Keeping It Real Podcast • Secrets Of Top 1% REALTORS ® • Interviews With Real Estate Brokers & Agents

Jennifer Wehner the CEO and Team Leader of Wehner Group goes back all the way to the beginning of her journey into real estate business. Jennifer talks about her failures and how they brought her success and how important it is to keeping track of your activities. Jennifer also discusses how is she coaching the management of these challenging times in the market. Jennifer shares the first piece of advise for new agents. Last, Jennifer discusses the importance of digging deeper to find your “why”.

To learn more about the Renaissance Real Estate Agent, click here.

If you’d prefer to watch this interview, click here to view on YouTube!

Jennifer Wehner can be reached at (480) 748-6925 and [email protected]

This episode is brought to you by Real Geeks and FollowUpBoss.

D.J. Paris 0:00
What does it mean to be a renaissance real estate agent? We’ll discuss that today. Stay tuned. This episode of Keeping it real is brought to you by real geeks. How many homes are you going to sell this year? Do you have the right tools? Is your website turning soft leads and interested buyers? Are you spending money on leads that aren’t converting? Well real geeks is your solution. Find out why agents across the country choose real geeks as their technology partner. Real geeks was created by an agent for agents. They pride themselves on delivering a sales and marketing solution so that you can easily generate more business. Their agent websites are fast and built for lead conversion with a smooth search experience for your visitors. Real geeks also includes an easy to use agent CRM. So once a lead signs up on your website, you can track their interest and have great follow up conversations. Real geeks is loaded with a ton of marketing tools to nurture your leads and increase brand awareness visit real geeks.com forward slash keeping it real pod and find out why Realtors come to real geeks to generate more business again, visit real geeks.com forward slash keeping it real pod. And now on to our show.

Hello, and welcome to another episode of Keeping it real the largest podcast made by real estate agents and for real estate agents. My name is DJ Paris. I’m your guide and host through the show and in just a moment, we’re going to be speaking with top producer Jennifer Waner. She’s also the author of the book, The Renaissance real estate agent, we’re going to talk about what that means and why you also need to be a renaissance real estate agent. Before we get to Jennifer. A couple of quick announcements first, please tell a friend about this show. Think of one other realtor that you know that could benefit from hearing from top producers like Jennifer send them a link to our podcast or our website or our Facebook page, whatever. Just tell people about our show. We appreciate it. And the second second thing I asked for all for our audience is to please leave us a review whatever podcast app you might be listening to this my voice on right now. Let us know what you think of the show. Leave us a review. Tell us what you think it helps us continue to grow and improve But enough about me and this let’s get to the main event my interview with Jennifer Weiner.

Today on the show, our guest is Jennifer Wehner group with exp in Scottsdale, Arizona and all over Arizona actually, but let me tell you about Jennifer from being a waitress and a teen mom in Riverside California, to now becoming the CEO of a $200 million a year real estate team. Jennifer Waner has a PhD in grit. In her 18 years in the business she has been through the greatest ups and downs the market has to offer from Oreos and short sales to flipping homes commercial real estate and everything in between. She kept her business alive through being on the cutting edge of digital marketing tactics, including blogging, video and internet lead generation, as well as other tactics in 2014. She started her team the winner group now in 2021. Just eight years later, the winner group did over 200 million in volume and continues to be in the top 10 producers in Arizona annually. In addition to building your own team Jennifer serves as a coach and mentor to other agents across the country. Jennifer is dedicated to helping agents create their own extraordinary real estate business, allowing them to leave a legacy, build a healthy lifestyle and empower their clients to do the same. Jennifer is a wife, a mother of four, a skydiver, a biohacker serial entrepreneur, and is a upcoming author with her book The Renaissance real estate agent coming soon. Now please Venice visit Jennifer at her website, which is Wainer group.com. That’s w e h n er group.com Waner group.com And also check her out on Instagram. She’s at Jennifer dot Waner. We will have links to those in the show notes so you can find them there Jennifer Welcome to the show.

Jennifer Wehner 4:27
Namaste Thank you for having me. It’s uh I know we were talking about channel and just I know what you’re dealing with you know it’s a gritty it’s a gritty it is one gritty roller coaster and the faster the ride is getting these times these days because when I got in and oh three it’s like we just were like cutting edge we had IDX where the it was on a CB you know the MLS? Yeah, sure. And I got into video and oh nine so also check out my YouTube channel. But you know, that was was like, cutting edge for the time. If you look at it now that video looks like it was produced in 1972. But yeah, things have changed, and they change fast. And with technology and emotions and stuff we’re changing. We’re having to pivot and change that roller coaster has gotten a little crazier.

D.J. Paris 5:16
I agree. I’d love to start all the way at the beginning of your journey, because our audience always loves to hear especially somebody with as much time in the business as you and all the different things you do. But I’d love to start all the way to eating why real estate? How did you get in? Tell us that story?

Jennifer Wehner 5:33
Well, let me even go before that. But you know, my great grandma, I’m into legacy, you know, my great grandma, on my dad’s side, she came from Ireland as an indentured slave or servant. But I think seven years to pay your ship ship was sorry, ship passage is not like a really sure mount. But you know, to be able to own land because the British, I don’t know, the British at the time, had we’re doing a genocide on on Ireland to get power against us. But you know, she escaped, you know, that famine and that war to come here for freedom, and worked off her way to buy real estate, which I grew up on that real estate, you know, I grew up cried crash motorcycles on that real estate. But, you know, I had the freedom I remember just running out in the fields like seeing, you know, it’s like owning land, to me was freedom. It truly is the American dream. Because in Britain, you didn’t get to own it. and Ireland, you didn’t get it, own it. So you know, I knew like I wanted to get out of Riverside, California, where I where I grew up. It’s like, the opportunities were just, you know, mediocrity is what most people were shooting for there. And so I moved to the beach, I got into fashion school, and I didn’t know what I wanted to do. I don’t know if anybody in the call has felt that way. Sometimes. I even feel that way today because we forgot to add aspiring astrologer and polymath but, you know, I got in and you know, met my husband and two dates later, I was like, congratulations. You know? Yeah, Haida. I was pregnant, you know, freshman year in college, going to fashion school, I will have multiple jobs. And you know, I’ve been pretty much supported on my own. So 16, I was homeless a little for a little bit of time between finishing high school and going to college. So you know, it’s like, you know, but always had a job or jobs that it was working towards, and I knew I’d get out of it. And I knew, I remember, like, when I first got my car, my first freedom, you know, driving through these neighborhoods, because I just grew up in a frugal house, like, you can’t have that you can’t have that. It’s like, are we waiting till we die? So we could have things you know, and I’d be like, Look at these beautiful homes, you know, all these, why not me? You know, and so and it’s sad, because I didn’t know what that visual dream was, you know, I just knew I wanted I’ve worked for enough crappy managers, but I wanted to own something I wanted to create, you know, because it kind of, like make a really crappy employee. Like, I’m really good. I was a good food server, I was a really good cashier, but like, those were not where I was going to end my life, you know? So I’m going to business school now fast track and, you know, my daughter getting close, that was always plan X, you know, it’s going to Cal State whatever, you know, doesn’t even matter. You know, for business. It was I was pricing out tanning salons, I was looking at hair salons, but from an entrepreneurial lens, and then my husband happened to have some friends flipping here. And he’s like, wow, and I’m paying $1,800 a month in rent to live in Huntington Beach and going to you know, school for whatever, like plan X. And I was like, Well, okay, we did the math and I was like, Let’s go you know, so we bought two homes and 2003 that were both of those mortgages were less than what we pay for rent and by the beach. Now I had did have to leave the beach. Did I have to leave like I was at the ocean all the time. You’d have to come to the hot hot desert and Chandler but then I did discover like Scottsdale in Cave Creek and like a lot more nature and Sonoran Desert and you know, I will say that my first open house they were skinny to have Lena by the tree and in Southern California,

D.J. Paris 9:16
our audience that doesn’t know what to have Aleta is you would you buy

Jennifer Wehner 9:20
big old hairy smelly pig and they’re like, and like all these guys and fatigues. Were holding it from the front teeth tree, the neighbor and I’m like jet my first open house. I’m like, all we see in California is like cockroaches and rats like what the heck is that and why are you doing that? But no, I will say it was a little culture and you know, the heat, but if not better hair and the heat I have to say, but uh, you know, and there’s a lot more cooler things to do out here. It was way cooler than I could ever imagine. But, you know, I do love that our you know, freedom, you know, is like really where I feel like I live and I I’m and we’re in our to the mountains we have Sedona literally vortexes that give you energy. And yeah, I love my I love my area. But

D.J. Paris 10:10
I’m also a huge fan. And I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to interrupt your, your, your story about your journey. But Sedona is a place that everyone should go visit just even for just the sheer beauty even if you’re like, oh, I don’t believe in energy vortexes but I have been on a couple of those hikes to those vortexes and if there is something going on, in those places, the energy is definitely different. So I know we’re talking about real estate, but I just thought that was

Jennifer Wehner 10:34
their job is actually something that we don’t talk about in real estate, but I actually coached to like one of the things we have as a visual wheel. Because I it’s like, do you want your employees to just be so maximum efficiency, and what if they hate their life, you know, how they’re not gonna be the best employee. So we have an exercise, and it’s actually in our cadence of our coaching to draw your wheel, and you want it to be as good of a wheel, you know, and it breaks it down to family love friends, money, jobs, spirituality. You know, we talked about self care and health. But you know, don’t take my word for it. The last time I was in Sedona, I’m like sitting there, and I already already touched the vortex trees that where you could feel the electricity go to you. You don’t have to sell me but this lady gave me some really kind advice to my son. And I was like, Oh, thank you. And she’s like, Yeah, I was here last week. And there was like eight of us, none of us were together. We’re all strangers. And she goes, a breeze came through and and we all looked at each other. Like, did you feel that as you feel that, and it truly was a breeze of like, love and positivity? And you know, we talked about business and numbers, and it’s so important, but what about the creativity in that? Because all execution comes out of the right side of the brain? And Are we fulfilling our spirits or minds? Because while it’s gritty, while it’s like Darwinistic right now, you know, at the same token, there’s this beautiful thing called collaboration, and people wanting to help and there’s so many opportunities and people that we can truly help. So that excites me.

D.J. Paris 12:09
You know, I think you’re right. And I don’t mean to interrupt your story again. But I think the idea of collaboration, I think technology is has made that easier in a way, because now we can find people a lot easier. But then we also know that like social media, and technology actually makes us feel more lonely. So I think you’re right, it’s kind of neat. If we use social media correctly, we can find our tribe, and then we can go meet with them in person and actually experience some of those, you know, we don’t have to be sitting on Zoom meetings. And now, I mean, I just took a flight the other day back. And you know, we don’t have to wear masks anymore. And I don’t know if that’ll change anytime soon. But it was nice. It was nice to see people’s faces in you know, maybe we’re all sick. I don’t know. But but at least it was nice for a brief moment to be around other people. And so I think you’re right, there’s something very special that that we’ve been missing for the last couple years.

Jennifer Wehner 12:59
And on the on the positive side about the mask, because I won’t get into the science, my opinions on that. But I felt we were looking at each other’s eyes more, you know, because we weren’t. And I actually think there’s so much powerful connection the eyes. And because I would look in people’s eyes, and I could see like they were like starving for connection. And I’m just kind of a person that likes to, you know, sometimes ask people like, you know, how are you doing? Really? How are you like, yeah, right, are people treating you and you’d be amazed how like, they would open up their life story to where they’re the cashier at target because no one’s talking to them?

D.J. Paris 13:35
Well, that’s and that’s because so few people in people’s lives do actually pick up the phone or or say, Hey, tell me how, where are you struggling right now? How are you doing? What’s hard for you right now? And, and everyone’s dealing with something hard at all times. But you’re right, you know, just you even thinking to ask that might be the thing that person needs to needs to hear that connection. So it’s always a good reminder for all of us to reach out to our people that we care about and find out how they’re doing.

Jennifer Wehner 14:03
Yeah, yeah, love on your people, you know, it’s out is always a person. It’s like, not always been the best with my p&l cells and stuff. Because it’s like, I’m always like, theoretical first, like, give get, and I always feel like the money always follows. Now, of course, we have systems. I mean, we have p&l and tracking and all of that. But if you do the right thing, you know, and really, like, be grateful show thankfulness show true concern and care and really, like, what’s the feedback? What’s the word on the streets, like people want that authenticity? People want to be heard. They want to know how they want people to understand, you know, and that is that thing that you know, we’re look, we’re in a new age, you know, in COVID kickstarted this new age and astrology speaking we are in the Age of Aquarius, a new age. So

D.J. Paris 14:52
yeah, it’s really it’s really interesting, I think and you know, we we have this really amazing people are so starved for connection Now, it’s never been a better time to like, decide to add more of that into, you know, your personal life and then also your business to like, you know, these are people that we’re, you know, working with that you know, are putting either buying something that’s super expensive or selling something that’s super expensive to them. And, and this is an emotional, you know, decision both ways. And it’s, it’s scary, you know, which whichever way you might be buying or selling, it’s, it’s scary and to have an agent that cares, that actually isn’t just going to get the deal closed, but sort of hold their hand emotionally through the ups and downs of a transaction and the market, I think is the real value of an agent. I’m curious to get your thoughts on that.

Jennifer Wehner 15:40
Oh, absolutely. And, you know, the client experience has always been something that we believed in, I believed in, you know, before he even had a team, I had a virtual assistant doing the really stupid stuff. And, you know, I would spending more time with people having client appreciation parties, making sure you’re sending out birthday cards and but like, the, what I have found is we’ve had to pivot faster in our conversations with clients. You know, it’s like, understanding, it’s not just an objection handler, like, oh, no, I’m not just going to tell you why you should buy with all these market stats. Of course, you should know these numbers. But you have to understand, I think the true Master right now are people that understand people’s emotions, and are pivoting in our communication, you know, across the board, you know, to our clients, to our team, to our network, to our families, you know, that that communication, and, you know, it’s like, kind of on that collaboration piece. You know, Charles Darwin once said, it’s not the most intelligent man, nor the most capable, but the most collaborative man that ultimately survives, because the most collaborative man, you know, like, if me and you were here, I might have my visual I think’s gonna happen, you add your input, and maybe my eye could see one step further. And then we bring, you know, Kyle whistle in the room was one step. And then now together, we can see a clear path together. And with change, things changing so fast, you can just sign up for a coaching program and be like, oh, yeah, here it is. This is the blueprint and tenure. Now. It’s pivoting, it’s changing fast. And you’re the sum total of the five people you spend the most time with, and not just in money, but also in collective energy and collective mindset. You know, my mentors, like, like, I feel like I have a big mindset, my my mentors will show me you Inc, you ain’t dreaming big enough. You know, and when they say the average person stops dreaming at the age of 30. You know, in Warren Buffett, he didn’t make any of his money until after the age of 65. You know, it’s never too late to really plan your legacy. And, you know, put Don’t, don’t put off tomorrow, what you can do today. And there’s always something today, we can start. And there’s always something today, we’re going to fail on

D.J. Paris 17:51
it, for sure. And having other people to help us along the way is just everything right? I was telling my, my I do so many of these interviews right after going through a personal training. So PRs are probably sick of me talking about it, because probably sounds like I’m bragging and trust me, I’m not because I actually, it’s funny, the only reason I go to the gym is because I have a trainer who there’s accountability, and I pay her and there’s accountability there as well. And it’s the only I don’t go on my own. I wish I did. But it’s just one of those things I’m not good at I fail at that. So I have it on the schedule, I have a coach, in this case, a workout coach, and she puts me through and I don’t have to think about it, I just have to follow instruction. But if I didn’t have her in my life, I and she, you know, there’s a million trainers, but But I show up because I pay her and so I can beat myself up about not getting to the gym on my own accord. Or I could just go at least I’m going and now I you know I have a trainer and I’m in better shape. But

Jennifer Wehner 18:48
it is the highest form of love. You know, they actually that truly is true. And if you think about oh, my mom lets me do everything like, like do drugs at the parties and stuff, you know, and don’t do like my mom, like like the 96,000 cc and ours. I love my mom, but like that was too many roles. But you know, it’s that accountability, like the care ability that truly is the highest form of love and knowing what you had said, Knowing your women, limitations, knowing your weaknesses, super important, you know, also know your strengths, but know your weaknesses are out. Because there’s a solution to every problem and a problem to every solution. And you found a solution.

D.J. Paris 19:26
Well, you you have your journey is I know we sort of kind of got caught in the middle and I that was my mistake, but I want to see sort of where you ended up because you weren’t just this, you know, teen mom who’s going to college got married, you know, raising a child trying to start business moving, you know, from from the west coast into the desert. You know, 18 years later here you are you have one of the very top producing teams in all of Arizona. You have this amazing team with you as well. You’re constantly adding to your team, and you have just weathered Not just a very difficult time in the market, right? I remember those early 2000s. And then of course, the crash. And then here we are now where everything’s very, very challenging, I think. And so you’ve weathered a lot of storms in this market and not only weathered them but but thrived. I’m curious. I feel like you Yeah, well, of course,

Jennifer Wehner 20:21
like, I failed a lot, you know, but

D.J. Paris 20:24
it, let’s talk about failure. Because I do want to talk about this, we were so rarely on the show talk about failure. But I always heard that the successful people fail more than the average person. And that’s why they succeed, because we learn through failure, it’s really the only way.

Jennifer Wehner 20:39
So making decision taking action. So, you know, my Done is better than your Perfectly Undone. You know, how many times do I hear in language? Like, I want to do it? I’m trying to do it like, and what did Yoda say? There is no try. Right? You know, but it’s like, yeah, I mean, I might take like, 100. Now, of course, there’s a balance, you know, if you have 100 priorities, you have none. So having like, your most important priorities and ideas, but having like structure and systems in place. And you know, I know, like with Renaissance book, you know, ever in the reason why I wrote it, because, you know, I did have a team, but I also, you know, have ancillary businesses. And you know, the compounding factor, I find most agents like they know, math like 3% and 6%. But like, do they really know understand the compound factor of what like, your investment is? And do they understand the market and the numbers so much as what we’re going into? No, because most people, and I’m not saying this to be bad. But when it comes to students, most, most of the time, their business plan is their email, maybe their to do list on a yellow piece of pad of paper and their text messages. You know, they’re just kind of flying off the seat of their pants. And that is a real estate roller coaster. It’s like, there’s no predictive, you know, and then it stops, like, do you want to get it to stop? Or do you want it to go, you know, continue to go.

D.J. Paris 21:58
And it’s all based on urgency, right? Like things are flying at them. They’re reacting, it feels busy, because I’ve got this massive to do list. And I have all these emails to respond to in text, and it feels like productive. And then at the end of the day, you’re like, Oh, I didn’t, I didn’t do anything to actually advance my business today, because I’m so busy.

Jennifer Wehner 22:15
Yeah. And that’s where, you know, in the Renaissance book I talked about. And first of all, if you look at the definition of an artist, every single person is an artist. I just discovered, like, I was an artist, and it’s what you know, inspired me to write my book with Forbes, that Renaissance real estate agent, how to unlock the art of systems into your business. You know, and because that visual wheel that we were speaking about earlier, I actually calendar block that, because you know, first put on the non negotiables, put your date nights in, do you know the top in the top 500 Fortune SEO companies, CEOs put sex into their calendar because you know, happy wife happy life, happy husband, but there’s probably no good rhyme with that. Let’s start building the foundations the non negotiables

D.J. Paris 23:09
Oh, we may have just lost Jennifer. Let’s pause for a sec. While we try to get Jennifer back. Give us just a sec. She is coming back online. So give us just a second we will fix this in post as they say. So thank you for those watching. Out there, your your back. You bought you bounced out for about a minute. So. So did I cut off? I’m sorry. You were just what we were just saying sort of how CEOs even planned things like sex, because sex is it’s important. And I you said that very quickly. And I just want to pause for a moment only because we had this weird pause app. And that’s a really important thing to track. Right? Like it’s as important as tracking your, your, your emails that you’re replying to and you might think well that’s sort of silly should I be tracking sex that doesn’t not very romantic and maybe it isn’t all that romantic but it is important because it’s a super healthy natural part of life that we should build in but so I just appreciate that use nobody has ever said in all hundreds of episodes. The importance of of you know, making sure that sex is part of the conversation and part of something that is tracked and I think we lost Jennifer again so give us just a sec to get her back

Jennifer Wehner 24:35
Oh my Gosh

D.J. Paris 24:37
Gosh, the doll is in technology fun. We were just talking about sacks. Right? We were we were for the first time ever in five years on the show the word sex came up so I appreciate that because you’re right. It is important to track every part of life that’s important. You know whether it’s how often am I calling you know, my best friend and checking in on them. How often am I you know, contributing? How often am I telling My spouse that how wonderful they are and what they need to hear. So same thing with clients. Same thing with it’s all. It’s all something that can be tracked. Yeah,

Jennifer Wehner 25:08
right. Like, I feel like my way one word of the year, we always have like a one word of the year, mine’s cadence. Because I find that there’s a cadence to everything. You can find a better cadence for your meetings, you know, why all the stupid stuff you’re doing like, there’s a cadence to like cramming in leverage to help out, there’s a cadence to relationships, friendships, children, you know, your team on the business in the business, but that what the calendar and technology allows you to do is to know exactly what you were doing. So if you really keep it updated, as a coach, I can let go and see what you were doing. You know, and otherwise, I’m, I’m just going off testimony. And most people don’t have like a visual of like, all logical facts that have transpired. And

D.J. Paris 25:53
I have I have such a horrible memory that I cannot rely upon my recall, to accurately talk about anything I you know, what did I eat yesterday? I’d have to think about it. And I’ll probably get some of that wrong. You know, the idea of writing things down and tracking is, is really, really important to avoid a lot of the like, what, you know, the sort of conscious our brains are

Jennifer Wehner 26:15
wired that way our brains every night we go to sleep, it discards all the information that thinks deletion, lots of deletion, that is actually the way our brains are wired. So if we’re expecting her to our brains to perform differently, just because we want them to, you actually know you have to work with the tools he got.

D.J. Paris 26:32
Yeah, well, let’s look. So right now, the vast majority of the country who agents are struggling in the most immediate sense with inventory, right? So I don’t know how it’s in your in your market, I’m sure it’s just like all the others little inventory rates are rising up that’s gets a little stressful for buyers, of course, with no inventory, it makes it tough for agents who are working with buyers. Of course, listing agents are having a wonderful time, although it’s also stressful being a list listing agent, because you’re getting 40 or 50 offers sometimes and having to deal with that. But how are you what how are you coaching your team right now on managing some of these these challenges? They’re right in front of them?

Jennifer Wehner 27:13
Well, first, I let them know what’s going on in the industry right now. Because Phoenix, we’re here like we’re in a special market, because every hedge fund tech fund marketing company that wants to see if their business model will work like to come here first, because we have eight to 12,000 sales a month high turnover, you know, easiest to recruit market. But what they need to understand is the industry itself is changing. The market is changing. Yeah, true. But what it should be more interesting is that the industry in itself is changing. Consumers and themselves are changing. And with that we haven’t really seen I mean, there’s been some harder some blips and you know, but there really has not been a challenging market until I’d say about last year. But if we look at what’s happening right now, now, if I could have gotten my DeLorean and gone back to like, oh, five, I would have known Oh, March of oh, five were in a market shift. However, I didn’t feel it until Oh, eight, we kind of knew you saw it no seven, but it was two years later, because that’s how fast real estate reacts. Now we have all the biome out my girls today that we actually are in a market shift as of today, by this fall, we will, we’ll hear about it more on the news, but the public’s probably not going to hear about it for two more years. So Winter is here. Now with that being said, you know, what does it take you 90 hours to get a license and 1000 hours to cut someone’s hair? You know, so

D.J. Paris 28:40
isn’t that amazing? By the way? Yeah,

Jennifer Wehner 28:43
yeah. And doing hair salon so I did the math there too. But you know, we are having we’re moving into an expert market. Our whole industry in itself is changing. It’s disrupted because real estate industry is 10 years behind every other industry in the world, in the most emotional industry in the world. So what are we having to do? First of all, we’re having to ask ourselves, do I really want to be here or do I want to bake cookies baking cookies there’s nothing wrong with it but if you want to be here because like you have the grit and the muscle and you love it so much there’s more opportunities in a challenging market then there is in a good in a good market so but it most agents that I see you know because they you know I’ve survived I still have PTSD like going through like what I went through you know, I mean made millions I lost even more millions i was i was worth negative millions. You know, just to get to zero was a win for me. But you know, that was 2011 when we really got into a good markets been loving years since we’ve been a good market. And we we’ve seen the most agents we’ve ever had. brokerages at the meantime are losing steam, they’re losing they’re not able to deliver on their value proposition. There’s not we all know real estate school is hogwash. Come on. Like, that’s why we join all the coaching but even coaching, you know, and I done 40,000 A year coaching and coaching said great for me, but to run a business, you know, coaching program never taught me how to run a business. You know, and it’s my mentors. It’s a circle of tribe and, you know, wise counsel and leveling up wise counsel, but it’s super important to know, right now begin with a long term in mind, do I have a place? What are my goals? Do I have different levels of different streams of income? Where am I learning? Who am I learning from? You know, it’s a time to kind of not like paws not be scared, not not like fear, takeover. But like concern? Yes, because we are in winter. And if you do not stop what you’re doing, and we know that there will probably be 30% less sales this year. And by fall, and by next year, it will see here we went from 33%. And appreciation last year to probably single digits next year, our rates are five and above, we’re gonna see threes and fours. But we can’t have conversations like this to our clients. Because what is it about more, it’s about feelings, it’s about emotions. And if we truly want to be here, it we’re turning into an expert market, teams are taking off. So leadership, as there’s never been more time that leadership, you know, and has a lot of responsibility, you know, and you, I believe you should accept that responsibility with integrity and character. And if you don’t want to be a leader like that, then step down. But if you really want to be a leader in the industry, and I hope every agent in this industry wants to be a leader, because what happens is leaders grow leaders, and we used to grow up in villages, right? Like, that’s how you couple 100 years ago, like we’d have three or four families helping each other out. You know, today, we’re kind of lonely on our own. And sometimes we feel like we’re on an island with no help. I certainly felt like that No, five, and I come from Podunk land, like, you know, nobody was a capitalist and my family and the, you know, people the way they looked at psychology of money, where I came from looks like money’s evil, you know, but the more money you have, the more you can give away. The more money you have, the more time choices and freedom you have. What’s the legacy not just that for your kids? Because sometimes you have to screw it up a little bit, you get a parenting coach, try to make it better, but what legacy Are we living for our children and great grandchildren, our community, our friends, because going through a weight losing everything where my home was going to be foreclosed, my card got declined for lice shampoo, that was really cool. And I was working seven days a week, so I was working the grit muscle, but I didn’t have the mentors that I had, you know, today back then. And I was just a 25 year old girl from Riverside, you know, trying to make it on her own, you know, and, you know, it’s time to level up and not rest on our laurels know that this is a sober and serious season. I have so much to grow in. I know I’m constantly being that dumb person in the room, find those rooms, you know, but be uncomfortable. You know, I know we talked about the real estate rollercoaster but I kind of almost feel like it’s a treadmill. And our FEC actually but standing treadmill, it could be running right now. But it’s kind of like you have to take one foot off the treadmill, you know, and you have to, like, it feels really uncomfortable. But if you’re on that treadmill, doing the same things every day expecting a different result, we’re working seven days a week, like that, you’re going to be doing that forever, it’s going to keep going. But when you get off that treadmill pause, because sometimes it slow down to speed up, you know, what can we do about low inventory? Well, we there’s a lot of different directions, I can go with that. Because with this, how many agents do we know that? You know, have you worked with that you like feel sorry for their clients? Like Right? Right? So

D.J. Paris 33:54
very common.

Jennifer Wehner 33:55
Who are your clients? You know, who should they work with? Like who is the best advocate for them? If you believe that’s you, it’s time to start. Start leveraging leveraging, leveraging out there’s a way a lot of different ways to leverage what conversations are you having with your client, you’re gonna have to shift and pivot those conversations to not I’m right, you’re wrong, but how, you know, how does it feel you know, and understanding you know, there was this is actually just from a mastermind I got off this morning from one of my mentors you know, where we collaborate every week, and I learned all the time, but you know, you could be if you’re looking at it, you can see this visual here.

D.J. Paris 34:40
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Jennifer Wehner 36:03
straight line and this is this is rent, or there’s a diagonal line here. So this is rent, this is equity, by equity. Oh, geez, I just kind of split that up. But it’s really kind of an activity that you’re going to do to show what the cost is of renting versus buying because it’s easier to rent might cost you a little bit more to rent. But when you show them, showing them is better than telling them and asking, you know, I find is asking, you know, as far as like how does that, you know, what are you feeling, you know, you originally wanted to sell you originally wanted to buy, you know what stopped that, you know, and they’ll tell you, you know what their biggest fears are, and it’s that we’re in those biggest fears is where we’re going to find all of the solutions of how we can be an advocate and showing them, there might be a number of different solutions for them. But there’s too many limiting beliefs out there. There’s too many false coaches out there teaching them things, and I won’t mention names, but some of them are famous. But if they’re really looking at real estate, what is still the American dream, or its real estate, what can be the biggest impact on your clients life, the compounding factor. If you know agents, this is probably good morning advice for you too, because you maybe you’re gonna want to buy some more acquire some more rental properties. But it real estate truly is American dream. And it’s fear that it’s letting people get in the way of that. And the way what we have to do is understand that and shift our conversations around what strategies in some of these long term strategies that have always worked. Robert Kiyosaki, you know, he’s one of my favorites. Sure, but look at the foundations of what’s really working and, and be able to be that expert to your clients, and you’ll win the war, because all the other saturated agents that don’t take it seriously, don’t put learning first, you’re kind of just barely flying off the seat of the pants, put iPhone photos up for their listings, those agents will go, you know, every hedge fund company thinking that they’re going to, you know, there’s a way to be everybody with just providing the best possible client experience.

D.J. Paris 38:23
Yeah, it’s so right. It’s the the client experiences is everything I just about a year ago bought a primary residence. And it wasn’t the first time buying a primary residence. But even though I’m in this industry, I’m not a practicing agent, but I work with, you know, lots of them. And I thought, oh, okay, and I had my, my boss was helping me just sort of making sure I was, you know, dotting my eyes and crossing my T’s. But I was freaked out. And I was stressed all the way through the process. And it wasn’t a particularly stressful transaction. But it just was like, I’d kind of forgotten how it feels. And I sort of wanted to relay that to all of our agents here, like, no, even if you know what you’re doing, it’s crazy stressful. And this is a great opportunity to be that stress guide to be able to help your clients as they get scared, and you know, the ups and downs of just any transaction, it’s like if you can do that, you will be so incredibly valuable to people that they’ll just tell everybody about you.

Jennifer Wehner 39:24
Value. Right? It’s it comes down to value. And I had a it’s funny, I had a client call me that she had already worked with one of my team members, they, and I think he worked with me like 12 years ago, but he called me and he’s like, What are you? And I’m like, what? And he’s like, Well, you know, the open door and the 72 sold and the but like what are you and I like I was kind of put on the spot and I was like, Oh, interesting. I’m like, real estate technician, you know, and he’s like, what is that? You know, like, you know, there’s like an art and there’s a science and there’s there’s the numbers it’s gonna be that different strata. Jeez, it’s changing fast. That’s me. I’m a real estate technician. You know, it’s, it’s really being the engineer. And if you can’t do it alone, like, let’s just put it out there. And you can’t even like, if you’re going to leverage can you leverage on one person? Because how practical is that? You know, you need to have a team. And that’s kind of my controversial opinion I put into my book. But, you know, it’s it’s growing the team. It doesn’t have to be 100 people, you know, but you need to have systems in place, and some of it can be outsourced. Some of it can be in person. But if you don’t have a team, you don’t have leverage, you don’t have a business. You pretty much indentured indentured servitude.

D.J. Paris 40:41
Yeah. Because the moment you stop the income stops as well.

Jennifer Wehner 40:45
Yeah. And then even exit strategies. When I asked agents like, what’s your exit exit strategy? You’ve been in business 30 years, you know, what are you gonna do? Like die in a front porch? You know, why are like prospecting? You know, I mean, I don’t want to go out like that. But, you know, it’s like, oh, no, buy investment properties. And we start sitting down doing the math like, Okay, how many would you have? Need to have your cash flow? 600 bucks, 800 bucks on new each one, how much would you have to save? Like, they would have to be 132 like they acquired and they would have to no whole other skill set. So, you know, it’s, it’s practical things today, like putting a plan in place, like I have a one page business plan and give it to you. It’s, it’s really simple one page, because if you again, 100 parties equals zero, you know, staying on plan, being able to pivot and being uncomfortable with change. And you know, recently it was that I’m wondering Italian because it opens up your heart chakra and, you know, excusing elitism, what, maybe someday, but I did a speech on school motto, you know, and what school motto, it means is embracing uncertainty, embracing paradox, and duality. And actually, if you think about it, anxiety is the closest thing to excitement, just as Hope is the closest thing to defeat. So in our darkest moments, and our confused moments and our nervous moments, there’s always a way to channel this to change. And to know that Elon Musk lives man, Elon Musk, and I don’t care how you believe on Him. If that doesn’t inspire you, the fact that we’ll be in Mars. And I already asked Glenn, if I could get dibs on expansion team in more hours. But you know, what does, you know, and it’s sad that people stopped dreaming after the age of 30. Because I remember when I was a kid, I had all these dreams, I got into real estate and I kind of forgot about him. But you know, dream big, you know, stop dreaming, dreaming? Don’t like live in anxiety that’s gonna give you nowhere Are you truly want to be what do you want in life? Sometimes it’s those big questions and kind of kind of throw some answers at No, seriously, sit back in a moment and journal it write it out under a tree in nature, send us some good music, but slow down to speed up, have a plan in place. And look around, who are you going for wise counsel on your tribe? And at the end of the day, it’s you, you know, you’re the captain of your own ship? Where do you want to take your ship?

D.J. Paris 43:15
Yeah, I think I think all of that is such great advice. And it’s so again, it’s like getting off the treadmill of transaction, transaction, transaction, transaction, prospecting, customer service deal closed. Getting off of that a little bit. And now it’s kind of, there’s sort of you have a little bit of time now to do that, I think maybe more than when, you know, the last couple years when things were just exploding. Now, no, it’s

Jennifer Wehner 43:41
actually I mean, you know, every time you reach a certain extent in your career, you hit your new threshold of problems. So it’s all these skill sets you have to learn. But you know, that’s the uncomfortability so I’ve had to learn because my time was getting taxed. And I had to learn how to kind of tear down my calendar and rebuild it with a different cadence, so that I could add time that I’m most passionate about self care time like I coach and and reallocating that time to where it’s going to be the most valuable based on my time per hour and you know, which level I can help and then also time I need to learn so

D.J. Paris 44:20
yeah, it’s it’s about you know, building the life like you said, it’s starting with that, you know, drawing the wheel and saying okay, how’s my relationship with my clients? How’s how’s my business? How’s my relationship at home? How how’s my physical being? What’s my spirituality look like? How often am I hanging out with my friends and what nurtures me and what am I doing and agents you know, we we now if we don’t set appropriate boundaries our clients can with technology can ping us anytime day or night we can choose how we want to respond if we don’t have systems in place even around our own behavior. Even around what what you know, what are our hours, you know, an agent, should you be available? 24/7 I don’t know I don’t think I’d want to be

Jennifer Wehner 45:01
scripting for that. So next you’re just practicing. Well, I don’t want to 911 Senator Mr. Seller, so you know, if you reach me after they just seven, if it’s like, you know, mediate like now I’m like, of course, if we’re writing an offer, I’m just gonna be that’s not likely. So if you reach me after seven, you know, I just don’t respond, you know, if they do text me if it’s over something insignificant and they didn’t listen to, you know what I told them, and I just treat it as I didn’t do anything wrong. So I’m not going to apologize, I’m gonna come back the next day in my business hours, it’s really drawing your boundaries. You know, I teach, I think, you know, a lot of women because I think Mom, I don’t know mom shame or whatever.

D.J. Paris 45:38
But you have to be perfect as a mom, you have to do everything perfect. And you have to

Jennifer Wehner 45:42
always want to like be with your kids too. You know, I put all Sundays I will not work. And that was 2014 Snow 1516 Sorry, 2016. And I’ve honored that ever since I would not work Sundays, even before I had a team. I would pivot all those conversations that were on Sunday, I did have one backup person at that time. So there’s always a different way you can build this where you can start drawing your boundaries because I mean, Albert Einstein DaVinci like we all so many of the Great’s they tell you how important r&r is. And we know that all execution comes out of the right side of the brain, which is the creative side of the brain. So without r&r, you’re not going to be able to get that creation, you know, which which is going to cause change, you know, changing the direction you want it to to not, not the panic train.

D.J. Paris 46:37
Yeah, no, you’re right. And this is right now a lot of agents a lot of our listeners are in in that panic mode, because it’s it’s stressful right now to be an agent. I mean, it’s always stressful, of course, but right now it’s tough with with little inventory, you really have to be able to take time away from your business and say, Okay, how do I how do I provide a better service right now? While things are stressful? How can I take care of myself? How can I take care of my clients? How do I call my clients down? What do I do? How do I find opportunities? But I have a question. We have so many of our listeners are newer to the business. And I’m curious in because you are you bring on new agents, of course on to your team as well. What’s What do you recommend to to like up and coming agents or new agents, what’s sort of your your first piece of advice when when you watch this is

Jennifer Wehner 47:25
not a self promotion, this is just literally like, I’m going to tell you the honest truth. And you know, if I were to backtrack and go back to where I was in 2003, I would have done the same but teams weren’t prevalent. But we know in the results and story after story, the fastest way for new agents to get into production is to is to join a team, and a good one. So definitely like interview and know that you’re joining a team who went systems and that’s a whole other story. But you know, if they say they’re already working with buyers right now, maybe you’re more buyer heavy. If you’re a new agent, what’s more valuable of your time going out to see eight homes 12 homes you’re at now you’re two months later, and they’re stopped? They’re not following up with you? Or would it be more valuable upfront to say like, let’s sit down with coffee, come into my office, let’s set expectations up front, and really build that rapport getting somebody people are either running away from pain or going towards pleasure. So really getting deeper to understanding what their pain and pleasure and desire is. setting the expectations. Yeah, it’s crazy. Yes, this is going on? This is how I’m going to solve it. These are the different strategies, I’m going to allow you take you about an hour, an hour and a half. But how much more valuable would that time be? As opposed to? How do you lose your like the house? No, okay, I’m gonna write an offer. It’s three offers. No, if you actually take time, slow down to speed up, how better pirate buyer consultations, look, your seller consultation? Are you setting expectations there because we are in a shifting market. It’s not just price your home $500,000 with meth needles on the ground and sell it now you actually you know, have to set proper expectations there as well know what’s important to them. You know, it’s really get into the more humanism side and being the to professional, because we’re all humans, we all have emotions. And our clients do too. And we’re in this world of technology where they’re hearing from their co workers, they’re hearing from zooms they’re hearing from the media, which of course they only say good news, right for me, you know, so, of course, they’re in panic. So what they do every day. So just understanding that and being empathetic, getting down to like, kind of again, the basics. Yes, definitely forgot. But for buyers for agents to know. It doesn’t matter. I have agents on my team first year in they’ve sold 30 homes. You don’t I mean, so it doesn’t matter. Like how long you’ve been in the business. There’s a lot of agents that have been around for 20 years that that don’t have like, they’ve never called the past client their life, you know, so it doesn’t matter where You’re not in the business, even if you’re 65 you’re not it’s been Colonel KFC, you know, Colonel Sanders started his business, but who you are as a person is just like somebody that cares, you know, somebody that is open and coachable, curious, you know, be around those mentors, because things pivot, they change fast and know that that is going to be a part of not just real estate industry, but this world in the new world that we live in. And we have to be able to pivot with those changes and not let fear block us or our clients. Because we can dispel those fears and limiting beliefs. And there are so many more solutions out there then, you know, possibly we even know.

D.J. Paris 50:41
Yeah, it’s funny. I was just at a conference with Zillow. And I know agents have a very visceral reaction to the word Zillow, some agents like Zillow, some agents, of course, don’t. But they’re here to stay. They’re not going anywhere, and to push against them. I understand people are allowed to have opinions and I’m not here saying I’m pro Zillow, or anti Zillow. I don’t really personally think about it one way or the other, but, but they’re not going anywhere. And so then it’s like, Okay, if that’s if that’s the case that 200 million Americans are a month, go on Zillow, then we need to learn how to accept them as somebody’s part of the transaction, right? It’s just how it’s going to be. And we can fight it and we can get mad, or we can say maybe they’re making my job a little easier in a certain way. Because now I don’t have to do as much searching because my clients do a lot of the searching for me. And I can focus like you were saying, on the more human side of things, the things that Zillow can’t do. Zillow can’t do the human side. That’s not their job. They don’t want to do it. They’re not trying to do it. They’re trying to say, well just do the tech side. And I think that’s really cool, in a sense, because it opens up an opportunity for agents to have deeper connection because you have more time.

Jennifer Wehner 51:51
Yeah. Or maybe they could have saved 200 million and compete with Zillow, you know? Yeah, yeah. And it’s funny because when I came over to exp in 2018, it was because I was like, struggling like hardcore about how to build a team. And my mentors, Kyle and Dan moved in a week later, I was like, yeah, no brainer, you can see it. But I was at four people. Today, I’m at 40, and then my network to 60, and a couple of ancillary businesses. But you know, when we launched I had an open door at the time, and Zillow was at the time but you know, those were our competitors, but I was losing listings open door. I’m like, I can either beat them or join us. And now we have Zillow. It’s a it’s, you know, I don’t put all your eggs in one basket. But Zillow has been great to us. But I had them on my panel, because then I was like, Okay, you do a referral fee. I could have my clients go to you. And maybe if it’s a better service, I could still get paid because I can help with the human side of things. So we put them on our panel people that I was crazy, like, Why do you have open door and Zillow? I’m like, Well, you know, we have to like understand these are where our clients are going. They’re like, Are you are you spending that much money marketing and retargeting to your clients? Probably not. Where our clients going, they’re going to Zillow. So why not help you and your client by running them on Zillow seeing what what homes they like, you know, so you could be right or you can be rich? Which one?

D.J. Paris 53:21
Yeah, and being right is fun for about two seconds. And then you realize, oh, I maybe I lost the battle here. I lost the war, I won the battle. Because I was right. Anyone in a relationship knows this. Right? Better to better to get along then be right, because being nobody, you know, we we all we work in collaboration with each other, you know, it is called a cooperative commission. Right? We work together. Yes, we are sort of competing against the other agent, in a sense, although we’re really working together to get the deal closed. So seeing the universe is friendly, and not that everyone’s friendly, obviously, they’re not but just try looking for ways in which we can all get along and make things better. The agents I know that are the most successful and of course, there’s exceptions, but very few at least here in Chicago, we have 46,000 agents and I know a lot of the top ones because of the show and you know, just me being around long enough. They’re all pretty giving people surprisingly like I would have thought they would be closely guarded with their secrets now they’ll pretty much tell you everything and they’re nice. Being nice is an underrated thing to is talking about. If you’re really nice to other agents, you’ll you’ll see that things will start to fall your way just being a good human being.

