Lambros Bryan Demos is a seasoned and award-winning Real Estate Broker who helps his clients navigate through the noise and frenzy of the current real estate market so they can win every time they buy or sell a home.
Lambros regularly creates relevant content for social media, and hosts live shows and seminars (both in-person and virtual) targeting investors, first-time home buyers, and downsizing seniors. He is a top producer in his organization, consistently ranking among the top 10% in the country (out of 20,000+ agents). Passionate about his community and giving back, Lambros is among the top donors to the Royal LePage Shelter Foundation; organizes an annual charity soccer tournament for ALS Canada; and regularly spotlights and supports local businesses on social media.
For his expertise, Lambros has appeared on-air as a guest speaker on CHTO AM 1690 and CHIN FM 91.9 in Toronto, been interviewed on local television, quoted and interviewed in Authority Magazine, MSN.com, several podcasts, and been a repeat guest on Ticker | NEWS, a premier international news streaming network viewed over 2.2 million times per month.
[Podcast Transcript Using Artificial Intelligence]
Umar Hameed 0:01
Are you ready to become awesomer? Hello everyone! My name is Umar Hameed, I'm your host on The No Limits Selling Podcast, where industry leaders share their tips, strategies and advice on how you can become better, stronger, faster. Just before we get started, I've got a question for you, do you have a negative voice inside your head? We all do, right? I'm gonna help you remove that voice and under 30 days guaranteed, not only remove it, but transform it. So instead of the voice that sabotages you, there's one that propels you to much higher levels of performance and success. There's a link in the show notes, click on it to find out more. All right! Let's get started.
Umar Hameed 0:39
Hello, everyone. Welcome to another episode of The No Limits Selling Podcast and today we have Lambros Demos here with us. He's with Royal Lepage in Mr. and Mrs. Sauga, Ontario, Canada. Welcome to the program.
Lambros Bryan Demos 0:54
Just the Missis part.
Umar Hameed 0:55
Just the Missis. That used to be my hometown many years ago.
Lambros Bryan Demos 0:59
Oh, no way.
Umar Hameed 0:59
When you're a kid, of course, you kind of mess around with the name. And...
Lambros Bryan Demos 1:01
Of course, of course.
Umar Hameed 1:03
...Mississauga seemed to be the thing. I knew some August. So a beautiful form warning today here in in Brampton. Today, actually just next door. Okay. So is that playing tennis, it is still warm enough to do that. And for all this coming? How does that change the market when we go from season to season, especially this season as interest rates are going up? What's happening in the minds and the hearts of the residents of Mississauga?
Lambros Bryan Demos 1:29
Yeah, no, that's a great question. If this was a traditional year, I would have said market tends to go up in the fall like we're slow in the summer, July, August, people aren't vacation, they want to buy before you know, their kids get into school and get settled in. But now school has started everybody's back to a normal routine. And so the market picks up again. So spring, spring is the peak of the market goes down and then fall comes back up a bit and then goes down over the holidays, etc. Right? So, but 2022 has been anything but a traditional year, we started off the year on a on a high, you know, prices. I mean, we're accelerating every day, nevermind it weekly. It was crazy. And then we hit we hit a brick wall in March. And then prices started coming back down. They've dropped about 25% or so given take depending on the property depending on the location since then. So things are a bit flat right now. Things are a bit flat interest rates played a big role, as you mentioned, for that a lot of people want to take a step back and see what's going to happen with the market. So but right now, I think we kind of hit the bottom of the market. You know, who knows, nobody can predict exactly what's going to happen. In some pockets. We've seen price go up, others price go down. So there's a bit of a slight movement, you know, 1% up or 1% down. So still pretty hot. Yeah, Calgary, I can't speak to the Calgary market because I only work in Ontario, and specifically in the GTA area. So Calgary is a little bit out of my scope. But I think to answer your original question, what's going to happen? I think things will start picking up again, you know, in October and November, I think we'll see some market activity. And then who knows what's gonna happen over the winter time.
