Hey, Luis. Good morning, brother. Hello, and good morning. How are you, man? I am doing great, man. I am doing great. Getting ready for this travel to Saint Martin tomorrow. Yeah. I know. That's gonna be exciting. Lock lock that bad boy down. Well, it's already locked down. Now it's just Yeah. Yeah. We're going there to start the start the content for it, so it will it will be, pretty cool pretty cool. Good morning, everybody. We are excited to be with you today. Let me get my chat pulled up there. We are remote today. Both Lewis and I are in separate locations, because Dave is actually in Miami. He'll be meeting me in Saint Martin tomorrow for us to start the commercial series for, one of the projects that we've got over there. Hello from Texas. Hey, Jose. Hello. Happy to be with you this morning. We'll go we'll go ahead and get started in in just one minute. Pflugerville. Alright. I didn't actually realize that was a real place, Pflugerville. It feels like it feels like something that would be in, like, a doctor Seuss movie. Like, the trees, they're made of, like, cotton in Pflugerville. Yeah. Awesome. Definitely wanna go check that out one day. North Carolina, Texas, Chicago. Good morning. Lake Wales. Cool. Alright. Well, we'll go ahead and get started, guys. My name is Matthew Hodge, executive vice president. I know it says LPT Studio down at the bottom, but, my name is actually Matt Hodge. I am just on our studio account, and I'm joined by Lewis Fuhrman, my co VP. And, we are set remote today. So, normally, we are in studio, coming to you live, from, LPT headquarters, but today, we are in separate locations just because we have a pretty heavy, travel schedule. And, so some of us will be in California. I'll be international. I think our people still be here or in South Florida. So we're all kind of moving around for the next, couple of weeks or so, but excited to excited to be with you guys this morning. Hello from Austin, Texas and Richmond. Cool. Alright. So today's topic, kind of started. Louis, I guess I'll I'll let you start to kinda get us how we landed on this topic and then also kinda how that converge on on my side as well too. So I'll I'll turn it over to you to introduce, today's topic. Yeah. Sure. It actually we we sparked the the topic earlier this week when we were having a conversation over, lunch with another agent. And we're like, hey. Like, you know, what type of business practices do you do? Like, what's your niche? Like, who's the type of a customer that you typically like to interact with? And come to find out, this agent, he primarily focuses on new construction. And granted, right, like, in the industry, like, we understand that there's, you know, new construction in the portfolio that pops up from time to time. But this specific agent, like, he primarily handled new construction dynamics. He basically what did he say? Like, ninety percent of his portfolio is new construction, and he does a pretty substantial amount of business. And this is new construction on the buyer side. So, again, usually, those percentages are a little bit lower in terms of how much of a makeup it creates in the portfolio. So it led us to, you know, wanna ask him questions like, what is it that you're doing? Like, how is it that you're, you know, pulling ninety percent of your portfolio is new construction and you're closing, like, eighty to a hundred units a year? You know, that's a substantial amount of new construction business that you are pushing. So I I think today's conversation is, you know, the how tos for new construction relative to what we learned from this agent. And it goes kinda to our commitment to the brokerage. Right? Like, we always like to use real estate first as that forum where when we hear ideas as we're out there interacting with agents, you know, we wanna be able to disseminate it back and kinda give an overview of what we learned from him. Maybe there's certain things that maybe some of you on this call may wanna incorporate in your businesses. Even though it may not shoot for that ninety percent buyer side of the transaction where you're shooting new construction, but maybe you wanna pick up some of those, percentages on that side. So I think that's the foundation. Right? Yeah. Absolutely. You know? No. That's a great, that's a great way to kinda bring it in. And let me kind of round it out a little bit more in terms of how I start to formulate that. Right? And so I see this unique kind of business, you know, niche that he's in, and I'm thinking, okay. Yeah. That's that's what he wanted to do. That's what he found to be most valuable. That's how he advertised. He eventually built a client base, and that's his business evolved there. But if you're really following the market, right, you you have to understand that that's where a large part of transactions are growing and where the future could be. You could find potential solutions for housing for for people who are looking because the resale market is so suppressed. And so, like, I was listening to the earnings call, earlier this week of Beazer, Beazer, the home builder, and they had thirty percent year over year increase in sales, in the month of October. And so what that what that shows me is that the demand for buying is not as weak as what you might think. The the suppression and transactions that you're seeing, the four million versus what we saw in COVID, the six million, the reason we're seeing that is because of lack of options. Right? There's a lack of inventory. There's a lack of willingness on the seller side to say, hey. I'm gonna give up this two