Real Lives of Real Estate w/ Brendan Da Silva
Welcome to the Real Lives of Real Estate, a brand new real estate podcast unlike any other. Your host is the #1 Realtor in Newark, NJ, Brendan Da Silva, and every week he interviews real estate professionals about how working in the industry has affected their lives and stories.
Real Lives of Real Estate w/ Brendan Da Silva
From Multi-Million Dollar Telecommunications Brokerage Firm to Real Estate | Eric Jon Melnikoff
Embark on a journey through the intimate landscapes of real estate and life, where Eric Melnikoff and I intertwine our past with present ambitions, and how the walls we've lived between shape our dreams. As we peel back layers of our unique childhoods, from Eric's contrasting worlds of West Caldwell and Newark to my own quirky tales of bookshelf beds and donut sales during fuel crises, we uncover the profound impact our early environments have on success, community, and the pursuit of the American dream.
Real estate is more than transactions; it's about the relationships we build and the empathy we carry into our work. This episode goes beyond the surface, discussing the importance of instilling resilience and a strong work ethic in our children. We highlight the pivotal role of consistent action for agents and the calculated risks that come with each investment decision. As I recount the evolution from investor to agent to brokerage owner, we celebrate the triumphs and reflect on the ethical dilemmas faced when managing investors' expectations and funds.
Join us as we explore the vast opportunities real estate offers, from flipping properties to fostering entrepreneurship among the youth. We delve into the mindset that drives successful investments and the barriers that many agents face when considering stepping into the investors' shoes. Whether it's the planning for our Build it Now event or strategizing innovative marketing techniques, this episode is packed with insights for anyone looking to navigate the dynamic world of real estate with purpose and passion.
To get more insight on episodes and to apply to be on the show, visit www.BrendanDaSilva.com!
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A few years ago, when I was in the Montclair office. I'm running around, I'm cranking, doing a lot of 50 deals a year, whatever it is right, I was a little depressed, right? I don't know what it was. I wasn't like money related doing very well.
Speaker 1:My buddy said why don't you go see my therapist? Next morning? I wake up, I look at my calendar. Oh, I gotta teach a class at one o'clock. I do not wanna teach of the class. People come up to you afterwards. Oh my God, it was so amazing. I felt like I was on cloud nine. I'm like I don't need therapy, I just need to go out and help somebody.
Speaker 2:Get ready for Real Lives of Real Estate, where the world of real estate meets the essence of your life. Buckle up as we unravel stories, homes and the heartbeat behind it all. Let's dive into another episode. I hope you share and are encouraged. Ladies and gentlemen, I'm here with Eric Melnikoff, a new friend, a realtor, developer and gatherer of special people. Really got to get to know each other a little bit closer during the Building Now event a few weeks back down Long Branch.
Speaker 1:We did.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it was a really special time. Honestly, I think you had a massive amount of hitters. It was the number one event I've ever been to where it was like back to back-back-to-back-to-back value. I've never seen that before. It was just like packed, packed, like there was no break.
Speaker 1:There was no break, no break. The next build-it-now has to be spread out over two days to get the same amount of content.
Speaker 2:I agree. I think that's actually a good call, honestly, because I was there. I was like man I'm overwhelmed Quick pace.
Speaker 1:It was just so much value.
Speaker 2:Quick pace, yeah, but it's a lot of value. So, with that said, we're glad to have you on the podcast today. Appreciate that. Grateful for the invite to be able to go down to building. Now Want to ask you the million-dollar question Not where, but what did you grow up in?
Speaker 1:What did I grow?
Speaker 2:up in A house, an apartment.
Speaker 1:Sure, sure, sure. So after I was born, they brought me home to Brookdale Gardens, which is right near Brookdale Park, a garden apartment building.
Speaker 2:Oh, in Newark, or Bluefield In Bluefield.
Speaker 1:Brookdale Park. Right, yeah, so that's where my parents lived for the first six months of my life, and then we moved to West Caldwell. We were the third house, four bed, bed, two and a half bath, center hall, colonial for the times and, and even now it's, like you know, upper middle middle class yeah, you know good upper middle class neighborhood, yeah, um how old were you, did you say, when you moved there? Six months oh, okay, wow and I stayed there till I was 18 whoa, so your whole upbringing.
Speaker 2:One house, one bedroom.
Speaker 1:My bedroom on a cul-de-sac across the street from the elementary school Typical, you know.
Speaker 2:That's not typical. That's like the dream I feel.
Speaker 1:Well, yeah, I was going to say typical. Like you know that my father's an attorney, mother was a stay-at-home mom. They got separated and divorced when I was nine.
Speaker 2:We stayed in the house.
Speaker 1:We did my mother.
Speaker 2:Your mom and you Right, and your dad headed out. Where did he move? To Newark? Oh, so he was right.
Speaker 1:He was Colonades.
Speaker 2:Not far at all.
Speaker 1:And then 375 Mount Prospect Ave.
Speaker 2:Ah, newark, yeah, Wow, so this was my second home.
Speaker 1:I used to take West Gualtwell down. How old were you?
Speaker 2:when you were taking the bus 11.
Speaker 1:Whoa different times, Different times. Different times, Different times man.
Speaker 2:It's funny because back then Newark was much more dangerous it didn't seem like it.
Speaker 1:Really, it didn't seem like it it was. You know, I would walk through Branchbrook Park because I cut through, you know, through the mansions, and go right there. 375, mount Prospect yeah, wow.
Speaker 2:Sure, what a trip. Now let me ask you a question. How did you know you have the quintessential American dream, right You're. You know you're in the single family house Sadly, the divorce right. How do you think being in a single family and the cul-de-sac had impacted you versus if you had lived with your father when you had the, you know, the Mount Prospect, newark life?
Speaker 1:well, it's definitely more cush, right, you know, it's that. That, like you said, that all american dream.
Speaker 2:The only thing we didn't have was the white picket fence uh, you know, dog, no golden retriever, we had a dog, we had a collie we had a collie sure and I don't know how it would have been different.
Speaker 1:You know my father is an attorney and he he had his practice in East Orange. He lived in his office for a little while when he first got divorced before he went to the colonnades and we'd have to if we want to go see my father. I would go sleep there. I remember sleeping in like a bookshelf.
Speaker 2:I was a little kid right.
Speaker 1:So it was fun. But who knows, I mean living in Newark. I would stay there over the weekends, it was fun. But who knows, I mean you know, uh, we, you know, living in newark. I would stay there over the weekends, it was fun, I liked it you know, I liked it jj's hot dogs, three for a dollar back then three for a dollar inflation.
Speaker 2:What happened?
Speaker 1:what are they now?
Speaker 2:well, god knows I think it's actually really crazy because I haven't I've spoken, I've asked a lot of people that question. When it comes to like okay, okay, you know how does where you grew up or not where you grew up, but really what you grew up in, affect you, because I think it does play such a big role in our bringing right Real estate. I asked people like one interesting guy. He said very interesting, he was talking about him living in a three family and he said he actually was mind blown that when he realized people have houses where they're the only family that live in them, he was like 12 or 11.
Speaker 1:Is that Avellino? No, I don't. I watch your episodes.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, no it was a guy, kyle Webster, and we are in Pakistan. It was like, oh no, he was sharing about his single family experience but then he ended up buying a two family or something like that single family experience but then he ended up buying a two family or something like that. But the point is, when we are oftentimes not really aware, that people do have, like the multifamily versus single family, our parents own something versus rent something, and it does really shape us when it comes to ability. You had a you and your parents split, granted, but geographically you were very stable and then you kind of had the, you know, the bus life going back and forth. Do you think things would have been different if you just moved to Newark full time? How do you think that would have impacted you?