Umar Hameed 3:14
So back way back when I might have been 2008. You know, there was like that financial crash? Yes. And this guy called Lucas, you know, was in a boardroom in New Zealand with a bunch of old geezers that had invested a lot of money. And all of a sudden they're seeing their retirement go out of the window. And he was thinking, you know, hey, don't panic, the market is going to come back up. Yeah, it's hard not to panic. And that was his advice. And I'll tell you the second thought, which is really important, we'll discuss that in a minute. So right now, the reality is, as the interest rates go up, it is disturbing. You know, four, or 5% is not the end of the world. We've just been really spoiled with ultra low rate. But still, there's a reality. I was talking to one of our guests, they had a client who had a million dollar mortgage, and at 2%, they were doing a 2000 and change a month for the mortgage. Okay. And when he went up to four point something, all of a sudden, they added another $2,400 to the monthly payment, which is like super scary. And when you look at inflation, even scarier, so what advice do you give people so they don't panic because just like our friend Lucas, with the seniors when things were happening is like if you start sell off now you're gonna get hurt really badly. What advice are you giving people that are thinking of selling their home and people that are thinking of buying is that different advice? What is it?
Lambros Bryan Demos 4:37
It is different advice? It's very case dependent, right? So we have to look at all these the situation right? And you have to look at everybody's comfort zone, you have to look at everybody's income levels, etc. What they're comfortable with, in my opinion, you only lose money in not only in real estate in any market, the stock market if you sell, right Yes, if you hold on to that. asset prices are gonna eventually Go back up. You mentioned the crash 2008. The market has come back up since then, then we had a sort of crash real estate crash in may not call it a crash. But it was it was a correction in 2017. Prices have more than doubled since that that point in time and then have gone back up again. So had you panicked and sold your property in 2017? You would have lost money. But had you held on now you're way better off? Right.
Umar Hameed 5:25
So what's kind of interesting is when I, when I panic in the stock market, and I sell stock, yeah, I have money, and I can do something with it. And when you sell your house, you have nowhere to live. So you either have to rent or buy something, correct that thing. So you're kind of in a jam at the same time, right?
Lambros Bryan Demos 5:45
You're absolutely right. And it depends what you sell for. If you sell and still owe a lot of money and mortgage, then you don't have to have hardly anything to go and buy something else. And if you're stuck renting, you're probably end up renting for the rest of your life. Because over the long term prices are gonna just continue up. But if you sell with a ton of equity, then maybe you'll get lucky and you'll be able to get back in the market. I don't know it depends what you're going to buy, you're going to downsize, you're going to upsize, who knows, right. So that's why I said it's very case specific, right, we have to see each individual's situation, and some comfort level as well.
Umar Hameed 6:17
So when my wife and I moved from Canada to California, the pricing here in the Toronto market was still pretty reasonable compared to California. Yeah. And they were like, billboards that were saying, you know, home starting at the low eight hundreds. Yeah. And we were like, Oh, my God, you know, I can't believe they're writing that on the board. And after three months, we were saying shit, like, oh, it's only $900,000. Why don't you just say, so customed? To the place that you're in? Yeah. And so we ended up buying a house there. It was, like, probably a $600,000 house with no money down. Okay, it was like a family transaction, which kind of helped a little bit. Okay. But we ended up getting into the market somehow. And, you know, progressing with it. So what advice do you have two younger people coming into the market where it looks like it's unaffordable, I'm hearing of, you know, kids sharing an apartment in Toronto, and they're each paying $1,000 and change in this three of them to afford one apartment, which is like, mind boggling. So how do you advise them to get into the market when they just starting out?
Lambros Bryan Demos 7:24
Wow. I'd say they have to be creative and have to sacrifice, you know, like, very rich, oh, well, that's one option as well. Or if they have, you know, their parents, maybe they get a gift from their parents, which a lot of people that's how they got into the market the last couple of years is, I think about 80% of first time homebuyers received some kind of assistance from parents or grandparents or otherwise. So that's one option. The second option would be to, you know, sacrifice your living situation. So for example, if you buy a smaller house or a condominium or something like that, maybe you're not going to get you the house of your dreams, right off the bat, you have to live somewhere else for for a short time, build equity, and then move on to something bigger because as I said, eventually over the long term prices are just going to keep going up. And you just gotta keep building equity instead of renting and paying someone else's mortgage and someone else's equity. Right. So that's the way
Umar Hameed 8:21
it's almost like you need young people to say, Okay, we need a strategy for our realtor to get into the market. And one of those things is you're gonna buy fixer upper that you don't want to live in. But you have to live in, and you're going to not only wait for the market to go up, but you can actually do whatever needs doing to make that house more valuable. And that's how you step up into the market. Because if you just go with if you're being complacent, you're gonna drown.
