Open The Gate
Breaking down Sacramento Real Estate: Our Favorite People, Places and Mindsets
Open The Gate
Ep 21: Brian Hoh- From Law to Listings
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
What could possibly connect walk-up songs, law enforcement, and real estate? Join us as we kick off our podcast series with an incredible guest, Brian Hoh. With a decade-long journey from policing the streets to becoming a seasoned realtor, Brian's story is filled with fascinating twists and turns. We start by reminiscing about the nostalgic choice of walk-up songs, a baseball tradition with a personal twist, thanks to Brian's childhood friend Daniel Weinstein. The episode is rich with anecdotes about missed celebrations during the pandemic and looking forward to future milestones, giving a heartfelt perspective on the importance of long-term relationships and personal growth.
Ever wondered how someone shifts from law enforcement to a thriving career in real estate? Brian takes us through his unexpected journey, influenced by his father and marked by the impact of the 2008 financial crisis. We explore the critical role that strong family bonds and enduring friendships played in his transition and success. Brian also shares his thoughts on the current real estate market, touching on housing affordability, interest rates, and the emotional weight of necessity-driven transactions. Sacramento’s unique charm and the importance of supportive team dynamics in navigating today’s real estate landscape are thoughtfully discussed.
Finally, get ready for some lighter moments as we dive into Brian's unique experiences, including a hilarious story about competing on ABC's Wipeout and dreams of appearing on "The Price is Right." We explore personal fantasies like living a day in the life of NBA star Steph Curry, complete with admiration for his athletic skills and family life. The episode concludes with Brian sharing the story behind his signature custom shirt, symbolizing a significant milestone in his career. This first episode of our podcast is a perfect blend of professional insights, personal stories, and a touch of humor, setting the stage for many more engaging conversations to come.
Inaugural Episode With Special Guest
Speaker 1It's go time. What's up, Kaylee?
Speaker 2Oh, not much Ready for this inaugural episode.
Speaker 1I believe. I mean you're on your own now. Sink or swim Baby's learning to run right now, that's it. I feel like such a proud dad. I mean I'm a little torn. I'm trying to get over the fact that Blake's not here. I'm over on the board. People can't see this, but I'm actually running the board today. Don't mess uncharted terrace. Yeah, don't. I like. I follow the guy on instagram. You follow the guy on instagram. He says like don't fuck it up the cook guy, he's, he's awesome. If you don't follow him, he's that, he's, he's incredible. Um, so we've got a pretty, we've got a, we've got a a big time, super important guest yes, by far not not that, but thank you no, uh, former, former, former police and you know, but ultimately career realtor.
Speaker 1He's been doing this for almost 10 years licensed since 2015 so coming up on a 10 year anniversary, so we do have. We have Brian Ho with us and we are going to play him in and we're going to get this thing. Let's go, let's do it.
Speaker 3We are going to play him in and we're going to get this thing. Let's go.
Speaker 2Let's do it. Welcome Brian.
Speaker 3Thank you.
Speaker 2Now that your song has played, you are officially welcomed to the podcast. Yes, no, I appreciate it. Thanks for having me, absolutely right.
Speaker 1It's one of my favorite parts of the podcast because the walk-up song like I played baseball for so long. It's just a way to express yourself.
Speaker 2And it tells us a little bit about who you are. Yeah, the lonely stoner.
Speaker 1We're just off and running.
Life Before Real Estate and Adventures
Speaker 3I feel like we can all relate a little bit to that, so we were talking about this before. But you know, when you asked me for a walk-up song, I am terrible at picking songs, so I actually went to my childhood friend, daniel. Shout out Daniel Weinstein.
Speaker 2Okay, thanks, daniel.
Speaker 3He's a vet in Rockland, so if you need a good doctor, go to him. But he picked my song for me, so he knows you pretty well then We've known each other, since we were about two feet tall. Oh, that's adorable.
Speaker 2So I've always said it's a huge green flag when somebody has relationships and friendships that are from deep in their past. Yeah, you know, I think it tells a tale of who you are as a person to be able to maintain those relationships because you change so much over the years, and so do they, and you change so much over the years, and so do they and to be able to overcome who you are as you evolve.
Speaker 1I think it's a sign. We talked about that all the time with my, my son really like his, his, his little core group of buddies were like man, like be pretty cool if you guys were like in each other's weddings, you know.
Speaker 3I was in his wedding. Oh come on. Yeah, I had a small little intimate wedding so I didn't have a whole bunch of friends, I had just my immediate family and my wife's immediate family. So there was 11 people total. But if I had friends and family a whole bunch of friends and family obviously he would have been there. And how long have you and your wife been married? Married in June of 2018. So six years. Okay, we just had our six year anniversary.
Speaker 3We're talking about what we're doing, thank you. Talking about what we're gonna do for a 10 year, since that's coming up. Yeah, so we've already put the grandparents on standby for a, a grand sitting watch, or grand baby sitting watch, cause we're going to go off to Spain and leave the kids at home, nice.
Speaker 1Nice, yeah, we've got my wife and I have 20 years coming up in uh in two years and uh, europe is. Europe is in the crosshairs for sure.
Speaker 2I'm going to age you for a bit here. That's more, that's almost like a third of my two thirds of my life.
Speaker 1We were joking, I told, I told Marina, I go, I go, I go, babe, our, our marriage can vote Like how fucking old do I feel?
Speaker 3So you said, you're coming up on 20, or we just had 18.
Speaker 1Yeah, august 5th was our 18, 18 year anniversary. So, we've got two years to uh to figure out exactly what we're going to do.
Speaker 3I was going to say you got to do something big.
