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Intro: [00:00:07] Broadcasting live from the Business RadioX studios in Woodstock, Georgia. It’s time for Cherokee Business Radio. Now, here’s your host.

Stone Payton: [00:00:23] Welcome to this very special edition of Cherokee Business Radio Stone Payton here producing for you this afternoon. Please join me in welcoming our host for today with Beck shot the man himself Mr. Randy Beck good afternoon, sir.

Randell Beck: [00:00:38] Hi, Stone.

Stone Payton: [00:00:39] Thanks for having me, man. Thanks for letting me sit in. It’s going to be a marvelous series. It’s really our inaugural series of design radio. It’s going to be fantastic. Take it away. Do your thing, man.

Randell Beck: [00:00:50] Well, as you know, but maybe nobody else knows. Design radio is all about the design build space. It’s about real estate, commercial and residential and every aspect. And so what I’ve done today has gotten a few Beck shot clients and other people that I know to come in to talk to us about some aspects of what’s going on in Atlanta and why realtors can have five deals going with the same person and why the house prices are doing what they’re doing and all that sort of thing.

Stone Payton: [00:01:18] Fantastic. All right, lay it on this man. Who did you bring with you?

Randell Beck: [00:01:22] So we got two people here from Stacy Wyatt exp real estate and exp is got some real advantages as a as a real estate operation. And Stacy Wyatt, the face of exp in Atlanta is here. And Robert Mason. Robert is a market leader in Roswell. And that area does a lot of work in north Georgia, mountains, investment properties and that sort of thing. He recently came over to EXP from top producer position at Keller Williams. And I have Carolyn Laban here. She’s a licensed architect in Atlanta who works the other side of the fence. She does a lot of additions and renovations and new home design for custom builds. The whole architecture scenario, she’s going to talk to some about design aspects and what she’s seeing and how this all gets put together.

Stone Payton: [00:02:15] All right.

Randell Beck: [00:02:16] Fun stuff. So I think the way to start is let each one of you guys just kind of take a second and tell us who you are and what’s so in business for you. You know, why should people work with you and in whatever you’d like to say? Well, Carolyn, you want to go first?

Caroline Leyburn: [00:02:33] Oh, okay. Yeah. I’m Caroline Rayburn of Caroline Labor Design. And I do focus on homes and home remodels with a focus on having the home be like really all about your personality, about you and supporting your lifestyle. So I guess you’d want to work with me if you want that. You know what? Same old, same old.

Randell Beck: [00:02:59] Robert.

Robert Mason: [00:03:00] Thanks for having me here, Randi. I’ve been selling real estate since 1990, came out of the University of Georgia. Did some commercial real estate. At first, all the girls on the residential side were having all the fun. So I said, You know what? I need to go over there and made that switch. And, wow, it’s been a heck of a ride. I joined Stacey about a month ago, but he and I had been running around at Keller Williams, aggravating everybody over there for a couple of years. And I was always keeping track of what Stacey was doing, and I was bird dogging some deals for Stacey, and he was making fun of me online and stuff like that. But so now, you know, I tell my clients, you, you know, we’re not all the same and you must choose wisely and you better have people with experience, because in this market is fast as the water is moving, as fast as the incomes are going up and the average price homes are going up. Now we’ve got interest rates that are soaring and we’ve got some big waves in front of us. So you need somebody that’s going to you need a good captain of the boat, not you, Randi, but Stacey Whyte.

Randell Beck: [00:04:04] And I was a captain.

Robert Mason: [00:04:05] I know. That’s why I brought it up. So. Yeah, so choose wisely, folks. And I’m here to help. And I’m glad you brought me on today.

Randell Beck: [00:04:13] Awesome. And Stacey.

Stacey Wyatt: [00:04:15] Yeah so interesting backgrounds of everybody here. I actually I’ve got an architectural engineering degree so came out and went into commercial construction until let’s say 2008 when the market decided to take tank. And the developer I was working for went belly up. Well, let’s say, do they just close their doors, handed the keys back to the banks and a lot of their deals? And so I got my real estate license in 2009. So residential real estate space started a sales team because of my background, I’m a licensed GC and have that architectural engineering. We started buying, renovating and flipping a lot of properties, which is a big passion of mine. And now I’m in the space of six white real estate. We also have our own construction company, investment company and our sales company, and a big passion on helping other agents grow their businesses. And like Robert said, he and I have been in the, you know, real estate sales space. So the EXP brokerage model, which, you know, Robert and I both have our deals brokered through, it’s allowed us to team up and you know, like you said, it’s a tough market. It’s a really tough it’s almost I think it’s a tougher market than it was in nine, ten and 11 for people. And this is the type of opportunity that agents are stronger together as we navigate these these waters. And it’s kind of an iron sharpens iron mentality where Robert has his own business. I have my own. And together we can help people buy, sell, invest in real estate.

Randell Beck: [00:05:39] So I’ve been in your office and it’s unique. I hear a lot that exp doesn’t really have offices or doesn’t need offices. And so when I came in yours, it strikes me, you know, you’ve got your back office where you work and your administration works, but then you have a meeting room. It’s sort of a gathering area and that’s really kind of all I saw. It seems like a good meeting place. Tell us more about that.

Stacey Wyatt: [00:06:02] Yeah. So the XP royalty model is very different than all the other real estate models out there, right? It’s an old traditional model that is mostly a franchise model, which let’s just hearken it to the blockbuster. Right. It’s brick and mortar. And as the the brokers don’t have access to all the information. Well, they have access to all the information, but so do we as agents. Right. So the value proposition for the broker has been reduced. And for that, the agents who are out there generating the business and bringing in the income are looking for more opportunity in the market, in my opinion, ownership and what have you. So as the market has changed or technology has changed, it is allow a new model which exp brought out which is virtual model and people think is that wow like do you guys actually have brokers and meets and you don’t have places to go? So it’s a complete mind shift and I say, yes, just think about this. All of the brokerage operations works in the virtual world. They work in a cloud, actually has a dxp had a metaverse before Facebook had metaverse. Right. Which was it’s an avatar based software system that you go on and dress up a fancy little character that looks just like you.

Stacey Wyatt: [00:07:15] You know, mine’s got this same shoes and and a jacket and jeans on that you can walk around and talk to anybody real time. If there’s a wireless connection anywhere in the world, I can walk in and talk to my broker tech support payment processing like you did in a brick and mortar. So it allows an agent to work from anywhere in the world, provided they have a wireless connection. And agents like myself may choose still to have an office. Right. Because as we still like that little bit of collaboration, I mean, I can’t imagine somebody in the architecture space or design space would be able to work with the client without seeing anything. Now, you could do it technology wise. But there is, I think just as humans in general, we do like that still getting in front and having that conversation. So. We had built a space to where we call it like our collaboration hub, where we can come in and for salespeople, for in the office all day, we’re probably not making any money, right? So we treat it more as a.

Robert Mason: [00:08:06] Be out.

Stacey Wyatt: [00:08:07] There, a collaboration hub to where we all can get together, mastermind on what’s working, what’s not working in this market and then get out and do what we always did. And the beauty of it is, is most people choose when I chose this business, I wanted the flexibility to be to work wherever I wanted to write. And it does seem every time I set a vacation and I go there, that’s when my deals go under contract. Yeah.

Robert Mason: [00:08:28] Contracts come in when you’re going out of town.

Stacey Wyatt: [00:08:29] Yeah, but the beauty of it is now my brick and mortar is still back in Atlanta, but when I’m down in Florida on Thursday, I can put my wireless connection up, walk into my broker’s office. I could do that anywhere. So the model is hard to understand until you actually get in it and and see it because I hearken expe realty to the Netflix of real estate. So that’s a little bit of the difference.

Randell Beck: [00:08:51] So it sounds like if I’m understanding this right when Robert runs off to play tactical games or he’s up on the Great Lakes sailing on a boat or whatever, you got it. All he has to do is find a wi fi connection to take care of whatever his client’s got going on. And it’s otherwise, it’s exactly. There’s no difference between him being in the office, being in Atlanta or anywhere else.

Robert Mason: [00:09:11] That’s the way it is. And my avatar looks like tatou from Fantasy Island, a really small little guy, you know, indication of.

Stacey Wyatt: [00:09:18] With big guns, though.

Robert Mason: [00:09:18] Yeah, he’s got big guns. But yeah, anywhere I go, as long as I can get online, you know, I can get help, I can write contracts. You don’t have to be in an office. It gives you a lot of flexibility, which more agents want flexibility. And the market has changed since COVID and people don’t have to go to work. So it’s a great it’s a great company and it’s going to work.

Stacey Wyatt: [00:09:40] And if I had one thing to that is I actually feel and this is going to be really weird. No, not that weird. I feel more connected on a virtual world than I ever did standing in an office next to other people.

Randell Beck: [00:09:53] Well, people say that about Facebook and stuff, too. They feel like they make real friends there when you’re not even making them in your day to day life.

