It's my pleasure to have Megan Probst on my show today!  Megan is a Broker Associate at Compass representing our South Florida office! She joined our Compass team over two years ago after working as VP of sales & marketing for Florida developer "Invesca Development Group", where she spearheaded the launch of their sales & marketing platform, as well as experienced representing their new development as part of their in house sales team, representing over $500M worth of residential & commercial mixed use projects along Pompano Beach & Plantation FL.   Megan was born in Jamaica, but grew up in South Florida where she gained intimate knowledge of cities spanning across West Palm Beach, Broward, and Miami Dade. In this episode we cover topics from how she got into our business, where she is going next, what you should invest in if you had an investment budget of $1M-$5M, and the up & coming areas of South Florida.  You want to be in the know, so give this a listen! You may follow her at @meganrobst_compass on instagram, as well as Megan Probst on FB & youtube channel.  

This is a special episode.  If you want to meet a real life Viking, Nick is your guy.  Nick Svensson has been a licensed Agent & real estate professional since 1996, when they used to show homes in carriages led by horses  :)  Upon graduation from UCSB in 95, Nick drew early success with his first agency Fred Sands Realtors, then later joining Sotheby's International Realty in Montecito as one of the top 3% brokers out of 43K brokers nation wide.  Born in Linköping, Sweden; Nick arrived in Santa Barbara at a mere 5 months old. While he has been excited to call Santa Barbara home since 1972; he still keeps his Swedish roots intact and is fluent in the language. Nick & I first met in Aspen Colorado during the summer of 2016 when we opened our first Colorado flagship office there.  I'm proud to call Nick a friend, mentor, colleague, and as Reffkin our CEO would say, someone I am extremely proud to be on the same team with.

Happy to introduce my guy Andrew on this Real Takk pod episode.  Andrew Jorges is The Takk Team attorney representing the our clients on both the buy & sell side, & even litigation of certain aspects of a real estate deal.  As a Penn State grad majoring in Accounting, he was employed with KPMG for a year before jumping back into law school at the Cardozo School of Law in 2009.  Upon graduation, he practiced law at a small midtown shop that specialized in residential & commercial transactions, and then transitioned to one of NYC’s premiere real estate law firms known as ALB, PC. Ranked as super lawyers rising star, andrew has transacted over a thousand buy side & sell side deals during his career.  I can tell you from my personal experience, having dealt with a few dozen attorneys, most won’t compete with the level of skills Andrew can bring to the table. Just like brokers, NOT all attorneys were created equal. Some attorneys will disappear when the deal gets tough, or stop responding to emails once they get their retainer, or have their pride get in the way of closing a transaction.  Andrews been a great resource for our clients and am happy to have you on today.  

Excited to bring in my next guest Mr. Brian Renzenbrink! Brain is a software engineer by trade, an early engineer at Compass that now leads our Infrastructure Automation Team.  At Compass, he’s responsible for technical infrastructure projects that build our internal flywheel to make our product and engineering better.   We discuss a range of topics including early days with Rob Reffkin and his vision, how you should look at equity in a startup, what rights you have as a shareholder, defining Compass's version of "Dev Ops", and his role as managing the Engineering Teams workflow.     Brain is a graduate from upstate NY, a transplant from Cincinnati Ohio, & desperately trying to retain his youth playing soccer every week & going to live shows. Brian is known known as a role model at Compass, and the young Ethan Hawke look alike.  Brian is proud to say he is both a big & little at Big Brothers Big Sisters, a national mentorship charity program.  Please follow him @BrenzenB  on IG"      Takk Yamaguchi Licensed Real Estate Salesperson 110 5th Fifth Avenue, 3rd Floor New York NY 10011 m: 646.397.0749 efax: 646.485.7576 Web | Team   NEW YORK | BROOKLYN | EAST HAMPTON | BRIDGEHAMPTON | SOUTHAMPTON | SAG HARBOR | WASHINGTON DC | CHEVY CHASE | BOSTON | CAMBRIDGE | MIAMI | COCONUT GROVE | BEVERLY HILLS | MALIBU | PASADENA | MONTECITO | SANTA BARBARA | BASALT | ASPEN | SAN FRANCISCO

Daisy is one of the top Strategic Growth Managers at Compass.  What exactly is Strategic Growth?  She is directly responsible to be the face of the company, and the engine of our market expansion.  We discuss her up bringing, (a true New Yorker), background before joining our team, her morning routine to stay in top shape mentally & physically, & shares with us what she's seen with top brokers and what they all have in common.  This is an exciting episode & a must listen. 

