Business Innovators Radio - Exploring the Journey: Pierre Miller’s Path from Air Force to Real Estate

Starting point is 00:00:00 Welcome to the Agents Lounge podcast, where we talk all things real estate with the industry's top performers. Join us as we dive into the inspiring journeys of successful agents and uncover the secrets to their success. Whether you're a seasoned agent or just starting out, we've got the tips and tricks to help you navigate the world of real estate. Brought to you by Eritory Comfort Solutions. So grab a seat and join us in the Agents Lounge. Welcome back to the Agents Lounge podcast. Episode 11. Joining us today is Mr. Pierre Miller with Kimberly Howell Properties.

Starting point is 00:00:38 How's it going? That's going great. It's another great day to be alive and have an opportunity to do business. Yeah. Awesome. So let's just jump right into it. Actually, an icebreaker question. Okay.

Starting point is 00:00:52 Are you excited about the aliens? Or the, you know, I'm sure you've seen at least the memes. Well, I thought they were. already here. The scrolls, right? Oh, yeah, the pigeons, too. Yeah. I guess I'd say I'm excited about it.

Starting point is 00:01:12 Yeah. As long as they're friendly. I mean, yeah. There's so many different ways that I guess I could go. I mean, if it crashed here, I don't know. And like where they're from, how far they travel? That's, you know, maybe a different podcast. Do they have a good lot?

Starting point is 00:01:33 You know. Yeah, right. You got a Starbucks, you know, in the Vega system, I don't know. That's funny. All right. So basically, we just are going to ask you, like, maybe what did you do before you got into real estate? Yeah, absolutely. So previous to being in real estate, the job I actually held was a sales manager for a Fortune 500

Starting point is 00:02:03 company before that I was a sales associate and then before that I was in the air force really yeah what did you do in the air force I actually was a dental technician oh yeah yeah so and uh did you enjoy it I did um you know the thing for me is you know it was a little tough being you know at that time I was 6-6-200 and I'd say 40 pounds you know you know gained a little bit more weight since them but um you know just a little tough you know trying to maneuver in a small dental treatment room and having bigger hands and whatnot. Right. But, you know, bedside manner. I had to try to make sure that, you know, I was good with that and working with the doctor. So I enjoyed that aspect of it.

Starting point is 00:02:46 Well, that's cool. So what was the transition like? So you said military, and then what was after that? So I was in the Air Force. I did four years and then I re-enlisted. And during that time, I actually got a licensure and massage. therapy. Oh, yeah? And I was actually doing massage therapy mobile at the time. And, I mean, it's a little sporadic with regards to that. No, no, I mean. But, you know, as far as, you know, in that space and that business. And I started working part-time. Yeah. At the, it was CarMax, is where I was working at. And, you know, I really liked it. And I really liked it. And I really like sales. I liked interacting with people and providing them a service. And so it kind of grew

Starting point is 00:03:33 from there. And once I was done with my second enlistment, you know, just went and went that started working at full time. Nice. I bet your wife is pretty happy if you're a licensed massage therapist. Yes. You know, I would say that was, I guess, one of the tools in my toolbox. I would say that that allowed me to be, I guess, desirable for her. Yeah. So can you also cook? you a good cook? I cannot cook. That's a trade-off. So a couple things I can make a really good. It's called an egg in a basket. What you do is you take a piece of bread and you put a butter on the skillet. You cut out a little hole for the egg, put the egg in there, turn it over,

Starting point is 00:04:24 cook it like that. Oh yeah. I've seen that. Yeah. So I can do that really, really well. My grandmother used to do that. And, you know, I watched to do it. And that's one thing I can do. I can make a mean grilled cheese, too. Yeah, same. I probably excel at breakfast more than anything else. Like anything breakfast related outside of that, it's probably hot dogs.

Starting point is 00:04:44 Yeah. I like my bacon crispy. My wife, not so much. Oh, yeah. So she, you know, she kind of lets me cook the bacon, but she monitors. Yeah. So. So how did you find,

Starting point is 00:04:58 Kimberly Howell? Well, so a couple things. If you go into the San Antonio Board of Realtors, I haven't been there lately, but you'll see her name on the wall. Well, her name and her face on the wall, just because contributions that she's made through TREPEC. And, you know, she's been in business for 30 years. And then at the time, my wife had a Porsche. and we took it to a automotive shop that specialized in, I guess, foreign cars, Porsches, you know, Ferraris, BMWs, whatnot. And, you know, I think Kimberly at that time was taken, she had a Cadillac escalate. She took her escalate there.

