Meet William Restrepo

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my name is William Restrepo. I work in real estate. I'm a real estate agent, my team is Major Key, and we work with Samson Properties. Awesome. I can't wait to hear more. Yes. So what sparked your real estate journey was a simple conversation with a friend. Can you take us back through that journey and what ultimately led you to becoming a realtor? Yes. Uh, so, you're put in a place, uh, at a specific time for things to happen to you, right? Um, I am not a runner, and, uh, it happened to be Thanksgiving 2017, and a friend of mine is like, "Hey, we're doing a turkey trot. How about you come over?" And I brought my daughters,

The Turkey Trot That Changed Everything

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and after we ran for five miles in November, uh, we started talking and he's like, "Hey, you know, you should get your real estate license. I just got mine and I just had a transaction and I sold a couple of homes." And of course, he's giving me the kind of fun part of it, uh, the opportunities, the income and everything. He made it sound really, really easy. I've always had kind of a passion for homes, construction. My background is in civil engineering, and, uh, it just piqued my interest and, uh, I was like, "You know what? I should get my license." He's like, "You're bilingual. You are good at talking to people, making relations, and, you know, this, that, and the other." And I was like, "You know what? Let's go." And, uh, here I am. Awesome. It's amazing how a single conversation can change so much, right? Yes. And then, um, how has your background in civil engineering and construction helped you provide a different level of insight and service to your clients throughout the buying and selling process? That's a good question. So the way that I practice, uh, my civil engineering degree was doing construction management. In construction management, you are essentially- In a kind of a service industry, you're servicing your client. Your client is the person building, and you're managing the contractors who are building it. You are kind of that intermediary, right? So if you wanna think about like a restaurant,

Engineering Skills That Translate To Homes

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we are the servers, right? We're bringing orders to the kitchen from the clients in the front of the house sort of thing. So, if you convert that to real estate, it is a service and a relationship industry. And, uh, all of those skills where I was able to bring those skills into my real estate career, and it has worked out really well. Additionally, uh, the opportunities to, you know, like being in the field, seeing construction, seeing things happening, not that I'm an expert at that. I, I have not that many um, renovation skills, if you will, or, or fix-it skills. Um, but that kinda gives you a, also a little bit of a perspective into how to look at a home and how to look for those little things here and there that, this might need some fixing, this is something that we need to pay attention to, kind of those red flags. You know, it, it kinda goes back and forth, uh, on the skill set. You can use them in, in either, either career. Mm-hmm. Yeah, it's nice being able to come in with, you know, a certain set of skills that you can also utilize in, like a new, um, like a new industry. But one thing that really stood out was your belief that real estate is a relationship business rather than a transaction business. Why has that belief become such a core part of how you serve your clients? I think that the I think the main reason for me to look at it that way is because the transaction part of it is ancillary to the relationship part of it. It is kind of a result of that relationship part of it. Um,

Why Relationships Matter More Than Deals

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you typically work with people that you know, like, and trust, right? And those are the people that you wanna be surrounded by, those are the people that you wanna be around working, partying, hanging out, working out, doing all of this stuff. And the transaction part of it comes as a secondary part. I'd rather be your friend than have a, bad transaction, for example. Or to be money-driven. I think that, that is the other, that is the other layer of it. The drive should be to have a relationship with a person, not just the financial aspect of it. When you start looking at people with numbers and, you know, money signs in their faces, is, is not, it's not, that's not who I am. Yeah. That's not who I am. Yeah. And I think a relationship is tru- or a relationship and trust, it, it helps you better serve someone because you get to know who they are and kind of from that, you're able to better help them find what they want, right? So one of our, one of our, In our code of ethics as a realtor, and there's a difference between being a salesperson and a realtor or an agent and a realtor, we have a higher standard. Uh, we are to be looking out for the best interest of the client, even if it goes against our own best interest. Uh, we have a fiduciary responsibility to our clients, and that's how I look at it. And as long as you keep caring about that fiduciary responsibility, again, the finances and the money will come. So you just need to really look out for them. Right. And you've worked with many different people, from first-time buyers to lifelong friends. Um, is there a client story that captures why you love what you do? My goodness. Um, so each transaction is unique, just like every home is unique. Even if two homes are, have the same materials, built by the same person, one is here, the other one is there, so that makes them unique. And it is that way with every person that you, you know, that you work with in this industry. So each story is special in i- in its own kind of way. One