Jennifer Wehner 54:35
Back to the basics, I know it’s like and then it just say no and aspiring CIDA they just detected life on Venus.

D.J. Paris 54:43
Yes, I know.

Jennifer Wehner 54:46
Plenty of loving and kindness and actually with Venus in retrograde it speeded up right next to Mars. Mars is the planet of war, but Venus and Mars are right next to each other. So that meant the most passionate energy of loving and kindness for the universe. was that we could have seen that was in February. So, um, but yeah, you would, you know, kill them with kindness. You know, we kind of hear these basics, sometimes, like we forgot we complicated things, but some of those things, basics, like they actually still are true and loving and kindness, it goes a long way.

D.J. Paris 55:19
Yeah, it’s one of those things. It’s especially like, if you’re in a multiple offer situation, and you’re working with a buyer, and you have a reputation. And again, maybe there’s 30 offers also going out. And yes, you might not win it, and odds are, you probably won’t, because 30 Other people are competing, or whatever the number of people are, but if you’re known as somebody who, you know, can get deals closed, of course, the professionalism part and knowing your stuff. And then just also being a good human being, you know, just, we’re just, we’re animals, we want to be liked. We want to like other people, we want to be out of conflict as much as possible. And if you’re somebody who, you know, your offer comes in, and they’re like, Oh, I liked that person. I liked that other agent. Sometimes things fall your way that probably shouldn’t fall your way just because you’re a nice human being.

Jennifer Wehner 56:03
Yeah, and, you know, like, I will say, like, um, you know, I don’t always think that university work this way. And but I’ve always been, like, a natural giving person. And sometimes all I’d have to give was a smile, you know, and I’m gonna say, there’s like, a total, like, be word side of me. So I’m not trying to be like, like, Jesus here.

D.J. Paris 56:20
Well, that’s an important thing. It’s important to have that too, right? When you need to stand up for yourself and set boundaries and defend them and, and say, Hey, that’s not okay, behavior, but of course, absolutely is it just like,

Jennifer Wehner 56:30
was uncalled for, because that’s just, you know, I’m human.

D.J. Paris 56:34
And we all make mistakes,

Jennifer Wehner 56:35
I sin. But, you know, it’s like, sometimes all you can give is like a smile. I’m like, you know, what, I don’t feel like giving all the books I want to talk, but you look like somebody needs a smile today. But I carry gifts on me at all times. I just feel like empowered. Like, when I have gifts, it’s like, I’m gonna gift you, you know, but it’s like, you know, it truly all like, you know, the freedom, like I was at this event a month ago with agents, and I two years ago, wouldn’t have had the freedom to give $10,000 away, just without looking at p&l, I think I get 15. You know, that felt so free to be like, just give and it’s like, I came back and like, positive things happen on my team. And I’m like, you told me that was the way the universe works. But I didn’t believe it. But I really think it’s true. And it really is true. When you have that grateful giving heart and you give without expectation. You know, you’d be surprised that you know, what comes your way?

D.J. Paris 57:31
Yeah, it’s that old mentality givers get and it’s, it’s something that doesn’t get talked about enough in this in this industry. We look just so much on how do we get a how do we get a client? How do we get the deal closed? You know, and then how do we move on to the next client? How do we get referrals? All of those things, of course, are important. And every all of its important systems are important. You know, you and I are having a more human conversation then, specifically around systems because, you know, I think this is a much more interesting conversation. I think, you know, I’ve had a million conversations around systems, I rarely have these kinds of conversations. So I hope our audience is is is tuned in as I am because you are not somebody who just has theories and the sounds cool. And it’s, it’s, you know, things that that work well on a on a podcast, you’re actually one of the top producing teams in Arizona, which by the way, is one of the most competitive markets for real estate agents as well. So this stuff actually works, which is the coolest part of it, right? It’s like you get to feel good. make other people feel good, contribute, and oh, by the way, benefit, you know, financially.

Jennifer Wehner 58:34
Yes, you know, it’s like, it’s like humanizing. You can do everything you can do with technology, okay, you can do some humanizing of technology, right? The action plans or communication, but, like, truly being human, is what your biggest gift is not. You’re an artist, again, human, you can systematize human humanism into your business. And then you could add, you know, what the time element is, but it is all day, you know, at the end of the day, you know, that’s what we all want, right? We all want connection. Nobody wants to be alone. They just want to believe that somebody has their back, you know, and when you have that, and when you have that for yourself professionally, someone has your back. And then you’re like winning together and you’re failing together. Because let’s just put out there, we’re still I’m there still. So it’s under construction at all times. For every win that you see, I have 1000 fails that you don’t and but it’s a constantly evolving, constantly evolving, that’s life. That’s world that’s our industry. And what if you’re constantly evolving with it? It’s exciting, you know, it’s an adventure. And it’s what we think we’ve never we don’t even know what the ceiling is yet. You know, for real estate. And if we think about it like that, that’s crazy because well it’s one thing to help a buyer and seller and I’m not saying anything like I didn’t love that part of it. Then when you can get back at a higher level and like literally change people’s lives, I have two of my team members in escrow right now on their second home, they’re going to rent their first one out, like they listen to my advice, I got excited, that already have equity before closing. And their spouses are so happy for me their kids lives. And I’m not again, it takes it takes me a lot of people to help me to be just live, you know. So like, shout out for all the people that have helped me. And all the people that like are going to help me and I’m going to help because the more we help, and we start in our communities, the more that that energy expands, and when you change people, when you can see the change that you’ve been given. And you see that happening in people’s lives, it’s been the most rewarding thing that I’ve seen in my real estate career so far. So

D.J. Paris 1:00:50
this idea of of helping other people and seeing them benefit from from your help is is truly remarkable. We are very fortunate when the show on this podcast, because we get we get a lot of that and we love our audience for telling us, hey, this really helped me or, you know, hey, if you if you interview this person, you know, that would be really interesting. And it’s so fun. And people say like, How’d you get started doing this podcast? I was like, I just did it one day, it wasn’t I’m nobody special. I’m not particularly a great interviewer. Really, I’m not I’m fine at it. It’s I’m okay. But the reality of it is I just did it, and no one else was doing it for having these kinds of conversations. And so it’s one of those things that you don’t have to be particularly skilled, like you were saying, the best, you know, your, you know, not imperfect plan that gets done is better than the perfect plan that never gets done. It’s just a matter of just getting uncomfortable. Like you were saying,

Jennifer Wehner 1:01:47
you know, that comparison is the thief of joy. I think I like comparison for the inspiration part of it. But if you were to see me two years ago, three years ago, I joined Toastmasters, my speaking skills, like I would have been like a nervous anxiety wreck on the show. So like, again, like, you know, we’re talking here we are today, and where would we be in five years? I’d probably be laughing at myself, you know, but you know, that, like, why, you know, I think like asking yourself why, you know, we’ve kind of generic, but for me, like why I am fueled and purpose filled and like driven more and just so passionate. And I would do, I’d coach, like for free if I you know, could because it’s just that’s how passionate I am, is like when I was in defeat and I lost everything. Like my kids. I mean, I was suicidal, that was back. I don’t drink alcohol, just full disclosure, I surrendered four years ago. But I was like, in full on alcoholism, you know, and I would never want an agent to feel that way.

D.J. Paris 1:02:48
I wouldn’t be probably felt very alone.

Jennifer Wehner 1:02:50
Lone like, like, I felt like I was in this canyon that I could never get out of it like world would be better without me. And I just even if it’s not that low, you know, I don’t want to an agent that truly cares and wants to be in this industry to ever have to go through that. So if I can save, you know, and we all can like together collectively, you know, where we agents can actually thrive and grow, you know, in this business and the ones that don’t want to do this and aren’t like committed enough like it’s Okay, goodbye, namaste. But truly namaste for the leaders that step up right now. Because it’s exciting. And I promise you any leaders or agents listening thinking that you don’t do it. I like to call myself a limiting belief like murder. I was gonna take my, like, ar 15 out, like take that like limiting belief away, because I wish somebody would have done that to me. And, you know, I have limiting beliefs right now I get checked on my belief systems, like almost weekly where I’m like, Oh, I wasn’t thinking oh, I wasn’t thinking big enough. You know, and it’s, it’s yeah, the people that challenge me and fuel me and all the people that help and support it. It’s so important at the end of the day, because we don’t take anything here. Like I don’t take my CRM to have it. I don’t take my bank account to heaven, right? Or wherever going, like purgatory or everything you go, but you know, I don’t believe in like flames, but we can’t take it with us. So what are we doing here? But money, like money is important to know because money provides choices, money provides freedom, money provides time, you know, money provides, like being able to change your family’s legacy and the legacies of however many countless families that are out there that are going to be touched by simply a spark of your influence.

D.J. Paris 1:04:43
Yeah, your boy you just said you just said so much right there. And that one is is is really thinking about what’s what’s important and what is your why and he said this it’s like, again, it’s back to basics. It’s it’s sitting down and writing out what’s my why am I doing this not just you know, to close a deal and And you know, what’s what’s?

Jennifer Wehner 1:05:03
Yeah, boring? Boring anymore. Like, let’s get past level one and level two guys straight to level two. But I’m like, what does it really mean to you? When 100 million? What is that going to mean? Are you going to give a library away? Are you going to like, what are you going to do with it? But like when you ask yourself, why, what am I most passionate about? What it’s like, if I could like, take this away from you tomorrow, what would that be? You know, but literally stopping journaling. Like literally write it down, keep a piece of paper with you. Because journaling and writing is just something that we don’t encourage enough. I run a real estate school practically, I am very involved with my kids school, I’ve taught art history. Throughout my kids schools, I’m just really passionate about art and teaching. But writing and you know, I have what my first book out, but there is going to be a memoir, that I’m actually about a third way down. So that will be on another day. But for the Forbes that Renaissance real estate agent, it I really put my blood, my blood, sweat, tears and heart in it. So it’s really like the fundamentals, it will have links all of our site with the actual tools you can use. There’s, it’s good that you guys,

D.J. Paris 1:06:13
well, we were excited for that. And so the book that’s coming out is the Renaissance real estate agent that once those those links are there, we are going to make sure that we promote this to our audience. And, you know, again, just a great reminder of the human side of this conversation of this business and making sure that we’re not only taking care of our clients, we’re also taking care of ourselves. And I think throughout this conversation, we’ve stressed a lot of that it’s it’s it’s maybe even doing a little bit less to get more sometimes, like you were saying, stepping back from the business just a little bit to making sure am I getting everything I need and being collaborative, having people in your life that you were saying can call you out when you need to be called out. And we all need to be called out. And that doesn’t mean negatively. It just means Oh, I noticed you’re doing this thing. And maybe you could try this other thing or, or how are you feeling? Or how are you doing? And then, you know, like you were saying, joining a team, if you’re new boy, you learn you’ll learn so much. And you learn so much faster when you’re on a team because you’ll just absorb energy and exactly you know what they’re going through. But just the idea of having a community around you having having a advisors around you who can actually, like I’m so grateful I have an accountant. I mean, it sounds so simple, because so many people do. But like I literally never, I mean, I probably should think about my taxes a little bit more than I do. But it’s nice to go. I’ve got somebody for that. And we go through things. And you know, as long as I think she’s

Jennifer Wehner 1:07:36
sorry, your app, as soon as you have to level up on your wise counsel. Yeah, I’m sorry, I had a conversation with my mom, we could go at our health and like say I love my doctor, like my doctor three years and like, Mom, you’re in the most pain like you’ve ever been in. So that’s insanity. Like, sometimes you have to level up your wise counsel. And it’s like for sure the likability factor. But absolutely. And sometimes it is addition by subtraction, you know, look at your core values of who you are as a person, because you’re not different as a professional organization, or you should you be and are if you’re not like firing and hiring with your core values. Know that how important those are. Because one bad apple can spoil a bunch. And I can tell you that as this year’s lesson of what I learned, I feel like I was my childhood pattern out of my professional life last year. But sometimes, like there is like like activities, you can subtract people you can subtract and people, you more people that you would add, because you were able to subtract. So it’s a net positive at the end of the day.

D.J. Paris 1:08:35
I agree, what a great place to wrap up, I want everyone to really start to follow, you know, some of the what you what you do on social media in particular, because I think a lot of your wisdom comes through in your your content. And Jennifer’s just a wonderfully thoughtful human being who also has these incredible achievements behind her. So she’s, like I was saying earlier, what she says actually works. And boy, isn’t that nice. That’s somebody else’s. And there’s lots of people in this industry that have done this, but you can sort of just follow in the wake of someone else who has already made a ton of mistakes, and you’ll be able to make new mistakes, then that are better quality mistakes. And how nice is it that Jennifer is willing to come on and talk about, you know, some of her challenges. And by the way, Kurt, I wanted to acknowledge the courage of sharing addiction issues. I mean, this is something that we look every family members got somebody, right, we were all used to this, this happens. We don’t talk about it a lot. But it happens, you know, people are struggling and and you know, it could be even a friend. But this is you know, the opportunity to be vulnerable. And to be honest, I always heard the honesty is the hardest thing you’ll ever do. And I never really understood that until until more recently. I’m in my 40s now, and I’m like oh yeah, truth actually being honest about what I’m actually going through like the hard things that is is hard and having people who love and support you in your life, whether it’s in your business, whether it’s in your, you know, your family life, whatever it might be friends, it’s really, really important so that you actually have a safe a safe place to be honest. But it takes courage and you you’ve demonstrated a tremendous amount of courage throughout your entire life. And that is something that I think is beyond admirable. And so congratulations on your four years of sobriety. That is, that is a big, big thing.

Jennifer Wehner 1:10:27
I’m so an addict, it’s now a sugar. And so I gotta manage that. But if I would love to end on one note that I really didn’t waste on. And it’s a it’s a quote from one of my favorite favorite Greeks. And it’s one quote I love, but he was a philosopher. But you know, not all philosophers are kings. But you know, we often say, but we have team leaders, we have brokerage owners, we’re leaders in the industry. But all kings should be philosophers. And it’s that questioning mindset. But at the end of the day, it’s ownership. Like, when you Marcus Aurelius said, the biggest thing you’ll overcome in your life is yourself. And so we can’t control the external, but we absolutely can control the internal neuro. And I’ve looked at like, in that, with that perspective, I looked at every single situation I’m in and of course, like, maybe it was 2% ownership. But, you know, like, no matter what I could see why, why I caused that external event to happen. And maybe that external event was there to be a lesson. But there’s ownership wherever you’re at like you are, that’s what your intention lies in your results. Look at your life today, if there’s something that’s not wrong set of blaming or look within, you know, it’s internal, because when you take ownership at that high of a level, and I’m not even all the way to the level I want to be, because the more you learn, the more you know, you’ll don’t know. And the more that you know, that you might not never know. But you can, like mastering making a commitment to self discovery for the rest of your life, I feel like should be a universal core value, and that ownership piece, it for every employee that you hire a client that comes in and didn’t work out well. Like, you can see why you’re at fault. And when when you see that, that is empowerment.

D.J. Paris 1:12:11
Yeah, and we all learn the, like you were saying earlier, we learn by mistakes, it’s okay to make mistakes, and it’s okay to feel crappy about the mistake as long as you then say, okay, what can I do going forward so that I, I can improve, I can get better I can, you know, it’s all of these things are learning, we’re talking about learning and we stop learning, you know, at 18 or 21. And, you know, a structured sense, you know, for some people go on for additional degrees, but most of us stop learning around 2118 to 21. And we just know, we read a book, it is not their fault, false, because

Jennifer Wehner 1:12:44
10% is only 10% of the population that actually want to learn for the sake of learning. And that’s just the way like people are designed. It’s not saying good or bad. But like, again, like stepping outside of your comfort zone, knowing where your weaknesses is, if anything, I could be learning junkie and not implement, you know, but, you know, so there’s always like,

D.J. Paris 1:13:03
that’s real common to where people get addicted to learning, but not implementation. So that’s why you need that accountability. Yeah, thank you. Yeah, I mean, I read about podcasting for like, three years. I didn’t do anything with it. I knew how to do it. But I didn’t actually do it. Because guess what, it was really scary. And guess what being scared is okay. It’s okay to be scared as long as well. Yeah. I mean, you’re, you’re scared of just the unknown?

Jennifer Wehner 1:13:31
Well, and usually what I find that is, is that you’re scared of what other people think about you, oh, First, learn about anything from high school. Like, let’s that leave in high school. Because, like being different when you know, it’s like you like, again, like you might like have like stutter a lot. And there’s actually an agent that stutters a lot and he actually got a lot more traction on his video channel and was really successful agent. So you know, like, what your biggest curse you think it is, can also be your biggest gift. Because even being an addict for me, I see it as like a superpower. Because the more empathetic and more creative, the more likely to be an addict. So, you know, that’s when I discovered I was an artist. But, you know, they’re just look at yourself, because that again, back to the Marcus Aurelius, the Greeks knew a thing or two, and you are the captain of your own ship. And I’m imagining like a Star Trek Enterprise kind of ship. But your ship can look like a yacht or you know, real estate train, but I like ships for something like that. But no matter what, like you have the power, whether you believe or not believe you’re going to be right, but you do truly have the power to accomplish, whatever it is that you want in life, especially right now here in America, where we do have the freedom,

D.J. Paris 1:14:43
we are very, very lucky the freedoms we have in this country are pretty much unparalleled. And it’s easy to forget that if we just follow the news, and we just look at what’s wrong, and there’s plenty of things that are wrong, but there’s plenty of

Jennifer Wehner 1:14:57
years ago, do we remind ourselves of that? Our ancestors, all of our collectively were starving 100 years ago. And now cheeseburgers are 99 cents. So we have to remember, we have to go back in the past for nostalgia, and yeah, healing trauma and all that. But to learn the lessons where we are, because we can’t predict the future, we can be in the present. But we can see the trends. And together we can see what that visual looks like for the future, and how we can make a change for the positive. And I don’t know about you, but there’s a lot going on in the world right now. And we can end on this. But there is absolutely things we can do about it. Not running for president maybe but maybe being a better local leader, maybe volunteering more maybe helping your agent community more helping your clients that better accent but there is absolutely a positive impact that we can do, you know, in the humanitarian cause that we’re in.

D.J. Paris 1:15:49
Yeah, it’s it’s apps and even just smiling at a stranger as they walk by on the street as long as you’re doing that in a non creepy way. Even doing that might just be what that person needs in that moment. And you’re going to feel good when they smile back at you. So all of that is being said, so I am so grateful that we had this conversation. Jennifer, I want everyone to check out Jennifer two places. First her website Wainer group.com. You can see everything that her and her team are doing as well as follow her on Instagram, which is at Jennifer Waner, which is Jennifer dot, sorry, Jennifer dot laner. And that’s w e HNER. She also has YouTube channel. She does a lot of really cool things with social. She’s a coach. She’s an author, she’s a mom, she’s a team leader. And you know, a bio hacker, skydiver, etc. Last year, I can do astrologer I would I need it, I need it. I’m a Gemini, so I’m all over the place.

Jennifer Wehner 1:16:44
Anyway, your natal chart and transits?

D.J. Paris 1:16:47
Well, I am so glad that you were on the show. And on behalf of Jennifer and myself, we want to thank our audience for showing up staying to the end, we appreciate you, you’re the reason we do this. And we hope that this was of as much fun and value as Jennifer and I had. So thank you on behalf of Jennifer and myself. And then on behalf of the audience and myself, we want to thank Jennifer, she doesn’t have time to do this. She is just that busy. And she took time she made time to give back to our audience. And so thank you on behalf of everyone who listens and watches our show. And we want to thank everyone and please the last thing that we will do before we sign off, we asked our audience of just one thing, please tell a friend think of one other realtor, real estate agent, real estate professional, whatever it’s called in your neck of the woods and send them a link to the show. Maybe somebody who’s struggling that could that could benefit from all of these things Jennifer was suggesting about how to go inside and actually, you know, figure out what’s what you can do to improve your own life and your clients life and send them a link to our episode. This episode. The best way to do that, just send it to our website, keeping it real pod.com Every episode we’ve ever done is there. Or if they’re a podcast listener already, just have them pull up whatever app they’re using search for keeping it real, hit the subscribe button, we would appreciate it. Jennifer, thank you so much. This was such a pleasure.

Jennifer Wehner 1:18:00
Now it’s truly an honor and Namaste and Namaste to your to everyone listening because the most important thing you can invest in is yourself. And so it’s it’s fun. It was fun for me I’m selfishly saying it was fun. So thank you. It really was an honor and you know Namaste.

D.J. Paris 1:18:16
Namaste. We will see everyone or I guess everyone will hear us on the next episode. I won’t see you but we will hear you and Jeff Lee check Jennifer and her team out and by the way Jennifer’s team is hiring. I forgot to mention that. So if you are in well, you can be from anywhere. You don’t have to just be in the Scottsdale area. But if you are particularly if you are in the Scottsdale area, you want to join an amazing team. Of course reach out to her but it could be anywhere in the world and if you can reach out to her and she can talk to you about the coaching she does for her team. So anyway, Jennifer, thank you so much. And we will see everybody on the next episode. Thanks

Cody Steck a realtor based in Salt Lake City, Utah goes back at the beginning of his career in real estate. Cody shares advice for agents in their first years in the business based on his own experience. Next Cody talks about his YouTube Channel content and how it helps generate business. Cody and D.J. discuss extensively the power of video in the real estate business. Last, Cody also discusses the investment part of his business.

Please subscribe to Cody’s YouTube channel here.

If you’d prefer to watch this interview, click here to view on YouTube!

Cody Steck can be reached at [email protected].

This episode is brought to you by Real Geeks and FollowUpBoss.

D.J. Paris 0:00
you brand yourself on Facebook and Instagram. But what about YouTube? That’s actually the place you need to be next. Stay tuned. This episode of Keeping it real is brought to you by real geeks. How many homes are you going to sell this year? Do you have the right tools? Is your website turning soft leads in interested buyers? Are you spending money on leads that aren’t converting? Well real geeks is your solution. Find out why agents across the country choose real geeks as their technology partner. Real geeks was created by an agent for agents. They pride themselves on delivering a sales and marketing solution so that you can easily generate more business. There agent websites are fast and built for lead conversion with a smooth search experience for your visitors. Real geeks also includes an easy to use agent CRM. So once a lead signs up on your website, you can track their interest and have great follow up conversations. Real geeks is loaded with a ton of marketing tools to nurture your leads and increase brand awareness visit real geeks.com forward slash keeping it real pod and find out why Realtors come to real geeks to generate more business again, visit real geeks.com forward slash keeping it real pod. And now on to our show.

Hello, and welcome to another episode of Keeping it real the largest podcast made by real estate agents and for real estate agents. My name is DJ Parris. I’m your guide and host to the through the show. And in just a moment, we’re going to be speaking with top producer Cody stack about why YouTube generates almost all of his business. So this is gonna be a great episode for those of us that are already posting on Facebook and Instagram, but not totally sure what to do with YouTube. But before we get to Cody, just a couple of quick announcements, please number one, tell a friend about our show. Actually not an announcement that’s a request. We really appreciate it the more people you tell the more listeners we have, the more episodes we can do. So please tell a friend about our show. And also leave us a review whatever podcast platform you might be listening to the show. Let us know what you think of it. Leave us a review. We read every review and it helps us improve and also lets us know what you like. So anyway, enough about all that let’s get on to the main event my interview with Cody stack.

Today on the show we had Cody step from Salt Lake City let me tell you in more podium now Cody stack is a 28 year old realtor and he’s also a real estate investor based in Salt Lake City, Utah. He has been working as a realtor for six years and has climbed into the top 1% of agents by volume in just within his first two years, which is absolutely incredible. Although Cody has found success with selling real estate his real passion is real estate investing. He loves to invest the money urines back into real estate the exact product he sells. And over the past five years, Cody has acquired 15 rental units Currently has five more under contract. Now in addition to being an investor himself, Cody also works with new and experienced investors and property developers he’s worked with brand new investors to buy their first rental property as well as investors who have been buying and selling real estate for over 50 years. At the end of the day, Cody believes that investing in real estate is the number one way to build wealth and live an amazing lifestyle. Now Cody would like to talk I’m sorry apologize. I was just getting into you’re talking about scoring Cody I’m sorry about that. So I want everybody though to before we Cody comes on I want you to check out his YouTube channel. We’re going to be referencing a lot of that today in the strategy he uses to attract investors and also buyers and sellers to his business, which you can find him at living in Salt Lake City. So easiest way to do that. Go to YouTube type in living in Salt Lake City. Look for Cody’s name comes right up and subscribe and check out the videos that he makes. But Cody, welcome to the show. Yeah, I’m happy to be here. Thank you. I’m excited to excited to have you there’s a number of things about you that are absolutely remarkable. Number one first and this is something that that you wouldn’t necessarily know from the intro, which is you are you do not work for another real estate firm. You have your own real estate office and it’s you as a solo practitioner. So not only are you

Cody Steck 4:40
sorry, I do actually have my license underneath a broker I’m actually with with real broker, but I got you I apologize. Yeah, but it is still it is still your thing assumption. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I think maybe you and I got a little confused when you’re talking about it, but I I still have my license underneath a broker but I do everything 100% on my own. So I

Yeah, apologies if I if there was no, no, it’s it gets confusing these days because companies like EXP and real. For anyone who out there who might not be familiar with real real is sort of the newer kid on the block has a similar model to exp. And so that makes perfect sense why someone like you, you would be with with great companies, both of them. I’m fans of both, I think I think, for me, I always joke that I think real has like a much cooler, like, logo and presence. exp is a little older, so that, you know, their stuff looks a little bit more dated. But I always love reels reels. From a marketing perspective, I think they have really cool looking stuff. But anyway, but you have done a lot in your early part of your career here. Number one, starting your career when you were what 22 or so that’s not easy. You know, there aren’t a lot of people that I knew at that age friends of mine who are buying and selling real estate. So that would have limited my opportunities for sure. I love that you have within a couple years of starting your business, you were a top producer, you are still a top producer. Oh, and your by the way, you you also, you know, have your own investment portfolio that you’re putting together. And we I was talking to Cody earlier about just how remarkable he is. And so I just wanted to highlight a couple of those things before we get into your story. Because I think in particular, you’ve done a lot. So I think, you know, the sky’s the limit, I’m sure but you’re already doing real well, of course. But I’d like to start all the way back at the beginning. So I’d love to learn more about why you got into real estate at such a young age. And then how you got started. You know, I again, I just think gosh, that seems like the hardest thing to do as a 20. You know, early 20 year old 20, early 20s. person, so tell us a little bit about it. Yeah, absolutely. So

I got started in real estate actually, for whatever reason, it was always a goal of mine to buy my first house. As soon as I got out of high school. I was like I want to buy my first house. I’m going to try and make this happen as soon as possible. I don’t know why maybe I had, you know, something to prove or, or whatever. I don’t know. But I wanted to buy a house. So I was going to the community college, I was working just a normal job that a 19 year old, you know, works. I was actually working at a go kart race track

for a couple years. And it was a great job was a lot of fun. I’m into cars, I’m into racing and stuff. So it was a great job. But I mean, it was it was like 13 bucks an hour. So it wasn’t anything great. But that’s how I got started. And, you know, I went I went to the community college and was working at the same time, saved up some money, eventually found a townhome to go out there and buy just a cheap little townhome, rough part of town. But it was about all I could afford on 13 bucks an hour. So

moved into the place, made one mortgage payment and then realized, wow, you know, being an adult and paying a mortgage kind of sucks. So I got two roommates after that, because it was a three bedroom place. So I got two roommates, and the roommates the rent that they were paying was almost enough to cover my entire mortgage. I mean, I was living in this house for like 200 bucks a month. And that’s when it kind of clicked I’d never been interested in real estate or knew anything about it even. But it kind of clicked. I’m like, You know what, if I actually move back in with my mom who has lived with before, I could then rent out that third bedroom and I’m making money every month, right? I’d be making two 300 bucks a month. And you know, for a 21 year old kid making 13 bucks an hour. That’s not bad, right? I was thinking man a couple 100 bucks, it goes a long way. I mean, I’d love an extra 200 bucks a month now I think that’s I think it’s it’s, you know, because really, you know, yeah, that amount isn’t going to excite somebody, but sort of guaranteed to get that for the rest of your life. Assuming you can hold on to it. That’s that’s that’s good money. And also you’re like, I mean, you sort of stumbled upon what, I guess is a version of house hacking, where it very very trendy right now to do so. Yeah, I love that. It seems like a lot of kids in college but like a lot of parents will do that sometimes if they’re forward thinking enough they have a child in college and instead of just you know paying the rent, they’ll they’ll do that. So get some roommates cover them cover the mortgage and you know, you get to live free so awesome. Yeah, absolutely. So

yeah, basically house hack that first place that kind of got my my head spinning on real estate investing, and actually started going to these investor clubs, going to different meetups and luncheons, and stuff like that and got started on the real estate investing side did that for about six, seven months trying to figure out my next move, and then eventually decided, You know what, I’m just gonna start selling real estate. I really liked this. I’m spending a lot of time doing it. I’m learning a lot. Why not just try my hand is selling and jumped in Super naively didn’t know what I was doing. I had never done sales before but just jumped in and just said, you know, I’m just gonna figure this out. And you know, I like it enough that I think I can be successful and it was a grind. In the beginning it was a

grind, you know, after I jumped in with both feet, you know, I got my license and I quit my job dropped out a dropped out of college and started selling. And that first year, I think I made 14 $15,000, which was not a lot, right. And then from there, the second year, it really took off. And that’s when I was really able to climb in and start producing, you know, at a high volume.

D.J. Paris 10:24
Yeah, it’s, it’s amazing. The fact that yeah, you you, you sort of suffered through a $14,000 year, which, by the way, not uncommon, right, for people even who are, you know, you who have who’s who are starting it in their 30s or 40s, sometimes it’s or later, it’s not just a young person’s challenge, but it’s, it’s everyone’s challenge, although certainly a harder, I would suspect a harder challenge, in most cases for somebody of your age, because again, I’m assuming your peer group wasn’t lining up ready to buy, you know, buy a condo, you know, your friends are probably, you know, just like anyone struggling to figure out what they want to do with their lives, you know, graduating college, some of them and, you know, going off and doing other things and moving to write. So it’s like, there’s just a lot, a lot of things that would make it I think, really difficult for you know, somebody in their 20s, early 20s, to really be successful. And at least, you know, here in Chicago, we’re sort of lucky, because there’s such a strong rental market that a lot of times younger agents will start off just doing rentals, because it you know, their friends are renting. So it’s a good way just to sort of stay busy, and then hope that the sales pick up, but I love the fact that you did. And the other reason to have getting a license even before realizing that you wanted to sort of be an, you know, an agent working with buyers and sellers, is it gonna save you a ton on the Commission’s when you know, of course, when you buy or buy or sell something. So

super, super forward thinking super smart, the fact that you had this figured out at a pretty young age, again, just buying a home on a $13 an hour sort of salary is like the idea of that is so far beyond what what i’ve what I would have thought of at that age. So I really applaud you for jumping in and, and starting your business. So what in those early years, you talked about it being a grind? Do you remember what worked for you? Because we have a lot of people who are listening who are in their first couple of years? And you know, they’re in that grind right now. And any advice or things that you would suggest to somebody who said, I’m just about to get started? What What should I focus on? Yeah, you know, that’s a really good question. So when I got started, I joined a team, which I’m really glad I did, because otherwise I probably wouldn’t be in the business today. Because it’s a grind, you know, there’s a lot of failure, you don’t know what you’re doing. You know, I was 22 at that point, I have a baby face. That’s why I have to carry this facial hair. It’s like, you know, there’s like the there’s like the you go out there you meet somebody, it’s a 49 year old person buying their second house and you’re like, I’m I’m 21? You know, 22? I don’t I don’t know much. So, I mean, sure. I mean, there was things working against me. But there was also things on my side, right, it got a lot of time to build a business. Yeah.

Cody Steck 13:14
A lot of hustle, you know, and that’s just kind of what it took. So in the beginning, with that team, we did, we did everything we did for sale by owners expireds door knocking open houses, Facebook ads, Google ads, you know, pay per click stuff, we did pretty much everything. The only thing that really worked for me was the Facebook ads and the Google Pay Per Click, you know, those leads that come in, they sign up on your website, you call them up, you know, start your sales pitch and,

you know, try to try to sell them a house. So that’s how I got started, I stopped expireds I sucked it for sale by owners, I knocked on 57 doors and never knocked on another one again, because it just wasn’t my thing. Which by the way, those things all work, right. If you get good enough at them, every single method of lead generation will work. It just wasn’t for me. So in the beginning, I did a lot of Facebook and Google ads, you know, this pay per click. For the first four or five years, that’s pretty much that was the majority of my business, you know, this is back in 2000 got my license and 15. So, you know, 2015 1617 18, even into 19 a little bit, it was mostly just those leads, you know, that were coming in, I got pretty good at it. You know, I’d be setting spending anywhere from 500 to $1,000 to get a closed transaction. Right? Isn’t that you know, you spend, let’s say 1000 bucks. Oh, that’s,

D.J. Paris 14:38
that’s a nice return. Yeah, you

Cody Steck 14:40
get an $8,000 Check or something, right. So no, in fact,

D.J. Paris 14:43
I will give you all of my money if you do that. Because that’s like the world’s greatest investment. And it’s not a passive investment. Of course, it’s, it requires a obviously a ton of work, but but the end result is that’s a good return.

Cody Steck 15:00
Yeah, yeah, it was really good. It was really good return. But the thing that I realized was one, it wasn’t scalable, because as soon as I stopped calling the leads dried up, right that these were not calling me, even though I generated, I don’t know, five to 10,000 leads, I don’t know the exact number, but it was a lot of names and numbers over the years. I mean, I maybe had five people who actually reached out to me and said, Hey, I’m on your website, you know, I’m interested in this house, can you help me? Most people are not are not calling me. So one, it wasn’t scalable. And then two, I kind of just hated it, you know, you when you’re making that sales call, you’re coming from a position of a Salesman, right? And not the authority, you don’t have the control, you’re basically almost in a way, like, kind of almost begging those people like, Hey, let me help you, let me help you, you know, find a house, let’s meet up like, you’re really trying to sell them. And that’s difficult. You know, I mean, real estate is a sales game. But more than that, it’s a it’s a people game, you know, it’s it’s about relationships, it’s about building those relationships, and making friends in the business. So, you know, that was, that was kind of the tipping point where I just realized and said to myself, you know, what, I’m kind of tired of this, like, I, I’m tired of making these calls, I was starting to get some referrals and past clients and stuff. And I’m like, you know, what, I need to transition my business, you know, sooner than later, or else I’m going to be the guy that’s, that’s calling every single, you know, every single day for the next 20 years.

D.J. Paris 16:26
Yeah, it’s so interesting. I think I think what you just said is really important, because I know a lot of agents have have sort of, not that they’ve painted themselves into a corner, because a look, that’s a great return, you know, when you’re, you’re spending $1,000, to then get, you know, a $7,000 net profit. What sounds awesome, we’d all do that. Except those calls are difficult. And, and a lot of times people who are completing, you know, you’re you’re having to call somebody multiple times, often. Right? And it’s, it’s, it’s still a pretty cold lead, right. It’s, it’s warmer than if you were calling an expired or for sale by owner, but, but just slightly, right. And it’s still like, yeah, like you were saying, you generated 10,000 leads, you know, it’s, it definitely works. And here, we know that it works, because we’re all getting spammed for the last couple of years from these email accounts that are like, Hey, I’m generating lots of leads online, are you interested? I think all realtors are getting these, these emails, because of course, it does work. But you’re right, it’s not really scalable, you know, unless you were hiring, you know, in an ISA, which is an inside sales agent, you know, and they sort of tackle everything and then refer it over to you or someone else. But even that’s hard, because you have to manage somebody and you have to, you know, just, it’s a lot of work. And so you’ve you’ve transitioned a bit from sort of generating colder leads now to working more by referral. But we should I really want to talk about, you know, your youtube content, because I think this is such a missed opportunity for so many agents who, you know, go well, I’m not really that adept at, you know, doing social media, and I don’t always know, sort of the best practices there. And it’s like, no, I think that’s right. I think most agents aren’t going to spend a year studying, you know, sort of YouTube SEO or, or Facebook, SEO and really getting a sense or, or just Facebook ad stuff. And it’s, it’s tough, but what I love is realtors have the content that people are searching for on YouTube. They’re hyperlocal they know, they’re all they should at least they should know their area. And what let’s talk about what you do on YouTube, that I that has been really successful for you. So can you talk a little bit about your YouTube channel and how it works to generate business for you?

Cody Steck 18:49
Sure, absolutely. So I didn’t know it at the time. But back in 2019, you know, I was getting burned out with those Facebook leads and you know, just kind of thought, You know what, I need to do more on social media and branding that was a part of my life where I kind of, you know, had this like this revolution, I guess where I realized, you know, what, I really kind of need to like build a brand around myself who I am what I am online, and just put myself out there because you know, social media does work. Everybody says it works. You just got to be strategic about it consistent, all that stuff. So I first started making videos actually kind of just for fun, you know, like it was just kind of a creative outlet, and then quickly realized, Hey, I’m actually getting views on my videos, you know, and we’re talking small amounts of views, you know, 510 15 views, for sure. Beginning but it ramped up pretty quickly. Right? And you know, I was making videos from everything from what it’s like to live in my area, the best neighborhoods, the worst neighborhoods, where to buy a house what new construction looks like the pros and cons of living in an area. The cost of living these names Road tours have been really beneficial as well. So I’m making videos all about my local market. And it’s basically just me talking about it. So I come up with the title, I look at what people are actually searching for, and then say, okay, how can I provide some type of content for that. So if you just go into your own market, and you know, you go into YouTube, and just type in living in Miami, Florida, right, you’re gonna get a number of videos that pop up, look at what those titles are, copy those titles, and then make your own video about that, you know, that’s exactly what I’ve done. When I got started, nobody was doing this in my market, and very few people were doing it around the country even at that time. So a lot of agents are kind of making videos on like, here’s how an inspection works, or here’s how a 1031 exchange works, or here’s how to stage your home or whatever. And the reality is, most people don’t care about that. They’re not searching for that. They’re not searching, how does a home inspection work? Right? It’s just not right, like, unless you get, you might get one guy who’s searching for that. But, you know, there’s nobody’s searching for that, basically. And so you really got to make content surrounding what people are actually looking for, and what they want to see. So like I said, just go on to YouTube, type in your city name. And it’s going to come up with a ton of suggestions. You know, like here in Utah, one of my best actually, my my best video is what it’s like to live in Utah as a non Mormon.

D.J. Paris 21:21
Yeah, I want to pause pause for a second because that’s exactly what I wanted to talk about. So I apologize for cutting off your, your flow there, you’re doing great, I just want to pause and give you my my observations of that video in particular, because for anyone out there who’s like, I don’t make videos, I don’t have, you know, a lot of production skills. I don’t know how to add graphics, I don’t know how to, you know, really make I don’t have proper equipment. And please forgive me because I am in no way suggesting there’s anything wrong with your video here. But I think it’s a perfect sort of demonstration of that, really, anyone and I again, I’m sort of making the sound like it’s not so cool, because it is super cool. But you are literally sitting in front of your your computers behind you, you have a couple of screens, you have a microphone in front of you, you’re you’re wearing you know your baseball hat, you’re you’re talking in front of the camera, no special setup here at all. And you were literally just talking for about 1314 minutes about what it’s like to be a non Mormon living in Utah. And I will tell you, that would be the very first thing I would search for as a non Mormon if I was moving to Salt Lake City, right? That’s exactly or anywhere in Utah, I would be like I curious what it’s like to be there to be there if I’m not part of of, you know, the the Mormon faith. So I love this video. And by the way, how many views does Cody have on this video 79,000 views. So this is he he does have some graphics that show up. It’s pretty minimal production, though. And I don’t mean that in any sort of pejorative negative way. I think it’s inspiring because that content is so valuable, that it doesn’t have to be cutting edge beautiful. It just has to be good content. And it is. And I’m sorry, I stole all your thunder on that one. But I am such a fan of this video. I want everybody to check it out, just search for living in Utah, non Mormon and it’ll pop right up or go to his channel. But can you talk a little bit about that video in particular, and, and just the results you’ve had from it?

Cody Steck 23:31
Yeah, absolutely. So I got started making videos, like I said about pros and cons, the cost of living neighborhood tours, all this stuff. And as I was doing my research, I kept, you know, looking at YouTube, trying to figure out what people are searching for doing some of that SEO research. And this title kept coming up, you know, living in Utah as a non Mormon. And for a long time, I was like, I don’t want to make that video, you know, it’s controversial. You know, I’m like, am I going to be steering people? Am I going to be Yeah, giving that information as a realtor, you know, with my ethical duties or whatever. And, and I was just kind of thinking, I’m just like, Oh, God, I don’t know, I’m not ready for that. Right. Then one day, you know, I just figured, you know what, let me just put it out there. You know, let’s see what happens. So, like you said, I’m filming in my office. Not high production quality at all. I mean, those if you go back and look at some of my first videos, they’re terrible. The audio is bad, the lighting is bad. I’m stumbling, the editing is bad. I mean, it’s just a bad video all the way around. But they do really well. And for this video, it’s no different. I’m sitting in the office baseball cap on regular clothes.

D.J. Paris 24:37
You look you look like a normal guy. You don’t look like a realtor. Because you’re in this video. You’re sort of not you’re just a non Mormon guy talking about what it’s like to live in Utah, which is exactly what I would want to know if I removing there. Sorry, go ahead.

Cody Steck 24:52
Exactly. And that’s the thing that’s underlying that that I want people to see or hear is that it doesn’t matter. matter what you look like what you wear, what the video is, people, the thing that’s amazing about YouTube and just video in general is it gets people to know you, like you and trust you. This is one thing that one of my real estate coaches taught me early on, he said, those are the three things you need, in order for somebody to do business with you, they have to know you, obviously, right? They have to like you, they have to like you as a person, and they have to trust you, they have to trust that you have the ability and the knowledge to do the job that they’re asking you to do. Right? So for me, when I’m talking about these areas, or I’m talking about what it’s like to live here, this or that, it gives people the confidence to know, hey, I live in this area. And I know a lot about it, you know, I can give you advice on like, Hey, if you’re a single person, you probably don’t want to live in this area that’s super family focused, or vice versa, if you got a big family, you probably don’t want to live in the hip part of town where it’s mostly single people going to college, right? Like, it’s just those kinds of different things that you have the insight on, and people want to see. So when you get those three things, then people start to do business with you. And that’s the thing I love about this video is or just what I’ve been able to do now is that now I’m the I’m in the position of authority. People are searching for this content, they see my face, they see my videos, they hear my voice, and they start watching videos, you know, and I’ve had people call me and tell me, hey, you know, I just watched 27 of your videos. And now I’m talking to you, this is kind of weird, but like, you know, I’m calling some random guy off of YouTube to ask him real estate questions. And I can’t tell you how many calls I’ve gotten like that. And the thing that I love about it is, I’m already in a position of authority, right? Because they are reaching out to me, I’m not, I’m no longer making that sales call to say, Hey, let me show you this house. Let me meet with you. Let me show you how to list your home or whatever, these guys are reaching out to me almost begging to work with me. You know, they’re, they’re saying, Hey, I’m moving there, or I just moved here, I need help finding a place, can you help me, and they’re basically begging me to like work with them. And it’s, it’s still mind blowing to this day. And it’s been almost three years. So the thing about YouTube is, you just got to be yourself. It’s all about branding. It’s all about building a persona, if you will, around who you are, and what you do in your business. And that relates to all aspects, you know, sellers, buyers, investors, developers, new construction, it doesn’t matter. It all works. It just depends on what you focus on.

