 Hey, what's up everybody? Welcome back to the Ricky Kruth show today. I've got a really incredible guest He is a multi-million dollar producer out in Beverly Hills with compass. This is Mark Hernandez mark. What is going on, bro? Hey, Ricky. How you doing? Good, man. You look a sharp there Good good to see you good to see you again. Thank you very much. Yeah, no no doubt man. So Yeah, man, so you're out Beverly Hills, right, which is kind of like the the mecca of Fashion and like where everybody, you know, kind of thinks of high luxury You know real estate and stuff like that. So you've been doing this for six years now You've catapulted to you know in the top one two percent of Agents in the country, you know, how have you done this? How did you get into real estate and what's going on over there in Beverly Hills? so I Got into real estate six years ago I was previously with Fox television networks and American Idol running a national digital ad sales team Before that I started in the mail room at United Talent Agency also in Beverly Hills Representing and eventually represented screenwriters and directors for motion pictures and television. So I was able to Let me back up before that I started off right out of college in commercial real estate as a commercial real estate agent I left a career in that making about a hundred and just called six figures In Retail real estate management managing, you know high-end Shopping centers and I left that to start in the mail room at United Talent Agency making 350 a week So my parents thought I was nuts I believed in myself and looking back. It's the best thing I've ever done because if you look at what I'm doing today Now many of my clients are you know riders actors producers directors showrunners people that are in the ad sales and ad tech You know industries and so it was in hindsight it made it may have been a little scary back then But I'm glad I did it and it was the best thing I ever did ever did career-wise So being in television before you, you know, you got in commercial and did television for a while How did the like why did you leave like the television of the skills that you develop in television help you in the Real estate world and what and if it did is that because you had contacts or is it because it helped you with your communication skills or kind of What was the Correlation well when I was in television. I was always out with with the team presenting and pitching advertising Opportunities and sponsorships to fortune 1,000 brands so it really helped hone the communication skills Also, you know developing when you're with Fox television Networks and there we're constantly creating sponsorships and integrations for the brands online You know, you you learn how to produce content and I think producing learning how to do that has helped me You know brand my you know myself and produce content whether it's through print advertising digital advertising social media and the like And then going back to the entertainment business I think what I learned there the most is I learned how motion pictures and television shows were produced and funded and packaged and as a result Well going back. I was I was in a position Where there was a line out the door for my job at what I did so either you have to produce or basically you get canned So I learned to really Jump over obstacles for the client if a client wants you to get them into a certain hotel in London Or they they need something delivered to them, you know that night You have to get it done and if you don't have a way to get it done Then you've got to pull in favors or pay people or do whatever you need to do to get the job done And I think I that has carried with me to this day when I'm representing a listing listing or a buyer Whatever my clients want I make sure I get it for them And if I if I don't have an immediate answer how to get it done. I find that answer very quickly Who was some of the biggest celebrity names that you worked with? So back when I was a United talent agency, you know, we work with you know people I didn't work with them directly, but you know, I was on I was worked in an office where my boss represented people like Wes Anderson and Owen Wilson and John Favreau and Curtis Hansen Steve Gagin. We we packaged the script that won the Oscar for the movie traffic And you know, those are just a few of the names. That's cool, man So what was your production last year? Last year was just about 60 a little over 60 million. How many transactions was that 45 transactions? Oh, wow. So you weren't selling five million dollar homes. This was an average of a million and a half That's my sweet. Yeah My sweet spot is between one and a half and two and a half and then you know Those are singles so to speak and then you know I hit an occasional triple and Homer with, you know, five million ten million here and there. Yeah What what can you get in Beverly Hills for a million dollars? Maybe a one-bedroom condo Hmm and so then you'll sell some of those like just a one-bedroom condo Yeah, you know what I and I don't just focus on Beverly Hills I mean my office where I'm sitting now is in Beverly Hills I live in the Hollywood Hills and basically I cover the greater LA area for Silver Lake to Santa Monica and you know, wherever my clients need me that that's where I go Nice man. Are you guys seeing what is the market like right this second? Are you seeing multiple offers a lot of demand or are you seeing? Low demand Inventory rising. What's the climate there right this time? I think the climate is is is Pretty close to