Latest / Charleston's Leading Producers / Ep. #24 | Chris Dion

Transcript

Ep. #24 | Chris Dion · Charleston's Leading Producers

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I could have a five page write-up and that does me no good because at the end of the day, like the easiest thing for people to read something in bold, you take a five-page thing, you drop it into a two-pager, then they're able to like lock in on it.
• 0:14
  SPEAKER_00: And I think early on I was I was super into all the details and going over everything, and and I think people just got lost at some point and they're like, Well, somebody else told us five million, you told us four and a half, we're gonna go with them.
• 0:30
  SPEAKER_01: Hey leaders, I'm Jake, a loan officer obsessed with business growth and finding out what's actually working in our market.
• 0:38
  SPEAKER_01: If that sounds useful, hit follow.
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_02: Now, this week's leader.
• 0:47
  SPEAKER_02: Chris, thanks for coming on, man.
• 0:49
  SPEAKER_02: Thanks for having me.
• 0:51
  SPEAKER_01: So you are on a team with your wife, Lauren, out of Acres of Ellis, and you guys specialize on Kiowa Island.
• 1:00
  SPEAKER_01: Do I have that all correct?
• 1:01
  SPEAKER_01: You got it.
• 1:02
  SPEAKER_01: So most agents would never work closely with their spouse.
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_01: And I can attest to this in a different industry.
• 1:10
  SPEAKER_01: I worked with my wife, and now we work in completely different industries, not even in the same building.
• 1:15
  SPEAKER_01: But why does it work so well with the two of you?
• 1:19
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so um, I mean, I think that we just we just have different ways that we work.
• 1:25
  SPEAKER_00: I'm I'm one of those guys where if I'm if I'm trying to work from home, then I'm seeing things that I need to clean or dishes I need to put away or let the dog out or grab a snack.
• 1:37
  SPEAKER_00: So my thing is once I'm once I'm done with my workout in the morning, I'm going to the office.
• 1:43
  SPEAKER_00: I've got a I've got a setup at the office where it's a big screen.
• 1:48
  SPEAKER_00: I can pull up, you know, a spreadsheet and MLS and kind of kind of do my thing and and run the numbers.
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_00: Um Lauren is is able to work from home and and knock some things out.
• 2:00
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but also it's she's got her lane and I've got mine.
• 2:05
  SPEAKER_00: So um she's an attorney by trade, and uh so I have her handle all the contracts.
• 2:12
  SPEAKER_00: She's reviewing them when they come in, when we're on the the selling side, and um when we're on the buying side, she's the one that's drafting them all up.
• 2:21
  SPEAKER_00: So um, so that that's the main focus that that she's doing.
• 2:27
  SPEAKER_00: I'm more of the numbers guy with my commercial real estate background.
• 2:31
  SPEAKER_00: So it's you know, coming up with the numbers that we need to list a property for, but then also kind of diving deep into we're gonna present an offer on X property and where's a reasonable place to to start, where do we feel like we need to end on this?
• 2:48
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so we really don't pass each other until the evening comes around, unless we happen to be um on a on a joint uh meeting, either showing clients around and we both happen to be available, or most listing appointments will um we'll partner up and and be at those together.
• 3:06
  SPEAKER_00: But for the most part, we will see each other in the morning and then in the evening and um and have a lot of phone calls and texts in between.
• 3:14
  SPEAKER_01: Did that happen organically that you you know gravitated towards the spreadsheets and you know, the real like nitty-gritty part of the bid business, and she was more the attorney side.
• 3:27
  SPEAKER_01: Did that happen naturally, or when you guys set out at the outset, were you like, I want to do this, this is my part of the business, and this is your side of the business?
• 3:35
  SPEAKER_01: And it was really intentional.
• 3:37
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, no, it was it was more organically, and it's never it hasn't even been one of those things where we have the conversation.
• 3:44
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like, no, no, no, you're the contract person.
• 3:46
  SPEAKER_00: Like, it's just kind of like assume that that's the case.
• 3:49
  SPEAKER_00: Um, she's been doing residential after she left the attorney life.
• 3:54
  SPEAKER_00: Um, she's been doing residential much longer than I have.
• 3:57
  SPEAKER_00: So when it comes to reviewing uh repair addendums or drafting them, I mean that's that's all her.
• 4:04
  SPEAKER_00: She's able to go through line by line once we get the inspection report in 13.1.2, and she's putting it in there in the way that it needs to read.
• 4:14
  SPEAKER_00: And um, and on the numbers side, like commercial real estate is is is a lot of numbers and a lot of things that like have to make sense.
• 4:23
  SPEAKER_00: Um on the vacation rental side, if somebody happens to be looking at a property on Kiowa and is looking for some sort of return, I'm presenting the numbers, but at the end of the day, like when you're investing in real estate, if something is really sexy, the return is not gonna be great.
• 4:42
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm able to just explain to those potential buyers, either cut them short and say, hey, look, if you think that you're gonna generate a 10% return, the cap rate's gonna be super high.
• 4:52
  SPEAKER_00: This isn't this is a waste of time for all of us.
