195. Guest: David Sidoni - New Homebuyers Mindset Shift Necessities

What if aligning your career with your passions could lead to success beyond your wildest dreams? In this captivating episode of Mindset Cafe, we sit down with David Sidoni, a dynamic force in the real estate world and a fervent advocate for first-time homebuyers. His fascinating journey from dancing with legends like Michael Jackson to becoming a trusted real estate advisor showcases the power of embracing change and following one's true calling. David shares how a pivotal moment, supported by his wife's encouragement, led him to create his highly successful podcast, "How to Buy a Home," aimed at empowering those entering the housing market for the first time.

Discover actionable insights as David discusses the transformative impact of setting clear goals and tracking progress, whether you're navigating the real estate landscape or pursuing personal growth. With a deep commitment to educating first-time homebuyers, he sheds light on common industry pitfalls and the necessity of comprehensive preparation long before the purchase. Drawing parallels to the fitness industry, David emphasizes the importance of incremental progress and practical strategies for managing credit, debt, and savings. His mission is to equip listeners with the tools needed to achieve their homeownership dreams, challenging misconceptions and encouraging early, informed action.

Explore the potential of podcasts as a dynamic learning tool, especially in fields like real estate where information gaps often exist. David's journey into the world of podcasting reveals the medium's unique ability to offer flexibility and accessibility, bridging crucial knowledge gaps. Through his extensive experience, he illustrates the importance of building brand awareness and engaging with listeners to ensure impactful and lasting connections. This episode is packed with valuable insights, from understanding the home-buying process to recognizing the possibilities of monetizing passions in our digital age, all while staying true to what brings you joy.

https://howtobuyahome.com/

Chapters

• 0:00 Personal Development and Real Estate Success
• 7:46 Empowering First Time Homebuyers
• 18:57 Navigating Real Estate and Podcast Success
• 26:41 Home Buying Process Misconceptions and Strategies
• 40:42 Cardio Options for Knee Injuries
• 45:52 Legacy Wall

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Yeah, it's Mindset Cafe. We all about that mindset. Gotta stay focused. Now go settle for the last. It's all in your head how you think you manifest. So get ready to rise, cause we about to be the best. Gotta switch it up. Gotta break the old habits. Get your mind right. Turn your dreams into habits. No negative vibes, what is up, guys?

Speaker 1: 0:20

Welcome to another episode of the Mindset Cafe podcast. It's your boy, devin, and today I'm excited for this guest. He is an industry disruptor, he's an educator and, honestly, he's a super passionate advocate for first time homebuyers. This is one of the guests that you know. We were talking beforehand and I was telling him I was so excited for bringing him on because the Mindset Cafe is all about personal development and fitness and entrepreneurship and all those things. But one of the aspects that I know I've gotten a ton of questions on is setting those personal goals to buy a home.

Speaker 1: 0:54

So, with further ado, I want to welcome David Sedoni. He has his own podcast. He has how to Buy a Home and, honestly, it is a massive podcast and with some great content. He has over 1.6 million and, honestly, it is a massive podcast with some great content. He has over 1.6 million, almost 1.7 million downloads and he's probably already hit that today. But, honestly, today's podcast, we're really going to dive into his story and then also the aspects of buying a home and all those different things and natures of it. So honestly, david, thank you so much for taking the time out to hop on.

Speaker 2: 1:27

Bro, I got to start and tell you I have theme music jealousy. That was dope, that was a great theme music. Man, I'm so jealous.

Speaker 1: 1:37

Thanks for having me. Oh, thank you so much. So let me and thank you for the compliment let's let's dive into you know, your, your story first, right Cause that's the most interesting part to lead into where we go. How did you get started in real estate?

Speaker 2: 1:53

My journey is pretty interesting and it uh was really. Uh, you know I'm I'm an older dude, now middle-aged. This is kind of my third act of life doing this whole how to buy a home thing In my 20s. I hit the jackpot. Every dream I ever had I wanted. I was in a Disney movie musical with Christian Bale and Robert Duvall and Anne Margaret at 20, 21 years old. And then I got to dance with Michael Jackson. And then I was on TV shows on Nickelodeon and was in all the Tiger Beat, teen heartthrob magazines. I was on the back of a honeycomb cereal box. That is my greatest claim to fame. And then I ended up hosting TV shows and I did that for a long time. I hosted the kids version of Wheel of Fortune.

Speaker 2: 2:41

I was like Pat Sajak or Ryan Seacrest for little kids on Saturday mornings and my career was going great. And I kind of got to the spot where I realized you're either Ryan Seacrest or Mario Lopez or you're hustling your whole life. And I was 28 years old. I wanted to start a family at some point. So I started looking around at other things and I started doing some real estate investing, investing, and that was going well for me. And then I met someone and it was time to settle down.

Speaker 2: 3:10

So I had a great career and decided to get into real estate on the residential side, and I did that for 12 years. And then one day my wife looked at me and said, bro, you built a team, you've done big stuff, you're a big real estate agent, but you're only happy when you work with those first-time homebuyers. That's what gives you the juice. So my story was in my twenties I focused on myself completely, you know total narcissist, just like I got to be the star of everything. Now I'm straight up, took everything I learned in real estate and turned it into a complete giving back mission.