Speaker 1:I think you know and listening to how you rephrase that, you know and explain it, you know, um, I don't think I had the mindset where I. I looked at it. I didn't look at the where I grew up or what I grew up in until I was into real estate.
Speaker 2:Really.
Speaker 1:Yeah, until my late 30s.
Speaker 2:When did it click to you? Wow, when did it click to you that your mom owned the house?
Speaker 1:When she kept getting threats of losing the mortgage you know, losing the house because she couldn't afford the $263 mortgage and the electric get turned off because she chose to pay the mortgage bill instead of the electric bill. We'd have to cook or the gas, so we have the psng. We'd have to cook our food in the um, in the fireplace wow we had a fireplace though you know. So I kind of I realized that then, when I was 12, 11, 12, 13, 14, that, wow, we had a mortgage well and we didn't grow up.
Speaker 1:You know it was a very contentious divorce yeah and and so my mother struggled a lot she struggled. So I knew then that she was, and she would tell me she's trying to keep the house. Trying to keep the house, well, how does that shape your mind.
Speaker 2:you're 13. You can't really comprehend that your dad's on the and she would tell me she's trying to keep the house, trying to keep the house. Whoa, how does that shape your mind? You're 13. You can't really comprehend that your dad's not in the house. You're kind of like the man of the house but not the man of the house. You know what I mean. Yeah.
Speaker 1:Are you thinking in your mind like oh I got to start shoveled driveways back in the day, probably before you were born. There was an oil embargo when Carter was president and I couldn't have been more than 14 years old I'd have to look at the years but my brother and I went and bought like three dozen donuts and a couple boxes of coffee and would sell coffee and donuts on the lot, because you couldn't get gas in your car every day of the week.
Speaker 1:So if you had an odd license plate. You can go on like Tuesdays and Thursdays.
Speaker 2:Wow.
Speaker 1:And evenings would be Monday, wednesday, friday you know, the opposite days, so we would go. There'd be long lines at the gas station. Wow, you'd have to wait 45 minutes an hour to get gas.
Speaker 2:Wow.
Speaker 1:Back in the late 70s I guess it was well early 80s whenever carter was president and we would sell donuts.
Speaker 2:So we're always entrepreneurial shoveling driveways always looking to make money do you think you would have had that if your mom was in a better financial position?
Speaker 1:I don't know I I could you know. Looking at, I see my son, who's 13 years old, who lives a very cush lifestyle.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And you know the neighbors, they live it too. They're always selling. They're coming to buy In school. They sell. You know, they make bracelets. So they go out and say hey, let's just make bracelets and sell them Every other week. Can we break your lawn, can we do this?
Speaker 2:Your neighbors are saying to you, yeah, can we do this? Your neighbors are saying to you, yeah, is your son asking you? No, can I be honest with you? This is actually a big way that real estate has impacted my life. I had a very similar upbringing. My parents split. They had not a contentious divorce, but they had a tragic marriage.
Speaker 1:It was the only term I'd use.
Speaker 2:The whole thing was just tragic, evicted multiple times and I had this like innate. My brothers and my sisters we all have. None of us are lazy, not one of us. But I had a disproportionate amount of like workaholism in me at an early age, contrast to my siblings, from my experience right, a lot of drive each one of us. We had nothing like you're saying. I remember growing up and like all never even having the opportunity to you know. And then when I work with clients I'm so careful when I tell them about how buying a house I'm like you're not looking to become a home buyer, you gotta become a homeowner. That means you have to make sure you're making really good financial decisions, really good at your company. My mom, my dad, they really couldn't provide the financial when I was 13, 12 years old, 14. I would literally door knock saying, hey, do you need help bringing in groceries any? A? Literally like I was in the 1960s movies. I think whatever you need help with I'm, I live this house, this tree. You can always ring doorbell, let me know. Boom, promise. We move so often, right? So that was a little bit of a negative head, but, um, that was a Swiss, but I would go, and I was. I was shovel, shovel, all stuff. And now I have a one-year-old. A one-year-old, I'm four-month-old and I'm.
Speaker 2:One of my biggest fears I share with my wife is I go. I don't want him to grow up weak. I don't want him to grow up spoiled. I want him to be a silva, strong and like driven sure. And she goes, like you know. The only way that's gonna like the degree it happened with you is if you're, if our son experienced like deep trauma. I'm like there has to be another way. She goes, brendan, you, you and your brothers are savages Like there's. Like I'm not in a good way either. My wife is not saying this in a positive, you know framework. By any means, don't get it twisted.
Speaker 1:But, eric, I look at this now out and I my fear is that my son will be like 14 and he will not door knock for shuffling. You know it's uh, I think it's. It has to do a combination of and he grew up in uh in a country in africa. He didn't grow up, he's my son yeah, stepson oh so wow, so he grew up in angola, portuguese and, and you know um, he came here when he was five and they didn't have a lot, and so you would think, coming here now, but he acclimated real quickly.
Speaker 1:And he went to school here for his first year, right, you know, in a private school in Newark. And so when he came to the suburbs, quote, unquote, you know like he got real used to it, he got Americanized real quick.
Speaker 2:Wow, it's funny how adaptable children are. Huh, you drop them off, they'll absorb the culture.
Speaker 1:Yeah, exactly, exactly so. Um, you know, I was taking home from football practice one day and and I was saying look, I go, what do you? Want to be when I grow up? I always that's my question. I asked my niece that, when she was like seven. She's like uncle, please wait 10 years?
Speaker 2:Talk to me when I'm 17.
Speaker 1:It's a question I ask all the time. So he's like, oh, leave me alone. Yo I want to play football. I'm like, all right, let's have it out right now. You're good at football and he's good, let's just assume, let's just say for argument's sake, it's not your go-to.
Speaker 1:What are you gonna do? Like you can start today at he's 13 years old? Yeah, build it now, you could. You could start today. No one can stop you from thinking a certain way. Yeah, and that's so, you know. Like that's what I try to impress upon them is how to think. Like is you have a choice? You can be on the video games all day. Yeah, you could worry about growing your hair and your face like the north, like the kids do today, yeah you could put on your silly cologne before you go to school and wear your slippers and sweats to school.
Speaker 1:It doesn't make any sense you're worried about how you smell, but you look like a dumb, he's like a bum, but um, you know you could do that. Or you could be different and you could think differently. And look at the kids, the neighbors I always say say that, look at the neighbors, why are they always trying to sell something? And it's not really about the money, no, no, no, it's not. It's about how you think, because how you show up there is going to how you show up everywhere. We've heard that before. And what you can do, who you can impact. If you happen to be an earner, to be an earner, if you happen to get lucky enough where you are an earner, who could you impact?
Speaker 2:I think it's one of the biggest underrated factors when it comes to building wealth and getting into real estate. When you get into most people I've learned, when they get into real estate sales, they're doing it to make some money and get themselves afloat. Okay, so you do that for a year, two, three, four years. Now you're stable, right, You're doing very well. Perhaps you're making 150, 200 grand.
Speaker 2:Whoa good, the real X factor like the exponential, like you know right, growth, the quantum leap in the KW world is really when you realize that could happen for others, that you can play a vital role in others. And then for me, what happened was it's not what transferred my mind, was it's not even just about the that I can help others, Not just, you know, of course, homebuyers, home sellers great, but my employees, my staff, right, my team, because what I learned from them, what I learned from that is I have the opportunity, I have the privilege, and I would even say, like the calling, the responsibility, the responsibility.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:It's a burden, yeah, but it's a good burden. Yeah, you know one of the things I'll tell you um a few years ago, when I was in the montclair office I'm running around, I'm cranking, doing a lot of 50 deals a year, whatever it is right and I was going through like a, a couple week of a, like a low emotionally. I was a little depressed, right I don't know what it was, I was. It wasn't like money related.
