Real(ty) Talk
Real(ty) Talk
Embracing 2025: Intentional Growth and Real Estate Insights
As 2025 unfolds, we dive into the theme of setting intentions and developing commitments rather than mere resolutions. With insights on goal-setting from personal and professional angles, we share stories and strategies designed to inspire growth and success in the new year.
• Importance of setting meaningful commitments over simple resolutions
• Understanding the ‘why’ behind goals to foster genuine motivation
• Strategies for real estate agents to kickstart their year proactively
• Sharing a listener’s intense real estate encounter
• Introduction of the new segment "Rate That Listing" to engage real estate discussions
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Suzanne Seini:
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Paul Hanson:
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Stephen Couig:
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Maybe it wasn't an angry teacher. After you see the rest of the property.
Speaker 2:They don't have to disclose a death if it was outside of the house, it was on the street.
Speaker 1:I think a lot of times you are your own worst critic.
Speaker 2:If you're committed to your growth, you're always going to be setting these goals or commitment.
Speaker 1:Welcome back to your favorite podcast on the planet Realty Talk.
Speaker 2:It's been a minute.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 2:And it's a new year.
Speaker 1:It is 2025. So how was the holidays? Christmas? I think we can say that now.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:It was like kind of weird for a few years where it was like happy holidays but now you can say Merry Christmas, yeah, yeah. And uh. So how was Christmas and happy and new year?
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, I uh, so I don't do a ton on Christmas. I'm one of those people that it's like I did the family thing and all of my siblings now have like their kids, and so they're all doing family. It's like everyone has their family Christmas going on now, so their individual family Christmas. So I typically go out of town for Christmas. I think it's a great time to head over to Europe. I love the Christmas markets. So did a few of those did a little skiing in the Alps.
Speaker 1:Nice.
Speaker 2:Yeah, had some interesting turn of events there, but yeah, overall, overall quiet. Didn't do anything for New Year's. I'm not again like not a big New Year's you know party. It's more of like let's reset, more of like let's reset. And, um, you know, I the the craziest thing ever to me is the whole like new year's Eve, wake up hungover January 1st and like hate your life. I just that's not for me. So, um, so, yeah, so very, very low key for the actual holidays but, um, a lot of time to just reflect and and relax. What about you?
Speaker 1:Yeah, we travel. Usually too. We kind of split years. We'll either go back to Utah, where I grew up, and ski for the holidays with the family, or we'll stay here and they'll come this way.
Speaker 2:So you did some skiing too.
Speaker 1:Yeah, did some skiing this year. It was. You know I grew up skiing a lot. I love to ski. It's like one of my favorite things on the planet, um. So with kids, though, it's very different.
Speaker 2:Yeah, holy smokes. Yeah, I mean the amount of time to get kids into ski stuff and ski boots, I mean it takes me a long time to get into all of that stuff and every time I'm doing it I'm like man, this is a lot of work, Like is it worth it? Is it worth it? I cannot imagine, for like children, yeah.
Speaker 1:My four year old. You know she skied last year starting at three, yeah and um. You know that's one of my like longterm life goals on a bucket list. I want to ski with my grandkids in the winters and so um. So I'm like, okay, we got to get them started early, yeah, when it's uncomfortable early.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:But this year we had kind of an interesting turn of events because she loves ski lessons. Last year, this year she hated them, yeah. So we got her into like lessons and you know she was crying after saying it's too slow and it's too boring the kids suck at skiing and I was like this is awesome.
Speaker 2:Look what you've started yeah.
Speaker 1:It's skiing and I was like this is awesome, Look what you've started. Yeah, it's awesome. But then the last day we were there, she wanted to ski with me only.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:So that was the other interesting thing. I mean, I don't remember the last time I've been sore after a day of skiing. Yeah, holy smokes. I skied backwards for the day without poles to like make sure she was okay. Yeah, my quads were burning.
Speaker 2:It was awesome. It sure she was okay.
