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Real(ty) Talk
Real(ty) Talk
From Engineering Dreams to California Realities: Armin's Journey with Music, Mindfulness, and Real Estate
This episode delves deep into the remarkable journey of Armin Monferrad, who transitioned from an engineering background to a successful career in real estate amidst personal and social challenges. He shares valuable insights on resilience, fitness, and ethical practices in real estate, coupled with a riveting story about a hidden bunker encountered during one of his deals.
• Armin discusses his dual citizenship and upbringing in a post-9/11 America
• Transitioning from engineering at Boeing to real estate, emphasizing career fulfillment
• Importance of fitness and mental clarity for success in the industry
• Engaging story about a hidden bunker highlights ethical responsibilities in real estate
• Tips for new agents, focusing on communication, integrity, and setting expectations
• Armin’s vision for building a dynamic team in Los Angeles and encouraging growth
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The resilience comes from the morning workouts and my stress management. Let's not be emotional, emotional. Take the emotions out. See where the you know where I can use them.
Speaker 2:You wouldn't take down, like the wall art of aliens and crossbones and school.
Speaker 3:Who was their real estate agent? Who was their inspector? Because the inspector should have for sure caught that.
Speaker 2:Welcome back to Realty Talk Podcast. We have a very exciting episode today, very excited. A dear friend and colleague of ours on the podcast today.
Speaker 3:I feel like you should do the introduction oh yeah, so today we have one of our Innovate agents, armin. No, you have to say it.
Speaker 2:Monferrad Close Monferrad.
Speaker 3:Monferrad. See, you practice this. It's tricky but close.
Speaker 2:I like that. Wait, what's your middle name? I don't have one.
Speaker 3:Oh yeah, yeah, that's common right.
Speaker 1:Persians usually do not have middle names.
Speaker 3:Really yeah.
Speaker 2:Interesting Is Armin, a common Persian name.
Speaker 1:Armin is, but Armin is the Armenian version. So, if you hear Armin, it's more Iranian, persian version of it.
Speaker 2:Wait, where are you from?
Speaker 1:originally. Well, parents are from Iran, but I was born here. How did that happen? It was one of those interesting ideas my dad had, basically, when my mom was pregnant. I had an uncle here I still have an uncle here and my dad was like why don't you go and visit on, you know your brother and have the kid there? And my mom was like okay, and three months pregnant, she flies out, stays. And then I was born in 87.
Speaker 1:And then she stayed with me three months here in Boston, got it, and then we flew back.
Speaker 2:Okay so three months, three months, and then you went back to Iran.
Speaker 1:Back to Iran. Yeah, and I grew up in Iran until I was 14. Where, at Tehran?
Speaker 2:Tehran Capital Got it.
Speaker 1:Got it.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so sorry I'm going to interrupt. I know you don't get an introduction anyway. Everyone will hear all about you Starting from birth. Yeah, exactly, Introduction from birth.
Speaker 2:There's some news this week around. So you have dual citizenship because you were born here, correct? Yeah, and that's changing as of this week. I hear there's an executive order signed that if there, so I don't know the right terminology, right? But, if there's an illegal alien, was the verbiage that I read, it sounds really aggressive.
Speaker 3:Let's say expat yes.
Speaker 2:But if that's, the verbiage in the Wall Street Journal said if that person is here and they have a child here in the past, they would get citizenship. Now they're saying that's not going to be the case.
Speaker 3:Right and I think it's unclear of, like, if that's going to retro back, I feel like I mean we might not have this conversation.
Speaker 1:We might have to have this virtually very soon. I have to leave, Sorry guys.
Speaker 2:No, I can't imagine it will go back that far. In the event it does, we're going to start flipping in Toronto.
Speaker 3:Yeah, basically. Yeah, Okay so after 14 years then you guys moved to California. Yeah, I moved, oh, okay.
Speaker 1:So you know, my parents didn't have visas, so I just moved and I stayed with an aunt multiple aunts and like moved from each one. Stayed with an aunt multiple aunts, like moved from each one, and then went to school, studied music, engineering and then now real estate.
Speaker 3:Wow, well, okay, so were you speaking English when you moved here at 14? Not a single word I mean. I could say, this is a picture on the wall.
Speaker 1:You know a cat I couldn't say actually this is a picture on the wall.
Speaker 3:I could just say picture cat dog, you know very basic, that sounds familiar. I couldn't say actually this is a picture on the wall. I could just say picture cat dog.
Speaker 1:Kind of like my Spanish. It sounds familiar Super basic. I sat down in ESL and it had its challenges. And on top of that, two days after I moved, september 11th happened. Oh, my God oh yeah, so imagine you're this kid from Iran.
Speaker 3:Oh my gosh, You're here. You're so excited, and from the Middle.
Speaker 1:East. Wow, yeah, it was not easy.
Speaker 2:Did you feel like socially, in school and stuff? Did you feel pressure from people or did you just imply that on your own?
Speaker 1:That's a good question. I think half-half.
Speaker 3:Sure.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean you could see that, you could feel, definitely feel it. I don't think I was ever verbally attacked Like oh, you're a terrorist or something like that, Nothing like that, thank God. But yeah, definitely you could feel the tension. I mean it was valid.
Speaker 3:Yeah, there were a lot of. I mean there's a lot of stories, I would say, because we live in a pretty big Persian know, pretty big Persian community here. There's a pretty big Persian community and yeah, there's a lot of stories from that time of you know that I've heard, just you know kind of what people were going through.
