Business Innovators Radio - Navigating Real Estate Law with Expert Delilah Walter: Estate Planning to Transfer on Death Deeds

Starting point is 00:00:02 Welcome to the Agents Lounge podcast, where we talk all things real estate with the industry's top performers. Join us as we dive into the inspiring journeys of successful agents and uncover the secrets to their success. Whether you're a seasoned agent or just starting out, we've got the tips and tricks to help you navigate the world of real estate. Brought to you by Eritory Comfort Solutions. So grab a seat and join us in the Agents Lounge. Welcome back to the Agents Lounge podcast. My name is Marco Salinas. You can clap, Marco?

Starting point is 00:00:37 I have my, no, we're okay. My editing skills have gone up, but not, I don't need it. I have my co-host for today. Francisco Bermuda Jr., say hello. Francisco. Good morning, San Antonio. Good morning. We've got a very exciting episode and a very exciting guest today.

Starting point is 00:00:56 Her name is Delilah Walter. She is an attorney in San Antonio, and she has her own firm called the Walter the Walter law firm. There you go. Right? Yeah. And she will be joining us today so we can discuss all of what she does and who she helps and

Starting point is 00:01:13 unpacking all that information. So we are excited to talk with her today. And I think we're going to learn a lot. And so with that said, Delilah, welcome to the program. Thank you. Thank you guys for having me. I'm really excited about sharing what I can with everyone today. Awesome.

Starting point is 00:01:30 I'm going to move this just a little bit so that it's kind of there we go. Okay, Delilah, so you're a lawyer. You've been a lawyer for a while. How long? Seven years. Seven years, okay. And you've had your own practice for how long? For four years going on five. Four years going on five. Wow. Okay. And so we were talking just a little bit before the show, but for the listeners, what is your main area of focus? What do you mostly focus on? So our firm is primarily a real estate firm, mostly pre-litigation and litigation work and some transactions. work as well. Okay. So if somebody's listening or watching, because we put this on YouTube, and they are, you know, the title says something about real estate attorney. What, what can you give us a few examples? Where would I as a, as a consumer, where might I most likely find myself in

Starting point is 00:02:24 need of a real estate attorney? Okay. So we have a pretty wide variance of practice areas within the real estate realm. Because as you know, real estate is a very wide, almost like a, mile long expanse of different types of practice areas. Landlord tenant law, right, which is the eviction side of things and landlord issues. There's also closing issues. So those things like, hey, my seller is refusing to sell to me and we're under contract. Well, that's specific performance issues. Co-ownership issues when someone has a multi-ownership property.

Starting point is 00:02:59 Maybe you're one of seven owners and there needs to be a resolution here because one of you is living in the property without paying anything, and we've got to figure out what's going on there. Right. And then it also lends a hand and bleeds into airship issues, which also causes co-ownership results in which someone leaves or doesn't leave. It has no will because they've not planned correctly. And it ends up going to all of their seven, eight children, along with some stepchildren, too. And we deal with the co-ownership issues after that, as well. well. We have been seeing an influx of fraud issues where we have deeds that are being fraudulently signed by the owners. There was land the other day that was listed by someone who was pretending

Starting point is 00:03:47 to be a client of mine and invest a client that I work with pretty often. And we had to take care of that. There is DTPA issues, which is misrepresentation. A seller says that a house is a certain way. And kind of using integrity as an example, right? They may say, we replace the ACA. or we repaired the AC and in fact they didn't and now you've got an entire AC replacement right that that Francisco has to go out and do and just for just for we know DTPA is deceptive trade practices acts basically okay correct so if you're if you're selling a house and this could be like a builder or or or just a private seller as well either either or if they try to if they try to sell a house and and say that it has something that it doesn't that's a deceptive trade practice

Starting point is 00:04:33 That's correct, right. The requirement is that someone is simply just a consumer. So you've hired somebody or someone is selling you something and they have misrepresented the quality of that product, which in our business is primarily going to be the house. Right? So we had one case where we called the house, the waterfall house. Oh my gosh. Truly because they purchased it and the neighbors then told them, oh, you know, we, we had to get some additional evidence to indicate that this was a pre-existing issue. Yeah. The flooding and the plumbing problems.

