Behind the Listings in Fort Lauderdale

[00:00:00] For me, it's that energy of knowing that every day is different. You're not going to a nine to five office job. The chase is exciting when you get those leads and you work with people and people are calling you and you're connecting with your community.

[00:00:13] Old house in town. Elderly woman live there. Use the basement as storage. There's a rocking chair in the basement. I have people going through the house. A little girl comes to me upstairs and says, there's a dead cat on the chair in the basement. And I said, no.

[00:00:28] I love real estate because it's very dynamic. I decided to make the move because it's, I'm kind of at the tail end of my career. Although I'm not retiring anytime soon. I wanted to have a new challenge.

[00:00:36] I always loved real estate and I started investing real estate in Portugal, my home country 10 years ago. So I come more from a perspective of investment. Okay. Becky Banks. Yes. Here we are. Here we are in Florida. Lauderdale is more specific. Yeah.

[00:00:58] Team Prasher is taking Florida real estate by storm. Love it. And your brother's an absolute beautician. He is. And he really is. Like people might not know him and see the things that he's doing in his career and his life.

[00:01:13] And you might think somebody has a type of personality or arrogance to them. Brady is the absolute real deal. Yeah. I don't just say that because he's my brother, but yeah. No, absolutely. We feel that love and we feel that humbleness all the time when in his presence.

[00:01:29] Yeah. And I guess it's very rare for someone doing as big a things as he's doing. He makes it seem like it's not that big of a deal and everything kind of gets off without a hitch, right? Yeah.

[00:01:42] And he's just so casual and cool about it which is admirable and inspirational to us younger entrepreneurs. Absolutely. Yeah. Even flying in last night, he brought his family of course, his team from Canada with him.

[00:01:53] And he makes it look like it's no big deal, but he had a million things to do to prepare for the next couple of days. Yeah. He's putting on his chapstick on the plane and watching his movies and we're all like, oh my God.

[00:02:04] What are we getting into? That's awesome. Yeah. Very cool. So tell me a little bit about yourself, your background. I know you're new to the business, but you've hit the ground running given that your brother's paved the way and has created an ecosystem now that you've plugged

[00:02:19] into and I'm sure you're kicking some serious butt with because the apple doesn't fall too far from the tree, right? Always try. Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. I'm going to be doing this. It'll be two years in June.

[00:02:30] Got my real estate license after plowing through the courses over a period of six months and kind of going through a series of life changes. My background is working with youth and adults with mental health challenges and developmental disabilities.

[00:02:46] So I left a solid government job after COVID hit and thought I would take a new path, a new direction. And my thing has always been working with people, making those connections, networking, helping people. And real estate is really not far from that.

[00:03:02] I'm doing the same thing in a different platform. So it's just to work with Brady and to work with my family. Absolute dream. I'm so blessed. And as much as Brady paved the way for me and even my mom and my, like, I

[00:03:20] really come from a solid family of people to look up to, right? And I want to do that for my kids. So it's kind of cool. I have two kids, Jaden is 16 and Hallie is 11. Jaden's wanted to do real estate far before I even wanted to do it.

[00:03:37] Soon as Uncle Brady got in, he used to shadow him and go to open houses. And now he's almost there. He's already preparing for after high school. He's going to, you know, take a step and come on to the team. And so it's cool. Very nice. Yeah.

[00:03:51] It's a good energy. Very young age. Very cool. Yeah. And you, on a day to day basis specifically geared in the real estate business. I think for me it's that energy of knowing that every day is different. You're not going to a nine to five office job.

[00:04:08] Like it's the, the chase is exciting, right? When you get those leads and you work with people and people are calling you and you're connecting with, you know, your community, that part for me energizes me, right?

[00:04:21] So I grew up in a small town, Amosburg, Ontario and true Canadian. You know, that's where my core is, my roots. And I just, I love being able to be a part of people's stories, right? You're not just selling real estate.

[00:04:37] You become a part of their family and their lives. Right. So it's, it's a cool sort of bridge for me to what I was doing before and to be doing this now. It's just a different platform, but it's still the same feel, you know? Right. Very interesting. Yeah.

[00:04:52] Yeah. And is there any day that's been a really bad day that you can remember that stick so and tell us a little bit more about it? A really bad day in real estate. For me, it's a bad day when you have sellers or buyers who are frustrated

[00:05:14] with the market, right? So we're coming off of probably one of the most challenging years in the Canadian housing market. So for me, being full time in the real estate world and new, I survived that year, right?

[00:05:28] So now it's exciting to kind of get those calls coming again. People are making moves. The interest rates are slowly coming down. So a bad day is where nothing's really happening. I don't do well with that. So I want to be moving.

[00:05:42] I want to be taking calls, showing homes, meeting people, you know, making things happen. Right. Yeah. And now in an initial. So let's look at that a bad day is a slow day. The phone's not ringing. There's not too much action happening in the office.

[00:05:56] What do you do to combat that? Turn things around and bring the energy level up. I think just get out there, right? You have to get out there. Door knock, call, go meet people, drop your cards off somewhere, anything. Yeah. Right.

[00:06:08] So a productive day is that, you know, you checked off a few things off your list and you're that much closer to maybe growing your business. Right. Yeah. So an interesting point I took from Patrick, but David, Daniel, G,

[00:06:22] a few other sales guys, they say the same thing where there's a formula and it's really just knowing your numbers. Right. And it's like, okay, a hundred calls are going to get me 10 appointments. The 10 appointments are going to get me three listings.

[00:06:37] The three listings are going to convert to one sale. Right. So it's like, okay, if I make a hundred calls, I'm going to rip one sale kind of vibe. So like, do you have a specific formula that you work with when you are doing

[00:06:48] some door knocking or calling? I'm working on it. Okay. Okay. Right on. When I first got into the business, I was still doing my other job. So I kind of came in flying by the seat of my pants. Okay.

[00:06:59] And now it's time I've settled into the, um, this career a bit to know you have to have a formula. Yeah. You have to have goals you need to have. I need to have a schedule. I don't do well just not knowing what I'm going to do. Yeah.

[00:07:13] To be successful in this business. So obviously having this amazing team, that makes it all happen. Brady being a mentor, my mom, my aunt, my sister-in-law, like I'm just so blessed to have that. Right? If I was, you know, flying solo, it might be a little more difficult.

[00:07:31] Yeah. But yeah, I'm really lucky. So I think it's, I find it very, very interesting. You come from an extremely small town. Yeah. And here you are in Lauderdale. Yes. In a 25 plus million dollar mansion. Yes. Chop, it's a pretty heavy real estate with the crew.

[00:07:47] So tell me a little bit about the small town mentality and how, you know, it's helped you in ways that now you're able to move and shake in these bigger densities that, you know, there's a lot going on in.

[00:08:01] Honestly, I look at Brady and we all grew up in the same area. Him being who he is and the small town boy deep down inside and his charisma and just his energy, it's easy to break out of that small town bubble. Right?

[00:08:19] So even us being here right now, everybody thinks like, oh my God, Florida real estate, does Brady live there? Is he ever coming back to Canada? And we're like, no, this is just that's like an extension of what he does.

[00:08:31] But to the core of it, we're all like small town people, right? Right. But growing up in a small town, we all talk to each other. Everybody knows each other. So you come here, it's easy for us to introduce ourselves and act ourselves. Right? Right.

[00:08:44] We're not better than anybody else. We're not not as good as anybody, you know, so yeah, it just, I think that that's an advantage for us is we're just comfortable with people. Yeah. But to me, it's just that simple. Yeah. You know, more personable too.

