Real Estate Explained
Real Estate Explained is your backstage pass to the world of real estate. Hosted by Nick Bush, a Realtor with over a decade of experience helping hundreds of clients, this show is designed to equip you with the insider knowledge you need to navigate the market with confidence. Whether you're buying, selling, investing, or just curious about the ever-evolving world of real estate, we've got you covered.
Each episode dives into trending topics and offers expert commentary to help you navigate your real estate journey with confidence. We bring in top industry experts who share their expertise so you’re prepared for every step of the journey.
We dive deep into the details that matter, giving you the insights and tools to take real action. Whether you're looking to make your next move or simply want to stay informed, Real Estate Explained is here to help you master the market, one episode at a time. Tune in, take control, and let’s turn your real estate goals into reality!
Host: Nick Bush
Email: Nick@thecobicompany.com
Phone: (202) 255-9560
Instagram: @NickBushTheRealtor
Website: TheCobiCompany.com
Real Estate Explained
Breaking the Cycle: Educating Young Buyers, Investing Smart, and Winning in the DMV Market with Ramy Yousef
What happens when you grow up in a family of renters… but decide to rewrite the narrative?
In this episode of Real Estate Explained, host Nick Bush sits down with Ramy from the Cornerstone Realty Group—former neuroscience student turned full-time real estate agent in Northern Virginia who shares how he went from a renter mindset to building a real estate investment portfolio, with a goal of owning 10 properties by the age of 30.
We dive into what first-time homebuyers and Gen Z buyers really need to know about the buying process, why renting vs. owning is about more than just money, and how to make smart moves even without generational wealth. Rami breaks down the psychology behind renting, the flexibility that comes with homeownership, and why building equity early is a game-changer.
You'll also hear how transaction coordinators free up time for agents, what makes the DMV housing market so stable, and tips for self-managing rental properties without burning out.
If you're a first-gen homeowner, young investor, or just someone trying to make sense of the current market, this conversation delivers real talk, strategy, and inspiration to help you make bold moves in real estate.
🎧 Tap play and learn how to break the cycle, build equity, and create your own real estate success story.
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CMA
I want to go to Egypt because obviously the pyramids and stuff, Like if I can go back to any time in history, it'd be ancient Egypt Really. Yeah, because they just dominated.
Speaker 2:For real, they just dominated.
Speaker 1:Like, bro, they dominated. I want to see how they made the pyramids. They're still like how did they make the pyramids, you know, but also like that was also the time of like the Old Testament, bro, yeah.
Speaker 2:You really think about it like that All that shit was like the Old Testament, bro.
Speaker 1:It was crazy.
Speaker 2:Dude, you hear all that. Joe Rogan you know how Joe Rogan's super interested in how the pyramids were built and stuff. It's like they be talking about all this technology that they had back in the ancient world and it's like stuff that machines nowadays just cannot do, but somehow they kind of sorted it out and stuff.
Speaker 1:It blows my mind Because some of those rocks are from like 50 miles away. Yeah, yeah, my boy told me he took, saying that I went. He was like, he was like um, because I have a friend, she's uh, half tunisian, half um egyptian, and she took her, uh, she took her boyfriend to um, egypt. He's black, and he was just like rolling around and she was like we're like how was it? She was like you know, the whole time, it's just like no, I'm like what's. She was like you know the whole time, it's just like no, I'm like what's the Egyptian price, you know?
Speaker 2:Oh, good, good, that's smart.
Speaker 1:Because my boy told me he said that.
Speaker 2:He said that he went on a camel.
Speaker 1:He's Spanish. He went on a camel and he said once he got up on the camel, they were like oh no, that's how they'll get you, bro, have you ever ridden a camel? No, it's terrifying.
Speaker 2:I do not want to ride a camel.
Speaker 1:I'm glad you told me that, bro.
Speaker 2:You told me the truth, because I do not want to do this. No, it's actually terrifying because you know how it's like a long neck and then you sit on the hump. Yeah, so the way that a camel gets up fours, so like both forward and back, you're like I'm going to die. How tall is a camel standing on they're? Tall they're, I don't even know how to estimate it, probably like 10 feet, 15 feet, like a basketball yeah.
Speaker 1:Look at Jamie. No, I'm just kidding, Jamie pull it up, Jamie. Jamie, jamie, let's see.
Speaker 2:Just about Six feet what I'm?
Speaker 1:six feet bro. Between six and seven feet, Really Okay.
Speaker 2:Maybe I won't be too scared. Maybe last time I rode it I was like seven, so it felt like super tall.
Speaker 1:All right, I guess we're going to get to it. I didn't really know what we're going to talk about today. We're going to talk about the market and all real estate things. I didn't have a lot planned, but before we get into it, thanks for having me.
Speaker 2:This is fun, all these little experiences that I'm having. This job is fun, isn't it?
Speaker 1:It's a lot of fun, bro, it's a lot of fun and it makes everything cooler because your mindset shifts when you're in real estate. And so I had Kareem on and I was like I can't leave Rami out. Cornerstone team, you guys crush it. But before we get started, introduce yourself, tell the people who you are.
Speaker 2:So I'm Rami. I'm part of the Cornerstone Realty Group team with EXP. We've been running Cornerstone for about two years and a half now, coming up on three years. Started off with my mother back in 2018. She kind of started off as a solo agent. Then Kareem, my older brother, joined on and he kind of made it into a brand, the team Cornerstone. That's where Cornerstone came from. And then I graduated college, came on. We're hiring more. So, yeah, thank God, we're growing.
Speaker 2:Would you study in school? I didn't do real estate. Yeah, I studied. I studied cognitive behavioral neuroscience. Okay, yeah, so, uh, that's interesting. Yeah, no, I mean, I loved it, I loved every part of it and I thought it was incredibly interesting.
Speaker 2:Yeah, um, and I was planning on going like moving forward in like the cognitive therapy space. But, um, life kind of shifted around and my priorities changed a little bit because I was going to go straight for the PhD, right, like I was like looking into it, I was applying, but once I talked to some people and understood what actually goes into PhD, I decided to kind of put that on the you know, put that on hold until I'm a little bit more stable and like, yeah, you know what I mean, yeah, I'm probably going to do it in a different capacity now, maybe not full PhD, but I'll probably do like some sort of like a master's or some sort of certification volunteer, like help people out, because that's still kind of like a passion of mine. I love just meeting someone when they're down and seeing if there's anything I can do to like help pick them up. That's always been a passion of mine.
Speaker 1:So yeah, pick them up. That's always been a passion of mine. Um, so yeah, that's kind of where that's dope. Yeah, my wife has a phd and so she went to mason. Well, she went to villanova and she had got her master's in a phd at mason what's it in? Um criminology, law and society cool, and so she's in the crim field, um kind of like I always like the reform space, yeah, so obviously like that's not that popular with the new administration, right now, but but she's in the reform space and she like took her time.
