PHOENIX — In the five years since they began their life together in the desert sprawl of greater Phoenix, Devon Lawrence and Eren Mendoza have bounced from one itinerant home to another.

They have camped alongside a freeway off-ramp, using a gas station sink as their bath and a plastic tarp as their refuge from the relentless sun. They have slept on an air mattress in a friend’s living room. For the last two years, they have crammed into rooms at motels, paying as much as $650 a week.

Mendoza and Lawrence are both 32, and both have jobs. She works at a supermarket deli counter. He stocks shelves at a convenience store. Together, they earn about $3,500 a month. Yet they have been stymied in their reach for a modest dream: They cannot find an affordable home in a safe neighborhood in Phoenix, where rents have roughly doubled over the last decade.

“These prices are just wild,” Mendoza said. “It’s pretty much all anybody talks about. The fact that a dual income can’t support us is insanity.”

The impossible arithmetic of housing is a potent source of economic anxiety in Phoenix and many major U.S. cities — a reality that could influence control of the White House.

Arizona is one of six battleground states likely to determine the result of the presidential election. Its unemployment rate was only 3.7% in February, lower than the 3.9% national rate. Inflation has slowed. In the Phoenix area, optimism is buoyed by $60 billion in investments in factories that make advanced computer chips — a Biden administration talking point.

But polls consistently reveal economic pessimism, threatening President Joe Biden’s tenure. More than half of Arizona voters rated economic conditions as “poor,” and an additional one-fourth as “fair,” in a New York Times/Siena College poll of battleground states last year.

National polling in February found improving assessments about the economy yet worsening evaluations of Biden’s performance. More than 90% of respondents who rated the economy poor or fair had a negative view of the housing market. Biden has recently outlined proposals to lower the costs of homebuying while spurring the construction of affordable options.

Arizona exemplifies the stress over housing. Over the past decade, the allure of suburban life under cloudless skies has swelled the population of greater Phoenix to 5 million from 4.2 million, according to census data. The influx pushed housing prices steadily higher.

At the same time, restrictions on development, public opposition to growth and severe disruptions to the supply chain for building materials limited the construction of new housing. This is especially so for lower-income households because their profit margins are limited and they depend on subsidies.

Since 2010, the number of rental properties available for $1,000 or less in greater Phoenix has declined 86%, according to the Maricopa Association of Governments, a regional planning agency. The number of homes selling for $300,000 or less dropped 73%.

Those sorts of properties “used to be the majority of our market,” said Amy St. Peter, the agency’s deputy executive director. “They are virtually nonexistent now.”

For lower-income households, the mass disappearance of affordable housing has produced a wave of evictions, a surge of homelessness and desperation.

Even for people of greater means, an atmosphere of crisis grips housing. As the price they must pay to become homeowners soars, young professionals with six-figure incomes are taking on extra jobs and longer commutes.

Real estate agents — a professionally optimistic lot — cannot shake a gnawing sense of futility.

“Most people making $45,000 to $90,000 a year can’t afford to buy a house, and that makes people feel like the economy is crummy,” said Nathan Claiborn, an agent at Carin Nguyen Real Estate in the Phoenix area. “Housing affordability is a psychological drain for everyone.”

What the Bubble Built

The story of how Phoenix became a wildly expensive place to live stems directly from how it previously beckoned as a bastion of affordability.

In a nation reared on the mythology of the inexhaustible frontier, Arizona’s cactus-dotted landscape stretched to horizons that seemed limitless. Developers exploited the availability of land to sell the dream of Spanish-tiled roofs and swimming pools at discount prices — an antidote to the severe housing problems afflicting neighboring California.

Phoenix became the center of the speculative real estate boom that filled out the first years of the new millennium. The reckoning that followed yielded a wave of foreclosures. Local communities imposed restrictions on development.

Still, the population grew, especially during the pandemic, as professionals working from home sought larger properties in distant suburbs. From 2021 to 2022, Maricopa County — which contains much of greater Phoenix — added 57,000 people, registering the largest population growth in the nation.

As the Federal Reserve lifted interest rates to lower inflation, mortgage rates increased sharply, raising the costs of buying homes. Homeowners who might have sold properties — empty-nesters seeking smaller homes, and young parents needing extra bedrooms — have stayed put. That has limited the supply of homes on the market, keeping prices high.

Measures of affordability generally assume that a household should spend no more than 28% of its gross income on housing. By that criteria, only about one-fifth of all homes sold in the Phoenix area late last year were affordable for a family earning the median local income, about $72,000, according to an index maintained by the National Association of Homebuilders and Wells Fargo. Before the pandemic, nearly two-thirds of local homes were priced at affordable levels.

Housing experts generally concur on the solution: increase the density of neighborhoods, adding apartments at rates subsidized by tax credits. But most of the available land in Phoenix and its surrounding suburbs is zoned for single-family homes.

Community activists have used social media to sow alarm about the prospect of affordable housing projects. They have warned of rising crime and diminished property values in pressing an age-old mantra: Not in my backyard.

“The vocal minority in many communities are creating this avalanche of NIMBY-ism,” said Debra Sydenham, executive director of the Urban Land Institute Arizona District Council, a nonprofit group. “We are talking about providing homes for firefighters, for teachers, for nurses, for police officers. They view it as, ‘No, you’re providing homes for drug addicts.’”

Which helps explain why people like Mendoza and Lawrence remain stuck. Even if they could find an affordable apartment, they could not pass a credit check, given his student loan debt. They cannot come up with the first and last month’s rent plus the security deposit.

This also explains why Constable Lennie McCloskey is an especially busy man.

