Episode 384 - Sam DeBianchi - Founder, DeBianchi Real Estate

00:00:00 - Sam DeBianchi

There's always this post that I see around on Facebook, and it lists like a hundred things of what the buyer agent does. And I appreciate that. But I also don't love that post. And reason being is because some of those items, any, anyone could say, oh, well, I can do that, you know, and I want to take it to a different level to where someone is like, I can't really do that. Peace.

00:00:28 - Bill Risser

You're listening to the real estate sessions, and I'm your host, Bill Risser. With nearly 25 years in the real estate business, I love to interview industry leaders, up and comers, and really anyone with a story to tell. It's the stories that led my guests to a career in the real estate world that drives me into my 9th year and nearly 400 episodes of the podcast. And now I hope you enjoy the next journey. Hi, everybody. Welcome to episode 384 of the Real Estate Sessions podcast. As always, thank you so much for tuning in, and thank you so much for telling a friend today, staying in my home state again, I like this. I like sticking around here. And we're going to be talking to Sam DeBianchi, who is the owner founder of DeBianchi Real Estate in Fort Lauderdale. Sam's an actual native of Fort Lauderdale, so we're going to have some great conversations about that. She also put out a blog post talking about the recent NAR settlement. And so it's going to be my goal to talk to over the next few weeks to get takes on the Nar settlement from different agents, different parts of the country, and different parts of the industry. So we can kind of make sure everybody's up to speed with what people are thinking. So let's get this thing started. Sam, welcome to the podcast.

00:01:42 - Sam DeBianchi

Thanks for having me.

00:01:44 - Bill Risser

This is going to be a lot of fun. You're my first guest post. Nar settlement, that's just become a thing over the last week.

00:01:53 - Sam DeBianchi

Just a little thing.

00:01:55 - Bill Risser

Yeah, just a few people talking about it, some media outlets maybe saying the wrong stuff in their headlines. I don't know. We'll talk about that in a little bit. I want to first find out. I know you're in the Fort Lauderdale area. I live in St. Petersburg, so I've made a few trips over to the east coast, and it's definitely a different vibe than here in the St. Pete area. But I believe you're a native of Fort Lauderdale, is that correct?

00:02:20 - Sam DeBianchi

That is correct. All 39. Almost 40 years, which is crazy that I'm saying almost 40 now.

00:02:29 - Bill Risser

I think people have their own impression of South Florida or even Fort Lauderdale versus Miami. I like to ask this of guests, no matter where they're from, right. What's the biggest misconception of the area you grew up and love? And then also, what do you think is the best part?

00:02:49 - Sam DeBianchi

So Fort Lauderdale used to you, when anyone would bring up south Florida, they'd say Miami and Palm Beach and Fort Lauderdale was kind of like the redheaded stepchilds that we got skipped over and nobody talked about. It's like, you don't really want to go to Fort Lauderdale. And now it has evolved and grown tremendously. And mind you, I've lived. So I'm born and raised in Fort Lauderdale. I went to college in Boca, got my MBA in Fort Lauderdale area, and then lived in Miami. All parts of Miami for a while, moved back to Fort Lauderdale. So I'm really a native south Floridian. It's evolved and changed, especially not just with buildings and real estate and everything else, but transportation. We have now what's called the bright line, which I'm sure you're familiar with, which so many people don't realize. It connects Miami to now it'll be going to Tampa, which is awesome. And so the main stops right now are Miami, Fort Lauderdale, Palm Beach, Orlando, and then it will head to Tampa. And I think that is probably one of the most exciting parts. Fort Lauderdale also has the biggest boat show in the world. So all of the mega yachts and tons of people all over the world come to Fort Lauderdale for an extended weekend. And because of that, it's really evolved. And it said its name. It's established its name so much more. It's still a community where you can know a lot of people, and there's a lot of walkability. It's not as overwhelming as Miami. It's not nearly as expensive as Palm beach. And it's a great place to.