D.J. Paris 27:27
Yeah, I, there’s, you have another video that I am a big fan of the title, which is called what nobody will tell you about living in Salt Lake City, which I love that because years ago, I wrote an article this is this was like, I should have made a video but I wrote an article for realtors, who are people who are just passed their exam, who are newly licensed, who are now trying to figure out what firm to go out. And I wrote, well, I’m a real estate recruiter, I sort of know the tricks of real estate recruiting, why don’t I expose some of these more smoke and mirrors stuff about recruiting and sort of just tell people, here’s here, if I were a new agent, knowing what I know, here’s what I would look for when I was, you know, interviewing firms. Here’s here’s what to pay attention to, here’s what’s kind of, you know, just a little bit of, you know, exaggerated whatever. And, you know, and I thought, well, maybe somebody would find this interesting, and it ended up the, it has ended up being our most viewed page on our on our recruiting website. We don’t even promote it, it’s just buried behind many other pages. But because people search for that on on on YouTube, on Google, in this case, this like what recruiters don’t want you to know, I think it’s the title about real estate recruiting or whatever I titled differently than that, but something like that. And that’s a great also tied because I was I remember, I really got into this when I was, I was on a my dad and I went to Ireland several years ago, and we were going to all these little cities, and we had our travel guide book, but what we but you know, it’s like, well, that’s great and fine. And the Rick Steves book, or whatever we had, was was awesome. But it was also like, I kind of wanted someone else’s opinion of maybe people who live there. And so every morning before we would go to visit our you know, to two towns a day or three times a day, we would go to YouTube and say like coolest things to do in XYZ place or or, you know, what, where the locals hang out or like the really cool places. And we would do those kinds of searches. It was all YouTube. And we would listen to these YouTube videos in the cars were driving in. The power of this is so is so big. And I’m curious, just from Back to the living in Utah as a non Mormon. And I know it’s probably not super easy to quantify, but how many clients would you guess in the three years that that video has been up? How do you think you’ve received as a result?

Cody Steck 29:49
Yeah, so I’ve actually got the info right here. Let me just look on my computer and I can tell you exactly how many I’ve gotten. So here in Utah, we don’t do rentals for whatever reason, it’s just not Part of our buyers and sellers. So the leads that I’ve recorded here over the last two, almost three years, I’ve brought in 621 buyers and sellers, unbelievable. For clients, I mean, a lot of those, I guess you could call them clients or leads or whatever you want to say. But we brought in 621 people who’ve reached out to me, you know, people I didn’t know, literally from all across the world. And the last time I checked, this was maybe six months ago, I was at about a 7% closing ratio on those leads. Wow. So really, really high actually, like a lot of these leads that are coming through super high quality really interested to have money in the bank, good credit scores, you know, are ready to buy, you know, three 612 months, it varies, right? depends on the nature. But I’ve had some people who literally are in town, like you just said about Ireland, right? They’re in town, they’re like, Hey, I’m out here. I just accepted a job. I’m actually in town right now. Can we look at some houses? I’m like, Yeah, sure. Let’s meet tomorrow, we go look at some houses. And sure enough, put in an offer and have a deal, you know, in 30 days. So I mean, I’ve had deals like that literally, like come same day, just out of the blue. And yeah, the thing I love about YouTube is because these people already know me like me. And trust me, when they call me. There’s not even really a sales pitch. It’s just like, here’s what we’re gonna do. Here’s how the process works. Here’s what I’m gonna do for you. And most of the time, they’re like, great, sounds awesome. Like, when do we get started? You know, there’s no, there’s no sales pitch or anything. So, yeah, it’s good. And I mean, you know, going back to that video that you talked about, you know what, nobody will tell you about living in Salt Lake. I was actually doing that video. I decided to reach out to some of my clients who had moved here. And I just said, Hey, like, what? What did they learn once they got here? You know that they didn’t Excel? Yeah. I love that I was really kind of just looking for feedback, because then I knew those are the types of cars. Those are the types of questions I need to answer in my future videos. Because you know, you may not realize something about the weather, or the traffic or the snow that we get, or the Mormons or whatever, right? Like there might seem like you haven’t thought about, and that I can make video content around that. So I was really just looking for feedback, like a survey almost, and then decided, You know what, let me make a video out of this. And I titled it, you know what, nobody will tell you because these are things that I didn’t even think about. And I think that’s like my second or third best video on my channel. You know, a lot of really great response from it. So I have

D.J. Paris 32:35
I have a video title for you. Because it’s the exact question I asked before we went live. I used to a million a million years ago, I used to work for Anheuser Busch and I, we I was telling Cody, I used to sort of travel the country doing things for them. And we never did anything in Salt Lake City. And this is like 2000 2001, because Salt Lake City had very strict, very strict rules around alcohol. And so I was like, Oh, is it still just still really strict there? And he was like, no, no, it’s changed a lot. And so I have a video for you how alcohol works in Salt Lake City, because there’s been a lot of us who have never been there. We just We know there’s like alcohol situation. It used to be kind of more unusual. And, of course, that’s something people want to know who are moving there, too. So I don’t know if you’ve done that video yet. But I imagine that’ll be a great one for you.

Cody Steck 33:23
Yeah, I did it. I did a quick little two minute video. It’s done pretty well, I don’t know. 5000 10,000 views. I haven’t looked at it. But you’ve already done that. I love it already done it. Yeah, I just I just it was titled like weird alcohol laws in Utah or something. And I just talked about, like, hey, you know, here’s what you can get. And here’s what you can’t get. And here’s what not and you know, the percentage volumes are a little bit different and whatever. Yeah, so I mean, people are looking for that type of content. And that’s the thing that’s really important. That is not real estate specific, right, but not somebody who loves alcohol and wants to be able to get a drink. That’s something they’re going to be looking at. And they appreciate that type of content. So you know, making videos around what people are looking for is really, really important. And it’s going to vary from market to market, right? Obviously, if you’re in Pennsylvania, and making a video about Mormons is not going to do very well. If you’re in Miami, Florida, making a video about how much it snows there is not going to do very well. So like it’s really market specific. You have to you have to look at your market and say, who’s moving here? What are they looking for? What questions do they have? What information do I need to give to them and then make video around that?

D.J. Paris 34:31
And you you said something very important, which is like okay, how do you figure out this content? Well, you basically did that by reaching out to your clients and saying, Hey, what do you wish you would have known? Or rather, you had a different question was what are some of the cool things that people don’t know about? You know, here in Utah, and then you were able to take that content and make videos, but it could have you could really have asked a different question to which is what do you wish you would have known before moving to Utah, and then that’s content for you or, you know, like you were Saying you can just look it up on YouTube, see what videos already exist, see what videos seem to get a lot of traction. And because I know for me, a lot of times when I ask a question, like, for example, what it’s like to be a non Mormon in Utah, I will watch a couple because I want to get a couple different perspectives. So even if someone’s already done that video, and it’s got, you know, hundreds of 1000s of views, and you’re like, well, that’s the one people are gonna hit. Yeah, they will. And they might hit another two or three, just to get additional opinions. I know I do that. So even if it’s something that’s already well established, you’re like, Oh, that guy’s already got all the views. It’s like, well, yeah, but, but it’s good to have a second opinion. And you never know what’s going to hit either. Right? Like, could be anything really. And the other thing too, and I just want to make this point, because it might not be so obvious to our listeners, is you also get referrals for business outside of Utah, right?

Cody Steck 35:53
Yeah, so most of the people that I help are relocating here to the area, Salt Lake City has become kind of a tech hub. So there’s a lot of tech companies that are here, bringing in, you know, high paying employees, high paid employees for those positions. And so there’s a lot of people moving in from out of state, of course, the whole pandemic thing accelerated that with people moving around market going crazy. But, yeah, I have generated a lot of referrals, because those people who are generally moving here already own a home. So during that first call, you know, we talked about that a little bit. And if the opportunity presents, I say, Hey, let me help you find an agent in where you know, XYZ city that you’re moving from, let me help you, you know, find somebody who knows how to do relocation so we can make sure to make this a smooth transition for you. And, you know, I’d say 30 to 40% of the time, they’re on board with that they’re like, yeah, that’d be great. Please help us. You know, a lot of times they do have agents already. And that’s fine, whatever. But I mean, sort of really just bring it up during that initial call and get a referral out of it. It’s a pretty easy sell most of the time.

D.J. Paris 36:55
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Cody Steck 39:53
Yeah, absolutely. So, bigger pockets is a great online resource. Of course YouTube is great as well. Well, if you’re into videos, I mean, I almost like feel like I don’t even watch TV anymore because I watch a lot of YouTube. Because I get to watch for exactly what I want, right, and you find these personalities and you learn from them. So YouTube’s great. And then also, the third thing I’d recommend is look at your area and find out where the investor associations are at. So just type in your city, you know, for here, for here in my market, I just type in, you know, go to Google type in Salt Lake City Real Estate Investors Association, that’s the name of the association that’s here that I’m a part of, and they do monthly meetups that are more formal. And then they have like weekly luncheons that somebody will actually host. So there’s, I don’t know, a couple 100 investors. And some of these guys are big shots. You know, some of these guys have lots of money. They’ve been doing it for a long time, they’ve got tons of experience. And there’s a lot of deals, trading hands that Realtors don’t even know about whether it’s rental properties, or fixing flips, or big commercial deals. I mean, there’s a lot of big hitters at these associations. So I’d get involved with something like that, you know, are you going to walk up to the big hitter and pick up his business? No, probably not. But you know, there’s going to be other people there who are trying to learn and you just network with them. It’s just a big networking thing. And you meet these people, and, you know, build a relationship with them and say, Yeah, you know, I’m just getting, I’m just getting started with investing to Oh, hey, I have my license, you know, maybe I can, maybe we can partner, maybe we can, I can sell you a deal. I can represent you on a deal or, or whatever, you know, it’s all about, you know, one thing that I noticed is when you make that shift of this isn’t just a lead, but I’m building relationship here, this is a friend, that’s a major shift, and then also making the shift from, hey, I’ve got a client, I’m gonna go find a deal for them. If you can find the deal. First, you almost always can find a client for that deal, right? And so I almost like to say, Hey, I work for the deal. I don’t work for the seller, I don’t work for the buyer, I work for the deal. And that might be putting the deal together. It might be bringing in an investor on a on a property. It might be, you know, investing myself, I don’t know, it could be anything, but just kind of making those mental shifts really goes a long way. At least it did for me.

D.J. Paris 42:10
Yeah. And that’s that’s the thing we hear over and over again, when we have had investors on the show, as they said, the finding the money is the easy part, the finding the deals the hard part, because everyone’s always looking for a great deal. Like jokingly I said earlier, I’ll give Cody all my money if he can turn 1008 1000. You know, of course, anybody would take that offer in a split second. But finding the deal is really and I think to going to these meetups, so you’re absolutely right. Like here in Chicago, it’s called the Chicago what, there’s a million of them. So there’s lots of these investor associations, bigger pockets also can connect you with that stuff. But what’s great is, you know, apprentice with some of these investors, most a lot of them don’t even have their real estate license. But I would I would say, can I spend time with you, I want to learn how you evaluate a deal, what do you look for, it’s just a great place to learn it, I have found that the investor community is very, in my experience, they have been very helpful to each other. There’s a lot of support that goes on, which sometimes doesn’t happen as much on the realtor side. You know, sometimes there’s Realtors feel like they’re in competition. But I like a lot of times, I don’t get that sense as much with investors where they’re, they’re very open to share a lot of them, you know exactly how they find and process deals. And, you know, it’s a great opportunity to learn and add those skills.

Cody Steck 43:29
Yeah, yeah, it absolutely is. And I think my perspective, I would agree with you, I think my perspective is that investors, no one that it’s relationship, realtors kind of forget to remember that sometimes, believe it or not, but investors really know, hey, this is really about the relationship, either their relationship with the seller, or the person you’re trying to wholesale a deal to, or whatever it may be. So relationships are really important. But also it’s kind of the personality, it’s also kind of the, the MO, if you will, behind why people invest, right? People who go to these investor meetings are trying to level up, become a better person invest in themselves, and invest in property so that they can, you know, build a portfolio and get to the point where they can support their family better, right. And they’re always trying to level up. And I think people are willing to share when they when you get into that mindset of like, there’s a lot of deals out there, you know, I can’t handle every single one myself. So like, if somebody else picks up the deal, that’s great. And it’s all about just like putting yourself out there and continuing to build those relationships. So, I mean, yeah, I know, we’re kind of running a little short on time, but I mean, I would love to talk more about that if the opportunity ever came back up, you know, like, yeah, definitely,

D.J. Paris 44:41
we can definitely bring you back for that. I want to finish just just by sort of going recapping some of our, our video strategy because again, so much of us might even be posting videos on Facebook, Instagram. You know, really, those are the two places where Realtors they’re doing reels are stories and that’s great. And it absolutely will help you deepen the relationships you already have with your sphere of influence and anyone else who follows you. However, it’s a little trickier I think, especially on Facebook, Facebook is a friend to friend network, of course, although you know, there’s, you know, business pages a realtors have business pages as well. But typically people who find you are going to be people that already know you, unless you’re running ads, of course, and then, you know, that’s a whole different thing. But Instagram kind of the same thing. Yeah, people search by hashtags, too. But you know, it’s not the easiest way to find people. But YouTube is a total search engine, that’s really I always say, YouTube is, is exclusively, first and foremost, a search engine. In fact, I think it’s the number two search engine right behind Google, of course, Google owns that as well. But it really is, it’s think of it as a search engine. And so this is an opportunity. So what Cody’s done with very little, you know, investments, I mean, you know, probably everybody’s got the same equipment that you used to create some of your videos just in their phone even, or at least a comparable equipment, although, you know, you have a nice mic and all of that but, but you know, the fact is, is content is king and and as Realtors you have the content? Or if you don’t have it, ask your clients. Boy, what do you wish you would have learned and as a result of you putting up content on a regular basis, and it takes time, in fact, Cody quick question. If somebody were Oh, I’m sorry, I’m sort of jumbling myself, I’m gonna pause, go back to something, I realized I’m all over the place what I was gonna say about YouTube versus Facebook and Instagram, YouTube is a search engine, Facebook is more of I’m going to scroll through and see what comes up. YouTube is, is a little bit of that, but I think most people go to it, to to search for things. So you know, this is an opportunity for you as an agent to make content that people are already searching for. It doesn’t have to be, you know, the, you don’t have to have, you know, a production degree. And you have to have a whole team of makeup artists and graphic designers, you can literally just do it yourself as long as the content is good. And that’s what realtors are. They know content. They know the best bars in there in the neighborhoods, they know the best restaurants, they know the coolest retail shops, they they know, the best schools this in you know, of course, as you said, You’ve got to be very careful to make sure you’re compliant and not violating any any ethics. Or, you know, any sort of compliance regulations or licensed law. But let’s let’s just think about like, you just talked about one video and I know not every video, you know, is going to do this. Well. You just talked about one video getting over 40 clients that what did that video about being a non Mormon? What did that cost you to produce? Like the total cost of it? What would you say? For you know, what, how much money did you put into that video?

Cody Steck 48:00
Yeah, that’s a really good question. I can’t remember exactly. If I had my virtual assistant editing my videos at that point, I think I did. Some of the graphics in there, I don’t know how to even put into the video myself. You know, I know how to edit the basics, but I must have had my virtual assistant editing for me. So that was maybe three hours worth of time to script out the video and then film it and then send it off to my editor, he put in probably, I don’t know, six hours to edit it. And you know, it’s a virtual assistant. So it’s like four bucks an hour. So it probably cost me $25 To make that that was my editing.

D.J. Paris 48:37
And three years later, you’ve got over 40 clients and and hundreds of other people that I’m guessing are on like an email list or, or some sort of follow up campaign depending on what information you have about them. But 4040 actual clients, less than 100 $1 spend. Now, why did this happen? Because the most important thing on YouTube is content. Cody created really great content. Did it look great? Not really. But it sounded great because it was great. And that is the key and anybody can do that. And I apologize I’m making Cody sound like your videos look terrible. They don’t they look great. But there’s we’re not talking about a high production value. And the point I’m making is Could somebody else have done this exact video? Totally now they wouldn’t have been Cody, they wouldn’t have it his personality, but somebody else and probably other people have tried. But Cody now you know has it that’s just one video. So there is so much opportunity out there for agents to just start putting out content and just realize when it lives on Facebook and Instagram, it’s more disposable. It’s it’s there, it’s gone. It might hit some of your friends feeds maybe 3% of your friends or followers will see it that’s about it. But on YouTube that lives forever and if it’s good quality content and you can always update it too. That’s that’s something you can always do too. But So I just I love that you’re doing this, I think it is so smart. And oh, by the way, you know, so I wanted to ask you one more question, because we’re bouncing around a bit. So you make this video, somebody’s like, Hey, I’m moving from, you know, wherever some other state, other city and you’re like, I don’t know any realtors in that area, but they go, you know, I actually do need to sell my home before I move into Utah. And then Cody goes, no problem, I can help you with that. How do you go about sourcing and finding somebody that can assist in their hometown? And I mean, I already pretty much know what I think you’re gonna say, but let’s talk about that. Because you’re getting a referral commission on those do.

Cody Steck 50:36
Yeah, yeah, sure. So believe it or not, the first thing I usually do is I’ll look up their city on YouTube, you know, and see who’s doing YouTube in their area, because if they are, there’s a good chance they know about relocation, you know, relocation, there’s a couple extra things you need to know about people are making a move 500 1000 3000 miles across the country, sometimes even you know, international, and there’s a lot that goes into it. So I usually start with YouTube, I’ll say, Hey, who’s doing YouTube and selling houses in their area. If I can’t find anybody, then I usually reach out to either my mastermind group, which I’ve been a part of, for about six years, now we’ve got a pretty good referral network in there. Or, you know, worst case, I shouldn’t say worst case. But my third option is I go to the brokerage and just, you know, try to keep it in house and see if somebody else is able to do that. But, ya

D.J. Paris 51:26
know, or you could always you could also to just go to Zillow, and see who’s got the best reviews, if you absolutely, so finding realtors in these other areas, not difficult, there’s a million ways to do it.

Cody Steck 51:39
We’d love to have your business. So it’s not hard. Yeah. Yeah.

D.J. Paris 51:43
I mean, it’s it’s actually brilliant. We, you know, so I am such a such a big fan of what Cody is doing at such a young age. He’s, he’s and again, you know, I spent a lot of time on on sort of the YouTube component of it. But I think it is such an amazing opportunity that anyone can do. And you know, also, really, I encourage everyone to follow what Cody’s doing. The easiest way is to follow his YouTube channel, which is living in Ohio. I’m so sorry. My notes just shut? Yeah, living in Salt Lake City. Yeah,

Cody Steck 52:16
yeah, you can just type in my name. And that will bring up you know, other videos that I’ve done. I’ve got, I’ve actually got a handful of channels. We didn’t even talk about any of that. But, you know, I’ve done videos for other markets. So you can even just type in my name, and it’ll bring up additional content as well.

D.J. Paris 52:31
Yeah, and the name is Cody stack. And that’s cod y s t. E CK. And I have a last question for you. Yeah. Have you thought about making so you talked about making videos in other areas? Have you have you thought about getting information about a completely different area that you’re not, you know, you don’t live in, you don’t work in and you don’t know that well, and starting to develop content for there just to see if you can also get you know, and then just build referrals to other agents in that area. So you would make content for let’s say, Atlanta, Georgia, as an example where you don’t live? Have you thought about going into other markets and saying, What if I applied the same? Now, obviously, your knowledge would be different, you would have to spend more time learning about those areas. But have you thought about expanding into other cities? Yeah.

Cody Steck 53:16
So I do run another channel for St. George, Utah, which is about four and a half hours south of me. I don’t live there, but I make video content about it. And then I’ve got a partner there who’s boots on the ground. So I do all the videos, I run the channel, I do the editing, whatever, I take those first initial calls. And then as somebody comes in, you know, they say, Hey, I’m in town next week, and I look at houses, I’ll just say, hey, great, I’m going to be traveling or whatever, you know, I just tell him, I’m unavailable. My partner’s name is JD, I’m like, Hey, JD, he’s available, he’s in town. He’d love to show you some houses and then and then I just have a split setup with him. So I’m actually the face of the videos for that specific thing. And I don’t live in St. George, but I’m, you know, building the channel there. And then I’ve also partnered up with some agents as well, where I do all the backend so they actually do the filming and and work with the clients. But I do all the backend, kind of the YouTube management stuff. So we’ve attacked it from a couple different angles. And it’s been really good, but, you know, I’ve had the most success with with my main channel living in Salt Lake.

D.J. Paris 54:22
Sure, but I suspect too if anyone reached out to you for maybe a small smaller market where they said hey, can you make videos for my market just send me all the referrals you guys work out an arrangement that’s also an opportunity to so if anyone’s out there who goes you know, I’m not really good in front of a camera, but I would like to start participating. You know, maybe you’re the boots on the ground guy and again, there’s only so much of Cody to go around. But that might be an opportunity to right so that’s that’s another thing that agents can leverage, you know, and partner with you sometimes even in these other markets. So, you know, anyone out there has it as an opportunity saying hey, Cody, let’s Let’s work do some business. What if anyone does have those questions? Or maybe they want to partner with you? Or if they want to refer business to you for people that they have moving to the Utah area? What’s the best way that another agent should reach out to you?

Cody Steck 55:15
Yeah, so the best way is email. You send me an email, my email is pretty simple. It’s Cody cod. Why at fast Utah homes.com, just like it sounds, and yeah, just send me an email with an introduction on what you’re looking for. If it’s a referral, if you have questions, I’m a total open book, I’ll share anything you want to know. I’ll try to help you if I can. But email is the best way to get in touch just because I’m so busy throughout the day, you know, doing stuff like this or with clients or on the phone with with new leads or whatever, you know, sometimes calls and texts I’m not able to get to right away. So emails usually best for to get that introduction started.

D.J. Paris 55:50
Awesome. So again, that was Cody at fast Utah homes.com. Correct? Yep, yep. Awesome. Yeah. And check out faster Utah homes.com, as well, to see what all Cody’s content is also posted there. So you can find his YouTube channel, of course on YouTube living in Salt Lake City, but also find at fast Utah homes.com. Well, Cody, we are so grateful to have had you on the show. And I know we like to have you back to talk more on the investing side. But I just think you have captured I want to call it lightning in a bottle, except it’s not lightning in a bottle. It’s a ton of work. It’s really a something that anybody can do creating videos to attract other consumers. But it takes time it takes discipline, it takes the work of other people in your case, hiring virtual assistants, which absolutely can be affordable. Thank Thank God, we live in a gig economy. Now, world economy, a world gig economy, sorry, took me a few times to say that correctly, where we can put jobs out and say, Hey, who’s got a skill that can do this. And we’re not limited to the people in our local area. And we can find people from all over the world that will do it at a at a much lower price than maybe what we would have to pay in our existing area, and consistency and just getting it done. And then just, you know, seeing what happens. I know for this podcast, we didn’t really get any traction for at least a year. And we’ve we’ve spent no money on production or not no money on production, but but no money on marketing, but just trying to get content out there. So I just realized Cody just inspired me, as I’m saying goodbye to make videos for because I’m a real estate recruiter, I recruit agents to join our firm. I should be making videos about what agents are thinking about when they’re trying to evaluate firms. And I should do that for my specific market and become more of the knowledge source of hey, here’s here’s what you know, just like that blog post I wrote all those years ago. So you can just inspired me to take action and become the YouTube channel for agents trying to pick a real estate firm, so nobody’s steal that idea, please. But, but that’ll help me in the same way it’s helped Cody. So we’re huge fans of Cody stack. Please keep your eye on him. subscribe to his YouTube channel living in Salt Lake the show in the show notes. We’ll have a link right to his YouTube channel. Check out what he’s up to duplicate what he’s doing in your own local market guys. You can do this of course, guys, meaning men and women. So please do this. Cody, thank you so much for being on our show. We are huge fans of yours are 28 years old, you are a million miles ahead of where I was at 28. So I am jealous and also very proud of you. So congratulations on being a top producer and investor and a YouTuber at the same time. So for everyone out there who is listening, we call on behalf of Cody and I we say thank you for continuing to support our show. Please We ask you do one just one thing. Tell a friend think of one other realtor that could benefit from hearing this amazing interview with Cody send them a link to our show. Best way to do that we have a website keeping it real pod.com Or if they’re already a podcast person, pretty much everyone listens to podcasts anyway, just have them pull up a podcast app search for keeping it real and hit the subscribe button. So on behalf of our audience, we also think Cody for his time, Cody, it was such a pleasure and we will see everybody on next episode. Thanks Cody.

Cody Steck 59:21
My pleasure. Thank you

Monika Strand, realtor with Compass and author goes back to beginning of her career in real estate. Monika describes the special way she does open houses and how its brought her success. Next, Monika talks about her book “Welcome Home”, who she wrote it for and what’s the best way agents can utilize the book. Monika also discusses the importance of showing kindness to the kids of the family you’re working with. Last, Monika describes what differentiates her from her competition.

You can buy Monika’s book “Welcome Home” here with a 20% when using the code KeepingItReal20 until September 1st 2022.

If you’d prefer to watch this interview, click here to view on YouTube!

Monika Strand can be reached at [email protected] and 510-754-7437.

This episode is brought to you by Real Geeks and FollowUpBoss.

D.J. Paris 0:00
On today’s episode we discuss a revolutionary new Closing gift for your clients that have young children. Stay tuned. This episode of Keeping it real is brought to you by real geeks. How many homes are you going to sell this year? Do you have the right tools? Is your website turning soft leads and interested buyers? Are you spending money on leads that aren’t converting? Well real geeks is your solution. Find out why agents across the country choose real geeks as their technology partner. Real geeks was created by an agent for agents. They pride themselves on delivering a sales and marketing solution so that you can easily generate more business. Their agent websites are fast and built for lead conversion with a smooth search experience for your visitors. Real geeks also includes an easy to use agent CRM. So once a lead signs up on your website, you can track their interest and have great follow up conversations. Real geeks is loaded with a ton of marketing tools to nurture your leads and increase brand awareness visit real geeks.com forward slash keeping it real pod and find out why Realtors come to real geeks to generate more business again, visit real geeks.com forward slash keeping it real pod. And now onto our show.

Hello, and welcome to another episode of Keeping it real the largest podcast made by real estate agents and for real estate agents. My name is DJ Paris. I am your guide and host through the show and in just a moment, we’re going to be speaking with top producer and also closing gift expert Monica Strad. Before we get to Monica just a quick reminder to please tell a friend about our show. It helps us continue to grow and reach more and more real estate professionals. So think of just one other agent in your office that could use the knowledge and wisdom of someone as amazing as Monica, who you’re about to hear and let them know about our show, send him over to our website, which is keeping it real pod.com. And also please leave us a review whatever podcast app, you might be listening to this on my voice now or maybe it’s apple, podcast, Spotify, Stitcher, etc. Let us know what you think of the show, leave us a review and that helps us continue to improve as well. But enough about that. Let’s get to the main event my conversation with Monica strand.

Today on the show, we have Monica strand who is a realtor and author from Compass. Or she’s with compass in Fremont, California. So let me tell you a little bit more about Monica. Monica. Stan is a realtor in the San Francisco Bay Area. She is a people connector, a problem solver, strategic thinker dream maker and recently and most interesting to us a children’s author. Now her first book, which was just released is called Welcome Home and it came to life after Monica couldn’t find the perfect gift to give her buyers children on closing day so she created one now today her vision is for realtors who value client relationship building is essential to growing their business and gifting this book Welcome home to their clients who have children. Monique oh and by the way, but everyone can visit Monica you can check out the book for children. And everything related to Monica at Monica strand.com. That’s m o n i k So Monica with a K strand STR A n d.com. Monica, welcome to the show.

Monika Strand 3:49
Thank you so much. I’m so happy to be here. Thank you for inviting me,

D.J. Paris 3:53
you. Thanks for coming on. And also please follow Monica on Instagram at Monica strand as well again, Monica with a K, before we get to the children’s book, which is so exciting because I think I remember moving as a child and I remember how, what a scary experience that was for me too. Yeah, so I’m excited to get to that. But before we get there, I would love to start all the way at the beginning and of your sort of career and how you even got into real estate. So Tasa tell us how you how you got here.

Monika Strand 4:27
Wow. Well, I go all the way back to when I was 15 I used to work at City of San Carlos in the finance department where I learned a lot about money and, and keeping things in check and taking care of a lot of tasks and I was kind of like the Girl Friday, people probably don’t even know what that is anymore. But I was a high school student. And I also was a ballerina. And I used to teach adults and little kids and I loved teaching little kids because that was like such a passion of mine, they were three and three to five year olds running around in their little outfits. But anyway, from there, I ended up opening a dance clothing store. When I was 19. And I was the youngest business woman in San Carlos at the time, I got to go back to my job at City Hall and say, hey, I want my business license. And they were all cheering me on and it was amazing. You open

D.J. Paris 5:24
the store at 19 Yeah, nobody does.

Monika Strand 5:28
I was so in love with ballet. And I, I really didn’t know what I wanted to do. So I didn’t go away to college and waste my dad’s money. I decided I’m gonna stay local, keep doing ballet. But I knew I loved business. So I just jumped right in. And then I went to night classes at a community college. So sure. Anyway, that’s what I was doing. But a few years fast forward, I got engaged. And everything changes in life when you get engaged. Yes. So I ended up moving to the Los Angeles area where my husband was working in the movie industry. And ultimately, after we we ended up opening a coffee house, and it was such a fun community space. We we helped everyone from homeless to famous literally, I mean, I had my favorite one of my favorite clients was a homeless guy, he would come in, and I would just give him free coffee. And one day he came in, and he said, No, no coffee today. And he threw a $20 bill in my tip jar. And I literally just started crying. I was like, wow, I built community for this guy, you know. And so communities always been a very important part of my life. But anyway, that was a cool place. I would give business advice to famous people, I don’t need to ramble off names, but quite a few would come in, hang with us. And then after we had our child, and there was an earthquake down there, we decided to move back to the San Francisco Bay area where we had four grandparents that gave us free babysitting. Anyone who has kids knows it’s just it was hard. We had our coffee house, and we would bring our daughter. And anyway, we moved back to the Bay Area. So what ended up happening is we started a fundraising national Fundraising Company with coffee, our backbone from previous but this time my husband roasted it. And we did sales and marketing. And I did all the packaging, custom labels for our our schools to raise money. And most of our clients were music programs. So we helped groups all over the country raise money. And it was it was an amazing adventure. We did it for about 1617 years. And then our kids grew up. And we decided we wanted to go into some other things. So I decided to jump into real estate. I took my first real estate class right out of high school, and I didn’t jump into it. Sometimes I wonder what would have been different if I did.

D.J. Paris 7:58
So many other things. Yeah.

Monika Strand 7:59
So all the things I’ve done kind of brought me to real estate, I’m really good with people. I love community. I love caring about people and their transactions and their livelihoods and how they’re going to get into a house and all those things. And then my husband went back into the movie business. So he’s been traveling back and forth from the Bay Area where we live now back and he’s working on just cool TV shows and movies. And so here I am in real estate, five years in and constantly trying to make my own way and figure out new things to do that I can bring to the table. So my clients know like and trust me. So that’s where I Yeah,

D.J. Paris 8:41
wow, that you will use that so much. So much there. And I’d love to let’s let’s talk a little bit about I want to talk about the book. So the book is called Welcome home. It’s a children’s book. And it you tell us about why you wrote it what what the impetus was and what the book, what the book is, who the book is for and why agents should should consider buying a bunch of them to give to give to their, to their clients.

Monika Strand 9:11
Well, what happened was, I was helping my niche right now is first time homebuyers. I love them call me crazy, but I love by the buyer side of the transaction. And I know everyone says, Oh, the listing side, but I kind of find I found my space with doing really fun open houses where I would let kids do events in the backyard with little bird houses and coloring. Yeah, let’s entertain them.

D.J. Paris 9:41
I want to stop. I want to pause for a moment because this is really, really a cool thing that Monica does. So we oftentimes have guests on the show who talk specifically about how they built their business and inevitably, in many, probably most of the interviews I’ve done, people say Open House So I sit open houses, even if I don’t have listings, I asked other agents in my office, Hey, can I go to an open house for your listing? But you do something that I’ve never heard anybody do. And I, and I don’t mean we’re sort of laughing about it, and you’re about to tell, but I thought it was one of the smartest and coolest things. So I just wanted to make that point before we jump in. So that doesn’t get passed over. Tell us about your open house.

Monika Strand 10:24
Yeah, I, I think a lot of agents hate doing open houses because they think oh, you know, you’re just waiting for people to come I treat it more like a party, I’m I’m hosting a party, I do not just show up with business cards. It’s so boring. I bring I bring food. During the pandemic, I had to lighten that up. I’ll be honest, it so kind of depressed me, actually. So now we’re starting to get back into the normal, so I can’t wait. So I bring music, I bring food I bring, you know, at least water something to drink. So we can chat that I also bring stuff for the kids to stay entertained. And this is critical. If I’m in California, so a lot of times I’m blessed with really great weather. So I can, if it’s a single family home, there’s a nice backyard, all set up an area where the kids can do some kind of a craft. And it’s not anything that will take them too long, but long enough so that the parents will hang out and chat with me for a while. And I’m telling you, when you put love on the children, the client, the parents just start to fall in love with you. If they’re the right match. Of course, you can’t help everybody and I don’t want to help everybody. I don’t have time to say I can. I’m the agent for everyone I’m not. But if you have kids, and you want someone who’s going to care about your whole family, the doing something in the backyard with the children, keeps them safe and entertained. And now it gives me the opportunity to connect with the parents. And it works. It’s just a nice conversational piece. And then they get to take something home. And I’ve had these little bird houses go home from open houses and community events. And then the parents will call me later. Hey, Monica, I drove by this house. And I really would love it if you could help us by it. I didn’t even have to help them. Look, they found the house and remembered me. Yeah, it’s it’s cool. It can really work for people.

D.J. Paris 12:26
I think the birdhouse thing is so cool. So So are there just those little like birdhouse kits that you buy? Or how does it work.

Monika Strand 12:33
Um, these were just little wood birdhouses that I bought either at Michaels or JoAnn Fabrics, you don’t have that near you go online and find them in there probably about $1, maybe a little bit more, but such a fun investment. And then I would get markers and stickers and things for them to put on him. Just don’t use Sharpies, just markers up, they’re not gonna get all over their clothes. But every time I bring out the birdhouses, the adults are always this is amazing. This is such a nice gesture for you to have something for the kids. And now I’ve kind of morphed that whole idea during the pandemic, the book was born because I just was sitting on my couch one day thinking, what else can I be doing for the kids that can really benefit and also ultimately benefit the agents? Building lifetime clients? Because on key day, that shouldn’t be the ending of the relationship. It should be the beginning. So

D.J. Paris 13:33
I yeah, I think absolutely the I couldn’t agree more. And I want to just go back to the birdhouse idea just for a moment. Yes, I think it is. So such a brilliant idea. If we think about the psychology of it, the the idea or the branding and the marketing side of it. It is you know, your first of all, kids are fascinated by wildlife and animals and any, especially for kids that don’t have pets in the family. One way that you can sort of satisfy a little bit of that urge is to have a bird a birdhouse, right? So people, families, oftentimes at some point, and in most families lives, they create a birdhouse or they make one or they want to make one or the kids ask about it. So you’re providing this opportunity to satisfy a little bit of a pet sort of urge. And also, it’s it could be a permanent thing. I know like, birdhouses oftentimes get put up and then they stay. And then kids get to it’s just it’s a fun, exciting experience with very little downside. And also, like you said, they get to bring that home, there’s something tangible they get to do with them, which they maybe they visit you know, five other open houses, those buyers, and they’re probably not getting that same experience anywhere else. So I think that is it’s a very hyper specific thing. And but again, having crafts, having things for children to do, really does give the parent that free time to actually explore the property, knowing that the children are being, you know, taken care of and doing something that’s entertaining and engaging and fun. And really, and staying safe and yard. Yeah. And the idea that that every time the parent looks out of their window to see the the birdhouse that might be hanging up now, as they brought it home, they’re going to be reminded of you. And so what a wonderfully smart and just fun activity to, for children to go to an open house, probably not that much fun, I would think in many cases, but giving them this sort of activities,

Monika Strand 15:48
look, so like the minute, the minute they come into my open house, I bend down to their level. And I’m like, Oh, my goodness, thank you so much for coming to my open house today. How many houses have you seen today, and I and I let them know Are your parents dragging you around town and they look at me like, I’m so tired. You’ve hit it on the head, it’s, you know, you come to the level of the children and the parents just open up to you, they really do. And the funny thing about the whole birdhouse thing, when I created the book, I let my illustrator know, I’m a freak about birds, and I love squirrels. And there are birds like scattered through my book, like she drew them in in different places. So I just find it kind of the birdhouse was how I started interacting with the children at my open houses. And now I’ve got this book, and I I’ll bring them to my open houses. And I usually will give one away when you know, I’ll find one family that I’ll give one away. And the parents always just light up and it’s cool.

D.J. Paris 16:53
Let’s let’s talk about the book. So the book is called welcome home and tell us what it is and who it’s for.

Monika Strand 16:59
Yeah, okay, well, I created it last. Last year, during the pandemic, I was sitting on my couch and I just I always was struggling to find the perfect gift for the kids on closing day. I like to give gifts on closing day I’m that kind of agent, the warm and fuzzy agent that not everybody is that I you know, lean into who you are. So I love giving gifts. And there was nothing out there in there in the market. I looked I just you know, basic, basic gifts. So I said I need to create it. So I sat down and I literally wrote it in one sitting. It’s just it you know, it’s a small, it’s a 28 page book with that Dr. Susi kind of rhyme thing going on. Basically, it’s the journey of a little boy moving. And he’s scared to leave his old house, mom’s pregnant, and they’re moving to a new home. And you know, he just he just needs a little help. He’s now I’ll show you a picture of him. He’s right here. Yeah. And he’s, he’s just like, you know, I, I’m scared. But the reason I wrote it was I wanted to be able to hand off something. And my vision is for agents to read it right before they hand the keys to the family. And if if the child is old enough to open the door with the key, let the child do it. And let them be excited about moving into their new home rather than nervous because what I’ve seen is children hanging on to like mom’s side for dear life, like what are we doing today? And all the attention with the agent typically is eye level with the parents adults. Focus. Yeah, and the parent and the kids are just, you know, they’re, they’re lower because they’re shorter, and they’re not getting the attention. And I really started to clue into that. And I thought, This isn’t right. So what I ended up ultimately doing was writing this book with two intentions was relieving some anxiety for the child that everything’s going to be okay, they’re more important than the house, home is them, you know, the family, and wherever they go, they’re going to be the most important part. And so that’s kind of the story and journey of the book. And at the end of the book, there’s a place for the agents to send a photo of, you know, we always take a picture of closing day, and it’s usually to promote, look what I just did on social media, so much of that in our industry, but how about send it to the family to put in the book, and then they can maybe put their business card at the back of the book, but this book, I guarantee will not be thrown away or consumed like a bottle of wine. You’re not going to wipe your feet on the doormat it the book will go in the kids room and they’ll probably read it over and over and keep it and ultimately I think it’s going to build referral network and when they want to sell the house they will remember this agent if that agent is still in business, and that’s so there is two fold for the book. It’s obviously for the piled. And it’s, it’s for the agent, and I’ve created the book so that you can purchase it in bulk. So that if you’re a busy agent or you’re on a team, you will have the book out there ready to, you know, go ahead and get it ready to bring to closing day with the keys. So,

D.J. Paris 20:18
I think it makes so much sense because an agent may, you know, representing a buyer may show up at the day that the key day and keys are transferred, family moves in agent goes home, and now all of a sudden, family is now dealing with oh my gosh, the children or the child is, is freaked out, they’re there, they’re anxious, they don’t know. The scary, this is new, this is this is unknown. And so to be able to provide them with something saying, hey, you know, here’s, here’s a little guide for for you and for the child is really demonstrating a high level of consideration and care. It’s, it’s it’s very thoughtful, right. It’s a very thoughtful idea. And so, you know, I think it is a really smart thing that agents should consider having just with them, saying, Hey, Are your kids you know, how are they feeling about the move or nervous, you know, I’ve got something for them. I think that in and of itself, like you’re saying, it’s more of the intangible sort of value that you can provide? Yes, of course, anyone can sell somebody a home. And anyone can negotiate and do all the things that Realtors do. And there’s lots of super competent realtors out there. One way to differentiate yourself from all of those super competent Realtors is also to demonstrate care, and care and thoughtfulness. And I think this book does something that I have really not seen, as much of in this industry, as I think it needs to be brought to is is dealing with the move itself. And how stressful we know that psychologically, on the scale of stressful life events moving is right up at the top of the highest. Like it’s up there with, with with death, it’s up there with loss of a job, it’s it’s very even if it’s a oh my gosh, we’re moving to this amazing place, it’s still as stressful as as some of the more difficult life events that we all experience. So anything to help make that transition. And of course, realtors or like yourself are so fortunate because you have the ability to help people achieve these wonderful dreams of homeownership, but also then saying, but I’m also going to guide you, you know, through the process and, and be there to care for maybe even the children to some small extent by providing a book. So I think this is such such a smart idea. I’m curious, yeah, no, I love it. And and I know that, like because I just was thinking I moved when Well, I’m gonna tell you a story actually not about me moving. So the last time when I when I moved, I was six years old. And I absolutely could have used a book to explain, you know, and but that was that was, you know, a long, long time ago.

Monika Strand 23:22
I was six two, I swear that was that’s so funny that you said that. Weren’t you freaked out?

D.J. Paris 23:28
Yeah, I was completely freaked out, we were moving to another city. And it was it was scary. And, and again, I’m sure the realtor who worked with my parents at that time, it probably just that those resources weren’t available. So the idea of even thinking about that is you now have this opportunity as an agent to really provide emotion, more emotional support. Because I think what’s really cool about technology is technology has allowed the consumer to get access to information to help the transaction itself. So finding a property, you know, getting the data for schools and and crime rates and all of those things. Thankfully, the agent doesn’t have to spend as much time doing as they did before. And the agent can then pivot and focus on Hey, but you know, let’s talk about how how’s the stress level? How are you guys doing? How are the kids doing? Oh, by the way, I have this book for the children that will help like it’s a win all the way around. I see. So I’m I’m a huge, huge fan. I’m curious. Yeah, I’m curious how how you see agents utilizing the book. What’s the best way you think agents should you know should they give the book to the person at the closing table? Should it be before that after then what are your best your thoughts?

