In this episode, Carlos Concepcion, Chief of Sales at IDXBoost, interviews Ike Prinsloo, the owner of the Prinsloo Group, in this insightful episode of “The Pipeline.” Discover how Ike transitioned from the gaming industry to achieving remarkable success in the Las Vegas real estate market with the help of IDXBoost’s Website Builder for Real Estate Lead Generation. Don’t miss out on valuable insights and strategies for real estate professionals.
Video full transcription
Carlos C: And go from there. Ok, so. Are you ready?
Ike Prinsloo: Sure.
Carlos C: So, let’s do this.
Well, for all of you viewers, welcome to another episode of The Pipeline. A show where we like to elevate and showcase our partners nationwide who are top producers on the real estate industry and our business owners dealing with the day to day crazy market.
And it’s my pleasure today to have and join and, and have as part of this program, Ike Prinsloo, principal and director of the Prinsloo Group, a top producer, brokerage out of Las Vegas, Nevada.
Welcome, Ike. Thank you so much for joining us.
Ike Prinsloo: Hello, Carlos. Thank you for having me. I appreciate it.
Carlos C: After several years of working together. I appreciate the opportunity to in a more comfortable space share opinions and ideas with you.
So today we wanna showcase you as well Ike, so why don’t you tell our viewers a little bit more about you, your business and what made you go into real estate?
Ike Prinsloo: Yeah. Sure.
I’ll, I’ll start at the beginning, when I first arrived in the United States. I came here in 1993 as an immigrant from Cape Town in South Africa, didn’t really know anybody here, didn’t know what I was going to do here, came from a background in the gaming industry.
And so I thought, you know, if I can somehow get to stay in the United States, that would be a good thing for me because I was looking for different opportunities.
So I traveled around a little bit with a friend of mine for about a year, ended up in Las Vegas. Eventually, after I spent some time in Colorado to going through the immigration process.
And when I arrived in Las Vegas, I worked in the gaming industry here for at the Mirage which is now MGM resorts. It, it got purchased at some point, I think 2017, maybe.
And so I decided to try the real estate thing. I was very fortunate initially, I tried to work for developers because I didn’t wanna do resale. It didn’t quite work out because no developer would hire me.
Everybody says you don’t have any sales experience, you know, go get sales experience and then come back. I did not want to get on the resale market.
So I went, and I worked for a temp agency and the temp agency basically, I just covered days off for other agents that worked on projects for builders.
And eventually I got placed at Lake Las Vegas, went there for about eight weeks and I said to the director of sales and, you know, maybe you can hire me. I’ve been here, I know the product. So, you know, why don’t you give me a try?
So he agreed, the other three salespeople there had sold, sold 12 homes the previous year. And I was fortunate enough to sell the other 40 homes in the next three months.
And just because my approach was slightly different, I think. You know, most builder agents, they give you a price sheet, and they tell you to go look at the models and ask some questions after the fact, you know, it, it doesn’t really get the point across.
So I decided late Las Vegas because it’s a resort type of community with a lake and all kinds of, you know, village and goodies. I decided to do it a little bit differently.
So when they came in the door, I took them out and put them in my car and drove them to the top of the hill and told them about the location and whatever, what’s going to happen there.
And I was very successful in doing that because if you sell the location first, the house kind of comes automatically if they like where they’re going to be.
And then after that, I got placed at another project in Lake Las Vegas called Treant.
The first one was Sorrento, I sold a few units there and then interviewed at a high rise condo building called Panorama Towers.
I got hired there and that’s kind of where my high rise career started. I sold 332 units there for the developer and two towers.
And during that time frame, I was given a presentation and somebody walked in the sales office that I’ve never seen before.
Only enough. His name was George Perez from the Related Group in Florida. I gave him a presentation, and I’m a bit of an information junkie. You know, I like to read County records and those kinds of things that other people find really boring.
But I wanted to know what was going on in the city and, you know, if their new building is gonna be built, you know, what future is there for me, specifically in the real estate industry because I like the high, the high rise condo side of the business. That evening, George gave me a call, said: “You want to meet for dinner?”