00:04:29 - Bill Risser

Yeah, yeah, that's a great take on it. I think Miami is just the south beach and anywhere going north from there for a few miles as a tourist, it's where you want to be, it's where you want to go, it's what you want to see. But, boy, there's so much more in a lot of different areas, a lot of different places where there's coral gables or Brickell or all these different areas. But Fort Lauderdale, do you feel like it's kind of more self contained when it comes to. It's a little easier.

00:04:58 - Sam DeBianchi

Yeah, it's easier to maneuver. It's easier to understand. Miami is very spread out, and I think people assume oh, I'm going to Miami. And I always ask, well, what part are you going to? Brickell, South Beach, Winwood. I mean, there's very different and unique neighborhoods in Miami, whereas Fort Lauderdale, when you say you're going to Fort Lauderdale, it's generally east Fort Lauderdale. Downtown or the beach. And that's. And, and downtown and the beach, it's a mile between them. So it's really the same part. The same area.

00:05:30 - Bill Risser

Yeah, I like that. You mentioned you went to school in Boca. For me, that means fau, right?

00:05:37 - Sam DeBianchi

Yes.

00:05:38 - Bill Risser

And we're recording this on the first day of March Madness here in 2024. And look, Sam, it had to be unbelievable last year when the owls were able to advance to the final four, talk a little bit about what was happening in Fort Lauderdale last year at this time.

00:05:58 - Sam DeBianchi

Again, I mean, it was not really expected overall. You don't hear, especially people, it's now, again, put it on the map, because before, I would say years ago, oh, I went to Fau. It's like, oh, where is that? Oh, it's in Boca. Everyone knows Boca. And then I have to know where exactly it is. It's close to the Boca mall. Okay. And we left it at that. But now with March Madness and everything, there's at least a much bigger connection. A much cooler connection. And so, yeah, again, South Florida schools, a lot is happening in not just south Florida, all of Florida, I think. I mean, I went not to totally pivot, but I even toured, like, Pontavidra, Jacksonville. Everything is completely different than even, I'd say, five, seven years ago. It's wild. And it really comes down to so many people are moving here, and developers are trying to take advantage of that and kind of meet expectations and exceed them.

00:07:02 - Bill Risser

Look, I'll agree with that. Even on this coast. Right now, we live downtown St. Pete. There's a 46 story condo project and a 42 story condo project one block away from each other. Like, racing to see who can get theirs up highest. And that's two of another seven cranes you see going up in St. Pete. Just amazing.

00:07:26 - Sam DeBianchi

Tampa is one of the hottest markets in the country, and the stats show that there's a thousand people moving here. A know, I will also say there's a good amount of people moving out, but I think it's not necessarily because they are dying to get out of Florida. But I think that there's so much opportunity with the fact that you can sell your home, make a bunch of money, and then move to a different state where prices are less expensive and capture more if I can make a substantial amount and move to a different market, not obviously being a realtor, because I don't want to have to rebuild my book of business again, but to the average person, I mean, that's super enticing, and it's very attractive.

00:08:06 - Bill Risser

Yeah. Your main focus of study, FAU, was communications, correct? Communications major. Do I have that right?

00:08:13 - Sam DeBianchi

Correct. That meant that I wasn't truly sure what I wanted to, but. So communications sounded great, and I really actually enjoyed getting that degree and focusing on that major.

00:08:28 - Bill Risser

What was your first gig out of school, then? Where did you land?

