Struggling With Motivation? This Might Be the Shift You Need

Hey friends, Leigh Thomas Brown here coming at you from the Betty Feaser podcast studio slash conference room in downtown Concord, North Carolina, where it is so hot my chickens are laying scrambled eggs. And that's just what we're dealing with. And for whatever reason, I've had a ton of questions come in today. So I thought I would change it up a little bit and go live with y'all and answer some of these questions right here on the air. Feel free to drop me any questions and comments over in whatever platform you're in, and I'll answer as we go, because y'all know if you've got something to ask, I've probably got an answer for you. And where I'd like to actually start is there's a pretty good kerfuffle going on here in Concord over a proposed D.R. Horton neighborhood, which would sit at George Lyles Parkway and Weddington Road. It's one of those big mega master plan neighborhoods, and it's currently on hold because of water and sewer allocations. Now I'll just point out, you've got to pay attention to your infrastructure. I don't know where you live or what's going on where you are, but we have major problems with infrastructure in this area. Our water allocation is tapped out, and any giant new neighborhood would put a strain on resources. And y'all, that's just not good. I also think that this water allocation issue is not just a Cabarrus County thing or a Concord question. This is where the fights are going to be in the future nationally. Mark my words on it. And it's why I believe we've got to have more active people involved that understand land and infrastructure. And no offense to regular realtors, but y'all don't understand this like the land people do. We've got to make sure the commercial and our land brokers have a good voice at the table to talk to these elected officials because If they don't have the experience, they are not the right resources either. Now the knee-jerk reaction to say no to a neighborhood is that we don't have the infrastructure for it, and that's valid. There's also a reaction that says we don't need any more houses here, and as one dear friend of mine messaged me earlier, she said, "The county is closed," and I said, "I feel you on that," but what we have to understand is that if jobs are in a county and people are in a county, You gotta consider your housing stock. That being said, you don't say yes to everything. I would not say yes to that particular community because it will overstrain the current schools, it will overstrain the roads in addition to the water and sewer, but somehow, someway, we're gonna have to figure out what we're gonna do with growth unless we're going to get really intentional about the situation with illegal immigrants in the country. And I know that's not a popular thing to talk about, but just take your emotion out for 2 seconds and look at the numbers that are going on. If you have somewhere between 10 and 20 million illegally here people, they're taking up housing. Now, if you want them to stay, that's fine. Let's figure out the paperwork side. I don't really care what your solution is on that. If you want them to go, we got to figure out how to make that happen. That's somebody else's solution. What I'm saying here is there is a data point involved with that many extra people. They take up doors and bedrooms and apartments and houses. So if you're worried about the lack of housing stock, we have to address that. And I just wish that for once we could have a conversation that wasn't all wound up in emotion so that we could figure it out, because we have to figure it out. The cost of housing continues to go up because we haven't gotten our demand anywhere in line. And for the record, if we do see interest rates come down, there's a huge push to bring interest rates down. People want the Fed to move. Well, we're going to have to figure out what we're going to do about the cost of housing because y'all, it's going to go back up if you get interest rates to come down. And that frankly means our educational system has got to get smarter about educating on finances and economics and how the laws of supply and demand work and why having unlimited fiat money is destroying the value of everything. So that's my opinion on that neighborhood. I would say no to it right now. I'd say no for quite some time. But I will say the piece of housing that's missing is the starter home. I don't think we need more 5-bedroom, 4-bath houses. And can we just talk for a second about why every buyer thinks that every bedroom has to have its own bathroom? Why are we so big that we can't share bathrooms anymore? That's what I really would like to know. And I think there's a conversation to be had about that. There's also a conversation to be had about how 2-bedroom, 1-bath houses worked for a long time here in Cabarrus County. We call them mill houses. Mill workers lived in 2-bedroom, 1-bath houses, and their families seemed to be fine. But we've changed our perspective on what a first-time buyer has to have. So I think that conversation is going to have to be had, y'all, whether I'm popular for saying it or not. Here we are. Now I'm going to answer some of the other questions that came in here. Oh, by the way, I should mention one other thing. And in Harrisburg, which is another town here in Cabarrus County, we have pretty much an overload of new construction. It's the bulk of what's available and what's selling, and it's really getting expensive, which means that if you're the person who wants to say yes to all new construction, but the costs keep going up because of labor cost, materials cost, and of course infrastructure cost, then all you're saying is that we want this town to look the same. Well, it won't, because if you make it so expensive The only people who could live here are your California transplants, New York transplants, and people trying to escape the