0:00 [Music] who are [Music] you and where are you going what do you [Music] want hello and welcome to people making money I'm your host Kevin bemel and we're here every Wednesday at 10: a.m. Pacific time to talk about matters related to starting and running a business building a professional practice and also wealth building and uh so without uh any further Ado because I
0:36 want to get right to my guest uh um Aram afar so Aram and I met actually um through a mutual friend of our Sharon nir at air advisors um Sharon is a a wealth advisor and uh you know we kind of hit it off we have a I think a somewhat similar background um and in a subsequent call um Aaron was telling me about a service kind of a new real estate service in which he's involved so I you know said hey you know really would love to have have you come on the show and so so here
1:12 we are and and I don't want to spend a lot of time with me talking get right to to arum so uh thanks first of all thanks for coming on the show I really appreciate it uh Kevin thank you so much for having me I really appreciate it was great to meet you couple few months ago and um yeah here we are I really appreciate the opportunity yeah so so Aram um tell us start out by just telling us a you know a little bit about um your background um how how you got into the you know the real estate business I we're both uh I think Native Californians which makes this kind of
1:47 unique right so tell you know as as far starting as far back as you want to go because younger people watch this and get ideas about yeah yeah uh well I'm a native Angelino um and uh I actually went to school here uh I graduated from the University of Southern California in 2021 Marshall School of Business and you know shortly yeah go chares yeah shortly after I um I got into real estate via the mortgage business you know it was the we were in the mid 2000s and you know rates were very low and you know it it was just it was a booming industry
2:22 and um did really well and shortly shortly after that I guess a few years later the market shifted and then of course you know we had the 2008 2009 crash at that point I transitioned my business from being in mortgages to actually uh getting into assisting in the distressed property market and uh what we did is I me that was a huge sector of the real estate industry right right we kind of made it we we we we saw that in that crisis there was an opportunity right and we really uh I I made it a real Focus to make sure that like I understood what was going on you
2:59 know what was happening to to to people who owned properties and and what was happening with their lenders Etc so we really we ended up uh selling hundreds of properties through that process when when people couldn't keep their homes and whatnot but that was my cutting teeth in getting into the the real estate sales World um and then from from sorry I can just if I can just interject why why coming out of College real estate as opposed to I don't know you know manufacturing or you saying why why real estate well it's funny you say that because actually when I did immediately
3:35 graduate from University I did um I did get into the manufacturing business which was my parents were in the textile and in the packaging business and they had a couple of different businesses based on based in downtown uh Commerce California and uh I did go work there for a couple of years but you know I had been doing that throughout my college Years and and and a couple of years after and for some reason I just didn't love it um it was just you know it was just it was not a preference for me you know and and I and I and I wanted to do something that I that I thought was fun
4:11 and that I could really understand and I and I had always knew and understood that you know real estate is such a you know it's like the these properties and the land in which they they they live on you know they're never going to create more of them you know so so there's an inherent value in these things and I really wanted to learn about that and I wanted to I just really wanted to learn about what how do you acquire these you know what goes into selling them what are the other uh what are the other businesses around you know anything involving properties and so so my entry
4:46 way my my entry was was in the mortgage side of it and so I did end up learning a lot about the financing side of it and under underwriting and what it takes and all those things so I I still have that knowledge and background which has actually been very useful for me even today you know um so if you don't mind my asking a follow-up question and and and you can decline to answer this but how did your parents respond when you told them basically you know you didn't want to follow in their footsteps yeah yeah it was uh that was actually difficult it was a very difficult decision to make um and sometime you know even to today thank God my parents
5:22 are still around and you know we'll play I'll play tennis with my dad or I'll go over there for dinner and we'll still talk about the opportunities that may have been if I had stayed in business with him you know um so there is there is like not regret but I do I do sometimes wonder you know if I had stuck through it what I could have done maybe with their businesses um but but I don't regret the the decision that I made because of the opportunities that I have been able to encounter and the people that I employ and the the opportunities that I've
5:58 created for so so many people that like you know that work with me and on my team and all these different things so um I think at the end of the day it was it was the right choice for me yeah yeah good and so so you worked in distressed real estate for for quite a while eventually those properties you know sort of got absorbed in the market right at itself so correct what was your kind of your next step from there right so um you know when I had begun that real estate business of of property sales it was kind of around the time in which I was uh I had met my my my now wife and
