The Expert Podcast

we have a good episode today. At the beginning we're going to talk about an often overlooked subject for consumers and businesses that have to do with cyber attacks and cyber protection It's a very likely event that's going to happen to most businesses and even consumers And there's some troubling news about the increase in the rate of cyber attacks and what you can do to protect yourself and also cyber insurance. Next we're going to talk about, surety bonds where if you are a business, Or even an individual, you may find that in light of not having availability of financing or commercial loans, There may be ways to fund or to guarantee projects using a surety bond rather than. Debt financing. And that could be an advantage to a business or even a contractor.

We're going to take a look in the real estate side. As to the availability of reasonably priced homes Look. The real estate market is crazy It's through the roof, but we're going to take a look at one example. Of homes that are available for under $200,000. And this is something that is all over the country We're going to look at one area where there is many homes near…

a coastal town that are $200,000. Next we're going to. get into one specific area of negotiating a vehicle. If you go to a dealership. There's one thing that dealerships always do to try to basically take advantage of the scenario that you can avoid…a hundred percent of the time.

And stack the deck in your favor and last. And we're going to talk about if you have purchased a vehicle. And you had financing on it What happens if that. Finance company or the dealership goes out of business How do you handle. Getting your title, getting your lien release.

So we're going to jump right into the…

Cyber. Risk. And what's happening is. There is a huge risk. Of…

Attacks from…

Foreign…

Sabotage And in this case, It's from. China. What's happening is…

There are state sponsored and even private. Hackers. That are preparing to sabotage. Us resources. And according to.

a security agency. They're putting huge investments in the capability to sabotage us infrastructure and infrastructure doesn't have to mean bridges and lectric. Power generating plants It could be companies. could be hospitals. It could be even small businesses.

Americans need to be prepared. That the hackers would Dodge the defenses and cause damage in the physical world…

What that means is even if you are a company. That supplies. Government agencies or supplies larger companies. Sometimes the hackers will look at that. As a way to infiltrate the supply chain without hitting a higher target For example.

If you provide small bolts. That some large company uses to make transformers for the electrical grid. It may be difficult to get through the cyber defenses…

For the large manufacturer or the utility company. It might be easier. To do a cyber attack against the smaller supplier or even a trucking company or shipping company. And. might disrupt the supply chain enough.

To accomplish the goal…

This is where cyber defense comes in Now, most companies even mid-sized companies, you're not going to have. The resources to have a full time full expert, cyber defense it person. Your it person is going to be have enough on their hands to do your, your email your servers. Your website's your. CRMs maybe your inventory program.

That's a full-time job. They may not have the leftover time or even the expertise. To do cyber. That's why. A lot of cyber insurance companies.

Providers. Are making. Cyber defense part of their coverage So if you buy an insurance policy, they include. Cyber defense built into the policy where they ping your system They monitor your system. minute by minute.

And this is import. because you want to know. What actually is part of your policy…

This was a really good. Description of what comes in policy This happens to be a lawsuit. Travelers versus IPS. And…

It talked about what are the realities of a cyber policy And the…small print is not as important as what the takeaways are as a result of this case and escalating crime losses. Underwriting questions may need to be more specific What does that mean? Well when the insurance company. Talks to you about a policy They're going to ask you certain underwriting questions. How many servers do you have?

What's your backup plan. who's your internet provider. And insurers are going to be more intensive. To look for minimum requirements and controls to protect the network So part of that underwriting process, It's not only going to be finding out. What's your company structure is, but also what are the protections currently in place?

In fact, What they may do as part of writing the policy. Is tell you what are the good…policies and procedures to put in place? They're not going to be that hard…

It may be a requirement. For getting the policy in the first place. It may be…

And implementation that gets you a discount, maybe have a lower premium if you do these certain things…

But your insurance carrier becomes more of a cyber partner than just paying you If you lose money what's another takeaway. The representations that you make and your application. require evidence to back them up. Meaning that if you just say on your application yes I have. ransomware or I have…

I have firewalls on my network Okay They're not going to take your word for it. They're going to make you be. them up in addition. They're going to presume that they will continue at the time of renewal. So that if you tell.

