36 - Building Your Dream Team and Landing Your Dream Home with D'Nette Wood

D'Nette Wood: 0:00

nugget is called Know your numbers. And that is surrounding yourself with a professional team. And that team consists of a licensed professional realtor. I recommend also a realtor that's a member of National Association of Realtors. That's just one level of professionalism, that you can trust that they have more education, an accountant or a CPA, a financial advisor, because where is this going to sit in your overall goals of your life? And attorney,

Announcer: 0:39

you found the real estate law podcast because real estate is more than just pretty pictures. And law goes well beyond the paperwork and courtroom argument. If you're a real estate professional, or looking to build real estate expertise, then welcome to the conversation and Discover more at real estate law. podcast.com

Jason Muth: 1:02

Welcome to the real estate law podcast. Thanks so much for listening to another one of our episodes. And we're really excited to have a great guest today. It's Jeanette wood from Albuquerque, New Mexico who is a senior broker associate with Sotheby's International Realty. Hi, Danette. How are you?

D'Nette Wood: 1:22

Good morning. I'm great. It's another sunny day in Albuquerque.

Jason Muth: 1:26

Oh, it's a great day in Boston. It's cold outside. So you've already won. We're also here with Attorney broker Rory Gill from nexthome Titletown real estate in Boston and urban village legal. Hello, Rory.

Rory Gill: 1:43

I Jason I'm excited for the conversation today.

Jason Muth: 1:46

Yeah, we're super excited. When we heard from D'Nette, I'd saw Albuquerque and I was like, oh my god, we did one trip out to New Mexico. And it was gorgeous. It was such a memorable vacation that we spent what was that? Rory? It was like in '15. It was before what

Rory Gill: 2:03

it was before the wedding. So it was our final trip is unmarried people. So '13... '14 Sorry, I should know this. I should know this.

Jason Muth: 2:12

But you know, what didn't we didn't spend too much time in Albuquerque, we spent most of our time in Santa Fe. So we flew into Albuquerque, and then we drove up there and went to Taos some other places. But, you know, we're eager to learn about what's happening in New Mexico in your world, and the real estate, empires that people are building in New Mexico. And we'd love to focus also today on a topic that I know that you know, really well, which is, you know, setting up the next generation and our children, and you know, the people that are in their 20s and 30s with purchasing real estate, because, you know, as we know, there's a huge cohort of folks that are about to buy their first homes, and a lot of them, you know, they don't even know where to start. So, you know, I think that we're gonna have a really cool discussion today on those things. But first, D'Nette, tell us about yourself and tell us about all the work that you're that you're doing with Sotheby's out in Albuquerque?

D'Nette Wood: 3:06

Well, thank you so much for having me. Our corporate office is actually in Santa Fe. But I grew up in Albuquerque, and I practice mostly in Albuquerque, I specialize in the Albuquerque area, luxury homes and income generating properties. So that might be a home because you're gonna buy an investment home, it might be a commercial property. But I started out in commercial real estate. And at that time, somebody might have called me a generalist, but I work with my clients in a vertical manner, meaning, if they needed to buy a house, I could buy a house that they wanted to buy an apartment building. And so I, I had a lot of education. I am a continual life learner. That's where I spend most of my time now. And I love Albuquerque. If you come to Albuquerque or Santa Fe, you, you remember that we have lots of outdoor activities. 280 days a year of sunshine, Netflix just moved to their North American headquarters here. We started, I actually helped work on the film incentives back around 2019. It's only taken 20 years for it to take off. So we love the film industry here. And it brings a nice additional cultural aspect to living here.

Jason Muth: 4:23

Wow, I had no idea actually, Massachusetts did something similar a couple of years ago with some incentives for filming. And it drew a lot of a lot of studios to to actually film here.

Rory Gill: 4:34

Not to the scale of Albuquerque

D'Nette Wood: 4:36

Tamalewood. Wwat would they called? Massachusetts, Massachusetts.ood ?

Jason Muth: 4:40

I don't know. But I feel as though a lot of what we see here has to do with gangsters in our neighborhood, you know, stereotypical, you know, Boston gangster movies.

D'Nette Wood: 4:50

Well, let's see we had Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul so but we do have a lot of Westerns also.

Jason Muth: 4:56

Yeah, what cool series we we binge watch Breaking Back around 2013 I think it was one of those series that we missed when it was out and then it hit me. I'm like, I gotta watch this thing. And I think that we watched, you know, the first six or seven seasons immediately and then caught up to like the current one. And you guys do other Breaking Bad tours that happened throughout there are

D'Nette Wood: 5:15

there's there's the Winnebago, I see it all the time, going up and down the streets, and then they'll take you by, you know, the locations, etc. I don't know if you guys know this, but I'm actually a SAG actor, too. When I moved back here, I had been a professional musician, I moved back here, started the film incentives. And so I started working on my craft and studying. And so I've had the thrill of being involved in the film industry here. But, you know, we don't necessarily have quite the huge industry like California, but it's so great to have the industry here. I just love it. They're great people to work with.

