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The Real Estate Addicts (REA) podcast is a must-listen for anyone interested in real estate development, investment, construction and entrepreneurship. Each episode dives into a wide range of industry topics and features conversations with savvy, successful entrepreneurs who candidly share their career paths, challenges, breakthroughs, and the stories behind the remarkable companies they’ve built. Expect big personalities, thoughtful insights, and conversations that both educate and inspire.
Co-hosted by Ray Hurteau, Dan Rubin (Instagram: @rhinvestgroup), and Marc Savatsky (Instagram: @choose_boston)
Follow the Real Estate Addicts Podcast on YouTube: @RealEstateAddicts
00:09
So I don't always call We're live now. That was the end of Marc's technologically. That's right. I was replaced after that. You know what they say, never do something well that you don't want to do again. That's true. So I may have strategically screwed up that audio because we have now. It was COVID. Welcome to the Real Estate Addicts podcast. You're here with your hosts, Marc Savatsky, Choose Boston. Ray Hurteau, RH Investment Group. Dan Rubin, RH Investment Group. And joining us today is our guest.
00:37
Crystal Chieregatti with Choose Boston Brokerage. I wanna hear you guys say my last name. Yeah, that's nice. Mark's really good at trying to sound out people's last names. Siri thinks your name is Chieregatti. Wrong. No, okay. I'm trying to hurt him with DeJager or whatever his name is there. Yeah, that wasn't good either. It's like Spanish for the hunter. So I just went with that. Which I still think I butchered that. Hey, rent control, topic that we've got a lot of feedback and response on. Just wanna offer two things.
01:06
Um, one had a post recently that went like a lot of impressions. And, I think the point, the point that I made was there was an economic study about daycare and people picking up their kids late from daycare and the daycare facilities imposed a penalty financial one. Uh, and what happened was twice as many people picked their kids up late from school because it was no longer like a societal contract or like a moral. was, um, stipulated.
01:35
in plain English and you just made a price for it. And I think rent control is going to do the same if it passes. So if you give me the max price I can charge per year, now it's a menu. And now I feel like I need to. It's no longer like my tenants take good care of my property. I take good care of them. It's like, I gotta keep up. And that's the second point I wanna make is that your imputed value of your asset is based on what your rents are, right? Your cap rates. And it's not.
02:04
If rent control passes, it's not like you can just sell it and the person buying it can go like, oh, he's renting it for way too little. Like I can up that by a thousand bucks in a couple of years or whatever it is. You are now locked at that price. So as the owner of that asset, you almost have an obligation, unless it's just gonna be for your great grandkids to own one day, to keep moving at that 5 % clip or whatever it wants to be.
02:29
Because you have to or else you'll fall so far behind so quickly. won't even be funny. Right. They'll have to. Even if you wanted to be a nice magnanimous landlord, you just can't. You can't. You will have to keep especially if costs continue to go up as quickly as they're going up. Did that make sense? Yeah. that. For sure. If you're if your expenses are outpacing your rent increase, what's even the point?
02:56
Hey, I'm going to just throw a little Barb in that conversation real quick, just because there was an update and I don't know if this was your impromptu way of kind of getting me going here, but there was an impromptu, not impromptu, but there have been discussions on both sides where they're trying to get some legislation passed and just to add a little context that they're trying to relax the CPI caps. They're trying to increase, allow it to happen. No deal. And they're also allowing on vacancy, they're decoupling, I believe the control there. Yes. So you could reset.
03:26
on vacancies. So if you have a vacant unit, can go back. They're adding no fault evictions can't happen. You have to have some kind of lease violation. And I don't know how that would work for a month to month tenant or a fixed term tenant. If it's a no fault eviction and you just decide to increase the rents, the max amount, or you really can't do anything about that. Look, I'm not like a big gun control person, but people who are are really big on the 14th amendment.
03:56
It's not the second, right? Second of my best. Oh boy. You should ask the resident. Can we edit that? yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Do you own a gun? What? we putting this up right now? Uh oh. All where are we going that? I actually, no I do, I have my license to carry, but I actually don't own a gun. Oh wow. Since moving here. Concealed carry? Yes. Oh my God. It's because Massachusetts is so safe. know. no. Respect.
04:24
I was going that is gun control people were like really fervent believers. They believe like that we can't give one edge because once you give it will just keep going and you'll end up in a place where like you didn't want to be. And I actually think though that's not true of the 14th amendment, my opinion. is true of rent control. And I think that the reason is, that you will introduce it with these generous terms, but quickly you will find that
04:53
equity and lending institutions are scared of Massachusetts. They're going to go to states like Florida and they're going to deploy money there and our supply of housing will continue to be as anemic and as tight as ever. And then they're going to just ratchet down till we get back to where we started this conversation with the 3 % or five and then more. So I'd rather just, if we are to have to go down this path, just give me my medicine and let it be a quick death. And then hopefully we can rebound this cycle.
