Real(ty) Talk
Real(ty) Talk
Navigating New Real Estate Policies: Affordability, Agent Commissions, and Maximizing Property Value
Curious about how new real estate policies are reshaping buyer affordability and agent commissions? This episode of Realty Talks promises insights into the latest trends that could affect your next big property decision. Discover the historical evolution of loan limits, particularly in Southern California, and how recent changes aim to keep homeownership within reach despite rising interest rates and bigger down payments. We also discuss the importance of leveraging skilled agents and lenders to navigate these turbulent waters effectively.
For sellers, we uncover the secret to maximizing property value with turnkey appeal, especially for millennial buyers who crave move-in-ready homes. Learn about the impact of strategic, disciplined renovations and how services like Menden Markets can transform your property without upfront costs, leading to faster and more profitable sales. We share our unique approach to home renovations, ensuring transparency and alignment with your interests to deliver superior results. Tune in for practical tips and expert advice on making the most of today's dynamic real estate market.
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Suzanne Seini:
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Paul Hanson:
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Stephen Couig:
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So I'm up around 3.30, 3 o'clock Every day, every single day. Well, I'd say maybe six days a week. There's some days I might wake up, like around five or six, wow.
Speaker 2:Welcome back. Realty Talk Podcast part two. With Agent F. We had a great conversation. We did A lot of interesting subjects, but we have a few additional subjects that we want to get into that probably have some more meat, and so we wanted to break it out.
Speaker 2:Suzanne stepped out. She did, she left For business. She might be back. She might be, we'll see. We're going to keep going. Hopefully she'll come back. She'll definitely come back to the business, but I don't know what the meeting she's going into might be. They're talking about you, of complicated transactions, yeah, okay.
Speaker 2:So a couple other questions for you, which I think are you know, really. You know, I think I understand a lot of it, but we asked a little bit around. You know what's made you so successful? I want to hone in on you. Know you as an individual, your daily routine, because I, you know, currently I'm mentoring a couple of agents at the brokerage. Yeah, and you know, I've mentored other people over the last 10 years or 15 years of my career, and younger generations are always looking to more experienced people for guidance and input.
Speaker 2:What I've seen with most successful people is that they have a serious routine and they look at the way that they spend their time, you know, and they ask questions like is this chunk of time adding value to my life, right? So I'd love to just get more about you know what you do on a daily basis. You know, physically, emotionally. I don't know if we can talk about spiritual here. I guess religion is probably okay to talk about, but I don't know if we can talk about spiritual here. I guess religion is probably okay to talk about, but I don't know. You know what you want to get into, but like, what makes you tick?
Speaker 1:like what is a typical day for Franco Shamu okay, let's go start here, okay, so, so, before I start work, any kind of work whatsoever in the morning, I get up. I guess I'm up around 333 o'clock every day, every single day. Well, I'd say maybe six days a week. There's some days I might wake up, like around 5 or 6. Wow, what time do you go to bed? Probably about 9, 9.30, sometimes 10, when I actually fall asleep. Yeah, so you operate on like five or six hours of sleep, yeah, well, and here's why I was going to tell you okay, so, so, when I get up, I get up and I make myself a cup of tea, I go downstairs and I get into, set myself up to meditate. So I meditate for about maybe half an hour to 45 minutes, just depends. Right, yeah, everything's really quiet. What have you?
Speaker 2:I do that and is there like a specific practice of meditation? Or you breath, breathe like what? Is it focused on breathing? Or is there?
Speaker 1:a. So I do, I do a little bit of breath work, I'll do that, and I lead into the meditation and I do this thing called rap a. So it's an, it's an ancient snuff, it's it's mixed with comes from the Amazon. It you get it from a shaman or you get it from a temple, and what it is? It has a little bit of tobacco in it, but it's spices and what have you, and they come in different forms and they do different stuff and it's really what it's used for. It helps ground you, it helps settle your mind, it creates clarity, and you do it before you actually go into a meditative state. So there's a little bit of breath work. You do that. It's called rapé it's called rapé.
Speaker 1:yeah, it's like you sniff it, yeah, and it's like it comes in that you have like a bone pipe. I've never showed this to you before.
Speaker 2:No, oh wow, I can't believe we never talked about this.
Speaker 1:Okay, I'll have to introduce you to this.
