Our guests today are the stars of Bravo’s Million-dollar Listing Los Angeles. You probably already know that there are no-nonsense approach to closing deals coupled with an extensive network of high-net-worth international and domestic clients have enabled James and David to reach a steady incline in sales year, over year, including many landmark properties and record-setting deals in the luxury real estate market of Los Angeles.

With a current listing portfolio, I have to check this. I don’t know if this is still true of 1.5 billion. 1.5. It’s still true. Incredible includes some of the city’s most prestigious and well known properties. Their exclusive clientele is comprised of countless celebrities, producers, business managers, agents, heads of fortune 500 companies among others.

James and David have proven that their exceptional service and attention for each and every one of their clients is the recipe for the team’s success. James and David have also launched a newsletter called  Blueprint, which we’re gonna be talking about, but first guys. Welcome to the G mastermind this week.

Happy to have you. Thank you. Thank you so much. And by the way, I cannot believe you interviewed Goldie. Sorry. I grew up listening to Goldie on the decks and, everybody should listen to, to David’s episode with Goldie. I mean, that’s a cool one. I don’t even know how you thought about getting him on your, I grew up with them too.

I grew up with him too. I used to DJ, so he was, he was always on my turntables, but, you know, he’s, he’s like, he’s like catching mercury. He’s very hard to nail down for an interview, as you can imagine. So it was, it was a lot of fun. It was really, really good interview. Talked about working with David Bowie and, you know, KRS one and, and of course, you know, the movies, everything he’s been involved in, he’s a, he’s a cool dude.

So, yeah, that’s gonna be fun. Well, welcome here guys. happy to have you. We were excited to have you guys for a number of reasons. It always seems like you guys have like a really cool project on the. Like  Blueprint. you have the new season of the show, I think coming up, right. It starts filming this month.

Is that true? Well, can’t discuss that today, but, well, what season is it, James? well, season 13, just finished airing, I believe. Right Dave? I think it was 13. I think I’ve lost count I’m by the way, I’m really sorry about my camera. I really, it’s not normally this dark in the office. I actually came to the office, especially rather than do it from home because it’s always dark.

So I hope you can see me still. So I apologize for that. I dunno what season it’s been? It’s probably 14, 15, 13 seasons. 13. And could somebody get, David a ring light, maybe yeah. What’s that? Oh man. But 13. Wow. 13 years of, is that 13 years? Just 13 seasons, I guess. we started to be fair. We started season seven.

so 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12. I think last season was season 13. Wasn’t. So maybe this is season 14. So I think this could be, this could be our eighth, whatever. It’s been a while. been a long it’s time. James it’s been I’m driven, James. It’s been a while episode. James’s voice hadn’t even broken when we started so nice.

Well, Hey listen, you know, what we say here is success leaves clues, and you guys are such a great example of that. You know, of working hard, being tactical and intentional, it comes to growing and scaling your business. So the first question guys, Current state of the union, broad stroke thoughts here and what we’ve seen in the industry over the past year.

And so far in 2022, it’s been a hot market, unlike anything we’ve ever seen, we all know this, but the real question is. Is this housing? Boom. Is it a bubble? That’s the question? Sorry. I don’t think it is a bubble actually. I think, you know, you’re always gonna hear different economists come out with different opinions.

Uh that’s what makes the, the world go around. But I think if you compare today to 2008, when we hit the, the subprime mortgage crisis, there was a lot of toxic debt out there. The banks were loaning to anybody and everybody. And then if you haven’t seen the movie, the big short, I think that was a great representation of what was going on in the credit crisis.

Versus if you fast forward to today, there is real money out there. There’s real wealth, real money. The banks are still strict on who they’re lending to. look, it’s gone up. At a rapid speed. Obviously we all know interest rates at a are at a record, low people are definitely taking advantage of the, the borrowing ability, but then of course there’s no inventory, right.

And then of course we’ve had COVID and people have seen a major lifestyle change in, in their own lives. So I think if you look at all of that couple together, as real estate agents, we are sitting in the best position right now. And I strongly suggest to everybody that we are all taking advantage of the market, cuz I don’t think it’s a bubble, but I do think it could cap off and potentially slow down as interest rates rise.

So yes, I think, you know, take advantage now sell as much real estate as you can. and don’t come back crying that you didn’t do enough business when the market was hot. Like it is now once rates start to, to go back. that’s a good summary. I, I like that explanation. That’s good. I, we, we agree, now besides the actual market, what’s the biggest changes you’ve seen to the industry?

since COVID start last couple years, you know, a lot of things went virtual, of course, maybe trends you’re seeing in the last year. I mean, I think, I think people, looking for D. different things in their, their homes because they’re spending a lot more time there. Right. So a lot of people working from home, so home office is very important.

