Email Us If Paul Needs Therapy

A handshake used to carry weight. Lately, we’re seeing the opposite, and it’s not just a “people these days” rant. We start with what’s happening inside our real estate world as our company grows, what we learned at a shareholder meeting, and why scaling a team only works when you stop pretending you can be CEO, recruiter, ops and marketing all at once. The culture piece matters, because if you lose it, the numbers don’t mean much.

Then the conversation turns personal. We talk ego, being the face of a brand, and the quiet stress that shows up when business is good but expectations get heavier. Loyalty comes up for a reason: we’ve watched people get help for years and then flip the script the moment they don’t get instant access or constant attention. If you’re building a business in Santa Cruz or anywhere else, boundaries are part of survival.

The most important section is family and money. We’ve seen real estate and inheritance rip families apart, and it usually starts with silence: no will, no trust, no clear wishes, and no plan for what happens when siblings want different outcomes. We share practical steps to start the conversation early, reduce probate pain, and protect generational wealth. We also break down portfolio performance and triple net lease investing (NNN) as one path to stronger passive income, plus a quick teaser on major industry changes brewing around MLS control.

If this hit home, subscribe, share it with someone who needs the nudge, and leave a review. What’s one money conversation you’ve been avoiding?

Transcript

Naming The Show And Banter

SPEAKER_00 0:05

This is the real estate sex and gossip podcast, boys. What's happening, gentlemen? What's going on? I think we never we realize I we kind of get so comfortable we get right into it. Uh kind of forget to announce who the hell we're talking to, who you are, who you are, where you're from.

SPEAKER_01 0:21

We kind of get right by. It's in the show notes. And somebody might pop this on and go, who are these people?

SPEAKER_02 0:25

So that's a good question because I did send uh we are the what real estate sex and gossip, but I wanted to change out the sex part because we haven't been talking about sex at all. So I sent Brian a long list of new names feather middle. I liked it. You motherfuckers never said which one you liked. I think I put my thumbs up on one of them. Okay, well, we're gonna read over that and we'll talk about it. Can we decide it right now? Paul Lucatelli, two guys in real estate. And I couldn't make this shirt because my wife said no, but I'll show you a video.

SPEAKER_00 0:55

It's not the 2.0 shirt, is it? Is it short bus 2.0? Don't say it out loud. Don't say it out loud. Um, or or you know what? You don't need to go to the other part to get us canceled. It could just be the two Paul Paul, it could just be the 2.0 podcast. Darren made me that. Wow. Yeah. Don't don't describe it, Brian. Yeah, that's for your eyes only. Paul Locatelli, Brian Di Diego. It's good seeing you, Paul. Yeah, look, what's going on there? Oh, I just Powell up front.

SPEAKER_02 1:25

Yeah, we're doing a little Powell up front talking about how to start to recruiting.

SPEAKER_06 1:29

So we hit our stock goal at the company, so we're we're excited. Right on. Congratulations. Thank you. We're very happy. Three years and a two-year time period, so we're we're pumped right now.

SPEAKER_00 1:38

You guys have been psyched on it from day one. I think I was around during the transition. We've been around that long. I think I remember when um you were kind of tearing down the sign and moving the other one. It one, it went by fast.

SPEAKER_02 1:48

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 1:48

Two, congratulations. That's not easy to do.

SPEAKER_06 1:51

Thank you. We're we're we're happy. We're we're actually growing locally. State of California. I mean, we're not huge yet in California. We will be, but we we just passed 300 agents um in California. So we're really happy, but we're doing business. Can I jump into that real quick? Yeah, you got the agenda. Oh, yeah. Well, okay. I just I just wanted to.

SPEAKER_02 2:09

Yeah, all the other podcasts. I see uh Brian just set setting around and uh not doing much. That's my job. Yeah, I love them.

Shareholder Wins And Growth Stats

SPEAKER_06 2:17

So uh I we just got back from shareholders. Um so Paul Paul and I had the opportunity to fly to Houston um to go participate in a shareholders meeting for our company. Yep. And you know, some cool things came out of it, like growth. I'm always interested in growth. Um, you know, but we went from 2024 to 25, we went from 13,000 to 23,000 closed transactions, which I mean an 80% increase in the market ran I thought was phenomenal. Uh we closed$7 billion in 2025. So I that that made me, but here's probably the big one. I don't know if you know real trends, they analyze all companies in the United States, the real estate companies. Okay, and just being recognized in that is something to really take your hat off to. And in 2024, we were ranked number 24 in the nation, and then last year we moved up, so we're number 14.

SPEAKER_00 3:06

That's I mean, come on. If that's the college football rankings, you're psyching. You're almost in the the bowl championship series at that ranking.

SPEAKER_06 3:13

We're we're we're getting we're getting there. I mean, we're we're jamming.

SPEAKER_00 3:16

I'm not even joking. You're starting to get into a double elimination kind of tournament with some of the big boys.

SPEAKER_06 3:20

We are going in with the big boys.

SPEAKER_00 3:21

Do you guys have that when you go to these meetings? Is there still that sort of um is there sort of that underdog um uh kind of mentality, like and I'm saying, meaning in the very good way, like like they don't see us coming kind of feel? Or what's what's the overall vibe there?

SPEAKER_06 3:36

I mean, I'll I'll let you jump, Paul, but I I my personal opinion is we've never kind of taken that. What this company is family driven, it's not corporate driven. Gotcha. And they stick to their family values, which I really like, but of course, we're growing at a rapid rate. Um, and so no, they've they've they're all about supporting the agent. Right now, we're up to if you took advantage of every benefit that this company has, um, it's saving the agent an average of$95,000 a year. I mean, that's crazy.

SPEAKER_00 4:04

I remember you talking about that in the abstract a couple years ago, that that was sort of the uniqueness of the model. And I guess there's one thing that's a compliment here, Paul. You can talk about this a little bit is um family business, they're keeping it real. How do you scale that culture to 300 agents?

SPEAKER_02 4:20

That's a great question. I mean, that's the thing where you when you start to grow, you gotta understand that you might not be the right person as a CEO, CFO, HR, and you have to get out of the way sometimes.

SPEAKER_01 4:32

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 4:32

So hopefully they'll learn, and whoever's teaching them and helping them grow that you know, you gotta step down and move out of the way. So bring in bring in some bigger people. I love that. Which which would be great and it'll help everybody out.

SPEAKER_00 4:44

Well, it's the keto sports team or business. It's it's basically surrounding yourself with the best people and kind of you know, allowing them to have agency in their position and and like you said, step the fuck out of the way sometimes. You have to.

SPEAKER_02 4:56

I mean, you there's I know my strengths and I know my weaknesses, so why put me in a weak spot where I'm gonna fail? Yeah, and I can rather be on the stronger spot. Yeah, I can help a team out more because it's a team sport. It is, it is.

Scaling Culture Plus Ego Checks

SPEAKER_06 5:08

We're good at that, and I'm pointing at them, everyone, but Paul and I are really good at that. It was funny. I was just at my therapist this morning.

SPEAKER_00 5:13

Oh, here we go. Hey, that's just mine yesterday. Let's just you're going to therapist too. I had to.

SPEAKER_05 5:18

Paul, everybody around goes to therapy except you, so that should tell you something. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 5:22

Bibes has been a grind, bro. Fives got me about six months ago. Hey, why don't you fucking give me 175 bucks?

SPEAKER_03 5:27

I'll listen and I'll tell you how fucked up you are.

SPEAKER_00 5:29

I'll hold him right now.