Stacey Wyatt: [00:09:59] Yeah, I mean, you get there’s.

Randell Beck: [00:10:00] Some level of connection that this is enabling that people have.

Stacey Wyatt: [00:10:03] 100%.

Randell Beck: [00:10:03] It’s either new or they’ve been missing.

Stacey Wyatt: [00:10:05] Yeah. And you get to for a lot of instances, you get to choose who you like. Robert and I chose to hang out together like smart guys blown up his business and he and I can share what’s working in this market, what’s changing and keep us both ahead because it’s a little bit of an abundance play, right? Because sitting here, people could say, oh, you guys are competitors. Well, yeah.

Robert Mason: [00:10:25] I don’t feel that.

Stacey Wyatt: [00:10:26] Way. Yeah. Robert sells a lot of homes in Roswell. I sell a lot of homes in Roswell. And we’ve never, ever I don’t think that we’ve we’ve done one potential transaction together.

Robert Mason: [00:10:33] I’ve sent him homes. Yeah.

Stacey Wyatt: [00:10:35] So it was a situation where we can make each other stronger, help each other’s businesses grow, and it’s abundance mentality. Most people come at it with a little bit of a scarcity mentality.

Randell Beck: [00:10:44] Is it fair to say then that the benefit to your client is that there’s no gap in the service you provide at all?

Robert Mason: [00:10:50] None.

Stacey Wyatt: [00:10:51] There’s none. None. And I do. And I honestly believe that it’s an elevated service because we’re sharing information at a really high level. I go spend I mean, I would guess on average, I spent at least $50,000 a year on education masterminds and stuff that I go to. When I bring that back, I’m sharing it with like I consider Robert a partner. We’re not partners in the legal sense, right? We’re partners. And he has joined ISP financially invested through their brilliant model of sharing in revenue and agent ownership. I want to see him succeed, right? I mean, I like him. He’s just a nice guy anyway. And he’s going to teach me how to shoot guns way better than I already do. That’s a different story for different day. However, that’s that collaboration piece that I feel like then makes us that much sharper to serve our clients at a higher level.

Randell Beck: [00:11:38] All right. And Carolyn, you work from home, but you have staff, too, right?

Caroline Leyburn: [00:11:43] Actually, I have a drafts woman who is in India so that, you know, it’s kind of very similar, you know, virtual. So, you know, now that we have daylight saving time, she starts at 630 in the evening, works till three in the morning. I start at nine in the morning, work till 530 actually I work till about two in the morning.

Stacey Wyatt: [00:12:01] But she’s doing all the work while you’re sleeping and shows up in your email box and you look brilliant, right?

Caroline Leyburn: [00:12:06] Well, she’s working actually at the same time. And then I continue.

Stacey Wyatt: [00:12:10] Got it.

Caroline Leyburn: [00:12:11] On. Yeah. I mean, an employee. You work 8 hours. Yeah. Business owner, you work whatever. 16.

Stacey Wyatt: [00:12:17] True. You’re on all the time, right? Well, it’s interesting because I have two Vas in the Philippines. One does video editing and one does graphic design. We send them their information. And Grant, I’m kind of like you. I don’t sleep, but when I do sleep, they’re probably working on it. So in a in a big sense, we already are in a virtual world, which is amazing for for an entrepreneur or somebody that you can run a business, you need to figure out how to do these things. I call it resourcefulness.

Randell Beck: [00:12:38] Did I hear him say video editing? Yeah. We’re not even together. And he’s already cheating.

Robert Mason: [00:12:43] Yeah, he’s. He’s already cheating on you right now.

Stacey Wyatt: [00:12:44] So it’s not quality video. It’s like four reels or something.

Robert Mason: [00:12:48] Stacey. No, Randy. A better shooter than I am.

Stacey Wyatt: [00:12:50] So I was world.

Robert Mason: [00:12:51] Champion, so.

Stacey Wyatt: [00:12:52] Oh, well, I guess you’re going to be teaching me then.

Randell Beck: [00:12:56] We could work something out.

Stacey Wyatt: [00:12:57] Yeah.

Randell Beck: [00:12:57] Yeah. Let’s talk about the Atlanta market here. I saw statistics. I’ve been told that 150,000 people a year are moving into this area.

Robert Mason: [00:13:05] Last year, we had about 125,000 moved to Atlanta. We typically were getting 75,000 roughly moving to Atlanta. So we almost doubled. And, you know, I hear realtors saying that the inventories are down. Well, we averaged 100 well, we did 110,000 interactions last year through the FLS, which is how I kind of gaze everything. If you look back the last two or three years, it was about 100, 105, 110. So those numbers really didn’t get squeezed out. We’re selling the same amount of houses. There’s just a lot more competition for everything that goes online. For every house that comes online, you probably have three or four buyers if it makes sense, if it’s ready to sell, if there’s curb appeal and they haven’t overpriced it. And there are a couple of brokerage companies in Atlanta that tried to come in and buy the business, won’t mention their names, but now they’re kind of going by the wayside. So we have to be very careful on on offers that we’re throwing out there because it still has to make sense.

Randell Beck: [00:14:04] How do you have a market that active and still have low inventory?

Robert Mason: [00:14:09] There’s more competition. There’s more competition. We’re going to sell the same amount of houses.

Stacey Wyatt: [00:14:14] Yeah. And there’s some interesting stats out there as to why inventory is so low. Well, first of all, the one millennials is the largest buying segment, right? Boomers is the second. Well, most of those millennials, what did they get introduced to real estate in 0809? They saw what happened. They were coming out of college. They were living in their parents basements. Mm hmm. Well, now, fast forward. They’re in in basically family formation stage or ready to have their first child, and now they need homes. So the challenge was, in the last decade, we’ve built the fewest homes in the last, I believe, eight decades than we ever have. So we actually have the homebuilders have not kept up with the necessary supply, mainly because of the fallout from the 0809 period. And this is a really wonky stat that caught me by surprise was the oh eight or nine when we had oversupply. Right. And the lending standards and everything were, as we all know, loose. Right. They were giving dead people mortgages. If you back up 30 years before that, builders had stayed on that pace. And we’re building, building, building. Why did we have so much supply? Well. Roe v Wade was 30 years earlier.

Stacey Wyatt: [00:15:21] So the amount of actual household formations decreased massively. So you take an oversupply of houses, a smaller group of family, of family formations. That’s what created that gap in the supply at that time to where everybody was doing the LYRE loans. It was a financial crisis. That’s what people can’t get there. That was a financial crisis. People did not have. They were given loans to people that didn’t have the money. They weren’t putting anything down. Subprime, that was a financial bubble. Right. Brought on by the oversupply of housing because of that demographic shift. Now, let’s fast forward over this last decade. What has happened is builders hadn’t caught building, right? They were trying to get rid of all the supply. So the builders haven’t started. They haven’t caught up. So that’s led to what? Two things. We’re in the Sunbelt part of the country, right? So everybody’s still moving here. Since the Olympics, this place has still been growing. So add that on because of our business climate and low taxes and everything else and the fact that the builders stopped building. We just don’t have enough homes. And so competition now is just crazy.

Robert Mason: [00:16:24] And a little known fact, Randi, is the population of the United States has stayed flat relatively over the last 25, 30 years. So it’s not that we’re getting more people you know, people are having more children. It’s it’s regional. You’ve got to look things through a macro lens and a micro lens. What’s going on in California or New York that’s not going on Atlanta and Birmingham and Raleigh and.

Stacey Wyatt: [00:16:44] Places all coming here.

Robert Mason: [00:16:46] They’re coming here for a number of reasons, which is great for us. Realtors. It makes it tough for those folks who are or Atlantans trying to buy a house and move up because a lot of them are getting squeezed out, especially.

Stacey Wyatt: [00:16:58] The first time homebuyers are just getting destroyed in this market.

Randell Beck: [00:17:00] So we know that businesses are moving in here, creating a lot of jobs. That’s drawing people here, economics, 100,000 people a year or whatever it is. And so. Since the housing hasn’t kept up, there’s not enough development there bidding up prices and competing for the.

Robert Mason: [00:17:16] House and there’s not in the land. This is the.

Randell Beck: [00:17:18] Competition you were mentioning.

Robert Mason: [00:17:20] It’s difficult to find land to build on. I mean, I’ve got 13 acres in due west and the numbers have to make sense. There’s not enough land for these builders to go out and buy on them when they do. The average price home on new construction anywhere 30, 40 miles within, you know, the greater Atlanta area, you’ve got to price those homes at six, seven, 800,000 for it. To make sense, though, first time homebuyer is going to be able to buy that well.

