Business Innovators Radio - Interview with Elise LoSasso, Realtor with The Agency-Denver

Episode Date: July 28, 2023

Elise is a 3rd generation Denver native who was born to buy and sell Denver real estate. She offers a very competitive, sleek, and professional approach to the business, and with hundreds of successful closings, her clients provide her with 5-star reviews often referencing “class act”, “skilled negotiator”, and “the absolute best”. Whether you’re selling and/or buying, your home is incredibly important to her, and Elise truly believes it’s the space that relaxes, fulfills, and rejuvenates you; that it’s the place to express your style, your personality, and characteristics of yourself all while creating amazing, loving memories.As a premier Denver real estate agent, Elise’s intimate understanding of the Denver neighborhoods and other Colorado cities is extensive and gives her the capability to provide each of her clients with a customized buying and/or selling experience. She has learned the skills necessary to navigate and negotiate Denver’s thriving housing market guaranteeing that her clients get their dream homes. Her passion is people, and she thrives off the adrenaline of making them happy while assisting them with their search for their future homes.With 45 million in sales in 2022, Elise was recently recognized in the Top 1% of Denver Realtors® as well as in the top 1.5% of realtors in the country. In the past five years, Elise has been featured in 5280 Magazine, Denver Top Producers Magazine, The Concierge, Americas Women Magazine, Voyage Denver Magazine, and Vanity Fair. Elise and her husband, Stevie Tuck, are also very talented designers and building a team that enables Elise to be a one-stop shop for those buyers and/or sellers looking to build a new home or who need a creative design eye.Despite the demands of the profession, she remains active in her community working with various charities and reaching out to help others in any way that she can. After all, it’s what we put into action that matters and it’s a strong community that builds the wonderfully robust and friendly Denver neighborhoods around us. While she’s not helping others, you can find Elise exploring and hiking through the mountains, eating her way through the city, and spending time with her very outgoing and lovable husband and Italian family.Learn more:https://www.EliseLoSassoRE.comColorado Real Estate Leaders https://businessinnovatorsradio.com/colorado-real-estate-leaders/Source: https://businessinnovatorsradio.com/interview-with-elise-losasso-realtor-with-the-agency-denver

Welcome to the Colorado Real Estate Leaders Podcast, brought to you by Trailstone Insurance Group, bringing you interviews with Colorado's best real estate and mortgage professionals, empowering you to understand the current trends in the housing market so you can make the American dream your reality. Enjoy today's episode. Well, it's a great day in Colorado and welcome to the Colorado Real Estate Leaders podcast. Today we have with this Elise Lusasso, who's a realtor with the Agency Denver. Elise, welcome to the program. Hi, thank you so much for having me, Mike. You are welcome. Looking forward to talking with you because it's always neat to learn people's

perspectives and how they do business and how they serve their clients. And before we dive into that with you, give us a little bit of your background and your story. And how did you get into the real estate industry? Sure, no problem. So I'm a Denver native. I'm a third generation Denver native. I was, you know, kind of a little bit of a lost soul in my 20s. I actually did not finish at CU Boulder. I came home and was much more of like a hands-on trade school person. So I had a plethora of positions through my 20s, including paralegal, executive assistant to eight principals at an engineering firm. And then I got into luxury leasing. And so kind of those collective together, those positions to together, lined me up perfectly to get my real estate license.

And I had actually, you know, I had just called off a big wedding in my early 30s. I was like, what am I, you know, what am I going to do now? I really want to go for this. And I had moved back in with a girlfriend and kind of started all over again at 31 years old. And I was like, here we go. This is going to work or it's not. And I was, you know, literally hungry. Like you really have to.

I didn't have another job. I was like, I'm going to give up everything and just go for this. And I gave myself six months. And nothing pushes you harder than wanting to kind of show people like, what you're capable of. Like burn the boats. Yeah, exactly. And so I had my first closing in three months and it was just kind of hit the ground running

from there. In my first year, I did over $10 million in sales and I had really found my niche. And like I said, I think just kind of those positions in my 20s lined me up perfectly to know how to do sales negotiations, email correspondence, working with different personalities. So I just love what I do every day and it's been almost seven years now. You know, I think you said a mouthful there with some of those things you learned along the way. None of those were like, oh, that's a mistake. Let me try this.

