The $750000 Mistake Most People Do Not Realize They Are Making

Welcome back to the show where real life Local Legends have real conversations and today’s episode is exactly that.

Jess is holding it down solo while her co-host is away, and she is joined by someone very special. Not just a colleague, but a true partner in the real estate world.

Lisa Reyes.

What starts as a casual conversation between friends quickly turns into something much bigger. A powerful look at why so many people feel overwhelmed, confused, and even intimidated when it comes to buying a home.

And the truth is simple.

Most of us were never taught how this works.

Jess and Lisa break down the real reason people stay stuck renting, even when they are fully capable of owning.

It is not because they are not smart.
It is not because they do not make enough money.

It is because no one ever showed them how.

Lisa brings over 25 years of experience in title and escrow, giving her a behind the scenes understanding of what really happens in a real estate transaction. And what she has seen might surprise you.

Buyers confused.
Sellers frustrated.
And sometimes agents who completely disappear when their clients need them most.

That is exactly why Lisa made the decision to step into real estate.

To guide people.
To educate them.
And to make sure no one feels lost during one of the biggest financial decisions of their life.

One of the most eye opening moments in this episode comes when Jess shares her personal story.

After years of renting, she realized she had spent over 750000 dollars on rent.

Money that could have gone toward building wealth, equity, and long term stability.

And she is not alone.

This is happening to people every single day.

Together, Jess and Lisa talk about the mindset shifts that need to happen.

You do not need to be married to buy a home.
You do not need to be rich.
You do not need to have everything figured out.

You just need the right guidance.

They also pull back the curtain on what makes a real estate experience truly different.

Communication.
Transparency.
And actually showing up for clients long after the deal is closed.

Because for them, it is not about transactions.

It is about relationships.

This episode also dives into the future of real estate and how technology is changing the game.

From AI driven contract review to smarter, more secure processes, Lisa explains how innovation is helping protect clients and create a smoother experience from start to finish.

But at the heart of it all is one core belief.

People deserve to feel confident, informed, and supported.

Whether you are thinking about buying your first home, stuck in the renting cycle, or simply curious about how it all works, this conversation will change the way you see real estate.

Because once you understand it, everything feels possible.

If this episode resonates with you, share it with someone who needs to hear it.

Because the more we talk about it, the more we learn and grow.

These are the local legends shaping our communities.
Real stories, real talk, and powerful conversations.
Local Legends with Jess — where Arizona’s stories connect.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Welcome to Local Legends with Jessica, the Arizona Edition. I'm Jessica Benevento, your mortgage matchmaker, opening doors with ease and bringing you the stories behind Arizona's most inspiring people. From best-selling authors and elite athletes to business fastes making moves across the valley. These are the local legends shaping our communities. Get the insight scoop, real tough and powerful conversations you won't hear anywhere else. Local legends with Jess, where Arizona's stories connect. Hello and welcome to Local Legends. Here with me, Jess, your host, my co-host is on vacation right now, so I am holding down the ship. I have an amazing guest with me today, my dear friend, power partner in the real estate mortgage world, Lisa Reyes. Hi! Hey! Thank you for coming on here. Oh my gosh, I wouldn't miss it for the world. I'm just kidding. Yes. Now I have these fancy cars that Elisa made me that make me look like I'm really professional, but I have absolutely nothing on them that has to do with anything we're talking about. But I just wanted to show how cute these were. Because we don't need a planned podcast because we just, we just rip it.

SPEAKER_00 1:07

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:07

We just talk. Yeah. Um, but I do, and then I had a little idea. Um just because obviously we're friends and we talk about life, but our how we met was from a networking group. Yeah. But we do real estate together. And um I love when we get together and we have a client, and from start to finish, it's I work with a lot of real estate agents, and you're so different. And um, I know you do videos and social media, but this episode, like I want to be able to like put it out there and just people need to know how amazing you are at what you do, how you get from start to finish in this transaction of someone's biggest purchase of their life. And I just love you and I like to spotlight good people. So thank you again for being on here.

