Real Estate, Sex & Gossip

We Tried To Flip, Got Flipped—Here’s How Not To Donate $200K To Someone Else’s Profit

• Paul Locatelli & Brian DeDiego • Season 3 • Episode 2

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What happens when flip fever meets a holding-pattern market? We pull back the curtain on real risk versus real reward, from off-market dynamics and “member-only” days-on-market games to the hard-money squeeze that quietly devours margins. We share a $200K lesson that still stings, break down why “buy right” starts with the exit and reverse-engineering your numbers, and explain why debt service, insurance, points, and HOA volatility belong in every model—before you lift a hammer. If you’re new to flipping, or tempted by a hot neighborhood, this conversation gives you a sharper checklist and a sturdier gut.

We also talk shop about loyalty and communication—the unglamorous habits that actually make money. If your agent brought the deal, keep them in the loop through the exit. When a report comes in hot, call that day with options. There’s no such thing as bad news, only uncommunicated current events. And yes, location still matters in the most literal ways: backyard power lines, railroad tracks, or water-rights surprises can implode demand if you don’t price and plan for them.

Then we zoom out to Santa Cruz’s evolution: high-end amenities, La Bahia’s return, downtown investment, and a gym that looks like Beverly Hills landed on the coast. Change is here, and over a longer horizon it could mean more jobs, better housing options, and less Highway 17 grind. The throughline is consistent—community, clarity, and craft. Whether you’re flipping, listing, or just trying to read the market, slow down and do the work upfront. Hit play to grab the playbook, then tell us: what’s the most overrated “rule” of this market you want us to test next? Subscribe, share with a friend who’s flip-curious, and leave a review so we know what to dig into next.

SPEAKER_03:

So we've been away for a long time. But here's the thing. One thing we established in the first two minutes is Paul's still a dick. I'm gonna be the biggest dick right now in the fucking world. What the hell is this music? I'm not even afraid. I told you I was pivoting, I was coming out strong.

SPEAKER_01:

You know, man the baby. I'm blowing up the speakers. I've been traveling on the summers.

SPEAKER_02:

I can't hear you with the plug on it. Hey, yeah.

SPEAKER_03:

I'm gonna stand up. I'm not on camera. That's no one can ever prove I did that for.

SPEAKER_02:

You better I'm gonna freaking videotape you from here on now. I'll put this live on freaking Instagram, Loko TV.

SPEAKER_03:

Real estate, sex, and gossip. Guys, it's been too long. It's been a while. Missed you.

SPEAKER_01:

You know what? Someone's been gone in our group, so we'll just leave it at that.

SPEAKER_03:

Who that? That'd be Brian. Di Diego. World traveled. Mr. Vacation.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, I've been.

SPEAKER_03:

We've been to where? We've been to Italy, France, Belize, uh fishing somewhere in freaking I went to Gilroy. Awesome.

SPEAKER_01:

But before I left there, I was actually uh I was traveling the United States going over uh triple net properties. So I I've been gone quite a bit out of the office. A lot.

SPEAKER_03:

This podcast looks good on you guys right now. You know what? We're about to shock the world. Yeah, podcast. All the new podcasts you got. That's right. How many? I don't know, like 150 million. Yeah. And uh where'd they all come from? It's easier for me to answer. Where'd they all come from? Here's the easiest answer. If I didn't have you guys, I would have one. Exactly. I would have real estate, sex, and gossip. That's all you would have with all of our introductions. No magazine, you know, you would no idea for sure no TV network. I know.

unknown:

Nothing.

SPEAKER_03:

You know, you got some Reggie Stevens now, you got some Ryan Buckolt now, you got uh who else we've got? Oh, Mike Howard, but you're not claiming Mike Howard, but you're saying I'm claiming Mike Howard. You just said you weren't. But the thing about this, there's a there's an investment period. You're talking about all this money I'm making. Oh yeah. And so you you can you dumped a nonprofit on me. That was your you brought it up, you chose it. No, this is it's been great. Honestly, we joke about it, but it is um there is a connectivity there that that is sort of that's kind of what vibes has been is vibes has been a space we took and we met some people in already knew you before this, but right um no, there's I think in a weird way, I think that's how people are gonna make it through this kind of weird time right now, and we'll jump right into it, Bryze. Um, I think it's gonna be networking, I think it's gonna be community, I think it's gonna be working a little bit harder and managing your relationships to possibly monetize it, right? I mean, that's kind of what we're talking about. That's what we are talking about, and staying loyal to the people who actually helped you get to where you're to where you're at now. That's it. There's a lot of people that uh throw it to the wayside, which I've seen. Yeah. Yeah. Done and felt.

SPEAKER_01:

We just got screwed on that. Oh, no names are gonna be mentioned in any of this, but we No Can I go back to episode one?

SPEAKER_03:

Sure. Sure. Which oh no, because I got yelled at from a couple people. I know. Well, because I'll tell you why, because I have a photographic memory, and then I'll go back to episode one, is we're not gonna name people. Episode one, Brian D do, we're gonna name people. We're gonna talk about sex. This shit's gonna be crazy. Hey Brian, don't you dare touch that button unfiltered 40 minutes after we left. Hey, Brian, can you edit that out?

SPEAKER_01:

Like again, when we when we're when we get closer to retirement, no problem.

SPEAKER_03:

Well, you guys got a banger guest coming in, so I think you had a topic though. You wanted to get before our special guest comes in. Correct.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, we we just wanted to touch space with the community right now. Like everybody's searching, and and we're by no means considered flippers, right? No. We wanted to talk just real quick with community about flipping property. We think it's important because literally I get four text messages a day asking for flip properties here in Santa Cruz County. And I think a lot of people think the grass is super green on that. I think a lot of people are not experienced in that. Right. And it's a great opportunity to lose money and make money, but it it it's interesting. And I just uh FYI to people.

SPEAKER_03:

I did my little homework on this, is sometimes I think flipping in a way is sometimes there's it's it's opportunistic. And I think if you're actually doing that, it's an investment, but you have to broaden your search sometimes. And I'm not no shade on the Santa Cruz market, and I think you're warning them about particularly sometimes this entry point, this market, current interest rates, all of those things that factor in. But um, sometimes if you've got a stack of cash and you want to flip a house, there's opportunities all over, right? I mean, you do you know, if you're investing is what I'm saying. But you got to be careful, very careful. Yeah, you have to buy it right. I mean, you just can't buy anything. You got to make sure you're buying the right thing in the right spot. Because right now you can buy a great, great property somewhere in town, and then all of a sudden it's not it's not there, right? I mean, the hottest spot right now is the west side of Santa Cruz. I mean, it's crazy. Everything in the on on the west side up until now has been moving pretty fast. Little, big, small, everything. Everything. Everything I've seen. I've seen junker sell, I've seen small sell, I've seen some big ocean front sell. Um why? I have no clue. Last year, nothing. Still a soft condo market right now. A little absolutely okay. Very soft. Yeah, we got a condo. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

Well, hopefully we'll be in. Did you get your job done? No, I'm just trying to get my you know back into swinging things, but we should have that done today, Mr. Lee.

