Category: Podcast Episodes

How is the current political climate going to affect tax reform, and what does that mean for your buyers and sellers? Also, did you know that you have access to a trove of tools to help your business courtesy of the Illinois REALTORS®? We speak with Beth Wanless who lobbies on your behalf and protects your interests. Our most timely episode to date!

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Transcript

D.J. Paris 0:15
Hello, and welcome to keeping it real podcast, the first podcast for real estate agents made by real estate agents. My name is DJ Paris, I am your host through the show. And today on the show, we’re doing something a little different. We normally highlight realtors, and who have had success and in the specific area, and we interview them and find out exactly what they’re doing and hopes that you can learn from that and maybe even replicate what their behavior is. So you can get those same results, but did today, we because of the current climate around some of the potential tax changes that are going into effect. And we wanted to find someone who’s on the front line working for you, to help you understand exactly what’s going on out there that you can communicate to your clients. So today we have Beth Wanless from the Illinois Association of Realtors, she is basically a lobbyist for you, making sure that your your needs are being met, and that your voices are being heard with various parts of the government. And we talked a lot about how the potential tax law change or rather the potential tax changes that may be implemented shortly how those would affect realtors, and how those affect developers and buyers and sellers. And also, we talked about a lot of the resources that the Illinois Association of Realtors has for brokers that you probably don’t know exists. These are, you’re already paid for these as part of your dues to your local MLS. And you have access to some really wonderful tools. And so Beth is going to talk about some of those tools so that you can utilize them to of course, you know, better meet your client’s needs. So without further ado, I’m going to launch into our our interview and I hope you find it very interesting. Oh, I’m sorry, one last thing. If you haven’t yet visited our website, which is keeping it real pod.com You can go there and stream all of our previous episodes. You can also of course, subscribe on iTunes, Google Play, anywhere podcasts are served. And listen to those episodes. Also, if you have someone that you think we should be interviewing could even be yourself. Are you somebody who always wanted to hear how they built their business or what they’re doing in a specific area? You can let us know right on our website. And we also have, of course, a Facebook page too. But visit keeping it real pod.com and let us know any feedback you have. We would be curious to hear it. We want to make the show better and better just for you. By the way, as you as you’re listening to this interview with Beth, if you’re curious about how do I actually meet some of these government employees that are working on my behalf for my industry? Well, they have an event every once a month, every first Tuesday. So the next one if you’re listening currently, the next one is coming up August 1 But it’s the first Tuesday of every month it is at the National Association of REALTORS building. Also Chicago association of realtors office which is 430 North Michigan on the eighth floor, they do quotes called Coffee with your GA D which is government affairs directors. So this is a place where you can go you can learn what the government professionals are doing for you on your behalf Have some coffee, get an update to on all things public policy in Chicago and Cook County this is free for all members. So Okay, enjoy our interview.

Today on the show, we have Beth Wanless, who is the local government affairs director and regional manager of member outreach with the Illinois Realtors Association. Beth works in the Chicago office and works also with the Cook County Board of Commissioners, the Metropolitan Water Reclamation district among other elected officials and community members about this experience on both the federal and the state level. She was a congressional intern for a former US Representative from California and an intern for the former attorney general of West Virginia native Ohioan. Beth was a senior staffer for an Ohio House of Representatives Majority Whip, I still have never figured out exactly what the majority whip is. But um, maybe you can explain that at some point. Before returning back to the policy world. Beth was a research analyst in a corporate development group of private investment for a private investment firm in Chicago. She graduated from Denison University I’ve been to Denison and from also from Northwestern. Beth has lived in Chicago for more than a decade and currently resides in Ravenswood with her husband and two young sons. So welcome and thank you for being on our podcast.

Beth Wanless 4:48
Well, thank you so much. I’d really happy to be here.

D.J. Paris 4:51
That is a really impressive introduction and resume tell us how did you how did you get moved to Chicago or how did you it seems Where are you from originally, actually,

Beth Wanless 5:01
Oh, great question. I grew up in Columbus, Ohio, big Buckeye fan. So I hope, a good company.

D.J. Paris 5:08
And you went and you went to college, like 30 minutes away. That was as far as you got.

Beth Wanless 5:12
Right? I would go to Ohio State Buckeye games on the weekends. So I was I was close enough to do that. But yeah, I grew up in Columbus, Ohio. My parents were not involved in politics or public policy, I just kind of fell into it. I thought it was fascinating. I’m a big history nerd. And I think if you’re a history nerd than politics, just as kind of a natural progression for you. I got into politics, they’re working in the Ohio House of Representatives. And then I don’t know what happened. I just was young and, you know, hungry for adventure. So I said, heck with it, I’m just gonna pick up everything I quit my job, gave my two weeks notice, excuse me, and then I moved to Chicago with no job, no job prospects, and literally two suitcases and my dog and found myself employed a couple of months later for the Crown family, and they were wonderful to work with. And then I realized that finance was not my, my forte, and then I wanted to get back into public policy. So I started working with the Institute of real estate management, which is a national affiliate of the National Association of Realtors. And it’s a funny story, I actually got offered two job offers on the same day, that makes me sound really, you know, extraordinarily wonderful. But it was just happenstance. And I am not extraordinarily wonderful. But one was in healthcare, and one was for real estate. And I remember saying to my boyfriend at the time, who’s currently my husband, that man healthcare, it’s it’s such a big industry right now with the Affordable Care Act passing in, there’s so much there’s so much room to grow in this industry. But I said to myself, I love real estate, and I love private property rights. And that’s just something that I could do forever. And it has really grown into a fantastic career. So a couple of months ago, I was working on an issue in Illinois rent control, which I’ll talk about later in a minute. And I was working with Illinois, real tours, and my colleague, Brian Berger, Tony, who I’m sure many folks who listen to this podcast know. So hey, why don’t you come work for us? So he, he invited me to go through the application process. And long story short, here I am. I just started June 1.

D.J. Paris 7:32
Oh, wow. You are new to the physician but not new to the not new to the type of position I guess. Right. So yeah, let’s talk a little bit about your your role. What do you do specifically at IR?

Beth Wanless 7:47
Great question. So I am the government affairs professional, also known as lobbyist. I know some people don’t like that word. But you know, that’s what I do. I lobby, the Cook County Board of Commissioners. And they also lobby the water reclamation district. My colleague, Brian does city council. So he works with all the older men and other community officials. But we are a pretty good team. Obviously, I’ve only been here for a couple of weeks. But I’ve known him before that. And it was just like, an excellent fit for me. And I was pretty excited to have the opportunity. Yeah, I

D.J. Paris 8:22
know, there’s a lot going on right now. And yet, let’s let’s jump into it. So what I know you wanted to talk a lot about some of the legislative moves that may or may not be happening. So to start, I don’t know, let’s I know, you had even talked about federal, state and local levels. I don’t know let’s Shall we start big to small start at federal and then sort of narrow it down? And just basically stuff that brokers would want to know. And how to plan maybe more effectively for their, their business in the upcoming year years, as well as what to expect from their clients and that sort of thing?

Beth Wanless 8:59
Sure. Yeah. So big to small let’s do federal first. Well, first things first, a real tours are always watching out for their members best interests. Excuse me, and Illinois, we have 14 Government Affairs officials. So literally every edge of this state is being monitored, to make sure that our members interests are being represented. And that’s the same thing on the federal level as well. I worked with the NAR policy staff pretty closely, and they are some of the most talented professionals in the industry. And I’m sure again, anybody who has spoken with them or worked with them knows that firsthand. So tax reform, tax reform, tax reform, I know this is kind of a boring topic. And I admit it’s not one that I’m an expert in Evan Lydiard is the tax guru at NAR but um, there are a couple of things that we are really watching, or I should say they are watching very closely. Tax reform has been on the forefront of both administration’s agenda when the Democrats and Republicans were running for the presidential seat, people were talking about tax reform while it has come into play. Now, obviously, there’s no legislation pending. But we are gearing up for that. So what does that mean? Well, we want to retain a 1031. Like kind exchange. And that’s a big one for commercial investors. It just allows the investor to defer emphasis on defer, they do pay. They do pay taxes on the gain of the sale of a property if they purchase a similar property. And we also want to retain them.

D.J. Paris 10:41
By the way, Beth, I’m sorry. Sorry, did Rob is that in danger of possibly going away?

Beth Wanless 10:47
It sure is, unfortunately, we have heard a lot of rumblings. And again, I have not been in contact with members of Congress since coming here very closely. So I have heard rumblings at 1031 will be on the chopping block. And that tool has been around in the revised code for I want to say almost 100 years. So that has been a tool for real estate investors since the 20s. And they’re saying that that’s they want to get rid of it. Both Democrats and Republicans have been talking about getting rid of that tax deductions. That’s a great question. So we want to retain that. We also want to retain the mortgage interest deduction, I’m sure

D.J. Paris 11:26
that’s the big one. That’s at least the big one that affects not just investors.

Beth Wanless 11:31
But exactly it’s it’s a huge one. I’m not as familiar with this tax provision as a 1031 exchange. But I have learned very, very quickly that that is the number one priority when tax reform comes to the forefront that they want to protect. And we have heard from elected officials that they are going to retain this. But they aren’t in some ways, because the last tax issue dimension is the potential elimination of the state and local tax deduction. That’s really bad. It basically negates the mortgage interest deduction, right, it would hurt the states with the highest tax burdens, as they wouldn’t be able to deduct property taxes from their federal taxes. And since it’s a double taxation, like I said, a lot of elected officials in Congress said that MIT is safe. But by doubling the standard deduction that Americans can take, the lower their taxable income, the mid would be significantly less valuable. And that’s just because homeowners can take advantage of the mid if they don’t use the standard deduction, and instead, itemized deductions. It’s a little confusing, but rest assured our lobbyists in DC are working really, really hard to make sure that members of Congress understand how important these tax provisions are.

D.J. Paris 12:52
Is there a certain is is one of the parties more looking to in Illinois, at least, as far as the you know, either retaining or getting rid of the state and local tax? Is that a party issue? Or is it? Is it? Is it contingent upon other factors versus just whether someone’s a Republican or Democrat?