Starting point is 00:05:07 And they started to ask the neighbors and the neighbor said, oh, you mean the waterfall house? Oh, my gosh. So the house already had a pre-existing reputation. Correct. Oh, my gosh. That is wild. So basically, okay, so there's a lot.

Starting point is 00:05:25 There's a lot that you guys covered. There is. And so, you know, you're doing a pretty wide range just under the real estate umbrella. There's a lot. And it sounds like the real estate umbrella very often bleeds into the estate planning side of things, naturally, right? Because you own a property. It's usually most people, it's one of their bigger, you know, purchases in their life, bigger investments, so to speak. And so naturally when somebody passes away, there's going to be some things going on there. And you do get involved with that as well. Right. Correct. I mean, I think it's just so often that people don't have wills.

Starting point is 00:06:00 And even if they do, one of the things that is very common that will be done with a will is everyone's thinking, let's just be fair to everyone. So I've got six kids. I'm going to leave my property to all of these six kids. And what often happens is that people don't think of that aspect, the outside part of estate planning, which means the other side of it. So after you pass, maybe you think that is just me being fair. Of course, I'm going to give equally to all of my children without thinking that that means six people have to all get along and decide, are we selling this house? Are we keeping it and renting it, which it's already difficult to manage one partner? Right.

Starting point is 00:06:44 And so they're dealing with six people who are unsophisticated that don't really know a lot about real estate already. and those that are already really attached to the house as it is. So you'll have those that will stay living in the property and the other five kids are upset because, you know, brother's still there, sister is still there and not paying any bills. And here we are stuck with the taxes and the mortgage or whatever else is being paid. That's right. And so, yes, it bleeds a lot into the estate planning probate side of things because a lot of these properties end up in these weird situations after people pass away. And one of the positives

Starting point is 00:07:27 about our estate planning practice is that one of our specialties is that we have a lot of people come to us that have homes. Even if they have their one homestead, we know how to deal with it and look at it as an aftermath. And so they get that advice from us up front to say, if this is how you want to do it, I just need to give you a heads up that this is. is what that's going to look like afterwards. Yeah. And, you know, we'll have several of those cases that during that time. And I can describe to them several scenarios where these are all the things that can go wrong.

Starting point is 00:08:01 Sure. Start fighting. And so that they can make all the right decisions. Yeah. Wow. Those are things that, I mean, nobody ever thinks of. Yeah, not until it's like right in front of them, right? Right.

Starting point is 00:08:13 And there's a big fire that needs to be put out. Absolutely. Oh, wow. Absolutely. And all, and I get it. Parents, like I get it. You just want to make sure that your kids are feeling like everything is done equally, but you really need to also think about are any of your children difficult?

Starting point is 00:08:31 But also, even if they're not difficult, you know, a lot of this stuff isn't predictable, but we're predicting it for you. Trust me, one of them will have an opinion that is different from the other, you know, seven or eight of their siblings, however that lands. That's right. You know, and that's when the drama begins. Yes, yes. And then it's like, don't even get me started on stepkids, right? That's where I've heard, I've heard where things can get. It's already challenging with all the biological, right? But once you mix in step kids, step siblings, things like that, you have a complete and total mess. Right. And what people don't realize, and I think it's important to make it a point here. So husbands and wives, you need to think about this. If you don't have a will that leaves your property,

Starting point is 00:09:20 to whoever you want to leave it to your spouse, especially your spouse, and you have no estate plan. Okay. By law in the state of Texas, intestate is the fancy word for it. In test state is what we say in Texas when we are determining how property passes when someone doesn't have a will. So the way that that works here in Texas is let's say you have a married couple, you have husband and wife. Okay. You're married to a husband that has children that are outside of the marriage. So that's very important.