‘You Have to Leave’

McCloskey — known to his fellow municipal officials as “Lock ’Em Out Lennie” — spends much of his time evicting tenants who have fallen behind on their rent.

“They know they’ve got to leave,” he said. “I explain to them, ‘It’s only a contract. You agreed to do something. You didn’t do it. You have to leave.’”

Last year, landlords filed 83,000 evictions in the Phoenix metro area, the highest total since 2005, according to the Maricopa Association of Governments. The increase in part reflected the ending of a pandemic-era moratorium on evictions.

On a recent morning, McCloskey, 68, scanned the paperwork on a dozen fresh cases on his beat in the Western Valley. He donned a black bulletproof vest with a Maricopa County badge, and a holster bearing a green-handled 9 mm pistol.

He conducted his rounds with jovial aplomb, counseling people not to lose hope even as they scrambled to pack belongings in the minutes he allotted before ordering them out.

“Typically, it’s five to 10 minutes,” he said. “If they’ve got kids and pets, I work a little bit of time with them, but usually I won’t go more than 30 minutes.”

In the bedroom community of Peoria, McCloskey rousted a half-dozen squatters from a dilapidated home littered with drug paraphernalia, unwashed dishes and a mostly eaten birthday sheet cake.

He drove to an apartment complex in Glendale, near the Arizona Cardinals football stadium, to remove Leebert George Brown, 35.

Brown’s place was spotless, its white countertops glistening. He had lived there since August, when he moved to Phoenix from his native Florida, in pursuit of work as a plumber. The rent, nearly $1,600 for a one-bedroom apartment, seemed manageable once he cracked the ranks of the plumbers union.

But his application had been held up. He was driving for Uber and working nights at an Amazon warehouse, where he earned $17.63 an hour. He was falling behind while sending money home to his mother, who suffered seizures.

He had packed most of his belongings by the time the constable arrived — his clothes, his high school diploma, some personal finance books. As a maintenance man changed the locks, he grabbed his work boots. He would need them for his shift at Amazon in less than five hours. He would get off work at 5 the next morning. Then where would he go?

Brown shrugged. “I’ve got to work something out,” he said.

The constable held the door for him as he stepped into the hallway and headed toward the elevator, carrying his clothes in two plastic trash bags.

“Sorry it took me so long,” Brown said.

“Thank you for your cooperation,” the constable replied.

‘It Doesn’t Work’

In downtown Phoenix, at a homeless campus run by a nonprofit group called Keys to Change, the staff has grown accustomed to people arriving with problems like addiction and domestic violence. Those unable to pay market rents have run out of couches to crash on. They have exhausted assistance from sympathetic friends and relatives.

Even wealthy people are confronting compromises that have undermined their faith in the economic system.

Alexandra McDaniel, 29, grew up in Scottsdale, the affluent suburb north of Phoenix. As she and her fiance, Cameron Smith, 32, began their search for a home early this year, she hoped to live close to her parents and near her job at a fashion retailer. Smith was intent on finding an area where McDaniel could safely walk their dog alone at night.

Smith is a data analyst at Amazon. Together, he and McDaniel earn roughly $200,000 a year. They figured they could afford to pay as much as $550,000 for a home, though they aimed lower.

But as they sat in a conference room on a recent morning, their Realtor, Curt Johnson, projected a map on a screen that forced them to downgrade their expectations.

He had searched for houses with small pools and at least three bedrooms priced at $475,000 to $575,000. Scottsdale had no listings. The half-dozen properties he had found were scattered about 15 miles away and beyond a freeway.

“It’s a lower-income area,” Johnson said, adding that it had “a higher crime rate.”

He drove the couple out for a look. The first two homes had tiny yards unsuitable for their dog. The third place had a huge yard and a wide-open kitchen, but the asking price was $599,000. The next one was similarly priced, and the neighborhood felt seedy. The last house was within their budget, but alongside an apartment complex whose balconies looked directly into the yard.

As they drove back to Scottsdale, they struggled to make sense of their situation.

“We have great jobs,” McDaniel said. “We’re doing exactly what we were told to do, and it doesn’t work.”

Before we dive into the most common sales objections, I’d like to take a moment to caveat something.

Not everyone is going to buy from you (nor should they).

“If you can’t help someone, don’t sell someone.” should be your new motto.

If the timing isn’t right, or the offer doesn’t align, pivot to a follow-up.

Now that’s out of the way, let’s dive in, starting with the top objections you’re probably facing in sales.

Objection 1: “It’s too expensive.”

If you get this objection, you haven’t shown the value (your fault).

You must transition the conversation from price (who cares) to value (ROI).

Price then becomes an inconsequential object.

Ask your prospect:

• “What do you mean by expensive?”
• “Why do you think it’s too high?”
• “What aren’t you getting what you’d thought you’d get at this price?”

From there, you can showcase the value and benefits of your offer that justify the price point.

Objection 2: “I have to think about it”

They don’t.

YOU’RE the only one with information that could guide them to the right choice.

The way to answer this is by asking:

• “Help me understand what you’re thinking about?”
• “What are the most important things you’re thinking about?”
• “I’m the only one with the information you need; what can I answer for you?”

Then, again, practice active listening. They’ll then give you their biggest (real) objections.

Objection 3: “I need to run this by”

Gosh…this one.

If you’ve gotten here, you haven’t qualified the prospect properly (another future LFG issue).

That said, you can still ask several thoughtful questions, including:

• “What part do you think you need to run by your partner?”
• “What’s holding you back from making this decision solo (if it were a home run)?”

Finally, in this situation, it’s imperative to get a 3-way call with “the team.”

Make sure to schedule that call on this call.

