3 Requirements for Success in High-End Real Estate (Part 1 of 2)
What happens when L.A. and NYC high-end real estate agents – who accounted for nearly $20 million in GCI in 2021 – converge in a Dallas podcast studio?
YOU get to hear multiple perspectives on what it takes to succeed in luxury real estate, that’s what.
On today’s Luxury Code, Jon & Lauren Grauman from the Westside of L.A. and Steven Cohen from Manhattan share their insights into the true meaning of luxury, the importance of authenticity, marketing tips and more!
Whether you’re a luxury agent looking for tips or you aspire to break into luxury real estate, be sure to join us for part one of this two-part episode.
00:00 – Intro
02:25 – How Jon & Lauren Grauman scaled to $12 million GCI in 2021
03:50 – Who is Steven Cohen?
05:46 – 3 components of success in the high end
10:20 – How to develop the skills necessary to succeed
14:55 – Marketing and maintaining relevance
18:27 – The alternative to direct mail to reach “ultra-luxe” consumers
20:28 – Factoring in the stigma of real estate
23:15 – How Steven evaluates potential marketing messages
26:10 – Making the client experience first and foremost
28:57 – The importance of relevancy
31:50 – How Million Dollar Listing changed everything
For the majority of my life, I’ve been passionate and dedicated about changing lives by giving away the very best strategies, tactics, and mindset techniques to help you and your business succeed. Join me as we take this to level 10!
Keep up with me and what's new on my other channels:
Website - https://TomFerry.com
Facebook - https://facebook.com/TomFerry
Instagram - https://instagram.com/TomFerry
Twitter - https://twitter.com/TomFerry
Podcast - https://TomFerry.com/Podcast
YouTube - https://youtube.com/CoachTomFerry
What happens when L.A. and NYC high-end real estate agents – who accounted for nearly $20 million in GCI in 2021 – converge in a Dallas podcast studio?
YOU get to hear multiple perspectives on what it takes to succeed in luxury real estate, that’s what.
On today’s Luxury Code, Jon & Lauren Grauman from the Westside of L.A. and Steven Cohen from Manhattan share their insights into the true meaning of luxury, the importance of authenticity, marketing tips and more!
Whether you’re a luxury agent looking for tips or you aspire to break into luxury real estate, be sure to join us for part one of this two-part episode.
00:00 – Intro
02:25 – How Jon & Lauren Grauman scaled to $12 million GCI in 2021
03:50 – Who is Steven Cohen?
05:46 – 3 components of success in the high end
10:20 – How to develop the skills necessary to succeed
14:55 – Marketing and maintaining relevance
18:27 – The alternative to direct mail to reach “ultra-luxe” consumers
20:28 – Factoring in the stigma of real estate
23:15 – How Steven evaluates potential marketing messages
26:10 – Making the client experience first and foremost
28:57 – The importance of relevancy
31:50 – How Million Dollar Listing changed everything
For the majority of my life, I’ve been passionate and dedicated about changing lives by giving away the very best strategies, tactics, and mindset techniques to help you and your business succeed. Join me as we take this to level 10!
Keep up with me and what's new on my other channels:
Website - https://TomFerry.com
Facebook - https://facebook.com/TomFerry
Instagram - https://instagram.com/TomFerry
Twitter - https://twitter.com/TomFerry
Podcast - https://TomFerry.com/Podcast
YouTube - https://youtube.com/CoachTomFerry
Welcome to the luxury code, where we decode the mindset, the marketing and the business approach of successful luxury brokers every agent i talk to fantasizes about raising their average sales price. I mean think about it. The allure of million dollar transactions of five and six figure commission checks. Fancy cars, fancy houses, a fancy lifestyle, it just sounds so easy, doesn't it guys sure yeah so yeah? You guys do that all day.