The insurance company, you have certain. Cyber defense software. You have certain procedures. For, password changes. They're going to assume that you will always do that.

And they're going to check. They're going to make sure that every 90 days maybe your employees change your passwords. They're going to make sure that your. antivirus software's up to date. This takes some of the burden off of you.

To maintain that. It's good for them because they want to make sure they don't have to pay out a claim, but also it's good for you to know what are the best practices And they may even add some cybersecurity. Suggestions as they get claims throughout the year of your policy being in existence even before you renew. They might send you an email and said look, we had some attacks on one of our other insurance. This is something you might want to put in place on your network to protect against it So they'll give you constant updates.

Another takeaway is the pre binder minimums. We'll evolve Just like what we talked about. So. Before they write the policy That means. Pre binder.

They're going to give certain requirements that you need to do as a company. Every year those might change And even a month from now when they write a new policy that might change. And that talks that gets into number four is insured Meaning you that the company has a policy. Need to be proactive I should put minimum requirements in place.

multifactor authentication, be prepared to demonstrate. To the insurer. During the renewal process or any time the insurer asks, you might think this is a pain in the neck. Wait the insurer's going to ask me if I'm doing my multifactor authentication If I'm getting text message verifications. Yes they're going to do that but that's a good thing because that's going to keep you.

From avoiding the new threats…that come up from time to time. Don't wait for your policy to renew…

At the end of the year in order to. Make…those kinds of adjustments. And the last thing and this is something that is really interesting with…

The cyber protection is, you know insureds meaning you up your defenses. Criminals are getting more creative. So this is what we talked about Every time you up your game. For cyber protection…

The hackers out there are going to up their game It's a constant battle. It's different than other types of risks. Your company has a fire insurance policy. You have certain things you put in place to protect against fire You have fire extinguishers. sprinklers, maybe you don't store oily rags next to the heater those kinds of things.

Whatever policies you put in place to pay. against fire are good enough. For the risks forever because the risks don't really change. It's not like fire is getting more smart. To how to start.

Right Fire is a static risk, same thing with most of the other risks. Liability slip and fall those kinds of things So maybe some social…

Social increase. In risk but for the most part it's the same. Cyber protections different cyber protection The risk is always going up. So by having a policy, you'll have a partner that can also. No about these tack tactics double extortion targeted attacks that are more common.

Business leaders. Always feel like they are increasing. There. Techniques to prevent cyber attacks…

This is something where. A constant improvement. Will make a big difference. You don't have to put in the work. Fortunately, in most cases, Your insurance company is going to do this but just keep in mind that those risks are always going up.

And those risks are. Part of the business model of the hackers the hackers are trying to grow their business the same way you are. If you're a manufacturer every week every month you're trying to do things to be more competitive. To beat your competition to have a better product, to have more sales. The hackers are doing the same thing.

They are competitive just like you are. They're trying to do more. Ransomware attacks They're trying to get through more systems. So they're always trying to increase. You don't want to have your daily business routine.

B how to fight the hackers. Let your cyber partners do that Whether you have an in-house. cyber prevention officer, whether it's your insurance company both, but keep in mind that the risk is not static. Okay…

So that's a good description of what the cyber landscape is. Now…

We're going to take a quick break and come back momentarily and talk about as a business. How you can…

Get. Financing or capital requirements met. Other than financing. So if let's say you want to do a project. And you might need equipment.

You might need. a letter of credit for the…client. Sometimes doing those things with financing or debt, put your balance sheet in a bad spot a surety bond. Is an alternate way to do it And that market is changing quite a bit So we're going to take a quick. Ten second break to hear about.

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So that was quick. So here's what we got…

If you are a business. You may have heard about surety bonds You may have used surety bonds. You may be required to have a surety bond for your license. If you're a certain type of professional an accountant and attorney. You have to have a surety bond.

You've heard the phrase bonded in the shirt licensed bombed in the shirt. The surety bond is a…

Mechanism where the licensing board…

Provides safety for clients who may be injured. Or harmed or damaged by a licensed. company or a person who does the wrong thing. And because that government agency is handing out the license they want to make sure that there's some protection…

With. Infrastructure. spend going up A lot of construction companies are finding that in order to get contracts. Four. Building construction.

