December 3, 2024 • 32 mins
This week on A Cross Generation join us as we delve into the intricacies of the real estate market with Tricia Lee, an accomplished broker and entrepreneur. From navigating the challenges of home ownership in Black communities to redefining wealth-building strategies, Tricia shares her invaluable insights to empower first-time buyers, investors, and homeowners alike. Get ready for an eye-opening discussion about equity, community, and resilience.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:06):
Welcome to a Cross Generations where the voices of black
women unite. I'm your host, Tiffany Cross.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
Tiffany Cross.
Speaker 1 (00:14):
We gather a season elder myself as the middle generation,
and a vibrant young soul for engaging intergenerational conversations. Prepared
to engage or hear perspectives that no one else is happy.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
You know how we do.
Speaker 1 (00:27):
We create magic, Create magic. Hey everybody, I'm Tiffany Cross,
your host of Across Generations, and I want to tell you, guys,
I know from personal experience how challenging the home buying
process can be, and especially in today's environment. Right, is
it a buyer's market? Is it a seller's market? And
what should you know before going into this process? Well,
(00:50):
thankfully we have someone joining us who can say just that.
Today on the show, we're excited to welcome Tricia Lee.
She's an accomplished real estate broker and an entrepreneur who
has made ways in the industry with her expertise and
dedication to empowering her clients. Now, with years of experience
in both residential and commercial real estate, Tricia has a
unique perspective on how generational shifts and influencing the housing market,
(01:14):
especially for first time home buyers and investors. So she
joins us virtually to share her insights on the future
of real estate and offer some really sound advice for
any of you guys navigating this market. My first question,
because there's so much written about the real estate market
and it determines so much, not only about the economy,
but about our politics as well, what is the biggest
(01:37):
challenge in the real estate market right now? Like I
don't even know. Is it a buyer's market, is it
a seller's market? And is that specific to geographic areas
or is that like a nationwide question to ask?
Speaker 2 (01:47):
You know? So I think it's fair to ask it
as a nationwide question because we're all, you know, it's
the most part connected. Although the price points maybe very different,
and there's like certain pockets that have just extremely high demand.
As a trend right now, we'll see in like the
Miami area, South Florida area to the rest of the
country feels very similar. We are definitely in a buyer's market,
(02:07):
and I'll explain to you why that is. When it
doesn't necessarily feel that way because things are so expensive,
right and rates are so high. But when that happens,
the demand drops because you you know, if the rates
aren't just qualifying you, which they're you know, they're high,
they're lowering now, but they are extremely high because all
(02:28):
we have to compare is the recent past, and because
we're coming out of the threes and the fours. For
anyone that's getting a mortgage right now at six or
just below six, they still feel that it's high. So
it's getting better, but it's just not as good as
it once was and recently was, so that causes a
lot of people to kind of step away from the market.
In addition to that, then you have like this housing
boom and surge that we had post COVID where prices
(02:50):
in most markets went up, So prices are high and
rates are high, so immediately that just pulls back a
lot of buyers. So the buyers that are out there
truly have the power because they are special and they
kind of have the upper hand. So that's why we
would say it's a buyer's market, although a lot of
the conditions are challenging in general.
Speaker 1 (03:07):
Yeah, I mean, I think we see that especially so
in the black community. Over the last fifteen years, black
home ownership specifically has declined more drastically than any other
racial group. In twenty nineteen, black home ownership rate was
as low as it was in the nineteen sixties, and
that is when racial discrimination was legal. So why do
(03:29):
you think it's dropped so significantly among the black community.
Speaker 2 (03:32):
Well, I think I could literally speak to like in
my market, because this is like a question that like
I'm constantly asking myself because I feel like real estate
it's this secret wealth road that I feel that it
shouldn't be a secret. Everyone should know about it. I
think as I interview a lot of my sellers that are,
you know, their boomers, what I notice is that were
(03:55):
the generations before us face a lot of the similar
challenges that we did, and even more challenges. You know,
a lot of the people that are selling homes now
could not even get mortgages when they were of an
age to start buying homes, So they had to have
really creative methods for becoming homeowners. They had to save
a lot of cash, they had to partner with friends,
they had to partner with family members. Was very common
for people to buy homes together and continue to pool
(04:17):
their money until all of the members of the family
had a home. They were just working together. I think
that was a big change. It's what I noticed when
I'm working with clients. Eighty percent of my clients are
retiring out of multimillion dollar properties right. And the story,
time and time and time again is ye, I bought
that home with my sister. Well, I didn't have the cash.
I had to buy it with my cousin or you know,
(04:38):
we got some money when we got married. After our wedding,
and then we pulled money together from this cousin and
that cousin. People just worked together in our community to
buy homes. And I don't ever see that now. I've
never encouraged. I've never encountered that now, you know. So,
I think that's one of the factors is that we're
not as creative. I think we want to stand in
our independence, not realizing that when we are independent, we're
(05:01):
not necessarily as competitive as the other buyers that are
out there that have the benefits of really benefiting from
generational wealth. Your parents own, their parents owned, it's a
lot more likely that you can own because you have
three generations living off with that equity. We are not
coming from that same situation. Oftentimes in our communities. You
couple that with the fact that we're not working together,
we don't really get that far.
Speaker 1 (05:22):
I mean, I'm destruck by what you're saying about us
working together and like living together, because even though I
understand what you're saying, we still over index in terms
of communities who live in multi generational homes that had
such credo in our community. But you're not just a realtor.
You're a black woman, and so I think. But most
of us in our community are obviously we're familiar with
(05:43):
redlining and the impact that's had on home ownership. Even today,
Black Americans are five times more likely to own a
home in a formerly redlined neighborhood rather than what we
would call a more quote unquote desirable neighborhood, and it
results in having black folks having less equity than some
of our white counterparts. But this is what strikes me
(06:05):
about that, because I live in a neighborhood that is gentrified.
It was a neighborhood in DC that were black excellence thrived,
and now it's changing rapidly. I'm struck by this because
all over this country, I've gone places and I see
cities transitioning once traditionally black cities transitioning to more diverse
(06:29):
cities and driving out people who had lived there for decades.
I wonder, I want, I don't wonder. I say this
with assurance, and you can feel free to disagree with me.
Black people literally cannot gentrify a neighborhood, like if a
group of successful black people moved into an inner city neighborhood,
(06:51):
Like you don't see the Starbucks popping up. You don't
see the banana Republics and the Ann Taylor's popping up.
Speaker 2 (06:57):
And I just wonder why that is.
Speaker 1 (06:59):
Like our dollar are just as green, and we don't
want to drive out the community. But I wonder why
our success and our investment in our community doesn't translate
the same way that it does when it seems white
folks do.
Speaker 2 (07:09):
I would agree with you, So there's no debate there, right.
And I live in this similar community to you, but
just in New York, and I see the same thing.
You know, And when I speak to people in my family,
because I had lived in New York and my family's
from New York, so I have eighty years of New
York family. A lot of my families moved west. But
you know, like they grew up, went to college in
New York. My grandmother worked at Burgdors for forty years. Right,
(07:31):
So I hear the stories and I hear of when
they were gentrifying into these neighborhoods that are now historically
black neighborhoods. But I hear the stories of when they
were the first black couple or the first black family
in the neighborhood. You know, that was just fifty years ago.
So the neighborhoods gentrifying and shifting continue to happen. A
lot of the neighborhoods that we would say a were
(07:54):
formerly you know, our neighborhoods or our communities that have
been gentrified. Prior to that, they were not our unity.
We we you know, took over those neighborhoods. Unfortunately, when
we take over a neighborhood or we infiltrated neighborhood, it
isn't that type of you know, positive changes that happen.
I don't have the answers as to why that is.
I mean it is it could only be tied to
the wealth gap. I feel like so many times people
(08:15):
want to have a conversation around those types of topics,
but it all comes back to the wealth gap. It
all comes back to resources, It all comes back to finances.