Stacey Wyatt: [00:17:46] And if you throw that into the increased cost of land, because prices have gone up, well, now all the builders and everybody and you’re probably seeing this in people you’re consulting on the architecture side is your design stuff is inflation is crushing these builders because they’re paying high for the land. All the materials are expensive. They can barely put a price on the house. Now, a little bit of upside. Prices are continuing to move up. Right. But they’re facing challenges because the time that they actually start the house or even start developing the land, they ran a proforma on how much it’s going to cost for bricks and sticks, which that could mean now it’s changing in two weeks, even if they can get the materials. Yeah.

Randell Beck: [00:18:21] So and so you’re advising your buyers, as you told me, to step up to the plate, get in while they can make the best offers they can. They’re competing with other buyers for the houses. Yeah. And so and so I would think that sellers would be excited to sell their house for a premium price and move but then they’re having to pay the inflated price, right.

Robert Mason: [00:18:42] Yeah. But if they you’ve got to find something that you can move into and you can win the bid on. Right. So that’s where new construction comes in from somebody that’s got an existing house. He’s going to make good equity when he sells it, getting into something new, construction, if they can find it. I’ve got my mortgage guy Brad Hartman’s like that. He’s looking to step up, but there’s not a lot of inventory out there that really makes sense. There’s not a lot of inventory out there at all. And so the train is not going to slide backwards down the tracks. The prices are going up. They’re going to continue to go up. The cost of money has gone up. I think we’re priced out today at about 4.5, 4.5, six for an interest rate. And the Fed has announced that they’re going to increase that six times this year. So for people that are sitting on the on the fence and saying, I’m just going to wait for it to come back down, there’s going to be a crash. It’s not going to happen. Yeah.

Stacey Wyatt: [00:19:30] I’ve heard over the last to even today I could pull up my slack right now and my team said, Hey, can we do five or six talking points on why the market’s not going to crash? Because, you know, I think there’s little PTSD from 0809. Yeah, especially in the millennial. It’s kind of it feels like the same thing. I’m like it feels like it, but it’s completely different.

Robert Mason: [00:19:49] It is.

Randell Beck: [00:19:50] Well, the growth that’s happening in Atlanta, nobody’s going to stop moving here in the near future.

Robert Mason: [00:19:54] Right. So economics.

Randell Beck: [00:19:55] Real estate market, this is a jobs market.

Robert Mason: [00:19:58] Now, if you were talking about California, New York, New Jersey, some of those some of those places. Yeah, they’re sliding back.

Stacey Wyatt: [00:20:04] Well, at that 50% of that 150,000, roughly that move here every year, 50% of it’s from New New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and now California.

Randell Beck: [00:20:12] Including me a little over a year.

Stacey Wyatt: [00:20:13] Ago. Oh, really?

Randell Beck: [00:20:14] Yeah. Yeah. So so, Caroline, how is this affecting your business now?

Caroline Leyburn: [00:20:19] Well, in the custom, you know, it’s hard for a contractor to give a fixed fee bid. I mean, you.

Stacey Wyatt: [00:20:25] Know, it’s got to be cost.

Caroline Leyburn: [00:20:26] Plus. Yeah. Got it.

Robert Mason: [00:20:27] I mean. Caveat. Yeah.

Randell Beck: [00:20:29] So are you seeing a lot like if it’s difficult for a seller to sell something and find where they want to go next, are you seeing an increase in remodels and additions then where they where they say, okay, let me stay where I am and add on to the house?

Caroline Leyburn: [00:20:43] Uh huh. Certainly.

Stacey Wyatt: [00:20:45] I would assume you’re also seeing probably getting more work that you can shake a stick at. Right, because everybody’s.

Caroline Leyburn: [00:20:49] It’s certainly available.

Stacey Wyatt: [00:20:51] Yeah. And it’s a good problems to have, I guess.

Caroline Leyburn: [00:20:54] Mm hmm.

Randell Beck: [00:20:54] So as an architect, what do you do the most of in that world? I mean, tell us a little bit about the kind of work you’re doing.

Caroline Leyburn: [00:21:01] Yeah, it is mostly remodel, which, you know, I don’t I think when it comes to new, if they want just the same old, same old, sometimes I’m like, well, why don’t you just get a stock plan or go see a real estate agent? I mean, you know, but if you want something that’s really more about you and your personality, then that’s when you get an architect.

Randell Beck: [00:21:23] It’s very customized work. And so what is that? A lot of the people moving in? Are you getting a lot of people saying, I don’t just want to buy something else now I’m coming from New York. I sold my highly appreciated house. Now I want something really special that’s my own.

Caroline Leyburn: [00:21:38] Well, most of the people that move in need something right now. So, you know, unless they’re going to rent for a year or two, it’s really more people who are here and moving up or changing, sometimes downsizing. You know, the old fifties ranches are great for the boomers who are getting older and just remodel it and it’s perfect.

Stacey Wyatt: [00:21:58] Are you seeing on the scene a lot of California buyers come in and they want that California mod. Are you seeing a lot of that?

Caroline Leyburn: [00:22:05] Not not yet. But I certainly like the look.

Stacey Wyatt: [00:22:08] It’s coming. They come in, we get a lot of requests lately that are, you know, because the modern farmhouse has been big, right? Yeah. Oh, yeah. Now they’re wanting that California mod as well.

Robert Mason: [00:22:19] That’s on the coast.

Randell Beck: [00:22:19] Yeah. Cubes with windows.

Stacey Wyatt: [00:22:21] Yeah. Yeah, you got it.

Randell Beck: [00:22:23] Some of those, some of those are really nice. And some of them look like Frank Lloyd Wright nightmares.

Stacey Wyatt: [00:22:27] Yeah, true. They’re doing three in East Cobb over kind of where we’re Robert and our had builders moved in there and he’s building three custom like two or $3 million really modern California type houses and they all are already under contract pre build.

Robert Mason: [00:22:43] Yeah.

Randell Beck: [00:22:43] Well you guys bridged into the trends topic really nicely. They’re almost like you knew what we were going to.

Robert Mason: [00:22:47] Be talking about. I saw your notes.

Randell Beck: [00:22:50] So what are the trends? What are the hot versions besides Modern Farmhouse, which everybody knows.

Robert Mason: [00:22:56] Modern Farmhouse is really in still white with black trim, you know, that’s become a trend now. We just did it in our house.

Randell Beck: [00:23:03] That’s still the.

Robert Mason: [00:23:03] Hot. Oh, yeah, it is now.

Stacey Wyatt: [00:23:05] Yeah, yeah. I’m seeing a lot. I am definitely seeing a trend moving towards what I’d call more modern, like a little more of a mid-century. But all a lot of the California clients that are coming in really want a modern look, more gloss. You know, we’re kind of in where we’re at more traditional, right? We call joke and call five, four in a door. It’s a box. You walk in and, you know, living here in the right kitchen, in the back, so on and so forth. They’re wanting more open space, a lot more light. They want these modern homes. I mean, you think about it, they’re probably tripling down on their money moving to Atlanta, because we’ve always been I mean, nationally, average sales price like Phenix is pretty low in comparison. And so they’re bringing all this money in and they want what the what what they want. They can have get hire an architect and design these fancy modern houses. So I’m seeing a huge trend. Sandy Springs, Buckhead up into the lower part of East Cobb that are wanting these what I’m calling like the California modern vibe.

Robert Mason: [00:24:04] And another thing about it, more people are spending time in their own houses and working out of their houses. So they’re changing that space, you know, for the kids to be able to study at home, you know, because COVID changed everything. And people want their workspace and their their residential space in the same place.

Stacey Wyatt: [00:24:21] That additional bedroom. But now it’s additional office or flex space because almost all of them I mean, a lot of the big corporate like Coke and they’re just now going back. But what has happened? My buddy, he’s like, dude, I don’t want to go back. Yeah. So they’re going to be they’re going to force employers at some point. And so that’s opening up that additional flex space or additional room in the house for to work from home.

Robert Mason: [00:24:40] You’re seeing carriage houses over garages and stuff like that. You know, they’re they’re really they’re hunkering down because they don’t have a lot of choices out there. It’s competitive.

Randell Beck: [00:24:50] So, Caroline and if somebody is remodeling or adding to an existing house, they’re probably not following these same trends, right? You’re probably trying more to blend it into the existing house. Like when I looked at your website, a couple of things that I noticed were some of the additions you did. You had to kind of look two or three times to see that that wasn’t really that the photo changed. It wasn’t really part of the original house.

Caroline Leyburn: [00:25:11] And I usually do want that. Yes. So and so. So yeah. We’re talking about style. Yeah. Obviously Joanna Gaines made.

Robert Mason: [00:25:19] It’s not just HGTV change the world.

Stacey Wyatt: [00:25:22] Everybody wants to be them.

Robert Mason: [00:25:23] Everyone Chip and Joanna.

Caroline Leyburn: [00:25:25] And you know, and like you say, the midcentury modern and so forth. But, you know, for the most part, people are wanting it to blend into what was already existing, maybe upgrade a little, change a little.

Randell Beck: [00:25:36] Are there other trends that affect you, like, I don’t know, automation or intelligent house or energy efficiency, topics that are hot?

