Ask the Expert: Real Estate Professional Robert Mason

Intro: [00:00:15] Broadcasting live from the Business RadioX Studios in Atlanta, Georgia. It’s time for Excel Radio’s Ask the Expert brought to you by Beckshot Photography and Video. It’s your story. Make it awesome. For more information, go to buckshot.com. Now here’s your host.

Randell Beck: [00:00:40] Hello, everybody. An interesting package today. Stone and I are going to interview our co-host, Robert Mason, because not enough people know Robert Mason and they need to. Hi, Robert.

Robert Mason: [00:00:52] How you doing, brother? How are you doing, Stone?

Stone Payton: [00:00:54] I’m doing well, man. It’s going to be fun. Yeah.

Randell Beck: [00:00:56] Now, in an earlier episode that we cut on this, one of the questions we talked about with our guest, Mark Fonseca of Fonseca Clothiers was If you could walk into a room of your peers and send a message without saying anything, what would that be? So, Robert, who’s Robert Mason? What’s the message you send you want to send when you walk into that room?

Robert Mason: [00:01:17] Integrity. When I walk into a room, I want people to feel at ease. I want them to see my smile, firm handshake and know that this is a credible person and this is I can be serious. I can be not so serious, but I’m going to I’m going to give you everything I got. And there’s a loyalty there. And you’re going to see that first thing.

Randell Beck: [00:01:39] Is that what makes you different in real estate?

Robert Mason: [00:01:41] What makes me different in real estate, Randy is number one, I know the city. I’ve been here since 1973. Got lost in a snowdrift in Wisconsin in 69. I said, Dad, I’m going to be short. I need to go somewhere warm so this won’t keep happening. And so we came to Atlanta in 73, and I always knew I was going to be in sales because that was my personality. I wasn’t going to be a scientist. I wasn’t going to be a lawyer or an Indian chief. So what would I want to sell? What has got the biggest benefit to the person on the other end of that line? And that to me was always real estate. Went to the University of Georgia, studied real estate, got out in 1990, and I went into commercial real estate and that was back after the 87 tax law changes. And so the commercial end of that business was in shambles and chaos. And everybody said, Hey, you don’t have any gray in your hair. Kids still don’t have any gray in my hair. And you’re probably not going to do well. So you should probably go sell copiers or something like that until the market comes back. Well, I stayed worked three jobs at the time and I switched over to residential real estate a little bit after the Olympics because the residential side just really took off. That’s how I got started.

Randell Beck: [00:02:59] Okay. So for them, what doesn’t know Robert’s real estate broker with EXP in Roswell and formerly was a commercial real estate broker. So you just mentioned you switched over to residential, but tell me about that commercial background and how does that impact what you do?

Robert Mason: [00:03:14] That’s a good question. Commercial real estate and residential real estate are completely two different animals. I worked for Charlie Ackerman. I worked for Richard Bowers and Jan Saperstein. Three big developers, three big commercial real estate guys at the time. And commercial real estate is a long, long sales process, whereas you can identify a piece of property that somebody wants to buy or rent and moving through that process as a buyer or a lease just takes a considerable amount of time to do so. Checking financials, traffic counts, you got to get DOT records. There’s a lot of processes on on renting or buying commercial real estate, and it takes a long time to find people for your for your retail establishment or industrial establishment or your office park. It’s a lot different than the residential side.

Randell Beck: [00:04:08] Tell me how that impacts you now in your residential side?

Robert Mason: [00:04:12] Well, how does it impact me now? I’m able to talk about it, you know, so COVID changed the commercial real estate ROI returns on investments and a big, big way like office space. I can talk to people about what they’re going to expect on the commercial end. What to expect on the residential end is a completely different subject matter. But being able to talk about the commercial side and how it’s going to affect people’s bottom line, whether it be unemployment, whether it be opportunity, there’s a lot of opportunity on the commercial side. And I’ll give you an example like shopping center space. People can order from Amazon. During COVID, people didn’t have to go anywhere to buy stuff. And so are they going back to their strip centers? Are they going back to the shopping centers? And the answer is no. So what do you do with that? If you’re an investor and I’m an investor, I’m going to say, hey, there’s going to be some opportunity on the commercial real estate side, so be on the lookout. Save your dollars. And so that’s that’s really how I equate that. I put that back into the process.

Randell Beck: [00:05:17] Okay. And you are you’re active in investment real estate still? Yes. Sort of a sort of a commercial endeavor. Tell us about your investment property program.

