00:56:39 · Jordi Hays, Thomas Wright, John Coogan
[00:56:39] S0: That's great. Amazing. What were the stops along the way to Utah? [00:56:44] S3: You know, I was born and raised in Utah. I am a native Utah. Not... A lot of people have come here. They call it home now Utah's experienced tremendous growth, but I was born and raised here. I did go to high school back east, lived in DC and spent some time in Southern California. But yeah, I've always been in Utah. [00:57:00] S0: But with with with Sotheby's, was it... You you you said you'd helped build out a few different offices? Or did I hear that wrong? [00:57:11] S3: Sorry, you just broke up a little bit. [00:57:13] S0: You said with Sotheby's you had helped set up a handful of regional offices. So where were those? All within Utah or outside of the state? [00:57:23] S3: No. In Colorado, many of the resort markets of Colorado and in particular, on the Front Range, also in Boise, Sun Valley, Reno, and Lake Tahoe, Las Vegas, the desert, the Coachella Valley Of California, and then the Central Coast California from San Luis Obispo to Ventura. [00:57:41] S1: And and and can you, help explain just the structure of Sotheby's and how you fit into that as, like, a CEO and there's an affiliate? Like, where... What is the structure of the corporation? Because it doesn't seem like you're just, like, a rank and file employee of a large corporation like so many other institutions.
00:57:41 · John Coogan, Thomas Wright
[00:57:41] S1: And and and can you, help explain just the structure of Sotheby's and how you fit into that as, like, a CEO and there's an affiliate? Like, where... What is the structure of the corporation? Because it doesn't seem like you're just, like, a rank and file employee of a large corporation like so many other institutions. [00:57:59] S3: No. Really good question. Yeah. So it's it's a it's a franchise model. It's thought to be started... They had the idea that if we were gonna help people sell Rembrandts at the auction house, that we should be able to help them sell their real estate. [00:58:11] S1: Sure. [00:58:11] S3: So in 1976, the auction house owned and operated different markets around the country. Some of the higher end markets like Manhattan and Palm Beach, Sun Valley, Jackson Hole. And then in about the year 2000, they decided that it was better to franchise the opportunities to people in local markets that knew the markets that were locally connected and had the entrepreneurial spirit that could build and grow those businesses in those luxury markets. [00:58:36] S1: Yeah. [00:58:36] S3: And so that's where it all started. And since then, it's become fully subscribed across the country and leads the way in the luxury real estate space. [00:58:44] S1: And then what is what is your business look like, your day to day look like? How much of it is recruiting and managing talent under you versus actually interfacing with clients, selling properties yourself? Is it a hybrid? What's the what's the balance there?
00:58:44 · John Coogan, Thomas Wright
[00:58:44] S1: And then what is what is your business look like, your day to day look like? How much of it is recruiting and managing talent under you versus actually interfacing with clients, selling properties yourself? Is it a hybrid? What's the what's the balance there? [00:58:59] S3: Yeah. It's been a hybrid for me. I I love the sales. I still maintain a very active sales business in the state of Utah. I think that's made me a better leader. It's allowed me to understand the changes that have happened in the luxury real estate space as well as the general real estate market. It's kept me connected to building the services, that our real estate brokers utilize in their everyday businesses to give our customers the best possible experience. In yesteryear, real estate brokers kinda tried to do everything themselves. They were kinda the jack of all trades and master of none. Now the industry has become much more sophisticated. Yeah. They have a lot more sophisticated people selling. The businesses are sophisticated. The assets are obviously worth a lot more than they've ever been. And so you see brokerages like Sotheby's International Realty that builds a full service model to support those agents in their transaction management, videography, digital media, advertising campaigns, and evaluating the asset and making sure that the contracts are set up, right? And there's good risk management for the clients. [00:59:59] S1: So what is the... Oh, sorry, Jordy.
00:59:59 · John Coogan, Jordi Hays, Thomas Wright
[00:59:59] S1: So what is the... Oh, sorry, Jordy. [01:00:00] S0: Yeah. I wanted to jump right in. I want to talk about the market overall at a high level, and then I want to go into some of these sub markets and, you know, we'll talk about Utah, but what you're seeing across the Western resorts markets. [01:00:14] S3: Sorry. You broke up again. I don't know if it's me or the connection. I'm sorry. [01:00:18] S0: So so let's talk about the market overall right now. We're well aware that pending home sales are at their lowest level since it sounds like you started at at or even lower than when you started at Sotheby's back Yeah. In the
01:00:18 · Jordi Hays, Thomas Wright
[01:00:18] S0: So so let's talk about the market overall right now. We're well aware that pending home sales are at their lowest level since it sounds like you started at at or even lower than when you started at Sotheby's back Yeah. In the [01:00:32] S3: Overall real estate market is it's very tricky. In the k shaped economy that we live in, there's a there's a... There's really become two different real estate markets. There's the general real estate market, and there's a luxury real estate market. And the luxury real estate market has really surged forward. I mean, you have now the upper 1%. I was just looking in the Sotheby's Luxury Outlook report represents $54,000,000,000,000 And they are looking for more than just real estate. They're looking for lifestyle, time with family. They're looking for unique experiences. And the general real estate market has kind of separated itself from the luxury market. The way we evaluate properties, the way we market and expose luxury properties is very different than what we do in the general real estate market. And for example, one of the big things is privacy and security. That's become a real thing in the AI age. People at the top of the market don't want their, you know, photos broadcast all over the Internet for the general real estate market because the buyers for their property are a unique set of people.
01:00:32 · Thomas Wright, John Coogan
[01:00:32] S3: Overall real estate market is it's very tricky. In the k shaped economy that we live in, there's a there's a... There's really become two different real estate markets. There's the general real estate market, and there's a luxury real estate market. And the luxury real estate market has really surged forward. I mean, you have now the upper 1%. I was just looking in the Sotheby's Luxury Outlook report represents $54,000,000,000,000 And they are looking for more than just real estate. They're looking for lifestyle, time with family. They're looking for unique experiences. And the general real estate market has kind of separated itself from the luxury market. The way we evaluate properties, the way we market and expose luxury properties is very different than what we do in the general real estate market. And for example, one of the big things is privacy and security. That's become a real thing in the AI age. People at the top of the market don't want their, you know, photos broadcast all over the Internet for the general real estate market because the buyers for their property are a unique set of people. [01:01:30] S1: So how does that match against, needing to promote properties through Instagram carousels and reels and bringing influencers in? It feels like the promotional machine around some of these properties is incredibly robust. What are are there? Is there a trade off there or or is there a strategy for that balancing act?