Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Um.
[00:00:02] Speaker B: I'm your host, Tim Brigham, and you're watching coffee is foreclosures, where we look at the hottest real estate market trends. And who are the top producers today, we're looking at Chicago. Now, looking at last year, inflation remained high, and, wow, interest rates kind of gave us a panic attack.
[00:00:18] Speaker A: But what's strange is luxury sales outperformed.
[00:00:22] Speaker B: Like never before in 22. How's going to translate to 23? Stick around. I got a chance to sit down with Chicagoland's top performer. More on that in a minute. And now for the top producers in the northwest suburbs of Chicago. Coming in at number five, Kim Alden, with 86 transactions for the year. Number four, Craig Falco, with 89. Taking the number three spot, John Morrison, with 99 transactions. Number two, holly Connors, with 126. And the number one spot, Maria del Bacchio, with a total of 139 transactions. Congratulations.
Now, taking a look at the southwest.
[00:01:00] Speaker A: Suburbs, we had a tie.
[00:01:02] Speaker B: Number five and number four belong to Patricia Wardlow and Linda Feinstein, both with 76 transactions. Number three, Brian Bomba, with a total of 87 transactions for 2022.
The number two spot with Catherine beer, 99 transactions. And the number one spot in the southwest suburbs for 2022 is Don McKenna with 137 total transactions. Congratulations. And coming into Chicago, who were the top producers for 2022? Starting with Jeff Lowe with 186 transactions. Number four, Greg Picarsky. 208 transactions. Coming in. Number three, Ben Lawlez with 219. And the number two spot belongs to Lee Marcus with 257.
Top dog in Chicago for the year of 2022, belongs to Matt Larissy, with an outstanding 511 transactions.
I got a chance to sit down with Matt earlier and take a tour of his latest $5 million listing and pick his brain about what he thinks of the future of luxury real estate for 2023. But more importantly, his future outlook for what's about to happen next.
[00:02:30] Speaker A: Can I?
[00:03:00] Speaker B: Welcome to coffee is for closers. My name is Tim Brigham, and today with me is Matt Larissy, top producer in Chicago for 2023 and multiple years running. But for those of them that don't know you, Matt, please introduce yourself.
[00:03:14] Speaker A: Yeah, my name is Matt Lars. Thanks for having me. I drink a lot of coffee, so I'm going to have to close some deals to be able to get there. I'm a third generation agent. I've been licensed since 2006. This is pretty much all I've ever want to do with my entire life.
And I think since I was two or three years old, getting to real estate was always my passion. So that's kind of my background of who we are, and I have a team called the literacy team. We're located out of river north.
Most of us are family or known through somebody in some way. And we're just kind of a little boutique group that's trying to make some waves in this big industry.
[00:03:55] Speaker B: Well, you're making huge waves. You're doing a great job.
It's pretty incredible how quickly you have grown this team, but you've done it in an intelligent fashion. I mean, you've been very selective with who you've added to your team, but they've all been very successful under your leadership.
[00:04:10] Speaker A: Yeah, I think when people say quickly, it makes it sound like it's quick. But in reality, I mean, I got in six, so in six, seven, and eight. So my first three years, I didn't make any money. I think in my first four years total, I made $17,000 total in four years. So everybody looks at us now and like, well, I feel like you made it really successful really quickly. And I hear this all the time. I'm like, well, I mean, I got in the business when I was 21 years old, right? I didn't really start to see success. I was like 25 or 26. We're talking, like, seeing success, like, doing like 5 million a year, which in my opinion is not successful, but at least starting to not be in complete credit card debt. I mean, I lived at my parents house. I was 27, okay? So that means my first six years in the business, I lived at home without any money. I didn't have a girlfriend, okay?
This was the great recession. So I'm not making any money. I'm living at home, and, like, I'm selling real estate. Like, how hot is that to checks, right?
So I think people only see, like, the Matt Larry today in my 30s, when we started to do really well, but they don't see the good seven or eight years before it. And today's real estate agents who get in the business, the market's doing amazing, right? And they're like, oh, I can't believe I made less than 100 GCI a year. And they're crying and complaining. It's like, fuck, man, you don't even know what it's like to grind.
I always find it interesting when people are like, you've made it quick. It's like, the reality is we're going on almost 20 years license at this point.
[00:05:36] Speaker B: It's incredible. I mean, that's the whole point of this show, right?
I was in a bar one time, and I was listening to two agents argue right. And they were both right, but on two completely different sides of the fence. And it's exactly what you're talking about is it's that grinding passion that you have for this industry that you grind it out to get to where you need to be. But really being a master of your craft, I think you've created some incredible systems to get you where you are today. Talk to me about your team and how you run your team.
[00:06:06] Speaker A: Yeah.
When I first decided to start a team, I realized I was super busy and I physically just could not handle all the business. Remember, I closed a little over 54 deals by myself without any assistance, any help or anything like that. And I was like, I'm going to need some help if I want to take this to the next level the next year. And I think the problem is right now is everybody who gets a real estate license, they do like, two sales, and we sell downtown Chicago mostly, like in downtown markets, say, like Lincoln Park Lake, including stuff like that. And you have a lot of kids who grew up very rich, and they naturally will get two quick sales because their mom's cousins got to buy off them. They're buying a $5 million place downtown. So they do $9 million their first year. And the two sales are like their best friend's aunt or something like that. And they're like, well, I'm going to start a team, right? I'm busy, right?
[00:06:57] Speaker B: First comes the Instagram post of being a million dollar listing, getting out of.
[00:07:01] Speaker A: A lambo, getting into that place. And I get it.
