Closing Time: Strategies for Today’s Market & the Mindset to Win

Deals are stalling, phones are ringing, and everyone’s “close”… until a $300k gap stops the music. We dive straight into the tension of today’s real estate market where sellers stick to yesterday’s prices, buyers weigh tomorrow’s risks, and banks won’t lend without a solid yield. Instead of debating comps all day, we focus on practical ways to turn a standoff into a signature—and protect your value while doing it.

We begin with motivation. A real buyer and a real seller are the only starting points that matter. From there, structure becomes the key: seller financing to reduce debt costs and maintain initial price, performance-based earnouts that pay only when upside is demonstrated, and refi kickers or contingent notes that align timing, cash flow, and valuation. We discuss mechanics—clear milestones, timelines, interest accrual, and protections—so no one pays for pro forma promises that never materialize. Along the way, we address a sensitive topic: cutting commissions. Our position is clear. Don’t fix broken pricing with your paycheck; use better structure and written agreements to safeguard the work that gets deals done.

We expand to the leasing side, where tenant build-outs, abatements, and demising turn “simple” deals into mini-development projects. That friction impacts cap rates, lender appetite, and buyer confidence. The opportunity is in overlooked edges: properties near hot corridors, inherited assets with disengaged owners, and off-market puzzles that reward creativity over speed. Mindset also matters. Education builds confidence—walk through complicated deals, learn the systems, understand the costs—but let that learning lead to decisive action and smooth closings.

If you’re struggling with a stubborn gap between value and price, this conversation provides you with the playbook to bridge it without sacrificing your fee or your sanity. Subscribe, share this with a colleague who needs a creative structure today, and leave a review with the sharpest deal term you’ve used lately—we’ll feature the best ideas next time.

Transcript

Kicking Off And Market Reality Check

SPEAKER_01 0:00

All right. Here we go. Rub those hands together. Getting into podcast groove podcast mode. Initiate episode four? Papa, are we episode four now? Or episode five? I think it's five, but uh who's counting? Right. Well, we ha we we missed a couple weeks there because you were globe-trotting.

SPEAKER_00 0:22

Perhaps. You know, time has a way of going on, but where we dot the ribbon of life, Michael, is where we are, and uh and it keeps things moving. God willing, we should, you know, uh somebody asked me how I was doing in shull this morning, and I said, I'm doing just fine. Hashem woke me up this morning and gave me another shot at it, so I am doing just fine. That's awesome.

SPEAKER_01 0:46

Every day above ground is a good day. That's what they say. I think. Um, all right. Episode five. Dad, I got a billion and a half questions for you. They are they are are are precise questions. They're trying to help me, but we're trying to help the audience. It's not about you, it's about it's not about me. It's about, you know, what we can learn together and explore in this crazy real estate market where uh sellers want too much money, buyers don't want to pay a lot of money, and banks don't want to lend money unless you're gonna give them 7% back on their money, which means that any deal that's less than an eight cap is probably not attractive for anyone. So the market is is is what it is. But you know, I I I I we have I have a lot of deals up in the air, Pop. I'm working really hard, really hard. I'm talking to people. Nobody wants to close a deal. Nobody wants to close a deal, but they want to talk about it.