Monika Strand 24:52
I my main vision was, I see buyer agents or listing agents purchasing it strong Smart listing agents, if they had a really good closing, a good escrow with a buyer agent might want to leave a copy on the kitchen counter and text the buyer agent saying thanks so much for an incredible escrow. So glad you know we could close on time, I hope the family loves it if they know of families moving in, it’s a small investment for making maybe another transaction down the road go smooth with that agent. Again, it’s a great, thank you gift to the other agent, I don’t think we do enough thinking of other agents who work really hard to get business done properly and take care of everyone. That’s kind of my thought. And the buyer agent could actually bring it to the key day, not closing day, because a lot of times the kid isn’t there or the children. So but a lot of times on key day, if it can be planned when school’s out and it’s closer to dinnertime or whatever, then the the keys and the book and whatever other gifts they want to maybe have in the kitchen or what the agents doing, they can read the book on the porch before they open the door for the family to let it be kind of a really cool little moment for the family if they wanted. And then they could hand the key to the kid and let them walk in. And that’s my vision. But I’m sure agents will do it how they want. But I do see it as a great tool to to utilize your heart to do the right thing for the family moving. It’s a big big day. Scary for the kids. And when you said you moved when you were six. So did I and I kind of forgot about that when I wrote the book. And then I remembered Wow, wait, I was really pretty young. And I remember hanging onto my mom’s like, pants or whatever. And she was dragging me through the house and it was a little bit of a fixer upper. My dad found a good neighborhood a house they could fix up. And I remember my mom telling me Don’t touch anything, don’t touch anything. And I don’t remember the agent at all. Like as a six year old in my memory. I’m trying to remember back. Do you remember the agent? Like I don’t remember an agent talking to me or interacting with me. So the presence wasn’t there. But how cool if you take a moment to do something for the kids? I think that the parents really, I’ve had, I’ve had a lot of families pick me because I’ve showed kindness to the children, whether it’s at a community event or my open house. Those are the typical places where I’ll meet families. But yeah, the birdhouses have kind of responded to that. And now this book is is my my new baby that’s I’m hoping to share it with a lot of agents because I think it’s I think it’s needed out there. I think we work in such a fast paced business and we’re going from deal to deal to deal chickens with our heads cut off mentality. And if we just slow down a little bit and nurture that one client and you’ve got to remember closing day is the beginning not the end of the road with that client because they’re going to maybe refer you to someone else if you did a good job for them. Maybe they’re going to have to move again and then they’ll remember you and a book like this staying in their house I think can help do that. I do

D.J. Paris 28:25
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Monika Strand 31:21
Like I said, my niche right now has really been first time homebuyers. I love helping them and I know some agents necessarily don’t they think it’s too much work, or it’s just going to be a headache. I love the challenge. And I love I love key day I love you know, getting them into a single family home. It’s like the American dream. It’s coming true. So taking it from someplace like an open house or a community event where I might have met someone from their care and kindness, things like making the birdhouse, you know, spending the money on these items they can take, you know, something that’s tangible that they can take away, and then they might remember Oh, yeah, Monica, I remember her, you know, they’re gonna remember you if you stand out with kindness. And from there, if I can get them to actually trust me, I always invite them to my office for a one on one meeting, which is a pretty standard practice. But I think a lot of agents are missing that step. The key for me right now is the California contract switched from 10 pages to 16 pages in December. And one of my questions at open houses, I never asked, Hey, do you have an agent I always ask, have you been making offers are ready to try to find out if they’re working and if they’re losing. And if they have, you know, I’m happy to give a little advice, even if they have agents just for small talk. But if they don’t have an agent, I always invite them. If you want to learn a little more about the buying process running from Open House to open house isn’t the best way to do it. It’s really good to sit down. I love to share a sample of the contract. I know that is like basic 101. But I think a lot of agents right now are missing that. And in this fast paced industry we work we just assume they know everything we do. And they don’t I when I share the contract with first time homebuyers, we sit down I did one last night at five o’clock at my office, we sat for an hour and chatted, I went over all their you know, hopes and desires and dreams and let them know, you know, in this crazy market right now you might have to give up something and they like that reality check. And then going over the contract, I sometimes tease them I say you can treat it like bathroom reading, take it home, read a bunch, take another page, read some more, and then ask me questions. Because in the heat of the battle, when you’re at work, and you’re at work, and we need to make an offer at two o’clock on a Tuesday, you’re going to just get the DocuSign click, click, click, click and now you’re making an offer on a home. This this business is kind of crazy when it comes to the largest purchase most likely of your life coming down to a clickable Docusign. I mean, we have that business, you know, yeah, it’s

D.J. Paris 34:11
crazy, right? It’s crazy. And right now, it’s Oh, and we need it in the next five minutes because there’s exactly 15 other offers. And so I think what you just said is really important, I want to unpack it a little bit because I think it’s really an a huge huge differentiator for you, which is sitting down and saying, Hey, before we get into all of this, let’s let me just kind of show you what a contract looks like. And let’s go through it. So that so that when we when we do need to make offers, we can do it quickly. We you you understand what you’re doing. And that’s actually a really, really smart thing to do because I know too. I recently bought a property or my primary residence, which I had done before this wasn’t my first time But it was the largest purchase I had made up until this point in my life. And even though I’m in the industry and I have a podcast, and I have we have 800 agents here at our company. So you would think I’d be like, I know, I know how everything works. I really don’t know how everything works, I’ll never know. Yeah, well, that. And it’s just an incredibly emotional experience, who you know, where people no matter what industry they’re in, but even if they’re in real estate, this is going to be a stressful experience. So this idea that, you know, people outside of the industry know anything about real estate is is the extent what people know is that they know how to go on Zillow. They know how to search for properties, they know how to look at pictures. And they go, that looks cool. And, and that’s probably why I always say, you know, that’s what everyone’s doing. But the knowledge, the emotional intelligence, the understanding about lending the understanding about the attorney, if you’re an attorney, state, escrow all of negotiations, all of those things are probably not known by the consumer.

Monika Strand 36:15
They’re not top of mind yet for them until we educate them. And I take lots of other little pieces to try to make myself stand out. I’ll do things like, once, you know, like, last night, I sat down for an hour with some new buyers, I met at an open house last weekend. And now they’re in the pre approval phase with one of my preferred lenders. And after that, because people work so much, and they’re busy, and maybe they have to travel a little bit to the area they want to come and purchasing. I’ll do things like maybe all tore the home on my own, if it’s close to where I am, because this is my area. And I’ll take a quick video tour. And I’ll I’ll text it a video and send it to them and say, hey, does this even interest you? So I’ll save them time. And it makes them know Oh, Monica is thinking about me today. And if they don’t like it, great, fine, I saved you time. But if you love it, then I’ll say okay, I need you to be ready. Today. There’s one opening at five o’clock, we’ve got to tour it today or we’re going to lose out the market here in California is so fast paced, it’s it’s absolutely crazy. So, you know, I let folks know, coming to open houses is great to to see a few homes. But if you want to get serious, you need to get connected to an agent who’s going to show you private tours. So you can walk in and feel how do I like this house? Does it fit me? Do I like it? And I’ll even step out and say I’m gonna let you guys be in there for a minute alone. Just feel the home Do you know, and you can’t do that during an open house? So they’re like, Wow, we never thought of it that way. I was like you should, you shouldn’t have to run around to every single open house. Let me weed out the things that didn’t make it on your dream list. And they they appreciate that so much. That’s that’s a big one.

D.J. Paris 38:04
Definitely I you know, my mind is just spinning from from everything you just mentioned, I was thinking if if I was practicing agent, and I saw a property that I thought was really cool or interesting, whether I’m on a showing, or maybe I just go see it on my own, like you were saying, filming that video and in whether you’re sending it directly to your customer, or your clients, hey, I’m thinking about you. If this interests you, let me know. But you can also post that on social media say I am, I love this home, this is really cool. Here’s some interesting features. That’s another opportunity to so sending it to, you know out on social media, if that’s appropriate, or to the client say, hey, so and so I was just thinking about you, I think this might be a good fit. What do you think? Again, demonstrating care demonstrating like I’m thinking about you? I think that that seems to be the overall theme for your business is is I’m thinking about you. And I’ll finish it just with this really interesting story that just happened. I’ll just love to get your thoughts on it. So I have I have a friend and I’ll keep this very vague to protect everyone who’s who’s involved in the story. But basically, I have a friend who had this is someone who will say it’s a he and he had one of his biggest listings ever and it was a we’ll call it a let’s say it’s a $10 million property. So it’s a $10 million property. He was a referral from a client. This was a listing. The family wanted to sell this $10 million property, which is obviously an amazing property probably anywhere in the country and this single family home kind of scenario. So the listing agent took took the listing and found a buyer and when we’re dealing with with those kind of high net worth kind of properties, it’s not as easy as just throwing it on the MLS waiting for the offers to roll in, you have to really go out and find those people who can afford those types of properties and really seek them out. So this this individual did this work this guy, he did it, he got a buyer. And then on the last day of attorney review, once the contract was was in place, the seller decided got cold feet, which is, yeah, and basically said, I’m out, I want to keep the property. And so this was a massive, you know, a loss to the listing agent listing, and you said, Well, okay, you know, uh, well, you win some, you lose some and the seller does change their mind, what the seller did. And this is the part I wanted to get your opinion on. So the listing agent was going back to the seller to like, cancel the listing agreement and just kind of, you know, be done with the whole thing. And, and she, he was rather licking his wounds going, oh, gosh, I just lost this the sale, and the seller changed their mind. And then the listing agent looked at the next door property and said, you know, that’s a comparable property, it probably is worth about the same amount of money. And wonder if the next door neighbor might be wanting to sell that, that his property to this other buyer who might want also to buy this property now that the seller on the first property got cold feet. So literally, this agent, he went next door next door? Yeah. Well, he actually called he found out who the owner was, he called the owner and said, You don’t know me. I was trying to sell your neighbor’s home and it didn’t happen. But I have this buyer. Even though it’s a listing agent, I have this this agent with a buyer who wants a property like this, would you be interested in selling your property at for, you know, X amount, 10 million or whatever? And, and the owner said, Yeah, I think I would. And so all of a sudden, all of a sudden, now, this transaction happens, right? Yeah. And And what’s amazing to me, is it the story itself was great, the listing agent did the right thing. So another property called The owner said, Hey, I got a buyer. What what do you think? And yes, so that’s Lesson number one is, of course, look around, and make those kinds of calls. But the second thing, the thing that I was most interested in, as I said, Wait a minute, that person would use the realtor to buy that property. I don’t know how long they lived neighbor, I don’t know how long the neighbor lived in this property. But let’s say it’s five or 10 years, they used an agent to buy that property. How upset, you know, must that agent be who represented the buyer who bought to now not get the sale, the sell side all those years later? And I think what you’re talking about is maintaining those relationships, in providing value after the sale for as many years indefinitely for the whole lifetime of the relationship, because I thought you know, it, you know, if you if you do the math, let’s just say maybe the commission is I don’t know, 250,000? I don’t know, somewhere in that neighborhood. So imagine losing that, you know, and simply because you didn’t reach out to your person that bought this amazing property all those years ago, go, Hey, what’s going on? Are you happy? Are you thinking of moving? Are you thinking? No, I’m assuming that that’s probably what happened. And so I just wanted to share that, because that is it. We hear those stories all the time.

Monika Strand 43:32
Absolutely. And you never know what the neighbor wants to do. I didn’t it wasn’t a $10 million listing I had when it was a it was a historical little home. And it was around 600k. But it had commercial real estate scenario building permit problems. So it was a hard one to sell. But in the open house, I met folks that ended up not offering on it, but I connected with them. And I realized the next door neighbor’s house was almost the exact same thing. And sure enough, I sold, sold it, I got that person in next door. And then the guy selling it wanted me to buy help him buy a house somewhere else. So I ended up getting three deals out of just paying attention to the guy next door. So power of paying attention. But I’m telling you, our brains are so hard wired with so many things to do as real estate agents, it does get to be a daunting task, where to spend your time and who to reach out to and sometimes we just have to take a deep breath and care about ourselves too. Because we can’t care about anybody else until we take care of ourselves and just start listening and try to defuse some of the noise because I know I’m dealing with that myself personally right now the pandemic really altered. I think a little bit who all of us are I don’t know if you know what I mean like being I’m actually filming right now in my home office I built in my back Back Yard last year, because of the pandemic, we got kicked out of our offices. And ultimately, I ended up building this, which is a great place to do zoom calls now. Yeah, that I missed, but I missed seeing people. So I’m really looking forward to going back to big open houses, community events, I crave seeing people and I’ve, I’ve really missed them for the last two years. So

D.J. Paris 45:28
I had the same experience last night, I had an old friend Reach Out who lives here in the city, who I haven’t seen many years in the pandemic, certainly did that make that easier for us to get together and we just haven’t got together. And she reached out to me, her and her husband said, Hey, why don’t we get together this weekend. And I definitely had a little bit of a bigger spark. I mean, I would always want to hang out with these people. But the fact that it came sort of at this time, I think, I noticed myself getting more excited than I normally would be because we are I think a little bit, not a little bit, my lot starved most of us for interpersonal interaction. And so I think open houses, events, you know, whether it’s, you know, you’re having people come to do a volunteer thing, or a client appreciation event, or a seminar about how to build, you know, buy your first home, or a dance party, or a bird or a bird.

Monika Strand 46:32
I’m telling you, the things I would love to do, and I think maybe I will this, we need it. I mean, I feel like we’ve all been pushed down and sent home and for two years to reflect on whatever it was we needed to reflect on and, you know, a lot of sadness and a lot of grief and all kinds of things. And I think I’m just usually a happy person. And I feel like I was pushed down a bit over the last few years, it’s time to come out of our shells again, and, and help one another. And, and again, I don’t like to compete with all the other real estate agents. I’m me, I’m unique, and I know it and so I’m just in my own lane doing my own thing. But if I can help other agents build their business, I this is a brand new thing for me. Matter of fact, I didn’t even mention, my husband and I are the publishers. This is our first book storytellers publishing it because my husband writes books too. So Wow. So it’s sort of like a fun new venture for us. But you know, whatever I can do to help others come out of their shells. start caring again, start start doing events start start talking to people, you know, it’s like we were in our masks that whole time and all we could see was their eyes. And yeah, it’s it’s nice to start feeling like maybe we can see more people.

D.J. Paris 47:51
Yeah, we can we can, we can touch we can congregate we can do these things. Yeah, a little bit more safely.

Monika Strand 47:59
My tomorrow, I’m doing my first Twilight tour. I haven’t done one in years, like actually with food and just invite the neighbors. You know, I’m excited, you know, turn it into a little party, you know,

D.J. Paris 48:11
yeah, I your enthusiasm is so infectious. And I absolutely, just think it’s the right energy for this time right now. And, and so everyone, please think about this, you can be a hero, or you know, small hero, Big Hero, some sort of hero to your or if not a hero, at least somebody who demonstrates care for a family going through a move, which we know is crazy and stressful, and a big pain in the butt for everybody. If you you consider giving this gift to the children, which is called Welcome home. It’s a book about moving, helping kids deal with cope with moving, have giving the parents a little framework for how to introduce the home to the child. And we’re big, big, big fans. You can find the book and order the book and you can buy it in bulk. Honestly, if it was been I’d just buy like 50 copies, keep it in my trunk and hand them out whenever I ran across an agent who are sorry a family who is in the process of moving and you can find that at Monica strand.com and Monaco’s again with a K m o n ik a stranded.com. Also Monica is an agent and she is a wonderful agent in the Freeport area. And she is with Compass and what’s and you can also if you’re interested in working with Monica directly, she is absolutely willing to speak with you whether you’re a first time homebuyer or veteran investor or somebody who is just looking to work with a top real estate agent to find their next property. What’s the best way someone should reach out to you if they are interested in talking with you?

Monika Strand 49:53
Absolutely. If they are on Instagram, just follow me on Instagram. I’m always there at Monica strand or if you want to email me, Monica mo n i k, at Compass doc actually Monica at Monica strand would be the easiest. I have two emails. So it’s my name. And then my name Annika and Monica Monica at

D.J. Paris 50:14
Monica strand.we. Will put those links in our show notes as well. Monica, thank you so much for being on our show. We had such a fun time with you, on behalf of our audience want to thank Monica for her time and also hope we there’s more books to come. I think you could create a whole series around around this. So I’m sure you do. And on behalf of Monica and myself, we want to say thank you to our audience as well. And please remember to always, the best way you can help us is to support our sponsors, as well as by telling a friend, think of one other real estate agent that could benefit from hearing this great interview with Monica send them a link to our website, keeping it real pod.com Is our website or you can find us anywhere podcasts are served. Just send it over keeping it real to a friend and have them hit the subscribe button. Monica, thank you so much and we will see everybody on our next episode. Thanks Monica.

Monika Strand 51:09
Bye bye. Thank you so much.

Helen Chong, the founder of Haylen Group goes back to the beginning of her journey into real estate business. Helen describes the pivotal moment when one decision changed the course of her career and her ultimately her future. Helen discusses how she used her knowledge in real estate investment to build her career as a real estate agent. Next, Helen talks about her book “Power To Change Lives” and why she decided to write it. Helen also discusses how residential agents can expand their career into commercial real estate and the complexities of commercial real estate. Last, Helen describes how she’s been able to build her successful business.

You can buy Helen’s book “Power To Change Lives” here.

If you’d prefer to watch this interview, click here to view on YouTube!

Hele Chong can be reached at [email protected] and (888) 406-5788.

This episode was brought to you by Real Geeks and FollowUpBoss.

D.J. Paris 0:00
Should residential agents consider adding commercial into their real estate practice? We’re going to discuss that today. Stay tuned. This episode of Keeping it real is brought to you by real geeks. How many homes are you going to sell this year? Do you have the right tools? Is your website turning soft leads and interested buyers? Are you spending money on leads that aren’t converting? Well real geeks is your solution. Find out why agents across the country choose real geeks as their technology partner. Real geeks was created by an agent for agents. They pride themselves on delivering a sales and marketing solution so that you can easily generate more business. There agent websites are fast and built for lead conversion with a smooth search experience for your visitors. Real geeks also includes an easy to use agent CRM. So once a lead signs up on your website, you can track their interest and have great follow up conversations. Real geeks is loaded with a ton of marketing tools to nurture your leads and increase brand awareness visit real geeks.com forward slash keeping it real pod and find out why Realtors come to real geeks to generate more business again, visit real geeks.com forward slash keeping it real pod and now on to our show.

Hello, and welcome to another episode of Keeping it real the largest podcast made by real estate agents and for real estate agents. My name is DJ Paris. I’m your guide and host through the show and in just a moment we’re going to be speaking with Helen John, before we get to Helen just a couple of quick reminders. As always, please tell a friend about our show. There’s 1.6 million realtors out there so not everyone is heard of keeping it real. So please find someone else in your office or another agent that you feel could use a boost in their business and send them a link to our website which is keeping it real pod.com We appreciate it and also follow us on Facebook you can find [email protected] forward slash keeping it real pod every single day we post an article that we find online specifically written to help agents grow their business so find [email protected] forward slash keeping it real pod alright enough from me. Let’s get on to our interview with Helen John.

Right today on the show, Helen Chong she’s the founder of the heyland group in San Jose, sunny California. Let me tell you about Helen. Now Helen Shang CCI M is the founder of the heyland group in San Jose, which is dedicated to helping clients build their real estate portfolio from residential and commercial real estate sales. She has over 16 years of real estate experience as an agent mentor as well as an investor Helens company that hailing group has been recognized as part of the top 1.5% Real Estate teams by America’s best so she’s a top one and a half percent team. She’s a sought after speaker as well on real estate related topics is written real estate investment articles featured in Forbes she’s also or has been the president of the Northern California Chapter for CCI M which stands for Certified commercial investment member in 2020 20 and 2021. And she is also recognized as one of the Women of Influence by the Silicon Valley Business Journal of 2021. And recently, she’s now also an author Helen has launched her new book titled power to change lives where she documents her journey full of obstacles as an immigrant from Hong Kong and Indonesia, coming to the United States alone without any family or financial support, and how she ultimately found success in the real estate industry. We are super excited and honored to have Helen on the show. By the way. Before we I officially introduced Helen please everyone visit her website which is halen group.com and halen is H A y le n group.com halen group.com Hello, and welcome to the show.

Helen Chong 4:14
Thank you so much. I’m so excited to start talking.

D.J. Paris 4:18
I am so excited to and I I really just love your energy. And I would love to start all the way back at the beginning of your journey into real estate. So can you talk a little bit about how you found real estate why and what that was like for you?

Helen Chong 4:35
Well, actually, I mean, most people, they don’t graduate from college and want to be in real estate, right? So I as an immigrant, I was a foreign student and I really needed a job that could sponsor me for a work visa. And I interviewed for so many different jobs and finally landed a company that was willing to sponsor me and and has a pretty good Title is called an analyst for a pension consulting firm in Santa Monica. And I got this beautiful ocean view right off of Ocean Boulevard. And I thought I got the dream job. So my job was to look at these institutions, pension portfolios, and then crunch all these numbers, see how they’re doing. But in about 2002, that’s when the tech bubble busted, right. So all of a sudden, I was looking at all these people pension funds portfolio, I was just like, Oh, my God, they lost so much money. And I was like, I thought, This is how people retire, retire, you know, relying on their pension funds. Right. And, you know, my, the things you mentioned earlier, I’m an immigrant, I came here, because I was trying to find that American dream, I was trying to find that, you know, the financial, sorry, the financial security, and so I don’t have to worry about that. And then also, this whole dream just busted, I was like, Oh, my God, this is not real. And so I figured that I need to figure something out, I need to find another kind of investments that has a little bit more control over because I don’t want to retire in the wrong year. And then the circle. So

D.J. Paris 6:12
this is this is a really important point. So just to make sure everyone here is on the same page, because Helen’s making a very, very important point, which is around, if we remember, if we were around at that time, I certainly was, in fact, I have a one, I have a letter from one of my best friends who is a financial advisor. And he’s very competent financial advisor, although I’m going to make him sound like he’s not. Because back in the late 90s, I, we had just both graduated college and I was looking to invest the little, tiny, tiny amount of money that I had, which was basically nothing. And he said, and I said, Well, I should ask my friend who is a financial advisor. And so he wrote me this letter, and I still have it today, which is like 1999. And he goes, we I want you to invest in these mutual funds, their tech mutual funds, they were up 180% Last year, so sky’s the limit. And, and of course, then the tech bubble burst in the early, early 2000s 2000 2001. And then the this is really what Helen’s talking about is had you would retire now my friend, by the way, was a young financial advisor. But this is what financial advisors were telling people back then it wasn’t that my friend was a, you know, dumb or incompetent. It’s what people were doing. And a lot of people who were retiring around that time really, you know, unfortunately, the saw their their, you know, their their assets cut, maybe in half, maybe more, because they were over, you know, they were sort of, you know, in that particular tech sector, too much of their assets were there. So I’m just wanted to catch everyone up, because what you just said is very, very important is if you retire at the wrong year in the market, it could have, you know, dramatically negative effects.

Helen Chong 7:56
Exactly, I had a little I met some guy, and because I was researching different types of investments. So I started going to these real estate investment seminar. And this guy, he was 65 years old, and and we started talking, he was like, Well, I was supposed to retire this year. But then now my retirement funds dropped down to only $150,000. So I need to figure something out. And he said, like, I wished I had gotten into real estate investment earlier on to protect myself. And in the back of my mind, I kept thinking it’s true, you know, if you invest into these stocks, you are giving your life savings away to these companies that you think they would know what they’re doing, right. But you have absolutely no control and no say into this whole thing. So, and I just started reading at the time, you know, just like a computer. And I remember I was printing all these articles online, especially foreclosures.com I read every word, and every creative strategies, and I’ve gone to different kinds of seminars, and I just fell in love with real estate. And the opportunity presented itself and I basically switch my occupation from you know, having having a very stable job to try to get into like commission earn commission with no stable, stable salary. I actually I was going to start working for another company. And I interviewed I got the job and the HR called me is like okay, you know, I’m gonna send you an acceptance letter. Are you going to take the job and I was like, I was like, I really want to try real estate if it doesn’t work, can I come back? And she was like, no. But I was like, Well, I gotta try if I if I don’t make it then I’ll look for another job then I feel like jobs will always be there. But if I don’t, you know have this leap of faith. I would never know if I can make it in real estate but it’s scary. Really scary.

D.J. Paris 9:51
It really scary because number one you’re not from here. You don’t have I’m guessing I shouldn’t speak for you but did you have a A sort of sphere of influence or people that you could work with when you when you started in real estate, or did you find that? No, I don’t have that. And was that a challenge?

Helen Chong 10:10
I did not have that at all. I mean, being here by myself. And it’s not like my parents had any kind of real estate experience back in Asia either. So I didn’t, I just knew I wanted to be in real estate, I don’t even know what you can do in real estate. I didn’t understand realtor or whatever. I just know. Okay, I was an analyst, I was good with numbers. And I saw this ad on newspaper, yes, on newspaper, and it says mortgage looking for mortgage broker. So I applied and I thought, I’m interviewing for a job, I was like, doing my best and they’re like, Okay, just come in and start working. I’m just like, okay, so I literally knew nothing about real estate when I first came in.

D.J. Paris 10:49
It’s amazing too, because I think as a mortgage broker, so much of that job is, is sort of sales focused, and those skills, it’s really a sales job, more than more than anything, but the beaten that you had a more traditional consultant style, finance background, a corporate background, looking at investments, you know, looking at, at at at, you know, balance sheets, and Ledger’s I suspect that made you very valuable on the mortgage side, because you could provide probably more insight than the average loan officer.

Helen Chong 11:25
I you will, you will think that, but then I really didn’t think it just because of the fact that I mean, at the time, we were doing all these subprime loans, right, it was back into that remember, around there. And so I was like, Oh, you don’t even need to prove your income, or, I mean, I was calling home telling my parents like people who don’t need to put down payment to buy a house. You don’t need to make a lot of money. I mean, I had, I had a little a client was a taxi driver, and back then he was looking for a million dollar property. And all we did was just like, How much money do you make? And he tells you a number, you write it down? How much money do you have in a bank account? Because you write it down? There was no verification of anything. It was just like that. Yeah, it

D.J. Paris 12:14
was a weird time. And there were interest only loans. And they were you know, there was just an arm. Yeah. And it was it was a it was the Wild West. And so So talk a little bit more about like SEO. So you’re in, you’re now a loan officer, you’re seeing these sort of unusual goings on with with lending and in the mid 2000s. And then what happens after that.

Helen Chong 12:40
So then, of course, I was really trying hard to do cold calling, I never looked at myself as a salesperson, you’re like he said, I’m more of a constant consulting type of person. So I was supposed to do a lot of cold calling. And it was just like really hard to get started. And nobody, none of my friends trusted me, right? Because they all knew that. I was not in real estate before. So I had a rough start, I really didn’t make much money. And then all of a sudden, the whole market collapsed. Just mortgage industry is all gone are the brokerage company that I was working for was gone. Then I started going into real estate investments, I was learning how to invest understanding. I mean, I became a professional student, in a way, I just kept going to listen and listen and listen. But you’ve got to do it right if you’re learning all these things. So finally, these are like, Well, if you want to join this boot camp, you need to pay $15,000. And like I didn’t have $15,000 I had a credit card, they’re like well increase your credit limit and go $50,000 boot camp, and well, I did I literally was shaking, and I was crying.

D.J. Paris 13:51
That is huge. You bet you that is a pivotal moment in somebody’s life. So you didn’t have the money. You’re obviously a responsible person, you’re not somebody that probably had other debt at all. And now you’re like, This is an investment. This is my tuition, but it is there is no guarantee. Whereas if you were to continue on through academia, and you know, there’s masters and then there’s doctorates and and there’s more of a predictable sort of thing, well, if I do that, then these opportunities open, you’re going blindly into something that you can’t afford with no guarantee. I think that takes tremendous courage. So I honor you for that decision. And I understand, I believe that I would not make that same decision because I do not have that kind of courage. So I really applaud you for taking that step. Well, at

Helen Chong 14:37
the time, you probably I was thinking like, Am I one of those people who got fooled into this whole thing, right? Yeah. And honestly, I have nothing else to fall back on. If I if everything goes south. I don’t have a home to go back to I have to literally fly back to Asia. Right and that’s it. So I told the person who took my credit card I was like, this better be the moment that changed my life. And he was like, just follow what we teach you. And it will add, I’m like, okay, so it did it did change my life. I mean, it’s not just like that. But the knowledge and the experience, I’ve learned, I started investing, then I pick because I started investing, I have more people coming to me saying, Oh, can you help me to look at properties now. And that’s how I switch from a mortgage broker to investor and then to become a realtor.

D.J. Paris 15:29
It’s an incredible story. I just love the fact that you bet on yourself, and so many successful agents that I’ve spoken to and even people in other industries that are successful, or we consider to be leaders oftentimes have that moment where they bet on themselves. And it usually logically looks like a maybe a bad decision in that moment, like, oh, no, this might not work. And here you are. And everything sort of moved forward from that really difficult decision. So I hopefully that’s inspiring to our audience, that sometimes, not sometimes betting on yourself is probably the only the only person that’s ever going to bet IDEO, predictably could be you. And if you’re lucky, other people bet on you as well. But you have to take that first step. And so let’s talk about that. So you started, you basically went to school, you went to school to learn how to be the in real estate invest investments, and then you were able to take that knowledge, and then bring that to other people. And then other people were finding you, did you find that that that you see your role more as an educator, more versus a, I’m going to help you win this home, I sort of believe that you have just so much knowledge, curious how you see your role when you are working with clients,

Helen Chong 16:48
I definitely feel myself as an educator, I never looked at myself as a salesperson, I don’t know how to sell, I will say I don’t know how to sell, I cannot convince you, besides telling you the information and let you absorb it and then guide you through this, you know, all this information is funny, we we sometimes tell our clients, we tell them more no than yes, it’s like don’t buy this, you know, don’t go for this. Because we I mean, this is really our philosophy and also our, our goal within our company. We are saying like we are not here to sell our clients, we’re here to educate them, and then help them to make the right decision. So it’s it’s really an again, with that whole I’m sorry, my, my Siri kept turning is I know why? Because when I whenever I say seriously, it will turn Yeah.

D.J. Paris 17:45
Same thing happens to me when I say that same word, which I’m not going to say because it would activate it on my side. Anyone with an Apple computer knows this most this problem.

Helen Chong 17:56
Sorry about that. So but I think like there are a lot of for somebody who wants to be in the real estate industry is not just about sells, we have to remind ourselves that this is the biggest purchase for most people in this world. And we need to educate them, help them to guide them through that more of a focus. Because we know that real estate, we can make a lot of money. And that’s what clouds our judgment when we help our clients.

D.J. Paris 18:22
I yeah, I agree. I appreciate you saying that. And so you went on to do your own investments, working with other investors as well. Oh, can we just clear up a dispel a myth? For our audience who maybe is thinking, Well, I don’t know any investors, even if I had all of the knowledge of what kind of deals to look for? And how to evaluate properties, whether they’re a good investment or not. I don’t know anybody who has a lot of this cash sitting around to buy these properties. And I putting words in your mouth, and I shouldn’t. But is it? Has it been your experience that it’s hard to find the harder to find investors? Or is it harder to find opportunities for investors?

Helen Chong 19:04
I always say it’s much harder to find an opportunity finding the deal. If you find the deals, somehow investors will just appear in front of you. You won’t even know it’s crazy. How easy to find investors and money.

D.J. Paris 19:20
Yeah, yeah, that seems to be what I what I heard from from, you know, realtors that that do invest or work with investors is finding the deal is is the is the hard part. And you’re right, like almost by almost like moths to a flame. They somehow find you when you have these opportunities. So what I don’t want to do is spend time really talking about how to find investment opportunities because, gosh, there’s a million other podcasts out there that focus exclusively on that sort of education. Although I do recommend for anyone that is interested in getting more knowledge about how to invest BiggerPockets is probably the premier resource for agents to kind of just get a sense of how investors talk and how they think it’s a great Place biggerpockets.com. We’re big fans, they’ve been on our show as well. But you have written a book. And I don’t want to take more time to get because you’re already a superstar. We’ve already talked at the beginning about all these amazing accolades and awards, and you’re a top agent on the residential and the commercial side. I want to talk about your book, because this is really taking your knowledge to the next level. And really now saying, I want to give back, you know, and oftentimes people I think, always forget, people don’t really make a lot of money writing books, right. So this is not a way in which you know, we’re not here to sell books so that you can make a couple of dollars on each book, although that’s awesome, too. But the fact that you thought enough to say I want to contribute and give back and send my knowledge out, I think is so important. So let’s talk about your book. Why did you write it? It’s called power to change lives, by the way available on Amazon. If you go into the show notes for this episode, you will see a link right to the book, and I encourage everyone to pick it up. But let’s talk about what is the power to change lives. And why did you write it?

Helen Chong 21:06
Well, so I wrote this book, honestly, in the beginning was because I really want to document my journey for my kids to know in the future and something that they can go back and say, Oh, this is what my mom did and and how she came here from with nothing. But also another way to explain how real estate I’ve changed my life. And at the end of the day, as I was writing this book, I realized that real estate is about homes. And that’s what we feel the most comfortable with home a structure. But home doesn’t it’s not just a physical structure is really the feeling of being feel like Oh, I feel secured the peace and stability, everything, right. And that’s what we want to provide for ourselves and for our children, our family. And my journey was feeling like I had a great home, and then how I lost everything, and then coming to this new country. And then also I need to find my footing, where everyone was telling me like, oh, gosh, you’re Asian, you know, you will never succeed in America. Oh, you’re a woman? Oh, gosh, you can never do well, and real estate or commercial real estate. Oh, you’re a mom? No, do you know how much time it takes to be a mom, you can never you know, it’s okay, just take time off? Why can you just not work? You know, don’t be don’t ask for so much. Because your mom is constantly telling you that because of my categorization immigrant minority a woman or a mom, or you can’t be successful anymore. So I the my title is power to change lives speakers, basically saying like we we ourselves have the power to change our lives. And there are a lot of mines that a lot of struggle people only see like, wow, this is where you are now you must have come easy, you know, things must have been handed to you. But see the journey. They don’t see how hard it is. And it’s not just like, oh, you know, I pay that $15,000 Check. The next day my life changed, it still took years of struggle, and heartache and pain and kind of documented a lot of these journey a lot of people would would go through. And then at the end, how you use all of that obstacles and leverage it and then put it into along with your education that you learn and change your life and to become successful. And the but then I wanted to be very clear about what successful means though, successful, some people meaning it’s like how much money do you make, but I think it’s more important is about how happy you are where you are, is not like everyone has to make a million dollar to be happy, you can make $100,000 Only and you’re happy so is how to make your life happy doing something that you love and still enjoy your family time and your professional time. Whatever you want.

D.J. Paris 23:51
There is no sadder feeling I think then having something achieving something that’s a tangible goal maybe it’s a financial goal or some sort of life goal that that you think if only I had that then the happiness is going to come rolling in. And and I really hope that everyone listening doesn’t have this experience in their future but I have certainly had it where I hit some goal that I wanted to accomplish and I thought that’s going to equal happiness once I achieve X that I will be happy and I remember achieving x and it being one of the saddest days of my life because and then I went oh I’m actually sad because I didn’t have another thing to sort of do after that I thought oh well now what now what and and it made me feel very sad because I had put all of my happiness into this this one thing that was over and so I think you’re right I think this idea that well if I made you know X amount of money I be that that’s what happiness and yes, it certainly can help make things more comfortable and open up opportunities. But I think you’re right I think the striving for happiness and I think it is really the goal. And I think in real estate, we’re really lucky in that we, we sort of deal and happiness, certain sometimes right with, especially with people’s primary residences, or in your case, also educating clients about investment opportunities so that if the market does go down 150, you know, percent next year and you’re retiring, maybe you have some income producing properties that are going to keep income rolling in, which of course, you know, just helps everyone’s financial, you know, obligations to end goals that they want to hit. But let’s go ahead, I’m sorry.

Helen Chong 25:38
Oh, so no, I mean, I kind of want to make a point is that, you know, I always hear people’s like, oh, we this is how much money we have made this year. Oh, this is how many deals we’ve made this year. It’s so much we’ve focusing on the number that we put on ourselves and to compare with each other, then, you know, I, I don’t really like to put all these numbers out there, because I just don’t feel like this represent success or represent happiness. So I’m trying to make kind of like defining is like, yes, we do need some kind of financial security. But it’s more like the sense of security, sense of happiness and stability. That’s what we are all striving for.

D.J. Paris 26:22
How much of your happiness or fulfillment do you derive from contribution from being able to say, you know, I helped somebody make certain decisions around real estate or other areas of their life? Is that a critical part of your own happiness?

Helen Chong 26:42
I think that’s a big part of my happiness in this job and what I’m doing anyone you talk to, in real estate, whoever’s done it, they will tell you is hard. Right? You initially you work 6080 hours a week, and you’re like, I’m not making money, and how are you going to be really feeling the happiness, it’s like, when they fall down, they close the deal. It’s like, Oh, my God, this is my first home. And then also that I have this images of the kids like, Oh, my God, this is the memories they’re gonna have until they grow older. Right? When they’re at my age, they’re gonna always remember this house. That’s the happiness you get from that. But if I constant focus on this deal, how much money am I going to make? And then counting it every time? I’m, I have a client, that’s going to drive me crazy.

D.J. Paris 27:27
Yeah, yeah. But yeah, I appreciate your insight into that, because that just makes a lot of sense. And I think it’s a nice thing, especially in right now, the market is so challenging for buyers, in particular, of course, understanding that that, you know, throughout all of the frustration, what you’re really trying to do is help somebody build memories, like you were saying, and have wonderful memories. And you know, that maybe that’ll keep you keep the engine going a little bit longer. While you’re waiting for these opportunities to open up. Let’s, I would love to talk about commercial because we do get an apologize. I’m going to ask you a question. But I’m going to ask you to hold the answer while I read a do a sponsor read for our wonderful sponsor. But before I’ll let you know where I’m headed, I want to talk about commercial because there’s so many residential agents that listen to our show who we get this, these this feedback, this these emails and messages all the time saying, I’m wanting to dabble in commercial. And I’d love to get your thoughts about how a residential agent who wants to expand their skill set and maybe learn about commercial maybe added into their business, whether they should do that, and then maybe some steps about how they could start you know, taking that journey. But before we get to that, I want to just do a quick live read for our wonderful, amazing sponsor follow up boss. So this is one of our favorite tech companies in the real estate space now. I’ve interviewed over oh gosh, I think we’ve done almost 400 episodes now of this show. Hundreds and hundreds of top Realtors from all over the country like Helen and do you know which CRM is actually used by more than any of our guests of course it is follow up boss and let’s face it following up is the key to taking your business to the next level follow up boss will help you drive more leads in less time and with less effort. Do not take my word for it. Robert slack who runs the number one team in the United States runs us his follow up boss and he’s built one and a half billion dollars of business in just six years. Follow up boss also integrates with over 250 different systems so you can keep your current tools your lead sources your your other systems can all integrate together and the best part follow up boss has a seven day a week support so you will get the help when you need it. Especially on the weekends when we know so often real estate happens and get this follow up boss is so sure you’re gonna love their CRM that for a limited time they’re offering keeping it real listeners a 30 day free trial which is twice the amount of time that they give everyone else to test out their products. No credit card required. That’s how confident they are, you’re going to love their system. It’s totally risk free, but only if you visit this special link, please everyone visit, follow up boss.com forward slash real, can follow up boss.com forward slash real for your free 30 day trial. Follow up like a boss with follow up, boss. Okay, Helen, let’s talk about let’s talk about commercial. So what is your thoughts about a residential agent saying, I’d like to expand into commercial?

Helen Chong 30:28
Well, first of all, I don’t find it anything wrong with it, to expand into commercial as long as you are going to go back to the advising advisory role, right? Commercial, you have to be an advisor is not about emotion. Now, in residential, it is very emotional process, you probably do a lot more hand holding counseling and all that right. But the when you go to commercial is all about numbers very analytical, can you handle it and do like it? That’s the question not, I just find that you really require two very different type of personalities to handle residential and commercial real estate. And just somehow I am able to do that. And maybe I have some split personality, I don’t know. But is this I think both are very satisfying. And if you’re willing to learn the analytical side of the commercial rules of business, absolutely. But if you feel like you just have clients that you they, their interest in commercial just refer to a commercial real estate agent, if you don’t like numbers, because you cannot get away with numbers, you have to make sure your clients making the right investments decision,

D.J. Paris 31:38
that and also, the complexities of some of the lease options, the leases that are that deal with or the purchase, you know, by cells that happen on the commercial side in the different sectors, it’s it really is not as as cookie cutter as residential, which we all agree there’s a certain types of forms that we all use and certain understandings and agreements that are all pretty consistent. On the commercial side. It’s really kind of could be anything and everything in it. And can you talk about the complexities of that and how you navigate through some of that.

Helen Chong 32:18
So commercial real estate, we’re just generalizing it right. But then there’s multifamily sector, industrial retail office, and then land or redevelopment. And then like you said, their leasing. Leasing is a huge business out there. However, it doesn’t mean that everyone is good at it. I’m not good at everything. I’m more multifamily person. I love doing my 10 year analysis, cash flow analysis and all that stuff to look at multifamily investments. I do work on some of these investment property in terms of retail and office but those are not my bread and butter work right. And leasing is a complete complete different animal like leasing, it requires a lot more negotiation, and every landlord every tenant has different needs. So I wouldn’t say like just anyone just because you’re in commercial roles that you should do it like I just don’t touch leasing because I’m I don’t think I’m good at it. So I won’t touch leasing.

D.J. Paris 33:14
And I think to your point about the fact that you’re specialized on the multifamily side is probably the closest to residential out of all the commercial opportunities. So for agents that are traditional residential brokers or Realtors we in Illinois, we call everyone a broker. So I apologize if I say that word incorrectly for people in other states, but it will just say realtor for traditional residential realtor going into multifamily is probably the easiest transition because they are most similar to residential and

Helen Chong 33:46
color, but it’s also vastly different. One to four units and five plus units the way we value it completely different. It’s just like, I have done a quite a few workshops, teaching residential agents, how to, you know, the differences between residential real estate and commercial real estate? How do we analyze each one is just different ballgame.

D.J. Paris 34:09
Yeah. I’m curious too, because I was just at the Zillow conference, and we were they were talking about the millennials and the Gen Z market place that are sorry, the the, the just that the millennials and Gen Z’s are now getting into the buying space. So they’re, they’ve grown up they now have some of them have have assets where they can now contribute into real estate and trying to figure out they were what trends that millennials and Gen Z’s what are they looking for and house hacking came up and I know, we don’t need to get too narrow of our focus. But I would say that if they Zillow was saying, if an agent isn’t really up on what house hacking is and how to talk about it elegantly, and at least intelligently. Gen Z’s are going to start running circles around you because that this is what they’re paying attention to. And I’m curious, you know, since you play in the multifamily space, if you’re seeing more of a trend towards younger people starting to want to explore these opportunities,

Helen Chong 35:11
definitely. And it’s kind of funny when I first heard about House hacking, I was like, What the heck is that? Yeah, me too. And then, when I started learning about it, I was like, oh, okay, so it’s basically you just renting out rooms, right? And in a house, and then you try. Now there’s good and bad. I mean, good is that of course, you can get a lot of great passive income, but then you also meaning that you do you have multiple tenants and a house doesn’t mean that you only have one tenant, you are dealing with multiple tenants. And so you have to comply with the rental laws. And then also, sometimes when you cut up a house too many times you actually depreciate that house value. So it’s a little I mean, it’s great passive income. But I think there’s a little bit more than just passive income, you have to think about the future Valley and but on the other hand multifamily, the way it’s like you can I have written articles on Forbes talking about how do you create a million dollar equity in a flipping I’m sorry, flipping and multifamily and create a million dollar equity without without selling it, you can still get cashflow from this building. And so I love multifamily, there’s just so many ways to play around it. And you can flip it without selling it and still get cashflow while you’re remodeling it. So

D.J. Paris 36:27
it creates a lot of opportunity to because now you have leasing opportunities to secure to secure tenants, if you’re going to keep it and use it as income, you have opportunities to do property management, or to outsource all of these. And there’s there’s a lot of revenue streams that come from multifamily that are maybe not as obvious. And so for anyone out there that is sort of interested in spending, you know, some time to get more familiar with how, you know, the multifamily sort of side works, where do you sort of suggest they start to get a little bit of education so they can decide if they want to pursue it further?