You want to fake it till you make it type stuff. And I'm not hating on any of that stuff because I think everybody should be able to try to find the way. But what I do hate on is the fact is that everybody has to claim that they're the most successful right off the bat. I remember when I was starting, I would brag that was not successful. I would go on listing appointments, and people be like, why am I going to hire you over, like, a Jenny Ames or a Mario Greco? Those were the top agents, and they're still top agents. When I was coming up and I'd be like, I'll sleep in your bed to sell this place. I'm like, I'm living at my parents'house. I'm like, nobody wants this more than I want it. I'm like, how bad do they want?
Like. And they're like, well, how many sales do you have? And I would say right to this, I was like, I have zero sales in this building. I've never sold a condo in River north my life. But guess what? Everybody's got to start somewhere. Are you going to be the one that gives me the start? Because I'll tell you right now, I'll sleep outside. I'll do whatever it takes to win. I'm like, are the other people willing to do that? It's like I didn't have to try to fake to act who I was. I owned who I was. I was a kid on the south side that wasn't as cultured or didn't know as much about the business that everybody else did, but I was willing to work for it. And when I finally got to a certain point where I felt like, hey, I couldn't handle this business anymore, I was like, I'm going to need to take somebody on. My first hire was my wife. At the time. She was just my girlfriend. She was teaching third grade at the time. Maybe it was fifth grade. She'll kill me for this. I should know this. It's one of the grades, it's elementary school. And she was like, hey, realtors are like barbarians. Nobody's organized, right? Everybody's super disorganized, right? So she created the system. She's like, hey, listen, you can't bring a system that nobody's going to know, right? People are idiots. Like, iPhone won because a kid can pick it up and use it. So she's like, we're going to base everything off Google. It's very easy, it's very simple. And she's like, we're going to color code stuff. When you color code stuff for visual learners, it'll make people be able to adapt and learn it really quickly. So she built systems. She was my first assistant. She was setting up appointments in between periods.
[00:08:49] Speaker B: Okay, I want to stop here. So you're telling me you didn't hire another company? You didn't jump into this? Your wife built your entire system off Google? Well, incredible.
[00:08:59] Speaker A: She did, yeah. And then we worked together of what would work and what wouldn't work, and she started taking the appointments on our listings and things of that nature. And it was a lot of trial and error. I'm not. Was a lot of stuff we thought would work that blew up in our faces and people yelled at us or fired us about it. And there's a lot of stuff. And the other thing is, I think a lot of people think I'm super egotistical, which I'm not saying, of course, I've got a little bit of ego because I'm successful and every person is going to have that. But I'm also not too big of a person to take constructive criticism or ask what I could do better, right? So in those first years, we'd be like, hey, just out of curiosity, do you like this system to our clients? Would you like us to change anything? And after the fact, we would also follow up and be like, hey, listen, what did we do, right? But also, more importantly, what can we do to improve on? And I think a lot of our customers saw that I really cared about being the best. I don't think there's anybody who's ever met me in my life that didn't at least know that as fucked up, as crazy as I am, there's something about this guy that's just kind of, like, on this path, right? Sure. And people would tell us, and they'd be like, hey. And they wanted to help. That was the best part. They'd be like, hey, listen, I thought you did this. Awesome. But what if you did this? And I think this would be cool if this happened, I'd be like, totally. And instead of what most people do, right, when they start to get a little taste of cess, like, I could do everything, and I don't want to hear that. We're like, yeah, that makes perfect sense.
Let's try to warp the inner system. So she was my first hire to help us do that, and then I hired my older brother to help do some od jobs, like put up lockboxes and things of that nature. My brother was a bad kid.
He was older, but he has a little bit of a drinking problem, and so I had to fire him.
And people think like, oh, do we not have a good relationship? No, I mean, it's fine. Listen, the guy, he didn't want to do real estate. He just was like, yeah, I can make a couple bucks working with Matt and didn't work, so we let him go. And then I took out my first two hires as salespeople, and we would work at my condo, at literary, out of my condo while we tried to build a company. And then I took out my first assistant, and then I let my wife go, but my wife just didn't want to do it.
[00:11:11] Speaker B: What year was this that you were in?
[00:11:12] Speaker A: So 2013 is when I started the team. Okay, so think about that. Like, I started in six. I didn't start team till 13.
[00:11:19] Speaker B: Yeah, okay.
[00:11:21] Speaker A: And I didn't move downtown till 2011. So in 2006, I was living at home with my parents. I didn't move out till 2011.
[00:11:26] Speaker B: And you're starting in six, so you're going through eight, and then you're going into 13, which that's a big testament to who you are because not a.
[00:11:35] Speaker A: Lot of people survived. Yeah. I mean, to me, I always said to everybody during the great recession that I won't get rich in money, but I'll get rich in knowledge.
I never understood in real estate that there's really no. I mean, nowadays you have podcasts and books and all this other shit. You could do whatever. But when we were coming up, you had books.
Audiobooks were weird, but they're not like, podcasts today and stuff like that. You know what I mean? So I would try to read the books, but they don't bullshit. I don't need some guy that's never really sold anything. Tell me what to do. I'm a trial and error guy. I'm like a hands on. So those few years that were terrible, I mean, I didn't have any business anyways. I got in at the end, in December of six, when I got in, so seven was like, really? My first year. So it was like, okay, I'm trying to figure it out. And then market blew up, and I sold on the south side of Chicago to start. They already got crushed. I mean, you had three flats that were going for 800,000, over 150,000. That's not a joke.
So, yeah, we're trying to figure it out. And I had a will. I figured if somebody else can make it, so can I. So we were able to make it through it. But again, I didn't start my team since 2013. So when we see these kids today starting these teams, day one, it's like, the biggest problem I have and biggest advice I give to other people is like, how can you start a team and be the leader when you don't even know the answers, right? I mean, can't tell you how many. These bigger agents that I talk with. And they'll send me an offer for 550 with $5,000 back. And I'd be like, okay, so you got a 545 offer? No, I offer 550. I'm like, well, you got 5000 on closing cost.