Speaker 1: 3:48

I mean that's so awesome though. And so, before we go into the real estate side, that that testament of you know your pivots and your transitions in life, I mean going that route of you know dancing with, you know the pop icon and you know hosting TV shows and now doing something completely different, it really shows that it just cause you're at a certain position in life doesn't mean you have to stay there, right, you don't have to stay where you are at if you don't want to be there. And you had a real realization within self that you're like this is one of those things where I'm going to be hustling nonstop to do this, but it's not filling my cup necessarily like there's more. And so you pivoted and then did it again. And now your wife sometimes someone on the outside tells you know that we might not see within ourselves, right. And so for you, you know your wife letting you know that, hey, this is. You know you're only really happy when it's this kind of client.

Speaker 1: 4:52

And then, all of a sudden, you think about it and you're like, is that true? And then, all of a sudden, you're like, wow, it is. And now, look at, you know what you've been able to build from it once you really align with, with your purpose. So I mean I just want to give you hats off to that, because some people never really one step into their purpose, let alone have the courage to transition. You know multiple times. So I would do want to give you hats off for that. And now you know. Look at what happens. You know, you transition and you align with yourself, with your purpose, and boom, you blow up and you know this is you. Your life is super fulfilled in your own right. So that's awesome.

Speaker 2: 5:28

You hit the nail on the head multiple times there. Alignment I've been to a bunch of these seminars and it's something like three or 4% of entrepreneurs and people in business actually have written goals. That's something I've been hearing for 15 or 20 years now. The best thing I ever heard about it was, though you write it down, you stick it on the wall, you look at it. That's great, but unless you're taking a step towards the goal, then it's very black and white. You know, and we have to do things that aren't steps towards the goal because we have to make a living Right. The best thing I ever heard was alignment, and you know it was.

Speaker 2: 6:12

It was the same coach who talked about time management, and you know, after months of time management where I carried a little notebook around remember, I'm old, this is pre notes on a smartphone. I had a flip phone, some Zune or something, and no, that was the MP3. But I kept a notebook and every 15 minutes, write down what you did for the last 15 minutes of the notebook. You do that for just a week. Your time management changes like that.

Speaker 2: 6:39

I then implemented that with my alignment. I then implemented that with my alignment throughout the day. I pulled it out and my goals were listed one to 10. And after every activity I had to write a one to 10. And if it was a zero, that means whatever I was doing right then wasn't in alignment, and it doesn't mean that doing my job, that I hated to make money wasn't in alignment with my goals, because one of my goals was financial stability alignment with my goals because one of my goals was financial stability. So, but where really the time management and the alignment all in one notebook where you really see that, as in your free time?

Speaker 1: 7:13

you know, yeah, and I do want to like comment on like the goals thing too, because I can even speak from that personal example, like you know, being in the fitness industry and telling people you know what's your goal for this year. And you know, my, my big thing is always reverse engineering it right, meaning that you set your goal and then you break into, you know, a little bit smaller steps. So, for example, like quarterly steps. We'll then break those into monthly and then into weekly and so even for us, for the business and everything it was, we were telling people to do that for their fitness goals and everything like that, and we would have these things goals for business.

Speaker 1: 7:46

But until we actually started doing it and be like set actual goals and break them down into actual things, like you find yourself just kind of treading water and kind of going the right way. Sometimes it feels like, and then sometimes not, and you are doing even right now, like, let's say, you're aligned with your purpose, but sometimes you just feel like you're just treading water, right. So doing those things and analyzing it with you know, notepad I mean honestly, even with a smartphone now I can say I still do it with and I have, you know, random pieces of paper in my pocket and then I have notes on my phone and so I'm I'm the same way and it's. It's so much more efficient and you feel so much more aligned with your day, knowing what you have to do and being able to not just sit down and be like, oh man, what was I going to work on right now, or what was I going to, what was I thinking about earlier, right, and so that is so crucial and that is a huge thing.

Speaker 1: 8:35

So, guys, if you're listening and you're not currently doing that, please take note that you know what you just said. You know, make sure you guys are actually tracking what you guys do and and taking account, does it align with what your goal is? Is this something that's aligned with my purpose? Is this something aligned with my goal? If not, then don't do it and you know transition, do something else. So I think that's so awesome, but I do want to ask a question, because I think it kind of aligns with how I realized personal training and, you know, later becoming a gym owner and stuff aligned for me was why, why is why, are you so passionate about first time home buyers?

Speaker 2: 9:13

Well, it's going to sound awful. I swear to God I'm a good guy. I was just pissed off. I did real estate for 12 years and first time homebuyers get screwed straight up. The industry is corrupt and I am on constant. You know, watch over my shoulder my family's Italian from Buffalo, so I know a little bit about this. Right, I'm ready for the NAR, the national association of realtors mafia, to come and take me out, because I've just been trying to expose the fact that first-time home buyers are the most disrespected, disregarded and ignored client base in any business, not just in the real estate business, and it's to do with the business model and the greed and how much money the brokers make off of them and how many people don't want to spend time on them and how the industry has created this myth that they're a waste of time and not a good return on your investment.

