October 22, 2025 • 38 mins
I sat down with my longtime friend (and friendly competitor) Chris Somers, CEO of The Somers Team. We’ve both been in this wild real estate world for 22 years, and today we went straight at it—adaptability, leadership, and getting deals to the finish line when the market isn’t giving anyone freebies. I opened with a line that anchors me: “The most successful people are those who accept and adapt to constant change.” That’s been our story—from the financial crisis to zero rates, inflation, and a tougher transaction environment. If you’re ready to control the controllables and lead, this episode is for you.
Key Takeaways (from me)
- Adaptability is survival. Markets shift. Stay flexible, humble, and decisive—or get left behind.
- Plan for fallout. Termination rates are up. If you think you need 10 closings, plan for 13–14. Do more than you think you need.
- Teams accelerate growth. New agents have a much higher success rate on a team—skills, systems, and support matter.
- Control what you can. Double down on contact, follow-up, sales skills, and daily consistency.
- Lead in your market. We are community leaders—advocate for homeownership and sensible policy; protect property rights.
- Mindset first. Gratitude, boundaries, and listening are performance multipliers. Protect your time and your focus.
- Cycles turn. With rates easing and pent-up demand building, be the person who’s already prepared when activity lifts.
Standout Quotes
- From me (Maria): “It’s time to hunker down—blinders on. Add 30% to what you think you need, control the controllables, and let the results follow.”
- From Chris: “Small things done consistently over time lead to big results.”
Connect with Chris Somers
- Guest: Chris Somers, CEO — The Somers Team (Philadelphia)
- Connect: LinkedIn: Christopher Somers • Instagram/Facebook: The Somers Team
(Share exact handles/links and I’ll insert them.)
We don’t wait for easy markets—we be the solution. Do the work, lead your people, and keep your mindset clean. Survive first, then thrive. I’m grateful you’re here with me on this journey—now let’s get to work.
Connect with Maria Quattrone:
Facebook: Maria Quattrone
Facebook Page: REMAX at Home Facebook
Facebook Page: Rise in Real Estate Facebook
LinkedIn: Maria Quattrone
YouTube: Maria Quattrone
Instagram: @maria_quattrone
TikTok: mariaquattronerealestate
Website: MQrealesate.com
Office number: 215- 607-3535
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Maria Quattrone (00:02):
This morning we are going to get right into it
with Chris Somers, CEO of theSommers team.
Chris and I have been goodfriends for a long time in the
industry, and we're both prettymuch in 22 years in this crazy
(00:23):
world of real estate.
And so this morning, Chris, Ihave this quote for our podcast.
And the most successful peopleare those who accept and adapt
to constant change.
This adaptability requires adegree of flexibility and
(00:43):
humility most people can'tmanage.
Chris Sommers (00:49):
I mean, what a beautiful quote that is.
And um, yeah, we have beenfriends and friendly
competitors, right?
Yeah, look kind of like the uhPhillies Dodgers, but hopefully,
yeah, the better competitorwill come out on top.
Yeah, but bad respect to you,um, your podcast.
And I think that quote, I mean,that's powerful.
(01:12):
And that quote obviously canapply to life.
And it really, like with thereal estate industry, with yeah,
with us in 22 years, Maria,yeah, we've had the financial
crisis, we've had foreclosures,short sales, you know, we've had
interest rates at basicallyzero, right?
Um, and then we had you knowmassive inflation.
I talk about the fact that thereal estate industry, in
(01:35):
essence, has been in arecession, but no one else
really talks about that.
Um, you know, when transactionsin the city of Philadelphia are
down 30 percent 2023 versus2022, if that's and it and it
hasn't improved since then, it'skept going down a little bit
year in and year out.
I mean, that in essence is arecession.
(01:57):
And in essence, I guess as yourquote applies, you know, change
and adaptability, you know, inthat market or this market or
any market, you know, iscritical, you know, for growth
or even survive, right?
I heard like a lot of peopletalk about survive and thrive,
yeah, but you can't thrivesometimes until you survive,
(02:19):
right?
But there's still a lot ofopportunity, but you know, yeah,
let's face it, it's been toughfor our industry last few years.
Maria Quattrone (02:25):
Yeah, not only are sales down, but the sales
that we are having, like there'sa very uh big chance and of
them falling apart in the 11thhour.
So, and they are, and they haveuh for crazy things, you know.
Chris Sommers (02:50):
Well, the good news is, you know, when you had
the Maria's of the worldinvolved in a transaction or the
Chris Summers of the world,yeah, chances are that getting
to closing and finalizing willbe higher.
But you're right, yeah, I seethat the termination percentage,
you know, has been very high,you know, from a historic
(03:10):
standpoint.
Maria Quattrone (03:11):
Um, and the deals so think about this,
right?
If it was just us in thetransaction crisp and not some
other side that has very littleexperience or just maybe works
(03:32):
another job and real estate is apart-time thing and they don't
know how to do the deal, andthey're not giving their client
the best advice or the rightadvice is a big, it's a big part
of that equation.
So if I only did my owntransactions, we'd have a
(03:52):
better, much, much, much betterchance of getting to the end for
mostly probably all of them.
The fact that we're dealingwith the other side makes us
even that doesn't know whatthey're doing, makes it even
worse.
Chris Sommers (04:09):
Yes, there's good news, bad news to that.
The bad news is kind of likewhat you just said.
You know, the good news, youknow, like I I'll I'll kind of
like allude to the financialcrisis.
You know, it's like, yeah, alot of like realtors left the
industry, a lot of the horriblemortgage companies left the
industry, and that's kind of onereason like some some things
don't get the closing.
Um, but the good news is likeas you know, we kind of get
(04:31):
through you know this bud andthis buck, you know, is um you
know, the better agents you knowwill get better.
And some of the agents thatjust aren't doing it anything or
much at all, they have thatthose one or two transactions a
year, probably will float out,or you know, they have the
opportunity to to step up.
Maybe they should join theMaria Quatron team.
Maria Quattrone (04:52):
Maybe they should, yeah, or they should
join the Chris Summers team.
Chris Sommers (04:56):
Yeah, either or, you know, but I think they have
two great choices.
Exactly.
Um, but uh, I mean, I thinkthat's one trend that's
obviously happened over theyears, is like, you know, less
the solo agent's been around fora while, you know, they have a
big like referral network orwhatnot.
I mean, it's super, superdifficult.
I think you would agree for anew or newer agent, you know, to
(05:18):
be solo and not be on a team,you know, due to the massive
amount of tasks and things thatneed to be done.
I mean, that's one trend that'sbeen going on for a while.
Maria Quattrone (05:29):
100%.
I think that it's virtuallyalmost impossible for a new
person to make it.
You know, if you think you knowthe numbers, I mean, 13% make
it after two years.
87 some 87% lean.
Now, if you join a team, thosenumbers are much, much
(05:50):
different.
Much different.
Chris Sommers (05:52):
Correct.
Like I remember when I waspresident of GPAR in 2019 at it
and that new member orientation,I would tell people that yeah,
the over-under, I use gamblingterms sometimes, you know, for
someone to stay in the businessis exactly what you said, two
years.
And if you fast forward totoday, you know, again, due to
some of the um, you know, thingsthat have changed, yeah, that
(06:15):
might, it's probably down to ayear and a half, you know what I
mean?
So, you know, the there's a lotof challenge there.
But again, with that, you know,it's kind of like the 80-20
rule with anything, Maria, asyou know.
Yeah, like there's tons ofopportunities for those agents,
you know, to you know, get toyou know, the top 20% and not
the bottom 80%, you know, butyou know, it does require all
(06:37):
those things hard work,diligence, showing up,
follow-up, sales skills, youknow, learning, developing.
And it does seem like, correctme if I'm wrong, you know, that
since COVID, you know, some likefor people to have all those um
traits or personalities orstrengths isn't as much as it
(06:58):
used to be prior to COVID, butthat might just be yeah, kind of
like an assumption on my part.
But I think we will get thereand the opportunity is there in
front of all of us.
Maria Quattrone (07:08):
We certainly will.
