Protect Your Assets – Carolina Capital Management
Ashley Molson, Founder and Principal Attorney of Molson Law Firm have worked to bring her purpose to her legal practice after realizing there was a lack of attorneys who bring passion, care, and attention to people as they go through the process of real estate transactions in New Jersey.
Licensed to practice law in New Jersey and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, she has developed a unique firm centered around providing quality legal expertise combined with a passion for making sure clients are treated with importance and respect.
From the onset of her career, she knew her entire practice would be devoted to guiding her clients not just on legal matters, but also helping them with the emotional issues and stress that often arises during real estate deals.
Listen to our Podcast:
https://thealternativeinvestor.libsyn.com/96-protect-your-assets-carolina-capital-management
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Bill Fairman (00:00):
Well, those were some amazing graphics. Hello! It’s Bill and Wendy with Carolina Capital Management. This is the Passive Income, Active Wealth show. Thank you for being a part of it. We are lenders in the Carolinas. If you were interested in borrowing money, then go to CarolinaHardMoney.com, click on the borrower tab. If you’re interested in passive returns, click on the investor tab. Don’t forget to subscribe, share and like. We also have a chat section, depends on what platform you’re watching this from ours is to the right but yours might be underneath but you’re able to ask questions in a lifetime. So that’d be awesome. We have great guest.
Wendy Sweet (00:56):
And we don’t just lend in the Carolinas.
Bill Fairman (00:56):
No we lend on about five state area. We’re just kind of focused in the Carolinas because we’re prejudice.
Wendy Sweet (01:05):
Yeah, we like it.
Bill Fairman (01:05):
We’ve been living here a long time and we like it.
Wendy Sweet (01:09):
That’s right, we’re Southerns.
Bill Fairman (01:09):
So we have a great guest, don’t we?
Wendy Sweet (01:12):
Yes, we do.
Bill Fairman (01:13):
So we have Ashley Molson, founder and principal attorney of Molson Law Firm and she is at Hoboken, New Jersey,
Wendy Sweet (01:22):
So not Canadian with the Molson beer that we were talking about a little bit earlier, right?
Bill Fairman (01:28):
That’s right. So Ashley, thank you so much for, for joining us today.
Ashley Molson (01:33):
You’re welcome, thank you for having me.
Bill Fairman (01:35):
So we kind of confused her cause she’s never heard of us even though we’re we have tons of fans that follow us.
Wendy Sweet (01:47):
They stalk us.
Bill Fairman (01:47):
She had no idea who this invitation came from. We saw her with another podcast from a hard money lender in the Philadelphia area and her technology, what she’s doing, her interested in investors just sparked my interest in. I thought she’d be a great guest for our listeners. So okay, Ashley, how’d you get started in this?
Wendy Sweet (02:13):
Wait, I want to ask her. You’re not related to the Canadian Molson’s right?
Ashley Molson (02:17):
No, I’m not.
Wendy Sweet (02:17):
You’d be really rich if you are.
Ashley Molson (02:17):
Yeah.
Wendy Sweet (02:17):
I get it.
Ashley Molson (02:17):
We would have a different backdrop, if that was the case.
Wendy Sweet (02:29):
Which is a nice backdrop you have now, where are you?
Ashley Molson (02:31):
I’m in long beach Island, New Jersey right now.
Wendy Sweet (02:34):
Nice.
Ashley Molson (02:40):
Yeah, getting some good feels.
Bill Fairman (02:40):
If you had to be somewhere in might as well be at the beach, right?
Ashley Molson (02:46):
Yes. Exactly. At all times.
Bill Fairman (02:46):
We were very fortunate. Last week, we were at a mastermind event for real estate investors in Clearwater beach, Florida. So we did our broadcast from the balcony, overlooking the pool and the Gulf of Mexico with all the Palm trees swinging back and forth.
Wendy Sweet (03:05):
That was nice. Feels like it was years ago.
Bill Fairman (03:05):
That was a lot of vibe.
Ashley Molson (03:08):
Oh yes. Especially in the real estate world or we could go, it was definitely a year.
