Understanding Manhattan's Unique Real Estate Environment - Episode 415 - Karla Saladino, Co-Founder Mirador Real Estate

So they're like, I don't want it up there. You know, I want every lead handled by the broker that I hired or the, you know, the co broker in Manhattan or the co broker that calls.I don't want it up on Zillow. I don't want it showing what I paid for it before. I don't want my leads being routed to someone who's buying zip codes.I want my leads to go to someone who knows how to sell $16 million townhomes. I don't want it up there.

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 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 in my 10th year and over 400 episodes of the podcast. And now I hope you enjoy the next journey. Hi, everybody. Welcome to episode 415 of the Real Estate Sessions podcast.As always, thank you so much for tuning in. Thank you so much for telling a friend. Today we're going back to one of my favorite places. That's Manhattan, New York.And we are going to talk to Carla Saladino. She's the co founder of Mirador, sort of a combo development company, brokerage company in Manhattan.And she's got some really interesting, first of all, background. And then we get to kind of talk a little bit about how real estate works in Manhattan. And I always find that fascinating.And you must stick around for her answer to my final question, the same one I always ask. We've got a brand new answer in episode 415. After 414 other answers, Carla nails it. So let's get this thing started. Carla, welcome to the podcast.

Thank you. Thank you for having me.

It's going to be a blast. I've talked to a few people that focus and specialize in Manhattan, and first of all, I love the city. My wife and I love going there.I'm kind of a big Broadway freak. A lot of musicals in my background. Maybe 20 shows. Yeah.

Wow.

Oh, we'll fly up from Florida to get up there and catch something.

What was your favorite? What are some of your top.

Oh, it's absolutely going to be Lee Michelle, who was, you know, from Glee, and she played Fanny Brice in the redo of Funny Girl and.

Oh, wow.

I'm also a huge Streisand fan. Here we go. We're talking about me, but. And so it Was really cool to see that. So that was my. Definitely my favorite. I thought Spamalot was amazing.Many years ago, we took our son. So you're right there in the middle of it, and I want to talk about that.To start, first of all, I know you've been there now for a couple of decades. Did you grow up somewhere near the city?

I grew up on Long Island. I grew up in Huntington, Long Island. And I went to school my first year in Delaware, and then I transferred out of there.I've always been a very restless person.I think I had to go to four colleges at some point to complete because out of high school, I had a year and a half of college under my belt because I was in all AP courses. And then I went to Delaware, and then I was working and decided to stay in New York, and then I worked in the White House. I got that job.So just kind of all over. I was. I was always very ambitious to be working, so I was always working and in college. And then I enrolled in law school.And my parents one night said, I think you just want to live in the city, because I picked a law school in Manhattan. And they said, why don't you work for a year?And when I was looking for an apartment for law school, that person that was the broker of that firm was like, why don't you just work here? So that's how I literally started my real estate career when I was looking for apartments for law school. Small, started there.I closed a deal on, like, my second or third day. But I'm just kind of a restless person, so that's. I just fell into it that way.

Yeah.

And then I started my own firm a couple years later. We sold that firm, and then that firm got sold, and I was approached by some developer partners to start a firm for them. And then that's.That's kind of how it went down. It's been over 10 years there. So I just sort of stay. Stayed the course. And I bought a house on the east end of Long Island.And my neighbor is the dean of the law school that I was deferring, that I got into initially. So we have this joke that I'm still on, like, a permanent deferral.

You can always go back.

I could join the law school anytime I want.

Never too late, right? Yeah.

Yeah, exactly.

What law school was it? Can you tell me?

New York Law.

Awesome. Yeah, that's cool. So I. Yeah.

And I have to say, as a.As a dean of a law school, I've never seen a Man like care so much about his students and you know, he throws a party every summer and I get to meet some of his students and people that are going to be graduating and it's just so cool.He actually, like, you wouldn't think the dean of a law school would really care about each student individually and their career placement and where they're going. Like, I've never seen a man like just invest so much of himself into that. It's very cool to see.I mean, who gets to meet the dean of any school ever, you know, and then you realize like what they, they go through and how much care and consideration.I mean, I, I'm sure all deans aren't like this, but how he really knows every single student and he prides himself on that job placement number and he won't take more students than he feels he can job place in three years, you know, like, it's mind blowing. Like you don't even think about this stuff.