The Three Generation Homebuying Story

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that keeps coming back to me whenever I'm asked this question is a family of three generations living in an apartment for 20 years. Um, they came to me, and it was like a seven-month loan process to get them from, "Hey, we need to move because we are-- we fear for our safety, but we don't know what to do. We don't know, you know, what can we do if we need to rent, if we need to-- w- we are able to buy or something like that." And we started working with them, seven months, if you can imagine that, to get them from a place where they had no idea to getting a single-family home. Uh, beautiful colonial, three stories. They can actually f- fit in it now, and it w- it had an unfinished basement that they... It was incredible to go down in the basement, and they were already planning their dreams, the wall, the bathroom, the thing, you know. That story, having the entire family at the settlement table and getting tears of joy after getting that hug, and you know what I mean by that hug from, uh, Mom, just like she couldn't believe it. She couldn't believe it. And that story keeps coming back. Mm-hmm. Just to be able to help three generations all at once. Yeah. And it's amazing you were able to do that for them, especially with them, you know, fearing for their safety. You know, you were able to help them find a home that, you know, they... 'Cause a home is so personal to everyone, right? You know- Yes you were able to help them find their space that, you know, they loved. The buying pr- the buying process is very emotional. Uh, typically, when you're selling a home, you do care for your neighbors, maybe, maybe not. Maybe you're leaving because of the neighbors. But on the selling process, you just are focusing on maximizing your profits, right? And you're going elsewhere. On the buying process, it's such an emotional part because you have to see yourself living in the place, and you're thinking, "Oh my God, I'm gonna be here for a long period of time." That'd be 5, 10, 15, forever home, uh, years. You know, that's how it's looked at. So you definitely have to be emo- emotionally vested in it, and- You get the aunts and the uncles that are experts that bought a home, 30 years ago telling them, "Don't do this. It's too expensive. This home is trash. The finishes are not good. It's gonna fall apart." So people are moving putting together all of their money for their down payment, going through the application process, seeing options perhaps competing and losing, and it is a very emotionally charged process. And if you add all of the other components to it, it becomes even tougher. So I am happy to be part of it and part of that, and being able to help them, navigate through that. And then kind of tying into that, um, what are some of the emotional challenges people face during the process that often get overlooked? So With exper- with experience, you learn how to identify some of those things. Um, body language, the tone, uh, the terms, the words that people are using. Uh, you can feel hesitation. Uh, early

Spotting Hidden Stress In Buyers

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on, I wasn't as keen to pick up those, uh, red flags and those challenges, and at this point, I kinda have identified a process where I ask for all of those things up front. So my buyer consultation is not, "How many bedrooms? How many bathrooms? Let's go." "Let's sit down. Let's talk about your life. How do you live your life? How is your house gonna fit into that life, or how is the life gonna fit into that house? Um, are you gonna have an occasional visitor that is gonna spend a night, you know, like maybe a relative?" And then you have them in front of the table, typically two, three people. Uh, it's like, "Yeah. Well, my mother is gonna, you know, come to visit, and maybe she needs a place to stay." And then you see the other person going like, "Wait, what? She's not staying at a hotel?" And that's just an example, and you wanna have those things out in the open at the onset, not in the middle of a transaction, you know? Um, so it is, it is very important for me to determine those challenges early on, uh, particularly the motivation. Let me know your motivation. Why are you moving? People run from, run from pain or run towards pleasure. What is driving this, this move, you know? Uh, it is exciting, and it is happy to be going into a home, but I just told you the story of the people that were fearing for their safety, you know? So running away from pain. Um, so now to answer your question, like some of those challenges. Um, I wanna say that typically there is some financial aspects of it, where some people are like, "Yeah, I'm willing to do this," and the other person is like, "Uh, no, this is too much." Um, I wanna say that that is probably the most common one, when somebody is a little hesitant, uh, and the other person is all in And you typically have, whenever there, there's a group, you typically have a person that is the leader and the one, uh, taking charge, and the other per- and another person who is a little bit more passive. But typically, that person that is passive and not saying much is the one pulling the strings. Oh. How do you find a balance between making sure everybody feels heard, you know, if there's multiple people buying a house together? Yeah. So you have to give everybody an equal opportunity to talk. That doesn't mean that they're going to, but you have to give everybody an opportunity and show consideration of like, "Hey, I'm, I'm hearing you. Like, do you have anything to add? Do you have anything to say? I know that you're really happy with this. I don't see you very, very keen on things. What do you think?" So you kind of bring the d- you kind of open the door for those conversations. Again, I want those to happen upfront, not in the middle of a transaction, not after you settle on a property, and now you are unhappy and you have to move. Yeah. So yeah, kind of, you know, you try to not play favorites. That is something that can come back to backfire. Yeah. That can backfire on you so don't play favorites and, and try to give everybody a, an equal opportunity to talk. I even, whenever there is a, a little one at the table, I even bring them in. Like- "What do you think about this? What do you think about that?" So yeah. Yeah. That's also risky. Yeah. You might hear things that you don't wanna hear. You're right. But again, you wanna hear them upfront. Exactly, giving them their opportunity to share their- Yeah how they feel. Yeah. So the real estate industry has evolved over the years. What are s- what are some of the biggest changes that you're seeing today, and how are they affecting buyers and sellers? I I've been in the industry for eight years. I got really excited to get into it, and then this COVID thing happened. And, you know, it was really... I was getting started. I didn't know, you know, what was gonna happen. Um, so went through that, and then COVID