00:08:34 - Sam DeBianchi

So I always knew that I wanted to be in nightlife, believe it or not. Not necessarily real estate, but I always knew I wanted to be in nightlife. And while I was getting my MBA at NSU Nova Southeastern University, I was interning at a nightclub, and I worked my way up very quickly to become a manager of a nightclub. And I did that in Miami for a few years, and that's where I learned so much about my real estate business. And you're thinking, what does one have to do with the other? But everything from how to manage people, how to manage people's expectations, how to think quickly. Marketing, advertising, PR, relationships in general, selling, and the time span of a life of a nightclub is generally two years. So you really have to think quickly and be very creative and unique. And I used those skills and that knowledge to really catapult my real estate business. And I always tell people when I speak to large groups, it was weird how I knew growing up that I wanted to be a nightlife. I wanted to be on TV, and I wanted to be a thought leader in whatever. I was going to be in the bigger picture in my true career, because I always knew nightlife was going to have an expiration date. So needless to say, I was able to accomplish all of those things. But I always go back to my experience and my job and nightlife because it made me grow thick skin. And in situations like the NAR lawsuit to you, you got to have thick skin, and you got to know how to pivot and make decisions and make moves and educate people and do all of these things that I learned back in the day, the job that everyone laughed at and said, oh, you're a promoter? I said, no, I manage a nightclub. And they never took seriously. That's what I did. And totally in a different direction. I also created a college course. I'm an adjunct professor as well. I created nightclub management when I was 25 at FIU, which is one of the top hospitality programs in the country. But I had to stop teaching when I was going on million dollar listing because there's only 24 hours in a day. And I was hoping to change that, but I never could get that to happen.

00:11:02 - Bill Risser

Yeah, hospitality is probably the top two, one of the top two or three previous careers that I come across. You see a lot of healthcare, there's that empathy to go in there and the education. Right. A lot of teachers turn into really good agents because of the same kind of reasons you're talking about. You got to be able to bring this knowledge that you built at that other career to that real estate space. So what was the trigger that moved you into real estate?

00:11:31 - Sam DeBianchi

So if you read, I recently wrote a blog that starts off with snakes, con artists, vultures. This is what most, or not, maybe, hopefully not most, but many consumers feel about realtors and real estate agents. Those are the words that come to mind if you go on Google. And I was one of them and that was the truth, I always was. Know so many people like this realtor, they're just after me and they're just in a relationship with me because they want my sale or my purchase or whatever it is, they want the commission. And so I never really liked the idea of being a real estate agent. But as I'm sure everyone has heard from their parents and family, get your license because it's always good to have that is another thing that I was born and raised with was get your real estate license. Get your real estate license. So it's kind of this weird battle, internal battle of I should get it. But I kept putting it off, putting it off. And when I was 25, when I created this course for nightlife, I knew I wanted to get out of nightlife because again, I didn't want to do that for the rest of my life. I decided, you know what, it's in this weird position and I decided to just go and take the test, which took me four times to pass. Everyone told me, any moron can pass the real estate exam. Well, it took me four times and I got my real estate license. And of course, just like everyone, it's like, wow, I'm going to have all of this business, I'm going to make all of this money like the people on Bravo on million dollar listing. And needless to say, that did not immediately happen. And I thought to myself, what can I do to be different? And what is my background? My background is that I enjoy educating people. My background is that I love PR and marketing and advertising. So I thought about everything that I knew and my toolbox, my mental toolbox, and how can I use my skills and my talents and my ability to grow a successful real estate company or real estate career? And that's what I did. I started go on social media and go at it instead of look at me and what a lot of these agents now are doing on TikTok, dancing in front of property. That's never been me. I'm more of the hardcore. Here's what's happening in the world. Here's what's happening with the economy. Here's what information that's being put out there means. Whether it's mortgage rates went up or down or the world is ending, here's what you should do with your real estate. So I went into this industry wanting to educate and help people, not just for the money, but because I genuinely care about people.

00:14:22 - Bill Risser

Yeah, that is apparent. Anyone that follows you or kind of checks out your social, it's obvious. And you work the luxury market, right, in South Florida, which is a difficult and different sort of market, right. You have to have a certain level of expertise. You have to have a certain level of the ability to connect and probably connect quickly. Talk about that a little bit. And then I want to find out how million dollar listing heard about you or found out about you. It had to be an amazing phone call to get that and say, hey, we're thinking about using you. Right. And I would just guess just to kind of round this out that that doesn't hurt your business down the road.

