0:00 thing about real estate I knew nobody in real estate I knew no realtor I didn't even really understand what a realtor did I mean I remember meeting you when you were still a teacher and you told me you wanted to get in the real estate business and I don't think I asked you this question then but and I'm curious about why real estate who are you and where are you going [Music] what do you want together we'll find the ideal path on the way to wow show with your host Kevin bennel
0:35 there's no denying that it takes money to travel your way to wow so how do we work within the realm of finances to build an income and create wealth my guest Sarah dempsky has done it and she's going to explain how you can too but first Diane Quinones is going to make us a cocktail [Music] hi guys
1:11 um thanks for having me again Kevin I really appreciate it uh this is the fun part so today uh the last time I was here I brought Mezcal because that's what I'm known for I'm the Mezcal girl uh so I brought a different expression this time uh we're gonna use number one I don't recall if I remember we used number two last time for our old fashioned uh this time we're using one that's called 100 Espada and this is a different uh this is sort of like the Benchmark or the standard for Mezcal it's what most people are familiar with um it's smoky it's what people expect from a muscul and so we're going to use
1:47 this today in our Paloma so Palomas are typically done as uh as a tequila cocktail it's just grapefruit um soda topped with either tequila or Mezcal so we'll do it with the Mezcal today it's very very simple we're just going to build it in the glass so that's just how easy uh to kind of put it together we're just gonna do two ounces into your glass and then we'll top it with ice and then you kind of you have a lot of choices on the market now for really great grapefruit sodas traditionally it's done with a squirt if you're familiar with that grapefruit soda but you can use
2:22 what we have today as we have Lacroix um you could use like a fever tree or a cue they all make ginger sorry grapefruit sodas and um you can play around with those some of them have sugar already added to them but the simple part about it like I said is you just build it straight into the glass and then you can adjust the sweetness so since uh Lacroix doesn't have any any sugar added here what we're going to do is just add up a hair of simple syrup and then that'll just sweeten it up a bit and then we're just
2:57 going to top it with a little bit of lime juice as well so I'll go ahead and squeeze some lime juice that I already have in here and the lime juice is just going to give it a little bit of extra kick a little bit of more tart so we'll just if you don't have one of these squeezers you can just squeeze it by hand and so we just add a little bit of the lime and then you're just going to top it with grapefruit soda and of course if you have an actual grapefruit you could of of course give it a splash as well or we can just give
3:34 it a little refreshing lime there you are thank you so much we're gonna enjoy these cheers cheers [Music] Deon made this for us what is This Paloma a Paloma this is absolutely apt for Los Angeles it's actually really good
4:09 really good nice smoky nice Smoky flavor we have two of the things that make life worthwhile cocktails and chocolate all you need yeah I think so there must be a third food group out there somewhere have no oh Pizza there you go my daughter would agree we could give its forever we've known each other for almost your entire life it seems like let's only speak to how old I am right I know so you started professional life as a kindergarten teacher after getting a psychology degree both of which I think actually
4:45 prepared you well for for Real Estate yeah in 2007 you began your career in real estate and now you are one of the top selling real estate agents in Los Angeles right millions of sales every year eight eight digit sales every year I think right yes yeah um so along the way you were on HGTV right and you've won several company awards at Keller Williams your your broker home right and now you're here to talk to us about going from a career that really wasn't
5:21 doing much for you to a career that I think you really love most people I think are stuck in the former not the latter right right so um wow I mean I remember meeting you when you were still a teacher and you told me you wanted to get in the real estate business and I don't think I asked you this question then but and I'm curious about why real estate at the time I really honestly didn't know what I wanted to leave teaching for leaving teaching was more about that I
5:56 was not being financially rewarded I mean unfortunately we all know right teachers are not paid very well Los Angeles is extremely expensive to live in whether you're renting or owning there's no if ends or buts if you want to be in a safe part of town and I was doing every side job of babysitting tutoring dog sitting house sitting whatever camps anything I could get through teaching on the side and so it really was financially a big decision to leave teaching because there was no way I was
6:33 going to be able to sustain a teaching career in that normal teacher life where you're working seven to three and be able to fund the rest of my existence here in Los Angeles so financially it was really the major the major reason why so you know I joke that you know having a psychology degree and being a teacher actually was a great background for for so but kind of kind of peel that for us a little bit I mean did was that really the case and how so absolutely I mean I only have a bachelor's degree in Psychology I didn't go all the way or
