Unlock 7 Secrets to Realtor Success: Master Dual Licensing & Growth

John Harcar (00:01.425)
All right. Hey guys, welcome back to our show. I’m your host, John Harcar, and I’m here today with David Berry. And what we’re going to talk about with David, besides his experience in business and in real estate, we’re going to talk about how he helps people get freedom from paying for rent, right? Paying their landlord’s mortgage and some other things that he’s doing. Remember guys, at Investor Fuel, we help real estate investors, service providers, really all real estate entrepreneurs, 2 to 5X their business.

To do that, we provide the tools and resources to grow their business and live the life that they want to live. So David, welcome to our show.

David Berry (00:39.022)
Thanks for having me. It was kind of like, it was unexpected. And I always love to talk about real estate. love to help people. And John, you we just met, you don’t even know this, I didn’t share this with you, but I taught taekwondo for 35 years. So I’ve been an instructor. I’ve helped people. My biggest thing was helping kids not be bullied.

And so I dedicated my whole life to that. I’ve been retired from teaching martial arts for about six years now. I’ve had my real estate license for 20 years, but I think for about the last six years I’ve been focusing mostly on residential, real estate things and trying to help and educate the community. My biggest passion now, mean my biggest passion in my life was…

I just hated bullies. I always tried to teach people how to not deal with bullies. And it’s a lot easier than you think. But that’s another show. But now my passion…

John Harcar (01:37.009)
I was gonna say, did that lend any tools to help you in real estate when you’re selling houses? You go out and bully people?

David Berry (01:43.661)
Yeah, absolutely. So now my biggest passion is to try to help people stop paying their landlord’s mortgage. Just stop it and to be a homeowner. And it’s so interesting, you know, and I know in your world and real estate, people always have all these reasons. You know, let’s wait till the interest rates come down or let’s wait till home prices come down and let’s wait. But the really the only upside you get in real estate is if you’re involved.

And there’s going to be ups and downs in real estate. mean, let’s face it. know, you’re not, everything isn’t always going to be rosy, but if you’re waiting on the sidelines, guess what your benefits going to be? Nothing. So I try to help educate people on how to become a homeowner. And, know, we have a lot of people that will say, well, my credit’s really bad. There are really reputable companies out there that will help people with credit restorations. And a lot of lenders will do that for free.

Because they want to help someone be able to buy a house and in the crazy one, John is when someone says, you know, I’m just going to wait till the interest rates come down. I, know that that’s, that’s what I’m supposed to do, but somebody explained it this way and I stole this from someone. I’m going to share it when the interest rates come down. Guess what the high house prices do. They go up and then if you say, well, I’m just going to wait until home prices come down.

then guess what happens to industries? They go up. So it’s always better to be in the game and not wait. I think waiting is bad. Are there times when

John Harcar (03:19.889)
If you can afford to be in the game, yeah, for sure.

David Berry (03:24.27)
Exactly. again, you know, I help a lot of, I help rental clients too. I help a lot of people. A lot of times I get a lot of rental calls in Las Vegas. And if somebody says, I have 800 credit, I make about 125 a year and I’ve got about 200,000, we just sold our house in Seattle. We have that conversation and I make sure that maybe home buying might be something they should look at. But you know, I try to help people.

coach them and educate them as much as I can to make a good decision. And I’ll be honest, like I don’t tell all my clients, well, you you should be buying a house. It’s not right for everybody, but I think it’s right for more people that think it’s not right. Honestly, I really do. And guys, there’s so much information out there in this world and you can get with a lender. They’ll give you free advice. You don’t even have to use them, but the same thing with a realtor. You know, realtor is going to give you the advice.

And it’s free. So why not ask those questions?

John Harcar (04:24.443)
Right? Yeah, 100%. What kind of mistakes are you seeing people make when they’re trying to go out and buy a house?

