The Jason Theory
Jason Stratton of KlopasStratton Team, a top 20 team in the nation with over 1.5 billion sold , sits down with weekly guests to talk about becoming successful, the real estate market, and crazy stories/people we run into. Visit www.klopasstratton.com to see more!
The Jason Theory
S4 E5 PURE LUXURY - 100% production increases - Highest price per transaction - Highest production average per agent. How Jameson Sothebys International Realty became Chicago's #1 luxury brand and how they changed the game.
We started running our own numbers on what happens to people after they join Jameson Sotheby's. The average agent achieves more than 100% increase in production during their first year with us—a remarkable statistic that reflects our commitment to providing the right environment, tools, and support for success.
• From carpet cleaning to real estate development—Chris Feurer's entrepreneurial journey led to acquiring Jameson in 2008
• The timing couldn't have been worse—purchasing a brokerage right before the Lehman Brothers collapse required daily survival mode
• Taking the Sotheby's International Realty brand in 2011 marked a turning point that opened doors to luxury opportunities
• COVID-19 became a catalyst for reimagining the entire business model with a focus on what agents truly need
• The shift to fewer, larger office "hubs" with emphasis on hospitality, marketing, and concierge services
• Creating a culture of collaboration and relationships through meaningful events and gatherings
• Building a direct-to-consumer presence through social media has become essential as the industry evolves
• Chicago remains undervalued compared to other major cities despite leading the nation in price appreciation
• Low inventory (1.3 months of supply) and limited new construction are driving significant market pressure
• Maintaining fiduciary responsibility in an era of industry upheaval remains their guiding principle
We believed that if we maintain our values and fiduciary responsibility at the highest level, no matter what happens in the industry, we'll continue to thrive. That's what drives us forward.
We started running our own numbers on just that. You know what happened to people after they came to us. The average is more than 100% increase in the first year. That's amazing After joining us, because you know there's a transition period. There's this, and I re-ran that number three four times. I was like dad.
Speaker 2:I don't believe it.
Speaker 1:I don't believe it.
Speaker 3:What's the five P's? Do you remember it?
Speaker 1:Proper preparation prevents poor performance.
Speaker 3:There you go. It doesn't matter how much money we get, if we don't close, it's no money. Right? So no, close is no money. I'm everything that I am because of my dad's death, and I wouldn't be as successful without his death. All right, welcome everybody to the Jason Theory. This is Season 4, episode 5, and we are joined with the senior leadership. That's right, right. Senior leadership of.
Speaker 4:Jameson.
Speaker 3:Sotheby's International Realty in Chicago and we are going to be hitting on a bunch of stuff that people find extremely interesting, or I hope they do the direction of the market, how technology has affected the market, social media in the market and the craziness and the battle between Zillow, the brokerages and everything else that has fallen between. So it's been a crazy time. Why don't you guys introduce yourselves first, and then we'll get rocking and rolling?
Speaker 4:Thanks, Jason. I'm Jim Miller and I'm the president of Jamison Sotheby's International Realty and work with Chris on the direction of the company.
Speaker 1:Chris Fuhrer, CEO of Jamison Sotheby's. That's it. That's it. That's what I got for today.
Speaker 3:I figured it all come out as we start talking so all right, so let's let's talk about the fact first we're upstairs that you purchased the company end of 08. It's an amazing time to get into real estate, great time to purchase first and foremost like how was that?
Speaker 3:because you were a big agent and and like, like, how did you say hey, listen, this is I mean. We all have entrepreneurial spirit. That's why we do what we do. But, like, you went to the next level. What made you do that? What was decisions? And take us through that journey? And you're in your workspace.
Speaker 1:Started as a carpet cleaner yeah, so, um, in college I started a carpet cleaning company, built it to like a few trucks, and then I partnered with another guy who was into carpet dyeing and repair, so we ended up having all these apartment complexes in kind of crappy areas by the way too. So you know, we have these trucks going around. And then we did Lowe's theaters, so it was like a 24-7 service business, ok, and it was a real grind, it was not fun. And 24-7 service business, okay, and it was a real grind, it was not fun. And so I got to see, like apartment buildings, how they operated.
Speaker 1:And then I had another buddy. He was buying HUD foreclosures and he'd call us up and be like, hey, you know, 300 bucks make the carpet and the floor look better. And then I'd ask him later what year was this at? Maybe like 95. Okay, like 92 to 95, let's say like 92 to 95, somewhere in there. And so I'd ask this guy like well, what'd you make on that deal that I charged you $300 for? And I was sweating? He's like 30 grand. So you know, at some point I'm like, oh, okay.
Speaker 3:So I'm doing the wrong thing. I am not in the right business at all.
Speaker 1:So I pivoted quickly and did the two week real estate class and so long story short, without getting details of how we got from there to there. Jim and I hooked up back in like 96, maybe at a, at a, we worked for a developer, basically like kind of like you guys did like a little bit of your story.
Speaker 1:We we worked at a developer's office doing sales, doing our own sales, doing some of their sales. But through that I started doing my own developments and so I ended up doing about 3000 units, mostly condo conversions. And then I maintained a real estate team and we had about 45 people you know ended up at like Canning and Stray.
Speaker 2:We were all at Canning and Stray. We were all at Canning. There was a good you know, there was an overlap. That was a good core.
Speaker 1:That was the time like 05, caning and stray.
Speaker 3:Yeah so.
Speaker 1:I'm sure we'll talk about. We'll kind of weave that into the story later. But there was a little magic back then, sure was, and so, long story short, 08's kind of coming into the picture. No one else saw it. If you guys can remember, 05, 06, and 07 were just hard charging. Everything sold were just hard charging, everything sold. Everything went up 25% per year. Buyers were coming out of the woodwork. You'd put a big building on the market and it would sell in record time. You could not make money 20 contracts in an afternoon.
Speaker 1:Literally. I remember standing in a condo conversion on January 15th. I had the flu. There were no windows yet and I'm in there just freezing my ass off and it was like one of those one to four open house. I just stood there and just handed out contracts. That was it Like. Literally like here's a contract. You know, we sold the whole thing out.
Speaker 1:One for you, one for you, oh and they would stand in a corner and kind of map out where they're. You know, it's just a floor, and they'd be like oh, my couch goes here, I'll take it, honey. That was literally how things sold back then.
Speaker 2:So not to tangent they had no job probably, oh, no you know no income verification.
Speaker 3:Yeah, no docs, no doc loans.
Speaker 1:Their parents gave them 20 grand and that was enough. And so at some point these development partners I had, you know, we kept getting bigger and we ended up doing a 400 unit project and a 360 unit project, so these were getting pretty intense All in Chicago, or were you starting to branch out?
Speaker 1:Here's where the story goes bad. All the city developments were actually pretty good, like a 100 unit conversion up on Pine Grove and then all these 30, 20 units all over the city. So those were good. And then in like maybe 06, I decide to chase my tail, go down to Florida, north Miami, and pretty quickly bought a 410 unit high rise down there to convert in sunny Ellis Beach, florida. So say, that happens in like 06. The market in Florida crashed in 07. They started, lenders started not lending to buildings. They blackballed, literally blacklisted, pretty much all of South Florida. Okay, like Washington Mutual, they just wouldn't rent, I mean they wouldn't lend, they wouldn't lend on those buildings. And so in 07. Why?
Speaker 1:was that Too many investors is what was happening. Like Miami, south Florida was fueled by South America and investors and some European money coming over.
Speaker 2:Thank, you and it is interesting.
Speaker 1:If you guys saw the big short, it kind of gets into that why it happened. Yeah, so you know I'm knee deep in this thing happening in 07 down in Florida. You could tell the light switch went off overnight. Like we sold 180 condos in one month. The next month, zero in that building Literally yeah, one month. That building Literally yeah, one one month. That happened, wow. So subsequently I was partners with some development guys and they were, uh, also partners with Harry Charlie who had started Jameson real estate. Okay, and we did a dinner one night and, uh, harry Charlie, uh, the premise was they didn't have like an era parent to Jameson and Jameson back then was a little stodgy. It was a very solid company, not a lot of fancy marketing or anything, but they did all the developments.