Helen Chong 37:08
Well, I know that a lot of association realtors, they offer these like basic multifamily classes. And I’m part of CCM, which is certified commercial investment member organization is an educational platform. And we do have foundation class where you can go in and start learning about these basic analysis. For me, personally, I took that first class foundation class for two days, I like fell in love with all these numbers and spreadsheets. And then so I just went on and kept taking these classes afterwards. And I can tell you just with one of these classes we call ci 101. I’ve been using just that one classes information for all of my multifamily clients, and everyone who look at the analysis was like blown away, it’s like holy cow, this is like so in depth analysis, you can see predict for the next 10 years where it goes. Do it on my own property, I do all of my multifamily transactions for our clients. So definitely check us the siam.com they have a lot of great educational classes for commercial real estate or multifamily.

D.J. Paris 38:15
Yeah, and that’s, that’s wonderful. And I also wanted to ask you, because you have your own firm, you aren’t working for one of the large franchise firms or, you know, on the residential or the commercial side. And I’m curious on on how was, you know, that’s also another amazing achievement of yours is not just being a successful agent, having successful investor relationships and having successful investments of your own. It’s also Oh, yeah, by the way, I run a business. And can you talk a little bit about, about that, and, and just, you know, how you were able to thrive? Again, without sort of a traditional backing of either Well, I grew up here, and I just know a lot of people which you didn’t, or I worked for a company that’s very sort of well known and that you didn’t have either. So can you talk a little bit about how you built your business?

Helen Chong 39:04
Yeah, you know, I think it goes back to what we talked about earlier, it’s all about education. I love educating our clients, I love taking classes, I feel like the you know, it’s too easy to get into real estate, right, getting your license, like anyone can get licensed, you can pass a test and that’s it. But we forget that there’s so much more we can learn after that. So I focus a lot of post license education, and I’m like a sponge afterwards. I just learned learn and then I digest it and then I teach to my clients. So until now, for example, I still do my month I do my monthly housing market townhall, you know, just to educate people regarding our housing market and some kind of cost segregation or anything right from real estate experts, because while I’m interviewing them, I’m also learning so That’s literally how I built my business is because people see that I just love talking real estate And I’m just so focused on that they see my passion. So I was able to build the business without needing I always believe that my clients come with me not because of my company name, doesn’t matter who I’m with, they will always follow me wherever I go. So it’s important for me that when I started my company halen group, about 10 to 12 years ago, I said that my hailing group is going to be focusing on building real estate portfolio for my client, and where I’m gonna be focusing on education and advisory, not cells. And although three, four years ago, I actually plugged myself under this brokerage because I was so tired of like looking for new technology all the time. So, side side, Inc, is a white label broker brokerage, who provided me with like technology platform, and also marketing platforms, and also their legal support, you know, having a broker. So now I don’t have to worry about any of that I have someone else to take care of that for me. But I can now focus a lot more on training my agents and also helping our clients to make sure that they get the best out of both worlds. It’s like these big brokerage platforms, technology and marketing, and also my personalized, you know, advisory role with them to work with them. One on one, so yeah,

D.J. Paris 41:25
well, I am so impressed. And I love the fact that for you, you attribute so much of your success to being an educator, we talked about that at the beginning, I said, I’m curious how you see yourself as a consultant or an educator, and you said, Oh, my gosh, that’s, that’s me. And that’s what I do. And that’s your competitive advantage, right? Because you’re right, anyone can get a license. It’s not. It’s a moderately challenging tests that that people all sorts of people can pass. And then it’s like, okay, so now I know I have a license. Now, how do I add value, and you have somebody who was not handed a whole lot of opportunities, you had to go out and find those opportunities. And you did that by earning them through through education. So I and being somebody who educates so learning and then teaching, and I think that if that’s nothing else, if you get nothing else out of this conversation, which I know you did get a lot out not not Helen, of course, but our listeners think about it as being an educator and you clients are always in need of education. It’s the one thing that AI is probably not in, we’re not in tremendous danger of AI replacing is is education. Yes, people can learn things online, but emotional intelligence, having somebody really guide you through the the, the the entirety of a process, especially the ups and downs, that hasn’t machines haven’t figured out how to do that. And hopefully,

Helen Chong 42:56
I do want to touch on something if I have a lot of time to say yes, please. I told you, if I talk about real estate, I can talk forever. As you touch on the exactly right about AI, like we were so fearful of this AI is gonna take over real estate, right. But then our clients still coming to us for advice. You know, I always I tell my kids to Yeah, you know, you need to learn how to code. But you know, one thing that robots can never take away from you, is your mind. Mindset is what you’re saying, you know, what you’re, you’re the education and can share from your brain. Robots cannot take that from you. And the creativity part is also is really important. And if we say that we we don’t like how people look down on us as a realtor, because real estate industry has such a bad name, then we better educate ourselves and become a consultant instead of just focusing on sales.

D.J. Paris 43:48
Boy, I’d love to say I can say it better, but I can’t because you just said it perfectly. Being an educator, a consultant is always going to be valued. And so Helen just said that. So what a wonderful way to end our conversation. I want to remind everybody Helen has a book that I want you all to go purchase. It is called power to change lives. It is available on Amazon and anywhere. Books are available power to change lives again, Helen Chang also please visit her website. And by the way, if you have investors in your life, guess what investors don’t always just look for opportunities in where you work, right? They look for opportunities all over specially passive income opportunities. That’s sort of Helen’s specialty, while not just passive income opportunities, but any sort of real estate investment opportunities, but they also look they also want to know what’s going on in other markets. So if you have a clients that are looking for investment opportunities, Helen would love to have a conversation and her team she has a wonderful team that can chat with them as well. Or if you have a referral maybe somebody’s moving to the San Jose area and is looking to work with the top real estate team. Obviously Helen and her team would love to chat with you, they’re one of the very highest producing teams in all of that area. But what’s the obviously you can visit her on her website, which is halen group.com H A YLEN. Group. Helen, is there another way that any one of our listeners can reach out to you if they have something they’d like you to review?

Helen Chong 45:17
Well, I’m on Facebook, I’m on LinkedIn, just look me up, Helen Chung halen group, kind of, it will be hard not to be able to find me.

D.J. Paris 45:26
Well, Helen is a working mother, a business owner, and an investor, as well as an author, and, and just an overall superstar in this industry. And we are so grateful that you were to spend time with us because I know how busy that you are. And we appreciate you taking some time to chat with our audience. We want to thank on behalf of the audience thank Helen for her time. Also, on behalf of Helen and myself, we want to thank our audience for continuing to show up listen to our episodes. And of course, we ask that you just do one thing, tell a friend, please think of one other real estate professional that could benefit from having hearing this really motivating and encouraging story from Helen. And send them a link to our website, which is keeping it real pod.com Or just have them pull up a podcast app search for keeping it real and hit that subscribe button. The more people you tell the more people we can help. And we appreciate that. So Helen, thank you so much for being on our show. We’re really had a wonderful time. And we will see everybody on the next episode. Thanks.

Helen Chong 46:26
Thank you so much for having me.

Welcome to another episode of Coaching Moments With Ryan D’Aprile from D’Aprile Properties!

In this episode Ryan and D.J discuss the need for community and going back to physically showing up in the office. They also discuss the value of the agent
and what the future of retail may look like. Next, Ryan makes a comparison between today’s market to the one in 2008 and gives tips on how agents can behave now. Last, Ryan and D.J. discuss the importance of the correct marketing campaign for an agent’s business.

If you’d prefer to watch this interview, click here to view on YouTube!

Ryan D’Aprile can be reached at 312.590.6416 and [email protected].

This episode was brought to you by Real Geeks.

D.J. Paris 0:00
Would your production actually go up by simply going into an office every day? We’re going to discuss that. Stay tuned. This episode of Keeping it real is brought to you by real geeks. How many homes are you going to sell this year? Do you have the right tools? Is your website turning soft leads and interested buyers? Are you spending money on leads that aren’t converting? Well real geeks is your solution. Find out why agents across the country choose real geeks as their technology partner. Real geeks was created by an agent for agents. They pride themselves on delivering a sales and marketing solution so that you can easily generate more business. Their agent websites are fast and built for lead conversion with a smooth search experience for your visitors. Real geeks also includes an easy to use agent CRM. So once a lead signs up on your website, you can track their interest and have great follow up conversations. Real geeks is loaded with a ton of marketing tools to nurture your leads and increase brand awareness visit real geeks.com forward slash keeping it real pod and find out why Realtors come to real geeks to generate more business again, visit real geeks.com forward slash keeping it real pod. And now onto our show.

Welcome to keeping it real, the largest podcast made by real estate agents and for real estate agents. My name is DJ Parris. I’m your guide and host through the show. Today is our monthly series called coaching moments with Ryan de April. Now if you’re not familiar with Ryan, or if you’re new to our show, Ryan comes on every month to give our listeners and our viewers a coaching moment and a coaching session. Let me tell you about Ryan Now Ryan D APR is a progressive thought leader focused on providing for his agents and his staff at deeper properties. His strengths are as motivational skills coaching style and dedication to training. He has 14 offices throughout Chicagoland he’s also in Wisconsin, Indiana, Michigan, and Florida. depot properties focuses on high customer service, managing and executing their agents marketing and transaction management for them so that agents can stay focused on what they do best their business. And if you’d like to take your career to the next level, or if you’re just not getting the attention you need check out D APR properties, visit D APR properties.com D A p r i l e properties.com. And again, they are in Wisconsin, Indiana, Michigan, Florida. And of course, Illinois. welcome Ryan once again to the show. Thanks,

Ryan D’Aprile 2:42
TJ. Appreciate it.

D.J. Paris 2:43
When Ryan and I were just talking before we started, I was telling him I got back from the Zillow and Industry Forum that I was very fortunate to be able to attend and Ryan’s like, hey, let’s let’s save all this for the for the show because I I wanted to I was doing what a good host should not do, which is giveaway all of the conversation beforehand.

Ryan D’Aprile 3:05
But I noticed you seemed like like it was almost like shifting and like earthmoving for you and so kind of like well, that emotion here for all of our listeners, right? I

D.J. Paris 3:17
was, I am energized. I want to I want to tell you, I had a very fun experience because and I think this is still relevant for me. I had just the weirdest coincidence that my sister, who is a chief marketing officer for a pet food company called candidate, just in the weirdest of coincidences also happened to be in the same small town in Southern California that I was at for the Zillow conference. And she does not live in California, nor do I. And we were both there at the exact same days for different conferences two miles apart. So she was able to come see mine and I was able to come see hers. And I was so excited to see my sister present the CMO of target was introducing her and then did a q&a with her. So this was a roomful of very, very powerful chief marketing officers. And after the Zillow conference, I went and saw her speak. And I got energized by that as well, because the big focus of that there was a branding conference. And the big focus was on ongoing trends that consumers are most interested in, which include things like being mission driven, being a company that has something that they believe in, that is about creating good for the community or for the world. And I was excited about that. Because I’m trying to realize I’m realizing that that’s what agents, especially the millennials, and Gen Z. That’s what they’re looking for in a brokerage, having a firm that is about more than just doing a real estate transaction. But I wanted to shift all the way back to something that I know you are very passionate about. And this is a topic we didn’t get into because Ryan stopped and he’s like, don’t let’s not wait for the show. So this So it’ll be something that’s new. And I love this because I know this is a passion of yours. And so I was in this this conference with all of these broker owners. And so we ended up chatting with them. And these are people that run brokerages. And I was saying to them, because the model that we have at our firm is a bit more of a hands off model. And so physical offices aren’t that important for my model. But I was curious what other brokerages who are more traditionally focused, you know, were thinking about for office space, and most people were saying, Yeah, agents really aren’t coming in anymore. And I agree with that same with our at our office, but what I was curious to get your take on is I was hungry to be around other people in person, that because for the last couple years, you know, that was very difficult, really impossible in a lot of ways. And I thought it was so nice to be able to touch, you know, other people shake their hand, you know, hug them, if they were friendly, if we were friends, be able to just be in in community. You know, Zoom meetings weren’t aren’t really cutting it for that sort of intimacy. And I think I know that you have a lot of thoughts around around agents offices, and I’m curious to get your thoughts about where you see that headed, because the easy answer is, no one’s coming back to the office, we’re all working remote. And that’s just the way it’s going to be. I’m not so sure. And I’m curious what your thoughts are.

Ryan D’Aprile 6:28
I’m pretty sure that I think the trend will reverse. You know, even myself caught my eye, I found myself working from home over these past two years, and kind of almost lost my way a little bit. And I’ve been talking a lot of my agents and saying, Guys, I’m getting back to the basics. And what I mean by that is, I’ve been going to our offices, I’ve been leading office meetings, I, if I’m working, I’m not working over headquarters, I’m working out of an office. I’m in our Naperville office right now. And it is incredible to see the need for community, amongst a company A company, I saw Simon Sinek say your company is your tribe, it’s your people that your group. And it is and we all came to this organization based on our values of who we are as holding each other up being vulnerable, talking about where we are how we’re feeling, and how do we kind of work with each other. Now, there are times we’re in offices completely empty. Other times where it’s acids and elbows, as I like to say, I this morning, I walked in Naperville, there was a closing going on, there was six agents in like the bullpen. And there was two executives meeting in another room as a leader and another agent, you know, in a recruiting meeting, talking about joining the organization, the office was packed and was alive. And it’s it’s my Apple Watch died. It’s 230 or so. And it’s dead. But that doesn’t mean the office isn’t needed. And there might be that one particular agent says I just got to get out of my house this morning. And I have to find somewhere to work where there’s nobody around me. And I do a lot of I do a lot of recruiting and I do a lot of recruiting for our all of our companies and a lot of the people’s even loan officers that are kind of working from their homes, they kind of feel lost and a bit they they lost the camaraderie they it’s not like, Hey, I got to come to the office, and I gotta sit here and I’m gonna work here Monday through Friday nine to five. But I don’t think if you have a place for somebody to station, I, you might have a very fine company, it’s just a completely different culture from the organization that I run, and that my people are looking for. And, you know, they’re looking for that camaraderie, they’re looking for that getaway, they’re looking for that environment, you know, and every company provides different things, you know, I’m not going to be the real estate company, that’s, you know, you know, having a party every single night or every single month and all that I serve a lot of agents that you know, I want to work want to make money, I want to do my own thing I want to I want to be myself, I want to be with my family. I don’t want to be doing this. There’s a lot of different companies out there, they there, they all do it the right way because it works for them. There are companies that are you know, 100 base 100% commission based companies that are completely virtual, there are the multi level marketing companies where, you know, they’re they’re recruiting and they’re virtual and then there’s other ones that they got offices, whatever works for them then there’s real estate companies where you know, they’ve got a party going on every single feels like every two weeks they’re having a party and they’re doing something and and so it comes back to like what you said that Chief Marketing Officer for target said you know, your brand and your identity and and what are you in? It’s key to to know who you are I asked, you almost felt like I lost a little bit of that. And now that I’m getting back with the agents, and I’m in our offices, and I’m talking to my agents, side by side, it’s like, This is who we are. That’s right. This is what we are, this is what I, this is when we were right, keep doing, this is what I’m doing wrong, get back to what you are doing. Right. And that all came from physical environment and being here and learning in real time from them. Whether it’s a big beautiful office, or it’s a satellite office, we have somewhere, it’s still an office, it still works, it’s still somewhere to kind of come have your community be with the people, and then go on with your day.

D.J. Paris 10:35
I think I think there’s something that is is hard to replicate virtually, which is the getting to experience the energy of of, of a busy office, or just people being busy in an office, you know, making phone calls, you know, you walk by and someone’s making, you know, not that everyone should be making cold calls, because of course, some for a lot of people that’s that’s not in their, their what they want to do. But to watch somebody do that might just inspire someone else to go, Hey, how’s that working for you? Does that work? And then oh, yeah, it works, you should try it. You know, just even getting exposure to other ways of doing things is hard to do virtually, unless you’ve set up a structure where people are sharing that and in person, they could just walk by, and I’ve been to your office, your head office here in the city, and I and it’s bustling with activity, and that’s really exciting and fun. And it there’s an energy there. So I think I sort of think they’ll be more, there was a lot of talk at the conference about offices going away in the sense of having as many desks or as many private offices and being more lounge driven, there was a lot of, you know, hey, we want a fun place where people can hang out and learn and, and still work. There’s,

Ryan D’Aprile 11:51
there’s, there’s, there’s in between, right? I actually did the lounge at one time. And people were like, I need a place to have a conversation. I needed a little privacy. I want you to he kind of got to have to find a happy medium. It can’t be all you know, yeah. All or nothing. So it’s nice, long dresses to talk to me, but I got a call I gotta make. And I can even just sit in a workstation where there’s little things up, it’s gives me a lease enough privacy that I need to have, or, or a little telephone booth that you have, or maybe Yeah, but I think you know, it, it’s no, no thyself, right, know who you are, and what works for you, I do know that everybody gets into ruts, I know that everybody gets in patterns, you know, it’s, it’s easy, these kinds of things to do that, you know, something over and over again, that might be the wrong thing to do. And the nice thing about an office is you’re gonna be around other professionals that might dialogue with you. And sometimes you realize Jesus was the basics that got me here. And so basically, I gotta get to, there’s a post I shared with our agents this morning, we have an internal group page, and I, I like to email and post something that’s meaningful to me that I can relate to them that’s meaningful, and, and it’s by Victoria Erickson, author of edge of wonder, consistency, consistency is an underappreciated form of intentional magic, disguised as a mundane doing, as a god setting kick ass saying, What a great saying, and I think to be consistent, sometimes you need a professional environment to go to professionals around you. Yeah. And I think it’s really easy for these multibillion dollar organizations to talk about, these are the trends. And these are the shifts, but there’s macro, there’s micro, and there’s, you know, there’s theory and is reality, and I just still, you know, there are Lone Ranger’s and there are packs, right. And so a lone ranger might be able to thrive and work from home and not to anybody. Um, but there’s a lot of us that we’d like to run in packs. And it’s nice to have that, that space that place to drag to that office to come to and I’ll tell you, I wouldn’t be doing it if I wouldn’t be having on it didn’t make sense. Yes, I do have offices that some days are completely empty, but man when I needed my needle, but remember a vertically integrated right to get real estate, get mortgage got title, we got all of these different things and these offices and putting them to use as well. Yeah,

D.J. Paris 14:29
I think I think everything you said just just makes a lot of sense. And I think too, if there are any broker owners, listening who are maybe contemplating what the future of their physical space, their office offices, may be, I would say ping your agents. Now this is a great opportunity to run a survey and especially an anonymous survey and say, hey, you know, if we were to do if you’re thinking about it, if we were to do away with the office, how would you feel about that? Not how would you feel about it today, but really think about it for the next year. It was not available to you? And if and would you like to do more events, you know, and I always say, like your city, like, you got to know your customer. And the customer dictates dictates the terms really. So I think great opportunity. And if you are an agent, you ask

Ryan D’Aprile 15:14
those things, sometimes you want to the more events, they do the events, and not many people show up. So it’s kind of it’s a little bit of a questionnaire that it’s kind of observing, and then kind of just swimming downstream going and going with it. And it’s, you know, it’s a very interesting business. It really is a very interesting business. And it’s, it’s a business, it’s kind of cannibalize itself, the real estate brokerage business, I should say, um, and, and then but but, but it has to give a lot. And so there’s given take with everything, there really is a give and take with everything. And, and I think the real estate brokerage business has some adjusting and fixing to do for itself to make itself a healthy business. Again, and again, you look at some of these companies, they’re now public, and you see they lost a half a billion dollars last year. Yeah. Everything but somebody lost the half a billion dollars, and that was their investors. You don’t I mean, that’s the stuff that’s going on. And, and and the value that they add is probably tremendous and great. But it comes with a cost. And I think there was a reckoning, going to be coming, I think in in the brokerage business, the model, which maybe we could segue into what you saw over the Zillow conference, right, but of how that you know how that works, and what we see, but I do, I am adamant that you know, what we do, and what we provide in terms of marketing and transaction management and office space and coaching. And technology is a huge value. It has a price to it, though, you know, and people that pay the price benefit from it, and they actually earn more money from it. And I think they get more enjoyment out of it.

D.J. Paris 17:05
Yeah, I think technology it’s so interesting, we’re getting to a point where tech used to be behind lock and key. You know, the only people that had access to information about buying or selling a home were agents, and agents no longer are the barrier to that entry point. Right? It’s It’s on every website with an IDX data feed. Most notably, Zillow is they get 200 million unique visitors per month just from the United States alone. And if we put that in perspective, what there’s 350, or I think 350 million people in the United States. So just about everybody assume let’s just assume that’s everybody is using Zillow. And the technology that’s available for free on Zillow instantly is better than any business’s IDX website where people can browse or any individual agents website. So, you know, you I started to think at this conference, and I’d love to get your thoughts. At some point it’s going to be, I think, the disparity between the technology that agents have access to maybe through their MLS, or through the different third party vendors, they might be using. The disparity between how technologically advanced, let’s just talk about the MLS, because that’s one thing that we don’t have control over where we belong to an association, they provide an MLS solution, a software solution that you may like, or you might not like, but you’re stuck with it. Whereas, you know, consumers can go on Zillow, Zillow is a tech company. So they’re able to, that’s what they do, bats are able to consistently optimize that experience for the consumer. At some point, you know, the available tech that the consumer is going to have, is, is going to be better, faster and easier to use than what agents have. And so I I’m curious to see sort of how that impacts agents and what your thoughts are about how that texts can just going to keep getting better for the consumer and keep getting more personalized. Whereas, you know, MLS technology that agents have really can’t keep up with with that level of progress. And I’m curious if you see that as an issue or a good thing for agents,

Ryan D’Aprile 19:16
I think for probably over a decade now. The consumers already had better technology for us. And I do know now going on, I think, what 17 years 2008 1415 years. The data of the inventory of homes, what’s available, all that stuff shifted over to the consumer 15 years ago. Yeah, already. So I guess my opinion on that is if the access To the information was the key differentiator of a real estate agent or not an agent? We would have been put out of business 14 years ago. Yeah. So that’s, and I’ve been saying that, since I’ve been 32 years old. And, you know, I’m 46 now. And I’ve been looking at this stuff, and I’ve not seen it change yet. So yeah, the consumer, you know, goes to all these different websites that are out there, out here. Here’s a great point, I was chatting with one of our agents the other day, and one of our agents is, it’s a large $10 million listing. Okay. And she will be the second brokerage. Right, they’re changing companies. And I was advising her on information that the consumer was asking about marketing. Okay. And they had interviewed while they went with another real estate company prior to us, right, which was a national real estate company. And then they are interviewing us and three other organizations. One’s a small, small, independent, there’s us, we’re a regional player, right? And there’s two large international, right, or national real estate companies. And I was I was advising around this. And I said, What’s the pain point? What happened to the individuals? Right, exactly, yeah. They had two offers on the previous property. And both fell through during inspection. And I will tell you, I know who the agent is. And sort of my eight, right, we know this particular agent, I’ll tell you this particular agent, and I love our business. I love our agents. This one particular agent has probably one of the sharpest tongues you’ll ever meet. Okay, and we’ll put you in your place sooner than you even know how and like, how did that person do that to me, right? We know individuals out there like that. This independent brokerage compared to our brokerage, I said, there’s no difference. And that’s who the listing agent wants. Now, we’re now we’re shifting gears, and we’re looking at our competition, the one man chap, us and the national real estate company. Do you know when I list this particular home, the day we push a button, if you’re in Singapore, or if you’re in Johannesburg, Africa, you’re going to see the listing? Yeah. And so the marketing of that home is really kind of irrelevant. And the reality is real estate is hyperlocal. And who’s going to take care of you during this transaction, you have a $10 million property that fell through twice, you’re changing brokerages after a year of being on the market. That’s a lot of time. That’s not stress. It’s a lot of anxiety, a lot of carrying costs with that kind of property. Right. And the question is marketing data, the consumer seeing the property? I don’t think so. I don’t think so. It’s consultation. It is prepping the home. It’s prepping the sellers. It’s meeting with the buyer’s agent and the buyer. It’s negotiating the contract. It’s meeting with the home inspector who may have an ego and working with that home inspector. And when there’s questions working with in Illinois with his attorneys, the two attorneys, what are the attorneys learned to do in college or in law school? What do they learn to do TJ? argue the fight? Yeah, they’re taught to fight. What a real estate agents have to do. We got to get between these attorneys and stuff fighting. We’re trying to make a deal go here. So a lot of emotional intelligence that gets involved in here. And everybody sees these things. You went to this conference, you are jacked up, right. The world is changing. The industry is changing.

Maybe, maybe, but the consumers had better data, I think than we’ve had for 14 years. Yeah, real time. And they come to us over and over again, because of the relationship we have. Because of the emotional intelligence we provide. And because we’re above, I’m a real estate agent by trade. That’s what I am when I buy a property, or I lease one of my properties. I don’t do it by myself. It save a commission. I don’t have the time. And when I’m negotiating with somebody directly a particular landlord, I don’t want to talk to them. I don’t want them to hear me. I want to hear my voice tremble. I don’t want them to hear my emotion on it. I want to be able to have a direct conversation with my leasing agent. Why what exactly I want, then let him go to battle, and then come back to me and debrief me. Like, if it wasn’t a valuable service, I wouldn’t use it, I would just do it myself. For God’s sakes, I own a real estate brokerage with 14 offices, property and leased property, I have somebody come to stay in between me,

D.J. Paris 25:19
I did the same thing when I bought my condo here. And I’m more, it’s more obvious why I would as I have not a practicing agent, however, I could ask any of the 800 agents in our company or anyone in our management team, what should I do in this scenario, and they would give me great advice. And yet, I chose not to do that. Because I know that it’s that old adage, a doctor, it’s like a lawyer who represents himself in court has a fool for a client, right? It’s that that old sort of joke that is true, it’s like a doctor shouldn’t treat themselves but But what I’m and so I think you’re right, because in Zillow said said this, they said, despite the fact that, you know, this tech keeps evolving, and we’re considered the forefront leaders of this, still 90 some percent of all real estate, residential transactions go through a realtor. And why is that? Because they don’t need, you know, in the 90s, in the low 90s.

Ryan D’Aprile 26:11
And by the way, it was in the low 90s. In the 80s. Yeah, exactly.

D.J. Paris 26:15
And I am I met this is many, many years ago, about 10 years ago, I just started in this industry. And I met with a friend of mine whose husband is a CFO of a massive online, fine finance company. I’ll just kind of leave it at that. And he turned to me and he goes, Yeah, this is really not a good business to get into right now. Because tech is just going to erase the importance of a real estate agent. And and this is a guy who knows things and I said, Oh, I hope you’re wrong. And he goes, Yeah, I don’t think I’m wrong. And here we are now, 10 years later, and yeah, he was wrong. Because the right the emotional part of the journey can’t this can’t be really automated.

Ryan D’Aprile 26:56
This is the kind of stuff that shifts are real estate agents business, sometimes the negative, you went to this conference, it was mind blowing, right? And I’m like, let’s talk about this here. Because it was just like, a little bit late. You texted me the day before, right? Yeah, you this was unbelievable. The industry is changing. Like, what’s there? Is that true? Dietsch, right, we were talking about All right, so it’s kind of like, and then so that’s what I’m like to you know, we’re gonna see all the stuff. And I always tell everybody, the only thing is going to disrupt your business is you and understand the value of you and who you are. And that’s what they’re hiring. And that’s what they want. That’s the value. The data is accessible. It’s out there and Zillow has a platform. And they access the data from the MLS. They put it they have some artificial intelligence and your destiny yet they do a lot of amazing things. You’re not Zillow. You’re not I’m not another real super I’m who I am. I’ve disabled properties is who we are. This is who we want to be. We’re not trying to be another real estate brokerage. We know who we are. We know what our value proposition is. Sometimes I’ve lost that. Right? And sometimes I forgot that. And sometimes Oh, my gosh, I’m trying to be the person who will no I’m not. I this is why I miss what I like. There’s, there’s space for this, there’s value for this people value it. And that’s what we all have to give back to with our individuals is what is our value proposition you said to me, or I said asked us on the and podcast. And so when asked now, what was the question about Amazon?

D.J. Paris 28:28
So yeah, so I was we were having conversations with with some of the Zillow people, and my sister was there as well. My sister works in retail with with pet food. And I said to her so 40% of her business, is these independent of pet food stores, not the big chains, the small mom and pop shops. And I said, Dana, do you think those mom and pop shops will will be will even be around in 10 years? And she’s like, I don’t know. I’m worried about that. I’m not worried about the chains. I’m worried about the mom and pop shops. And I was think about Amazon. And so we started talking about Amazon with Zillow and my sister and I said, most of us or I shouldn’t say most of us, I am hooked on on Amazon, I buy almost everything through there that I don’t need to see in person, which is 95% of my purchases. I still go to the grocery store, I still run errands and I do things but I I do most of my shopping on online. And I’m worried about what that’s going to look what retail is going to look like in 10 years. Are we are we you know, what’s the landscape of reach of retail is going to be as important as it is today? Is technology going to kind of eliminate some of these smaller, you know, small businesses. But it’s scary. I’m scared about that. Not so much for real estate, except on the commercial side, I guess but but I’m curious what’s going to happen to small businesses as a result.

Ryan D’Aprile 29:48
So here’s how I feel about it. So you see do all your shopping on Amazon. Right? Okay, I don’t do any my shout against Amazon. Let’s not use me as an example. I’m before a six year old, over the hill, not a millennial person. So, um, do you have a pet? I do? Have,

D.J. Paris 30:11
I have a little tiny dog who’s currently right underneath this mine, this microphone sleeping. But she’s she’s, she’s almost 14. So she’s old lady. All right.

Ryan D’Aprile 30:20
So we have a, we have a, we have an 11 year old girl. And I say that she was my fourth daughter. You know, I love this girl more than anything, right. And she’s a part of the family. I have an 18 year old daughter. And then I’m 15 and 14, although these are pretty tech savvy girls. Um, we live in Western Springs. And there’s a shopping center behind us called the Garden Market. And in the Garden Market, there’s a Marianas, and a whole bunch of outlet stores. And this is a store that we go, and we buy her pet food from. And when my 18 year old wants to get something for our dog, which they want to do every once awhile, or they have like a little dog bath. It’s kind of fun, right? Because usually like a five black box warehouse, my 15 year old, I’ll tell you, my 18 year old could take me and you both down when it comes to technology. Sure. And technology advancement, right. But my daughter doesn’t go on Amazon and trust me, they have all their credit cards, they got all our shit, right? It’s overtaking my wife night. But my daughters will get in the car. And they’ll buy a new collar for Izzy at that store, or a different leash, or they’ll go buy her favorite dog treats of shirts available on Amazon. But that’s not what they do with it’s not the patterns, not the habits there, it will change obviously has changed, it will continue to change, but to say to an extreme that will be over with and there won’t be a value or a niche. I don’t think that’s the case at all. Um, you know, and Amazon’s a behemoth but I think Amazon is also behemoth, because they got AWS. Yeah, you know, I mean, Cisco is like, you know, one of the biggest clients to AWS to AWS now, AWS, which is Amazon. But that made that the billion dollar, you know, you know, technology company that’s selling cloud services, right? In fiber optics and another division, and whatever else, it’s, it’s more than, you know, a dog food or toothpaste I get quickly from here. And you know, and I look at the phone, Jesus 20 text messages, sorry about that, and come back into the call. You know, so, you know, embrace the future, embrace the change, but careful on the reaction on all of it. Because I watch Amazon and you know what I see when I see Amazon, when I say I watch Amazon when I’m walking down my street, I see the Amazon trucks. Do you know what I see?

D.J. Paris 32:58
Its ups? Yeah, yes. Yeah, their delivery system? Yeah, it’s a delivery

Ryan D’Aprile 33:02
system. It’s it’s absolutely delivery system. And there might be the individuals that say, by 90% My product for that delivery system, and good for them. But you know, I have I have, I have three daughters, they got a lot of friends. And a lot of younger friends. And I go to the grocery store, I still see it packed to people. When I go and buy gym shoes, I’m still going out Saturday afternoon, and I’m going to the gym shoe store. I’m not, I don’t want to put a label package back sticking, maybe the younger generation will be different. But I haven’t seen my kids do it. My daughter still goes to Sephora, or Sephora, or whatever a makeup store is right to do with the makeup and and they go and they do these traditional things. Sometimes like I was telling you on the call, it’s like, Man, I don’t know what to do on weekends, because my girls are out of sports or grown. And I’m twiddling my thumbs and it’s 30 degrees outside, so I’m not going to go golfing. So what am I going to do? I want something experiential. Yeah, I’m going to go to the PGA store, I guess. And check out a wedge there versus the same wedge I could buy on Amazon. Or I’m going to go to Oak Brook. And I might look for a new pair of shoes and grab lunch and a glass of wine at lunch. And I don’t think I think obviously, the change has come to change will continue to change. But a pendulum always has to settle in the middle, it will swing one way here or swing the other way there. But eventually it comes in the middle. And there’s room for everybody. And there’s room for everything.

D.J. Paris 34:31
I think your point about experiential experience, experiential sort of opportunities are really something that our listeners can can take home because we’re all hungry for having a Aden immersive experience. And agents can can take advantage of that like to give let’s give a couple of ways you can do that. Number one,

Ryan D’Aprile 34:54
Let me chime in that for a second. And that’s like a lot of things that like different businesses to do and is coming to our brokerages. Ours is an Office meeting a workshop that’s another another’s is a party, an open bar, you know, there’s no right or wrong. It’s just like, What experience do you want to fit into who you are? And it comes it comes down to that and and for the real estate agent, right? And like you said the experience and that’s, that’s being the friend of the consumer being there and talking through it, let them go through the motions, I cut you off, but I wanted to chime in on that, because that’s why our office spaces. We have them and we’ll continue to have them because it provides that.

D.J. Paris 35:40
Yeah, I was I was one of my friends, Melanie Everett here in Chicago, she built her entire now she has her own brokerage she built her entire practice up this is pre pandemic, of in her whole real estate business doing in person. Events. For first time homebuyers called sell you want to buy a condo, and she just had her first in person event a couple of days ago, since the pandemic. And so it’s two and a half years of only doing them online. And I thought and I didn’t know she was doing one in person or else I would have coached her if she would have said Not that she would ask me for coaching. But if she were to say, Do you think I should go back and be like, everyone’s on Zoom, do it on Zoom. And, boy, I saw pictures from her in person event at some restaurant. And it was absolutely JAM PACKED standing room only because peep just like me, I went to the Zillow conference, it was so nice to be there in person. So yeah, these in person experiential events, I think we’re hungry for it more than ever, right now. So you have as an agent have this opportunity to bring your sphere closer together and do something fun that no one has been able to even do for a first several years and you have this opportunity. You know, maybe it’s even just volunteering and saying, Hey, who wants to help me go spend an afternoon helping, you know, in a less fortunate, you know, community, those are experiences that people are hungry for right now. And even just getting together and hanging out or idea sharing. There’s something people are sick of, of being online. I know i

Ryan D’Aprile 37:08
i In that’s the pendulum coming to sell back in the middle. And I know a few years I was talking about office spaces are going to go away and all that other stuff. And and they have you know, I have a friend who works at HSBC, and they got rid of 70% According to him 7% of their office space. When I was walking my, my my dog two days ago, I was walk past a new neighbor of mine. And I said how are you? I’m okay, I start going back to work. Where do you work? He says Sears Tower. So that’s cool. He goes, Yeah, and kind of bomb they go, why? Because I gotta go back three days a week. We gotta go. We got to be there three days a week. And I thought to myself, get ready, buddy. Because it’s going to be five year from now.

D.J. Paris 37:46
Yeah. It’s almost paying that bill.

Ryan D’Aprile 37:49
Well, not only that, I really think you might see, oh, I did that. Who am I to give predictions? I think you might see a commercial real estate boom, here in the next few years. I think we may see a recession. We’re going through a real estate agent recession, which we have, you know, you know, there’s a lot to talk about, we talk about the next one. But when there is no inventory, and there’s not stuff to buy you guys who are listening to this podcast right now, you all should be incredibly proud of yourself. Okay, I was in this business in 2008. This is same exact environment in 2008. Except for in eight, there were all sellers, no buyers, and 22. There’s all buyers and unknown sellers. So we are in a real estate agent recession, there is no doubt, I think we’re probably four to five months through it. I think and is probably pretty clear. I think you’re eventually going to start seeing industry papers and whatnot. It’s sick, calling it a real estate agent recession, because that’s what it is. But it will change and this will pass. And then I think then you’re gonna see an economic recession. I feel like that’s going to happen. But it’s okay. You have to have these economic cycles. And then it all comes back. And the pendulum eventually comes back in the middle. And you know, if I was a young buck, corporate America, 27 year old guy, last thing I want to be doing is working from home, you I know why I want to be promoted. I want fired. I thought I want to see my boss that hey, man, here’s what I did. Or woman, here’s what I did. This is what I’m doing. This is what’s going on like that those human instinct those natural, that’s not going away. And so we’ve had an extreme two and a half years. It’s not normal. The world is not going to go that way. It’s going to sell back in the middle in my opinion.

D.J. Paris 39:36
Yeah, I think I think agents have this unique opportunity. Now we’re, you know, if they, if you have the free time, which of course is always a challenge for agents, is you have this opportunity to go visit people in person I was talking to this is a little bit of a different way of doing that, that I’m about to share. So I met I met a an owner, a brokerage owner. Who’s in the South? She has 2000 agents. And they had 15 offices? She has, she asked all of her agents, hey, I’m thinking about getting rid of the offices. What do you guys think? And so most everyone signed off on it saying, I don’t really use them, it’s no big deal. So she says, okay, but I’ll make you a deal. I don’t want to do this just to save money. Because that doesn’t help you the agent that helps me the owner, and I work for you guys. So she’s like, I promise if you if you want these offices to close, and I want you to really think about it, and we’ll just let sort of everyone vote on it. I will take the money that I’m saving on that, and I will spend it on you. And what does that mean? I’m going to come visit, you know, the same locations, the same areas, and we’re going to do lunches and we’re going to do fun events we’re going to do in person events. And I’m going to take that money and put it back into you. And she said she wasn’t sure how that was going to land. She wasn’t sure for agents who wanted to go have lunches and hang out. And, and sure enough, she’s like, Yeah, okay, we she’s closed all but two of our offices. So she has a couple places where people can still go and use. But she goes, I’m having so much more fun that I’ve she’s been doing this since 2003. She’s like, I’m having so much fun going around and meeting with my agents, seeing them in person and doing this. And so this idea of having experiential, you could do that inside of an office too. But she’s just reallocating resources. And I think agents kind of do really fun things like that now where agents can do in person events, they can go visit their clients and drop things off at their front door and maybe even get invited in which we couldn’t do for so long. This is just a great opportunity. When right now there’s a lot we can’t control. Like you were saying inventory, right? Every agent I know is frustrated because their buyer clients, of course, can’t find anything. And yes, we’re all dealing with that. But fundamentals are what win the game, right. And that’s something you can’t control. But what you can control is caring about your your your sphere and getting more in touch with them and helping them and being there to get being there to guide them. And you can do that in person now. And I think it’s I think you’re right, I think if agents can kind of weather the storm and it is a tough storm right now I totally get it. It’s feast or famine if you’re a listing agent versus a biocide agent, right? But it is, but you know what, and we I we’re starting to see Exodus, where we are starting to see people leave the industry because, you know, they’re just not able to practice anymore. And if they were, if they were able just to just eke it out and work with their, their sphere, and say, we’ll get through this, I’m with you. That’s really all that a client ever really wants is somebody that goes I’m on your side, I get that’s tough right now we’re gonna get through it. I’m working for you. And and, you know, I think this is a huge opportunity, you were saying you doubled down in 2008, with your marketing, whereas everyone else was easing off the gas, saying, I don’t know if this is a good time to be promoting my business when I can’t service my clients, and you double down and you said it was the best thing you ever did.

Ryan D’Aprile 43:00
Yeah. And then that’s why, you know, you know, I was, I was meeting with somebody and I can’t recall, but that’s why, you know, we do the marketing for our agents is I kind of want to take that decision out of their head, right? And be like, hey, it’s, it’s all about, like, what I read to you early, it’s all about consistency. It’s that, you know, it’s that it’s that magic that’s out there. It’s It’s not rocket science, it’s about being consistent. An agent is like somebody running for an office, you know, what’s your campaign? What’s your marketing campaign? And is it direct mail? Is it digital? Is it email, it’s, you know, all those things combined with, you know, pressing the flesh, right, connecting with individuals and, and I really think social media is best for r&d, research somebody that you’re and then develop a relationship with them, more so than marketing. Right? If I could show you my newsfeed, it’s going to be the same 50 People that Facebook has decided, these are the people that you want to see, I have my 4.3 1000 friends on Facebook, I’m some of them, somebody sells something to me. And I’m not seeing it because there’s like 45 or 50 people that I see, because that’s what Facebook says I should see and I’m not gonna be able to do it. But there’s other ways to getting to me, there’s direct mail, there’s digital marketing, and email marketing and, and then there’s also just connecting me and me asking me, Hey, how you doing? How’s lens, how Samantha, how are the girls, what’s going on with your life and so on and so forth. And that’s kind of individual that I’m going to transact with when I am that the decision making maker and a purchase?

