Welcome to Broker’s Playbook! We are excited to bring you an insightful conversation today with industry veteran Hersh Litvack and his daughter, Kelly Litvack. Join us as they discuss the world of pre-development and the amazing opportunities that exist for resale agents around the country right now. Learn valuable strategies from their joint 30+ years of experience on how to leverage what Hersh Realty can do for your business right now and how you can benefit from Hersh and Kelly Litvack’s expertise.
On October 22nd, Hersh Realty will be delivering incredible deals and brand-new incentives you won’t want to miss at the Greatest Sale 2! This is your chance to take advantage of amazing projects and unbeatable offers, so get ready for one of the greatest sales of the year – mark your calendar! Reach out to us for more details on this incredible event.
Simeon Papailias: Good evening. Coast to coast. To all my brothers and sisters in the business, this is Simeon Papailias with Broker’s Playbook. And I am bringing a very interesting conversation and great insight from one of the industry’s veterans, Mr. Hersh Litvack, and his amazing, talented and gorgeous daughter, Ms. Kelly Litvack. Guys, welcome to the show.
Kelly Litvack: Thank you for having us. We’re so excited to be here. All right.
Simeon Papailias: I’m quite excited to have you. We’ve had a couple of conversations leading up to you guys coming on Broker’s Playbook and for for those who don’t know who you are, we speak to a lot of resale agents. We speak to a lot of residential resale agents, and they’re all over the country, so they don’t necessarily work. Predevelopment In Toronto, where I want to bring something out of your 30 plus years of experience, your 15 years of experience where people can maybe open their eyes and take your insight and put it into actual work in their business. Hersh You specifically have helped shape my career. We’ve worked together for almost a decade. You have brought my organization, my partner, Jas and I, countless opportunities that we’ve leveraged. So I think it’s fair. I think it’s actually my duty to do the same to others. You are a fundamental strategic partner to not to not only to Broker’s Playbook, but to my actual personal practice bringing opportunity that we share with our clients. I want to speak to how others can do that. How can they leverage what we do here at Brokers Playbook to work and come into your world of pre-development? Maybe start with what you actually do? Well, what.
Hersh Litvack: We do do is we are the marketing and sales company for major developers throughout the GTA and thereabouts. They when they want to build a building, they come to us. We develop the strategies and the sales plans to get it into the market and sell it. And the biggest thing I think that I like to share with the viewers today is to understand that our job is to get it 70% plus in sales because that’s where they get the financing and that’s when they can start to build it. So there’s always a big push to get that 70.
Simeon Papailias: And this is the developer. So the developer calls you for your experience in being able to market three, four, 500 units at a time. Absolutely. And obviously, you count on the support of the realtor community to bring value to the development.
Hersh Litvack: That’s who we market to and that’s who we sell to.
Simeon Papailias: And how do you engage? What does that process look like in the past? And maybe now that we have such a shift in the market with with the clients or buyers ability to actually move forward on deals because they’re kind of throttled because of the financing component? Let’s talk a little bit about how you engage the agent community. What kind of experience do they have with your office? And lastly, how do we sell in that market?
Hersh Litvack: So I’d like to start, Simeon, by saying that the way to engage somebody in the business who’s never done it is to tell them exactly what happened to me. And I was brought an opportunity where a vision came and simply to understand that my license that I had in real estate was able to produce multiple streams of income from other areas, not just resale housing. And the person that told me about it simply told me about a brand new building that was going to be released. Nice and simple. And I said, I’ll give it a try. And I think that’s the biggest thing I can share with realtors, is to say, Hey, I could use a second source of income. I’ll just give it a try. And I simply sent out emails, Simeon and people responded and I sold them the product. And you know the funny thing, I didn’t know what I was doing, but I didn’t have to because the people in the sales center helped me, helped the client, and they thought that was the best. So there’s the first thing is be open to making a change. But how we do do it is we’ve collected thousands and thousands and thousands of agents emails When we are going to put out a brand new building, we send a notice out to them. We bring them into our offices. We have an immersive theater. It’s amazing. And we explain what the project is going to be. We give them some dates of the sales and away we go and we sell it.