Speaker 2:Developments that's what I knew them for. Developments, yeah.
Speaker 1:So they're kind of known for that right. So they had. Maybe they had like 300 brokers at the time Am I misquoting that? Maybe 150?
Speaker 3:Yeah, and they were primarily down South in Florida. No, no, no, this is back up in.
Speaker 1:Chicago.
Speaker 4:I flipped back to Jameson in.
Speaker 1:Chicago. So I go to this dinner and by the end of the dinner I had like a tentative handshake to acquire Jameson, and how much wine, did they?
Speaker 1:give you, you know the theory at the time was that developments are going like this. You know there was. It was a whip reaction, and then I saw the end of conversions, which is what I did. I knew conversions are going to come to a sharp halt, so I decided that I could take our marketing prowess and apply it to a brokerage and grow a brokerage to to create more of a operational business which, by the way, would have fed future real estate deals as well, Cause Jameson was a bit of a deal shop.
Speaker 4:So our team, our team at Canning and Stray, was about what? 240 million, 240 annual sales in 07. Yeah, and then you bought Jameson.
Speaker 3:So that's like a half a billion now. Yeah, 600 billion, 600 million.
Speaker 1:That'd be. It'd be the biggest in the market.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 4:You were your own brokerage within the brokerage we were.
Speaker 2:Yeah, when we left.
Speaker 1:Koenig. Chuck Carl was like you don't understand the power you have here and it didn't. It was just like it was just a broker.
Speaker 4:I'm there. I didn't really on his team doing 40 million yeah, like 240 million and oh oh say from 03 to 08.
Speaker 3:Oh man, that kind of a running number one in the vest is going to be upset that they weren't the first 500 million dollar company team.
Speaker 1:Well, we didn't make it there, so I guess they are well, jameson, adjusted, adjusted for inflation I'll take that jameson wasn't that much bigger no, it was. Uh, I think at the time they were doing 300 million, so like an annual basis.
Speaker 3:So it kind of makes sense. It's like, hey, we're going to take this and we're going to be a business now.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we would infuse this our, our culture and our progressive marketing. And you know it was stodgy, is how I would. I would quantify it. So I, we closed September 1st 2008. As you guys remember, lehman Brothers crashed, I believe. Let's call it October 1st 2008. And then the ensuing, you know mayhem. So I owned the company for maybe you know I'm in there Woo, here's the, here's the cool signs. And we renovated the office. Everything was great. And then, you know, just got beat over the head. At the same time, all the developments went to crap too. So you sit back.
Speaker 3:Let's say, you sit back in January. Like how do you business plan that? Like how do you say, okay, this is what we need? Like this is the reality. Yeah, development's dead. How do we pivot?
Speaker 1:You know candidly, at that time it was stay above water, that's yeah, that's yeah. I mean that's, that's a great pivot. That's about what you could do is you're in there 14 hours a day, 16 hours a day through the weekend, doesn't matter what you're doing, you're in there and you're in it with everybody. Because you don't. There's no other choice. You know there is just no way to. So if you guys remember how you felt back in 08, we needed to be therapists and we needed to be the ones talking about Obama just got elected and what does?
Speaker 1:this all mean, and you know, a bank would fail every month and it was warfare.
Speaker 4:There was one month we closed like 10 deals.
Speaker 1:I think in January of 2009,. I think the whole entire company, the $300 million plus the $240 million closed 10 deals, 10 deals. The overhead didn't go away, by the way. The overhead's $400,000 a month, or whatever it may have been at the time. So that was hard. That was hard.
Speaker 3:What did you learn from that experience that year so that next year, in terms of just trying to stay afloat, what was the goal in terms of, okay, this is how we're going to restructure? I mean, think about just worrying and I know it's been a while, but think about just worrying about staying afloat from, let's say, 2008 to 2011 to where you guys are now. What adjustments did you make in that time to get to you where you are now?
Speaker 1:I think the better question is what didn't we do you?
Speaker 1:know it was you know, every single day was truly triage. So if you think of triage, you are, you're funneling everything through, you're with the team shoulder to shoulder, like it's warfare. It's really hand to hand combat is what it was much less strategic during that time, and I think for pretty much anybody you know, unless they had come, unless they didn't get hit upside the head during that period of time, it was warfare, truly day-to-day combating. So it was hard to create the next thing or be like, hey, we're going to move forward in this way, we're going to open a new office, or whatever it may be.
Speaker 4:While we were dealing with our own personal financial situation that was affecting everybody, so it was running the business as well as 400 units of Florida went to Funk 360 out in Schaumburg was, you know, no more sales, and so it was just literally just day-to-day survival.
Speaker 1:That was the strategy at that point.
Speaker 3:When did you see things start to shift for you guys and say, okay, we're here, maybe 2012, 2013. Hey, we're starting to pick up some momentum. Now, what's the next 10 years look like for us? Where do we want to go?
Speaker 1:The perseverance, the hard work during that period of time. There were marquee agents coming over, there were people we knew back at Koenig, there were other agents. So we were lucky enough to grow steadily not tremendously but steadily with good brokers.
Speaker 2:So, but there has to be a secret to attracting good brokers, because especially in a time, especially in a time like that. So that also is part.
Speaker 1:I think because we were so in it every day, because we were all in the office all day, it was one big office. You know so the cohesiveness of of the people that were there at that time, you created such camaraderie. And talk about what agents?
Speaker 2:are like in the end.
Speaker 1:Like, yeah, are you here for me and with me? And so everything we did was cohesive with everybody.
Speaker 4:Well, we took the Sotheby's International Realty brand in 2011.
Speaker 2:11.
Speaker 3:That was when things kind of started A turn. Yeah, how did you guys? How did that come about?
Speaker 1:So, if you all recall, there was Sudler Sotheby's, which started in 2005, by the way. So the true franchising of Sotheby's International Realty started in 2005, where they really started bringing on franchises. Sudler Sotheby's was one of the first three in the entire world oh, I didn't know that franchises Souther Sotheby's was one of the first three in the entire world. So so they came out board in 05. And by 2011, it was in complete and utter meltdown.
Speaker 2:There was some nefarious things happening behind the scenes, and so that's a good word.
Speaker 1:Well, it's true. So the the reality is Sotheby's came to me directly and said hey, we've targeted you and we'd like to talk to you about taking on the brand in the Chicagoland area. And at the time I think we were pretty fiercely independent. We came from the Caning Stray GMAC.
Speaker 3:You know all those things, all the reiterations, all that bullshit.
Speaker 1:And we all know how that turned out, and so that was not appealing, you know we were like we are not really we're.
Speaker 1:We're entrepreneur, we want to do things on our own. But I think what happened is they flew me out to New Jersey and then I flew down to the opening of what is now Premier Sotheby's down in Naples. So those two things when I got to look under the hood and see what the value was of the brand and the offerings, it was a hell yes, and Jim and I operate pretty much the whole business on. You make decisions. It was a hell yes, and jim and I operate pretty much the whole business on you make decisions. It's a hell yes or it's a hell no. There is no in between. Oh, black and white, I love it. It's very black and white. Hell yes or hell no. So that that's what was the impetus to go ahead and say we're going to do this, we're going to take on the brand and become the true luxury brokerage in the city of chicago I do think that that is very synonymous with the marketplace.
Speaker 2:even until today, I mean, we always felt that Sotheby's was the most luxurious brand.
Speaker 4:Yeah, I think when we made that partnership or that affiliation with Sotheby's International Realty in February 2011,. I was selling in February 2011,. I can tell I was selling at the time and I can tell you overnight, having that brand on my card got me open doors that I had never had open before. I was in selling on the high end of the market and before I was the King of the $500,000 condo with split face block on the side right, like that was that. 500 to a million was my, was my market and was still doing a lot of new construction. But at that moment we started wearing the blue. It was. I was invited into a lot of opportunities.