And then we kind of saw that shift, you know, a while ago it was all about like, oh, I’m gonna buy a remodel or I’m gonna build a new house. This is a developer speaking, by the way. they would say, I want an open floor plan. I want everything open. I wanna knock that wall down. I wanna, you know, knock this wall down and, and basically that’s kind.

To a degree remained, but people want a little bit more com up com compartmentalization, because if, if entire families with the homeschooling at one point, but you know, people’s mindset is different spending all this time at home. They want a little bit of separation. I mean, I remember personally when, when it all happened and we were in lockdown and, and my daughter who is probably two at the time, literally I was on my phone or doing what I was doing and.

Following me and chasing me around. I, I mean, I love her, but I had to do some work as well. And she thought it was like a game of hide and seek, but I was literally like running for my life. so, so I think that com compartmentalization, and people want, I think amenities have become really, really important as well.

So people want the home gym, they want the theater, everything they can get. Right. these amenities, the compartmentalized floor plan, the office, all these things have become really, really, I. What’s the, in your market, you know, the luxury, you know, the high net worth client. What’s the most requested amenity.

God we’re seeing it all. But I would say wellness, you know, wellness has been a big one. The, the sauna, the steam, the Hamman, having the, the luxury of being able to have a massage at home, having a home gym, you know, that is definitely a requested amenity. But now through COVID it’s been, you know, where can my kids homeschool?

I need two offices, not one. I want a gated property. I want, you know, they’re looking for different things than they were. Before, but I would definitely sell, say wellness is, is a big one, certainly, in Los Angeles. And I have to assume pretty much everywhere. Yeah. Yeah, it makes sense. Okay. let’s get into the meat of it here.

this is a big question. Any thoughts on how agents can acquire listings in a low inventory market? Any tactical advantages you can think of to attract sellers or find inventory for buyers? That’s a question everybody’s asking. Any thoughts on that? I think you just gotta go back to basics. you know, there’s no real formula in real estate.

people think, you know, how do I do it quick? How do I get there? You know, is there a trick there’s no trick it. It’s, it’s literally sticking to, to, to the basics. It’s rolling up your sleeves. It’s getting to work. Whether it be door knocking, which we can get into that a little bit later, cuz that’s how we really, that, that played a big part into how we started off, sitting open houses, just getting leads, right.

And, and, and just really hunting for them because yes, it’s very much a seller’s market right now. the key is definitely holding the listings. but I think you just gotta work that much harder and you gotta be that much more proactive as far as whether it’s networking. through people that, you know, anyway, getting referrals door knocking, sitting open houses, picking up leads, and, and basically just doing everything you would normally do, but just even more so mm-hmm,

Yeah. And, well, good advice. any thoughts on, on, on agents, what they can do with buyers that are maybe dragging their feet, or maybe they have burnout, you know, writing offer after offer, you know, because of lack of inventory, they’re not getting it. any, any words of advice for agents that are getting a little bit of burnout or, you know, I.

Buyers that are losing the momentright? Because they’re writing offers and not getting the properties get used to it, get them used to it. That’s the market that we’re in right now. You know, I think in this business, you have to look at the glass being half full or half empty, right. And every time something doesn’t go your way, you look at the glass being half full.

I think you need to change the mentality. Not just as an agent, but as an agent representing a buyer, you need to explain to them that this is the market we’re in. You need to preempt what’s going to happen so that when it happens, a they’re not let down, but B they’re even more excited to get to the next property.

I think every offer that you write on behalf of a buyer, you need to have a clear strategy in mind. You need to speak to the agent that represe. The seller find out what’s important to the seller. Find out the terms that are gonna make sense to the seller. Get two steps ahead. Instead of being five steps behind don’t rush the process, understand who the seller is.

Write a nice letter, give yourself the best shot at getting that house. And get as much information together as you can, if the property’s a million dollars and you know, there’s gonna be 20 other offers and some of them are a million, two, 1,000,003, well then you know where you need to write escalation clauses.

I don’t know if they’re used out in Canada. They’re big here in, in Los Angeles, you know, put into your offer that we will go 10,000 higher than 1,000,004 set a cap. Create yourself, a situation where it’s very hard for the seller to say no to you in terms of preparing your buyer. I think you have to just go in with a positive outlook, keep the buyers positive.

And if they lose out on that house, I always say to our clients, you know, if it doesn’t happen, Just wasn’t meant to be, oh yeah, you’re right. You’re right. You’re right. You know, it just wasn’t meant to be, but then the next one’s gonna be even better. And then when we do get the right house, that was the one that was meant to be.

And I think it’s just about keeping a positive mindset, a positive mentality, and doing the best that you can for your clients and keeping them engaged and keeping them under the ether, which is that interest rates are low right now. Use that low interest rate to your advantage to keep the buyers engaged, cuz six months from now that 2%, 10 year interest only loan might be 3% and that changes your monthly payment.

So always look for reasons of urgency to continue engaging with your client and, and keeping them excited. yeah, that’s super good advice. setting expectations, you, you know, that that’s critical and then keeping realistic ones, realistic expectations where, where you’re not over promising and then under delivering, you know, you’ve gotta set the stage and, and not set yourself up for failure either.

