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- [00:00]
David Green
Welcome to Real Talk Real Estate, the show where we cover how to build wealth in real estate with no fluff, no BS, and no sales pitches. I'm David Green, and I've been doing this for over 10 years. I've seen the ups, the downs, and everything in between. This is the show where we pull back the curtain and show it to you, too. So if you want to build wealth through real estate or you just love learning about it, you found your home. What's up, Real Talk Real Estate? I'm David Green, and this is Real Talk Realtor with another amazing episode for y' all today. Daniel Folger, welcome to the show. Thanks for being here today.
- [00:33]
Daniel Folger
Thank you for having me. I'm excited to be here.
- [00:35]
David Green
Yes, you came highly, highly recommended from one of your previous clients, which is probably the best thing that someone can say about a realtor. Can you tell us a little bit about where you serve, what your business is like, and how you're doing business in today's market?
- [00:50]
Daniel Folger
Sure. Yeah. I'm licensed in Salt Lake City, Utah. I got my license for my 18th birthday back in 2008, so go ahead and date me on that. And I've been doing, yeah, real estate for a long, long time. I've kind of, you know, taken the approach of getting to know people and building those relationships. So it's been. It's been pretty good. The real estate market here in Salt Lake has been busy. Fabulous. I just spent the last hour and a half learning about all the market trends with everything we have going on right now. So I'm. I'm a little bit, you know, overwhelmed with it, but just learning how to pivot in the market and, you know, it's still pretty busy, so it's. It's been wonderful.
- [01:33]
David Green
All right, awesome. And we're not comparing anyone to anyone else, but just on average, approximately how many transactions are you closing in a year?
- [01:39]
Daniel Folger
Most years, I would say probably between. I don't know. I guess it depends on the year. Last year, I think I did about 15 of them. The years before, you know, the crazy years we're doing, you know, 30. 30. So I'm. I'm your. I'm your average, you know, but top 500 here in Salt Lake, I think.
- [01:58]
David Green
Average is probably like one a year, if we're being honest. Like most realtors listening to this, no shame to them, but they're not selling anything at all. It's really hard to get into this. So 12 to 15 a year is nothing to shake a stick at. What's Your like, average price point for most deals you're doing Salt Lake City.
- [02:15]
Daniel Folger
So I'm, I'm in two different markets in Utah, Salt Lake City. Our average sales price is I'd say about 6 to 700. I also serve up in Eden. So for anybody, most, probably most people listening, Eden's like a small park city. Your average sales price is between I'd say 1.5 and 2.5.
- [02:34]
David Green
Okay. So if you're new to real estate, what this means is there's a lot of competition for these deals. When the price points get up above 600,000, you start getting teams and businesses that are literally spending ad dollars to try to get to the sellers before you get there. You get agents that are offering back part of their commission as a way to try to entice the buyers to work with them. It gets to be a little more cutthroat, which means it's that much harder to sell houses. When you're in the sub $250,000 markets like a lot of our listeners are, that's hard for them to understand because no one's fighting to work with a $250,000 buyer. They're usually coming to you. So you have to do something to stand out to get people to want to work with you. And that's where I'd like to start this. What have you noticed is working for you in that competitive market versus what some of the agents that are struggling aren't doing well.
- [03:22]
Daniel Folger
So I guess in Salt Lake, I mean, it's rare for us to get homes, especially, you know, 20, 20 and beyond. It's rare for us to even have anything available under the 300. But for me, just kind of pivoting that mindset and it's not necessarily like a luxury price point or a luxury home, but a luxury experience. All I'll work with, you know, I love working with first time home buyers. So if you can get first time home buyers in those lower price points and just kind of changing that, that experience for them is really, I think, what, what would separate you from that?
- [03:56]
David Green
So what are some things you do to kind of create a different experience?
- [04:02]
Daniel Folger
So I, I, like, I kind of switched it over to, you know, rather than just being a real estate agent, I'm an advisor. So for example, you know, I get clients that come to me a lot that say, I want invest in real estate. David, I'm sure you've heard that dozens of times.
