Randall White :
Welcome to another edition of real talk, the agency, Texas. I am Randall Scott White here today with Matt Holm, a top five real estate agent in the city of Austin. That means he moves a lot of homes in this town with $37,000,000 on the books sold last year and as a market leader, very excited that you have joined us today. Hello Matt.

Matt Holm:
Hello. Thank you for the invite. Appreciate it.

Randall White:
Really excited to have you here today. First off, why did you start a career in real estate and when did you start that?

Matt Holm:
I started nearly 11 years ago. Got into a just because I read all the metrics on Austin job growth, it's position in Texas, progressive city, very much a cultural match for a lot of places that had more expensive real estate and we up and moved here 11 years ago. Best decision we made.

Randall White:
And as far as growing up in Austin, you have two children. You love to be involved with the community. How much does community involvement impact your career?

Matt Holm:
It's huge. In fact, my son is going to be out of fifth grade this year. I'm losing a huge revenue source. I do a ton of stuff with the dad's club. I help a lot of charity work in the area specific to my kids, a school, our neighborhood. We throw a neighborhood superbowl party every year. I run the test, the club for central Texas and I throw a big party last year. We had a little over 120 people who were all Tesla owners at the house. Each one of those is sort of an organic way for me to market and to put my face out there without being salesy. And I find that to be really just being connected in your community, doing things you're passionate about, people want to work with passionate people. And I'm passionate about Tesla. I love live music. Another event we do, I do the middle Wednesday of South by Southwest. I throw a party with seven bands. I invite all my past clients and friends and all my neighbors. And it's just a great time to get together and enjoy each other. And it organically turns into business.

Randall White:
Speaking of that, how many houses did you sell last year?

Matt Holm:
Last year I sold 87 homes. Average price was around $400,000. And it's what I love about Austin. Someone comes to me with a budget really anywhere from $150,000 to $4 million and I can find something that's a match to the clients that you can't find that in a lot of markets around the US. It's one of the things that makes Austin unique.

Randall White:
And so that's on the sales side. How many on the purchase side?

Matt Holm:
I'd probably 50 slash 50 as far as split goes between listing in and purchasing side. I think it's important to really understand and do both. Some people specialize in just one, but I'm prepared if the market shifts either direction because I'm an expert in both.

Randall White:
Awesome. And how with so much business, do you find time to be a dad, a husband, a community member?

Matt Holm:
My wife knows if it's not in my calendar it's not going to happen. So I schedule everything from dropoff in the morning to dads club time to ballet and soccer games and every other free moment. My wife knows I need to pop off potentially at a moment's notice to go help somebody and it's just the way that we work and it works well for us. But yeah, everything in my life is scheduled and that's just the way it's, it's best for us.

Randall White:
So you've already kind of answered one part of this next question. A calendar is definitely part of your technology. I'm assuming it's not just all print calendar, you're flipping month to month that you have some technology, but what other technologies do you use to be the leader you are?

Matt Holm:
So this is going to sound funny potentially, but my calendar on my phone syncs with my car and it syncs with my GPS and it syncs with the addresses I have in there. So I would say my biggest technology resource that I'm surprised more agents don't see the value in it, but it's actually my car. My Tesla has become a become a sales tool. I'm able to put someone in my car. I know exactly where we're going, I've laid out my day. It puts you as a leader in technology, in a very technologically savvy, a town when I can put someone instead of sitting at a starbucks with a laptop and talking about neighborhoods I can get in the car, zoom in and out, use the map, integrated with my web browser, and as we're driving around, people are able to use a google maps to be able to see what's in the surrounding areas. And I've got all that at my fingertips instead of, um, you know, like I said, sitting at a laptop and not being in the car physically seeing the city so I can integrate real world driving and neighborhoods and a visual with cutting edge technology. It's what I love about sort of being associated with Tesla, I'm known around town as the Tesla realtor. It's not a bad co-branding.

Randall White:
So basically you're one step away from being Knight Rider.

Matt Holm:
It is self driving. Oh, that's the other thing. Hey, can't take us. Exactly. I don't know if Tesla wants people to know this, but I do put it on autopilot on the highway and I quite possibly get a few emails and text messages done while the car is driving itself. So yes, that helps me become more productive because I don't have missing windows of time where I'm, I'm distracted.

Randall White:
And while being driven around or driving around. What specifically about Austin is it that you, you love most? Would you ever move to another market or you're here for the long run?