Objection 4: “We’re already working with someone else”

This is a bit different; they already have another vendor.

But don’t worry, it’s not over yet.

First, ask:

• “I’ve heard great things about X company, but what could they do better?”
• “I’m hearing that they’re absolutely amazing, and you’re not even considering leaving them?”

From there, address those pain points and showcase your differentiators.

Objection 5: “I’m too busy.”

If they’re too busy, they essentially say, “I don’t think this is important.”

If they’ve said this, ask:

• “So, solving these challenges isn’t a priority?”
• “You’ve said this is important to fix, but you’re also telling me it’s not a priority. Where does this fit?”

From there, they might understand the urgency and see the value in your offering.

What You Can’t Require From Tenants With ESAs

As with service animals, tenants with ESAs have several protections that you, as the landlord, must respect, such as: 

Require ESAs To Go To Training

Just because a tenant has an emotional support animal doesn’t mean the rules don’t apply to them. The last thing you or the other tenants want is to hear an emotional support canary singing at 3 am. 

If the animal is or becomes disruptive at any time, you can SUGGEST training or behavior lessons before filing for eviction. The keyword here is suggest; you cannot require your tenant to get their ESAs to training. 

However, landlords can file for eviction if the animal continues to be disruptive or dangerous. What’s important here is, like always, to document everything you can so that, if worse comes to worse, you have proof that can support your eviction. 

Charging Additional Fees

No, as per the Fair Housing Act, landlords cannot charge additional fees for emotional support animals. Since emotional support animals are not considered pets, you cannot charge the tenant an additional pet fee, refundable pet deposit, or ongoing pet rent. 

However, if the animal causes any damage or harm to the property, you can deduct that amount from the initial security deposit. Ensure that the tenant is fully aware of their responsibility regarding damage done to the unit by the animal within the lease contract.

Deny A Tenant Due To Insurance Noncoverage For ESAs

Unfortunately, even if your insurance doesn’t cover emotional support animals, you cannot use it as grounds to reject a tenant. This falls within reasonable accommodations, but, again, you can always charge the tenant for any damages their ESA inflicts on your property. 

When Landlords Can Reject an Applicant with an ESA

Even though landlords are usually legally required to allow an emotional support animal, some circumstances allow for the rejection of the animal. Examples include:

• Smaller multiunit (2-4 unit) buildings where one of the units is occupied by the owner (e.g. multifamily house hacking landlords).
• Single-family homes rented without a real estate agent, by landlords owning three or fewer single-family rentals.
• If the size of the animal is not compatible with the size of the property.
• If the request becomes financially unreasonable for the landlord to make the accommodations for the emotional support animal.
• If the animal is considered potentially dangerous to other tenants living in the same building or complex.
• If the tenant does not meet all the typical tenant screening qualifications required before signing a lease agreement. Usually these would include credit, criminal, and eviction histories, income, rent payment history, and beyond. 

How to Handle Tenants Scamming Fair Housing Laws

In a perfect world, no one would abuse laws designed to protect the disabled. 

Unfortunately, there are plenty of renters who don’t suffer from a disability who take advantage of Fair Housing laws to game the system. Scamming websites offer fake certifications or documentation stating that the animal is a service animal when it is not. 

Don’t expect much in the way of legal protections against these scammers. If you ask the tenant screening questions outlined above and the tenant and animal meet the qualifications, you have little choice in the matter. You cannot reject their rental application because of the animal and must allow it to live in the unit at no extra charge. Otherwise, you face Fair Housing lawsuits over discrimination. 

Final Thoughts

As per the Fair Housing Act, landlords are legally required to allow emotional support animals or service animals. 

However, you are also protected by law if the request is unreasonable, the animal is disruptive, or the tenant is a scammer. Handle rental applications that include emotional support animals with kid gloves, knowing you risk a Fair Housing lawsuit if you overstep the line.♦ 

Do you allow pets in your rental properties? Have you ever run into trouble with emotional service animals? 

NEW YORK — On a June afternoon in 2018, a man named Mickey Barreto checked into the New Yorker Hotel. He was assigned Room 2565, a double-bed accommodation with a view of midtown Manhattan almost entirely obscured by an exterior wall. For a one-night stay, he paid $200.57.

But he did not check out the next morning. Instead, he made the once-grand hotel his full-time residence for the next five years, without ever paying another cent.

In a city where every inch of real estate is picked over and priced out, and where affordable apartments are among the rarest commodities, Barreto had perhaps the best housing deal in New York City history.

Now, that deal could land him in prison.

The story of how Barreto, a California transplant with a taste for wild conspiracy theories and a sometimes tenuous grip on reality, gained and lost the rights to Room 2565 might sound implausible — another tale from a man who claims without evidence to be a first cousin, 11 times removed, of Christopher Columbus’ oldest son.

But it’s true. Whatever his far-fetched beliefs, Barreto, now 49, was right about one thing: an obscure New York City rent law that provided him with many a New Yorker’s dream.

On that summer day nearly six years ago, Barreto walked through the hotel’s revolving door on Eighth Avenue and entered a lobby centered by a 20-foot art deco chandelier, a nod to the hotel’s geometric architecture.

When it opened in 1930, to great fanfare, the New Yorker Hotel was not just the largest in the city but the second largest in the world. It was an opulent hotel of the future, with 92 telephone operators, a power-generating plant and a radio with four channels in each room.

Today, the mystique has faded, although the property still attracts tourists with its central location. Less than half the rooms are open to guests, and the hallway carpet is tattered and lined with brightly lighted vending machines of sodas and snacks. Most of the building is occupied by followers of the Rev. Sun Myung Moon, a self-proclaimed messiah who bought the hotel in 1976 and made it his organization’s headquarters.