- [04:18]
David Green
Yeah.
- [04:19]
Daniel Folger
But the most important question is, okay, that's great, but like, how do you want to invest in real estate, do you want short term rentals, long term rentals? Do you want to house hack? There's millions of different ways that you can do that. So being able to, you know, I think that's one of the first things, you know, to do is instead of having it be a transaction like educating the people and serving them on how that is, you know, how to, I guess, create that roadmap for them would be the first thing to separate it. It doesn't stop at just, you know, buying and selling a home. It's how do we, how do we get you to the next one? How do we set you up, you know, build that wealth?
- [04:56]
David Green
Yeah. Ideally, as an agent, you want to be seen as like an advisor and a servant as opposed to how do I get some money out of you on this transaction and then throw you back into the ocean? Right. That catch and release method is I think, how a lot of agents unfortunately have entered into the fray and has done a lot of damage to the reputation of realtors Versus okay, I caught a fish. How do I keep it in the live well, take it home, put it in my pond, feed it every day, help it grow, and then get some baby fishies out of it. So did you, did you have like a mentor that taught you to take this approach or was this just something you were raised with?
- [05:33]
Daniel Folger
I think it was something I was raised with. And if I'm being honest, had I a lot of questions that I get asked is what would you, you know, what would you change? Earlier on, especially being 18, getting into real estate, I definitely wish would have been either at a brokerage that had a mentor or some sort of training support. But I do think I just had a lot of that ingrained in me and just building that relationship. Now my business, I mean, you just asked me my numbers. My business is 100% referrals and repeat clients. I don't do any marketing. I probably should. But a lot of those people, you just build those relationships and years down the road you foster them and you know, they, you're. Their. You're. They're go to for everything. It's not even just real estate.
- [06:15]
David Green
So, yeah, that's a big piece. I have a different episode where I was talking with Realtor Kelly Scovel in New York and we were talking about how a lot of people look at their job is a real estate salesperson or real estate agent. Meaning like I show homes and I take listings and I collect commissions from those people. Versus I'm a real estate Professional. I serve people when it comes to real estate. Showing homes and taking listings is one of the way I do that. It also may be property management. It may be home services. I connect you with a person when you need a new roof or when your chimney needs to be fixed. Like, you want to be the person that they think of when anything breaks in their house. And you're like, yep, good thing we got that home warranty for you. When I negotiated your deal. Let me connect you with the home warranty person. And so they associate you with the hero when something goes wrong.
- [07:08]
Daniel Folger
And.
- [07:08]
David Green
And then naturally they remember you when their friend wants to sell a house or buy a house. And this sounds very simple. It just. I don't know what it is. In the last decade, we've gotten away from that approach. It's. It's sort of become a conveyor belt of get an online lead that you don't know they're talking to you. And four other. It's kind of like the Tinder approach to real estate, where nobody is really committed to anybody else. And it's, like, gotten messy. Like, what's been your experience like that in Utah with the. With how realtors have been running their businesses?
- [07:40]
Daniel Folger
Well, I think everybody just gets, you know, it's onto the next thing. Onto the next thing. And so you're right. It's a conveyor belt of how do we get them to come in? And then once the deal's done, they just move on. So I also think in the last couple of years, it's been harder for people to connect with, you know, like, not even just like, emotionally, just actual connections. Obviously, Covid did a number on everybody, and so I feel like we are now just in a day and age where it's difficult for people. It's almost easier not to foster relationships. It's more of transactional world that we live in right now. And that's just not me. I am definitely a. I don't know, a love bug socially. And, you know, I build those relationships. And, you know, people like Angela, like I said, you come in and now you're. You're here and you're part of it, and you're going to call me when you need anything.
- [08:31]
David Green
Yeah.
- [08:32]
Daniel Folger
So it's been pretty good.
