Real Estate, Sex & Gossip

Epique Realty's Blueprint for Modern Agents

• Paul Locatelli & Brian DeDiego • Season 2 • Episode 2

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As we throw open the doors to Epique Realty, Paul and I are thrilled to usher you into the vibrant future of real estate. This episode is a treasure trove of insider knowledge, reflecting on our collective 55 years in the industry and the seismic shifts that have led us from eXp to our latest endeavor. Tune in for a candid look at how market trends, especially in these volatile times, are shaping the strategies of realtors and clients alike. We're sharing personal stories and unpacking the ethics that drive our practice, from the importance of emotional intelligence to the dangers of sacrificing client welfare for commissions.

Dive into the heart of the real estate cosmos with us as we explore how Epique Realty is carving out a niche with its agent-centric philosophy and robust support system. You'll find out why we're convinced that this company stands poised to eclipse the competition, offering not just financial incentives but a culture of care that extends from healthcare benefits to AI-driven tools. We'll dissect the opportunities this presents for agents everywhere—how they can not only survive but thrive by embracing change and innovation in a traditionally rigid industry.

In our journey through the real estate universe, we'll also highlight how Epique Realty supports agents beyond the sale with benefits that feel like a warm blanket in a cold market. From free IDX agent websites to leads that flow as abundantly as coffee in a broker's office, we're unpacking the tech tools and financial perks that are reshaping the landscape. Join us for an episode that's as much about building a successful career as it is about nurturing the human connections that make real estate about more than just bricks and mortar.

Speaker 1:

oh, there's that sweet music I'll take you. Just move stuff around, paul, I will. It's all fucked up. Real estate, sex and gossip podcast. I don't even know who you guys are anymore. It's been a while. It's been way too long. Brian, you want to give a test on that mic? Check, check. Oh, there he is, everybody's here. We're very close and intimate at this little table. Welcome boys. We got some big news Back in action, but more than that Sex, no Well, gossip, gossip, gossip for sure, lots of gossip.

Speaker 2:

Could be real estate.

Speaker 1:

It wasn't so much gossip, because I just got the bomb news dropped on me. All right, we're sitting in the office. Things have changed. Go ahead, paul. Same office, different name. What was the old thing? This is going to really date me. Same bat time, same bat channel. That's 1960s Batman. But here we are sitting in, I'm seeing a red logo, santa Cruz real estate team. But something's changed. Something's changed. It does not say eXp anymore around here.

Speaker 1:

No, it does not, it's being scratched off as we speak. It's being scratched off. Yeah, new sign's gone. Not well, it's being scratched off as we're being scratched off. Yeah, new signs gone up. It's called epic epic realty congratulations boys. Yeah, this is gonna be exciting.

Speaker 1:

We're gonna talk about, uh, real estate here, why we jump ship again and went to a different company, and we'll kind of hit the bullet points on this. I want to do this, though, and then, like you guys got great amount of notes and we'll get there, but I think, as a resex it's been a bit, we'll get to that, but let's just do a market update. Let's just kind of cause it's been a while. Let's just talk about it's been a few months, what's going on in the market 2024, going into 2025. Uh, what's what's up? Um, it's tough. It's been very busy for us actually, so I mean not to brag or say anything great, because I hate using numbers, but we did pretty good in the first quarter. I mean, we sold probably over $20 million worth of real estate, which is pretty damn good in this market.

Speaker 1:

A lot of people are saying that you know it's tough times, which it is, because there is some houses that we have listed right now can't even get a freaking offer, right, and it doesn't make sense, right? Beautiful homes Doesn't make sense. Is rates hurting us? Yeah, a couple of the deals that we had have been cash deals, so that's been a lot easier, of course, than these loans, but people are still getting loans though I did a little homework and this could be a bullshit or it could be kind of on point, but I do think election years not election years so much, but the months leading up, because now we're getting to the point of six, seven months away there is a traditional holding pattern as people want to see the outcome of this election, they want to see what the Fed's going to do and they already have an idea what the Fed's going to do. But I was just doing a little bit of wonky research and it seems like it's a time where not the whole year, and that makes sense to what you just said but there is a pause when they want to know what the hell is going to go down in November, right? Yeah, I mean you see that, especially in April time when everybody's doing their taxes, I tell people that's a tough time. They got to see what they're going to spend what they're, and June is always slow, right, because why? People are graduating, people are on vacations right now yeah, it's just a different time. And then I see pickup in July, august and so forth.

Speaker 1:

So I'm talking to some of our clients now saying the market's a little bit slow. Let's just take it off your daughter's having a wedding, let's just pull off for the time being. He wants to keep it on the members only, which is just a realtor seat, so if a realtor has a buyer then they can come back and buy it, but just so it doesn't get stagnant. I like that. I like that from a realtor standpoint. That's kind of a baller move. That's a confident move. I mean, if you kind of are understanding your client, you're kind of understanding, like life kind of throws you, you know, curves a little bit and I think it's it's you know they don't smell any panic in you. They still, yeah, kind of confidence. Brian just taking it all in.

Speaker 2:

It's the first time he's been quiet fucking a well, you know I was on my, I was on my way out, but I only had another three years. And now I'm. Paul sucked me back in this, it was, it was.

Speaker 1:

Oh, here we go again. Paul just talked for three minutes and 18 seconds, which is three minutes 18 seconds longer than he's ever talked on this podcast. Oh yeah, here we go. Do you agree? What's your sense, brother?

Speaker 2:

I think paul hit it on the head. The reality is, every four years you'll see a lull in the market just because of the unknown right. It doesn't matter what party you're with democrat, republican, it's just people. There's unknown, a lot of things being said, a lot of markets and the stock being manipulated one way or another. Um, so we're, you know, boy, we're. Where are we? I think we're 55 years now between us something like that between both of us yeah so we've seen.