Caroline Leyburn: [00:25:45] I mean, I incorporate all that, but it doesn’t necessarily drive the design.

Stacey Wyatt: [00:25:49] The one the one that I’ve seen a little I’ll be curious from your perspective is obviously with the aging boomer population, I’m seeing a lot more multigenerational living or at least spaces like they want the basement or in the case some carriage houses for that. Are you seen that very much.

Caroline Leyburn: [00:26:04] Yeah. And that so any any life change like if you’re expecting a new child or your mother’s got to move in. That’s often the time they call an architect, you know, saying we need to either add. I mean, it’s like when mom wants to move in, maybe someone feels like the guest room is not a big effort.

Stacey Wyatt: [00:26:23] Or mom doesn’t think it’s big enough.

Caroline Leyburn: [00:26:24] Yeah, it’s like we need a little a little better boundary here, you know? So. Exactly. You make a new special space. It could be in the back. The bottom. The top, anywhere.

Stacey Wyatt: [00:26:33] Exactly. Yeah, I’ve seen a lot of.

Robert Mason: [00:26:35] That in the garage.

Randell Beck: [00:26:37] Are there other trends besides style that you guys are seeing?

Robert Mason: [00:26:40] You know, ranch houses for the older generations? I mean, they don’t want stairs. I don’t want stairs. And I’m not really there yet, but I’m getting there quickly. Yeah, the traditional four upstairs is kind of going by the wayside because the aging populations, so more people want ranches. I think with the millennial crowd, they are they’re kind of like looking at things as a throwaway, you know, kind of like cell phones. Look, I got to get a new one every year, and they’re not really interested in tying themselves down. So multi multifamily living space is big for the younger crew. People coming in from the northeast are used to living in big cities, so you’re getting a lot of that multifamily stuff being built. And when interest rates and the economy goes a little sour, you see more rental opportunities. You’ll see like the cousins properties, some of those folks coming in and and taking some office space that people aren’t using anymore and they’re going to make it in the multifamily units. You’re going to see a lot of that. You’re going to see a lot of that with malls are going to be turned into entertainment districts. So there’s going to be a big shift in these commercial real estate guys. They’re not dumb. These guys have a lot of money, got a lot of intelligence, been doing things for a while. They’re going to they’re going to shift into some other product.

Randell Beck: [00:27:53] Yeah. Many times today we’ve talked about staffing, we’ve talked about work, and we’ve talked about the XP model, and now we’re talking about shifting this office space to residential and other uses. Yep. Apparently this shift in bandwidth and technology, internet marketing and work from home revolution that’s going on is having a broad.

Robert Mason: [00:28:18] Offensive, massive change.

Randell Beck: [00:28:19] Do you feel like we’re looking at a paradigm shift here?

Robert Mason: [00:28:22] Yeah, it’s going to they’re it’s going to be a paradigm shift. There already is. I mean, people are staying home, working out of their houses and designing properties like that is going to be a big part of your future. It’s a big part of the trend for Stacy and I. And we better get our head wrapped around it and understand it and not let it just surprise us and go, Oh, I’m gonna just happen, you know?

Stacey Wyatt: [00:28:41] Yeah, I think COVID shrunk the innovation cycle shorter. It just made it a shorter. We were going to get there. Covid just put it on the fast tracked and in that same breath to other things that are happening. I don’t know if you all remember here in Atlanta. How long you been here, Randy?

Randell Beck: [00:28:57] A little over a year.

Stacey Wyatt: [00:28:57] Okay. So pre-COVID, everybody wanted to move downtown. They wanted the lifestyle and they wanted the condo and they want to walk to the restaurants. And when COVID happened, they’re like, damn, we’re all too close to each other. So I’m seeing the big shift now to where everybody wanted to be in Morningside and all the places in town. Everybody’s moving out and they want bigger properties and more land for multiple reasons. But then also it’s the flight to second property, lake properties, right? And properties since they can work from anywhere they want. The the paradigm shift is we’re in the middle of it, in my opinion, because now they can work. That’s why you can’t find a damn lake house. And if you can, it’s so expensive because people if you have a choice to work, I mean, yeah, I’d rather work for my lake house, look at my Lakeview, and as soon as I’m done, I can pop out and go on the boat.

Robert Mason: [00:29:43] I think she’s buy one.

Randell Beck: [00:29:44] Stacy So you’re saying that.

Stacey Wyatt: [00:29:45] That I have friends with boats. That’s my law.

Randell Beck: [00:29:48] So so you’re saying it’s not like it’s going to change? It is changing. It is.

Stacey Wyatt: [00:29:52] Changing.

Randell Beck: [00:29:53] And we’re just we’re just wondering what the final version is going to look like at this point.

Robert Mason: [00:29:57] Yeah, there’s going to be a lot of agents that are behind the curve. It’s going to be a lot of folks behind the curve. We’re going to see a lessening of the real estate world and the mortgage world. The average agent around the average national agent sells two houses per year. That’s not enough, you know? And so you’re going to see the guys that have been in the business that have wrap their heads around. This change, this morphing into this different thing, they’re going to be able to hang on longer than some of these new agents that are coming in. So my suggestion for the young guys, young gals, is to get educated on this as much as possible, listen to blogs, listen to all the spots like this, get as much information as you possibly can, because we’re shifting we’re shifting fast.

Randell Beck: [00:30:40] So some of what I’ve observed myself in my comings and goings in this sea change, some navy talk for you. There you go. People are working from home. Yes. The counterargument is that you need certain things that the office can provide. It’s not the same things that it used to be. It’s not a fax machine in a copier and, you know, a secretary to answer the phone and all that stuff because you don’t even need that stuff. You can scan from your cell phone.

Robert Mason: [00:31:09] Yeah, that’s so eighties.

Randell Beck: [00:31:10] Randy Yeah, exactly. So, but, but it might be collaboration and face time and, you know, coordinated input, right? From, from people working together. And so I’m seeing that companies are. Transforming their workspace to collaborative environment. And they’re making them look more like homes. The office design is is very rapidly shifting to more like a long kitchen counter, almost a breakfast bar, some tables sitting around like a big dining room and some home type feeling spaces to work in. Can you guys comment on that trend?

Robert Mason: [00:31:48] Go ahead, Stace.

Stacey Wyatt: [00:31:49] Yeah, I mean, first of all, from, you know, in talks of working from home, I mean, there’s the first thing we intel was productivity. I mean, in Atlanta traffic in the morning I know people that live in Cumming and work downtown. I mean, first of all, from an employer perspective, I would rather have them an hour and a half instead of commute working. And in the evening it’s probably 3 hours of productivity time alone. However, as we look at you know, and Robert hasn’t been plugged into this totally yet, you know, as we’re looking at to build a collaboration space here in Atlanta for the agents that join us, you know, at XP is our version is something of a house. It’s not a commercial office space. We want it to be a home because that’s actually what we do. But we want to have with social media and technology, we want to have that custom kitchen. These agents can come get their photos in and have that collaboration space and have that feel for home. It’s kind of what we do. So it’s something different. I think for us it’s more, it’s different, it’s collaboration and it is what we do.

Stacey Wyatt: [00:32:47] I will say in the commercial space, I would agree with you now it kind of came from the West Coast, right, with Google and all them having those open workspaces. And you’ve been in my office, so you see, I haven’t built it kind of like a coffee house where I just want it to be a collaboration space where agents can come in or whoever partners come in, collaborate to video, do whatever they want in that space. Because I didn’t want the boring old office. I wanted to be able to go to a space that I like. You know, if I get in trouble with the wife, I can go in and I’ve got the dartboard and I’ve got the video games and I’ve got the refrigerator and bathroom just missing the shower. But we can work on that. So you sell out, right? It’s got a full bar and a skybar cap cappuccino machine play poker in there. In any event, I wanted a fun space anyway, so I do think people are want something different.

Randell Beck: [00:33:29] Stone I think I want to go to work for him.

Stone Payton: [00:33:32] Me too. I don’t want to go to work, period. But if I do go to work, I want to go with him.

Stacey Wyatt: [00:33:37] I’ve left the the old school and date myself here. Remember in pizza you always have the sit down Ms.. Pac-man game and it’s got all the old school games on it. That’s very 80 that was going to go into my into the office, but it stayed at the house. I played one game.

Robert Mason: [00:33:50] Waka waka. Waka waka waka.

Stacey Wyatt: [00:33:52] I’ve got like 200,000 of them now.

Robert Mason: [00:33:56] Oh, my wife loves Pac-Man.

Stacey Wyatt: [00:33:57] Yeah, it’s awesome.

Robert Mason: [00:33:58] Ms.. Pac-man.

Stacey Wyatt: [00:33:59] So I do I think I think people are enjoying it. And honestly, I think a lot still want to work from home. Yeah.