6:36 she happens to be from London from the UK and um you know so I would travel to London often with her in those early years that we had met and early on we had met a uh a friend of hers who worked at a company called quintessentially which is is started in London and you know today has 40 offices you know brick-and-mortar offices worldwide wow and their entire business is basically providing concierge and luxury lifestyle services to high- net worth individuals families offices on on
7:12 sort of like a on a membership type of basis so an individual will pay quintessentially anywhere between 10 and $50,000 a year to provide like full full concierge take care of all of your life you know needs it can range from anything to I'm booking travel accommodations I my my uh we're moving to a new area I need my kids needs we need to find out education options for my kids so please connect me with the top Educational Consultants um we're setting up it's my my husband's 50th birthday so I need to
7:47 set up a big event and I need a big planner I need assistance in planning the whole so a full full uh assortment of uh assistance with what the wealthy kind of need in their lives you know to just say save them time energy and really give them that back you know so I had met this company and I said wow like this is really great I was sort of trying to get out of the distress side of the business because as you said you know the properties were getting absorbed prices were going back up and so there were fewer of these you know properties to actually even work around and I wanted an entryway now into the
8:22 luxury market so I said to this group I said you know I'm a I'm a successful real estate broker in Los Angeles based in Beverly Hill who do you refer your business to and they said well you know funny enough we do have ancillary businesses and one of our ancillary business is real estate and we have a real estate office in London and they had a couple of other real estate offices scattered throughout the world and I said well you know here's an O another opportunity for me and what I did was I said look I will open your real estate office in Los Angeles and Beverly Hills because I wanted I wanted to have that you know
8:59 unique opportunity the unique selling proposition to clientele I want to be able to be a offer that those services and I wanted to be able to tap into their Network as well so about 10 years ago I ended up part partnering with this company and and I rebranded my business as quintessentially Estates and and we're based in Beverly Hills and now I run a big team uh based out of Coldwell Banker in Beverly Hills oh so oh so you're and is that how Quin essential typically Works they they they're like um a a subcontractor almost
9:37 or or how how are they nor typically organized no um no they are quintessentially is its own Standalone business they they provide s they have an office here in Los Angeles they do provide all the lifestyle Services I simply handle I am their exclusive real estate partner oh okay because I was already at coldwall Banker in Beverly Hills and it's a great company and a great office and we have office is right here I'm sitting on Canon Drive you know in beautiful Beverly Hills right and uh there's so many advantages of being part of the big brokerage what I did is I just rolled my company and we kept it under Coldwell Banker but okay we're
10:12 branded as Quint essentially Estates as a team gotcha and and now talk to us then about you know what is concierge real estate service everybody knows like you go to a hotel you have the concur they get you the tickets or the you know the restaurant reservation right that that but but when it comes to real EST like like I don't think you have someone you know living in your house right so that actually gets me that you're so so yes thank you for that Kevin so so through this process of be of being you know exclusively tied to this concierge
10:48 lifestyle company that have been doing their business for 30 years now um you know I realized that there was a a need for an elevated service in the luxury real estate space here in LA and and what that means is you know typically when a real estate broker or agent sells a property or or represents a buyer who's purchasing a property it's quite transactional you know you're assisting them with making sure that they understand what they're purchasing or selling and you know how you how you identify value and what's this thing
11:23 worth and you negotiate on the price and you do all the things that a typical real estate broker broker will do right but but what what I found is that after the transaction finishes your relationship kind of ends as well until you know maybe down the line you know they may want to transact again or they have or they have a referral or whatever and that's been typically the way that the businesses work but what I realized is that you know these property purchasers and sellers and people who you know who who are purchasing anything from a million dollars and up or anywhere around there there are other
11:58 needs Beyond simply the transaction that that frankly many don't even know who to go to so what we ended up doing was and this actually stemmed from quintessentially referring us some International clients and what happened was they purchased properties here in Los Angeles through us but they said Haram we actually don't have anybody to take care of this home for us you know we're we spend I don't know four months of the year in Dubai we spent three months of the year in London we're only here two three months of the year but you know for the rest of the time the property remains vacant and you know we'd like to know that there's a set of
12:34 eyes on it and that the property is being upkept and you know just mail is being collected and mailed to us and uh you know property taxes when when they're due we're aware of it and all these different things so we ended up actually saying we can do those things for you and we'll charge you a reasonable fee to do so and what we and and and by the way way in London the quintessentially real estate office has been doing that also now for 15 some odd years and so they sort of like Blaze the path for us uhuh
