Intro: [00:00:07] Broadcasting live from the Business RadioX studios in Woodstock, Georgia. It’s time for Cherokee Business Radio. Now here’s your host.

Stone Payton: [00:00:24] Welcome to this very special edition of Cherokee Business Radio. Stone Payton here with you this afternoon, and I am delighted to bring back into the business radio studio with Beck Schott, Mr. Randy Beck. He’s going to be our host today. How are you, man?

Randy Beck: [00:00:40] I’m doing great. Stone Thanks for having us back. I’m bringing the gang, actually. Robert Mason and Stacey Wyatt, they’ve been here before, and we’re circling back on real estate topics again. So Stacey Wyatt, owner and broker of EXP over in Roswell.

Stacey Wyatt: [00:00:55] Yes, yes, yes.

Randy Beck: [00:00:56] And Robert Mason, real estate broker extraordinaire with EXP.

Robert Mason: [00:01:00] Yes, sir. I’m here all year.

Randy Beck: [00:01:02] So I guess the topic on everybody’s mind. Let’s get it out of the way right out front. Interest rates, What’s going on?

Robert Mason: [00:01:09] Okay, so historically speaking, interest rates have been anywhere between seven and nine and a half percent. So if you look at since the 1930s to the present day, I know we went through some incredible low periods of time and people were ecstatic. People were the lending institutions were refinancing, a lot of people out of five and six and seven. But there’s been a lot of panic and a lot of people associate the Fed’s mark ups with the with the interest rates and the mortgage industry. And that’s not fair because that’s not parallel. So interest rates I checked today, they’re under 6%, which is a really good a really good percentage. What people are failing to realize is when you’ve got a 1.75 or 2% interest rate on a mortgage, you don’t have a whole lot of deductions when you do your taxes. And so, historically speaking, rates are still low at, say, 5.5 to 6. And now we’re having you’ve got a much bigger income tax deduction when you do your taxes because of the interest rate.

Randy Beck: [00:02:11] So basically what you’re pointing out is that. Even though we had this super low trough of interest rates where we had our two and 3% mortgages or whatever they were, that the fact that they’ve jumped up to five, five and a half, six is not necessarily a big change.

Robert Mason: [00:02:26] No, it’s not a game changer. And I was looking at the numbers of houses that have sold this year as opposed to 20, 21, 20, 22 or 2020. And we are roughly at the same inventory moving the same amount of inventory, irregardless of the interest rates. And, you know, COVID opened up a lot of opportunity for people to move places. And Atlanta, we got about 120,000 people that moved here. And looking at the data, I’m very analytically driven. We’re going to roughly do about the same movements.

Randy Beck: [00:02:55] Now, analytically speaking, you know, an interest rate, it’s a big word. You’re doing leverage on a house, right? It’s like a this is like a bond. The big one, interest rates up, prices. What happens to prices? This is got to affect price.

Robert Mason: [00:03:08] Yeah, well, prices have actually backed down a little bit. The average price in Atlanta four months ago was 400,000. We’re down to about 385,000 as the average number. That’s not me saying that’s not Robert Mason’s numbers. Those are false data numbers that I brought for everybody to look at as well. So yet prices have dipped back down. When my wife and I bought our STR short term rental property at Big Canoe Harley Hideaway a couple of months ago when the house came on the market, it was listed at 550 where there was that big shift in late June, early July, we got the house for 45 because prices had come back down, which was a win for us, and it’s going to be a win for my clients.

Randy Beck: [00:03:50] Did you have an appraisal issue? Is that how you got it back down?

Robert Mason: [00:03:53] Yeah, the appraisal came in at 485 where it was listed at 550. The seller was horrified. We were grateful.

Randy Beck: [00:04:02] I guess that was based on what was going on in market prices, based on interest rates. Yeah.

Robert Mason: [00:04:06] Things had shifted over about a 30 day period and pretty steep.

Randy Beck: [00:04:11] Yeah. Stacey, how are you seeing these effects in the general market? You know, your brokerage covers a lot of ground. Are you seeing the same thing?

Stacey Wyatt: [00:04:19] Yeah, from a sales price, we’ve got to be a little bit careful because if you’re looking at it on a monthly basis, you know, which is I think what Robert is taking a peek at was it does appear the prices have come down. I think the better way to look at sales prices is on a 12 month rolling average. Right. So you can take 12 months. So if you look at it on a 12 month rolling average, prices are still trending upward because I think what we’re seeing a little bit right now is seasonality, right? If you go back and look at 2020 as a little, you got to throw that one out because that was COVID. But 2021, 2019, from June to October, prices have gone down every single year. So I think there’s a little bit of seasonality playing in. But let’s face it, long term with rates, I mean, they’re hovering around seven right now. Soon to we’ll see what the Fed does in November. It’s ultimately going to push prices downward. But, you know, are we we’re definitely not going to see the price growth like last year. What we saw like 20%, you know, is that getting down to 8 to 10 or a little bit lower or are we just going to get back to what has been for the last two decades, which is 3 to 6% growth, which is we don’t have a crystal ball, but at least in Atlanta, Georgia, I think we’re going to get to where prices flatten out and we get back to a little bit of a healthier three, 3 to 6% appreciation.

Randy Beck: [00:05:38] Last time you guys were here, we talked about people moving into Atlanta, like on the order of 150,000 people a year. Nowadays, something like that.

Robert Mason: [00:05:45] It’s 120 and.

Randy Beck: [00:05:46] 20,000 and so. Mai Mai. We talked about the outlook for the market with that many people coming in. Now, it strikes me that some changes happen in the market. You get a little speed up, a little slowdown or whatever. With that kind of demand for housing, there’s no way anybody can keep up. So my feeling is. Will be less affected here than other markets may be. Sure. What do you think?

Stacey Wyatt: [00:06:10] I would agree 100%. Atlanta. I mean, was it was either Fortune or Money magazine just voted. Atlanta’s the number one city to be in. And for all the reasons that we love to live here, it’s what I tell my team. It’s like our rate is going to have an impact. Of course, it’s going to be in the high dollar markets first. It’s going to be in what I call, like the Rust Belt states, you know, the Ohios, the where people are all leaving. Right. Nothing against Ohio or or that is just reality. Everybody’s coming to the Sunshine states from if you drew a, you know, sun belt which to me is like from Phenix draw the smiley face from Phenix to Atlanta. And for all the reasons like I enjoy living here, you know, so low cost of living, housing still relatively cheap. We got access to oceans, to beach, to lakes, to pretty much everything you want. And it’s a very pro-business environment. So that’s why everybody’s moving here. So I do think we’re going to be impacted the least in the country, mainly just because of the demographics and the pro-business environment. So 100%, I think Atlanta is going to survive this better than anyone in the country for sure.

Randy Beck: [00:07:09] Atlanta really hasn’t seen much of a recession compared to the other business markets.

Robert Mason: [00:07:13] As you know, COVID changed things in a lot of different ways. One of the main things that it did for the US in particular is you don’t have to live in New York City to work on Wall Street. You don’t have to live in Chicago to work on the mile. You can go anywhere that you want to go and you can literally walk out of your home. You can go to Florida and have an office or your your main gig in New York City or any state in the union. And that is a big, big plus, especially for us in the real estate business, because just like Stacey just said, people are coming to the Sunshine states or coming down south where the weather’s good. I mean, I’ve got clients coming out of California and they’ve sold a32 that’s 500 square feet and they sold it for 1,000,008. And they say, okay, Robert, where are we going? And I’ll show them something that’s 550 or 650, and they’re like, What’s wrong with it? You know, I’m like, There’s nothing wrong with it. It’s just a scale you’ve got. You’re scaling back pricewise. And so Georgia, Atlanta in particular, the greater Atlanta area. And that’s what we’re here to talk about as has been found, you know, it was that everybody was going to Florida. We see Hurricane Ian, you know, that was a big interrupter down there. And 2008 really took the shine off of Florida for a long period of time. And people you know, there’s a reason to come to Atlanta besides just the nice weather and the low taxes. You look at the Fortune 500 companies that are based here. I mean, we are expanding big, big time and it’s still affordable. I mean, look, average price house right now, 385, 400,000. That’s nothing if you’re in New York or Pennsylvania or New Jersey. And yeah, and back to something that states.