00:15:05 - Sam DeBianchi

No, that's a very long story. So I hope we have enough time. Okay, so I work with personality over price. So what I mean by that is I don't focus on, okay, I only work at this price point and that's it. Because I think that that's really for me, it'll stress me out. I have clients that buy a million, 2 million, $5 million homes, but then also want a real estate portfolio of properties that are $200,000. And I work with that client because I want, again, to round it out and to be all things to that person, not just all things to that price point, because then they're going to go out to other agents for other things. And it's about the relationship. It shouldn't be about the price point. And I think a lot of realtors don't think long term about that. So that's first and foremost. And that kind of segues into million dollar listing and how I got on there because I was not necessarily a luxury real estate agent. I didn't have a lot of sales. I didn't have a lot of luxury sales. I did have my own brokerage and I was at that point speaking on Fox News, CNBC as talking about real estate and the market. And so through my relationships when I was in nightlife, I knew a ton of people. And I heard that million dollar listing was coming into a variety of markets. I saw it on Facebook. It was, I believe, South Florida, Hawaii, Atlanta, like, just a lot of different markets everywhere. And you could kind of figure out that it was that show. And I remember I called my friend Chad and I said, hey, I'm going to get us on that show. And he said, sam, you're crazy. So many people are applying to be on. And I found someone who knew the production company and the people that were kind of interviewing before you got to production. And initially they said, yeah, you don't have the have, you're not luxurious, but if you know anyone else to get on the show, send them our way. So I sent them. My friend Chad and I then put together a PowerPoint presentation as to why I should be on the show. Instead of focusing on my sales, I focused on me as a person, my background, how I was on television, how in, I forget the year that million dollar listing came out. I think I saw it in 2008. And this was before I got my real estate license in 2009. And how I even said, if I ever get my real estate license, I'm going to get on this show. I remember telling my friend this, and this whole pitch I put together, I sent it to them. I didn't really think too much of it, but I never like to leave an opportunity open ended. I'd much rather give it my all and hope for the best. And at least if I fail, I know I tried and putting forth every effort possible. And they called me, they said, we thought your PowerPoint was absolutely hilarious. So much so that we want to interview you. And they interviewed me. There were a few other agents, and I will be the first to say I had no business being on that show. I did not have the sales, I did not have the listings. But they liked my grit. They liked how scrappy I was, and they liked my perseverance. And yeah, being on that show, there were pros and cons. The pros, it gave me that much more of a name. Visibility is never a bad thing. The recognition and a lot of just really cool opportunities that came from it, including new clients, the cons. Social media can be a very dark place. And people got pretty nasty at times, but you have to take it with a grain of salt and move forward and go from there. But yeah, I would do it again in a heartbeat. Hopefully. Now especially, it's a different world, different level. I'm many years past that. So yeah, it's great.

00:19:24 - Bill Risser

That's cool. Was Dbianchi real estate around when you were doing that or did that come after?

00:19:30 - Sam DeBianchi

Yeah, no, so I've had my brokerage since 2012, so it's been a long time and that was a part of it. And sometimes people like to say, well, you were on million dollar listing and you're on TV, so of course you're going to get business. And I tell people everyone has the same opportunity because you can go and you could do videos and put them on social media. You can boost things and promote things and do all of like, it doesn't have to be on a network, it's called social media. And a lot of people are on social media and things go viral. And when you're putting out really good information and things that are engaging, you're going to get traffic and you're going to get an audience and you're going to get business. And then it's your job to take all of that and convert it. So it's one thing if you put things out, it's another thing to be able to convert the traffic that comes in. So I encourage people to do that.

00:20:24 - Bill Risser

You were really relatively new in the business deal. You're talking maybe three years in and you decide, I'm going to open my own shop. That was a big leap, right?