Beth Wanless 13:14
Yeah, it’s really contingent on a lot of factors. You know, retaining the 1031 like kind exchange historically has been a Republican issue. However, with the Republican in office in the executive branch and legislative branch. It’s kind of ironic that they’re targeting that. So it is there are a lot of things at play. I think a lot of constituents across many districts want to see change. And that’s what they’re giving them. And unfortunately, it’s at the at the sacrifice of our members and homeowners across the nation. So great question, but there are many, many factors at play here.

D.J. Paris 13:53
And what what do we what does your office think would happen? Should the state and local tax deductions whether they go away or whether they negate the mortgage interest deduction? What what do you guys project as far as how that affects homeowners who are thinking about buying or investors who are thinking about continuing to invest?

Beth Wanless 14:15
Right, right. I mean, it definitely causes pause for a lot of people who would otherwise be very much encouraged by that, by that tax provision, that tax tool, it helps lower income and middle income Americans afford their house payments, and afford homeownership. And as we all know, homeownership is a core sort of the community a lot of communities do well and thrive when people own homes. And when there’s, you know, home sales and activity. I when I was interviewing for this position, I I’m really good friends with an NAR policy staffer, and she was telling me we’re I don’t know what we were talking about. She was saying we’re kind of like arguing about something and she said, You know what, Beth? Real tours do not I buy and sell houses and flip them to make a buck. They buy and sell houses to build communities. And she believed that and so do I. And I believe that if these tax provisions are changed in a negative way that homeownership will not be what it is today. And it’s very important to retain that economic tool, because it creates jobs, it creates stability, it creates safety, so many things, so many positive things come out of homeownership, and the communities that have homeownership.

D.J. Paris 15:36
Yeah, thanks. That’s, that’s a really good answer. And let’s also let’s talk about rent control. You mentioned that earlier. I know that’s been on a lot of realtors, certainly on a lot of investors minds, but most of them are represented by Realtors as well. So what what, uh, what’s going on with rent control right now?

Beth Wanless 15:52
Well, rent control was introduced by a state representative from the city area Wilgus. Already, he I believe, represents Logan Square, and they have they have a problem with gentrification. Or so the constituents say, and how, you know, housing prices are increasing, rent is increasing. So he introduced a piece of legislation that would repeal the ban on rent control in the state of Illinois. And that’s actually when I got pretty involved because I typically do federal stuff. But when I saw that I was like, Oh, crap, you know, let’s, let’s see what’s going on. And I started talking to the Illinois realtors and trying to figure out what exactly this meant was this going to pass? There’s a ton of research out there, excuse me, that talks about how bad rent control is. And we’re not talking about just for the economy, but we’re talking about lower income Americans. And it’s a noble gesture, rent control. It really is. And I appreciate what they’re trying to do with that with that legislation, but it actually does the opposite. So it sort of creates a black market that really only wealthy renters can should know about. It doesn’t help anybody who needs the apartment. I think there was a study that was done with the American Association of economists, or the something like that, that NAR did a few years ago, and 93% of the economists surveyed in this group said that rent control lowers the quality and quantity of affordable housing. So if that doesn’t tell you something I don’t know, what does. I’m not an economist, but I have to believe what they’re saying is true. And, you know, we’ve seen other situations where rent control backfires. And it really just, like I said, creates a black market. investors don’t come in and build properties, because they don’t see that they can charge market rents. A lot of landlords can’t fix up a unit because they just don’t have the money to do it because they can’t charge market rents. A lot of problems with rent control. It’s it’s a huge thing. I’m not the state lobbyists, but I’ve been told by your lobbyists that they’re obviously going to monitor any other movement on a similar piece of legislation. Because it is such a big thing for our members. Not only our members but for renters and the people who need affordable housing.

D.J. Paris 18:28
Yeah, I’ve heard as of about a month or so ago, someone who was monitoring the or maybe it was lobbying directly was thought was confident that that might get defeated. But I don’t know if that’s beneficial.

Beth Wanless 18:46
Yes, yeah, it is dead. Although in public policy, we can never really count anything out because the 11th hour or something can always happen. But um, it is dead for right now. However, like I said, our lobbyists Greg and Julie down in Springfield, they are watching very, very closely to make sure that they’re educating the the members of the House and Senate in in Springfield about what rent control really does and what it doesn’t do. It doesn’t help housing affordability at all. So great question on that one.

D.J. Paris 19:19
And then lastly, let’s talk about the local legislative potential changes, you know, you mentioned or you you sent to me some information about recycling landlord tenant ordinances. Can you speak briefly on this?

Beth Wanless 19:32
Yeah, great question. So on a local level. This was before I came to Illinois realtors, but there was a city ordinance passed that basically requires landlords and condo association managers and HOA managers to it’s for four or more units. That’s important to notice. For more units or kind of association, you to post a sign about the source separated recycling law and source separated means one bin for plastic one bin for metal one bin for paper, a landlord must provide the recycling containers and posts a list of acceptable items. And they also must be maintained. So they have to be emptied and they can’t stink or anything like that. And then you also have to educate your tenants on recycling and how they participate. The violations are pretty hefty for it, they range from 500 to 1000 for the first offense, and then I think up to like 5000 bucks, so it’s kind of serious, you definitely want to stay on top of it. My my colleague, Brian burger, God did a fantastic job of working with city council to put a 30 day warning of non compliance in there. So there is that. But I would encourage all Community Association managers, all landlords to know what this law is, and get things straightened out because it’s, it can be pretty expensive if you don’t abide by it. Another issue that we are monitoring closely is the residential landlord tenant ordinance. My colleague, Brian has been working with city council on an amendment to the RL to regarding judicial discretion on security deposits. So a lot of our members tell me, hey, you know, the security deposit law here is just crazy. Like, if we’re one penny off on returning the money to a tenant, we have to pay two times the deposit amount plus interest, there’s no wiggle room at all. Unfortunately, there’s no judicial discretion. So judges have to give the ruling that the landlord or the property owner must pay that amount. In some cases, it can be 10s of 1000s of dollars for just one penny off in returning the security deposit amount. So my colleague, Brian is, like I said, working with city council to get a very, very, very small change to the ordinance, just so we can give judges some discretion. Because obviously, we do want bad actors to be held accountable for taking advantage of the system. So that’s a that’s a great one. And I’ve been a renter, almost my entire life. So I definitely understand the issue. But it’s it’s a little stretch right now. So we want the judges to have some flexibility and wiggle room there.

D.J. Paris 22:28
Perfect. Yeah, that’s the I hear that a lot, too. I know that there’s a lot of debate among well, not only the tenants but of course, the the landlords and and investors around what to do with security deposit, should they even have a security deposit or so they just started to move in fee, because the security deposits are so problematic, or can be problematic if it’s not done? You know, obviously, exactly right. Let’s talk about the different resources that realtors have that they might not know that they have with your organization. And there are a bunch of really important resources. So let’s talk about and I know this is one that sort of really important to our firm as well, which is the Legal Hotline, which I suspect most brokers aren’t super familiar with. And it’s an incredibly useful resource. And it’s, well, I You could argue it’s free, it’s part of your dues, but it’s certainly much cheaper than going out and hiring somebody for, you know, $400 an hour. Do you guys have a staff of attorneys whose job it is, is to basically man a hotline and answer any and all questions related to brokers transactions or clients? Right. I know we as a as a firm, contact the Legal Hotline, probably we have 550 brokers. So we have a lot of there’s a lot of always a lot of questions we could ask, but we call in just to make sure we’re doing everything appropriately and not missing anything. And we are we probably call a few times a week. But what you know, can we talk more about what they offer or why a realtor themselves might need to call the Legal Hotline?

Beth Wanless 24:09
Oh, gosh, um, let’s see. That’s a good question. So like you said, I think the best use of the Legal Hotline is just to ensure compliance. Because you do not want to do anything illegal, of course. But like you said, just calling to make sure that things are going smoothly that you’re doing the right thing. I’m not very familiar with what types of issues they they work on. I think just you know, licensed law compliance. Yeah, fair housing.

D.J. Paris 24:39
Yeah, any anytime a broker finds himself saying, I just want to double check, right? When it’s potentially a legal issue. I’ll give you a really practical example that we are constantly checking for our brokers, which is if they create their own marketing, for example, like maybe they create their own custom website, and we actually build custom websites for our brokers but some also then go off on their own and build their own. Or maybe it’s a specific flyer, that or some sort of digital marketing piece even. And, you know, it’s interesting because if if if a broker goes and tries to read the advertising guidelines, they’re somewhat vague, not super easy to follow. And there’s questions sometimes where you just want to double check to make sure do I need to I need the full firm office address? Do I need the firm’s phone number? I know I need my phone number. But do I, I know I have to name the firm. But do I have to say the actual physical location of the year things like that, and obviously, a realtor should should feel free to contact their own managing broker who should be somewhat knowledgeable. But if you want to double check, you know, the Legal Hotline is perfect for those kinds of things. And we are constantly sending over and here’s a piece of marketing that one of our brokers put together, is there anything unusual or an because some of you know that it is to some degree open for interpretation, a little bit of that of the way that it’s worded. So that’s a perfect reason to or if there’s a maybe in a dispute where someone’s having an issue, a broker’s having an issue with maybe the broker on the other end of the deal. And they’re just want to make sure that they’re not or rather, can I say this to my client? Can I, you know, that sort of thing. It’s an incredible resource, and it’s easy to get access. So sometimes people will say, Well, how do I find that? I mean, probably the easiest way is just Google legal hotline, Illinois realtor, or you could just go to the Illinois realtor website. And it’s right there. Very easy to find. Yeah, I’m

Beth Wanless 26:31
actually really excited to hear that you use it so often. I didn’t even know this existed until I joined the organization. And then I heard it, I was like, oh, surely that’s not for any managing broker. That would be crazy. That would be so much work, but it is it’s it’s a great member benefit and a resource that is like you said, it’s free. But I mean, it pays for itself and you know, one or two uses, so Oh my

D.J. Paris 26:56
gosh. And let’s let’s talk about Inman Inman News. So

Beth Wanless 27:02
yeah, that’s it’s essentially just a free subscription, the Inman select. So I have this handy brochure. But if you go to the website, which is Illinois, real tours.org. And then you click on the left side, and it says member benefits. See it is on the very bottom, if you’re already signed into your account, when you click on the link under Inman, you have free access, it’ll go like, Oh, please try this. And then it goes right into your free account. So then you register you sign up, and it gives you a bunch of information and news. And I think someone told me it was valued this subscription, and then select is valued at $220. So

D.J. Paris 27:48
Oh, yeah. Inman is an incredible source of of real real estate information. It’s probably the about the best source out there, or at least, oh, I mean, it’s certainly right up there, as far as you know, consistently, good content that’s relevant to a realtor, and they have just a lot of great, great content. So yeah, if you haven’t signed up for that, you have a subscription through the Illinois, you know, Realtors Association, and then let’s talk about lobbyists. And you’re on that team as well. You know, there’s, there’s a, there’s a 14 of you that are out to protect Realtors interests. And, you know, what, if realtors are looking to make their voices heard, you know, how would they go about making sure that they know what you know that you know, what they’re looking for and what they need?

