Brandon Lowkaran - Real Estate Revolutions and Market Insights

Ever wondered how a passion for race cars can fuel an ambition to transform the real estate landscape? Join us as Brandon Lowkaran, founder of the Lowkaran Group, takes us on a high-octane ride through his entrepreneurial journey. From his childhood dreams of speed on the racetrack to empowering investors to accelerate their net worth in the property market, Brandon's story is one of daring pivots and high-stakes decision-making. With his team's adept use of YouTube and LinkedIn, they're not just winning the race in lead generation—they're changing the game. And for those of you building your own dream team, Brandon's insights on the drive and attitude you need to look for are pure gold.

But what's a story without its struggles? Strap in as we navigate the twists and turns of consistent lead generation, the grind of new business, and the stark misconceptions of downtime in the real estate industry. Hear how Brandon's approach has evolved, leading to a life-changing moment for an investor who, under his guidance, cruised into retirement. If you're toying with the idea of work-life balance, Brandon's candid take on setting boundaries and his vision for a new business model could be just the roadmap you need.

As we shift gears to the present housing market, tune in for an expert's insight into the inventory drought that's making buying a home feel like a competitive sport. Did you know that the roots of today's housing scarcity can be traced back to the fallout of 2007? Discover how this historical pit stop altered the course of new home construction and what it means for buyers and sellers today. Plus, don't miss Brandon's personal testament to the impact of spiritual guidance in his life, and how faith has been his ultimate co-pilot in the race to fulfillment and success.

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:31

My name is Brandon Locaron. I own the Locaron Group and we primarily serve investors that are looking to grow their net worth and also get tax benefits while diversifying in real estate itself.

Speaker 2: 0:43

Okay, and then, how did you get started in this industry? Was that something that you were always planning to be like? I'm going to be an entrepreneur and I'm going to own my own business. Tell me your journey a little bit own business.

Speaker 1: 0:54

Tell me your journey. A little bit Sure, so um. So funny story is like I always had. I was that kid in school that knew exactly what I wanted to do in high school. So I um wanted to be a race car driver. However, you know, it's like it, you need a lot of money to be a race car driver initially.

Speaker 2: 1:09

And it's kind of dangerous.

Speaker 1: 1:10

Yeah, well, that doesn't scare me, but it's more so like so.

Speaker 1: 1:15

Then I was like, let me work on my plan B, which was construction. So I got an internship at an architect firm while I was in high school and then moved and after we got out of that I pretty much like was going to community college to appease my mom yes, you know, it's like so. Then, after I landed a job at a construction company and I became a project manager rather quickly so, you know, I was working a regular nine-to-five called it corporate America, but it's not really corporate and then I kind of had this idea like my mom was going to be, you know, moving. She's going to be selling her house. Her new husband was going to, you know, sell his house, they're going to buy a house together. So so she was like, hey, you like real estate, why don't you go get licensed? So I ended up doing that and they ended up not doing any of that, oh my goodness. And then kept on working and whatnot, did it as my side hustle. And then, 2018, 2019-ish, I jumped in full time, never looked back.

Speaker 2: 2:12

Okay, and here we are today, yeah exactly that is amazing. So for your business, when you are looking for people to come work with you and be on your team, what are you looking for Like? What kind of things are you like? Okay, I want to make sure that I definitely have somebody who's like this on my team. Something like this? Definitely not this. Tell me a little bit about that.

Speaker 1: 2:36

So I would say the biggest thing for me is making sure that they have drive. You know, I always say you know you could teach somebody how to do a task right. You teach them about a product or whatever it may be. However, you cannot teach motivation. That just comes from within. So for me it's like that's like the number one thing I look for with people is making sure that they have the right drive, because and the right attitude, because the right attitude, because the right attitude, they can learn anything, they can do anything they want to do, and then that gives you a good foundation to really build off of that.

Speaker 2: 3:01

So absolutely yeah. And now can you tell me a little bit about marketing for your team? What are you guys doing to get your name out there? Putting yourselves out there online, whether it's through Instagram, tiktok, youtube what are you guys doing?