05:23
But don't compromise on this. So you want strict right control just to do it and show people it's terrible? at all. don't want to go down this. We're going to keep going in this side. want to be one of the very few states in this country that has rent control because I don't care what the terms are in the fine print, people aren't going to read it. They're just going to say like, oh, Massachusetts is like, oh, geez, you're one those rent control states. I'm going to invest there. Thanks. It's already an insanely tenant-favored state.
05:52
That's the plan. Despite what some of the talking heads will try and put out there, like there's no protections. Trust me, there's protections. We have people we want to get out that have good causes to get out and they can't get out and not to go on a diatribe there. But I agree with you. Rent control is just going to muddy the water more and make Massachusetts just a less desirable place for individuals who want to stimulate the economy. And whether you love us or hate us, you got to build housing. So you got to have us. And if you try to exclude us.
06:21
You're going to be just like Seattle, where they tried excluding all the business owners. Now they're downtown's dead. So if you want a dead Massachusetts, go for it. You heard right here, real estate addicts, guess. Yeah. Crystal, before we were starting, we'll back in the episode. We'll look at another update. I mentioned that as long as she's been in real estate sales, she's never known anything but tough times, right? When did you start? So this will be my fourth year, officially. You I was kind of unofficially because my
06:51
husband as a developer. So I was always like helping with source deals and designing and things like that. And then I, you know, I had another business and it was just kind of time to move on from that and decided to formally get into real estate. So, yeah, so 2022 is kind of like, you kind of fell into it and then rates just exploded. much. Yeah. So I had my very, like I started, kicked off real estate with
07:17
selling one of my husband Francesco's projects and it was six units. I actually sold all of those out pre-CO. hindsight looking back, I'm like, that's crazy that I, that was my pretty much my first transaction. I don't know if anybody really like knew that or not, but. So in your head, you're like, oh, they're all gonna go like this. Yeah, exactly. was like, this is easy. What do you mean this is hard? But however, you know, towards the end, I think it was like the last two units was whenever
07:45
we had the conversations about rates. And then it was like, okay, now we need to educate buyers on rate buy downs. That's whenever everybody was like, that was like the buzzword. And so, you know, then it was just a constant, I hate to use the word pivot, but like, it just was constantly trying to come up with new strategies for something that was also brand new to me too. So. it's kind of relevant, oh, sorry. It's kind of relevant right now. And I just want ask the question while we're on it, you mentioned rate buy downs, because obviously rates have gone up probably a hundred and 150 bips since the start of the Iran war. But, uh
08:16
rate buy down. So the seller is paying for that or you're basically telling the seller, hey, to get somebody to entice a sale, pay for their buy down, which is what? Like, how much does that usually It's negotiable. The ones that we, you know, I would say with whenever something was in the price range of like the 700,000 kind of point, I want to say average between like 10 and $12,000. So, you know, it allowed us to keep our purchase prices high and then have sort of the concessions on the back end. Blanket concessions are tough because like,
08:45
Perhaps your buyer is bringing all cash and it's their parents' whatever it wants to be, but that's not their pain point. like don't necessarily need to chum the waters. Yeah. If that's not what you're solving, maybe they just want a purple kitchen and we could talk about buyer changes. um I'll give you Crystal real compliment. Crystal came into real estate four years ago, having run two other very successful businesses. And I think you really do have that like entrepreneurial spirit and
09:14
It's sort of like cool how you bring creativity in the marketing mindset and like a business owners focus to real estate sales. It's like, it's just as recently as like two weeks ago, Crystal built out a new website for our buyers for a building in East Boston. And the idea as sort of communicated to me was like, you know, you're at the table, you're waiting for your food. The people waiting for the pizza to come out want to know how much longer, like the Domino's pizza tracker.
09:39
So we built a website that kind of offers that. has all the major milestones for the construction project. It has photo updates at each milestone. It gives a little brief narrative of what's happening behind the scenes. Like, you know, the chef's happy to come out and meet with the people at the table and their customers. Trust me, but like, we don't want you in the kitchen for the next eight months. Like, I gotta make dinner for everyone. So I think that this website does that well. Yeah. Yeah, for sure. And I think it'll be interesting to just kind of, we have it.