Beth Wanless 28:37
Sure, like you said, 14 lobbyists, I don’t know any other association is as organized as Illinois. That’s not to say that the other realtor associations are not terrific. They absolutely are. But it really is a unique model. And I’ve gotten a lot of compliments on how Illinois does it. We have lobbyists throughout the state. So there, let’s see three in Springfield. And then there’s our boss, Mike, who kind of oversees all the local government affairs directors, or GADS or what they’re called. And if you ever want to contact somebody, or if you ever have an issue, I mean, they deal with issues every day, from city council to, you know, whatever zoning all kinds of stuff. If you ever want to contact somebody, go to the website, Illinois realtors.org. And then click on About us. And then you’ll see staff, and then government affairs staff, and it’ll give you direct access to any of us. And I will I’m even happy to give out my cell phone number. Because the way that we can do our jobs best is by hearing by members because we’re not practitioners. You know, I’m not out in field buying and selling homes. So I’m not seeing what our members are running into. As far as policy issues or legal issues or whatever. So please contact us. That’s the best way for us to do our job and to protect the members, the members in their industry. So I if you’d like I can give out my cell phone number. Anybody wants to reach me? Yeah, it’s 312-758-6644. Again, my name is Beth Wanless. All the gadgets are available at your disposal, we work hard, we work a lot of hours. And, you know, we just want to make sure that our members feel like they’re being represented. And obviously, we want to see projects through not only do we monitor stuff, but we need to move things. And we can really only do that when we know about it. And we can hear from your experiences. So good

D.J. Paris 30:48
question. And let’s end with a couple of to do’s that realtors can immediately engage in to get more involved or get more information. I know you’re talking about with

Beth Wanless 31:01
Yes, the realtor party mobile alerts are pretty cool. So if you’re listening to this, and you have a handy cell phone, or I should say a cell phone handy, text, realtor, r e a l t o r 230644. Again, type in the number 30644. And in the message area, put in real tour push son, and then it will sign you up for a mobile alert. So the last time the National Association of REALTORS initiated a call for action was I believe, last year in 2016. And that was for a bill hr 3700. I think it was the housing opportunities through Modernization Act. So a politician was talking to one of our federal lobbyists, and he said, You know, I know I see what this bill does, and it does good things. But we just want to know that your members care. So chief lobbyists went back and said, Let’s do a call for action. And so they mobilized this mobile alert that was sent out to cell phones and emails to 1.3 million realtor members. And I want to say they got 220,000 messages from Realtors across the country saying please pass this bill. What did they do? They passed it unanimously. I don’t know when the last time that happened in Congress, which all Democrats and all Republicans voted to pass something. But I have to say that that was quite remarkable and pretty exciting. So I know. Yeah, like I said, 220,000 people responded to this call for action. So it’s a simple way that you can get involved, you don’t have to do anything, we will send you the alerts. So if you can just text real tour, get the number, just make sure I’m giving it to you correctly.

D.J. Paris 32:57
30644, there you go. Yeah, text the word realtor to 30644. And they are not going to send too many messages once in a while. But it’s really critical. I just signed up myself. And then let’s, let’s end with talking about our pack,

Beth Wanless 33:14
or pack. So are basically just helps raise and spend money to elect candidates who understand the importance of the real estate industry, to the economy and to the community. The money is voluntarily invested in it’s very wisely used. So I’m a major investor, that just means that I invested $1,000 of my own money into our PAC. I personally really do believe in the power of our I believe in our PAC, I’ve heard a lot of stories on how it works on the federal, state and local level. And it’s it’s actually pretty incredible. I don’t think it’s the largest PAC out there. I don’t want to give you bad information, but it’s certainly one of the most powerful and the arkpak staffers are terrific. They work really hard at identifying candidates who understand our issues. And if you are interested in learning more or getting involved, please visit our PAC now.com It’s www dot our PAC now.com

D.J. Paris 34:21
RPAC

Beth Wanless 34:22
RP. Yes, RP ac now.com. And I should also mention if there are any magic brokers out there anybody listening who are interested in having me or a colleague, who maybe is closer to them come to your office, I will bring coffee and donuts and I will talk for 10 minutes and just tell you about these resources and tell you how to find them. I know it’s a little tricky over a podcast but I would be more than happy to come to you introduce myself and see how we can ensure that you’re using these terrific member benefits because they really are I mean worth their weight in gold. It’s incredible, like Inman and the legal hotline and we even have some forms on there that you can use like a sample office policy. So please, please, please, if you’re a realtor, remember, visit the Illinois real tours.org website and learn about what we’re doing for you.

D.J. Paris 35:19
And if you want to reach out to Beth directly, her email is B Wanless, which is B as in boy and then w a n l e. S S at Illinois realtors.org. And definitely, in particular, if you’re a managing broker and you’d like her to come speak, shoot her a message or really Beth’s very, very accessible she was and certainly, she works for you. So that is, she’s a wonderful resource and obviously, very open to to communication. Well, thank you very much for really appreciate your time. And thanks for working for us and helping to ensure that our our needs get met, you know, from a governmental level.

Beth Wanless 36:00
Thank you so much. And I just appreciate the opportunity to talk to everybody and I hope some folks reach out I would love to help anybody that needs needs a hand on anything.

D.J. Paris 36:11
All right, but Well, thank you very much, and thanks for being on the show. Thank you

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Kim Kerbis has been a top Chicago producer in real estate for 21 years. She has served on boards locally and at the national level. Her clients love her attention to detail and she teaches brokers how to get the same results at through her class “Kerb Appeal” at her firm, @Properties. Her clients love her, and you will, too!

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Transcript

D.J. Paris 0:14
Hello and welcome to episode three of keeping it real podcast the first podcast for real estate agents made by real estate agents. My name is DJ Paris, I am your host. And if you’re new to the show, what we do is go out and find really successful or impressive real estate agents and we interview them and we have them tell their story and also give tips so that everyone in the community can share and learn. Today is no exception. We have Kim Curtis on the show from App properties and she has a really impressive career. She has been in business for 21 years and is served Aside from her own personal production served on boards, including National Association of Realtors, she’s going to we just got finished talking she discusses how she got started, how she’s built her business, but also some of the as a teacher. She is an educator with people in her own firm talks about how to improve your skill set with your buyers and also talks about a lot of ethics issues that you can be aware of. So you can always do the right thing for your clients. So without further ado, let’s get started and Kim Curvas coming up.

Kim Curtis was born and raised in Chicago and began her real estate career in 1997 at the habitat company and quickly became a top producer there. Within two years she received a broker’s license in Illinois, and by 2001 She was also licensed in California and Colorado. Over the years she has received the following certifications. ABR which is accredited buyer’s representative CRS certified residential specialist GRI graduate of Real Estate Institute realtor Institute rather and the CNE my personal favorite, this certified negotiation expert. She was a member of cars ethics and grievance committee from 2005 to 2009. And she’s also served on cars Professional Standards Committee since 2010. In the last few years, Kim has been representing ad properties as a large firm rep at the national level where she serves on the board of directors for National Association of Realtors. Kim is also known for her working with buyers course curb appeal, which she teaches the new agents at at properties outside of real estate. Kim has been a vice president of the Francis Parker Alumni Association, where her primary goal is increasing scholarship funds for the school and was recently elected to the school’s board of trustees. Welcome to the show.

Kim Kerbis 2:45
Thanks for having me.

D.J. Paris 2:47
Great. Well, you have done a lot with your real estate career and intro I just read, although you didn’t get to hear some of it. It was pretty extensive. And so tell us a little bit more about how you got involved in real estate.

Kim Kerbis 3:02
Well, actually, I, I’ve been in the business now I think 21 years. And I do have a mother who was an architect and developer in Lincoln Park and in Chicago. So I did always I was always exposed to real estate and design and architecture. So that was kind of always there. But then well, about 21 plus years ago, I was laid off from my previous position right before I was about to get married. And so I kind of had a month off in the summer and my best friend and I were playing tennis at the DePaul tennis courts, Fullerton and Sheffield, which is now at Whole Foods. And we’re playing tennis. And there’s these two really good looking guys who are playing tennis next to us. And at the end of the hour, as we’re getting in our cars, we see them getting in there. They’re very nice cars. So my best friend said to them, you know, what is it that you guys do that you get to play tennis in the middle of the day and still drive away and such nice cars. And they both said, We’re real estate agents. And it turned out to be the Devereaux brothers who did a lot of business back then. And so my friend turned to me said, Oh my God, that’s what you should do. And so I literally I got married, and within a month I you know, started taking my classes and within you know, the year was in business, and I started at the habitat company, you know, six months after that.

D.J. Paris 4:22
Wow. And then how, how have things changed? Since you know over the last 21 years? How is your business evolved?

Kim Kerbis 4:30
Like think, you know, technology obviously is a big part of that because when I started fax machines were new technology. Pretty much nobody had a cell phone I remember stopping a car with client when I had clients where an agent wasn’t that the showing time at the location. And I stopped I had to stop my car and like, you know, at a payphone and make a phone call to see work where the agent was and So yeah, facts. And we were if you remember the MLS system, it wasn’t a computer, but it was a black screen with, you know, orange text. And it was like a das based system. So you type in area equals 807. And ber bedrooms equals two plus. And that was the MLS at that time. So I wasn’t I haven’t been around since it was a paper MLS, but it was still a pretty basic system. So, you know, that has affected everybody. But that, you know, the software that we have now and the technology that people have today is just extraordinary that I have seen in the 21 years that I’ve been in business.