Jason Muth: 5:56

Are you seeing some of the exodus of Californians coming into New Mexico, I know that Idaho, and Washington, Montana, they've seen a lot of that

D'Nette Wood: 6:04

We have some great statistics that come out of Sothebys. California is like the number one state moving here, and Texas. And then Arizona and Colorado all moving here. Because just fantastic people. It's such a great place to live. But it's a great place to retire. You know, we're talking about Santa Fe. Santa Fe is really a different city than Albuquerque. Santa Fe is like a resort community, almost lots of second homes. Lots of people love to retire there. Lots of culture. Albuquerque is really the business hub. We have Sandia National Labs, the university, we have the space industry that's really growing. So it's the working hub. So a lot of people move to Albuquerque for job opportunities.

Jason Muth: 6:46

Tell us a little bit about the real estate market in New Mexico these days. I mean, the you know, here, we're recording this almost two years into the pandemic, right? You know, it'll be two years in March. I don't know what this when people are going to hear this episode. But it's been a two year ride in lots of markets. It's been nothing like people have ever seen, you know, we know what's been happening in the northeast, but what's been happening near you,

D'Nette Wood: 7:08

We tend to follow California in terms of their trends, but Albuquerque from from an investment really point of view, we have that slow and steady appreciation, three, four or 5%. Like that we don't have those big dips like California, but we do see the trends still come from the California market our way. So when the pandemic happened, it was super crazy. I really think Sotheby's for the the pivot that they they shifted towards helping us you know, go online and having these masterclasses and talking with our colleagues on the coasts, about how are we going to serve as our clients through this awkward time when we can't, you know, get in the car and drive them around. So when we look at California, we kind of look to see what's coming our way. So I was fortunate to say, Wow, that's getting shut, they were shut down before we were. So I was already thinking, how am I gonna? How am I going to deal with this. But we did see New Mexico, we had the recession, of course in 2008. And we had a double dip. So we really stayed flat for almost flat for about 10 years. In the last two years, we saw approximately 15% appreciation in Albuquerque, which seems like a huge jump may not seem like a huge jump, you know, and in larger cities or on the coast. But for us, it was a huge jump. But what it truly did was kind of normalize where we were pre-recession to get back kind of normalized now. So from here out, I would call this the new baseline moving forward in 2021, probably. 2022 is going to have some different challenges.

Jason Muth: 8:57

Rory, how would you compare that to what you've been seeing here in Massachusetts, the past, I don't know, 5-10 years?

Rory Gill: 9:03

I like the word that she used kind of to normalize the trajectory from prior to recession, because I think we all ended up in a similar place, if you in the larger scheme of the past 15 years. But you know, our trajectory looked a little bit different. So it kind of in the core Boston area, we didn't suffer the recession as badly as other parts of the country. And we kind of just stayed stagnant for a while and hit the run up a little bit sooner. But then with this, you know, even though it feels like to us the run up we've had in the past couple years has been astronomical, it doesn't compare as much to other parts of the country. So in the end, I think we more or less normalized to a similar trajectory in the long term. But we had a little less of a bumpy road and that the earlier phase of the recession

Jason Muth: 9:52

D'Nette, before we were recording this you mentioned that your daughter was purchasing a place in Austin, Texas, and I'd love to hear your observations for what she just went through versus what you're seeing in New Mexico.

D'Nette Wood: 10:05

That was another market that I really learned from when you're going out and you're making an offer on a property that's, you know, not cheap, over $500,000, and you're going up against 12-15 other offers. That is competition. I never saw that, in my 23 years of experience, you know, we might have had one or two, right, but we never had that kind of competitive landscape. So I really, I really took that to heart and started saying, how, how are we going to deal with this? How do you manage? And you know, I have colleagues in Seattle that had 32 offers, you know, maybe some brokers have more. How do you just manage that much information and then pass along to, you know, the seller with recommendations she had competitive offers, she went through it seven times, and was not successful, she was getting a loan, she was putting down money, she had very experienced brokers helping her, but really, at the time, it was cash was king, Cash is king. So during a transaction, especially a competitive one, the seller not only wants, you know, the best price, but you also have to pick, if you will, the horse that's going to win the race, that that's going to finish that has the most chance of being successful, that's hard to decipher. So when you're looking at, let's just say 10 contracts, I've learned a lot, looking at all of those contracts to see who the really sharp realtors are, and who the newbies are, to be able to put a solid, competitive offer together doesn't always have to be cash. But you know, there's a lot of tools in the tool belt that you can use to stand out to when she finally did get a house. But it actually wasn't from being on the market. She bought a house from a neighbor, because she was, you know, she's a hustler. She went out and just started talking to her neighbors, if you're thinking about selling, let me know, ultimately, was successful as off the market. Getting a house. Yeah,

Jason Muth: 12:18

I think a lot of people heard that story. We're listening to this podcast right now. And they're going through the exact same thing, or they know somebody that's going through the exact same thing, or they could sympathize with it. You know, there's a lot that you just touched on right there that I can't wait to get into a little bit further. But, you know, Rory has talked a lot about, we actually did a whole episode about how to strengthen your offer and how to put together good offers for real estate. You know, Rory, can you comment on anything that Jeanette just mentioned about the complexion of offers, when you're dealing with a situation with 15 different offers.