Speaker 1:Yeah, my quads were burning. It was awesome. It's a new workout to put in the rotation. Yeah, so definitely different from you know, from other years before kids, but it's good.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so cool. Well, what do we got today?
Speaker 1:I think you know it's a good discussion 2025. Okay, I think, uh, you know just understanding how we plan the year for the different businesses or individually. You know we've had a lot of input on you know understanding what we do as entrepreneurs to set goals and things. So I mean, I guess, just more of an open conversation. What do you do at the new year? I mean you kind of mentioned it like the last thing you want to do is wake up hungover on the very first day of the new.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but how do you think about setting goals and intentions for the year? What is your process like?
Speaker 2:Yeah. So I think it's really important. You know people talk about goals a lot and and a couple of things for me. So, number one, I typically don't wait until the end of the year for any goals. I understand that for some people they need that or that fits into their life. You know, for me it's a constant of like how can I be better? What are my goals this month? What are my goals this quarter?
Speaker 2:And I think you know one thing that I incorporated this year that I was talking to the team a lot about is, um, the intention behind the goals, inspired to set those goals, or because something is inspiring you or giving you that inspiration. Or are you setting the goal because you feel like you have to or you're trying to keep up? Or you know, like, what is the reason behind the goal? And I know you know people talk about their why all the time. But you know I took a lot of time this year talking with our team internally. Quite a you know what is the intention and what actually inspires them versus just the usual. Like you know, I want to make more money. It's like okay, cool, but you know why and what is actually going to drive you and motivate you, because you know if you're just setting a goal just to set it, but it doesn't inspire you, then you know it's it's not really likely that anything is going to come from that goal. You know.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, that's interesting. So what you know the intention of the goal, is it like fear or desire, right?
Speaker 2:I know you love talking about that. You're right, though You're right, it's really the only way that humans make decisions.
Speaker 1:You know, scientifically, you're either running away from a lion, you know generations ago, or you're, you know, going to the fire to eat with your family. It's like one of those two things, yeah, and you know, possibly today. You brought up like everyone else is doing it, so I feel like I should be doing this, if it's why I'm setting a goal. It's like going to the gym for the first 30 days of the year is the worst thing on the planet and then, 30 days later it's fine, you know cause everyone's like.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I think you know I think it's important to like have that. If you need a reset, take a reset, but have that reset maybe a little sooner. You know. I think the end of the year does provide that space for people, which is great, but honestly, I mean that's, it's not real, it's. I mean you can do that any time in your life.
Speaker 1:So just another day, exactly.
Speaker 2:So you know, for me, like I, you know, still fall into it as well, Like personally, a few years ago I had set a goal that I was going to be fluent in Spanish and I haven't hit that goal and you know my understanding in Spanish is decent, but speaking it has been a challenge for me. So you know I'm focusing that personally. I mean, I started that like three weeks ago because I was in Spain and I was like this is awful.
Speaker 2:So, I should be better at this stage in my life when I own a home here. So yeah, it wasn't necessarily like a new year, it's just again. It's like I need to. I need to accomplish this goal and I need to take the steps to do it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, I'm. My approach is always, like you know, I agree, like it doesn't have to be a new year, but I'm, my mind is too linear, so I like having things written out and then I, you know, if I have to adjust, I adjust. But I also don't like the word goal, because then it's like I have this intention, it's a goal of mine, but it's not like a guarantee. And so something I did, maybe I think eight years ago, I started to write out yearly commitments and so I write out commitments for business, personal and family. And so you know, generally kind of towards the end of the year very similar to you, I go out to dinner with my wife and we talk about the family goals, right?
Speaker 1:And then, uh, or not goals, but commitments, like what are the things that are non-negotiable, we're absolutely going to do in the year of 2025? And then, um, and it could be something as simple as going on a trip or buying a new home or making an investment or doing something. Um, you know but, or buying a new home or making an investment or doing something, but I do that for business, personal and family.
