Good Neighbor Podcast South Charlotte
Bringing Together Local Businesses and Neighbors of South Charlotte.
Good Neighbor Podcast South Charlotte
Ep. # 130 Why the Right Real Estate Advice Makes All the Difference in Charlotte's Booming Market
Charlotte's transformation from a mid-sized Southern city to a booming metropolis reveals itself through the experiences of those who've witnessed it firsthand. Mike Sposato, owner of Carolina Realty Advisors, shares his remarkable journey from corporate burnout to real estate entrepreneur – a path sparked by his own negative experiences as a first-time homebuyer in the 1990s.
"The first three properties that I purchased, unfortunately, I had some pretty bad experiences with real estate agents," Mike reveals, detailing how one agent never disclosed they represented the seller, leading him to overpay significantly compared to his neighbor with an identical property. This frustrating experience became the foundation of his business philosophy: "The right real estate advice makes all the difference."
With nearly 25 years in the industry, Mike offers a unique perspective on Charlotte's evolution. He's watched the city climb from roughly the 45th largest in America to the top 15, with neighborhoods like South End expanding so rapidly they've spawned new sub-districts. Unlike many specialists who focus narrowly on specific areas, Mike handles both residential and commercial transactions across both Carolinas, including waterfront properties on the region's popular lakes.
The current market presents fascinating challenges. Many homeowners with mortgages at historically low rates (2.5-4%) are reluctant to sell, limiting inventory and pushing buyers toward new construction on Charlotte's periphery. However, Mike predicts interest rates dropping below 6% by mid-summer, potentially stimulating more movement. Beyond his business success, Mike's community involvement – particularly helping bring the Charlotte Knights baseball stadium to uptown as president of the Third Ward Neighborhood Association – showcases his commitment to the city's growth.
Ready to explore Charlotte's real estate opportunities with an advisor who truly understands the market's past, present, and future? Connect with Mike Sposato and discover how the right guidance can transform your next property transaction.
Carolina Realty Advisors
Mike Sposato
(704) 619-7070
mike@carolinarealtyadvisors.com
is the Good Neighbor Podcast, the place where local businesses and neighbors come together. Here's your host, Regina Lee.
Speaker 2:Hello everyone and welcome to another episode of the Good Neighbor Podcast. I'm here in the Charlotte area, my favorite thing to do is talk with local business owners, and I had the pleasure of meeting Mike Sposato a few months ago, and I invited him to the show because not only is he interesting, but he's also a great person. Welcome, mike.
Speaker 3:Thanks for having me how you doing.
Speaker 2:Absolutely so. I know you are the owner of Carolina Realty Advisors and I would love for you first to tell us how you got into real estate in Charlotte.
Speaker 3:So when I first moved to Charlotte this has been a while, 1996. And when I first came into town I had a business to business sales job that I really liked and did well with and learned a lot, which is one of the foundations of how I got into real estate. But I learned a lot about, you know, everything from sales marketing, advertising, accounting, business management, sales management, all these sorts of things. And as I was learning in this job I did fairly well and was able to start buying a small rental portfolio of properties around the city. And you know, over time I just you know, with everything I'd learned, I kind of figured well, I could probably do my own business, start my own business, and why am I making all this money for this big corporation? And so it just got to a point where the burnout factor in corporate America was kicking in and I was like you know what? Now's a good time to get into real estate. But the real underlying reason why I got into real estate was on the first three properties that I purchased.
Speaker 3:Unfortunately, I had some pretty bad experiences with real estate agents, the first one specifically. It was interesting because back in that time there was really no Internet marketing. You didn't go online to find listings. You would either drive by a listing, go to an open house or maybe go to a real estate company and see which listings they had. It was a completely different way that you go about buying real estate company and see which listings they had. It was a completely different way that you'd go about buying real estate at that time. And so I happened to be, you know, I was told by one of my customers from corporate America. They're like oh we're, we're building some properties down near Panther stadium. And if I were you as a younger, you know, single guy, I'd go buy property down there Cause it's probably going to be a great investment. And I'm like okay. So I drove by, I saw a sign, you know, for sale sign. I called the number and then someone came out and met me at the property. Well, I didn't know any better because it was my first time buying. So I, this agent, was asking me a lot of questions and I thought they were appropriate questions and you know I answered them all and told her probably too much about my motivation, my financing, my credit, how much I liked the property, et cetera, and when I went to make an offer on the property. It was weird because there was no negotiation whatsoever, none, zero. Like I'd tell my agent what I'd like to accomplish, nothing would happen. I'd suggest it again. It was the seller wouldn't budge phase forward.
Speaker 3:A couple months later, after I'd moved in, um, I got to know one of my neighbors and stopped by their place. They had the exact same floor plan that I had, literally same everything. And we started talking and he was like well, if you don't mind me asking, how much did you pay for your property? And I was like I paid 203. And he's like you paid that much. I'm like, yeah, why? How much did you pay? He said I paid 185.