Randy Beck: [00:08:56] California or Washington.

Stacey Wyatt: [00:08:58] Oregon. Right.

Robert Mason: [00:08:59] So getting back to some of those numbers, we talked about growth. Stacy mentioned some of those numbers. My forecast is we could have a minus six price reduction from where we were up to, say a positive 5%. I think we’re going to be in that range. And I could see 18 to 20% appreciation levels like we saw for like two or three years. And so that’s what people are going to have to.

Randy Beck: [00:09:25] Estimate constitute a normal market here when you’re giving those numbers, is that what you would call a normal market or is that still hot or.

Robert Mason: [00:09:32] Well, Atlanta’s hot because of the numbers, right? So there’s a couple of different variables. Is that normal 5% appreciation? Probably, yes.

Stacey Wyatt: [00:09:42] And I would from an appreciation standpoint, absolutely, 3 to 6%. And it depends. Right. Like Metro Atlanta and Total’s been, I think on average, 3%, somewhere between three and six or last couple of decades. Obviously, if you’re in Buckhead, you’re probably going to get a little in-town, always typically pulled a little more or as you go out and maybe the outer stretches of metro Atlanta, maybe it’s a little less like three. But for all the reasons we described earlier, I don’t see how Atlanta really suffers greatly. Even if prices were to pull back a little bit just for everybody’s moving here in Buckhead.

Robert Mason: [00:10:14] It’s an interesting model to look at moving forward. Buckhead is talking about becoming their own city, right, pulling away from Atlanta like so many other folks. Woodstock, I mean, you know, people people are talking about Buckhead becoming their own city. And there’s a lot of variables to that, too. Right now. They’ve got some issues in Buckhead associated with crime. And there’s a lot of people that I know down in Buckhead who are like, I’m getting out of here. And these are people with money and they’re just tired of the nonsense.

Stacey Wyatt: [00:10:43] So pulling up the ten sticks and move into Milton, they’re getting this moving farther north because they I mean, Woodstock, if you can’t comfortably jog down in front of the next mall and not get shot just because you were jogging, which is unfortunate situation there. Yeah. And that was kind of a covert thing, too, where a lot of people are moving up in the northern burbs, getting a little bit of land. They can work from anywhere now. So it’s an interesting dynamic for sure. It is.

Randy Beck: [00:11:06] Stacey, a minute ago you mentioned seasonality. So Atlanta is this great outdoor lifestyle city. We got weather most of the time. It’s never really that cold. It doesn’t rain overly much. It’s a fantastic place for outdoor lifestyle and all that. How much seasonality do you have through the winter here? Typically.

Stacey Wyatt: [00:11:25] Typically, most home sold in Georgia is always second quarter. Second best quarter is fourth quarter. Right? First quarter is always the least. I mean, who’s really out shopping during December to write, you know, to write an offer and close in January, February. And then third quarter typically is the third best quarter and third quarter lands in July. I mean, if you’re in the burbs, you’re finishing vacation, you’re getting ramped up since we start school earlier here. But there really is no is there a seasonality? Of course. Right. Just fewer people that want to buy in the fourth quarter because you got the holidays, your kids are in school, you’re likely not wanting to move. But we’re a very pro-business environment. We get a lot of relocations into Georgia. I mean, I think 20% of our clientele is from California this year. So is there seasonality? Sure. But it’s not like we have to shovel eight feet of snow to show a house in December. I mean, how December here, I’m usually in shorts and, you know, pullover. But, you know, January is usually our cold months. So we do have seasonality, but man, people are buying and selling off for two quarters of a year here.

Robert Mason: [00:12:29] Thanks. I’ve changed. A little bit.

Randy Beck: [00:12:32] Okay. Before we move on to other topics. Accounting for seasonality, interest rates, slowdowns, general business environment, here’s the rapid fire question part Good areas for people moving into. Where should they be looking at?

Robert Mason: [00:12:51] I guess it starts.

Randy Beck: [00:12:51] To make money. Not not the nicest area, but where’s where’s the where’s the economic opportunity at?

Robert Mason: [00:12:56] Well, you would have to ask, do they have a family? Or school is important. So that would be the first question. I’ve got a client that’s coming in from Florida, from South Beach next Tuesday, and she’s like, we want to be in the north Georgia mountains. That is a huge switch for her, six, $700,000 purchase for them and moving to the mountain as opposed to the beach. I would ask what is important And, you know, like your your purchase down and near the beltline, you know that that area, that Pittsburgh area down there is really, really growing. So there’s really good opportunity at the price points that you could buy property down there. And if you’re looking to live there or is it something you want long term wealth on? All these questions are going to come up in the first 5 minutes of us talking to you.

Randy Beck: [00:13:40] When I got here, flips were huge hot. Is that still still a hot market?

Stacey Wyatt: [00:13:47] Yeah. I mean, we’re we’re still flipping quite a bit. We’re we’re being patient. And I tell my team and because, you know we do quite a few flips is we’re definitely making sure we’re buying at a deeper discount right now because we don’t know what price is going to here. I think a lot of flippers are going to get exposed over the next 90 days. For this reason. You got a lot of people that hadn’t flipped before got in the business. They could make a lot of mistakes and they were going to be saved because prices were running out of control. Now that prices have pretty much let’s just say they’ve stalled at, you know, at worst, let’s just say they’ve stalled. I still going to make the argument that they’re slightly going up. We just want to buy at a deeper discount because we know what our what our expenses are. And we we we always buy knowing what our RV or after repair value going into it. And we stick to that. We don’t assume that the market’s going to go up. I think a lot of people have assumed. So I think those are going to get exposed. But to answer your question is this I think it’s a tale of two markets right now, people’s houses that are in great condition and priced right.

Stacey Wyatt: [00:14:50] We’re still probably getting two or three offers on right now. It’s no longer the 15 offers and selling for 50 grand over list. A properly priced house that’s in good condition is still going to garner a few offers because we’ve still only got two months of inventory, which is low. Right. Six months is balanced. One zero months is no supply, which is a heavy seller. So we’re still in a strong seller’s market now. With that being said, here’s the other market. If your house is hasn’t been maintained, you’ve got deferred maintenance. You’ve got a wonky floor plan. Right. Buyers have already suffered their first of all, they have a little bit of PTSD from. Four months ago when there happened to be 50 grand over list, there are no contingencies. Now they’ve got rates that are going sky high, so they’re being a little more picky now. So if your house is not right, so me personally, where I think there’s opportunity from anybody moving into the land market, you’re going to have the 80% of the crowd that wants a house that’s perfectly ready, move in and not have to do any work. If you had an investor hat on or you wanted somebody came in and said, I want a little bit of opportunity, I’m going to tell you, going a little farther outskirts of Atlanta, you know, maybe like Powder Springs to the west, maybe Snellville to the east.

Stacey Wyatt: [00:16:06] Typically in areas that schools might not be as great. Right? Because we know that drives a lot of house values. Look for the little ugly ducklings, because they’re probably sitting. And if you have cash, it’s even better because you’re not affected by rates. Sellers are going to get a little more desperate in that end. And I think some people are going to be able to get some discounted houses for very good price that they could be walk into some equity. Because I think what happens long term here, it’s going to be interesting. I think first quarter is going to be a little bit of a hot mess, especially if rates go up again in November by the end of the year. I think what’s going to happen is there’s going to be a little pent up demand because they’re artificially tamping down. Well, they’re artificially tamping down demand, right. Because we know inflation is out of control. They claim it’s 8%. Last time I checked at the pump, at the grocery store, buying a car, buying a house is 20%. And I don’t I mean, for political reasons, obviously, they’re not going to advertise that.

Robert Mason: [00:16:59] You’re on the radio, though.