Speaker 2:Next podcast, next podcast. We don't have to administrate it here.
Speaker 1:So, and what ends up happening is that you set your intentions for the day, right, so you set your intentions. So, talking about spiritual and what have you, so you set your intentions today, and usually when I'm doing that, I'm setting my intentions what I want my day to be like, and so on, and that usually includes the business right.
Speaker 1:Yes, you're thinking like personal business, family Personal business everything, yeah, everything is going through my mind and so on. So that's kind of all in my mind I do the rapé Rapé is pretty quick, quick meaning, like it just hits you in your system really hard, real fast.
Speaker 1:What ends up happening is that you, your nose starts draining, tears are coming out a little bit slightly. You purge, um, sometimes more days that are stronger than others. Just depends on what's going on the day before or that week. What have you? Yeah, once that drains out, uh, you blow your nose, you kind of let it all go. Then I go into a meditative state, then I mess up meditating and then I have my meditation sounds and so on, and that usually lasts about. I mean, honestly, it just depends. It depends on when I can clear my mind. So at that point what's happening is that I'm trying to clear my mind, let everything go and just take the frequency in, and it's not easy. I mean, this is very difficult, but once you get to that point, you can do that, you can manage it. Then I'm able. Let's say it lasts about a half an hour. Then, once I'm done with that, then how?
Speaker 2:long have you been practicing that? About three years? Oh wow, what inspired you to do that?
Speaker 1:So about four years ago or maybe a little bit longer than that, and I want to say it was right around, I think it was right around COVID four years ago, maybe a little bit longer than that, and I want to say it was right around, I think it was right around COVID when I started doing this. So I've always I was always inquiring about plant medicine yeah, I mean like ayahuasca and psilocybin being used for treatment and what have you. Yeah, so I met some people that actually that had some experience with shamans. They would go out to a retreat, like a wellness retreat. Yeah, um, you know, for several reasons, you know, they can maybe have trauma in their life, maybe they're going through like a problem with their family, whatever it may be. Yeah, so I was invited Right and, um, uh, and I've always wanted to do this, and so it was my first experience. I went out and um, and that's how it started.
Speaker 1:I don't want to get into too much detail on that, but I start looking more into that. My personality is that once I kind of dive into something, I look at something, I do a lot of research, and I do that with my business too as well Anything that I saw some interest in. I don't just go into it blindly. There's a lot of research and development in it. I'll research the heck out of it before I kind of make that decision if I'm going to do this or not do it. Is this good for me, not good for me, and so on.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I noticed. One of the things I've noticed about you is that you're extremely inquisitive, but you're, you know, inquisitive in a positive way, but you need to know the facts before you're you know before you're in it, right?
Speaker 1:before you make a full commitment. That is correct. I appreciate that. Yeah, that is true. Data is very, very important to me.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Information and the source that it comes from Right, right, so, anyway. So, through that is how I kind of, you know, embarked on this whole thing. Right, got it and so, and it fit for me, yeah, it. So I started practicing this and this is how I do this and I get ready to go to the gym. My gym day starts right around 5, 45, 6 o'clock. I work out five days a week, six days a week. What kind of workout are you doing?
Speaker 1:So I've been doing what they call CrossFit for about 14, 15 years, maybe 16 years, I can't remember. It's been a long time. Yeah, uh, so it's like a hit workout. Yeah, it's high, intensive, uh, training. I think most people understand what it is now. Um, uh, you know, some olympic lifting is a little bit of gymnastics. What have you? Yeah, that's been the training. Um, I do, uh, I do some endurance. I haven't been doing that much recently, but cycling, cycling, swimming, running. So fitness is a big thing, big part of my life. Yeah, it always has been. I always felt that maintaining your physique is extremely important Staying physically fit, your mind plus your body.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:So that's extremely important. Here's another thing that's interesting about me interesting fact that you might not know about me Sometimes what happens the days that I don't go to the gym? I will go through that meditation process, breath work and what have you, and then I bake.
Speaker 2:Oh.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'm a secret baker. I'm thinking about that. What do you bake? So that's another thing that's a hobby of mine, like the Great British Baking Show. No, no, no, no, like Wake and Bake, wake and Bake. Yeah, okay, no, no. So I have been cooking for myself since I was probably about 14, 15 years old.