00:20:33 - Sam DeBianchi

Yeah, I think it really came back to, I never truly knew where my place was in the real estate world as far as being a realtor, because when I first got my license, of course every brokerage will have you. I don't care what people say, every brokerage wants you. It's really the real estate agent that should be interviewing the brokerage. And I didn't know that then, so I joined one and I was promised the sun, the moon, the stars, training, mentorship. But I didn't get that from that brokerage. So I moved to another one that I felt was super cutthroat. I would go into the office and people looked at me with daggers and I definitely didn't want that environment. I moved to another one that I stayed with maybe for a few months. These were all in Miami. And then when I moved back to Fort Lauderdale, I joined another larger brokerage and finally went to a small broker. And during that time of jumping around, I also went back into managing nightlife as well because I was realizing that being a realtor was not easy, making money was not easy and I needed to create some type of income. And when I finally quit everything, nightlife once and for all and invested in myself, that's when I really did well. But yeah, I learned the most from just working one on one with a broker and that was the best experience and training that I could have ever gotten.

00:22:11 - Bill Risser

So it's safe for me to assume that when you bring on an agent, you're right there as a mentor and helping as a broker. I think you have a broker, right?

00:22:21 - Sam DeBianchi

I have a broker for my company.

00:22:23 - Bill Risser

Okay.

00:22:24 - Sam DeBianchi

And I like that because he handles all of the back end and I'm more of let's talk about how to grow your business, marketing, advertising and so on. And because of that, because I am hands on, I really am picky on who I bring on because there's a lot of people who are basically what I was jumping around, oh, I don't like this. I don't like this environment and trying to really figure it out. So anytime somebody reaches out, I ask them what other brokerage have you worked at? Because I want to know that you have worked at these larger, bigger names. Because working at a larger brokerage, a bigger name versus a boutique, it's very different and it's not for everyone. I could never imagine working for a bigger brokerage. It's just like a mental block for me. I'm very big on like I want to be able to just be a lot more hands on with what I'm doing and not have to worry about do I have to get approval for this or for that and be able to pivot and move around quickly. So I think that's the big difference. I don't think there's a right or wrong. It's just what is best suited for you and your style.

00:23:35 - Bill Risser

Got you. Let's get to the settlements. Your post is great. I'll put a link to your post in the notes for the show. And really what you were talking about there is great agents really don't need to worry too much about this. You have to know the basics of the settlement. You got to know what's going on. But then let's kind of go down that path first. Great agents be okay, right?

00:24:01 - Sam DeBianchi

I think there's only really two changes. One is the MLS will no longer show compensation. So how I look at that is it's just an extra step. Now I'm going to have to call and verify things and get things in writing. So it's kind of a pain, but is it going to necessarily hurt my business? No, it's just an extra step. And number two, we need to have buyer agreements. And if people are fearful of that, then they're not looking at it in the right way. I think, number one, it means full transparency. So this buyer agreement will state what your role is, who you're working with, how you're getting paid and who's paying you. And I think that that's not a bad thing. I think that's a great thing. And another way of looking at it, and I think buyers were pissed off.

00:24:56 - Sam DeBianchi

A lot of them, from my perspective, is because when you go online, if you're a buyer and you're looking for a home, you go online. I want to look for Fort Lauderdale homes. A lot of sites are out there and you can go and search for homes. And sometimes it can be super confusing as to who the listing agent actually is. And I know sites will say, well, we have it there. Well, sometimes it's not totally black and white. It can be confusing. That's the best word to describe, just confusing.

00:25:31 - Sam DeBianchi

And so when a buyer thinks that they're meeting the listing agent and that buyer agent isn't exactly being completely honest and forthcoming on, hey, I am not the listing agent. Then you meet them in the driveway of the listing thinking, the buyers thinking, okay, I'm going to see this property. And then that person, maybe it's on a lockbox, let's say. And so they're showing them the house and it's not until contract time that they realize, oh, I'm not working with the listing agent. And it's definitely not until the closing statement that they realize, wow, that person got paid X amount.