Bill Fairman (03:15):
Yeah. Give me your background about on how you decided that you wanted to be an attorney in the first place?
Wendy Sweet (03:20):
Yeah. What were you thinking?
Ashley Molson (03:26):
Well, I went to my undergrad in New York city. I was at pace university and I was in the business program there and when I was graduating, the market was crashing, had crashed and I was working in the financial sector at the time and I kind of saw what was happening to my superiors when I was working in the industry and I knew that I didn’t want to jump right into the financial sector, that was number one and number two, I wanted to have an opportunity through going to grad school to create, actually create a job for myself and I figured the best way to do that would be to become a lawyer and start my own law practice. So I somehow or another, got that idea in my head and went for it. And so I went into law school with the idea of starting my own law practice from the beginning and of course, while I was in law school, you know, I definitely teetered from, Oh my gosh, is that this is going to be crazy or should I just continue doing it? And I guess long story short, here I am, I did it. And it’s turned out to be a really, really, an amazing journey personally and then also just watching what my firm has grown to and the impact we’ve made on clients. That’s been also a great thing, I think, just to kind of have injected myself into the legal community and real estate specifically.
Wendy Sweet (04:59):
Awesome.
Bill Fairman (05:01):
Well, there was definitely a benefit to being on the business side first because unfortunately with most private practice professionals, school teaches you how to be a great clinician. We do a lot of business with dentists and orthodontists and chiropractors and veterinarians and again, school teaches you how to be great clinicians at that particular,
Wendy Sweet (05:27):
Highly paid professionals.
Bill Fairman (05:30):
Yeah.
Ashley Molson (05:31):
Yes.
Bill Fairman (05:31):
But they devote very little time to the business side of it and most of those folks are all entrepreneurs. They have to be, they have to open up their own own practices and it’s a shame they’re just throwing you out there without any business acumen. So that was fortunate that you were going to the business side of things first.
Ashley Molson (05:53):
Yes, very much. Yes. And I think I’m constantly looking at things from that perspective, even when I’m analyzing legal issues or kind of trying to understand the sensitivities of my clients because they are all in the end, you know, they’re making either emotional or business decisions for themselves. So having that perspective is really helpful and I think, unique and obviously building a practice really does require, you know, it’s 10% law in 90% business at that point. So it’s been, it was helpful, but there’s a lot of learning on your own and, you know, the whole entrepreneurial journey, whether you go to business school or not is still, you know, its own monster.
Bill Fairman (06:42):
Sure. And then we had a conversation a little bit earlier about working with investors and you mentioned the complexity that investors bring to the table in the real estate transactions and I was thinking in the back of my head, well, that’s really a nice way of saying that investors are a real pain in the ass. They have more complications.
Wendy Sweet (07:07):
Our transactions are always weird and they’re fast and they’re, you know, there’s a lot of, the chain of title is usually really funky and, you know, there’s always issues going on, right? So you really need someone like yourself that gets that.
Ashley Molson (07:24):
Yeah. There’s a lot of sensitivities and even beyond that, just like the structure of the deals. Every deal has its own structure to it and there’s really no, there’s no cookie cutter approach to how you navigate like an assignment contract or a situation where you can’t assign but you are trying to, right? And of course, every transaction has different people and with those different people involved, that can raise different sensitivities and complexities. So having a law firm that set up to have the time to massage those issues out for you is really important and also not to treat it like a regular standard residential transaction because it’s not, it’s so different from that. And luckily in New Jersey, most people are used to using attorneys for real estate transactions so I have lots of a uphill battle convincing people that it’s worth it to work with me but I know there’s a lot of States that don’t use lawyers for transactions and so, you know, I’m always fascinated that that even happens, that you know, [Inaudible] companies. But I think that there’s like a really, really big opportunity to take non-commercial transactions. You know, like the investor who is buying maybe a house that they’re going to knock down and rebuild and look at it, like it’s a very, very important business transaction, just like someone would with a warehouse or, you know, a large condominium. They need the same attention so I try to deliver that service to my clients.
