351: What’s a Golf Certified Real Estate Agent? w/ Jason Becker, Golf Life Navigators
May 24, 2024
Denny Corby,Jason Becker
Explore the innovative world of golf real estate with Jason Becker, CEO of Golf Life Navigators, on our latest episode of Private Club Radio. Jason shares the inside scoop on how their unique platform seamlessly matches golfers with their ideal golf clubs and communities using a sophisticated matchmaking algorithm. Dive into the specialized world of certified real estate agents who leverage their deep knowledge of golf to help clients navigate the complexities of golf community sales. With over 1,200 private clubs in their network, Golf Life Navigators is transforming how golfers connect with their dream homes and enhancing the way agents serve the golfing community.
Discover how recent global events have reshaped the golf industry and what that means for real estate professionals within it. We also discuss the benefits of golf certification for agents, providing them with a competitive edge.
Explore the innovative world of golf real estate with Jason Becker, CEO of Golf Life Navigators, on our latest episode of Private Club Radio. Jason shares the inside scoop on how their unique platform seamlessly matches golfers with their ideal golf clubs and communities using a sophisticated matchmaking algorithm. Dive into the specialized world of certified real estate agents who leverage their deep knowledge of golf to help clients navigate the complexities of golf community sales. With over 1,200 private clubs in their network, Golf Life Navigators is transforming how golfers connect with their dream homes and enhancing the way agents serve the golfing community.
Discover how recent global events have reshaped the golf industry and what that means for real estate professionals within it. We also discuss the benefits of golf certification for agents, providing them with a competitive edge.
So we did a survey, probably two and a half years ago or so, to the database. These are all affluent golfers by nature and the number one anxiety that they had about the search for their ideal golf club and community was talking to a real estate agent. That was the number one anxiety and the reason was is because in that world there are a lot of bad actors and there's a lot of bad stories of people getting led maybe to a home or community that wasn't necessarily right for them to begin with, but it was an easy sale for the agent and any agent listening or broker listening knows who those folks are. They're in every industry. Every industry has bad actors.
Speaker 1:
So to combat that, when we thought about the golf certification process, we said, okay, let's create an educational program that an agent that either loves golf and plays golf or an agent that doesn't know anything about it but really wants to know about it, can take and pass and become certified if you will. And so for the consumer, you can now work with one of these individuals who knows both worlds, knows the clubs and obviously knows the real estate side of things and has solutions to a predicament such as that club's waitlisted for three years. What do I do? I want to make a move now. Let's get you into a bundled community turnkey condo. You're in, get on the waitlist at the club that you dreamed about being on, stay here for a couple of years. Your number gets called, we'll sell that condo and get you into the house of your dreams. Little things like that that the average agent wouldn't know necessarily. That's what our golf certified agents are doing.
Speaker 2:
Hey everyone, welcome back to Private Club Radio, the club industry source for news, trends, updates and conversations all in the world of private golf and country clubs. I'm your host, denny Corby. Thanks everyone for being here.
Speaker 2:
In this episode I have my friend CEO of Golf Life Navigators, and for those of you that don't know who or what Golf Life Navigators is, you have to. So Golf Life Navigators is a platform that connects golfers with their ideal golf club and community, and it was created to address, you know, an outdated and inefficient process of finding the right clubs, and the platform uses a matchmaking algorithm to match users with clubs based on their preferences and needs Think Zillow meets eHarmony. And what's really cool is what they're rolling out are their certified real estate agents, and he's going to tell us all about what is a golf certified real estate agent, how to become a golf certified real estate agent and what that looks like, and what that looks like to take advantage of the golf life navigator network. Welcome my friend CEO golf lifeigators, jason Becker. I'm fascinated with the real estate side, especially just in now's market. It's just bonkers. But before we get to that, how did you even start Gulf Life Navigators?
Speaker 1:
So, basically being in the club industry since 2003, I had been privy to be a club professional. A number of different private clubs around South Florida and every club that I was at had probably 20 to 30 members that hated being there and they made it known every day that they hated it. And it was when I was in Boca Raton, at the Boca Raton Resort. I started asking these people, like why did you buy a million-dollar house and a $100,000 membership if you didn't know what you were getting? Now my buddy told me I would love it here, and now my wife's not happy. And how could we even go and visit 170 clubs in Palm Beach County anyway? And who's got time for that? So now we're stuck and we know where to to go and we don't want to do it all over again.
