Behind the Jingle, Beyond the Sale with Howard Nett

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Interview Transcription

ADRIENNE: 
Welcome back, and thanks for listening to the team Lally real estate show, home of the guaranteed sold program, or we’ll buy it. I’m Adrienne and I’m still atilio, and if you have any questions, just give us a call at 7999596, or check us out online at Team lally.com

ATTILIO: 
Our guest today is a seasoned professional with talents in music, business and real estate. He began his career with the San Francisco Jazz Festival, later support an award winning architectural firm, and has been with Team Lally since 2008 he also composed and sang the team Lally jingle, bringing his musical passion into the heart of the brand.

ADRIENNE: 
He is known for his creativity, dedication and clear communication. He takes pride in delivering excellent service and building strong relationships throughout each transaction. Please welcome our guest, Howard net,

(JINGLEPLAYING)
when you’re trying to find the best of the best, don’t settle for an agent that’s just like the rest. Pick a team that knows just what to do from buying or selling. We work hard for you. Team Lally, the best real estate in the island. 2272703,

ATTILIO: 
Howard, do you know what we just did? We did, like a tick tock video. You know, where like the playing, but we’re lip syncing it, and we are dancing, and we’re dancing. We’re like, how did Howard get this whole reggae band squeezed into our radio studio just now? So love Howard. How long ago? How long ago did you come up with the team Lally

HOWARD:
jingle? Oh, my goodness. About 15 years. Yeah, yeah.

ADRIENNE: 
By the way, I think he came up with it for like, once we started doing the radio show, yeah, was like a couple years

ATTILIO: 
in. So it’s got to be over. That’s got to be over 10 years, like, maybe 2012 Yeah, 1112

ADRIENNE: 
but anyway, love our jingle. Thank you.

ATTILIO: 
Howard the jingle? Yeah, you love the jingle. And then you can download that right now on iTunes for 38 cents,

HOWARD:
if that maybe more like 12 cents, yeah.

ATTILIO: 
And no pennies, because they’re getting rid of all the pennies. Did you know what they’re getting rid they’re not gonna make any pennies starting next year. No more pennies. Wow.

HOWARD:
Okay, well, I think we have enough already. Probably, yep.

ATTILIO: 
And so Howard, what’s it? Why did you? Here’s a question for you. Why did you decide to get into real estate? Because you’re you’re like a musician, like a mute. You like music. You’re professional because you get paid to play. Why? Why real estate?

HOWARD:
Um, I think I. Always been in sales. In some fashion, I’ve always been the guy that booked the bands and done door to door sales, and you name it. I’ve probably tried to sell it at one point. Yeah, I feel like that was kind of my background, yeah, as a day job for a struggling musician.

ATTILIO: 
You know, at the age of 12, Howard broke all sales records for Mary Kay. They gave him a pink 10 speed bike. He rode it everywhere to school, and he was, he was known everywhere. No, you saw didn’t you sell, like, grit or something, you know, that newspaper you go door to door. What were you selling? Greeting Cards, yeah.

HOWARD:
I was back when they didn’t watch their children. I was going door to door at 10 or 11, collecting you had a newspaper, the Sunday newspaper out yeah, these little, this little book of tabs, and you would Yeah. It was like $3 or something like that, for a month. It was

ATTILIO: 
yeah, the Sunday newspaper, those things are, like heavy, like a log back in those days, and you got to go deliver, like, 150 of them, and, and

HOWARD:
what a snow and freezing temperature it was. It was an experience,

ATTILIO: 
yeah, back then, that’s what you do. The kids do that today. You calling CPS, what? Yeah, they’re working in the snow, not on their phones, and they’re working, this is crazy. Call somebody

ADRIENNE: 
so, so Howard, so you’ve been with the team since 2008 that’s a pretty long, long time. And, you know, with the team, and then just in the real estate industry, like, give us some, you know, some reasons why you’ve stuck with it all these years through all these different markets that we’ve experienced.