545, right? And what are you talking about? And they're screaming at me. I'm like, all right, listen, dude, now I'm going to be an asshole because you're trying to talk down to me. I'm like, listen, there's $5,000. Where's it coming from? Are we shaking trees and this money's falling out? Like, come to my seller. Yeah, I'm like, okay, so if my seller's giving you 5000, and then you offer me 550, the price is 545, right? So if I'm explaining this and this guy's got a team of 15 people, how dumb are the people underneath him? And else sounds bad, but it's like, you're going to take on the stuff. So I think when people form these teams and when we decided to form a team, my biggest thing was like, I got to make sure that I know what I'm doing in and out, that I can answer every question on the business before I ever think about having somebody work for me because I don't want them to look stupid, right? But also, anybody that I take on my team is a Navy Seal. Like, I'm not looking to take on an army guy. I'm not looking to take on, like, a marine.
[00:13:59] Speaker B: So a specialist. You're looking for people who are very specific in their trade.
[00:14:02] Speaker A: The best of the best. I want nothing less. And I'm not a more. Or I think a lot of people now brag. That's the other big thing, is people are like, I got 50 people on my team, and people are like, oh, that's awesome. You have 50 people on your team doing like 40 million. It's, like, embarrassing.
[00:14:19] Speaker B: It's usually 1% of the 2% of the team that's actually doing something right.
[00:14:23] Speaker A: So I don't need a bunch of people who are going to do nothing and just maybe cause me more headaches or more importantly, ruin my reputation. Because ultimately, every single person you have working for you is a reflection of who you are as a person. So when we hired people, when I decided to take on team members, that was really important to me is making sure that, one, they had the same work ethics as I did.
Two, that they fit the culture, who we are. Nobody in my team, we don't not get along. Everybody gets along extremely well. So it does take longer to find somebody that has a work ethic, first off, which is almost impossible, fine, in today's day and age. And the second thing is, somebody I like, I got to like them. I tell people right now, I'm hiring marketing people. People are like, why didn't you hire me? I'm like, honestly, I just didn't like you. I'm like, I don't mean that in a rude way. I got to be around you fucking 10 hours a day. I don't like you.
[00:15:15] Speaker B: There's a certain freedom there, right, where you can actually just tell somebody like, look, I have nothing against you. It's just I don't want to spend every single hour with you and us getting, I don't think see us getting along.
I want you to know this, right? I've watched your videos, and I've watched the social stuff that you do. And in comparison, some of the people out there, you watch their videos and you see their things, and then you meet them in person, and they're two different people.
[00:15:37] Speaker A: Yeah. Right.
[00:15:38] Speaker B: You are not that.
[00:15:39] Speaker A: When you do a deal, when you're.
[00:15:41] Speaker B: In business, everything that you see, that is really you.
[00:15:44] Speaker A: Authenticity, right? How important is that to you?
I think one of the main reasons I got to where I got is that I'm not so full of shit. I always tell people when I go on one of the main reasons I lose a listing appointment. If I lose, which is rare, but if I do lose, it's because, like, a price is one of the main things. Every now and then there's a personality conflict. They're like, this guy's a fucking weirdo, right? Which is cool, I am. But they're like, I think my place is worth a million bucks, right? And I had two agents tell me it's worth a million. I'm like, listen, I'm a numbers guy. There's not a single number that says you're worth more than 900,000. And they're like, well, why they say it's a million dollars? I'm like, listen, I'm in sales.
I know exactly how you want me to act. What you want me to say, how you want me to talk to get your business. I get get your business, right? And then three months later, all I'm doing for those three months is just talking about price cuts, and I turn into this different person and blah, blah, blah. What you get is what you see. I'm not trying to act like I'm not somebody else. I'm not going to bullshit you to try to get your business. And in today's day and age, I think a large part because of social media and because people want social acceptance, is everybody's so full of shit.
[00:16:52] Speaker B: I think everybody thinks they have to be the realtor. The cliche realtor from american beauty, right? The movie where I'm going to sell.
[00:16:58] Speaker A: This house today, right?
[00:17:01] Speaker B: It's craziness. I think that there's some real honest clarity here, that if you're genuine and you're authentic, you'll attract more people. And maybe you might lose some along the way, but you're proof that you'll gain more than you'll lose, right?
[00:17:16] Speaker A: Yeah. I mean, 100%. We talk all the time. There's 10% of people. No matter what, we just know.
You just know when somebody doesn't like you, it's pretty quick. It happens. And I'll tell you, there is a lot of times with those 10% that don't like me right off the bat that I win them over because I call it out. You could tell when somebody doesn't like you know what I mean? You sit down with them, just the energy is not there. They just got that look to you.
I don't know what it is. I just feel it. I say it to them. I said, listen, I get it. They're like, what do you mean? I get it? What do you get? I'm like, you don't like me. I'm like, you don't like me, but I'm the best person for your job. Like, you don't have to like me. I'm going to sell the place. You may not like my personality. I'm like, you'll like this person's personality on my team. So you could talk to them. Most of the time, I'll be in the back selling your place. How's that sound for you? Does that work at least? Honestly, 50% of the time, I'll get the listings. Still, a lot of times they're like, it's just, no, not going to work out. It could be maybe cringeworthy, embarrassing. But I am not one to try. I'll get everything I can. And I think being authentic and trying as hard as you can to try to win in this business is two things that people just don't do anymore.
[00:18:27] Speaker B: What do you think? You see the biggest mistake agents make? There's going to be agents watching this, and for our audience, they're looking for your knowledge on how they can improve.
