Ep 51: Making Data Fun Again with THE David Arbit

We are nerding out BIG TIME with our buddy David Arbit this week. David is the Director of Research for MAR, Minneapolis Area Realtors. 

He's the guy that makes sense of all of the real estate numbers agents use to get you into homes. 

And this guy's passion for numbers goes way beyond Excel. It goes straight to getting people into their dream homes and making our cities strong. 

But before we get into all of that, we dive into David's life, including:

6:33 The early life of David Arbit

9:32 His go-to Sega game

15:10 His role in the Minneapolis area Realtors Association

17:21 His college days

20:11 His dad owns 100 of them!

23:49 How his passion for city planning began

28:47 How David met his wife

38:16 When he worked with a future State Representative who had a Mickey Mouse lunch box

40:19 Where he learned to be so comfortable in front of a crowd

42:52 David passes some love to William and Sarah's understanding of the stats

43:42 David's WHY behind his passion

50:11 What makes every day different for David

Find David Arbit here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidarbit/

Transcript

William Huffman  0:00  
Hey, everybody, William here and today we're talking with David arbit. He's a guy who takes data and makes it fun, loves his food. And for some reason like city planning and crap I don't know it's a great podcast

William Huffman  0:29  
everybody, William here and Sarah and David. Welcome David. How you doing today?

David Arbit  0:35  
Hanging in there? Not too bad. All right, good.

Sarah Huffman  0:37  
Can I just like clarify which David David arbit David, David. David arbit is

Sarah Huffman  0:43  
there another one? That's all we need?

David Arbit  0:45  
There is another one. He's a he's a rheumatologist in New Jersey. Oh, what? a rheumatologist. Really?

William Huffman  0:51  
What's a rheumatologist? I

David Arbit  0:52  
think a doctor for two dudes with rheumatoid arthritis. Yep, something like that.

Sarah Huffman  0:55  
My mom has that doctor.

David Arbit  0:57  
He's a rheumatologist. He's He's award winning. I've never gotten his mail. But I see him in the Google search.

William Huffman  1:01  
That's awesome.

Sarah Huffman  1:02  
There's a William Hoffman in Florida.

William Huffman  1:05  
Yeah, it no he's in. There's a couple William Hoffman's. There's, there's a professional swimmer named William Wellman, a triathlete or whatever.

Sarah Huffman  1:12  
There's a Sarah Huffman that I feel as a professional soccer player. That makes sense. Not me.

William Huffman  1:17  
No. was a shocker with

David Arbit  1:21  
past life next life.

Sarah Huffman  1:22  
Yeah. Not not current. No,

David Arbit  1:25  
I Yeah, soccer is hard. Soccer is a lot of running

Sarah Huffman  1:29  
our past. Okay, so I'm actually super excited for this podcast today. Because normally we get to be in your presence. David. Yep. When we're talking about data. It's true. But that isn't this podcast.

David Arbit  1:40  
It's not no. Am I in the wrong room?

William Huffman  1:41  
We are in the rock group. We don't have

Sarah Huffman  1:43  
any slides for you. And those don't have any like graphs or maps,

David Arbit  1:47  
unfortunately. And I'm quite sad, but I'm also excited.

William Huffman  1:51  
Yeah, sorry. Sorry. I need so I need to call out this. This is our first time using this podcast room. And I'm over here trying to use the camera angles properly. Just so you have some video can't Well, and so if I jump around too much. It's okay. Don't worry feedback. Yeah, it's incredible. So it also want to say thank you to Zack, who's in the room. So Zach's over there and he just gives a thumbs up and Zack Attack. Thanks. I'm sure he loves that. Oh, could you go ahead and turn your computer up for me Zack so we can hear all the all the noises on the pot?

Sarah Huffman  2:25  
Yeah. We're glad you're here. No. And your computer noisy?

William Huffman  2:30  
Yes. Yes. We love it. All right. So David is I know if you have you ever listen anywhere podcasts?

David Arbit  2:36  
No, I haven't. I'm sorry to say Oh, that's okay.

Sarah Huffman  2:38  
That's how you're gonna be a big fan.

William Huffman  2:40  
Yeah, yeah. And I'm gonna keep reminding you make sure we're close to the mic up there. Yep. Okay, so on this podcast, we don't really talk about real estate too much. What we'd like to do is just get to know you. And who you are in. And adjuster. Where's it? Yeah, we're the chairs and get to know, you know, the man, the myth, the legend, the Mr. David arbit. So why don't you go ahead and start off and kind of tell us where you were born and all that good stuff

David Arbit  3:07  
over the background? Yeah, it was a cold Tuesday evening in 1985. Okay. The location the setting is Milwaukee Wisconsin. Oh, all right. I'm a Wisconsin immigrant. I left as soon as I could. Okay. Nothing wrong with Wisconsin in Milwaukee. Yeah, I learned my love of cheese and all things dairy. But I'd love

Sarah Huffman  3:29  
a good cheese curd.

David Arbit  3:30  
It's so good. Fried State Fair. Just regular.

Sarah Huffman  3:33  
Both. Yeah, both but the regular ones have to squeak.

David Arbit  3:37  
The squeaking is the one thing that bugs me. The only bad side. We've been on this podcast for two minutes. It's already derailed. But she's got squeaks. Yeah, it's important. It's important anyway.

David Arbit  3:50  
Wisconsinite by birth Minnesotan by choice. So basically the first what first 18 years of my life and in Milwaukee.

William Huffman  3:59  
Oh, hold on, hold on. Hold on. Hold. Well, you just skipped 18 years.

David Arbit  4:03  
Um, no big deal. Nothing that exciting. Yeah,

William Huffman  4:05  
no, D Yeah. No, no, no, no, no, no,

Sarah Huffman  4:08  
no, no. Do you have any siblings?

David Arbit  4:09  
I do. Older brother younger sister.

Sarah Huffman  4:11  
Oh, you're a middle child.

David Arbit  4:12  
I'm middle. Is that surprising? I'd have guessed that because what's typical of middle children? I honestly,

William Huffman  4:18  
their mare. Their math, math, like math, math. Actually. They're known to be good negotiators.

David Arbit  4:24  
Oh, interesting. Because you got to kind of manage up and manage. Yeah, and a little bit. Yep. I get that.

Sarah Huffman  4:28  
I get that. That's what I've heard. So older brother, younger sister, brother, younger sister. That's like my family layout.

David Arbit  4:34  
Is it either.

Sarah Huffman  4:35  
I have two older brothers.

David Arbit  4:37  
Brother just left Amazon and went to Redfin for about six months and then left Redfin, and he's doing some startup now. Like getting venture capital and doing he's in the startup world, which is cool. That my sister had her second kid. She's still in Milwaukee.

William Huffman  4:50  
Hold on, hold on, hold on. Oh, okay. Good. Okay, well, hold on.

David Arbit  4:59  
I'm gonna be using anything Now,

William Huffman  5:00  
I don't even know what middle school or grade school you went to. I don't even know what kind of student you were did you do band like, Okay, bring it back?

Sarah Huffman  5:09  
No average

David Arbit  5:10  
no band. Actually didn't love math honestly as a kid.

William Huffman  5:14  
Okay, so where did you Where did you go to?

Sarah Huffman  5:15  
Fascinating.

William Huffman  5:16  
So you were in Milwaukee in Milwaukee proper or would

Sarah Huffman  5:21  
you like in like West Bend?

David Arbit  5:23  
Whitefish Bay, Fox Point area. Oh, sounds like just on the border of like Bayside and Fox point you

William Huffman  5:29  
just said, Oh, okay. Like, you

Unknown Speaker  5:30  
know what that is, but I mean, it's a dictionary. I'm going with it. You

William Huffman  5:34  
have no idea.

David Arbit  5:35  
It's a decent area. Yeah. Let's see. Five minute walk from Lake Michigan, which was always Oh, cool. kind of special. Yeah. Very cool. Not like on the fancy side of that side of Lake Drive where there's nothing under seven figures for a house. But it was nice. Lots of parks grew up skipping stones and Lake Michigan. Okay, I grew up skiing a lot. downhill. downhill. Well, both mostly cross country earlier don't do much cross cross country. Now. This body is built to go downhill. Gravity's working in my favor. Gravity likes me. So mostly alpine skiing little bit cross country, I want to get more into the cross country side, and then bicycling. Those were two of our big things. So growing

William Huffman  6:19  
up that was kind of that's kind of your jam, big, big things. Okay. So you were born in 85? When was your older sibling born?

David Arbit  6:26  
So Josh was 82. And then my younger sister is 8702 years down three years or so up?

William Huffman  6:33  
Not too bad. All right. So where did what did you say? Let's let's go to let's go to elementary school.

Sarah Huffman  6:38  
Now. What did you wait, wait, what did your parents do? Oh, yeah.

David Arbit  6:41  
My mom is a lifelong teacher. Whole life she teaches seventh and eighth grade Spanish and God and ESL now English as a second language to, like new arrived to the country. She has several Russian and Ukrainian students.

William Huffman  6:55  
Oh, yeah, I'd imagine so right. Yeah. Yep. I'd imagine so right now. In eighth grade.

