Justin Stoddart
Welcome back to the Think Bigger Real Estate Show, I'm your host Justin Stoddart. Today we're going to talk about swimming with sharks. You're probably thinking, what in the world does this have to do with real estate. Right now in our industry, in our economy, it has everything to do with real estate. So before we get too much into swimming with sharks, what that means for you, I want to remind you that we have show notes, you can get summary and everything that you've missing that you've been missing on this show if you go to thinkbigger.realestate and sign up to get that weekly review. I've got people praising me thanking me for that summary that comes to them that allows them to choose what episodes are most relevant to them. So be sure to go sign up thinkbigger.real estate. I also want to remind you that my mission and my purpose is to help you to think bigger. My overall passion is to help you have a life of impact, but you have to do more and get better results in order to have that happen and the only way for that to happen is to put you around big thinkers that help expand your thinking, expand your possibilities. I'm excited to bring to you today, another big thinker, somebody who not only has done it in her own life but continues to do it the lives of other people. So, Amy Donaldson who is a real estate agent here in the Portland metropolitan area. She's also an author of get off the cashflow roller coaster, which is a great book. I've read it. It's wonderful. And she's also a coach. So I want to thank, and welcome, all at the same time. Amy Donaldson, thanks for joining us today on the Think Bigger Real Estate Show.
Amy Donaldson
Thank you, Justin. Thank you. What a fun introduction.
Justin Stoddart
I love it. So talk to us about swimming with sharks. You literally had an experience recently that like this could have been a very, very real possibility. Please explain what happened.
Amy Donaldson
Yes. So um, last Friday, I was down in Southern California. And you know, I love to go in the water with my nephew. So I'm surfing with my 13 year old nephew in Manhattan Beach and I see something out of the corner of my eye but I don't really I don't register and I don't ask. Kayden looks at me he was Aunt Lulu, which is that's what he calls me. Aunt Lulu, I just saw a fin, like a shark fin. Um, and I'm like, really? And I'm thinking like, I saw something, you know, it's kind of like a gray, black. You know, like, Are you sure? And he goes, yes. I'm 100% sure I saw a fin and then it went under. It that far away from us, either. So of course, we're heading back into shore. Um, and I'm just going to leave the story. There was a point out all of us have maybe seen these images of helicopters, or from helicopters flying along the California coast, which was surfers out in the water and you see sharks like, not that far away from them and it's like, "Do people have any idea like what's in the water? Like, maybe that's a whale. Maybe that's a dolphin? I don't know, right? But it looks a lot like a shark from the images.
Justin Stoddart
Just like in here you are out there with your nephew.
Amy Donaldson
That is where sharks live. We are in the ocean.
Justin Stoddart
Yeah, you're in their home, right? This isn't you sitting at your home. You went into their home.
Amy Donaldson
Yes.
Justin Stoddart
Okay, well, let's circle back on that story. We're gonna let everybody that's watching this. Hang on just a little bit to hear what happened. It looks like you have your limbs. It looks like you're you made it I don't know about your nephew yet.
Amy Donaldson
We went back in the water that day. So I'm gonna let everyone sit on that and think why on earth? What not? Why did my sister let me bring her kid back in the water? Right?
Justin Stoddart
So So talk to us about this. What in the world does this have to do with real estate right now?
Amy Donaldson
So here's the thing. There is so much going on in our industry and there's a lot of stuff in the waters of real estate. So that's the parallel that I saw. People we see things and there's a lot of chatter, is this thing a threat, is that a threat, is this friendly but but nobody's swimming to shore to assess this. Not nobody a lot of people are but a lot of people aren't a lot of people are just kind of like hanging out and and debating whether things are a threat or not.
Justin Stoddart
And are, I'll interject, and or just doing what they've always done assuming that they're going to get the results that they've always gotten, right I mean, I, I have kind of an interesting perspective, being in the title and escrow industry, we see all the listings that go live, and we see that in a very short period of time right OpenDoor, who is an ibuyer, who has become probably the biggest listing agent in Portland in no time, which is really, really interesting. These guys were a no name a year ago and new to our market in a very short period of time, through a mass mailing effort and they just came up in my Facebook Timeline the other day. Last night, actually it said "OpenDoor, see how much, or if we will make an offer on your house." Right? People are seeing these, your best clients, the people who have used you and referred you are at least getting these letters, they're at least getting this stuff in their newsfeed and yet people are in my opinion, there's a little bit of complacency. Now again, I think that there is some concern, no doubt, but many are doing what they've always done and they're expecting to get the same results and I I just don't think you're going to get the same results. So go ahead.
Amy Donaldson
That's right. No, that's right. That's exactly that's exactly right. There's people who are pretending it doesn't matter are people who are saying that's, that doesn't affect me. It affects us. Now, I personally don't believe the iBuyers are a threat, but to be clear, they affect us. It's a major, major part of our of our market and you know, and I see agents post these things all the time of, you know, list with an agent versus iBuyer and it's a financial breakdown and let me tell you, this is absolutely the wrong way to go because it's the exact same thing that iBuyers are showing the consumer. This isn't new information. So the people who are selling their home to OpenDoor, to them the bottom line, the finances is not their motivation. Like think about that for a minute that they are the largest they are that they're listing more homes than anyone else, which means they're buying more homes than anyone else and there's there's a reason for that and real estate agents or not, as a group, really paying attention. So I had an interesting experience a couple years ago, that made me that really made me take notice that there was a moment... it's something someone said to me that I thought you know what this, this is a powerful statement and it could be easy to miss.
Amy Donaldson
So I was having, you know, just a networking meeting have a one on one with somebody in the in a networking group that I was with and he texted me and said, "Do you want a cup of coffee?" Pretty normal, you know, so I told him what I want, you know, gave him my order. When he showed up to my office with both of our coffees, he was super excited. So this was right when Starbucks was rolling out their app that you can order it ahead of time. So the first time he had used that app, or he had pre loaded some money on to his, basically on to his card on his phone. So anyway, he gets to my office he's so excited telling me about and I hadn't heard of this new feature yet, but so he says, I was in my driveway when I texted you an...