David Berry (04:32.558)
Well, a lot of times, you know, they’ll try to force it. One of the things they do is they’ll try to buy too much house. So I think that that’s a big one because they have it in their mind what their house is going to look like, right? So maybe they’re in a 350 price point, but they want to buy a $500,000 house. So I think one of the big mistakes they make is they really push themselves. They overextend themselves rather than being a homeowner.

Probably like you did, John. And again, you know, we’re just meeting for the first time, but I mean, I bought my first house when I was 25 years old. It was $60,000. It was a two bedroom townhome. and every house I bought, think I’ve owned nine different houses. They keep going up, right? But you don’t start with number nine and then work your way backwards. So I think that would be one of the biggest mistakes that people make is they, they buy a little too much house.

You’ve got to give a little bit. Maybe you wanted a four bedroom, but you’re going to need to get a three or things like that. I think that’s a big one.

John Harcar (05:36.471)
Okay, got it. What are some of the kind of the trends you’re seeing in the real estate market right now?

David Berry (05:44.127)
the inventory inventory is off the off the chart. And, you know, right now, for the first time in Vegas and probably think over five years, I would guess at least five years, it’s becoming a buyer’s market. And it was kind of disgusting, honestly. Some of the stuff that I saw about that, some of the stuff that I saw. I mean, you think about it when people would say.

You gotta get bring in a 5 or 10 % over. It’s gotta be cash. At inspection, don’t bother doing an inspection. It’s going to be as is. The sellers aren’t singing that tune anymore and I love it for my buyers. Because I do. I do some listings in Vegas, but I’m mostly a buyer’s rep. And do what?

John Harcar (06:32.099)
Yeah, I wholesale in Vegas. I do wholesaling in Vegas.

David Berry (06:37.326)
Oh, okay. And so basically the sellers are doing two to one buy downs, which for those of you that don’t know, maybe the rates are at six and three quarters. If you get a two to one buy down, it’s usually about 2 % of the loan. And I’m not a lender, but I kind of, I’ve been doing this a lot. So now you, you pay 2 % of your 400,000. It’s cost $8,000 to get the loan approximately. And now you’re at 4.75 in that first year.

You go to 5.75 in the second year. So I’m seeing sellers that they understand that they have to kind of combat these interest rates. So one of the ways they do it is they’ll pay for your two to one buy down. I’ve seen numerous transactions where they paid the two to one buy down. They did a price reduction. They accepted a lower than asking price and they paid for all the closing costs. So

You know, and I think that might be another mistake is people live in the past. So they were like three years ago. I know that I had to come in over asking price. know they weren’t paying closing costs. I might as well not even get an inspection. And these things happened three years ago. So it’s really important to stay current on what’s really trending and what’s going on in the real estate market.

John Harcar (07:53.093)
Right. What do you think are some of the biggest challenges or struggles you’re facing right now with this market or with your business as a whole?

David Berry (08:00.718)
There’s just not very many buyers out there. And I think it’s more because they watch the news. They get it in their head. They watch the news and they listen to what the news is saying. um, John, I’ve had people tell me that they know that the housing market’s going to blow up. They’ve been saying it for 20 years. It’s going to blow. mean, since 2008, I take that back. So what’s that 17? They’ve been saying it for 17 years. The housing market’s going to blow up. Home prices are going to crash and it just hasn’t happened.

And I don’t think it’s going to happen, especially here in Las Vegas. mean, let’s face it. We have Hollywood. I asked a friend of mine who’s a, who’s an actor in Hollywood. He’s actually a client of mine too. I said, do you think that Vegas has a chance of taking 50 or 60 % of the Hollywood business in Vegas? And he said, absolutely. They’re leaving. They’re out. Over regulation, over taxation, the governor will.

John Harcar (08:49.039)
Why is that?

David Berry (08:58.114)
Don’t get me started on the governor. And by the way, guys, I have a leaving California Facebook group. have over 300,000 members and I have 400 realtor partners across the country where we help people leave California efficiently and effectively. I’ve been working on that project for over four years now. And we just try to help people. And I love California. I’m from Vegas. I mean, I’ve lived here my whole life. We go to California all the time. I love San Diego. I love going to LA.

