[Note from editor: This is adapted from this week’s Weekly Radar for Geek Estate Mastermind members. Given it’s industry significance, I thought it worthwhile to publish publicly.]
Airbnb will start designing and building housing prototypes in 2019 as part of Backyard, a new Samara project announced this week
Backyard is an initiative to prototype new ways that homes can be built and shared, guided by an ambition to realize more humanistic, future-oriented, and waste-conscious design.
According to Joe Gebbia’s interview with FastCompany, it’s about more than just ADUs: “small prefabricated dwellings could be in the roadmap, but so are green building materials, standalone houses, and multi-unit complexes. Think of Backyard as both a producer and a marketplace for selling major aspects of the home, in any shape it might come in.”
The Rental Girl’s founder and broker, Liz McDonald sat down with contributing writer, Mark Gerlach, of Los Feliz Ledger to discuss an alternative housing option for the rising rents in Los Angeles.
“According to McDonald, high demand for Los Angeles apartments drives up costs. Because the economy is good, she said, many renters are moving closer to their jobs or upgrading their apartments. […] Newer options such as tenancy in common (TIC) arrangements, where two or more people join forces to buy a property, can make homeownership more affordable.”
Take a look at the link below for the full article.
What’s your 2019 real estate marketing plan? The end of the year is creeping up on us and with it comes the inevitable look-back on your real estate business. How’d you do?
If you didn’t get the results you were aiming for, your year-end business planning may require an overhaul of your real estate marketing plan.
Yeah, it’s boring stuff, but critical to your success in 2019.
Even if you slap together the basics of a real estate marketing plan, you’ll be a step ahead of most agents in your market.
Your 2019 real estate marketing plan takes money
It may sound like a “well, duh” statement, but a 2019 real estate marketing plan requires a marketing budget. Study 2018’s revenue numbers and commit to spending a specific percentage of 2019’s on marketing.
Earlier this year, Attom Data Solutions published the results of a survey of real estate agents, brokers, owners and marketers to determine where they are “spending their largest portion of marketing dollars” and which method brings the best results.
Thirty-five percent of agents spent the most on social media while 20 percent spent the most on buying leads. Why the study’s authors consider purchasing leads as “marketing” is curious, but there you have it.
Unfortunately, although the article promises to tell us where agents are “seeing the best results,” it fails to deliver. So, no tips for you there.
Regardless of how you spent your marketing dollars in 2018, the most important aspect of planning is that look-back to figure out what worked and what didn’t. Naturally, you’ll want to dump under-performing real estate marketing methods and amp up anything that worked for your 2019 real estate marketing plan.
Put your best content on mobile with LeadSites – Start 2019 with style. Learn more
Then, decide how much you’ll allocate for each in the budget. Naturally, you’ll want to spend the most on which effort brings you the best results. For some agents, client retention dollars result in the best ROI, while others may choose to go bigger on real estate lead gen.
Even if it’s just 2 percent of revenue, you’ll have enough money to engage and retain current clients “with simple tools and strategies,” according to Chris Beecher, president of thewholebraingroup.com.
Next, determine the strategies you’ll employ, such as social media, paid advertising, blogging, email and direct mail marketing, and allocate an amount of the budget to each.
Determine your 2019 clientele
If you live in a low- or no-tax state, recent studies will help you figure out your target market. Redfin, for instance, finds that their website users are fleeing high-tax, expensive-real estate cities for cities such as Las Vegas, Phoenix, Dallas and Indianapolis.
If you live in one of these cities, targeting the relocating homebuyer might be a good move. If you live in Orlando or Phoenix, you may want to target baby boomers who are “seeking a lower cost of living for their retirement,” Nat Kunes, at AppFolio, tells the Washington Post.
Unfortunately, there’s no real estate crystal ball to tell us what the market will be like next year, but the usual suspects are releasing their predictions.
The California Association of REALTORS® (C.A.R.) predicts that demand for homes will decrease notably next year. Eman Hamed at Mashvisor.com, a site devoted to selling products to real estate investors, claims the opposite.
“The strong economy and similarly strong job market should increase the demand from homebuyers,” he claims.
Because there are so many additional factors that impact the housing market, Hamed’s prediction is a bit simplistic.