10:07
circulated it quite yet, because I just want to make sure that we feel really good about it and about what we're sharing and, you know, and how do we keep people excited. And that really is, I think, like the most important part right now, we've got to keep everyone engaged. We are, you know, past P &S with everybody. So that's great. But, you know, if you can breathe a little bit easier whenever you're at that point, but then still, you know, we kind of a blessing and a curse of selling so early because we've got to keep everybody excited. been a few buyer changes.
10:34
And I use that website also to like track as the builder, like what we've committed to for which unit. Cause I can get confusing quick. that's also like part of our software now. Yeah. Has it been paid for? What was the fee? What do I have to, you know, this is, this is seven months out. Oh no, this this one right now. We're going to finish, uh, like early fall, the pizza, the pizza tracker should be done. It's impressive. Yeah. Yeah. Thanks. Yeah. We're doing great. mean, is it incredible building? So when, so
11:02
when you sold your husband's the first six units, how did you sell those all pre-CO? what is there about, because obviously pre-construction is a very different animal. You're walking someone through a building that has no, I guess there's a lot of questions, right? It's like, at what point do you start bringing them through? Do you wait until, because there's a lot of different rules of thumb that we've.
11:30
talk to other, every broker or agent will tell you something else, right? It's like, we shouldn't start walking through until you're bored in plaster or drywall. um You know, because people can't see the vision beyond the studs. there's, in your opinion, like what are the milestones where you want to start bringing someone through? When do you want to start marketing a property? Like what are those types of decisions that need to be made? Oh, for sure. So, I mean, definitely comes from, and as Mark said, just kind of, I have a...
11:57
informal marketing background. I've pretty much have always been in sales and so I could sell anything in my opinion. anyways, you know, so I always really start with just like really understanding the project and sometimes I get a little, I have to catch myself because I'll get a little too wrapped up in
12:20
like maybe the aesthetics of a brand, and I'm like crystal-stopped. Like nobody really cares about the color of this, but I'm like, okay, hey, this property's by the water. Let's incorporate a little bit of blue and like earth tones, et cetera. The interior is kind of matching on some branding. So it starts with branding the project and sort of treating it as a mini business. that's kind of been my process from every project from the very beginning. I'm building out the marketing collateral. I'm doing the renderings. I'm doing all of those, getting the website together.
12:49
And then at the part of showing, know, it's definitely, I have had success, uh most of my success actually, from whenever just just framed, like pre-installation, pre-walls close, because I actually, I mean, I feel like it kind of shows better because you've got a lot more light coming in the building. That could be a piece of it, but it's just the people that get it, get it. And those are the people that are also the ones that are gonna be willing to like hang out longer, you know, and wait for the product that they want.
13:19
And so, you know, then I would say now at this project specifically that Mark and I are working on in East Boston, you know, we're about to start insulation. And so, you know, there is going to be a couple of weeks here where like, you know, we can't really do showings. We can't, know, I would, I would agree. would just like to add like, typically 90 days is a rule of thumb for a modest size project, uh, from plaster to CFO. Like things go well.
13:47
You give me three months, I can get through tile, flooring, installation, kitchen cabinets, and deliver a project. And I think those are three of the hardest months to pre-sell construction. It's messy. Oh yeah, there's shit everywhere. are tons of people in the job. It's going to be beautiful, but at the moment, it's really tough to see because only half that wall is tiled and the floor isn't there yet. And so that tile into itself isn't that pretty, but the whole bathroom is going to be beautiful.
14:16
Try explaining that. That's tough. And then the other thing is like the pizza's coming out of the oven soon. Like there is a big like, honey, it is really nice, but there's seven units left and uh we're almost there. Let's just wait to see how it tastes. can, we can, before we purchase, we can just get there and buy it or not. So it's, think there's that magic moment of foundations through the end of framing where, and you know, maybe buyer wants to pick their own countertop or make a couple of small changes.
14:45
You should have to ask the GSC really nicely. So then to that point, there's probably a list of people who are interested, not really ready to sign on the dotted line yet. But when you get to that point, you announce it with a bunch of fanfare like, hey, if you've been waiting, now is the time to come check it out, because here we are. I was literally just thinking about that today. We've had a few people come in that have had that similar sentiment of like, OK, you know what, I'm just going to
15:14
see what happens. And then they also had the mindset of like, well, if it doesn't happen, it wasn't meant to be. If somebody bought that unit, it wasn't meant to be. And so, but otherwise there's, you know, other people that are still kind of hanging out. They're watching maybe progress on social media, things like that. I've been, I also do a lot of like progress videos and you know, I don't know who that's for, but if it works, if I realize now that it's like actually buyers that are following me and you know, are keeping track like that, that's cool. Or other agents. Yeah, other agents too, exactly.
