Announcer 0:00
From Los Angeles. This is the Echelon Radio Network.

Jerri Hemsworth 0:04
Hi, it’s Jerri Hemsworth and this is the Echelon Radio Podcast. And today I’m sitting here with Michael Bloom. How’re you doing, Michael?

Michael Bloom 0:19
I’m doing great. Thanks for having me Jerri.

Jerri Hemsworth 0:21
My pleasure. My pleasure. So you are with the agency here in Calabasas, Hidden Hills area. And that is real estate. Tell us about that.

Michael Bloom 0:30
So it’s, it’s really great. The agency is a great company and at the head is Mauricio Umansky. Big realtor in the Beverly Hills area. But we are we specialize in the luxury market and have really made our presence known in the valley and we have a show on Netflix Buying Beverly Hills, which is great. And we have our second season that’s coming up in the fall.

Jerri Hemsworth 0:30
Oh my goodness. That’s so cool. I was on your website yesterday. And I noticed that the listings you you do have a lot of listings in Hidden Hills, as well as Calabasas. And then I saw one down in Marina Del Rey or Playa Del Rey or where are, Venice? Venice?

Michael Bloom 1:17
Yes. Great

Jerri Hemsworth 1:18
Wow, that looks like a really, really smokin hot house.

Michael Bloom 1:22
Very, very, very hot. And it’s actually with people in the in the music, movie industry. They’re quite creative. And so it’s kind of a one in a million type of home. It’s right on the canals?

Jerri Hemsworth 1:40
I saw that the canal and it looked, it was so picturesque that I want that house, if I could only afford it. Do a lot of your clients tend to be in the entertainment industry or where what type of clients do you have?

Michael Bloom 1:54
So that’s a segment. Mainly I have a nice sphere of influence. I grew up in Hidden Hills, went to Calabasas High School. And so I kind of native to that area.

Jerri Hemsworth 2:04
Local boy.

Michael Bloom 2:11
And just made a over years and years have made a lot of contacts and through that sphere is usually my lion’s share of my business.

Jerri Hemsworth 2:22
And how long have you been doing real estate?

Michael Bloom 2:24
So I have been doing real estate since 1994.

Jerri Hemsworth 2:28
Okay.

Michael Bloom 2:29
We did have a drug and alcohol treatment center, Pasadena Recovery Center for about 18 years. And then I got back into real estate and when we sold the business and 2018. So it’s been a long, long career.

Jerri Hemsworth 2:46
And you you were we were talking a little bit earlier that your dad was a psychiatrist and he was involved in the rehab in Pasadena as well.

Michael Bloom 2:55
Yes. So it was his brainchild. And luckily my sister and I came aboard and we were able to fortunate enough to work with him for eight years before he passed away. Okay,

Jerri Hemsworth 3:07
Okay, so a huge well, I wouldn’t say huge, but definitely working with family experience. Did you always get along? Was it? How was it for you and your sister and your day? The dynamic?

Michael Bloom 3:24
Yeah, it’s a rocky road. We love each other.

Jerri Hemsworth 3:29
Sure, of course.

Michael Bloom 3:30
But I don’t think we would do it again. It was really intense. You know, to separate work and play.

Jerri Hemsworth 3:40
Right.

Michael Bloom 3:41
But we did, we helped a lot of people. I know around along the way we help north of 5000 people. And so we really were proud of the work that we did there.

Jerri Hemsworth 3:55
Yeah. And you said that was started? When, when was that?

Michael Bloom 4:02
So we took our first patient in 2001. happened to be Martin Luther King Day. So we had a really neat anniversary day. And we grew that from one patient to being on a show with Dr. Drew Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew.

Jerri Hemsworth 4:22
Celebrity Rehab. That was a great show.

Michael Bloom 4:25
It was I think we show the world an inside look into addiction and seeing celebrities and seeing what they go through and could mirror the rest of the world and you really get a glimpse into the opioid epidemic.

Jerri Hemsworth 4:42
Yeah, I’ve been watching the limited series on I think it’s Netflix.