Speaker 1:Yeah, labeled wrongly, yeah.
Speaker 3:Yeah, but okay. So then you learned English. You went to school to be an engineer.
Speaker 1:And then what did you? Then what? First I studied music, and then because I didn't know what I wanted to do and I couldn't really function in schools because, like, by the time I graduated high school, I could just start like talking and then, you know, getting into the school system really didn't have a vision of what I wanted to do at the time, but all I knew was play guitar, so I was like, well, I like this so that's why I was gonna ask you're gonna be a guitarist or like the lead singer?
Speaker 1:guitarist okay, you'll hear me sing I can sing, but it's not that good. I can play guitar, all right.
Speaker 3:Yeah, you have a band, I do right yeah, we haven't talked about that enough, I think.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we can get into that for sure.
Speaker 3:There's a lot of surprises that come from Many hobbies, for sure.
Speaker 1:And then so I studied music and actually music was great because it taught me how to learn and commit myself to whatever I want to do. And then, when I went back to engineering, when I chose to do engineering, all the pieces were there to how to execute and get that degree. So I ended up getting into UCLA, got an internship at NASA for a summer and that was awesome.
Speaker 2:At JPL yeah.
Speaker 1:JPL in Pasadena.
Speaker 2:Wow.
Speaker 1:What was that like Amazing. I mean the people that you just hang with. Every single word that would come out of their mouths is just like music to my ears. Just learning so much from every aspect. You know from the tubing that goes down and for the Curiosity at the time had landed on Mars. You know how they designed it for the cooling systems and just all the brilliant minds that I heard and got to meet for that short period of time was incredible.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and I think you know we're going to go into. Obviously, we mainly talk about real estate here, but what's super interesting is I'm really excited for everyone to hear about the way that you've treated your real estate business, because I think that you can apply that to really anything, but also just the um. The story of how you got there is just so interesting. Um, so, getting your degree, being at nasa for a little bit and then from from there where'd you go?
Speaker 1:and then you know, finishing ucla got into, got a job at Boeing building planes.
Speaker 3:So I was on the 737 MAX, the famous. So we have you to blame for all the drama with Boeing? Definitely not.
Speaker 1:I was in wire installation and that was an MCAS.
Speaker 3:No problems there. No problems there.
Speaker 1:So my job was just.
Speaker 3:So would you fly? Do you fly Boeing? At this point I mean I would, I would.
Speaker 2:We all fly bowing. Do we fly the 737?
Speaker 3:And do you have a preference? If you have a choice, would you?
Speaker 1:I mean, if you think about it, there's thousands of flights right this second happening and there's ever any issue. It was super sad for those disruptions to happen and then the flight, the two planes to crash, but things like that have usually happen when a new product comes. It shouldn't, it should definitely never have happened. But um, yeah it does happen and uh, but yeah, I'm confident on flying on the maxes again. So so the 737s are split into two the Series 8, 9, and 10, and then the Max, which was the new series.
Speaker 3:Yeah, those were the ones with the issues.
Speaker 2:Do you see that article about? The plane was flying, I think from it was either LA or New York to London and there was a jet stream and the plane was going. Normally I think they fly at three or 400 miles an hour or something like that. At at altitude it was going 800 miles an hour, oh boy Would you fly 800 miles an hour on a plane.
Speaker 1:I think this just happened like two days ago oh no, you know, there's been a lot of news just coming out, not just all planes and a lot of flying accidents. I mean we had a couple at the beginning of the year or prior. Yeah well Crashes.
Speaker 2:I took the scariest flight that I've ever had the day that the Palisades fires were happening. I was flying from Phoenix back to Orange County and the pilot was very calm, you know, when we took off and he was. I don't know what plane it was, it was like a Southwest flight.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Probably the 737 Max. I'm like that sounds like a Boeing. Yes, go on, yeah. So he was like hey, I think we're going to. You know, we're going to encounter some bumps because it's pretty windy in Orange County. It was so terrifying, I mean, it was full on, like the plane was all over the place.
Speaker 3:It's so funny. I had almost the same exact experience, but going to Phoenix from Orange County and I just remember being like there is no way I'm. They ended up rerouting us to Vegas. The bumps were so bad and I was like I'm going to drive, I'm just going to rent a car and drive. And I am a flyer. I fly everywhere and internationally.
Speaker 1:I love it.
Speaker 3:But I was like I feared for my life and I was like, okay, well, at least if I'm gonna die like I want to have that control, you know? Yeah, so yeah, I rented a car and drove, ended up driving the rest of the way to phoenix because it was so bad the fear.
Speaker 2:I think the connection and you know not to digress around planes, but the connection is for for people that are not engineers in my head I'm like oh, there's so much wind, the plane's just going to fall out of the sky is what it feels like yeah. Uh, but I have a friend that's a pilot and he tried to explain it to me and he's like okay, uh, ships don't just sink. Yeah, you know they don't just like fall to the bottom of the ocean.
Speaker 3:Right.
Speaker 2:So the science behind the way an airplane flies is very similar. It's not like it's just going to fall out of the sky.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:It might fall 300 feet or 400 feet and that's a really intense turbulent.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:But you know it's not going to just go away.
Speaker 3:Yeah, unless you're on a Boeing. No, suzanne, I'm just kidding, unless you're on a 737 Max?
Speaker 2:Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 3:No, they've fixed that issue. I mean they've, they definitely have fixed it and they're flying now.