Speaker 1: 3:14

Sure. So last year I dove like deep into YouTube. Okay, we upload a video on YouTube every day. Oh, wow, so that actually brings in leads now, and so we're happy and you know, just like regular social media Facebook, instagram, you know, linkedin we do quite a bit of LinkedIn outreach as well because I think LinkedIn is a, you know, unle. We do quite a bit of LinkedIn outreach as well because I think LinkedIn is a, you know, unleveraged platform for most businesses, because, you know, and I think it's really cool. So we do a lot on LinkedIn, a lot on Facebook and some on Instagram, but mostly, like, our focus has been YouTube, to grow on YouTube.

Speaker 2: 3:50

Yeah, I love that when everybody answers this question, they all have their little like social network or social media that works best for them. Because, it's not a one line type of place where your company is thriving.

Speaker 1: 4:03

It's very different in different areas for everybody and it's different for personalities too right?

Speaker 2: 4:08

Yes, that's right.

Speaker 1: 4:09

Like each platform. Like I, may not be as good on Facebook as some people. However, someone else like you know that would work for them?

Speaker 2: 4:17

Yeah, on YouTube, absolutely so. And now, how are you keeping up with the latest trends, the latest technology when it comes to the real estate industry? What are some resources?

Speaker 1: 4:27

Resources I would say we just utilize, like we don't utilize a ton of technology. It's more so like our communication is what we leverage, like we want to make sure that we can answer all the questions for our clients and having that ease of communication. So usually what we do is like we start a group chat with our clients and that way you know if I'm unable to answer it, nina, who works for me, she could do it, or you know. And then as far as technology, we use like Rail Scout for real estate, sending you know listings and whatnot, and then obviously internally we use Teams.

Speaker 2: 5:01

So that's been helpful. Awesome, yeah. And then, when it comes to owning a business, what has been some of the struggles whether it's in your industry or just being an entrepreneur in general and how have you overcome those things?

Speaker 1: 5:17

So struggles, I would say, is really being consistent. You know I'm with more it's.

Speaker 1: 5:22

It's like you know what you got to do, especially as a business owner, like lead generation, like bringing in new business, and that's that's always been like the biggest struggle initially, because you're like you get, like I feel like a lot of business owners, a lot of entrepreneurs, we get into entrepreneurship because like we like the shiny object syndrome and like we're like, oh, that looks cool, like I'm gonna jump into that, let me do that, let me do that, and it's like it shouldn't be that way and we know that up here. But it's hard to like do it, you know, like consistently. So I would say just, um, that's been the biggest struggle for me personally is just being consistent. And you know, starting last year, I've basically said, like you know, I need to do this consistently, yeah, and which is just lead generation, bringing a new business and whatnot, and really just focus on that first before I'm able to do anything else.

Speaker 2: 6:08

I love that you're self-aware about that too, Like you know.

Speaker 1: 6:11

I know that's the first level right.

Speaker 2: 6:16

Yeah, you got to know what you? Yeah, Absolutely. And now what has been some of the most memorable situations that you've had with any of your clients? Where you're just like, oh my gosh, I can't believe that through what I'm doing, I'm able to help somebody out in such a big way. It's not just a transaction.

Speaker 1: 6:31

Yeah, yeah. So really, the stories that come to mind are the ones like I actually had one recently where it's an investor right and you know, like they have a goal of retiring or really wanting to retire and leave their nine to five. So basically people will come to me and tell me hey, brandon, I need to bring in, you know, $150,000 a year to be able to leave my nine to five. And what we'd like to do is develop a plan and we come up with a plan based on their assets and what they have coming in every single month and we are able to just execute on that. And when we were able to execute on that like I just had a guy recently that was able to quit his job Okay, you know, brings in 150k a year. So that's been like for me, because you feel like you're really helping them and that actually helps them more in life, because they're able to give to the world more of themselves and also they don't have to worry about how they're going to put food on the table. Absolutely.

Speaker 2: 7:26

And that's like no small feat there. That's such a huge thing, that you're able to get them to where they want to be, where sometimes I don't know if they feel like, am I going to be able to do this, but you help close that deal and help them come to terms with like, hey, you can leave your nine to five and just do what you need to focus on. So that's a huge thing that you do for people.

Speaker 1: 7:48

It buys them back time, too, with their family right.

Speaker 2: 7:50

There you go.

Speaker 1: 7:51

I feel like a lot of times they get the short end of the stick.