00:26:12 - Sam DeBianchi

And I don't want there to be any confusion. I don't think that, well, that person shouldn't get paid because they still did some work. So there's no issue there. The issue is it's very, again, confusing. And people aren't always honest. Some real estate agents are not always honest. And it's why a lot of consumers don't like realtors. I mean, that's why I titled my blog why some consumers hate realtors. So that is a problem. And these buyer agreements will help prevent that because the odds of someone going and signing a buyer agreement and knowing, okay, now I have to establish, the buyer agent now has to establish, this is who I am. They can't hide that anymore. It avoids and takes and removes any of this confusion from the equation. These bad agents will have to exit out. They're going to have to bail out of the industry because they can't play these games anymore.

00:27:16 - Sam DeBianchi

So good agents who build relationships, I mean, I can't tell you unless a buyer is adamant about, I only have this time frame to meet and look at property. Sometimes I will be accommodating in immediately meeting them at a listing, but they know who I am. They know I'm going to represent them as a buyer. And that's all cleared up. But for the most part, I require a sit down before I take you out because I want to sit down with you.

00:27:44 - Sam DeBianchi

I want to get to know you. What do you like? What do you not like? Because you might think you want to see homes in this area, but maybe I can show you additional homes because you've told me you want to be close to X, Y and Z and I can open up a whole other avenue and inventory for you to see. So again, I think that these buyer agreements are a good thing as far as, well, what the media is putting out there about commissions being taken away, that's just a lie.

00:28:17 - Sam DeBianchi

That's not the truth. Buyers like representation. The National association of Realtors came out with those stats that the majority of people find their home online, but the majority of people also have their own agent. So those two stats right there, nobody should be concerned because people, as we know as listing agents, we host our open houses. There's plenty of people that come in without a realtor, but nine times out of ten they have a realtor and they want to work with that realtor, whether it's in the entry level market or the luxury market. They like to have representation. They don't feel totally confident in working with the listing agent. So I think that's super important. Another avenue, another way of looking at know you have non disclosure states states that most of the time realtors are only able to know what homes have sold for you.

00:29:20 - Sam DeBianchi

Go on Zillow and you won't find that information. It's only on the MLS. So that's a market that shouldn't be too affected. Here in Florida, Texas, all of these places where you have out of state buyers like I do. I have a ton of out of state buyers. You think they want to go do it themselves and try to find this information themselves? They don't know the neighborhoods. They rely on me. They lean on me to show them and give them tours and figure out, okay, this is the best area so I could go on and on and on as to where our value stays.

00:29:52 - Sam DeBianchi

Now, if a listing is not providing a buyer compensation or the listing agent is not providing that listing compensation or buyer compensation, there's ways around that too, because a buyer could easily say, well, my offer is contingent on the seller paying my realtor. And I definitely think a lot of sellers are going to say, well, okay, I'll go ahead and pay that agent. Because guess what? Everything in real estate is negotiable. Everything. And if we want to complete it again, full circle. The biggest thing that is so funny to me is that buyers are currently paying buyers and sellers. They're paying our commission because the buyer is funding the deal.

00:30:42 - Sam DeBianchi

So if someone's buying a million dollar place and a buyer pays a million dollars, our commission is already in there because the seller, when they come up with what price that they want to sell for and what they want to make, they're already working all of that in there. So this is just crazy to me. And the best part about this, actually, just total side note, Friday, when all of this came out and I was reading, I get the Wall Street Journal immediately to my phone and I was reading the article, a large network reached out to me.

00:31:14 - Sam DeBianchi

Not my usual network, a large one. And they asked me to go on and I said, sure, I love informing people about the truth. I'm very passionate about that. I keep it real. I'm very direct, as I'm sure you've realized. And 2 hours before the segment, they said, michael Ketchmark's going to be on. Are you okay going on with him? And I said, hell no.

00:31:40 - Bill Risser

Just everybody listening. Michael Ketchmark was the attorney for the plaintiffs in the settlement, correct?

