Prepare for an enlightening journey as we navigate the bustling world of real estate with our esteemed guest, Matthew Maschler, a seasoned broker and real estate agent based in South Florida. Matthew, with his insurmountable experience, will shed light on the common misconceptions related to real estate industry payments, particularly how a buyer's agent earns. He'll also share his intriguing journey from the Big Apple to the Sunshine State, his love for Florida's lifestyle, and his efforts to expand his business beyond Palm Beach. If you've ever wondered about the nuances of the real estate business and the role of an agent, you're in for a treat.
Matthew Maschler is not your typical real estate agent. He's also a passionate entrepreneur who ventured into the wrestling business, running Boca Raton Championship Wrestling. Plus, Matthew gives a peek into his podcasts - Real Estate Finder and Matthew Mania, and an exclusive preview of his upcoming 100th episode of the Real Estate Finder podcast.
Local Living is a community podcast for Palm Beach to Parkland. Are You A Local Business, Resident, Leader or Non-Profit? If so, we would love to have you on the podcast! Go to www.locallivingpodcast.com for all of the info.
Prepare for an enlightening journey as we navigate the bustling world of real estate with our esteemed guest, Matthew Maschler, a seasoned broker and real estate agent based in South Florida. Matthew, with his insurmountable experience, will shed light on the common misconceptions related to real estate industry payments, particularly how a buyer's agent earns. He'll also share his intriguing journey from the Big Apple to the Sunshine State, his love for Florida's lifestyle, and his efforts to expand his business beyond Palm Beach. If you've ever wondered about the nuances of the real estate business and the role of an agent, you're in for a treat.
Matthew Maschler is not your typical real estate agent. He's also a passionate entrepreneur who ventured into the wrestling business, running Boca Raton Championship Wrestling. Plus, Matthew gives a peek into his podcasts - Real Estate Finder and Matthew Mania, and an exclusive preview of his upcoming 100th episode of the Real Estate Finder podcast.
Local Living is a community podcast for Palm Beach to Parkland. Are You A Local Business, Resident, Leader or Non-Profit? If so, we would love to have you on the podcast! Go to www.locallivingpodcast.com for all of the info.
Speaker 1:
Welcome, welcome everyone to Local Living Community Podcast for Palm Beach to Parkland. I'm David Conway, your host for today's episode, and real excited. We've got a great guest for you today, someone who is extremely well known in the community. We have Matthew Maschler with Signature Real Estate Finder. Matthew, welcome to the podcast.
Speaker 2:
Oh, thank you so much for having me. How are you doing today?
Speaker 1:
I'm doing great and I really appreciate you taking time out on a Monday morning. I know this is just the way you hope to start your week.
Speaker 2:
My pleasure, Anything I can do. You know it's always working, always grinding, so always happy to be here on your podcast.
Speaker 1:
That's fantastic and having fun along the way, so why don't you start out by telling the listeners a little bit about your business?
Speaker 2:
Okay, my name is Matthew Maschler. I'm a Signature Real Estate Finder. It's part of the Signature Real Estate Companies. I'm a broker. I have a team of about 10 or 15 agents, always looking to grow agents throughout the entire state of Florida. It doesn't have to be Palm Beach to Parkland. I have agents in Orlando and Naples and I'm trying to I'm thinking about signing one in Jacksonville soon enough, but obviously most of my business is here in Palm Beach County and North part of Broward County, like Parkland and obviously very central to Boca Raton.
Speaker 2:
I started out as a real estate agent really for friends and family and it really grew in the Boca Raton area, especially in the country clubs in the western part of the city because I had a lot of friends and family in the country clubs. So I have a lot of experience in Boca West country clubs, St Andrews country club, Woodfield, Broken Sound, Polo, Addison, Boca Point, all the different country clubs here in Boca Raton and in Delray Beach, Florida. I handle the whole county in the northern part of Broward County and then I have agents that handle really any real estate needs you have in Florida.
Speaker 1:
So tell us a little bit about your journey, maybe a little bit about what you were doing before and what inspired you to make the transition into what you're doing now.