Bill Fairman (09:11):
Yeah. That’s a lot like we do business the same way. As a lender, we’re a balance sheet lender. We have to look at every single transaction as it stands on its own. There is no one way of doing things and we have to look at things globally, right? And that becomes very labor intensive on each transaction that the benefit, if you’re looking at lenders from that standpoint, a conventional lender, you have basically a loan in a box and it’s a lot less expensive for them to do the loans because they’re all the same versus doing commercial transactions where they’re, you know, there’s going to be different complexities because each property is unique, each borrower is unique but you’re able to kind of, you’re able to overcome that with your technology, I see. Talk to me about your track with these software that you have that the participants to get in there and actually track what’s going on.
Ashley Molson (10:22):
Yeah. So Trach With Ease is really wonderful and I attribute it to a large part of my growth. Trach With Ease was created by individuals who had real estate attorneys in mind. So the way that it’s built and it’s constantly being, updated because it is a pretty young software, which is actually a really great thing because you can call them and you can comment and they’ll tweak the software as you need it but what it is essentially is it’s a portal and there’s a lot of automation set up within it so that the predictable parts of a transaction are there for you and set up so that you can create the, I guess, the tracks, so to speak is what it’s called. When you have a file, it’s a track within Trach With Ease. You can set it up to have automatic emails sent out about things that you know you need on a transaction. So it’s one of those things like you do the work once, then you don’t have to do it again, whereas without that software, you have to have, you know, some notepad somewhere where you have your list of things that you need to do, the due dates that they’re due by and you have to constantly follow up with people and remember to do that. So the software takes that whole, you know, section of your brain power and does it for you, which is really, really amazing for an attorney because a lot of times when you’re worried about things like deadlines and due dates for customary things that are due on all transactions, it can still put you in a state of stress, right? And there could still be like a fire that needs to be put out. So Trach With Ease helps to remove your headspace from meeting to worry about those predictable fires and manages them so they don’t ever light on fire and it frees up your space to be able to give your clients the time and attention on the sensitive issues where you’re not spending all your energy worrying about deadlines and due dates and again, common items that are needed on every transaction. Like did my client do his oil tank sweep for an example. Did the seller send me the payoff for their mortgage? Have I connected with the hard money lender with title, right? Like all these things, they’re common so Track With Ease will do that for you and it’s awesome.
Bill Fairman (12:49):
Well, the thing is [Inaudible] is that typically, your real estate professional is going to be part of that transaction and they’re going to be calling you on a regular basis going, is it going to close on time? Is it going to close on time?
Wendy Sweet (13:10):
And then the buyer does the same thing, and then the seller does the same thing.
Ashley Molson (13:14):
Yes.
Bill Fairman (13:14):
So if they’re portal where they can go in and track the progress, they know exactly what’s needed and when you’re waiting for and that frees you up from having to answer or somebody in your office answers these questions and they can really focus in on the stuff they need to.
Ashley Molson (13:33):
Yes. And they can automatically upload things and then we’ll get an email notification on every Wednesday, every tool is as good as you use it, right? So every Wednesday I have my staff send out automatic milestone emails, which have the lay down of what’s been received, what’s pending and what’s overdue and of course, if we have something that’s overdue, you know, on our end, we just kind of email our clients privately and let them know, Hey, you know, this was due yesterday, can you get this in? Cause then we’ll send it out to the other side so you can really customize it so that you are protecting your clients, right? But also managing the flow and keeping everyone at bay, which for an investment transaction, I think that that’s like, you know, largely what we have to do.
Wendy Sweet (14:21):
Well said. Keeping everyone at bay, I’d do that. That’s really what it is, right?
Bill Fairman (14:31):
Yeah, absolutely. You know, they say that the there’s no emotion involved in commercial transactions but they’re wrong. I mean, you are supposed to look at the numbers, you know, if the numbers don’t make sense, you’re not buying it as an investor but the emotions aren’t the bang process, the emotions are about getting a closed process.
