Coffeez with Joe Shalaby - Real Estate Auctions in America ft. Simon Polito | Coffeez for Closers with Joe Shalaby

Episode Date: May 2, 2025

In this episode of Coffeez for Closers, luxury real estate auctioneer Simon Polito shares how he's transforming the way high-end homes are sold in the U.S.Born and trained in Sydney—where over 90% of real estate is sold by auction—Simon brought his expertise to the American market and quickly identified a gap. His modern auction platform helps agents and sellers move luxury properties faster, create urgency, and close with more transparency.Simon breaks down:The difference between U.S. and Australian real estate salesHow real estate auctions create competitive bidding environmentsWhy traditional listings can fail high-end sellersHow agents can use auctions to grow their business and win more listingsWhether you're a real estate agent, broker, or investor, this episode delivers insights into a powerful and underutilized sales method that’s changing how properties move in today’s market.Still stuck at 150 bps?Top producers at E Mortgage Capital are earning up to 400 bps per deal—with faster closings, better tech, and no junk fees.👉 Learn more: https://joinemortgagecapital.comAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

This episode is not about flipping homes or selling listings. It's about flipping the entire real estate game on its head. Simon Polito is not your average real estate guy. Born in Sydney, raised by an Italian grandfather and Lebanese mother, this immigrant-built entrepreneur is on a mission to reinvent how homes are sold in America. In Australia, real estate is auctioned, fast, transparent, competitive. Simon brought that model here, fought the stigma, and now he's pioneering a new movement in U.S. real estate,

one that sells homes faster, with less friction, and often above market value. From the beaches of Turkey to the hills of Villa Park, Simons built an international platform, blending old school grit, high stakes theatres, and a relentless mission to earn trust one bit at a time. This one's about real estate, resilience, and raising a family with faith. It's about knowing your work, and never. being afraid to start the bill. Welcome to coffees. Quick break. If you're a loan officer closing

deals every month and still capped at 150 basis points, you're leaving serious money on the table. At eMortgage Capital, top producers are taking home up to 400 basis points with better tech, faster closings, and full control. No junk fees, no red tape, just real comp. Hit up joining Mortgage Capital.com and stop building someone else's empire. Thanks for having me. All right, bro. Thanks for coming. It'll be a good show today.

Give people kind of like an overarching view of what is it that you do on the auctioning platform. Yeah. So I come from Sydney, Australia originally where I was born. And real estate over there, 90% in Sydney is done by auction. So when I first got into real estate, that was part of one of the modules you could study. So I did all the modules I could do at that time.

which was property management, commercial, industrial, auctioneering. And I obviously studied really hard. I got all those diplomas. And that was just the way we did real estate. But when I came over to the United States nine years ago, I discovered that you guys only do things one way, which is traditional. Nobody does it. The word auction was only mainly used for distress properties, foreclosures,

something in a negative status. And I was like, well, this is the only country that I've come across that actually sees it that way. Everywhere else around the world, think about like Sotheby's, art auctions and Christie's art auctions or classic cars. It's all seen for a positive. So why is it seen as a negative in the United States? So what I started my own company,

I thought, you know, I'm going to try and change the game a little bit, shake it up with some new technology and to see who gravitates towards it. And it's so far, it's been a rough ride. Don't get me wrong.

It's a lot of education. But now that we're in our year six of our business, of our ECA, we're now starting to get some weight. People know that we're a fixture in the community. we're not a startup anymore. And it's just another way to sell real estate. Putting another tool in your tool belt for other real estate agents.

Do you use traditional methods or it's all auction? No, I do. I do both because sometimes auction isn't a really right scenario for that seller. That's the only reason why I wouldn't do an auction if the seller is not on board, right? So if the seller's had a bad experience, maybe with a foreclosure in their past, maybe they've just been hurt. This is going to be something that might bring up that PTSD, if you will. So let's go traditional.

Let's try it that way, but just know that I've got that backup plan ready to kick in when you're ready. Your offices here is in Head-Aord in Irvine? Newport. Newport Beach. We're on the corner of MacArthur and Birch. You have a team in Turkey as well? Yeah, so I've got, I call them affiliates or referral partners that I work with. I went over there a couple of years ago, and I loved it so much that I ended up buying some projects over there with some other friends of mine.

In Turkey? In Turkey. In the southern part of Turkey, not in Istanbul. like down the bottom southern part of Kord, Alanya. It's a couple hours east of Antalya, which a little bit more people know of. Great place, like phenomenal location. Like, Cleopatra's Castle is there, like which is just, for me, I'm a geek for that stuff. Like, that's phenomenal.

Well, I'm Egyptian, so I appreciate that. Yeah, there you go. I didn't know that her kingdom expanded that far out. Dude, you can go through there, and they've still got the tunnels underneath where she would hide the men and take them out. And it's all, it's all been preserved. Her in my man She was a bit of a play girl She had a flourish of men

Apparently that would come in And she'd sneak him through With boats in the middle of the night And they had these little tunnels And then from the tunnel You could go into the castle Wow Yeah so I have a team out there

And then I originally being last This in Australia I kept my name out there Get my company running And have a few people out there Who work for me over there as well I've never met somebody Who's got an international platform like that

I always think I'm saying How can I be different You know everyone Especially in California Every second person is a real estate agent. Yeah. So, like, how do I make myself stand out from the crowd? No, you definitely are totally different than anybody in the real estate space.

