Business Innovators Radio - Navigating the Evolving Real Estate Market with Kristen Conti

Starting point is 00:00:00 Welcome to Business Innovators Radio, featuring industry influencers and trendsetters, sharing proven strategies to help you build a better life right now. Hi, everyone. This is Dr. Tammy Patser, and today we have the pleasure of speaking with Kristen Conti. She is a seasoned real estate expert associated with Peacock Premier Realty in Englewood, Florida. and she has a wealth of knowledge and experience in navigating the real estate market during challenging times. And I would say that probably any time in history is a challenging time for real estate. But if you look back at, say, the last five years, we had the COVID-19 pandemic. We had hurricanes in the Southwest Florida.

Starting point is 00:01:02 area. There have been different lawsuits. And today, Kristen is going to share her insights about the current market trends and the impact of the recent legal challenges and the value of having a real tour in your corner. So thank you for joining us today, Kristen. You're very welcome, Tammy. Always a pleasure. This is really interesting. Let me just. first, let's give everyone a little bit of background about you and your experience so that they can kind of get an idea of who you truly are as an expert. Okay. So I began my career in real estate in 1993.

Starting point is 00:01:54 So we just celebrated in September of last year, 30 years in the industry. So three decades is a long time, but it's been wonderful because I'm able to share that experience with my customers. And when you've been through the types of market changes that we have, you just get stronger with each one. And you just rise to the challenge of whatever's going on. So this, I will say, has been one of the most challenging periods. I would say prior to this, it was the downturn of 2008 that really, you know, kind of separated the wheat from the chaff, if you will, and taught me more than I ever thought I would know in the industry by working with banks and institutions and whatnot on the disposition of their foreclosed assets. But this particular market is different for many reasons, which we'll get into certainly during our conversation. but 30 years in the business, five of which I worked for a national brokerage and the rest,

Starting point is 00:03:05 I have been an independently owned broker owner. So pretty much moving to the beat of my own drum for many years. Well, I know that you've been in the Englewood area now. And it's interesting because I remember you actually had a company, I believe, is called Sailfish, really. Yes. And I remember at the time, I had my real estate license and I worked for a different company, but I recognized that selfish realty as being like this up-and-coming real estate company. And then like you said, 2008 happened. So I mentioned it in our intro. Here we are. It's post-COVID, post-Hurricane. three election coming. Yes, let's not forget that little detail.

Starting point is 00:04:03 Election coming up in November. So tell me about the state of this current market, because it is different than even in 2021 when my son bought his house, he got probably one of the last of the three and a half percent mortgages in 20. Yes, he did. So tell me what going on in the market today? Well, we are in a really interesting time. In my 30-plus years of practice, this has been my lowest year of production, so meaning that I've had the least amount of transactions closed that I've had in my entire career. And I don't think it's because I've changed because most of my customers are repeat and referral, but people are in a real holding pattern. And the reason for that is certainly the interest rate increase.

Starting point is 00:05:01 Interest rates are holding over 7%, which is pretty much double what they were when your son purchased a home, which was just a couple of years ago, three years ago now. And the sellers are still of the mindset that they can get the prices that they were getting when we were in the pandemic time, which pretty much was people coming from specifically the northeast. the Midwest, so you had Chicago, you had California, you had New York, New Jersey, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Connecticut, all of these people selling their homes for cash at big dollars, coming down here and thinking this was the land of milk and honey, and pretty much bidding against anyone. Forget it if you were trying to use a mortgage to buy a house, it was impossible. You know, most of the buyers that I work with, I would have to write 15 to 20 offers for them if they had a mortgage and we would just have to get lucky. It would just be perseverance to try to get a property. And maybe the property wasn't the most desirable, but it's all we could get, you know, buying with a mortgage. So you have this mindset of the sellers thinking that their properties are still worth what they were at that time when people were coming down with bootles of cash.

Starting point is 00:06:22 they're not. You know, the market has adjusted a lot. You know, every day I pull up the hot sheet, which is kind of what tells me what's happening in the market, and there's hundreds and hundreds of price reductions. But yet sellers still don't want to lower the prices to the point that buyers can actually buy. They don't want to make any repairs, which oftentimes, if people are buying with a mortgage, the lender is going to require a certain condition of the property for it to be financed, but even more importantly, is now the wildcard of insurance, because many areas that were not in flood zones before are in flood zones now. Homeowners Association fees have gone up tremendously because of repairs they had to make because of the hurricanes. The condo market,

Starting point is 00:07:13 hopefully we'll get to that, but that's another whole real debacle that's happening is condo fees and condo assessments and people not paying their condo fees because they can't afford them. A lot of people that were living in condos are on fixed incomes. Suddenly they have to pay all these assessments to fix their buildings and people can't afford it. So what's happening now is the lenders are not lending. So your major backers, your Fannie Mae, your Freddie Mac, Sally Mae, they are not backing. condo loans anymore because the percentage of people not paying their dues is so high that it's become a non-mortgageable asset. So that's another whole, you know, circle that's being created.