Speaker 3:I never had a, had a shot and over the last five years, it really seems like you guys have really honed the brand, the type of agent and really have started to attract pretty much what I think is the best talent in the city. What have you done over the last five years other than like the journey that you've taken and really honed in? You know, like you guys had, we had the call yesterday and the first person I called two people afterwards it was two people that had called me to talk about when we had left that they wanted to leave, wherever company they were at, and, and, and I called the person up and I'm like what'd you think? He's like, oh my God, it's like I should have left a year ago. And he was just like we just sat silent on the phone and I'm like man, what a difference. And and I think what? What we were talking about on the phone for a while was your guy's background, which really makes the difference, I think.
Speaker 4:Well, it started at Canning Stray and I think that's a place to weave in what we learned about that boutique.
Speaker 3:Yeah, but also buying a company and then all of a sudden having these terrible times and then having to really say, hey, this is what is needed, not only for us but for our people, and we have to continue to push, like you don't have to continue to push the envelope in terms of marketing and in terms of your recruitment and stuff like that. You do that to, totally honestly, always stay ahead, right, like like anyone you are doing. You guys are both entrepreneurs, right, like everyone thinks their last day is tomorrow. And if you don't think your last day is tomorrow, right, you got a problem because when it is your last day, you've missed it.
Speaker 3:Yes, right, like you said upstairs when we were talking when it's when it's too late, it's too late, like this. And if you don't think that that too late, literally tapping on your shoulder at all times when're an entrepreneur be in real estate or wherever you are you're not running fast enough away from that person that wants to take your spot. But I think that's the attitude Like for me, like when I, when we first met with you, I was like, yes, this is the attitude. Like that, you constantly have to be pushing the barrier of what's being done.
Speaker 1:It's funny how you funny how you said this.
Speaker 3:That's my flaw when I'm not with you guys, that's what my feeling was.
Speaker 4:We've been in startup mode since 2008. You have to be.
Speaker 1:Well, the funny thing is we never know what we're strategizing works until we hear it from the outside. The fact that you said five years ago has a lot of meaning to us, believe it or not. We had heard when we joined the brand it takes about 10 years for the brand to mature in a market, meaning for the brand to be very fruitful for each individual person. Ie, oh, that seller did pick me just because of the brand, and it's those things that are mysterious and intangible before you get there. So it took us 10 years, 2011, 2001. There, so it took us 10 years, 2011, 2001.
Speaker 1:And, coincidentally, covid hits, as you guys know, in 2020. And you know we had a lot of time to sit together and sit on Zoom calls and do all the things we all did during 2020. And again to your point, we decided at that point we were going to dig really deep, next level deep, and say what do you all want? What, not only what you want what do you need? What do you all need as individuals to to catapult yourself to wherever you're trying to go? And so we did a ton of individual meetings and, you know, brainstorm sessions and talk to CEOs all around the country and we, we think we came up with the things that probably mattered most to you all, and I don't think anybody was asking that question. It was like get market share, or oh, let's go tech, or let's go this. We wanted to dig under the hood and say what could we really do to make ourselves not only a place that you would want to be, but a place that you would be better at? I thought that was missing.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and it's one thing to ask those questions, because we've been asked those questions before. It's another thing to actually execute.
Speaker 1:Right, not easy, not easy.
Speaker 3:People have a lot of dreams. Oh yeah oh yeah, I've sat with these seats with all people who are successful in what they've done, and it all comes down to executing right Accountability holding yourself accountable and saying I need to execute and you got to push through.
Speaker 1:So the last four years for us have been, to say, tumultuous, you know, like we went through 08. So you know, we have PTSD, we're, we were in the grind. And then so 2020, we're like, listen, we're going to tear this thing up, we're going to tear it down to the bone, start almost from scratch and create what we think you all want or need. Not not once. There's a big difference, I think, what you actually need. And so all the things you see today with the concierge level service, the hospitality service, the business hub meets a social club, uh, the, the next level marketing, all of these things, they were born during that period of time and they were all pioneering things and nobody had done them. You know, it's like when you're trying to do something that nobody has done.
Speaker 4:Well, we're going to try it. We realize that human capital is more important than bricks and mortar Right. So having people talent within our brokerage was so important, and you know people operate differently now. You don't need an office on every corner.
Speaker 3:Do you think the people that have been saddled with the brick and mortar for the next couple of years like if listen, at some point things slow down and all of a sudden you have a couple hundred thousand square feet of office space and you've grown so fast and all of a sudden there's a contraction. I mean, think about the fact that things slow down for maybe a couple quarters, like two years ago, and everyone wrote, oh, you know, we can't keep up with this, this, this, these cuts. I'm like man, we just had like the greatest two years ever. You have one bad quarter and Redfin's got to close the doors. There's something wrong there in what you're doing.
Speaker 1:What's happened in the brokerage world is our margins have been compressed across the board. It doesn't matter if you're Compass, you're us, you're at properties, it's irrelevant. The margin the agent is more valuable, as they should. So the split has gone up and the margin has gone down. At the same time, the costs went up. So, to your point, if you are spending that chunk of dollar that's left primarily on office space and hard costs like that, that, it's just less you could spend on staff and marketing. And so we decided to pivot to these hubs that now our structure is 60% staff hubs. That now our structure is 60% staff, 30% marketing, 20% real estate, whereas your typical real estate company can be more like 45% real estate and then a variable of the rest.
Speaker 3:So yeah, you're almost getting like. You guys are almost. It's very interesting because, talking to somebody that comes on the podcast, everyone's like, wow, Mike Marks, and he's like you know you need to be. I'm like, I'm like what's going on with big box retail, this, that he's like, hey, he's just like the problem is they had so much space and so much went online. He goes the reverse. Now is everyone's establishing this, people stuff, right. So the online touch the height, yeah, and then, once that's established, then they go into brick and mortar and they provide a place for you to go. An experience, yeah, an experience, but it's just an experience or a return.
Speaker 1:Right, it's smaller, it's not as big, and that's essentially. We needed to bring the energy back to the office. So we did bigger spaces but less spaces. You know, we just retooled it so it would make people want to be there. So it would make people want to be there. But the big piece is any five-star restaurant will tell you or hotel to find talent, true talent. Talent means the people, the staff member that cares whether you make that next deal or not. You know, some people care about, well, the quality of my work. I got it done on time, or I was there, I was very thorough. But it's very rare to find that person that cares whether it worked or not. What was the result of my effort? So that's what, that's what it's kind of taken us the longest and that's what five-star quality is. That's sort of the root of it, cause absent that, you can't create the result.
Speaker 4:We also back to what we talked before. We also craved that boutique culture that we grew up in the Rubloff Koenig days, right, where you know there were events. Events are so important to our culture, right we?
Speaker 1:leaned into that because you know when things are tough or times go a little different, covid and you're not doing as much entertaining. We went the opposite, because we are relationship people. So if you start to ignore the relationship and all that comes from there, that's, I think, the little bit of the magic is lost in our industry, which this is. You know. We went, we just went hard.
Speaker 3:I also think that's very important to retain talent If they're not invested in what's happening and you end up with different talent.
Speaker 1:You end up with sort of selfish talent you know, there's people that are talented, but they're on their own. They only like to serve themselves. We like to work with people that like to serve others and want to be part of something.
Speaker 2:I do like the events. I have to admit, I used to see them when we were at our other company and I'd be like, look, they're doing these lunches.
Speaker 3:They're doing all kinds of fun things with their agents. People are starting. You guys are starting to you, know you posted them you post them online. Now people are stealing your guys.
Speaker 2:Oh, of course, yeah, hey, imitation is the highest highest imitation. We're very happy when that happens.
Speaker 4:We do. We do nice places. We're going to La Colonial for our one you know.
