One Year In: A Full Circle Conversation with My First Guest, Ben Dings

One year ago, I recorded my very first podcast episode—and Ben Dings was my first guest.

At the time, the market was full of uncertainty, and we were trying to make sense of where things were headed. Now, 12 months later, we’re sitting back down for a full circle conversation.

In this episode, we break down what’s actually changed over the past year—from interest rates and home prices to buyer behavior, mindset, and what it really takes to succeed in today’s market.

The surprising part? On paper, not much has changed. Rates are similar. Prices are relatively flat. But the way people think, act, and make decisions in this market is completely different.

We also get into:

•  What we got right (and wrong) a year ago 
•  How the Georgia market has evolved—especially in Fayette, Coweta, and Henry counties 
•  The biggest shifts in buyer and seller behavior 
•  Lessons learned from the last 12 months 
•  What we believe is coming next 

This episode is more than just a market update—it’s a look at growth, perspective, and what a difference a year can make.

Full circle.

You can find me as David Monsour a.k.a. Disco Davo on most social media applications as well as my contact 
davidmonsour.com.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:54

All right, so Ben, a year ago when we started this, you had just moved over to Swanson and Associates.

SPEAKER_00 0:59

Yes, sir.

SPEAKER_01 1:00

How's that going?

SPEAKER_00 1:01

One year update. It's going really well. I uh when I got hired over there, when I got brought over there, I was also hired on as the productivity coach. At that time, we only had one agent going through the program, and she capped her first year. She was an agent for five years. She had only capped one other time because she sold like a four million dollar home. Lucky her. But this time she worked hard and she capped like how a lot of agents do. So she she made some money this year for the first time and taught her everything on that.

SPEAKER_01 1:31

Wow.

SPEAKER_00 1:32

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:33

So does she like tell everybody that bending? She better. She better. Yeah. She owes you her life.

SPEAKER_00 1:38

She does. She does. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:40

So today we're going to talk a little bit about. I don't want to bore everybody with real estate.

SPEAKER_00 1:44

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 1:45

But definitely want to talk about maybe what has changed in the last 12 months.

SPEAKER_05 1:48

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 1:49

You know, I'll go back a little bit. Not only were you my first guest, you were actually my inspiration and everything. So if I ever get famous, uh-huh, like this young lady that capped, yes, I'm going to owe it all to Ben Dings because you are the reason you know you asked me to be on a YouTube. And I was like, well, this is pretty cool. I can talk.

SPEAKER_04 2:09

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_01 2:09

And just your knowledge of all the stats and all that. And I want to dive into that too. Yeah. Because you see, I got YouTube on my big TV. I'm starting to play it on the TV instead of always on my phone to actually use it as a resource. So anyway, thank you very much for getting me started. And thank you for coming back.

SPEAKER_05 2:25

My pleasure.

SPEAKER_01 2:26

After 12 months. So let's talk about how rates have or how the market changed. And these two, I'll throw out these two comments. You can agree with them or just comment on them. I believe the average price is right at the same, not really up and definitely not down.

SPEAKER_04 2:41

Yep.

SPEAKER_01 2:42

And interest rates, and that's a relative term. I think it's they're down a lot. They're from 6.7 down to about six and a quarter.

SPEAKER_05 2:49

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 2:50

I think that's big, but when you when I was Googling it and looking up the difference, they're like, oh, they're about the same. I'm like, oh, that's a big difference, half a point. Yeah. Now we were at 6.625 two weeks ago, though, because of this war. They were driven back up, but now we've recovered back again.

SPEAKER_05 3:04

Yep.

SPEAKER_01 3:05

And I do believe that we'll be back at six and probably under six soon. So what do you think the changes have been in real estate over the last 12 months?

SPEAKER_00 3:13

You know, last year we started to see it at the beginning of the year when we met last time, and then it definitely reared its its ugly head. But I mean, we went through a correction. It wasn't as big as some of the doom and gloom people on YouTube and news channels were saying how the market was going to crash. Yeah. But I think we've gone through our correction and things are starting to look more up this year.

SPEAKER_01 3:36

Damn YouTubers.

SPEAKER_00 3:38

Yeah, uh-huh. Gotta get clicks somehow. But but yeah, I mean, when they were, like you said, when rates were like 6.7 or last year, that people were getting in the sevens. That was unaffordable. Now more people are able to get in the sixes. Some people are buying down rates into the fives.

SPEAKER_01 3:54

So yeah, FHA and VA are 5.75. Yeah, exactly. I think you know, I told you that this month currently is a really strong month, and that's reflective of the 45 days ago when we saw rates drop consistently in the fives. I mean, that definitely spurs activity. Yeah. When you see a five in the front, I think absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 4:14

It's and I think you know, we're about to get into that busy season where kids are out of school, people are all starting to move. So we'll see what it does. But I mean, I mean, before COVID happened, the average time on market for a house was what? So around six months. Now people are freaking out because their house isn't selling in in a month. But but so what is now about 60 days? It's it's about it's about 90 days, 45 to 90 days, depending on the area.