- [08:34]
David Green
Yeah. So we got connected because Angela, who has also been on this show, and she was talking about her experience with an agent in Utah. That was great. And then she was disappointed when she sold property somewhere else. Folks, cat's out of the bag. This is the great agent right here. And I know one of the things you're passionate about is like, particularly with the listing, pricing it correctly, explaining to the client why it should be priced that way, and not letting the client choose the price they want and then just being blamed when it doesn't sell. And now you end up in this adversarial relationship of finger pointing. Right. Can you walk us through your perspective on pricing listings and the way that you have these conversations?
- [09:16]
Daniel Folger
Oh, absolutely. So I don't. I think it's critical that, you know, CMAs anybody could run a CMA. You know, it's. I think that that's. It's beyond that. I shouldn't say anybody can run a cma. Everybody can look on Zillow, you know, a general idea on pricing homes and things like that, but it's so far beyond that. You've got a price for the strategy and the goals of the people. You know, I sometimes I have clients where their goals are going to be very different on selling their house. Some people are relocating and they have to. Some people want to sell it. But being able to sit down and look at those numbers and price for the strategy of the client and the need of the client is critical. But also having those honest conversations, I'm not scared to sit down with somebody and have that conversation. If they want to price a home, you know, higher than what I'm recommending, we're going to come up with a game plan and a goal because I don't want to waste their time, my time. I've actually written it in. I don't know if I can say this. I've written it into my contracts where it's our listing agreement. I say, okay, that's great. You want to start at that price. Here's the price that I've recommended. We will sit on the market for X amount of days. And once we hit that time, you know, we're going to drop to the price that I've recommended and we're going to change strategies.
- [10:22]
David Green
So I love that. Yeah. So a little bit of background to understand why that's what you have to do. If you haven't been on a lot of listing agreements, you'll find that you show up and if you don't have a preexisting relationship with this client, they're dating you while they're dating other people, just like on Tinder. So they've been checking it out, they've been swiping around and now they're like, okay, I've narrowed it down to these three or four who's got the most of what I want, who's going to chase me the hardest, who's going to discount their commission the most, who's got the best marketing plan. They're kind of dating the realtors. And when you're the honest realtor and you're like, hey, I'm looking for a marriage here. I'm looking for commitment because I'm committed. I'm looking for you to be just as committed to me, and I'm going to be honest with you. Here's what your house is going to sell for, and here's how we're going to sell it. The problem is when the other realtor comes and says, oh, no, no, no, I can sell it for way more, I'm better than the other agent, and so you should use me where they're not. The buyer doesn't care who the listing agent is. The buyer compares your house to all the other houses that are out there in that price range and picks the one that they like the most. That's very simple. The key is getting that property to be the best option in the price range that it's in. So you either drop the price or you prove the condition. But those are the only two ways that you're going to make a house sell for more. But if you're honest, you put yourself at a disadvantage with the seller who's being told something different. Right. So your strategy, I'm hearing, is like, hey, I think this, you think that. Rather than fighting, let's list it at your price for two weeks or for four weeks. And when that doesn't work, will drop to my price. So if you happen to be right, you'll get your price. But if I happen to be right, we'll sell the house where I think it goes either way, we're on the same team. We're not at odds with each other.
- [12:03]
Daniel Folger
Sure, sure. I like the way that you laid that out. As you. As you were saying, I was like, oh, that sounds a little more risky than it has been, but I guess it could be risky, but, yeah, it works out.
- [12:16]
David Green
How did you come up with this approach to where you're going to write it in the contract? Was that trial and error? Did you have a mentor that kind of taught you that?
- [12:24]
Daniel Folger
So it was actually one of dear friend of mine. They've probably bought and sold, I'd say, half a dozen homes. With me, it was on their first time we've ever listed one of their properties. He's kind of a very particular guy. He had a Number in his head, he wasn't willing to go away from it. So I just kind of had to sit with myself and say, okay, you know, there's a friendship on the line at this point. You know, if I take it on and it could, you know, create a little bit of friction. And, you know, so I just kind of came up with it and it worked really well. And, you know, we were able to kind of just build that rapport. And I don't do it all the time. Most of the time, people, you know, will be understanding, they're hiring me for a reason, and they'll just trust the judgment on it. But, you know, the strategy call. But it worked out really well, and I've utilized it as a tool. You know, just one of those things that you put to the side if you need it.
