TREF Podcast #36 Chris Hightower

Podcast: Texas Real Estate & Finance Podcast

Episode Title: TREFP #36 Chris Hightower

Host(s): Mike Mills

Guest(s): Chris Hightower

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Mike Mills (Host) | 00:00:13 to 00:00:16

Boom. Mr. Hightowner. How you doing?

Mike Mills (Host) | 00:00:19 to 00:00:34

One of those proofread things, I got to do a little bit better job of when I'm running these things through, so sometimes when I do things in a rush, I don't double check my work. So that was one we caught just a second ago, but, hey, what are we going to do? We're just going to roll with it. All right. Hello, everybody.

Mike Mills (Host) | 00:00:34 to 00:00:57

My name is Mike Mills and I'm with Verity Mortgage and this is the Texas Real Estate and Finance Podcast. I have today with me my good friend Chris Hightower. He is a real estate broker, a CEO of Arlington Museum of Art, and has been on the TCU faculty for almost nine years. Right? Yes.

Chris Hightower (Guest) | 00:00:57 to 00:01:30

Pretty close to that faculty. And, you know, right off the top, I want to tell everybody, if you have any questions about purchasing or refinancing a home loan, I'm always available to help with any of your needs regarding that kind of stuff. And if you are looking for an agent, especially in the Dallas Fort Worth area, my suggestion to you is always to make sure that you find someone that knows the area very well, has a terrific team around them. To make sure that all your needs are met and is always willing to communicate and handle everything all the way from start to finish. And Chris and his group were certainly available for that as well.

Mike Mills (Host) | 00:01:30 to 00:01:46

So if you guys are looking to buy or sell a home anytime in the near future and have any questions, I'm sure Chris would love it if you'd reach out to them and his team and they can help you with that as well. So now that the commercials are gone, get past all that stuff. Let's get down to it. So how are you doing today? I'm doing great.

Chris Hightower (Guest) | 00:01:46 to 00:01:58

Thank you so much for having me today. Absolutely. Well, thank you for trekking out here from Fort Worth. It's not that far, but it's a little bit of a drive, so I thank you for coming out. So there's a lot of things I want to talk about today.

Mike Mills (Host) | 00:01:58 to 00:02:29

We're going to talk about if anybody's going to hang around from start to finish. We're going to chat a little bit about the TCU game that you attended this weekend or this past weekend. We're going to your new brokerage a little bit and kind of talk about how that got started. And then we're also going to talk about the Arlington Museum of Art. So I want to find out a little bit about all those little things, but I do want to start with the is my we'll get this guy on is your this is your picture of what you were able to see.

Mike Mills (Host) | 00:02:29 to 00:02:36

This was last Monday, correct? Yes, about a week and a half. You're recovering from it. So tell me about that. How'd that?

Chris Hightower (Guest) | 00:02:36 to 00:02:56

You know, we were really excited about going. I was super excited, actually, about visiting, SoFi so I like to go to different stadiums and check them out. Especially we've got At T here, and I'd heard this one know, you see it on TV and it looks awesome. So I was really excited to go check it out. And I have to say, we in Dallas Fort Worth.

Chris Hightower (Guest) | 00:02:56 to 00:03:04

Can be really glad that we have Jerry World because it's actually better. Really? Yeah. I was surprised so far is cool. It's beautiful.

Chris Hightower (Guest) | 00:03:04 to 00:03:16

But the practical use of it at and T Stadium is better. And I was surprised by that. I am, too, because I figured this came how old is at and T now? Is it ten years old yet? It's about ten years.

Mike Mills (Host) | 00:03:16 to 00:03:20

It's about ten years. And this was brand new. Yeah. It's only been a couple of years, right? Yeah.

Mike Mills (Host) | 00:03:20 to 00:03:35

I think it was right around COVID or something when it was built. And it's sunken down into the ground a bit, right? It is, yeah. When you first come off the concourse at ground level, you're on the 300 level and I was in the 100 level, so I had to go down. Down.

Mike Mills (Host) | 00:03:35 to 00:03:49

Right. And that was part of the awkwardness, is the Escalators are really weird. You can turn corners and find your way. It was very awkward. Is it sectioned off kind of like at and T is where you can't get to certain parts of it without yeah.

Chris Hightower (Guest) | 00:03:49 to 00:04:00

So it's a little complicated. And At T is a little easier to navigate. Okay. But the worst part about it so I was there during the know it's still going on out there, I think, all the rain. Oh, right, yeah.

Mike Mills (Host) | 00:04:00 to 00:04:11

Yes. I forgot about that. That was a huge damper. So we started off going to the TCU tailgate, which was windy, cold, rainy. It was a big mess.

Chris Hightower (Guest) | 00:04:11 to 00:04:40

So it kind of set the tone for the day if you SoFi so it's got a roof, but it doesn't have walls on the end. Right. So rain was just sweeping in from the side. Oh, it was funny. On the broadcast, I heard that where they were talking about how this was at the point where it wasn't going so well, and they were talking about the rain coming in, and they were like, well, the only people that are being affected by the rain are all the people that are on the TC side.

Mike Mills (Host) | 00:04:41 to 00:04:47

Oh, gosh. What a terrible day. Awful. Yeah. So it got so wet on the concourses that people were slipping and falling.

Mike Mills (Host) | 00:04:47 to 00:05:02

Oh, wow. One woman fell on an escalator and hit her head. So the design just really has a lot of flaws, but the game itself so we were excited the first half. I think it was like seven to 20. We thought, okay, we're a second half team.

Mike Mills (Host) | 00:05:02 to 00:05:13

We got this. We're good. They seem to be playing okay. Having a few problems, but we know they'd come out firing on all cylinders because I was just in Phoenix the week before for the Michigan game. Yes.

Mike Mills (Host) | 00:05:13 to 00:05:18

Awesome. Right? So we were watch that one. We kind of kept thinking those frogs were coming back. Right.

Chris Hightower (Guest) | 00:05:18 to 00:05:25

It never happened. No, it did not. But I do have good news. So I did go to Georgia for my graduate. I saw that.

Mike Mills (Host) | 00:05:25 to 00:05:33

Yeah. I was going to ask you since you were at Georgia during with grad schools when you were there. Okay. So it was kind of a win win for me. Okay.

Chris Hightower (Guest) | 00:05:35 to 00:05:45

I wasn't happy. Right. None of your TCU friends out there. That's why I'm wearing the purple for you today, by the way. But, yeah, I don't think you were celebrating.

Chris Hightower (Guest) | 00:05:45 to 00:05:58

I was not celebrating, but at the. Same time, you're like, yeah, okay. Yeah. It's pretty cool to have your undergraduate and your graduate schools playing each other in the national championship. How often does that happen?

Mike Mills (Host) | 00:05:58 to 00:06:29

Well, never, especially, and it was in California now, unfortunately, the weather wasn't cooperating with you out there when you were, but and it's really rough out there, too, because everybody's like, oh, well, they needed this rain because they've been such a heavy drought. But the problem is when you get that much rain that heavy and there's nothing to soak it in, they're not used to it. It just rushes everything off. Yeah. So that's another flaw of the stadium situation, is we had an Uber lined up, but the Uber couldn't get there because they had to close some streets off because the water was so Uber.

Chris Hightower (Guest) | 00:06:29 to 00:06:42

So they canceled us, and we were going to have to wait an hour for the next Uber in the rain. And, I mean, we were just soaked to the bone already. And after the game, we had to. Find somebody that was willing to take us. We were like, $400.

Mike Mills (Host) | 00:06:42 to 00:07:05

Okay, we'll do it. Oh, man, the whole thing was just crazy. Well, I was going to ask you if they had a big glass window on the western side of the stadium that bleeded in like an at and T, where you can't see the end zone in the back. But it's funny when you build it's like billions of dollars that went into the design and the construction of that stadium. Yeah.

Mike Mills (Host) | 00:07:05 to 00:07:21

And same thing with At T, and yet when you go in, they still miss stuff. You know what mean it's it can't but then at that, what are you going to do? So it is what it is. And I was glad to be there. I was glad the frogs were there and hey, they showed up and they did what they could.