SPEAKER_01 4:40

Which is where it's supposed to be, and that is considered a healthy market.

SPEAKER_00 4:44

Exactly. So, you know, you some systems even still say that we're considered in a seller's market. You wouldn't think that for judging how things have gone the past five years. But yeah, it's I mean, it's where markets should be, I think. I think we're gonna go.

SPEAKER_01 4:59

So define that for anybody that's not, and correct me if I'm wrong. So the reason uh, you know, I know if I was listening, I heard it's taking six 90 days to sell a house, how is that a healthy market? Well, you have to consider it balanced because not we're not just thinking, obviously, if you're the seller, you want it to sell in five days. But when things were selling in 15 days, people were bidding, no appraisals, and you know, it just jacked up the prices. So that is not healthy because it creates the environment we've been in the last two years where things are unaffordable.

SPEAKER_02 5:30

Exactly.

SPEAKER_01 5:30

So that's why we talk about why it's balanced and healthy, is because it's long enough to where people don't have to rush into decisions. If you're a buyer, you don't have to just throw an offer out there. You can actually look at a couple different houses and pick and negotiate, but it's not sitting forever to where you can just throw any lowball offer.

SPEAKER_00 5:47

Right, right. And that is that is area specific to here too. I mean, I did see, you know, it probably it could have been a doom and gloom one where they they said how there's 600,000 more sellers than there are buyers in the United States right now. But in this area, specifically Metro Atlanta, we're not seeing that type of market. We're not seeing a desperation market, we're seeing a good, healthy market right now.

SPEAKER_01 6:10

And again, and it's so cliche and all that, but it all it does depend on the area, because even inside of Peace Tree City, I know houses that are going on the market within 24 hours, but I also know houses that have been sitting for you know 60, 90 days that are great houses. It's just a matter of some areas are just highly sought after, some price ranges, and et cetera.

SPEAKER_00 6:32

And the crazy thing is, too, is you know, I've had this has happened twice to me this year so far. I've had a I've had a listing sit, sit, sit, 30 days, 60 days, nothing. And then all of a sudden I get three offers on a weekend for the same house that's been on the market for two months, no traction, nothing at all, just a few showings, then all of a sudden, boom, it it happens, it pops.

SPEAKER_01 6:56

So it's funny you said that because I have a good friend of mine that's buying a house and I I feel horrible. He house was listed for$620. He made an offer at$605, they didn't go for it.

SPEAKER_04 7:10

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 7:11

He said, Okay, thanks. That's all he qualified for.

SPEAKER_04 7:14

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 7:14

Let it go. Went back, I think it's been like three weeks, went back and made an offer for$550 because it had sat.

SPEAKER_04 7:23

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 7:24

And they countered with$560.

SPEAKER_04 7:26

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_01 7:27

This was what's today, Wednesday? So Monday made the offer, Tuesday they countered, or I guess Sunday made the offer. Monday, Tuesday, he replies to accept it at$560,$50,000 less, and a cash buyer came the same day and at that same exact price.

SPEAKER_04 7:43

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 7:44

How does that happen? That's that's a little weird. Nobody's making offers on this house. They drop a$50,000, all of a sudden you have a cash offer. That seems fishy.

SPEAKER_00 7:53

Yeah, yeah. It sounds like they went and called uh one of those people that call you all the time. Like open door or something.

SPEAKER_01 8:00

I guess they could have. Why would you is that still considered a cash offer? Open door?

SPEAKER_00 8:05

Yeah, I guess. Yeah, they'll still they'll still buy your home and then do nothing to it and then try and sell it themselves, maybe.

SPEAKER_01 8:11

But I don't feel like it's a like open door is not a cash offer because there's still contingencies that they have to make, I'm guessing. But I guess a buyer, if if a buyer makes a cash offer, Joe Schmoe walks and makes a cash offer. What all can what all could derail that? Do they appraise it if they're doing a cash offer?

SPEAKER_00 8:28

Cash offer, cash offer, they don't, but sometimes you'll get cash offers from investors that are doing a hard money loan, they'll still do like a desk appraisal.

SPEAKER_01 8:37

But would it be contingent?

SPEAKER_00 8:38

Like, could that sometimes they are sometimes no?

SPEAKER_01 8:43

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 8:43

A lot of people that still get hard monies have enough money in their portfolio to where they can liquidate something to make it happen, even if it doesn't. But if they didn't have that, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 8:53

It it'd be so if you get a cash offer, you're typically getting good earnest money and you're pretty confident in that offer, right?

SPEAKER_00 9:00

Typically, because there's not a lot of contingencies on a cash offer. Uh typically not. No, a good cash offer usually comes with like a 14-day close period, too. So it's like 14-day close. You're getting your money quick.

SPEAKER_01 9:11

So, but like when people are getting financed and they have that due diligence of seven days they can walk away for any reason. Yeah. Cash offers have the same thing?