Rory Gill: 12:49

I mean, she made a really good point in her comment that it's also in some ways very difficult for the seller as well, it's a great problem to have, I suppose. But navigating through the different offers that you receive, and really interpreting them to see what really is the best and strongest offer, because it's not just about price, it's about the strength of the offer, and the likelihood that that buyer is going to make it to the closing table. And you know, there are some strategies. And the other thing I think she also commented is strengthening your offering, giving you the best chance, you're always going to win, there's no silver bullet that's going to ensure that your offer is always going to be is come to the top. But I'm really interested always to hear, you know, what are the some of the strategies that you're using with your buyers, to put them in the best position they can be to, to have an offer accepted?

D'Nette Wood: 13:37

Well, in New Mexico, which is, you know, different from other states. There's a couple things you can do. Right, it's offer price, we also have time off market. Tom fee. I was in a qualifying broker, continuing ed class that just the other day, the question came up, there was probably 40 brokers on the Zoom call, how many of you are using a Tom fee? And the percentage of people that were using a Tom fee was, you know, extremely low. And I'm thinking Why aren't you using a Tom fee if you have that tool available? And Tom fee, you know, on a $300,000 house, a time off market fee, which is non refundable. It's like I say it's like bringing flowers to, you know, to the dinner party. It's just we're really serious. It's really the only skin you're gonna have in the game because earnest money is refundable. So it's saying we're serious. We're gonna have money. I mean really skin in the game, and we're really serious about this. We're not playing $300 on a $300,000 house is one tool to use. The earnest money tells a lot to and also when you have the section where you're saying are you financing how much money are you going to put down? It makes a difference. If if buyer A is going to be putting down 25% and buyer B is putting down 3%. That makes makes a difference to say what kind of loan are they going to get? Do they have the ability to have that extra cash for an appraisal gap, which is another tool to use? That's really a big problem right now, right? appraisals, the appraisal is based on data, which is in the past, and our trajectory is going, you know, forward so quickly, we're going to have some appraisal issues. And going into this with your buyer saying, I don't think it's gonna appraise. So how are we going to deal with that all of those tools make a difference, how or an offer is written up makes a difference. So when I was listening to your podcast the other day, should I get my real estate license? I think if you're going to be going out buying a house, in this market, it may not be the time to use your best friend's brother's cousin who just got his license yesterday. Nor do I let my five year old prepare my taxes. You know, those are, are very wide analogy, but it's true. I think, new agents, the best thing that a new agent can do is to find a mentor and work with a mentor for about 20 transactions, because every transaction is very different.

Rory Gill: 16:25

I agree with that. And that is it, that is a great point. Otherwise, you're setting yourself up for just a series of heartbreak, even as the new agent who's doing their their best, their earnest best to, to help out their buyers, you're setting yourself up for a little bit of heartbreak if you don't have some creativity and experience behind you. One thing you also said, as we were getting ready for the podcast that I really appreciate it was kind of how how the process works working with a buyer, in this market where a lot of the work really comes before you even start to look at properties. It's really about the preparation and the process beforehand, especially when you have such a tight turnaround time from when you discover a property to win, you have to have a competitive well thought through offer put together, much of it comes down to preparation. So you know, I'd like you to comment on that a little bit, especially when it comes to a lot of first time homebuyers. And in the younger generation that are trying to get into this really competitive market,

D'Nette Wood: 17:26

I think I came with an advantage to the table because I used to be a loan officer, I was a broker. And so I had that opportunity, I would sit down with a client right and go over those scenarios, look at their finances, talk about scenarios, contingent non contingent, and then they'd go out shopping the next couple of weeks. Well, those days are over. So now that I'm on the realtor side, I see that there's a little bit of a gap now because I don't really see their finances, I rely on that loan officer to have done all that work, to have had those conversations, talking about the scenarios verifying you know, it's so easy now for a consumer to look for a house on the computer at 2am and go on to an online loan approval site and get a pre approval, and then they think they're ready to go out shopping. And that that's just not the case. So my process now really is when I meet a buyer, I still have to have a process. And that's what makes the whole thing successful, is having the process. So we're going to talk about where they want to, you know, location, general idea, but I get them involved with the loan officer, talking about those scenarios, really getting a solid understanding of what the choices are, before we go out to play in the shark land, because that's what it is, you've got to have that pre approval letter ready to go. So you know, we're going to see a house that comes on the market at 7am. We're going to go try to look at it at 9am. And I'm going to be putting

that offer together at 11: 19:12

30am. We don't have time to have those scenario discussions, when we're really under a lot of pressure to get an offer in because the seller is going to decide tonight at seven.