It is different now, but I still enjoy going to California, but I would never live there. And then with the fires and all this craziness that’s happened in California, people are leaving and they’re saying, we’re not going to come back. So yeah, I have a platform for that as well.

John Harcar (09:32.592)
Right.

John Harcar (09:43.057)
Okay, were you just seeing a lot of people coming to Vegas from California and that’s what wanted you or prompted you to start this?

David Berry (09:50.219)
No, actually I met my business partner. He’s a co-owner with me for leaving California. LLC is Terry Gilliam and he left California seven years ago. So I’ve been partnered up with him for a little over four years now. And he just, he, he made his, I tell this story often. He made a Facebook group. He was hoping to get a hundred or 200 like-minded people have a small little group.

People that wanted to leave California now, this is seven years ago fast forward seven years later And we have over 300,000 members We have leaving California for people that are thinking about leaving and then we have life after California for people that have already left So no, this was not my I wish I could say it was my concept but it was completely him and I owe it all to him, but I think it’s it’s really it’s been a lot of fun I got to tell you we did have migration

John Harcar (10:23.046)
Mm-hmm.

David Berry (10:49.354)
city tours. We called it the Freedom Tour and I traveled. Terry and I went last year, we went to 10 of the top most popular places where Californians are leaving. We went to Nashville, Knoxville, Atlanta, we went to Myrtle Beach and we actually interviewed people from California. We talked to our premier realtors in each of the communities and you know we’re just trying to help people and give them the education that they need if they want to leave.

John Harcar (11:16.289)
And did you say life after California? People really sit there and take the time to talk about their life after California?

David Berry (11:24.6)
They’re that mad. Yes, they’re that mad that they, yeah, they share store. Well, you know, the other thing too is I think it’s kind of like almost therapy because people, they want to help because it was so bad. They feel like they want to help other Californians that are kind of stuck like they were. So they share things like, you know, we just

John Harcar (11:36.74)
Mm-hmm. Yeah, I could see that.

David Berry (11:49.219)
You know, the kids were playing on the street and we didn’t have to worry for their safety. We didn’t have to worry that there was going to be homeless guys injecting needles in their arms. You know, when we were out at the park and they share stories about their new life and they do want to stay connected. I mean, we’re talking people that have been there. I think our. I want to say it’s like 65 or 70 years. We have some members that were in California for over 65 years.

And they just decided that we can’t do it anymore. We have to leave. And they don’t leave because they want to. They leave because they’re forced to. And that’s the sad part, because they don’t really get the choice. California has put so much pressure on them financially or whatever over regulating them that they have to leave. And that’s sad part.

John Harcar (12:24.721)
Hmm. Yeah.

John Harcar (12:36.657)
Yeah, because I I lived in California for like 41, 42 years. And yeah, I’ve never heard of a group like that, but that’s kind of cool. So when you’re helping people that are leaving California or what that looks like, I mean, what exactly are you doing? Like, what does this service provide or what, you know, what is it? Let me be a little bit more in depth.

David Berry (12:40.917)
really? Okay.

David Berry (12:56.77)
Well, so the thing that’s been super frustrating to me is that with Facebook, we have 300,000 members. if I, I’m sure you’re going to probably give me a copy of this podcast, which I really appreciate. I do appreciate you having me on the show. This is awesome. I love doing stuff like this. So if I was to take this podcast and we talked about my leaving California school community, Facebook would not distribute it.

they have the right to distribute. So we have 300,000 members. might be post to reach, it might be 900 people in a 300,000 group community. So if I’m trying to give education, give free tips or give assistance in helping people leave California, Facebook refuses to try to help me do that. And that’s the thing that’s super frustrating. So what we did is we built

school communities. I’ve been a fan of Alex Hermosy. He created the school concept and so we are actually building. We have a Leaving California School Community which is CALSKOL.com. It’s called CALSKOL.com where you can go and you can get all these free resources. We can better serve and better help people that are really seriously wanting to leave California.