Michael Bloom 4:52
Correct

Jerri Hemsworth 4:52
Painkiller

Michael Bloom 4:53
Painkillers. Yes. It really is like that and Purdue Pharma and then all that. I think it’s great that they show the public all that happened with that pharmaceutical company and you know what it entails.

Jerri Hemsworth 5:09
Yeah very, very eye opening and my heart was breaking. And not knowing exactly how this all came about. I’m very removed from that world. And when I was watching it, I just I started to cry. Because so many people affected.

Michael Bloom 5:29
Right. And the one story is that the person falls and has an accident. And from that, you see the spiraling of his life, ultimately into a full blown addict. Yeah.

Jerri Hemsworth 5:45
Yeah and how it affects his family and everything else. Terrible. So switching gears a little bit. You mentioned you lived in Japan?

Michael Bloom 5:45
I lived in Japan. Yes.

Jerri Hemsworth 5:55
An you did some radio?

Michael Bloom 5:58
Yeah, I did. I was. I was studied abroad in Japan. I went to Kansai Gaikokugo Daigaku, which is a university right outside of Osaka and I lived in Kobe. I went out for Osaka FM and did a little bit there. And I was a disc jockey at UOP at KUOP. So this is fun to do this.

Jerri Hemsworth 6:25
Let’s I was going to say back to you some roots there. Are you fluent in Japanese?

Michael Bloom 6:29
I am

Jerri Hemsworth 6:30
seriously?

Michael Bloom 6:31
Yeah.

Jerri Hemsworth 6:31
Where did you learn that?

Michael Bloom 6:31
So I went in college. And then I went to the Monterey Institute of International Studies up in Monterey, to languages to really learn Japanese and then living there for a year and speaking and,

Jerri Hemsworth 6:46
True immersion.

Michael Bloom 6:48
Immersion. Yeah.

Jerri Hemsworth 6:49
Are there any other languages?

Michael Bloom 6:50
And Spanish.

Jerri Hemsworth 6:51
Wow, that’s but Japanese is is not common?

Michael Bloom 6:55
No, it’s not. It was not. But I did have the friends that I made the international students we all spoke Japanese, and you know, had a lot of fun with it.

Jerri Hemsworth 7:09
Oh, my gosh, what have you had you always wanted to learn Japanese or how was the nugget there?

Michael Bloom 7:14
You know what’s interesting we lived my family and I my dad was in the he was in the Air Force. We lived on Hickam Air Force Base in Honolulu for three years, and back then there is a lot of Japanese influence in Hawaii.

Jerri Hemsworth 7:32
Yes.

Michael Bloom 7:33
And so I think as a kid, I was I know as a kid. I was very interested in Japanese cartoons and all of that. And so that probably had something to do with it.

Jerri Hemsworth 7:42
Sure. That would make sense. And you probably have a lot of friends that were Japanese and had that opportunity to be so exposed to it.

Michael Bloom 7:50
Yeah. And one of my mom’s good friends, Yoshi. She lived in Santa Monica, but she’s in Tokyo, and I still stay in touch with her and have a lot of fun going to sushi bars there and here.

Jerri Hemsworth 8:05
Okay, so sushi here versus Japan?

Michael Bloom 8:08
Japan.

Jerri Hemsworth 8:09
Yeah. Is it just no comparison?

Michael Bloom 8:12
Well, there’s no comparison. There is no rolls, like it is here. But the Japanese have a certain way of doing sushi.

Jerri Hemsworth 8:21
So you’re saying no California rolls in Japan?

Michael Bloom 8:23
No, California rolls in Japan.

Jerri Hemsworth 8:28
I know I’m always a little skeptical of going to a sushi bar and when the chef’s aren’t Japanese, and and not necessarily that they have to be Japanese. But I feel a little more in the moment when they are Japanese and perhaps a little more authentic.

Michael Bloom 8:43
But yeah, I mean, their presentation of is I think there’s nothing like the Japanese as far as presentation.

Jerri Hemsworth 8:52
Right. Oh, gosh, that’s so cool. So Michael, when you’re not working? What do you do?

Michael Bloom 8:59
I play golf. I play tennis. Had a really good. I know, Scottie Pippen. So I had around with him. Two weeks ago, two of us

Jerri Hemsworth 9:14
And who won?

