EP# 162 - Beyond the Myths: Brandon Lucas’s Guide to Southwest Florida Living

Ever wondered if now is the right time to invest in Southwest Florida real estate? Join us on Episode 162 of the Good Neighbor Podcast as we promise to bust the myth that the market will continue to decline. Our guest, Brandon Lucas, a seasoned real estate agent and contractor, takes us on his remarkable journey from LaBelle to Fort Myers, sharing how his upbringing and finance degree from USF in Tampa shaped his career. With over 150 transactions under his belt and a transition into contracting after Hurricane Ian, Brandon's story is a testament to resilience and growth, both professionally and personally.

We'll also dive deep into current real estate trends in Lee County, debunking misconceptions and highlighting why now is a prime time to buy. Brandon sheds light on the limitations of AI in the real estate industry and the importance of extensive advertising for property listings. Plus, we explore the vibrant local lifestyle with activities like salsa dancing and Muay Thai, offering you a taste of what makes Southwest Florida a fantastic place to live and invest in. Don’t miss this chance to gain valuable insights and connect with Brandon for more information!

Brandon Lucas
MVP Realty
(239) 464-8056
brandonlucasrealty@gmail.com
WEBSITE

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

This is the Good Neighbor Podcast, the place where local businesses and neighbors come together. Here's your host, cabo, jim Schaller.

Speaker 2: 0:11

Welcome, good Neighbors. Episode number 162 of the Good Neighbor Podcast, estero. Today we have Good Neighbor Brandon Lucas, local realtor and contractor in the Southwest Florida area. Welcome, hi, how's it going? It is awesome. We are doing great this morning and a pleasure to get to know you a little bit more and learn about everything that you do. So let's jump right in. And why don't you share a little bit about what you do?

Speaker 3: 0:38

All right. Well, like you said, I am a local real estate agent. I've actually lived here in the Southwest Florida my entire life, started out in LaBelle, came to Fort Myers, went to Canterbury, went over to Tampa to get my finance degree at USF and then came back to Fort Myers, been doing real estate since then and, yeah, it's been great. I got about 150 transactions under my belt and it's what I love to do. I love helping people, love solving their problems, you know, and getting it, getting them into a new home or selling their home, and always, as always, you know, I I like to sell high and buy low.

Speaker 2: 1:17

As for my clients, that's it, that's it, that's it, and then it's fine. So so how did you get involved in this whole industry?

Speaker 3: 1:25

Oh well, actually my parents came down here when they were 27 years old and started trying to do real estate. My father was in commercial real estate. My mom was at commercial real estate that he ended up being a King Ranch of Florida and up hiring him to do a lot of real estate and becoming a CEO there, actually for King Ranch of Florida in this area.

Speaker 3: 1:56

So but they've always preached it since then. I mean cause they've been big into real estate their whole lives and growing up I've always saw them buying and selling properties and doing things like that. So it's always kind of something that was preached to me from an early age. You know, if you're in Florida, get your real estate license. You know whether you use it or not. It's good to have a real estate license to just to be able to buy and sell real estate.

Speaker 2: 2:21

And yeah, so you that they've seen a lot. I'm sure you've seen a lot of change here in southwest Florida.

Speaker 3: 2:29

Oh, a ton, especially in the last four years. I mean Fort Myers especially has had a major amount of growth, you know, in our population We've got everybody moving here from up north and even down south. We got a lot of South American people coming here as well. So it's a real exciting place to be. I mean, not many places in the country do you get to see something being built basically every single day.

Speaker 2: 2:57

Absolutely. Now you had mentioned, you do some contracting as well, too right.

Speaker 3: 3:01

Yes, well, I caught into that right after Hurricane Ian and it was funny enough. Actually, I say right after Hurricane Ian, but I actually signed up with Hammer Roofing two weeks before Hurricane Ian, before we even knew the storm was coming in. Brandon Villeneuve hit me up on Facebook and was like hey, I know you do real estate, you might want to try out some contracting and stuff like that. And I was always interested in contracting because as a real estate agent, you're always referring that stuff out and you're like man, maybe I could just do that. But so, yeah, I got into it two weeks before and then Hurricane Ian hit and it was pretty, you know, crazy to say the least, you know, but it was a great chance to help people and, you know, help them get back to normal. And you know it was.

Speaker 1: 4:00

It was a great opportunity to, to, to, to kind of be a part of all that you know reestablishment here in Lee County.

Speaker 2: 4:05

Absolutely so. You mentioned Ian. You know that that's been one of the big challenges down here in southwest Florida. Has there been some other maybe challenge or obstacle on your journey that you can look back at now and say, you know what? I'm not necessarily glad I went through it, but I'm in a better place now because of it?

Speaker 3: 4:23

Oh yeah Well, I mean, there's a lot of those things you know that happen in your life that you're like why is this happening at the time, and then later on you're like you know what, I'm better for it. I say you know, particularly with the contract, you know, obviously that was a hard time for everybody with the, the hurricane ian, uh, you know, and uh, you know, just kind of everyone's in panic mode and trying to re-get their life together and I think everyone's stronger for that and me personally, I think probably one of the harder things I've ever been through personally in my life that I think maybe I'm better for is my divorce I don't know maybe a lot of people could say the same, but I, I, I think probably that was probably the hardest thing I've actually ever had to have gone through.

Speaker 3: 5:04

That, I think kind of made me better in a lot of ways. So you know, I can say personally that would be my hardship.