Speaker 2:
Okay, how much time do you have? I grew up in Stem Island, new York, and my father had a small condo in Boca West country club and when we were in junior high school, in high school he would come down two or three times a year with me and my brothers to have a little winter getaway and he'd play a little golf. My brothers and I would splash around in the pool and I just fell in love with this area of the world. A lot of what I fell in love with isn't here anymore like Bloods Orange Grows in Delray I would always go there to get fresh orange juice after four, four o'clock, get the $1 ice cream cones but also like the more economy park, which is expanded over the years, and the country club and the lifestyles and the beach. I always knew that if I worked hard and made a lot of right choices, that one day I could retire to Boca Raton. I actually came down here earlier than that. I came down when my kids were born. I just always loved it in South Florida and I was a little miserable and the cold and political climate of New Jersey, and so in 2005 or 2006, when my kids were about four babies, we moved down here to Boca Raton and never looked back.
Speaker 2:
I was an attorney, but I got my real estate license because as an attorney I'd make a couple hundred dollars on a closing and I'd issue big checks to these realtors that I knew I was smarter than I knew I could outwork. I got my real estate license when I moved to Florida and about 2010 I started doing it really full time. And here I am now, 10 or 15 years later, as a broker, leaving my own group or team. It's not technically a team because I'm a broker. Usually people use the word team when they get a bunch of agents under them, but they're not a broker. So I'm over at the signature real estate companies and there's a lot of little subgroups and subbrokerages, but really I just believe in one signature. There's about 1200 agents and this week we had our big annual meeting and, whether someone's at Signature International or Signature Paradise or Signature One, it's really just one big, happy family of a company. The reason we have different brokerages is for licensing reasons that I won't bore you with.
Speaker 1:
So you've been in the industry for a while now. Can you maybe share with us some myths or misconceptions that people may have about the real estate industry or the market in general?
Speaker 2:
The biggest myth I've been dealing with lately is about how the buyer's agent gets paid. On a national macro level, there are some law brewing that, the result of which will change the industry. I won't bore you with those details. On the micro level, I've seen a lot lately and I don't know where it's come from, because it's weird, like when something happens and then it happens again and again. I see a lot of people coming and saying I wanna see this house and is the seller flexible? Because I'm not using a real estate agent. People seem to think that it somehow benefits the seller if the buyer does not bring an agent and you can't convince these people. And they all think they're so smart they might be a lawyer from New York, everybody who comes from New York, new Jersey. They think they know better than us, and it's. I'm originally from New York, new Jersey, and the reason that I know that they're not smarter or better than us is I'm down here 20 years and they're just discovering it now.
Speaker 1:
They're allowed to leave. I don't think that they all know that.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, well, but when they come down here, that you know like. I mean, I was on vacation, I was in Israel a couple of weeks ago and I was in a restaurant and I guess it was taking too long for his order. So the man actually complained to the manager and he goes well, I'm from New York and there it's not like this and it's like anytime anybody leads with I'm from New York. You know, whatever they're gonna say is totally irrelevant.
Speaker 1:
But I'm not gonna comment on that. By the way, man, I've got some great clients from New York.
Speaker 2:
I don't know, I'm from New York.
Speaker 1:
I know.
Speaker 2:
But I mean just know, when you kind of say I'm from New York, to say what it happened. Years ago I was in Chinatown in Las Vegas and I was leaving. I was coming into the restaurant I said, okay, coming out, I go place. Any good he goes. Let me tell you something I'm from New York, so I know good Chinese food and this is the best. And I'm like you know, have I heard of from China? I didn't do. I know good Chinese food, but New York doesn't have the monopoly on Chinese food, sorry to say.
Speaker 2:
Anyway, that being said, real estate the common misconception that I'm talking about right now is how the buyers get paid. So let me explain it for a minute. When the seller enters into a listing agreement, the seller offers contracts with or hires a real estate agent and agrees to pay them X number of dollars, and that's whether the agent brings the buyer or not, or another agent brings the buyer. Usually you'll specify in that agreement what of the X number of dollars you're going to offer to a buyer's agent. So in the typical, classic example of 6%, I'm charging a seller 6%, I'm gonna offer buyer's agent 3%, but if I get it myself, I get the 6%, so the seller's paying me and I'm paying the buyer's agent. So I go into the multiple listing service. I list the property for sale so that way I can share it with all the other agents. There's 80,000 agents in Florida. Well, they don't all subscribe to the same MLS there's. Each region has a different multiple listing service, so I'm sharing it with all the different agents in that multiple listing service.