Michael Bloom 9:15
You know, he he’s competitive. So, but so am I. We’ll see where it’ll be the next time definitely.

Jerri Hemsworth 9:28
So golf, tennis. And when you were a kid, did you see yourself playing tennis and golf or what was it?

Michael Bloom 9:40
Yeah. So I started playing tennis, probably about 10 years old. And then I competed through high school we won CIF

Jerri Hemsworth 9:50
At Calabasas

Michael Bloom 9:51
Calabasas. Yeah, we had a great team.

Jerri Hemsworth 9:53
It’s a great engine over there. Yeah. And

Michael Bloom 9:55
Yeah. So I was in the USTA tournaments So tennis was my racket.

Jerri Hemsworth 10:03
I see what you did there. Our daughter was a tennis player at El Camino. Oh, and so she started playing tennis. Oh gosh, I think when she was about eight and she enjoyed it, but she wasn’t she didn’t have the competitive spirit. And and the tennis program at El Camino is is it was okay. It wasn’t a powerhouse. But they did make it to CIF finals and she was a doubles player. And she made it to finals.

Michael Bloom 10:32
Oh, wow.

Jerri Hemsworth 10:32
So, pretty cool.

Michael Bloom 10:33
Oh, El Camino had a great team, too. I, some of my friends played on the El Camino team. So there was a lot of talent.

Jerri Hemsworth 10:40
Yeah, yeah. There is a lot of talent in in not only sports, but artistically. And it’s really kind of kind of cool. So if you weren’t here in Calabasas area, if you didn’t live here, where else would you want to live?

Michael Bloom 11:01
Well it’s interesting. We have a place timeshare down in Cabo my wife and I, and we really love it down there. So I, and my daughter’s going to be starting UCLA.

Jerri Hemsworth 11:14
Congratulations.

Michael Bloom 11:15
Thank you. And then my son is a senior in high school. So we’ve

Jerri Hemsworth 11:21
At Calabasas?

Michael Bloom 11:21
At Calabasas

Jerri Hemsworth 11:23
Of course.

Michael Bloom 11:24
So we’ve actually, you know, thought of spent a little more time down there.

Jerri Hemsworth 11:30
Yeah. Do the kids like going down there?

Michael Bloom 11:31
Oh, yeah and their friends.

Jerri Hemsworth 11:34
Oh, i bet.

Michael Bloom 11:35
So it’s been? Yeah.

Jerri Hemsworth 11:36
So UCLA, your daughter? What is her intended major?

Michael Bloom 11:40
She’s going to do similar to what I did. Kind of Global Studies. And, you know, I think she wants to go to law school afterward. But wanted to have a good time, too. It was really hard to get in.

Jerri Hemsworth 11:59
Yes. It’s crazy. Our daughter graduated a year ago from Berkeley. And four years, five years ago, when they were graduating high school. Only one of their friends really, from El Camino actually got into UCLA. The competition was incredible.

Michael Bloom 12:20
Yeah.

Jerri Hemsworth 12:21
Incredible.

Michael Bloom 12:22
Incredible.

Jerri Hemsworth 12:23
And Libby had gotten into UC Santa Cruz. But a lot of her friends didn’t get into a lot of the places they had applied to the UCs. And the privates were easy to get into. But they all really wanted UCLA.

Michael Bloom 12:41
Yeah, we were very proud of Carly. You know, I think there were 146,000 applications.

Jerri Hemsworth 12:51
Isn’t that insane?

Michael Bloom 12:52
So it was insane.

Jerri Hemsworth 12:53
Absolutely insane.

Michael Bloom 12:55
So you know, we have told her that we want her to relax a little bit.

Jerri Hemsworth 13:00
Good.

Michael Bloom 13:02
She was so intense through high school and all that. So hopefully, that’ll happen.

Jerri Hemsworth 13:09
And your son, where does he want to go?

Michael Bloom 13:10
So he is also, he’s on his own track. And he wants to go to Miami.

Jerri Hemsworth 13:19
Really?

Michael Bloom 13:20
That’s where he wants to go. And so we want to support him.

Jerri Hemsworth 13:25
Well, that’s want to study anything in particular, what’s drawing him to Miami?

