The Alimond Show
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The Alimond Show
Joe Doman - Trusted Advisor & Real Estate Agent
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Ever wondered how the art of video marketing can revolutionize your real estate business? Our guest, Joe Doman shares his journey of grappling with the complexities of editing software to orchestrating successful partnerships with local businesses is a testament to the power of persistence – and we're here to unpack that story. We'll navigate the balance between creating consistent content and the trap of chasing perfection, highlighting how even our oldest videos can find a second wind with just a few tweaks. Plus, I'll introduce you to Dubb, a game-changer for video-savvy real estate professionals, and share insights on why nurturing your personal sphere of influence could be your best business strategy yet.
Interest rates: the constant riddle in the real estate puzzle that keeps us all on our toes. The landscape is ever-changing, and today's market tosses us between memories of refinancing frenzies and a present clouded by buyer hesitation and scarce inventories. Joe will share his own 'eureka' moment that catapulted him from the world of bartending and tech sales into the realm of real estate, fueled by professional discontent and a family dream. Whether you're a seasoned investor or on the cusp of your first purchase, this candid discussion on interest rates and their impact will provide a fresh perspective on navigating the market's waves.
This episode isn't just about transactions; it's about the human connections that form the heart of real estate. Join us as we reflect on the unparalleled trust and collaboration that comes from working with family – like Joe's experience teaming up with his mom in theReal Estate industry. We'll also examine the vital role of home staging and the importance of setting realistic buyer expectations in high-cost areas. And because his work goes beyond just closing deals, we'll spotlight the transformative efforts of the NVO Foundation, where each transaction contributes to the fight against pediatric cancer, proving that focused philanthropy can make a significant impact in our communities.
Video Marketing and Networking in Real Estate
Speaker 1It got like . It definitely elicited a lot of response and feedback and everything . But I would do , you know , like a lender , home inspector , all down the line . And then I had a couple of setups . One wasn't brambled in because I have such a good relationship with them in there they let me use the welcome center as like a set and it's pretty cool . It's almost kind of like the set of the Today Show or something , but you get to see the town center through the windows and stuff like that , depending . And then I was also doing them create and enterprises . Okay , let me do them at their model home in Granada , which was always a cool set too . So you know , I did one with a stager there at Granada , which was cool . And then and then I kind of got away from it because I was you at the time and I still have it . I was using Camtasia as a software and we affectionately referred to it as CrapTasia back in the day because it would lock up all the time .
Speaker 1It was such a hassle and you know , every year you upgrade it for another 200 bucks or something you know , and you're like this is ridiculous . So I just kind of like it's one of those things that like , if you don't continually make it a habit , it's when you stop doing it . It's easy not to start doing it .
Speaker 2Yes , when you sit down at the end of the day and you just don't want to get up .
Speaker 1Yeah , it's just super easy .
Speaker 2I don't want to start it again .
Speaker 1Yeah , and just like the editing and stuff .
Speaker 2You do all the editing yourself .
Speaker 1Yeah , yeah , I did it on Camtasia .
Speaker 2Okay , I don't know if you had like an assistant or .
Speaker 1No , I did it myself because I'm so particular about things , which actually is super time consuming . I mean you should , like everybody tells you you know you don't have to , it doesn't have to be perfect , just put it out there .
Speaker 2And so you said the best , just take action . Right , that's right , just put it out there , because nobody really cares about like the things that we see and we're like , oh , that sucks , that really sucks . Let me spend an hour correcting it .
Speaker 1Right , exactly , and that's what I did . So I got away from it for a while and I just started doing it again , like I mean , I have videos still on YouTube from like 12 years ago .
Speaker 2Is itare ? They still getting views ? Have you went and checked them ?
Speaker 1lately . I doubt it Not so much . No , I think , no , I doubt .
Speaker 2It Okay have you thought about going in there and just switching up the titles , switching up the thumbnails , because , more than likely , the content is so relevant ?
Speaker 1Yeah , yeah , it's definitely relevant . So , yeah , I thought about doing that . I could do that and repost them or whatever , and now I'm using a service , just like , based out of simplicity , and it's pretty cool . It's called Dub .
Speaker 2What is it called ?
Speaker 1Dub .
Speaker 2Dub okay D-U-B-B .