7:08 anything but that's all you do all day is have patience for people listen to people I joke that I'm a house therapist more often than not I'm on the phone holding their hands telling them it's going to be okay it's going to work out what the next step is so and then of course the dealing with people part that just all the difficult personalities that you're going to come across which is similar to teaching right you have parents that are difficult you have co-workers that are difficult you have competition as a teacher too you know who is a better teacher who who's liked more by the parents
7:45 so all those things translate into real estate in their own way and you said excuse me you said something interesting um before we you know came into the interview so you were telling me that um you actually spend very little of your time looking at houses right so you're a residential real estate agent that's different I was in the commercial land so this this aspect but I I frankly always thought oh gosh you must spend you know at least half your time you know going from house to house so how is I mean how is that possible if you're you're selling houses you're not
8:21 spending a lot of your time in them you're really not I mean between the internet and our limited inventory in Los Angeles and maybe that's different in other places but here we never have a lot of properties on the market at one time things fly off the market rather quickly if they're priced right so you don't a have that much to show your client depending what their price range is be now with covid it takes an extremely serious buyer to jump into the market and they have to be completely prepared to make an offer after they see a property so there's no open housing
8:57 there's no just you know let's peruse this house or that house you have to be really have your your narrow down search ready and willing to jump in so showing houses is about a tenth of the job most the time it's on the phone it's emails it's paperwork it's talking to the lender talking to Escrow talking to all the different parties involved really you're just that kind of that middle man that holds the entire deal together and the houses is is just the start of it so if someone loves houses should they
9:34 get into real estate I hear that all the time really people say I love houses I could sell real estate I could sell real estate part-time and and I always joke that I don't know which part of the time they would do it because I get calls in the middle of the night I get calls early in the morning you'll get a call when you're getting on a trip on a plane to go on a trip somewhere it's nothing that you get to choose people don't want to see a house based on your schedule they want to see a house or make a purchase or sell a house based on their life so you know someone that wants to get into real estate has to be willing to know
10:09 and work all the time and know that it's about 90 not glamorous I would say you know watching TV shows about real estate people think it is mostly about the showing the the dressing up the seeing beautiful places it really is not you see more disgusting places that you do see beautiful places you learn a lot about how people live it's so something you just said just almost made me laugh out loud and it's not the glamor of the real Rick our director and I used to talk about the
10:44 glamor of show business I mean if people knew what really went on behind the scenes the glamor is is what you see I guess edited in the awards shows but it's not it's not the business itself right yeah they're very very interesting so um in in reading about the specifics of of your particular real estate business you mentioned that you take a different approach to real estate than than most residential real estate agents so one tell us about that because I think
11:19 that's that's kind of interesting and I want to sort of lead on onto something else from there right I mean I would say most residential Realtors jump into the business to do it all themselves have no boss make their own schedule do it the way they want to do it from the get-go I knew that that was not how I could start out I knew nothing about real estate I knew nobody in real estate I knew no realtor I didn't even really understand what a realtor did so my first step was to become someone's assistant someone that would pay me and teach me I had never not had a
11:54 regular paycheck coming from being a teacher and before I was a teacher I was in college and had part-time jobs so I always had a regular paycheck so the idea of just oh just you know start you know find someone to sell a house to and and make the big bucks seemed completely unrealistic so I got a job as an assistant and that was kind of my first step into how to learn how to do things how to get the ball rolling but when I was able to Branch out on my own from from the get-go I realized I couldn't be Discerning of where I sold a
12:29 house if somebody wanted to see a house La is huge right you have a huge County huge City and if somebody wanted to see a house in the east side of town or downtown the west side he said I said yes to everything it did not matter where it was to me if they were willing to work with me that that's all I needed I didn't feel like I was in a position where I could say oh you know it's not on the west side or it's not in this neighborhood or that neighborhood and so I went with the business and I would say probably what you're thinking is that most Realtors stick to a
