Episode 9 of My Real Estate Show™. CEO Sandi Lyn Burnett and co-host Josh Ries cover three stories the rest of the industry is too polished to touch.
LPT Realty quietly reserved the NASDAQ ticker LPTA. Sandi Lyn and Josh dig into why going public fast is not a badge of honor, why Morgan Stanley reps say successful companies wait 10 to 16 years to go public, and why agents at any brokerage that goes public lose their seat in the room. Plus the vanity metric problem: the industry brags about agent count while only 8 percent of agents nationally closed a deal in 2024.
Then a hot reaction segment. IG creator John Dorsey, with nearly 800,000 followers, documented a complete Airbnb scam from a host with a criminal record. He brought receipts. Airbnb banned Dorsey for harassment and left the scammer's listing live. Sandi Lyn and Josh break down why Airbnb's dispute resolution is weighted toward hosts, what the platform should be doing instead, and why Sandi Lyn is sticking with hotels.
And the true crime story Sandi Lyn could not let sit. Portland real estate agent & loan officer were sentenced on May 5 for a $17 million Ponzi scheme run out of a fix and flip. Both pleaded guilty.
Chapters:
00:00 Cold open and intros
03:08 LPT Realty reserves NASDAQ ticker LPTA
05:08 Michael Valdez, EXP, and the playbook
07:32 Why going public fast is not a flex
08:52 Should real estate brokerages even be public companies?
10:55 Why Josh asked Sandi Lyn if My Real Estate Company™ would ever go public
12:46 EXP's lightning in a jar moment during 2020
15:36 The agent count vanity metric problem
17:08 Why 78 percent of our agents closed 2+ deals last year and 8 percent did nationally
18:39 The Airbnb scam reaction segment begins
21:00 John Dorsey breaks down the bird shit, fake invoices, and the criminal record
27:35 What Airbnb should have done
32:39 Airbnb banned the whistleblower instead of the host 36:00 Why Sandi Lyn is sticking with hotels
39:27 The Portland Ponzi: Christensen and Maddock sentenced
40:55 The structure of the $17 million scheme
42:55 Portland's commercial real estate collapse
44:02 Sandi Lyn's 2017 telework pitch that got laughed out of the room
49:08 The lesson for agents who want to work with investors
53:00 Wrap
My Real Estate Show™ goes live every weekday at 12 CST. The conversations the rest of the industry is too careful to have. No recruiting pitch, no agenda, just the daily real estate entertainment you've been missing.
Get in Touch with Host Sandi Lyn Burnett on Instagram @IAmSandiLyn
Get in Touch with Host Josh Ries on Instagram @RealEstateBrokerJosh
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