I said, sure, I met with him, and he offered me a joint venture to do a brokerage firm with him, at the time it was called RPRS.
ELISA Sara didn’t like it because it was our C R S for her, I guess. But that was George Perez’s choice.
So I got the right to sell all of these projects here and within about a year, we had $5 billion in lessons from Perez alone. And because we partnered with him, also every other developer, every builder wanted to work with us.
And so we pretty much tied up the high rise market here for several years, every person that wanted to build something here came to us.
We worked with Station casinos, a local gaming company here. I worked with Don Peebles from the Peebles Group in South Florida. Also, he’s in New York now with the Greenwald Group with some local developers here.
Unfortunately, in 2008, the world came to an end here, everything crashed just like everywhere else. Unfortunately, in Las Vegas, crashed a little bit harder than everyone else and decimated the prices in the buildings.
We lost probably about 70% of the values in most of the high rise condo buildings here and many of these still had inventory left over, which was a blessing in disguise because a few years later, investment funds would purchase these units in bulk, and then I got to resell those units again for them.
So then I took over Sky Las Vegas and I took over another project in the suburbs here called Park House, sold those two out.
And now we’re doing resale business and high rise condos mostly, but we’re slowly starting to expand that a little bit too and into a few select communities within Las Vegas that I know really well that I’ve lived in and that my agents have lived too because we don’t want to be everything to everyone.
You just can’t, you really have to specialize in a specific field for it to make sense and to be successful.
Carlos C: And I think that you found your niche and for anybody that is listening to your story, especially those who have been in the industry for the over 10 years, they can pretty much see where you came from and all the work involved into all of those different projects to get the results.
So as a long-standing and top producer agent that has this niche in new developments, like, how do you see the current Las Vegas real estate market today?
What does that look like for investors? What does that look like for your current buyer right now? How does, how is it behaving right now?
Ike Prinsloo: The real estate market is very odd here, a little different than most other places.
I mean, this compared to Florida is a different world here, we’re much more dependent on the gaming industry. And if the economy is doing well, we do really well here.
Currently, we are at prices and condo buildings as an example. We’re at the same pricing now where we were exactly a year ago. So even though prices increased substantially over the last year, it has dropped substantially again.
So we there really has been sideways movement for us, we do feel that there will be an additional uptick, especially from people from California.
You know, due to their economy and I think they’re running a deficit of 32 billion now and new taxes that they’re instituting on higher, higher price properties where they have to pay an additional fee. The seller has to when they sell the property.
So, I mean, the bulk of our buyers, about 38% come from California specifically, it’s close for us too. What I find is many people from there buy second homes here initially. And then they move here, they make this their primary residence and then the homes in California, they keep us vacation homes. That this way they can save, you know, anything between 10 and 13% in state income tax that they don’t have to pay.
So, I mean, people, they, they obviously go where, you know, it’s more financially convenient for them. And so here and we, actually the second market for us comes from Florida. Oddly enough, about 5% of the people that move here come from Florida and then Texas.
Carlos C: OK. So how, what are new projects that are coming? Like, what are developers building out right now in Vegas?
What are some of the newest projects in new developments that you see have high attraction right now that are elevating or, or bringing attention into the city.
Ike Prinsloo: So there’s only been two new projects.
Condo projects has been announced in Las Vegas in many, many years.
Yeah, the market was just not there because of the previous crash, the prices have not recovered from where it should be.
You know, you still look at, you can, you can still buy in buildings for under $400 a square foot.
Whereas, construction costs here is $400 a square foot.
That’s without any of the other costs that you’re going to incur, so you can still buy for well below replacement value.
So the only two projects that were announced was one that’s gonna be in downtown Las Vegas. The project hasn’t even been named yet to 172 units. Very little is available about it at this point in time.
You know, this is pre preconstruction, it was just an announcement, they got the zoning, so we don’t even have a name for the building yet.