burdens of Charlotte. So you've got to find a way to balance things out so that the kids and grandkids of the natives can stay if that's what they want, but that's not what's happening right now. This is obviously something I can talk about for hours because there's no easy solution. By the way, if anybody has a solution to housing that they're typing in all caps with exclamation points, my spoiler alert is that's probably not the right solution. Okay, so let me answer this question since we're in terms of buyers and interest rates. An agent friend of mine said, how do I get my buyers to put in offers on properties? They are looking, but they won't buy anything. Well, I will just tell you, friends, this is a very important thing to understand about housing. Right now, it's a little quieter than it has been. And what that means is some houses are selling immediately. They might sell in 1 or 2 days. Some houses it takes 3 or 4 months. It's a very uneven market. And when that happens and you're the buyer, you should know that the sellers out there might be willing to negotiate. We don't know, 'cause every seller has a different scenario, but this is a great time to buy if you plan to negotiate a little bit. Now your interest rate's gonna be a little bit higher than you probably want it, but can I give y'all a little bit of perspective? If you look at 40 years worth of interest rates, the average lands in right around 6, 6.4%. So we're actually pretty close to the 40-year average. And our whole, our whole society just got spoiled by free money for so long, sitting at 3%. And that's a hard thing to overcome. And I understand that you're sad you missed out on it. But y'all, it's not going to go back to 3%. Being at 6.5% right now might be painful because the cost of housing is high.. But if the rates come back down, you won't be negotiating very much 'cause there's gonna be a more competitive market. And then we're back to the bidding wars. So if you're looking to buy a house right now, while it's quiet is your time. If you wait until rates come down to 5.99%, you know who else is gonna be ready to buy? Mm-hmm. Everybody. So if you didn't wanna get involved in the feeding frenzy of '21 and '22 and into '23, then now is your time. So to my real estate agent friend, just make sure that your buyers understand that there's good times and bad times. And when nobody else is buying, that's the best time to buy because your seller may negotiate. When everybody wants to buy, your seller's not going to have to negotiate because they're going to be having these bidding wars. I'll also point this out: if we do see rates go down and people start competing for houses, you know what's going to happen to the price of those houses? Mm-hmm. It's going to go back up again. And so right now you're paying a higher interest rate, but maybe a better price on the house than if rates come down, prices go back up. So consider your options. And by the way, this is what a good realtor will walk you through is the pros and cons of do I wait, do I go ahead and move forward? Because I'm gonna tell you, there's a lot of people that wish they bought properties way back in 2019, and then they watched it get hot in '20 and '21, and then they got priced out of the market. So just figure out If you can fit into it, then fit yourself in and always keep an eye on what your payment is because the interest rate's irrelevant. The price is irrelevant. The only thing that matters is your payment 'cause that's what's gonna keep you in the house. And by the way, we always want you to stay in your house. Now I have another question that came in. This one's fun. And by the way, feel free to hit me up in the comments if you wanna answer anything that you've got a question about. This person says, I'm struggling to keep my head up after suffering a formal complaint with the State Real Estate Commission that was unfounded. Now I'm dealing with someone else thinking we're trying to lie, but I'm not a liar. All right, so I actually know who this agent is, and what you should know is that anybody can file a complaint with the Real Estate Commission, even if it's a bunch of lies, and it becomes a time strain to deal with lies. We all know that's part of the, the sin nature of human beings is to make themselves feel better sometimes by making things up. And it's harmful to this person because she did not do anything wrong, and that was proven out in that panel at the Real Estate Commission. However, her stress level went way up, which made it harder for her to function. It makes it harder for her to handle her own family and her own stuff. And y'all, that's just not right. So let's just discuss that if you're going to file a complaint, make sure that you're legitimate in it, because if somebody did break all the Real Estate Commission guidelines, we should hold them to account. And then keep all your documentation, but it's hard. So friend out there who's had a complaint, I'm going to have to remind you what my very first broker told me when I got in the business in the office that my dad was in. He said, if you've never had a complaint, that means you're not doing any business. The busy agents do get complaints because there's going to be people with hurt feelings or who want to have their way with the system, and you just have to keep your documentation together and keep going. And this person said also, how do I spot crazy people coming before I get in contract with them? Well, it's one of the benefits of running a business that your buyers and sellers come to you or your clients come to you by referral. So if somebody comes to you and you've never met them, make sure you're using your tools like Forewarn, which is a wonderful tool provided by our real estate association. So you can check somebody's phone number and see what it is that is in their background and keep yourself safe. That's a safety measure. And often if