what we're seeing everywhere else But the way I tell my clients and people that I talked to in the industry It's it's somewhat, you know bipolar, you know, there's two opposite ends of the spectrum, you know on one side if the house is priced Fairly it's in great shape. It's you know staged. It's it's move-in ready You know, we're seeing multiple offers and we're seeing over list price for that for that property if they're not You know if they're too aspirationally priced and then there was a the Seller is thinking that their house is worth a lot more than it actually is if it needs staging and judging and You know a little TLC. They're just they're sitting and then we're seeing price Yeah, yeah, yeah, so you are seeing some price reductions You're seeing prices come down even the ones that are selling quickly Are they still a little lower price than what they were six to eight months ago? Not really No, yeah, I've got a lot of agents in LA Yeah, and you know, they they tell me they're getting multiple offers higher than this price You know on a lot of stuff. So really that's what I'm hearing from agents all over the country Ricky well, yeah, we're seeing multiple offers, but I do have to correct. We're not seeing as many so yeah Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, this time last year on a property we could see 20 offers this year Last year maybe we're seeing 250 to 300,000 over less now, maybe we're seeing 100 to 200 but then pre-pandemic How many how many multiple offers were you seeing? Oh? Pre-pandemic we were you know You can see 30 30 offers on a property easily. Oh, really? Yeah So we so you guys were in this multiple offer market before the pandemic. I Have been an agent for six years and Before compass, let's see. I want to say that ever since I've been in the business. We've seen I've seen multiple offers Yeah here in my in my market down in Gulf Shores, Alabama. We We kind of we we we had we didn't we didn't see multiple offers till like any at all until After the pandemic after the economy opened back up and then about fall it started to get crazy We had a hurricane hit at that time too, which kind of like added to the whole thing, but You know back, you know, let's see when what oh well I Want to say back in 2000 like 18 or so I started to hear people in Denver were telling me they were getting multiple offers people in you know Different places were like we're getting multiple offers and stuff and I'm like oh yeah Because I was around back in 2000, you know the 2003 and 4 when that multiple offer run happened and I Remember what that felt like, you know, like list of property, you know sells in an hour multiple offers and But we didn't see that at all so when the market crashed in 2005 is when it when it went away and And then, you know recovered in 2012 and slowly started coming up We never saw any multiple offer type markets, right? Really and and I was just thinking man, you know, that was just such a dream back then You know to see this multiple offer thing and then people started telling me I'm getting multiple offers like in 2018 and stuff and I was thinking wow, you know, that's great You know, we weren't seeing it at all here, you know, and then after the pen when the pandemic hit You know and the market really went on that run We were seeing multiple offers on everything and I was like, oh my gosh, this is insane, you know But that's interesting though that you guys have been getting multiple offers, you know from from day one So it's just crazy to even think about that Because back then in your in your Market, you know pre-pandemic and stuff. I mean right now I would imagine you're probably in line with the rest of the country in terms of probably half the Inventory as you had pre-pandemic Exactly. Yeah, and so and so even pre-pandemic when you had twice as many much inventories you have now You guys were still seeing 20 30 offers On listings and stuff, which really kind of blows my mind thinking about it. Pretty powerful Yeah, that's that's the one thing that you hear buyers, you know complaining about not enough Inventory you hear agents complaining about not enough inventory and you know And when it comes up and it's good inventory it goes really quickly It's it's interesting to think about what's going to happen with inventory, you know Because obviously there's not enough of it. Yeah, there's obviously there's just not enough And it's like what's going to happen that's going to change that, you know Well, I think the rates are going to have to have to really normalize For sellers to feel comfortable enough to want to sell their house And feel like they can trade say they can trade up without, you know, doubling or tripling their interest rate Yeah, but Pre-pandemic you probably had twice as much inventory as you had now if you have now and you still are getting 30 offers A property, you know, they're probably priced well or whatever, you know You're still like you're still you're still didn't have enough inventory. Even if you double the inventory today Yeah chances are you're probably still on a deficit in terms of inventory Well, I think I heard a statistic once. I think it was Someone at car that I know who said for the past 10 years This this is a few years back. So let's just say past like 12 or 13 years now California should be building about 140,000 Units housing units a year to keep up with the, you know, in migration population growth and whatnot And we've been averaging only about a hundred thousand. So we're constantly, you know, in in the red Inventory wise so to speak