And that's a mistake. Let me try that. Each one of those were learning experiences that built upon each other because working for the principals in the engineering firm or luxury leasing. All those things are communication skills and how to be precise and to the point. And probably you have found all of those skills culminating into how you work with your clients now. I think that a lot of people feel like what a bust that was. Let me try this. But in reality, it's like, okay, what did I learn here? And now I'm going to take that into my next focus. Is that kind of how you learn things along the way? Oh, absolutely. And then, you know, doing the paralegal work, I mean, there's the contracts for you right there, you know, being able to break all that down and understand, you know, legal jargon.

And of course, I don't take it under, you know, it's out of my wheelhouse now. I don't just like make up provisions in our contracts. But sometimes on a whim, if I need to, kind of come up with some language. Like all of it led me to the right spot. And just, you know, I get a little emotional because some of us think that, you know, we dread work every day and I wake up so excited every day.

And that's just a beautiful thing at 39 years old. I just love it. Well, and you mentioned the paralegal. You're not trying to rewrite the contracts, but there's a lot of legal jargon in those offers. I'm sure that explain it to your clients, you know,

the average real estate professional. Yeah. And I think some people overthink. I mean, in the state of Colorado, we have gotten one of the longest contracts. We actually have one of the hardest real estate tests, too. And some people just get really intimidated by all of that when it's kind of simple to break it down. And that's just there to protect. You know, the way I look at it is there was someone along the way who screwed up, right?

Which is why we have to have so much in there. but yeah, and I just, I mean, what job do you know that can be, that can make you this financially and spiritually fulfilled and rewarded, but also meet so many different people throughout the entire year and grow a network. Like I just can't think of any other, you know, I mean, it just, I just love it. And then also, you know, you get to have the other side of the, if you just love homes and love looking at houses and love the decor piece of it all and design piece of it all. Because there's a lot of people who, get started and say, oh, I love HCTTV. I need to be a real estate agent. I'm like, that is not what this is. You do get to touch it in that manner. And so I just, you know, it's kind of a full circle for me. I just never, if you would have told me in my 20s, I was going to be realtor.

I would have kind of laughed at you. I've been like, there's no way I'm selling houses. And then luxury leasing wasn't far off. And really, that was my database. Like, not only am I a native and have a good network, but, you know, I was, people were trusting me to find them $3,000 to $5,000 a month, you know, condos, penthouses. And so when they were ready to buy, they had my number. And it was kind of a perfect match.

So that worked out really great too. So these days, when you have clients that are coming across your desk today, next week, next month, what are the types of clients that you're working with? What are their needs that you're helping themselves? Yeah, absolutely. It's funny because they're all over the board. You know, if you kind of look at a lot of my career and brand and company is social media-based. So I have about 27,000 followers on Instagram.

I've kind of done away with Facebook. I still, you know, touch in here and there because they're tied through what they call Metaverse. But Instagram is a big part of my business. And I spend a lot on it each month, not only financially, but also just effort-wise. I mean, it is all day, every day. a lot of it. And so if you look at my stats through Instagram, which is a really cool thing to see your business insights, if you're a business page, I'm 50% male and 50% women. It's like 52% women in

40. Yeah. I would have never guessed that. Yeah, you would have thought. Yeah, my age demographic for who's watching my page is 23 years old to 55 years old. So, I mean, it's really crazy. And I have clients right now who are fresh out of college. And then I have clients right now who are actually retired at 65. I am all over the map not only with personalities and demographic that way, but also location. So I work from Monument down south just before we hit Colorado Springs all the way up to Boulder. And I don't really say no to business either. I feel like there's realtors who do really well with niches, maybe their neighborhood or a type of property or even just a city.