Randell Beck: [00:34:05] One of the last things I worked on in New York was a multi use building that was apartments above. I think there was 49 units or something like that. And then on the ground floor there was some commercial space and a school space. And of course the school being schools being what they are, that was handled by a different interior architect, different firm. Everything was. It was its own thing. The rest of the building was built to passive house standards, which is the first it was the first one in America to do that. Passive House being a residential concept from Europe for energy efficiency, using air interchange and sometimes geothermal and a lot of a lot of solar heating and all these specific technologies and specific design considerations. And now that’s going now that’s being adapted for commercial buildings.

Robert Mason: [00:34:57] Yeah, they’re called Pods Plan Unit Developments. They’ve been in Atlanta. Peachtree Corners was one of the very first pods here in Atlanta. So that’s that’s been here for a while.

Randell Beck: [00:35:06] Okay. So these things are expensive. You know, anybody that’s worked in the business will tell you that. How are people in the middle of this sea change? We’re changing our design criteria. We’re changing the functions of our house. We’re changing the map. We’re changing the mechanics of it. How do you afford this? How do you how does somebody how does somebody get what they want and be able to buy it now?

Robert Mason: [00:35:26] Well, that’s a good question. I mean, it just depends on what is the price what are the price points? I mean, the average person the average person in America makes $85,000 a year. So they’re going to get they’re going to get topped out around 400,000 at a 4.5% interest rate. So it’s going to leave a lot of people out of that.

Randell Beck: [00:35:45] So the average price on Long Island is over half a million. That’s the average price here in Atlanta is just reached. 400 just reached. What does that say for that average income earner?

Robert Mason: [00:35:54] It’s it’s going to be a tough it’s going to be a tough road to hoe for these guys because they’re not going to be able to qualify for some of these higher five 5650s when interest rates go to 55.56. I had a gal on a conference call said that might go to seven, which that would be a not a disaster. The first mortgage I took out in 1997 was seven. So people just need to kind of calm down and just realign themselves. But in 1997, when I had a 7% interest rate, the product was $130,000. It’s going to be 550,000. So things are changing.

Stacey Wyatt: [00:36:28] And I’ll be curious to hear what you’re seeing on that that end of the zine. Also, a lot of what you’re talking if you talk about the passive design. So when I think of that, I think of like building a house, green or solar or anything like that on the residential. That’s the first thing that usually seems to get value engineered out of the deal, right? So expensive. So unless you have the money to do it, where I am seeing it at a higher level is since the commercial usually can afford it, I’m seeing it in a lot of commercial spaces. For instance, like, you know, Facebook’s building another million square foot space out in social circle. Well, they’ve got their typical back up, but then they also have solar back up. So I think the ones that have the money they’re going to spend it probably are going to spend it in a category where maybe it helps them more financially. I’m not really seeing it on the residential, especially here in Atlanta, where, you know, Earth Craft was building. Green was a big thing. And I haven’t heard as much of that lately. I mean, some of the stuff has changed, better insulation and what have you, but that’s always seems to be the first thing that goes. They want the esthetic versus, you know, any maybe potential savings they have from solar or something.

Caroline Leyburn: [00:37:29] That does seem to be the case. You know, and I’m interested in doing the energy saving stuff. I mean, I would when I was in school, that was as much the religion as being green is now totally, you know, and but you know, yes, people do insulate better now sometimes with foam and stuff, but it’s great fun. But that’s usually.

Stacey Wyatt: [00:37:50] It. Right.

Caroline Leyburn: [00:37:50] But you don’t see a lot of South facing glass and that sort of thing.

Randell Beck: [00:37:54] Yeah. You had indicated to me the other day when we were talking that there’s less incentive, less tax breaks, less incentive for the homeowners to do green green design or green building. Other other than, wow, look at my neat, energy efficient house, right? Whereas the commercial guys have tax credits that they can sell off 100%, they can monetize that in a lot of ways.

Caroline Leyburn: [00:38:17] Well, certainly like the LEED accreditation, if you’re just doing your own house, how would you do it?

Stacey Wyatt: [00:38:23] Just because I wanted to write.

Caroline Leyburn: [00:38:25] You have to want to, you know, virtue signal or whatever. You have to be able to say, you know, I got to lead platinum or whatever you got, you know, and.

Stacey Wyatt: [00:38:33] My my partner, my construction company is LEED certified. So, you know, if he wants to do his house, he just wants to do it because.

Robert Mason: [00:38:39] Yeah, so I mean, the average price to do solar on a residential houses between 15 and $25,000 back to that $85,000 wage earner, do they have a 15 to $25000 to do solar if they wanted to? If you got 20,000, redo your kitchen. You know, there’s things that you can do that can up the equity and the value of your house. And as much as you know, people would like to go solar, it’s still very expensive. You don’t get the tax credits really as a residential purchaser of that, you do a little bit, but it’s still expensive.

Stacey Wyatt: [00:39:11] Well, and from a payback period to like we’re a very transient city. Like when I lived in New York, people there was like they’ve been in their homes for 30 years and here it’s forties that we’re very transient in Atlanta. So it’s 4 to 7 years. Well, for you to make your money back on solar, it’s something like 12.

Robert Mason: [00:39:25] To 12 to.

Stacey Wyatt: [00:39:26] 15 years to make your money back on it. So it’s just not a good investment, you know, because most people have traded out. Yeah. So buy and sell a lot of houses myself. So.

Robert Mason: [00:39:35] Yeah.

Caroline Leyburn: [00:39:36] Also means you’re cutting down your trees. Yeah. I mean, so how do you want it to feel like you’re, you know, in a sheltered tree natural space or cut them down because.

Robert Mason: [00:39:46] You need that sunlight?

Randell Beck: [00:39:47] Yeah. Now it’s the green ward and there’s on solar power. Do you want to save the trees?

Stacey Wyatt: [00:39:50] There’s a lot of trees in Georgia, though. Yeah, there.

Randell Beck: [00:39:52] Are. Yeah, it’s the Sierra Club against the sell the solar people.

Robert Mason: [00:39:57] I mean, in Nevada and those open spaces, it makes a lot more sense completely when a commercial side, when you’ve got a big concrete, you know, area that your your you’re working in, it makes more sense.

Randell Beck: [00:40:09] We’re talking about affordability here. A minute ago, you mentioned Brad. Give him a quick plug.

Robert Mason: [00:40:13] Brad Hartman at Cornerstone Mortgage. Yeah, yeah. He’s fantastic. He is a very unique lender. And he got into the Airbnb space. I sold him a mountain house about two years ago. And we’ve there’s a lot of different financing options now on that Airbnb stuff. But Brad, my guy at Cornerstone, he does a tremendous amount of job with whether you’re a new your first time homebuyer or you’re an Airbnb investor. So yeah, great guy. Love him.

Randell Beck: [00:40:42] And then you also mentioned the Fed is trying to raise interest rates six times this year.

Robert Mason: [00:40:47] That’s what they said. Yeah, 6 to 7 times.

Randell Beck: [00:40:49] And if we’re already in a position where the houses are climbing out of reach of your average wage earner, then tightening the money is going to drive those prices.

Robert Mason: [00:41:00] It’s going to be.

Stacey Wyatt: [00:41:01] One one thing in the real quick, because this comes up a lot when people talking about so the Fed is talking about raising the Fed fund rate, which is not directly tied to mortgage interest rates. Right. And I think a lot of younger agents and maybe even some consumers don’t don’t know that those they’re not directly tied. However, you can’t bump the Fed funds rate multiple times without. Most likely impacting like a mortgage interest rate. So just because the Fed bumps, it does not necessarily mean that the mortgage interest rates are. However, we are seeing rates obviously climbing right now. Mainly inflation is obviously driving a lot of things also.

Randell Beck: [00:41:40] So it’s not necessarily going to bump people out of the market.

Stacey Wyatt: [00:41:43] No. I mean, most of.

Randell Beck: [00:41:45] The cost of money being cost of money, they probably should. If you’re going to get in, you should get in 100%.

Robert Mason: [00:41:50] Yeah. And the rates are climbing, the mortgage interest rates are climbing. And it is you know, they shadow each other. They’re not there. They’re not on parallel universes completely. But when the Fed bumps the rate, the Fed rate.