Starting point is 00:05:49 And they, you know, everybody knew through just casual conversation. I was going through realtor school. and, you know, they rave so much about Kimberly Howell is such a great, great realtor. Yeah. You know, great team, great group. And so that really intrigued me. And then, you know, just in the course of, you know, being in class and asking people, her name just kept on coming up, you know, as far as being, you know, a really good place to be as far as a brokerage and just a realtor in general.

Starting point is 00:06:20 Kind of along the same lines like with air integrity, you know, asked around about, you know, good HVAC companies and y'all name came up seven times. Yeah. You know, in a forum, you know, talking to other realtors. That's awesome. So do you predominantly deal with commercial or residential? Residential. Residential.

Starting point is 00:06:44 I would like to move into the commercial space at some point, but for right now, residential. Okay. Is there any pros and cons between dealing with residential customers or commercial? or differences, I guess, between the two? Yeah, I don't know if I'd call it pros or cons. It's just different in terms of, you know, residential, you know, you go, you look at the house, you're talking about people who are going to be living there that's going to be, for the most part. Yeah.

Starting point is 00:07:14 People are living there. They, you know, want to see what the backyard looks like, you know, how does it feel? What's the layout of the house? There's a lot of emotional connection to it. Right. And very much so. You know, us as human beings, the human aspect of it is, is I want to find a place that's going to be working for me, not only from a budget standpoint, but then also from, you know, does it feel like home? Yeah.

Starting point is 00:07:38 With the commercial side, and again, you know, I don't do the commercial side, but from what I've been told, it's more about the numbers, you know, do the numbers work. Right. On return on investment. Yeah. Not to say that residential doesn't provide you return on investment if you decide to sell. but you're looking at it for more just a logical numbers perspective on the commercial side of the house. Yeah.

Starting point is 00:08:02 Dealing with like property investors who own residential. Yeah. So have to discuss ROI on that, right? Yeah, absolutely. I have a question for you. So you just said you started from a dental assistant and then you did sales and then realtor, right? Mm-hmm.

Starting point is 00:08:20 You have a very soothing voice, like very calm. Oh, thank you. Did you get that from dental assistance? I need you to send that to my wife and let her know. She sometimes, you know, she says, you're a little bit too blunt sometimes with your clients. And I'm like, oh, well, I don't. I feel as important to tell truth. Continue, I'm sorry.

Starting point is 00:08:38 Yeah. So, I mean, because when you go into that dental training, right, there's a certain way you have to treat the clients. Absolutely. Is that something you picked up there or? Yeah, I would call it bedside, man. I mean, obviously, so communication, they say 90% is nonverbal, right? You know, and sometimes you're not going to be able to see that if you're just on the phone, things of that nature. But definitely when you got someone, you know, no one wants to go see the dentist, right?

Starting point is 00:09:11 Yeah. So, you know, for me, it was important to me that my patient at that time, you know, was felt very, very, very, as relaxed as could be. And so for me, you know, you don't want to be, you know, loud and I don't know what I call obnoxious or anything like that. But, you know, I get them in a chair, ask them, you know, comfortable where they need anything or just a chair. For me, like my go-to was really just comedy jokes, you know, get them thinking about something other than the fact I'm about to have a tooth worked on or something like that. Right. Does that translate into your job now? Yes, I think absolutely.

Starting point is 00:09:53 I mean, you know, you look at the aspect from, you know, having a bedside manner and, you know, working in a dental clinic to, you know, people wanting to buy a car, you know, people want to make a purchase, the largest purchase that they might probably going to be making, you know, which is their home real estate. You want to make them feel comfortable. I don't know if even really it's more of a sales thing as opposed to just being someone who is providing them information and, and, and, and, and, and, and. being an advocate for them. And, you know, one thing that Kimberly talks about a lot is just honoring your fiduciary, meaning placing the client's needs above all others in any transaction. You know, and I think there's a three-pronged, you know, I call it a tack to it. It's just they want to know that you're competent, you know, that you know what you're doing,

Starting point is 00:10:44 that you're going to competently negotiate for them, that you're going to, if it's selling their home, you're going to, you know, be able to, able to market it in such a way to, where it actually gets sold and sold for the highest price possible. You know, you want to be communicating, communicative, have great communication in terms of ensuring that they know what's going on, what's going on in the market, what's going on with their property, what's going on for the home that they're trying to purchase, you know, what's the ends and outs, what exactly they're getting into.

Starting point is 00:11:13 And then I think probably maybe most important, the other two are still very important, is that you care about them as a human being. Yeah. And so I just try to employ that with every interaction that I have with clients. Yeah. Yeah. I feel that, I mean, it's the biggest purchase you'll probably make in your life.

