Accessibility Is Home podcast
Welcome to AI Home podcast, the first exclusive podcast on real estate resources and independent living strategies for the disability community. Why? Because Accessibility Is Home. Brought to you by Angela Fox, blogger, and author of “My blue front door”. Ms. Fox will be interviewing Realtors and home improvement contractors who are both disability friendly and others who may have a lot more to learn. Ms. Fox will also provide takeaways for anyone wanting to be a homeowner with a disability.
Accessibility Is Home podcast
Real Estate Strategies for Boosting Nonprofit Fundraiser
Unlock the secrets to transformative nonprofit fundraising with our special guest, Cami Baker, on Accessibility is Home Podcast. Imagine the potential of real estate donations to revolutionize the way nonprofits, including those dedicated to the disability community, receive financial support. Cami shares valuable insights on how property owners can enjoy significant tax benefits by donating real estate, thus maximizing the funds available for charitable causes. You'll also learn how this innovative approach simplifies the fundraising process and opens up new avenues beyond traditional monetary donations.
Ever thought about the impact of donating a multimillion-dollar property to a cause you care about? Cami brings real-life examples to the table, like a $33 million house gifted to the American Cancer Society, illustrating the monumental difference such contributions can make. We emphasize the importance of educating your supporters through newsletters and event promotions, thereby increasing awareness about the power of real estate donations. Additionally, we discuss how accessible homes can continue to serve the disability community if these homes are included in the charitable real estate process, ensuring these properties make a lasting impact.
Cami outlines a five-step roadmap for mastering this niche, allowing realtors to retain their full commission while contributing meaningfully to disability organizations fundraising . Learn how properties like a $10 million office building or a $5 million hotel can be donated, benefiting both the donors and the nonprofits. You will learn that no matter where the donated real estate is located, the proceeds can benefit any disability nonprofit organization. Making a perfect episode to celebrate Disability Pride Month and the 34th anniversary of the Americans with Disability.
Cush Pocket, a proud sponsor, is a disabled owned company that sells wheelchair bags. Get $1 off by using code Angela Fox
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Welcome to AI Home Podcast, the first podcast for real estate resources and independent living strategies for the disability community. Why? Because accessibility is home. Hi, I'm Angela Fox, blogger, author and your host. Now let's begin. All right, hello everyone. Again, this is Angela Fox. I want to thank you for listening. Today I have a fabulous guest, kami Baker. Kami, would you like to say hello to everyone?
Speaker 2:change the rock for short, and we just love sharing the information that we're here to talk about today, with getting these non-profits funded and all the other beautiful benefits of donated real estate thank you, cammy.
Speaker 1:for those of us who are joining me by my up and coming youtube channel and may be visually impaired, I am a white woman in her 40s wearing a design button-up shirt that's blue and purple and white. I have brown hair and my Zoom background is pink with my logo accessibility is home Paracath. And Kami is a fabulous white woman with blonde hair. I know that we have met through a mutual colleague and, for the listeners today, I'm always exploring disability home ownership, but different avenues.
Speaker 1:I've done a previous podcast about short-term rentals and about how having accessible short-term rentals promotes disability home ownership, because a lot of times the individuals who have that short-term rentals promotes disability home ownership, because a lot of times the individuals who have that short-term rental home either have an accessible home themselves and they want to give that gift to others or they're using their own home as short-term rental as a settlement income. But I love this idea that came to me very briefly and she's going to talk to us about this idea of using real estate as a way to help nonprofits, including disability organization, fundraise. Kami, can you talk a little bit about what I just briefly described?
Speaker 2:We really are here to open up the minds of the people who are listening, viewing, reading what we're talking about today, because this topic, as a matter of fact, it's even talked about in the Bible. As a matter of fact, even Jesus's tomb was donated. Now I don't know what verse it was or any of that, but one of the guys in our group could quote it, but gifts of real estate have been happening for over 100 years. There's nothing new about that. However, 99% of nonprofits are not even asking for real estate and they're turning it down when it's offered because it sounds so complicated and scary and convoluted, and we want people to know this is not about a nonprofit.