Even by New York City standards, the room to which Barreto was assigned was small, just under 200 square feet. The beds consumed most of the maroon-and-gold carpeted space. A tiny closet could fit a handful of garments. There was also a 42-inch TV with free HBO.

Over the course of several recent interviews, Barreto described what happened next — events that led to a yearslong ordeal for the hotel.

In conversation, Barreto vacillates between lucid and unstable. He said he experienced panic attacks and seizures but insisted he had never been diagnosed with a mental illness — even as he claimed to be the chief of an Indian tribe he founded in Brazil.

Much of Barreto’s story is corroborated by years of court records, but one crucial moment comes from only his account: On that first night, he settled into his room, high above midtown, with his partner, Matthew Hannan. Before that night, Barreto says, Hannan had mentioned, in passing, a peculiar fact about affordable-housing rules that pertain to New York City hotels.

With their laptops open, he claimed, they explored whether the New Yorker Hotel was subject to a little-known section of a state housing law, the Rent Stabilization Act.

Passed in 1969, the law created a system of rent regulation across the city. But also subject to the law was an assortment of hotel rooms, specifically those in large hotels built before 1969, whose rooms could be rented for less than $88 a week in May 1968.

According to the law, a hotel guest could become a permanent resident by requesting a lease at a discounted rate. Any guest-turned-resident also had to be allowed access to the same services as a nightly guest, including room service, housekeeping and the use of facilities, such as the gym.

The room becomes, essentially, a rent-subsidized apartment inside a hotel.

Despite the reasonable assumption that what they were undertaking had been orchestrated from the start, Barreto claimed the idea only took shape when his and Hannan’s online search stumbled upon the 27th line of a 295-page spreadsheet titled “List of Manhattan Buildings Containing Stabilized Units.”

According to court documents, Barreto left his room the next morning, rode the elevator to the lobby and greeted a hotel employee at the front desk. He handed over a letter addressed to the manager: He wanted a six-month lease.

The employee dialed the manager, and after a brief exchange, Barreto was told that there was no such thing as a lease at the hotel and that without booking another night, he would have to vacate the room by noon. The couple did not remove their belongings, so the bellhops did — and Barreto headed to New York City Housing Court in lower Manhattan and sued the hotel.

In a three-page, handwritten affidavit dated June 22, 2018, Barreto cited state laws, local codes and a past court case in arguing that his request for a lease made him a “permanent resident of the hotel.” Removal of his items amounted to an illegal eviction, he said.

At a hearing that July 10, in the absence of any hotel representatives to oppose the lawsuit, the judge, Jack Stoller, ruled in Barreto’s favor. Stoller not only agreed with his arguments but even cited the same case law as Barreto and ordered the hotel “to restore petitioner to possession of the subject premises forthwith by providing him with a key.”

Barreto returned to Room 2565 within days, now as a resident of the hotel — and soon, as its new owner.

Back in their room days after the ruling, the couple read Stoller’s ruling over and over. In it, there was no order that the hotel provide a lease, no limit on their stay, no suggestion that rent was due.

But one word was mentioned throughout: possession. Barreto was given “final judgment of possession.”

He said he called the court to ask someone to explain what exactly that meant. “You have possession,” Barreto, sharply and slowly stressing every syllable of the final word, said he was told. “You’re not a renter. You have possession of a building.”

And how is possession of real estate recorded? In New York City, it is at the Department of Finance.

With the judge’s order in hand, Barreto and Hannan visited the agency’s lower Manhattan offices. Barreto said he asked a clerk about putting Room 2565 in his name — as a new homeowner would — but was told that would be impossible because the hotel, unlike apartments, was not split up in city records by rooms.

The property had one entity on file, the hotel itself, identified in city records as Block 758, Lot 37. So, citing the judge’s order, Barreto filled out paperwork declaring his ownership of that.

“If I have the right to register it all,” he recalled thinking, “then I will register it all.”

In New York City, a change of ownership is recorded in the voluminous Automated City Register Information System, or ACRIS, which holds the real estate records for every property. Thousands of documents such as deeds and mortgages are received and published daily, too many for the city’s Department of Finance employees to scrutinize before posting online.

Barreto tried repeatedly to file for a deed but was rejected over various technicalities. After his sixth attempt, a clerk told him he needed to contact the sheriff’s office. (In New York City, the sheriff’s office is a division of the Finance Department.)

Barreto said he spoke to a sheriff’s deputy, an investigator in the department, who asked why he was filing so many times. He said he responded that he had been given possession of the property but was having technical difficulties.

At the same time, the hotel’s owners had filed their own lawsuit to evict Barreto, claiming the hotel was exempt from the housing law’s hotel provision. Ultimately, the lawyers could not produce documentation from May 1968 to prove the hotel’s weekly rate was at the time more than $88 a week. The judge dismissed the suit.

Meanwhile, Barreto filed for a deed for a seventh time. It was accepted.

On the afternoon of May 17, 2019, nearly a year after Barreto booked his one-night stay, he was identified in ACRIS as the owner of the New Yorker Hotel, a 1.2 million-square-foot building.

Barreto now had a recorded deed showing he had ownership of the hotel, but the true and only owner since 1976 was still the Unification Church.

Barreto’s next moves went far beyond the rights of a now-permanent guest.

He immediately fired off an email to a lawyer for the hotel, demanding to know about the property’s recent finances, and included a claim that he was owed $15 million in profits.

“That payment is past due,” he wrote, “and is due immediately.”