Speaker 1:She's a procrastinator by nature, she got. So it took her like she took the whole 10 years. Yeah, she was like going slow but also we had like life and kids, sure, and I know when you're in the PhD program you usually work kind of for the professor, yeah. So she had like a quote unquote real job along the way. So it took her a little time but yeah, she got hers. I think like 2023 maybe is when she finished.
Speaker 2:That's good. Congratulations to her. It's a big deal. Like it's a really big deal Because, like I mean, you tell me your experience, right, but from the other people that I've been talking to, a PhD means like you need to be ready for the PhD to be your life. You know what I mean. Like, not like be a part of your life. It's like it is your life.
Speaker 1:I think that you can approach it that way and I think probably, like maybe that's what she should have done, you know. But you know, I think it's, if you're in that space academically, you can, you just like. You know how to study, you know how to learn you know how to write. And so maybe it's different for each field. So maybe it's different for each field, but that's cool man, yeah. So you were like I'm going to jump into real estate. I know Kareem has been investing in real estate.
Speaker 2:Yeah, what motivated you to get into the real estate. So I've been actually working in the real estate space for about, I want to say, four years now, or four and a half years, except I was on the back end, I was a transaction coordinator for my mom, oh, okay. Yeah, so I kind of learned the backend of the business, you know the contracts, the addendums, all the emails that need to be sent out, all of like the different points of contacts that you have in a transaction.
Speaker 2:I learned all of that in the backend, working virtually with my mom. So when I came on I was like I already know this space, I like this space and it's got a lot of like it's very people-oriented, right, and I'm a very people-oriented person. So I was like, yeah, I'll give this a shot and if it's not, for me like the plan was to just do it for about a year or so and then dive right into school, back into school. But I kind of fell in love with it.
Speaker 1:That's great. So you got the contract. You got all that done beforehand, so you already. That's like the stuff that you have to learn once you become a real estate agent, exactly so you become a realtor Like I'm going to sell houses and you get a contract You're like wait, how do I write?
Speaker 2:a contract. Exactly what's the need? Right, you have to figure that out.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so I guess like that by themselves, right. So what do you think? The power of like your real estate agent not having to do like the back-end paperwork, like what's the benefit to the client, gosh?
Speaker 2:so, uh, me personally, whenever I get money, let's say, because my mom was paying me at the time you know what I mean, because I was helping her and it's family and there's always this kind of like lingering thought in the back of your mind. It's like am I actually bringing value or is she just paying me because I'm her son and she loves me? You know what I mean and I always thought, ah, you know she's cutting me a break and honestly I need it at this point. And then when I actually stepped into the field and I realized what it meant to do showings, meet clients, do like consultations and stuff, and then on the back and not have to worry about paperwork, I'm like, oh shoot, there's so much value there. You there.
Speaker 2:It's crazy like our transaction coordinator is like our cornerstone. You know what I mean. He's like he is so important to the team. It's crazy like he is so important to the team. It's it's lots and lots of value not to have to worry about like some paperwork, some small stuff on the side. It makes it like opens up your capacity to be able to do more, do you feel?
Speaker 1:like that. You're a better realtor for your clients because of the For sure, because you don't have to deal with that.
Speaker 2:Absolutely without a doubt. Without a doubt because of the speed of things. You know what I mean. If every single one of my clients has to wait for me to get home to write up the contract, and then you know there's life stuff in there too. You know I need to have dinner, I need to, like take a break. I chill out and talk to my friends or my brothers or my family, whatever it is. If they have to wait on all of that, either I'm going to get super burnt out and not do my job well, or they're just going to have to wait on my schedule. Right, but with a transaction coordinator they don't have to wait. They don't necessarily have to wait, they just kind of like I'll put in, let's say, their request with our transaction coordinator and he'll work on that.
Speaker 1:So they get the speed and I'm not burning out, I feel like, because I have a transaction coordinator also who's like the most important person in the business right at this point, and I feel like I do more business because I have a transaction coordinator and I can't connect those two in any way.
Speaker 1:But I'm just like, I think I have more capacity to like, go and find deals and I'm trying to get to the point where I'm only doing the real estate portion like negotiating, talking to the client, making sure everything is smooth, and I think it just makes you a better agent because you can think about what you're supposed to think about and not like did I get that last signature or did I communicate with the title company this day, Like you?
Speaker 2:just kind of it's on autopilot and it just kind of makes sense the more workload that you take on, the more things that you're thinking about simultaneously, the more likely you are to make mistakes. Yeah, and if you make mistakes for your clients, like, that's a big deal in the real estate world, right? So I absolutely agree with you that it does open up some capacity for you to actually be doing your job well go. It does open up some capacity for you to actually be doing your job well. Go. Look for more deals, help out your clients better because you're not worried about those little like oh, did I take off that check mark? You know what I mean. Like that's the difference between, let's say, like your client getting a home warranty paid for by the seller or not. You know what I mean If you didn't chuck off the right box. You know what I mean. Like small stuff like that that add up over time and especially can help your client out a lot if you're not the one making mistakes on it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I feel like, as real estate agents, we've kind of I think that obviously, what is it? 80% of agents do 20% of their business, or 90%, something like that, and I think that 20% have really impacted us. I guess what like how people? I guess like a feel about real estate agents in the world, how people you know, I guess I feel about real estate agents in the world and I think that we should be compared more to like lawyers and doctors, certified financial planners, because I mean in this area, just think we're helping somebody broker a $700,000 deal on average right.
Speaker 1:And there's a lot that goes into it, and I think that the reason I say that is because I think that, like lawyers, they have the paralegal doing that stuff and they're like I'm in court to litigate or be the expert, and I think it's great when I think that realtors should be doing that also, and so I think that's dope. So what are you guys seeing in the market right now? What's happening? Well, actually I have a different question for you. So 24, what's your business? Are you sphere-based business? Are you calling expires? Are you doing open houses, like, how are you getting deals?
Speaker 2:So my biggest two are sphere and open houses, for sure, okay, and we also do a lot of like community. Actually, social media has kind of been really good. Not in the sense. I was just talking to one of my buddies last night. We just went out for dinner. What's the point of a social media post as, like a real estate agent, you know what I mean? It's never to be like, oh, here's a house, and then someone swipes up and be like I want that house.
Speaker 2:You know what I mean. It's not like that because you're not like really selling a product. It's to be top of mind. Well, I'm kind of venturing into the real estate space right now. I don't know much about it, but I do know this one guy called Rami who I see on my social media page all the time and he's kind of like you know he's working, he's getting busy, he's closing deals, getting a lot of experience, but also like he's this like fun dude. You know it's like kind of lighthearted, makes a realtor more accessible. So social media has kind of been a really big part for me. Now, whether people like or comment or swipe up or whatever it is. I go to different random places and they're like oh we love what you're doing on socials, keep those comments. I get a lot of fun and stuff. So social has been a lot of. It's been a big help for me and my business. But sphere and open houses, those have been the biggest ones.