• 4:55
  SPEAKER_00: I'm able to just say, hey, here's the PL, here's what that what that property is producing.
• 5:01
  SPEAKER_00: The last few sales have been in the 1.4 to 1.5 range.
• 5:06
  SPEAKER_00: Like, if that makes sense based on the expenses and return, then like let's move forward, let's go look at some properties.
• 5:12
  SPEAKER_00: But but if it doesn't, then then let's move on.
• 5:14
  SPEAKER_00: There, there's other opportunities and it kind of saves everybody some time.
• 5:19
  SPEAKER_01: Let's actually back up to that a little bit.
• 5:21
  SPEAKER_01: So you have a background in commercial real estate.
• 5:25
  SPEAKER_01: When did you leave that and hop into the residential side?
• 5:29
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so um uh jumped over in 2022.
• 5:35
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so um, so I got into real estate, I think it was 2013, and um and decided that commercial real estate was was was an easier focus.
• 5:48
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not from Charleston, so when when it came to trying to find buyers, you know, it's not it's not so easy to just walk up to people and say, hey, are you buyer or selling a house?
• 6:00
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm not that kind of person that that wants to like lean on my friends to help support my business.
• 6:05
  SPEAKER_00: So commercial real estate was easier for me because I was able to work at a firm.
• 6:10
  SPEAKER_00: They gave me a couple shopping centers that I was working on leasing up, and I had success on leasing those up, and then it rolled into doing some commercial sales, and um, you know, and then 10 years later I'm still doing it and it's still going well, but at the same time, COVID hit, and um and Lauren's super busy on on selling real estate out of Kia.
• 6:34
  SPEAKER_00: And then I'm I'm still busy, but it's still like a weird what's going on, what's gonna happen in the real estate world.
• 6:40
  SPEAKER_00: And um, and at the same time, um, we were looking at purchasing an investment property with with some family members, and uh a property on Kia came available.
• 6:53
  SPEAKER_00: They were lowering the price.
• 6:55
  SPEAKER_00: Um an architect buddy of ours uh quickly drew up some plans because uh this property was going to need a significant renovation.
• 7:04
  SPEAKER_00: So we had bought that property in December of 21.
• 7:09
  SPEAKER_00: And and as we started in the early stages of 22, again, Lauren's still busy, I'm busy.
• 7:15
  SPEAKER_00: We've got kids at home, we can't send our kids to school still.
• 7:19
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so uh it just we felt like it made the most sense.
• 7:24
  SPEAKER_00: Either she's joining me or I'm joining her.
• 7:26
  SPEAKER_00: It's it's a lot nicer to be driving out to Kiowa and and touring those houses than you know, traveling to Columbia and showing property.
• 7:36
  SPEAKER_00: Um so I was kind of hybrid for that first year, um, doing commercial, helping Lauren on the residential, and then helping with the renovation because it was a 14-month renovation that we did on the 64 Surfsong House.
• 7:50
  SPEAKER_00: So um that's what kind of brought us over.
• 7:53
  SPEAKER_00: And and then, you know, it just it again like kind of organically was like this residential is is is way easier with us working together than for me to be half half foot in, half foot out.
• 8:09
  SPEAKER_00: So that's that's when we um we we whatever been a team, but we uh we put a name on it, the selling Kiawa team, and branded that way because we really wanted to just be super narrow on our focus.
• 8:23
  SPEAKER_00: And um, you know, since since COVID had hit, the numbers had really gone crazy and um and we had we had been doubling our business every single year.
• 8:33
  SPEAKER_00: Um so you know, a lot of people think that you know maybe that's too small of a niche, and um and you know you could have struggles down the road, um, but to up until today, uh we we're you know, we're still our business is growing, and um, and I think it was the right move.
• 8:54
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I mean you guys are absolutely crushing it.
• 8:57
  SPEAKER_01: I don't think anybody could argue with you that it wasn't the right move.
• 9:01
  SPEAKER_01: Um you mentioned moving from commercial and then you're having these conversations with clients and you're talking about CapEx and these kind of nitty-gritty things.
• 9:11
  SPEAKER_01: I'm curious if there is anything else from your commercial background that you feel like I was able to take this skill from working in commercial and apply it to residential, and it's made me differentiate myself a little bit from some of the other realtors that might not have that background that are working on Kiwa.
• 9:32
  SPEAKER_01: Is there anything else in there that you feel like you took away that really helps you today?
• 9:37
  SPEAKER_00: Like just high easy to have high-level conversations with people.
• 9:42
  SPEAKER_00: I'm I'm able to have the deep conversations with the commercial buyers.
• 9:47
  SPEAKER_00: Um, a few of our clients, they they reached out to me.
• 9:51
  SPEAKER_00: I don't I don't have a huge following on social media, but I I did have a follower on on social media when I was on the commercial side, and he saw that I switched over on the residential side.
• 10:03
  SPEAKER_00: They they happened to own a house on the river course in Kiawa and um and ended up sending their brother-in-law to me to to help them buy a property on Kiawa.
• 10:16
  SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, it's not plenty of people deal with 1031 exchanges, and those those were also things that I was dealing with on the commercial side.