Speaker 2: 10:09

I'm in Southern California, so I was doing this for 12, 13 years for people with five, six $700,000 houses who I saw getting the worst service in the world, and that just messed with my ethics. It didn't seem right with me. It didn't seem fair to me. It didn't seem fair to me. It's you have to be kind of careful of your own ego. But as I was working, I was like damn, I worked with a lot of people from Disneyland because I worked there in high school and college, so I was helping a lot of them buy homes and like I would catch myself saying to my wife, I just wish all these people from Disneyland would call me instead of calling all those other realtors, cause I know that one doesn't know what they're doing and that one doesn't and it may. And when I took a step back I realized well, there's stats 87% of real estate agents do not last five years in the industry, and that stat comes directly from the national association of realtors. Last year, 47% of real estate agents didn't sell one home. So the people that need the most amount of guidance are unfortunately getting the least experienced agents. So I wanted to correct that wrong.

Speaker 2: 11:21

And then we can go to the other side of things, where it was so interesting when you were talking earlier about having those little steps that you could visualize and, yeah, it's super easy to do for your clients, right, fitbit, 10,000 steps At the end of the day, yeah, 8,000 step daily. And that's where I saw a giant hole in real estate. Everyone's ready to take your order and open a door for you and sell you a home and get paid in 30 days. Nobody in the industry is offering what I call the last lease ever. What do you do if you're 12 months out and you're 32 years old and you're renting for $3,200 in Chicago? If you go, I bet I could buy a house. If you reach out and call 95% of the industry, they're just going to run an approval, say oh yep, you can go buy a $400,000 condo. Go today. And I'm trying to make sure that people go. Hey, cool, you're six months, eight months, 12 months out.

Speaker 2: 12:39

Here's the three baby steps you do this month to work on your credit score, your debt and your savings. You're here, here and here. Your goals need to be here, here and here. So, this month, do a little bit on this little bit, on that little bit, on this progress. You, you know this game more than anybody in fitness. You don't put, you know, you don't want to be constantly thinking in your head. You don't want your clients to be trying to think of the before and after picture where there's, you know, a massive difference. You need to be able to give them incremental ways to progress towards something that, ultimately, is going to be the best thing for them in their life.

Speaker 1: 13:16

That is so true. I mean, I can't even I'm not even going to add anything on top of that Like that is, that is right there. The thing I did want to say, though, is, like, with with a first time home buyer right and and you helping them and align with them right, tying into, like how for personal training? I never thought I was going to be a personal trainer as a career, right, you know, that's not how my journey really started. It was an awesome college job, but then it was one of those things you know, and I'm sure that was kind of how real estate started for you to a degree. You know financial stability and stuff, and then you started realizing these other things that were misaligned in the industry and so forth, and that's what kind of took you down that journey, and for me, it was like personal training was a good call job, and then I love seeing people actually succeed and achieve their goals and see the self confidence and the self belief in the self accomplishment within themselves. That that's what gave me the drive to work.

Speaker 1: 14:11

You know, when I was a personal trainer, doing 16 hour days of back to back clients because it it was like this it doesn't feel like work necessarily. I mean it did feel like work, I'd be exhausted and stuff, but like it was worth it, because I love seeing that that go. And it was like same thing for you for home buying. It's like getting a home, a first-time home buyer to actually be able to purchase a home and not just get thrown under the rug, you know, because they're a first time homebuyer, disregarded or disrespected it's. It's that, that feeling. It's almost like a natural high you can't get from anything else being able to give someone else that accomplishment or that that level of joy in their life. Am I wrong in saying that?

Speaker 2: 14:50

You're absolutely right and and it's here's the way the real estate industry has justified it, and this has so much to do with entrepreneurship and building a business. Within the real estate industry. The lowest amount of money you make is working with first-time homebuyers and that's why they say it's the lowest return on your investment. So the goal of anyone when they get into real estate is, yeah, work with first-time buyers for the first couple of years and then, instead of selling 20 first-time home buyers and working these hours, sell 10 higher priced people, work the same hours and make the same amount of money. So what they're basically saying is sacrifice the drug, the euphoria, the joy that you get with that, so you can still work the same amount of hours and and make the same money, but it's not as much work. So there's a sacrifice of that joy.

Speaker 2: 15:45

Now, from the business side of things, it's just short-sighted thinking. How do I do 20 deals? That feels like 10 deals? The answer is simple systems, the one thing that every economic, that every entrepreneur fails with to get to the next step. You know if you go back and you read the E-Myth Revisited and you talk about the technician and the person who knows what they're doing. It's the management skill, it's the system so that you can scale. So because I was older, when I made this pivot in my life, I'd had enough time working with systems that I realized that hey, I'm not going to sacrifice the joy of this, I'm just going to develop the systems so that I can bring joy to tens of thousands of people instead of 30, 40 people a year here in Southern California.

