Meet Carl from Sold on Kapiti

Speaker 1 0:10

Hello and welcome to Carl Matacatia from Sold on Kapiti. Hello, carl, thank you for joining me today. Good morning, how are you?

Speaker 2 0:18

I'm good, thank you. How are you?

Speaker 1 0:19

Good. Thank you. It's so cool to have you here, absolutely honored. What a beautiful day as well.

Speaker 2 0:24

Stunning.

Speaker 1 0:25

Kapiti Coast day. Can I just say, carl, for those that don't know about you which is, I think, everyone knows you, but for those that don't know about you, can we please start with by you telling me a little bit about yourself, or telling our listeners about yourself and your journey, who you are, what you do, take it away.

Speaker 2 0:45

Yeah, cool. So I'm a local real estate agent on the Kapiti Coast, have my own little company called Sold on Kapiti Real Estate. Up until recently I was in business with Chris Judd, who has just left to run the Waikana Golf Course, which is right next door, coincidentally. So it's a happy divorce. He's gone to follow his dreams. So now the business is mine and with that comes change, and so my partner's just jumped into the business, geordie, and we've just hired a little gun called Zoe, little Italian, she's a, you know, she's got fire in her belly. She's great. So I'm in what I call SOC 2.0 phase of the business and it's really exciting.

Speaker 2 1:29

But you know, we started six years ago on a whim. There was three of us. So there was Sa, who's a Samoan guy. He came from you know videography background TV. He was a presenter on the news. And then there was Chris, who was a pro golfer, came back to New Zealand, and then there was me. I was working for another brand as the trainer and we formed this company and it's, you know, flown. It's been great. The brand's been really good for the coast.

Speaker 1 1:55

So yeah, yeah, no, absolutely. I mean everywhere I turn, I see you guys, so you're obviously doing something amazing. And your socials. I think that's what caught people's attention, the way you engage with your people. Do you want to tell me a little? Bit more about how you've been doing things differently to your standard real estate agent thingy?

Speaker 2 2:15

Yeah, absolutely. It's really funny because when we set up the company we didn't have much money, so we used SaaS skills to create content and social media to really put ourselves out there. And I think what came through is that we were authentic but we were also doing stuff that kind of pushed the boundaries a little bit. We'd be doing stuff with local businesses and at that time people are doing it now, but then it was just very foreign to local agents because, you know, we joined six years ago, so at that time the average age of the agent on the coast was much older than where it is probably today, which is pretty cool. So we use socials to build our business. It's really funny. We've never had a bus back, we've never had a billboard.

Speaker 1 2:57

Hey, hey, hey. There's nothing wrong with the bus back. There's nothing wrong with the bus back, but you've got to remember there were three guys that you know left their jobs.

Building a Business Through Social Media

Speaker 2 3:04

Yes, and they were like what, $1,200 a month for a bus back or something like one. But we're starting to to go into that phase. But, yeah, socials is where we grew our business and, um, yeah, we're still growing through that platform and it's funny because people know us before we know them. Like you know, you think about also open homes. People are coming through. There's 25 groups. They kind of know you from socials if they've, yeah, if they're seeing you. So that's pretty cool. Um, and, like you know, I I did a video recently on a property in Rosetta Road and I jumped into the ocean because the videographer told me to and I was like, okay, let's do it.

Speaker 1 3:42

So I did it.

Speaker 2 3:43

I didn't want to be naff but I was like, well, this is the lifestyle. You know how many people have come up to me and talked to me about that swim in the ocean and how cold it was that day, and that's pretty cool. That's commitment, kyle, it's real commitment. And it was freezing and the water was also quite brown. So I was like, are we doing this? Is this going to look good?

Speaker 1 4:02

But hey, I got the reaction that we wanted, so yeah, Wow, I'm just trying to think of times when I would have thrown myself into the ocean. Yeah, no, no, me and ocean don't go well together. So I absolutely take my hat off to you, because I know how cold the water is yes, yes, but we're coming into summer, it's going to be warmer, it's going to be warmer, and I think we're quite blessed here in Kapiti as well.

Speaker 1 4:24

So tell me a little bit about the properties that you normally sell. Are they mostly in Kapiti Coast?