- [13:13]
David Green
Yeah, that's exactly right. Hopefully it doesn't get to that point. One of the things in the books that I wrote for realtors, I believe it's in the book sold. And also the book scale is something that we call triangle theory. So the problem that realtors have is your client wants something, you want something different. You want to list it at price A, they want to list it at price B, or this works with buyers, too. They want to pay under asking price on a house that's getting 10 offers. You want them to write a price that is going to actually get accepted. Right. So you find yourself in this adversarial situation that you don't want to be in. And if you overpower them with, hey, I'm smarter than you. I know better. This is the mistake I made at the beginning of my career. I know more, way more about real estate than you do. Just shut up and we're going to go with my way. Even when you win, you now have a damaged relationship with your client, so you kind of lost. And if you lose and they write it at the price they want to, or they list it at the price they want to, well, you both lost because it's not going to work. So I came up with something called triangle theory, where we create a third party and that becomes the bad guy. So when you're trying to sell the house, the third party would be the cma. Hey, this is what all the people are paying. Don't be mad at me. It's that dang CMA that's causing all the problem. But like, you and me can, can join against that cma. And this is where we're going to price it based on it, or it's these other 10 pesky buyers that are screwing this thing up, it's not. You're not the person at fault. It's that, right? Or it's the listing agent that overpriced the house in the first place. But now the seller thinks they're going to get it. So that's still our best option compared to the other. You always have to create something else to compare what they want to. And that's very similar to what you're describing here, is don't clash with your client. Like, figure out a way to put yourself on the same team, aligned against that bad guy third party that you kind of created in the scenario. And that ties me back to one of the things that you've talked about is your customized communication style. You don't talk to every single person the same way. Can you explain what you mean by that?
- [15:15]
Daniel Folger
Yeah, so I actually just recently. So I've got kind of an interesting story that I'll share really quick. But everybody communicates differently, right? So at the very beginning, I always like to, you know, what's the best form of communication? You know, some people like texting, some people love phone calls. And really the reality is if you can figure out how to best communicate with them, they're always going to feel that. That touch, right? That need. They're not going to have to reference, you know, how you hear all the time about how the communication. So I actually just had a referral from an agent who the agent kind of got on my case a little bit because she was saying that there wasn't communication that was up to her standard. She actually wasn't even a part of the transaction. Just referred an agent or a client over to me. And, you know, so I just asked the question, you know, has this been, you know, some feedback that you've received? And she said, no. I just have this expectation that I want to communicate this way and all of my clients will fall in line. And I just remember hearing that and thinking, oh, my goodness, like this poor, you know, and I mean, outside of the communication, the client was texting me. I'm feeling overwhelmed. The way that that's communicating. I don't like group messages. I don't like this. And I think a lot of times we just get it in our heads. We hear, you know, we read these books, we go to these sales meetings, and it has to be a certain way, and we want everybody to just fit into that box. And it really can create, you know, these. This tension between you and your client. And I think it can be alleviated by just asking the simple question, what is it that you need? How do you want me to communicate that?
- [16:50]
David Green
That is a great point.
- [16:51]
Daniel Folger
It's a whole thing.
- [16:52]
David Green
But I mean, that shows up in our dynamics with the agents on the other side of the transaction just as much. There's these, you know, like the concept of an unwritten rule in sports. Like there's nothing that says you can't do it, but it's kind of understood by both sides that if you're winning by 10, you're not going to steal a base. That's just like spitting in their face type of deal. There's unwritten rules in real estate sales, but a lot of the time they're not communicated. So the agent on the other side thinks that you should be telling them every time you do one of the things that need to be done for your own client. But you think, yeah, that's not really your issue. Unless I need something, I'm not going to go tell you what was going on. And it creates that frustration. And then they go drinking after work and they complain about you to all the other agents. Like agents can be really bad about this. Right. So you mentioned that you like to just ask the client, how do you want to be communicated with? And I will tailor my approach to your style. How do those conversations go down?