SPEAKER_06 5:33

You know, but my my therapist asked me a question, and it was, you know, because we're we're we're growing, right? And so growth comes headaches sometimes. And do you want those headaches? You know, we're when we've you know, we've been able to pay our bills and do well at this business for quite a while. And so, but you know, the therapist kind of goes, you know, he's Paul, he goes, Are you okay? Because Paul is the face of our two guys in real estate, our company, our Santa Cruz real estate team. And I've told him, Yeah, I'm like probably three, four years ago I got over the fact it it was an ego thing of getting over that, of having to be out there. And we were sitting out in front of um the athletic club, and it was funny. One of the guys came up to me and he's like, So you're Brian. Yeah, and he's like, you know, it's funny, I I see you in your ads, but I don't get to see you out in public. And I'm like, that's because Paul locks me back in the office and fucking handle everything on the other side of it, you know.

SPEAKER_05 6:22

So but it works for us.

SPEAKER_00 6:24

I hate emails. But it works for us, right? It's so funny because my therapist. Yeah, we talked about your therapist. But I think what you're talking about is So what does he charge an hour? What's that? She. She 175. It's covered by Sutter. Stacy works for Sutter. We have very good, very good plan. Thank you, Sutter. Thank you. But I do think what you're talking about there is this human condition, which is um ego is tied into insecurity, into different things. And I think the deeper you go, you you realize those things have no value. Some of those feelings you have when you're in a position, whether it be on a sport team or whatever it is, um, if you can kind of like step away and really kind of find different emotions and then kind of I always imagine this, like I'm on a debate stage. And my answer, two people are debating, and let's say it's this case, my ego and the other guy's basically saying, let's build a team, and he's talking about practical things, like you have a strength, he has a strength, and the other one's saying, like, I know, but I kind of feel like sad about that. I feel sad for myself that I'm not on the front of the camera. And if you're in the audience listening, you'd be like, shut the fuck up. This guy's got a really good business model over here and seems like a good person. You need, I think a lot of times, Bri, we need to get out of our own way.

SPEAKER_06 7:36

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 7:37

And we go back to it, like not only with the owners and the management above you where you're at. Right. You said earlier, step out of the way, and we need to get out of our own ways a lot of the time.

SPEAKER_06 7:49

Yeah, you got to let people run that strengths. Paul said it really best, right? Do your SWOT analysis, your strength, your weakness, figure out where you're at and put people in positions and then really just support whatever they need, but let them do their job.

SPEAKER_00 8:00

That's it. Paul do you like therapy? Me? Yeah, wasn't that fun? That was therapy. Yeah. Paul.

SPEAKER_02 8:05

Oh, that was great.

SPEAKER_00 8:05

That's really it, isn't it?

SPEAKER_02 8:06

Isn't that all of us? You need therapy, my friend. So here, why don't you guys pay me 165 bucks?

SPEAKER_05 8:11

Hey, please, please email us on our website if you guys think Paul needs therapy. Yeah, yeah. We'll do it live, too. That's it. I'll do it live.

SPEAKER_01 8:20

That's your next loco asks. I know you've retired that one, but for a while you were asking questions. That's pretty good, huh?

SPEAKER_00 8:24

Yeah, you do have been doing kept that going. But there was one where you were asking a question, ask that one and get people to engage in the day.

SPEAKER_03 8:32

Do I need therapy? A lot of people say I do, but fuck that.

SPEAKER_01 8:36

Keep going.

RevShare And Escaping The Grind

SPEAKER_06 8:37

I just okay. I'm going to therapy. I'm going to jump off the epic bandwagon for a minute, but you know, again, if if people are curious, you need to reach out. Don't be one of those that are sitting there not wondering what we're about. Um, because they are changing lives. But somebody said something to me in Houston, which I loved. They asked me how many retirement parties for realtors I've attended.

unknown 8:56

Hmm.

SPEAKER_06 8:57

I started laughing. I'm like, what are you fucking looking at? You're gonna be working to your 90 motherfucker.

SPEAKER_00 9:02

So I was like there's so many my there's I would tell you, I'll give you my answer right now is a lot of them are trying to sell houses till the day they die. You're 100% correct. 100% correct. Yeah. I can name six of my friends' parents that did it, and into their even slight dementia going away from the planet, they were still kind of trying to muck out a house sale.

SPEAKER_02 9:23

I am not gonna be that way.

SPEAKER_06 9:24

But here's well, here's the thing you don't have to be that way because of where we're at, because you are an entrepreneur and got us to where we're at. That's right. And most agents are chasing they're always chasing, they're chasing a transaction. Why not work on your passive income? Why not work on RevShare? They just don't understand it. Right and that's the crazy thing because they're in an environment and in a under a roof, under a brokerage, that's all they're living off is RevShare, but people just can't correlate it. Like, oh my God, I can do that too.

SPEAKER_00 9:50

Right.

SPEAKER_06 9:51

They don't get it. Right. They just don't get it.

SPEAKER_00 9:53

We're super good at diversifying things. And I can even think of a plate of food, the way we put shit together, but we're not good about sort of having that sort of clarity of diversifying our income a little bit.

SPEAKER_02 10:02

You know, and it's nobody teaches you that.

SPEAKER_00 10:05

That's a great idea.

SPEAKER_02 10:05

I mean, in school, they don't teach you about life. No. I mean, I just had this kid come from Reggie Stevens. He is just graduated with Scotts Valley High School. He's doing media now. He's working at a sprinkler place, and he told Reggie he wanted to do real estate. So Reggie hooked me up. I sat with the kid for about 30 minutes. Reggie talked to like gave him 20 different companies.

SPEAKER_06 10:28

Oh, he did? No, but you can't sell Reggie out like that. Oh, that's right.

SPEAKER_02 10:34

Reggie knows all these realtors now. And he says, What's up with fucking realtors, man? They got thick, they're always backstabbing each other. I go, that's the way the world is around here.

SPEAKER_00 10:43

Especially and I'm not sure. Especially this small ass town. And especially in that industry. Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_06 10:48

And again, I you'd like to think you're singular, but that industry is I learn more about myself when I walk in and people tell me what they've heard. It's amazing. Oh, yeah. They tell us. Yeah, I fucking crack up.

SPEAKER_02 10:58

Anyways, going back, this kid, where was the whole thought about this? Now I was lost out.

SPEAKER_05 11:02

The kid is a hustler.

SPEAKER_02 11:03

No, he's a hustler, but he's I Brian and I paid to get his real estate classes going.

SPEAKER_00 11:08

That's amazing.

SPEAKER_02 11:09

You know, so he's like, hey, I'll I want to try. I said, even and he wants to pay me back. I said, you don't have to. Don't worry about it. But he's like, no, I really, really want to. I said, fine. Once you get your deals done and get going on this, you can pay us back. But he's a hustler, and that's where I know this kid, he's 18 years old, he's gonna do great.

SPEAKER_00 11:27

You just you saw it in him.

SPEAKER_02 11:29

Yeah, yeah. I saw the passion in him. Yep. And you know, he has to work hard, so he's trying to figure out what he wants to do in life, and he has three jobs, good. He showed me that there's kids out there that still want to work hard. Totally. Yeah. And kids know they they don't want to work hard. Everybody wants it for fucking free.

SPEAKER_00 11:44

In a way, that's it's another whole, like we always say, that's another whole podcasting conversation. Sounds like something the old guy says, but times are a changing with that.