Starting point is 00:08:04 And I'm not talking about old run-down condos. I'm talking about beautiful new condos in Sarasota and some really top-notch communities. They're having a lot of problems. So we have, we have kind of the perfect storm that occurred, you know, around Ian. I mean, it's it's the last thing we needed on top of COVID, but it happened. And, you know, we're all just trying to adjust to the new paradigm that Florida is not the inexpensive place to live. It once was. And our working class people have no place to live. You know, our young people are having to live in Arcadia and drive to work here in Inglewood because they can't afford to live in Inglewood. I mean, I look at rental properties.

Starting point is 00:08:52 I was actually up in over Brook Gardens the other day looking at something from the outside for a potential customer. $2,600 a month for a two-bedroom, two-bath home. Nothing, no landscape, no pool, just a flat two-bedroom, two-bath. And it was 2,600. And I'm saying to myself, who is going to be able to afford? to live in Inglewood pretty soon. You know, who is going to take care of all of these people that are coming to spend their winters here?

Starting point is 00:09:24 Who's going to serve them in the restaurants? Who's going to run the shops? Who's going to run the paddle board shops or the retail stores? You know, no one can afford to rent here or live here anymore. It's really kind of scary. Yes, $2,600 is more than my mortgage, which would be. And you have an amazing home, you know, with land and whatnot. Yeah.

Starting point is 00:09:51 So I can't imagine how people are able to rent in this area. And if they have children pay for the daycare and like commuting and everything. It is a crazy market. I saw an article other day that I think at least 10 locales in Florida, where the homes were very, very expensive and price reductions were very, very high, just like what you said. You see it every day with your hot sheet. So that's an update on the current state of the market.

Starting point is 00:10:34 I didn't realize that the condo situation had gotten to the point where people couldn't get or sell condos due to all of all of. things, but I can imagine because they're in the past, they did build a lot of condo communities in the England area. I'm really curious about the National Association of Realtors lawsuit, because I just know it had something to do with how real estate professionals are paid, but that's about the extent of my knowledge. So can you talk about that law and how it affects real estate and how transactions are completed now and how do realtors get compensated now? How does all that work? Absolutely. Absolutely. So traditionally for years and years

Starting point is 00:11:34 and years when the multiple listing system was created, it was designed to actually create the fairest market there was because you didn't have a listing agent listing the property and then just kind of controlling the whole situation where all the buyers would come to the listing agent because in fairness no matter how fair and integrous you are if you have 10 different buyers you can't possibly represent their interest with one seller so they decided that the best and fairest way was to allow buyer agency so buyer agency came to be where the listing agent, so traditionally you go on a listing appointment and you list the property for a percentage. We're not supposed to talk about percentages. That's very

Starting point is 00:12:22 taboo because of something called the Sherman Antitrust Act. So basically they don't want, they don't want realtors colluding with one another to determine what the going rate would be. So basically, rates were always negotiable. But there tends to be, amount that is charged because that's what it cost to make it work for everybody in terms of the advertising, the time investment, the showings, you know, all the different things that the licensure, the malpractice insurance, all the things that we have to carry as independent contractors, we have to charge an amount that makes sense or there isn't any sense of being in business. And that's the thing people don't see. They see this big number. You know, you have a

Starting point is 00:13:10 $100,000 house. And for an example, and this is only an example, you are charged a 6% commission. So it's a $6,000 fee. That fee is then split with another agent. Say we would give half of that amount. So now that's $3,000 to that agent. That agent has to pay their taxes, all their fees underneath that, all the expenses for doing the transaction. So the public sees a high figure, but what the actual net to the agent is as much different than what they're seeing. So what happened, it began in Chicago, and it always starts with an attorney, doesn't it? That an attorney finds some way to create a class action lawsuit, which in the end made the attorneys extremely wealthy.