And I feel this just keeps my pulse on the market so strong that I mean, I've got $300,000 coming. I've got a $5 million coming. So I can really be educated on all of it. And that's also what I love is I just, because I can get bored pretty easily. You put me in a box and doesn't go very well. What do you think the recurring thread and recurring theme and similarity is with those? Because you mentioned people that are fresh out of college and people that are retired, there has to be something that is attracting them to you and you to them.

So for instance, have you thought about that? Have you noticed that? Because, you know, like you said, there are some people that are like, I will only work with people that are whatever, but you have a broad range. What is that recurring theme of people that you're finding that like, you know what? I chose you because. Yeah, you know, I'd say it's one of two things. One is I have a little bit of a rebellious spirit going against the grant on how I do

work. A lot of that shows through my Instagram page where I have, it's one page. Some people have a personal page and a business page and they keep them very separate. You see my business and personal all in one because it is my life. You see me out at concerts. You see me doing a little bit of different work here and there. And then you see me the next day showing property. I really don't have many rules that I abide by.

I'm just kind of a different agent. What have you with that. And then I'm just losing my train of thought on the other. Oh, I also own a design and build firm. called Tuck Development. My husband, Stevie Tuck, is a builder, and we started doing not flips, but custom homes and specs about six years ago, which it worked under lease, Las Sassa properties and just rebranded last year to Tuck Development. I'm super proud of him and what's come of this. But a lot of people love that couple aspect of they're doing fun design

stuff. And they would follow our stories on social media and follow the houses and people would come to the open houses just to see the work and meet us. And so, that's been a lot of it too. They're like, oh, she knows what she's doing. She also has got a really great eye with design. So if I hire her to help me find a house, she'll also help me, like, you know, be able to restructure the living room or take down this wall or so it's kind of a, you know, jack of all trades there, truly.

Yeah, but all related to one theme. So in other words, it's not like, I, you know, doing something so totally different than related to real estate and that you're all over the place. it's a it's coherent and it's cohesive and I think that in business today you will hear a lot of the gurus talking about be authentic be transparent and tell your story and that's exactly what you just said people don't want to think that you're just a goof off all the time but they want a little bit of flavor of that you know they want a little bit of salt flavors the food but too much makes it taste disgusting so you've got a nice mix there and then you bring in some

little expertise with you know family your husband and the design firm I think that that right there hits the nail on the head on what people are seeing with the brand that you are, you know, putting out there. Absolutely. And it really does kind of, it's an insecurity at first because you're like, okay, well, you know, if I'm putting this out on social media, you know, whether it be just a, you know, kind of dancing to the beat of my own drum, have you, different types of reels that I do and things like that. sometimes, again, they're just, they can cross the line a little bit as far as what a typical realtor would do. And then you get a little insecure. Like, is this going to actually hurt my work?

Are people not going to work with me because of this taste or flavor? They get in their mouth. And I will say there might, you know, if that's out there, I don't really know about it. And that's fine. But it's brought me so much success and so much fulfillment in my business that it's great that I actually just get to pick and choose who I work with. that at that point, you know, those people seek you out who are going to be a good match. Therefore, there's never any personality discrepancies.

Everyone who comes my way is just fabulous. And then, of course, their referrals then come my way. So I would say, you know, I'm pretty much like a 35 to 40% Instagram based and the rest referral based. Wow. You know, what you just described there makes me think of, you know, the word polarizing. So in marketing, you want to polarize your audience and go, here's me. take it or leave it, like it or not. And you're not being offensive in trying to push people away,

but the people that don't resonate with whatever that you're, you know, like, oh, I went to this concert. Well, if someone didn't like that, it's not offensive to them. It's just I don't choose to do that. But you're polarizing them to attract the people that do resonate with that. And like you said, you're getting a great percentage from Instagram that follow that. And then a great percentage of referrals because birds of a feather flocked together.

So the people that do. attract to you through your outreach is that way. Their friends are like, oh, that looked cool. You know, so I think it really is you're breaking down kind of like what all you're doing. And you're kind of like the Piper going, if you like it, follow me. And I'll treat you right. But at the end of the day, you still have to be a professional realtor who is treating people right, who is knowledgeable. And all of that is given. You have to do that. Yeah. You know, I think you said it. At the end of the day, proof is in the pudding too. I can put out great social media content all day long.