David Arbit  7:02  
The ESL stuff is with is with younger kids, but it is across the board though. Because people come at all ages. So she I mean, she really loves that she people say She adopts every kid she meets like every kid she teaches like becomes her child so she's

William Huffman  7:17  
do you take more

Sarah Huffman  7:17  
after your mother or your father? We don't know what dad does yet. We only know about what mom does.

David Arbit  7:21  
Dad's an orthodontist. semi retired, mostly retired. I think it's only in like two days a week now. Okay, so he's stepping down from it. Okay. And I don't know who I'm more like, Guess my dad a little bit. I'm a mix. Okay. I think I have high EQ from my mom. Okay. Yep. And I don't get high IQ from anybody. I don't I don't have high IQ. So I don't know that would never came in. Like, I guess I would hope so. That Yes. Yeah.

William Huffman  7:48  
What do you do when somebody says gives you a compliment? Oh, thank

David Arbit  7:51  
you so much. I'm no good at taking that. What do we do now? What do we do? I guess what my dentists is like you need a bite plate. you're grinding those things? Oh, yeah. All right. I'm not stressed or anything. Okay. And we have twins and a demanding job and

William Huffman  8:08  
yeah, I mean, yeah.

Sarah Huffman  8:12  
2022 You're

David Arbit  8:13  
fine. No big deal. Everything's good. Everything is okay. We're fine here. We're fine. Totally fine. I'm fine. Aren't you find

William Huffman  8:21  
that there's no vodka in these water bottles whatsoever. Okay,

Sarah Huffman  8:23  
so mom was mom is a teacher. A teacher dad is working on becoming a retired orthodontist

William Huffman  8:28  
working on retiring All right, so middle school or elementary school what did you do anything fun from elementary school?

David Arbit  8:35  
Let's see. Average pretty standard, I think Yeah. High School.

William Huffman  8:42  
Well, what about middle school?

David Arbit  8:44  
Middle school? So sixth to eighth? Yeah. Had some friends took some did some classes.

William Huffman  8:52  
So where are you at? Awkward. Like I was an awkward Middle School. Are we an awkward middle schooler? Were you like a Bandy and nerdy?

David Arbit  8:58  
No band? Not nerd. Uh, geez, I guess I was somewhere in the middle. Okay. A chameleon as someone who could actually it's funny you say that in high school. I kind of did feel a little bit like a butterfly. Like, okay, it was like, some of the nerdy crew I'd hang with. And then some of the athletic crew and then just regular people. Yeah. And yeah, you know, a couple buddies lived near me like kind of couple blocks away, so we were pretty tight. Cool, but I don't know. Yeah, like on

Sarah Huffman  9:26  
the weekends, did you like do the gaming video games? Run? Like what did you guys do for fun?

David Arbit  9:32  
Aside from biking and skiing? We did. We played a lot of Sega Genesis with some friends. What was your game? Like entails satsangs hands down casino level. Okay. I'm not a gambler. But yeah, but

William Huffman  9:45  
yeah, yeah. Sega is six. Sega was the fancy system.

David Arbit  9:51  
Sega was the fancy system and why blowing in those?

Sarah Huffman  9:54  
Yeah, the cartridges. When it wasn't when you weren't winning? Yeah. Can you like shake it

David Arbit  9:59  
up? It's If the pieces move around in there, it's totally

William Huffman  10:03  
so what was the the mascot for your high school?

David Arbit  10:06  
It was called the Nikolay night like a sorted night with like a metal fight Nikolay night. Yeah, the Nicoline knights.

William Huffman  10:12  
What does Nikolay mean? Like

David Arbit  10:14  
that? And I see Oh, ll et or L E Nicollet. LL. e. T Nicolay. We call it Nikolay heist, Nikolay, Nikolay. Oh, French. I was gonna say some French. I don't know some founder settler Milwaukee. I don't know. I have no idea.

William Huffman  10:30  
Yeah, because the French found Milwaukee for sure

David Arbit  10:33  
the French maybe the Dutch? It wasn't the Italians. Oh actually, I was gonna say there's a lot of broths in German Polish culture there. Yeah, big time and

William Huffman  10:44  
beer. Yes. Yes, that's a big ear IE.

David Arbit  10:50  
It's a beer city.

Sarah Huffman  10:51  
What? They're squeaky cheese curds.

William Huffman  10:54  
I mean, rude. Wiki for me. Nobody likes to

David Arbit  10:58  
squeak I'm looking for a moderate squeak not a heavy.

Sarah Huffman  11:00  
I love a heavy squeak.

David Arbit  11:03  
Do you like styrofoam? Like no. Okay.

Sarah Huffman  11:07  
It's the only thing in particular about our squeaks. Yep. Especially with cheese curds. That's fair. Okay, so in high school, where were you thinking like you're going through high school? Are you like, I'm gonna go to college?

William Huffman  11:19  
Like were you a valedictorian? Did you like get in trouble? Did you just kind of do your thing on

David Arbit  11:24  
valedictorian? But I was like, on the honor roll or Okay. Something's less. Yeah, Dean's List something. So I guess I was okay. But not a valedictorian? No.

Sarah Huffman  11:34  
Are you saying okay, because you didn't put much effort into it? Or did you do a lot of effort and you were still okay.

David Arbit  11:43  
I'd say I tried. Seven out of 10. Eight.

Sarah Huffman  11:47  
We're gonna get a data answer. Yeah. I knew it was. Like, I'd be like, I didn't really try. Yeah.

David Arbit  11:57  
My effort. My effort was two standard deviations away from a seven

William Huffman  12:02  
five or a nine. Oh my gosh. Okay, so we're in high school. Did we do any sports like that?

David Arbit  12:08  
played volleyball and ski team? Volleyball volleyball volleyball of all things?

William Huffman  12:12  
Tell me more like our I

Sarah Huffman  12:15  
really realized there's played volleyball.

David Arbit  12:18  
We do or we did it this. There's a stigma there. It's okay. And I have not played in Dec. Gates. decade and a half or two. Wow, I have not even like hit hit one over in it. And I was pretty average. But it was fun. Like, yeah, yeah, volleyball is a fun sport. That was a fun sport. Kind of team. Three hits and over and then three hits and over and some diving and stuff. And yeah.

William Huffman  12:43  
You so you played in the gym? Yep. Okay, you're

David Arbit  12:46  
not beach or anything? No, no,

William Huffman  12:47  
that sounds horrible. sand everywhere. Yeah. Okay, so you played I was caught from

Sarah Huffman  12:51  
volleyball. I was kept from No, you weren't

William Huffman  12:53  
serious? Yeah.

Sarah Huffman  12:54  
In 10th grade. I had no idea. Yeah, like I'm literally telling you I've been cut from everything.

David Arbit  13:00  
Oh. You have

Sarah Huffman  13:03  
like choir? Yeah. Yeah, volleyball. Yeah. A lot of things. Wow. You're just crushing it over just shows how resilience,

Unknown Speaker  13:11  
resilience and exercise and resilience get

Sarah Huffman  13:14  
back up. I'm gonna find my thing eventually.

William Huffman  13:19  
That's That's incredible. Yeah. All right. So we're just going through high school like did we didn't get any trouble? You're kind of is not much pretty well behaved good attendance like no did any

Sarah Huffman  13:32  
of your siblings misbehave so you behaved

David Arbit  13:38  
we all were relatively well behaved. My older brother was probably the best behaved younger sister and I were pretty moderately well behaved. Well, really well, ish. Well behaved moderate to mild acceptably, you know, acceptably well

Sarah Huffman  13:56  
within the range to see.

David Arbit  13:59  
It's within the channel. You're within the channel. Yeah. Oh, my word. Oh, my word. Okay,

William Huffman  14:05  
so high school having a good time. You know, not slang in math or anything. Don't make cheese curds. No playing volleyball. All right, what was your plan after high school? You're thinking I'm gonna get into data.

David Arbit  14:21  
No, didn't cross my mind. Okay. No, you know, by the end? Well, I guess at the beginning, you always just kind of think college is what your parents did. And just it's the next step. It's a next logical step. Although, you know, and it's just an assumed, although nowadays, you talked you hear so much about two year trade schools where people don't really graduate with any debt and they can start making six figures pretty quickly without that I mentioned without a quarter million in debt. Yeah. Right. And so you know, there's a lot of power there. And I think that's fantastic. And college is sure not for everybody, but I had a great time. I'm really glad I went I learned a ton make friends Macalester College right here in St. Paul over in St. Smallest St. Paul. St.

Sarah Huffman  15:02  
So plenty

William Huffman  15:03  
money. Why don't we keep? So we should probably get this out of the way. Why do we keep bringing up data? Because what do you do now? And why do we keep referencing that?

David Arbit  15:10  
Yes. So now I am the director of research for the Minneapolis area Realtors Association. So we're the board that deals with all the that has every agent, well, not every agent, about half the agents in the metro as our members. So we've got 10,000 agents, you know, really proud to be doing what we're doing. We do government affairs work. We do a lot of research. We've got a foundation. We do programming and education, as you guys know. And we're all over the place. And we're excited to have the impact that we've been having.

William Huffman  15:38  
All right. Yeah, that was that was a good pitch. That should just be will be very proud. Yeah. Can't say this was just that segment to her just that bit. Yeah. Nothing. She's actually agreed to come on the podcast.

