Embark on a journey into the heart of the South Florida real estate market with me, Jeremy Wolf, as I sit across from the insightful Giuseppe Pistone of Century 21 Integra. Together, we unravel the intricacies that define the current housing landscape, with Giuseppe shedding light on his remarkable switch from restaurateur to real estate aficionado. Prepare to have your assumptions challenged as we discuss post-pandemic market shifts, dissect the implications of fluctuating interest rates, and take a deep look at inventory levels. Giuseppe's wisdom is a beacon for those entangled in the homeownership vs. renting debate, offering a fresh perspective on the benefits of securing a slice of real estate in today's economic environment.
In this heartfelt episode, we also peel back the curtains on the synergy between personal and professional life, celebrating the successful collaboration with my wife in real estate ventures. Discover the secret sauce to our harmonious work relationship, free of frequent discord, and our shared passion for coastal escapades and underwater escapades. Above all, we affirm our unwavering dedication to prioritizing clients' needs, a philosophy that sets us apart in a field where not all agents may align with such values. Wrapping up, we extend a warm invitation to our listeners to engage directly with our community-focused mission, by spotlighting exceptional local businesses on future episodes of the Good Neighbor Podcast. It's through your participation that we continue to weave the rich tapestry that is our neighborhood.
Embark on a journey into the heart of the South Florida real estate market with me, Jeremy Wolf, as I sit across from the insightful Giuseppe Pistone of Century 21 Integra. Together, we unravel the intricacies that define the current housing landscape, with Giuseppe shedding light on his remarkable switch from restaurateur to real estate aficionado. Prepare to have your assumptions challenged as we discuss post-pandemic market shifts, dissect the implications of fluctuating interest rates, and take a deep look at inventory levels. Giuseppe's wisdom is a beacon for those entangled in the homeownership vs. renting debate, offering a fresh perspective on the benefits of securing a slice of real estate in today's economic environment.
In this heartfelt episode, we also peel back the curtains on the synergy between personal and professional life, celebrating the successful collaboration with my wife in real estate ventures. Discover the secret sauce to our harmonious work relationship, free of frequent discord, and our shared passion for coastal escapades and underwater escapades. Above all, we affirm our unwavering dedication to prioritizing clients' needs, a philosophy that sets us apart in a field where not all agents may align with such values. Wrapping up, we extend a warm invitation to our listeners to engage directly with our community-focused mission, by spotlighting exceptional local businesses on future episodes of the Good Neighbor Podcast. It's through your participation that we continue to weave the rich tapestry that is our neighborhood.
This is the Good Neighbor Podcast, the place where local businesses and neighbors come together. Here's your host, Jeremy Wolf.
Speaker 2:
Hello, hello everyone, friends, family, Welcome back to the Good Neighbor Podcast. I'm your host, Jeremy Wolf, and I am joined today by. I've been waiting to pronounce this name. We have Giuseppe Pistone.
Speaker 3:
Thank you. Thank you for having me on today. I appreciate it.
Speaker 2:
It's our pleasure and Giuseppe joins us from Century 21. Integra Interviewed quite a few realtors on the platform, always happy to have another on the show to talk about their business and what's going on in the lovely South Florida real estate market booming market. Everything's doing really well here locally. So, giuseppe, thanks so much for joining us today. Appreciate it, my pleasure.
Speaker 2:
Thank you, yeah, and thanks, as always to our listeners for tuning in to learn more about our great community and the businesses that serve us. So, giuseppe, let's get right into this. Everybody out there knows what a realtor is. There are a dime, a dozen out there, right? Tell us a little bit about you. Tell us about Century 21, integra and what you bring to our lovely community.
Speaker 3:
I started in 2003 in real estate. I was looking to make a career change, and I've always been. I've always enjoyed helping people and I've always enjoyed interaction with people, and so I was trying to decide on what I wanted to do and I said, well, let me give real estate a shot and let me see if it's something that I could wrap my head around, if it's something that I could get into. And I did, and after about two and a half, three, three years of doing excuse me, doing real estate and the business I owned, I decided to sell it and focus 100% on real estate ever since, and so I've been doing it for now, like I said, for a little over 20 years. Never, never, sorry that I made the switch. It's a great industry. It's not easy, but certainly it's definitely rewarding and I get that interaction with people and the satisfaction of still helping people.
Speaker 2:
So when did you link up and get involved with Century 21?