13:10 and I realized that in La there are very few organized businesses that do this and it's actually the term for it I came to understand was it's not Estate Management because usually an estate manager is somebody who's who's is employed by you and they live at the property and you know but this is fractional Estate Management oh okay yeah so it's effectively like we are your estate manager but we do this for multiple properties and we're it's in a very organized fashion and you have a point of contact and you know you're there are certain things that we do for you every week every month you know and
13:46 so we realized that there was a need for that and um and then stemming from that uh what we also realized is that there's also a need for owners of properties that are not even necessarily remote who you know this is a second or third home for but they live here and they want that convenience of having a single point of contact who can deal with the landscaper the pool person uh other vendors that may come to the property that they simply don't have the time or the knowledge or the expertise to deal with um and also the upkeep of
14:23 properties so for example you know homes all have you know five or six major comp components in them right the the heating and air system the plumbing the electrical the roof the gutters around the roof uh your garage doors and Gates I mean all these different components right and if they're not maintained properly then what ends up happening is that they end up breaking down and usually what happens is the cost of the repair is far greater than the cost of what would be the general maintenance you know of the those components right
14:58 right but again these are cumbersome and uh tedious types of activities for somebody who owns a luxury property to usually deal with on their own right right they don't know about it either they don't know what to do or they just don't have the time or they would rather spend their time doing things that are more valuable to them like being with their family you know making money doing whatever they do traveling being you know all those things so so we realize that there's a need for this actually and and um what we what we discovered with
15:33 our proof of concept with you know the handful of homes I we've we've managed I don't know 10 15 homes now what realized from everybody who we've talked to is that hey I would love that service if somebody could just handle the ins and outs of dealing with my home and by the way if something breaks down I know who to call I'll call you I won't have to I won't have to call and look up four different you know plumbing companies or four different roofers I know that if I go to you because you know I I'm I'm contracted with you that you will find
16:08 me three or four vetted you know uh vendors and provide me the pricing that is the most appropriate for the job and just help me see it through and then it's done you know so so we're we're at that point now where we're where we're going to embark on actually like a like a large roll out of this program M and we're super excited about it um we actually we're uh we're we're going to name the we're actually rebranding the company the actual Estate Management company so that it's going to be a standalone business on its own okay and so we've actually
16:44 rebranded the company uh and and we're naming it major Domo and and and Ma and major I'm gonna look this up but but major Domo the definition of a major Domo is is a head Steward of a large household or Palace back in the old days you know right right uhuh a major and do major Domo ensures a smooth functioning of your home from supervising other staff members housekeeper chefs chauffeur to managing household budgets inventory maintenance so I I thought that that was a super appropriate name for uh really what it is that we're doing we're orchestrating the the uh the Harmony and
17:20 cohesiveness of your home so in addition to being a fractional estate manager you're almost like a fractional Butler as well because managing you can even manage uh on-site staff it sounds like well we're going to have yes we if that is something that the homeowner requests we will be able to price that in and figure out a way in which we can do that for them um yes but so we what we want to become is really a full um a fully holistic solution for property owners beyond the purchase and sale of their home so it's it's
17:56 interesting because when I started my my real estate career which is now you know back in the mid 80s and there's always that fundamental decision you know residential or commercial that right and one of the reasons I went into commercial was I had a sense that um when you do a residential transaction as you mentioned okay so you you know you you help somebody buy a home or you help somebody sell a home and and now you know that's kind of it maybe five seven 10 years down the road there'll be another opportunity there but but that's
18:32 pretty much it whereas if I when I went into commercial real estate I could help somebody buy or sell a property if I help them buy a property I could manage the property for them um and then you know use that as a way to bring them additional opportunities to buy more properties expand their portfolio and create really create a a a relationship an ongoing relationship so sounds very much like this is what you're building really for the first time in in the residential real residential side of
19:08 of the business that's a really good analogy Kevin exactly and in fact I think that you said the word which is a an ongoing relationship you know and um I think you know at at at at some point down the line you know our relationship is always with the individual or the family but you know if our goal will be to one day you know really have like a a relationship with the property you know so that so that we become uh integral in in like the ownership of the property and eventually you know by using
