Black Belt Tips On Home Values From A Real Estate Appraiser | Keith Florian - The A Game Podcast: Real Estate Investing For Entrepreneurs

Episode Transcript
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(00:13):
Welcome to the a game podcast withNick LaMagna digging into the minds and
experiences of some of today's brightestentrepreneurs in real estate and business,
along with Hollywood stars, UFC fighters.
And your favorite rock bands, peoplethat have figured out how to overcome
obstacles, take chances, live boldly.
And no matter what they do,they always bring their a game.

(00:48):
Welcome back to the a game podcast.
We are a podcast that showsaverage people that they can do
extraordinary things every single day.
And we have had some of the mostsuccessful people in the world from
sports, from entertainment, from music,and of course from business and absolutely
from real estate investing, which isthe 300 plus episodes that we've had.
We've interviewed millionaires,multimillionaires, billionaires,

(01:10):
and some of the top athletesand anybody in their fields.
And they all share their stories abouthow they overcame mental, physical,
and all kinds of financial adversities.
to achieve amazing success and how youcan do the same thing and just go back
in these podcasts alone and watch the waythat they overcame some of the obstacles
that you don't have to make those mistakeson or learn from some of the shortcuts

(01:31):
and the secrets that they have puttogether so you can find success sooner.
Our guest today is no different, Mr. KeithFlorian of the famous Florian Brothers.
We've had his brother Kenny on as well,but what people don't know about Keith is
Not only is he a fifth degree jiu jitsublack belt and also one of the co founders
of Florian Martial Arts, he's been inthe real estate game for almost 20 years.
He owns the brokerage as well as anappraisal company and we dig deep into

(01:53):
how an appraiser actually looks ata home, some ways to value the home.
And he gives so much great insight onthis where we get into a lot of stuff
that I haven't had anybody specificallywith that appraisal background and also
comes from a martial arts background andunderstands how to really look at things
from more of a practical level and alsobring that eye as an artist into it.
So it's a really in depth discussionabout how to value a home, what things

(02:15):
to look at, what that process lookslike, dispelling a lot of the myths
of appraisals, who they actuallywork for, what they actually do,
what they actually won't do, anda lot of really great information.
And of course, he's got these fiveamazing principles he put together.
That are technically from his MMA school,but they apply perfectly to real estate,
investing business and entrepreneurship.
So we dig down to five essentialingredients and how he has used

(02:38):
them to achieve success in lifeand business on and off the mats.
And we have a fan.
Fantastic discussion.
I really enjoyed this conversation.
Keith is such a good guy.
Him and his brother were both sosmart, so well spoken and have such
a great background of things thatthey've overcome to find success.
And it is not a surprise that bothof them are amazing guests and
amazing A players in their own right.
And I've been very privileged to be ableto share the mat and now the mic with

(03:03):
both of these fantastic human beings.
So thank you so much,Keith, for coming on.
I think you guys are getting alot of value out of this podcast.
And again, If you are anywhere inthat Massachusetts area, definitely
swing on by Florian Martial Arts anddefinitely reach out to him for any of
your real estate or appraisal needs.
All the links from the podcast andthe way we continue to get fantastic
guests like the Florian brothers andKeith himself on this podcast is for

(03:24):
you guys to please subscribe so wecan make sure we still have viewers
and we can keep this thing going.
So it is available everywhere youwatch and listen to your podcasts.
And we also are all over social media.
So please connect with us on socialmedia, from our YouTube, to our
tick tock, to our Facebook, toour Instagram, wherever it may be.
Connect with us and connect withKeith and connect with all this
things that they have going on.

(03:44):
If you cannot find this, just go to Nick.
com slash links, L I N K S. And theway that Keith knows that you got some
value from this is to interact withthe posts I make from this podcast.
Give them a thumbs up,give them a fist bump.
Tag a friend, share it, whateverit might be, but it really goes
really far for the algorithm.
And the big thing, the whole point of thispodcast is I want to make money together.

(04:06):
So please, whether you are lookingto buy a house, sell me a house or
partner on some level, let's have thatconversation on how we can work together
and make some money in real estate.
You can either DM me on anyof my social media platforms
with the words real estate.
So I know to look throughit and pull it out.
It's just not something causeI get a lot of spam and a lot
of stuff that comes through.

(04:26):
So that'll rise it to the top.
Or you could just send me atext message with the words
real estate to 5 1 6 5 4 0 5 7.
Thank you guys so much for listeningto the a game podcast and subscribing.
Thank you much.
Keith for him for coming on, spendingyour time and dropping some knowledge.
Also for helping mewith my rear naked joke.
When it came down to Florida martialarts, you were a stud, sir. I
appreciate you have a fantastic day.

(04:48):
Everybody, the a game podcast.
All right.
My guest today is an athlete businessowner and entrepreneur who not only has
a fifth degree black belt in jujitsu,but also a black belt in business as
the president of Florian real estategroup with almost 20 years in real
estate and has a certification asan appraiser with beyond appraisals.
He's a moneymaker and a butt kickerof the famous trio of Florian

(05:11):
brothers who now molds and trainsfighters and practitioners under
the principles and foundations.
Of true martial artists with honorand traditions to make a positive
impact in their lives at the Florianmartial arts center in Brookline,
Massachusetts, where I have gone andtrained and had a fantastic experience.
He is a father of three, a worldtraveler with a fun, scenic, and
informative social media account.
He is a dog dad and he is our guest today.

(05:33):
Please welcome to the a gamepodcast, Mr. Keith Lorian.
Welcome, sir. Thanks so much, Nick.
I really appreciate it.
It's an honor to be on your podcast.
Dude, I'm really excited to have you on.
We, we trained a while backand we just kept in touch, man.
There's certain people that you comeacross and I never talked to them again,
but you've always been awesome about it.
You sent me some gear during COVIDand, we've always stayed in touch

(05:54):
and the parallel lives of just,martial arts and real estate.
So for people who maybe aren't a hundredpercent familiar with you yet, can you
give a little bit of your origin storyof who you are and where you came from
and how you got where you are today?
Yeah, absolutely.
So, I was born here in the U. S. Butboth of my parents are from Peru.
My father is a doctor.
After I graduated college I wasseriously thinking about martial arts.

(06:18):
But at the same time, I just I didn'thave the vision that Kenny had.
About, trying to make that a career.
I went to a business school,Babson college, and I kind of
wanted to go the business route.
So, I ended up getting intoreal estate appraising.
That was the first thing that I started.

(06:38):
And it's funny because when I seethese type of interviews with people,
I feel like I see two very starkand different types of Of ways that
people make money and make a living.
There's one person who's veryconcentrated in a certain industry.
That's what they've done for 30 years.
They climb up the corporate ladder.
And then there's there's otherpeople who are, who have several.

(07:01):
Means are streams ofincome and I'm the latter.
I do real estate.
I do a real estate appraising.
I'm a broker.
And and I obviously own flooringmartial arts which is a Brazilian
jiu jitsu focus martial arts Academywhere we do offer Muay Thai as well.
But but 20 years ago, Istarted real estate appraising.

(07:22):
A lot of it's funny because a lot ofpeople don't even know what an appraiser
does or is or who they're representing.
But basically a real estate appraisergoes to, let's just say like one,
two, three main street and valuesthe house on the bank's behalf.
So the bank is goingto lend a buyer money.
And they want to protect their interestand make sure that what they're

(07:45):
investing in is actually worth it.
So many people think that theappraiser represents the buyer.
And that's just not true.
The appraiser is an independent,impartial, incompetent
person that goes in values.
The house on the bank's behalf.
So, so I go in before the loan closesthey'll send out a real estate appraiser

(08:09):
and make sure that the value of whatthe buyer is actually paying is correct
because, just to make numbers very simple.
Let's say that somebody is purchasinga home for 100, 000 and it goes over
market asking, over asking with, 20 bidsand it's being purchased for 150, 000.
If a real estate appraiser goes in thereand determines that it's not worth 150,

(08:32):
000, the buyer will either have to makeup that difference or of whatever the
appraised value is and the Purchaseprice or back out of the deal because the
bank is a very conservative institution.
It's not going to lend money for somethingthat just simply isn't worth it in the
market, at least hasn't been proven.

(08:54):
So, so that's, yeah, that'sone of the things I do.
And a few years into real estateappraising I had some friends
who were just getting into, themarket buying condos and such.
And they they would askme, Hey, Keith, is this.
House that I'm buying, worth it.
Is it worth the money that I'm paying?
So I would say, I'd look it up,look up the comps the sales in
the area and tell them, Hey,listen, yeah, it looks pretty good.