Starting point is 00:14:01 And each of the people that were in the lawsuit, I don't want to misquote, but it was a ridiculously low number that the sellers got for winning this lawsuit, but the lawyers made, you know, millions and millions of dollars. And basically, the premise was that when the sellers were at a listing appointment with the agent, they were not giving a choice as to how much they wanted to pay a buyer's agent, which in all honesty, and yes, I'm a realtor, I go over this extremely carefully on my listing appointments. So it shows this is what we think is going to be in your best interest to co-broke out to another agent, and it's based on what we see happening in the market. So for example, if new home construction right now, they are paying realtors extremely well

Starting point is 00:14:57 because they have a glut of inventory. So they're giving incentives of 5% commission, $15,000 in closing cost to the buyer, mortgage interest rate buy downs. They're giving all of these attractive things. So if you're representing a seller and you're advising the seller on what's in their best interest, you're going to try to get them to give a fair commission to a realtor because why would I want to go sell your house that's barely paying me when I can bring someone to a brand new house, which in reality is probably superior to what you have. and it's probably a better price because companies like, for example, Lennar, D.R. Horton, Centex, all your big builders right now, they have a lot of inventory, and they're trying to unload it.

Starting point is 00:15:50 And when they try to unload it, they bring the realtor community in and they offer incentive after incentive. So if a normal person has a choice between, I can give you a 25-year-old home for 300,000, or I can give you a brand-new home for 300,000, 95% of the people are going to take the new home, not only because they don't want the problems that come with an old home, but the insurance costs are dramatically lower. I mean, dramatically. I just sold a new home, brand new home to a customer who was going to buy the rental property she was living in. And I talked her out of doing that.

Starting point is 00:16:28 She got down payment assistance, and we were able to put her into a brand new home because we negotiated $10,000. in closing costs back for her. And she's in a brand new home. Her insurance is $1,100 a year and no flood insurance. So the difference between where she would have bought, the house was worth a lot less, but her payment would have been more because of its age, because the roof was older, you know, all these things were wrong. So people don't think about all that goes into the equation in real estate and all that goes into a payment. So, bottom line is they created a lawsuit. All these people jumped on the bandwagon and said they had been

Starting point is 00:17:12 wronged because they didn't have a choice of how much to pay the co-broker. And somehow the Department of Justice jumped on board. It's always one business or another that they decide to go after. And this time it was real estate. And they won the lawsuit and pretty much upended the entire world that we live in, whereby now in August they're going to be changing things. And if you are a realtor working primarily with buyers, like there's a lot of agents that enjoy buyer agency. They don't really like listing. They like working with buyers.

Starting point is 00:17:50 The buyers are now going to be responsible for paying the commission to their agent. So bottom line is we are not going to be working without something called a buyer brokerage agreement anymore. So basically, Tammy, if you came to me and said, I want to buy a home, we would sit down and have an initial interview. And I would explain to you that this is how it was going to work. But what a lot of people are not talking about is that it doesn't mean the seller won't pay a commission. It means they're not obligated to pay a commission. So some will and some won't, but we can negotiate it in the deal.

Starting point is 00:18:28 So, for example, you know, if someone said they didn't want to pay it, we can add that amount to the purchase price and it can be rolled into the mortgage. So these are some ways that we're already working with like the VA has already made a provision that buyers agency can be rolled into their VA loan programs. So there are things happening already behind the scenes that are going to allow professionals to be paid. But it is giving a false sense to sellers who think, oh, well, now I don't have to pay a buyer's agent anymore. I only have to pay out X percent, whatever X is. And again, I want to be very careful not to talk about commission percentages because I'm not supposed to. But it's going to be a really crazy ride for real estate brokers for a while because it's a

Starting point is 00:19:20 whole new way of practicing that we have never had to worry about before. The buyer brokerage agreement was always available to us, but we never really had the need to use it because we knew if we created loyalty with our buyer, the buyer was in most cases going to stay with us, and we would be paid by the seller, which basically, without a buyer, there is no transaction. So the whole thing to me is so bizarre, like the very thing that they were trying to avoid is what they're going to create now, because the buyers are not going to have the choices they had before because of the seller's unwillingness to compensate them. if a buyer doesn't have that money, now what?

Starting point is 00:20:04 You know, how are they going to move forward? So what it really has done is made it harder for the young people, you know, the people that don't have the savings to get fair representation because now they're going to be forced to go to the listing agent whose real job is to represent the seller. So what happens then, you know? So it really, we think it's going to create more, more. problems than they think they solved and really the only person that the people that benefited were the attorneys because it didn't help the sellers.