Simeon Papailias: So I, I suppose because I want this this specific podcast today to be really practical into actually being able to have implementable steps that you can take. So. Your organization. I know how it supports mine, but I want you to speak to what the agent journey looks like. So an email goes out. Let’s say they come on to brokersplaybook.com. They take a look at the available launches and what’s coming, etcetera. They like it, they see it. We can speak to any number of your previous developments. I’ve worked with you on Green Park on George. You have massive clients with some of the biggest developments in the GTA, so somebody likes that they click on it. They have done for you? Campaigns that we work on together. You also have support systems inside your sales office. So so the agent can present to their client and if they like it, they can have further support. What does that look like, Kelly? What does that further support look like?
Kelly Litvack: So the further support of that looks like having you know, we have a very big team. And a fundamental principle is that obviously, you know, realtors are the absolute heart of our business and we are there to help them. So further support system they have, whether it’s a call or email to us, we are always available, explain.
Simeon Papailias: Intricacies like like all the nuances of each project, for example.
Kelly Litvack: Absolutely right. And which makes it easier, of course, for the realtor because how many launches or not launches developments are they going to have to learn and educate themselves on an entire building? It’s a lot of work, right? Sure.
Hersh Litvack: Kelly, touch on the marketing that we have ready for them. Like they don’t have to know anything. Everything is ready for them to send out and do well, right?
Kelly Litvack: But but after that, when they come into the office, if they need further support, we take their client through the entire sales process.
Simeon Papailias: But let’s go further to that. So for your development specifically because we at Broker’s Playbook do create done for you marketing. Now you also have another layer of that, so they can use all the assets that you create directly into their CRMs and deploy them to their clients. Yes, and.
Hersh Litvack: They’re formatted for every type of media, whether it’s Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, email, email, they’re already done.
Simeon Papailias: I have in the past organized events at your sales centers. Yes. Which to me, there’s a massive logic to it. A We’re at the home of the site which creates energy and it creates urgency. It creates an environment of momentum. Yeah, but B, it also eliminates cost on my side to have to put on a wine and cheese event to put on a hotel lobby and all these things. We’re talking again, not everybody’s database is maybe as big as mine, but even if you’re going to have 50 to 100 people on, you’re talking about 5 to $10,000. Absolutely. That is significant. Hosting events at your space. Is that something that agents can line up based on their assumptions of what they can get into the space? How does that all work?
Kelly Litvack: It works as easy as calling us and making an appointment, and we are available for all of our realtors who work on our projects. We do events just like you said. And you know how that works, which are actually incredible, because the truth is, and most specifically in this market, you want a busy event and you want what other people are buying. Right. Very different than walking into a dead space. Of course. Right. What was the what was the other question?
Simeon Papailias: Well, it’s certainly the support of how to book the space and how these events work out.
Kelly Litvack: Yeah. So it’s as easy as calling us and making it happen.
Simeon Papailias: I want to go above your service call to the industry and I want to get into some. How to make this happen. And what I mean by that, we kind of spoke to your business. But we haven’t spoken to your 35 years. This isn’t your first market slowdown due to financial components and interference, one.
Hersh Litvack: I’ve lived through.
Simeon Papailias: So this one, the fourth.
Hersh Litvack: This was not a shocker. Simeon. No. Okay. When it started, you know, I’m chuckling through it like I like I did and I, I just knew what was going to happen. So it’s interesting. The longer you live, hopefully you pick up some pointers along the way and they help you in life. But I can pretty much lay out exactly what’s going to happen. I don’t need the news services. I don’t need to hear about whatever government incentives may or may not come out. I pretty much can tell you what’s going to happen over the next year, and.
Simeon Papailias: I would love to hear it go.
Hersh Litvack: Pretty simple. This is what’s going to happen. Rates have basically peaked and if they do go up another quarter, it’ll be a shock to everybody. But that will be the last one that we’re going to see. Certainly in 23 and 24, you are going to see a break in those rates. And I’m not sure whether it’s in the first six months you’ll see it, but the pressure is absolutely out there on every Canadian right now who is living through this nightmare of these high interest rates, but they will start to fall. But here’s the unbelievable thing that Simeon and all your realtors can pretty much take to the bank once those rates start to fall, the price of real estate is absolutely going to explode. People have been sitting on the sidelines for a long time.