13:04 neighborhood they become a specialist in that neighborhood for me I'm selling myself I'm helping you get the house you want I'm helping sell the house you need to sell I'll figure it out you know every neighborhood is a little bit different but the gist of the job is the same no matter if you're used to the 405 or west of 45 yeah so when I when I it's what I foundationally about this when I was in the real estate business I was always client focused so I always used to say to my staff it's harder for me to find another client than it is another good property
13:39 or whatever those relationships were really important and this is what I wanted to excuse me this is what this is what I what I wanted to ask you about is how has been being more person focused as opposed to Neighborhood focused how has that impacted your business and I feel that building those relationships is what continues the business someone early on once told me it's not about each house you sell it's you're never going to retire off one house you're
14:15 never just going to be done so it's really about that relationship if I do a good job for the single girl the single girl maybe will eventually get married and then she will need the next spot and then they'll have kids and need the next spot and then you go the other way you have an older couple maybe they're downsizing you want to be the first person they think of so it's all about the relationship it's how the job that you did and how hard you worked besides that I don't build the houses you know I don't fix the houses I'm really just the your best house friend basically
14:50 so how have you you've been in you know the real estate business now for what 13 14 years how do you build those relationships within within your practice I mean I would say it's all about staying in touch it's all about following up again you know you can't just cut them off when you unless it just went absolutely horribly and you want to stay away and they want to stay away from you which you know it does happen things you tend to be the one they're going to blame right you're the closest in the relationship of the purchase or the sale if something goes wrong it probably wasn't your fault but
15:26 they're going to remember you or part of it you may never hear from them again and that's fine but the ones that go well which is most often you have to follow up you have to stay in touch I started when it was just Myspace there was no Facebook or whatever so you know now we have all of the social media to stay in touch with so my older clients prefer the phone call so my younger clients we chitchat that over social media is it always about houses of course not but we're humans and so we stay in touch it's a human interaction whatever makes them think of me as long
16:03 as they think of me all right they like my dog they like my niece whatever they like you know so so is it true no publicity is bad publicity exactly that seems to be the for here here in Los Angeles now you used real estate to build wealth in two different ways right so both as a realtor and as investor as an investment right talk talk about I mean was that what you had planned to do or how did you come how did you come to that that
16:38 was not the plan I mean my plan was really just get in and figure it out I was really lucky that the so the first person I was an assistant for was in commercial okay and that was maybe six months or so that I was with him he sold apartment buildings mostly oh and that was actually the fellow I put you in touch I think so yeah yeah right through real estate division so I worked for him for a while kind of got the gist of what that whole Commercial Business was about not very interested in mostly numbers not a lot of people stuff I'm a people person and it you know you're dealing just
17:13 really with numbers and Deals and negotiating that's it so I learned some interesting stuff from him then I found a residential agent to work for as her assistant and while I was working with her she had taught me some investing that she did with her dad where she didn't you know have some big savings or anything and wasn't able to get into the market on her own but her dad was willing to help her with the down payment and her put in what we call Sweat Equity meaning managing the property managing repairs doing repairs finding the tenants Etc all of the other work besides the
17:50 down payment money and that's how her and her dad kept track of the equity and she got a percentage as much as she did to where they were then even Partners so I'm lucky enough to have a friend who um was and is a real estate buff and it's a hobby of hers to be involved in the real estate world and so she wanted to to invest with me and was up for doing it in that way so we were able to buy our first income property together where she was able to help with the down payment and I was The Sweat Equity person and I managed the property I lived in the property it is a duplex we
18:28 still own it so I was able to live in half rent the other half out and deal with all those things I said you know managing repairs Etc so I was able to get in that way and then leverage that into getting my next property and then so forth so just how many properties do you own now three three wow yeah so you must be getting ready to retire oh yeah any day yeah they're long-term Investments yeah especially here in Los Angeles it's not like the cash flow no yeah no no not at
19:04 all but I'm very happy to have them glad I got in when I did oh yeah I'm glad that the person I worked for taught me to buy the income property first meaning two units one that I could live in and one that I could we could make some money off of versus most people want that condo first that house first and sometimes especially here with our prices that's not always reasonable yeah and I often teach people this method too you know this is something to think about if you're looking for your first home and need to offset you know with the other income of another unit so