• 10:26
  SPEAKER_00: So it's not like a foreign word to me and something that I need to like do a deep dive into fully understanding what that is.
• 10:34
  SPEAKER_00: Um rarely do people talk about cap rates, but when they do talk about cap rates, I'm able to say, no, no, this is when if you want to talk exactly cap rates, then I can send you an Excel spreadsheet that says that this is this is bringing in a 7.5% return or a 5% return, or if you put this much into the property, this is what you can generate.
• 10:56
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so I think it's more of uh the the buyers feel more comfortable knowing what my background is and that I'm not you know jumping on YouTube at night to try and study up before my next conversation.
• 11:11
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, probably probably a good thing.
• 11:13
  SPEAKER_01: I love that you mentioned the number of followers on social.
• 11:18
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 11:19
  SPEAKER_01: This is something that I've been leaning into a lot lately.
• 11:22
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I would say just in the past year, I was one of those people that before getting into the industry, I didn't do hardly anything on social media.
• 11:29
  SPEAKER_01: And then you start working in real estate, and everybody's like, you gotta be on social, you gotta be on social, you gotta be on social.
• 11:34
  SPEAKER_01: And I think a lot of people are chasing how many followers can I get?
• 11:38
  SPEAKER_01: How many followers can I get?
• 11:40
  SPEAKER_01: What's a video that can make that can go viral?
• 11:43
  SPEAKER_01: And what I've been talking to with a lot of people that actually convert from social media, they're like, don't worry about any of that.
• 11:51
  SPEAKER_01: You're really only trying to reach a very small set of people, but make sure you're communicating the right message to those people and make sure that you know you're saying something that could convert into actual business.
• 12:03
  SPEAKER_01: So have you had the same mindset?
• 12:05
  SPEAKER_01: What have you kind of gone through in learning through social media there?
• 12:10
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I mean, my my thought on social media like I'd love to have, you know, a hundred thousand followers, but I'd rather have 3,000 that are really dialed in, that are really interested in what I'm putting out there and not a bunch of fluff.
• 12:26
  SPEAKER_00: And um, you know, I I fought I follow all the people that are all about social media.
• 12:32
  SPEAKER_00: I know how powerful it is.
• 12:34
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I I know that I'm that I'm late to the game.
• 12:38
  SPEAKER_00: Uh follow a lot of like Gary V stuff where it's like, you know, trying it being being on social media and across all platforms, and I could I could absolutely do a better job of you know, I'll get into like the Instagram and then it just it flows into the Facebook stuff.
• 12:55
  SPEAKER_00: So that's easy.
• 12:56
  SPEAKER_00: But then I'm like, well, I should still be putting stuff on TikTok.
• 12:59
  SPEAKER_00: But then, you know, YouTube is is super powerful.
• 13:03
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it's every everybody says it every single day, but it's the second largest search engine on on the web.
• 13:09
  SPEAKER_00: What's what's interesting about that, in my opinion, on like I need to do a better job on YouTube shorts.
• 13:15
  SPEAKER_00: So taking my Instagram post, keeping it under a minute, and throwing out some sort of nugget on real estate or Kia and and just consistency.
• 13:28
  SPEAKER_00: So I will be I will be consistent and then I'll get busy and then and then I'll be like, wow, I haven't I haven't posted anything on on YouTube in in you know a week or two.
• 13:38
  SPEAKER_00: Um so we have uh we have a social media person that works with us, and um, she actually is a is a friend of ours from from Greenville.
• 13:49
  SPEAKER_00: So she handles most of our like generic content.
• 13:53
  SPEAKER_00: So we've got a new listing.
• 13:55
  SPEAKER_00: We send her all the information, she puts together the copy, she puts together the pictures, she'll create the post, she'll create the the short.
• 14:04
  SPEAKER_00: And then my goal is to kind of fill in um fill in different stories throughout the day or the week on on my Instagram.
• 14:14
  SPEAKER_00: But my again, like you, my goal is to just put out a ton of content and and hopefully it's it's weeks and months and not years that I start to grow a good following.
• 14:26
  SPEAKER_00: And people say they know, like, and trust Chris because they've watched a lot of his videos, whatever sort of Instagram or YouTube or what wherever they may have found me, they see me as somebody that's a trustworthy resource that that knows his information and and focuses on on Kiawa.
• 14:45
  SPEAKER_00: And that's you know, it's not to say that I can't sell anywhere else, like, but it's just it's my backyard.
• 14:52
  SPEAKER_00: We own there, we live on John's Island, we're 20 minutes from the front gate.
• 14:56
  SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, you know, another thing, you can't show property on Sundays unless you're an owner on the island.
• 15:04
  SPEAKER_00: Um, there are just there are a lot of benefits to to knowing what's going on.
• 15:08
  SPEAKER_00: We're we're constantly getting the emails from the Keogh Island community, so we're updated on on everything, and it's not one of those things where we have to wait till there's some post in a in a newsletter or article to know what's going on on the island.
• 15:24
  SPEAKER_00: Um so you know, I I think I I could I absolutely do a better job of it, but my goal is to just be be more consistent and just get more content out there and not worry about the followers and just just get that out there.
