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Key Factors RealEstateAF
Educational Podcast for Consumers, Mortgage & Real Estate Industry Professionals. We'll Talk About It All! Key Factors podcast, powered by https://ReviewMyMortgage.com . Your Host Mark Jones invites Industry Pros to help uncover & educate on the key factors of various topics. There’s something for everyone so let us be your guides and get educated. Subscribe & Follow on Spotify, Apple Podcast, Facebook, Instagram, & all other podcasting platforms. Host : Mark A Jones Founder of ReviewMyMortgage.comProducing Branch MangerSr. Loan Officer. NMLS ID# 513437NMLS Consumer Access: http://www.nmlsconsumeraccess.org/Powered by ReviewMyMortgage.com
Key Factors RealEstateAF
Transforming Land and Navigating Economic Challenges: Insights from Real Estate Expert Gilly Mendoza
What if you could transform raw land into a thriving community while navigating economic uncertainties? Join us for an insightful conversation with Gilly Mendoza, a seasoned real estate professional, as we explore the current state of the market. With over a decade of experience, Gilly provides valuable insights into the financial landscape, drawing from the lessons of the 2008 recession. Learn how entrepreneurial endeavors, particularly in real estate, can shape future generations, as evidenced by Gilly's daughter's newfound passion for the field.
Immerse yourself in the complex world of real estate development, where Gilly shares updates on significant land projects and career shifts. From rezoning challenges to the political aspects of development, we unravel the intricate process of turning parcels of land into profitable ventures. Gilly's experience highlights the importance of detailed site plans and stakeholder communication, offering a glimpse into the dynamic east side's evolving housing demands and the potential for mixed-use developments.
As we forecast the future of real estate amidst technological advancements, we emphasize the necessity of maintaining discipline and adaptability. Despite predicted market downturns, 2023 has brought unexpected opportunities, emphasizing the power of focus and assertive business strategies. Our discussion also touches on the evolving structure of real estate commissions and the critical role of transparency in transactions. Dive into the broader economic landscape, examining the U.S. national debt and its implications for homeownership, while empowering listeners through education and resources to make informed decisions in the ever-changing real estate market.
Key Factors Podcast is Powered by ReviewMyMortgage.com
Host: Mark Jones | Sr. Loan Officer | NMLS# 513437
If you would like to work with Mark on your next home purchase or as a partner visit iThink Mortgage.
from your head to the left and cough um, anything goes. Uh truly, like I tell everybody, if you're gonna cuss, just use it the right way. Um, but yeah, this is kind of a free-for-all type concept. I want to talk about economy. I want to talk about what's going on in your neck of the woods these days, because, as a top-producing realtor, you're a leader in the industry. So what are you feeling? That kind of stuff. What are you going through? What keeps you motivated? But we'll let it roll.
Speaker 2:Okay, and then I think we had briefly spoke about last time the developments right. So those have. Those have taken off. I'll touch on that a little bit too bring it back.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, yeah, yep. Okay, catch up, catch up, um, all right, jc, take advantage of it or not, but don't knock the guy. That is that's right, if that makes sense. I think people overlook that. Like for us't knock the guy. That is that's right, if that makes sense.
Speaker 3:I think people overlook that. Like for us, our generation, the recession that we went through right, like 2008, 2000, 2010. I graduated college in 2009 in a recession. That's right. Like I'm like, oh my God, I was making more at HEB, still being there for like eight years, I think that I was able to make trying to find a job, a career job Makes sense, like, and I'm like, yeah, a degree. I went through all this school. I think a lot of that just set people back. And the debt, the lack of education, like you don't need 50, 60, $100,000 in debt. That's right when you know your job is going to be this amount is going to be X.
Speaker 2:Y and Z. How do you get out of that?
Speaker 1:I love it, let's go, let's go. Welcome back to another episode of Key Factors Podcast, real Estate AF, where the AF stands for and finance, and I'm your host, mark Jones, and we are powered by ReviewMyMortgagecom, the largest index of mortgage programs in the nation, and what I just played for you was a clip from a podcast episode, not just a podcast episode, the very first podcast episode I've ever recorded. Matter of fact, we were using cell phone cameras and the microphones were just there for decoration at the time. But I wanted to have a little bit of reunion with all the market chaos that's going on and catch up with my buddy, gilly Mendoza.
Speaker 2:Gilly, how you doing going on and catch up with my buddy, gilly Mendoza. Gilly, how you doing, mark, I'm doing awesome and thanks for having me, man, I love your energy, I love how far this has come.
Speaker 3:I'm honored to be here, so thank you very much.
Speaker 1:Let's go Two years later, finally, 11,000 subscribers and growing. Wow, people are tuning in and listening to what we have to say these days and it's a good feeling, but I want to continue to bring that fire to these folks and full transparency with real shit. That's right. We want to be able to, without trying to sell someone anything, give them the lay of the land from our perspective. I love it. Of the land from our perspective, I love it. So, that being said, many have not gone all the way back to watch that episode. If you could just take a moment to introduce yourself, tell us who you are and what you do.
Speaker 2:Sure. So Gilly Mendoza, been in real estate now for 12 years, been primarily on the sales side. We do a lot of investment development. I'm married to my wife for 12 years now as well. I've been together for 18 years. We're business partners.
Speaker 2:We go at this together all day, every day, so that part of it is awesome and we've got pluses and minuses. Plus and minuses, correct. Yeah, I mean, you just can't. You can't escape it, right, if you're having some some uh, uh, some some chaos at work and then you come home and hopefully you don't bring the chaos, but I think it naturally happens in our line of business and in real estate. But, uh, happily married to my wife and we got three kids together, three awesome kids that are just been growing and part of the business. I feel like in some sense, get kind of crazy that my daughter wanted nothing to do with real estate, who's 16 years old and a junior now, and then now she wrote a thesis paper last year and asked what do you want to do after college? And it was getting involved in real estate.
Speaker 1:No way. Yes, now, this is not the same daughter that opened the cookies.