or three percent interest rate and reenter in the market at the six or seven percent wherever they may land today. And so that is cutting off options for a group of people who are still willing and able. And so what you're starting to see is some of these people who are evolving their business, they're they're moving the cheese or they're going to where, you know, the the cheese is, is that they are saying, hey. I there's inventory solutions available. It's just through new construction. And so I am then going to start focusing my efforts on where people are finding solutions, which is right now that that new construction inventory. And so if you think about what role we represent in the buying side of the transaction, which is we are a guide to the inventory that's on the market to help them find the home that best works for them within the budget that they have set forth. New construction is great, but it's like they don't do a great job of listing their entire inventory on the MLS. So unless you are familiar with these communities, you are missing out an opportunity to serve your consumer at the highest level. You're con to to you're missing opportunities for your buyer, and one could exist. And, generally, they pay higher than the resale market. So I just thought it was a fantastic idea to be thinking about how do we then evolve our business. Right? What are some of the things that we can do to purposefully start moving some of our business to new construction or find some of the solutions where someone may not be able to find a house on the resale market that fits their need, and so it's kept them on the sidelines. How do we start finding inventory on on the new construction? And if it's maybe slightly outside of the area that they are primarily focused on, does it make more sense to show them the benefits of maybe being ten or fifteen or twenty minutes away from their ideal area to find this new construction, which we know generally appreciates higher than resale market. You know, there's just so many things to be thinking about. So, that's kind of the basis of of what we're gonna be talking through today. Lewis, I know that you asked some questions in terms of, like, what did they do actually once they decided that they were, you know, finding some type of success on the new construction side? What then were the actions that they took to start pouring more gasoline onto their to their efforts? Yeah. Well, first, I love how you threw in that Tom and Jerry reference with moving the cheese. That was the that was the Yeah. You know it. But, so so I think a good starting point is, like, where he came from. Right? You know? So he was expressing to us where he first started off his business like many of us in the secondary market purely. Like, that was his bread and butter. Oftentimes, us as agents, like, that's what we're trained to do. Go on the MLS, look for homes that are on the secondary market, present those homes to our customers, and then help our customers basically have access and tour these homes, etcetera. He was explaining that during his story, he had one of his clients after he was, again, mostly in the secondary market that wanted to purchase a new construction. And he went they went to a development, and he, like, found this passion for helping customers in that space because he liked those types of properties. Right? Like, he liked to have those conversations in terms of upgrades and the newness associated with new construction. So he went back and said, okay. This is the niche that I wanna focus on. I now need to create a purposeful and organized model that I can try to maximize my exposure in that particular type of market, on the primary market, on the new construction market. So what he did was his epiphany happened where he he used some sentence where he's like, I've become this aggregator of all of the new construction in a localized market. And when we when when he said that, we asked the question, well, what does that mean? Like, what do you mean you're the aggregator of all the new construction? Well, what he meant by that is he has a strategy where he basically has his radius or his diameter of where he conducts his real estate business, and he will go and understand one hundred percent what new constructions are happening. And he takes it a step further where he will tour every single model home in those communities. He'll get all of the floor plans and blueprints and all of the materials that the new construction, those new constructions ultimately have has. And then he organizes all of that in his systems. He'll organize it by location, organize it by price point, organize it by style. And he has this system where he has all this information aggregated, which as we know, it's very hard to find this. Like, where do you find, like, hey, I wanna see all the new construct. Like, he's become that person to aggregate all that information. Then now when he has a buyer lead comes in, he does his normal interviews. He understands the type of home that the buyer is looking for. He understands the price point that the buyer is looking to purchase in. And the first step that he does is he has, like, this aggregator meeting is how he called it, where he'll sit down with that buyer and basically show them all of the new construction that are available that meets the criteria of that specific buyer before any type of tours even happen. He has this, like, specialized meeting with these individuals where he'll walk through and show the floor plans that are coming from the new construction, talking about the price