Shoutout To Coaching And Life Balance

Why Deals Stall: Value Gaps Explained

SPEAKER_00 1:51

Uh well um I'm well okay. There's a couple of things. First of all, I have a little bit of cleaning up to do from the last podcast where we talked about life balance, and I reference that I have a coach who uh helps me with this, and I want to not only uh acknowledge that I have uh that I've had a source, but the source is Rabbi Aryeh Niven Shlita uh of Ashdod, and he has a uh a powerful set of classes called Rabbi Aryeh Niven's Haburas, and they are uh very worthwhile. Uh I meet with Rabbi Niven regularly uh to go over different life challenges. You know, we could all use a coach in this world. Uh I've told you before that people, we can never see ourselves the way other people see us. Uh you know, we look in the mirror and our left eye looks at our left eye, but when you look at me, your right eye looks at my left eye. You can't, I cannot see myself. You know, one of my daughters said there's an app for that, Dad, but I don't know that technologically advanced. I'm saying, you know, we uh so Rabbi Niven is the source of a lot of my thinking having to do with life balance and and uh and and and living powerfully. So uh I wanted to give that shout out uh an acknowledgement for uh the material that we gave in the last class or the last talk. There's uh there's uh a rule I learned early in my career that when you have a buyer who wants to buy and a seller who wants to sell, then you have the makings of a deal. And the problem today is that the you don't have a division on value of real estate. I'm not talking about personal values, you know, you might be aligned on those things, but uh sellers often uh you know have an inflated idea of numbers. The price of construction has gone up dramatically. Uh there was a lot of money that got changed hands in the last 10 years that made certain people uber wealthy. And uh and so there's cash on the side for a number of uh of those who have it. Uh and then there's uh then there's the people who want to sell and realize some of the cash that uh they find to have been an equity uh of what they have. So the the the the chasm, which is really what it is, it's a chasm. It's a it's a it's you know a pit between what the value is and what people are willing to pay for it. So we're living in a time like that, but everybody wants to find that deal. You know, if I can find what if I could find that deal, I would buy it, but I'm not gonna pay that price. So the question that you're asking me is how do you bridge that gap? Well, first of all, again, the first thing you have to have is a buyer wants to buy and a seller wants to sell. If if if the buyer really doesn't want to buy, then they're they're just interested in schmoozing and seeing whether or not there's something there. And if a seller doesn't want to sell because they've got a number on it that's I'll sell it for this, then you really don't have a seller that wants to help sell. So I think that the first thing that that one would do, and in your case, you would do, is find out. You know, because if you're not dealing in reality of what can happen, you're not gonna, you're not gonna, you're, you're gonna be spinning your wheels. You'll learn something. Uh one of the things that I I I I continually say to you is make sure that when somebody says you're gonna get paid, that you get that in writing. I always feel like uh one of my coaches early in my career used to go, if you say it, why don't you sign it? You know, I'll pay you. Yeah, what will you pay me? Well, I'll pay you whatever, you know, two, two, four, eight percent. I'll make you a partner. When it comes time to take your chips off the table, you know, what I said and what I'll do are two different things in business. And uh it's it's just the facts of how things are. So it's better to have where your place is in putting a deal together in writing, especially since it's mostly your idea, Michael. You know, when you talk about finding a property and someone calls you about it, your your your your magic is is is putting those two pieces together. And once you have that and somebody's been on the property, you have the makings of a deal. And the question is, how do you bridge the gap? Do you have a question right now, or do you want me to keep going?

SPEAKER_01 6:37

I do. No, I have a question because first the piece of the piece of wisdom, the new novel idea here is that yes, you gotta find someone who's a seller, and you gotta find someone's a buyer. I was do I was I I I uh discovered an opportunity of a seller who wants to sell. And he wants to sell it, a big portfolio of homes for a little less than three million dollars. I found a buyer who wants to buy, and he wants to buy it for around$1.6,$1.7 million. So, and we have an and the seller even said we should come look at the property. So we did. We loved what we saw. My guy wants to buy it in cash, but we are we the seller's like, yeah, I'll come down a bit. You know, I'll come down to to you know, a couple hundred thousand. And we said we'll come up a little bit, you know. So we're getting closer, even though everyone started far apart. And now we're still about three hundred thousand dollars away. Someone's at, you know, 1.9 and and he's at 2.2, and and now everyone's just it's my job to close this deal, but we're still$300,000 apart. What do I do to get this deal closed? That's my question.