Yeah, it’s super important. I mean, you gonna save yourself a lot of heartache. If you just prepare your clients ahead of time. right. Instead of playing head shrink every time they lose one. are you guys getting these crazy multiple office situations in Canada? Is that the deal over there as well? Yeah.

Again, it’s regional, right? So, we, we have noticed a little bit of a slow down. In Toronto, you know, they’re not buying houses like hot dogs necessarily, but why, why is that? Why is that? Do you know, we had a rate hike, for one thing. Yeah. I think that a lot of the, the pent up demand and the, you know, the, you know, 5 million cash buyers have kind of worked through the system now, I think, oh yeah.

Bronco. Yeah. He, he works in luxury there inventory’s way up as well. So that’s, that’s, that’s a interesting, how did that happen? What was the, just really quick, what was the cause for the inventory? increas. I don’t know, Bronco, maybe you can touch on that. We’ll let little, a little bit too with the spring market starting and, you know, everyone’s seen their neighbor selling for, you know, 1,000,005 where just two years ago it was worth 700.

Right. So a lot of people are cashing out and yeah. Making, making big move. Interesting. Yeah, so the market’s caught up a, you know, there, in certain pockets again, regional. But you guys had touched on this. I think it’s important to, to talk about for a second here, you know, as an agent, your relationship with other agents make or break your business, right.

you know, both David and James, you both mentioned this, so, why is that? And what tips do you have to maintain those key relationships for success? There’s so important now that’s becoming clear, right? Your relationship with other. Really important. Firstly, you want someone to know that if you are on the other side of the deal to them, the other agent, right?

That it’s gonna be straightforward, smooth, and, and, and easy because listen, the buyers and the sellers, they can really complicate things alone. But if the two agents are baring heads that’s even worse. Right. I, I, I always kind of pride myself. It’s like cards on the table. I don’t think it’s about winning.

you know, again at someone else’s expense, when I’m negotiating with, with another agent, I think everyone needs to win for the best deal that that’s genuinely how I think. And I’ll make it very, very clear with any agent on the other side, I’ll say, look, I’m gonna be open book with you. We both have a job to do, and we want everyone to win.

Because that’s, that’s how it should be. and I feel that that can really, even the most stringent agents, the toughest agents, they drop their guard at that point. Right. Because we need to be clear that we’re working as a team we’re not working against each other. And once those got that guard has been dropped so much easier to transact and everything works.

So. Better. a and again, look at the end of the day, every transaction we do, there’s gonna be an agent on the other side. So it, it just proves how important those relationships are and how they should be maintained. And, and, and frankly, you know, keeping contact with the other agents and having relationships with them, the information is incredible.

Every time I meet with another agent, whether it’s lunch, coffee, or just bumping into each other and having a conversation. Sometimes a deal even comes out of that, just from the information we are sharing with one another, because that’s what we do all day long. We’re all plugged into the market. They’re gonna see things we don’t see, we’re gonna see things they don’t see.

And, and that information is absolutely crucial. so, you know, from every, every angle, transactional, informational deal making, it’s, it’s super important. mm-hmm yeah. The fundamentals of, networking, right. It’s important, especially in a market like this. Now, the other thing that agents are doing more of now because of such low inventory is what you guys, I, I would, is it fair to say you cut your teeth on, which was door knocking, right?

you guys started really, door knocking, any tips you have to, you know, drive leads, grow your network when it comes to door knocking. Do you guys do door knocking? Is that a common theme in Canada? Yeah. Is it something that is done? I mean, I personally to this day, believe there is no bed at all in this business, to gain, listings other than door knocking first and foremost.

Guess what it’s free. Okay. You don’t need to spend $5,000 and take a full page ad and you don’t need to do anything other than give time. Right? So for me, door knocking is all about your mindset. It’s all about your mentality. It’s all about having the glass half full attitude. When you go out and do it first and foremost, if you’re not consistent.

You might as well not do it if you’re gonna do it today, but you’re not gonna do it tomorrow or the next week. You might as well not do it at all. It’s a numbers game. It’s a pipeline business. And it’s about door knocking till you get a positive response. It’s about door knocking and understanding that if you door knock one street, you go back and door, knock that same street again, you do it again and again and again.

And it’s your energy when you door knock, it’s contagious. You have to think if your door knocking today. Someone’s door knocking that same person tomorrow or within the day after that, therefore your energy has to be right. Your mindset has to be right. You need to look good. You need to feel good. You need to understand what you’re gonna say, how you’re gonna say it, how you’re gonna respond to objections.

And I think if you go to that door with the right attitude and the right level of positivity, don’t give the seller a reason to, to turn you away away. And I think it’s all about engaging with the. Right. Giving them a reason to respond to you. You know, so we used to door knock teardowns for example. So we would door knock, large lots that had small houses that were primed for redevelopment.

