Blog > Farm Talk with Paul Ward - The Reverse Episode
In this reverse episode, Paul Ward is the guest! Interviewed by Farm Talk Director/Producer, Gerald Emerick, Paul shares how he became known as “Farm Guy” after specializing in country properties in Ventura County. Along the way to becoming a Realtor, Paul held many interesting jobs, including assisting a congressman in Washington DC, a stint as an antiques dealer, working at the Oakland Zoo and… driving a cab in the Bay Area!
Some quick background: before selling ranches and country homes, Paul grew up working on his grandparents’ avocado and citrus ranch for several summers. He developed a strong work ethic thanks to working along his great-uncle who loomed large as an Ernest Hemingway-type figure. To listen to more ranch adventures, take a ride in Paul’s baby blue El Camino pickup and listen to the full episode!
Hey, it’s Paul here. I do mention suicide in this episode, which I know can be distressing. So if you need resources or support call 988. The Lifeline provides 24/7, free and confidential support for people in distress, prevention and crisis resources for you or your loved ones, and best practices for professionals in the United States. Please look after yourself.
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Have ideas for future episodes? We’d love to answer your questions – leave a comment! For any home buying or home selling needs in the Ventura County area of California, please reach out to Paul@HomeAndRanchTeam.com or visit www.HomeAndRanchTeam.com
A special THANK YOU to our sponsors! Farm Talk with Paul Ward would not be possible without the support of our sponsors, OPUS Escrow and Karly Rosalez from The Money Store and Community West Bank. Supporting our sponsors ensures Farm Talk can provide listeners with the best possible episodes.
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Transcript
Paul Ward (00:05):
Hi everyone, it’s Paul Ward here, and welcome to another edition of Farm Talk. We’re gonna do things a little bit differently today. I am actually going to be my own guest, and I don’t know if this was a good idea or not, but I got outvoted by my team. So we have a special guest host today. Gerald Emerick, who is actually also the producer of our show.
Gerald Emerick (00:26):
One of the producers.
Paul Ward (00:27):
One of the producers, and he is going to be asking me the questions. So, Gerald, welcome to the show.
Gerald Emerick (00:32):
Thank you so much, Paul. It’s great to be here.
Paul Ward (00:34):
Absolutely. And of course, before we start, we want to thank our sponsors, our new sponsor, Opus Escrow, and also The Money Store.
Gerald Emerick (00:44):
This is my first time guest hosting, so bear with me.
Paul Ward (00:47):
Absolutely.
Gerald Emerick (00:48):
So I just want to introduce you a little bit. You are not just a podcaster, but also a realtor for over 20 years and have a little bit of a farm background. Is that right?
Paul Ward (01:03):
Yeah. So about half of the properties that I sell have something to do with farming or just living in the country and maybe having chickens. So not all corporate farms, but folks that live in the city that wanna live a quieter lifestyle call me and say, “Hey, we want to get out of the big bad city and maybe have a weekend house or just completely change our lifestyle and move up to Ventura County and have a little bit of space between neighbors.” So that’s been about 50% of my focus; those types of properties.
Gerald Emerick (01:38):
What’s the range? I mean, how far does your reach go?
Paul Ward (01:42):
My primary territory is West Ventura County. So I do dabble a little bit in Santa Barbara County and a little bit in Los Angeles County, but primarily West Ventura County, which would be Camarillo, Moorpark, Somis, Oxnard,Santa Paula, and Fillmore.
Gerald Emerick (02:01):
How long have you been kind of specializing like this?
Paul Ward (02:05):
20 years.
Gerald Emerick (02:06):
The very beginning you started.
Paul Ward (02:07):
Actually over 20 years. So when I first got into real estate20 years ago, 2002a top agent in town said, “You know, you should be out selling the country properties given my background and I can tell you about that. So I just kind of created this niche for myself and, kind of, you know, was known as the “Farm Guy.” So, yeah a little over 20 years.
