Building Trust with Clients: The Ultimate Guide for Real Estate Professionals

John Harcar (00:00.95)
All right. Hey guys, welcome back to our show. I’m your host, John Harcar, and I’m here today with Omid Tebyani. And we’re going to talk about, you know, besides his real estate journey, you know, that new law that came into effect that, you know, both buyers and sellers have to deal with as far as compensating their realtors. Guys, remember at Investor Fuel, we help real estate investors, service providers, really all real estate entrepreneurs, two to five extra business by really providing tools to grow the business they want to grow. And in turn,

You know live the life they want to live so Omead welcome to our show

Omid Tebyani (00:33.597)
Hey, thank you, John. Thank you for having me. Appreciate it.

John Harcar (00:36.386)
Yeah, I’m glad you can come on here and I’m excited to kind of learn more about you and talk about this new law that went into effect. But before we get into all that, you know, tell our audience a little bit about your background, kind of, you know, what got you into real estate and pretty much what got you here.

Omid Tebyani (00:51.233)
Yeah. So my background is about 20 years in construction. worked in, we did a lot of subcontracting between residential homes, high end residential homes, even high rises, including, also commercial properties, industrial. So we worked on, you name it. We’re subcontracting. did heavy structural steel, all sorts of metal work. And, we did that for about 20 years. We were doing, and, we were like, you know,

doing great in 2013. It was just one of those times I’d done contracting for almost 20 years and I just want to be a little bit more about my kids. So I decided to get into something that’s a little more, um, you know, give me some more flexibility as far as time with being my, my children. So that’s why I got into real estate and I got back into that in 2013. I got my real estate license and I’ve been at the same brokerage since then, which is almost over 12 years now. Um, in those 12 years,

John Harcar (01:26.158)
Mm-hmm.

Omid Tebyani (01:47.833)
I’ve done residential and commercial properties, which is not very common, but right from the get go, I had clients that followed me from my contracting business over into the residential industry and to the real estate industry, which was a great blessing. A lot of people just go and dry. So it was great. And right from the start, I had some commercial deals going on.

including land, including industrial, and then obviously at residential, clients as well. And I guess kind of like my claim to fame is I worked really hard for clients instead of just trying to boom, boom, boom. kind of built my business very slowly, one client at a time. And, that basically came from, it was an old adage back in the days. go, know, you, have one upset client that they’ll tell 10 clients, you know, tell them, tell them.

you share with 10 of their friends, but you know you do a good job. Maybe they’ll share with two or three. So the idea was just to focus, just building the business on, you know, a client being really happy, giving you the best reviews and just kind of spreading that word of mouth and getting referrals. And that is a culminated in pretty much five star reviews across Yelp, Google reviews, rate my agent, Zillow, all of them. So worked really hard to get here.

John Harcar (03:10.441)
Awesome. Okay, now was there any real estate influences or construction influences in your life prior to you getting into construction? Or did you just kind of dive into it?

Omid Tebyani (03:19.806)
No, my father started the business and he was kind of getting up there and elderly and my, know, it was a family decision. And I was glad I did it because he had a lot of experience in construction and contracting and negotiations. And funny enough, I was going to actually go into the music industry. I wanted to be a sound engineer and producer. And, you know, it was just the timing that I decided, you know, come and hold the family business with my father and

And I learned a lot, which applied that experience from 20 years of construction applied to the real estate business quite a bit. You know, people, you know, they sell homes, they really very few know what’s going on behind the wall or what are they standing on or what’s above them. So it just gave me a different introspection. Um, you know, when I’m standing with a client as far as I can never actually tell them, Hey, you can knock this wall down because that’s, that’s a different, that’s a contracting license versus a real estate license.

but I could give some suggestions and they would, they could verify it with their contractor. So it just brought a different kind of experience and, and, you know, outlook on, you know, what they can do with the properties or what they can look out for.

John Harcar (04:29.385)
What were some of the challenges you had making the transition from doing the contracting to being a real estate agent?

Omid Tebyani (04:37.66)
Well, one of the challenges definitely is obviously real estate is a commission-based, compensation-based business. So if you don’t have some kind of a deal coming in all the time, it’s difficult. It can be difficult. Some people have the support system, maybe they’re with a spouse that’s supplementing the income or they have stuff put away. I didn’t have much of that going. was just coming out of the crash of

John Harcar (04:43.671)
Mm-hmm.