Bridging The Gap: Creative Structures

SPEAKER_00 7:51

What what a what is the what what what do they say? Hutzpadick masterminding probably is what you're gonna need to deal with at this point to find out if you're there. Uh there are a lot of different uh creative ways of of structuring uh a workout of a difference. So, you know, I I would say that one of them is seller financing. Uh it could be that that whatever that financing looks like, for instance, I don't know your deal, I don't know the value, I don't know whether it makes any sense. So everything that I'm telling you is one big, you know, one big brainstorm type thing. But for instance, let's say that you know the the property is a million and a half is what you the buyer's willing to pay and the seller's willing to take two million. And there's an upside to the property that maybe one day the property is worth more than two million. So so and and the cash flow supports it at some point. So maybe there's a way of the seller taking some sort of workout number between 1.5 and$2 million, where performance-based over a period of time that that if the property achieves what he says it could, then you can get his money later when we refinance out. So let's say that the that the income right now only supports a million and a half, but he thinks it's you know we can raise the rents in over the course of three years and it would support two million, and that would be something that in that case your buyer would pay the two million if it were if it actually had that. So you say, okay, I'll tell you what, over the course of time, and you got to put in value for the effort to get it uh to get that number. You know, it's not just like, okay, we we we're gonna run with it for two or three years, and then in three years, whatever we've achieved, you get all that money. There's gotta be a value to the effort that goes along with it. So it's a value concept of putting a number in. That might be one way to work it out. Um I like again, seller financing.

SPEAKER_01 10:06

Yeah, I like seller financing. That's that's a good thing.

Leasing Has Changed: Costs And Friction

SPEAKER_00 10:11

Seller financing at a low at a low interest rate, uh, even if it's uh part of a uh of a uh of a of a of a secondary loan in case it needs to be. So I don't know, but you know, the the if the if the seller wants more, then how do you make it uh attractive? And also it's not it's not a guarantee that you know the money for buying it or or refinancing is going to be there in a few years. Banks are you know, they they have a different they have a different viewpoint. Uh as far as how to how to get the banks to loan money, uh the you know that that's uh that's a different challenge. You know, I'm I'm noticing that uh in my business, which I have a number of office buildings, it used to be, and my wife always says used to be used to be. So you can't go by what was. Uh you know, years ago there was you could buy things at a reasonable price, and then the interest rates went low, so people were able to buy more because they could finance more. Now rates are higher, but the val the price of properties haven't come down. But um back to used to be, you would, if you wanted to rent an office space, you would go to an office building. There would be uh a space of a thousand, two thousand square feet. You say, I like the space, it works out. The guy gives you a key, you sign a lease, they write you a check into security deposit, they move in, they bring their furniture, they operate their business. Now, what happens is over the course of years is that an agent brings somebody to you. They want to be paid up front. You're they bring in your their client. The client looks at it and says, This can work, but I need new carpet, new paint, I need a bathroom, a sink, and uh it's a little too big, so I would like you to demise it off or give me some free space. And it becomes and you go, Well, I don't know, you know, whether that's gonna work uh in terms of how much it's gonna cost to be put in. Let me check it out. And then you look at it and you go, okay, well, this is the deal, and it becomes a protracted development project that would be almost the value of building a house. So uh so pro project cost and and and the ability to to make a deal that can that can uh happen in in a realistic time frame has become more challenging. So where your value as a as a broker or being the person in the middle of it is is to determine or qualify your time as to what you're working on. And the the thing that you're doing in early in your career is you're learning these things firsthand. You're making a lot of network contacts, you're doing a lot of deep uh a lot of research. What I do like about what I'm seeing with you, and I I hope that this um you know this uh rubs off on some of your friends who are listening, is um you're looking outside of just what you're finding. I've noticed that when you see something that you found out about, you're not just looking right at that property, you're looking at the surrounding opportunities. Uh because really I think where money gets made and where where I mean real money gets made is not what's really on the market, but what you find that isn't, that is an unusual opportunity, and then you create something that nobody else is seeing. I think that's when when the when real money gets made. It has been for me. Oh wow.

SPEAKER_01 13:37

Well, that's uh that's that's that was like what we saw last night where you know near where people are developing, next to where people are developing, there's you know, open spots and pe a lot of times the value is is is totally different than what you know what than what the person, even the seller, knows about. And a lot of times when you know you can't assume. That's a lesson I got early from Mr. Brutt. You can't assume anything. You just can't. Because when you actually call, you realize that oh, they inherited the property and the sellers live in California and and they're happy to take whatever money they can because they don't really care about the property. Or you learn that it's a nice gentleman who owns a strip mall in Howell that tells you he wants you to show it and never shows up and blows you off 20 times, you know?

