Pre-Approval Math, Rate Hacks, & Market Strategies That Work with Keith James

In this episode, host Nick Bush & co-host Glendon Grose, sit down with Keith James — top 1% agent, investor, and managing partner of Coalition Properties Group — to unpack what buyers and sellers really need to know in today’s shifting market.

Keith shares how he and his team have closed over 1,800 homes and $800M in sales while staying rooted in community, education, and wealth-building. From first-time buyers gaining confidence to sellers navigating pricing, staging, and timing, Keith breaks down the strategies that lead to real wins on both sides of the table.

We cover:

• Why buyers actually have more leverage now than they realize
• How sellers can price and prep their homes to attract multiple offers
• The rent vs. buy debate, and when it makes sense to sell and rent
• Smart financing moves like 2-1 buydowns, equity programs, and DSCR loans
• Turning first-time buyers into long-term investors through education
• Building wealth steadily with base hits instead of chasing grand slams

Whether you’re buying your first home, moving up, or deciding if now is the right time to sell, this episode will give you clarity, strategy, and inspiration for your next move.

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Chapters

• 0:00 Meet Keith James and the Crew
• 2:01 Mission: Community, Lifestyle, Wealth
• 5:16 Outreach, Mentorship, and Teen Education
• 9:19 Team Structure and Markets Served
• 12:44 Defining the Avatar and Today’s Buyer Market
• 16:59 Rates vs Prices: Deal Math That Matters
• 21:29 Sell, Rent, or Move Up Strategy
• 26:37 Small Wins, Savings, and Buyer Prep
• 30:27 Window Shopping and Writing Fast Offers
• 35:27 Multiple Offers by Price Point and Condition
• 39:27 Pricing Right, Adjustments, and Timing
• 43:55 Buyer-Side Excellence and Raving Fans
• 47:55 Culture, Client Events, and Referrals
• 51:55 Partnerships, Ego Checks, Accountability

Transcript

SPEAKER_01: 0:31

We're rolling, man. We got Keith James in the building. What's up, man? What's up? Legendary real estate agent in the DMV area and nationwide. I appreciate that. Something like top 1%, something, something like that.

SPEAKER_03: 0:42

Something like that, man. You know, something like that. You know, we've been grinding, man.

SPEAKER_01: 0:45

Yeah, no, I appreciate you for coming on. We got Glendon on here co-hosting today. I'm trying to bring Glendon on the pod. Okay. Full time. That's what's up. I got him here co-hosting.

SPEAKER_00: 0:53

Well, he's dual career. Color commentary.

SPEAKER_01: 0:55

No, Glendon's um he's a lender for mortgage lending.

SPEAKER_00: 0:59

Oh, that's what's up. Here to for the finance lean on things.

SPEAKER_01: 1:02

Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's love. And uh, when it's me by myself, it's it always turns into like an interview style. Yeah. It's better when it's more discussion style. So I'm trying to um convince Glendon to be a co-host. That's what's up, man. And he's he got a lot of gems to drop.

SPEAKER_03: 1:15

So that's dope, man. It's great. So he got the familiar face, man.

SPEAKER_01: 1:19

He does have a familiar.

SPEAKER_00: 1:20

Yeah. I'm out there. You look like everybody. It's the beard. It's the beard? Yeah. I can't get my beard to connect. The world thinks it looks like somebody else.

SPEAKER_03: 1:27

So introduce yourself to the people. Keith James, one-third managing partner of Coalition Properties Group. We started a coalition in 2019. Since 2019, we sold over 1,800 homes, over$800 million in real estate volume. But most importantly, we've uh donated over a million dollars to charity. And that's what that's near and dear to our heart. Our mission statement be the bridge to our community for all things real estate, lifestyle, and wealth building. And so we're not a transactional company. We're not your average real estate company. You see me with the swag on. I'm not, you know, I am who I am. And we're boots on the ground. You know, we're grassroots, you know, we partner with nonprofits. We make sure our community is moving forward, and that's who we are, you know?

SPEAKER_01: 2:08

Yeah, that mission statement was always dope. We always trying to, you know, I was always trying to figure out where how can I spin that.

SPEAKER_03: 2:17

Mission statement is this. What can my mission statement be like similar to this? That's your point, right?

SPEAKER_01: 2:22

I'm gonna plug it in there and figure it out. Um, but I see y'all really living that, man. Like I you can see it with the with the clients, with the parties you guys throw. Yeah. Um y'all throwing like big parties, having fun. Yeah. Um, you I I know I mean you're taking the kids in your own charity, you're taking the kids around the world. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And uh my son was going, my my middle son was going to Two Rivers last year when we were living in DC. And um I forget the high school that's over there, but I had I had heard somewhere that you guys were doing some curriculum for the for the high school. So y'all are really like out here doing a lot of outreach and making sure people are um, you know, getting this real estate information, but also understanding the whole play. Absolutely. Life, like the life play.

SPEAKER_03: 3:01

It's important, you know. Um it's bigger than real estate, yeah. It's bigger than a transaction. For us, it's so much bigger than it just real estate, you know. Um, 90% of the Wilkins Americans get their wealth from real estate, you know, there's no need to reinvent reinvent the wheel. But there's a lifestyle part to that as well, you know. And when you're trying to do something you've never done before, you can't do it alone. Point blank, period. And I and I and we're really big in making sure we're boots on the ground, making sure our face is seen in these communities. Yeah. And also from the teenage years, man, that's the thing. You know, we weren't taught none of these things in high school, middle school about budgeting, about money, about, you know, even mentorship. How to go as I didn't, bro, I didn't even but the only reason I knew what a mentor was in the eighth grade is because I was in 100 black men of America. My grandfather put me in there, my parents put me in there, and I'm so thankful for that. But even just developing mentors, man, these kids need mentors because they need to see what could be. You know what I mean? They need to see it. And if you don't see it, you don't even know it's possible. Bro, I got a whole, I got a whole separate rant I can go on.

SPEAKER_01: 4:07

I totally agree. So the team is uh, how's the team constructed? Yeah. Shouts to Harrison and Ryan, by the way. How's the team constructed? And and do you where do y'all niche down? Like, where do you feel like y'all y'all niche down?