Speaker 2:Yeah, doing well.
Speaker 1:Doing very well, my buddy said. He said why don't you go see my therapist? I said, all right, I can make the call, set up an appointment. It's at three o'clock on whatever day, so I go to sleep that night. The next morning I wake up I look at my calendar. Oh, I got to teach a class at one o'clock. I'm like I do not want to teach a class, but I had to suit up and show up. So I did just that and I showed up and there's like 60 people in this class. They're all filling in, I'm like, and I had to fake it Because inside I was kind of like not Been there.
Speaker 1:I was not great by the end of the class and you know if you've taught a class before people come up to you afterwards. Oh my God, it was so amazing and I just I felt I got in my car, I felt like I was on cloud nine. You know, because you're pouring into other people.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:And I'm like I don't need therapy, I just need to go out and help somebody. Boom, it was like that.
Speaker 2:You have like the boom, you know the bomb. That's Bradley Bradley. Yeah, his bomb bite.
Speaker 1:And so that's what it was. I was like, wow, I mean, look, it's not the first time I've done it, but it just kind of all clicked. At that point I was like, wow, I just need to. I went to therapy.
Speaker 2:I should have canceled it for 250 bucks I could have just taught another class. You know, even get paid for the class exactly.
Speaker 1:Get a referral but but you know, no, it's. You know what it's the reward and it sounds corny. The reward is being able to pour into someone, and one of the things I love best and you know because you have a team is I like to. Sometimes I I cringe at the thought of taking a newbie on, but when they click and they're coachable and they do what you tell them, what you suggest, I'm not gonna say what I tell them yeah, here's the. Here's the recipe to make the pie literally step by step this is how to do it.
Speaker 1:I got a guy he came out of right in the beginning of the covid uh first year made over $175,000 in his pocket after splitting, you know. So he did very well On the team On the team.
Speaker 2:So you see that this guy was bringing it in, yeah, yeah, huge. Now, what do you think the difference is? I guess a little bit away from how real estate impacts our lives, but you know and my team is interesting because we're much more uniformed, right like there's like a cluster of income, does not like we don't have one person all the way up here, one person below, it's all clustered. Maybe a little bit of a high trend a few. But my question is what would you say the difference is between those who are able to earn 175 000 net after team splits, versus those who just can't break 20 or 40 or 50k? What do you see the difference being?
Speaker 1:there's a specific recipe to success in in most businesses. Ours is pretty simple right, it's a contact sport. Unless you're spending, you know, tens of thousands of dollars every month, have the leads come to you, which is usually not the case when they're new. Right, you have to. You have to go out and get find the business. So I tell all my newbies it's contact sport.
Speaker 1:Make a lot of contacts, start with your friends and family and go from there yeah you know, once you get comfortable with that, or just cold call neighborhoods yep, so making those phone calls, we're, we're there's a number one difference.
Speaker 2:You would say the action and the consistency.
Speaker 1:Action and consistency.
Speaker 2:Wow, I will agree with you 110%. The reason why I know this is because I have a team member. He's not predisposed to being a salesperson and, granted, I think sales is all skills. I think there is a personality that leads you to be more conducive to the adapting and the, you know, the enhancement of those skills and the frameworks mentally. And you know, I do agree, you have an introverted salesperson. It's really just skills, but at the same time there is a natural component that does accelerate the development.
Speaker 2:He's the opposite. He would be like remedial, he'd be challenged. I tell him all the time, like if we were in school, you would not be able to be in the normal classes, you would have to, because it's just that there's a gap, like literally he doesn't know how to walk. And the thing I love about him is he's the best. He's team member of the month right now.
Speaker 2:He he had the best quarter of his life q1. He had like seven deals under contract and, uh, seven or eight deals under contract q1. I closed six deals on top of that. Yeah, six deals closed seven, eight in a in a conference. It's a very good month, a very good quarter for an agent. Great, I'm very proud of him. The thing I love about him is that he got better skills, but overall it was the consistency and the actions he took on the dialer showing up on the office, not this virtual do your own thing. Like barry, he leaned in. That led him to the growth and I found that you're right consistency in the actions, with those consistency let me, let me I'm going to put it a little more into context.
Speaker 1:So the gentleman I'm speaking about, who did really well when he called me up and he wanted to interview new agent new agent wasn't licensed at the time.
Speaker 1:oh, he sounded and I don't mean this to be judgmental on anyone on the way they sound, but I judged him over the phone. I'm like, okay, this guy's not. He sounded like he had marbles in his mouth. He sounded like he was as young as he was and I'm like, call me at 4.43 next Tuesday. I was giving him weird things and he would call me and he followed up and he followed up. I'm giving him weird things and he would call me, he followed up and he followed up. I'm like, all right, I'll let him, that's a good test.
Speaker 1:Then he comes in and he says I want to join your team. At the time it was just myself and an assistant. I'm like why don't you go home and think about that Two or three times? He comes After coming in the third or fourth time I said I'm going gonna let this guy join my team. He was coachable. He wasn't good on the phones yeah you don't have to be great, you just have to do it.
Speaker 1:yeah, and you know it probably took him nine months until he was where I would say it's okay, it's going to be okay. I mean, he blew it for nine months, but he failed forward.
Speaker 2:He got a few deals.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, All friends and family. He did exactly what I told him to do All friends and family, all friends. He did nine deals in his first nine months. A deal a month.
Speaker 2:Can't get mad.
Speaker 1:Not mad.
Speaker 2:Can't get mad.
Speaker 1:He had like 45 grand dirt when he started the week before the covid shutdowns. Oh, 2020, and so that was march, I believe.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so april, may june the rest of the year he wasn't probably probably got more because you got shut down those first two or three months.
Speaker 1:You know, I think it is what it is. I think I think he did really well the first 2021 20. That was his first full year yeah, he just he. You know what he did. He stayed on the phones. He knew he wasn't great do you know?
Speaker 2:I live on the phone to this day.
Speaker 1:I live I gotta get back on I live on the phones.
Speaker 2:I don't want to do it like to me. I go through seasons, I do. I will say where I lose my consistency, and this is what usually happens. I ride the roller coaster of sales. It's a little so, the roller coaster of prospecting, and this is what usually happens. I ride the roller coaster of sales, so the roller coaster of prospecting, and this is one way real estate has taught my life, right, because I always love to take real estate lessons and apply it to my daily life.
Speaker 2:If I am, let's say, loving on my wife, right, we're taking her on dates. I'm providing, you know safety, emotional safety. I'm writing her letters. I'm taking her, you know safety, I'm writing her letters. I'm taking her flowers. I'm just calling her, checking in on her, all these things, and she starts feeling really loved. She feels really loved. So what does she do? She returns the respect, right, she respects and she celebrates me and all these things. And then I'm feeling respected, I'm feeling this way. So then I say you know, I did my job, you're good, I'm good, I'm going to relax for a little while.
Speaker 1:You got it in the bank.
Speaker 2:I go watch a movie at night instead of talking to her. You know, maybe I Google, maybe I'm home and I'm on Instagram, or perhaps I stop making that call and I stop dropping stuff. I get very comfortable, I'm good, I got some deals in the pipeline. Eventually, what ends up happening very quickly is that my wife she turns and that good cash that was coming in on those deals, just like your wife it turns. So I realized one way real estate really has impacted my life is it's taught me that every single thing in my life, in order to grow, it needs to be maintained.