Lambros Bryan Demos 8:47
No, absolutely. And maybe take take it even a step further. You buy that fixer upper, and you live in the basement while you rent out the upstairs. So now someone's paying your mortgage upstairs. You're sacrificing a couple of years living in the basement. But it's not ideal. I understand that. But at least you're in the market. Now you're building equity, and you can move up to something that you want to be in.
Umar Hameed 9:09
So what's kind of interesting, Canada versus the US. Like, it's just plain normal for people to rent out the basement or rent out part of their house. And it's kind of unusual in the US, certainly. And so it's kind of interesting how, in some ways, we're very similar people and in other ways, two totally different cultures.
Lambros Bryan Demos 9:31
Yeah. Well, a lot of homes in the US don't even have basements. Right. So that's a foreign concept to them. Also, you have to look at the markets. So you mentioned your shock at the $800,000 billboard prices were listed at that's a huge amount in some parts of the US, right? Because I mean, I belong to a number of networking groups, and there's a bunch of American agents in there and they're talking about listing homes at 200 300 400,000. Like, you can't even get a one bedroom condo for that price. The up here, right?
Umar Hameed 10:01
So yeah, and then you know, when you're going into the hot markets, it's like off the charts as well. Yeah. So tell me about you. Solo Operator, do you have a team?
Lambros Bryan Demos 10:12
Not solo operator? Yep, single agent been doing so for 11 years now. Nice. Yeah,
Umar Hameed 10:18
so what made you stay kind of like, Hey, I'm just gonna be by myself because it's so attractive for people to go, what I'm supposed to do is I'm supposed to get a certain level, I'm supposed to get a team, I'm supposed to do this. And oftentimes they go from kind of liking their gig, to all of a sudden you gotta manage people. And then it's like, they got their own agendas. And it's like, and you can't hit them. Apparently, that's against the law. What made you stay in your lane and feel comfortable doing that?
Lambros Bryan Demos 10:43
I just feel more comfortable working for myself and answering to myself, right? I don't have to answer to anybody else. I don't have to supervise anybody else. You know, that's just my comfort zone right now, in five years from now, I'm not sure what's going to happen. Maybe I will build a team. I'm not sure. But at this point in time, this is where I'm at comfortably and the way that I work best as a solo operator.
Umar Hameed 11:09
So in the brokerage, you're in how many agents in the brokerage?
Lambros Bryan Demos 11:12
I think we have about 200. Right.
Umar Hameed 11:15
200? Yeah. Any teams in the brokerage?
Lambros Bryan Demos 11:18
Oh, yeah. Plenty of teams, plenty of teams in the brokerage.
Umar Hameed 11:20
Like who's the hottest team would you say? I mean, Production not looks. Well, that's the second question.
Lambros Bryan Demos 11:30
And there's quite a few teams that are doing quite well, you know, I don't really pay attention to like, I try not to compare myself to anybody else. I compare myself to myself, right? So I say, hey, you know, what did I do last year? I want to beat that this year, and to enough every year, you know, I've been my production has been getting better and better. I've even stepped up a level this year. Transactions last year. For might for myself, approximately 24, I think, months, something like that. Yeah. And how many do you expect to do this year? I think it's more than that. I think it's close about 28, maybe 30.
Umar Hameed 12:06
It's not bad considering it was a tough year,
Lambros Bryan Demos 12:09
It was a tough year, and a lot of people have been struggling this year. So I consider myself fortunate, very grateful, you know, for the business that I have for my clients, you know, and I work hard, you know, I'm not going to deny that, you know, we're cars,
Umar Hameed 12:24
it's a badge of honor. So we need to improve as you look at yourself, right now, there's a better version of you out there next year. But in order to get there, you have to improve skill set mindset, get a facelift, whatever that thing is, what is the thing that you're trying to improve on this year? That'll let you find your better self next year? Yeah,
Lambros Bryan Demos 12:43
no, that's a great question. And I think that ties in to your last question, I need to step out of my comfort zone of being a solo operator. So I have thought about hiring an assistant or hiring Okay, when I was working for me, so that means I have to delegate more, which I'm very unacceptable. We're
Umar Hameed 12:59
gonna stop you right there. Absolutely. As soon as you hang up for me. Yeah, hire an assistant. We've talked to some of the most successful realtors in North America. When asked them what's the one piece of advice you'd give? Realtors, they said, hire an assistant as soon as you can. Because it allows you to get more customer facing time. And so yeah, so absolutely. 100% do that. And here's a piece of advice is when you interview the person, if you really liked them, one of the questions to ask them is this comes in like, tangentially it's like, so tell me about someone you know, at school, completed in university or high school or maybe at a job where they got the best performance out of you? And they'll say, Oh, Mr. So and so you know, I did my best work for him, then go, you know, so how did he get? How did he lead you? Like, what did he do? Did he tell you what to do? Did he show you did he let you and then they'll tell you a story about how this person got this magic performance out of them? Because if you ask someone, you know, how do you like to be? LED dog? What do you need from me? And oftentimes, it opens up a different filter, and then tell you what they think they should say. When you ask them about something from the past. They'll go Oh, yeah, Mr. Jones, he would do data. And that will be like really, really useful for you to get the best performance out of them.
