Subscribe via:
Show Summary
In this conversation, John Campbell discusses the complexities of the real estate market, emphasizing the need for experience in navigating it. He shares insights about the diverse range of properties his group handles, from high-end listings to more affordable options, highlighting the unique opportunities available in the current market.
Resources and Links from this show:
-
Listen to the Audio Version of this Episode
Investor Fuel Show Transcript:
John Campbell (00:00)
I was adopted and my aged parents had got themselves a house and my old dad, instead of paying the mortgage, decided he’d give the money to the bookmakers instead. And they were in some really dire straits. I was like 21 years old. I couldn’t have my aged parents chucked out on the street so I had to get myself a mortgage. So all those people out there crying about the mortgage rates. The mortgage at that point was 13.5 % the rates were. And it went up to 15.4%.at
the time. But anyway, I got myself a mortgage, saved the house and that was my initiation by fire. Welcome to real estate.
Erika (02:08)
Hey everyone, welcome to the Real Estate Pros podcast. I’m your host, Erika and today I’m excited to be chatting with John Campbell. He’s been making serious moves with the John Campbell Group at Revel Real Estate. John, I’m glad to have you on the show today.John Campbell (02:25)
Thanks very much. Very happy to be here.Erika (02:27)
Yeah, yeah, me too. So let’s jump on in, John. For our listeners, please share more about your world and tell us how you got into real estate.John Campbell (02:37)
Yeah, initiation by fire. I was back in the UK. You may be able to tell from my accent. I’ll try and slow it down a bit to be more clearly understood for the American ear. Yeah, when I was back in the eighties, nineties, late eighties, eight nineties, there was a big recession back in the UK. And… ⁓and the regular folks could, there was a program where you could buy your house if you’d lived in kind of government house and you could buy the house for cheap depending on how long you had lived there. So my, my… ⁓
I was adopted and my aged parents had got themselves a house and my old dad, instead of paying the mortgage, decided he’d give the money to the bookmakers instead. And they were in some really dire straits. I was like 21 years old. I couldn’t have my aged parents chucked out on the street so I had to get myself a mortgage. So all those people out there crying about the mortgage rates. The mortgage at that point was 13.5 % the rates were. And it went up to 15.4%.
at
the time. But anyway, I got myself a mortgage, saved the house and that was my initiation by fire. Welcome to real estate.
that good deed, if you like, introduced me to real estate. And then I learned the value of property that always goes up over time, it goes up, it goes down, it always goes back up. And that you could have decent appreciation.
etc if you could get into the ⁓ you could be an investor in real estate so that was my my introduction to it yeah
Erika (04:15)
That was an intense introduction.John Campbell (04:18)
Yeah,Erika (00:00)
Yeah, yeah, so that’s really quite a story. Was there like a moment in your journey from that point forward that you knew that real estate was going to be a passion of yours?John Campbell (00:12)
It’s always been like the second string. I’ve worked in entertainment also my whole life. I’ve been acting for like over 30 years, done like 50 movies. I was last seen in Cardi B’s latest video for her song, Safe. the, I might get away as a spoiler, I’ll tell you and you decide if I’m gonna share with you or not, but I’m the shooter. I’m the guy who kills at the end of her video. I’m fighting with a six months.pregnant Cardi B, literally. Yeah, the videos had 30 million views in two weeks. It’s crazy. Yeah, it’s on YouTube right now. But yeah, so I’ve been in entertainment over 30 odd years. But that was my introduction to real estate. It was kind of urgent for the parents back in the day. But that led me to sort of understand it.
Erika (00:46)
That is crazy.John Campbell (01:04)
And I was like, oh, this is great. So then I was doing pretty well in the entertainment world. So I ended up getting like a portfolio of properties back in London, where you may have guessed I’m from. And then getting my license, et cetera. Then I came over here to the States 16 years ago. And then when I got here, I bought a place actually in 2012, I think.And I decided, I did what a friend of mine, another guy I met in an acting class, and we decided one of us should get a license to be better informed investors, plus I had a background. So I thought, let’s get my license in the States. So that’s exactly what I did. But I found out I couldn’t do it until I had a green card in place. I had like a, I had a thing called O1 Visa, but I couldn’t.
you couldn’t do it without a green card. So the minute I got my green card, I got my visa, my license straight after. So I’m in my office right here in Beverly Hills as we speak. And I’ve been doing real estate here in the States for like, I think this is year, maybe year 11, 10, 11, something like that.
Erika (02:09)
That’s really awesome.John Campbell
it was initiation by fire. I was just a young lad going, oh my God, what am I going to do? But yeah, I learned a lot from it. And I think the good juju has stayed with me with all the deals since, which has been over 30 years now. So I work as an agent. I have my own team here at Revel.and we’re based in Beverly Hills, we serve the whole of LA, but I’ve been an agent and an investor for over 30 years now. So I look at every house, every deal through the eyes of an investor. So I’m looking at what are the margins, what’s the upside? Is this a potential flip? Is this a buy hold, rent type of deal or not? So I think that serves me well.