Speaker 2:That is, that's the daughter who had the bakery. The uh cookies. That, that is that's the daughter who had had the bakery and she, like, when she was on a master chef junior, she left it by saying I'm gonna have bakeries all over the world, yeah, right. And now in uh, five years, six years, that has changed to be like all right, I'm done with the baking for a little bit.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that might come back, but sure, now she's, uh, she's has interest in real estate goodness at age 14 13 probably started before then learning all of that real life entrepreneurial uh uh spirit with the activities. I mean, there's so much that goes involved in that.
Speaker 2:Absolutely, that's cool. I think on the the baking side that there was a lot, but I think for Denise and I, what we did I feel like very well, we still do it is that we don't like separate the, the work and the life. Right, it's all integrated into one and we're comfortable about having these conversations in front of them. I mean, we talked about the education here. Right, you go to college. You're not really going to have these real life experiences, so they're going to learn it, hopefully, from us.
Speaker 1:Yeah Right, Just all behaviors. Let's talk about that. Let's open up with that bit of a dialogue. There's a lot of folks out there and not knocking anybody that are raising their kids differently but we agreed on that wholeheartedly on teaching your kids, getting involved with your kids and what you're actually doing to pay the bills and pave the life that they're living. Essentially, what are your thoughts and why did you guys go about that?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so, like when you look at all the research and the data that shows, right? Like, where kids learn their habits, their behaviors, it's typically established by seven years old and most of that comes from your parents, right? So, like financial literacy, there's all these studies and there's all these gurus that have found that financial literacy habits are established by seven and that is coming from what they're learning from their parents, right? So if their parents are overly spenders or big spenders, they're naturally going to do that, right? If they're frugal with their money, they're naturally going to be frugal, right? If they're scared to invest or scared to take risks, they're naturally going to do the same. They're going to revert back to what they learned.
Speaker 2:That's the same thing for the health and the eating habits I mean that was mind-blowing to me by seven years old. Like if they are not in exercise or not playing sports or not in routine, right, it doesn't have to be sports specifically, but just exercising and doing those things. As they get older, they're going to revert back to that because that's what they knew and that's what they were comfortable. So if it was like, hey, we're going to go eat McDonald's every other day, they're probably going to do that as an adult, like if the study went as far as even, like there might be a time where they change a little bit, or it might be because of sports middle school, high school and so they get on this health trip and then when they go to college, they become parents, they revert back to what they know and what they were comfortable.
Speaker 1:So what they know and what is comfortable, and we've had a couple of discussions with different guests in the recent weeks prior to this, talking about financial literacy in schools and why they don't teach it more, or at least the basics of not counting.
Speaker 1:I'm talking budgeting, I'm talking if you go to school to become this profession, this is what it pays, and you have a budget now to try and figure out if that's the kind of profession you want to lead your life into or if you want to strive for something different. You know, and I am a firm believer, that getting them involved is putting them way further ahead than anybody else that is in their age group, because most tend to hide those things from their children, thinking that they're doing them some type of favor. For example, family goes through hardship. Let's hide it from them, let's not talk about it, let's make it seem as though everything is OK. But then the kid grows up, has their own hardship and hides it from their parents because they don't know what to do. Correct, you know, it's just a deep rooted concept that I think should be talked about more and definitely something should change about it. I don't know how, but at least we're doing our part by, I guess, giving our kids some act right in the home.
Speaker 2:Yep, 100% agree on that, and I think the hardship part is very true. Right, that's hard to have those discussion with the kids but they don't know what they don't know right, and to be transparent with them and show them okay, this is why I know we're not going to go out to eat here. This is why we're not going to make this purchase or do this purchase like and make it make sense to them. I think it's like a huge benefit for them. I agree.
Speaker 1:Well, that was good, good start, good kickoff to this thing with already a pretty fiery topic. Now I would like to catch up, and it's been two years since we've had a discussion like this. Phone's off, let's just go into depth on things. But the folks out there again still don't know who you are, the listeners and everything else. What's happened since the last time we spoke? It's been two and a half years. Pandemic had just let up, kind of. I mean, in Texas it went away sooner than other places, but what's been happening, man?
Speaker 2:So a lot of good stuff. Denise and I are still going at it on the sales side right, we're still like we're all in there. We've made a recent brokerage change which was huge on our end, just because we don't do that right that often and we was like man, this was very thought out, long process and officially made the move. So that has happened over the last quarter or so. Things got real, Things got real, yeah, very real, yep For real. So that happened.
Speaker 2:And during all this time too, we, as you know and I really share this publicly because I just want to put it out there, but I'm very heavy on the investment side. I love the investment side, I love the development side, I love real estate in general. It does fire me up, I think think there's. It's just great. I mean, it's an awesome business to be in. And so over these last couple of years we have been transitioning, or I have really specifically like Denise is still really having the sales side and so am I, but more so on the investment development side.
Speaker 2:So we had been doing land development already, specifically downtown area. We would go and buy these tracks and turn them into one lot, into four lots, into 10 lots into eight lots, and so now we have scaled up and so we've got two pretty big projects that we are about two months out, both of them from being officially platted. One of them's an 80-door project right across the street from Palo Alto College, so very excited about this. It's seven and a half acres. Talk about prime time yeah, prime time. And the student count there is phenomenal.
Speaker 2:The housing need is huge, both on the rental and the for sale side. So we've got that. That's almost done, so we'll have it completely platted, everything ready to go. And then we've got a 21 unit about a mile and a half down the street, which is also on the south side. Very cool. So those two projects right there I mean both of them are scaling up for where we're at in our life and our business. So excited about that and excited about our new business part on the development side and where things are headed. I mean it's looking very promising.
Speaker 1:So that leads to another kind of not necessarily a pivot, but dive deeper into this, because this is something that I have not had on the podcast is somebody to talk about development? What is that process like? I'm sure there are folks out there that are wondering okay, how does this land end up becoming this multi-million dollar revenue generating machine, but at the same time, it's housing for people that need it, you know. So how does that? I mean start from the beginning, if you don't mind.