A few days later, another demand: The 38th floor needed to be cleared of guests. “I need to do an inspection of the building with my architect ASAP,” he said.

The lawyer quickly responded, “What are you referring to?”

“I have ownership rights in that building,” Barreto replied. “That’s what I’m referring to.”

He also wrote about wanting to make upgrades, including to the revolving door at the hotel’s entrance on Eighth Avenue between West 34th and West 35th streets. “That area looks like a war zone,” he said.

While the lawyer scrambled to file a lawsuit to revert ownership of the hotel, Barreto sent off an email to Wyndham Hotels and Resorts, which manages the property, notifying it that he now owned it. A Wyndham representative asked for a litany of legal and sales documents to be sent as proof. (They were not.)

Barreto sent a memo to M&T Bank, the hotel’s lender, and asked for all accounts to be put into his name. (They were not.)

Next, Barreto walked into the Tick Tock Diner, which is connected to the lobby by double doors. He dropped off a letter addressed to the owners. Monthly rent checks, he wrote, should be sent to a new address: Room 2565.

One of the diner’s owners, Alex Sgourgos, recognized Barreto. Since he had moved into the hotel, Barreto, along with Hannan, frequently ate at the Tick Tock, a round-the-clock restaurant styled as a 1950s diner with neon lights, red booths and a laminated menu. The two men often ordered breakfast, sandwiches and chicken entrees, Sgourgos said, and always paid in cash.

“They looked like strange guys,” he added.

After reading the letter, Sgourgos called the Unification Church, which told him to ignore Barreto’s demand. The couple continued to eat at the restaurant, he said, and never mentioned the rent payments again.

Two days after Barreto walked into the Tick Tock, the lawyer for the hotel was in court, explaining the situation and pleading with a judge to issue an order to stop Barreto from representing himself as the owner.

The lawyer, Matthew Meisel, said his law firm partners had “never seen such an egregious set of circumstances.”

In court, Meisel said he believed that Barreto was under investigation by prosecutors in the Manhattan district attorney’s office, although he did not specify for what.

Across the country, it is not uncommon for overworked municipal recorders to accept property filings under the assumption that they are legitimate, and for real estate speculators to take advantage of the system.

But Bill Lienhard, a lawyer who has represented many victims of deed theft in New York City, said he was stunned by the apparent ease with which Barreto transferred a 41-story Manhattan hotel into his name.

“Boy,” he said, “this takes the cake for the city’s record department not paying attention.”

Representing himself in court, Barreto insisted he had done nothing wrong. “As for me proclaiming to people I was the owner, I only did that after I had the deed,” he said in court.

A few months later, the judge issued a ruling: “The subject deed is a forged deed by all accounts,” he wrote. Barreto did not own the property.

But that was not the end.

Despite the judge’s ruling about ownership, Barreto was still a legal resident of the hotel.

His home, Room 2565, is near the end of a long narrow hallway that zigs and zags from the elevators. Around the corner is Room 2549, where Muhammad Ali spent the night in 1971 after losing the so-called Fight of the Century to Joe Frazier at Madison Square Garden.

With no job, Barreto said, he spent hours in his room every day, researching his family’s history in Brazil, where he was born and raised in the southern river town of Uruguaiana. He has an angular, youthful face and a military-style haircut and fidgets with his clothes as he talks.

A relative said he had excelled in school in Brazil, had never gotten into trouble and moved to the United States in 1990s. As a teenager, he was considered particularly gifted — the smartest child in the family.

But in recent years, he developed an obsession with his genealogy, claiming to have uncovered a direct connection to Columbus through Portuguese royalty. In Civil Court, he started to invoke the explorer’s name — “My family name ‘Muniz Barreto Columbus,’” he wrote in a 2021 filing.

Barreto also delved into the Unification Church’s origins on the Korean Peninsula, its expanding economic interests on other continents and its business connections with North Korea. He started to believe that leaders of the church were sending its income, including from the hotel, to North Korea in violation of sanctions imposed by the United States.

In an interview, Barreto said his concerns about the finances of the religious organization had become the main driver for staying in the hotel. He called it his patriotic duty as an American citizen, likening his efforts to someone having been able to stop one of the hijackers before 9/11.

“I’m sorry I disrupted your attempt to finance weapons of mass destruction,” Barreto said. “It’s Mickey Barreto versus North Korea.”

While Moon, who died in 2012, was born in what is now North Korea, his church’s current ties to that country are unclear; it once operated factories and a hotel there. The church came under intense scrutiny in Japan after the 2022 assassination of Shinzo Abe, the former prime minister. The alleged killer believed that Abe had ties to the church, which has long been accused of preying on vulnerable people for donations, in Japan and elsewhere.

Barreto voiced similar claims to relatives, about both the church and his family’s genealogy, leaving them confused about whether his statements were tethered to reality.

“It was something that was just hard to believe,” said the relative, who asked to remain anonymous because of sensitivity within the family. “I was thinking maybe it’s true, I don’t know. With Mickey, it’s hard to say.”

A Unification Church spokesperson declined to comment about Barreto’s allegations, his residency or the lawsuits.

Barreto had prevailed in two separate court proceedings; he had a right to a rent-stabilized lease for a room at the New Yorker Hotel. He had access to room service, housekeeping and all the hotel’s facilities.

But he refused to sign a lease — or pay rent.

The hotel’s first offer of a lease, according to him, exceeded the legal rent for a rent-stabilized room. He also declined additional offers over the years, claiming he was concerned about the church’s finances.

Last year, the hotel’s owner succeeded in court against Barreto. A judge ruled in the hotel’s favor, citing Barreto’s refusal to pay or sign a lease. He was evicted in July.