Speaker 2 4:28

Yes, yeah, yeah. So obviously we're sold on Kapiti, so our focus is basically Paikok to Te Horo Beach area, but we mainly do Raumati, Paraparoumu and Waikanae and it's really funny because we jump across the coast. It just really depends on who our clients are and where they are really In terms of the bands of properties we sell. We sell all the way across the market, but you know, I guess our bread and butter is between 750 and just over a mil is our average type of property we're selling, but you know we sell higher end things.

Speaker 1 5:03

What was the most expensive property you've sold 2.4 million. Wow.

Speaker 2 5:11

Yeah, I think it was 2.4. Yeah.

Speaker 1 5:13

Because I remember meeting you a few years ago and you were selling this gorgeous property by the airport oh yes, Parapurumu Airport.

Speaker 2 5:20

Yeah, yeah, I took you through that one.

Speaker 1 5:22

Yeah, that was beautiful.

Speaker 2 5:24

That was such a cool property and, you know, at that time we were selling that property. There was a bit of talk about the airport being developed, yeah, but you know that was a pretty epic listing. You know, when you get those kind of listings, that's pretty special. There are a lot more work though, yeah, you know. So, yeah, we sell anything from a property like that to a Beasley box. I love a Beasley box.

Speaker 1 5:46

What's a Beasley box?

Speaker 2 5:47

A Beasley box Explain for those that don't know, an 80s kind of rectangle, 70 to 90 square meter house on piles fiber cement sheeting. You know, normally a tin roof. Just you know really easy house to look after, maintain and just a great. First time I had my first time was a Beasley box. So cool.

Speaker 1 6:07

How long ago did you buy your first home?

Real Estate on the Kapiti Coast

Speaker 2 6:08

2013 brought it from. It was pretty random. Actually. I I bought it. I'm from Livin, so born and bred in Livin, so we lived in Wellington at the time and we really wanted to buy in Wellington, but we also liked our life and we didn't want to. We could afford to buy something there, but it would have restricted we were traveling and doing all that kind of stuff. So what I ended up doing was buying a property from a real estate agent who had unfortunately gone bankrupt and she had negotiated with the bank to sell all 20 of their properties. Wow, so what she was getting out of it was her commission. But yeah, it was quite a weird transaction. So I bought it directly from her. She was lovely, but it was a pretty weird way to buy a house.

Speaker 2 6:56

And I actually bought it without my partner because he didn't want to buy it, and I paid 72,300 in 2013. That's a steal as well at the time. Yeah, that's a steal. So it did come with a uh, interesting tenant, um, and it was in very good state. So, yeah, you know we bought it and I thought, oh look, we'll just chuck 10 grand into it, put some carpet in, paint the walls and then re-rent it. It took six months, $30,000 and it was empty while we did it up Because, as you know, when you pull things out, there's more you find surprises, yeah, weet weekbooks, floor, all that kind of stuff.

Speaker 2 7:37

So, but to be honest with you, that was probably the best purchase that I've ever made in terms of property, because it really kicked us off onto the ladder Minimal risk in terms of debt to really kind of pay it down as quickly as we can and as we could actually. So, yeah, have you still got that property? No, as we could actually. So, yeah, have you still got that property?

Speaker 2 7:57

No, so what we did was we ended up buying another one 100%, and then we ended up selling the first one. You know we profit, yeah, and then it paid for the purchase of our land and our house that we're in at the moment. So if we hadn't have purchased that property, we wouldn't be in the house that we're in now and trying to tell first-time buyers. This story is, you know, I find it really important because it's not where you kind of start, it's where you plan to be, and I mean, you probably have these discussions every day. I don't think, yeah, we'd be in the house that we're in if we didn't buy that little $72,000 house and live in.

Speaker 1 8:33

Yeah, and that's what I say to my customers as well, or clients, that your first home is not your forever home. And I was in a very similar situation too. I mean my first home, I bought it in 2011 in Palmerston North and that cost me $170,000. Nice, but I still got that property and over time it just continued to go up in value and I managed to leverage of that property to buy other properties. And then also, you know, just being in the right place at the right time sometimes helps, and you know, buying, selling, etc.