Speaker 2:So for us, where we would start on this is where we know right. I was born and raised in the South Side and I'm very comfortable, I understood it. There's also studies that'll go into this. There's big feasibility reports, there's appraisals and all types of things that'll go in before a builder or a developer goes and aggressively pursues a piece of property. But let's just be hypothetical here. Right Like that land, right there, let's say all seven and a half acres, it was purchased from one person, okay. So we start analyzing this, we start looking at it, we look at the use of it, best use of it. Can we get it rezoned? There's a lot that goes into rezoning. Right, there was a small percentage of it, or a third of it, that they let us rezone. The other two thirds we had to keep original.
Speaker 1:So let's pause right there. Rezoning Okay, I get probably at least two to three a month that go under contract and unfortunately it's zoned for something else. The listing agent didn't do their research and just put it on the market and now we have issues. Um, haven't even gotten it to title and the mortgage company is going hey guys, uh, this is not zoned correctly. Or, let's say, it's get past us and the appraiser is catching it saying, hey, this shouldn't be a townhome right here, this is actually zoned for a restaurant. How the hell did this happen? What is the process like for going through rezoning a property? Because a lot of folks think that it's just oh, let me just make a phone call and get this thing rezoned. That's not what it's like.
Speaker 2:No, and it depends on where you're at right. How involved the neighborhood is is kind of what determines that. But the first process is you would submit the application with the city. That's about $1,900, right? So let's just say we're going to rezone it from regular residential to multifamily zoning, okay, we submit the application.
Speaker 2:Before doing that, you want to do your due diligence too. So, like you want to talk to whoever the neighborhood HOA is or whoever's very involved within that neighborhood, you want to call the city council man or woman A little bit of politicking, 100%, yeah, which I'm learning all this now. You're crazy, but you want to do that. Call them first and see hey, is there an appetite for this? Are you looking for this? Right? Do you need housing here? Right? If you're going downtown, to the Pearl, it'd be very hard to do that now, right? Everybody's fighting it. So if you're going to the South side, depending on where you're going to the South side, housing is needed tremendously, right. So it depends on what the need is for that neighborhood, what the city council man or woman is trying to do as well.
Speaker 2:So, figuring that out first and I've learned that because what we used to do is immediately file the application and then go do all that and we're like man, we just wasted money, it's already a shutdown, it's already like now, we're not going to do it, we don't need that here. We can go through the process, but you're probably not going to get it. So we do that due diligence research first. If there's a good chance or we're getting good feedback, then we'll submit the application. Then the next step is we'll hire either an attorney or our civil engineer helps us out a lot on our rezoning cases to push it through. So they may want to see, okay, what is a. They definitely want to see a site plan, meaning what is it going to look like If you're going to take this raw piece of land that's from one house and you're going to put 20 duplexes? Show me how the 20 duplexes are going to look.
Speaker 2:Give me a perspective on what this is going to look like so you get a site plan together, roads down the middle, you got duplex here here. What are the sizes of the duplex, what are the sizes of the lot, all of that? So you present this to them right, and then they will determine. Okay, yeah, this is something that we're going to push through. We're interested. If they are, then we take it to the next step.
Speaker 1:And I like the fact that you mentioned the political side of it, because in all of this investing, it is still taking risks and gambling. You put up the 1900 for the application and didn't do your legwork. You're literally just putting it on black and going, oh, I hope that it happens. 1900 this way or 1900 that way, yep, but the um, uh, uh, uh, what do they call it? Uh, uh, the people in Congress that they're trying to get rid of. Uh, my mind went blank. Um, oh goodness, the lobbyist. Thank you, JC. There you go, so you lobby a little bit before actually submitting, so that you have a better shot, better understanding of protecting your investment. And at this point it's only $1,900. Correct, to some people that's a lot of money Correct, and not only that.
Speaker 2:I mean you have expenses when you hire your civil engineer, you hire the attorney firm that's going to redo the rezoning, you're paying for a survey, you're paying for site plan, all of this. So there's a few grand that get put into it, plus all of your time.
Speaker 2:A time and effort absolutely, which is pretty valuable as well. So I think doing all that first I mean, that's one of the lessons that we've learned now but we are also hitting I would call it home runs right Sure In the east side, specifically when we first started doing this because there was a huge need down there for housing. So when you looked at downtown, the urban landscape right the east side was like hey, we want housing, we want developers, we want investors.
Speaker 1:And no one was willing to come and take that risk Correct.
Speaker 2:So if you were, it was like no problem, right. And so it was like people didn't realize that you can take this one lot and turn around and plat it into four lots, into six lots, into eight lots, into 10 lots, et cetera, and so it was pretty easy. But now that there's so much happening, it's a little bit more difficult, right? They're more involved. There's a neighborhood now that's involved.
Speaker 1:That's right. That's right. And, as they say, time kills all deals. So the longer you wait to do something like that, the likelihood of it being taken or an unnecessary need for it diminishes. Yep, you know Yep, and you guys are kind of striking while the iron is hot.
Speaker 2:On the residential side, right? So now I'm just thinking about it. Right, if I was on specifically on the commercial space and I'm like, okay, well, what am I going to do? Mixed use, or where can I go, put in some restaurants and bars and all those things, I would think the east side would be right for it. Right, because now that is what you're seeing a lack of. There is something that Once you add housing.
Speaker 1:You need to give people something to do, correct, yeah, yeah, that's a cool concept, wow, okay, so you guys are doing well. It's a lot to manage.
Speaker 2:It's a lot right now, hopefully doing well in three to five years. Let's revisit lot to manage. It's a lot right now, like I say, hopefully doing well in three to five years. Let's revisit that. Yeah, because there's just like right now, when we're in this stage, it's a lot of capital, it's a lot of time, it's just a lot of investment right.
Speaker 3:And hopefully.
Speaker 2:the idea here is to finish. Once we finish platting this, then we go horizontal. Horizontal meaning bring in the roads, utilities, all of that Get it ready and you do vertical. Yep, and then we'll go vertical and so that process hopefully would be six to 18 months, so hopefully 18 months from now. We're like this, worked out, fingers crossed, thank God Like this is awesome.