Speaker 1:So at 24, let's assume your sphere is all in the 3 to 5 range, age range like 21 to 27 maybe. How are you getting those younger people motivated to buy homes?
Speaker 2:I think stories go a long way. Okay, I think experiences from other people go a very, very long way. Okay, you know, you can kind of give someone like the data and give them all the numbers and explain all that kind of stuff to them, but once they hear like someone that is in your shoes just did it and they did it successfully, it's more likely to be like oh wait, like they are in my shoes and they're no different than I am right.
Speaker 2:So it's like, how can I get on that same boat? Maybe I just don't know something, Maybe I need to like look deeper into something, and that's kind of been the best. What can I say? Motivator for people my age. They're just like, oh, like, I don't need 20%, like I don't have to have, like you know my whole life, like you know 15 years of like work experience and all that, like I can get things done while I'm still kind of like in my 20s and stuff.
Speaker 2:So once you open up that mentality, once you open up like that, um, that pathway for a lot of people to home ownership, um they realize it's more manageable and more, um, digestible I guess for them. Yeah, and they just kind of realize the thing about the thing I love about real estate is that like sells itself. I'm not selling no subscription, I'm not selling a product. I'm not selling like. Everybody needs housing and everybody wants to be part of the housing market. It's just a matter of when are you ready, do you?
Speaker 1:feel like people. So I got into the business when I was 25, maybe full time at 26. I got licensed in January and then I didn't really start getting moving until June and I remember calling some of my first friends family right, mostly friends and being like, hey, you should buy a house and they were like I don't have a 100 credit score.
Speaker 1:A lot of those. You're in your first career, right, so you're making 50, 60, right, like I can't call them in the middle of the day and so the foundation of my business is built on home buying seminars, right. But also I feel like part of and the thing is like your real estate agent can't sell you a house, right. But I also had to sell people on the idea of home ownership and I think, because I mean I have my sphere is like kind of all you know, I have people that like come from home ownership and then I have a lot of generational renters in my sphere, but I come from a renter family, so maybe most of my sphere was generational renters, so I had to kind of sell them on the idea of buying a home right.
Speaker 1:And we were 25, 26, so that also made sense. Do you feel like that? That's something that you have to do. Also, what does the average 24, 25-year-old thinking think about homeownership? Is it something they should do?
Speaker 2:not do. So it really depends on the type of person that you're talking to. You know what I mean and, like exactly what you said, I totally agree with you. I don't think that, like real estate agents should be selling someone a house, unless obviously you're like the listing agent, you know. But when it comes to like talking to home buyers that are like in my age, I just don't think that we should be selling people a house. You know what I mean. It's like that type of push on people turns a lot of people off, right. So it's just kind of like the sentiment right Is like I don't really want to be like locked down to a place, let's say, or like I'm just not ready to make that type of commitment, you know, and I never like push back on that because it's like that's kind of like a lifestyle decision. You know what I mean.
Speaker 2:It's like yeah, great, awesome, right. But as soon as you're done, like wasting your money and paying people's mortgage off, let me know, you know it's like that's. And then obviously, when they see like what you're doing as well, people just kind of like get curious.
Speaker 1:So tell people when someone says that to you like what do you want it Like? What would you like? What message would you deliver to somebody who's like I don't really want to be locked down or bogged?
Speaker 2:down.
Speaker 1:What's like the right thing for how. How should they be thinking about that? Instead, I'd say yeah, absolutely that.
Speaker 2:Uh, that makes sense, I get you. Sometimes home ownership could, uh, could kind of tie you down a little bit more than renting. Could you know? I'm not like the oh, renting is the devil type of guy at all. I think I have like a couple of videos out there. There's like I'm just not that guy, you know. I believe that renting has its time and place, you know. But I'm like, yeah, no, I get it, but um, that's just not necessarily the case. People are like I don't want to be locked down to this house for 30 years. It's like, oh, there's this thing called selling the house or renting it out.
Speaker 2:There's this thing called moving out of the house, not being tied down to it, um, and it's like, the more that you wait, it's. It's like what warren buffett said right, it's not about timing the market, it's about time in the market. You know what I mean. It's like, yeah, you want to keep renting and paying someone else off. It's like some people want the experience like arlington is a big one. Yeah, right, arlington is a really, really big.
Speaker 2:When someone says I just want to be renting in Arlington for some time, I want to get the experience of being in that city and being in a walkable area, like honestly, why would I push back against that? That totally makes sense to me. You know what I mean. It's like, yeah, you want to be around recent grads, you know somewhere between, like you know, three to five years out of college or something like that. There are people that are past that, obviously. But um, when you tell me like I just want to be in the arlington area, yeah, great, that makes sense, right. But if you're like renting somewhere else and like you've come to a point where you're renting for like five, six, seven years, the numbers just kind of speak for themselves. You know what I mean it's like, um, you're just missing out on a lot yeah, it's funny, it's okay.
Speaker 1:You want to go to clarence and like blackout on the weekends. Go, go, live your life and like walk back to your apartment, like your.
Speaker 2:Uber is going to be cheaper than your rent. Exactly. It's like just do it Like go buy a house and then just Uber to freaking collect Exactly.
Speaker 1:I think it's interesting because when I you know, when I first got into real estate and I had to, you know, kind of consider all of these things and consider how I would like have these conversations and approach people when they kind of had these objections and they were like oh, I buy, I'm bogged down and I'm like, actually you're more flexible when you own your home versus when you rent. I'm like because if you rent, you're in that lease for, let's say, 12 months. If you want to move or break that lease, you have to pay. Like, if you can break that lease, most likely you have to pay two months rent. Most apartment communities are not letting you just sublease and get out of it. And then I'm like, if you don't pay your rent by the 5th, they're sending you eviction notice and then maybe in 30 days you have to get out. But I'm like, and then you rent, your rent's going to go up next year and then the following year and you'll have to do that. You're just very at the mercy of the landlord. You're very at the mercy of the landlord, but when you buy you have so much flexibility, like you can buy.
Speaker 1:I had someone who bought a house in Deanwood and she was like, oh, I don't like the neighborhood anymore, so I rented it out, right? Also, you have a 15-day grace period to pay your mortgage instead of the five-day grace period which is like many people kind of are doing. You know like many people lose their job in general or a life change happens. You can sell and you know if you have equity right, you're good. Or you could just say like you know what, like I'm going to rent this out.
