CCCT with Scott Smith, Broker/Owner from You 1st Realty Infinity

CCCT sat down with Scott Smith, broker/owner from You 1st Realty Infinity out of Denver, CO who helps people buy and sell homes that is his passion. It does not matter your situation; whether you are buying, selling, or investing, Scott is here to help you get the most out of the experience with the least amount of stress and frustration. His office has an amazing support team to handle all his client’s needs. Coloradohomefinder.com is one of the most used real estate websites in Colorado so his clients receive the maximum amount of exposure and up to date information on what is available on the market. It gives them a competitive edge that no other brokerage can provide. He is very excited to be able to help so contact him anytime as he is always available, it is never a bother. https://www.you1st.com

#realestate #buyinghomes #sellinghomes #investing #housingmarket

Transcription

Hey there, Commercial Construction Coffee Talk fans. Thanks for chiming in. My name’s David Corson, and I’m your host. I’m also the publisher and editor of Commercial Construction Renovation Magazine. This is what it used to look like. I’m breaking out the archives. This is January-February 2014. We have the Finish Line on here. Looks like that Matt Poskey, nominades and Merrick Reynolds, construction project manager on the cover. Thanks, gentlemen, for gracing the cover. This was another great-looking issue. Let’s see what I was doing. I got my lacrosse thing going on here. I’m on the field. Someone caught me there playing attack. Got my DU shorts on. But always like looking at the magazine. You know, we went digital completely August of 2021. But it’s so nice still to look and see what I was doing. And I had my helmet on there, but I probably don’t have as much hair as I have now. You know, I had a lot more hair than I do now. So it’s just going really quick. But other than that, I hope everybody had a great Labor Day weekend. I sure think, you know, it goes so quick. I could have used another couple days, but the one day off was nice. And hopefully, I had some time off, recharge your battery, positive mindset, and get ready to go into the fall season and finish the year out with momentum. And, you know, get ready for the new year. You know, it’s just been amazing how time flies. I mean, it was just January. I was working in the new year. And here I am in the beginning of September. And it’s just amazing how time goes so quick. I think as you get older, you don’t sleep as much. But I’m just amazed at how quick this year has gone. And it’s been an exciting year. I mean, at the end of every day, I’m just mentally draining from everything that I’ve done, watched, listened to. And it’s just been an exciting time to be alive. There’s just so much going on in the world. And, you know, in the commercial construction center, you know, listen, everybody’s busy. If they had more PMs and superintendents, we’d probably do more projects, and there’d be more cranes up in all the cities. But everybody I talk to, it’s just amazing how busy they are. And what a great year it’s been. And how well they did last year. And everybody’s pretty much, you know, bullish, you know, on next year. And I think I am too. It’s just, I think a lot of people are just taking one day at a time. But they’re staying positive. And it’s just been an exciting time. College football just started out, you know. And congratulations to Deion Sanders. You know, everybody counted him out. He was way, way down.

You know, I think they were 20-point underdogs coming, you know, with his son from, you know, the HBCU, you know, league. And here they went in and they went on the road and they beat TCU. That was the national championship against Georgia. Everybody counted him out. I did not. If I was going to Vegas, I would have placed a bet on that guy. And sure enough, they pulled it off. And so, congratulations. They got you. Look, I went to University of Denver. So CU was my archrival. But you know what? I was pulling for the Buffaloes. And it was really exciting to see them win. And I’m sure it was crazy up there in Boulder that night. And I’m sure in Denver, too. You know, he played here for the Falcons. And then he went to the Niners. And you know, listen, the guy’s an amazing coach, an amazing individual, just a supreme athlete. And it was just exciting to see him win. So, um, and I remember those days when the Buffaloes weren’t that great before they even changed their colors when they were blue and gold way back when when I was out there, you know, we used to play lacrosse on that field. So, uh, I remember those days. But, you know, Nebraska would come in, all those teams, and they would just laugh at Colorado. And then they had some good years, McCartney and it’s been, you know, kind of that cycle. But Deion Sanders, congratulations. You know, way to go. So, with that said, on that positive note of winning, got a person in one of my favorite cities, the Mile High City, Denver, Colorado. His name is Mr. Scott Smith, and he’s with U First Real Estate Infinity. He’s out by the Denver Tech Center. So, Scott, say hello to our listeners out there on Commercial Construction Coffee Talk.

Hey, nice to see everybody, and David, thanks a lot for having me on today. We really appreciate you finding the time.

And the reason why I had Scott on was it’s just always good to get a perspective of people from different parts of the country, you know, what he sees going on, etc. He’s in that real estate sector, and you know, even though I’m in construction, everything is tied to real estate, you know, because if you don’t have leases, you don’t have locations, you don’t have sites picked out, you can’t build anything or renovate anything. So, it’s always good to have that perspective from that real estate side of things because everything is tied to the hip, believe it or not, depending on how brands are set up internally. It’s always good to get that perspective. So, today, Scott, the way we do our episodes, I do them in three parts. You’ll tell your story, where you grew up, where you went to school, and how you ended up where you are today. And then we’ll talk about the last three years, lessons learned of the roller coaster that we’ve all gone through. And then one positive thought or phrase and your contact info so people can reach out to you and bounce some questions off you. And then we’ll close it out. So, with that said, the floor is yours. Tell us your story, Scott.

Thanks, David. Yeah, so I grew up in a little bit different environment. My dad worked in the oil field, so I was born in Phoenix and then moved to Alaska. We lived in Alaska for a short time. After Alaska, we moved to Ecuador, so I lived in Ecuador for a couple of years. After Ecuador, we moved to Iran, and so we were actually evacuated from Iran in ’79, about a month before the hostages were taken. My dad has kind of a unique story. He stayed back to shut down a rig, and Khomeini’s forces actually came through that rig looking for Americans, and he was hidden in a closet by some of the guys that he worked with, narrowly avoided being caught, and wow, made it home. It was a crazy time. I was young. I mean, I was born in ’73, so at that time, I was six years old. I’ve got vague memories of, you know, Otis, my dad’s company, putting us on a Learjet in the middle of the night, kind of leaving everything we owned. After we left Iran, we lived in Brunei for a few years, so on the island of Borneo, and you know, saw the Sultan’s palace with the gold roof, spent vacations in Singapore, very lucky kids. When we left Brunei, we lived in Australia, and so it was in Australia until about the sixth grade, and that’s when we moved back to just outside of Houston, to what was a little town back then. Now it’s kind of a bigger city in Pearland, Texas, and that’s where I went to high school. Could not stand the weather in Houston, Texas. Lots of bugs, lots of humidity. So I joined the army to get out of Houston and went to Fort Benning to do basic training as an infantryman.