Speaker 2:Now, for those that are doing specific housing and want a building to house the homeless or to help the disabled, et cetera, absolutely you can have that done. But what we're saying is don't limit yourself to that one building, that one needle and that one haystack, when every needle and every haystack anywhere in this country could be donated so that we can liquidate it and give the money to the nonprofit that needs the cash. So if there's a building in your area that your nonprofit needs or wants, don't try to just get that one person to donate it. There's a house in Oregon, there's a condo in Florida, there's a strip mall in California, there's a thousand acres in Texas. All this real estate can be donated, facilitated, liquidated and the money can be given to any nonprofit that the donor designates it to.
Speaker 1:That's exciting. Sometimes an organization or even a political entity will ask for donations and you may not have money. You could donate your time by volunteering with that organization to figure out how you can help that organization if it's not by money. But here, what I'm hearing from Cami is that a house can be sold and a proceed go to the nonprofit, instead of having to fundraise $20 here, $20 there from individuals. My question to you is how do you get homes donated? I mean, it seems like a tall task from an everyday consumer to think really do people really donate houses? So can you talk a little bit about that?
Speaker 2:Sure, when you think about it. Do people donate $50,000, $100,000, a million dollars? Yeah, every day, all day long, people are donating real estate. Do people in their 60s and 70s have three, five, 10, 50, 100 properties? They can't take it with them to heaven, they just can't. You can't take the real estate with you. And no, their children don't want the car dealership in Detroit, they don't want the hospital in Miami, they don't even want the lakefront house and the Poconos. They want cash.
Speaker 2:So if we show the property owner how they can pull a little bit of cash out, buy a life insurance policy for little Billy and little Aller, and they can donate the majority of the proceeds. Which actually leads to one of the questions that comes up, which is why wouldn't the property donor just go sell that property and then give a check to the nonprofit world? The problem with that is they're missing out on a ton of tax benefits. In other words, let's just say as an example I'm going to use the number a million dollars just because it's a round number and it makes it easy to discuss If a property is valued at a million dollars, let's just pretend that all of it is capital gain, meaning it's all profit owner's tax bracket, there's anywhere from $200,000 to $350,000 right there in capital gains tax, going to the government period. Besides all these other complicated taxes that I can't even explain, like recapture taxes and being able to write off that amount of money off of your adjusted gross income. So, for example, if the person sells their property and pays the government $300,000, that's $300,000 less that the non-profit world can get and that's $300,000 less that they can take off of their adjusted gross income. So there's another $100,000 that they couldn't save on their personal taxes. So I'm not trying to complicate. I'm certainly not an attorney. I don't know anything about taxes and cpa stuff. I'm regurgitating what I hear from the experts that we work with.
Speaker 2:But the point is is yeah, there are people that will donate real estate. Let's you know. Again, this is about not trying to figure out why it won't work or who won't do it. Let's take a thought of okay, if there's a person out there who has a loved one who has a disability, older, and they want to take care of that loved one, don't they a lot of the times donate $100,000 or $500,000 or $50,000 to whatever nonprofit will help the blind or the disabled or animals or veterans or the environment or universities. For God's sake, look at all the people that give millions of dollars to the universities that they graduated from.
Speaker 2:You can get a bigger tax deduction by donating non-cash assets, and in our case, we discuss real estate, because real estate is the largest asset class in America. 43% of our wealth is held in real estate. Friends, listen to that. 43% of the average American's wealth is held in real estate, and experts like Dr Russell James, who's one of our friends, will tell you less than 3% of an American's wealth is held in cash. So when a nonprofit is asking for cash, they're only opening themselves up to 3% of what that person has access to. Why wouldn't they open themselves up to receiving part of the 43% of wealth that people have?
Speaker 1:That was like a win to me. How do you recruit these individuals If there's 43% of the wealth is held in real estate and there's such a limited amount actually being donated? It sounds like a rich environment. But how do you find these individuals? Because I never heard of it until a mutual friend of ours introduced me to you and I read your books friend of ours introduced me to you and I read your book.