Gerald Emerick (02:34):
What was it like when you first started?
Paul Ward (02:36):
You know, it was crazy. I had a very comfortable job with medical benefits and dental and vision. And starting out in entrepreneurship, and that’s what real estate really is being your own boss. It was tough. Not a lot of people are gonna trust you with their most expensive asset to help them purchase or help them sell their most expensive asset. So it’s kind of the school of hard knocks. I had no plan B. I mean, I knew that if I had a plan B, that I would probably have fallen back on it at some point when things got tough. So it’s just kind of feast or famine.
Gerald Emerick (03:21):
Wow. So you just jumped in the deep end of the pool?
Paul Ward (03:22):
I jumped in the deep end and basically had a mind shift. When you have a regular 9-5 job and you clock out at 5:00 PM on Friday and you don’t have to think about work until Monday morning. No. Now your weekends are your busiest time and evenings are busy, especially when you’re starting. So yeah, it was just a complete lifestyle change.
Gerald Emerick (03:47):
Is there much of a difference between what most realtors do and what you do?
Paul Ward (03:53):
Well, you know, I, I think for me, being in it for 20 years, it’s really about consistency. Just doing the same things over and over and over again. And being creative and adding new elements to the marketing. But I think for new people that are just starting, it’s overwhelming. I think a lot of people start something and then they don’t continue with it. You know, they might do it for a few months and it doesn’t work out, and then they just kind of; it’s that, “shiny object syndrome” or, you know, “Squirrel.” You see the nut and what’s the next nut that you see in front of you. And I’m guilty of that too. I am very guilty of that. But I think it’s really just about consistency and longevity. If something doesn’t work right away, just keep at it. Give it a good go before you maybe change direction or realize that this is part of your routine.
Gerald Emerick (04:56):
You were starting to talk a little bit about your background, how that plays into it.
Paul Ward (05:00):
As a kid, I was fortunate to have an opportunity to work on my grandparents’ avocado and citrus ranch. About halfway between Santa Paula and Fillmore, I think it was a Fillmore post office, but Santa Paula schools or vice versa. So they were literally right on the line between the two; Fillmore and Santa Paula. And you don’t appreciate something till it’s gone, you know? I mean, my grandparents were larger than life, and my grandfather was kind of like John Wayne and his brother, my great uncle was kinda like Ernest Hemingway. You could imagine those two as my role models, you know, part of the greatest generation. My brother always protested when we were at home going to church, but when my grandfather was taking us to church, he would keep his mouth shut.
Gerald Emerick (05:53):
So, <laugh> you did what you were told.
Paul Ward (05:54):
But it was an incredible opportunity, an incredible learning experience. My uncle was actually my boss. My grandfather kind of handed the reins of running the ranch off to his son, my uncle. So my brother and I worked on the ranch for many summers. At 16 years old, I was handed the keys to an El Camino pickup truck. Baby blue, with a V6 engine. You know, 16 year olds are not too bright and also like to sleep in. So my brother and I would time it down to the minute. The alarm clock, we’d tap the top to make it shut off. Little mechanical alarm clock would go off at 5:25, we’d throw on our jeans, scarf down a bowl of Captain Crunch cereal or something, you know, random like that. And we’d be out the door at, you know, 5:35. We’d give ourselves 25 minutes to get there when we really should be giving ourselves about 35, 40 minutes to get there. We’d go over a canyon called Balcom Canyon. If you’re in Ventura County, you’ve probably heard of it. It’s kinda like the Great Wall of China. It’s a twisty, windy road, and you go up and you kind of see the canyon at the base with all the cars that have fallen over the edge and or there used to be. And I’d ask my brother, how many minutes do we have left? And he’d say, you have six minutes, <laugh>, I have to get through that canyon in six minutes.
Gerald Emerick (07:31):
So, some fast driving.