Michael Bloom 13:31
You know, it’s sun.

Jerri Hemsworth 13:35
He’s a kid. That’s what it is. That’s super cool. So switching back to real estate, what are the trends that you’re seeing right now, especially in this area? I know, it’s been a crazy wild ride, but right.

Michael Bloom 13:50
It has been a very crazy wild ride. The pandemic, I remember when the pandemic started, and I thought, Oh, my God, what does this mean for real estate? No one could have imagined that people wanted more space, we’re going to be able to have zoom as a part of their vocabulary. And basically do remote work. That cause and then of course, having interest rates at almost, you know, 3% or lower, so it was almost very easy to borrow money. I mean, if you had the credit, of course, but we had that phenomenon of crazy growth and crazy offers. And I mean, you know, 11 and 12 offers on a home and it was really unprecedented. So I lived through that and did very well in my business in 2020 and 2021. As soon as the interest rates started to change, people started to think and It was a different market. And it has really turned into a different market in the last year or so since the Fed has done unprecedented raises. And even in the luxury market, people have secured great interest rates that they had on their homes. And there’s something like the golden handcuffs, which keeps you at home, which I don’t blame them for having an ideal interest rate, and they’re not willing to give that up.

Jerri Hemsworth 15:33
Right.

Michael Bloom 15:33
And so you have that, coupled with a, which causes a shortage of inventory. And building is it’s happening, but it’s not happening at the most incredible pace, there’s been a shortage in the supply chain and other factors. So you have a perfect storm here, which has caused the market to be where it’s at, you know, those that are the between 1 million and 3 million in our area, homes trade, especially when they’ve got to be priced right. Above 3 million things are staying on the market longer. Yeah.

Jerri Hemsworth 16:16
Yeah, I had heard that it’s all about that price, you could drop it 30k 50k 100k. And suddenly it moves. It’s like, are you seeing subtle when when you make subtle changes, or the client makes subtle changes that things tend to move? Or is it still

Michael Bloom 16:35
No, it’s all it’s all in the devils in the details. And the best strategy is to do that off the bat. And it’s hard for, I understand people that have owned their homes, want to get the most money from their home as their largest asset. So it’s, you know, I am the seller’s guide me, I don’t guide them as far as price, but I did talk to them about, you know, hey, if we did this, we would capture a group of buyers. And so that’s important. And yeah, it’s still a challenge.

Jerri Hemsworth 17:14
Do you tend to find yourself on the buyer side or the seller side more often? Or what percentage is which for you?

Michael Bloom 17:20
Um, you know, it really just depends, like I said, I have a sphere of influence of people. So that usually, I mean, it has been sellers more recently, but buyers come up as well. So being on both sides helps me

Jerri Hemsworth 17:39
Now I know there’s a common friend of ours that lives in Hidden Hills and he has moved around inside Hidden Hills, do you find that there are a fair number of people that buy and sell and stay within that one community? A fair amount, or are they not?

Michael Bloom 17:57
Yeah, I mean, there’s been there people do tend to stay in Hidden Hills usually in the same house, so that’s kind of an anomaly. But people liked like the area and they liked the community and they liked what what Hidden Hills offers.

Jerri Hemsworth 18:17
Yeah. And I can imagine when something comes up for sale, in that community, all eyes are on it. And just

Michael Bloom 18:26
People tend to know more details than I do.

Jerri Hemsworth 18:33
You call up your neighbors and go, what do you know?

Michael Bloom 18:37
And they do know a lot.

Jerri Hemsworth 18:39
It’s like how do you know this?

Michael Bloom 18:41
They know what and they know it, they can tell me which one is in this particular fire zone or flood zone. And, I mean, they really know a lot. And so you know, I do tend to pick their brains.

Jerri Hemsworth 18:52
It’s again, resources is who you know, Michael, thank you so much for being with me today. Yeah, we’ll talk soon.

Michael Bloom 18:59
Thanks for having me.

Jerri Hemsworth 19:00
Oh, absolutely. Take care.

Michael Bloom 19:02
Okay.

Announcer 19:13
Presented by Echelon Business Development. More than just networking, way more!

Transcribed by https://otter.ai