Revolutionize Your Home Buying: Game-Changing App Revealed

Stephen Schmidt (00:03.256)
Welcome back to the show where we interview the nation’s leading real estate entrepreneurs. It’s your host back at it again Stephen Schmidt in the house And I got a real treat for you guys here today as always if you’re joining us for the second third or hundredth time Welcome back and if you’re joining us for the first time where you’ve been at welcome to the show This is gonna be a great episode. I’ve got an absolute Titan in the studio today. I got Klodian “Ian” Hoxha Goes by Ian. He’s a seasoned real estate broker

investor and an entrepreneur based out of Texas. He’s in the tech world, reigns from Houston and we’re going to be talking about some pretty interesting stuff today. He’s been investing in real estate since the early 2000s, has seen it all and has also developed some tech that is pretty incredible including an app that he’s bringing to market called Open or OPN. So just remember before we get started at Investor Fuel we help real estate investors, service providers and real estate entrepreneurs

two to five X their businesses so they can build the businesses they’ve always wanted in order to live the lives they’ve always dreamed of. With that being said, Ian, welcome to the show today.

Klodian “Ian” Hoxha (01:00.045)
you

Klodian “Ian” Hoxha (01:07.798)
Hey man, it’s a pleasure and a privilege. Thank you so much for having me.

Stephen Schmidt (01:12.312)
You bet. I’m glad to get started on our conversation. Can you just for our listeners, I know we had a great opportunity to chat a little bit pre-show, but can you give us a little bit of background on you, how you got into the real estate space originally, how that’s evolved into, you you’ve been a broker for the past six years. So you were involved in real estate and, you know, the investing side, you’ve also created tech to support your business and other people’s businesses. Just give us a little synopsis of what you got going on, how you got where you’re at today.

Klodian “Ian” Hoxha (01:41.021)
Absolutely. So Steven, I tell people no one grows up to become a real estate agent. Like that’s not a childhood dream, you know, like, you know, like kids want to be astronauts and presidents and, know, no one thinks to become a realtor. So that said, you know, I kind of came in completely by accident. You know, I come from a tech background, graduate university of Houston back in 2004 with a technology management degree.

Uh, and, uh, I was trying to find myself, uh, in the tech industry, did some project management stuff. founded a couple of, uh, uh, companies, uh, at that time that kind of didn’t really go anywhere because 2008 hit and everything just went to crap. Basically, uh, you know, real estate has always interested me. Uh, and I just kind of find myself in it because primarily I was looking for a place for myself. Uh, I was young early twenties, uh,

you know my parents thought it’s not very wise to go out there and spend your money on rent. So they offered to help me and help me buy a place actually. So I was out there looking for a place and I found out you know what I’ve done so much research on my own. I know more about the market than my real estate agent does. So what I did was I purchased my first fixer upper and

I had all this knowledge about the market and where to buy and things like that. So I said to myself, you know what? This is good. This is good. I’m going to go ahead and lease this out. So I lived in that place for a little bit, good six to nine months. And then I went ahead and purchased my second unit. Same thing, fixer up, right? Did the same thing. Stayed there for a little bit. Went ahead and leased that. By my second time, I felt very comfortable.

and doing this by myself. And the issue that I had was how can I see these places without my realtor? You know, and the only way that I knew at that time how to see these places without realtor is to become a realtor myself. So I called one of our partners actually is the School of Champion School of Real Estate here in Texas. I called them up. They gave me the course schedule.

Klodian “Ian” Hoxha (04:06.546)
I did it within a six month period. became a real estate agent, had no interest whatsoever to ever practice real estate outside of my own interest. So that’s what I did. I was able to go to these properties. And again, my primary motivation was to find access to these properties, be able to see them basically foot on the ground kind of a thing, right? Boots on the ground. And of course, be able to run CMAs all by myself without

Stephen Schmidt (04:30.639)
Sure.

Klodian “Ian” Hoxha (04:35.077)
sending an email to my realtor waiting to see when they’re to reply waiting to see when they’re going to be available. You know and the rest is history basically like I said I started early I think I purchased my first property in 2005 rehab at the same year held on to it for a while and I’ve been doing deals ever since.

Stephen Schmidt (04:59.577)
kidding. Now so you mentioned the crash obviously we all know about. How did things evolve when 2007-2008 hit?

Klodian “Ian” Hoxha (05:11.57)
boy, where do I even start, I mean, things have definitely changed quite a bit. Whether we’re talking about, you know, prices or whether we’re talking about the cost of labor, cost of materials, everything has changed. The city of Houston has changed. Primarily, we invest in Houston. But I mean, things have definitely, COVID actually threw a ranch on everything.