Long now, so hey in this episode, we're gon na unpack. Uh insights tactics a lot of threes from three extraordinary, a husband and wife team and stephen cohen from new york city about what they do to really make it happen. So so why don't? We start lauren with some introductions, so give us context for um who you are right, you and john together right and then how long you been in the business. What kind of volume production transactions gci all that stuff this year? That's a lot! Um! Okay, i've been in the business for 18 years john and i have been working together for seven years, which is actually when we started coaching with you, um and you're.
Today i mean you want numbers for this year: yeah uh this year, we'll hit 7.50 closed. 750 million available year was about 2 30. I think that's a pretty just. Does that just piss you off stephen cohen, yes, okay, just checking so so 18 years in the business seven years in this partnership, this year, 750 million dollars in volume.
How many transactions does that represent about 275.? That's a lot of business in the high end. It's an insane number in the high end. Like the idea of you know, we go to your events all the time we hear people throwing out these numbers right. How many years you sell 480, i sold you know 200 and whatever we never thought about doing that many sales, just it's very foreign in the high-end market.
I know it is well not anymore, clearly, yeah anymore. What's so, what's gci in 750, uh, just shy of 12 million, so 12 million dollars in gross commission income, 750 million dollars in sales, 275 transactions and now obviously the people that are listening here, be like okay, wait, a minute like clearly. This is just a husband and wife team. They have no children, then all they do is work 24 hours a day and they have no team right.
No, no. I know yeah exactly okay yeah. So no, yes, no, maybe yeah. I was very precise, john break down the team for people to have context and stephen i'm coming to you next so get ready sure.
So the team is comprised of about 55 agents and roughly about 15 to 20 staff, 15 full-time and then i would say five virtual assistants right so about 20. You know 75 people in total between agents and staff, so you're so you're a brokerage, we're a team. We're a brokerage within a brokerage and to put that in perspective 18 months ago, right at the start of kovid, we were a team of staff agents and staff, seven people, so we've gone from seven people to 70 people in a span of 18 months. So not only to talk about what it takes to be successful in lecture we're also going to talk about what does it mean to scale in a luxury marketplace? So so you guys are at the agency in beverly hills and the agency is expanding and doing a fantastic job, so we're gon na get into all that more. But let's go to mr steve cohen, who i think we were trying to figure out earlier. Is this? Like your third or three hundredth time on the podcast, something like that you're, like you're like my most popular guest, so so stephen. How long is the business stephen, stephen cohen, new york city douglas element, beverly hills, but really all of the west side, yeah right and now also in san francisco, correct all right, so so two markets, which will unpack as well stephen, give them a little background like Who are you how long in the business and what's your business, look like today, uh, so just shy of 300 million uh like how shy is just shy, be honest. Sign today, oh yeah um, i had a client, i just said to you literally you know or maxine gallons.
She was at 296 million dollars and i'm like you should just buy a four million dollar house. She was like you should buy it. She was like putting right back on me and i'm like just 300 right. It's such a huge number.
So that's my closed impending. It's not all closed yet um, that's 7.5 million gci and our team. Our team we're small, we're uh, it's myself, two other brokers or agents, and then i've just brought on in the last four months: three new agents. Yes, so there's now, six in sales and uh, we have three in support all right: um, but and john and lauren.
We've known each other: over seven eight years we were drunk one of your seminars, yeah um, and just these guys, it's amazing how they're scaling and i go kicking and screaming. Because years ago, tom said you have to have a team and i was like i don't think that's for me yeah it's it's the way to go, though. Well you look at 300 million dollars in sales and how many transactions involved. I mean just we're going to get into today for the people that are listening like taking care of clients, and what does that take and like what are the expectations of luxury buyers and sellers.
Everyone listening is either in the market or they want to be in the market. So, let's, let's jump into a bunch of details, 71 trends. Yeah, that's a big number! That's a huge! I mean listen. I know agents that, like hey, we did 100 million dollars in volume last year like how many transactions 18 right right and you're like first of all, you say, congratulations and then you think to yourself: could you imagine if they just pushed a little, not that they Have to not everybody does sure right, but clearly the three of you are trying to push the envelope here.