Simeon Papailias: We’re talking about 18 months here.
Hersh Litvack: Waiting and waiting and waiting. And all of a sudden there’s going to be a rush of real estate. And you know what? From one month to the next, you’re going to see spikes that are really going to be considerable. I’ll say it that way. And I’ve watched it happen before. I’ve lived through it before. And so what I’ve learned is take things that you’ve learned and seen and work with them. So today I know I’m just going off this a bit. Buy real estate, convince your clients. And when I say convince, not like that, but show them immigration patterns that are coming into Canada. It is impossible. In 2022, we had 1,050,110 people come to Canada. Do you know how many houses were built? Residences were.
Simeon Papailias: Completed? I do. It was just under 200,000.
Hersh Litvack: That’s right. 197,000. Where are we putting everybody? So if you believe that we’re going to catch up with that any time soon, we won’t. So the combination of rates starting to go down, a pent up desire to buy, that’s what you’re going to see.
Simeon Papailias: Well, the pent up desire is now extreme. And it’s funny because people like to purposely misinterpret many things to fit the narrative of the next sensationalism in story. But the truth of the matter is that right now we are seeing multiple offers in the rental space, and there’s only one reason for that. Everybody who was supposed to buy in the last two years has not been able to and will not be able to for the next six months to a year. That’s right. So every single day we’re creating a surge of tenants because life happens. You don’t have a choice. You have to make a move. You have to move out of your parents home. You have to go to school. You have to get closer to your work. Whatever the have tos that life brings are. That’s the housing market. And when your option of home ownership has been taken from you artificially by combating inflation, by I understand why they’re doing it. Nobody’s out to punish anyone. This has to happen. But these circumstances, as well as the the focus on immigration numbers being that high, are again, artificially creating a massive tidal wave, the one that you’re describing.
Simeon Papailias: So if the fundamentals are skewed to the investor’s favor because that’s what it is right now, investors are celebrating even though their mortgage payments have gone up, their rental rates are 40% up in 18 months. Yeah, right now, me as a as an investor, my portfolio is thriving. That’s right. I hate the fact that I have to close on something next month at 7.69%. I hate it. So do I. I hate it. But I also was very happy. My appraisal just happened. I bought this said unit at the said development. Happy to share it with anyone privately at 489,000. My appraisal is 650. Will I nurse a $1,000 a month shortfall for the next 12 months to 14 months? Sure. But that will cost me 14 K. Yes, please. I will do it four times more. That’s right. This is simple math. 150,000 spread in profit. I have to carry for 14 k. I wish I didn’t have to supplement its income. But we also know that if I do hold on to it, in four years from now, there’s more than likely going to be an extra 100,000 in value on this very unit.
Hersh Litvack: Without question, the prices were there before all of this started, without question.
Simeon Papailias: So with that being said, we spoke, you spoke to said and you didn’t like the word. I don’t like the word either convince, but let’s use the appropriate word then the word we use every day, which is how do we provide value? How do we provide value to the client?
Hersh Litvack: I think it’s by knowledge. You’ve got to give the knowledge, give them the knowledge. So how and it’s not your opinionated knowledge. It is factual things that are happening.
Simeon Papailias: So give me a sales pitch that any one of our brothers and sisters can use on the phone today. They’re going to call their top client. I’m going to call Kelly. I’m going to say Kelly, it’s Simeon. I ran into a very great opportunity. Dot, dot, dot. Fill in the blanks. Take it from there.
Hersh Litvack: You know what I would say to them? I ran into an unbelievable opportunity that I think fits you perfectly. You’ve mentioned to me that if I get something that is amazing, you want to see it. And you probably wouldn’t mind thinking that if I could show you a way to make whether it’s 100,000 or 150,000 or whatever that number be in four years from now, but wouldn’t take a lot of effort to do that, would you be interested in seeing that? That’s the first thing I would do. Okay.
