c21 In the Afternoon! Special Guest: Mike Miedler CEO and President of CENTURY 21

I've ever been in a cave before their first time all right are you going I'll see you at the car how will we your offers been accepted never bought a house before it's our first time all right are you going I'll see you at the closing but how will we the closet

Hey good afternoon everybody. You just outdid yourself. I'm so excited. I'm actually a little nervous because we have a really great guest on here. We're gonna talk for a little bit. I guess I started to file into the room but we're very excited today. We have the president and CEO of Century 21 joining us, Michael. He's already in the waiting room, he's just listening with his earbuds in, and I think he's up in New Jersey right now. So what's going on? Do you know what's happening today?

I know, I'm really excited. I know that you met Mike when you were out there at a 121 event, and I feel like I know him because we've been doing that. Corporate has done such a fabulous job with the broker huddles and the workplace and getting out so much information. So I think that I've been on a webinar with him once or twice a week for the past probably. One of the most approachable people in the world. I met him out in La Quinta and I feel like I'm talking right in front of me because he said let's just bring him in.

Are you up in New Jersey?

I am, I am. And believe it or not, you know they say in New Jersey April showers bring May flowers, but we've actually got sunshine today which I'm really thankful. I am a little colder here than it is down there, but happy to be with you guys, David and Dana. Thanks so much for having me on.

No, it's really you know I think it's amazing that for such a big company that we're able to have such direct contact with the folks that really have a say, you know, make our decisions and all that. So it's great to have you here. So let me say, and we're gonna start with some questions here. I have my questions written down. One of my neighbors actually wrote me some questions. She found she saw me on House Hunters many years ago, I moved her into the neighborhood, now she follows us up. So it says, let's see here: what do you know about mortgage companies being under different guidelines to accommodate for the fact that most people haven't worked in six months? Have you heard anything about that?

So I think there's a lot going on in the mortgage world right now. I think I just saw yesterday that NAR was kind of making an appeal to FHA and Fannie and Freddie about guidelines and restrictions, and you know trying to keep money really loose and flowing into the real estate community. And I think the mortgage companies have to do what they believe is right so that people can obviously pay on their mortgages and do everything they need to run their businesses. But I do think that there's kind of a fine line and a balance, and we're in uncertain times right now, David. So I think the mortgage companies are trying to figure it out. And what's great is that this industry is really coming together to find out what the right solutions are for home buyers and sellers as well as business, because we don't want to put people in mortgages that they can't afford or otherwise be able to service, and we want to make sure that we're setting people up for success and getting them the money they need for when the right time to purchase a home is. So I think the great news is you see the industry really coming together to work with one another to make sure that we're doing the right things.

I hope so. I mean we've been very lucky I think at least with our office that we have. We've slowed down a little bit, but other than one or two deals most everything has been, it may have been pushed a little bit, but overall our buyers have been able to complete their transactions and we're still getting loans out there, we're still able to show homes cautiously and with everything. Oh I got to show you this, I'll be able to see it or not. One of our agents this is a house of brilliant turning it on my feet yesterday.

And look guys, first of all, first and foremost I always say I think the people are the most important part and probably the best part of the Century 21 brand. And first of all, thank you. I know you guys have been with the Century 21 brand for so long and have been servicing home buyers and sellers down in the Florida marketplace, Central Florida, for many many years. And so I appreciate you guys stepping up into this elevator leadership and ownership role inside the organization. But also wanted to thank you for what you're doing for bringing information and news to not just your salespeople but the community at large, which I think is probably the most important thing we can do as real estate professionals, as people serving the community. And for you guys to be doing this is fantastic.

And you know I just think it's a great value to everybody. We're having fun doing it too. I mean actually we started out as a women and started out with Dana being on Facebook and I was like Dana I want to be on Facebook with you but she was hogging the screen so I figured out right here and we kind of created a little studio and we've had our personal trainers, our lenders, our title companies and everybody that wants to come on board. So it's been a lot of fun.

