The Ramsey Show - App - Is It Ethical To Raise the Rates on My Rental Properties? (Hour 1)

Episode Date: January 3, 2022

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Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, broadcasting from the Ramsey Show. This is the Ramsey Show, where debt is dumb, cash is king, and the paid-off home mortgage has taken the place of the BMW as the status symbol of choice. I'm Dave Ramsey, your host. Happy New Year! Are you ready? Yeah! Well, anything that puts those other two years in the rearview mirror is a good thing. Oh my gosh, we're loving it.

2022. George Campbell, Ramsey personality, is my co-host today. As we answer your questions about your life and your money, how excited are you for 22? I'm pumped. It definitely feels like a fresh start that we all needed, even if it's just a temporal date on the calendar. It feels like, all right, let's start this thing over again. Let's see what happens.

I'm really good with just getting the eraser to the whiteboard. A clean whiteboard is a good playing for me. I can start fresh. I'm good with that. I'm good with that. And, yeah, the only good, good i mean with that much manure there's you gotta you gotta have some growth oh yeah so there's got to be some growth with the last two years of manure so there's a pony in there somewhere it's gotta be brother gotta be well open phones as we talk to you about your life your work your relationships and your. George Camel is again with me today

as we answer your questions. We are excited. Baby Steps Millionaires, the book comes out next week. It is on pre-sale now. We'll be talking more about that as we go along. And back from the holidays, ready to work, ready to get things done. A lot of energy around this place today. We've got almost 1,100 people at Ramsey, and they were all in their seats this morning for a staff meeting ready to go. I was pumped to just get my coffee here. You know, just get back to some routine. You don't have to pay for the coffee here. Exactly.

Are you cheap, George? No, no, Dave. I just really like the coffee here. It's delicious, and it happens to be free. Oh, that changes the taste. But there is an element to getting back into a routine, waking up at a certain time. You kind of lose your sense of self after Christmas. So we're happy to help and take calls today.

That's it. I'm tired of being other people, so I'm not ready to be myself. That's one way to put it. Travis is going to start the year off from Asheville, North Carolina. Travis, welcome to the Ramsey Show. Hey, how are you guys doing today? Better than we deserve, man. What's up?

I have a question for you. We are in Baby Step 6, and I made a purchase last month that I've been losing some sleep about because I can't decide if I did the right thing. And I tried calling him last month and y'all were super busy. So I'm getting through today and I'm either going to get a tongue lashing or some reassurance. I'm not sure, but I have a question about a vehicle I bought. Okay. So I was looking for a truck for months, like two or three months. I saved up cash and with this crazy market, everything that I was seeing just seemed really high for a used truck. So I kept looking around, and I finally came across a deal a couple hours from me on the truck that I wanted.

And it was actually a new truck that was going for about $3,000 less than the used trucks of the same year. Like I was looking at 2019, 2020 GMC Sierras, and they're going for around 55 grand for the truck that I wanted. And I came across a 2021 that was brand new with factory rebates that had it down to about 52.5 and had to make a quick move just because of this crazy market. So long story short, I did end up purchasing it, even though it was new, and I know that that's not what we do with the baby steps. But I'm wondering with this crazy market and the price and the research that I did, if this did make sense or if I should look to maybe get rid of it and get into something cheaper. Well, I have a rule.

I don't start the year with tongue lashings. Caught him on a good day. The first caller of the year, we can't't do it it's against one of the rules and so uh what so you pay 50 grand for a truck what do you make a year household income 150 okay and what's your net worth today uh about 200 okay all right and fifty thousand dollars of it is in a truck going down in value yes this is why we tell people not to buy new vehicles until you have a million dollars one fourth of your net worth is going to be worth nothing in five years right that's the problem with buying new trucks i mean if you're worth a million dollars you can afford to lose 50 grand if you're worth 200 000 50 grand is a lot of your life

that's the only point so it's not a tongue lashing it's just an observation man you're a grown man you make 150 000 a year you can go buy a truck if you want to go buy a truck we're not gonna be mad at you we'll still be friends okay so again no tongue lashings at the first year, but you're right. That's why we teach people not to. Yeah. And if I was Travis, I would have looked at a car that was, you know, a few years older than that. And that's where you are going to find something at a cheaper price point. But when you look at a 2021 versus the 2022 and the used car market right now, I get that it's crazy, but I think like you're saying, Dave, this is just a huge percentage of his world that's tied up in this depreciating asset. Yeah, I mean, the thing is this.