Paul Ward (07:31):
Yeah. We’d so rather die a fiery death than be a minute late for my uncle who would be standing out there in the driveway with his watch, making sure that we were on time. So, lots of fond memories. I mean, we did everything that came to taking care of the farm, irrigating, weed control, which includes, you know, manual hoeing weeds as well as spraying weeds, rodent control; like golfers, squirrels. Pruning. I mean, we did it all.
Gerald Emerick (08:04):
But you think you developed a love for the wide open spaces and farms and ranches?
Paul Ward (08:10):
Yeah. I really did. I mean, you know, you’re sitting out there on the tractor for hours at a time, kind of daydreaming, staring, going through the rows and staring up at the surrounding mountains. I went to college, actually, to get a degree in farming and took a really big detour. So I went to U.C., Davis to get an AG Degree, and that didn’t happen. But you know, that was the thinking at the time.
Gerald Emerick (08:38):
Knowledge is never a waste.
Paul Ward (08:39):
That’s right. So I took fun classes. I took tractor maintenance, and I had a plant science, basic plant science class where I planted radishes at different spaces. And you know, were the radishes that were tightly planted together, were they gonna be smaller than, you know, spreading the seeds out a little bit farther. So I wasn’t too serious about it. I mean, I was kind of focusing on different areas, but, took fun classes, riparian rights, water law, that kind of stuff.
Gerald Emerick (09:12):
So you had a little brush with politics, too, from what I understand.
Paul Ward (09:17):
Yeah. So I ended up with a degree in political science, which is kind of a degree in uselessness <laugh>, unless you’re gonna go on to law school, which I didn’t do. But you know, I had applied for a fellowship within the California legislature, a tough position. And I was not chosen, I think there’s maybe 30 students that are chosen each year out of thousands of applicants. But I just happened to write a paper for one of my college classes, and we’re talking, you know, 1991 that I had sent to my mom for whatever reason, and it was sitting out on her dining room table, and she was gonna be taking a trip. And my sister’s quite a bit younger than I am, so my sister was gonna have a babysitter while my mom was away.
Paul Ward (10:06):
This babysitter happened to read this paper that I wrote in college, and thought that this was very well written and actually informed my mom that worked for the legislature by chance. She worked for a California senator in the Oakland district office, and she informed my mom that she was gonna be leaving her job in the next year or so. She was gonna go to Portugal and teach English. She thought, just reading this paper, that I might be a great candidate for her job. Susie and I colluded and I applied for an internship position, which is easy to get. I mean, you’re not paid as an intern.. I had already done a stint in Washington, DC for a few months in college. Okay. And so the senator hired me on as an unpaid intern for three or four months, and then Susie announced that she was gonna be leaving her position.
Paul Ward (11:00):
And I thought, this is my opportunity, I’m gonna jump in. I mean, they really didn’t know a lot about me. I’m just this young kid who I’m writing happy birthday letters to constituents, and I’m responding to constituent letters, and I’m not doing any policy work. But I applied for the position and I don’t wanna say I went to the top of the list, but I was definitely being seriously considered. I had some interesting assignments or jobs that they thought were interesting. I had a stint at the Oakland Zoo. I went to high school in Oakland. I even drove a cab for 11 days. That was quite the experience driving a cab in downtown Oakland.
Paul Ward (11:49):
So there were all these things that they really didn’t know about me. I mean, you know, again, getting in the internship was easy, but being hired to be on payroll was different. So learning more about me and the fact that I knew the district well. I eventually got the job. So my assignment, my job, was to basically represent the senator at different events, and to also go to policy meetings and then report back to the chief of staff. Then when I wasn’t doing that, I was assisting constituents who would get caught up in the bureaucracy of different state agencies. Because I worked for the senator, I would have the phone numbers to the top offices in every state agency.
Gerald Emerick (12:36):
(That) probably was good for developing good communication skills.