You know, I said in our meetingon Friday, I said now is the
time to hunker down.
Hunker down, do as much as youhumanly can do between now and
Christmas.
Because not only will it havegreat effect on 2026, you'll
(07:30):
still get business into 2025.
And because so many people arein a stuffed place at the
moment, uh, and if you do more,you'll stand out, you'll be able
to have you know, have morebusiness, and really, really
(07:55):
have the opportunity to get someof this business where you have
about this year so far 250,000ish, I think it's 244 uh
licensees that left theindustry.
So there will be more of thatat the end of the year because
dues come up and people won't beable to continue on if you're
(08:18):
only doing a few transactions ayear.
So I think it's an opportunetime right now.
You know, one of the things Ihave to tell myself all the
time, Chris, is that we are notwhat we do.
We are not real estate.
We're people.
You know, people look at us alot of times like we're real
estate, that's our thing, realestate.
I'm like, I'm not real estate.
(08:39):
I'm a human, right?
We have feelings, we have umemotions.
And the thing is, because we'reso tied to what we do, because
real estate's kind of like alifestyle business in the sense
of like it's around usconstantly.
Like, did you ever go to adinner with somebody you haven't
seen and that they have askedyou, they do not ask you about
(09:01):
the market?
It's the only industry whereeverybody always wants to talk
about it.
So you're constantly alwaysgood and bad.
Chris Sommers (09:12):
Yeah, good and bad.
It's always something to talkabout.
I certainly don't buy I kind ofI love talking about it, but
obviously it comes in ways whereyou need like some Maria time,
you need some Chris time.
You know, sometimes that mightbe at home.
And let's face it, like ourindustry, you know, it's like we
have our cell phoneseverywhere, you know, clients
are texting, emailing, callingat all you know, times during
(09:32):
during the day, Saturday andSunday.
Yeah, you there's like classeson boundaries and whatnot.
So I think I mean that it's agood problem to have, you know,
of course to be busy.
And yeah, I love the fact thatreal estate is talked about.
You know, we just kind of need,you know, like um hopefully
city council to step up here,you know, with some pro-growth,
(09:59):
pro-real estate policies, andnot like what they've been doing
the last few years since COVID.
I mean, that might be a wholedifferent story, but I do think
the good news, and I really lovewhat you said there, is like
the people that do hunker downright now.
I mean, obviously there's twosec two segments in the market
that I kind of think about.
You know, one is like you know,focus on what you can control,
(10:20):
not what you can't, be incontact with all your people,
show up, and so forth.
But the second part, you know,is the cyclical nature of real
estate.
And I do finally think I was alittle bit wrong this year, you
know, with my prediction of uhwhy owned when you can lease
would start to revert back towhy lease when you can own.
(10:42):
Um, so as a result, you know,the transactions once again are
down a little bit 2025 versus2024, so we're gonna 2024 being
down from 2023.
And then we just talked about2023 being down 30 percent.
But with that, you know,because mortgage rates are
finally down, thank God, and Ithink people are kind of coming
(11:04):
back to, hey, let me dosomething.
I do believe that there ispent-up demand, you know, for
more activity um in the city,you know, and hopefully, you
know, there'll be a little bitmore new construction for single
family homes.
You know, like me and NorthernLiberties, people talk about oh,
there's development everywhere.
(11:24):
I'm like, yes, but it's alldevelopment.
Yeah, it's all apartmentbuildings for leased.
Now, I I think maybe that trendwill start to you know to go
the other way because you knownow you know people are
struggling with vacancies andall the promotions.
But I do think that there is aninherent demand you know that
could you know finally bebeneficial um you know with
(11:47):
transactions.
And hopefully city council youknow does something to promote
home ownership, you know, to umbackbone property rights, you
know.
People, you know, if someone'sa landlord, they still own that
property, they have rights.
The squatter, why does thesquatter have rights?
Yeah, why does it take sixmonths to a year to get a
(12:10):
squatter out of a property thatyou own?
Why does it take forever for alandlord to evict someone when
they own the property?
And then as a result, you know,like that smaller investor that
might own one, two, three,four, five to ten properties,
where their tenants have movedout, they've sold Maria.
(12:31):
They're gone and they continueto go.
Now, some you know are stillthere, yeah, but as a result,
that rental inventory of homesthat we kind of had throughout
some of the neighborhoods isgoing down.
And then the only thing leftfor some of these folks are are
homes, and then those peoplejust really aren't buying
properties right now.
You know, think about all thatyou know, tax money or or the
(12:55):
growth or neighborhoodsimproving, you know, for people
to be involved in the community.
So I hear about these thingsyou know kind of being talked
about, but you know, until thathappens, I think we're really,
or the city of Philadelphia isreally missing an opportunity
for simply not um you know, likebe the backbone or have
(13:16):
policies that support propertyrights.
Maria Quattrone (13:23):
Uh it's a problem.
You know, every day, almost notevery day, a couple times a
week, I talk with owners ofproperties that have squatters
or tenants that refuse to leaveevery single week.
They don't pay.
I have to I have a tenant, I'mnot paying.
Doesn't pay.
(13:44):
Won't leave.
I mean it's very frustrating.
And I I, you know, like you,I've as we've been in the
business so long, you know, Ihave a lot of clients that just
don't have friends, people thatused to develop and buy in
(14:06):
Philadelphia who've leftPhiladelphia.
Chris Sommers (14:09):
Yeah, and some developers, you know, left two
years ago.
Yeah, like every once in awhile.
Maria Quattrone (14:15):
They're gone.
They've they've left afterCOVID.
After COVID, a lot of peopleleft, and even in the last, I
would say a couple years, liketwo years, yeah.
They went to down the shore,they went to the suburbs.
Um, I know a couple that wentto like the Reading area.
(14:36):
Correct.
Um but a lot, I know a lot ofpeople that went to the beach
market, you know.
Chris Sommers (14:44):
Yeah, and like every once in a while, I won't
mention any names, but I'llsend, you know, hey, maybe this
person's still interested, youknow, in buying vacant land and
I'll send, like, hey, yeah, it'sa pretty good deal.
Yeah, the you know, the width,the depth, you know, I'll get a
text back.
Chris, I love you.
But I told you two years ago Ileft the Philadelphia market.
And you know, just to hearthat, I just I got to believe
(15:06):
that you know, the city ofPhiladelphia, like, you know,
the mayor and the council peopleand the people involved in
these in these neighborhoods arehearing some of this and you
know and being be like, you knowwhat?
Why?
And well, we know why, but likewhat's being done about it?
Um, I haven't seen anything.
And in 2019, again, you know,I'll just revert back to that,
(15:28):
you know, being president ofJeepar, you know, at that point,
you know, sometimes they jamlike the jam bills down at the
end of the year, right?
So that tax abatement bill kindof came out in like October,
you know, with a vote inNovember.
And um, yeah, that was the billthat kind of changed the tax
abatement.
I mean, that's just one part oflike many.
And I remember meeting everycity council person you know
(15:52):
that I knew that might be opento a few things.
There's one or two that justwanted to abolish it completely.
I didn't even bother meetingwith them.
And I looked them in the eye,Maria, and I said, Hey, well,
what about when the economychanges?
And all of them just kind oflook back at me with like a
blank face.
And fast forward, you know, twoyears later, or even a year
(16:16):
later, you know, kind of COVIDcame, you know, and then all
this other, you know, thingscame.
And, you know, it was like tome, that was one of the worst
decisions ever.
Um, you know, due to the factthat yeah, that abatement again
brings in so many newhomeowners, brings in so many
new taxes across the board, youknow, and the rhetoric of, you
(16:36):
know, like some of those citycouncil people didn't even
realize that someone that owns atax, a house that has a tax
abatement on it, still pay realestate taxes.
Maria Quattrone (16:45):
Yeah.
Chris Sommers (16:46):
On the land assessment.
And then when the land getsgets assessed higher, they pay
more taxes, right?
And then fast forward, I thinkum, you know, the city of
Philadelphia like released likea really nice kind of grant
program for first-time homebuyers.