SPEAKER_02:

Um so uh name names. It's okay. He's the owner, he's not gonna listen to that.

SPEAKER_01:

Or he might. But um real quick, I just wanted to, since you brought that up, um, days on market and well, we were just talking with our crew, we got back, and uh it's bullshit that the stats that the associations are putting out and doing stuff saying, you know, days on market for they have single family at 29 days, and and that's crap because agents are putting things um on members only, and so they're marketing it to all the other realtors, and us realtors are showing it to our clients. We're just not giving it to the public. Right. It's it's it's it's close to a hundred days. And condos are much longer than that.

SPEAKER_03:

And so who's manipulating that market? We are as realtors. No, no, no, no. I mean, as far as who's putting out the false numbers. Well, the Zillow and stuff like that. What are we talking about?

SPEAKER_01:

Well, Zillow, they all pull, but they all pull these numbers, they don't pull from our association. What's happening is the title companies are pulling from our association because they're if you go on and you go into San Cruz San County Association of Realtors and you pull under market stats, which the public can do, yeah, um, it'll it'll show 29 days was what month are we in? Are we in August? We're in August was July's days on market, which is not real because they don't talk about the 60 days the agents were 30 to 60 days, the agents were marketing it on members only. Tracking you. Yeah, and you can't see it right from the public.

SPEAKER_03:

But it creates a sense of urgency that's not necessarily real. It's not right. And I just talked to another agent yesterday that he's done three deals now off market, which seems like a lot of people want deals that are not on the market right this second, which was interesting to hear. Right. I mean, he did some big, big ones too. But people like what you can't have, and again, it's all about how you're presenting something. Do you have some? Is there like get into the juicy bits of this thing? Is there a way for you to talk about like maybe even secondhand? Like when you say be careful, do you know of some stories where somebody got like in an abstract? You can talk about, you know, um uh client A bought property B and this happened to them in the abstract so people can know what you're warning them of.

SPEAKER_01:

And two guys, you're sitting in front of two guys who are pretty savvy, but we went into a different market and Paul and I had another rental and we got stuck, we got stuck. We tried to flip Sheridan, couldn't flip Sheridan, we got stuck in a market. And we're realtors, we know what we think we know what we're doing when it comes to this. So we kind of now are like, let's stay in our own marketplace, you know. And so some of the realtors that are flipping and and staying within the marketplace, they're they're not doing well. I mean, a lot of people, and this is my concern a lot of people are pulling hard money out because the hard money lenders are more aggressive than the banks, right? But their interest rate's a little more aggressive too. They're paying 10 to 12 percent plus points, plus points. And for all of you who don't know what points are, if you pull a million-dollar loan out, one point is ten thousand dollars. Wow. So it's one percent. Yep. They'll work with you, meaning you can pay it later. Yeah. Right. If you're successful. Um, but the concern right now is I think people are working on such little margins because of all the unknown in the world. And my whole thing is like we love our community, it's just be careful. Totally. Be careful what's being sold to you. Have a couple different realtors. Don't just come to us, have a couple different realtors that can give you their idea of value and what's happening on the market before you make such a huge commitment. There is a lot of people losing money right now.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah, and it's funny because I think we it's been a while since we podcast, but I was listening back on it. And at that point, I think it was January, February, and I think there was this euphoria at the end of 2020 um four that with the election, politics aside, things were gonna kind of yeah, I even felt this in the old landscape business I used to be in, where there was like things are gonna turn no matter what economically, and it's still a holding pattern. We were talking about a holding pattern and nervousness back in February, and I can guarantee you that that feeling until the Fed does its thing or whatever this fight is, yeah. I mean, the it's it's still now eight months later, seven months since we podcasted, a holding pattern.

SPEAKER_01:

Oh tonight's a holding pattern. NVIDIA releases their results. There's a lot of money locally here in NVIDIA right now that people are waiting so they can use that to buy homes with possible interest rate reduction, which we're gonna hear about real quick. Real quick. So, you know, I was somebody was asking me yesterday what are your thoughts on the market? And I said, uh, talk to me in three weeks.

SPEAKER_03:

Well, and it's so funny because then you get into the the other side of it, which is timing. So let's say the Fed cuts interest rates and Nvidia has a bad report. The thing you thought was going to be there, you wanted to jump on this interest rate cut, but the cash might not be in your account to make the move.

SPEAKER_01:

Wow. That's the reality. And that's the reality everybody's everybody, you know, and is listening agents and sellers that are sitting out there, you know, if their agents are educating them, then they understand what we're talking about right now. And and they're waiting too. They're waiting to see like what's gonna happen. You know, and it it's gonna be an interesting it's gonna be an interesting three weeks, 30 days of what's gonna transpire in in all real estate markets.

SPEAKER_03:

Uh between the is between sorry to cut you off, but between the two of you, can you come up with like two, three, four, five like like not hacks so much, but things you should do when you let's say you've never flipped before. Is there a couple like standard things you think you could advise people that are listening if you're gonna get into the flip game, beware and and pay attention? Be a beware of your surroundings. What's behind you, what's in your backyard. So if you have like telephone poles in your backyard, almost filled with water. Uh in like San Jose, because San Jose has tons of telephone poles in the backyard or railroad tracks. People don't like that. When they walk in, they walk straight to the backyard, especially in San Jose, to see if there's a big telephone back there or a railroad track back there, and they're not buying. I sold a couple of them. I got lucky way back in the day, but people are not liking those things whatsoever because they're all afraid of you know hazardous stuff, right? Yeah. Pulling up the railroad tracks, everybody gets sick, you know, radiation from all the you know PGE. Yeah, so that's a factor. Yeah, it's a factor, it's a huge factor. And and making sure you know what's going on. But I mean, you know, the one that Brian and I should have flipped that we didn't flip because I gave it to somebody else, you know, we got it from third hand. So somebody negotiated it, then sold it to a wholesaler, a wholesaler then called me, and I said, price is great, price is fine, and uh, and Brian wasn't around because he's on vacation. So I was being nice and I gave it to me.

SPEAKER_01:

That cost me$200,000, by the way.

SPEAKER_00:

Brian's not really happy.