Speaker 1:Yeah yeah, and I did it because I needed to lose weight, right, so it's part of my health and fitness, yeah, so over the years I have managed to figure out like taking certain recipes that are just general conventional recipes and turn them into make them healthy. So I do that with baking.
Speaker 2:Oh cool.
Speaker 1:But it's become more of a not meditation, but it's more therapeutical than anything else. Yeah, I zone in, I put on my music and I just kind of go at it. Yeah, and I don't have a recipe in mind as I go into it. I just look in the closet or look in the cabinets, look in the fridge, whatever's there, and I just put it all together. Oh cool, and I've been doing that for probably 10 years. Wow, yeah, sometimes I'll do two or three a day, which is funny.
Speaker 2:Really, and here's what's interesting?
Speaker 1:I don't eat it Really, yeah, ever I give it away, yeah.
Speaker 2:Oh, okay.
Speaker 1:I give it away, I take it to the guys at the gym or friends or whatever. I think I brought you guys some stuff here.
Speaker 2:You had like chocolate-covered dates and yeah, there's like other, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:So, anyway, that's another thing I kind of do, but that's kind of my morning thing, whatever. And then the workout. And then when I come back home, well, after that my wife and I will go to grab a cup of coffee, because it's still early, yeah, seven o'clock in the morning, and your wife goes with you to work out. Yeah, she goes with me, yeah, she's with me, she actually meditates with me, she does the rap with me. Really, we do it together.
Speaker 1:Yeah, wow, yeah, we do this all together and by the way, this is the Shamu team I should probably mention that, yeah which is my wife and I, and we have a smaller team, yeah. In any case, then after that we'll grab a cup of coffee, usually, and for about an hour we'll sit down and talk about our day and so on. We head back home to the home office and then, from right about from 9 o'clock to about I want to say 12 o'clock, it's prospecting time, so that's the time where we make our phone calls. Make phone calls, emails, get a hold of clients, setting up appointments kind of going through our emails. Sometimes you and I will talk, but appointments kind of going through our emails. Sometimes you and I will talk, but all that prospecting happens right around that time. Yeah.
Speaker 1:That's the window there, yeah, and then we have a system in place. We'll call our clients, existing clients, what have you? Just kind of bring them up to the market. What have you? Yeah, but there's going to be sometimes we have leads like new clients and so on. We'll make sure that we touch at least five new. We'll try to touch between five to ten new clients a day.
Speaker 1:Prospects, a new day, each of you, each of us, yeah, that's usually a goal that we try to reach. And then, yeah, we just you know, I mean, that's kind of the system that we have, yeah, and then, usually leading into the weekend, hopefully, if you're an agent selling property, what have you? If there's open houses, we're kind of preparing for that right, either preparing to do an open house or preparing to get a property on the market. What have you? Yeah, in some cases you have multiple open houses, yeah, sometimes multiple and so on kind of figuring out who's going to do this open house, who's going to do that once we kind of arrange all that stuff, yeah, and that happens later in the week, like Thursday and Friday, so that kind of goes on.
Speaker 2:How many units do you think on an annual basis, you and your team close?
Speaker 1:on either side. I want to say maybe about 25 to 30, some of the range.
Speaker 2:But higher dollar value deals and yeah, I mean they're.
Speaker 1:I think all over 1.7 million. Well, some average-wise.
Speaker 2:So do you attribute most of your success? Because that's a lot of volume when you look at the average agent in California I don't know the exact number I think there's 450 or 500,000 licensed agents in California.
Speaker 1:I haven't checked recently, but I know there was like 1.2, 1.3 nationwide and I think majority of them, or close to half of them, are in California. Yeah, and I think majority, and then out of that I think majority of them are between LA and Orange County.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but that average agent does like less than a half a deal a year. And you're doing 20 or 30 deals a year. Do you think your routine generates a lot of your success? Is it your mentality? What separated you from call it the average agent?
Speaker 1:Yeah, so, okay, well, a couple things. So those numbers are kind of skewed because there's a lot of people that have licenses that actually don't do anything.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that don't practice. Yeah, that don't practice.
Speaker 1:So I don't know what that real number looks like.
Speaker 2:Well, I mean at the brokerage. I could tell you, you know, I think you know, at Innovate. I think, most people know, we're a partner in that business. We have 170 agents or something you know, and I mean, I think a good full-time agent does maybe five or six transactions a year. That's like a good not like a great agent, not top 1%, but that's a good agent. So I mean you're doing five times that.