Speaker 2:
If they bring me a buyer, I am obligated to pay them. The broker is obligated to pay them, not the seller. The broker from the broker's commission has to pay the other broker. So when you come in and say I'm not gonna use a real estate agent, I'm gonna waive my commission. That doesn't benefit the seller, it benefits me, the listing agent. On a property that's $500,000, I'm gonna charge $30,000, I'm gonna offer $15,000 to the other agent. The other agent doesn't want the $15,000, it goes to me, not to the seller.
Speaker 2:
And I get these people that argue with me, these agents that argue with me, if I try to explain it to them, because they all think they know everything. So Maybe they're from New York Mostly from New York, new Jersey, massachusetts, chicago Mostly from New York. Did you tell the seller that I'm not taking a commission, I'm like, well, thank you, now this is all his business. I had to tell this guy he was an attorney from New York. I had to tell him I go, I don't know where he went to law school, but they should have taught you interference with a contract. You're trying to interfere with the contract between me and the seller and you learn this in law school privity and who's in the contract.
Speaker 2:
The listing is a contract between the seller and the broker. That's the agreement to sell In the MLS. The agreement to compensate the other real estate agent is between the listing broker and the buyer's broker. So if you make a mistake I've seen people make a mistake and if you're going to charge your mom, right. If you're going to charge 6% and you put in 6% now you owe the buyer 6%. I've seen people make a mistake in the MLS and the offer of compensation is actually higher than their total listing because they think that the total amount is what goes in the MLS. So you've got to be careful when the listing agent puts the property in the MLS, the listing agent sets an offer of compensation to the buyer's agent and the listing broker is the buyer broker. So you have two different contracts so the buyer can't interfere with the contract between the listing agent and the seller. That's already signed and executed. That is locked up.
Speaker 2:
Now, if I bring the buyer and there isn't another broker involved, if I choose to give a discount to my seller which I don't like to do, not because I don't like to discount it, but it's because if I'm offering 3% to a buyer's agent but my deal with the seller is that if I bring the agent I'm going to get something less. That takes away my incentive to bring my customers. I would have to bring my customer to my competitor, which is also the seller's competitor, to get paid a higher amount. Why does the seller want to discourage me from going to my network and finding a buyer? But if I find a buyer and I'm going to get less with my seller than I will with a complete stranger, aren't I financially motivated? I'm not saying I will, but aren't I financially motivated to go to the complete stranger? When the seller offers less to me in compensation?
Speaker 2:
If I represent both sides, that's called a variable rate commission or a dual rate commission and then that has to be disclosed in the MLS. No-transcript can net the seller a different amount because I've agreed to that discount. So that's a very technical term. It's called a variable dual rate. I actually talked about it on my podcast the other day. But it's important to know if you are in a bidding war. It's important for the buyer or the buyer's agent to look to see if there's a variable dual rate so that way they can put in a competitive offer to make sure that they're buyer secures the house that they want.
Speaker 1:
That's great information, really is interesting. So you mentioned hard work a couple of times and out work, and so I know you're driven and ambitious career-wise. But tell us just a little bit more about you. What do you like to do for fun? What do you do in your free time when you're not working?
Speaker 2:
Well, I have a lot of hobbies and interests, but I think I have the one that you're getting at. I run my own wrestling Federation.
Speaker 1:
Your own wrestling Federation, so tell us a little bit more about it.
Speaker 2:
I pause a little bit because I'm sure your listeners are. I mean, he said he said what. There needs to be a space. I need to let that land. Last summer was over over winter, over summer break, I was on vacation and everybody asked me what I did. That's, that was the answer I gave. But yeah, you got to let that land a little bit. If you remember professional wrestling listeners out there, if you remember Hulk Hogan or Ric Flair, Dusty Rhodes, from when you were growing up, or maybe you had a brother or an uncle that was really into wrestling, I own and run I'm the chairman of Boca Raton Championship Wrestling.