If we agree with C.A.R.’s prediction, you won’t have as many buying clients next year and Fannie Mae’s Economic & Strategic Research Group predicts that the pool of first-time buyers will dry up significantly.
Build flexibility into your marketing plan if you’ll be using 2018’s client base as an assumption of who you will work with in 2019.
Fine-tune your message
Take a look at your USP (unique selling proposition). Does it clearly and succinctly state the value you offer to potential clients?
Kevin Ward, author of “The Book of Yes,” suggests that you focus on “what your clients really want, which is the value, which is the result.”
Need some help? Coach Tom Ferry walks you through the process of coming up with a USP in this video on his website.
How will you broadcast that message?
How you will market in 2019 depends a great deal on your budget but also those segments we mentioned earlier. Lead generation is costlier than client retention, so you may want to take a look at some of the less-expensive methods of you choose to focus on the former.
These might include beefing up your social media presence (by blogging more and posting to your preferred social media platforms), knocking on doors, etc.
Your budget will also dictate whether or not you’ll use newsletters, postcards, door hangers and other marketing materials. If you’re feeling really ambitious, consider attending some real estate conferences.
A calendar will help keep you on track
A calendar is a must if you hope to keep your marketing efforts on track all year. Business.com has a brilliant walk-through of the process.
You can use a standard calendar or create your own from an Excel worksheet (find templates and ideas here and here).
Although it’s important to create a 2019 real estate marketing plan for your real estate business, don’t become a slave to it. If something doesn’t appear to be working, replace it with something else. And, do consider ways of automating as much of your marketing as possible.
The key to success in real estate lead generation and client retention is consistency. Having a plan will ensure this.
Considering adding a LeadSite to your business plan? Get started today and be prepared for the new year.
Decorating a tiny bedroom is never an easy task. To make matters more difficult, decorating inexpensively and sticking to your budget poses even more of a challenge. But challenging doesn’t mean impossible. For some, finding the right kitchen furniture is the crux of home decoration, and buying affordable kitchen cabinets takes the cake. When it […]
from theokbrowne digest https://www.rentcafe.com/blog/home-and-garden/interior-design-design-and-decorating/5-beautiful-inexpensive-decorating-ideas-tiny-bedroom/
One critical piece is missing….the consumer. I didn’t hear any of them explain anything about how Broker Public Portal / HomeSnap helps the consumer.
You know, the person who actually pays everyone’s bills. Is there any benefit for them? Until there is a real answer, this project will go on being a problem child in need of continual championing.
The event is invite-only, with both Geek Estate Mastermind members and non Geek Estate members joining from the RE tech space. The breakfast will be on December 7th from 9-10:15 in the Upper Westside.
Hey, you’re busy (at least we hope you are) and you don’t have time to be searching the internet for the latest real estate news and gossip. But, we do, and here’s the November real estate news we thought you might be interested in.
November real estate news – Homeowners staying put longer
Anyone who has watched the housing market over the past few years knows that, by and large, homeowners are stubbornly remaining in their homes. Thus, the infamous “inventory shortage.”
What you may not know, however, is what AttomData has learned: homeowner tenure in the U.S. has increased to slightly more than eight years, double the tenure measured in 2000.
Whether it’s “rate lock,” the fear of not finding a replacement home or the desire to age in place, we’re staying put a lot longer than we used to.
Keep an eye on homeowners in your geographic farm who’ve lived in their homes at least eight years. They may be getting ready to sell.
Higher rates aren’t scaring most potential homebuyers
The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) says that 2019 will see more loan originations than we saw in 2018. In fact, originations, they say, will increase 4.2 percent over this year’s.
Really. They’re serious.
“The unemployment rate is at its lowest level in almost 50 years, resulting in faster wage growth and more confident homebuyers,” MBA’s chief economist claims. “While the Federal Reserve is expected to increase short-term rates further, 30-year mortgage rates should rise only modestly from here,” he concluded.
So, don’t be glum about next year’s real estate market. If the MBA is correct, it should be as good, if not better, than this year’s.
Photog suit against Zillow
Remember the guy who was suing Zillow for scraping his listing photos (in violation of his copyright)? He was going after the company for $81 million.