Speaker 2:Like in order for it to stay like have you ever sold someone's house and it's like this person's been there for like 40 years, 50 years. But you walk in and you're like man, it's not updated, it's not renovated, the kitchen's old. But then you get downstairs to the boiler room and the furnace, the water heater pristine, the plumbing pristine. The siding clean Roof new. Inside, nothing fancy. Outside, nothing fancy.
Speaker 1:They maintained the bones yeah M Inside nothing, fancy, outside nothing fancy.
Speaker 2:They maintained the phones yeah, maintained Slowly, surely, by quality, not cheapening out Every single month.
Speaker 2:They made sure it was touched. Oh, you know the water heater? We got to drain it, oh, really, oh, whatever it was, you know, and I find that same way with agents on the phones. It's all about consistency and I really find that with things in my life. I I really find that with things in my life. I know a man. His car went to 200, his Honda went to 270 something thousand miles. It was insane. His Honda Civic was like 270, it was 300,000 miles his car. I was like how the heck did you do it? He goes I take superb, superb care of my car and I'm like no duh, okay. So let me ask you back to kind of more rapid fire. How has you know? You're let me know if I got it right You're a real estate agent right now. You, I am, you're a developer, you're buying. You have one deal right now that I saw on Instagram recently. Was that the deal you mentioned in Montclair? You had a deal, what was that one that you just were going to knock that?
Speaker 1:one Some of the videos. Yeah, is in Teaneck.
Speaker 2:Oh, teaneck. How is the Teaneck market? Is it hot? It is, I don't even know. I'm sure everything's hot right now. It's crazy. Where is Teaneck? Bergen County, bergen County.
Speaker 1:I have no idea where that is. Yeah, it's five minutes from the George Washington Bridge.
Speaker 2:Oh wow, so it's a perfect location.
Speaker 1:It is. It's crazy, we'll see. I say well, we got to take this, was the concept? Surprise you.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you were like how are these things selling for this price?
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Now, when you're looking for deals, it can be risky, right? I'm sure you've lost money eventually. I have not. You have not lost money. Oh, now I got to ask you this how do you go into deals managing the risk without losing your head? Managing the risk without losing your head?
Speaker 1:Without losing my head or losing the money.
Speaker 1:The head You're getting obsessed, focused, stressed out, losing your temper. You know I like to say I go on my gut, but it's not, it's experience, right. And we look at deals. My partner does say when it comes time to actually pricing it, when we're done, he goes why is it taking so long for you to figure out the price? You do this all day long. If I it was, why is it taking so long for you to figure out the price? You do this all day long. If you, if I was a listing appointment, you'd come in, you'd tell me what it is and that's it done. It's my own. It's like I haven't off for two weeks on how to price it really I do.
Speaker 1:I get a little weird. Get a little weird, but the reality. We just did one in montclair. We bought it for 728. We put in only 80 grand. I listed it back on the market for 748 montclair market. That was insane sold it for 300 000 over the asking price, yeah, but I knew if I I knew that if I listed for like 950 yeah I probably only gotten 50 000 over.
Speaker 2:That's the way it works no, montclair, I agree with you, understand. It's one of the strangest things to me in the world. Right, it's the only place where you can overprice a property by not pricing it low enough under the value. So by overpricing doesn't mean you actually price it more than it's worth, you just didn't price it low enough. They want it to go to 300K, so that's a home run deal. You buy it for 730, you put in 80K, you're all in. Let's say 840, 830, whatever.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think we were all in just about 810. 8, I think we were all in just about 810. 810, okay, not counting cost of money.
Speaker 2:Let's say cost of money, then even 840,. Whatever it is 840, 850. Yeah, 850. Okay, great, 850,. You end up selling it for 1.1?
Speaker 1:1,047,000.
Speaker 2:1,047,000?.
Speaker 1:Yeah, a long way from selling donuts, although we could get higher in our own supply when we're selling the donuts come on. So so you know. But we're doing another one in montclair.
Speaker 2:We're going to close next week walk me through your process, like your relationship with money. How has it transformed from the kid selling donuts to the guy who, just you know, you and your partner brought in like 200 grand profit on a deal I'd like I'd like to say that, uh, I have a high respect for money and I make all the right moves.
Speaker 1:I'd lying, I'm not saying I don't respect money, but I haven't made all the right moves with the money in my past and I bring in some partners so on my deals I usually own 30% to 40% of the deal.
Speaker 1:My partner and I will own anywhere from 60% to 80% of the deal and we then raise the capital to fund the deal. My partner and I will go anywhere from 60% to 80% of the deal and we then raise the capital to fund the deal. So I have very little money in the deal and for me it's a steward to the results. I'm a steward to the profit. I got to make sure the deal makes money for other people.
Speaker 2:Have you been in a position where you've lost money for others? No, thank God, really Thank thank god.
Speaker 1:that is a very rare thing yeah, we've done 21, 21, 19, 20, either between 19 and 20. We're trying to figure that out now because we're looking at a new lender, so we gotta put our resume together and let's call it 20 deals. We I was like every one of them have done really well, really well, wow.
Speaker 2:One of the things I've been so blown away by is, oftentimes people raise money for a deal, they feel this pressure to oh, I got to pay back my investor's profits. When I think to myself, though, if you're an investor, aren't you putting in the money? Realizing this is a risk? So if the person who brings you the deal loses money, you also, as the investor, you should lose money too, but I feel like that's not what happens.
Speaker 1:That's not what happens, people who raise money.
Speaker 2:They always want to pay back everyone. I'm like if I give you money and you lose my money, I'm going to be pissed off, but you better have lost money too, if you lose money too and I lose money too.
Speaker 1:We had a deal two deals ago where we usually shoot for a minimum of $100,000 profit, usually get it done within six months. Well, this deal was not as juicy. It turned out we were only making like $70,000. And as we were closing, I'm running the numbers like wow, it looks like we're only making $50,000. And I had like four investors in the deal and I was committed. At that point in time I said, look, if we make less than 50 grand, even if we only made 50 grand, they would have made 20% of their money. Not bad. But it wasn't what I said they were going to make and I was going to make like 200% because I put in a little bit of money. So I said, look, if we're only at 50 grand or less than 50 grand grand or less than 50 grand, I'm gonna then supplement from my profits. Oh, because you know what?
Speaker 1:again, if I made 100 instead of 200, I'm I'm fine, I still make the commission when I sell the deal yeah uh, I made the commission when I found the deal so you're getting, you're baking in the profits I'm making money I'm doing well, I wanted to make sure that my people, you know that what I said was going to happen happens.
Speaker 2:How would you say that real estate has impacted the way you view your reputation Versus someone who's not in real estate?
Speaker 1:let's say someone who's W-2,.
Speaker 2:They live a great life, very, you know.
Speaker 1:You know it's interesting. You say that because this last Build it Now during and after the event, I, during and after the event, I'm getting people texting me saying, hey, could you look at some deals with me? They want to do deals. In fact, I have two people from Build it Now who are invested in this deal.
Speaker 2:This one is coming up.
Speaker 1:They want to invest money. They don't know what to do with it. They don't know how to do it. So I said the only way I'll take your money is if you pay attention and you let me teach you as we're doing. But they came to me because they trust me and they see the history and they know me before building now.
Speaker 1:They know me as a real estate agent, a broker, and so I think the way I view it and the status is, I'm lucky. I'm lucky I drive home a lot of nights and I'm like this is my life. This is pretty cool.
Speaker 2:What about your life now? That you would attribute to real estate makes you feel so fortunate?