Chris Hightower (Guest) | 00:07:21 to 00:07:51

I was just glad it wasn't, yes, we take our wins when we find them. Well, I think on a I didn't have a dog in that fight either. Know, obviously, I wanted TCU to win just because local and right street or whatever, but when you see a little I was irritated because people were saying, well, TCU didn't deserve to be there, it should have been somebody else. And I'm like, they, they went through the process just like any other college football team would have gone through to get to the national champ. They beat Michigan.

Chris Hightower (Guest) | 00:07:51 to 00:08:01

Did you see the Michigan game? I mean, it was incredible. Who beat Ohio State? Pretty handily. Who almost beat Michigan, or excuse me, almost beat Georgia by missed field goals.

Mike Mills (Host) | 00:08:01 to 00:08:11

They lost. I saw an interview with Sonny Dykes last night and he had an interesting thing that he talked about. He said they were actually a little over prepared. Okay. And so they were trying too hard.

Chris Hightower (Guest) | 00:08:11 to 00:08:34

I couldn't just kind of get into the zone. And I was like, well, that is an interesting way to look at it. Yeah. Because you could tell they were really doing some good things, but they just had some slight misses and it just went bad. Well, that certainly was the biggest game of any of those kids career and their life on national TV, playing against SEC powerhouse.

Mike Mills (Host) | 00:08:34 to 00:08:56

And Georgia's been there before and they've been there. Not only did they win last year, but I think they were in the CFP like the previous year, at least one year, I think maybe two, where they were playing to get in. So a lot of those kids had gone through that already and they were seasoned as it could be for a college kid. And all the TCU guys, you roll in there and you're wide eyed thinking, oh man, so it takes a little bit to kind of get the jitters out. Right.

Mike Mills (Host) | 00:08:56 to 00:09:07

But then by the time that happened. And hey, this was good for the Big Twelve, first time the Big Twelve got into the absolutely final game. So it's all good. No, it's good. I'm glad that they got there.

Mike Mills (Host) | 00:09:07 to 00:09:27

And obviously the result would have been a little bit better to go another direction, at least a better game. I was watching it with my wife and I was sitting there for a minute and I'm like, this is starting to be painful. I just have guilt watching it. I know it was pretty bad being there. And then it got to the point where I was like, okay, well, we need to stay here for these guys.

Mike Mills (Host) | 00:09:27 to 00:09:39

Right. I think you could sense them or I could sense them feeling the game was slipping away from them and they just could never get it back anyway. But awesome experience though, right? Yeah. All in all, well, we were supposed.

Mike Mills (Host) | 00:09:39 to 00:10:06

To do this the other week or last week, but then you got tickets to go to that, so we had to push it off a little bit. But I'm glad you got to experience that. That's certainly something that isn't going to come around probably ever again. And to have both schools you're associated to go to California, watch football game, can't ask for more man. Okay, so let's chat a little bit about why I really got you here, which is to talk a little bit about your new brokerage that you started.

Mike Mills (Host) | 00:10:06 to 00:10:26

So tell everybody, how did you get into real estate to begin with? Because you were, I think, pretty heavily involved in the college academic scene, if you want to call it that. And then you kind of drifted into real estate. How long has it been now? I don't know, 1315 years.

Mike Mills (Host) | 00:10:26 to 00:10:41

Yes. So how did you get to that point where you decided you wanted to be a realtor to begin with? Yeah, I have a strange journey. I think I've got this education stuff that I've done real estate stuff, and now I'm doing this museum stuff. So it's a weird journey.

Chris Hightower (Guest) | 00:10:42 to 00:10:52

So I was working at Emory I just graduated from the University of Georgia, working at Emory for a while, and. Somebody that I met what was Emory? Emory University. Okay. All right.

Chris Hightower (Guest) | 00:10:52 to 00:11:06

A friend of mine that I met was flipping mobile homes, and my mother had been a real estate agent here in Arlington for, like, 30 years. 30 years. So I was like, okay, I want to learn how to flip mobile homes. Like, what's this all about? It was good money.

Mike Mills (Host) | 00:11:06 to 00:11:22

Feel like you got to be pretty strong if you're going to be able. To this was in the so I was making great money. Things were going really well. And then that mortgage we had that mortgage debacle in 2008, 2000, and yes, I recall that similar thing happened in 2000 for the mobile home market. Okay.

Chris Hightower (Guest) | 00:11:22 to 00:11:44

And so financing went away for used homes. Did that happen during that kind of that.com bubble when everything crashed right around there a little after that just affected okay. Yeah. So I had to figure something else out. My mom had been in real estate, and I was like, well, if I can take what I've learned in flipping mobile homes and put it towards real estate, I'll just get my real estate license.

Chris Hightower (Guest) | 00:11:44 to 00:12:01

So I got my real estate license in 2008. I think actually right around the time of that time period, my first house, by the way, that I sold was a short sale. Oh, really? So you got to go right into it, headfirst right into the oh, hey, Conrad. What's up?

Mike Mills (Host) | 00:12:01 to 00:12:08

Conrad's our official contributor to the show. You know Conrad. Oh, yeah, yeah. David and Conrad. He pops in from time to time.

Mike Mills (Host) | 00:12:08 to 00:12:31

So what's up, Conrad? So you got out of flipping and decided that you were going to get into real estate, and your first transaction was a short sale, which is always fun, and then where to go from there? So from there, I went to a new agency, and when I left, a couple of my friends were leaving with me from one agency to another agency. So I created a team. Okay.

Chris Hightower (Guest) | 00:12:31 to 00:12:46

And so I had a team for about 1012 years. Okay. And so it just kind of was a natural I was like, okay, well, the natural progression is to take the team to a brokerage. Right. And so a lot of the people that are on my team now, I still call it a team because it is a team.

Mike Mills (Host) | 00:12:47 to 00:12:55

Absolutely. That's what it is. But a lot of the agents that have come with me are previous team members. Okay. And we're really excited to do it.

Mike Mills (Host) | 00:12:57 to 00:13:17

There had to be a moment at some point where you were like, all right, I'm ready to do this because I'm sure anytime you're going to be a broker, you probably think about it a little bit here and there. I'd like to do this, maybe thinking about that. Was there something that specifically spurred you on to say, okay, I'm actually going to go through this and do it now? Not really. I mean, all the team members actually kept prodding me, which was kind of interesting.

Chris Hightower (Guest) | 00:13:18 to 00:13:44

And I like to call the agency kind of an agents agency. Okay. So of course we serve people, but it's really designed for agents. So lots of agents now are doing like, side gigs or doing all kinds of various things, kind of like I do with the museum or other things. So I wanted to create a new kind of concept that fits the new digital world, like post COVID we don't have an office.

Chris Hightower (Guest) | 00:13:44 to 00:14:02

We do lots of zoom calls and lots of online stuff. So it's a little bit different than your traditional agency. But the cool thing about it is we're homegrown. We're from here. I grew up in Arlington and so I'm your homegrown guy, so I know everything there is to know about what's going on in Arlington.

Mike Mills (Host) | 00:14:02 to 00:14:17

Yes, you do. Yes you do. I have experienced that myself with you. Yes. So what you wanted to do, basically, is you were trying to create an agency, which is I mean, a lot of agents do this now where they have multiple things that they're involved in.

Mike Mills (Host) | 00:14:17 to 00:14:38

And it's not just 100% real estate all the time, but from your own experience, there's a lot of success that's built on not just being purely in real estate. Right. Having yourself involved in other things is probably a key component to what you guys do, would you say? Absolutely. It's all about networking and who you know, and people that you meet, your sphere of influence.

Chris Hightower (Guest) | 00:14:38 to 00:15:05

So I wanted to provide a space where people could kind of grow on their own without it having to be through another branded kind of concept, an old school concept that's really kind of going by the wayside. So that's really the idea behind it. Are you trying to actively recruit other agents or somebody calls you fine? I mean, what are you looking for in particular, if you even are? Well, it's interesting because I've had so many people calling me.

Mike Mills (Host) | 00:15:05 to 00:15:14

Oh, yeah. So it's great. And I've been meeting with people that call me, which is great. So I'm not really actively calling on agents. Coming to you.

