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So the inventory is very low right
now, but that is primarily driven by

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the high interest right environment. And
the connection between the two is as follows.

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If I built my house three years
ago, five years ago, and

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I have a three percent interest mortgage, then I can't afoord to move.

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So if I make a lateral move, the cost is going to be astronomic.

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I'm gonna go. I'm paying three
percent to playing eight percent. So

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people just saying, look, you're
listening to Carrie Let's Financial Survival Network,

8
00:00:32,640 --> 00:00:38,039
where you get valuable information you just
can't find anywhere else to thrive in today's

9
00:00:38,079 --> 00:00:43,759
trying times. You need the Financial
Survival Network now more than ever. Go

10
00:00:43,880 --> 00:00:48,280
to Financial Survival and Network dot com
and get your free newsletter and gift.

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00:00:48,799 --> 00:00:59,200
Financial Survival Network now more than ever. And welcome you are listening to watching

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00:00:59,240 --> 00:01:02,560
the finance will Survival Network. I'm
your host, Carrie Lutts. Well,

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hey, we're going to talk to
somebody about Florida real estate, but more

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importantly about technology how it has changed
the business. Ze fredis He's a neighbor

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of mine down in a Boca Raton, Florida, and the background of his

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picture is actually I want to call
a shopping set entertainment center. It's kind

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of evolved into shopping center to an
office complex called Meisner Park. If any

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of you were familiar with it,
and Zev, you have a background in

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technology, you once upon a time
worked for a GEU pretty much marketing software,

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and then you got into real estate. Kind of an interesting story.

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How did that happen? Right?
So? I relocated from New York to

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Florida in the late nineties, and
I had a goal of investing in real

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estate, residential real estate, just
buying multiple and etch properties and renting them.

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So I bought a couple and I
ran out of down payment money.

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So I took a day job in
the field that I was trained in.

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So I kind a job with a
local company. They ended up getting acquired

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by ge I climbed the ladder.
I ended up being a product marketing manager

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for quite a successful launch enterprise software
product. As I did that for a

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number of years, I traveled all
around the world for them, and I

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realized that in doing so, I
had put my real estate goals on back

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burner, and a number of years
had gone by I had not bought another

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investment property. All the while my
co workers were always picking my brain for

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I'm not going there. I was
still trying to buy my first house.

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I heard Joe on three How'd you
do it? Two thousand and five.

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I just decided to quit my day
job and just focus on our real estate.

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So I kind of just fell into
it, like most realtors do.

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I figured, if people ask me
advice, if I can collect a commission,

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then I can deter or of ament
my job search. So I did

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that a few times, and then
I ran out of people to sell houses

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too. So I realized that I
need to reach the masses. So I

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turned to what I know, which
is technology. I put together a website,

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I did some search engine optimization that
I started generating some leads, and

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the rest, as they say,
is history. I built a huge business

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around that, all right. And
so at one point you said, using

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technology, you were able to generate
more leads than you could even deal with.

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Yeah. Sure, yeah, most
people are trying to rely on the

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history of influence. But regard,
no matter how big of a networker you

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are, no matter how big your
social circles are, there still only so

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many people that you know personally,
and after they all are settled into their

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new homes. You still need to
make a living, but if you can

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reach some asses and the Internet is
the way to do that, and then

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the sky's the limit. Really,
So I just got people off the Internet

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wanting to see Holmes. I would
go make them show them homes off the

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MLS, sell it to them like
the commission, and then I would turn

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around and recruit the listing agent whose
home I just sold with the promise of

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I'll give you leads because I have
more than I can handle. And that's

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why I built the business. Fifty
percent of all the deals in that company

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were company generated at these versus if
you're looking in the brokeradge, it's ninety

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nine point nine nine percent agent generated. So most people, most agents,

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like we were talking pre call,
like your average realtor didn't when he was

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three years old, you know,
and kids are saying, I want to

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be a cop, but I want
to be a fireman. He didn't say,

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gee, I want to be a
a realtor, you know, a