Ashley Molson (14:55):
Yeah, exactly. And I think that, yeah, the numbers, you know, that’s what you focus on when you’re making your offer and getting accepted and working out that initial negotiation but once you’re in and you’re going through your due diligence and if you need extensions on things or, you know, if, let’s say you have a client who’s working with you and they have maybe multiple loans with you. So like when you’re approving of this one transaction, you’re also looking at all their other ones, right? And you might need more time to evaluate the loan itself or you might be covering a couple of properties that they’re buying all at once. You know, those kinds of things can really impact the timeliness of their performance under the contract and everybody gets very emotional when you need extensions and things like that. And a lot of times, I mean, even just the simple fact of investors who are new thinking that they can call hard money cash, right? Like I think that’s the biggest thing that I come up against is when they’re making offers, they’re saying they’re buying something cash because they’re getting a hard money loan but then I have to sit them down and explain to them that your loan is not cash, right? It will be when it’s wired, but it’s, if you’re not going to buy this property with cash you have in your bank right now, we need to, you know, do a dance with the sellers and let them know that you’re getting a loan here and I need to protect you in that way so even just something as simple as that can become a very emotional, you know, conversation.
Bill Fairman (16:39):
And then the difference between private lending and, you know, bank financing, there’s a big difference and they can close a whole lot quicker but you can’t go out and say, I’m a cash buyer, unless you’re actually a cash buyer. You need to have, as a real estate professional, whether you’re a licensed real estate professional or an investor, you need to have enough integrity to,
Wendy Sweet (17:06):
Be truthful about it.
Bill Fairman (17:06):
Make sure you’re truthful with everybody because really, yes, you want to win but it needs to be a win-win for everybody involved in the transaction and if the first thing you do is lie to them and say you’re paying cash when you’re getting a loan, that’s not gonna help.
Wendy Sweet (17:21):
Yeah. I’ve made many phone calls myself directly to sellers for our buyers that said, well, I told them it’d be cash and we’ll, it’s not cash, it’s a loan and you need to put the information on the contract, that’s what it’s supposed to, that’s what it’s there for but I’ve gotten on the phone and talk to the sellers and explain to them, you know, here’s the difference between a regular loan and a hard money loan these people have already been [Inaudible]
Ashley Molson (17:49):
[Inaudible]
Wendy Sweet (17:50):
Yeah. Giving them that information makes all the difference in the world.
Ashley Molson (17:54):
It does, especially if you get to closing, right? And the loan isn’t ready but you had said that it was catched. The other side is going to say, well, that shouldn’t be a reason that you’re not ready, right? And there’s not much I can do at that point so just because we’re attorneys doesn’t mean we can, you know, loop in terms to a contract that was signed already that, you know, hit and find. Like we can’t just make up new terms late in the game. So having, you know, someone involved who knows how to structure the deal and having the right team so, you know, I would prefer that my clients introduced me to their lenders first so that I can talk to them and, you know, make sure like, did you know this property was on the table? Have you reviewed the contract yet? Do, you know, can you fit this in your pipeline? Getting this all that conversation taken care of before you’re one week away from closing is very important.
Wendy Sweet (18:51):
Yeah.
Bill Fairman (18:53):
This is true.
Wendy Sweet (18:54):
What do you mean you don’t have the title work back yet?
Bill Fairman (18:56):
So let’s talk about COVID.
Wendy Sweet (19:04):
And yeah and how does it affect you?
Bill Fairman (19:04):
So, are you doing your stuff virtually? Are you doing most everything virtually? How’s that working for you?
