Next Level Agents: The Kevin & Fred Show - Interviews with the best and brightest minds in the real estate industry

In Today’s Episode, We Talk About; - John’s journey as an entrepreneur prior to real estate and starting Yodle at 21. - Exiting Yodle and the importance of being led by value not the goal to exit the business. - Entrepreneurial PTSD and the challenges founders face - The journey of OJOLabs and why John chose it as his next venture after Yodle.- The difference between real AI and what people say AI is.- Scaling and its connection to a lack of entrepreneurial desire. - What John is excited about, what he has changed his mind on and something surprising about him. - The value of earned trust, and why it’s what makes a real difference in business. What doesn’t exist today is a consumer trusting a product or company  Guest Info John Berkowitz is the Co-founder and CEO of OJO Labs, an Austin-based company that has quickly become a leader in conversational AI technology. With the application of its patented AI, OJO empowers people to make better decisions through the fusion of machine and human intelligence by automating lead conversations for agents and creating data-driven, personalized experiences for consumers. John’s track record of building and scaling successful, mission-driven technology companies with award-winning workplaces paved the way for the formation of OJO in 2015. John’s dedication toward building a positive work environment led to OJO being named to Comparably’s 2018 Best Company Culture list, and Built In Austin’s Best Places to Work in 2019.  Prior to founding OJO, John co-founded Yodle, and was instrumental in building it into a $200M+ revenue leader in the online marketing space with more than 50,000 SMB customers and over 1,400 employees. In February 2016, Yodle was acquired by Web.com in a $342 million all cash transaction. Recently, John was named to Swanepoel’s SP200 and The Most Powerful Technology Executives in The Residential Real Estate Brokerage Industry list. John is actively involved in nonprofits, and currently serves as CASA’s board president, using his entrepreneurial background and resources to fight for the welfare of children in the communities he operates in.

All successful realtors have one thing in common.   For most of us, we learned this lesson early on...   For others. It took longer!    The good news is, that you can choose to dive into this today and see yourself up for success.

Homesnap’s “Pro” product   Homesnap has a new service that crunches data to show which homes in a neighborhood are the most likely to be listed for sale in the next 12 months.   The platform uses an algorithm that crunches millions of records, including MLS data, to come up with a “Likelihood to List” score. The service, available only to licensed agents, shows a “heat map” of neighborhoods color-coded to zero in on the homes most likely to go on the market.   Americans are equity-rich as home values rise   More than a quarter of mortgaged homes had an LTV lower than 50%   Almost 15 million homes in the U.S. were equity-rich in the fourth quarter, meaning their mortgages were 50% or less of their estimated market value, according to ATTOM Data Solutions.   Equity-rich properties were 27% of all mortgaged homes, matching the share in the prior quarter, the report said. About 3.5 million homes with a mortgage were seriously underwater, meaning the loan exceeded the value of the property by 25% or more.   That figure represented 6.4% of all U.S. properties with a mortgage, down from 6.5% in the third quarter. Among 8,262 U.S. zip codes, there were 451 zip codes where at least half of all properties with a mortgage were equity rich, ATTOM said.   Where are the highest equity levels? The San Francisco Bay area.   Boston had the highest equity-rich share in the Northeast, at 35.6%. Dallas, led the South, at 36.5%, and Grand Rapids, Michigan, led in the Midwest, at 27.4%.     African American homeownership lowest since 1968 — when Fair Housing Act passed: NAR official .   At a time when housing prices continue to climb and affordability continues to dwindle, the National Association of Realtors (NAR) is eyeing ways to diminish the racial homeownership gap.   “In 2020, there is still a persistent gap in homeownership rates between whites, African Americans, Hispanic Americans and Asian Americans,” Bryan Greene, NAR’s director of Fair Housing policy, said Thursday at the association’s second annual policy forum in Washington, D.C. “We’ve seen homeownership rates among racial groups steadily rise, but I think many of us would have expected rates to have risen more,” Greene added. “We did see that happen for a period from the early 90s to the early part of this century, but dramatically, at least for African Americans, we started to see that homeownership rate decline — so much so that last year the homeownership rate for African Americans dipped below the rate in 1968 when the Fair Housing Act was passed.”  