Stacey Wyatt: [00:17:00] Yeah, you’re right. You’re advertising.

Randy Beck: [00:17:02] Anybody that ever had an economics course knows you don’t clamp down on supply to kill inflation or print more money to kill inflation.

Stacey Wyatt: [00:17:07] Correct. Yeah. And what have we printed? Like 40% in the last 40% of our money supply in like the last five, six years?

Robert Mason: [00:17:14] Yeah, two years, actually.

Stacey Wyatt: [00:17:15] But yeah, yeah. A lot in that time. So just from that standpoint, I think it’s going to get really interesting next year. I do think maybe towards the end of the next year we’ll see third, fourth quarter somewhere say in second. I just don’t think it’s going to happen that quick, maybe third, fourth next year when they actually are going to have to step off the brake or step off the gas. On pumping the rates. I think there’s going to be a little bit of pent up demand for all these people that have been sitting on the side because inventory still that’s why it’s such a wonky market. Rates are high and an inventory slow. So you’ve got a feeling that that’s going to pop and some people are going to be able to ride that up at a later date.

Randy Beck: [00:17:49] Are the lenders clamping down based on interest rates, too? What’s what’s their strategy now?

Robert Mason: [00:17:53] Well, I think they’re just trying to hold on. I worked out with my lender, Brad Hartman, over at Cornerstone Mortgages this morning. And we talk we’re talking shop all day long while we’re working out. And I’m like, Brad, what what are the lenders thinking about? And he’s like, well, you know, there’s a lot of people that panicked early two months ago. Oh, my God, five, five and a half, 6% interest rates. And then that the the fear factor sets in but kind of tails off and people still need to move, Randi. They just you know, if you’re in Philadelphia or if you’re in California and your tax rates have gone up 16, 20% like New York City, you’ve got to get out. You’ve got to save yourself. So you’re going to look for a market like Atlanta and you’re going to pay the piper, you know, and that’s in the interest rate. But again, I’ll get back to you’ve got a bigger deduction. So that’s a way I soften that. And it’s not just me. It’s just it’s reality. Right? The lenders always fear change. We all fear change. Right. But I think that’s settling down. I think back to your original question on what are we looking for as far as opportunity part of the flipping issue and part of like the STR, the short term rental and investment portfolios.

Robert Mason: [00:19:08] The problem is labor costs, labor availability and being able to get things done quickly. And that has been a real bugaboo for our business for a while. I mean, look at if you’re looking for wood, you know, we’re having all kinds of supply chain issues and inflation and cost of a piece of board has gone up dramatically and people have not put that into their recipe and they haven’t done their homework right. And a lot of cases. And so they end up at the end game. Like when I got my sister, she didn’t expect to spend that much and she did. And it ended up being a case where she had to sell and we got it. Those are problems for people. Here’s something that we’re going to see early next year is we’re going to see some inventory of foreclosures. A lot of companies looking at their stock portfolios. They’re not expanding like they were. A matter of fact, they’re contracting. They’re letting people go. There’s a lot of people out there that are hurting because of inflation. And you’re going to see you’re going to see some foreclosures pop up. And I thought they were going to pop up earlier this summer and it kind of didn’t happen.

Randy Beck: [00:20:13] Even here in a strong business environment, you’re still going to see that even here.

Robert Mason: [00:20:17] And so you’re going to see some opportunity on foreclosures.

Stacey Wyatt: [00:20:19] And.

Randy Beck: [00:20:20] At the low end of the market or the high end or sort of broad based kind.

Robert Mason: [00:20:23] Of both.

Stacey Wyatt: [00:20:24] Yeah. I mean, in any weather. It’s a healthiest market of the worst market. I mean, because we look at foreclosures all the time, I do think there are going to be some foreclosures. But let’s face it, the banks learned a big lesson and eight, nine, ten and 11 working with their clients. Anything that may come out of that, because I get people ask me all the time, well, I’m going to wait market. Some people are going to get hammered. Stock markets got hammered. People are going to lose their jobs. There’s going to be opportunity, right? And there will be a little bit. I just think the banks learned a big lesson and they’re going to just like Robert said, they’re going to spend more time trying to figure work out because they banks don’t want to take houses back. They’re not in the home business, home selling business, nor do they want to dilute house values, which when they dumped all that inventory at mass back in when I got into the market in 2010, it really hurt house prices. Right. And then that’s why we’ve had such a ramp up since it.

Robert Mason: [00:21:15] Was a I.

Stacey Wyatt: [00:21:15] Think you’ll see a little bit.

Robert Mason: [00:21:17] It was an equity of 2008 when let’s just say that’s a crash. Your value went all the way back to 1998 and that was a big sum.

Stacey Wyatt: [00:21:26] And if you look at it, because even if you drew if you look at house prices over the last three decades. Right. And you’re still going to draw a line, you just see that big dip in house. But we’ve since made it up. Oh, right. So we’re obviously well past the oh seven market when when I was at its height before a crash. But to go to your question on the mortgage thing, so here’s a little just some numbers I was looking at. So year over year purchase mortgages are down 39% write refis are down 86%. So we’ve seen mortgage companies lay off some people because they just don’t have the level of refis and nobody’s going to be refined for quite a while. So purchase mortgages are down 40%. That’s a little disconcerting if you’re, let’s say, in the real estate game. However, the one thing that I do know is both in the agent world and the lender world, you’re going to start to separate the pros from the novices. And I don’t mean that to be mean. We are now move. Let’s all face it, it’s been pretty easy to do business in the residential real estate arena over the last couple of years. We’re now moving into a skill based market, right? The savvy mortgage people and the savvy agents are going to be the one that are advising their clients, like, hey, let’s talk about a21 buy down on the mortgage rate.

Stacey Wyatt: [00:22:37] Right? Sellers are going to have to get some concessions right now. And let’s just take a half a million dollar mortgage. Say the buyer puts 20% down. They’ve got a $400,000 mortgage. I can get the seller to pay roughly like 9800 bucks, let’s call it ten grand in seller concessions. And instead of a 7% rate year one, you’re going to get a five year two, it will go up to six, and by year three you’ll be back to your seven. Now we enter. I think we all know that we’re in a recession or I guess it depends how you define it. And you ask, right, What do they typically do to get us out of recession? They have to take their they have to lower rates, at which time you more likely can then refi it. I don’t know what you guys think, but I think rates like you said historically, even if you look since like 90, 1990 to 2022, median interest rates somewhere between five and five and a half. So I think the days at 3% are long gone. 4%. I don’t see a seen. Let’s get back to five, five and a half. That’s what it was before COVID and the market seemed to be really good then. So hopefully we just get back to a reasonable 3 to 6, 3 to 6% appreciation and rates in the fives and life will be good.

Randy Beck: [00:23:45] Now, a skill based market also means the real estate professionals, right? So you’re going to see some weeding out in that market. The survivors are going to be the only real estate, only going to be the real estate people that were smart enough to use like high quality professional imaging and marketing video from big Shot like, you know.

Robert Mason: [00:24:01] So but you laugh at that. But go to the point.

Stacey Wyatt: [00:24:04] There’s not.

Randy Beck: [00:24:04] Laughing at.

Stacey Wyatt: [00:24:05] It. There’s only two reasons a house sells is price and condition. Right? And the number one job of listing agent. First of all, you’ve got to get the house ready. Right? And we all know the job of good listing agents gets people through the door if they’re not using professional photography and the consumer expects high end video At this point, if you’re not doing that well, you’re probably going to be out the business very quickly because that is a skill based.

Randy Beck: [00:24:29] That iPhone video stuff is right out the window.

Stacey Wyatt: [00:24:31] So spine is really good now. I’m kidding.

Randy Beck: [00:24:34] Right? Sure it.

Robert Mason: [00:24:34] Is.

Stacey Wyatt: [00:24:35] I stick to know what I know. Well, and that’s just selling real estate.

Randy Beck: [00:24:38] I see a lot of both. I believe you. I really believe you how good it is. But if you look.