Speaker 1 9:07

So are you investing at the moment? Have you got?

Carl's Property Investment Journey

Speaker 2 9:10

No, look, I've done a bit of a 360. I know you probably won't like my strategy or my plan here, but we so what happened was when we started to earn some okay money in real estate even the boys we all bought extra properties. And so one week I don't know what happened, but we ended up buying a section here in Waikanae and then a little pad in town off the plans, and the plan was to sell our house where we were in and have the best of both worlds. The reason for the pad in town is that we like to go into town a bit and party, but I don't drink anymore, Neither does my partner, and by the time it came to settling on the apartment in town, the interest rates were through the roof and we could have afforded it, but we would have been topping it up. So I made a call to actually let's just get rid of the apartment. So we settled on the Friday. We had it advertised prior to it going to market, because I knew what to do, yeah, and we sold it on the Tuesday. What ended up happening was, in that particular block, all of the other people that had just settled, that didn't want to keep the apartments, went onto the market the week after and then it got saturated so we ended up selling that apartment.

Speaker 2 10:22

I'm going into a bit of detail here and on a tangent. And then we've got our land which we're going to sell next year. I'm hoping that Dana and Regan get our landed home package on it. But you know we're not desperate to sell it. But once we sell it I'm going to. My goal is to pay my house off next year and just not owe anyone any money.

Speaker 1 10:42

Yeah.

Speaker 2 10:42

Like any banks for a while. We will obviously buy something else later on.

Speaker 1 10:45

But I just want to not owe anyone any money. Yeah.

Speaker 2 10:48

And that's because I mean I didn't come from a wealthy background and I'm not wealthy at all, but it'd be pretty cool to be mortgage free.

Speaker 1 10:56

I'm 35.

Speaker 2 10:57

So goal is, by 37, to be walk into the bank. So here you go. See you later. We'll see you in a year or two when I want some more money.

Speaker 1 11:06

That's inspiring. You know what, carl? That's absolutely inspiring because for someone, as you said, your age, they already have a property, have a land on the go as well at the same time, and able to see that vision of look in two years time I want to be mortgage free and just live that life freely. If you want to go travel, because I know you guys like traveling as well- I love traveling. You don't want to be stuck here feeling that you've got all this.

Speaker 2 11:30

Yeah, and I think that you know, in this job you see all sorts of people. You know I've met some of the wealthiest people I know that you'd never know about, and I've met someone who you know has won a lot of money. And I've met the opposite end of it, where people are just, you know, on the bare minimum and times are tough, and I think, for I'm never having kids or anything like that, so I don't I need to think about retirement and stuff like that, but I just need to. Just I just want to be free and I'm. I've probably got.

Speaker 2 12:03

I keep saying that I'm, once I get to 40, I'm going to be done with real estate. I've got two careers left in me, so it would be nice just to be paid off and then actually figure out what I'm going to do, cause I think it's really important now that we wake up every morning and do what we want to do and love what we do. And for years I just went and worked for the man and a wage to pay the bills, and now I do what I love, but there is two more careers left to me and I think I want to the day I wake up and think I'm over. Real estate is the day that I'm actually going to figure out that I'm actually going to transition out like Chris did. But, as I say, I've still got four or five years left in me, I think. So having that security of having a freehold home is really cool.

Speaker 1 12:49

Absolutely. Can I just give you a tip though?

Speaker 2 12:51

Yes.

Speaker 1 12:52

So when you do pay off your mortgage, just make sure you keep your house still as a security with the bank.

Speaker 2 12:57

On the title.

Speaker 1 12:58

Yeah, because a lot of people make this mistake. They go in, they go. I paid off my mortgage. I don't want the bank to own it. But, what they don't realize is that it costs you money to discharge it.

Speaker 2 13:07

So it's going to cost you probably $1,200 to discharge.

Speaker 1 13:10

And then you go back when you do want the money. Three years later the bank will charge you. Well, the lawyers will charge you again to put the security back with the bank. Yes, okay, so at least this way it still stays with that bank. It doesn't cost you anything. It doesn't cost them anything.

Speaker 2 13:26

Okay, that makes total sense.

Speaker 1 13:27

But leaves the door open if you do want to borrow money, yes, yes, and saving you a little bit of money. What would you do if?