Ashley Molson (19:11):
Yes. Most everything is virtual, it’s working out fine. I think that the real estate industry is really fascinating and one of the most revealing and industries that I have seen through the COVID time, at least here in the tri-state area. I think a lot of people did not want to like take no for an answer, right? So a lot of people were nervous and they were scared but people were still out in the market. That being said, my office was actually virtual from five years before COVID so we didn’t have to shift anything too much. However, I did use to go to closings in person, now I attend through zoom conference and that has worked out actually really well and it’s enabled me to be more efficient with maybe handling like an issue that might be going on at the closing or during the walkthrough or a last minute fire that has to be put out with relation to the closing because I could be here on zoom and kind of, you know, talking to my staff and letting them know, Hey, present at the same time. I’m also not spending all my time driving to the closings, which has made me much more capable of serving my clients and I don’t have to say no to anyone when they’re asking if I can be available for closing, really because now I can have one, you know, one closing every hour through zoom conference without having to about travel time so that’s been really great and otherwise, there’s really no need with real estate for you to have to be in person, at least from the lawyer side but clients still need to be present to find loan documents, you know, wet signatures. So the title companies are supporting that capability at this point.
Bill Fairman (21:10):
Yeah. I was going to ask you if it was an issue with e-signatures. Some States still are requiring wet signatures but you can, you still have overnight packages and you can get out there in advance and I don’t know how they do the notary part though, I don’t know if you have to also do that virtually set up a zoom with your notary, say, yeah, I’m seeing you’re signing it
Wendy Sweet (21:37):
Can you do that virtually? I didn’t think about that.
Ashley Molson (21:38):
So in New Jersey, you can do that. I could, you know, let’s say your documents, you needed to sign, I could watch you sign them over the zoom, you could send them to me and then I could finish the notarization. I would require that you show me your IDs right up to the screen and you can send me copies of those IDs and then you would overnight the package to me to finish up the notarization. So there’s original signatures on the documents and then those would be sent for recording so I have been doing that for sellers, with deeds, for example, with regards to the loan documents. I think because for my investors, they’re definitely a lot more, you know, familiar with the documents that they’re signing so we would do that over the zoom conference if needed. The title company can also do it if needed but I’ve found that not a lot of title companies are, you know, strapping up with computers the way that some others are, which has been really interesting to see, you know, which ones have installed computers so that their attorneys could attend through zoom and perhaps the notaries as well. It’s the residential, non investor, non-hard money loans, you know, the regular loans that are going out, that the clients are still kind of going to the table in person and signing those.
Bill Fairman (23:01):
I’ve been in mortgage for 30 years and Wendy’s been doing it close to that. I am the older one, just in case you were wondering. The thing that I, really heart-wrenching from back in the day is sitting in the attorney’s office and a closing the person moving in has got their moving truck in the parking lot and then the money wasn’t wired and it’s on a Friday and now they’re saying, well, I’m sorry, can’t do any dry closing. We’ll have to do this on Monday.
Ashley Molson (23:42):
Yeah. That still happens.
Bill Fairman (23:45):
You don’t have to worry about that with an investor alone. That’s for sure.
Wendy Sweet (23:50):
Usually.
Ashley Molson (23:51):
Yeah. I can get documents that are good for you know, 10, 15 days. So like we could sign them when they’re ready but they get to us early, which is really nice with hard money loans. So we try to get them early and then we schedule the closing so that we know, you know, these docs are ready to go and then the wire will be sent and we can take care of that. Nice and easy.
Bill Fairman (24:15):
So I know you’re licensed in New Jersey and Massachusetts. Are you, have you thought about a Pennsylvania license as well or no?
Ashley Molson (24:24):
I’ve more so thought about the uniform bar exams. So I would want to take that so that I could get admitted into all the States that have approved the uniform bar exam. I don’t have the list memorized of which ones have signed onto it but I know more and more coming through like every year and I haven’t checked since COVID what has changed, maybe a lot more States have been willing to do it now that the whole work remotely thing is becoming more popular now but I would definitely love to add the licenses. It’s just a pretty big endeavor to decide, to take another bar exam.
Bill Fairman (25:02):
I bet.
Wendy Sweet (25:02):
It is and I would imagine that, you know, every state is different, right? You know, there’s something a little bit different in every state the way that they do things and just remembering all the statutes and all the things that you’d have to put, that you’d have to be familiar with that, it can’t be easy.