Starting point is 00:09:57 So if you have a child that is outside of the marriage, then that would be a stepchild. His 50% of the property, even if you bought the property together, goes to his children below him. Automatically. Automatically, right? And, of course, there's going to be, you know, paperwork that has to be done to determine who those heirs are. and to clean up title and make sure it goes down to them. But at the end of the day, spouses, whether your husband and wife with stepchildren, you could end up co-owning the house that you live in that you bought with your husband

Starting point is 00:10:32 under community property with your stepchildren. And, you know, Cinderella doesn't have stepchildren because they always get along, right? I mean, the chances of this spouse either not knowing who these stepchildren are, having a very bad relationship with their stepmom are decently high these days. That's right. These mixed family, you know, the new families that we see consistently that are mixed

Starting point is 00:11:00 because of the high divorce rate, we're getting this blend of families that has lots of stepchildren in it, a lot of children that don't belong, you know, to the couple that actually is married when you die. Right. Because people these days have two, three, four marriage, is before they get to their final marriage, right?

Starting point is 00:11:19 And so you're mixing in all of those kids that are belonging to that spouse in with your title to your home. And then you have to deal with the step kid you never talk to. Now you have to talk to them about maybe they want to deed it to you. Or, you know, are they going to pay part of the house? Why are they being so nice to me all of a sudden? Yeah. Right.

Starting point is 00:11:41 Suddenly, right? Yeah. You know, and people don't know this. It's not common knowledge. And so we just want to scream it from the mountaintop so people know that this is a thing. You know, and not having a will, too, is a hindrance to that. So, Delilah, are you telling me that with all that difficulty and all that potential chaos, there are ways to either stop it or at least minimize it by being a little proactive?

Starting point is 00:12:11 What would that look like? What would you need to do to avoid all that chaos? So there's really two things that I would outline to say are important moves to make right now. Stuff that you're not going to think about because you don't think you're going to pass away tomorrow. Right. So start thinking about it now. So that way when it gets there, you're not in a rush to do it or you've not already passed and have lost the opportunity. Because really, you don't have a hand to sign anything when you've passed away.

Starting point is 00:12:37 There's nothing that can be done. Once that gavel drops, and that's how we say in the lawyer world, but here once you've died, you're not around anymore. to say what you want. So you have to do it, even when you're healthy, if you're healthy and you're not thinking anything's going to happen, there are two things you can do. One is an estate plan. Okay. Okay.

Starting point is 00:12:57 I talk about in test state and test state that fancy word for the way that Texas says things land when you don't have a will, that goes away completely. That completely goes away if you have a will. Okay. Because in your will, you can say instead of it going down to your children or going to a cousin or whoever it is that would happen when you die pursuant to Texas law, you can instead say, I give it to my spouse, I give it to this child over here, not this child. You then dictate it.

Starting point is 00:13:26 So just think of it sort of like a cover or a president. That takes precedent over any intestate law that would possibly happen. Intestate or Texas law and the automatic stuff that I talked about with the stepkids and things like that, That only happens because you've not got another document that says otherwise. I see. So that's why estate planning is important. Yeah. The second thing is the transfer on death deeds.

Starting point is 00:13:57 So I don't know that a lot of estate planners do this and I don't want to speak for any other practices. I think we've got some really sharp estate planning attorneys out there. Very common in our office are what we call transfer on death deeds. This isn't talked about a lot and in fact my paralegal just the other day said, But anything you do or any videos you do, can you get this news out there? This is how important this is that Ms. Kim, my paralegal had specifically told me, next time you get an opportunity, can you get something out there to let people know this? So this is me, you know, doing.

Starting point is 00:14:28 We're listening. Okay, we're all ears. Okay. There is this document that no one talks about. Everyone's talking about wills and trust all the time. Right. But since we're a real estate firm, we use this other document along with our wills. and they're called transfer on death deeds.

Starting point is 00:14:46 Okay. Your home is going to be your biggest asset, right? Most of the time it's going to be, the house is going to be what everyone really wants. Yep. Because it's valued, you know, you've probably paid it off by the time you pass away. You know, it's a big asset. That one asset, we can take care of with one document that is essentially like a beneficiary form for the banks. Okay.