Speaker 2:A great question, very common question, and I like to help people to think about how do you do that? And let's not look at it as recruiting. Let's not even look at it as asking someone to donate real estate. The first thing is to simply let people know that it's possible. So what we want to do is we task like here's the thing.
Speaker 2:People will say gosh, who would donate a house? I could turn that around and say who would volunteer? Who would put in hours and weeks and months and years of their life to volunteer? See, for some people, their time is more valuable than money. Their time is more valuable than that three family in downtown boston that they bought for 50 000 20 years ago and it is now worth 1.5 million and if they sell it outright, they're going to give half a million dollars to the government. See that person who doesn't have time to volunteer for the kids or doesn't have time to volunteer for the veterans or the children or the disabled or any of the beautiful causes. What they have is the three family in downtown Boston and they can't take it to heaven and they don't want to pay taxes on it and they are happy, they are grateful to learn about it. So all we are saying is educate people. Okay, that comes to the question how do we educate them?
Speaker 2:Look, you're already sending out newsletters. You're already doing fundraisers. You're already doing another boring golf tournament. You're already doing another hot, sweaty 5k run in the sun. What you just actually put on your flyer, hey guys. By the way, we can benefit from real estate too. Here's a glass of water. Have a nice run. So when these folks show up, or long before they get there with all of your PR and promotion, have it on the flyer, have it on the website.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it really is. Can be that easy. If I'm hearing you correctly, when they donate the house, they could say but I want the proceeds to go to this nonprofit.
Speaker 2:That's exactly right. So if I have a $100 bill and I want to be generous and philanthropic, who decides who gets that $100 bill? I decide if the church gets it or if the veteran group gets it.
Speaker 2:Same concept here my house, my strip mall. As a matter of fact, I think I sent you the link just about six weeks ago, there was a house just donated. 33 million dollar house was donated for I think it's the american cancer society. I know it has something to do with cancer. One person donated their house. One person donated their house. I see videos all the time of adventurous explorers that find these huge mansions Anywhere from Miami to Beverly Hills and towns in Texas and everywhere in between. These houses are vacant and they still have furniture and cars in the garage. Have you seen those?
Speaker 1:videos. It's crazy and it reminds me of something a little bit different, and that is. There's nothing that breaks my heart more. When I see a house that's been beautifully, universally designed, I know the owner must have been somebody who was disabled or had a family member who was disabled.
Speaker 1:And so many times these houses are not sold with realtors advertise that so that house never gets back to the community of somebody that could actually enjoy the house as is, that could actually enjoy the house as is. What ends up happening is you have family members who just don't think anybody else they are the only family that supposedly had a disabled individual and there's nobody out there that can afford to buy this house. So they're either stuck with undoing the accessibility component because they want to sell it, or now they're just trying to sell it on the cheap, and I just think you know what? Wouldn't that be a great house to be donated to a disability organization? Probably a disability organization that pulled out the owner or the person that lived in that house and then at least that house is going back and benefiting the disability community, instead of the house being vacant or the accessibility being undone and sold to someone who doesn't need it.
Speaker 2:Let's open our minds to all of the abundance that is out in the world. And, to your point, if that house was set up, imagine my mother was in hospice. God bless her. She was only in hospice for 30 days, but my Lord, what an appreciation I have for those people. Those are pure angels on this planet to do great work and they deserve a lot of funding. Now, if somebody's relative was in hospice and they had all the ramps and all that stuff, they the person could donate it to benefit cost. That doesn't mean that hospice is wanting to have all these houses that are fit up, but, friends, if they were to donate to real estate, we are able to facilitate it and liquidate it and get across that $200,000 or $500,000. They could do with that money what they want.
Speaker 1:I'm just thinking, you know, when my time comes, I I much rather donate the house, while the proceeds could go to one of the many disability organizations, because I know that more than likely my nephews will not need the house and they will not enjoy the house in a way that I enjoyed it, as far as it's literally freedom for me and I don't know if somebody is going to buy the house and need the accommodation. But at least I can know that the proceeds will benefit the disability community. On the organization that I will choose when a house is donated, I think that's a really fabulous idea.