David Arbit  15:50  
Did she really? Yeah. She's fantastic. Gosh, she's amazing. She's fantastic. She's so on it. I mean, she doesn't miss a detail. She hit the ground running. She made a lot of transformational changes, and the passion with the outdoor renovation project. Now the indoor rent. Yeah, I mean, she's just, and the goodwill stuff. I mean, Goodwill. I mean, she invests in you know, she's invested in a building or two with the idea of keeping it affordable and keeping people in place. And so she really lives personally and professionally, these values. So it's, it's great to,

William Huffman  16:21  
and for those of you who don't know, Carrie Chang is the CEO of our Board of have our board of the company that you work for. Yep.

David Arbit  16:27  
And I'm not just saying nice things about her because she's my CEO, because she's genuinely a good person. Yeah.

Sarah Huffman  16:33  
I think we're got to say she's pretty funny.

David Arbit  16:35  
She's funny, she's personable. She's, like, casual and informal. And yeah, you can just joke with her and she'll tell you how it is. She was very

William Huffman  16:45  
pushy. She very politely can, like, kind of tell you no. And like I've I've heard her very politely say that she was mad at something or someone. And I was like, Oh, okay.

David Arbit  16:56  
A lot of nice words and kind of Yeah, we get the message across but not so direct and harsh. And that takes diplomacy. Not sugarcoating. Not sugarcoating, but in a diplomatic, yes. Fair, positive, you know, yeah, in that kind of way, in a way that's driven toward improvement and caring.

William Huffman  17:12  
All right, we're bringing it back anyway in college, and

Sarah Huffman  17:14  
now we're in St. Small at

David Arbit  17:18  
1600 Grand Avenue. Right. All right. Grand. Yeah.

Sarah Huffman  17:21  
And so did how did you pick McAllister?

David Arbit  17:25  
Good question. There's only so many that let a guy like me in

Sarah Huffman  17:28  
okay. No,

William Huffman  17:29  
no, that's nice. Because the counselor is not a everybody in tech school. No,

David Arbit  17:33  
I was somewhat selective. I did get waitlisted at Carleton.

William Huffman  17:37  
Oh, okay. I'll say the School of Business nice. No, Northfield.

David Arbit  17:41  
I say Carlson Carlton, Carlton. Oh, tada. Oh, Carleton College, the Harvard of the

William Huffman  17:45  
Midwest theory.

David Arbit  17:46  
Yeah, that's what they call it, isn't it? Yeah.

William Huffman  17:48  
They really do it. They do croutons, like, oh, it's pretty pretty Ivy League school.

David Arbit  17:53  
It is it is. So I got wait listed there. Because you know, was good, but not good enough. And that's okay. And so then four years at Macalester was great. learned a ton. But how did you pick it though? Yeah. How do you pick it? I know I wanted an urban setting. I know I didn't. The waitlist at Carl, which is the opposite of Carl, which is the opposite. It's a beautiful campus with water features and everything. And it's great. But it is not in a city. And so I wanted that urban environment. I have even though I didn't grow up in a city proper. I've always liked cities. Just the history of it, the economy, the geography of it, the different housing types and building types and different people types. Yeah, in cities was always really cool and neat to me. Yeah. So I wanted to be in that setting. And that was the fit. Very cool. It was a friend of my mom's what's her name? Shannon Sharon. I can't remember. And she was the one that recommended I apply it was not even on my radar at all. Really? And she's like I think you'd think you'd like this you guys should go up for a visit visited fell in love with it. Honestly, it was it really did feel like right and I'm not a cheesy like you'll know it when it's right guy.

Sarah Huffman  19:04  
But like, when you know, you're like when you know when? You know, that happened to me with college. And that happened to me with Will

David Arbit  19:11  
you say yeah, with this guy. Will you just know readjust? No. Do you still know though? Yeah. Of course. Of course you guys are fantastic. Okay, so what are your accomplishments? But we're not here. Okay.

William Huffman  19:28  
Thank you. I do. It's a compliment. Thank you. So I appreciate that works. Of course. Alright, so

Sarah Huffman  19:32  
McAllister. Yeah, I was four years here. So four years at Mac and St. Paul. And like, Were you involved in student life? Are you involved in like government? How did you get into statistics?

David Arbit  19:42  
There was a photography club that I was involved with, who did some just photography or photography and there was a darkroom where we did some where we shot some old 135 millimeter central filming Wow film, which I did in high school too. I took two photography class Just as in high school dad was a huge camera bug oh really owned 100 cameras some from like the late 1800s and it was just easy just a big camera guy.

William Huffman  20:08  
Wow see? This is the stuff that we love to learn cameras watches and

David Arbit  20:11  
bicycles really? My dad owns 100 bicycles. No he does. Yes he does including some high wheelers from the 1860s Oh like the big wheel with the panel's wheel no gears

Sarah Huffman  20:21  
you store 100 bicycles

David Arbit  20:25  
mostly in our in his basement. And that's all you have done there. And that's pretty much all you get. You take the furnace and water heater out we need bikes. Yeah, we don't know he loves it though. I mean, road bikes, mountain bikes, tandems he has a tandem recumbent really true, a twin a to sit down. So tandem but a sit down bike where you pedal kind of front. Yeah, it's out. No. And it just takes the pressure off your shoulders and people who have back pain and

Sarah Huffman  20:54  
so he and your mom tootle around in there.

David Arbit  20:58  
My mom hated bike. Oh, hated skiing. Hated biking. It's probably why partly why they're no longer together. partly why

Sarah Huffman  21:07  
you will fight with me.

David Arbit  21:09  
Hey. They say better to sever than to hate that. You know, we had 33 great years heard that. Everything. Everything was good. There's they're very amicable. I mean, they both come up here. They came here for the twins first birthday. Yeah, they're laughing and talking and having why I mean, it's totally fine. That's awesome. But you sometimes you grow apart from people and sometimes we fall out of love. Like we fall in love. And that's okay. Wow. Oh, we're going deep. Oh, we're not even through college. Oh, yeah. No. So yeah, folks split What about 10 years ago? And they're great. I mean, they love coming up. They love seeing the kids. And they're still enjoying what they do in Milwaukee. Very cool. Hi, mom. I don't know that you'll ever give up teaching. It's

Sarah Huffman  21:51  
okay. Question since your mom taught Spanish? Yep. Do you? You do you don't speak Spanish? Not

David Arbit  21:58  
really. No. I really don't. I picked up a few words like that no Soto stuff and you know, little bola? Yes. I know that one. agua de Deus? monos curse words. dinero? Not really. Okay.

William Huffman  22:11  
If you did, would you actually say them right now?

David Arbit  22:13  
Probably not. But my mom's not teaching kids that hopefully. Hopefully. Oh, yeah. She just she just loves it. I don't know what it is seeing that aha moment on a kid's face when they digest and internalize something. And it's like the lesson sticks. And yeah, I don't know, she language

Sarah Huffman  22:31  
opens up a whole world completely. But especially if she's teaching ESL students. It's like, because of learning that language like anxiety can drop. Oh, my God, I can connect more with

David Arbit  22:43  
people your opportunities for a lifetime. I mean, yeah, just been able to communicate connect with somebody on a basic level, just live in life. And yeah, being in a country and being productive and being you know, a good a good person.

Sarah Huffman  22:57  
So let's go back to Macalester. Yep, you're in the black room, dark room. We're in the dark room, whatever it's called Developing photos, developing photos, we still don't know how you've done how you picked your major. Yeah, what

William Huffman  23:10  
was what was your major are the

David Arbit  23:11  
majors, so the majors were urban geography and international political science, really? So it was kind of to what's up with poli sci poli sci international policy. Yeah, was an international event. Okay.

William Huffman  23:25  
Okay. Maybe you can actually tell me, because there's like, oh, people will probably saw you going to law, stuff like that. So what the hell do you do with it? Not only a poli science to political science degree in international ones with

David Arbit  23:36  
international? Yeah, I mean, you you. You can flip burgers with it. Yeah. You can drive Amazon, you can drive Amazon.

David Arbit  23:49  
I mean, I'm mostly mostly No, go to law school, you can work on campaigns, you can teach people teach a lot, probably probably have to go on to the PhD to you know, really teach and be serious about it. But any number of things. You know, but it's a liberal arts college. And so, you know, you're not only training, you know, scientists and engineers, like an MIT or what, you know, whatever. Yeah. So it's unique in that way. And then the urban geography side was much more related to what I do now, in terms of researching housing markets, looking at, you know, rates, and while I didn't look much at rates or the Fed, you know, back then right now, it matters a lot, especially nowadays. But that was just more about just cities and people and housings and economies and businesses, and how all of those things interact with the built form with the urban form with infrastructure. And just thinking about a lot of different kinds of development, mixed use development, you know, different kinds of, you know, neighborhood development, a lot of sociological stuff and helping make investments. And actually we did this I worked at C ped, the Community Planning and Economic Development Agency for the City of Minneapolis where we literally did economic development. So it's about attracting businesses here. It's about keeping businesses here. It's about investing in our workforce, our workforce our people, like, are we making those investments to train people and, and help them be better and have jobs and I think we used to do more than we do. Now.