So so i wrote down a bunch of these three questions right, like three of this and three of that and three of this. Let's, let's play along ready. What are the three things in your opinion? Does it take to truly be successful in the high end? Whoever wants to go? It's just a conversation. I would i'll i'll throw in a couple. I would say an insane amount of market knowledge yeah in the high end. At least in our market a lot of stuff trades off market yeah you're, either in the know or you're, not right right. You have to know about those properties and those opportunities, and that's just you have to immerse yourself into market knowledge. But how do i do that john um part of that is, i think you have to also be a brilliant networker right, because most of these people, you know they don't want to necessarily be marketed to or sold to.
They want a warm connection. That's going to be through someone else in their sphere, so you have to be able to network within that sphere and once you're in it, you just have to ask you know: ask probing questions whether it be of them or of your colleagues, or you know, just Really kind of scour the market to understand what's under construction, what's coming up, who bought what they want to know that you have, i always say every moment is an interview right. You just get like, and you know whether you know it or not. You could literally be in an elevator it's why they call it the elevator pitch right, you're, talking to somebody and if you, in one answer or in a span of 30 to 60 seconds, are able to just spew out some market knowledge, effortlessly yep.
That's it! You clearly demonstrated that you came to play that you know what you're doing right. So how important then just to unpack that, and just everybody jump in here. How important is that agent-agent relationship, because you know some people will say. Oh, the new york city marketplace is just cut throat, la marketplace is just cutthroat.
St louis is cut throat. I mean like whatever, like everyone's gon na, say, that about their market, and yet my experience is the best whether they're, competing or not have all figured out. Like hey, we're all a little better if we communicate with one another, so how do you make that work? I'll jump in that was going to be one of the ones on my list as well as knowing the market. That's first and foremost for sure, but part of knowing the market is those relationships with agents.
You have to befriend all of these agents because it's a very small and tight-knit community, even in a large city like la or new york, it's a very small group, and if you don't make friends with those people, you don't learn what they have coming up. You don't just get as much information as you can from them. There's no shot at knowing right right and i'd add to that. It's not just knowing them, but and i'm very proud of our reputation that we have um, that brokers were broker brokers.
Brokers like us time and time again, i have heard people say i'd much rather do this deal with you than that other broker right, yeah and i'll give an example of, please don't say the other brokers, i'm trying to schedule something for monday and it's a client Who, whose name we're not releasing right now and i'm showing that's by the way? Another skill of the high end? Yes, yes, discretion is everything yeah everything? Yes, um and uh six appointments. Five have been so gracious because they know me and i have and we're not bringing the client we're bringing their advisor they're the person that runs their family office and i've said just trust me. This will be a household name if they like it. We'll tell you the name and they'll come back right, everyone's been so gracious, there's a very an old school broker, who was nasty when i started in this business 21 years ago, she's not nearly who she was back, then yeah and she's. Equally, i almost said. Oh god, you haven't changed a bit and you know said not with love so and speaking to the value of having relationships between brokers right, but high incline is referring to. We referred to him. That's right! Oh, this is okay, yes, but that's the value of having somebody even 3, 000 miles away that i can say with full trust and confidence.
I have a partner in new york, i'm going to make a connection to you, connection for you, you're in great hands, yeah and and knowing it go ahead. It's almost as important on the agent and broker side of things for them to look at you as an equal as it is for clients to look at you as an equal. They they need to feel confidence in who you are as an agent, both integrity, reputation. Speaking to steven's point, and that's where deals get done like calls get made to us about off-market opportunities because of the integrity we have and the reputation we have and it also even you're in a multiple offer situation, guess who's getting the deal.