(09:17):
Or no, I, I probably wouldn't buy thatdoesn't look like cause of this and that.
And I started to do the numbersand I'm like, wait a second.
I'm giving up some big commissionshere by not being the broker.
So, so I got my broker's license.
So, I have I have licensed to real,to appraise the highest license,
which is certified residential.
And then I also have I'm a brokerowner as well for an agent.

(09:40):
And as some people may know mebecause of my brother, Kenny Florian.
I do Brazilian jiu jitsu, I'm a fifthdegree black belt and, we call on
a gym in Brookline, Massachusetts.
And as far as the, the jujitsu goesit's more of a passion than it is a
moneymaker but it's a great passionof mine if I wasn't doing it, I'd be.

(10:01):
Doing it somewhere else.
And so I just, I figured that maybe,we should just own an academy and run
one and kind of build a culture theway that we see jitsu, which has been
tremendously rewarding in that aspect.
Man, I think that's all fantasticand you brought something up where
it's always interesting becausethey prepare all these questions
and then usually the conversationgoes in a different direction.

(10:23):
I don't even get to any of them, but youstarted talking about how some people
they're like hyper focused on stuff.
And then you get other people that havea few different things that they do.
And I feel like people, theysay that there's a right answer.
And I almost feel like there's notbecause I'll talk to people sometimes
that masterminds and they're like,well, Nick, you have to pick it.
You can't do all these different types ofreal estate and you can't have all these

(10:44):
different types of guests in your podcast.
But then you look at other peoplethat are doing plenty of other stuff.
And what I tell everybodyis everything works.
It's a matter of what works for you.
And some personalities, somepeople I think can only handle one
thing, but other people like you.
You go crazy if you're only focusing onone thing or maybe what you're doing.
You can't train all the time.
Like you can't box every day.

(11:05):
You can't just do real estate every day.
So it's these little levels, butyou're doing them in parallel.
So everything kind ofrelates to each other.
And I think plays in really well.
So you're not just chasinga bunch of shiny objects.
It gets overwhelming and youtend to sometimes be a jack of
all trades and a master of none.
So I guess my question would bebeing that you're successful in
so many different things, you'reobviously doing something right with

(11:26):
prioritizing and not just hitting abunch of dead ends and going nowhere.
So where do you think that magicwas that you're able to do multiple
different things successfullywithout burning out or burning the
bridges at both ends or dropping theball on the important priorities?
That's such an amazing question.
It really is.
And I can only answer like how I do it.

(11:47):
And I feel like at times I'mbeing pulled in, in, in three,
four different directions.
But at the same time, you're right.
As far as the real estate.
End of it.
It there's without a question,a connection and they
definitely work hand in hand.
But how I do it is I see whichof my businesses needs the

(12:10):
most attention at that time.
And this could vary week to week.
It could vary month to monthand it can vary year to year.
So for example, I was.
I was in the industry.
I started in 2000 and and five and19 years ago, nearly 20 years ago.
And real estate appraisingand real estate was booming.

(12:30):
Then, as everyone remembers in2008 we had a massive crash, which
lasted, two, three years where realestate was almost at a dead fault.
And that's when we openedfloor and martial arts.
I had time to do it and Icould refocus and kind of keep.

(12:51):
The real estate in the back burnerand focus on the martial arts.
About, I want to say about 2012there was just a massive shift.
People started believingin real estate again.
They started buying, sellingmy appraisal business.
I was.
Making a good foundation asfar as clients are concerned.

(13:14):
And I was getting very consistent work.
And so I started focusing on thatfor the last, almost over 10 years.
But in between when things do get slow,I go back to the academy, make sure
that everything is running smoothly,making sure the culture is right.
I still go.
Monday through Thursday.
I do take Friday,Saturday and Sundays off.

(13:37):
I take that time for my family.
Like you said, I have three kids.
I have three daughters andthey need a lot of attention.
And they need my time.
And I don't want to be, 70 years old.
The kids are done with college,they're leaving, and I don't have
any memories with them becauseI was working 24 seven as well.

(13:58):
So finding that balance of chasingthe dollar living comfortably, being
able to vacation every year being ableto, provide Nice things for my kids
and for my family is it's a struggle.
That is a struggle.
There's no question about it.
And I think you, you alludedto something very interesting
as far as getting complacent.

(14:20):
And for me, that's so true.
I feel if I'm heavily doing my appraisalsand I'm out on the field and I'm coming
back home writing reports and then.
I get a very toughlender that I work with.
And they're requesting, lookup this, Oh, I saw this sale.
Why didn't you use that?
It can be so frustratingbecause you explain you the

(14:43):
appraisal is like 17 pages.
A box of clicking boxes, paragraphs,explaining this, explaining that.
And then you have thisunderwriter who's not licensed
appraiser questioning your work.
It can be very frustrating, and Ineed a break from that is my point.
My point is I need a break from that.

(15:03):
And that's when I. Hop into my jiujitsu academy Monday through Thursday
and I can release that energy in a funand proactive way in a productive way
by teaching others, there's there'stimes where, I'm a real estate agent
as well, and I'm working with aclient who can be extremely demanding.

(15:23):
They can have these, falseperceptions as far as what.
X amount of dollars can get themin this market, which is insane.
I'm not going to, sugar coat that,but it's the reality of things,
everyone thinks they can get morefor their money than what's possible.
And I tell them, I say, listen,it is possible, but you have

(15:45):
to be extremely patient.
And when it, when I tell you tojump, you're going to have to jump.
And it's worked.
Amazing at times, there's people wholisten to exactly what I'm saying.
And they're like, Icannot get in that town.
It's too expensive.
There's just no way.
And then we go to the open house.
They, Oh my God, I love it.
But I can't go overasking blah, blah, blah.
I keep connections.

(16:06):
I keep calling that agent,whether they know it or not.
And I'll keep in contact and I'll, I'll.
Call them and I'll say,Hey, Jane, what's going on?
Hey, listen, you get anyoffers on the property so far?
And I saw that the, the due date andthe, for the offers was two 12 PM
earlier today, you got any offers andthere's times where they said, you
know what, Keith we didn't get any.

(16:29):
If you have something, let me know, I'llwait another few hours till eight, nine
o'clock at night, check back in again.
And they sell it, say they tell me no.
And then that's when I call myclients, say, listen, we need to put
an offer right now and we need togive them a response offer in an hour.
And it was so we can listen, if you wantto make this deal done, we can make it

(16:50):
happen, but it's got to be at this price.
And I try my best for my clientsand that can be so, so thrilling.
And even though it's not my deal or I'mnot buying the property, it's for me,
it just excites me like nothing else.
But there's times where Ineed a break from that too.
And then I'll concentrate on my jiu jitsu.
I'll concentrate on my appraisingto kind of get my head out of those

(17:11):
things and to do something else.
And I actually haven't, Ihaven't mentioned this but I
just jumped into something new.
And we're, yeah, we're gonna be we'regonna be closing in December for this
will be a first for me, but we'regonna be doing a new development.
Oh, we're gonna be Congrats.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So excited.

(17:33):
So, I live in this town andthere's an amazing amount of
new construction going on there.
They're buying these old ranchstyle homes that were built
in the fifties and sixties.
They tear them down and theybuild this, these gorgeous homes.
And we.
Going back to what I wastalking about when negotiating
wise this is a great story.

(17:53):
Actually I have all the data.
I know the data like the back of my hand.
It's literally in my neighborhood.
And I saw this property and I said,Hey, listen, this is a good deal.
So I went to the open house.
Nobody was there.
He put an offer deadline.
So we submitted an offer callsme back and says, listen, we
got somebody who offered more.

(18:14):
So we're going to reject the offer, andI said, Hey, listen, anything changes.
Let me know.
Lo and behold, two weeks latercalls me back and says, Hey Keith,
it's coming back on the market.
I would urge you to reoffer on the place.
I said, okay, great.
Submitted the exact same offer.
My my my investor who's withme, he's he wanted to do more.

(18:36):
I said no let's stick toour, let's stick to our guns.
This is what it is.
I submitted the offer.
He comes back that nightand says, Keith, sorry.
But we got another offer.
It was higher than yours.
It was better terms.
So we're going to take it.
So okay, listen, anything changes.
Give me a call back.
Calls me back three days later.

(18:57):
And he says, all right, it'scoming back in the market.
And I said, all right, listen, this is it.
You take it or that's it.
Cause we're backing out with, this isit, but you know, it's going to close.
If you go with me, it's going to close.
All right.
But I'm not raising that offer.
I'm not going to raisethat dollar that offer 1.
And they took it.

(19:17):
And they took it and here we are.
So we're closing in December.
Already got our architect and he justfinished draft two of the plans and
once we approve draft two, there'sjust some minor things that I want
to change closets, add a closet heredelete a closet here, change around
some things here in the mud room.