Starting point is 00:15:10 And your life insurance and stuff. So if you guys are probably familiar with life insurance and bank accounts, you can leave a beneficiary on a form on those that indicates that when you die, all they have to do is show your death certificate and their ID and they're in the money. They've got it. That's done. We have the same equal type of document for real estate. And it's simple in the sense that it's one document that gets recorded in the property records and it's called a transfer on death deed. And we draft those all the time for people in order to at least make sure that their house is taking care of. Yeah.

Starting point is 00:15:48 Because that's what people are going to be fighting over. And so in that form, we basically are outlining who you want to leave that house to. Yep. We also have the opportunity to put alternative beneficiaries on it and then make it go away and just go with your will if all those people have died or not, you know. So you're telling me you can do that separate from doing an actual will? Correct. You can just have that form by itself. Yes.

Starting point is 00:16:13 Is it difficult to fill out? Is there a lot of time that's involved in doing that? Is it pretty simple? No, it's pretty simple. It's probably one of our fastest turnaround documents done because one of the important things is once we're hired for a transfer on death deed, we need to get it out quick. Because if it's not recorded, then it's void. So we try to get those out pretty fast.

Starting point is 00:16:32 But no, it's a very quick, simple process that our office does. All we need to do is get the information of who you want to leave this to. We'll do the research on the. the previous deed on the property description and get it done it out there because sometimes we have folks who call and they're like, I really am not, I don't have the time to do the estate plan right now. Yeah. Or I just want to do something to protect me at the moment, right?

Starting point is 00:16:55 They just want to put their toe in the water. And we still do Todd's, our transfer on death deeds for wills. Okay. But sometimes we'll just do that and be like, well, let us at least, let's at this point then, if you just want to get something done to make sure your house is okay and you're just worried, Because people are coming in the woodwork saying that they're going to, you know, sell your house or fight with your kids over it. We just need to get something. Especially during the drama like that and they know that's going on.

Starting point is 00:17:21 We'll just do that. And at the very least, you know your house is taken care of. And that takes precedence over an estate plan if you had it. So that goes first. And that's going to give you peace because then you know at least have something taken care of that big asset. Right. Yeah. Because everything else is like, well, there's my little favorite chair over there in the corner.

Starting point is 00:17:44 Y'all can fight over that. And there's a few little knickknacks over there. You know, you can fight over that. My little Russian nesting doll collection over there. You know, that's like after the house, it's like a lot of little stuff like that. Maybe there's a favorite, you know, cabinet, a China cabinet or something, right? Right. But for the most part, that's the thing that people are focused on.

Starting point is 00:18:03 That's where I have seen the family members stop talking to each other. right and you know I mean it causes a lot of division a lot of pains and difficulties in the family because that stuff wasn't very clearly spelled out right and then they just they start fighting over it on their own and it just it never goes well very rarely right very very rarely so you got any questions I have so many questions all right you're up okay so a lot of our audience and we have a lot of realtors that come in. And we're always looking, because we interact a lot with them. They're always like, hey, does anybody know a real estate attorney? And I'm like, yeah, I know someone. I'm just curious. Like, what are some of the ways that you help them

Starting point is 00:18:50 or what are some of the things that, I mean, why they're always looking for you? Okay. So specifically speaking to real estate agents, which, you know, I've gotten, I've gotten to know a ton just through the business. Or specifically. because when you're buying or selling a home through an agent, there's a lot of things that can go wrong. And that's when a real estate attorney can, you know, jump in and resolve those problems. Because I think what's most important for agents, and to be fair to agents, I mean, I always think that they are in their commission to get there. I think agents get a lot of flack for that. And I do want to make that opinion of mine, you know, very clear, is that I think agents get a lot

Starting point is 00:19:31 of flack of you sign some paperwork and you just did this. And, you know, but there is a lot. There's a reason my office doesn't buy and sell properties on a cons. I mean, we're not, we leave that to the agents. Yeah. We will fix the problems is what we care about and we're interested in. I mean, that's our, that is our niche. And so the different types of problems they'll run into is one that I mentioned earlier is seller doesn't want to sell or buyer doesn't want to buy, right? Because buying and selling, they first enter into a contractual agreement. And so they are bar, I mean, they are binded together in a duty, I'm not to. breach that contract at that point. And so breaches can happen in different ways through that process. So that's one of them. Another one might be the misrepresentation that I was talking about the Deceptive Trade Practices Act, seller buyer after the fact is calling their agent and going, we moved in. And they never told us that, you know, they didn't have integrity to my AC, you know. And they had some other company who messed it up or someone who doesn't do AC. and, you know, now we're dealing with this or plumbing, and now we've got, you know, flooding coming into, you know, our house.