Speaker 1:Yeah. So here's the deal. Look, consistency, right, right, staying consistent with the business, building relationships. I think the issue a lot of times with young agents. You know they're a little lost, they're not sure which way to navigate, which way to go Right, and I think they're fearful also to get a mentor or a coach Right. So I made that mistake too as well Earlier on didn't have a coach, didn't have anybody kind of mentor me. I learned very quickly that I don't know it all.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 1:It was very important for me to kind of surround myself with people that were much smarter than me, much better than me, that had a lot more knowledge than me. So, getting a coach, having a mentor, and have them guide you, because you'll lose your path, it's no difference than I think. When, in the fitness world, I think that you want to go lose weight whatever, yeah, you can probably go drop some weight, cut your calories back, what have you Eat a little bit better, but most likely you'll probably regain that weight back right, or you might hurt yourself in the gym. Having a coach, having a nutritionist, will guide you, continuously guide you to reach those goals and keep that goal going. It's just the accountability, accountability, yeah. So I think that's extremely important.
Speaker 2:But you're in a place where you're able to hold yourself accountable to the process.
Speaker 1:I am, but we still have a coach though. So we still go back to our coach once a week. And you know, just because there's market changes, right things that are happening in the market, and then reminders, right, just reminders. I mean, look, I'll tell you. You know, I get lazy. I mean there's times I don't feel like doing anything. I'm like, you know, I'm just going.
Speaker 1:I have a hard time believing that I want to take a no, no seriously. I want to take a vacation, I want to relax, and then you know you do those things. That's fine, but you end up dropping the ball sometimes. So you've got to be reminded that you have a destination to go to.
Speaker 1:You have a commitment, yeah so, but yes, I think, after all these years, I do know what I need to do. Yeah, I don't necessarily always do it Right, yeah so. But being patient, being consistent, continuously building relationships is extremely important yeah, 100%. But that, I think that's the difference is finding a plan and sticking to that plan, yeah, and not pivoting constantly, just leaving Right. So, if you're that agent that's going to have leads and you're going to work those leads, work, those leads. Don't give up after two weeks.
Speaker 1:If you're going to farm, farming can take a year. It doesn't happen in one month or two months. Yeah, right, stick to it. Yeah, it's a long-term investment. Make that commitment. Look at the amount of money you're going to spend. You know it's going to cost you maybe I don't know $4,000 annually over the year. Put that aside. You know you're going to spend that money. Focus on that. If you're going to do door knocking, whatever it may be If you're going to do networking, focus on the networking, and I recommend you do all of it, actually A little bit of each one of them, for sure.
Speaker 2:But you've got three to four hours a day of dedicated prospecting time, yeah, and you also have an attention during that time to have five or ten conversations, correct. So there's a fair bit of accountability in your just general day and process.
Speaker 1:Correct. And then here's the thing, paul, I'll tell you Again there's agents that have different things that are going on right. They're doing this part-time Right, right, so they have other jobs right, and I get that. And I always say this, and I don't want to discourage any agent from not doing this business right, but I believe it's not a part-time business. If you want to be successful and you want to do 20, 30 transactions or whatever your goal is, you want to make half a million dollars a year or whatever it may be. I don't know of any part-time agent that can do that, unless they're completely established and they've done it all these years and they have a team now running it for them. That's a possibility, but it's a full-time job. Yeah, 100%.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think I mean for me, I think that's in everything, right. So the the, the quote that stands out to me the most is what you put in is what you get out.
Speaker 2:Yeah, right, and that that you know, for me that's global, that's like business, personal family, correct. You know, personally, I know I like to run up where that's. One of the reasons we probably connect so well is that we're both so focused on fitness and um, you know, if I want to go and run a sub three-hour marathon but I don't ever train, yeah, I just. You know, the cards aren't there, right like, that's not that's true.
Speaker 2:I mean there's maybe 100, maybe there's two people or three people on the planet today. They could just go and naturally run a sub three-hour marathon. Maybe, maybe not right, but so what I put in is what I'm going to get out. That's's the net result. In business, it's the same Correct. So if you are focused in five or six different areas to generate your income, but you want to be a million dollar producer in the real estate industry, I mean you're putting time into these other things that are distracting you from being great at that one right.