We know it well down here.

We know it well, and it’s not even Fort Benning now. Now it’s something else. I don’t even know what it is now. But went to attempt to go to Ranger Battalion after I graduated Airborne school. Failed the swim test, basically drowned in that pool, and ended up on worldwide assignment. Ended up in Italy for two years, which was fantastic.

Um, from like ’92 to ’94, and then went to Fort Bragg to be part of the 82nd Airborne Division for a couple of years, bounced around a little bit after that, and that’s when I ended up in Denver. Started a small mortgage company in the mid-2000s, and in 2008, went through what a lot of people went through in ’08-’09, which is losing everything you owned. And then about six years ago, got back into real estate and had just been absolutely loving it. What division, you know, before you went to Ranger school, etc., what was your specialty, you know, in the army that you, that you learned?

Yeah, so I was an infantryman.

You’re in for infantry. Okay, okay, yeah, I was a, I was a paratrooper, falling out of planes and shooting at people. Although back then, I got lucky. I mean, we went, we supported the Rwandan Revolution when I was in Italy. So we deployed to Uganda, lived in an airplane hangar for a few months. While, I don’t know how much you know about the Rwandan Revolution…

Oh, no, listen, I come from a military family, so I’m pretty up on everything.

So, yeah, it happened all in about 24 hours. We were there a few weeks later. You know, we ran humanitarian missions into Rwanda, but mainly we just lived in an airplane hangar. And I mean, there was a lot of death there for a long time. It was a very sad event. If you ever want to know about it, watch the movie Hotel Rwanda. It tells a really good depiction of that story. You know, I always tell people that, you know, if they have kids and they don’t know what they’re gonna do, you know, they don’t know what they want to do, go join the military. You get a roof over your head, you get three square meals a day, you learn a trait, you learn leadership, you learn just about, in general, in life, you learn a lot about yourself. And then, you know, depending if you stay in or you, or if when you get out, you’re just so much more marketable. And, um, uh, thank you for your service, first of all, number one. But number two, what an amazing story of all the places that you lived in over the years, even though it must have been hard jumping from place to place, but you just saw so many different types of places around the world. It just must be an amazing ride, you know, looking at all of those things. And, uh, you know, uh, thank God your father was hiding in the closet and, you know, he kept quiet and he didn’t sneeze or anything because, uh, you know, I was, you know, I was born in ’63, so I’ve got a few years on you, but I remember when that whole thing went on with, uh, you know, and then the Iran-Contra gig and, you know, all the stuff that went on and all the politics and, you know, the, this and that. But, you know, the, uh, like I said, military, my grandfather was an engineer underneath Patton in World War II, so he went back and built all the bridges that, uh, the Allies bombed during the war, and then, you know, was in the rebuilding of Europe afterwards.

And, um, uh, you know, I grew up, you know, putting up the flag in the morning and night, taking it down, doing the, you know, the sermon, putting it out. And so I, I, anybody that went in the military, I don’t care what it could have been, you know, whatever branch that you were in, even Coast Guard or reserves, I don’t care what it is, thank you. I will tell you, the Coast Guard is America’s best-kept secret. If somebody out there is young and doesn’t know what to do, go join the Coast Guard. If I’d known about the Coast Guard, well, I probably would have joined, even though I failed a couple of swim tests and failed every land, now, of course, the Army ever gave me, like, the Coast Guard’s a great deal. Yeah, you know, I’ve got buds, so that, that did the Coast Guard thing, and, uh, you know, my son went, you know, he works for Boeing, he’s on, he’s on the flight line. And anyway, I didn’t know what he was going to do, and I, you know, I told him, I said, “Look, you know, uh, go to the military or go do the National Guard.” I said, “Look, we’re near the coast, you could go do the Coast Guard, do any of those things, and you can.”

Do your time. If you want to re-enlist, you know, become an officer, go to candidacy school, or you can make your decision. But it, you know, you’re still young. You go and you put your four years in to do your time, and then you can figure out what you want to do. But I still say if, you know, I always tell people if your son or daughter do not know what they’re going to do and when they’re 18 and they graduate high school, um, go join the military. You got your whole life ahead of you, and you’ll build brotherhood, and you’re going to be an only group because, you know, listen, we’re a volunteer army these days. So, you know, not everybody can go in there and say that, you know, I did serve my time, and, uh, and, uh, you know, look, you were in the history books, you know, with, uh, you know, what you did over there, you know, hanging in the hangar for a couple of months. But that’s the way it goes. You plan, you wait, they pull the trigger, boom, you go in, and then you leave, and, uh, job well done. So, uh, thank you so much once again for your service. We thoroughly appreciate it. So, um, well, let’s talk about, uh, you know, as you came in, you know, because I remember the, the ’08, the O.A. crash, you know, it was ’08, ’09, ’10. It was, uh, you know, just, uh, it was an amazing thing. I mean, I can go back and look at, you know, where like I like I said, I was born in ’63, so I remember when I was growing up, uh, with the oil embargo, and you couldn’t, you could only get gas in the States, you know, on even Rod days.

And, uh, we had gas down at our scrap. My family’s been in construction since 1888. So, uh, fit sixth generation, we’re in demolition and recycling. That’s what we did. We knew we were doing sustainability before any that was even a word, all right? We were in junk. It was another, you know, one man’s junk is another person’s gold, as far as we were concerned. So, uh, I did my time in the, in the, in the scrap yard, and I shoveled as fast as I laid railroad. All the grandsons, when you, I grew up outside of Philadelphia in Pottstown, about 15 minutes from west of Valley Forge. So, when you got your license at 16, you had to go work in the scrap yard if you were a grandson. That was just the way it was. And, uh, and my uncle and my Uncle Frank, uh, he was the superintendent. He was like a drill sergeant, you know, if, if you know what I mean. I mean, he was one tough son of a gun, and you better be on time, and, uh, I had to do all the OSHA stuff, you know, at the end of the day, wash all the lead off, and, and, but, uh, it was, it was, it was an exciting, uh, it was exciting time because, you know, a lot of my friends, they were just doing the gig, and I was doing hard labor, and, uh, but I appreciated it, you know, I stole my erector set that I built all sorts of stuff when way back when, and, uh, you know, I was going to go to Valley Forge Military Academy. I ended up going to, you know, prep school in New Jersey, and, uh, if I had to do it over when I went to University of Denver, I would have done the ROTC. That’s probably what I should have done. And, uh, you know, some of my friends were National Guard, and, um, uh, but, uh, you know, looking back from the oil embargo in ’63, and then, you know, out in Denver when I was in there in the ’80s, the recession kind of hit, you know, interest rates were 18% for a home. Uh, people think 8% is high.