You need to ask yourself when you're buying anything with wheels or a motor, if I set fire to it without insurance, after it finishes burning, is my life changed dramatically? When you lose 25% of your net worth if you set fire to it, that's pretty dramatic. You lose 5% of your net worth, if you set fire to it, that's pretty dramatic. You lose 5% of your net worth, it's not dramatic. It's a ratio thing for me. You can do what you want to do, but as long as you lean into depreciating assets being a large chunk of your world, things losing value that are being a large chunk of your world, then you're going to struggle with that and i did the exact same stuff travis i mean we've all done it but you knew better because you'd been taught

and you just figure out a way to rationalize well he was saying if he had i wouldn't i wouldn't lose sleep over it it's not going to cause you to go bankrupt i'm not going to sit here and shame you that's not the point the the point is the reason we teach not to buy a new car unless you're a millionaire is this exact reason. And it comes from the old thing when I got tongue-lashed by my grandpa. I mean, he passed away now, but he worked 38 years at Alcoa Aluminum, head cost accountant there in Alcoa, Tennessee, down in the mountains, East Tennessee. And I come wheeling up down there at 23 years old, 24 years old, with a million-dollar net worth driving a Jaguar and a bunch of real estate debt coming out my ears just before I'm going broke, right? And I was all proud of my Jaguar.

Well, Grandpa from East Tennessee didn't even know what a Jaguar was. He's like, what is this car? And I told him, and he's like shaking his head. He was not impressed. And he's like, what did you pay for that? And I told him him and he just spit and he's out of disgust yeah he said a truck over there didn't cost that and i'm like no that truck over there cost 200 bucks you know uh and it's not a it's not a fine european automobile

that you know so i drove off all uh bothered that my grandpa was not impressed with my proud new purchase and of course when he passed away he had a million dollars in money markets um and so and the reason he did was is he didn't put it all in things he goes i said well this is a great car so these things hold their value and he started laughing he goes and nothing holds its value with wheels on it boy i said what do you mean he goes it holds its value he goes he goes i said't nothing holds its value with wheels on it, boy. I said, what do you mean? He goes, it holds its value. He goes, so it's like an investment. He goes, my investments go up.

Yours go down. There's a problem with this formula you're using, son. Did you go to college or what? You know, it's that kind of thing, right? One of these conversations with your grandpa, right? Nothing like grandpa. But he just whipped my butt, man. Oh, my gosh.

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Joy's in Cleveland, Ohio. Hi, Joy. How are you? Good. How are you? Thank you so much for taking my call today. Sure. What's up?

Okay. I'm 46 years old, and about a year and a half ago, my husband committed suicide. Oh, my. I've had a kind of tough, know last year and a half yeah i think um but yeah and then in the whole process of it all you know he was we had gotten into the rental house business and we had you know we had acquired i think it was 15 properties at the time and several of them were fixer-uppers. So we were kind of like in a mess.

So when he passed away, I sold all of them but 10. I kept 10, you know, to manage myself. And five of them are paid off, and the other five have, you know, small mortgages. I think the total I owe on all five is $275,000. But every month they bring in $10,000 and $5,000 goes to the mortgage payment. So, you know, I clear five. And my question was, do I sell a couple now that the market is up and just pay off my house? Or do I continue to manage them? Because I only have like seven years left before they're all paid off.