Gotta be one of the quickest settlements in history, because on October 3, after Alternative Dispute Resolution, Gutenberg dismissed his complaint, “without prejudice,” according to court records.
No mention of how much Zillow settled for.
The media, by the way, dropped the story immediately after originally reporting it (hey, the mention of a “David” possibly getting $81 million from a “Goliath” makes people click on articles) with absolutely no follow-up.
But in the interest of getting November real estate news to you (and satisfying some good-old curiosity) we did the follow-up for you, via the court’s online Pacer system.
DTI now in the lead
It appears that bad credit as the main obstacle to obtaining a mortgage is a thing of the past. Today’s deal breaker is a high DTI, according to the folks at Core Logic. In fact, slightly more than one-third of loan applications were turned down because of an unacceptable DTI.
Interestingly, when they broke down the denials by loan type, VA loan apps ranked the highest, with 35% being denied because of a high DTI. FHA-backed loan applications, on the other hand, had the lowest DTI denial rate.
Here’s a bit of November real estate news: Active agents who’ve been in the business for awhile understand that golf course homes have lost their once-wild popularity. It’s because golf has lost its attraction for many Americans. So many that more than 800 golf courses across the country have shuttered over the past decade.
The reasons behind the decline in golf’s popularity are many and varied. But the upside is that many of the defunct courses are being transformed into residential communities. Apparently, some will remain sport-front communities.
As soccer homes.
The “concept of sport-front real estate” is apparently not dead, it’s “being extended to other sports … most notably, soccer,” according to Garrett Kenny, CEO of Feltrim Group, a Florida real estate development firm.
And, like Augusta National is closely adhered to the legendary Bobby Jones, “these new soccer-front properties are being built in complexes often associated with high-profile international soccer stars,” Kenny says at Forbes.com.
If it catches on, you’ll soon be slinging property in Pele Estates or Beckham Knolls.
The weirdest article of 2018
For your final piece of November real estate news, I landed on HousingWire.com today and read the weirdest article ever. It’s not really an article. I swear – it’s a freaking time machine!
I had to keep checking the publication date – I mean, flat-fee brokerages have been around awhile yet the author celebrates them as if they were some new-fangled invention.
His framing of the concept, though, is what got me. He used all the tropes of the 1960s, so much so that while reading I was transported back to that period of 1967 when my radio blared the Youngblood’s admonition to “smile on your brother” and to love one another, “right now.”
Honestly, it was the headline that got me, but I should’ve read the author’s bio first. Turns out that Zak Waddell “is the co-founder of nada, a community-centric real estate solution.”
Somebody needs to tell Zak that the ideals of the 1960s are something many of us want to live down, that flat-fee brokerages aren’t new and they aren’t necessarily a “solution” to anything but his pocketbook.
[Editor’s Note: Geek Estate Offers are special offers members of the Geek Estate Mastermind]
Smart Alto sends and manages text message campaigns. Brokers recruit and retain top producers, agents boost repeat and referral clients, and associations stay in touch with members – all with simple, personal text messages.
In our latest real estate tech entrepreneur interview, we’re speaking with Sean McGrail from OpenFrame.
Without further ado…
What do you do?
I am the chief revenue office at OpenFrame, a unique 360 camera that attaches to an iPhone and it allows a Real Estate Agent to quickly, simply and affordably capture, edit and share a video tour of a property.
What problem does your product/service solve?
I spoke to 4,000+ real estate agents and they told me the current solutions to create video of a property were too costly, too time consuming or too complex. OpenFrame solves all these problems.
What are you most excited about right now?
I am finding that once the agents are aware of our product and what it does, they’ve been buying it. It’s been amazing to see my vision become embraced by agents with rave reviews.
What’s next for you?
I keep adding features to the app that our customers are asking for. For instance, I just released a web landing page feature that hosts each property so prospective buyers and view a video or each individual 360 photo or view the home in virtual reality.
What’s a cause you’re passionate about and why?
Currently, the Royhingya crisis unfolding in Burma is consuming my time and money outside of work. I donated to build multiple water wells in Bangladesh to help support those fleeing the situation in Burma. I have traveled around the world twice and am moved by tragic events unfolding in parts of the world I have enjoyed visiting.
