Today we’d like to introduce you to Dave Goldstein.
Hi Dave, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstories with our readers?
Hi, there – so my story pretty much starts back in college when I was a pitcher at California State University Long Beach. There I studied Exercise Physiology and Biomechanics. As a college athlete, I wanted to learn everything about how the body worked.
We went to the College World Series and were able to play minor league baseball – perseverance paid off! When baseball was over, I began my career with the Sports Club LA/OC as a Personal Trainer. In this role as a PT, I worked with clients from every background; general fitness clients, corporate executives, pre-& post-natal, older population, athletes, cardiac-rehab clients, and clients who were recently released from physical therapy.
I had to ask very personal questions to determine the program that would help each individual client achieve their specific goal. You could say it taught me a tremendous amount of interpersonal skills! I became department manager and ended up meeting, hiring, and marrying my wife!
I then gained valuable experience as the Grand opening operations manager of the 4-star Hyatt Regency Resort and Spa in Huntington Beach, CA. Where we ensured all guests received the highest level of customer service possible. I received incredible training (this was back when companies really invested in employees) and became interested in finance and business development so I left to pursue opportunities outside the health and wellness arena.
One of my most telling positions in business was as VP of Sales and Marketing for a vending company. After a year and a half in this job, I was promoted by the board to President/CEO. We took the company public, drive shareholder value, raised money, and developed and patented some really cool technologies that are still being used in other companies’ machines today!
After a few years in that role, I had to get back to my true passion: health and wellness. Luckily, with the support of my wife and three kids, was able to do so with some high-end organizations and in some very dynamic roles. I also obtained my Master’s degree in Education during this time.
My wife and I are both California natives and lived in the same house for over 20 years in a desirable zip code and the school district in Orange County. We bought the house new; we were original owners and that process was simple enough. After our kids grew and we became “empty-nesters”, we thought about the next chapter in our lives and what that might look like. The choice was pretty easy – we wanted to move out of CA for a lot of reasons! We had vacationed in Kauai, HI almost every summer and loved it.
When I was at Coto De Caza Golf and Racquet Club, a lot of my friends kept coming and telling me they were selling their homes, cashing out, and transferring their golf memberships to a sister club in Franklin, TN. Naturally, this perked my interest.
We set off on an outing to see what all the fuss was about. Meanwhile, we were both studying real estate (why not right?). Needless to say, we found out pretty quickly why everyone was moving here and sold out a home in CA and were fortunate enough to buy a home in Fairview (Middle Tennessee) on 15.4 acres, with a barn, a pond, and our neighbor’s pasture as our backyard.
It was a complete 180 from the box we lived in for so long but WOW… we were so ready for a change! The weather reminds us a lot of Kauai but also has mild seasonal changes which was a nice change of pace.
After we relocated and settled in, we took our licensing tests, became realtors, and here I am! After experiencing the process first hand I wanted to put to work my 25 years of experience in business and in the health and fitness industry to assist others in reaching their home goals in Middle Tennessee, meeting new people, or offering advice on current market conditions.
I enjoy exploring Tennessee’s incredible hiking trails with my wife and our two dogs and working out at their local rec center. Our oldest son is married and is also a real estate agent in California, and we have boy/girl twins. Our son pitches for Middle Tennessee State University (about 1-hr drive away), and our daughter is a modern professional dancer in Connecticut (about a 2-hr flight away)! Funny how things work out!
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
The hardest part of relocating from CA to Tennessee was putting forth multiple offers on properties we really loved and not being chosen as buyers.
That was a gut check. But we learned how to leverage what contingencies we were willing to negotiate on and that helped a lot. Leaving CA was tough, but this new chapter has been so exciting and completely worth it.
We drove across the country in 3.5 days in a Grand Cherokee with 7 animals – yes, 7 animals! If we did it, you can too! That’s one of the reasons I became a Realtor®; to help my clients through personal experience and knowledge.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
Coming from the health and fitness industry, I was trusted by a wide range of clients to provide them with the proper tools, routines, and instructions to achieve their individual goals in the most efficient and safe manner possible. The same applies to starting or running a business; investors, shareholders, and members want a return on their investments.
It was up to me and my team to provide them with that. The same goes with being a Realtor®. I have the opportunity to utilize twenty-five years of experience to work for my clients to help them either sell their house, find them their dream home, relocate to Tennessee or find them a handyman or painter.
It comes down to really listening to what’s most important to my clients, working hard to protect their best interests, and executing their goals while maintaining the highest level of professionalism and personal understanding possible.
Having been a collegiate and professional pitcher, I know what it takes to persevere through any situation in order to achieve a goal. I’ve had the privilege of personally knowing and working with MLB players, other sports professional athletes, and “C” level executives and understand their drive and mindsets, and am very comfortable working at that high level as well.
Buying or selling a home is a very emotional situation, it’s one of the biggest stressors we go through. Understanding that and diverting 95% of those emotions onto my shoulders is something I welcome and have experienced in numerous professional and personal arenas.
I work hard every day to earn my client’s trust, not through words – but through my actions and representation.
What sort of changes are you expecting over the next 5-10 years?
Having helped clients buy and sell homes and having bought and sold homes personally, I have a different perspective on our industry and why homes remain the best investment option. If anything has shown us this, it’s the current increase in home equity year-over-year.
In Nashville Tennessee, the average homeowner’s equity position this year has increased by $66,000 in the first quarter alone. Homeowners who sell, have more ability to upgrade or downsize in order to buy their next home and often put cash in their pockets. There are plenty of options here in the Nashville and Middle Tennessee areas!
The main reason why it’s a great time to sell is we’re seeing more out-of-state buyers wanting to move to Tennessee than homes available. This trend is likely to continue for the next 2-5 years as new home builds slow and we continue to see people move from big towns to suburbs throughout the country.
Nashville has seen an influx of buyers coming from larger markets like Seattle, New York, and California. Another factor in the increase of out-of-state homebuyers is that Tennessee is one of only seven states that does not impose an income tax and Tennessee is one of two that doesn’t collect tax on earned income. Be familiar with the county you want to move into.
While the average home price in Nashville is currently $461,000 some areas especially with land can exceed $1.1M. Most of these soon-to-be Tennessee homeowners are in an incredible position to sell their current out-of-state house and purchase in Nashville often keeping a large amount of their home sale in their bank accounts while buying the home of their dreams.
My clients who are in the market to buy are concerned about the recent interest rates however, explaining these rates are still low compared to the 30-year average. I encourage them to act quickly if they feel they are financially secure, to understand, according to a mortgage partner of mine: “a $400K loan amount, the difference in principal & interest payment is currently between a 4.5% & 6% rate is $371 dollars.
That would be approximately $4,452 a year. Average rent let’s say is $3k a month or $36K a year. So for a qualified home buyer to choose rent over a higher rate mortgage – they would be paying $31,548 a year into someone else’s pocket…
Another thing to consider is that when rates are higher, on your tax return you can deduct more mortgage interest than when rates were lower. Another thing to consider is adjusting withholdings to get more on each paycheck which could help with that slightly higher monthly larger payment”.
There is always an opportunity- and value and building equity is the name of the game. This trend is not likely to slow down anytime soon.
Contact Info:
- Website: Www.KSCpropertiesinfo.net
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nashvilledave_realestate
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/nashvillerealtordave
Image Credits
Megan Goldstein