SPEAKER_03:

I went to Gilway for$47. So but but then it went to the other gentleman's hands, and you know, they did flip it. All they did, because they bought it right, they put literally paint, fixed this. Well, the septic was fine, so that was good, turn around and sold it and made their 200 grand. And the person who bought it is gonna use it as a vacation rental, they're coming out of their area, but they bought it right. So you're talking four different people have touched this.

SPEAKER_01:

But the the that particular transaction. Yeah, in that particular transaction, too. Uh there was water right issues that I like to say we, but I'm gonna remove Brian from this and say Paul dug in a little and helped. And and those other people took money. Not not our clients, not the people that it was assigned to. Paul did all this work before we closed and realized there was no water. If you if you would, it's a long story.

SPEAKER_03:

The very first person who got the deal, got the deal, yeah, cold collar, just called, called, call. I mean, they're they're heartless, they just call anyone. They're wholesalers. They're just they'll call anybody, you know, if you're freaking out transactions. Yeah, that's all they care about. Wolf of Wall Street. So I negotiated, so he went and negotiated the price down even more. So that guy made another$85,000. All because of Paul. By doing nothing. I do want to tell you that you seeing the Wolf of Wall Street passing very quick is the closest in three years we've gotten to talking about sex on the real estate sex and gossip. We can talk about sex.

SPEAKER_01:

I think with this new setup, why I want to go live is because I, you know, I'm by the way, we're gonna be going live. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah. You're gonna be able to see our ugly mugs and and call in and ask us questions and do things. But I think it'd be fun just to have a lot of Paul's exes in this room when we when we do it. I think that'd be amazing.

SPEAKER_03:

That's actually finally we get there. Now we're getting there. Now we're getting somewhere. And then the other thing too. Here's the other thing that I kind of heard just around the street a little bit. This is in our own complex, is um is there any like factor that's included when you're flipping a property, whether it be a house or a condo, let's say, even and HOA dues and deferred maintenance and things like that. Can you get stuck like with let's say you, let's say you you're looking to flip a house and all of a sudden in the midst of you doing what your par is doing, there's massive deferred maintenance. Let's let's say and it goes from$600 HOA dues to 900 or$1,100. That happens around here all the time. And so does that change the ability to, you know what I'm saying? Like, so you have this idea of this property and you have sort of your ROI on what you're gonna do to get out of it. Well, the landscape can change, not even, I'm not talking about the economics of it, like interest rates. I'm talking about in that property that you now own, that can change somebody's numbers.

SPEAKER_01:

Oh, I would 100% agree with that. I mean, we kind of stick more on a single family and stay away from condos. But that's the advice I'm looking for.

SPEAKER_03:

That's one that's one, okay. That's you're more talking about condos. Anything because I think people flip in every single different aspect of the world. But 100%. That would be one huge piece of advice is possibly volatile, either do huge amount of homework, because you can also turn that to your benefit. If somebody's just upgraded, you know, some of those things, if you've done your homework, I think you can actually flip into something where there's a there's a longer road as far as dues and things like that. And the other one I want to talk about is like in in California in particular, this issue factoring into the overall ability to flip and somebody getting their numbers is insurance. Like where where is this house located? Is it in an area where they're dropping and you know, things does that come into play also in flipping house?

SPEAKER_01:

Well, absolutely. I mean, the insurance side's pretty basic because you're buying that house first before you're flipping it. And so you're already gonna have an indication, and that's already factored into the code. Okay, gotcha. Gotcha. So you know, my advice, of course, is when people sit down, I work backwards. Um, it drives lenders crazy, does everything crazy, but uh I always start with a prenup on everything I do and then work backwards. Reverse engineering. Yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_03:

He got that from me though. I love it. The prenup. Actually, not the prenup, it's called the divorce first. Apparently, no one would be anywhere in life. Without Paul, you are finally figured out. I am I finally figured it out. I'm under the bridge over there doing horrible things right now without Paul walking into my life.

SPEAKER_01:

In case anybody really wonders, I don't do anything. It's all Paul. That's true too.

SPEAKER_03:

So so that that that's another good that's another good piece of clarity on flipping house is like some of those uh you as you're in the process of buying, you're checking some of the boxes that okay.

SPEAKER_01:

And and and I look at things a little differently. Like I said, I work that way. And to me, it's like it's a cash on cash return. Um, it's it's funny. I we've talked to flippers that they don't count their mortgage payment and insurance into it. I'm like, what are you talking about? That's an actual expense. And you know, I I think they do that so they sound better. And they're like, oh well, we made X amount of return on that. And I'm like, actually, no, you didn't. Right. Right? Cash in, cash out. It's it's it's easy math. Yeah. But your contractor or your subs, so important. And what important to pay them on time in case you're gonna take this on as a business, right? Because they'll want to work with you. Right. But it is so important that they really do their due diligence up front. I I I can't tell you how many times. And we've personally been involved where we thought something happened that didn't happen and it just cost us more money. And so I, you know, I there's always a threshold of where your risk is if you're gonna buy a certain property. Gotcha. You know, and as Paul and I have gotten older, that it's higher, right? Just because we know shit happens when you're in these things. And the reason why we wanted to bring this up to everybody is is you know, have at it, right? There's opportunity in every corner, but just do your homework. We we know a lot of professionals that are not making money right now.

SPEAKER_03:

No, there's no doubt. I think it's practical advice too, because I think if you think about what you're saying, it's in the context of real estate. But what you're really saying is if you get some kind of like medical diagnosis, what do we all do? Get a second opinion. Absolutely. And I think that's sort of one of the best pieces of advice is you guys are trusted, you have your clients, but if you're in that world, there's no no harm in kind of doing a little due diligence on your own for that big of an investment.

SPEAKER_01:

And and the other thing is, and I'll say this and I might catch a little shit later, but I don't care. Here we go. Hey, if you're out there thinking of flipping and doing stuff, be loyal. Be loyal to the agent, be loyal to the agent that brought you the deal. Because that agent may uh in theory put money in your pocket by doing this. So just make sure that agent for this particular deal is a part of your team.

SPEAKER_03:

I like that.

SPEAKER_01:

And don't forget that. That is loyalty, which honestly I think a lot of loyalty is going away right now. It's what can you do for me today? Because everybody's so worried about tomorrow. But I think loyalty when it comes down to flipping properties is is is really important. Let's go down that road.