Ashley Molson (25:23):
Yeah. And it’s kind of just the way of taking the test, right? Getting back into that mode. There’s a special kind of mindset that you have to be in to answer the questions versus your knowledge of the law and not take a good, you know, you need to have your mind in that for at least a good four hours every day like practicing the tests and going through the motions but I did recently hire a new attorney at my firm which is, has been a huge help with the growth that we’ve seen and you know, maybe one more of, one more of those. I could take some time to take another bar exam and get the license, which would be awesome and another, I guess dream of mine outside of just the law practice is to help other attorneys with their law practices and to be able to speak to attorneys from other States who do practice real estate law and to teach them, you know, how to build out their practices so that they can deliver this high level of customer service and really construct their law firms to be very successful but also very high touch so that clients are very happy is a second business that I’m working on and consulting at this time.
Wendy Sweet (26:47):
That’s awesome.
Bill Fairman (26:49):
We have a good friend who does that in the dental business. We have another good friend that does the same thing in the chiropractic business as well.
Wendy Sweet (27:00):
And a vet.
Bill Fairman (27:00):
So we would like to, I’m sorry?
Wendy Sweet (27:02):
Narren too, Phil does too.
Bill Fairman (27:02):
Yeah. So we would like to put you in contact with those folks just to get an idea of how they’re doing it and how you may want to structure something like that.
Ashley Molson (27:17):
Sure, that would be awesome. Thank you.
Bill Fairman (27:17):
Of the things I noticed about your profile is how to relieve one’s stress. So you’re also a yoga instructor too, right?
Ashley Molson (27:29):
I am, yes. Yogi and yoga instructor.
Wendy Sweet (27:35):
That’s awesome.
Ashley Molson (27:35):
And it’s definitely, one thing when I was in law school that I realized was the only thing that helped me with my stress was meditation. So when I graduated law school, I decided that no matter what happens in my career, I will always have the yoga license as well at something that I could either do for people but also just to have the full immersion of the training so that I could do it for myself and for the last, I guess, 14 years, I’ve practiced yoga every day and I have like a morning routine that I do that I find that is very, very supportive for my ability to handle the fires, right? And the fast pace of a real estate world and, you know, I would recommend it for everybody and everybody has their own things that help them with meditation but there’s still nothing like being able to sit and sit with yourself, right? Versus running.
Wendy Sweet (28:40):
[Inaudible].
Ashley Molson (28:40):
Yeah. There’s still like just this higher, higher level of it that is incredibly powerful and helpful for dealing with stress management.
Bill Fairman (28:51):
Well, it’s very important to carve out time and you need to set a schedule for that time and make it a routine. You can’t just say I’m going to do it and then, Oh, well I can’t right now, I got this fire I have to put out because then you’ll never get it done. We all do the same thing, I have a gym routine, I go there no matter what’s happening, I’m going to the gym. It’s not meditation but it does relieve stress.
Ashley Molson (29:25):
It does, wonderful way to relieve it.
Bill Fairman (29:29):
And I so some yoga stretches but I’m not nearly as flexible as I’d like to be.
Ashley Molson (29:36):
And the best thing about yoga is that there’s many different ways to practice it and doing poses is one way but there’s also different styles and so you don’t have to worry about the flexibility part but even just sitting and, you know, listening to the sounds around you, it can be a form of meditation and start starting somewhere, right? And like you said, making sure you go all the time and just being consistent with your routine is, even that just honoring that is something that sets you off in like a positive space, right? Because if you people go, then you’d start to feel guilty, right? And then that even, you know, sets you in a space with maybe feeling a little stressed, then you, you know, miss an email or miss a phone call and then that adds to it, right? It’s micro steps towards being really stressed out versus not.
Wendy Sweet (30:31):
I love too the way you said, you know, sitting by yourself and just listening to the sounds around you and in today’s world with your cell phone and the computer and all the technology that’s going on around us, I would say that, you know, we have a whole generation that has no idea what that’s like just to sit and listen, to take in what’s going on around you.