(19:37):
Once we approve thathe's going to do, Okay.
All four floors.
We're going to do basementto third floor finishing.
We're going to bid it out to GC's.
In the area, everyone's going to be local.
I'm not going to take any chances andit's going to take almost a year to build.
So it'll be it's, it is withinthe realm of what I do, but at
the same time it's a divergence.

(19:58):
So it's, but it's nice.
It's exciting.
Let me tell you.
Congrats, man.
That's awesome.
So are you going to, are you goingto build these and resell them?
Are you going to hold them and rent them?
What's the play?
No.
So in the area that I'm in and frankly,mostly in Boston rentals don't make sense.
You're going to have to put 50percent down to to cashflow.

(20:21):
Unless you bought it in 2010.
2012 those, that time you're notgoing to cashflow in this area.
People bet more on appreciationthan they do on cashflow.
So in, in our area.
So, this will be a a a fullteardown brand new construction
foundation up and a resale.

(20:42):
Sick, man.
I think you brought up a reallyinteresting point here where if people
didn't catch it, one of the thingsyou said is I'm getting a bunch of
GCs and we're doing a bunch of stuff.
Obviously with new construction, youhave to work with the state of those
permits, there's all types of stuff.
And you said they're all going to be localbecause I don't want to take any chances.
Anybody who has used people asfar as contractors or any sort
of tradesmen in a city that thosepeople are not local in, they know

(21:05):
what a big deal it is to have them.
So.
For somebody not listening, whydid you make that a point to
say, they're all going to belocal to where the property is?
Oh it's so, like I was sayingearlier, I've been in the
industry for almost 20 years.
I appraise properties.
I work with local banks as well.
And these local banks send meto these new construction homes.

(21:29):
And I, Nick, I've seen it all.
Just last week I kid you not, just lastweek I went to this poor guy's house.
He's been building for two years.
I looked at the architect,not from Newton.
I looked at the GC, notfrom the area that we're in.
I looked at everything.

(21:49):
It's like next town's over, fourtowns away, five towns away.
And there he doesn't have no water.
He has no water in the house.
He's been building for two years.
That house should have taken ten months.
To build and that's at extremelevel, like a high level of building.
It should take 10 months to build.

(22:11):
And he's two years in.
To the build, and he still can't move in.
He's running out of money and heneeded to take an equity line on the
place and systems are not installed.
Porches are not finished.
Siding, some siding is missing.
It's just and the point of gettingsomebody local is that they know

(22:33):
the permitting system in this town.
They know the building instructorsinspectors, I'm sorry, in this town.
They know everybody in the town.
They've worked with them before.
They have a rapport.
With them.
So when they go to see their work,they've done that before and they
don't have to spend all day everyday, just looking over every nuance

(22:54):
and saying you did this wrong.
You did this wrong.
You did that wrong becausethey don't know who they are.
They've never seen this guy fromfour towns away, five towns away.
And it's a major advantageusing somebody who's local.
I'm talking from architect to engineer.
to GC and there's, and theirsubs are going to be within

(23:15):
one, one max, two towns away.
But the most important is that GCis local and they've done four,
five, six, 20 builds in this town.
And they know the process.
If you have been kicking yourselfthat you didn't start investing in
real estate sooner, whether you'rebeginner, intermediate or advanced.
Anyway, you're looking to get on aresidential commercial land development,

(23:35):
wholesaling, fix and flips, whateverit is, let's find a way to get you
involved in some projects, get yousome properties, whether you want to
sell some properties to me, whetheryou want to buy some properties from
me, whether residential fix and flipcashflow, multifamily, whatever it is
you're looking for, let's figure out away to get you involved or find a way
for us to partner up on some deals.
Preach out to me on any.
Of my social media channels.

(23:56):
If you go on www.
nicknicknick.
com slash links, you will seeall the different ways to connect
with me and figure out how wecan start to work together.
Make it happen.
Everybody that invests inreal estate always just says
they wish they did it sooner.
Best time to start is today.
Dude, anybody listening, if they don'tunderstand what a huge piece of value
that was, if you do that the wrong way,you'll look back and be like, man, I wish

(24:19):
I would've listened to Keith because that.
It's the good old boys club, whenthey walk in and there's somebody
that's an out of towner and they'relike, I don't know what your work is.
I don't know what your background is.
How do I know what youput behind that wall?
How do I know you're not goingto burn the whole village down?
So when they know them, like it, itjust makes everything so much smoother.
It makes everything so much easier.
So that's a massive tip, man, for sure.
I appreciate that.

(24:39):
Absolutely.
And it's true.
It really is.
You're so right.
And you, oh and this is another one.
So I started with the architect.
And the architect sends me down the line.
So the architect I know that he's areputable architect because when I pull
plans what, cause I'm a real estateappraiser, I have to pull plans, I have to

(25:02):
look through and everything's online now.
So it's so much easier.
I just go to my towns.
Website, I can pull plansfor houses that I like.
Literally, I just look at thehouse and I pull the plans.
I'm saying, Oh, this is a good architect.
I've seen them four or five times before.
Oh, I've seen this other architect.
Maybe, that's a good second option.
If this first one didn't work out,I was going to go to number two.

(25:23):
And what I mean by going down the lineis so this architect, I've seen them many
times in my neighborhood and then thearchitect says, Hey, listen, I know who.
Which builders to use because I'veworked with them before they build
my houses that I draw up and thenwhat we do is we bid it out to those
people and we say, okay, what'sbecause they have very similar quality.

(25:48):
It really doesn't matter who you use.
What matters then you can choose by price.
So that's an important thing.
Another important thing the architectwas to go to the engineering who's
doing the engineering the surveyingputting out the lot lines gauging how
far the house is to those lot lines.
For people who don't know you,there has to be minimums met.

(26:10):
Those minimums include AC handlers.
The house that I was just tellingyou about last week, he was telling
me how he might have to switch.
his A. C. System because it'stoo close to the lot line.
He's gonna have to build something or makeit more flat or change the manufacturer

(26:32):
to have a thinner, more heat pumparea, where it's thinner and closer to
the house than it is to the lot line.
So, and he's going through goingthrough a massive headache and
it's, it can be, very stressful.
Yeah, man, I tell everybody, it's notwhat you know, it's what you don't know.
And that's why you have to have the peoplein there because like lot lines, setbacks,
all that stuff, it could be very differentfrom say to the city, county, county,

(26:55):
state to state, like it can vary greatly.
And if you're used to something inone area and you're in an incorporated
village next door, they might playby a whole different set of rules.
And if you don't know those rulesand you already put money in and you
already started your construction,you're going to have a real hard time.
Absolutely.
A hundred percent.
You're going to have, you're going to havebe arguing over, over feet, literally.

(27:16):
Over several feet.
It's crazy.
It is wild, man.
So with the appraisal background, I talkto people that come from all different
types of backgrounds in real estate, butI have to imagine that having a background
as an appraiser is probably one of themost beneficial other trade licenses
to have in that business because it allcomes down to value, whether you're a
buyer, whether you're a seller, whetheryou're a bank, whether you're a lender.

(27:38):
I feel like the value is really the thing.
Yeah.
I think it's interesting.
So a couple of, I guess, questionson the appraiser side, cause I don't
know if I've really had an appraisalexpert on here before, but first off,
what types of appraisals are there?
Cause I know sometimesthere's desktop appraisals.
Sometimes you have to actually go in.
For me, I do a lot of things likesubject to repairs appraisals, like
there's different types of appraisals.

(27:58):
I don't think people even know that.
So starting with kind of one on one, whatare the different types of appraisals
that you can do as an appraiser?
So if we were going to start like onthe top there's two Different types of
appraisal licenses that you can get.
And on the residential side,there's another two, but
let's just keep it simple.
There's a residential and acommercial license that you can get

(28:21):
residential appraising license cannotappraise commercial properties.
That's over five units.
But commercial licensecan appraise residential.
They usually don't, but becausethere's more money in commercial
realist real estate appraising.
But as far as residential.
There, there's two licenses, like Iwas saying, a certified residential

(28:45):
and just like a residential licenseand the certified residential can do,
quote, unique properties where the loanamount is over a million dollars and
they can appraise up to a four family.
After a four family, five plus,it's considered a commercial.

(29:05):
And if you're buying a a residentialproperty, yes, there's different types
of appraisals that can be ordered.
It depends on value and loan amount.
If again, you're, this is this is a littlebit out of my realm, but I believe if
it's 400, 000 and less, the loan amount.

(29:26):
It's possible to get a desktop appraisal.
So the appraiser were actuallynever go out to the home.
They'll just look at the property via MLSand pull comps and send it to the lender.
And they can get anappraisal based upon that.
I don't do those.
I just refuse to do those.