00:31:46 - Sam DeBianchi

Yes, correct. And I said, this is this guy's claim to fame. He does not respect realtors. I'm not an attorney. So to have me on, to debate, there is no debate. Sadly, this is the outcome. And here we are. But I am happy to report true and information, true information and facts about what it means to be a real estate agent, a realtor, and what's really going to change and not change, because reality is not much is going to change.

00:32:13 - Bill Risser

You mentioned earlier in the conversation the value you bring to your customers, and that phrase is being used a lot right now. You've got to have a value proposition. You've really got to make sure you're showing the value to your buyer's agents, sorry, to your buyers. Because that's going to be important. It's going to be really important going forward for most of the good agents that you talk about and the great agents, that's just what they've been doing.

00:32:42 - Sam DeBianchi

I mean, value, again, that's what sets you apart. And there's always this post that I see around on Facebook and it lists like a hundred things of what the buyer agent does. And I appreciate that. But I also don't love that post. And reason being is because some of those items, anyone could say, oh, well, I can do that. And I want to take it to a different level to where someone is like, I can't really do that. Like, for example, looking up comps. Again, nondisclosure states, good luck looking up comps. And it's so market driven as far as a true value of the buy region. And again, nondisclosure states where the public does not really know what places are selling for. Those are states that are really going to, in my opinion, not see much of a difference. States where, again, out of state buyers are coming in. Out of state buyers really, truly appreciate real estate agents. But even if you're not in any of those states, I can tell you right now, some of the most intelligent people, doctors, attorneys, sure. Could they go and look up comps? Could they go and figure out all of these things 100%? Anyone could do it on their own. I was telling my contractor earlier today, I could go and maybe renovate my place on my own. But the fact of the matter is, I don't want to because there's value in time and there's value in expertise. So that is what you have to explain to consumers. Not well, yes, I'm bringing you around and I'm going to write a contract and run comps. There's value in your time and expertise. Back in the day when there was a ton of inventory, I would keep everything in a Google sheet of how many homes I would show someone. So that way they saw, I showed people sometimes over the course of a year, sometimes even six months, 70, 80 homes. So there's value in that. And I wrote feedback. So that way when you're like, what did I like? And not like about this, I organize everything. I'm like your personal assistant. But then I also bring value in knowing off market properties. I'm keeping you informed of opportunities just in the market. When should you buy? When should you sell? This is what's happening with rates. Here's what you should do in this situation. I mean, the list goes on and on. So I really encourage real estate agents to find what their niche is, what their expertise is, and if you're new to the business, get that experience, go to the brokers, opens the open houses, the new construction projects, get to know the inventory, because again, there's a lack of great agents, and great agents know that. So for great agents, this whole outcome, we look at it as it's not necessarily a bad thing because it's really going to empty out that many more people that don't take our industry seriously. And in Florida, Florida and California have the most people with a real estate license. So it'll definitely affect me. And I see it as a great.

00:36:05 - Bill Risser

Sam, now I'm going to ask you to jump ahead and pull out that crystal ball a little bit. This is always the fun part. What are you seeing as we kind of sit here on this precipice of 2024, we kind of come out of what I like to always call. I have a title background, right? Title and escrow. And the first quarter was always slow for us. It's just the way it is. But as we move into the regular season coming forward, do you see it coming back a little bit from 2023? Are you positive on that?