• 15:39
  SPEAKER_00: And then, you know, maybe something goes viral.
• 15:42
  SPEAKER_00: I I think I've got like 1,500 followers on on Instagram, but there have been posts that we've had on particular properties where we've had 25 and 30,000 views.
• 15:55
  SPEAKER_00: So I'd I'd rather have that at 15,000 followers than have 400 views with 30,000 followers.
• 16:02
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so well put.
• 16:04
  SPEAKER_01: And I love that you mentioned Gary V.
• 16:06
  SPEAKER_01: I've been listening to Gary V every day for like a year now, and yeah, I don't know.
• 16:10
  SPEAKER_01: He's just he ever everything he says, it's like, oh my goodness, you know, it's just so like world rocking.
• 16:15
  SPEAKER_01: I I absolutely devour his stuff, so it's so good.
• 16:19
  SPEAKER_01: Um De Narrow focus on Kiawa.
• 16:24
  SPEAKER_01: Um, you guys have carved out such a great niche, and you and you already explained it, like it's in your backyard.
• 16:29
  SPEAKER_01: Um you know how you kind of got there, but it it always feels like when you want to go it all in on one thing, like you guys have with Kiawa, sometimes you have to walk away from something else.
• 16:43
  SPEAKER_01: Was there something that you feel like you had to push out of your business to be able to narrow that focus?
• 16:50
  SPEAKER_01: Um would you do that again?
• 16:52
  SPEAKER_01: Do you feel like that's been beneficial for you?
• 16:54
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I mean, I I know that I know that um we've we've lost some business from people thinking that we can only sell on Kiowa.
• 17:03
  SPEAKER_00: Um so it's it's a pro and it's a con.
• 17:07
  SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, we've had I've I've had commercial clients of mine that are like, hey, can you sell my Somerville house?
• 17:15
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, look, you've got a great house.
• 17:17
  SPEAKER_00: I'll be involved with the deal, but I've got another agent in my office that's like really honed in on that area, does does incredible videos, is great at marketing, said, let me let me introduce you to them.
• 17:30
  SPEAKER_00: I'll be part of the deal.
• 17:31
  SPEAKER_00: If there's any sort of issues, like let me know.
• 17:35
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so I I'll I'll send referrals within my office on on certain areas around Charleston that I don't know as well as as well as I I could.
• 17:45
  SPEAKER_00: Um and and I've also had like close friends that you know they they listed their house with with somebody, some random person, and I'm like, hey man, like I'm I'm I'm happy to help.
• 17:58
  SPEAKER_00: I want to be a resource.
• 18:00
  SPEAKER_00: Like there's no harm, no foul.
• 18:02
  SPEAKER_00: Like I understand I I chose my niche, my my brand is selling Kiowa.
• 18:07
  SPEAKER_00: So so like we're we're still we're still good friends and there's there's no bad blood, but I want my friends to look at me as a resource.
• 18:16
  SPEAKER_00: And um and whether I'm if I'm not the best option for for where they're selling in their particular area, I'm gonna be totally straightforward.
• 18:25
  SPEAKER_00: I probably lost more deals like during COVID because I just I never wanted to tell somebody, hey, you know, a property's worth X and it's gonna be worth X forever.
• 18:36
  SPEAKER_00: But but at the time, like people were coming online and they were looking at properties and they were buying them sight unseen.
• 18:44
  SPEAKER_00: And it was one of those things where um, you know, I I just never wanted to tell somebody, yes, that property is gonna be worth three million dollars and four million dollars in five more years.
• 18:56
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and it's the same thing when I'm talking to friends and they're like, Well, what do you think about me selling and buying this?
• 19:02
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, well, you bought your house for 400,000, your interest rate is three percent, you're gonna be buying at 800,000, your interest rate is gonna be 7%.
• 19:11
  SPEAKER_00: Like, I'm losing I'm losing deals, but I want to be a resource for my friends.
• 19:15
  SPEAKER_00: If they still want to move forward, I'm there for them.
• 19:18
  SPEAKER_00: But um, but I just want to be a resource for these people.
• 19:22
  SPEAKER_00: And I know I missed out on deals, but I think I've also we've we've gotten deals because of it.
• 19:27
  SPEAKER_00: So, you know, I I don't know what the stat is.
• 19:30
  SPEAKER_00: Everybody knows like seven to ten real estate agents, I would imagine at least.
• 19:35
  SPEAKER_00: And if you don't have a niche, and then that person's only thinking about the last one they saw.
• 19:43
  SPEAKER_00: And and I think that um there are times when friends of mine or people that that barely even know me, maybe see me at the gym.
• 19:52
  SPEAKER_00: They're like, you know what, Chris has something to do with Kiawa.
• 19:55
  SPEAKER_00: Like, like I had a relative that was like looking, maybe I should introduce them.
• 19:59
  SPEAKER_00: So I think I've gotten deals out of that, and and that that has like outweighed, kind of like the the Chick-fil-A effect.
• 20:07
  SPEAKER_00: Like, are they making more money by by only being open six days a week?
• 20:11
  SPEAKER_00: Um, or are they losing a bunch of money?