Speaker 1:And then I prescribe to that Harvard study that says, if you write it down, you're more likely to accomplish it, and so I generally will have three to ten things that are big commitments that I'm going to accomplish, no matter what, per section business, personal, family and then I print those and my family gets them. So my wife gets them. If it's incorporating my mom or dad or the girls at this point, my daughters, then they would get them too. They don't know how to read them yet, probably, but I think that's really important because it's okay this is what I'm committed to do.
Speaker 1:But again it's kind of similar. I used to do this dumb thing. I would try to test myself. So I would take 30 days and I would change something in my diet just to prove that I could do it.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:So I ate raw for 30 days in the month of January for three years, yeah. And it was just like the worst feeling.
Speaker 2:Yeah, for the first time. You're like why am I doing this?
Speaker 1:Yeah, it made no sense. I did a year without any like packaged foods, essentially like chips and whatever. I did no sugar for a month, no booze for a month. None of them ever created any other like longstanding outcome. That was different. Yeah, so I kind of feel the same way about like the typical New Year's resolution. It's, yeah, I mean you're just doesn't really change a lot.
Speaker 2:Yeah, well, I think if you're, if you're committed to your growth, yeah, you're always going to be, you know, setting these goals or commitments and you're always going to be working on them, no matter what time of the year it is.
Speaker 2:But again, I feel like not to say it's not a great habit to form no matter what time of the year it is you know, it's like you should be looking, reflecting on where you are and you know again, for me it's you know what inspires you and what is going to motivate you and what is going to drive you, and yeah to to get to where you want to be and why do you want to be there.
Speaker 1:Yeah. So if you're an agent at Innovate or another brokerage, what is your recommendation when you think about 2025? Like, if somebody hasn't? Because I think what we're talking about is really the difference between somebody that's in tune with the level of production and somebody that's not. And people fall into this trap where they set a New Year's resolution, they fail, and then the rest of the year call it 10 or 11 months they just react.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's just flailing yeah.
Speaker 1:They never measure what they're doing on a daily, weekly, monthly basis or annual basis, to therefore go back and watch production. So what would you? How do you get started in that pathway?
Speaker 2:Yeah, one thing that we do is we help our agents with their business plan. So towards the end of the year we know it's time to start talking about goals for next year. And you know it's not just again, it's you can make a statement of like I want to do 50 transactions next year. But how are you going to do 50 transactions next year? And I think you know that's what we really focus on is you know how many calls a day do you have to make to set the number of appointments. That you know and then what is your conversion rate at those appointments.
Speaker 2:And then from there, how many of those escrows close. You know when you get into escrow and how many fall out, and you know it's. It really is more than just saying I want to do 50 transactions and then you can kind of work backwards to how you actually accomplish that goal, because you might have the best intentions but if there's no plan to get there, it's really not going to help at all. So that's something really important that we focus on is like how do you actually get to that goal?
Speaker 1:Yeah. So the recommendation is if you're not doing that, do it yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I know you offered your door knocking services to one of our agents that wants to hit 75 million I think he said this year.
Speaker 1:So yeah, the conversation was kind of funny because he was like I think you know I did 25 million last year. I think I can do 30 next year and I'm like what are you talking about?
Speaker 1:Like you're going to do 30 without even waking up you know, just on the transactions that we already purchased together as we finished construction. So, yeah, that's the way that I typically think. I mean again, I don't know if it's the right way of thinking but every day when I wake up I'm trying to get just a little bit better in a lot of different areas personal, business and family and so I think it's interesting because naturally, it sounds like you and I are very similar where we don't need a New Year's resolution. We track what we're doing all the time, where a lot of people wake up and they they're responding and hoping things get better versus proactively building a way to get better. Right, but yeah, when we look at the brokerage, I mean to me, and when I have conversations with top producing agents, I mean they're you know, by definition, if you're not putting in a ton of time to go and find that new seller or spending a ton of money to market yourself you are just waiting and hoping.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 1:And so we fall into this conversation multiple times. How do I go and create listings Like if I want to go from 30 to 70 million that's where that came from If I want to go from 30 to 70 or 75 million. Next, year how do I meet that number of sellers? Right.
