KGCI: Real Estate on Air - Conquering the Concrete Jungle

Episode Date: October 4, 2024

Hey everyone. This is Real Estate Rich's podcast, and boy, is it going to be rich, full of the wealth and the tips and the tricks of all kinds of successful agents. Because that's what you want to be, right? Business builder who has success in their business, well, that's what we got going on here. And I'm going to have all kinds of agents, men, women, younger, older, sharing all their stuff because there's technology, there's just, how do you build your business? There's so many questions, right? So let's learn from some of the best. Gather your wealth and build your business. That's what this channel is all about, and I'm excited to bring it to you.

I'm Kathy Burns, and I'll be your host, and stay tuned. Let's get at it, right? Hey, everybody, it's Kathy Burns here with Real Estate Riches, and I have got two guests today, two for the price of one. I'm very excited about that. I've got Grant Cooper and Bronwyn Kelly as my guest today, and so I'm excited to get going.

Hey, Grant, hey, Kell. Conwin. Hi. My daughter's name is Kelly, so that's why I was going for that first. That's her barista name. She always goes by Kelly. It makes it easier. Easier, of course.

So tell me you two. How long you've been in the industry? So almost eight years. We started around the same time, actually. We were actually in the same real estate class, but we did not know each other. We didn't meet until we were actually licensed and working and we're married now. But we met on the job and did all of our projects together and became friends. And yeah, eventually got married.

Definitely ever after. Yeah. So it's nice to have a partnership, isn't it? I mean, to really play off each other. business and something. So that's great. Yes, yeah. We've been really lucky to have each other and to find each other almost immediately. Of course, Bronwyn finished her real estate classes way before I did. So she's actually been in the business longer than I have. And then we were, you know, trying to figure this out. We started off in rentals in New York City. And then we got our first exclusive

rental, which was a big deal, and I have since worked without landlord for, you know, since we started and then graduated into sales. So it's been a whirlwind. It feels like where I haven't really come up for air in the past seven or eight years except for, you know, when everything stopped during COVID. But sure. So you're, are you in Manhattan? Our offices at Fifth Avenue. We're at Compass at Fifth Avenue in 17th Street. So the neighborhood's called Flatiron. It's near the flat iron building, that triangular building. We first started off right in our own neighborhood that we live in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. So basically 33rd Street across the East River. And I think we both loved our neighborhood. And we could see that it was going to explode because it had been

up zoned. So it started off when we were in real estate that there weren't any high rises along the river looking at Manhattan. And then since we've been in the business, now almost the entire waterfront are as high rises. Wow. So isn't Manhattan like an MLS under itself? It's completely run very different from the rest of the state, right? Yeah. So we've always been a member of the real estate board of New York. We call it Rebney. There is still not an MLS. Now Rebney does have, they're trying to have like a common place for all the listings, but we do have all the same, a lot of the same rules. And then I'm licensed down in Florida in Jacksonville, Florida. So it is interesting to see the differences between an MLS and in New York. But yeah, I think that's

the main difference that there isn't that one location to find all the listings in New York and in Manhattan. How do you find them? I didn't realize you didn't have an MLS. That's like Europe. Yeah. Well, there's a Zillow product that is kind of the name in the game. It's street easy, it's called. And so that's where a lot of the listings are, but they're everywhere. There's a lot of off-market listings. Zillow is still there. And then we're now at Compass. And I think Compass is maybe the number two destination to look at listings after Street Easy. So you're saying that Compass itself puts it on the Compass website. Yes. Okay. So that's one way. So people can just go to Compass if they want to see it. But that's only your listings. Not you personally, but the Compass group,

right? I think they have kind of an IDX type partnership where, you know, everything is then on on compass.com in New York, or at least they try to be and put everything up that is there. But that's part of the problem with New York is that especially since we've been in the business, that everything does move so quickly, especially with rentals and leasing, that it's really hard because listings are gone almost immediately, you know, before, right after they go on the market. So that is a part of the problem. It's kind of like an inside scoop. Like I got a rental over here and everybody's like, tell me where you got a rental.

What are it just like on a rental property like that? It makes relationships that much more important. Yeah. So your colleagues in the business, you really rely on them. And it also makes using an agent that much more. important because you rely on your agent to really gather that information and present it to you in a way that you can digest. So it's an interesting, it's an interesting way to do business. Well, buyer's agency is pretty strong then in New York City. Yeah, yeah, it is. And I think,

you know, that we started off as buyers agents and we love being buyers agents. Yeah, I absolutely love it. I know that everyone doesn't enjoy that, but we love the kind of thrill of that search and compiling all of that information. And the Compass tech is pretty amazing with that. Yeah, we've been at a few brokerages now. And yeah, we've been just so blown away by the tech at Compass. And, you know, I think you're at EXP, right? They also have amazing tech too. Yeah. So I think that is a differentiator. Do you get the license in Florida because you have a lot of people who move down there, so you're trying to get coverable territories?

