Miami Real Estate Investment Coaching ‘Better Decisions’.

Investing in Real Estate Education Since 2010

Introduction

Since 2010 we have been educating the Miami real estate market with reports, data, articles, videos and most recently the ‘better decisions podcast’. Another ‘string to my bow’ is now being involved in real estate coaching. I wanted to share this blog because it encapsulates and explains everything we stand for. It is important to work with a professional who has a strong sense of direction, and a foundational support which can help you as a buyer, seller or investor of real estate make good choices. ‘Better Decisions’ has been our foundation and I was lucky enough to share our journey with 1250 other real estate professionals and investors who travelled form 16 different countries to come, listen and partake in a 3 day real estate event earlier in the summer of 2023.

What is better Decisions?

The pillar of our business is Better Decisions. This is not a ‘self-focused’ process of listening to what others need and want and finding a way to help them achieve it. I have realized that when you put others first, then you become inextricably woven into the value of any deal, and an essential ‘value added’ asset to clients. Better decisions are about helping you the buyer make a better decision.
As real estate professionals our roles are not to be the gatekeepers to the product by way of accessing the MLS and just exposing the clients to properties that they can also find themselves through Zillow, realtor.com, or Trulia, nor is it just driving them around at weekends to open houses, dressing up, opening doors for them or telling them how fabulous the views or the kitchen is! The true benefit of our service is based around real quantifiable and ‘specialist skilled’ better decision making.

10 Examples of our ‘better decisions’ elements that add client value every single day.

1. Our experience in the markets as well as our deep analytical understanding of real estate performance.
2. Our predictive tools allow us to guide clients toward the right properties and away from the wrong properties.
3. Our ability to access ‘off market’, not on the market condos and homes.
4. Our ‘super-broker status’ in the new condo construction market allows us to move freely and communicate directly with developers.
5. Our independent voice and ‘independent reviews’ of condos.
6. Our Architectural and structural understanding of homes and Condos
7. Our Legal awareness of subtle nuances of contracts.
8. Our digital footprint provides unrivaled Google exposure for sellers.
9. Our huge (400k+) database of buyers and sellers. Lead capture from over 100,000 site visits per month!
10. Our ‘contributing minds’ of experts from all real estate fields add color to our peripheral real estate awareness!

What I have learned from selling real estate for 15 years! (10 things).

 Experience in the real estate business is worth something, but ONLY if you have learned from your experiences. This is why my 15 years of experience carries weight! 

1. You need to chase happiness, not money – It may sound hokey to say I’m driven by happiness, not money. However, the truth and extreme irony are that the less I focused on commissions and the more I focused on adding value to clients, the more deals I have done! I learned the night I hit a landmark deal and reached $100m in sales, that my motivations were maybe misplaced. I suffered a major Vaso vagal Syncopy attack, and my wife feared I would die. After that day, I learned to appreciate the value of spending my time more wisely.
2. I have F*$ked up more times than I remember – but I learned so much! We make mistakes, but after 15 years, I believe very uncomfortable mistakes have made me a much better professional. I can NOW see many mistakes ahead because I may have fallen into them myself in the past. The one thing I have not been afraid to do is try! Just check out my very first real estate video. It was a train wreck, but taught me so much!
3. Don’t choke relationships or deals – I have noticed with deals that when you try too hard, you make poor choices and get poor results. I now believe that one of my best negotiation skills is that I never need to do a deal. A relaxed and calm demeanor affords better results.
4. Staying in my lane! DSG is a developed team of 2 marketing directors (one who manages the database and farming and another in charge of the complex website and digital footprint). In addition, I have an operations director, partnered ‘in-house’ attorneys, lending experts, and nine territory managers. To top it all off, I have a media team with an in-house videographer and photographer. Most agents wear many hats and fail to run deals smoothly because they try to do everything and end up dropping the ball. I have learned to stay firmly in my lane and handle the big clients. Being a ‘closer’, and doing what I love, which is creating content.
5. Keep calm and carry on. One of the big reasons we close deals is that we don’t freak out! Naturally, my British demeanor does not appreciate extremely dramatic behavior. I was taught that if you raise your voice and get angry, whether right or wrong you lose the argument. Buyers and sellers will be operating under extreme pressure. Selling a house they say, is equivalent to dealing with a death! The last thing a client wants or needs is an overly dramatic agent. The reason I often feel I earn my commission is that I operate well in stressful situations and keep a clear head when others may lose theirs. The goal is to get the deal over the finish line and not see it implode! If you are not part of the solution, you are part of the problem.
6. I would still be better off even if no one had ever read a single article I wrote! Fortunately, we have around 100,000 web visitors a month, and our articles and reports are all over Google! With that said, even if I had never received a single viewer or reader, the time was well spent. I have learned so much from my writing. It has forced me to stay researched and to question the status quo. To effectively forecast the market direction and understand the complex human behaviors behind the Miami real estate market.
7. Understanding the client’s true motivations. End users weigh things differently from investors. Buyer’s motivations vary according to their needs. How much do they value time? How much do they value money? How much do they value peace of mind? These all have value and need to be recognized. We are proud to say we have truly learned to understand our clients.
8. Learn quickly what is important – It is more important to me to be the smartest guy in the room, rather than the person who makes the most money! My life journey is more about being rich in valued knowledge and understanding than just dollars and cents. You cannot, however, be the smartest person in the room if you live in a bubble. This is one of the reasons why we started the Better Decisions podcast. It has allowed me to learn from the best and create a layer of contributing great minds to my real estate artillery.
9. Other real estate agents are your best clients. I know a good number of agents who may appear to be successful but believe they could be way more so if they were just a little nicer. I don’t believe that you should put money before human beings. Realtors are the gatekeepers to good products and if you want to give clients an advantage of getting them good deals then working well with other agents is essential. There is a small number of top agents moving 98% of the product. The same is true in every city across America. So recognize that other agents are your allies, not your enemy and the more connected you are to top agents the better you will be.
10. Sometimes to get it right you have to question the fundamentals! Analytically speaking you have to realize that the one constant is change, and even fundamentals change. We live in a very polarized world of information and what we often assume are guarantees to market performance are merely opinions that have been so widely spread and regurgitated through sources that we assume they are ‘truths’ when they are not. Our research is conducted by ourselves. We know then that it is accurate and it stops me from adopting facts from others that may be nothing more than a biased opinion.

Conclusions

We love sharing valued information. It is the biggest driver for us and we will continue to do so. If you would like to chat about any aspect of real estate, please, please pick up the phone, call me, or shoot me an email. Whether you’re a buyer or seller, want to invest in Miami real estate, would like me to speak at an event, want me on your podcast, or would like to come on mine. We are openly seeking to learn more and become better.

Schedule a Call/Meeting with David (In Person or via Zoom)