Optimize Your Home Expenses and Reduce Property Taxes Now

Mike Mills

(43:20) Make sure I get on the phone, make sure that I- You're the guy, you're the one guy that actually reads those.

Joseph Noor

(43:24) Okay. (43:24) Reads them just like I, yeah, that's me. (43:26) I'm, I'm that weirdo.

Mike Mills

(43:28) Good. (43:28) You're not the weird one. (43:30) I wish I could, you know, not fall asleep reading terms and conditions, but then half the time you'd never sign up for anything.

(43:35) Cause it's like, well, I don't want to agree to that. (43:37) Well, you can't use it.

Joseph Noor

(43:38) I remember my closing docs when I bought my home, I bought my home. (43:41) Like I read every single word, right? (43:42) Like I'm that guy.

(43:44) But yeah, so I'm a big believer in adopting new technology. (43:47) And I think ultimately what we're going to see is, you know, the same way that the iPhone was introduced and has completely changed the way we communicate, completely changed the way we do business. (43:55) It's, it's changed the world.

(43:57) Some may argue it's not for the better, but it's at the very least more efficient, more productive.

Mike Mills

(44:01) Well, I mean, it's like anything it has its positive qualities and its negative qualities. (44:06) It is a tool, right? (44:07) A hammer is a tool.

(44:09) You can use a hammer to build a house or you can use it to bash someone's head in. (44:13) But no matter what, it's just a tool and it's only a tool used in, or, you know, it's, it's evil or good is just purely defined by the user.

Joseph Noor

(44:21) That's right. (44:22) And so my opinion, my strong opinion is that there's going to be this, this gap of the people who learn how to adopt the new technology and become greater and become more productive and become almost like a superhuman with it. (44:35) And there's going to be the people who reject it, who are scared of it.

(44:37) I don't want an iPhone. (44:38) I don't want an email. (44:39) I don't want to use the internet.

(44:40) I'm good. (44:41) Right. (44:41) And, and look, I appreciate, I respect that.

(44:44) And there's plenty of successful people that are like that. (44:46) I just think there's so much more we can do if we just embrace technology and try to push the boundaries of what we can achieve. (44:52) And so I'm, I believe that the world will be different in 10 years because of AI.

(44:57) I think the markets may be overreacting in the short term that they think it's all going to happen in the next six months. (45:02) It's, it's not.

Mike Mills

(45:04) Yeah. (45:04) We'll get into your experience with Nvidia in a second.

Joseph Noor

(45:06) Yeah, sure. (45:07) Now it's, it's, it, it takes time, right? (45:09) Especially for the whole world to adopt it.

(45:11) And like real estate, for example, is one example of an industry that's been pretty slow to adopt new technology, right? (45:16) It's, it had its way of doing things and it's, it's stuck in its ways and it's got its system and, and that did work right for a very long time. (45:23) But now in the age of information and technology, it makes sense for us to consider that there's a new and potentially better way of doing things.

(45:30) And I'm a big believer in that I'm embracing it fully.

Mike Mills

(45:32) Yeah. (45:33) Well, I mean, real estate in general is, you know, the, I don't know the lead, the latest statistics on this, but the average real estate agent in the, in the country is somewhere in their fifties and the average loan officer in the country is somewhere like in their late fifties. (45:49) Okay.

(45:49) So, so we've got a lot of, we got a lot of olds running the thing, right? (45:53) Including myself. (45:54) I'm only 45, but I'm, I'm creeping there quick.

(45:57) And we are typically resistant to change, resistant to doing things in a new way. (46:05) But also our industry is very, very highly regulated. (46:09) As you can see it playing out right now in the, in the media with the, the agent commissions and compensation that's going and how, how all that is being, being handled.

(46:19) So, you know, there's a lot of eyes because again, real estate is by far one of the most lucrative industries to be involved with of anything in the country. (46:30) I mean, you know, I think it's something like 90% of the millionaires in the United States got there, got there via some, something involving real estate. (46:38) So when you have that much money concentrated in a particular industry, everybody's trying to get into it.