Speaker 2:

You know I've been. This is my eighth cycle of uh presidential election and while being in real estate, so I'm pretty spot on what Paul said.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, and it's an interesting time. You guys were in it, I think, at the beginning. There's a weird comparison I'm going to make here, but I feel it in our portfolio when I look at it, that these meme stocks and I'm not going to make a direct comparison, but there's an emotional connection to the market through this volatility of these meme stocks it reminds me a little bit of the dot com, a little bit of would have been kind of trippy to be a realtor in the mid 90s, as that was kind of expanding, contracting, expanding, contracting, and sometimes these companies were expanding without showing any profit or a potential at profit. Dot coms I'm talking about memes behave the same way, but the meme stocks are moving the market for long periods of time and I think it makes people a little nervous because your portfolio might look solid, balanced, and all of a sudden you're looking at it and it's down. It's an emotion. It's an emotion of an entire market. It's just kind of a weird time.

Speaker 2:

Couldn't agree with you more.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, it's a trippy time for everybody and think you, you hold and um. But I think what paul said a couple minutes ago is very key, is that, uh, uh. What's very key is that, you know, I think you need to kind of sense that in your clients and sort of read the room per se.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, you gotta understand what's going on.

Speaker 1:

I mean you gotta stand what their needs and wants are. And if it's not the right time to sell, don't not sell. And if you can hold on, hold, hold on. I mean there's no reason to sell unless you have to sell. That's got to be the hardest thing to say as a realtor, I mean honestly right.

Speaker 2:

It depends on the situation. I mean, we're at a point in our careers now where, if we don't think it's the right move for them, tell them no-transcript sale, because that's what they live off.

Speaker 1:

They live off of that commission, right? And if you live off the commission only, you're not really a real estate agent. You're just thinking about yourself in your own fucking pocket. I don't need to name names at all, but I can tell a story here that we run into in the landscaping business. A lot of times we get on the back end of renovations. A lot of times we're the first ones in after something's closed and a lot of times after it's closed you'll be sitting there with these owners and there's a tremendous amount that felt. When you hear the story you're like this feels a little rushed. Was that not disclosed? How was it? And you kind of feel like again in clearly um, those conversations weren't happening. It wasn't the, the, the sale of the house wasn't perfectly curated. And now you know an owner has remorse, but from their own agent.

Speaker 2:

Well, I mean there's a lot we could go with that one. We got an agent in our office and no names, um, but one of the listing agents here in our County. They brought in their own people right here.

Speaker 2:

They weren't licensed, right Um, and they did about $70,000 worth of work on a property. Well, a lot of that work was done incorrectly and so escrow was closed. All these things are coming out, neighbors are coming over, neighbors are volunteering information, and you know the the issue you run into with that. You see it right, and, and the issue is, of course, is now the buyer's not happy? Now the buyer's like do I go back and sue the agents and the sellers? You know, but then, if you're a seller, you relied on your agent who had a bunch of unlicensed people in a house doing stuff.

Speaker 2:

That's exactly a big problem that agents don't think about. So these sellers are like oh my agent's going to do this and this and that I'm like, oh yeah that's wonderful, that's great, but are they going to be all done by licensed people? Why don't you fast forward and say the what ifs?

Speaker 1:

I like that and maybe we get our shit together. That's actually be a fun little either 15 or 20 minute If we I did some homework, or we did some homework and you guys could kind of do sort of a um, a little checklist as a buyer, um, that would you know, like a little little checklist that you could use to protect yourself from some of those things? Cause I think we put a lot of trust into our agents and that rug can get pulled pretty quick, you know, if you don't, if you don't, you know you've got to do your diligence, even as when you hire somebody, so you hire them because they're telling you a lot of fluff, that's it. I'm going to give you paint, I'm going to give you a remodel, I'm going to give you carpet, I'm going to give you this. So what fucking happens when the house doesn't sell? What happens? I don't know Where's my money. This is your podcast. For God's sakes.

Speaker 1:

Why are you yelling at me? I literally just turned the red light on. I didn't do anything. You're a fucking outsider, you're looking in, who pays for those fees? Well, the owner. Well, yeah, look at the contract. Well me, well me. The agent is one of the agents we're talking about gotcha pays it all up front.

Speaker 1:

Right now it doesn't sell. You told me it was gonna fucking sell, right, I don't have 30, 40, 50, 75, 000 dollars I get to pay you. You know no unlicensed people, you know. You told me he's gonna sell. Here's the price. That's why I went with you right, because you're gonna front all the and then, once it sells, I'll pay you back. And now I'm hung out.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, yeah, yeah, when that conversation happens, you got to think about it too, Now that sellers might be put in a position where they're dropping the price where they maybe not have needed to do that an agent?

Speaker 1:

are you an italian? What's that number? Motherfuckers that number his kids? What did he take? I don't, even, I don't even know this guy.

Speaker 2:

He's been on fire for 57 days and counting.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, let's go I've done a lot of shit, man, okay, so finish your thought, that's just my point.

Speaker 2:

I think agents, all agents, do a wonderful job of trying to really help and enhance and make a situation, make it easier for all parties. But I think what's happened and what's gotten lost in the last year or two is a lot of agents have been promising things and then they're semi-delivering, if you would.

Speaker 2:

But, they're semi-delivering with people that are not licensed. And when you're dealing with electrical, you're dealing with plumbing drainage issues and you don't have a professional in that area in the house. That leads to more problems, way more problems and that, honestly, sellers don't know. They rely on the agent to have licensed people come in and a lot of agents are trying to quote save money because they have their own fix-it crews if you would that are not licensed.

Speaker 2:

Man it's literally I had a client who was going to go after a very prominent agent here in the county and I said there's no reason to do it, it's just, you know. I said, yeah, that company made a mistake, right, but they made a big mistake and they were going to get blasted, jet everything sitting in front of me and I'm like holy shit. And you know, I'm like, rather than that, once you talk to the agent, let the agent know a family deal and let them know your thoughts and your feelings and take it from there.