Speaker 3:
Well, I actually started my career with Century 21 and a few years with them and then I switched companies, went out on my own shortly after that and I was in independent for about nine years and in 2016-17, um became century 21 and we grew our business from there. I've always our office has always been in primer pines and have been uh, we've been with Century 21, integra now since November of last year and I've been with Century 21 more in my career than I have not been with Century 21. Very cool.
Speaker 2:
So everybody living down here in South Florida has seen some interesting things go on in the real estate market post-COVID, but it's seemingly has settled down a bit. I mean, from where I sit, what is going on? What's the state of the market now? As I like to say to realtors, pull out your crystal ball. What do we have in store? Where are we going? Six months down the road, 12 months down the road, what are we looking at here?
Speaker 3:
Well, certainly I. I mean obviously it's an election year and election years are always different, um, but there's a lot of still uncertainty, a lot of people not very confident, you know, with what's going on. Um, interest rates certainly are still a little high and they play a major part in that. Inventory is still low, um, but prices have have slowed down the grow, the growth of, you know, prices going this. I've started to slow down a little bit. They kind of, you know, still increasing a little bit.
Speaker 3:
But properties are sitting on the market a little bit longer and certainly people will always need a roof over their head, especially affordable roofing or affordable housing. I should say, and even at, you know, hovering around the 7% mark, it's still cheaper to own than it is to rent. I mean rent. You know, hovering around the 7% market, it's still cheaper to own than it is to rent. I mean rent. You know, biggest thing, a lot of people say, well, 7% is very high, but if you take the average over the last 40 years, that average over the last 40 years is more like 7.72% and so we're not there.
Speaker 2:
It's funny that you bring that up. I just did a podcast episode with a mortgage broker and we had the exact same conversation about interest rates and I didn't realize that I had no idea. But he said the same thing you said over the last 30 years, 30, 40 years, the average has been higher than it is now, which I think is counterintuitive. People just assume that the rates are exceedingly high because they're higher than they were when they were 2%. Right, but it's really not that bad?
Speaker 3:
Yeah, and it's. You know, unfortunately we've been spoiled with, you know, those super low interest rates. So at 7% it's like mind blowing. It's astronomical. But if you look at the big picture and if you look at the last 40 years, it really isn't. Those 2% 3% were unrealistic. It really isn't. Those two 3% were unrealistic. But certainly the market benefited a lot of homeowners, buyers that benefited. They were able to get into properties and experience a lot of growth as far as equity and stuff like that. So it worked out. But I think that people will get listen. Certainly 7%, hovering in the 7% range, sounds high. But if you're renting and you can afford to buy, in my opinion you should, because rent is 100% interest. You're not getting anything back on your money. If your landlord does the right thing, you'll get back your security deposit and certainly that's it, you know. So you've paid hundred percent interest. If you're renting and you've grown and you've grown your, you've grown your. Your landlord's equity um paid down his or her mortgage, not your own yeah, absolutely, I mean the right.
Speaker 2:
The right time to buy is really when you can afford, when you can afford to make that move, and yeah, you nailed it, I've said that before as well. You know, when you can afford to make that move and yeah, you nailed it, I've said that before as well when you're paying rent you're paying, as you said, 100% interest. So now, are there any? You're in Pembroke Pines, uh, or, obviously you have a pretty good handle on the Pembroke Pines area. Are there any other specific areas in South Florida that you focus on, or is it all of the area down here in South Florida, broward County? Do you have a team of people within your organization under cause? I know that a lot of the large brokerages, they have teams under them, right? Do you guys have a team that focuses on different areas? How does that work for you guys?
Speaker 3:
Oh, that's a great question. My wife and I are actually she's been in real estate as long as I have we're our own team. Our office has over 40 agents here in Pembroke Pines, but we've always focused I've never focused on you know, my office is in Pembroke Pines, so I only stay in Pembroke Pines. Like I said, I had a business for 25 years in Cooper City and my wife, before meeting her, she, worked in Miami and we've always been the same. As far as wherever there's, you know, somebody, there's a need to help someone. If it's in Dade County county, we've sold in orlando, we've sold in orlando, uh and naples, we've sold in gainesville, the keys. Wherever there's opportunity to help somebody, we we go. I'm not, we don't limit ourselves to a geographic area or a city or anything like that. I need to do our agents. They don't go wherever they have, wherever they, you know they feel that there's an opportunity for them to help absolutely so.
Speaker 2:
You just mentioned that you were a local business owner here in cooper city prior to the real estate.