00:36:38 - Sam DeBianchi

So 2023 was just kind of the last hurrah. And prior to that was what I called the COVID craze. I mean, as you know, things were selling in a weekend and even then, consumers would say, well, what's your value? And my value as a buyer's agent is that I could get my client the deal every time, even if they didn't come in the highest. But because I knew the listing agent, and they're like, Sam's buyers close like they're qualified. She knows her buyer, her buyers close. So again, that's another value. But last year, a lot of sellers were in denial that the market was slowing and that their prices had to come down. They kept trying and trying and you saw a lot of price drops. And of course, that led to a lot of talks of a recession, which never happened in real estate. And now, as I've reported, because I always give a full report on, I speak a lot on Fox Business, Fox News, and we talk about the upcoming year. And I really said that this is the year of a normal market. Things aren't going to sell on a weekend. I mean, they can. I actually sold one of my investment properties for over, just over 100,000 more than list in a weekend. But that does not happen often. If a home is priced right, it will sell. If a home needs work, it will sit longer than normal. If a home is turnkey, it will sell quickly and these are all things that a normal market generally has. Again, for these people that got their real estate license during the craze and made a quick buck, kudos to you. I hope you invested because you can make some great money in the money market or CDs. You should easily be making 4% putting money away. But now this is when the real realtors are here and they understand that if you want to be a successful realtor, real estate agent, you've got to stick in every market. You've got to be in the good market, you've got to be in the bad market because people need you more in the bad market. And you definitely have to be around in the normal market. This is totally normal. Homes can take anywhere from two to four months to sell, potentially longer, depending on if you're trying to chase the market because your seller thinks that it's years prior. So this is the time when you have to have real honest conversations with your seller, and that's how you make money. I'm still seeing some listings come up and they're overpriced. And it's frustrating because you'll lose out to those listings and listing appointments because the other realtors aren't being honest and they're giving these inflated numbers and then they're just asking for price drops. So I always tell these sellers, look, call me after that listing agreement is done because it's not going to sell. And I'd rather be, the saying is the first born, the second wife and the third realtor. So any day of the week, I'd rather be the third realtor, second or third at that point.

00:39:48 - Bill Risser

All right, that's great, Sam. This has been great. We're right up against the clock. I try to be really precise and not keep you longer. Ask you the same question I've asked every guest. And that is what one piece of advice would you give a new agent? Just getting started. You might have rolled it out there a little bit earlier, I think I.

00:40:05 - Sam DeBianchi

Talked about it a couple of minutes ago. Just know your inventory. Really take the time. Especially now that things are slower. Get to know it. And a quick story that I always love telling people. When I was nine months pregnant, ready to pop, I quickly went to two preconstruction projects and I wanted to learn as much as possible. I had nothing else to do. I was waiting for the baby to come, wasn't coming, and I have the baby. And about two weeks after that, I get a message. Hey, I have a friend that's looking for a place. They sent me a zillow listing. It was a million dollars. And these were buyers that didn't have the time to sit down with me and tell me about everything they wanted. They were flying in and flying out. Got to love those buyers. So they quickly said, okay, let's see this place. I showed it to them. They said, we don't like it. And I remember we stood in the street and I said real fast, give me a list of all of your non negotiables. They gave me their list of non negotiables. I said, I know the exact property for you if you can wait a little bit until it's finished and also pay 2 million more. And I said, if it's not worth your time, tell me now. I won't waste it. They said, no, let's see it. I took them there, sealed the deal at 3 million. That project paid me 6% commission. And had I not taken that time right before I popped to get to know that project, it wouldn't have been in my brain to even show that to them. That opportunity presented itself because I took the time to learn my inventory, and I made a lot of money that day. So that is the best advice. Know the inventory, take the time. Be a real realtor, Sam.

00:41:54 - Bill Risser

If someone wants to reach out to you, what's the best way for them to do that?

00:41:58 - Sam DeBianchi

You can reach out on Instagram. My handle is at samdibianchi. I'm great on that and all of my social media platforms for that matter. And take the time to read the I really, really was passionate about.

00:42:12 - Bill Risser

So I appreciate it. Yep, it'll be in the show notes, everybody. Grab it there. Sam, this has been great. Thank you so much for your time today. It was really cool getting that backstory as well. I didn't know about the nightlife thing, which is awesome, and best of luck moving forward. Thanks again for your time.

00:42:28 - Sam DeBianchi

Yeah, thanks again for having me.

00:42:30 - Bill Risser

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