I started as an investor and then later became an agent and I think that was a good way of doing it. Or not, who knows?
Erika (08:17)
Yeah, having the investor perspective too, you’re offering an insight that not other agents may have.John Campbell (08:25)
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, I want to know, I want to know exactly what the rents are, what the costs are, the straight, I want to know rate straight out of the gate. But, but yeah, but you know, I’ve been doing this for a long time and we work with, we work with everybody from first time buyers to Uber luxury folks. The biggest sale at the brokerage this year so far was 86 million. Actually one of Rod Stewart’s old houses actually in the Humby Hills.But we’re working with first time buyers that are trying getting into little condos and stuff. But LA entry level is becoming like about a million bucks for a house. Two million is a decent house, but you’re not even anywhere near luxury at that point. know, three, four, five and beyond is kind of a luxury. But we work with developers in all ends of the market. Some of them are doing massive houses, some are doing…
mom and pop, flips and everything in between. My background was entertainment. So my first clients were all the kind of producers and directors and actors, et cetera. So we with lot of entertainment folks as well. And lot of those guys are very, very shrewd investors. they nearly, the one thing I would say,
We’re privileged to work with lot of wealthy folks, ⁓ and a lot of my friends are much more regular. But I’d say the one thing I find that the rich have in common is that they nearly always hold ⁓ a large amount of their riches in real estate. So they have a very sharp eye for a rental property or something with an upside to extend their portfolio, et cetera.
Erika (10:11)
Yeah, yeah, John, with your, you know, investor background, what are some of the opportunities that you are seeing in L.A. and California that people should be aware of?John Campbell (10:54)
Yeah, so, you know, I’m sure it’s the same for the rest of the country, but it’s a bit of a tough time for real estate right now. know, interest rates. So my first mortgage was 13 and a half percent. So there were people that were crying, no, seven percent. I’m like, seven percent? That’s been more of a standard, I think, through the years, you know? But people got very comfortable with those three percent mortgages.a few years back and understandably so now they think it’s like my god you know it’s about 6.4 percent actually sitting today in LA and I don’t think it’s terrible but what I can say is it’s really we’ve been having a standoff all year I mean I know the I think the whole country’s having a tough time but here especially we’ve had the fires before that we had the writer strike
the actor strike before that we had the writer strike before that was a pandemic it’s like it’s like we’ve been under attack you know end of days LA real estate pestilence plague who knows but it’s been a tough time but ⁓ but yeah the fires were a tough one for a lot of folks here earlier in the year but but the market here right now you’ve got ⁓ you’ve got sellers wanting to hold on to that same pricing because it’s been going up and up and up and up since two
since the last fall of 2008.
And then they’re sitting on these like 3 % mortgages. They’re not motivated to really move unless they really have to, know, death, divorce, taxes, babies, et cetera. And then the buyer’s like, oh my God, that’s 6%, 7 % interest rates. We can’t pay that. And it’s like, you know, but I think it’s a really fantastic time to buy in LA because…
A couple of years ago, you were having like 10, 20 offers on a property straight out of the gate. People bidding, bidding 100 grand. I saw one house went half a million over the asking price and it was only one and it closed at 1.5 million. So it was a million dollar house. was crazy. Where now, now days on market have doubled. You know, it’s a very, very sensitive market. know, things that’s much the failure rate in escrow.
far more twice as many years ago are falling out now than the same time last year. You’ve got 25 % more inventory than this time last year because the buyers are waiting for the interest rates to drop, the sellers are hanging on to the pricing and it’s turning, it’s gone from a heavy seller’s market to a kind of even buyer and seller’s market and now it’s shifting to much more of a buyer’s market.
And now if you are very qualified and there’s many houses you’re sitting, you may, with the right representation, able to pick up a great substantial discount on a house to sit on the market. So yeah, that’s my two cents.