Stacey Wyatt: [00:24:43] At listings, though, right, you could tell a seasoned agent from a non seasoned agent based on the photos in the video, when you when you agree that you’re professional.

Randy Beck: [00:24:50] Absolutely. I can tell I can tell their annual production by looking at how they market.

Stacey Wyatt: [00:24:53] Correct. And those are the ones I’m looking for because I want to pick that listing up when it doesn’t sell because that was an agent that just doesn’t have the skills to be able to or didn’t care. And that’s the market that we’re moving into that I think is going to expose a lot.

Randy Beck: [00:25:05] If you’re thinking about moving to Atlanta, here’s what you want to know. Moving out of New York, Pennsylvania, California. Right. They’re going to sell that million eight house. They’re going to have a 500 and $600 million price, and they’re going to have a pile, a bucket full of change left over to do something else with. Right. So these are potential investor buyers. And I know you’ve been making big strides in short term rentals lately. So let’s talk a little bit about investment properties and short term rentals.

Robert Mason: [00:25:35] Okay. So people make mistake by saying, oh, I’m going to get into the Airbnb business or I’m going to get into the VRBO business. No, you’re getting into the short term rental business. Those are companies. Strs are not something that you’re going to make money just playing around with and doing willy nilly. You have to do your research and literally there are videos for every step of the way to put your story together. So there’s I mean, my wife, she’s an IT and she knows her way around data and I know my way around real estate and values, but I had to watch videos and videos and videos and listen to podcasts of people that have done it. So I wouldn’t make those mistakes. So there’s no excuse to to get it wrong. And I lean on my investors that I’ve represented like Brad and, and five or six of other guys that got four or five stars. I lean on them and I go to and I’m like, okay, guys, I’m going to do this. I’m not only going to sell you that house, I’m going to be investing myself. So what should I be doing? What should my wife and I be thinking about? And the first thing is, okay, here’s a list of videos you need to watch.

Robert Mason: [00:26:46] Just like when I talk to you and I’m constantly saying, Listen to this, watch this, take these notes, use these tools. And there’s a lot of tools for success. But I see I still see some lazy folks out there trying to just throw it out there. And the analytics on let’s just say Airbnb sites have changed and some of that has changed to the point where even seasoned STR folks, I look at their site and I just I’m like, why did they why are the headers like this? Why are they doing this? And the percentages are going down on the bookings because of it, because people don’t understand it. But I mean, I’m building an I’m building a good base of properties. I’m building a good. Base of professionals like yourselves to help me be into this business. And like the client that’s coming up from South Beach. I’m putting all of my pros in the car with her, and we’re going to we’re going to take her to the stage that we got in at. And hopefully there’s not going to be any pause or any hiccups.

Randy Beck: [00:27:47] Are you up on the new Airbnb rule in Atlanta? The ordinance, they passed about two houses and all that.

Robert Mason: [00:27:53] Yeah, I saw that. But that’s that’s City of Atlanta ordinance.

Randy Beck: [00:27:56] City of Atlanta.

Stacey Wyatt: [00:27:57] Right. Specifically. And you have to live in the state. So yeah, they really are.

Randy Beck: [00:28:01] Not allowing a foreign investor essentially from another state.

Stacey Wyatt: [00:28:04] You don’t live in the state in state of Georgia.

Randy Beck: [00:28:06] And I know there’s other.

Stacey Wyatt: [00:28:07] Than too.

Randy Beck: [00:28:07] I know there’s a short term rental association down there and they are recommending not to register yet, not because they’re not enforcing that rule at least until the end of the year. Yeah. And part of the part of the dispute is they make you register at least one of them is your primary house. And I don’t know, my guess is most of the short term rental people are probably not using their primary house now, of course. And so there’s a there’s a point of nonsensical, nonsensical reality in the ordinance, Right. That they’re trying to resolve. But does that apply across anywhere else or is that strictly in Atlanta?

Robert Mason: [00:28:43] Well, right now, that city of Atlanta, now there’s other there’s other provinces. There’s other cities like Big canoe. They’ve got some changes on their poha and they’re just you know, they’ve got 240 rentals at Big Canoe and there’s 3000 homes and big canoe, and they’re all up in arms because of you know, there’s 8% of the big canoe is is rentals, short term rentals and that we should pay more because we’re taxing the system more which.

Stacey Wyatt: [00:29:08] Is along Lake Lanier. Since these come out, that’s become a little bit of an issue, too, because, I mean, I had a friend whose whole strategy was they went and bought like 1,000,002 house, right? Big house. And then they can go rent it out for three days over a weekend for a huge party of 40 for like 1520. K The challenge is the people to the right are the people to the left may be homeowners and they don’t want 40 cars and 40 people and be loud all night. So there are a lot of restrictions that Forsyth and some of those counties have put in there. So you really have got to do your homework. I’ve stayed away from STR not because of all of that. I just didn’t get it in in early enough. But now it seems like as everything’s transitioning, just being very careful.

Robert Mason: [00:29:52] We’ll talk about that afterwards. Your other show.

Stacey Wyatt: [00:29:55] I still think a long term wise, Here’s what I would say too is for me, because I’ve always flipped and I do small holds in the areas that I know if I was to go. The STR game definitely interests me because I am a long term holder. I think the two things people need to know is one, there’s a lot of noise with an Airbnb, right? You’re talking people coming in and out. You’ve got to be a good host. There’s cleaning, there’s all of that. So like you said, I think you’ve got to go into the game knowing that this is a little more of either hire a really good property manager if you’re going to do it, know what you’re getting into. But I have seen cases where I’ve got friends that are making a fortune on the STRs. My point was I just haven’t studied the game enough. If I was going to go buy an STR up in the mountains right now, I’d probably hire you or have somebody go show me, because I just haven’t taken the time to do the homework on it.

Robert Mason: [00:30:42] There’s a lot of details and, you know, there was a there was a big hubbub a couple of years ago. There was a bunch of house parties down in Buckhead in particular, where they were somebody would come in and rent out a nice house and they would have 203 hundred people at this all weekend party. And they were things were getting destroyed and people were getting shot and it ended up being party houses. And so one of the things that I like about Big Canoe is there’s a gate that allows cars in or not and custodian. There’s a lot of subdivisions throughout Atlanta where you have to get through the gate to get through and you have to get a gate code or a gate pass. And that kind of alleviates that kind of a problem, which I’m a man that makes tons of sense. But so.

Randy Beck: [00:31:27] You bought in Big Canoe and Hartmann also has at least one in big canoes.

Robert Mason: [00:31:30] Sold Brad one three weeks ago. One big canoe.

Stacey Wyatt: [00:31:34] Yeah. And the reason I like these str is also, again, from a different perspective, because I don’t own one, right? Is I’m doing a team retreat next week, next Thursday and Friday, and it costs me 2500 bucks for two nights. Wow. Right.

Randy Beck: [00:31:47] I know a great place down in downtown Atlanta. You can use.

Stacey Wyatt: [00:31:49] Oh, you got to let me know.

Robert Mason: [00:31:50] Know a bunch of property.

Randy Beck: [00:31:51] So. So your your Stacy, your exposure to investment real estate a little different. You’re doing construction flips. What all. Tell me about your version of investment real estate.

Stacey Wyatt: [00:32:01] Yeah. So somebody recently corrected me. I always talked about flipping houses as an investment, which it’s not really an investment, right?

Randy Beck: [00:32:09] I like speculation.

Stacey Wyatt: [00:32:10] It’s what I’ve done. Use for wealth, basically wealth acceleration, right? Because it’s taxed like ordinary income. So to me, it’s not really an investment. The investments come into play, which is when you start holding properties because that’s when you get all the advantages of owning real estate, right? Get somebody paying down the mortgage. I’ve. Table. I still write off my taxes. I get to write off my mortgage interest. I get depreciation. When you get really savvy at the whole game, then you can get into special depreciation, depreciate it much quicker, start helping to offset some taxes. And if you’re a real estate professional, there are some carry carry forward losses and some other things you get an advantage of. So. Me Yeah, we use the flips a lot of times to accelerate our wealth because then if I can generate more capital, I can say, let’s say I make 100 grand on a house. Well, now I can take five sets of 20 K if you look at it that way, for 20,000 deposits on five more rentals. So for me getting into I’ve always just long, long term rentals, mainly because that’s just been my comfort level and I hadn’t had time to get on the STR craze, but I am interested in that, especially in the secondary markets like the mountains and around the lakes and everything George has to provide because we’ll talk later. Stacy I don’t think that’s stopping anytime soon.