That was one idea. Yes. So both of my parents are from Florida. And when everything stopped during the pandemic, we came down here to help my family with some things. So we actually have built some houses down here, designed some houses. We also handle a commercial portfolio. down here. I run that company and then Grant is our broker. Gotcha. That's cool. Do you have to pay two different splits because you're in two different states? Yeah. Yeah. So I just switched to Compass

down here and technically, so we're in Jacksonville right now. I can't wait to get back to New York. We have one listing right here, a condo listing. So as soon as we get that into contract, we're going back to New York, but I'm technically a referral agent down here. Yeah. Totally licensed. Yeah, that's exactly. You would have to pay the full split. That's what I thought.

Yeah. So tell me about tech. So just tech yourself. I mentioned you earlier. My mission is to kind of help the 40 plus age group realtors because a couple of things. Business, you have a unique place. with New York City or Manhattan, that's a world of its own, right? And it's very different from the rest of the real estate world as you see within Florida,

right? And then you're mixing in commercial on top of it. So what I'm wondering about is when it comes to this business that isn't moving as fast for a lot of agents, what are some of your ideas of where you think you could give some suggestions that somebody could actually level up, do better in their business? Sure. We really love our manager. We're pretty recent to Compass in New York. We've been there about a year, but that feels recent. And our manager, Fritz Fregan, is incredible. First off, Ninja Selling. He's a big proponent of that. I don't know if you know. I know that book. Yeah. Yeah. And so he does a weekly hour-long Zoom meeting for all Compass agents about a different point of Ninja Selling. selling. And so that's just kind of getting back to basics. And then I think Compass is big on tech,

and they're big about their CRM and integrating everything. And so rather than, let me stop here. I don't mean to jump on you. Rather than necessarily talk about a company, I'm really talking about, like you just said, like that book, getting back to basics and ninja selling and things like that. That's powerful. I think there needs to be more collaboration with. agents just sharing each other. Whether it's in company or out, like you and I are two different companies. How can we help each other, right? Versus how do I bring you to my company or that company?

Everybody's got to make up their own mind what appeals to them. Right. But I do think as a whole, we need to collaborate more with each other and not be so worried about holding it so tight that we don't help each other because the collaboration is so important, don't you think? Oh, absolutely. Oh, yeah. I think that's everything. And I think that it goes back to having genuine relationships and not being afraid to share your time and designate how there's a one-to-one for that closing a deal, right? So you want to be open to being a resource for people,

whether that's clients or other agents and not being afraid of how your content. identifying that. I think that obviously kindness just in life goes a long way, but I think that those genuine relationships will always come back to benefit you. We're never afraid to talk to somebody about their listing, their clients, you know, we had somebody from a different company who was taking a client to a neighborhood where we've had an apartment for a long time and they just wanted to know what are the best coffee shops where take my client for a bite to eat and we love that. That's fabulous, you know. Yeah.

That's absolutely no skin off our back to be able to talk about a neighborhood that we absolutely love and this person is our friend and I hope will remain our friend and our resource for us as well. You know, regardless of what company you're at, it's irrelevant. Exactly. And we had somebody call us from a state where we're not licensed. They already have an agent and they just wanted to ask for advice. I think we talked to them for over an hour about specifics, when even to look into comps. And that person's mother then was talking about how much that meant to them and how that made them feel so much more secure.

And that's okay that another agent. will benefit from that. That's fine. You know, this has to be a collaborative giving business. And I think a lot of people become very fear-based and very possessive. And I don't think that really helps anybody. And I think that clients can also feel that. Clients can feel if you're only focused on how your time becomes a paycheck. Right. And I think that gives agents a bad reputation. It doesn't do proper service to the client. And so that's been our philosophy pretty much from day one. And I think that actually really brought us together as colleagues, right? We shared a lot of knowledge and obviously became very good friends and now we're married.

But we were very collaborative and we maybe didn't focus so much on exactly how our time became a paycheck compared to. I think that's so important. And the other thing is like, When you're doing a sale and now you've got the agent on the other side and they think like you do. I often will say to my clients, man, I know this other agent and they are rock stars. We're going to have great time through this. We're all going to work so that everybody wins. That's our goal. Let's everybody win.