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real estate right. So so you
deal with a lot of and I'm not

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being to sparranging at all here,
but you really deal with with like a

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lot of misfits, don't you you
mean the realtors. Yeah, the realtors

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themselves. Yeah, yeah, yes, and yes. But you know,

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I'll tell you there's always, there's
always you just have to look at it

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differently. So I come from New
York. The work ethic in New York

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is much different than than yeah,
here in Florida. He's gonna be New

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Yorker. As a fellow New Yorker, I'm laughing, Well, how long

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have you been down here? Well, I've been coming down since I was

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six. But but you know,
it's always been my second home. My

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family lived here. My grandparents moved
down in the sixties, my mother and

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sister moved here in the early eighties, and you know, it was always

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a lot like land of the slackers, right right, Dan. I think

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you know it's changing now, especially
in the last three years with so many

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people migrating here from New York.
I think that, you know, we've

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stepped up a lot. But but
for many years, I agree, and

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younger people too, because it was
always hey, God's waiting room, right

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correct. So the thing is,
you know, coming down here from New

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York with my work ethic and everybody
here's wearing flip flops and shorts. The

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short you know, there's a lot
of misfits to deal with. But the

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flip side of that is it made
it so much easier to be better than

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that. I simply put it,
the real church community year was like the

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real church community in New York City. I think it would have been a

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lot harder for me to break into
this business. Yeah, yeah, well,

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without saying anything disparaging. Look,
Florida is a leisure based lifestyle,

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right, I mean I used to
spend eighty percent of my time figuring out

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how to better my career, improve
my career, make more money, and

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twenty percent on leisure activities. Now
I spend eighty percent of my time planning

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my next fun outing and I spend
twenty percent of my time on career.

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But I'm a lot better at this
career than I used to be, So

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I don't need to spend the amount
of time and I don't want to,

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you know, in different days of
life. So I've been really successful.

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Competition is lacking, But nowadays,
can you still use the same formula that

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you used back in twenty fourteen and
achieve the same results. Is it more

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costly or do you have to change
things? Right? So I believe that

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you can. I believe it's not
as easy as it was back then.

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Competition certainly is more furious, but
the reward is still there. And I

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know that because last time around I
built my business, it was completely built

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on generating real estate leads online.
The way you do that is through search

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engine optimization. So you try to
rank on particular keywords related to the to

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the areas we're working. And there's
something called keyword research, which we do

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when we're trying to identify the correct
keywords. And the bottom line is,

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if you take the predominant keywords in
this area for real estate and you do

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the keyword research, there's still the
approximately the same amount of volume every month

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as there was twenty years ago.
So the same amount of people pretty much

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go to Google every month and search
for real estate, boat or a tone

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of or in any other made club
as they did in two thousand and five.

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And there is still real estate companies
like mine that are ranking. Yes,

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there's some big portal sites like the
Real gen are common zero in those

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sites that dominate the first page of
Google, but there's always a few local

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companies also on the first page of
Google. So if if there are small,

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independent, local companies that are able
to make it to the first page,

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and there's the surge volume is still
there. The only stands to region

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the reason that if you can get
yourself a seat at that table, you're

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on the same the same results and
we did last Do you have to spend

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more money though to get the same
results you used to? Yeah, more,

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more time, more money, and
you got to be better, all

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right, So so more time,
more money, but it's still profitable.

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Yeah, I mean, because think
about it. Search engine optimization is all

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relative, right, There is not
a magic formula that gets you the number

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one spot in Google. You just
to be the number one spot. You

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just have to be better than the
number two spot. It's relative relative,

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so every someone is trying to outrank
someone else. So the so the stakes

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are ready awesome. How much could
just give us? For instance, you

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don't get to the nitty gritty,
we don't want to trade secrets, but

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how much could a lead costs nowadays? So I mean, look, the

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best way to put a number on
that is to look at the big portal

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site to sell eads and see what
they charge. It could easily be one

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hundred dollars a lead, like the
this is the loads of the world,

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and and they all have the distance
models. Either they charge you, you

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know, monthly fee for x amount
you know range of leads, or they

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charge you per lead, or they
charge you sometimes a percentage of the commission

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that you make from that. They
did a lot of different ways to demonetize

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it, but one way or another, Elite is worth easy one hundred dollars.

