KGCI: Real Estate on Air - From Dreams to Developments Innovating Real Estate with Hana Cha

Episode Date: November 5, 2024

Welcome to another exciting episode of the Reveal Podcast. I'm your host, Jessica Nieto. And today we have a remarkable guest who is reshaping the real estate landscape, one strategic move at a time. Hana Cha is not your typical real estate entrepreneur. With over $4 billion in new development projects across the Americas, she brings such a fresh perspective to the industry with her innovative approach to analyzing market demands and creating vibrant, sustainable communities.

Hanas Journey is more than just numbers and deals. She is a true visionary, taking massive action, a mentor and a champion for women in all real estate professionals in the industry. Listeners get ready to be inspired. Hana's journey is a testament to the power of resilience, adaptability, and strategic vision. And whether you're an aspiring entrepreneur, a season developer, or you're just simply curious about the world of real estate, this episode is for you. Let's dive in. Hannah-cha, welcome to The Reveal Podcast Studio.

Thank you so much for being here today. Super excited to actually meet you today. This is our first time ever meeting, and I'm excited to hear more about your story. Welcome. Thank you, Jessica. It's such a pleasure to meet you and to be a part of it. of your show. Thank you. Awesome. And I love that you are in between Los Angeles and Seattle. You're truly doing something that's different in the real estate industry. And I think it's so important

and timely for other real estate entrepreneurs to hear and understand that when you come into this business, you don't have to get busy doing open houses and working just in residential. There is a whole world out there to explore. And I think it's a combination of understanding that what's out there. It's if you were going to go to city college. You don't quite yet know maybe what is a good fit. What's going to resonate with you? And I'd love to. You're not even sure. There's a whole world out there. And so I'd love to hear what are you up to now so we can work backwards from there. Tell us a little bit about what your business looks like and what you're doing in the industry. Yeah, of course. So today, the majority of my business is focused on

working with, I want to say, institutional and family office developers that are building, whether it's a mixed-use residential project or a branded condo hotel product or a small lot subdivision community, it's really working with developers that are just building more than one house at a time. And I work with them in a consulting and advisory form where I essentially help them understand what the local market demand is and who their end user is going to be. And so we work from the stages of design and development planning, understanding the lifestyle components, the amenities, the services, the things that ultimately the end user is going to want in order to make their investment in buying this particular home and building a life there. Fascinating. And this obviously didn't,

day one, that's not what your business looked like, right? Oh, no. Not at all. I could not have told you 16 years ago that this is where I would be today. Like many people, when you get into real estate, it's just you get in and you think that there's a path. And you think that there's a particular path you're supposed to follow. And whether you decide you want to start as an independent agent or go work on a real estate team, I started working for a developer. And so it was, I just had no idea. And like we said, I think we had, we had have to be open to the opportunities that present themselves to us and be willing to really go all in and see where the path takes you. Go all in.

So there's some blind trust involved, right, in faith. Yeah. It feels so much fulfilling and it's easier to trust and fall forward. So I 100% agree with that. It's when you have to have some type of vision. Maybe you don't know exactly how you're going to get there or exactly what it's going look like when you get there, but at least you have that faith in yourself that you're building something around what your passions are and that's going to make an impact in the world. So how did

that all start? What type of things did you know that you wanted to learn about? You were curious about. How did it get started? Look, I think when anybody decides they want to do anything, especially entrepreneurs that want to, you know, start their own business or create this life for themselves. There is a bit of what you refer to as blind trust. I don't know that anybody has set a path for themselves and actually followed the exact path in the way that they had originally planned. Maybe ultimately the end game, you end up at the same place, but like the steps to get there, I feel like 99% of the time is not exactly what you envision. And so for me, I really got into real estate. It was just very happenstance. I met a

developer who had presented this opportunity to me when I knew nothing about real estate. I had just moved to Los Angeles a few years prior. I was working in entertainment. I knew that it wasn't a long-term path for me. And I was just open to learning about different things and getting into different industries and just meeting different people because really, I was 23. I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life. But I knew that I needed to do something that was interesting to me, that was, you know, stimulating, intellectually stimulating, gave me an opportunity to really just learn and grow into something that I could make my own. And so when I met this developer and we had a little conversation about the building that he owned and I happened to meet him in