William Huffman  25:21  
I can see that he's obviously slightly, slightly passionate about this. I am at what age were you just like, Oh, I really give a shit about this stuff like this is, this is important. I'm smart enough to do this. I'm good enough to do this. And this is what I want to do. Gosh, darn it, gosh, started people.

David Arbit  25:40  
Some of them Yeah. Well, that side really sparked my first year two of college. Okay. And so I took an urban studies and urban geography course. One taught by former Mayor George Latimer, former mayor of St. Paul, he would call those the golden years of St. Paul. He was the mayor, it was it 71 to 80, or 80 to 89. I can't remember, don't quote me on that. I really should remember that. I think it was the 70s. Anyway. So he's kind of getting up there. And he was amazing and totally ignited a passion for cities and people and businesses who make them work and happen. And markets and yeah, all of it. Wow, real estate part of it, all of it.

William Huffman  26:25  
Okay, so you're going to a four year school,

Sarah Huffman  26:29  
you're getting like, sorry, well, I'm gonna interrupt. Yeah, please. But it's like you think about how impactful those classes were? Like, what if you hadn't had those classes? I just think about like college and how things kind of go into place. Like that's really cool that you had those experiences in those classes, because we're like, you're impacting 1000s and 1000s and 1000s of lives because this is your passion. No pressure.

David Arbit  26:53  
Yeah, no pressure at all. Yeah. stakes are low. Yeah. All right. I'll throw a joke in there was someone walked into the butcher shop, and says to the butcher, he says, I'll bet you 100 bucks. You can't reach the ribeyes on the top shelf butcher says I won't take the bet the stakes are too high. I'm sorry, I had to. Sorry. I'm a dad. Now that jokes Will's gonna

Sarah Huffman  27:20  
remember this.

David Arbit  27:20  
That is a good one. stakes are too high. Yeah, I

William Huffman  27:23  
do like pizza too. Hi.

Sarah Huffman  27:26  
So now you're you're wrapping up at Macalester your first job out of out of school is yeah,

William Huffman  27:31  
what's Oh, what did you like? Were you like, like, how good were you when you graduated? Tell us.

David Arbit  27:39  
Not summa cum laude. Or what's the other one? Grant Akena magna cum laude?

William Huffman  27:45  
I don't even know what those mean, to be honest. It

David Arbit  27:46  
means you're super ultra smart. And like best top of the top

William Huffman  27:49  
wasn't Fisher one of those probably. Yeah. All right. Yeah. We interview people, you know, on this,

David Arbit  27:57  
I imagine.

William Huffman  27:58  
I mean, yeah, I mean, crazy when they got like, 6070 episodes, so yeah.

Sarah Huffman  28:01  
4545 It's pretty good. Yeah, it's good number. All right. We've done one a week since last November. But we've missed three

David Arbit  28:09  
one a week. Only mystery that's not bad. That's like a yearly think

Sarah Huffman  28:13  
about on the average. We're percentage wise, we're doing pretty well. But the median Don't be mean.

William Huffman  28:19  
The median median is one a week. Yes. There'll be mean

David Arbit  28:23  
five months supply of podcasts. I can go for days, I can go for days with real estate. People who listen to this. They're gonna make this podcast. I hope so. And the other three people are

William Huffman  28:37  
gonna be like, This is stupid. The heck is

David Arbit  28:39  
this guy? Quick question.

Sarah Huffman  28:40  
I'm dying to know. Yes. My question. How did you meet your wife? Oh, that. And it? Was it a college college?

David Arbit  28:47  
No. So I went straight to grad school to get my master's. Oh, cool. So when did the Humphrey to the Hubert H. Humphrey Institute at the you rate between the Mondale and Carlson schools? Okay, across that so there's Carlson. Yeah, we had the old red brick building from the 50s or 60s or something. And they had a brand new glass and steel, beautiful, stunning, paid for by Cargill, or Medtronic or General Mills, whatever, whoever. Yeah. And so went right to grad school and met my wife Cynthia in grad school. We met in first year in her master's program. My second year, her first year, actually, okay,

William Huffman  29:25  
yeah, robbing the cradle. Where did she go?

David Arbit  29:27  
She's actually you're older than me. Oh, okay. You're older. She went to Emory. She got her undergrad at Emory, and then wound up at the U. So she was born and raised in Apple Valley. And so she went down there, and then we're sorry, she went to Yeah, she went down there and then to LA for a year she nannied for she had like a gap year. A little bit of a gap. Okay, post undergrad. Yep. Yeah, yep. Exactly. Exactly. And so she met in our program. And now what she's doing or sorry, next question. Yeah. What? What does she do now? Yeah,

William Huffman  30:02  
no. Okay, so what degree was she going for? What were you going for both got

David Arbit  30:06  
the masters of City and Regional Planning. Sometimes it's both did Master's in urban and regional planning. Wow. It's just the city planning degree. But it's really about the emphasis. It's what's your emphasis? Okay. So my emphasis was like Housing and Economic Development. Hers was more community development. And there was transportation planning. There's environmental planning. What else? Couple other a couple other kind of focal areas. And so she now works for Minnesota Housing she so she worked for the snowplow agency. Yeah, doing some grant work. They got like a HUD grant to spearhead some new programs and stuff trying to get people off the waitlist and into housing. But she also does compliance work where she sniffs out F W, a fraud, waste and abuse in the system. So she audits files. So she's audited. 10s of 1000s of people's, you know, applications and stuff. And I think she's found like, two or three instances of like, questionable stuff. Well, that's good. So it is really good to know. I mean, so is it out there? Yes. Is it a major thing?

William Huffman  31:10  
It's probably pretty small. Probably not.

David Arbit  31:14  
It's pretty small. So she she likes what she does. She's full remote from home. We're still hybrid. So she likes to work from home. And I do too. I do. Some do

Sarah Huffman  31:25  
like to work from home. I don't I prefer not to work from home. Yeah,

David Arbit  31:30  
I'd prefer full time from home, you would remember, I mean, unless I'm out there teaching a class or doing the market update. Most of my work is Excel or making slide decks or Outlook. So a lot of it is kind of that desk work. Who came by our office the other day? And they're like, it's the David arbit. But yeah, it's just me It says it on my door. I'm like, it's just me. It's just me. And they're like, you're famous. I'm like, What do you mean? I'm working? I'm literally here working on my expense report. I'm here in remedying Yeah, so so. Yeah, what's like the 12 miles I drove so like, I can get reimbursed for like my work trip, you know, and I'm just doing my expense reporting or like, you're doing an expense report. I just, I'm just on staff. I'm just an employee. Sometimes I go out and teach stuff and show people charts, but I'm just an employee. I'm just on staff.

William Huffman  32:17  
All right. So so

Sarah Huffman  32:18  
where was your first plane? His

David Arbit  32:22  
team same So

William Huffman  32:23  
where was where was your first date? I went on the first day. Yes. First Date. Ooh.

David Arbit  32:28  
Tracy's in Longfellow. Really? That's it. Tracy's with the wooden tokens. Yes. Remember the tokens? Yeah.

Sarah Huffman  32:34  
And they had like bingo or something on like Wednesday nights or trivia?

David Arbit  32:38  
They had trivia. Trivia. I don't think they had

Sarah Huffman  32:41  
that that night. I'm like, 22nd What was the street on? That was

David Arbit  32:45  
just off, Franklin. Yeah,

William Huffman  32:47  
I know. Is it gone or something?

Sarah Huffman  32:49  
I have no idea. Like, I haven't been there since my 20s. But it was a weekly thing. It

David Arbit  32:55  
was Yeah. A lot of

William Huffman  32:56  
people are 20s A lot of people are,

David Arbit  32:57  
I suppose. Yeah. We do. Grumpy stew on Washington a bit. Yep. Remember I lived down the garden. That's gone for sure. Yeah. What about Maxwell's that's their 30th birthday there. Maxwell's is nice. Yeah. Did they have a fire that I thought they had a fire? It's still they're still there. Yeah. Because I remember the fire department sprayed them it was winter and they sprayed the whole building down. Whole thing froze over. was like a waterfall frozen to a building. Nice is that the fire was like on a minus 30 lived downtown. Oh, yeah. Well, I live I loved it. I lived just across from El frankenz townhouse. He's at Grant Park. Oh, or sorry. Grant Park. Yep. Yeah,

William Huffman  33:35  
I have no idea Grant Park. So

David Arbit  33:37  
just off the left nice exit on the grand strategy five dub. Exactly. No. So I was right there. I loved it. I miss it. If I didn't have kids, I would love living downtown. Where do you live now? So we're just off France and American down in Bloomington? I've heard someone called it PWB prestigious West Bloomington. Oh, presto. Trust me, trust me. It's not that prestigious now preceded by like the lifetime so we're bound by the ortho Tria center and Bell bank and

David Arbit  34:09  
one of there's a sign a target, like waving at Edina. Do you? Yeah,

David Arbit  34:13  
we're right on the Dinah Richfield Bloomington border.

William Huffman  34:15  
We get people on podcasts love what when they talk when we talk about local streets. And this is such a Minnesota.

Sarah Huffman  34:25  
Yeah, so you and your wife are in class together. Right. So how long before you're like who made the move like all those tickets back?