And then there's some that are like, they're just a nightmare to work with because it's a battle all the way through. Yes. Don't get that reputation, people. be the ones that everyone says, wow, I can't wait to work with them, right? Yeah, exactly. It makes a huge difference. So tell me, are you guys using chat GPT at all in your business? Oh, gosh.

Well. A little bit. Yes, we are. I mean, it's built into a lot of the systems. You come to realize how much AI has been a part of our lives for some time now in ways that you didn't even think about. Yeah. So we had an event last week. and it was just suggested when we were making our marketing materials,

would you like some help with your emails that you're going to send out? We just wanted to see what it would come up with and came up with a really fabulous which, you know, it's like, oh my gosh, that took us so much time in the past, right? So it can be a little disheartening, but and we still had to like make some tweaks and things. But, you know, we're open to it and use. it where we can and it's here, right? So it ain't going away. Yeah, it's not going away.

So it's morning. I was in a, I'm in a BNI, which is a networking group. I don't know if you've heard of it. Yeah, yes, we've been, yeah. Oh, good. And one of my clients is also in there. That's how you get a bunch of clients too. But she was having a custom house built.

And her husband's out at the site every single day. He's making sure everything's being running right, even though he may or may not know, is that right or not, right? So he sees the cement truck come in and pour the foundation, but he didn't have enough cement to do the whole job. So he was coming back at a later date. Well, and then it dried and then he added to it. So he's thinking, oh, my God, the foundation of my million plus home is going to be horrid. And so she said her husband hadn't slept in a week, didn't know what to do.

And I said, well, let's just go on chat chippy. I get out my phone. I prompt it. You are a concrete guru. You also know structural engineering. Here's the story of what happened. Tell me if there's consequences here. And if there isn't, great.

But how would I find out for sure? Who would I hire? What would I do? Boom. It gives me the whole thing. And I said, do you want me just forward this to your email? She goes, yes. And I went back.

I asked it further things like who who's what's the type of thing what are some of the symptoms what are some of the things that I would see from my naked inexperienced eye and it told me all that I sent her that email and now I'm tracking down a structural engineer that can do that for her that's the extra step right but that's how you can utilize chaty-t do you think I was a hero in her eyes that day that I was You're a hero in my eyes. Yeah. That's incredible. I use that app on my phone all the time.

And I ask it not just business stuff, personal stuff all the time. You know, if I need to know something, I tell it who it is, because that's how you've got to train it. You tell it who it is. Okay. And then it plays back for you. The reality is, this is here, and it's coming so rapid. the ages that utilize it and do things just like I did with that app on my phone are the ones that are going to be elevated in the eyes of their clients.

Now that 40 plus age group, they're fearful of this tech. So the younger ones are going to get it. Those younger agents, they're just going to blow them away. I mean, those agents. However, there's still a bunch of us oldies around. So they're not necessarily going to know the tech. But the more that you can have that sizzle and be efficient with tech, the better your business will run. Just like you said, doing those emails where they can pop out like crazy.

That's efficiency to run your business. Yes. Absolutely. It's a really incredible resource. Yeah, I mean, my sister was just telling me, we were just talking about some of this, and she was listening to a tech podcast. And somebody, one of the developers of AI was saying this will have a similar effect on humankind as the discovery of fire.

Yes, it's that big. It's that big. It's going to change everything. But that's incredible. I mean, you are still the resource in that situation. And you figuring out how to utilize it and still give this client, this relationship, that information is everything. When we would kind of, we would, we helped take care of my grandmother and we would train her.

And this computer is just another resource, the same way you would ask a friend or someone in your building for advice. You know, your phone can be that for you. So use all the resources you can because gosh, this job is a lot of improvisation, just a little trial by fire. And you have to be able to adapt. Every single deal is different. And I think we learn something on every single deal that we do. Oh, me too, right? We really do.

One thing that I would say to you guys is, first of all, you get Chad GPT4 because you pay for that one, $20 a month and you have more access. And you can tell it to search the internet, which is very cool. So I was thinking, since yours is such a unique territory there in Manhattan, you can actually put in websites of the different places that you've got that pull information for you. you can say here are some of the websites. I want you to use as the resource to help me track down a two bedroom, whatever, something rental. And so it can't go in and search it. But you know how you'll have a link that you create, let's say, on your own website, right?

Yeah. You did a search on your website. And it was for like for me, all the waterfronts on a certain town, right? And that's an ongoing link that you would like do a social media post like, If you ever want to know about a waterfront, this is nonstop, right? You can always see the current ones. Oh, very cool. So you take that, and now you put that into chat and you build something around it.