SPEAKER_02 1:56

Well, and I love you too, and thank you so much for inviting me. Um, it's funny, I think that my 25 plus years in Title and Escrow, although it was in the state of California, has really um helped me because the basics and what people need to know and learn about purchasing real estate, um, selling real estate, getting into loans and the different types of loans and like that. Because when you're in escrow, you have to know all the different aspects of a real estate transaction. And it doesn't matter, you know, like if it was um, I did a couple commercial um deals in California, but it didn't matter if the people were on the buying side, the selling side, or, you know, the investors. Everybody still, you walk into a real estate transaction, and unless you do like we do every day, people don't understand. And I believe in my heart of hearts that it makes people nervous and uncomfortable because they're good at what they do. They've got a hella cash, they're ready to buy a house, they've bought a house, they have a huge amount of equity in there. So they've done well for themselves. But when it comes to real estate and what happens in a real estate transaction, it's like Greek. Yeah. That like people don't know. No. And there's so many moving parts. Yeah. And um I just was really, really blessed with having as an escrow officer and being an escrow, watching some of the best in the business and learning. And so when we moved from California to Arizona, I was like, well, hell, I don't have a desk anymore. I can't be an escrow officer. I can't, I could, you know, it was kind of remote. Yeah. I said, you know what I'm gonna do? I'm going to get my license, become a realtor, because people need to know and to kind of have their hands held in some respects as to what they're doing, what they're purchasing, and how the whole thing is gonna work with for them within their financial structure and within their life and within their responsibilities as a homeowner or as a seller, you know, exiting a property. And the other thing, too, that was kind of the ugly side of it was that there are, don't be shocked, world out there. Um, there were some agents that um never spoke with their clients when I was in escrow. And I would get calls with sellers in tears. Why is there an inspector at my house? My house is perfect. There's no reason to have anything inspected in my house. And it was like, oh, didn't your agent tell you this is very common practice so that the buyer can do it and go through the whole spiel with them? And that was those types of things too were a catalyst to my decision to become a realtor. Because, you know, I mean, we're all in this world together. And if you have expertise and if you have a way to help somebody else, it's your duty as a human being to do that. Yeah. It's your duty to help our economy. It's our duty as patriots, as citizens here in the United States, especially, to keep our economy going and to make sure that the people who are buying and selling homes are being taken care of, like, you know, kings and queens, because that's our our economy runs on real estate. Yeah. Like real estate is the foundation to a lot of it. And then um I was thinking too that to get into the real estate side of it also so that I could be a better person and I would learn a lot more.

SPEAKER_00 5:42

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 5:43

And so I sat back and I watched and looked and learned. And now I'm the group the organization that I'm in. I'm I'm with EXP, of course, you know that. But um, though just so that all the listeners can know too, there's a big difference between franchised brokerages and um a brokerage that is uh virtual brokerage, and um, a lot runs on AI and a lot runs on Zoom calls as opposed to brick and mortar meetings and coming in and four time and all that. And it doesn't matter whether people want to accept it or not, but in the last six months, the way that the world of real estate has changed has made it very different for the everyday people, the homeowners and the buyers and the sellers, how they look at what real estate really is. And people think that AI, oh, and everybody's so afraid of AI. I know. I use AI for absolutely everything. I mean, if you get an email from me, there's my little AI girl. Yeah, you know, right, right, totally. But um I think that that's one of the other things, too, is that you have to let people know that you are learning cutting edge stuff and you're working with advanced technologies. All of my um the escros that I open with Proppy, my title company, um, all of them go through an AI process in a secured portal so that the contracts are read using AI. And that's how I protect the interests of my clients because there's nothing that's gonna escape human error, reading a contract and hoping that you get everything, you know, all the terms are correct, the dates are correct, the players are correct, you have to know who the principals are. AI will read all that, create an escrow, reach out to the buyer, get the it doesn't matter if it's midnight on Sunday and you know it's Christmas, all those things can happen. So everything that I try to do is geared towards, first of all, the security of people's information, their money, and how title is going to be transferred. And the other thing too is letting them know who all the best players are to help them to get to where they want to be, either out of their house or into a home. So, and it was funny because I remember when we first met, I won't cry, I promise, ruin our podcast here. But um, I will never forget sitting across the table from you. And I mean, after all the hundreds of thousands of escros that I've closed in the loan officers from San Francisco to San Diego, um, you know, and and working in the world of escrow all those years. When I remember when you spoke at that networking meeting, the women who win, I thought, oh my gosh, I'm getting chills just thinking about it. I thought, this is this, I'm here to meet this woman. Yeah. I am here to meet the thing. We are going to change the way that people are helped, the way that people are educated on the biggest purchase of their lives. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 9:07

And it still shocks me to this. I mean, it's it's going to shock me because I don't know if it's going to change, or maybe we could make a movement and change everything. But it still is wild to sit down with people that are in their 30s, 40s, even 50s, that have no clue how to do it. And I'm like, you shouldn't. No one taught us. Like, unless you had parents that talked freely about real estate and purchase and had you involved. Like, I involve my kids in all adult, probably too much, you know, adult conversations. But I mean, growing up, I never heard about finances or anything with, you know, family members or parents, you know, of friends of mine. We weren't, it wasn't talked about. So they get older and you're like, wait, what do we have to do? How do we buy a home? And then I feel like a lot of people are fearful because they have no clue and they don't know how to ask that they just don't. So they rent. And that's the people that, you know, we try to get like, come on, just talk to us. We could walk you through it because it's so much easier than people think. And that's, I feel like our mission is to get out there and be able to talk to people and get them into homes.