AI Research Misinformation And Home Values

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turned out to be a massive real estate boom. And then after that, you know, like I have a little bit more seniority, more experience, and my business has, uh, grown. Very, happy place right now. So not that I have seen it all, because every time that I say that, I see something new, but I've seen a lot. The main thing, the main evolution that I've seen in the, in my short stint is access to information. And that doesn't mean that you're accessing accurate information, but it is the availability of information. Now we have, our ChatGPTs and our AIs and everything, and everybody becomes an expert on everything all at once. So, that is something that I like to use to help us. I'm not gonna tell you to not do research. As a matter of fact, go and do your research, ask me all of the questions you want. There is no question that is off limits in real estate. Uh, but please, whatever you're bringing to the table, realize that you are, finding something on the internet. Let's make sure that what you're finding is accurate, and that what you're finding is really what you were looking for and not some other, inaccurate, uh, um, one-sided explanation of things. You know, something with an agenda. Yeah, that access to information and misinformation would be my biggest, you know, thing in the industry. Mm-hmm. And that's gonna continue to evolve and grow. Um, and it is up to us to utilize that to our favor because you have to go with it. We're not gonna stop it. Yeah. We're definitely not gonna stop it. Yeah. We shouldn't wanna stop it. So is it good to use that as a tool, but not as like solely relying on internet search? Um, what are some common misconceptions they, that buyers and sellers develop when kind of just relying on their own internet research? Ooh, um, that's a very good question. I think that the, the most common one is the value of a home. You probably have the app on your phone. You go to the Z word to see what your Zestimate is and people are like, "Well, my home is worth this." And what people are not realizing is that those are algorithm-based estimates, where they're just looking at the houses around, and they're giving you a number, but they have never set foot in your house. They don't know what your house is like. They don't know how your house compares to the other ones. So that is perhaps the biggest misconception on people. And in our industry, we have, you know, your assessed value, your estimate, your appraised value, your market value, uh, if you wanna go to market, what your asking price is gonna be. So all of these numbers, the value of a home is probably the biggest, I think, in my opinion, uh, sort of, uh, aspect that, that brings a lot of, uh, misconceptions. Yeah. Interesting. Yeah. And you may... Ty- kind of tying into that question, why is professional guidance still so valuable in today's market? I will say a couple of things. Uh, the CEO of this big company sold the house for less than the value that he, that his own company was telling him that it was worth there was a multi-billion dollar company, or multi-million, I don't know what, what it is, dollar company branch of, of, of that giant purchasing homes and flipping them just based on the algorithm. They had to shut that down because it didn't work. The numbers weren't there. Everything was based on computer algorithms. They didn't have people going to see those homes that they were purchasing. The business was purchase the home, fix it up, sell it at a profit. Didn't work. Didn't work. Even if they were controlling the algorithm, and there were allegations of that. Uh, but the point of the matter is that you still need somebody to go in and set foot on a property, have eyes on the property, see what it, what the property is really like. In real estate industry, you have, three main ingredients: price, condition, location. The price is gonna be driven by the condition and the location of the home. You know, take the house, put it here, it's gonna be worth something different, right? So that's where the local knowledge and expertise of an agent comes into play, to be able to give you an accurate valuation of your property, uh, guide you through whether you wanna buy or sell, how to go about that, and how to do it in the most favorable terms based on the condition and the location of the home. Yeah. I think that's another great example of how robots and, you know, AI can never really replace, like, the value of a human perspective, right? Let's just remember that technology is used by people. Exactly. So don't forget the people aspect. One of the things in my industry is that we are very, like- We think about the next technology, the next CRM, the next app, the next this, that, and the other, and who's gonna be using it? You still n- the, you still need the humans to use that, to produce the results that you're looking for. So it doesn't matter how much technology you throw at somebody, you still need the human aspect or the human ingredient in it to be using that technology. Mm-hmm, and it has to be useful for them to use it as well. There you go. It can't just be whatever you want and then, you know, nobody uses it, 'cause, you know, what good is it if, you know, you come out with all this great technology and then nobody wants to use it? Nobody wants to or nobody knows how to. Exactly. Yeah. You give me you give me a dental drill bit, that doesn't make me a dentist. You know what I mean? You still need to have the knowledge on how to use that. Yeah. Uh, you give me, um, you know, butcher knife, that doesn't make me a butcher. I still need to know how to do... how to carve it. Um, that might be a little bit of a odd reference. But, uh- giving somebody technology doesn't make them into an expert. You still need to know how to use it. Right. And then another thing