(46:43) And then you have to regulate it very well for that exact reason. (46:46) So everything tends to move a lot slower and you have governing bodies like HUD and Fannie and Freddie, you know, just something simple. (46:53) Like this is crazy, but right.

(46:56) The technology has existed for decades to where I can sign a document via the internet, right. (47:04) And, and, and it'd be a legal binding document in a million different ways, right. (47:08) And you can verify IP addresses.

(47:10) You can have certain kind of, you know, check-ins to make sure that you're a human, all these things can go into play. (47:15) You can take a picture of yourself with your driver's license. (47:17) There's a million things you can do, right.

(47:19) But yet the vast majority of our industry still requires at least not everything now, but a few documents to be signed physically in front of a person that's going to write in a book, a book that you are who you say you are, right. (47:34) And, and then they get bent out of shape because you're using the wrong color pin. (47:38) So, so this is the kind of thing that we're still today in 2024 still dealing with.

(47:43) So the idea that we're going to allow, you know, that our industry is just going to all of a sudden adopt all these AI tools that could definitely make it cheaper, more efficient and everything to do our jobs is, is a little bit far-fetched. (47:58) They're not going to do it right away, but do you, do you see anything, or are you guys looking at anything right now kind of to the side and maybe you don't want to tell me because you don't want to, you know, want to be first market, but of, of innovations using this tool that you think could really, you know, impact the real estate industry, you know, the most, the quickest.

Joseph Noor

(48:18) So, you know, what I'll say to that is like, you know, my co-founder and I are brainstorming every single day, every single night that we're going to do tonight, right. (48:25) We're going to go grab dinner and we're just going to chat about how we can make the world better. (48:29) Right.

(48:29) And what, what can we bring to the market that's going to help people, that's going to improve efficiency, improve productivity, minimize costs, whatever we can do. (48:36) Sure. (48:37) And we've got a very long list of ideas and really at the end of the day, it's, you know, what, what makes the most sense for us?

(48:42) What makes the most sense for the business? (48:44) Like is we can't just like do something completely radical and new that it makes no sense in the context of own well, as it is today.

Mike Mills

(48:51) Yeah.

Joseph Noor

(48:52) But yeah, like, like insurance, that makes sense. (48:55) You do property taxes, you do insurance. (48:57) That makes sense.

(48:57) Maybe you want to like help out with my refi too. (48:59) Okay. (48:59) Maybe that makes sense.

(49:00) And, you know, saying like, okay, we're going to build a whole new brokerage that's going to change the way that we buy and sell real estate. (49:05) That's, that's a little farfetched. (49:06) Right.

(49:06) And there's a lot of players in the space that, that own the space. (49:10) And the last thing that I want to do is try to like bully my way into a market that doesn't need to be innovated into yet. (49:16) At the same time, technology is coming.

(49:18) I see that it's being adopted. (49:19) I like that. (49:20) I'm excited for it.

(49:21) I plan to be essentially involved in this space for the rest of my life and doing everything I can to make it better. (49:27) And, you know, I look forward to the future and I look forward to, and don't, you know, don't sell yourself short. (49:33) I'm sure that you're adopting new technology.

(49:34) We're on a podcast right now. (49:35) Like, like you, you are yourself adopting the tooling that is going to advance us into the next age. (49:40) And, you know, even if, you know, AGI came tomorrow and was going to completely change the way we do things, like you said, there's plenty of rules and regulations about the way that things work.

(49:50) And it's not going to just throw all that out the window. (49:53) We have to play within the bounds of the system that we've created.

Mike Mills

(49:56) Yeah. (49:57) I am curious. (49:58) So I saw that you worked for NVIDIA for just a short amount of time and in the AI conversation, the fact that that particular company is, you know, basically held up the entire stock market for the last 18 months.