the elevator of that particular building, I was just really fascinated by this person who I'd met for all of 20 seconds telling me about all of this stuff that was real estate related, me knowing nothing. And that really was the thing that initially triggered my interest. And it really just came from a place of curiosity, right? Like I, if I look back at it and try to connect the dots, it was like I was seeking something that was interesting for me that wasn't already in my purview. And I just feel like the universe knows exactly what you need when you need it. And you just have to pay enough attention to notice it. That's key. Yeah, that's key. And for me at the time, it was like I had nothing to lose. It was just a matter of learning. Like I knew how to start from the bottom,

most things. But it was the conversation intrigued me enough that I went home and got on my computer said real estate in California. And I kind of figured out what, why, how. And that's really how it started. And I took this job with this developer, working as essentially a receptionist, sailed concierge in this high-rise tower that he was selling. And it was already had a listing team, had I think it was like five agents on the floor selling the building and doing all these things. And for me, it was just to be a part of that and sit on the floor and just really observe and listen and take in as much as I could to then, figure out where do I want to take this. And that's how it all started, really. I love that.

So take me back, Hannah, to some of the traits that you're sharing are resilience, right? There was a time where things probably were not perfect when you were getting curious about real estate, right? Like, we talk about the bottom. There's a whole lot around what that means when you're in your early 20s. Yeah. It's a very tough time to be a young woman. pursuing a professional career that you know nothing about, trusting the right people, finding mentors and sustaining a life, like a livelihood, right? So take us back to how did you build up this persona and this person that you are today? Take us back to when you were younger and just your life experience and how you've built this

resilience. Yeah, I love that you asked me that question, Jessica. Thank you. My family immigrated to the U.S. when I was three. And I was just having this conversation with a friend the other day. And I think it's so important for us to really remember what we've been through because we don't give ourselves enough credit, right? My family immigrated here to the U.S. when I was three. My grandmother really raised me until, I want to say, it was maybe seven or eight, lived with us.

And one of the first kind of, I think, challenges I experienced and remember like it was yesterday, I couldn't speak English. I'm sure I'm in preschool, kindergarten, first grade, so it's not like I'm out really in the real world. But even then, the language barrier was such an interesting thing for me if I look back at it today. But you know, and at the time, you just, you're at school with a bunch of these kids and you can't communicate and they're teasing you, but you're really not sure. you can just gather by what you're observing and feeling. And the energy. No idea. Like what's happening.

And when I think back, it's like I was put in these situations where, again, I didn't know anything. And it was just a matter of observation and almost collecting information and doing what I can with the things I knew how to do. Right. Like I could see and I could observe these people. I could see the behavior. I could see the interaction. I knew how it was making me feel, even though I couldn't fully comprehend. hand. And so I think it's this idea of really honing in on the things that are innate and

instinctual to you. And then making the decision, like, I want to change this or I want to do something about it. And for me at the time, like, I knew I had to learn this new language. But also, like, my parents were, you know, blue-collar workers in America. Like, they were never around. I was home with my grandmother, who is still to this day, can't speak a word of English. Crazy. You still have your grandma? Yay. It's a blessing.

They're the best. It turned 98 and she is around, yeah. Oh, amazing. And I decided I needed to speak English. And I remember I went home to my mom one day and told her I have to learn English because I don't know what's happening at school. And we went to the local bookstore that. weekend and how they have the section of used books for a dollar, we literally bought a big box

of books. And I don't think my mom really understood like, okay, how do I teach this? How do I teach my child this new language? And it was literally just a box full of books from picture books to, I'm sure, like college level textbooks. It was just books. And so you have one that stands out that you remember, like just any kind of book that I remember being special to you? Yeah, there was this one book called The Coyote Rings the Bell. And I like the book because I could see it was the main character was a coyote, but I comprehended it like as a wolf or a dog. And I didn't know what coyote was. And so I would take these books and I would took that one in particular. I took it to school. And my first grade teacher, Mrs. Lou, who I still remember to this day. And I think I'd try to

I explained to her that I wanted to learn how to read and there was a wolf and there were these bees and all of these other animals that were characters, but the words didn't match because a wolf and coyote, like, I didn't understand. And so that's really fun. No one told me. Yeah. And that's really how it all began. I feel like after a couple of weeks of taking books to school and asking Mrs. Lou to help me,

that's how I started to learn English. And then I, for me, it was so much more than just speaking because when you learn a language, a lot of times you learn to read and write first, right? I ended up fast forward. I loved writing. I was a journal major in college. But if I look at it from the very beginning, that's, again, it's like you're put in the situation of unknown. You make a decision. Even as a child, I made a decision and wanted to learn English. I didn't know the path. I asked for help. My mom bought me. a box of random books. I didn't know what to do. And my parents barely could speak English. So it's like I took a book to school, told the teacher, asked her to help me, and the rest is history. That's a powerful story.