- [17:50]
Daniel Folger
A lot of it's just in the initial consultation. So I set expectations for me. I'm actually a big communicator, which is kind of surprising that I had that story. And in the initial consultation I sit down and talk to them exactly about that. How do you want to be communicated with? If it's a listing, I do updates weekly so they know exactly the day that they're going to hear from me. I'm a big time blogger locker so it's locked out in my calendar when I send out updates. Do you want an email? Would you like a phone call? You know, if you want. Do you want to be alerted for every single, you know, showing? And I. You kind of just tailor it to them while keeping it within the boundaries. Right. It's important for us to kind of guide them, but it's putting them in the box and forcing it isn't gonna create lasting relationships. They're never gonna wanna call you again.
- [18:36]
David Green
Have you had exposure to or experience with the DISC personality profile?
- [18:41]
Daniel Folger
I have.
- [18:42]
David Green
What's your thoughts on if that's an effective way for agents to increase their communication?
- [18:47]
Daniel Folger
I love. I'm a big proponent for it. I think it's good For, I don't know. I think everybody. It just gives you a little bit of insight.
- [18:55]
David Green
Oh, I'm a huge fan of it. It was like, it felt like the Rosetta stone that helped me to understand how to communicate with other people. And the problem is I'm a very high D. And like, I think 11% of the population is so 11% of people. I would walk away thinking, that guy gets it, man. Like, yeah, he's smart. And 89% of people I just thought were dumb. And I had no idea that 89% of people thought I was dumb because I was communicating the wrong way. Right. So can you explain, like, what the disc profile is and. And ways that you apply it when you're communicating with the different people in the transaction?
- [19:31]
Daniel Folger
Well, I think, I think that that's. That's important. I think if you study it enough. I'm a big. I'm a high D, too, by the way. I don't know if that. If I exude that or not or if that's obvious, but I. I think. And you don't even have to go in depth with it, but just generally understanding, you know, which. I don't know which of the areas to place people in, what they're going to. You know, I get a lot of people that are. Are big on. What is it? I. They're, you know, their big part. Not. They get excited. Right. And so it's. Let's. Let's be excited about this. How do we do that? And, you know, I get other people wearing their D's, and they just, they. They want the facts. They want to be able to move forward. So I kind of streamline my conversations to, here's the facts, here's what's going on. And then I've got the other people who are a lot more emotional about it. Okay, well, you know, how do we. How do we tailor that?
- [20:23]
David Green
Yeah. So some background here. Your D is your dominant score. It measures how decisive you are. Like, you like to make decisions very quickly. If you're a high D. If you're a low D, you like to take your time. You don't like surprises. You like to kind of weigh things through, and you're uncomfortable with. With making choices when you're in a new environment would be the best way to put it. So, like, Donald Trump, very high D score, very decisive, doesn't have a problem making decisions, doesn't care if half of the country hates him. Like, it just isn't his personality. He does not care because his D score is Very high. These tend to be CEOs, these tend to be leaders. These tend to be influential people. They also tend to really struggle in personal relationships with more sensitive people because they're a bull in a china store. They just run right over people. It's not really a matter of being right or wrong. It is. I'm wired that way, too. It's just knowing you're that way. Your eyes are interactive score, and this measures how much you like talking to other people, how excited you get from being around other people. High eyes are the. The social butterflies, the life of the party. They love attention. They love new smells. They're like a golden retriever that just wants to run around smelling all the new people in the room. This is most, I would probably say most salespeople are high I's. And that's why they're good at sales. They like the frequent communication. My eye score is very low, so I actually get worn out by having a ton of, like, interactions with people. It wears me down. I'm much more introverted. Your S score measures your stability. And this would be how much you like just the same thing every day. You like the same pace. You don't like surprises. You're drawn to certainty and familiarity. Low S scores need a lot of variety. They need to be surprised. They can't do the same thing every day. It kills them. And then your C score is your conscientiousness. And this would refer to your attention to detail. These are architects, engineers, doctors, lawyers. They memorize graphs and charts and policy. These are the ones that know every single thing in the contract and can cite it verbatim. This is your client that, like, you refer to their house as a 1979 ranch, and they're like, actually, it's in 1978, and now they'll never trust you again because you said the wrong thing. Right. And low Cs are people that don't really care about details. They maybe are more musicians or artists type of a thing. And I love that you brought this up, because what I found is that if you communicate somebody based on their values, they will like you and they will trust you way faster, even if it's not normal to you. If you communicate based on your values, they're going to have a much harder time thinking that you get it right. Was this something that you learned the hard way or did you kind of figure this out quickly?