Speaker 2: 5:14

It's never easy. But you look back and you see, you know, days later, years later, you're like I'm in a better place now. Yeah, I'm okay with that, Exactly. So, surrounding the real estate industry. There has been so much change and evolution over not just the past year, but the previous years as well too. Are there any myths or maybe misconceptions that we could clear up for our listeners that we could clear up for our listeners.

Speaker 3: 5:42

Well, the misconception I think a lot of people are having is that they can think that the market is going to continue the downtrend that it's having right now. I don't see it happening, especially here in the Lee County area. I think the time to buy is right now. If you're not buying right now, you're not doing real estate right, because it has had a good about a 15% decrease in a lot of home prices.

Speaker 3: 6:03

We're seeing tons of price decreases right now. Things are sitting on the market, but that's only going to last so long in the fastest growing city in the state of Florida and Florida is obviously one of the fastest growing states in the country so I think the time to buy would be right now. You always want to buy when everyone else isn't buying, you know as far as investing goes. If you're feeling excitement when you're buying, you're probably buying at the wrong time.

Speaker 3: 6:28

Well, there's not a lot of excitement right now, so it's probably a good time to buy.

Speaker 2: 6:32

There you go, there you go. Talking about the right times. Did you notice anything trending in the industry?

Speaker 3: 6:40

Do you notice anything trending in the industry? As far as trend, I mean, we got a lot of people kind of going over to the AIs and incorporating that into their business. Right now. It's big, you know, trying to see what AI can do. I personally have already tried it. I'm not super impressed, I mean it's just, you know, I've just had to call a bunch of people and expired listings and things like that. But I think it's where they haven't really got it to, where it's on a personal level with people. Yet I think as a salesperson, you know, pretty impersonable and you know, talking to people and hearing their concerns is big and AI is just not quite there yet. I kind of think where people are really finding it is just some type of mass thing and I don't know. It is what it is and I'm sure it will continue to perfect, but that is what it's trending right now, especially for real estate agents.

Speaker 2: 7:35

Absolutely so. You mentioned you're born and raised here in Florida. It's rare to find people like yourself nowadays, but you know what keeps you down here in Southwest Florida.

Speaker 3: 7:45

Oh well, I mean the beautiful weather. I honestly think it's one of the nicer places you can live, especially here in exactly Southwest Florida. We got some of the best people, down-to-earth people in the country. They all come here. We got the Midwest people, you know, with a very calm down-to-earth vibe, and you know it's just a beautiful place. You know we always got sunny weather and you know it's just always a nice place to be.

Speaker 2: 8:11

Absolutely Speaking about nice places. What do you enjoy doing when you have a moment of freedom?

Speaker 3: 8:17

Well, personally I do like to. I do some salsa dancing with my girlfriend and I like to do that as well, as I do lift weights and I try to take care of myself, exercise, do all that stuff, and here recently I've been trying to get into some Muay Thai and see how that goes, but I still just very at the beginnings of all that. So staying active.

Speaker 2: 8:43

So is there one thing you wish our listeners knew about what you do that maybe they're not aware of? You know.

Speaker 3: 8:52

I think what a lot of people don't know that what I do and what I, how I do it better than most people is I, uh, I get a lot of advertising from my clients and when I list for them on the listing side I I put them in not just the local here, southwest florida, mls, which is naples, cape coral, uh, areas like that, but also in the stellar and the Miami Dade, so that's covering the whole South area of Florida.

Speaker 3: 9:18

And as a real estate agent, one of the biggest things you can do to help your clients sell their house for more is the advertising and how much exposure they get to other people in different markets, because that helps increase the demand. And I've had a lot of success doing that. Because sometimes the market here you know it gets it gets, you know it gets watered down with a bunch of listings or whatever. But going to another market like Miami, where things are more expensive, and then you know they can show their clients like, oh look, this is what you get in Fort Myers, or this is what you can get in Naples, or this is what you get in Cape Coral, you know is big, you know. And same thing goes for Stellar, you know over there in like Sarasota, where prices are higher, or you know anywhere you know being on show those agents being a show you're listening to those agents will help increase your exposure.

Speaker 2: 10:10

Exactly, and it's like you said, making people aware of options. Some people maybe never thought about moving here, but you know they see it and they're like, well, maybe we could do that. Maybe that makes better sense.

Speaker 3: 10:21

Exactly, yeah, A lot of people don't know about this area even still, you know it's kind of hidden and you know they don't know the price differences a lot of times. And we still here. We're still a bargain. I think we're a lot lower than a lot of times and we still here. We're still a bargain.

Speaker 2: 10:32

I think we're a lot lower than a lot of the rest of the state so you know, I know for your business, but personally it's kind of like don't tell everybody, right exactly. Keep it quiet. Right right, right, right. So how would our listeners go about contacting you if they wanted to learn a little bit more or had some questions?

Speaker 3: 10:51

Yeah, you can reach me at my phone number 239-464-8056. It's 239-464-8056. And I can always be emailed at BrandonLucasRealty R-E-A-L-T-Y at gmail. com.

Speaker 2: 11:05

Perfect, Brandon. It's been a pleasure getting to know you. Thank you for being such a good neighbor and I hope to see you on the community soon. All right, Thank you so much, Jim.

Speaker 1: 11:15

Thank you for listening to the Good Neighbor Podcast, estero. To nominate your favorite local businesses to be featured on the show, go to gnpestero. com. That's gnpestero. com, or call 239-296-2621.