Speaker 3:I was like, well, how can I be? He's like well, didn't you have your own realtor? I was like I thought I did and what I had was somebody who was representing the seller and never disclosed that. To me that was obviously the worst one and that was the big impetus of why I got into real estate back in the day and why we call our company Carolina Realty Advisors, because I've come to learn that not all realtors are the same and our company slogan is the right real estate advice makes all the difference for our clients and it truly does so. I'm a big advocate of the law of agency now and representing people properly and disclosing all the information that they need to know about and making sure they understand that I'm on their team. I'm not representing the other party and a slew of other things like that, but that's why I got into real estate and it was very important for me back then. It's still very important for me today.
Speaker 2:Well, I know education, you know you know a lot about the city and you know a lot about your industry. So that's amazing. So you live close to the uptown area. What are you seeing in that market? What are some of the trends?
Speaker 3:Well, I mean that's a really good question, you know. I mean South End is booming and growing like crazy, and so much so that they've got little nicknames for it to just be the South End. Now it's low, so lower South End, and they're expanding through other immediate neighborhoods, and so you know kind of what you would expect. I mean, when I first got into, you know, moved to Charlotte 96 I think we were like the 47th or 45th largest city and from what I understand, now we're in the top 15 largest cities.
Speaker 3:And so as you would think, our uptown area is just booming, growing A lot of you know sprawl. Unfortunately, there's a lot of apartment buildings. I'm not a big advocate of those, just because I'd rather see people be stakeholders in their own neighborhood and have that pride of ownership versus transient in and out of you know apartments here and there. But you know it's all in all things are. You know they're going very well.
Speaker 2:It's very, it's incredible. The growth yeah, I think the word is out. Charlotte is a great place to live and you know, with the lakes and everything we have going, what do you think have been the keys to your success in such a competitive industry?
Speaker 3:Great question too. I think it all starts with the way that we approach business. I mean, we are brokers, you know, I want to make that very clear to your listeners. We are real estate agents and real estate brokers. We buy and sell real estate but, that being said, taking the advisory approach on the front end, getting to know our clients, getting to understand their unique situations, checking to make sure there's a good fit to work together, you know, when I say fit, I mean you know, in our initial interviews, do we like each other, do we trust each other, do we feel like we could work well for a period of time?
Speaker 3:Because when you buy or sell real estate it's not lickety split. It's typically going to be anywhere from you know, a minimum of, you know, two to three months, and sometimes it can be. I just had a client I was working with for 16 months before they purchased and closed on the property, and so I think, just initially approaching people with a curious mindset and checking to see if we align, you know, with how we want to do business together, that's the big starting point and from there, the 20, almost 25 years experience I have, I think, benefits a lot of my clients just knowing what to do, when to do it, how to do it, where to do it. That's going to benefit them the most and get them the result they want when they're buying and selling real estate.
Speaker 2:Do you work with many people that are relocating here or most of your clients, already residents of the area?
Speaker 3:Well, you know, we do a lot of marketing and with that we have a lot of out of state people that come here all the time. In fact, I've got three of them under sales contracts to close in the next like two weeks. That's just me personally. Our company has several more, of course, and I have a whole slew, I mean gosh, I'd say my pipeline. I probably have 45 or 50 buyers right now at the moment, of which, I'd say, 65% of those are, you know, from out of state, or they move from out of state, or currently renting short term before they buy. So it's a. It's a lot of new people that are moving to the area, for sure.
Speaker 2:What are they looking for when they come here?
Speaker 3:Well, you know, it all depends on the person. You know, if it's a younger, maybe first-time buyer they don't have to be young to be a first-time buyer but if they're, you know, that type of buyer, they're looking a lot of times for a good investment, good location. If they're still out and about and wanting to go do a lot of things socially, they may want a location closer into the city, whereas I have other clients that come in that they've got larger families. They might want to live in different areas and everybody's different, you know. So it really depends. Schools are very important, commute to work is very important. Safety is very important, you know, making sure that they get a really good deal on the property they're buying, or within reason, and they're not overpaying or being taken advantage of by somebody who's not looking out for their best interests.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and you are licensed in North and South Carolina, correct, I am licensed in North and South Carolina and I also do residential and commercial.
Speaker 3:So I'm kind of a needle in the haystack type of broker. There's most people in my experience if they're in residential they may even be I'm in resident. Let's just say they say, ok, I'm in residential but I only work in Valentine, or I'm in residential and I only work in South Park, which limits their income ability and really limits what they can do. In terms of what we do and what I do, you know I specialize a lot on, you know, waterfront property because I spend a lot of time up on the lakes when it's, you know, when the weather's right, I'm on the boat all the time with clients and friends and you know so, either Lake Wiley, lake Norman and even up to Lake Hickory. But I also do, like I was saying, commercial work.