The person that has a relationship with that agent and knows that we'll get it done so anyway that door swings both ways. So if we talk about the three most important thing, there's there's there's always never just three there's there's like 50 right, but one clearly is market knowledge. One is, it sounds like resources like like resources of knowing the best people to contact in that area and, like you guys always talk about like hey, we, you know we take on the client and we don't just have one arrow on the quiver like we're going To do whatever you need the builder to do this, do you need that like how? How does an agent get to that point, they're coming into the marketplace and how do they get to know who the best developers are, who the best builders who the most reliable people are right like? How do you? How do you like, because that's that's like the fabric of real estate, that somebody comes in and says i can set an open house and maybe meet a buyer and maybe be compelling, but then what exactly right? I think the short answer is. It doesn't happen overnight. There isn't a magic pill. You have to work your way up towards that um. I think one way to work your way up towards that is modeling and emulating, after other people who have already blazed that path right just find someone whose business you want yours to you know you aspire yours to look like shadow. That person ask them if they'll be your mentor, you know i'm a big proponent of standing on the shoulders of giants.
We have some big giants at our company, but we've always had that opportunity to do um, and then you know build your own sort of uh pyramid of resources. If you will with intention knowing what you want it to look like, but knowing that you're just not going to have that on day, one right, yeah right, let's go a different direction. You got any thoughts on that. I was just going to add that i would even go a step further for newer agents, even considering going and working for one of these people and sitting inspections where you can get to know who the inspectors are develop those relationships.
So you can, i mean, that's to me the way you fast-track building, that book of resources is, is working very closely along the side of a big agency, especially nowadays where, when i started teams were not the thing. No, but now my god opportunity to jump on a team. There are that many and they're good teams, they good good teams, big brands, smart new agent, can join yeah um i'd say also. I always talk about this on podcast vision and visualization um on every podcast.
Every year, i'm glad we all caught that this is his first podcast in case you're, not my friend when i first entered my first interview at my prior firm, where i was for 20 years um at corcoran. When my first, i said, i want to be broker to the rich and famous now that didn't happen right away and we do deals as you guys do we. You know i do a 500 000 500 000 deal and thank god we do 20. 30.
40 million dollar deals, but the point was i had this vision and i knew what i wanted and then, like anything in life, you have a vision in everything and anything anything i've ever gotten in my life. It's because i could see it and visualize it right. He brings up another good point, though, which is one of our sort of core philosophies. Is we're not in the business of turning down business because you never know when a five thousand five thousand dollar a month lease is gon na lead to a five million dollar listing right.
So, even though that's your intention, i totally agree. You have to have a clear vision, so you can manifest it. Take everything because you just don't know where it's going to lead you to, and then you can start. You know the building blocks will develop from there.
The worst thing that i'm sure you guys get this: oh, we just bought this two million dollar apartment. I didn't think you dealt in too much don't deal with two million dollar properties. What are you talking about like it's like? It's like the bread and butter the city like please, no, i'm not that big, but so the objection handling that i use when it comes to like being in a listing appointment and they go. You know i looked up your company. I see you guys, sell these hundred million dollar homes. You look like you're kind of too big for us and i go it's true. We do we're privileged to be able to represent some of the biggest most expensive homes in the city. Those are our big blockbusters.
Those goes up, those go up on the marquis right, that's our transformers that has the 200 million dollar budget, but while people are in the seats getting ready to watch that big blockbuster, we pump them with a lot of trailers right because we have the audience. That's great, so what we're they're already on our website! People are looking at us, we're already getting the eyeballs, and then we get to show them this, and then we get to show them that right and that kind of helps. That's good, like my house, is a trailer, but i love that yeah, but i like the analogy. Okay so that actually that's interesting.
I was gon na go skills, but i'm gon na go. I'm gon na go marketing first, because i think you know when you're entering into any market when you're entering in any business. How are you going to differentiate yourself? How are you going to become the one? How are you going to get people to at least pay attention to you? So so, just let's around robin like marketing that works, marketing that doesn't work and maybe the bigger one is, and how do you stay relevant consistency, absolute consistency with what uh our social media, putting things out? We, you know we're posting every day. We do a newsletter once a month and it's consistent, okay and that took time newsletter, mailed email now, okay years ago, we mailed it no it's all emailed and that our whole list gets it.