Speaker 1Well, yeah, uh, we, we, we like to plan big. We're with um. My wife is from Brazil, so born and raised, so the Olympics were huge in our house, like we watched tons of it. My daughter will also graduate high school when the Olympics are in LA. There's a good chance that we maybe watch a lot of Olympic volleyball in LA in about four years.
Speaker 3Looking super forward to that. I would not complain about that.
Speaker 1Except I hear that they're trying to go carless. They want all public transportation utilization for the Olympics. Olympics never gonna happen. I yeah, it's crazy. They said they did something similar when it was there in 84, um, but I mean it's like and how many millions of people less were there yeah, seriously. So we'll see, we'll see how that, we'll see how that goes, but yeah well, it's big time it is, it would say we're looking forward to it.
Speaker 1I mean, we missed um, we missed world cup and the Olympics when they were in Brazil. Like we just didn't go, we were just like, oh no we missed it. It was stupid Like it's a. It's a huge missed opportunity for us, yeah.
Speaker 2So, Brian, you were not always in real estate. Tell us about life before real estate and how you. What path led you here?
Speaker 3Yeah, so I've, uh, I would say have been and have not been in real estate my entire life, because I am a second generation realtor.
Speaker 2We love it Shout out to my dad.
Speaker 3Daryl Ho. He's been going 36 years strong with real estate. That's amazing. His DRE number is 009. Wow. So, to give you context, 36 years. I'm zero one nine licensed in 2015. So that's how to kind of how I gauge.
Speaker 2And he's in what area? Remind me, he's in the Bay area, Bay area.
Speaker 3East Bay. So even though I've only been licensed since 2015, I feel like I've been in real estate my entire life, if that makes sense.
Speaker 2Oh yeah, when you, I mean when your parent, does this your whole life, it's like you've you've been. I'm sure he took you to some tours, probably open houses, you know, we, we parents in real estate, real estate, real estate.
Speaker 1Kids get it, whether they like it or not. Yeah.
Speaker 3I mean, uh, I remember in 2008, 2009, with the whole crash and REOs and bank owned properties, he had a uh, an agreement with mechanics bank to take over some of their listings and so I remember going out with him to the Oakland Hills seeing these distressed properties and they were distressed.
Speaker 1It was bad.
Speaker 3Like it looked like people hadn't lived there for years. Um so to see those properties and to see how much they were going for we're talking the Bay area yeah, it was uh kind of mind blowing and eyeopening to see that people were willing to pay that much for a house that needed that much.
Speaker 1It was in that condition. Yeah, for sure.
Speaker 3Um, but then more along the lines of being in the industry my entire life. I remember going to open houses with him. Obviously, I couldn't do much other than hand out flyers, but he was on dad duties and I had to be there, and so I grew up around the industry.
Speaker 2Yeah, absolutely, we know kids sell. I always used to tell people if you have kids, leverage them, exploit the heck out of them, you know, to your comfort level, but yeah people love kids Right. I should bring my two daughters to an open house and have them hand out flowers, exactly, or like lollipops, yeah, yeah. So even though your father was a realtor, you're basically your whole life. You didn't quite jump into real estate first. You went more of a different route, kind of more in the public service.
Speaker 3Yeah, so I was licensed in real estate, starting in the Bay Area. I was working alongside my dad for about a year and a half and everyone it felt like literally everyone knew me as Daryl's son not so much Brian, and so you know, when my wife got accepted to go to Sac State, she had the opportunity to move up here and I was like yeah.
Speaker 3I will 100% get the heck out of here and go Start. Yeah, make a name for yourself, exactly, um and obviously, uh, living was a little bit cheaper out here. We wanted to always own a home and so, looking at what we could afford in the Bay area, which was basically a shack I said, yeah, this is the right move for us. And so, in 2016, we moved out here. Uh, we landed in Folsom. We were renting a little apartment at first and at the time I thought you know, should I start real estate out here? I don't know. I don't know anybody, literally nobody.
Speaker 1Which is super scary, like that's the hardest part for real estate, like it's your, your, your Rolodex is your, is your lifeline.
Speaker 3Yeah, how well connected are you, and that's usually how well you'll do right, at least in my opinion. And so, um, that's when I started thinking, what should I do? And so I had a little temporary job uh, leasing apartments down the street, and I was like this sucks, I need to do something, Uh and so I've always wanted to join the military.
Speaker 3Uh, now that I had well, she was my girlfriend at the time, but we were pretty serious. And so I said you know, I don't think I want to get deployed or go anywhere. What if I went into law enforcement? Nobody in my family or extended family was or is a first responder. We have a pharmaceutical doctor, if you want to call it it that. That's as close as you can get to a first response, like that's it. Uh. And so when I brought this up to my wife, brought it up to my mom and dad, I think everyone had the same reaction. They just broke down in tears like what are you about to get yourself into? Um. But I started looking into it like a beautiful retirement plan, a pension, incredible health care.
Speaker 1Yeah, you didn't have to. You didn't have to tell them where you were going to go.
Speaker 2All you have to do is risk your life every day.
Speaker 3I just had to avoid the ass kickings and people shooting at me and survive until I was 57.
Speaker 2So no big deal, you know you once told me I might totally destroy this quote, but it was something that's going to live forever in my mind. Destroy this quote, but it was something that's going to live forever in my mind. He said there's nothing quite like the feeling of getting shot at, or like nothing like the high of getting shot at or a high speed chase. And I was. I was an escrow at that time and I remember looking my escrow officers and we were like we cannot relate.
Speaker 2I have no idea what that feeling is like.
Speaker 3Yeah, I think. I think the biggest rush you can get as a cop is going after somebody who takes off oh, it's a car or on a foot in a foot pursuit. I'm a big runner myself.
