Speaker 1: 0:00

Hello and welcome everybody to the Jet Life Podcast. My name is Tom Lelio and on this channel, we pull back the curtain. Whether you're a buyer or an aspiring broker, we help you buy and sell private jets without wasting time, losing money and with no experience necessary. Today we're pulling back the curtain on real estate versus aviation, and I'm very excited to be introducing to you my guest, noah Ward, who is a real estate broker, a custom home builder and a content creator extraordinaire. You got so much stuff going on right now, noah. I'm really excited to have you on the podcast today, so welcome.

Speaker 2: 0:39

Well, thank you very much for having me. I can't wait to jam out about this the broker life versus the jet broker life.

Speaker 1: 0:46

Yeah, exactly, I guess one of the first questions I had what is? I see real estate agents, I see realtors, I see brokers, I see builders. Can you unpack that for us? So again, I guess the main audience for today is anyone that's thinking about a career change and they want to learn more about aviation. Possibly that's why they're on this channel, but maybe they've also been thinking about real estate, because everybody has been bit with the real estate bug in the last couple of years. So can you maybe unpack the different roles that we can find in real estate?

Speaker 2: 1:16

Oh yeah, exactly. So obviously I don't really know the whole jet broker lifestyle, but for real estate there's different tiers basically. So typically in real estate you either are a real estate agent or you're a real estate broker. So I hold a broker's license, I'm a broker associate under a brokerage that I'm with. I don't really have my own brokerage just yet, but I have the license to be able to. If I wanted to start my brokerage today I could. But that's not the first step. The first step is just getting a residential real estate license. You basically take a test, you do all the pre-exam stuff and then that's your first license. And then here in the state of Florida you have to hold that real estate license for two years or more before you even can go do the practice exam and do all the questions for the broker's test. And then obviously there's other branches off from in real estate. Besides just having your license is one you can go into general contracting, which I am now partners in a custom home building company.

Speaker 2: 2:13

My general contracting partner holds a license for it. He doesn't have a real estate license, but he has a general contracting license. It's still in real estate. He can't do residential sales, but he can do the custom home building side and the remodeling side, where I traditionally couldn't, which that's why, for me at least, it makes sense to have that partnership with my general contractor and then me, who holds a real estate license.

Speaker 1: 2:38

Gotcha, gotcha. And so what's the difference between a real estate agent and a realtor?

Speaker 2: 2:43

It's honestly just your designation. At this point it's paying to the NAR, National Association of Realtors Association to have that designation of realtor.

Speaker 1: 2:52

Gotcha Okay. So ballpark, if you wanted to get into real estate, you don't have any real estate background. How much is it going to cost you and how long is it going to take you to get up and running to maybe your first sale?

Speaker 2: 3:07

So obviously I wanted to expedite my process just a little bit more, so I went all in. I was spending eight to 10 hours a day doing the pre-licensing exam, because that's you know, I can't remember if it's 72 hours here for Florida. So we have to go through a certain amount of time.

Speaker 2: 3:22

Yes, yeah, we have to study for over 72 hours. In theory, you either can go do a crash course or do it online, and then you can then go for your real estate test from there. So, if you think about it, you can knock that out in about a week, give or take your on your timeframe, and then from there. Then all we, what we have to do is you know, you got to wait to do your fingerprints, which can take a few weeks, and just depending on the timeframe, and then from there you just have to apply for your MLS board, your local board, and then obviously, then you can, then you're officially licensed and you can start practicing real estate. So I would say in a matter of a couple of weeks you could have it all knocked out, you could have going to real estate. Now, getting your first sale is going to depend on your connections.

Speaker 1: 4:05

Okay, okay, so weeks for the certification. Okay, or the license. Is it a license or certification?

Speaker 2: 4:11

It's a license.

Speaker 1: 4:12

Okay, so a license being something that you now have the ability to practice, a specific discipline, in this case, residential real estate transactions. So a few weeks to the license and then getting your first deal. Are you usually warm leads, cold leads? Does the brokerage give you leads? Do you have to find it on your own? Do you just have a call list? What does that actually look like on your first 30, 60 days as a real estate agent?