Speaker 1And it's just basically . I can like take my phone out , I can take a background , I can put a background on it when I'm taking a video . I can do it on my desktop . There's a Chrome extension , whatever I want to do , so it's actually super cool like a build out templates . So for certain like inbound traffic , say , I get a lead-in that's a buyer or a seller . I have a specific template with a video that's already been made . That's cool With links to like a buyer's guide , for like a buyer's would be a buyer's guide . There's a link to my MLS Touch app . There's a link to my e-business card to download . There's a link to my lender that I my preferred lender that I've been using for 20 years . So I have all that stuff set up . So it's kind of cool . Like there's like a whiteboard on the phone , so like on the whiteboard , I'll put like you know , high Kelly .
Speaker 1And when you turn it sideways and then you know , just like a little high Kelly .
Speaker 2And that'll be the meme that they see in the email Right .
Speaker 1Exactly . And then it goes into like pre-recorded content .
Speaker 2That's really cool , because , you know , it's just one of those repetitious things .
Speaker 1So I have the pre-recorded content for that stuff , and then you know , do like use the whiteboard to introduce yourself .
Speaker 2So do you ? Is this just for real estate agents or is this like a business ?
Speaker 1No , they do it for anything . Okay , cool , yeah , it's pretty cool , yeah , yeah .
Speaker 2Where do you think you've gotten most of your business from ?
Speaker 1Honestly , my sphere really like just the circle of influence people I know .
Speaker 2Are you involved in any like extracurricular activities where you're networking with different people ?
Speaker 1No , I used to do that . I used to do like long , long time ago I was in like the NI groups and everything like that .
Speaker 2Like everybody kind of hit the rounds with that right yeah , and I feel like that was more of .
Speaker 1That was more of a you know like everything's kind of on a real estate agent when you're in the B&I group . Do you know what I ?
Speaker 1mean the heavy hitters Like you're supposed to like dole out all this stuff but you're not getting anything in return . But I do think that , like just being out there and , you know , having conversations with people like prior to COVID I used to do that like a lot more and be out and talk to people and everything and then I think over the past few years we've all kind of gotten used to , like you know everybody's working from home and you know why do I need to leave the house ? So what ?
Speaker 2are you doing now ?
Speaker 1Can I just do this appointment on a Zoom call ? Yeah , Do you know what I mean ? But nothing really . I don't think that . I think like face to face or like , I guess , belly to belly is the term most people use .
Speaker 2Which is so , is it's just , it's irreplaceable . Yeah , no , I agree with it . So are you still getting out to the networking stuff now , or not ?
Speaker 1so much , no , not so much , not at all . No , no , no .
Speaker 2And has it affected your business .
Speaker 1Definitely for sure , In terms of yeah , absolutely Okay . Well , like when I'm out there buzzing around , more things happen .
Speaker 2Yeah .
Speaker 1You know what I mean when I'm at home trying to do stuff at home .
Speaker 2Watching webinars about not being on your ground .
Speaker 1It's just like honestly , there's one distraction after the next . You know what I mean , Just like just in our day . I mean we have four kids right , One's at University of Tennessee , in Knoxville , so , and then the other three , one's in elementary , one's in middle school , one's in high school .
Speaker 2Oh well .
Speaker 1So you know , you know Blake's at college , but we'll get like a random text in the morning too with something that's like come up out of nowhere . Brody leaves at seven , elle leaves at eight and Hadley leaves at nine . So it's like like it's a long process , you know , and I try to even talk to my wife about listen , like just do all their stuff at the same time and it's all done one time instead of like , because then they come home in the same shifts Exactly . Do you know what ?
Speaker 2I mean I do , I've got the same . It's like a six hour .
Speaker 1It's like a full day , right . It's like six hours of stuff and each one has like this or that or whatever going on , and they all play travel sports too . So you know , by the time it's like six o'clock , everybody's got to go to practice and stuff like that too , you know . So it's yeah , it's like I know for me , like I haven't been in the office much , but I know for me , I like I really need to get back into the office more and just get out .
Speaker 2Well , it's going to say out of my comfort .
Speaker 1There's a lot of networking events .
Speaker 2Right , there's a lot of the networking events out there , yeah sure . So how many years have you been an agent ?
Speaker 120 .
Speaker 220 years . What are some of the changes that you've seen over the last five years ?
Real Estate and Interest Rates
Speaker 1You know I always laugh about this because there's no transaction that's ever the same , Like you think . You've seen it all in real estate and it just doesn't work that way .
Speaker 2Everything's different .
