Good morning. Welcome to another Real Estate First Friday. If you could hear me okay, please go ahead and give me a thumbs Alright. Fantastic. Well, good morning, guys. Welcome to another Real Estate First Friday. My name is Matthew Hodge, executive vice president here at LPT Realty. I'm joined by Lewis Furman, our co VP. Good morning. Morning. Good morning, everyone. How are you? I am doing well. Now how are you? You've you've been on a whirlwind for the last week Yeah. Traveling the world, going to the Caribbean, handling the development projects. How's everything going in your world? That's the real question. Yeah. It's, it was a lot, man. It was a lot. We had, we had a lot a a long list of things that we needed to get done and, of course, a fair share of obstacles, to overcome as with anything that you have to try to accomplish. But it was great, man. It was really good. We're excited to see, this type of development taking place in the Caribbean. We're excited to see the Aputure and LPT luxury brand growing. And, the opportunity it provides for our agents is is truthfully exciting. So, you know, excited to kinda talk to that, but, I haven't seen you since, I think, last week with Real Estate First Friday, which we do not normally see each other a couple times a week. Yeah. So what happened in your world? Oh, man. Things have been crazy. You know, it's entering into all these new states that we're entering into obviously has its own barriers of entry. There's some pretty big announcements we're gonna be making here in the next few days, so we've been working hard on those aspects of it. Awesome. I know even though you've been gone, you obviously have been very much in the weeds of all of that stuff as well. So, yeah, I'm sure all of that mixed together in the pod is just creating for this very exciting moment in our in our arc. And going back to the development, I mean, that's what excites me the most is it's unlocking really another avenue for our agents. You know, now when you're having conversations, going out there, you interact with possible developers. Like, this is now a full fledged solution for you to be able to have that competitive advantage in that space where you can lean on us, lean on your family to help you lock down those deals, and it's just a win win all around. And using some of these as a testimonial to be able to go out there and secure that next one, I'm just excited to see what our agents are able to do with with this whole new development, division, specialized, whatever we were calling it. Yeah. You know, it's gonna be exciting to see it expand over the next few years. Yeah. Definitely. Definitely is. And and to your point, you know, like, we talked about it last week on real estate first Friday where this is one of the biggest growing segments, of of inventory right now. I wouldn't say of the market. Right? But because it's still a smaller part of the overall picture. But in terms of available inventory, this is one of the best solutions that, you can provide. And so I would encourage you to be thinking about how you can approach these builders. And, if you are someone who does a lot of, you know, big pieces of land, a lot of these deals have come through that process. The agent represented either developer or or someone on a large parcel of land, and then their plan was to then turn it over and develop it. And so they have a secondary sale with being say, hey. We'll represent you through this entire thing. Look at all this cool offerings. So, that's fantastic. And and goes back to kind of our, you know, our thesis, which is real estate first, which is we have to be the best at selling real estate regardless of whether it's for developers or whether it's for, you know, new construction or single family resale. You know, whatever it is, you have to be the best at that because that's ultimately what what fuels everything else. Yeah. One of the things that's been realized is these develop I mean, they don't just have a one and done. Right? Like, they're in there, and they're doing a lot of these projects. And by being able to build that proper foundation with these groups, you're gonna be that premier person in their eyes to help them for that next project and that next project. You know, for example, you're just coming back from Saint Martin. You're working with Elie Saab, massive developer, massive designer. Like, what's kind of his background? Like, so the audience kind of understands. Like, he has multiple projects throughout the world, really. Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. I think this is their fifteenth project, the first one in the Caribbean. They're actually a fashion designer. Ellie Saab is a fashion designer high end. They actually just did a big show in Mulan over, I think, of last week. And they had, like, Celine Dion wearing their dresses and performing and stuff. So they are really high end fashion. They've got a ton of retail locations here in the US. And then so they started, like, residential play. And similar to, like, how you see Bentley and Mandarin Oriental and Aston Martin and all these guys who are lifestyle brands or automotive brands switching over into the residential space, taking that brand trust that has been built with the consumer for many years and applying it towards a residential space. And again, the reason why you're seeing that is because as a business entrepreneur, just someone who's looking at the playing field of like, hey, where is the money? Right now they're saying, hey, tell you what, there's this big shortage in inventory in real estate. We don't necessarily have to be in real estate like that, but we can take our brand and brand something else, you know, a real estate product. And that helps us unlock additional revenue streams, and it obviously, you know, has a a huge addressable audience. And so that's how people think about that. That's how businesses are searching for revenue, outside of just their own kind of their their niche. But, yeah, Ellie Sab, they also, started a furniture line. So they started off in high end fashion and dresses, things like that, and they, started a furniture line. And so our project is actually completely fully furnished by Ellie SAB. So all the furniture is, custom material and customly made for this particular project. You won't find it any anywhere else in the world, and so it it's pretty exciting. But to kinda, like, circle you back around, I wanna bring in kind of this concept of, you know, maybe some of the obstacles that you face. So something that, is I think near and dear to all of our entrepreneurs is making it through obstacles. Right? You may say, hey. I wanna break into a neighborhood. I may wanna sell x amount of houses per year. I wanna whatever your goal is, there are gonna be things in the way that stop you from getting there or could slow you down from getting there. And you can think about it one or two ways. You can always find a way and and and power through it, or you can allow that to stop you and then you say, hey. I'm gonna switch paths. What am I what am I gonna do? And, you know, people who are successfully accomplishing their goals always have the find a way mission, you know, the find a way thought process. Hey. No matter what happens, I'm going to find a way. I may have to pivot a little bit to the left or to the right, but I'm gonna find a way to hit the mark. And that's what you you really need. And so I'll just give you a short story so that you guys know. You you guys almost lost your EVP over over this last week. It was, it was a real deal. So Dave, as you know, our videographer, he's it's our director of content, is sitting right over there, and he is not a fan of flying. He does not like to fly. Put it lightly. To put it to put it lightly, he's cheering you in the background. He gets anxiety. Like, when we're taking off and it's like a smooth flight, his, like, anxiety level stays at, like, a eight or a nine. Like, he's permanently ready to die, you know, on a on a on a plane. But and I have zero feeling. I'm just like, I'll I'll read a book. I'll whatever. Like, there's absolutely nothing on the scale. And so we're flying to, we're flying to Saint Martin, and we're on American Airlines seven thirty seven, big airplane, you know, reputable brand. And the the way that the island is is that, you you land right over the beach. And right at the end of the runway within, you know, probably half a mile, quarter mile is a mountain. So it's a pretty unique experience when you land there because you land in right over the water. And if you were things were to go wrong, you would run into a mountain. You know? So it's like, either way, it's bad news if something goes wrong. And so we're flying there. The weather was kind of it was kinda choppy. And so the the worst two days of weather they've had in, like, since forever are the the two days we're trying to get there. So anyways, we we're we're flying in on Saturday, and at first, we noticed, like, hey. We should have landed probably, like, thirty, forty minutes ago. Like, what on earth is going on? And we kinda noticed that we're just circling the island. And it's like, you know, it's raining. It's turbulent. You know? So things were it was already kind of an uncomfortable ride. And so the the pilot comes on and says, hey, guys. The tailwinds are so high that we're not gonna be able to land, and we're running low on fuel. So if we don't fly to Puerto Rico and land, we are basically gonna fall out of the sky and, you know, into the Atlantic. That's a great way to assure the, the cabin stuff. Right. So we're like, okay. Obstacle number one is presenting itself. So, and we have no control over this. So we we fly to Puerto Rico, and we land there, and we're about to fuel up. So we're fueling up whatever that takes, like, an hour, an hour of some change. You know? We're getting ready to pull back out. We're on the runway, and the right engine fails. It won't fire up for whatever reason. And so they come back online and they're like, hey, guys. The the right engine won't fire up. We're gonna have to pull back in and find out what's going on with it. And so everyone's already like, what the heck, man? So we pull back in. Three hours later, they finally have resolved the issue. We're gonna head back to the island, but they're like, hey. The weather's starting to pick back up a little bit, so just be prepared. Keep keep your seat belt on the entire time. So Dave is over here. He's already white knuckled. We're not even we haven't even pulled out. And so then, we get back into the