Speaker 1:So how do you make the? Leap from boeing to real estate so boeing, I was bored, bored at boeing, bored at boeing, it was boring our meme is bored at boeing.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean it was fun for the first. I wouldn't even say that it was a boring task. I had, you know, like I, I deserved more. I expected more to do and have more creativity angle of things and it was just not there for me it wasn't there. You know, there's that job the nine to five is for certain type of people and there are engineering jobs that I think I would have definitely appreciated, but that wasn't the one for me. So I wanted to make more money and also maybe start my own company one day engineering related.
Speaker 1:So I saw a family member who was in real estate and then got in with them, got my license and joined your team and started just climbing the ladder and then, as I got my license and joined your team and you know, started just climbing the ladder and then, as I got my license, I got laid off because of the COVID and the Boeing what it was going through.
Speaker 3:So you went all in.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, I had no other choice because at the time there was no one hiring Divine intervention yeah.
Speaker 3:Well, it's interesting because I saw you at that time go from top our top rookie, rookie of the year doing the most transactions as a new agent to now just one of our top agents, and I would say, definitely top. What do we call it? Innovestor, innovestor agents, which is why I think this is such a great conversation to have. Which is why I think this is such a great conversation to have, because we've really seen you rise through this and rise to the challenge, I would say, of bringing forward a lot of investor-grade deals to Buy, Buy House and then see a lot of success with that. But I know that that's not easy either. So I think it's a great story just to talk through and tell how that happened and how you got into this place.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so it started with transactions and then, after your partnership and Innovate, the floor was there and for me there's two different avenues that have to come together for it to work. One of them is me, so am I showing up prepared at my 100% every day? So that's one angle. And then the other angle is the communication and what we have as a platform with Buy, buy and Innovate. So both of those combined and I'm in the driver's seat, and then I can make them work.
Speaker 1:But it's a lot easier said than done. So the self-work is, you know, I start my day. I've always said this it's just gym is my. You know. Now I'm actually waking up at 5.30ish, meditate a bit, then hit the gym and then gym and then what are you? Doing at the gym, basically a lot of weights these days, like five, six days a week or every day. Yeah, like I'm addicted to the gym, which is lifting, weights lifting. Yeah, I love swimming too, but you know, right now it's a little cold so I'm trying to I'm trying for a period california cold.
Speaker 3:You're Utah guy, it's not that cold actually.
Speaker 2:We'll have to get a swim in sometimes. Yeah, you knew that I was a swimmer. Oh, did you know that?
Speaker 1:I think we spoke about it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I swam in college. Yeah, I swam my whole life.
Speaker 1:So it's the best. Like every time, I take a pause A month or two. Yeah, I go back and I do a couple laps. I'm like why did I stop?
Speaker 2:This is so good. It's really good for your body, yeah.
Speaker 1:And if I incorporate two, three days of that and then some lifting and then some yoga, sometimes in the evenings, to ease off. That's how I stay sharp.
Speaker 2:Got it. So you're prioritizing your personal fitness and the way that you operate as an individual?
Speaker 1:yes, before anything else, yeah because healthy, you know, body, healthy mind I, I live by that. So what?
Speaker 2:do you do to like on the mind side, so you work out?
Speaker 1:yeah, meditate definitely do meditations um yoga practice, gratefulness um very basic things, but these things add up. Then stress, like I'm very aware of my stress levels.
Speaker 3:So I manage that there's no stress in real estate. What do you mean? Yeah, there's no.
Speaker 1:But I think the level of stress that one can handle is directly correlated with how much success, or how much they can take on, right, sure, because if you stress about little things, you probably cannot accomplish bigger things, right, right, so I try. I'm very aware of that. So what items do bring me stress? So I eliminate those like drink less or get more sleep. I had such a good sleep last night, so like sleep is so important now to me.
Speaker 3:He's going to be the person for that.
Speaker 2:Whatever?
Speaker 3:gummy he took last night.
Speaker 2:Have you guys I'm digressing have you guys seen that Netflix documentary or movie about the guy that's trying to reverse his age?
Speaker 3:And he's have you seen this? I didn't watch it. I've seen clips.
Speaker 2:Unbelievable, I watched it.
Speaker 3:Oh.
Speaker 2:I don't know if it's unbelievable in a good way. It I don't know if it's unbelievable in a good way, it's just really intense. So what he's talking about, this guy has found this marker where he's basically trying to age slower than a normal person and so a year, you know, would be a factor or a ratio of like one for a normal person. Or if you're like really unhealthy, you know, like if you smoke or drink a lot, you know they've proven that that adds or decreases 10 years or five years or whatever in your life.
Speaker 2:And if you age slowly then you could get your ratio below one. So for every year, instead of being a year older, it could be 0.9. And I think at the end of the documentary he documented that his best number was like 0.62. So for every year of time that passes, he's only aging 0.62. That's incredible. That's his ratio but, it's so intense what he's doing he's taking all sorts of supplements, and it's his full-time job, like he's, and it's like millions a month or something right oh, yeah, yeah, a couple million.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's insane, yeah, he's doing all this stuff, but I don't know if that's.
Speaker 3:I mean, there's got to be a balance yeah, yeah, that, yeah, that's how I feel too. I feel like I'm a big believer of all of that, but I'm also a believer of like you got to control what you can control and you can't obsess over it, and that goes back to stress. It's like that sounds really stressful to me to have to like manage all of those things. Okay, so before we get into more about real estate, we have a real estate story, me or you. You're doing it.
Speaker 2:I'm doing the story today. Yes, okay.
Speaker 3:We like your reactions when you're reading the story.