Basically, I was buying and rehabbing all the way up to a COVID and the prices just became completely insane. Like it wasn’t feasible to ever get into the investing game. Even these guys are getting in right now. I tell them have to be very, very cautious. Even though prices have gotten better, they have to be very, cautious because what’s happening

even with the wholesalers, right? Some people are dealing with wholesalers. They’re getting these from wholesalers. But the reality of it is that unless you are a very good investor and an experienced investor, chances are by the time it gets to you, this deal has already been picked by so many people and a few people have already said no. But on top of that, the scene is one that

these wholesalers are going into bidding wars for some of these properties. So by the time that you calculate how much is going to cost to get it, the acquisition cost, the rehab cost, and now the real estate cost, the realty fees costs, I’m seeing some of these newer guys honestly make $2,000, $3,000 profit if they’re lucky. So I don’t know, I’m sure your listeners

are definitely not in that space, but a lot of what I see are in that situation. In fact, I just closed a deal. was representing the buyer and I knew that this particular listing was a rehab because you can also tell the quality of work and I can also tell that they actually lost money on the deal. So that I’m very sure of. So yeah, it’s changed a bit.

Stephen Schmidt (07:27.567)
Sure.

Stephen Schmidt (07:31.471)
How can you, that’s really interesting. That’s almost like your secret superpower maybe. Like how can you see a property and know that someone’s gonna be losing money on a deal based on the rehab?

Klodian “Ian” Hoxha (07:45.613)
I well you know the thing about it is when you when you do rehabs you have a pretty good understanding at what it would have cost to rehab the place when you walk in and you see the kitchen is all redone when you see the quality of flooring they put in and how big the house is and how much prices are in the area you get a pretty good understanding so

you know, you can sometimes even look to see how much it was purchased at. So you can see where the property was purchased and kind of get an understanding at how much is material would cost price per square foot, how much the paint would have cost. But also what I’m also seeing, and this is kind of how I know that they’re a newbie, is when they over improve the property. As real estate agents, we know what

adds value to the property and what doesn’t. And what we see a lot of these new investors do is they put stuff in that they want for themselves. And honestly, I think that is the nail in the coffin. Because if you are putting, you know, I don’t know, marble countertops on a kitchen and I don’t know, two, $300 toilets,

Stephen Schmidt (09:01.688)
Hmm.

Klodian “Ian” Hoxha (09:14.332)
I mean, that’s overkill, right? You would want that for yourself, but not for the end buyer. And that’s usually how you can tell. You know, they’re putting stuff in that it doesn’t need to be there, but you also need to know your audience. A lot of these guys, they don’t know their audience. They don’t know the end buyer, right? This property that I just recently sold, it actually closed on Monday, as matter of fact. This property, it was like a beginner property.

right? It’s like a 3-2, you know, a young couple purchased it with a young child. You know, you know this better than me. Like I said, they don’t need the whole bells and whistles. This property was listed, I believe at 250 and we got it at like 240, not even that, maybe 237. And then we got some seller credit and all that stuff. You know,

You got to know what kind of buyers are going to be there and you got to know if they’re entry buyers, they’re not going to want all these crazy things. They don’t have to do a complete bathroom redo. You know what mean? So I don’t know if that answers your question.

Stephen Schmidt (10:23.598)
Yeah, it does for sure. tell me, let’s gear towards what you’re really focusing on like in the tech space right now. Give us how you came to the realization there was a major play to be had with PropTech that you’re a founder of and then how that kind of led to creating Open.

Klodian “Ian” Hoxha (10:43.664)
Absolutely. So Steven, like I said before, I came to the real estate space because I personally as an investor had a need. I needed access to the properties and I needed to know how much they were worth. So I didn’t overpay. And that plays well into knowing your numbers. Like I tell people all the time, you got to know your numbers. If you don’t know your numbers, you’re dead in the water. You shouldn’t even be in this business. You got to know how much things are going to cost and you got to know how much profit.

Stephen Schmidt (10:53.677)
Yeah.

Klodian “Ian” Hoxha (11:12.422)
and how much loss your where your tolerance is basically. So that and and I saw where things were headed in the real estate industry. I had a professor in college, University of Houston, that told me that if things are expensive or they cost time, they will be automated. There will be a way to automate these things. So thinking like that, I said, what do I want?

as an investor or as a buyer, like what is the one thing that I want? Because right now today’s consumer is very educated. There used to be a time back in early 2006, 2007, I believe or not when I tell some of these newer agents, we used to use maps to get to listings. They don’t believe me, but there was a time when we did that. yeah, exactly before FaceTime. I say that to say this.

Stephen Schmidt (11:59.918)
Hahaha

Stephen Schmidt (12:05.068)
Before FaceTime.

Klodian “Ian” Hoxha (12:12.027)
At that time, the value proposition of a real estate agent was to provide them information such as what homes are coming on the market, what’s the tax rate, you know, is this a safe area and things of that nature. Today’s consumer doesn’t need me to do that. Today’s consumer can go to all these sites, whether it’s H.A.R. or Zillow or what have you, and they will tell you what property they want.