And at that time, you know,Daryl Clark was uh, you know,
president of city council.
And I went up to him, it'slike, hey, out of curiosity,
(17:07):
like where where are the fundscoming from from this program?
And he looked at me, he goes,Oh, yeah, it's good, it's it's
with all the properties goingoff the the the abatement, yeah,
it's a lot of money coming in,and then yeah, we're using it
for that.
Oh, okay.
You know, so I mean if you ifyou just if people could just
take a step back and look at thebig picture, um, you know, it's
(17:28):
not the tax abatement's fault,yeah, that the schools are
having issues.
You know, we could do a lotwith the schools, but you know,
if we if we don't have athriving local economy, you
know, things might not be goingthat great.
So I think you know, this isthe time, I think, you know, for
all of us, you know, in ourindustry, you know, to be
advocates for homeownership, forproperty rights, for growth,
(17:51):
and be voices you know in ourneighborhoods to get involved
with GPAR or just you know, helpand educate people along the
way.
Um, you know, because I thinkyou know things are changing a
little bit for the better.
But you know, why other statesyou know have policies for
anti-squatting and the state ofPennsylvania does not, or the
(18:13):
city of Philadelphia does not.
Why?
Yeah, why did our real estatetransfer tax go up again?
You know, when our sale pricesaren't as high as all these
other states, you know, and therhetoric was it was to support
um affordable housing.
Well, I guess 40,000 new unitswould be built, but yeah, maybe
(18:34):
that might affect 3% of ourhousing pop population.
And in turn, we just madebuying a house or even selling a
house not more unaffordable.
So I I really would like to seeyou know some more kind of like
you know, real estate growthminds in city council because I
(18:55):
do believe that every city andevery location, it kind of
starts with that, right?
And if you don't have growth inthat area, if you don't have
like investment, if you don'thave big picture thinking, well,
pretty much your otherindustries and your other
sectors within the city mightnot be as strong as you want
them to be.
Would you agree with that?
Maria Quattrone (19:16):
Or I mean I I could go on like a policy kind
of rampage, but I mean there'sso many, there's so many things
like the tax abatement should be20 years, not a step-down
five-year program.
Should be 20 years.
We've the city really needs it.
I don't understand.
Did they do a um did they do astudy on why they need 40,000
(19:39):
affordable housing units?
Have they actually done like astudy on that?
Do they even know that that'sthe number?
Or is it just because it soundsgood?
Chris Sommers (19:50):
Like it probably because it's sound, yeah, great
question.
And then all the studies of thebenefits of the abatement, you
know, were presented.
Yeah, but the fact of thematter is, like, yeah, going
back, I guess this is what waskind of frustrating, yeah.
Like knowing that I met withevery person at city council, in
reality, that bill, and I kindof found out later, and I kind
(20:11):
of knew it was was already done,right?
Yeah, so all the conversationsthat people had, all the
one-on-ones, all the, you know,like you know, when people go
down to city council andtestify, okay.
And I did that too.
Yeah, BIA president JimMoransky did it that year too.
Yeah, but it was already done.
And how frustrating is that?
Like if something's alreadydone, yeah, why are we having
(20:34):
public testimony on it?
And I think that's happenedrecently with a few other, I
think like this um the budgetthat just passed, like with what
we're just talking about.
Yeah, I think people went downto city to city hall and
testified.
But my understanding is thatwas already done too.
Like, why isn't there more ofan open mind, big picture kind
of thinking where you know thepeople are kind of taking in you
(20:56):
know some input, yeah, versusyou know, just kind of putting
something together, knowing thatit's done, and say, okay, yeah,
we'll talk about this.
Maria Quattrone (21:04):
So, Chris, you know, think about how many
houses sell in PhiladelphiaCounty a year.
And they want to bring on40,000 new houses in five years.
How does that that doesn't evenmake sense because if you look
(21:25):
at the numbers, it would neverabsorb.
Chris Sommers (21:31):
It's a very small number in comparison to the
bigger picture.
And hey, if you're gonna dothat, that's fine.
Uh, you know, I'm okay withthat, but you know, like playing
with the transfer tax again,you know, for you know, when
someone buys and sells aproperty, yeah, like our
transfer tax is one of thehighest, I think it's the second
(21:52):
highest in the country, right?
You know, and our sale pricescertainly aren't the second
highest in the country.
Yeah, plus we have other taxeson on top of that, you know.
So, you know, until you knowthis tax structure maybe kind of
gets changed at some point, youknow, like we're you know,
we're kind of shooting ourselvesin the foot every year, you
(22:13):
know, with policy that's nothelping everyone, right?
Um, yeah, we have the rightpolicy no matter where someone
is, what neighborhood, um, youknow, what class they're in, you
know, without growth, you know,there's either stagnation or
regression.
And then obviously since COVID,you know, neighborhoods were
really starting to improveeverywhere, right?
(22:35):
You know, like you know,Fishtown going to East
Kensington, yeah, going pastFront Street, going towards
Kensington, Point Breeze, youknow, going towards Greats
Ferry, Art Museum, going towardsBrewerytown, everywhere.
Yeah, but then COVID happened,and with the lack of anything to
do with public safety, yeah,things just kind of pulled back.
And then it, yeah, it's kind ofstayed that way for a while.
(22:58):
Um, it will improve, but yeah,and I really like to some extent
what Parker has done withpublic safety, but yeah, we
certainly need more.
Maria Quattrone (23:09):
There's no doubt we need more, you know.
The I don't know if you notice,but a lot of restaurants aren't
even open on Mondays orTuesdays anymore.
You can't even hardly find arestaurant in Center City, you
know, open on Tuesday night.
(23:30):
Except for like the starrestaurants, but just even in
the neighborhood, in ourneighborhood, a lot of places
aren't open till Wednesday.
That didn't used to be likethat.
Chris Sommers (23:45):
No, I mean people were were out more, things were
you know more energy, you know,more flourishment, is that the
word?
You know, and then yeah, nowthere's a little bit less
energy.
Restaurants obviously, youknow, are dealing with you know
their inflation issues, um, youknow, and just you know, getting
by and you having the cutbackor not being open, you know,
(24:07):
maybe it's lack of demand, maybeit's just you know being
protective, you know, withdollars and cents.
Now, I am wearing my Phillieshoodie, Maria, and people that
you know might watch thispodcast later on, it might be
after the fact, but perhaps youknow, if the Phillies can get by
the Dodgers, you know, we'redown one zip, um, yeah, that
could add a lot of stimulus, youknow, to our local economy.
(24:31):
It always does.
So, hey, whatever it takes, redOctober.
Red October, baby.
Maria Quattrone (24:37):
Um, yeah, absolutely.
Absolutely.
Chris Sommers (24:39):
I mean, I think like you know, people like
disagree with so many thingsthese days, and they disagree,
like they're so far apart, youknow, and yeah, that in turn, I
think people are just they wouldjust aren't going out as much,
or there's just too much of thisor too much of that.
And I remember like, you know,again, post-COVID, you know,
sports, you know, brought a lotof people together.
(25:02):
And you know, whether it'ssports or something else,
hopefully that could be the caseagain.
Um, you know, because I love toagree to disagree with people
and walk away and still befriends, right?
Uh that's always been who I am.
I don't understand, you know,why other people don't do that
(25:22):
sometimes too, but at the sametime, I guess I do understand.
But um, I mean, at the end ofthe day, I mean, with our
industry, you know, someonealways needs a home, right?
People are always upsizing,people are always downsizing.
You know, again, hopefully thiswhy own when you can lease
trend will turn into why leasewhen you can own.
You know, investments will kindof come back.
(25:45):
Um, so you know, I think youknow that at the end of the day,
there's either doom or gloom,you know, or you know,
positivity.
On most days, I havepositivity, you know, but on
some days, you know, with allthis stuff going on, you know,
it's hard not to be you knowsucked in with the negativity,
especially if you spend too muchtime on social media or
(26:07):
watching the news or you know,anything.
Maria Quattrone (26:10):
So it's it's that's why I said it's time to
hunker down, blinders on justwhat's happening right here,
right here.