Ashley Molson (30:55):
Yeah. The even email, right? Can be addictive and just making sure that you’re answering everything instantaneously and when you’re not on there, are you scrolling somewhere else, right? There’s just constant distraction out there and I think real estate is very, you know, heavily, the work you do is heavily in email. I don’t know if you guys experienced that yourself but for me, my office is my email and so if I’m away from my desk for an hour, I know I have to come back and check it and see what’s happened while I’ve not looked at my email and at the same time, if I need to work on something, if I’ve got my email open next to me, there’s no way that I’m going to be able to focus on that document that I’m drafting so I turn everything off, I put my phone away, I close out of my email tabs and I just sit in that word document and get that work done and there’s no way around it. Like the idea of multitasking is a myth, you can’t multitask. You really are. The brains are not constructed to be able to do it and if you’re trying to do it, you’re going to do everything half as good, right? So it’s more productive and the success that you feel from when you devote yourself 100% to whatever it is you’re working on can lead you to actually like having more happiness at work and feeling better about what you’re producing and how you’re communicating. Like if we were here right now talking to each other, you know, it feels like we’re immersed in our conversation, right? But if our minds were thinking about other things and worrying about other stuff, you can feel it and you can sense it and at the end of the interview, we’d be like, eh, you know, that one kind of well, it was alright.
Wendy Sweet (33:04):
That is so right. You know what I love too about your your email? When you send you an email, you have an automated email that says, your email is comfortably sitting in my inbox. I have not read it yet but I will. You know, and then you go to explain and I love that because it’s an acknowledgement that, Hey, I got it, but as soon as I can get to it, I’ll let you know and then I think that’s good. I like that.
Bill Fairman (33:42):
Mine says, mine is nervously twitching, let me know if you have that.
Ashley Molson (33:42):
We had a couple of cheap responses, you know, when I have a file that I really don’t have an update yet but the other side’s looking for it and if they send an email and they get that then maybe they’re frustrated, there’ll be like, I know it’s there comfortably but it’s not comfortable. You know, we get to that job slack. [Inaudible]
Wendy Sweet (34:02):
[Inaudible]
Ashley Molson (34:06):
I saved them for, you know, myself to kind of look back at and get some comic relief but the fact that it is important to acknowledge that you’ve received people’s emails. The last thing I want my clients to feel is like, you know, did I get it, right? And with that response comes that at least it was received by, you know, Gmail or whatever email service is being used and I just found managing expectations is a really important business decision for someone who owns a business ascend and it should be a high priority to manage, not just your clients expectations but the people you work with and explain to them, like, if you’re not going to be free, you know, for half a day, you can put that into your auto reply so that people know. I found that people respect when you give them information in advance versus, you know, if you didn’t say anything and then can have some angry messages like, I sent you this email, why didn’t you get back to me? And you can’t expect people to know, you know, that you’re not available, you can’t expect that and also every person who is working with you, you are probably one of, maybe in the investor world, right? Like maybe one of five to 10 deals. Whereas as the attorney, it’s like, they are one of a hundred or 200, right? So just remembering that your clients like you are their world, right? When they’re not going to, and it’s not appropriate to say to them, well, you’re one of 200, right? You cant give them that attitude. But just remembering that and like, remembering that that’s the perspective that they’re coming from can relax you just by yourself before you reply to them, like, and we will cure the agitation and I think that, like a huge thing that I bring to my clients is like, I never get agitated with them because I am constantly just reminding myself, like, okay, where are they coming from? And why might they be acting in this certain way? And it’s not personal, right? It’s usually not. Of course, you know, there might be a circumstance that becomes that but that can be dealt with in a much different way. Most of the time, it’s not and I think just remembering that and internalizing that is really, really important and having your own business and running your own practice, you know, you learn a lot about yourself as a person and it’s such like an awesome opportunity and I explained this to my investors too, like you have your own business right now, right? Investors are trying to build businesses, own properties, fix and hold or fix and sell and make a name for themselves. And it’s a personal journey that you can go through a lot of growth while you’re on that path and I always let my clients know that I’m honored to be part of that and to walk them through that journey so I’m always excited to have new investors because I can kind of like watch them grow and set them up, you know, right from the beginning, which is really, you know, it’s an awesome opportunity in my eyes.