[00:08:58] Like when you're when you're not overwhelmed with such the, you know, such density, right? And these bigger cities where everything's like, go, go, go, go, go. People don't even have time to lift their heads up in an elevator and simply say, hello, how are you doing?

[00:09:10] How's your morning? Right? Or just something, you know, a smile, a smirk. Right? And I find that in the smaller towns, it's like, hey, let's let's have a little conversation. Let's take a couple of minutes here to chat it up or to get to know each other

[00:09:23] or to, you know, just have a conversation. Right? Like, which is it's so refreshing. I know my brother is from a small town in Ontario called Campbell Ferti's a farmer out there. Where? In Campbellford. Okay. Yeah, we have we've had a cottage and havelock our whole lives, right?

[00:09:39] So he really, really liked it. But that's something that I know, you know, really resonated with him and our family as well. Right? I think the humble behavior can also stem from that too. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:09:51] It's funny because as you're talking and you were asking what a bad day is, a bad day is if I don't see people like if you're not out there and even just a friendly hello to somebody like today, we ventured out

[00:10:02] to the grocery store across from where we're staying and people are friendly. Like if you just smile at somebody and you spark up conversation or joke around, you know, yeah, it's just that connection. That's what I thrive off of and I always have. So right. Yeah. Right.

[00:10:16] So we're in a listing right now that's going for north of 20 month for $25 million. Yes. Very, very popular area in Lauderdale gated community here. What does one got to do to move something like this? And who is your ideal and target market?

[00:10:33] What kind of marketing campaigns you got to put out? I mean, you know, how many how many jams you got to throw where people are skinny dipping into the question? You know, I have goals, but yeah, yeah. I think I am.

[00:10:47] I love what Brady does and I love how he just he shoots for the stars and he's going to get there. He's there. Yeah. Yeah. I'm a little simpler. So, you know, even just being here and having this opportunity, right? That is incredible. Yeah.

[00:11:03] You know, so back home it's a little it's not like this. But we do have we have some pretty incredible clients that we've worked with and we have such a good name where we're from and people trust us

[00:11:17] and they know our family and so that that for me is good enough. Yeah. Like I'm not I'm not a big hitter, but. Yeah. If I get there one day, that's cool too. Yeah. Nice. And so what is that?

[00:11:30] What is what is the inventory in your town look like? How? Like how much is it going for price wise? What do you get square footage? Is there a lot of young families growing up there? Are there people that, you know, are born and raised

[00:11:44] and then move out into bigger city? What does that dynamic look like? The nice thing about where we do our business and where we live is we get to deal with all of those aspects. Right? Yeah. We do leases on little apartments, right? We do foreclosures.

[00:12:01] We work with families. We have beautiful waterfront properties where we come from, right? So we're right on the Windsor Canadian or Windsor, Detroit border. We have Bob Lowe Island right across from us. And we have a lot of really just different varieties of clientele.

[00:12:18] So I think that's what's incredible because all of us on the team bring different things to the table, right? So Brady brings it. I mean, he's been in the business for a long time now. My aunt has been in the business for over 40 years.

[00:12:32] My sister-in-law is in the business. My mom. So we get to experience all all different parts of that. Right. It's cool. Yeah, very cool. Very cool. So your mom. Yes. And you are a busy realtor. Yes.

[00:12:48] And you probably have a lot of other things going on because I know Mr. Thrasher and his work ethic and the way that he's go, go, go. So again, the apple probably doesn't fall too far from the tree.

[00:12:59] So what is it for all the mothers out there that are looking to, you know, get into a new career? Yeah. Because this is something fairly new for yourself and and have it be that they have a few kids at home, right?

[00:13:10] Any tips, any tricks, any bit of advice that you have for them. I personally find it awesome, right? I have two younger daughters that, you know, the younger woman can look up. The woman like yourself and know that, you know what?

[00:13:22] If I want to be a career woman and a mom too, I could rock like that. And I can go to the beat of my own drum. And yeah, I find that very inspirational to a lot of the young ladies.

[00:13:31] So tips and tricks, anything that you'd want to tell them? I think for me it was when I got into the business, I made so many really difficult, risky life decisions at one time, which I was terrified to do because of my kids.

[00:13:51] And I damage them or they am I going to ruin them forever? Now I can look back now that I'm kind of settled in and we're doing OK. That that's an inspiration for them, right? Just go after your dreams.

[00:14:03] Go after something that's challenging and scary and start over. You know? So it's nice to have that freedom and flexibility. Right? So if you have kids, I can go to sporting events.

[00:14:16] I can hang out with my kids at night, you know, I'm home if I need to be. Right? But also when I'm not home, the kids understand and they appreciate it. Mom's working. Mom's doing her thing, you know? So for all the moms out there, just show up.

[00:14:33] Yeah, every day. Yeah. Yeah. Nice. Yeah, be the best version of yourself. Yes. Yeah. Go hard day in day out. Absolutely. It doesn't matter what your career is. You just have to show your kids that you're going after what you truly want.

[00:14:46] Yeah. And just a good life and teach them and lead by example. Yeah. Yeah, that's the biggest thing. Right? I keep hearing that more and more and more often. And to tell you the truth, it's something that took a lot of pressure off

[00:14:57] of my shoulders as a parent where it's just like, you know what? You don't have to understand anything, everything into, you know, crazy depths in the science behind it and be super, you know, just intense in certain ways other than just simply leading by example.

[00:15:13] Right? If you're doing the right things, if you're putting in the if you're putting in the work and you have a good moral compass that is just simply having you, you know, just rock out and go to the beat of your own drum. Yeah. It's good enough.

[00:15:27] And there has to be a balance, right? Like I've always worked and my kids have always seen that. But I always try to have a balance of that work life play. Yeah. You know, so and then I don't have that guilt,

[00:15:41] like even leaving for a couple of days and coming here. Yeah, it was a little bit hard to get on the plane, choke, shep a little bit. But it's OK. They see what you're doing out there.

[00:15:53] And they they grow up around that and it's just a cool thing to give them. Yeah, for sure. Yeah. When I was leaving, I put it up. I still up on my Instagram. All three of them were at the door like this, right?

[00:16:05] I was like, take care of it. I cried a little when you know what? Though, and it was a perspective shift that I had a little while backwards. Like I'm doing all this for them.

[00:16:15] Yes, I mean, and I know when I'm out here, I'm working and I'm going hard. And it's for them, right? So it's like, I don't I don't feel bad as much as I'm going to miss them. I don't feel bad.

[00:16:23] I feel like, yeah, it's for you guys, man. You know, I'm going to go rock out out there. But yeah, yeah. And they feel that, you know, yeah. Yeah, for sure. It's a good gift to give them. So what do you got going on?

[00:16:32] Tell me what the next year, two years, three years consist of? What are some goals that you have in place and that I know you're going to smash and that I'm going to hold you accountable for? Now that you know, it's going to be on camera.

[00:16:44] But I, you know what? In terms of what goals do I have? I have a lot of personal goals, a lot of business goals, things like that. But I think, like you said, I need to set goals and standards for myself and work towards that.

[00:17:00] Like I said, when I first got in, I didn't really have a sense of that. I didn't, I wasn't in business for myself ever before. Right? I had a nine to five job, all of those things.

[00:17:11] So this year, I really want to get serious about like you have a formula. Go out there and chase that, you know, whatever moves I make in real estate. As long as I know every day I'm waking up and I'm showing up

[00:17:25] and I'm doing what I need to do to get there. That'll be good enough for me. I do. I just want to say because I did have that whole other career in my in my shadow, right? For 25 years and I miss, I miss that work.