Speaker 1Always something new . Do you know what I mean ? Yeah , what I've seen change obviously like there have been a lot of contract changes over the past couple of years recently , you know , and obviously like watching people on the market get standoffish because it interest rates . I mean , when we bought our first townhouse in Stone Ridge , I mean we were at 7.5% and I just we refired our way out and refired our way out , and refired our way out . And then when we bought our home in Brambleton , it was in like 2006, . We're at like 4.5% and I did the same thing . That was an amazing rate . Do you know what I mean ? I mean back when we bought our house originally , 7.5% was a good rate at the time .
Speaker 1Yeah , I just think that people have gotten accustomed to seeing 2.5% 3% rate over the past few years and they're like whoa , so I think it's definitely slowed bars down . It's changed affordability a little bit and then , with the inventory levels being so low , even sellers are kind of like that , are on the fence , are just kind of sitting and waiting to see what's going to happen . Do you know what I mean ? And I like the economic predictions for 2024 . I mean it's not really going to change much . I mean , you see , I mean I get emails from random lenders like oh , rates are dropping . Do you know what I mean ? They're like it's not that much . It's still like hard for people to get past after what they've seen , especially when people are like well , are you going to keep going down ?
Speaker 2Because I'm going to win Right , exactly .
Speaker 1So you get a lot of that . But you know , for me , the way I've always been is like I mean I want what I want . Do you know what I mean ? Like , if I find a house to me , in my eyes there's no such thing as like overpaying for a house . If that's a house you want , get it , get into it and you'll be able to refire yourself out of it over time . Do you know what I mean ? I mean , I just so happened to be fortunate enough to have like 2.75% interest rate right now , but , like you know , I've refiled my way out of that . My mortgage had gone down almost $1,000 a month . Do you know what I mean ?
Speaker 1Over time , yeah so and I was still able to do that . You know what I mean . And it's kind of crazy because , like you think about , I mean we put a large sum of money down when we bought our house but , like it's crazy , you can't get like a two bedroom apartment for our mortgage .
Speaker 2Well , that's why it's hard for people to get out . Right , you know what I mean . You know what I mean . Like I'm not going to get out of that , so yeah .
Speaker 1And then you know we have a ton of equity in our home and everything too , which is great , but you know where are we going to go , or what are we going to do , or like . The only thing we should really use that for is for , like , our retirement .
Speaker 2I was going to say the next phase .
Speaker 1Yeah , that's the next phase .
Speaker 2So tell me a little bit about your story , Like who are you , when did you come from ?
Speaker 1Um , I actually , when I got out of college , I started out bartending , probably like everyone else mostly Probably not today , but back then that's pretty much what everybody did . Really . I'd either wait in tables or a bartender or something like that , and then I started managing restaurants and then I got into technology and I was selling voice and data networks all across the DMV to big companies all over DC and everything like that . And then in the back of my mind I'd always wanted to go into real estate and I don't want to tell too many people this story . So the company I was with I was getting at that current time I was getting paid on profit , so I was getting my percentage of the commission of each one was based on profit and there were like two , three , four hundred , five hundred thousand dollar deals .
Speaker 1I was helping this company as a Mary Center for Maternal and Child Care and it's set up for women who don't have insurance and stuff like that , so it's a nonprofit and they help all these women and take care of them and everything like that and give them all the services and whatever they need , and I knew that the system could do what they needed to do .
Speaker 1And I was in there with Cisco engineers and everything too , and they all did it . And then we had kind of a problem on the installation and our technicians didn't know how to implement the system the way it was supposed to be , because they were new . So I wound up losing my commission on that , because they're basically getting trained on my dime . So we cut into the profit and the company's like this is how long it'll take , this is how many person hours this is going to take . And it just made me angry and I knew my mom wanted to get in a real estate too . So I was like I got home that night and I was like I called my mom . I was like we're going to real estate school .
Speaker 2She was like I was waiting for you to say that , yes yes , so we did . Wow .
Speaker 1And that was the end of that .
Speaker 2Wow , that's an awesome story
Family Trust in Real Estate Agents
Speaker 2. So it's you and your mom .
Speaker 1Yes .
Speaker 2So you still in real estate as well .
Speaker 1Yes .
Speaker 2Okay .
Speaker 1Yes .
Speaker 2Did you guys work together or tell me about that ?
Speaker 1Yeah , we do . I mean she kind of like works for me do you know what I mean ?