• 20:14
  SPEAKER_00: Like, you know, I I think at the end of the day that we come out ahead.
• 20:18
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and and my main point to to close friends or people is just like use me as a resource.
• 20:25
  SPEAKER_00: I'm never gonna be the person that's gonna stand in in between a deal.
• 20:29
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but but whatever, use me use me in the background, whether whether you live locally or not, you know, I I want to be a resource for people because I think that you know, karma is gonna come back and and um and it's gonna work out.
• 20:44
  SPEAKER_01: The Chick-fil-A effect.
• 20:45
  SPEAKER_01: I love it.
• 20:46
  SPEAKER_01: I'm totally stealing that.
• 20:47
  SPEAKER_01: That that's so well put, that alone.
• 20:50
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and yeah, I mean, I I do feel like it's so hard, you know, especially, you know, I'm a few years in and I'm trying, you know, to grow my business.
• 20:59
  SPEAKER_01: And I think a lot of people can kind of relate to that.
• 21:02
  SPEAKER_01: And it's almost like we feel this pressure to have to like want to be able to do everything and have to know everything, you know.
• 21:10
  SPEAKER_01: And you've done such a good job and it's such an inspiration to hear, like, no, I'm leaning into this niche.
• 21:16
  SPEAKER_01: This is what I do best.
• 21:18
  SPEAKER_01: And if I can't best serve my clients, I'm gonna find somebody that can, you know, and it's it's so it's a lot easier to say than it is to do.
• 21:28
  SPEAKER_01: But I think if we can remind ourselves that a lot, that's really powerful.
• 21:32
  SPEAKER_01: So yeah.
• 21:33
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, I think that part of that was was the commercial real estate side.
• 21:37
  SPEAKER_00: When when I joined the company that I worked for, they were they were retail focused.
• 21:43
  SPEAKER_00: So there's there's retail, there's office and industrial, there's land sales, and there are, you know, the the most successful agents had their lane.
• 21:56
  SPEAKER_00: Like they they were tenant rep people and they did retail stuff.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_00: Or they they did a lot of like industrial properties.
• 22:04
  SPEAKER_00: You know, you've got different types of leases, triple net leases or gross net leases or full service leases.
• 22:12
  SPEAKER_00: So when when when I in when I was in commercial real estate and I was doing retail, I was showing uh you know a tenant one shopping center, and then that wasn't a good fit for them.
• 22:23
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm as I'm able to say, hey, you're not represented.
• 22:26
  SPEAKER_00: There's this other shopping center that's not far away, that's 1,200 square feet, that's you know,$32 a square foot, triple net.
• 22:33
  SPEAKER_00: I think that that could be a really good option for you.
• 22:36
  SPEAKER_00: So and it was one of those things where when I was working for that company, they wanted us to roll into trying to do some more office and industrial.
• 22:47
  SPEAKER_00: But again, it was the niche of the company.
• 22:49
  SPEAKER_00: And and when you know a bulk of your properties were retail, then that just ends up being what spins you into the next thing.
• 22:58
  SPEAKER_00: And for for Kiawa, when when we're having one sale after another, we send out postcards every single time we list a property to all of Kia, every single time we sell something to all of Kia.
• 23:12
  SPEAKER_00: So we that that ends up being what the business that we get back in.
• 23:17
  SPEAKER_00: And a lot of it is off of these postcards that we send out, and they just say, wow, you know, Chris and Lauren just ramp represented some buyers on Augusta National.
• 23:26
  SPEAKER_00: And that was like at a similar price point and something that we were looking for.
• 23:30
  SPEAKER_00: So um, you know, I yeah, I again I just I can't go back now.
• 23:36
  SPEAKER_00: Like you, we're we're we're we're so we're so deep into the Kiawa stuff, but I just I just think our our net net is is higher than than it would be if we just said, hey, we'll represent you anywhere you're looking.
• 23:49
  SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, again, it's it's 20 minutes from from from our house.
• 23:54
  SPEAKER_00: If if I'm showing property in Somerville and Monks Corner and and and deep north Mount Pleasant, you know, that's that's an hour drive.
• 24:04
  SPEAKER_00: That's two hours out of my day without the showing side of it.
• 24:07
  SPEAKER_00: I just felt like we could be more efficient if we just really narrowed down on this.
• 24:12
  SPEAKER_00: And um, and I'm just I'm constantly looking at numbers.
• 24:15
  SPEAKER_00: So it's it's never one of those things where, man, you know, I've got a wide open day today.
• 24:20
  SPEAKER_00: I could be looking at every single, you know, where were the sales?
• 24:23
  SPEAKER_00: What what just got listed?
• 24:25
  SPEAKER_00: What did Kio Real Estate list?
• 24:26
  SPEAKER_00: What what what's going on?
• 24:28
  SPEAKER_00: Is there any off-market deals that we can kind of generate a deal out of?
• 24:33
  SPEAKER_01: Well, not a bad niche to lean into.
• 24:36
  SPEAKER_01: Um I I love that the toothpaste is out of the tube for you, and and that you're um, you know, stuck working on Kia with there.