[00:17:39] I miss my people that I've worked with for so long and I miss the clientele. I miss advocating for people who really need it in the community. There's a part of me who's still sort of I'm trying to find ways

[00:17:53] to plug that into what I'm doing in real estate, right? So have that little bit of like philanthropist kind of stuff on the side and be doing real estate. I want it all to mend. So I have a lot of work to do.

[00:18:06] Like this is really early on for me in my career, you know? And I'm not Brady's age. So I got to do this. Yeah, good for you. It's exciting. Well, when you're feeling uncomfortable and overwhelmed and weird, that's when you're growing.

[00:18:19] Right. So and I've been uncomfortable for about a year now. So yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Well, good for you. Yeah. And is there anything else that you'd like to let the audience know or tell them about or let them in on? I feel like we covered. Got a rope.

[00:18:34] Yeah. I'm not that exciting. All right. All right. I think I think differently. Thank you. Thank you. Love the transition. Love that you came from 25 years of a government job and what you were doing there, how it's so different from this industry.

[00:18:51] And I know you're going to absolutely crush it because of your brother and your family and just even having this short bit of a conversation with you. You're awesome. Thank you. Yeah, you're going to crush it. Thank you. You made this very seamless. Yeah. No worries.

[00:19:03] And just tell the audience where it is that they could find you. They could follow you and they could be a part of your journey. OK, so you can follow me on Instagram, Facebook, Becky Banks, Real Estate with Brady Thrasher's team with Remax preferred in Amesburg, Ontario.

[00:19:19] Right on. Yeah. Very cool. Awesome. All right. Thank you. Well, thank you everyone for tuning in to another episode of What Would It Cost? We had the pleasure of sitting down today with Becky Banks, who's up to some amazing things.

[00:19:30] And like we said a few times throughout the podcast, the apple doesn't fall too far from the tree and we're absolutely in love. And in fact, we did with her brother. So me too. Welcome to the family. Thank you. All right, Gary Thrasher, let's get right into this.

[00:19:48] How are we doing? We're doing good. We're good. Yes. Enjoying to stay out here in Florida. So far so good. Maybe bring it up a bit. Yeah, so far so good. Yeah, how long you all here for? We're here till Thursday morning. OK. Nice. Yeah, rain or shine.

[00:20:02] It's gorgeous here. Yeah. It's always nice when you feel that humidity coming off the plane. And you know that the bones aren't going to tend something. You feel like curling up in a ball under the blankets over here. I love that bombiness on your skin.

[00:20:14] You get off the off the plane. Yeah. Nice and warm and humid here. Yeah. So you're going to be doing a lot more traveling down here. Well, now that I've been here once, yeah, I think I'm going to come down here a little more often. Nice.

[00:20:26] Nice. Right on. I'm sure Brady will be happy to tag you along. I hope so. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Right on. So tell me a little bit about yourself. You're in the industry? In the industry for three years now. Yeah. Got my license during COVID. OK.

[00:20:43] Brady's mom called me one day. She's also my mother-in-law. Beautiful. She called me one day to carry. You need to get your license. And I said, yeah, yeah. Yeah, sure. Maybe. And she called me again maybe a few days later a week or whatever. She carried me.

[00:20:56] I'm serious. You need to get your license. We want you on the team. Thanks. We're crazy busy. We need we need the extra body. It's OK. So I started working on my license, got it, left my job in optometry, and hopped in with the team here. OK. Wow.

[00:21:10] That's a big switch. Yeah. Yeah. And how you liking it? Love it. I love it. How can't you when you're working on the team with the thrashes? That's right. That's right. No, it's a nice family setting too. They're all a lot of fun.

[00:21:22] They're easy to get along with. And they're there if you need them. You've got questions about anything, need anything. There's never any hesitation. They're always there to help. Right. Which is so important. It's not sector industry specific, but anything that you're going to get into and call

[00:21:39] it a profession to be able to surround yourself with such a knowledgeable family that's respected and great at their craft. It's only going to make you into that much better of a realtor, right? Absolutely. You're surrounded by all the right people. That's for certain.

[00:21:53] You've got the right guides. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And you've been married into the family now for 20 years? I've been with Brady's brother West for 20 years. OK. He married for 16. Right on. Right on. Two boys, 14 and 11. OK. Cool. Have they made their way out to Florida yet?

[00:22:08] Or are you? No. OK. So you're going to tap them in for the next trip. They're next. They're next. They asked. They asked already. It's nice there. Can we go? Of course. Yeah. Nice, right on. Have you enjoyed some of the local restaurants here?

[00:22:20] And no, you guys just got in. We got in so late last night. We had to. No, we had hamburgers at the airport. OK. Yeah. Nope. Flew in. Went to bed. OK. Well, let me tell you something if you haven't heard it already.

[00:22:33] Mr. Brady Thrasher only dines at the finest restaurants in Lauderdale of which we've been privileged of getting his tour. Well, that's good. And he has a very particular taste, likes the Italian food. And no, all jokes aside, he's brought

[00:22:48] us to some of the most badass restaurants in Lauderdale. He knows all the hot spots. Oh, he's hooked up. Everyone shows him lots of love. So I'm sure that you guys are going to be eating good your time here. It's much the same at home too. Is it?

[00:23:01] Oh yeah, for sure, for sure. Brady knows how to whip up a good meal. Nice. Yeah. Now, is he cook himself too? Yeah, he cooks. He's like a barbecue kind of guy. OK. OK. Nice. So what do you think about this mansion over here? It's gorgeous. Absolutely beautiful.

[00:23:15] Yeah? Beautiful, beautiful. Yeah. So someone like yourself, you take a tour and understand the dynamic of the market and how to position it or doing a lot more of the learning about these kind of luxury items right now. Yeah. We're sure learning about it.

[00:23:31] We've had some back at home as well. Maybe not all this caliber, but a lot of similar ones. And yeah. Very cool. That's awesome. And what kind of products are you used to selling back home? Like, what's your favorite thing to sell? Is it more commercial, residential?

[00:23:49] No, residential for sure, mostly. I'm a sucker for a farmhouse. Oh yeah? I love pretty old farmhouses. OK, let's talk about those. That's awesome. I don't think we've ever talked about that on what would it cost. Pretty little farmhouses. Take us for a little journey.

[00:24:07] Well, we've got a lot of them in our area, right? We've got a lot of rural kind of areas. A lot of farmland. Farmhouses, they're all over the place. With old farmhouses come a lot of problems, come a lot of work, come a lot of you start renovating

[00:24:21] and taking down walls. What are you getting into? Right? OK. It could be a whole can of worms. So farmhouses are definitely bittersweet. OK. Yeah. So tell us a horse story. A horse. I do. It's selling a farm. Oh, here we go. Here we go. Oh yeah.

[00:24:36] This is just a few months ago. Old house in town. I think it was built in the 1800s. Anyway, elderly women live there. No longer live there. Use the basement as storage. Cold, damp, creepy basement. There's a rocking chair like a lazy boy in the basement.

[00:24:59] I have people going through the house. And a little girl comes to me upstairs and says, there's a dead cat on the chair in the basement. And I said, no. She said, yeah, and the mother concurred. Yep. There's a dead cat on the chair in the basement.

[00:25:15] I went down there and looked, and the little cat had crawled. And yep, there was nothing there, but bones and some dust. No way. So there's a pretty creepy story for you. Bones and some dust. Did it have a bit of a stench to it?