Speaker 2:That's the beauty of what we're talking about. See, all the way back to our beginning conversation, who would donate their real estate? How would you talk to them? You educate them and let them know that it's possible. So now you even know that it's possible and you're a young woman, like you said, you're about 40, right, it's going to be another 20, 25, 30, 40 years before that time comes, but now that you're educated, you could be one of the people that donates the real estate. Right, think about all the people that are in senior centers and nursing homes and you know, who have alzheimer's or parkinson's and all these types of disabilities that need to be funded. Those people could be donating their property if they knew. So. There's 1.5 million non-profits in this country and whatever it is that you're passionate about, whoever it is that you're wanting to help, they can benefit from real estate, but only if they know, and people don't know. That's a tragedy. People don't know that they can do it, and that's why we wrote the book. Real estate is hot, fundraising is not. Yeah, I read. It will always be a better way to fund a nonprofit than a fundraiser. That's a bold statement.
Speaker 2:But when you're doing another golf tournament and begging friends to buy a $5 or $20 raffle ticket. And begging the local businesses to donate another basket. And begging this business and that business to give you 500 or $5,000. Look, I get it, I've done it. I begged for baskets. I put baskets together and donated. I sold tickets, I bought tickets. I've been there and done that. I haven't played golf because I don't play it, but I've driven around in a golf cart with gold cocktails. Right, I have been there and done that. And what we're saying is one piece of real estate on average is $600,000 in proceeds to the non-profit world. And when people sit around thinking I don't know anybody that would donate real estate, let's go beg our friend who can't afford $20 raffle ticket. Let's go beg them to get in debt with their credit card. But let's not even tell anybody about this because I don't think they would do it.
Speaker 1:Yes, it sounds like a wonderful opportunity. Now let's talk logistics. So let's say, someone had wanted to donate a house and you talk about liquidation, Like how does? Is it on fair market value? What's the process? The logistics Briefly describe the process.
Speaker 2:It's like selling real estate in general. It's a big conversation about titles and deeds and payoffs and escrows and all that stuff. Suffice it to say that we have a really simple way for any nonprofit to. This is why 99% of realtors don't even know how this works. Even they stand to make a full commission to sell this real estate. But what happened was about four years ago.
Speaker 2:I learned that there are a handful of what we call specialized nonprofits whose sole reason for existing is to take title to real estate, give the proceeds to the nonprofit that the donor wants to have it. Is that the legacy listing? We call it a legacy listing. Great question, because when a real estate agent that's what they do you have a house that you want to sell, you meet it. A legacy listing? Great question Because when a real estate agent that's what they do you have a house that you want to sell, you meet with a realtor, they sign a contract and they list the property on the MLS.
Speaker 2:They put it up on the web, they let people know that it's for sale. We call these legacy listings because when that piece of real estate is listed on the market by a realtor who gets paid a full commission. It's a legacy listing because at the end of the day, when that property sells, an average of $600,000 is left in a legacy to the nonprofit world. So the nonprofit gets legacy, the donor is leaving legacy and the realtor is earning legacy by listing that real estate for sale.
Speaker 1:That's why we call it a legacy listing If you're a realtor, because I always like to connect with the realtors when promoting disability, home ownership and working with organizations is there any special licensing or anything that you need to do in general or you would recommend if you're a realtor and you want to get into this legacy listing?
Speaker 2:Great question. We're the only ones who have it. I was a real estate agent for 20 years myself when I learned about this. My very first thought when I first heard about this holy cow realtors can actually have a unique sales proposition For the first time. They really can be unique veteran experts and BA loans and just luxury and multifamily and commercial and lands and ranch and equine properties and all these different types of specialists for realtors all over the country. But this is a specialty that they've just never heard of before, and the reason they've never heard of it is because nonprofits haven't wanted to take real estate, so why bother to go talk to them about it? But we learned about this was the first thing we did. We created the charitable real estate masterclass, which is also how they get certified as a charitable real estate specialist and you have to be certified. But you do need to understand that it is possible.
