Baez Real Estate Podcast

Episode 34 From Basement To Storefront

• Alex Baez / Hidey Baez

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A basement office, a Bronx block, and a storefront full of momentum—this is a story about building a brokerage around service, trust, and home. We share how giving away nearly 400 turkeys wasn’t a stunt but a promise to the community that raised us, and how keeping our team small lets us protect the experience clients remember us for: honest guidance, quick feedback, and the kind of advocacy we’d want for our own families.

We get practical about timing the market without falling for hype. Winter can be a buyer’s secret weapon: fewer competitors, more flexible sellers, and rates easing into a friendlier range. We spell out smart first steps—buy what you can afford now, whether that’s a condo or a starter home in more affordable counties like Duchess or Sullivan—and explain why getting your foot in the door beats waiting for perfect. We revisit 2021 to show how ultra-low rates fueled bidding wars and bad habits, and we draw a firm line on one rule: never skip a home inspection. Protect your downside, then let time and equity do their work.

You’ll also hear a standout milestone from our own team: a 22-year-old buying his first place after starting with us at 16. It’s proof that real estate can change a family’s trajectory when you combine mentorship, consistency, and long-term thinking. We round out with fast, actionable winter home maintenance tips—keep heat above 60, shut exterior water lines, check the roof, and choose ice melt that won’t chew up concrete—so homeowners stay ready when temps drop.

If you’re a first-time buyer, a cautious investor, or a homeowner mapping the next move, this conversation is a clear, no-fluff guide to buying smart, maintaining well, and building wealth steadily. Enjoyed the episode? Follow the show, share it with a friend who’s house hunting, and leave a quick review so more listeners can find us.

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SPEAKER_00:

Hello everyone. Welcome to Sudo With Baez Podcast. And I'm here with Angelo Baez. And I'm Alex Baez, guys. And we're happy to be here with you guys. Angelo, this holiday's been interesting.

SPEAKER_01:

It has been interesting, especially since we did the holiday turkey event.

SPEAKER_00:

Oh, that was big for me. It was actually, you know, many people don't know, but one of my golden dreams is that I want to provide every year for Thanksgiving a truck of turkeys. You know, I'm from the Bronx, as everyone knows that, right? I always say that to everyone. I'm from the Bronx, and I feel like I had to give back to my town where I'm from. This is where I grew up my whole life. Um this is where I come from. This is what humbled me. This is what shaped me. Um and I feel like I have enough, like I feel deep down I have to give them turkeys. Um we give close to um 350, close to 400 turkeys on the company to our people in the South Ron. It felt good.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

You know, I involved my kids as well, teach my kids that we got to give back to the community. Um, you know, it's been a great year. It's our first year in the business and in our own company. Right? We've been in business for 10 years, but it's our first year running our first office, right? Um, and it's been a really successful year for us.

SPEAKER_01:

It has.

SPEAKER_00:

And we have to bless others.

SPEAKER_01:

Exactly. I heard that statistically, it was like a down year for a lot of brokerages, but our brokerage has been doing pretty good. Yeah, we like we've been out there.

SPEAKER_00:

I think it's more like the way we go about it, right? Our transparency, our honesty, the way we help clients, right? We do it with so much love and we do it like if it was our own purchase.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

Our own sale.

SPEAKER_01:

And you can see it on the reviews that we get from that thing.

SPEAKER_00:

Oh my goodness, some people really if you look at our reviews, it's like it's the same thing over and over. Like because we we take it so serious. Of course, our brokerage is small. I want to keep it small and tight. Um, why? Because I just want to have the right people in our team.

SPEAKER_01:

Exactly.

SPEAKER_00:

Um, because I really care about the company's reputation. I really care about us giving the service. So I'm really strong on just having a really small, tight team.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, because it's hard to manage also a large office. Like you can't really overlook and help every single one like you can with a small team.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

As well.

SPEAKER_00:

Which a lot of people don't know. I got a lot of problems too. Angelo, Chris, and Heidi. We come from the basin. We started working our team in the basement. Now we have a front office. Now we're working, helping our clients out, but we come from the basin. You know, what's the guy named from Amazon?

SPEAKER_01:

Um Jeff Bezos.

SPEAKER_00:

He came from his basin too.

SPEAKER_01:

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

You know, so let's see what happens to our company. You know, that's the go.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

You know, it's a family business too. So um, it's good. And I appreciate you, um, Chris, Heidi. You know, we've been doing it together since the basin.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, no, absolutely. A lot of people start off in like either their mom's basement or the garage, and then they move up, you know?