D.J. Paris 5:39
Yeah, I would imagine it’s in some ways made things easier, and in other ways, probably not made things a lot easier. But certainly, it’s nice to at least be able to see photos.

Kim Kerbis 5:49
Right. And then And then even when the MLS kind of got better, there was just a single photo of the exterior of the building. And we would always tease the MLS because it was basically like a guy in a car, who took a snapshot never even got to other car, let alone that close up and half the time there’d be a tree in front of the property. And it’s it’s extraordinary, just how quickly it’s changed in 20 years.

D.J. Paris 6:12
Well, I’d like to ask about your designations, you have many and I’m a huge fan of doing education for realtors, tell us a little bit about you know why you pursued those and how they helped you in working with clients?

Kim Kerbis 6:27
Well, my basic thing is I just kind of always believe in education. So I mean, I have a master’s degree, which has nothing to do with real estate. And I just did it because I love it. And so I feel very comfortable in this in the school or classroom setting. So pretty much when I once I got the sale, and at that time was called the salespersons license. Within a year or two I was I got my broker’s license because I thought, Oh, well, one day, I’ll be a managing broker. And so there was an additional training required with that. And then I just sort of thought, oh, it’s really good to kind of sharpen your sword every couple of years. So at a certain point, you know, I think I got the GRI first, which was actually the most challenging. And then later got the NOAA or the CRS I got and then GRI and then the APR. And so I just always felt like it was important to be in addition to the continuing ed that’s required, that there’s additional training that you can do, and it it does make you think about things in a different way. And hopefully you’re learning something from each, you know, developing techniques or adding techniques to your own, you know, quill or your own toolbox. And then I also think it’s a great opportunity to meet other people. And so I think I did my CRS in different locations. And so and in fact, it’s all deductible, so you could like you could do your CRS in Hawaii, and you know, deduct the whole thing. And so you’re you’re meeting other people from different places. And so the idea also is that you’re possibly increasing your referral base as well, you know, from state to state. But it just it’s really just an inherent thing that I love education and so it also kind of makes sense about the teaching too because once you kind of develop a pattern or a per i call it you know, developing a protocol, you know, you want to I mean, if you’re I don’t know, I just sort of feel like I want to share that with other people to help them because I did not have any of the training and habitat company honestly.

D.J. Paris 8:24
Sure well and a different type of company for sure. And tell us in the let’s that’s a perfect segue into you becoming a teacher as with respect to new brokers or brokers new to at least at properties tell us a little bit about curb appeal your your own course.

Kim Kerbis 8:40
So initially started at that properties did maybe like a five or 10 week session of agents who are new to the company or new to real estate and I was asked to do the listing there was one class I’m listing and after a couple years I realized I was actually really good much better at the buyers are much better at teaching the buyer side because I had developed this technique and it seems so simple, but it really just comes down to having a meeting with clients before you set before they set foot in your car. And before you kind of spent any time out on the road with anybody setting up appointments or whatnot. I think it’s really important to get an idea and there’s obviously 100 questions that you can ask people but everything from you know how much counterspace to the current when somebody says you know I want to be kitchen. You we all assume that we know what they’re talking about. But you know if they’re struction is two feet has two feet of counter space. For them a big kid you know, doubling their counter space is only four feet, right? We’re but if you have four feet now, maybe 12 feet is big. So just kind of like really zeroing in or, you know, drilling down on what they have now and what they’re looking for, you know what their needs are what has changed in their life. And then I also kind of call it the getting to know you as in K and O W And then also that, like, trying to find what would prevent them from purchasing, like getting to the know, like, if there used to be that getting to yes, I’m trying to find what what are the obstructions that would prevent somebody from moving forward. So whether it’s a medical bankruptcy or divorce or you know, something bad on their credit, you want to find out all those things before, at least I do want to find out all those things before they get in my car, and I want to make sure they’re pre approved. And I want to make sure they’re realistic. And I want to make sure that they know the market and, and things that impinge on the market. And you really it’s all about learning, teaching them the process, and then also setting expectations about what’s realistic. So that’s a long answer. But I mean, it’s it’s a two hour interview that I have with clients before we go out to property. So that was a huge investment that I make. But I still think it’s better than making a single appointment. And then fine, because i It’s all you know, we all learn from our mistakes. And so I just everything that I teach in my class are things that I’ve learned from making mistakes with clients, like not finding out that there was a divorce or bankruptcy or, you know, whatever it is, or that they had a pool table that I didn’t ask about all those things I like to share in class. And my feeling is, if people can kind of take one thing away from the class, that then then they can they can incorporate it into their protocol, whatever their business is, then I feel like I’ve made a difference.

D.J. Paris 11:41
100% agree, and I just I love the idea, aside from it being incredibly useful to say, Hey, before we go see any property, I do this extensive conversation to make sure I fully understand your goals, your objectives, your needs, your timeline, and, and also very practical to because now you have all of the information to be able to serve, the better. But also, it separates you from literally 99% of the other, you know, other brokers out there who are also trying to win that business. And certainly, you know, if they even talked to three other brokers before you, no one else is doing that, or at least few brokers are and so that alone, at least, you know, and being able to explain it as, Hey, I can’t do my job without a really, you know, important conversation about what you guys need is probably, sadly, unique in this industry. So

Kim Kerbis 12:37
and I liken it to any other professional, you know, you go to a dentist, and they don’t just immediately put their hands in your mouth and start pulling teeth, you know, there’s a consultation process. And the more that we you know, again, whether it’s a doctor, lawyer, Indian chief, the more the that professional has a conversation about what the goals, you know, that that somebody is looking to achieve and what the strategy is to get there. I just sort of liken it to every you know, every time you walk into a doctor’s office, there’s like an intake sheet, right? And then

D.J. Paris 13:12
there’s 5050 questions on what are you allergic to? Are you learning this and so all of those are important because you can’t do your job without those answers either. So and then,

Kim Kerbis 13:23
probably not like before, I know, some people will just like do it in the 15 minutes before a showing. And I really like to control the environment, I want them relaxed, I want them focused, I don’t want their I don’t do it in a Starbucks because I don’t like the sound of coffee making going on, you know, I want that person to know that this is very important that I’m dedicating my time to them that they’re my entire focus for that period of time, I’m taking notes. And, and again, I just think of any other professional where there’s a consultation before anything happens. And the other part of it is that you want to set their expectations about you. And so for example, let’s say you don’t work on Sundays, or you don’t take phone calls after 7pm. That’s an opportunity for you to share what their expectations of you should be as well. And then finally, it’s really about creating a relationship. And so I think that you save a lot more time down the line, when you just kind of do it in this focus way and then later you can say, oh, yeah, I remember we had that conversation about the lead based paint disclosure or whatever it is. So it’s like it’s a basis for it’s a jumping off point for all sorts of things. So I’ve just, that was like the big difference that I made in my business. From my second year to my third year was just and that was before I had a forum for it or before I had a package for it but just like having a sheet of paper and a pen and sitting down with people in the conference room, which just was like a night and day you know, 180 degree difference in my business.

D.J. Paris 14:55
Probably also gets the deal closed more quickly. because you now know exactly what the person is looking for the couple’s looking for. Yeah yeah and it’s it’s it’s just very very smart way to go about working with buyers and sellers obviously you probably do the same thing on the on the reverse side yeah do you did have you did tell us about it unusual experience where with your with the two flat brokers do you mind sharing it just to change up the

Kim Kerbis 15:30
it’s like, again you we always learn from our mistakes or at least our experiences and this was a two flat over on was now right by the Mariana was at Lawrence and it was a really beaten up to flat and it was being sold. It was an estate sale it was being sold as is. And I was doing showing with these two women and their agent and and I’m telling you there’s literally nothing more saving like the house had been stripped. The one thing that was leftover was like an old fashioned farmhouse sink, which was awesome. But I don’t even know the plumbing wasn’t working, it was just a mess. And so anyway, we’re going down into the basement and, and I could not believe it because I walked I probably walked first which of course now I wouldn’t do but at the time we didn’t know about we weren’t thinking about security. But anyway, and buyers are behind me. And then the agent came down and he literally fell through the stairs, and they were just so rickety. It was awful. The good news is he didn’t fall far, because it was one of the steps were like the second or third step from the ground. So he just hit the step and just took a long step down. But it was really scary. And you know, the good news is nobody was hurt. And there were no lawsuits. But it was just that moment when you realize that kind of anything can happen. And then we all need to be.

D.J. Paris 16:51
Sure. And I want to talk a little bit about some of the boards that you serve on in particular, I know you do a lot with ethics, you also are on the National Association of Realtors, board of directors. Are there any, you know, over all the years? You’ve seen? Are there any particular avoidable sort of situations that you think brokers really should be aware of and be making sure they’re in compliance with?

Kim Kerbis 17:17
Yeah, so I was on ethics and grievance kind of during the downturn. And so what we saw a big influx of was procuring cause cases. And that there is no honestly there is no simple answer for that because I am honestly, if you have five people on a particular board hearing a particular case, maybe I shouldn’t say this, but I swear you could get and you have a different set of people hearing the same case, you may get an answer, I really wish that national association would come kind of come up with a lockstep way in which procuring cause can be dealt with. But that is a place where I think the there’s more procuring cause cases when the market is tight, and people are not making money, so they get more grabby. And then when the market is better, they’re more comfortable, and there’s like better flow. And so they kind of let things they’re more likely to let things go. Go by, I think the easiest or the one, one of the best things that people can do, obviously, is keep records, you know, keep emails, and the hard thing is when people text you, because it’s hard to kind of it’s well, it’s not hard, but it’s a little bit more, takes a couple more steps to archive that material. But keeping good files, keeping notes, you know, when you talk to this person, or saving those kind of significant emails, I think are ways that people can kind of protect themselves. And then actually, it’s been this year has been kind of quiet with pro standards there. I’ve only set on a couple cases. But there’s a ton of people on first standard. So there may be more after that I’m just not aware of. So I don’t have a simple answer to say how can people protect people? I think protect yourself. I think it’s more about, you know, keeping good records and keeping good files on on client and attorney and whatever interaction?

D.J. Paris 19:18
Sure, no, it makes perfect sense. And just to go back to your own personal production, because you have had a very, very successful career as a producer. Of course, we just talked about you as an educator and author of serving as a board member giving back to the community. But why do you think and I love this isn’t always easiest question to answer for someone to talk about themselves. But why do you think you’ve you’ve built a successful practice? Why do you think your clients are happy and refer business to you?