A bit of a crazy man like that. I've met, you know, in SoCal. And I think that's the international flair, you know. Well, yeah, I think I have that immigration mentality, right? Yeah. My grandfather on my dad's side, my dad was born in Italy. They migrated from Italy in the late 50s. My mother was born in Lebanon.

She migrated from Lebanon in the 60s. So I've always had that immigrant mentality of, you know, you've just got to go hard. And I was taught that way very traditionally from my dad's grandfather, my dad's father, my Italian grandfather. Yeah. He taught me to work from the age of five. I worked with him at the Sydney fruit markets from age of five. So I've always worked.

Yeah. But it's always about being part of the community. That was the biggest thing I took from LA. Always be there for the people. Yeah. And in time, people will give you things back. We're fortunate to have that immigrant mentality. Yeah.

Because we outwork everybody. You know, it's, everyone says, oh, you're Australian. I'm only just, I'm just born in Australia, right? I am an Australian citizen, but if you go, I did my ancestry, I have no Australian in my blood. It's literally half Italian, half Lebanese. You speak in Arabic or Italian?

I can't get myself into trouble in Arabic. I just can't get myself out of trouble. And I can speak a dialect of Italian, which is my dad's from Calabria down the south. Okay. So this is like over 60 different dialects of Italian in Italy. So I'm very cautious about how I speak, because some people take it offensive.

Yeah. But definitely being living here in California with everyone speaking Spanish, it's kind of confused me a little bit, but it's also encouraged me to continue learning my language. And my three kids, I constantly speak into them in Italian, trying to increase their opportunities in life by knowing more languages. Yeah, it's imperative.

Absolutely. It's a gift. Absolute gift. Yeah, my kids are learning all dead languages, but they're learning them. It's Coptic and Latin. That's really cool. But Coptic is the ancient language.

of the pharaohs. They don't know why they're learning it, but that's what we use in church. There you go. And it's important. They're going to have a tool that's going to be something that sets them apart from everybody else out. Exactly. And I always say, I wish my kids could speak it fluently because when we're in a situation where I don't want anyone else to know what we're really saying, I could communicate with them. That'd be great. That's what I use Arabic for. Yes, exactly. Let me ask you, how do you deal with the stigma associated with auctions? There is a large stigma and it's just education. You know, this is not going to be something that's for everybody.

That's just what it is. I've learned to accept that. And I do the takeaway a lot with people. So I just say, look, this is not something that is used for negative purposes. In fact, I don't actually list anything that's in a negative status. I'm only using this product for traditional luxury and unique properties. So I'm trying to literally not work with anything that's got a bad stigma attached to it. Yeah, no one who's in default.

foreclosure. Sometimes we'll help people who are in pre foreclosure if they've got equity because what we're doing is saving the banks from doing it already. We're going to go to auction and we'll get them an extension of time by showing the banks or the institution they're lending off that we're doing an auction for them. That normally helps the client out and it gets them their equity before the banks take it. Yeah. But the stigma is, it's getting better.

I will say in nine years of living here, I want to say probably like 5% of the market understood auctions. Now I want to say maybe 35, 40% of the market understands auctions now. I looked at some of your listings on your site and, you know, you put a disclaimer like, this is just the traditional sale, not behind starting at 1.995. Correct. Like, well, it seemed like a normal house at listing at 1.995. Will it actually go over in the auction?

Absolutely. So you'll sell overmarket because of the strategy. Absolutely. So on average, we start around 20% below as a bidding to start from. And on average, from our sales, we've achieving between 25 and 30% above. Wow. And it's basically because of the supply and demand, right? We're playing to a psychology of people, right?

It's, it's, you want this, I want you to write something down, but you haven't got a pen on you. Yeah. I've got a pen. And I'm not trying to sell you the pen, but I kind of am. I'm going to say, like, look, Joe, I need you to write this thing. I don't have a pen. And three other people in the room need it as well. This pen's only worth a dollar, but you might pay $20 because you need it right now.

Same thing applies with real estate. We've got one listing. It's on the market. We're going to start at $1, for example. Someone's going to pay where they see value. And then hopefully we get two males who are macho and got a big ego, and they just want to fight each other to see who's going to pay more. And that's where the sky's the limit.

Absolutely. I mean, if people knew that they could get 20% over market just because of ego, which is the driving force for everybody. It's huge. It's huge. And it's been hard to get people to do that because obviously the scare. And they're worried about going 20% on. or has that ever happened where they get the 20% under?

So every seller falls over or falls off their chair when I suggest that bidding to start from number. But I just reassure them. Think of the website eBay. Everything on eBay starts at a dollar. Do you know anyone that's ever bought anything on eBay for a dollar? Yeah. No one does.

It's like maybe one story of that one guy got one thing once, but no one buys it for a dollar. It just gets their attention. That's what we're trying to do with real estate. We're trying to get people's attention on the property. We do all the due diligence ahead of time, which helps lenders, which helps escrow and entitle.