Speaker 1:That's right, and I think that's something that it says a lot about you and it says a lot about your wife as well, because, at the end of the day, this is a risk. You could be putting your money into this project and something detrimental comes up 12 months from now that could shut the whole damn thing down. You, being the person you are, is willing to take that risk because you see the benefit, not just from a financial aspect, but for what it can actually do for that neighborhood in the community, and I think that is something that's heavily on your side, but still a risk nonetheless. A lot of folks out there aren't willing to. I'm going to call it practice what they preach, since we're talking to a lot of realtors and lenders out there. We make our money in real estate, so why not put it right back into real estate? And I'm not seeing enough of that from the amount of realtors, lenders, that there are in our market. So to speak.
Speaker 2:I think we in the business, specifically on the realtor side, right, we limit our potential based on our commission, right, so if we capped it, it's just say, hey, I'm worth 3%, right, I'm worth 6%, I'm worth 10, whatever that number is Like, instead of looking at it as, like man, I found the deal, I sourced the deal, I know real estate very well, like there's opportunity here, right. Like in saying, how do we all win on this? Right? How do I just not cap myself at 3%? Right, and so, and I think the more that us, as realtors, who are really in on the investment side and want to create wealth from this, the more conversations you have with other builders, developers you work with, the more open they are to helping you.
Speaker 2:Like the first one came in 2017, and that was from a client that I had never even met. Like finally met him. We walked the property, put the lot under contract. We ended up going through this together as a rezoning case. Sure, Hit a home run. That's when it opened up my eyes and I was like, dude, like, we did this in six months, what we did, right, he didn't have to let me get involved. I didn't even know this gentleman, right, he's from the Valley. He's become like one of my best men.
Speaker 2:No, he bought it from us. Okay, Gotcha, right, we went through so we had it under contract. I was a listing agent. He came to me right and said, hey, I'm interested, started getting him all the info. We put it under contract him on the buyer side. We started really getting to know each other very well.
Speaker 2:I shared my vision of me wanting to go all in on the development side. I was already have bought a couple of lots. I was flipping houses here and there, right Like this was, this was my goal. I didn't know what that looked like. Like three weeks into our conversation he had asked. He said hey, if you want to partner with me, you're more than welcome to come in. If you've got 25%, a third 50%, whatever, we can do this together and that's how we'll split profits. And it just like wow, we did it.
Speaker 2:Denise and I were able to come up with the third it was almost a $400,000 purchase and came up with it. We sold that thing in six months, had two cash offers Like for yeah, it was just awesome, it was, it was crazy. And I'm like man, this is awesome. And so he's, like throughout these last six years or so, been a phenomenal mentor, always willing to help. And so I tell agents that, like, the more conversations that you talk to with good people that are on the investment side, the development side, the more that they want to help you because they've been there and you can't lie to them. I mean, they know what stage you're in, they know how much you know.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I mentioned that quite often and it seems to be a tone that is repeated on this podcast, which is, if you are seeking knowledge, truly seeking knowledge find an individual that's actually been there, because chances are they're willing to share, heavily share, because they they not only want to see you succeed or someone else succeed, but they want you to feel what they've gone through. It's like as a single investor, entrepreneur. It's very lonely, I'll be honest. Yeah, we got a lot of people shaking and moving everywhere, shaking hands, kissing babies, all that good stuff, but at the end of the day, you're the only one that's vested in your success as that entrepreneur. When you make it to the top, it's like well, shit, how do I find my purpose again? Well, let me, let me pour into some people. Obviously, he'll make a cut from doing that, but at the same time, he benefits for a long period of time seeing your success and the future projects that you go on to do, whether he's involved or not. Yep, you know what I mean, a hundred percent.
Speaker 2:So that's our coach, bobby Castro, on the investment development side. Okay, that's kind of his story. So the gentleman has sold his company for a billion dollar valuation this was probably about five years ago Bankers Healthcare Group and then he's been very heavily involved in real estate throughout that time. Wow, he's got about 2,500 doors and portfolio of $750 million and this is a guy that I'm sure can go retire and do whatever he's got to do and set sail and never help anyone again. But that's how he found his purpose again. Right, he's like man, what am I going to do? He had no social media or anything. His son got him on social media a few years ago, but about a Grant Cardone conference, like six years ago. And then I found him on social media probably about three or four years ago now. Right, and it's like man. I, the way I see it is, he's just going out there and helping people. That's right. Right, like that's where he's getting. I feel like his no-transcript.
Speaker 1:So investment side's going fantastic. The future is to tell, but it's not one of those. We don't have to predict it because we are creating it, concepts, but you still have the idea. Kind of like me, I've got Review my Mortgage LoanBot that I'm pouring, investing into developing, continuing to make it better. We're actually launching beta with loan bot. Um, finally, I love it and I still have to pay the bills. I still have to bring in the capital to fund all the um extra and in my life, the extra is gambling gambling on this new technology, gambling on this employee, et cetera.
Speaker 1:How is real estate going for you guys with this market? And let me frame this the reason why I ask is it's doom and gloom. When you look on social media in the real estate groups, you look on shift talk, you look matter of fact, you even see in the real estate humor groups nothing. But what are you guys doing for business? Is anybody worried? 3%, is it going to go away? I mean just nothing but scared realtors out there. What keeps you going on that side? Well, first off, on that side. Well, first off, how's that going?
Speaker 2:So so the real estate sales side, I don't know. We're, we're last year, last year, I don't know. It's happening right Like we're. Just, we're still very disciplined, we're doing what we have to do, but last year, surprisingly, we did better than the year before, which I know was unusual for many agents, right? So 2023 was better for us than 2022. Although we're seeing this year we may have about a 15% decrease in sales from last year.
Speaker 1:Well, and you say it's unusual, but I predicted and it seems to be coming true that you're going to have a lot of onesie, twosie, agents and lenders drop out because they haven't developed the backbone, the foundation, to understand what to do in markets like this. They have never had to develop the traits or the basics to go and get business and continue working on their business when they didn't have business to obtain more business. Their business when they didn't have business to obtain more business, 2020 through 22 was like anybody with a pulse was ready to buy a house and they were putting offers on everything. So there was no value proposition. It was more so. Can you write a contract and represent me? Yes, I can. Great, you're my guy, you're my gal.