Even while that second eviction case had been working its way through Housing Court, Barreto had not stopped portraying himself as the property owner. In September, he submitted another deed showing that the hotel had been transferred once again into his name, and that the city had accepted it.

The transfer caused the hotel to lose a property tax exemption, resulting in a $2.9 million increase on its property tax bill.

Back in court, the hotel’s lawyers urged a judge to hold Barreto in contempt, and a judge signaled on Feb. 7 that there would be another hearing in the case.

A week later, police officers showed up before sunrise at the apartment on the Upper West Side where Barreto had been staying with Hannan.

Barreto was arrested and arraigned later that morning in a Manhattan court on 24 counts — including 14 felony fraud counts — in what prosecutors said was a criminal scheme to claim ownership of the hotel. Hannan, who Barreto said was not involved beyond staying with him at the hotel for much of five years, was not charged or accused of any crime.

Barreto is now awaiting trial in state Supreme Court in Manhattan and facing several years in prison if convicted. In jail before he was released on his own recognizance, Barreto said he used his one phone call to dial the White House, leaving a message about his whereabouts.

There was no reason to believe the White House had any interest in the case or any idea who Mickey Barreto was. But you could never quite tell with Mickey — he had been right once before.

Building a personal brand takes time and effort, but the following steps can help you get started:

Step 1: Define Your Brand and Develop a Goal

To define your brand, start with introspection.

Ask yourself:

• Who am I?
• What do I stand for?
• What do I want to be known for?
• What is my vision?
• What are my values?
• What are my goals?
• What are my strengths?

From there, start to outline who YOU are and what you want to be known for.

Step 2: Establish Your Online Presence

Having an online presence is crucial for personal branding.

This includes:

• Creating up-to-date social profiles
• A personal website
• A well-written blog

Get started by updating your current social profiles.

Make sure your social media profiles:

• Feature a consistent visual brand, including the same background image, headshot, bio, etc.
• Highlight your achievements and projects
• Speak to your audience (who you want to help).

From there, you can build a streamlined website and drive traffic via your social posts.

Step 3: Produce Valuable Content

Creating valuable content is a cornerstone of personal branding.

Share your insights, stories, experiences, and client success stories.

Focus on delivering quality content that offers solutions and value to your followers.

• Write blog posts or articles relevant to your niche.
• Share insights on social media
• Participate in podcast interviews (or start your own).
• Create videos or webinars to educate and engage.

Content is a powerful tool to showcase your expertise and build a loyal audience.

Pro Tip: You can never give away too much value. Don’t hold back.

Step 4: Engage With Your Community

Building a brand is not just about broadcasting; it’s about interaction.

Here are a few ways you can interact with the community you’re building:

• Respond to every comment on your social posts
• Engage with other posts on all social platforms
• Attend live networking events and engage with your peers
• Offer help and support where you can
• Join or create online groups that align with your brand

By engaging with your community, you can build meaningful relationships and establish yourself as an expert in your field.

Step 5: Continuously Learn and Adapt

The digital landscape and industries are constantly evolving.

Stay relevant by:

• Keeping up-to-date with trends in your industry.
• Adopting new tools and platforms where appropriate.
• Upgrading your skills with courses or certifications.
• Asking for feedback and making the necessary adjustments.
• Following this field guide (woohoo)!

A commitment to learning and adaptation shows your audience that you’re a forward-thinking leader in your field.

Example: I learned recently that “cheat sheets” on LinkedIn perform better. Guess what? I’m now posting cheat sheets and monitoring the data.

Keep your ear to the ground.

3. Insurance Fees

Buyers nearly always purchase a property insurance policy to protect against fire, storm, and other damage. Known as homeowner’s insurance or landlord insurance, mortgage lenders require it, and responsible property owners buy a policy even if they buy the property in cash.

You can also choose to buy your own title insurance policy that protects you against future title problems.

If you buy a property with a Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac mortgage, such as by house hacking, and put down less than 20%, you will have to pay for private mortgage insurance (PMI). In addition to ongoing monthly payments, you must pay a fee up front. Federal Housing Administration (FHA), United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), or Veteran’s Affairs (VA) mortgages require an up-front payment of 1.75% and then will continue with a monthly payment for the mortgage insurance premium (MIP).

4. Taxes

The government always gets their share.

When a property changes hands, both state and local governments typically charge transfer taxes on it. Usually, both the buyer and seller pay a portion of these.

Local governments also charge recordation taxes and fees to record the new deed and mortgage note.

The buyer also becomes liable for their portion of the annual property tax bill, as of the day of settlement. In most cases, the seller has already paid for property taxes for the year, so the buyer owes prorated property taxes to reimburse the seller.

In some instances, property taxes are deductible within your federal income tax statement. However, this varies, so be sure to consult with a tax professional prior to purchasing to see how you will be financially affected.

Seller Closing Costs

Sellers owe their own set of costs during the property selling process as well.

1. Real Estate Commission

Generally, sellers pay 5-6% of the total purchase price to cover the average real estate agents’ commissions. The seller pays for both the listing agent’s fee and the buyer’s agent fee, normally around 3% to each.

2. Unpaid Bills & Taxes

The seller owes the local municipality for any unpaid water bills, fines, or other fees at the time of settlement.

Additionally, the seller must pay their portion of the year’s property taxes if that year’s tax bill has yet to be paid.

Seller Concessions

Most buyers would rather negotiate a seller concession than a lower purchase price. A seller concession occurs when the seller agrees to pay a certain amount of money to help the buyer cover closing costs.  The purchase price is mostly borrowed from a mortgage lender, while the closing costs must be paid for out of pocket.