Speaker 2 13:34

you were me, you know, saving you a little bit of money. What would you do if you were me? So I'm. You know, two years from now, the house is paid off.

Speaker 1 13:39

Yeah.

Speaker 2 13:39

What would you do?

Speaker 1 13:42

Because I know you'll probably have a different view because I know you're an investor. Yes, it's a tough one because, as you were saying that, I was like, oh, that would be really cool to be mortgage free. To be honest, that would be really cool. Some days I wake up and I'm like, damn, I just want to sell it all and just be mortgage free and just you know, go travel. Really just pack my bags, because I can do my job from anywhere in the world.

Speaker 2 14:02

Yes.

Speaker 1 14:03

And I just want to show my kids the world a little bit more.

Speaker 2 14:06

Amazing. I love that.

Speaker 1 14:07

But then I do think, oh, you know, because, as you say, you know, I've come from a background of not much money at all my family's academics of not much money at all my family's academics. My mom was a teacher and then working in the government. My dad was in journalism and politics, so there was never really much money and no education about wealth and how to build wealth. So when my father passed away, we were left homeless and for me, having a house, having a security, is a core of what I do and why I do it. Yes, so when I had my children I was like cool, I have to have at least one house per child.

Speaker 2 14:44

Yes.

Speaker 1 14:44

I didn't realize I'll have four kids.

Speaker 2 14:48

So that's a minimum of five houses, including the primary.

Speaker 1 14:51

Exactly, exactly. So yes, spoiler alert, I do have to have at least, you know, five properties in my pocket. I feel like just to set them up for the future.

Speaker 2 15:00

What's hard for kids, the next generation.

Speaker 1 15:02

It's going to get even harder. You know I mean we were lucky. You know you bought it at $70,000, I bought it at $160,000. I know the salaries weren't as big back then but still it wasn't as disproportional as it is right now. I mean, as you said, most of the houses you sell between $750,000 to a million and that's what most of the mortgages are these days, because people come in with 10% deposit or 20% deposit but then still the salaries are not.

Speaker 2 15:28

Reflective of the servicing. Yeah, it's interesting. So you want to have five properties? How many do you have?

Speaker 1 15:36

Six, Okay, so you want to have five properties. How many do you have? Six.

Speaker 2 15:38

Okay, so I'm there, I'm okay Ticket box. So okay, that's great.

Speaker 1 15:41

Yeah, and I mean five of them are residential. So, that's, you know, houses, normal houses, and then I've got my commercial building where the office is.

Speaker 2 15:50

Oh, and why can't I? Yeah, what do you think about commercial investing?

Speaker 1 15:54

It could be really good if you've got a good tenant, and I mean commercial buildings, usually known for in terms of investment. They're good because the tenant pays for rates and insurances and everything you know. You just have to have the building. But if the tenant leaves and usually you go through a period of time where you can't tenant it back so commercial buildings can have that aspect to them.

Speaker 1 16:18

And I mean a lot of contracts are signed up for 15 years, you know, with five years, every five-year renewal sort of thing, three times renewal. But again it's just, yeah, the risk of getting the right tenant. Yes, and unless you're owner operating yourself. Sometimes, like, for instance, my building, you know it's big enough to convert it into a big office space if my tenant leaves.

Speaker 2 16:40

Okay, and you can also chop it up, so you've got multiple incomes and security that there's no risk.

Speaker 1 16:45

Oh, you can do that, yeah.

Speaker 2 16:46

Do you do much lending on commercial? I do, yeah, yeah, interesting.

Speaker 1 16:50

Okay.

Speaker 2 16:51

Because you always think residential.

The Current Kapiti Property Market

Speaker 1 16:52

But of course, there's commercial property to be purchased and yeah, nice um, tell me, can I ask you a question? Yeah, sure, tell me what the property market is doing right now. Now that we're talking about houses, what are you seeing at the moment? Are we seeing the increase?