You definitely, you definitely need to go back. I mean, eventually, you know, so let's, I want to back up a little bit. Their 16 year old. Carla, you're. I, I mean, were you into sports at all?What was your, what was high school like for you? Let's talk about that.

I started working the minute I could.

Okay.

I think I even like fudged some paperwork to work a year earlier. So the minute I could legally work, I worked. And then I sold skis and snowboards and things like that, you know, for many years through high school.And yeah, I was always working, I was always a top student, I always played sports. Now later on they realize it was just a lot of adhd.But I think that the beauty of ADHD in a world without smartphones is you don't fall into that hole. You're like, okay, what am I going to go do now? So there are always a lot of hobbies, a lot of sports, a lot of things to keep me busy.And then with smartphones, I think kids with the same neurodivergence fall into video games in a bit of a hole because I know if I start a video game with somebody, I will sit there for 16 hours and I will not get up, you know, because it just sucks you, sucks you in maybe.

A bit competitive, I'm just guessing with the sports.

Extremely competitive.

Extremely competitive in what you do. So that's great.

Yeah. And always friends with everyone and never really saw the reason and not to be. And just a lot of fun. Growing up was a lot of fun.

Was there one Thing you wanted to do in high school, like, you're thinking ahead 10 years, you know, in the future. At the age of 26, were you thinking, I want to be doing this?

I wanted to have my own company. You know, I wanted to be an entrepreneur from very early, I think in junior high, I created a company that was like selling jewelry.By, you know, 17 or 18, I had my first cleaning company. And I would like, clean houses and find other people to help me clean houses and stuff because I wanted to pay for a car.I always just wanted to move forward, like to ascend, you know.

Yeah, I'm gonna go way ahead of the game here. I wanted to ask you a question. I imagine when you're hiring, you know, at the brokerage Mirador, do you look for those kind of traits in people?I mean, is there a way to, like when you're interviewing someone or having a conversation, try to find somebody who's got that same entrepreneurial spirit? Because in the world of real estate, it's kind of mandatory, right? Yes. You work for a brokerage, but your own company.

Yeah. Oh, one more thing. So the way I learned to do that, I coached with Tony Robbins for a really long time.I studied different hiring styles because it is a very frustrating thing to hire agents and be like, how come everybody's not like this? You know? And the way to do that is with disc testing. You know, we pay a company called Abelson.It's a little bit more expensive than like the free test you find online. But you get like a 14 page report. It helps you interview and manage them to their strengths and weaknesses. It helps them understand themselves.And if you want someone like yourself, you look at your profile and you just try to match that profile. My profile is not necessarily easy to manage, but it's extremely driven and it's a very high D profile.The only people that we hire as salespeople are high D or high I. Typically, the eyes are more inbound. They're better for inbound leads. The D is more outbound. You'll be going out and getting listings.So you just have to kind of determine who you want based off that. But that does take a lot of the mystery out of it. So if you test yourself and you want someone like, you look for people with profiles like you have.

Yeah. And so season S is there your admin?

I guess they are incredible admin. You know, our season we. If you put a high D or high I in our closing department, they'll quit within a week.You know, so the S'S and C's are who you work with.

Yeah.

And you work with well.And they appreciate you and you appreciate them, you know, but they are like, a client will walk into the office and I'll be like, oh, thank God, now I could stop doing this spreadsheet. A client will walk into the office and they're there and they're like, I have to stop doing this spreadsheet.It's, it's just miraculous how black and white it is. So I always encourage people to desk test, but not just for the disc result. That's very helpful. But a more comprehensive test. I think. We pay monthly.But the reports that we get back even help you on how to interview them. Because some people, even if they have a similar profile, don't like jumping around on topics. Some people love jumping around on topics.Keep it, you know, keep it interesting and it will tell you that and it works to the T. It's wild to see how accurate it is.So we've invested, we've leaned in very hard on disk testing and probably have the most expensive disc testing you could get.But I love also being able to give the person that tested the report, you know, so they can learn about themselves whether they're a fit for you or not. We've had clients take it just because they're like, should I get into real estate? I'm like, this will tell you.This will save you a lot of time, you know.

Yeah.

Should you get into commission only sales at all?If they grew up and were never drawn to commission only sales or waitressing or things with tips, they're not just going to wake up and be drawn to that now. It's very rare.

