Speaker 1: 0:03

I am Ari Petronelli. I'm your host. Usually I'm with my two co-workers, marcus Espinoza and Jose G Hernandez.

Speaker 2: 0:15

How you doing. Thank you for having me no Ari first time on the set.

Speaker 1: 0:19

Thank you so much for being here, Jose. You are one of my favorite people.

Speaker 3: 0:22

So we're going to keep things casual today. I'm thinking.

Speaker 1: 0:25

Just you know. So people who are listening kind of get to know who we are and what we do and kind of explain what this podcast is. Marcus, I think you were an appraiser before, jose, is that correct? Yes, by quite a few years. Yes, yeah, but how did you get into appraisals?

Speaker 3: 0:45

Yeah, I was in college and when I was in college I was answering an ad to the school paper and it was asking for someone to come on board, as they're doing light accounting work. And I respond and I met with the person and the person was a developer. That developer was developing in Long Beach. He was an appraiser, he was a broker and he was a B1 licensed contractor. Although he was those three things, he elected to go into investing buying properties in Long Beach, converting them from five units down to four units. This as far as his appraisal background. He was an MAI and SRA. As far as his broker experience, he was a CCIM, so he had all the credentials when it came down to investing. And he picked it up from education. And I would listen to him in the office and the thing that he talked about more than anything was his MAI and so the more you talk about something, the more you value it. So he seemed like he valued the MAI thing. So I was thinking, oh, that's where he got the bulk of his knowledge. So that's what I went after and I got into appraising property and I loved it.

Speaker 3: 2:12

But before I got into appraisal I went out and by around 2000,.

Speaker 3: 2:17

I got my broker's license and about a year or two year after that I got my appraisal license and started appraising property and looking at all different types of real estate assets and talking to different investors and fell in love with it because it was so unique and there were so many different approaches and valuing real estate and different investors were doing different things. And I remember gosh by about 10 years ago or maybe was it a little bit more than that where people were getting into creative office and how they were doing it. They were converting industrial buildings. Back then Industrial was worth less than office Office. Seems like it's the other way around today, but yeah, so people were converting warehouses into office and even churches into office and with the stained glass. So I got this and that was one particular investor doing that. And then I had another investor that were doing multifamily, where they were relocating tenants or they're adding value, always trying to find ways to add value, and that's I just found it fascinating and that's how I got into the profession.

Speaker 1: 3:36

So we all have our. We're all friends outside of this we all have our personal relationships with each other, but I know that you and Jose have known each other for a long time. How did you guys meet? How are you guys now working together?

Speaker 3: 3:51

Well, this takes me back to junior high. Well, actually, even before that, I take that back. That takes me back to third grade actually. So in third grade I develop a relationship with his neighbors and his cousin and we became good friends. And we became friends through, got closer and in junior high, and in junior high His older cousin would bring me around Jose's house, and you know and, and, and you know I knew of him but didn't know him, and my Younger sister you know, very close to his older sister and and they be they're really good friends. They've been friends since probably gosh, I don't know in a garden in a garden.

Speaker 3: 4:37

So you know it's it's, it's, it's more than family, because you know family, you, you don't choose friends, you choose. So that makes it, you know, more more fascinating. So and then we connected and when I was probably my first year in college and he was just finishing high school and he came over to my house because he heard that had a word processor and and the word process is a monitor with a. It was a monitor with a keyboard, and I remember picking it up at circuit city or something I don't remember where, and, and he was, you know, before it was very few people that were typing on a word process or even a computer. There were more more doing it on a brighter. So he was like oh, you know, I can go to Marcus's and I can make changes on this monitor. And so he came over and he wrote his paper, and you know his, his senior paper, and and that's from that point on, that's when we started developing relationships together. So, jose, how did you get into?

Speaker 1: 5:40

You know appraisals in real estate.

Speaker 2: 5:45

Well, that's a long little long story, but I'm gonna try to keep it quick. Thank you, yes. So yeah, back in 2001 I started working full-time at the state, but I was on a temporary basis. They're called on permanent intermittent. So in 2004 they laid me off for about three, four months, or 2005, one of those years and in between that, those three or four months I was laid off, I started working with Marcus helping them out, doing residential appraisals, and I was just doing some basic data data work. And In 2006 or seven, when we lost all our clients, I was still working at the state. So I was doing appraisals part-time throughout those two or three years.