Randy Beck: [00:33:26] I see Stone over here listening and taking notes. He’s he’s figuring out where to put all that big radio money.

Stacey Wyatt: [00:33:30] Exactly how important to all of us.

Stone Payton: [00:33:32] I’m handing all my money to.

Randy Beck: [00:33:34] The millionaire makers, the market masters right here. Yeah. So short term rentals in Atlanta have some unique features. I just shot one the other day. It’s becoming an Airbnb for 20 $300 a night. Six bedrooms, 9000 square foot place. Right. And house the Cobra kai house, right. Yeah, they can you can add on to that. A private chef. Private jets in and out of Atlanta. Exotic car rentals, limousine rentals. You know, this is a big deal place, right? So they’re going to they’re looking to capture big dollars on every night that somebody’s staying there. And it’s a unique house, not only because of the film set, but also because it’s an old Tuscan style villa and the shower, the shower in the.

Stacey Wyatt: [00:34:19] Main style with it. Right.

Randy Beck: [00:34:20] It’s not an old house. It’s just built like in the shower in the main bathroom is 14 by 14. And it’s two nozzles coming out of the wall, right? I mean, this is a.

Robert Mason: [00:34:29] Cold.

Randy Beck: [00:34:30] In there. It’s a party shower and and every room, you know, it’s built like a villa, right? Every room opens onto a courtyard or the swimming pool or an outdoor space of some sort. So you’re never more than one door away from the outdoors. It’s really neat place.

Robert Mason: [00:34:42] Well, you’ll be shooting the parties at that house sometimes.

Randy Beck: [00:34:46] I don’t know what I’m going to shoot, but that’s.

Stacey Wyatt: [00:34:48] What the house ended up selling for. No, it’s two one, two, two.

Randy Beck: [00:34:51] It was 2.4 million, the owners. So what happened was Cobra Kai has rebuilt those interior sets in a soundstage now. Okay. It’s much easier to control the light, believe me, after being in there and shooting video. So they get more control that way. And and so the owners, they’re still shooting the exteriors there, at least occasionally. So the owners have said, I guess how how do I replace that income? Right. Yeah. So one of their whatever it is, they made the business decision to sell this into an LLC and operate as an Airbnb. So that’s what they did. They put it in an LLC and now it’s now it’s going to become a high end Airbnb.

Stacey Wyatt: [00:35:30] Well, do I think they could have done that ten years ago? Probably no. Why do I think they can do it now? We’re the Hollywood of the East Coast. Yeah, we.

Randy Beck: [00:35:36] Are. Well, that show was.

Stacey Wyatt: [00:35:37] A rap where the rap music hub of the East Coast were all Hollywood stars like a lot of pro athletes have. Like, we’re we are now a super diverse city that anybody that wants something can get in Atlanta.

Randy Beck: [00:35:54] That particular show shoots nearly all of their footage here. Yeah, very, very little of it’s actually shot in California, where it’s set Exactly. A couple of a couple of pieces. But most of it’s here in in that house down in Union City is where his where Danny La Russo’s dealership is. Right. They’re using one down in Union City. Really? So it’s all around Atlanta and there’s a lot more to. They’re hardly the only show shooting around here. Walking Dead was around here somewhere.

Stacey Wyatt: [00:36:21] Yeah. Stranger things. I mean, Ozark, like I don’t think people realize when I say, you know, Atlanta is the we have more major motion pictures shot here than LA, mainly because of Marvel. Right. Marvel Studios is down south of town and they’re building another studio there. And there was a time when they had to bring all of the let’s call them the technical people, right. The grips, the makeup artists, all that stuff. Well, now there is an actual school next to Marvel Studios, so they all get trained. They don’t have to come from California. They just walk next door into one of the two.

Randy Beck: [00:36:56] Studios, walk their way right into the business here.

Robert Mason: [00:36:58] Correct. I just sold the house to a gal that’s a makeup artist for all of that. And she makes fantastic money and she her opportunities are just great. I’ll think about.

Stacey Wyatt: [00:37:08] The cost of living in LA versus Atlanta. Oh, yeah. I mean, it’s crazy. Yeah, well, look.

Randy Beck: [00:37:12] Look at Tyler Perry Studios alone. Look what he did with that old Army base. It’s incredible. And then there’s Treeless down there on the South Side, which is a whole community literally built around the movie industry. Mm hmm. And you can live there and work there on one side of the highway. It’s houses, and the other side it’s soundstages and offices and production suite.

Robert Mason: [00:37:30] And when you bought your place down in Pittsburgh, that’s we had these conversations about these opportunities.

Randy Beck: [00:37:35] Yeah, yeah. It’s two miles from Tyler Perry and you know, draw, draw one mile circle around it. There’s probably 20 studios.

Stacey Wyatt: [00:37:41] All right. That’s funny. Yeah. Just right down the street from you. We just had a client is actually an Internet lead. We bought the house, we renovate it for him, and he just turned it into an SDR. He works in the movie industry, and he’s going to rent it out to, you know, all his connections within there. They all need a place to stay. He’s like, Hey, I got my place. Here you go. Perfect.

Randy Beck: [00:37:59] So and so. So we kind of went down a rabbit trail there. But but that Cobra Kai house is an example of how unique this short term rental business can be and how, you know, how you can find an angle and really play it right. I’ve got to figure if you’re close to a stadium, that’s a good investment. You’re close to the arts and the cultural centers of Atlanta. That’s a good that’s a good investment.

Robert Mason: [00:38:22] And our income is an A-plus and a minus and a B plus. So. Beach properties. Obviously, you got the beach. That’s going to be a something, right? Mountain properties like Blue Ridge, Ella, Jay Bigelow, Helen, those are going to be aged for the most part because it’s destination oriented. Then when you get in kind of the B-plus, which you kind of like down in Pittsburgh, downtown Woodstock, downtown Roswell, I think downtown Roswell is an A-plus because there are no hotels down there. There’s nowhere to stay. And they got all those convention centers, our offices there. And there’s no there’s there’s nowhere to stay down there. And so I personally push my investors to look in downtown Roswell. I’m looking for downtown Roswell all the time. And I think there’s going to be some opportunity in the cities like right around here as well. I’m looking at that house that I was telling you the other day about. That’s downtown Woodstock. You can drive a golf cart downtown.

Stacey Wyatt: [00:39:18] Well, all those cities now are moving to Alpharetta downtown area, like what, seven years didn’t exist. So they’re all moving back to this little because of the only downside of like I’ve just talked about, all the upside of L.A. Like downside is we know it’s traffic. Traffic. So everybody’s moving more to these like Holly Squares is or Holly Square’s Holly Springs is in the process of building a little downtown area. So I’m with you 100% anything down like in a downtown, walkable golf cart. That’s what people want. They want the experience, the shops, the restaurants, and they don’t have to go far for it.

Robert Mason: [00:39:46] If we could just talk East Cobb into doing the same thing. Right.

Stacey Wyatt: [00:39:49] They’re doing the avenue, so we’ll see what happens there at.

Robert Mason: [00:39:51] The Cobra Kai house. We got that.

Randy Beck: [00:39:53] Going for us. Exactly. On on Woodlawn right over there.

Stacey Wyatt: [00:39:55] Yeah, Yeah. Right behind Chick-Fil-A.

Randy Beck: [00:39:57] It’s going to it’s going to fuel.

Robert Mason: [00:39:59] Right behind the 15 banks.

Randy Beck: [00:40:00] The economic recovery of the whole area.