SPEAKER_03: 4:18

Yeah, man. So uh the team is constructed, myself, Harrison Beecher, and Ryan Butler, you know, three-headed monster, right? And then right now we're at 34 agents. Um, and then we have a director of operations, we have a transaction coordinator that does listings and um on the buyer side, and we also have a listing manager now. Shout out to Linda that we just brought on, who's Jamie's sister, which is Jamie too, yeah. So Jamie's a rock star, man. She's a superstar. She's probably uh I get it, I get on her nerves a lot. I love her, she loves me. Um and then we have two VAs as well. Okay. And so um, and a marketing manager as well. We have a marketing manager. So we're we're we're we're rocking and rolling. And I would when you talk about our niche, man, it's interesting. We've we've been trying to, we've been having conversations. Um, and you know I'm transparent, I'm an open book. We've been having a conversation about like who's our avatar. You know, I love first-time home buyers, you know, Ryan loves move up buyers, you know, but we've been trying to figure out, you know, um, who's our avatar as far as location-wise, you know, our headquarters is on Capitol Hill. We cover DC Mountain, Virginia. Um, two years ago, we launched the Richmond office, so we're in Richmond, Virginia as well. And also a year and a half ago, we launched in Philly, so we're in Philadelphia. So kind of going up that 95 coast is important for us. We want to hit the 757. We want to go down to Charlotte, you know. Yeah, shout out 757. Oh, okay, that's what's up, man. Yeah, we love Virginia Beach, man. Um, and uh yeah, just continuing every day to just speak the good gospel, man, and really hone in. I feel like right now we're honing in on who our avatar really is. It's been first-time homebuyers. And I feel like the buyer, been where the market is at right now, um, man, this is the most buyer's market I've seen since I've been in real estate. You know what I mean? And I'm talking about, you know, we've sold a shit ton of real estate. And so I really feel like, you know, you kind of got to go get who's who's motivated right now. Yeah. To be honest with you.

SPEAKER_01: 6:12

Yeah, I feel like that too. I feel like you you you have a client type that you want. I like move up buyer. I love move up buyers because a list side ain't a buy side. And I love downsides for the same reason. Yeah. And I like people that are um a little more, they already know what's going on. Right? You don't have your coaches as much. Yeah. Um, yeah. And so that's like kind of who I who I love to work with. But right now, there's so much opportunity for buyers. I'm trying to get my a lot of my buyers off the fence because what I'm seeing is uh, at least in Virginia, not in DC, I haven't been doing that much business in DC this year, but in Virginia, we're in like a three to four week market where I'm seeing everything sell between like 20 to 25 days. Yeah. And I have buyers like we have a buyer right now who we're going out, we're seeing stuff nine out of 10, 10 out of 10. And I'm like, you gotta write on this. And they like folding their hands, and I'm like, yo, do you not know we can get everything right now? Like, don't don't sit on your hands. Like, we can get everything right now. And so I think it's a great buyer's market. Yeah. And uh I think but some buyers are still, I had a buyer call me um asking about the interest rate yesterday, and I was like, you don't even need to be like concerned about that. Like this is the best time to get a deal. Yeah, man.

SPEAKER_03: 7:15

You know, I I I um it's funny because what I started doing, I started I started showing my clients what I bought, and I bought a property in 2022 in November. Interest rates rates, I got a 7.3% interest rate, right? But I tell my clients, like, you don't want the interest rates to be 2% because if you bring me a property, just add$60,000 to it.

SPEAKER_01: 7:37

Yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_03: 7:37

You know what I mean? That's gonna be the starting price. Yeah, right. So I bought this property in November of 2022 for$750, it appraised for$8.15 before I went to the closing table. Great. If interest rates were 3%, that probably would have gone for$850.

SPEAKER_00: 7:50

Correct. Well, and at that point, like if interest rates go from let's say six and a half to five and a half, right? But the price point goes up$50K, 100K, you just washed out all the savings. You're still actually paying more even with a lower interest rate because the value's higher. And now you're closer to the bubble of you know what people think, oh my God, you know, things might come down. Well, the higher it goes, the more likely it's gonna come down, right? So you're you're in a good spot right now. Same thing again, we're talking about with education and and and really giving people the tools. I tell people all the time 90% of people that capitalized on the 3%, 2% interest rate were already homeowners. Yeah, they refinanced. It was easier to refinance than it was to buy then. Yeah. And so if you're in the game, we talk about this all the time. Like if you're a first-time home buyer, you gotta get in the game. Doesn't matter what it doesn't matter what the entry fee is, it's just getting in the game. And once you can start playing, you'll learn.

SPEAKER_01: 9:00

That's a good point. And that's how I've been uh moving my home buyers up. Yeah. I'm like, basically they're like, oh, should we buy right now? Should we sell right now? Um, what if rates come down, won't the market, won't the market go up, right? And I'm like, yeah, it's probably gonna go up. If rates come down to five, the market's gonna go up. But I but I think I was like, look, it's better to sell now and exit, right? This investment, yeah, and maybe not sell at the top, right?

SPEAKER_02: 9:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 9:24

And then buy your next investment where you can get a deal. Yeah. And then when rates come down, right? When rates come down, yeah, you can refinance um into the lower rate anyway, but you're gonna you're gonna benefit, your equity position is gonna go up.

SPEAKER_02: 9:37

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 9:38

Um, because the market's gonna go up. So and you're already gonna be in the home you're gonna live in for the next 10 to 15 years. Yeah. So basically it's like sell your current asset for value and then buy the next one and just sit and wait and wait for that to go up.

SPEAKER_03: 9:51

I typically, you know, when we on um our team calls, whatever is about to happen, I typically fill it first.

SPEAKER_01: 9:58

Yeah. Like in your own personal business.

SPEAKER_03: 10:00

In my own personal business, right? Um, with the amount of transactions I do. So I typically, so I'm able to like foreshadow and say, hey, this is coming. You know what I mean? Um I'm I'm I'm gonna ask you, this is one of my questions for you. A lot of my sellers are selling to go rent. Yeah. Right now. Are you having seen that or felt that at all?

SPEAKER_01: 10:20

So I've had a I have a seller that um just they called me yesterday, we're jumping on the call today. They're planning to go rent also. Yeah. Yeah. I haven't had too many of it, but I've had a couple people say that.

SPEAKER_03: 10:29

Yeah. I would say my last, like, if I had my last 10 listing conversations, yeah, five of them.

SPEAKER_01: 10:35

Why are they doing that? What are they saying uh is is happening?

SPEAKER_03: 10:39

The fear of the unknown in the market, the fear of the unknown in the market. And the the and you know, it's one of those things where, yeah, you can go rent. They don't want the uh the the the mortgage over their head, if that makes sense.

