Real Estate Sessions Rewind - Randing and Raving with Joe Rand - Navigating the Complexities of Good Deeds and Ethics

Hi, Everybody. Welcome to December 2025. And I want to have a little fun this month.And so what we're going to do is we're going to replay I'm going to pick five of the Randing and raving sessions with Joe Rand. In these sessions, we had a caller call in and give Joe a question that he had to answer.And if you know Joe Rand, sometimes these questions are going to set him off. So it's going to be a lot of fun.This week, I couldn't resist bringing back an episode that the guest who calls in the question is my good friend John Biorly, who recently passed away. And so he had a couple of these questions that he called in on.So that's where we're going to start with John Bjorley and Joe Rand here in the Randing and Raving Rewind sessions. Enjoy.

Hey, everybody.

Welcome to another bonus episode of Randing and raving. We are back with Joe Rand, real estate raconteur. The premise of this series is very simple.We have listeners call in and leave a question or a comment for Joe to respond to. Joe has no idea which voicemail I'm going to play for him. And we just sit back, relax, and let Joe go. So let's get this show on the road.Joe, it's June. You made it.

We've been doing this little ranting and raving. Now this, I think this is episode 12. And you've been just so happy about June and the two weeks of summer, quote unquote, in New York.How are you doing?

I am totally miserable, Bill. I got to tell you. I am ready to jump off a cliff. I, you know, we went through Memorial Day was a. Weather was terrible. But here's the thing.Here's why I'm in such a state right now. Like, I love June and some. But the thing that's. That hangs over my June like a specter, like a, Like a, like just a.Like a dark, dark shadow over my gym is. My wife's birthday is at the end of June, June 28th, my wife's birthday. And this one is a particularly big birthday. There's a zero on the birthday.So this is a. This is a momentous one. This is a big one, Bill.

Yeah.

You know, you got to make sure you do it on. On my last zero birthday. My fifth, I'll just say, is my 50th birthday. My wife's younger than I remember my.

I remember my 30th, Joe. And it's a big birthday.

You remember your 30th no, I thought that was.

I'm talking about your wife, you know.

Yes, that's right. It's the 30th. Well, I just said. I just said mine was the 50th. So now people are like, oh, this is.He's one of those guys whose wife's 25 years younger than him. My wife is. Is younger than me, but in a totally appropriate way. Let's just say that.

Bill.

It's not. I'm not robbing the cradle, but yet she is.

She is significantly and substantially younger and.

Looks even younger than that compared to me. She's a lovely, beautiful woman. I love her dearly. And it's her birthday, and I have to particularly honor this birthday.But, boy, it is buying a gift for a zero birthday, you know, an ift, whatever birthday it is. The pressure is on Bill.And throwing a party in the middle of, like, just finally at the cusp of, like, you know, post Covid, we could actually have people do stuff. And I've been trying to find something to do nice for her for her birthday. For my 50th birthday, she put together.She asked me, she came up with this idea, and we did this concert in a local jazz club where I performed with the house band a bunch of songs that I'd written in college that had never been performed, had never even been charted. I used to write music, Bill, but I never.

What did you say?

I play the piano a little bit. And I used to sing in college in an acapella sing group. So I can sing reasonably well. All right. And I can.I can play the piano just a little bit, just well enough to be able to bang out chords and things like that. But I had written music, right?I written, like, probably a dozen dozen songs and then probably pieces of another 15 or 20 songs, but I had, like, 12 completed compositions that, you know, just pop songs, right? And. And I never. Except for one that. That we performed in the acapella group that I'd written.And then we got it late, you know, we got it arranged for acapella, and we started singing it. And in fact, that song is still the group that I belong to at Georgetown in the late 80s, because I'm really old.The group 30 years later still does that song, still performs that song that I wrote. We need to be proud of that.

We need the name before you can continue. First of all, I don't even know you anymore. I need to know the name of the group. You were in the acapella group at Georgetown.