points, helping them understand what upgrades possibly exist. And he takes, like, this effort at the very beginning of the tour process to position it in that fashion. Now granted, some customers may still be adamant on the secondary market. Like, he doesn't close these doors, but he now unlocks this new potential because he's having this very much niched, specialized conversation with the customer that I can tell you I haven't really heard many agents do this, where, you know, I'm gonna sit down with you and talk about ten new construction projects that are in that area, and I'm gonna walk you through all of their floor plans, all of their blueprints, all of their price points, all of their upgrades to see if any of these resonate with that customer. I thought it was a pretty unique dynamic in terms of what he's implemented. Yeah. I I agree with you. And I'm I'm actually gonna highlight an another detail of what I thought that he did that was an actionable item. Like, if you're thinking, hey. That makes sense for me. I get it. This is the fastest growing part of the market. This is where inventory exists. I wanna try to align with that. I think about, our time in the short sale area, and I and I will I will go through that in just a second. But, an additional piece that I thought was cool is that when he sends out this weekly email, he's basically saying, hey, guys. So should you know, here's what's available, on these particular communities. He crosses out the ones that have sold. He has a very good relationship with those builders, and so he has the relationship with the builder where he says, hey. If there's anything that falls out, if anyone that is currently under contract comes back on the market, there's any special deals, please let me know. I may have a buyer for it. And so he's got these communities, these reps who are constantly reaching out being like, hey. This contract fell through blah blah blah. He puts it inside of his weekly email. And so now he's creating this sense of urgency. He's showing his expertise in term in terms of lying what's happened. Hey, guys. We have a special deal that happened. This, you know, new house just came back on the market. It's now available, which you never hear in the new construction business. You know, if you're interested in it, we've got a great builder incentive. Let me know. You know, so he has all these calls to action and all these tax things. And I just thought it was a great way. So once he has this information, he puts it into one email and it's basically like a summary of like, hey, here's what's available in your area. Like, here's the deals that are happening on the market. Reach out to me for the flash specials. I'll let you know where they exist, and it creates these conversations. And so, again, he builds a relationship with the builders who are constantly reaching out because he's moving the inventory. He's building he's being the solution for the buyers who are don't have that visibility, and there's no easy way, as you said, to aggregate the information. So that that's kind of that piece. So when you think about, the what we did during the short sale period and I talk about this a lot. If you follow us on Real Estate First Friday, you know that Lewis and I's first professional relationship was I was, the owner of a team, and Lewis was a short sale attorney. And we were doing short sales in the time that that was the biggest part of our market. Here in Orlando, it had gone up to forty percent of the market of the the inventory that was available for sale was either REO or short sale, during that the the real estate bust. Lewis, being a short sale attorney, was negotiating with the attorneys in terms of, like, how long a seller could stay in their home, you know, what the payoff amount would be with the bank. And so and then I was selling the assets, and so that's how we were working together. And so we after we found that we were very successful with this process and we were having great success in helping people, you know, say, hey, the bank is not gonna come after you for two hundred thousand dollars because you have to sell the house for less. Or, hey, I was able to stay in the house for six months. There was all these solutions that we were creating, and then we were finding the buyers on the other side who understood that they were gonna have to wait, you know, sometimes up to six months for an approval. And sometimes that would say, hey. It's thirty, forty thousand dollars more than what you're under contract for. So we got really good at keeping those transactions together. And because of that, we started to serve the biggest growing part of the market at that time. That translated into us doing twenty to thirty short sales per month, which at the time, everyone was like, how on earth are you guys doing this? Like, how did you guys become these experts on it? But it really was just that we understood what the pain point was for the people who were doing these transactions. We put some systems in place that allowed us to make that a smoother transaction and probably have a little bit more certainty than the rest. And then we were addressing the biggest part of the market that was growing and we got there before everybody else. And so we rode the wave. And then, of course, as that started to satisfy itself, then we had all these relationships built with people who had been we had met through and then we remarketed those people and those became our resale as that started to happen a couple of years later. And so we rode the momentum of that cycle. And so I'm thinking about