Speaker 2: 4:41

Yeah, exactly. So it's kind of tricky. It all depends For me. I personally moved from Wisconsin, moved down here to Sarasota. I did not know anyone, so I had no idea which most agents rely on. When they get into the business, they start talking to their friends saying hey, I'm an agent. If you know anyone that's looking to buy or sell, just let me know. That's literally the typical spiel that any other agent will do. But for me I couldn't do that, so I leveraged video initially when I got into real estate, when I first got my license. So I created a YouTube video and my experience is a little bit unique because in my first video, within the first couple of days, I had someone call me and they're like hey, no, I'm ready to, I want to go buy a house. And within a week we were showing them houses. That was exponentially quick. How quick was that?

Speaker 1: 5:26

What was that. How quick was that for you then?

Speaker 2: 5:30

That was within probably a week and a half, two weeks, oh gosh.

Speaker 1: 5:34

Okay, okay.

Speaker 2: 5:35

Yeah, so my experience is a little bit different, because the traditional agent won't see results. Between 30 or I would say 45 to 90 days is when you can expect to maybe get a commission check or work your way towards that commission check. Unless you already have a deep sphere, then maybe you can do it within the first 30 days.

Speaker 1: 5:55

Okay. So there's guys out there that within two weeks or whatever, they get a listing. If the market's hot, you start getting under contract. So by 45 to 90 days you have your first check. What do you think the average first year expectations for a real estate agent should be? Is it six figures? Is that realistic? Is that common or more or less?

Speaker 2: 6:20

I'll tell you what I made in my first year. I only made $40,000 in my first year of real estate. I'll tell you what I made in my first year. I only made $40,000 in my first year of real estate, not knowing anyone. I was 20 years old and I thought it was pretty good for my first year, being like, hey, I just got into the business they did not know I was in Minnesota, right. But honestly, I've seen people make anywhere from $40,000 to maybe $90,000 in their first year and then from there it's just been exponential. For me it's been exponential year over year over year. It all just depends on your marketing at the end of the day, but the first year is really just you're trying to get your balance into the market and what your unique selling proposition is going to be, and so to make $40K, how much do you feel like the average or you the average person is investing?

Speaker 1: 7:07

I mean the real estate license, I think, is around $2,000 to $3,000 when you include the course and stuff. Is that right?

Speaker 2: 7:14

So when you include all the courses, all the tests, all the exams you're getting into the MLS board. You're probably about $3,000 or so all in.

Speaker 1: 7:25

Okay, getting started. Okay, so $3,000 to get $40,000. I mean that's not bad. And then here's the problem. Right, we're talking about average and when you have such a big pool of real estate agents where I forget the number I have, but I want to say only a percentage like 5% to 10% of real estate agents would be considered active, they have listings and they're actually doing stuff it might sound low like oh yeah, 40k your first year, but there's a lot of people dragging that down. And then there's some people pulling up that average in the first year Because, like you said I think you said you had a team member that within their first few months they were well over 40 grand. Is that right?

Speaker 2: 8:09

Oh, yeah, exactly.

Speaker 1: 8:11

Okay, okay. So what got you into real estate and how long ago was that?

Speaker 2: 8:19

So I got into real estate back in 2021. So for me, it was something that I was looking at, like I was looking at going into the medical field personally. That was my right in high school. It was kind of the going towards the medical field. But then, you know, I was second guessing like, is that really something that I truly want to do? I knew that being in the medical field offered limitations right, obviously, to timing, schedules, travel flexibility, stuff like that. And then so for me I was like, okay, what can I do?

Speaker 2: 8:51

that's going to offer me, in theory, an unlimited cap in income and the most amount of flexibility, and for me that was going to be real estate and what I look at real estate as is. I got into real estate because I knew that was going to be a vehicle to a unique place. I don't know what that place is yet because I'm still working towards that, but I knew that real estate could open up many doors that not other people could do if you were working in traditional jobs.