Speaker 1:Here guys were on your first best in class call yesterday. Yeah, it was great. Those are things that you know. We hope that you find value. Or the agent would you know, be able to talk to each other openly without you know having to bite their tongue when leadership's there and we can't say this or that. You know, we just try to be as in it with you as possible because you know, how do we know what you're thinking unless we ask the question and we're? We're open to hear the answer.
Speaker 3:Collaboration is nice and I think it's nice to hear other people's point of views and what they're, what they're experiencing. You know, like everyone's going to bump into something and not know what to do. The collaboration part of it is really nice and like, listen, like michael said, hey, you know, to justin luke can talk offline about this and I can tell you how I've surfaced this or this. I mean it's always good stuff to have.
Speaker 3:Where do you guys see, I mean obviously none of us have a crystal ball, but you know, with the evolution of social media, really the, the, the push to video, you know, literally straight to consumer through TikTok, instagram, facebook, you know how do you see the industry pivoting towards that? I mean, obviously we're already seeing it. You guys are doing a ton. You know we saw a ton of stuff yesterday in terms of going social and having these experiences re-chat. All this be part of that social experiment. Do you see a point where you know, primarily most of this business is done off of video and off of this and that Well, what we know is you know the latest stats.
Speaker 4:I saw on a company called Brand Builders. They put out a really interesting stat on personal branding. Older millennials, between the ages of 40 and 44, 81% feel that it is important as one of their major decision-making items to work with an established brand. You know, whether it be personal or you know a company, they to be able to establish a brand, you have to be online. Now you know, you see, you know you pull up at a stoplight and it's a red light. You're pulling up your phone, right, I won't tell the police you do that.
Speaker 4:Well, but you know, you look at it, that's what. That's where marketing has changed is all the eyeballs are on on that device in your hand, you know. So social media is so strong and you guys have done a good job with that. You're seeing the results of it.
Speaker 3:I had a meeting with a guy who works for meta about multi-units and we're sitting down and and because we use Instagram so much, he was just like I love the fact that when I pick up my phone, I always see you Right. He's like I like that because you're using first off, he works for the company, so he likes it. But he said he said.
Speaker 3:he said something that's very interesting. He says on all the platforms, be it TikTok, facebook, this he goes Instagram is the one first off has the highest earnings per like. Whoever the clients that look at Instagram, there's the most 100,000 plus people, he said. But the best thing about Instagram, and why Meta is doing so well on that and why you're doing so well on that, is that people form relationships to authentic people that are on the gram, he's like. So when they're watching you, they're starting to have an emotional relationship with you already. They're there with you. They, they, they actually will start to trust you off of the app. And I said that's very interesting because the leads that we get from the app are phenomenal, right, phenomenal.
Speaker 4:They DM you and say hey, yeah.
Speaker 3:And it's like and it's, it's never. I will tell you it's it's never. Someone that just says oh, I watched one of your videos, it's. I've spent. I've been spending hours watching your videos. I went on YouTube. I'm watching you break down that building. I'm watching this, I'm watching that, like I just think that. I mean it's it's great to have connections, but I think that's where it's going to go.
Speaker 4:Well, and that's the definition of an established personal brand, and you guys saw your results in Q1. I mean unbelievable what you guys did.
Speaker 1:So I'm going to ask you guys, I, I, we have a strategy internally that I have not been able to make it tangible, I've not been able to quantify it to people when I explain it, so maybe, maybe you can help us here.
Speaker 4:You think Jason might have an opinion, you guys might be the ones to you know, use your agent brain and your street smarts to to do this.
Speaker 1:But I think the biggest untapped opportunity in real estate today that I think nobody's doing even a fraction of a good job at and I'm pointing the thumb too, but certainly all the big companies and it's where I think we could make the biggest impact for you going forward. Very done, all the hospitality and the tech and all this stuff. It's real marketing. And when I say real marketing, it's marketing that has a result. We've proven it in the development world. To brag, we got like 85% of the development market. Now.
Speaker 3:Yeah, which is complete. The numbers, numbers. I showed my, my wife it's crazy the numbers yesterday and she was like Holy cow, we'll get into those, Cause you know you try to make yourself look better, but I always try to also say is that real.
Speaker 1:You know, I want to test myself but you know the the way we did that was to create um ongoing marketing on a monthly basis, test it, make sure it works and then replicate it. But if you're not doing that last step and I think no, I know no company's doing that testing to see if it works to really put something out there to say, did that create a deal on a closing and a lead for you? That's just not happening in our market, nor in most markets, by the way. It's really hard to do on scale. So that's our next step, that's why we have tracking success.
Speaker 1:It's not just tracking, it's it's working with, uh, when it comes to marketing people like, we have 12 people in our marketing department finding that exact thing we talked about earlier that, uh, when you work with marketing people, they want it to be pretty and on brand and all the things right, so it's presentable. They, nine times out of 10, are not interested in what the result was of the thing that they created. So, therefore, the the Holy grail of our world is to marry those things together to create content or video or whatever the thing might be it's almost irrelevant what the thing is and then test it and measure it and make sure it works and then continue to experiment on what the next thing is, because it evolves so quick. So that's how like it.
Speaker 1:This may not sound relevant, but like Kim Kardashian skims. You know she had such another level with her reach, but nonetheless, she just took something that basically everybody else had. Yeah, it's not like the thing she invented was so amazing, but you know they, they go out and test and do and they're executing you know what I mean Like nonstop.
Speaker 2:I think it's that's branding.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but.
Speaker 3:I think it's, but it's executing, but it's really easy to quantify it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean, we do every day, every day, but you're doing it on a one-to-one level. It's very hard from a company level because you all are unique right like to give you to feed you something and expect you to use it. You're always going to wait and make it your own and do what you do, right and that's just.
Speaker 3:You should have instant feedback. You should have first off. I think your feedback, first and foremost is, is the, the um, the talent that you have gotten over the last three years.
Speaker 4:So there's instant feedback? No question.
Speaker 1:So if it wasn't working what you're doing, we wouldn't all be here this next level to me, though, is you know, if we're able to do something that even the big companies you know have probably presumably much bigger budgets and reach and resource. This one thing is more. It goes back to the days of 08, where we're in it with you guys, you know, shoulder to shoulder.
Speaker 4:And that's what's going to make it go. What you're seeing in front of you right now is what we've done for 17 years.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 4:What's the next thing? Like what's the next, you know, outside of battling here and there and winning and being entrepreneurial.
Speaker 3:So I don't think you know. I don't think you battle. I don't I mean you battle, but I don't think you battle in the traditional sense, like, like. I will tell you, sophia and I have all the discussions all the time I I I'm not going to go into East Lincoln park and try to get $4 million listings.
Speaker 2:That's not my I already know who's getting cornered.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I'm not going into old town I'm not going to old town and saying, hey, I'm going to battle Tim Psalm, that's his, that's his, that's his bread and butter. He has other bread and butters too. But I'm just saying I'm going to do me and I'm going to do me better every day. You're going to do Jameson, and you're going to do Jameson better every day, you're going to do.
Speaker 2:Jameson better every day.
Speaker 3:You're going to corner who you are and then people are going to come to it. I don't think like there's this discussion I had on Monday with the podcast there's a pie, right, we don't have to chop into each other's.
Speaker 1:Let's just make it bigger. Let's just make it bigger On a very clear path there, Because when you're just going for market share, then that's sort of we're just going to go get it all.
Speaker 3:I think you do. I think you look at what you sent us yesterday where, all of a sudden, our price, our entry, our average sales price, is double of number two. Right, right, your first, your agents you're recruiting are 6.9 million. I remember the number. The next closest was 3.4. Yes, that's you.
Speaker 1:Those are, that's who we are. Yeah, your retention. You lost 56 million.
Speaker 3:The next person lost like 339 million. Yes, so like. To me that's like.
Speaker 2:We're already hashtag winning.