We had done 15-year loans back, you know, in the day. So if I keep them and keep making the payments for seven more years, that would be like a $10,000 a month income, secured income. Or do I sell three and lower my income to like $7,000 a month but have my mortgage paid. Is that confusing? No, it's not confusing at all. I'm just heartbroken for you. I'm sorry for what you've been through. It's tough. Yeah. Very tough. Oh my goodness. And I have two boys in college, one just finished actually. And with that money, you know know we've been paying their school so they don't

have student loans so it's good you know for that also and um i'm also a nurse and i work um full-time so so who manages the properties you manage them i do yeah and i mean they we've had rent i've had well now it's interesting i've had renters in these houses, you know, for years. And I think it's because I really haven't raised the rent on them. They've been there faithfully paying. And, you know, I know I should be charging more, but I think it's almost better to have a renter in there that's good and long-term than having to keep, you know, going in there, painting it, freshening it up, and trying to find another good renter, you know, to rent them out again. So I just pretty much keep the rents lower, and I mean, they've been there for years,

these people, so. What's left on your primary mortgage? Well, I had to leave the house we were living in because it happened, you know, in my last house. So I bought a house and I currently owe $460,000 on it. My rate is at 4%. And the houses make the payment for me. You know, the payment is like $2,600 a month and the rent pays for that for me. So, I mean, whether I sell the houses and pay off my mortgage or just sit here, someone else is paying for it, you know. So, I don't know whether to just wipe it out.

If I sold three, that would probably be enough to pay it off or do I just um let the runners continue making my house payment and then in seven years i would have more of a bigger monthly pay monthly income than if i sold three now yeah well um you're making the decision if i were in your, I would be making the decision in a weakened state. Yeah. Because of what you've been through in the last year and a half. You lose your husband in the house. You have to move out of the house because you can't walk in there without memories flooding. And so you have to move.

You have to go through the loss of your husband, a funeral. You have to go through the surprise, the shock, everything associated with suicide. Even some people deal with embarrassment as if you had anything to do with it and you didn't. But that sometimes comes up, that kind of thing. And you're dealing with all of that. And then you throw in just a rental property question. Okay. Rental property is a wonderful investment. I've got a bunch of it as you know

and um uh it is not to be managed from weakness and um so when you say things like oh the renters are paying my payments no that's not true uh just try waiting till they don't pay your payments and then you don't have to pay your payments and so then you'll know that that's not true so that's you know if they pay the rent that's true and you say things like i don't want to get market rent because i might lose my renter and so now your renter is holding the landlord hostage no i'm going to raise my rents every year every time the lease is up i'm going to raise the rents every year. Every time the lease is up, I'm going to raise the rents. It's going to be close to approaching market rent. And I don't want somebody sitting there on a 10-year-old rent rate

and rents have doubled during that time. And then we've got an emotional problem when I do find they try to raise it because I feel strong enough to do that emotionally. And then they jettison on me. I'd rather just have some normal turnover as part of owning rental properties. If you can deal with normal turnover and market rates, that's an indication you're in a position of emotional strength as a landlord to work with these things and you want to ride them out.

I'm okay with that. Not okay with your current plan because of, because it indicates you, listen, i've had enough crap in my life don't rock the boat is what you told me six different ways in your conversation i don't want to do anything causes any disturbance in the force i've had enough disturbance and i don't blame you by the way i think that's where that that's where most people would be that are human beings. And so I think that. So if I were you, I'd ask myself the question, if my house was paid for and I owned the five paid-for rentals or six paid-for rentals or whatever,

would I go buy some other rentals on payments? And I think the answer is no. So I'm going to have a smaller, more efficient portfolio, meaning a smaller portfolio of rentals that are paying me market rather than a larger portion that are not paying me market because I don't want to deal with the hassle. And I don't have any debt, house or anything. And that's where I would want to be.