Speaker 1I always rock that makes one of us literally just one I.
Speaker 3I had a b partner that I worked with. We were in the same car and we had it down where if somebody took off on foot I would be the runner and he would be the radio man.
Speaker 3My radio was right here, but try talking calmly while you're running oh yeah, for people who can't see what I'm talking about, I'm literally trying to hold my mic, which is on my shoulder in a really awkward position, and pretend like you're running, while trying to talk calmly into the radio, cause there's a kind of unwritten rule in law enforcement. You don't want to be that guy or gal who hops on the radio and says I need help. Oh my God.
Speaker 1You can't hit the panic button on the radio, on the police on the police police force, yeah.
Speaker 3You gotta be as level headed as possible, even in a foot pursuit. So there to your point, there is nothing. There to your point, there is nothing. I wish you could experience it, but nothing like chasing somebody who just took off and you just go after them, like I feel like I would chase them.
Speaker 2I feel like if I was in the right situation, I would definitely capitalize on citizens arrest. I don't know if that's a thing anymore, but I feel like we all have those dreams or desires of like. One day. I would just love to be able to do this, and for me it's to be able to, like full blown football, tackle someone, hold them to the ground, wait until they get arrested and be like, yeah, sucka, that's what you get.
Speaker 1Or you're just like sitting on their chest filing your nails.
Speaker 2Well with body cams.
Speaker 3Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1Well, that's, and that's the other side of that coin. I mean the the amount of scrutiny under under law enforcement first responders. It's like man, like it's. It's just so hard to fathom. These people literally put their lives on the line and the amount of the amount of turmoil that they find themselves in or backlashes, it's, it's almost heartbreaking. You know it's, it's just it's a weird place. It's a weird place the world's in right now and hopefully it gets better. But you know we won't, we won't divulge into that too much.
Speaker 3But yeah, at the end of the day, law enforcement I in my opinion, will always be needed. Yeah, so I'll leave it at that.
Speaker 2So you? So you one day went from upholding the law to upholding real estate, which we are grateful for. Your integrity and commitment to the industry yeah. So tell us about that transition.
Speaker 3Yeah, so I was a police officer from 2017 to 2021. It was all on patrol and I worked graveyard, so from 9 pm to 7 am.
Speaker 2When all the hoodlums are out.
Speaker 3Yeah, to 7 am when all the hoodlums are out. Yeah, uh, my first year when I was a rookie, um, I didn't have much choice or selection on what beat I wanted to get into or what shift, and so graveyard downtown was my spot, um, but it turned out I really like graveyard um, number one brass or the higher ups weren't around as much, so you can kind of a little more freedom, a little bit more freedom.
Speaker 3yeah, uh, it was a ton of fun, Um, but with the, the birth of a couple of daughters at the tail end of my career my very short career, if you will I just asked myself you know, what is this really? What I want to do until I'm 57 and 57 is the golden number until you can retire with full benefits.
Speaker 2Okay.
Speaker 3So I'm 33 right now. Um, it just didn't add up to me to go that long, even if I was in a specialty unit, meaning a desk job we call them paper pushers.
Speaker 3I just I couldn't do it, and so I had my license active the whole time. I was in law enforcement, thanks to my dad, who encouraged me to do that because I was about to let it lapse, and he said you know, you should probably just redo it. It's not going to be that hard. It'll take maybe what a week of your time, you know when you study for all that or not study, but to take your tests and whatnot. And so I did that and I told my wife in 2021, I think I'm done. I think I'm done with law enforcement. And she said okay, what are you going to do? And I said well, I've kept my real estate license active.
Speaker 3What are your thoughts on me getting back into real estate out here? And she, of course, looked terrified.
Law Enforcement to Real Estate Transition
Speaker 2Like you're going to make another family to support.
Speaker 3Yeah, you're going to make another career change on me. Um, but of course we talked it out and Deanna my wife, uh, being the supportive wife she is she said well, if we're going to do this, we got to do this.
Speaker 2You know, full send let's do it, I love it.
Speaker 3And so that was um June of 2021. I actually used my paternity leave. Sorry, sacbd.
Speaker 1I used my paternity leave. You're probably the only person to ever take advantage of any leave whatsoever, and that was my time to transition back into real estate.
Speaker 3And so the funny thing is, my beat partner had a rental property in Foothill Farms and he said well, if you're going to go back into real estate, I've actually been thinking of selling my rental property. Perfect. So I had a listing before I even got out and it just kind of snowballed from there. But you know, before I get into the whole real estate talk, I told my wife, you know, she asked me like, what are your expectations? And I said well, if I can make $50,000 GCI for my first year, Low expectations.
Speaker 2I like it.
Speaker 3I don't think I'm going to do well, but let's just see what happens. And I blew it out of the water, but that was my expectations going into it.
Speaker 1It's amazing I have we have a handful of clients that I work with who have a background in law enforcement and they all do well, there's some sort of correlation between those two careers that I haven't seen any of them fail who've come out of that public service, and I think a lot of it has to do with those relationships that they forge when they're there, when you're in the trenches together, right, those people trust you. Your beat partner trusted you with his life literally every time you guys rolled out.
Speaker 2So that's just super, super cool. Yeah, of course, they're going to trust you with their home and their big financial decisions. So, and I think that what you did in law enforcement was you created your network in an area that you didn't have one, and, as business owners, we know that your network is your net worth. So you were building something that you didn't even know, and you came out of this and you had an incredible sphere of people that already knew you, loved you and trusted you, and now you can start building off of that.