Speaker 2:As a matter of fact, there's a real estate company in malibu, california. I spoke with this young guy. He's like 25, he's already been the president of the board of the malibu board of realtors and he said to me he said sammy, I, we know people who wanted to donate real estate, but in their mind, if that client donates that real estate now, I'm not going to get paid a commission. They're giving the property away and that's great for the church and the veterans and whoever, but we're not going to get paid. So he said we haven't really delved into it or been that interested in trying to figure it out, but what we're saying is we understand that. That's why we want the realtors to know not only are you not losing your commission, not only are we not asking you to give 10 of your commission as a, we're actually guaranteeing the realtor gets paid a full commission to list the property, just like any other real estate they would ever list.
Speaker 2:Only now the proceeds. What better way for a realtor to have a unique sales proposition than to be able to say hey, everybody at the Chamber of Commerce, hey everybody on Facebook, hey everybody in my neighborhood. I specialize in charitable gifts of real estate. I'm a catalyst to bring millions of dollars into this community. I care enough about this community that I want to teach all 5,000 nonprofits here that they can benefit from gifts of real estate too. That's why realtors want to know about this.
Speaker 1:It sounds like a very profitable opportunity for them, and I presume that they are like realtors, that they are assessing the house and selling it for the fair market. That there isn't discounts simply because of the house being donated. That they go through the normal process of listing the house.
Speaker 2:Thank you for that clarity. Here's the thing, friends. We're not talking about probate, we're not talking about wholesaling. We're not talking about junk garbage rat infested, covered in graffiti. Can't get rid of it gas station with tumbleweed. We're not talking about that kind of stuff. We're talking about six weeks ago I just don't have it in front of me or I tell you exactly the man's name who donated this real estate.
Speaker 2:There was a $10 million office building in Birmingham, alabama, that was donated to a nonprofit. Mackenzie Scott, who is the ex-wife of Jeff Bezos, two years ago donated three houses totaling $55 million worth of proceeds to go to the nonprofit world. Now, not suggesting you need to know people that own property that's 10 million, 50 million, 100 million, but we've got stories about a $200,000 house, $1.2 million ranch in California, condos. There was a $5 million hotel in Naples, florida, last year. In other words, it can be any kind of real estate from anywhere in the country. And ultimately, the only way to give the nonprofit world a check is to sell the real estate. And guess how we sell it? We sell it by hiring a realtor to list it just like any other real estate they'd ever list, and we guarantee them a full commission.
Speaker 1:If you are a non-profit, what do you need to do?
Speaker 2:Learn. This is all about learning. As a matter of fact, if you indulge me in our book, real Estate is Hot, fundraising is Not. We have the five keys that unlock charitable gifting of real estate. P number one is to just learn. Just learn what it is, because people don't know what they don't know. And we've got 100 hours of free video on YouTube, we've got a charitable master class, we've got interviews, all that fun stuff.
Speaker 2:P number two is to lead generate. We alliterate everything, so they're all Ls. And we say lead generate because once you've learned what it is, that's not going to do you any good unless you could talk to people about it. Let people know that this is an option. Key number three is to list and liquidate, because now that you've learned what it is and you're lead generating, now you're going to get the real estate that need to be listed and liquidated.
Speaker 2:Key number four is to leverage, meaning really understand why the realtor, why the donors, why the nonprofits, why all these people benefit. Because when you understand it and you start to leverage and collaborate and bring these people together for the education so that we're all making money and making a difference, then key number five is all about leaving legacy, and legacy can be cash to your kids. It could be leaving legacy that now your real estate company has the only charitable real estate division in your town. It could be legacy that now your nonprofit. While you're doing all the cookie sales and golf tournaments and GoFundMe accounts, while you're doing all that, keep doing all that. But while you're doing that, you're letting people know, by the way, we can benefit from real estate.