Do you remember when you majored in journalism, what's something that you wrote about in school that was for you? Storytelling, we touched on this for a second before we went. How powerful storytelling is in our industry. Yeah. In college, I was a journalism major. I will tell you the classes I enjoyed the most were my creative writing. And I took comparative literature and a lot of women's studies classes. And I think for me, too, understanding that from a more academic perspective is I grew up as an immigrant in this country that didn't really understand kind of the definitive roles of racism and prejudicism and all of these.

things that were stigmatized in the environment, but as a kid, it doesn't really make sense to you, right? And so in college, as I learned about these things in a more academic way, it put so much more into perspective for me. And I think, too, it was a lot of that when I got out of college, I was more cognizant and aware, but I knew that, like, I wasn't going to be a part of that. I wasn't going to become a victim of that, nor was I going to be a participant in kind of that story. And I think, you know, being a woman in real estate, especially from where I started from, working with a developer and the first call it three to four years of my life. And not to not to make this sound bad, but like most of the developers, even today, are older Caucasian men. And these,

bigger real estate institutions are run by older Caucasian men, right? So being in these meetings and being in this kind of environment where it was all just that, it was almost glaring in a way, but it made me very aware of the fact that I needed to create this path for myself because I'm not Caucasian, nor am I a man. And I was all, I was 23 to 25 at the early stages of my career. And it was like, how do I fit in? And the way, I knew. And the only way I knew that. Exactly.

Like, you have to just create your own face and pull up your own chair, sit at the table and say, I'm here. And I love that. And you've built it. You've built it definitely your own table that you're inviting people now to. So now you're in a leadership role. So how are you carrying these lessons that you learned and the things that you learned and the things that you applied to build your career to help others build and forge a path, whether it be to build wealth or legacy. How do we will pick these amazing characteristics, these grit and

resilience that we have to build our path, and then use that in turn to help our customers and our clients build something meaningful in their life? Yeah. I still am a chaser of dreams And I still have the tendency to spend more time, money and resources and on things that I'm passionate about that aren't necessarily lucrative or an alignment with guilty. Guilty. It all coming together one day. Yeah. So I think in that sense, look, I work with a lot of independent real estate agents and real estate teams that are wanting to cement their place in the industry in their market. And I am obviously drawn to newer real estate agents that have gone

into the business for their own reason. And I'm typically not drawn to those that are like, oh, I saw something on Netflix and these guys are making $5 million because they sold this money. I'm not really drawn to that. But with the new. Exactly. Because it's great. But let me know how that works out for you. Yeah, we work hard. Those are leased Mercedes. Right. People, they have no, They have no idea. But when newer agents get into this business or even more experienced agents, what I offer currently is I want to help agents expand their revenue funnels and their essentially their business opportunities in this industry. Because a lot of real estate agents think that the way to grow their business is to keep getting one house after another. You want

to get more listings after another. You want to get more expensive homes after another. But the truth of the matter is there's so many different, you know, facets of this business to actually grow not only just your client list, but your service offering, your knowledge, your, you know, just overall value in your local marketplace. And so, and because I've spent the last 16 years working in new development, working exclusively in new development and really servicing developers only, it's, I encourage agents, that have, you know, the balls to go after a project. You're the developer that's building the 25 condo unit building. Go after the developer that's building 100 condo units. Go after the developer that's building 16 small lot, single family homes. And position yourself in a way to not only be able to,

because as a resell agent, like, you should already be incredibly knowledgeable of your market. So that's already, like, we don't need to talk about. that. But where the agents have so much opportunity to learn is that when you're working with a developer that is building more than one home at a time, like they have so many other things that they're thinking about and so many moving parts that are so different than somebody who's just trying to sell their house. And so I want to create an opportunity for these agents to really understand that. And maybe you don't want to build a business and new development, but having that knowledge and getting that education allows you to speak in a much more deeper and

intellectual way to any client, whether it's a seller or a buyer or just any other industry professional because your knowledge is just that much more expansive and it covers so much more than just the local comp. Wow, that's fascinating. So share a reveal. I have to use the word reveal because you're on the reveal podcast. Love it. Yeah, reveal to us something that you just one of your hardest, darkest days as an entrepreneur. My hardest darkest days. Oh my gosh, I have so many of those. I think being in this business, you have to really know how to embrace the shitty days because it makes all of the small wins worth it. And if I want to give you a specific example. I think a lot of us experienced this, but at the onset of the COVID pandemic, I was working on