Speaker 2: 9:22

That's why I was like I know that real estate is going to be the place that I'm going to do, or what I'm going to do, and wherever that takes me, that's where it's going to lead me. I've never closed off opportunities. I've never said no to opportunities because, at the end of the day, I'm like this one opportunity could lead me to down this other path which that opportunity led me to going into the new construction world.

Speaker 1: 9:44

Yeah, yeah, so let's talk about that for a second. What are some of the limitations for the real estate world? That has you looking at custom home building? Or maybe is also some of the reason why there might be so many agents in the United States but so few of them are active. What are some of the limitations that you've seen?

Speaker 2: 10:08

So for me, the limitations are obviously every agent. So every agent says that they're unique. In a sense, they offer something that another agent can't, and that's the biggest thing. But if you break it down, we all offer pretty much everything very similar to one another. Now, sure, some people may have unique marketing propositions. At the end of the day, they're just paying to have someone else promote a certain channel outlet. That's all it is at the end of the day. For me, that was.

Speaker 2: 10:38

The limitation I saw was how many houses and how many places can you go around in one day to try to get a listing, to try to show buyers around and so forth. Your time is really constrained to either sellers or buyers. And so, yes, people can make seven figures selling real estate, but they are also just nonstop, always grinding in the real estate world. And for me it was like, yeah, I can do that and that's what I do, but I'd rather go down another path to where I can be a little bit more creative. Real estate, to me, is not creative at all. You're basically put into a box. As a real estate agent, you have to follow certain laws, certain rules, so you don't violate them and lose your license. With construction, you have a little bit more creativity on what products you can actually offer someone Like. If you came to me, you're like no, I'm looking at building a custom home. Literally, the sky's the limit, you know, with designs and architectural styles, stuff like that.

Speaker 2: 11:34

But with real estate you know, you live here in Sarasota it's just like most of these houses are the exact same, like they're the exact same style, you know. So when you're looking at buying a house, it's not like oh, I'm looking for this, it's going to be very hard to find that, but with custom home building you can create that and that's what I love about the custom home building aspect.

Speaker 1: 11:54

If somebody was looking into real estate, why so? I mean, there's some limitations, and that's real, but why would you encourage them? Because I know you also, along with the custom home building, along with your own real estate portfolio, you do have a team as well. Tell us a little about that aspect of it. What inspired you to open up a team, what do you like about that and what are some of the positives that you share with your team about? Like, hey, we're in a great career right now as real estate people.

Speaker 2: 12:26

Of course, yeah, so I have a team. I have a personal team that I actually started here in Sarasota locally, and then I have basically a countrywide team, which basically is just agents that work with me and partner with me within the brokerage that I'm with and we bounce ideas off of one another.

Speaker 2: 12:43

We're in different marketplaces, but then my local team here in Sarasota that we have. We obviously talk specifically about what's going on in the Sarasota real estate world and what makes it so unique is I love selling real estate in Sarasota because of all the opportunities that are there. And everyone says there may be some limitations with real estate. Yes, that are there, and everyone says there may be some limitations with real estate. Yes, but real estate for many people is a vehicle to another place, because real estate is where you literally meet. You can meet regular average Joes. You can meet millionaires. You can meet billionaires Just doing a real estate transaction. You can go to these events.

Speaker 2: 13:21

For me, the biggest opportunity in real estate is just being able to build quality, genuine relationships with people that I know that I can leverage later down the road, and that's what I tell my team is like whatever you're doing today is going to work for you. It's going to help you later down the road. Yes, you may not see success, you know, in the next two weeks, but you're trying to build a solid foundation to either exponentially grow in real estate or go down a different path.

Speaker 1: 13:48

I like that. I like that. I think what is great about real estate is that it's so relationship driven, so that it's very accessible to people. There's also a very clear pathway, right it's? You know, sign up for the test, prepare for 72 hours, take the test, do the fingerprints, get your MLS board, find a brokerage, hang out there for at least two years before you even think about. You know you can't just open your own. You know your own brokerage out of nowhere. So it's accessible and there's a pathway.