William Huffman  34:36  
In the year? 2000. Something

David Arbit  34:38  
in the year? 2000? Yes, yes. Yeah. Is that Fallon? Conan? Conan Thank you. Yeah.

William Huffman  34:46  
Let's see the first person to get that reference. Oh, I got you.

Sarah Huffman  34:50  
Thank you. I had no idea.

David Arbit  34:52  
I watched Jay Leno and Letterman late night and oh, yeah, my dad went Oh, sure. Yeah, all that stuff. Let's see how Have that unfold. Hey, I think I made the move. I'm pretty sure I made the move first. And I invited her to Tracy's alright and a night. And she said she thought she made a friend. And then I went in for the kiss. Oh, the end of the night. And she's like, Okay, this is not gonna be a friend. Somehow I tricked her and I convinced her to stay with me. And that was 12 years ago. Well, you had a

Sarah Huffman  35:29  
chance of making it. It was

David Arbit  35:30  
about 50. Fit. Well, that's giving the that's way too generous.

William Huffman  35:34  
Talk about the numbers guy. Oh, yeah. Yeah, I

David Arbit  35:38  
lucked out. She had an unfortunate situation and still does, but I really lucked out.

Sarah Huffman  35:45  
I was like, What's the situation? Oh,

David Arbit  35:47  
you're looking at him? You're looking at him? Yeah. Yeah. All right.

William Huffman  35:51  
So cool. So

Sarah Huffman  35:53  
how long ago? Or how long did you date?

David Arbit  35:55  
One time? Like, nine years?

Sarah Huffman  35:59  
No. Well,

William Huffman  36:00  
you just got married then. Three years ago? 2018. That's four years ago. Yeah, it depends. Yeah.

Sarah Huffman  36:08  
I have to ask Why so long?

David Arbit  36:11  
I don't know. We just weren't in a hurry. And it was. It was working. We were both totally okay with it. I mean, if she wasn't, she would have made it known. And if I wasn't, I'd have made it known. And we were okay. And everything was good. And everything's good now. But yeah, now there's rings that I'm not wearing. Because no, come on. You It's funny. It's funny. Working from home. I we switched to silicone rings, and then I lost that silicone band. But then I don't want to put the big one back on. I'm gonna lose it or it's not it's not comfortable on the finger. I don't know. Okay,

Sarah Huffman  36:44  
so where did you get married?

David Arbit  36:45  
We love each other. actually hold that.

William Huffman  36:48  
Hold on. You just skipped a year. We went from dating to marriage,

Sarah Huffman  36:54  
marriage, and then the baby carriage and baby? No. And that's coming soon. No,

William Huffman  36:58  
back it up. Like a tall. Back it up, buttercup? No. All right. So your second year because a master's is four years, typically to just two. Okay, so So then. So when you get your degree, your master's in urban regional planning, regional planning. We're like, like, are you flipping burgers? Like, you know, like,

Sarah Huffman  37:23  
delivering Amazon?

David Arbit  37:24  
No, no, no, no. Let's see. So I had an internship, my second year, my master's program at sea pet at the Community Planning and Economic Development Agency, the development economic development arm of the City of Minneapolis. And they got funding to extend it. And so I was like, I was I was on staff, I was an employee, I believe for, say, a one year internship. And then I think I was only there. Two and a half or three years ish. Okay. Wait a second, nope. to one and a half or two after that. And I actually went from research, believe it or not into the business development department. Really, I actually moved out of the Research Division at the city. That's a shame. I know it. Yeah. And it feels weird saying it. And I guess I never really reflected on how strange that is, given what I do. Now.

William Huffman  38:13  
Did you choose to do that? Or do they choose that for you?

David Arbit  38:16  
I chose. Okay, I chose that. I was still doing numbers. You know, in a lot of that stuff. It's just that I shifted from working with a lot of like the census data and other like internal city stuff, to more working with like, say, deed, the Department of Employment in economics, Department of Employment and Economic Development, headed by Steve Heinz, not Steve Heinz. Nobody's someone Anyway, anyway. Yeah. A couple times. Yeah. Real sharp, sweet guy. And so the work wasn't that different, the focus and the audience and I guess the stakeholders were a little bit different. Actually, in those days, I work with Andy Carlson, who's now a state representative for don't 49 a 5050. B. I can't remember but he's he and I used to just joke and I remember he told this story. I made fun of him one time in the lunchroom because he had like a, like a Mickey Mouse lunchbox, and it had like PBJ with like the crust cut off and goldfish. No, I'm completely serious. And I said, Andy, I said, what's up with the lunch? And he goes, Look, I got three kids. So my wife literally just makes a fourth one. He goes down the assembly line. Just do the same darn thing. It's easier. I don't have to think about who gets what.

William Huffman  39:34  
Nobody's gonna get the wrong no one do the wrong

David Arbit  39:36  
thing. He likes PBJ without crossed.

Sarah Huffman  39:39  
So I mean, if you're gonna have a PBJ across this one is the way to

William Huffman  39:44  
disagree. Okay, question.

David Arbit  39:46  
I like the crunchy crust.

William Huffman  39:48  
I like crunchy peanut butter. But I have a question wrong. What

David Arbit  39:52  
creamy and pulp juice, creamy PB and all the pulp in the OJ.

Sarah Huffman  39:57  
Oh, I like medium pulp. And I do like crisp crunchy

David Arbit  40:00  
skycasters over this just took a nosedive.

William Huffman  40:02  
These are things that we cannot come to terms. Colgate or crest? Crest. I don't

David Arbit  40:09  
know, Energizer Duracell. Energizer. Amazon's choice AmazonBasics. Yes. I go through a lot of batteries. Yeah. Fair enough.

Unknown Speaker  40:19  
Yeah. Okay.

Sarah Huffman  40:19  
But here's my question. Because I've seen you in a professional setting for so long. Where did you learn how to public speak because you do public speaking very well to large crowds that can ask questions really anywhere?

David Arbit  40:34  
Yeah, that really range a range of topics. Yeah. Phenomenal question. I don't think I've ever been asked that. Where did you learn? I don't have an answer. I have no idea on the job. I learned. I learned to fly the plane while I was building it. Okay. Or I built a plane was really, either Yeah, either. Yeah. Say it again.

Sarah Huffman  40:51  
It's a skill. It's a skill when you realize public speaking the way Yes, control a crowd, because we just saw you can troll a big crowd. Was that two weeks ago at? What was that place?

David Arbit  41:04  
At the pod? Yeah.

Sarah Huffman  41:05  
But uh, you like kept that kept people engaged? Yeah,

David Arbit  41:08  
I guess talking about data, talking about data. You know, make it personable, make it relatable, and tell a story with it. And don't just say 1.8 months of supply, it's like, you can be a drone with it, if you want to be, you know, and you guys know, I'll pause and state facts and say, This is important, you know, but like, there's more to it than that. And I think you got to, you got to try to have fun with it. You know, you have to have fun, fun graphics. And you have to make sense of the graphs and charts. But speak like a human just treat people like humans, and not everyone is as passionate and open to math as others are. And let's just name that and respect that. And, you know, it's not that prices were up, you know, 5.7% to, you know, to an all time high, it's that prices are rising. What does that mean for your sellers? What does that mean for your buyers? What do higher rates mean for your clients and making it practical in that way, and not just about the what's happening, but the why is it happening? And the how in the How come? Or excuse me? Why should I care? Yeah, like how does this affect what's in it? For me the wiffle? I like it the wiffle what's what's in it for the

William Huffman  42:15  
listener? Yeah. Of the listener? With what's in it for me?

David Arbit  42:18  
What's with them? With them? What's in it for me? And what's in it for the listener? Or with? What's in it for the audience?

William Huffman  42:24  
Yeah, well, I love the fact that you, I mean, even if you weren't funny, but you are, you're just naturally witty. Your passion definitely shows through when you're up there talking about these things like you, I really, you really love this nerdy shit. And it's, I do I do, too. I know, I want 100% in this with you. And when I say nerdy shit, that's not an insult. Like when I say when I say hippie shit, that's a compliment. When I say nerdy shit, that's a compliment, because I'm all about that stuff. So yeah, and

David Arbit  42:52  
we live and breathe it. And I mean, I'll just go on the record here and say, I mean, we'll and Sarah and your team is I mean, they're so far above average, when it comes to understanding the stats, using the stats, caring about the stats, take a step back, knowing where to access the stats, how to click on the stats, sounds simple, but people are like, what these are just on MPLS realtor.com. And I don't mean to do all this is accessible, it's accessible, every you know, everybody, you know, we take, we take 25 cents a month out of everybody's dues to pay for the reports and like use the reports, use them. And so I still think there's an awareness crisis, but I am passionate about it. And I love getting the word out. And it's, it's about helping our members and helping agents. Number one, no doubt, just in case anyone's listening. But the personal. For me, it's personally about the people beyond our members is the humans, it's the people. It's the people in the community. Absolutely. It's the aspiring homeowners and that's why you guys, you guys do it, too. It's about it's about the people. It's about closing the homeownership gap. It's about it's about investing in something. It's about creating strong communities, creating communities, cities and Strong Cities and generational wealth and lifting ourselves up into better situations. And yeah, it's about the value of homeownership of owning something of of improving yourself and your situation and your financial picture and putting down roots and it's it's beyond that and the 99.7% of original list price, you know, in 17 average cumulative days on market. Yeah, well and good. But what does it mean for the people? You know, how do I counsel my clients on that and how will that inform their decision making to help them reach their goals

William Huffman  44:31  
there? I think you should you know, definitely do some more learning because I don't know if he knows enough about this

David Arbit  44:37  
some learning. A lot of learning to do.