Simeon Papailias: So so I will I will continue because most of our resale brethren have not sold pre development. So I’m the client, okay? Hirsch I like the sounds of that. What is the opportunity? I’ll give you an exact experience.
Hersh Litvack: I think that’s easier because I just did it. So about a month ago or so, we released a brand new building in the GTA and it was beautiful. I just loved it. And what I’m going to share is through every real estate agent’s career, they absolutely do get asked the question, If you ever see something that is unbelievable, call me, call me. And that’s what I did. I actually picked up the phone. So you have to ask yourself the question. Number one, will you pick up the phone and do something a little bit different? There’s to me is the biggest question. But I picked up the phone and I called a few of my friends and I simply said, you know, you’ve said to me, if I get something unbelievable, come in. And they did. And what ended up happening was I sold three pieces. What pressure? They sat across the desk from me. I showed it to them. I showed them what the opportunity was, and three of them bought it. So for those of you that are struggling right now wondering how do you sell real estate in these times? You can do it via pre-construction another avenue. And certainly with the amount of projects that Simeon has, he makes it so easy to do it. But to end it came in, bought three. There was over $100,000 of commission.
Simeon Papailias: That’s incredible.
Hersh Litvack: That came.
Simeon Papailias: If.
Hersh Litvack: That will change your.
Simeon Papailias: Life, a good portion of that. And see the thing about the resale agent, what they don’t understand is they think they’re getting paid. In four years, a third of that commission is payable within 30 days. That’s right. So it replaces your resale deal and then gives you the annuity of payments in the future on top of it. Absolutely. Kelly, how does one pick how does one identify the great deal? What are they looking for from the developer, from the incentives? How do how does an agent know what a good deal is? What education component? Give us a little bit about that.
Kelly Litvack: Well, so I would just start with an agent and speaking more towards a resale agent. Right. To pick a great deal is really key to seize every opportunity. And if I was a resale agent, I would be open to looking at all of these emails that you probably delete or flag or see a launch or a seminar or whatever it is because you don’t do it. I’ve had the experience, the great experience of having thousands and thousands and thousands of agents come and listen to me present and I present a plethora of opportunities and developments. What I really would say to that is that when you’re a resale agent coming in, you’re listening to this. I hear a lot of yeah, you know, that’s really not I don’t have that client in my database. Right? And I always say, Well, but you do because you don’t know what your neighbor does with their money and he doesn’t know what you do with yours. So instead of playing out the negative and assuming this isn’t going to work, I have seen it work hundreds and hundreds of times and we have seen absolutely agents lives change in one day.
Hersh Litvack: We’ve gotten letters. Just the thank you letters are absolutely unbelievable.
Kelly Litvack: And yes, they are. And it’s incredible. And I just want to say, too, it’s funny, when I when I have resale agents and going, how am I going to make this happen? And it’s like it’s just that easy. It is just that easy. It’s as easy as pushing a button. It it is as easy as knowing somebody like Simeon. It is as easy as doing all of these things and they’re coming in to this opportunity. And what they’re not realizing is that I didn’t just hand them a listing. I handed them the biggest listing of their entire lives. I said.
Simeon Papailias: There’s dozens or hundreds.
Kelly Litvack: I said, if you if this was just a listing appointment and I was a client, you would be so happy to be leaving my house right now. You just got my listing. You’d be running back to your office, you know, You’d be filling out the data sheet all excited. You’d be loading it into TREB. You put on your marketing hat and everything else that goes along with it for a house. And that’s amazing. That’s incredible, right? We all go to school, we get our real estate license. Yes. Okay. Now we sell the house, we sell the condo. We do all of those things. But you’re not realizing that. I just gave you 700 listings in this moment, and you don’t have to do anything except push a button. And I guarantee it’s going to happen before.
Simeon Papailias: You get on the phone.
Kelly Litvack: For you. Yes, exactly. Get on the phone. Make it happen, and then furthering that you have all of my support. You don’t even have to know it. All you bring your.
Simeon Papailias: Entire existence is to support the sale. Correct. So your job is only one. Get it to the agents and support the agents to succeed.