Starting point is 00:20:41 So, but it's just another one of those things we're going to have to navigate again. It's just another in the series of things we deal with as real estate agents. And it has caused a lot of havoc in the market. They did expect a mass exodus of realtors out of the National Association of realtors this year. It has not happened yet. So that's really good news because I think the people that are really professional and really know how to explain their value proposition are going to be, are going to be as strong as ever. And they'll find a way to negotiate the fee so that it works for everyone. You know, we negotiate closing costs. We negotiate, you know, repairs. So now part of our

Starting point is 00:21:27 negotiation is going to be negotiating our fee. It's not as complicated as it sounds, but it definitely there's a lot of misconceptions out there about how it's going to work. So it just basically adds additional layers to the things that you have to pre-acknowledge and pre-negotiate so that everything is apparent on both sides. Exactly. Exactly. Exactly. So right now, current market conditions, is it a good time to buy a home? It sounds like it might be a good time to buy a new home, but in general, is it a good time to buy real estate? Well, that's the question of the hour, and it's a great question. And my answer to that is always, if you need a home, it's a good time to buy a home, right? So I'm one of those people, you know, a lot of people say you can't time the

Starting point is 00:22:25 market. And my investment person says the same thing. You know, don't try to time the market. And it's like, well, but you have to use a little bit of wisdom. I certainly would rather be investing in a bear market than I wouldn't a bull market, right? So I have to kind of look at that from that perspective. And I give the same advice to my buyers. Right now, absolutely, if you can qualify for new construction, I am selling mainly new construction now. because I know all the builders, I know what incentives they're offering, I know how to negotiate with them, I know how to get some extra things for the buyers, or point out things in the contract that they may not see or understand.

Starting point is 00:23:10 But this is an excellent time to buy new construction. And it saves thousands and thousands of dollars on insurance costs, which, again, are the wild card that's throwing many people off. I mean, myself, my husband and I have been contemplating, purchasing a larger home so we can move my mom in. And the biggest problem is we like the old Englewood type neighborhoods like where you are, Tammy. We love that area. We love whispering pines. We love dolphin estates.

Starting point is 00:23:41 We love, you know, all those areas. Well, everything we love is in a flood zone. So we're looking at, you know, $8 to $10,000 a year just for flood insurance. that's not something I'm going to do. You know, so it's like we're kind of stuck. And they're not building new stuff that we like. We don't like the cookie cutter. Everybody looks the same kind of neighborhoods.

Starting point is 00:24:01 That's just not our style. A lot of people do. We don't. So we're kind of stuck, you know, where we are, even though we could afford to have a mortgage and afford to have a new home. We're choosing to stay in the one that's paid for because it doesn't make, it doesn't make financial sense. Because of the interest,

Starting point is 00:24:21 rates because of the insurance and because of the volatility in the market. So I think there's a lot of people like us, especially in our age group, I'm 59. I'll be 60 in January. We don't want to go back to that feeling that we had in 2008 when the world turned upside down and we had 40 investment properties and we lost our shirts. We like having no mortgage and not having to worry about the things that we worried about at one time. So I think people in our age group that went through that downturn understand what it felt like and what it was like and watched our friends and family lose everything. We don't want to go down that road again. So until something gives, whether it's, you know, insurance, private insurers come back into the state and we get something affordable and interest rates start to come down, I think we're still going to have a lot of people in a holding pattern.

Starting point is 00:25:19 and that's what's causing, you know, this low number of transactions that have occurred this year. This is why, you know, this is why all the realtors are failing it, you know. You see a lot of people having to get second jobs to supplement their income this year. And it's the reality, you know, of our business. I remember being real estate, the ups and downs of all the different years and how sometimes You do have to make those choices. I wanted to go back around to the condos because there are a lot of people who would, who enjoy the condo life. I mean, I rented a condo recently out at Tall Pines, and it was nice because you have a swimming pool.

Starting point is 00:26:10 You have parking. You have barbecue pits and, you know, nice neighbors and everything. So what about the homeowners associations and lawsuits and different things? I know that you're talking about you as a realtor. You, of course, actually read the contract because I know a lot of people, you know, they're just signed stuff without actually reading it. What is happening with some of these homeowners associations? and different lawsuits.

Starting point is 00:26:49 And how do you as a realtor, why is it important for people to have a realtor representing them when they're out there buying something like a condo? I mean, can you still buy condos? Yes, you can still buy condos. And there's a lot of condos that are of very good value right now because they are fiscally sound. So it's really important. it's really funny that you would ask this question because just the other day I saw a commentary on one of my real estate feeds and the deal fell apart for the buyer because there was a lawsuit

Starting point is 00:27:30 going on within the community and the realtor didn't know it. So the realtor, everybody was saying, well, shouldn't the realtor have known? And of course, a lot of people were answering saying, no, that's up to the lender. The lender, you know, uses the condo questionnaire. So when you're a buyer that's using a mortgage to buy a condo, there's a document called a condo questionnaire. And that condo questionnaire is sent out by the lender to the association. And they have to fill it out. And it will ask certain questions. It will ask how many people are full-time residents, how many people are tenants. Is everybody current on their dues or what's the percentage of people that are behind on their dues.