Speaker 1: 14:19

I think that's one of the things where aviation falls short is that there's not a clear pathway. That's one of the reasons why, you know, with our, with our jet life program, we have a certificate of completion or certification, whatever you want to call it. You know it's. It's a pathway where it's like these are the skills that you need to demonstrate in order to have a professional, ethical, successful transaction in the aviation world. So so and I think it's across most sales that uniqueness is limited because everybody says I'll have people reach out to me hey, tom, I'm struggling to get this contract signed and I'm like, okay, well, why should somebody list their aircraft with you? Well, because I'm going to sell their plane for them, well, so will everybody else. Or because I'm a really nice guy, well so is everybody else. You know what I mean. They come up with these reasons that are not very unique because they're afraid to dig or they're not capable of, at this point, digging deeper to say what really makes you unique and stand out. It's hard to stand out and the grind. I totally get what you're saying, that it's a hamster wheel. You always have to keep your funnel full and that becomes the same in aviation. But, like you said, you build those relationships. So I understand what you're saying and I think there's good reasons to check out real estate. There's good reasons, I think, for aviation as well, because they're very similar.

Speaker 1: 15:45

If you're interested in real estate, it's worth looking into aviation, and I think where you're going to fail, where you might succeed at real estate and where you would fail on aviation is going to be real estate is very down to earth. We all have a house. We can all wrap our minds around taxes, local school districts. I like granite countertop. We all have a lived experience of homes, even if they're million-dollar homes. A door is a door, a toilet is a toilet. There's an analogy there, but with aviation.

Speaker 1: 16:19

You may have never flown in a private jet before, and so how do you wrap your head around that? You never had to understand what avionics do, what GPS, comms and navigation radios do, what does ADS-B transponder do? So there's a little bit of a learning curve there and, depending on what your life experience has been, maybe you're not used to talking with high net worth individuals. You're not used to getting a no first and then getting like 20 no's before you actually get someone to talk to you, and so there's definitely challenges there. But that's exactly what we try to do, and help with the Circle community. So, noah, tell us a little about, I guess, as we start to wrap up a little bit.

Speaker 1: 17:03

We talked about what the real estate pathway looks like. We talked about how to get into it, the difference between real estate, real agents, realtors, brokers, that sort of a thing, limitations of real estate, the positives of real estate. Now we're getting into the custom home building. Why, in your opinion, is custom home building? I don't know. Do you think it's the future of where things are going, or do you just see that people are getting sick and tired of the cookie cutter stuff? Where's the opportunity in the custom home building niche that drew your attention to it.

Speaker 2: 17:38

Yeah, so that's the beauty of being able to be a residential real estate agent, is you see the trends right? So I can leverage that. On the custom home building side, and especially during this past hurricane, hurricane Helene it's really actually making people rethink how they're going to be building in the future. Right, and these homes, you know that, are older, maybe 20 plus years old. They may not be up to your typical Florida building codes now, with FEMA elevations being raised, everything like that, and for me, I personally strongly believe that a lot of these homes are going to be either fixed up and flipped or or they're going to be torn down and rebuilt, but to a higher elevation, and I just think that construction is going to be the new Custom home building is going to be the new future, so to speak.

Speaker 2: 18:24

Yes, everyone loves these amazing track home communities here in Sarasota love these huge developments during the pandemic. But my buyer clientele has completely shifted now ever since the pandemic has finished up and they're like they don't want to be in a traditional cookie cutter house anymore. They were fine being in that during the pandemic because they were just happy to get into a house, but now that they have options, they're really thinking like do I really want to be 10 feet away from my neighbor, reach out my window door and actually grab something out of their window? That is legitimately the main questions that we're getting right now. And people moving out of these track home communities and trying to focus on something a little bit more custom and I think, going onto these barrier islands where the hurricanes had hit, we're definitely going to see these homes being built up, you know, maybe 15, 20 feet in the air, instead of being the first floor elevation where they basically got seven foot of storm surge and their whole entire first floor is annihilated.

Speaker 1: 19:20

Yeah, I think, when you think about cookie cutter at best, if we want to grant as much grace, you know, towards developers and builders and stuff like that, we don't want to villainize them At best they're trying to get as many people into a desirable location as possible. Great, okay, cool. At worst, though, it's really about the developer, the builder and the profit With the custom homes. I think you have, and again, generalizations, but what I like about the custom homes? I think you have, I think, and again generalizations, but what I like about the custom homes is that it brings the, the, the real estate experience, back into the, the hands of the owners.