How many people on the list? 51. 000. So 51 000 emails you're, like we should do a joint email, marketing campaign together, um, so 51 000 emails. But that is that's probably brokers.
It's relationships, brothers, best friend, okay, no longer living, but right with an aol account never had an email, though so 51 000, and so that's going out once a month and then you're doing social every day. Yes, what else, but that's it with that we do mailers. Although but we're just we're just getting back into mailers, okay, where we're farming in new york is certain buildings, where we've done a lot of business, we're sending postcards to those and we're doing that twice a month, but again we're just getting back to that. The bulk of why um so the bulk of my business of my team's business is uh, our personal sphere, repeat: customers and referrals.
Yes, and i always say i become friends with my clients and my clients become friends, um the we want another sphere, and it's just. I think it's important to have to keep us out there. It's another way for us to be out there and yeah for people to know the steve cohen team right and even in the 15 buildings we were talking about this last night. The 15 buildings are all buildings, he's done a ton of transactions in so you have brand name recognition, but i guarantee there's at least 15 agents that live in those 15 buildings. So if you're not doing something, you know martha gets the listing because she was at the mailbox that day right. So so direct mail like do you make phone calls yeah yeah seven calls that's marketing, uh yeah, so we it's actually called the tf challenge. Oh, yes, we all have to track it because you challenged us. It's seven calls a day for all the sales people yeah and calls text yeah.
It's just communications. It's um! It's making sure we're in touch birthdays, because i have everyone's birthdays right. So it's just a touch point um. The other thing i was going to say went out of my head: we're going to come back to i'm going to come back to video because i know you're doing video 2.
But yes, what doesn't work, what works sure and then we'll have a whole separate conversation around relevancy. So first off i would say, as it comes to as for marketing originality isn't as important as authenticity. Yeah right, you don't have to speak to that. Well, just that i don't know that i've ever had an original thought in my head, but i'm authentic right.
My brand is myself: i'm there's only one me and i try to i don't want to say, sell that, but i present that right. It doesn't have to necessarily be original. You don't have to reinvent the wheel. You just have to be a really true authentic version of yourself, and you know there are going to be people that know like you and trust you and there's people that maybe you're not there you're, not the right fit and there's an ass for every seat.
Right. You just kind of have to do that billion people on the planet, don't need them all exactly right, yeah, um and then the other one. You know look, you can do mailers and i think it's it's important. I think it's one component of it, but in the ultraluck space these people don't check their mail right, they don't receive their mail, they have an assistant that sort of skims through it and postcards and flyers are gon na be thrown out.
So i don't think that's how you reach them. I think you reach them again. It goes back to networking right. You really like i go to as many events as possible i'll go to the opening of an envelope like i'll go to anything to just like you know, just it was a good line.
I had to think about it. I'll go to the opening of an envelope. I mean any opening any opening event any you know fundraiser anything where i have an opportunity to sort of mix and mingle because look the one thing i see and be seen right i mean it's cnbc and i always try to explain to to newer agents like Talking about luxury real estate, it's a layup people want to talk about it right, right, you're, not there to talk to them about like their taxes or a root canal like they want to talk about it, they're interested in it. So you're not walking up. Like hey john gromin from the agency, here's my card, no, what i'll do is i'll ask about them, i'll get them talking about them for multiple reasons. One everyone likes to talk about themselves. Yeah, two they're gon na give me a road map for what to say. Next right, they're gon na tell me where i need to steer that conversation and then three people, naturally, if they have any sort of common courtesy, will reciprocate always.
And what do you do? Oh so glad you asked yeah. This is what i do right and then how do you describe it? How do i describe what john? What do you do for a living? Ah, you know i honestly i kind of go back and forth. Sometimes i'll just say i do real estate yeah um. I never say i'm a real estate agent, sometimes i'll say i sell luxury real estate yep, but also that kind of sometimes feels a little g-cheesy luxury.