Speaker 1: 16:39

No, and I think, with that being said too, people want to start off as a real estate agent or start off as a personal trainer and they're like well, if I have one client that you know in personal training, if I have one client that's paying me a hundred dollars an hour, $200 an hour, cause I'm training a celebrity. It's like you don't get to just jump levels, like there's levels to the game, right, but how are you, how do you get to that level? And it's through doing the smaller deals, right. How do you? You know, selling a first time home buyer that doesn't necessarily mean that's going to be their dream home, who are they going to come to if they had an amazing experience? They're going to come to their, their trusted real estate professional to do that next deal, that bigger deal, and so forth. Like you build up a portfolio. So sometimes you've got to take that step back and take the smaller deals to and then, who knows, they might have someone that they'll refer you to that's already doing a bigger deal.

Speaker 1: 17:22

But that's where I think, with business ownership, with personal trainers, real estate agents like this, the fail rate is is high because people aren't willing to do the work. They see the glorified experience, but they don't know that to get to that glorified experience there's years, there's a timeframe that it takes to get there, that you build your systems and processes, that you build your even more importantly your you know rapport with clients. Right, you know, I didn't start off at making a hundred dollars an hour when I was personal training and selling 20 session packages like that was built over years. Right, you start at $40 an hour. You start at minimum essentially wage, you know or minimum deals, and you build up the skills, you build up the rapport and everything like that.

Speaker 1: 18:04

So I think that's a huge aspect of why people fail, especially even in business. It's like they think it's going to be easy, they think it's going to be. You open your doors and know they will come and it's like I promise they're not going to come. You got to do the work to let them know you're here. So I think that's so awesome. I mean, before we dive into you, know more and, if you're listening, stay tuned for all the stuff about home buying. I want to dive into your story a little bit more, right, and you know. So it gives a little more context before we dive in the real estate aspect. But your, your podcast and your channel and everything that you got going on, I mean it has a crazy amount of views, a crazy amount of downloads and you resonate with so many people, right? So what was that first moment? And why did you not just focus on building clientele, but why did you start building a channel out and trying to just essentially teach and give that information?

Speaker 2: 18:55

Well, it goes right to your last point. I'd love to give everyone the magic key, but uh-uh, it was just hard work, baby. Uh, it was. Uh. You know, I got lucky because I was prepared. We all know the same right um, and I also had the um open-mindedness to take risks and try, uh, in 2018.

Speaker 2: 19:16

Uh was when my wife gave me the wake-up call and told me that I spent a year researching. I listened to podcasts, I listened to other entrepreneurs, I spent money, jumped on a plane, went to these conventions and seminars and listened to other entrepreneurs. And then I incorporated a lot of social media into it and tried to other entrepreneurs. And then, you know, I I incorporated a lot of social media into it and tried to figure out what I was gonna, what was gonna do, uh, the best for me. And um, like many entrepreneurs, I was a thousand percent sure, as a former television host, I was gonna blow up on youtube. So I did social media, instagram, facebook. This was pre Tik TOK back in the day and um, and then I just was listening to one of those podcasts. I educated myself. I tell people all the time it felt like I got a master's degree in marketing over a year, and you know you can do that with podcasts. Now, while you're walking the dog and doing the dishes and it was someone on a podcast it was probably Vaynerchuk or somebody who said something about audio and I, as a well, you know what I'm doing everything I should do this too. I did the podcast and the podcast blew up, and that's when I realized the thirst of the consumer to passively intake this information. Now you want to buy a home. You're far less likely to come home from the end of your workday, slap open your laptop or pull out your phone and watch a 25-minute video and sit there and watch it. But you definitely could do it while you're walking the dog, doing the dishes or commuting to work or your favorite thing at the gym baby, when your training's done and you're going to do your cardio, pop on the podcast, get some learning on, you know.

Speaker 2: 21:10

And that's when what was really interesting about that was I saw the potential and then I just took risks. I tried. You know trial and error. I'm the king of error, so you know I tried all organic stuff. I tried, you know, multiple different social media marketing companies. I think I went through seven of them and then, you know, I thought, okay, well, the best way to do this is just throw money at it. So I threw a bunch of money at ads for the podcast, where I had commercials on other podcasts, and it worked. But it took all my money and at the end of the day the ROI was breakeven. But I had created brand awareness. My listenership had tripled. So now the brand awareness was something that I realized I could utilize.

Speaker 2: 22:03

And you know there's a great guy named Brian Tracy who's an old school business guy and I listened to him gosh first when I started in real estate 2005, 2006. He was in my hometown, he was in Newport Beach. I went to go see him and I think I spent 600 bucks on CDs Again, I'm old and the thing he got paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to go in to consult to these companies and the only thing he would do is get all the salespeople in the room and say wake up 30 minutes and read about your industry, call me in a month. And then after a month people would go oh my God, I doubled my sales. And after two weeks I got up a half an hour earlier. Now I do 60 minutes and then some dude in the back's, like I moved it to 90. I do 90 minutes.