Like, here's the data on all the waterfronts. Could you do a comparison on all the ones that are available for sale right now? Right? How about that? There's so much that you can do, and clearly I love it. That's fabulous. No, it's very cool. Yeah, thank you for teaching us for that chat GPT. Yeah. Well, it's a tool that I think all of us need to know. And the older we are, the less we're in tune with it, most of us. I've been in tune with it since it came out because I've gravitated toward it. I mean, all tech. I loved it since Doss, if you even know what that is. Of course, M.S. Doss. And so I've just loved it. And I love it. And I love it. And I love it.

learning too. And I think that's another tool that we all need to do is learn. You know, you have to constantly be current. Yes. I think that's been the neatest thing about this industry is that you're always learning. Every situation is different. And you're, yeah. And I love, you know, in work, a lot of attorneys are always offering classes for your continuing ed. So, you know, where and a lot of those have food at them, which I like. So that's always fun. Another thing I was thinking of is if they told you like if there was a resource where you could go find out, here's a scoop on all the rentals as far as the rules of all the rentals, right?

So now you go take that website and you tell chat, say, I want you to extrapolate all of this in 30 days worth of social media posts where I could have. five of the top tips about renting in Manhattan. And now you've got a social media post on all. And it extrapolated for you. See what I mean? And you see how that'll pull people to you? Because you're the guru who knows it all,

but all you did was ask chat to figure it all up, put it in, lay it all out for me to do in social media. Wow. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, that's a very good idea. Have you been doing a lot of drip campaigns and things? I think that's something that always scares me with, you know, setting up those drip campaigns for

newsletters or, you know, something like that. I'm not an email person as much as I am in social media. Like what I just described would be perfect reels and perfect things for Instagram as well. And you could just chat, lay out my whole social media for 30 days. Like, what's the schedule? What's the topic? I could say the topic is on rentals. then I could go get all those pieces.

And I could say, okay, break that down into 30 days of copy for me. What would be my suggested music that I would play in the background so that I would just spin and spin and spin? You don't tell you everything. Wow. Very cool. You just keep asking questions. Like you just said, it becomes a friend.

You're literally talking to it. Okay, I didn't like that. Try this. Now people have relationships with. their chat GPP. So, yeah. A little scary where it can go. I stay off that.

Yeah, exactly. That was one of the headlines from a couple of weeks ago. I or we just, one of my goals has always been for the entire time we've been in real estate is to get a virtual assistant. And we just tried one out the past month. But now I'm wondering, has he been just using chat GPT for this? If you ever want to resource. for BAs out of the Philippines.

Go to onlinejobs.P.H. And there's an amazing group of people there. I have two BAs working out of there right now. And they each have a different mission, different subject. You can negotiate your wages. They do the disc profile if you're familiar with that, which is the personality style. Oh, fine.

You want a D, which is surprising. But they're dedicated. Very good people. very honest, very caring, but you want to do your, could you do a post, like, what am I looking for in the job? Like for me, I needed someone to really know go high level as a website because I was going to be building it for myself, but I don't know how to do it. I don't want to know how to do it. And so I wanted a specialist in that. And so they'll give you their resume. You'll see their profile. They even do an intelligence test, all kinds of stuff. And you can even pay them

through there. So it's a marvelous system that I really encourage. And I think everybody needs help in this business because you've got to look at your hourly wage. You know, if you're doing it, but somebody else could do it for less, but you could be spending your time on where you can make more. Go there. Go to that one. Yeah, because we really have to wear a lot of different hats. Yep. And I, you know, I think a lot of people who aren't in this business looking in don't quite realize how hands-on most of us are and how many different things we we handle during the day for each of our clients. Even down to, you know, when you arrive at a listing before a showing, I've been on my hands and knees cleaning everything, you know, if there was- cleaning that hair out of this.

Oh, we did not. But I think, you know, some of those things we have to just be quick on our feet. and in the moment handle what needs to be handled. But I think we're getting better at delegating things that can be delegated. And, you know, the longer we're in business, we get it, right? And that's the goal of this. Well, hey, guys, this has been wonderful. I appreciate you both so much.

And I look forward to having you, seeing you out there in the business world. And if I get any people heading your way, I'll sure send them your way. So thanks for joining me on this episode of Real Estate Riches. Wasn't that great? I'm sure you've got a nugget or two. I know I did. So if you liked it, please subscribe below, share it with everybody, make some comments. We really find that invaluable. And if you're thinking that you would love to talk about this a little bit more,

let's schedule a business strategy call. I'll have the link below. Let's see if we can't mastermind together and see if we can't empower each other. That would be great. So until next time, signing off. Hope to see you on the next one.