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And I mean a lot of these
places who sell you leads for giver

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take that amount. They'll sell the
same leads and multiple people. Yeah,

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Like the second you click that you're
interested in a mortgage, your phone starts

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ringing off the hook. That's what
they do right now. The flip side

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of that, if you can from
the realtor perspective, because I talked to

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real churs every day. I hire
realtors and they say, oh, I

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signed up for this on that one
and I get leads, but I could

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never get them on the phone.
The line is always busy. The reason

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the line is busy is because that
person, like you said, they clicked

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the button and then the company that
captured the lead, they sent it out

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automatically to I don't know four or
five different agents, so by the time

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you can dial the phone, you
know somebody beat you to it. Okay,

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And and let's not forget that also
people don't answer their phones like they

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once did. That is true,
But I think the bigger challenge is that

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the that they give the same lead
to multiple agents. And I know for

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a fact that there are some brokerages
that buy these leads and have automated systems

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to dial all the customer as soon
as the lead comes in. Yeah,

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predictive dialers, right, like like
some software that the email or text message

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that comes from the lead provider and
then dials the bone and then connects it

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to a live person pull center.
So if you're if you're just an agent

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riding around town with customers in your
car, and you want to buy leads

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00:12:05,279 --> 00:12:07,960
from one of these providers, and
they're also selling it to one of those

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00:12:07,960 --> 00:12:11,679
companies with call center and an autodialer, you're never going to get an You're

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00:12:11,679 --> 00:12:16,440
at a real so you got an
auto dialer there and you've got people sitting

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00:12:16,480 --> 00:12:20,799
at the phone. So h me, I don't because I just build a

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few things. I don't buy leads
from these providers because I'm not interesting leads

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I go to other people. I
generally lease myself. And my promise to

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my agents is I will not give
If I give you a lead, I

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give it to you all the head. I'm not going to get a ten

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dios right, Okay. So so
your agents get a better deal because you're

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generating the leads, and you get
more value for your dollars spent. By

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generating leads from my agents, I
do two things. I create a value

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proposition from my agents. Right,
if half of their business is coming from

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they're broker, they're not, they
wouldn't even think about switching broker because they

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00:13:00,519 --> 00:13:05,000
leave their business behind. So that's
number one, it's great for hiring and

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00:13:05,080 --> 00:13:09,080
retaining agents. And number two,
I just grow the bottom line because if

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00:13:09,080 --> 00:13:11,960
my agents sell, lare I make
more? Right? Yeah, So it's

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00:13:13,039 --> 00:13:22,080
a cosanguinity of interest there. And
because we know that brokers otherwise, we'll

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00:13:22,120 --> 00:13:26,159
just go to the highest bidder where
they get the highest commission rate. Right,

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00:13:26,000 --> 00:13:30,960
I mean you right, agents,
So the terminologies they have one cls

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00:13:31,000 --> 00:13:33,759
agents right, right, So the
agents will just go, We'll just go

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and there's there's brokers that do it
for one hundred percent. You know,

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and so if you know the old
the old saying in this business, when

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00:13:41,080 --> 00:13:46,480
you become the broker, right,
when you first you're an agent working under

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00:13:46,519 --> 00:13:50,679
broker, then if you become the
broker, the joke is that you become

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00:13:50,759 --> 00:14:01,279
broke or the client became broker,
like stock market broke, right, right.