We’re constantly looking for great real estate tech entrepreneurs to feature. If that’s you, please read this post — then drop me a line (drew @ geekestatelabs dot com).
We should all be so fortunate to live a life like Loretta Taggart. Back in 2015, at 100 years of age, she reached a milestone – 15 years as a twice-weekly exercise instructor in St. Paul, Minnesota.
Doing the math, that means she started her career at 85 years of age
When asked to what she attributes her long life, Ms. Taggart told USA today that it’s “moderation, attitude, gratitude … that’s it.” That, and not letting her hair go gray.
She has a point. Gratitude works wonders for the human psyche, according to scientists at the University of California, Berkeley’s Greater Good Science Center.
In fact, studies show that being grateful makes us happier and happiness leads to greater success
Yeah, I know. I, too, always thought it was the other way around – that we’ll be happy when we’re successful. But, according to studies at Berkeley, being grateful is the key to both happiness and success.
If getting to the top of the real estate food chain in your market is among your goals for 2019, start counting your blessings.
Success won’t make you happy but being happy will make you successful
“Chronically happy people are in general more successful personally and professionally. But in many cases, it is the happiness that came first,” says Sonja Lyubomirsky, a professor of psychology at the University of California, Riverside.
She has, in fact, spent the majority of her career studying happiness.
But, it’s back to the University of California, Berkeley’s Greater Good Science Center to figure out how we can become happier. It turns out that Taggart, the centenarian exercise instructor, was right: it’s an attitude of gratitude that will lead us to a more cheerful disposition.
From gratitude to happiness to success
Among other positive attributes, gratitude “creates patience,” according to Geoffrey James, contributing editor at Inc.com, citing a study published in the journal of the Association for Psychological Science.
Many of us are all too familiar with impatience — that inability to resist immediate gratification, leading to overspending, overeating, smoking and other addictions. Or, in real estate, overt sales tactics, desperate home pricing strategies and the tendency to cut corners in marketing our businesses.
Reach out to the people that matter to you with Social Share – part of every LeadSite. Learn more
The study grouped respondents according to how they were feeling: grateful, happy and neutral. Happy and neutral folks went right for the instant gratification while those feeling grateful were far more likely to exhibit patience.
“What’s more, the degree of patience exhibited was directly related to the amount of gratitude any individual felt,” James said. He also reminds us that, in business, “patience is extraordinarily valuable.”
So, how do you get this magic grateful sauce?
It may seem trite but count your blessings every day. In fact, consider starting a gratitude journal and keep track of your blessings once or twice a week.
Research shows that “people who wrote in their gratitude journals once a week for six weeks reported boosts in happiness afterward; people who wrote three times a week didn’t,” according to Lyubomirsky.
Her team recommends going into detail about something you’re feeling grateful for, rather than constructing a list of items, as well as the following tips:
List people to whom you are grateful, not things or events.
Consider what your life would be like without these blessings.
Keeping track of “the many gifts, big and small,” that happen in our lives can yield overwhelming results, according to Robert Emmons, professor of psychology at the University of California, Davis.
What sorts of things might you be grateful for? A new client, a particularly helpful colleague, a transaction coordinator that goes above and beyond, a referral, a smile from a stranger or your child’s laughter.
There’s an app for that
Unless you like the feel of a pen in your hand, you don’t have to go old school with your gratitude journal. There are a number of apps that make it even easier to help you get the “G” attitude.
For those who are just embarking on the renting journey, the adventure comes with a million questions. If you find yourself in this situation, the very first questions that might pop in your head would be how much it costs and what you can get for the money. This gets us to the next question, […]
It’s almost a new year already – can you believe it? There’s going to be plenty of real estate conferences in 2019 to make connections and learn about something brand new. Each one of the conferences listed below is a great chance to network with fellow real estate professionals, so we recommend checking them all out (assuming you have the time and money to cover the travel, of course). With that in mind, here’s a list of your can’t-miss 2019 real estate conferences:
It’s a great idea to attend as many of these conferences as you can. Networking is everything in the real estate business, and what better opportunity is there to network and learn the musts and must-nots of the industry from other real estate professionals than at these conferences? We all want to be successful – it pays to learn from people who might have an entirely different way of doing business from yourself.