SPEAKER_00 9:18

Sometimes they do, but if you're talking like what you said, significantly cutting the price, uh what I suggest to my folks is like, no. If if they want something, they can do a three-day, but they don't need to do more than that because I mean, at that price, they're getting they're getting what they're getting, is what I'm telling my folks. You know, we're we we're trying to make something for them, and at that price, if they want to negotiate down$70,000 and then on top of that ask for 10 days inspection so they can knock it down another$15,000. No, okay. That's that's what I yeah, that's true.

SPEAKER_01 9:53

Cause then they're tying your stuff up and they're doing that on purpose.

SPEAKER_00 9:56

Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 9:58

So you mentioned correction, like we had a correction in the last 12 months. I mean, I guess that's a relative term as well. So I mean, we didn't some areas have seen prices pull back, but but the average has not gone down. So it's more just returned to more of a balanced market.

SPEAKER_00 10:15

Yeah, I think that yeah, that's the correction that I've seen. Yeah, it's the uh some agents, you know, in 2021, we weren't agents didn't have to have any skills, they could just have a license and just wing it, and they would still make a lot of money because everyone was buying houses back then. Now the real estate agent, the successful ones are back to skills. You know, you're we're we are now skilled again, and that's a correction that's been made. The the corrections have been made to where people aren't bidding or offering fifty thousand dollars over ask and gonna pay the difference with cash.

SPEAKER_01 10:57

Appraisal gaps. So when you say the skill, we're probably still weeding out some agents though, because not every agent's gonna jump out, but you might have an agent that's working for you right now that is not skilled at negotiating, whether they're your buyer's agent, whether they're your the listing agent, maybe they don't have a price right. So many things. I think in this market it is so important to have a good real estate agent because of the fact that buyers are negotiating and buyers are willing to walk away.

SPEAKER_00 11:27

Yep, exactly.

SPEAKER_01 11:27

Where before, because I have, I guess I've seen the stat a few times that in Georgia has a very high number of canceled contracts. I don't know if that's still or if that's a couple month-old stat, but evidently a lot of people, for some reason I Georgia was mentioned, had a lot of canceled contracts where people are like, nah, never mind, I'll go find something else.

SPEAKER_00 11:47

I saw that stat, and yeah, that did definitely have to do with agents and setting expectations, the skill level of agents, setting the expectations for their buyer, what they're getting into, looking at the house. But you know, it's it Georgia, I think, was the number one state for cancellations when I saw that article too. But yeah, things, things to me, at least on my end, has gotten has gotten a little bit better. But that's even when I'm listing homes, because that was a correction that I made. I was more of a buyer's agent. That's where I had a lot of experience. I had listed properties before, but I was on a real estate team for a long time. I was only a buyer's agent there. Now a lot of my business has shifted to more listings because that's that's what we have. Yeah, I help buyers when buyers come along, we get them done quick. I had a buyer the other day, and at closing, he told me, he said, You were the third or fourth agent that I'd worked with. But the only reason I worked with you is because you were the only one that ever called me back and would be able to go on showings when I was available for showings. You sent me homes. No one else, everyone else was just let me know, and then I'd go to voicemail.

SPEAKER_01 12:58

That that just baffles me because you you've heard that for years. That's not a new phenomenon. No, no, you've heard it for years, and uh well, I don't even know how to answer that.

SPEAKER_00 13:08

I don't know how just I just thought it was like, okay, we went to go see homes one but basically one weekend. I had talked on the phone for about three months, but we went one weekend to actually go look at homes, three homes, and we went under contract that first weekend, and it was like it wasn't that hard.

SPEAKER_01 13:25

So sales I did find sales activity is up five percent year over year. So although prices aren't going up, maybe there are more listings, activity is higher, so that is great. Yeah, and uh you know, again, I think most people agree and say that if rates do drop below six percent, there's a lot of pent-up demand. Hopefully, we stay in a balanced market, but it could it could really take off.

SPEAKER_00 13:51

Yeah, I that's what I hope for. I mean, you know, obviously anyone in this business hopes for things to take off. I just hope that it when it happens this time, with everything changing around, with potentially, well, with a new Fed chair, chairman coming in, it's done responsibly. Last time during COVID, we went down, we stayed down too long, and then we went skyrocketed up and we stayed high too long. You know, we need to be more proactive and moving, adjusting on the fly, and we just or just get rid of the Fed altogether and let the market do what the market does.

SPEAKER_01 14:24

Yeah, that's a lot more painful, but yeah, it's real.

SPEAKER_00 14:27

Yeah, I mean, yeah, I agree with you. That would be definitely an option to do. There would be that learning period.

SPEAKER_01 14:33

And I was gonna say, I said that from ignorance. I am sure there are bad reasons for that. I don't know if it worked, but I like the idea.

SPEAKER_00 14:39

It's I mean, I mean, banks already what there's what, like a two percent gap, a little bit more than a two percent gap between what the Fed rate is and what a mortgage rate is. So, I mean, yeah, I think y'all fed uh uh mortgage brokers or banks have already taken into their own hands a little bit. So, yeah, there's definitely movement in there.