Sellers don’t have to offer concessions, of course, but it can help them move their property faster. Consider it just another part of the sales negotiation — everything in real estate is negotiable!

While many sellers refuse to offer any help toward the buyer’s closing costs, seller concessions become far more common during buyer’s markets. In a seller’s market, sellers have little incentive to offer extra perks like money toward the buyer’s closing costs.

However, even if seller agrees to shoulder some of the closing costs, there are maximum amounts for concessions with different homeowner loans. Here are some of them:

While portfolio loans and other privately-held investment property loans don’t limit seller concessions, they’re far less common in investment property transactions between professional investors.

It’s not news: the Seattle area is one of the least affordable places in the country. The median single-family home in King County now goes for an eye-watering $914,000, up 14% from a year ago, and buyers now need to make an average of $214,000 a year to afford a home without being stretched too thin — more than anywhere except California.

But while some residents have found ways to stay in this expensive area, others have had enough and moved to less costly communities — or even less costly states.

Some of these real estate refugees are retirees looking for a less burdensome mortgage. Others are younger, would-be first-time buyers who simply can’t figure how to stay in Seattle and still have the dream of owing a home.

The Seattle Times is looking at how higher housing prices have changed not only how people live, but where — and what these changes mean for the Seattle area’s economy, culture and future.

If you left town in search of a more affordable home, or if you are giving it serious thought, we’d like to hear your perspective. What was the tipping point for your decision to leave? How far did you have to move to find an affordable home? What other changes, good or bad, have come with move? And would you ever come back?

Use the form below and we’ll be in touch.

Now, let’s get into the nitty-gritty of sales forecasting using a CRM.

As a reminder, sales forecasting can mean the difference between sleepless nights.

• Sleepless Night A): Worrying about your business
• Sleepless Night B): Partying in Vegas with your sales on autopilot.

Here are the top two easiest ways to predict sales as an SMB owner.

1. Forecasting by Sales Funnel (My Favorite)

Forecasting by Sales Funnel involves analyzing each sales funnel stage to predict future sales.

The sales funnel typically includes stages like lead generation, lead qualification, proposal, negotiation, and closure.

Businesses can forecast sales volume and revenue by examining the conversion rates and time spent at each stage.

Example:

Here’s an example of what each stage of the funnel looks like:

• Initial Prospects: 10% likelihood of conversion
• Qualified Prospects: 25% chance of progressing
• Proposal Stage: 50% expected conversion rate
• Negotiation Phase: 75% likelihood of winning
• Finalizing Deals: 90% probability of closing

Business owners can project sales outcomes more accurately by quantifying the potential success rate at each of these crucial milestones.

Pros:

• Detailed Insight: Offers a detailed view of the sales process, allowing for targeted improvements at each stage.
• Customizable: Can be tailored to the specific sales process and stages of a business.
• Predictive Power: Helps in predicting sales volume by analyzing historical conversion rates.

Cons:

• Data-Intensive: Requires detailed and accurate data on conversion rates and time spent at each stage.
• Complexity: It can be complex to set up and maintain, especially for businesses with long or complicated sales cycles.
• Assumption-Based: This relies on the assumption that past performance indicates future results, which may not always hold.

2. Forecasting by Lead Score

Forecasting by Lead assigns a score to each sales opportunity based on its closing likelihood.

Factors such as customer engagement, buying signals, and historical data are used to calculate these scores.

Sales teams can then use these scores to prioritize efforts and forecast sales revenue.

Example:

Imagine assigning a numerical value to each lead source based on its likelihood to convert:

• Referrals: Scored at 8.1, referrals often bring in high-quality leads due to the pre-established trust.
• Email Campaigns: With a score of 7.2, they can target and nurture leads effectively with personalized content.
• Landing Pages: Designated at 6.5, these are the bread and butter for capturing interested parties and gathering data.
• Social Media: Scoring a 5.4, social platforms enable you to engage with a broad audience, though with varying levels of intent.
• Cold Calling: Rated at 3.6, it remains a tool for outreach, despite its lower conversion rate in today’s digital age.

Pros:

• Prioritization: Helps sales teams prioritize their efforts on the most promising leads and opportunities.
• Dynamic: Scores can be updated in real time based on new data, making the forecast more responsive to changes.
• Efficiency: Increases sales efficiency by focusing resources on leads with the highest likelihood of closing.

Cons:

• Complex Scoring Models: Developing and maintaining accurate scoring models can be complex and require advanced analytics capabilities.
• Data Quality: The accuracy of forecasts depends on the data quality used for scoring.
• Adaptability: Scoring models may need frequent updates to remain accurate as market conditions and customer behaviors change.

Both Forecasting by Sales Funnel and Forecasting by Score offer powerful insights for sales forecasting.

The choice between both is up to you!

Sometimes (I hate to say this) sales is more of a feeling than a fact…

Not many new real estate investors enter the game with unlimited funds. Most of us need to figure out how to invest in real estate with little money.

In fact, some people start investing in real estate with just $1,000.

But that limits your options, so how do you invest in real estate with no money, or with little money?

We have plenty of our own thoughts on the matter, but to broaden the ideas, we polled a series of expert real estate investors on their tactics to invest without much money.

Why Invest In Real Estate?

With the broad range of financial instruments available to people—stocks, bonds, derivatives, deposit accounts, etc.—you might be asking why bother with real estate specifically?

Well, that’s because real estate offers multiple benefits that don’t inherently come with other financial instruments. Here are some of them:

Notice number 4 on the list: leverage. As indicated, real estate investments allows investors to get into the game with little to no money. 

Doing that, of course, requires further discussion. 