Speaker 3:So I've got a lot of commercial space right now that I'm representing a landlord on in terms of leasing, buy and sell commercial space. Do restaurants and bars, industrial, flex space, you know it really. Again, it goes back to the original thing we talked about. Is there a fit? Do we like each other? Do we want to work together? Because if we do, I've got the background, the education and the skill set to help my clients do almost any kind of real estate transaction they want to do within a 75 to 100 mile radius of Charlotte.
Speaker 2:That's incredible. Where do you see the market going in Charlotte Up?
Speaker 3:up up Simple.
Speaker 2:Still more.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I think that we have plenty of room to grow Rates as of right now. I mean today's, what, april 8th? With things that are going on in the macro economy, mortgage interest rates have started coming down, as we all hoped. There's more buyers starting to pop up in the marketplace versus people that have been holding on the one. You know bad thing. It's a good thing for the people, but bad thing for the market. You know bad thing. It's a good thing for the people, but bad thing for the market.
Speaker 3:There's a lot of folks out there who have interest rates in the two and a half three, three and a half four percent range that they got years ago and they don't want to sell those houses.
Speaker 3:And I don't blame them, in fact I have several myself but without selling those houses, the only inventory that typically is coming on is going to be new construction, which is going to be usually out on the perimeter of 485 and some places even a little bit further away from the city. Now, of course, there's going to be regular resales because things happen in life. People get their job relocation, or their families grow, or their families shrink and now they're an empty nester. So there's reasons that people will sell. But there's a lot of people dug in on those, you know 3%, 4% rates and are like, well, if I sell this house and the rates are. But the good news is is it looks like probably by mid-summer we might be in a lower than six. You know five and a half, five and three quarter interest rates, which are really, really good and that should spur a lot of movement.
Speaker 2:Well, that's exciting, excellent news. So I know you're involved in your community. Share with us a little bit about what you do.
Speaker 3:Well, you know, when I had more time, now that my company's grown and you know being involved with our homeowners association as a president of the board. But probably the biggest thing that I did you know this was years ago, but I was president of the Third Ward Neighborhood Association in Uptown and we did a lot when I was president a lot of little projects, from renaming street signs to, uh, backward Fraser park is. We had an opportunity to like, repave the basketball courts, had them repainted, doing tree plantings, all that. But the biggest, biggest thing that we did, um did and that I was involved with was helping the Charlotte Knights move into Uptown, which was really interesting.
Speaker 3:Through that process I got to see behind the scenes of the political circus, if you want to say where people are, even though it's a great idea now that we have the baseball stadium uptown, all the growth that's come because of the stadium. But there was politicians back then that didn't want to do it because you know they're really looking for favors before they would say, okay, it's good, let's do this. But it was a long process. Got to meet a lot of great people, you know. But because it came into our neighborhood in the third ward and I was president of the third ward at that time. I had a lot of involvement in you know meetings and things that really were educational and helpful. But the bottom line is we have the Charlotte Knights in the third ward, right next to Panther Stadium, and it's great to live in the third ward and be able to walk to you know a hundred outdoor sporting events in a year. It's a lot of fun. It's worth it.
Speaker 2:That is an amazing story. Well, you've got a very full professional life. If you look back, what are you most proud of?
Speaker 3:Jeez, that's a great question. I might have to table that one for a little bit Well.
Speaker 2:you've done so much I know, even early before, while you were in school. You know an athlete and some of the things you accomplished with the Leadership Academy. You've been an entrepreneur for a long time.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I mean, I think it's just in my blood. You know, always just driven type A personality and just you know, go, go, go and push, push, push and have fun doing it. You know, it's just me.
Speaker 2:What do you do for fun?
Speaker 3:Well, during, you know, the spring, summer and early fall, I love being on the lakes, so boating, being on the lakes, having fun. I have a house down at the beach in Garden City Surfside, you know, myrtle's Inlet area, so from time to time I go down there. But I also love to travel. I love going to costa rica. I've been kind of setting up a side business down in costa rica with some of the friends I've met through the years and in fact I'm going to be heading down there pretty soon, next couple of weeks, and uh, it's just, it's just an outlet to go down and do things like excursions, you know, deep sea fishing, snorkeling, you know, riding side by sides through the rainforest and just doing really cool adventure type stuff that I like to do.
Speaker 2:Well, when you launch that, we'll have to do another podcast and tell us what you're doing.
Speaker 3:There you go. Yeah, absolutely I'd love to. Well, Mike, it's been a pleasure.
Speaker 2:You are so knowledgeable and I so appreciate you joining us today and giving us all the information you just shared.
Speaker 3:Thank, you, you got it. Thank you for having me. I appreciate it.
Speaker 1:Thank you for listening to the Good Neighbor Podcast. To nominate your favorite local businesses to be featured on the show, go to GNPSouthCharlotte. com. That's GNPSouthcharlotte. com. That's gnpsouthcharlotte. com, or call 980-351-5719.