Speaker 1:Sounds like an easy roadmap, but constantly having to revisit One question I do have. I assume that the people who buy these donated houses they get the benefit of a fair market house and they get the benefit of knowing that they are supporting an organization for charity. Is there any other benefit to people buying these donated houses that we haven't really talked about?
Speaker 2:For the buyer? There really isn't and there's a little bit of a misconception about that. So imagine Bob Smith has a million dollar condo in Florida and he wants your non-profit to have the property. When he donates that real estate he's writing a million dollars off of his taxes, off of his adjusted gross income. He's saving a lot of money in taxes. He's doing something good for you, he's doing it for his pocket and he's doing it for his heart. Once he donates that property and then Mary the real estate agent lists it Friends, that's list it. It's on the MLS, it's on realtorcom. Anybody can buy it. It's not listed as a donated piece of real estate. It's not like that. I mean it can be and if they're smart, they'll do a little bit of marketing around. I would do that, yeah, and if you're working with us, we would tell you it would be smart for you, the non-profit and it's the condo complex they want to live in. They're not buying it to help your non profit. They're buying it because they're a buyer looking for a condo in Florida.
Speaker 1:Okay, that's great to know. Is there anything else you would like to tell the audience in closing?
Speaker 2:I just want to say learn what it is. There's a gentleman named Herbert Spencer who has a quote around the one thing that will keep man or woman, all of us in everlasting ignorance, and that thing is contempt prior to investigation. Don't assume you know what it is. I promise you don't, and here's how I'll tell you that I can plant my flag that I promise you you don't know what it is. Because if you're a non-profit and you're not bringing in hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars for real estate, you have no idea what this is.
Speaker 2:If you're a realtor and you are not promoting and letting all 5,000, I'm saying 5,000 for a reason the average amount of nonprofits per county in this country is 5,000.
Speaker 2:If you're not letting the nonprofits in your marketplace know that they can get funded by the millions from real estate, it's because you don't know how this works. If you're a financial advisor who is helping people buy life insurance or helping people get tax deductions and you're out helping with these golf tournaments and all these things that you do to try to look like a good person and I'm sure you are a good person but if you're not letting your clients know that they can donate real estate, it's because you don't have this work. And if you're a property owner who has a heart for any cause or a head for saving money on taxes and you don't already have one of your pieces of property lined up to donate, it's because you don't know how this works. Just you know. Let's put our ego in our back pocket. Let's open up our minds and learn how this works, because nine billion with a b, nine billion a year, is donated this way. That's a lot.
Speaker 2:It's not. I wonder yeah, it's not. I wonder if this will work. I want do people really do that? It's been happening for 100 years. I've never heard of it. It's not. I wonder if this will work. Do people really do that? It's been happening for 100 years.
Speaker 1:I've never heard of it. It must not be happening. No, it's just not happening. For you I will tell you in the audience is that I really enjoy this conversation and what I am going to do is I've got a lot of disability nonprofit organizations.
Speaker 1:I'm involved here in the state of Maryland and I will make the commitment to let them know about the fact that they can do fundraising through donated real estate, and also I will encourage anybody that has property that does have universal design or is one level private residential housing that you want donated, to work with your realtor to make sure that information is included in real estate, because the last thing I want to see is that be undone, that you feel like you have to fix it, because there is a market for disability home ownership. There are people with disabilities that have multiple houses, or people who are disabled that can afford to buy a house, but there's just not enough on the market, and so this could be a win. You could get a donated house that has some kind of universal design, and I will be reaching out to my organizations I know and the realtors that I know to make sure all of that is connected. Kami, I want to thank you so much for your time.
Speaker 2:And everyone listening. Thank you for joining me.
Speaker 1:Thank you, bye-bye. Horizontalhousescom is the hub for all things related to disability home ownership. You will find my blog, this podcast, my book and how my consulting services can help real estate agents or housing developers market and tap into the largest minority group, the disability community. Please help me continue this exploration of disability home ownership by connecting through my Facebook page. Remember, sharing our collective experiences will allow us each to lower the kitchen sink but raise the bar for disability home ownership. Thank you, you.