• 24:45
  SPEAKER_01: Um you mentioned the postcard thing, and that's something that is just so simple.
• 24:50
  SPEAKER_01: And I think a lot of the agents who are listening to this might not equate, they might think, okay, Kiawa, I have to do like super fancy, you know, something or other, and it needs to be different than what I would be doing in Somerville.
• 25:04
  SPEAKER_01: But that's something that's it's a postcard, so simple, you know, and so effective.
• 25:09
  SPEAKER_01: But I I think I would be lost if I didn't ask.
• 25:12
  SPEAKER_01: And I think a lot of people who might be listening to this might be wondering: is there something that changes when working with these high-ticket homes and these high-ticket clients?
• 25:23
  SPEAKER_01: Is there something that you feel like you have to do differently um when working on Kiwa as compared to like Somerville or even Mount Pleasant?
• 25:31
  SPEAKER_01: Or are the bones still the same?
• 25:34
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I mean, I I kind of look at everything the same, like we're we're super busy, but I'm never I'm never too busy to like really do a deep dive on everything.
• 25:46
  SPEAKER_00: So whether it's a property that we're listing in our neighborhood or whether it's a property that we're listing on Kiowa, um, you know, I I kind of attack it the same way.
• 25:56
  SPEAKER_00: Um you know, AI and and using Claude and Chad GPT has helped.
• 26:04
  SPEAKER_00: And it's one of those things where, you know, if if I were to list a property in in a track home neighborhood, it's pretty easy to go on AI, not spend a lot of time, type in two or three sentences, it makes it sound pretty good, and and that can be, you know, the a post for the neighborhood or or help me kind of try and get listings in that particular neighborhood.
• 26:28
  SPEAKER_00: Keel is a total totally different animal.
• 26:31
  SPEAKER_00: You've got, you know, one bedroom villas that are$400,000,$500,000, and you've got$25 million houses.
• 26:40
  SPEAKER_00: So and everything in between.
• 26:42
  SPEAKER_00: And and and age-wise, stuff in the late 70s to stuff that was finished this year.
• 26:48
  SPEAKER_00: So um what's helped me is when I've got all this information, I'm constantly looking at it, I'm constantly talking to builders that are doing specs, finding out what the price per square foot is, um, but but doing a deep dive.
• 27:03
  SPEAKER_00: So I I think it's I attack it similar, but there's a lot more that goes into the stuff on the on the Kio side.
• 27:11
  SPEAKER_00: And um, and I I I really I'll use I've got all the information in my head and in the spreadsheets, and I'll use that information, plug it into AI.
• 27:21
  SPEAKER_00: It helps organize um, you know, my proposal when I'm when I'm meeting with a client, and and I can get a very good general range, you know, prior to even walking through somebody's house, um, we're able to kind of starting to have that numbers conversation and and see where things land.
• 27:41
  SPEAKER_00: But back to like the the postcard thing, social media is great and it's very inexpensive.
• 27:48
  SPEAKER_00: The the old school stuff, the postcards, it's it's expensive.
• 27:52
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, there's you know, 5,000 properties on Kiowa.
• 27:55
  SPEAKER_00: So if we're sending a postcard out to every single property, you know, it's a few thousand dollars every single time.
• 28:02
  SPEAKER_00: But um from what we've seen in our business, that that has generated enough return where it makes sense to still still be doing that.
• 28:12
  SPEAKER_00: And with our branding, people are seeing they're constantly seeing selling key, selling kia with team, selling key with team.
• 28:19
  SPEAKER_00: We've we've rebranded our our business and our website and everything that goes along with it.
• 28:24
  SPEAKER_00: So people have just started picking up on it and and our business has really kind of taken off over the last few years.
• 28:32
  SPEAKER_01: One of the things that I I've you know, we're 30 minutes in here, and one of the things that seems to be a through line through the whole thing is the details matter to you.
• 28:43
  SPEAKER_01: It sounds like you know, you are super in-depth with not just the properties that you're specifically working on, but the whole market.
• 28:50
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and I think that's something that we can all take away is, you know, in on my side on the loan side, too.
• 28:57
  SPEAKER_01: It's like you can never know some of these files deep enough.
• 29:00
  SPEAKER_01: You know, when when we're going through income counts and things like that, like the deeper that you can go early on, the better.
• 29:08
  SPEAKER_01: Um it sounds like you've just done such a great job of understanding the complexities of your market better than anybody that I've talked to.
• 29:17
  SPEAKER_01: So I think that's incredible.
• 29:19
  SPEAKER_01: Is there one thing in the past few years?
• 29:22
  SPEAKER_01: So when you started working on Kiawa, it was around you know, this post-COVID time, somewhere in there.
• 29:28
  SPEAKER_01: Is there something that you feel like you've changed your mind on?
• 29:32
  SPEAKER_01: Is there a belief that you had when you started working in this area that you hold a different belief now?
• 29:42
  SPEAKER_00: Um I mean, you talk about the details, and I think a lot of times I can get I can get overwhelmed and and I can you know I can have a five-page write-up, and that does me no good because at the end of the day, like the easiest thing for people to read something in bold, you take a five-page thing, you drop it into a two-pager, then they're able to like lock in on it.