SPEAKER_01 15:00

All right, so what has not changed in the last 12 months before we and this so what I wrote down, and it could be anything, we're going anywhere now. So what has not changed is there has not been a collapse like thought, and and jobs are still good, they're teetering and there's caution and there's all this AI, and we'll dive into that as well. There are speculation that jobs could be heading off of a cliff, but so far they've been strong and everything's been good in that department. What else has stayed the same?

SPEAKER_00 15:33

I think jobs has gone a little like slightly a little bit better, even. You know, the market that we're in has stayed fairly similar. It's just been a marathon of sticking with it. I think the market, like you said, everything's been fairly stagnant, prices have been stagnant, interest rates have been kind of stagnant, you know, everything's been stagnant, and at this point, it's just been for in this business sticking with it and staying in that marathon and not falling and collapsing. The the buyers still want what buyers want. Sellers are learning that they can't get everything that they want, they can't sell a house and z at zero closing costs over in 2020. And not fix the carpet and the whole thing unless uh and you're you're getting you're getting the value of your home, the actual value of your home now.

SPEAKER_01 16:22

So that's good. That's important. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 16:25

It it's just it's a sign of a healthy market. If if you're giving up everything, you're not in a healthy market. If you're taking everything, you're not in a healthy market.

SPEAKER_01 16:33

I agree. All right, so what is different 12 months? So these are a couple things. The world is a lot more unstable now than I can remember. I don't know if that's an age thing, though, because there's always been wars here and there. I just never cared or paid attention. And now that I'm old, I'm like, ah, so we'll ignore that part of it. We got a World Cup coming. That's been in Atlanta. Yeah, that's exciting. And then AI, which we could talk a whole lot about, all of that, how it relates to jobs, real estate, life, robots, all of that. So, what else what else do you think has changed in the last 12 months?

SPEAKER_00 17:09

What has changed in the last 12 months? That's a that's a tough question because I kind of live in my little bubble.

SPEAKER_01 17:15

Well, tell me about your bubble, tell me about the kids. Let's go there. How have they changed in the last 12 months?

SPEAKER_00 17:20

Well, my daughter, she is growing up, she's going into second grade this coming year. We've we moved, we were on one side of Noonan, and now we've moved a little bit toward more towards Sharpsburg. Okay. So, you know, the the things have changed in a sense that uh last year a lot of people were scared to do anything. This year, people are a little bit less hesitant. There's a lot of folks waiting to see what happens with this Fed thing. I've noticed there's a lot of wait and see, but more people are coming out. And and that's a good thing because the the scary thing is is what what if rates do drop drastically? What if because of this this war in Iran and gas prices go crazy? What if Trump decides to s or the or the even the governor, someone sends us a$500 stimulus check? We're in the exact same situation we were in 2000 at that point, and that's scary to me. What if rates go up?

SPEAKER_01 18:16

If rates go up, because they could with inflation. I mean, we talk about wanting the Fed to do this and that, but if inflation's creeping in, they can't lower rates.

SPEAKER_00 18:26

If if rates go up, how significantly are we talking here? We talking half percent, we talking two percent.

SPEAKER_01 18:33

So, in my opinion, if so the reason for rates, because other countries have raised their rates. If the reason for rates are because of oil, then why would you lower borrowing costs? Or why would you raise borrowing costs to stipend it? Like, yeah, that doesn't make sense. No, like inflation is not being caused because people are borrowing too much money and expanding their companies or getting equity lines in cars, right? So to me, you're you're punishing this person because this person's doing something bad. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So I don't think that rates should go up, but it's more of a signal, I think. It wouldn't be much, it'd be a quarter, half a percent. But that still could put us back at seven percent.

SPEAKER_00 19:14

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 19:14

I don't think it's likely at all.

SPEAKER_00 19:16

But if if it did, I think we're on that that cusp right now. We're teetering back and forth. If we rates went up drastically, if rates went back up to 7%, we'd start to go back to the market that we had last year. And we I think that's where we'd start to see. I think rate home prices would come down more, and then sellers would be in their homes longer. I don't see, I still don't see a crash happening. The way that the Fed works is they're just trying to balance things out. It to, in my opinion, they just constantly are trying to keep when it starts to teeter one way, it'll start to teeter the other way, it'll just keep doing this back and forth. I don't, I don't see us having the crash that we had in the early 2000s. No, absolutely not.

SPEAKER_01 19:59

No, I agree, I agree. Okay, so you got Claude, Chad GBT, these were all around a year ago. I may have been doing a couple things. I don't even remember really if I I don't I probably wasn't. I knew it was where I might have like done my son's homework for him on it once, but not like now where everything like I I remember people talking about it taking over and Google go going away. Yeah, I was like, no, I go to Google all the time. Yeah, and now I never go to Google. Like I'm shocked because I feel loyal to Google, I feel bad.

SPEAKER_00 20:32

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_01 20:32

But Google don't answer my damn questions.

SPEAKER_00 20:35

Now now people are now people say chat GBT. Yeah. It's but and that, but now even when you type something in Google, it gives you like a chat GBT.

SPEAKER_01 20:43

It gives you an AI, an AI option.