But so think about how far ahead you guys are right. I mean this is like the new day and age. Like as of six weeks ago this is the way people are communicating, but you guys have been doing it forever right? You've embraced technology, you can trace the new worlds right?

Well it was luckily we did. I was reading something the other day that just said you know a month and a half ago we didn't know what Zoom was and it's our daily lifestyle now. But I just want to follow up with what you said Mike in terms of this really has come from the top down and that's what good leadership is all about. Right at the very beginning, Jared James who is a longtime supporter of Century 21, great guy, I was watching a facilitated Century 21 thing with him and he just kind of challenged us, get the content out, do all that. And I was like okay I gotta grab it by the strap so we just got to go out to our agents. And you're right, it is all about the people and it's all about taking care of our people so they can go out and take care of the people in the communities. So thanks for your leadership.

Top-down, it may absolutely. I appreciate that. And I started off talking about that leadership by you guys putting safety first right? Safety's first and foremost for your sales professionals, for the people inside your organization, for the community, for the clients that you're serving. And I love the Century 21 mask, it's great branded mask. But that's first. And but there's still business to be done and that's what great leaders do is they instill that confidence by getting that knowledge and that power out there also. Thank you.

So we had a question from one of our agents actually, Deana Balls to Rack, she's been with us for quite some time and shared a question: can you foresee what our COVID protocol will be? Look into that crystal ball.

That's a really depends on where you are. So I'm here in New Jersey which is, you know New York New Jersey kind of been the epicenter for where a lot of what you see from a COVID numbers perspective. And we were probably, outside of California, the first ones really deep into this. I think what this unfortunate disease and pandemic is forcing us to be more effective and more efficient as an industry. We are in a very clunky industry, real estate in general. The way that you practice in Orlando is not necessarily the same way you practice in Miami or maybe even Jacksonville and certainly not in New Jersey. And I think that while we're very fragmented, this has given us the opportunity to kind of look at what we do as professionals and figure out how to do it better, how to do it more effectively, more efficiently. We were joking a little bit before about virtual home tours right? You guys have been way out in front of that and you're doing it every Thursday from what I understand. Century 21 just made that available on our century21.com global website so now you're able to post a virtual tour with whether it's gonna be your cell phone and doing it via video, whether it's through Facebook or an avenue like this, you're able to go out there and post it onto century21.com for the whole world to see. And I think that this is going to force us as professionals to be better and it's going to result in a better experience for the customer, for the end consumer. They're gonna have a better experience because we're stepping up our game here.

Yeah right. I also just loved that this has really kind of required all of us to get comfortable with video content and I think that's just going to lend itself even better for us being able to provide virtual but really personalized virtual experiences of homes. We may not feel comfortable or necessary to go and show 60 homes in person to our buyers anymore. It may be a situation where we do a lot more virtual. And obviously I think people probably before they make that final step are gonna want to see it in person, but I just think that we're getting a lot more content of the homes out there. But so important to have that interaction with the actual agent and for them to be there to facilitate that virtual experience but also to get additional information and of course to have all of the other information from mortgage to inspection to all that ready. So while we're going more virtual, we're still people.

Yeah absolutely. I'm very much a touching and feeling type person even when I shop for clothes or whatever it is, I like to feel and I like to be there. And certainly people and consumers are going to want to do that with the very biggest investment and very biggest purchase they make. Dana you made a great point. We become a lot more efficient. I've talked to agents who in some marketplaces it could take you an hour to an hour and 15, 20 minutes just to drive to a listing appointment. Or think about how many buyer's reps out there as you said are hitting three, four, five, ten houses over a weekend and it's like how much time they're spending in their car burning gas. There's a way to peruse the marketplace from a rational standpoint, offer all the value, and maybe clear out some of those houses or markets or neighborhoods we don't want to see and really dial into the markets we do or the homes we do. And look, I say this all the time: there's a hundred and eighty steps in the home buying and selling process from the time that you write an offer to the time that we hand those keys over to deliver that dream of homeownership. And to your point, there's so many ways that we're helping the consumer to navigate that. And one of the things I've been telling everybody is look, as real estate professionals our value is exponentially grown in the last six to eight weeks because there's a little bit of uncertainty, because the markets changing, because inventory is different, because prices are doing something different, because mortgage rates as you just mentioned earlier, just a little movement that we've had over the last few weeks that could add thousands and thousands of dollars of your purchasing power. It's that type of education we need to bring to our consumers. That's where our true value is. Our true value is in showing off a home, our true value is in navigating that hundred and eighty step process.