Starting point is 00:20:37 Right. And then they know to send them to legal for that, our office for that. Sometimes there are liens on the property that shouldn't be there. We deal with those things. Title commitments where title isn't cleared. Probate happens a lot. They think, the agent might think they're dealing with one person who owns the house only to find out that it was Grandma's house and they never dealt with Grandma's estate and they never,

Starting point is 00:21:00 dealt with, you know, grandma's kids' estates. And so then we have to go back and clean up title for them. So we'll do the documents for that, the probate, if necessary. We try to go with the path of least resistance. So one of the common attributes of our firm and one of our internal beliefs and cultures are what is the cheapest, fastest way to get there. So if we don't have to go to court on a probate, we'll do an affidavit of airship, which is another way. We call it a determination of airship is the court process. And then we'll do an affidavit. affidavit a document that just determines who the heirs are and recorded in the property records. So we're always looking for the path of lease resistance for our clients. Yeah. Thank you for that. Yeah, we're not looking to go the

Starting point is 00:21:41 most expensive and all the way around the table. That's the more traditional lawyer way. Let's be honest. Well, you know, I don't. Let's drag this thing out as long as we can and make it as difficult. Yeah. So to hear that a lawyer is actually wanting to go efficient and affordable. Like that's, we need to really spread the word about you doing that. Because that's, That's a big deal. Thank you. A lot of times the lawyer model is, you know, let's make this complex and let's make this difficult so that it's very expensive for the person. But if somebody's out there really trying to help people to be efficient and save money, that needs to be talked about too.

Starting point is 00:22:16 Yeah. I mean, I can always say that that's just a real belief that we have is, you know, is let's look to see how we do it the simplest, easiest way. And sometimes even during our initial consults, we'll sort of, we'll turn folks away if we need to. If it means like, oh, you just need to do this thing, you know, okay, yeah, you know, well, let me give you back the rest of your retainer and you go do that instead, you know, that's amazing. The idea is just to explore what is the path of least resistance and there may be five solutions to that. Then I might go, oh, you know what, let's do this one paperwork and that's

Starting point is 00:22:52 going to take care of. It looks like it has enough, how do you say, the attributes that allow us to go that route. Yeah. Yeah. Sure. Sure. Wow. Yeah. Go ahead. No, I mean. You got another one or is that good? No, that's good.

Starting point is 00:23:04 I mean, because I always thought that there was only like one attorney that did everything. And the first time that I met you, you're like, I'm a real estate attorney. And I'm like, I never heard of that one before. He was like, stop lying. There's no such thing as that. Oh, Francisco. Okay. Let's do a little bit of a shift, Delilah.

Starting point is 00:23:29 So we've got, you went into some pretty nitty gritty things there. It's pretty heavy. But I want to also ask a little bit about you. And so that our listeners and our viewers kind of know a little bit about you as well. That you're, yes, you're a little pit bull when you need to be, but you're also a wife. You're a mom? I am. As well.

Starting point is 00:23:50 So you do normal wife and mom activities probably on the weekends and the evenings, right? Right. So are you from San Antonio? I am. Where did you, what side of town or what did you go to high school? I went to Roosevelt. Roosevelt, Rough riders. Yeah, very cool.

Starting point is 00:24:04 Okay. And college was where? UT Austin. So it was a longhorn. You're a long horn. Okay. So where did you, where do you think you got that little, like, you know what? I think I want to be an attorney.