Speaker 2:I haven't read the story so I'm excited to hear it. Okay, so today on Realty Talk Podcast story homes gone wild.
Speaker 3:Oh, and I think we should preface with for listeners that haven't heard this before. We get stories from agents all the time, and so feel free to submit your story if you have a real estate story. That's a little wild.
Speaker 2:So these are just submitted in.
Speaker 3:Submitted in. We don't know. I don't know who this submitted is so I can't call them out.
Speaker 2:Yes exactly so. We bought our house a few years back during a small housing crash. We bought it from a single guy in a similar age range as us. He just lost his as well paying job and needed to downsize his life to adjust to lower income. Maybe we should have asked why he lost his job, but honestly, we were excited to finally move into a home from flats. So they were living in an apartment or something. We were a small family Me, my wife, our two children and a cat. That's the problem. Perhaps things would have been different if we had a dog.
Speaker 2:At first things seemed pretty normal. Oh, there were weird noises occasionally and unexpected occurrences. The energy bills were strangely high and the water usage was more than we expected. I think I know where this is going. But we chalked it up to a new house and generally unfamiliarity For a few years there. That was our new normal. Then one day we noticed the guy we bought the house from hanging around in the neighborhood. We had thought he'd left. We tried to stack up a conversation but he fled.
Speaker 2:Fled is a pretty strong word like he ran quickly uh, was he in a car? Was he on a bike? I have so many questions. Things started feeling weird again. We started paying attention, or more attention, to the strange noises and high water and energy use. Oh yeah, we asked the energy company to send out an inspector to find where the power was going. He traced our wires and found a junction leading off to who knows where.
Speaker 2:Oh no, well, we got to find out. We had a survey done in our property to find where the wire was going and found a hidden underground bunker. Wow, down in our property to find where the wire was going and found a hidden underground bunker, the guy we'd sold the house to was still living, or the week.
Speaker 2:so they miss, they wrote it wrong so the guy we bought the house from, yeah, uh was still living there, stealing our power and water and had a camera feed of most of most of the rooms in our house. According to him, it was so he could time his arrivals and departures that we wouldn't see him, but I'm pretty sure he was creeping on us and the judge agreed with me. He was arrested for this. But we also had sold the house and moved on. We didn't feel safe anymore. We were very careful to explain the bunker to the new owner. He explained how he would change the locks. We also made sure that you knew the day the old owner was expected to get out of prison. The new owner thought the bunker was pretty cool, weirdo, and told us he was going to turn it into his gaming bunker. Okay, we wish him the best of luck.
Speaker 3:We're refusing to sell the families, the children, blah, blah, blah holy shit I mean, I would look at that as like, yes, that's very creepy and awful, but you have like a whole bunker you didn't know about. I feel like that's kind of cool.
Speaker 2:I you know, gaming room. That makes no sense.
Speaker 3:It's a, it's a swine cellar, obviously, of course underground like yeah okay, the question is would bye-bye house have known before purchasing that the bunker?
Speaker 2:was there. Yeah, I mean 100%. So, like the way that electrical works, I mean a junction box is going to like all of the wiring goes to a main service panel, so every house is connected to the utility, right? I only know this because one of my businesses was interacting in that space a long time ago.
Speaker 2:But you know the main service or the power is connected to the grid. Even if you have solar, it's still connected. Grid-tied is what it's called. That goes to a main service panel. That main service panel then has all of the different junctions or runs electrical runs back to what it's powering. So there's got to be a slot where this separate junction was feeding this bunker. So during the inspection we always bring in a master electrician to understand okay, does this main service panel need to get upgraded? We would have snuffed that out in two seconds.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and I mean, who was their real estate agent? Who was their inspector? Because the inspector should have for sure caught that.
Speaker 2:Yeah yeah, just bad agents, bad inspectors, yeah, yeah. But the guy could be a secret genius, Like build a bunker under a house, sell the house and still live there, Not pay property taxes. Free power, free energy.
Speaker 3:I guess technically he could have like not plugged in power while inspections were done. So maybe he is a genius, I don't know, I mean the camera thing.
Speaker 2:It all feels weird. For sure a creeper. If you got rid of the camera thing I'd think he's awesome. He's just living for free Totally.
Speaker 3:Living his best life.
Speaker 2:Extracting value. Do you have any?
Speaker 1:crazy. Do you have anything to match that that you've seen in real estate? That's really top story. No, I don't have anything wild. I'm waiting for the goat story.
Speaker 2:You haven't gone to prison. No, I have not, and you've never built a bunker, so it wasn't you, okay we're clear, but I'm impressed.
Speaker 1:It wasn't me. How much water and power was this guy using for it to? Yeah, that's true, I mean one person.
Speaker 3:Yeah, to fuel the bunker. Maybe he already had the game room down there, and then the plumbing and stuff.
Speaker 2:Just for clarity, and I think they had it right. If they had a dog, the dog would have sniffed it out in two seconds. Cats are kind of dumb. Yeah, cats want you to think they're dumb. I think.
Speaker 3:But I don't know.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:I'm strongly opinionated 100%. I would have been alerted by my dogs for sure.
Speaker 1:That is wild Okay. That's hilarious.
Speaker 3:So that was good Back to real estate. So you know we've talked about your success a little. What are some tips that you have for maybe someone that's looking to get into real estate? I think we should talk about the fact and the deals that you guys do together quite a bit, because that has helped your success and helped you grow so quickly. And then what suggestions you have to other agents that are looking to kind of share in that success.
