Ginger Walker, CEO of the Give Back Team, interviewed California Luxury Real Estate Agent and business owner, Tristan Ahumada, most known for being the CEO of the largest real estate community ever, Lab Coat Agents, a private community where realtors, brokers, and lenders can ask questions and other members can help them grow. Other businesses he runs are Tristan and Associates, Keller Williams Realty, and Hollywood Title Company. 

Tristan’s clientele has a wide range because his area attracts many different people with many different professions and lifestyles. The lowest sale Tristan has ever had was a $33,000 mobile home with a land lease of $1,500. Then the highest sale Tristan has had is a $33 million dollar home. He is located between two military bases, Point Mugu and San Diego, about 10% of his sales are from military moves. 

3 Pieces of Advice Tristan has for Buyers:

1.Choose Location over Square Footage

Many people moving into Tristan’s area are wanting to move into an up and coming neighborhood. If you have the ability to move into an older neighborhood that is already established, you should. Tristan explained that over the past 20 years he has seen what happens to the further away, up and coming neighborhoods from a market perspective. If you’re looking at a place like Malibu, and you want to move to an up-and-coming neighborhood about 20 minutes away, when the prices go down the market goes down. The Malibu area isn’t hit hard, but that out of the way area is. Then when prices go up, Malibu surpasses the previous prices, and the out of the way areas reach barely where they were before. So, it’s better to get a smaller home in an amazing area than a bigger home in a less reliable area.

2. Proximity to Great Schools is Important

If you have kids or plan to have kids, being in close proximity to great schools is very important because the traffic can make it impossible for a long commute to be maintainable. 

3.Consider Your Lifestyle in Relation to Traffic

If you live in an area with a lot of traffic, it's best to map out what your lifestyle outside of work will look like when choosing the location of your house. Think about your hobbies & interests. How much time are you going to be spending in traffic to get to those activities?

Tristan's Advice for New Agents:

1. 1. Always Look at Your Strengths

What are you great at? There are many people that join real estate as their third or fourth career, and you can use that to your advantage by networking with past clients or coworkers. Yous should step back and look at your strengths and how you can use them to grow your new business.

2. Start With Your Sphere

Start with the people that know you already. Make an effort to go out with them. Tristan told me about a tactic he tells his team:

Once a year for one month, do coffee with a sphere for 30 days straight. This is where you go to your phone contacts and choose 30 people. After you choose which contacts, you are going to text all 30 of them and ask them to have coffee with you. It can be a coffee break in the middle of the day, early morning, or late afternoon, but the goal is to have coffee with all 30 of them. Then on these coffee dates, you sit down and just listen. Let them tell you about what they’re doing, and find out what you could possibly help them with. If you do that for 30 days, your business will explode. You will have new opportunities and reach your goals.

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Tristan has been in the real estate business since 2004 and serves Malibu, Beverly Hills, Santa Monica, Calabasas, and Westlake Village areas

Photo credit: Tristan Ahumada