And from there, if you want to buy some other rentals as the years go on and you continue this desire to grow the real estate portfolio and you want to do it with cash, then I would absolutely go that way. Yeah, I'm looking down at the numbers here, and there's three-quarters of a million dollars in debt, and after being what she's been through, I just want some financial peace in my life, and I want some stability. And to me, I'm going, I'm going to sell a few. I'm going to get rid of my mortgage. It's a lot off the shoulders,

a lot less to manage in the portfolio. And if you raise the rent, you might make some of that up on the other properties. So I feel good about that plan. Give yourself permission to not be the strongest you've ever been in your life right now, because that would just mean you're a human because humans hurt when they go through things like you've been through honey and so it's okay to just sit where you are for a little while longer you don't have to make any decisions there's nothing pushing any of this and it's okay to simplify your life uh but at the end of the story whenever the end is whether that at the at the next chapter of the story,

whenever that is, I want you to be three years from now running an efficient, paid-for set of rentals that are being charged market rate, and you're landlording from not only financial strength, but from emotional strength. But no, I, if you're not having some turnover your rents aren't right that's part of the rule and again we've got a bunch of property and um you know rental rates have changed a lot in the last 12 months in our area they've gone way up

and so we're seeing some pretty substantial increases on some of our existing tenants. And by the way, if they were to leave because we increased it, guess where they have to go rent? Somewhere else that's charging market rent too. And so that's how it works out here in the world. That's this. Sorry. And so I'm not going to lose them if they go shopping because I'm not overcharging. I'm just charging the market.

That's all. And that's just efficient management of the asset. That's called good stewardship. This is The Ramsey Show. We'll be right back. In the lobby of Ramsey Solutions on the debt-free stage, they're here. Kevin and Rhonda are with us. T-shirts say weird people. That's always a good sign. Yes, it is.

I like hanging out with weird people. Normal sucks out there. I don't want to be normal. Hey, guys, welcome. Where do you all live indianapolis ah welcome to nashville all the way here to do a debt-free scream how much did you pay off 135 600 love it and how long did this take uh 36 months yeah and your range of income during that time um 160 to,000 to $180,000. Cool. What do you all do for a living? I'm a police officer. I'm an EMT, and I drive a special needs school bus.

Oh, wow. Okay. So did you all meet on an EMT police officer call? I wish. No. No. I just had this thing happen in my head there. I just thought it happened.

That was a very romantic story. Yeah, it's an ambulance and a policeman, and everything's except they meet yeah so but anyway didn't didn't work out that way okay so what kind of debt was your 136 000 um we had two iphones and two vehicles in our house paid off the house that's the weird people t-shirts i like. What's this house worth? $300,000. Yay. Way to go. Thank you. How does it feel to have no payments in the whole world? It was good.

The grass was definitely different when we walked on it barefoot. I bet. I bet. Everything is different. Very, very cool. Congratulations. So what started this journey 36 months ago? Well, I'm 51 now.

I'm an avid long-distance backpacker. I wanted to retire at 57 in order to be able to try to hike all the long trails here in the United States. Wow. And I had been investing, or we had been investing, my entire adult life. Honestly, I had no clue what I was doing. We traveled a lot, spent a lot of money, bought a bunch of crap we didn't really need. And we were the guys, like George's podcast, that thought we were smarter than the credit card companies. Never paid an interest on the credit cards, but every month we got a bill for some reason.

I don't remember what we bought. But you got points. Oh, yeah. Yeah, tell me about it. Then looking around for smart investing, we discovered you on YouTube, and it was game on from there. I worked a lot of extra being a cop. You can basically work 24-7 if you want.

My department gives financial peace type class, so I attended that. Rhonda has a side business that she started up making crafts and gnomes which exploded and did really awesome and then when we're about three thousand dollars from getting the house paid off September the 26th on the way to church well I had I had two strokes one on the 25th and then one on the 26th on the way to church and spent a week in the hospital. And, you know, thank the Lord that we discovered you and for your ministry. Because, you know, if something had happened to me and I died or been to the point where I couldn't function anymore, it could have been pretty scary financially for Rhonda. And then a week after I got out of the hospital, we paid off the house.