Stacey Wyatt: [00:42:02] Well, and as the rates are rising, if the rates and prices are rising at the same time, it’s you’re really getting crushed as a homebuyer that’s getting priced out of the market quicker and quicker every single month. It’s the fastest I’ve seen people priced out of the market. And people are saying, well, I’m going to wait for prices to drop, like most people don’t realize, other than that one small period in history where we have the bubble and then pulled back, prices don’t go backwards. They’re not. Last time I checked, they weren’t making any more land. Right? Right. And we’re still growing. So if you’re going to buy, buy now and I look at it from a buy up, like if I’m buying up, right, I’m trading in my house at 500, I’m buying eight. I’m starting to consult people in like, listen, even if you think you have to overpay for a house right now slightly. Right. It’s the law of big numbers. Well, if I buy an $800,000 house and prices are increasing, which they say in metro Atlanta at 10%, I pay 20 grand over for the house, theoretically. So I’m 820. Well, at the end of the in 12 months, it went up 10%. I made 80 grand, so I netted 60 K. So we’re having to walk people through the psychological steps of understanding. Well, really, it’s a financial lesson in how do all these things come together. And that’s where I think to Robert’s point earlier, this is the worst market, I think, for real estate agents. And I’m the guy that got in in oh nine. I think this market’s worse. I think what’s going to happen is a lot of agents that aren’t plugged in, like, you know, that aren’t plugged into understand what’s happening and can’t articulate this to a client, are going to unfortunately get pushed out of the business. And then that’s when you go hire a guy like a Robert who has not only been doing the business, but Robert stays plugged in and understands the trends. So then he can articulate and give his best guidance to his clients to win.

Robert Mason: [00:43:42] Yeah. Thanks, Jason.

Randell Beck: [00:43:43] What’s the key for those agents? If it’s a tough market, how are they going to excel?

Robert Mason: [00:43:46] There’s going to be natural selection, of course. Right. And so the agents that seek out the experienced folks like Stacy and myself, then they’re going to going to have a better chance of surviving this. And the wave is coming. You see it. So I’m hoping because I love my fellow agents, I want them to succeed. But yeah.

Randell Beck: [00:44:07] And the ones that use buckshot, right?

Robert Mason: [00:44:10] Yeah. If you don’t use buckshot, then you’re out.

Caroline Leyburn: [00:44:12] I mean, if you’re here, they.

Stacey Wyatt: [00:44:13] Talk to Robert, they have to. Right.

Randell Beck: [00:44:15] So, yeah. Carolyn, in terms of projects that you’ve done, what are your favorite projects, favorite areas of town that you’ve done this in? And in particular, what are good areas that where people might want to do this?

Caroline Leyburn: [00:44:30] Well, the one that is on the front burner now is a lake house where, you know, they’ve got the house and the 404 area code and then one up in Blairsville and during COVID, they spent more time in Blairsville than Atlanta. Yeah. And they’re saying, you know what, we need to alter this house to make it our primary because it’s, you know, well designed as a vacation over the weekend, but not so much for primary.

Robert Mason: [00:44:53] Making it their forever.

Caroline Leyburn: [00:44:54] Home. Exactly which is which is what I like because then they don’t have to worry about resale and it’s yeah. It’s all about what they want.

Robert Mason: [00:45:00] Already got.

Stacey Wyatt: [00:45:01] It. And then they don’t come to you and say oh he just drew it too nice. Think I need you to take this out. Well budget for those days, but I’d like to hear that they’re actually going to spend the money for you, so.

Caroline Leyburn: [00:45:12] And yeah. And they want to essentially live, you know, have outdoor living as much as possible. And so I’m hearing hearing that more and seeing it in magazines and stuff. So, you know, now that you can just kind of work from a laptop anywhere, I mean, you could be in a screen porch, you could be anywhere.

Stacey Wyatt: [00:45:29] On a.

Randell Beck: [00:45:30] And why not at the lake?

Caroline Leyburn: [00:45:32] Yeah, on the deck, looking down at the lake.

Stacey Wyatt: [00:45:33] Instead of staring at four.

Robert Mason: [00:45:34] Walls. And then you make the house so nice. When somebody wants to sell, they say, Well, why do we want to leave this?

Caroline Leyburn: [00:45:39] Exactly.

Robert Mason: [00:45:39] So there’s a a problem.

Randell Beck: [00:45:42] Robert. Favorite areas and hot areas that you like.

Robert Mason: [00:45:46] I like Roswell, like East Cobb, but I really like selling up in North Georgia. I do. I mean, it’s a drive, it’s a hike. But I enjoy being up there and seeing the looks on these folks faces, you know, when they’re buying these mountain properties and going into Airbnbs and. And doing things. Yeah. East Cobb.

Randell Beck: [00:46:06] Stacey.

Stacey Wyatt: [00:46:06] Yeah. You know, my office is in historic Roswell. So obviously Roswell has got a is a big home for me and I live right on. I’m technically in East Cobb, but I’ve got a Roswell address. So that’s an area it’s, you know, I just know it so well. So in buying and renovating properties. But I will say I’m I’m an outdoors guy, so I love the lake and I love the mountain properties also. So getting a little more I’ve been heavy investing in either flipping houses or holding rentals in the metro area. I’m actually enjoying getting out and wanting to get some stuff, you know, Airbnbs in the Mountains Lake And I’m not licensed in Florida so long 30.

Robert Mason: [00:46:39] A I know an agent.

Randell Beck: [00:46:41] That I know an agent that works big in Airbnb too.

Robert Mason: [00:46:44] Yeah, yeah, yeah. We got that covered.

Stacey Wyatt: [00:46:47] Other agents I know are helping other agents up in the mountains.

Robert Mason: [00:46:51] I know. Don’t cheat on me now.

Randell Beck: [00:46:53] Now, now. We’ve talked a lot about what people are looking for. The good the good aspects. What should they avoid? Are there areas to avoid techniques to avoid in the remodel? Is there certain kind of windows or doors to avoid? You know, where are my pitfalls out there?

Caroline Leyburn: [00:47:11] Gosh, that’s a good question.

Stacey Wyatt: [00:47:13] I’ll jump in there on the the building side. We’re renovating. We’re doing our first luxury remodel. Windows, depending on which windows you’re picking. 18 to 22 weeks delivery. Yeah, it’s killing things. So we can we can buy what they call shop built manufactured windows locally. But if we wanted a vinyl or certain look because we’re going more modern, right? Those profiles, especially casement stuff and they’re like 18 to 22 weeks out, glass everything. So that’s the one challenge I’m seeing on building materials. I think some other paint like glass, you can even get paint. Like I went in, I just wanted white paint. Sorry, we don’t have we don’t have super paint. We don’t have it was just because that was, you know, from the, I guess the factory in Texas. So materials, windows, I’m probably seeing I don’t know what else you are seeing, but the windows are crazy.

Randell Beck: [00:48:04] Plywood is more than double.

Stacey Wyatt: [00:48:05] Yeah, lumber.

Caroline Leyburn: [00:48:06] Oh yeah.

Stacey Wyatt: [00:48:07] And some builders actually won’t even do. They’ve got home sold but they custom builders. I’d be curious if you’ve seen this is they won’t do the start because they’re hoping lumber prices will settle because they just don’t know what the number is at the end of the day. And if they can’t make any money on it, then why go ahead and build.

Robert Mason: [00:48:24] Right. A lot of these builders, they’ll, they’ll come out with a product and it’ll be a spec home or whatever, build a suit and they’ll have a fixed price in 2020. And the homes are going to be built now in 2022, 20, 20, 23. And when they start looking at their inventory costs, they’re actually losing money when they get to the clothes table. And so a lot of these builders, a lot of these developers are saying, okay, here’s what the estimated cost is, but you buyer have to be willing to pay these extra costs and we will show those to you. And scarcity of product like granite countertops or windows, you know, we may not be able to get you what was in the design center. And so these are things that you another another agent thing that we have to to talk to our clients about. Hey, guys, what if they don’t have that granite countertop when we’re ready to put that in? What if the cost of two by fours or two by eights has increased 50% like it has over the last 12 months? So those are things when you’re looking at a builder contract, you better be in those eyes and cross those.

Stacey Wyatt: [00:49:24] Ts And to your point earlier from a custom home builder, since it seems like the world that you operate in, typically we as a builder, we’d give like a guaranteed maximum price or a fixed, you know, they’re having to do cost plus because you don’t know what materials are usually. We always had an escalated in there for lumber because that’s the one that’s always been volatile. But now since it’s everything like I don’t know that I’d sign a contract with any client now, like I’m putting my builder hat on because I don’t know what that price is going to be. And I’m not going to build a house not to make money. Yeah, right. So that’s a tough that’s a tough road.

Randell Beck: [00:49:55] So you’re saying that they’re going to build spec now?

Stacey Wyatt: [00:49:58] Is that is that. No, they won’t build at all.

Randell Beck: [00:50:00] Won’t build at.

Robert Mason: [00:50:00] All. They’re afraid to build.

Stacey Wyatt: [00:50:01] Yeah. Because what their prices are continue to go up but they’re only going to go up to so high. Right. This can only this trend can only continue so high as the amount of wages increase. At some point there’s a breaking point where prices can’t continue to go or what’s going to happen. Then you’re going to have people start moving together, living together. Now you’re going to decrease household formations that then that will may open up a little bit of supply, but that’s going to happen down the road. So I see that because look at rents too.

Robert Mason: [00:50:32] Rents are sky.

Stacey Wyatt: [00:50:33] Absurd. So at some point, unless wages increase along with it, which we’re they’re not keeping up at the same pace, household formations will have to decrease at some point because people can’t continue to pay those prices either on rent or purchase.