I’m like, yeah, in the ’80s, it was 18%, and then, and you had to have 20% down. There was none of this stuff that, you know, that’s been going on over the last couple of years. And then you came into the ’90s, and then the internet, you know, the bubble, you know, 9/11, I was in New York, and, uh, you know, I ended up driving home, and, um, uh, and then, uh, you know, through that first year, and then, and then, and then the housing crisis, you know, the economy just fell off the cliff, and, uh, but it wasn’t like, uh, 9/11 because, you know, things were still open, people were still flying, it was just, it was just an awful time. And then it kind of the economy, you know, came back, and now, uh, over the last three years, that was basically, uh, I don’t even, it was the Twilight Zone because no one knew what know, you just didn’t know, and you had to be very flexible. And, uh, so when I look back at all the things but I’ve learned, I’ve learned so much from all of those episodes that happened that as I look back and I try to tell my son, you know, he’s 23, only just turned 24, but he, uh, I try to tell him, you know, look, you know, life’s really a roller coaster. You’re gonna, you’re gonna have good days, you’re gonna have bad days, you gotta roll with the punches, but you gotta stay positive because before it gets better, it’s probably going to get worse, or vice versa, you know, and it’s not, you know, uh, it’s not if the glass is half full, it’s half empty. Hey, you have a glass in your hand, that’s, that’s, that’s the magic of it. And I had someone on my podcast that told me that a couple of weeks back, and it really hit home with me. I’m like, I’m just glad to have the glass in my hand, that way I can actually choose what I want to, the way that I want to look at it, you know? Just think if you didn’t even have that, you couldn’t even use that quote. So talk about, you know, as, uh, you know, you were, you’re choosing, you know, to get back into real estate and the, you know, the mortgage side of things and so forth. Talk about the last two years, how you weather the storm, and like lessons learned that some of our listeners out there, uh, you know, might, you know, find some knowledge nuggets to apply themselves, you know, as far as your business goes.

Sure. So, um, where a lot of the economy struggled over that three-year period, what you find is real estate boom. And there were, for that, you know, when things first started to happen, a lot of people shut themselves in their homes, whereas I had spent the first six months of 2020 prospecting without, and I’d done maybe two million dollars worth of volume, which is not a lot of volume. And so, because I showed through all of through everything, I never took a day off. I masked up and gloved up and did what I needed to do, and I actually ended up having one of my best years in real estate. I closed 37 deals in 2020, did about, uh, 14-15 million dollars worth of volume. I mean, really had a banner year. And the same in 2021, we had excellent years. And it was really just because when everybody else was, you know, taking the time, whether they needed to or not, a lot of people were relaxing and drinking more and doing all that. I just, I just embraced the grind and never stopped working. I never, you know, when it, it was kind of a shame because I remember, like, having the freeways to myself for six months and being able to drive like a hundred miles an hour everywhere I went, cops didn’t care. It was, I mean, it was the Wild Wild West. And I remember the day I pulled out and all the traffic was back, and I was like, “Oh, I kind of missed this, open, you know, having the freeways open to just me and like three other cars.” Hey, for those who haven’t been in Denver, they definitely have rush hour, okay? And, uh, you know, whether it’s I-25 or 225 or, uh, you know, uh, I-70 depending on where you are, it’s brutal. Like, I’m in Atlanta and it’s the LA of the South, so we’re talking, you know, eight, ten lanes on both sides of the highway, and it can be bumper to bumper. But when you’re, you’re so right when, when, when the roller coaster started in March of 2020, everybody was home, there was no traffic, and we were kind of still open here in Georgia, it really depending on what state you were in, depending, you know, you know, basically, you know, delegated, you know, what was happening.

And, but there was no traffic, and a lot of people were staying home. I mean, the first thing that I did, I went and got some lumber and I went and redid my deck, and I told my son, I go, “Look, man, we’re going to do this ourselves. I’m not paying someone to do it,” you know? And he was like, “Why aren’t you a contractor?” I’m like, “I’m from a construction family, you know?” you know, he’s like, “How do you know how to do all this stuff?” I’m like, “Making mistakes when I was young and learning.” And, uh, you know, we redid the deck and we, we did, we did some other things, and, uh, we found a piece of land up on the lake that, you know, was, you know, finding a little lake lot with a, with a boat, uh, boat dock and a permit was like a needle in a haystack. And, uh, so when I look back at the, at 2020, um, it was, I’ll tell you, in the beginning of 2020, there was low unemployment, cranes everywhere building. I mean, the con, the country was just booming. And then all of a sudden March comes in, the NCAA Final Four gets canceled. I was going to, I was going to that weekend in the middle of March after Tom Hanks got the bug and everything got shut down, and I was going to Ohio State to watch my Duquesne Pios play in The Horseshoe, and that game got canceled. And, um, uh, and then kind of, uh, a lot of people had to make some decisions on, you know, what they were going to do, and you really had to be flexible and, and, and, and act very quickly. I don’t like using the word pivot because I’ve, I, I’ve just heard it way too much. I just look back at just myself. I was a, I had just had my 10th anniversary event and put my issue out, and then I was a print, face-to-face guy, and my whole world was locked down.

So I spent a lot of sleepless nights in April going, “Oh my God, what am I going to do?” And my editor tomorrow’s like, “Let’s go digital. We’ve had, we have a digital magazine, we have a ton of content, let’s just go that route.” We were bi-monthly, and so we did six issues a year or so in May. We put out the digital issue, and I did a very, very small press run, uh, but then by the time August 2021’s cleaning around, we were going to make the announcement, we’re going to go 100% digital, and, uh, we just made the decision then to make the announcement, and I haven’t looked back. I don’t miss the post office, I don’t miss printer. I don’t miss any of that stuff, and to be honest with you, I had a, I had, you know, million, we get millions of people that hit our website now consume content. I’m a completely different company than I was three years ago. I’m still, I’m still a manufacturer construction guy. I mean, I build a magazine every month, but before I used to paper, ink, postage, and all these subcontractors that got this down. Now I do it digitally with, uh, you know, software, etc., but I’m still a builder. So every time, every month, I can look back, you know, look and say, “Hey, I built that.” And, but the biggest thing was that, uh, everybody was on the web. There were eight billion people on the planet and, uh, so we, you know, I never had a million people hitting my website. So as we started doing more content and more things on the web, just like this podcast, I bought my, my microphone. I was going to go through construction interviews out on the, on the job sites and interview PMs or the owners on why they chose that site and how it was going, and then I couldn’t do any of that. So I just started doing these things digitally, and now I don’t know how many episodes I’ve done, but I had, we had hundreds and hundreds of videos from all of our events over the years, and, um, but now, you know, we get about two, two and a half million people a month that hit our website, and they come back because, you know, we have good content. But the biggest thing was before, before, uh, March of 2020, we just used to, uh, put construction-related real estate facilities development, that kind of stuff up there.