Speaker 1:Now, fast forwarding to today, where interest rates are higher. Economy isn't doing as great as the media would suggest. It is Employment. The new numbers came out and they missed again. Folks are scared, you know. Folks are scared to purchase, thinking that maybe rates will come down and I'll wait for that. Not truly understanding the idea of supply and demand that if rates come down, values are going to rise. So why not do it now? Refinance later concept, and I'm not seeing the needle moving activities taking place on the real estate side in abundance. I'm only seeing it from the top producers. So therefore, it doesn't surprise me that you had a good year when everybody didn't, because you put in the time, the effort, the work to build your business. When you did, to the point that I'm not going to say it was self-sustained, but damn it, it it, you had referrals coming in regardless. Yep, you know.
Speaker 2:Yep, I agree. I think for us and we've always done this like is that when people retract, we attack right. So so, like, as people are pulling back, we're like, okay, let's get aggressive, let's get double, let's double down on this. And that's where we're at, or where I'm at, at least right now in business and in life is okay, where do I put my efforts? Right, like the move to real. Right, like there's a lot of conversations that are happening around that and it's like okay, well, I need to take these right, I need to take these conversations.
Speaker 2:But on the investment development side, there's a lot of opportunity right now. If you just look at, even on the traditional real estate, you look at residential, you look at people that are that are that are hitting some hard times, that need to sell that, investors that want to unload because maybe their other business took a hit Right. Right, like this is a time to put some time and energy into focus on that, absolutely, and what you, what you focus on, expands Right. So, like trying to balance that, trying to balance this and then trying to balance our sales business we have, just like I went back to the 5 am now right, like I had got away from that for a while and I'm like man, I need to buy more time, and the way I'm going to buy time is to get up early again, that's right.
Speaker 2:So now the day is starting back at 5 am and started a few weeks ago and have some accountability there. But, like it's just, it's trying to balance all that and knowing that where we want to go or where I want to go in the investment development side and making sure, okay, I have the plan in place, but I can't lose focus of what really brings in the income for us, which is on the real estate sales side. That's right. So that takes priority over everything else.
Speaker 1:I like it and I mentioned matter of fact, I did a self I don't know monologue, so to speak, on the idea of focus and how it is the most powerful tool in your arsenal. When you're trying to get somewhere, when you're trying to accomplish something, you've got to focus. That is the one thing. You can have all the determination in the world, you can have all the drive in the world, but if you can't focus on the one thing that you are trying to like you said, expand nothing's going to happen. Correct, and I think that it's tough for anyone to keep focus for a long period of time, including myself. I fall off the wagon every once in a while and it's not until I hit something that I go oh shoot, I need to get back to it. In your life, what is the indicator of, oh shit, it's time to get back to it?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I would say complacency, right, where I know that, hey, okay, I'm just getting by, right, there's not that feel, that passion, that drive, like again the 5 am, like I was very comfortable for about a year.
Speaker 2:Still, I still go to the gym, sometimes at 7.30 am, right, but like that's tough. I'm starting my day way too late, right, and I know that with everything I'm trying to do to get us to where we have to go, like I can feel it, I acknowledge it, I'm conscientious of it, I'm getting enough self-development help. I've got still two coaches, right that both coaches pour into us. So there's accountability there. And that's where I'm like, talking to my coach, he's like dude, you need to start your day early. He's the one who told me this, which is why I did it as a coaching call a month ago. And he's like you're starting too late, like he's like every day I'm up, I think his time is like 4, 44 AM or something like that. Like he's like that's when my day starts, like and this is Bobby actually who sold the company for that amount.
Speaker 2:Right, and still doing it at that level, absolutely. And so I'm like, dude, you're right, like I need to go back to that. But that that's when I know that right, when, when your coaches are looking into what you're doing, hey, where are you hurting? Whoa, okay, well, very simple, start your day earlier, start your day this way, start like he even broke it down. Okay, You're going to give this many hours to this of the three things we just talked about, this is your focus, right, this takes the most of your time. And then you're going to give this many hours in this Like, tell me today, like we had another coaching call today before this.
Speaker 2:He said okay, 8 PM is when you're going to put on your trainings, right, like, people that are producing and that are in production are typically can't do that during the day, right, Right, you, but, but you also need to maximize your time too. You don't have the time to do that. So, at eight o'clock is when you're going to put these trainings on. So there I am. Now I'm going to start like an 8 pm Zoom training on the real estate investing development side.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you would think, and, just like you said, most are trying to do these things during the day. Well, guess what People got jobs, they've got lives, they've got kids, they've got all these extracurriculars that got to maintain, or they can't even get to this. Yep, why not look at it a completely different way and go all right, let's put it over here. By then the kids are in bed, by then you're done with your first job, so to speak. Yeah, if you don't show up, then I know you don't want it. Yeah, there you go. You know, and that's what I'm seeing.
Speaker 1:A lot of, or that's what I'm seeing a lack of is the creative, uh, uh mindset to be able to still get the things done that you need to in order to move that needle forward. Um, we're putting on classes, trainings for realtors. I'm hearing other lenders putting on trainings, classes for realtors, and it seems to be a trend that the same agents will show up and the ones that don't, you can tell they're not all the way in it. It's just a sad thing, it's the truth. But now back to that question of what keeps you going in this. You know and you can be honest.
Speaker 2:Yep, yep. So I would say I don't know, I've always been driven right. I don't I. I I love the why thing, like what is your why? What is your purpose? Like I am really going after freedom, like and and and. So freedom for me is the cliche saying right, do what you want with who you want, when you want, how you want. And I've always envisioned like that in some day, no-transcript. Like that is like what I would envision in a perfect world, right?
Speaker 1:And I'm going to stop you there quickly. I think in order for someone to get on this track of that passion, that fire that you're exuding right now is, you've got to paint the picture of that vision first, If you don't know what the future looks like that you want to have how do? You know what to work towards and that's great that you said that Go ahead.
Speaker 2:So on that side, and I think for me and I mean I've just always been driven no-transcript till this day, right Like and I know I had mentioned that I think last time too like- related on that topic, for sure, and it's one of those things that it is.
Speaker 1:It's never going to be easy to uh, and I'm not going to say turn your back on your kids but not be there all the time, like they would say that they want currently. But I think I've seen enough that once you get there, if you get there and you make damn sure that you get to where it is that you're going, it's all worth it, a hundred percent.