Robert Mason: [00:40:02] Yeah, we got tire stores, so we got that going for us.

Randy Beck: [00:40:05] Well, listen, you guys have been a strong presence on on the show here so far. So let’s take a minute and talk about XP. Sure. Right. This is your chance to recruit or pitch your business or anything you want to do as far as why XP, what’s good about XP and so forth.

Stacey Wyatt: [00:40:21] Well, I’ll throw it out there. So, you know, Robert runs his own business under Robert Mason and then I’ve run mine under CC White flag. Right. And XP there’s been a big shift in let’s call real estate brokerages with technology and a lot of other things. The broker itself doesn’t carry as much value to agents anymore. Right. And that’s not to diminish it. But, you know, if I asked a client this, would you pay me more, more commission if I was my own broker or I was at XP, they’re going to hell. No, I wouldn’t pay you more. My point exactly, XP is basically giving us a platform, a virtual platform that we are more connected with the agent, obviously with the agent community worldwide because XP was a company that went, you know, I’ve been here three years. When I joined, they had 18,000 agents. They then jumped to like 50 and we’re already at 85,000 agents from from 18 to 85. It’s historic growth. The only way they could do that is because it’s not the old franchise system. Right. Which I’m going to likened to Blockbuster. You’ve got to have the master franchiser that then goes sells a region, the regional owner buys and then has to go sell market center or like market centers or franchises. And that takes time and money on a virtual brokerage like and when I say virtual, like we literally have a piece of software, Robert and I make our little avatars that look just like us. And is it wonky out of the gate? Oh, yes, it is a little weird. It’s like Sims world.

Robert Mason: [00:41:48] I don’t have a bald spot on my little guy.

Stacey Wyatt: [00:41:50] Yeah, You know, And I could get my tennis shoes or my fat belly. Just perfect. But the cool thing is, if I have a luxury listing in East Cobb next to, let’s say I wanted to sell Cobra Kai’s mansion, right? I literally can walk into the virtual software and I could talk to somebody in Dubai. I could talk to somebody in Italy, I could talk to somebody in London in my office that could sell that house. And so they’ve turned it where I like an XP. Now to Netflix versus the old school broker model, which is more of a blockbuster type situation. The other piece I’ll add into that is EXP is publicly traded. They actually were a penny stock that has since grown to the Nasdaq and Nasdaq and they’ve got a large larger market cap than Compass Realogy, which includes Sotheby’s, all the major franchises basically combined. So what does that do for the consumer and the agent? Well, for the agent, we’re finally being treated like we’re owners of the company, Right, versus the brokers making all the money. So Glenn is the CEO of the company has built a platform that not only could I build whatever type of business I wanted, it’s allowed me to partner with guys like Robert, Right? Robert and I how we live less than 10 minutes from each other.

Stacey Wyatt: [00:43:01] We work in the same area. So I could look at Robert, say He’s a competitor of mine, right? I take more of an abundance mentality. Robert and I now can work together and help each other with our businesses because he could do 100 transactions. I could do a hundred transactions, and we may never do a deal together. So if you take an abundance mentality in this mindset, XP is now leverage. So the better Robert does and the better I do, the better the stock price does. And since XP gives us stock, we’re now owners. And then there’s some other things you can do. On revenue share and some other things. So the company is really put the agent first versus the broker first, because at the end of the day, even if I likened it to Wall Street, the consumer doesn’t care whose broker in the deal, like if I’m going to buy stocks, I don’t care who’s the clearinghouse to broker the deal. They just want to know that the deal got done. So nobody’s paying us more. The fact that I’m not my own brokerage. So we decided to build our businesses on the expense.

Randy Beck: [00:43:53] It’s not like we’re Sotheby’s. We get extra money for that anymore.

Stacey Wyatt: [00:43:56] No, and that comes up so much and we can make it. I can make an easy pitch on how many luxury homes we’ve sold in comparison to the Sotheby’s or Ainsley’s. We’re in a day of social media. You’re in video. I can be my own spokesperson. I’ve got social media to my advantage. Your brand is stronger than the broker’s brand. First of all, clients work with people. They don’t work with the brokerage. Half the people think on my own brokerage because I’m branded so well. I wasn’t branded so well four or five years ago. Now you’re branded really well. They don’t even know who XP is. Most don’t even bring it up. Most of consumers don’t understand that. So the agents that I feel haven’t developed a really strong brand lean on. Well, I’m with Sotheby’s because they hope it gets some higher sales price. At the end of the day, it’s your network of who’s going to be in your Rolodex, right. To get you that business. And then you better hope you’re branded really strong to be able to compete.

Randy Beck: [00:44:52] We’re in a time where where these market paradigms are shifting. You know, in my world, I talk a lot. You’re playing right into presentations. I make all the time about the fact that the advertising model is becoming largely obsolete, except in radio and content marketing is taken over. So it’s a very comparable subject to what you’re just saying 100% about your branding. Now, Robert, you moved to XP, what, six months ago? Something like that.

Robert Mason: [00:45:17] Yeah, about five months ago.

Randy Beck: [00:45:18] Five months ago. So you came from Keller and Keller.

Robert Mason: [00:45:22] Williams at eight years.

Randy Beck: [00:45:23] And remember, remember, I knew Gary Keller back in Austin. So if you’re blowing smoke up my skirt, I’m going to know it. How’s the transition been for you?

Robert Mason: [00:45:30] Well, I was with Remax back in the early 2000, and Sean Rawls, who started Keller Williams got wind of who I was, and I was doing some pretty good stuff over there. And Remax Atlanta at the time was like the cat’s meow. We were we were doing more business than everybody. And so I came to a couple of meetings with Sean Rawls, and I was really, really impressed with what Keller Williams was doing. And it was the new wave. It did take over from the the axis of the world, the other guys. And so having spent eight years there, being on the leadership Council, helped leading a team that I was a part of for a while, I started to get the impression that the company was moving away from agent friendly, and for years we were called the technology company because nobody else had the training and stuff like that. It started moving away from us. Stacy left a bunch of good agents, left my ex wife who recruited me to Keller Williams ex wife, and she actually recruited me kind of to EXP as well. So we’re still connected there, which is a good thing. But Stacy and I had been doing some deals when we’ve been talking and I’d been bringing some deals to him and I have so much respect for Stacy.

Robert Mason: [00:46:43] I was like, at some juncture I want to hook my wagon somewhat some sorts of way with Stacy Wyatt. And it was the right time. And Stacy and I sat down and he gave me the the the tour, the 5000 foot tour of what the company looks like. And one of the things that that attracted me to XP was brick and mortar costs a lot of money, right? And so all of these real estate companies are spending an inordinate amount of money on brick and mortar office space and employees. And having had a peek behind the curtain when I was with the LLC, I saw the numbers that were being spent on all of this stuff. And what that did, what that did was it was less monies to go to the agents. One of the great things about XP, whenever I have a closing, I had a $16,000 check come out the other day from a closing and a certain amount of percentage of that went towards XP stock. I never saw the amount. I literally don’t even know how much goes out of my check to my stock portfolio. Free XP.

Stacey Wyatt: [00:47:48] At a 10% discount.

Robert Mason: [00:47:49] At a at a discount where stocks right now are being discounted all together. And five years from now, when the stock market goes back up or however long that takes, I’m going to I’m going to be stockpiling all of this stock at cheap prices and it’s going to be worth even more. I like the idea of the virtual platform because I don’t need to go to an office. I don’t need to bump into people, I don’t need to talk to people. I need to be talking to people who can come by and buy and sell. I’d go to Keller Williams and I’d get caught up training people and giving people advice and sitting down with people that want to get to where I’m at, which I love teaching and training and giving people knowledge, right? Because the stronger our industry is, the better they’re going to be, the better we’re going to look. And we get reputation. You know, realtors, I was on a podcast Sunday night and it was talking about the Second Amendment and concealed carry for realtors and I was the expert in that on on that subject matter.