Wendy Sweet (37:34):
That’s awesome. And what a pleasure it is to hear a professional talk that way. That’s awesome.
Bill Fairman (37:40):
Well, I mean, it doesn’t make sense not to be in the relationship business. You have to get relationships with your clients because as business people, we know it’s a lot less expensive to deal with existing clients.
Wendy Sweet (38:02):
The ones we got instead of bringing clients. That’s right.
Bill Fairman (38:02):
So if you’re ticking people off, you’re going to spend a lot more money on marketing, aren’t you?
Wendy Sweet (38:06):
Yeah. It’s important too, I think for all of us to understand that there are certain people that we just never will get along with and you need to realize that and cut them off. I mean, send them on to somebody else that would do much better at handling that personality.
Ashley Molson (38:24):
Yeah. And I think that, you know, a very adult conversation can be had with that person if it’s needed to mutually come to that agreement and that recognition, so I think that it can be handled very professionally if that’s the case that needs to come about.
Wendy Sweet (38:48):
Well said.
Bill Fairman (38:48):
Yep, absolutely. Ashley, thank you so much for being our guest today and taking time out of your day. Scott, do you have Ashley’s website available?
Wendy Sweet (39:02):
There we go.
Bill Fairman (39:02):
There we go. So is that a good place for people to get ahold of you?
Ashley Molson (39:07):
Yeah, definitely. They can go there, they’ll get my contact information. My number’s on there, my email’s there. Email is best so they can send an email directly to my office and any, if it’s questions, if it’s comments, any, anything. Just feel free to send an email and, you know, like I said, I live in there it’s my office. So I’ll get back with you all.
Wendy Sweet (39:30):
That’s awesome. Have you heard of investHER.com before?
Ashley Molson (39:34):
You know, I think so, but I might be mixing it up with something else that I’ve seen.
Wendy Sweet (39:42):
I’m going to introduce you to the people that started that Liz Phair is one of them and they’re in your, they actually started in your area but I think it’d be a great connection for you. They’d love to have you in their resources and I think it’d be, I’m sure they’d love to interview you too and talk about what you’re doing and how you’re doing cause I think, I just love the approach that you have toward people, you know, seeing them as people and not just customers and I think that’s huge and I always love to see females rule.
Bill Fairman (40:20):
Yeah, that’s one rule.
Wendy Sweet (40:20):
Females rule, that’s right.
Ashley Molson (40:28):
Especially in the real estate industry. I have a lot of, like female investors that will reach out to me and we kind of start igniting this, you know, discussion and then, you know, a lot of them kind of taper off and I don’t hear from them and I think it’s like they don’t really jump in, right? And I, and it’s not all the time but I found that I have more drop off, right? With the female investors that kind of like come into my world and the ones that stay, you know, really are so dynamic and it’s such a incredible journey to watch like, a female investor jump into, you know, that hardhat life, right? So I’d love to be connected with them. That’d be awesome.
Wendy Sweet (41:14):
That’s awesome. We’ll do that offline. That’s great.
Bill Fairman (41:16):
All right. Excellent. So I hope you guys enjoyed the show. Remember Carolina Capital Wanagement. We are a lender CarolinaHardMoney.com. If you’re interested in borrowing money for a fix and flips again, all this stuff is investor only, right?
Wendy Sweet (41:32):
Yes.
Bill Fairman (41:33):
We don’t do anything but legal entities.
Wendy Sweet (41:37):
That’s right, no people.
Bill Fairman (41:37):
If you’re looking for passive returns, then click on an investor tab. If you’re borrowing click on the borrower tab. Don’t forget to like, share, subscribe to our show. It was a pleasure having you on Ashley. Thank you so much.
Ashley Molson (41:51):
Thank you.
Bill Fairman (41:51):
Folks, same time next week.
Wendy Sweet (41:58):
Next week.
Bill Fairman (41:58):
See you later.
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