SPEAKER_03:

I like where we're going right there because this gets into more like a conversation I'm having outside of this, but it fits in real estate. Is what would you say is what what uh separates a client from an agent uh early in the game? Like well, like why would you like what is the communication? What would happen were like you're talking about stay loyal to an agent? What is some of the circumstances that would create a client to like maybe not communicate with you and and walk away? What what in your past history, what causes that? Well, not staying in touch with them was one thing. I mean, you know, you're not gonna be able to do it. Communication. It's all huge. Communication is your end and theirs. Uh both, but it's you know, it's mostly our end. I mean, we gotta still communicate and talk with them and and tell them, hey, we're still here, even though they know we've been doing this, you know, 23 years for me and Brian over 30 plus. Right. But it's all it's side out of mind. It's like if you're not in front of them right then and there, they're gonna go use somebody else. Right. Which, you know, it is what it is. But uh, you know, I've had I've had clients go and use somebody else. Not because that was a better person, just now they became friends with that person. Right. And vice versa. I've had now clients that come to me that had other agents. So, you know, the whole loyalty, but then there's close, close friends that went and used other people, and it's like, you know what, never again. Right. And it's like, you know, once again, yes, I bring people and brought I know that that's why I know, Brian. Yeah, without me, you wouldn't have this. Of course. It's scary to be on the other end of this. I gotta be honest with you right now. You know, uh, I'll cut you off. I know I wasn't scared of you before, but looks like you've been going to that new gym saying that. I've been to the gym. Oh, I like the lead in. He's back in shape. He's back in shape in shape. Brian, did you have any takes on that as far as like maintaining uh customers' loyalty and any things like sometimes in your career that even on the outside end, not necessarily you guys, but where you've seen agents lose clients and you say that was that moment. This is the moment. Is it always just connectivity? Or is my gut feeling sometimes is this? I always have this saying there's no such thing as bad news. It's a current event uncommunicated. And I think in that game, let's say you get some bad news on a deal for a client, it could be the smallest thing. Um, what happens is I don't want to ruin their Friday, I'll call them Monday. This is a simple example. And most people, let's say you call them Monday and say, uh, we got a bad you know news back from the appraisal, whatever it may be. And the client's gonna say, Hey, yeah, when did you fucking hear that? And it's like Friday, but I didn't want to read Friday. It's like, you I'm out. Okay, so that's a great example. You led right into something that happened to me. You know, I have a client that likes to c take control. Yeah. And August 14th, there was an email that went out. I didn't really read the whole thing because he loves taking control, you know, talked about death certificate. Death, some somebody died. Yeah. His dad died a long time ago. Right. I didn't read the whole damn email because he liked, and it found out if I kept going all the way down. Two weeks later, his mom passed away. You son of a bitch. Oh, yeah, fucking A. Yeah. I was fucking, trust me, tail between my legs, apologized like you wouldn't believe. Helped him out because he didn't know a lot of things about the lawyer. What the lawyer was doing to him wasn't correct. But I I just assumed he had all control because he's a very controlling person. Right. And I'm like, and I did one little sentence, hey, if you guys need anything, just let me know. And everybody knows I'm a better communicator by texting your phone. Emails, we get so many freaking emails. Brian loves him. I can't stand it.

SPEAKER_01:

C C Brian Di Diego on everything.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah, I can't stand him. But you know what? That's okay. But he only uses me as his realtor. And I was like, I thought I was gonna lose him forever here. And he's like, Paul, thank you for apologizing. You know, the whole 90 yards. I'm like, hey, I fucked up. Yeah, I really didn't pay attention to the whole thing because I figured you had control because I know how you are. Yeah. And the worst thing ever is make sure you fucking read it. Well, Brian, well, Brian and the other Brian were um not modeling, but we were in school, and the teacher said, Read all the questions before you take the test. And the last one says don't tell me. Don't take the test. Yes.

SPEAKER_02:

Paul was out in the I always take the test. Paul was out in Italy. Paul Brian, absolutely. That's right. Hey, fuck that test.

SPEAKER_01:

And Paul led into communication, and that's it. And with your scenario earlier on Friday to Monday, yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

Absolutely. You're not ruining somebody's Friday. You don't know what anyone's circumstances are. So when you get information, you relay that information on, and then as agents, we got to help see if we can come up with some solutions, right? Every transaction, nothing is a perfect transaction. So true. And you just communicate and let's work together.

SPEAKER_03:

And I'm breaking the glass on this. This is this is the human part of it. That's business. This is also every relationship you have in your life. Because let's go back to that scenario. I'm the agent, I got bad news on Friday. I call my client. They're like, yo, when do we find that out? I'm like, right now. It's happening together. It's happening. This is happening to us right now. When did you get that news? Just now. What are we going to do? You're you're you have equity. Right. You wait, you wait a weekend, all of a sudden there's a little deception. There's a little bit of you made this call, and now I could have done a lot of times in business or a relationship, I could have done something Friday. And think about of all our friends and their personal relationships, how much like wound up over a period of time where they said, that annoys the shit out of me. If you would have told them right then, some of these relationships you might have been able to handle going, I didn't know that. I'll stop doing that. Right. But people go 15 years and like I'm out. Because they've been annoyed for 15 years that you're rolling up the toothpaste that way. Somebody makes them laugh at work at the water cooler and they bounce. That happens. It's all that way. So are you talking about the new gym again? I don't know. I got a lot of clearly I have a lot of issues. I don't know where he is. Do you want to text him? Yeah, I will text him. We'll roll into like we'll call this halftime right now. We're gonna have, you know, we did our part and then we're gonna go find our guest who may be wandering around the farmer's market right now. We're gonna come out with this our first ever part two of real estate sex and gossip podcast. I don't even know what's playing right now. Let's see. What is this? I don't know, but that's gonna take us out, and we're not gonna get sued. Hey.

SPEAKER_02:

Oh, there it is.

SPEAKER_03:

Part two. And um I am so excited to talk about our guest. This is the one we get sued for. Is this the one we get sued for? Yeah. It just went off. Damn it. Eventually we do have to address that. We do have to address. Well, we have to address the fact that if you're gonna start going bi-weekly, it's going live, more humans are gonna listen. Can we throw a little beep in there, a little blue, little something, something? There's no no, yeah. If this thing hits, we we've only got those issues to deal with, which is there's a cease and desist that'll happen first. No, they won't. That's not the first one I got. Come on. I'm saying bring another one. I'm I'm saying I'm saying if you guys, if you guys pop off here, yeah, we have a tiny nothing problem. I'm just saying we should get our own, we should just use some of Reggie's music. Well, I like a big problem, not a little problem. Okay, if we have a problem, let's get a problem. Pet shop boys, it is.

SPEAKER_00:

There you go.