Speaker 1: 20:04

I mean so much pride and and so much pride and a sense of accomplishment I think was made, you know, when people first started moving to areas.

Speaker 1: 20:18

You know, how many times do you hear in the, in the older areas, like my grandfather built this house with his bare hands.

Speaker 1: 20:23

You know, um, what you're doing is you're giving people the opportunity to experience that sense of people, the opportunity to experience that sense of we built this, we built this house, um, but of course, without having to um, literally get a hammer and nail, because I would have no idea how to build a house and it would just, you know, the first, uh, the, the first little wind of, of the hurricane you know it's just going to be, there's somebody sneeze and all of a sudden the roof's going to come off, uh type of thing of thing. But you're giving people that opportunity to put a little bit of themselves. It becomes a piece of art, it becomes a piece of who they are. That's part of the human experience just to put ourselves out into material and, what's more, a part of your life and the place that you're going to live. I might be getting too philosophical here, but I just think that there's a really cool mind shift that comes into custom homes. And let me just stop there. I just think it's really cool what you're getting in.

Speaker 2: 21:24

I'd like to add on to that really quick. I've seen the difference between mainly all the custom homes that we build. The clients are literally saying this is my last home that I'm going to build and this is a home that I'm going to be able to pass down to my kids or my grandkids when I sell a track home community. Now, nothing's wrong with the track home because everyone it's usually in an ideal location, right, and the price point's a little bit different. But I have not once heard someone say they are excited to pass this down to their kids.

Speaker 1: 21:55

I love that. That's a great point. Just out of curiosity and I'm hoping that we could dispel a myth here but how accessible is a custom home For me? I'm thinking like well, if I want a custom home, I better be ready to drop a million dollars. Can I get a custom home that's more affordable than that? Or is it really, unfortunately for the big spenders?

Speaker 2: 22:19

No, not at all. The biggest thing is being able to acquire the land. The land is honestly going to be the trickiest part. It depends on where you are, but here in Sarasota the land is what really drives up these custom home prices. If you can find land more affordable, you can build a custom home for $500,000 or just a little less, and it can still feel like a quality home. Once again, it just comes down to getting that land acquired first.

Speaker 1: 22:46

Perfect, cool. Well, if people want to find out more about real estate possibly joining your team or maybe they're listening and they need a custom home or they're looking to custom homes when can people find out more information? And just so you know we are going to answer I got two questions in here, but where can people find out more information about you, noah?

Speaker 2: 23:07

No, of course. I mean, the best way to connect with me is reaching out through Instagram, and you can obviously put the links wherever you're going to put them. Otherwise, if you guys want to look at custom homes, our custom home building company is Jane Development Group. You can just search that up in Sarasota and you will be able to find that, and then obviously you can go to noelwargroupcom and then that also has all my brokerage information along with our custom home building company.

Speaker 1: 23:29

Perfect, perfect. Well, let's check out some questions real quick before we let you go. I've got Shahab over here. Is talking about he's 32 years old, lost everything and starting over, feels completely lost. All he knows is sales, but he's done with the car sales. What are your thoughts? I imagine you've probably worked with some people that have some sales experience maybe even car sales I have, so I can definitely speak into what a path through aviation would look like for a former car salesperson. But yeah, what are your thoughts?

Speaker 2: 24:04

Well, here's what I love about people that are in car sales and I've dealt with a couple of them is that if they already have that mindset, I personally believe that car sales you have to grind a lot more because the commissions are a lot less. But if they already have that work ethic to be a car salesman, I feel like the path to real estate is going to be fairly easy. Besides, obviously, taking the licensing course and everything like that, I just feel like being able to leverage your car sales experience but just transition that into maybe a higher ticket item like selling a house. Now, obviously, aviation is going to be a little bit different, because your clientele is a lot different than a car salesman versus an aviation client.