Speaker 1:Sure, did you want me to just start, or you start, yeah?
Speaker 2:I'm happy to. I mean, I think you know I'm in a unique position because for if you're a new listener and you don't, you know know the structure Innovate is a brokerage. Armin is an agent at Innovate, one of the top agents. Buy, buy House is a single family value add investment company. So we buy old, distressed houses, we fix them up and then we sell them, or we hold on to them and rent them out. Right houses we fix them up and then we sell them, or we hold on to them and rent them out right.
Speaker 2:And so you know the source of a deal that we purchase is variable, like it could be an off-market consumer and I always say there's four reasons somebody will sell it to buy my house and the four Ds downsizing, divorce, debt or death. One of those four Ds inspires somebody to go and sell quickly for cash because they need the money. Or the house is just beat up like it's not lendable, right. But by definition, if you're interacting with that consumer directly, it's usually pretty easy to get a deal done. If you are on market and the real estate agent that is listing the property is saying calling all investors or flip opportunity, by definition there's going to be compression in the margin. So in our business model we're approaching if we sell a million dollar house, we want to make about a hundred grand, so we underwrite to a 10% return on revenue, which is not a super big margin. You've got to be really quick and you've got to be right, because if you're off by 10% you make no money.
Speaker 2:Or if you're off by 15%, you lose a lot of money. And so I guess the reason I bring all of that up is that if you're an agent like Armin that's representing buy-buy house and acquiring on-market opportunities, you have to have an opinion of how to get acquiring on-market opportunities. You have to have an opinion of how to get a deal done, which means you have to have some interpersonal communication skills that allow you to communicate with an agent to understand what their desire and needs are, so that you stand out to get your offer accepted number one. And then you've got to be able to communicate in a way where that agent trusts you and understands your messaging so that they can then transfer that information to their seller in a way that we can consummate a transaction, Because typically there's just, by definition, friction there. We want to buy it lower, they want to sell it higher, and there's got to be a number that kind of works for both parties. And so it's really just a massive game of telephone where you know I'm saying what I want to have happen. I say that to Armin, Armin goes, takes that to another agent, and then that agent takes it back to the seller. And so I think you know my perspective, you know of what you've done differently is that you've been very curious about how that all works, and then you're not emotionally attached to an outcome. So, instead of trying to say it in a way where everyone can kind of understand it, Instead of cashing your commission check before the deal closes which I've seen a lot of agents make that mistake the minute we get something into escrow they think, oh, I'm going to get this 2.5% commission representing buy-buy on this transaction.
Speaker 2:Instead of doing that, what you're doing is asking curious questions about how this is going to work out. It probably comes from your engineering background because you want to see the broader picture of start to finish, how this is going to be a successful transaction, and my opinion is that asking those questions allows you to explain it in a way where the seller understands why we need a discount, if we need one, or why we need to buy it at the price we need to buy it for. So it's logical to them. And then we get the deal done. I think the mistake that a lot of agents make is they see a fixer on market. They trust the other agent is pricing it properly. They write an offer. Once we look at it we say, hey, this isn't a very good deal, we disagree from these vantage points, and they just give up. So they're afraid to have a frictional conversation and they're also afraid to ask curious questions as to why we need something to be different to then work out a solution.
Speaker 2:So that that's my opinion yeah of what you've done very, very well, but I don't know.
Speaker 1:I'd be, that was very point on I think, I think you, you hit a lot of those. Yeah, I mean, it's nothing short of anything that you said, and then add to that maybe high expectations of sellers. So I think at the pinnacle of that again sits communication and no expectation after that. Like you said, don't expect that two and a half right off the bat, sure. And then it's also how would I say this? I mean, I never know if I'm going to. I mean, I submit about what 15, 20 offers a month with you.
Speaker 3:Sure.
Speaker 1:And maybe open six, seven escrows, yep, and then right now we're in four, I mean, I'm in two with you. So it's a numbers game. First, with no expectations and then add communication to that and just the communication is so important and that friction, as you said, is there. So for me you have to hear the other side and then also how I deliver our needs based on numbers and the research that I do in that neighborhood.
Speaker 1:That's what makes it work. And I mean, besides, I mean, let's not forget, there's 10 other investors or whatever. Yeah, then I'm so. How do I win that agent? Yep, so I show up. Yeah, I show up to that agent, like I meet them in person. Yeah, I show them who I am, I show them who we are yeah, who you are and you know I'm.
Speaker 1:I think transparency goes a very long way and then hopefully they see that you have good intentions. I know that about you. You're not here to lowball, but you just have to make sense business-wise. So once I communicate all that, then I'm like, hey, this is what we could do and these are the options, these are the routes.
Speaker 3:Which one would make sense for your seller. And I would add I also think you don't take no for an answer. I know that personally about you.
Speaker 3:But you know, if, like you, are constantly looking for a way to make something work, so whether it's a no from you, a no from the listing agent, a no from the seller, I mean it really doesn't matter You're saying well, let's try and figure it out, let's all try and come together and what can we do to make this work, whereas I think a lot of people and this is just in general, that's the way that you think of things it's like no, I'm not accepting that. No, what can we do to be better?
Speaker 1:And I see that a lot and that resilience comes from the morning workouts and my stress management you know, how do I show up at my like I could throw a fit, with him saying, oh, I don't you want, I want it here. Or the seller is like not cooperating, but I'm like, okay, let's not be emotional emotional take the emotions out, see where this. You know where I can be a solution. And for me to be a solution I have to have the clear mind, no stress, so like that's where creativity comes in.