Randy Beck: [00:48:46] Now this is Georgia. Every realtors got their 45 in their pocket or their handbag. Right. You know, and that’s not why not.

Stacey Wyatt: [00:48:52] Glock is my choice.

Robert Mason: [00:48:53] Yeah, I’m a Glock guy, too.

Randy Beck: [00:48:54] Okay. Glock.

Robert Mason: [00:48:55] And this particular show ended up being the number one watched podcast for these guys, two Alphas talk. And it’s with Saber Team Tactical.

Randy Beck: [00:49:05] Where I should say.

Robert Mason: [00:49:07] It was their number one. Show by far. We had 35 people calling in. It was it was impressive stuff and it was great. It was Sunday night, 9:00 till 11:00. That being said, I wanted to hitch my wagon with Stacy. He gave me a lot of reasons why that was a good idea. And all I can say is, man, that was the right decision. And expe is is the new kid on the block. It’s got to be.

Stacey Wyatt: [00:49:31] And if I was just to tie that out, there’s just been a it’s been a shift in the business model. You know, in the 1900s, early 1970s Coldwell Banker high split to the broker low split to the agent because it was there was no technology right broker had all the information then it moved can argue century 21. But then Remax really came in with a high split model. Their agents keep more, but they pay high higher on a monthly. Then Keller Williams came in and brought in new model in Remax model. And I’m not being market resistant. So when the market crashed back in ten, how many agents can pay that high of office bill? Even if they’re getting 95% of their commission? They couldn’t. Many of the Remax offices went talking, talk about Sean Rawls, went belly up. They all came to work for KW because TCW or they brought in the cap where an agent only pays in in Atlanta 18,000. After that for your anniversary, you get to keep rest of your money and they brought profit share. So they brought in a brilliant model. Right? I was KW ten years. You never hear me say a bad thing. But then I saw this new kid on the block come out and seen where the market’s going, the Netflix versus Blockbuster. I’m like, Wow, these guys are commissions are shrinking, expenses are not going down. They’re going up. How long are these blockbusters, these old franchise is going to last? I saw the virtual model being treated like an owner, so I don’t have to go own a blockbuster. And it’s just the new wave. Now you’re seeing all the knockoffs of XP come out, all the new broker. There’s some couple KW agents that left and modeled their new brokerage after the XP structure. Real and some of these other knockoffs have all come in to do that. So I think you kind of know when you’re doing it right was everybody else starts to copy you.

Randy Beck: [00:51:11] So your paradigm is changing from who used to control the information. Now it’s more it’s more and more going about how easy can you make people engage with the information and who’s got the farthest reach on their brand and their and their customer contact, their customer relationships 100%.

Stacey Wyatt: [00:51:28] And that’s why people hire you to do video.

Randy Beck: [00:51:30] It’s exactly what.

Stacey Wyatt: [00:51:30] Because I’m now like I look at the Stacey Wyatt Group is it’s much bigger than me now, right? It’s you know, I’m now responsible for 14 people on my team and it’s no longer about Stacey Wyatt. I’m now a spokesperson for the brand. So I hire somebody like yourself to do video because and this is a perfect example. I’ve got a guy.

Randy Beck: [00:51:48] What a great idea.

Stacey Wyatt: [00:51:49] Great idea. 30 days in my George is another friend of ours. It’s in our group, started a YouTube channel and he has produced 30, I think something like 30 videos and this is less than 30 days. He was already got 11,000 views and he’s already probably got 8 to 10 people off of that. Now he’s got a little bit of a niche because he’s he’s bilingual, putting all his stuff in Spanish. He’s already got three or four leads off of that. That stuff’s working while he’s sleeping, Right.

Randy Beck: [00:52:15] So not only is it working when you’re sleeping, but it’s working everywhere, all at once. Everywhere, no matter where. You know, in Ukraine during the middle of the war, it’s still working for you. If somebody wants to find out about you. You know, it was interesting. When I first started doing video way back, I made this stupid little video for my off roading stuff about how to build an off road trailer frame, Right. Because I was building a.

Stacey Wyatt: [00:52:37] Little camper ahead of your.

Randy Beck: [00:52:38] Time. Yeah, I was pulling a little camper. Building a little camper I could pull behind my 4×4. Right. And and my friend was welding it up because he knew how to weld. And I’m a I’m worse at welding than I am at golf.

Robert Mason: [00:52:51] And would you say.

Stacey Wyatt: [00:52:52] It’s you and I should meet golf partners.

Randy Beck: [00:52:53] So I had smoke and sparks and all that and talked about a little bit about the I’m I’m a former naval engineer. Before the teams, I was on a ship, I was an engineer. And so I kind of had an idea of how to build this, much like a ship is constructed. It made a neat little trailer that only £800 at the end so you could pull it behind a Tesla if you wanted to, and a leaf or a Prius. And and so.

Robert Mason: [00:53:18] Not through saltwater, though.

Randy Beck: [00:53:19] So I put this video on on my I had a YouTube channel for my off road stuff. Right And I put it up there and I kind of forgot about it, you know, and I occasionally get a message and I’d answer it and all that. And one day I was looking and it had 37,000 views on that one thing. And I was like, Well, order some trailers, man.

Robert Mason: [00:53:37] I’ll build them for you. Yeah.

Randy Beck: [00:53:39] But it was really cool. Video has reached that you just, you just don’t expect.

Stacey Wyatt: [00:53:42] And so when you say if you’re comparing kind of the older model brokerages, right. I think the forward looking brokerages understand that the agent is now the brand and the consumer that in you’re the tightest to the consumer. So if they’re not using video, they’re not on social media. We have the ability to have our own. I do think radio is still a huge play. We’re looking into that now. Do you think billboards still have a little bit of play in the. Game. I struggle with everybody in their car staring down at their phone. But those still have pretty great reach, at least for now. But if agents aren’t using video and social media to basically act like their own TV station, have you? That is the new way of everything. And it sets us up to leverage. If I’m sitting in here doing a podcast. I’m not out regenerating, right? And that’s the old school. But if I’ve done 100 videos on what it’s like to be in the land of my fave five of favorite five dog parks, that stuff’s living and operating while we’re here. And I could have three DMS when I get back saying, Hey, I want to move to Alpharetta.

Randy Beck: [00:54:47] You know, commercial brokerages have for so long been a good old boy thing, and it’s all about the Rolodex control of information, right? They’re not they’re not as advanced as the residential people yet on the use of marketing and on videos and on ways of creating contact with their clients. But some are here and there. Michael Burr down in Atlanta found out about him through the group. Hi, Chris Myer and and spoke to him the other day. He’s been doing a panel, you know, a TV style panel, commercial real estate show every day for ten years. He’s been doing it.

Stacey Wyatt: [00:55:23] I think Robert needs to talk to him.

Randy Beck: [00:55:25] Yeah. And he’s and he.

Stacey Wyatt: [00:55:26] Might be a good fit somewhere. Yeah.

Randy Beck: [00:55:27] You know, he’s killing it. Yeah. So, I mean.

Stacey Wyatt: [00:55:30] He gets it. The market is modern day marketing.

Randy Beck: [00:55:32] Yeah, right. It’s changing.

Stacey Wyatt: [00:55:34] Yeah. I mean, I’ve got at this point three Vas in the Philippines that do a ton of stuff for me, right. It’s like, figure out who are your people to build your marketing machine. So.

Randy Beck: [00:55:45] Well, listen, the last time you were here, I drove the whole discussion. Today, I kind of have to. Making you talk about things maybe you wouldn’t rather talk about, like, interest rates. So let me throw it open a little. What do you guys want to talk about?

Stacey Wyatt: [00:55:56] Jump in there, Robert.

Robert Mason: [00:55:57] Go ahead, Stacey.