Yeah. It's funny, I, you know, in the podcast I've, if I, I've said this a few times. I always want to find out what people did before. Right.And you, you've laid out a really, a really cool path.And it was, there's the number one thing in the past for successful realtors that I've talked to somewhere along the line they were in service, they were bartending, they were a server, they were all that stuff because you're building relationships with that client. It's a very short term relationship. Right. It's however long that they're drinking at the bar or eating their food.But you're trying to do everything you can to build that relationship and make sure that they won what they appreciated what you did and you got more money. I mean, it's unbelievable how, how many of those. And then you see some. I see a lot of empathy thing. Like teachers and nurses.Those are like two and three, right. Because you got to have that piece sometimes so. As well. But it's.

Well, and that's your inbound, you know, that's your inbound sales. Because people that are attracted to being a teacher or nurse are also looking for some stability and paycheck and so forth.So with that inbound sales, they have the patience for it, they have the empathy for it. Sometimes it takes a little longer. Where your high D likes a shorter deal cycle. The nurses and teachers will put up with people for eight months.That's a longer deal cycle. So just have to look at your deals and match people to the deal cycle that they're on. And then again, the S's and C's are.Are usually the most integral part because they make sure that your closing ratio remains extremely high, you know, and people are followed up with. Because your high D will forget about the deal he handed in yesterday and it'll accidentally die.So we find when we add closing people to high D high I people, the closing ratio can go up from 40, 50% to 90 to 95%. So they'll end up closing more business. You know, the pairing. My company pays for about 120 hours a week of closing staffing for our agents.And that keeps our closing ratio in the high 90s.

Wow.

Yeah.

I'm going to go. One last question about what you laid out for us growing up. The Office of Management and Budget. I know what OMB stands for.I'm going to flat out admit to everyone listening that I wasn't really good in the civic side of things, I guess in high school. What does that office do exactly? I have a sense, but I would love to hear just kind of your take on it. Kind of interesting. Someone who was in.

Yeah. So the omb. I mean, I was very young when I worked there. I worked for a really brilliant, you know, appointed woman named Barbara Chow.She was head of OMB for education, income and Maintenance. And then she was also on the Domestic Policy Council, which was West Wing.And when searching for what job I was going to take, I was a confidential assistant to her. And I also got West Wing clearance because I would go to the West Wing and get to see her there also.So her main assistant moved with her to the West Wing. And then I was added over at omb. And frankly, a lot of what I did was getting there very early clipping.Like we used to have to make these, like clipping books of like all the articles and all of the things, you know, she needed to look at that day because there weren't these aggregators, you know, online. To be fair, it was the end of the administration and it was the election year.So in an election year, all of these appointed officials really wind down.That's why I was able to get such a high level role out of college, because a lot of people leave in that last bit because they know that the role is going to be eliminated. So we didn't get to actually do too much when we left. We had a 480, I believe, billion dollar surplus and we had mugs made and everybody was cool.Right after that they did that program where they mailed everybody $1,000 and they just dropped it, you know, to the ground. So that's, that's what we focused on. That's where money went, you know, education, income and maintenance.And then they, right after they gave it all away. So it's made it feel a little useless. But it was more. I wish I knew more about what they did there. I don't.I just did like the job I was given and then got to absorb everything sort of around like understood what lobbyists did. Got to go to high level meetings, got to go to meetings with the president, you know, and that was super cool.

So that's awesome. Yeah. By the way, the first guest on the show who served at the White House. That's awesome. Let's, let's, let's.I'm just intrigued by Manhattan real estate. It is its own universe. There's nothing like it in the country. Right.I mean, when I try to tell people there's not really an MLS for Manhattan, they have some things, they have something there that brokers can at least work together in some way, shape or form. Yeah, Talk about, explain that to some of the people that just really have no idea about, you know, trying to transact in Manhattan.