Rory Gill: 19:26

And not only that, taking that extra time is a signal, I think to the seller, that you're not prepared to move forward.

D'Nette Wood: 19:33

So getting prepared financially, of what scenarios you're comfortable with. I've had a couple of situations, you know in the last year where they were going to get financing, but we just you know we saw there were so many offers that they switched to cash. We're going to make a cash offer. So I want to say the red flag. Don't liquidate your IRA 401k to become I'm a cash buyer, that is not a prudent decision. But sometimes family members can go on the purchase contract and the loan to help make a cash offer to make it more competitive. But again, going back and having those discussions before you go out shopping,

Jason Muth: 20:16

What are some of the things that you're seeing today with with new buyers that you never thought you'd see in the past? I mean, you've been doing this for quite some time. And is there any current trends that not trend, like not something that's trendy, but just things that are happening now that you're like, Whoa, five years ago, you said, I can't believe that's going on

D'Nette Wood: 20:36

Buying a house sight unseen. I sold like four of them during the pandemic, buying a house sight unseen, I would never have imagined that you would buy a house, over the internet, never seen it. So that's a, that's a big difference, just how to manage that, and help them. And that would that would be through information, right, the best thing that I can do is provide information to my customer so that they can make the decision. So that's inspections as much as we can. And, you know, hopefully, they have somebody coming to look at the house to see if they like it to our purchase contracts have changed now, to let the seller know if the buyer has actually toured the house in person or not. Because from a seller's point of view, if somebody hasn't seen the house, you know, they, they might make a an offer that 15% higher than ask price sounds really great. But they've never seen the house, they're coming from out of state, they couldn't get here because of the pandemic. And so now they come to see the house and they have buyer purchase offer remorse, and it terminates. So I think that's another area for the sellers that they've become a little more cautious about that sight unseen.

Jason Muth: 21:53

Yeah, you know, Rory and I did a sight unseen purchase ourselves, like for one of one of our Airbnb properties, a number of years ago. I mean, this is what 2018? And I thought I was a little crazy. But he's also an attorney. So we put some protections in there, if we got down there and didn't like it. But this is before the craziness, where people were actually actively doing that they're waiving all the contingencies, they're buying things sight unseen, they're just, you know, snapping it up. The second it comes live. And as it turned out for us, we got there and everything was fine. But it's a great point. I mean, like, you don't know what the place smells like, you don't know the temperature, what it feels like, like, you know, is it Feng Shui way, like you walk in there, and you're like, I don't like this place, or like, you know, you happen to see the neighbors or you see the backyard, there is a lot of danger to the sight unseen. But you know, it's it is a, it's happening more often these days.

D'Nette Wood: 22:42

You mentioned another point there about inspections, right? Waiving inspections, that's something I never would have seen come up either waiving inspections,

Rory Gill: 22:53

We just see that a lot., but it's, you know, it's that it's difficult when you're, you know, you're the fiduciary for a buyer to discuss these options with them. Because the truth is, some people can't afford to waive the inspection. And by that, I mean, if there were problems, they're not going to be well equipped, financially or situationally to to address those issues, or, you know, some people want to waive the mortgage contingency where their obligations would be similar to a cash buyer, even though they're seeking financing. And those may be strategies that help to strengthen the offer. But not everybody can afford the risk involved in making this offer. So when you're working with a buyer, as a fiduciary, sometimes you have to teach them that they can only offer what they can offer. And the best thing that they can do is maybe with a little bit more speed, or offer a little bit more flexibility. But sometimes people just can't afford some of these strategies.

D'Nette Wood: 23:53

Going without that inspection, I think is a real is a real detriment. I had one transaction and they they just had to have this house. They waived inspections, we talked about it. And you know, the air conditioner broke, thank goodness that they could afford it. But I I can't recommend that for any offer. Because it really is an asset. And like you said, you don't know if the roof goes out. It's $15,000 or $50,000. It's a business decision. And I think that we have to remember it's still a business decision, even though we have a lot of emotion tied up into it.

Jason Muth: 24:28

So D'Nette, you mentioned, I know that you specialize in luxury properties in New Mexico, as you mentioned earlier, your website has but you also work with first time buyers and you have adult children who have just purchased a property in Austin and you work with a lot of other people that I'm sure have adult children that are getting into buying their first homes. You know, what are some of the first impressions that you want to give upon those types of buyers to keep them realistic, but also optimistic.