Because we already do a home inspection, a termite report, get the seller's disclosures, a natural hazard disclosure report, a preliminary title report, any permits. And if it's part of an HOA, we get the HOA CCNRs.

So we have all that up front preloaded. So when a buyer comes through the home, they see all these information. They can make an assessment whether they want to make a move or not, and they can either make an offer before auction to stop it from happening, or they can get registered to get ready to bid.

It seems like pretty foolproof. It is. It's safe for both parties. I'm not trying to be favorite or biased towards one. Obviously, we're working for the seller to get the highest price. Yeah. But we're here to help the buyers have a stress-free experience as well. And we're allowing them to tell us where they see value.

And that's huge. At the end of the day, they're paying 20% over market, though. That's like... Who determines what the market is? Yeah. Well, the buyers in this stage. So the question I get a lot of the time is, well, how much above market do you achieve? And I say, I don't get above market.

I set a new market level. Because it's fair market value is achieved for open public crying, known as auction. Now, I got a cool question here. It's that what's one outdated rule in traditional real estate that the auction model absolutely shatters? Do you only want one? Give me several. So I think with the contingencies. So when I moved to this country, I'd been doing real estate for already 15 years in Australia.

Okay. And I had never done a contingency on any sale. in 15 years. And I came here and there's this, you guys have this contingency that to sell your own home, which I just am mind-blown that it's like putting your home on layaway. Well, then how do they buy it if they don't have the money? Well, that's where you've got to sell. And if you've got a good lender, get some bridging finance. It makes them sell and buy really quickly. It makes them connected to the property. In Australia, what happens is you'll go buy a house, right? You'll go to an auction. You'll bid on it, Joe. You'll win the auction. The next day,

you're listing that property on the market for an auction yourself. Now, you've got a six, in Australia, it's a 42-day close on average. You've got six weeks to get that property sold. And then they might have a week or two weeks of bridging finance, which is not going to be nice. It's going to be hard. But it's much easier than having a risk that you don't know if you're going to sell the home and it's going to sit on the market forever.

And then you create a domino effect of everyone falling over. So we've eradicated that by we don't take... So there are no contingency. sales with auctions. They're just like... Nope, it's as is. No contingencies, no renegotiating a sales price, no credits, no repairs.

That's crazy. You're buying it as is. But we're showing you the property. So we'll have three weeks of showings. So you can come into the home, you can do your investigations, you can read the reports and disclosures that are available. You know everything about it. You know all the material facts. So we're not buying site unseen, so to speak.

There's no risk. Wow. Because you know everything. We're giving you it all up front. So that was probably the biggest, the biggest old-fashioned thing that I noticed when I moved here was like, you guys do that, really? And then... I didn't know that was even possible to avoid contingencies. Yeah.

So if I may be wrong to the date, I believe it's 1996. It's 1996 in the state of California. To be able to sell a property as is with no repairs, you have to furnish the potential buyer with a home inspection report. Showing them the rights and the wrongs. Right. As well as a termite report too.

if as long as you provide that document, you're disclosing everything to the potential buyer. So there's no risk. You're not hiding. There's no secrets. And that allows you to remove that contingency of inspection. Now, when we talk with lenders,

that sometimes can be a bit of a hurdle for us because a lot of lenders don't want to do the extra work to get their client from pre-approval to underwritten. If you can get your client underwritten against 1, 2, 3 Main Street, that client knows exactly what they can bid on 1, 2, 3 Main Street. Right. So, correct me if I'm wrong, it's about a 48 to 72 hour process, depending on them how quickly they get you their information. But once they have that, they're rock solid.

You can say to Mr. Jones, Mr. Jones, you're bidding on one, two, three, Main Street. You're approved and I can get you financing up to $1 million. Do you not go any dollar over that. If you do, you've got to work out how to get that money because I can't get it for you. That's awesome. It avoids so much future headache. Absolutely. And then it's a seamless escrow, right?

Because we've got all the contingencies removed. escrow's already got all the documents, the discloses already filled out, everything's done. So touch wood, in 24 years of real estate, I've never had a property fall out of escrow. And I'm yet to meet someone in this country that can compete with that claim. How many transactions are escrows do you guys close a month in your brokerage? In auctions, it's been slow the last two years because of the supply and demand issue. So on average, before COVID, we were doing 100 a year. Then it dropped down to like 10 during COVID, and then we went up to 20, then we were at 30.

last year we did I think 25 only last year. This week, however, we've listed seven properties in the last week, last seven days. So the demand is like shifting like crazy. This is our market right now. You know, you're seeing days on market increase for a lot of sellers. You're seeing agents that, and I'm not trying to put down agents, I'm just being honest. A lot of agents don't know how to sell real estate anymore. They haven't had to do the negotiating the marketing for so many years. They've forgotten how to do it or they're newer agents and have never learned. And that's the problem I feel with a lot of these cloud-based brokerages, there's no mentee-ship programs around that actually give hands-on experiences. So a lot of agents are looking for solutions. How do we get

this home sold? We put on the MLS. We took some photos with our iPhone, which I'd never let anyone do. And I'm like, well, you haven't marketed the home. You've got to think outside the box. Yeah. Well, we put it on our stories. Yeah. Well, we posted about it, and I sent it out to like six of my friends. That's not going to sell the house. We know, we have a program. and it dictates what the roles are for every agent we work with, what our roles are is the auction company, and that way then at the end of the process or the campaign, if you will, I can look at that checklist and say who didn't do what they were supposed to do

and where we went wrong or where we went right. So I'm pretty strict on it because I know that when we tick every box, we get success every time. If something drops off, there's a chance we could not get the result we're hoping for. So door knocking, cold calling, inviting people over, doing voicemail drops, doing social media drops, doing email blasts, everything and anything you can. You know, going to local hotels, if it's a prestigious property, go into local hotels like your Ritz-Kalton or your montage or your Waldorf Astoria and asking the concierge, do you have any high net worth clients that are looking to move into the area? I have a great property.