SPEAKER_01: 10:55

Like almost they're almost they're scared that the market is gonna crash. Apocalypse. And then, yeah. I had a seller go, I had a seller that went to rent because he's like, yo, he was a single dude. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But he's like, man, it's too much maintenance. Like, I'm not trying to deal with it. I'm gonna rent. Yeah. Um he was military, so he's like, I'm gonna be flexible anyway. Right. Um, so we own our house in DC and we're about to buy another one in Fredericksburg. But I'm almost like, I was just saying this on the last podcast, like, I'm thinking about just renting. Yeah, yeah. Um, because in the the neighborhood we're looking at, let's just say we're looking at like 700,000, like um we can, you know, we have a$4,000 mortgage more or less, but we can rent that same house in the same neighborhood for$3,100. Um, and sometimes the delta is even bigger than that. And I'm just, I'm just thinking, I'm like, all right, well, I can, you know, equity, all of that, all of the things about clients. I'm just like, um, I can, you know, pay the extra thousand and own my house or the extra$1,500 for my house. Um and and that and feel kind of dumb for doing that, right? And not have flexibility unless I'm in the perfect house. Yeah. Um, or I can just rent and then invest in real estate. Yeah. And so I think that actually now that you brought that up, I have a third client that is putting the selling rent. Yep. And so I think so. From from my perspective, so let me talk about the seller that's gonna sell and rent. They want to sell a$400,000 house and they want to move up, but they want to have a townhouse, they want a single family house, they want bedrooms, bathrooms, yeah, and they want to be in a certain location. And it's like that location don't cost$3,000. That location costs$4,500 to$5,000. So I think that there's a financial um, you know, gap where people can afford where people can't afford what they want because home prices and interest rates. Um, and then for me, what I tell my clients, I'm like, look, if you're gonna sell to rent, or if you're not gonna buy your house and you want to rent, buy real estate.

SPEAKER_02: 12:45

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 12:45

I've kind of had to pull back on the message of like, buy your house, own your house that you live in, et cetera. And I'm just like, I don't care if you own your house or not that you live in. Yeah, but you need to buy some real estate so you can start building some wealth.

SPEAKER_03: 12:57

You know, my you know my take on that. Yeah, you know that you can't afford not to buy. Right.

SPEAKER_01: 13:02

Exactly. And I don't know if that's gonna be your real estate take. It's not my real estate take.

SPEAKER_03: 13:06

I've been thinking about my real estate take. That's my thing about real estate take is crazy, by the way.

SPEAKER_01: 13:11

I'm trying to, I'm trying to get that message off without sounding like kind of like an asshole. Like you can't afford to buy it. You can't afford not to buy.

SPEAKER_00: 13:17

Here's the other thing that's happening too that I on the finance side, here's the thing we're seeing is that is that people want to tap into the equity position that they've grown over the last five years, but are afraid to get into the into the market without without tapping into it first, right? And so, like for example, we created a program called Buy Now, Sell Later because a lot of people want to tap that equity, but they can't qualify carrying two mortgages. They don't want to buy the house before they sell the house because they want to make sure that they're in a good spot, right? You know, yeah. So um that fear of I can't sell this before I buy the next house. I'm just gonna rent for a year, see what happens, and then see where the market goes, maybe put the money into a you know CD or something, see if I can get a little more money out of it for a short term period. Yeah, I guess it's I mean, I guess it makes sense, but at the same time, it's like if there's programs or there's ways that you can tap into that equity, get into that next house, like you said, change the game, still feel comfortable because affordability versus comfortability are two different things, right? Like you could afford it, but are you comfortable with it? Yeah.

SPEAKER_03: 14:27

And that's where you get it. We all know uh emotions can change, but facts stay the same, right? And that comfortability, you know, that can be what are you calling? Oh, actually, I'm oh no, actually the next week it could be something different, right? Right. And I think um what we do at a high level is kind of making it simple, right? Like, hey, where are you putting your money at right now? Well, Keith, it's just it's just in a savings account. Is that savings account giving you any type of returns? No. All right, let me show you this open bank account, this app. I'm doing it, it's giving 4.3% return. All you can all you have to do is just transfer all of your money into that account. That's a win. That's a small win. Right now, people need small wins.

SPEAKER_02: 15:09

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03: 15:09

You know, like getting 1% better every single day. Yeah because a lot of times they're getting so much information from the media, they're getting so much information from everywhere else. Like we have to be the first people to get to them and give them that information. So they got that small win, right? Yeah. So that's a win. All right, you put your money in that savings account. Okay, I'm gonna get 4% return. All right, here's it comes to real estate play. And and and these are the people I talk to that's that are a year out, by the way. Like these are nurturers, right? A year out. This is what we're gonna do right now. You're gonna stay on that savings account, you're gonna allocate a certain amount of funds to that. And some agents won't even talk to people that's a year out. I hate that. Yeah, I hate that. You know why? Because you can get referrals from those people still. You know, so um that's a small win. You're gonna allocate these funds to that account for a year, right? All right. I you need to know what monthly payment you want to pay now and one year, one year later, because that's how we're gonna shop. We're gonna window shop accurately. Yeah. A lot of people don't window shop. You do a lot of window shopping, right? A lot of window shopping. Okay. My clients window, they have to go through a window shopping phase before they can go out to go see a.

SPEAKER_01: 16:15

Explain that. Why is that necessary?

SPEAKER_03: 16:17

Because, all right, Nick, you come to me and you say I want to buy a house in eight months, right? You're really gonna get out to start looking at homes in five months.

SPEAKER_01: 16:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03: 16:29

Right? Because you're gonna be closed by the eight month.

SPEAKER_01: 16:31

Exactly.

SPEAKER_03: 16:31

You're gonna get connected to a lender today because I need you to know if you come to me and say 35, you want to pay$3,500 a month, I need you to know today what a$3,500 a month property looks like based on how much you want to put down.

SPEAKER_01: 16:44

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03: 16:45

So I'm gonna connect you to the lender today so you can take that blindfold off. Here's another thing, too. Guess what? When you go to open houses, I'm gonna put you on an open house plan. You're gonna go to two open houses, at least two to three open houses a week until it's time for you to go out to shop.

SPEAKER_01: 17:01

Okay.

SPEAKER_03: 17:01

All right, we got price, location, suitability.

SPEAKER_01: 17:04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03: 17:05

By the time that fifth month comes for you to be able to go out to go look at homes, you're gonna already know your price. You're gonna already know location. That suitability, all you're gonna be doing is going in to walk into the house to make sure that house is suitable for you.

SPEAKER_01: 17:20

That's interesting. I do that in a different way. Um, so let's say my average client's like six months out.

SPEAKER_02: 17:25

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 17:25

So I'm like connect with the lender right now, yeah. Do mortgage payment shopping. Yeah. Not like home price shopping. Yeah. Right?

SPEAKER_02: 17:30

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 17:31

And I don't have them go to open houses, which I'm about to add to my game now. But I uh I kind of, you know, just based on the once and ease list, you you know what they're looking for, right? Yeah, yeah. And so um you just have them on our auto search. Yeah. And then they're just like saving homes, throwing some homes away. So as the agent, you kind of know that, all right, this is what they're looking for, this is what they want. Yeah. And so when we go out that first time, usually we're finding the home the first time. So I basically am like, all right, we're not about to like do a lot of like 30 home shopping, 10 homes, 10 homes. Even 10 homes a lot. I'm like, that first group, like, we know that everything we're walking into is something that you really want. And then most times with the first showing, I'm like, oh, okay, this is what you really want. Like now, then you kind of get the playlist. Right. All right, this is what you're looking for.