Speaker 3:Yeah, rolls Royce doesn't give a shit. Who's buying a Chevy? Yeah.
Speaker 1:You're tapping into, like the uh, the version of basically Jim and I, where, um, we, we don't get greedy, I E we gotta be at all and everything, but we do need to push forward at all times. We're always, you know, you're pushing forward in, and not to say that this is a bad, always, yeah, but you're pushing forward you're pushing forward in and not to say that this is a bad thing but you're pushing forward in your lane in your life exactly that's what you want to do.
Speaker 3:You want to push forward, because the minute you miss your lane, the minute you start, like I was talking to a guy when we're talking, I was like you know, like, like he's like, when you came from a training background, like, yeah, everyone always told me, go to this pick, go to this pick, go to this pick, go to this pick. Like, oh, jameson, do this Jameson, do this Jameson, do this man. The minute you do that, you're done. We get a lot of that.
Speaker 1:You're done. Listen, this is what we do.
Speaker 3:We're going to push forward on our mission statement and we're going to push forward on our brand, but it's going to be in the lane of luxury, and this is what we're doing.
Speaker 1:So do you guys see that from the outside? Yes, yes, yes.
Speaker 3:That was the conversation I had yesterday after our meeting the two different with two other people that just came.
Speaker 1:You know, there's not a lot of days in this market where you could feel good about what you're doing. It feels pretty good today.
Speaker 2:Just hearing that. Well, that's why we came though, and that's why that's why we came though, yeah, and that's why the people came with us.
Speaker 3:True, and that's why, when people called us and I said this is what and I always say to people, when I had lunch with someone to ask me about this, we had coffee. I'm like, I'm just telling you why I came. It may not be a fit for you.
Speaker 2:This works for us.
Speaker 3:This is what works for me and the direction that I want our business to go to and the direction that I think they're going. So it's a brand match. It's not for everybody. It's not for everybody.
Speaker 1:And it doesn't matter that it's not. No, that's a good thing, yeah.
Speaker 3:If it was for everybody, we'd be a chop shop. It would be different.
Speaker 1:It would be Walmart.
Speaker 4:We don't want to be Walmart, no we get up every day thinking about our advisors.
Speaker 3:There's no doubt and there's a spot and there's people that want Walmart and there's people like that's why there is a Walmart. There's people that want discount brokers. There's people that want this and they want that. I'm okay with that.
Speaker 1:It's funny we have these Canadian partners, equity partners, and they always look at Chicago. Chicago gets a little bashed, as you guys know, from other states, certainly other countries. You say Chicago like oh, geez, mobsters.
Speaker 2:Mafia and bang bang, yes, bang, bang, bang, bang you instantly-.
Speaker 3:Oh, they also say Jordan right afterwards, so there's an offside, true, true, sometimes.
Speaker 1:But what we always come back to is this is still like a $75 billion meat and potatoes market. There's enough to go around for everybody. It is a very deep, rich sales brokerage market that will always be there and it doesn't fluctuate. So what's our piece of the pie? To your point here? It's we want to be more than double average sale price than the nearest competitor.
Speaker 3:That's the piece of the pie and that's the yeah. And then, if you, as long as you have that measuring stick, you're always going, pushing forward, always push forward. Everyone's gonna be coming at. And it's interesting, you said that there's enough, enough piece of the pie. I mean I and obviously I'm older now but like, the amount of relationships that I have now with other brokers is probably 15x than it was 10 years ago. Yes, and for me and I'm sure this is for Sophia too, I'm sure, cause I hear her talk to all of her friends too the relationships that we've, that we have now, are why our Q1 was the way it was.
Speaker 1:And think about your value.
Speaker 2:I truly believe that because people want to do business with us, cause they know that.
Speaker 1:Cause they know that we're, they know who you are Well they know that because they know that we're, they know who you are well, they know that we're not going to screw anybody. That's exactly it and we can handle. You've earned that. You've earned that over your career and you know that's probably a good segue into the attack on that that's happening. You know that network, that, that relationship and that cooperation, that, yeah, so let's, let's bring to the table, let's talk about that so everyone is.
Speaker 3:You know I. You know it's a. It's a gunfight. Just because I watched an amazing series on netflix about white or guys, please watch. It's a four-part series. It's the real story of white herb. It's really good, but the okay corral.
Speaker 3:So everyone, like you know, I did watch that that was amazing yes, you've got, you've got everyone, you've got, you know zillow versus the brokerages. You've got, you've got everyone, you've got. You know, zillow versus the brokerages. You've got lawyers versus everyone is at the okay corral. No one wants to. You know, no one wants to pick up their gun, but when someone does, it's going to be a disaster. Everybody shoots, everybody shoots. So where do we see? You know Zillow, obviously. Well, I would say, compass shot the first bullet. Zillow has come back and said if you're ever on the PLN, we're not going to put you on our platform. How do you guys see this playing out? And does Zillow? Because they don't produce product and don't have product. Zillow's a middle person. Can they survive if they go to war with the brokerages?
Speaker 1:You know, if you back up last year, we had the NAR settlement and in my opinion, that's when things really started escalating.
Speaker 1:That was when the gunshots yeah, that was the initial shot across the bow and I think the people in this room know that that was a play for money. There was a law firm that made an ungodly amount of money. They saw kind of an easy target. You know our NAR and our governing bodies maybe weren't the strongest in that sense where they could litigate and fend off. You know an external attack like that, so you know I have my own personal opinions on why that all happened. But in the end you know an external attack like that, so you know I have my own personal opinions on why that all happened. But in the end you know who made better. Nar came out with some new guidelines for us. I think we would all argue that maybe we're better off, worse off.
Speaker 3:We don't know right. I really like how it's done now.
Speaker 1:I really do.
Speaker 3:And I think it's another reason we had a great Q1.
Speaker 4:Well, I think, it's another reason we had a great Q1. Well that's because we do too, as owners I mean.
Speaker 2:And yeah, jim, all along you said that the cream is going to rise to the top from this lawsuit, and it has.
Speaker 1:And so if you go back to that, then it kind of spurred on this next wave because we probably wouldn't even have thought of this next wave had that not have happened. And what happens is when you're at a high level say you're the leadership of anywhere you know our parent quote, parent company and there's a lot of fear of risk and mitigation because knowing how these lawsuits came about last time and then the ripple effect and the ramification of what happened from that lawsuit and where sort of the world is at and how they look at where the money goes and brokers and all the things, if you're sitting back saying what's the next wave, where does this go? I mean I personally see nothing but risk. I see all risk.
Speaker 1:I see people glomming on to anything that, whether good or bad, by the way, I think that lawyers will take a look from the outside, take a step back and then pounce on changes and any behavior changes that happens. They'll find a pro and a con and whatever's selfish to them and it will litigate aggressively and it will litigate aggressively. So ie, if you are an individual broker and you decide that it is better, somehow or another, to not show a listing to the maximum amount of buyers when you know those buyers exist and you choose not to do that. I personally find a liability there. I find that you're personally from a fiduciary standpoint. That would be pretty easy to litigate, to be honest.
Speaker 3:Yeah, you could quantify it, even if your buyer, even if your seller I had a conversation, even if your seller says I understand everything.
Speaker 1:I signed a form.
Speaker 3:I signed a form. Obviously, it doesn't matter, doesn't matter Because it's not better, because we just lost. Look at the loss we just lost.
Speaker 1:In the end, you are the fiduciary, you're the responsible. I relied on your guidance. If your guidance was self-serving, then there's a lawsuit. Yes, and it would maybe or not easy to prove up. Did I have your best interest when I guided you into telling you to do this?
Speaker 4:And that's why we love this brand For 281 years. Sotheby's has gotten to. Their goal is to get as many people to raise the paddle as possible. Yes, and that's when you have the maximum impact for the highest price for your client. It's the nucleus of sales and that's what Sotheby's perfected originally Exposure.
Speaker 2:It's our campaign, that's the campaign.