SPEAKER_00 20:45

I mean, we've had AI around for a lot longer than you know, this conversation has happened. It's just it's it's kind of like to me, it's kind of like when the car was made to the the to going to space was a lot quicker than us going from creating the wheel to creating a car, you know, it's exponentially growing. But the but the real estate business, there's a lot that is still very human skill based compared to AI. When it comes to AI, yes, some jobs are going to get lost, unfortunately, but that's but it happens with everything. And humans find new ways to adapt to that. And you know, when when the steam engine came along, new jobs were created then. Yes, jobs were lost, but it's and it's the same thing here. I'm sure it's going to create new jobs, all these data centers that everywhere they're talking about. You're not just talking about construction, you're talking about maintaining. Yeah, eventually we'll all be part of the matrix, but until then.

SPEAKER_01 21:51

So I have actually I just listened to a podcast, it's probably been two weeks ago, that talked about how all this was not fake, grossly exaggerated, like with the dot-com error that all the AI companies have created this momentum or whatever it is that they've created this discussion of oh my god, AI is gonna take over, it's gonna do everything when it's really not. It's not it's really not gonna replace all these jobs. And I don't know the answer, but it gave some pretty good arguments of how this is purely driven by the companies that that tend to profit from it. Yeah, like they're creating this whole narrative and we're all buying into it and scared. And we're all what are we doing? I'm sitting here buying subscriptions to every AI and trying to learn as much as I can because I'm scared it's gonna replace my job. When all I'm doing is exactly what they want me to do.

SPEAKER_00 22:47

Yeah. I mean, you look at AI, at least where we're at today with AI, we're not at that place. I mean, when I said we've already had AI for a while, look at You look at Zillow. Zillow has had their zestament for how long? That's AI. But it's still to the point to where they're not just a few thousand dollars off. A lot of times when I'm running my numbers, they're tens of thousands of dollars off. And that's AI giving you those numbers. I mean, look at like I've I hear on the radio where they talk about lawyers that are being disbarred because they wouldn't put their their thing in AI and then it gave them fake cases. You know, it's not to the point to where it can it can run everything. And even in my bubble of just real estate, I can see where AI is not going to take over because it's not at that spot yet. Like there was a house last night I had my broker call me for a second opinion because the it was a piece of land, and and Zillow was saying it was worth$900 and something thousand dollars. And he was like, just run your numbers and tell me where you're at. And I was and I called him, I said, Okay, it's saying we're around six hundred thousand dollars. He goes, Okay, I had about six twenty-five, thank you. But it's but it just shows that's hundreds of thousands of dollars off, but and it and it's all just because of the input that's put in there, like someone listed it poorly at$925,000 for a year, it didn't sell, but Zillow saw that and said, Okay, it's worth this much. No, because it you're saying it's$900,000, they had it at$925 and they couldn't sell it. So, no, it's not worth that much.

SPEAKER_01 24:29

So AI can get it right a lot and be a great resource for structuring ideas and all that, but the problem is, is the fact that you don't know 100% that it's accurate means you still have to do the manual labor. So that's why AI may never or maybe a long way off from being truly 100% reliable as fat.

SPEAKER_00 24:53

I think I think as humans we can work together with AI, but we can't rely solely on AI. We have to have our human intuition because that's something that AI doesn't have. At least at the moment, it doesn't have human intuition, and that's what's needed. If, you know, we need to have checks and balances of what AI does. We need to make sure that what it's saying is true and what it's giving is true, but we we need we don't need to just push it away. I think we need to embrace it, but don't rely solely on it.

SPEAKER_01 25:27

Yeah, because AI is not gonna know that, you know, even in Peter City, you've got some pockets where that neighborhood is not as nice.

SPEAKER_00 25:33

Exactly.

SPEAKER_01 25:34

So, but it doesn't know you know what might be going on or what they might be building down the road or whatever.

SPEAKER_00 25:41

So exactly.

SPEAKER_01 25:42

All right, so robots are coming. I'm I keep I wrote$24,000. Like they're saying in the next two years everyone will be able to buy a robot that can take your trash out and everything for$24,000. That sounds like a bargain. Yeah, typically that stuff comes to the ultra-rich first, which they probably already have them, but$24K to take my trash out and do all my laundry.

SPEAKER_00 26:04

Yeah, I'm I'm in.

SPEAKER_01 26:05

I'll sell my car to not have to do laundry. Yeah, you think that's real?

SPEAKER_00 26:10

I mean, look at it. We've already got robots that cut our grass. You've got the roomba inside, and now you got the room outside.

SPEAKER_01 26:16

That outside lawnmower don't work. Your lawn better be perfect.

SPEAKER_00 26:20

Yeah, that's why I don't have robots running marathons.

SPEAKER_01 26:24

That's ridiculous.

SPEAKER_00 26:24

Yeah, I saw that, but but like what you said too, who's to say the robot's gonna throw the trash in the trash can? It might start making a pile next to the house or something. Might throw your cat away. Exactly. I mean, what there's I'm but I mean, then you go to you know, Korean fried chicken place in Fayetteville, and the robot robot comes out with your order and your drinks uh on on it and just scoots out. You take your food off and it scoots away.