Yeah, transacting in Manhattan is interesting. So we have a great real estate board called rebny. The MLS has tried to come in. The Manhattan MLS is that. I think it fell apart.Rebny is a pretty powerful organization because Unlike most straight MLs, the members of Rebny are like the major landlords, you know, in America and all of these things. And that's sort of their lobbying arm. The fact that they're also.The MLS is like a side, you know, and for a long, long time the way that they published and sent out listings didn't match the national way of doing it. So we couldn't use national software because it didn't click in and nobody wanted to build software purpose built to New York.So we don't have like an MLS page where they could just search all listings on the mls. And our listings are put out in different ways. So you could put it out broker to broker.You could put it out via IDX where it's showing, you know, you could put it out in rls which they can log in and see. There's someone some that you just can't see. Only broker to broker can see.Because the thing that we have going on in Manhattan is we have a lot of people that want to keep stuff private. So they don't. They. There's the Zillow debate now.But a lot of what goes on in Manhattan is someone will have a $16 million townhouse if it has to go on Zillow. Zillow is going to take your lead for your $16 million townhouse, which is few and far between and sell it to some guy in Arizona.So they're like, I don't want it up there. You know, I want every lead handled by the broker that I hired or the, you know, the co broker in Manhattan or the co broker that calls.I don't want it up on Zillow. I don't want it showing what I paid for it before. I don't want my leads being routed to someone who's buying zip codes.I want my leads to go to someone who knows how to sell $16 million townhomes. I don't want it up there.And you know, there's also privacy concerns because when Zillow puts up your listing, it says who the owner is and they don't want people stopping by. There's a whole thing. I think that in New York there's a lot of people. It's not that the sales are off market.It's they do go into our less we do see them. We can call their broker. But there's a lot of stuff that happens here that doesn't need to be splashed and broadcast across everyone.People pick their brokers because of their Rolodex of people that they know that they can sell this 10, $20 million apartment to in rentals. It's even more complex because we're dealing with rent stabilization. Good cause eviction. Buildings that were built in the 1800s.They're not these like garden communities owned by Grace or Inazuto only, you know, they're all unique. And sometimes a landlord won't pick an exclusive broker and they don't have an on site team because it's four units.So they'll send it to a group of brokers and they're like here's our list, take your clients here. It's not advertised and it doesn't need to be. So it's, it's a very complex market.People keep trying to tame it, then it fights back and then now what we're in because everyone's trying to tame it is a market where the, there's nothing to rent. Like the vacancy rate is nothing. There's about 80 to 100,000 warehoused units right now.Because the state passed a law that if you have a rent stabilized unit, it used to be that if somebody passed away or they left, they could renovate it, bring it up to code and it would still be rent stabilized, but 1/40 of what you paid in renovation cost would go into the rent. And then the new person moves in, it's stabilized. The city took away the ability to do that.So if somebody passes away or leaves a 50 year old apartment with lead based paint and all of these things to bring it up to code could be $100,000. They have, they're only allowed to charge now what that person was paying. So it makes absolutely no sense. So the landlord warehouses it.So by over trying to regulate and force these things instead of building more apartments or allowing for building more apartments, they just keep sucking more and more apartments off the market. So it's just people keep trying to tame it and it's not good.I think the market needs to be the market, you know, because no one can find housing right now.

It's so. It's weird in Manhattan because it's just the sheer. Everything's up, not out.

But you could build more out. But it doesn't make sense to build more out.They keep changing the rules on developers so you'll be mid development and then they'll say it's almost like eminent domain. Right. So I have a free market building and I can charge whatever I want.They came in last August and they said oh no, you can't charge whatever you want. We're changing the rule. You can only increase the rent 8% year over year. And then what?You know, so now they just took away the value of that building or people who bought buildings that had stabilized units in it. The plan on those stabilized units are like people will eventually leave them. It's a long term hold, you know, whatever you'll.There was an article that related was dumping them for half of what they paid because those stabilized units are now valueless because they can't renovate them, they can't increase the rent. So now the value of your building went down. So developers don't want to develop in an area where the rules change every six months on their asset.It's unfair. So you're not seeing developers rushing into New York because the laws change all the time for tenant protections.Instead of the city saying, hey, we should make, maybe we should lift, we should allow this commercial zone to have this residential building on it. Or we should bring back 421A where they get a tax incentive for building a high rise with low income housing in it.People are just like, yeah, you're going to change that rule in the middle of my build? I'm not doing it. You know, and they're going to build in places like Texas that have, you know, more freedoms, Florida, so forth.That's where, that's where the development's going. So it's just creating this environment of like, we don't trust you and you don't trust them and nothing's getting built.

This is kind of your specialty, right? I think one of like one of your key roles with the company. I think I'll make sure I say it the right way.Like national development, marketing and leasing kind of thing. This is what you're talking about, right?

Yeah. So we started in New York.We have a brokerage in New York, but we do development marketing all over the country and we kind of specialize in turnarounds.So if a building isn't doing that well, we'll bring our team in through marketing, sales, leasing and turn the building around, get the leasing process better. Sometimes we consult on management, like what we're doing in Houston and you know, and we make the building profitable again.