Speaker 2:

Right, because that agent would have lost her license and would have been toast.

Speaker 1:

Right. So now we can get more to the heart of the matter. It sounds like in a summary that's helpful and then it sounds like you guys had been doing had a pretty good first quarter, pretty good year. Let's just get right to it. Why the change? Why did we switch? Because I got bored again. God damn, every fucking seven years Brian gets married. Every seven years I change real estate companies. I'm just going to play the Panamanian national anthem now and we'll call it a wrap.

Speaker 1:

That was really good. That's pretty good. Hey, that's a lot better than any of the little video podcasts I see with this. You know which ones? Well, anything, epic versus epic versus this real broker versus epic they have all of these things you can listen to. Yeah, I'm gonna let you guys do some of the nuances, because I get lost in it. It's going to come down to support fees, um, things like marketing, partnerships, things like that. But but is it? Is it just will answer the question why? Why is the, you know the, the logo changing on the window? It was.

Speaker 1:

Somebody came to me about a year ago and told me about epic and back then they broke. At the time I wasn't too hip on you, probably a nice guy, nice man, nice everything. It's just my own feeling, right, and you know I watched him Like I watched eXp when I was first taught about eXp. You know I watched that for about two to three years before I did anything. They've come around. It's the people who started Epic were with eXp. They're high up there. They saw the light. They wanted to make a change as well to better agents. They saw the light. They wanted to make a change as well to better agents. Even the EXPs are agent-driven company Right.

Speaker 1:

This one I'm sure Brian will lay it all out point by point is more about agents, more about giving back to the agents. Got it? Giving them more tools, making more I'm not going to say the word, the free word more benefits, gotcha? More stuff that they can help with their own lives, because we're going through tough times now, no doubt, and people don't think gas prices are going up to $6. So how are you going to keep money in your own pocket? This company thought about keeping money in agents' pockets and not in their own pocket. They're actually so lucky that last year, in 2023, right before Christmas, happened they were talking to a venture capitalist and that venture capitalist says I have money for you. And they're like well, hold on, let's just wait, we'll wait till the holidays. Next thing, you know, they came out of this january, february and they were profitable, so they don't have to take money no venture capitalist and they're starting their stock, which is stock that we're buying into.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, because it's like exp. When it first started, it was that seven cents, andp went up to 175. You knew there was fucking multi-millionaires. There's no doubt, right there, yeah. So, brian, I saw this as one A play for a startup. Yep, you know where's all the rich, richest people in the world Silicon Valley, right, yeah, startup If a startup hits, they're singing fucking praises to everybody.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, it doesn't hit. You know it doesn't hit. You still get paid more than when everyone else in this county is paying you.

Speaker 1:

Well, that's one of the benefits. That's one of the benefits he's bringing the commission I, that's one of the benefits he's bringing the commission.

Speaker 2:

I'm just being honest. I want to before we jump in Paul, you're doing a phenomenal job and I have to watch what I say to Paul lately because he's on one.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, commanding the room.

Speaker 2:

I respect, and if you're a realtor, I want you to share this with every one of your realtors. This podcast is about all the realtors here in San.

Speaker 1:

Diego County or teachers and in California Okay.

Speaker 2:

So they want to learn. They're going to learn right here. We are going to put on a couple of lunch and learn, just so people can learn about this Um our, our broker's coming down.

Speaker 1:

Well, he's not a broker. Broker now I understand, we'll get into that. Oh, maybe he is, when nobody knows about it. Yeah, breaking news, breaking news. Sorry, jay.

Speaker 2:

Paul, but I respect all realtors. It is a very, very difficult job. A lot of people don't see that, but it is tough to make money in this business.

Speaker 1:

It really is Right.

Speaker 2:

And I respect the brokers and I read a book a long time ago called Good to Great and there are some good real estate companies in this county Period. There's not a great one. And when eXp who, who I respect I am a huge stockholder still in exp, yeah, I'm more of them all the success.

Speaker 2:

I walked away from a lot of money when we decided to make the move to epic, yeah, and so I want them to succeed, and they're going to succeed, and exp is a good company. Epic, in my, might be the first great real estate company in the United States and going to be globally. I mean, 30 states are already on in the United States. Lois have been sent and, for those who don't know what that is, that's a letter of intent. Every other state in the remaining states, the United States, have already signed on. Nine countries have already signed on. The growth is explosive and the growth is because it's about agents. Yeah, and these are things that your sellers and your buyers don't know. You know insurance. There's so many things you can get up and do in the morning, but a mindset it's like why are you getting up? I was loving life and I've been fortunate enough, through a lot of hard work and smart investments, that I could have retired a while ago. Right, and Paul's been sticking a knife or whatever he wanted to just keep me going.

Speaker 2:

But I'm re-motivated as fuck right now, I like that. And I got to tell you that. You can see that, you can see that, and Paul's being bashful, but I mean we can sit here. We've closed $22 million in the last 41 days Before million in the last 41 days, yeah, before that we were at exp having a big year and that's just what we've closed at epic. So far, gotcha, we've been there less than 60 days.

Speaker 1:

It's a mindset, no, and I get it, and there's a little bit of a paul made a little bit of a joke about being bored. But there's also that that circumstance in and you know when you're investing and you are looking for a ground floor opportunity, and I know even in some of the YouTube videos I listen to they do these. Some of them are kind of cool. It's like broker versus broker and they kind of debate and it's fair and there's all respect there. But a lot of the ones I think one of the ones I was listening to was called Real Broker or something like that versus Epic. But the bottom line is the Real Broker kind of closed out. They were in Canada, they were in six countries, they were in all 50 states and that's great for them and that's not a point of anything. It makes this point that if you can get in with a company that's in 30 and trying to list more than clearly that's an opportunity to grow with them as they grow, and you didn't have that necessarily at eXp. No.