SPEAKER_01 26:48

So there's a lot of it that I do love, but but I think what might save us is that I'm still irritated as hell by like AI people calling, answering the phone. Like no, I don't. You're making me more irritated. I'd rather have it automated and sound like a computer than you faking like you're a human and still not be able to answer my questions.

SPEAKER_05 27:13

Yep, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 27:14

There's some YouTube videos of people trying to talk to drive-throughs, going, I want a milkshake, so you want fries? And it almost seems like a spoof, but uh you know, yep. I went through one and it worked pretty well the other day, but in general, I don't know. That's interesting.

SPEAKER_00 27:29

I I'm glad that like I sometimes I feel like I am starting to get older because there are times that I don't realize at first that I'm talking to AI, and then about 10 seconds, 15 seconds in, I'm like, oh wait, this isn't a person I'm talking to, is it?

SPEAKER_01 27:43

I get myself in trouble because I the other day I was like, wow, you sound hot. I like because if I'm pretty like if they're too perfectly, because we've never had perfectly spoken people making sales calls or answering. Yeah, so if they're doing it, I was like, I was like, man, you sound beautiful. And she goes, Thank you. I was like, You're a robot, are you? And she's like, no. I was like, oh my god, I'm so sorry.

SPEAKER_00 28:08

That's hilarious. I had uh I have a friend, and he was telling me about how they work at a car dealership and they used AI for a little bit, and they started to have people, guys coming in, looking for Jamie, who was the AI assistant. And they were like, Well, Jamie's not a real person, they are AI, and then perfect transition, Ben.

SPEAKER_01 28:31

That's my next uh question. AI relationships. This is nothing to do with real estate, we're just sh talking now. Okay, because evidently that's the new thing, is people are because you can chat with the AI, you don't have to just ask questions, you actually can just leave it live and have a full-on conversation. And evidently, this is developing into not only are people having relationships with their Siri, if you will, but with their AI. But I'm sure there are actual sites where you could probably have true on relationships. So here's the question Would you let your spouse have an AI friend? Friend, we're calling it a friend, but we know where that goes.

SPEAKER_00 29:14

Yeah, you know, I trust my spouse enough to where, yeah, that'd that'd be fine as long as it's you know, there's certain parameters uh set up for the AI. If it's just trying to go straight on and hitting on my wife constantly, then you know, my wife would probably know to to back off.

SPEAKER_01 29:28

But let's let let's let's remove that because clearly it's not a real person, so they're not physically gonna be able to act on it.

SPEAKER_05 29:35

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 29:36

But your spouse or your child actually has a relationship where they're logging on. I guess it'd be like having a fake friend, or like when you're a kid having uh what were those things called? Uh imaginary friends.

SPEAKER_00 29:48

Oh, the imaginary friends, okay.

SPEAKER_01 29:50

Which I always wish I had one of those.

SPEAKER_00 29:51

None of my kids ever had them, but I don't think that's something that AI needs to get into. Yeah. What it's saying, in my opinion, for that is that this person needs someone to talk to. Yeah. Whether it's a friend, a therapist, somebody.

SPEAKER_01 30:05

Which a lot of people there's a lot of old people that could use somebody to talk to.

SPEAKER_00 30:10

But but that shows too where we're at in as a society as AI is take is stepping in and taking over for social interactions. Right. Instead of me and you sitting here having a conversation, it's there that they don't have someone to have a conversation with because everyone's down looking at their phones.

SPEAKER_01 30:28

So it's getting worse because at first we said that we're the most this is the most connected generation ever and the loneliest because they're connected through social media, but they actually don't have any real interactions.

SPEAKER_00 30:40

Exactly.

SPEAKER_01 30:40

So now we're gonna go to the next up where they're not even connecting with real people online.

SPEAKER_00 30:48

They're and it's it's in in their head they're connecting, but really, how can you connect with something that doesn't have feelings? That that doesn't is not connect. AI is not connecting with you. You may feel that you're connecting with it, but it has no emotions, it has no feelings. You're not truly connecting with it.

SPEAKER_01 31:06

So all you're really doing is connecting with yourself because it's agreeable.

SPEAKER_00 31:10

You're at typically you're having a you're just having a mental conversation with yourself. Yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_01 31:15

So my only positive for this is there are a lot of people that have right now, if you take it away, they have no one to talk to.

SPEAKER_05 31:23

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 31:24

And and so you proceed with caution, if you will, because you don't want that to replace anything, and you you really don't want to be that type of person. But for the person that is maybe an invalid or uh suffered from trauma or whatever that looks like, or the old person that has nobody, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 31:43

It gives them somebody to talk to. It does, it does. Yeah, it's Ma, call your robot, leave me alone. Yeah, but that's what dogs are for, that's what cats are for. But then you can get the robot that can clean up the litter box or open up the door and take them outside.

SPEAKER_01 31:58

So you need a dog and a robot.

SPEAKER_00 32:00

Yes, a dog and a robot.