And our pitch was always the same. We’d rock up to the door and say, we’ve got an amazing client who’s interested and motivated by this property’s location. They don’t need to see the interior of the. Would you be interested in selling? And of course they start by saying no, then you say, well, there’s gotta be a number in mind that you would sell at.

And then the greed factor comes in and they start thinking about it. And the longer you can sit there and talk and engage the better it is. And even if that moment they’re not willing and ready sellers. Get to a point where you are giving them your business card, you’re giving them your telephone number.

You’re giving them their, your information. So that down the line they may decide to sell. They may have a friend that wants to sell. They may have a relative that wants to sell. They may have a neighbor that wants to sell, give them a reason to remember you so that they go find your car, go find your number and come and hit you up when they’re ready to go.

And again, it’s all about your energy and your mindset, because if you go. With a negative mindset. That’s not contagious. People don’t want to be a part of that. They don’t wanna be around that. But if you go in. With excitement and passion and belief and information and knowledge. It’s gonna be very hard for somebody to turn you down or turn you away and not wanna know more.

So my best advice is positive energy, positive mindset, be a wealth of knowledge and information, and go with a sense of urgency and a reason of urgency and be consistent, remain consistent. And you’ll be blown away with, with the results after a 30, 60 day time period, if you remain consistent. That’s awesome.

That what a fantastic breakdown, speaking of mindset, you know, I think it’s critical and I mean, we know this right. It’s critical to be able to handle rejection, right? When prospecting, like why is it so important to be able to handle the nose? Not to be too cliche about it, but why is it criti critical to handle rejection in nose?

When you go door knocking or prospecting of any. Because you’re gonna get a lot of them. . the reality is it’s, it’s, it’s so important to, to have thick skin and know that as long as you are keeping, keeping going, you’re not giving up. Right. Mm-hmm . But for me, it always comes back to like, there’s always gonna be a lot of nos in any industry.

But when I personally first went into real estate, I looked at and we actually, we looked at the other agents who is at the top of the game, who is doing it right. They’ve proven how successful you can be in this industry. And I thank them for it. Right. I, I can name a handful of top agents that I looked up to personally when we first started up in LA and it’s Kurt Rappaport is Jade mills.

It’s Marisa Yoki it’s drew Fenton, Brandon Williams. Like these people. Were were people that I, I idolized, but looked up to because they paved away and I’m sure someone else paved the way for them before as well. Right. But what they showed me personally is that this can be done. You can be hugely successful.

And that is the only information I needed to know because the only excuse for not getting to that level is either we’re gonna do something wrong, which obviously we’re gonna do, but we can learn from our mistakes. That’s the beauty of experience. Right. Doing something unethical, which we typically don’t do what we don’t ever do.

and not working hard enough. Right. Those, those are just the three factors that can stop you from getting to the top. So, so we are not reinventing the wheel. We are doing very similar to, and obviously everyone has their own spin in their own, you know, way of doing things. But. We are doing pretty much the same thing as these top agents did that paved the way for us and hopefully will pave the way for other agents in the future.

Right. But, but that is it. The logic is there, there are successful people in this industry. Anyone can be as successful if not more successful, if they don’t give up and they, and they, and they stay to the formula. I take notes to that. Take the nose as well. There’s gonna be so many of them. Hey David, before your next question here, how many of you can I see a raise of hands from the people that have cameras on?

How many of you actually do door? Knock? Definitely 1, 2, 3. Okay. We gotta get more. People’s hands up because I’m telling you, we founded our business off door knocking. We did it every single day. We started in this business with no contacts. No, nobody, nothing. And I’m gonna give you a quick one. We just, and this is actually really important.

We. In 2013 in April, 2013, we went out door knocking and you know what? This is such an awesome story, cuz it just came back around full circle. We door knocked a tear down. Exactly. Like I just told you and David and I used to make it fun. We do it together. We do rock paper scissors for who was gonna knock the door and this one particular door we happened to knock together, at a cul-de-sac on Peru way, you guys can look it up 6, 7, 5 Peru way.

And it was a 30,000 square foot lot. There was a one bedroom, 2,700 square foot square foot for mid-century, modern house on it. Long story short, we door knocked it. We sold it for 6.5 million from a door knock to a develop. We just last Friday closed that transaction as a 15,000 square foot, new construction home.

And we closed it for 37 million and that’s seven, eight years later. And thank you, David, but you know what the reality is. I’m telling you that because we know it works. It’s a proven and tested strategy that people use today that works. And I will give you a cliche. If you go into the mindset every time you door knock, and every time you hear the word, no, instead of it beating you down and bringing you down every single time you hear the word.

No, you’re closer to a. Mm-hmm think about that for a minute. That’s an unbelievable that doesn’t have to be in door knocking that can be in your everyday life of selling real estate. You know, every single time you hear the word. No, you’re closer to a yes. And once you inherit that mindset and you have that mentality, boom, you can go out and kill it because then you’re not afraid of rejection.