Yeah I had a quick question for you. It also relates to the one that's on the screen right now. One of the reasons when people ask me why am I a Century 21, I really love the technology and you mentioned the open house thing. Is there what other technology things that you're talking about that you think we elevate better than our competition?

Yeah I mean I think one of the great things that we've done just as a Century 21 brand and Dana mentioned it a little bit earlier is, and David you've heard me say that the best thing about the brand is the people. And we've been able to over the last six weeks bring in all types of folks from our industry, meaning as you said earlier Jared James and Mike Ferry and we've got Tom Ferry coming up and Dr. Lawrence Yun and Brian Buffini in the early part of May and so on and so forth. But we've also been able to collectively through Facebook Workplace share so many best practices, share so many great success stories, share a lot of what I would say was a very fast-moving change in what we do as professionals. We're out there first ones communicating with one another about how to go out and look at the CARES and PPP act for not just our broker owners but also for our 1099 sales professionals. We're the first excuse by the way. Yeah I mean look, it's literally taking the global network and the power and the knowledge that exists in it and wrapping them together just like you guys are doing right here for your community. We're able to do this across the globe. I mean just as a quick example, we had China on the phone kind of taking us through their CEO where we have 5,000 offices and 30,000 plus agents who went into this in January of this year and we're kind of slowly coming out of it while we were starting to go in, explaining to us what this was going to be like. And be able to leverage that knowledge and put together programs and training. Like right now we have this hundred day business planning session that's going on which we actually stole from the Chinese who put it together as they were coming out to get their sales professionals to focus on the little things that would help them still propel to their business plan and personal goals for the year. So I think there's a lot of different technologies and I say this all the time guys, any different brokerage across the country uses call it six to twelve different technologies to weave all together. And some sales professionals use it, some don't, some like it, some don't. At the end of the day if it makes you more effective and more efficient go out there and do it. And we've got so many that are available to you on century21.com. But at the end of the day really the power is in trying, is in the knowledge that we have as an organization, get everybody together and forcing people to be better and sharing those best practices. That's where I think the technology has been a big win for us in this type of connection.

The technology has been great. I know that some people have been talking about bringing, with our business builder platform and our as app kind of, I've heard maybe you can answer. I've heard something else out there in the works that's kind of to bring them together to kind of make them a little bit more user-friendly. That was from one of our agents here, I told him I would ask you.

So it's a great question. And so this is how I analogize it David. So as I said earlier, there's a lot of different technologies that are out there. In fact I go to NAR every year and if you walk up and down the NAR trade room floor year after year there's hundreds to thousands of technologies from the very start of the process meaning your CRM, your contact management, your database, all the way through closing documents and tools like Dotloop and Skyslope and all those types of transaction closing documents and then everything in between. And so what we are doing, what we're working on in partnership with Realogy our parent company, is a platform that will be an open architecture platform where essentially I analogize it to a dresser. Let's pretend you have a dresser in your bedroom and in one drawer you have the socks and another drawer your underwear, your t-shirts, your ties so on and so forth. So what this platform will be able to do, this open architecture platform, is allow us to take something great like Business Builder or something great like Zap and plug it into one of the dresser drawers. And then you can take things that you love to use locally or that work for you and your local marketplace or as part of your business strategy and put them in the other drawers as you see fit. And then allow the entire dresser to basically talk to one another from point A through point Z. So while a lot of our competitors are going out there saying hey we want the end-to-end platform, we already know that doesn't work. There's no two agents in the world who are gonna use the exact same things from one end of the spectrum to the other. It's just not common sense for the real estate industry. And again like I said, in one part of New Jersey there's a certain way to close deals and in southern part of New Jersey you close them completely different. You need two different technologies to do it, you need different parts of the process to do it. And it's just that's the way it is across marketplaces and across the United States. So we figured if we can make it through this kind of open architecture platform we will in the end give our sales professionals and their consumers more flexibility in the process.