16 different projects across the country. It was just over $4 billion worth of essentially pipeline inventory that was coming to market over the next two to three years. And when the pandemic happened and everybody, essentially everything stopped, right? Everything stopped. And what I felt like was this 10-year tenure of building this pipeline, this portfolio, this client list, this everything that I was doing, almost overnight came to a hall. And then immediately started falling apart because JV partners were pulling out of deals. Banks were canceling on construction loan. Construction just wasn't happening because like people couldn't work. Global chain supply stopped. Like it was just, it was literally over 45 days that I lost almost two billion of the

pipeline that I had built in my portfolio. And I'm sitting there not only like completely devastated, but like half my team, I was with a company then half my team was either furloughed or let go. So I'm dealing with essentially chaos and trying to provide some sort of damage control, but everyone's just upset and angry, right? And so every single phone call I'm getting from every single client, they're just angry. And it's a matter of client management, but also, I never experienced a pandemic, have you? First time. Right. Why are you so mad at me? I remember. It's crazy. It was crazy. It was, oh, it's only going to be two weeks. Remember that? And I I remember client calls with institutional investor client calls.

Should we just take everything off the market? I was like, whoa, let's just fell for that. Exactly, exactly. That two weeks turned into three months that turned into different before we could actually start doing anything again. And so many things fell apart. And I don't even know if we're fully caught up because I know construction is still delayed. Global supply chain is a lot more expensive. Yeah, exactly.

And I think if I look back at moments like that, and I think that was probably the first time in my adult life that like I fully cried and was bald because I was a combination of so stressed out, but just so upset because I didn't know what to do. And I didn't know what to do not only with. You're used to being the answer. Solution person. Yeah. You're like I have one of the person to give these people the answers and help. them fix situations and make things better and it's i didn't know what to do but also i'm sure professionally the world is falling apart but the world is falling apart like people are dying on where i was

quarantining the initial kind of call it two months in l a like people were blowing up buildings down the street like people were they were shooting at each other there were riots people were fighting the whole black lives matter was going down the asian hate crime was going it's just everything was happening it's a lot it was a lot and i'm going to on the phone i'm like on the phone with a bank trying to figure out how we're going to restrategize the marketing plan so that can so they can keep their 25 million dollar loan and i'm like i don't even know if this is important right now are you looking out your window and seeing what's happening. There's a squat team right above me.

And so I think in those moments, it's like, how do I continue to stay focused and not, I want to say not give up, but say true to who I am and push through this. Thank you. Yeah. And really, that's, I think the summer of 2020 was when I quit my job and just, I wanted to go and start my own thing. I don't think I... Talk about a silver lining.

But was there a day? Was the SWAT team out the window and you're on the phone and you just said this is the moment? I think it was the... I actually woke up one morning and my heart was so heavy and my brain had exploded and I felt like I hadn't slept in days. And so it was probably overly emotional and overly tired, right? but for whatever reason, I woke up this one morning and I knew I wanted to change the way that I was continuing to build my career. And I knew that what I was doing at that time was not in alignment. And I felt the sense of I forgot what I'm passionate about in this business.

I forgot about what's really important to me and why I got in this business to begin with. And really it was about working with collective professionals that allowed each other to grow and learn and work together, not just like shit on me because the world is falling apart. And I think that in that in those moments too, like it was a combination of clients and colleagues. Like there were specific clients and colleagues that were willing to have the hard conversations of like, how do we work through this? to actually get on the phone or get on Zooms at that time and use their brain and go, okay, we have to think worst case scenario. We have to think best case scenario and whatever happens in the middle. And there are other people that are just like angry.

You have to figure it out screaming and then they get off the call. And it's wow. So I think for me it was just waking up that morning going, this is not how I want to continue doing this. I have spent so much, I feel like, energy and that's the majority of my adult life, building this career for myself. And suddenly I felt, oh my God, I have not been building it the way that is meaningful for me and fulfilling for me. I'm sure, I was making great money and doing a lot of really cool things, but I was like, what am I doing with my life? And so it was having that moment that I had to shift everything and go, what is it?

is most meaningful to me and why do I want to stay in this business? And for me, ultimately, look, I like to work with people and work on projects and be a part of things where I know I'm making an impactful difference. And the idea of collective collaboration and two brains are better than one. And guess what? Like 20 brains are better than two. And if you're not willing to do the hard work with me, then I don't really, I'm not really interested in working with you. And so that's the perspective I think I took. And it's amazing when you can, when you really can show up as yourself when 100% of you, that's when you attract those people that have those same similar values. Exactly. Exactly. And like real estate agents now, I think we are,

are in a very interesting time. And I can only speak for my last 16 years of experiences. Where there are challenges, there are opportunities. You have to be willing to be open and agile, pivot, pay attention to notice the opportunities. And quite frankly, when you see an opportunity, don't be afraid to go all in. because this is not an industry that you can half ass and make it big. No. Like it's going to hurt. It's going to hurt a little bit or a lot.