[00:18:37] Speaker A: I mean, there's a lot that I see that's wrong. One is education. Knowledge is power, right? People don't know the business. So it drives me literally, for any agent out here that doesn't like me, it's probably because I lit them up, right? Because people walk around and they act this way, that this entitlement, and then they talk down to you, and it's like, listen, I'll get talked down to by you once. I'll let you talk down to me twice. The third time, I'm going to show you who nobody can argue better than me. I really feel that I can argue better than anybody, and I have zero fucks about going for the jugular when you fuck with me more than twice. And one of the big things I see is this power of entitlement. And they have no knowledge in the business, and I have it right now. I have people like, well, you know, the market's failing, blah, blah, blah. I'm like, if the market's not failing, you don't even know what the hell is going on. How many months of inventory is in this location? How many units have you sold? We have people, everybody in December. Right now it's January. End of January. I don't know when this will be released, but it's end of January. And if anybody's ever saw any of my podcasts, I've been talking for the last three months, I said, wait until January. February, the market takes off like a rocket ship, and every asshole realtor out there is going to be telling me, like, can you believe how hot the market is? I can't believe hot it is. It's so crazy. And I'm like, I fucking told you it was going to be unbelievably hot. This isn't rocket science. The same cycles happen every year. We are the most rent heavy city in the country. Everybody's loses come to March, April, May 1 part of June. People come back from holiday they want to buy. So demand goes crazy. And there's no inventory. Happens every year, right? And every December, every agent's been telling me it's a different market, Matt, and the market's not coming back next year. It's not. And they're screaming at me, telling me I'm a fucking moron. And then I see that same asshole in January, like, are you busy? Can you believe how busy it is? It's busy, right? It's like you were the asshole telling me the market was going to come back.
[00:20:22] Speaker B: And what they're doing is they're showing their experience, right? I mean, typically, that's an agent that, in my experience doesn't have the six start. They haven't seen these cycles that continue to repeat themselves. You've called it every single time.
[00:20:35] Speaker A: But it doesn't matter if you have the experience or not. Don't project like you know what you're talking about and then try to belittle somebody with entitlement bullshit to say it. So when I talk to newer agents, it's always the agents who it's at like four to $10 million hitter, you know what I mean? Because a lot of times the brand new ones. And I appreciate this if you don't know what you're doing. I remember, there's a few agents that I know very well that when I was first starting, I didn't know. And I would ask them, be like, listen, you're right. This is my first transaction in this area. I was not familiar with that. I'm apologizing about it. If you could tell me what I did wrong and what I should know, I would be appreciative. Right? You're not to know everything from day one. Why is it so bad to admit that you don't know something? That's the thing I don't get. So that's why I'm talking about the knowledge. But problem is that four to $10 million hitters want to flex their muscles. They made maybe 100 grand first time ever tasted a couple of bucks, and they want to act like an asshole and come at you. It's like, listen, we're in this together.
I'll close a deal for you. Just ease up a little bit. Don't be screaming at me over this bullshit or trying to tell me what to do with my job. And then that's why I become asshole Matt.
[00:21:42] Speaker B: Right?
[00:21:43] Speaker A: And then the second thing is, just like, the other big thing I would tell people that needs to learn the business is follow up. I will say that nobody under 35 understands how to follow up.
The minute I'm done with an appointment, whether it's a buyer or seller, the first thing I do is send a thank you follow up email immediately, recapping my conversation. Super important to recap that conversation, right? How many times have you told the borrower, like, hey, if you put down 20% and you pay off that car debt, you'll be able to get the loan, right? But you're really busy because you just got a phone call now and you forgot how much money did I did. I took it down, but I think I remember. And then he calls you up next day later, and he goes, you said I could get away with 10% if I paid off that car debt, right? You said 10%. You're like, no, I said 20%. Now it's a he said, she said game, right? I read cap, and I love doing this with sellers because I follow up immediately with our conversation. You're moving to New York. Your timeframe's this long. Here's the price point we discussed. Here's my commission, and here's what I need to list your property with my full questions, right? I do this for one, fold. One for my own recommendation or remembrance, right. Of understanding what happened. But two, so a month from now, if something happens. Like, well, you said this because this happens 50% of the time when people are following. If the place doesn't sell, 50% of the time they come back and say, well, we listed at 500 under your recommendation. And now we're sitting. I was like, oh, well, here's a screenshot of the email where I said that we need to be listed at 450. You said 500. Because I recapped the email. If they said something different, I'm like, you said 500. I said that if you list at 500, we're going to sit and get stale and we're going to sell for less than my recommended price. I'm like, so here's the email where I said that.
[00:23:22] Speaker B: Super smart. Super smart.
[00:23:24] Speaker A: And I'm not shoving in their face like, fuck you. I'm shoving their face being like, told you so in a polite way.
[00:23:29] Speaker B: You're really telling them, you should still trust me, right? I'm showing you that we had a plan. I still respected you enough to do yours, and look what happened.
[00:23:37] Speaker A: I mean, the reason I probably don't get fired as much as probably the average realtor is probably because to show that I'm right, I have proof of why I'm right.
And I send two emails a week to every seller I have recapping everything. So again, if anything ever happens, I'm like, here's the documented track record of everything I've ever sent you. But the reason why I call follow up in particular is like, these are just examples of follow up. I can't tell you how many agents. And I talk to people. I don't ever ask, why did you choose? Who did I go against? Is there any reason in particular why you chose us for somebody else? Honestly, I didn't hear back from the other two people. There's no follow up. Or I've been trying to get a hold of person. I will tell you, there's been numerous times where I wasn't the person they were going to pick, buyer or seller. And they're like, we reach out to them like four or five times.
We haven't heard back from them. You're blowing me up every day. I spend 2 hours a day, every day, seven days a week if I'm on vacation, why I never take days off for being sick. But whatever, no matter how busy I am 2 hours a day, I follow up with everybody every day.