If you're looking at redlining happening at a certain era
in a certain point in our history, the solution, if
you will, to redlining was to, you know, create these
loan programs that were are they whatever they named it.
(08:37):
They named like, you know, they named it community eagle programs,
community lending, whatever it was. It almost kind of served
as the opposite of redlining because it was like, Okay,
we will give you funding to well not even funding,
we'll give you a better interest rate and will allow
you to work one of these one of these community
lending programs. Again, you know, a lot of these banks
had had to create these lending programs to settle, to
(08:59):
settle all of these action lawsuits that they were found,
you know, responsible for. So the answer to that were
a lot of the community lending programs. You look up
most banks, they're going to have it, like some of
them have phased it out, but that most of the
commercial banks still have these lending programs. Take a look
at the zip codes that they offer the lending programs for.
They're very specific to zip codes, and it's the exact
same thing, you know, And it's like he who has
(09:20):
the power and he who owns sets the rules. I
don't know. I wouldn't say. I don't have a lot
to say about it. I could talk about it all day,
but the only answer that I have is to affect
the ownership. That's the only answer that in my reach
is to affect the ownership. Because we could hypothesize all
day about why that is. We know why that is.
He who owns decides, he who owns makes the rules.
(09:40):
So if we're not focusing on owning and becoming owners
of ourselves and making sure our community starts to buy
and reinvest in our communities, I don't see a solution.
I can tell you in the work that I do
every day with clients all the time, so many boomers
have children, you know, that are my age, and those
children are either not financially prepared to take over the
home and the responsibilities and the financial responsibilities of the home,
(10:03):
or they're not interested. That's what I can tell you,
working day in day out with true clientele, and it
frustrates me. It frustrates me so much because for me,
most of the time, it's black women that are running
these homes, and then they're managing these that have really
taken their family this far, but they can't take them
any further. They're ready to retire. And then I say
(10:25):
this all the time, and I'll say it here my generation,
we could have done better, We could have been better prepared. Hmmm.
Speaker 1 (10:31):
Yeah, everything you're saying. I share that frustration, because you know,
I'm curious how you advise our clients. But I think
you kind of already into that, right because I do.
I see us giving up our homes by the droves,
you know, like communities where we once thrived and then
white people swoop in and they make the investment in
the home, and then it drives out the authenticity of
(10:54):
the community. And you know, honestly, Churchia, I wonder what
that does to young people, you know, so the young
people who are left in these communities, and then they
start to see you know, noise, ordinances, you know, in
the neighborhood, and you know, different rules change for businesses,
and it sends this message to them that when white
people come in, the neighborhood gets better and you are
(11:17):
not welcome here. And I don't know how we how
we undo that, but I keep seeing that happen all
across the country. And to hear you say, yes, big
Mama held it down for fifty years and it was
time for you to pick up the mantle. We were
ill prepared, And I just I don't know if you
have the answer to why, but I do wonder, even
outside of the wealth gap, why that is? How do
(11:39):
you advise your clients, you know, who are saying, look,
I'm getting this huge offer for this house. My mother
or grandmother paid thirty thousand dollars for this house and
somebody wants to pay me one point five million for
this house. Do you advise them to sell? Or do
you say, hey, that's because you have all this equity,
reinvest in the house and you can build it up there.
Speaker 2 (11:57):
You know, I would say I deal with kind of
fifty fifty percent of that, you know. And as a job,
my job is selling homes, right, That's what I do.
That's how I make my income. So am I able
to sleep well at night selling homes? Absolutely? I am,
because I look at it in a very different way.
I look at a home as an asset. You know,
I don't necessarily I could sleep anywhere, I could call
anywhere home I'm very disconnected in that way. But I
(12:19):
do look at property as something that is an asset,
and there's one way to look at it that you've
had this home in your family forever. But if you're
not doing anything with that asset, who cares? Because if
eminent domain came to your community right now, you'd be
displaced in under a year, no matter what. I've seen
it happen in my own backyard. I've seen it happen
where I've owned businesses. I've seen it happen when my
(12:40):
clients have homes. So you don't truly own anything, but
you own the asset. And what we need to learn
to do is to utilize that asset and to reinvest
in more properties to build a larger portfolio, so you're
not hanging onto that one home on the hill that
your family has owned for fifty or sixty years. I
triculy am not that connected to that story. I'm more
connected to the equity that you use to educate generations
(13:02):
of people in your family, using that equity to build
a nice retirement plan for yourself, using that equity to
build across your portfolio. So you don't just own one home,
you own four homes, and at fifty years old, you
can decide to work part time, you can decide to
put your grandchildren through college. That's how I look at it.
So I shrivel up when people talk about holding onto
a home forever, because I'm like, what are you doing
(13:25):
with that home? I don't care how long I hold
onto a home. I care what the home can do
for me. So I'm of the mindset of and this
is the reason why I'm able to do what I
do with such a clear conscious. And some people may
judge because I look at a home as an asset,
and I think if more of us did that, we'd
actually own more properties, we'd actually have more of a
say in our communities. But instead, sometimes I feel that
(13:47):
clients will hold onto that one home and rightfully so
right because God only knows what we have to go
through as a family as a crible to get it right.
But then you have it right, and you've had it
for fifty years. And I will watch eight nine, ten
people in one family hold on and fight for that
home but never showed the same passion in making the
home and the equity work for them. Because one home
(14:10):
in the right neighborhood can set up a life for
four people, it really can, or it can be something
that ends up in court that eight different people and
two generations are fighting over. I see it all the time.
The lawyer's the one that wins because they get the
biggest invoice out of the whole situation. So I'm of
the mindset of like, great, if somebody wants to sell
your home for two million dollars and you paid forty
(14:32):
thousand for it, Tricy is here to sell it. I
am here to sell it. But I'm curious what you
did with that equity over the last twenty one years.
You know, I have clients. I have a client that
I worked with and we sold their property for five
million dollars. The gentleman, well it was it was it
was a widow, but it was a man sold his
property for five point three million dollars, the same property
he had paid fifty thousand dollars for one of the biggest,
(14:54):
most notable properties in Brooklyn. And he passed away within
two weeks of that. He passed away within two weeks
of the closing. You know, so what did you do
with the property? You know, all of that equity, Like,
what did it do did you buy other properties, Where
did you put the kids through college? Did you pay
off you know, did you send someone to a program
so that they could learn something, did you create an
experience for yourself? What are you doing with the equity?
(15:16):
Is the question? And I think if we could really
shift our mindset around holding onto something, yeah, hold on
to it, But it's the equity that you we need
to focus on, not the actual structure of the home.
Like if a tornado came through, it wouldn't even be
there anymore. So what's yeah the tie there. I just
don't like that thinking of being too tied to the
home and not so focused on the equity. Because if
you're focused on the equity, you can choose to hold
(15:37):
it or sell it. It doesn't really matter because you've
made the money work for you.
Speaker 1 (15:42):
I you know, honestly, I would have never thought that way.
I maybe like you a little bit. I'm I'm a
bit disconnected because I didn't grow up in one childhood home.
My grandmother's house though was. I mean, it meant so
much in our family, so we kept it in the family.
But I appreciate what you're saying because you're talking as
a capitalist and it's like, let's check this symbolism for
(16:03):
a minute and participate in the system we have. While
I understand black folks our attachment to our homes, like
you said, because of what we had to go through,
we were so denied everything in this country, even our dignity,
and so when we finally get a home, it means
so much. But you make a good point. As we,
you know, advance in society, it's like, no, no, no, no, no.
(16:24):
That home is an object, like you have to build
up your future.