Robert Mason: [00:05:27] So investment properties, I’ve been investing in real estate since 2003. At one time, I had 15 properties. I had four business partners and 2008 hit. And we all know what happened in 2008, 2009, I started a property management company when I was working for Re Max Greater Atlanta because my clients came to me, investors, and they said, Mr. Mason, what do I do with this real estate? I said, Well, we’re going to have to lease it. We’re going to have to put renters in there until this market turns back around. So I was able to offload all of my properties, all but one. Basically, I had a 525 loan on a condo and the bank would not refinance it for me. So I said, okay, what are my options? The option was either paid off or give it back to the bank, gave back to the bank, didn’t have a choice at the time, so I got rid of all my investment properties. My wife and I had a beach property that we were running and we sold that a couple of years ago. But so now my wife and I have gotten into STRs or short term rentals. We bought a mountain property up at Big Canoe. I’ve got a lot of investor clients, so I’ve been selling these friends and clients these investment properties for years and years and they’re like, Hey, why aren’t you investing in real estate as well? And it just came back to there was a little shock. There was a little maybe fear and hesitation on my part because of what happened in 2008 and when I was able to sit down with my wife and say, hey, here’s the benefits, here’s the Ben Franklin, here’s how it’s going to work, here’s how we can really set ourselves up for wealth development and for future values. We need to get into this. And we did. We bought Harley’s hideaway up at Big Canoe, and it has been a fantastic endeavor since.

Stone Payton: [00:07:19] This whole thing, this whole thing fascinates me. And I feel like, boy, if I don’t get some some real direction from someone who knows what they’re doing, I could really lose my shirt on this. But the idea of having something for me near the woods or the water that I can make some money on, maybe enjoy some myself. What are some of the mistakes? People like me with a little money and much less knowledge make when they try to get into that arena?

Robert Mason: [00:07:49] That’s a great question. What makes a good starter investment? Location, location, location. You’ve heard that before? Yeah. Yeah. Having a business plan. Didn’t we just talk about that earlier today in a in a earlier conversation? A lot of people get into this and they think they can just buy anything and they can just throw it at the wall and it’s going to stick. Well, that’s not even true about anything. You have to be strategic in this business. You have to have a reason why. Why would somebody want to rent this property from me? Water. We bought the Big Canoe property, Harley’s Hideaway. It’s on Lake Scott. It’s also on a golf course. So those are two reasons why One of the biggest mistakes that I see investors making is, number one, not working with a realtor that understands the business. Number two, not working with a lender that understands the investment business. Those two are key things to making this investment choice correct. And you have to form a business plan like our master interface is called owners and owners. We put that board together and then that shoots down to things called Airbnb and VRBO. But our go to website is owner and we’ve set everything up through owners. My wife and I had to watch probably 100 hours of videos. I kid you not. We watched video after video after video. We watched video videos on YouTube of people who’ve opened their own str and it’s either a success or not. And I’ll tell you their whole story. And we were taking notes and we said to ourselves, We don’t want to make those mistakes. What did everybody else do? And so we inoculated ourselves in that business. We knew where the pitfalls were. We knew where the bear traps were before we got involved. Not to mention the fact that I’ve had investments before, not to mention the fact I had my mortgage guy who was my mentor, walk me through all the steps. So you have to have those people in place. Lease. That’s that’s critical. It’s not just about money, because you can lose it.

Randell Beck: [00:09:55] On the residential side. Big change has been happening in Atlanta area in the last six months. Tell me about the residential market.

Robert Mason: [00:10:04] Well, you know, there’s a macro look and there’s a micro look. Okay. Not all cities are the same. Not all markets are the same. So if you said, okay, real estate in the United States of America, where are we headed? Now, that’s a big old long conversation and you’ve got to parcel that out. California and New York are not the same as Atlanta, Georgia, or Birmingham, Alabama, or some of the coastal towns. So the Fed rate’s being raised have changed things dramatically. Okay. That’s not the mortgage interest rates. That’s the Fed rate. That’s the bank rates. That’s what’s what’s your HELOC going to cost? What’s your car loan going to cost? Okay. So the Fed’s up the Fed rate two and a half, 3%, and that has made money more expensive. So that also parallels over into the the residential mortgage side of the business. A year ago, we were sitting at 2.75. And now we’re sitting at 6.75. It’s more than doubled and less than 12 months. We went from a seller’s market, hot seller’s market where anything that came on the market, you’d have 15 to 20 offers and day one average time on the market was like three days.