You know right, yeah um. I do real estate. I work in real estate and usually that kind of prompts the next question and then that allows me to kind of yeah yeah yeah love it love it. Isn't it weird like it doesn't really even matter the price point like i hear the same uh from people selling 200 000 houses and people selling like 200 million dollar houses, it doesn't seem like there's just this weird sort of stigma when people are like because there's Such a weird stigma with agents.
Yes, if you look at, if you look at the broke agent, you look at television. You look at a lot of mass media. You look at all these surveys of like real estate agents of where they rank in terms of professionalism. I mean we run with a very different flock of agents.
Right, like our peer group, is pretty significant, yet we know that there's some people that feel that so like. Why do you feel that way? I feel that way because - and i'm projecting a little bit here so there's some unfairness in that that i don't know what they're thinking, but i would imagine that some of them, when you say you know i'm a real estate agent, they go ugh right or like Who isn't right right now or they're talking to me, because they have an ulterior motive to right right, all of a sudden they're like? Oh, yes, yeah but that's see. I think that is not a luxury distinction, but even more important in luxury. But that is the distinction that nobody wants to talk to.
Sarah at the party when she starts handing out business cards or saying you know. Oh my god. I got this great deal like no one asked, but i think that's one of the biggest mistakes. We see agents just make in general right but again, rather than coming right out and saying it. If you can ask probing questions get them talking, you can steer it towards real estate. Again, like i said talking about high-end real estate, it's a lay-up. It's easy people want to talk about it, yeah, but definitely not passing out business cards or, like hey. I heard about this deal like again you're wanting to position yourself as an equal with them and the moment you start talking anything about sales, especially enough.
A service provider now correct and we're we're advisors and that's high-end people want advisors, um, i'm gon na go what i used to struggle with that too. I just say i'm in real estate and then it took like four like it's like people that go to harvard and they say they went to school in boston. We all know what that means. Yeah um, that's what i always go.
I didn't. I always go like this. I go mit right now. Yes, comedy is a good thing right.
It breaks the ice right and they're like oh yeah. It takes them off like wait, you don't work for sure you know harvard, but the point i used to say that, and it just reminded me, god i used to struggle with that. Now i just say i'm in real estate um and i have a team at element and then immediately they usually know and that's actually nice, it's just i'm. You know i'm at the agency, i'm in real estate, i'm at the agency.
That's not bad yeah right, because it's just subtle right and just to go back to the the marketing piece when on our social media and serene who runs our marketing and our social. She she'll she comes up with posts and i'm always thinking um. It changes. Who is in my mind, but it's kind of my a client who i have or a client who's referred a lot of business and they're a certain echelon and we're close and i like them, and i feel they have really fine taste.
What will they think? What will they think when i'm putting out a yes um? We had a photo shoot six months ago and i bagged the whole thing uh because it was just. We did not accomplish what i want and we had an ad. We run in hampton's magazine during the summer three times i just scrapped it. I'd said i'd rather have no ad in labor day than have that picture of me with sunglasses sending the wrong message.
Yes, right yeah, it was fun in the moment when you shot it and then you're like, but you think so so relevancy, okay relevancy. But first i think we need to unpack how you guys went from seven to like seven million people on your team, because you, your business, has been really bifurcated really between john and adam and what they're doing versus the other side of the business. Can you unpack that for us, because that's a whole marketing thing, we didn't discuss sure yeah um, one thing i'll add on marketing just super fast before we move on in terms of do's and don'ts at least what i see a lot in our marketplace. Is you know, newer agents that are really only positioning themselves and aligning themselves with these high-end lux properties, and it seems it feels inauthentic like you? First of all, you need to know your audience and most of the high-end audience is sophisticated and is not in your face and flashy um. But in addition to that, you want to be approachable to everyone and come across like a real human being. So i think you know going back to what we were talking about in terms of how to be successful in the lux market. You know knowing the marketplace um your message and proximity, all those things need to then be portrayed in your marketing, so that needs to be top of mind in terms of how are you educating? How are you aligning yourself with you know, being a luxury agent, but one that is is uh coming from a place of knowledge and expertise versus like going through the houses with the ferraris and lamborghinis in the background right, um, but really we're talking about almost like Branding and positioning yes, so so how have you worked to sort of craft, especially with bringing on you know, adam now, as a partner like? How have you crafted this trio, slash team from a branding perspective that is both authentic, attractive, relevant right, okay, they're, not too big, there's a lot of people there am i going to get the kind of customer service. I want like all the questions that go through a consumer's mind when we're thinking through how we want to portray ourselves in the marketplace.