Speaker 1: 24:45

Yeah, I think what I've noticed with the I had a few guys with the car sales the good news is that they're not afraid of no. They're used to no, so they're not afraid of it. The bad news is that they forget the clientele that we're working with. Number one, it's a longer sales cycle. So with car sales usually somebody walks in, maybe it's that day or maybe it's a week, maybe two weeks, whatever, and then you can build a book of business if that's going to be your career, and even in real estate, like you said, I mean you're probably at least 30, 45, 90 days of a sales cycle when you're working with someone. With aviation it seems as of late. I mean, we're getting listings and once you get the listing, it could be 69 to 120 days till the listing sells and it might take you two months, three months to get the listing, so you might not get a paycheck for six months. So that's kind of the thing that they have to be aware of. But I think there's definitely opportunity in the aviation world as well, when you're working with the right brokerage and the right team, to kind of lead you down the path. But it is a new thing that you're going to have to learn. So that'll be kind of the hiccup of it. So, yeah, no, I appreciate that. We've got another question from Ben aviation sales or real estate, which will be more profitable in the long run. So here's what I can say and define long run my first year I did six figures. I made 100K. Guys who are with me, so Noah and I were talking about right now we've got 15 team members with JetLife Arrow who are aspiring brokers, who are brokers right now. Right, the guy who's been with us the longest, alex, had $60,000 in his bank account. After six months he took his foot off the gas and that was his first year. Commission of 60K his first year. He's due to close on a deal this month, so that'll be his 18 months. He'll make over 100 grand in his commissions. My second, third year, by my third year. That year I closed and took home almost $600,000 that third year and that's just what I did. So I can speak to that and then I'll say now, five years into it, you know my last two years have been closer to just a hundred grand, but a lot of it's going right back into into the business. So it's like we're making. We feel like we're making nothing at some point. Uh but, but. But we're doing all right. And so you know, I think in aviation if you, if you do the simple stuff, I think you should be able to make 100 grand a year. That's my expectation. But what I am finding is, with the team and they'll be the first to tell you they're not making 70 to 100 calls every single day consistently for two, three, four, five weeks in a row to generate what needs to be done, and so that's kind of where that lands. So in the long run, my next and I like how Noah explained his play he started real estate selling, then he got into the custom home building. So the long play for a broker, I think, is sell, build up a nest egg and then start looking in the investment world.

Speaker 1: 27:47

In aviation Can you find a fix and flip. Can you put your money at stake to buy an airplane cheap. Can you flip it up and make a six-figure commission on one deal. That's one way to do it. Or you go into charter operations. There's a pathway. So I would say aviation sales in the long run can be very profitable from $100,000 to half a million just as a broker per year you can get that set up. It'll take you a couple of years to do it, but I think it's possible. It is going to be a little bit of a hamster wheel, though, to Noah's point earlier, depends on how you build your book of business.

Speaker 2: 28:28

I'd like to add on that just really quick is I think whether you're in aviation sales or if you're in real estate, I mean building relationships is going to be key. Like I'm not going to disclose but like, yeah, I told you my first year I made 40K, but after that year, my year two, year three has exponentially grown, and that's aside from the custom home building company. Like I've closed multiple, seven or multiple, you know, six figures in a year and six figures in one month. Like it all came down to the relationships. The relationships that I built in year one are what really paid off in year two and year three and I think that happens in aviation sales too. I assume is what you do your first year. It doesn't matter if you make 40 K, if you make a100K I'm looking at it from a two to three year perspective is everything I do in my first year is what is going to exponentially grow me into year two, year three, year four year five.

Speaker 1: 29:21

Love it, hayden, listen up, man. That's great though. That's really encouraging and that's. I think you're absolutely right, I didn't think of it that way, but I try to get these guys to their first year. Like 100k, like that's the carrot that we're dangling at the end of the stick. But but to your point, like, even if you don't reach that, like the skills that you learn and acquire along the way is what's going to feed you, make you capable of those big deals, uh, in in the, in next years? Um, I love that. Um, that's great. I'll figure if you uh, here's a question, uh, from an investor side is is it possible to do both? I mean, I guess it's more of a time management thing and resources, but it comes down to relationships. So I think it's tough when people ask me if I can do both. Whether it's can I work as a jet broker part-time, or can I get another job or whatever I'm usually like depends on your expectations.