184
00:14:01,320 --> 00:14:05,080
But that's it. But that's because
most brokers are competing on price,

185
00:14:05,639 --> 00:14:07,159
and when you compete on price,
it's just a race to the bottom because

186
00:14:07,159 --> 00:14:11,360
there's always somebody willing to work for
less than you. So if you ask

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00:14:11,519 --> 00:14:15,440
value, it's different. So let's
look at a different business model. When

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00:14:15,440 --> 00:14:20,000
you're talking about discount brokers. Here
in real estate, we think of redfin,

189
00:14:20,240 --> 00:14:28,240
right, Oh, has that model
proven successful for them? So the

190
00:14:28,279 --> 00:14:33,440
redfin model is actually a little different. The redfin model is very dependent on

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00:14:33,559 --> 00:14:37,720
lead generation. But then how they
monetize it as different. So they take

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00:14:37,440 --> 00:14:43,799
the lead, they hire agents,
and they pay them not a salary,

193
00:14:43,879 --> 00:14:48,080
but they pay them, say per
showing let's say anything orders to go open

194
00:14:48,080 --> 00:14:52,639
the door. So they generate a
lead off the internet and they then send

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00:14:52,639 --> 00:14:56,480
it to an agent to go open
the door and let them see the house.

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00:14:56,320 --> 00:15:01,080
And they don't have to pay the
agent because they paid the agent as

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00:15:01,120 --> 00:15:03,960
they went, you know, to
open the door. So the house gets

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00:15:05,279 --> 00:15:07,279
the broker, I guess keep the
whole commission. Now, Yeah, could

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00:15:07,279 --> 00:15:11,039
be a discounting commission because they give
back some of the commissions to the client

200
00:15:11,360 --> 00:15:16,519
and that's just their incentive on how
to get the clients to work with them.

201
00:15:16,600 --> 00:15:20,600
But ultimately it's very profitable for the
broker because they don't have to pay

202
00:15:20,679 --> 00:15:28,639
out the commissions to the agients.
Right. Okay, So so you don't

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00:15:28,679 --> 00:15:35,000
sound super enthusiastic about it, is
that the it's very profitable for dvand Redgens,

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00:15:35,000 --> 00:15:39,440
a very good company. I think
that the I mean, look,

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it's a trade off if you as
an agent, if you want a more

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sure, steady income, you can
do that, but they're not going to

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make the upside that a commission based
agent. Right, So less risk,

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less reward right, a lot of
guaranteed income. Buzz you Your income is

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your guarantee is less? Right?
Yeah, like most things, right,

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risk versus rewarding. Yeah, it's
fascinating. So, hey, what I

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really wanted to get John was talk
about the state of Florida real estate,

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because all we hear about is higher
interest rates, and you know, basically

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Florida real estate is going to go
down. Florida sales are down year over

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year. I'm not sure if that's
more an issue of inventory or if it's

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just an issue of interest rates.
What's your take there, So it's both

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and they're connected to each other.
So inventory is very low right now,

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but that is primarily driven by the
high interest rate environment. And the connection

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between the two is as follows.
If I bought my house three years ago,

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five years ago, and I have
a three percent interest mortgage, then

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I can't afford to move. So
if I make a lateral move, the

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cost is going to be astronomical.
I'm gonna I'm playing three percent to playing

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eight percent. So people just saying, but anyone who has a low interesting

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mortgage would be foolish to sell their
house. That's abolutely for sure. Yeah,

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like, why would you do it? Right? Three percent mortgage you

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can't get them. The mortgage rates
are over seven percent now, So that's

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artificially constricting sales. And it's a
question of right, how much you need

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to move right? Right? Well? And then and then you have the

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the hall owners who do not have
mortgages right who paid cash on their most

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spring. They don't want to move
either, and that's simply because of how

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Mutch prices have gone up in Florida. If you move again, take them

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mortgage out out of the picture.
But if I sell my house, I'm

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going to have a huge COUNTITAL again. I'm gonna pay the i RS a

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big chunk of that, and my
real estate taxes are gonna quadruple if I

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make a lateral mood. I never
even thought of that. So yeah,

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because you're going to buy a new
home at current market value, and when

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you move in, the tax appraiser
basically equalizes your rate to current market value

237
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or below it, but still maxes
go up substantially pretty much. But it

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all basically comes back to the homestead
laws in Florida, which are a good

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thing. So homestead laws are when
you when you have your primary residence in

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Florida, right, they cannot raise
the assessed back value more than three percent

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a year. Correct. I say, you know, twenty years ago,

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if a million dollars, they can
only bump it up three percent a year.