I was In a group called the Georgetown Chimes. It's a group that goes back to 1946. It's an all male acapella group, four parts. It's. It's a wonderful group.

It.

It very. You are. You are a. I was a. I was a second tenor or what we call a lead.

A sec.

A lead. Of course I was a lead. I was doing the solo. Yeah, I was doing it.

I was doing solos.

I was the front man. Bill.

I was the front guy.

I was doing the big song. That was me. Personality guy. That's my. All the leads have personality.

No, wait, I've got to interview you now. I'm going to interrupt your, your, your, your rant a little bit.

Okay.

Your rave, whatever I call it. So if I said to you, hey, I'm going to play this song, I'm going to put it in. Let's go. The key is going to be B. You're like, okay, cool. I.

You know, it's tough to. I don't know. I'm not that. I'm not that sophisticated to know whether I could.I would have to know like what the high note is and I would really have to. And plus it's been 25 years, so my range is not what it used to be. But so, you know, I could. I. I'm not that. I'm not really a musician.That's what I'll say.

I'm not.

I have some talent as a singer, limited talent, less talent as a. As a. As a pianist.

But I mean, here's the thing.

I'm. I am relatively creative about stuff. So when I did get into music in college, I started writing songs.So like I haven't really written anything since from a song perspective and I never really kept up with it.

But like I come up with stuff.

And so I wrote some songs and some of them I think are still pretty good. They were fun.

And I'll send you the. It was videotaped.

So there's some video existence of this.

And.

And I still sing occasion.

I sing.

Rob Hahn has karaoke night and most of the Inmans and I go to his karaoke night. I perform with him. He's been very nice to me about that.

Your go. You're your go to karaoke song. You only get one song. You got to impress the hell out of somebody. What's the one song you'll sing?

I would sing the Beatles Come Together because I have a. I have a. I can do a version of Come Together that is very gritty from the. It Sounds very different from the original. So it's sort of like an original take, but on the song, which is what you want.You don't want to, like, try to sound like yourself. You don't want to try to do the song like the person that does it, because then you're a pale imitation. You got to do a take on.You gotta do something a little different. So I do a little bit of a take on Come Together, which is a little bit more. A little more.

I don't know.

I don't know how to describe it. And I'm not gonna do it now, so don't even, like, try queuing up something. Plus, we can't.

But I'm looking for. I'm looking for videotape, as we call it here on the show.

I posted the Facebook, some of the.

Videos of some of the songs that I sang at my 50th birthday with the band with my wife there. So that was my.

Let's bring it back.

That was my 50th birthday.

So what, man? She gave me this wonderful gift where.

She allowed me to, you know, dredge up this music that had never been performed in front of, like, 50 or 60 of my closest friends in New York. And it was just this wonderful night.

And, like, what am I going to do?

Take her to dinner?

Like, what the hell do I do? And then I have to get her a gift, Bill. A gift.

I know now I. I now know why you're so. Why your June is miserable so far.

Miserable.

Like, most years I don't have this. Like, if it's her, you know, if it's a regular birthday, it's just a.

Little bit of pressure. Like, everybody's got the pressure you got back.

But this is like a very heightened pressure, Bill. I'm very nervous. How do I just. And that's gift. Bill. I've been with this woman 25 years. She has. I. I can't. There's no more jewelry.I bought her, like, every possible, like, combination of earrings and bracelets and. And rings and. And necklaces and, like, all the different stones. Like, there's nothing left. I mean, there's jewelry left that I could go spend money.

But, like.

But I just mean, like, every. Whatever I would buy her, she already has something that's like, basically, oh, string of pearls.

Like, she got string of pearls. You got earrings, I got earrings. I got.

You know, she's got it all, Phil.

It's got to be an experience, Bill.

I'm a very job giving her everything I got.

It's got to be.

I saved nothing for this birthday.

It's.

It's got to be an experience.

I know you've got it in you.

To figure out what experience can you deliver.

What.

