The Real Estate Podcast

Revealing Our Brand New Podcast Studio! | The Real Estate Podcast EP300

We're thrilled to hit a major milestone—our 300th episode! To mark this special occasion, we're unveiling something we've been working on behind the scenes... our brand-new podcast studio! Join Adrian Trott and Ariel Kormendy as they chat about the journey that brought them here, the challenges they've overcome, and what's next for the podcast. Whether you've been with us since episode 1 or you're just tuning in now, we want to say THANK YOU for being part of this incredible community. Don't forget to like, comment, and subscribe for more episodes and updates. Here's to 300 more! ************************ Want more real estate podcast discussions? Watch it here: youtu.be/uLhNb8fdHt4 Listen to it here: http://www.soundcloud.com/ktrealty Catch clips and highlights of the show here: http://www.instagram.com/kormendytrott ************************ Our Social: Instagram: www.instagram.com/kormendytrott  YouTube: www.youtube.com/user/kormendytrott  Facebook: www.facebook.com/kormendytrott  Twitter: www.twitter.com/KormendyTrott Soundcloud:http://www.soundcloud.com/ktrealty  LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/ktrealty  Pinterest: www.pinterest.ca/KormendyTrott  TikTok: www.tiktok.com/@kormendytrott?lang=en ************************ In 2011, Ariel Kormendy and Adrian Trott formed The Kormendy Trott Team, now often referred to as KT (thanks to our logo!). The foundation of KT is built on providing unmatched value and attention to detail in everything we do. From our ever-expanding, comprehensive list of exclusive services to our expertly trained team, you will receive the highest level of care throughout your entire real estate journey. Originally a team of two in Milton, Ontario, the KT Team has grown into a large team of exceptional REALTORS®, a client-care department, and now includes KT media, KT Commercial and KT Property Management to provide our clients with a complete lineup of genuine, professional, and proven services across Halton Region, Peel Region and the surrounding Regions within the Greater Toronto Area. We’d appreciate it if you’d subscribe and follow us for behind-the-scenes footage, real estate tips, industry secrets, exclusive listings, The Real Estate Podcast, and more!

Duration:: 32m
Broadcast on:: 12 Aug 2024
Audio Format:: mp3

- Today is episode 300, congratulations, Parker. - Congratulations. - What's that? What's that noise? - Ian set up a fantastic display of balloons and here they come. - Woo! - Hey everybody, welcome back to, actually not welcome back, welcome to episode 300 of the Real Estate Podcast in our new studio. Today we're talking about the evolution of the podcast. Enjoy. (upbeat music) - Welcome to the Real Estate Podcast, your go-to source for raw, unfiltered stories and expert tips. Whether you're a buyer, seller, tenant, landlord or realtor, join us as we dive into the world of real estate. (upbeat music) - That's the first time I've heard Jennifer not complaining. (laughing) - I like the intro. - Yeah, it's good. It gets, it's more upbeat, I like it. - Yeah. (laughing) - I think I offended her. - We've got an audience now. - Yeah. We've got an audience. - We do like the live audience factor. Thank you very much. - All right, so we're here. We finally made it. - I feel very distant from you. The last several episodes. - I like the distance. - I kind of like it too. But we were a matter of inches away from each other before and now we're a good 10 feet. - There's gonna be some getting used to this whole thing, especially once we have guests on and the distance, the new mic setup and the new seating setup. - Yeah. - 'Cause we went from boardroom table to little kitchen table. - Well, technically we went from unfinished basement. - Oh yeah. - Or living room to unfinished basement to-- - If you wanna go back to the KT quick tips. - Well, I think that's the evolution of the podcast. - And that's what we're talking about today is how we got here. - Yeah. - So for those of you that have been watching, specifically watching, we're gonna have to come up with a new website now too. We didn't talk about that. But you can still go to ktconfidential.ca. - That will remain. - That will remain and you go back. It'll take you to the playlist. You can go back and watch all other 299 episodes. But today is episode 300. Congratulations, partner. - Congratulations. I think that would be-- - What's that noise? - It's gonna go, it's gonna go. For those of you listening and not watching, we have Ian here. Ian set up a fantastic display of balloons and here they come. Here they come. There's balloons with confetti and all. There you go. That's our celebration. That's the inaugural entry into episode 300 or episode one of the real estate podcast. (both laughing) That will continue to happen over the course of the next 20 minutes. - What I've been telling people is we've renovated the podcast and it will now be known all our new sign as the real estate podcast. And I think that, I mean, the interesting thing with that was it was kind of, we weren't really planning the rebrand. - Somebody needs to close that door. - But it came at a good time and it all kind of stemmed, I think, from the sign. - Yes. - Right? So needing or wanting to put up a nice sign on one of the walls in here and trying to figure out how do we incorporate KT Confidential? 