D'Nette Wood: 24:56

The nugget is called Know your numbers and that is is surrounding yourself with a professional team. And that team consists of a licensed professional realtor, I recommend, also a realtor that's a member of National Association of Realtors, that's just one level of professionalism, that you can trust that they have more education, an accountant or a CPA, a financial adviser, because where is this going to sit in your overall goals of your life. And an attorney, and an attorney is the part where I really want a buyer to say, when I buy this house, which is now probably the largest asset that they own, what happens if something happens to me, and I think that has become something that we've forgotten about, or hasn't been educated enough of having a will, or having an LLC to put it in. Or, you know, a trust. All of those elements. So as a parent, that's really what I've been concentrating on with my own kids, as well as the first time homebuyers. Because they, you know, you don't know what you don't know. And so it's my job to at least bring these things up, to see if it resonates with them. And then I can help find some information and get them in, you know, to seek professional assistance. But the accountant is an important element, you know, you want to figure out how you're going to structure this property where it where it lands. The shift I see now is 50 years ago, people bought a house, and it was their forever home. Millennials and even older than millennials, but they might be in the house, one year, two years, maybe five is like a long time. It's more of a, a house for the chapter I'm living in, as opposed to a forever home. And that's a big difference today.

Jason Muth: 27:09

That's also a big shift in the workplace, you know, in jobs, because I think that people in their 20s see one job as a pathway to the next job or the next job. And I don't think they're wrong with that. Like, I think that you know, work is kind of a series of gigs, sometimes they're six months, sometimes they're 10 years, you know, you made a great point, gone are the days where you buy a home, or you start a career and you work 45 years in that career, or you live 45 years in that home. And then that's your life. And granted, my parents live in the same house that I grew up in, they're still there, they bought it in the early 70s. Rory, his mother is retiring from a job that she's been in for many, many decades, very proud to be retiring from it. And that's just what you did, right? That's what you do, right. And today, it's very, very different. So, you know, I've even talked to people at my you know, my job job, like a full time job is a little bit separate from working with, we're in the real estate side. And, you know, they want to get their first place, but they're looking for their forever home immediately. And I'm like, Man, you got to buy a couple places leading up to that. So you could actually keep them and get some income generating to then go buy the big place afterward. But they're not seeing that. It is a big shift in mindset, though. And you know, if you, you know, if you're working with buyers of all different types, you know, it's understanding that the world around us is shifting and behavior shifting. The gig economy is big. The work from home, you know, that we've all been going through the past couple years has changed the mindset of how people want, you know, want a workspace that they also live in, or a live space that they also work in, you know, depends on how you see it. How does some of that and you made a great point about building the team. And I think that we should probably dig into that a touch because Rory and I were just having this conversation yesterday. Well, it was more like me just talking and he was driving but shocker. But we I was reflecting on having moved to Boston 20 years ago and how I came about finding my first condo and how I got lucky kind of getting into a really hot neighborhood that I still live in today. But I didn't know anyone in real estate up here. So I asked my uncle in Rhode Island if he knew people in this market, and he referred me within his network and then I didn't know a mortgage broker. So he talked to his wife, my aunt, and she got me set up with her bank. On I went. but I went into it woefully unprepared. I had no network where, you know, I didn't know anybody that I needed to talk to. I didn't even know who I should have talked to and I was 27 years old. What are you finding today's buyers to be in your opinion, like do you think they're coming to you with that list? Super prepared. Here's my team, or are they coming to you saying like, I don't even know where to start D'Nette? Can you help me?

D'Nette Wood: 29:53

Truly they're coming in. I don't know where to start. And these are professional people. These are not you know, just out of high school, they're professionals, they are well on their way in their in their careers, but it's just not something that they needed to learn or needed to know. They're, they're definitely willing and able to do the research and find the person. But it's definitely something that they just didn't feel like they were in that time in their life that they needed it. So, you know, when we're looking at between 25 and 30 years old, you've got a car, you've, you've starting to have stuff, but I don't think until you have that house, you really feel like you're grown up, and you have this responsibility or this asset, where you really have to seek getting those professional people, it's no fun necessarily to seek out all of the the people to put your team together. But if you look at it from a business standpoint, you do it as part of the process. Because that's just, that's just part of the process. So it's, I think it's my job or my place to say, because we're out buying a house, and it has these scenarios to it. And this what if this happens, you know, you're a newly married couple, and what if something happens to you guys, at the same time, the person that has to pick up the pieces, you want to do them a favor, and that's what I told my daughter, if something happens to you do me a favor, just be organized. So if I pick up a file, I know what to do. Because the truth of the matter is, I've got to leave my world, I've got to go in and now put another job on top of my job to handle somebody's estate. And you're already dealing with grief and and all of the other things that go along. So, you know, estate planning is, is not just for you, it's really for the people that you love. And accountant, you know, you don't have to have an accountant, I think there's lots of great tools that can help you figure that out. But having a seasoned mortgage loan officer that can help you put those scenarios together, that's really that first step of importance.

Jason Muth: 32:19

You know, you're highlighting a lot of the benefits of working with somebody who's a real estate professional. You mentioned earlier about working with a realtor, someone part of the National Association of Realtors, I know Rory, you require that of your agents, right?