Speaker 1:I always tell people I'm like if you lost your job and you couldn't afford your mortgage, but you have family, you can, your mortgage is not a problem because you can rent it out and then if you have to couch surf until you get back on your feet, someone's paying your mortgage and then you can move back in. So I feel like owning your home gives you so much more flexible than renting. And then the other big objection for renters is like I don't want to deal with the maintenance and I own a single family home and there's maintenance. But I always tell people I'm like when is right, and I own a single family home and it's there's maintenance, right, I would. But. But I always tell people like what do you think like I'm like when is the last time your fridge just didn't work or your stove just didn't work? Like these?
Speaker 2:things don't even happen, so yeah that's true and, um, we kind of lean on, like home warranties and home insurance as well, because the money aspect of maintenance is a big one that gets people all the time. Um, and we've had some real examples, you you know, of like I have a rental property in Lynchburg, right, and the fridge, let's say, will like break down. I just pay the $75 and then, like they'll cut me a check. They just did this. They cut me a check for 700 bucks to go get a new one. You know what I mean it's like. So you know what I mean. You set yourself up well, right, and then you can mitigate all these things.
Speaker 2:Now, that's not to say like you don't have to deal with any maintenance whatsoever. You know what I mean. Like there's some stuff that's going to have to come out of your pocket, just naturally, right. But if you set yourself up well, all of those issues, all those objections, are like properly mitigated, you can actually get away with not too bad of an experience of owning a home, actually a beautiful experience of owning a home. You know, I like that flexibility piece that you were talking about.
Speaker 2:You're absolutely right, because a couple of the clients that I have under contract right now. They're like I'm just done with landlords, saying like no fault to the landlord saying I want to move back into the property or I want to sell the property or something like that, and now I have to move. Like I wasn't planning on moving, that's not, that's not in my plans right now at all. I'm busy. I've got like kids. My kids are in school and now I have to move within, like you know, like 30 to 60 days or something like that. It's like that wasn't why. Why, if I can cut out that unexpected part of life, you know what I mean that like some random landlord is going to be like sorry, I want the house. You're going to have to move that direction.
Speaker 1:That's interesting, you know, because we have an investment property in DC and we have a tenant in there. We had her. She signed a six-month lease at first. Right, because she only wanted to sign it. She's like, let me just sign a six-month lease. We're like, all right, we need this thing rented, go ahead. And then, when it was, she wanted to renew her lease and at first I was like, um, let's renew her for a year. You know, this was in april, I guess she just renewed. I was like, let's renew her for a year, so we have peace of mind, we know more, he's getting paid, we don't have to find a tenant in the winter time, we'll be okay. And then I said to myself, um, because this house, like, we want to sell it eventually. Right, it's like a great, it'll appreciate. But I just want to pull the cash out to invest in something else yeah yeah, yeah, we'll net like $100,000.
Speaker 1:So I'm like I could take this $100,000 and buy a few properties and have better cash flow. And then I'm out of DC, where the tenant laws are less friendly than a place like Virginia or Ohio or Tennessee. And I remember when she was renewing her lease, at first I was like, let's do a year lease. And then I told my wife I was like, let's do a six-month lease because I want the flexibility to be able to put this on the market if rates drop or if I feel like the market is busy. And I'm just thinking from like a tenant standpoint. I mean, you don't even, you can't even get comfortable if you know that in six months I might have to move out, right, um, and so I never thought about it like that. The property, property in Lynchburg do you guys self-manage that or do you have a property?
Speaker 2:manager. Yeah, no, I self-manage it. We have our contractors out there who are just a ton of help, but, um, we self-manage. They just text me if they have any problems.
Speaker 1:So why go self-manage versus property manager?
Speaker 2:I just kind of felt like I have a grip on all the maintenance that needs to be done. I have all the contacts and all the names and I can keep it under control. So if I can save that like eight to 10% that rental rental sorry, property managers charge I'm benefiting. You know, and I have this joint with my dad, so this is like a joint investment him and I yeah.
Speaker 1:So do you feel like? So what's the plan from? Like an investment part? I mean, because you're obviously a real estate agent. You have real estate investors at 24, which is bronson. Do you own any houses yet, bro?
Speaker 2:yeah, oh, you do. How many houses do you own, uh legally?
Speaker 1:one uh but technically two. Okay. Yeah, every day I ask bronson this because I'm always like bronson, you need to buy houses, but I've never asked him like if he owns his house. I just like I'm assuming, like well, really, what I want bronson to do is buy like 10 houses.
Speaker 2:See, this is like what I'm always pitching to Bronson. He'll get there. He's around too many real estate agents not to get there.
Speaker 1:I've never been like wait, do you own? So okay, so are you planning to scale up the portfolio, or what do you guys? So what's your? What's your like? I mean, obviously, don't give me your life plan, sure, but like Five years, what do you want that to?
Speaker 2:look like the plan is 10 by 30. I want to have 10 properties Boom.
Speaker 1:Bronson 10. I always say 10. Can you talk to this guy? Get with this guy.
Speaker 2:Bronson, you want to hop in here, bro? Yeah, 10 houses by 30. 10 by 30. I want 10 properties by the time I'm 30 years old. Okay, and I'm working on it weeks ago, thank you, it's a nice little place in centerville. It's a nice little spot. Um, yeah, it's a nice little. Do you guys? Are you guys familiar with like the I'm sure you're you know sully station too? Oh, yeah, yeah right there off of stone that's gonna appreciate so much. Dude.
Speaker 1:I bought at 620 with 6k back 6k back and that neighborhood like it only appreciates because, because that, like centerville area, those townhouses right there they're just like the perfect first-time homebuyer cribs and so they just like turn over a lot but not turn over because people want to leave, but they turn over because somebody had a kid or had two kids, right.
Speaker 2:So congratulations bro, thank you, I appreciate it.
Speaker 1:That's going to be worth $720,000 in two years.
Speaker 2:I'm hoping, yeah, no, I'm super excited about this house. It was a blessing from God. To be honest, like this was a crazy, I was looking at another property in Centerville right and it was kind of like an open door property so I kind of and like it was sitting on the market and I thought it was overvalued so I kind of went in with like a super aggressive offer.
Speaker 1:You know what?
Speaker 2:I mean, Like I think I offered them like 35K below what they wanted and I asked for five percent back you know what I mean.
Speaker 2:Like, just like an offensive offer, you know yeah and they were kind of giving me a hard time, rightfully so, yeah. So, uh, I had an inspection in ashburn, okay, um. So I was like talking to my mom. I said, hey, can you just like run the comps on this really quick? I just want to make sure that, like the, because we were gonna escalate to kind of what they wanted, almost at 600. So I was like, can you just make sure that it's like worth 600 and like all that she's doing the comps?