Speaker 2: 30:12

I'd like to add on that, because I've always been fascinated by the broker or by the jet broker world myself, and I was even thinking about getting into jet brokering as a side thing. But at the end of the day it questions okay, what I do with the jet broker side, is that going to take away from what I'm doing with my real estate side? And the answer to that is yes. Am I willing to sacrifice what I'm doing and what I've built up for the past three years in real estate to then do something else in the jet broker side? And to my point, it's no. But some people can be a little bit different. But you're stretching yourself into two different paths when you can just literally go all in on one industry and then have different segments and different branch stops, like what I'm doing right now.

Speaker 1: 30:52

Yeah, I think it's better to go deep than go wide when you're talking about your income until you get it under control. Once you get it under control, maybe you start real estate. Maybe you start with a brokerage that encourages building a team. You get your team up and running and you can step back a little bit so you're not doing as many deals, but you can still service your team. And now you have 5, 10, 15 hours a week that you can go over here and do custom home building or you can do whatever else, but one step at a time. I wouldn't try to do both right away. Oh, here's a good one. Does aviation sales get affected by the economy, just like real estate? How is real estate right now with the economy?

Speaker 2: 31:33

Yeah, that's why I love being in the construction industry along with real estate sales, because here's the thing is that real estate sales can be very up and down. Very huge waves, like when a hurricane hits, real estate slows down in this whole entire area, like when Ian hit. It was completely slow, if you think about it, and right now the hurricane hits, so people are obviously rebuilding, which that's when our construction company goes in. And so, even though a hurricane is a terrible event, real estate sales may struggle just a little bit because people are a little weary, but then construction starts to pick up.

Speaker 2: 32:08

So for me that's why I put my hands in 2 different pots, because real estate sales go up and down. You may have a 6-figure month, you may then have a $0 month I would know because I've had that happen to me and so it's very up and down. But, once again, even in a bad market, you just have to work harder. So if you want your income to be as steady as possible, you may just work less one month because it's a little bit easier, but when the market goes down, you just work harder and you can make the exact same income.

Speaker 1: 32:43

Louder for the people in the back, please. That's what I'm telling people. We look at the trends and, Ben, to your question, last year was the slowest year since 2009, I believe. And if you look at the quarterly transactions like 600 in the first quarter, 800 in the second quarter, 900 in the third quarter, 1,000 transactions in the fourth quarter we are trending like it was in 2008, 2009. But the good news is that it still trended positive. So it slacked off and then it dipped a little bit from 2008, 2009,. But then from 2009 up, it just kept going up. The number of transactions continued to. There was never a big dip. So, for example, if last year there were let's see, let's just say, seven times four 2,800 transactions, the worst year before that was maybe 2,500 transactions. Okay, so we're not talking like a complete. The market totally shut down. And when we look at it this year, yeah, it was a slow first quarter, Second quarter, I think it was like 600, 700, no 600, 600. It popped in the third quarter to 800. So we're even different there.

Speaker 1: 34:04

So, as far as how aviation is tied to the economy, yeah, things will slow down. Yeah, if the banks aren't lending money, there's going to be less transactions because the interest rates are high. If it's an election year, people don't know how they're going to. You know how they're going to favor or not favor aviation, whether it's on climate stuff, or it's on taxing stuff, whatever, whatever. But you just got to work through it to Noah's point, Like you just know that it's going to be a little tougher. And you got to step up and do it. And, dude, I'm so sorry to keep, I just do it and dude, I'm so sorry to keep.

Speaker 1: 34:40

You're all. Good, I got time, we're fine. Okay, cool, ben's just firing away with these great questions and I think this is the last one. But the good thing about real estate there's more houses to sell than jets. What do you think about that?