Speaker 2 (16:28):
Yeah, is taught by the generation before us, though, so
we only know what we're taught. But then you it's
like when you get to college and you realize, wait
a minute, how could I learn all these things? Because
you meet these roommates and different people in school, You're like, wait,
there's ten different ways of looking at it. And that's
the way. I love to see families, and I see
this rarely, but I do see families where it's like
they had that one home and then guess what, now
(16:48):
they own six in the neighborhood. I'm more excited about
that conversation than eighteen of you fighting about your grandmother's
home that was paid off thirty years ago, and you
just have to think, you know, and it's falling apart
because no one's really re invested in it. You know,
a lot of the homes and the reason why people
are able to, you know, sell their home for one
point twenty five but not sell it for two million
is because it hasn't been reinvested in over time. It
(17:10):
all comes back to, first of all, access to capital
number one, right, and then how we're being taught to
look at property. Like my mom could not get a
mortgage until nineteen seventy four, right, so she would have
had to get either her father, her brother, or her
husband to sign for her to get a mortgage. Same
for any of us. Right, So of course they're going
to be thinking like, oh, if once I get me
(17:32):
a house, I'm never letting go. But that mindset trickles
down over generations, when really it should be like, make
this house work for me. You get two hundred thousand equity, great,
let's pull some of that out and let's get us
another property. Let's build. Let's have two sisters and a
family build their portfolio together. You know them, you trust them,
and you know exactly where to find them. You know,
and you That's that's where I get excited. I just
(17:53):
don't get excited about how long you've had a home
in your family, and especially if you've done nothing to
make it really benefit your family.
Speaker 1 (17:58):
Yeah, I think you're going to change the lot of
hearts and minds out there with that straight talk about
I'm not attached to that. I'm attached to you know
what this asset? Can you know.
Speaker 2 (18:08):
What I mean? I see these kids at eighteen pick
the school of their choice because the money is there
to pay for it, especially since we can't even depend
on on the you know, the same scholarship programs that
were available when I went to college. You better have
a plan. And so that's where I lean in. And
I have a lot of people coming to me like
can you do what you do? Especially being a black woman,
you know, living and selling bedstyle homes. A lot of
(18:29):
my clients are black people. But you know, I see
my clients on at least two and a half million
dollar homes going and buying their homes in cash in Florida,
taking care of their grandkids and setting up and really
choosing to early retire at sixty two, sixty four. It's
a beautiful thing.
Speaker 1 (18:43):
And I'm of course very familiar with bedsty parties, so
all of Brooklyn. So I split my time between Washington,
DC and New York City. So it's a challenging situation
because I lived in d and work in New York,
so I have two homes in some.
Speaker 2 (18:58):
Cities, though I love both of those cities, and they
and they are exactly and yeah, it's the exact same
situation in both honestly.
Speaker 1 (19:05):
Honestly, well, when when I am in a position to
buy in Brooklyn, you will be my first call, which
rings me to my next question. When does somebody know
that they're ready to buy a home.
Speaker 2 (19:20):
When they have heavy cash, When they have heavy cash,
especially if you're dealing with really competitive markets, it's really
about the cash because you know, we're in a tougher
estate market now. It's very competitive, and cash is king always,
you know, So when you have the cash, you're good.
But I always say cash is king, you know, but
credit is the queen. You know you're going to get
(19:42):
better terms, just like if you walk onto a lot,
the let you know, the more money you make and
the less money you owe, the better terms you get
on your on your car loan it's the same for
your mortgage. Even more so, I think the mortgage loans
can be a little bit more flexible, but you want
to be deep in cash. You also want to make
sure that your credit is prime, and you want to
be realistic. I think a lot of people will sometimes
start looking for a home with their desire in mind,
(20:04):
and that's not where you really start. You start with
your budget. Your budget will tell you your desire, an
attainable desire. At least you know your budget will tell
you that. So you really want to get familiar with
the market, and a lot of people, if they're not
actively looking, they have no idea. I have people come
to me every every single day with these fifteen year
old specs and I'm like, well, if I had that,
I would not share it with you. I would buy
(20:25):
it and keep it from my portfolio. Now, let me
bring you to twenty twenty four, where those who are
currently a million dollars and see what we you know.
So I think it's important to just stay up to
date with what's going on. But if you're really serious
in the market, you'll know because you have your cash ready.
You want to have good cash down, you know, twenty
percent is ideal. Yes, there are a lot of loan
programs that you can work with and do less downpayment,
(20:46):
But specifically in the heavier markets, the person next you
probably has more cash and that just makes their offer
look a little bit stronger. So work on your cash
and work on your credit. Those are the two deciding factors.
Speaker 1 (20:57):
Well, I love that you said your desire because I
will tell you I am at it to real estate porn.
Like every night, I like turn out the lights, I
get under the covers, I.
Speaker 2 (21:05):
Break out my little head.
Speaker 1 (21:07):
I'm on Zillow for the next hour and a half
and it's all I'm all New York.
Speaker 2 (21:12):
Like I look at.
Speaker 1 (21:12):
All the areas in New York. I go high, I
go low. I imagine I'm gonna decorate it. I don't think
I'm alone in that. You know, I had out real
estate porn.
Speaker 2 (21:24):
I was like doing an interview for like women in
real estate, and I just said, you know, and they're
all addicted to real estate porn. And it turned into
like this five page article about are people Is this
a thing? I was like, Oh, it's absolutely a thing.
I can give you like ten clients that I know that.
Speaker 1 (21:38):
I'm Me'm my name is Tiffany, and I am addicted
to real estate porn.
Speaker 2 (21:43):
It's just like guilty habit.
Speaker 1 (21:46):
Yeah, I actually love it.
Speaker 2 (21:48):
I have this thought.
Speaker 1 (21:49):
And I know you sell home, so you may disagree
with me here, but I don't think home ownership is
the only path to wealth anymore. And I'll tell you
my situation. It was really important to me because of
all the things that we've gone through as a community.
It was so important to me to own a home.
So I wanted to buy a home before I was thirty.
I bought my first home when I was twenty seven.
But I will tell you I felt so locked into
(22:10):
this mortgage. I was not ready to make that commitment
and be somewhere. I thought, oh, this is where I'm
going to live the rest of my life. And I
was barely thirty, and after ten years, I just I
couldn't live there anymore. I had to get out. And
so I called my realtor, who was a friend of
mine at the time, and I told her, I'm like,
I can't be here anymore. Like I'm commuting all the
way to the city. It's a two hour commute every day,
(22:32):
and I just thought, am I going to keep living
here for sake of these three little numbers of my
credit score. And she said, well, Tiffany, to get out
of this mortgage is not going to be easy. Somebody's
feelings has to be hurt. It's either going to be
yours at the bank. So what do you want to do?
And I was like, baby, the bank can get its
feelings hurt. So I did a short sale on my home.
I have no regrets about like that. Seven years or ten,
(22:53):
however long I had to be out the real estate
market went by like that. It was no problem. But
I'm just curious, that's my situation, Like what do you
think about doing something like because it was a big
deal and I don't mean to be self whipping about it,
but I felt so much freedom after.
Speaker 2 (23:07):
Getting out of that mortgage. Yeah, I mean, I always
say again, I am a woman, right, and so for me,
there's a part of my brain that is focused on
my assets and my portfolio. But you know, all of
this is for me to live a good life, and
so if I'm somewhere where that I'm miserable, that can't
(23:27):
come second to my portfolio. So I think it's important
to think about, like, you know, what the benefits are
and all of these things are numbers. All of that,
whether it's credit or whatever you can you credit is
a muscle hunting. You can hit the gym and build
that credit right back. Like that's the truth, you know
what I mean. And if you choose to build it
back in seven years, that's your business. But you could
have also chosen to build it back in four years.
There's creative ways to do everything. I do think that,
(23:50):
especially if our generation we come through this naivety of
thinking that if you don't accomplish all of these things
by a certain age, then like you just won't accomplish them.
It's just simply not true. My first house at twenty eight,
you know, and I hit very rough financial times at forty,
you know, and I was somebody that was a high
on the hall. Get thirty, you can tell me anything.