About the Episode On this episode, I’m joined by Arizona native, broker, and real estate tech entrepreneur Kyle Wyloge. What’s unique about Kyle’s story in real estate that it is his first and only career, and his career has evolved and taken on many iterations to get him to where he is today. He has used every market shift as a learning opportunity, and through his own business need observed a gap in the market he could fill with the new data project he has developed, Ivy.   Software is the most valuable thing on earth right now, and by connecting software and real estate, Kyle has uncovered a highly in-demand product that can benefit our entire industry.   Growing the user base of 700 customers in 9 months just shows how well his brainchild is catching on.   Kyle is the owner and partner of The Momentum Group; which includes a real estate brokerage, property management company, development company, and a real estate investment fund. His responsibilities range from project marketing, property underwriting, project development, fund management and oversight of the growth and stability of the companies.     In Today’s Episode, We Talk About; - Why real estate appealed to Kyle and how his business evolved through the different phases of real estate. - The Phoenix market in the REO days - Investing in property in Colorado - How to go directly to the seller for your acquisition on the investment side - Ivy and the power of having data and the right information on who you’re calling - Who is Ivy for and how has it evolved. - What Kyle is excited about currently, what he has changed his mind about recently and something cool about him.   Guest Info   Kyle is a broker, investor, real estate tech entrepreneur and the founder of Ivy.   Website: getivydata.com Contact: kyle@getivydata.com

Lets talk about the Pipeline...   Not that thing you surf... but that the thing that tells you where your next paycheck is coming from...

Homelight Cash Close   Today we announced the launch of HomeLight Cash Close, the first program on the market — designed for you, the agent — enabling your clients to maximize their home sale while removing many of the painful contingencies they experience today. Cash Close includes two sister products aimed at dramatically simplifying the real estate transaction, HomeLight Trade-In and HomeLight Cash Offer.   HomeLight Trade-In You know better than anyone: Buying and selling a house at the same time is a logistical nightmare. HomeLight solves this for its agent partners by purchasing their client's home at a guaranteed price and providing immediate liquidity to put toward their next house.   Agent partners who have access to this invitation-only product can earn commission on both the purchase of the client's new home and on the sale of their old one. And the client receives 100% of the upside from the sale of their property. Unlike other iBuying and trade-in solutions, this enables the homeowner to fully maximize their home's value. HomeLight Cash Offer   HomeLight uses its own cash to purchase homes on behalf of your qualified clients and transfers ownership once their mortgage closes. This product has already helped multiple home buyers and agents win negotiations at competitive prices due to the strength of the cash-backed offer.   Interested in learning more? Check out Inman's coverage of our announcement and visit HomeLight Cash Close for all the details. We can't wait for you to be part of our vision of a world where every real estate transaction is simple, certain, and satisfying.       Mortgage rates fall to the second-lowest level in three years This week, the average U.S. fixed rate for a 30-year mortgage averaged 3.51%, dropping to the second-lowest level in three years.   The pace is now 95 basis points below the 4.46% rate of the same week last year, according to the Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Market Survey.       Compass shuffles support staff, anticipates dozens of layoffs A Compass source told Inman the company still has no current plans for an IPO, although it's not off the table. The reshuffling will likely result in the loss of several dozen jobs at the growing company, according to a Compass source who indicated that the brokerage is currently advertising approximately 300 job openings — after hiring more than 80 new employees in January alone — and plans to increase its total headcount each month.   According to the survey, the 15-year FRM averaged 3% this week, sliding from last week’s rate of 3.04%. During the same time period in 2019, the 15-year FRM came in at 3.89%