But I think a lot of people over the three years, they found out there’s more to life than just work. And so we put a lot more stuff on there, you know, how to buy, how, you know, how to choose the right home, uh, how to buy the right phone for yourself, how to choose the right insurance, uh, all of these different things that people, you know, that they never thought about, they had time to think about it. And, uh, just like you said, you know, it, I had talked to so many people that had banner years over the last couple years just because know, they kind of had that right mindset and they went for it, while some people just sat back, you know, and they, and then they don’t want to come back to work, which is why we have the labor shortage. And, uh, so, you know, kudos to yourself that you, you know, you had that mentality. And, boy, I would have loved to see, you know, I-25 with no traffic on it, you know, when the police going, “Hey, go for it, bud,” you know? I mean, that’s an amazing story, not having any traffic, you know, you know, during, no matter what time of day it was. So, um, we’ll keep, keep talking about, you know, so, you know, you had your banner year and you went through the following year, and, uh, uh, you know, obviously you were out there, but, you know, were people in your office or were they hybrid or how did that all work? No, we learned as a brokerage. I mean, going through that, we just learned that we used to do in-person meetings, uh, you know, our corporate brokerage, so I own a franchise, and back then I worked for corporate, and there’s probably 150 agents at corporate, and we used to get 5-10 people into a meeting, then an in-person meeting. And so during that time period, we did, like you did, we moved everything online.

We used GoToMeeting, kind of like Zoom, in order to bring the brokerage together, and we’ve actually continued that all the way through today. And now we get 40-50 percent of the brokerage on meetings every single day, because it’s much easier just to, you know, dial in from home or dial in from the road. So we, we, I mean, it’s kind of this weird thing where this bad thing happened, and it propelled for a lot of real estate, it propelled us into the next level of doing what we were doing because of the lessons learned. And people are real estate agents because they don’t want to go into an office, and so it’s really nice to be able to, you know, to do the things you need to do from home. Now, I’m an office rat, like, I get up, I’m at the office by seven o’clock in the morning, I’m usually here till seven o’clock at night. I know me, they’re at home, I’ve got my Xbox, my dog, my kid, like, there’s nothing that’s going to keep me working, so I’ve got to come into the office, I know me. Um, but, you know, for a lot of people, they love working from home, and it allows them the ability to do that. And I think for most agents, they kind of saw that same thing where, you know, and business definitely slowed down this year as interest rates have gone up, um, you know, business has slowed, but it’s still at a pace where, you know, we’re expecting next year that hopefully interest rates come down a little bit and business is going to pick back up. And I, I do some other, like, some investing, some wholesaling stuff on the side, uh, that that drives revenue. But yeah, I mean, it’s, it’s interesting how every, everything affects your business, and yet as long as you stay focused and, you know, paying attention to things, that you’re always able to drive that business forward. You know, when I look back at, uh, you know, from a real estate perspective, I’ve been in Atlanta since ’92.

So I was here before the Olympics. I saw, you know, Home Depot was building 140 stores a year, and I saw all the stuff get built, uh, you know, around the city. I’m just another Yankee living in the South, and, um, uh, but we had, I was, this was my third house I was in, we were there almost 17 years, and my son was graduating, he went to fa… mechanic school to get his A&P license, and, you know, that’s what he wanted to do, work with his hands, which I was psyched because we need skilled labor out there, no matter what we’re doing. And, um, uh, so we had our house up for sale, and, uh, we got a bit, you know, we had some bids on it, and then, uh, uh, one of the contracts fell out, and I told my wife to go look, we need to, we, we need to finish the basement, and, uh, so we took it off the market, and, uh, my wife’s an interior designer, you know, residential contractor, so, uh, and we have a federal contracting business, too, you know, minority-owned. You know, she’s, you know, that’s just the way that we set it up. But anyway, we’re still in construction, so I said, “Look, we’ll redo the basement, we’ll do it ourselves, and then we’ll put it back on the market.” But what the crazy thing was was after we finished the house, I told her, “So look, we need, we had, we bought the piece of land up on the lake as our empty nester house to build, and we needed to find a home to live in, and we wanted to live as closest to the, to the lot as we could so we could keep an eye on things and, you know, be there, you know, versus, you know, making an hour drive, you know, to it every day. And finding a house to live in was the, the most painful thing to go because we would go, I think I lost at about 25 or 30 homes. We would get there and before you’d even get there, there would be an offer on it, and it was, and if you didn’t have cash, you weren’t getting that house.

And literally one by one. And I finally, and we have four dogs, so I couldn’t rent, you know, my wife’s a rescuer, you know, for the animals, and, uh, I told her, I said, “Look, we’re gonna be living, uh, you know, in a tent, you know, or somewhere in the middle of Georgia because, you know, we can’t find a house.” And then finally, we found a home that was, you know, fairly close to where we were living, uh, and, uh, I said, “Do whatever you need to do. It’s on a cul-de-sac and has a fence that we can have it for the dogs. And, uh, just do whatever.” So we just spent over thirty thousand dollars over the asking price, and there were, I think, 45 people bidding on that house. I had to buy the house without an inspection, as is. It was only about five or six years old, so I really wasn’t concerned about, you know, too much going wrong with it. But I mean, it was agonizing trying to find a house. My wife would sit at night, you know, and, uh, you know, look at her, look at her phone and, uh, on Zillow, and we would see a house that would go up on the market, and before we even woke up in the morning, there was, there was a, there was, you know, under contract on it. You know, you couldn’t find a house. And I didn’t even know where these people were going that were selling their homes because, you know, every other state that you would go to, whether it was Texas or Florida or wherever, wherever you’re moving, everything, the real estate market was just absolutely bonkers. And, uh, you know, finding a home was the most agonizing thing that I think I ever went with. But then finally, we got it, and, uh, and then, uh, you know, you know, someone put an offer on a home, and, and, uh, you know, it, it was the greatest thing that I had, like a whole weight lifted off. And when we got rid of the trophy house, and, uh, uh, had a great time there, but listen, we were there 17 years. I knew that we had three AC units, I knew the roof was going to have to get fixed eventually, and you know, all these other things, if you, you stay there. And, uh, I was like, look, we had a great time, let’s just go out and build our empty nest room, have a good time there, and finish our life out. And, uh, um, but it was, it was just crazy, you know, the real estate market here, and I, I was talking to friends, you know, all over the country, and they, you know, people were moving and selling their homes, and they were all going through the same thing.