Speaker 1:That is correct.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that resonates really well.
Speaker 1:Yeah. And then the other thing, too, is that, once you get to that point where your business is doing well and you're generating income, I mean there's other avenues, right, right, so you can, you can invest in, uh, property, flipping property, right, right, and like bye-bye house, yeah, you know, you guys have a joint venture, a product right, where agents can actually uh invest with you, yeah, and make a piece of the pie, right, yep. So those are opportunities and we've done that several times with you and with other companies, right, yeah. So those are opportunities too as well. There's property management you name it. I mean, there's so many things that agents can, you know. Managing rental property, right, yeah, airbnb does that. So it's all setting your mind to it and wanting to execute, right. So I think that, honestly, I really think that, at the end of the day, the agent has to just be willing and wanting to do it, yeah, and understand that this is a truly successful business and they could make it successful and make a lot of money if they just focus on it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I personally.
Speaker 2:Obviously it might come across the wrong way because we're so heavily invested in single family real estate, but my actual belief is that it's one of the best industries on the planet today and will be for another 50, 60, 70 years.
Speaker 2:And it's kind of jokingly, but I personally believe humans are going to live on the planet for at least the next 100 years, and when they live here they're going to want to live in houses, and when they live in houses they're going to want to be nice. And so there's a ton of competition. Just like other industries, You've got to have an edge of some sort to be super successful in the top 1%. But I personally believe that this industry to create wealth is recession proof. In fact, most of the high net worth, very wealthy people that I know made their money in real estate in a recession, made their money in real estate in a recession. And so you know, I think it's just all about, you know, being willing to grind, being willing to go through phases where you're uncomfortable, right, and then having an intention, you know, with what your long-term you know vision is, or whatever.
Speaker 1:That's good In real estate specifically. Yeah.
Speaker 2:I would feel really bad if we didn't get to talk about. You know off subject. You know from what we've already discussed, but you know what we're going through right now in the next week or two, I think has a lot of agents out there. You know, in the world freaked out.
Speaker 2:So, I'd love to talk about kind of your perspective on the NAR changes, because that's happening now, right? So August 18th, 17th, the changes in relation to a and we've talked about this a fair bit on the podcast but we'll just do a quick recap but a buyer's agent, or an agent representing a buyer, now has to have a formal agreement in place to go and show a property. A seller is no longer going to be able to disclose what they're offering on the MLS to the buyer's agent. Compensation yeah, compensation-wise, and the buyer is going to have to commit to paying that buyer's agent either zero or something on that agreement so all of this stuff is going to be changing and it's in process.
Speaker 2:Now, one thing I learned today is that if we have properties that are on market and let's say we have, you know, we have, you know, I don't know $9 million worth of real estate that we're trying to sell right now on market we obviously believe that offering a 2.5% commission to the buyer's agent encourages brokers and agents to go and see the property. Sure, and so if that listing is active today, once the 17th kicks over, that changes right. So it doesn't matter if your listing already exists or if it's new. On the 17th, there's a new rule and a new way to play the game. So what's your?
Speaker 1:perspective on that. Yeah, so here's the deal. Right, it's a moving target. Yeah, it's changing.
Speaker 2:That's the deal, right, it's a moving target. Yeah, it's changing, that's the other thing. So what's my perspective on this.
Speaker 1:Okay, so it changes daily, so it's a little like even today there's something new that came out Yesterday, something new came out. Yeah, I think when I last looked, there was like 45 new documents or revisions of the old documents, a total between 45, somewhere in that range, I think, maybe more. So it's a lot to go through, right, but look the gist of it. Really, what it comes down to, it's going to come down to the buyer's representation. That's what this really comes down to, right, right, and the compensation for that.
Speaker 1:And the compensation for that, correct, yeah, so here's what it is. You have three agreements, essentially, right. You have a buyer broker and a buyer right. You have a listing agent and a homeowner seller and then, once you're in the contract, then you have the buyer and the seller in agreements. You have three kind of agreements you've got to kind of work through, right, yeah, when you're in a transaction.