Omid Tebyani (05:06.09)
2009, 2010. It was a really difficult time. what I did was I had a degree in engineering, so it facilitated the opportunity for me to be able to work at an engineering firm. They were basically a soils and topographical and survey.

John Harcar (05:22.242)
so you went back into the W-2.

Omid Tebyani (05:24.95)
Yes. Well, I came out of construction. came back into the W-2, but I was part time over there and they gave me the flexibility to do engineering work and whenever I wanted doing the real estate work. So that gave me a lot of flexibility and that instead of having to actually do a punch in punch out thing. And it was basically, I was doing a lot of taking off of plans and providing data for the civil engineering company. So that was, that was very helpful to have.

John Harcar (05:30.858)
Okay.

John Harcar (05:42.795)
Mm-hmm.

Omid Tebyani (05:54.314)
you know, that transition kind of a stepping stone to be able to build real estate on one by one clients, know, friends. They slowly started supplementing enough business where it took me about maybe a year or two to fully be able to do real estate full time. And it’s been like that ever since.

John Harcar (06:17.805)
Okay. And you know, once you went full time real estate and kind of got out of all that stuff, were there any things that just kind of made it that full transition? Did you get to do a mindset shift on anything? Were there any obstacles or things that came up that kind of as you went back full time, got some bumps in the road, anything like that?

Omid Tebyani (06:37.795)
definitely. think real estate, I think one of the biggest challenges in real estate for agents, especially your agents is accountability. You know, you have to have some kind of accountability curriculum in your, in your system, which will create those opportunities for you, you know, and if you don’t, you’ll learn really fast that, know, you’re, you’re going to have to adapt to finding a way and

John Harcar (06:46.445)
Mmm.

Omid Tebyani (07:05.248)
For me, obviously, bills help. You know, got to pay your bills. You got your aspirations. You got your goals. So I was always kind of driven as far as that stuff goes. And what really does help is that I really enjoy doing what I’m doing. I do believe that real estate, one of those, you know, industries where people are coming to you with a lot of trust, it could be their, you know, life savings. could be, you know, it’s, it’s pretty big. And obviously when you deal with more complex investors and

and buyers and sellers, it’s a little different game, at the most, I think there’s a lot of trust that goes into that. And it’s one of those places I felt I could bring a lot of integrity and honesty to the business, not that it’s not out there, but create my own little niche of going the very extra farthest step for every client to be able to give them a really great experience buying or selling a house or a real estate or property.

John Harcar (08:02.903)
Do you work more with end users or people that are gonna live in there versus investors? Have you started increasing your investor type of business?

Omid Tebyani (08:14.397)
Yes, I have actually most of them, would say they’re end users. they’re usually folks that either buying or selling for themselves. do have, clients that are landlords that also lease their properties. I did transition in the past couple of years and more into commercial real estate because one, my client demand was there. and you know, just had people that have worked with me that say, Hey,

John Harcar (08:22.157)
Hmm

Omid Tebyani (08:43.061)
you can you find me a warehouse? Hey, can you find me a retail? You know, and one, I was kind of familiar with it right from the beginning when I started, I kind of got thrown into it to learn how the commercial industry works. And it’s quite different from residential. There’s a little, there’s not as much emotional ties to a property. It’s more black and white. But yeah, I mean, it took a while and, and I really enjoy, enjoy both of them.

John Harcar (08:44.961)
Yeah.

John Harcar (09:04.141)
Hmm.

Omid Tebyani (09:11.988)
Uh, they’re different types and I’ve found myself to be able to pivot to the different kinds of clients. And I started a company just recently past year or so, which I’m, I’m building up right now. It’s called Rescom group. And my idea is to bring agents like minded agent, myself that are driven and they want to, they want to really help people, commercial agents, residential agents, and be able to help.

have clients that come and have a really good experience and they have another type of transaction, stay with the people that they like working with. So that’s kind of where we’re at right now.

John Harcar (09:46.197)
Right. Okay. And when he, when he expected it or what are you wanting to have something like that launched or done?

Omid Tebyani (09:54.488)
well right now I’m actively recruiting. You know, I have people that are interviewing, recruiting. actually have, I actively have resident, residential and commercial transactions going on right now. have a multi-unit family land up in, Palmdale would just put up, it’s a 50 unit multifamily. I’m just closed on a luxury residential, rental. We, just have.

John Harcar (09:57.847)
Okay.