the new construction cycle kind of in the same way. Like, if you go and you look at the earnings of all the new builders, the majority of them were reporting an increase in year over year sales. So what does that mean? That also means on the flip side of it that there is a group of people, developers who aren't the national builders who are saying, hey. There is a demand for houses that are not being met. I can go build houses and make money because I've got a large audience. Right? The resale market is not producing enough inventory, and there's a bigger demand in currently with the interest rates is still in place. So what's gonna happen is that you have these developers start to come on the market, and guess what? They need people to sell those houses. And so that kind of is I'll I'll put a quick blurb into our new construction and development side, which, over probably the last sixty days or so, we've taken just about one billion dollars in new listings for LPT agents from these new construction developers who were like, hey. I've got thirty two houses I need to sell. Hey. I've got two hundred and fifty condos I need to sell. I'm not a big national builder, but I've got this, you know, five hundred million dollar project that I'm working on or whatever. We need a white label sales team to come do that. And so it creates opportunity all around the the, I guess, the expansion of new construction. So I I just want you guys to be thinking about it, whether you're interested in saying, hey. I've got some developer friends that I could work with and I wanna be able to be an exclusive to sell their project. Or, hey. I wanna represent buyers who are currently looking for homes who aren't finding a solution in the resale market. I wanna pull that information together and be a resource for the people and gobble up some additional some additional transactions. Yeah. That was a great stat that you shared. The year over year return in in earnings for these new constructions. I mean, that definitely indicates a trend. You know, no different than a decade ago, the trend became, you know, foreclosures and short sales. You know, the trend that's in existent right now is this new construction. And I guess the question that we need to ask ourselves is, like, do we have a plan to capitalize on those trends? Right? Like, if we are looking for ways to increase our our our market share, increase our production, we talked about I think it was last real estate first Friday or the Friday before that where we talked about, you know, painting the picture of your whole market share of your portfolio and, like, what percentage of leads are coming from and are allocated in which type of space. You know, part of that homework, you know, try to recognize, well, how much of it am I unlocking in the new construction world? Is it zero? Is it one percent? Is it two percent? And then how did I get that new construction? Was it like a buyer who basically said, hey. I drove by this property, and I wanna go see this new construction? Like, do we have an actual plan to try to squeeze out some of those percentages? Because it is a trend that is currently existing in the in the industry, in the marketplace. And we don't have to create a plan where we're gonna say, hey. My goal is to have ninety percent of new construction sales be on my buy. Like, that's not what we're saying. Right? Like, the but but I think the key is, like, if you wanna try to get an uptick, you wanna get maybe five or ten percent in that space, it's not gonna happen by pure luck. It's not gonna happen by purely, hey. Have you thought about, John, about looking at new construction? Like, let's go drive around and go pop into some new construction places. Like, there has to be a plan if if you're trying to squeeze out a bigger percentage in that space and utilize some of these strategies that we heard this guy talk about. Like, again, I thought it was extremely unique, and it also created more value to be hired as the agent because we also poked them on the post in our settlement. And we said, hey. How have you liked the post in our settlement? What about BBA executions? He indicated that he it was even easier for him now to express his value because now he's coming in from these two angles. When you hire me, not only am I gonna watch your back and help you and I have a team that's gonna help you on the secondary market side of the equation, but I got this aggregated solution on the new construction side of the equation customers ultimately say, hey. I yeah. I mean, you're watching my back on that angle. That is a possibility for me. I never knew it was a possibility for me. I thought it was maybe too expensive. Maybe the time frames don't align. Like, he has that whole thing down pack. But, again, it starts off with that purposeful plan, that plan of, okay. I wanna do this. It's not gonna happen just, hey. Let's drive around. Like, we gotta have a plan to be able to tackle it. And, you know, that suggestion of being the expert in in a radius of a location and, like, understand what models are available, the the stats of those models. As as Matt mentioned, he has a relationship with the representatives over there that when a lot goes under contract or it goes pending, they notify him in real time. So he's able to send that messaging to his customers. Like, he has this whole system down packed. I mean, if if you guys are looking to enter that space, I think taking some of those tidbits may be an effective way to grow some percentages in your portfolio new construction. Definitely. And and, you know, just so