Yeah, I've heard like numbers like, you know, we're like a million short a year or something like that like, you know Don't quote me on it. But like I've heard all the and I've been hearing these numbers for years, right? That we're down like we're not building enough homes And of course I'm in Alabama and I'm thinking whatever, you know, we we've got plenty of stuff Things aren't going in a day. We're not getting multiple offers and stuff But come to find out they were absolutely right like we should have been building way more houses Because now you look and say my god now builders are down 30 on new construction Anything, where's this inventory we're gonna come from like we're we're in a what to me We're just in like this really dark deep dark hole of like lack of inventory that I do not know How we're going to dig out of it unless Unless we see another wave of foreclosures or like interest rates go to 10% like I don't see either one of those situations happening. You know what I mean? So I honestly just don't know and now you have a lot of builders building multifamily to rent instead of building Single family for people to buy Just crazy man. The whole thing is just nuts So I don't know what to make of it man. I read stuff every day I'm on podcasts with people every day and Collaborating with all kinds of people in the industry and I'm just like I can't make hazard tells of this thing honestly. It's fun Yeah, there's a lot obviously there's a lot of noise out there, you know with with all the press and you know What's that? That little phrase I heard recently that headlines are meant to terrify not to clarify because you know, they get They sell more ads by you know getting either the click-throughs or the you know It was like today. I saw an article You know, we've been seeing a lot of negative articles in the day. I saw an article that said something about the housing Surge or something right an article And what they were talking about was 8% month over month pending home sales growth, you know from december to january Well, that's true because interest rates went down to 5.99 for a second And a lot of people put in applications We had a huge mortgage application rush for a second before rates kind of bounced back up That was just a short-lived Head fake and Here this article is You know like so they play it both ways Like if they say something in the in the data that they can say oh this bad thing is going to happen Or in the middle of bad stuff happening You've got this glimmer of something positive. They're going to twist that too What we're going to really see what's really going to be Fearful for people is pretty soon if prices even just stay the same Okay prices level out right here, which I don't believe is going to happen. I think they're going to continue to soften But even if they stayed the same, we're going to intersect we asked last year where we go negative year over year pretty soon Like probably in the next 30 days or so we're going to hit negative year over year Like national prices and that's when we're going to see I think some super negative headlines Even if prices are the same now, we're still getting multiple offers The market is fine You know We're we're going to see some pretty dark and gloomy Headlines whenever that happens and it's going to get worse and worse because even if it stays the same You know last year the prices were going up up to a certain point, you know, it's like june they peaked out So really june is probably going to be the worst year over year Like price decline where you're probably going to see a really hefty number like 17 percent or something year over year price declines when in fact The market in june is probably going to be better than it is right now because honestly, I'm expecting And a lot of mortgage people and really bright economic people are expecting To see some really positive year over year inflation numbers may 10th When that cpi report comes out and they believe that that's going to be an inflection point for mortgage rates Whereas they start to get a little better You know than where they are now so if that happens may 10th, then you got june then you got july You know and say prices soften a little as well, then you got prices softening and mortgage rate softening You know june's going to be a hell of a month You know and at the same time we're going to see massively negative headlines. It's going to be it's going to be fun I'm excited. We should see we shall see like, uh, I mean who who who really knows right? I mean exactly it's constantly changing reminds me of the uh, the uh, the screenwriter Author william goldman who wrote a book and and he said no one knows anything right and so I mean at the end of the day we just you know, we'll we'll see where we where we're heading but You know, we'll get there when we get there and we know where we know where we're going to end up Yeah, right. I mean I'm going to end up at the top I'm going to be right up there. That's right at the top. I don't know what happens And all day long. Absolutely. I mean, I don't mind you. I mean, how many years have you been in this? 21 So, yeah, you've seen the highs and the lows and you've adapted, you know, no matter what the market is rather than just You know, sit back and say, whoa is me To me, it's fun Just, you know, all this stuff. That's why here in a minute I'm going to go live just to talk to the struggling agents have them come on and tell me their situations and try to help them You know game plan and stuff Just to get back because there's a lot of agents that are