Speaker 1:People are usually their worst own enemy, including myself. You know this If you're talking to somebody and you're going on a listing, sometimes the way the questions or the things people think they're like, oh I got to. You know, sometimes the way the questions or the things people think they're like, oh, I got to. You know sales is like winning people over is converting people to think the way you know, to your way of thinking. And it's not because I'm looking to get something out of them, it's because a lot of times they're their worst own enemy.
Speaker 2:Ah, I gotcha.
Speaker 1:Right. So I think it's a pretty cool career we have and it's a big ticket item. You're helping someone preserve the equity in their home many cases right and I just think that's a really cool thing that we get to. There's been sellers who have thought a certain way which would have been detrimental to their financial health, and then I get in there and I shoot it straight from the hip. You know, I don't care if you like me or don't like me.
Speaker 2:This is the truth I one uh massive way. Real estate has impacted me as a person is growing up. I, you know, I got bullied a lot right. So I I found myself as like a response, uh, desperately doing what I can to get validation of others right. That was like my response, right, so I would do whatever I needed to do, be whoever I needed to be, say whatever I needed to say to get people to like me. My life basically plummeted at 20, where basically everyone who liked me was like, oh, this guy is not the guy for us. So that, like you know, I kind of had the rug swept under, pulled from underneath me.
Speaker 2:And what real estate did, though? It taught me that even the people you think love you don't actually love you. They love what you can offer them at that moment. And it taught me how fickle people can be and the perspective. So it kind of, you know, I would love to say and hand in hand with that.
Speaker 2:At the same time, I really did have like a lot of like discovery where it came to like you know, okay, you know I'm trying to fill my cup with, like you know, accomplishments, recognition. That's empty, right, you can pour forever. And then also you get like the aspect of God For me I'm a Christian I feel like, oh, god really loves me. This is like what does it actually mean, which they say? Well, I was reading this book. It says the hardest thing to actually believe is that God can love you. It's like the hardest belief a human can go after is actually to understand that he is loved in and of like, without meritocracy, like undisputed, like unconditional, anyways, whole point there is.
Speaker 2:Real estate has taught me that to drive yourself for the recognition and or approval of others is a black hole of a life. It's just pure misery. Here's why Tony Robbins says this. He says for all driven people. Right, I'm actually a really big fan. I used to hate Tony Robbins, but I just have nothing. The more I get into this guy, the more I love him. Honestly, I think he's very brilliant.
Speaker 1:Anyways, he says Did you ever walk on coal? No, no, no, my brother has to actually.
Speaker 2:You did, you went. Ah, upw Unleash Power Thin yeah year november. Yes, he was definitely my first year in real estate. Uh, I was at exit realty lucky, and they came in selling tickets. I'm like I'm not gonna go. But now I'm like if I went I would have made so much more money. I gotta go.
Speaker 1:So um, I distract you to go.
Speaker 2:Yes, but the point is he goes. Have any of you guys always had a goal you always want to achieve and you have a hat. You haven't been able to hit it because how many of you guys feel empty because of that? No one raised raised their hand. Everyone felt driven right, they were frustrated perhaps, but no one felt empty. Right he goes. How many of you guys have had a goal you sacrificed? For me, it was the recognition of others, the validation of others, the acceptance of others, and once you got it, a feeling of dread came upon you, complete, utter meaninglessness. And that's what happened to me. I got the validation. I was like, yeah, and I realized I had gotten the validation because what I've done not really a true description of who I am it's interesting.
Speaker 1:It's interesting as you're talking, I'm thinking to myself, I'm like yeah, I I. I wasn't bullied as a, but I was the long-haired, you know outcast in a school more about it, you know and uh, so I just, I just I marched to a different beat yeah and um. So I really care what people I always had. That I didn't really care.
Speaker 1:I never cared what anyone thought about me and growing up, when I, when I say I drive home sometimes and I'm like wow, how is, how is this my life? You know, I got kids. I got a four-year-old and a three-year-old, two daughters, not just kids, oh my daughters, god bless you.
Speaker 1:Two girls right, and it's like I am so blessed. I am so blessed to have this opportunity to be a man among men. It's really changed the way I look at things. Am I looking for their validation? No, I just wanna be a good. I just want to be a good man. Yeah, I'll be good father. Yep, first and foremost, a good dad. Mm-hmm, and treat people are the way I want to be treated. Right, we had a thing, right mm-hmm, we went back and forth.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we went back and forth right.
Speaker 1:yeah, we went back and forth, right, we had a little thing and after we closed the deal, little words, and for the next year I had a little bit of a like a Bad taste A little bad taste, right, yeah, merited, warranted, warranted. You know I kept doing my thing. You know you're not thinking about me.
Speaker 2:I'm 99 percent of time not thinking about it.
Speaker 1:Once in a while I see a post, I'm like this guy yeah and then I and then no.
Speaker 2:No, we're human man yeah, that's believe me, I have done a lot worse and I called you up.
Speaker 1:It took me about a, about an hour to decide. I'm gonna call the guy or text I don't know if I texted you or called you or whatever. I'm going to reach out, ask you to contribute at Build it Now yeah, Because I know you bring value. And I said what am I going to hold a resentment, hold a grudge? How's that going to do anything for anyone?
Speaker 2:Man, your wisdom is so high.
Speaker 1:You know, and ain't my pride, because any resentments I had it's all inside here. It's got nothing to do with anyone else. I'm sitting here, you know. It's like what do they say resentments like I want to get this right. It's drinking the poison, it's hating you enough, but I drink the poison, something like that it's like you're drinking the poison, hoping the other person's gonna die.
Speaker 2:Exactly yeah, right now I I will say you're 100 of the money, and I have found, though, the only good news about my like. One of the good pieces of good news is the more and more and more I've actually like taking care of myself and love myself, the less and less and less I'm a jerk to other people, because what I realized in that moment, it's like I'm so pissed off already. You're just you're like, and it's not. I'm not excusing the behavior that when I like lost my cool, but I have actually, I would love to say. That was the only example, but one of the things that I really heal from.
Speaker 2:I'm all about now, and that's why I'm big believer in the podcast, because I want people to see like you can achieve great things at the cost of your own well-being, and then what you have when you look behind you, isn't the pod just pot gold. The pot gold has a lot of blood in it because there's a trail of bodies that you've stepped on. They weren't necessary, right that what it's not like. Oh, I had to do this to get that. That's not what it was. It's like I pushed myself so hard. That was already so stressed out that any person who rubbed me the wrong way I then was like boom.
Speaker 1:You know what? One of the things that made it easy for me to decide is like dude, you're going to be a hypocrite, You're going to hold a resentment, I tell you if I'm going to be a hypocrite.
Speaker 1:That's one thing, but I've done. I had this sweetheart of a real, a realtor out in Pennsylvania who owes a referral fee and KW agent too. Yeah, and it was my, it was my agent on my team who gave her the referral and he's like Eric, it's been like six weeks for since the thing closed. So finally I get involved and she says just send me a referral sheet. And I'm like I'm looking at the text messages, just send me the referral. It didn't go that quiet, it wasn't that calm, though she rubbed me the wrong way.
Speaker 2:I raised my voice to a woman, oh man. I've been there.
Speaker 1:I go home that night I'm thinking, oh man, I called her up the next day and made amends and she was shocked that I made that amends. Good for you, I had to.
Speaker 2:I had to. I had to. I have a friend. She was my. She was a rock star. She became a team member. She was my executive assistant. She was property manager and director ops. I overworked her, I under compensated her and I horribly, horribly, horribly underappreciated and treated her poorly. There's nothing I can do to make that right. At this point we're two years. It was two years into it. She ended up leaving the team. We left on relatively good terms with friends.