SPEAKER_03:

Let's go. And so I cannot wait to introduce our special guest here right now that you guys did a great job. Obviously, organizing on the back of the room. Here you come. We were just talking about communication being important. There's no such thing as bad news if it's properly communicated. And I the thing I respect about you guys is how tight that ship is at the real estate sex and gossip HQ. Yeah. With your admin and your, you know, everybody like you have the girls that kind of come out and make sure the guests are prepared and they're getting the water ready for them. They look great. They've got the DGI Osmo pocket all cued in. Is Waters over there? Welcome. Chris, where are you? Chris. Hello. I don't even know if this thing works. Does this even work? Does it yay? Chris. How is the uh IFB world champion natural body billy going this weekend?

SPEAKER_02:

It was really good.

SPEAKER_03:

Who won? How to how to look? All that I know is that there was donuts after that thing on Saturday, on Sunday morning. Hey, do you see my Instagram with all the donuts though? Yours? Yeah, we have no guests. Uh Paul. We have no guests. What do you mean we have no guests? Yeah, yeah. Paul free. For me to see that post, I would have to follow you, Paul.

SPEAKER_02:

Oh, wait, wait, you don't follow me after everything I've done for you?

SPEAKER_03:

Here we go. All the people I introduced you to. I want to see. Hey, I need to see some greenbacks. Some connectivity. I need some white envelopes here. Brian, do you have that picture, that that uh Photoshop picture of him? You can you at the throne of Paul somewhere? There's no throne. I've got lots of pictures of Paul that haven't come out yet.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, here we go.

SPEAKER_03:

Just send him. We'll put a bump on that network and that'll be my repayment back. So we were supposed to talk to Chris. We will. Two weeks.

SPEAKER_01:

Well, real quick, he's coming in a couple weeks. Sorry, everybody, out of business meeting, but who is Chris?

SPEAKER_03:

Chris is the owner with his wife Camille, uh, the new Santa Cruz Athletic Club. Yep. They just had the IFB World Bodybuilding Natural Champion last weekend. Well, what's today? Wait, a competition or just somebody in? No, it's a competition, it's huge.

SPEAKER_01:

Everybody came from all different places. I did, I did well, but I thought I'd get on the podium, but that didn't work.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah, that if you saw Brian, you saw these guys, yeah. It was those calf muscles. Hey. Actually, he I'll give it to Brian. Brian does have a little calf muscles, but that belly of his gotta work.

SPEAKER_01:

So they did it, they did a full competition. Well's the definition that you can guys that can all go to his gym.

SPEAKER_03:

They did a full competition over there. Well, it wasn't there, it was at the Civic. But all the guys, all the guys trained there, they all stopped by his gym. He had a whole thing there. And then on Sunday, they all came because you know, bodybuilders they starve themselves for freaking six months and go crazy in the head and can't do certain things. So on Sunday morning, of course, I go in there and do my little workout and fucking eat my I saw donuts. I'm like, oh yeah, game on. I come to daddy. Come to daddy. I text everybody to come on down to get a donut. It all got scared. Brian got scared, Nick got scared. I'm like, fucking free donuts. I went back at three o'clock. Just I'm like, there's gonna be donuts left over. They had thousands of them. Like, fuck, they're all gone. Yeah. One thing about health clubs and things like that, you you put those out. People really thought they've you had a better chance there than a lot of other places because people think they just earned it. They just rocked out 800 calories. What's 120 or whatever it is? And I love that. I was pissed off. So you've been, I have not been back over yet. Give me a little how come you're not back? Give me a little bit. Oh, because you want something for free? Give me a walking tour of the gym. Give me a walking tour. This guy's a shit disturbed. Yeah, you walk in the front door. It's beautiful. It's freaking all done up in these fancy ass tile that costs way too much money. It costs, you know, we won't talk about the builders, but we all know them. I'm one of the owners. All right. So you go left, you go to like a little red room, and then you got the cold plunge, and you got this hyperbaric chamber. You put your body in there and they suck all the air out of it, I guess, and push it back in. I haven't done that. That's supposed to be really good for the pizza, obviously.

SPEAKER_01:

We've been listening to you talk.

SPEAKER_03:

That's like that's like that's like a lot of air coming out. Yep, that's nothing coming back. Are we in one right now? Pretty much. That's like the Steph Curry. That's like the NBA and NFL stuff, like as far as recovery. People love it. I've not done it yet. I've heard great things about it. Um, so that's they have that. They have massage there. You can get a massage. Are you guys involved? What's what's your connection? What's your connection? Just stoke. You know what I mean? People thought I owned that gym. No, I did too. I thought you guys, the way you've invested, I thought you had some part of it. I I thought I did too, but no, we did not invest. So you just love it. Yeah, it just I was helping out friends. See, I help out friends. And you were a were you a member at this other club? You know what? That was a I was a member when that was Gold's Gym. I'm 195. So out of 200 people, the first 200 people back in what 1992 or something like that, 91, the first 200 people, their price was$195 a year. And I've been a member since there, since then. That is some that is some grandfathered insight. Well, here it gets even better. So there's been a couple owners, and the last owner were who Chris bought it from, he sold a membership. It was 720 bucks lifetime membership. He sold a lot of those to a lot of people. Yeah. Chris took over. I wasn't around. I was traveling, I was doing whatever. So I went in there and he goes, Hey, I want to introduce myself. Hey, I never met the guy. Didn't you see what he looked like, you know, years later? He goes, Hey, something about your contract. I go, yeah, it's lifetime. He goes, Well, I go, no, it's a contract.

SPEAKER_00:

There it is, motherfucker.

SPEAKER_03:

Tell me I can't be here for the year. He goes, Can you at least pay 50 bucks? So good.

SPEAKER_00:

And that's the Italian in my buddy right there.

SPEAKER_03:

That's 50 bucks a year, buddy. Not a month. 50 bucks for the year. Brian, have you been going over to getting shredded up?

SPEAKER_01:

Actually, I have not, but I've walked into the gym a few times. And as a non gym.

SPEAKER_03:

Did you cramp up?

SPEAKER_01:

He did. I will tell you guys, as a non gym person, um, you know, if you look side by side with Paul and I from the waist up, you'll understand I'm non gym.

SPEAKER_03:

Fuck my calves are growing, motherfuckers. You are a fucking chicken leg. I've been to a lot of calves. I've been walking the stairs. Is that a problem down there? Is that I've Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

I mean, he's like a fucking chicken. Oh no, they're getting bigger.

SPEAKER_02:

They're not they're getting bigger.

SPEAKER_01:

Uh, but I've from a non-person walking in, um it's stunning. It's beautiful. Um, yeah, a lot of people thought, because you know, when Paul posts something, I'll forward it on and put it on mine, and they thought, no, we're just there to help. Help, and but that this gym, it's amazing. It is unbelievable. It's just like it's got everything you can think of.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

And they've put a lot of love and heart and sweat into this. I mean, and it shows. It's there's no doubt.