Speaker 2:And then she like texts me a property and then calls me. So I'm like, hey, mom, I'm at the inspection. And she's like she calls me again. I was like, all right, double call, so pick up, hey. She's like, hey, we need to go check out this property. And I was like okay, cool, like yeah, send it to me. And she was like no, no, like we need to go check it out. I was like okay, cool, like yeah, send it to me. And she was like no, no, no, like we need to go check it out. I was like okay, mom, easy, like I'm at this inspection. She's like it's awesome, I already booked it. We're going to go like meet me there at 6 PM. I was like okay, is it nice? She was like we have to go, we get there, because I was looking at this other property, you know, and I was like let's go see it. And she's like no, no, no, this one's yours, we walk in, honestly she's right, she's right.
Speaker 2:Funny thing is that property was already under contract. Right, it's been under contract, and 30 minutes after it came back to the market, my mom saw it and booked it. Wow, and we went under contract either that day or the next day, I can't remember but like it came back to the market, like I believe that it came back to the market just for me you know what I mean. And I like I truly believe that Such a blessing, yeah, I mean, it's just wonderful.
Speaker 1:That just lets you know. So that story is even better for me to hear because I know your mom, like I've met her, yeah, yeah, and so I know she sounds like in the passion that she speaks with.
Speaker 2:Rami, this is yours. We got to get it, you know yeah.
Speaker 1:But like dang, what was I going to say? Oh, but that just lets you know how your mom, even doing that right, like running the comps, is, like I think, something every realtor is like hey, can you just double check that I'm not tripping. But then to like see a property, book it and like know for her client at the time that this is the one and so like that's, who, like Rami, is learning?
Speaker 2:from everybody. So just to let you know.
Speaker 1:But so when you get from, so when you get to 10, like, are you still going to self-manage?
Speaker 2:Are you going to property manage? No, no, no, at that point, once I get to 10, once I scale, I'm very much a person that sees the value in delegating things off to the professionals and buying back my time. You know what I mean Like, and I I'm very on board with that. I don't mind paying someone who will actually, um, produce good work and, like, help me make more money.
Speaker 1:So you feel like scaling, like as you scale, property management is better than self-management, absolutely. Do you feel like that's like a number of homes, or like when you feel like hassled?
Speaker 2:You know I'm still trying to figure it out. I'm honestly still trying to figure it out, but I believe it is. It's a tough question because I believe they kind of correlate right numbers, have a number of houses and hassle kind of go hand in hand, because the hassle from one house is manageable. Two houses, sure, fine. Three, maybe you can push that. You know, once you get to like four or five, six, seven houses, you know what I mean.
Speaker 2:They might be small problems at each house, but they're five small problems at a time, you know what I mean which then if you don't address a small problem, it becomes a big problem. And if two of them become big problems, because if you solved only, like, let's say, three of the others small problem, now you have two big problems, you know, you know, and then it just starts to compound and I just don't think that that's the smart way to do things. Yeah, um, so that's why I believe let me just pay someone whose full-time job it is to take care of my property and do it. Well, you know what I mean. And I I'm I'll pay people, no problem, like I have no problem sharing a part of the pie if it helps us expand the pie, you know so I could go back in time to when I first got into real estate and I have a few clients that are doing this.
Speaker 1:Yeah, um, I would be pitching to everyone hey, you need to get 10 houses and buy 30 also, um, and I would just explain to them you know, and it's a little different because rates are higher when I got into business rates with three percent, so it was truly cheaper to own than it was to rent a home, um, but I would just give them the breakdown like, hey, you can do this every year with three or five percent down and, like, be chilling and build a small portfolio. So how are you approaching the real estate invest divestment? Um, how are you approaching real estate investing, the real estate investment?
Speaker 2:how are you approaching real estate investing? Obviously, it's more expensive to buy than 3% right now, and what I'm like starting to realize and this isn't profound or anything like that, it's just the first few houses are harder than the next few houses right. It's like getting into it is harder than building True Right. Again, I understand. I say everything that I say like I really want to come from this point of humility of everything that I say is subject to change just because I'm learning, that's called intelligence.
Speaker 2:Yeah, everything that I say, everything that I'm learning because, like, if you were to ask me like we bought this property, my dad and I, in 2022. If you were to ask me, like, how are you going to scale up your portfolio, I'm going to like, every year, one more, one more, one more. You know what I mean. It's like no, that's just not the case. It's better to like slow roll. It's better to understand what you're doing. It's better to understand like, what does a good tenant look like? Why do you want a good tenant? You know what I mean.
Speaker 2:It's like, even if it costs you something, like there are some, some situations that like, yeah, like being nice to this tenant's to come out of my pocket, right, and it's like I have no problem with that, because what I've seen, especially because we have like a little group and I believe that, like you're the average of the five people, five closest people to you, right, so I'm very, very blessed to be a part of, like a very ambitious group, like a group. That's like you know, kareem, you know what I mean Like it doesn't get any closer to that. But we also have like a good group of friends with good heads on their shoulders and collectively we have a good amount of properties, like in the Lynchburg area, and I've seen that. The nice thing about that is that I've seen and I have experiences that aren't mine. You know what I mean Like I'm getting experiences that I didn't have to go through.
Speaker 2:They're secondhand experiences, but I'm hearing these stories from the people that are closest to me and I've seen what it's like to have a bad tenant. And that is just when people say that I hate the real estate market. I'm like you probably had a bad tenant. You know what I mean and I don't blame you for having that opinion, because it's really quite bad. So ways to mitigate that as well, you know what I mean. Like, how do you vet a tenant properly, how do you make sure to keep them happy, even if it's going to come out of your pocket? Because, quite frankly, the return on investment of keeping a tenant happy is way higher than the like couple hundred dollars that you might be making more per month. It's just that's just the way that it is.
Speaker 2:I can't remember who this YouTuber is, but he's like kind of like short hair. He's a young guy, is it? I think it is, yeah, the white dude, yes, yes, yes, yes, um, he like has this whole thing of like I just, is it him or kevin o'leary? I can't even remember. Sorry, I'm kind of all over the place, but basically the point that they're saying is like I just don't raise the rent on my tennis yeah, I think that's graham.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think it is graham right he's like I just don't raise the the rent on my tenants.
Speaker 1:Kevin o'leary told him he was crazy, right, yeah, okay that's okay.
Speaker 2:That's where the connection happened. Um, he just said the value of having these great tenants in my house. Keeping them happy and not raising the rent on them is saving me so much money and so much headache that like that's just the way that I want to go and I'm like I get that, you know like would I?
Speaker 2:maybe would I fully go in that route? Like not raising the rent at all. It's like no, because the numbers need to make sense for me as well. So, fair enough, there's some sort of balance there. But I like the, the mindset. I like the mindset of like no, it's not all about the numbers. For me, sometimes, the mental peace of mind that I might have from having a good tenant in my property is worth way more than, like, the 3% to 5% of year to year increase over here.