Inspections Transparency And Smart Questions

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you mentioned was that you welcome all kinds of questions and concerns during inspections. Why do you believe that transparency, education, and open dialogue are so important throughout the real estate process? So I am not buying the house. I'm not living in the house. I'm not paying for it. You are. And if you have any doubts and any questions, just bring them up. I want you to have them in the open. On the onset, right? At the beginning, The reality is that you're not gonna cover absolutely everything. There's always gonna be something new. And think about this. If you wanna buy a car, you can go and do as many test drives as you want. The dealership might get tired of you going to ask for the same car for the test drive. You can take it to an inspection shop, and then you can come back, and this, that, and the other. See it as many times. For a house, you go and see it one, two showings, maybe you go to an open house, and then you're writing a contract. You haven't really had an opportunity to get acquainted with that home, but then you go to the home inspection. This is your opportunity to get acquainted with the home. And the home inspection is one, two hours, maybe three if the house is really big. So this is your opportunity to get to know the house. So ask all of the questions you can, because after the inspection, you're seeing that home at the final walkthrough. So, you know, think about that. You are not really getting that much time in the house, so when you have the opportunity, you should ask as much as you can, as much as you can. Mm-hmm. Yeah, and then kind of tying into that question, what are some questions that every buyer or seller should be asking before making a major real estate decision? Ooh. Um, well, number one, can I afford it? Don't assume. Don't say, "I can't afford this, so I'm not trying it." You should ask the question from a professional. You're probably gonna come to me, please, uh, as a real estate agent, and we have the partners to connect you with that will guide you in the process. The first question should be, for a buyer, what is my purchasing power? Okay. How much can I afford? And then from the how much can I afford, what am I comfortable with? Because those two things might be a little bit different. Okay? Um, so don't overextend you- don't overextend yourself. Make sure that you're comfortable, uh, with your monthly payments. Uh, don't for- don't pay t- so much attention to the final price. Pay attention to your monthly payment. That's how people buy things. Uh, and the average life of a loan, your first mortgage, used to be five years, now it seems to be seven years, before somebody either sells or refinances. So keep in mind that that is also temporary. Okay? The majority of people are either moving up or refinancing, getting better terms. So can I afford it? And then on the seller side is I know that you love your house. I know that you put a lot of blood, sweat, and tears into it. You're not buying the house. You need to appeal to the buyers, okay? So unless you're purchasing your own home, please work with me. We need to appeal to the buyers, and it doesn't mean that you need to transform a home or redo the home or anything, but you need to present the home in the best possible way that is gonna attract the most amount of buyers. So I'm not here to criticize your house. This is advice, and that's why you brought me in. So, um- Your house is worth what a buyer wants to pay, not necessarily what you think it's worth. It's what a buyer wants to pay. Um, and the best way to get the most value for it is to have the most amount of buyers looking at it. And the way to get the most amount of buyers looking at it is to price it competitively and make it look beautiful And for anyone considering a move, exploring home ownership, or looking for trusted real estate advice in DC, Maryland, or Virginia, where can they find and connect with you? Yes. So william@majorkere, R-E as in real estate, .com. I am on Instagram at wrestreporealtor. And, uh, in Facebook, I'm also open, William Restrepo. You can find me there. Uh, but you can also reach out to me directly at 413-883-4252.

How To Reach William And Final Thoughts

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Awesome. So a bunch of different places to find you. Yes. And as we wrap up, is there anything you'd like to add that I haven't touched on today? No, I, I'm really appreciative of the, uh, of the opportunity to speak to your audience and as, s- reach out as many people as I can. And, uh, everybody loves to talk about real estate, so I li- live and breathe real estate. I am very passionate about it, and, uh, it's always a good time to talk about it. Awesome. Yeah. Thank you so much, William, for joining me on the podcast and sharing your passion, knowledge, and inspiring story with us. I wish you the very best in all that comes your way in the future. Thank you. Thank you. I appreciate you. All right.