Episode 46: High-End Real Estate with Daniel Encell

Scott Williams: Sweet Home Santa Barbara, where the skies are so blue. Sweet Home Santa Barbara, what’s worked for me, can work for you.

Jonathan Robinson: Welcome back friends to Sweet Home Santa Barbara. I’m your co-host Jonathan Robinson and with my friend and co-host and realtor, Scott Williams. And today Scott, you’re going to introduce our guest Daniel Encell. So why don’t we begin? He sounds like a fascinating guy.

Scott: Yeah. I’ve known Dan for quite a few years. We’re in the same office here at Berkshire Hathaway Home Services, California properties. Dan is known far and wide throughout our community for his specialization in selling homes in Montecito and of interest he started at UCSB that was probably your introduction to the town Dan. Is that…?

Daniel Encell: I’d actually gone to the K, school in Carpinteria, which is my actual introduction to the town,[inaudible] fell in love with UCSB after that.

Scott: And then on from there to UCLA ,where you took part in the law program, became a lawyer, practicing law and then decided to make your way back to Santa Barbara with a career switch to real estate brokerage, wanting to be more in a commission based than an hourly based business and that has proven to be very successful because now you have had closings of more than $2 billion, worth of real estate here in Santa Barbara, which by anybody’s measure is fantastic. Welcome Dan.

Daniel: Thank you, Scott. Thanks, Jonathan.

Jonathan: Dan, I heard that you are a lawyer and $2 billion of real estate. Sorry to hear that you haven’t been very good at your career. That’s quite amazing actually, was being a lawyer helpful? And if so how in being a real estate agent?

Daniel: It was extremely helpful because when I first started out it felt like when I moved to this town that everybody here has lived here their whole life and I was relatively new here. So I needed something to distinguish myself from the other people there, so that extra educational background and transactional experience was extremely helpful, Jonathan, in terms of helping me get a good start in a career in high-end residential real estate.

Jonathan: I’m curious as to how high-end real estate might be different than the regular low-end real estate where you’re dealing with just million dollar homes rather than tens of millions of dollar homes.

Daniel: So for most people, no matter what the price range is their home is their largest asset it just for higher-end they tend to be more moving parts, more tax issues, more contractual complexities to the transactions, there are estate planning issues, there are more issues that come up than would come up in a lower-priced transaction, certainly.

Jonathan: More complicated for sure. Scott, you have represented buyers and sellers, you have your… I don’t know if you cater more one to the other, how do you balance the differing needs and expectations of buyer’s or seller’s?

Daniel: So when I first started selling real estate, I loved working with buyers. I was like a chamber of commerce cheerleader showing them around the Santa Barbara area, introducing with the community, but then over time I  watched other top agents and saw that most of them were more listing oriented and so over time, gradually, shifted my business to more of the listing side. We actually have more control and easier to be more selective about how you work with your clients or to a business like. So I gradually made that transition after watching other good agents and seeing how they did it there. But I enjoy working with both, but I would say that probably 70% of my business is focused on representing sellers.

Jonathan: Well, that means that you’re doing quite a lot of merchandising and marketing and so more of a specialization in that area?

Daniel: Yes. And again the real estate term is farming where you’re going out looking for sellers to work with. So you pick a geographic area that you like and for me, I do mailers to those areas once a quarter to give them an update on what’s going on in their market and specifically, how values are doing for their type of home there, so I’ve been doing that for over 30 years now.

Jonathan: I hear that you’ve been involved in various Santa Barbara charities and clubs. I’m wondering is that a personal thing, a business thing? How have the two mixture or influence each other?

Daniel: Luckily Jonathan, you can mix them both pretty well. They’re a blend there. But when I first started selling real estate in the late 1980s here, there weren’t a lot of young professional people in Santa Barbara, and it was a very difficult town to get started in because of that. And so I set up a organization called the Santa Barbara young professionals club to create a venue for young professionals to meet other people and interact with them and then we grew that into a charitable event also, so we did a lot of fundraisers for local organizations and that was in the mid-1990s there and happy to say that organization is still flourishing today. So it is very rewarding to see it continue on after I’d left.

Jonathan: And has that been helpful in your career as well, that type of community engagement?

Daniel: Yeah, for sure. And I do the same thing in real estate when I first started out with the company that Scott and I work for, there were a lot of great high-end agents in the company at that time there, so I set up a networking group with other agents from other companies to share information, and we’ve been doing that for 23 years, now also so monthly meeting with other agents from different companies to network and share information that might not be available to you if you weren’t part of their company.

Jonathan: That’s nice. Dan in the Montecito marketplace, you’ve been a rock of the business here for a really long time. What would you say about working the Montecito Market?

Daniel: So Montecito is a very unique community where there’s about ten thousand people maybe 4,000 homes here and over the years we’ve seen shifts in the demographics where frequently it will be a mix between retired people and people with young children and not much in between. So a bookend community there. So when my kids were younger, I was part of that younger part of the community where kids are in the local schools there and that was a great way to meet other people. Now, I think, I’m more at the tail end of that more in that my kids are all gone now, so I’m an empty nester in  the other end of the spectrum and I see other successful agents in town who are at the opposite end where their kids are young and in school and networking with that group of people also, so it’s obviously great to do both but I think it’s an age thing and if you have kids and what age and stage your kids are also. So that’s always been a big part of my market is, the people that are similar age, I guess with me and when they were young kids that was a very dynamic part of the market, for sure.

Jonathan: Well, in Montecito people come in from out of town, people buy homes already in Montecito. How does the Montecito marketplace in terms of like where the buyers come from, might be different than other parts of town? How is it in Montecito?