Speaker 1:I mean honestly that. You know I didn't answer your question about Zillow, but you know it's all pieces and parts to me, it's all where. To me, the integrity of what you all have built over the 15 years of your career, and then the entirety of NAR and the collaboration and the relationship of agents, I don't care who you are. How could you argue that that doesn't benefit every single buyer and every single seller? You have a unified group of people that are compelled to work together for the greater good of everything, and once you start degrading that, in my opinion that's the root of this problem beating up on that, and I fear that that's where things are trending.
Speaker 2:I felt like a lot of the lawsuit, though, was sellers saying well, I'm paying the person who was pitted against me to give me the least amount of money, right?
Speaker 1:right.
Speaker 2:So I feel like that underlying thing has been there already.
Speaker 1:And in the end, how could anybody really legitimately argue that the fact that we all work, there's 17,000 realtors in Chicago, Association Realtors 17,000. So when you list with one of us, you get the collective 17,000. So why would you want less? Why? How is less better? How is less of those 17,000 going to benefit you? Because we all spend money, we all do marketing, we all have clients, we all have relationships, blah, blah, blah. So when you put that all together, that's why it works.
Speaker 3:So that's the part I'm most fearful of in the end that when we start poking at that thing that was created over the past hundred years, Is there a way to like, if, if they do, if they do get into a situation where they're like, okay, we're going to allow this and allow this. Do you guys have you guys had those conversations where you're going to sit back and say, hey, listen, we just don't think that's the best thing for our clients. So, like when everyone gets sued, we can be like, hey, that's great, we're not part of that, you guys pay.
Speaker 1:What we always talk about internally back off.
Speaker 1:That is what we say is we are guided by fiduciary responsibility. So, you said it earlier, we only work with the best agents, the best character, the most professional. That's all we have right. So we trust that you're going to do the best for your client. So what we could do is provide you best practices, meaning what are the best practices to get the most money in the shortest period of time for a listing, for a buyer, for so on and so forth. So we feel that that's our responsibility. Now will we have the option of exclusive or whatever NAR came up with? I'm sure we'll provide the option If you legitimately, via your fiduciary responsibility, deem that that is necessary.
Speaker 3:That's the best course of action. That's what the client wants.
Speaker 1:Then we support that.
Speaker 3:So this is my problem. Even if the client wants it, if the client is not told like, I almost think you have to have a piece of paper that says hey, this is not the best thing for you, it's going to be like the dual agency.
Speaker 2:Disclosure.
Speaker 3:I think it needs to be even and.
Speaker 2:I think that that's what they should do. It should say here is all the things If you're on the MLS you're going to be exposed to. If you opt not to, these are the places you will not be. And then they. I have a client who refuses any marketing for his property. He does not want it anywhere but to the brokers. He is extremely adamant, he's extremely intelligent, he understands. We've had conversation. Magazines have begged to feature it. It's always a no, don't ask me again. Always no, don't ask. So there are people.
Speaker 1:There certainly are.
Speaker 2:We can't assume that everybody is unintelligent, right. And you know, doesn't understand. Not everybody doesn't understand what they're being told.
Speaker 1:But over the last 16 years, of the billions and billions and billions in transactions we've done and we've been privy to, you know, maybe a fraction of a fraction of a percent are that case. So where I struggle with, where things are presumably going right now, is when you mass market that a exclusive meaning you are going to not show it to certain people in the market that that is good for the mass market.
Speaker 4:That's where I think you're Well, when you talk about a fiduciary, if you look at financial advisory, a fiduciary is legally obligated to to make sure that their clients get the best product for them. It's a legal obligation, big banks, if they're not a fiduciary, they can sell their product right, you have your, you know, clients have their choice. But, as fiduciaries, that mindset, as advisors that we, we refer to when we refer to our, for our, uh, our staff of agent brokers, advisors, that's a word that matters, right, we're advisors to our, to our clients. So when you take on that word of fiduciary, it means something in our world.
Speaker 3:If they get rid of cooperation? What does what does it look like? Have you guys even? Have you guys started? Cause I, I have thought about it at length and that's why Sophia and I do so much straight to consumer on the phones and video and stuff like that. But I mean I just I was in an industry that let's say that trillions of dollars changed hands every second. Trillions and changed in two months. Second trillions and changed in two months To change, to change. With one swipe of the pen this whole industry can just get turned inside out and it'll happen a lot quicker than the trading floors did. So like what, what is that? Like that's what I was talking about upstairs. Like where, where is our head space? What is our thought process? And hey, if this happens, where do we go?
Speaker 1:And it's the top of my mind, as you can imagine. Yeah, I'm very interested in that All I think about, and you know.
Speaker 1:As it should be, because it's huge.
Speaker 1:We keep coming back to the whip effect, and that is, you know, sort of the current nature of the world right now Just is what it is Things whip this way and that way.
Speaker 1:I go back to what Jim said. It may sound elementary, but if we don't maintain our values, meaning that we're fiduciaries and that that's first and foremost, no matter what decision we make, wherever we go, whatever happens next, we also we don't want to be bullied into compromising that in any way, shape or form. So, whatever the next step is, we believe if we maintain that fiduciary responsibility at the utmost that's what drives us, that's what it all is we're all going to have the same ability to do exclusive or to do this or to do that. It's just how we do it, how we train to it, how we market to it and how we put ourselves out there. I think that's going to be the catalyst for all brokerages and I think there's going to be a day of reckoning probably that's, you know, sort of in the in the future. So how you guide yourself right now, if you compromise yourself right now, guess what's going to happen. You know things, things will change, and those people that compromise themselves. I think we'll have their judgment day as well.
Speaker 3:I do actually think too, like cause I'm always on Instagram, like when I and I'm friends with you know you always have cause your thing sees. You know the algorithm knows what you want to see. I got to say you know, like, if you sit back and look, I think Jameson I'm kind of answering my own questions in my head I think Jameson probably has the strongest overall. Listen, you're going to have your Kerry McCormick's, you're going to have one-offs here and there, but if you look at the people that have brand, that have really branded themselves properly on social media, on Instagram and getting direct to consumers you look at Tim Salam, you look at Nancy, you look at us. I mean I want to say you look at Brian. I would say that we have the strongest presence on social media because we do have and now, listen, there's some great agents out there too, but collectively we probably have the best agents that are pushing that envelope in that direction that you guys are going, and I think that'll help.
Speaker 1:So, if a quick option goes, we're still going to, we're still going to churn, and isn't that the point is? You know, you saw the stats the other day 6.9 million, all the things we talked about. So, no matter where the market goes, we're always going to have our piece.
Speaker 2:We don't need the whole piece.
Speaker 1:We just need our piece. That's it. We'll be the strongest in that piece at all times, and that's, I think, that's it will be the strongest in that piece at all times. And we, that's. I think. What drives us forward is not compromising.
Speaker 3:And I think if you get a situation where the industry decides to turn over and OK, we're not going to do this, we're clear cooperation, this or this, all of a sudden you're, you're sitting around you like, well, we have the strongest agents, we have the strongest here, so like we don't have to rely on X, y and Z, our agents will go and get that business.
Speaker 1:And you can't replicate that.
Speaker 3:No, you can't, it's irreparable.
Speaker 1:I'm just thinking inside my head.
Speaker 3:Because that's like. That's my thought. My thought is let's just establish the strongest brand that we can establish to consumers. So, if anything ever happened, we're still rocking and rolling.
Speaker 1:Throughout history. When has that ever gone wrong?
Speaker 3:Never.
Speaker 1:That is like it's the hardest thing to do, by the way you make those decisions every single day. Every single day, a decade plus One thing back to when we became Sotheby's, they told us you need to be the steward of this brand, Right.
Speaker 2:We have a responsibility. It's a big responsibility, it's a huge responsibility.