And the one thing I I wanted tosay earlier on was you know, to
combat combat the number oftransactions that are going
(26:32):
through in this currentenvironment, I tell or I told
everybody on Friday, if youthink that you need 10, you need
14 transactions or whatevernumber, I I said add 30 percent
to it.
And then you know, hopefully wehope we hope for the best, and
(26:53):
they all go through.
But we can't control thingsthat are out of our control, and
that's the thing when it comesback down to adaptability.
Back to adaptability and backto what I what I was earlier on
(27:15):
said about we are not realestate, right?
But and a good year, a badyear, a good month, a bad month,
a good three years, a bad threeyears, it is what it is, and
it's not I think even myself,like I would take take it like
(27:38):
oh I'm a I'm a failure.
Oh, it's me, you know, and it'snot us.
Shit happens.
And things aren't always thingsaren't always, you know, it's
like I said, I I was talkingabout this yesterday.
I said that's why there's sun.
Today it's sunny, right?
There's rain.
(27:58):
It's cold, it's hot.
Like if it was always sunnyevery single day, and we had no
rain, we need the rain.
We need the rain, we need therain for the rain and for the
water, but we need the rain toobecause the rain reminds us and
(28:22):
gives us thanks for the sunnydays, and some days we're
thankful for the rainy days.
And it shows us in life, it'sabout humility, vulnerability,
and and and for for for us,right?
And we're leaders leadership,teaching leadership, showing by
(28:43):
teaching.
Yeah, I said the other day, Isaid I don't want a bunch of
followers in the office.
I'm gonna I'm gonna teach youthrough the be the solution
movement leadership.
I said, someday you will all, Ihope, have your own teams.
Chris Sommers (29:03):
Well, I love that, Marie.
I mean, I like the saying focusof what you can control, not
what you can't.
Um and yes, I mean, there is alot of things, you know,
external factors that can getsomeone frozen or paralyzed.
I think it's like during thosetimes where you know a lot of
people in our industry or anyindustry, you know, could could
(29:26):
still have the ability to dobetter, you know, by again
focusing on the things they cancontrol.
And I think at the end of theday, you know, if you or at the
end of the week or a month, youknow, you did everything that
you could do and then some, Ithink you're gonna be feeling
good about yourself.
And then I guess the secondthing about what you said, yeah,
it all starts with you know,gratitude or perspective, um,
(29:50):
you know, to be able to kind ofsee things in a different light
or even like see things throughsomeone else's eyes, I think is
important.
I think one art.
That has kind of been lost to acertain degree, which is really
important, you know, in sellingor or communicating is
listening.
And I think the people that canlisten more, um, whether it's
(30:13):
have empathy or reallyunderstand where someone else is
coming from.
And I think that's superimportant, you know, in our
industry.
Like if you're not listening toyour client or a prospect, you
know, and you just, you know,kind of doing something in a
different way, I mean, that'sgonna catch on, right?
And sometimes it is better toterminate a deal than move on
(30:33):
and you know, shove somethingdown someone's throat.
Yeah, but along the way, Imean, there are solutions, and I
think it kind of comes down toyou know, you become who you
surround yourself with, right?
Maria Quattrone (30:46):
That's why it's important to protect our time
and important to make sure thatyou know we're around people.
That's part of you know, doinga podcast too, because I I get
to at least have someinteraction.
I try to have one a few time,you know, a few times a week.
(31:06):
I have interaction with otherleaders, other people in the
industry, different everybodybrings a different perspective.
And the other day on Friday, Idid this podcast and you know, I
had sh I had known of thisperson for many years and we I
(31:31):
saw him at an event, um I knowlike uh um AI, Bruno and Stacey
at this event and I purposelylike made an effort extra effort
to talk with him.
And I said I invited him on theshow and then on Friday when we
had this podcast, he said somethings that I really needed to
(31:57):
hear.
He didn't know this.
He didn't he didn't he didn'tknow.
But I needed to hear, and Ilook back on that and I thought
about that on Friday, and it'sit was like divine timing.
You know, sometimes themessages are delivered and we
don't we don't hear them.
Sometimes the messages have tobe delivered many times and then
(32:20):
we're ready to hear it.
And I think that's life.
I think that you know we and II truly, truly believe this that
we are our own solution.
And for us in real estate,there's so many things.
I mean, in my opinion, I'm sickof the city of Philadelphia,
(32:41):
honestly, all their nonsense,but that's where I live right
now.
And I'm just gonna like do mything, and you know, when I can
make uh something to make thingsbetter, do my best.
In the meantime, we can controlall these crazy stuff going on,
(33:02):
and we just have to control thecontrollables when we started
with.
Chris Sommers (33:08):
Well, I'm a huge you know, Bruno and Stacy fan,
and for the people are watchingthis, yeah, definitely follow
them on Facebook.
But yeah, there's somethingabout you know Bruno, yeah, like
with his growth over the years,yeah, to have like a little bit
of, I don't know what the wordis, spiritual strength, um,
awareness.
Um, you know, and there'ssomething about that, again, I
(33:30):
think that will get us throughmore difficult times.
But I also think, yeah, whenthings are going great, you
know, it might kind of keep usmore like even keel kind of
thing.
And at my recent Summers Tmeeting, it was kind of like we
wanted to like have we like tohave a theme for every meeting.
And you know, it was uh trustyour process, which really
(33:52):
obviously hasn't worked for theSixers, you know, but yeah, we
kind of redefined that to um youknow, trust your own process,
you know, and for the peoplethat that do things right each
day, because I like to say smallthings done consistently over
time lead to big results, right?
And you're a testament of that.
(34:14):
Bruno's a testament of that,you know, whether it's real
estate or whether it's your ownlife's growth.
Um, you know, I think that'ssignificant with kind of what
we're talking about because Ithink the better, you know, I
love the book The Uh TheAlchemist, right?
Yeah, like you have to haveawareness to see signals and
then maybe make changes fromthem, whether it's one time or
(34:37):
many times, yeah.
But it's hard to have awarenesswhen you're maybe you're maybe
not as in as good shape as youshould be, or reading books or
podcasts, or like really kind ofbeing open to learning and
growth, yeah, with your owngrowth, because if you don't
have growth in in one area here,chances are that might not lead
(34:59):
to growth over here.
So I think that's theopportunity I think with all of
us is yeah, with it's not justselling more properties.
I think the leadership of yourwork with your clients, but I
think we kind of need moreleadership in our neighborhoods
(35:20):
and whatnot, too, because youknow, I think voices are so
silent.
And you know, I you know, I'mgonna be a big advocate about
city council, kind of likelooking into policies.
Like councilman, you know, JeffYoung called me a couple weeks
ago and he was like, Hey, willyou help me with you know
raising funds?
I'm like, I don't want to helpanyone in city council like
raise funds right now.
(35:41):
Um, you know, but then it gotinto a dialogue and he kind of
shared with me that, you know,hey, he was warped on some pro
real estate bills than I wasaware of, you know.
But you know, like if if voicesare silent because they're
afraid of you know, like otherpeople, you know, kind of like
thinking less of them, that'snot a good thing, right?
(36:03):
If voices are silent about,hey, what can we do to to
improve things, but yeah,they're being scared of, well,
hey, you know, that that kind ofgoes against the schools, but
it really doesn't, or this orthat, that's not a good thing.
Um, and obviously thatconversation on a wider scale,
you know, it's just yeah, beenout there dramatically, you
(36:23):
know, where you know we there'sthis there's just not enough
dialogue and not enoughlistening.
And with that, that's where theleadership opportunities come.
And it could be on the smallestscale or the biggest scale, but
I think you and I as leaders,and I in my mind, every real
estate agent is a leader becausethey're leading, you know, with
(36:44):
their clients and then reallyhelping you know people to have
the dreams of home ownership ormoving on to other parts of
their lives.
It's like, you know, if wereally can kind of like hold on
to that and use that as leverageto grow, only good things can
come from that, you know.
And I remember Alan Dahn willkind of talk about you know the
(37:05):
pendulums, you know, of youknow, the city and whatnot.