Robert Mason: [00:11:16] Average day on the market now is is 27 or 28 days. I’m seeing things out there at 60 days. So yeah, but the good thing about the Atlanta market in particular, in Greater Atlanta in particular, we have 100, 110,000 people that are going to come to Atlanta every single year. Covid changed a lot of that. You don’t have to work on Wall Street. You don’t have to live on Wall Street to to have that job anymore. You can work in Montana and your corporate offices in Atlanta or vice versa. So people are going to where the taxes are lower. Hey, you came from New York, so you understand that, right? And so people are coming to Atlanta for a lot of different reasons. Economically speaking, Atlanta is a very vibrant city, economically speaking. We’ve got, what, 25 of the top Fortune 500 companies here in Atlanta. There’s reasons to be here. There’s reasons to be in the south. The weather’s nice. My wife’s from Michigan. She ain’t going back to Michigan. You know, average day in Michigan now is probably, what, 37 degrees and snowing. I look outside, it’s 75 degrees and it’s nice.

Randell Beck: [00:12:20] What’s it like to work with Robert Mason to sell or buy a house?

Robert Mason: [00:12:24] Well, I’m going to tell you what’s on my mind first, Right. So when we work together, I may say some things that you might not like, but at least I’m going to be honest with you. I’m going to give you a real deep dive. I’m going to I’m going to give you probably more information than you need, and I’m going to give you a historical preference of why this area of town is is doing well or school systems, why this school system is better than this school system. And zip codes are not all the same as well. So what are appreciation levels going to do, Robert and Sandy Springs? Well, they’re going to go up 7 to 8% this year. What are they going to do when some of the other like Haynesville? Well, we might see a decline in Haynesville by 4 to 5%. So, you know, not all markets are going to be the same. So when you’re going to work with me, you’re going to get my personal and professional opinion on all things that matter real estate wise.

Stone Payton: [00:13:18] So I believe everything you just said and residential real estate seems like such a competitive arena. There are so many folks out there in that role. How do you get to have like this conversation, that first conversation with someone so that I even get a chance to get to know you and build that confidence in you?

Robert Mason: [00:13:38] Well, how do you get to to the point where you get to speak to me or you get.

Stone Payton: [00:13:42] Yeah. How do how do you get to speak to me if I’m in the market? Because, I mean, there’s a real estate person around every corner. At least that’s what it seems like to me. Like as a layperson, it seems so competitive.

Robert Mason: [00:13:53] And so when there are rough times in real estate, the people jumping ship are just it’s dramatic. So whereas we had let’s just say I’m going to just make this number up, 400,000 real estate agents in Atlanta, there’s not that many. Okay. You’re going to lose about 30 or 40% right off the bat when things start to get difficult. Wow. And so we’ve already seen it. You see that in the mortgage industry. You see that in the real estate industry. People jump into my business when things are going well. I mean, last year you could it didn’t matter what you listed, you’re going to sell it like day one. But like now we really have to work hard to sell these houses for the right number. You can’t just put any number on a house like we were doing a year and a year and a half ago. So when you’re going to go out there and you’re going to sell the biggest asset that you’ll ever own your house or buy that asset, you better be dealing with somebody who’s got the experience. And 33 years in this business, man, I’ve got all the I’ve got all the swelling in my head. I’ve got all the black eyes, I’ve been thrown out cars. And you better have somebody that knows how to weed through all of this because there’s a lot to it.

Randell Beck: [00:15:05] Related question to that. So you’ve been around a while. You went to school, you’re educated in real estate, which seems like a big competitive advantage. So tell me, what are the Robert Mason competitive advantages?

Robert Mason: [00:15:17] Well, the Robert Mason competitive advantages are I’ve been here forever. It seems like I’ve seen the rise and fall of Atlanta. I saw 400 get built back in the 80s when you said, Hey, I’m going to Alpharetta. You know, back in 1981, there was no 400 that went all the way up to Dahlonega. So I’ve seen the I’ve seen Atlanta grow. I’ve been here. I know a lot of folks, which is really a that helps me out tremendously. Having the pool of folks that know my name and know how to get in touch with me. Brother, this this city is I consider it mine and I’m coming from a place of love. But if you want somebody that knows the city from from the from A to Z, well, that’s me. And I’m not shy about telling people that. And it’s not I’m not it’s not bravado. It’s I’ve seen it. I’ve, I’ve lived through it. And this is my town.

Stone Payton: [00:16:11] I mean, he loves the work. You can tell it every time. Anytime you ask him any question or any real estate oriented topic comes up, your eyes light up and you just the passion comes through. You’ve been at this a minute, as the kids say. Yeah. What do you find the most rewarding? What’s the most fun about it all for you?