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But now it's worth and million dollars
and I'm hanging on one point by

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one point three. Some some much
much, you know, a fraction of

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what it's really worth if I move
next door to the to the identical house.

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Now, now they have portability,
so you can take some of that

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protection with you, but it's only
half a million dollars, just like the

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half get on the capital gains.
But in this market here where houses are

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you know, five million, ten
million, twenty million dollars, that half

250
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a million does nothing for you.
So it's just it's just the cost they

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to move right now. M okay, so uh so that's yet another reason.

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And then the insurance insurance, yes, insurances or is bad news here.

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That's a big problem here. And
that one I don't really know what's

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a solution. The other ones there
are solutions, like the homestead situation.

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I believe there's a simple thing that
that the government can do that will really

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help the market and help the people, which is there should be no cap

257
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to portability right now, the thing
from home to home. You will be

258
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able to take this right And now
there are even guessed if they need the

259
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revenue, but the reality the revenue
they had a twenty billion dollar surplus last

260
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year. I mean, like you
need more money and I need more money.

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But not like they're going to go
broke without it true. But even

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besides that, I think that logic
is wrong because they're not going to get

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the revenue anyway, because no one's
going to move under those conditions. And

264
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when people don't love, they lose
a lot more revenue than the hypothetical tremendous

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tax bill that they're never going to
get anyway. They lose all of the

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will or somebody else will come in
from New York or from one of the

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failing over tax states and buy it
anyway, so we don't have to do

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anything. But it's not always like
that. This probably is temporary phenomena,

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don't you think, Well, whether
timber or not depends on what they do

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going forward. But me adjust that
that scenario of someone wealthy coming from New

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York and buying it anyway, I'll
tell you why that logic doesn't work.

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Someone from New York might be willing
to come here and buy ten million dollars

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house and pay a two percent annual
real estate tax, pay two hundred thousand

274
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dollars a year. Someone might be
willing to do that, but what house

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is he going to buy? For
every buyer, you need to sell her,

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and the guy living in that house
who's paying fifty thousand a year now

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is not going to sell it to
the guy in New York is willing to

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pay. So they're not going to
get that anyway. Yeah, unless they

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want to downsize for whatever reason.
But downsizing doesn't make any sense because if

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you op, you know you're just
going to pay more in taxes, and

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you wind up paying more in taxes
for a house that's double or triple the

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size. So why bother right right
now? If they had unlimited portability,

283
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then people who are here will move
and that will make more inventory for new

284
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money to come in, which ultimately
will help actually having him. I see

285
00:22:04,119 --> 00:22:11,720
your point, totally agree. So
my grandparents moved here in nineteen sixty seven

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or sixty eight, and I think
they moved for the weather, mostly because

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back then New Jersey wasn't really a
high tax state. It was a low

288
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tax state. We didn't have a
state income tax in New Jersey. But

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certainly the weather. But my point
is, we go back to nineteen sixty

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there were five million people in the
state in nineteen fifty. I think there

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00:22:37,640 --> 00:22:42,359
were two million or one point seven
million in twenty twenty three. It's getting

292
00:22:42,400 --> 00:22:49,279
close to twenty three million. So
this trend really of people fleeing is only

293
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increasing taxes in the high tax states. No one could tell me that people

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a major factor in your decision to
move to Florida isn't because the high taxes,

295
00:23:04,000 --> 00:23:10,279
all Right, the difference why you
move to Florida as opposed to why

296
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you moved to Alaska, which has
no state income tax either it's clear,

297
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or to North Dakota, say,
which is still in the fifty the lower

298
00:23:18,920 --> 00:23:25,559
forty eight. Uh, you're going
to move to Florida unless you love you

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have this love of snow and unlimited
amounts of it. Right, Oh yeah,