just You know confused, you know, they got in the market during covid. I'm going to make a ton of money You know, the market was overheated and then it goes from one extreme to the next You know It's confusing. I mean, it's not too difficult to get a license these days, right? And people think that they can just get their license and with with very Some of them right with with very little like business experience and yeah, there's a lot of people that came out of television and stuff They just thought I'm going to come in here and sell some Beverly Hill houses and you know, just crush it right Thanks Ricky I am crushing it Oh man had to mess with you for a second, but yeah the bear don't quit your day job on that one Honestly, bro Honestly though the thing about that and people say that all the time about the bearer of entry if it wasn't so low Honestly, I wouldn't be here Like I picked I picked real estate over being a doctor or lawyer Because it's one class versus 10 years and if it was if it was any more than that I don't honestly don't know if I would be here Yeah, no, I guess my point is and by the way, I believe real estate is a very noble profession I I you know, I never realized that until I got into it I guess what I was referring to more about the low bear event entry is more that Some people think it's going to be easy and it's not it's a noble profession But it's not an easy profession, right? It takes a lot of work a lot of strategy A lot of blood sweat and tears, you know 24 7365 And uh, and if if you think that you can get your license and just come in and it's going to be easy That you're in for an awakening That's true because it's a low bear of entry It kind of gives the illusion that since it's so easy to get your license It's going to be easy to make money Exactly. Yeah, I never thought about it like that. That's that's an interesting take Cool. So what's the goal for this year? Where where is mark going from here? So I'm continuing to build my team. I've got a team of five agents here at compass Beverly Hills Did 60 million in 20 22 and uh the goal for this year is 100 million And uh, you know, we're just chugging along doing everything we need to be doing to to achieve that and uh, you know, we're very optimistic What's your strategy as far as lead gen? You know stuff like that building business getting leads So we you know, I got my stuff when I got my start, uh Back six years ago. I I really built my business on buyers and on open houses and you know, the thought being that you know People that come to open houses If you can convert them into your clients, you know, they're the most ready to go And and so we're continuing to do that on the team and I'm continuing to work with And and mentor the agents on the team to hustle up as many open houses Whether there are our listings or other agents listings and uh and get it that way I have a I have a fairly large Sphere of influence. So I'm constantly making phone calls to all of the people that I've met You know, both recently and over the years through the various industries that I have and also working the Agent to agent Referral network. Yeah, it's well. That's big. I mean we've got 30 000 agents uh country-wide nationwide with compass and you know, I I show up to a lot of the events a lot of the retreats. I you know, I I do online zoom calls with agents in other States and other cities and as a result has been very fruitful So those are the you know, those are the main and then of course marketing I mean marketing business all business Peter Drucker said business is marketing and innovation Right and so if you're not marketing whether it's print or digital or Outdoor or social media, which is marketing. Uh, you know, you really don't have a business So we're really leaning forward into our our marketing our video marketing our print marketing When I'm done with this call, I've got to go over some uh full page ads that I'll be doing An ad I should say I'm some versions of an ad for the Hollywood reporter the oscar edition um and uh, you know That's what we're doing So when you build your database you put it in one at one spot like one crm Okay, and then from there, what's your bread and butter? What's the foundation of your? Remarketing to your database so that no one in that database ever forgets who you are what you do and that you're here to help So we have a very robust crm. It's an internal Proprietary crm here at compass It's you know, it's part of the end-to-end system that compass has built spent over a billion dollars Create this we've just recently added Title and escrow into it to where you could push a button in the crm order a preliminary title report or open an escrow but back to your question, um, you know once A contact goes into the crm I've got a number of different action plans depending on whether it's, you know Agent to agent touches if their past client touches if their open house touches to where you know, they get You know both phone calls emails all automated over certain frequencies of time Are those frequencies Like for do you have anything that's in place that's just going to go on forever? They pretty much I mean until you tell you until you tell it to stop and it kind of goes into a repeat mode I'm pretty sure I haven't got to the end. Yeah. Gotcha. Gotcha. Gotcha. Now. I was just I was just wanting to understand No, I just want to understand you're back in a little more, you know, I simplified the whole thing myself in my business Does just everybody goes into constant contacts and then I develop a weekly email on the same