How to Build Wealth with AI, Pre-Construction, and Luxury Waterfront Properties in Florida

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Show Summary

In this engaging conversation, Adam Bursztein shares his extensive experience in the real estate industry, particularly in luxury waterfront and commercial properties in South Florida. He discusses the integration of AI in real estate, the unique appeal of South Florida as a real estate market, the significant international interest in the area, and the current trends in pre-construction and new builds. Adam emphasizes the importance of personal touch in high-end real estate while leveraging technology to enhance client interactions.

Resources and Links from this show:

• • • Investor Fuel Real Estate Mastermind
    • Investor Machine Real Estate Lead Generation
    • Mike on Facebook
    • Mike on Instagram
    • Mike on LinkedIn
    • Adam Bursztein’s Website
    • Adam Bursztein on LinkedIn
    • Adam Bursztein on Facebook
    • Adam Bursztein’s Phone Number: (305) 409-7556

  Listen to the Audio Version of this Episode

  Investor Fuel Show Transcript:

  Adam Bursztein (00:00)
  So ⁓ AI to me is the future. It’s the Wild Wild West still, and it’s very early.

  I use it every single day. I work with Compass. The reason why I joined Compass and I sold my brokerage was their technology platform makes things very easy to work on. ⁓

  Our tech program is valued at over a billion dollars. So we’re a tech company, you know, it’s a real estate company. But our AI intelligence software that we use behind the scenes is pretty darn awesome. And on the front end, I have already adopted AI into so many parts of everything that we’re doing, ⁓ from AI agents and autoresponders.

  Dylan Silver (02:17)
  Hey folks, welcome back to the show. Today’s guest is based in beautiful South Florida and after selling his brokerage in 2019 now leads AP group focusing on luxury waterfront and commercial real estate. Please welcome Adam Bursztein. Adam, welcome to the show.

  Adam Bursztein (02:37)
  Hey, thank you so much, Dylan. Appreciate it. I’m looking forward to this.

  Dylan Silver (02:41)
  I always like to start off at the top of these shows, Adam, by asking folks really how they got started in real estate.

  Adam Bursztein (02:51)
  ⁓ Since this is a more short form podcast, I’ll be trying to condense 26 years. I graduated in 2000 from college and my parents pivoted their life. My mom went into real estate, my dad went into ⁓ insurance. I came out of school with a…

  major in like back then it was the Y2K bug before your time but long story short we were doing like programming for Y2K that never happened so I moved to South Florida got my real estate license where I was from told my mom you’re doing great already let me do all your websites and your internet this was before Zillow was very good at lead generation and we ran our brokerage together for 19 years so it was fun

  Dylan Silver (03:22)
  Yeah.

  I want to ask you maybe a granular question about that time period. So also somewhat ⁓ selfishly I would say, I’m actually as well as being a realtor and working a lot with investors, I’m also an engineering student. And you see a lot of trends as someone with that tech background like yourself. Right now the big trend that everyone is interested in is AI and how can they really best use AI in their business.

  As someone who’s involved in commercial and luxury, really high-end real estate in South Florida, do you feel like there’s a ⁓ use case right now for AI, or do you feel like in a lot of the ways that people are using it, you lose kind of that personal touch that people really need when you’re dealing with super high-end?

  Adam Bursztein (05:20)
  So, great question.

  Sorry about that. One thing let me preface about me. ⁓ I’m an entrepreneur, so I’m involved in a lot of businesses. I’m a full-time real estate broker team principal for 26 years. I also own some franchise businesses since 2007, and I’m in the AI space currently outside of

  So ⁓ AI to me is the future. It’s the Wild Wild West still, and it’s very early. ⁓

  I don’t know if our ⁓ listening audience is more like realtors or it’s consumers or it’s both. ⁓ So behind the scenes, from an AI perspective, I use it every single day. I work with Compass. The reason why I joined Compass and I sold my brokerage was their technology platform makes things very easy to work on. ⁓

  Dylan Silver (05:59)
  Yeah.

  Adam Bursztein (06:15)
  Our tech program is valued at over a billion dollars. So we’re a tech company, you know, it’s a real estate company. But our AI intelligence software that we use behind the scenes is pretty darn awesome. And on the front end, I have already adopted AI into so many parts of everything that we’re doing, ⁓ from AI agents and autoresponders to…

  You know, ⁓ when a lead comes in, you know, it’s not just going to you sometimes. People are looking, so you need speed to lead. And with AI, we’re able to like speed to lead.

  anyway, I believe that most agents are not successful in this business regardless because of other things. And AI, when people are running away from it, I’m jumping all over it.

  Dylan Silver (07:08)
  I want to maybe get a little granular on that and ask you about how that intersects as well with luxury, I think people might be listening to this, whether they work with investors or whether they work with maybe single family home buyers throughout the country. And they may think, well, how is this going to work in my vertical? is someone that I’m communicating with maybe on a first time and they’re getting an auto response from AI, is that going to come across and might that throw them off?

  How do you determine when to use AI versus when human touch is maybe more necessary, at least for now?