Chris Hightower (Guest) | 00:15:14 to 00:15:22

Yeah, it's coming to me, which is great. Yes. That's awesome. But I think it's because it's an agent's agency. This is about helping that agent find what works for them.

Mike Mills (Host) | 00:15:23 to 00:15:47

Right. So it's not about me or the agency itself. It's more about the agent. So if you were talking to a new agent coming into the business that's coming into this environment in particular, if you look back at some of your past and how you got to where you're at, what would you say for new agents coming in? Or even somebody that hasn't been in the business very long?

Mike Mills (Host) | 00:15:47 to 00:16:08

What are some key components to make sure that they do or that activities that they're involved in a regular basis to give them as much success as possible in this current environment, and then just some tried and true methods that you've always used yourself. Yeah, I think two things. I think technology. We know that millennials are buying houses now. Right.

Chris Hightower (Guest) | 00:16:08 to 00:16:20

That's just starting to happen. So that's great for real estate agents because that's been a segment that's been missing for a while. Right. So they're coming into the marketplace, but the way they access is through the Internet. Correct.

Chris Hightower (Guest) | 00:16:20 to 00:16:33

So being really tech savvy and kind of understanding where to find the business and how to go about finding it. And the other thing is just your network. I mean, that's kind of the old school thing. But it works. Right.

Chris Hightower (Guest) | 00:16:33 to 00:16:53

It's a matter of getting involved in something that you love, that you care about, that you're passionate about, that other people are passionate about. Yes. When you connect with people like that, then they trust you, they feel good with you, they want to work with you. Right. And so I think it's those two things, a marriage of those two things, which is kind of the old school and the new school, and you just kind of have to find what works for you.

Mike Mills (Host) | 00:16:54 to 00:17:06

Do you consider yourself to be fairly tech savvy, or are you? Once in my life, I did. That happens as you get older and further away. That's right. Yeah.

Mike Mills (Host) | 00:17:07 to 00:17:32

As you age a little bit, the knowledge of how to communicate with people starts to separate. Some just because when you live in your own little sphere around your own people all the time, and then you come across someone that's 15 or 20 years younger than you and realize that they operate in a completely different manner, different way. Yes. It takes a little bit of an adjustment period, for sure, but you have some younger agents as well that have come on board, so you all can kind of collaborate and help each other with that. Right.

Chris Hightower (Guest) | 00:17:32 to 00:17:50

And that's the whole thing, is that we work together. So this is about them learning from each other and not being in competition and it works really good. We're super excited. What have you found about growing your network? Because you talk about that being a real important piece of having success in this business.

Mike Mills (Host) | 00:17:51 to 00:18:10

Why is it so important to get involved if I wanted to sell real estate right. And I just decided one day I was going to get involved in, I don't know, dog walking club, but I don't own a dog. Problematic. Right. So why is it important to get into something that you're passionate about?

Mike Mills (Host) | 00:18:10 to 00:18:23

What is that? Yeah, well, I think other people see that. They sense it, they know that you're passionate about it, and you find a way to connect. I think that's all everything is finding a way to connect with other people. Right.

Chris Hightower (Guest) | 00:18:24 to 00:18:49

And that's just been my life. I've just gotten involved in so many things throughout the city for so many years. Even while I was gone, I came back, I got right back into it and got involved in other things. And so the more people you know, I just think it's just so much easier to this person knows that person. You just have to continue to market yourself, make it known who you are and what you do.

Chris Hightower (Guest) | 00:18:49 to 00:19:13

It doesn't have to be all the time. Sure, but just as long as you constantly are dripping on them. Hey, by the way, if you know me and we hung out at the dog walking club, you know, I love it just it just works. So for your time that you've been at TCU, working there has the connections that you've made within that world really helped kind of boost your real estate career? Yeah, it's crazy.

Chris Hightower (Guest) | 00:19:14 to 00:19:21

I mean, everywhere go, I think I'm just a collector. Everywhere I go, I collect. Yes. Yes. And I don't know why, how.

Chris Hightower (Guest) | 00:19:21 to 00:19:43

I think it just comes naturally to me. I don't know what that's about, but whatever, it works, so I'm good with it. But, yeah, I met a lot of great people at TCU, great staff over there, love the school, and we both connected about TCU, so that's kind of how it works. Right, because y'all are both on the same page about what you're passionate about being in school, right? Yeah.

Chris Hightower (Guest) | 00:19:43 to 00:19:58

And when you're involved in an organization or whatever it is, you kind of know what the organization's values are, and if you're both participating, then you kind of share values together. I think that's the issue with realtors is that people need to feel like they trust you. Right. So you're not scamming them. Right.

Mike Mills (Host) | 00:19:59 to 00:20:38

Well, and I think it seems new agents, when they get involved, often they want to go directly to what I would call third party leads, where you go online and you're pulling people that are putting their information on the Internet and then reaching out to them, which, again, there's nothing wrong with that. There's plenty of people that have made complete careers on that kind of stuff. But if you're not comfortable with that or I think it's a good place to kind of earn your chops a little bit just because being rejected and calling somebody and having them yell at you to tell you to stop calling them and all that kind of stuff is I think it's kind of character building, I guess you'd call it. Right. So that's a good thing to have.

Mike Mills (Host) | 00:20:39 to 00:20:57

But I think most people are more comfortable selling and dealing in like you said, there's fear. But those training grounds or those leads can always be a good place to kind of learn and figure out what you're doing. Right. Yeah. And learning how to talk to people and figure out, okay, I just met this person on the phone or Internet or whatever.

Chris Hightower (Guest) | 00:20:57 to 00:21:07

How can I connect with them? How can I make a way so that they know they can trust me? Funny story. So when I first started real estate, actually did phone duty. This was back when we had phone duty.

Mike Mills (Host) | 00:21:07 to 00:21:15

Oh, yes. And people called into the agents. I remember that. Sat at the front desk and people would walk in and all that. So yeah, I remember those days.

Chris Hightower (Guest) | 00:21:15 to 00:21:25

But my first transaction was from the phone. Somebody calling when you're sitting at the. Brokerage and you just kind of have to work with it, figure it out. It's pretty much how the online leads are these days. Yes.

Mike Mills (Host) | 00:21:25 to 00:21:51

Well, the only difference was at least back then, they would call you, they were dialing the number to speak to you, whereas now they're just going to put their information out there and then they're going to have 8 million people call them. Oh my gosh, and we get so many strange leads. That not the right names. Like, this is Bart Simpson stuff, where they put in crazy names, wrong email addresses and stuff. So it's dicey, but it does work.

Mike Mills (Host) | 00:21:51 to 00:22:18

Yeah. Well, I mean, I think with that kind of thing, if you have a really good process and system in place to follow up with those leads and maintain them, then you can have a lot of success in it. But it is very process and system oriented. Like, you have to have a way that you contact and how many times and how often and all that kind of stuff to really have a benefit from it. But if you're built that way, if that's the kind of person that you are, there's plenty of agents that have made careers on that kind of stuff.

Mike Mills (Host) | 00:22:18 to 00:22:41

Absolutely. Just depends on the individual for the most part. But how are you adjusting to where we are right now in the market, as far as I do? Want to hear your perspective on what's occurred over the last, say, five years, because we went from this world where it was a very typical real estate market. You have your busy seasons, you have your slow seasons.

Mike Mills (Host) | 00:22:41 to 00:23:08

Things were maybe even a little bit busier than normal because rates were still 4% or whatever COVID hits. And then we have two years of insanity where it's just a free for all, everybody's trying to buy every house on the market, paying well over value. All this kind of stuff is happening. And then now we're in a world where all that came to a grinding halt. And now you really have to hustle in order to put yourself out there so you can be available when someone's ready to buy or sell.

Mike Mills (Host) | 00:23:08 to 00:23:23

So what have you seen from that stage to now? And how are you trying to adjust and what are you telling your agents to work on? Adjusting, to try to fit? Yeah, so I tell my agents to do everything that we talked about before, stay in touch with people. Right.

Chris Hightower (Guest) | 00:23:23 to 00:23:37

Be on top of it. There's going to come a time, I think, soon. It's funny, I was just talking about this somebody else the other day. I think there's going to come a time soon where sellers want to start selling. And I think that's what it's going to take to kind of break this market open.