19:43 technology and and automated systems and um I mean because we're we're already starting to Tinker with all this stuff but but eventually you know we will be able to offer services like this but for not just the luxury the super highend the goal will be to offer it for you know even the Middle Market where it's not going to cost as much but it'll be a little bit more it and it will be a little bit more automated but but beyond the purchase or sale of the property you will end up having uh an additional Hands-On assistance with anything involving your home you know and I think
20:19 if you think about it you know the sort of you know our economy is moving you know especially in the Western World I guess is moving more towards like you know Saving Time right anything that can anything that can uh save you time or or or ease that pain you know like I how many people are now ordering food you know from any one of these like door Dash or right because I don't want to go drive down the road you know or I don't want to figure out which company is is going to be able to deliver to my address I just go to that app and I know that they're going to find them for me you know Uber did it I mean Amazon did
20:55 it I mean so so there is a version of this that I do believe will work for the luxury or or even just the residential property owner um regarding care of their most valuable asset you know and I think that our goal is to address that and we're going to start in the luxury Market because that's really I think where initially the the the the market will pay for this and and rightly so but I mean it's it's it's it's extremely worth it for them but once we have we we're feeling really good about the systems and the scale then we're going
21:30 to be able to actually like provide a service that's maybe not as like you know in depth but it's still going to be extremely valuable and provides a lot of the services for the Middle Market as well right right so so two two things that that strike me as I'm as I'm listening to you one is um the the technology of a home seems to be getting ever more complex the so-called you know Smart Homes that kind of thing so I'm I'm I'm curious to know what your take is on on that um that's number one and
22:06 then the other one is um that there you know like I can tell you you know the the again the commercial property management business is is moving more and more toward um essentially when some when you manage somebody's property you set up you set up that you have a portal that they can go to online they have 247 uh access to their information they can submit requests or whatever the tenants pay their rents by you know
22:41 electronic funds transfer everything happens through that portal there's such an efficiency there because among other things it can be asynchronous so I'm again I'm wondering what you think about you know those two aspects because it seems like you're yes you're in that Mi yes yes so that and that is exactly where we want to go where where the property owners well they actually now when they do sign up with us they do have an app and all of their property information is categorized in the app and you know serial numbers of appliances and make year model all those
23:16 things are all cataloged um you know and so we we are going to have a central hub for every property owner that they can just go to if they need to identify anything or if they do need to contact us regarding anything that's a proactive issue or a reactive issue hey I noticed something uh I don't know I noticed something uh that looks like mold under my sink you know take a picture of it they just upload it into the app and then we get it and then we contact them would you like us to bring out you know some like two three Specialists to diagnose the issue you know so all of that can happen through the app and that actually helps
23:53 with a lot of the ability to scale this you know so that it's just a lot more efficient and that's and yes Kevin that's exactly where we're going to go so that this ends up being a seamless experience for the homeowner and it feels like um you know it feels like you know Uber or it will feel like one of these like really like you know smooth processes where I don't have to think too much and there's not too much questions and back and forth it becomes really simple um regarding your other question involving the technology in you know the homes yeah you're right for sure I mean uh there are smart home
24:28 components to properties I think in the future it'll be really amazing and the people I mean they've talked about this I guess it was the internet of things but you know eventually hopefully you know the different components and in properties will speak to each other and if something is actually not functioning properly then you know if we are plugged into that system then we would actually be notified before the homeowner even knows about it right oh yeah yes yes that would be really cool but I do think that that's gonna take time it will maybe that maybe that maybe that technology will be here in 10 years or
25:03 15 years based on the way things I see are happening now but if we are able to get plugged into systems that are you know much more um that are online for example like you're Heating in air we say you know time for air air time for uh uh you know air air filter change and and we get pinged about it we just go straight out so that you know we set an appointment and we go to the property and handle it for the homeowner they don't even have to deal with it you know that would be ideal in the meantime what we're doing is we have a complete schedule of everything that has to occur with your specific property um based off of like our our
25:39 our uh our um diagnosis of it and then and then we will ping the property owner and say time for air air filter change can we come to the property this week to to facilitate you know you know time for your time for your you know every six month roof gutter clearing or what ever you know so so we have we will have those schedules set forth within our own app then the whole point of why we're going to be valuable is because we're going to let the homeowner know like it's time to do these things so so that leads me to another question and and that is it seems to me