Speaker 1:I think my perspective is this I always felt that it was the real estate industry Agents, realtors weren't regulated enough. So I have a different perspective on this, maybe, than most think. I always felt that I was a little bit more like the Wild West, and I think because my background comes from the lending side of stuff, which is extremely regulated, yeah, so compliance is heavy, extremely compliance heavy, and I remember this back in the lending days, I used to think, when I used to work with agents, I used to just cringe half the time. I couldn't believe some of the stuff that they would do and I was in surprise, always surprised, right, yeah, so anyway, so and that's probably to a function like to a certain degree, because the barrier of entry is so low.
Speaker 1:Very, very low, extremely easy to get your license Right. Hopefully all this will change in time. Yeah, and again, I don't wish that anyone you know loses their job or quits and walks away. I hope everyone you know, all these agents, kind of figure this out and make this work because it's good for the economy, right? Yeah, I don't believe that's probably what's going to happen. Right, I think it's going to come down to, honestly, it's going to come down to education. Yeah, how you present that education, that knowledge, how you convey that, how you articulate that Nothing has really changed, I mean, besides documentation, right, I mean a lot of this stuff.
Speaker 2:Or maybe like when you have a conversation right.
Speaker 1:Well, see, that's the thing that we don't know about, Like today, I think just came out Zillow right, just sent.
Speaker 1:I just saw the email right before I came in here and I haven't had a chance to dive into it too much, but they just announced that they're offering now on their website a buyer's broker agreement and I believe it's a lead generator. So what's going to happen? Is that just to briefly kind of scan down and don't quote me on all this because I don't know it in detail but I believe what happens is if a homeowner wants to know it in detail. But I believe what happens if a homeowner wants to, I'm sorry if a buyer wants to look at a property, they'll go through like a little video and check the box and say I want to go see this property At this time, this is the window and look at it. That lead now goes to a real estate agent. The agent has the opportunity, from what I saw, upload their agreement will automatically get sent to that buyer, or they choose not to do that and they meet them at the property and then have that consultation there Got it.
Speaker 2:And the reason, but they can't technically they're not supposed to be able to show the property without the agreement in place. It has to be signed.
Speaker 1:Right, it has to be signed before you show the property. Right.
Speaker 2:So how are they going to regulate it?
Speaker 1:That's the part that I'm not sure about. That's the part that I'm not sure about. That's the part I'm a little confused about. Who do you show that to? Yeah, who sees that? Who knows when did you sign it, and so on, right, can people backdate it? I don't know, right. These are the things, these are the questions that people need to ask, right. So I don't know.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Hopefully no one does that right. Yeah, so, but lost on on this part here, and I'm assuming other companies will do the same thing, because I'm hearing compass exp, I'm sure redfin is going to probably do the same thing. Yeah, come up with their own contracts. What have you? Um, they're speeding up the process. I kind of like the idea of slowing it down a little bit so you could have that buyer's consultation.
Speaker 2:Yeah, uh, because there's no value.
Speaker 1:Most, most buyers don't understand what agents do, right, they think that they can, just, can, just. You know, and rightfully so. They're right, you know. You call an agent, show me this house, and there's no respect for that agent, right, and agents are jumping and I don't want to use the wrong word here, but they're aging themselves, yeah, so they're out there and they're just showing property without having any rapport, building any kind of connection with them. Yeah, and so I can imagine that they're going to be able to even ask them for any kind of money when it's sped up that way.
Speaker 2:Yeah, there's no value. So just to rewind a little bit, I think, when you say they're whoring themselves out, I didn't say that, but that's what you're alluding to, right? I mean, I think we share the same perspective, because if a buyer sees a property on Zillow or Redfin or wherever they see this. It's an open house coming this weekend. Sure, In the past they might be able to just, I guess, at an open house. Open house is different.
Speaker 1:No, no, open house is different, so that's different.
Speaker 2:So if it's a private showing, they've got to have the property.
Speaker 1:If it's an open house, they can walk in and look at the property. So, yeah, that's different. Open houses are completely different. We're talking about doing private, doing showings, touring, inspections, things of that nature. Yeah that down a little bit so you can have that one-on-one conversation to be able to articulate and sell your value, what you're going to do for them, right, well, I think that's the key to this whole conversation.
Speaker 2:We've been talking for 45 minutes or an hour or whatnot. Right, and you've defined a lot of your success to your routine. Correct, and then your relationships Correct. But how do you generate long-term, established relationships without that initial consultation to? Understand what the buyer is really intending to do.