Starting point is 00:11:32 Absolutely. And giving them confidence and trust. I mean, the way you communicate, I can see that that's one of your strengths as an agent. Yeah. Because I feel like I'm always shouting. But we're dealing with technicians. lot of times and they're like, go here, go there, and run over here. It's like, traveling.

Starting point is 00:11:56 Yeah, it's a lot. I'm going to try your strategy next week. Yeah. I mean, honestly, if you could be blunt, like your wife was saying, but if you, if you deliver it with that voice, you know, it's not so bad. Yeah. I mean, and again, we're all, we're all, all of us are, you know, always trying to improve, right, you know, in our profession.

Starting point is 00:12:16 And for me, you know, I can get excitable and, you know, especially if, you know, I'm with it because one of the aspects I like being when I'm a buyer's agent is I like going and looking at all the houses, you know, with the client and seeing their eyes kind of open up to, you know, the possibilities of what's there. And I'll get excited with them because I'm like, ooh, this is, you know, got a double door. It's a French door or, you know, they see some, ooh, it's got an inground pool or, you know, stuff like that. Yeah, that's cool. And maybe we get it because I used to be an elementary teacher and I feel like I stayed the same. like talking, when I talk, I feel like I'm shouting. You're like you're talking to elementary kids, right?

Starting point is 00:12:56 Yeah, I think you've got to give yourself credit and give yourself some grace, though, because, I mean, like you just said, in the environment, you know, sometimes you have to project your voice, right? Yeah. Because maybe it's in an environment and someone's upstairs, maybe you're downstairs, you've got to make sure you're heard, you know, given directive, you know, on a repair or a replacement of, you know. Yeah, but I couldn't imagine me pulling the teeth out and telling them,

Starting point is 00:13:18 hey, I'm going to pull that thing out of it. Don't move. Sweating bullets. So what does the market look like for first-time home buyers? I guess within the past year, has it picked up? Has it increased, increased? So here's the thing I would say based upon my own personal experiences of what I've seen, and then also what the data.

Starting point is 00:13:50 says. Yeah. Okay. 18 months ago, you know, you have 3% interest rates, you know, not enough inventory. So you really have a frenzy in terms of, you know, on the residential side, you know, there's multiple offer situations and things of that nature. Yeah. Flood in the water. Yeah. And so, you know, for a lot of buyers that really, you know, if they don't have a realtor that can help navigate them through. that process, it can be really daunting, overwhelming, you know, it can be scary. Yeah. That's what we were faced with then. Now, you know, you got interest rates, you know, been hovering around six and a half to

Starting point is 00:14:35 seven percent, you know. And so there's people who are out there saying, well, it's not a good time to buy. Well, it depends upon what your situation is. For a first time buyer, there's plenty of, you know, programs that are out there to help with first-time buyers, even with, you know, downpayment assistance, things of that nature. And, you know, and that's why it's important to get yourself with a loan officer who can help navigate that process for you and decide what's going to be best for you. Even though the rates are higher than what they were, the inventory is still limited.

Starting point is 00:15:07 Yeah. And what I've told my clients who are sellers, and I seem to have, you know, mostly have mostly sellers over the last, you know, six to nine months, is that, hey, be willing to help out these buyers to get them to the closing table, meaning, you know, complete the transaction. Yeah. And what that means is providing them with closing costs, you know, in such a way that they can, what we call buy down that rate. Yeah. Drive the rate down by giving, you know, the buyer, you know, enough money to be able

Starting point is 00:15:38 to make the transaction happen. So to come back to your original question, I feel like it's still a good market for first-time buyers. And for anybody who does not actually have real estate. state right now. So, I mean, if you have a home, Francisco, if you have a home and you're paying 3%, you've got to really justify why I'm going to go buy another house to move into and pay 7%, right? No. You know, and it's got to be a good enough reason. Maybe you've got some extra cash on hand.

Starting point is 00:16:09 Now, if you're a first-time buyer, you're renting. Well, how much interest are you paying? 100%. 100? Yeah. And the reality of... More than 100, to be honest. You're covering the more Goods plus some, yeah? Yeah. So, you know, the reality of real estate, you know, it's a slow burn in the sense that typically you have 2 to 6% appreciation per year. Now, in 2020 and 2021, the city of San Antonio, we had 23% appreciation year over year from March of 2020 to March of 2021.

Starting point is 00:16:39 That's crazy. And then you had 19% from, I believe, March of 2021 to March of 2022. Yeah. So you had 40% appreciation. Now we're kind of more back to that 2% to 6%. Yeah. But if you wait, keep on waiting, then you're going to be, yeah, you might get a rate that's maybe it's a little bit lower, but the price of the house is going to be higher. Yeah.