SPEAKER_00 14:28

Both happen. Well, we've seen that, we've seen that in a couple of different cases, Michael. You and uh together. We've seen that.

Qualifying Time And Finding Hidden Value

SPEAKER_01 14:36

Yeah. The best, so uh now we're talking a couple of different pieces of advice, and I want then I want to return to helping to close. And I also want to tell a quick little bite also. Um when we were talking about oh no, the first I want to start with this. When we're talking about trying to get this deal closed, I was dealing with this, the agent, the listing agent, where we're still$300,000 apart. And he said, you know, what if we, you know, we each have our set commissions in this deal. He said, What if we each shave off 25% of our commissions to close the deal? Is that out too altruistic or is that brilliant?

SPEAKER_00 16:37

Um Altruistic. You're gonna you're gonna cut the value of your service that you pre-negotiated.

SPEAKER_01 16:46

I mean, we're each gonna get two point five percent, so let's cut it down and I'll make two point two five percent, or I'll make two point two five percent of the city.

SPEAKER_00 17:00

Did you do that math?

SPEAKER_01 17:01

No, he just ran up by me. This is a how much two percent how much of a million twenty thousand dollars. So forty grand. So, but really it's not that much. The difference between two point two five and two percent is really like a couple thousand bucks. It's not really gonna save anybody. Well, it was uh it was uh now the audience knows.

Should You Cut Your Commission

SPEAKER_00 17:32

We've all given into making the deal, but why do you think that the buyer and seller and the seller's broker are looking to you who put the buyer in position to move the money and say there's a deal here that can be made where everybody is where the seller is gonna take his chips off the table and the value of your service got diminished because I'm not getting what I want out of it. You know, you're dealing on a percentage basis. If the price is lower, you're getting paid less. So if i I I I I I d I I think that I can just tell you this. When one day, I it it it it's a it's a it's a historic part of my career when I was uh I think I may even told you this before, so I'll I'll be brief about it. But my very first big deal, uh, the deal was gonna crash, the seller told me in the contract the amount of money I was gonna get paid, the buyer is gonna pay that amount of money, and the financing was falling apart, and I went and I got private financing for the deal. It got negotiated. I negotiated, I didn't get paid for that. I negotiated the financing, and I walked into the closing with a cashier's check for the financing that I negotiated. Walked into the lawyer's office of a who was a friend of mine, and he said, Have you heard about your commission? I went, What about my commission? They said, They want you to take less. I went, take less for what? They go. So I called my boss. My boss said, Well, walk out. I said, Walk out of the where? I'm the only guy here with the closing paper signed, and I've got the closing money in my hand. Where am I walking out of? It's just me. She goes, Don't take anything less. You just close the deal. You did your job. So why would you take less for doing your job when you're already taking less based on what you pre-negotiated in order to get there? If the seller wants more, perhaps the seller needs to increase the price and let the buyer and seller come up with the difference. I'm I'm I'm not an advocate for cutting your fee.

SPEAKER_01 19:48

Me neither.

Mindset, Education, And When To Move On

SPEAKER_00 19:50

I'm I'm I'm I mean, you know, in in the end, you're splitting it with your broker in some way. You know, you've got your own expenses to pay. You've got uh a lot and and and you're the reason it happens. Um, you know, us us agents get a bad rap. Go ahead. But I'll and I'll tell you, go ahead, cut your fee, close the deal, take your money, and everybody else will move on down the road, forget about you, and you're sitting there trying to ha figure out how to pay for daycare.