What thing can you. You share with her and she. That she wants really bad and you really don't need. Don't make sure it's all about her. Oh, my God.

Well, I mean, listen, the one thing she wants which I just really can't afford to give her would be a divorce. I mean, that's the one thing that would make her happy.

To be free of me after all these years, to be able to go out on her own with her, you know, the. The fit boot camp body that she's built and she's this really wonderful.

And she's stuck.

That's not where I was going.

That's the experience she wants.

She wants the experience of, like, having a new freedom.

That's the one freedom that would make her happy. Bill.

Some. Somehow I. I know. You just. Yeah, you're gonna. You.

You. Oh, yeah, yeah. I'm just kidding, of course.

In fact, we probably should get on with this episode because you got some work to do. Yeah.

I gotta go figure something out.

And if anybody listening has some good ideas. I know all you Russian bots, you've got access to lots of dirty, dirty gold and.

And diamonds from the mines that, you.

Know, you plunder, by the way, for any Russian bots.

Bl.

Listening. I've never used that term. That's always Joe Rand. Okay, let's. Let's go to this. Let's go to this week's question.

Let's hear the question.

Hi, this is John from Phoenix. No, not Mississippi. Phoenix, Arizona. And I really just have an ethics question, something that I recently experienced.It's a busy day at the grocery store. You finally get everything in the trunk, and that's when you spot the $5 item that definitely wasn't paid for.And I'll add that there's ice cream in the equation, and the girl moving the carts in the parking lot won't take any amount of money to fix this. As a matter of fact, the more you offer, the more it frightens her. So I'm just wondering, what does one do in that situation?What do you think most people do? And I could even ask what you think a realtor might do, but I. I hate to have a bunch of bad apples shed a negative light on the entire profession.Thank you.

All right, John from Arizona, who I.

Do not know, whose voice I do.

Not recognize sometimes we know who. Who the caller is, so I'm able to talk a little bit about them in a hopefully fun way. I don't know. John is, I will say this.

He's like, like, at least our second.

Maybe third caller from Arizona. So we must have, like, really good demographic penetration in Arizona, besides Odessa and Arizona be the two places that we do very well. And the bot.The BOT home headquarters as well as Arizona.

So it's good to have somebody else.

From Arizona calling in and who's going into summer, which is the time of year in Arizona when you never leave your house. You know, that's a.

And, you know, I will say this, Bill, because I've always felt like I.

Really couldn't live in that kind of climate. Like, it just, it's too hot. I don't like the heavy heat. I don't know. It's a dry heat, but it's 110 degrees. It's pretty damn hot.I don't care whether it's dry or wet. 110 degrees, 110 degrees. But what someone said to me, which I thought was so smart, who lives out there?And I don't know if it's that novel an observation, but she said, you.

Know, if you live in, like, the.

East coast, you never leave the house in, like, December, January, February, because it's too cold. I'm like, yeah.

She says, well, we just don't leave.

The house in July and August because it's too hot.

And I'm like, you know, that makes sense.

I kind of get it. You know, as long as your air conditioning works, I guess it's okay. And you go in the pool and stuff and whatnot.

So I get it. Arizona, very nice.

Right.

I'm worried a little bit about the.

You know, 20 years from now with global warming, it might be like the surface of the sun. But, like, right now, I think it's probably very nice. And, and I've been there a few times. It's always been very hospitable to me.

All right, so let's talk about this question that John had, which, by the way, the best question we've gotten in.

Four months or three months of ranting and raving. This is a great question because it.

Presents this wonderful ethical dilemma of what do you do when you, you went to the supermarket, you bought a bunch of stuff, you brought it out to your car, and now you discover that there was something in there that you didn't pay for, maybe was in your pocket.

Maybe it just didn't get.

Didn't get scanned. It's $5. It's not a lot of money, because.

If it was like $50, it's a much starker choice.

But $5. Like $5. So it's a good question. And obviously he brings up the ice cream because he lives in Arizona.So that ice cream basically melts from the time that you leave the supermarket to get in your car. So you really need to, you know.