Speaker 3Yeah, 100 percent. I actually, when I was thinking of getting back into real estate, I didn't think about that. I didn't think that I already had a sphere that I could tap into. I was more worried about surviving now that I had two kids or I guess one with one on the way, and how. I was more worried about surviving now that I had two kids or I guess one was one on the way and how I was going to do that right.
Speaker 1And so it all worked out Well from the outside. Looking in, I mean, the timing actually works out really well too right. You got basically two years of getting back into it and then COVID hits right and then everything's crazy.
Speaker 2We're all terrified, you know for the first two months months existential crisis that we all yeah yeah, by the way, you want to buy a house?
Speaker 1yeah, right yeah, well, yeah, like from our side of the world remember, like it was booties, gloves, masks, oh yeah. And we're walking into these houses of these people who've been told to shelter in place, like they're homeschooling while they're working on zoom and it's like like my poor guys are just like. This is this is the absolute worst feeling ever. Like you're just, you feel like a total intruder. I mean, it's hard enough going into somebody's house and inspecting the whole thing feels like a bad dream, yeah, so so wild, I know I've still.
Speaker 1I've always said like since, since that, since the onset of COVID, I go, I can't wait till my kids are like in those adult years and they can really speak to to what was going on during that time. Like my daughter turned 10 years old, like, I think, within the first month of COVID, so like before drive by birthday parties and all that stuff, like she was just locked down. I was like man, like that's a milestone birthday and you're just stuck in your room.
Speaker 2My 30th birthday was five days. Well, I was supposed to leave for my 30th birthday trip five days before the world shut down. We had been planning it with 15 of our closest friends. We were going to Thailand and then Vietnam. It was this huge thing. I was fully prepared to travel in a hazmat suit, I'm like there is no virus or disease or whatever. I don't care. If there's a pandemic, it's not going to stop me from traveling. I was fully prepared to get stuck in Thailand because you know, how terrible would it be to be working in Thailand.
Speaker 1It could be worse. Yeah, so uh exchange rates pretty good.
Speaker 2Yeah, but when the you know, when the airport shut down and stuff that really shut my dreams. But then I had to celebrate my 30th birthday in lockdown. We had to schedule out like 10 people at a time. You know, time block.
Speaker 1This is when you can show up at my house and wish me happy birthday. It was really awkward. By the time December rolled around, it was my 40th birthday and we just said no, we're just going to. And 40 people showed up and 10 ended up with COVID.
Speaker 1We got locked down. We had a door just like this at my house and you guys can see this was a glass, glass partition door and my wife would literally set my food outside there. I stole my son's PlayStation four and I just clucked out. For like a week and a half I think I beat two games.
Speaker 3Oh, yeah, it was like 12 all.
Speaker 1It was like so great.
Speaker 2Okay. So, referring back to the whiteboard, this is our God in the in the podcast world. Keeps us on track. Um, tell us what you love about Sacramento.
Speaker 3Yeah, so being a Bay area native and coming to Sacramento, so where in the Bay, like East Bay? Good question, concord, okay, I went to high school in Walnut Creek. My parents' house that I grew up in was right on the border, so I was actually zoned for Walnut Creek schools.
Speaker 2Okay, waitie toity over there.
Speaker 3Yeah, but ended up going to UC Davis for college and then you know I was kind of familiar with Sacramento, I didn't venture too much out here.
Speaker 1Did you?
Speaker 3study criminal justice? No, so I think with law enforcement officers I would say it's a high percentage, but 75%, 80% have a CJ or criminal justice degree.
Speaker 2I actually studied criminal justice. Oh, did you yeah?
Speaker 1Kaylee wanted to be a forensic scientist. I really did. She wanted to go in and CSI the crime scenes.
Speaker 2I did. I wanted to psychology the F out of those crime scenes and tell you who the heck to look for. But now I just find people in real estate.
Speaker 1Now I just find them the homes that they love. You look like you need a house. Yeah, connect them with my lender.
Speaker 3The way you're moving tells me that you're ready to buy a house. So I had the opportunity to study managerial economics at Davis. I thought I was going to get into finance. Um, I did an internship with Morgan Stanley, actually in downtown sack, and I said no, this is silly, I do not want to do this.
Speaker 1Was it more of a sales position, like were you cold calling or were you just analyzing markets?
Speaker 3Analyzing, uh, mainly the stock market and how to read everything. Um, so we were learning about candle charts and all that, and I was like this sucks, I feel like I was one of the few that was like this, this, I should not be here. Um, so, anyways, that was really my telltale sign that I, you know I'm, I'm getting this degree, which was great, um, but maybe this isn't what I want to do, yeah, um. So, anyways, we'll get into that later. But, uh, so went to Davis. I knew about Sacramento and then, of course, my wife said let's move up to Sacramento. I got accepted to Sac state. I said to Sacramento. I got accepted to Sac State. I said sure, and so we landed in Folsom. I'm a pretty big runner and I didn't realize or know much about Folsom. I just saw that there were trails. I was like, cool, you know, maybe I'll just go explore some. Little did I know that you could take the trails all the way down to Sac State and venture around the lake and all that.
Speaker 3And so all the way down to, like downtown Sacramento, yeah, yeah so, to answer your question, what I love about the area are the, are the? It's just like diverse scenes right with midtown, downtown. You can go out. You can go to a bar um pretty hip scene or you can go out to folsom and run around on the trails or even go in the lake. Uh, right now I live in west roseville. It's the epitome of suburban land and I'm fine with that I'm fine with that at this stage of our life, with three kids.
Speaker 3Now we just want peace, and quiet and yeah, you're one.
Speaker 1You're one of us now, brian, as the elder statesman at the table. Yeah, I got more gray hair on my chin than you guys have combined yeah, I'm the young one.