You've got to think outside the box in this current market. Yeah. And that's where our program is only 28 days. And actually, our average days on market right now is 17. We're getting home sold in 17 days. The only reason it wouldn't sell is if the seller doesn't accept the number we get them. But they're going to accept it because they're auctioning and you're getting them over market. Well, that's the thing.

So a lot of sellers, unfortunately, I'm finding, have been lied to by agents by telling them an unrealistic price for their home to try and gain their business, as we call it buying the listing, right? Yeah. And that's where we've got to educate ourselves. So this process is a great education tool for sellers because it shows them what the true market feedback is. not the comps. Comps are not going to buy your house. The people are. So every, every open house we hold, which only goes for one hour. We have a one hour open house twice a week for three weeks. So Wednesday and Saturday, for example, from 12 to 1. That's abnormal, by the way. It's usually like 12 to 4. I know, but what are you doing for 4 hours? Sitting around like we are now, doing nothing, playing on your phone,

going through the pantry. That's what agents do. And they're wasting a day. In Sydney, I would do seven open houses every Saturday. 45 minutes. Wow. They're now in Sydney doing half an hour open houses. And this is on like 10, 20, 30 million dollars homes. But they're marketed so that people show up at the time. So we pre-schedule all the open houses.

We advertise them online. We have them on our flyers. We have on our website. They're everywhere. So people know the schedule of when they can come and look at the property. And that gives them the comfort knowing that if you can't make Wednesday, Joe, come on Saturday. We're going to be there from 12 to 1.

And then when you come through, guess what you see? Because it's a small window. So guess what? Everyone comes at the same time. When you see your competition, what do you fear? Loss. Yeah. So a scenario I play with sellers, in fact, I played this with a seller yesterday,

and they're on the market traditionally in a great home in Villa Park, and it's just shy of $4 million. It's a beautiful home. In fact, I love the home. But the problem is people are coming individually one at a time. They're not seeing their competition. And then they're in mind, they're playing a story or a stigma that, look, Joe, you're the listing agent.

There's no one here. You've been on the market for 60 days. Here's a lower off. I tell you a seller to get realistic. What we find with auctions is we get the reverse. It's like, hey, Joe, there's a lot of people here. What do we have to do to stop this from happening? So again, mindset change.

A lot of psychology and what we do. Making people aware of the value. I don't know anybody doing it this way. And it makes so much more sense for execution. Yeah. I mean, we're not cutting anyone out. of the deal. Listing agents are still getting their fees. Buyers agents, depending on how they negotiated it since August last year, it's a negotiation

thing right now. We charge the buyer. We charge the buyer at 2% buyer premium to buy the house. Now, do buyers like that at first? No, no one likes paying extra fees. Hell, I don't like paying a co-pay when I go to the doctor, but it's part of life. Yeah. So I said it's advantageous than our settlement works for you. Absolutely. But let's just say you're looking at the home, Joe. I'll be like, look Joe, you really like this home. Are you prepared to lose this home for 2%? No. You do know in the area we're seeing 5 to 7% growth every year. So paying 2% more is still going to make you money. So it's knowing your product and not just knowing yourself or your product. It's knowing the market as well, right? So if you can understand how the market works and what that's going on

in your marketplace, you can share that knowledge with the buyer to give them confidence. Now let me ask you, like auctions are high stakes. People are freaking out. There's a lot of emotions. A lot of emotion. That's why I like doing residential. Running in the room. How do you control the environment with all the emotions? It's always different. Can I tell you? It's always different. I never really know 100% what to expect. You'll have sometimes you'll have an old, an old ethnic guy in the corner who doesn't want to, you know, sitting there with his arms cross, doesn't want to talk to anybody. You'll have a young family that are really excited. You'll have an investor. You have all different types of personalities. I like to think of myself

and not to put myself down, as a bit of a comedian when you're up there, I've got to keep the crowd entertained. So in the auction world, it's called pitter-patter. You've got to perfect your pitter-patter. So it's a bit of rhythm. So ladies and gentlemen, we're looking for everybody who bids at $1 million. Can I say from there? $1 million, $2 million, $2 million, $2 million,

call out three times. You've run a fair chance. First, second, third, finish, quiet done. So you change your voice, but I'm always looking at you. I haven't forgotten about the offer on my right, sir. You're still over there, but I'm looking at you right now, waving you in. Do you want to miss out right now?

you want to go home to a happy wife. So if I see two husbands in the crowd or two boyfriends in the crowd and their partners are squeezing their hand, oh God help that man. I'm going to hone in on him like nothing else. I'm going to get every last dollar out of him because I want him, one, go home to a happy partner. And I want him to, you know, not have to go looking at homes for the next four weeks. And my job for the seller is to get every last dollar. Yeah, so I use a lot of tactical lines like, you know, you know, sir, if you give me another $5,000

increase. That's one cup of coffee per month for the next 30 years. Are you telling me you can't give up one cup of coffee? Hell, if you make the next bid, I'll buy you an espresso if you win the bid. So a $300 an espresso chip machine to me gets a seller maybe an extra 10, 15 grand. So it's about keeping the crowd on the toes, keep entertaining, and managing them by, not just myself, I've got my team. So I've got the clerks, if you want to call them, or floor runners. And they're the reps in my team.