[00:24:51] Speaker B: Okay, so if you're an agent and you're listening to this, listen to what he just said, he's eating off your plate because you're not calling your client back. Call your client back.
[00:25:00] Speaker A: Right.
[00:25:00] Speaker B: We preach this within my team, too, is that you have to follow up. I think it's the biggest mistake that most salespeople make is they have an initial call and they assume something, and then they get busy with something else. So before we get into predictions, you said something that I would love to expand on. I see your videos that you post of your no days off, right?
[00:25:20] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:25:21] Speaker B: Is that real? Do you really not take days off?
[00:25:24] Speaker A: I took 16 days off total last year, and two of the days, which I think are bullshit because I had a kid and I gave myself a full day off. But we went to the hospital at, like, 155, and the kid came out by, I think he was born 230 or 232 or something like that. And by, like, 03:00, I was back in the northwestern lounge working till, like, 09:00. Okay.
I always remember people are like, well, you had a kid. The reality is, kid comes out, they wrap him up, and then they take him to that. Whatever they do, all the shit they got to do to them. Your wife is beat to shit, right? They're like, I don't know about you, but my wife's like, listen, get the fuck out of here. I don't want to see anybody. I'm tired. I just pushed this thing out of my body.
You're in a room like this. This is what you're doing. You're sitting in this room on this uncomfortable bed. So, like, yeah. So I was like, okay. Got my computer. I went in the lounge. Actually, I got her car. I went to my condo, got my computer, went back to the hospital, and I just went in the lounge and worked. But that was one of the days off. The second day off was the next day in the hospital, where I worked in the lounge the whole time. So my point is, there was never a single day while I was in Chicago not working an entire day. I took four days off. I do every year. I go to Napa. I did a three day trip to Florida with the kids. Again, I don't know if I'd call that vacation when you travel with two kids and a pregnant wife at that time. And the other times was, you know, it was like, major holidays. Wow. So, yeah, I mean, I will never take a day off. I frown upon it. In fact, you get belittled in my office big time.
[00:27:00] Speaker B: I was going to say that there's a little. That you're like, it's bullshit. Because it sounds like it got brought up in a meeting. Like, well, this day counts.
[00:27:06] Speaker A: As a day off for a little bit, 100%.
They're like, you're getting a full day for that. 02:00. I'm like, well, it was a Sunday and days off started four. And they're like, well, it just became the big thing. I'm like, just put a full day down. Put a full day down. But my assistant's going to Florida this weekend. I'm like, who the fuck told you could go to Florida? You know what I mean? You are publicly shamed when you take a day off. And people nowadays, I get it. Somebody out there's going be to like, it's about balance. You're not doing it right. Get the fuck out. Balance is such a millennial word. It's such a bullshit word of what people tell themselves because they don't have the energy or drive and they burn out. I don't burn out. I never felt burnt out. I don't feel like I'm not waking up every day like a man on the mission, okay, like, I want to work. I will take your lunch because you wouldn't want to do it. But this whole thing that I could be successful by working less is all bullshit. I don't care what anybody says. I can give you a million examples. I'm not going call any agents out. But there's a lot of you guys out there that took your foot off the gas and you thought like, hey, I could build a team, take a step back and find more of me time. It's like, that's great. I'm not telling you you shouldn't have balance if that's what you want. But don't tell me you want to be number one and have balance, because if you want to be number one or come up to the top, you're going to have to take down somebody like myself, and I won't take the foot off the gas.
[00:28:16] Speaker B: That's incredible. Incredible. Thanks for sharing. I want to shift gears right. We're doing a recap for last year. What are your predictions? Well, first off, how did you last year, what's your total volume?
[00:28:29] Speaker A: We finished at 289 and some change. Million closed and roughly about 20 million pending. So we finished around, I have to look, it was about 550 deals closed and, like, maybe 30 or 40 pending going into this year. So roughly almost 600 places closed under contract last year. So it was our best year ever.
We were on pace to just fucking. I think at one point we were on pace for like 450,000,000. And then that summer shift happened, which happens every year, and it caught me a little bit by surprise that the biggest shift that had happened, but we did expect it to happen.
Even though you anticipate to happen, when it happens, you're still like, fuck, yeah.
[00:29:12] Speaker B: What are you seeing for this year? What do you see happening in the markets? Let's start with Chicago.
[00:29:16] Speaker A: So this is going to make me sound like a total douche, but I have predicted this market to the t of everything was going to happen. I said this year was going to start off like a rock. It has. Okay. You have a few reasons why the first time buyers. So I work in the downtown markets. Okay. So if you're in the suburbs, you're probably noticing a bigger difference. But where we work, my prediction for this year was back to office. Right? People are going back to work. Enough of working in your underwear and making $150,000, you're doing nothing. So we're seeing more and more people come back downtown. And because rents are higher and because there's a lot of people relocating that naturally just like to own and work, the market's doing very, very well right now. We're going to have an unbelievable first four to five months. So at the end of April, once may hits, you're going to notice the market's going to kind of shift a little bit. You're going to start hearing people being like, a little bit of a slowdown. June, the summer shift, is going to hit, and it's going to hit pretty hard. June, July and August are going to be tough months. They're not going to be terrible months, but the people who didn't prepare for it are going to be hurting. If you got a buyer right now, it's like, I want to feel like I win on a deal. June, July, and August. Okay, now, from September till December is going to be the one to watch. How bad is it going to be? Right? And that is something that nobody can technically predict because does the stock market crash like they say? Maybe it has another ten to 20% to go, right? Maybe it doesn't go at all. I can't speak like a Ken Griffin on the stock market. I could speak like it on the real estate market, but on the stock market, I can't. That's the unknown that we don't know what could happen.
[00:30:38] Speaker B: Right.