Speaker 1:And I mean the best way I know how to do that is go and just talk to them yeah. And there's no better way to do that than, like, know you're going to be able to talk to them. You could send mailers, you could put up a billboard, you could put your name on the bus bench or whatever these other agents do.
Speaker 2:But if you have a specific zip code or a specific neighborhood you specifically want to focus in, just If you have a specific zip code or a specific neighborhood you specifically want to focus in, just go knock the doors in that neighborhood Especially. I mean, I think you know in this agent's example like he actually has listings in those areas, so it makes sense for him to be talking to the neighbors.
Speaker 2:You know, sometimes it just it's that extra step where I feel agents get really caught up on the listing that they have in the moment or the buyer that they have on them in the moment, and then they completely forget about all of the opportunities that should come from that one thing, um, and so that's something we talk about a lot.
Speaker 1:Yeah, one listing should end up becoming like five, yeah, three to five other transactions, yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'm excited this year to go, you know, and knock with you know, some of the agents at Innovate. I mean, it's what I know and most of our listeners probably don't know this, but that's where I started my career. I was, I was going to school and and I went and door knocked and sold commission only alarm systems in Cleveland, ohio, and the math is just amazing. Like, if you knock on 100 doors in a day in a residential environment, 30% of those people are going to open up and speak to you. So you can go and have 30 conversations with a homeowner in a specific neighborhood. You can pick the neighborhood you want to go and work in and if you do a really good job of communicating like if you use solid communication skills not sales skills, but just communication skills then you're able to control the conversation in a way where 50% of those conversations turn into what I call a demo where you get to explain your value proposition and that's like a three to four minute conversation.
Speaker 1:So I can go out and I can on a daily basis. I can control and I know for a fact I can have 15 conversations where I would be able to explain hey, I'm a real estate agent. I have a listing on this road. I'm going to be listing a lot of homes in this neighborhood. If you know a family that wants to move in, you know we're done in 30 days or whatever. Like I know, I can go and have 15 conversations with bona fide buyers or sellers of real estate in that specific neighborhood. I can't imagine another way to go and do that on a daily basis. Even if you sent thousands or tens of thousands of flyers, you're not going to be guaranteed to have 15 conversations.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and the conversation is what really matters. Right, like cool, they see your flyer, but you know, are they? Is anyone really picking up the phone and calling you? You know, realistically, like you in front of them, face to face, like what is better than that? You?
Speaker 1:know, yeah, I believe in it. I mean I'm excited to you know, to go and push on that. It's uncomfortable and it's hard and you know 15 or 20 people are going to tell you to go yourself because they don't like door knockers at their door. But I mean, I think it goes back to being willing to do tough stuff and being comfortable, being uncomfortable and doing today what other people aren't willing to do so that later, you don't have to Right.
Speaker 2:Definitely Okay With that, I feel like. So we have a new segment that we are incorporating into our podcast here, because we hear from a ton of agents and you know this doesn't necessarily need to be agent specific but a lot of people, a lot of vendors that we work with that have some interesting real estate stories. Because you know, we've shared our real estate stories. I think I probably have 50 others to share that we'll get to but we also want to share some of our listeners' stories as well. So I got this story submitted to me, I'm going to kick it off and we can circle back to what we think about this. So they said I'm driving my investor clients to show a rough property in your typical rough area. Okay, la or yeah.
Speaker 1:Chicago.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we were down the street from the property and pulled up to a hit and run and seemed like the car was also stolen. An officer was running down the street with a gun in his hand trying to find the guy. We couldn't see anyone in sight. We cautiously drove past the officer and continued down the road to show the property. As we continued down the street we noticed a guy bolting through people's yards away from where the scene was, pretty far from where we saw the cop.
Speaker 2:My client suggested to slow down so we can get a clear description of him and wanted me to follow him. I slowed down but didn't follow for our safety. That makes sense. We turned the corner to where the property was and started to dial 911. As I turned into the driveway and parked, I see the guy run across the street coming towards us. I quickly reverse out and drove away.