Many of the 2019 real estate conferences we mentioned above are large, national events, but there are plenty of local conferences happening in 2019 too – be sure to do a search for real estate conferences in your area to find them. You don’t need to be a jet-setting traveler to benefit from these events.
Register For Your 2019 Real Estate Conferences
Looking for more information on these 2019 real estate conferences? Here are the official websites for each one – many of them already have registration buttons, so be sure to sign up now:
Whether you get stuffed up from mold, watery eyes from pollen, or struggle with asthma, allergy season can be a real pain, especially if yours are severe. Wouldn’t it be nice to live somewhere where your allergies could catch a break? Well, the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America (AAFA) has recently released their report on the […]
Bonus networking next week in Seattle. One of our Geek Estate Mastermind members, Pierre Calzadilla from LocalLogic, is visiting some brokers and vendors in Seattle to share their product — and we’re helping coordinating a real estate tech happy hour while he’s in town. LocalLogic will be covering 2 rounds of appetizers, so come early. No pressure, it’s just always nice to connect in person! We will have both Geek Estate Mastermind members and non Geek Estate members joining from the RE space. Broker and vendors welcome.
The meetup will take place at 5:30 on Monday (Nov 26th) at the Yard House downtown.
Seattle real estate techies unite. Hope you can join us.
Key takeaways: The national average rent registered a year-over-year increase of 3.3% ($45) in October, at $1,420 per month, according to data from Yardi Matrix. Among the nation’s biggest 252 cities, 93% have seen rent increases compared to October 2017, 6% remained flat, and only 1% of cities have seen their rents decrease Y-o-Y. Rents […]
Chicago is famous for quite a few things and food is definitely on the list. Home to numerous hot dog stands, the jibarito sandwich and other savory ethnic cuisines, Chi-town can sure make it hard for you to stay on a diet or keep fit. Luckily, Chicagoans are also known for their love of the gym […]
In our latest real estate tech entrepreneur interview, we’re speaking with David Michonski from Quigler. They are a member of NAR REach’s 2018 class.
Without further ado…
What do you do?
I am the chief cook and dishwasher around here supported by a team of about 12 coders, marketing wizards, web designers, lawyers and all the other needs of a start up company.
What problem does your product/service solve?
Many. First, more than 60% of consumers who are experienced in doing a real estate transaction still say they do not understand the process. We are solving that by inaugurating the second great revolution in the brokerage transaction: total transparency and empowerment of consumers to know everything their agent is supposed to know (and do) in advance. 25 years ago the industry took a deep breath and provided transparency into listing inventory by putting it all on line. But we never gave the consumer process
transparency. Quigler does.
Second, every manager of a real estate office knows the biggest and most dreaded complaint of a manager is the call from a consumer that says: “I’ve had my property listed with you for six weeks and I never hear from my agent. Does he still work for you?” Communication, especially in bad markets, is the biggest consumer complaint. Quigler fixes that by providing consumers immediate notifications every time an agent does what they are required by law and code to do. It creates a running record, time stamped and dated so consumers know when their agent did it.
Third, the bar is low in real estate. NAR had to issue the Danger Report that warned of masses of untrained, unskilled, unethical agents flooding the market and lowering the reputation of agents. Quigler solves that for everyone, even a new agent. We have taken the training classroom and installed in the palm of an agent’s hand on their cell phone and taken the required Actions they must do (there is nothing optional in Quigler) and organized them into a series of sequential Steps with specific Actions under each Step. For the first time an experienced agent and a new agent have everything required to be compliant in one place right in the palm of their hand, easily and sequentially organized so that now compliance with what is required can easily become the baseline of performance for an real estate agent. Great agents can build on top of what they are required to do with their experience, testimonials, skills, personality, etc, but at least consumers now know they are getting a baseline of compliance with what MUST be done.