Speaker 2:
We started this in the early 2022, partially because I missed wrestling during during COVID and a lot of wrestlers that I knew were laid off, so we were able to pull on our own show. So far, we've done seven shows, all in Boca Raton. The next one is November 5th at the studio in Meister Park. Tickets are available at BocaRatonWrestlingcom. Our shows are on YouTube If you can't make it in person. We do one match a week on YouTube from each show. Right now we're a little bit behind. We're still, we're still. We just finished the January show on YouTube, so we'll start our second season soon enough, or not our next season soon enough. But yeah, it's local wrestling. Brutus the Barber Beefcake. He's the commissioner. He's become a good friend of mine, so he's at all my shows.
Speaker 1:
Him. I've heard of, by the way, I've heard of, I've heard of Brutus.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, so so he's at all. He's been at all my shows. He'll be at most of my shows as the commissioner of BocaRaton Championship Wrestling and then just coming in for autographs, we've had a Hacksaw Jim Duggan, jake the Snake Roberts, jimmy Hart, gengrel he's more in the 90s than the 80s. Gengrel's been through most of half my shows. So we really we have a lot of fun with it and it's a really fun, entertaining, family friendly event that you know if you like wrestling as a kid or if you have kids and you want to bring them. You know I tell people money back if you're not, if you're not delighted Sounds fantastic.
Speaker 1:
And so, before you go, tell us a little bit about what makes signature real estate finder a little different. Why should someone come to you? What? What are you gonna do for someone listing their home or looking for a new home that may be a little different than what they can get elsewhere?
Speaker 2:
Yeah, so two things. So there's two parts to your questions. I'm looking for agents, right? So what is making different training working with me an amazing amount. A team of managers that could help and guide and, at every level, starting or Season season professionals. We just had our. We have our annual meeting every August and it was just truly amazing. So there's there's education and seminars and backing if you get into a legal dispute, if you get into a An ethics grievance with another realtor, we have team of lawyers and managers that have your back. So it's really, really an amazing place to work.
Speaker 2:
As far as listing with us or one of our agents, a lot of it is our depth of knowledge. Depending on, you know, if we're gonna talk about Palm Beach County in South Broward, where we are really hyper, hyper Focused, we just have a depth of knowledge, whether it is whether whether school zones are important or or country clubs or what's important. Our depth of knowledge, our agents, our experience of agents, our team, the teamwork that we have and the networking that we have and for the exposure that our listings get, you know, our listings get amazing traditional and modern digital and print Advertising exposure. Our buyers, you know, get great advice all through 2020 and 21. I was. You know, I I really think I was one of the experts on how to get your bid. I've accepted in a bidding war when people, when houses, were selling in a day with 20 offers.
Speaker 2:
I have my own real estate podcast. October 10th, we'll be celebrating the 100th episode of the real estate finder podcast, and and. It's just a. It's a great, friendly, family friendly place Buyers finding the properties they want, sellers getting the maximum exposure and agents getting the training and support that they need. And and and. It's really something special. I've never seen it before.
Speaker 1:
So, once again, the podcast is the real estate finder podcast, yep. And how can our listeners contact you? What's the best way to reach out? They want to get a hold of you.
Speaker 2:
So we start at the website, real estate finder comm. There's a link to my monthly newsletter. There's a link to the podcasts on and a link to preferred vendors in Palm Beach County. So go to real estate finder comm. My emails mad at real estate finder. So my phone numbers on the on the web page and links to both the real estate finder podcast and the Matthew mania podcast. If you want to hear more about Well, it's not always wrestling I could talk about, not you many, I could talk about whatever I want different events, charity, events, unraised. There's things around town. I had my daughter, who just graduated high school, come on to that many podcasts and talk about her College search and how she approached it and how she made a decision on where to go to school. So so it's kind of like having a business and a personal phone. I have a business in a personal podcast and and there's links to both podcasts on real estate finder comm.
Speaker 1:
That's great Listen. Thanks for joining us today, Matt. You know I appreciate it, Thanks. Thanks for coming on local living this morning.
Speaker 2:
Absolutely Good luck with your podcast. I love your magazine. Let's uh after get off the air. I want to talk to you about the magazine and, up again, putting up an add in for poker time wrestling.
Speaker 1:
Okay, well, listen, you know, I appreciate that folks. Thanks for tuning in to local living Community podcast for Palm Beach to Parkland. Again, I'm David Conway. Look forward to having you next time and have a great day.