Speaker 1:Very difficult, yeah, very difficult, and when you can do it.
Speaker 2:It'd just be a one and done transaction. You're never going to get more business.
Speaker 1:Well, you lose more, right, I hear what you're saying, so you have a one and done transaction, but honestly, you'll lose more. I've lost more transactions just by trying to move, not be moving quick, but the buyer wanted to move very quickly, yeah, and I just can't get that connection going and I don't have enough time, right, you know. And so I mean you show them the property they need to leave, they have another appointment and you're like, okay, well, I'll text you, I'll call you, and you don't hear from them. Yeah, you know. So that are happening too. Is that? A lot of times they have multiple agents, right, right, yeah, or they have a relative that's an agent. That's sometimes what happens.
Speaker 2:Yeah, they have no affinity to the person. No, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:So I'm hoping that, hopefully, that we would minimize a lot of that. Yeah, kind of cut that out of the way so you can do that and create your value. Buyer understands what they're hiring, yeah, and you stand out, then that will make a difference.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And ultimately, look, I'll tell you, paul, I can't imagine in a market like this that the homeowner because you can still offer concessions- Right, but you're not so my understanding is you can't show the number, but you can offer.
Speaker 2:You can disclose that you're going to offer a concession as a seller.
Speaker 1:Well, on the MLS, unless they change it, there's five drop boxes. It's itemized Right, so there's a concessions box in there. I think it has a percentage in a dollar amount. Oh wow yeah, but those concessions are not going to. You're not paying the buyer's broker, you're paying the buyer.
Speaker 2:You're paying the buyer.
Speaker 1:And then the buyer's agent. Well, okay, so if the correct, if the buyer's broker has an agreement, whatever that agreement is, however, they pay them. It's between them, right? The homeowner can offer concessions and it can go towards closing costs of the property, which includes costs of procuring the property, right, right, the transaction. And I know there's some lending rules that are involved in that, and I think I was talking to Sal, which you'll probably talk to later on, how that works and he'll probably explain all that. So I'm not going to get into that, because there's a limit on concessions and I think on some products that they're not. What have you? So anyway, I believe, through the concession part of it, you'll know. So I believe what's going to happen is what I'm thinking is going to take place. I have a buyer, I have an agreement with my buyer that, let's say, I charge 3%, and I should be clear on this. Commissions are always negotiable.
Speaker 2:They've always been. They've always been negotiable.
Speaker 1:There's no set number of 5%, 7%, 4%, 6%. You can charge 10% if you wanted to, right, if you can negotiate that, negotiate that Zero to 100. Whatever, yeah, so it's always been negotiable. But let's just throw a number out there. Let's just say it's 6%, which is that magic number everybody loves. I negotiate with my buyer that I sell my value. This is my worth. This is what I'm going to do for you. Da-da-da-da. It's at 3%. They agree to do that. Typically, my pitch would be something like this. I would say look, we'll present an offer. It is possible that the homeowner might offer a concessions to you and that concessions may be 2.5%. If that's the case, then I might accept that 2.5%. I'll go ahead and do that. If they offer 3%, well, it's already been determined, we already have that agreement. But just know that I won't go lower than two and a half percent. Something like that would be kind of my pitch, right, yeah, and I have to kind of fine tune that a little bit. I just kind of just made that up.
Speaker 2:So but I think the key to I think the key takeaway for for me at least, when I hear you talking about this is that they're just like any industry there's, you know, underperformers, average performers and high performers. The high performers generally value their time. They also understand how to explain the value to that prospective buyer and so for me, when you have that conversation, it doesn't come across negatively, it's just hey, let's agree to something here, let's make sure that it's fair on both sides, and then we're going to go to work right. We're not going to have to revisit this.
Speaker 2:I think if you're a brand new agent or somebody that lacks confidence in your ability, that's an uncomfortable conversation to have Correct Right. And so you know this whole you know thing Correct, right, and so you know this whole you know thing kind of comes full circle. It's like you know those people may fall off or they could find a mentor, they can work on a team with more experienced agents, and they'll be forced to go and have that uncomfortable conversation, which shouldn't be uncomfortable, but it is really. Hey, here's the value that you're going to receive for my efforts, let's talk about that, let's put it out, and then let's agree to it Correct. And if during that consultation, let's say, I was a buyer for a $10 million asset, maybe you would go down to 2%. Correct If it's a $500,000?