19:40 um for the for the people who are out there who are thinking you know real estate I could do well in that yeah what what's what's your what's your advice to them I mean it is it's extremely rewarding and people make a huge decision a huge move in their life usually for the better you know sometimes there are sad moments where people are losing their house one way or another and you have to be involved that way but most of the time it is it's extremely rewarding your clients become your friends if you know
20:17 you do a good job and stay in touch and you know I feel almost part of some of their families seeing them grow and expand over the years and knowing them for so long now but I would say you have to be reasonable you have to know you're not just gonna meet somebody the next day and sell them a house nobody you know is going to be eager to jump and have you represent them when they know that you just got started and have never sold a house before so you have to be willing to pitch yourself right your hard work your hard work ethic that you're going to be the hardest worker and you might not know the most but
20:53 you're gonna go and find out whatever it is you need to find out um and for me that that's kind of what helped me really build my business was answering all the calls getting back to people the fastest one thing I hear the most is you always respond so quickly you know I've called other people they don't respond you know maybe they don't even want to talk on the phone they only want to text it's all about relationship building I've missed a call before I've missed an appointment before you lose the business you have to be on top of that the second
21:28 you plan something something will come up you have to know people that are willing to help you you know it took me a while before I could afford to pay people as assistance and have helpers but I have friends in this business I've made friends we all help each other out so you have to have good people skills people have to want to work with you we in La see a lot of slimy type agents A lot of that like car salesman and that works for people some people great but other people run from that and so when you come across another agent in the deal you really hope it's
22:03 going to be someone that you actually want to work with because you're going to be stuck with them for at least 30 days if not more and they're going to be an intricate part of the deal closing and if so if they're you know obnoxious or slimy or never answer their phone or a million other personality traits it's going to work against them that's why I think you have to just be on top of it friendly there to help you know I never want anyone to like go to sleep stressed out I mean I don't answer my phone at all hours but if I can help at 10 o'clock at night big deal at least then you know the next day
22:39 you're not gonna come like crumbling to Pieces over it that's what I'm there to do so what's what should be the person for the person who wants to get involved in real estate what should be their first step what should they do first step I would just kind of look at your life your lifestyle and make sure that this actually fits that you're willing to work and put in that time and effort it's not convenient it's not convenient for your family for your friends your significant other so they have to understand and you have to understand that things can happen at any time and that's when you have to do it
23:15 of course people get sick of course things happen but for the most part you really have to be completely on top of it at all times so that would be the first thing I would tell people is your lifestyle fit that can you deal with that you know I'm I know I was talking to you earlier and I said I'm glad that I didn't know as much as I know now as far as how hard this business is and how much it takes and you know probably in a lot of businesses if you know how hard it is from the gecko you wouldn't jump in lucky enough real estate TV wasn't a big thing when I started so I didn't get
23:51 thrown off by that being naive I think actually was a plus in this scenario and learning I could do it while I was sort of incrementally yeah well unfortunately we have to wrap this up but it was first of all it was great seeing you again thank you so much for coming and talking with us here on the way to wow show before you go I think you have your thing right I have my thing so I brought my business card and I brought a key obviously both things represent Selling Houses but also I mean I was thinking that they're both going to be relics soon between business cards that people hardly use anymore and house
24:27 is becoming smart houses and smart locks this may be good for your time capsule wow why don't you put it right there below the Paradox of choice what do you think that's a choice that sounds interesting huh there you go that's our show for this week it was really wonderful having Sarah here to talk about the finance realm in within the three pillars of attainment I think she had some Sage advice before we make that next job move we need to assess is this really where I should be going does it fit my personality does it fit my
25:03 lifestyle now maybe a little ignorance will work out in the end like it did for Sarah but probably better to be a little more intentional these days courage at all times my friends Marie darling you're still my bell [Music] y
25:49 foreign [Music]