HOWARD:
You know, Team Lally has kind of become second family for me, so that’s one of the main reasons. And always like meeting new people and interacting with people, and, yeah, hearing their stories, and hopefully helping, you know them find a solution to whatever problems or needs they need. You know, have a real estate world, so it’s just been kind of a good fit. It’s something new every day, which is, keeps the job fresh, and you know young at heart,

ATTILIO: 
and think for you to like playing music was a passion. So that was something that you know you could do evenings and weekends because you knew and how long you’ve been like. When did you ever When did you get your first gig? Was it at grandma’s 100th birthday?

HOWARD:
I was a junior in high school, I believe, and my guitar teacher, drummer had another band, and he did a bass player last minute. And so I went and played reggae music all night long to actually most of the songs I didn’t know, but been playing long enough I could kind of fake it. So it was pretty, pretty, pretty entertaining. It was like a 17 year old with a bunch of 40 year old guys.

ADRIENNE: 
How many instruments do you play? Howard? Um,

HOWARD:
I play about four instruments I play, piano, drums, guitar and bass.

ADRIENNE:
Nice. You’re like a one man band. You’re like the one

ATTILIO: 
man man, because you can lay all those tracks down and tell us about the genesis of this team. Lally jingle. Like, how did you come up with the words and where did like, how did you record it? Where did you produce it? All that stuff. Give us the history. So this can be in the team Lally rock. You mentioned?

HOWARD:
Well, it was, I happen to get a really great connection. My neighbor’s brother in law is a MUA Garza, and he’s one of the more famous producer engineers on the island, and was also one of the leads for the band of peaky pickers. Yeah, has songs on the radio all the time. And so I came up with the jingle at my house. And then I knew my recording skills are pretty, pretty bad. So I knew I needed to reach out to a professional. And I was recording some other music with a moo at the time. And so I went over to his house, and I think we banged it out in like about an hour, yeah, and I knew I I just liked the way, the the flow of, you know, when you’re trying to find I knew I had, I knew how to little catchy, catchy line there. I feel like it just came pretty quick. Sometimes it takes a while to come up with lyrics and stuff, but this was one of those ones

ADRIENNE: 
that, yeah, so So Howard. How would you say that your creativity with the music side of your I. Life and your brain helps you just to serve clients at a very high level. On the real estate side, yeah,

HOWARD:
I would say it helps me come up with multiple solutions, quickly and creative solutions, or creative little marketing ideas, any number of things to, you know, keep keep the ball moving. And because I’ve been through so many transactions, I can kind of remember all the pitfalls that have happened in the past. And, you know, use that as a base for solving, solving complex problems quickly.

ADRIENNE:
Yeah, you do have an excellent memory. I was like, it’s amazing how much stuff that you can recall. Yeah, from years ago. Yeah,

ATTILIO: 
more than a week or two out. What’s your next gig? I just want to throw that out there to the

ADRIENNE: 
audience the gig schedule. Yeah,

HOWARD:
this week over Thursday, we’re at lanterns and Waianae

ATTILIO: 
lantern floor, yeah,

HOWARD:
we’re in Mililani at tops and apps on Friday, yeah, Saturday, I’m playing twice. I’m at moku in town in the early happy hour, and then spend the late Happy Hour evening at 604 at Barbers Point. And then Sunday, we do brunch at Island vintage coffee that’s

ADRIENNE: 
a nice gig. We went

ATTILIO:
out Father’s Day. It was packed, yeah, lying out the door, and they were all there. They weren’t there for the avocado toast. They were there to hear Howard they were and I heard there was bubbles. He was so good, he blew the power out. No, the Hey managers over at Island vintage work on the outlets over there, so you pop the circuits. But so yeah, it was that’s a nice venue right there on the deck. And it’s really your I like how the the music and the style that you guys play, people are still talking story and interacting and not too loud, not too loud. And it’s except when you got into the metal militia, militia stuff. No, it’s just all like, super How would you say, what is the genre of you guys music? And then we’ll get back to some real estate questions.