(24:12):
Own two cars, two properties, whatever it was, you know,
two businesses that was like double double dub that was me.
And then at forty to like have to make tough
decisions like like what you're speaking about, I don't even know.
I think it hurt my ego more than it hurt
my pocket. Honestly, I was just like, wait, car like,
you know, what's good. This isn't even my life and
my journey, like what's going on, But it was good
(24:33):
to let me know that all these things, while they're important,
and while their goals, they're not what's important, you know
what I mean. And so I think if you did
a if you handle a situation that way, that got
you out of that level of stress and anguish, I
know it all too well, you can get back. I
see these developers run around here and borrow money to
build communities and buy houses and flip and flip and honey.
(24:54):
When eight hit, I wasn't even in real estate at
this time, but they were all underwater. And guess who
was out of water and do well and flourishing quicker
than anybody else. The same real estate industry that crashed
the whole market in eight. Every person in real estate
that I knew was coming out of that faster than
any other industry. And that's what led my eyes to
real estate. I was like, I remember y'all running around
(25:14):
here getting red jump out of windows, and now you're
over here developing again three years later. No shame to
the game. You you know, bankrupt everything, Uh, poor clothes
on everything, when I tell you, no, shame. It is
business and it is not emotional for them. They were
back out here three years later, developing again, buying again,
borrowing again, building again.
Speaker 1 (25:34):
So and against the real estate market with all the
subprime loans. So I just so you know, I bought
it oh seven at the height of the market. My
property was not appreciating. It depreciated. I was underwater over
like one hundred thousand dollars underwater. It just all seemed
so unfair, and I just had a righteous anger about it.
And that's when I said, you know what, forget the bank, like,
(25:54):
get me out of this. I hadn't hear.
Speaker 2 (25:56):
And I buy out so many developers, close friends of mine.
I'm telling you I have friends that owned twenty plus
properties that had to make that decision. If the professionals
that do this for a living were in that situation,
why wouldn't you have been in that situation? Right? It
was a very common situation. The earlier the better, like
my biggest challenge. And I did this even when I
(26:17):
was in business. I was like, sometimes as a woman,
I want to chee, I want to prove my resilience,
and I have to step back and be like resilient
for what because truthfully, like, did you make that decision
a year too late because you were trying to prove
how strong you were and how you could endure? I
wonder years too late? Year or two? Yeah, I did
the same thing. My second business I opened was completely
(26:39):
stalled by the Barclays delay that was going on at
the exact same time. My plan ran two years late.
When I finally was able to open, everything was dead
and suffering and dying all over Prospect Heights. I opened
with my friend that was my neighbor at the other
business I had. We we were neighbor businesses in one neighborhood.
We were opening our businesses and the other. Two weeks in,
he was like, there's no money here. And when I
(27:01):
tell you close that thing down. Rebuilt a completely different business,
change it from Middle Eastern to Mexican. Wow, in two weeks,
flip that business. He was like, this is not working.
I'm done, Tricia ly now, Yeah, it's okay to prove right, Yeah,
we are attached to it. I completely get it.
Speaker 1 (27:25):
Something that struck me also about the real estate market
is people like yourself, the brokers, and about six percent
of all real estate brokers are black, and I'd imagine
when you disaggregate that data, even less are black women,
Yet your white counterpart to do the exact same thing
as you do typically make three times as much as
(27:47):
black real estate brokers. That's according to the reporting from
the New York Times. I'm just curious your thoughts about
that and why.
Speaker 2 (27:53):
Oh my thoughts and my frustration, you know. Yeah, and specifically,
like I feel that because of my level of exposure,
there's not a day that goes by that black agents
don't come up to me and say, you know, how
can I fight this? And I'm like, if you figure
it out, let's do it together, you know, Like I
don't know, it's my challenge as well. I've done well
in the real estate business, you know, and I've been
(28:14):
very fortunate to have a business, to build upon another business,
and to have great visibilities. So when I got into
real estate, I walked into real estate with a huge
client body that trusted me and worked with me. So
my results are not the common results. I am aware
of that. My challenges are the average black agents challenges.
People work with who they know, they work with, who
(28:37):
they identify with. You know, it's just what it is.
And so I have found this business to be just
so race based and not diverse at all, and very
challenging because I don't get to compete evenly for my
qualifications or my resume. I don't even get invited to
(29:01):
the room oftentimes to compete because I don't look live
or went to school with other you know, it is
the biggest challenge that I have. It is my biggest frustration.
You know. I think any good real estate agent gets
to a point once or twice a year where they
want to quit. And it is always the reason why
I want to quit, because I feel like I've just
never set up for success in that way. And I'm
(29:23):
saying that from my position of privilege, you know what
I mean. I've been very very fortunate. Not a lot
of people have a business to build another business on.
Not a lot of people have key clientele to build
a business. You know, there's very little I can't go
into my phone and get done as a Brooklyn person
because I know everybody that knows everybody that knows everybody.
So from that position of privilege, what I'm telling you
(29:45):
is I don't get invited to many rooms, and if
I am invited to their rooms. I often have to
utilize my relationships and leverage my relationships to walk into
the room people who work with who they know with.
You know, they're just not out here hiring black brokers.
No one is doing that. I've even had you know,
black people not hire black brokers and tell me that
you were great. But I just don't think you're going
(30:05):
to get me the best number. I think a white
broker would get a better number. So I deal with
racism on from my own people. I deal. I mean
that it's it is a very frustrating topic for me.
It is I feel like I'm always banging my head
against the wall and I don't want to feel like
I have to go out here and put myself out
to be this person that has figured it out. And
that's not my challenge. Bullshit, it is my challenge, just
(30:26):
my challenge every single day that I don't get to
walk into a room and pitch for certain properties that
I don't that my results aren't good enough to get
me an interview. Because if you let me in and
you let me talk, I'm going to get it done.
But I don't get a lot of opportunities for that
very reason. And that's scary because when you look at
the communities that I serve, you have to think about
they're directly tied to the highest level of gentrification. So
(30:47):
what does that say to you about my career in
fifteen or twenty years right when the sellers are not
to my advantage? You know? So thinking that I think
about every single day, and a lot of that is
why I've used my career to put me in a
position where I have a platform to speak about it. Right,
I don't have a need to be on TV, but
if I can use the opportunity to tell the truth,
(31:11):
I'm going to use that opportunity. Because one, I don't
want people to think that it's easier for me. People
see me selling five to eight ten million dollar properties
and they think I don't have that challenge. I have
that challenge every single day, every single morning, and even
when I'm given the opportunity, I have to work three
times harder to keep it. Let's be clear on that.
Speaker 1 (31:26):
Well, I would say the beautiful thing I think about
this conversation Trisha is as black people, no matter your industry,
we are all navigating some level of what you're doing
to be the best at what you do and still
be navigating a system that denies you. And so I'm
not leaving out black men in that, but I think
as black women we have a unique understanding of the
(31:46):
struggle with each other. Like we do all the right
things and you know, go to all the right schools
and make all the right business decisions, and we still
have to navigate this space that denies us. So I
will tell you when I'm in a position to buy
a home in New York, I'm only going.
Speaker 2 (32:00):
To see Trish Lee. So I appreciate you, sus.
Speaker 1 (32:03):
And I hope you never get out of the business,
and I hope you continue to expand and your territory expands.
And we love to see you winning because when you win,
we all win. So thank you so much for joining us,
and I love this conversation with you.
Speaker 2 (32:14):
I appreciate you amazing. Thank you so much for having me.