In fact, the rejection only motivates you to be more successful and to get that next. Fuck it. No. Who cares? Great. Bring on the nos. Let’s go for the yeses. Yeah, we don’t have the fear inside of us. We can’t afford to have fear in this business cuz the fear will bring you down and another agent will come right in and swoop up right behind you and take that deal.

There’s no time for fear. Okay, you gotta have the faith. You gotta have the willpower, the belief, the energy, the courage that you can be the best in this business. And so I’m telling you whoever didn’t raise their hand for door knocking, get out door, knock, and, let’s come back and do this again in six months and hear some of your stories, cuz I’m telling you.

From six and a half mail to, 37. That’s a mic drop. That’s a mic drop, beautiful mic drop because guys I’m telling you it works. You know, it, it, it does. And there’s no rocket science behind it, you know, mm-hmm it was, it was a tear down a developer thought, bought it, built it. We got the listing on the back end.

Usually developers will be loyal to the person that brought them the deal. Right. So if you can bring them the deal, you get the listing signed on the back. You’ll see it through from a to Z. And I’m telling you that six and a half million, a great fee there, and another great fee on the back end at 37.

That’s a lot of money. That’s not a joke. So it does work. We know people that still do it today. We would do it more if we could, if there was time, we still do it periodically, but it works. So please, I urge you all to go out and do it. What a breakdown. fantastic. Now we all know. Listings, like once you get a listing, that’s the best lead generator.

It really is. So really, what do you do to leverage listings once you get them? Do you do the mailers and what, what do you do to, leverage those? That’s your time to shine? I mean that, yeah. I remember someone telling us when we got our first listing, they go. Even on the open house, right. Put as many open house signs as possible, just because that’s just another excuse to get your name out there.

Right. Mm-hmm and, and let everyone see, you know, your brand, your name and get familiar within that area that you’re farming. Right. You know, sit the open houses you used to sit. I used to I’d sit a broker’s open. I would sit anything. And, and even if it wasn’t busy because just takes that one person to come through the door.

Right. But I think single handedly, you can build a business just based on sitting open houses and, and using your own network. Literally. That’s it. The rest of it. If you wanna Dawn knock on top of it. If you wanna market yourself with mailers, et cetera, et cetera. I mean, literally that’s great, but, but it’s, it’s, it’s enough basically to build a business.

That’s how strong having a listing is to get your name, your brand, meet people with the open houses, do the showings get direct buyers that may buy your listing if they don’t sell them something else. So, so, so I think it’s hugely important. That’s why we’ve got put so much time into getting. Yeah, I think it’s important to leverage listings and leverage listings off market as well.

I think that’s critical, to drive business. Now here’s a question. This is interesting. E every seller in this market thinks their home is, you know, equal to the Taj Maha, right? right. how do you, how do you help sellers set a realistic expectation on maybe their list, price and sale price for that?

That’s a great question. What’s the typical price point that you guys are dealing with? Oh, geez. I mean, we were gonna use 2 million as an example. yeah, let’s use let’s, east coast. Let’s go. Yeah, 2 million. Let’s do it. You know, I, I I’ll tell you what I’ve been doing and it’s been working and it’s actually the absolute truth to the reality of what’s happening.

You know, when you go for a listing meeting, And the property is worth $2 million and the seller tells you, well, they think it’s worth three happens every single time. You know, I give them the reality of how the market is today, you know, two years ago. If your property was worth $2 million, you would list it at three and somebody would come in and negotiate and you’d end up settling it around 2.2, 2.3, 2.4.

That’s the way the market was two years ago. Fast forward to today. And you have a $2 million property, the best strategy that you can do. Mr. Or Mrs. Seller is underpriced the property at 1,000,009, 9, 9 50. Drive up the price in multiple offers. The reason that you’re seeing 15, 20, 25 offers isn’t because the market’s inflated or it’s on fire it’s that the pricing strategy has just changed.

So in order to maximize the biggest and highest number for your house, we have to do things in the. We have to underprice it because two years ago, you would’ve got 2, 2, 2, 3, but if you price it at 1,000,009, 9, 9 50 today, you’re gonna get 2025 offers and you’re probably gonna get 2, 3, 2, 4. So you’re actually gonna get more money now by doing the reverse.

And then once you do the reverse a you get the listing B you’re setting the expectation and C you let them know that. It may or may not happen. We don’t have a crystal ball. but this is what we’re seeing. This is what we’re expecting. And then that way you’re testing the market. You’re testing the price strategy.

And by the way, if they’re not serious and they don’t take your advice and they still want 3 million, then you have to reconsider. Do you even want this listing? because a listing takes time and the power of actually turning a listing down is sort of the, I think the ultimate key to success. Don’t waste your time on a listing.