What I find on my Facebook group is that it’s mostly negativity. People don’t really want to have all, I mean, it can be some negative, but let’s have some positive comments guys. but we’re trying to create a community that’s more positive. So on the Facebook group, they’re, just always complaining about the homelessness or the crime or the over-regulation or the fact that they, their house just burned down and they’re probably going to have to wait seven years to rebuild. I mean, so

We created these different communities and we have our goal is to have three to 500 different school communities across the country where you can go to my community is the moving to Las Vegas school and that one is LVSKOL.com LVSKOL.com and in there you can find out all kinds of you know can find out about neighborhoods you can find out about all the secret restaurants I’ve been here since 1975

David Berry (15:15.854)
By the way, John, I know you lived in Vegas, but probably not since 1975. When I, when I moved here in 75 as a kid, there was 160,000 people that lived in Las Vegas, 160. And now we have over two and a half million people living in Las Vegas. So, um, I’ve seen this town really grow. So I have knowledge of hidden gem restaurants, like a Mexican restaurant that only the locals know about or Italian place.

John Harcar (15:20.014)
No.

John Harcar (15:35.792)
Yep.

David Berry (15:44.103)
or different activities and adventures, things that you can do with your family that doesn’t cost $500. So in that community, you can really, really learn about Las Vegas and get a feel for it before you get there. And by the way, one of the things we share with all of our members is that if you’re moving to a new community, my gosh, get on a plane, go stay there two or three days. You know, when you’re driving around and you’re experiencing a new city,

John Harcar (16:06.096)
Yeah.

David Berry (16:10.686)
Ask yourself the question, know, can I see myself living here? And some people have made that mistake where they actually moved to a new community and they never even actually visited it and stayed there. So that would be some really good advice that I give to everyone.

John Harcar (16:25.103)
Right, okay, very cool. So for this school, this is all free stuff for people to go on and be able to find all the resources and all that. All right, very cool. And then what about your real estate business? mean, is that primarily just in the Vegas, correct? Vegas area?

David Berry (16:29.89)
Yes, sir. That’s correct.

David Berry (16:37.998)
Yes, Southern Nevada. serve North Las Vegas, Henderson, Green Valley, Summerlin, Boulder City. I do serve a little bit of Pahrump. Pahrump is, we call that over the hump in Pahrump and it’s about a 45 minute drive over the mountain. It used to be that you could save 40 or 50 % on buying a home, but now it’s more like 25 or 30%, 30%. It’s a smaller community.

It’s something that if you’re not really needing to be in this big metro city of Las Vegas, it’s a great alternative and you can save extra money by going there.

John Harcar (17:13.603)
Is there any other messages or anything you want to convey to our listeners that you think they should know or need to hear?

David Berry (17:19.298)
Well, I mean, if you’re thinking about Vegas, I don’t think you could find a better, more knowledgeable person about Las Vegas. Like I said, I’ve graduated high school. went to junior high here and, you know, you can look me up. My, my, email is lasvegasatdavidberry.com. And if you want to check out my free community, I mean, it really does have a lot of resources. I just built it a couple of weeks ago and I can, I’m going to continue to add.

more and more information. It’s lvskol.com and you can learn more about Las Vegas. So John, I really appreciate you having me on the show and if you ever need a resource for Las Vegas, I’d love to be the guy for you to chat with and have on the show.

John Harcar (17:58.097)
for sure.

John Harcar (18:05.233)
100 % and we’ll put all this all your contact stuff will be in the show notes So anybody who’s listening that wants to get in touch guys, please feel reach out or feel free to reach out You know David they keek in for coming on here and spending some time with us And we hope you guys enjoyed the show and we’ll see you on the next one. Cheers

David Berry (18:19.403)
Absolutely. Thanks so much. Have a great day. Take care. Bye bye.