HOWARD:
I guess you could say Adult Contemporary or just Chardonnay music. We can play anything you want, but we’re just trying to be good background music, most of the gigs that we play right now.

ATTILIO: 
And what is the genre of your real estate, your real estate experience? How would you describe that genre?

HOWARD:
I would say cornucopia of everything you know, from high end luxury to, you know, yeah, I’ve got a couple studios right now that are, you know, on under 300,000 which anybody knows in Hawaii

ATTILIO: 
a smoking deal, yeah, that’s

HOWARD:
not too often. 300,000

ATTILIO: 
for a studio that’s a down payment on a two bedroom condo, 300,000

HOWARD:
and then, and then, how they’re even lower than that. They’re like, too, too low, 200 so, yeah,

ADRIENNE: 
why don’t you touch on all of the distressed properties sales that you’ve been involved with? Because we are starting to see those kind of situations creep back into the market. It’s been a while. Yeah, but you know, let’s, let’s touch on that, and maybe some tips for anyone who is facing that kind of situation. Yeah,

HOWARD:
yeah. Well, I started, you know, my serious real estate career in 2008 and dropped into the short sale Wild Wild West then, and I’ve done hundreds of short sales REOs. I’ve done distressed homes where people have money and but they’re behind in payments. And I would say, you know, one of the first keys is, don’t, don’t wait. You know, the worst thing you can do is just close your eyes and hope for something, some magic to happen, because the banks are very unemotional and will, you know, keep pursuing foreclosure if you’re not making payments. And you know, they just have no emotion when it comes to your situation, and if you you know, reach out to them quickly enough. They, you know, usually want to work with you. They’re not in the business of foreclosing. So they’re always open to, you know, other avenues of getting your home sold. And. And especially your HOA as well.

ADRIENNE: 
Howard, how important is it for you know, someone who’s in this kind of situation to like, you know, not only you know, stay in communication with their bank, but have, you know, an agent that really understands the process. Oh,

HOWARD:
it’s very critical. Yeah, an agent needs to have that background and you know, knowing how to reach out to lien holders, how to negotiate and line up any number of lien holders together for the same cause, because you might have as many as four lien holders, and everybody’s got to agree. So it’s very critical to have strong negotiation skills and good solutions. Is key. Howard,

ADRIENNE: 
what’s, what’s the most amount of liens on one property that you ever negotiated you had to deal with the max. What’s the record? I

HOWARD:
think, I think it was seven. Oh, and what were they

ADRIENNE:
seven? Do you remember

HOWARD:
first, a second and Hoa, that was three. Tax was four, yeah. And then I believe there was, like a personal, like a lawsuit, five. And then I believe there was two credit cards as well,

ADRIENNE: 
no child support, liens, no child support. Oh, no, I want

HOWARD:
you might be right. It was seven or eight. They

ATTILIO: 
want to get their child support money. People. So, hey, pay, pay. Hey, get the money throughout a party so they can take care of the kids, you know. And

ADRIENNE: 
then it’s not just that simple, like, then Howard has to go in and get everything, get everybody to agree to a lower payoff, or even sometimes zero, no payoff, and they just have

ATTILIO: 
to release, yeah, I think you should write a jingle for this type so when you fall behind on your mortgage payments. Don’t wait to be foreclosed. Give Howard a call. What’s your number? No, we, I mean, and we don’t consider that situation. Don’t take it the wrong way that that we think it’s a joke and it’s funny. What you think you funny? I mean, Brian on my mortgage payments? No, we don’t. Here’s the most important thing, Howard, would you agree that the only people that get foreclosed on are the ones who just they do the ostrich thing, put their head in the sand and just ignore it? Yeah, and we get it. And here’s the thing that I would tell you, that we always tell Howard said it. Adrienne said we always say it at the end of our consultation. You’re not bad people. You’re just in a bad situation. Separate the two. You’re good people, just in a bad situation and unfortunate circumstances, loss of income, medical bills, just things went sideways real quick. And there’s no reason to be foreclosed on. There’s always a solution. Who is give Howard a call?