air. We're heading to Saint Martin, and the guy's like, alright. We're gonna try to land the plane here. And he he doesn't say it that confidently. He says, we're gonna attempt to approach the island. So you're already while you're seeing a mountain, the the tail, like Turbulence is Turbulence. Turbulence is going crazy. Like, I mean, a really scary fight. Like, I'm genuinely scared at this point. So we try to land last minute, like, right before we are about to hit the ground. Pilot says he can't see. Well, he didn't tell us this at the time. He jams on the gas, pulls up, and this is a big plane, man. But we feel like you're, like, in a f sixteen. And all of a sudden, we're like up flying to the right, turbulence is going crazy. I mean, things are shaking around. People are screaming on the like, it was a real deal. I'm like, okay. This is this is how I this is how it ends for me, you know, like and, and Dave, I can't even get Dave's attention. His head's like pressed out the window. He's he's he's in a whole another planet. But anyways, we have to go back to Puerto Rico, spend the night, and then fly there the next day, which was also a rough landing. And then the people who were supposed to meet there, same thing happened to them and they were delayed a day. So we lost two days through this process. So we have five full days of work that we are gonna which was a tight schedule as it was, and we lost two days of that. So we're like, okay. How are we then going to accomplish this goal? Right? Because none of that was within our control. There's this heavy feeling of being like, man, let's just pack it up and, you know, come back again, try again. You know what I mean? Then there's there's all these things that you're fighting. Right? That are are trying to slow you down, stop you from hitting the goal, which was to go there, film the content, meet with brokers, meet with the developer, you know, understand the project. You know, there's all these things that we have to go accomplish, and we're now that's at jeopardy unless we compress five already long days into three even longer days. And so we made the commitment that regardless of what happened that we were gonna get everything that we had set out to get done, and we ultimately accomplished it. It required us to basically work sixteen hours a day for three days straight, but Dave was did it, you know, the other crew that we were there, everyone committed to it, and we were able to to accomplish the goal. And because of that, now we're gonna have a really great video. We've already got some people very interested in presales. You know, we've got all these positive things that ended up happening. Met with some brokers on the islands to basically build some, you know, relationships. Like, we set up we we accomplished everything that we set out to do. But my point is is that everything that we try to do as an entrepreneur genuinely is going to have some type of headwind. It's going to have something that is going to make it more difficult than just going out there and doing it. Something that you can't necessarily anticipate that is going to happen. And that could be even, hey, I'm working with the buyer and financing ends up, you know, falling apart or the house that they ultimately really wanted, you know, through inspection period has some issue. Like, you know, there's always something that stands in our way and And as entrepreneurs, we have to get to this place where we are becoming numb to that and we are excited about those challenges. Because every time you overcome that, just know that there's someone else who didn't have the ability to do it or who gave up on it and you just took a step forward in your career. And so, you know, that's kinda how I I see this mission. But again, because of that, you know Dave, actually, do we have any footage? I'm gonna kinda talk about this piece. Where we are in in Saint Martin in Indigo Bay, what makes this project so special and why we fought so hard to be a part of it is because on the island there's an area called Indigo Bay. There it is. It's this little tiny cove that's off the right hand side. Right inside there is where you can see it and that's where the project exists. There is a hotel that's going in right here, where you're gonna kinda see this new construction, kinda like this area being pad out. There's a hotel coming right there, and this is the project that we're working with right there. So this is, this is one of the almost, frame completed. But, this is one of the the the villas there. But the it it is in this particular side of the island that's already gated to get there and then an additional gate to get here. And so it makes it super exclusive. And so when you're talking about how difficult is it to get a name brand with an exclusive part of the island on the, you know, most exclusive part of the island to get to, you know, like all of these things add to maybe the obstacles that you could experience to pull something like that off. It's not gonna be, oh, I'm just gonna go there easy walk. Like, if that's your expectation, you're never gonna hit it. The people that you see accomplishing these type of things are going through heavy obstacles. They're not lucky. They are resilient. And that is the mindset that we as entrepreneurs