'Cause it's such a long name. - It looked odd. - It looked odd. - Yeah. - So he said, "Screw it, let's just do the real estate podcast." - And I had an audit completed for the podcast. - Yes. - And that got us talking because KT Confidential really didn't say what, yes, it's kind of the behind the scenes, confidential discussions, things like that, but it didn't really say what the podcast is about. - That's right. - Now there's-- - And I think the real estate podcast component of it, we added on just randomly at some point. - Yes, yes, because of that. - Yes. - So now we will now be known as the real estate podcast. And hey, you might not start a podcast with that name 'cause that'd be kind of ballsy, but 300 episodes later, I think we've earned it. - I think, well, my concern is that there's probably several other people with the same name. So the question is who's is most memorable? - And one of the things that we-- - 300 episodes, we've been doing an episode a week for how many weeks now. - Well, no, that's-- - 299 weeks. - Well, that's just that podcast. So going back-- - Yes. - Because it has been a real evolution. We started with our quick tips, which were generally 60 second clips of real estate focused tips. - And you can still watch those on our YouTube channel. - Absolutely, you can. So those are tips for buyers, for sellers, for tenants, or landlords, and for real estate agents. And they were very quick. And the funny thing is that 60 second edited clip took longer than the current 20 to 30 minute podcast takes to record. - Yes. - Because we were-- - Well, who was doing-- - Amateurs to say the least. - Who was doing anything like that back then? - Nobody. - We did over 200 episodes of KT Quick Tips. Now, 300 episodes of the real estate podcast, that's 500 weeks of recording a video for YouTube. - It's 10 years almost. - Yeah. - We're approaching 10 years. - We're approaching 10 years of-- - And there were times when we didn't wanna do them. And there was times where when you came back from the cottage, or you were somewhere, I think maybe at the cottage. - That was before we owned a cottage. - We were renting at the time. - You were renting at the time. - Yeah, oh, I forgot that. - And you told me, hey, we don't have a video for this week, we gotta record. And I said, well, then we'll go without doing one this week. And then you said, no, we're not. - Yeah. - So I said to Natalie, okay, I'm gonna leave in the morning. - Was that why she hates me? (laughing) - I'm gonna leave in the morning. And I'm gonna book it back. This was eight years ago, nine years ago. - Yeah. - I'm gonna book it back. So I came home, we recorded-- - And by book it back, it was probably a good few hour drive I would think. - Probably a three hour drive. - Yeah. - So, and then there were times that we were sick and did them anyway, so, and we've continued for 500 weeks. - Yeah. - So now, we should probably tell the story, 'cause this is the first time we're really publicly revealing this room. - It is, except I just recorded a video that I was gonna post on my stories later today. - Well, that's fine. - Okay. - That's fine. And this is gonna get aired in a few days or recording in advance, obviously. There's a lot of things that happen on the editing side. - Yeah. - But we haven't revealed the office to the public really yet because we were waiting for this room to be done. - It's finally done. Even there's still a couple little things that need to be done, but more or less done. - So I'll tell the backstory real quick. Seven years ago, Adrian and his wife and myself and Natalie, we had our children at the same time. Adrian and Alicia had their younger daughter about two months after our twin boys were born and we were working from home, from our home offices. And that was right around the same time that we hired Steve Bruman because our business was really booming and we couldn't work in our basement offices anymore. - Yeah. - There was too much noise, too much distraction. - My older daughter, Tessa was getting a bit older and she, it was kind of hard on her 'cause she wanted to spend time with me, but it wasn't really feasible during the day. So I couldn't be very productive. - Right. - So we had to change. - So we decided to rent our own office, a team office, which we did and it was how many square feet? - Five to six number 550, we'll say. - Yeah, less than 600 square feet. - So about the size of the smallest condo in Milton. - Yes. - At 75 Main Street, right? Downtown Main Street, downtown Milton. And very convenient, it was nice, had a back, separate entry and we