William Huffman  44:39  
I do. We

Sarah Huffman  44:40  
all do. Like where do you want to go like, do you want to like retire?

William Huffman  44:44  
Question question before I want to talk about my No, you can't leave. I can't wait. I'm on the board. I will not accept your resignation. I'm a board of directors. I don't know if I have that power. I'm pretty sure I don't I carry take care of things like No, no, we'll

David Arbit  44:58  
look at the bylaws. Zero power.

Sarah Huffman  45:00  
I mean, like, when you think about like succession and like careers like,

William Huffman  45:04  
I want to. This is on camera people can now see, can I zoom into you there? People can now see that this is real. How did we start? How did we get tomorrow? And then let's start there. And then I do want to talk about Mark and David's role there. Sure. Is that okay?

David Arbit  45:21  
And then I'll go into

William Huffman  45:22  
here why you can't kill me.

David Arbit  45:25  
There's witnesses. There's too many witnesses careful. Honestly, I landed at mark in a weird way. I applied cold to a position for a research coordinator with a 10k research and marketing. I don't know if you guys remember that. Yep. It was 10k research and marketing. And they built the thing, which was the predecessor to info sparks. If you guys recall, it's kind of like right around the

William Huffman  45:49  
time that was those? Yeah, I didn't get into those parts until about four or five years ago.

David Arbit  45:53  
Okay, that's probably about right. Yeah. And when we launched that, like 2011, or 12, and an info sparks, I think was 2013. Ish.

William Huffman  45:59  
And I got it in 15. And I got really into data about seven. Okay,

David Arbit  46:03  
yep. That makes sense. That tracks with my memory to

Sarah Huffman  46:05  
probably after a David arbit.

William Huffman  46:07  
Oh, yeah. Yeah. Well, you're one of the people already. You're one of the people that and I jokingly say this, but I'm dead serious. Hold on. I burped. I got the fan blowing it.

Sarah Huffman  46:22  
Right. Did you want to?

William Huffman  46:24  
I don't think so. I'll tell you in about half a second. Yeah. So I jokingly say, and

Unknown Speaker  46:31  
we were all waiting.

William Huffman  46:33  
When there are people that I find that I want to hang out with, like, I want to get to know, I just kind of stalk them. Like, I kind of forced myself into their lives. And I do this with I've done it with several people. In all my industries. Yep, mine. Not even close, but

David Arbit  46:52  
kinda sort of maybe, yeah. But you're one

William Huffman  46:55  
of those people. Because I'm like, the first time I heard you speak, I made it very apparent that I was gonna find you on Facebook. And I was like, and I'm just like this because this person is talking at a level that I want to get to, you know, that's, I'm always gonna aspire to get to that level. This is what you do full time. Like, you're all into it. But if I can speak intelligently on the same subjects, that's what I'm gonna learn from you're going to learn from so you're one of those people. And I came honored. Well, I'm Thank you. You're welcome. But okay, so sorry, what was the question? Well, I

Sarah Huffman  47:25  
was just wondering, like, when you think about like, now you're the director of what's the title, or research director, director of research, there we go Director of Research, like what's next after director of research? Because you can be in that space and you but it's like, from? I mean, I don't know. I just don't see you just seen that statement.

David Arbit  47:44  
I don't want to stagnate. I mean, my role evolves every day, every year. It's something different the market is different. You know, the way we talk about stuff, the people we present to you know, a couple years ago the legislature needed needed us to do this affordability you know, update you know, give come testify on what's happening with affordability Yep. And it's like because that was such an issue. Even more of an issue now given a little bit of and rates popping from 2.7 to six been a third or so. Point seven on some FHA I heard seven and a quarter the other day I thought that I didn't think we were in the sevens yet.

Sarah Huffman  48:18  
I had a client last week lock in at 7.75

William Huffman  48:21  
Well, we just saw Zach on the camera. You didn't duck low enough, buddy.

David Arbit  48:26  
The long term the 50 year average on the 30 year fixed is about eight so that's just about an average that was locked last Monday. Wow. Over seven and a half. All right, that's how anyway geeking out on housing stats.

William Huffman  48:40  
I didn't even know that that Oh, wow. That's high. Yeah.

David Arbit  48:44  
I don't want to see eights in front of everything. I don't want to see eights no who knows that's heavy fives is one thing sixes does is another sevens as well. Okay yeah all right, we're getting up there and yeah wait till recession the federal lower them all again. It'll be it'll be fine. Yeah.

Sarah Huffman  49:01  
Like you just have to wait it out and just wait and refi or wait you know I like to me that's what I would do

David Arbit  49:07  
it what do they say you you marry the house? I marry the house date the rate?

William Huffman  49:11  
I love that. Oh, dude, I hate that say

David Arbit  49:15  
the house. If rates rise you got to low right? No, I rates for refinance.

William Huffman  49:18  
The reason the reason I disliked that saying is because people use that to explain what's going on. So they're just like, what's going on in the market? Oh, don't worry about it. You date the mortgage and marry the house. I'm like, What the hell? Yeah, the most bullshit answers ever heard in my life. Now. Now, if you want to use that at the end of like an explanation, they say what's going on right here. Here's a 10 year Treasury yield. here's this, here's this. Here's this. And just to kind of put that all together. Here's here's a simple way to think of

Sarah Huffman  49:47  
why and I do think there's a way to like also guide people in so that they know their options. Absolutely. That it's not just the rate. There's so many other factors and like for me, I would be like don't buy down the road. right now because more than likely you're going to refinance No, I don't think so that money Yeah, I

David Arbit  50:04  
think so. I agree. Sorry let's

William Huffman  50:07  
go back to the original there's no way we there was no way we're not going to want to comprehend

David Arbit  50:11  
Oh, yeah, it was gonna happen it's gonna have bound to happen with this crew and the topics. Yes. So no, I don't want to stagnate I don't feel like I am everyday really is different. Some days it's teaching a class another day, it's doing a market update. Another day, it's testifying to the legislature another day, it's, you know, doing an outline or writing a press release, or doing planning or budgeting or at a press conference or talking with Jim booked on the Star Tribune about what the heck, what the heck is happening here. So every day really is different. And that's honestly what I like if I had to live every day just buried in Excel. Yep. Just I change it up, because I think this is uncommon of research types, but I'm a people person. Yeah, I'm gonna I'm totally an extroverted people person. Very rare. I think it's pretty rare. And that's not talking to myself. In fact, I bet the best researchers are introverts because they don't they just want to sit and do their research. Yeah. And I do too, but I you there has to be that human connection.

Sarah Huffman  51:04  
Have you ever taken the DISC profile? Oh, yeah.

David Arbit  51:07  
What are your Wait, is it Myers Briggs and disc? m en TJ? Does that sound that's my, sorry. That's Meyers, B, D

William Huffman  51:14  
I S or C.

David Arbit  51:17  
I'm a campaigner. And I can't remember.

William Huffman  51:21  
I mean, there's like 60.

Unknown Speaker  51:23  
Ci,

William Huffman  51:24  
which is my nightmare.

Sarah Huffman  51:27  
And like your best friend?

William Huffman  51:28  
Yeah. Love the guy. Yeah. Yeah,

David Arbit  51:31  
I don't know. I should take it again. I, I've taken some of that stuff a bunch of times. And it's a little bit different each time. It evolves. It evolves. It sometimes was like turbulent versus assertive. On the,

William Huffman  51:42  
there's adaptive, and there's normal and adaptive. Yeah, there's a whole

David Arbit  51:45  
bunch of kind of stuff. There's a whole bunch. I think it's like the mood you're in. Like, how do you act at a party? Well, sometimes you want to jam out until one of the morning and other times you like, it's 8:30pm. Dinner is over? Can we get out of here? Yeah. Is it okay to leave?

William Huffman  51:57  
I'm done. So okay.

Sarah Huffman  51:58  
I do have questions. Anywho. Can I ask some more questions?