And obviously, yeah, it was alittle bit before our time, you
know, where the center city wasjust not doing well, right?
Yeah, what what saved thecenter city?
The tax abatement.
What saved real estate in thecity of Philadelphia?
And what started growth?
(37:25):
Was the tax abatement?
Um, you know, so like yeah, thependulum.
Maria Quattrone (37:29):
One minute, one minute.
Chris Sommers (37:31):
Yeah, we'll continue to go back and forth,
but yeah, I think we could kindof all strive you know for the
pendulum to swing into areaswhere everyone, you know, can't
agree agree upon and have like ashared mission to support that.
Maria Quattrone (37:46):
Well, this has been a great time with you this
morning, Chris.
And I love the fact that youknow still we're still going.
We're still going, we're stillbeing the solution.
And it's good to see you andyour growth, and you know, we
continue just to forge ahead.
Chris Sommers (38:08):
Yeah, I mean, you're you have two choices
don't be part of the solution orbe the solution.
I think you and I, and we asleaders, you know, we can help
people be the solution.
Maria Quattrone (38:20):
That's right.
Chris Sommers (38:21):
I know that's right.
This morning we are going to get right into it
with Chris Somers, CEO of theSommers team.
Chris and I have been goodfriends for a long time in the
industry, and we're both prettymuch in 22 years in this crazy
(00:23):
world of real estate.
And so this morning, Chris, Ihave this quote for our podcast.
And the most successful peopleare those who accept and adapt
to constant change.
This adaptability requires adegree of flexibility and
(00:43):
humility most people can'tmanage.
Chris Sommers (00:49):
I mean, what a beautiful quote that is.
And um, yeah, we have beenfriends and friendly
competitors, right?
Yeah, look kind of like the uhPhillies Dodgers, but hopefully,
yeah, the better competitorwill come out on top.
Yeah, but bad respect to you,um, your podcast.
And I think that quote, I mean,that's powerful.
(01:12):
And that quote obviously canapply to life.
And it really, like with thereal estate industry, with yeah,
with us in 22 years, Maria,yeah, we've had the financial
crisis, we've had foreclosures,short sales, you know, we've had
interest rates at basicallyzero, right?
Um, and then we had you knowmassive inflation.
I talk about the fact that thereal estate industry, in
(01:35):
essence, has been in arecession, but no one else
really talks about that.
Um, you know, when transactionsin the city of Philadelphia are
down 30 percent 2023 versus2022, if that's and it and it
hasn't improved since then, it'skept going down a little bit
year in and year out.
I mean, that in essence is arecession.
(01:57):
And in essence, I guess as yourquote applies, you know, change
and adaptability, you know, inthat market or this market or
any market, you know, iscritical, you know, for growth
or even survive, right?
I heard like a lot of peopletalk about survive and thrive,
yeah, but you can't thrivesometimes until you survive,
(02:19):
right?
But there's still a lot ofopportunity, but you know, yeah,
let's face it, it's been toughfor our industry last few years.
Maria Quattrone (02:25):
Yeah, not only are sales down, but the sales
that we are having, like there'sa very uh big chance and of
them falling apart in the 11thhour.
So, and they are, and they haveuh for crazy things, you know.
Chris Sommers (02:50):
Well, the good news is, you know, when you had
the Maria's of the worldinvolved in a transaction or the
Chris Summers of the world,yeah, chances are that getting
to closing and finalizing willbe higher.
But you're right, yeah, I seethat the termination percentage,
you know, has been very high,you know, from a historic
(03:10):
standpoint.
Maria Quattrone (03:11):
Um, and the deals so think about this,
right?
If it was just us in thetransaction crisp and not some
other side that has very littleexperience or just maybe works
(03:32):
another job and real estate is apart-time thing and they don't
know how to do the deal, andthey're not giving their client
the best advice or the rightadvice is a big, it's a big part
of that equation.
So if I only did my owntransactions, we'd have a
(03:52):
better, much, much, much betterchance of getting to the end for
mostly probably all of them.
The fact that we're dealingwith the other side makes us
even that doesn't know whatthey're doing, makes it even
worse.
Chris Sommers (04:09):
Yes, there's good news, bad news to that.
The bad news is kind of likewhat you just said.
You know, the good news, youknow, like I I'll I'll kind of
like allude to the financialcrisis.
You know, it's like, yeah, alot of like realtors left the
industry, a lot of the horriblemortgage companies left the
industry, and that's kind of onereason like some some things
don't get the closing.
Um, but the good news is likeas you know, we kind of get
(04:31):
through you know this bud andthis buck, you know, is um you
know, the better agents you knowwill get better.
And some of the agents thatjust aren't doing it anything or
much at all, they have thatthose one or two transactions a
year, probably will float out,or you know, they have the
opportunity to to step up.
Maybe they should join theMaria Quatron team.
Maria Quattrone (04:52):
Maybe they should, yeah, or they should
join the Chris Summers team.
Chris Sommers (04:56):
Yeah, either or, you know, but I think they have
two great choices.
Exactly.
Um, but uh, I mean, I thinkthat's one trend that's
obviously happened over theyears, is like, you know, less
the solo agent's been around fora while, you know, they have a
big like referral network orwhatnot.
I mean, it's super, superdifficult.
I think you would agree for anew or newer agent, you know, to
(05:18):
be solo and not be on a team,you know, due to the massive
amount of tasks and things thatneed to be done.
I mean, that's one trend that'sbeen going on for a while.
Maria Quattrone (05:29):
100%.
I think that it's virtuallyalmost impossible for a new
person to make it.
You know, if you think you knowthe numbers, I mean, 13% make
it after two years.
87 some 87% lean.
Now, if you join a team, thosenumbers are much, much
(05:50):
different.
Much different.
Chris Sommers (05:52):
Correct.
Like I remember when I waspresident of GPAR in 2019 at it
and that new member orientation,I would tell people that yeah,
the over-under, I use gamblingterms sometimes, you know, for
someone to stay in the businessis exactly what you said, two
years.
And if you fast forward totoday, you know, again, due to
some of the um, you know, thingsthat have changed, yeah, that
(06:15):
might, it's probably down to ayear and a half, you know what I
mean?
So, you know, the there's a lotof challenge there.
But again, with that, you know,it's kind of like the 80-20
rule with anything, Maria, asyou know.
Yeah, like there's tons ofopportunities for those agents,
you know, to you know, get toyou know, the top 20% and not
the bottom 80%, you know, butyou know, it does require all
(06:37):
those things hard work,diligence, showing up,
follow-up, sales skills, youknow, learning, developing.
And it does seem like, correctme if I'm wrong, you know, that
since COVID, you know, some likefor people to have all those um
traits or personalities orstrengths isn't as much as it
(06:58):
used to be prior to COVID, butthat might just be yeah, kind of
like an assumption on my part.
But I think we will get thereand the opportunity is there in
front of all of us.
Maria Quattrone (07:08):
We certainly will.
You know, I said in our meetingon Friday, I said now is the
time to hunker down.
Hunker down, do as much as youhumanly can do between now and
Christmas.
Because not only will it havegreat effect on 2026, you'll
(07:30):
still get business into 2025.
And because so many people arein a stuffed place at the
moment, uh, and if you do more,you'll stand out, you'll be able
to have you know, have morebusiness, and really, really
(07:55):
have the opportunity to get someof this business where you have
about this year so far 250,000ish, I think it's 244 uh
licensees that left theindustry.
So there will be more of thatat the end of the year because
dues come up and people won't beable to continue on if you're
(08:18):
only doing a few transactions ayear.
So I think it's an opportunetime right now.
You know, one of the things Ihave to tell myself all the
time, Chris, is that we are notwhat we do.
We are not real estate.
We're people.
You know, people look at us alot of times like we're real
estate, that's our thing, realestate.
I'm like, I'm not real estate.
(08:39):
I'm a human, right?
We have feelings, we have umemotions.
And the thing is, because we'reso tied to what we do, because
real estate's kind of like alifestyle business in the sense
of like it's around usconstantly.