were there for seven years. - And there was almost always at least six people in the room, in the office. - Yep, you and myself working off of the boardroom table. - So where you see, for those of you watching, where you see us across the boardroom table from each other, that was actually our office. - Yeah. - We didn't have an office. We just sat across a table from each other for seven years. And now with the team, the size that it is and the growth that we're planning and the, and rentee, our property management company, taking off and doing extremely well as well, we needed more space. So we're now located at 336 Bronny Street South, which is, for those of you in Milton, basically diagonally across the street from the La Rose Plaza. That's what, that's the landmark around here. - This is actually very busy plaza in itself. - It is, we have the Montessori School and all kinds of doctors and dentists, lawyers, lawyers. I've got an appointment with a surgeon later this afternoon, which is right across the street here, or right across the parking lot at 330 Bronny Street. Anyway, so we have a beautiful second floor corner unit. So we've got views of the escarpment, huge windows that wrap around Adrian and I finally got our own offices. We have a media section with a media bar and nice offices set up for Ian and Robbie. - And a dishwasher. - We've got a dishwasher. - We used to clean the dishes in the bathroom sink. - Yeah. - 'Cause that was our only fixed sink in the entire unit. - Actually, I think that's a cool story to tell is because sometimes we forget how really we started with, we started this business with nothing, right? We left our jobs, great jobs, left it to start this business from scratch. And you have to, in order to get the nice stuff, you have to go through the growing pains. You have to work your ass off in any business. And to us, that little shithole 550 square foot office was everything. - Yeah. - It meant a lot to us. - That was a big moment for us. - It was a huge moment for us, just like this is going to be a huge moment for us going forward. But that place had one bathroom and it was right next to the boardroom table, which was our office. - Were you and I sat the whole time. So anyone that wanted to go to the washroom had to go basically in the same room as their boss to go to the washroom. - Yes. - And other people might have been in the same room meeting at the same time. - Eating or having a meeting. If we had any supply or vendors, it was always in that room. - A lot of people would spend lunch in their car. - And you could hear what was happening in that bathroom. - Yeah. - And all of us sharing it, right? And that was the only sink. So that was also where we were washing our dishes, washing our mugs, washing our cups. So we did have to put up with a bit of crap, pardon the pun, to stick it out for seven years and get to hear. So we're very excited, very happy to be in here. And this room specifically, we'll give a shout out to Jeff and Sarah Bergsmott because this, all the furnishings, Sarah helped us with picking and ordering and this turned out real well. - Yeah, and a lot of locally made stuff. - A lot of locally made products, higher and finishings to them. These tables and chairs are, I believe they're from Mennonite Country. - They are. - And you can tell the quality of this stuff. The sofa is also, you call it a sofa or a couch? - A couch. - Couch, who says sofa? - Americans, do they? - Yes. - They don't know what a couch is. - That's news to me. - I think we should talk about, for those people who might just be tuning in for the first time or haven't watched or listened to the podcast much, just to talk about what the podcast is about. - Yes. - Because, you know, we started it. - That's funny because I was going to go down that path. So I'm glad you did. - Well, that has been more or less the same over the years. I think the original reason that you and I wanted to get vocal on social and online in the beginning, which was unheard of. Like a lot of people weren't online. So you're not doing it regularly. You know, you'd see a lot of agents post videos saying, okay, I'm going to start doing this more often now. It's been a while. This is it. I'm going to do it now. And then they didn't post again. And the purpose for us doing it was to bring awareness and transparency into the industry and help consumers, a home buyers, sellers, investors, landlords, tenants, have an understanding of what expectations they should have of real estate agents, help them understand the industries so that whatever transaction they're pursuing will be more successful. And I think that has always been very much the same. That's never really changed. The concept of how we convey the message change from 60 second clips to 60 minute podcasts in some cases. And I think the new evolution of this, now that we have the space and means for it, will be bringing more guests into the office. - Broadening the topics a little bit. - Yeah, expanding the topics