Speaker 3:
Um, prior to getting into real estate, tell us a little bit about that my, my dad, um, my dad and I, we owned a vita italian restaurant there in Cooper City, opened it in December of 1982. And so it was not easy getting to the point to say, okay, I'm going to sell it, but in 2007, I did. But I love Cooper City, I love the people. Cooper City has always been about community and that's the biggest thing I've always loved about Cooper City.
Speaker 2:
It really, truly, is a great place, but I did want to ask this question. I know it's going back some time now, but I'm sure it's still fresh in your mind. What was the biggest, I guess, challenge in transitioning from owning a local restaurant to the real estate sphere and what was one of the biggest rewards that you've gotten from doing that?
Speaker 3:
The biggest challenge was, I mean, when I owned the restaurant. I mean I had a team of almost 25 agents that worked for me. I mean 25 employees that worked for us. So you know, certainly I was never alone. I never had, I never had the task that I had to handle by myself. I always had a, you know, a group of amazing people around me. And then when I transitioned to real estate, it was my team was much smaller but it was all dependent on me. It was all dependent on the efforts.
Speaker 3:
I had a great mentor when I was with Century 21 and along the way, but it wasn't that I had a team behind me in the sense that if I had something to do, I can incorporate the help of other people to help me. It was on me. So that was the biggest challenge, but the most rewarding, I would say, was the same thing, because it gave me an opportunity to learn and to grow and to see that I'm capable of doing what I can and what I've done without the help of 25 other people behind me. You know pitching in and I've had to. Along the way, the technology wasn't what it was what it is today. So it's certainly, as the years have gone on, it's made it easier to grow and to learn because of, thank God, the technology, but I think that's the most rewarding also.
Speaker 2:
So when you left the restaurant as an owner, obviously you were established for a long time. Were you there? I think people hear about the restaurant industry that it's a grueling industry and that as an owner, you need to be there, you know, 70, 80 hours a week. When you left, were you working that much or had you already transitioned to a point where, like you said, you had a bunch of people working there and you didn't have to be as involved with the restaurant at that time?
Speaker 3:
Well, when I first got into real estate, I was doing about 70, 80 hours a week at the restaurant, so you still were. Yeah, so I still was in the very beginning, but what I started doing was, as I got more involved in a real estate, I would reduce my hours a little bit at a time from the restaurant, and so when I got to the point that I was about even split, you know, restaurant and real estate that's when I made the decision to sell the restaurant and just focus 100% on the real estate.
Speaker 2:
And did you go into the real estate business at that time with your wife or did she join?
Speaker 3:
you later. No, I didn't know my wife at the time.
Speaker 2:
Okay, so this is later on. I just had this podcast. I just did that I referenced to earlier. It was a husband and wife team mortgage brokerage and I asked them most people hear husband and wife working together and they think I couldn't work with my spouse. Why is that different for you guys? What makes you guys tick? How do you work together?
Speaker 3:
First of all, we both have the same amount of experience in real estate. Prior to that, we had mortgage brokerage licenses, so we understand the finance side of it. We both come from a service-minded family and I think the biggest thing is we just learn to respect each other for each other's opinions. Certainly, we do not agree 100% of the time on certain things, but we, 100% of the time, respect the other person's opinion and we listen. And I'll be honest with you eight and a half years we've been together, I don't know that we've ever had a fight or a disagreement. It's just more of respecting the other person, listening and it just works for us anyway, and it just works.
Speaker 2:
I feel like I just had the same conversation. Everything we're talking about we talked about on the last episode and I'll say the same thing I said to the previous couple my hat's off to you guys. I have the utmost respect. It really says a lot about people, about your relationship, really, when you're able to work together as a husband and wife team and that's really how it should be right, because you are a team and I think so many people have a hard time communicating, getting along with their spouse and to be able to work together and be happy like that. Again, kudos to you guys. It does really say a lot about you for sure. Thank you, I appreciate that. So what do you like to do for fun when you're not working?
Speaker 3:
But so what do you like to do for fun when you're not working? Oh man, our biggest, our biggest thing is anything to do with beach or just water. It's just like our, our, our disconnect place, whether it's the beach here in Hollywood, or sometimes I have cousins who have places in Naples and when they're down we go and visit them. Just that's the biggest thing is just beach, relax, go for walks, um, just disconnect and just be disconnect from the world and just it. Be us, just just the two of us. That's the biggest thing that we do for fun. Honestly sounds boring to some people, but I, I love it.
Speaker 2:
I love it. You ever do any scuba diving?