Starting point is 00:24:15 Like, where did that come from? So I had already had this drive to do it initially. When I was a kid and this story, this is a story I told our friend, Derek Guarro, about in another interview is that I always wanted to wear little suits because I always thought lawyers were cool. And my mom would even buy me like little suits just so I could like play with them at the house or whatever. Oh man. Yeah. And so I'd always really wanted to do that type of work. Wow. Yeah. And the biggest thing was advocating, right? Because there's a lot of people. I mean, we just got a phone call on the way here. I was taking a phone call on someone who,

Starting point is 00:24:57 who didn't really understand what a document even means. And my idea was like, oh, but I can learn all that. And then when people are lost, I can make them feel less lost. Sure. That lost area, I call it the gray. I actually have a word for it. So before they talk to me, they might be crying or they might be upset or confused. I don't know what to do.

Starting point is 00:25:19 What's the path? What does this look like? And then in my brain, I can like puzzle it all together and go, oh, yeah, you know, this, this, this is why, whatever. Sure. I always felt like I like clearing the gray. So then after, oh, okay. Relief, yeah. Yeah, yeah.

Starting point is 00:25:32 And so I didn't, that's what I experienced now, which is what I dreamed of doing before, was the idea of being able to be called on as a source of information. Yeah. And make people feel good and advocated for. Yep. But then I saw the OJ trial right when that came out. Yeah. You remember?

Starting point is 00:25:51 And then I saw Marsha Clark. And this is really crazy because maybe. My dad's a hard worker as well. And so as my mom, like, I just had a lot of examples like that, you know, kind of my dad just had. Work ethic. Right. Very big. Yeah.

Starting point is 00:26:05 My dad had two associates degrees and worked for essential and did computer programming. Okay. Which most of them do not get that far under associates degree. So I just had that example all the time. Sure. And so when I saw OJ. And Marcia Clark looked like she was suffering. And this is something maybe we can analyze, right?

Starting point is 00:26:25 I saw her suffer. And I, like, respected that. I see. And so seeing that she was working her very best, you could tell she had lost sleep, you could tell that she was passionate about it and she was giving of herself through that process. There was a huge respect that I found for her and that I wanted to be that. I wanted to give all of me into some, into defending, I mean, in this case, prosecuting into doing what I do. Sure. And in real estate law, I like, you know, advocate for people.

Starting point is 00:26:54 Sure. Yeah. Yeah, that is amazing. And so then what, like, did you maybe toss around some other areas of law? Like, did you like, maybe I want to do criminal? Maybe I want to do. And, like, what also kind of led you to doing real estate? So, at first, I did go and intern for the DA's office, Bear County.

Starting point is 00:27:13 Okay. And did and kind of watch how prosecutors were in the courthouse and things like that. And while that was fine, I found that they do a switchover to political switchovers, within that office and stuff like that as people move in, you know, and out because people get elected, right, as the A's. Right. And I don't know that I enjoyed that political aspect of it, right? I wanted to be a mainstay somewhere and didn't want a connection to that whatsoever.

Starting point is 00:27:41 So I also wanted to see what the other side look like. And what I mean by other side, you know, there's a government type of employee or attorney. Yep. And then there's private practice. That's right. So I went and worked for an insurance defense firm and check that out. And I found that to be very cold environment. It's insurance claims.

Starting point is 00:28:01 You know, it wasn't people-based as much. That's right. And I found that to be just completely unsatisfying. Right. And so I had left them and then I ended up working for Ed Goldner's office, who did become a very, very important mentor to me. Okay. He was actually about to retire.

Starting point is 00:28:20 And I'm so thankful to him because he sat me next to him for six months in his office. training me to be a firm supervisor altogether because he had a partner, business partner, Jason Cater, who's a silent partner, essentially, more of a business guy. Yep. And the practicing attorney, which was Ed Goldner, was the one who supervised all the legal aspects of it. And literally, just like you and I are right now, I sat next to him every day for six months. And he taught me how he thinks. He taught me how his process worked.