Speaker 2Actually I I'm older than you, but you are much more mature and farther. Ask my wife she's like no.
Speaker 3So Sacramento, I would say it's an awesome spot. I think a lot of people on the outside see how home values are obviously cheaper.
Speaker 2Right.
Speaker 3And so we see a lot of Bay Area people move up here. I will say I beat that rush of COVID Bay area people moving up here since I've been out here since 2016.
Speaker 2We could go as far to say you were setting the trends. I was trendsetter. Everybody's just been following Brian home.
Speaker 3So it's, it's been fun out here, to say the least, and, um, I love the Bay area. Uh, it's got a soft spot in my heart but got a soft spot in my heart.
Speaker 1But would I ever move back? No yeah, it's a little too fast paced for me. So you have like a Mount Rushmore of Bay area rappers.
Speaker 3I mean too short, too short, Shout out to too short.
Speaker 1Yeah, yeah, I mean Mac Dre you could go with some of the old timers so.
Speaker 2I feel like we are really lucky and blessed to know. I mean, the hyphy movement was something spectacular, it was so good. I have some Epic memories to all the music, those artists like seeing them live and it's so interesting to me how little people know about what the Hy-Vee movement was and some of these About this, yeah, I wasn't going to take it there.
Speaker 1Brian knew all about it when he was on the beat.
Speaker 2It's one of those. If you know, you know. But if you are into rap like good rap not modern day rap, because I have a very low opinion of it, but like actual intellectual good rap, well-written, well-produced, original, unique, you would know about the hyphy movement. You would know about Bay Area rap, like it is something on its own.
Speaker 3I could get down with any Bay Area beat the Hyphy movement. That was just on a different level. I was in high school when that was all going down and it was just a fun time. It was a great time.
Speaker 1My Bay Area rap goes a little further back E-40 and the Click when it was Be Legit and Sugar T your age is really showing today. Mack traded a song from a payphone in jail. It was awesome, see, that's so iconic yeah. Right yeah. And again, I'm like a white kid from Half Moon Bay, so I was definitely not supposed to be listening to this shit. It was turned down so low in the radio in my room so my parents didn't hear it Listening in secret.
Speaker 1Yeah, like my room, so my parents didn't hear it. Yeah, like the vulgarity bobbing like yeah, uh-huh, yeah, uh-huh, yeah, so very, very cool. Um. So, all right, let's change gears here, because there's a lot going on in the real estate world right now. There's a lot of big changes. We kind of touched on it before we started the show. Like what do you, what do you think about everything that that's going on with the new, with the new CAR changes and the NAR changes and the lawsuits? Like how is that affecting your business right now?
Speaker 3Yeah, I think time will tell Um actually starting today. As you know, uh, our local MLS cannot um put out buyer compensation, so that's uh something new, but we all knew it was coming. Um, I will say that this whole buyer's agreement um that we now need, starting in a few days, it's it's not going to change anything that we do as realtors. I think, at the end of the day, it actually amplifies our worth, because now we have to really spell out why do you need a buyer's agent and why am I asking for a percentage?
Real Estate Market Trends and Teams
Speaker 1Yeah, right, well, I think it's going to like like I touched on too, I think it's going to. Actually it's going to help. It's going to. It's going to make it less likely, less less likely for for some of these buyers to of these buyers to ghost their agent they've been working on or bounce on the last 12th hour to go with somebody who gave them a half a percentage or half a point better.
Speaker 1You hear so many stories about that and it's rough. I mean because I get it. Affordability is a huge challenge, and maybe not so much here as it is in the Bay Area or Southern California, but it's still. It's still probably the number one topic in our market is affordability. So when rates go up, you know, affordability goes down, and it seems like over the last two years, every time rates have gone down, prices just go up because people flood the market and they're like, oh my gosh, it's just a little bit more affordable, I can afford something a little nicer and at some point something's got to give right. They can't both just keep going up.
Speaker 2Well, that's, I think the misconception that most buyers don't know is that we all hear, being in the industry, we hear a lot that buyers are waiting, waiting for rates to drop waiting for affordability to drop. But you know better than anyone studying economy that basic economy, basic economic economics.
Speaker 1Thank you Wow.
Speaker 3We're both having like mouth problems today.
Speaker 2It's all about supply and demand, and we have more buyers than we do have supply, even though we have some inventory sitting right now. The moment that buyers think their affordability AKA rage dropping is in their favor, they're all going to come back to the market and it's going to create more demand than we have supply.
Speaker 1Well, everyone wants a deal right At the end of the day, you know you're getting a deal, you feel good about it. It's like we run into these cycles, and this kind of year seems to always feel like one of these cycles where you have so much it's just need based. It's people who have to sell or people who have to buy for whatever reason.
Speaker 1And those are, those are hard transactions because they weigh so heavily on the emotional side of things. So are you, are you seeing? Are you seeing similar now Like yeah, I would say so.
Speaker 3I think last year, or even the year before, I was seeing a lot of referrals coming from Bay Area people or San Diego colleagues of mine, and now I'm seeing more inner Sacramento movement, not so much movement from Colorado, san Diego, like I mentioned, or the East Coast, or the rare person coming from Tennessee back to California. They're coming.
Speaker 2Yeah, it does happen.
Speaker 3I heard Nashville's kind of like a mini California now, with all the people have moved out there. But you know I think to Kaylee's point once rates do eventually drop, I think we're going to see a ton of buyers come out. And I think that's when realtors who really have their business dialed in and this new, these new changes dialed in, they're going to shine?
Speaker 1Yeah, for sure.