Speaker 2:We drove back to the scene where the cop was. We wave them down, quickly explained what we were doing and where we saw him. We got into his car. We sped to where we saw him last. He wasn't there and wasn't in sight. So the cop continued down the street to try and find him. We were left by the property that I was supposed to show. I looked at my clients and, knowing that people were already breaking into the property we all agreed to pass, Would you still have shown that property? I feel you know. If they were looking in that area in the first place like they kind of know what they're getting into there, I think I still I would have shown it, that's my vote interesting, I mean as an investor you would have bought that.
Speaker 1:I'm writing an offer for sure. And with my offer I'm saying, hey, we are coming in $200,000 below list price because, yeah, you're getting a nice discount, yeah. I mean you bring up a great point, like if you're looking in that neighborhood and it's a rough neighborhood why is? That going to deter you.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, you know what you're getting into there.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I guess if you're that agent, you should probably be protected. Right, you got to have mace or I was going to say they should probably take that.
Speaker 2:Listen to our last podcast and take the safety course because, yeah, this stuff this is what happens Like this is real.
Speaker 1:Yeah, oh man.
Speaker 2:Cool. Well, before we go into any other stories, because I think we need to circle back to. We talked a little bit about Innovate and Innovate Goals. What is on the agenda for Bye Bye House 2025?
Speaker 1:Yeah, in terms of like our commitments as a business.
Speaker 2:Yeah, oh yeah, because we're not saying goals, we're saying commitment. Yeah, I'm sure you put some ideas together.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, yeah, we've got a lot. You know it's always a hard balance because you know, I think a lot of times you are your own worst critic right.
Speaker 1:So, when you're in the business the way I'm in the business and I'm not necessarily only working on the business, I'm working in and on the business you always find the areas of the business that are not working the way you want them to, and so that's always been my balance. At the end of a, a session, where I'm writing out commitments like, hey, this is something I'm going to go and do, there's always got to be some time where I I resonate and say, okay, is it? Is it actually a problem? And do I need to go and solve this right now? Or am I just being super critical because I would like it to be better, right? Um, but you know, one area for sure in 2025 that we've got to, we just have to be better at, is construction.
Speaker 1:Unfortunately, that's going to be probably every year, because construction, from my vantage point, is where all the value is created, right?
Speaker 1:So if you buy a distressed asset, you put a new kitchen in, you're creating value and you're going to go and take that back to market. Or, or you're going to put a renter in and they're going to pay a higher rent to drive a return, and construction has been really complicated for the last call it eight or 10 years. I mean through COVID. We had supply chain issues, so actually getting material was complicated Post the date, all the way back to 2009,. We have all these inventory problems, so people weren't actually working. Now development is going crazy, and so it's really hard to find really good, skilled labor within parameters and timelines, and so for us, in 2025, what that looks like is actually building out our internal team to be a little stronger. I'd like to get to a place where about 40% of the projects that we're executing are done with internal W-2 contractors. There's a lot of risk with that, right Like you have an employee and you've got to replace people.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Entry-level labor has high turnover. So it's really building out a department that's recruiting and placing laborers and contractors. But that's a big goal for us. You know, on the backside of that, as we build that out, it gives us the capacity just to do more jobs. So you know, we'd like to, you know, sell $75 million for the real estate in 2025. I think we could actually do a fair bit more than that with execution on the construction side, but those are two commitments that are just happening. For sure, we're going to do those two things. There's a lot of other ones that I'm resonating on right now kind of looking back and going, okay, do these things have to happen?
Speaker 2:Are they?
Speaker 1:actually broken or are we just being, you know, too picky? Or are we being a perfectionist? Um, you know, a lot of it goes back to the, the, the actual way we do construction. Um, you know little components at homes that you know. Should we be doing these things or should we not be doing them? You, know, scope of work items.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean, I think that's kind of the big goal or intentions or commitments you know that we're setting out to accomplish.