They'll be going around and whispering in the year. years of the buyers, don't miss out right now, this is your chance. Reminding them with the value of the opportunity. You know, if we're at a view property or a landlocked location that is very hard to come by, I'll make people aware, I'll call the auction live on site. Ladies and gentlemen, look at this view. It might be the last time you see it for another 30 years. Are you sure you prepared to walk away for another 30 years? Don't lose this chance, ladies of John. This is the gem that you've been waiting for. A lot of psychology because it's live sales. It's live. And when you make people feel comfortable, they do things they ordinarily would not do in a traditional sense.

So when people are comfortable and confident, they will play the game. So what are like some big mistakes you can make on the auction floor? The biggest mistake I feel some auctioneers make, and again, it's just my opinion, is they're not flexible with their increments. That's something that I change the way I do things. I don't have set increments. I will suggest increments. Let's just say we're trying to get to a million dollars.

The bidding to start from would roughly be $799 or $800,000. When I start the auction, I'm going to be suggesting a $50,000 bid. If I don't get anybody to say that, I'm going to drop down to $20,000 or $25,000 bid. Right. And then I want to go with the market. I don't want to, if someone's only got another $1,000 to add in, I don't want to lose that bidder because that's the one that could push the next person. Right.

So I find a lot of auction. He's like, no, sorry, we're only taking $5,000 bids right now. and that's cutting out their other it's cutting out the opponents right from competing so I try to flex I try to flex and if a scenario be like you maybe let's just say you bid $10,000 and someone over here bid only $1,000

well sir it looks like he's slowing up this is your time to pounce give me another $10,000 knock him out in that time I've just raised $1,000 from him, 10,000 from you I got an extra $11,000 for the seller that I wouldn't have got if I didn't take that $1,000

bid be the biggest error I see. And then, although I'm going down this path myself to be able to be scalable across a nation, a lot of agents, a lot of auctioneers aren't live anymore. Since COVID, a lot of them are going completely digital, which takes away that interaction, that personal experience. I know I can get more money for my sellers when I'm in person. That leads me to my next question. You're like, you're a businessman slash showman, you know, so theatrics are a big part. A lot of theatre. A lot of theatre in what we do.

Look, I'm half Italian, so I automatically speak with my hands, and I'm a bit theatrical. But it's about making people feel comfortable. Honestly, people think when I say auctions, they think you just speak really, really quickly. There are times I will speak quickly, but there are other times I will slow it down. So I'm still looking at you here, looking for that bid to come on in. Don't wait right now. This is it. Your chances right now.

Because when people think auctions, they're doing like 100 items in one day. They've got to get through them all. So they're calling sold, calling sold. To me, I'm doing one or two auctions in a day. I've got time to take our time, get everyone to have a chance to think about it seriously and partake in the auction. So you're 50-50 then. You're half-businessmen, half-showman then.

Yeah. But it's about making people aware of the value, right? Same for you. You have a lot of products in your line of work. Yeah. And for you to showcase that, you've got to show knowledge to your clients. You've got to show them the value. And I'm more showman as well.

Yeah. over here like pitching people just like getting them to come over to the company. Absolutely. And the more, it's funny, since I met you, I'm seeing everyone around who knows you now. It's like you're on my radar now. And it's funny because I'm like, I just met you what? A couple months ago. Yeah.

And all of a sudden now, everywhere I go, I see your face or I see you on my Instagram. I see people talking about you. I see you at the Elks. Like it's just like it's really cool. It's really cool how the world works and how we connect like that. Me by design, I try to drive millions of impressions. to the brand. Yeah.

And the brand is around, because we have a couple thousand people that work for the company. It's huge. Yeah. So it's, you know, you can't run into anyone with walking through Orange County that doesn't know of e-mortgage capital or work for e-mortgage capital, especially because you're in real estate. We know you got run on the coolest garages downstairs. Yeah. That's not my, those aren't my car.

I know. I know. I wish it was. But one day, that's not even like American money. You can't even be that rich. I know. I know. That's crazy.

But it's always nice to come here. Yeah. Yeah. Always a little peek in that garage to see what's going on. Unless you're Jeff Bezos or something. There's a couple hundred million dollars in cars down there. Mani Quishman? Yeah, yeah, yeah.

No, it's not. He sold the building. The cars are even nicer now. Oh, okay. Yeah. All right. Yeah. Remember it was Manny's.