That's huge. That's great. I'm very excited. I also wanted to touch on the fact that when you were talking about that you were reaching out to our fellow Century 21 people in China, that's just another amazing thing that I don't think it really kind of clicked with me yet that we have the ability to do as a global brand. And I think we're seeing how that's been just absolutely critical in the medical field to be able to have that preview of what's coming next. And having the global brand that we do, I'm thrilled that you guys are reaching out and we're really trying to get ready for what's coming. So are we hearing like what's the latest of what may be coming up?

When did a great question right? I mean because everybody's sitting saying how long does this take, when do we start getting on the other side. And as I said China who was literally the first one in and came out of it quicker explained four different phases. And I don't pretend to compare ourselves to China, we're just two different countries, two different sizes, two different people. But yet they are now seeing kind of the darker days past and more kind of velocity in their marketplace. If you look at a Knight Frank report saying that 30 of their largest metropolitan regions saw a considerable spike in the last 30 days in their residential home buying activity. I just read an article a little bit earlier today talking about how even Chinese citizens are now looking back overseas for purchasing in the US and the UK. I was on the phone earlier today with 18 of our global CEOs specifically from Portugal where he was talking about ancillary businesses and how to move into the mortgage space and what they've done there. And talking about how now parts of Europe are starting to see the inflection point and coming out of on the upper side of the hockey stick or the U or V or whatever you want to call it. So this too shall pass. I feel like we as a country kind of have seen the darkest points and are now kind of starting to inflect. I'm hearing about showings happening face-to-face again in California and closings all across the country. So as I said for us as real estate professionals, we've got to focus on the activities that we can control that we know that we can do. And to me that's as you guys said earlier, servicing your community, being in touch with your family, your friends, your sphere of influence. Because when this does pass, our value to our clients is gonna be this much higher than it was 60 days ago when the market was completely hot and people knew what the prices were. And there are still going to be people who need to buy and sell homes and we've got to be there for them.

Yeah I've heard of, I mean right some folks are concerned about there being more foreclosures because of this whole situation. Do you have you heard anything on along those lines?

No I have it but I mean just in the articles you read David, I've got to think that there's gonna be some type of spike in short sale or foreclosure. I mean Dr. Yun who is also gonna be, Dr. Yun who's the chief economist for NAR who was on one of our calls in early April who's also going to be on this Wednesday, he's gonna give us his latest update. But last time I talked to him two weeks ago he was expecting anywhere from a 20 to 30% off range in Q2. And whether that holds up or not I'm not sure. And then obviously he expects that to dissipate into Q3 and later on in Q4 expecting almost for our spring selling season to get pushed into the late summer. But one of the things he said, this is how you remind me, is that 90% of the jobs that you see lost right now that are furloughed that are not working, he expects 90% of them to recover within two to three months of this pandemic being suppressed. And so we think that it's going to come back and come back quickly. And that's the hope. But if people are losing jobs and not getting back to work, you're gonna see unfortunately probably some foreclosure activity. And we just got to be ready for that and be able to counsel those people who need to either move into something new or need to get a short sale or need maybe a short-term rental to be able to be there for them in the community.