day of the week forever? Send it out. Everybody remembers who I am. I don't have to really remember anything else, right? So they call me when they're ready to buy or sell. Yeah. For me simplicity is is so key. Otherwise, I'm just just getting the weed so quickly, you know Yeah, I've seen that often with I mean personally at times and with other agents, you know, if it's just not simple People won't use the system. Yeah. And that's one of the reasons why I just really love the compass system is rather than having, you know Different bolt-ons of you. Here's your CRM and here's your marketing tool and whatnot. It's just all in one place and I mean, there's a lot to learn. But once you learn it, it really is super powerful. No, that's cool. And then you said that coming from TV, you were kind of a natural at that point coming into real estate as a content creator, right? Yeah. So just touch on that for just a second as far as, you know, content, like, are you making like X amount of videos a week? You know, what platforms, like what do you what are you doing there? And what's some good advice for somebody trying to get into the video game? I'm working on upping my video game for sure. I think, you know, Lean forward video is is the name of the game in in marketing currently and it has been for for some time. But I think some of the takeaways that I've learned from marketing, you know, for the network was, you know, you have to be You really have to differentiate your creative. There's got to be strong calls to action. The messaging, the copy has to have some kind of a hook or speak to the person that's engaging with it. So, you know, I create, I have a lifestyle email that goes out once a week. It goes out every Saturday to 8am. And, you know, so many agents and managers have been telling me that they love my email because it's it's really not about real estate, you know, so many agents have, you know, your marketing report and what's listed, what's sold and I'm taking a little different tack on it and and basically my Email is like a magazine, right? So they're, you know, just like you open a magazine, there might be an architectural Section, there might be a, you know, a health and beauty section. There might be, you know, a music section Or film or whatnot. That's what I'm doing with my marketing emails and it's gone from I think we're in issue. We just hit issue 45. That's 45 weeks of it. And we, we started with, you know, almost nothing. And I think we're almost up to 5000 recipients now. And that's everybody in your database, right? I know I probably have about 11,000 in my database. So why don't you send that out to everyone? Well, it's, you know, I've got some cleaning up to do some scrubbing to do. So we're, we're, we're adding to that. Yes. But very selectively, right? Rather than just, just hit them up, hit up everybody and then just get all the unsubscribes. So just a little bit more targeted there. And then, you know, when it comes to whether it's a print ad or a postcard or something, you know, where if I'm going to a retreat at Compass and I want to meet more agents, you know, I'll design a, I wonder if I have one here, like postcard. No, I don't have one here. So, you know, the, the, you know, where I'll use like Roy Lichtenstein type, you know, pop art to design a comic book. It's a comic book looking strip that talks, you know, with a woman talking to a man about who's, who should I contact with for real estate in Los Angeles, call Mark Hernandez. So things that are different things that stand out things that tap into pop culture and, you know, I did a piece, I've done a piece. So I basically designed a monopoly card rather than say Marvin Gardens or Boardwalk. It says Wilshire Boulevard, which is the street out, out front here in Beverly Hills. And basically it says do not pass, you know, do not pass go, you know, when you're in Los Angeles without basically contacting me. And then I invite them to come by the office. I'll give you an office tour. I'll take you to broker open houses. We'll see some really, you know, hot cribs out there. And then basically, you know, end up having coffee, lunch, drinks, whatever. And people love that card. I've used it in social media. I've sent it out in my email blast. And I've literally gone to retreats and passed them out. And that piece has gotten, gotten a lot of traction. But again, it's like, it's just being creative. And I like to be creative. Yeah, man, that's good, man. Well, listen, this was incredible, bro. It was good to spend some time with you, get to know your business a little better. I'm sure a lot of people are going to get a lot of value out of this. Where can people find you, follow you, all that good stuff? So yeah, so I'm on Instagram. I'm the Mark Hernandez. There's been a few spoof. So don't fall for any extra Zs or underscores. And you can find me on LinkedIn as well, Mark Hernandez. And then my email address is markwithac.ernandez at compass.com. Cool, cool, man. That's awesome. Yeah, you guys, if you have any referrals out that way, be sure to hit Mark up. He'll take really good care of your clients. And again, man, I really appreciate you coming on and spending some time with us today and sharing some of your wisdom from over there in Beverly Hills. Ricky, it's been a pleasure. Thank you so much. I followed you for quite some time. And, you know, back in the day, used to make the 150 phone calls in like two hours on the Mojo dialer. So got that from you. But anyway, thanks again. Yeah, man. Enjoy. Have a good rest of your day. All right, be well.