Robert Mason: [00:16:30] The most rewarding part is I am a part of one of the top three decisions you’re ever going to make. Right? I’m not going to deliver your child, okay? I’m not a doctor. I’m not a lawyer. I can’t marry you. But I can sell you a house. The biggest wealth building instrument you’re ever going to buy. So I’m part of the top three decisions you’ll ever make. And to me, that is the most important thing. And to get it right, you have to get it right. You just can’t sell somebody anything. You just can’t, you know, you can’t just be a seller. You have to be an instructor. You have to be somebody that is building wealth for that client of yours because it’s going to come back. If it’s not a good deal, if it’s not a good neighborhood, it’s not the right school system, they’re going to know. And then that’s your reputation. That’s my reputation. I can’t afford to make mistakes like that. So I take it real super serious.

Randell Beck: [00:17:20] What is it about being involved at that level with the client that that excites you?

Robert Mason: [00:17:26] Being involved at the level to where you’re going to sell somebody, something that’s $100,000 or more, that is. Again, one of the most important decisions that they’re ever going to make. I wear a lot of hats as a realtor. I’m a marriage counselor. I’m a construction expert. You know, I’m a preacher. I’m a car mechanic. I’m a what’s going on at the school professional. I wear so many hats. It’s just I get to know people at the at a level that a lot of folks don’t get to know. People And I get questions from the wives. I get questions from the the dads. I get kids involved. So, man, I’m really getting to know these families. And if they can’t trust me, then that’s a big problem. And that is the utmost important part for me to get right is the loyalty and trust factor.

Randell Beck: [00:18:22] You have an investor club for people that are interested in investment Real estate? Yep.

Robert Mason: [00:18:28] Our investment club, Brad Hartman, my mortgage lender extraordinaire, and he’s my mentor. He kind of got me into the business as well. He and I started a wealth wealth development investment club. Our first meeting is next Thursday at 430 to 6. We’re going to have a meeting once a month for investor minded people, people that want to get into this business. It’s key that Brad and I are doing this together because he does the mortgage side of the business, which is, you know, that’s not just any lender. And then you’ve got a realtor. That’s my part of finding the properties and understanding that business. And so we’re going to do this together. We’re going to help people. I don’t look at other real estate agents as competition. I look at I’m a big circus tent guy. I’m everybody’s everybody’s welcome in my book because the better they are, the better my business is going to be. I’m not going to be here forever. And I want to be able to hand off as much information as I possibly can. So this investment club that we’re starting is built key. The key part of it is helping people build their businesses correctly and doing it right so they don’t lose their money because wealth development, I mean, if you lose $300,000 and you bought the wrong property, then what are they going to think of Robert Mason?

Randell Beck: [00:19:51] Well, in fact, it’s better to not lose than it is to gain. It takes a lot more to recover than it does to make right.

Robert Mason: [00:19:58] So once you lose your reputation, that’s it, man. Right. And it could be a small it could be a small mistake. But we are going to get the blame. And we do, whether it’s right or wrong.

Randell Beck: [00:20:10] Tell me about exp.

Robert Mason: [00:20:12] Exp is the company is built around the premise that brick and mortar is no longer necessary. Okay. We don’t have offices like when I worked for Keller Williams and Re Max Greater Atlanta and some of these other folks, we had brick and mortar and there’s a cost to that. There’s a back end cost to that. Right. We had a guy on that. We talked in our podcast, you know, that talks about that building a back office at EXP. They’re able to give that money back to the agents, which is totally key. When Keller Williams started back in 1998 1999, I met with one of the guys who started it, Sean Rawls. Fantastic guy. He he asked me to come to work for him back in the early 2000, and I didn’t. But I saw their model and I saw that it was a model that was way better than, say, the Remax, the Coldwell Banker models at the at the time. But Keller Williams kind of is still a great company, one of the best in the world. Absolutely. But now EXP is doing things right in a way that the monies that they that we earn in the commissions are going back to the agents in ways that the other giants are not doing. And it’s all virtual. We have like a virtual campus. We go online and we can ask any question we can. I could be an agent in Florida and I wouldn’t have to put my license with a Florida broker. I would just be an affiliate down in Florida and I could pass the test. And now I’m selling real estate in Florida or South Carolina or other states. And the other giants in the industry don’t have that. So it’s streamlined everything. The virtual office is fantastic. The stock options. Every time I sell a house, I get stock in exp. And right now with the stock market down, I’m buying stock at a at a at a lower market value 3 or 4 years from now when that stock market goes back to normal, I’m going to have made a lot of money. And so that’s really important.