• 30:07
  SPEAKER_00: And I think early on, I was I was super into all the details and going over everything, and and I think people just got lost at some point, and they're like, Well, somebody else told us five million, you told us four and a half, we're gonna go with them.
• 30:22
  SPEAKER_00: So what I've what I've tried to do, and and in the best case scenario, you know, is is for for Lauren and I, when we're meeting with some with a seller, uh what I want to do, I'm I'm gonna come up with my my two-page kind of kind of write-up um before the meeting and kind of give them a range of where I think they they should land.
• 30:43
  SPEAKER_00: But then I've got a spreadsheet of all the sales for the last four years, every single sale on Kia, and and I've set it up so that I've got radio buttons where I can literally go to the individual neighborhoods.
• 30:55
  SPEAKER_00: So there's probably 15 to 20 different neighborhoods on Kiowa.
• 31:00
  SPEAKER_00: When when sellers are meeting with any other buyer's agents, they're taking the the all the sales, all the sales.
• 31:08
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, so you're in this range.
• 31:10
  SPEAKER_00: Well, a sale on the front of the island or a sale that's oceanfront is not going to be a good comparable.
• 31:17
  SPEAKER_00: So when I'm pulling an individual neighborhood, the best case scenario, I'm sitting down with a seller and I'm saying, okay, you're in the egret pintail neighborhood, you're in Middlewoods East neighborhood, so let's dial in.
• 31:29
  SPEAKER_00: And if there's enough comparables, then we can use it.
• 31:31
  SPEAKER_00: If there's not, then let's grab the neighborhood next door.
• 31:34
  SPEAKER_00: But on Kiowa, the the value of properties on the left-hand side of the parkway versus the right are is significant.
• 31:43
  SPEAKER_00: It's it's hundreds of thousands of dollars, if not millions.
• 31:47
  SPEAKER_00: So when when somebody is pulling numbers off of Eugenia for a house that's on the left-hand side of governors, it doesn't do anybody any good to say it's worth$3 million when there's no way that somebody's going to pay over two.
• 32:01
  SPEAKER_00: So um, so what I like to do is come up with my my you know, two-pager that kind of goes over the background of Lauren and I, uh a range of where something should sell for, and then and then sitting down with them and then going through my spreadsheet and just saying, all right, radio button here.
• 32:20
  SPEAKER_00: Uh all these houses, yes, they sold for the number you want, 3 million, but they all had memberships.
• 32:27
  SPEAKER_00: And the value of memberships right now, you know, it varies from year to year, but right now is probably three to four hundred thousand dollars.
• 32:36
  SPEAKER_00: So if your house was valued at three million dollars based on what these comparables are saying, and then I check the box where no membership, it's gonna drop down to probably two and a half million.
• 32:48
  SPEAKER_00: And I want you to see that difference and not have you think that I'm pulling some number out of the air.
• 32:54
  SPEAKER_00: Now we've we've still lost listings because we've been too honest on the pricing, but going back to the amount of money that we put in on the marketing side on selling out the uh on sending out the mailers, you know, our dedicated social media person that handles everything, um, and then putting together, you know, everybody has to have the drone videos.
• 33:15
  SPEAKER_00: And, you know, if you're spending five to ten thousand dollars um for a listing that's extremely overpriced and it doesn't sell, and six months later they go with somebody else, they lower the price 500,000 and sell it, that doesn't do you any good.
• 33:30
  SPEAKER_00: So um, you know, it it happens, I don't know, I'd say probably 20% of the time, they're still the sellers that want to go with the agent that's gonna tell them the highest number, and they don't care about what what you explained.
• 33:47
  SPEAKER_00: And and you just kind of have to have peace to that.
• 33:50
  SPEAKER_00: And we've had enough reps where I'm getting better at you know, not taking it personal um because you know, these people have an agenda and they're just like, I just, you know, Zillow was saying that it is worth X, and I can't, I can't fathom that Chris told me that it's not.
• 34:07
  SPEAKER_00: But um in the last year, we met with a seller in Cacique, and uh we told them that you know the price point should be between seven and seven and a half million.
• 34:17
  SPEAKER_00: It's a very nice house, but it was very unique.
• 34:20
  SPEAKER_00: They had built it for themselves.
• 34:21
  SPEAKER_00: So you really needed to have the right buyer that was gonna buy this.
• 34:25
  SPEAKER_00: And maybe, maybe there were a lot of buyers out there that were gonna appreciate it.
• 34:28
  SPEAKER_00: But I just said, based on the numbers that I'm seeing, I said that this is where I think we should be.
• 34:34
  SPEAKER_00: So they went with another company, they listed it for eight and a half million.
• 34:39
  SPEAKER_00: It sold two months ago for 6.9 million.
• 34:43
  SPEAKER_00: So one point whatever, six million dollars off of the original ask.
• 34:49
  SPEAKER_00: And, you know, I'm not gonna be the person that's gonna call up that person and say, I told you so, but but I want to use that as an example for the next seller that just says, what good is it for me to tell you your property is worth a million dollars more than it actually is?