D.J. Paris 44:35
You know, I’ve lived in the I bought a new development a year ago, a little over a year ago. Do you know in that entire year, the number of now again, new address, you know, not an established address that people can just, you know, send mailers to, to how many real estate, postcards or mailers I’ve received in that year zero and I You think now? Yes, of course, you could make the argument, you’re probably not going to move any anytime soon. And yeah, that’s true. I’m not

Ryan D’Aprile 45:06
matter. But what are you know, for people? Who are, of course, that’s every year, you know, for people who buy something that’s called the referral. Yep. And I

D.J. Paris 45:15
mean, even if all you did was send a congratulations on this new home that you bought, or that, you know, or just, hey, I want to introduce myself, you might not know me, I’m so and so I hope you’re enjoying your new place, I’m going to stay in touch with you. Because I know you’re probably going to be moving at some point in your life, and I want to earn that business. And you know, whether you say it that directly or you say it more subtly, I’ve gotten zero, there are 46,000 Real estate agents in the Chicagoland area, not one of them thought to send to send a postcard to a new address. And yeah, I didn’t get it, but you can’t do everything. But like nobody’s doing that. I was shocked. I am not one of my agents, either. Nobody, I

Ryan D’Aprile 45:56
have an agent that was on another agents team prior to joining us, joined us four years ago, maybe maybe three and a half years ago. And she’s been in the business since the late 2000s. Okay. And, you know, three and a half years ago was essentially a buyer’s agent for another agent and didn’t brand herself at all. By the way, it was at a really, really big real estate company, right? That’s really well known out there. But she wasn’t, she wasn’t the company was, but she wasn’t. She sold $44 million dollars worth of real estate last year, $44 million worth of real estate, with the correct campaign put around her, there was a monster, a nice monster, like a nice, cute monster inside this person. Right? That is now just completely dominating. But the marketing consistent activities are consistent. And the results are not consistent.

D.J. Paris 46:55
Yeah, and I think what what you do is so important for agents, which it’s really a unique value proposition to what I’ve seen at just about any other firm, I can’t even think of an alternative. And we have hundreds of firms here in the Chicagoland area. But you’re the only one I know who actually automates the marketing for the agents. And I’m sure there’s other people that do it. But yeah, but the fat. But here’s what I love about it, I equate this. So the reason I was a few minutes late to jumping on this call is I was coming back from the gym. And the only reason that I get to the gym, I’ve struggled with it my whole life. I’ve said it a million times on the show people are sick of me talking about it. But it’s because I have a trainer, because having a trainer. Yes, she’s extremely skilled, and she’s awesome. And I’m not trying to denigrate all of the cool things she does or diminish them. But the main reason I use her, aside from the fact that she’s super knowledgeable and really good at her job is it keeps me accountable. I don’t have to think about it. If I have to think about getting to the gym, I don’t do it. I just don’t I’ve struggled my whole life. And it’s an expensive thing to do. But it gets me to the gym, and you were just saying consistency. i i Now, you know have muscles for the first time in my life and like it doesn’t really matter, who cares. But it’s just consistency and results. And results just happen. And I no longer have to think about it. And so I think what you offer is so important because agents can’t be good at everything. And they have to run that entire business. They just can’t do it all.

Ryan D’Aprile 48:19
Look, you have any Yeah, exactly. And again, there’s a value proposition for everybody out there. And you even have like, Listen, you know, I have agents that get recruited away, too, right. And sure your agent is talking a while ago. And this particular just like the technology is really cool. I could create a Canva I could create a postcard, I could create a brochure from this thing. And and I just let it be. And I said to myself, well, yeah, that’s what we have our admins here doing for you. Do you want to be on a computer creating that stuff? Or do you want to be out with your network and selling real estate? And so everybody’s got to go on their path and journey and do it but like, that’s cool. We have all those things there. I just don’t put them in your lap. Because Is that what you want to be doing? Or do you want to be doing that administrative work? Of course, it’s out there. It’s been out there since you know, the start of of the web browser for Christ’s sakes and the evolution of a couple of these companies and whatnot. It’s always been out there. I just think somebody’s got to do it. I’d rather be a salaried employee who’s not responsible for out going out and making a kill, right to make a living, and what you need to be trained on right for your muscles like you refer to, it’s not marketing. It’s not the marketing and all that stuff. That’s all done for you. It’s we have the tools here. You can go do it yourself. But while I have a classically trained graphic designer who could do all that stuff for you, with the technology that’s out there, why don’t we get you engaged? Why don’t you brand you in your community? Why don’t we get you engaged? Why don’t we show you how to hold yourself accountable to netting with all these particular individuals and watch that $10 million business becomes $20 million worth of business. And now do the math and do the math and $10 million of additional production. You know, that’s a that’s that’s a lot of payola.

D.J. Paris 50:16
Yeah, I think it’s a great place to wrap up. I think you know, what we’re what we’re really talking about our I always call it like the John Wooden, sort of key to success. If you if you look up John Wooden, we read his Wikipedia entry, I can’t remember how many think he won seven NCAA championships for men’s basketball in a row, I think he ended up winning nine out of 11, or nine out of 13. He’s considered the winningest coach in NCAA history. And his whole thing was not about talent, although of course, he recruited talent, it was all about consistency and practice, it was everything was you’re going to shoot 500 Free throws a day, we’re going to track it, we’re going to see how you’re doing every single day. So that when you get to that foul line with you know, one second left on the clock, and you have to make that clutch free throw, you’ve you’ve you’ve put in 100,000 reps, and you’re probably going to sink the shot. Because otherwise, you know, we leave it up to emotion, we leave it up to how you feel in that moment, without having the consistency behind you of just putting the blinders on and going I’m just making another free free throw shot. You know, you’re more likely to succeed. And, and he He’s famous for saying he never looked at the scoreboard. And you know, what I’ve noticed about top producers is at least the one not not all of them. Of course, everyone’s different. But but the majority of top producers I talked to have no idea what their rank is. They don’t even really know how much their overall production is day to day. They’re just know that they’re busy. And they’re just like, oh, I you know, a lot of times I say, Oh, I just saw you hit 50 million they go did I? Oh, okay, awesome. And of course, they have a general idea. But just they put their blinders on and just get to work. And they don’t focus on the outcome as much as the discipline and the discipline ultimately gets you there.

Ryan D’Aprile 51:51
Yeah. Yeah. This was great. DJ, I appreciate you having me. I enjoy that. So I missed you last time. And I apologize. I, I was on our spring break with our family. And I completely missed the call. And I missed the scheduling. So sorry about that.

D.J. Paris 52:04
No, no problem at all. We get it. I mean, you’re running multiple companies with hundreds and hundreds of employees and a family and of course, all the other things that you do. So we appreciate your time. You’re, you’re a busy guy, and we were so grateful to have you on the show. So I want everyone to who might be in the Illinois, Indiana, Wisconsin, Michigan, or Florida market. If you’re interested in exploring a firm that does help take some, you know, everyone talks about coaching and training, right? Every firm uses that as and you you guys do a great job, you actually have real coaches. And you do that. I don’t know that that’s always the most interesting differentiator for what do April properties offers agents, because I think you know, that buzzword of training and coaching just gets thrown around by everybody. And it’s hard to sort of understand who really provides it you guys do. But I think the idea of automating marketing is for me, I’m a marketer, I know how important it is. And that’s the thing that most agents struggle with, I think most firms offer some level of coaching, some are better than others. But this idea of automating marketing, oh my gosh, I just see that is such a great thing. So if you’re an agent, and you’re struggling in that way, or if you do want better coaching, or both, check out the April properties, they’ll they have a ton of people that would love to chat with you and tell you more about what they do. And by the way, they don’t just do real estate agent stuff. They also have a loan officer company. So they have Midwest lending, they have their type your title company, you have all sorts of different employees, you have a design firm that’s in, in your offices, as well as you know, lending and just lots of lots of other services. So check out Depot properties.com, they would love to chat with you and talk about how they’re a bit different than soon.

Ryan D’Aprile 53:45
And by the way, we may have a we might have a CRM that might be available to the public. So I still kind of working on those little things. But that might be soon as coming out as well.

D.J. Paris 53:55
I’m excited for that. Because I like CRMs that are designed by agents versus tech companies, because tech companies can build a CRM, and then they have to have the users use it and say, how is this working. And then they usually go back for version two, which tends to be better you you’re an agent focused company that happened to get into the tech space. So I always think that those tend to just get built better from the ground up. So we’ll definitely be chatting about that as that rolls out. So for everyone else who’s listening, thank you so much for being on our show. Check out April properties again, da p r i l e properties.com. They’ll be love to talk to you about what they offer. And also we want to thank our agents for our agents are well, I want to thank my agents. But for everyone listening all of our listeners and viewers, I want to thank you for supporting our show, please support our sponsors support our guests like Ryan, checkout Depot properties.com. And also, please tell a friend just that’s the only thing we really ever asked tell one other agent about our show, tell them you know, show them our website or show them our podcast and have them check out an episode see if we can get more more people to listen We would appreciate it. Thanks, Ryan and we will see everybody on the next episode. Thanks, TJ

Welcome to our monthly feature, Close-ing Time – in partnership with TheClose.com.

Chris Linsell from TheClose.com talks about underpricing properties to induce a price-war. Chris continues to discuss why this behavior of the agents is not healthy for the market. Next, Chris discusses how to do a comparative market analysis for the property you’re representing and the importance of building relationships with other agents. Last, Chris shares advise to both parties of agents on how to behave in this market and also for agents with aspirations to move up the real estate ladder.

If you’d prefer to watch this interview, click here to view on YouTube!

Chris Linsell can be reached at [email protected].

This episode is brought to you by Real Geeks.

D.J. Paris 0:00
is listing a property under market value to induce a bidding war? A good idea or a really bad idea? Stay tuned. This episode of Keeping it real is brought to you by real geeks. How many homes are you going to sell this year? Do you have the right tools? Is your website turning soft leads and interested buyers? Are you spending money on leads that aren’t converting? Well real geeks is your solution. Find out why agents across the country choose real geeks as their technology partner. Real geeks was created by an agent for agents. They pride themselves on delivering a sales and marketing solution so that you can easily generate more business. Their agent websites are fast and built for lead conversion with a smooth search experience for your visitors. Real geeks also includes an easy to use agent CRM. So once a lead signs up on your website, you can track their interest and have great follow up conversations. Real geeks is loaded with a ton of marketing tools to nurture your leads and increase brand awareness visit real geeks.com forward slash keeping it real pod and find out why Realtors come to real geeks to generate more business again, visit real geeks.com forward slash keeping it real pod. And now on to our show.

Welcome to keeping it real, the largest podcast made by real estate agents and for real estate agents. My name is DJ Parris. I’m your guide, and host through the show and today is our monthly series called closing time with Chris Lin sell from the close. Now this is a partnership between keeping it real and the closed.com. Let me tell you about the close. Now the closed.com is the kind of real estate website designed to give agents teams and brokerages actionable strategic insight from industry professionals and they cover real estate marketing lead generation tech team building strategies from the perspective of working agents and brokers who want to take their business to the next level. Now please visit the clothes.com That’s th e c l o s e just like it sounds.com And subscribe to their newsletter and you can get notified every time they publish an article, they just did a reap a refresh of their website and everything is super clean, it’s really easy to navigate. And just the articles are amazing. And in fact, before I tell you about our guest, Chris, in case you’re new to the show, we actually used one of the clauses or we’re in the process of using one of your articles about about brokerage, software around paying out commissions. And so we actually were looking to find out which which tech provider we wanted to use. And we came across the amazing article that the close has written about that. So we’re huge fans of the close. But with us as always, today is Chris Lin salah, he is a staff writer and real estate coach for the close. Chris is the closest resident expert on real estate topics ranging from marketing lead generation, transactional best practices and everything in between. He’s a licensed agent in the state of Michigan, and he has been part of hundreds of transactions from modest rural starter homes to massive waterside compounds. When he isn’t writing, you’ll find Chris fly fishing or performing on the stage in his community, theaters production. And also you’ll find him possibly speaking in your areas, he is often asked to come speak about topics related to real estate all over the country at different events. So definitely keep your eyes open for everything related to press. Chris, welcome once again to the show.

Chris Linsell 3:39
EJ it’s a pleasure to be here. Thanks for having me. As always,

D.J. Paris 3:43
you’re soon gonna have to have a calendar with all of your speaking events so people can find out because you are you’re really you’re speaking you have a lot of speaking engagements coming up. So it’s very, very exciting. And that’s why we’re so excited to have you on the show. And let’s just jump right into it. Because you and I have oftentimes we just to sort of let people know how it works is we’ll we’ll get on and I’ll and I’ll say Oh, I hope I Chris has something to talk about because I always a lot of times I don’t. And Chris said I’m very passionate about this topic today. So we have we have a good topic today. Do you want to jump right in?

Chris Linsell 4:17
Yeah, absolutely. And I’ll just say, there’s gonna be people who disagree with me here DJ and and, you know, I actually I think you might be one of those people on a couple of points here. So please feel free to tell me you think I’m wrong. And those of you who are listening if you think I’m crazy, feel free to argue with me in any of the public social media town squares that I’m a part of. So I never, oh, gosh,

D.J. Paris 4:42
I say I never think you’re wrong, but I might take the other side. Well, just just because, you know, I always defer really all of my real estate knowledge to you, but but I do want to present sometimes some of the opposing opinions so let’s Yeah, let’s jump in.

Chris Linsell 4:58
Okay, well, I’m just gonna I’m just gonna throw the Sound here, guys. Those of you, real estate agents, brokers, those of you who are actively listing properties, you are hurting yourself, your clients, your community and the market at large by underpricing them. And I don’t mean like, Oh, my clients aren’t going to get the amount of money that they deserve. I mean, you are contributing towards the market panic that we are experiencing right now. I’m not gonna say it’s all your fault. But agents, if you are pricing properties in order to induce a bidding war, this is some of your fault. And I want to tell you why. And I know that’s a little accusatory, I know, it’s a little of a negative way to get started here, but I look at it as accountability. And what I mean by this is, real estate professionals have a duty to their clients to represent their fiduciary best interests. And that means getting the best terms for sale or purchase possible. And that also means being a thoughtful representative and advocate for the real estate process as a whole. And when we underprice properties, when we create a pricing structure that induces essentially market panic, we are not helping our buyers, we are not helping our sellers, and we are not helping the market at large. So starting today,

D.J. Paris 6:35
great. And so we’ll just define a little bit more specifically what we’re talking about. So what we’re talking about is brokers who under price or under list, price their their listings, in order to encourage competition with buyers to drive up numbers for showings. And also to be able to the theory is, the more people bidding on this property, the higher the end price is going to be. Plus it generates a lot of activity. So for if I’m the listing agent, maybe that is really impressive to my seller, like hey, look at all these people I’ve been bringing through. And right now of course, with interest rates still being relatively low, there’s still a lot of buyers out there. And we know that inventory is low. So if I price it low, there’s all these buyers that will pounce on it will drive pricing up. I’m guessing that that’s the overall thought process.

Chris Linsell 7:33
Yep, yep. 100%. And here is, here’s why I take this position that this practice is bad for everybody. It is bad for everybody. Because it is a self serving, frankly, it’s a selfish practice it is goes against the realtor code of contact, our code of conduct and code of ethics here, when a real estate agent is pricing property so that they can make a Facebook post later on about the 100 showings and 50 offers they got. It’s not good for people. And we can break down exactly why I think that is but I guess I just want to start with you, DJ by asking you a question that you and I we started chatting a little bit about this before. But you you said when I was kind of taking this position in our pre interview, you were saying, Well, isn’t it best for the sellers in order to get the highest price possible to induce this sort of multi bid scenario? Tell me a little bit more about that. I mean, what what is your position on that?

D.J. Paris 8:45
Well, I was thinking of it from just a simple supply and demand, you know, sort of econ 101 driving down supply is going to increase competition to four buyers. So it made sense to me to think and by the way, I know a lot of agents that do this. There’s one of the top agents here in Chicago. This is what I won’t say who they are, but this is what they instruct their team members to do is price it aggressively, which really means underprice it and let the bidding war commence and, and everyone wins. Now, again, I don’t you know, I don’t personally, sort of, I had never thought about it more than that. That was as much as I thought about it. I said, Oh, make sense. Simple, simple economics. But let’s talk about why that’s a bad idea. Ultimately, long term or even short

Chris Linsell 9:39
term. Yeah, well, so you use a phrase here that I think is really interesting, which is everyone wins. What about the 49 offers that didn’t get accepted to those people when

D.J. Paris 9:51
there’s only there’s only two winners, right? And there could be 100 players. And now there’s not only are there people Who don’t win? There’s a lot of just upset people because they figure they’ve got as good a shot as anyone to purchase this property. But because it’s underpriced, it’s going to bring in people. Well, I’m sure you’re going to talk about this, but maybe who are under the wrong impression. And maybe there are agents out there that aren’t as queued into what’s going on right now. And they just see this list price, bringing their clients out, and then immediately find out oh, that’s not in their price range anymore. So there are a lot of losers in the space.

Chris Linsell 10:29
Yeah, I think I think the phrase everybody wins is a, it’s one that gets thrown around a lot on this topic. Because the thought process here is well, what we what we mean by this is that the right offer will eventually come to the surface, right? And that is different than everybody wins, right? Because if you think about just from a raw opportunity cost, a buyer who spends time touring a property and writing an offer and anticipating an opportunity that they have no realistic shot to get, that person could be using their energy elsewhere. That buyer’s agent could be using their energy elsewhere, they could be pursuing property for which they have a legitimate chance to secure. And so not everybody wins. In fact, almost everybody loses when we create this panic atmosphere around our around our pricing. The other thing that happens as a result of this strategy that’s related to, you know that that sentiment of almost everybody loses is that it creates a market sentiment, for which the headlines gravitate towards what headlines always gravitate towards, like the sexiest part of the scenario. This Oh, we had this $350,000 house sold for $100,000 over asking price. Think about what I just said there. I said this $350,000 house sold for 100,000 over as a just a general civilian consumer here. I don’t know, is this house actually a $250,000? House that sold for 350? Is it a $350,000 house that sold for 450? Or is it just that everything is expensive right now, if you go on CNBC, on MSNBC, on Fox on the Chicago Tribune on the Denver Post all of these websites right now on their front pages, and I know that there’s we’re not going to be listening to this when we’re recording this. But if you go and look right now, there is talk on every major news outlets website about a real estate bubble. And that real estate bubble is being the fear of that is being fueled by this incredible explosion in price. And this perception that the Fed is going to most likely jack up interest rates, which is going to plummet buyer demand and all of a sudden we’re gonna have super high prices, nobody interested in buying and then all of a sudden, pop. Yeah, and that the the left end of this, of this lever, real estate agents and their pricing has a direct effect on how high that left side goes. We can be in control of this. We can bring the panic in the market back down to earth by appropriately pricing things. But we’re not because you can’t post on Facebook about that sort of thing. Nobody likes being Oh, yeah, we had four offers. You know, after six or seven days of showings, nobody likes posting that because that’s not sexy and flashy and fun. We do like posting all the craziness. And that is just not healthy for the market. It’s not healthy for our clients. And it’s certainly not healthy for us as professionals, if we want to have a sustainable career on this.

D.J. Paris 14:19
So I’ve two points. One This is reminds me of it. I think there’s an I have to be a little careful how I say this, but I think if you underprice a property, or if you under list, if you underprice a property when you’re listing it I think it’s it’s disingenuous at best maybe and maybe worse than that right? Because what you’re really it’s kind of like when I remember those websites it I think we can all probably we’ve all probably seen where somebody is selling some sort of knowledge product you know, learn how to do X or learn how to build a business and then there’s this long sales page and at the top there’s like this offer is only good for the next few 10 minutes, or whatever has some sort of time, you know, sort of thing on it. And and then you refresh the page and the timer resets. And you’re like, okay, there is it’s an artificial, there’s no actual timing thing, but it’s used to prey upon our sort of, you know, this FOMO this like if I don’t act now. And so I think I think it’s disingenuous, right, because, but I think maybe we should talk about and maybe worse, maybe it’s actually doing more bad than just being more of a sort of a marketing tactic. I underpriced I’ll get a lot of activity. But let’s talk about I would love to talk about how, how and why, aside from just increasing activity, if I’m an agent, I go, Well, okay, Chris, I agree that it’s a little crazy right now. But if I run comps, you know, I’m just, I’m pricing it, what I’m seeing in the last three months that’s closed in the area, and you’re telling me to price it lower than that.

Chris Linsell 15:56
So I can tell you as and I have some, a lot of personal experience, I’ve done hundreds of CMAs, probably 1000s, frankly, at this point. And I also not to brag a little I’m gonna brag just a little bit. I also have the number one Google ranked article on conducting comparative market analysis for real estate profession.

D.J. Paris 16:16
It’s amazing what we’re gonna, by the way, we’re gonna post a link to that in our show notes. Yeah. So thank you for mentioning that.

Chris Linsell 16:23
Come take a look. In fact, this is one of the things I have read presented on quite a bit last year, and the conference circuit was, I’m creating a bulletproof CMA. And one of the tenets of creating a bulletproof CMA is adjusting your comp ratios relative to the aggressiveness of the market. And that sounds like a whole bunch of gobbledygook. But let me just let me just translate that the more aggressive, the more the crazier the seller’s market is, which is like if your buyer demand is really high inventory is really low. The more aggressive that market is, the more recent your comps have to be. So if you’ve got a really balanced market, you can look at comps, 434, even six months back, that’s that seems relatively reasonable. If your markets heating up, and it’s started, you know, you’re on kind of just on the seller’s end of things. You got to be looking three months or less on your comps. If things are really getting pretty intense, you got to be looking at comps in the last month or so. And the things if the if people’s hair is on fire, like it is in my local market, for instance, there was a house that went up for sale in my neighborhood, there was literally a line out the door showings were limited to 15 minutes, there was there was literally people standing in the street in my neighborhood waiting to get in. If this is how aggressive your market is, you have to have not just the most recent sold comps, but you have to be accounting for what’s on the market. You have to be accounting for buyer activity in the moment, even on listings that haven’t closed yet. And you might be saying, well, there’s no database that I can go and look at to see how many offers something got, or what the sentiment is. There is a database, it’s called Facebook, because all of the agents I know literally cannot help themselves. They even before something is closed the moment it goes under contract, they’re on Facebook and Mark Zuckerberg is sitting over their shoulder and he’s like, okay, and I type in how many offers you got. Okay, you can’t say the price yet. Because the you know, this is still confidential that you can just say, oh, yeah, we’re really happy double winky face. You need to start accounting for this stuff. And you’re right, there’s no scientific means of quantifying this, there’s not a formula that you can use to say I know exactly what I have to account for where, but if you if people’s hair is on fire in your market, and you know it is when it is, you’re gonna go and you need to start accounting for kind of extraordinary circumstances. And that includes pricing your properties accordingly.

D.J. Paris 19:11
And I imagine what you could do is also reach out to those agents that have closed listings that are in you know, in that area, that you’d be running the CMA for your client, and asking them say, Hey, tell me about how you priced you know, it just because you know, an agents I think are pretty, usually pretty open about things. It’s like, hey, congratulations on the sale, I’m going to be listing something down the street. Can you talk a little bit about you know, the experience of listing right now and if the, because a lot of times agents love talking, oh my god, we got 60 offers, and it’s like, okay, and then I think the agent after that ends is probably like maybe I priced it wrong. The the listing agent that closed the property and having to deal with 60 offers or 30 offers is just a ton of work for everybody. And also you’re right there’s a lot of disappointed people. especially other agents who bring their buyers in who who look at these listing agents and going, I know what you’re doing. I know that you listed this artificially low, and I’m now pissed at you who this isn’t really, it isn’t a super friendly thing to do. And you’re really just doing this to create all this demand. But you could call that listing agent and say, Hey, how, you know how just out of curiosity, how many offers did you get? And if you were to have done it differently, again, would you do it differently and, and they might say, I’d price a little higher, or, you know, whatever, I think you’ll get a lot of feedback, if you just have these conversations with other agents and 100%, because they’re going to be exhausted by the time these things close.

Chris Linsell 20:37
The the fact of the matter is, as much as we are competitors with the other agents in our market, we are also colleagues, and there are so many instances that I can think of personally, in my own real estate career where I have thought to myself, Wow, I am so glad that I got a chance that I have the cell phone number that I can text, the agent down the street or in the next office, because I just have a question about something. And I bet you unless you are operating a real estate business on an island by yourself. Every agent listening to this has some experience of when they texted the agent that they happen to either share an office worth or be in the same brokers with or they did a deal once with and everything went great. And they kind of remained on good terms. We get information from one another. And frankly, it is not a matter. It’s not collusion is collaboration. It is not there is nothing underhanded here. And in fact, if we are not collaborating with each other, we are we begin to take on the characteristics of an industry again, that is selfish, it is not about our client’s best interest, it’s about our own best interest. If you protect information, hoard it, and you don’t share it with your colleagues. I mean, it’s one thing to disclose confidential information that you are not supposed to. That’s not what I’m talking about. I’m talking about how do we work together to build a sustainable market economy that doesn’t crash and burn because frankly, if pricing continues in a panicked rise, we are going to have a really severe correction. And then the all of the agents who have been, you know, who, who put down a down payment on a boat, you know, assuming that things are going to be, you know, just a Lego gravy for the next three, four years, these people are out of luck. And these are not necessarily just the greenhorns in our in our agency, these are people who, you know, that boat that they put down the down payment on, these are people who just remodeled their kitchen or are trying to send their kids to college, we want to make sure we’re creating a sustainable atmosphere for everybody. And, and not working together. And collaborating is the opposite of that.

D.J. Paris 22:56
So I know what I just had a thought. So what I might do if I was about to list a property, and I looked at the sales, the actual final sales prices for the comps in my area, and I went, Whoa, these are really high because of course, everything’s high right now. I would probably pick up the phone, call some of those listing agents and say, Hey, obviously, you know, you can’t disclose any confidential information. But just out of curiosity, did you get a lot of offers on this property more than you thought? And if you were to do it over again, assuming you could still get to the same and price? Would you have priced? Would you have listed this at a different price? Because I think there’s a lot of agents, they get a listing. And of course, those are gold right now, because of how much activity there is on the buyer side. And then they don’t think about it until once it’s over. And they might have a different opinion. Like, you know what, I think I actually priced it lower than I should have, and it cost us a ton of extra work. You know, the owners had to deal with, you know, people not even being able to get in for showings, which is not a great experience. Because that owner wants, you know, people to come through and make an offer and, and other agents are were kind of pissed about it or, you know, and I think those are great conversations to have, like, if you would have to do this again, would you have done it a little differently? You know, and I think generally speaking that they’ll probably tell you, you know, if you have a decent relationship, and what you’ll probably I think you’ll what you’ll probably find is like well, I thought it would be cool to have 60 offers but actually really ended up being just a ton of work for everybody and a lot of upset people.

Chris Linsell 24:27
Yeah, without a doubt, without a doubt and I want to just encourage all agents here I’m gonna I’m gonna I’m gonna speak to just both sides of the transaction here listing agents. If I am your client, if I’m your seller, and you show up on Monday at 5pm or whenever whenever the whenever offers are due on on our on our new listing, if you show up with you know a Cheshire Cat grin on your face and say well we had so 71 or 71 showings over the weekend, and here are your 45 offers Mr. Seller. If you show up to my house with that information and that smile on your face, I’m not going to be happy with you. And the reason is, if we have 45 offers on this property, you have mischaracterized who the buyer is for this house, you have not proven to me your expertise. Prove to your clients your expertise, by not getting them 45 offers, get them five offers from the best clients in the in the region that you were able to bring, because you priced appropriately. And buyer’s agents, I want to speak to you here because you’re a part of this too. You need to set your client expectations such that they are prepared to realize there are agents in our market who are just trying to create feeding frenzies. And so when we go to this listing, we have to remember, when you see that line out the door, we have to put our mindset put our mindset in the right spot here to recognize we’re likely going to be one of dozens of offers here. And we cannot hang our hat here, because it was really a lottery. And I can almost predict word for word what’s going to happen, we’re going to look at all these offers. On Monday afternoon or whenever offers or do, we’re going to get a message from the listing agents, we’re going to say we’ve had multiple offers on this property, it’s time for your highest and best if that hasn’t already been stated, basically. So we have to set buyer expectations appropriately. And make sure that as buyer’s agents, we are voicing our vocal concern that properties are being priced appropriately. That way we don’t waste our time as buyer’s agents, sellers, agents aren’t wasting their time creating all of this admin headaches to sort through. And ultimately, our buyers and sellers, our clients aren’t wasting their time, by having to go through hoops that, frankly, aren’t necessary to the process.

D.J. Paris 27:22
And buyer agents, you need to hold listing agents accountable like this, when you see this kind of low, artificially low or intentionally low priced listings, you need to pull that listing agent aside and say, Hey, man, you’re wasting a lot of our time here like this is this is not, you know, in buyer’s agents need to now run comps, they need to see what those I mean, buyer’s agents now have to go into the MLS, look at the difference between list and close price and see whatever percentage that is, and have that conversation with their buyer, like you were saying, this is this is what we’re seeing out there. So do we even want to go see this property, because number one, it’s going to, you know, odds are it’s going to go for 85%. More than you know what it’s listed for and, and oh, by the way, there’s going to be 70 other people, many of which, you know, don’t even know this, and you’re going to be competing with just a lot of other people in a way that you shouldn’t have to. And we’re not talking about things being fair or unfair, we’re talking about just just good business practice. And also, on the listing side, this is a great piece of you’ve given our listeners, and I mean this very, very sincerely, you’ve just given our listeners an amazing piece of ammo to use in a listing presentation. Because, of course, the seller only wants to know, hey, how, what do you think you can get for my or my property? Or why should I choose you? And you know, what a lot of agents will say to them is, here’s what we’re gonna do, we’re gonna we’re gonna price it a little bit under the market value. And here’s why. And we’re going to create this, this bidding frenzy and it sounds really cool. But you now get to come to that same seller and say, This is why we’re not going to do that it’s actually not good. And we, you know, I don’t think we’re going to actually get more, but we’re going to decrease the amount of traffic into your property, which is probably something that you want, you only really want people coming through here that can actually afford this place and want and can pay it. And also, I don’t want to artificially create a buying frenzy. Because that it’s well, there’s just a lot of reasons not to. But yeah, so I think you’re giving people a great tool to use, have that conversation with your sellers about why we’re going to price it at at where we think it might actually close.

Chris Linsell 29:45
Yeah, and I want to I want to speak. Lastly, I want to speak to those agents who have aspirations of moving up the real estate ladder, maybe you are working at the lower or the middle end of the property spectrum in your market and You want to move into luxury DJ just described when he was talking through that hypothetical conversation with his set with with this seller, he described many of what he many of the components of what he said, were components that you have with luxury sellers in normal market conditions, we’re going to only going to bring the qualified individuals through your property, we’re only going to bring people who understand the value of this property, we’re only going to bring in people who are legitimately going to write offers that you’re interested in through this property. These are the conversations that you have with frankly, with more affluent, and sellers who are usually looking at property, property value from multiple angles, if you want to move up the real estate ladder, in in towards towards the luxury market, times of disruption are the best times to do that we are in a time of disruption right now, the way the market is behaving, it is a complete disruption relative to the norm. If you look at the typical undulation of buyer and seller waves, we are in a time of disruption, this is a time to move up into the next, the next set of buyers and sellers. But you only do that by creating differentiation and not going with the flow because not everybody is moving up only the people who choose to think a little bit differently and say listen, we are going to make this the experience that you deserve relative to the amount of activity here I am going to find you the best buyer by creating the best pricing strategy here. The buyer’s agents are going to come are the ones who represent the buyers who are going to write offers that you’re most interested in seeing. Those are the people that we want here. And frankly, you can always price reduce if you feel like you overpriced, eventually, you cannot go the other way around, start a little bit higher, get the right offers the first time around and avoid the feeding frenzy.

Quentin Green with Downtown Apartment and Realty Company talks about how he got into real estate business and why he got focused on renting. Quentin focuses on how to build and nurture relationships with other agents. Next, Quentin discusses managing time, calendar and appointments and how he does it personally. Last, Quentin discusses giving back to the realtor community and its importance.

If you’d prefer to watch this interview, click here to view on YouTube!

Quentin Green can be reached at [email protected] and (773) 895-7750.

Please follow Quentin on Instagram here.

This episode is brought to you by Real Geeks.

D.J. Paris 0:00
On today’s episode why doing rentals today guarantees sales tomorrow. Stay tuned. This episode of Keeping it real is brought to you by real geeks. How many homes are you going to sell this year? Do you have the right tools? Is your website turning soft leads and interested buyers? Are you spending money on leads that aren’t converting? Well real geeks is your solution. Find out why agents across the country choose real geeks as their technology partner. Real geeks was created by an agent for agents. They pride themselves on delivering a sales and marketing solution so that you can easily generate more business. Their agent websites are fast and built for lead conversion with a smooth search experience for your visitors. Real geeks also includes an easy to use agent CRM. So once a lead signs up on your website, you can track their interest and have great follow up conversations. Real geeks is loaded with a ton of marketing tools to nurture your leads and increase brand awareness visit real geeks.com forward slash keeping it real pod and find out why Realtors come to real geeks to generate more business again, visit real geeks.com forward slash keeping it real pod. And now onto our show.

Hello, and welcome to another episode of Keeping it real the largest podcast made by real estate agents and for real estate agents. My name is DJ Paris, I am your guide and host through the show and in just a moment, we’re going to be speaking with amazing person top producer and recent 30 under 30 NAR winner Quentin green. Before we get to Quinton, a few quick announcements, we’ll keep it very short. But please always, we always ask this and we’re gonna keep asking because it means so much to us. Please tell a friend. Think of one other realtor that needs to hear what we do on this podcast, send them a link either to our website, which is keeping it real pod.com or over. Or they can just pull up a podcast app and search for keeping it real and hit the subscribe button. we so much appreciate it. Thanks in advance for doing that. And also please leave us a review. Take just a few seconds, whatever podcast app you might be listening and let us know what you think of the show. Okay, enough for me. Let’s get to our interview with Quentin green.

Today on the show, we have Quentin Green from downtown apartment and realty company. Let me tell you about Quentin. And he by the way, Quentin is here in the Chicagoland area. But let me tell you about Quentin. Now Quentin is a partner and Director of Development at downtown apartment and realty company. He entered the business in mid 2016. Upon graduating from slew St. Louis University. Quentin comes from a long line of land entrepreneurs and is a third generation realtor, which is in a large part how he got into the industry and quittance first four years as a realtor. He was primarily leasing apartments in downtown Chicago. He’s leased over 400 apartments across the Chicagoland area. And in 2021, Clint was recognized by the Chicago Association of Realtors as a top rental producer and did a little over 10 million in sales, which was a 900% increase in sales production year over year. So in just one year, he went from essentially about one or 2 million in sales all the way up to I can’t do the math but but up to 10 million I might have that first part wrong Quentin can correct me but amazing growth in a one year period. Quentin has also served as the 2021 chair for the Chicago Association of Realtors Young Professionals Network, and was also and just up within the last week was recently selected as an honoree for realtor magazines. This is National Association of REALTORS 30, under 30 for the class of 2022. So congratulations, Clinton, and welcome to the show. Thank you happy to be here. It’s weird. You’re in all that get rattled off a lot happened in one year. But ya know, longtime listener have been tuning in, you know, well before I met you so you know, I couldn’t be happier to be on. Yeah, I first met Quentin. I think the first I met was when I joined YPN Quinton was the chair and YPN for those of you who aren’t familiar, I’m not sure if they have them at every local association across the country but in Chicagoland area at the Chicago Association, realtors. It’s the Young Professionals Network and Quentin and I actually just saw him earlier today at an event we’re still on the committee together but he used to chair the committee and so I I got to work sort of underneath him helping out and it was I was always very impressed with Quentin and congratulations on the 30 under 30 award. That is a big big deal. Many many people apply

Quentin Green 5:00
pay for it and very few ever get to achieve it. So congrats. Yeah. And also, yeah, no, I’m, it’s awesome. And I know that was it. Was this your last year of eligibility for for it? Oh, so I’m 27. So which was Yeah, time? Yeah. So it was like, if I didn’t get it, that’s my personal plan because obviously like, I just had, you know, big year, and I would never have gotten it last year. Let’s be honest. So like, I was ready for it this year. You know, I had some, some good people write recommendation letters, which I think went a long way. But yeah, I you know, even I was kind of surprised to get it figured it out to you know, apply again next year. And, and hopefully, you know, get it to enter, you know, yeah, for that. I don’t know. Yeah, it’s funny. So we want every year for our show, whenever that 30 under 30 list comes out, we usually start contacting those those agents, because we think, you know, gosh, our listeners would love to probably hear we talked to so many brokers that so many realtors that have been doing this for 20 plus years. And that’s not always super relatable to to newer agents and the fact that you were able to do it, receive that award, in really, you know, 27 and your first time applying is truly remarkable. Because we talked we end up talking to a lot of the 30 under 30 people on the show. So really, really great actually ran into Jordan Pyle, who was also on our show. He was a pastor at under 30 winner as well. I ran into him in the restroom this morning. At the event we were all at so I didn’t even see him. He was Yeah, okay. Yeah, he was there. And I know he and you are really close. So, so that yeah, he wrote, here’s what our recommendation letter is actually. Yeah, it’s a small world. It is. Well, let’s, let’s start. And I’m sorry, we should everyone should be following Quinton on Instagram, we’re gonna have a link to that in our show notes. But his Instagram account is Quinton green. And that’s que un tin green without any at the end. So just green like the color underscore RT Quentin green underscore RT on Instagram. And also you can find them on Facebook, just search for Quentin green, it’ll pop right up. But let’s talk about how you got into real estate. So so

D.J. Paris 7:04
not I was gonna say fun fact. But it’s really not fun. Anyone other than me. I lived in I lived in St. Louis, right out of college, I went to school in Ohio and, and got a job, my aunt got me this terrible, terrible job. But this this job in St. Louis. And so I moved to the Central West End. So I actually was kind of in between WashU and SLU. And, and I really, really enjoyed it. I had a lot of friends that went to SLU. And what a cool, I just liked that school. Yes.

Quentin Green 7:35
It is. And and you know, and then you came back here, of course, after school and then went basically right into real estate. Is that my understanding? Yeah, pretty much. I mean, I didn’t know what I was going to do out of school. You know, I was,

yeah, I was interviewing consulting firms. And you know, like, a few banks. And I was just like, immediately intimidated. And I just didn’t think that I would I would last and you know, I don’t know, it wasn’t for me. So I had no idea what I wanted to do, I figured maybe law school would be something I would do down the road. But like, in the meantime, I was like, oh, I need a job. So, you know, having both my parents, you know, they had their own firm here for I mean, 15 years, probably.

And, you know, 10, of which I’m sure their top producers for, you know, I just got my license right away, started working at the company that I’m at now, just kind of doing rentals. And, you know, I’d say the first two years, I was very much in between staying and leaving, I was always like, sort of one foot out the door. I was like, I don’t know, if I keep doing this. But you know, I stuck to it. And, you know, it ended up being a much, much longer than I thought it would be.

Yeah, it’s, it’s impressive, and you haven’t just quite a very humble person, but you didn’t, you didn’t just stick to it, you were really, really committed whether, you know, whether you’re sort of able to sort of see that as much as maybe, maybe I’ve seen that in you because I you know, I’ve just seen lots and lots of agents, and I understand that the rental game is is a grind and it’s tough. It just is it’s a lot of flaky people, it’s a lot of you know, they maybe they’re talking to two other, you know, realtors or two leasing consultants at the same time. And, and, you know, it’s just, it’s just a lot of things that fall through. And that being said, I’ve always thought that rentals, and I know that you know, you’re now doing predominantly sales, but but rentals were I always thought such a smart way to enter the business. And of course, not every market can really support that, where an agent can kind of start, you know, doing sort of clicker deals. But boy, I mean, it’s so so funny. There’s a direct line between homeownership and rentals. And yeah, pretty much all of us rented before we bought and so I think it’s just such a smart, smart play, but tell us about how you got started in rentals. Like, like, like, really? What was that like for you? So yeah, I mean, my whole thing was like, I mean, again, part of the reason why I ended up choosing like real estate over like any other sales job was because I you know, had my parents and I saw them kind of

do it and I was like, Oh, well, you know, this is, this is a good way to get into business I have people I can get on the phone with at any moment, give them a call. And so, you know, after a lot of discussion, like I talked to, you know, a few top producers as well to see it. And I didn’t know if I was going to join a team, because there’s a very join a team of like a top producing agent, and I learned the business that way. And like, I firmly believe that you either go that route, or you gotta go the ground up route of starting at Reynolds and building your business. But like, if you do that, you have to realize that, like, this is a long term time horizon, and you’re, you’re gonna be, you know, eating shit for least a little bit if you go this route. And so I was like, you know, what, screw it, you know, I’m gonna get home to do it, I’m gonna give it a shot. And, you know, I’ll just kind of build my own books, I started doing rentals that way. And that’s what really attracted me to it. You know, of course, there’s people in between those two spectrums that end up, like crushing it and do incredibly well. I just think for most people, especially if you’re young. And it’s like when your first jobs like, you got to do one of those two options, in my opinion. Well, yeah, because you’re your friends. And you know, I mean, my friends when I was in my early 20s, they weren’t buying homes.

D.J. Paris 11:02
Right? Yeah. So it’s like, yeah, either you gotta help them rent or you join one of those teams, where they’re gonna be providing you a lot of leads, and we’ll just kind of show you the ropes, you’ll be sent open houses, you’ll be taking, you know, you’ll be showing listings, whatever. So, so yeah, I mean, I started doing downtown apartment rentals, you know, a lot of stuff, not on the MLS, you know, that’s what our company pretty much only did back then we would just take them to, you know, a lot of the depression as rental buildings. And it was really just a valium game. And you know, it still is a lot of people or companies still still do that. But that I mean, that’s pretty much how I how I got into it. There’s between that are joining like a larger team. Yeah, I want to just define what Quinton just talked about with these we’ll call the non MLS apartment listings. Because this is not only specific to the Chicagoland area, although we do have a lot of apartments here in Chicago, of course with our population that never hit the MLS so so what we’re talking about is, these could be anything from high rise buildings to even just single family homes that are managed by a property management company who still will work with realtors to get to get their stuff rented, they just don’t listed on the MLS because there’s no listing agent, they don’t want to pay a listing agent, they just wanted to pay whoever brings them the renter. And so if you are in an area where if what I just said is completely foreign to you, here’s how you can find out if these listings exist. Go to Facebook marketplace, or I don’t know, Craigslist, probably no one uses anymore. But any sort of place where there’s ads for apartments and look for, you know, if they’re posted by a, you know, a management company, or even just the building itself, and literally just pick up the phone and call the management company and say, Hey, I’m a realtor. I also do apartments sometimes, you know, can I rent your properties, because I’m guessing they’re not on the MLS. And what they’ll do is they’ll start to send you It depends on of course, the building, whether they’ll work with agents or not. But oftentimes, at least here in Chicago, most of them will almost all of them. And what’s really cool about it is because there’s no listing agent, at least here in the Chicagoland area. Typically the Commission’s are a full month’s rent, sometimes even more, depending on the time of the year if there is no more space, so you can earn 120 550% of one month’s rent. And there’s a there’s some downsides to working with property management companies too. But it opens up this huge additional amount of inventory that the MLS just doesn’t have. So for anyone listening costs some of these big buildings, or if you live in a more rural area, maybe just look up management companies call them and say, Hey, I’m a realtor. Do you have any places that need to get rented? And if so, you know, will you pay me a commission? If I find you someone? And you’ll I bet you’d be surprised that most of these management companies will probably say yes, so anyway, sorry, to pause that, you know, that’s good. I’m kind of a commission because I didn’t know what I could or couldn’t say, you know, we’re so used to like that antitrust stuff. So I’m like, alright, but that’s good. Yeah, I mean, they paid they paid twice as much typically. So it’s funny, the cats totally out of the bag. Now, like when I first started in 2016, like,

Quentin Green 13:59
I thought this was normal, but like no other companies really did this. Like there were very companies that specifically specialized in these like luxury rentals. And so like we still to this day, we have our own, like CRM, our own internal database of all these buildings and cars and all this stuff. Like it’s super built out. It’s totally custom. And we’ve had that for you know, since I’ve been with the company, and now you’re starting to see a lot of these bigger firms be like, Whoa, we’re totally like these crumbs, they’re not crumbs, right? Like, we got to start going after a lot of this stuff. And so you’re seeing more of that now. And where a lot of people, you know, regardless what company you’re at, they’ll do more of this. But yeah, back then, you know, were some of the only players in that market. And you’ve done a lot of apartments and I’m curious on the not not that there’s any specific numbers to that. I’m sure you could rattle off but how many of those customers that were rent or clients over time evolved into buyers? Is it been? Quite a few? Yeah, it’s been a few. I don’t have an exact number for you. I would say

Unknown Speaker 14:59
Like, got of you know, I don’t I think I’ve done over 400 rentals, at least maybe like 10 to 15 have went and bought for me as well. Amazing. Yeah, but I mean, like 10 to 15 out of 400. Like, in my, the way I look at it, like, I haven’t even gotten started with that, of course, you know, yeah, we I’m happy with it don’t get me wrong, but But yeah, I think there’s, there’s definitely a lot more people from that pipeline that are gonna be buying well,

D.J. Paris 15:25
and right now it’s it’s, it’s tricky because here at least here in Chicago inventory is so low that a lot of people are going to continue to rent for a while until, you know until things change with inventory and pricing. So it’s, it’s, you have a lot of people probably just waiting, or maybe they’re building up, you know, more of a down payment or whatever they’re doing. But right, but luxury apartment people eventually buy every single one pretty much unless they’re somebody that maybe floats around from from city to city for their job or something, but the vast majority of them are going to purchase, they’re going to go, they’re going to work with an agent. And you’ve set yourself up quite nicely. And I’m curious about this, because I think even for our listeners that aren’t doing rentals, I think you know, you’re talking about just getting started. And you know, you have this, these these people that you’ve worked with in the past, and yet only 10 or 15 of them have become sellers, or buyers. But still, that’s that’s an amazing number. It really is. And and this just this idea of that’s just gonna keep going rolling for you every year, maybe even quite a bit more. And I’m curious on how you stay in touch with somebody like that, like, how do you continue to just make sure that they remember that you’re the guy that rented him the apartment three years ago? Is that difficult? Or do you have systems in place? Or how do you do that?