Randell Beck: [00:22:13] And how does that XP framework translate for your buyers and sellers? What’s the advantage to them?

Robert Mason: [00:22:20] Well, it allows me to be a better real estate agent. It allows me to be more effective. It allows me to get answers to questions, critical questions a lot quicker, like broker questions. I’m a real estate broker. I don’t know everything. I know a good bit, so exp puts more money back into my business. I’m able to use resources differently than I was at some of the other shops. Okay. Like I’m able to invest in my business like virtual assistants. I need marketing campaigns done. I’m able to use resources that I was putting out in another fashion and the things that are going to be critical to my business and it’s just streamlined my business. I’m able to do things with you, whereas I wouldn’t have had maybe that income or that extra cash to to do otherwise.

Randell Beck: [00:23:07] So that brings up the self-serving question. Tell me about the Robert Mason team.

Robert Mason: [00:23:11] I’ve got some good players on my team. Randall Beck at Beck Shop.com is one of my critical players. You have to have a team around you. You have to have stone, You have to have people that can do things for you. You have to have good law firms and legal advice. You’ve got to have good contractors. You’ve got to have inspectors that know what the hell they’re doing. You’ve got like you do in my videographer. You are a principal part of my business. And so what do I do? I try to promote you. I try to promote those people that are on my team because that’s loyalty. You’re helping me build my brand. I’m helping you build your brand. And so you guys are teammates and a lot of a big mistake that I see a lot of realtors make is they don’t think of it like that. They don’t think of it as a team. It’s all I well, there’s no I in team, is there team? There’s no I. And so you have to have critical structure. You’ve got to have critical support when it really matters. And people like Randall Beck is a critical part of my business. My attorneys, whether it be Shafritz and Dean or Douglas, I mean, I have to have these people in place. And what that does is when I tell somebody that I’m going to fully represent them, I’m fully representing them with my entire team, contractors, legal aid, mortgage people, things like that.

Randell Beck: [00:24:34] What’s next for Robert Mason? Where are you going over the next two years? Well.

Robert Mason: [00:24:40] That’s a good question. Where am I going? I’m trying to solidify my place as a investor again. That’s critical to my wealth development aspect of retirement, although realtors really never retire. You know, that’s just kind of dumb, right? What am I going to do? I’m trying to build I’m trying to build that wealth piece for my family and my wife. And, you know, we make a good living together. I’m not all that money oriented. I’m more oriented towards doing what’s right for my friends and family and those people, those that entrust me with their business. And I want to continue that. So there’s no grand scheme other than just continue to build on the pyramid that I’m already building on. Is that a good answer?

Randell Beck: [00:25:24] I think that’s a good answer. Parting shot Somebody that wants to do real estate, they’re not sure they should work with. What would you want to say to them about working with you?

Robert Mason: [00:25:33] Let’s sit down, have a cup of coffee. I’d like to ask you what your goals are first. Right. So it’s not as simple as saying, Oh, just come to work for me or come to work for EXP. I want to find out what what are your expectations? Where do you see yourself going? What are your strengths? What are your weaknesses? And there’s no way for me to give somebody an answer like that over the phone. I’ve got to meet that person and I’ve got to put my hands on them, you know, in a way to kind of feel where they want to go because EXP is not for everybody, you know? And so I’ve got to ask these questions and be true to that person to be able to give them a really good answer.

Randell Beck: [00:26:08] And same question for somebody that’s looking to buy or sell. Why would you what would you say to them about working with you?

Robert Mason: [00:26:14] Well, if you’re going to work with Robert Mason, you’re going to work with one of the best and one of the guys who’s been around the longest. Okay. You’re going to get my professional opinion, whether you like it or not. I’m going to be honest and like representing you on a couple of things, Randy. There’s certain times when I’ll say, No, I don’t think this is not it, you know, and and some people can’t handle that because maybe they found the house and they were really excited about it. And I have to say, these are the reasons why this won’t work in this scenario. I’ve been doing I’ve been selling real estate for a long, long time. I’ve got integrity. I’ve got honesty. I’ve got my reputation still intact, fully intact. So that’s a huge reason to work with somebody that’s been doing this for a long time.

Randell Beck: [00:26:59] There it is, folks. The backstory on our co-host Robert Mason from Exp Realty. He is a vital part of Excel here, helps me interview our business guests. But now you get to know him a little better, too.

Robert Mason: [00:27:11] Very much.