300
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And there's there's a few states for
sure in the country that have favorable

301
00:23:33,400 --> 00:23:40,799
attacks. But but but most of
the other state sepo in that category don't

302
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have our weather. But but the
thing is affordability in the state. Even

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00:23:47,799 --> 00:23:52,559
before interest rates went up, you
know, due to the pandemic and the

304
00:23:52,359 --> 00:24:00,680
people fleeing more restrictive pandemic regulations controls, that number only went up. But

305
00:24:02,079 --> 00:24:04,039
is there a limit to how many
people can live in Florida? Heres of

306
00:24:04,599 --> 00:24:10,079
so, I think that it is
certainly overpopulated, at least in South Florida.

307
00:24:10,279 --> 00:24:12,720
It's certainly frustrating for someone at first, someone like myself that lives here.

308
00:24:12,759 --> 00:24:18,119
I moved here in the nineteen nineties
from New York looking for a more

309
00:24:18,400 --> 00:24:23,279
quieter, slower lifestyle, and now
everything I left has followed me here.

310
00:24:23,599 --> 00:24:29,240
I'm not for business, you know, there's a lot of good that came

311
00:24:29,359 --> 00:24:33,960
from all the migration, but it's
certainly it's certainly getting crowded here. But

312
00:24:34,119 --> 00:24:38,359
price wise, you know, ices
are so much harder than they used to

313
00:24:38,440 --> 00:24:42,640
be here. But I don't I
don't see them coming, you know,

314
00:24:42,799 --> 00:24:48,000
crashing like like some people think.
And I'll tell you what a few reasons.

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00:24:48,759 --> 00:24:52,799
First of all, if you compare
Florida prices with the rest of the

316
00:24:52,880 --> 00:24:59,400
country, it's it's still far more
horrible than maybe other major cities. So

317
00:24:59,480 --> 00:25:03,319
anyone kin you know from New York, delish any of these places. They've

318
00:25:03,359 --> 00:25:07,240
also gone out, so well,
we're still a better deal. You still

319
00:25:07,279 --> 00:25:12,160
get more house here for your my
name do in those places. And also

320
00:25:14,559 --> 00:25:18,559
something that you have to adjust your
you're thinking too, is the value of

321
00:25:18,599 --> 00:25:22,480
the dollar. It's just not what
it used to be. So you know,

322
00:25:22,519 --> 00:25:25,680
I like to joke that a million
dollars. It's just not worth a

323
00:25:25,720 --> 00:25:30,519
million dollars anymore. Now it's worth
it's worth a tenth set of the twenty

324
00:25:30,599 --> 00:25:34,319
thirty year thirty forty years ago.
Maybe forty years ago, it's worth about

325
00:25:34,400 --> 00:25:38,880
ten percent perhaps, Okay, right, So take the value of your house

326
00:25:38,960 --> 00:25:42,359
and take a zero zero. Yeah, and then I ask yourself as it

327
00:25:42,440 --> 00:25:47,440
over, pray, Hey, and
taxes are less here, for sure,

328
00:25:48,039 --> 00:25:51,960
real estate taxes. When I left
the Westchester County, New York, we

329
00:25:52,119 --> 00:25:56,720
were blessed with the highest real estate
taxes in the country. That was our

330
00:25:56,799 --> 00:26:02,400
claim to fame. And they were
still paying forty percent of what I paid

331
00:26:02,440 --> 00:26:07,000
there a lesser house. Well maybe
the house isn't really lesser, but maybe

332
00:26:07,079 --> 00:26:11,240
it's twenty percent less house than I
had in Westchester. So I'm paying a

333
00:26:11,319 --> 00:26:14,880
fraction of what I paid there,
and no staying income tax. And I

334
00:26:15,000 --> 00:26:18,839
realize that that says are not considered
to be low. I'm not by any

335
00:26:18,839 --> 00:26:21,880
of the percent of the eye of
the home. It's not it's not,

336
00:26:22,039 --> 00:26:25,440
you know, it's not that low. Where we really make up for it