  Adam Bursztein (07:48)
  business is still human interaction, but because of COVID, there’s so many good things that came out of it. One is like you can do title notaries now electronically. So ⁓ AI is good for. ⁓

  Couple quick things. Number one, there’s been agents of, before they were called AI agents, they were just called bots. ⁓ And for years and years, a lot of these high end website companies anyway have conversations that the consumer public does not know they’re talking to somebody. You cannot let the conversation go too far. ⁓ I use it as an opening just, hey, boom, it’s a live lead. If they make a response, I try to get them on a text or a phone call immediately.

  ⁓ to get that personal touch. Hey, how are you? ⁓ But that comes from 20 years of, 25 years of experience. So I use it as an opener just to see if it’s real. Once I make connection, then you go personal. That’s where you’re, anybody can be an agent. That’s what makes you good.

  Dylan Silver (08:54)
  It’s an interesting thing to explore. I’ve seen even just…

  Adam Bursztein (08:58)
  And if you wanted

  to talk about in luxury as I’m sorry just to say one thing so as far as in the luxury space It doesn’t matter because you’re getting a lead from Zillow or any of sites or on your own or Google or your own website And I’ll get them for 69,000 and I’ll get them for you know upwards of more than 10 million You know it’s what you do with the lead once you get it. That’s important. Yeah

  Dylan Silver (09:23)
  Yeah, I think, you know, people really want to have that instant communication to feel like they’re being catered to. And if it’s the middle of day or the middle of the night, right? How can you achieve that? Well, AI is there.

  And then it’s incumbent upon the individual utilizing it to reach out to them and take advantage of that. I do want to pivot a bit here, and ask you about South Florida in general. I’m a big fan of South Florida. ⁓

  there probably five or six times a year, ⁓ which is really the city that I go to when I’m commuting between the US and the Caribbean, Santo Domingo, where I currently live. I think there’s probably no better place to live, period, but certainly in the US than South Florida. And it also really seems to be the mecca of entrepreneurship and of real estate in a lot of ways. Do you feel like…

  Do you feel that energy or is it lost on you, maybe jaded to some degree, having been there for so long, all of that real estate entrepreneurship and that energy out there?

  Adam Bursztein (11:05)
  So one good thing about me is I am born and raised in South Florida. So 49 years of only Florida experience. So I’ve seen it all. There is not a day that goes by that I don’t say, God, am I blessed to be in South Florida? When you wake up to palm trees and sunshine, I mean, there’s nothing better. You can play golf. I’m a big golfer.

  365 days a year, unless it’s raining on you. It’s up north in the Northeast or wherever. Those clubs are only open a few months out of the year. So South Florida is very special for so many reasons. we’re investor friendly here. If you make a lot of money, there’s obviously tax benefits, primary home ownership benefits. then during COVID, it was amazing to see how many people came down here. And in the luxury space, they come down here for quality of life.

  ⁓ Because people are walking outside with palm trees, know, and the beach smell the ocean. You’re here, there’s no beating it. So I’ve seen every view and they’re all beautiful. You know, like I don’t complain about most views here. You’re either looking over the intercoastal or you’re looking over the ocean or you know, whatever it may be. It’s a nice thing.

  Dylan Silver (12:22)
  One of the other things that’s really unique

  Adam Bursztein (12:24)
  And to answer

  your question, the real estate market is always moving in South Florida. Let me just preface it that way. We had some tough months, seven, eight, nine months, but every single day there’s somebody looking to buy in South Florida. So I don’t let the economy or whatever ⁓ move my needle on what we’re

  Dylan Silver (12:29)
  Yeah.

  people who are saying there’s a dip, there’s a different perspective from coming from folks like yourself. I’ve noticed that there’s not just interest in South Florida, of course, from folks, entrepreneurs across the US, but there’s also a huge international presence in South Florida as well, which really makes it unique. I mean, I’m from Northern New Jersey, but I lived in Texas, and so I have this experience of being close to New York City, but then also living in Texas where you have a different culture, but South

  Florida is like this beautiful place where you’ve got people from all over the world Very much wealth from all over the world as well looking at investing looking at lifestyle ⁓ Vacations and so on I’m curious as someone who is involved in luxury waterfront and commercial is a lot of business In that realm very much focused on international folks and investors as well, or is that really a niche within a niche?

  Adam Bursztein (13:46)
  The beautiful thing about South Florida, and you nailed it on the head, I’m very blessed to be an Argentinian Jewish kid who was born in Miami. So I speak Spanish, I speak English, I learned Portuguese. From 2000 until just about before COVID, 90 % of my business is always international.

  I always work with international clients. And when you deal in the luxury space, it’s a lot of clients that are in markets that maybe the political scene isn’t the best in their home countries, so they want safety and security for their families while dad’s working or mom, whatever it may be. So it adds a, and.

  Because we’re such ⁓ a blending a melting pot down here that everybody’s like honestly accepted You know so it’s very cool to be and each market is different

  South Florida Miami very international for lauderdale Different type of international and West Palm Beach different type of you know and it’s all different You know when you get south and you’re in South Beach or in Brickle you’re in downtown

  Dylan Silver (15:21)
  Sorry.