Speaker 2:There's probably three or four more that I'll add by the end of January after I meet with the team, but it still resonated and I think it's what you talked about before there are a lot of uncontrollables with your business and, you know, with our business as well, there are so many things that we can't control Construction. If you are not controlling that internally, it's I mean you're really relying on other people for your business to be successful. You know and you you know, without that, necessarily without that control of you know, managing that person because they are independent contractors and then you are potentially removing one of the huge bogeys when purchasing a flip.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean, that's like we've talked about in the past. The single family value and investment model, or flipping model, is so basic.
Speaker 1:You buy it for X model is so basic it's you buy it for X, you put X amount into construction, you sell it for Y, and then your timeline is really the only major driver. So if you calculated those four data points properly, you estimate the time you're going to hold it, the amount of money you're going to spend doing construction, and you have a rough idea of what your after-renovation value is. Purchasing is just a math problem. You should already know what number you need to get it at Once you've bought it. You're completely that part's already done.
Speaker 1:So if the market's flat, the only two areas where you can really mess it up is construction and then the amount of days it takes to finish construction. If it takes a lot longer to complete something, your carry costs go up, and then your actual forecast on what the market's going to do, the longer you hold something, is more variable. So, yeah, time and construction is I mean, it's from my opinion it's everything Like. You make money when you purchase it, you know, and then and then you lose money you know, through construction execution.
Speaker 1:So every single deal I've ever lost money on it's because the construction was underestimated or we ran into issues where it took way longer to complete that scope, uh than we anticipated that. There's never been a scenario where I've lost money on a deal where I bought it thinking I was going to get a certain number at resale and then it just wasn't that number Right, you know, primarily because we've been in a pretty stable market.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:For a while, yeah.
Speaker 2:Okay, well, I think we should jump into our last story for the day.
Speaker 1:So this segment is you know, we have listeners that are submitting stories and we're going to share our two cents on these stories. I mean, the first one, the first segment, was awesome. I mean, we're definitely going to write an offer on that one. Actually, I don't think they gave us the address, did they?
Speaker 2:No.
Speaker 1:That's probably why they didn't. So I'll read this one and then we'll give our two cents. I had a tenant come to my office looking for a new place to live because his landlord wanted to sell the house. I had three days notice to find the tenant a new place. The landlord had given him three months notice but the tenant didn't act quickly, which is why we only had three days. I asked the tenant for his landlord's phone number so I could speak to him and buy a little more time, called the landlord and he told me that the three months notice was, but was not willing to budge. While I was speaking to the landlord, he asked me if I could meet him at the house and provide him with a CMA and list the house. The tenant made arrangements to temporarily stay with a family member while we look for a suitable rental.
Speaker 1:Landlord made an appointment with me to see the house. Day of the appointment I'm in the community cleaning up another home I had just listed. I texted the landlord to just confirm the appointment and let him know I was already in the community. Landlord responded to give me a few minutes because he was going to make sure the tenant was not still living in the house. He said he would Uh-oh, speeding through the gate and turned down the street where I was meeting the landlord. As it turned out, my tenant customer shot my landlord customer in the back and killed him in the street. I had just gone to the house at the appointment time. I would have been there when it happened. The police called me within minutes because I was the last person the landlord communicated with.
Speaker 1:I spent the morning talking to several officers to give them all the details messages that I had Passed my broker's exam two weeks later. Obviously we haven't read these beforehand. I can't believe that happened.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that escalated oh my hell. Wow, oh man, well, that is a new one. Okay, I have had some crazy experiences. That one I yeah. That one may top all of my crazy real estate experiences being shot for sure. Like I don't, I don't, yeah, I got nothing on that. I can't, I can't come back with anything. That's insane.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean I don't even know how to start on that one. Like if a landlord gives somebody a three-month notice and then the person comes to you with three days, I mean I guess there's so much to unpack, like, how do you put yourself in that situation? Number one is the tenant, number two is the agent. There's no way to understand if your tenant's a lunatic and going to shoot the landlord. Yeah, who knew, oh man I guess the question is did he get to list the house? Yeah, Is he?