SPEAKER_03: 18:15

Yeah, no, our clients write their first offer in the first two to four homes they see because you do a lot on the front end, right? You got to. You got to, man, especially in today's market because you can get house fatigue. You know, you already got all this media coming at you telling you you can't afford shit, right? Now you're going out looking at homes and you need to see 15, 17 homes before you write an offer? Absolutely not, man. You're gonna get house fatigue.

SPEAKER_01: 18:36

And you're gonna lose confidence.

SPEAKER_03: 18:37

You're gonna lose a lot of confidence.

SPEAKER_01: 18:39

I'm not seeing anything that I want.

SPEAKER_00: 18:40

Yeah, you get beat up, man. It's a battle every time. And then and then you start questioning what you want or why you want it when, like you said, if you set that up ahead of time where it's like, you know what you want, you know why you want it, and you know where you want it. Like, let's go get it. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_01: 18:54

Are you? I'm not in any multiple offers. Are you seeing that for your buyers? How are you explaining? I'm I'm like explaining my to my buyers like this is the time to this is the takeover. Like, we can get whatever we want out here. Yeah, how's it what we want. Yeah, whatever we want. Whatever we want. You know, what are you, what are you uh seeing? Um you put a lot of deals.

SPEAKER_03: 19:13

Yeah, man. So I do believe that you can get more of what you want now than you ever could before. Yeah. That is the truth, right? I am still seeing multiple offers in that 500,000 and below price range. Okay, right? Um, we gotta think over the last three years, the average homeowner, the average buyer, shopper lost their buying power and went down by 100 grand due to interest rates, right? So that 500,000, people that were looking at 750, 600, I mean 700, they're now down to like 600,000, 500,000, right? I am still in PG County, I'm seeing the multiple offers, right? Yeah, Northern Virginia, I'm definitely seeing the multiple offers. Okay. DC, that's where that takeover is happening at right now.

SPEAKER_01: 19:56

I'm seeing multiple offers. It was interesting because I was in a house with uh Trinita, and I was like walking around the house and I was like, bro. I told her though, I was like, it was 610. It was listed at 6'10, it was on the market 23 days. And I said, in 2021, this house would have sold in the weekend. Oh, yeah, 70k over. Yeah, and they would have had 14 offers. I said, This is on the market. We need to get to it in Virginia. Oh, in Virginia? Oh, yeah. Yeah. Oh, absolutely. What I'm seeing, and what I'm telling my sellers is I'm like, look, homes that are the cream of the crop, like you gotta paint. You gotta paint, you gotta stage, we gotta do it the right way.

SPEAKER_03: 20:33

You got to.

SPEAKER_01: 20:34

Otherwise, you're going to sit on the market. Yes. Right. And so I'm seeing houses that are still like cream of the crop and like fully ready.

SPEAKER_02: 20:41

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 20:41

Those are selling at multiple offers and over list price. Yeah. But the homes that are kind of, you know, in between that, they're sitting and we're taking over. 100%. 100%.

SPEAKER_00: 20:51

Well, and this this is what I've been, you know, to your point, like I think, you know, it it's a balanced market in the fact that I think that, you know, agents have become way more valuable recently. Yeah. Where you have to market the house right, you have to list it right, you have to do the things, you got to do the pre-listing conversation about what needs to be done. Otherwise, it does sit. And then what happens, what I've seen a lot lately is the adjustment is at like 21 days, three weeks or so. And then there's multiple offers on the price reduction or the adjustment. Oh my God. Yeah, I'm right, I'm right, I'm writing letters on Sunday, and I'm like, oh, they're gonna get they're gonna get this, they're gonna get that, and then all of a sudden they lost everything because there's multiple offers on that adjustment. Whereas if that agent had listed it right originally, there's multiple offers the first weekend, right? It's it's this adjustment period where there's opportunity for both buyers and sellers based off of the agents and the representation that they're getting the education, the preparedness that they're coming to the market with, I think, is everything right now.

SPEAKER_03: 21:53

Man, it's so crazy you just said that. Why? Because you hear we're talking about it's the takeover, right? It's the takeover. Everybody's saying that, to be honest with you. I literally just had a listing, and I know I priced it right. I know it, right? And as soon as I got a as soon as I did, I said, I called a seller on Thursday and I said, we need to drop this price. We dropped the price, just five grand. Five grand, that's it. We had three offers come in. Oh wow. Three offers come in, right? Now they still try like two of them still tried to hit me over the head, right? Of course. But everybody wants a deal.

SPEAKER_02: 22:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03: 22:28

As soon as the MLS hit that price drop, that's where they're that's where they're looking at now. Like, I kid you, like, it's funny you say that. That price drop, you can and agents got to be quicker to get that price drop earlier. It's not 30 days anymore. It's two weeks.

SPEAKER_02: 22:41

It's two weeks. Two weeks, yeah.

SPEAKER_03: 22:42

It's two weeks, I think it's gonna be the next one. Two weeks, man.

SPEAKER_00: 22:44

Like I said, the 21 days has been recent. I think it's gonna go down to two weeks. And I think, like you said, I think that you have to educate your client ahead of time and say, hey, look, if this goes seven days, oh yeah, we're gonna we're gonna hit it hard on an open house, and then after that, we're taking this thing down for 5k. I explain whatever it is.

SPEAKER_01: 23:00

Sorry to cut you up. I I explained to my clients, I have a house that's like overpriced right now, but I, you know, it's like we had to do, I kind of had to do it, right? Yeah, and uh it's not overpriced. I would like it's listed at$625. I would like it at$5.99 to like drive multiples and drive the traffic, but it should probably be somewhere like$6.15, right?$610 to$6.15. It should be$5.99. I know it should be$5.99. Yeah. But if my client sees this, you're going, what's$6.15, right? Sitting in the middle. So I'm like, it should be$5.99. But I I tell my clients, I'm like, look, how are we gonna know your house is overpriced? We're gonna know your house is overpriced if you get no showings, or if you get a ton of showings and no offers. Yep. Those are the signals. And so right now we're in the no showings boat. So I think I'm gonna get my my price reduction. But um Yeah, yeah, yeah. So you work with you doing like a hundred deals a year, like just individually. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03: 24:09

I'm trying to cut that down to like around 75, 80 mark.

SPEAKER_01: 24:12

Why do you want to cut it down?

SPEAKER_03: 24:14

Um, because I just want to lead generate from my agents. I want to give my agents more deals and you know, uh make sure they're eating.

SPEAKER_01: 24:21

Yeah. And your 100 is like high buy-side deals, right?

SPEAKER_03: 24:25

Yeah. Well, well, it used to be like 90% on the buyer side out of 100 deals. Now it's more, um, I think I'm more 70-30 now.