Paul Ward (12:39):
It was <laugh>. It was, and the interesting thing about this particular senator is there were no rules. Like, I could do whatever I wanted. I went to work for another senator three years later, and they say, “Well, you can’t do that now. You can’t do that. You can’t go there.” And I was like, “What?” I had done all these amazing things for three years. I mean, I went to court with a gentleman who couldn’t see very well. I was kind of his eyes and ears. I went to court with a lady who was trying to get child support from her deadbeat ex who worked at San Quentin. It was interesting because San Quentin came to this hearing, or the representatives from the prison came to the hearing. And they said, ‘Well, we’re not sure if he got the court papers or not. We’re getting ready for the big execution next week.”
Paul Ward (13:32):
And the judge said, ‘You go back in my chambers and you call over there and see if he got the papers or not.” So a lot of interesting things. I had a police officer who called me, he worked as a BART police officer, the Bay Area Rapid Transit. He had been attacked by gang members or whatnot. A lot of teeth were knocked out. And he was in a lot of pain. He made a comment to me. He said, “You know, maybe it’s just not worth it. You know, I’ve got a gun here in my desk, maybe I’ll just go ahead and end it.” I was not trained for any of this stuff.
Gerald Emerick (14:06):
Oh my goddess!
Paul Ward (14:06):
I’m 22 years old, and I said, “Give me an hour, I’ll call you back. Like, if I don’t call you back in an hour, then you go ahead, <laugh>, but I’ll call you back in an hour. ” I get off the phone and I’m talking to the receptionist and I said, “Man, I had the craziest call just now.” I said, “This police officer is talking about killing himself.” And she said, “Well, you know, maybe you should call the suicide hotline.” I say, “Maybe.” And then again, not trained. So this is old school. So I get out the yellow pages and inside the cover is 9-1-1 suicide prevention, call the suicide number. They answered the phone. Tell them the story. They said, “Don’t worry. we’ll take care of it. Thanks for calling.”
Paul Ward (15:01):
A month goes by and I get a call from a psychiatrist out in the Walnut Creek area, and he calls to thank me. He was calling to thank the senator too, but he wanted to thank me. After I got off the phone with the police officer, he had actually reached into his desk. He did put the gun in his mouth and pulled the trigger, but the safety was on, and he took the gun out of his mouth. At that moment, the phone rang and it was a suicide hotline, and they convinced him not to kill himself. I got a Christmas card with a picture of the family; Him, his wife, the two kids, and handwritten notes from the kids. So a lot of craziness. So did that for a while.
Paul Ward (15:43):
And then went to the Chamber of Commerce World. Hayward Chamber. Oakland Chamber. Ran their political action committees. I did that for about two years and had some life changing experiences. Lost three family members in a two year stint. So my father passed away at the end of ’99. My great uncle, who I described as kind of like Ernest Hemingway here in Ventura County. My grandmother, who I lived with every summer working on the farm. So all three of those folks who were big influences in my life passed away in a short time. And I just kind of took notice of my life. Time is ticking and I better make some changes while I have an opportunity.
Gerald Emerick (16:36):
So, and then you made the changes.
Paul Ward (16:37):
I did. I quit my job. My dad was an antique collector, but beyond that, he was also a hoarder. He had so much stuff that he couldn’t display it in his house. So I calculated that he had about 10,000 items. Some of it was junky, but a lot of it was just amazing stuff. I mean, toys from the 1950s, porcelain signs, vintage watches and clocks, and German signs.
Gerald Emerick (17:08):
But he wasn’t good at selling?
Paul Ward (17:11):
Oh, it wasn’t about selling. It was about hoarding. It’s all about the purchase and the feeling that you get when you collect that item. It brings back a memory. It’s like a childhood. For him, it was rekindling his childhood. He lived in a big tudor house in White Plains, New York. Surrounded by beautiful things. His dad passed away at young age. So I think, reading (up) on hoarding, that especially when you’re buying this amazing stuff; It’s creating a warm feeling from the past for him. It was at least. So I took stock of my life and I quit my five year stint, or six year stint in the political world and I declared myself an ‘Antique dealer!” <Laugh>.