Speaker 2: 22:50

Your job as an expert and expertise can only grow exponentially as you have the information and the data that your clients want. And so I got deeper and deeper into how people use podcasts and listen to everyone else. And that's when I saw the secret sauce for a podcast, which is reviews. There are no views, there are no likes, there are no subscribers. The public sees views and so, or sorry, the public sees reviews. So, because this was before spotify was even doing it and every industry has that one little thing. But you look at my podcast. There are podcasts that get 20 000 downloads a day, that have 300 reviews. My podcast, you know, has 1.7 million downloads, but that's not every time I drop I'm not doing, you know, 20 or 50 000 down, but I've got almost 800, 900 reviews now and whatever it is the public sees that gives you your uh, authenticity and validation.

Speaker 2: 23:59

Um, find ways to do that. And once I figured all that out, and then the really cool thing is now I have different ways to do it. I do interviews Anybody who's gone through the process of buying a home, people who've met their families, never bought a home before. They bought a $300,000 home with only 400, $4,000 in because they had grants and different programs and all that and their mortgage was a hundred dollars less than their rent. But they never knew about any of these processes because of that hole I mentioned earlier in the information about the real estate industry. And there were multiple different ways that I attempted to reach that person. But it turned out that by listening to the podcast they figured something out and when I interviewed him he's like dude, I walk around my house and I just call you Unk. That's like the highest, the highest level of respect in my family.

Speaker 1: 24:51

That's awesome. That's so awesome no, I mean like that that's so so awesome that you, you realize that and you try things out. Things work, things didn't work, and that's that's the process to anything, any journey in life, right? You, you know you want to launch a podcast. You're not going to start getting a million views and or even 10 views on you know the first one. Right, it takes time, but also you have to learn where to pivot, where to try things out and adjust the plan you know we were talking about earlier. You know, having the plan and setting the biteable goals, but you remember, like, the plan has to be adaptable and adjustable. So I think that's so awesome that you know. You mentioned that throughout your journey of you know to how you are, you know have gotten to the level you gotten to. Let's dive a little bit into, like the real estate. You know, specifically, what would you say are maybe some of the miss the biggest, like miscontraceptions of you know, first time home buyers or buying your first home all right.

Speaker 2: 25:48

Uh, when you're at the gym and you are working with your clients, like I'm going to give you a bunch of nuggets that you can explain to people, uh, because the home buying process has gotten such a bad rap and it falls so often into well, okay, boomer, you bought a house for $80,000. What am I supposed to do? Dude, you're right, I am totally. I agree with you. But what's the alternative? You're renting for $2,200 a month right now. You're going to keep doing that for a couple of years, waiting for the market to crash. That's $25,000, $26,000 a year. That goes to nobody. So the understanding that buying a home is no longer getting a sexy deal. This is not 2009, 10, 11, when homes were underpriced. The process of buying a home is ready for this. I say this all the time on my podcast. I'm trying to change the mindset of millennials and Gen Zs. There's so much negative, and then not just negative, but misinformation and misconceptions about the process. But misinformation and misconceptions about the process. The average first-time home buyer has a down payment of 8% 8% down. The average first-time home buyer finds their individual and the people. I've been doing this for five years. People do it all on their own. That's the biggest mistake. A great realtor and a great lender will work with you for free you don't have to pay them until you close on the home and they'll work with you a year ahead of time. But everybody goes to their best friend, google, and tries to do it all on their own. And I can tell you this five years of data 72% of people that have reached out to me after they've listened to the podcast or watched the YouTube channel tell me they're 12 to 18 months out. They're under contract in 3.2 months. So I'm not saying anyone is doing it wrong or is stupid. I just have the data to know that there's not enough people like me out there telling you the truth. And the truth is you're not starting the process early enough, and that's because you know 87% of the realtors out there aren't going to be in that job in five years, so they don't know what to do with you a year out. So you find the right person. You know I have this program called the last lease ever, and we don't talk squat about what neighborhood you want to live in, about your interest rate, about you know what kind of loan programs for you. All we do is talk about three things Where's your credit score today, where's your debt and where's your savings? And then we get starting points and then we give okay, well, if you want to buy a home that costs $400,000, then this should be where your credit score is, this should be where your debt is on your three credit cards. And let's save 8%, because that's a 5% down payment and 3% closing costs. Now, that doesn't mean you can't get lower than that. You can get a 3% down payment. You can get a three and a half percent down payment.

Speaker 2: 29:09

I think the biggest misconception is that people are spending $2,000, $3,000 a month and then their rent gets jacked up and so they try to go someplace else. And I'm like, dude, the first and last you're putting down over there, that's like half a year down payment for a home. If you could just get double that, figure out how to save it, beg, borrow and steal from your parents. Every thanksgiving I do a uh, an episode that I call the secret down payment assistance program, and for like 30 minutes I talk about how to beg for money from your parents at Thanksgiving at the table, and I give all the stats of why it's different. You're right, it's different than it was for the boomers.