Chris Hightower (Guest) | 00:23:37 to 00:24:03

It's just been COVID. Nobody wanted to move, they didn't want to go look at houses, they want to put their home on the market. Nobody knew what was going to happen with the economy, so they held onto their homes. But people are still getting married, they're still getting divorced, they're still moving because of a job or moving in for a job, or they still have life events, so they're still buyers. And so that's why I think the prices went up so high so quick.

Mike Mills (Host) | 00:24:03 to 00:24:29

That's right. But it's now stalling out and the listings are still slim. I mean, they're hard to come by, but the new home sales are slowing and so it's going to have to come from the listing market. So I think at some point, and I don't know when it's going to be there's all this talk about recession and inflation and what's going to happen and I'm an optimist. Sure got to be.

Mike Mills (Host) | 00:24:29 to 00:24:41

You can't wake up every day with misery on your mind. Yeah. It's just like when they say the good times, there's always going to be a bust. I kind of feel the opposite is true here. We've had this stagnation, I think, for a little while.

Chris Hightower (Guest) | 00:24:41 to 00:24:56

I think it's going to have to break free. There's going to have to be a moment where people feel good about the economy, selling their house, buying something new because they want to be in a new neighborhood or a new job or what. Maybe they're downsizing. Right. So I think that's going to come.

Chris Hightower (Guest) | 00:24:56 to 00:25:08

I don't know that it's going to come this year. If it does, I think it'll be late in the year, maybe second half of the year. I don't think it's coming soon. But I think the good news, especially here in Dallas fort Worth. Is that I don't see prices going down.

Chris Hightower (Guest) | 00:25:11 to 00:25:46

Even in 2008, 2009, we didn't really see a lot of price dropping because our homes here in DFW are not inflated like they are in California, Florida, Arizona, Nevada. We just don't have those crazy prices here. That's why people are moving to Texas. So I think prices are good, so that should encourage sellers. Yeah, well, the thing about Texas that's made it so, I mean, if you look at the migration patterns, know, Americans over the last couple of years, we are right near the top, if not the top, of the biggest influx of people to our market.

Mike Mills (Host) | 00:25:46 to 00:26:38

And it's because of we don't have state income tax, which is always nice. There's a lot know, I think during the, uh, era, if you want to call it that, which we're still kind of in certain states like us in Florida and Arizona to some extent, were a little less rigid. I guess you would call it, about how we were handling the situation, which anybody who was living in California or New York or a little bit more these states that were a little bit tighter on their know, got tired of that pretty quickly and wanted to get out of there. And so you saw a lot of people come because of that as well, which drove home prices up because we weren't ready for that influx of people. I've been barking on here for months about the fact that to have a healthy market for real estate, you need to have a supply of about four to six months.

Mike Mills (Host) | 00:26:38 to 00:26:51

Usually they want you to have about five months. That tends to be the average to make it to where it's a balanced buyer's and sellers market to where nobody's got again. That's right. And right now we're still under two. We don't even have two months.

Mike Mills (Host) | 00:26:51 to 00:27:21

And I think sometimes what we don't realize is when you look at the overall temperature of the market, where it stands, part of the reason people aren't selling is they've got where to buy. There's nowhere to buy. And if I'm looking at the choice saying if I don't have to move, right, like you said, some people, schools, jobs, life changes, relocations, life changes, you're going to have to do something. You don't have choice. But if you don't have to move, there's no incentive right now to move.

Mike Mills (Host) | 00:27:21 to 00:27:44

Because I've got, say, a 3% interest rate, because I bought my house within the last five or six years, I've got hundreds of thousands of equity, maybe, depending on what the purchase price was. So if I'm okay with the school and I'm okay with my current situation, nobody's going to move just for a change, right? They're going to stay where they're at. I think so much of it's based on perception, too. Sure.

Chris Hightower (Guest) | 00:27:44 to 00:28:02

I think they keep hearing the price of homes is so high, blah, blah, blah. And in a lot of cases it is. But if you're one of those people that will look at a house that needs a lot of work, you can get a good house like that, that needs a lot of work pretty reasonably right now. Oh, you can get a great deal right now. It's all about being creative.

Chris Hightower (Guest) | 00:28:02 to 00:28:23

But so many people want the perfect home, perfect this, the perfect that. Yes, but if you're willing to put some effort into it, this is not a bad time to sell and a bad time to buy. No, that's the thing. When you were saying home prices haven't fallen, they really haven't. Interest rates went up, they've come back down a little bit.

Mike Mills (Host) | 00:28:23 to 00:28:33

Now we're like in the low sixes. Sometimes you can even stretch into the. High five, which was great years ago. Yes, it was awesome. But back in November, we were knocking on 8%.

Mike Mills (Host) | 00:28:33 to 00:29:04

So when you go from 2% to 8% in less than twelve months, that's a massive increase in rate. And we still only saw home prices either level out or if they fell, they fell by like 1% or 2%, if that. I don't think it's going anywhere. And the issue becomes that, and this is again something I've been preaching about for a little while, is that when rates come back down, which they're not, unless there's some significant issue, we're not getting back in the twos and threes anytime soon. Okay, but fours and fives aren't unreasonable.

Mike Mills (Host) | 00:29:04 to 00:29:29

No. And when that happens, because everybody was so terrified of it being in the sixes and sevens and eight, that when they start seeing the five in front of it, the four in front of it, that's when people start making moves again. Because now we're conditioned to know that the rates were higher and we didn't want to do it then, but they've come down. Okay, well, again, they're not as low as they were, but they're lower than what we just experienced. So that recency bias thing, that kind of kicks in where people go, okay, well now it's ready to go.

Mike Mills (Host) | 00:29:29 to 00:30:00

Well, as soon as that happens, because like you said a minute ago, they're not building any homes or they're building some, but not nearly enough. And most of what they're building are multifamilities condos, apartments, townhomes, that kind of thing. So they're not building a bunch of houses and you don't have a bunch of people trying to list their home because they got a 3% rate and they don't need to sell. Right. And anybody that thinks there's this massive wave of foreclosures coming, go to the county steps and go see how many homes are for sale that are in Fort there's none.

Mike Mills (Host) | 00:30:00 to 00:30:17

Okay. Because again, two and 3% rates, 60, $70,000 worth of equity in your house on average, you're not foreclosing on that. Okay. You're going to sell it well before you go to foreclosure. So if that's not happening, so you're not getting foreclosures, you're not getting builds, and you're not getting people listing it.

Mike Mills (Host) | 00:30:17 to 00:30:33

So then where's the inventory is going to come from? Well, it's not coming anywhere anytime soon. And if that's the case and rates come back down again, now we're back in a place where people are having to pay 20,000, $30,000. It reminds me of the 2008, 2009 time period because it was a buyer's market. So it's the opposite.

Mike Mills (Host) | 00:30:33 to 00:30:45

Yes. And people would not be willing to sell because they couldn't sell their house for enough. Right. And so it's the same thing. You just have to look at it as what's better?

Mike Mills (Host) | 00:30:45 to 00:30:56

Well, you're going to catch it on either side. You're going to catch it on either side. That's right. Yeah. If you're selling now, there's a few people out there obviously that can sell and don't need to buy or are buying and not selling or whatever.

Mike Mills (Host) | 00:30:56 to 00:31:11

But for the most part, if you're selling your house, you're probably buying another house. So if you're in a seller's market, to sell is great, but then to buy is going to suck. Yeah, right. So Conrad says he went to the courthouse auction in November and there were two for sale. Only two.

Mike Mills (Host) | 00:31:11 to 00:31:22

So there's just the foreclosures aren't on the horizon. Well, that's why we're getting so many calls every day. Are you willing to sell your house? Oh, yeah. I don't know how many times I have to tell those people, no, I'm selling any of my house.

Mike Mills (Host) | 00:31:22 to 00:31:47

Well, because everybody's looking for listings. And that's the other thing, too, is that there's another I call it a threat, but you can call it whatever you want to the market, which is the commercial interests of buyers that are now purchasing homes and have been purchasing homes for the last four or five years, which are and I'm not talking about mom and Pop LLC. That's your landlord. This is a whole nother thing. That's right.