Ways To Invest In Real Estate With Little To No Money

 There’s a big world of creative financing available to you when you get into real estate. So, let’s look at your options: 

Live-in Flips

You know all about flipping houses. But have you ever considered moving into the property while you renovate and flip it?

Liz Hulz from The House Guys explains how she got into flipping: “Finding the seed money for your first project is the first and often the most challenging hurdle to overcome. A good solution is to make your first investment property your temporary home. This method works well for youngsters who have yet to get on the property ladder.

“Living in your investment property can cut down costs significantly. The money saved on rent and costs associated with renting a property can boost your renovation budget. Being on site cuts travel costs to and from the property. It also means you will be readily available to answer contractor questions avoiding delays based on communication.

“Having more time in the property, you can tackle easy DIY tasks yourself. Every small task you complete yourself reduces expenses and increases the return on your investment. Certainly, for the first investment you will find yourself counting every dime. After several investments, finances become easier and you have the confidence to take on more challenging projects that have a higher return on investment.

“My partner Andy and I bought our first house just after college, and it was so successful that we ended up starting our own real estate investment business! We love flipping houses and living our best lives together.”

As an added bonus, you can take out an owner-occupied mortgage, such as through Credible. That keeps both your interest rate and down payment lower than they would be with a hard money loan.

House Hacking

Deni and I are huge proponents of house hacking, and have each used several house hacking tactics over the years.

The classic house hacking technique involved buying a small multifamily property, moving into one unit, and renting out the others. You can use conforming mortgage loans for properties with up to four units, and again take advantage of lower down payments, lower interest rates, and lower minimum credit score requirements. Check out this duplex house hacking case study for details on exactly how it works.

But multifamily house hacking isn’t the only way to skin that cat. I’ve rented out rooms to housemates, covering the bulk of my mortgage payment. Deni has rented out storage space in her garage, and even went so far as to host a foreign exchange student for four years. The stipend covered most of her monthly payment.

You can also rent out an accessory dwelling unit (ADU) to cover some or all of your mortgage.

And if you don’t like the idea of sharing part of your property with long-term neighbors, no one says you have to sign a long-term lease agreement. You might prefer renting to short-term guests on Airbnb, and possibly earn higher returns to boot.

Real Estate Wholesaling

Also known as flipping contracts, wholesaling real estate involves putting a property under contract at a bargain price, then selling that contract to another investor — with a margin built in for you.

“For example, suppose you locate a $85,000 home and put it under contract for $55,000,” explains Corey Tyner, founder of Buy Yo Dirt. “You then sell the rights to that contract for $65,000 to another real estate investor. At the closing table, the seller receives $55,000, you receive a $10,000 finder’s fee, and the real estate investor gets a fantastic deal on a home.

“If everything goes right, you will never have to take title to any properties. You do, however, make a healthy profit.

“It won’t cost you much money; all you’ll need is a bit earnest money deposit to pay the seller, which might be as low as a few hundred dollars. Many first-time real estate investors begin by wholesaling to learn how to invest in real estate with little money. After a few wholesale deals, they have enough wealth to start retaining properties for themselves.”

Real estate wholesaling requires you to master two skills: scoring great real estate deals and building a network of real estate investors to sell to.

Borrow the Down Payment: Business Credit

Who says you have to come up with a down payment out of your own savings?

One way to invest in real estate with no money is to borrow the down payment from a business credit line or credit card. Because they’re not secured by collateral, they tend to come with relatively low credit limits and high interest rates. But you can combine many different credit lines and business credit cards to come up with the down payment, and then quickly pay it off with the flip profits or cash flow from the rental property.

In fact, many business credit cards come with an introductory 0% APR period ranging from 12-24 months. As long as you pay off the balance before then, it’s an interest-free loan.

Check out this video on how to open unsecured business credit lines as a real estate investor, using credit concierge service Fund&Grow. And while you’re at it, read up on other creative ways to come up with a down payment for a rental property.

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HONOLULU (AP) — A woman who purchased a vacant lot in Hawaii was surprised to find out a $500,000 house was built on the property by mistake.

She’s now mired in legal wrangling over the mix-up.

Annaleine “Anne” Reynolds purchased a one-acre (0.40-hectare) lot in Hawaiian Paradise Park, a subdivision in the Big Island’s Puna district, in 2018 at a county tax auction for about $22,500.

She was in California during the pandemic waiting for the right time to use it when she got a call last year from a real estate broker who informed her he sold the house on her property, Hawaii News Now reported.

Local developer Keaau Development Partnership hired PJ’s Construction to build about a dozen homes on the properties the developer bought in the subdivision. But the company built one on Reynolds’ lot.

Reynolds, along with the construction company, the architect and others, are now being sued by the developer.

“There’s a lot of fingers being pointed between the developer and the contractor and some subs,” Reynolds’ attorney James DiPasquale said.

Reynolds rejected the developer’s offer for a neighboring lot of equal size and value, according to court documents.

“It would set a dangerous precedent, if you could go on to someone else’s land, build anything you want, and then sue that individual for the value of it,” DiPasquale said.

Most of the lots in jungle-like Hawaiian Paradise Park are identical, noted Peter Olson, an attorney representing the developer.

“My client believes she’s trying to exploit PJ Construction’s mistake in order to get money from my client and the other parties,” Olson told The Associated Press Wednesday of her rejecting an offer for an identical lot.

She has filed a counterclaim against the developer, saying she was unaware of the “unauthorized construction.”

An attorney for PJ’s Construction told Hawaii News Now the developer didn’t want to hire surveyors.

A neighbor told the Honolulu news station the empty house has attracted squatters.