I mean, prices were up, you were making money, but the inventory was low, and and things were just going so quick, and, you know, if you, if you, you know, if you didn’t know, if you know, I forget what the real estate term is like, uh, one in the pocket or whatever, a listing that’s, uh, you know, listing pocket listing, thank you. I was having a, you know, a, you know, a brain gig. Anyway, uh, that, that popu… game, if you didn’t know that was happening, you know, it was very, very tough to find a home. And, uh, and, uh, uh, we were, we were just, you know, timing your business is everything. I always say that. And, uh, but, uh, when we got, when we got into this house, and we went to the closing sign, I was like, oh my God, what a, what a relief, got rid of the other house, we have a place to live, and the land’s not going anywhere. And, uh, you know, now interest rate, you know, it’s like, do I want to build it eight percent with a, you know, you know, a construction loan? Shoot, you I know. I have no idea, you know? It’s… we have our plans done, and um, I’m getting my permit done because we’re near the lake. You’ve got to deal with the DNR and so forth. But, um, all in all, it, uh, we’ve been kind of sitting back, and now I’m like, well, do I want to wait? I don’t know if I’ll get the sticks done before the end, you know, the sticks and the framing done, and make it dry so I can go through the rest of the winter with the electrical and all that. Maybe I’ll just wait and, um, you know, the economy, who knows what’s going to happen? I think corporate real estate is the biggest unknown because the occupancy rate is, you know, I’m in the commercial sector, so I know that the occupancy rate in some of these cities is way down, and a lot of those buildings are, who knows what they’re going to be able to do with them, you know, from a renovation point of view as a reused project, etc.

And I think that’s probably one of the, my, I’m going to use the word scary, you know, as if, yeah, uh, because before we got on, we were talking about, you know, Denver being empty. So, when I went to DU from ’81 to ’85, I remember that, down to the oil bust. You know, you come from an oil family, so you can appreciate this. The oil bust happened in the early ’80s, and Denver had just built all these buildings downtown, and there was no one in them. It was like a ghost city. I mean, they were empty. Now they’re full. I mean, I go back there. I mean, they built a new stadium and all this stuff. But when I was there, it was empty down there, and they had all these huge buildings that they had built, and the bust just drove everything away, and inflation, you had high interest rates and all of the stuff that was going on. And when I look back at it, you know, it wasn’t scary, but everybody was kind of on edge, you know what I mean? It’s kind of like if you were, you know, listen, you jumped out of planes, which I totally give you credit, uh, that you’re sitting there waiting for the green light to go on, there’s still some butterflies going on, you know? It was that same kind of feeling in the mid-’80s that you really didn’t know what was going to happen. But, you know, you were prepared for it. You just didn’t know what was going to happen. And that was kind of the edge that I felt back then. And, um, and they didn’t make it easy buying a house the way that they’ve done it, you know, over the last, you know, ten years. And, uh, so it, um, and you know, one of the other things, you know, you know, there are good real estate people, and there are really lazy ones. And that was the one thing that I saw when we were selling our house. The people that really took pride in what they did, you know, whether you were the listing agent or the person opening the lockbox and all that kind of stuff, would come home or get your home ready, they would, you know, maybe put up some ice and some sodas and whatever, just the little things that can make people feel more comfortable when they’re going to go buy probably the biggest investment that they’re, you know, other than a car, that they’re going to purchase in their life.

It’s all those little things that can actually help you make the sale. And that goes with anything. Am I right about that or not? I mean, you’re a real estate, yeah. I mean, absolutely. It’s interesting you talked about the commercial real estate because a lot of people don’t understand that for a lot of commercial real estate, they’re bought with a balloon loan. And so, in the next, I think it’s 2024, there’s trillions of dollars of balloon notes that are due. And because of the occupancy rates, I don’t know that those commercial buildings are going to appraise to refinance. Um, and I mean, it could equate to 2008, but in the commercial real estate space, like it, it is something that is a potential of being pretty devastating to sectors of the economy, um, which is, you know, it’s something that’s that’s worth following. And it also means right now you can get a really good deal on Commercial Real
Estate. If you are somebody in an investment group or you’ve got cash, I mean now’s a great time to be contacting commercial real estate owners because, you know, they can still get out and not have to deal with a lot of the problems that are coming. So it is a great time to get opportunities in commercial real estate. You know, there are firms out there that, right now, their balloon payments are even though next year is where the big hurray is going to come in where everything’s due, but just this past year, stuff that I’ve read online or stuff that, you know, I’m in media, so I got press releases all the time, but they, I know people, they’re companies that big companies that have just turned the keys over and say, look, I can’t afford to make this payment right now. And they’re just walking away and say, and let the bank deal with it. And then the bank doesn’t, you know, they gotta figure out how they’re gonna, how they’re gonna eat that because it’s on their books, you know, it’s, it’s on their ledger. So it very, it really is. And when I heard that occupancy rate was less than 50 percent, it was, it was, uh, it was very scary, you know? We, I, I look at New York as an example, and I’m from there, so no one take that against me or not. But I grew up there, went to public school and the whole bit. But, you know, New York, we did an event, a reception up there in, um, in May. And, uh, people said, look, and we have an event coming up at the end of this month in New York, and they say, look, if you do an event in New York, don’t do it on Monday and don’t do it on Friday because no one’s in the city. And they’re only coming in, you know, if they’re hybrids, they’re only coming in Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, you know, to come in and go and do the office.