I would imagine that that requires. That's how there's renovation involved there.There's a whole bunch more than just, is it or is it strictly just, just, you know, how, how it's being run?

Sometimes it's how it's being run. Sometimes it's how the leasing is being run. Sometimes they don't have talented salespeople, so sometimes they don't have good lead flow.You know, often I'll be sitting with a very high level portfolio manager from a big company or a pension fund and I'll be like, all right, it's 4:30, let's call the building. And you call the building and you get a voicemail and that voicemail's full. That's it.Change that, you know, like a lot of people don't micro into it and they'll do these shops or they'll pay these shop companies from people that could never afford that unit or the shoppers, they're so obvious, you know, they're not even from the neighborhood, they're not looking at the comps. So it's not a real shop. You know, like a real shop is somebody who could afford the unit.Even if you can't go find someone that could and be like, what do you think of this? You know, would you move here? And until you can get that to a yes, that's a real shop.You know, like I launched a building for Lifetime, the Gym in Connecticut. And we would bring people up like vendors and I'd be like, you know, this would be your life. And they're like, you know what?Like I live here for a year, maybe I'll live here for a year. And I'm like, great, it's working, you know, because these are people that could afford it.There are people that, you know, your lifestyle appeals to them where a shopper that's paid like 150 baht, like they don't actually know. They don't know the comps. They don't, you know, you really have to dig and you know, not show up during the open house hours.Like call during a normal, like I have a job till 5. Can I get an appointment at 6? What happens when I call? Does the phone route anywhere?So in our buildings we have phone numbers that will ring all the approved salespeople for that building. And they aren't W2. They're, they're licensed. So the phone can ring and they could pick it up at 9:00 at night.I don't care, you know, so they actually get live response. It's group answering with on site agents. The clock stops because they're not allowed to work overtime legally at 5.And if they don't come back until the next day or the day after, that's when your leads are getting answered. Where we get back to people in like four or five minutes because we have group answering. So there's a lot of ways to solve it.You could have leads going to a mailbox. No one's checking. I mean that's happened.

So yeah, that happens outside of Manhattan too. In the residential world a lot. There's people who buy leads and just never. They say they are horrible.And like really, when's the last time you've tried to call?

It's just transparency is important. We have the leads go into systems that everyone on the team can look at. They can see your conversations. They could see if you did a bad job.And our attitude is if you didn't respond, somebody else could take it.

Yeah, that's great.

So take it.

Let's talk about the birth of Mirador. You know, it's a, first of all, very interesting name. I'm sure there's a story behind that. But yeah, talk about how that got together.Because you're one of the co founders, correct? Of the. You have a role on the residential side and sort of on the development side.

Yeah, it's very cool. So Mirador was started. It was actually started.It was called North Star, but there was a fund called North Star and it was too close, you know, so I was just looking through like architectural terms and things like that. And a Mirador is any kind of turret balcony anywhere that's like a high view. It could be a mountaintop where you can see a lot.And I always really like that. So we pick that because that's a lot of what we do.We, we look at the landscape and then we figure out, you know, from a really high view and then we boil down, boil down, boil down and fix, fix the problem. We see where markets are going, technology, so forth. So that's, that's what that is.And starting that, the company I had sold my company to decided years later to roll into a larger firm. And at that time, a few developers contacted me that they wanted to start a brokerage arm.Not necessarily for them, they just wanted the research, they wanted some salespeople. So we don't work for one developer, we work for a lot of developers. But it was more they wanted to take me and my team and have access to.We were running very successful occupied apartment programs at the time with our brokers.So on a portfolio that maybe wasn't set up to show occupied apartments, our brokers were having at least 70% success in gaining access, gaining trust, no complaints from residents, and Pre leasing stuff 50 to 70% of the time, which on a, you know, a portfolio that pulls in two or three million dollars a year, say it's a significant lost rent recapture. So some people just like wanted that focus. And then we brought all of our other clients over with us and it just kind of grew from there.

I can't imagine how many niches there are, you know, where someone who decides to enter just the big giant real estate space in Manhattan, there's so many little nooks and crannies right that could be attacked and won. That's very cool.

Yeah.