SPEAKER_02 11:52

You know, that's I mean, uh, it's funny, another friend of mine just said they went on their phone and looked at AI's taking all the kids' uh jobs. If you're going to college right now, they said good luck, you ain't getting a job. It's on his Facebook or Instagram. He was telling me, I'm like, holy crap. You know, I told my son, you better go go look at plumbing, framing. It's the new frontier. I'm just telling you, they're gonna be able to make more money than all these guys because the computer is out, it's smarter than you, it's gonna be faster than you.

SPEAKER_00 12:19

Yeah, they this whole thing.

SPEAKER_02 12:20

But you can't be that's why real estate's gonna be fine because it's still a touchy, levey thing. Plumbing, contractors, firefighters, cops, podcasting, podcasting, magazines, digital advertising. No, let's stop with magazines. Quick shout out to Vibes. Vibes magazine. We we did all that back in the day, magazines. Um so it's just it's just really interesting about magazine. I agree with you though.

SPEAKER_00 12:48

I think if in real estate, but I'm still on hovering on that thing about high school, and like there's so many things you could do. Let's say your freshman year, there was a class, like a skills class that doesn't exist right now. And let's say whatever, you basically ask people to get 50 or 100 bucks in somehow, somehow, whatever that would, however, you get that there.

SPEAKER_02 13:05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 13:06

And what if over the arc of their high school career you manage that money and when they graduated, they could see with compound interest, not going to be a lot, but then you can start putting that into practical reality. So if you can teach people over a four-year period, because they'll forget about it. Yeah, they'll forget about that money, that clut class they had. But if you can book in a conversation about walking away, letting something cook, compound interest, and just you know, let's say that thing comes out and you got$147, whatever the fucking bullshit number would be. You know, and that that thing is, you know, if you're kind of hitting a market kind of return, and you can start translating that like now when you get out in the real world, let's tell you what see what that looks like with 100,000 over 30 years. And and you know I mean, you can sell them on it, right?

SPEAKER_06 13:50

And watching that 50 go to 120 or 47 dollars, whatever it is, it's learning the in-between of why and what companies understanding, like, whoa, why is my money growing? Yeah, they don't do it. Honestly, high schools, and I'll say right here in Santa Cruz County, I understand they got to follow curriculum through the state of California, but these kids are not prepared. They're prepared in many ways, but they don't understand a dollar, they don't understand what it means putting away, they don't understand what it costs, what their parents go through to get them through just every day. Yeah, and it's a huge mistake, huge mistake. My father was an educator for 33 years, and the last three years I went into his classroom in high school over at Mount Pleasant and taught the kids. He I was young, so he's like, I think it'd be a different perspective. You coming in and explaining was what happened to you when you left the house and what that meant, which things. And and I did, and these kids' eyes were opened up. When I walked in, the first thing they cared about was what do you drive? I was like, oh boy. You know, but you know, Indian Mercedes was purple too.

SPEAKER_02 14:50

Ugly ass trick of purple Mercedes. I remember that thing.

SPEAKER_05 14:54

I think you remember me doing something like this when I drove by you on your bike. Big old ego. He was a little prick. I'm like, who is that guy? I was a prick, but I'm not a prick anymore.

SPEAKER_03 15:04

Oh, you're still a little prick.

SPEAKER_05 15:06

Just do you. Ask Kimmy.

SPEAKER_06 15:09

His wife got a pig, so I'm sending her these pig videos. I don't know if you've seen this guy on TikTok, but he he's got his he's he's got his shirt off and he's not fit, and he's got a pig and he's rocking out with all this cool music, feeding a pig oatmeal with birds fucking bouncing in the background. I send him to Paul and Kimmy. I'm like, Kimmy, you'd fucking kill it because I got a new pig. Like, grab a little glass of fucking Chardonnay and come up with some theme song and fucking dance with a pig.

SPEAKER_05 15:33

You'll kill it. And that guy's cashing checks on that. Yes. That guy is killing it, man.

SPEAKER_02 15:37

Dude, I'm telling you right now, these kids, well, there is some kid out of Scotts Valley again. He went and looked at a rental week. He has 6.5 million followers because he teaches people how to cook. He's paying his parents, you know, house payment, everything else.

SPEAKER_00 15:52

Boy.

SPEAKER_02 15:52

I can't believe it.

SPEAKER_06 15:54

Well, the only thing I got out of this podcast is I felt like I should have gone to Scotts Valley High School.

SPEAKER_00 15:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 16:01

Not a bad idea. Not a bad idea. Not a bad idea.

Loyalty Breakdowns And Hard Lessons

SPEAKER_06 16:04

That is the only perk you will get from me, Scotts Valley High School. What's next, Brian? What's next? I just um, you know, Paul, he's a hot Italian, right? Well, he gets he just gets going. And so we just kind of before we start bringing gas back out on the podcast, we we just kind of wanted to ramp and talk about certain things. So I asked Paul what he wanted to talk about. And Paul immediately got back to me. I did. What did you want to talk about, Paul? Loyalty. That's it. So you're looking at me. I'm staring you down, huh? Uh can I state it? Ungrateful people not being loyal. Paul? Mike's yours. Yeah, you're looking at me.

SPEAKER_02 16:38

Yeah. He's looking at me. Everybody's looking at me. Go ahead. Ungrateful people okay. Loyalty. Loyalty is definitely gone. Okay. I believe. Um people aren't there to help each other out when they've been there, you know, they helped them 10, 20 years ago. Right. You know, things change. Everything changes changes. But if you're with somebody that takes care of you, it doesn't matter what business is, you know, you should stay loyal to that people. I mean, we have a client that has used us, he knows 20 million realtors, and he shook my hand 15 years ago, 20 years ago, says, You'll be my realtor from here on out. And I'm like, Yeah, whatever. Sure enough, he still is. I'm like, holy crap.

SPEAKER_00 17:21

Well, so you are you arguing for that loyalty exists or against it?

SPEAKER_02 17:24

Well, that part of it exists, but then there's people that is like, you you thought they were loyal, you think they thought you were your friends, and next thing you know, they were backstabbing you. So you think there's a shift happening? Because I do feel a lot of people are loyal.

SPEAKER_06 17:36

But I'm I'm down with this conversation. Go ahead. I love loyalty. And I'm with Paul. And as time goes, but you know, things happen, and I we understand that. But I'm curious about from your end of it, Paul. I mean, not everyone, because we know we got people that are absolutely loyal, but is it a shift you're seeing with younger generation coming up, or what made you feel this way?

SPEAKER_02 17:53

I just yeah, no, it's a shift in the younger generation. I just think it's a shift in I think the mentality and um I don't know what else for freaking now. I've lost my time.

SPEAKER_00 18:04

Oh no, I know where you're going. I'll try to jump in. I'll pick you up. Come back in a second. I know where you're going with it. And my I I think about this all the time. And my thought is like the best analogy I can give is um for the longest time, even back in when we were like teenagers, people's behavior in cars was different than everywhere else you went on the planet. It was just a thing. It was this weird thing. Like, I don't think you would box me in like that. When and in general, you went to a ballgame or you went to a restaurant, you had friends or you were working, and I think this human connection had high standing. And my thought is between 24-7 cable news cycle, internet, social media, and then we have these particular kinds of social media apps influencers. I think the human species and society right now, Western civilization particular. I'm not talking about every corner of the planet, but where we're into the game we're in right now, I think the whole planet feels more like people driving cars to me. There's a and so it's broken out of that isolated feeling of like, I don't think you'd behave that way if we were face to face. And and I feel like right now people are acting more because we're so disconnected, we're living in seven and fifteen second moments and we we scroll. We're farther and farther away from human connection. The farther you get away from human connection, clearly, one of the ones in that camp is individual loyalty to another person. And so I do think it's I think it's fracturing. I don't think it's coming back. No, I don't think so at all.