Speaker 2: 29:50

But here's why rents have gone up, usually 30 to 40% a year. So that's like three to 4% a year. I'm sorry, a decade 30, 40% of decade. It was doing that forever. And then, 2000 to 2010, they went up 83%. And 2010 to 2020, they went up 72%. We are in a different economy. That's why you need someone to help you create a rent replacement strategy so that you don't end up renting for your thirties. And why do I do this? Because in my twenties, when I was on TV, I spent $104,000 in rent, and when I was 28 years old, I got a $1,500 security check back instead of gaining eight years of equity. And, by the way, that was $104,000 in nineties dollars. So that's probably like 250 000 today that's crazy.

Speaker 1: 30:47

I mean, I needed the time machine.

Speaker 2: 30:49

I needed my delorean to go back and tell me to do it differently, because I could have got a condo that was better than my apartments for five grand down. But I didn't know.

Speaker 1: 30:58

No one told me and that's the hard part too is like not knowing the game plan. I mean, it's like walking into the gym for the first time, right, and not ever stepping, ever stepping foot into the gym and not getting a personal trainer. And you're trying to figure it out. You're looking up things online. You're, you know, told this is the right way. So you start doing that, you hear something else and you're like, oh wow, well, actually, maybe that's the way. Let me try this.

Speaker 1: 31:21

And at the end of the day, you know, you're a year into your fitness journey and you've made little progress or no progress at all. And it's like, man, you know, I should have just hired someone, you know, and it's so relative in that sense Because, at the end of the day, there are so many different people saying so many different things, especially on social media. It's like who has a proven track record? Someone you know, let's say, that has 800 reviews on, you know, a platform that's just giving advice. You know, it's like that's that's testimonials right there, right, you know. It's like you know someone that actually has testimonials. You know you wouldn't hire a trainer that has no reference. Like, let's say, a celebrity is not going to hire a trainer that has no references. Right, references are everythingences are everything.

Speaker 2: 32:03

Yeah, absolutely Absolutely. You know it's funny. It's so that that credibility comes in the way that you can help people do the work to get there, not just hand them a list, like you were talking about personal training aspect of it. You walk into a gym. You feel completely overwhelmed. The way people buy homes is they walk in and they just want to walk up to a personal trainer and say hand me a list right now, this exercise, that, okay, great, thank you. I'm going to take this list. I'm going to go get on the cover of men's fitness. Thank you so much. No, no, no, that's not what you get. The personal trainer for the personal trainer sure, they can hand you the list, but they it's them standing behind you adjusting you on each machine. Hang on, it's, it's the small adjustments, touches, changes. That is what the real, the, the real power of a real estate agent and a lender is helping you with a strategy to get there. It's giving you all the little tips along the way, just like a personal trainer standing over you while you're doing your exercises and giving you those tweaks, is going to do a million times more than you looking it all up online and then saying, give me the list online and then saying give me the list.

Speaker 2: 33:22

The problem is people think with a realtor, well, I don't want to bother them until I'm ready. Oh my God, I wish you would bother me, because you know what's going to happen. You're going to call me and say I watched three YouTubes and I read four articles and then we went to an open house and I want to buy that house, and then I'm going to open up their finances and go. We have six weeks of work to do right now and then now I have 12 hours to do it because we have to put offers in by Sunday night. So start earlier.

Speaker 2: 33:55

Have somebody help you plan. And I love you, I love y'all trainers. But the cool thing is you could do like 12 months of training and don't have to pay me till the end. I know that probably doesn't work for you, but that's how it works in real estate and no one understands. They could take advantage of us and and let us be your, your, I say on the show all the time let us be your Yoda and your your Dumbledore, we're, we're just the guides Exactly.

Speaker 1: 34:20

And then I mean it goes into how we were talking about, like, you know, the plan is adjustable, right. There's things that come up. You, you know you make a decision and all of a sudden your credit score goes down. It's like, okay, now we got to adjust, we got to. You know, you get injured in the gym. Now we got to adjust and accommodate that injury so we can still be on on goal. So I think that is so true.

Speaker 1: 34:39

And unlike fitness, you know, with real estate it's like when you're ready isn't the time to start asking. Right, like when you're when it's like, oh, I'm a month out, I want to buy a house next month. That's not the time to start planning how to buy a house or prepping to buy a house. Right, unlike the gym, it's like I'm ready to get my dream body. It's like, ok, that's perfect, that should be now. Right, but it's not like walking in that I want a summer body tomorrow or next month. It's like that's the kind of equivalent you're expecting from your real estate agent or lender. It's like you want a summer body. You know in a month that it takes time, right.

Speaker 2: 35:13

Yeah, and and again. This is not the fault of the consumers. The industry has done the worst job in history helping educate. The industry has done the worst job in history helping educate. That's why I sit on this microphone and in a dark studio and do this, so that people hear the right, the right things. And I think because of this age of convenience because if you're in your twenties and thirties, you've had everything in your fingertips Um, I think that it's gone. The pendulum swung too far the other way and you're taking too much responsibility of your on your on yourself. And so they think the process is dang. I got to learn all this stuff because I can cause, I've had the world in my pocket. And then they think the realtors are, are just the people that open the door or just the lender that crunches the numbers? They're not door openers and number crunchers they are. They should be strategic planners all along the way.