Speaker 2:But anytime I talk to her maybe she's listening to podcasts, she knows how I feel but anytime I talk to her I'm reminded, not in a shame way but in like a cautionary tale of if you are going to be a jerk to yourself, you're going to be a jerk to the people closest to you. And the people closest to you they put up with it because they see the best of you. But eventually the slashes add up and you end up just being a jerk. You end up losing the relationship. You end up losing the social capital, losing the relational equity. You end up in a place where you then have the burden, the guilt. They're like're like man. I treated you wrong and I you trusted me to help you grow professionally and as a person. So I mean, I'm I really, and that was. She's a woman, right? And I'm telling you right now my mentality is at all costs, since, like, actually this is probably recent. Maybe September really was a catalyst. The past year actually was a catalyst. Today I turned 30, funny enough, right.
Speaker 2:Happy birthday, thank you. I realized, man, real estate can be very stressful. You can lash out and attack people along the way. You think it's all good because you're just on to the next phone call. But it's not all good and you got to make like I'm very impressed with you Because usually that takes people like months to make that call of like boom. But I love that you made that the next day. I love it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's. You know we were only here for a short period of time. You know and it's like I've learned this in, if anything, in the 55 years on this planet that who knows what could happen right with a relationship and who you can help. You know, I look at it, my Build it Now. Community and the live events for me is about impacting people you know is impacting people?
Speaker 2:And would you have been there if it wasn't for the real estate industry, If it wasn't for? You know, you're in Keller Williams, we're very big into impacting others, but if it wasn't for real estate, do you think you still would have been so eye-opening to the impact of others?
Speaker 1:I probably would. I just don't know if I'd have the vehicle to do it right for what do you mean by vehicle? Well, for years, for years, I'm in real estate 20 years and for years as an agent investor started out as an investor.
Speaker 1:Oh, you started as an investor just for a minute, okay, just for a minute did a deal and then became an agent and then, as I opened up my own brokerage in hoboken, I started investing again. Uh, and and so, in fact, my first flip I assigned a contract. He's now my business partner. He found me on craigslist. I put the ad on craigslist.
Speaker 2:Wow, we're now partners 50, 50 and everything we do you mind sharing that story about how he paid you that first? Yeah you told me at the bar that night.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so we put up bandit signs. In fact I just got 200 bandit signs. We're going back on the road. We're going on the road to put bandit signs out. I'm not going to do it, but one of my guys, so I put bandit signs out. I get this lady in Edgewater. They're going to buy something in Westfield. They got to close in like three weeks and they couldn't sell their condo because the condo was defunct. The association was upside down Condos. So she calls my bandit sign. Things were $300, $325 if it were all normal. It wasn't all normal so I said look, I'll give you $220. They took it.
Speaker 2:They're like we'll take it Should have offered $210,000.
Speaker 1:Well, at first I said $240,000. Then when I got there, I'm like and they said we'll take it, and I said, yeah, I looked at it, it needs to be $220,000. I'm sorry, they said we'll take it.
Speaker 2:Wow.
Speaker 1:Put a $5,000 deposit down, put it on Craigslist to sign, responds. I meet him at Starbucks with his brother, didn't know what I was walking into and he's like what do you own it for? I go, don't worry about what I own it for. What do you want to pay for it? I'll give you $240. I want $280. So I got up and started to walk out. He goes come on back, don't go so quick. I'll give you $265. I said done Whatever, I'll give you $265,000. I said done Whatever it was. I don't know exact numbers. It was like a $32,000 profit. We shook on it and then he found out what I owned it for. Most people would go back to the table. They call it retrade. They renegotiate the deal. It turns out he had to put the $260,000 in another $60,000 to renovate it. He only made like 40 grand.
Speaker 2:Wow.
Speaker 1:I made 32,000 on a $5,000 investment.
Speaker 2:So it was a pretty cool deal. How did you get paid, though? I remember you mentioning something was up with the loan or something. It was like a handshake.
Speaker 1:It was a handshake. We put the deal together. He then lawyers did their thing, and at the end of the deal you know the money goes into an escrow. Yeah, he closes and we take our $35,000 or $37,000 out.
Speaker 2:Oh, okay.
Speaker 1:Because we're $5,000 in plus our profit.
Speaker 2:Oh, that's what it was, yeah.
Speaker 1:So where were we going in the beginning of that?
Speaker 2:I guess how you trust, how you build the relationships impact.
Speaker 1:Would I have been able to think that through?
Speaker 2:Oh, the vehicle being able to think that through.
Speaker 1:Oh, the vehicle, right, the vehicle. So all these years I've known Ray for 15 years and over the 15 years I say, hey, I want to, let's do this.
Speaker 2:Ray's a business partner.
Speaker 1:Yeah, okay, I said let's do this for the kids. I wanted to create a competition for 16-year-olds to get into business with their parents. You know, the parents would be their coaches and the go out and start a little business and they'd only be able to take $150 for a loan from their parents and that's it, no more. And they've got to figure out how to make a little business out of that. We'll do a national contest throughout the year.
Speaker 1:He said, oh, it sounds pretty cool. He went back to work and I went back to work. Nothing ever happened. All these little ideas, and it was from training. You've done a lot of training classes, I'm sure and the way it makes you feel.
Speaker 1:And then I had this last, the first, the building now prior to this one, where I realized like these young kids were on my team and they needed to see that young people were investing in real estate. And it was after that event. I had like 20-year-olds on my stage with 100 doors. I had like young kids on stage that had a lot of doors. Wow, it was after that I realized yeah, that's a trip.
Speaker 1:Yeah, the kid from connecticut uh yeah, that's crazy I mean it's amazing, like what they're doing, young people. So I said this is what I gotta teach these kids to do something earlier rather than wait. My buddy's gonna be 50. He only has like seven or eight doors. I said what would happen if he started when he was 35? Yeah, I said what would have happened to your real estate portfolio if you maybe started 10 years earlier, at 25? He goes oh, I couldn't imagine, right, I didn't do that, I didn't have that that luxury, because I wasn't thinking like that, one of the blessings I've had.
Speaker 2:I don't know why I thought this way. I think, actually I think the reason why because I own right now 20 doors right. Hit 20 doors right uh december of 2024. Now I'm actually at 22, but I'm selling one of the. I'm selling the two family retreat park. That was a good deal too. I bought it for 465, including closing costs wrapped in, and I put 30k in 495. I'm under contract for 560 585, so it's a good, solid deal. Rip it, rip it $70,000 and keep going.
Speaker 1:Do you list that yourself?
Speaker 2:I list it myself. Yes and I disclose. The owner has a real estate license.
Speaker 1:There's nothing wrong.
Speaker 2:And the cool thing, actually sidebar tangent as you can know, my ADHD brain this is what it is is whenever I go to an owner, because down where we're doing, we do two types of uh marketing direct owner mainly. We have, of course, the ads, social media hey, buy your house, sell your house, new york number one, uh no. But in all seriousness, what we're looking at, the first thing we do actually is sms. We mass uh sms. Right, we do not, tcpa compliant most likely. But it's okay, I'm looking forward to the fine one day coming, I'm sure I just I heard this.
Speaker 1:I don't know about it, but I know there's something going on. Yeah, they're like they're cracking down.
Speaker 2:And then the second thing we do is we mail checks to people's houses. That's like our big thing, very expensive, but we just mail checks, mail checks, mail checks. It's very expensive, but whenever I just got a lady called me on a check, we say, a check, hey, we'll pay you this amount for your car. It's like a fake check. Yeah, okay, like the same exact thing Fake check for your house, but it comes up in like a W-2 envelope. It looks good, it looks really real, anyways. So I'm getting all the calls Good idea.