Daniel: So Montecito Union lives two public schools in Montecito. It’s called Spring and there’s Montecito Union and both are excellent schools. The biggest difference cell is Montecito Union people would move from all over the country specifically, to be in that school district. So we were seeing a lot of buyer demand that was very specific and they were moving with young children and they were moving specifically, so their children could be in that school district which had a blend of a public school but most of the financial benefits of being in a private school with phenomenal teachers there. So it was a pretty unique draw for the community to have that school that people would come from all over the country to be in that specific elementary school district.

Jonathan: Do you get involved in fixing up properties or new properties or is it more just selling properties as is?

Daniel: I love doing that. If I had my perfect world, I would do both, but the problem is I tend to get so involved with the remodeling in the building there that it takes away from my day job, which is selling real estate there. So I also don’t like competing with my clients down here. So all of the building and remodeling that I do is up in the Paso Robles area. So I do, but not down here because I don’t want to compete with my clients and I don’t want to take away from my time from selling real estate, but I absolutely love it. And I find it very rewarding.

Jonathan: It’s always nice to have a creative outlet in life. And it sounds like that’s yours.

Daniel: It is indeed. I thoroughly enjoy both the homes and the landscaping around the home also, so I enjoy both of those.

Jonathan: And I believe I’ve heard… I remember I saw a wine bottle one time Dan Encell. What do you have going on with wine or wineries?

Daniel: So I grew up in Paso Robles, which has become quite a fascinating

wine area in California. It wasn’t really when I was growing up there but it has over the years. We had property up there and we planted a fairly large vineyard in 2000, and so subsequent to that, I added four other vineyards.

So we had a total of five Vineyards up their growing pinot noir and malbec grapes there. So I’m a weekend farmer Scott. So yeah, that is the other outlet there.

Scott: Okay. Well, your experience with so many transactions in Montecito. I’m sure is of interest to both the public and to the realtors who listen to us, I mean, we have a difficulty in real estate of talking about our clients or individual situations because we have to keep that from…we just can blab about anything we want to talk about in real estate, but I’m sure that there’s many opportunities that you have to deal with people in buying and selling homes in Montecito. And I don’t know what you might be able to share about that part of the business.

Daniel: So Montecito is fascinating in that no one chose to move here because they could make more money here. They all chose it for quality of life. And so you have a thousand different stories on how people are successful elsewhere and why they chose to move here. So it’s a fascinating business in that regard and yet a lot of famous people, famous in terms of celebrity but also people that are famous in their industry whatever their industry was there. So there’s a broad definition of rock stars and there’s a lot of rock stars here in different fields and how they were successful elsewhere and why they chose to live here, but I think that’s the real common thread here is people chose it for quality of life. They were successful in another area and then they chose to move here because this town, this community offers them a lot of what they seek in life really, especially, after they’ve been successful.

Jonathan: Is that different working with people who are very rich and successful and if so how might one work with or whether their desires or demands that might stand out from other people?

Daniel: So Jonathan you would think that but after a brief time of working together most of the facade wears off pretty quickly and you find out that no matter how successful somebody was or is or how famous they are in the real estate transaction. Everyone is emotional. Everyone needs hand-holding. Everyone is very appreciative of the help that you give them and needs the help that you give them. So initially, there’s a little bit of StarStruck and then it wears off very rapidly and then they’re just very emotional just like anybody else.

Scott: Makes sense.

Jonathan: Well, this is really informative Dan. If you were looking at things that you’ve got like your current initiatives, things that you might be doing, future plans or projects, things that you have in the pipeline. What’s coming up for Dan?

Daniel: So I’m going to keep doing this as long as I enjoy selling real estate and I love selling real estate. So the plan is to continue working and meeting fascinating people and trying to help them and being a productive part of the community. So that’s my perfect world is to keep doing it as long as I enjoy doing it and I love doing it.

Jonathan: So you’ve been very successful, what words of wisdom might you give to the other people listening that want to be rather successful in real estate?

Daniel: So the one thing that I think is helpful is to look at your career like a snowball and the more effort you put into building up that snowball and pushing it ,the bigger it’s going to get and the more effort you put into early parts of your career to build a bigger snowball, the easier the rest of your career is. A friend of mine, 30 years ago, said, it’s easy to make a lot of money in real estate. It’s hard to make a medium amount of money in real estate, meaning that if you’re at the top of the game and you’re really involved with everything, it comes much easier than if you’re just doing it part-time or working just a little bit at it not putting a lot of marketing and advertising effort into it there. So the more effort you put into it, the easier it gets there.

Jonathan: Yeah, I’ve heard that. If you’re really good at something you get mediocre results, if you are outstanding, you get ridiculously outstanding results.

Daniel: Yeah, and it’s a game of inches there. That extra little bit translates into a lot more success there. So I just don’t think a lot of people are willing to give that extra little bit to make the difference between mediocre and very successful.

Jonathan: Any last thoughts Scott or Dan?

Scott: Well, I’m glad we could have you on Dan and you’ve shared your journey with us. This is wonderful.

Daniel: Thank you. I appreciate being a guest on your guys podcast. I appreciate it very much.

Jonathan: And how can people get hold of you Dan, if they’re interested in doing that?

Daniel: I’m a phone guy, my phone number is 805 565 4896, very easy to reach.

Jonathan: Okay, and Scott, best way to reach you?

Scott: scott@scottwilliams.com.

Jonathan: Great, and we thank our listeners for another episode of listening to Sweet Home Santa Barbara. Get you next time.

Daniel: Thank you both.

Scott: Thank you for listening. Please subscribe to our podcast on your favorite app. If you know someone preparing to sell their home, please tell them about the podcast, visit scottwilliams.com to contact me and download the two free e-booklets. Is my house saleable now? And

how not to buy a money pit. Thank you for listening.