Speaker 2 17:06

because that's what I'm saying, that it's gonna get crazy soon I think that those that have been sitting on the fence waiting for it to hit the bottom have are now reacting to the OCR changes, the interest rate changes and there is activity in the market. We're obviously in spring, but the open homes are certainly busy. We have had a few properties that have sat for a little while and now they're on offer. So I think that, based on the numbers at the open homes and also what we're getting into offer and also some of the results, um, like at a three way multi last week you know it's been a while since we've had those kinds- of numbers happening.

Speaker 2 17:42

Uh, I think that the market is on the way, moving up. Um, I don't know if the values are going to be increasing, you know, really rapidly, like we were seeing in COVID, yeah, but I think we've hit the bottom and we're only going to be moving one way, I think, and I think it's going to be a gradual climb. Yeah, I still think it's the market where you move from A to B, though, because you know how in COVID times, like people that were in the first home wanting to go to the second home, it was a really big jump. I think if you're in that position, I'd still be looking to move from A to B right now, while you can. But you know, we're really lucky on the coast because we've got some good things going for us the road.

Speaker 2 18:23

We've got a pretty cool lifestyle out here. We call them Kevin and Susan, like in town 55,. The kids have left home. They've got the big family home or the old house upstairs. They come out here. They're like kids in a candy shop because they get a garage, they get drive-on, they get double glazing. Well, they get aluminium joinery. You know those kind of things are really valuable to buyers from town. They get no wind, crazy wind. They get no crazy wind. They get wider roads, they get, you know, better access and they're still within the catchment of the Wellington Hospital, which is really important for people moving north. So I think we've got a number of, I guess, assets out here that people are saying to be quite valuable and people that live out here, like the coast is pretty cool.

Speaker 1 19:11

Yeah, and look, I've started up Waikanae Business Association a couple of years ago in that spirit of let's bring life back to. Why Can I? Because, as a young mom to young kids, you know, I was feeling like there is not much to do and the business has started to shut down, and also because my own business was suffering in the retail space with my other head on. I had to do something. You know, if you want to be the change, you've got to lead the change.

Speaker 1 19:37

That's always been my phrase. So you know, being on top of those things, you know, and seeing how much activity is actually going on, like we've got different shops opening up, it's really, really cool and we're in good touch with, like Paraparumo Business Association and Romati, you know, just trying to bring back life into this place.

Speaker 2 19:57

Yeah, it's really funny, like when we were kids, my grandma, she had a house in Waikanae and we just used to think it was just you know, the retirement village for all the Wellingtonians and you know she was from Wellington and it really was. But now I quite often say to people you don't go to Waikanae to die anymore, do you? Hear what I say you go there to live.

Speaker 1 20:19

Yeah.

Speaker 2 20:19

Because the age group of people that we're selling to in Waikanae is actually much lower than what it probably was 10 years ago, and I think access to Waikanae especially is so much easier now. Yeah, I can't believe we had a one-lane road up until three or four years ago, whenever TG opened. Yeah, that's pretty gnarly for New Zealand. You know there was only one way in and one way out.

Speaker 1 20:43

Crazy yeah.

Speaker 2 20:44

Down team. Well, you could go around Pika Pika, but you know, to come for Wellingtonians, to come to Waikana Beach, you'd have to go the old main road, yeah yeah, and up Timuana, which is like sort of slow. Yeah, it's like how can you do 50K up Timuana? I do now, but you know it feels like it used to be 70 before, apparently. Ah, okay.

Speaker 1 21:02

Yeah, back in the day, but yes, it does feel like New Zealand's longest street ever.

Speaker 2 21:07

It does, but it leads you to the goal the beach.

Speaker 1 21:10

It does. I mean, as I said in the beginning, you know we are quite lucky. We've got a couple of good eateries around here good coffee, good food, the vibe, the markets.

Speaker 2 21:20

Yes, Saturday markets yeah.

Speaker 1 21:23

So tell me about your babies. I know you've got a couple of babies.

Speaker 2 21:27

Yes. So I've got two little labradoodles. I've got Charlie, who's four, and he's pretty cool. He's got blue eyes and he's got a really nice nature. And he's pretty cool. He's got blue eyes and he's got a really nice nature and he's kind of pretty chill like my partner. And then I've got a fluffy boy called Darcy, mr Darcy, and he's just over one. He's like a complete nut job, like you. Yeah, he's kind of like me and he's very similar to me and he's just a big ball of fluff. He's very cool, but he's got a bit of a temper on him. I don't have a temper, but he's crazy. So, yeah, they're my babies, they are my like.