David Arbit  52:01  
I don't want to stagnate. Yeah, every day is different. I would be okay, retiring at Mar. But I'm not. I'm not positive that I will. But I love where I work. I really do. One thing I've been thinking about more and more is starting my own thing. I want to be I you know, I think I have an entrepreneurial bug in me. Yeah. Where I, you know, in, don't forget, I spent five, five worlds five years in the startup world, if I spent five worlds. So, you know, scrappy, kind of making it work. If you got to be there till midnight. And that's how long you got to be there. Yeah. But you can take off on Friday, you know, if it works. And just building something from nothing. On my own, maybe maybe some consulting? I don't know. I don't know. I love it. Yeah. But others have said, you know, you know, once you look at the big banks, they need, you know, researchers, you don't want to apply to I don't want to work for Wells Fargo, nothing against them,

David Arbit  53:00  
or your shareholders are away from the community where Yeah, totally agreed. Yeah, totally agreed here, like community focused. But I just couldn't be

David Arbit  53:09  
anonymous. Yeah, right. You'd be a cog in a wheel, a spoke and you'd be anonymous. And

William Huffman  53:13  
you would lose the direct connection that you have now to people like Sarah and myself, think so. And you'd lose the ability to do stuff like this, I think

David Arbit  53:21  
and don't forget nonprofit. I mean, we partner with, you know, habitat. I mean, you guys know better than I do. And it's not just on the foundation side where we do grants, and we help people get into better situations. But you know, Aon Simpson housing, what does it hope and project for pride living? All those guys that like literally uplift members of our community out of tough situations and get them into safe housing, whether temporary or more permanent, supportive? But yeah, it's not about helping the people who needed the most and helping people reach their dreams. I don't know what it is about. It's not about just me sitting and doing spread. I mean, that's, that's the work but that's not what it's about. It's not your why that's not the why that's not is that a Simon Sinek know your why Simon Sinek Start With Why sorry, not? No, you're not.

Sarah Huffman  54:05  
And you know, the thing is, it's like a lot of people can say, oh, I need to know my y. But like, when you talk about your y it is like you're living breathing it like it, isn't it? There's a passion like this. This is your passion project.

David Arbit  54:18  
Yeah. Yeah. I think you're right. I think that's right. I mean, how blessed that, you know, you get to be within an association. Or if I'd say with a ton, but with somewhat adequate resources. Yeah, with with resources. And you know, Carrie, you know, if I said Telly, and Carrie, if I said, we need to make this small investment so we can do our jobs better. We wouldn't get a ton of pushback. They'd want us to support that. Yep. Yeah. And to really make a case for it. But, you know, yeah, we're not going to go out and you know, hire a half a million a year software developer, so we could do all these cool things. Maybe.

William Huffman  54:51  
Maybe, maybe, maybe we could.

David Arbit  54:55  
You know, the state is getting new leadership and the North Star just New Leadership. Yep. And so maybe there'll be another, you know, maybe there'll be some new developments. Who knows? We've joked in the past, you know, well, I shouldn't say it. Not myself, but others in the past of us have used the acronym T car. The Twin Cities area Association of Realtors. I like that. I mean, I love spar. I love Mar. I love people at both places and agents at both at both associations. But some have asked the question, you know, are we a big enough region to need to? And can we serve members better together? Yeah, actively and could there be economic savings as a result? And so I always think we should make decisions strategically and think through that in the numbers and the math. But you know, the river, not the river, the river this? Yeah, this dividing thing. Yeah. I, I really do like St. Paul.

Sarah Huffman  55:52  
Okay. I've got more questions. Yes.

William Huffman  55:54  
Wow. Okay. Okay. Well, a couple

Sarah Huffman  55:58  
of you. That may want to know about David arbit. On the weekend. Oh, boy. Oh, what happens when you Oh, weekend? Whoo. Good. You've got two little humans.

David Arbit  56:09  
Their names are Maxim, Hannah. And they are How old are these 1516 months now?

Sarah Huffman  56:14  
And were you shocked when you had twins? Yes, we

David Arbit  56:17  
were. Yes. Oh, legit. You were Oh, absolutely. I was shocked when? I mean. Yeah, I mean, it was a surprise announcement. I mean, like, I was getting personal. Yeah, they are. They're Colonials. There's millennials. There's the silent generation. There's xers Gen Y, and then there's millennials and coronial. The millennials are now making coronial. This is amazing. This is amazing. Oh, my word erroneous. Okay, so they just kind of like surprise. So yeah, I mean, we were aware that there that there could be a child, but we had no idea. It could be. You know, it could be two, but the likelihood of that, statistically speaking, typically, it's one in 250. Really? Oh, really? Most people think it's one in 100. That are one in 10,000. Yeah, it's one in 250. People are waiting longer. And I think, well, my wife. This is getting really personal. My wife's OB called it a geriatric pregnancy. Anything over 35 as a geriatric pregnancy. Yeah. My wife did not appreciate those terms.

William Huffman  57:22  
Yeah, OBGYNs. Could be weird. Yeah. Yeah. So OB Gen. Another one

David Arbit  57:27  
I've heard. Yes, yes. Yes. Not as familiar with the profession. But grateful. Everything went great to healthy, fantastic

Sarah Huffman  57:33  
or to what did you do?

David Arbit  57:36  
Oh, my God, what did I do? I didn't believe it. I said, you're kidding. Like, you're, you're serious. And then I said, Show me the picture. I don't think it was too early for

William Huffman  57:50  
photos or photos or it didn't happen.

David Arbit  57:52  
picker, it did not happen. I need the photo evidence. And I want the timestamp. Show me the metadata. Show me the metadata. Show me the data Jerry tastic. And so yeah, who are the father? Yeah, yeah, yeah, we have to so it was a one or two and done and not planning on any more. We know one person who was trying for their third and got three and four. Oh, wow. Yeah. Four kids is a lot to kids is a lot.

Sarah Huffman  58:25  
Did twins run in your families?

David Arbit  58:28  
My mom told me that several generations back like she had an aunt or something. And then on my wife's side, her sister has twins by design. Oh, okay. That's by design, though. But other than that, not really. fascinate so luck of the draw. Yes. I mean, when diapers are over diapers are over. And you're not there yet. No, we're not there yet. But I mean, but a lot of people like when you potty train your what? I don't know what it is two and a half, two and a half three year old that you have a zero year old and now you're back in diapers. Yeah. And back and sleepless nights and and so I don't want to go back to that. You're like we're done. We're done. Because things have been getting there. Eaten better sleeping better. healthiest can be funny as heck. Saying funny stuff. The girl says bubbles, and she holds up a little one bubble. Oh, it's pretty cute.

David Arbit  59:19  
It's pretty cute. And the way K Hannah bubble, like Yes.

David Arbit  59:27  
And she says hi. Oh, and then she goes

Sarah Huffman  59:30  
up cuz she wants you to pick her out because she will.

David Arbit  59:34  
It's funny. They're pretty cool.

Sarah Huffman  59:35  
Did you ever imagine life as a dad?

David Arbit  59:39  
It's like, it's like the call. It's like my answer to the college question. You always just kind of assume you're going to do it. But that doesn't always mean you're prepared for it. Yeah. And that doesn't always mean yeah, you know what to expect or how it'll go or you don't always know how you can surprise yourself to Yeah, and how just like, I don't know, like deep down stuff like I don't know you mess with my kid. Sounds like there's some kind of Papa Bear thing that just bubbles up but it's like bubbles up.

William Huffman  1:00:05  
I've never I've never considered murder an option but you Oh, come on, let's go.

David Arbit  1:00:09  
That's not quite that far. Although my father in law's tuxedo cat named Ollie got a little mad at max and scratched like an inch under his I did the whole kind of thing and I don't like cats. I've never I I'm a dog guy. I can't I'm not a cat guy. No, no, no, thanks. I'm a feline side of things. I'm a canine guy. All right.

William Huffman  1:00:37  
Hey, this is in this has been awesome. And there's gonna be more of these more. Oh, absolutely. But if you you know, bothered or ever, you know, listened to do some research on our podcast.

David Arbit  1:00:49  
I intend to again, send

Sarah Huffman  1:00:50  
you some really good one.

David Arbit  1:00:51  
Please do seriously? Yeah. Are you on Spotify? Yeah,

Sarah Huffman  1:00:53  
we're on all the channels. Yeah.

David Arbit  1:00:56  
That Spotify is where I get all my podcasts they go.

William Huffman  1:00:59  
Please download? They

Sarah Huffman  1:01:00  
love it download. We just hit 2500 downloads

David Arbit  1:01:02  
serious? Yeah. Do they show geography? Is it most? Yeah. I have no idea. Regional or?

William Huffman  1:01:07  
Yeah, we're pretty well, like we have a lot of friends and stuff from around the country. So I think a majority is here. We got a couple overseas that downloaded. That's awesome. Yeah, amazingly cool.

Sarah Huffman  1:01:18  
Data perspective. We probably could know our podcast data more, but I did just get the email yesterday of the 2500 downloads. Okay, that's super cool. Man. We've only been in business since November.

David Arbit  1:01:27  
I'll just say it hasn't even been a year.

William Huffman  1:01:29  
Ya know. So let's keep going up from there.

David Arbit  1:01:31  
It's pretty darn good.

Sarah Huffman  1:01:32  
Yeah. Imagine what the studio is going to do. It's unbelievable. Yeah,

William Huffman  1:01:35  
I'm really excited. But you know what, I'm just gonna, I'm gonna live say this right now. Hey, Zack. We need to actually put a camera over here I think so we can have a really good shot of our guest over here. Because we got the side profile he's got a sexy as beard and shit. And that's cool. We need to see that that gorgeous mug of his over there. So let's just kind of kick that around. And then you know,

Sarah Huffman  1:01:59  
that means another cameras coming. I already heard the Amazon boom.

William Huffman  1:02:02  
Let me hear you say way.

Sarah Huffman  1:02:03  
Yeah, what's already here? Yeah.

David Arbit  1:02:06  
Zack, otherwise my dad might have an old one that please leave.