SPEAKER_00:

Slowly. We finally got a storefront um a year later, but we started in the basement, man. Yeah, it's crazy. So to be our first year, you know, first God, thank you, but we've been putting a lot of work.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. I think ever since we got the brick and mortar storefront, I think we've been more productive too, because in the basement, sometimes your kids would come and Yeah, we're crazy.

SPEAKER_00:

So that was the main reason we left the basement. My kids would make so much noise upstairs. We couldn't handle the basement no more.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, once we once we heard your kids come in, we were like, okay, I think it I think we've done enough. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

So my kids would come home at three, and after three, we'll be all shut off. We would just talk, you know, laugh and all that. But um, we definitely came from the basement though.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

You know, we got a good story. Now, when I go to my basement, I always think about damn, this is where I came from, my basement.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

With my team with Chris, Angela, and Heidi. It was us four. Yeah. Now everyone else is coming in, but um, yesterday I went actually to go Rascal. It was like a holiday party um where Heidi works at, right? Go Rascal Mortgage. And he actually, they actually, it sounds the same story as us. It was just um him and four other ones. And they're at the I believe it's cut it was called Scott Capital, he said. And they actually came from like some of them even sleeping in hotels because they couldn't go, but they were all like, they came basically almost like from uh from the basement too. Yeah, and now their company is huge. Do you know what he said yesterday? I mean, it blew my mind. His company yes last last month sold 900 almost 900 loans. Wow, that's amazing.

SPEAKER_01:

That is amazing.

SPEAKER_00:

He helped 900 families either buy or refinance.

SPEAKER_01:

Exactly.

SPEAKER_00:

So it's crazy how that he did that.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, no, it's crazy, right? And uh going back to the point that you said that you know you were in the basement and it felt like this is where you belong. I saw that same kind of like energy when you kind of went to the Thanksgiving event that we did, where like there's the bronze, this is like where I came from and stuff like that.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, I felt really happy. Seeing all those families happy, seeing all those kids um, you know, excited, all those families, you know, it felt good that I know that 400 families, we gave them a turkey for Thanksgiving.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, and you know who else is happy? Chris, because he bought his own condo just recently.

SPEAKER_00:

Actually, one of our special members, which is my brother Chris, he's my little brother. Yeah, um, he just accomplished something so huge. He's only 21, 22 years old. He bought his first property, you know, and it I'm proud of him. I know he works really hard. He's 22 years old, and he bought his first property. Um, it meant a lot, you know, because he was able to buy.

SPEAKER_01:

And he deserves it, like 100%. This guy, he he bangs his head against the wall until he gets it. Like he will not let something go. He will just like try his best to solve it.

SPEAKER_00:

So my crit my brother Chris, just a quick brief. He's my little brother. He started working with me, like just watching overseas um at 16 years old. Um, he started working with us as a realtor. I tagged him and I told him a lot of the business. He learned a lot, but more importantly, he wanted to do it. Because a lot of people join this business, Angelo, because they see money. They don't really see how enjoyable it is to help other clients. And besides just seeing the money. Um, I went one day to his report card with Heidi, and the teacher was the one that told me that he wanted to become a realtor, which I didn't know at 16. And I was like, You serious? He said, Yeah. Next day I told him, hey, come with me. So I could start showing what I was doing in the office. And after that, he fell in love. Once he graduated high school, he turned 18. He came with us to he joined our broke, he joined our brokerage. And yeah, and now he's 21, 22, and he bought his first property as a realtor, guys. What I want to say is to all those young fellas is like, there's opportunity for everyone. This is you gotta put your mind to. Of course, he has a big brother that I mentor him. I'm hard on him, as you know, Angelo.

SPEAKER_01:

I know you're hard.

SPEAKER_00:

I'm I'm like extremely hard on him because I want him to be better and bigger than me. Right. Just like I'm gonna be like that with Levi. Uh Levi, I feel bad for Levi. Because if I'm tough on Chris, I'm gonna be tough on my son. Oh, yeah, the pressure's um so Chris really deserved it. He earned it more than anything. I didn't give him anything. I didn't give he worked for it and he earned it.

SPEAKER_01:

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

He paid for his thing and he paid and he bought his property. And I'm proud of him, man. He's 22 years old, bought his first property, and I told him by the time you're 40, you know, God knows where you're gonna be at. So real estate definitely shaped our life, changed our life. I love real estate. It definitely changed my life and my family. And I have helped tons of almost all my brothers. This year alone, I think four of my brothers bought properties. Wow, my sisters bought property. So I'm like pushing all my family members to buy properties. Why? Because I want them to build wealth.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

And I want them to see how great and how properties appreciate, you know.