SPEAKER_02 10:17

Yeah. And it's the last stronghold, excuse me, stronghold for us as everyday people to start generational wealth. Yeah. Because so a funny funny story. So my parents, my dad was always so my parents are would be 101 this year if they were still alive. And they both grew up in the depression. And when they bought their first house, they had to have what was referred to as a seller carry back. And um the seller gifted them or gave them the money for the down payment. It was in San Francisco, 931 Prague Street, San Francisco 94112. And our phone number was JU42049. So far. I remember all the San Francisco stuff. But anyway, let me digress. So they um bought this house for $29,000. Jesus, four-bedroom, one and a half bath, because it was built in 1912. So baths bathrooms weren't what they are today, of course, right? And then sold it for about $50,000. So from 1958 when they purchased the home, all seven of us kids lived there. Wow. Moved from there to Washington, D.C. because my father worked for the government for the National Archives, got this big promotion. And so we all moved to Maryland, right outside of DC. And they made $50,000. Excuse me. They made $25,000 to $27,000 cash from that purchase from 58 to 72 when we moved. Oh my gosh. And like back then, that type of money was that's a lot. Right, right. It's it's a lot now. Hey, if somebody walked up to me, there's $26,000. I'm not sneeze at it to believe. But do you know what I'm saying? So that's why that was where um right now that house sold, um, I want to say for almost $2 million a couple of years ago. Yeah. So that's so I'm just saying, these are the things that people need to know. It's real. It's real. Granted, 1958, hell, that's a hell of a long time ago. But we never stopped to think. And five years from now, if I could have an extra $75,000, $10,000, $20,000, whatever it's gonna be, people don't think in those terms many times. Right. And people, when you went back, Jess, and you said, you know what?

SPEAKER_01 12:49

Give us those numbers. $750,000. I just looked at that reel the other day. I'm like, oh my gosh, I need to, like, that's I need to do more marketing of like the just just the crazy amount. Um, so I'll say it because we we obviously know. So growing up, you know, my story, it's it's renting, right? My parents are divorced. They both rented. No one talked about purchasing. My dad worked his ass off. My mom worked her ass off, went to school, got a degree, you know, they were young and rented all our lives. And then I go to college and I'm renting, you know, my mom's paying my rent with my friends. I leave college, renting, renting, renting. And I added up with Lisa. It was $750 freaking thousand dollars of rent that I spent over my span of life that I could have bought a ton of homes with. But again, I just didn't have, you know, it was one of those things that I just my parents weren't together. So my mindset was you have to be married. Like, obviously, I can't buy until I'm married. Like just weird shit that you just that sticks with you and and you have to be rich. Like my thing was you had to have you have to be rich, and we weren't rich. My parents made money, but I didn't consider us rich. It's just so crazy. Special thank you to Justin Liszt from State Farm. Justin is our sponsor here at Local Legends with Jess and Jay. His mission is simple. He treats customers like family, provides real solutions, ensures every client feels confident, supported, and genuinely cared for. That level of intention and service is exactly why he's considered one of our favorite local legends here in Arizona. We're grateful for the support and proud to highlight Justin and his team for truly making a difference in our community.

SPEAKER_02 14:42

And the other thing, too, that kind of, and like with my parents, was always you have to be very, very smart with your money. And of course you have to be smart with your money. Yeah. But they were always like, and my dad made good money. Yeah. And even though there were seven of us, I mean, we never went without. Right. But he they always kind of carried with them that depression mentality that you never know when it's gonna go and be you know, where of banks. And now look where we're at, and look what happened in from 2007 to 2013. And so, but anyway, but I think that with people, think laws have changed. The lending game has changed. There's no more HUD, it's Trid. The the changes that that have happened to protect people against predatory lenders and those types of things. But also, I love the idea that everything and anything, and I will pat myself on the back for that. I love people. Anything and everything that people need to know and hear and feel secure in with their real estate is what I strive to do. Yeah. And for agents who need help, I mentor agents and um I help them to understand everything about it. Right. And how to guide their clients, especially, and how easy it is to use AI, back to that again, right? To enhance what they do so that they can understand more quickly. Because if you can learn something quicker than the next guy, that's your raising your bar. Exactly. Right, right. And I love that everything should be centered around helping other people. Everything should be okay, agents out there. If you really want to take a look at the real numbers and crunch the real numbers and learn what's available to you as opposed to like your brokers um giving you leads, but then they take a cut. Right. Like our program, we we do lead, we give leads, there's no cut taken, there's no referral fees, there's none of that. 100% of whatever your split is is a hundred percent of what you get. And helping agents too, because without healthy agents, you don't have healthy buyers and sellers and investors. Totally.