Kim Kerbis 19:46
I think I mean, I’m good at my job. Although of course it’s a profession, but I am really responsible and responsive. But mostly I think it’s because I’m real, I’m not fake. And I don’t try and pretend that I’m somebody that I’m not. And I think that’s actually easier for younger and truly meaning like younger agents, like people who are like in their, let’s say, 20s and 30s, who they’re within the zeitgeist, it’s a lot easier to be yourself than it was 20 years ago, when I started where, you know, there was sort of like a way in which real estate agents talked or dressed, or the cars that they drove, or their hairstyles, or their shoes, or whatever it was, that was sort of like that classic, you know, what it meant to be a female real estate agent, you know, you look like acts, and I think now, it’s, it’s more open to whoever you are, whatever type of person, I just think this, I just think society is, like, more open to it. But I think at the time, I was kind of be myself before it was cool to be yourself. And I, I, that authentic word is so overused these days, but I do sort of think that I never tried to, you know, bullshit people, I never, I just never tried to put on airs of any sort. And I just was what I was, and you either liked it, or you didn’t. And that was okay. And, but I’m still professional, and I still take it really seriously. But I just wasn’t fulfilling the kind of old fashion modes of women in real estate at the time. So I think that kind of just differentiated me and then with, when I develop this to our meeting, that also just kind of differentiated me in a different way.

D.J. Paris 21:38
Yeah, definitely. I think that’s a, that’s a really complete answer. And so I think you just have the standards for, obviously, for yourself, or, you know, the amount of work that you do for a client, but also for, you know, also separates you from from everyone else who may be, you know, competition, which I’m sure you don’t even view as competition.

Kim Kerbis 22:02
But, you know, I think we’re all competitive in some ways, or at least I’m very competitive, but what I try and do, and I’m not always good at this, because we can, you know, get down on ourselves, but I really try and see what other people are doing, and learn from them and see if it’s something that I can incorporate into my business too. So, you know, just the longer you’re around, and you see how other people interact, or how they present themselves, or how they do showings, I’ve, I just you learn a ton from other people. And then I think it’s all about sort of like being, you know, I don’t know, you just you take a concept that they’re doing, and you apply it to yourself, but you, you make it your own when you do it yourself. And so you’re, you’re getting inspired by them, but then you’re incorporating it and kind of you know, for me, I’m playing like the chem twist on it. But I think we can always continue to learn from other people. And I swear, I’m sure other every other agent will say this, which is we learn something new every day, we think we’ve got it, and then some you know, something will happen. And you realize, oh, I hadn’t thought of, you know, I hadn’t anticipated that particular thing. And so then you just learn from it. And you you know, try and be better the next time so that you can anticipate it.

D.J. Paris 23:13
I think that’s a perfect answer. Well, thank you so much for your time, if anyone can how can clients reach you if they have needs of buying selling renting? What’s the best way for them to reach you?

Kim Kerbis 23:24
Yeah, so my office number is 773-305-0585. And my email is Kim Curtis at at property stack calm. And they also do have a website, which is like effects chicago.com And so there’s like a nice introduction and photo of me and that kind of stuff.

D.J. Paris 23:41
Awesome. Well, Kim has been in business for 21 years and she’s obviously done been incredibly successful not just in the personal production but as an as an educator as well as serving on boards and we’re really appreciate she’s busy. Well, we appreciate and thank you so much.

Kim Kerbis 23:59
Thank you so much for having me. Have a great day.

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Today we sit down with Mitir Patel, a Chicago real estate broker who specializes in investments, specifically converting multi-family to single-family homes. He discusses his exact strategies for finding properties, finding investors, and what he sees for the future of Chicago real estate investments.

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Transcript

D.J. Paris 0:14
Hello, and welcome to keeping it real pod, the only podcast for real estate brokers made by real estate brokers. My name is DJ Parris. I’m your host through the show, and thank you for tuning in. This is our second episode. And in case you missed the first I want to quickly explain what this podcast is all about. So I work at a real estate firm here in Chicago, we have hundreds of brokers, many brokers who join us are brand new. And so one of the biggest questions our support and training team receive when in particular new brokers come on board is, hey, what are the veteran brokers doing? What are the most successful agents at your firm doing? So over the years, we’ve interviewed them? And we’ve obviously asked them what they’re doing to become successful, what’s worked for them what advice they have for newcomers, etc? And then sort of occurred to us well, why are we living in it to just our own brokers, there’s 40,000, brokers in Chicago, and obviously, hundreds of 1000s of more across the country. So we decided to open this up to everyone. So the idea here is that every week, we’re going to be bringing you an interview with a real estate broker who’s doing something we think particularly interesting, and maybe could help everyone else. Learn more about how to become more successful in their own real estate practice. So that’s it. And if you’d like to be featured as a guest, or or you have an idea of somebody that you think would be a good interview, you can visit our website at keeping it real pod.com. And you can send us a message there. Also, if you wanted to sponsor one of the episodes, you can do that there as well. Today on the show, we have Mattia Patel, who is a real estate broker here in Chicago, and he a little bit about him, he has a background in finance. But he himself has been a real estate investment investor for 15 years. In fact, his parents were doing it even before that. So what he specializes in his helping people transition to real estate investments. He’s been doing that for over five years. He specializes specifically in multi unit added value plays. So for example, converting multifamily into single family and very specific neighborhoods. We talked a lot about how he got investor started investments, how he finds investors, how he finds properties, how he puts deals together, and why he chooses to do that more so than traditional realtor stuff. And it’s really interesting, I think you’re going to love it. And we really appreciate material being on the show. So let’s get started.

So we’re here today with tear Patel Mateer. We thought it would be particularly interesting and fun to talk to you for the show because of his particular niche that is more unusual or rare for brokers that I’ve met. So thanks, Mateer for being on the podcast.

Mitir Patel 3:10
Thanks for having me here. DJ. Yeah, thanks.

D.J. Paris 3:12
And so tell us a little bit about how did you how’d you get started in real estate.

Mitir Patel 3:16
So my father was a passive real estate investor some 30 years ago, and I watched as his business grew, and it became supplemental income to the point where it surpassed his income as a scientist. So he was a buy and hold buying rolls out in early 80s, Reagan had a way for you to take your depreciation and mitigate your taxes. And obviously, after the SNL crisis or anything, they removed that deduction, and it no longer holds to that being said, he invested in real estate and he found that, you know, it was passive way to generate significant income and over the life of the loan, you know, you have something real,

D.J. Paris 3:51
and it became his primary source of income. Really? Wow. Did he end up doing that full time? Or did he still continue as a chemist or

Mitir Patel 3:58
he retired at 50. And then now he places his grandkids and collects rent every month.

D.J. Paris 4:05
Yeah, that’s amazing. was here in Chicago?

Mitir Patel 4:09
The north side in the northwest suburbs?

D.J. Paris 4:12
Is that where you grew up as well? I

Mitir Patel 4:13
did. I grew up in Roselle and his buildings were mostly in the northwest suburbs, and he still has the majority of them or he sold the vast majority out in 2007. Then in 2009, he bought some

D.J. Paris 4:23
Gotcha. So you grew up watching basically your dad be a landlord?

Mitir Patel 4:27
Yeah, I do it much differently than him. But yeah, I did. Yeah. And, and so

D.J. Paris 4:31
what, what year did you get your broker license?

Mitir Patel 4:35
So I got my broker license in 2009. After the financial crisis. I was planning on getting buying more real estate and at that point, I started pulling money from other traders that I knew and starting to find

D.J. Paris 4:52
interesting, so tell me about that. How did you go about putting that fun together?

Mitir Patel 4:56
It actually happened. I snapped a Segway somewhere else but I, after college, I became a trader at one of those exchanges that may no longer exist in a few years. And for 14 years out of college, I was a options trading. So

D.J. Paris 5:09
you wear the jacket and wear the jacket, are you done by two o’clock and right

Mitir Patel 5:12
and I took every bonus, I had bought apartment buildings smart. And then throughout the years, a lot of friends are like asking me how I was generating this additional income when the market was moving against us. And I explained it to them. And around the financial crisis in all this opportunity opportunity presented itself, a bunch of friends came to me and said, Why don’t you pull funds together, and we’re starting to fund and invest in real estate. You know,

D.J. Paris 5:37
it’s so interesting, you mentioned, that seems like so many brokers who work with investors, at some point get in touch with traders who just seem to be cash heavy, they’re risk averse, because their old career is is pretty risk risk heavy, and they and they love sort of guaranteed or somewhat guaranteed rate of return or reliable rate of return. And real estate oftentimes can provide that.

Mitir Patel 6:00
It is for most traders, this is the lowest form of risk offered. And long term. You know, as long as you secure your financing, and you invest in the right areas, it’s very low risk, very high return. And

D.J. Paris 6:14
so you put a fun together you had co colleagues or friends that were traders that were able to help fund it. And then your role is to go out and find properties. And that’s kind of

Mitir Patel 6:24
together. So either properties, renovate them, rent them and manage them. And I for that I took a 20% stake in the company. Super, very smart. Right? We started out in 2008 in Logan Square in Avondale. And obviously now it’s a different neighborhood than was back then. Buildings were trading for at 250,000. Now, similar buildings are 350. Wow, these are all we only buy projects. Sure. So from that, you know, we, through you know it trial and error, we learned to perfect kind of a system in how you purchase properties and how to maximize your return. And I’ve created a great team for that, too.

D.J. Paris 7:01
So to talk a little bit about the team and sort of how you guys do it today.

Mitir Patel 7:05
Yeah, so I still I represent clients and this fund. So majority of my brokerage business is finding properties for investors, whether it be large or small first time buyers. And I have a great attorney I work with that could do lists, which also represented the banks. So it was a good relationship. Beyond that we work with Tyler Mandic and Shane banks, banks with a zoning code for city of Chicago. So when we look at a property, he gives us assessment, and generally we add value by changing zoning on all these properties.

D.J. Paris 7:37
Oh, that’s interesting. Yeah. And nobody knows more than him, I guess.