Starting point is 00:28:15 What's included in the maintenance fee is, are there any pending lawsuits? You know, there's all these questions they have to answer to be approved by Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, you know, the guarantors so that these loans can be sold because most people are procuring the loans, but eventually you get a loan with Citibank and it gets sold to, you know, Northwest Federal and then it gets, you know, it gets sold and sold and sold. So if it's not guaranteed by Freddie Mac or Fannie Mae, it's very difficult to sell. And that's where they make their money in the mortgage industry. So anyway, the people were saying, oh, no, that's the mortgage broker's problem.

Starting point is 00:28:57 And I was like, absolutely not. It's the realtors' responsibility to investigate those neighborhoods and protect their customers. So the first thing I'm going to do if someone says they want a condo is pull the budget for the condo association. and I'm going to see, do they have reserves? Are there any pending assessments? Are there any pending lawsuits? I had a deal up in Sarasota recently, the end of last year, where a lawsuit was put against. So the builder was a local builder. I'm not going to throw anybody under the bus, but it was a large national builder. And the association was suing them because the building was about four years old. and it did not withstand Hurricane Ian very well.

Starting point is 00:29:44 Lots of things happened that shouldn't have for a new construction. So the Homeowner Association sued the builder. And this happened during the time period that I was listed. So the buyer was under contract, all this was happening, and suddenly we were like a month away from closing. I get a call from the buyer's agent saying, this deal is not going to happen because the buyer can't get financing because it was revealed that there's a lawsuit between the builder and the homeowners

Starting point is 00:30:15 association. And Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac won't back that. So it was like, great. So she said, we're sending over a release and cancellation. I said, no, you're not. There's always a way, you know, that we can fix this. So it happened that I knew a good friend of mine was a mortgage broker at Truscoe down here in Englewood.

Starting point is 00:30:35 And they are independent. So a lot of you're smaller, you see your trust. or your cruise bank, you know, your small local regional banks, they have portfolio loans, which means they don't have to be backed by Fannie and Freddie. They can, they have money that they have at their disposal. And if it's a good loan, and this was a good loan, this was like a 73 year old gentleman, he had 25% down, you know, stellar credit, you know, all the right stuff. So within less than 30 days we had enclosed even with the lawsuit on the on the books so it doesn't mean it's impossible it you know sometimes the lawsuits amount to nothing and if the lawsuit was from the

Starting point is 00:31:17 homeowner association to the builder then the chances were that there was money going to come in from the builder not go out you know what I mean so it depends on which way the lawsuit is going so it's really important that your realtor is knowledgeable you know you need to to be knowledgeable too, and the lender, it needs to be a group effort. So it's the real chore first, then it's the mortgage broker, then it's the title company. You know, somewhere along the line, you know, you need to be aware of what is coming at you as a buyer. And then you have a choice. You can either choose to stay in the deal or not stay in the deal based on what you see and the data that you're provided with. Sometimes this gentleman was happy to stay in the deal.

Starting point is 00:32:03 He wanted the property and it made sense and he wasn't worried about the possible lawsuit. For someone else, it could feel very different. So, yes, do I think realtors should be knowledgeable? Absolutely. To say that it's on the mortgage broker is a cop-out, my opinion. You know, we need to be educated. Well, also having that knowledge of alternative mortgage solutions is also. something that I think is important too because I know as a buyer you look to that real estate

Starting point is 00:32:40 professional to know all of the ins and outs of the transaction because that specialized knowledge that you know the average person doesn't even know all of the little details that go into a transaction I wanted to ask you about international sellers and buyers because I know in this area, I can tell that there's different, I don't know who, you know, they speak German or I can tell they're not around here. And I hear them at the grocery store. And normally it's August. It seems like August is a month where I see a lot of people. But right now I've noticed a lot of people speaking different languages everywhere I go.