I do research. I try to listen to a few things or dig up some stuff. And I was really intrigued by.You were talking about the difference between masculine and feminine leadership styles. And, you know, so it'd be great to hear some of those major differences. Are there any similarities? How does that play out?

Yeah, and some. Some of it boils down to the person, you know, as. As well. It's interesting. I think it's more important to just have authenticity, I think, in your.In your leadership style. But there are definitely differences. I. My COO and I will say we always think we aren't doing a good enough job. You know, we could be doing better.Whatever happens is probably our fault. Where in the masculine. We do notice more of, I'm doing a great job. I'm really good at this. Like, is. Is the internal dialogue.And sometimes that's really helpful. And sometimes you're like, yeah, but you didn't do the spreadsheet. Like, but I'm sure you're really good at it. But we gotta actually do the.You know, so we do notice that a little bit. But I noticed those traits. Those traits could also link to anxiety. Those traits can link to neurodivergence.You know, feminine leadership doesn't mean you have to be overly feminine. I think you just need to tap into the side of yourself that needs to show up to that, you know, that situation.But I do think that women don't broadcast as much what they do. You know, they're not very good at that. I have a man that broadcasts what I do.Like, he's putting together a newsletter, even to the internal team about what I did that week. You know, things. Things of that nature. Because I just won't say they're like, carl, you brought on two new buildings and you. You did this or that.And I'm like, yeah. And are you gonna tell anybody about it? Like, even on your own team? And I'll be like, oh, no, I'm here now. They can come here if they want.You know, like, I just won't broadcast out.

Yeah.

Where I think sometimes men are much better at communicating, like, what they're working on and their wins and more newsletters and, you know, stuff like that. I think they're better at it. Like, when.Even on, like, Selling New York, when that show was out, it was very hard to find a female to be on that show and stick on that show.All the people you remember from Selling New York are the men, because they're very good men at promotion, where the women were kind of like, oh, you're here again. We have to film. Like, you could tell they were not as, you know, but some of the biggest producers in Manhattan real estate are women. You just.There's no shows following them around because they're like, that's a pain in the ass. Like, I don't really want you to do that. You know, I hate it. I absolutely hate it.That's why somebody has to, like, follow me around and be like, we are filming content today. And I'm like, all right. You know? But I find that the real powerhouse women, they. They don't get a lot of PR out there.They don't get a lot of stuff out there. You don't see it.

You know, you're doing great here, by the way. So this is good.

Thank you.

Yeah.

Once I'm in this situation, I'm fine, like. But I need someone to be like, this is in your calendar. This is what you're doing. I'd never set it up on my own.That's why I realized I have to hire someone. That is their job to set this stuff up, because it is important. It's important to communicate.And we're actually upgrading him to a communications role in my firm, which I've never had before, because he pointed out, no one's communicating with each other. You know, they need to know if somebody's left the firm, somebody's joined the firm.You know, what we're working on week to week, where the company's going. And I was like, I think I have those conversations in my head and don't actually send them out or share them on a consistent basis.So finding somebody just to get something out consistently is important. If it's not your strength.

Yeah. I mean, you obviously know everything that's going on with your company, but it's inside there. And you're like, I got it.

It's here.

All good. Okay.

Yeah. And then you, like, see your dog or you go on a hike, you get distracted, and I just live in a world of distraction.So it's good to have those anchors throughout the day. One of my requests for this year from my partners, which was so graciously granted.Like, in New York, we have four or five offices, and I'm like, I want one office.

Wow.

They're like, you know, we own some of those offices, right? And I was like, yeah, you know, but I want one hq. I don't want it to be a storefront, you know, because we have a Storefront, it's quite large.I want it to be one hq. I want some private offices. I want. Conference. I want.Because everything we have is so open and running around that I wanted this and they built me a beautiful space which we're taking this week and next week. Actually the move is going on right now. One of my high S's and C's are coordinating that move and it's going flawlessly. She showed up on time.The stuff. Showed up on time. You know, that's awesome. Amazing. And then I could do this call with you. But yeah, so that is one thing.Like when it comes to focus and rounding, everybody in that I asked for was to have one space because it'll help in communication, you know, so everybody could be on the same page.

Yeah, there's a whole lot of stuff going on in the world of real estate that is sort of outside Manhattan, to be honest. Right. The lawsuits that were settled, that had to do with the way their properties were sold. And we have.So then all of a sudden buyer broker compensation is an issue. And then buyer broker agreements are a big thing. And now CCP seems to be the topic of the the hour with clear cooperation.As you know, there are companies, big companies around the country doing different things. Do you have a take or a feel on that? Or is it, you know, because you're, you don't really play in that space too much. It's.