Speaker 2: 6:28

And 2000, and yeah, so I, you know, lost all customers. I went, you know, I kept working at the state. And then in 2000 and I don't remember what year was, 17 or 15 or something I went back to to school to finish my degree so I could get my Batchers and I didn't want to come back to work doing appraisals because until I actually had my degree and I was a little more Situated. But yeah, no, so I got into it through markets. At that point market was doing strictly commercial and it was interesting, find interesting, like the challenge, the different property types, the income, the math part how to you know calculating the value was very interesting to me. So we're gonna different property ties but yeah, so, yeah, good, good goes back. But I had a long break and then when I came back I'm like, okay, I'm gonna come back full-time. At that point I left this estate after 18 years, I don't know, I guess Five, six, seven years later, and yeah, I've been doing it full-time since since then. No Right, it's awesome.

Speaker 1: 7:36

Yeah, it was really nice that you guys so, ari, what about you?

Speaker 3: 7:40

tell us a little bit about you.

Speaker 1: 7:42

I was a very young mother and my primary focus for a very long time were my kids. I was a single mom for quite a while and I, when my kids got into school, I was able to go to work, which was really exciting for somebody that's been staying home for, oh Gosh, I don't know six, seven years, but my first job Was a paralegal at like a boutique law firm and we did insurance claims. So it was really interesting. I love the law, I love, I love rules, and so it was really a Good fit for a little bit, until I Kind of fell out of love with law and I started working with a girlfriend and she owns a company, a private aviation company, and it was. It was fun and it was interesting and every day was different and I loved that.

Speaker 1: 8:39

But, to you know, I had to kind of take my career more seriously and I kind of fell into real estate. Actually, my friend Jack, who was on the podcast earlier, he kind of told me like are you would have a good personality for a real estate agent, and I was inspired by that. I looked into it, I started taking classes and, sure enough, I became a real estate agent. I took classes and passed, and it did take me one fail to pass that test, but it was just one point off because they give you your score and it was painful. So I took it a few days later and I did it. And the thing I really love about real estate is that there are rules that you have to follow, but you could also be very creative about how to get around those rules. You know that we were talking about. You know, rebuttals in appraisals and Finding finding value in places where you know maybe the appraiser missed or maybe I mean just finding Just being creative in real estate. I think it's probably one of my favorite things, right.

Speaker 3: 9:51

Yeah, that's very interesting because you know I mean the paralegal background, that deaf definitely could transition into valuation because because in valuation we do a lot of work for, for litigation, for estate planning, for State tax and all that kind of falls in play on how to communicate with the other side, which is the client, the attorneys. Absolutely that right yeah.

Speaker 1: 10:19

Yeah, so one of the things that I really love, marcus and I, our children, were on the same Baseball team and they we kind of had a traumatic experience with that baseball team and it kind of brought our families very close together and our boys they call each other cousins I mean, your wife is one of my best friends and you are also one of my best friends and but so kind of working, we started working together and I also kind of fell in love with valuation as well, because it is it is Very precise and there are rules and there's reasons and it kind of I just I love that structure of it, but it is really fascinating watch you guys, you know, do your thing and Every day is also very different, which I kind of need just for myself right and commercial valuation is just that.

Speaker 3: 11:09

It's just where you, you know you get involved and there's you're working on a church one day and then you maybe and that happens a lot in litigation support, because in litigation support there's a way of appraising property and you have to pick up that, that ability to service that client, and so Because of that, there's only so many people that do that and because of that you get to touch on different real estate types, and so it's just always something different. You know you could be appraising just you know something as small as a residential condo and you could be appraising something as large as a High-rise office building. So it's, it's always different and so because of that, it keeps my attention every assignment.

Speaker 2: 11:52

Challenging.

Speaker 1: 11:53

I was a heavy. Do you have any funny stories about a, like an appraisal that you've done, or like something that's super interesting, like how Marcus has done that insane mansion and I?

Speaker 2: 12:05

Don't know about funny, but interesting for sure, though We've appraised a lot of different properties, but what I'm gonna stand out, it's it's. It was in Santa Barbara, the area it's called.

Speaker 3: 12:16

Want to see no and it's.

Speaker 2: 12:17

They call it the spaceship house. So they built this, this house, that's that. You can't really see it from Satellite. It's built underground almost because there's plants on top of it, and it's yeah it's interesting. So it's a. To me that was a very interesting house. It's a big House and there's only like two bedrooms there and it's yeah, who's it was. To me that wasn't the most probably interesting Property that I worked on. That was yeah, yeah. The definitely unique, very very unique property.