Omid Tebyani (10:22.435)
a off-market multifamily property in LA coming up. mean, hey man, you take people, you take care of people and you show you really care about them and their money and their time and you’d be surprised what happens when you do that.

John Harcar (10:30.412)
Yeah.

John Harcar (10:38.349)
100%. 100%. What do you think have been some of the keys to your success as far as when you started construction and then you made the transition to being an agent? What were some of the key things that helped you get to where you are or succeed?

Omid Tebyani (10:51.763)
I think I was just very, always very driven. remember for real estate in particular, when I was transitioning, I was looking for a new place to live and the agent we were dealing with

I just felt they could have done a lot more. And I remember when I was getting to it, I’m like, this is a very specific niche. You can really help people make good decisions. But I would say mostly it was, I loved the fact that I could spend more time with my kids. had that flexibility to, you know, enjoy dropping them off at school or picking them up or, you know, that flexibility. really…

helped a lot, including my drive and also finding a niche. found it right away that the clients were responding. They really liked it that I always would put their interests first. And, you know, they say, you know, love what you do and you’ll never have to work a day in your life. And that kind of that kind of pulled me in that that energy and that vibe pulled me in. I’m like, you know what? I can stay here.

John Harcar (11:55.489)
Yeah, yeah.

John Harcar (12:03.767)
That’s awesome. Okay, well, let’s touch in a little bit about this new law that the buyers and sellers are having to deal with. Kind of explain it to our audience a little bit for us.

Omid Tebyani (12:12.987)
Yeah. So basically, and disclaimer, a legal disclaimer that, this is to the best of my knowledge, everybody do their own research on it to get the law. So it’s not a legal kind of, you always have to put that disclosure out there, but basically, basically, what happened is the MLS has removed a buyer’s compensation from, from them being on property listings.

John Harcar (12:27.741)
Of course.

Omid Tebyani (12:41.369)
And this came out of a lawsuit that had taken for a while and basically some home sellers, given that they had signed a contract that they would be giving compensation to a buyer’s agent. at the end of it, it came out that that was not the way to go about it. And they made a ruling where now, the sellers are not obligated to.

pay for the compensation or have it be listed on the MLS. Now, from what I understand from one of my, some of my broker friends that have been in the business a lot longer, it was kind of always like that. The sellers didn’t have to, but it was more of, you know, bringing in a buyer and also, you know, the buyer’s agents do a lot of work. So it was to, it was to find a way to compensate them as well. So where we’re at right now, basically if

If an agent is representing a buyer, sometimes the sellers are offering compensations, considerations to a buyer’s or a tenant’s rep. It’s more of a consideration that it’s called that basically the buyer or the tenant finals or provides that consideration given to them to their agent. So when we, you know, when

we represent buyers or tenants. One of the things we ask is from a, from a listing agent or a landlord’s agent, Hey, is the seller or the landlord offering any terms of compensation and to be able to show a property or really, cater to, to a buyer. have to have a buyer’s representation sign with that. That kind of defines what areas they’re looking into, to purchase and, and

they kind of commit to paying you that percentage, which is kind of, that’s where the twist has become where buyers and tenants now are committing to take care of their rep representative, their agent. And you know, that can be paid, whatever is short of that or can be covered by the seller. They can, you know, they just pay whatever is left. Let’s say, you know, they say,

John Harcar (14:50.349)
Okay.

Omid Tebyani (15:06.78)
we’ll give you two and a half percent represent us and a seller’s agent or listing is providing 2%. So that discrepancy between the two and a half and 2 % your buyer tenant may have to pay the half percent or a lot of times the sellers are providing the full compensation and the buyer tend don’t have to pay anything and the seller still and I’m seeing it quite a lot. There’s still a wide a bit of sellers and landlords. They’re offering, you know, compensation.

John Harcar (15:17.936)
Thank

Omid Tebyani (15:35.501)
or consideration of compensation. Yep.

John Harcar (15:37.581)
That’s interesting. That’s interesting. And I mean, is there, what kind of feedback is the, you know, industry given, know, the seller agents or buyer agents firmly oppose? Are they for it? Do they see, I mean, what’s the kind of consensus?

Omid Tebyani (15:57.903)
Well, I think the consensus is for us that have been around a little longer, it’s a lot easier to learn it this way to completely change your style after doing it for so long another way. So that was a learning curve and the consensus is, hey, know, business goes on and that’s exactly what’s happening.