Speaker 2:

And a year ago, when Paul started this conversation, it was a lot of talk with Paul and I because the reality is we've brought in some people on board here with our Santa Cruz real estate team and we have agents that are here. Some of them are still sitting at EXP because we needed to go learn everything and we did not take the move lightly because they followed us over to EXP, which is a good real estate company, yeah. And then we now our job is going to be able to explain to people well, would you rather be a good or would you rather be at something great and would you rather take care of your family down the line? And to me, I got started at 19, no retirement. So if you're a new realtor listening to this, you have zero retirement. So either your partner, your spouse or somebody hopefully has some retirement, if not my dad made me buy homes.

Speaker 2:

maybe buy homes as a 19 year old kid Smartest thing ever. Yeah, well, I you know. Part of this company is about culture. And after I was. We flew back Paul and I just came back. I called my dad and thanked him. I was sitting very small right. Our first meeting was 400 and 400 people for an agency room. I left, I called my dad and I had to thank him because the reality is this I'm probably one of a handful who could have retired sitting in that room.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, and that's a lot of it, cause they were talking about. They had a bunch of different speakers there and they all looked at each other Okay, how can you, can you retire right now? And half of them yeah, 90%, was like no, cause we're paycheck to paycheck Right. There are very few people. We sell real estate, but do we collect real estate? And that's something that that's fast. That's a great quote right there. That was something that even I'm like. You know, what do I got? I still got nothing. I still got to work my ass off.

Speaker 2:

If.

Speaker 1:

I stop working, like I tell my kids that phone doesn't fucking ring, we ain't making money, right, and the phone first time didn't ring on Mother's Day because I had to turn the damn phone off because that's what my wife wanted, so I did. But it's like how can you better yourself and your family? People stay with different companies because they're comfortable, afraid, they're afraid to leave. Why do you want to give $60,000, $70,000, $100,000, $120,000 to a brokerage? Are they going to take care of you when you're 75 years old, right? Or 65 to retire? No, to take care of you when you're 75 years old or 65 to retire, no, they're putting money in their own pocket, put money in your pocket, and it's not a small thing.

Speaker 1:

A lot of these brokers are probably you know, and they're you know a lot of these brokers kind of getting started. It could be in their thirties, forties and you know. The first thought is I think it's like a game of monopoly sometimes, especially and I'm playing make-believe broker right now but you're choosing between companies and you're looking at 85, 15, you're looking at 1%, you're looking at little packages you can buy as a couple, a team. All this stuff I'm learning working with you guys. It's kind of how it works, but eventually it's it's it's kind of this little throne. It's like it's it's it's 149 or it's 99 a say you put 15 or $20,000 into a compound interest account where you're making five and a half percent over 30 years as a new broker. Well, you know, I don't even know math, but that's going to be like a million three. You know, if you just did that one and so these small little fees a little bit, of, a little bit of a kick your way rather than the other guy's way, right, um, like you said, it's not, there's not, does not be crazy. 60, 70 going that way. If you can make it 45, 50 and have a little more ownership, well, that's 15, 20, 000 a year that you can put in um and pretty, pretty soon, even if you put do it the right way, you could be getting into the, the buying game within a 10 or 12 year period.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, and that's what one lady was talking about and I've got to look at my notes here. She was, she was did very, very, very well, she was on top of the world. She got divorced. Next thing, you know, she had nothing. Yeah, and she's like I have no retirement? No, nothing. So she was taking, like which everybody's supposed to do take 10, 20% and pay yourself first. Yeah, pay yourself first, put it away, then pay all your bills and if you can pay them, great. If you can't pay, push it off to the next guy.

Speaker 2:

Exactly I mean yeah, brian, you're you're, you know. I'll ask you a question. You're moderating. Are you a realtor? No, do you care? Okay, so if you go to sell your house, do you care about what that? Let's start here. You're going to care about the rapport you have with whomever you're speaking to on that appointment. Are you really going to care about what company?

Speaker 1:

they have?

Speaker 1:

Oh, you know me enough to know that that's a loaded question, because it's just easy, it's going to be, it's going to be them, it's going to be that person, and I think that's why this doesn't mean too much to me, other than the fact it's big news, not news, because it's still you two guys, and I think I already knew the answer before we started, and I already knew the answer before we started and it's actually one of the things I was thinking about driving around yesterday is that is the essence of this.

Speaker 1:

Is that that is like I think of it more like the NBA, to be honest with you, like you can go to another team because you have sort of ownership of your own career, but you still have the same skill set. Steph Curry we got the news right now that he was traded to Charlotte and wanted to go home and finish out his career there At this point, right now. Whatever his skill set is right now, he would be wearing aqua and black and white and he would have the same skill set Did he get traded EXP.

Speaker 1:

You know epic same thing. I think they should, though that's a whole different podcast. You want to talk about selling at the top of the market? Yeah, that's the whole thing, but I completely get it, and I think that's probably the whole story, right there, yeah, and if you're an agent listening to this, did you hear what he said?

Speaker 2:

So why would you not look around and look at the benefits for doing the same fucking job you're already doing, and look at the benefits that can not only help you possibly retire one day, but maybe put your kid to college Right, maybe put more. That can not only help you possibly retire one day, but maybe put your kid to college Right. Maybe put more food. Maybe go on a goddamn vacation, maybe buy a rental, maybe do something. But what's happened is so many people have been drinking the same Kool-Aid since the real estate was invented in 1906 with Coldwell, banker and 6%, something new came along. We're not going to charge you 6%. We're going to call it something else and charge you a large desk fee and a market fee.

Speaker 2:

And the brokers. They sit up there. I mean I, you know and I love the brokers, but you guys, I mean I'm doing this 33 years. I'm telling you the reality is is there are opportunities in front of you right now where you can make a move. Your clients are not going to care, but it's going to be a beneficial move for you, right? What's your mindset? Why do you get up every morning? Is that to get up to? I don't know? People talk about oh, you guys, culture.