The second one is in an area called Henderson in McDonald Highlands. I think this is gonna do extremely well. It was initially pitched as a building called The Pinnacle, but they have part partnered with the Four Seasons.
So now it’s gonna be Four seasons residences and those I would venture to say will likely at the low end start at $1500 per sq ft and go well over $2000 per sq ft.
It’s two towers on 11 acres, beautiful views of the city. So I, I think that’s gonna do extremely well. I know that the pre-sale, or the reservations for Pentacle, did really well.
But I think once you start looking at what the cost is going to be for construction as well as for your HOA is in that building specifically because there’s a hotel operator attached to it also.
The amenities that they have, you know, they really needed a proper brand to lift it up a little bit rather than using something generic.
But those are really the only two currently, I mean that there may be others coming on the strip, but it’s just currently speculation.
So those, you know, here for me yet to be announced yet to be announced.
And here, even if it’s announced until you have a shovel in the ground and steel and concrete is coming out of the ground, it means nothing.
Carlos C: We see that often now in new construction with the price of construction rising in, you know, top producer markets, how sometimes priority switch, switches for developers and agencies.
But a lot of our viewers, Ike, from the technology perspective, since it’s a lot of what we do, we always try to ask a few questions regarding your day-to-day business, right?
And what does the Prinsloo Group does when it comes to website, you mentioned that, you know, you’ve been in the industry for a long time, you’ve seen the industry change.
How do you see the technology influencing your business on a positive way?
And what were the things that you look for when you started, you know, researching for somebody to create your brand presence online?
Ike Prinsloo: So honestly, because I’m in the condo industry, the first place I looked at was South Florida and I looked at different websites in South Florida, including somebody, the last person that was on your podcast, Mr. Siddons.
So I looked at his site specifically and one other one, and I like the layout of it. So I was able to find the name Trem Group at the bottom of the page.
And I reached out and from that, of course, the integration with IDX is paramount for us, so we can have real time information on the site. And then we integrated with a CRM also, called Follow Up Boss, that we use for. The big attraction for me was the use of artificial intelligence in the CRM.
I also like the fact that the websites that Trem designed were very clean and contemporary style, which is exactly what I’m looking for.
You know, the earlier buildings that were built here, all looks like our grandparents do.
The newer buildings look like everything in Miami even here, you know, so you look for something that’s contemporary that will fit the style.
But artificial intelligence for me was the most important thing because you can do a lot of automatics follow up using AI that sends pertinent information to, to buyers and sellers alike.
Of course, you have to talk to them. That’s the most important thing. But the contact is very, very good. So it gives us good qualified leads.
Carlos C: Ike, IDXBoost as your partner, right? It was intended and created as the number one real estate website builder for lead generation.
So definitely we try to achieve and go after creating beautiful real estate websites to display your brand and of course, have an IDX component to help your website become a local resource when your clients are searching for these condo projects or listings within the market.
But we focus very much on generating a pipeline of prospects, people that are looking to buy in the market where again, like you mentioned, we try to put as much as technology and automation to helping you nurture those leads.
What would you say lead generation represents for your business in Vegas right now? Like, is that something that is generating you any type of results? What has been your experience with us in particular generating new prospects?
Ike Prinsloo: Yeah, so it, it worked very well for me. We do two different things, clearly advertising through Google Ads and such.
I find the leads that were that comes as a result of that is not as qualified as your generic traffic.
I think that’s mostly just my opinion. If somebody wants to look for a house or for a condo, they’ll go, and they’ll type into Google, you know, whatever keywords they use the Las Vegas high rise condos as an example.
Now it’s, it’s, it’s nice to have the paid ad number one on the page, which is pretty much the case for every building here that we advertise for. We show up as number one on the page.
But ultimately, the generic traffic for people that actually search for specific properties is gonna get you the higher return because those people are actually looking to buy or somebody that clicks on an ad maybe just to click through because they saw something that’s interesting to them.