[00:25:28] I did not catch a stench. That's probably a good indicator as to how long the cat was probably there. Wow. Because it was just dust. Just dust and bones? Check that out. What'd you do? Well, I reluctantly called the homeowner afterwards. I didn't want to embarrass her.

[00:25:44] It was not the homeowner because she was no longer with us. It was her daughter. Anyway, I called her. I didn't want to embarrass her or make her feel bad. But I had to tell her there's a dead cat body on the chair downstairs. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[00:25:56] She just had her husband come and remove the chair, put it out to the road. Nice. Right on. Did that interrupt with the sale? Those people did not buy the house. You think it was because of the cat? I don't know.

[00:26:08] The little girls said, I do not want to live in this creepy house. So yeah, they probably scared the cat off. But it was the cat, OK. A developer bought it. That's a good clickbait. Dead cat interrupts million dollars sale.

[00:26:24] OK, so talk to us a little bit about a typical farm house and what kind of acreage that you get with that and around your area. And what a lot of these people do with these properties? Did they develop them?

[00:26:36] Are they going on there to farm them themselves? Is it a bit of both? I think a lot of them, it's like a hobby farm. Everybody wants chickens in our area. Yeah. It's a thing. Everybody wants chickens in our area. Yeah, so they want a house with property.

[00:26:51] Yeah. They want a house with property. They want a house with property. That's huge in our area. Yeah. OK. Yeah. So what's the typical size? Well, acreage-wise, we're one to two acres. Sometimes more. In particular, we live on, we have 13 acres. Oh, wow. 11 are underwater.

[00:27:11] But a few of the acres are usable. Yeah, nice. My brother's a farmer too. Is he? Yeah, he's got a 12 acre farm in Camelford, Ontario. Oh my gosh. Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, we don't farm anything. We have a dog. Oh, yeah? And I do not ever want chickens.

[00:27:25] Lucky dog. We just like the property. Lucky dog. Yeah, that's awesome. Very cool. And you guys have the whole family out in that town there? We do. So yeah, all my family's there. OK. Born and raised to all of them. My husband's family, which is also Brady's family.

[00:27:44] Yeah, they're all from the same small town. Awesome. Yeah, very cool. Same high school. Everybody knows everybody. Nice. Everybody knows each other's business. Yeah, yeah, yeah. How is that? It's fine. Is it? It's fine. Yeah. If you've got a clean record, it's OK. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[00:27:59] Right, I guess that'd be a little bit different if you didn't, right? Yeah, very good. Well, and what is it like any time or point in your life that you wanted to move out of the small town and get into more of a bigger city fit

[00:28:14] or any foreign place in the world that you have your eyes set on that you want to move out to or with like a vacation omen or anything like that? Or is it just small town gal loves the small town

[00:28:27] wants to hang around and maybe do some trips off the Florida here and there? No, that's nice too. There's definitely a cozy factor to your small town. And that's where all your people are, right? But we've got good friends of ours in Kingston. OK.

[00:28:41] A little bit bigger than where we're at. It's a beautiful historic town though, too. We thought about maybe living out there one day would be really nice. Nice. Vacation home, Costa Rica. OK. That's where my heart is. That was there last year. Did you have it?

[00:28:56] I'm going again this year. Costa Rica is different. The way that the energy in those mountains is beautiful. It is. It's a blue zone, too. Part of it is. It's a what? A part of it's a blue zone. Yeah.

[00:29:08] So blue zones have there's not too many blue zones in the world. I can't remember the exact number. But they have it be that there's a very long life expectancy in it because it's just really healthy, right? Healthy natural. It's really the water. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[00:29:24] So when did you go? Long time ago. We were there. We went for our honeymoon. OK, nice. And I've loved it ever since. So you say, you know what? We got to get our kids here. Yeah, yeah. Our kids need to see this and experience this.

[00:29:35] And so we're planning a trip for next December to bring our kids with us for Puravida. That's their saying there. It is. It is. Your life. Pure life. That's right. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Love it. My coach lives out there part time as well.

[00:29:50] Yeah, so when we went there, we did a retreat. And it was a personal development retreat. And it was magical. But yeah, they're going to love it. Yeah. Surfing's big there, too. Surfing, yeah. We visited Tamarindo. Yeah, Tamarindo's the stuff. Yeah. Gorgeous beach. Huge beach. Yeah.

[00:30:08] Drinks on the beach. Good times. Good times. So anything in regards to what you're working on in the next year? I know before the cameras came on, you were talking about your big goal setter. Yeah. You have some goals in place for yourself

[00:30:19] that you'd like to make us aware of and have us hold you accountable for it. Oh, no, no. For sure I do. Yeah, no. So last year's I had goals. And I met them. Nice. And I decided to surpass them.

[00:30:35] And then once I got there, I said, OK, let's bump it up a little bit. There we go. Bump the goal up some more. And then here we are in a new year. And it's been a good start to the new year so far. Super busy. Nice.

[00:30:47] Got some goals in mind. And just going to meet the milestones in between to achieve those goals. Nice. Yeah. Nice. Good for you. Can you let us in on one of those goals? Well. No, keep them private? No, there's no private.

[00:31:02] There's always the how can I say it? Try and give my family a better life. Right on. Very cool. It's opened up so many doors. Getting into real estate for us. Nice. It's just allowed us to do so many more things than we could before. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[00:31:21] That makes sense. Very cool. Absolutely. Yeah, I love that, man. Open a lot of doors. Yeah. And it's only going to continue to because you're on an awesome team. You got some amazing things going on. And you're going to tap into Florida with Mr. Brady Thrasher. So it's.

[00:31:35] I sure hope so. I hope he's listening. Absolutely, absolutely. Well, what's Britain is here? That's right. We'll let him know. Right on. All right. It was a pleasure sitting down with you today. Well, thank you for having me. Thank you for your time. Yeah, I appreciate it.

[00:31:50] Some exciting things. And you're part of, like I said, an amazing team. What you got going on is very cool. And thank you for your time today. Aw, thanks so much. Yeah, is there anything in regards to where the audience

[00:32:03] can find you, can follow you and can stick along for your journey? Were they? No, yeah. No, of course. There's Facebook. Look at the camera there. Facebook and Instagram, Carrie Thrasher or Preferred Partners. Yep. We're on there as well. Remax Preferred Realty. There we go.

[00:32:20] Shout out Remax Preferred, man. We love these guys. They're family. And yeah, it was an absolute pleasure sitting down with you, Ms. Thrasher. And yeah, thank you guys again for tuning in to another episode of What Would It Cost?

[00:32:33] This is a very special episode as we're mobile out here in Fort Lauderdale at this beautiful mansion. And yeah, we'll see you guys for next episode. So here we are. Beautiful setting, nothing incomplainable. Fabulous. Right? Yes. Their life could be worse. Feeling very grateful.

[00:32:52] Thank you for taking the time today. Thanks for having me. For sitting with us and spending this two hours with us over here and getting that undivided attention is what we love, right? It's very common these days that every few minutes

[00:33:06] you're checking your phone and you're putting in some time on the screen. And that's not the case when we're podcasting. So thank you for your undivided attention. Welcome. And your time today. Tell us a little bit about yourself, your background,

[00:33:19] how long you've been in the real estate space. And yeah. So I'm Renee and I'm new to real estate. I'm not new to business. I've been an entrepreneur and self-employed for 30 plus years. I spent 30 of those years in the fitness industry working for a global international company.

[00:33:38] Traveled around the world presenting and training and teaching others to be in the fitness industry for a large chain club in Canada. And also registered massage therapist and a life coach and a health nutrition coach. So over the years, I've kind of amalgamated all of those

[00:33:58] into a health and wellness business. And I've spent 30 years or more doing that. So my job has been a passion, something that I'm personally interested in and love to share that with others and help them reach their goals in the health and wellness area. Fantastic.