John Harcar (16:08.941)
True, true.

John Harcar (16:19.255)
Ha ha ha.

Omid Tebyani (16:19.791)
First we had that curve ball with COVID throwing at us. So we had to deal with, you know, with all of that. And now, you know, with this deal, but we all just moved on. Now what helped me personally, in this transition, I didn’t see like right away when I heard about it, I’m like, this is kind of looking like more of a commercial transaction because when you commercial transactions, you, there’s no compensation written on the OMS or on the websites. And basically.

John Harcar (16:39.893)
Right.

Omid Tebyani (16:49.051)
we did what they’re asking for residential site to do now. We’ve been doing that for a long time. You call up, know, property agent, whatever it is in commercial, as you go through it, at some point you ask, hey, you know, what’s the consideration for the buyer’s rep? So for me, it wasn’t that difficult. But I think for a lot of people who strictly did residential, it was a little bit more of a curve, you know, to learn. The processes were different and over the past,

John Harcar (17:15.777)
Right.

Omid Tebyani (17:18.928)
I want to say year, so many things have changed on the car form. They’ve, know, put provisions in, you know, term items in or revise them, but it’s moving along. It’s all right.

John Harcar (17:32.173)
Okay. I don’t know. I just kind of want to get a feel on what agents think. Well, I mean, he’s shared a lot of great information. If there’s anybody in in the, what area, Calabasas?

Omid Tebyani (17:43.222)
Yeah. You know, I’ve worked in Calabasas. I’ve worked as far as near Montecito up to, Barstow down to Orange County to La Quinta. So if I wanted to say, probably serve, LA County and surrounding counties, but more focused, and Calabasas from the 10, 20 mile range, Sherman Oaks, all that. But I have clients right now.

kind of like all over the place. So I go where my clients are and it’s funny, I was having this conversation with a client. He goes, how do you, can you pull off something like that? Because people are always looking for local experts. And my feeling about it is that there’s so much information at buyers and sellers fingertips right now that they can click on a property, it’ll spit out the transaction history, it’ll spit out the comps.

John Harcar (18:42.722)
yeah, yeah.

Omid Tebyani (18:43.204)
But at the demographics, mean, it’ll, it’ll, you know, it does all the work for you. So I, to me, it gives people who want to, are gonna, that are gonna step into that, you know, it gives a little more flexibility to take listings, not in their, you know, immediate locality, right?

John Harcar (18:59.181)
in their area. If folks want to get a hold of you, how do they get a hold of you?

Omid Tebyani (19:05.619)
they can go to my email address, which is omid at omidtebiani.com. they can call me on my personal cell. I don’t know if you want to put it up or I’ll just say it.

John Harcar (19:15.757)
I’ll put it on, yeah, we can put it on the show notes.

Omid Tebyani (19:18.517)
Yeah, you can put it up on there. Yep. It’s usually my email, cell number or office address. I mean, I’m sorry, office phone number. one thing I didn’t want to ask John is, thanks for, thanks for having me on. really appreciate it. I do see a lot of, advertisement for companies saying, don’t use a realtor. don’t pay commission. Don’t pay consideration to sellers. And it’s, we’ll buy your home cash. We’ll close in five days.

John Harcar (19:23.277)
Cool. Right on.

Omid Tebyani (19:47.147)
I see so much of that and in closing, just wanted to say there’s so much that listing agents do that it makes me cringe sometimes to think that, I mean, there’s so many laws that we have to follow and there’s so many things we look out for homeowners so they don’t get scammed. When you get an escrow, what to look for. So I’m just gonna strongly suggest if people are going to

you know, entertain something like that, at least to talk to a listing agent and ask him, Hey, well, why, why is this worth my time to go with you when I can do this for this much here? Because I think it’s grounds for a lot of scamming and think it’s just worth anybody’s time and money to interview a bona fide real estate agent before they go that.

John Harcar (20:40.642)
Well, I and yeah, I’ll just state we don’t support that stance. mean, obviously, there’s a time and a place for everybody’s opinion on how things will go. But yeah, so yeah, I appreciate you sharing that. Guys, if you have any questions for Omid, we’ll put all the stuff in the show notes. Omid, thank you again for coming out. And guys, we’ll see you on the next show. Cheers.

Omid Tebyani (20:47.266)
Yep.

Omid Tebyani (21:05.908)
Thank you, John. Appreciate it. Have a good one.