Chris Hightower (Guest) | 00:31:47 to 00:32:09

I'm talking about you need to because that will drastically change the market. What have you seen in that regards when you see these big corporations coming in and hedge funds and all these. Different well, not necessarily that I've seen anything, but I think what it's going to do it creates scarcity. Yes. And so when it creates scarcity, of course the price goes up for the individual buyer.

Mike Mills (Host) | 00:32:09 to 00:32:26

Right. So that's kind of the problem that we're going to face. So if you can buy and you're millennial and you've been waiting for the right time, now is the right time. Right. If you wait, all these big investment companies and corporations are going to own the majority of the property and therefore kind of own the price value.

Mike Mills (Host) | 00:32:26 to 00:32:40

Yes. So it's better to do it now than to wait that's right time. It's almost like I keep saying they're commoditizing housing is what it feels like they're doing. What do you think as far as when someone hears us? Okay, well, you need to buy right now.

Mike Mills (Host) | 00:32:40 to 00:32:59

And they say well, I can't because I don't have enough cash. We are in a situation now where, let's say you have an average normal job. You're making 40 or 50 or $60,000 a year. Your spouse is making the same. You have student debt because you went to college, because you were trying to do the right thing.

Mike Mills (Host) | 00:32:59 to 00:33:17

And now you've got $100,000 worth of student debt. You got a couple of car payments because you got to get to work, right? So you got a car lease. And then we look at your income as a lender, and I say, well, your debt and your income don't quite fit for the $500,000 house that you want, because when I bought my first house, I bought it for $130,000, and. This was in 130.

Chris Hightower (Guest) | 00:33:17 to 00:33:28

Really? Yes, in 2004. Okay. See, I bought over there on shorewood, over by Lake Arlington. Really cute little neighborhood.

Mike Mills (Host) | 00:33:28 to 00:33:49

It was about a 1700 square foot house, perfect little starter home for me and my wife. Paid $130,000. Our interest rate was 6% or whatever, but it wasn't a $300,000 house. That same house that I bought in 2004, it for 130, is now selling for 320. And it sold for that three years ago.

Chris Hightower (Guest) | 00:33:49 to 00:34:00

And to be really honest, it's going to continue to go up. So what does somebody do? What do we do? Well, the first thing I tell them to do is to call you. Honestly, that's good.

Mike Mills (Host) | 00:34:01 to 00:34:27

I appreciate that. I tell them to call you because you really kind of understand and can help walk people through all their assets, the money, everything, and kind of help them even if they can't buy today or next week. You can kind of help guide them on what they could do. And you do a great job at that because you got this really good big picture of how to piece that together to make it work for people. So that's what I do.

Mike Mills (Host) | 00:34:27 to 00:34:42

How do you think we got here? That's a you job. How did we get here, though? How did we get to a place where housing is so unaffordable at this point? Yeah, I think it's just a situation that we find ourselves in with all the things that are going on in the world.

Chris Hightower (Guest) | 00:34:42 to 00:34:51

People are now leaving their jobs. There's a huge exit for quiet. Quitting? Yeah, quitting. I mean, people are leaving those jobs.

Chris Hightower (Guest) | 00:34:51 to 00:35:13

People are retiring now. The baby boomers have been holding on for such a long time. Now they're starting to retire. Well, they're going to be selling their homes soon, so I kind of think that may actually be what moves us back into a real market, is when some of the baby boom homes start hitting the market because they're going to have to sell at some point to downsize. So we're waiting on all the old people to die is what you're saying, Chris?

Chris Hightower (Guest) | 00:35:13 to 00:35:27

No, it's just life changes. Yes. No, for sure. So I do think there's a lot of real estate that's being held that's aging, and at some point it's going to come loose and a lot of it is in town. Right.

Chris Hightower (Guest) | 00:35:27 to 00:36:03

And so it's that reinvestment of in town, especially in the Dallas Fort Worth area, you can continue to move out farther and further and further, or you can buy a home that maybe needs some love that's in town that's a lot cheaper on your gas and walkable to spaces and things like that. I think that's probably where we're headed here in this market. Are there areas around here that you particularly think are kind of developing and up and coming that you would even recommend to a young home buyer, say, hey, this is a part of town in Fort Worth and Arlington that you're going to see a lot happening over the next five to ten to twelve years. Yeah, definitely in Arlington. I mean, Arlington is really on the move.

Chris Hightower (Guest) | 00:36:04 to 00:36:24

They were investing a lot in the entertainment district. There's more to come there. So anything around the entertainment district and there's a lot of older homes that need a lot of love. There some communities that are kind of older and kind of aging. So anything around that, I think downtown Arlington in that area, it's going to be popping as well.

Chris Hightower (Guest) | 00:36:24 to 00:36:41

So I think there's some really good they've done. If you haven't been to downtown Arlington a little bit, by the way, they've done a lot of work down there. I don't get down there a ton because I live in Mansfield and stay in my little bubble, but anytime I go out there, I'm always shocked at how much they've done. Since I've trekked out, it's just on the move. They're not stopping.

Mike Mills (Host) | 00:36:41 to 00:36:52

No. So that's the cool thing. And when the city is investing and developers and other people are investing in downtown and the entertainment district, that's a place for you to.

Mike Mills (Host) | 00:36:55 to 00:37:12

You are let me go back to this guy. If you are looking to buy or sell in the Arlington area, please reach out to the Hightower Group, which is our new brokerage that we were just speaking of. So we got the whole team here. You want to tell me about everybody here real quick? Oh, gosh.

Chris Hightower (Guest) | 00:37:13 to 00:37:23

And I didn't bring my glasses. Oh, you can't see. So we got Vanja Vanja Gaither. If you're into investment, I mean, this woman has it down. She's done investment properties for years.

Chris Hightower (Guest) | 00:37:23 to 00:37:35

She's got several paid off. She's a master at that. Cammie Gresher has been in the community a long time. She's amazing. Micah Green, he's a new agent.

Mike Mills (Host) | 00:37:35 to 00:37:41

I know Micah quite well, and he's. Closing his first deal next week. Nice. All right. Congratulations to him.

Chris Hightower (Guest) | 00:37:41 to 00:37:49

And it's a listing. Fantastic. And he's going to have her as a buyer. Yeah. Micah was a former client of yours and a former client of mine.

Chris Hightower (Guest) | 00:37:49 to 00:37:54

Yes, that happens with me. A know, I know four of these. People were previous clients.

Chris Hightower (Guest) | 00:37:56 to 00:38:14

Ashley Kellogg, she's a fairly new young agent, lots of energy. She has some other side gigs and things rush. Is he's also into investment properties? Yes. And if you want to buy and flip and all that, he's got matrices on every listing out there in the Dallas Fort.

Mike Mills (Host) | 00:38:14 to 00:38:24

Oh, wow. Okay, so he's got the numbers to back it up and show you. Spends lots of time going through spreadsheets. That's fantastic. Jennifer Lancaster, she and her family, she was one of my clients.

Chris Hightower (Guest) | 00:38:24 to 00:38:38

I think she was a client two or three times for yes, yes. She's come back. Michael McCoy is new, excited to have him. He was in the title business and I told him, I was like, you know what? You are really good at your work.

Chris Hightower (Guest) | 00:38:38 to 00:38:53

You should get your real estate license because you're going to make a lot more money in real estate. Of course the timing is difficult because it's a weird market, but this guy's an up and comer. Well, and Michael does a ton of social media stuff. He's out there all the time. He's really coming to.

Chris Hightower (Guest) | 00:38:53 to 00:39:05

Yeah, he's doing really great job. I'm really proud of him. Chris Perez has been with me for a long time. Really great guy. And then Kendall is my Admin, and I actually have a couple of other agents that I don't have on here.

Chris Hightower (Guest) | 00:39:06 to 00:39:12

So this is a week old. They just keep coming on board. A week old. I got more coming. Okay.