Speaker 2: 34:49

So my only theory is a house is an everyday I shouldn't say an everyday item, but it's going to be a main staple for most people here in the United States. A house is something that pretty much most people could obtain right and, however, the housing market is strictly tied to how well the economy is doing, because having a jet, in my opinion, is an ultra luxury or it's a luxury right. So it's an additional thing that, yes, it gets impacted by the economy, but I don't feel like you would get impacted as much as real estate, because real estate is what an everyday Joe is going to buy. An everyday Joe is not going to buy a private jet, so they obviously have that extra money to spend, but when people in the economy start struggling that's when real estate really starts to struggle is because those everyday joes are highly impacted by inflation or wage cuts or whatever that may be that impacts how much they can afford on a mortgage.

Speaker 1: 35:48

No, that is an excellent point. You think about the top 1% of individuals. They either saw this coming or they have hedged their bets to where, if the economy goes south, they can find ways to make money. That's why they're in the position that they're in, in terms of more houses than jets to sell. Yes, that is true, ben, but I will say that when you look at the numbers as far as I think, I remember the numbers like 4 million real estate, let me know what. Let's just do this real quick.

Speaker 1: 36:18

I think the question I numbers like 4 million real estate, let me know. Let's just do this real quick. I think the question I had was how many real estate transactions in 2023? Okay, so there were 4 million transactions. How many real estate agents in 2023? And then it came up with let's see one point there's 360 brokerages, 1.54 million realtors. So if we do 1.5 and then 4 million, so that would end up being what? 4 by 1.5. That's like two houses, three houses per agent, but they're not all active, right? How many active? Oh, great, and my Bluetooth shut down. I think when we do the math, it's about what would you guess?

Speaker 2: 37:16

Active real estate agents 10% of it like honestly.

Speaker 1: 37:23

Real estate agents in the US 1.35 active, 2 million license. Okay. So, oh, okay, here it is Okay. So 4 million sales for 2 million, that's two sales per person, approximately 1.35. So if we took yeah, that's what I did, Okay. So if we did 2 million, that's two, two sales per person, approximately 1.35. Uh, so if we took yeah, that's what I did, Okay. So if we did 2 million, 2 million and you times that by 5%, that's a hundred thousand real estate agents. So really, the real estate agents, if they had 4 million sales and only a hundred000 of them were actually active, okay.

Speaker 1: 38:02

And then if you look at jets in the world, it comes out to be roughly the same is what I'm trying to point out here is that for as many houses as there are for real estate agents, the actual slice of the pie of agents that got it. It's the same for jet brokers, where there's so few jet brokers and so few jets that the average active jet broker is getting two to three sales, two to three transactions per year, and that's average. So in order to be above average, to get 10 or 20 sales a year, you're only beating out about I think it was maybe a couple of hundred people. I'll have to find the Instagram that I did, but it's competitive. You might think that there's a smaller pool of product, but there's also a smaller pool of people who are selling the product, so you're still working just about the same. It's not like there's more opportunity, in my opinion. I don't know if those numbers make sense to you or not.

Speaker 2: 39:02

No, and I also want to add to it doesn't matter how many licenses or how many licensees are out there in the world, because most of them aren't active you really have to focus on. For example, there's 10% of agents that are going to do most of the production in the United States out of all the 2 million, and probably it's the same with jet brokers, but just a different percentage. It doesn't matter how many licensees are out there, it's how many licensees that are actually actively producing in that given field, right.

Speaker 1: 39:25

And then that's where I would give the advantage to jet brokering, because to be in the top percent of 4 million real estate agents, you need to beat out what is that? 400,000 or 40,000 people? Yeah, out. What is that? 400,000 or 40,000 people? To be in the top 10% of 3,000 jet brokers in the world, you have to beat out 300 people. I'd rather beat out 300 people than 30,000. So that's where yeah, I think that's just a number thing that I get the question a lot when I talk about real estate versus jet brokered. So I wanted to kind of have that conversation with you. But, noah, thank you so much for your time. Is there anything else you want to add before we close up shop? Man?

Speaker 2: 40:08

No, I mean we'll just have to come back for part two. That's all I got to say.

Speaker 1: 40:12

That sounds good. Well, thank you so much, and we'll catch you on part two.

Speaker 2: 40:17

Fantastic.