Lambros Bryan Demos 14:17
Interesting. Well, that's great advice. Thanks. Thanks for that. I'll keep that in mind. For sure.
Umar Hameed 14:22
Cool. And so as you look into your crystal ball, what's going to happen next year, your best guess in the real estate market?
Lambros Bryan Demos 14:32
I mean, I think interest rates will continue up. However, I don't see prices coming down too much. Sellers. Most of them are not in a panic. A lot of them are locked in to fixed rates or static payments or something like that. So I don't see a flurry of inventory hitting the market and that's the only thing that can really cause a crash if we have an overabundance of supply, right. So right now we're still in a seller's market. Technically, we're only at about three months of inventory. and anything more than that, then becomes a balanced market and then becomes eventually a buyers market. So technically, statistically speaking, we're still in a seller's market. And if if supply decreases, on the other hand, then you may see something called FOMO. Kick in again, which has been responsible for the last two spikes in price appreciation, fear of missing out FOMO, right? I'm not saying prices are going to spike again. But I think they might go a little upwards, around Christmas time holidays, because that's what we've seen the last two years because supply has been really down. And then that that sparks fear in the buyers mind saying "Oh, I better get in now before there's nothing for me out there."
Umar Hameed 15:42
Brilliant. So before we part company today, three questions. Number one, what brings joy into your
Lambros Bryan Demos 15:49
life? Well, I have to say, my niece and nephews, nice. You know, they just they bring a smile to my face every time. And yeah, they really do bring joy in my life.
Umar Hameed 16:02
And one of the benefits of having nieces and nephews is you can sugar them up and send them home.
Lambros Bryan Demos 16:07
Yeah, exactly. Exactly. What's one piece of advice
Umar Hameed 16:10
What's one piece of advice you'd give people to be more effective, more productive, six years sleep better? Like what would be that one nugget, you'd give people that they can use right now to improve their lives?
Lambros Bryan Demos 16:21
I say, get a coach, or have join a community that can support you, right? So I did that. But a year and a half ago, I joined this great community and I started getting coached nice real estate, but also in business. And that really gives you somebody to lean on somebody to get ideas from somebody to keep you accountable, right, somebody to push you, etcetera, etcetera. So that was a turning point in my career for sure. So that's what I would advise anyone to do.
Umar Hameed 16:52
Brilliant. Is there a question? I should have asked you that I did not?
Lambros Bryan Demos 16:58
Well, let's go back to one of the questions you did ask you asked about how people can get into the market. So I recently joined up with this group for co-ownership. So it's something new to the market right now. And what it does, it helps with the downpayment. So if somebody can qualify for a mortgage from an income level, but they don't have saved up enough money for a down payment, they'll top up your down payment to about 20%. Let's say you only have 5%, they'll give you the additional 15%, or whatever it is with no interest. So and you don't have to pay it back until you sell the house. Right. So if anybody wants to learn more about this, by all means they can reach out to me.
Umar Hameed 18:17
And we'll put links in the show notes so people can reach you.
Lambros Bryan Demos 18:20
Please do, 100%. Yeah, please do.
Umar Hameed 18:22
Brilliant. Thanks so much for being on the show. I really enjoyed our conversation today. And I'm looking forward to our next.
Lambros Bryan Demos 18:28
Thanks, Umar, I really appreciate Thank you. Take care, have a great day.
Umar Hameed 18:36
If you enjoyed this episode, please go to iTunes and leave a five-star rating. And if you're looking for more tools, go to my website at nolimitsselling.com. I've got a free mind training course there, that's going to teach you some insights from the world of Neuro-Linguistic Programming and that is the fastest way to get better results.