Like, did you ever go to adinner with somebody you haven't
seen and that they have askedyou, they do not ask you about
(09:01):
the market?
It's the only industry whereeverybody always wants to talk
about it.
So you're constantly alwaysgood and bad.
Chris Sommers (09:12):
Yeah, good and bad.
It's always something to talkabout.
I certainly don't buy I kind ofI love talking about it, but
obviously it comes in ways whereyou need like some Maria time,
you need some Chris time.
You know, sometimes that mightbe at home.
And let's face it, like ourindustry, you know, it's like we
have our cell phoneseverywhere, you know, clients
are texting, emailing, callingat all you know, times during
(09:32):
during the day, Saturday andSunday.
Yeah, you there's like classeson boundaries and whatnot.
So I think I mean that it's agood problem to have, you know,
of course to be busy.
And yeah, I love the fact thatreal estate is talked about.
You know, we just kind of need,you know, like um hopefully
city council to step up here,you know, with some pro-growth,
(09:59):
pro-real estate policies, andnot like what they've been doing
the last few years since COVID.
I mean, that might be a wholedifferent story, but I do think
the good news, and I really lovewhat you said there, is like
the people that do hunker downright now.
I mean, obviously there's twosec two segments in the market
that I kind of think about.
You know, one is like you know,focus on what you can control,
(10:20):
not what you can't, be incontact with all your people,
show up, and so forth.
But the second part, you know,is the cyclical nature of real
estate.
And I do finally think I was alittle bit wrong this year, you
know, with my prediction of uhwhy owned when you can lease
would start to revert back towhy lease when you can own.
(10:42):
Um, so as a result, you know,the transactions once again are
down a little bit 2025 versus2024, so we're gonna 2024 being
down from 2023.
And then we just talked about2023 being down 30 percent.
But with that, you know,because mortgage rates are
finally down, thank God, and Ithink people are kind of coming
(11:04):
back to, hey, let me dosomething.
I do believe that there ispent-up demand, you know, for
more activity um in the city,you know, and hopefully, you
know, there'll be a little bitmore new construction for single
family homes.
You know, like me and NorthernLiberties, people talk about oh,
there's development everywhere.
(11:24):
I'm like, yes, but it's alldevelopment.
Yeah, it's all apartmentbuildings for leased.
Now, I I think maybe that trendwill start to you know to go
the other way because you knownow you know people are
struggling with vacancies andall the promotions.
But I do think that there is aninherent demand you know that
could you know finally bebeneficial um you know with
(11:47):
transactions.
And hopefully city council youknow does something to promote
home ownership, you know, to umbackbone property rights, you
know.
People, you know, if someone'sa landlord, they still own that
property, they have rights.
The squatter, why does thesquatter have rights?
Yeah, why does it take sixmonths to a year to get a
(12:10):
squatter out of a property thatyou own?
Why does it take forever for alandlord to evict someone when
they own the property?
And then as a result, you know,like that smaller investor that
might own one, two, three,four, five to ten properties,
where their tenants have movedout, they've sold Maria.
(12:31):
They're gone and they continueto go.
Now, some you know are stillthere, yeah, but as a result,
that rental inventory of homesthat we kind of had throughout
some of the neighborhoods isgoing down.
And then the only thing leftfor some of these folks are are
homes, and then those peoplejust really aren't buying
properties right now.
You know, think about all thatyou know, tax money or or the
(12:55):
growth or neighborhoodsimproving, you know, for people
to be involved in the community.
So I hear about these thingsyou know kind of being talked
about, but you know, until thathappens, I think we're really,
or the city of Philadelphia isreally missing an opportunity
for simply not um you know, likebe the backbone or have
(13:16):
policies that support propertyrights.
Maria Quattrone (13:23):
Uh it's a problem.
You know, every day, almost notevery day, a couple times a
week, I talk with owners ofproperties that have squatters
or tenants that refuse to leaveevery single week.
They don't pay.
I have to I have a tenant, I'mnot paying.
Doesn't pay.
(13:44):
Won't leave.
I mean it's very frustrating.
And I I, you know, like you,I've as we've been in the
business so long, you know, Ihave a lot of clients that just
don't have friends, people thatused to develop and buy in
(14:06):
Philadelphia who've leftPhiladelphia.
Chris Sommers (14:09):
Yeah, and some developers, you know, left two
years ago.
Yeah, like every once in awhile.
Maria Quattrone (14:15):
They're gone.
They've they've left afterCOVID.
After COVID, a lot of peopleleft, and even in the last, I
would say a couple years, liketwo years, yeah.
They went to down the shore,they went to the suburbs.
Um, I know a couple that wentto like the Reading area.
(14:36):
Correct.
Um but a lot, I know a lot ofpeople that went to the beach
market, you know.
Chris Sommers (14:44):
Yeah, and like every once in a while, I won't
mention any names, but I'llsend, you know, hey, maybe this
person's still interested, youknow, in buying vacant land and
I'll send, like, hey, yeah, it'sa pretty good deal.
Yeah, the you know, the width,the depth, you know, I'll get a
text back.
Chris, I love you.
But I told you two years ago Ileft the Philadelphia market.
And you know, just to hearthat, I just I got to believe
(15:06):
that you know, the city ofPhiladelphia, like, you know,
the mayor and the council peopleand the people involved in
these in these neighborhoods arehearing some of this and you
know and being be like, you knowwhat?
Why?
And well, we know why, but likewhat's being done about it?
Um, I haven't seen anything.
And in 2019, again, you know,I'll just revert back to that,
(15:28):
you know, being president ofJeepar, you know, at that point,
you know, sometimes they jamlike the jam bills down at the
end of the year, right?
So that tax abatement bill kindof came out in like October,
you know, with a vote inNovember.
And um, yeah, that was the billthat kind of changed the tax
abatement.
I mean, that's just one part oflike many.
And I remember meeting everycity council person you know
(15:52):
that I knew that might be opento a few things.
There's one or two that justwanted to abolish it completely.
I didn't even bother meetingwith them.
And I looked them in the eye,Maria, and I said, Hey, well,
what about when the economychanges?
And all of them just kind oflook back at me with like a
blank face.
And fast forward, you know, twoyears later, or even a year
(16:16):
later, you know, kind of COVIDcame, you know, and then all
this other, you know, thingscame.
And, you know, it was like tome, that was one of the worst
decisions ever.
Um, you know, due to the factthat yeah, that abatement again
brings in so many newhomeowners, brings in so many
new taxes across the board, youknow, and the rhetoric of, you
(16:36):
know, like some of those citycouncil people didn't even
realize that someone that owns atax, a house that has a tax
abatement on it, still pay realestate taxes.
Maria Quattrone (16:45):
Yeah.
Chris Sommers (16:46):
On the land assessment.
And then when the land getsgets assessed higher, they pay
more taxes, right?
And then fast forward, I thinkum, you know, the city of
Philadelphia like released likea really nice kind of grant
program for first-time homebuyers.
And at that time, you know,Daryl Clark was uh, you know,
president of city council.
And I went up to him, it'slike, hey, out of curiosity,
(17:07):
like where where are the fundscoming from from this program?
And he looked at me, he goes,Oh, yeah, it's good, it's it's
with all the properties goingoff the the the abatement, yeah,
it's a lot of money coming in,and then yeah, we're using it
for that.
Oh, okay.
You know, so I mean if you ifyou just if people could just
take a step back and look at thebig picture, um, you know, it's
(17:28):
not the tax abatement's fault,yeah, that the schools are
having issues.
You know, we could do a lotwith the schools, but you know,
if we if we don't have athriving local economy, you
know, things might not be goingthat great.
So I think you know, this isthe time, I think, you know, for
all of us, you know, in ourindustry, you know, to be
advocates for homeownership, forproperty rights, for growth,
(17:51):
and be voices you know in ourneighborhoods to get involved
with GPAR or just you know, helpand educate people along the
way.
Um, you know, because I thinkyou know things are changing a
little bit for the better.
But you know, why other statesyou know have policies for
anti-squatting and the state ofPennsylvania does not, or the
(18:13):
city of Philadelphia does not.