SPEAKER_01: 24:34

70-30. Yeah. So 70 buy-side deals. So, you know, listings, leads, leverage. Yeah. You're like one of the top agents like in America, top 1%. Yeah. But you just are like, nah, I'm staying on the buy side. Like, I know you guys are big MRE, heavy, M R E A, heavy too. So why have you not made the shift? Why are you staying on the buy side?

SPEAKER_03: 24:55

Um, I made the shift, but you got what a lot of people don't understand is that, man, I'm st I started real estate 2017. Like, I'm still like a newer agent, so to speak. Real estate's like dog gears, don't get me wrong. Yeah. But a lot of my buyers, they weren't selling. So I didn't have that clientele of, you know, a bunch of sellers. Now, what I did do, and shout out to my business partner, Ryan, he was like, Keith, all you gotta do is change your messaging.

SPEAKER_02: 25:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03: 25:18

Um, because you know I'm heavy on social media. Now, once I start to change my messaging to my sphere and to putting it out there in the world that I do list homes, the listings did come, you know. But I also, it's funny because, you know, I go against the grain a lot. I also believe you can get the same amount of leads from buyers. Word of mouth. Oh, yeah. Like literally, I do believe that. If you create an experience, a five-star experience for your client on the buyer side, they are gonna refer the hell out of you. Yeah, and they are gonna be a raving fan. We teach a class called How to Create Raven fans. I know I gotta pop into that class. Yeah, man. Like we we do that. Like we I get we get heavy referrals from our buyer clients. And at one point in time, it was more referrals from buyers than we got from listings.

SPEAKER_01: 26:03

We tracked that. So, yeah, because y'all, your people love it. See, this is the thing, right? When I when I started my and I told you and I told you this, right? Yeah, I was here's the thing. Here we go. Here's the let me be honest real quick. No, no, it's a good thing though, right? I was I was solo, and then I was like, man, I want a partner, but I wanted a business partner more for like the op side, right? Yeah. Because I don't want to do any. I realize now that all I needed to do was hire, which I've done, right? Yeah, yeah. Instead of like getting a partner. But part of the inspiration for having a partner is because y'all make this like they make it look so cool, you know? Because then they're like real friends, yeah, real family, yeah. Like the culture is dope, and then they throw in these parties at the end of the year that is ridiculous. Like, this is like park nightclub, coalition party, you know what I'm saying? Yeah, yeah. Your park got those levels.

SPEAKER_03: 26:52

The clubs be hitting us up, like, yo, come through a party at the club. You know, these are like our client events, like past clients, appreciation events, you know, we do for our clients.

SPEAKER_01: 27:00

So, how have you been able to develop that relationship with your clients? Like, what what are what are the things that y'all are actually doing tangibly to develop like Raven fans?

SPEAKER_03: 27:10

I mean, it it goes back to the mission be the bridge stock community for all things.

SPEAKER_01: 27:14

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03: 27:15

Like all things, real estate, lifestyle, and wealth building. Yeah, we're gonna help you buy a house. But it do you own a business? You know how many people I've hired, like how many clients I've hired if we had an event to put decorations, balloons, um, set up their tables at our events to promote their business. I'm gonna, you know, show love to my people because they're trusting me with one of the most horrifying um experiences that they thought it was gonna be with purchasing and selling a house, and I've made that super easy for them, right? So, yeah, we're gonna help you buy a house. But the wealth building, the more education you have, the more peace of mind you're gonna have going through the process. Point blank period, whether you're selling a house or buying a house or investing, right? Our clients, our clients that thought that they were gonna buy one house and that's it. We educated them so much to where they called me back in six months or seven months, like, hey Keith, if is it true that my appreciation has gone up like X amount of dollars? I think I want to buy another property in the same neighborhood. Okay. Can you help me with that? Because we have continue to educate them after the consultation, after the closing, like we stay in stay engaged with our clients, and we love on our clients. I'll read you this. Um one of my clients sent I said happy, I sent out a happy six months email, right? And she said, and she's bought before, like before she met me, right? I said, Happy six months. Um, if there's anything you need since you moved into your new home, please let me know if you need anything, yada yada yada, right? She said, Keith, thank you for checking in. I'm very happy with the apartment, and I honestly feel like it was one of the best decisions I made. She bought a condo in Northern Virginia, right? Yeah, I appreciate your support, and the entire team helped throughout the process. You're my favorite realtor to work with.

SPEAKER_01: 29:07

Boom. You know what I mean? She looks awesome. She locked in. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03: 29:10

That's a Raven fan. Yeah. Yeah. And guess what? She referred me a client that just bought up the street in a new construction. I was past them like, yo, I sold the house over here like two months ago. Yeah. In that new construction right through, Fairfax. Yeah. And like, that's the type of um engagement, that's the type of relationship we want with all of our clients, man. Relationships will take you places, money can't.

SPEAKER_00: 29:28

So I want to follow up with that because I have got another question that I think that's awesome. And it's amazing as an individual agent, but I think it's infathomable and crazy to think that you guys do it as a three-headed monster, like you said earlier. So, how did that start to be aligned that much on the same mission with three other two other people and then to continue to do it? Because we've all had partnerships and it's it's shit's hard. Yeah, it's very hard, especially when ego comes in and yeah, everyone's got their their own way to do things. So just just give me a little breakdown of how that started and grew and how you guys stay pretty solid.

SPEAKER_03: 30:03

So I'll rewind. Harrison Beecher, he's like, we call him the grandfather. He started out in real estate 2009, right? Um, one of the most selfish, selfless people I know. Um, one of the most like bitch is big heart, right? Harrison Beecher brought Ryan Butler into real estate. Ryan came into real estate in 2016, right? Um selfless, willing to help. Hey, open book, here you go. Ryan brought me into real estate in 2017, right? I'm like the grandchild, you know. Um and it's crazy because I was in corporate America and I was moving up the corporate ladder, um, doing very well in corporate, and real estate was my passion. I started buying real estate at the age of 23, and I started helping my friends buy real estate, not even being an agent. But Ryan saw that, and Ryan was like, yo, you need to come and get into real estate. Like, you can do this way better than I ever could. Like, you can really do this. And he had just won rookie of the year. Wow. Right. And so I'm like, nah, got a got a full time job. I don't wanna that's like commission based. I'm good on that, right? All of a sudden, like I started to see how he was moving. I'm like, this kind of looks. Cool. He brought I end up getting my license in 2017, right? This is 2017. People thought we were on the same team. Harrison, Ryan, and myself, people thought we had a team before we even had a team because we were so locked in. Ryan is also my fraternity brother. Ryan and Harrison played football together. Now it's very unique at Georgetown. They went to Georgetown and they played football together, right? It's very unique that three guys could come together, and you said the word that I think one of us, like all of us had to like we never had this ego. Like we never, we check our egos at the door. Like I sincerely want to see them succeed. They sincere, they open up their books and say, hey, Keith, this is how you do it, right? Another thing is that we're also all athletes. Like it's nothing for Ryan to check me, like, yo, what's up? Like, you're not getting this done. Like, can you get this done? And me not take offense to it and be like, yo, why you checking me? Like, I just sold 150 homes last year. You know what I mean? No, like, check me. That's hold me accountable. And I think in the world today, people do not want to be held accountable. That's why partnerships go to shit. Whether it's on the budget, whether it's on whatever, like socially, like people do not want to be held accountable. And I think, like, I can tell Ryan, like, we can check each other. Like, seriously, like, check each other, like, yo, you need to get this done. That's grown men. You know, and that's tough in the world today, but like you gotta have that in the business. And that that has trickled down throughout the company, that accountability piece, and it's made us who we are and it made us successful outside of being friends, outside of and they we just don't check each other on real estate. We check each other on financials, budget, uh, all of that. You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_01: 32:51