Speaker 2:still listing. I mean, they don't have to disclose a death if it was outside of the house it was on the street, right, yeah, okay, well, that's awful.
Speaker 1:That is awful Okay.
Speaker 2:Awful. All right. Well, since that was a strange note, I think we should end on a positive note. Yeah, what are some things that you're looking forward to in 2025? Maybe, a bye-bye at Innovate and I'll share as well.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean I think 2025 is going to be a really interesting year. Obviously, we've got a new president coming into the White House. We think rates should start to calm down in 12 to 18 months. Rates should start to calm down in 12 to 18 months. I don't see any inventory massive slugs of inventory coming on the market, so I think value should be pretty stable.
Speaker 1:So for me at Buy Buy House, I'm just really excited to bring new inventory back on market.
Speaker 1:We've got 50 to 55 million of inventory that is going to be coming back on over the next six to nine months and there are some of those that I'm really excited about, some properties that I think are going to have a lot of upside and pretty exciting.
Speaker 1:I'm excited for some of the new projects I haven't really talked about openly yet, you know, at Bye Bye House. I mean some of those are commitments that I haven't really published yet, but looking at new opportunities not necessarily just in single family, which I think is going to be pretty exciting, I mean on the innovate side, I think it's going to be an unbelievable year to be an agent and you know, for me, more than anything, I'm looking forward to going out and knocking and teaching agents how to grow their business. You know, through just organic conversations and showing them that they can take their power back on the way they market themselves, instead of waiting around for a lead to get generated. You know, wake up, lace up your shoes and go and generate leads for yourself. I don't think that's going to be easy, but I'm really excited for that part and I think we can move the needle in a big way.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:I think we could legitimately double volume by agent by just doing that on a daily basis, even for a few hours.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:That execution. That's going to be hard to get everyone to want to do it, but I'm excited to do it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I think you know. For us I feel that you know our you know. Previously, I would say our culture was really centered around things like that.
Speaker 2:You know, our agents have. You know, they're used to doing a lot of business. You know that we came out of 2021, you know our agents have, you know, they're used to doing a lot of business. You know we came out of 2021, you know, and, and had our best year and, um, you know, finished like number one in the nation for volume, for the size of team that we had, and um, and so our agents are used to doing a lot of business and I think, you know, last year we were really in. I mean, it was our first year of business. Basically at.
Speaker 2:Innovate, and so I think there's a lot of building, there's a lot of growth and and so now I think you know we we do have some consistency, some stability and and I think we have the team to execute on what our goals are as well. And so I'm excited to kind of take that and build on that culture and grow the team as well, because I think, again, we were so focused on building internally and processes and everything else that we, you know, we weren't bringing on a ton of agents. I think now we're ready to bring on agents that are a good culture, fit at Innovate, that you know are looking to accomplish those types of goals.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, that's really cool. The other thing I'm excited about is the Thanksgiving cocktails that our agents will make.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that was a good team builder I have to say that was. You know, usually I feel like as a brokerage you're not. I've never seen another brokerage do a team building activity like that. That's usually more of like a team thing. You know, like team leads will do it for their team and here and there, but we did a brokerage wide team builder Um and um. Yeah, I mean I, I think I tried the best espresso martini I've ever had from that team builder, so I'm excited for more.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's exciting. And then it got to be the cocktail of choice or the specialty drink at our holiday party. Yeah, and.
Speaker 2:I don't know. I have to say I think it wasn't as good. Yeah, the team two, theirs was better.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah. Well, I mean, if you're an agent in Southern California listening to this podcast and your brokerage does not have a team event on Thanksgiving where you get to make cocktails, and then that cocktail becomes the specialty drink at your brokerage holiday party, you're at the wrong damn brokerage.