Mitir Patel 7:40
Yeah. And then so you know, every week we’re sitting down with aldermen getting their support, it could be something as simple as person has to fight within the legal garden, when they go to sell it, the garden can have no value, it cannot be appraised for that will go to the aldermen and work out a deal where we can make that legal for a few $1,000 or some concession you give to the community. And then you added 80 to 100,000 hours of value to your property. That’s amazing. That’s often the easiest one.

D.J. Paris 8:08
How did you how did you learn how to how to do that? You

Mitir Patel 8:11
know, I started doing a lot of a lot of this business. And then Candela’s, the father senior kind of introduced me to shakes and they said, You guys could work well together and do some bigger things.

D.J. Paris 8:24
Wow. How did you find the properties? today? I know we’re jumping a bit. But how do you locate properties?

Mitir Patel 8:30
So it’s half I get half I get phone calls or texts from random people. They’ll literally see my name on the construction permit. And they’ll call it the other half is misrepresented listings on MLS.

D.J. Paris 8:44
When can you give me an example of what what is the misrepresented list?

Mitir Patel 8:47
So I just put a contract together for a property at I guess I can do the address right. 3555, North Milwaukee, and it was listed as a like a commercial use commercial building. But really, it’s a two flat with the commercial space. And it’s also next to the Ottoman that I do a lot of work with, and we’re gonna get it rezone to illegal three fat very easily. Wow. And it was 20,000 hours.

D.J. Paris 9:12
Wow. Yeah. So it’s so it’s so that that’s an MLS listing that you noticed was was categorized wrong, or incorrectly or had an opportunity to be recaptured. And then when things aren’t on the MLS, you typically mentioned to get phone calls occasionally. Are you sourcing properties other ways as well, or

Mitir Patel 9:31
so I have, I’ve worked with a bunch of builders who also send out flyers. I don’t particularly care to do that. But if something, something comes up, that’s interesting. I’ll pursue it. But truthfully, that’s probably like 5% of what we get. A lot of it’s you do a deal here, and then someone approaches you. Sure. I was building my own home on Roscoe Roscoe village, and this elderly gentleman came up to me said I want so my home. So that’s how we got our next project. David and Rosco.

D.J. Paris 10:01
Wow. Yeah, it’s interesting. So you, you you were telling me before before we started recording about conversion properties? Yes. And that I thought was particularly interesting. Can you talk a little bit about Sure. So

Mitir Patel 10:15
it’s a crazy thing when you when you buy it, I certainly talked about Roscoe Bucha. North center, because they have the marquee schools and everyone wants to be in. When you look at the homes there, they’re trading at about 350 to 450 a square foot new construction, but for some reason, the apartment buildings are trading at 200 to 300 square foot, okay. So in a lot of them are breaking new construction, they have really good bones. So there’s a huge advantage. Whereas if you come in right now you’re gonna buy a home, you’re gonna pay at least 1.4 in Roscoe, which for a new home, I can find you to flat for $600,000. And if we work well, with our budget for around three to 400,000, we can renovate it, and you have a 4000 square foot home.

D.J. Paris 10:55
That’s amazing. What’s the type of turnaround time on something like that?

Mitir Patel 10:59
Truthfully, it’s a year yeah. Anyone who does it quicker doesn’t have a husband, wife or family involved. But every process becomes a decision and right. But he was a flipper probably six months.

D.J. Paris 11:11
Wow. And so you’re in you found that they’re just brokers aren’t as knowledgeable about these types of projects.

Mitir Patel 11:19
Now. I mean, right now, we I infected a client to see a property and Bell and Ross was under contract. And I saw the other agent with his client. And I talked to the listing agent in San Diego, we’re gonna present an offer because I know this deals not gonna go through. Sure enough, the deal that broke and she called me yesterday, it’s, I heard what the agent was saying costs were they’re not realistic about what things cost, you know, like foundations excavation, and if you if you haven’t had any involvement or any experience, why would you go right and unfortunately then you know, a lot of realtors become either home and maybe a client ends up in a situation they shouldn’t be and I’ve seen that two or 3k loans a lot of people way you know, Scope of Work nowhere near what really needs to be done especially in like Logan Square Pilsen most of those buildings have termite damage and the foundations are worthless. Wow. So they see the low price and they think they can just clean it up and there’s so much more involved.

D.J. Paris 12:13
Wow. And so you know, on the investor side Oh, as far as finding investors to work with you know, obviously with your history as a trader you have access to those those you know, people who are in that industry, but if you if you were maybe not in that industry as a previous career, how would you go about finding people to help fund those projects

Mitir Patel 12:35
so I I’ve worked with a mortgage lender having like a seminar in a bar as far as getting clients but truthfully, it was you know, talking to people at events I got a hedge fund that manages money from McKinsey and I’m now represented them in this particular business. So it’s a you have to get out there it’s unfortunately my grant the whole social aspect of it but that’s kind of these people are at these events and you know, when they hear there’s another way for them make money and that’s so much less risky than the market your market is very high right now. They want to diversify it.

D.J. Paris 13:07
Sure. Sure. And you know, our kale royalties owner Nick Patterson, have you obviously you know, has always said fighting money is actually not that difficult isn’t the deals is the challenge and if you can get the deal together the money just kind of finds you

Mitir Patel 13:21
Nick is 100% right on that Yeah.

D.J. Paris 13:23
So where do you see the Chicago market headed for for your particular niche, you know, in some of the developed the projects that you guys work on, do you see anything changing in the next few years so

Mitir Patel 13:35
we’ll take in that spare opportunity for ways i as far as the high end home market I see that hit we’re at capacity and inventories high so I would probably stay away from something like that. As far as with cayenne candles, things like that. apartment buildings, it’s crazy because the prices are much higher. But we look at Cap rates which is the net return on the property they’ve actually gotten better because the rents have gone up so much interesting. So if you can find a building and Logan Square if you can find that building. There’s a way we can renovate it and make money

D.J. Paris 14:09
yeah, there I’ve always heard as far as finding some of those properties you know, getting creative with it. There’s brokers that have basically you know when when one of those buildings puts a an apartment for rent phone number, which may be the owner you know, Mom and Dad Mom and Pop owning the building or something, you know, maybe it’s a management company too, but just going Hey, Are you the owner, which is Sal, if I offered you X, Y and Z, there’s a lot of creative ways to get in front of those people who aren’t necessarily thinking necessarily you know, they haven’t put on the MLS, it’s not for sale, but maybe they would have somebody approached them. But you know, then that takes a little bit, a little bit of work to do those things. But yeah, so as far as the so that was on the buy and hold side. What What challenges have you guys run into with being you’re also a property manager? Right. All right. So I do, do you find that does that eat up a lot of your time or property

Mitir Patel 15:04
management, I’ve got a good team with me. So they handle most of that. As far as rentals go, we have great agents and rent the apartments, I don’t do any of that it’s very time consuming. Honestly, our biggest problem is construction timelines, permits sure in the billing department. The city obviously is inundated with new permits and construction, we it’s always, you know, boom or bust here, right? Sure. So we have a dangerous amount of apartments coming online downtown. Whereas in, I always cite North Center building square, because those are very active areas, what you’re seeing is a lot, especially in these two neighborhoods, seeing a lot of places being sold, that were two flats and three flats and being turned into single family homes. So with the exception of some of the Centrum properties that are near the Tod projects, there’s a real deficiency in housing. That’s happening,

D.J. Paris 15:52
that’s interesting. So it’s a real need for

Mitir Patel 15:54
right and they thought the Tod zoning, I don’t know if your listeners are familiar with the transit oriented development, allowing them to build these large buildings near our stations where you wouldn’t need parking would pick up the slack. It’s helping in Logan Square and cap on California in Milwaukee, they built those two towers. But that’s again, a different price point in these neighborhoods, kind of on the Brown Line, that you’re not really seeing that much of that, except for old town. And then the one at Roscoe and Lincoln.

D.J. Paris 16:20
Gotcha. And you really pretty much hyperfocus in just a few neighborhoods,

Mitir Patel 16:25
I do. I’m there, you know, I like everyone else I was I was I was pulled to the high returns of certain areas that really weren’t there. And I learned a life lesson very early on. So which is which Paper Paper numbers aren’t realistic, you have to look at the neighborhood vacancy rates and other factors before he, you know, can assess if it’s a profitable investment or not.

D.J. Paris 16:51
Yeah, that’s a good point. And in fact that that brings it to another question about, you know, if as a broker who’s maybe servicing the more traditional homebuyer trend, you know, who wants to get more acclimated to investment, sort of valuation or just sort of how to go about learning? What What would you recommend, are there resources that you you feel would be helpful to someone who’s new.

Mitir Patel 17:17
So a great way to figure out what a building could be worth is a website, rental meter.com, and it’s free. And it’ll give you the immediate rent scenario based on the size of the unit.

D.J. Paris 17:30
Oh, so you can figure out the cap rate pretty well to lease because a lot of these old

Mitir Patel 17:33
buildings are like my dad’s even guilty of this, too. He’s had tenants for 15 years, maybe he hasn’t raised rent to market. So you can see that maybe this should be a $600 apartment should be a 1400 apartment. And you can kind of assess what the value could be if you got in there. Put a fresh coat of paint on a new kitchen bathroom. Sure.

D.J. Paris 17:49
So you can see you would go to that site, you see that rents are lower than they ought to be. And then what do you do from there? Then you approach the owner? And

Mitir Patel 17:58
yeah, you make an offer, sir. And obviously, there’s a lot of things you until you open up a wall you don’t know. And I had a client is actually the first sale ever made. It was a very large building in Avondale. And he opened the walls up, they literally disintegrated. So there was no sign of termite inspection and even a termite inspection. But, you know, so simple project ended up becoming this huge ordeal. So he actually looked at it as an opportunity to make it a much bigger building. Sure. And in the end, it worked out. But I mean, it’s a scary thing, right? Sure, sure. So you don’t I mean, you don’t ever really know unless, you know, you open up the walls. That being said, if I ever look at a building, I go to the basement first, the basement can tell the whole story about a building. If it’s clean, you don’t see signs of water or crack in the foundation. That’s a good sign.

