The Best Miami Real Estate Agent: Orlando Montiel’s Interview with Top Producer David Siddons

Orlando Montiel Interviews Miami Real Estate Agent and our Very Own David Siddons.

I was honored to be interviewed by Orlando Montiel who asked me everything from how I started my business to how I market my properties and what advice I have for sellers and buyers during the Corona pandemic. Please watch the video of our call. Below the video we added the most interesting questions with David’s responses.

How Did You Get Started in Miami Real Estate?

I started in 2008 with no experience and no budget. The first couple of years were really though and as many realtors know, these first few years are more like a lesson in endurance. I started with rental deals and really struggled the first two years. Around 2010, while looking for good market reports, I noticed that there was a gap in the market. The reports I found weren’t deep or specific enough, they were all too general. I started writing about the Miami real estate market using MLS data while adding my personal touch with in-the-field information. Without any budget, but equipped with marketing-savviness,  I used many keywords in this report which I figured buyers would be using while searching for Miami real estate investments. Once I put this first report out there, my career started taking off. Then I knew that this was my “Identity” or the kind of Miami Real Estate Agent I would like to be in this very competitive market.

How Important is Content for the David Siddons Group?

Content is extremely important to me. Content is my number 1 marketing tool and a way of differentiating myself from the rest. My strap line is “Help the clients make better decisions“, so all the articles or reports we publish should reflect that message. If it doesn’t add value I don’t want to publish it. 50% Of my clients today come from my website and they decided to call me because of the great information I provide. My information is unique and not generalized. When you ask me: “How is Miami’s real estate market doing?”, my answer will always be: “This depends, the market can be segmented into 10+ geographic markets, we have condos, townhomes and single-family homes and of course we have different price ranges”. How the market is doing depends on your price range, your neighborhood and the type of product you are looking at.
I always see it like this; even if nobody would have ever read my content, it made me a better and smarter  Miami real estate agent and therefore I win!

How often do you share content?

I share content on a daily basis, but it’s always unique. We do not share the same listings several times per month, or the same information about us being realtors or about us selling Miami real estate. We share our video content and our blogs, which always discuss different, relevant topics. We share these topics with our readers in luxlifemiamiblog.com, on Instagram, Facebook and Linkedin, but we also share this with our very large database of clients and readers.
Sharing content is not about  being the loudest Miami Real Estate Agent or about letting people know that you are a realtor, it is about unique and relevant content.

One simple and cheap way of marketing this content is making videos. Videos are really good for your online rankings and they can be as simple and affordable as you wish. I started making videos with my cell phone and we now have a full-time videographer on board. Take your camera to the streets and tell your audience about the market. This is not for everyone, but it is also an activity you need to grow into!

What are you doing in 2020 to grow your business?

With the recent pandemic I figured everyone is looking for answers and concerned with finding out what will be happening in the year to come. We just finished writing an 8-part report. We thought of the key questions everyone would be asking and we answered these questions. We then heavily marketed this report and it is getting really good traction in the market. I was called by several news media on how we are surviving during these times and I tell them all that we are seeing 800% more subscribers to our website than normally. Our advantage is that we already have everything in place when it comes to digital marketing. While other Miami real estate agents start building a digital presence just now we already have this up and running since years so it is easier to reach out to people across the globe.

Because of the increased web traffic we are doing a lot of reaching out and following up with potential buyers. We also do a lot of reaching out to current clients to see whether they are ok and as always we are farming for our existing buyers. We find that many buyers are urgently looking to find a home while the supply is limited. Therefore we are reaching out to sellers of good-quality homes to see if they are willing to sell. If you own a good-quality home please give me a call in case you are considering to sell, we have buyers!

Building our Own Online Analytics Tools

We have recently developed our very own analytics software. The first one is the Neighborhood Economic Health Score, which is essentially a score telling you how immune a neighborhood is and how likely it will survive negative economic change.

The second tool is our Advanced Analytics, which breaks down condo and home markets and provides you with a quick overview of what happened within each market in the last 6 quarters (Average prices per SF, months of inventory etc).

The last one is Condo Geeks, which I developed with some partners with IT and Financial backgrounds. This monster of a system is essentially a Bloomberg terminal for real estate. We look at the markets at a macro level and allow clients to drill down from a city level to a neighborhood level to a condo level. You can see the performance of a condo over the entire cycle. It allows you to see patterns across an entire neighborhood, across an entire cycle. It shows you strong buildings, weak buildings, ceiling limits on dollar per SF, baseline numbers and other behavioral patterns that are very helpful for our clients to make a sound decision. This is currently just for our team, but will eventually be shared with the public. In our report you see the screens taken from the dashboard.

What would you say about Buyer’s and Seller’s Objections To Make a Move during Covid-19

As always I stay away from generalized answers as it depends on the kind of buyer or seller you are dealing with. However, I would like to share some of my beliefs. The other day I put in an offer for a Coconut Grove home and there were two stronger offers coming in that same day, one at full price and one over asking price. So sellers who think it is better to take their house of the market need to consider the following. Currently not many homes will enter the market as we cant take pics or videos. At the same time buyers are still trying to get here, many even try to speed up their process to get into a new home ASAP. With other words I am experiencing a slow down on the supply side with an ongoing or even higher demand for Miami real estate. People often forget to focus on the supply side. With no new product coming into the market we see the curve changing to a sellers market. With so many tax advantages for people moving into Miami and tax reliefs for sellers I think sellers are defintely in a strong position when selling. In my report (see part 6 of my report) I discuss several tax incentives from the government.  If you take your home off the market you will defintely experience increased competition later on. I am pretty sure that many buyers are waiting to make a move (they are defintely doing their online research right now) and once the markets open up again these buyers will flood the market. I currently have many buyers looking for good quality homes and I am experiencing a lack of inventory. Imagine the markets opening up again and more buyers coming into town? Also please remember that for the areas of Coconut Grove, Coral Gables and Pinecrest this is our peak season as many parents want to move to areas around top rated schools before the new school year starts.

What factors influence the market and how do you take them in consideration?

In section 6 of my report I discuss the influence of Covid-19 on the market, currencies, the fed rates and much more. Typical real estate reports talk a lot about what is happening, but few address the social narrative of WHY it is happening. We discuss both positive and negative influences in the market, as well as potential economic side effects that could come about from the current climate. As I have said the ‘Why’ is just as important as the ‘What’. If you apply these observations to the markets you can better appreciate why some markets are simply flying and others are far more static, but could change soon!

What is your advice for inexperienced Miami Real Estate Agents?

Don’t sell yourself short, have confidence, be driven and passionate and don’t think it’s a 9 to 5 kind of job. Many new real estate agents want easy money and flexibility. I can tell you that non of the top-producers I know have a flexible schedule nor do they work half days. It is a every day, all day kind of job that requires a lot of personal investment and dedication. Finally, I would like to add that you should find your niche, provide your readers or clients with content and make sure you get yourself an assistant once you can afford one. Once you get an assistant you will be able to focus on what is important and start building long lasting relationships.