SPEAKER_01 32:02

You can talk to your robot about the yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_00 32:04

Uh-huh. Uh-huh. Yep.

SPEAKER_01 32:06

I love it.

SPEAKER_00 32:07

I love it. Oh God, if they have robot dogs, they they they have the kid toy robot dogs. But you can't yell at a robot for like sometimes I have to get onto my dog because when since we've moved, he's he's still learning where the bathroom is, and he's learning that the house is not the bathroom.

SPEAKER_03 32:26

Uh yeah.

SPEAKER_00 32:27

So I've been having to get onto my dog lately. So that's that's one thing that is great about AI. They don't uh they don't take gookies in your living room. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 32:37

So what and this is on the spot. Can you think of anything that do you have any fears about AI for the next 12 months? So from one year from now, what what could go wrong with all of this? Not just AI, because that's such a obviously there's so many good uses for AI, but we're talking about the progression into robots and computers taking up they're talking about using Claude to I'm I'm listening to these things and they're like, there's gonna be 75 different Facebooks now. Uh-huh. Like people can create these things. I'm like, I still can't. Yeah. With Claude. I don't know how to create that crap. I couldn't even create a mortgage calculator. I tried to use it.

SPEAKER_00 33:16

I to me, the biggest, the biggest, I mean, I'm 39, I'm almost 40. I grew up in the generation of watching movies like Terminator, Matrix, all that stuff. So that's always in the back of my mind of one day machines are gonna take over. But in reality, right now, my biggest fear is there, like, no matter what laws are put into place, we're never gonna have any sort of privacy ever again.

SPEAKER_03 33:42

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 33:43

There's it because AI can set it up to where, you know, you have your phone where it has facial recognition on it. Now it knows what it you look like. I've never looked up once anything about the like my family, my parents, my entire family are from the United States, but you know, the color of skin that I am, how come it tells me how come I'm getting ads for my family coming over to the United States? They should have some sort of insurance plan when they get here. Any like algorithms on Facebook, algorithms on everything. They know what you like, they know what you want. They they want to figure out what you want to get more. Yeah, and it's like you have no privacy.

SPEAKER_01 34:24

Do you think we'll do you think they'll push us over the cliff and we'll shut it all down ourselves?

SPEAKER_00 34:29

No. I don't I don't think we will.

SPEAKER_01 34:31

I just I think I think a man, I think there will be a movement towards that.

SPEAKER_00 34:34

You know what I did see the other day that I actually would like, I would like to see this movement, and it is having hours, like how you go you can only go to the store and they close at a certain time. I would love to see where you can't get on Facebook after 10 o'clock or something like that, and it just shuts off.

SPEAKER_01 34:51

Um I know Sundays considered religious holidays, so you couldn't do that, but but if it was a day of the week, yeah. Saturdays, all whatever is shut off.

SPEAKER_00 35:01

Because but what I like, I'm sorry, I'm just big into like the because I try and cut myself off of Facebook as much as possible. I don't the only time I ever get on is to make a post, but very rarely, and I try not scroll scroll that because that's what gets me. But like they say, it's literally you get the same feeling that you get from a drug. Yeah. When you start like that's that's why TikTok is so popular, because it's eight second hits that you're getting. Just boom, boom, boom.

SPEAKER_01 35:29

What's weird about like TikTok? Like that is my least used one. I I'm trying to figure that out. I think it might do because there's so many fake video, not fake videos, but so many ads that that look like real videos. I'm like, I don't have the energy to decipher. Like I literally get on social media well for two reasons. One, my problem is is I feel like I have to interact if I want people to interact with me. So if I want if I want people to look at my post, I have to interact with theirs. So I get on there to like and comment on other people's stuff all the time.

SPEAKER_05 36:00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 36:00

Not to actually just doom scroll, but then for Instagram reels or whatever, that's when I find myself just scrolling mindlessly.

SPEAKER_00 36:10

I will say this about social media and AI because it's already starting to happen. People are, you've got bad actors out there already to where they're manipulating videos, photos, whatever, to to push a narrative a lot of times that's not even real. And it's causing it's causing a ruckus, it's causing people's emotions to go up, and it's something that hasn't even happened, and it's making people believe things that aren't even true.

SPEAKER_03 36:36

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 36:36

And and people are still too lazy to verify things.

SPEAKER_00 36:38

Exactly. Because if it it's if it supports their narrative, they're like, Well, why would I want to go find out that it's like there there was an old skit or a meme or something, and it I think it was a it was like a skit, and it was like, I have to believe it because it's true, because I read it on the internet. Well, where did you where did you read that on the internet? And it's it's the same with this, like people believe stuff because they see it, and like you said, they don't go and verify, but it's hard to not believe it when you see not just one thing, but when you click on it, then your algorithm says, Oh, they really are into this. I'm gonna keep pushing this in front of them again and again and again. And then they believe it because they've seen now that their entire feed is that one thing.

SPEAKER_01 37:22

And I'm trying to reverse that for myself because I found that myself I've been diverted because of a few things that I'm passionate about, and I'm only getting I found myself in an echo chamber, and I don't like the other echo chamber, but I need to know it so that I know that mine is accurate. So well, um, one last question.