15:43
So yeah, so then it'll now become kind of like a new round of follow up, you know, that that we'll be doing on the sales side. very first thing we'll do on a project is just put a splash page up. Like we don't have anything except the hero shot, the pretty picture, the building at dusk. ah Great. I'm going to put up 246Havre.com with the hero shot and one line that just says, enter your email to register your interest. and yeah, why not?
16:10
Easiest thing you can do. Now as you start, now you've got a newsletter, you're releasing new updates, just sort of tantalizing and teasing. I think also, you also, in order to sell pre-construction, um or pre-CO, don't know, pre-construction's a weird word. it's pre-sell pre-construction. What? You're selling pre-construction. We're kind of selling during construction. construction, yeah. Yeah, it is good word. That's a good point. But anyway, um you also have to have a good...
16:38
developer part, development partner, right? Because if you're dealing with a developer that's like picking finishes out on the fly and like it can become an absolute nightmare, right? Like you need, you want to work, I'm sure you've dealt with that. Oh, there's my phone. I'm sure you've dealt with that in the past, right? Cause if like.
17:00
If you're not picking out all your finishes, if you don't know exactly what that product looks like, you can't create the pretty renderings and you can't create those pretty pictures of what things are gonna look like. it's like, and buyers wanna know when they're walking through, it's like, what kind of countertops are you using? What kind of cabinets are you putting in? What kind of flooring are you gonna be doing? And if you don't know the answers to any of that, then you're kind of fucked, right? Oh, for sure. No, it definitely makes a huge difference. Like I, the best projects I've worked on are the ones that have that higher designer.
17:27
Like, you know, I can sit there and I can play designer because I see things in the market. I do have a, I would say like a good eye for design, but do I want to be like spending my time doing that? No, I really don't. You know? Have you been asked? sure you have. Yes. I play designer all the time. But there's so many design decisions. That's the other problem. It's like, look, I'm happy to pick like a vanity light. I can certainly look at the kitchen cabinets and countertops and put something together, but like,
17:56
The level of detail that you need to have command of during framing and early in the process to get a buyer to have the confidence to put down 5 % of their purchase price, none of, you really do need like a fully baked set of design documents down to whether it's bullnose or Schluter strip and what color the Schluter strip is going to be. you know, those renderings, those, as much as every GC says, we don't build off renderings. The buyers certainly expect that you do.
18:25
So if you show a cross handle in the primary bathroom sink faucet, you better buy a cross handle. You know, that's a real one from my own experience. That's more of the owner to figure out, make sure that the renderings look good, right? Well, I mean, it goes into P &S, right? mean, and even at RIDDN Offers, they say we want to review XYZ before I mean, any real estate attorney is going to say like, yeah, what do you, what do you, hold on. What are we promising? Can we attach? What's the refrigerator?
18:54
See it then. What's the flooring? Where's the spec sheet? Yeah, Yeah, so, and you do lose, you lose a lot of flexibility there too. So it's incumbent on a developer to like know what you're doing and like figure out the recipe early. Yeah, but there's a lot of guys that are just flying by the seat of their pants and they're just picking stuff out and making willy-nilly changes on the fly all of the time. You know, it's just the nature of the business, unfortunately. Well, you know, and sometimes things become unavailable. Yeah.
19:23
I think it's- The discontinuance of product sucks. Like, you just pick everything out, especially if you're a designer, right? We always say this, buy it as soon as you can because the second it goes out of stock, goodbye. We buy it and store it if we have to. Yeah. Which I mean, it sucks handling stuff multiple times, but listen, like, if I'm guaranteed to get it versus buying it in four months and I might not have it, then I have to find something else or choose something else, and then if we have buyers and you have to let them know, it's like, it becomes a nightmare. Or you can buy it on Alibaba.
19:54
Yeah, we should reach out to them and if they'll do a sponsorship with this. You've mentioned this so much. Marc Singled, Marc loves Alibaba. Commercial grade, sponsored by... Did I tell you I just bought an excavator on Alibaba? I I did not know this. You did. When's it coming? A couple more weeks? Is it in Connecticut yet? Not yet, no. Do they give you the Domino's beef tractor for your excavator? I'm what I'm most nervous about is that the trailer...
20:21
that comes with the excavator can be registered in Massachusetts. So that'll be an interesting follow-up. You can't register just any trailer in Massachusetts? No, the standards are very high. Of course it is. Why am I not surprised? Yeah, naturally. I was going to talk about pricing strategy. I think so during construction is an interesting way to feel out the market. You do have the benefit that unit goes on.