Speaker 1:

We just found out, this company has tons of culture, huge culture, I mean. It's more than I can imagine. And people like you know they want culture, they want I can imagine. And people like you know they want culture they want. They're like, oh, it's exp all over 2.0. No, it's actually you got a fucking broker and you can call them, talk to them, listen to them, get on the phone. Right, there's no more avatar, it is a cloud-based company. Still, yeah, there's no offices. We are going to make our place an office for epic, but you actually can talk to somebody now.

Speaker 1:

So that's, that's one big difference, yeah, and I don't know, that's where people like oh you freaking, you're still talking avatars and walk around like robots or cartoon characters and I guess I don't know why there's such a. Maybe that's it. Maybe we need to break this down further, but it's weird that there's a stigma in this industry and I'm talking about doing a stream of thought right now where, uh, in other industries it might just be called innovation. Where innovation like in a tech industry, somebody that says hey, that looks just like that other app based system you did, or it looks like that phone that you did in that other company, or the same kind of like drive in the computer, but you go to a new company, you do a new startup, it's it's called innovation, even though it's sort of similar to what you were doing before, it seems in this one, I think what you've got going on in this industry is the kind of the granddaddies still holding on to the overall perception that you got to go with what you said.

Speaker 1:

These three guys are the trustworthy sources and the world's just gone millions of miles by that, and I think the one thing I kept hearing in this this is essentially what they're calling cloud-based reality. Is that fair? Is that I kept hearing in this. This is essentially what they're calling cloud-based reality. Is that fair? What even is that? Because I kept on kind of seeing it's in a category.

Speaker 2:

Well, the cloud-based was EXP invented cloud-based and they basically have avatars. So it wasn't a picture of you and you could go in just like a normal agent would walk into their broker's office today. Sorry, it's my daughter.

Speaker 1:

Okay, all good. Can I get my nose pierced? Yes, you can go right ahead. Okay, is that the one? Is that the one? Is that the one?

Speaker 2:

paul stopped, no, that's the other one that was my younger no, that's the other one, it's just somebody shoot me now you just don't even need to say that.

Speaker 1:

No, that's the other one, but anyway so it was great.

Speaker 2:

Right, there's a culture there, et cetera. I think what's happened, like with this company. What I loved is they actually wanted people they could talk to, not an avatar. They want to see your face when we're having a conversation. I love that, which I thought that was really important. I just want to touch base really quick on the culture thing. Santa Cruz County is pretty unique.

Speaker 1:

Right, we don't have a ton of sales compared to a lot of other counties.

Speaker 2:

Right, right we're just, we just. I mean, I think there's maybe 50. Listen to this everyone bing, bing, bing, bing, bing bing what's that I hit the jackpot. These are the leads coming in from our ai driven company and right now there's 18, 19, 21. I'm waking up with about 120 leads right now and I just I'm. I'm shutting it off, you know, cause? We're going to save these for our people. Yeah, it's ruining the podcast you have, so many leads.

Speaker 1:

Well, those leads are a California. So we're, we got to down a little bit.

Speaker 1:

It's still going had one agent brand new agent wow, he is fresh off the boat, yeah. And he actually started getting these leads and he called. He actually got somebody in bear valley. I love it, right, no, no, not bear valley. Um, yeah, yeah, bear bear valley down in la, yeah, he actually called him. They had an appointment. He fucking drove down there like typical sellers. He liked, yeah, but he actually called, cold, called this guy and and went and went. I love it. And we hooked him up with another Epic agent down there so she could help him out, because he had no clue. He's brand new, that's, that's, that's, but he's calling. He's his little ding, ding, ding over there. He called him. I think we should have Kiana on the so.

Speaker 2:

I just want to Turn it off. So we do 20, let's call it 25 to 2,900 transactions, so that's 5,800 to 6,200 paychecks. Yeah, santa Cruz County, we have no culture. This is what I mean by culture. We learned so much about this company. There is a uh, a woman's power.

Speaker 1:

Girls, um that is epic.

Speaker 2:

And when they were at eXp and they're switching everybody over into epic but they had 7,500 women, top women from all over the United States, all different walks of life, yeah, very, very productive agents, yeah Right, and I was listening to this culture and I got tingles and I have them now when I'm talking, just watching and listening to these women. But when I looked at it and I started going, oh, my God, you know, we might have a company here that has 150 agents, maybe as our largest company in Santa Cruz.

Speaker 2:

And they're learning from 150 people. This culture. Stephanie, who works with us, is over at Epic, is now involved with the power girls and she is now going to be learning from thousands of women, top producing women that kick everyone's ass in our county. Yeah, I mean these. They do hundreds, if not thousands, of transactions. Yeah, okay, they have more to sell. They have more to sell. So they do have more to sell.

Speaker 1:

They're still doing, but yeah, but they, but they are learning more because we're only selling.

Speaker 2:

That's it.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, because they get to learn the matter, because if you have access to somebody that's got that sort of catalog of historical transactions, there's value in that yeah when you're doing 300 instead of 30, that's a big, freaking difference. And you've seen it all. Yeah, I mean. Granted, our price point is way higher than everybody else's, but the fundamentals are the same the fundamentals are the same. I like that.

Speaker 1:

But is way higher than everybody else is, but the fundamentals are the same. But the fundamentals are the same. I like that, but they work harder and they have to have you know they have to be on top of it.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, we can kind of go, oh, we'll do one, we'll do two, like everybody's happy with 12 transactions. You can't live in this town anymore for 12 transactions, right? Unless your other spouse or partner is working as well. No, I mean because a lot of these ones, you know it's so funny because I think about you know, friends are in the business here and there and you kind of start realizing, you know and we've talked about this before on the podcast you know what does it take to be a full-time real estate agent? And there's a lot of intangibles, there's the number of transactions you need to close. There's also sort of that mental fortitude to understand the game a little bit too. I mean it's gonna be really interesting when they start saying the sellers don't have to put out a commission to the buyer's agent.