Speaker 1: 12:49

How do people find you guys like for the appraisals? Is it just a Google search? Is it usually word of mouth? Is it referrals?

Speaker 3: 12:58

you know a lot of it comes from word of mouth and and you know just going to different mixers, and you know just touching elbows and and just you know creating friends with the client. Also networking, networking and just trying to talk to people and you know, and it doesn't need to need to be about work.

Speaker 3: 13:15

I mean, you obviously want them to know what you do, but you know just connecting on a personal level, you know having a drink with somebody and just, you know Just talking about life and then, and then you just built something from there.

Speaker 2: 13:28

So what was interesting about that? What Marcus saying now is that we actually went to a mixer and so that's the way we got engaged for For that, that spaceship house I was talking about because it was in your regular Single-family house that you go appraise, and it's not even your regular $25 million house you praise, because we've appraised properties from you know $500,000 to, was it, a hundred million dollars. I mean very expensive houses. So you know you got people that could praise. You know these single-family animals, but when they're unique, like the spaceship house, it's not just your typical house. You need to, you know, be, be creative. So we were at a mixer and I remember Marcus was gonna get. He was engaged at one point to do some house in, like on Springs, which was yeah, that was in Joshua Tree.

Speaker 2: 14:24

Yeah. And then they told him oh yeah, you were going to praise that one. And then they're right. By the way, we got this property and since it was a unique property that not just your typical appraiser could actually work on, you need someone that has some experience, some knowledge. And yeah, that's the way that property was was engaged.

Speaker 3: 14:47

Yeah, I forgot about that story and that particular client was having a difficult time finding somebody to actually appraise it.

Speaker 2: 14:54

That knew how to appraise it at least.

Speaker 3: 14:56

Yeah, and we were engaged to appraise a property in Joshua Tree and that property was. It's like if you're looking at it from an aerial standpoint, you won't be able to see it, because it blends in with the rocks.

Speaker 2: 15:09

Yeah, that's right.

Speaker 3: 15:10

So it's a rock house and actually it's on Airbnb today and I actually saw it on Airbnb and it's a pretty generous amount per night.

Speaker 1: 15:18

So you're sure you know what you're talking about and it's stunning.

Speaker 3: 15:22

Yeah, so that one. And then he goes oh, I was just trying to engage on that one. So yeah, I remember that, that's actually. I forgot about that.

Speaker 2: 15:29

I mean, just because you have the license to appraise, I don't know, $10 million house or $20, it doesn't mean that you have the expertise to actually do it. So you need to have the competency to do it and so, yeah, so that's interesting, because that's the way that word of mouth goes is like, okay, if you guys appraise these you know we've appraised these houses in Hollywood or Beverly Hills and they're off a mountain, or when they have beautiful views, stunning views of downtown LA, and you know, since they know we've appraised property that way, they reach out like, hey, you guys appraise this house, now we have this one. It's a proposed house, it's going to have a view, and so that's how. Yeah, so the word of mouth on those at least expensive single families. It's the way that we've been engaged Well more than Marcus. You know we've been engaged that way, though engaged.

Speaker 1: 16:29

Yeah, I've also noticed being a real estate agent there's, you know, the classes are informative, but they really the experience of actually being in the field is completely different. And so, working with you guys, I feel like I have learned so much about valuation, you know, and what goes into it, and like actual comps and you know it's easy to just, you know, do a handful of comps, but to actually understand them and why it's a whole different. You know, level of understanding and comprehension for that side of it.

Speaker 2: 17:04

Yeah, because, as a relator, sometimes you get, you know, or you know they're giving an opinion of value based on comps that a broker is or an agent is actually looking at, and an appraiser may not even use any of those comparables because they don't make any sense to you know, they're definitely not, they're not comparable. So so, yeah, I mean you know, you're, you know you're, you're learning in that sense too, that you're actually gonna be able to help your client out when you're representing them. Hey, this is, you know what actually an appraiser will do, you know which is the bank is gonna rely on, as opposed to something that I'm just, you know, throwing, thrown out generate or the system generated comps yeah yeah, which I had issues with before with a previous client where I didn't feel like the comps that was generated by that.