[00:30:40] Speaker A: If it drops really badly in the summertime or something happens with that, how bad does that make our fall and early winter? Right? So I think the fall and early winter is going to be a bloodbath. It's like, how big of a bloodbath? Will it be? I don't know. This past end of third and fourth quarter, we called it in the beginning of January. We said it would be an effing bloodbath. I knew it was going to be terrible. I knew the rates were going to get weird and was going to make everybody kind of panic. And that's what happened. I don't know if it could get worse than the last end of the third quarter. Fourth quarter was this year, but I'm anticipating something similar. I think it's going to be really bad, so you got to prepare for it.
[00:31:15] Speaker B: It's interesting, some of these economists in the mortgage world are calling for really an adjustment to when inflation comes back down. We'll see rates come and follow.
[00:31:25] Speaker A: Rates will drop. But here's the thing.
I don't think rates will probably, I mean, it could, but I don't anticipate rates going back to like the mid seven s. I think we'll probably hover around wherever we're at right now, maybe go down, maybe even say we go down a point. It doesn't matter. If the economy takes a hit and the layoffs begin, that's when you're going to have problems. I think we're in store for huge mass layoffs. I think the layoffs are coming. I've been saying this for too long. People have been making too much money doing nothing. When then ape was eating pizza and people spent $2 million in digital art, that's when I knew something was fucked up. It was like, in six, you're like, that sold for what? That sold for what? That doesn't make any sense. And then the bubble burst and was like, how did that happen? Right? Well, I was like, this is the same thing we're seeing six. I'm like, when you got 24 year old kids spending $2 million in digital art, that's when you know there's too much money going around. That's when you know that everybody's just too comfortable. And that's why this working from home bullshit. I don't care what everybody says out there that's watching this. It ain't real life. You can't make $200,000 a year working from home, taking a second job, not working. You're going to go back to work. And companies that are taking all this losses in the stock market, they can only take losses for so long to like, what's my biggest expense? What's the company's biggest expense? Employees. Okay, come back to work. You don't want to come back to work. See you later. And you know what? Whether you like Elon Musk or not, I've been saying it's going to take one celebrity boss to start letting people go to watch the other people start to foul. And all these people that are big employees, like, I hate them, whatever. And you know what they're seeing is, like, that guy cut three fourth of a staff. His company's still operating. Whether it's doing good or bad, it's debatable, okay? But at the end of the day, they're like, the program itself is not working. It's a big reason why I fire a lot of my marketing staff myself, too. I was like, I don't know, why am I paying all this money? And people are telling me they're busy and we're not busy at all. I'll give you an example why I think it's working from home. Bullshit. I have a first hand experience as a business owner that writes the check because I don't have an investor. I don't have mom and dad funding my company. It's whatever I make, I could pay. So here I am paying these people money, and people are bitching to me in the fourth quarter of how busy they are. And I kept looking around like, man, this is the lowest amount of sales I've ever had. This is the lowest amount of listings I've ever had.
This was slower than we were during the height of the lockdown. I'm like, so how are you so busy? What are you doing? Right? But they're at home. I don't know what they're doing. And employees, big bosses, they're looking at the same way I'm looking at. And they're saying, like, this doesn't make sense. And they're bringing these people back. So the layoffs is why I think the market can be tough, because if there's more and more people getting laid off, that's. Life spreads like wildfire. Well, my friend just got laid off. I'm a little bit nervous to buy. My other friend just got laid off. I'm a little bit nervous to buy. Like, is the market come back? Rates could be 2% for all you care. You could pitch the lowest rates you want. But people are nervous. They can't pay their bills. They're not going to be buying. And then a lot of the first time buyers can be going, hey, mom and dad. Like, I'm thinking about buying my first place. And the mom and dad are like, listen, you need to be conservative with your cash right now. This is a tough economy, you better save it. You rent or you move back home. And that's why the market is going to be tough.
[00:34:24] Speaker B: So that's interesting. So Forbes reports that the rental has increased to the high schools we've seen. I mean, the average in Chicago came out 1925.
That's pretty intense. Talk to me about rental. What are you seeing with rental markets?
[00:34:38] Speaker A: So again, the rental market has been extremely predictable, right? So in October of 2020, cranes published an article saying that renters are king. So you could google it to still not show bullshit. They were literally paying people vacations to rent. And this is when the media was pumping up that cities would never exist again. Right? Wall Street Journal, in fact, published an article saying, stick a fork in Manhattan was done. In fact, I called them up, offered a million dollars cash, said, I'll bet a million against your million that New York will exist again. Okay. Of course they told me to f off, et cetera. Wall Street Journal, you ever watch this? Look who's right. This is why you don't listen to some of this fear manga and bullshit, right? The reality is they said nobody would ever rent again. Well, that's because nobody was living in cities. And then guess what happened? People are like, hey, I don't like listening, eating at Applebee's anymore. I'm sick of it. I want to come back around people. And a lot of people who move back to these big cities, they're like, I'm a little bit nervous about, like, are we going to really live in the city? So I'm going to rent. Oh, I'm a little bit nervous. Maybe this hybrid won't be hybrid and I'll get locked back down. Maybe the crime is really bad, right? And I want to kind of rent. Maybe the economy will take a hit and I want to rent. All these things add up. What people understand is there's a million things that happen that dictate why the market goes, where it goes. That's why I can predict it as I look at all these different things. So all this stuff adds up. So why rental prices kept going up and up and up and up and up and up and up and up and up. And now the media is telling you like, hey, we think the rent is going to come down. I don't fucking buy it. I don't buy at all. I think rents are going to go up again because, wow, when you have a volatile economy like we have, when you have a volatile stock market like you have, and you have a workplace that people are unsure of, am I going to have a job? Am I going to go back to office or am I not? There's going to be a lot less people who are going to probably take the chance of buying. And we're getting a lot of people relocating to Chicago for work. 90% of my buyers that I've talked to in the last three weeks are people relocating to go back to the office. These were these idiots that decided to move to these states that you've never heard of, like Utah, Idaho, North Dakota, places that people didn't know exist. And now they're like, shit, I got to come back here. And those people are like, I don't know if I want to buy because I've never been to Chicago before.