Yeah we've got, I mean we're seeing about the whole penal ice Palmerton well you talking at the side of my head meaning we have a bigger concern is trying to reopen all of our theme parks. I mean I was talking to a friend of mine and it's not as simple as just flipping a switch because you have to think of how many people had it, how do you distance in a theme park, and even if you did that how can you possibly, it's just not as simple as opening up a theme park. So it's a lot going on and it's a little bit scary here but luckily we were I feel like we're on the right path.

Yeah I mean looking at, I think that for us for people in the real estate industry and we're talking right now about how we open our corporate offices. We have 280,000 square feet, over a thousand employees, and we're talking about what does that look like as we kind of move back into our new normal or new reality. Talking about how you keep people in their offices or in the cube six feet away from each other, need to be wearing masks in order to enter the building on days off days. So look, the travel and tourism industry and I know that Orlando area is a major maybe the biggest in the entire country, you rely upon that. I think that the good news about us as real estate professionals is that having a roof over your head I think will always be in style and we'll always be needed here. And that puts us at a good advantage. But it is gonna be interesting to see how some of those other things come back and whether that's sports or travel and entertainment and tourism, it's gonna be interesting to see how quickly the pendulum swings back to the other side where people are willing to jump on planes and get into hotel rooms.

Yeah I wanted to just briefly follow up with the distress property and know that not sure if it's a full corporate thing or one of our growth consultants was just reaching out to me and asked for me to be on a corporate board for distressed properties. We were I'm very I guess fortunate I don't know if that's the right word to use but back when everything went south back in 2009, 2010, 2011, we switched our game plan completely a professional group and we oversaw hundreds of short sales and foreclosures. And they have some really unique aspects to them and thankfully we haven't seen a whole lot of that for almost the past eight years. But I think that we will see, I hope in very small pockets, but we are huge proponents of doing short sales well so as to benefit everyone who's having to deal with the situation. My heart just goes out to sellers who find themselves in that type of situation. I myself have even experienced that at one point. So I'm glad that corporate is being proactive with this and really putting together because I know just with one of our agents he's been doing a couple short sales and it's like riding a bike to me, I'm like oh yeah but it's just such an entity unto itself that I think it's great that we're going to be able to help one another. Tomorrow actually we have an attorney visiting us tomorrow on the same show to talk about foreclosures and short sales. So we don't do them, we don't let our agents do them by themselves because there's just too much liability, we always bring an attorney.

Yeah again, Dana you made a great point there is that at the end of the day we're trying to serve our clients in our community. And look, there are people who are going to need the expert guidance and counsel of a great real estate professional who's been through that process, who can navigate those waters because it's not an easy process. So first and foremost, our industry, most industries are very cyclical in nature. The good news here is to your earlier point, in 2008 to 2012 honestly we were the cause, it was real estate and the fundamentals of real estate that got us into that recession. Here we're talking about a health issue. And once that health issue subsides, I think you look into 2021 and we're going to be back to a lot of jobs in this country and much brighter days for the real estate market. But there's gonna be a little bit of a speed bump in between now and then. And I think thank you for doing that for your community, thank you for giving us your personal story there and how you personally navigated that. But that's why I think our jobs as real estate professionals are so important, not just for the community at large but for what people and the American Dream stand for here in this country and every community across the country.

Oh Mike, I know you're a busy guy, you took time out for us today and we told you wouldn't keep it too long. I don't see any more questions in the queue. Asking the stats the Chinese offices agent stats and Reynold there's off what were they again?

Yeah so we're up to 5,000 offices in China and close to 30,000 sales professionals. And just talking to Harry Lu who's the CEO there, I mean they have seen a flight to quality as we are seeing here in the US. When people are in more pressured times, when there's a little bit of uncertainty, people are looking and defaulting to great companies with legacy and historical presence that know how to navigate whether it's 9/11 or the recession that we saw in 2008 or 18 percent interest rates. We're a company that's withstood the test of time and people are looking for that foundational strength to default to it. So they've seen a bunch of growth. We're seeing a lot of companies and agents interested in what we're doing as a brand because of the stability that we offer and because of our legacy. And I think that's a great thing for all of us because consumers will hopefully be coming in the same direction.