337
00:26:25,640 --> 00:26:27,839
is the lack of income tax.
Yeah, lack of income tax. And

338
00:26:29,640 --> 00:26:34,440
yeah, food is pretty much the
same cost as it is their guests probably

339
00:26:34,480 --> 00:26:42,559
about the same. Yeah, pretty
much income tax and you know, well

340
00:26:42,599 --> 00:26:47,240
I was going to say lower tolls, but we're getting lots of tolls now,

341
00:26:47,720 --> 00:26:52,119
so yeah, but not like me, not like twenty bucks to go

342
00:26:52,240 --> 00:26:56,680
over a bridge. Actually, yeah, I remember. I feel like the

343
00:26:56,759 --> 00:27:00,559
old timer. I remember when it
was twenty five cents to go each way

344
00:27:00,640 --> 00:27:03,759
through the Lincoln or Holland Tunnel or
over the GW bridge, and now it's

345
00:27:04,240 --> 00:27:10,160
it's forty times that say, so
much for inflation. You know, tolls,

346
00:27:10,319 --> 00:27:15,160
road tolls have gone up as fast
as healthcare expenses and college educations,

347
00:27:15,680 --> 00:27:19,440
you know, and both of those
things also went up a lot more than

348
00:27:19,480 --> 00:27:25,200
they should. Yeah, hey,
so prognosis. There's got to be a

349
00:27:25,359 --> 00:27:30,279
limit though, because look, go
what happened last two winters ago, where

350
00:27:30,799 --> 00:27:36,519
or I should say summers ago where
people stayed here after the winter because they

351
00:27:36,599 --> 00:27:41,279
didn't go back to lockdowns, right, you know, it really disrupted the

352
00:27:41,359 --> 00:27:45,400
supply chain of your supermarkets. And
the supply chain was already disrupted, but

353
00:27:45,640 --> 00:27:49,599
you saw it in the stores.
So the question is how much longer can

354
00:27:49,680 --> 00:27:55,119
the party go on? Zev are
you asking our price is going to crash.

355
00:27:55,799 --> 00:27:57,519
No, I'm saying, what are
you're asking? How long can more

356
00:27:57,559 --> 00:28:02,319
people get motivating? Yeah? Yeah, that's what can the population go?

357
00:28:02,480 --> 00:28:06,519
Can we go to thirty million like
Texas? Yeah? So here's what I

358
00:28:06,559 --> 00:28:11,359
think will happen. I think other
other parts of Florida have yet to see

359
00:28:12,119 --> 00:28:17,519
the best of it yet. There
are parts of Florida that are still much

360
00:28:17,559 --> 00:28:22,119
more affordable than where we are sure
and still have all the benefits that we're

361
00:28:22,160 --> 00:28:26,920
talking about again, Still Florida lot, it's large Texas, it's Florida weather

362
00:28:26,319 --> 00:28:33,400
on places like Tampa, Orlando,
Jacksonville. These areas have plenty of room

363
00:28:33,480 --> 00:28:37,680
to grow, and they're not as
overpopulated as South Florida. I think those

364
00:28:37,720 --> 00:28:42,160
will be the areas that will see
huge upside in the next few years.

365
00:28:42,680 --> 00:28:48,240
Okay, so new home builders they
seem to have slowed down a bit here

366
00:28:48,319 --> 00:28:56,640
though, where they're cutting stuff and
trying to make it more affordable by cutting

367
00:28:56,680 --> 00:29:03,680
out stuff and I guess adding more
extras. Right. Home builders are kind

368
00:29:03,720 --> 00:29:10,279
of a trickier business because of the
lean time it takes from from when you

369
00:29:10,359 --> 00:29:14,920
buy the land till you get approvals, till you put the shineers build the

370
00:29:14,960 --> 00:29:18,599
development ten years, right, So
so what they try to do is and

371
00:29:18,680 --> 00:29:22,559
you know, it's all done with
financing, right that it's these builders aren't

372
00:29:22,599 --> 00:29:25,839
buying land for cash and building everything
out of their own pocket. It's all