(50:12) I'm curious when you were there, did you have options?

Joseph Noor

(50:15) Oh yeah. (50:16) Oh yeah. (50:17) And, and like, even afterwards I told my dad, dad, this is a good company.

(50:20) But you kept them even when you left? (50:22) Of course. (50:23) Of course.

(50:24) I'm a long-term believer. (50:25) I should have bought more.

Mike Mills

(50:27) Yes. (50:29) Yeah. (50:29) It's is, did you leave to, to go start your own thing or was it like, what was the, what was the environment like there?

(50:35) How did you, how'd you enjoy that?

Joseph Noor

(50:37) So personal, first of all, I absolutely loved my time there. (50:40) I knew that that was so, so, you know, my background I loved computer hardware. (50:46) I loved kind of building chips and the design of chips.

(50:49) I still think it's one of the most interesting, just fascinating things. (50:53) One of the things that I love about it so much is that it's ones and zeros. (50:56) So it's either true or not true.

(50:58) It works or it doesn't work. (50:59) It's very precise and very fundamental in that way. (51:03) And so it just like naturally meshes with the way that I think.

(51:06) So I love hardware. (51:07) I love chips. (51:08) And so NVIDIA was like, they were doing the coolest stuff in the hardware space back then.

(51:13) Right. (51:13) And this was back in like 2014 or so. (51:15) And so I knew that I didn't even consider applying anywhere else.

(51:18) It was like, I only want to work for NVIDIA. (51:20) What they're doing is the coolest. (51:21) Nowadays, I got to give credit to Apple too, you know, building their own silicon is like, I love what they're doing with the M-series chips.

(51:27) But back at the time, back in the day, it was NVIDIA and only NVIDIA that was doing these kind of domain, domain-specific computing. (51:35) And so I wanted to work there and I wanted to work on their GPU itself. (51:37) And so, you know, I applied, got in, spent some time there, had a really great time.

(51:44) You know, it's, it was a big company, even back then, it was a very big company, lots of people, but the people that I worked with were so smart, so capable, you know, it makes total sense why they are at the forefront today that they were in. (51:55) And, and, you know, I, at the end of the day, I decided that I wanted to pursue academia a little bit and I wanted to go into my PhD and I wanted to kind of do my own research as opposed to being a part of the NVIDIA research system. (52:08) And that was, you know, my decision.

(52:09) And you could argue that maybe it would have been more lucrative for me if I stayed.

Mike Mills

(52:12) Hey, everything is all based on judgments of time, right? (52:16) So, you know, two years after, or five years after, maybe 10 years after, maybe 30 years after when, you know, OwnWell's rocking and rolling and, you know, you're living your best life, making, making millions of dollars, helping people and, you know, feeling good about what being able to wake up with a smile on your face every day, cause you're doing the right stuff. (52:36) You know, that's a whole other, you know, that's a whole other story.

(52:38) So, you know, it's all, it's, it's, it's all about where you're at right now, right? (52:43) Keep your feet where you're at, focus on what you're doing. (52:45) You did what you did and, you know, you, we all have a past, we all did great things or bad things or good things or whatever.

(52:51) And we're all going to head in the other direction and do great things or good things or bad things. (52:55) So it's just, you know, you can't, you can't look back and wonder what if, but you can always learn from every, every experience that you have and being a part of a company like that. (53:04) And then just seeing it explode as it has, you know, unfortunately, you know, in the world of, of investments, you know, what goes up tends to come down.

(53:13) And, you know, if, if, if you were there on the ride up, you know, I hope you get out on the ride down to some extent. (53:21) I mean, we'll see. (53:21) I mean, you know, but, but, you know, a lot of people the, what was it, Cisco systems that they kind of compare that to when it took off, you know, back in the early 2000s.

(53:30) So, you know, there's, there's some comparables there, but either way having that experience and being a part of an entity like that, that is, you know, built on innovation and growth, you know, just, I imagine you just took so many lessons from that to kind of help you develop your company and grow from there.