Speaker 2But sometimes she she works with you .
Speaker 1Yes , yes , she does work with me , but sometimes she makes more work for me . Yeah , or it's like if I could have just done it myself , I wouldn't have had to do it twice .
Speaker 2Well , listen , she gave me life . We see the new .
Speaker 1Well , it's great . You know and extremely helpful .
Speaker 2Yeah , that's awesome and you can trust . It's nice to have someone .
Speaker 1Yeah , one of my sisters used to be my assistant as well and she tried to quit on me for years and I wouldn't let her . And finally I let her and I was like , oh no , what have I done ? What does she do now ? She works at a dental office . She's like a dental assistant or something . She's in state college , pennsylvania . My other one is still here in the area in Ashburn .
Speaker 2That's fun .
Speaker 1Leesburg .
Speaker 2So then you became an agent . Yes , and that was 20 years ago , right , and you've been rocking it locally since then . Yes , okay , yes , all right . So what are like three things that you wish home sellers knew before they move forward ?
Speaker 1I always kind of walk through and tell them stuff too , like I have like massive pet peeves about lighting . It drives me crazy . Some sellers will have , like you know , a fluorescent light , the yellow and the blue Next to it , a soft light , and you're like , oh my God , what are you doing ? I have that in my house right now .
Speaker 1It drives me crazy when I'm like I'm like this looks terrible in pictures and , like you know , lights are out and stuff like that too , and I always have like a box of recess lights in my garage . I don't think I've ever gotten that . Thank you for changing them out for people . I wish that would be a good start .
Speaker 2You need to have them in your car .
Speaker 1Yeah , I know it's dirty . I think I have a lot . Yeah , exactly , and any state of it will tell you it should all be like the soft lights in there . Just it just presents more of a warmth in the house when people are walking through . Okay , but there's not a lot you can do about that .
Speaker 2Yeah .
Speaker 1As long as they're matching , can you just make a match for ?
Speaker 2the pictures .
Speaker 1And I guess you know I mean I've been very fortunate enough for , like , I know that what a lot of sellers run into is that they haven't found the house they want yet . So they're just kind of waiting . And I'm telling you it's like Things just like happen for a reason . Do you know what ? Like every time I've ever listed a house and gotten an under contract , we have wound up finding the right home for them in time .
Speaker 2That way they don't have to ask for that .
Speaker 1Exactly right , yeah , and I mean you always try and plan out in advance . You know you always try and plan out for like , okay , let's just try and get like a rent back or something and give us a little bit of a buffer zone or something like that . But you can't really cross that bridge until you come to it , because every buyer is different . So they just kind of have to trust you . Do you know what I mean ? And usually if they're like not in your experience and they don't really know you or something , they already have a difficult time trusting you to begin with .
Speaker 2Yeah , and now you're telling them to sell your house . You might not have anywhere to live . Yeah .
Speaker 1But I would say , like in general , I mean , I think that most agents , you know , always have good intentions you know what I mean and they're always going to do the best that they can for that client . Some have better ability than others , here and there , and different things . Everybody has their own things that they're specifically going to have . You know , that would definitely be one of them . I mean , make sure your lightbulbs match .
Speaker 2Lightbulbs match . Trust your agent that they're going to Trust your agent , for sure . Get your house .
Speaker 1You know we'll find you one , we'll get it . And then there's always like stuff you can do on the interim too , you know . I mean you know you rent out a place until the right place comes along too . I mean it's definitely right now is the right time to sell , for sure . I mean days on market is going up .
Speaker 1You know , and I think really that should be the first , most important thing that you have that conversation with a seller , which would be one of the three is just you have to explain the market to them and you have to just show them evidence and charts , graphs , and hey , this is what's happening . This is what's happening in your specific area , because there's so many micro niches , you know what I mean . Like an older neighborhood and Fairfax may be completely different than days on market and Brambleton , right , it just depends . A lot of people are kind of going towards those self-contained communities , their own shopping , your own grocery store and your trails and your pools and all that stuff as well . So it's different and it depends on what people are looking for .
Speaker 1But , regardless , it's still a great time to sell . I mean , that's when I bought my first house was seven and a half percent . Again how ?
Speaker 2much did you buy it ?
Speaker 1for I was only like maybe 350,000 . Any time somebody gives me those rates on like you know how many buyers we get in , like Ashburn , that are like 300 and I'm like whoo yeah that I wanted to buy something for 300 .