And I asked, I asked a lot of people, you know, how do you do it? Do you come in one day or do you stay at home or do you just pick time when you’re coming in? And it varied, but they all said that, you know, the city, you know, it’s just not, it’s just not full the way it was. And that goes with anything. I don’t care if it’s Texas or what have you. That corporate real estate thing is a very, very dicey thing that’s coming down the pike. If people, if you haven’t read about it, you know, Google it because it’s a, it’s a serious thing that’s going to come in. And, uh, hopefully the, uh, the financial guys in that are in corporate real estate will figure out the best way to, you know, to solve that problem. But you know, you got, uh, you know, a huge note and, uh, you got no one, uh, you know, running space or and so forth. You’re gonna have to be very creative, you know, to get people to go. And you’re exactly right. If you have cash out there, oh my God, you should go. You could probably find some serious bargains if you were looking for a new office or maybe you’re looking for a down, you know, to downsize for another, you know, it’s big and small, all of these people are affected by this thing. And, um, it’s, uh, you know, there’s a lot of other things that you got to worry about. But I always bring up the corporate real estate because it’s like this. It’s like the hurricane out in the ocean, you know, and it’s out there. You just don’t know when it’s gonna hit and where it’s gonna go, but you know what’s coming. And you just don’t know how bad it’s going to be. And, uh, so it, uh, you know, you’re in real estate. So I’m glad that you, you know, that you’re on the same page as me because I, you know, I look at it and I’m looking at all of this stuff. You know, when I go on, you know, the road and look at different cities, I’m always looking to see what the vibe is. And, uh, you know, I’ll talk to some real estate people and they will all say, you know, yeah, this is the, the big thing that’s coming down the pike. And, uh, it’s gonna be here before you know it. But if you have cash, you can find, listen, there’s, you got, you can always make a positive out of a negative, you know?

So if you do have cash, whether it’s in, you know, the residential side or in the corporate side, there are a lot of deals out there. And if you wanted to learn, get into real estate, here’s your, here’s your opportunity because there’s gonna be plenty of opportunities out there. You just gotta go find the right one for you to fit that mold. Am I right? Yeah, absolutely. And you gotta be really good at underwriting a deal, right? Knowing what makes something a good deal and what doesn’t. And I recommend if you’re new to investing in real estate, join a real estate Mastermind. It’ll cost you a little bit of money. Um, but find a good Mastermind. I belong to a great group called The billion dollar boardroom. It’s run by a guy, Hobby, does a fantastic job. It’s a great group of people. Um, but there’s thousands of real estate masterminds out there. So, right, surround yourself with people who know more than you and then just follow their path, right? You don’t necessarily have to reinvent the wheel. Like, wheels roll, that’s what they do. So just find somebody who’s already rolling the wheel and get on board. I mean, what’s the occupancy saying right now in Denver? I mean, is it, is it above 50 or is it teetering over there? I mean, I mean, my cousin, my cousin lives in downtown Denver and he just says, you know, renting an apartment is just unbelievably expensive or just in general real estate is just boomed and so you’re there. Yeah, I think we have a really high occupancy rate. But what we’ve seen is a lot of companies downsizing, right? So, you know, you used to rent space for a hundred people and you realize, I really only need space for 20. And so what you see is a lot of people shrinking the size of their office space, um, and getting into smaller, you know, getting into smaller notes, getting into smaller spaces. So Denver is one of those markets that because so many people move here, we tend to, you know, we tend to have a lot, we tend to have very little openings.

But even now, we see a lot of, you know, like shopping malls and shopping centers and, um, you know, a lot of for sale signs, a lot of vacancy signs on, uh, things that used to be full. So I mean, I think it’s hitting the whole country in a similar way. I think one of the really smart things that people are doing is they’re repurposing spaces, finding new ways to use spaces that used to do old things. And I think that’s gonna be really the next wave. A lot of people are turning spaces into, uh, like remote workspaces where you can just, you know, kind of like WeWork where you can just come in, run a little office, and then go. So I mean, there’s a lot of people out there doing some really smart things, uh, with old spaces to get new money out of them. I’ll tell you one of my, one of the most amazing things like I was, like I said, I went to DU in the, in the, in the ’80s and, uh, we did an event. I hadn’t been out there in a while and, uh, uh, we, we did a gig down in Colorado Springs. So we flew into, uh, the airport DIA. Stapleton was long gone. And, um, uh, drove down I-25 and between Denver and Colorado Springs, when I was there, was just rolling hills of green, you know, farmland, you know, and you know out there in the country, you know, I mean, there was nothing there. And then when we drew, we went to this event, uh, you know, to Biltmore, uh, we’re driving down there, I’m telling people, I’m like, oh my God, they’ve got the, they got the train and, you know, Aurora was a little dinky sid and now it’s, you know, just, you know, it’s a humongous, you know, so many thousands of people, you know, Centennial, it was just like a, you know, one street town if that. But they have to train and everything was built up.

So actually Colorado Springs and which is probably about an hour hour and a half depending on where you’re going from Denver down to Sea Springs, but it’s basically just one big corridor now that’s just been built and it’s just amazing to see, you know, just like skiing, like I could, you know, the, you know, the DI, you know, the Denver drive-ups, you know, for the mountains on the weekends, uh, you’d still have to get up early, but now you got to get up about 4:30 in the morning to beat the traffic if you’re going up there on the weekends. And, uh, and still the highway’s only a couple lanes wide. So you just put more cars on it, you’re gonna, you know, you’re gonna get into traffic. So it, uh, it really is amazing to see how much has been built from a real estate perspective just between C-springs and and, uh, and Denver.

Then as you get into the foothills and so forth, some of the sleepy towns, Idaho Springs and all that, you know, Glenwood Springs, they still are in there, but there’s still so much building that’s been done. It, you know, the urban sprawl and, uh, you know, and I think they’ve done it right in Colorado. I think they have, you know, in all aspects, even though, you know, it can get out of control, I think they’ve done a good job as far as, you know, blending. But listen, you can’t control the, uh, you know, what’s going on right now in the corporate side of things. And, uh, like I said, uh, you know, it, you know, it’s, it’s, it’s, it’s, it’s there for the taking. So if you’re, if you’re thinking about real estate and, uh, like, uh, Scott said, join a mastermind gig. I mean, you know, you can learn from people that have been through the ringer and can hang on their coattails and, you know, what they’ve done. If it’s not broken, don’t fix it and do what they did, and you’ll make some money too. It, you know, and timing of business is everything. Cash is king. So if you’ve got cash and you’re looking to, you know, become a landlord and so forth or you’re, you’re like Scott said, if you’re looking to downsize, there’s so many properties that are going to become available. And listen to banks, they don’t want them on their ledger sheet. They want, they want you to take it. So be, be creative and, uh, you could probably land something really, really cool and become a real estate tycoon, you know? And, uh, I can think of other things that you could do, but hey, it’s there for the taking right now. So, um, what’s one of the, what, what are some of the coolest things that you’ve seen over the last, uh, you know, year, you know, from the real, you know, from your own perspective, you know, that, that you’ve done, you know, as far as sales go or helping people? Yeah, so I mean, some, I mean, we’ve done some really cool deals. We’ve found ways to, I’ve spent a lot of time in the last few months finding people who had distressed properties and helping them get out of them and still make some money, which is nice. I think being able to help people is the most important thing.