Speaker 2:

That's a whole new ball game everybody's gonna get into and that's coming, and it's here, it's coming, oh, it's, it's, it's, it's here, and they moved it back to september. But the mls systems will start switching in july wow, a lot of agents are calling and they're scrambling and they don't know, and and it's you know. This is when you really want to line yourself up, not with a company, but with actually good veterans that are going to sit there and spend the time with you?

Speaker 1:

Is this just cause? Is this just like, um, is this a lot of ways? Uh, that's a weird comparison, but because I don't know the industry, is this all happening? Because there's there's a lot of comp, positive competition, that forcing the prices down a little bit. It reminds me of the phone companies. It used to be excessively, then they broke up the bells and all the prices came down. This whole concept of lowering those fees and commissions, is that just because there's a lot of, because of EXP, because of Epic, because of a lot of quality brokerages, or what's spurning this?

Speaker 2:

Well, that was a lawsuit that was driven. It was yeah and they won. And so NAR made a settlement and part of the settlement is the MLS is going to remove commissions because you know the seller you were setting a. You walk in and you get a commission and part of that commission whatever you negotiated went to the buyer side of that.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, we're all used to it. That's the world.

Speaker 2:

And they felt and a lot of that. Yeah, we're all used to it. That's the world, and they felt, and a lot of that's not going to change.

Speaker 1:

This is not what this podcast obviously about.

Speaker 2:

Um cause I laughed when all the realtors started coming in and I'm like you know, all these people are all over Tik TOK and I'm just going. You guys should not be talking right now because nobody knows.

Speaker 1:

Nobody knows Exactly. You know you're freaking everybody out for for what? Not? Well, it again it's. It's. For me it's just like anything else in the world. It's, it's all lost and it's going to eventually be lost in the wash, if that makes sense, like eventually, if you're, if you're, if you're a strategic planner and you understand business, um, it's sneaking, not sneaking up on you. It's going to be lost in the wash of just doing business.

Speaker 2:

Sales are going to move on Exactly. That's the reality. Sellers they're going to want people in their home. Guess what? You're still going to be paying Exactly, and so you know. However, whether it's not listed in the MLS or it's going to be on a side document, agreement, it's going to continue as usual, yep, did you have some stuff to hit or are we? Getting through. Well, no, what I wanted to do is you know, hopefully, realtors, and if somebody knows a realtor, please forward them off to our podcast.

Speaker 1:

You know, but I really Actually you don't have to be a realtor to come listen either. Go ahead, because this is where I'm coming in, because one person talked out at the conference and goes why start going after the same people that you've been trying to go after? The number one best realtor. What they talked about going after is a teacher. Teachers are smart, they're organized, they have time off and they listen Back up a little bit. I think I missed one part of this conversation. What are we doing? What are we talking about?

Speaker 2:

What are we promoting? I want to talk. I want to talk For me. What I would want to get the point across today is Because he was talking about bringing in realtors, bringing realtors to what. Bring in realtors. Bring in realtors to what? To a forum. Yes, I want the realtors to come listen. Okay, I'm tracking you. I wanted the realtors to listen to this podcast.

Speaker 1:

And I just jumped ship a little bit.

Speaker 2:

It's okay.

Speaker 1:

My ADD went, do right.

Speaker 2:

See how he doesn't say ADD. It's like an uppercut. I'm like what is happening right now, but go ahead, the radically yeah, we, yeah. If I am a realtor, I don't care how long you've been in the business and the these opportunities are sitting in front of me.

Speaker 2:

they don't know what the opportunities unless they hear through the industry when we left tracking you, we didn't say a word right and we needed to go learn a lot ourselves, which we've done, and we're very involved now with this company for the first time in my 33 years. I can tell you right now I'm getting very involved, very involved with this company. I believe in it, I believe in the culture. I'm excited, but other agents need to know what it's about.

Speaker 1:

They need to understand why Epic versus and I'll just say it why. Cold.

Speaker 2:

World Banker? Why Bailey Properties? Why David Lean? Why Keller Williams? Why EXP? And I'll still sit here and say EXP we proved it in the numbers was a better company than all the companies in this County, cause we proved it. Right now we're moving on. Why Epic? Why, when we were perfectly happy? Because when I looked at everything and I looked at all the benefits that they offer, no one including EXP cause they can't because they're a publicly traded company can offer these benefits. And if you're an agent sitting there whether you're crushing it, struggling, just getting started, if you took a piece of paper and put it side, by side, it is hands down.

Speaker 2:

There's no comparison with any company in this County compared to Epic period. So then I would go to. Well, what about culture? What about people? Are there people to support, support me, which is really important. And, yeah, besides our three founders, right, every um agent we all have what we call an area leader here, the area leader is just like your broker.

Speaker 2:

We also have a broker who you get to talk to and run things by. We're an AI driven company. Um, majority of the companies right now in California. They're all coming to our technology, which is our AI technology, to answer permanent questions that agents really need to know whether lawsuit, some kind of anything that's popped up. They're all plugging their information now into AI. Fascinating, that's coming.

Speaker 1:

That's ours Meaning. If you can't get ahold of your broker, you can ask a question to the AI and it'll hopefully give you an answer back in the law world. Yeah, it's coming along at a million miles an hour there as far as kind of like that intuitive sort of like.

Speaker 1:

It's crazy and that's a nice resource to have. So you could be I guess what you're saying here is theoretically even to pacify. You could be sitting there at 1130 PM during a transaction, use the AI chat bot and get a sense of some kind of an answer, some comfort level.