That’s never gonna sell. Don’t put your time and energy into a listing that the second or third broker’s gonna get six to eight months down the line at the right number. Get it at the right price in this market. You gotta take advantage of the market, the low rates, the low inventory and capitalize. So I think set yourself up for success.

Set the realistic expectation from the beginning and ultimately tell the buyer or the seller. Sorry, you’re gonna end up getting more money now than you could have two years ago doing this in the reverse way round. That’s brilliant. I hope everyone was taking notes on that. Right. It’s impossible to, underprice a property in a free market, right?

Nathan? Yep. and David, James, everyone. Yeah. It’s impossible. Yeah, but that’s, I that’s genius advice. very, very smart. Now here’s a question. we have a lot of new agents, joining the industry. Maybe they’re changing careers, you know, brand new, in the industry. We’ve seen that a lot. This happens in a hot market sometimes.

What, what should new agents. Thinking about as they get into the business, or in other words, maybe we could ask, like, what does it take for a new agent to become successful? Any advice, brand new agent Adderall? No joking. Sorry.

my bad. That was a joke. Not even funny. Dave, go ahead and answer it, but I, I certainly have my thoughts on that. No, I couldn’t agree more. Yes. Exactly. No, I think, okay. Next question. Adderall. As a new agent, as a new agent, you’ve gotta be prepared. We put a statistic out on the  Blueprint, which we’ll talk about shortly mm-hmm

I think real estate is the number one industry right now through COVID the number one industry. The highest number of new people coming into the business. Mm-hmm . So if you think coming into this business is gonna be easy and a quick way to make a paycheck. You are wrong. If you think you’re gonna coast through your next 12 months and do one deal and make 20, 30 grand.

And. You’re chilling. You are wrong. This is a business you have to come to battle every single day. You have to put in 110%. You have to be willing to work harder than the competition. Roll up your sleeves. It is a business that is cutthroat. It can be fun, but it is very competitive. And unless you are willing to give this thing 110%, my true advice is go start another.

Because if you don’t give it a hundred, 10%, like I said before, someone’s gonna come up right behind you, steal that client, take that listing, take that buyer. And they’re gonna be at their 110% capacity. So if you’re in this business right now, when it’s more competitive than it’s ever been before, where other businesses are suffering, that you don’t wanna be a part of right now, you better.

To battle, you better be coming to put up your sleeves and go hard. And if you go hard and you go 110%, there is no reason you can’t be incredibly successful at this business. And that really is the only advice I can give. Well, who needs coffee? That was fantastic. David, you had some thoughts on that.

No, no, I totally, I totally agree. You, you mm-hmm it’s not gonna get done for you. We’ve said it so many times. You’ve got to be willing to work harder than everyone else and work smarter than everyone else. And don’t be afraid to make mistakes. Everyone makes mistakes. Like people’s biggest reason for not trying something.

It’s because they’re scared of failure. They’re scared of if I screw it up, what if I mess this up? Mm-hmm everyone messes everything up. You cannot physically or mentally, or emotionally or spiritually become successful without making a ton of mistakes. And without sounding cliche, I kind of love the line that they say success is failure turned inside out.

It is that’s all it basically is. It’s a series of failures that we learn. It’s like being a kid again. I look at my young daughter. All she does is makes mistakes. She gets back up, she falls over, she gets back up. She, she, she learns from her mistakes and then you just develop it’s, it’s amazing seeing it in its infancy.

It’s the same bloody thing, right. With anything it’s like, we’re gonna make mistakes. That’s how we’re gonna learn. Do not be afraid to make mistakes, embrace those mistakes and look at them as tokens to get to being successful. Yeah. Fantastic advice now, I do L James, I love your breakdown on this next question.

and it’s the importance of unique selling propositions or the need to differentiate yourself as a real estate agent. Can you tell us why it’s so important to be different, to niche down and to have uniques. Of course, I mean, who the fuck wants to be the same as the next person, right? It’s like, and, and, and again, unless you have a unique selling point, you’re just like everybody else.

That’s the reality. Okay. You go door knocking and you’re like the same stupid pitch as the next person. Why they gonna listen to you? This is the thing we talk about over and over and over. Be creative. Think outside of the box, do things different to the competition. Nobody wants to work with somebody that has the exact same thing to offer as the person, before them.

That’s boring. It’s the same. And even if it’s your level of energy, your level of excitement, your level of passion, you are already setting yourself apart from the person before and the person. I don’t wanna work with someone that’s monotone and boring. I wanna work with this guy here, David Todd. Who’s like buzzing in his corner, right there.

Rock and roll. He’s clapping. He’s excited. He’s got energy. There’s people that sit there in a very low and that’s okay. But I think you need to elevate who you are elevate your unique selling point. Every single one of us in this room has something that is unique about. That the next person doesn’t have.