Speaker 1:
And I just thought that was a pretty art. Yeah, I just thought it was a pretty archaic process to go through to make such a major life decision. And on the club side, it's like, well, you don't want people that aren't happy for the at the club, you want happy members. And just for all those reasons and so I was in grad school at the time too, and I happened to read a white paper on divorces and things that are going on across our country and I read a stat that said that 54% of Americans get divorces these days, but 9% of Americans get divorces who meet on matchmaking algorithms like eHarmony and Matchcom and others.
Speaker 1:
I thought, huh, and then the light bulb went off and it was like, okay, I wonder if we could create this environment where user A is the club and they put in everything that they have to offer, and user B is the consumer and they put in everything that they have to offer, and user B is the consumer and they put in everything that they're looking for, and instant matches could occur so the consumer can get to the right club for them and the club gets the right member and, going back to the 9% divorce rate, the club's attrition goes down, more happy members and everybody wins. So that was kind of how it all started and got put together in about three or four years of development how's how's real estate been and how's it going?
Speaker 1:
real estate is a huge part of this is the decision for the consumer. When we started golf life navigators uh, real estate was there, but it was really about the golf course. Covet hit and it was a run on golf and and so what happened was all the golf courses became full and nobody was selling their home, nobody wanted to leave their golf course. That was a controlled, secure, safe environment. So why would we want to give that up? So the real estate decision started to take over the golf search, started to take over the golf search. So it's okay If I'm going to have to acquiesce some of the things that we're looking for in the perfect golf life, it's going to have to be the golf course or maybe some amenities, but if the real estate is so slim pickings, then we really got to focus on that and it really changed our model in terms of the resources that we were offering consumers from the real estate side of the equation.
Speaker 2:
And we ended up launching a brand called the Golf Certified Real Estate Agent because of it. What are people looking for when it comes to, you know, online resources and research when trying to, you know, connect with not just a real estate agent but also their home?
Speaker 1:
Yeah, the data has definitely shifted to the amenity side of things and consumers seeking expert guidance. So we did a survey, probably two and a half years ago or so, to the database. These are all affluent golfers by nature and the number one anxiety that they had about the search for their ideal golf club and community was talking to a real estate agent. That was the number one anxiety and the reason was is because in that world there are a lot of bad actors and there's a lot of bad stories of people getting led maybe to a home or community that wasn't necessarily right for them to begin with, but it was an easy sale for the agent and any agent listening or broker listening knows who those folks are. They're in every industry. Every industry has bad actors, who those folks are. They're in every industry. Every industry has bad actors. So to combat that, when we thought about the golf certification process, we said, okay, let's create an educational program that an agent that either loves golf and plays golf or an agent that doesn't know anything about it but really wants to know about it can take and pass and become certified if you will, and so for the consumer, you can now work with one of these individuals, who knows both worlds, knows the clubs and obviously knows the real estate side of things and has solutions to a predicament such as that club's waitlisted for three years. What do I do? I want to make a move now. Let's get you into a bundled community turnkey condo. You're in, get on the waitlist at the club that you dreamed about being on, stay here for a couple of years. Your number gets called, we'll sell that condo and get you into the house of your dreams.
Speaker 1:
Little things like that that the average agent wouldn't know necessarily. That's what our golf certified agents are doing. So from the consumer side, it's been fantastic innovative process for their real estate search, you know process for their real estate search. And then, from the club side, the clubs are not shy about saying that the biggest disconnect that they have in the industry is working with realtors.
Speaker 1:
And because, going back to the bad actor side, so many will just show up and expect a tour or why can't I get my client on the golf course in March in Naples and just be really disrespectful. And that drives the membership directors crazy because it's like they don't have any respect for me and what I do at the club. So what we're saying to the industry is okay. If you see a golf certified real estate agent, if that individual comes across your radar with a client and you see that logo, you know that that person has been vetted through us, has tested out of our programs and has a true appreciation of you, the club and the club's culture. And what we've found is those real estate agents are now going ahead of the list for anybody else that's seeking a tour for their client or would try to get them out on the golf course to play around. So it's just another project that we build outside of GLM that's checking all of these boxes and bridging gaps.
Speaker 2:
And what is a golf certified real estate agent?
Speaker 1:
This is someone that understands and loves the game of golf and it doesn't necessarily mean they play it all the time, but they appreciate it and maybe they want to be involved in golf community sales and earn market share in these gated golf communities. So these folks, when they meet one of our clients anyway, they're on the same wavelength and they understand certain terminology that the typical GLN client would have. Like I don't want an aqua range at my golf course, most agents would be like what did he say? But this golf certified agents would say I know exactly what you mean. You want real golf balls. You don't want to be hitting plastic golf balls into a pond, plastic golf balls into a pond. So that's just an example of the ability for us to align these savvy real estate agents that know and love the game with people who know and love the game that just want to buy a home.