Kelly Litvack: That’s right. The agent is my client.
Simeon Papailias: The agent is your client. I want people to take this really seriously because I don’t care if you’re in Vancouver, if you’re in Toronto, you can access inventory. That’s right. You can access inventory from me directly. We can make introductions in other markets that we’re not in to developers looking for your support. I know Alberta has at least two dozen developers right now begging for the support of our community, of the agent community. We’re not the end all and be all in Toronto. We happen to be in Canada’s largest market, but Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton and Montreal are developing. So to anyone in those markets who simply doesn’t have access to work with Hirsch, Kelly or Simeon, we know the players in those markets and we’re happy to help you connect with people that can give you a listing of 700 units because you have access to the entire building. So the agent can put all their marketing dollars, their time and effort. So if they were to make 20 calls a day for a week, that’s going to a snowball activity. If they were just to do that and try it and whatever, somebody comes back with, oh, the one bedroom doesn’t work for my family or for my investment needs, I need a three bedroom. All you have to do is ask for one.
Kelly Litvack: Guess what? I have it.
Simeon Papailias: The three bedroom doesn’t work. I need a one bedroom.
Hersh Litvack: I mean, I want to say something because I don’t want the agents here thinking that they have to make phone calls to actually make this work. You actually don’t have to make any phone calls at all. If you simply send out the marketing that’s available that we make available that you make available. I’ll tell you what you have to do. You have to be able to answer the phone. That’s what you have to be able to do. You have to be able to respond to a message or an email or a direct message that comes in. So most of the times, if you’re thinking, right that you have to go out there and beat the phone to death. I’m telling you for a fact you do not have to do that. All you need to do is actually take a leap of faith, I think is the biggest thing.
Simeon Papailias: Right. And try getting this vertical send out some material.
Hersh Litvack: Yeah. Someone’s going to call you and want some information, right? If you can give them some information, they’re probably going to take the next step. Okay. Come into a sales center with you and buy. And if you’re from out of town, I will tell you that probably 70% of the projects that are sold, people never even go to see them. They buy them right through the airwaves.
Simeon Papailias: Hersh, what’s your outlook on winter 2023, spring 2024, as far as volume activity sentiment, do you think it’s going to carry kind of in this slow wrestle where people are trying to find stability? What’s your sentiment on it? What’s your feelings on it?
Hersh Litvack: I’m going to Saint Martin for winter of 2023.
Simeon Papailias: You’re going to say Saint Martin? Well, you’re one of the lucky ones.
Hersh Litvack: Here’s but here’s what here’s what I do. I go every year. So it’s not new. But but I think it’s going to be exactly the same. I think it’s going to be a tough year to ride out in the way of. When I say tough, you know what? I should quantify that. Sure. Tough in the way of media that moves people in certain ways and has them thinking in a certain path. But opportunity wise, I will tell you that in years we haven’t seen bigger. Yeah, you are never going to see the same.
Simeon Papailias: Next six months is the window. The window will be by spring of next year. The window will be closed. Absolutely. That I truly believe in. And if anybody wants us to quantify that because we’re not just saying nonsense for the sake of hearing our own voices right now, this doom and gloom that the media creates. And I’m not sure why. I guess if it bleeds, it leads because it doesn’t serve any purpose.
Hersh Litvack: I think they’ve worked on it for 22 years telling everybody, okay, that the everything is overpriced and 22 years later, I guess they got a winning year out of it. So, you know, that’s an interesting way to.
Simeon Papailias: But they didn’t get a winning year. That’s the thing. Yeah, right. So the prices are still there because nobody can move. So so even in this environment, what people don’t understand is in the last 60 days, we’ve seen 50% rise in listings pushing us into a buyer’s market. Absolutely. A buyer’s market with no buyers is no market at all. So so again, like we can use we can interpret what we see any way to suit any narrative. The truth of the matter is me as a seller, if I have to sell right now, my home is worth, let’s just say, for example, purposes, $1 million. If I have to sell my million dollar home to buy another home, which I do, I don’t qualify for the new home at $1 million, thus making me a void I can’t sell. Or if I sell, I have to move out to a different market or or. Or there is nothing other than an artificially created problem to address the inflation that was created during the pandemic. Nothing. So the next six months where the actual price point can have an effect, meaning that if you search and claw and look, you will find sellers who are willing to take a smaller price. Absolutely. You are going to find developers giving incentives that they would never, ever have considered, ever. Am I 30 in my years? I have 33 years and.