- [23:04]
Daniel Folger
I kind of figured it out quickly. I think there was value in me getting into real estate as young as I did because I over Time have actually developed more of the D than I did. I was obviously what's funny is both of my D and my I are both actually pretty high, but I wasn't always high D. And so I think I learned that from, you know, getting into real estate young. It was very quickly learned, you know, that if I'm dealing with somebody that that's, you know, a C maybe, and I, you know, making them fit into my box, they're definitely not going to trust me. And there was one. It's funny you say that because one client in particular comes to mind from, you know, 15 years ago that was very, you know, made that kind of a quick, oh, I need to learn this lesson quickly and, you know, pivot and do all of that.
- [23:58]
David Green
Yeah, tell us that story. What did that go like? How did you figure it out? This is gonna be good.
- [24:03]
Daniel Folger
Oh, I don't know if I wanted to revisit that. Oh, it was bad. So I was a year into real estate, so I'm 19 at this point. I had just bought my first home and I, you know, I'm thinking, you know, this is going great. I'm doing whatever. I get a high end client who is very C. He's an engineer, he's numbers oriented. He's very almost kind of, you know, not even making decisions quickly, but just straight to the point. He wants all the facts. And then you get this bubbly little girl that comes in and is just trying. Doesn't. Don't you feel this isn't this great? Isn't it? And he kind of just, just made some comments that were harsh enough for me to be like, oh, you don't care about anything of what I'm saying right now. I'm not clicking with you at all. Unfortunately, he still went through. We had. Just because I'm the type of person that I am, we were able to have that honest conversation where I just said, I understand. I am not giving you what your needs are. How do we p. So he's still closed on the house. We're actually still in touch, which is fabulous. But it definitely was a moment of me, like, if I am going to make it in this business at all, I need to learn how to pivot. Because I was making him feel uncomfortable. I felt uncomfortable. I wasn't serving him in the way that I should have. And so the good news is, I mean, if you can connect with people, there's always a way to pivot. And not always, but most of the time you can pull it together. So I was able to do that. But he definitely, you know, kind of put me in my place. On, look, you're telling me things I genuinely do not care about. So why are we spending any time doing this and that?
- [25:41]
David Green
That can hurt your emotions, but it can also help your business savvy. I think that's an amazing story because if you're humble enough to receive that kind of correction, you'll get better. Right. When you were telling that story, I was thinking if every single client that we, that all of us ever had, we asked that question, hey, I feel like we're not clicking and I'm missing something. What are you looking for me that you're not getting? And we made them feel safe to tell us. What you'd find is a D would say, you're wasting my time. You're not showing up prepared. You didn't do your research first. You should have looked at this house before you sent it to me and said, what do you think? It obviously has a pool. And I said, I don't want a pool, or I want to pool in a hot tub. And it only has a pool. You don't care. And your eye would be like, I had no idea that that's what they wanted from me. Right. And when you met the eyes, they'd say something like, I don't know, like, we just don't get along. Like, you don't like me. You're like, what? They're like, yeah, every time you call me, you just want to talk about business. You don't ask how my day was. You don't know my kids names. I had no idea that's what you were looking for. And like the S's would tell you, you're pushing me too fast or you haven't explained what the process looks like. You're. You're not giving me time to think about it. You're telling me I have to write an offer tonight. And you as the agent are like, yeah, because the other agent said that they other offers coming in and I don't want you to lose it. But they think you're being greedy. Right. And if we all could receive this feedback about how we're communicating and then we had the humility to incorporate that into our communication, we'd become a badass pretty fast. You'd be able to just switch your communication styles with every client. Is that more or less like what you've kind of done with this information?