(29:47):
Personally they just don't.
Make dollars and cents forme number one and number two.
It's just not indicative of the waythat I was brought up in the business
as far as doing things correctlyand actually walking through the
house itself one and then number twodriving and being in the neighborhood.

(30:11):
There is.
Only so much that Google Maps cando as far as knowing a location
talking to the agents and saying,why did your buyer buy this?
Why are they looking at this location?
People in more rural areas will neverunderstand why somebody wants to live next

(30:32):
to the T. What the MBTA, they will neverunderstand the noise, the people walking
through the life that's involved withliving near the MBTA will never know that.
But you ask people who live in Boston,and they would not live anywhere else.
But.
Within a half of my a quarter of a mile,a stone's throw away from the MBTA.

(30:56):
It's how they get into town.
It's how they go grocery shopping.
They don't need a carsmall things like that.
And another factor is just knowinglocation and understanding why
literally this street is 200,000 more than this street.
It's, I'll just give you a quickexample of, and people sometimes want to

(31:20):
characterize this with a certain name,but this is just knowledge and going to
the location and looking at the house,which you could, you would never notice.
If you looked at Google Mapsand you did the street view.
So, I live in a certain area in this area.
They originally, when it was builtup, it was custom ranch homes.

(31:44):
Okay, 1 level for those whodon't know what a ranch home is.
It's a 1 level home has a, itcan and cannot have a basement.
But they were custom built.
Okay.
Not even a half a mile away.
There's another area Ranch homes,but they don't have basements.
They're built on slabs.

(32:05):
If you were to look at the homes,they look pretty similar, but the
homes that are not in my neighborhood,they were built literally on via
catalog, via Sears robot catalog.
They were ordered and they werebuilt for the world war two
veterans that were coming back.
Now these houses are allbeing torn down custom and.

(32:28):
The Sears Roebuck homes are beingtorn down and new construction homes
are being built in their place.
The same builder, same house,two different locations.
They have a 300, 000 difference.
Some of them have a 700, 000 differencein the exact same finishes, same

(32:51):
house, same finishes, same everything.
What's the difference.
The difference is the area.
That was built up for the world war twoveterans that is since then has always
been cheaper to buy the builders to thisday, 60 years later, are able to buy those

(33:14):
lots for less because the homes were not.
As well taken care of because back then,whenever people got them, they always
got a better price in that area forever.
It will be a better price than thisother area that had custom built homes
because those custom built homes were muchmore cared for when they did upgrades.

(33:38):
They did superior upgrades whenthey were willing to sell that home.
I'm not selling it for that pricebecause that area sells it for less.
I have to sell it for morebecause it's this area.
And to this day, and I literallyhave sales comps, same builder, same
finishes, same house, and they sellfor hundreds of thousands of dollars

(34:00):
less, and they're a half a mile away.
But how do you know that?
You know that because you haveexperience of going to the homes,
you talk to the agents and whyis this selling for cheaper?
Do you want to be in this area?
Maybe it's a great starter area, butafter that you move up to this area, you
go up to this area or whatever it is.

(34:21):
And people want to like, again, theywant to throw like these terms out
and what that can be or cannot be.
But the fact of the matteris that it started back when
these things were created.
They were created.
For these World War veterans that werecoming in and they were well priced,
they were more affordable homes andthere's nothing wrong with that.

(34:41):
There is not, that's notwhat I'm talking about.
What I'm talking about is that becausethey were initially purchased for
that, that, That's forever now, causethe builders can always get a better
price here than they can over there.
It's pretty amazing.
Just understanding the psychology of onit and how that that that works its way.
It doesn't matter how muchbuilt, how built out that is.

(35:03):
And that other area that I was tellingyou about the world war two veterans,
that was also the area that hadthe most amount of new construction
permitting for two years in a row.
It's unbelievable.
That's great, man.
That local market knowledgeis, it's just incredible.
And I think there, there'sa few different directions.

(35:24):
I would love to go on that.
One of them being, you brought up thepoint of people just don't understand.
They go, well, my neighbor's house.
So for this, and they don'tunderstand all these subtleties
that some of them are very obvious.
Some of them are very not.
about what the difference is.
And I deal with this all the time whereI call people up and well, man, Zillow
says, and da and Bob down the street.
So, and I'm like, dude, Bob, it'snot even the same thing at all.

(35:46):
So when you're dealing with this now,having the knowledge of going in and
doing all these appraisals, if somebodyis listening to this, what is like the.
And I understand that there's goingto be a variation of different
things in probably different areas.
But what are the top things you look for?
Because I know there's certain times whereI'll go to get an appraisal, and people
will go, well, this house is the same.

(36:06):
I go, yes, but thathouse is four miles out.
So it's not as valuable as a comp thatmight be a little bit different, a
little bit smaller, a little bit older.
That's closer.
So.
Proximity, square foot, lot sizewhat are some of the top things
that you look for if you'rehaving trouble comping things out?
Because sometimes, I looked at someplaces in Massachusetts before,
and you have the subdivisionsI think it was like Dorchester,

(36:27):
and everything looked the same.
So it was like, all right, thisis probably easier to comp out.
But then I just came from Raleigh, dude.
And every single house was like adifferent structure, a different layout.
Everything's very unique.
So when it becomes very unique,what are kind of the, maybe the
top five or six things that you putinto importance when valuing a home?
So, so it's, that's going to varyappraiser to appraiser, market

(36:49):
to market, location to location.
It really is it really will.
And again it, Depends on the eyesof the appraiser and what they see
and what they're used to doing.
That's why it's so, so importantto get somebody who's local and who
actually knows the difference ofthose, of this area and that area.

(37:10):
You meant, you just mentionedDorchester and Boston.
That's a section within Boston.
And let me tell you, there are some.
Huge differences.
And I'm talking street to street.
It is incredible.
And you'll see a wide variety of ofvalues over there and what you can do
here and what you can do there, dependingon where the MBTA is for that for that

(37:32):
area in particular what kind of finishesthey've put in there and square footage.
It's massive.
So.
Well, anyway, in what I lookfor personally, first thing
I look for is location.
That's just number one.
It doesn't mean, it doesn't meanthat you, that one area sells

(37:55):
differently if it's four miles away.
And it doesn't say that it can'tbe similar, even though there's
sections in between those four miles.
It doesn't mean that this one doesn'tsell the same as the four mile away.
But you have to prove it.
You have to come up with evidenceand say, okay, the reason why I went
four miles away is because the homeis similar and I have a sale that's

(38:19):
four miles away, and I have a sale.
That's right around the corner.
So we know that those twoareas sell for the same because
they're both ranch sales homes.
They're both a thousand square feet.
They both have five rooms, threebedrooms, one bath, for example.
And they're selling for the same price.
So it's, you can make a, an educatedguess that those areas are pretty similar.

(38:42):
Even if there's a house that's onemile away and it's sold for more,
that does not mean that it's the same.
As the I just gave you theexample that this other area is 0.
5 miles away, but I'll tell you, Iwould probably go 2 miles out to get
a similar neighborhood to where I livebecause it just doesn't sell for the

(39:04):
same and I know that because of theway that it was built back in the 50s
and the 60s and I can prove it that'sthe kind of knowledge that you need.
So for number one is locationand understanding the
boundaries of your neighborhood.
Understanding those boundariesand knowing exactly what you

(39:24):
can compare apples to apples.
That's number one.
Number two it's a tight race withthe next ones, but it's quality
of construction, who built.
The home.
What kind of finishesthey've put into the home.
I can tell you on, on,on streets where I live.
There's houses that thatsell for three, three, 3.

(39:45):
8 million.
And there's another onethat sold for four, six.
Similar size lot, but that's the kindof quality that people are looking for.
That's the difference of qualitythat people are looking for
and they're willing to pay.
Did they put sub zero?
Did they put Wolf?
Are the flooring custom?

(40:05):
Are the cabinetry custom?
Where are the countertops from?
Are they imported?
Are the cabinetry importedfrom Germany, from Italy?
What, those are the kind of questionsthat certain neighborhoods have and
the buyers have what did they do?
They're not asking what kindof roof they have on there.
They want the sexy items,what, open the refrigerator.

(40:28):
What brand is it?
Is that, oh, is that the wide plankflooring that you put in here?
Is that engineered?
Is that actual hardwood?
Are they doing fiberglass bathrooms?
The fiber surround or thoseis that custom tile surround.
What are you doing?
Porcelain?
Are you doing granite?
Are you doing marble?
All of these things andmake a massive difference.