In fact, if I was to really, I haven’t really looked at it, but if I was to look at how often somebody buys a property that I sent to them, I probably, I probably say it’s 10, 15 % of the time. So most of the time they tell me where they want to be. Not to mention here that what I think you want and what you actually want are two different things because you can tell me, Oh, you know, I want, I want a big yard. want a door faces East and I want.

A two story and the next thing I know they sent me a one story nowhere near the schools that they said, but he has a pool. And I’m like, well, you, thought you said you didn’t want to pull. Yes, but I like this one. Right. The point is what does the consumer want? The consumer wants investors included. They want to know two things. Number one, how can I gain access to the property at my own time? And how do I know how much this home is worth?

Those are the two main things before we get to the contract phase. So thinking along those terms, thinking about what got me into real estate, I created an application that’s called Open without the OPN. What OPN does, it allows a consumer, in this case, our target audience will be investors, we’re going to be starting with them. It allows them to gain access to property at their own time. So instead of you waiting for me,

waiting for me, you know, I have a child, I have to find a babysitter, you know, because a lot of the times these deals, the good deals, guess what? They go, right? They go really quick. Especially when the market is going to start picking back up again, because right now we’re top of the market with the rates. One of those rates, when the rates come down, everybody’s going to come out. And speed is the answer, right? So you got to know two things. Number one, how much is this property going to, is this property worth me going into, right? Number one, number two, can I see it today? Can I see it within an hour?

Klodian “Ian” Hoxha (14:38.522)
So I created this app that would allow people to choose what services they want from a real estate agent. Now that’s not by accident. Okay. And I, and I kind of saw this coming because when we do a listing presentation, what comes out time and time again is how much do you cost? How much is this going to cost me? Right. so I kind of saw this thing coming, right. And let’s be honest. We were not cheap.

as real estate agents when you really think about it. know, average home price in the Houston area is $300,000. You know, 3 % is nine grand, right? Another nine grand on the other side, this $18,000, right? It’s not cheap. But I say this to say, I say that to say this, the NAR settlement made it possible for sellers to choose whether or not they pay the buyer side. If you’re not familiar,

with that lawsuit. I’ll give you a little background very briefly. So the National Association of Realtors has been sued by the Attorney General because they accused us real estate agents of price fixing. What that means is that if you were selling your home, I would come into your house and when you ask the question, how much is your commission, traditionally we’d say 6%.

five or six depending on your market. Okay. And the way you would explain it, you show my back a breakdown, you say, I take 3%. This is what I offer for my 3%. And then we pay the other side that brings in the buyer. Well, what happened was, especially during COVID, some of these brokerages, they were collecting both sides because remember the consumer today is so well informed. They can very well just go to the listing agent and say, Hey, I’d like to make an offer.

on this property and it happened all the time. So now the consumer, the seller would think, all right, well, if there was no agent on the other side, then why am I still paying you 6 %? So it made no sense to them. So they took them to court. They took a National Association of Realtors to court and the NAR, National Association of Realtors lost because

Klodian “Ian” Hoxha (17:03.616)
They were able to prove that there’s no sense for a seller to pay somebody to negotiate against their interest. You know, it’s like being it’s like being accused of a crime and then paying the other side to sue you off that crime. Right. It’s like, why am I doing that? Like, why am I paying you to argue against me? Basically. So anyway, basically right now, when we do a listing presentation.

Stephen Schmidt (17:20.343)
Yeah.

Klodian “Ian” Hoxha (17:33.077)
we must only secure our services which are 3%, 2%, 1 % whatever. However, it has also opened the door for the consumer to choose what services they want from you. So in other words, as a buyer, because remember if the seller is not paying for your services, then who’s got to pay? Well, the buyer has to pay, right? Because who needs that service? It’s not the seller, it’s the buyer.

So if the buyer needs that service, buyer must pay. In my experience, I will tell you this right now, most of our buyers can barely put together closing costs because between closing costs and down payment, it’s over their reach. Now they have to pay an additional 10 grand. That’s not happening, right? So when the consumer is faced with that, the consumer will say, well, Steven, how about I just pay you to open a couple of doors for me? You know, what is that going to cost?

Stephen Schmidt (18:16.812)
Sure.

Klodian “Ian” Hoxha (18:29.973)
Because remember, a seller is not going to be comfortable with you just walking in. Like if you’re selling your home and you have a family living there, you don’t want somebody to just barge in. don’t… I’m vetted. Who are these people? You know? So for that reason, agents are essential. You need somebody who’s vetted to come in and open the door for a potential buyer. So this is exactly what our application does.