- [27:23]
Daniel Folger
Yeah, actually. And it was until this moment. I've literally never put that together. So thank you. That was Wonderful.
- [27:30]
David Green
Yeah. I know you were kind of nervous to tell the story because it's embarrassing, but that's probably why you're selling houses in a very difficult market and that's why you come across as a professional. That's really good. And that's why Angela loved you, is you figured out how Angela likes to receive information. You communicated with her the way she does and that spoonful of sugar made the medicine go down. And I guess if you're in sales, this is sort of non negotiable for everybody that wants to be good at. In a relationship with a romantic partner, with your friendships. Like, not everybody's going to have the same values that I have and it's kind of arrogant to think that they should. It's much more servant focused to think what their values are and how I can adapt to them.
- [28:08]
Daniel Folger
Sure, absolutely. I love that.
- [28:11]
David Green
So in Utah, what are some of the challenges specifically that you feel like you're facing in your market that you're trying to overcome today?
- [28:21]
Daniel Folger
So in Utah, I mean, I feel like you. I mean it's. I feel like a lot of people across the globe right now are just kind of dealing with the same thing. Right. You've got high interest rates, Utah. Actually, I. In our meeting today, I want to say it was like we're 51 on, you know, most upside down in the country. So everybody's got tons of equity in their house. Not only do they have tons of equity in their house, but they've got. Or 50, 51 was on the thing and we had to make a joke about it.
- [28:53]
David Green
That's why, I mean, if we can get Canada to be the 51st state, that statement will be true.
- [28:59]
Daniel Folger
Yes, that's what we talked about today. We're trying. We're trying. I had it, I was, I'm bringing it in. But they. So we've got tons of equity and then everybody. You couple that with, you know, low interest rates. And so I have a lot of clients that I want to make a move, I want to downsize, I want to up, you know, I want to do all of these different things. But you're competing against high home prices and high interest rates. And so a lot of people kind of feel like they're stuck a little bit, which has been, you know, a bit of a challenge to deal with.
- [29:30]
David Green
So sort of the. Are you referring to the golden handcuffs where sellers don't want to sell their house to get their equity because they would have their interest rate double? Yeah, yeah, that is a great point. I think before rates went up, up. I believe just from my experience in real estate that the perception that most people had was the fear of real estate collapsing is prices coming down. Everybody was like, what's the price of the house and is it going to come down? And when rates went up, they assumed that would mean prices have to come down. This was a very common misconception that I was getting beat over the head online with people saying, I don't know what I'm talking about, prices are going to collapse, rates are going up, up. And I kind of stood in there and took it and said, it doesn't have to happen. Like when rates go up, demand goes down. Yes, but that doesn't mean prices will go down because if you have not enough supply, demand has to come down a lot before it even catches up with supply. And I didn't think that was going to happen. You'd have to have like a recession to make prices come down. Like people have to lose their jobs. But just interest rates alone isn't enough to force prices down. But what we saw was prices didn't come down, transactions went down. Just nobody's selling their house. Like it's not moving. Inventory is staying stuck. And that's really hard on the economy because when a house doesn't sell, an agent doesn't get paid, a broker doesn't get paid, a photographer doesn't get paid, a handyman doesn't get paid, Title and escrow don't get paid, A loan officer doesn't get paid. Like you can go through this list of a lot of humans that aren't making money right now, even though you would think that the market's doing just fine. Like, is it, what's your thoughts on what agents can do to survive as we're in this place where it doesn't look like this is going to turn around anytime soon, especially with all the tariff talk.