Speaker 2 22:01

Go home from work, like I went home last night, got home half past seven and, just, you know, open the door and that's the best thing to see. So, and with Geordie working with me. Now, like you know, it's interesting because me and Geordie have been together 14 years and now he's just come into the business as of two weeks ago. We work together, we sleep together, we have dinner together and it's a really interesting time for us because we're together all the time and it's actually pretty cool. I didn't know how it would go, because I know Jordi as a human and as a partner outside of work.

Speaker 2 22:36

I don't know him and you know in the business and um, yeah, he's bringing some value.

Work-Life Balance in Real Estate

Speaker 1 22:41

I tell you good, because that was my next question. Yeah, I actually written it down. Tell me more about Geordie and how's that going?

Speaker 2 22:46

uh, it's good, it's really good. He um, he's a bit of an introvert, geordie, but he's a very smart man and since I've been with him he has done so many papers. He's done a degree. He's a very smart man and since I've been with him he has done so many papers, he's done a degree, he's done his master's, he's done his real estate ticket and he brings, I guess, the qualities that I don't bring. And also he's kind of filling Chris's gap, because me and Chris were business partners and now me and Geordie are. I've brought him on because he can do all the things that I don't like doing, and that was a lot of what Chris brought. So, yeah, he's, he really is my yin to the yang in the business.

Speaker 1 23:20

So that's beautiful. I honestly wish both of you like the best working relationship, because it can be hard sometimes, you know, for people to manage working relationship life.

Speaker 2 23:29

Oh, absolutely, yeah, I mean we're also very lucky because I think that people that are business partners that also have children, that's another element, like I don't know how been there done that?

Speaker 1 23:40

yeah, but I don't know how I can laugh about it now.

Speaker 2 23:45

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, it's in the water right, isn't it at the moment? So, um, I think, though like I take my hat off to you parents that you know our jobs are very demanding, totally, and when you've got four little humans that are demanding, that's pretty gnarly, like you know. I guess you manage resourcing well and support, but you know we don't have that element in our business, which is great. But, yeah, I really take my hat off to parents that do real estate brokerage, because I mean you do hours, I suspect.

Speaker 2 24:16

You're on Zoom calls at like 8 o'clock with people, so yeah. So how do you manage that? Actually, how does the work-life balance work for you?

Speaker 1 24:24

I love how this interview is turning live. I know sorry, You're interviewing me.

Speaker 2 24:28

Well, I want to learn because I want some work-life balance. Sometimes, too, I love it.

Speaker 1 24:32

I love it. Look initially, when I first got this business, it was to work around the young family, because when I first got into the mortgage, it's just like it was over six years ago. Funny enough, I'm celebrating my six years this year in June.

Speaker 2 24:45

Nice.

Speaker 1 24:46

Thank you, thank you. And my third child, my third son, at that time was only six months old, so I left the bank. A nice, cozy job you know, working nine to three and gone into this world of hey, you can be your own boss, you can work your own hours. You know it was sold to me as a dream that I can just be there for my kids.

Speaker 2 25:04

Flexibility.

Speaker 1 25:06

Flexibility. You know, you can just see one client a week, it'll be fine, oh Lordy.

Speaker 2 25:12

I know.

Speaker 1 25:13

I got hit. I got hit really big, really fast, because when I left the bank on maternity leave, a lot of my clients then realized I'm not coming back and I'm like hold on a second. Where did she go? So they? Started looking for me and it was a name like mine.

Speaker 2 25:27

And.

Speaker 1 25:27

I guess, similar to yours. You know, you've got a different name too. You've got really cool first name, really cool surname. We can't hide, people find us via Google etc. So I got busy really really fast. So what I learned fast is okay. I can only work around the baby's time right, when the baby sleeps.