Yeah. I want to get into your um rental portfolio a little bit. Um, because I know you guys are also coaching your clients to buy real estate. Absolutely. So, so if you want to disclose, like how many properties do you own? Like, are you are they all in this area? Do you get anything out of state? Just like kind of break it down a little bit.

SPEAKER_03: 33:09

Yeah, so I have 180 doors. Um, I have some commercial units too down in Georgia that meant myself and my business partner, we've partnered with the city. Oh, you got the owner of the Ryan, the Ryan deal? Yeah, yeah. That was the um I got my ones and one and twosie portfolio here in DC, uh, single family, a couple of multifamilies, and all that good stuff in the DMV area. I used to have a portfolio in Mississippi. I grew up in Mississippi. Okay. I started buying in the neighborhood I grew up in at the age of 23 because I wanted people to see, people that look like me to say, hey, we don't always have to be tenants, we can also be landlords. Yeah. Right. And um, I sold that portfolio and dumped it here in the DC. You 1031 it? Yeah. No, I did not 1031 it.

SPEAKER_01: 33:44

Okay.

SPEAKER_03: 33:44

Right? Which was crazy because that's where that education comes in. Oh, you didn't know about, yeah. I was like, 1031, I want to take this cash and then buy. Yeah. But I should have 1031.

SPEAKER_01: 33:54

And so if someone's like, you know, if you say for us, we're in real estate, so we're like, okay, right? Yeah. But if you tell someone like I got 180 doors, they think Keith must have, you know, 20 million and he could just invest in properties to make it happen. So how did you end up being able to even buy all of those homes? Like, what's the financing aspect? Because it's expensive to buy real estate. It can be expensive to buy real estate.

SPEAKER_03: 34:15

You know, what's what's what's funny is that um the the syndication deal is a whole another complex thing. Like we raised money, we raised about four million to go buy 100 doors in Douglasville, Georgia, and then we bought 68 doors in Augusta, Georgia as well. Like the my one and twosie portfolio, like my my personal portfolio in the DMV, um, it was kind of that don't overthink it. Like, if you can pencil out, if it make, if it, if it uh uh hits your buy box, yeah, buy it. I also did like I would buy uh buy two properties um every year. That was my thing. Because you gotta think, well, I was nervous, man. Like when you never had money before, you're like, dang, like, I don't want to lose it, right? So I'm like, let me just dump it into real estate. Like, I was so thankful I had that. Oh, that was like your bank. That was like my bank. Okay. That was like my savings account, right? And so you also know lenders don't have loves for 1099 employees, right? I know. I got love for all the 1099 employees. Lenders, I mean, I was just like, man, I just made this money. Like, I can afford this, you know,$400,000 house. You know, they want everything. But what I was doing was um I would put 5% down, move into this house, 5% down, move into another house, right? And just keep doing that, re uh replicating that. And then then I would once once that ran out, I would do the 20% down. And I would do a couple of HELOCs here and there. And I would always try to not come from pull from my savings, you know, and kind of pull from my portfolio. And then I learned this thing about um, and this is about this is this is kind of being in the right place at the right time and also leaning on your village, you know. Um, my financial planner, Matt Aaron, he was like, yo, you can pull a line of credit against yourself and your portfolio will still be working for you in the market. You can just use that, use that line to go buy and renovate these properties. And you kind of become in your own bank. You got all this stuff in your portfolio, like use that, right? Yeah. And I was like, What you mean? And so he he Matt will come over my house and do a whiteboard session with me, a 30-minute whiteboard, because I had to visually see it, right? And so when he said, I said, hmm, I'm kind of winning before I even buy anything because of the yield on the delta on the rate. And so I started pulling out line of credit against myself and leveraging my portfolio that way and buying more deals. That's great. And you can't tax debt exactly.

SPEAKER_01: 36:30

You can't tax debt. When you sell 150 homes, we all know what that looks like at the GCI. Well, your financial planner will come to the crib and whiteboard. You gotta get there, my guy.

SPEAKER_03: 36:44

You know, you know, it it I I I really believe in like being financially disciplined. Like, you know, my my parents were in survival mode, you know. They we we didn't, we weren't at the table talking about 1031 exchanges and you know, say a 4% savings account to put your money into, you know. Um my mom was in survival mode. She did what she had to do to make to make it happen. I'm thankful for what she what she did to make it happen, you know? And so now that I have the knowledge, man, I just want to use all my resources, use all my people. And I don't mind being vulnerable with my business, man. I was like, hey, I'll say, hey, I'm bleeding it in this, right? Who do I know that can help me with this, man? Yeah. And I think being vulnerable with your business will take you a long way, man. I think that's a good point.

SPEAKER_01: 37:23

I and we had this conversation. I think I called you frustrated one day, like six months ago. Um, and I'm just now getting into the point where I'm like, all right, let me buy some investment properties. Like, I'm a little clearer if I want to, right? So next year we have a plan.

SPEAKER_03: 37:36

Why? Why? Yeah, why are you now versus how long you been doing real estate? This is my ninth year. Think about that, right? You've been telling everybody they need to do X, Y, Z. Yeah. But it's all right here. I want to hear that. I want to hear that.

SPEAKER_01: 37:50

I think because I found my my play, right? Like I think I was, so for the first, my my burn has been slow, you know? So like for the first like four years, I was like trying to figure it out. Um, and then I then I took off. And then when I first made my first like money, yeah, you know, I did what people do. I didn't I didn't invest it the right way. Yeah, you know, um, I don't think I bought anything too crazy, but I didn't do what I was supposed to do. Right. Then I had my partnership, then last year was like the bounce back year. So it's just been like a lot of things, but but I found my play, like, okay, this is what I'm gonna invest in. Like, am I bringing 20% to buy 400? That's not really like, yeah, that's not really like the flavor. It's like I'm gonna go to a cheaper market, like I like Ohio, yeah, Tennessee, yeah, where the price point is like Baltimore. Yeah, but it's just a different, you know, it's not as like um like dangerous as Baltimore, right? It's just more blue-collar. And so I think I just found my play. And the other important thing is I had like a goal that didn't mean anything. And now I have a goal that actually means something, and I have a reason. So I think it's for me personally, it's hard to move without like a true mission. That's 1000% true. You know, I can't get on the court and be like, I'm I'm gonna go drive 50. Yeah. It's like, why am I driving 50? Like, what do you know? Because then there's things you have to do to be able to make that happen. Yeah, man. And uh now I've figured out how to clear the path because I have a real goal. That's that's that's powerful.