Gerald Emerick (18:03):
<Laugh>
Paul Ward (18:04):
People thought I was insane because my two predecessors at the Chamber of Commerce in Oakland had gone on to work at the Port of Oakland in the Government Affairs department. (It) paid quite well, I’m sure and clock in at 9:00am and clock out at 5:00pm and not worried about your next paycheck. So I scouted antique shops up and down the East Bay area. Ended up in a shop in Danville, near Walnut Creek, a nice town. I had the back room with the cool stuff. So it was collectively about 13 dealers. I had my own little room to myself. Because I had inherited this collection, I didn’t have to go out and create the collection. I had the collection.
Paul Ward (18:57):
Now I did buy my brother and sister out when my dad passed away. We figured out a value to the antiques, and I paid my brother and sister for their portions, realizing later on that I paid them way too much. Way too much! <Laugh>. I was discovered in that little room by avid collectors, and there was no Amazon, there was eBay. eBay was just kind of starting. But people still liked to go to antique shops, and it was still kind of like “the find” and “the treasures.” I started doing shows. So I had a mentor, he was a retired parole officer with the county; a lot of retirees in the antique world. I bought a ticket to the Hillsborough Show over by Palo Alto and Hillsborough is kind of the holy grail of antique shows. I understand that Oprah’s people came to Hillsborough to help decorate some of her homes. So he’s like, “Wow! You bought a ticket. How’d you get to Hillsborough?” He’s like, he was all kind of flummoxed that I was going to Hillsborough. And I said, “Oh, I just paid my money and they said yes.” And so I said, ‘Well, do you want to come with me?” And so he is like, “Sure.” So we loaded up the van and for three days we were over there selling stuff.
Gerald Emerick (20:21):
It sounds exciting.
Paul Ward (20:22):
Yeah, I did some street fairs and I never thought about sales at all. I mean, it never had crossed my mind, not once until I got this collection and what am I gonna do with all these antiques?
Gerald Emerick (20:34):
So you found that you had a little talent for that?
Paul Ward (20:36):
Yeah, I literally just stumbled into it. And then, the writing was on the wall that I either have to be, “American Pickers” and get up at four o’clock in the morning and start replenishing this collection.
Gerald Emerick (20:49):
Maybe even earlier.
Paul Ward (20:50):
Or earlier. And traveling distances. Or, I’m just gonna liquidate the collection and figure out what’s next.. So I thought, well, what could I sell that I would enjoy selling other than antiques? Cuz it’s not really a career, it’s just a hobby really. (So) I thought, well, I’ll sell real estate. How hard could that be? I mean, I just had no clue what it was all about.
Gerald Emerick (21:18):
Was the market like then?
Paul Ward (21:19):
Well, I didn’t even know. I mean, I just didn’t have anything to compare it to. It was just greener than green. Basically my understanding of real estate was whatever HDTV had on and my girlfriend at the time and I were watching and it’s like in 30 minutes you go look at three houses and you buy one of the three houses that you look at in a 30 minute period.
Gerald Emerick (21:47):
If it was only like that.
Paul Ward (21:48):
If it were only like that. So yeah, I was just completely green. Now my girlfriend and I had broken up and I thought, God, I could go anywhere. You know, I could live anywhere at this point. I don’t have any obligations. I don’t have to take care of anybody. I’m gonna move to Ventura County where I spend all my (summers), get outta the Bay Area, the big bad Bay area and go to Ventura County where I have fond memories and family and good friends. And I’ll start my career there. So I started walking door to door, which I don’t know if I recommend that, around Christmas time with the Santa Claus hat on my head.
Gerald Emerick (22:27):
That’s grassroots.