Matt Holm:
Well, my kids are essentially Austinites. My daughter was three when we moved here. My son was a newborn. I mean we are, we're here for the long haul. It's an incredible town. There's so much to do. The music scene is amazing. What really makes it are the people. People are so incredibly friendly and welcoming and really want to genuinely help other people. You don't get that in places. A lot of other places. You have a lot of competitiveness where people want to one up each other and, and across the board. Um, Austin is just, it's a friendly town and people want to, to share their information with you. And I've done it myself. You know, people sit me down and hey, can I buy a cup of coffee? Can I learn what you do? I'll sit with anybody, I'll share my time and I'll and I'll encourage them to do something and to follow in my path. There's enough for everybody. I truly believe the pie is infinite and because of that I feel like it's a huge part of me being successful because I'm not trying to cordon off my little, my little sub-market and push everybody else out. And the more people, you know, the more people you talk to, the more positive you are. It just comes back to you and it's, it's a, it's a law of life really.

Randall White:
And so when somebody is already in the community, I'm looking at referrals as a huge part of your business. What about the influx of people who are moving here because of the job market and other aspects of, like you're saying they know the people here when people are moving to Texas and Austin in particular, what is it that you do to connect with them or do you mostly work with locals?

Matt Holm:
I've got a ton of relo business. I do, but it's all from working with locals or people that I've already helped. I started off in the business. Of course I didn't know anyone when I first moved here and my shift has changed. I was all about marketing and really five years in my clients started to call me back and they were at hitting that statistical five to seven year period where they're ready to sell and all of a sudden I realized, wow, I have an entire untapped, you know, at that point about four or 500 past clients. And I really started to shower them with just keeping in touch, texting them, calling them for no reason. Can I help you? Did you ever get homesteaded? Can I help you fight your taxes this year? Just offering some help and that's turned into really a 100 percent referral basis. And then, you know, speaking to Austin in particular and about these relocation people ask me all the time, is it still a good time to buy in Austin? And the market's come up and you know, Austin's never seen more than a single digit appreciation year to year, which is dramatic for Austin but really not compared to Seattle or an LA or San Francisco or New York. And so I think it's relatively stable. Most importantly it is, it is a supported by job growth. Um, I visited Oracle, uh, with a middle management person yesterday talking about a real program that they've got. And uh, I viewed that they have 600,000 square feet. They are just moving into, they just permitted another half million square feet. They will have a 1.1 million square foot campus. Google built half a million square feet in a tower downtown. They are going to double in size this year. Facebook 260,000 square feet next door. Apple, the north campus is a million square feet. So all these companies have capacity and are doubling sometimes tripling in the next 18 months. When you have that many people moving here for good jobs. Tell me what real estate is going to look like for the foreseeable future.

Randall White:
I'm feeling it's always a great time to buy in Austin.

Matt Holm:
Agreed. I mean, and I practice what I preach. I've purchased three properties myself this year. and there's plenty of opportunity out there for investors. Um, but you know, owning a piece of Austin dirt, you're going to look back in 10 years and realistically I think you could probably throw a rock and buy that piece of property in 10 years from now, you look like a genius. We are hitting an inflection point that is going to be dramatic and it, and it, the beauty of it is it's based on jobs and you know, interest rates could affect the macro market. Could it be a slow down? It is possible there's something out there. But, you know, I think we survived 2008 through 2011 beautifully. Where it just flatlined. I'm out of my career of selling nearly a thousand homes. I've sold one short sale and I've never had a client go to foreclosure. Um, I've turned those people that needed to sell at that time and the landlords, and of course now they're, they're kissing my feet and sending me referrals because I saved them from selling short. Um, and now they're, you know, 20, 30 percent up in the last five, six years.

Randall White:
At The Agency, Texas, we encourage new realtors as well as veterans to join our company because we are passionate about what we do. We're about customer service. You have the natural gift to be able to excel. What do you say to new realtors who might be joining any brokerage of what they need to do to succeed in today's market and going forward?

Matt Holm:
Take advantage of education. The Agency Texas does a fantastic job of bringing you in, of training you up of offering things that are going to educate you to the market. The more education you have, the more you can speak to the macro and the micro market and the sub markets within Austin. The better you're going to be and there's a lot of opportunities for you to get together, to be in the office, to be around that energy and keeping that energy up, waking up every day, doing something real estate related, learning something new everyday, having a passion for it once again. Those are all things that I think make and set the agency Texas apart. I'm really great company. I've really enjoyed being here and I'm ready to continue to take my, my job to the next level in my career to the next level through a lot of things that I use in the same fashion. Waking up everyday with a fire in my belly, educating myself, learning more every day and making it fun. I mean, I love what I do and I think my clients understand that and they, they want to be associated with me because they understand and feel that.

Randall White:
And that's why you are a market leader here. Matt Holm, thank you very much for coming in and speaking with us today. You can check out Matt's website at MattSellsAustin.com and you will see him around in one of his Teslas. Matt, thank you again.

Matt Holm:
Thank you so much, Randall. Great chatting with you.