SPEAKER_00: 39:36

Yeah. But there's also some new roads that are paved now, right? Like, like when you started doing that in 2017-2018, the DSCR program wasn't as popular as it is now. Yeah, you get that info, yeah. Where, again, to your point, 1099 self-employed may not have had the easier route to investing in real estate that they do now. You know, I can do a lot of those programs now where it's like, I don't care about your income, I don't care about your tax returns, I don't even care about your employment. Yeah, I just want to see a a good credit score, we want to see assets or reserves, and we want to see that the property can cover the mortgage. Yeah. That's it.

SPEAKER_01: 40:11

So, what would you say? All right, so to question for both of y'all, really, like part of my hurdle, not I don't want to call it hurdle, but part of my reasoning for just wanting to rent, is I'm like, man, I just rather buy investment properties, get to a certain like net cash flow, and then really like buy and live with live in what I want, right? So I'm like not even that like What's wrong with that? I'm not even that eager to like buy a primary, because I'd rather take you know my 5% or 10% down and just buy a few investment properties and then have the ability to do what I want. So like what do you what do you think? How would you what do you think about that idea?

SPEAKER_00: 40:43

So I would I would I would equate it to the game of Monopoly, right? Like we you talk about monopoly as like the you know the the financial game of life, right? Everybody's got a different strategy. Not everybody wants to buy a house, put a hotel on one property. Some people want to acquire a few pieces on the board first and build it up. And then once you have more pieces that you feel comfortable with where I've got I got income coming in from multiple places, now I can invest into the this place I want more and feel better. It's just different strategies. I think it's it's just kind of a choose your own adventure, right? The the biggest takeaway from that I would say is do one of them. Don't do nothing, right? Don't just go around the board and collect that$200 and go. Do something, get on the board and play whatever it is you're gonna do, whether you're buying investment properties or you're investing in your in your proper your primary residence, whatever it is, get in and play the game and learn. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03: 41:37

Um I gotta mess up the microphone. Testing. Now I'm just messing with you. Um man, it's funny, like when you understand like the numbers of like, okay, where you could put your money at and make money, like it's crazy to fathom that if you put your money in the market and you're getting an 8% return, you're doing amazing. Right. But with real estate, you could put your money somewhere and get 30%, 40% cash on cash return, right? I would say, man, there's nothing wrong with the strategy that you want to do because you're gonna continue to have a shield, right? You're gonna continue to have a tax shield, which is super important for people like us. The tax shield. That's the game that uh we need to be playing and talking about. We don't talk about that tax shield game, right? That's important. That's super important because Uncle Sam is gonna get his one way or another, right? So, how many shields and how many um avenues can we set up to pay less money in taxes at the end of the year, right? So there's nothing wrong with your um with your with your strategy, just as long as you know what your math is. And if your buy box makes sense for that math and it's working, man, go do it. Yeah, go do it for sure.

SPEAKER_01: 42:47

That's what I think I'm gonna do. Because I'm not finding anything that I want in the market. I'm just like, unless we build, so I just wanna be like, man, I just wanna be able to. My my thing is I just want to be able to do whatever I want. And so it's like, you know, because we we I told my wife and I, we're like, this time, let's buy slow. Last time we bought, like, I was like, rates about to go up. Let's buy. Like, we're gonna buy. And we like the house, but it needed a renovation. We probably took on more than we can handle at that time. Yeah. Um, and so now, like, it's like, let's buy slow, right? Let's like really take our time and find something. And so we're going in the houses all the time. Um, and like You need an agent? Uh-huh. It sounds like you need an agent. I would love to work with you. We walk in the houses and then we go back to the crib and like, you know, I'm like, you like that house? And then like we'll like it in the moment, and then we'll think about it for like two, three days. Yeah. And we'll be like, and so I'm like, it's not like some clients, man. I do, I do all my, you know, what do they say? Uh, a lawyer that represents itself.

SPEAKER_02: 43:48

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 43:49

This is my issue. When you know the game too much, you uh you put it differently. But um, so how are you? Because you work with a lot of first-time homebuyers, yeah, and then you turn them into investors, real estate investors. So that's a lot of education and like trust. Like you have to really get them, convince them like to believe. Not convince them, that's the wrong word, but you have to make them feel like they can believe to do that after not owning anything. Yeah. So how are you, what's that conversation like?

SPEAKER_03: 44:14

Um, man, it's super organic. You know what I mean? A lot of our business is organic, you know, our partnership is organic. And so um it's mainly in that bioconsultation. Like that bioconsultation is super important because we're not just asking right now questions. We're asking, what will this purchase do for you five years from now? What are your goals? And so when I can, I'm not a I'm not a hey, you want to buy a house, let's go sell a house type of realtor. Yeah, I'm like, let's I do a bioconsultation with all of my clients. I sit down, I talk with them, and I ask them questions, and I want them to get to know me better, right? So that's kind of breaking down that wall to have them communicate what they are looking to do. Now, half of my clients are like, I just want to buy one property, right? And that's it. The other half is like, I want to buy a property, but I want to start investing in real estate, right? Because that's the messaging we put out there to the world. In that consultation, I just show them what we've done. I show them what previous clients have done. I show them what I've done in real estate and how this is possible, right? It's not a you know, it's a lot of times people make this real estate thing so complicated. You have so many real estate gurus on Instagram and all over that I mean it gets on my nerves and they make it complicated.

SPEAKER_01: 45:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03: 45:25

Yeah. Here's how to buy six doors in 18 months. You go buy a four-unit building, you put 3.5% down, you live in one unit, rent out the other three, right? Six months, you go buy a single family home with a separate entrance basement. You can either live in that basement or live at the top and rent out the basement. These are the numbers. This is what you're gonna cash flow.

SPEAKER_02: 45:45

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03: 45:45

This is what on a single family in this neighborhood, this is what the equity is gonna be, could potentially be based on historical numbers. It's just that's as simple as that. Just break it down the break it down the play. Yeah, right? And not making it overcomplicated for them. You know what I mean? And I show them the properties and what it looks like. If it needs renovation, you can go get a 203k loan, a renovation loan from the lender, you can get the acquisition and the construction costs and do that play. You run it like that, right? I don't want you over-leveraged. I like to hit bait, I like to hit base hits. I don't like to hit swing for the fence, man. I don't like to hit swing for the fence, hit a grand slam. I like to just get on base. Tony Gwynn went to the Hall of Fame like that. Yeah, you know what I mean? Yeah, better than South. Absolutely, man. And so that's kind of how we I break it down in that buyer consultation.