Stacey Wyatt: [00:56:00] Well, I think to your point earlier, what you’re talking about is just because I do talk to a lot of agents. My friend put it. You think there’s going to be a bloodbath in first quarter for agents, mortgage brokers, just where the things are moving, right. Because the majority of agents have gotten the business in the last five or six years. So they’ve known nothing but a good market, right? So now we are talking a skill based market. So I do think there’s going to be a thinning of the herd both in agents and mortgage brokers which transactions are already down 20%. And so there’s less volume. But as the agents, it’s a tough market, right? Because it’s a weird market and you’re having to give good advice to sellers and buyers. But the beauty of it is and I wrote this down, so I pulled it out the other day, the bright side of this is, you know, real estate is one of three basic human needs, right? Shelter, water, water and food. And for all the reasons and don’t want to come off too trite, but death, debt, divorce, deployment, displacement, meaning like relocation, disease, COVID, and then I say delivery for people having babies. Those are all reasons people need to buy and sell.

Randy Beck: [00:57:02] Like days of the apocalypse there.

Stacey Wyatt: [00:57:05] But, you know, listen, life still happens. People are still going to have to buy and sell. And, you know, you go back and look at the eighties when interest rates were in the teens to high twenties. Real estate is still going to transact. When I got in the business in 210 and I thought that there was nobody buying and selling. Well, everybody in health care and military complex and everybody else needed to buy and sell. So my advice to agents would be it’s like, listen, you need to get an environment that you are learning in a learning based environment, and you better be building some muscles because we are in a skill based market. The good news is there’s going to still going to be people to serve that are going through all of those different life changes. Right. And not to get your head off of Nightline news if you aren’t already like you’re being so programed at that point because 90% of this business is mindset. And when I say it’s between the six inches, between your ears. 10% of skills. So where I am saying we’re moving to a skill based, skill based market. If your mindset is not right, I don’t care if you’re in real estate, mortgage, video, or selling widgets to me is get your mind right or get yourself in an environment that’s going to. Give you the right mindset to succeed regardless, because I actually like down markets more than I like up markets.

Randy Beck: [00:58:18] So as much as I would like to say that my transition out of corporate America into big shot is the best decision I ever made, It’s really only the second best one I ever made.

Stacey Wyatt: [00:58:27] What was your.

Randy Beck: [00:58:27] First getting rid of TV? There you go. Yeah. Robert, what’s on your mind?

Robert Mason: [00:58:32] So I’ll segway on the back of what he just said. I too, think, you know, I’ve already seen it. There’s a big. There’s a big. Negative loss of realtors and mortgage bankers and people that are in the real estate business, whether it be title companies, whether it be attorneys that just got in like 2008, we saw like a reduction of at least 35 to 40% of the actors. And when I say actors, whether it be builders, whether it be closing attorneys, real estate agents, there was a there was a big, big shift in that market. We’re going to see a bunch of that happening now. I try to tell people in Stacy’s already said it’s all about mindset. Life is about mindset. And a lot of people get stuck on what happened or the baggage that they’ve got or a failure that they came through. And one of the simplest things I tell people is the windscreen and your car is bigger than your rearview mirror for a reason. Don’t forget what happened in the past, but keep looking forward. People keep finding ways to move forward and to modernize your business like what we’re doing right here with stone and doing with you with videos and whatnot. And you and I talk about this a great deal. Okay? You’ve got to figure out what is working in the marketplace If you’re going to stay in this market as a realtor or a mortgage person or anything else, and you’ve got to put in the mat time use mat time on an old wrestler, you know, the more I wrestled, the better I was.

Robert Mason: [01:00:06] And the more time you spend figuring out what works, what are the analytics, really know them, don’t just make it up and and keep persevering and don’t listen to the naysayers. There’s a lot of people out there. I wrote a post on Facebook today and I meant to to make people mad. Basically, I have friends and folks around me that they’re just negative. They start with their injuries or their illnesses and everything else. When I call them on the phone or I see him out, Hey, man, how are you doing? And that’s an open invitation to tell me about all your woes. I don’t want to hear that. You know, I got my own woes. I’ve had my own injuries and my own stuff that’s happened. But I’m not going to tell you all that stuff. What I’m going to tell you is what I can do and how we can do it and how we can have fun and how we can move forward. So I definitely think that there’s going to be some challenges next year, but there’s going to be some opportunities because wealth is driven and rough times and I’m going to be there and I can help folks do that. And I appreciate the opportunity to come on air Stone Presents and what you do for us and Stacey saying, come on over, Robert. I mean, I’m in the catbird seat here and I’m going to try to take advantage of it and love while I’m doing it.

Stacey Wyatt: [01:01:16] And to put a bow tie on that. What I’ve been telling people is control what you control you and I can’t control rates, Right? But I can control my attitude and I can control my resourcefulness to be able to go find out and find out how people win. And then a simple one that that I stole the other day was and work works what we’ve been doing for the last few years. We have to double that, right? There’s going to be double the effort. So work works. Just do the work. And then the last is I think a lot because you left corporate. I left I got introduced to out of corporate because when the market crashed last time and you couldn’t pay me, my wife would shoot you if if you told me I had to go back to corporate and take a job. So I am going to say to all this people not to be so tough on them. I think they have to go back to their why and decide why did they get into the business in the first place, put in the work in the effort, because work works right and figure out what it is that’s really driving them to to move through tougher times.

Randy Beck: [01:02:11] Yeah, that corporate thing. You remember Fleetwood Mac, Lindsey Buckingham never going back again. Yeah, I love that. So we talked a little bit about video. You guys should check out TMZ, their website or their Facebook page because they picked up the Cobra Kai shoot in an article yesterday. So those photos are on there too. So love that listing. Architectural style, listing photos. Right. All you really shape people pay attention. There’s a great example on there and it’s getting national attention.

Stacey Wyatt: [01:02:37] So all your work then is on the Airbnb promoting the promoting this.

Randy Beck: [01:02:41] House for that house. It’s an Airbnb. I love it. Or it’s on VRBO. He’s a trip.

Stacey Wyatt: [01:02:46] So what’s all your work?

Randy Beck: [01:02:47] Ralph Remo is the property manager. He’s on a trip broker with a specific territory here, and I do all his work for him. So this. This work is all oriented for the work for this house is all oriented at its Airbnb status. Cool. And we shot a bang in video of it that’s going to be out in a few days and.

Stacey Wyatt: [01:03:05] The photo bang in a photo was in it.

Robert Mason: [01:03:07] He called me and he said, Come on over, man.

Randy Beck: [01:03:09] I can’t help you there. I did invite him to.

Robert Mason: [01:03:10] He did. He did. And I was busy.

Randy Beck: [01:03:12] So let’s use Stone as a proxy for the audience here. Have we left anything out? Is there anything you want to know or that we that we very stupidly forgot to talk about?

Stone Payton: [01:03:20] Well, of course. I don’t know what I don’t know, but to me it was informative. It was inspiring. I think I just want to give Stacie all my money and I just want to hang out with Robert and just like and just go see some of these places, because simultaneously, you guys built my confidence and interest in real estate investing, but you very clearly made it abundantly clear to. Me. If you’re going to do this, you’ve got to do it with some professionals that have some expertise and experience in this. Otherwise, a guy like me, man, I could just absolutely lose my shirt because I’ll get going down the wrong path.

Robert Mason: [01:03:54] Yeah.

Randy Beck: [01:03:55] Diy is the same in video, real estate, home construction, whatever it eventually shows, it starts looking like DIY at some point. And yeah, professionalism shows enough. You care to get it right?

Robert Mason: [01:04:06] Yeah, sure does.

Randy Beck: [01:04:08] All right. Well, that’s a wrap, guys. Let’s wrap there. And thank you guys for coming out. I really appreciate you coming again. Thank you, Stone, for having us on and devoting some of the airtime.

Stacey Wyatt: [01:04:15] Thank you, Big Daddy. And congrats on the TMZ and your hard work paid off.

Randy Beck: [01:04:19] Whoo! Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Stone Payton: [01:04:21] All right. Until next time, this is Stone Payton for our guest host today, Randy Beck, Robert Mason and Stacy Wyatt, and everyone here at the Business RadioX family saying we’ll see you again on Cherokee Business Radio.