Speaker 1 (32:17):
Thanks Trisha. Across Generations is brought to you by Will
Packer and will Packer Media in partnership with iHeart Podcast
I'm Your Host and executive producer Tiffany d Cross from
Idea to Launch Productions Executive producer Carla willmeris produced by
Mandy Bee and Angel Forte editing, sound design and mixed
by Gaza Forte. Original music by Epidemic Sound Video editing
(32:41):
by Kathon Alexander and Court Meeting
Welcome to a Cross Generations where the voices of black
women unite. I'm your host, Tiffany Cross.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
Tiffany Cross.
Speaker 1 (00:14):
We gather a season elder myself as the middle generation,
and a vibrant young soul for engaging intergenerational conversations. Prepared
to engage or hear perspectives that no one else is happy.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
You know how we do.
Speaker 1 (00:27):
We create magic, Create magic. Hey everybody, I'm Tiffany Cross,
your host of Across Generations, and I want to tell you, guys,
I know from personal experience how challenging the home buying
process can be, and especially in today's environment. Right, is
it a buyer's market? Is it a seller's market? And
what should you know before going into this process? Well,
(00:50):
thankfully we have someone joining us who can say just that.
Today on the show, we're excited to welcome Tricia Lee.
She's an accomplished real estate broker and an entrepreneur who
has made ways in the industry with her expertise and
dedication to empowering her clients. Now, with years of experience
in both residential and commercial real estate, Tricia has a
unique perspective on how generational shifts and influencing the housing market,
(01:14):
especially for first time home buyers and investors. So she
joins us virtually to share her insights on the future
of real estate and offer some really sound advice for
any of you guys navigating this market. My first question,
because there's so much written about the real estate market
and it determines so much, not only about the economy,
but about our politics as well, what is the biggest
(01:37):
challenge in the real estate market right now? Like I
don't even know. Is it a buyer's market, is it
a seller's market? And is that specific to geographic areas
or is that like a nationwide question to ask?
Speaker 2 (01:47):
You know? So I think it's fair to ask it
as a nationwide question because we're all, you know, it's
the most part connected. Although the price points maybe very different,
and there's like certain pockets that have just extremely high demand.
As a trend right now, we'll see in like the
Miami area, South Florida area to the rest of the
country feels very similar. We are definitely in a buyer's market,
(02:07):
and I'll explain to you why that is. When it
doesn't necessarily feel that way because things are so expensive,
right and rates are so high. But when that happens,
the demand drops because you you know, if the rates
aren't just qualifying you, which they're you know, they're high,
they're lowering now, but they are extremely high because all
(02:28):
we have to compare is the recent past, and because
we're coming out of the threes and the fours. For
anyone that's getting a mortgage right now at six or
just below six, they still feel that it's high. So
it's getting better, but it's just not as good as
it once was and recently was, so that causes a
lot of people to kind of step away from the market.
In addition to that, then you have like this housing
boom and surge that we had post COVID where prices
(02:50):
in most markets went up, So prices are high and
rates are high, so immediately that just pulls back a
lot of buyers. So the buyers that are out there
truly have the power because they are special and they
kind of have the upper hand. So that's why we
would say it's a buyer's market, although a lot of
the conditions are challenging in general.
Speaker 1 (03:07):
Yeah, I mean, I think we see that especially so
in the black community. Over the last fifteen years, black
home ownership specifically has declined more drastically than any other
racial group. In twenty nineteen, black home ownership rate was
as low as it was in the nineteen sixties, and
that is when racial discrimination was legal. So why do
(03:29):
you think it's dropped so significantly among the black community.
Speaker 2 (03:32):
Well, I think I could literally speak to like in
my market, because this is like a question that like
I'm constantly asking myself because I feel like real estate
it's this secret wealth road that I feel that it
shouldn't be a secret. Everyone should know about it. I
think as I interview a lot of my sellers that are,
you know, their boomers, what I notice is that were
(03:55):
the generations before us face a lot of the similar
challenges that we did, and even more challenges. You know,
a lot of the people that are selling homes now
could not even get mortgages when they were of an
age to start buying homes, So they had to have
really creative methods for becoming homeowners. They had to save
a lot of cash, they had to partner with friends,
they had to partner with family members. Was very common
for people to buy homes together and continue to pool
(04:17):
their money until all of the members of the family
had a home. They were just working together. I think
that was a big change. It's what I noticed when
I'm working with clients. Eighty percent of my clients are
retiring out of multimillion dollar properties right. And the story,
time and time and time again is ye, I bought
that home with my sister. Well, I didn't have the cash.
I had to buy it with my cousin or you know,
(04:38):
we got some money when we got married. After our wedding,
and then we pulled money together from this cousin and
that cousin. People just worked together in our community to
buy homes. And I don't ever see that now. I've
never encouraged. I've never encountered that now, you know. So,
I think that's one of the factors is that we're
not as creative. I think we want to stand in
our independence, not realizing that when we are independent, we're
(05:01):
not necessarily as competitive as the other buyers that are
out there that have the benefits of really benefiting from
generational wealth. Your parents own, their parents owned, it's a
lot more likely that you can own because you have
three generations living off with that equity. We are not
coming from that same situation. Oftentimes in our communities. You
couple that with the fact that we're not working together,
we don't really get that far.
Speaker 1 (05:22):
I mean, I'm destruck by what you're saying about us
working together and like living together, because even though I
understand what you're saying, we still over index in terms
of communities who live in multi generational homes that had
such credo in our community. But you're not just a realtor.
You're a black woman, and so I think. But most
of us in our community are obviously we're familiar with
(05:43):
redlining and the impact that's had on home ownership. Even today,
Black Americans are five times more likely to own a
home in a formerly redlined neighborhood rather than what we
would call a more quote unquote desirable neighborhood, and it
results in having black folks having less equity than some
of our white counterparts. But this is what strikes me
(06:05):
about that, because I live in a neighborhood that is gentrified.
It was a neighborhood in DC that were black excellence thrived,
and now it's changing rapidly. I'm struck by this because
all over this country, I've gone places and I see
cities transitioning once traditionally black cities transitioning to more diverse
(06:29):
cities and driving out people who had lived there for decades.
I wonder, I want, I don't wonder. I say this
with assurance, and you can feel free to disagree with me.
Black people literally cannot gentrify a neighborhood, like if a
group of successful black people moved into an inner city neighborhood,
(06:51):
Like you don't see the Starbucks popping up. You don't
see the banana Republics and the Ann Taylor's popping up.
Speaker 2 (06:57):
And I just wonder why that is.
Speaker 1 (06:59):
Like our dollar are just as green, and we don't
want to drive out the community. But I wonder why
our success and our investment in our community doesn't translate
the same way that it does when it seems white
folks do.
Speaker 2 (07:09):
I would agree with you, So there's no debate there, right.
And I live in this similar community to you, but
just in New York, and I see the same thing.
You know, And when I speak to people in my family,
because I had lived in New York and my family's
from New York, so I have eighty years of New
York family. A lot of my families moved west. But
you know, like they grew up, went to college in
New York. My grandmother worked at Burgdors for forty years. Right,
(07:31):
So I hear the stories and I hear of when
they were gentrifying into these neighborhoods that are now historically
black neighborhoods. But I hear the stories of when they
were the first black couple or the first black family
in the neighborhood. You know, that was just fifty years ago.
So the neighborhoods gentrifying and shifting continue to happen. A
lot of the neighborhoods that we would say a were
(07:54):
formerly you know, our neighborhoods or our communities that have
been gentrified. Prior to that, they were not our unity.
We we you know, took over those neighborhoods. Unfortunately, when
we take over a neighborhood or we infiltrated neighborhood, it
isn't that type of you know, positive changes that happen.
I don't have the answers as to why that is.
I mean it is it could only be tied to
the wealth gap. I feel like so many times people
(08:15):
want to have a conversation around those types of topics,
but it all comes back to the wealth gap. It
all comes back to resources, It all comes back to finances.
If you're looking at redlining happening at a certain era
in a certain point in our history, the solution, if
you will, to redlining was to, you know, create these
loan programs that were are they whatever they named it.