Speaker 3And I think the people who are just kind of lackadaisical about it right now because it may be a little bit slower for them, they're going to drop out.
Speaker 1Oh yeah, I'm excited I feel like I see a lot of movement to teams, like independent agents going hey, you know what, like I need a little more support, I need maybe a little more security or a little more handholding, but I feel like there's a lot of agents kind of moving towards those teams and you know, not that that's a good thing or a bad thing necessarily, but if those teams are supplying the things that you need to feel better in your profession, whether that be like right now, it's training, right, training on how to utilize, how to best utilize these, these new changes, um, and how to take advantage of them and not let them, not let it run you out of the business, right, because you don't know what to do, um.
Speaker 3So I know you've you've got your a small team right, yeah, so I run a small team of three, including myself. Um, jeff and hayden are on my team and, uh, they're rocking it right now. So um hayden was over at at realty one, jeff was at cobalt banker and they've joined forces with me at compass and it's been I. I don't want to speak for them, but it seems like it's been a game changer with our tech platform and how we've been able to really utilize everything to make our life easier.
Speaker 2So I think in this current climate, people need to be surrounded by not just the training, but people who can offer simplicity, technology and support, and there's not a lot of people who are doing it really well. You're obviously one of them. I think the team environment has historically been a little bit negative, especially for those agents that have been in the industry for a while, because they're like why would I want to pay extra to?
Speaker 1be on a team.
Speaker 2However, right now there's strength in numbers. And I think to have the ability to kind of collaborate and have these you know consortium of agents in one spot to say, hey, how are you interpreting this? How are you overcoming the challenges of people saying I can't afford a buyer's agent is more important than just being off on your own and saying, like, I want more of my commission. But also, being on a team doesn't necessarily mean you're paying team splits right, there's ways to work around that.
Sharing Unique Experiences and Memories
Speaker 1I think there's also a lot to be said in regards to how much more collaborative the younger generations are. Um, my generation is probably less collaborative than than you guys, just in general. I mean, I was born in 1980, so like going through the eighties was different. You guys are 10 years younger than me, 12, 15 years younger than me, but seeing your guys' generation, their willingness to collaborate and understand that, hey, you know what we can both win. I think that's huge and I don't think it's going to be this cyclical thing that goes away. As far as the teams, especially with a lot of the changes that have happened, the teams are going to need to be an integral part of it.
Speaker 3Absolutely Well, I think with with my whole dot process of starting a team. That wasn't my goal when I got into real estate. You know, I was flying solo dolo and I was like, all right, this is cool.
Speaker 2Great reference.
Speaker 3But you know I brought Hayden on and I prefaced our whole relationship, if you will, by saying I may not be busy now, I may not be busy later on down the road, so don't expect referrals from me. But my goal with him was to start bouncing ideas off of him to have someone local other than my dad, who is not on my team.
Speaker 3We run separate businesses but, um, having someone there to brainstorm, to grow together. I I do dish out some referrals to him when I am way too busy, Um, but at the end of the day, it's great to have him, as as well as Jeff, to really kick off ideas, especially right now with with all the changes we have.
Speaker 1So, um, do you tap into the like the competitive nature of the team as well? Do you guys compete internally?
Speaker 3I wouldn't say so.
Speaker 1Maybe not openly.
Speaker 2Yeah, there's always friendly competition.
Speaker 3We're still pretty independent, but if we're talking about who can drink more whiskey, then I would take the crown.
Speaker 2I would like to participate in the competition. You're a better man than me.
Speaker 1I'm out on the whiskey train. I was going to bring whiskey here, but I was like I don't know, it's just 12 o'clock 12 o'clock everywhere, in my opinion, and it's never too late, never too early. You can't drink all day if you don't start in the morning.
Speaker 2This is why we're friends.
Speaker 1We put in a pretty good day on Saturday, so my wife from Brazil, we watched the World Cup at 8 am and we ended up inviting a couple of friends over. And it and we ended up inviting a couple of friends over and it went, uh, it went 12 plus hours. I was pretty. I was pretty worthless yesterday. I was completely worthless yesterday. Good for you.
Speaker 2Okay, so we're going to switch gears again, because this is one of my favorite questions. I, I'm the I I'm stereotypical woman. I love the personal side of you. Tell me more about you, Um. So what is something and I'm really excited about this answer what is something that people might not know about you?
Speaker 3Well, dan did his research, he gave away my secret.
Speaker 2but for those, who written on the board?
Speaker 3I was pretty proud of finding that.
Speaker 1Yeah.
Speaker 3For those who can't see the whiteboard uh, in 2009, I got the opportunity to be on ABC's wipeout Um it was.
Speaker 2We loved it. I can't wait to watch this episode.
Speaker 3It was a show that, uh, we, we grew up watching as a family, um, in our living room. We thought it was hilarious. And so one day, um, we saw that they were looking for contestants for a mother, son or father, daughter, a duo, and at the at the time, I was 18, you had to be 18, at least to to be on the show, Um, and so my mom said, why don't we apply?
Speaker 1and see what happens.
Speaker 3And I said, well, yeah, let's do it. And so we applied. I don't think we heard anything for months, right, big ABC, uh, they got a lot going on and we get an email, or my mom gets an email saying hey, you're invited to LA to audition for this upcoming season for white belt. And I was like no way. Like there's thousands of people who apply for sure yeah, Probably tens of thousands right.
Speaker 2Yeah, I mean it's, it's we all dream of going on live television and getting our ass kicked by inanimate objects flying at us those things are bouncy um, and so we went down to la and we actually drove down there.