You have to have. Surety bonds. And a contract surety bond…

Is part of that package. It's a way to put the money up front to protect the client without actually having to do financing or having money in the bank. And these are going up. 50 500,000 jobs. Three years ago is now a million dollar job.

Because of inflation. Surety benefits from that because it drives up the bond value. The second thing is that the infrastructure bill passed. Last year it's $1.2 trillion, and it's going to be mostly bonded projects. So.

The government even knows that this is a good way. To enable contractors. To work on these jobs with protection for the client. If you are a municipal and you need a bridge built. Right.

You want to hire a company that is competitive. That knows what they're doing that has the capacity and schedule to do it. But the large companies may be tied up and they may be not competitive on price. So a lot of times the municipality will look at a midsize or small company, but because they may be under capitalized. And the municipality has in their RFP a requirement that you have a certain amount of working capital and a certain amount of,

funding for the project…

The small or medium company may not be eligible because they don't have half a million dollars a million dollars cash lean in the bank. So by having a surety bond. Now. The contractor can bid the job. They don't have to put their cash liquid cash at risk.

And the client knows that they're protected against non-performance defective construction. That kind of thing…

Because of the fact that there is much more. In terms of…

Capacity for…

Surety bonds that are needed. One of the things that's starting to happen is. There are more companies offering bonds. And this is something that…is making…

The availability better lots of carriers or iron surety bonds…

Infrastructure spending combined with inflation is propelling the surety market. Surety is an awesome place to be according to this industry expert. A lot of carriers looking get into surety. Because underwriting profits are hurting other lines of business Like we talked about cyber. Surely is a safety valve for characters Cause it's very profitable.

But you have to underwrite it the correct way. But there's a lot more interest in surety. So if you are a contractor if you're somebody who bids on. government projects, It's something to take a look at it how you can use that. Two.

Get into a project. Without having to put a lot of money at risk…

Let's take a quick segue and talk about a few things on the consumer side. We'll talk about real estate Like we said under 200,000. and also about auto negotiation. On the…

Consumer side with vehicles. One of the things that happens is people walk into dealerships…and they negotiate for the price of a car. And as you're looking at a car and negotiating the car, one of the things that's going to happen is that sales person is going to ask you a million questions Ton of questions. What's your budget. What kind of car do you want What are the other vehicles you're looking at?

How long did you have this car? How many miles you drive a year? Who's in the family kind of drive the car They're going to ask a ton of questions. All those questions are designed to try and. you into…

Them…

Doing a car deal. It's an negotiating leverage factor. Because sometimes if you already give an answer, it's hard to undo that later when they say well you said you want to buy a car and get a good deal Right Well here's the good deal or whatever it is. Trying to box you into a corner. So, if you think about it, There are almost no questions that they need the answer to in order for you to shop for a car I…think about everything else you buy.

When you walk into a store…

The grocery store is not asking you what kind of milk you want to buy You just look at the milk and you buy it. You can do the same thing with a car. Now the sales person wants to take control of that transaction. They're going to ask you do you want two or four door? Do you want a convertible or hard top?

Do you want a truck or a car? What's your budget How much can you spend a month? They're going to pepper you with questions. You don't have to answer. And you should come up with a strategy right up front to say look.

shopping around for a car I'm going to look around. I don't really have time. or the interest to answer a lot of questions that don't matter. and you can even ask them if they say well, it do you want a two or four door Well, Does that matter in how you're going to help me…

Right If I want to look at cars and ask you questions. Does it matter if I'm looking for a two or four door are you going to be nicer to me If I want a four door than a two door or am I get a better deal? Like, does it matter what I want? For you to do your job. And then you can turn it around and you can ask them questions.

Do you have this car? Do you have this color One of the new models coming out. What kind of interest rates you have right now What kind of rebates are there? You can ask them questions Do you want to turn that around as quickly as possible? Because the more that that dealer is asking you questions.