Speaker 2:

That at least kind of gaps it until you can talk to your broker and we'll use I'll plug you danny ward um, real successful santa cruz bikes. Uh, got his real estate license real successful career. Left it, coming into real estate. That's his passion and so he's new and so if you're danny like all these options, he went interviewed a lot of places, which we were glad he did, and he came here and Paul and I are available and he knows that and we've got a lot of experience in him. Paul and I are a little different the way we communicate and do things, which is good. It's a benefit to the agent.

Speaker 1:

So, beyond Paul and I, if we just happen to be an appointment, you know there's an area leader he can call, then there's a broker he can call. Name another company that has that. I don't think I could right now. Right, you can't, you can't. And they're a trainer. They're here, the leader in your area helps you train like from zero, zero, let's say, let's say zero maybe I'll go into reality zero because and and they're not charging you.

Speaker 1:

so they're not charging like keller william, if you have a leader, they charge you. Yeah, I heard that. That's part of the things I heard on the research was that they do, like I said, that's sort of that hidden, that's that one where it looks a certain way, but by the time you finally look at your bank account at the end of the month, you're like whoa, what happened? Whoa.

Speaker 2:

And so some of the well. We'll talk about different things, but I want to just hit some of the highlights of our benefits that we have. So again, ask your company if they have healthcare for you. If they don't, maybe give Paul or I a call or send us an email. Everything will be anonymous. We just added vision and dental for $25 a month. Wow, for you and your family, that's free glasses, contacts, free clean contacts, free cleanings, etc. We have free idx agent websites, tons of leads.

Speaker 1:

How about use benefits? They're free, because on the website it does say free car washes.

Speaker 2:

You gotta be this fine right second exactly we don't have car washes and tankers yet, right, but I will wash your car, though, if you want to come on over, right?

Speaker 1:

uh, yes, you will Keep going, brian. Finish that list and I've got some. I'm going to get rid of the word free.

Speaker 2:

That's right. Benefits, Buyer and seller leads. I could tell you a lot of people use KVCore. You don't know what that is. A lot of people pay money for it. Our Lofty program. It's night and day in terms of superiority over everything, especially for dummy like me.

Speaker 1:

Yeah.

Speaker 2:

I'm not good with tech and Paul.

Speaker 1:

No, he's not.

Speaker 2:

We have benefits of listening, photography and what Paul said is yeah, boulevard Media is.

Speaker 2:

If you're a listing agent, you ought to be listening. But they'll give us at least $125 credit until they come into our area because they have to vet everyone, because Sanford County, honestly small compared to the rest of the United States, yeah, small compared to the rest of the united states, yeah, so, but we're. But they'll give you a credit towards that they're. They're running your social media ads for you. Yard signs same thing again until we get them set up with javier from signs up he's the only one here in town, um, they'll send you signs. Uh, canva pro free, I can use that, paul, um he's using the f word, that's a lot of F bombs.

Speaker 2:

You know, here's the thing which I thought was really cool. So we're the only company. There's 65,000 billboards. You're going to see every agent from the Epic on billboards all across the United States. Well, we don't have electronic bill. Yeah, so we don't have like Santa Cruz, right, just doesn't have that. So you know, when I reached into the benefit program and said, hey, you know we don't have that, and they said no problem. So I guess now my ugly mug is going to be over at Safeway and Atos on the gas station Love it.

Speaker 1:

Right, I'll be there from 11. Oh, on the little screen, so when you're pumping your gas.

Speaker 2:

11 to noon.

Speaker 1:

You're going to look at me and be like You're going to see me too. I think the thing about it is you keep going.

Speaker 2:

Free roadside assistance for you and your family.

Speaker 1:

It's like fucking AAA. That's what I said. Who's fucking doing?

Speaker 2:

that? Who's doing that? That's fucking huge. How about AirVet? How about if you have a pet? You can now have a consultation with the vet and they'll tell you whether you need to get in to the doctor or not, or this is what's happening there. They're trying to free our time and put more in our pockets as agents.

Speaker 1:

And I think you're missing one thing there. From the layman standpoint, the outside, knowing realtors, having friends that are in it, you know, not even just in this state all the time is that the, the, the void sometimes in this game is sort of the insecurity of the things you just talked about, meaning the time in between transactions and if there's a vague, vague, that part of it, it in-between transactions and if there's a vague, that part of it, it's not just putting money in your pocket. Everything you list right there is a warm blanket of security, knowing that you've got a little bit of those. It almost feels like you're working for the county or you're starting to hear things as a realtor you're not used to hearing which is coverage, which is you know, and that's meaningful and I think it does. It does represent that somebody there was either on the ass end of feeling insecure in an industry and made that a top priority as far as building a company, cause that's a big deal.

Speaker 2:

It's a it's a huge deal. I mean, I was going through it and it's like they keep adding benefits and and and and. They're doing it because this is a family, this is a family-driven. Our founders are twins, brother, sister and then his husband, so the three of them. He was just named to Inman's top, I think, under 40 club they are. And I will say this Josh is one of the most intelligent people I've ever heard speak. I mean, he's brilliant. And they are about people. They're about I got I jumped right into the culture. They are absolutely not rah-rah, they're about let's, how do we support our people?

Speaker 1:

yeah, and it's pretty amazing and that's organic and that's real and that that resonates. That almost goes back to the beginning of the show where you know you're kind of talking about um sort of like, uh, you know, you know completely diving into your, your clients, life, their needs and kind of where they're at in the world.

Speaker 2:

No, and I'm almost done um, declining cap rates for the agents. You understand what that is. We they're 85, 15. We take 85 as an agent. 15 goes back to the company until the company makes 15,000. And then it goes down 14, 13, 12, 11, and 10,000. In five years you'll be paying 10,000 to the company. Um, obviously, their commission splits are the most aggressive in the market. Um, they have support people, the chief information officer called me back at 1130 on a Friday night to make sure she answered my question.