Quentin Green 16:41
Yeah, I mean, I’m not gonna lie, that’s certainly not like my expertise. I what I do now, you know, it took me three and a half to four years to really like sit down, because I don’t know, when I first started, man, I was not thinking about anything, I was like, just put my head down, like show up and just rent units. And then I got sick of doing that. To be totally honest, I was like, We got to figure out a way to get to the next step faster. So I took pretty much all my past clients, what anyone I’ve interacted with, I had just, you know, on an Excel sheet, I make sure I don’t put any agents on that. Because I hate when agents send me newsletters and all that BS, and they just get your whole inbox. It’s infuriating. I’m not your target audience. And so you know, I have that I do monthly newsletters, which is good. And it’s normally really good content. I earliest I like to think based on you know, what people tell me. So I do that. And then I always just, you know, obviously certain clients, you spark more of a connection relationship with than others. And, you know, I really go out of my way to just kind of check in every once in a while. So yeah, I mean, there’s, there’s no trick, I literally use an Excel sheet, and I throw it into Constant Contact, and bam, you know, kind of punch it out. But I didn’t start doing that. So a year and a half ago, maybe.

D.J. Paris 17:45
Yeah, it is, it is one of those things that when you’re when you’re first starting, you’re just trying to survive, and you’re like, I just gotta, I gotta pay the bills, and I gotta, I gotta get these deals close. So I can I can eat. And then the idea that four years from now, I’m gonna, like come up with a four year plan to keep on top of this for you know, which is just not, you know, not something you have the bandwidth for at that time. But, but but now being able to go back is is great, because, yeah, very few people ever go back. So like, if you ever I’ve learned this about life, like with follow up, like, even if you lose touch with somebody, or if you dropped the ball, I’m not saying you ever done that, but I know I’ve done that a lot. And it’s like, even if you just go back, and you’re like, Hey, man, sorry, for or not, you probably wouldn’t say hey, man, but but sorry for for, you know, sort of being being absent. But I, you know, I definitely want to, you know, continue the conversation and blah, blah, blah. Usually people are like, Okay, that’s great, you know, people usually, you know, they don’t go back once they dropped the ball. And I think that’s a missed opportunity to reconnect with somebody. And, you know, if they don’t like you, they’ll tell you, like, but but they probably do like you and probably are like, Oh, I’m glad to hear you know, you’re coming back. It’s kind of like getting a call from an old friend. That’s like, I know, we haven’t talked in 15 years, but I was just thinking about you. It’s like, that’s a still a nice feeling. And I understand, you know, it’s not exactly the same as that, but But it’s sort of. So I think that’s great. I also want to talk of just just briefly because I think this is particularly interesting, which is a crazy success story. But I know that you’ve also worked with investors, and you have one client in particular, who’s really been an it seems like it’s really been like this amazing force in your life. And most everyone I’ve interviewed on the show has a somewhat of a similar story where it’s like this one person that I somehow met, they ended up introducing me to, you know, a lot of other people that turned into business. Everyone seems to have this one client, and you’ve done that on the investor side. Do you mind just sharing a little bit about how you met that person and what kind of deals you guys have done?

Unknown Speaker 19:49
Totally. Yeah. So the client you’re talking about, he’s someone who, you know, he’ll just buy a couple, you know, multifamily properties once a year basically, when I met him I I didn’t know that that was what he did. So he had reached out it was right when COVID hit and he was doing Airbnbs a four unit, you know, right on right around arm to check it. So like a plus location and he was crushing it. He was he was actually starting to use bookings go down. So it was kind of ahead of like the COVID. You know, there the COVID like wave. He was like a month or two early. And he was like, Yeah, something’s off. I don’t know. But anyways, I want to get into leasing news full time. So I was literally to sit in the office he calls. You know, I

D.J. Paris 20:30
go, wow, that was that was an intelligent sort of lucky not lucky, probably had some some intelligence behind it. That didn’t make it so lucky. But just even thinking I’m going to switch from short term to long. Oh, he’s

Unknown Speaker 20:42
a super creative guy.

D.J. Paris 20:43
Yeah, it’s got Yeah, anyway, that’s it.

Unknown Speaker 20:46
I mean, he noticed the decline. He was like, something’s off. You know, I don’t know what it is. But it doesn’t really make as much sense anymore. So he ended up I ended up going to take a look at the properties. You know, they’re great units, and it was all furnished. So we rented those. And I think I’ve rented them for him within like two days, he already had professional pictures.

D.J. Paris 21:03
By the way, how did he find you?

Unknown Speaker 21:05
So he called my office. So yeah, we get just a random phone call, random phone call, totally random. I was the first guy who called I think he had used the previous agent to buy the property in like 2017. And, you know, he said, I don’t know, they didn’t, they didn’t get along, I can tell you what happened there. Sure. So yeah, we run them in two days, he was super happy. And he was actually like making the same amount he was with Airbnb, after the, you know, whatever 25 30% of fees that you pay to the manager of it. So he was good to go. And you know, since then I’ve really kept in touch with him. He ended up buying. And so this guy, he ended up buying four more properties through me in between, like today, and when I first met him, which would end which ended up being about over $3 million per year. And he doesn’t even use these properties. Like before, he says, like, I pretty much go there. And you know, I do the Proform analysis, all that stuff. Yeah. And he you know, he’s also super specific. So he’s got his own numbers that he’s that he’s working on. And so he kind of gives me his eyes, ears. And then, you know, he’s also like, like, I don’t manage units, I don’t want to get management, you know, it scares the hell out of me. But what I will do is like, I’ll handle all the leasing. So like for him specifically, like, I will be on top of the leases when it’s 6090 days out, and I’ll go and do the renewals and all that stuff. And so I just handle the entire leasing process on the back end. And honestly, it doesn’t bother me, you know, it’s easier for me, I don’t have to communicate with him, and leases are up, and all that stuff, and it saves him a ton of time. So yeah, it’s been an amazing relationship. And yeah, it’s all from one office colleges, you know, I was just sitting there.

D.J. Paris 22:37
And by the way, for everyone listening, if you want a little tip about how to reverse engineer this, and obviously, Quentin has a very fortunate story where the phone rang, and he just happened to get the call. And you know, not all of us can, can can just have that happen. And I’m not saying that, of course, Quentin works insanely hard, but it just was a nice break that fell your way. And if you want to create that own break for yourself. Yeah, the phone’s probably not going to ring for the rest of us. So instead, what we can do is if you ever just are driving down the street, you see a for rent sign, perfect reason to pick up the phone with the phone number, just call and say, Hey, Are you the owner, you’re the property manager. Hey, great. I’m a realtor and I you know, I sometimes rent properties. And I don’t know if this one’s available still. But I just wanted to learn a little bit more about you know, the place. So if I ever have a tenant, blah, blah, blah. And what eventually will happen if you make enough of those calls, at least here in the Chicagoland area, and probably everywhere, is you do find investors like that, who go like, Oh, you kind of caught me at a good time, I don’t really want to deal with the leasing side of this anymore. I want to outsource it to you. I, you know, I don’t want to do it. And and then eventually those people are like, oh, yeah, I have other properties, or I’m buying more properties. And so you hit that vein of investor, you had that great relationship, and You’ve nurtured it. And oh my gosh, like, it didn’t just it wasn’t just the leasing side. Now you have all these, you know, you have what, 6 million in sales just from this one guy. I mean, that is an amazing relationship that you’ve built.

Unknown Speaker 24:01
Totally. Yeah, no. I mean, it’s, it’s been fantastic. And one thing I’ll add to that is, like, part of me is like, you know, every once awhile, you’re like, oh, it’s like, whatever. But the thing is, like, you got to show up every day in order to get lucky. And with some, you know, something like that, like, Yeah, I mean, it’s hard to believe that some guy just you know, calls an office, but everyone’s got that one. That one, you know, Lucky moment or whatever. And one thing that they have in common, though, is that like, yeah, he called that one day, but I was at the office for like eight hours every single day, and I would be the first one into the office. So that way, the first lead would go to me directly, you know, so that’s just, you know, that’s just what you’re doing. Yeah, there’s great stories from it. And that’s another thing that I would also point out is you get these landlords the you people have no idea how many phone calls they’re getting from a lot of these middle market brokers who specifically focus on like multifamily, basically trying to get in front of them and put up presentations in order to sell their properties. And so that’s what I’m gonna be dedicating and I don’t really mind tipping my hand at all, but like, one thing I’m focusing more on is reaching out to these landlords and actually offering them rentals. ervices and then you know, towards that, and then, you know, if they ever do want to sell or acquire another property, you know, they’ll have someone who knows what they’re doing. And it’s really just all about getting in front of these people, you know, and knowing the language they speak. And if you can offer a service to them, you know, instead of just calling them up and be like, Hey, I could sell your property with this much. It’ll it’ll guarantee you, it’ll be a way better way to get your foot in the door,

D.J. Paris 25:20
to do rentals to offer the rental service.

Unknown Speaker 25:23
Yeah, I think so.

D.J. Paris 25:25
Absolutely. I could not agree more. So this, this goes back to the well, how do you find these people? Well, you look at you look at the ads, you know, if you can, a lot of times tell when you see an ad on Facebook marketplace, or elsewhere, if you look at the comments or the description, you can tell when it’s written by a realtor off, it’s supposed to say realtor on it. So they should know that. But sometimes it doesn’t. But you get a sense of like, who might, you know, who might not really want to do that side of the business, because you might just see really poorly done ads. And and, and that’s another opportunity to contact them and say, hey, I can help you with this. And, and it’s kind of one of those things, too, with those phone calls. It’s like, either the investor will know right away when you when you call them whether they’re willing to work with an agent or not, you might still have to earn the right to work with that particular investor. But this idea that you’re like, hey, this is what I do. This is what I’m good at. And yes, and I think the point you making about make your own luck is is really a very, very true point. Like Quinton didn’t just look his way into that he happened to be there, the day that that call came in, but the hundreds and hundreds of hours you put in prior to getting those calls and just kind of doing your reps. Is is really how it is in any i i It is funny because I always caution, like I always went a little when somebody tells a story like that, because I think oh, I don’t want people to think that like you just got lucky. Because like, yeah, does it really come into it?

Unknown Speaker 26:56
Yeah, it will. It does, you know, you’ll have lucky moments. But you got to show up every day in order to have those lucky moments. You know, I mean, you’d have a way more likely chance of getting lucky if you’re in a position to be lucky. You know?

D.J. Paris 27:08
Yeah, you know, let’s, let’s talk about your and I know, every Realtors days for most Realtors days are different, but I feel like you’re a pretty regimented or structured guy. So how does because you you really are do you work predominantly from home? Or do you go into the office spent off much or

Unknown Speaker 27:25
I’m a little half and half, you know, I have a monitor at home, which is like a godsend for me. And I don’t have one of the office. So I find myself being in the office mainly for, you know, like partner meetings, meetings with like, different teams for properties or doing the subset, or like, in between showings, I’ll pull my laptop, but I’m just so much more productive with a monitor. It’s I mean, I need to get a monitor in the office. It’s kind of I just figured out talking through that.

D.J. Paris 27:52
But as far as, you know, what is your day typically look like? Like? How do you structure it so that you at the end of the day, you feel like, okay, I feel like I did I had a good day today?

Unknown Speaker 28:05
Yeah, um, I would say I’m not the most structured in the world, I certainly put in a lot of hours, like, like anyone else, though, you know, I’ll be working till you know, nine o’clock on and off. But you know, at least every day, I’ll have at least five to 10 showings typically. So between rentals and sales, and, you know, between me and my team, we all have each other’s calendars. So you know, we can do all that stuff, it’s really helpful. But every morning, but like, the first thing I do is I just kind of check the market, you know, at any given moment, like, and this is a thing that I would say to anyone who like wants to get into a market or anyone who wants to do something like just set up automatic MLS searches and get a feel for like inventory. Like at any given moment, I’ll have, you know, 30 to 50 MLS auto searches running and it’ll send directly to me, you know, half of which are for clients, half of which are just stuff I want to be on top of in case I have that conversation, you know, I could rattle stuff off and exactly know the direction of the market. So I’ll go through that stuff. And I had my cell phone and I was certain I send it directly to all my clients, which you know, everyone does whatever, but that, to me is very religious. And it’s almost like meditative. Just being able to look through like all the new listings and price change and all that stuff and kind of fumble through it. But yeah, beyond that, you know, we have weekly meetings. I have structure there, but I’m not as structured. And that’s partially I think, because, you know, I haven’t really had to be to be fully honest.

D.J. Paris 29:22
Sure. Yeah, it makes sense. But I appreciate appreciate you sharing that. And then, as far as like learning the market, it’s something that I think, oftentimes is not talked about enough, unless you’re lucky enough to have a mentor or a coach that’s like you got to learn, you know, some geographic area you really have to sort of master which takes years and years truthfully. But you’re talking about studying the market every day, so did you obviously in Chicago, we have so many different neighborhoods that anybody can specialize in. But it’s not always easy to have multiple of the As markets to really understand at a detailed level, but, you know, how do you go about doing that? Do you focus in a just a? Obviously I know, you know, clients could be anywhere, but are there certain areas where you’re like, I’m going to hyper focus? So I am the expert in XYZ neighborhood. Is that? Is that something that’s important to you? Are you still trying to get your bearings and figure out what areas are most important to you?

Unknown Speaker 30:21
Yeah, I guess, sort of, you know, I do a lot of stuff in West Loop. And that’s certainly been an area that I have focused on quite a bit. Mainly, like, I use this for, just to kind of know what is hitting the market, if I get if I get a client or like a zillo lead or anything like that. And they’re, they reach out to me, and they’re like, oh, this, you know, I know exactly what they’re talking about, like right away, because I just saw that unit hit the market this morning. There’s no specific area, but like, I specifically work in the downtown markets and then the surrounding neighborhoods. So like, probably as far north as like Andersonville, as far as I’ll go pretty far on the south side, but because I grew up in Beverly, so I’ll do all that stuff. But I grew up in the city, I know all these neighborhoods really, really well. And, you know, having his officers up and just seeing what stuff trades for, for me, it just has made it so much easier to have these conversations and not think about anything, just know all these numbers. And you know, people are like, Oh, wow, like you really kind of you have the ranges down all this stuff. And, you know, it’s taken years for me just looking at stuff. But you know, it really does help. And then obviously, you can go through info sparks and get a better picture as well. But that’s obviously flawed. Because you know, you can only it only plugs through showingtime.

D.J. Paris 31:29
Right, right. Yeah, so info sparks. For some of you, you’ll have that add on. With your MLS service, we use a service called M read. But anyway, you’ll probably have some sort of plug in. But But Quinton says is really important to setting up those auto searches for yourself in the areas that you you know, you really should know what condos are available in your preferred market, you should know when something hits the market. And you really do have to set up those auto searches. That’s a great tip. I’m not sure anyone. In the five years I’ve done the show is actually given that specific tip. So that’s a really great one is set your whatever area you want to focus on set up those auto searches, condos, single family homes apartment, yeah,

Unknown Speaker 32:09
you still get exposed to it. And then with the multifamily properties, like what I would do is I would just I would have auto searches running everywhere, I would know exactly what, you know, what a two to four unit would trade for on a cap rate in various neighborhoods. And I would also go and underwrite a lot of these properties, just for the hell of it, because I didn’t have anything to do. But I knew I wanted to work more and multifamily. So I’ll just get more and more familiar with, you know, running cash and cash, we’re in cap rates and getting an idea of like, what stuff trades for, you know, on a neighborhood and like, eventually that stuff’s just gonna stick in your brain, and you’re going to sound really smart to that guy, and then be like, oh, you know what you’re talking about, like, cool. Like, we’re, let’s, let’s Yeah, let’s move forward.

D.J. Paris 32:47
Yeah, it’s, it’s, it’s really important. And it’s something that again, we spend so much time as Realtors thinking about marketing and, and customer service, and just the ins and outs of finding clients or keeping clients. But we don’t often talk think about, like, sharpening the tools so much for I mean, quite and of course does. But a lot of agents, you know, part of their day is not studying the market. And even if you added 30 minutes to your day, for anyone listening who’s currently not studying the market, this is a great opportunity, because within a year or two, you’re gonna be you’re gonna know more than just about any other agent in your area, you’re just you just are. And all you’ll know as much as the top agents and that’s, that’s, that’s worth its weight in gold, when you’re up against other, maybe your listing presentation. And you’re up against, you know, three other big time agents and you’re able to sort of, you know, talk intelligently and not just about, here’s all the things I can do for you. It’s like, hey, taking a look, here’s what I think here’s what I’m seeing out there, you know, and here’s some data to back it up. Totally, there’s no easy way around that other than that’s, that’s the Marathon of being a realtor, I think is really just mastering the craft and knowing your knowing your stuff. So I appreciate you sharing how you do that on a daily basis, what other habits have been helpful for you, in order to really excel and sort of get to this level? Like what what have you found that’s been sort of what makes the difference in you know, how you find then service clients?

Unknown Speaker 34:14
Yeah, I mean, this will either be obvious or not obvious to most people, like I didn’t really start using like, I would always have output stuff in my own calendar. But I wouldn’t really start like making sure everyone is on a calendar invite until like maybe two years ago, and that has just completely changed my life like being able to see like my agents calendar and then also like, just having everything on one calendar because I know some agents don’t do it, which is like crazy. And I also know that like like, there’s only a few you know, larger teams, I could think of where I received those calendar invites from, you know, like there’s not many now I you know, to be honest, that’s all there is to it. And I was like alright, well I’m doing this every time if this guy’s figure it out and like and it sounds obvious, it sounds like dumb like because a lot of people like oh, I put in my counter but like, it is been life changing for me just to do that like that. way people are getting double notice some people just go through showing time. They don’t put anything in their calendar. It’s crazy.

D.J. Paris 35:04
Right? So what Quinton is talking about is, is through through our MLS, when when you request a showing through the automated service, which which the one we use is called showingtime, then you get confirmation, but it doesn’t automatically get plugged into your calendar. And so when you’re doing that, do you also send an invite to the client as well.

Unknown Speaker 35:28
Pretty much everyone, I saw the listing agent, the listing agent, I’ll send it to my agent. But if I’m the listing agent on property, I will absolutely send it to the buyers and renters as well. And also, it helps me from waste my time because a lot of people forget to forget to cancel or something like that. And if I see that they didn’t accept something my reach out, or they’ll just cancel the showing there and they won’t cancel on showing time. So since I did that, like my, the people who would like stand me up or cancel on me has gone way down. Yeah.

D.J. Paris 35:59
Yeah, it’s, it’s a lesson I had to learn in a different way. But the same same idea was I had to really have a good reminder system. I mean, I do everything with calendar invites too. But for me, when I when I recruit realtors, and we, we have a whole system where it’s like a day before they get an email and a text, the an hour before they get an email and attacks because, you know, agents are busy and they just often forget, or it’s shocking to me how many agents themselves do not keep calendars. I mean, I certainly I don’t know who keeps a calendar. Who doesn’t because I wouldn’t really ask because I

Unknown Speaker 36:38
would be able to awesome. No, that’s what people don’t. Yeah, yeah. And it’s also hard to believe it’s like a lot of it’s like new agents and like I still do work with a lot of Reynolds so and Norman listen to everyone else. So I am dealing with a lot of new agents. And yeah, yeah, if it’s just some through showing time, you don’t have that counter invite, like, you’ll get stood up a lot. And it sucks.

D.J. Paris 36:55
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It’s, it’s, it’s and then also, one thing I learned from Matt, Matt, Larissa, who’s just for anyone listening I, I interviewed him several years ago on the show, but he that’s a great interview, because he’s, he’s one of the top agents here in Chicago. Actually, yeah. Oh, good. He’s, he’s he’s very earnest person. And he’s just just sort of tells it how he sees it. And one thing that he did that very few people that have ever been on my show have did, who was running a couple minutes late is about five minutes before the meeting, or maybe knows about 10 minutes before the meeting. He messages me, and we’re not like we weren’t, we’re not friends to the extent where he’s like, you know, we’re chatting, Hi, how’s it going? I’d really never spoken to him before. And he sends me a message like, Hey, man, I’m running about five minutes late. Just want to let you know, sorry. And, and I was like, sounds so simple, and so obvious. And I just, it just reminded me that he did that. And it really stuck out to me. And I was like, That is super respectful. And it would have been fine. If he never had done that, because five minutes, no big deal. Sometimes I find I’m five minutes late. But the fact that he thought to do that was just such a great practice around being respectful of someone else’s time. And so that’s really what you’re speaking to is, is setting yourself up to have as few of those people bail on you. But also, it’s really to respect everyone’s time by scheduling it. And it sounds again, it does sound obvious, but I think so many things are what I would call the elusive obvious, like so simple, but then you’re like, oh, it really does make make a difference. So there’s that. So So that’s important to you. What, as far as when when you meet somebody, how do you establish rapport with them? I think we always on the show, we never talk about that. Because we just assume that like everybody knows how to immediately build rapport. And of course, that’s not everybody’s skill set. You’re somebody who I think is very friendly, very affable. But how do you go about trying to connect with somebody who maybe is a phone call that comes in or a lead that comes in where you’re like, that’s not a referral? They don’t know me? How do you really initiate the conversation? Because again, at least here in Chicago, there’s a lot of agents that will want to work with that renter or that buyer or that seller? We have 46,000 realtors in the area. How do you go about establishing rapport?

Unknown Speaker 39:13
Yeah, I mean, I would say like, at least 85 And I hear some of this is probably like referrals or past clients to be totally honest, like a lot of new like leads that come in. Like I especially like rental leads, like I’ll give those to my team. For the other ones. It’s like there was a time when it wasn’t that way. Right? Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. And so I don’t know I mean, to some degree, like you either like have it or you don’t like same thing when I’m dealing with like insurance people or car sales or like whatever you know, you kind of either have it or you don’t and you know lenders like whatever you name it. But one thing I will say that you know I make a point to do is like I’m constantly just, you know, filling my brain with a ton of random shit. So you know, listen to four to six hours of podcasts at least every day. Until like a lot of my clients you know, for whatever reason, like a lot of them are like bankers. You know whether like UBS when and Blair, whatever, and like I spent like, like an embarrassing amount of time just like listening to like finance podcasts and so like, I’m able to have incredibly in depth conversations with them about like what’s going on, like, in the markets, generally speaking, and like, they’re really, you know, impressed by it. So like, I would say, find your thing and you know, try to expose yourself to as much information as possible. And just from talking to people, you’ll eventually get on a certain subject that you’ll be pretty educated on, and you’ll just kind of be able to, to rattle things off, you know, and to me, it’s been really helpful. And also, like, we talked with so many people as an agent every day, so you kind of just naturally should be getting better and better at it in general. So, you know, I would say, that’s kind of typically how I try to make connections. Other than that, like, you know, I don’t know that there’s no secret that I that I, that I’m aware of what I’m doing, you know, so

D.J. Paris 40:51
no, but But I think, do your doing your homework, really, and I think, you know, for anyone listening, here’s a really simple thing that you can do if you’re going to meet with somebody, whether it’s a renter, investor, buyer seller, you know, anyone, if you find out where they work, if you know that in advance, you could just do a quick Google search, go to the news and see what’s going on with that particular company. If there was anything in the news, you can or go to LinkedIn, check out their LinkedIn page, see what they’re up to, they’ve made a poster, and you get to learn about them quite a bit. And then you can just like, you know, William Blair’s is a great, great, great example, like, there’s a million things always going on with William Blair. But if you don’t know that you don’t know it. And because you’re not in that world, and the fact that you take the time to sort of learn about things that interest you, but also are part of your clients lives, I think, is instant rapport right there. I mean, I’m always impressed when somebody’s like, Oh, I saw this, this thing about real estate. And they’ll talk to me socially, and I don’t unfortunately, know that much about real estate, but honestly, but so I oftentimes I’m like really telling me about it, but but I’m reading a lot of other things. And so you’re right, I find, the more more information that you have about just things in general, gives you a lot to talk about when you’re when you’re chatting with somebody and so that I think that’s a really, really great tip is yes, just always keep learning.

Unknown Speaker 42:10
Yeah, like go go find a sports team and be a fan know, that sports team, you know, and like a lot of people went to college, and they’re diehard sports fans, like, go pick a team, be a fan of that team. And you know, see where that takes, I guarantee you, you’re sending the car when you go to college, or you went to Ohio State Oh, you’re a diehard Ohio State fan of Michigan, you know what I mean? Like so many different things, you’ll figure it out, but just expose yourself and put in as much information your brain as possible, and that’s helpful just come out naturally, when you’re meeting with different types of people.

D.J. Paris 42:37
Yeah, that’s a really smart thing. I’m not really a sports guy. So I’ve not particularly ever built that skill set. And it it is absolutely sports are just one of those things where, you know, I’m at a party and our cocktail thing, and people will just want to talk about professional sports or college sports, whatever. And I’m like, Oh, I don’t I don’t I can’t believe it. I can’t participate in this conversation. And it sucks. Because, yeah, okay, I, you know, I’m into other things, that’s fine. But, but yeah, it does sort of suck to not know about any part of sports. I mean, I play sports, but I really don’t watch it. And so it’s, it’s one of those things where it’s like, people, I play tennis, I don’t know any of the tennis players other than like, the two or three that everyone knows, but But it’s like, I don’t even know that. And so it really is kind of it’s it’s actually doesn’t serve me well. Not that I have to be somebody who goes to every Cubs game, for example. But, and I do like going to cubs games, I just don’t know the players. But it is one of those things where it does sort of bummed me out when I’m when I’m out socially. So it sounds sort of silly, but learning about your the local sports teams in your community. It’s, it has actually pretty important because you’re right, it’s a go to conversation piece. And I know, you know, that isn’t really exactly what you’re saying is memorized sports stats, but it is a good thing to know. Because otherwise, if you don’t know, you can’t really participate in the conversation. And you have to find something scrambled to find something else.

Unknown Speaker 44:02
It’s a little tough. But I mean, you’re such a good conversationalist, which is part of the reason why you’ve probably never felt the need to do anything like that first place, you know, so I mean, everyone’s different, but it’s just, you know, it’s a word of advice for someone who like maybe isn’t that good of a conversationalist, you know, start knowing more shit.

D.J. Paris 44:15
So the last thing I really want to talk to talk about is giving back and I don’t mean giving back to your clients, although I’m sure you do that as well. But really giving back to the realtor community. This has been something that I can I met you through one of your leadership positions at Chicago Association of Realtors. And this is something that I know is really important to you. And I’d love to just hear about why you got involved initially. And really what that’s meant to you because you now have served on on a number of committees. And you’re now part of an accelerated Leadership Program. You’re now just recognized as a 30 under 30. And by the way, National Association of REALTORS doesn’t care that much about production, they want somebody that’s doing something that gives back as well. And so obviously, that, you know, they they considered you to be a very well rounded individual in this business. So I’m just curious about giving back. Like, how did you even think to get involved? Initially?

Unknown Speaker 45:15
Yeah. So I mean, honestly, it was like a cold email I got through car and I was like, oh, applications for this thing called YPN. I never knew anything about like, YPN like, No, you weren’t, you weren’t somebody that even went to the YPN events. I didn’t know anybody like because like, I was such a closed off agent, my first two to three years, I cannot even tell you because I like wouldn’t even really do many MLS deals, I would do some, but how many, but when you’re doing MLS deals, you’re not meeting a lot of these other agents that you’re with. So like, it was very much like, kind of just on a track, put your head down. And then this like, I guess, like joining YPN I got that cold email. And I applied and I remember it was Grace Kagi Jordan Pyle and Casey Taylor, who interviewed me. And like, I never knew any of these people, nothing didn’t know what I was signing up for at all. And you know, they ended up selecting me, you know, thankfully. And so my first year, I think we had like two events, right, and then COVID hit and so then we totally shut down. And I remember towards the end, the person who was supposed to be the next year’s chair ended up stepping down. And to this day, I still have no idea why but Jordan, like, you know, pulled me aside Jordan Jordan Pyle was the past chair, or I guess was going to be the was the current chair of that year. And he was like, Hey, listen, I think you throw your name in the hat and you know, Sign of the term like, Dude, I don’t know anything. Like I basically went to events, like we were in COVID. Like, I don’t even like I was on a zoom computed computer the whole time, like meeting these people. Like, I don’t know how this works. But you know, at that time, like I was, he was a mentor to me already. And so I was like, you know, what, like, I’ll just, I’m not gonna say no to this guy, if he you know, I’d like to be where he is, too. And so, who am I to say no, so I did it. And then that was one of the best things I ever did. Because through that I met all these amazing people. You know, I unfortunately, only had three years, this is my last year there, but it’s just, you know, exposed me to different mentors, it’s allowed me to, like better, you know, understand the industry, like, you know, our PAC, like, knowing where your money goes, like, to me, it’s, it was just so huge. And it’s hard to think that like a random cold email that I just decided one day, I was like, oh, I should probably start meeting like more people and understanding, you know, what this industry is all about? So yeah, that’s pretty much how I got involved in you know, it’s been, it’s been pretty amazing ever since.

D.J. Paris 47:26
And we, you and I were sort of talking about this before we started recording, but I feel I just feel so lucky to be involved at this point. Yeah. Because, because the people that are involved, and again, every association is different, and, but most of them are full of really just nice, good people, either the staff that works for directly for the association, or the volunteers like yourself, who give up their time to help organize events, ended up just meeting a lot of great people in the industry, I think. And, yeah, that’s, it’s encouraging. It helps keep like, it keeps my spirits up, I go, I go to the events, and I’m not a practicing realtor. So oftentimes, a lot of it’s like, you know, it’s not really like where I would choose to spend my time, especially, you know, because I, it’s not really what I do, but just being around good people is, is really like uplifting, and it’s fun. And this is a tough business. And I I also think to like, when you’re when you’re somebody like yourself, who has been in some of these leadership positions, you know, people start to recognize that in you, maybe even people who aren’t in involved in giving back and you start to become somebody who’s who builds a, you know, a nice reputation for yourself as an agent who people like, and he’s really philanthropic. And I think that becomes really helpful just working with other agents. And I’m curious if that’s come up where, you know, maybe you’re, you know, you’ve noticed that people are like, Oh, aren’t you the guy from, you know, from from this committee? Or you, you know, it can only help that your career as well. I’m guessing, right? Yeah, totally. I

Unknown Speaker 49:01
mean, like, I remember, yeah, like, when I first got started, I was like, sort of, like, weirded out by like, how nice and friendly people were, and like, how open people were like, being like, you know, your mentor, I was like, this is weird. We’re not even the same company. Like, I don’t know what’s going on. Like, I just, I wasn’t it, it totally opened my eyes. And then, you know, since then, you know, I’ve had three or four mentors. And so like, for me, like a big part of it is like, the willingness that a lot of people have shown me in order to, you know, teach me mentor me, and all these things are like, I just want to be able to do what I can to pay that forward. And so yeah, I mean, that’s like the main, one of the main, you know, great things about it. But another great thing is like you’ve definitely will meet a lot of agents will get to know these agents, they’ll at least like know you, and so it definitely translates into a much better work environment as well, I would say, because it is really important to know a lot of these people and just to also like, like, from the amount of people that I’ve met through, you know, different associations and networks like it’s a tough business, especially now. Mark right now where it’s really tight inventory like people are at each other’s throats. And so be able to, like, keep people, I guess, prevent situations from exploding because you have you know, that repertoire with different agents is super helpful. And at the end of the day, like, you know, we’re just trying to help our clients get deals done. And sometimes, you know, knowing that person knowing no one’s not coming from bad place, you guys know each other, it’s just, it’s super important, it goes a really long way. So I would highly recommend anyone, you know, get involved in whatever your local network is for sure.

D.J. Paris 50:30
And I’m sure you know, you just said something. And again, this is not why you serve, and not the reason behind it. But there’s a nice benefit to being known as the guy who gives back to the realtor community, because ends up helping all realtors. And also, you know, let’s just be honest, like, and I don’t mean quite nice, to be honest, I’m just saying to everyone listening, let’s just, let’s just think about human nature here. If we’re in a multiple offer situation, and you’re the listing agent, and you see an offer come through, that’s, you know, maybe as good as any of the other offers. Or maybe it’s, maybe it isn’t quite as good. But you’re like that, oh, that’s my friend. I know that guy. You know, Quinton is a buddy of mine. And I see I want Quentin to win that listing. Now, of course, you’re always going to do what’s in your client’s best interest. As a fiduciary, you don’t really have an option not to do that, of course, or certainly hope people don’t do that. But you want your friends to win, right. And so you’re like, Oh, that’s a good guy. And maybe it just gets a little bit more attention than the person who submits an offer, where they’re not known at all. And I’m not saying that that’s how it should be. In an ideal world, it wouldn’t matter at all. But it does matter. And it is important, and good relationships just help, help get deals pushed through. And also to it’s like, Hey, that’s a guy that gives back, he’s probably got his his, his shit together, for lack of a better way to say it, he’s probably bringing me you know, a good offer. And again, it doesn’t mean that you get special favors it it’s not all your deals get accepted. But it can’t hurt. Right,

Unknown Speaker 51:56
exactly. It’s, it’s a nice little added bonus. For sure.

D.J. Paris 52:01
Yeah. And again, it’s just to me, it’s like a win, win all the way around as you get all this great experience. And you get to also feel good about yourself for contributing, helping the realtor community, so it’s a perfect win for you selfishly, if nothing else, you’re like, Hey, I’m doing some good stuff out there. And that feels good. And then oh, by the way, other people recognize that, and maybe that helps me just have, like you said, better relationships with other realtors, because it is called a cooperative commission. And the cooperative part is not, especially these days, it’s not always so stressed as much as as it could be. And when we see people who, you know, who give back we want we I think it activates that part of us, that wants to give back ourselves. And we see it in other people. And we’re like, I want to be like that guy. So we automatically, you know, we tend to admire people who do that. And so it really is, it’s really a it definitely will help. I don’t see any downside to

Unknown Speaker 53:00
give her Sure. And like a lot of people they don’t understand, like the plumbing of how any of like these associations and boards how this stuff works. Like, you look at like, we were one of the you know, I don’t know how many states exactly, we’re able to continue to practice, like, right when COVID hit, but like, we were fortunately one of those states. And once you kind of get involved in you kind of see the plumbing of these things and how this stuff works. Like it’s all it’s all in big part, like, you know, obviously, you know, our dad’s and lobbying like that, that stuff is a major player, but it’s also a lot of the people who volunteer, you know, and spend their time and a lot of the donations that go through our pack that really just go an incredibly long way. And a lot of these organizations are the reason why we’re able to do what we’re able to do. And, you know, unfortunately, a lot of people don’t aren’t aware of that. So, you know, I just think for that reason alone, it’s super important to, to at least get involved or donate, you know,

D.J. Paris 53:51
yeah, either way. And we know that everyone’s busy and time is the greatest resource. And it’s the most limited resource that we all have to deal with. So it’s not that everyone can can share committees or be involved in that way. But the very least you can, you can donate and you can learn about you know, what some of these lobbyists are doing to ensure that we can make a living going forward and it is important and there are disruptors in the field, you know, just sort of saying it like it is there’s a lot of tech disruptors that would very much love to cash in on the Commission’s that Realtors get to keep companies are trying very, very hard to to get that commission through different technologies and trying to remove the realtor from from that from the equation and and they they might succeed at some point. You know it to some degree and so you have to have people fighting on your behalf because technology is just going to keep making things easier, better, faster, and the realtor side of it. The actual interpersonal side is so important and that’s something that so far AI hasn’t told We figured out yet maybe they never will. And that would be great. But you know, I always think like, you know, it’s really important. And I didn’t think about it for the first 10 years that I was in this industry. I was like, Oh, I don’t know what any of that stuff is, I don’t know who’s really fighting for me or whatever. And then I’ve learned a lot. Yeah. And as I’ve learned more about it, I’m like, Oh, they’re actually doing really important stuff. And sometimes things get kind of down to the wire where legislation might get passed that would dramatically affect that. Yeah. And you were just you were just down at the you were, we should mention, Quentin just got back yesterday, from going down to Springfield, Illinois, to meet with legislators and, and also lobbyists and representatives and getting a chance to sort of see what’s going on at the state level. I mean, you were telling me off air that you were so surprised, not not maybe not so surprised, but make sense that a lot of these people who represent us, they’re not as as keyed in to the issues, because they have to know about every issue. And real estate might not be at the top of their list. And so we have these people that were that are lobbyists that are really trying hard. Can you talk about that experience? Just a little bit and, and getting involved at the state level?

Unknown Speaker 56:10
Yeah, totally. I mean, yeah, that was my first time going there. And like, I again, like it comes down to like, understanding the plumbing of how things work. And I still don’t have a firm idea of how it works. But like, you know, like you mentioned, there are just a lot of legislators who, you know, they don’t fully have a clear picture, like, they’re not as informed as us like, and I know, a lot of people don’t sit here and think about that, but like, they’re not like, they’re just legislators, they’re dealing with a million different issues on a state and local level. And so, you know, just being able to sit down and talk with various realtors who are, you know, have their phone line open to some of these legislators to sit down and talk with them and get a better idea of, you know, what does this bill mean? Or, you know, what are the unintended consequences, or the intended consequences of this specific thing that they otherwise wouldn’t think of? You know, I mean, there’s, there’s 800 pages in some of these bills. And it’s, you, I don’t know, I mean, it’s both, it’s a good thing to see, it’s also a concerning thing to see. Because we’re putting so much effort into supporting the industry, and we’re making this ourselves very accessible. And, you know, we definitely have an influence over legislation. But at the same time, we’re relying on, you know, certain legislators who, you know, some, some do know, their stuff and others like don’t, and it’s just, like, kind of wild to think about that, like, a lot of a lot of the people who volunteer and a lot of money that’s spent like it’s going somewhere, and it matters. And, you know, it’s definitely a big deal. And it took me, you know, that was the first time I really saw that actually play out in front of me, I was like, Oh, wow, okay, good. Good to know. I’m gonna keep keep doing our back.

D.J. Paris 57:33
Yeah, that’s, that’s great. And so for everyone listening, just to wrap up, because Quinton Scott up, he’s a busy busy guy with in between doing five to 10 showings a day, and then all the volunteering that he does, which is quite substantial. So we’re gonna let him get back to his busy day. But I think the point is, is just getting involved in this industry really getting into it and, and quite I love that you kind of additionally started and you didn’t go to St. Louis University to become a realtor, right? You were like, I maybe I’ll go the consultant route, or become an attorney or, you know, do the law school thing, or, you know, or work in banking and finance. And I’m guessing that was more of your, your college background. And same with me, I was I was, I thought I was going to be a psychologist. I was like, oh, that’s what I’m gonna do. And then then I got out, and I never have done anything close to that. And so it’s, but you’ve got really involved, I think that’s sort of the key. And now you’re being recognized by National Association, realtors, and that’s a huge deal. So I think this idea of, of just contributing, getting passionate, getting into it, giving it your all and just being a guy who likes to contribute, and give back I think is, is, you know, probably not an insignificant reason why you become successful, I bet it’s all connected. So really, I really, I’ve always admired you, I think you’re just somebody who is just doing a lot at a really early age when I think most people in their 20s are focused predominantly on themselves, and developing themselves as as, as best we can. And the 20s are tough, IPIC but at least worse for me. But the fact that you’ve sort of found your footing and have already started contributing and giving back is a great lesson for anyone that’s you’re never too old or young to do that. And you’ll you’ll fight if nothing else, but never helps you professionally. Boy, your self esteem and confidence will go through the roof because you’re doing some good out there. So I really, really admire you for that. So to wrap up, we want to remind everybody to please visit Quentin at on Instagram. So please follow him there which is Quentin green underscore r e. Green without an E so Quentin green like the color underscore r e and also for anyone listening that may have you know now we’re just everyone can kind of live anywhere now and work anywhere it seems. And if you have people that are moving to Chicago or maybe you’re a suburban agent here in Chicago and you don’t really know the city market well

Mmm, I think most of the time you’re doing your client a disservice by pretending that you can serve a scenario that you just don’t know. So this is a great opportunity. If you have people either moving to the area, and you want to work with a great up, I don’t want to call you up and coming because you’re already we’ve already arrived. But somebody who has put in a lot of effort and time and he serviced a lot of people and his production is going up. Quite it would be a great guy to refer business to. Or if you’re interested in just getting some advice, Quentin actually just did this for my girlfriend. This is what a great guy he is. He actually just met with my girlfriend who’s trying to figure out a way back into the industry in a little bit different way. Quinn’s like, oh, let’s go out for coffee, or maybe she offered it or whatever. But he went and did that just for my girlfriend. And he did not have to do that. So he’s a great guy. And I really want to do everything we can to support great guys like, like when not that he needs our support. But if anyone out there is wanting to work with you directly, whether they’re a buyer or seller and investor developer, or maybe their realtor from another area that have people moving here, what’s the best way they should reach out?