SPEAKER_02 19:28

I mean, a handshake is is is worthless now.

SPEAKER_00 19:30

I it's sad. It's just sad. But but there's a there's a bright light. And the bright light is, and I can already tell through your story through the real estate business, your story through some new projects you're doing. I think what you want to do is humans are really built as a species. Like right now, with you know, seven and a half billion people on the planet, um, there's a lot of studies that basically show that humans are most effective in in groups of 80 to 120. And I'm not saying that we isolate down to it, but what you need to do is you put higher standing on vetting your relationships, investing more in the relationships you can kind of trust. Like a dude shaking your hand 15 years ago that you're not entertaining engaging with on a weekly basis, a monthly basis, things like that. No, um, the the it's amazing he still is. Yeah. But it would be understood even more than because he's Italian. That that that's why there's a bond then. Yeah, that's what it is. He knows he gets a fucking fish in his bed if he doesn't. But it's um but the but do you see where I'm going with that? Uh what I'm saying is I think we need to work a little bit harder in the open kind of landscape of if the species is changing and he in and the culture's changing that way, then what we need to do is we kind of need to start working on our initial sort of skill set, which is smaller groups, more connected, more contact within those groups, because I think there's stability there. I really do. I think we want more from the whole planet, everybody be cool, everybody get along. It's over. It's we're not we're not bridging that gap politically. We're not bridging that gap. I know that, but it's but it's also part of it is part of the conversation um where everybody feels miles apart, but I make this argument all the time. There's huge conversation going on in town right now. I don't know if you guys follow it, but there's a culture conversation going on in town right now. A couple, one you know, one guy in particular.

SPEAKER_02 21:17

Oh, yeah, we talked about that.

SPEAKER_00 21:19

Yeah, but but my point being is like it's it's Santa Cruz is broken, things like that. And I get it still means leave. I talk with and I'm I'm still talking with them, I'm still in the room because there's good people in that room. But I think that's sort of yeah, that's what that's what their boy Mike. Hey, with with with with much more eloquent word eloquent words, I might agree with you. I wouldn't say it that way. Um, but my point is this is that that if if I whenever I go to one of those meetings and I do show up because there's good people there around it, my I say the same thing. I think you need to step into this community. I think right now Don't judge it. Yeah, if you're sitting behind your phone and you feel like it's not coming to you, one it's pretty arrogant. Yeah, that that community and culture is not. Finding me just because I'm putting my hand up, because I have the exact opposite experience. And I'll give you guys a compliment here. I have the exact opposite experience in my life through the work at Vibes with nonprofits that all I see is culture and community. All I see is people helping out. And you guys, even through RSF and those the the other parts of it, you're seeing you to see more community, culture, and hope from a younger generation than I think he might say on a, you know, there's there's definitely we talked about the the economic, socioeconomic, what jobs are available. But overall, just like when we were 18, 18-year-olds can't wait to get their life started somehow. Right. They want to do it. Right.

SPEAKER_02 22:39

So I mean, when people come in here and want to change the culture, it's like, that's what why are you coming here? The culture's the what it's been the whole entire life. It hasn't changed, it's not gonna change, it is what it is. So, except for the buildings they're building all around here, that's changing a lot.

SPEAKER_00 22:55

Yes and no, I will make one argument. The Ohlone would argue that. The Aloney Indians would argue that the culture that's been here, the culture we know as Santa Cruzans, is not what landed on them. And I'm not throwing shade at what we are. The culture is ever evolving. Right. Culture's changing right now. Yes, there's buildings now. There's some Indians that would say, yo, even those one stories are kind of fucked up because we used to camp out there. And so you can't just say, my history is the history, and that's where this culture is going to stop. I think people just need to dial it all the way down and understand uh culture is always changing.

SPEAKER_02 23:29

Why do people come to Santa Cruz all the time? That's one thing that Mike talks about on his podcast is what is Santa Cruz? And it's like, why do people always come here? Culture. Yeah, I would say it's it's what it is. I would say culture is a second to just a lifestyle?

SPEAKER_00 23:44

Yes. Just how radical. Okay, so what's the lifestyle? Well, I mean, I'm I'm almost getting to like the overall, the, the, the, you know, the ocean to the forest to the 65 degrees, 365 days a year. That that's the first part that kind of gets people who go, it's not 118. Right. It's really nice here. Then because of that, they're like, yo, how long have you been here in the sun and beach and woods? I've been here like 15 years. It's like it's kind of rad, right? Well, that's the beginning of a culture. Like, we're proud to be here. Anybody ever think of putting wood in that water and fucking trying to stand up out there? Now you have a it's all bullshit. We all make it up, and then and then all of a sudden that's the thing. And when some guy comes over and doesn't know going to board, it's like you fucking lose her. It's like, I just got here. And it's a we we all just have to dial it all the way down.

SPEAKER_05 24:27

Like kick his ass for cutting me off.

SPEAKER_01 24:29

That's exactly it's part of the culture, motherfucker.

SPEAKER_05 24:32

It's a culture. Dally, go home, bitch. Now you're talking.

SPEAKER_01 24:36

I I know that.

SPEAKER_06 24:38

But I gotta tell you, I Paul, I'll never forget, I forget how many years ago it was. You've matured a ton since. Like, just Paul Paul calls me. Oh, he's fucking valley. I'm fucking flipping everybody off on everybody. Like, and that's who pays our bills.

SPEAKER_04 24:51

It's exactly a little bit.

SPEAKER_03 24:52

Come on over, motherfucker. Let's go.

SPEAKER_04 24:55

Exactly.

SPEAKER_02 24:55

We are who we are. So go you know, going back to the loyalty thing. I mean, there's guys where we try to help out in proper management or whatever, and you help them, help them, help them, and they fucking turn around and backstab you like fucking bad. And then lawyer letters and all sports shit. It's like, motherfucker, call me.

SPEAKER_00 25:12

Yeah, I've known you forever. Do you try that, Paul? Just by the way, like oh yeah. Okay, okay. Like, you know, in the midst, I mean, and not even with that harshness. Like the first one's like, bro, what what are we doing? Exactly. Okay.

SPEAKER_02 25:22

No, and then there's another buddy. I wanted him to come onto podcast, but he's a little bit, he's not ready yet because he he was a firefighter. He got sick. I wanted him to talk about 20 years of being a firefighter, the goods, the bads, the ugly. Yeah. And he's dealing with it right now, but he was a little scared. So I got it. He tells me all the time, he's like, You're too fucking nice. He goes, You're so nice, and you keep giving, giving, giving. You're, you know, what's gonna come back to you. I said, someday it's gonna come back, but he's like, but people do take advantage of you because you're just like giving, giving, give.

SPEAKER_06 25:50

What have you done for me today? People yeah, they want to know he's right. I mean, we obviously can't name names on this because they aren't people in our community, everybody knows. But yeah, and we get, you know, we talk behind closed doors and we're just like, fuck, all we've done is give, give, give. And then they're like, if you're not there 24-7, 365, god forbid you go to bed at eight o'clock one night. You know, it's like it's amazing how the shift happens. Everyone's in a me, me, me. It is, which is really it's sad and disheartening. You know, and one of one of our clients, we're like, adios, you're done forever. Yeah. What do you mean forever? Forever. Drop our numbers.

SPEAKER_02 26:24

Wow. And it's like, yeah, I mean, we were helping him helping him, and you found out that him and I were gone for two days and was like freaked out. Why aren't you here? You can't show the property. It's like, we can get somebody to show the property. We have to. Don't worry. Yeah, they're I've learned something like 34 years. Don't fucking worry. I mean, the guy has more money you know what to do with.