Just like that. Wow. Yeah. Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. Yeah. Cool. Very good. I love love it quite the journey there so was this health scare the thing that made you go never again we've got it we've got to stop playing this game no no we were already on we were almost done with everything we only had 3 000 left on the house and then i stroked out that's wild that didn't set you guys back at all? You just got up from that and went, all right, we're going to keep going?

Slowly. Got up. And you're doing great now? Pretty much. My artery is still completely blocked, but the good Lord still got me here. Wow. Oh, man. Scary stuff.

Yeah. But the good news is you're completely free as far as the debt part goes. Yes, sir. Now all you've got to deal with is the medical. Yep. Okay. Yep. Cool.

Are they going to do something for the blocked artery? Or do you just hope it's okay? No, I tore it working out. Oh. Being an idiot thinking I was a 21-year-old. And tore my carotid artery working out. And there's nothing they can do if it's fully blocked. So, God willing, it will heal on its own.

If not, I'll deal with it. Okay. My goodness. Yeah. Wow. Wow. So what's that do to the hiking goal? We'll see.

We're going out to the Appalachian Trail in May, and then I'm going to hike 500 miles in Colorado in July if everything's going good. Doesn't sound like we're changing anything. We'll see. All right. Wow. That's a lot of hiking, brother. It's working.

Well, yeah. It sounds like work to me, actually. Well, congratulations, you guys. Thank you. What do you tell people the key to getting out of debt is? First and foremost, I would say having a relationship with Jesus Christ. Through our journey, he's been there for us. And we wouldn't be where we are today without him.

We walk with him just like your sign says, daily. And another thing would be focus on your debt. Just stay focused on it. I know there's going to be bad times and good times, but you just still need just to go ahead and focus on it. And what we've done is that we've made a little plan where we've opened several different savings accounts. And each month we would put money in each of those. So it'd be like fund money, home improvement, vacation, car.

And so we just recently got new cabinets for our house for our home improvement and we're wanting to do something else, but we can't do it unless we put that money in there and we have it. So, and just like with the fund money, we run out that month. We don't get to go out. We don't get to do anything, you know? So it's really being focused and being a team and doing it together you know and putting god at the center i can't express enough how important it is to just really focus and put your trust in god amen amen and then let's go ahead and have a stroke that'll help you trust in god too right oh my gosh just throw that in the mix yeah oh my Wow. Yeah, you realize how little control you have when something like that happens.

But the thing you can control is getting out of debt and putting yourself in that financial spot. Correct. The way that faith and hope have intertwined your lives and the way you guys have held hands through this together, you're just a resilient couple. There's nothing that's going to stop them. Thank you. A 500-mile hike, a mountain of debt, nothing. I hike, too, so don't give him don't give

him all the credit well you may have to carry him out on your back i don't know he looks like he looks like he might be a heavy load i don't know yeah all right very cool so how much is in investments uh we're everyday millionaires we're doing pretty good i was guessing yeah three hundred thousand dollar house plus more than $700,000. Plus I have the police pension. Plus you got the pension as well. Now, are you out on disability then with that? I went back to light duty, so I called detectives house cats.

So I'm a house cat for another month or so, and then I'll be back to the street. Okay. All right. Wow. House cats. I have not heard that one. That's good. Very good. Well, congratulations, you guys. Thank right. Wow. Wow. Housecast. I've not heard that one. That's good. Very good.

Well, congratulations, you guys. Thank you, sir. Is it worth the journey? Oh, my goodness. It was great. How long have you guys been married? Nine years. Nine years.

You ever been debt-free while you were married? No. No. Until now. Yeah. I'm proud of you. Thank you. Very well done.