SPEAKER_03:

Everything I've heard from people have gone there, it's it's like a slice of something that you get in in like not to Los Angeles, Vegas, like, you know, like when you're in like a like a you know, the best health club with all the amenities, um, very rare for us to get that here. It's hard because Santa Cruz, everybody thinks, you know, I'm gonna say, you know, it's all, you know, they'll think it's you know, hippies and armpits and all that, but there's a lot of people I've never even seen here before. Oh I mean, at that gym. I mean we always say this bullshit, but that is a whole podcast right there. I mean, uh that's it's a whole different I mean, I was kind of shocked. I mean, there's people I've never seen in my life. Yeah, the old Santa Cruz, which is just, and again, I hate this conversation because it was the Ohlone Indians and they weren't here every we have no right to what Santa Cruz was 20, 30 years ago. Oh, I do. I know you're been here since 1800. Here we go. But the thing about that is I think this whole two things in my mind, three things actually, in my mind, as far as the the next part that we need to kind of accustom ourselves to is the Warriors investment downtown, um, La Bahia, yeah, and this athletic club. That thing is insane. And the athletic club. Think about those three things that would not have even passed or been that is 0 and 7 at the city council. Oh, yeah. Any of these things. There's a change coming. The money's already here. Um, you know the money is here. The money's here. What I'm saying is, and I even wrote an editorial about it, which is you can write, you know, a little bit. I thought you were a landscaper. Chat GPT. The um that's what I use now. But oh my god, you'd be so dangerous. You're the one, like the commercial though. You can't back it up. Like, like I can I can use it and send the letter, and then people talk to me, they're like, it seems like you were like, Hold on, hold on. I'll get back to you.

SPEAKER_01:

Don't do the I'm on the other end of those text messages with people, and Paul's sending that out, and I'm like, oh no.

SPEAKER_03:

And he's bilingual with them, just so you know.

SPEAKER_02:

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_03:

I love bilingual. But I think that's uh this is not where we thought we were gonna go in part two, but let's stay here because I'm interested. I'm interested in this is that, you know, for me, it's you know, these investments, the new new is we can't get away from it. It's like the it's like industrial revolution PC. You name it whatever you want. This is the money's here already. There's a transition happening. Um, and you know, for me personally, I think where we're going over a long period of time, yes, not great for the single-story locals that want it to be their quiet surf town, right, but very good overall, over a 20-year window for affordable housing and lifting up opportunity to pay for that housing. That's the thing Santa Cruz needs is more centralized commitments to create jobs, right? High-paying jobs, like you know, then you think of Joby and things like that. Right. We need more of that here. You need housing to get to more Jobies to invest here, you know, even out like towards you know, Wrigley and things like that. Right. We need more money here. Money brings money and it brings people that don't want to commute over 17. Let's build that tech company here. Yeah, and they can stay here and start going with hill. That's exactly it. I mean, all the crashes that that that just happened over the weekend. I missed it. I just was not paying. Oh, was it bad? Oh, yeah. There's one Jeep that rolled, and then there was a guy that rolled a semi. So it's like, you know, 17 stuck. So you know, bringing the money here is great. Yeah, that new hotel downtown at the boardwalk, insane. I mean, it's the starting price is 454 price. Which is right there, which is like the paradox in two men and all. I mean, maybe lower. It's well, the paradox I just looked was 169. Okay, so it's it's it's it's shamanade three men kind of stuff. Yeah, but it's I mean, it looks I mean, you're looking at the ocean though. I mean, there's no doubt. It's gonna be great. And it's full from everything I saw in the previews, and I got the media kit from them. It's all the bells and whistles. They're meeting you at the door, they're kind of doing all the right things. Um Brian, what's your take on like where the city's going right now?

SPEAKER_01:

I still think there's some old that needs to go away. Um, but there's a lot of new and a lot of positive, just like what you said. Like in 20 years from now, um, you know, I go back to city councils, I go back to the people working at our county that feel entitled because they've been there for a long time. And I still think they're living in the past. I love Matt Machado. Yeah. Um, yeah, right. We've had Matt on here. Yeah. If I didn't love him, I'd say it. He knows that.

SPEAKER_03:

Um, he said to get to get to work, by the way. I just text, I just text him.

SPEAKER_01:

You know, Matt Matt's a vision. He called me about another development deal. Matt's Matt's Matt's a visionary. Matt sees it. He's working with what we have. Um, but I agree with you. Everything you said, Brian, is spot on. Over over time and us as the local community, it's coming. It's coming. That's it. And the money, it's already here. It's just we're not we're not there. I don't think 100% is a community yet. But the money is here. There's a lot of great visionaries, as we can see. We just talked about La Bahia, right? You got Kristen Kamel with this athletic club. I mean, that's that's massive. It's something you find in Beverly Hills.

SPEAKER_03:

You actually pointed at me when you said that. I did. I did not point it all. It doesn't work out. He doesn't work out either.

SPEAKER_01:

No, no, I'm just talking, I'm just talking about everything you said is is is correct.

SPEAKER_03:

And Santa Cruz County is sorry, you're gonna have a hard time changing it too, because there's so much of the old way here.

SPEAKER_01:

It is, but a lot of it's changed, and that's the same thing.

SPEAKER_03:

I want to hear you talk at the city council. But hey, that vote tells you it's changed. 7-0 for the for the mixed-use housing in that Warrior Stadium, Paul. Yeah, you and I have lived our whole lives. That's 0-7 for my whole life here. Oh, yeah. Anything like that commitment and even zoning for La Bahia and things like that, the this things are it's inevitable. It's that tipping point, like that book where there's too much momentum and now we're on the other side of it. To finish my pod before podcast rudely interrupted me. The the editorial, the the last line of it was I said, Maybe being a local is just that you're here right now. That you know, we have this idea of what a local is that we have like some sort of like entitlement. And that's not true because you think of history and hundreds of years, we're just here right now. And the idea of what we think Santa Cruz is is our own vision of that window. Correct. And somebody else is being born here right now, they're a new local, they're gonna grow up here with La Bahia, they're gonna grow up here with the Athletic Club, they're gonna grow up here, and their their idea of what it is, they'll love this town just as much. Yeah, and they'll be that you know, no, you don't pass it on. You're just here right now, and how do we connect to each other without having this animosity? That's where we're at with the card. Good luck. It's hard. Well, because our friends can't live here anymore. There's a lot of our friends that grew up in high school that have been pushed out, they're not coming back here. Um, and it that part of it, but again, that they they this is time. This is what happens in in every city and every for the human civilization people move on, cultures change, and we're just in the middle of it right now. Right.