Yeah, it was Manys. Yeah. No, the guy that bought it's, you know, from China. And so, you know, I've never met him. Okay. Interesting. He's just got a bunch of people that work for him and manage his cars. Oh, nice.

Perfect. Hey, if it makes some money, they're not having anybody? Good luck. I don't think he's making money from that. I think he should set up a museum down there, though. That would be cool. Yeah. It's a good area for it. Yeah. But yeah, man, we have fun. It's all about just making people feel comfortable and reminding them it's not a stressful experience. We're here to be honest. We're here to clean up the name our industry has. And that's what we're really trying hard to do. Like there's a lot of people that, and I agree, there's a lot of bad agents in our industry. A lot of unethical practices happening. And just, I'm trying to change the way that we're looked at by the public. And there's not a lot of, like, really high achievers. Like, you're one of the few that really, like, just dominate. I mean, I'm trying.

I'm absolutely a long way to go, in all, honestly. I'm no way to need. I'm nowhere near. I don't think I'll ever be happy with where I am. Yeah, I'm just scratching the surface of success. Exactly. And as a business owner yourself, you understand. It's like, there are days when people don't see us crying and struggling to see how we're

going to make this work. And then the next day when they see us winning, they're like, oh, yeah, you're killing it, right? But there's highs and lows and tribulations when you come as a business owner and it's sacrifices you make. You know, you've got four kids. I've got three kids. I'm sure if we were here without kids, we'd be having a different conversation.

We'd probably be taking a few more risks. Yeah. But right now, a bit more reluctant to take those risks. Actually, I'm still very, I'll still take this all day. Me too, but maybe not as many as I would have taken before. Yeah. Because at the end of the day, we've got more mouths to feed. Yeah, I got a lot of them. People thinking on our success to survive.

And especially out here in Orange County where it's not cheap to survive out here. Very expensive. Your suits have to be paid for you somehow. So I used to, it's funny, last week I wore one of my old suits that I've had probably for about 20 years, maybe 15 years actually. And I was raised in a very strict traditional Italian upbringing, and I wasn't allowed to talk.

I was a very shy guy in general. And I never really had training on how to negotiate or talk to people other than when I worked with my grandfather at the fruit markets. So I used to get stitched on the inside of my breastings. jacket, jacket breast, was my confidence suit. And every time I'd go into an appointment, I'd give myself a little pump up. And I wore it last week because everyone thought I was lying about that. And I'm like, good guys, here's the suit. And I also'm like, wow, you actually did have that suit that had my confidence suit on. Yeah, that's what gave me the confidence to go out there

and talk to people because I believed in myself. Yeah. If you don't believe in yourself, it's not going to work. They're not going to believe you. If you don't believe in you either. It just doesn't work that way. You got to bet on yourself every time. Yeah. And you continue to because you show up every day. It doesn't matter of rain or shine, highs or lows, heat or cold, in an awesome suit. Well, I took my tie off for you. I wanted to make you feel a little bit more comfortable. But I'm normally very strict than wearing a tie.

Even though it might be a thousand degrees outside, the jacket stays on. You know, I was raised that way. My last boss in Australia was very strict on me. If I had even gone in with this much facial hair, my shoes weren't polished. I was sent home. I told, don't come back tomorrow. You don't have a job here. Wow.

Like, it was very, Sydney's like a very New York location as far as the mentality goes. It's business. You know, you go to New York, everyone's dressed in nice suits. West Coast is a bit more relaxed. Yeah. And that's why people give me, they give me a bit of flack about, you know, why do you dress that way? You're a bit of a snooty guy. And I'm not snooty.

This is my point of difference. People, no one wears a flower. I wear a flower every day. It's my thing. I wear colorful socks every day. It gets people to talk to me. No one knows I have a. accent until they talk to me. And everyone's got a story. You've got a great story. And I'm intrigued

to learn more about your family, you're who you are as a person. Because for me, it's not just about having a business relationship, but someone's actually connecting on a personal level. And that's why I say to people, I'm not a salesman. I'm a trusted advisor. And only way I can advise you is if we have trust. So I've got to earn the trust. You got to have a podcast if you want to meet like the best people. Absolutely. Yeah, that's the next step for you. Yeah. It's in the works. So one hour, I don't get to get, I get one hour of the coolest people's time all the time. Look, I mean, I'm just on it. I don't need, I don't even need a, like, to join a, you know, a mastermind's group or anything. It's like, I get coaching for free, like a couple times a week.

That's pretty cool, right? Right. But it's also who you are, right? You came with a, before I met you, someone said, I got to introduce you to the guy inside. He's a beast. Yeah. And I'm like, okay, I didn't know what he meant by beast. Like, is he a scary looking guy? Is he, a work beast but it turned that you're a work beast right you're a huge in what you do you're well known you've got a great following and it's a real legit following of people who actually generally want to know more about what you're doing and i've been watching your videos and i'm like i've been telling you i'm so excited to go on this podcast because i really do look up to you in a way like you you are someone who's making moves you're doing it happily i've seen you in a personal setting like at the elks with your family

yeah i know you're real it's not a show um i mean and that's just really cool because i don't see that very often here. A lot of people are very closed. They keep their business separate to their personal. Yeah. And I think that maybe it's an immigrant thing as well where we were, I was raised the door's always open. Neighbors come in whenever you walk. There's always food at table. Yeah. You know, and a lot of that's like we're very faith-based, you know, Orthodox Christian,