Speaker 1:Notice the conversation. My wife and I have all the time More, so I'm having the conversation with her because we cash flow like a little bit from our mortgage, from our renter, but I think that we're like we could be charging like at least 300 more but maybe up to 500. Sure, this property manager did this like rental analysis for me, but he was like and it looked like we could be profiting like 1200 more, but I was like I don't know.
Speaker 1:I don't know but definitely like three to five hundred. And uh, I'm always like yo like we need to raise the rent. This happens like every two weeks, or maybe like every month. I'm like we need to raise the rent. This happens like every two weeks, or maybe like every month.
Speaker 2:I'm like we need to raise the rent and she's like Every time like y'all go shopping or something like that.
Speaker 1:You say we need to raise the rent.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:I'm like, at the end of the lease, we're raising the rent. And she's like, but what if she doesn't want to pay the rent? I'm like, well, then we'll get a new have to pay the mortgage in the meantime. What if the next tenant doesn't pay the rent and then? So then you have to make that decision. You're like, okay, do we raise it? How aggressively do you raise it? At the end of the day, we're you know, we're we are cash flowing a bit and we're getting, like equity from this property, and so it is a there's a balance there's like a game you have to play where you just say okay, I have a really great tenant.
Speaker 1:Um, what's the value of not having this tenant anymore and having to go find someone else? That's like more unpredictable and, you know, will the market even respect this increase?
Speaker 2:and I think the the whole mortgage argument is a really good one, right? Because like, okay, what are you expecting to get from raising the rent, let's say 100 bucks a month?
Speaker 2:yeah 200 bucks a month. That's 2400 dollars a year, right? Is your mortgage more than $2,400 a year? You know what I mean it's like. Are you losing that money? Are you losing that money on the front end just because you want to like raise the rent?
Speaker 2:To me it's like, again, like I said, everything is tenable. Everything is subject to change, but for me, getting someone in there early who I can trust to pay the rent is worth more than the small increase. Like in Lynchburg, for example, the tenants that I have in there right now. They're wonderful tenants. They're just grad students and they're very much like a to themselves type of people. I've been enjoying dealing with them.
Speaker 2:Are there issues? Are there problems? Do they hit me up a lot? Yeah, sure, but that's just the normal part of it. Right, they wanted to take it like in June, but I said I want to get it rented out in April, right? So there's a big difference there About two months of mortgage that I would have had to pay and I was going to charge them, I think, like $150 more plus a $50 per month pet deposit. So it was about to be like about $200 a month and they said well, if you want us to start in April, like we'll do this, and we cut a deal where I actually like, decreased the rent by about a hundred bucks a month, and very happy with my decision, Very, very happy with my decision, because they're great tenants, they take good care of the property, they're very communicative and I didn't have to pay the mortgage for April, may and June. Yeah, so you got in there. Yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, let me tell you about it. It's interesting to know that you're a cognitive, behavioral, neuroscience right, because this story deserves to be on the podcast. So who was the woman that you were with for the open house in Springfield? Who was the other team member?
Speaker 2:Oh.
Speaker 1:Marianne, marianne.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, marianne, okay.
Speaker 1:So I had this. This is crazy right so. So I had this. This is crazy right. So I had this client. I'm going to tell the story at the beginning of the pod. So this is like when I knew Rami was like solid I was like oh, he's crushing in real estate he's going to make it right.
Speaker 1:Not that I didn't think you were before, but I was like, oh yeah, he's one of the ones. So I had this client. This whole transaction was crazy, by the way. Like the Just to give you an idea, like she was going to sell her house like three months before that and we like agreed. And then I ordered the sign, bro, she took my sign out the ground and was like I didn't agree to this. I didn't agree. She was like I didn't agree to this. So, anyways, schedule this open house. I think the house was like listed like probably like $75,000 under market value, maybe $100,000. It needed a lot of work, so I strategically listed it that way to get the price up. I think the comps were $625,000. We listed at $500,000, $499,000.
Speaker 2:Somewhere there, yeah.
Speaker 1:So people can bid up. I felt like it was probably great for not an investor owner-occupied. We'll do the work. It was livable yeah.
Speaker 2:So we get the open house. He hits me up or I don't know, but you scheduled open house was. It was like evening, it was like an evening open house, right, I think it was at, uh, five or six or something like that, five or six.
Speaker 1:so I know that I have to manage my client, yeah. So I go to the house and I'm like, hey, open house, we're still good. Bro, like 30 minutes before the open house, I'm there, I'm, I'm there an hour before. She's like I need to go get food. I'm leaving, I'm leaving, I'm going to eat, open house off. And I'm like, no, no, no, the open house cannot be off Like we scheduled this. People are coming. You see those people, they're starting to show up and I'm like, if you want to go eat, at least give me the key so that I can, you know, have this open house happen. And she's like, nope, and she rolls out on me. I think, like 15 minutes you show up.
Speaker 1:I'm not like a panic guy, but I'm in full panic mode because I know how crazy the open house is going to be and I almost canceled it, bro, and I think I even had to drive to figure out where she went. You did and I was like I was like rami, just cancel it, bro, like it's over. And you were like let's just wait, bro, easy, she's going to come back. Like just chill, you said she's gonna come back. She says she's gonna come back, let's come back, and I was like. I was like oh, rami is the goat forever oh man, that was a fun experience.
Speaker 2:That was a crazy experience.
Speaker 1:And then you feel bad in a situation like that because you invited somebody to do an open house and if it's not going to happen, it's like you wasted your time too. And I was just really. I was like I hope you get a client from this, because you deserve it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, no, it was definitely a zoo of an open house, dude. There's so many people Remember was it like 25 to 30 parties in one day, like that's just that one that I, that I hosted, yeah, um, yeah, I don't know, it's just, I don't think that things are as big of a deal as people make them out to be. Yeah, you know what I mean and I believe in the goodness of of people. So it's like if, if we have to tell someone hey, listen, you know there's a situation happening. We're trying to reach to the seller and trying to get them back. Just work with us for a second. Sorry for the inconvenience. We'll get you in there as soon as possible, promise you that. But just work with us. You managed that beautifully, bro. Someone was like they're all, just they were and like nobody was. Like are you kidding me? Like what the hell? No, it's like everyone.
Speaker 1:Thanks for letting us know.
Speaker 2:I think people just want, like, solid communication rather than excellence, or sorry, not excellence. Right Perfection is what.
Speaker 2:I meant to say Because excellence is required. That's for sure. You know what I mean. But perfection is one of those things that we try to strive for, and it's like if you just get bogged down with the idea of perfection, you actually start to let go of excellence Because you could never be enough. So then you just keep on like. You keep on telling yourself okay, well, that wasn't perfect, so it wasn't good enough, which means I'm discouraged. Now, you know what I mean. So when I'm discouraged, I'm more likely to, like lose energy. So when I lose energy now, the quality of my production starts to decrease. Well, because it wasn't perfect, well, I guess this isn't even worth it for me. I'm out.