So use that unique selling point to take you to the next level. Right. I’m not an analytical guy. So if I rock up to a listing meeting and try and be Mr. Analytical, it’s probably gonna backfire or not feel organic to me, let the, or let the person that is go and do that. But I do have the energy. I do have the excitement.

I do have the passion and I can bring that. So I’m gonna use that as my unique selling point. You might be a mother. You might. Father, you might be someone at church, a synagogue. I don’t know what the hell you are or what your unique selling point is, but you have to identify who you are, what your strengths are and go out and utilize them to your advantage, to gain more business.

And if you can do that in the right way and position yourself and be in the right place at the right time, the risk is history. You put in the work you put in the time you find out your unique selling point. There is no reason that you can’t be successful at. Business and again, and I know we’re gonna talk about it, but if each and every one of you go to read the  Blueprint.com, it’s a newsletter, it’s free.

We put it out, I think twice a week, Tuesdays and Fridays, we talk about all of this. Twice a week, and this is why we did it, cuz we’re passionate about where we came from to where we are today. And we wanted to share it with other agents that are in our business. So, you know, I’m telling you find your unique selling point, have excitement and, and go get it.

Oh, man. I, I love that breakdown. you and I have talked about that before. I, I just love the way you talk about that. so I think that’s important. Hopefully everybody’s taking notes. now let’s just, before we talk about the  Blueprint specifically, I just wanna ask you about social media. you guys do really well with that.

You’re very consistent. any advice or solid tips for utilizing social media? What should agents be thinking? Dave, you wanna answer that? Or I’m happy to no, go for it. Go for it. Social media is the same as door knocking. If you’re not consistent with it, don’t bother doing it at all. You know, social media is something that you have to do consistently.

You have to find out what your brand is, what your brand is about. If you’re gonna post about real estate, make sure that you’re posting about good topics of information, share knowledge, be a wealth of information to your clientele. If you’re gonna do Instagram lives, make sure you’re doing it once a week at the same time, if you’re gonna post about real estate, make sure that you’re preparing yourself with the right tags, positioning yourself, and learning to post at the right times.

Engage with your audience. Always engage with the people, find out what questions they’re asking, make sure to respond to those questions. Make sure that the information you’re putting out is relevant. If you are a new agent in the business and you don’t have 15 listings, then find out what else you can post that might be relevant to your sphere of influence, but remain consistent with it at all times and make.

Consistent with your brand, who you are and what you wanna put out. But again, this business is about remaining consistent, no matter what you do. So if you’re gonna do it, do it on a consistent level, what’s comfortable to you. Yeah, no fantastic advice. okay. what. Are we going to expect for the rest of 20, 22, or what do you expect for the rest of 2022?

Any bold predictions? I think it’s gonna be very, very strong. I actually think 2022 is gonna be even stronger and already has proven itself than 2021. There is, especially in LA pent opt demand, right? When you are looking at one property that has 30 offers, 40 offers on it. Only one buyer is gonna prevail.

That basically means that 29, 39 other buyers are still ready, willing, and able to purchase a property and still looking. Right. So that kind of pen up demand. Is huge. Now I know someone mentioned that the supplier is actually, increasing now where you guys are. That’s great news, because that just creates more opportunity for, for, for, for, for, for agents representing buyers.

Right. That’s like a dream it’s like, give us more inventory, give us more product to sell. Right. So, so I’m kind of envious of that, which is why I actually asked that question. I hope that inventory. Frees up in LA because that’s really gonna help us. so I would say from, from your guys’s perspective, if inventory’s freeing up the money’s there, the demands there, the rates are still low.

Go for it, just to go for it and make as much. I think James had mentioned make as much money as you can do as many deals as you can right now, while things are hot. Mm-hmm . Well, yep. That’s a, yeah, it seems reasonable, for the rest of 2022. final question. Before we ask about the  Blueprint specifically, what do agents need to be doing right now to take advantage of, 20, 22 and beyond?

Is there one thing that an agent needs to focus on if off the top of your head? What’s one thing they should be focusing on? Well, can there a soft , but I, I, I there’s nothing. But guys it’s open houses. It’s door knocking. Mm-hmm , it’s being consistent. It’s remembering this is a listings driven business. Go get listings, go focus.

And I’m telling you push the gas and work harder now than you’ve ever worked before. Cause you’re all gonna be feeling sorry for yourselves fast forward a year from now. If the market doesn’t look the same way, you’re all gonna be saying to each other. I wish I took advantage of the market when it was like this, you know, and I don’t wanna be a pessimistic guy.

Markets are cyclical. They go up, they go down. That’s just the world we live in. It’s the reality we live in right now. We’re moving up. Even if it’s softening in Canada, it’s still rocking. Rates are still lower than they were five years ago. Inventory still tighter than it was five years ago. Go out and take advantage of the market.