Why?
Yeah, why did our real estatetransfer tax go up again?
You know, when our sale pricesaren't as high as all these
other states, you know, and therhetoric was it was to support
um affordable housing.
Well, I guess 40,000 new unitswould be built, but yeah, maybe
(18:34):
that might affect 3% of ourhousing pop population.
And in turn, we just madebuying a house or even selling a
house not more unaffordable.
So I I really would like to seeyou know some more kind of like
you know, real estate growthminds in city council because I
(18:55):
do believe that every city andevery location, it kind of
starts with that, right?
And if you don't have growth inthat area, if you don't have
like investment, if you don'thave big picture thinking, well,
pretty much your otherindustries and your other
sectors within the city mightnot be as strong as you want
them to be.
Would you agree with that?
Maria Quattrone (19:16):
Or I mean I I could go on like a policy kind
of rampage, but I mean there'sso many, there's so many things
like the tax abatement should be20 years, not a step-down
five-year program.
Should be 20 years.
We've the city really needs it.
I don't understand.
Did they do a um did they do astudy on why they need 40,000
(19:39):
affordable housing units?
Have they actually done like astudy on that?
Do they even know that that'sthe number?
Or is it just because it soundsgood?
Chris Sommers (19:50):
Like it probably because it's sound, yeah, great
question.
And then all the studies of thebenefits of the abatement, you
know, were presented.
Yeah, but the fact of thematter is, like, yeah, going
back, I guess this is what waskind of frustrating, yeah.
Like knowing that I met withevery person at city council, in
reality, that bill, and I kindof found out later, and I kind
(20:11):
of knew it was was already done,right?
Yeah, so all the conversationsthat people had, all the
one-on-ones, all the, you know,like you know, when people go
down to city council andtestify, okay.
And I did that too.
Yeah, BIA president JimMoransky did it that year too.
Yeah, but it was already done.
And how frustrating is that?
Like if something's alreadydone, yeah, why are we having
(20:34):
public testimony on it?
And I think that's happenedrecently with a few other, I
think like this um the budgetthat just passed, like with what
we're just talking about.
Yeah, I think people went downto city to city hall and
testified.
But my understanding is thatwas already done too.
Like, why isn't there more ofan open mind, big picture kind
of thinking where you know thepeople are kind of taking in you
(20:56):
know some input, yeah, versusyou know, just kind of putting
something together, knowing thatit's done, and say, okay, yeah,
we'll talk about this.
Maria Quattrone (21:04):
So, Chris, you know, think about how many
houses sell in PhiladelphiaCounty a year.
And they want to bring on40,000 new houses in five years.
How does that that doesn't evenmake sense because if you look
(21:25):
at the numbers, it would neverabsorb.
Chris Sommers (21:31):
It's a very small number in comparison to the
bigger picture.
And hey, if you're gonna dothat, that's fine.
Uh, you know, I'm okay withthat, but you know, like playing
with the transfer tax again,you know, for you know, when
someone buys and sells aproperty, yeah, like our
transfer tax is one of thehighest, I think it's the second
(21:52):
highest in the country, right?
You know, and our sale pricescertainly aren't the second
highest in the country.
Yeah, plus we have other taxeson on top of that, you know.
So, you know, until you knowthis tax structure maybe kind of
gets changed at some point, youknow, like we're you know,
we're kind of shooting ourselvesin the foot every year, you
(22:13):
know, with policy that's nothelping everyone, right?
Um, yeah, we have the rightpolicy no matter where someone
is, what neighborhood, um, youknow, what class they're in, you
know, without growth, you know,there's either stagnation or
regression.
And then obviously since COVID,you know, neighborhoods were
really starting to improveeverywhere, right?
(22:35):
You know, like you know,Fishtown going to East
Kensington, yeah, going pastFront Street, going towards
Kensington, Point Breeze, youknow, going towards Greats
Ferry, Art Museum, going towardsBrewerytown, everywhere.
Yeah, but then COVID happened,and with the lack of anything to
do with public safety, yeah,things just kind of pulled back.
And then it, yeah, it's kind ofstayed that way for a while.
(22:58):
Um, it will improve, but yeah,and I really like to some extent
what Parker has done withpublic safety, but yeah, we
certainly need more.
Maria Quattrone (23:09):
There's no doubt we need more, you know.
The I don't know if you notice,but a lot of restaurants aren't
even open on Mondays orTuesdays anymore.
You can't even hardly find arestaurant in Center City, you
know, open on Tuesday night.
(23:30):
Except for like the starrestaurants, but just even in
the neighborhood, in ourneighborhood, a lot of places
aren't open till Wednesday.
That didn't used to be likethat.
Chris Sommers (23:45):
No, I mean people were were out more, things were
you know more energy, you know,more flourishment, is that the
word?
You know, and then yeah, nowthere's a little bit less
energy.
Restaurants obviously, youknow, are dealing with you know
their inflation issues, um, youknow, and just you know, getting
by and you having the cutbackor not being open, you know,
(24:07):
maybe it's lack of demand, maybeit's just you know being
protective, you know, withdollars and cents.
Now, I am wearing my Phillieshoodie, Maria, and people that
you know might watch thispodcast later on, it might be
after the fact, but perhaps youknow, if the Phillies can get by
the Dodgers, you know, we'redown one zip, um, yeah, that
could add a lot of stimulus, youknow, to our local economy.
(24:31):
It always does.
So, hey, whatever it takes, redOctober.
Red October, baby.
Maria Quattrone (24:37):
Um, yeah, absolutely.
Absolutely.
Chris Sommers (24:39):
I mean, I think like you know, people like
disagree with so many thingsthese days, and they disagree,
like they're so far apart, youknow, and yeah, that in turn, I
think people are just they wouldjust aren't going out as much,
or there's just too much of thisor too much of that.
And I remember like, you know,again, post-COVID, you know,
sports, you know, brought a lotof people together.
(25:02):
And you know, whether it'ssports or something else,
hopefully that could be the caseagain.
Um, you know, because I love toagree to disagree with people
and walk away and still befriends, right?
Uh that's always been who I am.
I don't understand, you know,why other people don't do that
(25:22):
sometimes too, but at the sametime, I guess I do understand.
But um, I mean, at the end ofthe day, I mean, with our
industry, you know, someonealways needs a home, right?
People are always upsizing,people are always downsizing.
You know, again, hopefully thiswhy own when you can lease
trend will turn into why leasewhen you can own.
You know, investments will kindof come back.
(25:45):
Um, so you know, I think youknow that at the end of the day,
there's either doom or gloom,you know, or you know,
positivity.
On most days, I havepositivity, you know, but on
some days, you know, with allthis stuff going on, you know,
it's hard not to be you knowsucked in with the negativity,
especially if you spend too muchtime on social media or
(26:07):
watching the news or you know,anything.
Maria Quattrone (26:10):
So it's it's that's why I said it's time to
hunker down, blinders on justwhat's happening right here,
right here.
And the one thing I I wanted tosay earlier on was you know, to
combat combat the number oftransactions that are going
(26:32):
through in this currentenvironment, I tell or I told
everybody on Friday, if youthink that you need 10, you need
14 transactions or whatevernumber, I I said add 30 percent
to it.
And then you know, hopefully wehope we hope for the best, and
(26:53):
they all go through.
But we can't control thingsthat are out of our control, and
that's the thing when it comesback down to adaptability.
Back to adaptability and backto what I what I was earlier on
(27:15):
said about we are not realestate, right?
But and a good year, a badyear, a good month, a bad month,
a good three years, a bad threeyears, it is what it is, and
it's not I think even myself,like I would take take it like
(27:38):
oh I'm a I'm a failure.
Oh, it's me, you know, and it'snot us.
Shit happens.
And things aren't always thingsaren't always, you know, it's
like I said, I I was talkingabout this yesterday.
I said that's why there's sun.
Today it's sunny, right?
There's rain.
(27:58):
It's cold, it's hot.
Like if it was always sunnyevery single day, and we had no
rain, we need the rain.