Starting point is 00:17:00 And so that's the dynamic with which you have to really navigate through, and we're having a realtor really is going to help you because find a home as a first-time buyer that you can afford. Yeah. You're not house poor, meaning, you know, you're just living to pay your mortgage. Right, yeah. Something you can afford. And it doesn't have to be. You got a house like no furniture or some beach chair. or something.

Starting point is 00:17:21 It doesn't have to be like this grand mansion. Right. You know, it can be, you know, I don't want to call it a starter home, but a three-bedroom, two-bath, you know, maybe 1,600, 600 square feet. You know, live in that. And then when the rates come down, refinance, all the while you're building net equity like we talked about as far as that 2-6% average. Yeah. I'll give you an example of that. I bought a home in 2012.

Starting point is 00:17:50 My realtor was Larry Campbell, one of my real estate mentors. And I bought my house for $247,000. The house across the street, even with the rates increasing, last year sold for $415,000. I've been in my house for about 10 years. Jeez. So I'm sitting on $200,000 roughly of equity. Yeah. You know?

Starting point is 00:18:14 And it's a beautiful thing because it allows you, you can't really, we talk about the American dream, right? Everybody wants to, you know, pursue that, obtain that. You can't really focus on all that until you can control your own living economic situation. So first-time buyers, I feel like it's a really good opportunity, not only from sellers who are coached up by the realtors to offer closing costs, but then also the incentives that it's in the building, you know, the builders are offering a lot of consent, you know, incentives right now. Yeah. So for, you know, buyers out there.

Starting point is 00:18:53 What about for second home buyers or third home buyers? Because I got my second home, but it wasn't because I wanted to. Okay. We used to live in Brownsville. Okay. And we got to prove for another home here and we ended up renting our home in Brownsville. Paid that off and now we have this one, right? But I forgot where I was going with this question.

Starting point is 00:19:17 But for somebody that just owns. home right now, like when you coach them through the process of acquiring a second home or how would that conversation go? Well, I mean, again, my job is to sell homes, right? But I also feel like, again, back to the point that I talked about, fiduciary, what's in the best interest of the client? You know, that answer that you're looking for is going to be very nuanced in terms of what is their situation, what's their financial situation, you know, because I never

Starting point is 00:19:49 want to put anybody in a situation to where they feel and stretch them. So a part of it is just having a hard conversation with them. I wouldn't call it hard, but a blunt conversation with them about, hey, if we were to go and buy this other house, how is that going to help, how is it going to handle your finances? And keep in mind that long term, you're always going to win because real estate appreciates. But we want to make sure, obviously, when you go through that process, that we're not, we're not stretching you thin financially to where it can be a struggle, you know, for you in that regard. Yeah, I mean, that's a good point, especially for almost any place in Texas right now.

Starting point is 00:20:28 It's just such a hot spot in San Antonio, even more so just because. Well, here's the thing I'll tell you is that, you know, if you're trying, if you're trying to put, you know, go buy a home and say Stone Oak. Yeah. You're going to pay premium. It's an established area. Yeah, right. Nice area. Even, you know, where I live in, I live in Alamo Ranch, you know, again, just to the point that I was talking about $247,000 10 years ago.

Starting point is 00:20:53 Now you got 400, 500, sometimes even $600,000 homes. But there are still places in the San Antonio area where you can find homes. St. Hedwick is an example, you know. And the property taxes out there is minimal versus, you know, somewhere in the city. you know, downtown San Antonio and stuff like that. So, I mean, there's still opportunities. There's always going to be opportunities. It's just you need a realtor to help you find it.

Starting point is 00:21:25 There's the plug. Shameless. Yeah, right. What is something that you wish you knew when you first started in reality that you know now, like if you could go talk to yourself at that starting point? Oh, that's, man, I'm just trying to, you know, I don't know if I can answer that question because my first transaction that I did, you know, sometimes they say, well, you don't, sometimes you're so optimistic you don't know any better. Beginning of the pandemic, you know, people were uncertain about the real estate market just in general. Yeah.

Starting point is 00:22:07 And there was a client in mind that, you know, wanted to purchase a half a million dollar home, you know, and, you know, talking to the loan office. sir talking to another mortgage company. They're like, well, we can do it in a year or we can do it in nine months. And we came across this model home. And the model home was beautiful. Long story short, I went to the loan offer. I said, hey, how much is it, if he wanted to purchase this thing in 30 days, what would it take? And he says, well, you need to ask for $25,000 in closing costs.