SPEAKER_00 26:40

And it's like, buddy, are you really that worried about money? Yeah, it it's it and again, it's it's an old mentality. It's an old mentality. You're at his beck and call.

SPEAKER_05 26:50

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_06 26:51

Used to be, fired him a long time ago, and then he came back into my life, and I'm like, oh my god, this is life coming full circle again. Yep. And then the same shit happened. And I'm like, okay, you know what? I don't have to put up with this bullshit anymore. I told Brian, fucking stop. Paul, Paul, I looked at it. My loyalty, besides my family.

SPEAKER_02 27:06

I told him you can work with them from here on out.

SPEAKER_00 27:07

I said, don't ever call me with him. Yeah, because what's that what's the saying? The the the repeating forget me or beat me, or what is that thing? Repeating the same acts and expecting a different result, a definition of insanity. Something Paul was gonna say. Can we call it the 2.0 podcast? Think about the branding. Just just just two point the 2.0 podcast. Real estate 2.0 and gossip. Real estate 2.0.

SPEAKER_02 27:33

People are like, what's that even mean? Well, like well, yeah, 2.0. Everything wants to be 2.0, you know, Tom Brady's 2.0, huh? 2.0. 2.0. Real estate 2.0. So Paul we need a new fucking name.

SPEAKER_05 27:42

Do you want to get anything off your chest before I move on subjects? Uh no, I'm okay right now. Are you sure? Oh, bring it. It's me. Oh, fuck yeah, it's you. But that's a whole different podcast. I mean, all the podcasts you started is. Look at all the shit. Look at all the shit I get from Brian about I I've got to wait.

SPEAKER_02 28:00

I'm gonna defend yourself. I'm going right ahead.

SPEAKER_01 28:02

But let's I I probably will.

SPEAKER_02 28:04

All the pod who we introduce you to Reggie, introduce you to mine.

SPEAKER_01 28:08

You ever heard that saying a bringing a bringing a knife to a gunfight?

SPEAKER_00 28:13

I don't need either one, motherfucker. Let's go. So you want did you ever see the Barbie movie? Yeah. You did? I did. Did you know what the kind of like the essence of that story really was? Me, me, me? No, male insecurity. It's a sophisticated movie. I'm not so bad.

SPEAKER_01 28:30

It's not what you think.

SPEAKER_00 28:34

You're supposed to do that on your little box movie. What do you want from do you want me to should I put something on the TV network thanking you guys? Like, like uh with what's the number? Is it 200,000 impressions? I don't need anything. I know that's I'm not done yet.

SPEAKER_01 28:49

You look at him.

SPEAKER_00 28:51

I am not doing this.

SPEAKER_02 28:52

Yeah, all these little friggin' podcasters come out.

SPEAKER_00 28:54

Why do you fucking do it? I was doing four before I had a podcast management thing I sent over to you before I met you. Who did you have before us? What's that? Who'd you have before us? Before you guys? You didn't have anybody.

SPEAKER_06 29:04

But yes, him and his wife that's very successful. I knew that.

SPEAKER_00 29:06

Yeah, but that one was easily running. Neil was doing one. Um, we we have 13. It's getting hot in here, folks. Yeah, it isn't fun. Your yours was the first one that that outside of it where we wanted to structure it for like, you know, for us, the podcast we were doing at that point was beta, but we were running and we had the infrastructure for you. It was really fun because we kind of put it together. Um, and I will give credit, like, and we said it on the podcast that day, and I will tell you this a little bit about me is like the ecosystem I live in, I probably should give more to that. But that was a great conversation with the guy. Reggie and I couldn't believe Playing at Cabrillo back to kind of in that area that we didn't know each other, and that has been amazing. It's been it's been great. You know, and um as far as a catalyst there, um, you know, and and so I I do appreciate it's almost like you were talking about with this new venture or even where you go, is um, I think everything we do kind of moves forward through networking and things like that. So um yeah, but I think it's uh I I do I gotta tell you though, here's the thing. Yeah, is I do I'm gonna do all of these say the fact that you're texting this, and there's another saying right now. What's that thing called? It's calling living, it's calling I think I'm living rent-free in your head. And and I and it's even better because if I would have known that we have a psychologist in here, it'd be a lot better. I could have, I could have done if I would have known that, and I know my personality, yeah, I think I would have even in the text started taking massive credit for how well I was doing. Like, like how well I was doing, and maybe even kind of in a few words trying to get it for you guys, somehow we're like like gaslighting you to thank me. No, that's fucking not happening. That is not happening.

SPEAKER_05 30:52

Oh God.

SPEAKER_00 30:53

Paul, I want to personally thank you in front of all of diesel followers and the the universe of Apple Spotify.

SPEAKER_03 31:00

I appreciate that.

SPEAKER_00 31:01

I want to thank you for everything I have. There you go.

SPEAKER_03 31:04

Leo's that's right. Does it that makes me feel better now? It did that feel good about it makes me feel better, dude. Are we good? We can move on.

SPEAKER_01 31:11

Fuck off.

SPEAKER_03 31:14

I love you, brother.

SPEAKER_05 31:16

I love you. So to sum it up, Brian, you were under a bridge until we found you and you're living the top of the world. Is that what I'm saying? It's embarrassing to say it out loud, but you can't. Yes.

SPEAKER_06 31:26

Okay. I just want everyone to understand and visualize.

SPEAKER_00 31:29

I had one I had three mics and batteries. And then I'm thankful thank God you signed that contract. There you go.

SPEAKER_03 31:37

Our pleasure. Our pleasure.

SPEAKER_06 31:40

Now that we're done fucking ranting, I want to talk about generational wealth, but I want to talk about something I think is really important. Family and money. So when you're listening to this podcast, it's time to put your serious hat on right now. You know, it's time to ask your parents if they have a will and they have a trust.

SPEAKER_02 31:58

Um that's a hard question to ask them.

SPEAKER_06 32:00

Well, here's the issue. It's easy for me because my family talked about money, right? Yours did not when we were little, right? Yep. Paul and I come from complete opposites of that. And now, Paul, are you talking to your kids about money?

SPEAKER_02 32:09

Yes, I am.

SPEAKER_06 32:10

Okay. I'm making sure of it. It's changing, it's evolving.

SPEAKER_02 32:12

100%.

SPEAKER_06 32:13

And so we see it on our end, and honestly, everybody, it's ugly. It's it's ugly from a sense that your family growing up, and then all of a sudden families are being torn apart by money. Oh, we're seeing it right now. We see it a lot. And I love, we're never gonna put a stop to anything, but the people that are listening to this, you can put systems in place, at least talk, open up a communication to talk because one brother or sister may be in a different position than another brother and sister. And the decisions that get made, people fight and it hurts. It hurts all down the line, which then crushes crushes, excuse me, relationships.

SPEAKER_00 32:48

That's it.

SPEAKER_06 32:48

And I think it's important that people hear this because it is a part of real estate. We just know the real estate side of it, right? Yep. We we we sit there a lot. We sit there, I fuck, I can use my family. I mean, honestly, you know, I like to keep my garbage out of it. But there's definitely some arguments within our family over real estate, which helped make our family who they are. Wow, and has provided generational wealth for everybody, but everyone's in a different position. And I'm just saying, if we can talk now while we're younger, saying, hey, you know, what are your wishes, mom and dad, or you know, and what happens if you know somebody's in this position and and they can't hold on to this or do that, I just think conversations need to happen.