(40:52):
Now, if you're talking about these ranchstyle homes that are five rooms, three
bedrooms, one bath and you're like, ohmy gosh, i, I listened to this podcast
and I better put marble flooring.
I better put gold faucets.
I better put diamond encrustedlights, that's also not correct.
And that's something called an overimprovement just because you put

(41:19):
X into your house does not meanyou're going to get Y out of it.
You have to and in real estate.
You want to be a follower.
You don't want to be aa leader, the leader.
At least I wouldn't, I would not.
And the leader is the onewho can make a lot of money.
Sure.
Absolutely.
Cause they set the tone for that for acertain neighborhood or, or something like

(41:41):
that, but they're taking massive risk.
Massive risk.
But if you're seeing four, five homesbeing torn down and brand new construction
homes are coming up and guess what?
They're all following a pattern.
They're all five bedrooms, five anda half bathrooms, 4, 500 square feet
with 2000 square feet in the basement.

(42:03):
You have a blueprint.
You have something to go off of ifone is selling with four and a half
and the other one's five and a half.
But guess what?
That five and a half is not gettingthat extra 30, 000 that it took
to put in that extra bathroom.
You probably shouldn'tput that extra bathroom.
You're at least not goingto get your money out of it.

(42:24):
And people think Oh my God,this house has nine bedrooms.
Okay.
How many rooms does the house have?
Oh, it has 11.
So you've got nine bedrooms and 11 rooms.
Like that doesn't make a house superior.
Like I keep, like one of the firstthings like, Oh, this house has six
bedrooms and they're like, You go toone of the bedrooms and it's clearly
an office, doesn't have a closet.
It's, five by six, and it'sI once put a a crib in here.

(42:48):
That's definitely a bedroom.
No, that's not a bedroom.
It has to have certainsize has to have an egress.
It actually doesn't have to havea closet, but it's customary to
have a closet in a bedroom whereyou can actually hang your clothes.
The reason why it's not this isjust a little tidbit here is because
in the 1900s, which we still havehere in Boston, we've many, we

(43:09):
have 1800 homes, many 1800 homes.
They didn't even have closets.
They didn't build them.
They actually put themoutside of the room.
And they're like.
Two feet deep or one feet each by four.
You know what I mean?
They're just totally useless.
People use bureaus and they usedifferent types of furniture for, and
that's why it can still be a bedroom.

(43:29):
So long as it has a window and it meetscertain criteria, I believe, don't quote
me, but it's, I think it's 72 square feet.
So like a nine by eight minimum, absoluteminimum for actual square footage in that
room in order to be considered a bedroom.
Okay.
Man, that is such good informationand I feel like this is, I like I knew
we connected because I was like, man,his brain works exactly like mine.

(43:51):
Cause all the stuff you're saying, dude,like I used to use the term pioneer.
Like you don't want togo pioneer a new area.
You want to make sure thatthere's already settlers there.
Otherwise it's who knows that maybethere's a reason nobody's there.
And my buddy and I used toalways have this saying, we'd
say, when in doubt, comp it out.
And people would be like,well, should I buy a two one?
I'd be like, I don't know.
Are people renting or buying andselling two ones in your area?
And I had a house in North Carolina wewere going to buy and the the realtor.

(44:14):
Was pushing us to buy it as a duplexand put it back to a single family home.
And he told us, we're goingto make all this money.
And I pulled all the sales data andI was like, man, the sales comps are
facts, everything else is an opinion.
And you have enough data nowwith the internet to pull those
facts and figure out what it is.
And when I looked at all the soul comps.
Nothing in that area had sold biggerthan 2000 square foot in the entire year.

(44:35):
So it's there's not as much value persquare foot in that area for those people.
The market is telling you exactly whatthey want and exactly what they will pay.
And then you go do all this other stuff,but the under and the over renovations,
man, it makes such a big difference.
I feel like it's those little details.
And for people listening that aregetting frustrated that we're like,
well, I want a straight answer.
I hope this is a, an eye opening.

(44:56):
example of the fact that with real estateyou can send in five different appraisals
and get five different values because it'sliterally you as a martial artist I feel
like you found your calling because itreally is more of an art than a science
because there's these little things init that have to be evaluated and I think
that's what makes you very good at it isbeing able to look at the data and form
the picture and so I think my follow uphere is once you make that picture and you

(45:19):
make that painting that you go well here'swhy I'm using a comp three streets away or
three miles away Where does that go next?
Is there somebody specifically at thebank that you present that to say, Hey,
this is why and if there's challengesthere, what does that look like?
If a seller comes backand goes no, he's wrong.
It's worth this.
It's worth that.
Like, where's that next step?
Once you go and you actuallyput the numbers for the bank.

(45:42):
So I hope we go, I hope we circle backto the buyer or or even a seller, when
they try to challenge an appraisal ifyou don't mind, I'd love to just give
you my peace of mind after I answerthat, that question that you had there.
Whichever way works for you, sir.
Like I said, you're the star man, youtake it where you want to take it.
So the first, so the, letme answer the first one.

(46:04):
So the appraiser typically willdeliver the appraisal to the
appraisal department in a bank.
If we're talking abouta big bank then that.
Appraisal department, because there hasto be a separation between the appraiser
and the bank itself, because the bankhas an interest of doing this loan.

(46:24):
The bank the loan officer isgetting paid to close this loan.
So they have an interest of thatappraisal coming into value.
So they want to separate those two guys.
Okay.
Those two people and they sent it to theappraisal department, also independent
from the loan the loan office so thatthen they send it to the underwriter and

(46:47):
that's who the underwriter will review.
Who's usually a jack of all trades in theloan arena and we'll review my appraisal.
Make sure there's no questions.
Based upon their lending practices andthey're going to do their own comp search.
They're going to do their ownresearch and make sure that I'm on
top of my game and that I've answeredall of their lending questions.

(47:11):
As far as the appraisal is concerned,they literally have a sheet.
That they go through and say, isthe name of the borrower correct?
Did they provide three comparables?
Did they put a listing in there?
Did they have a market analysis?
Did they answer and they just go downthe line and they just, and they see
if I answered all of those questions.
And if it did, they passes.
And if it didn't, they'll, theywill come back and they will

(47:32):
scrutinize the appraisal andthey'll say, why didn't you do this?
Why didn't you do that?
Well, what's this all about?
Our lending practices says you have toanswer this question in this exact format.
It's, it can be frustrating becauseobviously this bank doesn't have the
same regulations as another bank.
So I have to keep that all in mymind, depending on who, because I'm

(47:54):
a fee based independent appraiser.
I don't work for just one bank.
I'm 1099 so, most appraisers are.
They're a fee based appraisersand they they will receive
from many different banks.
Now to circle back to what youwere saying, as far as what a
buyer or seller can do to contestthe appraisal, there is this.

(48:17):
There's this big thing going onright now with appraisal bias.
And I just want to make to give youthe perspective on it, because I think
that there's a lot of misinformationout there and an appraisal is the
most highly regulated and the leastpaid in, in a real estate transaction.

(48:38):
Okay.
Now that being said there is sometalk about how appraisers are bias
towards this or that or my neighborhoodor the color of my skin or where
I'm from or anything like that.
If an appraiser was ever bias.
Over that.

(48:58):
I mean, I can't talk for every 100%,110 percent of the appraisers out
there, but to risk your license, yourlivelihood for a value for one appraisal.
Okay.
And appraisals to make my living.
It's off of volume.
Okay.
Not one a week, one a month, it's a lot.

(49:20):
Okay.
To risk that over one appraisal.
Just to hurt somebody soundsabsolutely ridiculous to me.
And there's talk about how, oh, I changedthis photos and I did this and I, somebody
else, was acting like the homeowner andit came in 400, 000 higher in this one.

(49:42):
Is anyone questioning theappraiser who came higher?
Because that's the easy thing to do.
The easy thing is to go in there, belazy, and just say, Oh yeah, of course
John's house is just like yours.
And then when you actually dig into theresearch, you find out that house over

(50:03):
there has a thousand more square feet.
The finishes were impeccable.
And your job, your house is like a DIY.
It's, it I just, I question that.
And instead of people think Oh, if theycame in higher, it must be correct.
And that's just, andthat's very frustrating.
That's very frustrating.

(50:23):
And it's also frustrating whenpeople think Oh, let me check Zillow.
Let me click a button and see if that's,the value of my house where guess what?
That's.
They literally put posted on their websitethat they can be off 20 percent 20%.
If you're talking about a milliondollar house, it could be worth 1.
2 or 1 or 800, 000 because you have todo plus and you have to do minus 20%.