Erika (13:57)
Yeah, when it comes to those buyers who are looking for a property, how do you help source them a good deal?John Campbell (14:46)
Wehave, we’re a member of top agent networks. You have to be, it’s like an invite only off market platform. You have to be in the top 10 % of producers in Los Angeles to be able to access. So we’re part of that. We have a decent off market reach and we have a, I spent 30 years also in the entertainment industry. So I have a pretty broad reach of national, international buyers and people in that field of work. So that’s.
one of our value adds if you like. And you will, and you’ll be surprised at how many of the more luxury properties want a discreet kind of off-market quiet sale, you know? But we’ve got our ear to the ground and I’ve probably got 50 developers in my phone, maybe more, you In all price points. some people, you know, lot of people just look into pick up a
something they can quick flip, et cetera. But there’s a lot of people in that area right now. And unless people really know what they’re doing, I’m seeing people maybe make a mistake and not have the margins they would have at the end. Literally, a close friend of mine, Romula, today, ⁓ who’s flipping two houses, their escrow just fell out, I think, four five days.
before it was due to close, you know? And I was, this is really close friend of mine, I was out with a few days ago, I was going, oh yeah, sold the house, I’m in an SDSCO closed, and they were like, no, no, not yet, but it looks good, and I went, okay. And she called me early and went, oh my God, it’s fell out, and I’ve gone, yeah, so you got, you know, on the investment market, you’ve got these, if they fall out right at the end, now they maybe got a hard money loan, they got all these holding costs, and now the market’s kind of static.
⁓ And they’re like, my god, what are going to do? So it’s a good time for buyers, tough time for sellers. Flips are always going on, but there’s so many people thinking, yeah, we’ll do flips. Only the really experienced flippers are doing well because margins are down, tariffs, prices are up. You’ve also got ice raids going on in LA as well. So the workforce, a lot of the workforce.
⁓ hiding or have left, you know, it’s actually pretty sad, this happens to a lot of folks. So labour charges are up and then you’ve got tariffs, so lumber charges are up, so margins are down, prices are up, the market’s sitting a bit, unless people really know what they’re doing, they could make a mistake, you know. ⁓
Be very careful. Know your stuff, know your margins and buy smart and build right.
Erika (17:41)
Yeah, yeah, absolutely.And ⁓ I’m sure the experience that you had early on that, you know, you were talking about how you got started, you know, that kind of plays a role in, you know, helping people and that you’ve been through something similar.
John Campbell (17:57)
Yeah.Oh man, I was so over-leveraged. It was ridiculous. But what are you going to do, you know? And actually, I first… So I’ve been here for like 16 years. I bought a place here with a good friend of mine. I was an actor for a long time, over 30 years. And a friend of mine, I met in acting class. We bought a multi-unit property together. We bought it with an FHA loan, which was great.
and then we converted the garage into an ADU so then a duplex became a triplex but we were so over leveraged we were like we had a duplex we were living in the smaller unit in the back me and my friend and my now wife I brought with me from the UK and then we rented the bigger unit out to get a bigger rent thank god we had we were very choosy of the tenants we had great tenants all the way through because if we’d have had a bad tenant
we’d have been upside down. I wouldn’t, so you know, be very careful. The market shifted since then. Now there’s a lot more people ⁓ maybe gaming the system, defaulting on their rent. It’s very tough for a tenant eviction in California, you know? ⁓ So I don’t know if I would be quite as brave.
It brazen as I was back then. We were like, we’re getting this house. It’s a smart thing to do. I’ve got these years of knowledge. We’re getting it done. But we were so over leveraged, it was very risky. But it paid off, you know? So I love to buy, hold and rent, buy smart, know, fix it up, hold it and rent it. But one factor is the tenant laws here are so lax and seems to be getting worse every day. I feel…
maybe California’s a little too woke, it leans a bit too far in the, know, if someone generally can’t pay their rent and they’re having trouble, then of course they deserve all the help they can get, there’s Section 8, there’s programmes out there to help. But it’s so, you’ve got a lot of other people, mum and pop investors that might have been fortunate enough, they’ve inherited a house perhaps, or they just managed to cobble their money together and get a second house or whatever.
And if they get a bad tenant that really tries to game the system, it can be really, really tough to get them out. And we helped several people in the last couple of years especially, ⁓ landlords that just had enough. They’d spent six figures on a lawyer, two years on, they still not got them out. And they were like, man, we just need to sell. So then we had to strategize the best way to sell with a tough tenant.
If someone you could do cash for keys, but if someone doesn’t want to do that, then you’ve just got to shoulder that burden if you like. Is it worth it? Is it not? we have the stuff we’ve listed, we’ve had to sell at a discount to folks, which you could say that was an opportunity for the investor, but now they’ve got the headache of moving the tenant, which might not be fun. know, so it’s an interesting time in the market where I think
experience really counts and if you’re looking to buy and flip then you really, you know, you really got to know what you’re doing and have access to, you know, good labour, good lines of credit and know exactly what you’re doing and if you are going to buy hold rent also choose your tenants very, very carefully, screen them carefully ⁓ or, you know, or if you’re going to pivot the other direction and do section A or
government assisted program that’s also kind of cool. There’s been some new laws like SB9, SB10 in LA quite recently where you could now take a lot that was a lot is big enough it varies a bit from ⁓ each place to place but you could now build like you could now have two duplexes on where formally you could have only had one house so that’s ⁓
Some of the developers I know are pivoting to that, rather than build the luxury places, which could suffer from the mansion tax. So if you do something in LA now, you sell something for more than 5.3 million, you’ve got to an extra 4 % tax. It’s called a mansion tax, ULA tax. It’s failed miserably. That money was supposed to go to help with homelessness, et cetera. What it did was reduce.
luxury sales by 80 percent. Crazy. It just hasn’t worked. Someone needs to address it. And now you’ve got from the fires, know, people lost thousands of thousands of homes were lost in these fires and the Pacific Palisades is a very affluent area. So now a lot of developers are not in a big rush. People can’t build back and make it worth their while because now developers need to factor in those extra margins.