I do, you know, the.I thought that the lawsuit, the NAR lawsuit only benefited the guy bringing the lawsuit because I found it to be extremely curious that he immediately turned around and started a buyer's brokerage. But that benefited him and no one else. Lawsuits like that, that have these huge payouts I think are really selfish and should not be allowed.I think if something is brought up and something needs to change, I don't think all the money should go to one attorney. I know in markets like out east and other markets that are more into this, sure, they use buyer agreements.But to me, I don't think buying your home, your number one investment. I believe you should have buyer's representation and I think it should be good representation.I always tell people you can work with a 15 year expert or you could work with your Cousin's friend. Pick the 50. It costs the same amount, right? Cost, amount. Stop working with your friends.Like pick the one that knows this house is a dud in this market. You know, pick your attorneys that way too. Like stop picking friends and family.It's the worst idea because these are the people that are going to protect your investment. I think working with a really, really good buyer's broker is extremely important.If they really know the market and they say, hey, that house has been on and off the market three times, it's got a mold issue, it's got that stuff you wouldn't discover. Like you want the person who knows all the gossip in that market. So I would say use a buyer's broker.I didn't understand the case law behind it, why it needed to change. I really didn't get it.Where I think case law is important is fair housing issues, redlining, these kind of things, these terrible things that happen with discrimination. That's important, right?

I have the final question I want to ask you. It's the same question I've asked every single guest the whole way through. And I know you're going to have an answer for this.It is, what one piece of advice would you give a new agent just getting started in the business?

I would say make sure you disc test yourself to see where you belong in the real estate process.Because jumping into commission only sales, for example, which you don't have to, you could be on the closing team, you could be on the marketing team. And having it not be within your strengths is so painful and time consuming and a waste of time and money.So what I would say is start there, disc test yourself and if you want to go even deeper, do Strengths Finder. With Gallup, you could do Strengths Finder 2.0 and find out a lot about your core strengths and what kind of stuff you should be working in.I always equate real estate to like running a marathon.If you didn't enjoy long distance running growing up, running a marathon because your friends are doing it is probably going to damage your body because it, you're probably built to throw heavy things, you know. But what people will do is move away from their strengths towards this like arbitrary goal.And I think it's really important to find out is, are you made for commission only sales? Because in real estate I think the stat is there's only about 5% of people left after two years that take their real estate license.If everybody was disc tested and only Ds and eyes went in to real estate, we'd see 50% at least. You know, it's, it's not easy to go commission only and you don't have to go commission only.You can join a team in other aspects and still very much be an integral part of the team. So that would be my number one is, is test yourself or find a company that I know.Keller Williams is very into this, testing to put people into the right roles.I think that's extremely important to learn about yourself, to see if this is something you want to do before going and wasting a two year career where you're going to be really, really resentful.

So this is really hard to do. But in 414 previous episodes, no one has ever had that answer, which is.

That's awesome.

Yeah, congratulations. I feel like I should be sending you a prize or something. But that's amazing.

What is usually the answer?

There's a lot of, you know, find. Find a mentor. That's pretty popular. Mentor, right? That's good.

Yeah, that would probably be my number two. Like join a team.

Yeah, exactly.

A lot of people don't want to join the team because your split is lower. But 0% of 100% is nothing.

Exactly.

You got to learn.

You need to learn the ropes. And there's no better way than going in with somebody who's going to show you what to do and, and be invested in your success. Yeah.So those are the most common. So, Carla, this was really cool. I can't thank you enough. If someone wants to reach out to you, what's the best way for them to do that?

Email's good or my website's good. My email's K, just the letter kiradorrealestate.com.

Well, my next trip up to New York, I might try to look you up. I might just say definitely, I want to see hq because you're, you know.

Yeah, you can check out our offices. They're beautiful. We're actually right at Rock Center. We're right across from St. Patrick's Cathedral. So for somebody, our view is St. Pat's.So for somebody visiting, we're next door to Sachs. We're right at Rock Center. It's super cool. So if you're visiting, it's actually a good place to visit anyway. And our office is right there.

You can count on it. I can't wait. So thank you.

We look forward to meeting you.

Thanks so much for your time.