a little bit. And the guest part of it I'm looking forward to because before it was challenging to have guests on the podcast, we just didn't have the space for it. - We started going down that path and then COVID hit. - Yeah, we did. Yeah, just before COVID, that's right. We had some excellent guests. So I think that'll be nice to do. Just to guess, obviously, you know, our specialty is property management and buying, selling, leasing. You know, we talk about mortgages and interest rates and insurances and all these other things that go into it and design and such, but that's not our specialty. So to be able to have people in here who can really convey, you know, industry specific information that we wouldn't be privy to, will be nice. - I am shocked at how many people listen to the podcast and don't follow or subscribe or comment. So if you are an avid follower or if you just like our stuff, we'd really appreciate, especially with this now new launch of this podcast, that episode 300. Here's what you can do for us. If you appreciate us or what we're doing, comment, like, subscribe, whatever platform it is. If you can help promote us, that would be helpful. It doesn't cost you anything, just a bit of time, but it helps us out, would really appreciate that. I'm shocked at how many people actually listen and comment to me, not online. They'll say to me, hey, I was listening to the podcast or I'll start working with a new buyer, a seller, and they'll say, oh yeah, I remembered you said that on a podcast. Even some, it was, I can't remember who's client, but this happens on a regular basis. One of the realtors on our team will be interviewing with a seller as an example. Yeah, we've been following Adrian and Ariel online for years now or whatever. And I think it's pretty cool. And to your point, I think it's all about the educational process. 'Cause we've got a lot of experience and getting that word out, getting that experience, just we're an open book, right? There's nothing that we don't say. In fact, we have gotten in trouble a couple of times over things that have been, and when I say in trouble, like we had to take a course. An ethics course. You don't have to beat her in the bush. An ethics course. And I'm not talking around the bush. Someone didn't like what we had to say. Yes, and that happens. And that reported us and we had to take an ethics course with the real estate council-- And we've also lost potential deals over it. Yes, somebody didn't like me swearing on the podcast. Yeah. And didn't think our vision or our vision or our, I can't remember the words they used. I think if he was just very keen-- We weren't aligned. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Which is fine. And that's-- Which is fine. Totally fine. We would like to work with people we connect with. Yes, so there are a lot of people that enjoy when we have our banter. Well, and I think one of the nice things with being social or being on social and doing things like this, where you couldn't really convey it before is you can really convey your personality. Yes. And then people can actually figure out, oh, I do kind of resonate with this person. I have similar beliefs and I find them humorous or I don't like this person and I'm going to call somebody else. Yes. And you know, if you're out shopping for a realtor, these checking them out on social is great. That's the nice thing about you and I though, because generally if somebody doesn't like me, they like you and vice versa. Yes. So out of the two of us-- Yeah, let me just introduce you to Ariel. Yeah, yeah. I think you guys will get a lot of great. (laughing) I remember one time you made me a bet. You're like, okay, this is going back a long time. And we were at an open house and this guy came through, I think he was with his parents at the time and you didn't connect with them at all. And he thought he was a bit of an odd character and just you couldn't connect with them. And you bet me a bottle of Johnny Walker Blue that I wouldn't be able to sell him a house. And then we subsequently did. So I worked, do you remember that? I remember buying you the Johnny Walker Blue 'cause it was like 400 bucks or whatever it was. I don't remember how that bet started. Is that-- Yeah, we both had an open house and this guy came in and he just, I think you must have started talking with him originally and we're unable to kind of-- Do you remember who it was? Oh, I do, yeah. Yeah. And he's still a client, he follows us. We should have him on the podcast. We've helped him out. Does he know the story? No, no. We should tell him the story. I don't know, maybe. We've helped him several times now. And now one of the other agencies working more closely with them. Interesting, now I'm wondering who it was. Yeah. Does he own several properties? No, you probably won't guess. I'm gonna guess, I'm gonna guess. No, you won't get it. Not right now, but I will guess. Are you afraid of me saying the name of it? Yeah, I don't want to write another