Excited to host my guest Naomi Klein from Compass LA!  Hailing from farm town Bakersfield California, Naomi is the founder of our Beverly Hills office at Compass.  She has closed over $350 million dollars worth of residential, multi family & investment properties, with an impressive portfolio of clients in both LA & NYC.  Get the inside scope on her emphasis & importance of leveraging social media to build her brand & business, how she built her real estate network, & how she deals with professional athletes like Mercedes Lewis formally with with Jacksonville Jags, Rickie Nolasco formally with the Dodgers & Angels & currently an Arizona Diamondback, as well as Chad Gaudan with the Yankees & entertainers like Juicy J with 36 Mafia.  This is a fun one so please give it a listen! 

Jake is the longest-tenured Compass agent! He joined before Mayor Bloomberg helped launch Urban Compass back in 2012.  He describes the earliest day of Compass, how he joined, what he did during the initial launch of this start up, and where he is going now.  Fast forward to 2019 upon winning Commercial Observers top 30 under 30, Jake specializes in tenant rep and expansion at Compass.  His passion is working with growing companies and advising them on their commercial real estate strategy while continuing to expand on the original culture that built Compass today!  

I'm joined by Sophia & Carla of the New Ventures Team at Compass who head our new concierge program.  In short, my team will invest in your home to ensure that we're maximizing value, while reducing time on market.  No hidden fees, taxes, interest, etc.  Just credit us back at the closing table.  Cosmetic improvements to a home can show a material increase in sale price, but clients often don’t want to or aren’t able to spend that money. The Compass Concierge program will assist you in preparing your coop, condo, or home for market by allowing us to COMPLETELY fund the cosmetic improvements that will increase the value of their home - staging, cleaning, painting, flooring, landscaping and more. Gone are the days where you may have to liquidate your equities, causing you to pay capital gains tax, or take money out of your checking account. Let us take care of it for you!    Carla & Sophia explain how the back end of our program works, and what or our goals are to ensure that our clients experience with our team is maximized. Enjoy! 

An in-depth conversation with with Tony Cappaert, the Co-founder of Contactually, one of the largest CRM's in North America. He is now serves as Compass's Strategic Growth Manager, where he leads programs that help grow each real estate professionals business by leveraging Compass Concierge & Compass Bridge Loans.  Some topics we cover: "What lead to the partnership for Compass to acquire Contactually?", "What makes Compass like the New York Yankees?", "Why should our customers should think of us as The Four Seasons?", "Are people that start companies, not the people that should scale growing companies?"  Tony is a Washingtonian Tech Titan, a Microsoft Alum, has spoken on numerous podcasts and conferences, and has been featured in Slate, Crain's, The Washingtonian, TechCrunch, and others. He is an MIT alum with a B.S. in Management Science.

I am beyond honored & excited to share with you my interview with Zvi Band, the founder one of the top CRM companies in the country Contactually.  We discuss his early beginnings as a programmer, the concept of how Contactually started (was not originally created for real estate people in mind), the lead up to Compass's acquisition of Contatually, and how he's integrated his firm into the Compass frame work.  He ends with his vision of the future, and his excitement towards building the future of real estate.  

Who is Jessica Northop?  Started her career at the age of 18 (before fax machines!) & built her real estate company from the ground up.  Loved her quote 13 minutes in.  "You gotta go through baptism by fire!". To become successful in this business, you must learn through your own mistakes. Own up to your errors & learn from it!  So much fun listening to her & full of content for those interested in getting in the minds of someone who sells 75+ homes a year.