What are your thoughts there? First i'll say it's a work in progress. Um always always yes, um, yes, so unpackaging! So yes, john and adam are kind of separate as a partnership now and the team sits everywhere, it is the other side of it. Um there's been a tremendous amount of infrastructure and support that we've built out and for us at least what what my obsession is and what our support staff's obsession is is on client experience first and foremost, and it's very easy to lose when you're going into hundreds Of transactions, yeah scaling people getting lost in kind of the shuffle or feeling like they're being passed from one person to the other person. So there's a tremendous attention to detail through literally each and every step of the transaction process.
The listing coordination process, all of it and that's constant, like i just got done auditing those processes last week right and we'll do it each quarter um, but i think it's bringing in the key players. We haven't made all the right decisions along the way in this 18 months, with so much scaling and at a certain point you just accept the fact that you're not going to bat a thousand right when you have that many agents, not each one's, going to work Out when you have that much many staff members, not each one's, going to work out even with the best of intentions and a rigorous, you know hiring process but, as you always say, slow to higher quick to fire right. You have to be decisive um, but it is i'll jump into real quick. It is, you know, as you said, bifurcated you know adam and i kind of our own business adam and i of the 750 million we're gon na do this year adam - and i did about 350 of that right. So we make up roughly about half unlike 50 or 60 transactions uh yes again, his businesses and mine are different. Adam is like just a big league. He he's their cleanup batter right, he's just really swinging forth with an average sales price of 11 million dollars. That's right: it's about right, yeah! I mean his biggest deal this year.
He double ended a 36 million dollar sale. I double ended a 26 million sale, but we also do everything in between yes, which is part of our messaging both internally and what we project externally. Is that luxury? Isn't a price? Excuse me, luxury, isn't a price point? It's an experience. 100.
Tell me you've trademarked that uh, no, because i stole it tim smith's right now going yeah who you work with matters yeah yeah? No, but it's it's a great it's a great line and it is a great line say it again: luxury isn't a price point. It's an experience yeah and that just you know the messaging behind. That is that we focus on the client not on the size of the deal right. We're here to service each client the same way with the same level of care and attention and priority, regardless of whether it's a 500 000 condo or a 20 million dollar house love it yeah.
What do you think about that? Stephen? I love you. Are you stealing that i already did what happens when all the best get together and become friends? Okay, so relevancy? What does it mean to you when i say relevancy staying relevant yeah um i wan na. So you know when i first started out - and i thought about marketing going back 20 years ago, and i was only doing these little dinky postcards once a month or whatever it was. My image was any anyone who thinks about real estate.
If it's in my sphere, i want them to think of me whether they're, buying selling or talking to their friend at a dinner party um. I think it means that that top of mind when any you just said it, whether it's 500, 000 or 20 million or 30 million or anywhere in between, when someone's thinking about real estate, that there's a lot of good brokers. Well, there's a lot of brokers. There's there's good brokers too, really good brokers in new york, and i don't find it cutthroat um, there's a few, but not really um that i'm part of one two or three that they're thinking of yeah.