Speaker 2:I agree with that, but I think it's also to us having those open conversations with them right, Especially if you're first generation. Yeah, If you're first to get there. I mean, the only person that you're going to know that it looks like is your mentor. That's right. If you're first in your family, like you, he grew up section eight housing just an amazing story, kind of Latino culture and so he there's a lot of similarities there and upbringing so it's like, okay, well, he's gone through all this. This is a perfect gentleman that I can ask, right Of, what do things look like when you get to here? What did you do here? How did you pivot through that? And you look at now the relationship with his kids and his grandkids and his wife phenomenal.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, and that was all due to the sacrifice made on both parts, both him and his wife, because it was time taken away, same with ours. But we both happen to work with our spouses in many aspects of what we do, which is a blessing and a curse at the same time sometimes, but the idea of that is we're both working towards our future to where we don't have to do this. We want to do this, but we don't have to.
Speaker 2:That's right, that's right, and real estate, I really feel like, is one of those vehicles that can certainly get you there.
Speaker 1:Real estate, in my opinion, is one of the only vehicles that can get you there. I preach it, I believe in it wholeheartedly. I would not have the wealth that we have had it not been for real estate and doing the right things with it. Do we make good money in our professions? Sure, if we work our ass off and close deals, yep. But we still have expenses to run a business. We still have bad habits that we tend to spend money on. If we didn't put the money in the right places similar to I would imagine you guys do it would all be for nothing. That's right. Like, well, you made a million dollars, great. How much do you have in the bank? Nothing, yep, dang, okay. So where did you put your money on all these things? It doesn't really do much in the end.
Speaker 1:And in the end it's like we're all writing our own book. We're writing our own journey, so to speak. What is it going to look like for you in the end? Is it I procrastinated, procrastinated, procrastinated never got to that mission that I wanted to accomplish? Or am I going to get into it, feel like it's too difficult and turn away from it? Or am I going to get into it and fight through whatever the hell you throw at me, because there is no other way. And I think that we talked last time about the next generations and things of that nature, and I feel as though our generation is crippling the next generation based on this feelings and the equality and the equity and the but nothing's fair in life. Guys, it's not your. Your mentor is a prime example of that. He didn't graduate, he didn't come from means, he could have folded and played the victim, but instead he found ways, not excuses.
Speaker 1:A hundred percent you know, yep, um, so, that being the case, I mean that that was. That was good, right there, jc, how are we doing on time? God dang, that felt like 10 minutes. So what do you want to talk about now? I mean, I've got plenty more questions, but open topic for you for a bit.
Speaker 2:Yeah, let me think about this.
Speaker 1:While you think about that, I'll mention what I don't want to talk about NAR crap. I really don't.
Speaker 2:Well, you could, we can, we can talk about that a little bit. Let's uh, thought prod, cause I haven't even thought about it much. Right, and yeah, okay.
Speaker 1:So I'm getting it from. Obviously, read what has come out We've had several discussions on it here and what I've gathered thus far Texas. We are fortunate that it took. It has taken place, but it should not affect us much if you were doing it the right way all along. Why? Because we already had a buyer's representation agreement. If you were doing your fiduciary responsibility every time, just keep doing that. Because in that process it required you to explain how these commissions work. It requires you to articulate your value and then step up to the plate and show your value. In many cases and I've already seen it people are dropping their commission for the other side and I'm seeing a lot of conversations of steering oh, I'm not going to go show that home. Well, you idiot, you realize that you're literally putting out there that you're going to steer your customers away. Come on now. I mean, at least do it in a DM or something, yep.
Speaker 2:Very true.
Speaker 1:That being the case, what are your thoughts on?
Speaker 2:it. So I haven't given it a whole lot of thought. Right, I feel like as a fiduciary, as someone who is all in in real estate, if you are providing enough value. You're a market expert, you're coming from contribution, right, like you know what you're doing, right, it's like the conversation is very easy to have, that's right. So the buyers that we have talked to, it's like it's just a quick educational rundown of it. This is why we're signing this, this is why we need to sign it, et cetera. And it's done, that's it Right. We're not adding no fuel to the fire, we're not expanding on it, anything right? We're just hey, this is part of the process, we need to get this signed up front, this is why we need to get this signed up front, et cetera. And they've already hearing all these things about it. So they're asking we'll answer those questions and that's it. That's right. We don't bring it up at all, we don't bring attention to it. So I think that's where that's helped us navigate through it.
Speaker 1:I think that's where that's helped us navigate through it, I think you guys are doing great at that because you're attacking it head on. There was a situation that occurred with one of the contract, one of the listings my wife had, and the buyer's agent was getting ready to submit an offer called her said hey, we've got an offer coming in. Yada, yada, Fast forward a couple hours. Kristen's like hey, are you guys going to send that offer? Oh, I'm having some issues with getting them to sign the buyer's representation agreement. Kristen's like what's the deal? Well, they're hung up on the fact that if you guys don't pay the commissions, that they're going to have to pay the commissions.
Speaker 1:Okay, Did you explain it to them? Did you walk them through how that happens and why it would happen or why it would never happen? Did you walk them through how that happens and why it would happen or why it would never happen? Well, I told them that it actually has happened to us once and I'm like you've got to be kidding me. Like, really, you're going to tell them the horror story of a deal that was like something that never happens and happened one time and that buyer still didn't have to pay. But you articulated it to them in an like did you say it out loud, first to yourself, before you told them, Because to me you just made it sound like you're confirming their, uh, their fears, Yep, Yep. So yeah, it's, I don't know. There's a, there's a lot of fear. What do you think is the future for realtors in general? Yeah, I love that. It's a big conversation.
Speaker 2:So I've thought a lot about that, right, and I thought about that when I first got in the business and I really feel like the business and I really feel like the business is due to be disrupted or revolutionized in some sense. Right Like, I think we have had a lot of companies come in, especially on the tech side, that tried to disrupt and tried to change things and really haven't had success. I mean, there is the humanization of it, the relationship, the market expert it's still, in my opinion, trumps all that other stuff. So that hasn't happened. But I do think the way the process goes with real estate, at some point that may change, right, like the traditional way of okay, if you're a buyer, get in my car or meet me here, let's go open the door, let me go show you, let me do it right the way we're writing up contracts. I really.