Starting point is 00:33:30 So how do you serve the. international market and how do you handle the issues like rate exchanges and it's f-irp-p-t-a. I'm sure that's an acronym something. Yes. So FERPTA tax. Oh, first. So yes. So yes. It's an extra tax that is charged to people who are not U.S. citizens that choose to invest in property in Florida. So for example, and you're absolutely right, this is the time of year that the Europeans are on holiday traditionally. So we get our busiest months of traffic for purchases for next season, for example, now this time of year, July and August are very heavy with rentals. People come in and take summer rentals here. So the number one population for this area is British. We get many people

Starting point is 00:34:32 from England, so that's the top one. Germans also love this area. We get a lot of people from Germany. We're starting to get a lot more people from various parts of Europe, but those are the two number one that we find in this area. And we have a heavy concentration of Canadians. So we work with a lot of people from international places. We get a lot of referrals from England, from past customers, and a lot of Canadians. So we're actually dealing with this. right now, which is really interesting, we have a Canadian investor that wants to buy multiple properties. And in their minds, the exchange rate is not favorable to the Canadians right now. So their dollar against our dollar is not buying them what it was, you know, four or five years ago.

Starting point is 00:35:22 So when they make a buying decision, they're basing it on the Canadian dollar when we're operating in the American dollar. So they're making offers that are considered. lower than they might have before because of the exchange rate. So it's really important for people like, for example, in Rotunda, Rotunda, is a very desirable community for a lot of international people. They like it because there is a homeowners association, but it's not super expensive. It's a couple hundred dollars a year, but the homes are all well kept. You know, you don't have any homes where you have blocks up in the yard and people changing their oil in the front yard or, you know, they don't want all that. You know, there's something for everybody, and that tends to be something that attracts them. So Rotunda has a lot of people where we have to understand the exchange rate. We have to understand how it impacts the sales. So if we have, for example, if you have a seller that is selling that is from England, we have one right now. He is going to have to be subject to the FERP to tax, which is 15 extra percent that is withheld.

Starting point is 00:36:32 So when we go to sell, we immediately advise them to go to an accountant and get their U.S. account set up for the transaction. The great thing is, if we sell it to an owner-occupant, so if we sell it to someone who's going to actually reside in it here, we can, the seller is going to save a lot of money versus somebody that, an investor that's going to buy it. So it can make a big difference in terms of the taxation. You know, we have to be looking for the right buyer for that seller because it could save them money in terms of the FERPTA tax. So that becomes the responsibility of the accountant and the title company to make sure the right amount is withheld. And once the buyer moves in and then files their taxes for the following year, then everything is kind of cleared out. and they get reimbursed the tax that was withheld. But if for any reason, it's not withheld,

Starting point is 00:37:32 then the buyer becomes responsible for the FERPTA tax. The new buyer gets held responsible for the tax. So the FERTA tax is actually, they pay the tax, but if an owner-occupant actually lives in the house, then the seller gets that money back. gets a good portion of it back. Yes. So it's almost like a promise of some sort of promise tax.

Starting point is 00:38:02 Yes. If they sell it to an owner-occupant, but if they sell it to an investor, then they're going to pay that tax. So it's really important. Those are the little nuances that if a buyer doesn't know, you know, when they're looking at these properties. So that's something that affects these people in Canada that they're making. offers to somebody who's in England who is subject to FERC tax, they're not going to be as

Starting point is 00:38:29 negotiable because these people aren't going to move into the house. So it's all these little nuances that if you don't understand the laws and you don't understand the intricacies and you're not able to meet the customer at where that like, we need to go in knowing that the rate is not favorable and be able to address that right up front. You know, the rate is not favorable, but no, Tammy, so say you're a Canadian, no, Tammy, that right now you can make a buy that you could not have made two years ago. You would have paid $50, $60,000 more for this house. So in the big picture, how long is it going to take for that amount? Because a lot of these people are paying cash. So when you really look at it, is it a good investment? Is it not a good investment? We need to run the

Starting point is 00:39:16 numbers. The investment actually is pretty good because you're paying $70,000 less for the property. So when the rate does kick back around, you're going to be in good shape because it always does. It's cyclical. So at that point, maybe that's when you sell and move on to your next investment. So it's about a lot more people just don't understand and you do because you practice real estate. What goes into our role? You know, we're everything from running our actual business to marketing, sales, customer service, law. There isn't anything this business doesn't touch and we're responsible for a great deal

Starting point is 00:39:58 for what we get paid. And we're always the first line of defense if somebody's got a problem. And I am blessed to say that 31 years in the industry have never had a lawsuit. And I consider that a huge win. But I feel like it's because I stay extremely well educated and I'm extremely diligent about communicating everything that the buyers and sellers need to know because they deserve that for me. That's what I'm getting paid for. That's where my value is, is in protecting them and in getting them either the best deal as a buyer or the highest and best dollar as a seller or wherever I'm, you know, whichever party I'm representing. And if I'm representing both, then I'm a transaction broker and I have to be, you know, honest and

Starting point is 00:40:47 fair with both parties, but I have limited confidentiality. It's kind of, it's, you know, I play a different role. But I find if you're, you know, direct and honest with people on all sides, then the problems, you know, stay at a minimum. Wow. There's just so much going on in real estate. There is. So I want to give you an opportunity.