have to have to adopt because again, we are in a rejection business and we're in a business where there's a lot of things largely outside of our control that we have to make, you know, adoptions for. Yeah. And you definitely hit the nail on the head there at the end there with the with the whole mindset concept, Right? Because this business truly is there's really two sides to this business. You have the mindset side of the equation, and then you have, like, the actual, like, skill and our like, the how tos, like, how to do things. And the mindset piece could oftentimes be one of our very much one of those things that could really derail the process if we are not in the right mental space to accomplish the mission. And, you know, your story that you gave, I mean, here's an example of obstacles that arose. You know, I know you spent months planning for this, for these meetings that were taking place. You know, you crossed your t's, you dot your i's, you developed your road map, you knew where you were gonna be at any given day. And because of these obstacles that arose that were kind of unexpected or were unexpected, it totally made you have to now go back to the drawing board. And what's crazy is these obstacles arose at the very early stages of this process, right, where in our business, we can relate to that. Because let's say, for example, we enter into a contract. At the very early stages of the contract, fireworks start going off and completely start derailing this deal. We gotta have the ability to pivot immediately and have that sound mind to be able to get through the remainder of the transaction, to be able to accomplish ninety nine percent of the mission that is still ahead of us because we haven't even entered and completed the first one percent of the mission. And that's something that we always have to recognize as entrepreneurs, especially in this industry, is that obstacles and these probabilities are always at play. They are potentially foreseeable that a probability of this nature could possibly exist, and we have to be prepared to understand that these are variables that could happen for us because if not and they catch you by surprise, it's gonna be very difficult to come out the other end and succeed. You know, there are certain things that we recognize in our in our contracts that could be potential variables. Right? Like, we have EMD deposits. We have inspection periods. We have appraisal contingencies. We have financing contingencies. Yes. We hope and pray that these things are just gonna go smoothly, but what if they don't? Do we have a plan to be able to address those circumstances when they don't? And these are variables or circumstances that have a high probability of going south because they are natural contingencies of the contract. But then we have these other additional outliers, which are the total unknowns, the emotional side of the equation. Like, there's so many different things that may not even exist in the black and white language of the contract that could totally derail the deal. You know, something can happen with your buyers. Something can happen with your sellers. There could be some type of an emotional response in their lives that triggers something while you're under contract. You have to be prepared as the expert that when these things are happening, you don't just run to all that fire and just burn and crumble when those circumstances are there. You have to become that problem solver in those moments, but in those moments, what's important is to have that mindset to be able to address those problems when they are arising. No different than in your circumstances. You know, you had it planned out. X day, you were gonna begin the mission, totally derailed that day. You were then planning for the following day. That following day, people were unavailable because they also got derailed. And then now you have to consolidate five days worth of things inside of three days, and that totally shifts the process. But if you did not go in there with the right mindset, understanding that certain variables could arise, maybe you couldn't predict these variables, but variables arising, by not going in there with an organized approach and having it planned, it could have been a total waste of time. The deal could have fallen apart. The the trip could have fallen apart. No different than, again, going under contract. If you are not prepared for the easy probabilities that could exist, what's gonna happen when these challenging probabilities arise? You know? It's and it's not to say to go into every single deal from a pessimistic perspective, but you have to go in there with the mindset of understanding that this is a probability in our business. There is a probability that the appraisal could come in lower. There is a probability that the financing contingency could fall apart. If these things happen, what is our solution? And you have to be prepared to start understanding what these solutions can possibly be. There are things during the process that can give you some visibility of of likelihoods of probabilities. Like, for touring a home and you're on the buyer side or even if you're on the seller side and you understand that there's certain things that will likely arise during inspection, these are probably