[00:34:18] So new to the real estate space, but not new to the entrepreneurial space. And talk about how the past experiences and businesses that you've had and that community that you've built have helped you in this space? Honestly, I've moved cities.

[00:34:37] And when I did move to cities, I exited out of the health and wellness. And I always knew I wanted to get into real estate and I thought moving from a bigger city to a smaller city,

[00:34:47] it was the perfect time for me to move into a new career. I was ready for the change. I love real estate because very dynamic, has high energy. You've got to be a high energy person to be in the space.

[00:34:58] And I decided to make the move because I'm kind of at the tail end of my career, although I'm not retiring anytime soon. I wanted to have a new challenge and build some different relationships because my business is all about building relationships.

[00:35:13] And real estate is just a different way to do that, be with a different group of people, which is quite exciting. Nice. Yeah. And how you like it in so far? So far, so good. I love it. Yeah. It's been so fun.

[00:35:26] There's a lot of great people and networks out there you get to build. And not only are you working on your own, but you build a team of other professionals around you that support each other. So I think that's fantastic. Like you're doing, like your team is

[00:35:39] doing with other teams. I love that whole networking and collaboration with other teams, yes, and other professions. Nice. And good on you for making such a big dramatic leap after you've put in so many years in your prior industry, 28 to be specific, right? Yeah.

[00:35:57] And wanting something new, right? Like it's always when you're uncomfortable that you're growing. And to put yourself in that position after you've become so comfortable and probably have gotten really good at what it is you were doing prior, into this new position, this new world,

[00:36:15] this new network, this new city, right? That's inspiring. So like what motivated you to do that? Some life changes, like moving from the city and to a smaller city back to where my family was. I've always been inspired by the family in the town they're living.

[00:36:34] My dad was a very successful, hardworking, humble man who operated a car dealership and was very successful for many years. My nephew's in realtor and some of my family. And just following in their footsteps and seeing the energy and the happiness and the success

[00:36:53] that they've had, the dynamic energy that this profession brings, I just wanted to be part of it. Nice. Yeah. I wanted a new career. Just wanted to, it was time for change. OK. How you liking South Florida? Well, South Florida, I mean, like I'm thinking,

[00:37:08] could I move here? Right? Yes. Right? I see everyone today just bouncing around in the center. You know what? You look pretty good there. How am I going to move? And you know what? You look comfy over there. You know, hey, you're doing all right.

[00:37:22] It's so beautiful, right? It is beautiful. Being here and the way that the sun hits you, the vitamin D, the energy that's moving around in this place, it's special for sure. So do you have any goals or aspirations

[00:37:34] to break out of that market one day that you're in right now and get to certain places in the world and exercise your real estate abilities? Or is it something that you look to stay local, you look to gain ground there and stay focused on those areas?

[00:37:51] Well, I would love to live in South Florida and be part of the real estate market here. That would be fantastic. And I'm going to really seriously consider trying to make that happen. Where I am now, I live in a very wonderful area

[00:38:06] that has a lot of luxury as well. And it's about finding your niche and honing in on a certain market. And I'm developing that niche or discovering my niche. And I want to really maximize where I am at and then see what I can do there.

[00:38:23] And then maybe split my time between two places. Love that. It would be wonderful. Very cool. Very quiet. And if everyone should love where they live, getting to know people, genuine curiosity about them, aligning them with what their dreams are

[00:38:37] and making Be The Catalyst to make that happen would be my ultimate goal. Beautiful. Love that. Very well said. And you know what? I wouldn't put it past you to make that jump given the ballsy jump that you've already made. So good on you. We'll see. Yeah.

[00:38:56] And how is it that you look for mentorship now and you to the space? Who is it that you're bouncing off of? What values is it that you've aligned with that really make you feel comfortable and like you have a backbone in the space?

[00:39:09] And how has that served you? Mentorship. We're in a great office. We are surrounded by many wonderful professionals that have been in the industry for a long time. And my whole mindset is coming with a beginner's mind. So whether you've been there for 30 years or 10 years

[00:39:27] or you're six months and you've learned more than I have and I'm willing to listen and take from whoever is willing to offer guidance, support, mentorship, tips, whatever comes my way. I have a beginner's mind and I think that for me

[00:39:42] it's important to do that and just be humble enough to take on whatever anyone's offering me to help succeed in. Honestly, people have been so fantastic. They're more than willing to help you succeed. And they love, I think part of being a realtor's part

[00:39:58] is loving and helping other people make their mark. Yeah, that's so cool. But you're not new to entrepreneurship like we talked about, right? And do you find a lot of the same fundamentals in business? Because essentially right now you're your own business, right? Absolutely. Apply? Yes, absolutely.

[00:40:16] Yep, you have to go for it. You have to set goals. You've got a network. You've got to be genuinely curious about people. You have to take on the challenges. You've got to get up every day and show up every day and make things happen.

[00:40:31] You can't wait for things to drop in your lap. You've got to go and make it happen. Right, yes. And I'm sure that's helped you in a very short period of time really propel the business forward in an aggressive manner, right?

[00:40:44] Because it's not easy to understand and pick up those entrepreneurial skills, right? And to have that and build such a solid foundation does come with those years of experience, right? So as much as the real estate space is new to you,

[00:40:58] what I'm curious is what are those fundamental practices that really help put you on another level? Fundamental practices for me is number one, what's my motivation? Knowing what my motivation is. Your why? My why. Your why? Huge. Absolutely my why. Huge. And I do know my why.

[00:41:17] And that's getting into this reason. I have a son, a young son who's third year university. And I want to be a good role model. And he did say to me not long ago, because he's still deciding, do I want to be a chartered accountant?

[00:41:30] Do I want to be a lawyer? Do I want to? There was a couple other options. He said, do I want to do real estate? And I said, you can be anything you want. And he says, at your age, and I won't say my age,

[00:41:42] but he says, I've seen you now take the real estate course and jump into a whole new career. He said, mom, if you can do it, I can do anything. That's awesome. Leading by example. Yes. That's so beautiful. I know I'm a father as well of three.

[00:41:54] And sometimes I beat myself up in the head. And I'm just like, oh man, should I learn this to teach them that? Or am I doing this right? Or should I do this before that? And I'm just like, man, just show up every day.

[00:42:05] Be the best version yourself. Lead by example. And we're their biggest heroes. So we're going to rub off on them. But that's beautiful. And congratulations to the little man there. Not so little third year university, but whatever it is you put your head to, you'll definitely get done.

[00:42:19] And your mom's a rock star. So very cool. That's a powerful Y too. Can't mess around with that Y, right? For sure. And what is it that you want the audience to know about what you're going to accomplish in the next

[00:42:32] year, two years, three years, four years, five years? How hard are you going to rock in this business? What are some of those bigger goals? And let it rip. Well, I want my network and my friends and my family to know that I'm going to work hard.

[00:42:49] And I'm going to be honest and I have integrity. And I'm going to be the professional that will get the job done. I'll go to bat for you. I will work my butt off for you if I'm selling your home. And we'll build a great relationship.

[00:43:03] Like I feel this whole business and any business as an entrepreneur, when you're working with people, buying a home is a huge deal. And it comes with a lot of pride. And when you can make that happen for someone and see that in someone, they become so proud

[00:43:17] of what they've accomplished. Right. It's a wonderful feeling. And I want to be the facilitator and the catalyst and the person to get that done and help people get that done. Powerful. Love that. And anything else that you'd like the audience to know

[00:43:31] about you on a personal level, business level? You want to open it up? Anything interesting? I'm sure there's many things. I don't want to poke and go too deep though, but feel free. Use the platform. You're going to edit this, right? It's up to you. I'm single.