SPEAKER_05 37:42

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 37:43

Let's tie it back to the whole one year anniversary.

SPEAKER_05 37:45

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 37:46

Let's think one year from now.

SPEAKER_05 37:48

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 37:48

Let's go back to real estate. What is a mistake that buyers or sellers, if they look back one year from now, what is what is the mistake that they could be making over the next 12 months?

SPEAKER_00 38:00

A mistake that buyers could be making right now is waiting for things to happen because right now we're in a good market to where you can get things. Right. You can get your closing costs paid for. You could get, you know, like I'm telling folks a lot of times we have about a$20,000 wiggle route, maybe$15 in closing costs, five off the price or something. You can get things. But if let's just say the market changes drastically and rates come down, then you have more people in the market and you're not going to get those same things. Or vice versa, you wait because you think rates are coming down. And you mentioned earlier, what if rates go up? Now you've both both ways you've been priced out of the market. As a seller, the mistake that you can make is either a not being patient and and not realizing the market we're in, or hiring a bad agent that is giving you hopes, selling you hopes and dreams, and then just letting a house sit.

SPEAKER_03 39:00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 39:00

Because the longer a house sits, the more negotiation power a buyer has. Yeah. I mean, on day one, if if this is the first day you you have your house listed, you could get probably full price and zero closing costs. 90 days down the road, you're giving up closing costs. A year down the road, you reduce the price and you're giving up closing costs. I mean, look at that person you're talking about. They had on the market and they what$70,000 off? Exactly.

SPEAKER_01 39:29

So I know Tyler Willis, a real estate photographer, um, posted yesterday just talking about please, y'all don't know how important it is for you to stage your home to make sure it's clean, make sure it's I've seen agents use the word beauty pageant ready. One year ago, you just smashed my kitchen, told me how trashy it looked. Yeah. And how clean.

SPEAKER_00 39:52

Pictures still matter.

SPEAKER_01 39:54

You're not supposed to agree that my kitchen is trash.

SPEAKER_00 39:57

It wasn't that bad. My kitchen sometimes.

SPEAKER_01 39:59

All right, well, we've moved to the living room. We've moved to the living room. You need this beauty pageant ready. What needs to go in here to stage this room for to put the house on the market? And y'all can't see it because he's got he's got ample things to choose on.

SPEAKER_00 40:17

I would, I would, so I would I would take out all the personalized stuff, all the family photos, all that stuff needs to go. And it would just be like the the best way to describe it is when you walk into a like go go to Haverty's rooms to go, wherever. They don't have all this stuff. It's a couch, table, some flowers, color.

SPEAKER_01 40:38

So no drum set.

SPEAKER_00 40:39

No drum set. I can take that with me, though. That's okay. It'll be safe at my house.

SPEAKER_01 40:43

My green screen, is it gonna come down too off the wall?

SPEAKER_00 40:46

The green screen would come down because this is all personalized stuff. This is this is what's supposed to be a uh like a formal living room.

SPEAKER_01 40:53

What about my snoop dog?

SPEAKER_00 40:55

Oh no, you definitely have to keep that. Okay, so that's definitely keep that right next to Jesus.

SPEAKER_01 41:00

I apologize. He is behind Jesus, though. He's behind Jesus. We don't know where he is with his walk, so no, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 41:06

It's when people come in and you don't want them to think, oh, I have to clean like this is dirty. No, you want them to come into a showroom, basically. That's the best way to describe it. They need to they need to see a showroom because that's where dreams happen. If it didn't, then when you went to rooms to go or to Haverty's, then their places would be cluttered too. Right. But they're not because there's they have a product to sell and you have a product to sell too. As much as as much as it's your home, because everyone still is has that mindset, and it it's rightful. You've lived there for how long? Forever, you know? It's but you have to take away the personalness of it. It's not your it's not about to not be your home anymore. And you're selling to someone that it they don't want it to be your home, they want it to be their home. So you just have to keep that mindset in mind as hard as it is, and detach yourself as much as possible, and just you're working. That your age real estate agent is working, but you also have to work to keep it clean, you know, and keep it presentable.

SPEAKER_01 42:07

Man, I love it. You're really good. You're really good at this. You're really uh great at your videos. You have a YouTube channel, let's send them back to there.

SPEAKER_00 42:16

Yep, go to Georgia Home Hub. I've taken a little bit of a hiatus, but I do have several videos that are in the pipeline that are about to be made. So come check out my channel, Georgia Home Hub.

SPEAKER_01 42:25

Awesome. I appreciate it. Thank you for everything you've done for me to get me started. Thanks for coming back. Love having you on. You're thank you. You're awesome, baby.

SPEAKER_00 42:32

I appreciate it. Thank you so much.

SPEAKER_01 42:33

Have a good day.

SPEAKER_00 42:34

Bye bye.

SPEAKER_01 42:36

That was the best one ever.

SPEAKER_00 42:38

All right, I appreciate it.