SPEAKER_01 20:19

I mean, uh you know, that's not that's not fun. That's not fun. You know what, you know what I learned? I learned a valuable lesson. And you also the the this is the best piece of real estate advice that you have given me. It has gotten me through my darkest times and my best times in this long, uh lustrious uh career I've had of all 60 days, 60 days of real estate. I think we're up to six. Tell me what advice that was so I can try to follow it. That for the first year, it's not about your commissions, it's about the education. It's the best piece of advice. Oh, it's because I go down every single deal that even has the little bit of Bambi legs, even. Now, it doesn't have real legs, it has some Bambi legs, the deal. Really wobbly, but I'll go down that rabbit hole because I'll get to know that deal. I'll get to know what it means when you're dealing with an old elevator and a 1930s building that is 41 units and Elizabeth, and I'll learn what it costs to deal with taking out old radiators. And taking out oil tanks from the ground, and then you become a smarter person, and you're even better for the deal that happens when you're not just 60 days into real estate, but when you're 40 years into real estate.

SPEAKER_00 21:34

It doesn't change the challenge, no matter how long you're in it. That's for sure.

SPEAKER_01 21:42

Now I'm rambling here, but I met an awesome, really nice guy who's who's uh uh he's uh he's a broker, he's not a broker. He sells the he does the mortgages. Really nice guy. His last name is Simma. Awesome guy. Tion Zion, sweetest guy, everyone call him, he's awesome. But also call uh my other friend Albert, who's also the sweetest guy and sponsor of the show. There's a lot of awesome guys. We'll talk about it at a different time. But what I've noticed also is that people who do the same job in real estate will have totally different ideas of what the job is and whether or not it's enjoyable. I'll meet agents that half of them say, Oh, I have the best job in the world. I'm paid to talk to people. My best friends, I'm on the phone with the whole day talking about anything, and I get paid to do that. And these these brokers, Alpert and Simma, they're like, we just help people make money and we help homeowners get homes and we try to make it work and we get paid to talk to people. I love it. And then you see other people that are like, oh, I just got hammered today. Everyone told me no, there's no deals anywhere to be found. It almost sounds like they're playing in two totally different business ballparks.

SPEAKER_00 22:54

Well, as uh I think I've quoted Zig Ziggler, the uh the one time Maven of uh of uh personal uh salesmanship. He goes, business is neither good or bad out there. It's either good or bad between your own two ears. So, you know, one person who who looks at it and says, here's a lemon, uh, it's really sour. The other guy goes, Oh, wow, add a little sugar, we got lemonade. So and that's all zig. So I'm not taking any credit for it. So you it it is all uh uh, you know, it is all about how you hold it. Michael, you're out there punching away. I think those are really good uh uh those are really good traits for being successful in the business. Uh you you know, you can't you uh hopefully the education you're getting is gonna be profitable, but you can't spend education, you invest in education. At some point you've got to turn that into uh into action and and and closing. And uh I think that the the the takeaway from today's talk is is how do you bridge the gap? And the question is if you can, you get creative and figure out ways to do it. Uh we talked about maybe seller financing or uh workout arrangements for for production, uh, you know, uh if something actually works the way that uh that it's projected, but you don't pay for that until it actually does, and there's value to getting it to that point. Creative uh working to get a buyer who wants to buy and a seller who wants to sell to bridge the gap is the way to do it. Qualifying your time to be able to figure out whether or not you have the components of buyer and seller uh with the right motivation is important. If you don't have it, then move on. And that's how I'd like to end it today.

SPEAKER_01 24:50

All right. Well, on that note, we're gonna go we're gonna go we're gonna go grab the phones, we're gonna ask for some seller financing, and we're gonna check out the book. Don't forget to smash that like button. Smash the like, smash the donate button. We're calling it dad now. The motivation congregation has four different podcasts. The KK podcast that you're listening to now, the Motivation Congregation, what you listen to on WhatsApp, the weekly partial podcast that you listen to wherever you get your famous famous and fancy podcasts, and you get that every Friday. It comes out with a new DeBar Torah. And you can listen to all the stories that we talk about and the Torah stories about great Jewish Giants on the Great Jewish Stories of Historic Torah Giants podcast. So there's a lot to choose from here. It's the Fantastic Four, as we call it.

Wrap-Up And Calls To Action

SPEAKER_00 25:35

All right. Go get them, Michael, and let's stay in touch. Have a great day, son. Thanks for your time, Dad. Let's get it. Okay, you better. Okay, babe. Bye.