Starting point is 00:22:40 And I said, what? That's really bold. And I didn't know any better at the time. So I called Camille and I said, hey, do you think they would do that? She was like, ah, I don't know. You could ask. I don't know. It would be a tall ask, you know.

Starting point is 00:22:57 But I was bold enough to where I asked. And they said, well, let me think about it. Let's write up the contract. So I wrote up the contract. And then I got approved by their higher-ups, you know, three days later. Oh, wow. And, you know, everybody in broker was like, well, I can't believe that that happened. and then so he closed he's extremely happy you know the sales are up close to me it's like hey pierre congratulations

Starting point is 00:23:23 congratulations to your client just so you know that will never happen again i guess what i would say that try to answer your question the best i can after telling that story is uh just continually be trying to learn about the market you know staying up to date about the market and there's always going to be different scenarios. You learn something new in real estate every day, every year, every month. I mean, even Kimberly, you know, she talks about that a lot about, you know, you want to make sure that you're continuing that education aspect of, you know, because there's so many different variables to real estate, a transaction, you know, a property. Right. So. What's the best way to keep up with that type of stuff?

Starting point is 00:24:10 Is it just being in the field? Do you have like a certain source? Um, so, um, I really try to read, um, more real estate related content. Um, I don't want to speak ill of major media outlets, but, you know, sometimes the articles are a little bit behind what's actually happening. Like, we knew about multiple offer situations like six months before the news started reporting it. Yeah. We knew about, well, the rates were increasing and you need to help out buyers, you know. Yeah. Before, you know, we knew about the shortage of inventory in San Antonio. I mean, they're not building enough homes as fast as people want them. Right.

Starting point is 00:24:53 The influx of people. Yeah. So I think it's just a combination of just being able to lean on those, you know, I call it trusted resources and then just, you know, going and being in the market, you know, and. you know, my last transaction that I had, you know, it was a learning experience for me. It was my first time that on a VA loan that the appraisal came in low. And they call that a, what they call it as a tidewater. And so, you know, with Kimberly, you know, we formulated a plan to say, okay, because we get an opportunity to rebuttal, say, hey, no, the house is worth this amount. Yeah.

Starting point is 00:25:31 And we were successful. And so that was a learning experience for it. But now I can kind of speak to that. Yeah. Because I read about it. And it's important to read and be knowledgeable, but there's another part of doing it as well. For sure. Wow.

Starting point is 00:25:44 Yeah. I appreciate the information, honestly. You actually having, like, statistics in your head to, like, pull from, and you can actually, like, develop a solid explanation. Well, and thank you for that. You know, I try to do a lot of reading, you know, just in general and also about the market and, you know, I don't think there's any substitution for experience, but it does definitely help. And I'll, you know, if we're talking about statistics, I'll bring you one more.

Starting point is 00:26:19 We'll talk about first-time buyers, adding on to, you know, I guess a motivation for first-time buyers. Homeowners, on average. And the statistics have varied throughout the last, I'd say, you know, 12 months or so, but there are usually about 38 to 44 more times in terms of their net worth of what they have. Oh, wow. Versus just. Is that a nationwide stat?

Starting point is 00:26:43 Or is that a nationwide state? Yeah. So that's pretty crazy. Yeah. For our listeners, if you don't, if you're renting right now, look into buying home. Well, Mr. Miller, do you have any closing remarks? It's going to probably wrap it up for us today. No.

Starting point is 00:27:03 I would just like to say thank you for the opportunity to come in and just have a short conversation with y'all. And hopefully, you know, it was enlightening in terms of, you know, somewhat entertaining, you know. You know, I don't do any free license massage. But, you know, that's exclusive to my wife nowadays. But I do also want to say that, you know, in terms of I can't just state how I want to talk about, you know, this is the shameless plug for you all. So, airtegrity, you know, in terms of an HVAC company, has been the most responsive and has been, you know, the most gracious in terms of working with. And in terms of your reputation, and I know you are not, you know, extremely huge, but it's great what y'all doing in terms of providing quality service in HVAC, you know, but also doing quality work at a reasonable price, you know.

Starting point is 00:27:52 And so just want to thank you all for that. I appreciate that. Yeah, yeah. Thank you for that. That'll do it for episode 11 of Agents Lounge Podcast. You've been listening to the Agents Lounge Podcast, brought to you by Airetegrity Comfort Solutions. To learn more about the resources mentioned on today's show or to listen to past episodes, please visit agentsloungepodcast.com.

Business Innovators Radio - Exploring the Journey: Pierre Miller’s Path from Air Force to Real Estate

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