Speaker 1 25:44

It was lunchtime, I would go for a walk, I would time my baby nap and I would set up meetings with people in the local cafe. So by the time I get there the baby's asleep in the pram. Have my meetings, finish the meeting, go home. The baby wakes up, awesome. And then at night was the same thing where I would put the baby to sleep and I'll just hop on the Zoom meeting with clients. So from eight o'clock, nine o'clock, 10 o'clock at night. Sometimes you know I'll be just working crazy hours, and I mean back in the day I didn't have any support. So that was much, much harder as well. Now I've got several personal assistants that are doing a lot of background work, like you said, work that I don't enjoy doing. I don't like sitting there shifting through people's bank statements. I mean, you know that's not enjoyable for me.

Speaker 2 26:28

My assistants- do that Nice. So would you say that your job is to be the front and be the people person, and that's what you do.

Speaker 1 26:36

Yeah.

Speaker 2 26:36

Get the information, pass it on, yeah.

Speaker 1 26:39

And fight the battle with the banks. So, I'm still the point of contact between the client and the bank. So if the bank doesn't understand something or they want to question things or they want to decline a deal, I go fight.

Speaker 2 26:52

Yes.

Speaker 1 26:52

So I love that. Honestly, it fires me up because if I see there's a deal in it and I know my client believes there's a deal in it, I'll go. But there are certain deals where I'm like I don't know about that one. I would usually step away and I wouldn't fight. So I tried to use my favors where I can, because I've got so many connections now over the last few years that I've built with the banks and the bank managers that I know.

Speaker 1 27:18

if I need that favour like if you, for instance, have a property that needs to settle ASAP, the deal has fallen through and we only have five days for finance, et cetera I can pick up that phone, I can call for those favours, but often I don't do that every time for everybody.

Speaker 2 27:34

It's only for special cases. I know I'm turning this into an interview for you, but it is a question that I've often had. You know, when you put an application into the bank, is there actually someone in the back room that actually looks through that application and there is one person that says yes or no? Is that how it kind of works? They review everything and then they just decide, and it depends who you get on the day.

Speaker 1 27:59

Yeah, totally, totally. And we do have a joke sometimes when a certain banker picks it up and I'm like, oh God, here we go, there's a decline coming, because there's certain bankers that have been there for way too long and they just see everything in the negative light.

Speaker 2 28:09

Risk it Too much risk, yeah, risk adverse.

Speaker 1 28:11

And then there are other bankers that like, okay, they'll pick up the phone and be like, okay, how can we make it work? You know, it looks a little bit curly here, looks a little bit hairy. How can we make it work?

Speaker 2 28:20

So it often depends on the mortgage advisor the relationship they have with the banker and the banker on the other side.

Speaker 1 28:27

There have been few declines where, as I said, I've absolutely questioned and I went for bad and I managed to overturn again due to my experience, if it was a brand new mortgage broker that didn't know what they were doing and if they got a decline I'm like, oh well, it's a decline.

Speaker 2 28:41

Yeah, too hard, yes, okay.

Speaker 1 28:43

Yeah.

Speaker 2 28:43

Okay, and second tier, lending. Is that a thing? Absolutely, absolutely.

Speaker 1 28:48

Yeah. So a lot of people don't understand about the second tier lenders. They're good for my developers and flippers. I deal a lot with those sort of clients as well. Do you see that coming back into the market?

Speaker 2 28:59

It's interesting. We had a property in Romati, a little Beasley box, and we had, I think, 12, 13 groups through first open and we had about five of them were investors, so and flippers, you know people that want to get in there, chuck 30K at it and then put it back on the market.

Speaker 2 29:17

So haven't seen that for a very long time. You know, when we appraise properties we often think of who our buyer is. And three, four years ago when I appraised that if I appraised that property it would have been an investor, but just haven't seen them. So that was a real sign that they are looking to come back into the market for the right deal.

Speaker 1 29:36

Yeah, and the second tiers have also dropped their rates. I mean back in COVID times we were sitting about 9.5% 10%. Now we're actually sitting about 8.5% 9%, so it's a really good sign for the flippers because normally they wouldn't go to the bank to get their lending and they need to do it fast. So they get in as you say chuck 30K, get a new paint, carpet et cetera. Get out.

Carl's Team and Future Plans

Speaker 2 29:57

Because it's a short time of the loan, isn't it? So they just want to kind of get in and get out and do it really quickly. So I guess the banks don't find that too attractive, because they're not making too much money, they're not making any money.