SPEAKER_01:

Exactly. And there are also, I know that your brothers like they're looking at more affordable places more up because sure you might think that you have to spend 700,000. But really, if you find yourself that you can go the extra distance up to like Duchess and stuff like that, right? And Sullivan County, then you can find something very affordable there too.

SPEAKER_00:

Buy whatever you go for. Exactly. Just get your foot in it. That's what I say to people. Don't rush, don't go over, just put your foot in. That's what matters. If you could buy a car, buy a car. If you go buy a condo, buy a condo, but just get your foot in real estate. That's what matters. Don't rush into a single family, two, three families. Just buy what you go for, guys.

SPEAKER_01:

No, absolutely. And talking about buying and stuff, like we're in the season, that's the best time for buying now. Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

So the winter's actually a good time to buy. Why? It's the holidays, right? Slows down the buyers. Buyers are more excited about the holidays, buyers are more excited and planning the holiday parties and busy. What it happens is that the more is less buyers in the market during the holidays. Yeah. So it's the best time to buy. Why? It's less competition. That's all it is. It's less competition. You go out there and it won't be no bid anymore. And also, this is actually a better time. You know why, Angel? Race just dropped.

SPEAKER_01:

Oh, yeah. Right?

SPEAKER_00:

Right now, Heidi's doing high fives, right? Low six, depending on your credit. So, meaning the race dropped, competition is less, this is the time to buy.

SPEAKER_01:

Oh, yeah. Because when they go even lower, then you're you're gonna have a lot of competition.

SPEAKER_00:

What happens when it goes lower, Angel?

SPEAKER_01:

You just have a lot more qualified buyers, meaning, you know, you're gonna have more competition.

SPEAKER_00:

And more bidding wars, and you don't want to be stuck in a bidding war.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

When we were selling homes in when the uh in 2021, uh when COVID happened, we were selling homes 50 to 100,000 over asking.

SPEAKER_01:

Oh, yeah. And they waived like inspection contingencies and stuff like that. Like they would just accept it as is, right?

SPEAKER_00:

Never wave inspection no more, guys. Yeah, no. It will come down the line to you. Do not wave um inspection. A lot of people were waving it. Um, a lot of people regret it now.

SPEAKER_01:

Yes. Well, it depends, right?

SPEAKER_00:

Because if they got it really, really like a really good price, but at that time you really wasn't getting a good price. Sure, sure. You weren't because people were paying over overpriced because or they would not get the deal. So the rates were crazy. Remember, the rates were like 2.5 to 3. Now they're at literally double.

SPEAKER_01:

Right.

SPEAKER_00:

So that's the thing that no one was like, this was unbelievable, these rates. Yeah, people were qualifying alone. Yeah, it's crazy. It was a crazy market. It was my best year was 2021 in sense of I helped tons of family.

SPEAKER_01:

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

I was selling homes just with videos.

SPEAKER_01:

I know that lenders got so overbooked that they hired assistants, right?

SPEAKER_00:

For I know a lender hired five assistants.

SPEAKER_01:

Oh my goodness.

SPEAKER_00:

He was doing refinance, that's all he was doing was refinance, refinance, refinance. It was crazy.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, it was crazy.

SPEAKER_00:

It was crazy. So he was doing so many refinances. I'm like, wow. He ended up hiring five. It's like it's crazy.

SPEAKER_01:

Do you have any tips for people that are homeowners and uh you know it's the hot it's winter season, like for their homes?

SPEAKER_00:

I do. Um, make sure, you know, most people, you because you know, for instance, Worcester County, right? Gas, Connecticut has gone up tremendously. The gas. Well, people do that during the time they're not home, they turn off the gas. They turn off the heater. Guys, just have your heater on. Always have it over 60 degrees, right? Don't try your best. Always just leave it on 60 degrees and higher. Um, yeah, the cold, you know, in reality, that's when you see if your house is solid. You see if your heart your house is good. Um, make sure that your pipes, all those water pipes that go outside your property, make sure it's shut off or they will freeze. They will burst. Um, make sure your roof is good. That's very important your roof, right? If your roof is not good, that cold weather is gonna be coming in and it's gonna consume more heat and it's gonna cost you more.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

Just make sure all those waters um lines around the house are off. The ones that are facing out the house, right? Um also make sure the salt you use. That's another thing. There's different types of salts. Some salts destroy the concrete floor. Um, so just make sure you're you're getting prepared for the snow. It seems like it's gonna start snowing a lot.