[00:43:50] No, I'm just kidding. All right. She's single. No, I am so excited to be in a new industry that brings a lot of energy. And I just feel like this is going to take me years. It's going to take me through years of professional development and income earning

[00:44:12] and relationship building and making friends and just having, living my best life. I live, I think location, loving where you live is important. Loving the people you work with, loving what you do, like being healthy, all of the above, living to the fullest.

[00:44:28] Like that is what I'm about. Beautiful. Absolutely what I'm about. Love it. Love it. All right guys, you heard it. We rocked out with another All Star from Canada, here in South Florida. And this was actually a very, very inspirational episode.

[00:44:44] The fact that you were doing something for so long and at this stage in your life decided to make that leap into the real estate career. This is definitely a first on the what would it cost platform. And I just want to congratulate you

[00:44:57] and I want to tip my hat to you and I want to have it be that all the other female audience that's listening in right now, whether you're in the real estate profession, whether you're not, you know, follow her. Be a part of her journey.

[00:45:11] Take a page out of her book. You could do anything you put your mind to. The women that are, you know, really putting, the real, the women that are really putting forward, sorry, the really, the woman that are putting, I'm tripping over here right now. Sorry.

[00:45:34] I just want to tip my hat to all the women putting forward a solid effort on killing it in the corporate professional space. And you know, you're a prime example of that. So congratulations. Thank you. Yeah, right now. So much, yep.

[00:45:48] Tell the crowd where they can follow you, social media handle, email, website. Where is it that they could follow your journey? Well, I'm Renee Thrasher and you can follow me on Instagram. Renee Thrasher on Instagram. Renee Thrasher on Facebook and also same name on LinkedIn and on YouTube.

[00:46:04] Right on guys, thank you very much for tuning into another episode of What Would It Cost? Again, this is a special one. It's a pop up here in South Florida with some Canadian friends and follow Ms. Thrasher. She's amazing. You know what? You heard it. Let's go. Okay.

[00:46:21] So thank you for joining us today over here. Really, very grateful. Nice meeting you. Yeah, for you guys hopping over and making your way. I know that you guys are busy, busy, moving and shaking. There's lots going on.

[00:46:34] You guys have a lot of deals that are in the pipeline and things are going well. So again, thank you very much for spending this time with us today. And yeah, talk to us a little bit about what you guys got going on. Not only currently,

[00:46:45] what's in the pipeline for the future. I know that there's some very unique projects on the table right now that are being developed and yeah, just dive right into it. How's that first? Absolutely, so Nick, thank you for having us. It's a pleasure being here. On my end,

[00:47:01] we have been focusing a lot in the new developments. We have quite a few projects going on in Florida. Two of those are in Delray Beach, downtown Delray, which is a very unique city. Delray offers a vibe that people love because it's not too uptight,

[00:47:22] all types of people close to the beach. There's great restaurants as well. So people, especially that like to spend the summers here, they ended up buying in Delray. So we spotted two pieces of land there two years ago. We teamed up, got some investors, we got that going.

[00:47:42] Nice. So now we start in construction in a month. Beautiful. So we're very excited about that. Nice. Which is great. Congratulations. Thank you. That's awesome. And the way that us Torontonians are used to these three, four, five percent cap rates, right?

[00:47:59] Like if I were to tell them a property and a development like that in regards to what it would be able to generate them on the investment side of things, they don't believe me. So please tell them. Well. You're like how this is so great,

[00:48:10] not only for the equity appreciation, but even the passive income that these investors can make. So there's different ways of looking at this as an investment. People often want passive income from rental, buying and renting properties. A property, a three bedroom in Delray Beach

[00:48:29] can be rented around 27 to $30,000 a month. To talk about high end, not on the water. So these are real numbers, numbers that we have done this year. So that's one side of the investment. The other side. What would an asset like, what does that cost?

[00:48:44] It cost two million dollars to a client of mine three years ago. Area that was upcoming, we spotted. So in the beginning it was like, he was questioning me, should I buy these? But there's a couple of shocks next door. And of course there are, that's South Florida.

[00:49:02] I'm from Portugal and in Portugal, an area that is already developed has mention after mention. And that's what people like. Everyone likes that, right? Because they don't wait next door to a neighbor that has a house that is 10 times less than they have.

[00:49:15] That's just a human thing, right? So Delray is like that. Boca is somewhat like that as well. So he's bought the bet, he purchased for two million dollars and he has been renting it just for the season every year between 27, $30,000 a month.

[00:49:31] So he goes to Texas, this specific client goes to Texas, spends some time back home in Texas and then while he makes enough money to pay for his expenses for the house, property taxes, insurance and whatnot. So in three months or four months at your end,

[00:49:49] he covers all of that. That is extra, right? So that's that side. The other side of the investment is obviously coming as an investor, partnering up, buying some shares of the product and then having a distribution in the end. And we're looking at 80 to 100% returns

[00:50:08] on something like that. Right, right. And I find it really interesting that you're not only the real estate agent that's selling the product. You have a seat at the table with the development. You're raising capital on the investment side of things to bring this alive, right?

[00:50:25] And it's almost like the last job to do is to sell this as a product, right? So it's like there's so many layers to your job and you're just a wealth of knowledge on that. So talk a little bit more about, especially to the younger realtors,

[00:50:39] this audience is very focused in the industry, right? And I find that inspiring and very cool, but a lot of what the young realtors think the business is and just getting into it and having these units to sell that everyone wants. But why you have that product

[00:50:57] and why you're able to be the in-house is because you bring so much more value to the table and you're actually the guy that's jumpstarting the project, right? And bringing it to that point. So talk about what that takes in regards to... Well, my background is tennis

[00:51:11] and I came to real estate later in life. So I was involved in tennis and I had a tennis academy and I always loved real estate and I started investing real estate in Portugal, my home country 10 years ago. So I come more from a perspective of investment

[00:51:29] and then I met Paul and other people that... I realized that I wanted also to do the realtor part and I could combine both. So I realized that if I will be... If I'm a realtor, the best way is to get listings, right?

[00:51:48] So one way to guarantee listings is that you actually put a group of investors together and you are part of the management part, the side, but you also then sell your own product. So you kind of control both sides and control what you are selling

[00:52:05] because you are actually building it too. So you need to... You know that the quality hopefully will be there because you control that part as well. So you put the team together. Obviously, one of the co-developer with me

[00:52:20] is someone that has been in the industry in South Florida for many years. So you bring that experience and then I gathered some of the investors, friends and family in the beginning and then other people that see that, oh, okay, what are you guys doing?

[00:52:33] Because a lot of people had moved in during COVID, you know, they want to park their money somewhere and real estate is always a nice avenue for them. Brazilian crowd the same. I'm Portuguese so I speak Portuguese and so that is an easier communication

[00:52:52] and Brazilians often want to dollarize their money for because of volatilities of political volatility in their own countries and South America is known for that. So it's cyclical but they end up dollarizing, investing and South Florida is definitely one place that they like to invest.