Speaker 3:
Many years ago. I was, I was certified for advanced open water many years ago, but as I had kids, and then you know your brain starts messing with you and you go, yeah, but what if? But I mean, I've never had a situation. Obviously. I I scuba dove for probably almost 10 years and then I kind of just hung it up, I said you know what my kids are a little, you know a little still, and I think I'll just put it off for now, but I never went back.
Speaker 2:
I got certified many years ago myself and I only went a couple of times. I don't remember why I stopped. I don't think it was because of the kids at that time. But now that you mentioned it and you talked about disconnecting and they said the beach, it came to my mind. I said I think I'm big into meditation and spirituality and spending time introspectively and I thought about scuba diving and how I might want to get back into that, because it is a place where you can go to be truly disconnected.
Speaker 3:
Oh yeah, it's eerie quiet yeah it is. I once did a night dive and, oh yeah, the dive master said hey, hey, listen, we're gonna, I'll tap you on your tank and when I tap you on the tank, we're gonna make a circle and we're gonna shut our lights off. And we did, and you couldn't see your hand, literally inches from your face, and it was talking about quiet, true darkness, and peace pitch black, pitch black.
Speaker 2:
But again it gives you the opportunity to disconnect for sure yeah, what would be the the one thing that you'd like to leave? If you could pick one thing that you'd like to leave our listeners with about your business, what would that be?
Speaker 3:
not all realtors are built the same. Um, certainly there's. I mean, we've been doing this for over 20 years. Um, our biggest thing is always that the client comes first. We, we don't do what's best for us, we do what's best for the clients. There's many, many, many situations over the years where it just that deal was not right for our client. Um, and in some situations you know it's, it's in many situations, as you can say, there's realtors who don't think that way. You know it's what's best for their pocket.
Speaker 1:
Yeah.
Speaker 3:
We've been. We're big believers in what goes around, comes around. Do the right thing, do good, you get good. You do bad, you get bad. And so do the right thing for people and if you've been honest and respectful and professional, business will always come back. They'll refer you business year after year after year, and so that's where really sustainability and success is in our business is just do the right thing, be honest and focus on what's right for the client, not what's right for the realtor.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, absolutely, it's a mindset right.
Speaker 3:
Oh yeah, for sure.
Speaker 2:
Truly focus your intention on helping and doing good, and good things start to seemingly materialize out of nowhere, but when you chase it and you're all after the money nothing good happens, right?
Speaker 3:
No To me. I always tell people in our agency work for us. You know, don't be about the money. The money is the reward, it's a byproduct it's the right it's a byproduct of what we do.
Speaker 3:
Do all these other things and if you've done them right and respectfully understand we are working with people who are spending, you know, making the largest financial commitment their entire life. They're not buying a house for four or five hundred thousand dollars and then next week going buying a boat or a car for the same amount of money. They're not. You know, they're committing to 30 years. Whether they stay there for 30 years or not is irrelevant, but they're making a financial commitment for 30 years. They're the ones who have to sleep in that house. They're the ones who have to sleep in that house, not us, the realtors. So be professional, be sincere, understand that it's an honor to help people buy something that they're going to create lifelong memories in. So just the money is just the byproduct. Do all those things right and the money will come. It just comes by itself. Don't focus on the money.
Speaker 2:
Absolutely, giuseppe. The wisdom is emanating through here. I feel it. My brother, I could tell you're coming from a truly genuine place, from lived experience, living a life, and appreciate what you're doing in our great community. For anybody out there listening that would like to reach you, maybe they're looking for their dream home, maybe they're looking for an investment property, what have you? How could they learn more? How could they reach you?
Speaker 3:
My cell phone number is 954-243-5188. You can always email me. It's G like Giuseppe and a stone like my last name at C21integracom. I'd love to have a conversation with somebody, if they have, even if it's just questions about anything.
Speaker 2:
All right, wonderful, and we will, of course, link in the description to all of your contact information. Giuseppe, thank you so much for joining us today. It was truly a pleasure getting the opportunity to meet you, so again, thanks for being here.
Speaker 3:
Thanks, Jeremy.
Speaker 2:
Appreciate it. Have a good one you, too, and thanks to our listeners for tuning in, and we will catch everyone on the next episode of the Good Neighbor Podcast. Everyone, have a wonderful day, take care and stay safe out there.
Speaker 1:
Bye. Thanks for listening to the Good Neighbor Podcast Cooper City. To nominate your favorite local business to be featured on the show, go to GNPCooperCitycom. That's GNPCooperCitycom, or call 954-231-3170. 3 1, 7 0.