I love that. So you shared that your grandmother is 98 years old. And that's some wisdom and love and stories that cannot be captured in a single conversation. but rather than just your advice, what kind of advice would your grandma give to the entrepreneurs out there? Oh my God. My grandmother was always the person that said,

you can do more. Like, she was your typical Asian tiger mom, but like worst because she's super old school. You would always say you can do better. You can, there's, you know, and I don't know that I love that example, but I think it's the perception

when you hear that advice and you just aren't, really understanding how it applies to you. Like, I think sometimes as entrepreneurs you feel like, but I'm doing so much. But whatever space we have, we can be very good at filling it up, rather than just staying focused on what's important and then expanding on that. So your grandma kept it simple, but we can pick that and then turn it into how it applies. And I think we have the life that we're going to live or we have the life that we could live if we were to push ourselves outside of what's comfortable and think about what could be possible.

So I think that's solid advice, but it doesn't resonate with everyone the same, right? When you hear it. Well, you know, I love the way that you said it, Jessica, because it's not, it's, there are people that say, I already do so much, right? So it's not about doing more. It's just about doing the thing that you're doing. So I think that's the key takeaway. Yeah, you can do better. Just do better. You can do better. In fact, I was talking to a realtor this morning in Florida and he said, just need advice. I need to figure out what I'm going to go solo and what I can do. And I said, what is working? Rather than trying to figure out a bunch of other things you can do, what are you good at? What's working? And then how can you make that expand on it and make it better and increase your conversion, et cetera? And I think at this time, just where we are in the world, the state of affairs for our entire country, right?

We have a lot of consumers that have a lot of credit, like high debt, very low savings. And I feel that we really need to be ambassadors for people and to be creative and to educate them and provide good information and solutions and creative ideas on how they can still be investing and building well. And they've got jobs to do. So in this industry, I feel like it is our mission and our job. It is our responsibility to be educating and informing people of opportunities. What's one bit of advice that you'd want to end us end with in how people can be better ambassadors of opportunity? I would say the one bit of advice I'd love to leave everybody is I think where people

find the most success is when you are able to be authentic. to who you are to pursue the thing that means the most to you. And where a lot of us as entrepreneurs get lost is we're thinking about so many different things and we're having to accommodate different groups, different consumers, and it just, we get lost in the shuffle. But if we can just come back to who you are and own that, be proud of who you are. And when your morals, values, perspectives,

your experiences and just come from this place of authenticity and focus on the thing that means the most to you. And look, and sometimes that may not always be focused on the thing that makes the most money for you. But I always say it is a crazy way of bringing abundant well when you're doing the thing that is most meaningful and brings you the most fulfillment. Beautiful.

I've said. Beautifully said. Thank you, Hanachad, so much for being here today. I really appreciate everything that you shared. And I'm excited to get to know you better. I have a lot to learn from you as well. And excited to, thinking of all of these amazing people, I'd love to connect with that they could check out what you offer.

And it would be a huge value ad. You're making a huge impact on the industry. And I really appreciate all that you do. So take care. And we'll see you soon. Thank you so much, Jessica. As we wrap up today's conversation on the reveal podcast with Hanna-chaa, let's reflect on a thought from the renowned physicist Albert Einstein. In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity.

This quote beautifully mirrors Hanna's journey in the real estate industry, where she has transformed challenges into opportunities for innovation and leadership. Her path from an initial newcomer to a respected leader in real estate development illustrates that truth. success is not merely about personal achievements, but about empowering others and crafting legacies that last. If Hannah's insights have inspired you to rethink your approach to real estate or leadership, I encourage you to reach out and connect with her to learn more about her innovative coaching and strategies. I'm Jessica Nieto, always excited to bring you stories that inspire and transform. Let's keep pushing the boundaries of what's possible. And until next time, stay inspired and connected.