conversations you're going to want to have with your customers before the emotions get high and the things start getting presented on the other end. So you can start preparing for these dynamics that exist. If you feel like you got top of the dollar in the market, you may wanna start prepping your seller. Hey. Like, we got a really good offer. Like, we had multiple offer scenario. They offer twenty thousand above. Like, our biggest challenge we're gonna face in this deal or one of the challenges we're gonna face is this probability that the appraisal comes in lower. So, therefore, what is going to be our plan to attack if those circumstances happen? You know, oftentimes, we see people getting very aggressive in negotiations during the inspection phase when we're ready top of the market. You know, proper conversations were not had with customers. The appraisal comes in low, and now the seller's like, oh, I already gave everything I was gonna give. And things were not set up in a way to be ready for that potential probability that could arise. So, you know, I think a big theme here for today is just always having the mindset that there are these unknowns that could arise. In our business, we have clean unknowns that could possibly be there. Again, things that are inherent in our contract. But then there's also these aspects of things that are not in the black and white docs that we still gotta be prepared to pivot, maneuver, adapt, become a resource when these things arise. Because at the end of the day, you know, we're all here to advocate for our customers. Sometimes that may not be seen clearly. We gotta be there to help our customers sometimes when they're going through their roller coaster overcome a lot of those circumstances. Yeah. That's really, really well said. And, you know, one of the things that I think about, as a way to, to, I guess, kinda circumvent or minimize the obstacles that actually do kinda slow you down is, you know, let's say that you hit one of this transaction similar to what you said. You apply that life experience to the next one. Hey, guys. Just so you know, we got this offer. I'm so excited to get this offer, but I don't want you to get too attached to it yet because this is still gonna be it's a finance deal. It still has to have someone else's opinion, and we would be maybe setting a new price per square foot or whatever the say, you know, case may be. And so there's a possibility that it may not appraise that, you know, the price. Now there's some things that we can do. We can try to ask the sell you know, the buyer to you know, you can walk them through what their option's gonna be so you're not just presenting the the obstacle without the the path forward. But, again, that pre conversation can allow you should that, you know, arise, to to navigate that a little bit more effectively. And so there's kind of like two things. It's the one, it's the mindset that's associated with that, which is, hey. One, I understand that things obstacles are gonna come my way and I'm gonna find a way through them. Two, because I'm aware of that, I'm gonna preset some little jump points for me just in case I have to lean back. You playing futsi with me? But, the you know, in case I have to to jump on, you know, to to something else. Like, if if I the appraisal issue is gonna be happening, but I've kind of warned the seller that this could be a potential deal. They're not locked in on the, you know, the money. They they understand, like, there's could be some fluctuation there. Right? And so, again, skill set is a way increased skill set is a way to help you through obstacles. None of that matters without the right mindset, but increasing your skill set is the is the one of the best ways to do it. And so if you think about things that have stopped your deals before, if you think about things that have stopped you from accomplishing something before, what did you learn from that? What are you planning to do the next time you're in a sim similar search, you know, circumstance? Did you learn from it in a way that says, hey. You know what? If I would have just done this or maybe if I had positioned this x y z, I might have had a better time. And may that may not be the always the right answer. But if you're not even processing in that way, you're just running into the next obstacle again and starting from scratch, you know, you're always gonna get hit by those things. And even if you've got the mental bandwidth to keep jumping over them, you're spending more energy than the person who is figuring those things out and saying, hey. Regardless, I'm gonna make it through, but I'm gonna sidestep this one and this one because I've already done it before. This is a new one. I'll jump over this one, sidestep this one. You know, like, can you start building this momentum? And so yeah. Yeah. And and, like, when the dust settles, right, what the customer's gonna remember is the experience they had working with you. And one thing that I always love to interject inside of my business practice was, whenever we went under contract, I would have an initial road map meeting with my customer, whether it's the seller, whether it's the buyer. And that was my opportunity to walk them through what to expect in the transaction, what are these checkpoints