(50:47):
It's not.
20 percent up.
It's 20 percent both ways.
Yep.
That is a massive difference.
Basically they're saying on their ownwebsite that they're not reliable.
So, so be very, be, trustthe process a little bit.
Trust the process a little bit.
If you really do have a problem, callanother appraiser and find out the

(51:09):
questions that you have and why theywould do this and why they would do that.
There's many homeowners in myarea that have no idea what the
difference is between the one I wasexplaining earlier and this one.
They have no idea, you, you need tomake sure that you're getting the facts.
What, and then, like you said earlier,paint that picture in a way that's
everyone can view it and understand it.

(51:31):
That's awesome, man.
And I know we're gettinga little tight on time.
You got like another 10 minutes or so?
Yeah, sure.
All right, cool.
I, one more another quick appraisalquestion on you, and then I had something
I kind of want to dig in that I thinkwill be fun, but you brought up another
interesting point that I never thoughtto ask, but is there a difference
in the way that they have you do theappraisal if it's like a conventional
loan versus an FHA appraisal and alsofor a purchase versus a refinance?

(51:53):
Yeah, that's a really good question.
So FHA loan does have differentstandards than a conventional loan.
The, one of the biggest thingsI mean, I don't have by memory
what the differences are exactly.
But I have a generalidea, like you have to.
100 percent check the attic and make surethat it's, there's no like mold in there.
The standards of financing are different.

(52:16):
There can't be any peelingpaint for an FHA loan.
You can't have majorhazards like they're really.
Oh, they may have phased this oneout, but let's just stick with this to
be conservative, to be conservative,at a minimum, there's no peeling
paint, for example, cannot have that.
You can have lead paint, but youcan't have any peeling paint.
You have to at minimum check theattic, make sure there's no mold

(52:38):
in the basement, in the attic.
Those are like the major criteriathat FHA has, but it is different.
I literally have it printed.
So when I do come across an FHA Iliterally take that list with me and
I just check the boxes to make sureI don't miss anything because they're
not all the time for me in my area.

(52:59):
I mean, I don't literally the lasttime I did an FHA loan, I would
say would be years ago for me.
Yeah, years ago, a VA loan is the same forthat, and reverse mortgage is the same.
They all have the same standardsbut again, I do not typically
do those type of loans.
The area that I'm in is is, Iwould say, high, it's expensive.

(53:24):
It's expensive and most of theloans are conventional loans.
They're not typically FHAor anything like that.
Yeah.
Awesome.
That makes sense.
And then is there, cause I hear.
Different versions of when people say,Hey, the appraiser is going to come in
lower if it's a refinance than a purchase.
Oh, right.
Yes.
Not necessarily.
No, that's not true.

(53:45):
They should theoretically be the same.
Now, can a purchase, hit the higherof a range than say a refinance?
Absolutely.
Of course it can.
So when you're forming yourappraisal opinion almost never
do after the adjusted sales grid.

(54:06):
So the, you put the three sales inyour appraisal and there's a grid.
Okay.
And in that grid are the major aspectsof your home, lot, GLA, bedroom,
bathroom count, basement whetherit's finished or you have one, is it
finished, central AC decks, fireplaces,and then you can, there's a section

(54:28):
for you to add things in ground poolsaccessory dwelling units, ADUs barns
things like that you can add to the sidethere and adjust major type of things.
People sometimes like,Oh, I finished my closets.
That's great.
But guess what?
Anybody can finish their closet andsomebody's not going to go in your house.
Oh wow.
That they, honey, they finishedthe closets over there.

(54:50):
Let's pay them 10, 000 more becausethey finished their closets.
That's not a major thing that somebody'swilling to pay more for, on the whole.
So, so going back to that grid afteryou go through the grid you give a, an
adjustment for this person has a bathroom.
This lot size is larger.
So I, that's typically peoplewould pay 100, 000 more for that.

(55:13):
They will pay 5, 000 more forextra for that or this or whatever.
The adjusted sales prices at thebottom after you make the adjustments.
It's just to make things super simple.
A hundred thousand dollars.
You're paying for thehouse after adjustments.
It's 115, 95 and a one 10.

(55:34):
Okay.
So that's the range.
The range is 95 to one 15.
Okay.
But you're purchasingthe house for 115, 000.
Okay.
Well, it still makes sensebecause it's in the highest.
Of that range.
But if they're refinancing, why areyou taking the risk of saying it's the
highest when maybe you don't believeit, you'll probably end go right in

(55:57):
the middle, one Oh one Oh five, one 10.
Something like that.
Because it also, again, you'reprotecting the interest of the bank.
And it's a conservative institution.
It's the way that we've been trained.
You're, they train you to beconservative, not, okay how much

(56:18):
can we push out of this thing?
How, where can I just find the mostamount of they have to prove it.
We have, as appraisers have to proveNot only is this worth X amount of
dollars, but it is because of this,and this is there times where there's a
refinance and I do the absolute highestcomp, a hundred percent, I do that.
It's the one that's on the same street.

(56:38):
It has very similar finishes thesame builder all those things.
And it's sold for a pretty penny.
Hey, yours is worth a pretty penny too.
Absolutely 100%.
But if that happened five years agoand you trash your home and you don't
take care of it like the other persondoes, then it's not going to be worth
the same presentation does matter.

(57:01):
You know how you take careof your home does matter.
Dude.
That was such a good answer, man.
Tons of great stuff there.
So, and I know we're getting a littletight on time, but I love this last
section here that I kind of carved outbecause I love bringing on people that
have a background in martial arts.
and experience in real estateand business, because I feel
like there's so many parallels.
And what I read, which I think wassuper interesting, is that you had

(57:24):
a credo that every day you willshow up with gratitude, humility,
perseverance, courage, and self control.
And if we pull that back, I couldeither say to somebody that I was
teaching a real estate class tothis is your creed or I could say to
somebody at an MA school that like, Ifeel like it's the same exact thing.
And so usually I'm like, Hey man, whatare some of the things you pulled?

(57:46):
But when I read that on yourside, I was like, that's it.
Like that, that literally is it.
So I love to go through those alittle bit and see what type of like
lessons or advisors or things you'vepulled away from each one of these,
starting with obviously gratitude.
What has gratitude been for you?
How has it helped you alongthe way to keep going?
In business and in martial arts.
So what parallels of gratitudehave you found in both?

(58:07):
Yeah that's great.
Thanks.
I actually made that.
That's awesome, dude.
So thank you.
I appreciate that.
So man, I think personally, I thinkthat, this one is a tough one.
Gratitude is a tough one because youget in your own head many times and you.
People are so quick to say but lookwhat you've done, but look what, and

(58:30):
you're in this place, you're in thismindset of just I don't even want,
I, let me solve this problem before Ithink about like how much I've grown.
And I use that in a different way.
I will be businesses is good.
All of my appraisals are turned in.

(58:50):
I'm coming home from the academy.
And I'm driving homejust in my own thoughts.
And then, at that time, whenI don't have stressors, will I
take the time to then say, hey.
You're doing okay.
You're doing a good job for what you'vecome from and what you've been able
to do with your life, a lot of people,they know that I even mentioned earlier

(59:15):
that my father was a was a doctor.
He's a physician.
I also mentioned that he's from Peru andhe immigrated here into this country.
And let me tell you that he's.
never left that mindset.
And there was something, personal.
Was told to me right after Igraduated college that, that

(59:36):
they told me and basically that,like you, you're on your own.
We've done what we told you wedo and you are on your own and
don't expect anything from us.
And I don't say that assomething that's bad.
I don't say something that is somethinggood just because you come from a certain

(01:00:02):
family or something like that doesn't meanthat they're like helping you all the way
like laying the bricks for you to step on.
You have to go out thereand do it yourself.
Same, and you can see the parallels withKenny and his career, like nobody can
go in there with a steel chair over thering and bash somebody and help him out.
He had to do that himself.
And I see that myself too.

(01:00:23):
I started.
All of my businesses from ground zero,no funding from anybody all on my own,
and that's where gratitude comes in.
It's, you have to take the timeswhere you feel good about yourself
to then practice gratitude.
It's and that's when I do it.
And I think that sometimes you're feelingbad about something and somebody puts

(01:00:47):
their harm around you and they say,but look what you've done in this.
And that's honestly not the time, atleast for me to practice gratitude.
The time to practice gratitude is whenyou actually have a time on your own
and you can do it for yourself andjust think about those things and feel
good about it and get those goosebumps.
And that's the time to kind ofcapitalize on it and be like, okay,

(01:01:11):
I'm going to practice gratitudefor the next couple of minutes.
When I feel like I can actually.
Absorb it, rather than when you'renot feeling so good and somebody's
Hey, listen, but look at this.
It's I can't even donate.
Don't, yeah.
Don't touch me.
No, I think that's awesome, man.
It's like little stripes on thebelt where I think that along the

(01:01:32):
way, maybe when the guy's puttingthe stripe on the belt or tying it
around you, you don't appreciate it.
Right.
I don't know anybody who gets apromotion and is I deserve that.
Like the guy asking, like, where'smy purple belt never gets it.
It's just.
But you need a little bit of thatto go Oh yeah, look, like just these
little benchmarks to get these wins.
Cause I tell everybody's entrepreneurs,I think we make it very, Dan Martell, I
don't know if he is, but he was telling melike we psychologically stack up the deck

(01:01:54):
so much against us to give us any sortof credibility or like pat on the back.
And we put such false, unrealisticexpectations on us to be able to
give ourselves any credit for stuff.
So you gotta be niceto yourself sometimes.
Right?
Yes.
Exactly.
And it's funny because I find thatmaybe a week after you get your
stripe, then you feel that crap.