D.J. Paris 18:47
Yeah, for the walls haven’t been painted over to hide the mold. Or I have a friend that happened to bought a very expensive home. And the previous owners have literally painted the basement walls to tie the mold. And I imagine you’re active or at least have been active on bigger pockets as a.com I don’t know if that’s yeah, I was just gonna references as a resource for its if you’re not familiar. Yeah, it’s a large I think it’s the largest online forum for investors who wanted to chat back and forth a real estate investors of course, and it’s, it’s like maybe 100 bucks a year, it’s totally worth it. And it’s it’s just a great place to get information you you wouldn’t need to go there for learning

Mitir Patel 19:30
about investigating, but it’s always nice, bounce your ideas off someone else. It’s

D.J. Paris 19:33
interesting. And they do have actively, you know, people trade properties on there. So it’s really it’s Yeah, you should check it out bigger pockets. It’s, it’s, it’s very cool. I’ve actually tried to reach out to them to do because they do their own podcast as well, which is great. But I’ve tried to reach out to them to do for this and I haven’t been able to discuss successfully region but they are awesome. They have 10s of 1000s of investors who are just chatting, it’s just a big forum. It’s basically like a gigantic online forum. And thank you but really well moderated. So it’s not like a broker necessarily couldn’t go out there and say, hey, if anyone needs a realtor, give me a call. But it’s particularly but anyway. Any other resources you’ve been using recently to figure out you know, investment opportunities. Training like Are you a co star Luke net guy or so?

Mitir Patel 20:18
I’ve used Luke in the past. I haven’t really currently, a lot of stuff I see I lunette is kind of priced high people put it out there, because it’s, it’s kind of a passive aggressive way of marketing your practice. Sure. And people if someone bites share, that being said, seems like especially as bigger buildings, they seem to be pocket listings. Yeah. And you kind of have to know the guys that are dealing in the areas.

D.J. Paris 20:41
Gotcha. So So what would you say? Do you have any? Are you have you pivoted your business at all? You know, in the last year, has anything changed? Or just so we’re,

Mitir Patel 20:49
obviously as prices? As neighborhoods mature, we have to move on. So

D.J. Paris 20:56
yeah, you’re thinking about other neighborhoods or wait,

Mitir Patel 20:58
so we follow Milwaukee Avenue. And obviously, Logan squares kind of mature. Avondale has matured. So now we’re at Portage Park? Gotcha. You know, old urban. And it’s a great community. And it’s, it’s growing. And also we are west and north, which I thought I would never do. But, you know, up to 3000 West. Sure. That being said, there’s, there’s nothing wrong with going further from these borders. It’s just depends on what you’re looking for.

D.J. Paris 21:26
And this is just a selfish question, because I used to live there. I had a condo in Uptown for the 11 years. And that’s a particularly interesting neighborhood. You probably have I don’t know how much you’ve ever looked into it. But I know it’s been around. Where were you grew up in?

Mitir Patel 21:38
So our lawyer? Yeah, there’s only lawyers doing a 200 unit building in uptown. Okay. And I’ve had issue we’re doing some developments in the west loop. And ultimately, Alderman Burnett is a great guy. We have to get the blessing of all the community groups in these neighborhoods where you can do a project. Sure in there, there’s like two or three. In uptown, there’s 42. Right? So my experience from people who I know who invested there, Scott’s very challenging to make everyone happy. Yes. And these aldermen are winning these elections by like one or two votes, so they will not cross anyone.

D.J. Paris 22:16
Yeah. So how do you deal with with aldermen when you’re having to navigate those political waters?

Mitir Patel 22:21
So we’re lucky in that lifetimes? They want us to use their contractors and they’re feeling as if they’re a better bid? I’ll use anyone. Sure. But generally, we’re trying to we’re trying to add units to the community trying to add value, right. So usually adding a unit overall, is going to help reduce the cost of living so they kind of support that thing. When I’m pretty shocked at the resistance in uptown. I can I can see that. Part of the problem is the new rents are probably double what the rents were. But they are also quadrupling the

D.J. Paris 22:50
amount of units there. Yeah. It’s finally maybe finally starting to mature. Yeah,

Mitir Patel 22:54
that is, as I say, personally, that’s one neighborhood I avoid. Yeah, just it’s tricky. It’s Yes. Yeah. And if it’s for the big boys, because it takes a lot of money to pay his lawyers to, you know, fight these battles for you. Well, I

D.J. Paris 23:07
very much appreciate your time. I think this has been extremely helpful. And probably one of the most unique interviews I will I will have done on this podcast. So I really appreciate it. And if anyone’s interested in learning in contacting you maybe have an opportunity for you. How would they get in touch with

Mitir Patel 23:24
a sure just email me that MIT IR pa to@gmail.com. And I’ll try to respond as quick as I can.

Alright, well, thanks material, really appreciate it. Thank you, DJ. Thanks. Enjoy the weekend.

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify

For our premiere episode we’re featuring Joan Edelberg, a 25 year real estate veteran broker. She discusses how she got started, how she’s continued to build her business over the years, and even how she closed one of Chicago’s 20 largest residential transactions last year!

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Transcript

D.J. Paris 0:09
Hi, and welcome to keeping it real pod, the first podcast made by real estate agents for real estate agents. My name is DJ Paris, and I am going to be your host through the show. So what is this podcast all about? Well, I work at a real estate firm here in Chicago that has over 500 brokers and one of the most requested questions that we receive on the support and training team is our brokers in particular, newer brokers really want to learn from experienced veteran agents in the business about what’s been working for them, what challenges they faced, maybe what advice they would have, in particular, someone isn’t new broker, and also what’s just been really successful over their entire career. So what we started doing is interviewing some of our more veteran agents, asking them to share their success stories, and also how they have built their business and continue to do so. And then we realized, well, there’s really 40,000 realtors in the Chicagoland area. And why keep this just internally. So what I decided to do was open up this process to every broker in the industry as a way to give back for industry that’s been very generous to us. And we thought it’d be also a lot of fun. So what we’re doing is interviewing realtors, who are having success in some capacity and letting them tell their story and so that other brokers can participate and share and maybe learn and even maybe implement some of those strategies. It’s really that simple. So if you yourself are a broker and want to be interviewed or you want to nominate somebody, you can visit our website, which is keeping it real pod.com and fill out a form and let us know who we should be talking to. Also, if you have any brokers in your office that you think could benefit from this podcast, send them the link and we’ll make it real easy to find. We’re also going to be creating these episodes on YouTube as well. So if you’re not a podcast person, you can still watch the or listen to the audio via YouTube. Today on the show we are interviewing Joan Adelberg, also known as Joni a little bit about Joanie, she was broker has been a broker rather since 1993. She was Rookie of the Year in 1994. She has also been a president platinum club Prudential preferred properties agent, as well as Best Newcomer at at properties. A little bit about her history. She grew up in Northbrook, after school, studied at the Art Institute of Chicago moved to Boston and owned and ran a handcrafted jewelry store on Newbury Street and moved to Los Angeles and played tennis while raising her daughter. She’s a proud single mother to Johanna and grandmother to Amari and Savannah lives. Lived in southeast Evanston for 25 years in downtown Chicago the last 10. She also and aside from being a realtor also rehabs she’s an investor rehab starter homes on the south side of Chicago. She represents buyers and sellers, as well as doing land grant deals for future development. She’s also a guest star on the TV show currently airing called Bringing a baller. So those are some highlights of her her tagline is there’s no place like Joan. So really excited. And let’s talk to Joe. Well, I’m really excited to have Joan Adelberg on the very first episode of Keeping it real. She also goes by Joni, Chicago, Joni and the show, whatever. So we’re really excited. And you know, again, the idea here is to highlight brokers, realtors that are really what I believe to be exceptional in the field and find out what they’re doing and how they continue to build their business and also how they got started. So thank you, Joanie, for being on the show. Really appreciate your time. I know you’re busy share. So really, we would first want to know, how did you get started in real estate?

Joan Edelberg 3:55
For a number of years, I was in healthcare, and I was managing outpatient ambulatory care facilities, which is surgery centers, and on a national basis. And I woke up one day and my hotel room and I called my assistant, Amelia and I said, Amelia, where am I and what am I supposed to be doing today? I don’t know if I was having a breakdown or what are you from all the travel and being a single mother and everything. It was just a lot. And that day I decided I really needed to make a change. So I resigned my position. And I sat around my house for about a week figuring out what I wanted to be when I grew up. And I realized that every Sunday back when there were still newspapers, I would pull out the real estate section. I come from a real estate family. I’m actually the third generation of Realtors, my daughters the fourth generation of brokers in the Family. And I realized that real estate was really a passion. It was something that I just loved to look at in the paper every Sunday. And I thought, well, I can make a career out of this. And that’s

D.J. Paris 5:13
pretty much how I got started. And that was 20, almost 25 years ago,

Joan Edelberg 5:17
that was almost 25 years ago, I sent my daughter away to camp and I did the accelerated program through the Chicago Association of Realtors, I don’t remember if it’s five days, 10 days, whatever it was, I sat on my chaise lounge, eight o’clock in the morning, I’d have breakfast at 738 o’clock, I was on my chaise lounge and study till noon, I’d have a half hour for lunch, I’d get back on my chairs, lounge study till five, quick dinner and then run to my evening class. I don’t remember if it was a week, or 10 days, or whatever it was, and I just crammed it all in my head. And I did it all based on when the test but then you had to have a day for the test, you couldn’t just go any day of the week for the state test. And I backed it all up, went took the exam. And that was the end of it. I was a broker.

D.J. Paris 6:03
So and you know, as well as I do so many people enter this industry and then leave the industry for because most likely they’re not going they’re not earning the income they want or generating the business they want. But you’ve been doing it for over two decades, two and a half decades. Why do you think you succeeded? What do you what would you attribute that to?