- [31:17]
Daniel Folger
So at least I actually just got asked this question because last year I ended up having, we had awards, right? And I had an agent in my office ask, you know, how on earth it was, was it last year? That was one of the lowest years across the US for sales. And you know, so they were just kind of asking and I think as us, as realtors, we' opportunities to still get really creative on what people's needs are. So I've been able to do a lot of, you know, true non traditional, you know, sales I've done, I've really educated myself the last three years, four years, probably four years on seller finance deals. I've been able to do that. I've got, you know, there's people that still have cash, there's people that still need to relocate and move out, you know, whether they want to or not, it's kind of a forced thing. So being able to target those people have really kind of helped, you know, float the business in the meantime and, and be able to still pull those deals together. Because like I said, we can pivot in anything. You just have to get creative on it. So if it's not your traditional, are.
- [32:17]
David Green
You of the mind that when the market's slow, you just accept that it's going to be slow, or are you sort of stepping up your communication with your database so that when it picks up, you've laid a foundation and you're in touch with them and you'll hit the ground running?
- [32:29]
Daniel Folger
Definitely the latter, for sure. So. And it's funny, too, because even when you approach it with that mindset of, okay, it's slow right now, but I'm just, you know, I'm going to put in the work and do that. That. So that the foundation's laid, those deals still come. You put in the work, and the deals will still come. So, you know, I'm. You're putting in the work. And my, my thought is, okay, well, when the market, you know, kind of picks back up, no, there's. There's people that I'm finding now. There's people that need it now. And it's definitely, you know, helped provide a successful business even through 2024.
- [32:59]
David Green
I love that. And I think everyone I know that became successful, it was forged when times are difficult. I can't think of anyone at anything in life that. That became really successful when the environment was easy and you could be lazy. It's always in a recession, a difficult childhood that they had to endure, painful experiences in life that they experience frequency that forced them. Even your example of being 19 and an agent and getting crushed by this grown man had to be. So you still see the look on your face of what that was like, right? But it forced you to adapt. And now you're sitting here on a podcast talking about, like, these really good strategies for communicating with people better. So. So let that be a sense of encouragement for everyone out there that sometimes the painful thing is actually the best thing that could happen to you and our country. No one can predict the future, but it looks to me like we're about to head into a painful transition. There's going to be a restructuring of wealth. A lot of the big tech Companies and big, huge corporations that have made a ton of money are slowly going to feel pain. That means the stock market's going to feel pain and that's going to lead to us being in a situation where we have to get kind of more blue collar jobs coming along. And that transition may be tough, but greatness can come out of it. It. Danielle, I appreciate you being here. I know you've got some stuff to do and you took time out of your busy day to talk to us. I really appreciate that. Can you tell people where they can find you if they've got some referrals to send you?
- [34:21]
Daniel Folger
Yeah, I. I'm on Instagram. It's Danielle. D, A, N, Y, L. First four letters, my last. So D, A, N, Y L F, O, U L is my Instagram and that's pretty much mainly where I am.
- [34:37]
David Green
Any website?
- [34:39]
Daniel Folger
No, it's.
- [34:40]
David Green
I love that. Nobody needs a website. Nobody's looking at real estate agents on their website for so long and it's just like, sorry, if you have one, I have one too. But it's like a big ego thing. Nobody's looking up their agents. Everybody's stalking everyone the same way it's on social media. That's how we all get to know people. So I actually like that you don't have one and you have the courage to say that.
- [35:02]
Daniel Folger
Thanks for making me feel a little bit better about it. I was hoping, like my broker wasn't going to walk by or something when I say that.
- [35:08]
David Green
My pleasure. Thanks for being here. We'll have to have you on again in the future to talk about more stuff. Thank you.
- [35:13]
Daniel Folger
I would love that. Thank you.
- [35:15]
David Green
All right, everyone. There you go. Make sure you check out next week for another episode of Real Talk. Realtor. Leave us a comment below, let us know what you thought of the show and make sure you send Danielle a thank you on Instagram for being on the show, Sam.