Speaker 1:

It was unbelievable Free transaction coordinating.

Speaker 2:

I mean, these are things that if you're an agent, you understand what we're talking about.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, because even in the little loose podcast. It's benefits but those are the ones. That's the nickel and diming of those fees is what gets you. As you know, eventually, in the end, that's what gets you. It's the small little unforeseen.

Speaker 2:

We're going to hit you for that. We're gonna hit you for that. We're going to hit you for that and we're, I mean we're. So I'm so excited right now, and you know it's. It's funny, because here I was, I was talking about retirement and then now I'm like well we're revving here we go Best in the business.

Speaker 2:

But you know, he's like you had a weird capability of if you want to turn the faucet on, you can just turn it on. Yeah, and we did. I'm like, okay, Paul, we're doing this, but it goes back to our legacy. What are we going to do in return? And we're going to hear, and we're going to serve our people our agents and let them because the reality is we're getting older. Yeah, so the the newer, younger, hipper crowds.

Speaker 1:

I'm getting older.

Speaker 2:

You're getting older, dude. I'm looking at all that gray and it's like no way we want to help people succeed.

Speaker 1:

Yeah.

Speaker 2:

And I feel this is going to, this is going to be it and this seven year itch. Yeah, I don't see it after this.

Speaker 1:

No, this, no, no. There's running out of seven years. I'm ready to have seven years. My mortgage is dead. I gotta sell my house. My house will be for sale in seven years.

Speaker 2:

When he started doing that, there was like, just like the sets and sets of seven years now he's just there and I would be happy like, hey, we would love to talk to everybody, but here's the deal there's some people that don't want to talk to us, but if you have these tools, great. Why that your broker can come listen to this anonymously? And we're going to do a zoom, we're going to do zoom.

Speaker 1:

So it's not going to be him and I talking brian, and I will not be talking and pitching this. No, I think it's. We're gonna. We're gonna bring in a guy, jay, who is our broker here. Yeah, and that's why I jump ship and move, because he's very thoughtful, he's very genuine, he's about the people, he's about the agents. So he is now helping he's way high up on Epic and helping them grow. The right people, the right culture.

Speaker 2:

When's this going on?

Speaker 1:

Or you set it up at some point.

Speaker 2:

We're trying to do it every once a month. We were going to do it once a month.

Speaker 2:

We have a deck being built right now, right on, we're right, this is right in the beginning stages. So he's gonna come down once a month, he's gonna fly here from la, his daughter goes to uclc and he's just gonna come speak and you know, and again, if you're a broker going, oh great, you know, here's this other competitor and yeah, we're here. So, right, be ready. But at least maybe take some of these and start adding some benefits in your own company.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I don't see, I guess you almost have to like they call it disrupting. You want to disrupt like the norm, disrupt an industry and I think if you can somehow carve it out, maybe through this podcast, maybe through we push it through the newsletter and kind of announce that these things are going get some eyes on it, I think there's a chance you can disrupt it. Where other industries are very happy to mingle and learn from each other within the industry, they have tech conferences, they do a really good job of supporting each other while they have their own agenda and in smaller markets. It doesn't happen nearly enough in this industry. Clearly, it's all these camps that throw stones at each other a lot of times and I think what you're talking about is maybe disrupting that model a little bit. I hope so.

Speaker 2:

I mean a long time ago, real quick, I'll let you jump in, but a long time ago it was. It was funny. We were sitting with um some, some very wealthy people and they were all real estate driven and they all got in a room cause they're outside of the Santa Cruz County. They got in a room and they talked about how they can make each other better.

Speaker 1:

That's exactly it.

Speaker 2:

It was never that way, the way I grew up in this business. It's a complete opposite, you know, and that's why I look like we've all, even though our market's gone up. Honestly, if you really look, it's all kind of sat stagnant. If you would where everyone else around is doing phenomenal.

Speaker 1:

Santa Cruz. They're, the agents are closed-minded, totally. They are. I mean they don't want to grow. I mean why not listen, take something back and go beat up your broker if you want to? I think it's. I think and again, and we might have to go, cause I got to get on the other side of the West side with the meeting with Travelocity, I got to get make my money so I can actually buy from you guys. But but I think I think the the thing that we can land on there and talk about this in the future a little bit is that you know this particular town, forget about all of the other resources. This particular town I there's tricks and there's a patience to this market that we all know because we've lived here, have been around it our whole life. But I do think that it's created like a closed off sort of mentality as far as peer to peer sort of support in this town regarding this industry. But it doesn't mean it can't change.

Speaker 2:

It can change, but I think, I think the fact that we've changed, because I had that mindset a long time ago. That's what I came into. Yeah, I know it can change, but if you look at the younger generations of these young little superstars that are coming up in the real estate world in our town, yeah, starts with them.

Speaker 1:

Right, it really does yeah.

Speaker 2:

And if they're educated, like Paul, you hit it on the head. Why would you not come, listen and just learn? And change starts with them. I mean it starts with us. We're doing it. Change starts with us.

Speaker 1:

I think that's the official slogan of. I feel like you just got elected. Is this graduation, graduation?

Speaker 2:

818-1276. First time I've given my number on this podcast. Whoa, text me. He's excited, I'm really excited. We're going to share 55 years of knowledge and you'll be thanking us five years from now you know what to do.

Speaker 1:

Give the number one more time because now supposedly they're interested. Yeah, no kidding 818-1276.

Speaker 2:

I don't do that often but we're here.

Speaker 1:

That's 831. We're going to make this happen and the pencil just broke, so one more time that is 831.

Speaker 2:

818-1276. If you're curious, we'll send you off a deck and then we'll meet you in confidentiality Right on. Guys, good seeing you again.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, good seeing you again. Thank you sir.

Speaker 2:

Take care Paul's gray.

Speaker 1:

Not.