Speaker 1:asset, maybe you wouldn't.
Speaker 2:But at least now we're completely clear about what each other are willing to do, regardless of what that seller is going to offer. Correct? I don't think it's a negative thing either.
Speaker 1:I think it's a positive. No, I'm going to tell you this, I'm actually excited about it. I haven't been excited about real estate for a long time, honestly Until today. Until today, yeah. When I say that, I mean in a sense, I think in the last year or so the market's been kind of like iffy, off and on right Stagnant.
Speaker 2:yeah, it's been stagnant right.
Speaker 1:I kind of like it one way or the other, right, yeah? So this change, I'm looking forward to it. I think it's going to shake up the industry a little bit, which I think those agents and brokers that are have their systems in place and have the confidence and so on again know how to articulate and educate. I think they're going to do well. I think the newer agents that are in the business, I think, if they just get their head out of the sand, either use the company that they're with as their resource and use their data, their information that they have as part of their knowledge and so on, and offer that to their prospective client, or get themselves on a team. Get on a team, yeah, get on a team.
Speaker 2:You might take a little bit of lower cut it's okay.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but you'll go through this process, but more is more, more is more, exactly and then you'll get to the point where you have enough transactions, enough experience, and then you decide you want to go somewhere else. That's fine, you can start your own team. But you have to make that decision. You have to decide. You're either out of the business or you're in the business, and if you're in the business, you got to join the team. Yeah, and that's it, and hopefully it's the Chamu team.
Speaker 2:I was just going to transition to that, so I know we're coming short on time, but I was just going to say tell us anything you want to share with the world about what you're doing next. I mean, I know you've got a team now, are you? Looking to grow that team.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so that's exactly what we want to do. So we want to be ready to grow our team. So we're looking to grow our team. So, we want to add on to it because we believe what's going to happen is that we believe there's going to be a lot of agents that are going to go away. Yeah, that's right.
Speaker 1:What we're looking for is bringing on some agents that are on the fence not sure. Bring them on, mentor them, train them and then grow that team, grow the buyer side of the team. I'll tell you, paul, for me personally and I think for my wife too, jennifer, to me it's rewarding when I see agents succeed, and I've trained and mentored agents that are not on our team. I just naturally like to do this right. I like to see them become successful. So to me that's extremely rewarding. So you're doing it for a business. I get that, but I want to see agents not quit. I want them to be successful. I really don't want to see because they're saying like 20%, 30% of agents might go away. I really don't want to see that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I would love to see them all stick it out and try to make this work, and if there's more, you know, agents like me that are willing to kind of offer that education and training for them and again, I don't charge for this, I would I would gladly be able to help. Yeah, um, yeah, I think it's important. I think it's important for the industry in a whole, for the economy.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so I guess let's wrap it there. My perspective is if you're out there, I don't care what brokerage you're at, if you're listening to this, you're in Southern California. You've got an incredibly inspiring top producer that's saying that he's willing to put you into a system, right On the team, into a system. It's obviously a system that's saying that they are, you know that he's willing to put you into his system, right On the team, into a system. It's obviously a system that's sustainable and is producing. You know, top north of top 1%. You're probably in the top 1% of 1% agents in the US, you know, let alone Southern California.
Speaker 1:So reach out. How do we get to?
Speaker 2:the world? Yeah, exactly, so how do they reach you?
Speaker 1:It's Instagram email Shamu I'm going to get my number here, so shamuteamcom. If you look that up, our information is on there.
Speaker 2:And they can submit an inquiry. If they want to come over to the team, they can. Yeah.
Speaker 1:And then Instagram would be the same thing. It's at ShamuREgroup.
Speaker 2:Got it? Yeah, we'll tag everything in the episode. This is good. Yeah, thank you so much for your time.
Speaker 1:Thank you. I appreciate all the insight and then next time I see the podcast I'm going to send you guys hats that say Agent F.
Speaker 2:Oh, I'm going to get shirts and hats made for Agent F. That'd be kind of cool.
Speaker 1:It's a new brand. Yeah, I'm going to use that Would you change might have to talk to why I have to talk to the boss. Yeah, you're better half yeah yeah, the only half yeah, there you go cool, thank you, thank you that's a wrap.