Speaker 2:Please take that note. Oh, it's really good figured. But the point is, when I get the call, I always tell people like hey, we're a real estate company, we can buy your property, we can list your property, whatever it is, we can manage your property. So whenever I go, I think my hacks is I'm so so, so like saying I don't care if they like me or not, I'm so honest Directly in relation to what they need. So if someone's there and him like man, I could put your house on the market today for $500. You get a crazy amount of offers. You probably sell like $550. Who knows? Or I can buy right now at $425. And then he's like I don't want $425. I'll sell it to you for $450, though I go, okay, no problem. So I know the margin was like $550, like pretty much as so now the talent should make me do the work, the 25k. But I got in the back end of the 535.
Speaker 2:The point of the story is the reason why I got into investing and how real estate impacted me, kind of like mentality of people looking down on me. I didn't like that massive ego that ruled my life for pretty much the vast majority of my 20s and probably still in me, is this guy. I was selling him a three-family in the Ironbound. At the time it was $270,000. Very cheap, wow, very cheap. Freaking house seven years ago and it needed about $200,000 worth of work and I was like the whole thing needed to be gutted $150,000 minimum, maybe back then, $150,000. Now it would be like $250,000.
Speaker 2:So I was like, man, this is a home run deal. And I said I never hear what he said. He was basically like why did you just stick to opening the door? He was basically long, short, short is what he said. He's like a very pompous guy. I hadn't sold a deal yet. He's like why don't you just stick to opening up the doors, brandon, let me teach you. And he meant that, I'm sure in a funny mentor way, but kind it kind of was a dick, honestly.
Speaker 1:Right, right, that's kind of what.
Speaker 2:That's actually what would happen, Sure. So from that moment I was like these guys think they're better than me, these investors? I did not like that, I did not like it, I did not like it. So from there I had the mindset to buy. I did not like that's actually really the motivation, so I started buying. I have my 20 doors. I got to tell you something Drastically underrated owning property and we hype it up so much Overrated, Underrated, Underrated, Okay just want to make sure.
Speaker 2:Underrated, Because I'll tell you what I did. It's not about just what you own, it's about really how you run it Right. So for me, majority of my units 12 of my units are Airbnbs. So I'm making like 40% more than my rentals, right? 35% more than my rentals would, and no risk of eviction and freedom, right, If I want to sell them out. But more than that, what I've learned by the like you guys, what if you started at 25? I tell my clients all the time one property, no way to perform that cashflow, is going to change your life. But the moment you own one, you've done the hardest thing ever. You got one. You broke through.
Speaker 2:You broke through. The moment you break through, you now know you can do it again, that's it.
Speaker 2:And now they have those programs, the 5%, you can buy two, three, family, right, all this stuff. So I'm like you can really buy another one. Before it was like, okay, you need $20,000. It's like, all right, very hard, maybe I'll never buy another one, fair. But now with 5% you can really do it. It's really, really possible. So all that to say, I think real estate impacts our lives because once you break through when you're selling the donuts, I guarantee you never thought your life you would ever make it past $60,000, $100,000.
Speaker 2:People think I have. I'm sorry, I'm the donut guy. He does not own it. I'm the donut guy, did we tell?
Speaker 1:that on camera here, or is it that's all right?
Speaker 2:Maybe you could have Donuts by Eric. Maybe that's a brand you give it to all your tenants E&D Eric Donuts.
Speaker 1:E&D Donuts. Yeah, no, it's interesting. You say that Getting that first deal under your belt is the biggest thing. Like I said, I have two agents who've been around 20 and 25 years oh wow and they're investing now for the first time with me in a flip.
Speaker 2:Why do you think agents don't do that? I'm going to be honest it doesn't make sense.
Speaker 1:I don't know Agents are too busy, worried about circle of excellence and getting deals. They just want to survive. At this point right, a lot of agents are just in survival mode.
Speaker 2:Yeah, especially they always have been. Oh, we've always been.
Speaker 1:Well, yeah, agents, you know average agents doing what? Seven deals a year, if they're lucky, oh I heard actually less.
Speaker 2:Well, it is less, but I'm being in the good times You're being nice, it's the good times, right, consistency yeah consistency.
Speaker 1:So they're in survival mode. They don't even think to invest in money. You know it's like you know. Look, I went years. I went years making a couple hundred thousand dollars and didn't invest. I invested in the beginning. What clicked.
Speaker 2:What clicked that? You were like I got to invest. And how old were you when you started investing?
Speaker 1:I was 32. Okay so you were about seven or ten years into the real estate at that point. Uh, four years, four years into it okay.
Speaker 2:So four years in you say, okay, I'm making a few hundred grand, I gotta invest. Yeah, what clicked? Why um?
Speaker 1:because I knew at some point I didn't want to have to hustle every day to make the donuts.
Speaker 2:No pun intended.
Speaker 1:You know got to make the dough. You don't know the commercial.
Speaker 2:To make the dough. I don't Make the donuts, I don't.
Speaker 1:Got to make the donuts to dunk a donuts commercial. So I knew that I wanted to have some sort. And yet here I am flipping homes. I only owned one eight-unit rooming house in Caldwell, sold it. A rooming house in Caldwell, sold it A rooming house. Wow yeah, cash cow, cash cow. Right yeah, cash cow.
Speaker 2:It's the most random investment first property I've heard.
Speaker 1:They have them all over the place, right.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we do rooming houses in our Airbnbs.
Speaker 1:We take a three family nine bedrooms and we do like you run by the room, make it real nice and turn it into an Airbnb.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's $45 a night, $55 a night, $65 a night and we're charged maybe honestly per room. In Newark you can pull in like $1,200 a room.
Speaker 1:For the month.
Speaker 2:For the month, about $1,200,. Maybe a little bit more if you're lucky but at least $14.
Speaker 1:about $600 a month, $600 a month, so it'd be better I was going to buy my partner out and then turn it into a sober house. There's a lot of money in this out here, yep, oh big money.
Speaker 2:There was a guy at your event. He was talking about how they're doing a motel or something like that. I think maybe it was David Choi. Actually, he's saying that he's on a deal where they're making a motel into a homeless shelter.
Speaker 1:Who's going to pay that? The government?
Speaker 2:The government pays it. Yeah, per bed.
Speaker 1:Wow.
Speaker 2:So you can fit like four beds in one room.
Speaker 1:My buddy took a two-family down the shore in Freehold. He was renting two bedrooms, two bedrooms, a two-bedroom, three-bedroom. He was renting for like $800 and $1,200 a month. Renovated it, niceed it into a sober house. He was getting $275 a week per bed. Two beds in each bedroom.
Speaker 2:Oh no.
Speaker 1:Wow, so he's got five beds in the three bed and four bed. I mean, he was making like he went from making $2,100 a month to making $6,000 a month.
Speaker 2:No, yeah, the guy leveled up, yeah. A month no, yeah, the guy leveled up, yeah. So right now I'll give you an example. This is the best case scenario in an Airbnb world. And this kind of money is so funny because when I got into real estate, my goal, eric, was to hit 60K. That was my life goal.
Speaker 1:Well, you know the new number when you ask anyone what it is.
Speaker 2:Oh, I don't know what it is. Okay, yeah, everyone wants to make a hundred grand.
Speaker 1:Where do they come up with this number? That is true, actually, you're right, they don't want to make a hundred grand. That is true. They don't want to do the work.