20:49
You can take it off for 60 days, assume that you've got more than a handful of units, you can kind of cycle. And I think we've been pretty successful at that. um, Well, the last three projects and specifically, which will be a good segue to talk about a really great success story that we've had, but we have been using Zillow new construction. And so, you know, it's definitely meant for more of like,
21:13
Communities? Yeah, like a subdivision or something. It's not really meant, I don't think, like For a multifamily building? Yeah, for like multifamilies. But either way, it has been a really fantastic way. And that's actually how I, between like agent outreach and like knowing my community of agents paired with the Zillow new construction, em it's definitely how this project in East Boston that we've been able to get those units under agreement.
21:37
Oh, wow. Versus putting it on MLS. Yeah, exactly. And so, I mean, it shows the power of Zillow, whether they love And that's because they don't play nice anymore, right? Like MLS and Zillow are kind of... No, don't know. It's just like a pre-MLS. Pre-MLS. it's a compass. it's a compass coming soon type thing. Exactly, yeah. And so you do have to kind of go a little, if you're the buyer, like you have to go a little out of your way to like, you know, filter in those new construction projects. But, you know, that, in my opinion, has been very, very well worth it.
22:05
like 50 bucks a month and it's a chance to just get that exposure out there. That's awesome. Yeah. That's really great. mean, also locking units early helps you sell units late. Yeah. To be able to say like, hey, 50 % sold. have a sense of urgency. I've shared pricing strategies since you were kind of alluding to that where sometimes they start low. Yeah. And then as units get scooped up, pricing kind of goes up like, hey, three left, two left, last one.
22:33
Do you fall in that camp? Do you think it's just more price discovery in general? No, I think that we always try to just kind of stay in line with like where the market sits. I think right now too, just where, you know, because, you know, we don't have people beating down doors to buy, you know, right now. Like, we're talking seven, eight unit buildings, nine. If we were doing 60, I think there definitely be a tapering. Yeah. And it would be marketed as like this price is good till that time. But yeah.
23:03
I think, I think that that there's something to be said for that. It's also an interesting discussion for like in years past when interest rates were zero, you know, were you leaving money on the table? Yeah. Maybe now. Oh yeah. If you're, if you can pay down at that time of CEO, if you can pay down 75 % or more of your note. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
23:29
Then you can hold on to those units longer if you need to because you're blowing tens of thousands of dollars every month on a payment. I got to say, like, of all the people who've ever said, that's me like, you're money on the table. I would say 80 % of them, like 20 % are developers who have sat in that chair and really get the stresses and everything else. But I think 80 % are people who have no clue. They've never had...
23:58
the personal guarantee and the stress of all the payments going out the door to know like, hey, relax. Like I get that there was 30 grand that I may have been able to charge more if I staged it and waited, but like I also could have lost my home. And you you've never been a developer. so I discount your opinion a lot. it's easy to talk the talk. It's much harder to walk the walk. And a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush. So there you go. Oh, for sure. So sure.
24:28
Yeah. Good buyer gets that too. Maybe there is a discount that they're getting for coming in. And certainly it's a totally different buying experience. some people really do not want to deal with an ultra, let's say if it were this way, like ultra competitive environment, which definitely still is there for some types of properties. So I think that it makes a lot of sense for somebody that is just kind of, you
24:53
maybe even just passively looking to, it's kind of crossed their mind, like, hey, you know what, I've kind of outgrown my place, if the right thing comes along, et cetera. So that's been, I think almost half of the buyers actually for this recent project. What's the current sweet spot in terms of purchase price do you think right now? And like, where's the most buyers? Is it like the first time home buyers or is it kind of like the middle row? Let me rephrase it. What about unit? Cause it's all going to depend on what? mean,
25:21
You said that and said Bay Village, Beacon Hill, East But I think that question does generalize well in terms of Boston neighborhoods for unit mix, which say bedroom, bathroom counts and what's too many. For sure. So I think East Boston specifically is um three bedrooms. I think what's happening to the market there is that we're a maturing condo market where all the people that purchased maybe five or seven years ago.
25:48
Maybe they did buy one bed there, they bought a two bed and then now they're planning to stay in the city. I think we've seen it in Southie. You have bigger units here, things like that. So there's a real pent up demand for three beds in East Boston. um So those were actually the two first units to go in our current project. think the third bedroom can be flexed too. Yeah. Whether there's windows or not, as long as it's like six by eight.