We need the rain, we need therain for the rain and for the
water, but we need the rain toobecause the rain reminds us and
(28:22):
gives us thanks for the sunnydays, and some days we're
thankful for the rainy days.
And it shows us in life, it'sabout humility, vulnerability,
and and and for for for us,right?
And we're leaders leadership,teaching leadership, showing by
(28:43):
teaching.
Yeah, I said the other day, Isaid I don't want a bunch of
followers in the office.
I'm gonna I'm gonna teach youthrough the be the solution
movement leadership.
I said, someday you will all, Ihope, have your own teams.
Chris Sommers (29:03):
Well, I love that, Marie.
I mean, I like the saying focusof what you can control, not
what you can't.
Um and yes, I mean, there is alot of things, you know,
external factors that can getsomeone frozen or paralyzed.
I think it's like during thosetimes where you know a lot of
people in our industry or anyindustry, you know, could could
(29:26):
still have the ability to dobetter, you know, by again
focusing on the things they cancontrol.
And I think at the end of theday, you know, if you or at the
end of the week or a month, youknow, you did everything that
you could do and then some, Ithink you're gonna be feeling
good about yourself.
And then I guess the secondthing about what you said, yeah,
it all starts with you know,gratitude or perspective, um,
(29:50):
you know, to be able to kind ofsee things in a different light
or even like see things throughsomeone else's eyes, I think is
important.
I think one art.
That has kind of been lost to acertain degree, which is really
important, you know, in sellingor or communicating is
listening.
And I think the people that canlisten more, um, whether it's
(30:13):
have empathy or reallyunderstand where someone else is
coming from.
And I think that's superimportant, you know, in our
industry.
Like if you're not listening toyour client or a prospect, you
know, and you just, you know,kind of doing something in a
different way, I mean, that'sgonna catch on, right?
And sometimes it is better toterminate a deal than move on
(30:33):
and you know, shove somethingdown someone's throat.
Yeah, but along the way, Imean, there are solutions, and I
think it kind of comes down toyou know, you become who you
surround yourself with, right?
Maria Quattrone (30:46):
That's why it's important to protect our time
and important to make sure thatyou know we're around people.
That's part of you know, doinga podcast too, because I I get
to at least have someinteraction.
I try to have one a few time,you know, a few times a week.
(31:06):
I have interaction with otherleaders, other people in the
industry, different everybodybrings a different perspective.
And the other day on Friday, Idid this podcast and you know, I
had sh I had known of thisperson for many years and we I
(31:31):
saw him at an event, um I knowlike uh um AI, Bruno and Stacey
at this event and I purposelylike made an effort extra effort
to talk with him.
And I said I invited him on theshow and then on Friday when we
had this podcast, he said somethings that I really needed to
(31:57):
hear.
He didn't know this.
He didn't he didn't he didn'tknow.
But I needed to hear, and Ilook back on that and I thought
about that on Friday, and it'sit was like divine timing.
You know, sometimes themessages are delivered and we
don't we don't hear them.
Sometimes the messages have tobe delivered many times and then
(32:20):
we're ready to hear it.
And I think that's life.
I think that you know we and II truly, truly believe this that
we are our own solution.
And for us in real estate,there's so many things.
I mean, in my opinion, I'm sickof the city of Philadelphia,
(32:41):
honestly, all their nonsense,but that's where I live right
now.
And I'm just gonna like do mything, and you know, when I can
make uh something to make thingsbetter, do my best.
In the meantime, we can controlall these crazy stuff going on,
(33:02):
and we just have to control thecontrollables when we started
with.
Chris Sommers (33:08):
Well, I'm a huge you know, Bruno and Stacy fan,
and for the people are watchingthis, yeah, definitely follow
them on Facebook.
But yeah, there's somethingabout you know Bruno, yeah, like
with his growth over the years,yeah, to have like a little bit
of, I don't know what the wordis, spiritual strength, um,
awareness.
Um, you know, and there'ssomething about that, again, I
(33:30):
think that will get us throughmore difficult times.
But I also think, yeah, whenthings are going great, you
know, it might kind of keep usmore like even keel kind of
thing.
And at my recent Summers Tmeeting, it was kind of like we
wanted to like have we like tohave a theme for every meeting.
And you know, it was uh trustyour process, which really
(33:52):
obviously hasn't worked for theSixers, you know, but yeah, we
kind of redefined that to um youknow, trust your own process,
you know, and for the peoplethat that do things right each
day, because I like to say smallthings done consistently over
time lead to big results, right?
And you're a testament of that.
(34:14):
Bruno's a testament of that,you know, whether it's real
estate or whether it's your ownlife's growth.
Um, you know, I think that'ssignificant with kind of what
we're talking about because Ithink the better, you know, I
love the book The Uh TheAlchemist, right?
Yeah, like you have to haveawareness to see signals and
then maybe make changes fromthem, whether it's one time or
(34:37):
many times, yeah.
But it's hard to have awarenesswhen you're maybe you're maybe
not as in as good shape as youshould be, or reading books or
podcasts, or like really kind ofbeing open to learning and
growth, yeah, with your owngrowth, because if you don't
have growth in in one area here,chances are that might not lead
(34:59):
to growth over here.
So I think that's theopportunity I think with all of
us is yeah, with it's not justselling more properties.
I think the leadership of yourwork with your clients, but I
think we kind of need moreleadership in our neighborhoods
(35:20):
and whatnot, too, because youknow, I think voices are so
silent.
And you know, I you know, I'mgonna be a big advocate about
city council, kind of likelooking into policies.
Like councilman, you know, JeffYoung called me a couple weeks
ago and he was like, Hey, willyou help me with you know
raising funds?
I'm like, I don't want to helpanyone in city council like
raise funds right now.
(35:41):
Um, you know, but then it gotinto a dialogue and he kind of
shared with me that, you know,hey, he was warped on some pro
real estate bills than I wasaware of, you know.
But you know, like if if voicesare silent because they're
afraid of you know, like otherpeople, you know, kind of like
thinking less of them, that'snot a good thing, right?
(36:03):
If voices are silent about,hey, what can we do to to
improve things, but yeah,they're being scared of, well,
hey, you know, that that kind ofgoes against the schools, but
it really doesn't, or this orthat, that's not a good thing.
Um, and obviously thatconversation on a wider scale,
you know, it's just yeah, beenout there dramatically, you
(36:23):
know, where you know we there'sthis there's just not enough
dialogue and not enoughlistening.
And with that, that's where theleadership opportunities come.
And it could be on the smallestscale or the biggest scale, but
I think you and I as leaders,and I in my mind, every real
estate agent is a leader becausethey're leading, you know, with
(36:44):
their clients and then reallyhelping you know people to have
the dreams of home ownership ormoving on to other parts of
their lives.
It's like, you know, if wereally can kind of like hold on
to that and use that as leverageto grow, only good things can
come from that, you know.
And I remember Alan Dahn willkind of talk about you know the
(37:05):
pendulums, you know, of youknow, the city and whatnot.
And obviously, yeah, it was alittle bit before our time, you
know, where the center city wasjust not doing well, right?
Yeah, what what saved thecenter city?
The tax abatement.
What saved real estate in thecity of Philadelphia?
And what started growth?
(37:25):
Was the tax abatement?
Um, you know, so like yeah, thependulum.
Maria Quattrone (37:29):
One minute, one minute.
Chris Sommers (37:31):
Yeah, we'll continue to go back and forth,
but yeah, I think we could kindof all strive you know for the
pendulum to swing into areaswhere everyone, you know, can't
agree agree upon and have like ashared mission to support that.
Maria Quattrone (37:46):
Well, this has been a great time with you this
morning, Chris.
And I love the fact that youknow still we're still going.
We're still going, we're stillbeing the solution.
And it's good to see you andyour growth, and you know, we
continue just to forge ahead.
Chris Sommers (38:08):
Yeah, I mean, you're you have two choices
don't be part of the solution orbe the solution.
I think you and I, and we asleaders, you know, we can help
people be the solution.
Maria Quattrone (38:20):
That's right.
Chris Sommers (38:21):
I know that's right.
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