Hersh Litvack: I’ve not seen anything like this.
Simeon Papailias: So with with that being said, knowing that they have a need to get to the finish line and them, for lack of a better word, dropping their pants as much as they can on a new development that still has to be built. Giving these incentives presents the biggest buying opportunity in Canadian real estate that I think we will see in our careers. I agree with you because I don’t think there’s going to be another pandemic, another run up on inflation of this nature. In the rest. I’m 15 years in God bless if I have another 15 like you do. But I don’t think we’re going to see these circumstances again. What’s the number one piece of advice you want to give realtors today?
Kelly Litvack: The number one piece of advice I would like to give realtors is. Really this. There are 67,000 realtors. Isn’t that unbelievable? 67,000 realtors on TREB. And the delta on that is about 300 coming in. 3 to 400 coming in every single month. How are you going to stand out? And make a difference, most importantly in your own life. My advice to you is that you should be seizing this sea of opportunities that is here and present today. And I’m going to give you a tip because I love you so much, because they’re my clients. And when you see the marketing come out right now on developer incentives that are just absolutely unprecedented, I want you to look at things like commission they’re offering. Let’s say they’re offering you a 6% commission, and then we’re going to look at client incentives and they’re offering a client. Sorry, They’re offering the developer’s offering you a 6% commission plus an additional $35,000 bonus. We’re seeing this all over the place, right? Cash back bonuses, a cash back bonus to the agent. So 6% and 35. That’s unbelievable. What I would do is probably be a little creative and maybe I would offer that cash back of $35,000 to the client. And you know what’s going to happen from that? Not only does your marketing become different than everybody else is that client is most likely going to call an uncle, and that uncle is most likely going to call a cousin. And what you’re doing is not only creating from one sale to who knows how many. You’re also creating lifetime clients. So in all of that being said, I think you to stand out in that many agents right now. Look at everything you have in front of you and ask for help. Ask people like Simeon, who has access to all of this inventory. You know, Hirsch and myself, we’re here to help 100%.
Simeon Papailias: In closing for you, Kelly, because I have the same question. You know what? Why don’t we do the same question to you? Hirsch What is your one top tip to anybody listening to this show today to take action and create a vertical?
Hersh Litvack: My top tip, I think I’ve talked about it before, but I’m just going to expand on it a little bit because I think it’s the most important of anything. It’s not the material I have, it’s not the product I have, right? The person in the way of me. Living my dream life is me. It’s you. And what I simply say is to understand that there are more income streams that you can have with your license. And it is so simple. The fear is in your mind, not in pushing a button and sending some information out. And I will tell you one thing. There’s nothing like the feeling of being in this for a number of years and helping your clients make hundreds, not thousands, hundreds of thousands of dollars. There’s nothing as rewarding as doing that. So get out of your way. Call Simeon. And get going. It’s that simple. It’s what I did. It changed my life, my family’s life, and thousands of agents along with it.
Simeon Papailias: Mr. Litvack, thank you for sharing your wealth of insight and experience with us. Kelly The same for anybody watching. If you want to reach out directly to Hirsch or Kelly. They are readily available. All socials are tagged below. You can always send a DM. There is not a more responsive team that I have ever met. Whether you reach them on their websites or their socials, they’re available and they’re always there to support my team. I have over 50 agents that work there. Their products and their projects. They’ve never had a question unanswered and they would never leave you unanswered. To access these opportunities to get into all their opportunities and inventory. Go to brokers playbook.com. Get into the brokers portal and take a look at Hersh’s projects. They are phenomenally incented and there’s a lot of ways for you to take it all in and find your own unique way of putting the value proposition out to your audience. Until next time, this is Simeon Papailias. We’ll see you soon.