(01:02:16):
It's not even at the time you'rejust like, Oh my God, thank you.
But then a couple, a week, a coupleof days later, a week later, you're
just like, this is pretty amazing.
Yeah.
I love that, man.
All right.
So humility was the next thing whereyou said that you have to be modest
to accept feedback graciously.
And I think that's another skillwhere having tough conversations or.
Having people be able to give youthings and not be defensive about it

(01:02:38):
is very important for growth and noteverybody takes that feedback well.
So in business, especially like I tellpeople, a lot of my best mentors have not
taught me what to do, but what not to do.
And I think some of those things whereI even find myself now, or when somebody
says something to me, I have to clencha little bit because I know initially.
I go to be defensive andbe like, but this is why.
And I've learned to just shutup and realize that's just me.

(01:03:01):
And I have to just letit sit for 12 hours.
And then when I'm sitting there witha clear head, I'm like, you know what?
Is really good information or I'll lookback at it again and say, no, it's not,
but I've learned to be very open tomaybe there's something I'm not seeing
and especially maybe not just themessage, but the person who's giving me
the message, I think makes a way biggerdifference where some dude on the street
who's giving you information versus likesomebody in your life that you know has

(01:03:23):
come through for you before, like Matt,Sarah always gives the example of when
he goes to get like his pizza and theguy's telling him about Hey, when you
fought BJ Penn, you should have done this.
It's yeah.
Dude, you're like stick to the sandwich.
You're not the guy, so it's areyou getting the right information
from the right people as well?
So how have you learned to be soacceptable of feedback instead
of being defensive or dismissive?
That's really tough.

(01:03:44):
It's really tough, but honestly, likeI hope that I practice humility every
single day and I try, at least I trymy best to look at the, what they're
trying to say first before I jumped tothe conclusion that it's this person or
it's, they have underlining intentions,they're trying to screw me from this

(01:04:06):
or trying to, something like that.
I try my best to do that.
Then what I do is I will bounceideas off of somebody that I know
from that industry or somebodywho I know who is knowledgeable.
I'm very fortunate to have awife that's really intelligent.
She's not from this country, butshe went to school in this country.
And she went to college in this country.

(01:04:28):
She's brilliant.
And I can bounce ideas off her and shecan adapt and she can look at other.
Ways and other sides ofthe coin, so to speak.
And then, I'll also ask people inthe industry and say, Hey, listen,
what do you think about that?
What's your idea on it?
Well, why do they think that?
Myself, I'm kind of a nerd in thesense that I keep contacts with my

(01:04:50):
professors, the people who are actuallyteaching me about appraising the people
who originally taught me real estate.
Builders, all those people.
I keep those connections so then Ican text them and say, Hey, listen,
this person's telling me this.
Is that true?
Oh yes, that is.
They just made that law thatyou cannot build a house above

(01:05:11):
this type of height anymore.
And they're not allowingyou to do this anymore.
Or, and then I check with, andthen after that I'll say, okay, and
then I'll check with the lawyer.
And I'll, and I'll have a lawyercontact too, and I'll say, Hey,
listen, Denzel is, or is this true?
Is this, is, and he'll verifyit or say, no, that's not true.
It's true to a sense.

(01:05:31):
It's this, and that, butyou have to seek experts.
It's funny because people talkabout fake news all the time.
And I find it fascinating that people aretaking medical advice from the roofer.
Electrical advice from theirplumber and I use those all the
end and they're asking electricaladvice from the foundation person.
And it's just stay in your lane understandwho the professional is in this area until

(01:05:56):
the, until they've actually lied to yourface about something and not admitted it.
You take, they are aprofessional in this industry.
You should probably believe them.
That's look at the greater good.
Rather than who's trying tolike, like I said earlier, who's
trying to undermine you or who'strying to get the better of you.
Have a little bit of faith.

(01:06:19):
I love that.
Perseverance.
Set clear goals and createa plan to achieve them even
when faced with challenges.
On the mats, off the mats,you're gonna take some beatings.
What are some self talk things?
And I saw you posted a really funny memeabout like how, like the average person
sleeps at night versus how entrepreneurs,and it was like, I like all this

(01:06:39):
shit about thinking all those things.
So what are some things when you'refeeling overwhelmed and you're feeling
stressed out and you're taking someof those beatings, what's some of
the self talk or the positive actionsyou take to keep yourself from,
as my business partner would say,decorating the ditch that you're in?
Yeah.
Yeah.
So I think what helps me with this isthe multiple multiple income streams,

(01:07:01):
when I'm feeling depressed about oneof them, I like focus on the other one.
So I can kind of get my head out ofwhatever was going on with that industry.
That, that's really what helpsme to be totally honest with you.
But as far as perseverance, Imean, I got a quick story for you.
Yeah.
There was a time that Iwanted to stop appraising.

(01:07:22):
I was so upset with the industry.
I was so fed up with it.
All of the new laws that they have,all the new like red tape that they
have people not wanting, they thinkthat the appraiser is just like
a number, like just all they'redoing is checkboxing something,
sending it through and they're done.
And my wife was the one who'sYou're a good appraiser.

(01:07:45):
Stick with it.
Just, it's just a low, but stick withit and I can't tell you how many years
that, that appraising has kept meafloat and how much it's taught me.
About real estate in general, why,and getting into like psychology
of it and understanding that aspectof it again, most highly regulated

(01:08:07):
and least paid in a real estatetransaction, but everyone's wondering
how much is the appraiser getting paid?
It's it's unbelievable and it's, itcan be very frustrating, but I don't
know, I want to say about seven yearsago or something like that I I lost a
client and because that happens to youlose a client their fees are just not

(01:08:30):
keeping up with what You feel your worth.
So I start denying work from themand they dropped me and next, I'm not
even kidding you within a month, anew bank calls me and they say, Hey,
listen, I've seen your work before.

(01:08:50):
We, this, these are ourfees and they're those fees.
I've set a standard for me.
It's, it was amazing and it'stotally changed the way that I do
things and the way my life, I livemy life now and the way that I quote
people and and it's been amazing.
It's, it really has changed alot for me in that industry.

(01:09:10):
And I'm so much happier.
I can't tell you because you startto feel like you are actually
getting paid what you're worth.
And that's an amazing feeling.
But it's perseverance.
It's perseverance.
I could have quit.
I easily could have quit.
There was times when the academy, whenthe memberships were down so much, I

(01:09:30):
had a manager who was stealing from me.
I, yeah, I, there was, itwas ruining the business.
And there was times whereI wanted to quit too.
But here we are 16 years.
With the, with with floor and martialarts and nearly 20 with real estate.
It's amazing, dude.
It literally is that cliche that yousee on the wall, like the jujitsu gyms,

(01:09:51):
that just the white belt is a black beltis a white belt who just didn't quit.
You're right.
Right.
Absolutely.
And that's the same thing with jujitsu.
It's as much as you get beatenup, as much as you, you're losing
in the beginning, you will win.
At the end, if you just don'tstop coming, you will win.
I love that, man.

(01:10:11):
And obviously self control is a partof everything, but the big, the last
one here we'll touch on is courage.
You said you have to take calculatedrisk to step out of your comfort zone.
And I think that's so importantbecause I was telling somebody the
other day, they were like, ah, Ijust got my way up with the jujitsu.
I was like, hardest belt to get only oneyou can buy, but the hardest one to get,
because it's like the, what do they say?
The heaviest.