SPEAKER_01 16:58

What is your ideal? Um what's your ideal client that comes to you?

SPEAKER_00 17:04

If you had to create a um what word am I looking for? Like an avatar of the ideal client. What would that look like?

SPEAKER_02 17:17

That would look like a person andor people who understand that they're going into a territory that they may not be um well educated in and proficient at, and knowing and trusting that they've come to a person who's has so much experience and such a great team around us between, you know, you with on the lending side, Paulina Garen at Proppy and uh Kirsten at Proppy to handle the title and escrow side of it. Um, and also that knowing that I will keep their best interest because this is about them. And for them to know, feel, and and feel that in their heart of hearts, that they're being taken care of um because it's their needs that we're working towards.

SPEAKER_01 18:09

And you show that. I mean, we have we have a client that we did her purchase, right? And you know, out of nowhere, you're like, Jess, listen, I was just at, you know, our gal's house and um I'm collecting docs because we need to refinance her. She need I'm like, okay, like no agent would do that. Like that was just, and you went there and got the documents to be able to scan over for her. Like that's just something again. That's that that's taking that loan closed. That was done. You got paid, I got paid, and you continue to stay in touch with her, and now you're helping her with the like I really I should have reached out and be like, dude, but you got her. And that's just again, that's a testament to you and how you treat people. And I think that's what, you know, there's a ton of agents out there, there are a ton of lenders out there, but to be able to, you know, have a team like us to surround people, like I just I I know we're special. Like I could say this confidently now that I could, you know, I could praise you up and down. But I know as a team, we take care of people and we really we gotta get out there more.

SPEAKER_02 19:14

So and too, because her husband had recently passed and you know, going through that with her, and she didn't know what she didn't know. Yeah, because when you have a relationship with your significant other and they handle everything for you, and this is another thing too, um, as far as avatars go, when you lose a partner or you lose a spouse or you lose a family member, it's it's really, really hard. Yeah and when you don't know because they handled the finances or they took care of you and and you your job was this in the family, and their job was that in the family, it's really, really incredibly um eye-opening when all of a sudden, boom, that's on your lap. Take care of it. Now you're it's all on you to do. Right. And I don't want for anybody to ever feel that. It's it's nobody should ever have to feel that. And I love the idea that to be there for somebody because people are there for me. Yeah. And you know, and I and I just feel that it's a duty. It really is a duty to be there for people and to help them with any and everything. What made you pick EXP? Well, because uh the brokerage that I was at, the thought I was not getting what I thought I was gonna get. And when I would get a commission check, I was like, this is a joke, right? Yeah, where's my money? Um, and uh when I learned about EXP, it was a flat 80-20 commission split. Okay, I got the 80, they got the 20. And then you cap at 16,000. And once you cap at 16,000, you not only get a hundred percent commission, but you also get your sixteen thousand back in um stock. And so the other thing too, um, there's like different buckets of ways to make money. When you um um bring agents on and they see how good the plan is, then it's the company, not the agent, okay, but the company pays you a percentage of what their um what their income is that they bring to the company. Okay. And the other thing too is that the latest thing is this, and speaking of AI, is we have a program where when agents come on board, we do an onboarding program, and they are given uh a link with uh the meta so that they can get leads, and the leads are theirs a hundred percent. There's no referral, I don't take a referral fee, I don't take a split off of theirs or anything like that. And they um can use that. Um, it is a buy-in to the ads, but the the AI program is fashioned in a way using technology so that when people are Specifically looking at a certain 55 and older communities, for example. Say that somebody's looking for that. Then my ad pops up and says, Hey, if you'd like some information or if you'd like to learn more about the community, um, here's, you know, give me your information and I'll get in touch with you to educate you on it.

SPEAKER_00 22:19

Right.