Speaker 2:I go back to Carfax. Right, there's a Carfax report. It's very transparent. There's not a House Fax. That's true, right Like you know, you have all the data there. You have Zillow, redfin, all of them, realtorcom that show you the sales, that show you what the value like, what there's estimating or estimating Everything is there, but not the house facts, right, I call it a house facts instead of a car facts. That's right. You can find that on a car a 50, 40,000, $30,000 car but you can't find that on a $500,000 house, wow, right. So I think more transparency there, right. And so I really feel like a good agent could be used as like an attorney, maybe at some point, right. So like, okay, mark, you come to me. Okay, what's the value of your time? I don't know. 300 bucks an hour? Sure, 300 bucks an hour. Okay, I'm going to spend five hours on this transaction, get paid $1,500. Right, I think that that may be one way things things can go.
Speaker 1:Like, I don't know, I've never heard it that way and that that's actually buyers. If it put, if it is pushed far enough and it would have to come from the seller side it definitely is a movement that sellers would need to jump on board with by the masses. If it's not by the masses, then it is this thing that will go and come and then it'll die out and and the evolution of this craft would kind of stay stagnant in my opinion. But most things don't tend to stay stagnant when it's in an evolving world Cell phones, um, the cars we drive I mean it went from key to push button, now there's, I mean you can do it from your phone concept.
Speaker 1:Yep, if we are trying to do, well, let's say it this way If you do what you've always done, you're always going to get what you've always got, and if you're not evolving with this market, I mean you're going to be left behind. And we're looking towards well, let's be honest lead generation companies that have an abundance of extra capital dabbling in the market, that are going to end up changing y'all's market and the way you do business, versus you guys changing the way you do business. Does that make sense?
Speaker 2:Yeah, 100%, it does. Yeah, man, and I think even like going into, like the traditional driving around or meet you there, like Opendoor has done a little bit of that, where Opendoor you can go and just sign up on their app, go to the house and basically have access through the app on your phone, right, so you don't need to go in with an agent, you can go in on your own as a consumer Wow, right. And I feel like maybe more of that comes to where there's a fingerprint thing. Yeah, right, if you passed all that and the homeowner allows you to go in, then you maybe you go in on your own homeowner allows you to go in, then you maybe you go in on your own. Sure, right, and so you're coming to the agent more as a as, as as them suiting you as a professional right, having the conversation. Hey, mark, what do you think about this neighborhood? What do you think about this values? And now you're just getting compensated for your time.
Speaker 1:That's right. And then the idea of 3% as a 3% was never this is the amount, it was just a common trend or a common theme when writing a contract, et cetera. I mean, if you want it to, you can charge 4% If they agree to it and they find the value in it. There you go, because a lot of folks tend to go what is the true value? How do you quantitate that value in the aspect of money, time, expertise, value in what you're saving, value in what you're gaining by using a realtor? Yep, you know.
Speaker 2:I think the realtor is still very heavily involved in every part of that process. Right, and that's going to come with the revolution or disruption of it to where, if that changes, and now you have blockchain with title, right, so so, and that's going to come with the, the revolution or disruption of it to where, if that changes, and now you have blockchain with title.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Right. So even on the lending side, right, Even on, like the home inspect, like I think, if all of that changes too, that's where I don't know. I don't know if there's like a lesser need, but it's just yeah, we just have to.
Speaker 1:I think I agree with that. And and is it scary for some? It should be, uh, you guys listening, uh, it should be if you're not getting your shit together and, uh, keeping up with what is actually taking place. And I'll even go a step further having enough foresight to I'm not going to say predict, but be a part of the creation of the new world of real estate and how we go about doing business. Don't think that doing things the old way is going to get you to the next level. Correct, it's just not. You know, you've got to continue to reinvent yourself. You got to continue to provide excessive value, so that there is no question as far as what my worth is.
Speaker 2:I 100% agree on that right Is be all about value, come from contribution and be the market expert. Those things I don't think you can fail, right, whether it's now or whether it's 15 years from now like there's always going to be a need, I think. But you have to do that right. Become the market expert, become the professional. Why are people coming to Mark Jones? Why are people coming to Gilly? Like, what is the purpose of that? Right, you're the expert on the lending side. I'm the expert on the real estate side, specifically on the investment side. Like, my goal is to, okay, if somebody thinks about real estate investing and development from a realtor's perspective, they think of Gilly. Right, but the only way I can maybe call the attention to that but I have to back it with expertise Right, I can say it, I can put this out there. But if somebody calls my bluff and be like man, I don't think you really know what you're talking about. You're not, you're really not an expert, right? Well then I just lost all that attention.
Speaker 1:All the credibility is gone, and that is and I'm going to tie it to this something that I tell loan officers giving a class to realtors it's. You can post social media wise all day long. Matter of fact, you can have some badass content talking about some real shit, but if you're not boots on the ground doing all the things that you're talking about, you are not going to make it. That is not going to convert. You may get the phone calls, but you're not going to be able to get the conversions because you don't know what to do next. Correct, you know, reading a script is not the same as rolling your sleeves up and getting in the trenches. Yep, you know.
Speaker 2:Yep, I agree Woo.
Speaker 1:JC, how are we on time now?
Speaker 3:52. Yep, I agree, jc. How are we on time now? 52 minutes.
Speaker 1:Sweet yeah, okay, we got about eight to 10 minutes or so left. What do you want to finish up with? What do you think that's good stuff?
Speaker 3:man Is it good, that's good stuff.
Speaker 1:Good, good, good. I don't think we've ever had a dull conversation. There's enough passion, intellect, expertise in this that we could go anywhere with this thing. You know, I love it. You know what? I don't like to talk politics, but I'm going to surface level.