SPEAKER_01: 46:27

That's all it bro. I saw it. Brilliant. That's brilliant. Glenn is like, so it's how I feel like I'm I don't want to step over Glenn and he's over there and showing.

SPEAKER_00: 46:39

I had no, it was good. And you're absolutely right. I think that's the way, that's the way that I mean you broke it down perfectly, you know. Um my point to you, and you what you said before too, like it's just math. It's just math, man. The rest of us, the emotional side of it that we're talking about, right? Like, but the more that you can educate someone on, like, hey man, this is just math. Like, yeah, like here's the ROI, here's the cash flow, here's the numbers. Are you comfortable with it? Can you make that push? And that's the question, right? Like when your situation, right, where it's like rent versus buy, investment versus primary, it's all math. The question is just what lane do you want, what what comfort level do you have? Where are you willing to push yourself to your point? Like six doors in 18 months, super doable. If you do the stuff, right? If you do the math, if you if you get good counsel, if you make good decisions, and you follow the plan.

SPEAKER_03: 47:30

Yeah, I mean, you don't become a world-class leader by doing things occasionally, right? You become a world-class leader by doing things consistently. Like that's really what it is, right? Yeah. And when you're consistent on getting base hits, you can look up 10 years, like, oh my God, I built this portfolio.

SPEAKER_01: 47:46

Bro, I've been trying to tell, I've been trying to tell my basically like my brother, I knew since I was six, my best friend in life. Yeah. He's a he's a flipper, but he hasn't, he's now he's in his first flip after like seven, eight years. But I've been telling him, like, bro, like, and he was a real estate agent and he had a year where he did like, he did like five, six million. And for him, that's like really, I mean, for anybody that'd be solid. That's solid. And uh, and uh, I was like, bro, you need to do this to like stack bread to buy a flip, but he keeps trying to like hit a grand slam and like find a deal and then find somebody that will basically finance the entire deal, and then he makes bread on the back. And I was like, bro, ain't nobody that got a couple hundred thousand dollars is dumb enough to do that. Like, but then just put up all the bread because you found a deal, but he's like a grand slam guy, and I've told him this a thousand times so I can talk about him on here. Yeah, yeah. And I'm like, bro, you gotta go base hits, and it that's that's he like, whatever, bro. Like, yeah, I mean anybody the base hit is the way to go. It's just like I told my man yesterday, like, bro, you just you need a layup at first. That's it. And then you can, you know, go crazy. That's it. I might come out and shoot some threes, though. Yeah, yeah. No, man. So what is uh so what does every home buyer and home seller need to know um about the real estate market right now?

SPEAKER_03: 49:01

Um I would say study the market first, right? You need to study on on let's talk about the buyer side. The buyer side is know what your budget is first, right? Know what you want to spend, know what type of house you want. Because a lot of times, I know my clients, before they get to me, they're searching for homes that they think they'll look on Redfin and look on Zillow and they'll see the monthly payment and they think that's the actual monthly payment to that house. But you know, those sites don't factor in the um mortgage interest and the taxes, the all that good stuff. So you need to really know what your budget is, right? Um understand like why are you buying? Like, why do you want to buy? What's your goal? You know, oh Keith, I don't want to rent. Okay, if you don't want to rent no more, let's find you something that's in budget that's gonna appreciate over time. And also, too, for some buyers, don't be afraid to buy where it's hood adjacent. Like that that that like hood adjacent, don't be afraid to buy in those areas because those areas are gonna change. Yeah, you know what I mean? Um and so like just coming up with a plan on the buyer's side, the market, yeah, interest rates are higher than they were. The average interest rate since 1993 is 8.4%, right? Like you can get a 6.5%, you can get a 6%, but there's also, hey, do you know what a uh 2-1 buy down is? You can do a 2-1 buy down. I can actually get closing help from the seller right now to buy down your interest rate for the first two years, and you can pay a 4% interest rate the first year, a 5% interest rate the second year, and you can go back to your regular interest rate that third year. But guess what? In the meantime, if rates come down, you can refinance. You know, so two-one buy downs are super important right now. And that should be a clip on the real. That should be my real clip right now. Um Grace clip that out um for sellers, right? Yeah. Like, why are you selling? You know, why are you selling? Do you want to sell to now? Here's the crazy part. Do you want to sell to buy or do you want to sell to rent? Like, are you trying to get out of the area? Like, what are you looking to do? Right? What should what you trying to accomplish, right? How much equity do you have? Like, if you think, like I tell pe agents, like I'm to train, like we tell our agents, like, whatever your client think their price should be, it's actually five to ten percent below what it is. Literally. Literally. And that's where you need to be pricing properties. And sometimes that's a hard conversation for sellers because they saw two doors down in 2021 get$75,000 above list price.

SPEAKER_02: 51:26

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03: 51:26

Well, we're not in that market no more. So if that's what you're looking for, it's not gonna happen right now. Yeah, so I mean about$5.99.

SPEAKER_01: 51:33

Yeah, you feel me? It should be$5.99, right? Not$615.

SPEAKER_03: 51:38

And another thing, and this, you know, I'm big on quotes, man. When it comes to the real estate market, hard conversations equals an easy life. Easy conversations equals a hard life. Yeah. You gotta have be willing to have those hard conversations now, right? Because if you gain a client in this market, they're gonna stay with you forever. But if you lose a client in this market, they're gone forever. Like that's really real. And if you can't have the hard conversations and create a vulnerable space for your client to be able to have that hard conversation with your client about the market and what's going on, they're gonna go to the next person. They're gonna go to the next person. So that's really that's it, that's how I feel about it.

SPEAKER_01: 52:18

That's game from an$800 million in sales agent, 150 houses, 100 to 150 houses a year. Basically, since you got in the game, since like, you know, so those are real gems that you should follow. Thank you. Um, so many times, I could have just like, I wanted to get into like a real estate nerd conversation. Yeah, but it would have been selfish for me, you know. Um, so thanks for joining us, bro. I appreciate it. Um, any last words, Glenn? Any last questions?

SPEAKER_00: 52:46

No, I appreciate you, man. That was some wise words and great bullets, some great clips. I'll have some good reels out of that.

SPEAKER_01: 52:53

Where can they find you?

SPEAKER_00: 52:55

There you go.

SPEAKER_03: 52:55

Yeah, man, you're not gonna swag coalition properties, man. But uh our uh team is Coalition Properties on Instagram. My uh personal Instagram is Keith James Realtor. It's kind of where I spend most of my time at is on Instagram. So go follow me, Keith James Realtor. Um coalitionpg.com website.

SPEAKER_01: 53:12

All right, shots to Keith, bro. Appreciate you, bro. We out.