26:15 that especially over time you're going to compile digitally but a file of the history of the maintenance of that house so if if now if I were to be interested in buying that house it seems to me that that information would be very valuable to me because I would have a sense of how the house was maintained in the same way that if I were buying a car yes could see the the file of of what how the car was made right it's very different for to buy a car where you know they did the oil change every
26:51 whatever it is six months 12 months whatever it is days I'm saying so how how do you see that aspect working into your business now where where there's sort of a a connection between um major Domo and quintessentially Estates or or or well you you've Kevin I give you a tremendous amount of credit because I you know I I had I had a kernel of like that thought but I think you've actually extrapolated it and taking it to the next level for me so thank you I mean
27:26 you know because my because the you know the my business has primarily my core business has been in property sales right I I have always known that homes that have been better maintained generally should sell for more for more than homes that are not right right look just as an example you know I I am listing a property that's a fabulous estate okay it's six it's what is it 6,500 Square fet it's in calabases it's gated it's got It's on 2 and a half acres it's got a sports court and a swimming pool I mean it's a dream
28:01 property right right the problem is that the property was not maintained properly and it's literally and it's gone into disrepair okay now had the property been maintained properly the homeowner actually would Pro could have probably yielded maybe a million dollars more in their sale price as opposed to as opposed to now somebody who has to go in purchase the property and address all of these issues right now wouldn't it be great if and again that's why I knew that this was a
28:36 valuable service to provide in the first place right right but wouldn't it be great if the homeowner that did maintain the property upfront could say you know property has been maintained professionally with records available um you know for the past however many years via you know major do mhm um I think that that would give another level of credibility and provide an additional layer of value to the property and throughout the sale price I me I think throughout the sale process would would uh greatly uh uh not only
29:14 assist in like the the the speed of the sale but the price you know yeah that's it's like a Carfax right I mean I guess like you know isn't that what the I mean it's kind of like what that thing is isn't it yeah I think so I think so the other thing that strikes me two is that you know most people the most buyers and certainly the agents representing them they they know to you know get a property inspected right before they contingencies and it seems like no matter how well a house is maintained they always come up with a laundry list of you know things to try and right
29:50 renegotiate the price yes and and if you have this you know file of of how the property is maintained you say well you know I I know you're saying that we you know you want X number of dollars because I don't know the you know the HVAC is not good but here's the HVAC maintenance record I'm sorry that's just not a a credible you know request yeah no but you're absolutely right and and look how cumbersome would it be for even if even if an owner wanted to keep those records how cumbersome would it be for them to compile them and have them all you know cataloged and play you know as opposed
30:26 to hey just you know send me my full file and then we would have all that information so yeah yeah I think it would be valuable I look it's I think it there's a tremendous amount of value while they own the property just simply for the for the convenience and for the ease of dealing with all these things and the time element but also like down the line yeah so I think you're 100% right on with that um and and then and then you know there are going to be other things as well like so for example you know one of the gentlemen who were bringing on board he's uh he's actually who's going to be our chief operating officer he's uh he's
31:03 an he's been doing estate managing for the ultra ultra high net worth and there are there are some like service requests that are Beyond just the normal maintenance of the property which uh I'm hoping we are going to be able to facilitate as well um such as you know we would like to explore Christmas decorations on the exterior of our home lighting you know or Hanukkah or whatever you know and so do you have you know a few vendors that you can recommend to us and you know maybe you know be on site when that happens or you know there are various other components
31:39 that revolve around the home that I think we may be able to also offer that um are are a great little add-on you know that I think some people will like for sure so one of the one of the things that I've noticed is is it seems like this is you know started with covid is vendors are so busy it's so hard to get um reliable quality whether with plumbers electricians right and it's
32:14 such an atomized B you know business it's not like you can call the I I don't you know the the the you know the the Amazon right of Contra so how how do you how do you deal with that part of it um and because I I and and and maybe I should have asked this question first when you talk about you know the being the office for Los Angeles how do you define Los Angeles are we talking about the city limits are we talking about the greater LA area you know how how what does your territory look like and then how do you deal with that issue of of
32:51 you know having vendor coverage yeah it's a good question I think that for now we we want to make sure that we are able to uh execute really well in in areas and provide like the real proper vendors and So currently you know our our region is really like the greater LA area not C I wouldn't say County but you know we do have clientele as far east as like San Marino Pasadena okay I would say on the outer cusp of you know East you know the eastern border of La um and and really probably the west side and the valley we are able to accommodate