Speaker 2: 7:53

Oh yeah, no, absolutely. And what are some common misconceptions in your industry that you just like want to clear right now? Like, listen, this is not true, or like that's false. You actually need to be doing this.

Speaker 1: 8:07

Yeah, I think people think like when you get into real estate, people automatically call you and say I want to buy a house or I want to sell a house. I think that's a massive misconception. I think it takes a lot of work, it takes a lot of consistency. That's probably the biggest one, I would say. Also, people think like you don't do anything all day and in reality, like you're doing a lot more than you think.

Speaker 1: 8:29

Right, you know we're already hard on ourselves, so it's like it's sort of that kind of thing. And then the other thing I would say is people think like we don't take vacations, and I would say, like, that one's actually true. That one I can confirm yeah like that one's actually true, so that's been the hardest thing is like taking time away from myself.

Speaker 2: 8:45

Okay, and on that note, how are you finding boundaries to make time for yourself?

Speaker 1: 9:01

So right now we are sort of reimagining our business in an attempt to set it up that way so I can buy time back for myself and the people that work for us, which is really just kind of reinventing our business or adjusting, pivoting a little bit. So that's been working on our investment fund. We're actually working on an investment fund to raise capital where we could help more investors achieve financial freedom and more people that just don't have a lot of capital to start with, so that way we could focus on those clients more. So we're kind of like focusing on less to be able to like buy our time back, but it's actually to actually do a lot better in our thing. So it's really just looking at ways to reimagine ourselves and, you know, continuously like reevaluating what we're doing and then, um, doing that thing, and you know it's really hard. It's probably one of my like toughest thing to do is like feel like take taking time away from my business to like not work on myself.

Speaker 1: 9:54

You know work on myself, and so that's been. I'm still struggling with that you're working on it.

Speaker 2: 9:58

It's a work in progress. Yeah well, I wish you so much luck with that um thank you and now, speaking of reimagining for your business, where do you guys see yourself in the next five years, like any future goals or plans that you're thinking of, maybe expanding?

Speaker 1: 10:14

yeah. So I see us um, sort of like what we've been building is sort of a vertically integrated company, right, so an entire organization. So within five years I see us on track to be almost a billion dollar company is our goal and at least worth that $100 million or something like that. But really just having the synergy within all the companies that we have. So you know, the real estate team serving the construction company, that serves the property management company and they all serve the investment fund. So that's like sort of the vehicle that we've looked at and you know it's sort of just like mini monopolies. What I like to say yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2: 10:54

And then when it comes to your clients, when are they mostly reaching out to you, like what kind of issues are they having? I know you said they're trying to like get out of like nine to five and investing, but what are some other things when they're reaching out for you?

Speaker 1: 11:09

Like in what way can you?

Speaker 2: 11:10

Yes, like, for example, if they're looking for a home, are they? It's not just investment for them, it's purely just like we want to relocate. Or if anybody is looking to sell anything, yeah, what kind of.

Speaker 1: 11:25

So, yeah, we see a lot of sort of moving up and moving down right now. So, like people are a lot of people are upgrading and a lot of people are downgrading. A lot of people are upgrading and a lot of people are downgrading. So we have people that are coming to us that are saying, hey, how do I not like sell my house now and then not be homeless and be able to find something else? That's been like really difficult for most people, so we've been able to help them navigate that where we sort of like hedge their bet and write a very compelling offer in order to find a house but not also leave them homeless.

Speaker 1: 11:52

Because as you know, like the housing market's on fire right now and it's been difficult to like. When anything goes on the market it just flies off. So if they put their house on the market and it sells quickly, it leaves them in a pinch to be able to find another house that they actually love.

Speaker 2: 12:05

Yeah, so that's been like one of the things is making sure we navigate that well and when you say, like when something goes on the market and it's just like quickly gone, is that a result from there being a shortage? I'm guessing like for the houses. Do you see that changing in the future, getting better? Is it going to take a while? I know you don't have a crystal ball, right? Yeah?

Speaker 1: 12:28

So this actually stems this issue. You're exactly right with the housing inventory shortage, but this stems from 2007,. 2006 market crash, when new home builders pulled out of the market and they were responsible for about a million homes being put on the market. So, in general, like the number is kind of skewed, but it's like about three to 4 million homes were short in North America that should have been built, that was never built and because new home builders pulled out of the market when the market crashed. So you can't just make that up because, like you know, when you think about the resources needed to just build three, four million homes extra every single year, that's not achievable.