Speaker 1:I'm out, I'm out. You know what I?
Speaker 2:mean, but I think if you strive for excellence, then every mistake along the way is just a stepping stone towards excellence, because you realize that wasn't excellence. So that's not a stepping stone that I'm going to put on my path. You know what I mean. So then, moving forward, I made this mistake and I've made a ton of mistakes. Obviously, this isn't rocket science. I mean, sorry, this isn't some super profound thing of like oh, I made mistakes early on in my career. Everyone makes mistakes, that's normal. Yeah, it's just how you react to those mistakes that, I believe, then sets the path for excellence.
Speaker 1:What's great about this business and I think owning your own business is you get to be around people that have mindsets like that, like I know Bronson would agree with that and like I couldn't think, if I'm at an office job, like what am I? Like? What's the conversation all day? Like are we talking about the game?
Speaker 1:You know, everyone's like talking like sometimes I'm in conversations with people I'm saying like I'm going to get 10, like like to say to a regular, like a regular person, like yeah, I and I'm just saying it like very matter of factly, like I know it's going to happen, like this is the goal and like I'm going to hit it because, like, why wouldn't I hit it? Right, yeah, and I sometimes feel like I'm like, sometimes I feel like I'm being disrespectful to people, like I'm like, oh, really, I'm like. Oh, like that probably sounds like crazy to them, like almost like arrogant.
Speaker 2:That's interesting. Tell me a little bit.
Speaker 1:You believe it's disrespect well, because so, for example, one time I was having this conversation like, uh, my, my wife's, my, my goal, like my initial goal, is to get to 20k net cash flow, right, okay, and our plan is to get, you know, get. So I'm interested in ohio and now like johnson city, tennessee area to invest and we're gonna do dscr. All those properties are a hundred thousand dollars or less, so we're really gonna need like eight to fifteen, right, maybe like $12,000 is a sweet spot. It's kind of like I can put $10,000, $12,000 together pretty quickly, right, like I'm doing deals and so first saying that to somebody is crazy. Oh yeah, I can kind of like get $12,000 when I need to. I do a couple of deals.
Speaker 2:I have it.
Speaker 1:My wife does well too. So, like the first time, and then, like I remember, you know, my wife's cousin was like. I was like, oh, yeah, in five years I have a five-year plan. She's like, well, what is your five-year plan? And I was like telling, I was like, oh, you know, I'm gonna. Like I want to get to 20k net cash flow. And you know my wife's from new hampshire. I was like, oh, I'm gonna go to ohio, to akron area, and I'm just breaking down, yeah, how, in five years I'm gonna have 20 000 net cash flow. And I was like, ah, and then I'll probably be able to do what I want. And as I'm saying this, I'm like I probably sound insane. I'm like I probably sound insane Because most people are like, hey, did you see the game last night? And I'm like, yeah, I'm going to get 20K, I'm going to buy the Porsche. And I'm like, yeah, the Porsche. He's like, oh wait, I want the Porsche.
Speaker 1:I test drove the like 200,000 and like the payment's 2,000, but I need to get 20K so then I can have you know 10%, and I'm just like breaking down this equation and I'm telling somebody like, yeah, I'm going to have a $2,000 car and the way I'm going to do that is I'm going to get to 20K net cashflow and I'm going to do that in a state I've never even been to, because the market and I just sometimes feel like like I'm almost sounding like a crazy person.
Speaker 2:You know what I mean, so I'm grateful that I.
Speaker 2:I guess that makes sense, and I'm kind of in the same position that you are as well, because I mean, thank God, I'm starting to become in a position where I can make these moves.
Speaker 2:You know what I mean. Like buying my house is such a blessing from the Lord and I believe that you know what I mean. But I believe the way that, like we talk about it to someone, I believe in kind of holding my cards a bit closer to my chest when it comes to, like, my personal stuff. You know what I mean. Like people like didn't know I was buying a house until Kareem posted something on Instagram congratulating me. You know what I mean. Like I'm very much like that type of person when it comes to my personal stuff, which is…. It's not to say that I'm gatekeeping and if someone asks, I'm more than willing to like go into how I did it and how I'm doing it or how I plan on doing it, but if no one asks them for me, there's just no reason that's what I'm telling everybody to say you know, I'm telling everybody, I'm screaming it out because that's just like how I'm wired and motivated, which is fine, which is there's nothing wrong with that?
Speaker 2:I don't believe there's anything wrong with that and like I've realized as well, because when you're in your like, let's say, 18, 19, 20, and then you're going into like your 21, 22, 23, you kind of like are how do I say this? You're stuck in this limbo between how much real talk, how much mature talk and how much stupid talk so you kind of swing like a pendulum right, because at first it's all stupid talk.
Speaker 2:You know what I mean. It's like all just dumb stuff and uh, like you're kind of enjoying it with your boys, and then you kind of swing to the other side of the pendulum. It's like I want to talk about real life things all the time and we have to be deep. You know what I mean yeah, and it's like, then you kind of swing, like when you settle.
Speaker 2:You're kind of like there's a time for this and a time for that Like in. Ecclesiastes. It says like there's a time for this, there's a time for that.
Speaker 1:There's a time for this there's a time for that, yeah. So what are you telling your clients about the real estate market? What are you telling your buyers Like? What do buyers need to know right now? What do sellers need to know right now?
Speaker 2:So this kind of goes into my real estate take that you asked me to prepare right, okay, well, I don't want you to give away your real estate.
Speaker 1:Take no, not yet. Don't give away your real estate, take Well then what am I telling to my buyers?
Speaker 2:right now it's like people are still buying, people are still buying, people are still buying out in the market. There are still a lot of properties that are being sold and bought by so many families and stuff sold and bought by so many families and stuff, and the real estate market in the Washington DMV area is, if not the one of the strongest and most stable markets in the entire country. Right Like three out of the five richest counties in all of America are all here in the Northern Virginia area. You know what I mean. I think the the the poll said it was Fairfax County, loudoun County and Falls Church County, which I'm not sure.
Speaker 1:It's the.
Speaker 2:The poll said it was fairfax county, loudon county and false church county, which I'm not sure it's false church city. False church city, yeah, that little small, yeah, I think, just because it's like a big reporting they just kind of put false church county. They're getting money. They're getting money.
Speaker 1:Oh, they put yeah yeah, false church county which?
Speaker 2:I was like I didn't hear a false church, yeah, whatever like that area, you know. And then the other two are in um california. The reason why it's so stable here in the Northern Virginia market is because there's just too much that the market stands on for any one thing to leave and collapse the market. Who do?