And be a midwit. Yeah, right. And it's obvious I'm doing something right because of the referral based and because of my numbers, right? I've done better. I've done better year over year since I got licensed. And even in this down year of it, I'm 25% ahead of my numbers where I was last year. Like something's working, right? So I think that that's where it is.

I'm like, I'm not going to sit here and be like, oh, this is a ton of fun. And it gets me clients here and there. Like at the end of the day, I'm a businesswoman. and what are the numbers looking like? 100%. So where do you see like, you know, not where do you see rates and where do you see, you know, neighborhoods, but what do you see trend-wise? You know, are you seeing a move with your clients that are doing more, hey, Elise, I want to buy a traditional investment property,

or I want to buy a rental or I want to turn, you know, Airbnbs. What are you seeing trends out there with your clients of what they're doing? You know, it's so hard. I keep getting this question on kind of what things are looking like. And it's for the first time since I've been licensed anyway. I truly feel there isn't a trend. We're super volatile. I will say a downtrend would be I'm very used to people coming to me looking for short-term rental investment options. And we're not really seeing that anymore. You know, the Airbnb, the RBO market is dying out of it. And the profitability isn't there as much anymore, especially as we see city and county. laws take place and what can and can't happen and, you know, multifamily laws and H-O-A by laws against them. But, you know, there really isn't a set trend lately. I have, I still have first-time homebuyers. I have people trying to sell and purchase and move on up because they're having their second or third kid. I do see a little bit of a struggle on the sell side, which has always been a pain point for us these past four or five years on the inventory side. Nobody wants

to let go of their 3% interest rate. Yeah. So now we've got like, you know, we've got buyers who still need to buy. They're fine at the 7%. They've calmed down. They've been educated on different types of loans, how to restructure and how 7% really isn't too terrible. And then the refinance option, but we don't have sellers. They're trying to make their smaller spaces work a bit more for growing family than maybe before where they were just like, let's sell it in a day and move on up at a 3%. They're like, oh, we got, we got to hang on to this and make room for what we got. So that's the only thing I'm really seeing. Otherwise, homes I put on the market, some I think are going to sell on the weekend, and they're there there for two, three weeks and others, I was like, wow, this one's going to be challenging and it sells in the day. We are all over the place. And I truly feel confident in saying that because, I mean, like I said, these seven listings I have coming in August, they range from $350 to $2 million. And it's just kind of all over the place. We'll see what happens. Yeah, and it's not like, I am the first time home buyer queen or I am the, it's just like, you know what,

when people start seeing trends, it's almost like you're driving down the road looking to the right and your car starts veering to the right. So you almost tend to, you know, self-fulfilling prophecy and like amplify the trend. In reality, you shouldn't be chasing the trends. You should just be making wise decisions and whether the rates are one rate or the other. If you need to buy a house, let's make the wisest decision and pick the best product for you for the mortgage. And, oh, you need to move. So let's pick the best house and the best options for you. So, I love that you say, you know, don't really see trends per se because it is what it is. You know, we're in the world that we're in and let's make the best decision and get with the best

people that can give me that advice. Yeah, absolutely. And, you know, I will speak to something that I just kind of noticed this week. And I don't know if this is following COVID. I'd be interested to see if somebody's put together some statistics to this. But a lot of the listing appointments I've been having are couples divorcing. And that's an interesting thing, you know, and it's learning how to do a whole new type presentation, but I've literally had five in the past three months of divorcing couples.

And so I just found that to be, is that following COVID? Is that the stress of our economy? Is there a trend there? So I thought I would maybe drop that in on you. I'm not sure. I don't know if other realtors are actually dealing with that at all. But for me, it's been kind of a pattern. I'm like, this is really interesting to observe.