33:27 those as well and like and you know our vendors like you know it's really important for us to make sure that our vendors are licensed and bonded and and Ultra professional and are also you know charging prices that are really in line with market and you know they're not gouging and those types of things so you know we already have a a large list of vendors but our goal is to continue to assess you know and re evaluate and make sure that these are really the best people for for any one of these components um and and again just for the benefit of the property owner so that they don't
34:03 have to go through this you know this um this Easter egg hunt of trying to find who's the best and who can be here on time because if they contact us we can go check with a handful of different vendors to get them out there as soon as possible right right I mean it's and that is one of the most frustrating Parts I know I was looking for someone to come and change you know the locks on on the doors here in my house and a friend of mine you know recommended task rabbit I think it's called it's not to knock them or or anybody but it it was it was so hard to
34:38 deal with you know and and but then the thought of calling you know different locksmiths and getting kids it's like ah how about how about just having to be on site for a 4-Hour window potentially right right you're a busy person you're successful you do what you do really well and you you you're Pro you're providing your contribution to the economy and to society by doing what you do but when you have to be there waiting you know for a locksmith you know or a window repair person or whatever it is right uh you know I mean what's the cost of that right right exactly so I look at it in that way as well uh Hey that and
35:15 that's why that's why I'm willing to pay the additional $10 potentially for uh for Uber Eats to deliver a lunch to me if I can be doing more productive things you know right and maybe and maybe it's not for everybody but I do think that for people who value their time it works you know for sure for sure so let's let's say you have um a client who I don't they want to you know remodel their bathroom or their kitchen how How would how would that work into the mix of of what um you know major
35:53 Domo would would do for them so I think for the time being for major projects like that that um there's a lot of potential subjectivity that could that could come into play um we're we're we're going to try to stay away from managing large projects that involve you know major Home Improvement um and and what we may do is we we can refer General like vetted you know reputable contractors Architects anybody who you know we know through our resources but but I think that for manag those
36:28 projects it probably is not something that we want to do at the moment uh and we're not set up for it and I don't think that we want to get into those types of things because it's not our it would not be our really our core competency right right no that makes sense that makes sense I mean and it's a whole different set of licenses and that's right yeah yeah yeah I mean what we want to really do what we want we want to play in the space of the your the the major components of your property and keeping them running well and making sure that like if you need some additional handson deck we can help with that but major projects like a
37:03 kitchen remodel or a bathroom remodel or anything like that I think is probably not going to be for us at the moment but what we will do is just refer to the best people that we know right right so I wanted to go back to something you mentioned a few minutes ago like you know putting up Christmas lights and and and and that sort of thing the the sort of um you know I mean I I don't put up Christmas lights I'm Jewish but but I mean I you know it seems like it you know if if if I wanted to have my house decorated I I would really want to have it decorated but for me to do it would be impossible it's it you know so um H
37:41 you know well so on the Jewish side of things like like if I have to put my Suka up you know for the fall holidays right um how do you I mean do you have you know Are there specific vendors that handle that kind of thing or does how does that sort of thing work yeah definitely I I think that the key thing for us is just again going back to like what a major Domo does is that we would simply be orchestrating the Specialists who do those things and making sure that like they do they do great work you know we
38:16 can vet them uh and and uh and that we they're really responsible to do it and we will oversee it and make sure that you know the the owner is getting the best options available doing the work um you know we're not we're not set up to actually you know hang lights or do those things ourselves uh maybe down the line you know for some of like the the the reoccurring activities that occur not not not holiday lighting and stuff like that but handyman related items we the goal will be to do those things in house okay but for now for all of the major
38:51 any any of the the the the serious work that will go on in the property it's going to be done by professionals that focus on that and have been doing that for you know 10,000 hours so that they are complete experts at what they do um and we oversee it and make sure that they're the right people that that the owner doesn't have to necessarily be hyper involved in the process they know that it's going to start that it's going to happen expediently and it's going to finish and the result is going to be good and that's what we're going to you know help assist them with okay so um NE next question and this is maybe getting
39:26 into the weeds too but so I know you know having had a um a commercial property management company you know many years ago so you know one of the benefits of that is we collect the rents so we're you know when we're paying for expenses the money is is there right there's no there's no question from the vendor how am I getting paid Etc right right in in in your case um you're not collecting any rent for handling these properties so how does the whole you know movement of money work um because