Rory Gill: 32:36

It shows a level of commitment as well. You know, the culture that of real estate professionals varies state to state. And I find that one, you know, one of the detriments we have here is that we have a lot of uncommitted real estate agents who are not members of the realtor Association. And if you're not willing to take that basic step, it shows to me that you're not necessarily committed to growing and learning and to thinking of this as a real profession. And that's kind of the bare minimum, at the very least in order to be able to give advice to people in this competitive market. I mean, other agents can get lucky, other agents can find other ways about going things. But if you're not willing to take the basic step as a red flag to me,

Jason Muth: 33:22

Well, great. Well, I you know, did that is there anything that you want us to talk about that we haven't talked about today? I know that you mentioned earlier that you're working on some educational videos, or you mentioned that when we were emailing back and forth? Can you tell us a little bit about what what that project is?

D'Nette Wood: 33:37

It started with the pandemic, you know, we got shut down. And I was in this place of how am I going to meet with my customers, and we're talking about zoom, et cetera. And then I mentioned that I you know, I have a film background. So it was a it was a great segue for me to just make my little mini movies on subjects that are important, just like this one. So whether it's a 30-second Why online values in New Mexico are wrong, because we're a non disclosure state as a little video, or you know what to look for an investment house, I find that these little YouTube channel short videos, it's like having a discussion with my client at my desk, but I can't have that discussion at my desk. So if I send them an email, I can put one of those little nuggets in there and say, check out this little video. It might, you know, spur some questions next time we meet. So I've really, I really enjoyed making them because the customers have come back and said how much they love them and how much they appreciate them. Just like a podcast. It's information that is very specific to the Answer that you're seeking.

Jason Muth: 35:01

Well, we will definitely put a link to the YouTube channel in the show notes for this because there's some really great educational videos there. We watched a couple of them earlier and you obviously come across well on camera because you have a background in doing this. I mean, you said you you have your sag card is the reason I do. Yeah. So you could be in the union. Are you in the I am

D'Nette Wood: 35:21

in the union? Yeah. You are.

Jason Muth: 35:23

Okay. Are you on IMDB?

D'Nette Wood: 35:26

I am!

Jason Muth: 35:27

I did not find that website. So we have to go. We'll have to go. Haha, yeah,

D'Nette Wood: 35:31

you can see me as a bad guy. I got my SAG card. Probably when I was on a television series called In Plain Sight. I was Lola the assassin? Yeah, I was tough. In Plain Sight, probably was here for like, four seasons, it was a really great show. Was it USA? I think it was actually, because I think I remember that. So you know, I don't have a huge, you know, portfolio of film, because I've always stayed in Albuquerque. But it's been a pleasure. And it's super fun. And, you know, Betty White has laid the path for me. So I can do this till I'm 100

Jason Muth: 36:18

I hope she's laid the path for all of us. You know, they I said this in another episode. But you know, the person that's going to live to 125 years old is alive today. Right? You know, science probably has a newborn, that is going to make it that far. So you know, it's probably not gonna be me, but maybe it'll be you. How do you think your background in film, acting, be on camera helps your career in real estate?

D'Nette Wood: 36:42

One of the things I think it has really helped with is empathizing with my customers, as a creative artist person, you know, with using that side of my brain, I really empathize with my customer, I, I want to help them. So I put myself in their shoes, you know, if it were me what I do, because they're always going to come back and say, What would you do? Well, what would I do? Empathy, I think is, is good. The other thing is, I love my listings, it is an opportunity for me to create a story based around the character of the home. So that's been really fun. And I have stepped up my game to create some interesting videos. And and working on that and virtual tours and talking about the house. So really, the background has helped me with my listings. And it's been a lot of fun because they are like, They're like mini movies now.

Jason Muth: 37:48

Do you have a producer that you work with? That specializes in real estate?

D'Nette Wood: 37:55

I'm a solopreneur It's my new buzzword. I'm a solopreneur Yeah, I'm, I am the janitor, the CEO and the lighting tech and the star of my own

Jason Muth: 38:05

show control yourself. If you screw it up, then you know, you can fire yourself from it and go find somebody that can do it for you. But you know, it's that's a great attitude to have. So let's get into our final wrap up and then I'd love to find out about how people can get a hold of you if if they're in Albuquerque and or New Mexico and want to work with you at Sotheby's D'Nette, or if they just have questions about anything that we've talked about, you know, we'll talk we'll put all those in the show notes. You could tell us after our final three questions, but, you know, we ask these questions of all the guests that come on our podcast just as a way to, you know, tie up the conversation and leave on a light note. So the first question is, if you had to speak for 30 minutes on stage with zero preparation, just get up and talk because you know the subject so well. What would that be? Not real estate.

D'Nette Wood: 38:56

Teaching your kids how to budget money.

Jason Muth: 39:01

Do they like it when you talk about that with them?