26:12
I'd like to see eight by Whether it's an office or a nursery or Peloton or whatever. for sure. People want that flex space. It was that way at East Second. We had half of the building with a kind bonus room and the whole left side of the building sold first before the right side. That was interesting, AB, like natural AB. was. Interesting. Yeah, with two stacks. And then I guess there is somewhat of like that price point too, right? We just sold three units in Dorchester and they were all
26:41
priced below 700K, sold all three of them during construction or whatever. Two beds. There were all three beds. What advice would you guys give to a buyer's agent who has a client interested in new construction and they're coming through during framing and you're looking out for their interests and you're trying to like guide them towards a good project that they're gonna close and be super happy with. Like what are the things?
27:11
I mean, that the most important just like couples that like asked for the reflected ceiling plans. it, uh, you know, I've never had someone ask for it. don't think buyers know what reflected ceiling ceiling. I think that's actually a good tip is like, yeah, like, they going to give you a bunch of switched outlets and tell you that, uh, there's a West Elm on the corner and go buy some, lamps like recess lights. Like this last of the thing now that recess lights are more inexpensive.
27:39
But there was a time I'd walk in places and be like, wow, cool. You gave me one boob light. Very cool. Oh, there was definitely that kind of, yeah. I don't know. Again, I think it depends on the type of product too, right? Like if you're going higher end, like million plus, like it's a very different type of buyer and it's a different type of product, right? know, like the...
28:06
All the buyers that we sold to were all first time home buyers. you know, one of them almost didn't qualify for their loan because they bought a truck a week before closing. other guy got fired. After specifically watching videos and going through the course for the home buyer thing, like don't do this. Don't mess with your credit. Don't take out any big loans. What about references? I think that's an interesting one that
28:34
A buyer reference? would. What would you even... man, if my mom was buying a new construction product and she said like, Mark, what should I ask for? So like ask to speak to like two or three buyers who bought from this man or woman. Would you sell share mom? What? No. Uh, yeah.
28:50
uh Your product Come on We're going through a new stuff. I thought you were saying like the buyers were gonna you were gonna ask the buyers for their references is like being buyers I Guess how did they handle the warranty process? Yeah, how was the product once you moved in to the match your expectations? I mean, it's like anything right? It's like a personal reference. You're gonna cherry pick your
29:20
your happiest clients, of course. Not saying there's anything mischievous going on, but because you're a good guy, we know that. But Google reviews, I I assume you you try to get as many Google positive Google reviews as possible. um You know, we try to do that on like some of our like our bigger rental properties that are like we try to get Google reviews. Yeah, we've gotten a few recently. So it's just about there is some level of credibility when get something in the mail or, you know, here's who we're selling or buying, excuse me, buying from.
29:50
Um, let's go check them out online. mean, it's never been easier. Yeah. I mean, definitely like having a website, right? Having something like our choose Boston website has exactly like past, past, you know, product and Hey, you know, here's like actual photos of this most recent project that we sold. here's, most people just want to see like the quality of the construction. Not necessarily. I haven't had too much, too many buyers like digging into an experience with the.
30:14
with that seller. I think a major red flag now is if you Google someone and nothing comes up. For sure. I was just about to say, a lot of the old school guys were like that. They want no footprint online and you're like, who is this person? But it's like if you can't find someone, if I don't know what you're doing or I see that you're active, that makes me nervous. Yeah, or if you don't have any social media uh presence at all. oh I think a good thing to do, short of perhaps calling prior buyers, is like,
30:41
Go on their Instagram. Oh, for sure. Learn a bit about them, what projects they've done and, know, I don't know. I do appreciate the old school guys that tried a website and they're still on like web 1.0. You go there and it's really funny. I'm like that's a good old school guy. Are most of your, the renderings you're doing now, are they all with AI? No. Our initial are though, like Crystal and I are working together on this project and like we're frequently looking at different decisions on
31:11
more minor design things. And just the other day, like a buyer asked us to build a privacy wall between two decks. And it's like, what's that going to be clad in? It's like, all right, can you render that this way, that way, and this way? Yeah. So we threw a couple ideas. And so that was good. And then helpful to pass over to the sub too, to be like, okay, here's a representation. That makes it a lot easier sometimes. But like the marketing materials, you're still paying to have rendering.
31:39
It's not there yet. It would take you too long. It wouldn't be good enough. These are expensive units. If you can't pay 500 bucks for a rendering, what are you doing? It's very, very important because it's all that we're able to use for solid six months or so. It will get there. Yeah, exactly. It's a painful process. Even if we have a designer with so much detail.