Speaker 2:
And what does it take to be a G-C-R-E-A?
Speaker 1:
G-C-R-E-A. Well, first we have a chat with either myself or one of my colleagues and then we'll send over a link and there's an education course. It takes about 40 minutes and somebody that's been involved in the game will breeze through it pretty fast, but others that haven't it's a great learning experience. There's some videos, um, that I've done with some experts in the industry, where we teach terminology and things and how clubs make and don't make money, and so it's just an education platform, yeah, and then they essentially test out of it, um, and get their credentials and they're good for the year and they can plug into our environment then and work with buyers who are using us to try to find a club and how many?
Speaker 2:
how, like? What does that look like, like, like, what is that like? How many clubs are you a part of?
Speaker 1:
well, we have a little over 1200 private clubs in the search engine, so that goes from Palm Springs to Hilton Head, so across the Sun Belt. Now we do have metropolitan markets like Chicago and Boston in there as well, and we do have golf-certified agents up north who like to plug into our environment as well, not so much from the lead side but to be able to use our directory of other golf certified agents in the south. So where you sit in um rhode island, are you in rhode island where you from?
Speaker 2:
pennsylvania, dude come on pennsylvania. That's right. Are you? Are you? I thought we were friends. This, this, I could have said Rhode Island. I think I'm more offended at Rhode Island than anything else. Rhode Island.
Speaker 1:
That's the most times Rhode Island's ever been said in 30 seconds, no-transcript. So anyway, we have a lot of agents that are across from the north as well with the program.
Speaker 2:
And where do you see the program going for the rest of like 24 into 25 and beyond?
Speaker 1:
It's moving fast with these new NAR commission deals and the way that the real estate agent or the industry is changing on buy side commissions. It's really, from what we're seeing and hearing, challenging the average agent and brokerage to figure out new and innovative ways to get in front of buyers and sellers. So we believe that having the golf certification credentials and that branding and that expertise, knowledge will certainly help. From the buy side of this whole equation, where you're going to hire me as your real estate agent because I know golf and I've got access to resources within these club communities. That's why you're going to hire me and essentially, maybe even pay me commission if there's no commission to be paid on the listing of the home.
Speaker 1:
On the flip side of the equation, to get golf home listings agents are using these credentials and access to our online environment to win over sellers. So they're saying Denny, list with me because I can get your golf home on to golflifenavigatorscom, which is in front of 30,000 to 40,000 people a month, and they're sharing all of that content with the National Golf Media Partners. So that then becomes a very unique selling proposition that very few, if any, other listing agents are going to have when they come and present to that seller. So we believe and have seen that that's definitely been a tremendous asset for the golf certified agents.
Speaker 2:
That's a lot of people to be in front of.
Speaker 1:
It is. Yeah, I mean we're talking not just our website, but you know publications like Golf Week Magazine and Golf Digest and others. They would love to be in the real estate game, but they don't have the resources or the people, if you will, that understand it and the ability to display golf homes for sale. The environment that we've created on our website, the Golf Homes Portal, that's a collaboration of all of our golf certified agents sending us their listings daily, and we're populating that environment and then sending it to those entities so they can take it and share with their audiences. So it's not just our 30 to 40 000. It's hitting, but you're talking hundreds of thousands of golfers around the world that are on these platforms. Oh snap, that's impressive. Yeah, we're just adapting to the way the market is heading and I think that for the early adopters this year, they're really and by that I mean the agents that are really trying to figure out what their next move is from a branding perspective. This is a no brainer if you love golf.
Speaker 2:
Where can people learn more and sign up register?
Speaker 1:
GolfLifeNavigatorscom. Yeah, go to our contact us page. You'll see right there that you can submit a form that basically says, hey, I'm here to learn about the golf certified agent program. Submit a form that basically says, hey, I'm here to learn about the call certified agent program. Then myself or one of our colleagues will reach out with more information and a link. It's super easy Once you pass the test and you get through that part onboarding just a couple of days and then you're alive, you know, to the world.
Speaker 2:
So in less than a week.
Speaker 1:
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. We, uh, we've got all the systems in place. We've been working on this model for about three years now, so everything, everything is aligned.
Speaker 2:
Hope you all enjoyed that episode. If you're interested in learning more about the certified golf agent or golf life navigators, or to set up a chat with CEO Jason Becker, head on over to golf life navigatorscom. If you're enjoying the content like share, subscribe. We're always coming out with content on the regular. If you're not subscribed to our newsletter, head on over to private club radiocom. Subscribe there. Stay up to date on all the content that we are releasing. That's this episode, until next time.