You need to get home fast.

You can't be, like, running. You can't be running around the super. So let's look at our options here.

He.

He describes one which I think is a very bad option, and that is to find the.

He mentions a parking lot attendant, which.

I guess they have in.

In Arizona. What a terrible job that is to stand on the asphalt all day pulling. Pulling carts around.

But I guess they had.

I guess that's a job there.

Sure.

All right, so let's say the parking.

I don't. They don't have them in New York. I. I've never seen a parking attendant in New York at a. Supermarkets I go to.

But then again, I live in a.

Very dangerous part of town where. Right. You know, no one wants to be working outside in the part of town I live in.

So the part who is a woman. He mentions the woman. So he mentions, like, trying to give.

Her cash, and she refuses it. Now, I would just say this. I have always found in my experience that offering a woman in a parking lot cash is just not a good plan.

Like, that's just never the solution to.

Any problem that you have.

It always ends badly.

It's in a variety of ways here.

I hear you loud and clear.

Okay, so you've had that same experience.

And it just didn't go well for you. No, I haven't.

I think you've admitted to something here, Bill.

It's okay. This is all therapy for both of us.

I don't think I did.

You've been in the parking lot and you've. All right, done the thing. All right, so that's option one.

Option two is you go and you try to explain what happened and you.

Try to give the people $5. Now, here's the problem with that, is that now you've entered the bureaucracy of the supermarket. Right?

Like, it's not just so easy that you can go back and say, hey, you forgot to scan item.

It's $5. And can I just give you $5? Because, like, they have inventory they're managing, right.

And they have to, like, keep track.

Of the inventory and they got to make.

And if it's 496, they got to.

Give you your 4 cents of change back.

Like, this is not. It's not that easy. Like, it's not like you can just go in and say, hey, here's $5. It's not like you're at a flea market. It's a supermarket.

Yeah, flea market's why you go, hey.

I forgot to give you this.

Here's $5 for that thing that my kid grabbed off the table. Whatever.

It's not that easy. And that's.

That's the real problem, is that your.

Ice cream slowly melting while you're working your way through the manager and the assistant manager. So you give back five stupid dollars.

So here is the best solution, is you drive away with your stolen mango, whatever it is that you got, your stolen mango, you drive blissfully away. You. You. You just forget about what happened.You say to yourself, well, at some point in my life, I'm sure that they overcharged me for something in that supermarket. Like, I was supposed to get a.

Sale, and I didn't get the sale.

They didn't ring it up correctly, and.

That this is just evening the ledger.

Of my life of, like, times I was screwed out of five bucks. Ten times I screwed somebody else out of five bucks. So you drive off. And then. And then, Bill, here's the way you. You adjust your karma.Because you don't want the bad karma that comes from stealing $5 from the supermarket, right? Is that you then give $5 to, like, some charity of your choice, some worthy charity.So now that $5, which would instead have gone to big agriculture or big supermarket chain, right, and been absorbed into their big, you know, monolithic maw and.

Otherwise just never made it. That $5 is making a difference.

You're. You're feeding the children, or you're. You're clothing the naked, or you are, I don't know, buying books for the library. I don't know, whatever.

Your $5, wherever you want to put it, you put the $5 in them. Because then there's no bureaucracy. You've done something nice for the charity you didn't create. I mean, I'll be honest with you, Bill.I know that, like, you, you're shocked by this because you're saying you really should go back and give the $5. But you know what?Nobody that works at that supermarket wants to spend 20 minutes figuring out how to account for your $5 mango that they forgot to ring up.

Nobody.

They don't want that. They'd rather just chalk it up to, like, shoplifting and be done with it. They have an acceptable rate of loss in the supermarket.They know that some percentage of their stuff is going to walk out. And they also know that some percentage of the time they don't ring up the sale and they get over on.

Somebody, like, should they know it all balances out.

So shrinkage is built into the P and L is what you're telling me.