going to ultimately look like. It's not just mentioning that, hey. We have a financing contingency. Hey. We have an appraisal contingency. Here's what it means. I would also sit there and give, like, my likelihood of the circumstances and what are the ifs that could possibly happen under those dynamics. You know, I would give them my perspective of where we are with price relative to so, again, it's creating this experience. I would point out, like, hey. These are some things that we may have to be mindful of. Like, we know there's a big gash in the wall. Like, the buyer's probably gonna ask for it. Here are some solutions that we can tackle with negotiations. We can have them repair it. Maybe we can do some type of a concession. Maybe we'll have to repair it. Like, these are the ways that we can handle these particular issues that could arise. And sometimes just being proactive on these circumstances and not feeling or not having your customer feel like you're reacting to circumstances completely changes the dynamic of the experience that you're having. You know, on the financing side, it's like, hey. Here's what I'm gonna do to and I represent the seller. Hey, seller. Here's what we're gonna do to ensure that financing is moving appropriately on the buyer side. On this day, I'm gonna reach out to the buyer's agent to see if I can get copy of the loan app, whatever the case may be, the the status of the loan commitment and and and the things that satisfy the financing piece, but you're showing your customer that you are proactively taking steps to watch out for their best interest versus later down the road, the the buyer calls you and says, hey. We're unapproved for financing. We can't get it now. The seller's like, wait. What do you mean? You didn't know this was happening? Like, how did you not know it was happening? Did you not ask the right questions? Like, now the experience is not the experience that your customer is looking for. And then this all ties back ultimately to this notion of always putting your best foot forward regardless of what customer you're interacting with. There are gonna be periods of times in our business where things get very complicated, things get very busy. It's gonna be very easy for us to tell ourselves, hey. Just cut corners. Don't put our best foot forward. I don't have to host open houses at this listing because I have a whole bunch of other listings. I don't have to, you know, market a property in a certain fashion because offers are just coming in. I don't have to worry about having my initial road map meeting with my buyer because it sounds like it's a new house and everything looks great. Like, always take the best foot forward. Like, always put your best foot forward with your customer Because at the end of the day, when the transaction closes, you always want them to have that best experience because that is the start. When you close a deal with your customer, that is the start of a new relationship with somebody in this business, whether it's their future purchase, whether it's somebody inside of their sphere of influence. You know, you wanna make sure that you are always giving your customers that great experience. Even if it's a small property, if it's a luxury property, treat it all the same. Like, everybody has to feel like they are the they are your most important customer. And the only way to accomplish that if you stay consistent and not allow variables, obstacles, etcetera, circumstances, industry to derail you from your process. Like, you have to make sure that those experiences are always had and you're always keeping that best foot forward at all times. Awesome, man. Well, appreciate you, today, man. Thankfully, we are I'm still with you guys. You didn't, get up now in the ORS stay in Puerto Rico. Yeah. I do appreciate of of Dave for all the work that he put in, last week as well too or actually earlier this week. So, alright, guys. We're gonna go ahead and cut it there. But, again, you know, one kind of the takeaway thought in this particular day today is thinking about what obstacles have slowed you down in the past. And if you really analyze, what could you have done to maybe make them through? And I get it. Sometimes there are things that are outside of your control, but what could you have learned or what could you have adopted looking back at it that said, hey. Maybe this might have been a better approach. Let's think about that so that as we're going into our next obstacle, you're approaching it with a fresh set of, you know, fresh set of eyes and a fresh kind of mindset to say, let me think about how I cannot be slowed down on maybe something that previously, you know, was a hindrance to me. And then you'll start to feel that growth, that professional growth, that confidence in your ability to overcome obstacles, and that just prepares you for the next one. Because the bigger the the the goal, the bigger the task, the bigger the obstacle. And so that is just the name of the game, unfortunately. There's no way to get around that, but there is hope in the sense that you can increase your skill set to continue to make it through someone's more challenging obstacles. So we appreciate shaving that you do. Thank you for tuning in, and we will see you on Monday for a motivational Monday.