Um, it’s interesting you talked earlier about where, you know, everybody was going above asking price, where, I mean, we’re still seeing multiple offers on a lot of properties, but back then the difference was that, you know, someone was getting fifty thousand dollars over asking for a sale, but they were then taking that fifty thousand dollars over asking and putting it towards that buy. Right? So every single time a house sold, now you had a cash-heavy buyer going out there that people that didn’t have cash were competing against, which made it really hard, mostly for first-time homebuyers. If you were a list buy, your life wasn’t that hard, you were just reinvesting that money into the new property, where if you were a first-time homebuyer, it was really tough. And so in the last year, first-time homebuyers have really been able to get back into the market just because it’s been a little bit less competitive. Our inventory was down at the peak to about 2500 properties. We had, you know, in a really healthy buyer’s market here in Denver, we’ve got 25 to 30,000 properties on the market over 2020 and 2021. We got down to about 2500. Now we’re back up to about six thousand, so it’s rebounding, but it’s still in a place where sellers get a good deal, buyers are still able to get a good deal, so it’s in a nice place. I think interest rates, hopefully next year, are going to come down and we’ll see some good things, but you never know until it happens. Yeah, when we, when we got this house, I mean, the people that were selling the homes, they didn’t even look, if you, if you were getting a mortgage, they didn’t even want to talk to you. They just wanted to talk to the cash guys because it was a, it was a much easier close. You didn’t have to deal with things. And they, you, they kind of drove, hey, this is the way I’m selling the house, take it or leave it.

I got 50 other people that want this property and it’ll be sold by tomorrow morning if you want it. This is, this is the way it’s going to go and there’s no negotiating. And, uh, I mean, it was definitely a, you know, a seller’s market. And, uh, uh, and I know some of my friends, you know, that were out in California and they just missed it, where, you know, everything was going and then kind of it slowed down a little and some people, they just missed that window of opportunity when everything was just, you know, so fast and furious. You know, if you sold in 2019, you were kicking yourself, right? Like if you sold in 2018 or 2019, and that’s when some people had to sell. But you look back and you’re like, “Oh, if I just held on another year, I would have made 75 or a hundred thousand dollars more selling the same house.” Yeah. Well, we were in that same boat in December of 2020. We were going to sell our house and then it was a couple that came out from Dallas. And, or a couple, and it was a three-story house. I mean, we didn’t need all that space. But the bottom line is, they were an older couple. I was like, “Why are these people buying, you know, stairs? You don’t want stairs when you get older.” And, so I didn’t understand it. But then, you know, they canceled on a Saturday night. And that’s what I told, like I told my wife, we had, we bought the hay house because when it was a year and a half old, it was a real estate guy that had built it. And, so he had, he had stubbed everything out in the basement and he had one area, his office, was had drywall up and, but the rest of it was just all stubbed out and, you know, plumbing, electrical.

So, I just told my wife, I said, “Look, let’s just take it off the market. We’ll put a basement in. And in Georgia, everybody’s got a basement, it’s just the way it is. And, because the tornadoes, the sirens go off, you take cover.” And, so we, we did the basement and, and we added another, almost another 2200 square feet and, um, but if we would have sold it in 2020, in that December, in a year’s time, we’re talking hundreds of thousands of dollars extra that we, we added to the kitty. And, even though when you get up into that, you know, a little higher income people, a little more finicky with their money because they’re successful and they’re careful with it versus, you know, a smaller home and not as large of it as an investment. But, uh, we had it on the market for a couple months and finally, uh, you know, they went with it and, uh, but it was, uh, if we, if we would have sold it, we, we definitely wouldn’t have done as well as we did. And, uh, I’m, you know, but who knew? I mean, I was like, “Let’s just do the thing. We’ll finish the basement in six months, we’ll do it ourselves, and we’ll put it up on the market.” And so we finished, I think we put it up in, like, the end of August. You know, people here in the South, we go to school, they start in the beginning of August, so if you’re gonna sell a house, you know, you got to do it, you know, May through the summer so they can get in their schools in. And, uh, these people were local, they just wanted a bigger, they had a couple of kids and they wanted a bigger house, they wanted to put a pool in, and, and we were just lucky we had a big lot in the subdivision that we were in. But, um, it was just, uh, when you look back, even more, she’s like, “Man, we were lucky we didn’t sell that house, because if we would have sold it back then, you’re right, we would have been kicking ourselves.” And even now, like, she’ll look at our old house and what it’s appraised for, and she’s like, “Oh, you know, it’s there.”

I’m like, “You know what? Don’t worry about it, because as long as the lake has water, that land is only going up because they’re not giving out any more boat permits, you know, doc permits. So, I don’t care about that house, you know, let them deal with, you know, I’m glad they bought it, I hope they’re happy.” You know, and, uh, but we had a good time there. Everything good things have to come to an end eventually. And, uh, but, uh, it really was a crazy, crazy time. And, uh, but people made a killing, uh, you know, and some of the real estate agents, I mean, I, I mean, uh, our, our agent just trying to get her to come out, she had more listings, you know, I mean, they, you had to be hot on the phone or looking at your stuff because the minute that listing went up, you want to get that thing so you can sell it, because someone else is going to be, you know, there’ll be 20 other.

Brokers or agents that want to list it or show it and uh it was just crazy so if uh if anybody wanted to bounce some questions off you know whether it’s on the residential side or the corporate side or just real estate in general or how you got into masterminds and learned, uh, you know, how would they reach out to you? Yeah, the easiest way is my cell phone 720-252-7037. I’m that guy that always answers his phone so you can call me. You can email me at Scott you first and it’s not the word first it’s the number one, St like first place so Scott at y o u the numeric one that’s like CMT like tom.com. Um, that’s the easiest way to get in touch with me is either email or phone so listen if you’re if you’re out there and you’re and you want to play in the real estate gate residentially you’re on the corporate industrial whatever it might be, uh, reach out to Scott bounce some things off him. He’s part of a mastermind and, and uh, he’ll help you kind of guide you through the turbulent Waters that are coming down the pike and uh you know listen if you don’t know ask and then you’ll know and that’s uh the kind of the way that I always uh you know think about it. Listen if someone wants to reach me I’m at David C at CCR hyphen or a small Dash and then mag.com. Listen uh Scott got on here because his publicist reached out to me and that’s how he got on the show so if you want to be a guest on here uh you know just reach out to me.