SPEAKER_01:

It's already snow today a little bit.

SPEAKER_00:

Do you know how cold it is today? No. 18 degrees.

SPEAKER_01:

Oh my goodness.

SPEAKER_00:

You feel the cold.

SPEAKER_01:

Yes, you do. Even here, like we have the thermostat set to like 75 and it still feels cold in here.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. Maybe because you know the door front is literally right there. Yeah. So we feel the wind coming in, probably, but it is extremely cold outside today. I went to drop off my kids to school. Man, I came out that car and I ran and dropped them on. I ran and ran back to my car. It was extremely, I feel like my ears got frozen. Oh my goodness. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

Do you ever wear the earmuffs? No. No, you know.

SPEAKER_00:

I'm I'm that that person that likes doing everything fast, in and out, like running out the house, getting dropping off the kids, and coming back to the office. Like, I just feel like my life is like that. Like always, the adrenalism always.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. Oh man. So I mean, one last thing that we can talk about before we end the podcast is, you know, there's a lot of trade rumors going on in New York that, you know, New York is gonna get Giannis, maybe.

SPEAKER_00:

I'm not too happy about that. Yeah. I think right now the team that we have, I think they already did a whole year together. Um, they lost on the semifinals. I think personally, I think they should stick to that same team. I think Giannis come, he's gonna start, you know, you're gonna have two people that want the ball. And it's it's not easy to have two superstars in the team. I think that chemistry, it takes time to build it, right? It's like us, we we've been in the team for already over three, four years, and we always trying to build it more and building our chemistry and our team. Um, it takes time. You know, to create a dream team, it takes time, right? And then if you keep switching on switching the pieces, it's like you're never gonna build that chemistry. Yeah, you gotta work where you have. I always say you gotta work where you have right now.

SPEAKER_01:

Right.

SPEAKER_00:

Right? How to work something out where everyone was happy, also, right? I think bringing him is it's gonna mess up the dynasty that they have right now. I think they have a great team. I think we have all the pieces. I just think we gotta they gotta concentrate. I think you just gotta play good. But I really think they have a great team.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, especially since they're I think the rumors have been that they want they would have to offer like Kat and um either OG or Mikhail Bridges.

SPEAKER_00:

That's tough, man. Yeah, you're basically gonna mess up the whole thing.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, you're gonna mess up your starting lineup.

SPEAKER_00:

I think I think they got a great starting lineup. I and I think they got a better bench than last year. They got like two new pieces in the bench. So I really think that this year they have a better possibility. Also, in the east, also, I think it's it's easier now. Oh, yeah. Indiana, this guy got injured, the main player.

SPEAKER_01:

And um, their center got traded to Milwaukee. Yeah, and then Jason Tatum is out for the Celtics.

SPEAKER_00:

I think OKC is gonna do a repeat.

SPEAKER_01:

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

I mean, there were 22 and one, if I'm not mistaken. I think I see OKC winning it again. I don't I think this team is gonna be the new Golden State. Yeah, to be honest with you.

SPEAKER_01:

They're so young.

SPEAKER_00:

So young. Yeah, but they all got paid good. Yes, they all got some good bucks. So they definitely got a good, good career. Another thing I didn't know is um of the Yankees, Aaron Judge. He won the MVP. This is his second or third MVP. To be honest with you, congrats to the MVP, but we need ranks, man. I don't want to hear none of that. No MVPs. This is not a one-man team.

SPEAKER_01:

Right.

SPEAKER_00:

Right. Um, I appreciate him, but he needs to get us to the World Series. He needs to actually win it. This is like him winning MVPs. I respect it, but he needs to really get us a ring. Well, we haven't won since 2009. It's very heartbreaking at this point. Um, how many years is that? What, 15, 16 years? That's a lot of years.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, it's it's a lot.

SPEAKER_00:

And all they've been doing is becoming richer. They haven't got us any rings. Uh-huh. That's all I'm seeing with the Yankees, you know. So that's that's definitely something interesting.

SPEAKER_01:

Exactly. Well, I mean, do you want to say anything else before we end or is that?

SPEAKER_00:

No, I think we're good. All right. Um, guys, I do want to say um happy holidays. Stay warm and definitely buy your house soon. We're here to assist you. If you have any real estate questions, we'll definitely love to answer them. It's all free consultations, and we're here for you guys.

unknown:

Thank you.

SPEAKER_00:

Bye guys, guys. Bye.