SPEAKER_00 33:28

Yeah, they do. I agree. Here's the thing is I'm totally down with you. And one thing I'll tell you is I think kids, depending on what age they are, if you're telling them about money and talking to them and mentoring them about money, let's say, just for fun, let's just say 16 or 15 to 25 or 26 when their brains are kind of developing, um, they're gonna listen about 10% of what you're telling them. But if at the exact same time you add that same word we talked about early, some vulnerability, and you tell them about the mistakes you made, they'll listen 90% of the time, even at that younger age. Right. Like mixing in the overall package, I think for the longest time in our society, and this could be patriarchy, it could be everything it is, you had your shit in control as a parent, and behind closed doors, you might have talked about. I'm not saying all the, you don't go over your taxes with your kids. But when those, when the conversations do open, you're comfortable talking about it, I think the fact that you can talk them through the highs and lows is is effective. And the lows are the ones that'll emotionally engage them in the conversation. Because you there's it's kind of like verbal judo. It's kind of like that mind trick you play, which is like, listen or don't listen to me. But you know, and the thing about it is I'm not saying I don't want you to repeat my mistakes. And that's the thing about parenting, is you don't say those words. No, you talk about yourself and you talk about how much affected you and your wife or whatever it is, and you don't, because it's almost insulting if you say, I don't want you to do that. If you just leave it, that's real. And those kids are like, I don't want to do that part, right? But that other part you were talking about, you know, and because I I think I like the life it looks like you're leading. And the baller way to do that with your kids is is just don't be on the nose about it. Be um, you know, you can be super like like peer-to-peer on money and saving money and planning for the future isn't like an R movie or joining the army. It's practical. As soon as they can understand it, you don't have to dumb it down. You know, you're not talking about things that like, I'll tell you more when you're 16. I can't tell you. But if kids are interested at 11 or 12, Alex P. Keaton that shit, yeah, tell them and bring them in. So I know I love that conversation. I love that. Do you talk to your kids like openly about money? Oh, yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 35:33

They know exactly how much you're making, what are you doing, you know, invest. My son is on investments, and I give him 50 bucks a month and he buys investments.

SPEAKER_00 35:42

Is he crypto and shit or everything?

SPEAKER_02 35:43

He buys everything. Everything. We don't we don't want to mention Giuseppe's name, but yeah, go ahead. Giuseppe's fine. So but he's on it. He has his own stocks and he's picking and he's picking smart stuff that he likes. Robin Hood, or what's he used? Do you know what he uses? I don't remember what it is. Yeah, it doesn't matter.

SPEAKER_00 35:57

I can't it's something I had to sign up because it's it um is it I just watched this because kid went through his college savings. It's not DraftKings.com, is it? No, it's not DraftKings. I at least say that because I watched them on the Sunday morning show like CBS that a kid told his parents he was doing that and he was just betting parlays.

SPEAKER_04 36:16

How'd he do?

SPEAKER_00 36:17

He lost everything.

SPEAKER_02 36:20

So he maybe my son did try to get he tried to say, yeah, Dad, I can win this game. I'm like, what's the game? Yeah. They play these video games on and they can win money and points. And I go, dude, no, you're not doing that. I love that. Yeah. But but but he's smart, he knows what he wants, and he's and he's going after it. Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 36:39

So let let's let's let's talk about that. I mean, it's so Paul, you generally wealth. What is wealth? Well, but you have a you have a real estate portfolio, and you're a great example. You've got kids, they all probably have different spots in their lives. And what are your you my point was is what are your wishes when you're when you and Kimmy are dead? Are do you want those homes to be carried down with that passive income coming in and still having that house piggy bank growing? Um, that's what I'm seeing is issues right now because some are wanting to sell it and pay taxes and go fucking do whatever they want to go do with. Yep. And that's not what the the folks want. And this is why I'm saying there has to be dialogue so there's no real arguments with people, you know, because everyone's got a different life, everyone's got different things going on.

SPEAKER_00 37:24

So going back to your practical advice, um, like you know, will, um uh what is it, the DNRs, all of those things need to be in place. You need to do all of those things because those create peace of mind. And they don't actually cost money, everybody.

SPEAKER_06 37:37

No, you don't have to go into a lawyer. You can go online and grab those, and honestly, your will you can write down on a piece of paper, have signed by a notary, and have and that's free and have that have that done.

SPEAKER_00 37:48

You can go$29. I'm not promoting this, it can be anyone's, but you can go.

SPEAKER_06 37:51

Unless we can make money from it later. Go ahead and promote it.

SPEAKER_00 37:54

Do I have a to have a money sound? I don't even know what we got I don't even know what that is, but it's um but you can get Rocket Lawyer, put it up to$29, write your will, do those things, bring it down to a dollar a month after that till you need documents again. You're absolutely right. You know, you can do it for free for a majority of documents. If you really need to kind of get it notarized, things like that, you can do it for 29 bucks for a short period of time. But I do think after Stacy went through with her dad and her step, you know, mom, yeah that it wasn't put in order and it's a nightmare.

SPEAKER_06 38:22

So if you're listening and you're a parent and you own a house or of something of value, stock, it doesn't matter, make this a priority and put it on your list for 2026. We deal with these hassles, and I hate it. I hate watching people fight because we see it all the time. People are fighting, but more importantly, you have to go through this court process when you, you know, you want to dwell, you you don't want to dwell on something, you want to take care of you your family. You guys are in a moment of crisis and need, and all of a sudden something's due. Not having proper things in place and done, it is a nightmare to unwind. It'll get unwound through the court system, but imagine how much time you're gonna spend going to those court processes, probate, you name it, versus you can get your shit in order right now and it'll and talk to your kids about it. Some kids don't want to own real estate, so talk to them about it. Have a plan. And if you don't, just continue that dialogue and that conversation. Um I just want to get off the code.

SPEAKER_00 39:17

I think that's fantastic because I think it's a cliff. And I think the cliff is that Thelma and Louise part of it is you do the simple paperwork, talk to your kids about it, have a plan, and you're probably talking about in these circumstances, you're you're likely talking about generational wealth for your family. And the other one is you could break up a family. Yeah. And it's that extreme. Like the no paperwork path, you know, goes off the cliff. Yeah. You know, and and and it's I'm not saying 100% of the time, but even when you're talking about families and you're talking about money, and you're talking about disrupting an entire family tree, even if it's five or fifteen percent that end up never talking to each other again, um, that's a significant cost for a family. You know, not only the money in that part of it, but you're losing sort of you're breaking those branches off that tree a little bit. It's crazy. I think that's a really good thing to bring up, but it's just kind of free advice. There's no agenda in that. No agenda.

SPEAKER_06 40:05

No, it's no agenda at all. And if you're a trustee, that's even worse. It it's hard because a lot of people sit and watch you work. You you don't want that. You want it, you want everyone to help because uh sitting as a trustee and helping a family go through something, there's other people that are getting pissed off. The trustees getting pissed because they're doing all the work because they were named trustees. Right.

SPEAKER_02 40:22

And you're not getting really paid for it, and you're not getting paid for it.

SPEAKER_00 40:25

No, and it could be theoretically, I mean this in the best way. It could be um, it could be a euphoric kind of um really nice last part of grieving if it's done the right way. It can be a beautiful thing if it's done the right way. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 40:38

I mean, my my my daughter's going through it right now with her boyfriend. He's he's the youngest of four boys. His mom passed away last year, and he's been dealing with all the lawyers, paying bills. You don't even think about it. He's like, what do I do here? You know, he's a smart kid, so he needs he's on it. He has lawyers to help him out. But you don't realize when somebody dies. He's 28 years old doing this.