You know, I think that right there, what you just said is the answer. It's interesting to observe. Does it mean I'm going to put the breaks on my whole business and now go market to people that are divorcing? It just means that I'm noticing a need. And when I have that couple of that transaction, I know now how to ask some certain questions. And maybe I've got some resources for them. And maybe I refer them to a financial planner that can help with whatever. So maybe there's some extra things I'm going to serve and provide extra value.

But it's just like, oh, the next person I talked to is going to be a first time home buyer. Cool. It's just, you know, pops up here and there. Right. Right, right, right. And yeah, I think anyone who's selling, in my opinion right now are people who actually have to sell. They're just dying in their space or job transfers or money issues or like we just said, personal relationship issues. No one's selling because they just think they can get top dollar anymore. That's not the case. Yep. So when you say that you're getting a good percentage of people that are coming by referrals, that again, it goes back to your statement that you made, you know, the proofs in the pudding. You know, I've got to. know what I'm talking about. And yes, there's a big difference between being this static, stoic, cold. I know the facts. And you're building relationships because if you don't build those relationships,

you're not referable. You know, people will appreciate and wave and smile. Okay, thank you. But then it's like, wow, you know, what set her apart? So talk a little bit about the relationship side of building your business because I know it's kind of cliche in the industry. You know, hey, I've got a real estate closing next week. But in reality, it's a opening. It's an opening of the relationship. It's not the end of anything. So talk a little bit about the relationship side. Yeah. I will say if I, I always like people to be pretty transparent and vulnerable. And I really feel that's when I can get close to others. And so in my first couple years of business, I feel like I was just kind of chasing and chasing and chasing the business.

And I would listen to people. But then when we did close, it was like, okay, well, I'll always be here for you guys. And I wasn't touching them. You know, as far as, as like really looking into my database and following up with people and seeing how their first born is doing or they have put their dog down or how is their home. And I really did a poor job at that and you kind of get humbled pretty quickly. And what I mean by that is anybody who's in a competitive nature, all it takes as one family to not hire you again to sell their house and buy another one. And that happened to me. And I was like, you know what? I want to get the feedback and I want to get the honest feedback. And we're like, we just hadn't heard from you.

and our neighbor was a realtor. Wow. And it's like, okay. And I get goosebumps thinking about it because, sure, now the intent behind it is business, but the intent is like I never want anybody to feel like I just dropped off or just got, or too successful or now their budget's not enough for me. I don't ever want people to think that their house, you know, at $500,000 is going to be a waste of my time.

And so I really, really try and hold events. I mean, I have a women's event that I did this year. I had 90 women come to my home. 90. Women traveled from the springs to come up. I promoted it on social media, making these relationships to promote, you know, women being there for women and growing careers. But then also supporting on the couple side of things.

I did an Easter bunny event. I like to hold and bring people together and introduce people. So I know a lot of restaurant owners, boutique shop owners and clients who are just moved here. I need to meet people. The tech industry, like, you know, my office is. Cherry Creek North, I mean, tons of connections there on business on all levels. So for me, it's just making sure that I'm remembering that there's people, right? There's humans on the other side of this. It's not just to help. You know, I hear myself saying it all the time,

but you hear, you know, B to B to C. It's really H to H. It's human to human. And I think that right there is just such a massive opportunity that people don't pay attention to. Elis, thank you so much for coming on. It's been a real pleasure learning from you, hearing about how you serve your clients. If someone is interested in learning more and reaching out to you, what's the best way that they can do that? Absolutely. So, you know, my website is a great way to get a hold of me and just doing an inquiry through there. It's Elise Losasso.R.E.com. And then I always love messages through Instagram. So it's just E. Losasso is my handle. And then text messages as well. So 303. 3667, 3461 is my number. And you can find me all over online. And if you're in the Cherry Creek

North area, please stop into the office at Third and Clayton. I'm always there at the agency, Denver. Awesome. Well, Lisa, thank you so much for coming on. It's been a real pleasure talking with you. Thank you so much, Mike. It's been pleasure talking with you as well. Thank you for listening to the Colorado Real Estate Leaders podcast, brought to you by Trailstone Insurance Group. To learn more about the topics mentioned on today's show or listen to past episodes. Visit www.com.com.