that you so if you're wondering, hey. That sounds like a lot to do. It really is pretty simple. All he's doing is is, one, he's saying, hey. If something comes on the market comes back on the market, something falls through, like, they they notify him that in real time. Outside of that, they're just sending him at the end of the week, hey. Here's what's available. You know? Here's what is available this week. So he's looking, okay. Last week, we had ten properties available. This week, we have seven. Which ones went? And he just crosses them out. So it's a simple process once per week. But you're right. The ones that come back on the market, that is where he will get that kind of information to read, you know, in in live and then send that out as a blast. One of the thing that I kinda wanted to, like, talk through on on this side of it, Louis, is that, you know, when you think about how then you become the expert. So we talked about the side of it where we're saying, hey. Here's a solution that he's Here's what he's providing as a solution for people who are looking for homes, who maybe are not finding it in the resale market. He's coining himself as, hey. I'm an off market new construction specialist, which is true. Right? Because they put some of the homes in the MLS, but a lot of the inventory is not. So it is off market. That seems to be very, you know, key with his group of people. Oh, I'm finding off market properties. I'm getting some level of exclusivity. I'm getting something that other people don't have access to. This guy is more special than others. Right? So you've got that piece there. But then lastly, one of the most important things is and and partially what I think is the most fun is going and touring the communities and the model home so that you can speak to it. Hey. I love this particular community. I love this house. It's got a three bedroom, two bath. I've actually been inside of the model home. They've got great finishes. What I really liked about it is x y z. You just take a couple of little notes. If you're someone who also does social media while you're there, you could then also, you know, create some social media content for that, which is a great strategy as well too. Can help you find more people who are interested in new construction. But my point is is that he goes there and learns a little bit about it and tours the community so that he can speak to it. So that when you're there and you're talking with someone, you're like, hey, I kinda really love the way this neighborhood feels as you come into the neighborhood. It's got kind of so and so. You like you take away any key features that would be a great talking point to help someone understand the lifestyle associated with that particular community. But, again, it just adds another little layer of, like, hey. This person is the absolute expertise, not just because they know where the inventory is. They physically have been inside of these communities. They know the representatives there. They know how the, you know, loosely familiar with how kind of the the community feels they can describe it to you. All of those things are going to make you the expert, not just seem like you're the expert for advertising purposes, but actually be the expert of the area. And so, you know, both, of course, perception and the actual knowledge are needed, but it is important that you actually go there and take a little time to understand what new construction products are out in your marketplace. And then if it's you've got someone who's searching, you know, I'm gonna say one two three street. Like, I'm searching within fifteen minutes of one two three street, and there's a new construction that's twenty minutes away, maybe right outside what that person has designated as their area. You definitely wanna know what the commute looks like to that area. Hey, get it. I know we're searching right inside of here, but if we just take I four for additional five minutes, it's only one exit. The traffic's pretty good most of the time. It drops up in this area. What I love about this community is x y z. It's so and so. But, you know, you're talking them through this path and guiding them to solutions. And then they ultimately find something in the resale market. But at the end of the day, you're giving yourself the best opportunity to, one, position yourself as an expert, two, find additional solutions, which will result in obviously additional transactions. A lot of time, new construction builders are paying more than the resale market, so it's an increase in pay. And let's be real, once we know, once we kind of turn over that process to the the builder, it is a much easier transaction to manage than even a resale, so you can do more of them at the same time. There's just all these benefits. And then lastly, it's it's the growing fastest growing part of the market in terms of where inventory is coming from. So either way, all that to say, figure out a way to get inside new construction. You will you will be doing yourself a favor. And throw in there one more benefit too where it's like you sharpen your own skill set as you're going through these properties. I mean, you're now gaining experience. Right? You're going into properties. You're seeing different types of finishes. As realtors, we gotta wear a lot of hats. Like, you know, not only do we have to be a counselor for our client and an organizer for our client and understand dynamics inside, we have to be negotiators and problem solvers. Like, this is helping you tackle, like, one side of the business where it's this this creativity