SPEAKER_01:

Think of where we're at.

SPEAKER_03:

Think of I'll be dead in 30 years, so fine.

SPEAKER_01:

Thank God. I'm gonna come back to work when I was thinking about that one. How many places can you guys go in the United States? But that's kind of a stupid question, in California, where you could be running in Nicene Marks in a state park, which is stunning. And then less than a mile you can have your feet in the sand. There's no doubt about it. Like Santa Cruz is very special, and what we're talking about, I see it all the time. Like, uh, what is that? That's Soquel group. What it was it? Next door. Oh my god. So Kel Group. I'm in Soquel. It's next door, it happens to be. And people post about it all the time. And the reality is it has changed, and everything you're saying is is happening. And we all don't like change, but we also are very fortunate that we've all we've grown up here. We're able to work here. We don't have to commute over the hill and do things. But I I I like where Santa Cruz is is headed. I do so. I really do. I honestly do. I have lots of friends that have left, don't get me wrong. Right. And they're pissed, you know, blaming realtors, you guys over prices, houses, and we can't get in, and we this and that, and everywhere else. And you know, and I I absolutely understand where they're where they're coming from. But if we if like take away all that, it's like Santa Cruz is a pretty kick-ass place, isn't it?

SPEAKER_03:

And they're like, well, yeah. It is, and it and it's and it's right on the edge of, I think, you know, again, it's gonna be a very weird transition. We're in it right now. Walk downtown, Pacific Garden Mall, but the investment from And County Metro You still go walk downtown, all the shops are fucking empty. And homeless are around. But this is the best part of it. So we have these six-story things going up. I heard I was this in a coffee shop. People are bitching up, bitching about those things. Yeah, but who's that? Who's I I don't well, you know, the kids are going to UCSE. Right. But I think the thing about that is like you've got to narrow it down to this one. We should have calm on the frickin' show. That's very true. Because I think a lot of times what happens is very much like the politics and the things we watch on TV, which is we pay attention to the loudest, you know, where the reality of it is, is that you know, you kind of have this top five percent, bottom five percent, the bottom five percent might be screaming out loud we hear them. Right. The top five percent, you know, basically feel like they have everything. But you know, with math, which Paul doesn't know, that leaves 90% of us, you know, in the middle of all of this. That the 90% is what we need to manage. We need to manage all of this.

SPEAKER_01:

That's so good. Here's a double fuck you, Paul.

SPEAKER_03:

Well, he's been hammering me today.

SPEAKER_01:

Oh, absolutely, right.

SPEAKER_03:

Well, we're talking about change. You know what? I'm gonna I'm changing the subject real quick. I was just at the jamboree. The first time I saw Santa Cruz, SLV, Harbor, Scotts Valley. I didn't see Watson and Aptos play, but I just saw the four the Santa Cruz, SLV, they were actually all equal. They should play each other again. You know what? It's the first time I've seen it in a long time. Yeah, where it's balanced out because balanced still kill camp because they're still a dominant house, and we know that. But they've they've been kicked over to the upper league. So they're they're killing it. But this is the first time's Watsonville Harbor, who else? Um SLV. SLV. Scots Valley. Yeah, you're right. I didn't see Aptos play though. So but Aptos is gonna be starting to do it. I already know about them, but they're still they'll be a little bit above that crew, but they're still but not like the Aptos we knew 10 years ago. Right. Aptos 10 years ago was dominant. That's exactly it.

SPEAKER_01:

Well, that's why they had different divisions when I was coaching, right?

SPEAKER_03:

The old SEC AL is what you're saying. It was awesome. We always had a chance. We always had a chance. Yep. It was the first time I seen that in years, and it was kind of cool to watch. No, I love that. And so and you know, that part of it too, and I think in a weird way, the way they tried to go crazy with all these divisions, but that's a big pivot we just did. I know.

SPEAKER_02:

I changed the well, it changed the subject, but we're all gonna we were gonna fist fight.

SPEAKER_03:

Oh that's not even a fucking fight. Paul, okay, just redeem yourself, Paul. What is what is 100 minus 10? 85. No, but uh, but I think I think what you're getting at is is this is a change. I can't believe I wanted to say it, but here we go. But you that's an amazing point you made as far as like we if we can look for the negatives, or every once in a while, maybe you just take a beat right and you say, all right, so all these things have changed, but what's happening is all these different stages and things like that. Now here we are with these five little schools that we remember at a jamboree, yeah, and it's kind of competitive. Yep, it was great. That's amazing. Great, great. It was great watching it. Yep.

SPEAKER_01:

So Kel high rolls.

SPEAKER_03:

Fuck Soquel. They do though. Nobody likes Soquel. I'm sorry. So Kel is Soquel has one even though I work out with my boy TJ. Reggie's over there too. You come on. You gotta you know, he's just he's everywhere. He still comes to Scotts Valley, he has his own thing. Yeah, but the SoCel's the testament to Soquel is is a commitment to one thing. I think we should it's not that you I did this back east. I coached for 20 years. The one thing he did from day one that they weren't doing is those kids are lifting 365 days on some schedule or the other. You do that, you do that with any group of kids, you basically get them lifting the way he does. Well, that's that's old school mentality, I guess, because that's what we did back at Harbor Hyde, and that's why we're Dominant Waterpole, even though my wife calls it synchronized swimming. She thinks that was the weakest sport in the world. I said, game on, we're bigger than all the football players. But you guys build they're building community amongst the children.

SPEAKER_01:

There's no children, young adults. They're building community, which is important, right? Right, right. Right. And and that's that's about any business or any place.

SPEAKER_03:

Any business, any place, anything. But I think they're starting to do that now again with the other five schools. They're trying to keep up now. And it's, you know, I saw it. So here's they're working out again. Yeah, and and here, this is the huge like like comparison, but I think it's relevant to what we're talking about, even with the Warriors La Bahia and this club. Is think of Soquel in the state of like football around here six years ago. Um, what you just said is correct. So somebody invests in a program, invests in these kids, and that high tide lifts all boats. Yep. And and so SoCel being on that radar lifts up Santa Cruz. They get a new coach, lifts up Scotts Valley, who won that's their big rivalry every year. And even if they can't knock them down, make Scotts Valley much better for those other games. You know, and so it's no, I think it's a weird comparison, but if you commit to excellence, I guess that's what we're saying. Yeah, then you can bring everybody when yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

When I when I coach back in the day, when you really think about it. Track is not a freaking sport, tracking cross-country. Track is not a sport. When I was coaching, and what you just said about running around the track track. I mean, Dan Gruber at Aptos is always a great friend, a good buddy, he's always been a phenomenal coach. But Rob Collins came along, nobody knew who he was, and SLV, nobody cared, knew who they were, and they became a powerhouse. Rob upped every single person's cross-country team in this county's game. And in the reality, like we had no at SoCow High, I just happened to be a part of taking our team for the first time to the state meet championships. Now they go, right? It was a goal. We sat down, we collaborated as a group, and we went. But Rob and Dan Gruber brought that, and every team, if you turn around and look, we're powerhouses throughout the state, state of California, which we never work, right? And just what you said, that just hit it right right on the head. There's no doubt about it.