Starting point is 00:28:50 What he did whenever a process was wrong, how he worked his cases, how he kept things, into a system, how he dealt with people when they came in with ideas, you know, and then, and so he really launched me into that world. Well, one of their businesses is tax lending. And so I did their foreclosures. I transitioned into doing tax foreclosures, which is a section, which is still do foreclosures, by the way, another section of real estate. That was your real estate taste. That was your entry in. Yes. That's it. I see. And once you got a little taste of that, you were like, okay, I like where this is going. Yes.

Starting point is 00:29:26 I was like, I like this. And so I opened the department there, in fact, while I was there. And I was like, I want to do real estate in general. Yeah. Foreclosures, and that's where I started. And I just want to say that, like, attorney sounds like, I mean, very scary. It's like, I'm going to talk to an attorney. But, I mean, you're very approachable.

Starting point is 00:29:43 Yeah. You're very relatable. And the times that I talk to. Yeah. You're very humble. Yeah. You don't give us that vibe like, hey, man. Can't even talk to her.

Starting point is 00:29:53 Yeah, no, I don't believe that. In fact, one of the things I say often, too, is that if I had a choice, I would sit in front of a Walmart with a table and just answer people's questions if I could. Gotcha. Like, if money didn't matter, I would just sit and teach people things all day, you know, absolutely. If there were no bills. Yeah. If there were no bills to pay and a firm to support, right? I would do that.

Starting point is 00:30:15 But, you know, of course, I have to support that in order to be an advocate on a continuous basis. Otherwise, I can't live. But I do also believe this. We get phone calls from all different types of life, right? All professions, all jobs, all varying levels of education. And one big, big belief I had from the very beginning, I used to work the phones at Dell. I did technical support when I first started. Okay.

Starting point is 00:30:40 Was you were an expert in what you do, and I'm an expert in what I do because that's what we spend our time doing. It doesn't make me any better than you. It just means that you are good at what you do and I do what I do. And just because I chose this, that's just why I know that. It's not because you are less than me or whatever. It's simply because we just chose different paths. I wouldn't know where to put, how to connect all this. And I don't even know what that means.

Starting point is 00:31:08 What's that button you? Right there. You know, nor do I know how to edit things. You know what I'm saying? Or you put me in front of an AC, you know what I mean? See, when you don't know how to press the buttons, that's what happens. That's kind of fun. You know, everyone does their own things.

Starting point is 00:31:23 I wouldn't know the first thing looking at it. AC, right? Eighty-E does my personal AC work, right? Because that's what he does well. Sure. And so that's where that comes from. I just don't, you know, it's, and it's my job to make sure that I'm relaying everything in a way that makes you understand because you didn't spend three years in law school.

Starting point is 00:31:43 That's my job. Sure. To do that. That's right. That's right. So winding down here, last couple of questions for you before we wrap up, I usually like to ask, Like, so when you're not working and you're off and you've got some downtime, what does that look like? Who are you spending it with?

Starting point is 00:31:59 And typically, what are you all doing? Okay. I have, um, there's three of us, my family. There's four total. So I've got two kids. Um, so my daughter, Laura, who's 15 and she goes to Reagan. She's in the Reagan band. So gosh, does that keep us busy?

Starting point is 00:32:12 Like September October. What does you play? Parents would understand. Clarinet. Clarinet. Okay. Yeah. Um, and then I have, we have a son who's eight.

Starting point is 00:32:20 Okay. And he goes to Hardy Oak. And so. We live over in Stone Oak area, and so we spend a lot of time up there doing, you know, the kids' activities. Community things and stuff. Right. But me and my husband, we got married, Craig Walter, which is where they come from. His whole family is from New Orleans, by the way.

Starting point is 00:32:35 Oh, nice. Hello to our Walter family in New Orleans. Nice, nice. We love to go to New Orleans and enjoy what they have over there because they just find that the environment makes me happy. Sure. I'll go work half days when we go on vacation over. there just because I want to be in a cafe in the middle of the square. Like, it's just beautiful there. So we enjoy traveling. We like traveling to different countries and learning about different things.