Paul Ward (22:28):
Pretty, pretty desperate. <Laugh>. Pretty desperate.
Gerald Emerick (22:29):
Grassroots.
Paul Ward (22:30):
And you know, there was no plan b
Paul Ward (22:34):
I think that’s how it probably goes when you do well, you start all in/
Paul Ward (22:36):
Yeah. And this is another interesting side story, but I was getting on the freeway one day, the 101 freeway, feeling sorry for myself and my grandmother, who had passed away a year and a half earlier, actually it took her death for me to actually finally move closer to her. Cuz she had always been bugging me and trying to bribe me to move closer. Popped in my head and I mean, could see her as clearly in my mind as I’m looking at you right now. She brought my grandfather and my great-uncle with her. They were sitting around her car. They were big, happy hour people. So sitting around the card table and they’ve got the cocktails and she’s got her cigarette with the ash too long. Then she brought the generation before that. Now I could not tell you now who was who, their name, but in that vision, I knew exactly who each person was. I had seen them all in photographs.
Gerald Emerick (23:41):
This happened while you were driving?
Paul Ward (23:42):
This happened while I was driving, and it was kind of like looking at a Harry Potter painting. I mean, these people were moving and they were clear as day. Oh, you know, there’s my great-great-grandfather and there’s my great-great-grandmother. And so she collected all these people to come into my vision, again, when I was feeling sorry for myself, and got on one freeway on-ramp and got off maybe two exits later. So it was probably like a 45 second type of thing, maybe one minute. And I was like. “Come back, come back!” And months later I’m fiddling through my desk. And I found this old letter that my mother had given me after my grandmother had passed away. And I had written this letter to my grandmother years earlier.
Paul Ward (24:31):
I mean, I’d totally forgotten about it. In the letter she said, “I’m putting together my affairs, my estate please provide…” It was all typed on an old Mac that I’m sure my mother had typed for her. “Please provide a list of three items that you would like in my will and I’ll see if I can get these items for you.” And so the first two items were material items that I still have today. And the third item that I asked for was for her to say hi to me sometime when I’m feeling sorry for myself.
Gerald Emerick (25:11):
Oh, wow.
Paul Ward (25:14):
Yeah. Its crazy.
Gerald Emerick (25:14):
So I was gonna say, let’s go back to the vision. You see the people, but what transpires? Is it just kind of a feeling of connection or is there some kind of communication?
Paul Ward (25:26):
Well, I’m pretty dense, so I didn’t realize at the time what was happening. At the beginning, I didn’t realize what was happening. It was just kinda like, okay, you think about somebody and you can kind of get a sense of what they look like. If you think about your best friend or your mom. You don’t know every line on their face, but you know, generally what they look like.
Gerald Emerick (25:47):
Right.
Paul Ward (25:48):
This was different. She came into my head and it was just like she was sitting right there. Now, it was a warm environment. I’m driving down the freeway, she’s sitting at her card table in her family room, which was a very familiar place for me and for her, right?. But in my head, that’s where she was. But I could see every wrinkle in her face.
Gerald Emerick (26:13):
So I’m trying to understand what <laugh> so you’re driving, but it’s like you’re seeing the road and you’re seeing this other thing on top of it. Transparent.
Paul Ward (26:22):
Yeah. You’re just driving just because you…
Paul Ward (26:24):
Like a thought, but it’s more visual.
Paul Ward (26:26):
It’s very visual, yeah. And then she brings my grandfather and my great-uncle. Her husband and her brother-in-law were sitting around the card table. Then behind them on the couch were probably a half a dozen other family members who either passed away when I was very, very young or even before I was born. But I knew who they all were in my vision. They were all equally clear. Their faces were all equally clear. So it was just..
Gerald Emerick (26:58):
She wanted to pick you up.
Paul Ward (26:59):
Yeah. So she basically gave me this gift that I had forgotten about asking for eight years earlier, 10 years earlier.