Speaker 1:I'm going to surface and graze politics for a moment, guys. So we've got an election coming up here in November. We've got tons of media coverage both sides. We've got a lot of things that are at stake, whether knowingly or unknowingly. The only thing that I care about, in my opinion, is the financial side of things and the housing market. I had a great conversation with John Hudson and Brianna Jones a couple weeks back in regards to the policies that both candidates are promoting or offering up to the public. Let's talk about Kamala's first. She's proposing a $25,000 credit for first-time home buyers. What are your thoughts on that?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean, I think that's a I don't, I don't know enough about it, right, but just looking at surface level, looking from the outside in, I think that's crazy, Like, in some regards, and I realized from somebody who grew up, like you know, southside you know, grew up on some government assistance, like I am not undermining that at all, right, but I think, like that money has to come from somewhere.
Speaker 2:So to just give away $25,000 and to say, okay, you qualify because you're a first-time homebuyer, who's going to pay for that? And it's typically, I think, the taxpayers, it's us, I don't know enough about it, it's us Exactly. And so, like, for me, I think, like, if I'm not against, I mean like giving some help to people who really need help, but to just throw it out there for everyone to get $25,000 because you're a first time home buyer, right, I think, like you know, we need to incentivize good behavior and reward bad behavior, right, I'm not saying neither of this is good or bad, right, but like the incentivizing of the person that works, that gets there, that goes and does it, like, yeah, give some incentivize, some incentivation there, but like I feel like what we've really done is rewarded a lot of bad behavior.
Speaker 1:That is a great way to put it. Continue. What do you mean by?
Speaker 2:that. So I just think, like you know, All you think of that.
Speaker 1:I'm going to pull up and JC US Debt Clock. I'm going to throw this up so we can get an update on what the heck we're this is cool.
Speaker 1:Never seen this Dude. We had a two part episode just going over what all of these things mean, how it affects us, and this sucker is just nonstop spinning. That's our national debt. That is the national debt and this is for the year. So we're at $35 trillion for the year. This shows us things like where we're spending our money. This is $1.8 trillion to Medicare, $1.4 trillion to Social Security, $900 billion to defense. 1.4 trillion to social security. 9 billion, 900 billion to uh, defense and war. Uh, how do I get rid of this little thing?
Speaker 3:Uh, 6 P what is this crap Get out of?
Speaker 1:here. I want to see so interest and and uh, this one here, almost matching what it's actually above the defense is the interest on the money that we're taking out loaning to ourselves.
Speaker 3:Wow.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so essentially, we're printing money at X amount of rate, we're paying those back, we're paying out bonds, uh, to other countries not as much as we were before, cause a lot of folks have cashed out. Um, matter of fact, warren Buffett just pulled out a whole bunch of money from the stock market, so he went oh, what's he doing? And looking at this, it goes back to what you were talking about. Where does it come from? Where the hell do we get the money to put into this? Because if we've got here's the money that comes in from taxes, from us five. What is that? Five trillion in the year? Yeah, so if I do the math, I think we've already exceeded that by quite a bit in what we're spending. And, matter of fact, the title of the discussion was the US could not qualify for a mortgage if they needed one. The DPI is too high.
Speaker 3:You know.
Speaker 1:So yeah, what are your thoughts?
Speaker 2:Man, I don't know, I try to stay out of it right, as much as I can. But like just logically thinking, like I mean it's just mind-blowing to me, right, and print all this money and then to to essentially get a lot of it given away outside of our country as well, right, I really feel like we have a huge need here to help our people, right, and and and that can I mean that can sound like, you know, saying that they, okay, we're giving 25,000 for our people to go afford a house. I don't think that on that side, right, there's a lot of other things that could be put into schools, roads, our military.
Speaker 1:Well, I mean, you just mentioned something that makes me think. So I'm going to say it If we're going to do $25,000 for first-time homebuyers, then let's cut out all the money going out of the US. I'd be okay with that. Hey, at least it's staying in here. That means my property values are going to go up. I'd be okay with that. Hey, at least it's staying in here. That means my property values are going to go up. Everything's going to go up, because what ends up happening, I think, logically, is if you're giving away $25,000 and the sellers know it, don't you think that that house is going to be $25,000 more now? Yep, yep, inherently Yep. So therefore, what are you really doing? It's just a little circle, inflation that's going to continue to rise and impound or compound into the issues that we're already seeing.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you know, yep, e bit scary it is, bit scary it is, it is.
Speaker 1:Go ahead.
Speaker 2:No, no, no, I was just thinking, like you know, looking at it a couple ways right. Like I think there's opportunities in that, to your point, right that maybe I didn't look at it that way, but values may go up $25,000. But I think, as if you're looking at out for the best interest of the country, I don't think that's the wisest thing to do, right To incentivize first-time homebuyers or homebuyers and in general, it's just to give out $25,000.
Speaker 1:I mean to add to your point. There are plenty of counties, states, funds out there that are already in existence to help first-time homebuyers and even non-first-time home buyers down payment assistance, usda there's plenty of programs out there. What is the need for that? Because the $25,000 is not going to change your monthly payment by a big deal. It's not going to lower the interest rate unless you throw the money at the interest rate. In turn, you're basically giving more money back to the government, because it's like what? That doesn't make sense to me.
Speaker 1:Yep, um, we can go round and round about this kind of stuff, um, but, gilly, it's always great having you on Um, this was a great discussion. We talked about quite a bit here and I'm hoping that the folks out there um about quite a bit here and I'm hoping that the folks out there, um that have not heard you speak before now see you as that expert um, and have the uh, uh, have the meat and the potatoes that go into it to to truly eat up from your plate, because you've got so much to give man the wealth of knowledge, the experience that you've been through your journey. There's plenty left, brother. Yeah, I'm excited to see it.
Speaker 2:Thank you very much. Yeah, always an honor. You're the best Appreciate you, mark.
Speaker 3:Absolutely.
Speaker 1:Gilly, thanks for joining. Guys out there, gals out there, if you're getting something from these discussions, please make sure to like, subscribe, hit that little bell so that you know when new episodes and you can count on a new episode every Wednesday, like clockwork, with a new guest, a new expert giving you some information that hopefully you can take and utilize to make yourself better, to make your life better, to provide fruits for the future. You know, and that's my goal, that's my challenge, that's the bite that I bit off and I'm going to eat it until it's gone. I really appreciate your continued support and following the channel Um, but, as always, we will catch you on the next one.
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