Robert Mason: [00:50:47] Yeah, it’s a dilemma.

Caroline Leyburn: [00:50:48] So and in the custom remodel space from the homeowner side, a lot of times they have to move out and rent something while they’re building. And then you have the timing with, you know, you get a delay, which a lot of the municipalities, their inspectors were working from home and even slower than usual and or.

Stacey Wyatt: [00:51:07] The windows didn’t show up. And now the schedule is six weeks out and those people are stuck in an Airbnb. They only thought they’re going to be there two months.

Robert Mason: [00:51:13] And the extended stay hotels, you’re seeing a lot of that pop up. So that’s a difference maker for for folks in that space for sure.

Stacey Wyatt: [00:51:22] Which is a good point. Maybe we could go buy a house in like one in each part of the area. And then you just let all these people that don’t have a house and charge them three x rent.

Robert Mason: [00:51:30] Yeah. I’ve got one in Richmond, Richmond Hills and Savannah right now. That, that, that’s what he’s going to do.

Stacey Wyatt: [00:51:36] So that scenario happens a lot more than people think. And I know we see it all the time in private Facebook traffic. They’re like, hey, I got a client that it’s got a temp occupancy before or the seller has a temp vacancy. So they got 30 days and they need a place. Well, if you had a place, you probably can charge 2x3x just because they have to have a place for their family. Yeah. And then you can just keep turning now provided the house is not in a covenant subdivision, but I see that a lot because they call it corporate housing. Who’s got corporate housing? Yeah, I don’t know what that is really existing.

Robert Mason: [00:52:05] Randy, we’ll talk off the air about that.

Randell Beck: [00:52:08] Yeah. Yeah. Landlord to the move ins I.

Stacey Wyatt: [00:52:10] Do I get a commission off?

Robert Mason: [00:52:11] No, thanks.

Randell Beck: [00:52:13] You’re in my up.

Stacey Wyatt: [00:52:14] Yeah. There you go.

Randell Beck: [00:52:15] So we mentioned lifestyle a few times here, too. Working from the deck on the lake and in the outdoor lifestyle. Let’s talk a little bit about that, because Atlanta seems to be well, I know mountain biking is huge. And all the the river and the rafting and the fishing and the lakes and all that. We seem to be very well positioned as the capital of lifestyle as well.

Robert Mason: [00:52:35] Yeah, it starts with weather, right? Weather. It’s really nice. Taxes are low. There’s a lot of corporate jobs here. So the economy is good. There’s good restaurants. You know, 30 years ago, Atlanta was not known for its restaurants. And now you could go to Alpharetta, you could go to Woodstock, you could go to Roswell and Sandy Springs and whatnot. And there’s a lot of good restaurants. And so there’s there’s a lot of play and work opportunity here in Atlanta.

Stacey Wyatt: [00:53:03] Strategically, we’re located, you know, we’re I think, still the number one airport in the world. I think China, one of the Chinese airports took over during COVID, but Atlanta were central for the business hub. Right. Very pro-business. But you also look at it, what are we 4 hours from a notion you get to Savannah or down to 30 a year to mountains. You got we have a two or three large lakes. So you pretty much get anything you want here, you know, and you’re in Sun Belt. So for all of that, that’s why I think people are going to continue. It’s a good space to be in real estate. This is the great show for Georgia, for sure.

Randell Beck: [00:53:35] I’ve also noticed, Carolyn, you can comment on this outside of San Diego in the eighties, I have never seen more design per mile than here.

Caroline Leyburn: [00:53:50] There is some, but I also see a lot of you know stamped out subdivision. So, you know, it goes both ways.

Randell Beck: [00:53:59] You know, I’ve been in places where I see cube after cube after cube. And here it seems like people are really trying to make things and maybe this is more commercial, but it does seem like they’re trying to make things really have a character and design quality, too.

Stacey Wyatt: [00:54:12] Yeah, I would say so. Most people don’t realize Georgia is the largest state east of Mississippi. And for that reason, we’re not bound by lakes and oceans and well, I guess like but not ocean like New York City or San Diego or somebody would. Right. So we’ve been sprawl. We just the whole mass homebuilders go out and they build all these things. However people want access to that lifestyle. I want to get down to a game or restaurants or whatever. So on the infill lots, right? That’s where I feel like they’re coming in and then they can pay the money to design whatever they want because you’re seeing really modern next to very traditional to. So I think with we’re such a diverse city like nobody’s from Atlanta and now I think we’re finally becoming a very international city. We are the Hollywood of the East Coast. You get all these tastes coming here like I don’t know. We’ll have to ask who’s from Georgia. I think you’re getting a lot of mixture of tastes. So.

Randell Beck: [00:55:08] I drive a lot of neighborhoods and see these very modern houses next to the old an old craftsman or an old bungalow or whatever. So clearly they’re going into these older neighborhoods and knocking a house down and putting up something new. Is that just affordability? Is it in a transitional neighborhood? Is that what’s driving that?

Caroline Leyburn: [00:55:27] Yeah. I mean, I don’t know if I’d even say necessarily transitional my my neighborhood, La Vista Park. It has all these, you know, stucco boxes with, you know, the ultra modern stuff and selling some of them. I think one recently sold for about 3 million. I mean, you know, they’re just. Wow. Yeah. It’s crazy. But I mean, and then you’ll have one a few houses away. You’re selling for four or 500, so.

Robert Mason: [00:55:49] And one of the things you’re seeing, Randi, it’s opportunity. You take some builders or some guys with money and they’ll go into these older neighborhoods with no home. I did this back in 2000 for 2005. I was buying out an entire neighborhood with some partners and there was 30 houses, no way away. And we got 15 of them before we got stomped on by 2008. So these guys go into these older neighborhoods and that it’s an opportunity they can buy something for, say, three, 75, 400,000. They can strip it down, have it professionally redone, and they can sell it for seven or live in it for seven. You know, like Indian Hills is a big example of that.

Stacey Wyatt: [00:56:28] Perfect example.

Robert Mason: [00:56:29] Yeah.

Stacey Wyatt: [00:56:30] Well, and the other thing too on that is prices have to be increasing in the locations. They’re doing that right, because they’re having to pay a price to knock a house down to build on it. So typically the two things that on its location, they want access to lifestyle hey like Brookhaven Brookhaven and Asher Park area pre right after the crash like you could get a 300,000 brick ranch then the $500,000 brick ranch was the knockdown price to build your 1.5. And they were it was access, it was location, right, for lifestyle. And the second one, typically the drivers, the schools like Robert mentioned, Indian Hills. And it’s funny because I remember a picture in the paper where it had this little wheel house in Indian Hills and then somebody came and built this massive like it just dwarfed it. But it’s in one of the few subdivisions in East Cobb that is has a golf course and all the amenities.

Robert Mason: [00:57:20] This community in Cobb.

Stacey Wyatt: [00:57:22] County and it’s inarguably one of the best school districts. It is in the best school district in the in the state of Georgia, three of the top high schools in the state of Georgia, all are in that East Cobb region. So typically the.

Robert Mason: [00:57:33] Walton Pope Lassiter.

Stacey Wyatt: [00:57:35] So that’s usually the location in the schools, usually drive that trend of knocking down that infill type product.

Randell Beck: [00:57:43] Being an analyst at heart, I’m sitting here listening to all this and it sounds like if I had to sum all this up that you’re saying, despite all the chaos going on and all the confusion and all the difficulties, that there’s really no short term end here to the prices going up and the people coming in. It’s a demand driven market, and the longer you wait, the harder it’s going to get to find what you want, essentially. So is that a fair statement?

Robert Mason: [00:58:09] That’s very fair. That’s what’s happening.

Caroline Leyburn: [00:58:12] I think even even beyond the interest rates as they keep printing more money. And as you know, Putin starts selling oil in the ruble. I mean.

Randell Beck: [00:58:20] Yeah, well, everybody knows what printing money does, except apparently the people that print it.

Robert Mason: [00:58:24] Yeah, inflation.

Caroline Leyburn: [00:58:25] So I’m like, put your money in something like real estate that it’s not going to lose the value.

Stacey Wyatt: [00:58:31] Well, obviously this too is in any market, there’s opportunity. Who’s willing to play in the game hard enough? This is where like to me that separates the average agents from the ones that you would want to hire and do a transaction with. Right. I’m always looking at the opportunity market. There’s massive opportunity in this market. And if I was advising younger, I always speak to the agent community because that’s obviously one I’m in and have a lot of heart for. If you aren’t buying real estate, doesn’t that seem a little funky? You’re advising people to buy and you don’t. But here’s the big thing in an inflationary environment, you need to own assets. I bought a house in Lawrenceville that I. I had to buy it with tenants. And three months later, things were 30 grand more than when I bought it. So in an inflationary environment, there is still an opportunity and I believe it’s in real estate. I’m not a stock guy. I still think and this is not a stock advice, but I still think the stock market’s got a ways to go downward. I’m a real estate person. There’s so much opportunity in the real estate space. If you get in, do your homework, play the game, get an agent that actually understands it, get a rental, that thing is going to grow in value. So to me, you got to own assets.