I I answer everything with the tat that’s turnaround time probably within you know 48 hours I’ll come back to you if you’ve got you know any press releases or anything that you want to get out there out on the wild wild west of the web listen we’ve got it’s very tough getting in the magazine but we’ve got all the social media programs we post stuff every day it could be a celebrate an anniversary for your company it could be a Personnel announcement it could be a charity golf tournament uh we look at everything so don’t judge the book by its cover what you’re going to send it let me do that because we look at everything and we post stuff all day long and uh and it’s win-win we post it we sing in the URL you share it it’s good for our SEO which is uh search engine optimization and uh you know it’s a win-win so you know send stuff and I always tell people it’s like playing the lottery if you don’t buy a ticket you can’t win if you don’t send me something I can’t I can’t publish it or put it on one you know in the magazine or on the social media so uh you know just it could be anything we look at everything and one of the most amazing things is before the roller coaster started in March of 2020 I used to just put the construction stuff up there but now I put all sorts of stuff in there you want to learn about hair extensions whether you’re a guy or a girl hey I got I got a copy on there that you can learn about that stuff if you want to learn about real estate if you want I have all sorts of stuff that’s on there and we put it out there for consumption we become a destination site of mainly construction design build real estate but a lot of other stuff that you would find even cryptos on there I put I’ve put all sorts of stuff in there so let me be the judge.

And I swear I’ll come back to you or my digital specialist will come back to you and uh you know we’ll get it posted for you so um any final thoughts uh you know on uh you know as we go into the Q4 and finish up the year in 2023 uh you know leave a positive thought or phrase with our listeners out there you know I would I think the only positive thought that that I that I keep in my head at all times is that I remember that I don’t know anything and the only way to learn anything is through hard work and effort so if you think you’re at you know sometimes you think you’re at the bottom of a mountain and you’re actually at the edge of a cliff um so you know keep your head on a swivel and make sure that you surround yourself with a circle of people who are Going to be honest with you and truthful and always keep that next thing in mind so you know where you’re going. You know I’ve been in these digital classes for like the last year so I did what you did I joined a mastermind for you know digital online marketing guys because I became a digital magazine and I thought I knew everything. I Didn’t Know Jack after looking at these guys that have made millions of dollars on the web and have just hung onto their coattails and I’ve done I think three classes I’ve been in class for a year and now I’m putting everything together and it’s just been an amazing ride between AI, Chach, EBT, mind Journey, you know, content and listen I’ve been a publisher for almost 25 years I thought I knew about content.

I I didn’t alright and you can teach an old dog new tricks believe it or not you can never be you can never be too old not to learn the biggest thing is is fear of technology and new ways of doing things listen you’re going to make mistakes you’re going to win and you’re gonna lose but if you don’t try you’re not you’re not going to find out and if you and if you do try you’re going to learn from your mistakes and that’s the best thing you can do is make mistakes hopefully they’re not bad but you got to try and make mistakes because you’re going to learn from them and I always put things in and you know I’ve got my lacrosse sticks behind me listen you can put a whole game plan a game plan together and someone might get hurt and you gotta scrap it because you’re putting in other people uh just like the Buffaloes they put a they put a game plan together I don’t know if they they maintained it I know TCU probably had a game plan together but they didn’t they didn’t plan on they planned on winning that game but they lost it so in my game you just have to be flexible I just posted this thing up on my business page it just said just do it do it again you know so in my book just do it action and always move forward but mindset keep yourself positive because that’s the most amazing the best thing negativity get rid of it people are negative around it get rid of them they’re just bringing it down be to stay pause to surround yourself with positive people but joining one of these groups is definitely it was the best investment that I think I’ve ever done over after a lot of things that I’ve just hang with people that are experts and learning from them and then trying and and learning how to do this stuff it’s it’s just been an amazing this last year I go through a couple classes a week I go downstairs and talk to my wife I’m like you’re not going to believe what I just saw it’s it’s mind-blowing I mean I’ve left so much money on the table.

I just wish I would have known this through my whole publishing career what I’ve just learned you know and now I can apply it so uh Scott pleasure speaking with you it’s totally cool to see uh you know a Denver right out there you know go donkeys you know and uh go pios and uh you know all that stuff and uh uh hopefully you’ll have a great fall fall season out there for those who haven’t been out in Colorado the nicest time to be out there is in the fall because uh the humidity kind of you know the Heat and then we get into the the season and the Rockies and the leaves turn colors and you really don’t get the the bright Reds and all like you do in the in the Northeast they’re bright yellows and greens the Aspens turn it’s it’s the most beautiful time of season before you know Christmas toes and so forth so if you if you’ve never been out in the Rockies in in the fall make it a bucket list item because it is just beautiful it’s God’s country up there in the Rockies I don’t care where you go it’s just a beautiful time of year to go see it am I right?

Absolutely and I’m a huge Niners fan so go Niners yeah go Niners listen I’m here in the South go ugly you know go Birds you know the ugly birds you know down here in Atlanta who knows what’s going to happen so uh with that said Scott say Goodbye from the mile high city. See y’all later. And David thanks again for having me, man. I really appreciate you taking the time to bring me onto your podcast. I know you didn’t have to and I value the time, so thank you.

No, listen, thanks for publicist. She reached out to me and actually Jenny, I’ve had a couple of other other clients on here and so you know all that in general it’s been a pleasure. A couple things before I leave, okay? Number one, I want you to hit the like button, okay? I’m a YouTuber guy, we want to help people find this episode on Scott out there and make the algorithms work. So hit the like button. Number two, if you’re out there on a construction site, we want you to be safe, we want you to get home so you can see your kids, your dog, and your family, you can go home and get up and do it again the following day, alright? And number three, it’s still hot out there, okay? The temps are going to cool off here but it’s still really hot, I don’t care where you are, so drink lots of water and stay hydrated because if you get dehydrated, oh, you know, get headaches and that’s when, you know, mistakes happen and, you know, accidents occur. So, like I said, be safe, drink lots of water, alright? And you can take that to the bank. So with that said, I’m gonna sign off from Sugar Hill, which is just below the Beaufort Dam in Lake Lanier, about probably 25-30 miles north of downtown Atlanta, which is the LA or the South. And, uh, Scott already said goodbye from the mile high city. And, uh, Scott, um, if I come out to Denver, I want to meet you in person, alright? And, uh, you know, we’ll go to lunch, we’ll get some grub, and, uh, you know, talk, uh, you know, whatever military stuff, so I don’t care, I’ll talk about anything. And, uh, and with that said, everybody, have a great rest of the week and have a great, uh, Q4 and we will see you all next time on another episode of Commercial Construction Coffee Talk. Scott, thank you so much, you’re the best things and thank you for your service, we appreciate that. We’ll see you next time, guys. Ciao. [Music] Thank you.