Coptic Orthodox Christian. So it's like, yeah, grew up dirt poor. So it's like. My dad was very successful and lost it all in 1990. actually my first ever auction experience was when they foreclosed to my dad and auctioned our house off and I promised myself I would never work in auctions and here I am now an auctioneer but again trying to change the mentality of how it's done yeah now a couple last questions um now this is about family kids um you know you are fortunate like we said to grow we we started the conversation with this

and I didn't want to because I usually close off the podcast with these questions but you're fortunate enough to grow up as an immigrant poor, etc. Your kids, on the other hand, are growing up here in Orange County, affluent, yada, yada. They don't have that same resilience and the same landscape that you grew up in. So how are you as a father instilling

that same level of grit that was instilled in you as a child into your children? It's something I'm trying very hard with and I'm somewhat battling at times, truth be told. My kids were the first great were the first grandkids of the of of their their mother's side of the family

um and they were very spoiled not because of that not because it was done intentionally just to make them a bad person but everyone loved them they were the first ones they got everything right yeah and i i noticed this at an early stage i was like we're setting up for disaster here and it really didn't kick in until i went back to my dad's village in italy and i went to where my dad was born and his cousin now lives in that house and they've got some kind of kids and one of their kids my cousin, Marcymore, he was playing in the backyard with this truck that only had three wheels and was covered in concrete and just like, it was half broken. And he was the happiest kid on earth playing with this toy. And I just thought to myself that

that breakthrough moment was like, holy crap, my son's going to go back to a room packed with clothes, toys, things to do and he's still not grateful. And this child, my cousin, is so in love and having the time of his life with one thing. And I said from that moment on, I was like, I want to make sure that we don't raise our kids to be superficial, expecting, and they've got to earn it. So like right now I say to my son, if he wants, like, he wanted me to buy him a Lionel Messi into Miami Jersey. And he's like, Papa, just go on Amazon and just buy it.

Use your credit card. I said, it doesn't work that way. His name's Elvis. I said, Elvis, it doesn't work that way. I'll tell you what. I'll make a deal with you. When Papa sells a house, we'll. we'll go get a reward.

So what I'm trying to teach him is like, you've got to work towards something to reward yourself. Same way I used to buy my suits. I wouldn't buy a suit until I closed the deal. I started in the industry wearing the same suit for two years. I didn't have money. I had one shirt, I'd iron and wash it every day, just because that's all I had.

And it wasn't until I made some good money that I was able to go get a new wardrobe and look better. But I'm trying to teach that same method to my kids. It's like, you've got to earn it. It's got to be a reward system. them and you've got to understand that the dollar just doesn't come out of no way. You've got to work for it and appreciate it. So it's something I am struggling with because, again, around this location, there are a lot

of trust fund kids. There are a lot of kids that are spoiled. And I see it every day. I'm sure you say it when you take your kids to school or they're around other kids. There's some kids you know them when you see them that, you know, they'll never have to work a day in their life. They don't appreciate it. But I want to raise my kids to appreciate the dollar, respect the dollar, and respect

who they are as a. a person that they earned that money. Yeah, it's something I, I'm always on a quest to figure out their entrepreneur journey, how they're going to grind, what they're going to do. I asked lots of questions. I asked my guest questions because it's something we, my guests all deal with. Yeah, and if you have any advice, tell me. I mean, I'm going to learn off you as well.

We can learn off each other. That's why I've found it really hard to meet good, genuine people here. Yeah. Unfortunately, and I'm not trying to put anyone down. I've just haven't connected with people. I guess a lot of people think I'm weird. I think they're weird. Yeah.

But just different cultural upbringings. And I'm very open and I like to talk to people and I like to understand who you are as a person. And how can I help you? Because in turn, if I know if I can help you, there's probably something that you could do or show me or share with me that would help and change my life. Yeah. Yeah, that's a servant mentality. Absolutely. And my grandfather always said to me, always from when I was born, always be there for the people and always give with two hands.

And I couldn't understand why two hands is. one is to take and one is to give. A lot of people forget about the give part. They're just out there to take. So if you're giving, and it might be, you might have an empty hand on the take side for a while, but as long as you keep giving,

that hand is always ready for when it comes to you. Yeah, you just, you know what? Don't even worry about, just do God's work. It's very simple. Do God's work. Don't even worry about whatever,

like God will provide. He will. And it's something I'll provide 10 times more. Yeah. So just give, give, give. I see you walking along Newport Peninsula along the beach. You know, you're giving out cool stuff to kids. I saw you PS5, you had the Nintendo Switch, the Oculus glasses.

And I'm like, that's a really selfless act. And like some people would look at it and be like, oh, this guy's showing off that he's got money. I'm like, no, I didn't see that in any way, shape or form. I was like, this guy's giving. Yeah, we try to give as much. Yeah, we try to give as much as we can, man. You get, when you give a lot, you get a lot. you get a lot of haters.

Of course. Jealousy. Yeah, you get a lot of haters. And it happens. I see the, I have a friend who does the biggest toy drive in the world. You know, and, you know, and people, you're like, how can someone hate on him? He's doing the biggest toys. You're giving his soul.