You're heroes. Thank you. Great job. Well, we've got a copy of the book, Everyday Million book everyday millionaires well the baby steps millionaires we'll give you one of each why not yeah and uh get that taken care of for you and of course a copy of the book the total money makeover for you to give away uh the baby steps millionaires book comes out next week but we're gonna get you one today because we know a guy can i tell you something real quick yes ma'am um you know you've seen it from our like giving advice um what was you saying about being in the airplane and oh

yeah so this is kind of our it's okay it was a joke but we'll just go on it was funny so we'll do it off air okay we'll talk to you at the break. You can hit the punchline that way. All right. Good stuff, guys. Way to go. All right. Kevin and Rhonda, Indianapolis, Indiana. $136,000 paid off in 36 months, making $160,000 to $180,000 just in time to hike the Appalachian Trail.

And everyday millionaires, Baby Steps millionaires in the process very very well done you guys all right house and everything baby they're weird people count it down let's hear a debt-free scream three three two one we're debt-free Love it! Well done, you guys. Very well done. Man, that's fun. Doesn't get much better. Hike the apple.

Hike all the long trails. I'm not doing it, Dave. I'll let Kevin handle that one. You think, well, yeah. Let Rhonda handle it. Yes. She does it too. This is the Ramsey Show. We'll be right back. George Campbell Ramsey Personality is my co-host today.

Open phones at 888-825-5225. A few weeks ago, we announced we're having a huge event coming up next week on Thursday, January the 13th. It is completely sold out for in-person tickets. Over 1,000, almost 1,500 people are coming to our event, and thousands more have registered for the free live stream. If you haven't heard me talk about it yet, George Campbell to my right, Rachel Cruz, and I are going to be talking about how to build wealth in 2022. We're going to talk about the latest and greatest get-rich-quick ideas

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You go to ramseys solutions.com slash wealth to register today gonna be fun totally free i'm still impressed gonna be fun no reason not to be there well george and rachel the material that they put together and the the team and i have put together it's all um i i think um i mean no matter what you paid for it, I think you would have gotten a return on your investment for your wealth. No pun intended there. Bada-boom. Yeah. But, I mean, I'm excited about this.

Me too. And it feels very fresh. It's very relevant. It's all trending things that you're having conversations about at the dinner table with your friends. And we want to just address it head on. And, of course, it points back to our principles and the fact that they do in fact work so i'm excited to talk about it ramsey solutions.com slash wealth one week from thursday january the 13th you do have to pre-register but the live stream is free blinds.com 100 satisfaction guarantee means even if you mismeasure, you pick the wrong color,

they'll remake your blinds for free. Free samples, free shipping, and new promos all the time. Always use the magic word Ramsey to get the best deal. This is a great company if you're going to put in window blinds or window coverings. Blinds.com. Today's question comes from Dan in Washington, D.C. I'm a landlord who owns multiple rental properties. Over the past year

or two, rent prices have seen a big increase. This is great for a landlord, but not so great for the tenant. I know I need to raise my rental rates to keep up with the increased overhead costs. However, this causes direct hardship to my tenants that have been good tenants for the past few years. As a Christian, this is hard for me. I would feel bad if raising rent caused them to have to move after they've made the house their home. I did not get into real estate to subsidize people's living expenses, but I also didn't get into real estate to displace families either. I love investing in real estate, so I don't see myself exiting this field. So I'd like to hear your advice on how to balance this equation.

It is sweet that you've got a big heart like this, and that's a nice thing. And you're not exiting the landlord field, and so you are going to have to learn to balance your faith with business practices that are not dishonoring to your faith. Treat other people like you would want to be treated. Okay. I lease a building for Ramsey Solutions that is an office warehouse we're not the owner of it uh about five miles from where we sit right now from our buildings that we own and uh the lease is coming up for renewal if the guy raises my rent to market rate why does that make him a bad Christian? That was a passive-aggressive question.