William Huffman  1:02:10  
All right, cool. So what we're gonna do now is we're going to ask you your top five favorite restaurants. And they don't have to be because it's the most favorite food in the world. But it can be because like, we have one gentleman Matthew on the on the podcast. And I always use them as a reference. And he says, mine was Olive Garden because he used to go there with his mother all the time. So it's an astrologer thing. So it's a super fun thing. So it doesn't have to. He's on the phone googling it right now.

Sarah Huffman  1:02:32  
We had someone last week call out Taco Bell. Tebow. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. It's

David Arbit  1:02:38  
been a while for me. It's been a it's been a long time. Yeah, it's been a long time. I do have a Google list called restaurants and food that's loading in that has all my favorites. Of course it does. I mean, here's the sad part. The stuff a lot of the ones that we loved aren't there anymore. That's the part that kills me. And it's not the Applebee's and olive gardens and McDonald's that are going out of business. No, they're fine. Unfortunately, it's the Mon pa it's the small and it's so unfortunately way too often it's immigrant run businesses and these are small women or minority owned businesses and you can't survive two years with at 30% of your normal revenue. You can't survive not with the margins the way they are. You just can't. So my list isn't loading

William Huffman  1:03:24  
all right. Hold on. top my head so we're gonna go number five. Number five. There it is.

David Arbit  1:03:31  
Oh, restaurant number five. Yeah. Oh, geez. Oh, five. I used to go to Vincent restaurant. That's done. That was on Nicollet Mall. Yeah, wasn't that Friday? Right on the corner right around the corner. Right by Brett's that was good love that place.

David Arbit  1:03:46  
Do you the tasty menu? Oh, yeah. Yeah, tasty menu and

David Arbit  1:03:49  
we got there. Vincent burger.

Sarah Huffman  1:03:51  
i Yes, it is.

David Arbit  1:03:53  
It was it was another burger is life changing? Yes. It's whole. It's magical. It's like stuff 10 Stuff with like smoke Gouda and primary or braised. Maybe break. MAX level burger. It was like juicy. Really?

William Huffman  1:04:06  
We might have to like look up the menu or look at the recipe and see we can't I don't know. It's out there.

David Arbit  1:04:11  
It really was fantastic. Oh, yeah. Like truly memorable. Like

Sarah Huffman  1:04:15  
many people talk about the parlor burger being like the number one burger.

David Arbit  1:04:19  
Or mats and five eight like, yeah, and those juicy. I know those are classic and historic. And they're they taste like I mean, a diner he was he was.

William Huffman  1:04:27  
I make a better burger than both of those.

David Arbit  1:04:28  
I believe it. I do

William Huffman  1:04:30  
believe that America burger in America. Yeah. All right. Number four.

David Arbit  1:04:35  
Let's see. What should I do? pizzeria Lola. Oh, yeah. Anna Kim. Oh, yeah,

William Huffman  1:04:40  
she did. Yeah. Have you seen her new Netflix show? No, I heard about it though. Yeah, episode three of the show.

Sarah Huffman  1:04:46  
We ordered the T shirts. Serious. Oh, yeah. We

William Huffman  1:04:48  
ordered her. Yeah,

David Arbit  1:04:49  
her. What is it? What's the pizza with? Well, there's breakfast pizza with egg. That's phenomenal. And then there's the spicy kimchi. Oh, the serrano and Norton likes Yeah. Ladies ladies Zaza. That's it. Yeah, it's really messy. It's so good. It's magical and people don't think like that stuff belongs on pizza. It belongs on pizza,

Sarah Huffman  1:05:07  
whatever, whatever she wants. I love watching her documentary because she talks about how she made that pizza. And how like the norm would not support that.

William Huffman  1:05:16  
She's amazing. Oh man. Yeah, her story. She's amazing that even the brief snippet we got on the Netflix Yeah, flicks episode was proud

David Arbit  1:05:23  
of it. I'm on Episode I'm on episode three of the of Dahmer. Oh, I can't watch it. Yeah, we're on episode three of Dahmer. We just finished a typical that was good. And then in the dark.

William Huffman  1:05:35  
Oh, you are definitely an eye in the dark.

Sarah Huffman  1:05:38  
For our season two podcasts. I've got our new top five. What what TV shows? Oh, yeah, no, that's good one this this year, we're focusing on restaurant Yeah. Okay. Next time. Keep going. Number three,

David Arbit  1:05:51  
I think you're propolis has to be on there. Okay. As you get Greek, Greek and Mediterranean food spanakopita out of this world, they have this like spicy chicken bacon. Euro like with the onions and the peppers and where is that? It's just off of is it 86? Their 90th It's buy the two gas stations on pen and buy the ACE true value on pen. Okay, as you're heading down pennant, it's like 86 or 98.

William Huffman  1:06:23  
Do you have an iPhone? That is Google?

Sarah Huffman  1:06:26  
I'll find it.

David Arbit  1:06:27  
It is it is down there. And it really is good. It is good. Let's see next. Whole lot. Number two. Number two. Joy's Thai Richfield really love Thai food.

Sarah Huffman  1:06:37  
So do we where's this choice? Thai?

David Arbit  1:06:39  
So that's that's 78 and Linda or 77? I know I have. Why do you choice choice choice

Sarah Huffman  1:06:44  
because I have never heard of this. And we lived in Richfield. That's true.

David Arbit  1:06:48  
It really is good. Okay, it's so good. That you're not gonna like the order. I don't know if number one is really number one. That's fine. No, it's

Sarah Huffman  1:06:56  
because when you have to preface it, yeah, number one,

William Huffman  1:06:59  
I'd have

David Arbit  1:07:00  
to go I gotta go Mexican. There's like a quadro Milpitas place just off 494 That will also change your world. Really. And so it's the style is birria tacos, where they they dunk and we say, Oh my God.

William Huffman  1:07:18  
Yeah. The corn tortilla with with the it's just my mouth. And then they have

David Arbit  1:07:24  
a man cheese. Dunk in the costume. A bra. Yeah, there's even more broth. It's next level. Oh my god. Dunk it in the liquid then on the grill. It's amazing magic so that even their case, do you like something as simple as case ideas are like they do a good job. Have

Sarah Huffman  1:07:38  
you ever been to Anna Molly's?

David Arbit  1:07:39  
No. Okay. I

Sarah Huffman  1:07:40  
was just talking about So Anna. Molly's is a food truck that's now at Bauhaus brewery. Oh, yeah. And they're Perea tacos. Are they magical? They're magic. They really

William Huffman  1:07:50  
are. They really love

David Arbit  1:07:52  
those are so good and eat a regular taco anymore. Like a wet taco.

Sarah Huffman  1:07:56  
You can order your ribs you can order all that stuff. Just get me the tacos and you don't get any. Like if you want to talk to us.

David Arbit  1:08:02  
Yeah, don't none of the sharing business know we'd love to share. Yes. Except for the Bereans except for those. Yeah, yeah, this wife and I are pretty good about that. Like if any sandwiches or she got burgers, bagels, and we always do like I take half you take half and then you get best of both.

Sarah Huffman  1:08:15  
So do we unless we call it

William Huffman  1:08:17  
before we order? Yeah. Where I'm like

Sarah Huffman  1:08:21  
I'm not sharing today. Oh, if you want to get that you've got to get your

David Arbit  1:08:24  
get your own. I think that's fair. Good indication in a very healthy relationship. 5%

Sarah Huffman  1:08:28  
of the time. I am talking to a data guy.

David Arbit  1:08:33  
This is mine. Yeah. Yeah. If you touch that cheese, I will slap you.

William Huffman  1:08:39  
Or if we're like, Hey, do you want some? I would have a bite of yours. I was get another one. Yeah, biting you to

David Arbit  1:08:44  
do you want. I'll just have a few buddy your french fries. I was like an 80% of my fries are gone.

William Huffman  1:08:53  
The Pareto principle.

David Arbit  1:08:55  
There's a lot of good restaurants out there that I'm leaving off though. I do want to say that. Yeah, there's a lot of good ones and it's very safe. It's safe. I'm covering. I was scrolling by I tried to look at my list. I wish it was sorted. I wish it was sorted somehow. Ola raper belongs in there. We've never been there. It really is good. What is it? Some of the university trade show some of the Vietnamese places for fall in the winter. Yeah. On University. You gotta shout out some of those guys.

William Huffman  1:09:19  
The best spot in the city is lotus in Loring Park.

Sarah Huffman  1:09:23  
I like lotus a lot. Yeah. Maple Grove. Maple Grove. Lorem. It's different to different broth. Oh, they may say it's the same. Oh, interesting.

David Arbit  1:09:31  
That's really good to know.

William Huffman  1:09:33  
They've tried to trick me and give me the broth. And I'm like, This is not from Maple Grove. You're not? Yeah, yeah. Gonna kill me. And they they this lost it laughing because they're like, how the hell do you know? Because I know that because I know. Both. I know. I have taste buds. I eat I eat that for three or four times a week for months.

David Arbit  1:09:54  
It's so good. All right, everything. Now I'm hungry. Well, thanks. Yeah, every single talk Those are hot soup. I don't know. All right. Thanks for coming on our podcast.

David Arbit  1:10:04  
Thank you for having me

William Huffman  1:10:05  
tonight. And as always, we out deuces