[00:36:34] Speaker B: Right.
[00:36:34] Speaker A: So how are rents going to go down? Typically speaking, when you have a tough economy, rents go up. Now rents went up a lot. Again, considering the fact that these guys have thrown this article and said, well, now they're going to have to go down. It's like, well, we were at an all time low for rentals of demand. Now we're an all time high. What's going to make that high go down? Why is there going to be less renters this year?
[00:36:57] Speaker B: Well, that means the only thing that I would think that would cause that to happen is if people started to leave.
[00:37:02] Speaker A: But to your point, why are people.
[00:37:04] Speaker B: Like, the demand is here and that it'll just going to continue to get worse?
[00:37:07] Speaker A: But now I didn't go to Stanford or Harvard. I went to eastern Illinois, okay? I call it the Harvard of the Midwest, okay? I got like C's and DS in college, okay? So I'm not the smartest guy in the room. I'm just listening to what the experts at Stanford told me. The Ivy League snobs, right? The guys are the smartest and smart. They came up the rule, not me. They came up the rule called supply and demand. I didn't come up with this, they did. So if the supply is low and the demand continues to go up, according to their theories, the Ivy League theories, not the Matt Larry cds and college theories, the Ivy League theories, that technically speaking the rent should go up. So why is Forbes and all these other magazines telling you that they're going to go down? What data are they using to back that proof up? Because I'm looking at the market and seeing all the reasons why the rent should go up. Now, I could be wrong. It's possible. But with taxes going up in Chicago and cost of inflation going up and the cost of employment going up to employ door people at your place and staff at your place, and everything's going up and the demand's going up. Why are the prices going to drop? What scientific data do you have to prove to me that the rents are going to drop? Mr. Forbes, right.
[00:38:09] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:38:09] Speaker A: I'm not saying you or taking on you. I'm just saying. Yeah, no, this is why the market's predictable, is because people read this bullshit that these people put out that has absolutely no merit behind it. They read it, they regurgitate it to people, and they act like they know what they're talking about. But at the end of the day, it's kind of like that goodwill hunting when Matt Damon's like, yeah, fucking. You know, like how those apples fucking. You know what mean? Yeah, like that. Like there's intangibles people don't look at.
[00:38:30] Speaker B: It's really interesting how people will take data and just interpret their know, opinion out of nowhere, right? And there's, oh, well, it's the highest it's ever been, so it must have to come down from there.
[00:38:39] Speaker A: Well, I tell people, that's why I always compare it to, like, war, right? I'm like General Patton. I'm on the front lines. He's one of the most spirit generals in United States history. He was on the front lines with his troops. The guys back in the United States couldn't tell him what was happening with the Germans. He could. He was up front with his troops. He could tell you what the troops were feeling. He could tell you which way the wind was blowing. He could tell you what the enemy thought. The guy that's never been over to Germany before can't tell you what the german soldier thinks because he's never met one he's read about him, okay? But when you're on the front lines, you could smell it. You could feel it, you could taste it. You know what's actually happening. So these guys that write these articles, a lot of times they're just guys that are. This guy's probably never even been to Chicago. He has no idea what's happening. He just looked at a couple pieces of information, looked at his Ivy League degree. He was like, let's create this shit.
[00:39:22] Speaker B: And see if it, you know, speaking of the people who like to put things out there and really just kind of spin it the way for their narrative, a term that's been used pretty frequently as of late that I just love. Is this hibernating buyer or housing? Is hibernating, right? Have you seen this, right where everybody's talking about how everybody's just kind of hanging out. What are you seeing in regards to people hanging back or maybe waiting for something in order to pull the trigger?
[00:39:52] Speaker A: I got to be honest with you. I don't even know what a hibernating buyer is.
[00:39:55] Speaker B: Really?
[00:39:55] Speaker A: Yeah. Is that a buyer that's sitting back and I'm waiting?
[00:39:58] Speaker B: Yeah.
I see this on the mortgage side, I see a common objection will be, well, I want to get pre approved. I want to get these squared away, and I think I want to buy. And on the mortgage side, I can do math. You're the emotional side, right. They get with a realtor, and they're trying to figure out, is this the right strategy? Should I buy now or should I wait? Is there a lower price coming? So they're pre approved.
[00:40:19] Speaker A: They're good.
[00:40:20] Speaker B: They're a solid borrower with a solid job, but they're either waiting for a crash or they're waiting for a lower interest rate, or they're just waiting because they think there's something better coming.
[00:40:29] Speaker A: That's just a made up buyer. So, at the end of the day, that's not a new phenomenon that's always around. So in my office, we have two words for them. First off, we call them a Texas two step buyer. The buyers that want to tell people that they're buying, they bring a chick with them to try to impress them. Like, yo, babe, you want to go to this $5 million penthouse? Yeah. Here's my pre approval. I could buy the girl's. Man, this guy, he's cool, right? He could buy a $5 million property, but he's not a buyer. In my office, we always say, like, after we meet a first person, it's the biggest thing. Guy comes in the office like, yo, how'd that go? He goes, not a buyer. I'm like, not a buyer. He's not a buyer. I'm like, all right, let's give him a couple more times. You could tell certain questions you can ask. You'd feel it. Like, again, I think, another reason why we're so successful. I could read people very well. I could just pick up on it. I know if you're a buyer or not a buyer. Those people aren't buyer. The people who are like, I wish I would have. Right? I wish I would have bought Apple in the wish I would have bought Tesla when it dropped. Now it dropped again. We'll enter by Tesla. What if it goes down more? Right? They're always shoulda, woulda, coulda's. The reality is, like, either jump in or don't jump in. That's why I call them Texas. They're in, they're out. They go under contract. They tell all the friends are on contract, and then they pull it off. Right? And then we're always like, me and my turner, like, should we fight to save? And I'm like, well, we want it more than they want it. If you want it more, then your client wants it. You know that they're not buyers. There's just some people aren't buyers. And I'll tell it to people.