Speaker 2:you mean by that You'd have to like okay. So Blacksburg is where I went to college. I'm a Hokie. I went to Virginia Tech, right? If Virginia Tech, for some odd random reason, decides, you know what, we want to uproot and move to Ohio, like you were talking about. The real estate there is great, it's, it's huge and we can really build a huge, beautiful campus there. We're slowly going to move out of Blacksburg, right? The Blacksburg townhouses that are being sold for 500 and 600 are going to be worth less than like 200. You know what I mean? Like something like that. There it's really going to plummet because the entire value of all those properties are up like are held up by the fact that Virginia Tech is there. Yeah, right here. What's the one company here that you can name that if they decide to go to San Francisco, they decide to go to Texas, or even across the ocean to England or something, right, the entire market is going to crash.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think that there's not. Yeah, because, when you think about it, I was actually having this conversation with my cousin the other day. Like you know, we rely on the federal government, but we also have EY and Booz Allen, deloitte and Raytheon and Deloitte and Lockheed Martin and Lockheed and.
Speaker 2:Amazon's starting to build here and Google's starting to build here, and Rest companies yeah. So it's like what company are we relying on?
Speaker 1:yeah, you can't name one.
Speaker 2:I mean so, which then makes for a stable market. Doesn't go up and down. Does it fluctuate? Yeah, absolutely like any other market does, right, um, but we're not worried about, like um, you know, twitter, for example, deciding we don't want to be in san francisco anymore. We'd like to go to austin or something like that.
Speaker 2:You know what I mean. Like we're not worried about any one company deciding one random year. We're done with this place, you know? And so we're leaving. And I, honestly, I love Virginia, dude, Like I'm a big Virginia, especially Northern Virginia. I'm a big like advocate for Virginia because I'm in California pretty often and I like sell Virginia to Californians and the reaction is always the same. It's like this is weird. People will come from their States and be like oh we want to move to California we love California and California is amazing.
Speaker 2:Like you know what I mean. Like I have no. Like it's amazing Just the views, the weather, the people there, like it's just kind of like it's a wonderful place, right, but's a wonderful place right. I'm like no, no, but you don't know virginia. You know what I mean. Like virginia is like amazing. You want city, dc is 30 minutes away. You want like suburb, basically all of northern virginia is a big sub you want corporate companies you've got it.
Speaker 2:You want like. You want lakes, you want hikes. You want all that kind of stuff you got it. You want entertainment, you want sports you want all that stuff. You want great schools you've got it. You know what I mean. Like northern virginia is one of those places that to me seems like it has a little bit of everything, right, yeah, and you get bored of virginia. You want to take off and just kind of, you know, enjoy a different place for a little bit. New york is like what five, six yeah, four hours away.
Speaker 2:you drive down there. You want to get to florida. You're boom, you're right down there and you pass by, like north carolina, south carolina, tennessee, georgia, georgia, like Alabama, all those places that you have access to In like California. You'd have to like drive like something like 13 hours just to get out of the state. You know what I mean? Yeah, so I agree. When I tell them like, oh yeah, we had like breakfast in Virginia and then lunch in DC, they're like what do you mean? Yeah, I'm like they're 30 minutes apart.
Speaker 1:Like you know what I mean, it's not that big of a deal as a you know what I say. I was born in Fairfax Hospital so I'm in Virginia forever. Like I love, obviously, virginia, I have a lot of pride. But I tell people I'm like yo, virginia, we're the first, we're first bro.
Speaker 2:Like we're the first Jamestown bro, like Roanoke, north Carolina was, like the first time I was like they failed.
Speaker 1:They came to Virginia and ran it up, bro, and now you got America. So Virginia's there to go.
Speaker 2:It's like that Drake thing after they won the ring.
Speaker 1:Oh, with the Toronto, yeah, yeah, yeah, you see all this, this wouldn't be here without us.
Speaker 2:It's. I guess I'll get you out of here in the cellars. So that's what you tell the buyers. What do you tell the sellers? What are you telling your sellers?
Speaker 1:To be quite honest, I don't deal with that many sellers. Yet you do a lot of buy side. I do a lot of buy side, yeah.
Speaker 2:Quite frankly, I'm very heavy on the buy side in this point in my career. Honestly, I don't have anything good to tell you. To be honest. I'm not talking to that many sellers, so I don't want to like make anything up and just kind of.
Speaker 1:Well, I'll tell you what I'm telling the sellers. I'm telling my sellers because I have a lot of move up buyers who are?
Speaker 1:sellers and then buyers. You know after effect and you know everyone's anticipating. I don't know if this is going to actually happen anymore, but everyone's anticipating that the rates are going to go down, right, and so they're like is, and then, obviously, when rates go down to 5%, the market is going to increase. And so what I'm telling them is look, it's better to sell now.
Speaker 1:You have to make your house cream of crop. You can't just put it on the market. You have to paint, you have to do the updates. Staging is so beneficial to you, so you have to stage right and we have to market and position this correctly, and then the buyers will come. You'll get over, ask all of those things right. But let's just say you get the list price right, it's better to sell. Get the list price, move that to your next house, where you're going to be for the next 10, 15, 20 years, and if the market if and when the market, um, you know goes up because rates go down and all the buyers move into the market, you're going to get the equity on that house.
Speaker 1:On the current asset that you live in that you're going to hold for a long time, instead of trying to get the equity on the asset that you currently live in. So it's better to sell now, move it to the next spot and then benefit from the appreciation.
Speaker 2:Yeah, wow, I like that a lot.
Speaker 1:So that's what I'm telling the sellers.
Speaker 2:So yeah, man, thanks for joining me bro. Yeah, absolutely, I think most of the homeowners that we deal with are just HELOCing it. Yeah, they're HELOCing it big time. It's a big thing in our community, in the Egyptian community. Like you, don't sell.
Speaker 1:Oh really.
Speaker 2:You just hold on to the property. They see the value of holding, appreciate over time.
Speaker 1:Um, they just are he locking and uh renting out their first property that makes sense, bro, because my brother dude, like he has a condo, a friendship heist. I'm like, bro, you need. This is not a good investment you need to say and it like hasn't appreciated that much.
Speaker 1:why is it not a good investment? And he's basically his argument to me is like at some point now he's rented it out, he's like at some point, this will be paid off. Yeah, yeah, so it cannot be a bad investment. That's like his. This is like his mentality. He's like I'm like this hasn't appreciated that much. Like like the condo fee is getting higher. You can't even really like rent it out for more. And you've, you've had it for I don't know like almost 15 years, Like you should sell this and move it. And he's like this will be paid off at some point. So there's no way it's a bad event. And he's eight years older than me, so sometimes he'd be like feeling like he's my dad. You know what I mean. All right, man, Thanks for joining me, bro. Thanks for having me. Appreciate you, dude. I appreciate it. Thank you so much for having me. This was a lot of fun.
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