Starting point is 00:33:02 We want our kids to be exposed to different cultures. So we'll go to different cultural. So we'll go to Indian cultural events, all kinds of different types of cultural events in order to expose them to that. So we have, like, this internal joy of, you know, spreading, like, knowledge about other things. Yeah. And, like, it's actually happening in real life, not just in a textbook, right? Right, right. Letting them see what the traditions are and things like that. We like to expose our kids to that. That's great.

Starting point is 00:33:32 That is awesome. Okay, really great information, Delilah, and it's been a real joy and pleasure talking with you. You've educated us a lot. You've educated our listeners and our viewers, definitely. I think I'm just going to ask you for one last favor before we wrap it up. Sure. Can you give us your thoughts on Eritre? What has been your experience working with Francisco?

Starting point is 00:33:52 Because you said he services your own personal home, right? You've used him personally. I have. Yeah. Can you give us a little feedback on that? Yes, yes. That's a great question. I'm sure you love that, Francis.

Starting point is 00:34:06 He's like, this is my favorite part of the point. I love it. No, I mean, you know, Eartegroity, I've known Francisco, the owner of Eritory for a long time now. I mean, I would say years at this point. And I have always known the company to be honest, fair, and inconsistent and quick to do the work. So I've actually referred family members, other attorneys, colleagues and stuff to integrity and everyone that I can get to use them because it's very rare that you find a company that is actually going to tell you the truth and that their main mission is not just money. it's the idea of what is going to get you there, which resonates with me a ton because that's what our firm believes as well. And Eritagrity really has, and it's really interesting that's your name because integrity is a thing.

Starting point is 00:35:00 Right. We've got to live up to it. Live up to the name. Yeah, and you do. And, you know, when you refer clients to people, it's a very serious thing for me. Because if I'm putting my name on someone when I say you really should go to this AC company, Eightygerty to get this done, But I do it without any reservations because I know that if I send somebody to integrity to get something done, they're going to do it right and write the first time.

Starting point is 00:35:27 And so not only that, but on a legal level, Francisco and his team have worked for me as witnesses, provided me reports. I don't practice law pretending that or trying to get a service provider to tell me something that's not the truth in order to go with that. we have ethical boundaries for that. And so I know, I know for sure that if I go with integrity, they're going to give me the right quote. They're not going to shave anything off or add anything on top and any, they're going to tell me. And that's all I want. All I ever want to know is the truth. So I know that if I go with integrity to get something done for my client,

Starting point is 00:36:07 I know that I'm going to get the right report. I'm going to get the actual truth. And when they do the work that they're going to do it well, and my client's not going to come back to me. Like, Oh, no, we have more issues. But even if they did, even if they did, I've never, you know, know this of integrity. But even if they did, I know that integrity will make it right. They're going to resolve it. Yeah. Man, dude, that was fire, man.

Starting point is 00:36:30 Yeah, I'm a huge fan. I appreciate that. Appreciate the love. Yeah, I'm a huge fan because in our profession, you need people you can count on. That's right. You know. Delilah Walter with Walter Law Firm, Real Estate Attorney. Thank you so much for your time today.

Starting point is 00:36:45 Absolutely. incredible information. We learned a lot. If you, if you haven't already done so, you probably need to make sure you get your ducks in a row. She's a great person, obviously, to talk to. She's very approachable. She's going to answer your questions. She's going to go above and beyond. So if you're in that situation, we'll put her information in the show notes. So your website, your contact information will be in there for this episode. And so we encourage anyone in need of real estate, especially as it relates to, or I was going to say estate planning, but especially as it relates to real estate,

Starting point is 00:37:19 you are the gal. You are the gal to talk. So thank you again so much for your time. Thank you so much for having me, you guys. All right. That does it for another episode of the Agents Lounge Podcast. We'll catch you here next time. Good job, everyone.

Starting point is 00:37:34 You've been listening to the Agents Lounge Podcast, brought to you by Eritory Comfort Solutions. To learn more about the resources mentioned on today's show or to listen to past episodes, please visit agentsloungepodcast.com.

Business Innovators Radio - Navigating Real Estate Law with Expert Delilah Walter: Estate Planning to Transfer on Death Deeds

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