Speaker 2You're in the wrong state .
Speaker 1You're in the wrong state , yeah Right , and you do . Because we're such a transing community . You do get a lot of sticker shock here . You know when somebody's coming from , like Omaha .
Speaker 2Yeah , I'm from Indiana . Yeah , I'm from Indiana here Like 300 , that was like the mansion in our area Right Exactly , whereas out here it was like oh , you can get a nice one . I moved out here at least . Yeah , you get a nice townhouse for that .
Speaker 1You get stacked condo maybe yeah , but then you're paying 500 bucks .
Speaker 2That's right . One thing condo fees to get on top of it , on top of your mortgage .
Speaker 1It's like for a townhouse it's 50 grand more .
Speaker 2That's right . Might as well just get the .
Speaker 1Yeah right .
Speaker 2So , in terms of just to kind of wrap it up , what would be a message that if you could share with the world that you've learned over your life experiences ? That or maybe it's a life motto or something that you hold near and dear to your heart what would that be ?
Speaker 1Use this guy .
Speaker 2Yeah , you're like , this is a quadra ?
Speaker 1I don't know . I just think that you know . I mean like , for me there's a lot of things that I mean really like sometimes , you know , when somebody's close to me I don't explain all the things that we actually do for people . So I think that would probably be really important to really know , like , how am I going to help you ? And you know I'm 100% all in and I'm committed to this . And you know sellers don't have a whole lot of patience to begin with . You know what I mean . So , especially like going through what we've been through over the past few years , you know you're seeing days on market go up . Like 30 days is pretty normal . Now , when everybody thinks it's still like my house is going to sell in two days , yeah , why aren't there 40 people coming through my house today ?
Speaker 2Yeah , because there's 40 people that are shopping in the whole .
Speaker 1Yeah , right , so they're looking at all 10 of them . So , yeah , that , I think , is important . But I also think , like for us , something that , like , we're pretty passionate about as well is a friend of mine started an MVL foundation , so we've always been involved in charities . Like I lost my dad to cancer when he was 49 . I lost my grandfather to Parkinson's and stuff like that , and there were two like I mean obviously I loved them both . You know what I mean , but they're great influences in my life . For you know . Different things , yeah , I'm sorry , different people , yeah .
Speaker 2Do you ?
Speaker 1know what I mean Both influential to you . Yeah , and then you know , and I joke with my wife like when Blake was born he was our first and I'm like you know , I love you , but I never realized , like I love something like this . Yeah , do you know what I mean ? Yeah , so , and we've done a lot of like pediatric stuff , but now we focused everything into one , which is the NVO Foundation .
NVO Foundation – Donations for Pediatric Cancer
Speaker 2So what is the NVO Foundation ?
Speaker 1It's Zach Casagrande from Northern Virginia Orthodontics put it together and basically any donation that you make to that goes to all like local pediatric cancer . Okay .
Speaker 2So I'm gonna say , now there's the NVO , orthodontics .
Speaker 1Yeah , yeah , yeah , it's the same Same thing Cool . You can go right on their website and make a donation there we go .
Speaker 2Directly , so your message is hire you and go donate to the NVO Foundation .
Speaker 1Yes , really .
Speaker 2Yes .
Speaker 1And if you hire me , I'm gonna donate for you anyway .
Speaker 2It's double .
Speaker 1So , yeah , every settlement that we have , we make a donation to them as well . Yeah , that's awesome . So it's pretty cool . That's awesome Because , again , I think you get and I made a commitment when it came they raised over like 1.5 million so far or something , which is awesome and really short period of time , since like 2018 , 2017 , something like that . But I think that it's pretty amazing what they have done and just like such a short period of time . But as an agent , you always have all different people wanting you to make donations and stuff like that , and it's nice to be able to like just have a conversation with people now and be like listen , we've committed to do this one thing and one thing only . Yeah , that's where we're going to keep our time focused , because it kind of can be common to distraction and you know , a lot of things pull on like your heartstrings and one direction or another . Do you know what I mean ? So it's it also helps me stay focused .
Speaker 2Yeah , I'm sure .
Speaker 1Ultimately yes .
Speaker 2Awesome . Now I love that . Is there anything else you would like to add ?
Speaker 1No , that was fun .
Speaker 2Thank you so much for being on the show . Yeah , sure , thanks for having me .
Speaker 1Appreciate it .