Speaker 2: 36:13

And this came in real life I sat down with a bunch of my creative director is 30 years old now. When we started he was 25. I love him. We went to the same high school the arts together. He's a film and TV guy and he brought all his friends in for a focus group and here I was the guru with all the downloads and by halfway through, one of the girls goes dude. This is when I hire you. I'm like eight months away. What do I do right now? So there I was. You know, a couple of years into, my podcast changed everything, decided that people need to understand. What do you do today for your last lease ever? What are your baby steps? You?

Speaker 1: 36:52

know. That's so awesome. So what are? What would you say is maybe one or you know some trends or major trends that in the housing market or in the real estate market that first time homebuyers should be aware of.

Speaker 2: 37:07

So on my podcast I I will talk about forecasting and predictions. Um, but the way the there's an old saying in real estate that, uh, it's not the best way to maximize what you do, especially with your first purchase. It's not trying to time the market, it's your time in the market. You know. But I'm also incredibly aware, if you look at my studio, there's a can of spam back there. I know how realtors are perceived.

Speaker 2: 37:38

I remember during covid when, uh, uh, saturday night live did a thing where they were. People were at home, uh, you know, sequestered, watching zillow, like porn, and and then one of them made the mistake of hitting an email or clicking a button and their phone just kept ringing off the hook. So you will get spammed, I get that, but because of that, I feel people are afraid to really understand what's going on. What's going on right now is we have low inventory. We've had low inventory for 14 years. That's economics 101 supply and demand. So one of the things that people can look for in 2025 and 2026 is no matter what goes on with interest rates. And the truth is, so far this year, the best economic predictors are that it's going to be a little up and down, but we're probably going to land somewhere closer to six than to five, and definitely not in the fours. That affects a lot of things, but because the inventory is so low, we have a pent up demand of buyers and therefore we'll still see home prices increase, maybe not at the level we have in the past, but they're not going to go down. So waiting for a crash is going to cost you, and especially because you're renting Now.

Speaker 2: 38:56

That's why I brought up the spam. I understand that sounds like a salesperson. You know, the best time to buy a home was yesterday, but I don't need you to buy a home. I'm not asking you to buy a home with me just so I could pay my mortgage this month. I've been on record since 2019 giving all the data, and I'm telling you the data right now.

Speaker 2: 39:16

In 2008, 9, 10, 11, and and 12, those were the only five years in history where we built less than a million homes in the united states and we haven't caught up. So we're short. So that when, because the supply is so much less than the demand, the highest price doesn't always win. If you've got the right realtor, who knows how to structure your deal, and the lender who knows how to make the terms of the deal and the realtor can make the terms more exciting, then you have a better opportunity. But I can tell you this everyone 72% of the people who are listening to that right now going oh cool, I'm ready to go. No, you should be working on your credit score, your debt and your savings. Then you can come back in because you lose the bidding war when you're scrambling because you don't have all your ducks in a row.

Speaker 1: 40:24

I think that's that's so awesome. I mean, that's those are super like tangible assets that you know in in chunks of knowledge that you guys can take away for sure. Um, but if you are planning and it is a near, near goal, I definitely recommend you know, recommend reaching out to someone like David, for sure. I had a question based off what you were saying too. Man, I should have wrote it down. Let me write it off.

Speaker 2: 40:50

What you were saying, I've got one for you while you think of it. If you think of it, let me know. This is a complete and total pivot in how to left field and I hope you and your listeners don't hate me. Uh, so my wife has had 17 surgeries, including two hip surgeries. She used to be a choreographer. Uh, her knees um, but you know, uh, tore the mcl.

Speaker 1: 41:13

We can't find cardio for her because she can't swim suggestions um, I can send you a link to it, um, but there are. I mean I'll have to look it up.

Speaker 2: 41:25

I don't have it, just okay, cool, but yeah, I'll look at it I'll email it over to you.

Speaker 1: 41:29

but there are cardio workouts similar to the band, I mean the, the battle rope, right, but the battle rope being so heavy in engaging a lot of the, the legs and the knees and stuff, you can still do them, do it seated. But there are these lighter resistance bands and it's bugging me that I'll literally look up and send you but, um, that essentially you can still do movements with your arms in the inertia it might even be called inertia bands but, um, the inertia itself you can do, adjust your arms, you can literally wrap it around any pole. You can do it in a, in a doorframe, whatever the case may be. But that kind of cardio it's getting the muscle to react to the force that you're creating too. So you're creating a ripple and then you're fighting against the ripple which is creating more ripples, essentially, but it gets the heart rate up, it gets the muscles activated and it's one of those things where it's an amazing cardio form because you could do it anywhere and everywhere. Um, but I'll, I'll look it up and send it to you.