[00:53:11] So putting that together, finding the piece of land, putting the group together, bringing the expertise from the developer and then selling the product, then you are covering basically everything, right? So, and that's why I realized that this way, if you can be involved

[00:53:27] and if you partner up and you delegate the parts that you don't know so much but you truly delegate to the people that you trust, then you can do it all. But that's what I think it's interesting about, not only selling real estate

[00:53:41] but also the managing of the construction and development. Yeah, and that's awesome and like the way that you talk about it, you make it sound easy but there's so many moving parts there but it screams expert to me. Like when you understand the project that in depth, right?

[00:53:59] Like that's just, it's a beautiful thing, right? And the way that you wrapped it all up and even catered to a certain niche, right? And have it be that you've penetrated that and had them understand that this could be a good investment solution

[00:54:12] and kind of acting as that bridge, right? For them to plug into. That's really it. As a realtor, you are the end person, you deal with the clients so you understand what type of design certain people want for example, you know that Brazilians like to have two bathrooms

[00:54:29] in the master suite and they want bigger rooms and Portuguese people, they value more a bigger living area. So knowing who you're gonna target influences the type of construction you're gonna do as well. So you put all of this together and then you create a product of quality

[00:54:48] because your name is behind it and if you're gonna spend time doing it, why not do it right? So that's when you bring the experts from each area and you put the team together and that's what you do. Nice, awesome, congratulations on that. That's awesome.

[00:55:04] And Paulie, jump into a little bit about what you got going on there's a big team behind you, right? 400 plus. Yeah, just like always impressed by Israel for the short time he's been here in the business is like miles ahead of everybody with his experience.

[00:55:21] But yeah, I've been in business 25 years more than the residential side. Probably less of a risk taker than Israel, which is you hit the home runs by taking the risks which is nice, but more the residential side, I ended up specialized in the senior communities

[00:55:37] that became my niche where, and then when I came to EXP five years ago I had built a team I was remax for about 15 years came over, built a team, built some great friendships here and really just trying to jump into the luxury market with Israel

[00:55:53] more of the development side where you can maybe do a little less deals but still have the incomes and passive income coming in as well but just never been that risk taker just more customer service related what's nice about him with his projects too

[00:56:10] that as a residential real estate agent you may not believe that that house is worth that amount. He has to believe it, it's his project his name's on it he's helping with the pricing he's helping with the sales on the residential side it's more it's transactional

[00:56:26] it's you're in, you're out maintain the customer service onto the next one but his is more almost like a lifetime relationship with the clients because they're gonna do another one if it's a success they're gonna do another one as well. Right and it's a popular

[00:56:44] so these days that people niche down and it be that that's not all that you do but it's what you're known for right and especially to learn a little more how to manage the amount you have to talk to us a little bit about

[00:56:56] how that's helped propel your revenues and how the community knows you for that and you're just the guy that they plug into. Yeah, it can help and it can hurt you like for example the more success you become as an agent they might think that you do luxury

[00:57:11] that you're doing million-dollar sales so your average Joe may not reach out to you because they say well I didn't want to bother Paul with this little little deal. So say I closed about 200 sales a year but my average sale price is 250, 300,000 dollars

[00:57:29] once they really get to know me but if they just have heard about me they're assuming that I'm doing more high end so that's why we were sitting at this beautiful house and I'm always impressed at how the luxury agents price these houses it's always like an art

[00:57:46] the Israel was talking about being emotional most of the stuff I'm doing is very cookie cutter that if your neighbor sold for 300 yours is worth between 280 and 320 so it's interesting but yeah, people always have an assumption of what you do before they even meet you

[00:58:04] and you have to kind of recreate yourself if it's not going in the direction that you want. Right, right and how did you guys start moving and shaking together? How did we meet? Through Tomas? I think that John Willen Oh, that's true

[00:58:19] My wife was in the financial magazine subscription business and she worked with a guy friend of mine John Willen and John started with the EXP the reality that we are under a year before I even thought about taking my license and then at that point

[00:58:43] I was actually not familiar with the EXP and I came across the model the business model and I liked it a lot by coincidence I met John he said, oh, I'm with the EXP and then I said, okay, why not? I'm gonna join the EXP

[00:59:00] and then second day they told me oh, there's this guy that sells this amount of real estate and I said, okay, who is that guy? It was this guy This one, yeah Right on, right on He's famous around there Yeah, we're about the same age

[00:59:15] a lot of same interests both married three kids and I'm kind of fascinated with tennis he was in the tennis world maybe he's fascinated with real estate he's picking my brain at the same time it just turned into a nice friendship Nice

[00:59:30] And how is it having such a big team? Me and him met organically not because somebody recruited him to come to EXP so what happens is out of those 400 no matter what business you're in maybe we have 40 that really kill it that make a nice living

[00:59:46] so winners do kind of pay attention to the winners if anybody wants to swim in the same direction I'm going I'll get them to that next level but you and a lot of people that have come to EXP have failed because only 10% of my income comes from Revshare

[01:00:02] so it's just a nice little cherry on the top but if I came here to just focus on recruiting I wouldn't be able to pay my bills and feed the family so it's almost like when I was at remax for 15 years

[01:00:18] in my focus I couldn't really build a team only because I couldn't attract the Israel's of the world that were just starting out because basically desk fees were too high so after realizing hey if you really want to start a team

[01:00:33] I just don't know if remax is the spot to do it even though I was happy there for 15 years and made a ton of money it just seemed like a perfect fit I was able to open two offices one in Boca Raton, one in Delray

[01:00:45] it's I am a broker associate but I'm not in charge of the 400 agents and it's just been a perfect fit but I just try to inspire the agents to get to the next level whenever they need coaching I'm around

[01:01:00] whenever they need me to go on a list of employment obviously we're here today he's bringing me on some value stuff so it's a win-win and it's not for everybody if you're not entrepreneurial you won't see the value in EXP or you won't that's so cool

[01:01:14] actually there's one with us here today Rick Dillon from EXP he's got a downline 400 people as well and I'm doing a lot of work with him he's an awesome guy and when you're around him though you hear his phone ringing and he's picking up

[01:01:29] and he's lending his ear to these agents and he's giving them some feedback and some advice for people like yourselves that are so seasoned and are veterans some of these questions are quite redundant and they continue to be asked by the junior agents and mid-level

[01:01:47] and sometimes even higher agents but I admire you guys for the patience level that you have and that wanting to give back you know what I mean and train these young agents or these less experienced agents on becoming weapons like yourselves

[01:02:01] so I'll tip my hat to you guys on that it's not easy to do while you're handling your own book as well Paul is very good at that any time that I call Paul either he calls me back immediately even a few years ago

[01:02:17] we know that we did not have the solid relationship, friendship that we have now you'd still call and I'm sure that he does to the other agents as well obviously cannot answer 400 calls a day most likely especially because in the end you start seeing

[01:02:34] who are the ones that are really asking the questions that should be answered, right? because you will see the ones that will deserve your time because we have a limit that's a commodity that is limited so eventually we have to devote that to a certain level

[01:02:48] because we also have to produce on the other side but Paul manages that beautifully yeah see Matt commodity that is limited we always talk about it all the time the efficiency and like the Pomodoro effect and making sure that like the time time yeah like it's a world

[01:03:05] one of the day it's your most valuable commodity I have three kids, right? yeah so if I have I have there's an opportunity cost in the evening if someone that's that is starting real estate calls me to ask me a question

[01:03:20] I have to either be on the phone with that guy or be with my kids right and so he better ask the right question not twice the same question two days in a row right right but Paul is better than I am at patient's level yeah

[01:03:34] I'm more on the high performance side that comes from sports you see so I don't babysit anyone that comes and works with me I don't like to babysit you know I've done that part you know in the other profession and I do that at home