D'Nette Wood: 39:04

A choice. My kids. It's like living with Doris Day. And Tony Robbins. Like I get up singing I you know, I was a trained vocalist. So I get up like Doris Day, good morning. And then I'm like, Alright, let's get our goals together for the week where we add on this, you know, the application for scholarship. They can't help it. But really budgeting. That's a painful, yet important gift that I think every parent needs to help their kids understand. And it came from, you know, it came from the recession and being broke, where I had to really sit down and look at real numbers. But it's better now because knowing your numbers relieves stress and gives you control over your life.

Jason Muth: 39:53

I wasn't going to bring up your singing but you did. And I found that on on on Google when I was doing some research before this. So there are are some videos of you singing? They're lovely. Thank you. So the second question, tell us something that happened earlier in your life that affects the way that you're working today.

D'Nette Wood: 40:14

Gosh, the scarring recession, I keep going back to that, and I'm sorry, it's not, you know, some happy Well, I won the lottery, and it changed my life when the recession hit. And it was, in retrospect, you know, certainly a learning experience, I had millions of dollars worth of deals in my pipeline. And over the course of about six weeks, they just all stopped, everything terminated, and all of a sudden, I had absolutely no money coming in. That will change your life. And now, I have designed my life differently. I have a lot more savings, you know, that six months savings to get you through the rough patch. Who would have known it would be you know, like, six years. But, and, and then definitely being able to pivot that's, like two lessons that I really learned of budgeting, looking at your financial structure for when there are emergencies or problems, and being able to pivot. That's where that lifelong learning comes from. You got to keep educating yourself to be on the cutting edge. You know,

Jason Muth: 41:29

we've had the recession come up frequently in in our discussions on this podcast, and I'm not surprised to hear, you know, you bring that up, or surprised to hear how you came out of it. Because, you know, I lived through it through a couple quick job losses. There were, you know, I had a very punctuate when Rory and I met, like, he thought that I was a deadbeat because I had six months in a job for seven months. And I'm like, I was coming off, you know, working somewhere for nine years. And then three years and the company went out of business, and then it was a couple, you know, stops starts and, you know, now now I'm back, you know, with with two companies for just over a decade, , which is kind of how I like my, you know, my work-work to be. But it was tough. It was a tough period. And and you know, the pivoting the people that pivoted out of that it had a good mindset and said, Okay, let me let me bunker down, let me get my finances in order. Let me figure out what I have to do to evolve. And then I'm going to come out of this thing better than I was going into it. Those are the successful ones today. I mean, like the seeds that you planted just over 10 years ago, you know, have grown and grown and grown. And that's probably why you're in a much better position today than, you know, just after the recession, you know, with the pipeline, like just completely clearing up, we could relate to that after the pandemic with 2020. When everything shut down, we operate a couple Airbnbs. I had full summers of people. And I gotta tell you that everybody cancelled because they had to, right? No one was moving around. I couldn't rent I wasn't legally allowed to one of our places. And I looked at those things and said, Whoa, like, I got some mortgage payments coming up, and I had full calendars in the busiest season just completely evaporate. You know, so what do you do? And you pivot? Right? You figure it out? That's great advice. I'm really glad you brought that up. And finally, what are you watching or reading or listening to these days being that you are a cultured woman, performer, singer, actor, there's got to be something that's high on your list.

D'Nette Wood: 43:33

Two things completely unrelated. I'm a big Taylor Sheridan fan. I think he's good writer. I'm watching 1883 with Tim McGraw and Faith Hill, Faith Hill saying back up on my demo when I was in Nashville, and then we went pool two different ways. So I think she's fabulous. She's definitely come out as really a celebrity. I mean, she's already celebrity. Now she's a great actress. So lots of lots of love for the show. The other thing that I'm really trying to wrap my hands around my head around is cryptocurrency. And where that's going to go, my kids are, you know, helping me by sending me podcasts and things like that. I will say my light bulb hasn't quite burned brightly on it. Still kind of, you know, I'm kind of still a bricks and mortar person when I touch it, feel it. But I think it's here to stay. It's not going away. And so I'm trying to see how it's going to be coming into my life for real estate. I've gotten one call from a buyer that said "Will your seller accept cryptocurrency?" And it just like, you know, blows my head. I don't even know how to put that together. But I'm gonna learn.

Jason Muth: 44:54

Yeah, you're talking to two people that talk about crypto a lot. And you know, there's two different mindsets. that's on this call with it. Yeah, that's a whole another episode. I got I got a bunch of I have a lot of crypto not a lot of crypto but I have plenty of crypto, I have NF T's I've read up on the space a lot, I get it on the surface, I think I started getting it because I decided to, like remove all reason and say to myself, Okay, let me accept the degree of absurdity with everything that's happening in the world and then the world of crypto and then learn about it and then just jump in, you know, kind of head first. And I did last year. I mean, I was buying like a little bit of Bitcoin here and there just a couple years ago, just just doing it like as a joke, and then I realized it was actually worse. I even told Rory, I'm like you should take all your fees in Bitcoin. I said that to you a couple years ago. I'm like, you know, as a joke.