Mike Mills (Host) | 00:39:12 to 00:39:37

Wow. I mean, that's great, man. I'm happy for you. I think that whenever you've been doing it as long as you have and you've built up a certain reputation with different agents, because, you know, I'm sure that working in the market, there are certain agents you like to work with and certain agents you don't necessarily like to work with. And we all have those experiences to some extent, just like lenders you like to work with and certain ones you don't.

Mike Mills (Host) | 00:39:37 to 00:40:00

So to be able to have that many people reach out just shows a lot about what you've been able to the reputation for yourself that you've built in the city and everything that you've done. And I think it's awesome that you're able to get this thing off the ground. So I think you guys are going to do fantastic. So let's move on to the Arlington Museum of Art. So here's an exhibit.

Mike Mills (Host) | 00:40:00 to 00:40:23

We'll come back to this in a second, but how do you go from, I'm working at TCU on the faculty now I'm selling real estate. Oh, by the way, now I'm going to be the CEO of the museum. How does that come? Well, kind of a long story, but the basics of it is my mom was on city council years ago. She was a state representative from Arlington.

Chris Hightower (Guest) | 00:40:23 to 00:40:46

And so my family and I have always been involved in community activities and things, and art was kind of one of those things. My dad was an artist. When I was a kid, my grandmother used to take me to museums in fort Worth, and I loved it, and just spending time with her was really important. I remember there was one time I asked my mom when she was on council, why do we always go to field trips to fort Worth? Why can't we go to Arlington for field trips and museums?

Mike Mills (Host) | 00:40:46 to 00:41:09

Right? She said, well, we don't have a well, for me, it was this very altruistic, like, we need to have one here in Arlington for people to come here. Not everybody can get to Fort Worth or Dallas, so kind of nerdy, but it is what it is, and I ended up on the board years ago. When did the museum actually open here in Arlington? 1989.

Mike Mills (Host) | 00:41:09 to 00:41:15

Okay. So it's been around for a little bit. Around a little while. Okay. I got on the board about 2005, something like that.

Mike Mills (Host) | 00:41:15 to 00:41:34

Okay. And just really loved it and think it's really important. So you had an appreciation for art prior to well, because I know nothing about art. The short story is that I was at TCU and took a lot of art history courses because I did so well in them. I needed the boost in my GPA.

Mike Mills (Host) | 00:41:35 to 00:41:44

I took a bartending class at tech, so I understand what you're talking about. But, you know, man, I loved it. I loved art history. I'm a history nut. Anyway, that was my major, was history.

Chris Hightower (Guest) | 00:41:45 to 00:42:09

So it kind of was a natural thing for me that I would like art history, and so I'd taken several art history courses, so I don't know everything there is to know about art, but I know that it's important for our community. So I quickly kind of rose in the ranks there. People kind of started leaning on me for, how do we manage this? We lost our staff in 2007, 2008. We didn't have staff.

Chris Hightower (Guest) | 00:42:09 to 00:42:19

We almost lost the building. I mean, we've been through some rough times, but now we're having these great exhibits. This one that you just had up is from Florence. Yeah. And it's check this guy out.

Chris Hightower (Guest) | 00:42:19 to 00:42:45

Armor and weapons and swords from 1500, 600, late medieval, early renaissance. So this is actual pieces or whatever that were created at that period of time that they're shown off. And obviously they're staging them in different ways. Or, like, are most of the exhibits there? Conor also know he says he owns an NFT.

Mike Mills (Host) | 00:42:46 to 00:42:56

Does that count? I hope we talk about we may get there. We're going to get to that. We're going to get to that. And then Michael wants to know, what's your favorite art medium?

Chris Hightower (Guest) | 00:42:57 to 00:43:14

Yeah, I'm kind of a traditionalist, so I love paintings. Okay. So is this particular exhibit is the right word? Artifacts, as opposed to there's not a lot of paint painting in this particular nighttail. One, you'd be surprised.

Chris Hightower (Guest) | 00:43:14 to 00:43:23

Like, you can't really see it, but in the armor. The etching in the armor is unbelievable. How detailed it is. Oh, my gosh. You'd be amazed.

Chris Hightower (Guest) | 00:43:24 to 00:43:34

Some of the embossing on some of it, they didn't emboss a lot. I don't even know what that means. You're going to have to help me out. Raise, raise. Raise versus etching is inside embossed like it was there.

Mike Mills (Host) | 00:43:34 to 00:43:43

Like somebody telling them what to do. Well, it would actually make the armor unstable. Okay. And so that's not helpful. You're not trying to make it pretty necessarily.

Chris Hightower (Guest) | 00:43:43 to 00:43:54

You want it to work, you need to be functional leg to be chopped off. But we have examples of all that kind of stuff. Okay. But yeah, the artisans, I mean, they didn't have machines like we have. Right.

Mike Mills (Host) | 00:43:55 to 00:44:02

It's all handcrafted. Yeah, this is all hand done stuff. Maybe. See, I live in conspiracy land a little bit. There's these previous civilizations.

Mike Mills (Host) | 00:44:04 to 00:44:15

Yeah. Aliens came down, took over. But yeah, no, the amount of work in artistry or just the craftsmanship, I guess, that goes into creating something like that is insane.

Mike Mills (Host) | 00:44:18 to 00:44:30

I think I told you this story last time, but I'm not necessarily an appreciator of art. I don't have anything against it at all. If I stand in front of a painting I'm looking at, I'm like, okay. You like it or you don't. Looks good.

Chris Hightower (Guest) | 00:44:30 to 00:44:50

That's not any different than anybody else on the planet. Right. But I do think that you don't have a real appreciation for it until you go see it in person. And when my wife and I went to France when we were younger, we got to go to the Louvre. And at the time, I think I was 25, maybe 24, something like that.

Mike Mills (Host) | 00:44:50 to 00:45:06

And you're in France, you're in Paris, you got to go to the Louvre. I didn't particularly want to. It was just like, hey, we're here. We're never going to probably be here again, so we need to go now. Granted, I think I told you my Rick Steves thing where I had like, the little podcast that I was listening to.

Mike Mills (Host) | 00:45:06 to 00:45:30

So that helps a ton, because when you're walking through something like that and you're looking at something, it just makes it come alive. Right. You don't understand the history behind it, then there's no way to really appreciate it because you got to know what went into the creation of it, how it came about. But the story behind the art is such a big player in the appreciation of it. But you don't understand that until you're standing in front of it and someone's talking to you about it.

Mike Mills (Host) | 00:45:30 to 00:45:47

Which is why going to see this stuff in person is such a big impactful thing. Right? Yeah. And I think that's one of the things we try to do at our museum in Arlington is make it very accessible for people we don't want. People I know a lot of people go to the museum and they stand at a piece of work.

Chris Hightower (Guest) | 00:45:47 to 00:46:05

And they're like, I'm supposed to look at this for a certain amount of time and notice something amazing out of it. How long am I how long is it okay, can I move now? Is somebody watching me? We don't want that kind of experience for our so we try to make it engaging in various ways. We have docents and tours.

Chris Hightower (Guest) | 00:46:05 to 00:46:14

We also have a guide by cell program that's interactive videos. And it's free. It's not like the press one. And you sit there and listen. It's very interactive.

Mike Mills (Host) | 00:46:14 to 00:46:30

Right. So we try to do our stuff. And the cool thing and I don't know if we're going to talk about this, but I'm going to go ahead and lay it out there. We're selling the building and we're moving from 5500 gallery space to 35,000 gallery space. Wow.

Chris Hightower (Guest) | 00:46:30 to 00:46:35

Yeah. Yes. You told me that last time. You all are really expanding this thing. And where are you going to?

Chris Hightower (Guest) | 00:46:35 to 00:46:45

Well, I can't tell you the exact location. Secret location. I can't tell you it's in the. Entertainment it's like the Bat Cave. It's in the entertainment district in Arlington.

Mike Mills (Host) | 00:46:45 to 00:46:55

Okay. And we're going to have seven times the square footage that we have now. Help me out. What is defined as the entertainment district in Arlington right now. Okay, so the Six Flags.

Mike Mills (Host) | 00:46:55 to 00:47:00

Okay. All down in there. Ballpark. Got you. At and T's, all of that stuff.