The more that they are in control. Of that process. And can lead you down the Primrose path to put you in a car that maybe they want to sell more than something else because it's been on the inventory a long time Maybe it's not desirable car. or one that they think they can make more profit on. You want to pick up the car that you want, not what they want So those questions aren't really designed to help you.

As much as it's designed to help them. Funnel you into the car deal that they want to do and structure it in a way that maybe makes it look better than it really is. Maybe makes the payment look lower or makes the price. Hidden by the fact that it's Elise. You don't want to let the sales person take control of that process by asking a million questions.

Do you want to take control So when they started asking questions, Maybe answer one or two and say wait a minute. I want to look at some cars. Right…

I may ask you where the two doors are or where the trucks are, but is it does it matter My answers to the questions like how you're going to take care of me? Or you can even ask them look, if I'm not really interested in answering questions, does that mean you don't want to help me…

Now you're putting them on the defensive. Right. 'cause some salespeople just quite frankly don't want to help somebody who they can't control. So ask them straight up Look, if I don't want to answer your questions are you not going to help me as much You're not gonna be interested I want to buy a car, but I want to be the one asking the questions Not you I'm here. Wanting to know about the cars not tell my life story.

So…use that to your advantage as a car shopper. To eliminate that one factor the most powerful. Controlling factor salespeople use and the dealership is asking questions They control the narrative They're controlling the conversation. Certainly…there are some things you want to tell the salesperson, but let that be the things you want to tell not just answering a million questions where they could write a biography about you at the end. Surely important…

Related. To automobiles. Is the factor of vehicle titles and vehicle liens…

What happens many times is a person buys a car. And they finance it with a certain lienholder Sometimes it's a bank, you know chase bank Wells Fargo bank JP Morgan whatever. Or sometimes it's the finance company. For the manufacturer If you buy for a Toyota let's say Toyota motor credit might finance it through the dealership. In some cases you'll finance it yourself through a credit union or your own bank.

For older cars and sometimes with bad credit, the dealership will finance it himself It's called buy here pay here. Where you walk into a dealership. Pick out a car, you give them the down payment and then you pay the payments directly to the dealership. That's not done on new cars In fact when you buy a new car, Even though they might do the financing. The dealership itself is not financing the car.

If you go to a new Ford dealer and you buy a new Ford truck, even if you finance it and you pay payments that Ford dealer gets paid cash for that car. So if you go into a dealership and say I'm paying cash. That's not going to matter to them because the dealer. Is already getting paid cash, the bank or the lender that finances it pays the dealership cash And then they collect the payments from you later. Right.

So either way that you buy a car from a dealer, They're getting paid cash. In fact, if you come in and say you're paying cash, that might be less desirable to the dealer. Some people come in and and think that's a negotiating point to say I'm paying cash. Well it's really not because when the dealership finances a vehicle on your behalf, They make some extra profit. So even if you are paying cash, let them think you're going to finance because you might get a lower price on the car.

If they think they're going to make more money later from the financing you can of course always pay cash anytime you want. So let that be. A little bit of a temptation for them to give you a better deal Now what happens if you buy a car, you finance it. And then two years three years four years later you finished paying off that car You finished paying. that.

That loan. Well in theory, what happens is the lender the lien holder. That finding us a car they mail you the title because you remember that lender holds onto that title. Throughout the time. Which you're making payments They don't let you have the title where you could just sell the car and take off on them.

They hold out to the title, so they make sure they get their payments. Now when you finish they send you the title but here's the problem…

The title is still going to show the lien printed on it…for that bank. JP Morgan chase…us bank. Whoever the bank is. Now they will sign it and stamp it paid, but it's still going to be on the title In addition, it's also going to be recorded. In the title record with the department of motor vehicles the government authority that issues titles in your state.

They will still have. That. Lean in their title cyst. when the bank or the lender. Sends you the title, they don't notify the DMV that that lien is paid.

In most cases. The reason is they figure well the customer got their title. It shows it's paid. That should be good enough So if you sell the vehicle you can just give it to the. To the buyer.

Or trade it in, but what happens if you lose that title certificate or if it never gets to you in the mail? Now what. Well, if you go to the department of motor vehicles and ask them, Too. Give you a replacement title. They're not going to be able to do it because as far as they're concerned there's still a lien in their records.