Speaker 1 30:07

Yeah, and it's a lot of work, it's someone sitting there doing the application? Yeah, no, that's cool. Can you tell me about Zoe before we finish off? Yes, sure, tell me about Zoe. Who is Zoe? Where did you find her?

Speaker 2 30:19

Zoe. Now, zoe, it's really interesting because Chris told me that he was going to go and join the golf club and, to be fair, we've been talking about it for a wee while he's got a little girl and he wants to, you know, live his life with her. So my immediate thoughts are what am I going to do? So I booked a big holiday. I went on holiday because I needed to process it and think about it and while I was away I was thinking I need to have someone else join the team.

Speaker 2 30:50

Financially, it would have made sense for me to stay in the business and just run the ship. But it's not all about money. I want to celebrate success, I want to work with someone, and so I put an ad out and it was really interesting the amount of uh, people that contacted me. But I just didn't get the vibe of who I wanted and I wanted someone to join my team and I basically just wanted someone to walk in and replace Chris with the photo and stuff. And it's quite ironic because I quite often say to Zoe you're just a younger version of Chris, you've got the blue eye, the blonde hair and all that kind of stuff, and so, zoe, she is a young agent. She worked for another brand and she's really good on the socials. She's really outgoing, she's fresh and she is bringing a bit of flavor to SOC and we've been into appraisals recently and we complement each other.

Speaker 2 31:41

And I think one thing is in this job you've got to be relatable and listen and I think that's a skill that she has and it's really important you have that and yeah, so she's been in the business with me two and a half weeks. It feels like two years, to be honest. So, yeah, it's been pretty cool. We're already making some social stuff. I mean, she is, she's the generation below me, so I'm moving into that next.

Speaker 1 32:07

You and I together, baby.

Speaker 2 32:09

And I and it's cool though, because she's all over TikTok and she's doing all that kind of stuff and I love that stuff. And I think you know, as real estate agents we've got to change with the times and I'm keen to do it, and sometimes I'm pretty good at it with some of the technology stuff. But bringing Zoe in she's going to add a lot of value there, but just in terms of you know real estate, because all three of us are real estate agents too. So you know we had Sa, chris and me that were all licensed and now I've got three of us back on board.

Speaker 2 32:39

So yeah, no, Zoe's cool, so watch this space.

Speaker 1 32:41

Oh, absolutely, I'm excited. So here is your prime time. Where can people go and find you? Give yourself a shout out.

Speaker 2 32:47

Yeah, cool. So Sold on Carpity is on Instagram, facebook, tiktok, soldoncarperyconz 0800 numbers 0800 527 181. Give us a call if you want an appraisal or just want to chat about buying property. We're always here to help.

Speaker 1 33:05

Thank you, and to wrap it up, one last question I'm going to start asking all my people, as they come in what fills your cup?

Speaker 2 33:12

What fills my cup. Winning Winning fills my cup, winning Winning fills my cup. And actually, you know, really making sure that we do the transaction justice for our vendors and our buyers. I mean, it sounds really cliche, you know, I love people and all that kind of stuff, but genuinely I love being part of that wheel and making that big move. You know, do it justice for the vendors. So that's really what fills my cup. And also, just, you know, because when you sell a property it is so stressful for people, tell me about it.

Speaker 1 33:46

Yeah, I have to go to a hairdresser now, every few weeks because my hair's starting to grey, Embrace the greys.

Speaker 2 33:52

You know real estate has given me so many greys, but anyway I'm going on a tangent, but you know, just really carrying people through those moments and that really big change in their life. You put a lot of trust into us and so, yeah, I love being part of that.

Speaker 1 34:11

That's amazing, carl, thank you so much for coming today. Absolutely enjoyed having you. I feel like we can just go on forever. Yeah, yeah, so we have to do this again, promise me Absolutely.

Speaker 2 34:19

I'm keen.

Speaker 1 34:20

I'm keen to see the journey and at one point I would love for you to bring back Jordi and Zoe here as well.

Speaker 2 34:24

I'd love that.

Speaker 1 34:25

Thank you so much. Enjoy the rest of your day.

Speaker 2 34:27

Thanks, Eb.