SPEAKER_00 40:57

Yeah, when somebody dies, the business of death kicks in. Oh, the death. The business is huge. It's a huge business.

SPEAKER_02 41:02

And they're learning and they're like, what a you know, they got he's not asking me, but he's asking his lawyers and stuff. But my daughter calls and asks about the real estate. Yeah. And I help her out with that. But she's uh she's she yelled at me, goes, You got this, this. I'm like, nope, I'm I'm the number one guy you're looking at that has nothing in place. If I'm gone, you're all fucked. That's it with anything. It's so simple.

SPEAKER_06 41:21

So for all you listeners out there, if you happen to run over Paul on his Murph bike because it's Murph bike season, I love Murph bikes. Do me one favor. I mean, you know, we'll we'll get over we'll get over Paul. Just grab me his phone, please, everybody.

SPEAKER_00 41:33

Do be careful though. I did see in that article that it is the most dangerous place to ride a bike in all the state of California. What is Santa Cruz California? I wouldn't be surprised.

SPEAKER_02 41:41

Oh well, they took all those other bikes away now. I know that, but which is great.

SPEAKER_00 41:45

What what bikes? The um the the B what would they call it? Something B cycle.

SPEAKER_02 41:50

No, it looked like a motorcycle.

SPEAKER_06 41:52

Oh, the one those little kids are always riding on.

SPEAKER_02 41:54

Yeah, but I got rid of my sons because of that.

SPEAKER_00 41:56

Oh, the little yeah.

SPEAKER_02 41:57

They'll say, but I can't remember the name of it.

SPEAKER_00 41:58

No, it's in and again, this is just me growing up here. It's like this is a beach town with some cruisers, and the lanes get thin and they close out, they open back up, which is okay back in the day.

SPEAKER_02 42:07

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 42:08

Um, but but now 30, 35 miles an hour. Um hauling ass. Yeah, hauling ass. And then the the thing that I think is the biggest difference right now between us and when we're growing up isn't so much the speed and the murf, it's um it's this. It's it's it's the fact that you used to be a foot away from people on a cruiser, driving the opposite way, kind of following those rules. But now that they're with you going 30 miles an hour, you know, it's it's it's a different thing. You're only a foot away from these Murph bikes, and you get ding ding, honey, bring home some loaf, gone.

SPEAKER_02 42:37

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 42:37

That's the thing. So watch your ass. I'm worried about you, Paul.

SPEAKER_02 42:41

That car's gonna have a big ass dent.

SPEAKER_00 42:43

Do you wear a helmet? Yeah, not uh, because you just 2.0 don't need a helmet. Did did did did you see the Barbie movie?

SPEAKER_01 42:58

Oh she's Barbie. I'll keep coming back to it because now we're on to male ego. So all of a sudden, you looking that good on your bike. Hell yeah. Let's go.

SPEAKER_00 43:09

You need a helmet, bro. I want you know what? We'll get them. I'm gonna I'm gonna have to get this on Amazon and I want to wear, I'm gonna get them that little, it's gonna be like light blue with the googly eyes.

SPEAKER_05 43:17

And everyone will know it's you. We'll just put some money behind advertising through the billboards. Hey, there's Paul.

SPEAKER_01 43:23

What do we got, but it's funny.

SPEAKER_06 43:25

So um, and then real quick, I wanted to touch base because it's funny. We were when we're walking around, everybody, because you know, Paul's really good on the social media stuff, and I I got a lot of improvement I need to do on there. But people are like, Oh, you guys were just in the snow.

SPEAKER_00 43:41

Hmm.

SPEAKER_06 43:41

You know, and I it I started thinking, and then somebody else asked.

SPEAKER_00 43:44

Oh, when you were doing the dollar general or whatever?

Triple Net Investing Explained Simply

SPEAKER_06 43:46

Yeah, so you know because we've talked about it. And so what um what I wanted to do, and it'd be a whole different class, but Paul and I are we're gonna come out with a little commercial um that's coming out, but on triple net investing, and it's it's gonna be don't be afraid of what you don't know because people are like, What are you guys Doing.

SPEAKER_02 44:00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 44:01

And I'm like, the average person in Santa Cruz that's owned a rental, they're making about a 1.8 to 2% return on their money. They're happy because they're not being bothered by anybody.

SPEAKER_00 44:12

Correct.

SPEAKER_06 44:12

But that's a horrible return. Of course. And so when you turn around, we're like, well, wow, we can re um re- re up your depreciation, bring you in a new loan write off. And how would you feel if you're making two to 250% more every single month on your check? And still owning a piece of real estate. And so that's what we're doing. And so people are calling and they're it's education.

SPEAKER_00 44:32

Are they buying groups you're doing? Or what are you talking about?

SPEAKER_06 44:34

No, we're we're we're right now we're working with individuals. In my brain, when we slow down, I'm definitely gonna want to set up, but those are a little more tricky um setting up those groups, yeah. Um, just because everybody's situation is different. However, what I what I want people to know, it's like look at your portfolio. Is your portfolio performing? A lot of people, and again, if you're not gonna keep your house, if you're not gonna move into it, or maybe your kid doesn't want it, you should be calling us to at least to get a free analysis of what what you're looking at. Yeah, people don't realize every store you walk into, all those safeways, all those CVSs, um, not in Santa Cruz, but the the Walmarts, the the Dollar Generals, the McDonald's, they don't own those businesses. They're tenants. You can own that real estate and they'll pay you two to three times more. And what I realized we had an aha moment because people are like, what are you guys doing? Because they were just so like, you're having so much fun when you guys are doing your stuff, but why are you out there? And then I sit down, I'm like, oh well, you know, we had a client that was making$2,000 positive a month, and now they're making$7,000.

SPEAKER_00 45:36

And then on the$2,000, it was a squeaky wheel, probably. Well, they were happy, they're happy because they're not being bothered.

SPEAKER_06 45:41

I gotcha. They're just not being bothered. If you got a rental and they're not calling you, that's the best rental. You love that, and then all of a sudden you're like, well, you find out it's full, full of mold now. Well, that too, right? If you're not an active landlord. There's that part. But when you when you look at it, and a lot of people, it's because they don't know. They just don't understand you can buy these assets, and the wealthy buy these assets. They're becoming more difficult as our real estate market is transitioning right now because the insurance companies are buying them left and right right now.

SPEAKER_00 46:14

It's a problem.

SPEAKER_06 46:15

It is, they know it's a problem because they have more money than all of us. They see what's coming down the pipeline. So they're taking their assets, their security, their cash, and putting it into buildings that are cranking out six and a half percent to them.

SPEAKER_00 46:26

Is that why they're also kind of happy to sit on some empty buildings?

SPEAKER_06 46:30

The well, that's the actual tenant.

SPEAKER_00 46:32

Right.

SPEAKER_06 46:32

Okay, but you as a landlord, if you're building dark is what they call it, yeah, and it's empty, they're still gonna pay you.

SPEAKER_00 46:37

That's what I mean.

SPEAKER_06 46:38

Yeah, but no, that's the actual business because not sometimes they'll choose a location that's not uh wasn't worthy. Got you. Yeah. And it that happens every once in a while.

SPEAKER_00 46:47

Do you guys do like full market analysis and all that stuff?

SPEAKER_06 46:49

We we're the only ones. I can probably, I shouldn't say this, but close to the only ones in the country that actually go out and look at the buildings, go talk to the cities, counties, neighborhoods, and run a full analysis.