Now you know it's paid the bank knows it's paid. Look, even the DMV might know it's paid If it's 10 years old, they know the car loans not that long, but if the lien is still there, They can not release that title. To you…

They have to get verification. From that bank from that lien holder. Well how do they get that verification It's gotta be in writing You can't call them up or email them or text message him. They have to have a very specific document. That is signed.

Notarized by that bank that lien holder saying yes this loan is paid off clear the record from the lien…

So if you're in that position how do you get that document Well you could call up the bank and say Hey. Wells Fargo. Give me that document so I can clear my title. And. They might hear you out and they might say I'll do it, but here's the problem.

When's the last time you tried to call up a bank…

You ever get anybody on the phone? I don't answer the phone…

In time he tried to email a bank to get somebody to help you. There's nobody there Every time you walk into a local branch. Even the officers that are sitting at the desk not the people behind the. The. teller window, the people at the desk, they really can't do anything.

They don't have any authority anymore They have to call the main office. And here's the problem. There is no lien release department At most lenders They don't have a department of people sitting around waiting to do lien releases. Everybody at the bank is working on some other job. They're doing new loans They're doing payments on old loans They're doing whatever.

They're not. Sitting around waiting for that next person to say give me a lien release. So what happens is if you call them. You are now relying on a person whose job it is to do something else to drop everything they're doing…

And to get you a lien release. They might not. Be so quick to do that If at all, in fact some of them will tell you right on the phone know. I'm not going to do that. Some of them will say yeah I'll do it But…

They never do. Yeah I'll send it out to you by hang up and they go back to their job. And you'll never know until three four or five weeks goes by and you don't get anything. So what do you do? Well what we recommend doing and this is how we do it.

Don't rely on them to do the work. You can actually get the lien release documents. From the DMV in your state, you can even get it from our website for free. You have to print it out. Fill it in a hundred percent.

The year of the vehicle make VIN number your name and address all the details about that forum. The only thing you can't do is you can't sign for the bank. And stamp it paid. They have to do that. But if you do all the prep work on that document and mail it to the bank.

Print it don't email it Don't text message Don't Facebook message Don't Twitter them, none of that. Put in envelope I mail it to the bank. With a little note saying please sign here and mail it back In fact. Put a return envelope and a stamp. So it makes it easy All that person has to do is sign it.

The envelope. there. Send it back to you. That is a way you'll get your lien release. If you call them or email them or text message them it's never going to happen now.

What happens if the lien is not paid? Maybe you have a card that's a charge off or a write off. Or,

some other type of delinquency or non-performing well guess what. In many cases it works for that too. Because that agent that gets that lien release already filled out. Pulls up the VIN number and it says charge off Oh okay Sign it Just charge off Right It must be nothing. Cause they don't really know.

And they send it to you You're good to go. If you try to go through other channels where it goes to legal or collections you may not be able to get it. But if you do all the work and just send it to them, we see it happening all the time. But people get their lien release even when it's a vehicle that technically has money owed on it. So that's the way you want to pursue a lien release, not by…

Calling them. Or email. them or text messaging them. Is that going to work…

Take another quick break for about 10 minutes And then as promised we are going to get into houses that are under $200,000. That might be desirable. And showing that it's all not hopeless in the real estate market…

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Alright here we go So what. We did was we pulled up. On a map. A location. On Zillow and let's just put Zillow right up on the screen here…

Zillow on the screen, right…

We pulled up a location that is on the coast And we put in for criteria up to 200,000 You can see that here. We put in at least one bath and this is a good way to eliminate raw land Even if you put it on the home type, only houses and you uncheck off land, many times realtors will put in. Land under houses Maybe it's an accident Maybe it's on purpose, but if you put in at least one bathroom don't put bedrooms put in one bathroom. It'll filter out raw land. And we also put houses only no townhouses condos We just put houses.

And you know we can zoom in and out of this happens to be in North Carolina, right. And in this area North Carolina near the coast. Here's all the houses under 200,000 and you can see them. Here's one that Is pretty close to the coast Let's zoom in…

1 95 What is this house? It's not a bad looking house. Little ranch on close to half an acre, three to 1300 feet. Is it a train wreck It's not too bad. Right How bad is this house?