Rory Gill: 45:49

But all you do is you just convert it into dollars. That's that's how it works. But it's I'm the one who calls NF T's digital Beanie Baby. So don't don't don't take advice from me. On that, yes, I could talk about the value. Let's see. We'll see how well that comment ages over a couple of years. But did that

Jason Muth: 46:05

I'm really glad that you're reading up on that because you are right to be looking into that space, especially with the metaverse, that is probably something we're not going to joke about in a couple years. But right now it just sounds you know, a little absurd and buying virtual real estate and buying real real estate with virtual currency. I mean, these are words that probably would have never been heard a podcast a couple years ago. And here we are. If only that Faith Hill had done something in the real estate world, she would have been successful, right?

D'Nette Wood: 46:35

Yeah, I look where we're at today. When I was a kid, one of my favorite cartoons was the Jetsons George Jetson? No, and he'd go to work and talk to his boss and he'd have like that cardboard. And now here we are. George Jetson world. Interesting thing happened here in Albuquerque, the Bernalillo County got a malware attack, and they shut down the county. So you couldn't research property taxes, you couldn't record your deeds, it that's another thing that's happening, right? Is we're all on the web, and how that's gonna affect our business.

Jason Muth: 47:10

Yeah, that book is being written as we speak in real time. We'll circle back on that and see what happens, you know, with more malware attacks, but cybersecurity is a huge, huge industry these days. And you add actual physical currency and real life issues, you know, with power grids going down that kind of thing. If you've ever watched Do you ever watch 911? Or what's that show? Yes, of course. Love 911 Yeah, there was like an episode of like, how there's this complete failure of all this in Los Angeles, right? Yeah, of course. All the systems went down at the same time an entire city, you know, some calamity that got solved in 60 minutes.

D'Nette Wood: 47:49

Do you watch 911 Austin?

Jason Muth: 47:51

Yes, I do. I'm not caught up on the current episodes. But yes, I we love them both. I like them because it's mindless you watch it. You know, it's at the end of it. You know, you kind of have come to a conclusion in 60 minutes, you know, is a recipe there is yeah, if your kid screaming in the background or you have to like run down the hall you come back 10 minutes later, you know exactly where you are. I do think that the the uniforms that they were are just like three sizes too tight. Not super surprised by that. I don't remember all firemen wearing uniforms like that

D'Nette Wood: 48:26

Don't be dissing on my show. Now. There's a good movie that was filmed in New Mexico called Silk Road interested in cryptocurrency. So if you get to check out that movie, I think it was interesting about the dark web gives you a little background of you know, crypto means secrets. So I don't know how you're learning about secret,

Jason Muth: 48:45

Right? Yeah, I'm learning about what they want me to learn about. Secrets. Yes. So did that we really enjoyed this conversation. Thank you for for joining us here on the real estate law podcast. Can you let everyone who's listening? Let us know where we can find you.

D'Nette Wood: 48:59

So great. I love to talk real estate. I'm always up for up for that conversation. So I'm at www.dnettewood.com which is hard to spell but you can find it and then I have the YouTube channel. I'm here in Albuquerque 505-463-2910

Jason Muth: 49:16

And you're also on IMDb so we could watch some film credits. Yes. Rory, where can we find you?

Rory Gill: 49:23

Easy to find. Just look for me at UrbanVillage Legal, www.urbanvillagelegal.com or www.nexthometitletown.com.

Jason Muth: 49:32

And Rory is not on IMDb?

Rory Gill: 49:34

No, I am not.

Jason Muth: 49:36

Nor is there singing of you online. There will never be

D'Nette Wood: 49:40

Yes, I can change all that. We can tell you Don't

Rory Gill: 49:43

Be careful what you wish for in that one. So

Jason Muth: 49:45

you don't want that. You don't want that. But you know what, hey, maybe she could teach you how to sing. Alright, that's the test. All right. My name is Jason Muth once again, we really appreciate your listening to the real estate law podcast. If you've made it this far in the episode. Maybe you've liked what you've heard. So Perhaps you could subscribe to this or you can give it a thumbs up or like it or comment wherever you're hearing it or give us a review because all those things help more people experience the content of the real estate law podcast. So on behalf of Rory, thank you so much. And thank you for listening.

Announcer: 50:19

This has been the real estate law podcast. Because real estate is more than just pretty pictures. And law goes well beyond the paperwork and courtroom arguments. were powered by next home Titletown greater Boston's progressive real estate brokerage. More at next home titletown.com and urban village legal, Massachusetts real estate Council serving savvy property owners, lenders and investors. More at urban village legal.com Today's conversation was not legal advice, but we hope you found it entertaining and informative. Discover more at real estate law podcast.com Thank you for listening