So I actually have one more question and then I promise I'll let you go. What I would love to hear your take on the iBuyer situation. I know we have real sure but right now nobody's buying. I think we've just discovered a major flaw in the iBuyer platform.

Have a way so it's interesting right. Before this I said guys look, we've had 'We Buy Ugly Houses' in the New Jersey market, I'm sure in Florida as well. There's been a 'We Buy Ugly Houses', the guy who puts a sign up on the telephone pole and says hey we'll buy your property for cash for years. All's we did is we stuck an 'i' in front of it and it's this latest greatest craze. So what happens now at the time that consumers need them most, they're out of business, they're not making offers anymore. It's like is that who you want on your team or do you want a professional who like Dana has seen the ups and downs, who's experienced at all and been through every cycle to be able to get you through and consult with you through again your largest purchasing transaction that you're ever gonna make or selling transaction and the place where you're gonna raise your family and make your most intimate memories? I'll take Dana every day of the week.

Well we will be seeing you. I guess we'll probably be seeing you in October hopefully if it doesn't and well we won't disclose the location I don't want to upset everybody. But anyway and we hope to get the new cut the comp the conference is not a conference the 121 event we hope to have that in Orlando in the near future. It'd be really really nice for Dana and I if we do, I'd expect you guys to oh I have an open house at the office I'll make you dinner and like my doctor and this during this thing. I mean Dana I posted on Facebook all I have to do is go look at my page I'm making you know pork belly tacos and everything and anything my fun thing. Well Mike thank you so much we really appreciate it and we hope to talk to you again sometime.

Absolutely. You guys have me on the show, keep up the great work David and Dana and thanks for having me again. Congratulations. Take care, bye-bye, see you guys.

That was kind of awesome. That was great. Oh he's left the building. That's how fast it was. Yeah yeah and I earlier I think it was even Juanzi which ones he's a perfect judge of character. Juanzi was just saying that he seems like such a just down-to-earth guy and I mean I know I haven't like really seen him in person but I know that's what you came back with when you came back from well right. I mean very personable. You can go up to any event that year and you can have complete access to talk to him. It's not like it was a little different with Richard Davidson. I like Richard but he always had kind of like his little bodyguard or something near him as though he didn't want to be bothered. And this guy I mean am I right? Mike has kind of been with corporate for awhile, he's kind of like grown up through the ranks I think. So I think he's got the corporation kind of in his blood and I think really believes in it. And we know David it's a fabulous brand he should be out there all the time. When we're not with other agents from other companies he well I mean with the brand you've gotta pay them this and this and I'm like you know what it's kind of like a homeowner's association. Yeah roads we've done here in my community there's no way I could afford to do that by myself but working together we can do the roads. And it's the same the technology that we already have an existence in that new stuff he's talking about. Let me get me started there is so much that can be done when you pull your resources together. And it's not just Century 21, it's Realogy, it's Corcoran, it's Sotheby's, it's Better Homes and Gardens, and one other one. But all of those together would weep when we combine our efforts we get great technology, we get great management, we get just the things that we could never do on our own. So we get the networking, the referrals going back and forth, the opportunity to do these national things like the distressed property group. And I think brokers David we are very intent on demonstrating to our agents what just exactly what they are getting for their success that's on the dollar. And I know you and I both believe it is a bargain. Nothing is free in life and that's the best money spent.

Well Dana it's time now before we roll our end credits here. I do have a disclaimer so hold on let me get this ready to go. See I've been trying to get our end credits on here so we can hear them properly and every time I put them on with the original music so Dan and I can dance out the day unfortunately YouTube keeps taking my music away. I don't like our music and I'm very this is temporary. But well thank you guys for watching today. Looks like we had a pretty good crowd on our great. We'll post this later on Facebook but for now we're going to dance it out and have a great day.