Speaker 2:No, they don't want to do the work and it's funny too. Now it actually is a lot more work. I don't want. I try not all.
Speaker 1:You don't do anything outside.
Speaker 2:I personally avoid at all costs. I will do it for my friends and family, but I avoid it. If I have a listing for a majority, it could be a $4 million listing, it could be a $2 million listing I don't care, I send my guy, I'm not going. If I have a listing in Rose care, I don't have the. I literally don't care If you're a friend, if you're a family, if I've known you for a long time, like I'm helping a client right now in Rutherford, they're buying a house.
Speaker 2:I really like them. I say no worries, let's go together. It's a hot market, very hot market. I had no idea. I learned a grade and that's where I met Troy. Wow. So with the buyer agency agreements for the first time, right where, like we're saying, the sellers are going to be, it was always this way, but now it's like you need to have signed before you show the buyer agency agreements. We've been charging our clients who are on the buy side about a third of our clients at least about 1% no, actually 1% or more since November 2022. So the past year and four months we've been charging buyers to buy a house with us because we went to a KW Mastermind. It's been going very well. We make a good amount of money. We charged a buyer $10,000 to purchase a house with us here in Newark and it was Regardless if you're paid.
Speaker 1:Regardless Does not matter and still collect the two or two and a half. Yeah, are you allowed to do that.
Speaker 2:No, you're allowed to do it for sure. It was George Velasquez on Bergen Street. He offered $2.25 on a million-dollar sale to three families. We earned $22.5, and we told the buyer when he worked with us. We earned 1% in addition to whatever we're charged paid by the listing side, due on buyer at time of closing period. So total, we got $32.5. The listing agent got less than we did on the buy side and that's happened numerous times. That's usually the other way around.
Speaker 2:Well, it happens numerous times with us because we charge the buyers why we create value. We set the fee, we collect the fee. So we're not shook, but all that says. Now I'm on listing appointments and for the first time, like people used to say before, it used to be difficult, but now they're like legit, they're, I'm happy to pay you 3%. I'm happy to pay you 4%. I'm happy to pay you. No, sorry, not 4. I'm happy to pay you 3%. I'm not offering anything to the buy side and they have this site like they have it ready. So we had a listing recently $950,000.
Speaker 2:And it's funny how real estate impacts you, because when you're in real estate a long time, your friends become realtors On our team. Right, it's for better, for worse. And one thing that happened is a team member said yeah, I have this listing in maplewood, it's going to be 950, I'm getting paid two percent, that's it, the buyer responsible. And one of the team members like I have a buyer for that property, it's not fair, I'm not going to get paid. She's like it's yeah, that's all.
Speaker 2:One of your team members says yeah, my team member said it to the who has a buyer for the property, said it to the other team member, essentially who has a listing, who has that listing Okay. So she was like no, it's not like you got to negotiate. My commission she's like I'm not going to lose the listing because of you. Like you got to have to negotiate this. You can add come in at 970. Right, and you can take that 20K for you. Okay, but it's really not cool and I'm saying it's like this is the new wave.
Speaker 2:Just offer 970.
Speaker 1:Call it a day, it's definitely not time to be lazy.
Speaker 2:I don't work with buyers.
Speaker 1:I have six, seven buyers in 20 years.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I believe it.
Speaker 1:I'd rather be a listing agent. My current told me that years ago.
Speaker 2:Oh the time value is disproportional. Jeff Glover in your building now. He said it's like 18 hours to handle a listing, about 40 hours to handle a buyer, or something like that.
Speaker 1:Well, we come from the same coach, oh really. Oh yeah, he's a big Mike Ferry guy.
Speaker 2:Really.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and we are. The listing agent is the employer and the buyer's agents are the employees. And I remember when I first got married to my wife she would say I'll be home at dinner time. I don't work nights and weekends. In fact I don't work Fridays anymore. I'm done Thursday at 3 o'clock. I don't come back until Monday. Once in a blue moon I'll have to go on a listing.
Speaker 2:Are you available if needed on phone calls?
Speaker 1:Yeah, of course, I do take probably too many phone calls than.
Speaker 2:I care to.
Speaker 1:I do an all-team call.
Speaker 1:at 11 o'clock on Friday I meet with my director of ops on 10 o'clock For 10 to 12, I work on Friday. I don't take clients out. I've created that life by design, so to speak. I don't work. I remember at dinner time I'd be answering the phones a lot two, three, four years ago. My wife would be like but I remember at dinnertime I'd be answering the phones a lot two, three, four years ago, a lot. My wife would be like, really, eric, and I said I could be out there working. Be grateful, I'm sitting at the table and the schlubs are out there. No offense to the hardworking agents.
Speaker 2:No, but it's a call to really like yeah, I agree On our team. We have a paid showing assistant, paid, they don't have to pay, we pay for them. They'll show the property for you.
Speaker 1:Good, and I always tell myself I mean, the agent doesn't pay.
Speaker 2:The agent doesn't pay, the team pays. Very good setup. Licensed showing agent Wow, free. I'm like why are you guys going to push yourself? Just send the showing agent Coach the buyer beforehand, coach the buyer after. You can always go to the property the next morning, it's okay.
Speaker 1:You know, agents think they have to be the one and the client doesn't want you to be.
Speaker 2:If you have a client who wants you to be the one, it's very simple. You need to educate the client.
Speaker 1:Hey, if I'm the one you're going to hate me Because I'm the only one You've got to set expectations. That's it. My business partner, ben, showed me an agent on the team who's doing about 120 buyers a year. I go how is that possible? And he still has a life. He's got two showing partners. We call them showing partners. They go out. He pays them. I bet they get paid well Showing partners are making $150,000 a year.
Speaker 2:Yeah, if you're a beast, yeah $150,000 each.
Speaker 1:Oh, they're beasts, you know, because they're doing a tremendous amount of business. Each showing partner is doing 40, 50 deals a year.
Speaker 2:And they're going to home inspections. They're going to proposals, everything so he's doing the consult handoff. It's almost like a buyer's agent almost, but he's doing the negotiation.
Speaker 1:Right, he does it from inside the armchair.
Speaker 2:I like the armchair. I need a good armchair in my life. I'm an armchair. I need a good armchair. In my life I'm an armchair guy. Alright, eric, I do want to say thank you so much for coming on I appreciate it Everyone. Better go to Build it Now in the next event.
Speaker 1:October, october. Build it Now is coming.
Speaker 2:Where do you think it's going to be?
Speaker 1:It's either going to be here in Newark.
Speaker 2:We're looking for hotels Either in.
Speaker 1:Newark or Parsippany or somewhere in the north.
Speaker 2:Right here. How many people do you usually have? What would be your goal for building now?
Speaker 1:We're looking at 250 this next one.
Speaker 2:Where can you?
Speaker 1:have. So I need a space, but I need we have breakout rooms. We need 250 in one room and then the next day we're coming back to do breakouts and masterminds. So I'm going to need a moderator of this type of mastermind, a moderator for the Airbnbs, a moderator for you know, for Matt 250 people is a big squad.
Speaker 2:For Matt, 250 people is a big squad, it's big.
Speaker 1:I don't know where you're going to fit 250 people in Newark. You can't go with most hotels. It's got to be the bigger hotels, some bigger hotels. I've been talking to some hotels in Parsippany. Yeah, Parsippany has big hotels Most of the hotels that I've been to in the past are like 120 max. That's what I'm saying, wherever it is in.
Speaker 2:October. You, we'll figure it out. Wherever it is in October, you better come, if you don't come stop following the podcast. All right, Adios, guys.
Speaker 1:Peace.