Joseph Noor

(53:45) Yeah, absolutely. (53:45) And, and, and, you know, just to be clear, I don't regret it. (53:48) I feel like the impact that I get to have in people's lives today is so meaningful and so valuable.

(53:53) And to have such a direct impact in what we do is just such a satisfying thing, right? (53:58) Like I know I'm helping people. (54:00) I know that my decisions are creating a better world for, for so many people that are like, like you said, things are getting so expensive right now.

(54:07) I'm anything that we can do to make it better. (54:09) I want to keep pushing forward.

Mike Mills

(54:11) Well, you know, these days, like I said in the very beginning, housing affordability has has it's the worst that I think it's the worst it's ever been. (54:20) And I think when you compare it to what people make as far as their income compared to what it costs to live and, you know, rents are coming down, but that's, it's only because they've overbuilt and they have stopped building. (54:33) And so you're going to see those start to come up and there's more and more technology that's coming into the rental space where rents are being controlled and prices are being controlled and monopolized not by individual companies, but by individual software that, that runs over the entire industry.

(54:49) So these are all threats that are coming into that. (54:51) And, you know, home ownership has been the path to wealth for the vast majority of people in the United States for since its foundation. (55:01) And, you know, the fear is that that's, that is starting to diminish because of the costs and people not being able to afford it.

(55:07) And so I love talking to people that are trying to find ways to make housing more affordable and help people get to that place. (55:15) Because if you can own a home and you can have something to call your own, it's better for our communities. (55:20) It's better for our families.

(55:22) It's better for the country. (55:23) It's better for the state. (55:23) It's better for the county.

(55:24) It's better for everyone. (55:26) Right. (55:26) And, and that's what we ultimately want.

(55:28) We want home ownership to continue to rise. (55:30) We don't want to see continuing generations, Gen X, Gen, or excuse me, Gen Z, you know, millennials not be able to own homes. (55:39) Like that's, we gotta, we gotta make sure that that's still the number one priority because, you know, they say that to y'all's generation is that you don't want to be transient.

(55:46) You want to move and you want to have different, you don't, you don't want to be tied down to a place. (55:49) And I would say maybe up until the point to someone gets to a place where you are and you start having kids. (55:55) And then once those kids come into play, then putting some roots down is a, is generally, you know, something that everybody likes to do.

(56:02) So, so I'm so glad that you guys are out there doing the, doing the good work and helping folks out. (56:08) Anything you want to say before we go let everybody know, obviously, you know, where to find the company, any realtors out there tell them about the referral program, all that kind of stuff before we wrap up.

Joseph Noor

(56:16) Yeah, sure thing. (56:17) Everything's on our website. (56:18) So that's ownwell.com.

(56:20) O-W-N-W-E-L-L.com. (56:22) It's very fast to sign up. (56:23) We try to make it as streamlined as possible and basically answer a few questions, authorize us to represent you as your tax agent, and we'll take it from there.

(56:31) That's it. (56:32) And then what about the referral program? (56:33) How do they get involved with that?

(56:35) Oh yeah. (56:35) That's, if you go on our website, scroll to the bottom of the page and there's a kind of a partner program. (56:39) Just click on that and you can submit your information and we'll have somebody reach out to you.

Mike Mills

(56:42) Heck yeah. (56:43) All right. (56:43) Well, thank you for everybody that stuck around.

(56:45) I appreciate it. (56:46) We will be back on Monday with another market update. (56:49) Rates are coming down and they may be coming down faster than we anticipated.

(56:53) So there's been some big moves today and I expect when the jobs report comes out tomorrow and shows unemployment ticking up again, which is very likely that we'll see another hit. (57:02) So good news for rates, maybe not a great news for the economy, but we just keep on keeping on. (57:06) So thank you, Joseph.

(57:07) Appreciate your time. (57:08) Everybody have a great weekend and we will see you back next time.