Speaker 2:And then you know the self-care. Yeah, I have an opinion on a lot of that too, because there there are agents that I've interacted with not at Innovate but other agents that are so focused on the commission they're going to make from representing buy-by-house on the purchase that they don't give a shit about what actually happens to buy-by-house on the back end of that transaction, so they're not interested in relisting the property, they don't have an opinion on what the scope of work should be, or if we're paying too much for a certain item or if we don't need to put a certain thing into a property, and so the lack of interest or the lack of curiosity around our economics, by definition, gets them so focused on their piece that it drives an emotional wedge. I call it commission breath. I can smell it. They're so focused on getting it across the line, but they never have an opinion as to why we're seeing it the Like. I can smell it, they're so focused on getting it across the line, but they never have an opinion as to why we're seeing it the way we're seeing it.
Speaker 2:So I guess my opinion for you is in our relationship, and why it's been fruitful is that I genuinely feel like you listen to my concerns and then you either provide data that validates it or data that sways me. But it's always from the standpoint of well, I'm your partner, like, I'm going to be the one to go and sell this property for you at the end. So if you're not making that money, then you're going to stop buying from me. So why would I get this deal?
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:Um, you know.
Speaker 1:So I think that is a really critical component, and that data is exactly what I use to go back to the sellers.
Speaker 2:Which is which, by the way, I think you know what we're talking about is just the truth. You're just telling the truth, Telling the full story.
Speaker 3:That's something I have always felt and I know I've talked about it before with real estate that it's like everyone's playing such a game when it really doesn't need to be such a game, like you can have honest and transparent conversations with all parties. But I think you know agents in general are kind of even trained or accustomed to you know holding things close or you know making things a little bit more difficult than they need to be, when really it's like we're all trying to accomplish the same thing. There's a buyer, there's a seller, we're trying to move a property Everyone should be on the same page but it turns into such a battle when really it doesn't need to be that difficult. If there's logic behind what's happening, let's present that and let's move past it.
Speaker 2:So I have probably an unpopular opinion and I'm gonna pivot away from real estate for just two seconds. The reason I think you're successful is that you find joy in the hard work. So what we've just talked about like telling the truth and being transparent and understanding all of those data points it's just hard work. What it means is you have to work hard and educate yourself and ask questions and be engaged in a conversation, and you've got to open escrows that fail and you've got to look back and learn from it and then keep going, which is really hard work. And I think if you enjoy the hard work, then you will just, by definition, be successful.
Speaker 2:So your morning routine of finding enjoyment in working out and tearing your muscle fibers down and then rebuilding them and finding joy in that, that is a very curious venture, right? So if you find joy doing that, then it makes it so easy to find joy doing other things. I think most people are just fucking lazy and so they want the paycheck, yeah, but they don't want to put the work in. They don't want to work hard, they don't want to tear their muscle down in the morning to then rebuild.
Speaker 2:They want to eat the cheeseburger and drink the milkshake and then cash the twenty thousand dollar commission check. Right, that that's just not how the world works.
Speaker 1:It's not reality.
Speaker 2:Forget real estate. That's what I mean. It's an unpopular opinion, but it's everything in life. If you don't create value for everyone that's involved in a transaction, you will not succeed, right I?
Speaker 1:think I'm going to comment on that. Yes, some are lazy, but some just simply don't know.
Speaker 2:They're not just trained.
Speaker 1:I didn't know, like they're not just trained, so like I didn't know.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And I had some failures at the beginning. So I think In real estate or in life.
Speaker 3:Yeah, everything yeah.
Speaker 1:So with Bye, Bye, like there's a lot of failures for me at the beginning, you know, and a lot of disappointments, but then I stuck to it. So like I don't think we've ever had a real failure together. No, I'm talking about escrows, like expectations of me opening escrows and then falling out because I just didn't know the system.
Speaker 2:Well, right, yeah, yeah, but to me that's why you're successful. Right, because I enjoyed that correct?
Speaker 1:yeah, I wasn't. I didn't give up. I didn't give up again, like you didn't take no for an answer you were like okay, yeah, but I figure this out exactly. But I feel, like if newer agents come in and have that resilience, with the hope of knowing that, yes, this will work, with that good intention, then they will succeed.
Speaker 3:It is true, I mean in real estate I have again touched on this quite a bit but it's, you know there is no like uniform training on how to be a successful agent. And you know you initially, you know, kind of had, uh, I would say, maybe a mentor, but you know that didn't teach you this. You know what you needed was to go through this on your own and to learn. And I think you know, in general, in real estate uh, again, like this is specific to real estate I think there's other industries where they do provide, um, quite a bit of training, but I in real estate this is specific to real estate I think there's other industries where they do provide quite a bit of training. But I think in real estate you pass the test, you get some continuation training. If you don't join a badass brokerage or a badass team, you're flailing, which is why we do have continuation platforms and things for agents to get better, because really agents out there most of the time are just like winging it.
Speaker 3:They're just trying to figure it out.
Speaker 2:Yeah, what you're broadly saying is like there's a low barrier of entry to become a real estate agent. Let's have a conversation about a doctor. Let's have a conversation about a doctor, right? Like the reason you go to four years of undergraduate and then you go to four more years of graduate school or doctorate school and then you practice for a period of time before you get your own practice, is that the implications of being a bad doctor are really great, like somebody can die.
Speaker 2:If you're a shitty real estate agent, then nobody buys or sells real estate with you right, so the barrier of entry is very low because 05.20.