It allows you to choose the services that you want. On the buyer end, can choose somebody to open the doors for you and you can say, hey, I’m willing to pay you 20, 30, 40, $50. And the rates are negotiable, by the way. You can have that agreement with them upfront. There’s a lot of brokerages that are already set up for that now. So there’s a family friend, there’s somebody that you know, that, you know, you’re like, hey, I’ve given a little money. I could use them for their expertise. And then at some point,

If you want it to continue with this property, you can pay them to do the contract. Think about it this way. On average, let’s just work with whole numbers, right? So on average, it takes me, let’s say 10 showings to get you into a property, right? So if I paid you $50 a showing, 50 times same is $500, right? I pay you $500.

And then I come to you and I say, Stephen, listen, I’ll pay another $2,000 brother, negotiate the deal for me. Would you do that? Maybe you will, maybe you won’t. Somebody will. There’s a lot of hungry agents out there. So somebody say, I’ll take $2,000, $3,000 to negotiate the deal. Why not? Or just to write the contract. Now you as a consumer paid $2,500 as opposed to $9,000 that you would have paid prior to this lawsuit.

And it makes your offer stronger. So as an investor, when you have these people that are running around, they’re doing CMAs for you, they’re doing their opening doors for you, or maybe you can have them do different things for you. Maybe you have a broker who’s a really good negotiator. They’re sharp and you only pay him for that instead of trying to sign this agreement with just one agent. Hopefully you’re going to.

Klodian “Ian” Hoxha (20:51.983)
land the deal if that makes any sense to you. Was I clear on that?

Stephen Schmidt (20:54.71)
Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. I think even the thoughts that I was processing while you were speaking there was really what you’re doing to an extent is almost creating a seamless.

bridge to the divide between investor and real estate agent almost because there’s kind of a constant battle. I don’t know if you’ve seen this, but I’ve seen it everywhere where you’ve got real estate agents that hate working with investors, investors who hate working with real estate agents. So you’re creating all you’re almost fostering an environment and creating the room where they’ll now be able to work together cohesively and all walk away as friends.

Klodian “Ian” Hoxha (21:17.425)
Exactly.

Klodian “Ian” Hoxha (21:36.177)
Exactly, that’s exactly right. You know, in the early days I would have these people that will reach out to me fresh out of a seminar and they’re like, oh yes, I’m to work with you. But to work with me, you’d have to sign an agreement and you would have to pay a retainer. And the reason why I did that is because, like I said, they all come out thinking they’re a tiger, they’re a shark. Most of the time, like I said, they did not even know their number.

Stephen Schmidt (21:56.95)
Mm-hmm.

Klodian “Ian” Hoxha (22:06.128)
and also tell people this if an investor is relying on you for numbers they’re probably not your client it’s just that simple because a good investor will know how much it will cost to rehab and they’ll know at what price they need to get this property to actually make sense so if they come into you and they’re like well you know how much do you think they’ll take first of all there’s no way I know how much they’ll take but but you tell me

You know, that’s what I tell them. How much do want to offer? I’ll run the numbers and I’ll say, this is where it’s at. How much do you want to offer? You know what mean? But like I said, yeah, there’s definitely a disconnect. And in fact, one of my mentors would say, he brought up an interesting point, actually, why we don’t like working with each other. Because investors say that if your realtor knew anything about investing, they wouldn’t be a realtor. They’ll be an investor.

Stephen Schmidt (23:02.124)
Yeah, I think there might be something to that.

Klodian “Ian” Hoxha (23:06.447)
Yeah, yeah. And somebody that’s worked with a lot of real estate agents, I love this field. But I have to say the changes in the market will make it so only the best will survive because not everybody is in this field to really serve the people in the industry.

Stephen Schmidt (23:31.456)
Yeah, you got it. Chlodion, I know people are going to want to connect with you for more. And so where should they go to do that?

Klodian “Ian” Hoxha (23:38.187)
I’m all over man. I’m on LinkedIn. I’m on Instagram. Probably Instagram is the one that I use the most. Clody and Ian Hoxa Realty. So Clody and-Ian-Hoxa. That’s my Instagram page. Feel free to follow me there. And I’m also on LinkedIn like I said, Clody and Ian Hoxa. And I do a little bit of X every now and then. But those are basically the best ways to get in touch with me.

Stephen Schmidt (24:07.104)
You bet. Well, folks go connect with them for more show them some love from the real estate pros podcast and the investor fuel family. And thanks for tuning into this episode. Stay in tune. You’re going to be, you’re going to be listening to the next tech billionaire here in the real estate space. I’m calling it now. So we’ll, we’ll work off, off camera for how you can cut me a check for that, that, that prediction, but I’m just kidding.

Klodian “Ian” Hoxha (24:31.84)
Absolutely. Thank you, Stephen. It was a pleasure.

Stephen Schmidt (24:33.228)
Well, already folks, thanks so much for being here, Ian, and we’ll see you guys in the next episode.