Finally, as part of communication, 70% of the agents who just completed a Survey for us told us that they would pay more to get an automated, pre-populated update letter to send to clients. Given that less than 1% of agents do that now, we have a tremendous service to provide to agents that simultaneously allows them to give consumers better service. That upgrade is coming and in the works right now and will be in Quigler in 6 months. So we are raising the bar by providing a tool for
agents to give consumers total transparency into everything the agent is required to do, welcome compliance with the law and code, unheard of instant communication that creates a running record, and unprecedented accountability to consumers during the largest financial transactions of most of their lives that is also one of the most expensive.
What are you most excited about right now?
Well, we have launched and that is pretty exciting after 3 long years of hard daily work. Every day I love reading the emails agents and consumers send me. Consumers love Quigler, but they write to complain that we don’t have any agents yet in their market. So we have offered agents an Early Adopter Founding Agent membership at a big discount so as to populate agents that consumers can find. That is our big challenge right now. Then we look forward to a PR campaign to drive consumers to the site and find agents who want to provide transparency, accountability, communication and compliance. That is our goal right now. Get agents on board and then drive consumers to them in the app.
What’s next for you?
Again, what comes next is what we think is the easy part of Quigler and that is the consumer PR campaign. Already major papers have interviewed me and want to run a story and since real estate is very local, we expect that a large number of local papers and online news services will want to run this great consumer story that goes something like this: “It’s noon. Do you know what you agent is doing for you today?” At a gut level consumers want to know more and want accountability, compliance and communication. It will be fun to see those articles start popping up. We have yet to find a consumer who doesn’t want an agent who can provide these benefits.
What’s a cause you’re passionate about and why?
LOL, way too many. First, my wife, Linda, and I have served for 15 years in various capacities at our church in Greenwich. Linda’s been on the vestry while I have been the Head Usher, on the property committee, the worship commission, the ambassador program, the church choir, etc. So that is a kind of center for our lives.
Second, I am passionate about someday creating the Fresh Start Foundation for people who have had to declare bankruptcy. The idea is to give them a fresh start on life after that ordeal. You see, for 13 years I built one of the fastest growing brokerages in the world that culminated in us reaching $1B in sales in August of 2008. Four weeks later Lehman
Brokers hit us like a tsunami out of nowhere in New York City. It was devastating. People walked from deals and our pipeline was cut in half. Business dropped 75% and everyone thought the world was going to end. By May of 2009 we could not hold on any longer and we sold the company to NRT, but I was left with having guaranteed the loans and the leases. It
forced me into personal bankruptcy and devastated me and my family.
Both Linda and I promised each other that we would come back and someday create a foundation to help those who through no fault of their own have had to go through that nightmare (70% of them suffered a bankruptcy because of an illness that wiped out their savings). We want to help them emotionally through that and then help them financially with re-establishing credit and then we even want to help finance entrepreneurs in new businesses. That is our goal.
Third, I want to finish my Ph.d. Many years ago I worked on my Ph.d in political philosophy. I graduated my doctoral exams with highest distinction, the first person every to do so in the program and worked on my dissertation, but the Ph.d glut of the late 70’s made it tough to find a job teaching college. So my dissertation sits in our freezer and I want to finish it and hand it in. I called the head of my dissertation committee who is still alive and asked if I could submit it. He paused and said: “Well, David, that was 40 years ago.” “Yes, sir,” I said. “That would give new meaning to handing in a late paper, wouldn’t it?” “Yes, sir.” I said. He said: “Well, hand it in and let’s see what we can do.” It may take me 10 years to do that, but I will.
We’re constantly looking for great real estate tech entrepreneurs to feature. If that’s you, please read this post — then drop me a line (drew @ geekestatelabs dot com).
KCRW’s Francis Anderton sat down with contributor, Devin Boone to discuss her findings on the latest housing trend to hit LA…co-housing!
First seen popping up over seas in Berlin, Germany, “co-housing can provide a way of creating community and equity”. Boone found two couples and a friend who collectively bought a tri-plex in Mid City back in 2009 when the housing market was shaky. Morgen Wilbourne, one of the owners, discusses the ups and downs of co-owning a home as well as the process of finding a loan officer who was willing to work with them. At the time, co-owning a home and having five people all on the same deed and sharing the title of the home was very unconventional and they were turned down by multiple loan officers before finding someone who would work with them. Since then, they have nearly doubled the value of their home and have learned to work together in creating a home that’s best for all of them and their families.