[00:41:44] Speaker B: I call it out.
[00:41:45] Speaker A: I'm like, listen, you're either a buyer or not a buyer.
[00:41:47] Speaker B: What do you say to somebody right now? And I think you're pretty candid with your clients, right? If they're apprehensive in the market conditions. Should I buy a house right now or should I wait?
[00:41:56] Speaker A: I think it depends on where you're buying. Am I buying in Florida? Miami? I'd probably wait. I mean, I don't know the market well enough down there, but the amount of growth that's gone on down there is. Is stable. I know everybody's telling me everybody's going to move to Florida, and it's great, and blah, blah, blah. But they said that no, six, too. And I remember people selling $5 million penalties for $900,000. So I don't know. I think there's certain parts of the market that I'm not educated enough on to tell you whether or not you should buy, because I'm selling on there. But if you're looking to buy in my markets, I don't think there's ever a better time to buy than the date it is.
Unless our property values went down in most sectors of the market last year. Okay, so if the market's down, what do I care? What if they drop 5% more? Right? What if. Okay, but if rents are an all time high, what do you really get for it? All you're doing, I mean, I don't know. Huge portfolio of real estate. All you're doing is renting off an asshole landlord like me, paying my bills. I'm getting rich off it to do absolutely nothing, because you're too afraid to pull the trigger. So which one do you want to be? I mean, worst case scenario, you lose a couple of bucks. Best case scenario, you make a couple of bucks. But if you rent, no matter what, you lose.
[00:42:53] Speaker B: So, speaking of luxury in Florida and all these beautiful houses, this listing is amazing.
[00:42:59] Speaker A: Yeah. We're at 900 Washington. We called it noir. I'm a wine snob. It's named after Pinot Noir, so I think it's black, too. It's cool. I don't know. It's a sick building. I think it looks cool.
[00:43:08] Speaker B: Would you mind showing us around the place?
[00:43:11] Speaker A: I could take us look around. Yeah, let's do it. Yeah.
You gonna make me some back way? Honestly guarantee that you notice me?
You gonna make me come back.
It was only one me you could know. And this is my only me.
[00:43:41] Speaker B: Matt, you know, I find it really interesting. I saw this report with cranes. It was talking about last year, we saw 133 luxury properties, over 4 million sold, which is like three times the average of the last six years.
[00:43:56] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:43:57] Speaker B: What are you seeing in the luxury market right now? I mean, are you seeing that activity continue or is it exploding? Is it slowing down?
[00:44:03] Speaker A: I mean, listen, it's not a huge surprise that the luxury market last year was really hot. You had a lot of people, a lot of money, especially in the first three to four months, people were making handover fist money at the crypto market. That was like insanely hot, right. And people wanted to take that money and put into a hard asset, especially with inflation being higher. Right. So what we saw happen is we saw properties see the benefit of that. This year, you're going to see the luxury market get literally demolished. I think this year the luxury sales are going to be at one of the lowest points we've probably seen in three or four years. I think people who had money are going to get a little bit tighter. So when the economy start to take a little bit of a hit, people get nervous. And the rich always hold, because in uncertain times they're going to hold. You don't have this digital currency stuff going crazy. You have inflation a little bit higher. You have a big talk of job market kind of closing down, like we discussed earlier. So if the employee ers firing a lot of their employees, if they're not top, top, top, they may also be thinking, what if I get demoted or have to take a pay cut to keep my job? So people are going to take a step back and kind of say, hey, maybe. I don't think buying a $4 million property this year is going to be the best move. Let's kind of wait it out a year. So I'm not saying you're not going to see a lot of luxury sales. I'm not going to say that there won't be a good market for it. I just don't think it's going to be great. I think we'll have, like, an average to below average luxury sales here. And in fact, so far this year, it's not starting off as good as a lot of people would have thought. We've had a few really high end sales, but I don't think that's going to last past the first three or four months.
[00:45:34] Speaker B: Wow.
Well, you're a vast wealth of knowledge, and I beyond appreciate you walking us through this place. It's been a great.
[00:45:41] Speaker A: No problem, man.
[00:45:42] Speaker B: Thanks so much for having me on, for being on.
[00:45:43] Speaker A: Yeah. Thank you.
[00:45:44] Speaker B: I have one thing I want to leave you with. We did this with a few guests, and I wanted to ask you. Okay, if we had a billboard in Chicago, we put it up and it was just yours. And we're not talking sales. We're not talking Matt Larissy, the realtor. If you could put a quote out in Chicago and just with one saying, what would you have?
[00:46:02] Speaker A: Oh, man. I actually. I don't think I would have a quote on there. What would you put? I wouldn't. I would just put our name up there. And just that. That's it. Just that. Because here's the thing, people. What is it? I don't know what that is. Like I saw know. That's it. Simple. I'm a less is more type guy.
[00:46:17] Speaker B: All right, fair enough.
[00:46:18] Speaker A: Cool.
[00:46:18] Speaker B: Thank you for your time.
[00:46:19] Speaker A: Thank you.
[00:46:20] Speaker B: Appreciate it.
[00:46:20] Speaker A: Thank you.
That does it for this edition of coffee is for closers.
[00:46:27] Speaker B: I'm your host, Tim Brigham, and thank you for the coffee appointment.