SPEAKER_03:

Yep. And before we go, let's finish up with a couple minutes on on one more real estate thing that I wanted to talk about. And it could be a little back and forth real quick, is like we reference the economy, we reference possible interest rates, but on the street, what's the feel right now as far as your clients, you guys? What are you hearing? And what's your feeling for the rest of this year? Everybody wants to know why their house isn't selling. I have the best house in the world, but it's not selling.

SPEAKER_01:

I can tell you why, because you just wanted a listing and you priced it high and weren't educating the sellers on what today's market value is. I thought I told them it was a great price.

SPEAKER_03:

Say that again. Like I'm a fifth grader.

SPEAKER_01:

There's a lot of agents right now that have buying listings. They're buying listings. Oh. They're just buying them. And that I feel horrible because that seller, they're not going anywhere. Right. And and and if agents would just think about that, because that seller is trying to probably make plans down the road for their life and other people's lives. And you you gotta say, hey, look, here's the reality. They can make their own business decision regarding price and give it to them. But agents are afraid to say that because they want a listing.

SPEAKER_03:

Because they're not making money right now. Yeah, but it's also this tremendous responsibility. I mean, my God, it's not a athletic club membership or a scooter. No, it's your it's your biggest investment. It is, and so it's like people aren't being honest. Treat it like a car salesman. And I mean this with all due respect. It's like to treat it like end of the month car salesman trying to get a commission. Right. You you literally can't do I hate that word, you can't do that in that investment. But they're doing it. I know that's they're really doing it. They're but and they're they're giving hopes where there's no hope.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, to me, I it's a disservice to agents in general.

SPEAKER_03:

It's just not good. Yeah, you're right, because you are you are, we've talked about this before on this podcast. It's very different. Like, like uh they'll give the frame runs. I own a magazine, there's edible, there's other magazines, but I'm not seen as edible. You guys, when that reputation gets around, you're seen as an agent. And I know you each have your companies and your reputations, but you're right. If if if somebody's doing bad business, it's it's it is a broad stroke. Sometimes you guys unfortunately get in all agents are this, or all age, I think it was one of our first podcasts. Yeah, I think it was because it, you know, and then that they all all the agents say that Brian and I jump around from company to company. But what's it's not jumping around, it's finding the best thing for our families, which is a bunch of BS again. Is hey, if you're an agent, I'm gonna put this on agents now. You're an entrepreneur. If you're not an entrepreneur, get the fuck out of the game. No, and I think you guys, what I've watched even in the short time is I think it's always about who's gonna give you the best resources for marketing, who's gonna give you the most the best infrastructure for what you do. Um, it's still gonna end up being you guys. The name the name on the front of that thing is a partner for marketing and a partner for infrastructure, right?

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, you're hiring, you're hiring the people that are in front of you, you're hiring the agent. I just left a meeting yesterday and they're like, you guys moved to this. They couldn't even pronounce the name of our company, Epic. And they're like, why? You know, and I'm like, this was the first company, really, the first company that is paying for stuff for us that we normally pay out of our pocket. They are so agent-centric, there is no other company. We're just at Inman. And Inman, they're like, is this sustainable? Everybody's blown away. Well, everybody didn't think EXP was sustainable, right? And they're killing it. We came on, they're killing it, right? They're not the number one company anymore. We're not saying it's because we left, but we are saying they're there. Everybody knows who they are now. And then now all of a sudden people are like, Well, we're seeing your guys' science. We're starting to understand a little bit more about who you are, and which is great, right? Because we're building community.

SPEAKER_03:

And the reality, you know, it's so we should do like a 30-minute thing next week or two weeks about what the heck Epic is. Bring in some different agents. People would be blown away if they actually knew what this company was about. Blown away. They just think we jump around. Yeah, I think I think it's funny. It's it's a good call because I think with the last time we talked about it was when you were transitioning and you guys were on the first step of it. You you talked about it, you were excited. We're excited, but we've been in it for now. Brian's actually knee deep into it.

SPEAKER_01:

This is like the first time I've been knee deep in a company. I'm on the Agent Advisory Council. Uh, Paul and I are help building um their luxury division right now. We're heading on a luxury. This is like the first time in my 33 years I've been all into a company. I mean, I'm like in. And what I'm getting in it's just it's amazing. Do we have any big hitters like from them that we can get on from Epic? Well, one of our, I mean, I could probably bring Brooke on. She's the number one agent in the United States in terms of closed transactions. Local? Nope. She's in Indiana. Well, I mean, we could get her right on the phone. Yeah. No, I mean, we can get her. We have again, we have one of the largest developers. I mean, people? Yeah, Billy's a big thing. He's a big dude. Yeah, he's strong.

SPEAKER_02:

Billy, he makes me look small.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. No, we you know, but more importantly, I mean, our company, we were just a part of Inman. And if anyone knows anything about real estate, it is a huge honor to be invited and have our CEO there. And he's changing the game. They they already named, they already named it. In terms of AI, our company number one. And we're not pouting that or touting that, excuse me. We're just we're we're we're putting all these things out there for people to take advantage of so they have an opportunity to make more money.

SPEAKER_03:

I think that's a great show. And maybe we line up just at least one call-in from one of those big hitters. Yeah, yeah. So it's somebody else talking about the company on top of what your experience has been. That would be a great show. All right, let's boogie, let's get out of here. Um, God, Chris, thank you for your time, buddy. Hey, Chris. Thanks, Chris. You're looking good, buddy. Guys, this was great. I missed it. It's been a while, so I think we're on gonna try to go bi-weekly.

SPEAKER_01:

I I apologize. We're going bi-weekly, and then we are gonna be live, so you can call in and drill Paul with any questions you have. Oh, here we go. You can watch him in front of you just going.

SPEAKER_03:

And normal, normal, um, throw out your normal contact stuff right now for you to get a hold of you.

SPEAKER_01:

Call me at 831-750-9795. 831 750 9795.

SPEAKER_03:

What the fuck? That's your number. Yeah, like wait the fucking. He's not the busy and who wasn't paying attention to him. That's why everybody was talking really faster, but the thing I want to make clear before we go is, and I'll hit the record button because like um, this Paul is going by.