Randell Beck: [00:59:37] And I’m a I’m a fundamentals guy and I don’t see. I was trained in this, but I don’t see the justification for some of the fundamentals in the stock market lately. Ps Out of whack and there’s just so much craziness going on there that does not seem to me to be sustainable. Whereas on the other hand, the fundamentals of the real estate market support, what we’ve been talking about in here very clearly.

Stacey Wyatt: [00:59:58] I just like the three basic, you know, human needs, food, water and shelter. Sure. I’m kind of good with shelter, stock market shelter. I didn’t need my exp stock. I don’t need any other stocks. But to your point, PE ratios, don’t they? They haven’t made sense for a long time. I think finally it’s being exposed because the Fed’s having to stop printing money. Right. Or slow down the printing of money, which is going to spike rates and everything else. And then that’s where to me, that’s where stock market gets exposed. I think a lot of companies have a long way to go in the wrong direction.

Randell Beck: [01:00:29] Okay. Shift hats. But get out your crystal balls. Carolyn, what’s the future look like?

Caroline Leyburn: [01:00:38] Well, certainly, you know, the moving online is going to change the architecture. I mean, you know, people ask for the Zoom room. You know, you’ve got to have a good background, a nice little room that, you know, whether or not that’s the room you work in. But, you know, even a little office that maybe you have, maybe you have two home offices where you can alternately open and close the doors to where one person is watching the kids take turns kind of thing. But yeah, I think it seems that a little more towards outdoor living, you know, people seem to be wanting the yards and stuff, you know, and I don’t know how long that’s going to last after the COVID fear dies, but I think that’s going to last. Gosh. What else? I mean, I think some of the lifestyle changes you mentioned are probably going to happen. I don’t know.

Randell Beck: [01:01:33] Stacey Builders clearing out.

Stacey Wyatt: [01:01:37] Clearing out in terms of out of business or.

Randell Beck: [01:01:40] Yeah. And reducing inventory even further. What do you.

Stacey Wyatt: [01:01:43] Think? I don’t think so. They’re going to continue to build. The one challenge I will say is a lot of the big builders and this is an interesting trend. There’s a lot of hedge funds buying up, gobbling up residential real estate. So the builders that we were hoping building inventory for single family houses, they’re building single family houses, but then they’re selling to the hedge funds to rent out. Now, I’ve got multiple examples here in Atlanta, one in Gwinnett County, it’s like a 400 unit subdivision. They’re going to buy it or they’re building it to then just turn over to the hedge fund to rent them out. So it’s not helping the inventory. So I don’t think any builders are going anywhere anytime soon. To me, it’s just when the cost of land gets too expensive and if it’s all going to depend on inflation. So I don’t think there’s anything in the market right now for builders to be worried about because we need them. They need to build more houses and faster.

Robert Mason: [01:02:28] Yeah. And it’s anybody who says that they know where we’re headed. They’re probably not telling you the truth because of all of our experience. It’s hard to really pinpoint where we’re going to head because we’re not in control of inflation and printing money and tax codes and all that stuff. The one thing that I see is a transient lifestyle. People are going to be moving to where they want to live, and there’s a lot of equity being built and there’s a lot of wealth being created by the real estate market right now. And you’re going to see people in their fifties, 55, 60, 65, they’re going to be cashing out and they’re going to go live on their sailboat or they’re going to go live in a condo down at the beach, and they’re going to be sitting on a pile of money because they were investing in real estate. And that’s that’s a good thing for us.

Randell Beck: [01:03:15] Cool. Cool. It’s our clients listening out there. Take a minute. Each of you tell me what you would like to say to your client out there. Ready. Let’s do it, Robert.

Robert Mason: [01:03:32] Be careful who you you trust in today’s environment, in real estate environment, seek out professionals who have teams of people around them that you can look and see that their history is correct and they’ve done some really good things and you know, they can prove it to you. I just want to say, if you’re not buying real estate and you’re waiting, you’ve got to get on the speeding train. It’s going 150 miles per hour. Like Stacy said, he’d rather have something appreciating at an $800,000 house at 10% opposed to that $350,000 house that we bought when we first got married. So there’s that. So don’t wait because there’s not going to be a slide back. That’s what I would tell my folks.

Randell Beck: [01:04:13] Carolyn.

Caroline Leyburn: [01:04:15] Well, I would certainly agree. Don’t wait. I would say, you know, if some you know, with me personally, my focus is on whatever, you know, appealing to your needs. So let’s say you’re afraid. World War Three is about to start and you want a concrete underground house. That’s what I’ll do for you, you know? I mean, or. Or if you want something that’s like a tree house, that’s what we’ll go with, you know? It’s like try to go with what really supports you, you know? And if you need the security of the underground concrete house, we’ll do that. I love it.

Stacey Wyatt: [01:04:46] Yeah. And since I’m kind of in all those spaces I’m going to in this particular avatar, I’ll talk to my client, who is his fellow real estate agents. And what I would tell him is who you’re in business with matters. And you really need to get around people that are going to help you grow and a whole train of thought that was going to go. In any event, the we’re helping agents not sell more houses. We’re teaching them how to run businesses. And I think people that actually run businesses have a lot more staying power. And take your own advice. If you’re if you’re out there telling people to invest in real estate, you as an agent also should be investing in real estate. Yep.

Robert Mason: [01:05:25] And use dot.com, of course.

Randell Beck: [01:05:27] Now, actually. And on that topic, I did I did do some some real nice video for exp recently for you guys and more to come so take again take a second and and tell us what you’d like us to know about EXP.

Stacey Wyatt: [01:05:46] So EXP is the first real estate model, in my opinion, that has typically in a real estate model, they’re the owners of a franchise get paid, then the regional owners get paid and then the national international gets paid. This is the first model. They flipped it and actually made the agents, the owners of the company. So for me, actually, because again, this is getting back to owning that asset, right? If you you a company actually allows you to own a piece of it. I think typically kind of what you said, we’re working 16 hours because why we own the company. So if you want a company where you actually have true ownership in it, to me that company sky’s the limit because people act differently when you actually own a piece of the pie.

Robert Mason: [01:06:32] Good stuff.

Randell Beck: [01:06:33] All right. I’m going to flip it back to Stone here. Thank you guys for coming in. You made my head hurt with all this information, but it was good. It was excellent discussion from true subject matter experts, wouldn’t you say?

Stone Payton: [01:06:45] Well, I thoroughly enjoyed it. And of course, we were starting at rock bottom, but my knowledge base has certainly expanded from here. Before we wrap, though, I would like to make sure that we go around the horn and let’s get some points of contact for for everyone. If someone out there listening would like to have a conversation with you or someone on your team, whatever you feel like is appropriate, whether it’s a website, LinkedIn, email, and we’ll start with you, Ms.. Caroline, and go around the horn.

Caroline Leyburn: [01:07:09] Okay. So it’s Caroline Labor and Design. You can get that at S.L. Unique Home Design or Caroline at KL Unique Home Design for my email. The phone is 4049638688.

Stone Payton: [01:07:26] All right, Mr. Mason.

Robert Mason: [01:07:28] Well, I’m Robert Mason. My company is ALM property group and brokered by EXP with Stacy Hewitt and my website is Robert Mason sells hotels.com and you can find me my name’s on the back of my car I get accosted and parking lots frequently and so I’m all over that area. So if you need anything, just look me up. Robert Mason I’m there.

Stone Payton: [01:07:52] And our headliner, Stacy.

Stacey Wyatt: [01:07:54] So Stacy White, real estate broker, also broker by exp. The easiest way usually is Instagram. These days it’s Stacy White Real Estate DM or just Google Stacy White and it’s hard not to find me.

Stone Payton: [01:08:06] You’ll find him and our sponsor and host for today. Randi, working folks, get in touch. In touch with you, man.

Randell Beck: [01:08:12] I’m like, Robert, if you look for the van or the truck running around town that says big shot on it and you grab me by the elbow, I’m there. Yeah. Half camera will travel.

Stacey Wyatt: [01:08:20] And thousand hills. Two days ago I think.

Randell Beck: [01:08:23] I saw you and my website is back shot and all contact information is on there as well as a lot of samples of the photographic work and several hours worth of video to binge watch.

Stone Payton: [01:08:36] All right. Well, thank you all for coming. This has been marvelous. It’s been informative, inspiring. I’m looking forward to doing more of these episodes with you, Randi. I think we’re going to have a good time and help some folks. So until then, this is Stone Payton, your producer, our host today, Randy Beck with Big Shot, our guest and everyone here at the Business RadioX family saying we’ll see you next time on design radio.