• 35:04
  SPEAKER_00: And my goal is, you know, we you know, my my sales pitch, my elevator pitch is I don't need to sign a listing agreement longer than six months.
• 35:14
  SPEAKER_00: We sell all our properties in less than six months.
• 35:17
  SPEAKER_00: The competition is double what what we are.
• 35:21
  SPEAKER_00: So if if we can get right on the numbers, then we're gonna be we're gonna be totally fine.
• 35:27
  SPEAKER_00: Um and and I've got plenty of examples where you know we've just priced it properly or we've given the property a ton of exposure.
• 35:37
  SPEAKER_00: Uh we had met with a client and um and he he loved he loved Lauren and Iba is like, you know what?
• 35:43
  SPEAKER_00: This agent with with with the biggest company on Kewa Island, they did me a solid when I originally bought it.
• 35:50
  SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna give them a shot.
• 35:52
  SPEAKER_00: So I get a phone call from him 304 days later.
• 35:56
  SPEAKER_00: And and literally he's calling me, and before I pick up the phone, I go online and I see how long the property's been listed.
• 36:04
  SPEAKER_00: And I pick up the phone, he goes, Hey, hey, Chris, like will you will you take me back?
• 36:08
  SPEAKER_00: He said, he said, I'm just I'm not having any action with this.
• 36:12
  SPEAKER_00: And and and I said, I said, absolutely, I'm glad I'm glad you gave me a call.
• 36:16
  SPEAKER_00: Our company um handled the rental side for that house.
• 36:21
  SPEAKER_00: So we already had the pictures.
• 36:22
  SPEAKER_00: We just needed the paperwork.
• 36:24
  SPEAKER_00: We had it listed the next day.
• 36:26
  SPEAKER_00: We sold it the day we listed it.
• 36:28
  SPEAKER_00: We we got it under contract, it sold, I don't know, 98% of list price.
• 36:33
  SPEAKER_00: We could have gotten more money, but this, but the seller was like, I'm ready to roll.
• 36:38
  SPEAKER_00: And um, and it was just an exposure thing.
• 36:40
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, there was a there was a prop, there was a property that was just land.
• 36:45
  SPEAKER_00: It was listed with with our competitor for almost two years.
• 36:49
  SPEAKER_00: We listed it for the same price and we sold it for over asking.
• 36:54
  SPEAKER_00: Uh so I've got two or three different examples of that, and that's what I try and it's like, how much can I fit into my little two-pager to explain it?
• 37:04
  SPEAKER_00: And then what's gonna be I I really want to understand and try and listen from the from the seller, like what's important to them, because I I feel like I can attack every single aspect of of any challenge they may have, um, as long as we can get on the same page.
• 37:22
  SPEAKER_00: That's beautiful.
• 37:24
  SPEAKER_01: I could listen to stories like that all day long.
• 37:27
  SPEAKER_01: So we'll have to get you on for a part two at some point.
• 37:30
  SPEAKER_01: But I'm gonna wrap us up there, Chris.
• 37:32
  SPEAKER_01: You've got incredible advice.
• 37:34
  SPEAKER_01: If anybody wants to reach out just to ask you some follow-up questions, um, dig in on anything you might might have mentioned, or just connect further, how can they get in touch with you?
• 37:45
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so um uh sellingkioa.com um is is our website.
• 37:50
  SPEAKER_00: We just updated it.
• 37:52
  SPEAKER_00: Um, all of our contact information is on that.
• 37:55
  SPEAKER_00: All of our contact information is across all the social media platforms, uh, YouTube, LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, um, reach out uh anytime.
• 38:07
  SPEAKER_00: I've got an 864 number, and it's not because I'm not here for for the rest of my life, but um I use it as a as a way to block calls.
• 38:18
  SPEAKER_00: I know if I'm getting a spam call, it's an 864 number and it's not an 843.
• 38:22
  SPEAKER_00: So um, so yeah, uh don't don't be scared if um if you're calling an 864 number.
• 38:28
  SPEAKER_00: I'm I'm here, I'm gonna be here for a very, very long time.
• 38:31
  SPEAKER_00: Um I hope that we can do another podcast.
• 38:33
  SPEAKER_00: I knew going into this that like we needed like Joe Rogan time length to to really like have a have a great conversation, but uh, but I'm glad we were able to squeeze it into 40 minutes.
• 38:44
  SPEAKER_01: Beautiful.
• 38:44
  SPEAKER_01: I love it.
• 38:45
  SPEAKER_01: I appreciate the uh 40 minutes that you put in, man.
• 38:47
  SPEAKER_01: More to come soon.
• 38:48
  SPEAKER_01: All right.
• 38:48
  SPEAKER_00: All right, yeah.
• 38:49
  SPEAKER_00: Enjoy.
• 38:51
  SPEAKER_00: Bye.
• 38:54
  SPEAKER_02: Thanks for listening to Charleston's Leading Producers Podcast.
• 38:59
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• 39:04
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• 39:11
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• 39:16
  SPEAKER_01: New episodes every Wednesday.
• 39:17
  SPEAKER_01: I'm Jake Cummings.
• 39:19
  SPEAKER_01: See you next week.