Speaker 3I don't know why we drove, but we drove down there, auditioned and drove back up the next day. So it was a really quick turnaround. But what I will say and I'll never forget this is that when we were auditioning, it was in a room that was probably smaller than this, and so one of the questions that they asked us was can you show us what your team celebratory dance is going to look like? And this was something that they prepped us with, right. It wasn't like we were just going into this blind. And so I remember, uh, doing our dance between my mom and I, and at the very end we had planned out that we were going to do a chest bump. And my mom bless her, she's five foot four, I'm five 11. Uh, and it just when we chest, and it just when we just we bumped chests, she literally flew into the back wall, unintentionally.
Speaker 3We were just so amped up that I hit her so hard the adrenaline was going and the uh the person running than I thought the person running the interview was like oh, oh, my God, are you okay? And she was like yeah, and then she just got up and started, you know, doing her thing, and, um, I think that was what sealed.
Speaker 2Yeah, for sure. I was curious too. I'm like do they have you like, show us how well you can bounce off this ball?
Speaker 3Did they give you?
Speaker 2like a mini obstacle course. I would see you in action.
Speaker 3There was no, no, uh, questions about your athletic ability. I mean, they just brought on whoever, but our thing that got us in, I think, was the fact that we were both black belts in Taekwondo.
Speaker 2Unfair advantage.
Speaker 3Do not mess with my mom. She is a fifth degree black belt.
Speaker 2She still teaches Taekwondo, that's badass, and so that was our-. So your little chest bump was nothing to her. She was like come on.
Speaker 3Yeah.
Speaker 2Is that all you've got?
Speaker 3Yeah, so that was our thing. We were called the gung hoes. Right Love that, and so that was such a fun show to be on.
Speaker 2And how did you guys do? Did you, were you able to complete the?
Speaker 3So now that I've been through the show, I have a feeling and this is probably true that they just kind of push whoever they want through. Oh for sure. They said it was timed, but it's like we didn't see a clock, um, and so what happened the morning of the show was that we were in a hotel and they said we're going to text you. Um, the location the morning of I was like this is so just sounds like the rave.
Speaker 2Yeah, he never went to.
Speaker 3I was like we're either going to go on this game show or we're about to get killed, Like this is weird. And so we showed up to this undisclosed ranch in LA and it was cold that morning. I think it was in January that we shot it, and so if anyone knows anything about Wipeout if you, I mean it's inevitable that you're going to fall, yeah.
Speaker 1You fall into water Right.
Speaker 3Which is mixed with mud. So imagine that in January and how cold it is. Um, but yeah, it was a blast. Uh, I think what a lot of people don't see is that there's a person with a megaphone shouting at you at as to what to do, because it's just so crazy. You know, you don't get a practice run. You just go out there up on top of the Hill and you see the course for the first time and you're like, oh my God, I see this all the time on TV.
Speaker 1What a cool experience, though, to be able to share that with your mom. That's super cool. You guys will always have that memory. I mean, that's really unique.
Speaker 2I cannot wait to Google it, you're going to have to watch it, yeah. I didn't know your mom was in it. That's next level.
Speaker 3I think it's Brian and Diane wipeout, it'll pop up. You don't have to go too deep into his.
Speaker 1Facebook. I'll just cut right to the chase. It's findable.
Speaker 3We got to the second round. Who knows how much truth that is. We got to the second round.
Speaker 1We guys are both black belts. You had to have done pretty well.
Speaker 2Got some agility going for you.
Speaker 3That's one thing that a lot of people don't know about me and I'll uh, I'll take that to my grave Cause. That was a cool experience.
Speaker 2Well, I will. I full disclosure that makes two of us have been in the reality TV world.
Speaker 3What show were you on?
Speaker 2Let's make a deal, and that is an episode that no one will ever find.
Speaker 1I've buried it deep in the ball of embarrassment, uh, but I did win two vespa scooters nice so that's awesome.
Speaker 2Yeah, again they have everything kind of predetermined.
Dreams, Fantasies, Memories
Speaker 1I mean you're in like a holding tank for hours before they make you pay the uh, the sales tax on those or something right like, don't they send you a bill?
Speaker 2well, you pay it up front when you're picking up your prize, which, of course, you can't collect until after your episode airs. This was a long I think like eight months of waiting, but so worth it.
Speaker 1You know, like the price of the time Pulling back the curtains on these TV game shows oh, it was so epic. My lifelong dream was Price is Right. I wanted to be on Price is Right.
Speaker 2so bad I have never been so shameless, you just got to go for it.
Speaker 3If been so shameless, you just got to go for it. If you're going to be in front of TV, full embarrassment, yeah there was a reason we got picked.
Speaker 2but yeah, you'll never be able to find it, so good luck trying.
Speaker 3So I guess, guess how much we won for going to the second round and eventually losing. But between my mom and I, guess how much we.
Speaker 2I'm going to go with 10 grand.
Speaker 3A couple hundred bucks.
Speaker 2That's generous, is it? I don't know. I feel, like LA, has a lot of money to throw around.
Speaker 3We got $40 for gas. No way Did you tell me you drove from Northern.
Speaker 1California.
Speaker 2Get out of here.
Speaker 1No way.
Speaker 3That's like an insult Shout out to ABC deep pockets over there.
Speaker 2All right, so not worth it. I can see it yeah.
Speaker 1I mean, the memories are pretty priceless.
Speaker 3The memories are Damn. One time Definitely more valuable than 40 bucks.
Speaker 2Oh, that's too good, Too good. All right, Dan. I know this is your favorite question.
Speaker 1So, yeah, we're cruising right along, and this is I do love this question. I picked it up off of another podcast I listened to. I just totally stole it from them. Absolutely so, Brian. If you could be anyone for a day, dead or alive, who would it be and what would you do?