Gerald Emerick (27:09):
And timed it perfectly.
Paul Ward (27:11):
Yeah. I mean, I was literally feeling sorry for myself.
Gerald Emerick (27:13):
Wow. That’s awesome.
Paul Ward (27:14):
Yeah. So there was no plan b. I didn’t know how things were gonna play out. It was a busy time for people who had been in the business for a while. For me it was, I had nothing but time but for people who had been in the business it was definitely booming, you know, 2003 was a booming time.
Gerald Emerick (27:42):
I wanted to just kind of go back to real estate today, if I could ask, what’s it like today? And we’re talking about January of 2023. It’s kind of notoriously a bad time for realtors, but maybe you could talk a little bit about that The people that are interested in buying or selling.
Paul Ward (28:04):
Sure. Well, it is a very challenging time. I mean, there’s no doubt about it. Covid was a once in a 100 year event A pandemic. So I noticed that three things happened in Covid. One happened early on, like first was the fear of Covid itself. You know, we’re all going to die and we gotta stay away from our neighbors and we gotta put our food outside in the sun before we bring it in the house to kill the germs. Folks in LA would call me about living out in the country and maybe they would homeschool their kids.
Gerald Emerick (28:39):
Oh, right. Nice.
Paul Ward (28:40):
They could just get away from neighbors. They’d saved up enough money. You know, buying a farm is not a cheap endeavor, especially here. They wanted to move out into the country. There’s kind of that fear of the unknown, fear of Covid, and we’re gonna kind of go back, go back to nature.
Gerald Emerick (28:57):
You’re the perfect guy. That’s the perfect guy.
Paul Ward (28:58):
<Laugh>. The second thing that happened with Covid was the interest rates were low. I mean, really low. You know how residential was, you know, 2.6, 2.7% for a little while. I mean, just unheard of. Right? Buying a farm was as low as 3.5%. I mean, that had never happened before, ever. So it was just gangbusters. Now the third thing that really kind of created the frenzy, I think, was when the boss said, “Hey, don’t come to the office. Work from home.” So you had the fear, the rates and work from home and for two plus years, it was just, it was crazy. I mean, 10 offers on everything, 15 offers, we’re talking about homes in town, but even the hard to sell farm properties, you know, some of them might call, “Dust collectors,” you know, they’re gonna take a while because the buyer’s a very special person that wants to buy. They don’t need to buy this property. They want this property for a specific reason. They don’t like it. They’re gonna wait another 6-12 months until they look at something else.
Gerald Emerick (30:10):
And that became a hot property, <laugh>,
Paul Ward (30:12):
A hot property. So that went on. There were rumblings about rates going up. With every rate increase, it always takes you know, a little bit of adjustment mentally, I think for the public to say, “Okay, we can still afford that. That’s still reasonable. We’re okay with that rate.” But when it went up again and again, and again and again, it was like, okay, they’re really just trying to shut this down and bring inflation down. But it just stopped real estate, and put the kibosh on it.
Gerald Emerick (30:50):
“UN”real estate <laugh>.
Paul Ward (30:51):
Yeah. Yeah. So, you know, there is still stuff happening. I mean, not maybe 10% of what was happening, it’s down dramatically and it’s probably gonna be a couple more quarters before rates finally start to come down. Now prices are coming down. If people wanna sell, prices are coming down, but for this particular area, prices are still not coming down enough to match how high the rates have gone up to make that payment affordable for folks.
Gerald Emerick (31:26):
Oh, it was a boom time.
Paul Ward (31:27):
It was a boom time <laugh>. So Yeah. No, nothing lasts forever.
Gerald Emerick (31:31):
That’s right. So in your opinion, do you think that the future is gonna kind of take, I mean, do you have a sense of how long it’s gonna take before it feels like it’s leveled off a little bit?