Yeah, it's exactly right.And so you take that $5 and, and rather than bring it back and cause all these problems for everybody at the supermarket, you go and you give that $5 or the mango, you can.

Give the mango itself, if you really want to, you know, wash your hands of the whole thing and you go give it to a charity of choice.

And thereby the universe is restored. The karma is balanced. Everybody wins. You win because you didn't, your ice cream didn't melt.The charity wins, and the people that work at the supermarket win. And then the only people that don't win are the people that own the supermarket. But they're all a bunch of capitalist pigs anyway, Bill.

So we don't care about that.

So I have this question for you are a, a very highly educated attorney.

Yeah.

Who actually taught law at Fordham.

Yeah.

All this holds up in the world of law.

We're all good with your, your answer. I, I, I would say that in order to. This is a very, it's a very serious. You're not turning an ethical question to a legal question, Bill.

I respect that.

Okay.

Two different things.

Ethics and law. Two different things.

Yeah.

I think it's actually a harder ethical question because, like, you know, you are.

Taking the $5 and you're playing Robin Hood. You're taking the $5 from the rich grocer, and you're giving it to the poor charity.

So, like, there's a little bit of.

Like, the ethical dilemma there from a legal perspective is there's something called mens rea. Mental state. You have to, in order to commit a crime, you have to have the mental state of wanting to steal it. But I didn't have that mental state.It was an accident.

They accidentally didn't ring it through.

So I didn't have the mental state to commit a crime.

Now the question becomes, do I commit.

A crime when I drive away with it and give the mango to the.

Blessed sisters of the poor?

That's a tougher question because now, once I knew that I owned it, that I got it illegally, right.

Then did I commit a crime?

And the answer is very tough to prove, Bill. Very tough to prove that I knew that I didn't have any rights to that mango.So if I were advising somebody, I would say from a legal perspective is drive away very difficult and improve that year.

That's the kind of lawyer I was, Bill. Just drive away. Don't say anything, say nothing to nobody about nothing.

That's awesome. I, I, if I ever need an attorney, you're my guy.

I'm your guy, Bill. Bill, you call me if you're trying to get off on something.If you don't call me about the compliance part of it, like, oh, hey, bro, should we put in these compliance things? I'm like, I don't know. But if you call me and say, listen, there's a dead body in my trunk, what do I do?

I'm like, all right, here, Bill, here's what you do.

You need three cans of gasoline. You need an empty field.

You saw, you saw prophecy, young woman, too.

No, I'm just kidding. Oh, my God. All right.

So that's the answer. The answer is you balance out the.

Karma and you don't create any more problems for the that poor 18 year old cashier who the last thing I want to do is have to call a manager in to say they forgot to ring up the mango. Right, There you go. Everybody wins.

Except for the capitalist grocer, but he's probably doing okay. He got a tax break.

He's fine.

John, I hope this was the answer. This couldn't have been the answer you were looking for because it's impossible to figure out what the hell he's going to say. So wonderful job, Joe.I think this is great. John, thanks for the question.And if you want to leave a question for Joe Rand to get to have him, one, make fun of you and two, answer your question, dial us up at 480-270-4590. It's a dedicated Google voice line.Thanks, Google voice, for the free stuff that you're supposed to start charging for in 2011, but you still give it to us for free. You can leave your message there so we can play it for Joe. Joe, I hope you do well figuring out what to get for your bride.And have a great, a great week and we'll talk to you next week.

Pressure's on, Bill. I'll let you know how it's going next week when we talk.

All right?

In the meantime, thanks, everybody. Thank you for the call. Thank you, John, for the call.

And thanks, Bill. I appreciate your time.

Thanks so much for checking out Randing and raving with Joe Rand on the Real Estate Sessions podcast. Please remember to subscribe to the podcast. You can always throw in a rating and review that helps as well.And to leave your question or comment for Joe, the number is 480-270-4590. Cheers.

See you.

Bill.