Speaker 3Are you two basketball fans? Yeah, I mean have you ever heard of uh Steph, have you?
Speaker 1ever heard of Steph Curry. Yes, speaking of Bay Area legends, right.
Speaker 3Born in Oakland, raised in the area, Of course I've been a Warriors fan since they stunk. I was not a bandwagon fan, but the fact that we've won four championships over the last decade or so, it's incredible.
Speaker 1I was a run TMC guy so I got some old school warriors. We believe roots.
Speaker 2Yeah, yeah, you're now speaking a language that is completely unfamiliar to me.
Speaker 1Yeah, it's, it's stuff that'll get you shot in Sacramento. Like they are not warriors fans. Yeah, don't wear a warrior's Jersey out here. So stupid.
Speaker 3But if I could be Steph Curry for one day, that would be incredible. Not only because he's super wealthy, but two, he's really good at basketball. He's very good. I've tried my hand at basketball as a kid and thought I was good. But no, obviously I was pretty bad and didn't go anywhere with that.
Speaker 1I'm always amazed it's like now I'm heavier than Steph Curry, but Steph Curry's my size Really.
Speaker 2Yeah, oh, so he's kind of tall. Not Really. Yeah, oh, so he's kind of tall.
Speaker 3Not in the NBA world 6'3", 6'4" yeah he's 6'3", but that's not tall at all in the NBA.
Speaker 1Yeah. So you think about how quick and athletic he is and I'm like, yeah, I don't have that.
Speaker 2You can't move like that.
Speaker 1My back hurts every day.
Speaker 3I think if I could experience him shooting a three, he has a signature move where if he shoots a three and he's feeling good about it, it's kind of cocky but he'll turn his back and run the other way before the ball's even in the basket. He's got his muscle memory down to the point where he's like, yep, that's a good shot, and he runs off.
Speaker 1Yeah, he pulled one of those in the Olympics. He had a night-night going on in the Olympics. I mean Steph's a, I saw that. I mean he's just such a likable and maybe it's because we're so close to him, but he's just such a likable person.
Speaker 3Yeah, I mean the fact that he's not only good at basketball but also good at golf, which I would love to get into one day.
Speaker 2Oh yeah, I think it's incredible. He's just an athlete.
Speaker 3Didn't he at the Celebrity Golf?
Speaker 1in.
Speaker 3Tahoe yeah, two years ago. Two years ago in Tahoe yeah, crazy, yep, he just won the gold medal with the US men's basketball team.
Speaker 1And so to be able. I had forgotten that was his only Olympics. He'd never been on a dream, on an.
Speaker 3Olympic team. Yeah, I don't know crazy well he's been hurt.
Speaker 1He was hurt and they had a deep run into the finals, and so he was like he was just.
Speaker 3I need to recover. Yeah, I can't do it. Yeah, I think it would be just incredible to kind of live his life for a day or week, or forever. That'd be cool.
Speaker 2Plus his wife is like a stay at home chef, basically.
Speaker 3I mean she has like her whole book and everything like that.
Speaker 2So yeah, Yep, you would be set up for a day.
Speaker 3You know, I'm also curious to know cause I think he has three kids, uh, possibly a fourth on the way.
Speaker 1Yeah, it looked like he had a baby at the Olympics. My wife picked up on that, so I'm not.
Speaker 2I'm not sure we can sniff a baby out anywhere.
Speaker 3I think what would be cool, though, is to see um his everyday life with family care, because I have three kids. It's insane. Um, my three month old woke up numerous times during the night last night. I don't know if you could tell, but I've got bags under my eyes.
Speaker 1It gets easier, I promise, but then it's like then you're just trying to pull them out of their room. I can get them to hang out.
Speaker 2I just assumed the bags were, because you're in real estate, he's lost.
Speaker 1It's rough right now. It's rough.
Speaker 3But imagine, imagine his family life, steph curry yeah and and the child care that he probably has, like that's probably a nanny for each child.
Speaker 2I imagine it's gotta be cool.
Speaker 3Yeah, like I mean shout out to them for for making it in life.
Speaker 2But yeah, that's awesome so must be, nice, yeah, absolutely, uh.
Custom Shirt and Podcast Debut
Speaker 1One last thing tell us about the shirt yeah, so brian came in, fit it up, nobody can see it I don't think everyone can see it, but it's.
Speaker 3This is Robert Refkin. He is Compass's CEO. Underneath it says make real estate great again. Shout out to Wes Collins in Charlotte, north Carolina. We had linked up and he sent me a little goodie bag including the shirt. I've only worn it in public twice. The first time was at our Compass retreat last year in San Diego. Uh, and actually snapped a picture with Robert wearing this shirt. And so I thought it was appropriate to wear this in public again.
Speaker 2Is this number two? This is time Number two, if we're talking real estate, yeah might as well wear it. I feel like my goal in life is now to know I've made it, because somebody decided to make a shirt with my face on it.
Speaker 3Say less. We need to say less. You know what we need to do.
Speaker 2Yeah, right, I mean drop that over here.
Speaker 3My goodness. So yeah, this is a in honor of of Robert Ravkin, but also Wes Collins who gifted this to me.
Speaker 2Okay.
Speaker 3I love it. We love a good custom shirt yeah.
Speaker 1Awesome man. Well, brian, we're so appreciative of you coming in and hanging out with us on the uh open the gate show and uh, oh, yeah, man, thank you. Thank you, we hope you had a good time, you know, popping your uh podcast cherry.
Speaker 2Yeah, got you going now.
Speaker 1We're, that's right, absolutely All right. Peace.
.jpg)