Starting point is 00:41:13 Just is there one thing that you think is. really, really important that anyone on either side of the transaction in real estate should know about and really make sure they ask questions about in what's going on with real estate today. Well, I think the most important thing is really understanding the value of your property, whether it's on the selling side or the buying side, is being realistic. What we have right now is a lot of very unrealistic sellers. And I was thinking to myself, Tammy, and I know you're going to relate to this because you were in real estate at the same time. I was.

Starting point is 00:42:00 I remember first coming here in 2004 from Palm Beach to visit my father because he had decided on Englewood as a place to settle. And he always wanted to be in the Florida Keys. He always said eventually he was going to own a property like in Tavernier, Isla Marada, something like that. he was a very avid fisherman. But all of a sudden he ended up in Inglewood, Florida. So I said to my husband, if he ended up in Inglewood, it sounds like a place we would like, we've got to go over there and check it out. So the first day that we drove over here, we had just gotten a new car and two new jet skis.

Starting point is 00:42:37 And we pulled the jet skis and we had gotten a new Yorkshire terrier. His name was Giuseppe. He was five pounds. So here we come with the new car, the new jet skis and the puppy. we come over to see my father. And I remember driving over the Eljebine bridge heading into, so I was going west on 776, and we passed Gulf Cove on the right-hand side,

Starting point is 00:43:00 right over the El-Jabine. And I go, oh, that looks like a really nice community, you know, just kind of mentioning it. So we go down a little bit more. And I said, let's go back and look at that. And I remember doing a U-turn in the middle of 7-76, and there wasn't a car on the road. you know and then we had to go into publics to get something and i remember going in it was like

Starting point is 00:43:23 850 at night it was going to close at nine and i'm looking around and somebody came up behind me and said may i help you with something and i didn't even acknowledge them because i was like they can't possibly be talking to me you know like because i came from palm beach and people weren't like that so it was like wow i mean this town is awesome but i remember us the next day getting up as all realtors do. We headed straight to the Century 21 office that used to be where Dr. Little is over here and getting some magazines

Starting point is 00:43:53 and we started driving around. You could buy a three-bedroom, two-bath pool home and rotunda for $150,000. Easily, all day long, you know. And you could buy one without a pool for $130,000. And here we are, 20 years later, and you're lucky to find a three-bedroom,

Starting point is 00:44:12 two-bath pool home in Rotunda for 500,000. And I'm saying to myself, yes, the market has increased, but it's the same house. It's like I can't get my mind wrapped around how these $130,000 to $150,000 houses are now $500,000 houses.

Starting point is 00:44:32 It's, it's, our wages haven't gone up to that point. Are, you know, it's just, it's mind boggling to me, really. Even though I've sold many of these, homes now at the $500,000 price. It's so important to get an appraisal or at least, you know, have your real estate agent run the comparable sales for you and go, I can't tell you how many offers come in and there's no justification whatsoever. Like they just come in at some crazy number.

Starting point is 00:45:05 We had one, a house listed in Beachwalk, one of my agents. It was listed for five, I want to say, 599 and an agent brought us an offer at 350. It was a brand new house in Beachwalk. And I'm saying to myself, who in there? Like at 350, I'm going to buy it. Seriously. I mean, it's a 599 house. That's what they're selling. And so, so I said to, so my agent call me and said, what do I do with this? Because our seller was a difficult guy. And I was like, all we need is to present this $350,000 offer to him. He's going to go off the deep end. But that's our obligation. obligation. So I said, called a realtor and ask her to substantiate the offer with comparable sales. Well, she had no, nothing to base it on. Just, that's what they feel like offering. And that's,

Starting point is 00:45:56 yeah. Yeah. It's like, what are you talking about? So now I'm actually pausing into my listing agreements, a bottom line that the seller tells me, I absolutely don't want to look at anything below this. because there's a lot of investors out there right now, a lot of investors, they smell the blood and the water, and we're getting crazy, 100,000, 150,000, 200th. And they're constantly texting us and calling us.