40:04 money often times is kind of the bugaboo in these things right right yes how does that work yeah really good question actually and it's something that we're actually currently like navigating with the best way to handle um because you know we we have not scaled this up to you know an insurmountable amount of homes to handle and a lot of these homes have been referred to us by Quint essentially or we've known these people via you know transactions that we've done in the purchases and sales there's there is a level of trust there that we do feel comfortable with um what we've done what we primarily what what we
40:39 customarily do is uh the owner pays for our our management fee up front like every month up front and then um if there are smaller related items that need to be paid for we generally will feel comfortable you know for paying those items up front as long as you know and then the homeowner get build for those items you know to be paid in the next month if if they are bigger ticket items like I don't know something that's over $1,000 that needs to be taken care of then what we do in those cases is we will let the owner know that this is something that we would like for them to pay upon you know upon you know the work
41:16 being completed and then they will generally agree to that or not and if they don't agree to it well then we'll tell them that the work that piece of work cannot be done you know it's like right okay so that's that's that's generally how we've been treating that um as we scale up well I I think it's a really good question and we're we're trying to come up with that right you know formula for how those things get paid you know I think that's why we're starting in the luxury Market though because you know it's easier to manage I do believe that you know they the the people who own a lot of these properties understand maybe that hey you know what it's okay and I
41:52 and I I understand that that that the company that major Domo is handling this for me this is a big ticket item I can you know I'll pay out of credit card or I'll pay for check for that they're going to oversee the work and so on and so forth right does that answer your question yeah yeah I mean the bottom line is I think you're right people you know in in the market that you're serving you know they're used to a a sort of division of labor if you will yes and and having other people responsible for getting things done even though you know the the um uh finan
42:28 uh responsibility is is is theirs right so yes yes I think they understand um but but it's a really good question and I think that as the goal becomes to scale and and provide this service for more people more home property owners and families that we will probably need to come up with maybe a different Financial structure for how payments get made and so on and so forth but really great yeah good question yeah so um let's say that um you know I'm I'm a real estate agent who who deals with um you know high-end
43:06 homes okay but I don't have a uh I don't have a major Domo um you know uh service available to me and yet my clients could you know could really benefit from it um but in the back of my mind I'm concerned because you know if I hand over um you know my client now all of a sudden you know major Domo is building a relationship with them and if the client at some point does want to sell the property I'm gonna be you know kind of cut out so what what kind what is your thinking around working with other
43:43 agents who you know could potentially bring you business yeah but might have that you know trepidation about losing um you know losing I don't want to say control of the relationship but just losing the relationship yeah that's a great question and and I've actually um I've sort of navigated this throughout my real estate career and and you know and being in the in the brokering community you know there is a code of there is a a code of ethics and there is like a sense of hey you know there's a right way to do business and a wrong way to do business and I remember when I started in the distressed uh world you
44:20 know you know in my other life um we were actually negotiating short sales um as our business you know and we were like dealing with the lenders I'm not sure how familiar with are with how short sales work but you know you have You' have to get a lender to aove it and they were often long complicated negotiations and transactions and there were a ton of agents that I knew that didn't want to deal with that element of it whatsoever they had the relationship with the client they knew how to conduct a normal transaction but they didn't want to deal with anything involving anything with the bank or any of that stuff so they would come to us we would
44:55 arrange a fee and we would get pay to handle all of the bank related issues ETC and we always made it very clear your client is your client you know now and then down the line um and and there are other examples of how that works even today in the real estate world you know with referrals and whatnot so I think to answer that question if there is a real estate agent that thinks that this is a valuable tool for their client and I do believe that it will be really valuable even like as a parting gift as a closing gift or something like that to pay for two three months of up front or something um or or longer six months you
45:31 know depending on how the size of the property the the amount of the fee that they receive then yes I think the answer is definitely it's your client and when they do when it does come time for them to buy or sell that that you know you will be the first call that gets made if for whatever reason they don't come to us first I mean if they don't yeah I mean that that would be the answer right right and you know and you point out and this kind of goes back to the very beginning of our talk when you were you know discussing why you wanted to get into real estate I know for me one of the things that I found pretty quickly was as competitive as real estate is on