ethics course. (laughing) Well, I'm proud that we're here, that we've made it this far, that we've got a great team and Ian and Robbie that help this production actually come together. They've been putting a lot of time into this. Yes, they put a lot of time, a lot of effort. And the thought process to get us to this from the new intro, the sign that's behind you, the paint that's on these walls, which is a very specific paint to help prevent reflection and-- Just don't touch it. Yeah, don't touch this paint. If you're lucky enough to come and check this room out, you can do anything you want, except don't touch the paint. Even we had the HDMI and XLR cables run through the wall and now our ports in the wall. Well, it's interesting when you're doing stuff like this, the thought that goes into it. And that, we've talked about what is similar to when you're doing a renovation at home. Right, that's a good point. It's really worth putting a lot of thought into it because our thoughts here changed as we started working on it, because at one point we thought, well, we will have Robbie or Ian in the room, which quickly realized it's not really feasible given the space and then it really limits their productivity during that time. And we were then able to run, realize we can run cables, and even that was hard to find the right length of cable. Right, length of cable, actually running the cables. Where are they gonna be situated? Talking them away so they're not in plain sight. Yeah, and I'm sure after this recording, Robbie, or Ian will have recommendations to change something based on how this one turned out. Maybe, and that's what makes us great leaders is that we always take that advice from our colleagues as to what can be improved, and we always-- Yeah, but in the audience. Yes, 100%. We always appreciate feedback. In fact, I'd love some feedback from everybody in terms of what do they think. What do they think of the decor? These are pushed back too far in the wall. I don't even know if that's very visible in the camera. No, they're not, but I love them. They're one of my favorite pieces. And you didn't like the rug, 'cause originally when we were sitting at-- No, I like the rug. Berg's Muzz showroom. But it needed something. Well, do I have a similar rug at all? You like it now? I actually don't like the blues, to be honest. Why is that? I don't know. It's all growing on me. I think it all comes together. So, look, this wasn't meant for-- Well, that's why you and I don't always align, and that's okay. Everybody that has gone through our office thinks we hired a professional architect professional designer and-- A couple of weeks back on a Friday, I was just going back one in a couple of weeks, a couple of months back. On a Friday, I was making waffles for the team, and we had a lot of waffles, so I invited some people in the building, and the company next to us immediately next door, they all came over, and they didn't know what we were doing, 'cause we had just opened. We didn't have a sign on the door yet to this day. And after walking through, they assumed that we were designers. Right, that we were. Yeah, based on-- They didn't know what we do. No, exactly. So that was interesting feedback. Yeah, and the same thing when we flipped our property a couple of years ago. Yeah. We collaborated on the design, the look, and there was a lot of things we disagreed over. Well, sometimes-- But the final product looked pretty good. So I'd love for people to come and check it out in person. So if you want a tour of the whole place, and you're in the area, you wanna pop by, we've got some great coffees, and some tea, some croissants. And maybe we'll stock up on-- Maybe we'll stock up on some other stuff. We'll leap that out, leap that out, don't get us in legal trouble now. We don't drink around here. I said maybe. Yeah. Although if you wanna gummy or something like that, you know, come into my office. Yeah. No, yeah, we'd love everybody's opinion on what do they think of the room, what do they think, like even the details of, we started, we're in August. We started planning for this moment a year ago. Yeah, we got the keys in January. We were planning well in advance of that. 'Cause we-- We signed the lease last August. September, August, yeah. And it was October, November, we went to a audio, film, and lighting show in Toronto with Robby and Ian. We hopped on the go train, and we went downtown to this big show where we were scouting for lighting, which is ultimately, I don't know if you can see them on camera now, but we've got these huge studio lights, which are casting a beautiful glow on your face. Are they? Yeah, that's good to know. Yeah, the lighting is nice. That's good. I made the power. Even ahead. To the point, these lights in the corner were not a part of the overall design, but Ian decided that it would be nice to have a little glow in the corner here. And we tried hanging things from the ceiling, tried a couple of different options, so I don't know how this