Right. Right. Right now, That’s good, David. Totally. Yeah. I mean, you just gotta, I would focus right now on, on, on listings and, and preparing your buyers for, you know, potential multiples. I think just, you know, hard work is a given in any market in any industry, but I totally agree with James, you know, especially when it’s there for the taking, you’ve got to push yourself harder than ever.

but I think just, you know, keep your eye on. Stays blame. Don’t get tempted to, to pull a fast Swan and, and take a shortcut. They don’t work. Okay. The only things that work long time, long term are hard work. Staying in your lane, being ethical and treating your clients like they’re your family, that’s it?

You know, every time I do that, I’m like, what would I say to my mom? What would I want from this transaction? Put it out there. I swear on my. Mark my words, that amount, that energy you’re putting out, that, that, that, that consideration you’re putting back will pay you back. Tenfold. Even if you are doing it for selfish reasons, you’re gonna feel good as well.

Great advice now, listen, everyone, all of this and more is actually covered. In the newsletter  Blueprint. Now I know James, you touched on it there for a minute. what’s the story behind, or the Genesis of this project and, what’s the goal behind it here? I mean, honestly, it’s really simple. Yeah. you know, it it’s like here we are two dudes from London that hadn’t.

Really had a clue about what was going on in the real estate market when we started. Right. And now we fast forward to today, we got a wealth of information, a wealth of knowledge. and we wanted to put it out there. We really did. So we decided that we were gonna share this information with the world and twice a week, the whole premise here is that you wake up in.

On Tuesday, you wake up on Friday, you take two to five minutes to read the  Blueprint and you go out and have a better day, or you learn one thing in that newsletter that helped you better yourself as an agent in that day. And you know, when we were setting it up, we were toying with how do we go about the approach of this?

We said, we wanna do it for free. We want to give back to the other agents, wanna give back to the community. We wanna put out good information. We want to build it and see where it goes. And so every Tuesday, every Friday, the  Blueprint comes out. and I’m hoping that you read one thing that’s relevant to you in that newsletter.

And it makes you go out and be a better agent that day. Also, I would say, and, and, and, you know, the inspiration is like, there’s so much news out there, right? Some of it’s relevant, some of it’s irrelevant. And, and when I was a new agent, when we were new agents, I’d always want to think like, okay, what do I do here?

What, what do I, all this news, what is relevant? What is it relevant? What, what is the, what are the top. Think about this at the time, or be like, Mauricio, what do you think he would make of this? Right. So all we’ve done is we’ve selected the articles twice a week that we feel are most relevant and given our take on it, mm-hmm and it’s so concise.

It’s so easy. And it’s basically it’s there. It’s what we always wanted. And I, I, I feel that we are kind of giving that back and hopefully, hopefully people will find it. Well, I went through it and I was impressed. Actually. It’s, it’s a quick read off, but really punchy and. I loved it sense. I I’ve been in the business a long time and I’ve seen, you know, hundreds of newsletters.

It’s one of the best ones I’ve seen. Nice, simple, punchy. you know, the headlines are very, very relevant. So everybody goes, sign up there. It’s read what is it? Read  Blueprint.com. Is that it? Yep. It’s just www dot. Read the  Blueprint.com and share feedback. You know, and, and refer it to your friends. I think we have some really cool referral programs and perks actually.

so send us an email. We’ll we’ll happily tell you more about that. Mm-hmm and David, I know I say this every single time we talk, but I love what you are doing for your agents. I, I, I respect you, to the highest I wish we. Did more of what you do here, but you, you do, you take care of your agents. Since today, I met you.

You’ve been consistent with this podcast, consistent with everything you’re doing. And for anyone else that follows all these people, doing what David’s doing, nobody comes with the graphics. And the sounds that he does. I love it when I know I’m going up. I can’t wait to repost it stuff, cuz there’s some great hip hop, cool graphics.

And you are, you’re truly providing a, a, a service. I have to assume that. Head and shoulders above other brokerages out in Canada. So, if you are, if you’re on David’s team there at GP G good for you guys and David Good for you, man, for putting out everything you do. Aw, man, I appreciate those words, James.

Thank you for having us. It means a lot and, and you guys are awesome and just, you know, it’s, we’re all in the same boat at the end of the day, right? Mm-hmm so it’s, it’s it’s if, if we look at ourselves as one big group, one big team, it’s a very powerful concept. And, and, and thank you, David. Yeah, I, I, I echo dreams as Senti.

Hundred percent. So thank you for having us all. Oh, thank you very much. everyone, you wanna give, you can unmute give big round of applause, for giving up the time. I know James had to move some appointments today to be here. So big. Thank you to James Bravo. Chris, any updates? Or, Lynn. Oh, great job boys as usual.

That was really good. So thank you for that. I won’t people realize people don’t realize James and all those guys. We’re honored. Thank you. thank you much. Appreciate it guys. I’m gonna check out, but I hope everyone has an unbelievable week. All James and, we look forward to connecting with all of you again soon.

James. Thanks again, James. Great day. Thank you. Thank you. All. Take care. Bye bye guys.