Joan Edelberg 6:23
Well, real estate is an interesting thing. There’s so many components to it that, you know, it’s not just residential. So I’ve been successful in actually making deals happen, as opposed to, you know, being a real estate broker in the residential field, which, you know, you market you do postcards, you work your sphere of influence. I’ve actually knocked on doors, lots of doors, and not just for residential right now, I’m working on a big commercial piece that I literally knocked on the door, and I said, Hi, would you like to sell this piece of real estate? And they said, No, I really hadn’t thought about it. But yeah, I actually would like to sell the real estate and then I got on the other phone and started calling people that it would be appropriate for. And hopefully that deal will come together next week. So you know, knocking on doors

D.J. Paris 7:18
helps. And again, the idea of knocking on a commercial a door for commercial purposes is I’ve never heard anyone I’m sure people do it. It’s certainly uncommon, or at least from what I what I know. And really, that’s that’s tremendously, tremendously smart idea. So you just walk in and go straight for the owner. And

Joan Edelberg 7:38
that’s it. Hi, I’m here to sue the owner. Oh, where are you? Sam? Joan Adelberg. What do you here for? Well, I’d like to discuss that with the owner if they have just two minutes. And you know, as long as you’ve got on a suit, and you look like you’re there for a purpose, oftentimes you get into see the owner,

D.J. Paris 7:57
when I think he told me for this, this deal that I’m assuming it’s the same one that’s closing, hopefully closing soon as you walked into what maybe five places, and that was, that was his? It’s not like you walked into 100 places to get one it was five, right,

Joan Edelberg 8:09
right. I yeah, I walked into maybe five or six places. And, you know, for I would say the five or six places I walked into there were two that were sellers. And the other three, you know, had gold, of course, you know, and we’re about four times what the market would bear at this time. So they weren’t sellers. But that’s okay, I got to meet, you know, six new people. And it’s always good to meet new people.

D.J. Paris 8:38
And I know you also have really worked. You’re from the North Shore. And you tend to at least for the residential side, that tends to be a focus of yours as well. The higher end homes, the more luxury properties up there. How do you find those properties? And what do you do that’s maybe different, as far as how to market and sell them or convince the sellers to list with you, then maybe what other brokers are

Joan Edelberg 9:04
trying? Well, again, I have I have relationships that I’ve built over the years, there’s a developer, a very prolific developer up on the North Shore, and from time to time, if he’s out of product, or if he has a buyer that is looking for something special, he’ll call me and say, Do you have anything and I’ll say, No, I don’t have anything. Or maybe I do have something and I will go knock on doors. I made some of my largest deals, literally knocking on doors. So one time I literally drove around the North Shore, the developer called me and said, hey, you know, if somebody’s looking to do a tear down and build, you know, their dream home, and in Glencoe, specifically, and I literally drove around Glencoe and I looked at all of the homes that were on the lake and I determined which ones could possibly be tear downs and I hand wrote all 12 op notes and of the handwritten 12 notes that I delivered to the front doors of all of these places for people called me. And of the four, I was able to make one deal. So it was, you know, it was an interesting thing. And I, again met very interesting people on the lakefront and Glencoe and I was able to put a young family in a home from somebody who had lived there, that was their only home for the last 40 years. And it was a terrific, there was a terrific exchange, and everybody got to move on to where they wanted to be.

D.J. Paris 10:38
And I found that interesting with that particular transaction, if I remember correctly, if it’s the one I’m thinking of which by the way ended up is that the one that ended up being one of the largest transactions, residentially that year? Or is that was that a different? Yes,

Joan Edelberg 10:49
that was actually one of the top 20 residential sales for that particular year, home sale prices in six counties. So don’t be afraid to knock on doors.

D.J. Paris 11:01
Well, and also what I thought was so interesting, when you were doing that transaction was that, you know, for a transaction of that size, it was sizable. It’s not enough to just put it on the MLS and hope and that’s somebody wealthy enough to be able to afford it comes along, you have to go as the listing agent and almost source the buyer as well.

Joan Edelberg 11:19
Well, it was it was it was interesting in that, actually, that particular transaction took almost five years to come to fruition. I had sold it three times prior, and the family decided it’s a very close knit family that they didn’t want to sell, the wife wasn’t ready to move, the husband wanted to move and the wife was not ready. And I called up and I asked actually, who was wicking his bluff, and he said, It’s funny that you call I was going to call you were ready to sell. And I said, Oh, no, you know, unless your wife calls me and tells me she’s ready to sell. I just I can’t, just can’t. And he said, No, no, I swear we’re ready to sell. And he called his wife and she said, Yes, we’re ready to sell. I said, really? Are you ready to sell? She said, Yes. So that was how that transaction happened. But the

D.J. Paris 12:10
finding buyers was you sell?

Joan Edelberg 12:13
Oh, I was we were, according to every broker on the North Shore, we were about a million and a half dollars overpriced. And I said, Well, that’s great. But I believe that you are undervaluing these things. Oftentimes, you know, brokers work just a small area, and they become very provincial, they don’t look at the big picture. And, you know, in real estate, it’s really important to look at the entire picture and not just, you know, Glencoe properties. So I, you know, I approached it from a different vantage point in that, you know, here was a sizable piece of table land, a stable bluff, because it had been checked and taken care of over the 40 years that they owned it. And I looked at it and I thought, you know, this is really a treasure, you have a big piece of table land, it’s on one of the largest fresh bodies of water in the world. And I believed it to be worth a lot of money. So I had a lot a lot of buyers come in with ridiculous offers. I literally walked one man out the front door, he was sitting, we were sitting in the living room, on their chairs, looking, you know, out at the lake in their pool. And, you know, it’s a really lovely view. And his, his broker and his wife were walking around the house. And he, you know, gave me this ridiculous offer. And I said, Oh, thank you so very much for the offer. And I gently walked over to him and kind of picked him up out of the chair by the elbow and walked him to the front door. And I said, Thank you so much for coming. But if that’s your budget, I really think you should look at things in your budget. But this house will not treat for that pro Price. Thank you so much for wasting my time. And I walked him out the door, close the door behind him and said to his broker, you’re showing us over? Yeah, so you know, I mean, people, they like to waste our time sometimes. And sometimes, you know, the best approach is just kind of tell them you’re wasting your time.

D.J. Paris 14:14
What would you say is the most rewarding part of what you do?

Joan Edelberg 14:18
I like meeting new people, you know, making transactions that makes sense for both parties. Right now I’m working on a trade. I’ve never in my 25 years done an exchange. This is a property for property exchange. Two pieces of commercial property up north that you know, a company has wanted to acquire my seller as an individual and we’re working on a trade right now. It’s kind of an interesting transaction. I think my buyers gonna have to pay some money. My buyer, they’re both buyers, but one of the buyers is going to have to pay a little money because of the up hits, he’s got a backlog, they’ve got frontage. So, but I think it’ll all work out in the end.

D.J. Paris 15:06
And what advice do you have for maybe someone newer to the business to for longevity? How do you stick around?

Joan Edelberg 15:13
Keep it interesting. You know, it’s real estate, you get to do lots of things in the whole state of Illinois unless you have a license somewhere else. So I would say, just keep it interesting. Don’t just do this unless you’re a routine person. And like the routine, I don’t like the routine so much. I like to keep it new and interesting. But you know, if you’re a routine person, keep to the routine, if you’re not in routine person, keep it interesting.

D.J. Paris 15:40
Yeah, I like to that you and I don’t know that you classify yourself this way militarily to your clients, although you probably do is I like the idea that you are a dealmaker, that you aren’t just a listing agent, that you aren’t just, you know, you’re somebody that can come in and solve problems.

Joan Edelberg 15:54
Right? And that, you know, that’s a challenge in this business, because you have to be able to get your idea through the other broker to the other side. And that sometimes is a challenge. I know, early in my career, I was, you know, I was a baby broker. And I was dealing with one of the Gron. Dom’s from the North Shore. And I had a wine importer who had a condo, like a duplex condo over, you know, off of Irving Park Road. And I sold in the middle of a snowstorm to my own buyers, actually. And they called me for three years, how did you get so much money for this place? I guess I got lucky. And anyway, these people wanted to buy something, they started out at 200,000. Then they were 345. And then they told me they were at 750. I pulled down my sunglasses. And I looked at the couple and I said come on, you started out at $200,000. Now we’re three quarters of a million. And you know, we’re going back to the early 90s. I said, Come on, do really well. We could have done that all along. We just wanted to see what it would be I go Alright, fine. I was previewing, because they had two young children. And so I was previewing properties. And I walked into a property and the wife happened to have been a furniture designer in Italy for a number of years. And so she showed me pictures when we first got together of these most unbelievable properties with you know, rustic floors, and high ceilings and great moldings, and on and on. And I thought $200,000 beer budget, champagne tastes, not unusual for buyers. And so anyway, we’re in the price range where she could get what you want. And then I walked into this house and I went, Oh, my gosh, I’m standing in their house, I used in the course we’re going back to, you know, kind of pre cell phones. So I use the house phone there. And I called them and I called the wife and I said, whatever you’re doing stop, come over here now. I said, I’m standing in your house. Well, sure enough, I was standing in their house and the people who live there were the third owner of this house. And it was very important to the sellers, to the husband, especially who didn’t want to move that the new buyer be somebody that would live in the house for 30 years is every owner prior to them had done and the grind down. I thought it was about money because we were legitimately $150,000 apart at the time. And I said, broker brandom This has nothing to do with money. I said your client has more money than they could spend it a lifetime or two or three for that matter. I said this is about the people buying the house. I said tell them my client is wine importer. They have young children, they’re gonna live here for 30 years. And she said, Oh, no, no, no. I said, Oh, yes, yes, yes, talk to the wife, because she wants to sell. So anyway, short, long story short, this was a fabulous transaction or inspector found that the tree trunk on the back of the house was almost gone through and was going to lose the back of the house. They were very appreciative. My clients sent a bottle of champagne from the year they bought the house. They introduced each other they had parties It was a beautiful transaction when all was said and done. So when you’re in real estate, sometimes it’s not about the dollars but about what is really going on in the transaction. And I guess the baby broker talk the GrandAm something that

D.J. Paris 19:40
well, you know, majority of the people that will be listening to this podcast are most likely brokers, however, not necessarily only brokers so if there were if there are buyers, sellers investors who did want to get in touch with you to help them with a transaction or to discuss their properties, how would they get in touch with you? Well, there’s

Joan Edelberg 19:59
no place like Joan, and you can reach me on my cell phone at 84745202258474520225

D.J. Paris 20:11
Thank you so much for your time. And again, it’s I always your passion is what comes through so much in the way that you present. I think that probably goes a long way with your clients. Obviously, you get excited about it too. So it’s pretty exciting. So thank you. I know you’re busy. And by the way, I want to say that she’s up Joan. Joan has already killed me because she is all dressed up. She’s always all dressed up. But she’s particularly dressed up she thought this would be a video so we’re gonna paint the nicest most flattering picture of you.

Joan Edelberg 20:40
On camera ready today, not just regular makeup. So thank you so much for your time. My pleasure. Okay, thanks.

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