Speaker 1:So you know we take it seriously. It's no joke If you don't take it serious. It's a 280-year-old brand, the most trusted real estate brand in the world by far. We all know it, and so, again, we need to be guided by that.
Speaker 4:It's a protective maneuver at this point.
Speaker 2:I know.
Speaker 4:I just got a listing because of the brand. I just think my energy is different, so I don't know how to quantify that. We should be pretty fired up today. I love that. Yeah, I mean this is like a five. We haven't hit seven yet we're at Friday.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's.
Speaker 2:Friday it's weekend, we know. I know I just got a listing because of the brand, so I do think that the brand has done that. I also think change is always good and I think, you know, we made a big change after a very long time. We had only been at the previous company, formerly known as Koenig Stray, and so it was. Everything for us is new, right, so everything is, everything is exciting, I mean, and granted, you know, the newness will eventually wear off, but every time there's a meeting, we hang up and I pick up the phone immediately and I'm like can you believe this?
Speaker 3:She does, she calls me. I literally I'm like, I cannot even believe, and then I call people that I had talked to, to come to the company and they said the same thing. And so I mean, you guys are doing it right.
Speaker 2:It is. I mean, like you know, we've had, we've been in front of some great leadership, you know, and I think that what's happening here is what I say to people. I'm like this reminds me of Canning and Stray in 05.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that's what I say. It's new but it's old, right, so it's new, but it's old, which?
Speaker 2:is what we loved. This is like the 2.0 to me and we don't want it to become like too much of that. But at the same time it's like people are like what is it?
Speaker 3:And I'm like it's small, but it's big, like I don't know any other way to describe it Like, and we loved the small yeah, I just think, when you're at a team meeting and you look around and you see and I I know this is like sounds so corny to people that are listening but when you're sitting around in a meeting and you see titans, that that you work with, it's like you, you have an ego, you want to rise to the. Rise to it yeah, you like.
Speaker 2:You like this is. You know. You play to your competition.
Speaker 1:Yeah, whoever's around you you're gonna you top, you rise to it right.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you like this, is it pushes you, you play to your competition.
Speaker 3:Yeah, whoever's around you, you're going to rise up to it and you're like okay, I'm sitting. I mean, I never, you know, like I'm sitting here. I know all these people and I belong here and all these people here are all the best.
Speaker 1:Now there's great people place that has 20 or 25.
Speaker 3:I mean on the top 10 transactions you got in this city. What'd?
Speaker 1:you guys have Like six or seven of them Six, yeah, that's a lot and growing and the smallest. I'm just saying you're the smallest on that list, that's what I'm saying. Yeah, like that's a flex, that's what we strive for you know and that's hard to quantify. Like you said, you know you got a listing because of Sotheby's. There's this mystique that's not so tangible until you experience it. So where we sit it's hard to tell.
Speaker 2:You did a good job of selling it, Jim. You did a really good job of selling it. Don't cut yourself short.
Speaker 1:You guys are a hard sell too, like you're not just going to say I was just going to say it didn't happen overnight but we knew when the move time came.
Speaker 3:We knew when the time came, this was the move.
Speaker 2:It was only Jameis and we were going to dive where we were at, or it was Jameis.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it was like one or the other.
Speaker 1:Well, to float your boat, vice versa. There's only certain people we want to work with.
Speaker 3:You know, like we don't want to work with everybody, we want to work with the agents. That's what happens. So then things continue, right. No matter what happens, it doesn't matter. If you have self if you like. If you're a great player and you switch teams, you're still a great player, Like it doesn't matter what happens to the industry, as long as like, like you said, as long as you're good, you're still good.
Speaker 4:I think one of my proudest moments is when we have you know our events and we have everybody in a room. You know just like you just said, and Chris and I have to make our I don't even see him. We make these rounds right Like it's. We're going to make sure we hit everybody and every person in that room has a story with us right their move, the history, our relationship with them over you know many years and you walk out of there so energized.
Speaker 1:After that I need to take the next day off every time it's so. It's so much to, you know, cause all the interactions. You know we have a little less than 500 people and so that sounds like a lot. It is. It's nowhere near the scale of the thousands that everybody else has. But, you know, with all those individual relationships we have, by the end of the night you know you're full, you're full, but then you need to take a little. Yeah, you're exhausted.
Speaker 4:Yeah.
Speaker 1:But it's great, isn't it? It's meaningful.
Speaker 3:Where do you guys you know with? I mean, I just read yesterday MRED posted 1.3 months of supply, 14.8% jump in year-over-year pricing, 7% jump in pricing February to March. Who's going?
Speaker 4:to what the hell is going to happen. Well and Jason, how about? I mean the cost of rentals?
Speaker 3:what's going on there is having it happen on both sides at the same time Chris Johnson does a lot of our rentals for us, he's getting, sight unseen, 10% over rent Before people even step in. Here's my application. I know you're at 4,500. Here's 5,200. And we just want to get this in front of you before we see it.
Speaker 1:So I'm privy to a lot of other brokerages numbers across the country and throughout the world, so I get to see the under the hood of what's happening. And one thing that when you live in Chicago that you kind of have to open your eyes to is that, relative to all the other big cities throughout the country, throughout the world, we are a bargain.
Speaker 1:Yes, I say that all the time, so, like you, know when we say we've had these jumps in relative terms, compared to even Charlotte or wherever, maybe Tucson, it doesn't matter, we are such a value, so when I'm, I am waiting so do we get?
Speaker 3:yeah, so so do we get to that point where it's like, if you don't have three million dollars, get the hell out.
Speaker 1:I like la and new york instead people can't afford those markets so they're grabbing here. So on a, on a relative basis. Then if we do see any type of correction in the interest rate, I think you guys know better than any human on the planet that there's so many would-be sellers that are on the shelf just waiting. They're on the shelf and it's a self-fulfilling prophecy. They're worried they can't find a new place because the inventory is low. But they're not willing to sell. To create the inventory. All that stuff kind of happens in concert. So when more sellers come in, then there's more inventory in the market. And our market has not been in sync the buyer and the seller relationship, as you guys know. That's why you have this low inventory and so on and so forth.
Speaker 2:Especially in the city, it's always very frowned upon to allow post-possession, and I think that that component has to change a little bit in the city. It's very it's much more common in the suburbs, and I understand we work the suburbs but we mostly work the city and I think that if we could figure out a way where sellers and buyers don't think they're getting screwed, so to speak, that that would work, because I think that would also promote some Well, if they change these insane laws on squatting, that would?
Speaker 3:I mean that would open things up, because the first thing a lawyer will tell somebody is okay, well, if they don't get out, it's six months.
Speaker 1:Don't do it. Which it is, it's at least six months, yeah, so like if that became a little bit.
Speaker 3:Okay, you know.
Speaker 1:I, you know. You know we are in Illinois so I'm not going to hold my breath for that. But you know we heard yesterday on this internal call that in the suburbs people are saying I have post-possession until December and it's still so. So you know we are in April. They said not till December. So to your point, could that manifest itself in the city. Sure, why wouldn't?
Speaker 2:it. I mean, I just think that that would sort of quell that like I don't know where I'm going to go.
Speaker 1:It would open things up.
Speaker 2:It would open things up and I think people would be more open to making moves.
Speaker 3:About 30% of my deals in the city this quarter were post-possession deals.
Speaker 1:That's at least 30%. Historically that has to be a new record.
Speaker 3:That's atypical, For sure, that's you know, and I'm just thinking of all of them, like everyone, in my head is like a week, two weeks, three weeks, 90 days.
Speaker 1:It's a really fantastic solution. I think what gives me optimism, jim, is professor, positive, and I have to be the you know, the one that's like, well, what about this risk? But what's got me the most optimistic about this current market is the depth of buyers. You guys all know, when you have a good listing, you have 30 buyers, you have 20 contracts. When you see that, that just means it is an inventory issue, and the inventory issue is primarily driven by the interest rate right now. There's other factors, but that is the one thing. So, given the economy you came from, that world, none of us can predict where the interest rate's going to go, but even a half a point could be hugely impactful to our world. So we're not relying on new jobs, we're not relying on the price to fall or any of those things that are really hard to come by. This is a more solutionable thing that just.