SPEAKER_02 22:20

So those types of leads are far better and it's a far more advanced way of helping people. Yeah. Because if you pick up the phone and you have a list of and you've picked picked out all the do not calls and they're all off the list, and you scrub a list and you pick up the phone and you call for two hours a day, you get more FUs than I could shake a stick at. You get more of those things. So this is a new thing here with EXP and with um my organization that's helping people to help people. It's really hard. You were you were a part of the one of the Zooms that we did. Yeah. Like how do you describe the way that you feel when you know that somebody is really looking out for you? It's indescribable. And when I invite people to come onto the Zoom, it doesn't matter what an objection is, because I know that eventually when you look at the numbers, if you're a numbers person, you look at the numbers and you can see what you can actually make as opposed to what somebody's gonna take from you.

SPEAKER_00 23:26

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 23:26

Because if if you figure if a broker is gonna be giving you leads and you have to work them and you go to the listing appointment, or you go and you do all the buyer stuff and all the things that work that you have to do, and then they take a cut out of it, yeah. Just because they subscribe to to a service and and gave you a list, right? I just like those kind of things are like it's so as agents, I think, and and more seasoned agents, they kind of think that that's the way it's supposed to be. Right. But that's not the way it's supposed to be. We all help each other in our organization. Um, you know, what can I say? Um, Elena Cardone is in our organization, and she was on the Zoom the other day. Um we get together, Lisa Um uh Copeland, and we get together and and all of us, you know, pow wow, and we talk about things in the market and just changes and we boost each other up, and there's no competition.

SPEAKER_01 24:21

Community's everything. Like that's the thing. You could have you could go to a brokerage and it's the same cut, but not getting not like it just it it matters who's around you. And I feel like you have such, you always talk so highly of them. You have such a good network of women, especially and guy, I mean, and men, but you always talk about those two.

SPEAKER_02 24:42

That just because when you're a big influencer and a big celebrity or whatever, you know, whatever. I mean, like Lisa Copeland, look at what she's accomplished in her life. It's amazing. Elena, too. But when those people take time, this is another thing about ghosting. I have to, I was meant to tell you this the other day. You know, when you have somebody like that who comes on every Thursday and we talk and we um help each other and encourage each other and educate each other and all these things support each other. And then you have people who like won't even return a call. And there's like the everyday, and I, you know, God bless all of us, everyday people, but I'm just saying, and somebody like that doesn't ghost me. Right. Like they they don't ghost you. It just speaks volumes, I think, too, about the importance of helping people and the importance of being sensitive that agents, now that we're, you know, talking about agents, you know, that agents, they're they get leery, they're worried because they just gave, you know, $5,000 to Zillow for a list. Yeah, they just gave their broker, you know, like a $600 ENO split brokerage fee because they have all these franchise fees that the brokerage has to. And when you're in that mindset and you think this is the way that it is, and this is the way that it's run, and this is, I have to do it this way, they don't know that there's a better way. When I come along and I'm like, hey, would you like to see a better way? They're kind of like, you know, right, right, right.

SPEAKER_01 26:09

Because automatically think, well, they're used to just this salesy, sleazy. Like, what is she getting out of it? When you I know you, like you're you're just giving great information. Like, come with me, come with me on this ride, just see what I, you know, I'm a part of. And I know that you're genuine with with you know, with how you treat people, but you have a good amount of people under you now, right? Like, are you that you coach, or you mentor?

SPEAKER_02 26:33

Yeah, my mentors, I I do have several. Yeah, I love that. Um and they're all amazing.

SPEAKER_01 26:38

Arneta, you introduced me to love, yeah. She's so sweet. Love her. Alex is awesome, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 26:44

And he's doing and um, and then I have two new ones too that I um that just came on board this um last month. Okay, but I but the thing is too, that's interesting about it, is that the people who shy away and the people who do the ghosting, they're not my people.

SPEAKER_01 27:06

That's it. That's all.

SPEAKER_02 27:07

Right.

SPEAKER_01 27:08

And and more power took us a while to figure that out, but that's it's that's it.

SPEAKER_02 27:12

And more power to them. And and the thing is that the beautiful thing about it is that at least you know you're not wasting your time.

SPEAKER_01 27:19

Exactly. They're actually freeing up time for the good people to come into our lives. Yeah. Well, I love you. Thank you for being here with me. You get a parting gift because the mortgage matchmaker is one fabulous sponsor of uh local legends here, black or whitely? Um, white, please. I was gonna say, I gotta give these two to the my next guest, or I'd give you black ones. Oh my gosh, I love it. Isn't that fun? Yes, it's now it's a little big. I have other ones coming that are smaller, but Okay. I love it. Thank you for being here. Thank you for having me. Lisa Reyes, EXP. Contact her if you need an amazing agent, mentor. Talk about the brokerage. Thank you again for being here. Thank you. Till next time. Take care. Take care.