Answer is, it doesn't. Okay, I own rental property, single-family homes, among many other properties that we own and if i raise my rent to be market rate um that does not make me a bad christian i did not displace the person out of that house if they can no longer afford it the marketplace did the economy did the ratio of the income that they earn to their housing expense displaced them. I didn't cause any of that. And so you are not displacing them. You're taking too much credit for what's going on. If they need to move to a cheaper house because they can't afford,

they're going to move to a lesser house. Because if they move, they're going to pay market rent. Now, having said all of that, I've had situations because I manage the properties with a heart and a head, both. I don't personally manage them, but we do. My family does. Someone is sick. I'll just, you know, I remember one time, a long time ago, a lady had cancer. Am I going to evict someone in the middle of chemo?

No, I'm not. I'm going to work with them. I'm going to be kind. I'm going to have clear conversations. I want to know what's really going on. I don't want to be duped by the situation but on the other hand also want to be treat other people like i'd want to be treated that's a biblical mandate and so if i were in that situation how would i want to be treated well i'd love some mercy some grace but mercy and grace because rents went up in general and i can't afford to live here anymore

because my job didn't go up as much as the mark as much as the cost of a loaf of bread or gallon of gasoline went up because welcome to inflation um this is not something you caused now you can cause the cancer either but that is a temporary thing this other thing is going to be there forever that family is never going to be able to afford to live there if they can't afford to live there it's not going to change now if they come in and they go i'm getting a raise in four months and here's the contract can you wait then yeah i'll give them a little mercy you see what i'm saying yeah but this idea that you have to equate christian and kindness with uh not having good

marketplace experience is not true. It's not a factual way of viewing this. And you brought this up with a caller earlier who was kind of experiencing a similar situation, and you said, hey, this is being a good steward of the asset that you are managing. And he says in the question that they've made the house their home. It's not their home.

It's your home. It'll never be their home as long as they're renting it. Good point. And when you're a renter, you kind of know that. Yeah. I've been a renter, and I didn't expect to stay there. I'm passing through. You know, no one that rents, very few people that rent go, I want to be here 50 years.

I think I'm just going to stay in your house for 50 years. No one does that. This is my forever home. I'm a renter. No one does that. This is my forever home. I'm a renter. No one says this. Things that people don't say. I like taking it situation by situation and going, is this a true hardship or is it really you've got to tighten up the budget?

And so at that point, I may give them some resources, maybe some Ramsey resources to say, hey, here's the total money makeover. I want to help you create that margin. I'd love to keep you as a tenant. You've been great. And how you interact with them in kindness is fine, you don't have to be unkind you don't have to be cold and transactional you can go i understand it hurts my heart but i'm doing this with all these things now if you've got a property that's gone way up maybe you stage it up and

that's how you'd want to be treated if you were there. Treat other people like you want to be treated. But if you really would expect to get to live there on rental rates that are 75% of the market forever just because your landlord's a Christian, then you've got something screwed in your brain. You really do. That's just not how things, that is not a calling of the Bible. That is not something Scripture calls us to, to undercharge because we're Christians. Now, we don't need to overcharge. We don't need to rip people off. We certainly want to tell the Bible. That is not something Scripture calls us to, to undercharge because we're Christians. Now, we don't need to overcharge. We don't need to rip people off. We certainly want to tell the truth and those kinds of things. We're not trying to take advantage in some way. But sometimes people get in their head that anybody that sells anything can't

be a Christian. You know, I can't believe you don't just give all your stuff away, Ramsey. All these people that work here, 1,100 of them that want payroll, they require that I don't give my stuff away because they'd like for their payroll checks to clear. That's how this stuff works. That's why we sell a book instead of giving away a book. Can I personally afford to give you a $2 or $10 or $20 book? Yeah, I can personally afford to do that,

but I've got to make sure that the people here eat that work on this stuff. And so it's not an unchristian act to have interaction in the marketplace. That's a good word. All right, good question. I like that, Dan. Thank you for writing that in. That's very, very good. That puts this hour of The Ramsey Show.

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