46:06 the other hand there's a lot of collegiality and working together because you never know you know your next transaction may come about because of you know someone that you you know you're dealing with today you really need to protect your reputation and be someone that that is trustworthy in in in dealing with our you know our fellow real estate professionals you know Kevin in the at least in the luxury space the sandbox is a lot smaller You Know Than People may think um it's a big city but
46:41 really like the amount of uh amount of professionals that are are consistently you know uh you know dealing with a lot of the luxury clientele is not that many and so I think that the goal is so that I mean listen so they do excellent excellent work and a lot of them provide you know uh you know unique selling propositions and services that I think are fabulous and um I do think that there's a space for these to coexist together and for this to be a service and and actually that's part of the reason why I wanted to make this a
47:16 standalone business and brand it as major Domo and not my quintessentially Estates was so that this could literally be its own company um you know eventually it you know who knows maybe this will be all I do you know right um if it becomes big enough and our goal will be eventually to go from Los Angeles to San Francisco to Orange County to you know uh New York and Miami you know anywhere that anywhere that has homes that may require a little bit more upkeep and where people want some additional assistance and whatnot yeah wow well we're we're we're actually uh
47:53 we had plan to go for about 45 minutes so we're we're a little bit overtime that's by yeah yeah and and before you know before I wrap up anything else that um that that you want to you know tell us you know about what you're doing uh you know in in terms of the the you know this this fractional Estate Management or the concierge real estate uh um I mean I think we've we've covered a lot of the Salient points um you know if if if uh anybody watches this and is just curious about know really again how it works and wants like a proper uh uh
48:30 presentation on it I would be really happy to walk them through what we do and how it works and there's a whole menu of services and I mean it's a very clearly defined uh offering and I would just love to be able to talk to anybody who who has any questions on it and I and I do feel very excited about it because it's something that's new it's it's something that is you feel like would be already be here like you know some company doing this it just feels like there isn't and so uh I just feel like if nobody's doing it then why are we not doing it right right so I'll I'll make sure that
49:06 your your contact information um links to your website and such are in the show notes after the show posts well you know so that way anyone watching the show um who wants to contact you they'll have the information right there and and they'll be able to do so thank you Kevin I really appreciate your time today yeah you're welcome thank you so I'm gonna have you sit tight while I do a quick wrap up and then we can talk offline for a minute so so um I I I see we've got some people who joined us live thank you so much as always for um for for watching the show um I I'm I'm sure you
49:41 found this this interesting I I found it fascinating as someone whose whole professional career with exception of the time I spent in the Navy is is in real estate and it is the kind of thing like it's like how did nobody ever come up with this before when when aam first told me about it it's like you know that kind of thing so um and I encourage you if if you have questions or if if you know especially like if you're in my business professional fiduciary and you've got a large property where now you know the the occupants are deceased you don't want
50:16 that property to just be sitting there empty so you know you could you can bring in aram's uh people and they can maintain the property properly and and I'm pretty sure at a far less cost to what you know a professional fiduciary would would have to charge and much more efficiently so so for those you know who are in in kind of my world the trust and estate's World um I think the service that Aram is is offering is also very very valuable so thank you all so much for joining us um this wraps us up for
50:53 the week just real quickly next week on Monday at 10:00 a.m. is is my show uh trust and Estates weekly we're actually doing a replay with Hillary Cooper um she was she was um supposed to be my guest a couple of weeks ago we had some technical problems um and so Hillary's going to be joining me again and we're she's going to be talking about preparing for downsizing so um please join join me next Monday at 10: a 10 a.m. specific time on Tuesday at 10:00
51:29 a.m. is my show business lessons from the military and my guest is going to be Zach Arnold Zach and I longtime friends we met on deployment when I was in the Navy and Zach is g to talk about Leadership Lessons From Harold godwinson um a a legendary figure in British history I think you will find uh Zach's thoughts uh on that absolutely fascinating and then on Wednesday 7 days from today is our monthly economic
52:04 Echoes so please please join me for that and then finally next week is my every other show on Thursday at 5:00 pm uh Pacific Time jiggers is place I'm gonna be talking about Earl dur Biggers and his quintessential character Charlie Chan and and we're going to be digging into this idea of what you know what what really what really goes on in terms of how people are represented throughout the ages throughout various time periods
52:40 so we'll sit back have a cocktail and um and and maybe get into something that's a little bit more controversial than what we really normally talk about so I invite you to join me then so again uh Aram thank you so much for joining me really appreciate it all of you out there wishing you a wonderful rest of the week and signing off as I always do Marie you are my bell courage at all times