Starting point is 00:46:25 What do you have? We're in the buying, you'd think they, you know, we're ready to just buy everything in sight. But then they offer you 50% on the dollar. And I'm like, if I'm going to sell it to you for 50 cents on the dollar, I'm going to buy it,

Starting point is 00:46:37 I'm going to disclose to the seller and buy it myself for 50 cents. on the dollar or I'm going to refer it to one of my investors that I've been working with for 20 years. Why am I going to work with you that's coming out of the blue and texting me stuff? It's crazy. I mean, it's really crazy out there. But you have to know your values and you have to understand on both sides. If you want to make a deal, you have to be reasonable and work with comparative sales.

Starting point is 00:47:04 It can't be just pie in the sky. You know, I'm not working with somebody that's going to make offers at 50% on the dollar. It isn't good for my reputation. It isn't good for my community. It's just, you know, it's not going to happen. Those are the people that prey. I call them the predators because I got a lot of those after Hurricane Ian where they go, Oh, did you?

Starting point is 00:47:30 House. I know, I'm not in the market to sell my house. Right. I don't want to sell. I would never sell your house, Tammy. No, I wouldn't. And they would, if the only. way I could sell my house is they'd have to really, really give me a lot because I could not go anywhere

Starting point is 00:47:48 and buy property like this anywhere for what I paid for it. I mean, so it would be really silly of me to let go of something that I couldn't even replace. Right. And it's so different. You know, you have land and privacy and stuff. I mean, you have an ideal setup. Two minutes to the grocery store, either way. Yes. So how... You're spoiled. I am.

Starting point is 00:48:16 How can people get a hold of you so that they could learn more and possibly work with you? Sure. And I'm always willing to educate. Doesn't matter if people are ready right now. Sometimes I educate someone and they come back in five years. So I'm not one of those people that, you know, I definitely like to give. and if there's a return, great, but, you know, education is really, really important to me. So my direct number is 941-286-8-486.

Starting point is 00:48:49 8-486. They will sometimes hear a message that says Peacock Premier Properties. That's because I'm the broker and all the calls run through me initially. So if it's a voicemail that says Peacock Premier Properties, please feel free to leave a detailed message on the only one that will hear it. or they can email me to Kristen, K-R-I-S-T-E-N at Kristen, K-R-I-S-T-E-N-C-O-N-T-I-N-C-O-N-T-I-N-T-I-N-T-I-E-N-T-I-E-N-T-E-E-E-L-T-E-E-E-L-T, or email. Okay, sounds good, and I think I said the name of your company wrong in the very beginning. That's okay.

Starting point is 00:49:35 Realty, but Keecock premiere is what you need to remember. That's right. That's all they need to remember. Also, go check out Kristen's Facebook and LinkedIn. But on Facebook, I know that you have done a lot for the community. And I do want to just say that. For example, during Hurricane Ian and the aftermath, you actually did so much in helping people by you, you drove by and told them if their house was

Starting point is 00:50:12 damaged, you helped people get food, you answered questions, you just did so much for the local community. And I just wanted to acknowledge that because I know that I recognize, I'm sure that hundreds of other people, thousands of other people, uh, recognize. all of that community service that you did that you didn't have to do, you know, but there were people for weeks and weeks after Hurricane Ian who needed that help, you know, with just information or food or directions on where to get help, what to do. And you certainly were one of the people out in the community who was really in the community helping people. So I just want to do that. Thank you very much, Tammy. Well, thank you.

Starting point is 00:51:07 And thanks for the updates. I learned a lot today. And thanks for clarifying that NAR lawsuit. And again, it really is important that people understand that you should not be out there trying to go it alone. in buying property or selling property because there's, like you said, there's just so much involved in all the transactions. And with the interest rates, what they are, with insurance, that is such a huge thing right now because insurance and flood insurance could make or break your ability to even be able to own them. Absolutely. So that's exactly right.

Starting point is 00:51:56 so important to actually reach out and work with someone with knowledge of the local market, no matter where you're at, it's important. But locally here in Southwest Florida, of course, Kristen is the person you should be talking to because, again, she's got that finger on it, the hot sheet information. And so she knows what's going on. So I think, just think about it. reach out to Kristen, Conti, and get the scoop on the market and everything. So thank you. I appreciate it so much. Thank you, Tammy.

Starting point is 00:52:35 Always a pleasure to catch up with you and see you out there moving and shaking and helping people promote their businesses. You're doing an awesome job. Thank you so much. Everyone, this is Dr. Tammy Patser. Go make it a wonderful day. Thanks for listening to Business Innovators Radio. hear all episodes featuring leading industry influencers and trendsetters,

Starting point is 00:53:00 visit us online at business innovators.com today.

Business Innovators Radio - Navigating the Evolving Real Estate Market with Kristen Conti

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