Speaker 1: 13:08

So I foresee this issue always being an issue. And one of the things too that you look at to predict the housing market, I always tell people is you look backwards, right? You look at the birth rates and look at the average new home buyers and that's going to tell you where the market's going to go. So birth rates are sort of increasing slightly and so I believe like it's going to continuously be a thing like where we don't have enough inventory to satisfy the amount of people you know in. So home prices are gonna continue to go up.

Speaker 2: 13:37

That is crazy and you know what. Something around this area that I've noticed is like I know there's a shortage and I know people are swooping in and getting stuff, but I'm always seeing so many things being built around here, so it's kind of hard. It's kind of like wait what really? But I guess it's just being swooped up as soon as and we're building so much that it's also going to be like it feels a little bit oversaturated maybe, like I like seeing some of the trees and I know there's some data centers being built too, and it's kind of just like when is there a limit?

Speaker 2: 14:13

Like what if we run out of space to like build real estate? Like what's going to happen? Like it makes me curious.

Speaker 1: 14:20

I think like urban sprawl is, like you know, as normal right, like it's sort of like this, this sort of like we're going to continuously expand out and so, like right now, the markets that are expanding, actually, like, when you think about outside the DC area, it's like Winchester, it's Richmond, it's, you know, even south of Richmond, petersburg, norfolk all these areas are expanding because of the sprawl right and because people are not able to afford these new homes, like you said, are being built inside and closer in. Yes, because you know they are really made for, like you know, second or third time homeowner versus like a first-time home buyer so first-time homebuyers are having to go outside of those areas to be able to afford something.

Speaker 1: 15:01

Um, but you know, know it's, I don't think we're, you know, like we are going to run out of real estate, obviously. But yeah, we'll see.

Speaker 2: 15:09

Yeah, we will just have to see, but I always just think about it and I just I like and I think it's cool because it brings like more people, it helps the economy. It helps us, but at the same time I I like where I live, but I, I, I don't know. I like my greenery and my views and sometimes I like seeing a little farm there and then, when it's gone it just makes me sad.

Speaker 2: 15:29

But I I totally get it. But I hope we can come to a conclusion where it's like okay, this is enough, this is all we. We've like found our limits here.

Speaker 1: 15:36

Let's go somewhere else where it's a little bit more secluded, but anyway yeah certain areas are adding in, are adding in, like more, like in Alexandria, for instance, city like they require a certain percentage of each lot that's being developed by a developer to be green space. So like there, you know, there's a lot of those green building initiatives and like those green space initiatives that the county will sort of influence with their zoning.

Speaker 1: 15:57

Yeah, so they want parks, they want to see green space, because you know we need it you know, and you know it's more fun and I think like we feel more connected to nature, like when we do see those things.

Speaker 2: 16:08

Yes, I did not know that, so that makes me feel so much better, and I also feel bad for the little creatures, you know, Like they're like. That was my home, bro.

Speaker 1: 16:16

Like you, just like tore down my house.

Speaker 2: 16:18

Pretty much out, but anyway, no, yeah. And then my final question for you is if you could leave our listeners with a message. It could be in regards to the real estate industry, life, traveling, music, anything that's in your heart.

Speaker 1: 16:34

Yeah.

Speaker 2: 16:35

What would you like for that message to be?

Speaker 1: 16:37

So I'm just going to say, like you know, what keeps me going and keeps me, like you know, on my P's and Q's, if you will, and honestly, like that's God and I know sometimes that's cliche to say, but, like you know, I I'm a believer in Jesus Christ and I believe, like you know, he's leading you and you know, if you're able to trust in him and put rest in him, like he will, you know, lead you in the direction that you want to go in and help you become successful. Cause I've done it where it was just me and it doesn't work. It always falls apart. So I was like I need to change something and that's one of the things that, like I tell people now is, like you know, hey, trust in God, like he's going to lead you in the right way. So that's what.

Speaker 2: 17:14

I would like to leave. Thank you for sharing that. I know you're like that sounds cliche, but it's what's in your heart and this is your episode.