32:07
I would say I'm not the most type A detailed person. And so I'm like, okay, let's go. We've got a lot of things going on, you know, and so it's helpful to That's why AI is nice, because it's like you just enter it and less than 60 seconds later, it pops something out. Right. And then also, I also co-sell a lot with my colleague, Alan. And so, you know, we both have two sort of very different personalities. Like he is more, I would say, kind of more tactical detail oriented than I am.
32:36
You know, we switch roles sometimes of like, who's the good cop, who's the bad cop, you know, and it's very, very, we have a good relationship together and it's helpful. Well, Crystal has a license to carry firearms. So basically, uh he's been to Texas with me. Anything else we're missing? Anything else that we should hit on new construction sales? You guys want to do underrated, overrated, appropriately rated? Sure. All right. I'll throw out a term.
33:05
something related to new construction sales or real estate sales in general. And the first one for Dan is. Oh, for me, you're not for Chris. For real, we're going to all go. We're going to, we're going to, we're TikTok. Oh wow. Okay. Go. No, it's your, it's your call. Oh, oh, oh, you say. Based on your recent experience. Based on my recent experience. With Sam's team.
33:29
Are we talking about the sales process or the build? Well, marketing. TikTok is really smart. Let uh me see. It's gotta be underrated. It's gotta be. You just like sold three condos without MLS. Yeah. On TikTok from... Not TikTok, Instagram. Oh, I think he uses TikTok. I think it's got a ton of followers. No, it's Instagram. Oh. Oh, wait, what? You sold everything from social media? Yeah, I think he did. Amazing. So I guess social media. Yeah. Selling via social media. So underrated. Underrated.
33:58
I think like table stakes, like the new world is being, you're a media company now. You're on growth margin sales. The rest is everyone's got it. Like, oh, you can make really pretty trifold brochures. It's like, Right. But I think there's something to be said for like not coming off as too pretentious either. Like you don't want to have like the Ferrari parked out in front of the No, no, no.
34:25
a mid-range product that's clearly not like luxury back bay kind of thing. You want to be realistic. But you want to stand out. Have you that chick that sells in Florida? She's hysterical. Is it Florida? Is she the one that's really sarcastic? I thought she's local. No, she's in Florida. Oh, she is so funny. Here's another shitty house I got to sell and then she goes through and it's funny. But no, it's what she says. I'll show you. It's very funny. yeah, you gotta stay yourself apart.
34:52
Yeah, I agree with you about like the content not being too formal. It's like, let's have fun with it. You know, at the end of the day, also as a listing agent, you're paying for it. like, I don't want to be serious all the time. You can tell when someone's reading from a script. Totally. Absolutely. And I definitely, I would say I've always been pretty heavy like video forward in the last year or so, like certainly trying to get a little bit more creative and just.
35:19
be myself a little bit more. like, I, you know, have some plans for Mark for Havre. Is calendar management one of those plans? Mark's house tracker. People always ask me, like, Hey, we're drinking in this photo. Like, can I tag choose Boston? I was like, yes, like that's fine. Um, but I may have pushed that too far recently.
35:49
It was Crystal's 40th in Texas and I brought my mesh tank top, my fishnet tank top. It was, it's a joke. I thought that was AI. This thing is ridiculous. Did you get a lot of engagement from it? I gained so much engagement, but not necessarily positive engagement. I mean, you committed to the bit though. You wore it all week and long. What's the tie called? A bolo tie and a fishnet.
36:19
I'm sure if my dad saw it, he would be, but this is some weird conversations. This is the real Mark though. I get a lot of compliments at the bar. People come up to me got a lot of like, Hey. And then some people asking about my, how I identify. It's more than two real extremes. really, you know, think you gotta be really confident. Sorry. Dan can tell you about my voucher party. How.
36:48
I didn't even, I told my best men to not tell me when it was happening and to back for me. That was a bad decision. Oh my, that's a lot of trust. That's amazing. was bad results, but it was very fun. That's hilarious. I think your turn. already, I did. Uh, off street parking. Oh, underrated. Underrated. Are we asking both of you? Yeah, and you. Oh, and me. Yeah, you're an expert. I think it's underrated. Yeah.
37:18
I think especially if you're trying to a certain price point, right? Like every neighborhood that price point is going to be different. But like, know, Eastie, for example, like you want to go north of a million bucks and probably need parking. Yeah. I don't care what unit size it is. Yeah. You know, the only place that may not count is Beacon Hill, who routinely sells $10 million stuff with no, no parking somehow. Right. But that's a good one. ah Or you have something at least rented. know, um smart lighting.
37:48
overrated.