An extra 4 % is taken if it’s 5.3 % or an extra 5.5 % if it’s 10.5 % and you go well 10.5 million if it’s more than 10.6 million. But you go well 10 million but actually in LA there’s a lot of homes. A lot of developers only do stuff north of 5 million, north of 10 million. And that is driving those guys to look to other states to potentially.
develop because they don’t need the extra, they can’t factor into their margins that ULA tax to, ⁓ is it really worth their while? Who knows? There’s a lot of questions in LA real estate right now. Not for the faint-hearted or definitely not for the inexperienced.
Erika (23:42)
Yeah, yeah. Well, you know, it’s good that there’s a lot of experience behind the John Campbell group then. What would you what would you say is next on the horizon for your group? What do you see in mind?John Campbell (23:50)
Yeah.Next on the horizon,
who knows? We work with every type of people. the biggest list we have for the books right now is 60 million in Homeby Hills in Carrollwood, the very famous street there. Great, lovely, legacy property. But our smallest listing is we have little house, great little start house in Hollywood for 895,000, which is unheard of.
is like that’s that’s it’s buy a house for the price of a condo you know but so we’re just we’re expanding in all the areas that la is like we our office is here in brevley hills but it’s a massive geographical area and ⁓ we cover all of it from we have listings as far west as malibu as far east as mount washington pasadena there’s the four corners of the
of the city, over the hill, north to the valley, studio city, Sherman Oaks, Encino, you name it, or on Super South, Baldwin Hill, et cetera. So we just continue to try and offer. I have people sometimes saying to me, what do you expect from your team, or what do you do differently? And I say, I demand excellence. I think people should be excellent at what they do.
And if I’m working with somebody and they’ve got in there selling a condo in West Hollywood and they have a greater experience, they have a specialist in that area, then yeah, I will oversee the paperwork and maybe the negotiation and all of that, but I will put in a specialist in that area for that type of product so the customer is best served, you know? And in this particular…
sensitive market where people are waiting, Unless something is presented perfectly, perfectly painted, decluttered, stayed, curb appeal, priced correctly. If you are even slightly off on one of those pieces, especially the pricing, stuff is just sitting. And days on market has doubled, doubled in the last 12 months. There’s 25 % more inventory now.
than there was this time last year and twice as many deals falling out of escrow. Very, very nervous, sensitive time ⁓ in the market. So people really do need more guidance than ever before, I believe, and need ⁓ to price ⁓ things right, presently correctly, or else they’re just gonna sit.
But on the flip side of that, if you’re a buyer, I think it’s amazing time to buy because there are a lot of houses sitting in the market. There’s a lot of very nervous developers that have these crazy holding costs, hard money loans, et cetera, that need to free that money up to get into their next project. And then other people that just have to sell because of life, stuff going on in their life. it’s a really, really smart time to buy. And I would say…
A couple of years ago it’s been a seller’s market for last 10 years really. And then it’s been a bias, even bias seller’s market for the last year or two. And now it’s shifting to very much a buyer’s market. And I’m seeing some people get some great bargains. It’s a good time. If you like to get a discount, it’s a good time to buy. In my humble opinion, yeah. Because there’s price reductions all around.
everywhere you look,
Erika (27:26)
Yes, yes, there are ⁓ opportunities everywhere. And you know, it’s important that when you’re looking for a property that, you you go with someone experienced like you, John, if someone listening today wants to connect, reach out, what’s the best way for them to reach you?John Campbell (27:42)
Yeah. Well, Ilike carrier pigeons. They don’t eat much. They’re pretty strong. can tie a little note to them. If you Google John Campbell, real Beverly Hills, John Campbell Group, we’re across all platforms. We’re very active on social media, ⁓ YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, X, Twitter, you name it. I’m not hard to find.
Erika (28:11)
I appreciate you coming on the show today sharing your story and your expertise.John Campbell (28:18)
I appreciate it and thank you for giving me so much of your time.Erika (28:21)
And for our listeners, if you got value from this episode, make sure that you’re subscribed to the real estate pros podcast. We’ve got more conversations lined up with experts like John who are out there building fantastic real estate businesses. We’ll see you on the next episode.