All he does is give and give and give. Christ was crucified. All he did was give. Right? People forget that. Yeah, people will, but you're not there for, for, for, the people, you're there to do God's work. Absolutely. And it's something I've really connected strongly with in the last six months

to a year. I've really connected again with God. I was raised Catholic. My mother's Greek Orthodox and my ex-wife, Muslim background being Iranian, but converted to Catholicism when we got married. And I was an altar boy growing up. I've always been connected with God and I don't preach it on people. But I've made some. significant prayers in my life that have really actually happened, which makes me 100% a full believer. He's there. He's a very power. I make a goose bump saying this. His power is unstoppable. And the sky is the limit as long as you are open to following the path that he provides you with. That's right. That's 100% of fact. No resistance. And that's something I used to put up for a long

time. I put up resistance because I questioned it. Since I learned not to question, man, things came to me. You know, a lot of people have that doubt. You know, still, you know, like, the disciple Thomas had doubts. Actually, the Sunday's doubting Thomas Sunday after the resurrection. It's like, I don't believe you resurrected. Show me. Show me.

Show me the wounds. Right. Here you go. Here they are. They're right there. So, I mean, it's just about where you are in your life. Yeah. You know, I think sometimes, like, I joined a couple of men's group that we do, we do

Bible study. It's not like we have to do homework and write the site lines, but we talk to each other, we help each other out. Yeah, yeah, man's groups are great. And it's something I was struggling with until I found this group. I love it. We do on the second Tuesday every month. And some of these guys, I look at them when I first saw them, like, this guys look

strong and burly, big beards, you know, big, you know, they look solid, and they break down. Because we don't have a place to go to. Yeah. If anything, people might judge me for saying, this is the worst time in history to be a white, straight male. Well, yeah,

the White Street, you know, Republican male is the most hated man in the world right now. We've got a lot of things up against this right now. There's a lot of haters. And when they see us succeed, they want to bring us down. So, it's about finding the people that support you on the journey up. Yeah. Rather than trying to weigh you down. And I've

cut a lot of people out in my life, which was hard to do. But in doing it, I've actually feel a sense of relief. Yeah. Weight off my shoulders is gone. And I can actually focus on the people that do care for me. And you can focus on people who, you want to get to know. Absolutely.

Like yourself. Yeah. Yeah. And I've kind of taken that same approach and now I get to surround myself again around the people that, you know, I'm most intrigued by. A couple last questions. This is a three-prong question. Yep.

What's a personal goal that you have for yourself, a business goal that you have for R-E-C-A auctions and a goal that you have for the family? For myself. I'm working on my inner pace. That's a big thing. I'm personally trying to work on just to have more confidence in myself, to believe in myself and to, I'm consciously trying to be a better person. Not that I'm a bad person, but be a better person.

Yeah, it's a lifelong quest. Absolutely. That's my personal, that's my personal, like, goal. For business is to take RECA nationwide. You're currently only in California. I've got all the tools ready to go nationwide. We're in the process of looking for funding to be able to take it. nationwide. I've got everything all I've got to do is flick the switch or press the button

once I get the funding in and we're ready to go live nationwide. That's a big thing I've been working on for six, seven years. That it's finally coming to the point where people want us and we have the tool that they need. So I'm really excited to grow that. And then, so last question was, family goal. Family goal. I really want to be able to buy a house for my kids to have a proper house. live in. That's the goal. And I want to be able to give them the best life I can.

And that doesn't have to necessarily mean I buy them everything they want. It means just give them the best life with love, with education, and just with reassurance that they're on the right path. And last question for you. When you're in front of the pearly gates, what do you think God's going to tell you? You're lucky I didn't bring you here earlier. I like that question. It's a good one.

Yeah. He's probably going to say, look, I've cheated death a few times. I've had a few scares, and I honestly believe God did those moments to me to make me realize that I have still a purpose in this world. And he's going to be, when he sees me, he's going to be like, yeah, that time you almost died, I saved you. And I really feel he's going to say something like that to me. That's right. He will. He will.

And he has. He did. He always saves us, you know, at the times that you're, you're like, he will. like this is it. Yeah. So that's why we stay steadfast in the tribulation, especially with business. It makes it so resilient. Amen. Well, God bless you, bro. I hope you hit everyone on your goals. If people want to connect with you, they want to find you. How do they get in touch with you? Yeah, social media is probably the best way on Instagram, Simon Polito TPG, which stands for the Polito group. Um, love to help you follow. I'm trying to

catch up to this guy. I got a while ago. I got about one-tenth of your followers, but I'm working on it. Yeah, yeah, you know, you got to just, just consistent. I post two, three videos, five videos a day. Me too. Stories, videos, reals. Yeah. It's very time-consuming, but... I do.

I have a team, thank God, but then I do my own thing. I have some cool strategies. I record a lot of my stuff, but then I send it to editing. They do that part for me, but I find out of the natural real stuff, people follow more, and they're more engaging because they know it's real, unedited. So, yeah, man, just social media is Simon Polito TPG or YouTube, Simon. they Simon Polito. Perfect. Yeah. All right well God bless you man. I hope you hit all your goals and we'll be in touch looking forward to it