Speaker 1: 17:53

Yeah, you know program was accurate, and so I had to do some research myself and, yeah, I found more accurate cops. The real estate shop came about because so, marcus, I think we were just having dinner at your house, yeah, and you said I have this idea. You know what, if we started an educational platform and we can help the public, or even you know, people in the industry not only you know, learn about these niche topics, but also, in a way, network with each other and be able to you know if somebody does have they, they are looking for that one property, but they need help with fractional interests. You know, like, we actually know somebody who can help that and hopefully, you know, like we had John Penner on the podcast and we know that he can help with that. And at first I was a little like okay, marcus, marcus is the idea man. You know he's his ideas for a lot of things, but I mean, you do have great ideas.

Speaker 3: 18:54

Well, it was a collaborative of between you and I. We collaborate on this together, because I was actually thinking a YouTube channel and that's it. And she was like Marcus, I don't know about a YouTube channel, what about a? What about? What about just going on and doing a podcast? Because you can, it will service both.

Speaker 1: 19:10

Yeah, we could do both.

Speaker 3: 19:10

Yeah, and so it's like. You know, I actually didn't think about that, but yeah, that's so. You know, just, you know the whole thing about having a good team and you know we want to provide Education to the public and the public know that. You know there's a resource here. What type of valuations we do. We do, we, we do a lot of different types of valuations, but there's also, there's also other things that you may need. You know me, you need a plumber, or Our painter, or you know.

Speaker 1: 19:39

But also I wanted this podcast to be for people to realize that real estate, more information, is better. The more information you have, I mean, the less scary real estate can be. And to have you know an appraiser come on and explain Certain things. I thought when you were on the podcast with Jack discussing about you know what actually adds value to a property. You know and maybe like, if you want your home to get the amount of money or do you want to sell fast, like where to put that money. I think that is, I mean, so interesting For somebody who, I mean, might have not any idea how to do things Like that.

Speaker 2: 20:20

So yeah, so market does definitely custom system some good ideas.

Speaker 3: 20:25

So sometimes I don't like to admit that and I might just whisper it, you know, to myself, but yeah just so you know who we are Jose's a licensed broker, mark is is a licensed broker and Ari is a licensed real estate agent. He's also a certified general appraiser, and I'm also a certified general appraiser with some designations. So you know that's who, that this is who is.

Speaker 1: 20:49

Behind the mics yes.

Speaker 2: 20:50

Yeah, you know, that's why I bring it back to one of the one of the reasons why I did not want to come back working with Marcus until I was actually Until I was able to say those things, because, you know, I didn't want to be, I didn't want to have, you know, to help a customer out or client out, you got to have the knowledge and education for it and you know that takes you can't just you know, just you know wake up one day and just say I'm gonna do that.

Speaker 2: 21:15

So so yeah, that's what took me a couple years actually kind of get going here because I wanted to make sure I had had the education, the knowledge to be able to, you know, help these client or help market that with these complicated assignments, and that just you know.

Speaker 1: 21:37

I love working with you guys. It's really.

Speaker 3: 21:40

Yeah, so RE is learning about retail office, industrial, all the subtypes underneath that, for example, industrial you got. Code storage, you got. Distribution. You got contractor's yards you got.

Speaker 1: 21:57

I mean, we're working on Tesla yards, even it's just. It's incredible.

Speaker 3: 22:01

Yes, so yeah, there is a lot of different real estate types.

Speaker 1: 22:04

Well, now I go past an empty building and I'm counting the parking spaces and thinking about how much that adds to the value of that building.

Speaker 3: 22:13

And we also provide services for fractional interest. So it's just a lot of different real estate types that we've been doing over the years, and Jose's been doing this for about a decade. I've been doing this over two decades, and so you get to see a lot of different real estate types. We also, jose and I, both worked at Carrier's International for seven years and CBE for a number of years, so every time when you work for a big shop like that, you just see everything come across your desk. So it's been a very exciting journey.

Speaker 1: 22:50

Excited to see where this takes us too.

Speaker 3: 22:53

We're excited to see where this takes us, for sure.

Speaker 1: 22:55

So if you are listening and you have a question about anything in regards to real estate it could be mortgages, appraisals, transactions, whatever you name it complicated you could send us an email at info at therealestateshopcacom. You could also email me, jose or Marcus, ari, jose or Marcus at therealestateshopcacom and we'd be happy to either answer it on the podcast or answer it through an email.

Speaker 3: 23:31

Yeah, thanks Ari. Well, thank you.

Speaker 1: 23:34

No, thank you guys, this has been a fun journey.