you see a number in Forewarn with no history, that's often a scammer. But if they have a pretty deep history, then you may still want to try to serve them because you want to give a little grace and a little forgiveness, but keep your broker dialed in and call your broker and say, I've got a person I'm thinking of working with, but here's their background. I'm forewarned. Will you go with me? And a bad actor won't want you to bring your broker along, and the good person will say, that's fine. And so you can just start to use some good common sense tools to help figure out how people operate. By the way, it's a great idea to require a photo ID before you take somebody into your place of business. That's a good safety thing too. And then the last question that I want to add here is for someone who says that their buyer can't afford to buy. All right, well, let's talk about what affordability looks like, y'all, because sometimes when we think about buying a house, we've got that champagne taste on a beer budget, or we're wanting to buy something that's as nice as the Taj Mahal. This goes back to what I was saying about a reset on what housing could look like, and not everything needs to really be fancy. So if you're talking to a buyer that thinks they can't afford it, have you presented to them some additional options such as duplexes? There are so many duplexes in and around the Charlotte area, not nearly as many as they have up north, but in areas like Rowan County, you can find a duplex for a very affordable price. And what that means is One side of that property could be a rental property, and if you're the property owner, you can interview that person, do a background check, and make sure you're getting a good neighbor. You live in the other side, that's suddenly going to make it affordable. And of course, all of that depends on what you think about the area and the street and the house, and all those pieces start to wind up. But the thing I will tell you is this: getting into the real estate game might be the hardest part, but if you don't get in, you're never going to be able to move up later on. It's just really hard. So the, the barriers to entry rise with time. So figure out how to get yourself started, and it might just be that your first house is not what you wanted specifically, but you can grow into it, y'all. And maybe it's just time that we have a little reset on how it's okay to get into something that's not perfect and then build up that desire to make it better so that you can move up later on. Even though I'm the realtor that says try not to sell it, hold on to it as a rental if you can, and build yourself some revenue stream into the future. Now, the last thing I wanted to— that was supposed to be the last one, but let me just add one more because there were about 47 people that came through and asked for motivation. Y'all, I can't give you motivation. I wish I could. I know that it's hard to— it's even hard to walk outside right now because it's so hot. And then you might be the person who runs a bakery and nobody's buying birthday cakes right now because they know that the frosting will melt off of it when they walk out of the shop. And maybe you're the person who applied to be in a committee position with the organization that you love and you've gotten turned down for the 8th time straight and you just feel beat down. You're like our friend that had a false complaint to the real estate commission and you're beat up. Well, I want to tell you something. When you have to find the motivation, it can't come from outside. It's got to come from here. You've got to have internal sources of motivation. And you know, a really good one I know I'm a child that was of the '70s and '80s, and one of my favorite TV programs was Laverne and Shirley. Did y'all watch Laverne and Shirley? I mean, I think everybody knows Wisconsin because of Laverne and Shirley. And Shirley was a little annoying to Laverne, if y'all remember, because she was very positive and optimistic most of the time, except for that episode where she was very depressed and Laverne didn't know what to do. It was very traumatic. And so Shirley sang a song that was actually a Frank Sinatra song. Do y'all remember High Hopes? Just what makes that little old ant think he can move that rubber tree plant? Anyone knows an ant can't move a rubber tree plant, but he's got high hopes. That might be what it takes for you. Remember, if the ant is only going to move the rubber tree plant, well, he's going to have to have some high hopes to do it, and he's going to have to have the rest of the ants with him. And so when you're thinking about how you can keep going when it's miserable outside and when your business doesn't look like you want it to look, or somebody told you no yet again, you just take a step. And that step might be one phone call. And the phone call you make might be to me, and I might not even answer, but you did something. It's the doing something that matters. For me, it's getting up and running. And this is not the time of year to go for a run. It is brutal out there. But I know this: when I start, I'm going to be able to finish. And the finish might not look like what I want it to look like. It might be wildly terrible, but I did something. So that's my biggest advice to you who are lacking any sense of passion and purpose and motivation right now. Do something. And when you don't think you can, Look up because he'll give you the strength if you just ask for it. And if you need me, hit me in the comments, send me a direct message. Maybe I'll just go live by surprise again in the future. But what I can tell you is this. Somebody that told you you had to do all this by yourself, that you're a solopreneur, an entrepreneur, and you are a tiny micro business like Leigh Thomas Brown told you 100 times. You are. But that doesn't mean you're alone. Hang in there, guys. I'll see you next time.