So the generic traffic is definitely a little bit stronger. As far as return on investment is concerned. Although the number of leads that we have generated in the database we’ve been able to build over the last few years is tremendous and long run even if these people are not buyers initially, you know, most people don’t buy within 90 days.
Anyway, if they re register the website, it’s always a pro a process from about 90 days to two years when they will come back to you if they keep using the site.
And so it’s very important for us to have the CRM in place and IDX, so we can send them updated information consistently and maybe put properties in front of them that will appeal to them by the time that they’re ready.
Carlos C: I think you are on, on, you know, very spot on onto your timelines. That’s exactly what we say, you know, an internet lead.
Somebody that is looking in Google today may be looking to do a purchase within, you know, six months, sometimes you’ve mentioned 90 days, but six months up to two years since they’re still in the research stages.
But once you put in place like the AI nurturing the proper CRM, you can nurture those contacts all the way to the transaction.
So thank you so much for your feedback. I know for our viewers means a lot of hearing it from you.
But Ike, now we wanna talk about you, and we wanna talk about what are things that are you doing now that you would like to promote to let people know that are going on? And how can people find you online?, you know.
Ike Prinsloo: So something that I’ve been lacking in, in my business initially, and I think many people do this initially.
You don’t really wanna put yourself out there in print, you know, such as blog writing and such. But it’s such an integral part to drive generic traffic because it’s really the way that you can be found through SEO and search engines.
So it’s extremely important that you write blogs, and you educate people to us, to the market.
Carlos C: For both of you and, and I, I just to give some background to the viewers. The way we see it is, there is short term strategies for real estate professionals and there’s long term strategies, right?
Google advertisement and pay per click are a quick way to get traffic into your platform because we can, you know, pay Google on their certain keywords and showcase your brand in front of them.
But when you’re trying to rank organically, when you’re trying to set your brand up for success on the long term run, you definitely need to create quality blogs, quality content to provide value to your buyers and for Google to understand that you’re that research for them.
Ike Prinsloo: So yeah, and it’s very important in the blogs you to link back into your own websites, enter link, so people click around and stay on your site.
Carlos C: It’s, it’s really important.
I mean, if we look at what the pioneers of the real estate industry and the technologies I have done, and I’m talking about companies like Zillow and Realtor and billion-dollar companies.
They were the first one that invested a lot on their brand through advertisement to generate that brand awareness. And they kept everybody coming back to their platform to look in there.
So that’s exactly what you’ve done on your brand with IDXBoost, where you created your own website infrastructure and everything is linked back to your online platform and CRM, giving you total control of your digital business.
Now, Ike, tell the viewers, where can they find you? What’s your domain? What’s your contact information?
How can, if they have to conduct some business on Vegas, how can they reach out?
Ike Prinsloo: Seguro. Así que mi sitio web es, al igual que mi nombre escrito en la pantalla, un apellido un poco funky, pero espero que la gente lo recuerde.
Carlos C: And we will include it. We will include it for everybody to go and visit your place once they see this video.
Ike Prinsloo: And if you go there, if you go on the website, my phone number is on the top, right? So feel free to call me. I’m happy to talk to anyone and help them make informed decisions when they come to Las Vegas.
I mean, I, I’ve lived here for 30 years now when I came here, the city had 790,000 people.
We’re at 2.3 million people now and still growing about 7000 people on a monthly basis.
So feel free to come and join us here. There are a lot of opportunities, a lot of work available.
If you come on real estate, you’re gonna have a competitor. So feel free to call me.
Carlos C: Well, Ike thank you so much for your time. I know that as a business owner and, and a team leader for your brokerage, sometimes that gets very time-consuming. So I really appreciate the time that you put into visiting us today and sharing your story with all of our viewers.
I, I would like to extend the invitation to do this often. So we, you know, call me again, and we’ll see where the market is in six months, and we can provide that information to the viewers as well.
But thank you so much for the time, Ike and again, thank you for joining us.
Ike Prinsloo: Yeah, thank you, Carlos. I really appreciate you having me on and giving me the opportunity to talk to everybody here. Thank you.
Carlos C: Thank you.