37:52
underrated depending it I think I think it's appropriate related appropriately rated based on the application okay right what do I think if smart lighting yeah uh do you get a dollar and a penny spending a dollar on smart lighting I'd probably say you don't I don't know I do it because I think I like it personally
38:15
And, know, yeah. I think it's definitely Is it an ego driven decision? I think it's like an aftermarket customization on a car. I think it also, again, I think it comes down to, I think it comes down to the price point of the unit, right? Like if you're doing uh like a three million plus single family house in an affluent town, you're putting in a Lutron system. Or if you're selling like a multimillion dollar condo, you're putting in a nice lighting system or a nice lighting package. Yeah. But like.
38:43
I just see like junction boxes over dining room tables or in living rooms. Like I'll go back years later. Well, for whatever reason, I'm like, oh, you've never actually used any of those future lighters or junction boxes. like, yeah, we pre-wired it for sound or like I gave you the dimmers. Oh, that's not that sound. I'm gonna do that. I think that's overrated. Well, whether it's sound, whether it's a blanked off junction box for future light or it's smart dimmers from the outset. So it's just smart home stuff. just find that like people aren't gonna do it if
39:13
If you don't afford them, they're not going to do it. Unless you're like nerds. Yeah, unless they're nice. Yeah, I have one buyer who is a super nerd and I like him, but and he loves all that shit that I did for him. I just think like you're, yeah, I agree. Like at a point of a certain price point, like a standard for all finishes, know, anything that's visual, but.
39:33
For the most part, nobody's really, especially with the markets that I'm familiar with, and even in South Boston, it was nice and people are like, oh, that's cool, but not like, oh, this is a deal breaker for me or anything like that. A lot of people don't know what it is. And I think that's the problem, right? It hasn't become, I don't think it's become mainstream enough and I don't think it's become easy enough to set up because everything is so disorganized still and there's no consistency. mean, quick story, we recently sold the condo to...
40:00
uh a woman whose husband is handicapped. And I was like, great, we have all smart lighting. They're older couple. And I said, this way he can just say like, Alexa, turn on all the lights or whatever it wants to be. the other day she texted me asking for an electrician's number because she wants to remove all of the dimmers for just toggle switches because he doesn't have the dexterity. I'm like, missing the whole point though. Yeah.
40:30
Yeah, you don't need this. It's not that easy. It's not easy. I like technology stuff. I'm a technology guy. I just did my own house last year. you know how many apps I have for my house? do it all the time. have 20 apps specifically related just to my house. Can I put them in a folder for you so you just all title like No, I use Apple Home. So they all integrate into Apple Home. But why do I need...
40:59
It's like, that's why it's so stupid. Cause you have to set up 20 apps, but then you still have to integrate them all into their home assistant or Google Home. You're making the case to not have a smart home, basically. I know, it's annoying. Unless you're gonna put in the work. Crystal's gonna go to a home inspection. I think the top five things that are functional should probably be like a smart home app.
41:20
And then outside of that, you know, like do I need a remote for my fireplace? No, I don't want that. smart lock in your front door is extremely underrated. That's the one thing everyone should have unless you are totally drunk. Smart lock as in, you know, tap the phone to it. or tap a phone in some way that like when I left my keys inside when I went jogging, I'm not screwed. That's a good idea. Not that I go jogging, but anyway, Crystal does have a home inspection. Okay. here for rating, listening, reviewing, and I do one other real quick? Go ahead. One last thing.
41:50
If the space affords it, Butler's Pantry Prep Kitchen area or Two Islands? Oh, definitely a pantry. Beautiful. Yeah. I'm a host through and through and like to have somewhere that I could like hide everything or have like a second dishwasher or a second fridge. That would be my total dream. Nice. Awesome. If people want to get in touch with you or reach out.
42:13
Yeah, definitely. my, would say Instagram is probably like the closest or the easiest anyways. It's Crystal in Boston. what about FIRE? Tell us about that. FIRE? Females in real estate. Oh yeah, I was like, wait, what? Yeah, so. FIRE Festival too. so. FIRE Festival. It's FY. It's new. Anyways, yeah, so just started a new females in real estate group called FIRE over at the union and.
42:40
You know, really, it's kind of, had our first meeting last week and it was awesome. mean, 20, almost 20 women showed up, many that I didn't already know, which was even more exciting. And so we're, you know, trying to just build something cool. lot of feedback was that a lot of women just kind of want something social to do with each other and kind of be around people that they can have something in common with and have, you know, just kind of a place to hang and voices to, you know, people to bounce ideas back off from. So, nice.
43:08
But yeah, I would say Instagram is probably the best way to get in touch. And I think that's all. Well, thank you. Thanks everybody. guys. Talk to you one. Cheers. All right, bye.