't know that there's any solid advice I can
give anybody when it comes to investing in stocks. I also just think you'll do better with
real estate long term. So your third option, saving the money and trying to find a creative
finance deal like the one you did last time is pretty good. And here's why I like that. If you don't
find the creative finance deal, you just have more reserves. And you're never going to find me
upset about someone who has a lot of reserves, especially considering the economy that we are
going into. In the past, success was all about scaling and acquiring. How many doors can you get?
That was the cocktail party brag. I have this many doors. In the future, I'm
I believe it's going to be what can you keep?
How can you hold on to the real estate you've already bought
and reserves can be a huge factor in saving you there?
All right, moving into our next question.
This comes from Chris Lloyd in Hampton Roads, Virginia.
Hey, David, my name is Chris Lloyd from Newport News, Virginia,
and here's my question.
I currently have a property I was looking to renovate,
and I plan to fund this renovation using a HELOC.
I've got two properties with some good equity in it,
and I found out recently that I can't qualify for a helock because I've been self-employed
for less than two years, took my business full-time a little over a year ago.
So I've been looking in other ways to finance this project and came across home equity agreements.
This isn't something I've really heard talked about on the podcast.
And I was wondering if there was a reason why.
If this is a newer product, if it's just getting traction, or if this product is absolute junk.
I don't know.
So I'm asking what instances would this make sense for someone to use and when
would it not make sense?
All right, Chris, thank you for that question.
Appreciate it.
My advice would be no.
I don't think you should take on a home equity agreement unless you're in dire financial
straits.
And even if you are, I'd probably prefer that you sold the house, took your equity,
and moved on to something else.
All right.
Our last question is going to come from Nick Lynch.
And it's a video question.
Hey, David.
This is Nick Lynch from Sacramento, California.
Thank you for everything that you and bigger pockets do.
I love to guys' content.
I'm hoping to buy my first home in the greater Sacramento area of California
when my current lease ends April 30th of 2024.
My question for you is what would be the best method to get into my first home
and into investing at the same time, given how high the prices are in California.
I'm considering house hacking, house hopping,
or simply buying a primary residence.
I'm comfortable living in long term and using the remainder of the fund.
have after a down payment to maybe invest in out-of-state property that could cash flow more easily.
My biggest concern with house hacking or house hopping in California is that the properties are so
expensive, it would take a very large down payment to get those properties to cash flow even after
living in them for a couple of years. Thanks, David. Appreciate the help.
All right, Nick, glad you reached out. We actually do a lot of business in the David Green
team in the Sacramento area, and we help people with stuff like this all the time. The key to
house hacking is not about paying the mortgage down or buying a cheap home. The key to house hacking
successfully, and by that, I mean moving out of it and having it cash for later, what I often
call the sneaky rental tactic because you can get a rental property for 5% down or 3.5% down
instead of 20% down if you live in it first, is finding an actual property with a floor plan
that would work. We've helped clients do this by buying properties with a high bedroom and
bathroom count because that's more units that they can create to generate revenue. We've also had
people that we've helped doing this when they rent out part of the home is a short-term rental or a
floor plan that can be moved around where walls are added to create more than one unit in the property
itself. But the key is not to focus on the expenses and keeping them low, but to focus on the income
and getting it high. So when you're looking for the property, what you really want to do is look for
a floor plan that either has a lot of bedrooms and bathrooms and has sufficient parking and is also in
an area that people want to rent from. Or you want to look for a floor plan with a basement that you
could live in and you rent out maybe two units above or two units above and it has an ADU,
something where you can get much more revenue coming in on the property, which you have more
control over. I call that forced cash flow than a property that you just bought at a lower
price because that's not realistic. If you're trying to buy in a high appreciation market like
Northern California where wages are high and the market is strong, you are less likely to find a cheap
house. Reach out to me directly and I'll see if we can help you with that and start looking at
properties with the most square footage and then asking yourself, how could I manipulate and
maneuver the square footage to where this would be a good house at? Great question though,
and I wish you the best in your endeavors. All right, everyone, that is Seeing Green for today.
I so appreciate you being here with me and giving me your attention and allowing me to help
educate you on real estate investing and growing wealth through real estate because I'm
passionate about it. And I love you guys. I really hope I was able to help some of you brave souls who
took the action and asked me the questions that I was able to answer for everyone else.
And I look forward to answering more of your questions. Go to biggerpockets.com slash David and
submit your question to be on Seeing Green. Hope you guys enjoyed today's show. And I will see you on
the next episode of Seeing Green. Thank you all for listening to the Bigger Pockets Real
Estate podcast. Make sure you get all our new episodes by subscribing on YouTube, Apple, Spotify,
or any other podcast platform. Our new episodes come out Monday, Wednesday, and
I'm the host and executive producer of the show, Dave Meyer.
The show is produced by Ian K,
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