Speaker 4:That just will probably naturally happen that the interest rate may fluctuate and the other thing that makes our market, uh, um, a place where people want to move is we don't have issues, like some markets have, with insurance yeah well, we're seeing some somebody yesterday.
Speaker 3:Flat, flat roofs are gonna to be. They're hard to Flat. Roofs are going to be gone soon, I'm telling you.
Speaker 4:Okay, you going to do a video on that, or?
Speaker 2:not, he did already. He did already with an insurance broker. That's the next thing.
Speaker 1:Oh okay, it's good to look out.
Speaker 3:You know what's the crazy part? We had a discussion about California and fire insurance a month and a half before the fires and she literally sat there and told me what's going to happen. Oh geez, really, yes, I swear to God. And then I reposted it after fires and I'm like see. She knew.
Speaker 2:I did have a deal in January that my client had. They could not get their roof insured because the seller could not. We were the. I represented the buyer. The seller could not find the receipt for their roof and my client needed the house, you know, insured for closing. He was a cash buyer. They insured the property without insuring the roof component because it was a flat roof and they couldn't find the documentation.
Speaker 1:About a year left and there'll be no more insurance for flat roofs In the grand scheme of things, if that's the biggest deterrent in the city of Chicago, that's not bad.
Speaker 3:That's not bad right or snow in April.
Speaker 1:Yeah, right, and listen, there was a flake, we'll take the one flake on Monday.
Speaker 3:We don't have the natural disasters, which are nice. That's the weather component I mean truly.
Speaker 1:You guys all know the weather has become much more mild in Chicago. It just is as compared. Have you ever been in Miami in August? No, thank you, no, thank you. Right, like you know, it sounds so attractive to move down there or Scottsdale in August.
Speaker 4:Sophie is in Michigan in August. I'm in Michigan. Yeah, I was in Scottsdale two weeks ago, 90 degrees.
Speaker 3:I was in Scottsdale two weeks ago 90 degrees. We left a day early. I literally we were on a text thread with Morty Jensen, who lives there sometimes because his kids go to ASU. So he got a little place out there and I literally texted him. I said this weather is unacceptable, it's oppressive. It was 98 at 940. And then the problem is at 130, I'm not sure what's hotter the concrete or the sun, I said. I said, jensen, the heat is hitting me every which way.
Speaker 4:How do you lather that up? I mean, do you like?
Speaker 1:well, and again it's this theory that that Chicago just becomes more and more attractive, despite ourselves as we know you know our politics and all the things but despite all those things, every year this has become a better place to live.
Speaker 3:We are leading the nation in price appreciation. The Midwest is, and Chicago in particular, but the zoning laws are atrocious.
Speaker 1:They're oppressive, so we're probably not going to fix that either.
Speaker 3:So my optimism just goes back to that A little bit of a rate and we're all doing a lot better and our buyers and sellers are doing a lot better and then you'll see, and then that rate will also, hopefully, will bring down not anything, anything against the renting, the people that own rentals, but you will have a pullback there will be because these all these multiple people that are paying five thousand dollars for a two-bedroom, they're buyers. They're buyers and they're just running after, after five or six places that have fallen through, they're just running to the rent. Right in chicago we went, sophia and I went to a thing that last year they're only building what was it? 500 apartments this year and 600 next year because they cannot get through the zoning process. So you have 1,100 rental units being built in the whole city of Chicago in the next two years.
Speaker 1:I'll make up the number, but I'm pretty damn sure that back in 2000, that number was 10,000 annually, we hit this level.
Speaker 2:Remember all those cranes 10,000 to 12,000.
Speaker 4:Yeah.
Speaker 1:So think about that. You went from 10,000, 12,000, and I seem to recall 16,000 one year down to 500. Yeah, I mean, that's talk about the whip effect.
Speaker 3:They were talking and one of the guys has said he says we need 3000 units a year to keep up with the demand. Yes, and he's like and we're getting 1102 years, he goes. This was last year, he goes. You think rent prices are bad?
Speaker 1:this year, he goes you got another thing coming. I know the landlords and even if you have a two flats in Licket Park or Lakeview, you're pushing the rent 15%, yeah, and a unit that you've rented for the last 30 years for X amount of dollars or the tenant is Like you said.
Speaker 4:They're coming with a yeah With the check.
Speaker 3:The tenants. The tenants are setting the market, yeah, true. And you're like, oh my God, I just, I need to.
Speaker 4:I need a place to sleep. I need a place to sleep.
Speaker 2:Sophia any thoughts before we wrap it up. No, just keep buying real estate. Call us if you want to sell your property. I'm real good at social media.
Speaker 3:It's a truly interesting time, and especially in Chicago, with the lack of inventory, the flight to quality, to brick and mortar, people not understanding where the stock market's going to go and people, the stock market's up 80% over the last two years, so calm down.
Speaker 1:Just a side note there was a lot of margin in there to go down a little bit.
Speaker 3:We have places you know, 40, 40, 50 times over earnings. Uber hasn't made a dollar. It's trading a hundred times over earnings. Relax, um. I think it's an amazing time for people to get involved, especially in the investment side of it too. Don't wait for rates to be five percent, because that compresses cap rates and you're paying a lot more for investment properties. Buy those properties now and I know people always say that and then refinance later. It's the way you make money it is. I was talking to two investors last couple of days. If the deal doesn't pencil out, it's probably a deal you want to buy. If something's penciling out, you're overpaying. Get somebody that knows what they're talking about in that sense, and I think there's always opportunity. I don't care what is happening. I told this actually to my 14-year-old yesterday. I was like man whenever something bad happens, there is a silver lining and there's opportunity. If someone is losing money, someone's making money. It's a zero sum game. Any final words for you?
Speaker 4:No.
Speaker 2:I just want to say you know.
Speaker 4:Thank you guys for trusting us, you know, and making the move and coming over here. I think the results have worked for you.
Speaker 3:And uh. I remember the side note and we'll come back to your final notes. I remember that the company we're at some guys said when people move they're like we track their numbers because they always fall, they always go down, they always go down. And when we have that quarter in the back of my head, I go how are those market numbers?
Speaker 1:Well, it's a good final note, because we didn't really recruit for 16 years. We just didn't do it. I wasn't sitting in meetings and right when you all came on board I didn't even meet you until afterwards. So I started doing some recruiting. You know, thank you, jim, for these two. You know, marquee agents we we started running our own numbers on just that. You know what? What happened to people after they came to us? The average is more than a hundred percent increase in the first year. That's amazing. After joining us, cause, cause. You know there's a transition period, there's this, and I re-ran that number three four times. I was like dad.
Speaker 3:I don't believe it. I don't believe it. That is a reel. That's a social media reel right there. That's a reel right there.
Speaker 1:Just run it, just keep running that and again it sounds like it almost sounds unbelievable, but that's the truth. What's happening? It's because you know people like you. If you're given the right energy, situation, materials, you name it what are you going to do with it? You know what you're going to do with it.
Speaker 3:You're the biggest corner ever. That's what you're going to do with it. You know, like the person that we just brought on, like we looked at her numbers and I looked at her and I always say okay, tell me your, what do you do during the day? Tell me your day. And when I was meeting with her, I'm talking this, this, I'm like you did this much and you have no system. I just looked at school. I will I go, I will double your production. Yes, you see, I will double your. You know, you know exactly. We're gonna do like seven things and it's over, over and there's a lot of people like it's that simple, that simple yeah, there's great agents and they're just you.
Speaker 3:You know they're just they don't have the right tools.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's it. Guidance tools you need it, yeah.
Speaker 3:All right, this was fun. Yeah, thank you so much. Um, please subscribe, pass it on and we'll see you guys soon. Thank you so much.