(08:37):
They named like, you know, they named it community eagle programs,
community lending, whatever it was. It almost kind of served
as the opposite of redlining because it was like, Okay,
we will give you funding to well not even funding,
we'll give you a better interest rate and will allow
you to work one of these one of these community
lending programs. Again, you know, a lot of these banks
had had to create these lending programs to settle, to
(08:59):
settle all of these action lawsuits that they were found,
you know, responsible for. So the answer to that were
a lot of the community lending programs. You look up
most banks, they're going to have it, like some of
them have phased it out, but that most of the
commercial banks still have these lending programs. Take a look
at the zip codes that they offer the lending programs for.
They're very specific to zip codes, and it's the exact
same thing, you know, And it's like he who has
(09:20):
the power and he who owns sets the rules. I
don't know. I wouldn't say. I don't have a lot
to say about it. I could talk about it all day,
but the only answer that I have is to affect
the ownership. That's the only answer that in my reach
is to affect the ownership. Because we could hypothesize all
day about why that is. We know why that is.
He who owns decides, he who owns makes the rules.
(09:40):
So if we're not focusing on owning and becoming owners
of ourselves and making sure our community starts to buy
and reinvest in our communities, I don't see a solution.
I can tell you in the work that I do
every day with clients all the time, so many boomers
have children, you know, that are my age, and those
children are either not financially prepared to take over the
home and the responsibilities and the financial responsibilities of the home,
(10:03):
or they're not interested. That's what I can tell you,
working day in day out with true clientele, and it
frustrates me. It frustrates me so much because for me,
most of the time, it's black women that are running
these homes, and then they're managing these that have really
taken their family this far, but they can't take them
any further. They're ready to retire. And then I say
(10:25):
this all the time, and I'll say it here my generation,
we could have done better, We could have been better prepared. Hmmm.
Speaker 1 (10:31):
Yeah, everything you're saying. I share that frustration, because you know,
I'm curious how you advise our clients. But I think
you kind of already into that, right because I do.
I see us giving up our homes by the droves,
you know, like communities where we once thrived and then
white people swoop in and they make the investment in
the home, and then it drives out the authenticity of
(10:54):
the community. And you know, honestly, Churchia, I wonder what
that does to young people, you know, so the young
people who are left in these communities, and then they
start to see you know, noise, ordinances, you know, in
the neighborhood, and you know, different rules change for businesses,
and it sends this message to them that when white
people come in, the neighborhood gets better and you are
(11:17):
not welcome here. And I don't know how we how
we undo that, but I keep seeing that happen all
across the country. And to hear you say, yes, big
Mama held it down for fifty years and it was
time for you to pick up the mantle. We were
ill prepared, And I just I don't know if you
have the answer to why, but I do wonder, even
outside of the wealth gap, why that is? How do
(11:39):
you advise your clients, you know, who are saying, look,
I'm getting this huge offer for this house. My mother
or grandmother paid thirty thousand dollars for this house and
somebody wants to pay me one point five million for
this house. Do you advise them to sell? Or do
you say, hey, that's because you have all this equity,
reinvest in the house and you can build it up there.
Speaker 2 (11:57):
You know, I would say I deal with kind of
fifty fifty percent of that, you know. And as a job,
my job is selling homes, right, That's what I do.
That's how I make my income. So am I able
to sleep well at night selling homes? Absolutely? I am,
because I look at it in a very different way.
I look at a home as an asset. You know,
I don't necessarily I could sleep anywhere, I could call
anywhere home I'm very disconnected in that way. But I
(12:19):
do look at property as something that is an asset,
and there's one way to look at it that you've
had this home in your family forever. But if you're
not doing anything with that asset, who cares? Because if
eminent domain came to your community right now, you'd be
displaced in under a year, no matter what. I've seen
it happen in my own backyard. I've seen it happen
where I've owned businesses. I've seen it happen when my
(12:40):
clients have homes. So you don't truly own anything, but
you own the asset. And what we need to learn
to do is to utilize that asset and to reinvest
in more properties to build a larger portfolio, so you're
not hanging onto that one home on the hill that
your family has owned for fifty or sixty years. I
triculy am not that connected to that story. I'm more
connected to the equity that you use to educate generations
(13:02):
of people in your family, using that equity to build
a nice retirement plan for yourself, using that equity to
build across your portfolio. So you don't just own one home,
you own four homes, and at fifty years old, you
can decide to work part time, you can decide to
put your grandchildren through college. That's how I look at it.
So I shrivel up when people talk about holding onto
a home forever, because I'm like, what are you doing
(13:25):
with that home? I don't care how long I hold
onto a home. I care what the home can do
for me. So I'm of the mindset of and this
is the reason why I'm able to do what I
do with such a clear conscious. And some people may
judge because I look at a home as an asset,
and I think if more of us did that, we'd
actually own more properties, we'd actually have more of a
say in our communities. But instead, sometimes I feel that
(13:47):
clients will hold onto that one home and rightfully so
right because God only knows what we have to go
through as a family as a crible to get it right.
But then you have it right, and you've had it
for fifty years. And I will watch eight nine, ten
people in one family hold on and fight for that
home but never showed the same passion in making the
home and the equity work for them. Because one home
(14:10):
in the right neighborhood can set up a life for
four people, it really can, or it can be something
that ends up in court that eight different people and
two generations are fighting over. I see it all the time.
The lawyer's the one that wins because they get the
biggest invoice out of the whole situation. So I'm of
the mindset of like, great, if somebody wants to sell
your home for two million dollars and you paid forty
(14:32):
thousand for it, Tricy is here to sell it. I
am here to sell it. But I'm curious what you
did with that equity over the last twenty one years.
You know, I have clients. I have a client that
I worked with and we sold their property for five
million dollars. The gentleman, well it was it was it
was a widow, but it was a man sold his
property for five point three million dollars, the same property
he had paid fifty thousand dollars for one of the biggest,
(14:54):
most notable properties in Brooklyn. And he passed away within
two weeks of that. He passed away within two weeks
of the closing. You know, so what did you do
with the property? You know, all of that equity, Like,
what did it do did you buy other properties, Where
did you put the kids through college? Did you pay
off you know, did you send someone to a program
so that they could learn something, did you create an
experience for yourself? What are you doing with the equity?
(15:16):
Is the question? And I think if we could really
shift our mindset around holding onto something, yeah, hold on
to it, But it's the equity that you we need
to focus on, not the actual structure of the home.
Like if a tornado came through, it wouldn't even be
there anymore. So what's yeah the tie there. I just
don't like that thinking of being too tied to the
home and not so focused on the equity. Because if
you're focused on the equity, you can choose to hold
(15:37):
it or sell it. It doesn't really matter because you've
made the money work for you.
Speaker 1 (15:42):
I you know, honestly, I would have never thought that way.
I maybe like you a little bit. I'm I'm a
bit disconnected because I didn't grow up in one childhood home.
My grandmother's house though was. I mean, it meant so
much in our family, so we kept it in the family.
But I appreciate what you're saying because you're talking as
a capitalist and it's like, let's check this symbolism for
(16:03):
a minute and participate in the system we have. While
I understand black folks our attachment to our homes, like
you said, because of what we had to go through,
we were so denied everything in this country, even our dignity,
and so when we finally get a home, it means
so much. But you make a good point. As we,
you know, advance in society, it's like, no, no, no, no, no.
(16:24):
That home is an object, like you have to build
up your future.