If not the only one, that's ideal. But if there's a group that i'm definitely part of it, so i would just johnny got relevancy like what does it mean to be a relevant broker in the city on the west side? I think relevancy just goes back to market knowledge right, i mean you know. I always talk about relevancy as it relates to neighborhoods. When people talk about you know what makes a neighborhood a certain way and whether or not they think the values in that neighborhood can be sustainable. I go back to relevancy. Well, it's located within walking distance of 3rd street promenade, that's always going to be relevant, and thus it's always going to create value in the neighborhood. So again, relevancy to me is about having their finger on the pulse um and you know just providing immense amounts of value yeah thoughts on that. I would just add to me the the pursuit of of staying relevant is the pursuit of constantly striving to be better, constantly feeding your mind, constantly growing in your knowledge, constantly working to improve customer experience like once you once you lose that fire in your belly to Keep growing and keep being better.
You start dropping in terms of your relevance because there's going to be 20 other people that are on your heels, yeah, it's a young man's game out there i mean young men and women. I mean there is like yeah. You know the number of kids. I would say like that that are coming to us, that, like john, how old do you know? I'm 42.? Okay, fine young adults, the number of young adults that are coming together, like we're back in my day when i started selling the number of years that are coming to us, you know, like hey, i just graduated college last week from usc exactly i was a part Of the hobie dv alpha felt delta five yeah they're, like i know everybody, let's go.
My parents just dropped four hundred thousand dollars on my college education. I want to sell real estate yep, so i've seen every million-dollar listing show right and i'm going to kill him. Well, that's what changed it? Yes! Yes for sure it was always a second, it's a very easy entry, uh profession, yeah! That's why the bad reputation, because yeah, but you know, over the years i've met with more of my friends - families, kids, whatever it is i'll talk to anyone if they're interested but um, that it was always the second and third, it's always been a choice, and now, Third, fourth: fifth grade out of good schools. This is what i wanted.
Television has glamorized sensationalized romanticized, what we do right and they boil it because they only got a 30 minute episode to work with. So deals are done over the phone on speakerphone. I'm authorized go to x, yes, we have a deal hundred thousand dollar commission, you know - and it's obviously complete bs but um, but you're right. I think that that changed everything and there is way too - i mean it's a whole different topic.
It's way too low of a bar for entry to be dealing with people's most prized most valuable assets and it's become an asset that is, i mean, we've seen the real estate market values have gone, not just i mean real estate investment and not just our markets. We're two are the highest markets in the country, but you know second and third tier markets. The prices are crazy, 40 appreciation, a mountain, a river, a golf course: it's just wow through the roof and in luxury where years ago they did a study. People would have. Second and third homes super high end, the ultra wealthy have seven and eight homes, yeah yeah, real quick. Let me just give you a yeah cause. It's yeah insane, as we know. Obviously, when covet happened, everybody kind of wanted to get outside of the cities right.
They want to get a place where they have more space and the rich only got richer and so forth. The markets performed super well yada, yada yada. In aspen, where we, the agency, has an office uh. On average they were transacting, they were doing about two sales per year, north of 20 million dollars in the last 12 months, 24 sales, north of 20 million - that's insane from 2 to 24.
That's crazy! It is okay! So let's talk about like cultural and then just relevancy as it relates to the business, so in aspen aspen just announced no more short-term rentals only one-year leases. What do you think is going to happen to the aspen market? Now i mean a lot of these people. The third fourth black market, but think about it like third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh house, yeah and - and they only use it like like in jacksonville or like wilson, proper, like you, can rent out your place. It's totally fine, but you only read it out.
One time. A month right like that's it right, so some of these places they were like they were renting it out on a weekly basis depending upon the ccnr's of the community, but like all of a sudden, now that's gone my honest opinion yeah. I don't think that'll have any impact whatsoever because the people that have the means and the ability to own those houses they don't need that rental income yeah and most of them don't want it they're, not renting it out. It's just i mean look a lot of beverly hills and bel air sits vacant each night right.
Those homes aren't occupied full time. They are second third, fifth, six homes, aspen is such a luxury play. A few people live in aspen, no right there during the shoulder seasons. Right like i, don't think it affects it at all.
Yeah, i really don't. Okay, i can tell they did that in the hamptons everybody catches up. It's not a problem. You.