[01:03:51] if you want to call babysitting your own kids but you see what I mean right it has to be high performance otherwise it's not worth the time right right very cool yeah love that and let's talk about this Florida market I know for you guys

[01:04:03] you guys know like the back your hand you might not think of it to be anything too special but us north of the border you know we're freezing our asses up there and around this time we got low cap rates it's something that doesn't even have one-tenth

[01:04:19] of the amount of sexiness that you guys got going on over here so you know what is it that you believe in the market not only you know currently but how you know it's going to continue to kick ass in the next five ten fifteen twenty years

[01:04:32] what are you excited about what do you look forward to you know what do you what what's happening here tell tell the audience right we're very very Toronto focused audience right so right now they're sick and tired of their money not going along way for them

[01:04:46] they're trying to maximize the potential of their money and it's just not working for them so they're looking on to these foreign markets right now hence why we're here creating that bridge but talk to them about it I think the beautiful part about Florida among many other things

[01:05:03] not only the weather it's that you go from Miami to Veru Beach which is up north two hours and the scenery is totally different so if you want if you are a younger crowd you know you like clubbing and you like hotspots Miami offers all of that

[01:05:20] as we know right but you come to a certain age you have a family with small kids and you want no traffic and you don't want to park your car and pay always $40 then Boca del Rey, Juno so you start going up north

[01:05:36] and you have more of that Fort Lauderdale you know we have three airports around the area there's Miami, Fort Lauderdale West Palm so it's easy to access and it's just there's a lot that Florida offers and of course the summers are a little hot

[01:05:54] but then the winters are beautiful like today and then of course there's the contrasts Northeasterns, Canadians and Boston people, New Yorkers they end up you know lacking it here even though this year I'll tell you that I have a client that came to try it out

[01:06:10] and the weather was horrible so he's like this is like Portugal you know and then he said no it's not just bad luck so and bad luck for me that he didn't buy either but anyway I'll let Paul continue yeah the other thing Israel didn't touch on

[01:06:29] we have two coasts the East Coast of Florida and the West Coast of Florida which are totally separate so the East Coast is a little faster probably like Toronto is in you know Canada and as you know most of the

[01:06:43] people that live on the East Coast of Florida day vacation on the West Coast Naples, Sarasota, Tampa a little bit slower a little more you know focused on water sports you know they have they actually have the golf we have the Atlantic Ocean

[01:06:57] so a totally different way of life so you know you can drive two hours across the state and feel like you're in a totally different state the other thing too is as the real estate in the Tri-County which will be Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach County gets expensive

[01:07:12] we're seeing the expansion north you know to Vero Beach St. Lucie you know Orlando and then you know even the Panhandle I mean there's some beautiful on top beaches that haven't really been touched because you know you know proximity to the major airports international and that's

[01:07:30] you know kind of the way you know as you know the pandemic has really put Florida on the map you know in the last three years I think the population is maybe you know maybe number two behind you know Texas or California but we've passed New York

[01:07:46] you know for many different reasons no state income tax you know we just got to keep the affordability here and that's why the expansion to you know you know to these northern counties or where the weather's still great maybe it's a few degrees colder than

[01:08:00] you know Palm Beach County so but yeah there's plenty of room for expansion in the state of Florida yeah no I want to actually take on that because we are involved in a project in the Panhandle now and I have no idea how beautiful it was

[01:08:14] I mean it's amazing the project is called Marine Island and this is a sequence of different other projects from the same designer and developer and you know when I looked online to see that area the first time around I was impressed because

[01:08:32] it looks like you are somewhere else in the world you know and you'd think that northern part of Florida it's not hype it's not Miami it's not for Lord of the but in fact it offers an amazing lifestyle and for investment purposes it's a great area as well

[01:08:49] because there's a few communities but there's space to develop and this project alone will be probably the biggest one or one of the biggest in the United States so we are actually involved in that as well it's beautiful boys that's awesome thank you and the rental market right

[01:09:07] talk about the passive income side of things right so what does that look like on an ongoing basis here and are there certain hot spots that you could look forward to bigger and better cap rates and what are those hot spots right

[01:09:22] and what do those numbers look like so you got two different well basically in Florida you have three different rental types you have annual you know your regular landlords that have just bought you know one house a year and they're renting annually and then you have seasonal

[01:09:35] so in Florida you know the season's usually called January 1st through like April so if the Canadians come down they usually come down I think you guys are allowed to stay here six months right so usually they'll stay January 1st to April 1st

[01:09:49] you know some of the older clientele has to get you know the health insurance for you know US and stuff so it becomes a little cost prohibitive but the and then you have the STRs the short-term rentals but you know some of the cities

[01:10:02] are cracking down on them you know it's they only kind of work in non-HOA areas non-homeowners associations so Broward County, Palm Beach County, Miami-Dade they don't work on the condo market it's got to be no HOA single families and they're running them through Airbnb or whatever VRBO

[01:10:20] you know whatever websites are on so right and numbers? I'm gonna defer to him during COVID I saw things that were different so now we back to kind of normal but it's not uncommon to see a rental for 40 to $50,000 a month now hot spots on the water yeah

[01:10:43] what are you getting typically square footage wise bedroom side like maybe a five bedroom nice house ocean side pool yeah inter-coastal ocean you can easily especially Miami for Lourdesville you can get easily above 50 during COVID they were 100,000 a month left and right

[01:11:10] Boca is a little bit more moderate with that Delray as well 30s, 40s maximum but $10,000 left and right like if someone a lot of people call and they say I wanna rent for a month for a nice place for $4,000 in January yeah there isn't it doesn't exist

[01:11:34] does not exist and then if I say and if I send the ones that look $4,000 they will think I have bad taste and so I say immediately like don't think I have bad taste this is what's on the market so they know

[01:11:49] so I already prepared them because otherwise and because these are clients eventually they will buy and they want to see oh I want to rent for a couple of months to know the area but I know if someone is looking to buy a $2 million house

[01:12:02] if they rent for five that's not gonna be yeah that's not gonna be possible that they like it yeah because the numbers are not much yeah wow that's beautiful we're not used to that place are you guys familiar with the website biggerpockets.com? nope

[01:12:17] so biggerpockets.com is a huge website for the investment community where you know a lot of agents on our team are featured on there that just specialize with investors but you know as a end user you can go in there and you see what cap rates are

[01:12:31] see who's the expert it's basically a forum where a lot of real estate agents basically give added value they pick up clients on there you're able to advertise you know as an agent on there you're able to advertise your your properties on there

[01:12:46] if you want to get them rented out for short term so yeah biggerpockets.com is definitely is the biggest investment community website in the US okay very cool yeah good plug so anything else that you think you want the audience to know or find out about

[01:13:02] or just have it be that they understand better yeah we'll give our contact information that you can reach out so it's anytime but yeah I would say the next decade or two for the Florida market there's still plenty of room for growth

[01:13:15] don't anybody don't let anybody tell you that it's overpriced here yet you just have to go a little little further north where you see the value we have a lot of the Canadians that are basically taking their money out of south Florida moving an hour north

[01:13:28] you know peace and quiet still be you know nice nice weather compared to what you guys are used to but anyway again my name was Paul Saperstein you can find me on the web at PaulSaperstein.com and the phone number is 561-251-5296 once again 561-251-5296

[01:13:47] and I drew our time together right on and I'm Israel Montire and my number is 561-286-2926 thank you thank you very much for tuning into another episode of what would it cost it was awesome sitting down with these two beauties and rock stars and the EDP

[01:14:03] brokerage that have so much going on and if you liked it subscribe like that's how we continue to move this gravy train forward and we'll see you on the next one