Speaker 2 (16:28):
Yeah, is taught by the generation before us, though, so
we only know what we're taught. But then you it's
like when you get to college and you realize, wait
a minute, how could I learn all these things? Because
you meet these roommates and different people in school, You're like, wait,
there's ten different ways of looking at it. And that's
the way. I love to see families, and I see
this rarely, but I do see families where it's like
they had that one home and then guess what, now
(16:48):
they own six in the neighborhood. I'm more excited about
that conversation than eighteen of you fighting about your grandmother's
home that was paid off thirty years ago, and you
just have to think, you know, and it's falling apart
because no one's really re invested in it. You know,
a lot of the homes and the reason why people
are able to, you know, sell their home for one
point twenty five but not sell it for two million
is because it hasn't been reinvested in over time. It
(17:10):
all comes back to, first of all, access to capital
number one, right, and then how we're being taught to
look at property. Like my mom could not get a
mortgage until nineteen seventy four, right, so she would have
had to get either her father, her brother, or her
husband to sign for her to get a mortgage. Same
for any of us. Right, So of course they're going
to be thinking like, oh, if once I get me
(17:32):
a house, I'm never letting go. But that mindset trickles
down over generations, when really it should be like, make
this house work for me. You get two hundred thousand equity, great,
let's pull some of that out and let's get us
another property. Let's build. Let's have two sisters and a
family build their portfolio together. You know them, you trust them,
and you know exactly where to find them. You know,
and you That's that's where I get excited. I just
(17:53):
don't get excited about how long you've had a home
in your family, and especially if you've done nothing to
make it really benefit your family.
Speaker 1 (17:58):
Yeah, I think you're going to change the lot of
hearts and minds out there with that straight talk about
I'm not attached to that. I'm attached to you know
what this asset? Can you know.
Speaker 2 (18:08):
What I mean? I see these kids at eighteen pick
the school of their choice because the money is there
to pay for it, especially since we can't even depend
on on the you know, the same scholarship programs that
were available when I went to college. You better have
a plan. And so that's where I lean in. And
I have a lot of people coming to me like
can you do what you do? Especially being a black woman,
you know, living and selling bedstyle homes. A lot of
(18:29):
my clients are black people. But you know, I see
my clients on at least two and a half million
dollar homes going and buying their homes in cash in Florida,
taking care of their grandkids and setting up and really
choosing to early retire at sixty two, sixty four. It's
a beautiful thing.
Speaker 1 (18:43):
And I'm of course very familiar with bedsty parties, so
all of Brooklyn. So I split my time between Washington,
DC and New York City. So it's a challenging situation
because I lived in d and work in New York,
so I have two homes in some.
Speaker 2 (18:58):
Cities, though I love both of those cities, and they
and they are exactly and yeah, it's the exact same
situation in both honestly.
Speaker 1 (19:05):
Honestly, well, when when I am in a position to
buy in Brooklyn, you will be my first call, which
rings me to my next question. When does somebody know
that they're ready to buy a home.
Speaker 2 (19:20):
When they have heavy cash, When they have heavy cash,
especially if you're dealing with really competitive markets, it's really
about the cash because you know, we're in a tougher
estate market now. It's very competitive, and cash is king always,
you know, So when you have the cash, you're good.
But I always say cash is king, you know, but
credit is the queen. You know you're going to get
(19:42):
better terms, just like if you walk onto a lot,
the let you know, the more money you make and
the less money you owe, the better terms you get
on your on your car loan it's the same for
your mortgage. Even more so, I think the mortgage loans
can be a little bit more flexible, but you want
to be deep in cash. You also want to make
sure that your credit is prime, and you want to
be realistic. I think a lot of people will sometimes
start looking for a home with their desire in mind,
(20:04):
and that's not where you really start. You start with
your budget. Your budget will tell you your desire, an
attainable desire. At least you know your budget will tell
you that. So you really want to get familiar with
the market, and a lot of people, if they're not
actively looking, they have no idea. I have people come
to me every every single day with these fifteen year
old specs and I'm like, well, if I had that,
I would not share it with you. I would buy
(20:25):
it and keep it from my portfolio. Now, let me
bring you to twenty twenty four, where those who are
currently a million dollars and see what we you know.
So I think it's important to just stay up to
date with what's going on. But if you're really serious
in the market, you'll know because you have your cash ready.
You want to have good cash down, you know, twenty
percent is ideal. Yes, there are a lot of loan
programs that you can work with and do less downpayment,
(20:46):
But specifically in the heavier markets, the person next you
probably has more cash and that just makes their offer
look a little bit stronger. So work on your cash
and work on your credit. Those are the two deciding factors.
Speaker 1 (20:57):
Well, I love that you said your desire because I
will tell you I am at it to real estate porn.
Like every night, I like turn out the lights, I
get under the covers, I.
Speaker 2 (21:05):
Break out my little head.
Speaker 1 (21:07):
I'm on Zillow for the next hour and a half
and it's all I'm all New York.
Speaker 2 (21:12):
Like I look at.
Speaker 1 (21:12):
All the areas in New York. I go high, I
go low. I imagine I'm gonna decorate it. I don't think
I'm alone in that. You know, I had out real
estate porn.
Speaker 2 (21:24):
I was like doing an interview for like women in
real estate, and I just said, you know, and they're
all addicted to real estate porn. And it turned into
like this five page article about are people Is this
a thing? I was like, Oh, it's absolutely a thing.
I can give you like ten clients that I know that.
Speaker 1 (21:38):
I'm Me'm my name is Tiffany, and I am addicted
to real estate porn.
Speaker 2 (21:43):
It's just like guilty habit.
Speaker 1 (21:46):
Yeah, I actually love it.
Speaker 2 (21:48):
I have this thought.
Speaker 1 (21:49):
And I know you sell home, so you may disagree
with me here, but I don't think home ownership is
the only path to wealth anymore. And I'll tell you
my situation. It was really important to me because of
all the things that we've gone through as a community.
It was so important to me to own a home.
So I wanted to buy a home before I was thirty.
I bought my first home when I was twenty seven.
But I will tell you I felt so locked into
(22:10):
this mortgage. I was not ready to make that commitment
and be somewhere. I thought, oh, this is where I'm
going to live the rest of my life. And I
was barely thirty, and after ten years, I just I
couldn't live there anymore. I had to get out. And
so I called my realtor, who was a friend of
mine at the time, and I told her, I'm like,
I can't be here anymore. Like I'm commuting all the
way to the city. It's a two hour commute every day,
(22:32):
and I just thought, am I going to keep living
here for sake of these three little numbers of my
credit score. And she said, well, Tiffany, to get out
of this mortgage is not going to be easy. Somebody's
feelings has to be hurt. It's either going to be
yours at the bank. So what do you want to do?
And I was like, baby, the bank can get its
feelings hurt. So I did a short sale on my home.
I have no regrets about like that. Seven years or ten,
(22:53):
however long I had to be out the real estate
market went by like that. It was no problem. But
I'm just curious, that's my situation, Like what do you
think about doing something like because it was a big
deal and I don't mean to be self whipping about it,
but I felt so much freedom after.
Speaker 2 (23:07):
Getting out of that mortgage. Yeah, I mean, I always
say again, I am a woman, right, and so for me,
there's a part of my brain that is focused on
my assets and my portfolio. But you know, all of
this is for me to live a good life, and
so if I'm somewhere where that I'm miserable, that can't
(23:27):
come second to my portfolio. So I think it's important
to think about, like, you know, what the benefits are
and all of these things are numbers. All of that,
whether it's credit or whatever you can you credit is
a muscle hunting. You can hit the gym and build
that credit right back. Like that's the truth, you know
what I mean. And if you choose to build it
back in seven years, that's your business. But you could
have also chosen to build it back in four years.
There's creative ways to do everything. I do think that,
(23:50):
especially if our generation we come through this naivety of
thinking that if you don't accomplish all of these things
by a certain age, then like you just won't accomplish them.
It's just simply not true. My first house at twenty eight,
you know, and I hit very rough financial times at forty,
you know, and I was somebody that was a high
on the hall. Get thirty, you can tell me anything.
(24:12):
Own two cars, two properties, whatever it was, you know,
two businesses that was like double double dub that was me.