side where you're able to see the finishes. You're able to see the floor plans. You're able to understand the flow of properties. And it just unlocks a very different way that you'll be able to tap into having conversations with your customers because part of it is recognizing who is my customer, what drives them, what ticks them when you're first getting introduced to them. And then if you're able to speak that language, like, if that's what's important for them, you're able to be able you're gonna be able to relate that much greater by just having that level of experience. It was funny because, like, sitting down with him, like, you can you can get those senses when he's talking through, like, the different homes that he's walked through and the way that he structures the communications of, like, the flow of the home and the fixtures of the home and the finishes of the, like, these are ways that he's communicating that for him, it's normal. Right? Because he's in that space. He's sharpened those skills. He has the ability to talk in that nature that not all of us do. Right? Because we're more focused on, you know, my strength is the negotiation aspect of the deal. My strength is being able to overcome the issues that arise during the contingencies. Not so much that part. We gotta get through that part to get to that place. But what about if we can well round ourselves, right, where we can still be experts in that place, be the resource in that place, be able to communicate to the different personality types. It's just gonna make that much more well rounded agent, and it's gonna really help you propel your experience in your careers in a positive direction. Yeah. I I totally agree. And, like, if you think about what your actual license says, right, it says you are a sales associate. Right? And so what I'm hearing there is as he's aggregating this information and he's talking to them about these particular products, he's selling it. Hey. What I love about this community is x y z. He's not like, the houses are cookie cutter style and putting his own preferences in there. He's talking. He's selling the community. Right? Like, you we are taking our own emotions out of it, and we are presenting the product. Hey. What I really like about them is they've got a ten year warranty on their structural piece. That's gonna be great to protect you for so and so. They are energy efficient homes, so your electricity bills will be at an absolute minimum, a great way for you to start. And, of course, it's brand new construction, so you don't have to worry about anybody's I think he said toenail clippings in the carpet or something like that. That really painted like, oh my god. Resale sounds disgusting. You know? So, but so he's selling that. Right? And so there's the there's the element of that, and that mix with the knowledge, meals with the expertise really helps it. I wanna answer a quick question before we jump off, with Derek. He was saying, how do you how does he retain them? Because it sounds like it what his in his experience, anytime he's pointing someone to new construction, maybe he's lost them. Maybe they've gone there. And, of course, you know, most of these builders require you to be there in person at the first visit in order to represent them. If not, they won't allow you to be paid on the transaction. I didn't ask that specific question, but I will I will tell you what I think. When you become an expert of an area where you're not locking down to just one particular community, right, someone in just drive by and say, I have to be here. When you're saying, hey. Listen. I've got access to, you know, off market inventory. These reps reach out to me with special deals. I know the I I'm gonna be able to give you all the information you need. We're gonna go there together. But more importantly, I'm gonna get you a better deal that you could get on your own because I've got this inter network of deals that happen that you don't see. I receive information that you know that you don't receive. You know, when something goes off the market and the the builder wants to get rid of it, it's at a discount. I get that information first. And so when you position yourself as the resource to it, not I'm not the answer, I'm the resource to the answers, and they always come to you. And that is how I've seen people have really high conversion and retention rates. I didn't ask that specific question. I could circle back around, but I can almost guarantee you they're finding so much value in his process that they're sticking with him because they know that he is the way to to, you know, to make their real estate, you know, needs come true. So, alright. With that being said, we are gonna cut it off here. We are at our full thirty minutes, so I appreciate being with you guys today. We will be, again, remote on motivational Monday. I will be in the British Virgin Islands in Saint Martin covering our Infinity Villas project by Ellie Saab. So we will cover that. Hopefully, from, the Airbnb that we're at. We'll have the opportunity to see the project in the background. That's my hope. It's kind of the way I booked it. And then we'll have our California dreaming tour, and Matt Levy and Michael Valdez will be over in California on the West Coast. I believe Robert will be either here at headquarters or, at Stewart, Florida. So, we'll be all over the place, but excited to bring you that new information. We've got some additional things to talk about on Motivational Monday, so make sure you do not miss it, and have a blessed and prosperous weekend. Thank you, guys.