Speaker 2:Yeah, what are you doing with your life? Why would you be there? Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:Before we go, we have one other twist here In 2025, we're going to play a new game at the end of the podcast, we're going to play rate that listing. So for listeners on Spotify, you can see the property on YouTube, um, and you can see the pictures we're talking through. So we are going to start, uh, the rules. Uh, we're going to get the location, the price of the home and the bed bath. Okay, the bed bath count.
Speaker 2:And this is our first time seeing it. So we are. You know this is on the fly.
Speaker 1:I haven't seen this. Okay, so rate that listing number one. The location is Oceanside, california, 92054. Okay, price is $899. Okay, three bedrooms. And we're starting to look at the pictures. So I'll try my very best to bring in my Jim Nance. If you don't know who Jim Nance is, he's an announcer, he does the NFL and the Masters. Ooh, look at the kitchen.
Speaker 2:We've got some like A little dated, a little dark.
Speaker 1:These are like 1980s fake wood cabinets with a. I don't know if this, I don't know. This is like a seafoam blue green countertop.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, I barely even saw that Linoleum, which is exciting. All right. Well, they did accent the bathroom with a pink shower curtain which was nice.
Speaker 1:Well, there's, actually there's double shower curtains. There was a shower curtain. There was a shower curtain on the shower and then a shower curtain.
Speaker 2:Okay, this one's virtually staged to show you the potential of this room here With amazing red rose paintings that was an interesting choice for the virtual staging. I have to be honest, I don't know what that is. What in the hell is this?
Speaker 1:I know what this is. This is like a high school kid that is angry at mom and dad. He's got red and black paint all over his room. Oh no, oh, there's a stripper pole in the living room. Oh, perfect, you know what you know what we actually have a property in escrow right now in Manhattan Beach at the 2.3 million price point, with a stripper pole in the kitchen.
Speaker 2:I would love to see that.
Speaker 1:Okay, outside, I mean, I think you should leave it during renovation, for sure. Yes, finished product. Okay, outside, we've got.
Speaker 2:That's some space Is that a cold plunge. What is this? A hot tub. Yeah, yeah, I'm going to go with hot tub.
Speaker 1:Hot tub.
Speaker 2:Based off of the rest of the photos, my vote is hot tub and a healthy mix of dead grass, and then AstroTurf. Okay, so if we're going to rate this on a scale of 1 to 5, 5 being the best and would you buy it as an investor?
Speaker 1:I don't know.
Speaker 2:At $8.99. At $8.99.
Speaker 1:It's going to depend on the area of Oceanside. It was $8.2054. So if we're east of the five, not buying it. If it's west of the five, buying it for sure.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:So I would say, if it's I don't know, we'd have to go and look at the address but if it's west of the five, I'm not even thinking twice about it. It's a five out of five.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:If it is east, I'm scared of the stripper pole Not so much.
Speaker 2:Yeah, the pole is what did it? Yeah, yeah, I mean I think it again like without knowing the address and digging too deep. It might be a little high, for I think you could probably get it a little lower if you were going in there. But yeah, I mean that wouldn't have been the presentation that. I would put on the market for that property.
Speaker 1:So if you were taking the listing, you would make some adjustments to the way that it was presented.
Speaker 2:I would potentially make some adjustments to the virtual staging to the angry teenager's room. I don't even think I would include that to be honest.
Speaker 1:Well, now that we saw, maybe it wasn't an angry teenager. After you see the rest of the property. So what do you list that? Well, I guess what's your number then?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I don't know the number. I think we need to dig in on the number, depending on location, but I think what I can confidently say is that I would probably present that listing a little different than what it's showing.
Speaker 1:I'm hearing like a two and a half on the listing on your side. And I'm a five if I buy it. Yeah, there you go If it's west of the five. Okay, all right.
Speaker 2:Well, what do you guys think? I think that go take a look and feel free to submit any additional stories. We will keep up with this and, yeah, I think, cheers to 2025.
Speaker 1:Yeah, Until next time. Rate my listing. It's going to be the best segment of the show. I can't wait.
Speaker 2:Okay, see you next time, thank you.