Speaker 3:Which is why people think real estate agents are idiots 05.20.
Speaker 2:Well, I think that's. I struggle with that too, because I'm like watching it. I'm like real estate agents are just the same as every other person on the planet. There are idiots at Starbucks, 05.20. There are idiots at starbucks. There are idiots. At boeing. You probably work with a bunch of idiots that were like I'm so happy that I passed my interview, I got my job, I'm gonna show up at nine and I'm gonna leave at five and I don't care if any value is created yeah and you know so.
Speaker 2:But to me that's the difference is like finding joy in the part of your work where you create value, which generally means you've got to work really, really hard, so you're just kind of switched on like yeah, exactly, yeah, I mean I.
Speaker 1:I mean there's the joy for sure when you close a deal and get things done that's the byproduct of the work I mean it's also very rewarding right when, when you put you know sales in any field once you close a deal, it's very rewarding. That's why you, why people are in sales.
Speaker 3:Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 2:Or like swimming fast, and winning a race is the byproduct of all the work. Or having a fit physique but nobody sees all the work.
Speaker 1:Or even mental resilience in anything and be like hey, I could have quit, but I stuck with it.
Speaker 3:It feels good to accomplish Anything else. We're going to play. Rate that listing.
Speaker 2:But, before.
Speaker 3:Is there anything else that you would like?
Speaker 1:to share Absolutely. So I am planning on creating a badass team, oh, yeah. So I'm looking to hire or I shouldn't say hire work with like bring on three agents who are very. Yeah, only three this year. Year this year is three. I want to build a solid foundation with a good core and so I'm putting that out there la area, la area preferred what are the attributes of these people?
Speaker 1:um, just, you know, have an open mind, no expectations but but driven. I am creating a system to bring incentives for them to put in hours of work. So, I'm working on that business model and just you know people that see their that they can do good in this field, like just try it. You know, I can kind of sense those people. Now I have a few people hit me up to work with me and I'm like, yeah, I don't see that.
Speaker 1:But then there's others that I'm like yeah, I can see you do well, so I will be picky but I'll be happy to train them and I'm looking to have different areas assigned, so we kind of expand around LA a little further out, or maybe Ventura to expand out the business and then next year I'm looking to add five more.
Speaker 2:So Aid so what happens to the band. The band's always there.
Speaker 1:The band's issue is we have a lovely bass player that just leaves town.
Speaker 2:This is going to go public.
Speaker 1:I love the guy.
Speaker 3:Let's play some of his music for our intro and our outro for this podcast, for sure.
Speaker 2:What is the band's name? The Astro Bandits for this podcast. I would love that.
Speaker 1:Yeah for sure. Okay, that's happening. What is the band's name? The Astro Bandits.
Speaker 3:Astro Bandits. Okay, such a good band, it's so good.
Speaker 1:So it's like space rock and psychedelic.
Speaker 2:We get heavy too.
Speaker 3:Okay.
Speaker 2:Can you listen to it if you're not on acid?
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, okay. You might start feeling like it okay, got it. Okay, no, definitely you can uh, but yeah, we're working. We've been working on uh, 10 songs. I think we're finished six or seven. It's just, we gotta just get together and finish the last bit, but we're there, yeah we're all adults like I'm 37, pushing 38 now. Um, okay, well, make sure you send us the music so we can implement.
Speaker 3:Okay, so for Rate that Listing. So we are about to preview a listing. We get the location, the price of the home, the number of bedrooms and baths, the square footage, and we're going to rate the listing based off of the photos. So our listeners can see the photos online. We are about to rate this listing in Beaumont Okay.
Speaker 2:Beaumont, california, yeah.
Speaker 3:For $589,900,. Four bed, three bath, over 3,000 square feet.
Speaker 2:I mean so we're in 2025. A 3,000 square foot house costs more than $589,000 to build today.
Speaker 3:Replacement costs are higher than that, this is going to be a screaming deal. Let's see.
Speaker 1:Okay, alright. Looking good from the outside, beautiful Beaumont.
Speaker 3:What's this?
Speaker 2:green light going on over here. Star Wars.
Speaker 3:It's like you're walking into a Star Wars. What are we about to experience? So we've got Okay, a kid's.
Speaker 2:So, this is like a little bunk bed-ish kind of situation.
Speaker 3:Nice backyard.
Speaker 2:This is a slide into the pool, who's listing Is this Sergio Sergio's listing. This is like a slide into a pool, I know something's coming here.
Speaker 3:There's like an outdoor.
Speaker 2:So just for the listeners, the people that aren't seeing this, I mean we're outside in the backyard, Not physically, but we're looking at it. There's an awesome grill, there's like a little TV area. There's a covered patio with a fan, a fire pit, a pool. It looks tired.
Speaker 3:It hasn't been maintained. Is that a cross or what's happening over there? I don't know.
Speaker 2:It might be a TV behind the grill.
Speaker 3:Oh yeah, all right, I think it's a covered TV behind the grill.
Speaker 2:Okay All right, I don't know what this is.
Speaker 3:We're looking at some wall art.
Speaker 2:It's a tiger.
Speaker 3:A tiger. Oh, you saw a tiger. Yeah, oh, on the side.
Speaker 2:Okay, okay, so there's, it's like this person must have been an engineer.
Speaker 3:There's like some gears and yeah, staging's kind of funny. Oh right, an engineer by day, stripper by night this is very this is very bizarre.