And then at forty to like have to make tough
decisions like like what you're speaking about, I don't even know.
I think it hurt my ego more than it hurt
my pocket. Honestly, I was just like, wait, car like,
you know, what's good. This isn't even my life and
my journey, like what's going on, But it was good
(24:33):
to let me know that all these things, while they're important,
and while their goals, they're not what's important, you know
what I mean. And so I think if you did
a if you handle a situation that way, that got
you out of that level of stress and anguish, I
know it all too well, you can get back. I
see these developers run around here and borrow money to
build communities and buy houses and flip and flip and honey.
(24:54):
When eight hit, I wasn't even in real estate at
this time, but they were all underwater. And guess who
was out of water and do well and flourishing quicker
than anybody else. The same real estate industry that crashed
the whole market in eight. Every person in real estate
that I knew was coming out of that faster than
any other industry. And that's what led my eyes to
real estate. I was like, I remember y'all running around
(25:14):
here getting red jump out of windows, and now you're
over here developing again three years later. No shame to
the game. You you know, bankrupt everything, Uh, poor clothes
on everything, when I tell you, no, shame. It is
business and it is not emotional for them. They were
back out here three years later, developing again, buying again,
borrowing again, building again.
Speaker 1 (25:34):
So and against the real estate market with all the
subprime loans. So I just so you know, I bought
it oh seven at the height of the market. My
property was not appreciating. It depreciated. I was underwater over
like one hundred thousand dollars underwater. It just all seemed
so unfair, and I just had a righteous anger about it.
And that's when I said, you know what, forget the bank, like,
(25:54):
get me out of this. I hadn't hear.
Speaker 2 (25:56):
And I buy out so many developers, close friends of mine.
I'm telling you I have friends that owned twenty plus
properties that had to make that decision. If the professionals
that do this for a living were in that situation,
why wouldn't you have been in that situation? Right? It
was a very common situation. The earlier the better, like
my biggest challenge. And I did this even when I
(26:17):
was in business. I was like, sometimes as a woman,
I want to chee, I want to prove my resilience,
and I have to step back and be like resilient
for what because truthfully, like, did you make that decision
a year too late because you were trying to prove
how strong you were and how you could endure? I
wonder years too late? Year or two? Yeah, I did
the same thing. My second business I opened was completely
(26:39):
stalled by the Barclays delay that was going on at
the exact same time. My plan ran two years late.
When I finally was able to open, everything was dead
and suffering and dying all over Prospect Heights. I opened
with my friend that was my neighbor at the other
business I had. We we were neighbor businesses in one neighborhood.
We were opening our businesses and the other. Two weeks in,
he was like, there's no money here. And when I
(27:01):
tell you close that thing down. Rebuilt a completely different business,
change it from Middle Eastern to Mexican. Wow, in two weeks,
flip that business. He was like, this is not working.
I'm done, Tricia ly now, Yeah, it's okay to prove right, Yeah,
we are attached to it. I completely get it.
Speaker 1 (27:25):
Something that struck me also about the real estate market
is people like yourself, the brokers, and about six percent
of all real estate brokers are black, and I'd imagine
when you disaggregate that data, even less are black women,
Yet your white counterpart to do the exact same thing
as you do typically make three times as much as
(27:47):
black real estate brokers. That's according to the reporting from
the New York Times. I'm just curious your thoughts about
that and why.
Speaker 2 (27:53):
Oh my thoughts and my frustration, you know. Yeah, and specifically,
like I feel that because of my level of exposure,
there's not a day that goes by that black agents
don't come up to me and say, you know, how
can I fight this? And I'm like, if you figure
it out, let's do it together, you know, Like I
don't know, it's my challenge as well. I've done well
in the real estate business, you know, and I've been
(28:14):
very fortunate to have a business, to build upon another business,
and to have great visibilities. So when I got into
real estate, I walked into real estate with a huge
client body that trusted me and worked with me. So
my results are not the common results. I am aware
of that. My challenges are the average black agents challenges.
People work with who they know, they work with, who
(28:37):
they identify with. You know, it's just what it is.
And so I have found this business to be just
so race based and not diverse at all, and very
challenging because I don't get to compete evenly for my
qualifications or my resume. I don't even get invited to
(29:01):
the room oftentimes to compete because I don't look live
or went to school with other you know, it is
the biggest challenge that I have. It is my biggest frustration.
You know. I think any good real estate agent gets
to a point once or twice a year where they
want to quit. And it is always the reason why
I want to quit, because I feel like I've just
never set up for success in that way. And I'm
(29:23):
saying that from my position of privilege, you know what
I mean. I've been very very fortunate. Not a lot
of people have a business to build another business on.
Not a lot of people have key clientele to build
a business. You know, there's very little I can't go
into my phone and get done as a Brooklyn person
because I know everybody that knows everybody that knows everybody.
So from that position of privilege, what I'm telling you
(29:45):
is I don't get invited to many rooms, and if
I am invited to their rooms. I often have to
utilize my relationships and leverage my relationships to walk into
the room people who work with who they know with.
You know, they're just not out here hiring black brokers.
No one is doing that. I've even had you know,
black people not hire black brokers and tell me that
you were great. But I just don't think you're going
(30:05):
to get me the best number. I think a white
broker would get a better number. So I deal with
racism on from my own people. I deal. I mean
that it's it is a very frustrating topic for me.
It is I feel like I'm always banging my head
against the wall and I don't want to feel like
I have to go out here and put myself out
to be this person that has figured it out. And
that's not my challenge. Bullshit, it is my challenge, just
(30:26):
my challenge every single day that I don't get to
walk into a room and pitch for certain properties that
I don't that my results aren't good enough to get
me an interview. Because if you let me in and
you let me talk, I'm going to get it done.
But I don't get a lot of opportunities for that
very reason. And that's scary because when you look at
the communities that I serve, you have to think about
they're directly tied to the highest level of gentrification. So
(30:47):
what does that say to you about my career in
fifteen or twenty years right when the sellers are not
to my advantage? You know? So thinking that I think
about every single day, and a lot of that is
why I've used my career to put me in a
position where I have a platform to speak about it. Right,
I don't have a need to be on TV, but
if I can use the opportunity to tell the truth,
(31:11):
I'm going to use that opportunity. Because one, I don't
want people to think that it's easier for me. People
see me selling five to eight ten million dollar properties
and they think I don't have that challenge. I have
that challenge every single day, every single morning, and even
when I'm given the opportunity, I have to work three
times harder to keep it. Let's be clear on that.
Speaker 1 (31:26):
Well, I would say the beautiful thing I think about
this conversation Trisha is as black people, no matter your industry,
we are all navigating some level of what you're doing
to be the best at what you do and still
be navigating a system that denies you. And so I'm
not leaving out black men in that, but I think
as black women we have a unique understanding of the
(31:46):
struggle with each other. Like we do all the right
things and you know, go to all the right schools
and make all the right business decisions, and we still
have to navigate this space that denies us. So I
will tell you when I'm in a position to buy
a home in New York, I'm only going.
Speaker 2 (32:00):
To see Trish Lee. So I appreciate you, sus.
Speaker 1 (32:03):
And I hope you never get out of the business,
and I hope you continue to expand and your territory expands.
And we love to see you winning because when you win,
we all win. So thank you so much for joining us,
and I love this conversation with you.
Speaker 2 (32:14):
I appreciate you amazing. Thank you so much for having me.
Speaker 1 (32:17):
Thanks Trisha. Across Generations is brought to you by Will
Packer and will Packer Media in partnership with iHeart Podcast
I'm Your Host and executive producer Tiffany d Cross from
Idea to Launch Productions Executive producer Carla willmeris produced by
Mandy Bee and Angel Forte editing, sound design and mixed
by Gaza Forte. Original music by Epidemic Sound Video editing
(32:41):
by Kathon Alexander and Court Meeting
Host
Tiffany Cross
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