Mike Mills (Host) | 00:47:00 to 00:47:10

Texas live. Okay. Got you. So somewhere in that general vicinity is 35,000 something of our gallery space. But then on top of that, we have more square footage.

Chris Hightower (Guest) | 00:47:10 to 00:47:36

So we'll have a total of about 50,000 sqft. So one of the directions that I see when I pay attention to it from time to time is with the art world, if that's the right way to put it. And this is you sent me this immersive art nowadays where I think it first kind of came at least to this area, like the Van Gogh type situation. That was in the Modern Art Museum of Dallas. Is that right?

Chris Hightower (Guest) | 00:47:36 to 00:47:46

That was in the lighthouse. They have a new building in okay. Okay. So they had one and then there was one in Arlington at Choctaw okay. Last year.

Mike Mills (Host) | 00:47:46 to 00:48:02

Okay. So explain to me what that is, exactly what the whole experience is like here's an image of kind of what to expect when you walk into something like that. Yeah. So what we're planning on in this building is having a variety of experiences. So we'll have traditional experiences like the one you just saw that we have currently.

Chris Hightower (Guest) | 00:48:02 to 00:48:22

But we're also looking at immersive exhibits. And what I love about the one that you've got here, this is actual art that's designed to be immersive versus the Van Gogh experience, where it was really van Gogh's paintings were two dimensional. They were paintings that were not intended to be that way. Somebody created that atmosphere. And it's a little different than what you've got here on the screen.

Mike Mills (Host) | 00:48:22 to 00:48:45

Right. You're taking an old artist in his work and then trying to recreate something else around it versus starting with the idea of creating it as immersive. I got you. So a little bit different, but if we have the opportunity to do a van Gogh or something, we'll probably do it. But these are the kinds of things, the one that you have here, this is the kind of stuff that really feeds our soul.

Chris Hightower (Guest) | 00:48:45 to 00:49:01

So be expecting. We're talking about 20,000 sqft. For immersive gallery space and 17,000 traditional gallery space. We're also looking at interactive exhibits, kind of like Meow Wolf. So if you're familiar with that meow Wolf?

Mike Mills (Host) | 00:49:01 to 00:49:17

No, I'm not familiar with meow wolf. It sounds like something my wife would definitely be interested in, though. She's like, cats, wolves, I'm in, sign me up. It's really an experience. So they create this three dimensional world that you walk through and get to touch and play with.

Chris Hightower (Guest) | 00:49:17 to 00:49:29

So kids really love them. Okay. There's a variety of interactive stuff that we can get that we're looking at as well. And then new age stuff. Kind of like the NFT.

Mike Mills (Host) | 00:49:29 to 00:49:37

Yes, you sent me something earlier. I can't put it up here because it's more of a video than anything else and my little system gets bogged down from that.

Mike Mills (Host) | 00:49:40 to 00:50:08

Explain as well as you know, and I'll try to add in what I can. So when someone mentions an NFT these days, right. There's a lot of use cases for it, but primarily, or I should say it has started in the art world. And what have you seen, or are you all starting to move in that direction a little bit at all? Or considering creating something that kind of leans towards that direction?

Chris Hightower (Guest) | 00:50:08 to 00:50:30

Yeah, they're somewhat controversial for many reasons. I won't go dig down into the depths of it, the blockchain and all that kind of stuff. Basically, when you buy an NFT in the art world, you're buying like a certificate of authenticity. Correct. You get to use that specific image as your own, but it does never really belongs to you.

Chris Hightower (Guest) | 00:50:30 to 00:50:44

But you get to use it like it belongs to you. It always belongs to the artist. So it's kind of cool in that respect that it's kind of like a bond that the artist is selling. But the artist always owns the IP, which they did anyway. Sure.

Chris Hightower (Guest) | 00:50:44 to 00:51:08

Van Gogh, as long as he lived, he owned the IP for his pieces. But they're very popular, especially the digital stuff, the movie kind of pieces. There's a museum that we visited in France last year on a Museum Travel Alliance tour. They had an NFT. The MoMA, I think, recently has purchased one that was a video I sent you.

Chris Hightower (Guest) | 00:51:08 to 00:51:49

So it's becoming more popular and big museums are putting a little bit of effort into well, the expecting one will have one at the museum here in town before long. The thing. With the NFTs is we obviously talked about this before, but I think the certificate of ownership is a good example to help explain it, because that's really what an NFT is. It is proof that that particular piece of art is yours. So whether you had it on a pre, like if you own the Mona Lisa and you have whatever proof that is, that you own that some bill of sale certificate or whatever, it's been.

Chris Hightower (Guest) | 00:51:49 to 00:52:07

Harder to prove in the past, correct? Yes. Because they didn't know things were forged and you had documents and all this kind of stuff. Well, with NFTs and the blockchain, it records it permanently on the blockchain. So as long as we still have power on the planet, which hopefully that continues to go on forever.

Mike Mills (Host) | 00:52:07 to 00:52:41

If it doesn't, we got problems. But as long as we still have power and access to the web, then you can always prove ownership of a particular piece of art through NFT. Now, the difference is that the NFTs themselves are actually art also. And I think we talked about how it's like, well, if I own this particular piece of art on my phone, essentially I have a cold storage wallet. There's a little bit more that goes into it, but it's something that I can track, and I only have access to myself because I have a key that's associated to it.

Mike Mills (Host) | 00:52:41 to 00:53:03

Well, then I can always prove that belongs to me. It doesn't mean that other people can't see it. It doesn't mean that other people can't use it. It doesn't mean if I go to the Louvre and with my cell phone, I don't even know if you can, but if I do, if I take a picture of the Mona Lisa on my phone, well, I have an image of it, and I can show it to anybody I want, but I don't own it. It's not mine.

Mike Mills (Host) | 00:53:03 to 00:53:23

Right. I don't have the rights to sell it. And the really cool thing that I think that NFTs are creating for artists in particular is they're helping further monetize their art, because in the past, I'm fairly certain this is how it if let's just say Bob Ross, okay? My favorite artist of all time. Yes.

Mike Mills (Host) | 00:53:23 to 00:53:34

If I'm Bob Ross, and I make a painting by Bob Ross. Okay. And I sell that painting to you, Chris. All right? Once I sell it to you, you own it, right?

Mike Mills (Host) | 00:53:34 to 00:53:54

I don't own it any longer because I sold that piece of artwork to you. You carried around. You have it in your house. You have that piece of art, and then if you turn around and you sell it to somebody else, then now they own that. And the only revenue or income that I make off that piece of art is the very first time I sell it to you.

Mike Mills (Host) | 00:53:54 to 00:54:36

Okay? Well, the beauty about NFTs now, like you just said, is that for the artist, it's income, and residual income that continues as long as that art is sold and resold again. Because now I have a trail where if I sell it to you, I get the full cut on it or whatever, but then I can build into that ownership certificate or whatever you want to call it, for the NFT that when you turn around and sell it to somebody else, I get a 2% cut or a 3% cut or 5% cut or whatever it is I want to build into it. So every time that piece of art is resold for whatever reason, then I get some money, right. And my favorite argument is always like, well, how does that have any value?

Mike Mills (Host) | 00:54:36 to 00:54:51

Why would someone want to buy a piece of art that's on your phone? I don't know. Why would someone want to buy a bunch of Campbell's soups on a piece of canvas? Because they do. Because it holds intrinsic collectors want to.

Chris Hightower (Guest) | 00:54:51 to 00:55:02

Collect what they collect. That's right. Whether it's old cars or art, digital art or whatever. That's right. And there's been a million paintings that have come across that have come on the planet that don't sell for anything.

Mike Mills (Host) | 00:55:02 to 00:55:16

Right. Just like there's a million NFTs that don't sell for nothing. But there are some that sell for a lot. Correct. And a lot of it, again, goes back know, why was Van Gogh's art so great?

Mike Mills (Host) | 00:55:16 to 00:55:50

Well, if I were a betting man and back in that time, I would imagine that it had to do something with Van Gogh himself and who he was and the type of character he was and what he involved himself in in those times. And then that just carried know, once people in that era associated value to that, then that just carried itself forward into perpetuity. Now it had to be good, too. That's an interesting thing that you bring that up, because we're talking about the immersive. That's one of the things about the immersive that drives me crazy, because he's known for his texture, the paint and the brushstrokes and the texture and the color and all of that.