Speaker 2:There's a surfboard, a 100 bill carpet or oh, I saw that warmat a skull crossbone, I don't know what that is on the wall and then a stripper pole.
Speaker 3:And not just any. I mean, that pole is going up to a. Yes, they are, Somebody is climbing that pole.
Speaker 2:Or maybe, maybe they're coming down Two stories of dancing, yeah, sliding down. No, it's too close to the wall.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so maybe from the top there you could just slide down instead of no, it's too close to the wall. Yeah, so maybe from the top there you could just slide down instead of no.
Speaker 2:No, no, you got to look. There's like brackets around it, so if you slid, you get stuck.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, it is bracketed to that.
Speaker 3:That's where they're bracketed. I think it's bracketed on the ceiling. I think it's going all the way up. I need another angle.
Speaker 2:The most interesting thing in that is like the 80-year-old grandma clock on the side, like the standing clock I don't even know what you call that.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, yeah, it seems like a strange addition for the pole Attention to details. That's good.
Speaker 2:Okay, staircase is just weird.
Speaker 3:Oh.
Speaker 2:More $100 bills on the ground but what is going on?
Speaker 3:Is that a gun?
Speaker 2:It looks like a gun. It's like you know what this feels like it A gun. It looks like a gun. It's like you know what this feels like. It's the Star Wars land at. Disneyland Is this a ship, or, oh, my God.
Speaker 3:Oh okay, it's getting crazier.
Speaker 1:No, this is like Alien. There's a jacuzzi.
Speaker 3:Okay. So I'm feeling like that stripper pole was not for dancing, like I feel like that is function for something else. Maybe I, oh else, like, maybe I, oh god, rate the listing who I, yeah, I I do want to ask we have a couple agents that are local to the area, so I I have questions for them, a lot of questions yeah, yeah, I think, um, if I'm rating, like the listing, the value I mean I think I see the value, the value I mean I think I see the value of the property.
Speaker 2:I don't know the Beaumont market well enough. I mean 3,000 square feet for $5.89 sounds cheap, but it's no offense if you live in Beaumont. But it's a long ways away from where who lives in Beaumont.
Speaker 3:I think that that does kind of line in with comps. But I guess, if I'm rating the way they've marketed the listing, what are the jobs in Beaumont?
Speaker 2:Do people drive into Riverside? Is that like a commuter town? I don't know the market that well?
Speaker 3:No, I do think that they can go one way or the other, because Redlands is nearby. There's a lot going on in there.
Speaker 2:So there's university there Exactly. Or they drive's university there yeah, exactly. Or they drive into Riverside yeah, got it. So it's a commuter area.
Speaker 3:I actually think, yes, exactly, Got it. But yeah, so one to five. What are we giving this list? I couldn't get past all the stuff so I would have left it at like the first three photos and just like taken photo. If I'm the agent, I'm not throwing.
Speaker 2:Imagine the bait and switch, though. You go to your, your, your family's, like you bring kids to the open or like the show and you're like, oh, this looks like a cool deal.
Speaker 3:And then there's a yeah, I don't know, I think I would have um as a as a responsible listing agent, I think I would have encouraged an innoequity or a mend in market where it's like hey let's do a remodel before we get this on the market. So I'm going to give that like a two.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:You go.
Speaker 1:I'll rate it a three, but would have suggested to just take down the pole.
Speaker 3:Yeah, at least the pole had to go.
Speaker 2:You wouldn't take down, like the wall art of aliens and crossbones and skulls. We can't be fixated on the pole. I have so many questions. There's a child bunk bed and then there's an alien in the garage. Who is living there?
Speaker 3:They're having nightmares every night. Can you imagine growing up there?
Speaker 2:It was a little girl because it was pink. It was a pink bunk bed.
Speaker 3:It was a nice little playhouse area. Yes, this is a pink bunk bed. It was like a nice little, like like playhouse area. Yeah, yes, this is a pink bunk bed. This is a.
Speaker 1:This is a little girl's room, scooby-doo carpet on the floor. Yeah, I give it.
Speaker 2:I give it a one they torture their children at night the listing agent shit to bed. They needed, you know, equity yeah if you took, if that's your listing, uh, you need to call suzanne, uh, not armin, because, uh, that's a little far yeah to join your team?
Speaker 2:I think yeah but call suzanne, join, innovate and get access to innoequity. Because we would have taken the stripper pole, the aliens out, maybe we would have saged the property of all evil demons and we would have sold it probably higher than that evil demons and we would have sold it probably higher than that, all right well, on that note, thank you, armin, for being here today.
Speaker 3:Uh, trekking through la to get here, yeah, and uh, yeah, that's that's a wrap.
Speaker 1:Yeah, anything else you want to add? No, just grateful to be here. Thank you both for all the work you do and everyone else behind the curtains. It's been a pleasure.
Speaker 2:So we will play some Astro Bandits. Yes, we will also provide all of our listeners or people that are watching on YouTube, a way to contact Armin in the event that you're interested in joining his team. I'd highly recommend it in all seriousness. I mean, I think he's positioned in a way and if you're an agent in Los Angeles, if you're looking to be an agent in Los Angeles, you'd be joining a team of right now one, but will likely be in that $70 million kind of range of production this year, so high-income potential. And then if you're an agent that is not interested in being in the Thunderdome with Armin come to come to.
Speaker 3:Just join, come to the way.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but if you have not subscribed, please do so. It helps us out a lot, and please check back for our next episode. We're very excited about some upcoming guests, not as excited as Armin, but Still excited.
Speaker 3:Yes, it'll be good See ya.