SPEAKER_00 47:01

Shovel some sidewalks.

SPEAKER_06 47:02

Hey, most people I know, I saw it. They don't. They sit behind their computer screen and you're just trading money. Right. That's all it is.

SPEAKER_00 47:07

It's all up in the ether. It's it.

SPEAKER_06 47:09

Yep, yeah. They don't go out. We because we come from a residential background, we were taught to go out and look at the asset, touch it, feel it, understand what's going on. So we still provide that service, which we pay to fly out and go do that for ourselves, just to make sure that we make sure our clients get into something that's good.

SPEAKER_00 47:23

The last two conversations have been great because I think what you're doing is you're doing sort of like um uh it's it's the long game of like branding, loyalty, and things like that, which is kind of like just free advice, free information. It's good for you to know this, and eventually it circles around the more you talk about it, right? The more you're comfortable with and you're like, I think I want to talk to you about something different. You know, because the first part is is like you said, it's the not knowing. It's like we feel so isolated in our ability to invest, our ability to look, think outside the box. Um, because I don't even say if it makes us nervous, we don't know.

SPEAKER_06 47:57

You just don't know. I didn't know. No, I didn't know, and now you know, our family, it's it's in our holdings quite a bit because I didn't know. But I do know now, and I understand why, and it's great. I mean, when you're over, you know, I look at it as really when you're over 50, 54, 55, it's something you should be calling and really looking into. Whether it works for you or not, that's your choice. Yeah. But you should be understanding what what that means and what kind of returns. You know, we had a client who owned 20 houses here in Santa Cruz. 20. That's a lot of residential properties in Santa Cruz County.

SPEAKER_04 48:29

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 48:30

Their concern was, and it was already happening, their kids were fighting over who's gonna get which house while they're still breathing. We we sold all of them, and they put it into a couple larger assets like what we're talking about, you know, and now they're getting huge monthly paychecks. There's no fighting now amongst the kids.

SPEAKER_00 48:51

And less moving parts. Absolutely. I love that.

SPEAKER_06 48:54

So I love that. That's good shit. Well, I just think it's important because you know, I'm starting to see all these things as we get older, and then people just keep asking, you know, what the hell were you guys doing in Michigan? You know, in a blizzard. Yeah, in a blizzard.

SPEAKER_00 49:07

It was minus 10. Yeah, I know because I heard you talk about the the videos were great, but I do I think that's the best part of uh the the two guys in real estate part of it is the um is the the and there's a I'll give credit, there's a few realtors that do it, but they do it a little cleaner than you guys. They they do the stagings and things like that. You guys clearly do that, but I think you guys like right now up to this point, you kind of get dirty. You kind of get in there and roll the sleeves up a little bit, and that's different than even a lot of what else you see on social media. Ain't a lot of realtors that are pulling up a fucking flatbed truck and hauling shit out, you know, but they're fucking guns like Locatelli. Come on, you gotta do it.

SPEAKER_02 49:44

You can't have a BMW, Greg, and think you're gonna frickin' clean it up and all that. What do you got next, Brian? Because I got podcasts I like better to get to. Yeah, I know.

SPEAKER_05 49:53

He has all these other freaking No no, I just I just want to get a couple things in the city. And he meant Greg Lucina, who's never lifted anything in the public. David Lane, Greg, that's you. We're calling you out. But we are naming Sissy.

SPEAKER_00 50:05

We are naming me.

SPEAKER_05 50:09

So good. We can call him out. We love Greg, by the way.

SPEAKER_01 50:12

He's he's great, he's the best realtor in Santa Cruz County.

MLS Power Shift And What’s Next

SPEAKER_06 50:14

No, of Scots Valley. Oh, Scott's Valley. Sorry, I thought it was Robert, but no, it's Hey Greg, I'm gonna give you California just because I do love you. Um, real quick, I just one other thing, and maybe this is a different podcast, but I think we should talk about are the current real estate models, companies right now broken? We got time. I mean, let's tease it if you want to kind of like there's a lot of change coming, and I don't know if you know. You know, Compass, they bought right in re brands. Well, they're now hooking up to basically want to possibly start their own MLS system with so there's a direct with Redfin, there's a direct war now between Redfin, Zillow, Compass, and then the rest of the realtors in the United States. Interesting. It's it is amazing what you're seeing on social media and big topics.

SPEAKER_00 50:57

Are they coming with um again? Is it is it a direct competition for what has plagued the industry a little bit, or is somebody coming with a new idea for that? Is it does that make sense what I'm saying? Is anybody coming in that market zone?

SPEAKER_02 51:10

They want to hold the cards. I don't know if it's a new idea, right? Something new, they want to hold all the cards. So you have to come to me. Back in the old days, you didn't have the MLS, you got a book, like Brian did. So you had to come to Brian, he had this big thick book. Yeah, he says, Which house do you want? Where do you want to look? And he wouldn't share that, but now it's like them. They want to hide their book and say, You need to come to us, and or you're not gonna find a house out there.

SPEAKER_06 51:33

Wow. But it's evolved because imagine if we did have a book. 2.0 can't read, so he would not be as successful as he is right now.

SPEAKER_00 51:41

I hate that we have to say that every fourth podcast. But the truth is he does forget.

SPEAKER_05 51:46

You like that one, aren't they? Fuck who both of you can do this.

SPEAKER_03 51:51

They'll make me wear wear my shirt.

SPEAKER_06 51:54

So I I do think it's a separate podcast, but it is literally the beginning of the first inning, what's going on right now.

SPEAKER_00 52:00

But that would allow like me, and we can I can do some homework from like the um a layman standpoint.

SPEAKER_06 52:04

You're gonna be blown away at what you're gonna read on this right now.

SPEAKER_00 52:07

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 52:08

And it'll be interesting for a little town like Santa Cruz how that's gonna play out. And I also think it's taking advantage of things that are.

SPEAKER_02 52:14

Should we bring a somebody from Compass to see if they'll come and talk with us too?

SPEAKER_06 52:17

I guarantee, but I they don't even know what's going on.

SPEAKER_02 52:20

No.

SPEAKER_00 52:20

Well, maybe hey, do you have anybody you know that the best one to get for this kind of podcast is there any ex-employees of those places? Absolutely. That would be fantastic. Because you hey, you you we you know you get more transparency. Oh, yeah, yeah. You know, you get you'd get the real deal, but we can also talk about I think there'd be more um uh room to talk about the the sweet and the sour of the whole thing.

SPEAKER_06 52:43

Yeah, they're they're already laying off brokers. I mean, Centre 21, we already talked to some of them where they're they got laid off. They got laid off from a management position. Oh, really?

Final Shots And Closing Riffs

SPEAKER_00 52:51

Like we don't need your position anymore. Yeah, but I think what it's leaning into, and it's successful because it goes back to our conversation from 30 minutes ago, which is the people are more comfortable being disconnected from other people in that sort of that generic sanitized version of one person holding it and diving it out. Um, you're not gonna hear you you're not necessarily with the way things are trending here, it's huge public uproar because we're sort of lemmings that way. You know, it's like but but it is not good for the industry. Change is coming. Wow, so that's a really good teaser. I think that's good. What else do you have?

SPEAKER_06 53:25

I I don't have anything else, Paul. No, I'm all good. Off my chest. You good? You and Brian, you guys want to hug it out? No, I'm fine. I don't need it. I'm great.

SPEAKER_05 53:37

You kidding me? That's from Barbie again. I'm great. It is. Thank you, Brian.

SPEAKER_00 53:42

Rent rent free in your head.