ADRIENNE: 
So, um, yeah. So Howard, we do. We have a career night coming up. We’ve been talking about this career night. And so we do get, you know, new agents or agents that are interested in joining our team, and you’ve been on our team since 2008 if you had any kind of advice for a new agent or someone that is, you know, thinking about joining our team, what would it be? What would that advice be? Howard,

HOWARD:
you know, explore your options. And you know, a team can be a very good place to start real estate, especially a team like Team Lally, where the education part and the motivation is part of the real estate world is very strong if you go to, you know, some random big office, yeah, and they don’t have a good training, and they don’t really keep you motivated. I mean, it’s hard to, it’s a hard business to, you know, stay, stay motivated and, and, you know, constantly be learning, because everything changes, yeah, pretty much yearly. In real estate. At some level, you have to always be, always be learning what’s new and what’s changing and and, you know, getting ready for the next big thing. Yeah,

ADRIENNE: 
so who would be an ideal team teammate for you? Because, you know, you’ve been on the team since 2008 and you’ve seen a lot of different types of agents come and go, Yeah, but like, Who’s, who’s, like, what kind of agent stands out or does the best?

HOWARD:
I would say it’s really key to have good communication skills and, like, a little internal fire that, you know, keeps you motivated, because there’ll be days when all you hear is no or, you know, just sales is not always bubble gum and roses. So you need to have that kind of internal fire and fortitude and and then. The person that you know learns from their mistakes and takes notes and and you know, really puts the effort in there. Yeah, every day to you know, get better, because if you’re always learning, then you know, you tend to not make the same mistakes that you made in the past. Yeah, you get better as an agent and better with people and you know better finding solutions when they’re when you know problems do

ATTILIO: 
arise. Yeah, you have somebody to go to, to lean on, to help you with your situation. Howard, I’m going to give you three questions that everybody should be asking when interviewing teams, real estate teams. Number one, do you have a jingle? Number two, do you guys have snacks? And then number three, do you have a pet friendly office? Yeah,

HOWARD:
those are good. Sometimes I think it’s a doggy daycare.

ATTILIO: 
And if you cannot if they don’t answer yes to all three of those questions. Just Move along. Move along, folks, because I’ll tell you right now, we got a jingle, we got snacks, and we’re pet friendly off. In fact, go to our team on our website. There’s even some some pets on that, some furry pets on there, or maybe Howard didn’t shave for a couple of days. No,

ADRIENNE: 
no, Howard is there. But then there’s some pets on there too. Yeah, we got

ATTILIO: 
what? Roxy and Bo and Bo. We get mochi on there. Mochi is not

ADRIENNE: 
on there. I’ll take a picture of mochi. We’ll get her on there. Yeah. And we need

ATTILIO: 
What’s your dog’s name? Howard,

HOWARD:
JC and Pablo. JCM, yeah. I have the unusual pet I have, a giant tortoise.

ATTILIO: 
Giant tortoise. You know, a tortoise is a representation of of a short sale. It’s gonna

HOWARD:
take time

ADRIENNE: 
for you Howard and

ATTILIO: 
it literally that turtle could probably get all the way across his huge yard before we get a lender approval. That’s the thing with short sales. So keep that in mind. Be patient like a tortoise

ADRIENNE:
very well. We are coming to the end of the show. Howard. Thank you so much for what the tortoises name? What’s the tortoise? His name like tortie or something,

HOWARD:
if you know, if you know anime, his his full name is mariweme from Hunter, Hunter.

ATTILIO: 
Oh yeah, that’s, I have no idea what

ADRIENNE: 
that is. Thank you, Howard. And we’ll see we’ll see you at your gigs, probably at the 604 and island vintage.

ATTILIO: 
Hey folks, if you see Howard at one of the gigs, go up to the manager and tell him the only reason I’m here is from Howard, the only way it is overcrowded Avenue, it has brought new meaning into my life that he is here playing music, and he’s the only reason why I’m at your establishment tonight. All right, thanks, Howard. Thank you, Howard.

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