373
00:29:25,920 --> 00:29:30,480
construction loans and all kinds of financing. So so there's a time cost of

374
00:29:30,559 --> 00:29:33,519
money. So they try to and
then they have to predict, you know,

375
00:29:33,599 --> 00:29:38,039
what prices will be at the completion
of the project. So, I

376
00:29:38,079 --> 00:29:41,480
mean they've all done very good over
the past few years because whatever their business

377
00:29:41,519 --> 00:29:45,319
plans, well they did better,
so you know, there was no surprises

378
00:29:45,359 --> 00:29:48,039
to the downside. But they still
need to think about what's going to be

379
00:29:48,119 --> 00:29:52,000
a few years out and what's going
to cost to get from here to there.

380
00:29:52,079 --> 00:29:55,319
So I think they're just being extra
cautious. They will. If you

381
00:29:55,400 --> 00:30:00,000
couldn't make money as a home builder
in Florida over the past say five years,

382
00:30:02,039 --> 00:30:07,720
four or five years, then you
had some serious serious issues going on

383
00:30:07,240 --> 00:30:11,519
in your business plan and your quality
and everything else. Even with bad quality,

384
00:30:11,880 --> 00:30:15,559
you could sell anything the past few
years. Maybe now it's a little

385
00:30:15,599 --> 00:30:19,680
more difficult. So hey, Zev, really appreciate you coming on. How

386
00:30:19,720 --> 00:30:22,759
do we find you on the web? How do we connect with you.

387
00:30:23,319 --> 00:30:30,319
Sure. So Ze freedis ZFC real
Estate. Our website is at ZSC dot

388
00:30:30,359 --> 00:30:34,240
com and the links in the show
notes this interview on Financial Survival Network dot

389
00:30:34,279 --> 00:30:38,039
com. If you got a question
for Zev or myself, just shoot me

390
00:30:38,119 --> 00:30:42,799
an email k L at Krelutz dot
com. I happen to be a realtor,

391
00:30:44,000 --> 00:30:48,920
but I am nonpracticing. But hey, I can give you some advice

392
00:30:48,039 --> 00:30:52,240
if you want. I'm not saying
everybody should live in Florida. It's not

393
00:30:52,440 --> 00:30:57,599
for everybody. I find myself.
I can't retire, Zev because most of

394
00:30:57,680 --> 00:31:03,319
my activities take place at night,
my leisure activities. I'm not a golfer

395
00:31:03,000 --> 00:31:07,000
and not much of a tennis player. I do like to walk, so

396
00:31:07,559 --> 00:31:11,680
I got to keep working during the
day otherwise I will have nothing to do

397
00:31:11,799 --> 00:31:15,960
and I'm not sitting around watching TV
or playing with the internet. You know,

398
00:31:15,640 --> 00:31:21,000
Yeah, yeah, idea, Yeah, all right, Hey, thanks

399
00:31:21,039 --> 00:31:23,599
a lot, and again, Zev's
u r L is in these show notes

400
00:31:23,640 --> 00:31:29,279
to this interview. Got a question
kl at carry Lets dot com. On

401
00:31:29,400 --> 00:31:33,400
the one hand, I don't want
you to move down because it's getting too

402
00:31:33,480 --> 00:31:37,480
crowded. On the other hand,
look, everybody's entitled to pursue your happiness,

403
00:31:37,920 --> 00:31:41,920
however that may be. And Zev, I'm sure you agree. When

404
00:31:41,960 --> 00:31:48,759
it comes to from October to like
the beginning of May, there's no place

405
00:31:48,119 --> 00:31:52,039
in the country better to be than
Florida. Agreed. Thanks for listening to

406
00:31:52,240 --> 00:31:59,319
carry Lets's Financial Survival Network, your
solution to today's trying times. For the

407
00:31:59,400 --> 00:32:05,839
latest, go to Financial Survival Network
dot com. Financial Survival Network now more

408
00:32:05,960 --> 00:32:06,440
than ever,