Morgen Wilbourne in her home she shares with four other adults.
Jasmine sits down to chat about what she loves most about her neighborhood and working at The Rental Girl.
Tell us a little bit about yourself!
I’m a so-cal native that primarily grew up in the desert! I have two younger brothers. I served 6 years in the Air Force and left to attend Fashion School. I wrote for a few fashion magazines before finding my love for real estate! I’ve been part of The Rental Girl team since 2014 and am so grateful! I just finished my first book…a memoir and sci-fi thriller that I hope to share next year.
What’s your favorite aspect of being a realtor?
I get to see amazing and unique homes! Each property has its own story and energy. When I walk into them, I get a little piece of its history and am given the opportunity to be apart of its future and potentiality.
What’s your all-time favorite spot in Los Feliz?
There’s no way I can choose one! I like to go to Skylight Books for unique reads, Bearded Beagle for vintage gems, and as of lately, WKNDR is curing all my cravings.
How would you describe Los Feliz?
Los Feliz was the first neighborhood I fell in love with when I moved to L.A. It’s this pocket of the city that holds some of L.A’s oldest gems, best stories, hidden treasures, and a magical history. Each street is captivating in its own way. There’s nothing bland, forced or unoriginal about it. It has all the qualities we like about a small town, while still giving you big city flare. It’s one of my favorite places… in the world!
If your neighborhood was on a dating app, who would be the perfect match to move into the hood?
I think she’d like to settle down with someone who is creative, easy going, humble, hard-working, positive energy, and cultured.
What is something that most people don’t know about you?
That I’m a veteran.
How long have you lived in LA?
6 years.
What’s on your LA Bucket List this year?
The Price is Right! I’ve been preparing since I was 6, I’m ready!
What’s your biggest piece of advice for someone interested in applying to a property you’re leasing?
Be friendly! Friendliness goes a long way. Above all, most owners want a courteous and respectful tenant living in their home. The act of renting a home can be stressful for both the owner and the renter. So being a nice and compassionate human speaks volumes to your character!
What’s the most quintessential LA thing about your neighborhood?
So many celebrity sightings!
Best cliche Los Feliz activity?
Hiking Griffith Park and visiting the observatory. It’s a must!
Best taco joint?
Tacos 2 Madre for lunch/dinner and Homestate for breakfast tacos.
Best place to grab a drink?
Good Luck Bar for a cocktail and Covell for wine
Best lookout place in Los Feliz?
The Observatory/Griffith Park.
Best street for splurging: Hillhurt or Vermont?
Vermont!
Best place to catch a movie: Los Feliz 3 Vintage Theater or The Vista Theater?
The Vista!
Best way to spend a Sunday morning/afternoon?
First stop, WKNDR! I like to get a rose latte and vegan donut or breakfast sammy and then head to the farmers market across the street. After a little perusing down Vermont, I either catch a movie at The Vista or do a little vintage shopping. At some point in the day, ice cream from Jeni’s is happening. Watching the sunset at Barnsdall is always on the table!
Best way to get around the city?
Walk or Scooter!
Which historical Los Feliz landmark is your favorite? Why?
I get giddy over all of the Walt Disney homes in the neighborhood. I think that’s partly why Los Feliz has such an enchanting feeling!
I also love the history of The Hollyhock House – A Frank Lloyd Wright house, built for oil heiress Aline Barnsdall. She asked Wright to incorporate her favorite flower, the hollyhock, into the home’s design. Does anyone out there wanna build me a house? My favorite flower is the peony.
We’ve been doing 
In our latest real estate tech entrepreneur interview, we’re speaking with Sean McGrail from 
Thanks to Sean for sharing his story. If you’d like to connect, 
In our latest real estate tech entrepreneur interview, we’re speaking with David Michonski from 
Many. First, more than 60% of consumers who are experienced in doing a real estate transaction still say they do not understand the process. We are solving that by inaugurating the second great revolution in the brokerage transaction: total transparency and empowerment of consumers to know everything their agent is supposed to know (and do) in advance. 25 years ago the industry took a deep breath and provided transparency into listing inventory by putting it all on line. But we never gave the consumer process