(01:10:31):
thing in the gym is the front door,but it really is that of I think
everybody's scared to walk into amartial arts gym the first time.
Everybody's scared to do theirfirst real estate development or
do their first MMA fight, but.
I think everybody thinkssomebody is different.
Well, Kenny Flory is not scared of gettingbeat up when he goes, Dude, everybody is.
We're all people.
We all have the same nervous system, samestuff, with some exceptions, obviously,

(01:10:53):
but it's fighting through that fear.
And I remember one of my first orsecond MMA fights Matt Serra was going
to Canada to fight Gerard St Pierre.
Sorry, I know he's your buddy, buthe's going to fight Gerard St Pierre.
And I remember I was going toJersey and I remember Matt was
like, Dude, how do you feel?
I was like, Man, I'm scared.
And he was like, Well, me too.
And I was like, No, you're not, dude.
You're going to fight in frontof 23, 000 people in Canada.
I'm going to New Jersey tofight in front of 200 drunks,

(01:11:15):
like totally different thing.
And he gave me this speechabout the coward and the hero.
And the fear is always there.
It's just about, you make adecision to control the fear.
And I always think about that, man.
So yeah.
Recourage, like it'ssuch a big piece of that.
How do you fight the fearand do things that scare you?
Wow, that's a massive one.
And so, so calculated risk.

(01:11:38):
You mentioned that I havethat written under courage.
And that is massive for me.
I've been in the industry for a long time.
I've studied it.
I'm very confident in my numbers.
Just if I look at straight data.
I'm very confident that my skillsin that arena will persevere.
And after doing a bunch of analysisafter, talking to, my spouse and

(01:12:03):
explaining this and explainingthat and almost selling the idea.
And it slightly, and in that selling,convincing myself that this is a smart
plan and that, the ri the risk will.
Well, well outweigh, or I'm sorry,the benefit will out risk outweigh
the risk, because that's massive.

(01:12:23):
You're, I have three kids in threeyears, I'm going to have a college kid.
I mean, these numbers aren'ta hundred thousand dollars.
We're talking, millionsand it's a massive risk.
But it's calculated.
It's data driven it's.
Being in the industry.
It's talking to industry leaders.

(01:12:46):
It's a lot of different things.
And then reassuring yourself based uponthat you will persevere that at the
end, in the end, it will be worth it.
And it's hard to convince yourself andit's hard to convince somebody else.
But if you're having a naysayer,if you have someone next to you
that's saying, You can't do that.

(01:13:07):
Oh, that's too much risk.
Oh, we can't do that.
That's for somebody else to do.
That's, I don't know, it that canquickly extinguish a fire that's
basically what I'll say about that.
You have to have positive peoplearound you that will question you.

(01:13:28):
But you have the answerfor those questions.
And if you don't have theanswer to the questions, find
the answer to those questions.
That's great advice, man.
I love that.
So for people listening that want towork with you on any of the levels you're
on, talk about how do they find you?
How do they connect with you?
With Florian Real Estate Group,with Beyond Appraisals, with

(01:13:48):
Florian Martial Arts Center.
Talk all things you have going on.
How do people find you?
How do people connect with you?
How do people work with you?
Sure.
Sure.
So if, if you're, if they're everlooking for real estate in Boston
I'm happy to work with them.
It's a Florian re.
com is my website,Florian re group at gmail.
com is my email address.

(01:14:08):
As far as appraisals for privateuse, they typically are ordered.
Unfortunately, if an estate is beingsettled on a divorce not the greatest
things as far as that's concerned.
But you're welcome to, to emailme at beyond appraisals at gmail.
com.
And Florian martial arts centeris in Brookline, Massachusetts.

(01:14:30):
We've been around for 16 years.
It's in an.
An amazing area.
It's but we do an amazing job over there.
I've got an awesomemanager that works with me.
And he helps with the kids classesand I'm there Monday through Thursday
help teaching the advanced classesas well as all bells classes.
And you will find, asupportive Academy over there.

(01:14:52):
Great relationships and it's fun.
It's just fun.
And for me, it might be a hobby.
But it's it stimulates my mind.
And it doesn't stimulate mywallet, but it stimulates my mind.
And I, that's what I have the realestate for to get the other section
of that that part of my life.

(01:15:14):
It's not amazing, but yeah.
It's doing okay.
And it's doing good enough for me.
I could vouch for that.
Such a good time there, man.
And you're such a great instructorfor anybody listening to that.
I travel all over the country,training, jujitsu stuff.
You still show me a movethat I remember to this day.
And that's how, you're a good instructor.
If you give somebody a gold nuggetand like what, six, seven years later.
And then I remember, I think I taggedyou on it a few months ago where I

(01:15:37):
saw John Dana her post something aboutwhat he was doing a rear naked choke.
And I went on there and I was like,Keith Florian showed me that shit,
five years ago, it was good man.
It was good stuff over there, but youand Kenny are great instructors, man.
Your gym, everybody there was super cool.
It's not a whole bunch of peoplethat are all just UFC fighters.
They're going to beat each other up.
It was smiling.

(01:15:57):
It had great energy, man.
It was good people.
It was a safe environment.
So I very much appreciate you having meout there and I highly recommend anybody
in the area going and checking it out.
Thanks so much, Nick.
I really appreciate everything.
Definitely.
And the last thing before I let yougo is I ended a podcast recently
with John Anik and the way he endedthe podcast was talking about you.

(01:16:19):
And it was this whole thing.
Now I don't want to steal this thunderbecause he was like, I can't wait
to clip that and send it to Keith.
So I'll send it to him andI'll let him send it to you.
But he said some really nicethings about like why you
have a special place with him.
So any good stuff about John outof you want to end the podcast with
some nice friendly words or justanything related to John out of cause
he seems to be a huge fan of you.

(01:16:39):
Absolutely.
John honestly is an amazing person.
I, I don't talk to him all thetime, but what I can tell you is
that guy is just an amazing person.
His energy.
is unreal.
He's he loves what he does.
He's passionate about it.
He shows that he's passionate about it.
And something that I'll neverforget that he did was, and sorry,

(01:17:01):
my little brother passed away.
Oh man.
I'm sorry.
I thought you were goingto say something else.
He showed up, he was there and he cameand I will never forget that, man.
I'm so sorry to hear that.
Yeah, he he passed away in 2016 inSeptember, and I'll never forget that,

(01:17:21):
that John showed up at his wake, andI'm sure he had a lot of other things to
do, but he showed up, he, he flew in andthen flew out that same day, but he was
there, and that's rare, that is a rareperson that does something like that.
Man, I know I've seen youguys post a lot about Kirk and
I'm very sorry for your loss.
I saw him with the, he, TrueFlorian guys, he had the fight

(01:17:42):
gloves on and everything, man.
So, I can't imagine whatthat was like going through.
Man, I thought you were going to tellme like a funny John Attucks story.
I, I didn't mean to I apologize.
No it's so I, I think that in thebeginning, when you when it first happens
for the first first years, three, fouryears, was so tough but you start to
learn how to live without somebody, andthat's, and the only thing that can,

(01:18:08):
and this is for anybody who experiencesloss, is that it does get better, number
one, it does get better, but there's justsomething that no one in this universe
can do, and that is to speed up time,and it takes time, but You will find
peace, you will find happiness you willfind wins it just takes time, and your

(01:18:33):
new reality without that person in yourlife is very difficult, but what the
positive thing is that you will eventuallymove on, and there's sadness in that,
but there's also a lot of happiness.
And that too.
And that what I'm trying tosay is that there is hope.

(01:18:53):
Don't ever lose hope.
I forget the exact saying, but youcan take my, you can take my money.
You can take my power.
You can take almost anything, butyou can never take somebody's hope.
So don't ever forget that and thingswill get better eventually and you
have to have that hope and that, thatperseverance, everything in your life.

(01:19:15):
You really do.
It's amazing words, man.
And I didn't have the privilege ofmeeting him, but after knowing you and
knowing Kenny, I'm sure he was amazing.
Just like the, both of you guys are a man.
So.
Thoughts and prayers with you andyour family for that as well, man.
I'm very sorry for your loss, but Iappreciate your words of encouragement for
anybody who's going through a hard time.
And I think that was veryimportant for them to hear.

(01:19:35):
I appreciate it.
Definitely, man.
What do you've been awesome.
You've been a class actsince the day I met you.
So has your brother.
I really appreciate thetime you spent today.
This has been a fantastic conversation.
I could have gone for hours longer,but I've already gotten way over, man.
You are somebody who obviously bringsyour a game to everything you do in
life, everything you do in business.
And this interview has been no different.
You definitely bought your agame of this podcast today.

(01:19:55):
Any final thoughts before I let yougo, sir? No, thank you so much though.
I just, I appreciate your time too, Nick.
Well, this is awesome.
Anybody listening, everything that youmentioned will be in the show notes.
We'll have links to clickon, follow his social media.
Your Instagram is incredible, man.
Trips all over the world, dogpictures, real estate stuff.
You're an A guest, sir. Iappreciate you very much.
Keith Florian, ladies andgentlemen, have a fantastic day.

(01:20:17):
Have a great one.

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Black Belt Tips On Home Values From A Real Estate Appraiser | Keith Florian