Right For 200 grand…

There's a house. In North Carolina. let's see what about this one A little more inland…

And I sorta ranch are more than half an acre 0.69. It looks a little newer two car garage. it looks a little more updated It's not brand new actually It's not too bad. But for all of you that say well I can't find a house for a deal This house is 200,000. Right And it's near the coast.

It's not on the water but it's near the coast You know this is probably. Maybe 10 miles to the coast. Let's scroll up a little more. Or here this is even more on the coast What about this house What is this here…

Okay…

130 to one 1200 square feet…

Call it a cottage. Not bad shape. But if you look on the map where is this house This house is pretty darn close. Two. The coast.

Right It's on the main road right across the street from the beach…

Look at one more…

This is on a little peninsula. 180 9 Well under 200. This is a good size house 1400 feet It's only a two bedroom. It looks like a lot of it is garage. But.

It's. A. Coastal home. Look, it's not intended to say this is the place that you are going to live. It's not intended to say.

This is where…

Only place to find $200,000 houses. They're all over the country. If you put in the right criteria. In fact let's even look. You want to live near New York city?

Okay here in New York city we still have 200,000 in there. Right. Here's a house. What is this house? May Brooklyn New York 200,000.

It's an older house built in 1910…

Small 700 feet, but you could live there and that's less than probably an hour drive to Manhattan. Right. What about over here? here's a bunch of houses. This is actually a PA though, but still.

Come on…

Small house. The point is. There are houses for 200,000 or less And you'll see our website here homes cheap. We feature these houses all the time. $200,000 houses.

You can put it any criteria you want. If you want to make something that's a little different, you want to put in houses that. maybe. Have…

At least two acres. Okay. You apply that? Well you're not going to find them maybe near the coast. But you can go…

Inland and in Pennsylvania and you have a three and a half acre house with this Victorian on it…

In Pennsylvania. So if you want more land maybe you look in a deferred spot. Let's take a look…

In. Tennessee. Right…

this one looks like it might be a manufacturer We don't like to look at those nothing wrong with them It's just like we'd like to be consistent. SpringHill Tennessee six acres…

Little cabin type house somebody wants acreage. Right. What if you want…

Maybe not acreage. But what if you want to have…

A bigger house, right So let's put two acres back to nothing. Let's put square feet minimum 4,000 square feet house. Let's apply that. Let's see what shows up there. Right.

Let's not look at Alabama Mississippi. let's look in Missouri, Southern Missouri. Here's one…

4,000 square feet I don't know how it's 4,000 square feet Sometimes they count the outbuildings. That's probably not a good example. The point is. if you are looking for a house. You can find houses that are deals Now you're going to have to give up something.

This is a 5,000 square foot house in Sweetwater Texas. Big Victorian home…

But it's find-able. And there's no reason. Not too. Get at least much of the things you want. You want to be near the coast beginning of the coast.

Look at our channel at home sheet, you will see on a regular basis us feature…categorized homes. Homes that are 200,000. On the water. with a doc. With 5,000 square feet with 10 acres and more.

Near a big city. You'll see a different theme Every time we do an episode. Now. You may not be able to get all your wishlist items. We even have some that are new houses there's still new houses for under 200,000…

But you can get some of the wishlist items. When you buy a house. Use it to your advantage. Hack the search mechanism in Zillow. Or look for examples that we pull up on our website at homes cheap…

Be sure to continue to drop comments on our channel So we know what you'd like to hear about. We talk about many subjects as you know, you can also reach. Our experts at actual human If you want to do a live one-on-one consultation about any of these subjects investigations insurance. mediation. bonds.

real estate mortgages We have licensed certified experts in all these categories that you can talk to live one-on-one consultation You can watch our videos and our channel has thousands of videos. But you can't ask a video a question. So if you do want to ask questions and get very customized, answers to some of your questions. don't be afraid to. Access that billability at actual human.

Thanks again for…visiting another episode and we'll see you on the channel.