  Adam Bursztein (15:35)
  You know, it is a certain scene. If you’ve been down here, you know what I’m talking about. When you get to Fort Lauderdale, it’s a different scene. And when you go to Palm Beach, it’s a different scene. But they’re all awesome vibes. So depending on what you like, from dining to shopping to living, you go. And then if you want single family homes, you know, the burbs, you have that here. So you have, you know, everything in South Florida, unfortunately, we have good transit systems that we’re working on. But you can drive anywhere here. And it’s, very close, 15 minutes to everything.

  Dylan Silver (16:06)
  You mentioned that family and background Argentinian. So there’s a huge presence in South Florida right now, right? ⁓ Argentinian ⁓ because of so much, but a lot of fans even ⁓ not necessarily with direct ties to Argentina. Yeah, a lot of people.

  Adam Bursztein (16:20)
  ⁓ messy and soccer.

  Well, we’re a big mecca for sports. ⁓ But Argentina, specifically just more with Messi being down here full time in our inner Miami team, it’s very special. ⁓ So that’s good. Plus, we’re home to F1 racing for Hard Rock. that’s know, that’s, hey listen, South Florida, it’s already been dubbed. ⁓

  And now it’s like our version of Monaco here. That’s the typo. And it’s getting very expensive. It’s very expensive. It’s only going to get more expensive. So if you don’t have an opportunity to buy in South Florida, a lot of the numbers don’t make sense sometimes on the investment standpoint. But if you’re just trying to get a roof over your head or have an investment property or something here, whatever the buy you buy today, I do a lot of pre-construction ⁓ condominiums or ⁓ single-family home projects.

  Dylan Silver (16:56)
  That’s right.

  Adam Bursztein (17:22)
  you could just park your money as an investor on the 1031, you know, and when you come out it’s beautiful. So there’s a lot of good opportunities here. South Florida is the best.

  Dylan Silver (17:22)
  Yeah.

  I want to ask you about, you mentioned pre-construction. I’ve worked a lot with investors and I’ve seen this trend, at least in Texas, where there does seem to be a lot of interest in ground up construction, new builds, especially from folks who may not have a background in that, both because shifting markets, but also because there’s different, even ⁓ tools and systems that people are using, such as

  you know, modular homes and the like, it’s gonna be vastly different in luxury and commercial space. But are you seeing at all any type of similar trend in general, maybe in Florida as a whole, where people, more people are looking at new construction?

  Adam Bursztein (18:14)
  ⁓ So I’ve been doing this a long time at one point in my life before the crash of 07 I was selling site plan approved projects on a massive scale ⁓ Things that were attached to marinas buildings that were going vertical we were doing condo conversions where you take a rental and you put it into a you know used or you not they were doing a backwards again because they wanted to go back to rentals so ⁓ And then the market crashed or whatever

  And then I pivoted into short sales and foreclosures, and then we went back into where we are, know, back to luxury. So you kind of follow the market, you know, and what you’re kind of thrown into. So to kind of answer your question, thankfully, because I’ve been down here, and I owe it to Litteson, not just some sayings, I always put my customers first, like,

  And I never put anybody into a bad deal pre-construction wise because you got to be careful the crash of the pre-construction No, dock loan market was you know messed a lot of people up I even bought and short-sailed my own but I never put my own clients, you know into something like that. So You fast forward to where the market is today these condo projects you got to be 50 % in now so there’s a lot of skin in the game and So it’s a different market. I have just noticed and I just been getting some off-market opportunities

  Dylan Silver (19:32)
  Yeah.

  Adam Bursztein (19:38)
  So there’s investors listening, there’s site plan approved projects to build, not, you know, there’s some, don’t recommend building tall. You gotta be really, you know, well versed in that. But single family homes, small town home projects, those are all cool things you can build still. ⁓ So there’s a lot of opportunity. There’s site plan approved. And then when you’re talking from the consumer level, I only put my clients in new high dev, very good projects that are gonna appreciate.

  significantly from time that they put them in to where they get them. What you do from there is either flip it, keep it, or rent it, you know, and that’s your choice. And then also we deal with very high-end people that like to come in and 1031 exchange something. So that’s also a good place to park money.

  So there’s a lot of strategies that we use depending on who we’re dealing with. But I only put my clients now into safe pre-construction, new built condominiums or single family or townhome projects.

  Dylan Silver (20:32)
  Yeah.

  We are coming up on time here, Adam. Where can folks go if they’d like to reach out to you? Maybe they’re looking at deals in South Florida or they’d like to get your feedback on maybe a deal that they have or would like to reach out to you about a number of issues. Maybe they’re looking at AI or real estate strategy as a whole.

  Adam Bursztein (21:03)
  Well, if people want to get a hold of me, you can always just Google Adam Bursztein and you’ll find me. I’ve got some good Google reviews out there. My website, our new one, I apologize for the long URL. I own a bunch, but we’ll just, it’s called southfloridahomelist.com. You can find us there. Oh yeah, 305-409-7556 is my cell phone. It’s been the same number for 30 years plus 305-409-7556. I’m always available.

  Dylan Silver (21:34)
  Adam, thank you so much for coming on the show here today.