Speaker 1: 42:27

Um, cause I mean that's, that's one of the big things is like when people do have knee surgeries or anything like that. It's like, oh man, I can't do stairs, I can't do any of these things that you know put too much pressure. It's like, yeah, you could probably do the recumbent bike and sit and stuff like that. There's not too much pressure, but how high is your heart rate really getting right when something like these bands you can. You can sit, you can stand, you know in if you're. You know knees are right out of surgery, your arms are still working, you know you can still do it. So the bands are definitely a huge, huge aspect to it.

Speaker 2: 42:58

I'm going to make sure I put my camera up and video every session, though, because I want her to be one of those TikTok fail videos where the band snaps back Make me laugh so hard.

Speaker 1: 43:07

I mean honestly that stuff only happens when people don't understand that like you have to step all the way on the band, or honestly I'll say I almost did it.

Speaker 2: 43:16

You mean, like, when you don't have a good guide showing you how to do stuff.

Speaker 1: 43:20

Exactly. Or I mean you read the instructions wrong. And I say I almost broke a door because we first got the TRXs and there's a door frame holder amount and me not thinking about it, you know, I just put it in the door, closed the door and you, and you know, started leaning back and the door started tipping back towards me and I was like oh and I was like oh.

Speaker 1: 43:43

And then I was like, oh, wait, you got to be on the opposite side. The door closes so that the frame is the thing holding you. But I mean, it's those kind of things, you know, that people don't realize and they learn fairly quick after one fail, you know but, no, I, but i't, I can't think of.

Speaker 1: 43:58

The question right now is it was definitely off of first time home buyers and stuff. But, um, I mean honestly everything that you've given so much, so much value and everything at that. Like guys, I can't, I can't advise enough. If your goal is to buy a home, please go listen to David's like content. He's already put out a plethora of of information and it's like if you don't know the answers, if you don't have guidance, he's giving it away in his content, let alone you could reach out to him and you know, start doing that. Those things Cause again. Yes, the best time to start preparing is yesterday, but you know when's the next best time today. You know, cause tomorrow is going to be, yes, yesterday's, tomorrow is today, today. So get, get it on all that stuff right now. But where can people connect with you and learn more about what you got going on?

Speaker 2: 44:45

well from the world of entrepreneurship. For those out there who are budding entrepreneurs as well, where you can find me also has a little lesson in it how to buy a home. When I first started this whole thing, godaddy has this auction thing where they will go out and they will put up bids for URLs and everyone told me it wasn't going to work. I got it for cheap. That was years ago. Maybe it just shows how many people don't give a crap about helping first-time homebuyers. But that's where where it is. It's all at howtobuyahomecom, and the podcast has 300 episodes. If you have questions about anything about using your 401k, about the tax benefits, about the internet, about how much money you need to buy a home, on and on just scroll through the titles and take a listen, and we have tens of thousands of people that take all this stuff for free. It's all there at howtobuyahomecom. If you like it, great. If you like it and you want to ask me a question, there's a button for that too.

Speaker 1: 45:47

So, guys, all that will be in the show notes, but we are not forgetting the most important question, right? The most important question I like to ask everyone that comes on you know this is your legacy wall, right? It's not a tombstone, it is, you know, david's legacy wall. On this wall it, basically, is the most important, or one of the most important messages that you've learned along the way that you know could be used for the up and coming generations. What would that message be?

Speaker 2: 46:12

Wow, boy, that that's. That's one of those questions I feel like every entrepreneur should have on the tip of their tongue. But like I had 15 things that came in my head to try to pick one thing, it's like tell me your best, your favorite movie I've had so many different. I think that I guess I'd have to go to, uh, the thing that I started my career and the thing that I'm ending with, this last chapter of what I'm doing right now, which is, um, follow your joy and um, sometimes you have to do other stuff to support the moments to follow your joy. You have to have a nine to five so your joy can be on the weekends.

Speaker 2: 46:58

But I would say, in today's world of e-entrepreneurs, don't discount the ability to make a life following your joy. You know, I think Gary Vaynerchuk was the one who said you know, if you make $82,000 a year, follow this and you can make $82,000 a year, a year, making jam If you love making jam. We're in a new world, we have more options, so see how your joy can fit into your career.

Speaker 1: 47:33

No, that's awesome. And then that's that's why I like to give that question right at the end, without any heads up or anything, because there's so many things that flood your mind but at the same time, there's something that just resonates. I mean, that's the most authentic one that comes out and that's what resonates with the people. So, without further ado, thank you so much for really coming on and dropping knowledge nugget after knowledge nugget. I know I personally took away a ton from this. Guys, if you did which, if you say you didn't, I know you're lying. So make sure you guys share this episode with a friend or with someone that you know is going to buy their first home or plan to buy their first home. But, david, thank you so much for taking the time out of your day to drop some knowledge.

Speaker 2: 48:10

I appreciate you focusing on the mindset. You're doing great work, man. No negative vibes, only positive thoughts. It's in the game of life. My set calls the shots, Got my mind on the prize. I can't be distracted. I stay on my grind. No time to be slackin'. I hustle harder, I go against the curve, Cause I know my mind is richer to be collected.