Paul Ward (31:44):
Yeah. I mean, I, I think probably a year, but I think in six months, I think we’re gonna see that it’s gonna improve. I mean, it’s gonna improve. So yeah, I think in a year we’ll be, we’ll be good. I, I’m not worried about our area, you know, I mean, we’re wedged in between Los Angeles, which has, you know, 25% of the entire state. 10 million people out of 40 million live in LA County. I don’t know if people realize that, but, you know, 25% of the entire state is wedged into one county.
Gerald Emerick (32:16):
Try not to think of it, especially when you’re on the road <laugh>
Paul Ward (32:18):
Yeah. And then here we are with, you know, about 900,000. To the north of us is Santa Barbara, which is, you know, that’s kind of an international clientele that, you know, just a fraction of anybody can afford to live up there. So we’re kind of wedged in between one market and another. With the same weather and not really the population. There’s still a high demand with the lack of supply. So that’s not gonna change anytime soon. We’re still gonna have a lack of supply. So I don’t see prices really crashing here. I mean, maybe in other parts of the country they come down dramatically, but I just don’t see that here. I mean, yes, they’ll drop a little bit more, but I think really when rates come down then and prices will come down a little bit, then we’ll start to see things move. But it’s gonna be a little bit more time.
Gerald Emerick (33:13):
So in the farming world, who are your clients?
Paul Ward (33:17):
Well, I have two types of clients. One I call my, “Hand holders.” And the other group are my farmers. So hand holders, and I’m not knocking them, no. Are typically city folk who want to buy a weekend farm or want a complete lifestyle change and wanna live on a farm. Those are my hand holders because they have lots of questions. There’s fear of the unknown, but this is a childhood dream or a longtime dream. And they’re at a point in life where they can before it’s too late, where they can make this dream a reality. But they do take a lot of time and they ask a lot of questions cuz it’s not just buying a house. You know, there’s water questions, soil questions you know, cost questions, just everything.
Paul Ward (34:12):
And then they’re my farmer clients. They already know. I keep my mouth shut. I just respond when asked. So those are the two groups. Now typically the city folk are gonna buy a smaller property. You know, maybe just a couple acres, have some chickens, maybe have a horse. Maybe have a little farm, what we call a, “Family orchard” and assortment of different types of trees. Maybe they buy a 20 acre avocado ranch. But that’s probably as big as they’re gonna go. The farmer client and then in some cases the city folk investor who’s just gonna be a complete absentee. They would want something bigger, you know, 40 acre minimum, 80-100 acres. So kind of two different groups, but the lender would be the same. You’d want an agricultural lender to help you with those types of properties.
Gerald Emerick (35:08):
So if a potential client wanted to find you
Paul Ward (35:12):
Mm-Hmm. <Affirmative>,
Gerald Emerick (35:13):
How would they go about getting in touch with you?
Paul Ward (35:15):
Oh, that’s a great question, <laugh>. So best is to text me. My cell phone (805) 479-5004. Of course you can email me too, paul@homeandranchteam.com. A little bit long. But paul@homeandranchteam.com.
Gerald Emerick (35:34):
Excellent. And you also have a website, don’t you?
Paul Ward (35:37):
I do. HomenadRanchTeam.com and also my original website is Somisrealestateestate.com.
Gerald Emerick (35:44):
Very good.. Excellent. Maybe I’ll buy a farm someday.
Paul Ward (35:49):
There you go, <laugh>.
Gerald Emerick (35:51):
Alright, well thanks for being with us and I’ll let you do the end tag since you’re the pro.
Paul Ward (35:55):
Well, thank you Gerald. This was a great experience. Yeah, it was fun being on the other end of the chair, I guess the other end of the couch.
Gerald Emerick (36:04):
I get to know how it feels.
Paul Ward (36:05):
Yes. <Laugh>, And of course we want to thank our sponsors, our new sponsor, Opus Escrow, and of course the Money Store. So thank you so much and we look forward to seeing you on the next edition of Farm Talk.