Chris Hightower (Guest) | 00:55:50 to 00:56:09

You totally lose it when you translate that to an immersive exhibit. So that's one of those things that. You don't get the true appreciation for it. Why go see that when you can go see the real Van Gogh stuff? So, to me, having an immersive that's built in as an immersive is a much better experience.

Mike Mills (Host) | 00:56:09 to 00:56:44

Yeah, well, some of that immersive stuff, I think, though, because especially in the art world, because things are so I think it's tough right now because things are so digital. Not digital, but everything's so connected and there's so much information coming constantly that used to if you went to an art museum, you would go there and you'd walk around, you'd look, and you were killing time, essentially. I mean, you were there to do something, but now killing time. I heard that to go to an well, I'm just saying, you have time to appreciate it, right. Without thinking about a million other things.

Mike Mills (Host) | 00:56:45 to 00:57:08

And today, if you walk into any kind of modern art music, you've got your phone, you've got all these things that you're worried about, so you don't really take time to actually appreciate what you're going through. So to introduce somebody like Van Gogh to a 25 year old who could give two rats butt about it, but if you put it in another package. And say accessible yes. That's what we're talking about, is making art accessible. Right.

Mike Mills (Host) | 00:57:08 to 00:57:33

And then maybe they dive a little deeper. Wow, this was really cool. I actually want to go see one in person, investigate it. Yeah, it's all about introducing things to the next generation. I mean, golf has this problem where you have a situation that you got a bunch of old guys that are the only ones that play golf, because it's a four hour event for 18 holes, and you got to be out there all day, and it's a whole got time for that.

Mike Mills (Host) | 00:57:33 to 00:58:02

So you see golf courses popping up all over the place that are par three nine holes, so you can get in and out an hour and a half top golf, all this type of stuff, that's just another way to introduce people with it. Yeah. A younger audience to something like that. And I think every industry, to some extent, especially when it comes to extracurricular stuff like art or golf or anything else, you've got to figure out how to reach a new audience. And this type of stuff is the step in that direction.

Mike Mills (Host) | 00:58:02 to 00:58:20

But then you get to really go to the next part, which is the actual creators who are making the immersive art for that purpose, and then it kind of can blow you out of the water. Right? Yeah, we're excited about it. It'll be New Fort Worth, and it'll be a good niche. The other museums are not going to do this.

Chris Hightower (Guest) | 00:58:20 to 00:58:33

Yes, that's okay. We can let the Arlington Museum of Art thank you. You got it. You're going to lead the way. So you do have an event coming up that you want to talk about, which is eat your art out.

Chris Hightower (Guest) | 00:58:34 to 00:58:43

Such a great event. It does. I love the name. That's awesome name. So this is February 25 of this year.

Mike Mills (Host) | 00:58:43 to 00:58:51

I mean, I'm assuming that's just when it starts, right? It's running for a little bit of time. No, it's just a one night event. Because you're going to eat everything. You will eat everything.

Mike Mills (Host) | 00:58:51 to 00:59:00

I guess that makes sense. Okay. So, yeah, if you're going to go to this, you got to get there. You got to get your tickets ready to go. I'm going to have to tell my wife about this.

Mike Mills (Host) | 00:59:00 to 00:59:09

I think we're probably going to have to go to this thing. So tell me a little bit about this guy. Yeah. So we have bakers and confectionery artists create something. Okay.

Mike Mills (Host) | 00:59:09 to 00:59:17

Like these guys. Like these? Yeah, the Ursula here. And last year we did a Disney exhibit, so some of our bakers did the Disney theme. Okay.

Chris Hightower (Guest) | 00:59:17 to 00:59:23

These are cakes. A, they're gorgeous. Yes. But B, they were incredible to eat. Yes.

Chris Hightower (Guest) | 00:59:23 to 00:59:31

I mean, it was amazing. But you can walk around. I mean, you just can't eat. Try all of them, right? We usually have about 15 cake.

Chris Hightower (Guest) | 00:59:31 to 00:59:44

Ursula here is more than one cake. That's like ten cakes. Yeah, there's a lot of bites on that one. So there's so much to eat and it's such a lot of fun. You get to meet these bakers and what they're doing.

Chris Hightower (Guest) | 00:59:44 to 00:59:53

We also have some other food, just if you can't eat that many sweets. But it's a really cool event. Should try to come sometime. All right, yeah, no, I wrote it down. So I think we're breath.

Mike Mills (Host) | 00:59:53 to 01:00:22

Definitely going to have to attend that one just because if it involves art and food, then I feel like my wife's going to be all on board with that. Yes, she's going to be really excited. So anything else coming up with the museum that you want to talk about or anything else that's happening that you're excited about? You want to let the tens and tens of people aware of? Well, besides the fact that we're going to move, we'll probably be moving in about a year, so be on the watch for press release in the next month on where we're moving, what's happening with all that.

Chris Hightower (Guest) | 01:00:22 to 01:00:39

We also have another exciting exhibit coming that I can't yet disclose, but it's. Going to be secret location, secret exhibit. Everybody stay tuned. This is going to be one of those that we're the only people in the country that are going to get access to this. Oh, wow.

Chris Hightower (Guest) | 01:00:39 to 01:00:49

They called us and said, hey, will you do this? Really big name, really big exhibit. We're super excited about it. You heard it right here on Mike Mills. That's right, you heard it here first, folks.

Chris Hightower (Guest) | 01:00:49 to 01:01:01

Tens and tens of you, the tens. Of tens of you that are watching this now, you know, and you can get first shot at it. Well, that's really cool that they reached out to you guys. It really is. And this is going to be once you get into the new building, right?

Chris Hightower (Guest) | 01:01:01 to 01:01:08

No, actually this is going to be in March. Oh, wow. Okay, so this is right around the corner. Yeah, we'll probably have a press release out this week. Okay.

Chris Hightower (Guest) | 01:01:08 to 01:01:25

We'll probably have it contracted and everything the next couple of days. Very cool, very cool. I was hoping we'd have it before this so I could tell so you. Could tell everybody about it, but instead we have to throw chum in the water and make no promises or anything else. Well, we're already in an hour.

Mike Mills (Host) | 01:01:25 to 01:02:00

Yes, I know. Shop by real quick, right? Well, I appreciate you popping in and telling us about your new brokerage and your sad event in California, going to watch the frogs do their thing. And then, of course, everything regarding the art museum, I think what you're doing there is awesome. And to have that passion, like you said, that you can dive into that does nothing but feed your real estate business, too, because you're yeah, you meet people all over the city, and you get to have conversations with people from all walks of life.

Chris Hightower (Guest) | 01:02:01 to 01:02:11

And let me put a plug in. So if you're a realtor out there, realtor out there and you don't know how to meet people, come volunteer at the museum. Yes. There you go. Great way to get to know other people.

Mike Mills (Host) | 01:02:11 to 01:02:23

People are coming in all the time. You got to meet people. So you all take volunteers to kind of have them walk around and show them where everything is. I just like to check in to come in. And it's a great way to meet people.

Mike Mills (Host) | 01:02:23 to 01:02:42

Hey, if you appreciate so that's the next thing. If your passion is art and you want to get involved in something that is related to your passion, then you can go volunteer at the museum, and you can meet new clients all the time. Well, is there anything else you'd like to talk about before we go? No, I'm good. Okay.

Mike Mills (Host) | 01:02:42 to 01:02:51

You got it all out there. We can do a part two, like some down. Yes. Well, once we get the new building up, I definitely want to do that. Maybe we'll do an on location.

Mike Mills (Host) | 01:02:51 to 01:02:58

We can walk through and see it all. That'd be really cool. Yes. Well, thanks for popping in. Really appreciate you coming down here to do this again.

Mike Mills (Host) | 01:02:59 to 01:03:09

And that's all we got. We'll see you guys next time. You all have a good week, and I'll be back on Thursday, so see you then.

Mike Mills (Host) | 01:03:11 to 01:03:11

Bye.