is gonna transform over the next couple of podcasts, but it is casting a nice softer hue in the corner. Pretty comfortable, so very excited. The next podcast, we're actually gonna talk almost a review of some of them. These are top five view, most viewed videos, which I believe may, I don't know if it'll include the quick tips. We'll see what the guys have for us. Yeah, they've planned a little something. Today was just a chat about how did we get here, what the plan is-- What the podcast is about for the new viewers. And content we get is usually, we usually come up with it based on our daily activity. So as we're out with clients, buyers, sellers, investors. Or feedback from our agents. Feedback from our agents. We're talking about things, real life situations that occur and we're educating on how to handle them. We're talking about industry news. And, but we've always really enjoyed when the audience chimes in. Sometimes we get a direct DM or emails, whatever it is, people are asking questions. Whether or not their intention is to have it answered on the podcast, just a general question about real estate. And it makes for good conversation because if somebody's thinking it, there's probably other people that are wondering the same thing. So if you have any questions about real estate, whatever it is, send us a message. And we will probably talk about it on the podcast. - I love, I prefer actually. Like sometimes we come up with the topic and we talk about it, right? And it can be for us a little bit boring or mundane because, you know, it's not that interesting if we're talking about mortgage interest rates dropping. And, you know, the stuff that's all over the news that everybody's talking about. But the stuff that people don't often talk about or the stuff that's really in other people's minds is the stuff that I love talking about. - Yeah, well, sometimes yeah, we may think it's boring but we don't know if it's well received, if people want to hear about it. So tell us what's on your mind. - So are you happy with the result and where we're at? - Yes. And if there's anything you can change going forward, what would it be? - In here? - No, no, in general for the podcast. Well, maybe, maybe in here or I think for you it was maybe just having more guests and broadening the audience. - I think guests, having a setup that we don't have to dismantle and set up every time we do it. So that'll save the team time, they'll love that. It'll be quicker, more efficient. You know I love efficiency. I'm like the efficiency master in the office. - The joke is that Adrian is the efficiency department here at KT. - The audience, the live audience is giving me a weird look, thumbs down. - What's wrong? - They think efficiency means more work 'cause it's changes. They don't like change, but efficiency, although it means change, it's for the better. - Okay, you really wanna go down this road? - No, we don't need to today. 'Cause you know how I feel about your efficiency. - I don't. - All right, well, I'll get into that maybe on episode 302. - Sounds good. - How do you like the new mic setup here with these arms? - I like it, it's just right now it's a bit awkward for me to be able to drink, but I could-- - Yeah, like I've got my mug here on this side. - Move it away from my mouth and then bring it back 'cause I need to, but I don't know how-- - Yeah, this tape has to be-- - I know these mics are fairly sensitive. - Yeah. - In terms of needing to be close. - Well, that's like the last episode. So did you listen to the last episode? - I don't ever listen to the podcast. - You don't listen to your own podcast, eh? - No, never. - All right. Now we know why you still have all your filler words and you just-- - You talk with filler words all the time, you're gonna get over that shit. - You know how many very successful Elon Musk is full of filler words. - Elon Musk, I wouldn't listen to his podcast. - He's very interesting if you listen to him. - Oh, well, he's smart. - I don't know, I'm sure we're implying right now, but something so critical, that's all I had to say. - I'm being critical. - Yeah, but anyways, that's all I had to say today. - First episode in the bag, I love it, I'm comfortable. I like the distance. - Do you like it without the pillow in the corner? - I feel more comfortable with the pillow, but if you think it looks funny, I can do with it. - It looked funny. - Yeah, that's fine, I can do without. I might just get a straw, that could be my solution to this problem. - Yeah, it is awkward. Like I have, no, we'll figure it out. Just like we figured it out to get to this stage, figure out what the next stage is. - Thanks for listening. - Bye-bye. - Thanks for watching and for being a part of the evolution of the Real Estate Podcast. If you have any feedback on our new studio, the setup, the content we'd appreciate it, and make sure you subscribe on YouTube, Spotify. Where else are we? - Everywhere we get your podcasts. - Everywhere you can get your podcasts, thank you.