Definitely email. Yeah, emails, you’ll probably have it, you know, somewhere, I assume. But it’s just cute green at downtown loop.com. So that’s best way and then you can look me up online. I’m pretty much everywhere. So yeah, call me email me definitely prefer email. But calling works do. Yeah, Quinton is a great guy. And again, congratulations on the 30 under 30. Your I saw some of the other 30 under 30 people, I recognize some of those names. And you’re got a great class with you. So I’m very excited to to continue to watch your growth. And congratulations for 10 million in production. Just incredible with the amount of work that you do outside of real estate or you know, to give back as well, I know you’re a busy guy. So congrats on all the success and we will on behalf of everyone want to say thanks to Quinton for spending time with us today. And on behalf of Quentin and myself, we want to thank the audience and listeners and viewers, everyone for participating in our show and also supporting us in the best way you can support us. Of course, always check out our sponsors, we have great sponsors, check them out, buy their products and services. They’re awesome. We don’t take on any just anyone as a as a, as an advertiser, we only take on, you know real estate, real estate adjacent sort of businesses that we think could really help brokers. So there’s one way another way is to tell a friend about our podcast and have one other agent that could use the knowledge that Quentin just shared in this episode and send them a link to our website, which is keeping it real pod.com. And then or if they’re podcast person, just have them pull up any podcast app, search for keeping it real and hit the subscribe button. And then last leave us a review. We really appreciate this. So this helps us get feedback. 99% of you don’t give us feedback. And that’s totally cool. And I understand that I don’t get feedback for a podcast that I listen to either. But it really is helpful for the host, me and our team to know what is working and what you would prefer to us to change. So whatever app you might be using to listen to the show, definitely leave us a review. Let us know what you like and what you’d like to see changed because we do it for you anyway, so let us know your thoughts. But Quentin thank you so much. We will see everybody on the next episode.

Quentin Green 1:03:10
Thanks, DJ

In our April episode of Monday Market Minute, Carrie McCormick from @properties talk about social media. Carrie shares 10 tips about social media to help you build a better presence. Next, D.J. shares his marketing tip for this month. Finally, D.J. shares a very specific tip about listing photos.

If you’d prefer to watch this interview, click here to view on YouTube!

Carrie can be reached at [email protected] or by phone at 312.961.4612.

Please follow Carrie on Instagram by clicking here.

This episode is brought to you by Real Geeks.

D.J. Paris 0:00
On today’s show, our guest in the last 12 months did 161 million in production all herself no team and today we’re going to focus on how she runs her social media account and how you can do the same. Stay tuned. This episode of Keeping it real is brought to you by real geeks. How many homes are you going to sell this year? Do you have the right tools? Is your website turning soft leads and interested buyers? Are you spending money on leads that aren’t converting? Well real geeks is your solution. Find out why agents across the country choose real geeks as their technology partner. Real geeks was created by an agent for agents. They pride themselves on delivering a sales and marketing solution so that you can easily generate more business. Their agent websites are fast and built for lead conversion with a smooth search experience for your visitors. Real geeks also includes an easy to use agents CRM. So once a lead signs up on your website, you can track their interest and have great follow up conversations. Real geeks is loaded with a ton of marketing tools to nurture your leads and increase brand awareness visit real geeks.com forward slash keeping it real pod and find out why Realtors come to real geeks to generate more business again, visit real geeks.com forward slash keeping it real pod and now on to our show

Welcome to keeping it real the largest podcast for real estate agents and my real estate agents. My name is DJ Paris I am your guide and host through the show and today is our monthly series called The Monday market minute with Carrie McCormick from Carrie McCormack Real Estate Group here in Chicago with at properties Christie’s International. Now Carrie is a top 1% producer here in the Chicagoland area with over 20 years of experience helping buyers, sellers and investors. In fact, the past 12 months out of 46,000 real estate agents here in the Chicagoland area Carrie is currently ranked number 13 in production and she is a true superstar and an expert in everything from first time homebuyers, veteran investors and luxury properties. She also works with a lot of developers and is often chosen to represent their high end developments. Please visit Carrie at her website, which is Carrie McCormick r e.com. And also follow her on Instagram at Carey McCormick real estate. Carrie, welcome once again to the show.

Carrie McCormick 2:35
Thank you. Thank you happy spring.

D.J. Paris 2:38
Happy Spring happy Passover. Happy Easter. I’m not sure what other holidays happened this past weekend. But there were those were the big ones. Yeah, it’s and it’s the sun’s coming out again, finally, although today. But yeah, let’s talk about what’s going on with you this month. I know you’re pretty busy.

Carrie McCormick 2:59
Actually, the markets extremely busy, as everybody knows, but I thought I would take a break from the boring market stats and low inventory and all that, you know, information that we keep hearing over and over again and talk about something fun, like social media, a lot of people ask me questions about Instagram and social media and what to do and how to do it. So I thought I would give everyone a little bit of some tips. And I think when we tell our stories on social media, people feel more connected to us. And when people are connected, it leads to conversion. So that’s what I want to talk about. So can I dive right in?

D.J. Paris 3:38
Let’s do it.

Carrie McCormick 3:39
Okay, so I’ve got I think about upset, don’t count, but I think it’s about 10 tips that I’m going to share with everyone. And the first one is make sure that you’re let’s just talk about Instagram, right so well I guess any platform but Instagram in particular, make sure that your profile is optimized. Think of your profile as your resume people will decide to connect with you based just you know, very quick, you know, snap judgment on who you are based on your profile, make sure your picture is clear. Make sure what you do is clear. Make sure where you work, what you do your contact information. It’s all clear people don’t want to go hunting around and trying to find your information. So again, tip number one, make sure that your profile is optimized. Number two, use hashtags. A lot of people will do one or two or three hashtags. You have 30 hashtags to use. So make sure that you use hashtags that are relevant to whatever you’re posting. It’s an easy way to find ideal clients when you create content that matches the hashtag. I’ve seen some people put hashtag I don’t even know good example. Like Chicago Bulls, but the post has nothing to do with the Chicago Bulls. So again, just make sure that your hash tags are relevant to Whatever you’re posting, the next one, which is number three is use polls. If anyone knows how to do that, in your stories, polls are a great way. And I have to do more of this a great way to engage people out there by asking them their opinion, like example, which kitchen Do you prefer this one or this one, or if you have two or three or four different types of kitchens, outdoor space, you know, whatever it is, it’s great for engagement when you use polls, and people find it fun, and they find it easy. And the best thing is, sometimes people will go back to the poll, because if they chose kitchen number one, you know, the day will go by, and they’ll want to see how many people agreed with them. So it’s kind of self serving, but they come back to your page to see how well their choice did against other people. Number four, is use more video. People love to watch videos. And actually the platforms themselves, whether it’s Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, they are rewarding you if you have video posts, and it’ll give you more organic reach. So make sure that you do more videos. I know everyone hates doing them. I hate doing them too. But you just have to do it and get them out there.

D.J. Paris 6:23
And you can you can easily do videos now where if you have a listing, or if you’re going to see a showing if you’re on the buy side, you know, you can show up ahead of time when the client isn’t there maybe and do a little walkthrough with your phone turned around. And you know, that’s I was just at a Zillow conference. And they were saying that this isn’t exactly apples to apples with what you just said. But they were saying that in their listings, because they have more data than anything. They understand consumer online behavior better than anybody. They said four homes that are listed, that have a virtual tour, a 3d virtual tour, that they’re that 63% of home shoppers expect a home virtual tour at a listing and they they won’t even look at listings that don’t have them 63% of their their shoppers blitz past listing, so So yeah, so this just the video craze is, it’s there.

Carrie McCormick 7:19
I’m just I just wrote down a note. That’s pretty impressive. So yes, I mean, even on that front, I think that’s super important. I think I’m I’m number five, correct me if I’m wrong, I think I’m And tip number five, which is tag the people that you’re working with, again, something I need to do a better job with. But when you’re with people, and you tag them, it, you’re seen by their connections, their friends, their followers. This helps you not only in your current network, but also through mutual connections. So again, we’re trying to reach more people get more connections, get more followers get more traction, definitely tag people that you’re with, and also tag where you are, you know, some people search by location. So if you’re in Lincoln Park, if you’re in Bucktown, if you’re in Winnetka, wherever you are, people want to see you know, again where you are. And then there they do hash tags based on locations too. So make sure you tag the location that you are. Number seven ish. When we tell us we say tell a story. Every home has a story, every every event in your life has a story. So when you tell a story on social media, people feel more connected to you. And again, connection leads to conversion. So share a story about your clients and how you help them buy or sell a home. Share the story of moving or share some sort of story about your business. Again, people love storytelling, and it leads to connection. Number eight, use stories. This is a fun one. As you know, it’s easy and quick for people to to view your stories. Sometimes I struggle a little bit too with what do you share every day. If you think about your day from morning to night, there’s something great that you can do a quick, quick snapshot of what’s going on maybe what’s behind the scenes that you’re at a photo shoot, you’re attending a final walkthrough you’re attending, something’s happening, so share something behind the scenes. Again, these stories are quick, quick tidbits of your day and people love to see that. Especially if it’s something funny. People always love to have humor right or dogs. Everyone loves the dogs, cats and dogs, cats and dogs. Number nine is highlight a local business. People love to hear what’s happening in the neighborhood. Love support, have a local business. And keep in mind if it’s a restaurant, a clothing store, your favorite flower place, whatever it is you tag them In your post, and guess what, they may start sharing that as well. So again, more exposure for you. And my last tip, which I absolutely 100% agree with, and I live and breathe by this one is Be your own brand ambassador. I’ve said this for years. And this is one of the reasons that I think that my social media took off, because it’s all organic. To me. It’s authentic to me, I try not to copy other people, when I say when I try not to. I mean, there’s some words like that, you know, they’re just standard words in our market, but you have to be your own brand ambassador. And the more authentic you are, the more engaged people will be with you. And you just have to take action on it, and the results will follow

D.J. Paris 10:54
you I think people really want to know what, especially on social media, they want to know what you stand for, they want to know and since realtors are their own brand, I was at a branding conference, I was telling Carrie earlier, when I was at the Zillow conference, my sister was speaking at a branding conference a few miles away I got to go watch her speak and I got to watch some leaders from different industries talking about marketing and branding trends. And they were saying that right now it’s imperative that brands have a some sort of larger mission outside of just whatever they’re providing to their customers is like what is the company stand for? What do they believe in what what is their commitment to giving back contributing outside of just you know, what what they make and produce? And so this is social media is a great opportunity I think for a for your your following to see not only am I you know, a real estate agent, here’s here’s how I service my clients but oh by the way, this is really important to me, whatever those those issues might be or organizations that you support so I’m I’m a big believer in yet be your own brand ambassador share, like every everything that you’re comfortable sharing about your life that you know really tells people who you are.

Carrie McCormick 12:10
Right and I agree with that I was also at a branding conference different one but one thing that they were talking about the new generation, or the younger generation is being you know, luxury is less of a status symbol meaning you know, people used to wear Gucci belts, I shouldn’t say used to people would wear, you know Gucci, Gucci, Gucci, this or Chanel or you know, a ton of stuff and you know, whatever it was that that was their status symbol, but luxury is becoming less of a status symbol. And millennials and the Gen Zers influences a change of values towards like sustainable sustainability. It’s hard to understand well being diversity and inclusion and all of that stuff. So that’s kind of this new era, I think of luxury is going to be just about more of well being and being authentic. And like you said, it’s it’s, it’s a whole new change that I think’s gonna happen, and I love it.

D.J. Paris 13:09
Yeah, I agree. And that really dovetails nicely into a couple of suggestions I have on the marketing side, as a quick little tip for our listeners and viewers. Number one, Carrie, you had said this is one of your tips, which was highlight local business. So we’re talking about real estate being hyperlocal. Right. And being that agents typically service a specific geographic area, you know, this is a great opportunity for you to support via social media, some of these businesses that that you believe in, so I was at a little cafe near where I live, actually, you’ll know at Foxtrot Amil they have a bunch of them here in Chicago, they’re these little kind of like half kind of grocery fun groceries and then they have also food that they make, and I was picking up some breakfast tacos that they make, which are breakfast burritos, rather, and they’re really cool, but I think there’s a lot of people that don’t know they make those and they’re, they’re really fun and nice. And so if I were a producing agent, I would have contacted Foxtrot when I was making that order and said Hey, is it okay if I shoot a little you know 32nd video when I come to pick up thing highlighting how much I love your your products and then I’ll I’ll tag you guys in the post as Carrie was saying by tagging other people in the post or other brands oftentimes their followers will see that but you can also of course tell the people in the shop or the store oh by the way I’m going to put this post out just keep your eye out for and maybe I can email it to you guys in case you miss it and then they might want to read reshare it of course with their followers but but that’s just a huge way to to get your social media channel exposed maybe to someone else’s followers and other brands businesses. shoot a little video about how great you know someone’s breakfast burritos are do it in the store. You don’t have to make you know a big deal about it but you can do a quick little Little highlight reel or story, do that, shoot it out and see what see how many more people followers you get. And then I just have one other tip, this is a really specific tip that I just, I just didn’t know this Carrie, I’m curious if you knew this, and you probably do, but I didn’t. So I was at the Zillow conference, and they had this one statistic that was really just kind of jumped out at me. It’s so funny. They, all they do is just, you know, look at so many different variables for data and they try to figure out what consumers want, they have, they have determined that if they if if in a listing photo in the photos for a listing, if the bedroom, if the bed of the shots of the bed, rather, and I’m sort of stumbling over this, if I’m just trying to get really specific, if the shots of the bed, the camera shots of the bed, if they show white sheets, white pillowcases, and a white comforter. And this is it’s they know that consumers are 23% more likely to schedule a showing versus a printed pattern, like a floral pattern, even like a dark color, even if it’s a single color, anything that’s not white, there, they see a decline in the number of appointments that are scheduled. So it’s a silly little thing that I mean, it’s almost 25, almost 25% More showings. So if I were an agent, I would go out and buy a bunch of comforters of different sizes, all white, maybe some do vase with some white, you know, white sheets, or at least a white duvet with some white pillowcases. And I would just have that, you know, in my garage or wherever I could store that. And whenever I have a listing, I would, you know, again, it’s not going to always make sense to do that. But it certainly can make sense. A lot of times, instead of having the client go out and buy all new stuff, or I guess you could probably color it with Photoshop or something if you really wanted to in the photos, if it’s a different color, you guys, you can make it white. But I think it’d be just a good idea to buy a couple do vase and bring them along with you to do at the

Carrie McCormick 17:10
shade that was for the primary suite or just all bedrooms,

D.J. Paris 17:13
you know, they didn’t they, I’m assuming its primary. I don’t know about all bedrooms, they just kind of blitz through it. So I can find out and get back to talk about it.

Carrie McCormick 17:23
I think it’s I think it’s definitely probably the primary but it that’s very interesting. And now I’m just thinking back to some of my listings that sold extremely quickly. And guess what, they all have white bedding.

D.J. Paris 17:36
And I wonder too about white walls. I’m going to reach out to my Zillow friends. And I wonder if white walls do a similar thing as well. Maybe in the primary? Again, I don’t know. But gosh, I mean, that’s a really interesting stat that you can just literally bring it especially to like if you’re at a listing presentation, and everyone’s got the same marketing materials and you know, you’re in competition with three other agents and you’re all great agents, and, you know, all of your stats look great. And, you know, little things like that might just make a bit of a difference. But 23% increase in showings based on white bedding is that just bloom. I mean, I have all white bedding and all white walls. Just because I’m lazy and that’s that’s how it came. And I was like, that’s what I want. And apparently that’s that’s, that’s that’s the way to do it these days. So

Carrie McCormick 18:24
yeah, that find out what they say I love all the stats, you know, yeah, so interesting.

D.J. Paris 18:29
So while the white trending while the white trend is very invoke, this is a great opportunity to bring some additional value to your listings. And you know sub separate a little bit so anyway, I think I think those are some great tips all throughout this this episode. So I think this is a good opportunity for us to to just keep it short and sweet this time. So everyone who is listening though, if you have clients that are you know want to work with a top Chicago agent, maybe you’re in a different state and you have people moving to Chicago Carrie works with you know, all sorts of clients, especially referrals from other agents and other areas. Or if you yourself are looking to buy or sell a property here in the Chicagoland area. Or just looking for advice about maybe maybe you’re in a different area but you’d like you know a top Realtors sort of perspective on your situation. Definitely reach out to Carrie she’s she’s a great, amazing resource and is happy to chat with you Carrie, what’s the best way somebody who might want to work with you or speak with you can get in touch?

Carrie McCormick 19:32
Yeah, so always call me 312-961-4612 You can email me Carrie it’s ca RR ie [email protected] or connect with me on Instagram. It’s Carrie McCormick real estate.

D.J. Paris 19:49
Yeah, that’s great everyone Visit our website to carry McCormick our e.com Please follow her as she said on Instagram at Carey McCormick real estate and everyone who’s listening of course Thank you for continuing to listen and support our show, please tell a friend and CO one other realtor that could benefit from hearing this great episode with Carrie about social media and send them a link to our website, which is keeping it real pod.com Or just have them pull up a podcast app search for keeping it real and hit the subscribe button. And also, if everyone could leave us a review of the show in whatever podcast app you might be listening to, whether it’s Apple podcasts, formerly known as iTunes or Spotify, Google Play stitcher or Pandora wherever. Let us know what you think of the show, give us leave us a review that helps us continue to improve and also gets us in front of more people based on the number of reviews we get. So we appreciate that. As always, Carrie, thank you so much for being on our show for years and years now providing so much value to our audience and our audience. Again, thank you for sticking all the way to the end, and we will see everybody on the next episode. Bye everybody.

Brittany Simon talks about her family legacy how she got into the real estate business. Brittany mentions the importance of relationships with both colleague realtors and clients. Next, Brittany discusses what’s it like working with buyers at the moment and shares advises she gives to her clients. Brittany also talks about the trends has she seen in the last year in the Chicago real estate market. Last, Brittany discusses how she gets in touch with her sphere of influence and shares how she keeps her relationship with her clients after the sale.

If you’d prefer to watch this interview, click here to view on YouTube!

Brittany Simon can be reached at [email protected] and 630-936-2930.

Please follow Brittany on Instagram here.

This episode is brought to you by Real Geeks.

D.J. Paris 0:00
Today’s episode we talk about how to prep first time homebuyers in this super crazy market. Stay tuned. This episode of Keeping it real is brought to you by real geeks. How many homes are you going to sell this year? Do you have the right tools? Is your website turning soft leads and interested buyers? Are you spending money on leads that aren’t converting? Well real geeks is your solution. Find out why agents across the country choose real geeks as their technology partner. Real geeks was created by an agent for agents. They pride themselves on delivering a sales and marketing solution so that you can easily generate more business. Their agent websites are fast and built for lead conversion with a smooth search experience for your visitors. Real geeks also includes an easy to use agent CRM. So once a lead signs up on your website, you can track their interest and have great follow up conversations. Real geeks is loaded with a ton of marketing tools to nurture your leads and increase brand awareness visit real geeks.com forward slash keeping it real pod and find out why Realtors come to real geeks to generate more business again, visit real geeks.com forward slash keeping it real pod. And now on to our show.

Hello, and welcome to another episode of Keeping it real the largest podcast made by real estate agents. And for real estate agents. My name is DJ Parris. I’m your guide and host through the show in just a moment, we’re going to be speaking with top producer Brittany Cummings. But before we get to Brittany, just a couple quick reminders, please, as always, the best way you can help us is by telling a friend about our show. Think of one other agent that can benefit from hearing from top producers like Britney and send them a link either to our website, which is keeping it real pod.com Or just have them pull up a podcast app search for keeping it real, hit that subscribe button. And second, we would love it if you would take just a few seconds either while you’re listening or after to leave us a review. And you can do that through whatever podcast app you might be listening. Let us know what you think of the show. It really helps us continue to get better and better to better meet your needs. So that’s all I have. But now on to the main event our interview with Brittany Cummings.

All right, today on the show we have Brittany Simon from the Brittany Simon group with compass here in Chicago. It’s all you about Brittany. Now Brittany Simon is a full service Real Estate Group servicing buyers, sellers, renters, investors and commercial clients in the city of Chicago as well as the western suburbs. She’s a third generation real estate broker following in the footsteps of mom, grandma and her stepfather. Now Britney basically grew up in the real estate industry seeing all the ins and outs of the business from her family. Now she has been licensed for almost 12 years and cannot imagine doing anything else. Having lived all over the city and the suburbs. One of Britney’s specialties is that she has extensive knowledge of what makes each neighborhood special, and can truly guide clients on what area may meet their needs best. Brittany maintains the highest quality service so her clients always feel well cared for and know that she has their best interests at heart. I’d like everyone to visit Brittany at our website, which is Brittany Simon group.com and Brittany is spelled b r i t t a n y Simon group.com. And also please follow her on Instagram which is at realtor dot Brittany. Brittany, welcome to the show.

Brittany Simon 3:48
Thanks for having me. And thanks for also clarifying the spelling of my name. That’s always been a tricky one. So I appreciate

D.J. Paris 3:54
it. Ricky is one of those. Excuse me one of those names that has a lot of different possibilities for how it absolutely does. My first see I go by DJ but my first name is Delphin. And that’s a name that like nobody ever guesses the spelling of it right? No one’s ever heard it really before. And then when they try to spell it, they always put a pH in there instead of an F. So, so growing up DJ. Oh, yeah. Right. So and I sort of not, it’s not irony it just coincidentally, I always forget what coincidence and irony. Coincidentally, Delfin with a pH is actually the Spanish word for dolphin. So it even makes more sense why people always put that in there. But we’re not. We’re not here to talk about my weird name. We’ll talk about your will. Your name isn’t weird. Your name is very normal and cool. But let’s um, let’s put by the way, Brittany and I went to college not together. But we went to the same college so we have a little bit of we were a little late to jump on the podcast because we were talking about Miami University where we both attended a some time ago. But Brittany Let’s let’s start all the way at the beginning of your real estate career, which I know is spanned 12 years now. Yeah. How did you get into real estate? And why? And I understand that, of course, it’s part of your family. Yeah, let’s, let’s hear about, you know, three generations and all of that.

Brittany Simon 5:14
Yeah. So I mean, having my mom and my stepfather have been in the real estate industry. So when I was even in high school, my stepfather is also a builder. So he had at one point built a few homes on the block we were living on. So before, you had to be licensed to basically do anything, I would be sometimes sitting in an open house right down the street, they needed extra hands on deck. So I was kind of just, you know, going into these new builds. And you know, when I was even younger, sometimes my mom would bring me with to showings or open houses, or what have you. So kind of always seen it, those behind the scenes. And then when I graduated college, actually, or kind of unfortunately, we were going through, you know, a recession. So that made things a little tricky. And coincidentally, at the same time, they were, I believe, changing some of the rules to become licensed. So before things, I think it was going to become harder, something along those lines. So I just went ahead and got my license right out of the gate. But I was not necessarily sure that’s the path I wanted to go down on, or in, especially just having family members in it. And you know, kind of wanting to forge my own path. So

D.J. Paris 6:26
what did you study in college? If you don’t mind? me asking? Yeah,

Brittany Simon 6:28
I studied actually broadcast journalism. And I was an English Lit minor. So I really thought, you know, I really wanted to dive deeper into that I’m moving back home to Chicago. It’s obviously not a huge market. And you know, kind of California is where a lot more things happen. So I actually did get a couple of job offers in California, but at the time, I wasn’t sure that’s really where I wanted to go, that was kind of a big leap, not to mention, the salary I was being offered was not really, you know, I think I can measure with housing costs in California, right? So I tried a little bit harder in Chicago, so I was kind of doing some other things independently, and kind of with some other, I guess, techie tests, start things, startup, sure, whatnot. And then I just really started needing to make money. So I got into ad sales and, and from ad sales, I also kind of got into some startups, and then kind of just fell into sales. And through that, that led me to event planning, kind of on a higher level in the ad sales community, or in that job role, which was interesting, and I really did like it. But I felt that you know, corporate structure was still just kind of feeling like it wasn’t for me. So then, I was kind of thought I’d be at this other job for a lot longer, which is going to be delving a lot more deep into the event planning arena. And it was just kind of all over the place. And I kind of thought, it’s I wasn’t still being able to be creative, which I felt like was something that I really had a calling to do. And so I finally decided, you know, If not now When, let’s make the leap. So I finally made the leap into just full time real estate sales, although I also did some, I worked at a bar, actually one like a start. Got up and running, because I did have a mortgage. So I needed to be sure I can pay my mortgage. And then, you know, I really just hit the ground running. I started just, you know, in my mind, you know, I never even having family in the business. never realized how hard it actually is to build a business from the ground up. There’s no one who could really I guess help you do that. And it takes time. So I just took every lead I got I was prospecting like crazy, telling everybody I knew actually my bar job really is gonna

D.J. Paris 9:05
ask about that. Did Did any of the patrons the bar patrons whether they were regulars or people just passing through? Did they were you ever some somebody who was I don’t I can, I guess it depends on where you work and what what’s allowed. But were you ever like, Hey, by the way, you know, here’s your here’s your kamikaze or whatever. I’m just trying to I was trying to get the most ridiculous drink. But but whatever. Here’s your beer. Here’s your whatever. Hey, by the way, you know, this is you know, I do this as well, but I’m also a realtor did that ever come up? And did that ever turn into leads for you?

Brittany Simon 9:37
Absolutely. Actually, all the time. And I worked at this barn Lincoln Park actually called proced.

D.J. Paris 9:43
Oh, sure. Yeah. So just just pull back the curtain a little I’m actually in Lincoln Park right now. So I that’s where our office is. So yes, I’m familiar with process.

Brittany Simon 9:54
So it was great. And actually at the time, which was kind of ironic. There was actually like a hand For all of us who were actually transitioning in two different careers in life and trying to find like our path, so it was actually really enjoyable to go into work. And actually, really quickly, there’s kind of some turnarounds. So I came into like, kind of one of the lead like servers. And so I was on all the time. So I was like, you know, if I have to be here, a lot of time, I am trying to make the most of it. So I actually would have a lot of people I had in my little, I guess, I don’t know, my little server Abran stack of cards as handing them out like crazy. But also the other people that I was working with, I actually, you know, did some things with them. And some other people that came in said, hey, you know, do you want to work on my team wasn’t really what I wanted at the time, but I felt like I had options. So it was really nice. And I will say, I probably only worked there for I want to say maybe five months until I felt like okay, I really just need the time to dedicate to this. And I felt from a financial standpoint that I was ready. So it was really interesting. But I had worked in the service industry a little bit during college. So I also felt like stepping back into it really was probably one of the best roles to kind of really prepare me for going into real estate full time because you so you know, customer service for work, you really have to deal with, you know, so many different personalities, and so many different types of situations, the emotional ality of it all is high all the time. So I feel like that, especially at you know, maybe 2am on a Saturday night, when you have your section fall, and people are getting a little rowdy. It was, you know, really going to help me hone those skill set.

D.J. Paris 11:45
Yeah, it makes so much sense. I mean, I was just thinking about these skills that that you sort of either developed or had in your, in your history, which is, hey, I have a family who’s into this, and I was I was sitting at showings when I was younger. And, and I’ve been around realtors, and it’s certainly you know, three generations. And then I studied broadcast journalism in college, and which, of course, I think teaches a lot of skill sets. But most importantly, be able to present and be able to talk and interpersonal communication, or even just, you know, monologue, like presentation style. One way communication sometimes is, is is great. And then also the ability to then do customer service when working at at and food service and, and, you know, bar stuff, it’s like, that’s a that’s a true customer service position. So all those skills together to me, you know, and we haven’t talked anything about well, of course, growing up with with family that was in real estate, you probably had, you know, some knowledge of of real estate in general. But you know, that all can be learned, you know, over time. So I think, you know, those skills make perfect sense why you would go into real estate. Yeah,

Brittany Simon 12:55
and you know, I always, always kind of guessed against it in a way just because it was like my family was in it, that’s was their thing. I wanted to find my thing. And I feel like almost what I wanted to do, like broadcast journalism, this event planning, I really fell into that I loved it was all really creative, and allowed me to kind of just come up with things be myself not necessarily fit into, like this little corporate box, I guess. And real estate really allows me to do that, you know, talking here with you today. Marketing listings, trying to get new buyers, you know, social media, everything you really need to do to kind of brand yourself even is allowed me to pull it all from all these areas that I feel like I do have expertise in and kind of group it all together. So actually, you know, I fit better than I thought. Which is ironic, because yeah, having not ever wanted to do what everybody else did and falling into it and really feeling like it is my passion because I do you know, love real estate itself. I love design, I love architecture, I love just neighborhoods and knowing the ins and outs of them and you know, just being able to go into some of these awesome places. It’s awesome. It really is. And it’s nobody’s the same. Whereas sometimes with that corporate structure, too, is finding myself pulling away and just felt like you know, okay, from 830 to 530 this is what I do, and then you can turn it off whereas real estate’s on all the time, but I don’t feel like I’m you know, my personality has been sucked out. I mean, right.

D.J. Paris 14:33
Yeah, I used to I used to work in corporate, the corporate world and I used to I was a I consider myself a creative person as well. And so, I was a bit frustrated with the inability unless you specifically once I got into marketing specifically, then I was able to express myself but I was in non creative roles for some time and, and so I used to have to do things outside work to fulfill that creative itch. And, and now I, you know, and again, I’m not I’m not a practicing realtor, but I get to work with my creativity inside of real estate. And I think I think what you’re you’re talking about is just taking all of these skills that you enjoy and that you’re passionate about, and putting them together. And yeah, maybe you’re working later hours than the person that clocks out from their, you know, from from their corporate job at at five or six, but it’s probably more fulfilling and enjoyable. And you’re helping people buy and sell homes. I know, it’s not always easy. In fact, it’s never easy. But especially right now, and I know that’s going to be a focus of our talk today. But back to just being fulfilled and sort of the maybe I’m replying to a text it at 9pm at night, but I’m choosing to do that, and I want to do it and it’s still fun. And, you know, and all of that. And it seems like most of the people I’ve not most I would say everyone I’ve interviewed on the show over the years, kind of has like they really like it. And and I always just take it for granted that we all like our jobs. And I always forget that man. Don’t Yeah, it’s very sad. And I don’t have I have empathy for people who because I’ve had jobs that I didn’t like, as well. And I don’t think it’s like, well, you just quit and find something you love. And it’s like, yeah, maybe. But not everyone can do that. But I think if you can find a place where you you’re happy at work. Boy, that makes life a lot better. And so let’s talk about something that’s that that is very difficult right now, which is of course working with buyers. And the we’re still in a, you know, despite what what the what the news headlines are saying, we’re still in a pretty low interest rate environment. Yeah. Lots of people with a lot of spending power, you’re in competition to try to buy properties that are at exceedingly high values. And just, you know, people making decisions sight unseen. Yeah. And, and so I we have almost 800 Realtors at our company here. And that’s our most common question is, what do I do to get my offers noticed? So I’m just perfect timing, because I really wanted to talk about that. Anyway. But I’m not out there in the field doing it. You are. So I’d love to hear your advice about what’s been working for you. Maybe also what doesn’t work or what you see not working? Yeah. Any advice that you have for our listeners? Yeah, absolutely.

Brittany Simon 17:30
Well, I think it also comes down to you. And I always, you know, check in with my buyers first, you know, hey, when there’s a will there’s a way and I know the strategies that we can win, but it also has to depend on? Are they willing to go there? Because not everybody is. So I think it’s also important to understand, you know, really the goals of your clients and let them let them choose. Because sometimes maybe, you know, after the analysis, the numbers don’t really make sense. But if this is every single thing they want, and there’s nothing else out there, and they’re going to be in this home for the next you know, 10 plus years. I mean, then maybe it’s really time to go for it. So I would say one of the things that I see working out there, I think most people are using escalation clauses and if you’re not you definitely shut are also called an escalation writer. And what that can

D.J. Paris 18:19
we can we define what that is just in case anyone listening isn’t familiar exactly

Brittany Simon 18:23
what an escalation writer or clause is, is it really allows a client and I will say, to kind of go to their max, without initially going to your max unless you have to. So you still, I still always recommend going strong on that number on the contract itself. But an escalation writer can then say, hey, let’s say just make the numbers easy, you know, house is listed at 475. But we’ll go to 500. Because it’s worth it and they want it and this, they already have multiple offers. So but they’re really they’ll go to 525. So on the escalation writer, we have a max price of 525. And we also have an ability to say they will go X amount over the highest competing offer. So let’s say $1,000. So if highest competing offer then comes in at let’s say 510 Well, then the person who used the escalation writer for 525, it would be 511. And they wouldn’t even go to their max. So it allows them to almost not bid over yourself. I will say sometimes that’s making it tricky in today’s market is if a house has let’s say 30 offers and 25 of those offers are including escalation writers, sometimes listing agents are asking for them to be withheld because it gets too crazy. And I can understand that were the numbers are just really nuts. But I will say I have talked to some listing agents too. And sometimes if you don’t ask and they’re not telling you not to use it. You can use it Some people are asking, and they’re saying, you know, I’d rather you not know. But you know, if you have a good number on there, that’s gonna kick it in, there’s a good chance you’re gonna win. So I try not to ask unless it’s clearly noted that they’re not accepting them because I want the offer to not be considered, but I don’t know why they wouldn’t consider a great offer. You know, if it’s right there in front of them,

D.J. Paris 20:22
do you? Do you worry that the listing agent might miss the fact that there is an escalation clause in your offer? In other words, how do you make that really evident, so that again, in the case of getting 30 offers, where, again, I know escalation costs are quite common, but let’s just say they weren’t common, or you would just be worried, gosh, I’m only still going up to 490. We’re really we could go all the way to 525. I just want to make sure that that the agent, are you calling the listing agent and going, Hey, I know you’re getting a lot of offers, just FYI, this has got escalation or you just assuming that they’ll they’ll review that in the in the document.

Brittany Simon 21:00
So unless they don’t say that they’re not accepting them, and there is an understanding that they are accepted. Yeah, I usually always do call the listing agent just to find out hey, you know, also, what about what are they looking for in terms of a closed date? Do they need a lease back? Or post close possession? What is you know? And I also to ask to, you know, you, you never know, if you ask what they will say so I also say, Hey, what are you seeing things coming in, I just did this for a multiple offer. situation, I said, anything you could give me to help. And he said, You know, I’m not going to tell you numbers. But what I will say wonder strong to a lot of people are waving, inspections are going as is. And a lot of people who are going above list price, or including escalations are including appraisal waivers or appraisal, gap guarantees, and my client at that point, we did not have an appraisal gap guarantee. So we did include that. So and with that escalation to to prove to go back to your point of how to make sure it’s been included, I always send everything, all the documents over one PDF, so I include that right before the offer themselves, they can’t miss it. And then in my email summary over to the list agent, I always write that out as well. So hopefully they’re reading it. But you know, it would be hard to miss. And I will say also with the escalation writers and clauses sometimes clients worry, well, how do we know they’re telling the truth? Well, there is in at least in the one I use, there is a section that says they have to show us the highest competing offer at contract acceptance that made that clause kick in. So we know that they’re very smart. And it has to be an offer. That’s kind of you know, it can’t be another offer that has a home to clothes or home to sell

D.J. Paris 22:47
your company. You got to be apples

Brittany Simon 22:48
to apples. Yeah, exactly, exactly.

D.J. Paris 22:52
So that’s, that’s really smart. So for anyone just missed that. What Brittany does is at closing, if she’s if the escalation clause is being utilized, her concern as a fiduciary for our client is, I just want to make sure that the offer that we just beat is a real offer. So once it once once we go to closing, I need to see that you have you had a legit offer here. Otherwise, you know, who knows, maybe somebody might take advantage of?

Brittany Simon 23:18
Yeah, and you’d hope not because of ethics and everything, but I mean, also for your the, you know, the buyers are usually nervous too. So that also helps them like okay, you know, trust this process. And I would always expect, you know, the best from other agents. So, and I do have some clients too, that say, well, let’s use one right off the bat. And that doesn’t, that’s not really a good strategy to use, unless, you know, there are multiple offers, and they’re calling for highest and best because if not, if you’re just submitting it, they don’t have other offers again, they’re probably going to wait until they get other offers. So that will go into effect. So at that point, you’d rather you shouldn’t just probably offer stronger initially and wait to see if they then do call for highest and best.

D.J. Paris 24:01
I wonder if any MLS in the country and maybe I’m just not understanding why this doesn’t exist. But just to get off topic for because I think it’s an opportunity for I mean, unless there’s some compliance reason why this shouldn’t happen. Why MLS is don’t have their own system for receiving you know, offers and being able to categorize them and that the listing agent would say, you know, checkbox I showed this to the to the seller, and that way the agent would get maybe notified your it has been presented to the seller. Yeah, you know, like you would think that and maybe again, maybe smarter people than me have said there’s a good reason why we don’t have that. Yeah, it just seems like in this environment. I imagine things have just got to fall through the cracks sometimes too and I’m sure you know when 30 offers come in the list agent is you know, overwhelmed and phone calls and texting emails from agents. So I just the fact that you call the list agent and just make sure that they received it and that they

Brittany Simon 25:07
Yeah. And I always, always include either on my email or on my attachment, you know, whatever it is, like, Please confirm receipt. And if I do not have a confirmation, I follow up, because that’s, you know, at least you know, okay, they got it, because sometimes, yeah, you know, an email could be missed. So I definitely want to make sure they are can or you know, can they not open the PDF? What is it, I want to make sure that they got it, and especially they got it by before the deadline. But I will say some people, you know, in this market are throwing out crazy numbers. And for like a finance deal. I’ve actually talked to some list agents who said, you know, for numbers that are kind of way crazy, they sometimes throw those those ones out, because there’s gonna praise out Yeah, exactly. So it you know, you kind of have to also be realistic here. And I also think if you had a conversation with a list agent prior, they might say, hey, you know, what, if you are going to do that, it’d be a really good idea to include an appraisal guarantee or gap of some sorts. Writer.

D.J. Paris 26:08
Yeah, I think that’s really, really smart. And I know that that’s, it’s funny, it’s like, the concern of the of the seller is, hey, it’s great that we got 100,000 over ask Yeah. Yeah. Is the buyer gonna come to the table with $30,000? Cash, because that’s what they’re going to need? You know, and so if you if you have that that gap, you know, sort of, you know, honor or that that gap, sort of yes, then then it? So that’s really smart. So escalation clause, Gap coverage. And, and then how I’m curious on and, and, and the answer really should be it doesn’t matter. But but we all are, we’re interpersonal, humans with connections important to us. We like people that we like, and we tend to treat people better that we like, yeah, yes. How important relationships are with the within, of course, you can’t be friends with everyone. We have 46,000 realtors in the Chicagoland area. But I bet you run into a lot of the same people over and over again. And how important is it to to? You know, be? And again, the easy answer is? Well, yeah, you should be friends with everyone. Yeah, does it ever move the needle for you? Do you ever feel that like, it probably helps me, you know, if I have a good relationship with, you know, the listing agent, maybe helps, you know, if two offers come in, that are similar, maybe they’re gonna choose mine, because they know me. And they know that I would only bring a legitimate offer to the table, like how important are those relationships

Brittany Simon 27:35
extremely. And I think not only for the fact is, that’s the person that even the agent on the other side, you know, that’s okay, I’ve worked with them before, or I like them. Or, at the same time, if maybe there’s a hiccup within the transaction itself, I have confidence in them that they will help move the needle along. So we can, you know, work to a completed transaction. Whereas you know, they’re not going to get caught up in the emotionality of it as well, and take it personal. Because too often I think clients take there are I mean, I’m sorry, agents, take their clients, you know, stress on and make it personal with the other agents. And I always try to focus on you know, we all want the same thing here, we all wanted to close, nobody wants to work for free. Your clients want to sell a house, or my clients want to buy a house or vice versa. And we all want the same goal. So you know, I’ve actually been in some pretty intense and crazy situations. And I always try to keep my cool even when maybe I’m not receiving it on the other end from the agents. But I think you know, this is not going to help. And especially before you’re have an offer accepted, I think it is so critical. Because I think, you know, I’m on both sides as a listing agent, and as a buyer’s agent. And on the listing agent, you know, there, you’re getting inundated with, you know, calls and questions, did you get this what you know, showing requests or phones blowing up? So sometimes, you know, you have to have a little patience on the buyers, as a buyer’s agent to realize, you know, they are, you know, getting filled in so many calls and text messages trying to answer everybody’s questions. So if you take a little bit longer, just try to give them a little bit of grace. And on the list agents perspective, you know, as a buyer’s agent, I’m trying to get my client to win, you know, we’re probably, you know, they’ve maybe lost a few times we’re trying to get them in, I want to try to know, you know, what should we have in the offer that might make us win? What do you the seller is looking for? So kind of goes both ways here, but I think too, if you could kind of just remember that everybody is working over time right now and is trying their best. I think it was a strong way. Yeah, because I’ve actually been hearing of some agents doing some crazy things and I think to them, like you’re not starting on a good foot And, you know, I would be nervous to have my clients accept an offer where the agent, the by their buyer’s agent is already kind of acting a little nutty, and, you know, taking things up a notch, and I actually, my clients actually lost a deal over the weekend to multiple offers, but things went crazy. But it was okay, because my clients actually, given the numbers, this was going to be the most expensive sale in this particular town on thus far,

D.J. Paris 30:32
you don’t want to be the most expensive sale and

Brittany Simon 30:35
this was not their number one town. So closer to the list price are over, they are willing, but much further over. And with that appraisal gap, you know, they’re just like, you know, it comes to a certain point where that amount of money we can wait and maybe be in the town we want to be in which I think so again, it’s always important to know, you know, your clients true goals, because you never want them to end up winning a situation and they actually kind of feel disappointed that they won. You want them to be half Sure.

D.J. Paris 31:03
Yeah, that’s a really good point. I have a question. So when you first are working with a buyer, before you’ve taken them out? How do you prep them? Assuming that they are not familiar with the craziness of today’s market? What are you saying to them to let them know about the urgency about the creativity that might be involved? You know, what’s the education process look like? Because I imagine that’s going to be a huge component for you just to keep your clients from freaking out. Yeah. And because they’re gonna freak out anyway. Yeah, I’m curious on on what you say to them to sort of prep them for the environment that we’re in?

Brittany Simon 31:39
Definitely. Well, the good part is, in a sense that most people right now are aware that it’s a little bit challenging right now, for buyers. So I think one of the most important things that we talk about is their timeline, because having flexibility is pretty much essential right now, in terms for sellers, because a lot of sellers need time themselves, either to find gain, or a lot of sellers are relocating, or some are building or some are relocating and building in that new state, and they need a little bit of time. So I think, knowing that also, you know, you might close, and it’s still going to be a little bit of time. So having flexibility is really key. And if you don’t have flexibility, maybe let’s try to find some options where we can try to work that in somehow. And the next thing really, you know, going over what it takes, and what it takes is, you know, having strong financials, and you know, not everybody has that and if you don’t, there still is a way but you know, we probably want to be looking a little under than what you’re actually qualified for. Because if we’re looking around your max, and that’s really the type of home you want to be in, and you don’t have extra padding outside of that, then you know, we’re probably going to be in more situations that we lose than we went. But sometimes, you know, I will say there are certain areas that still are not always getting everything over asked and some pricing that started too high, that now there’s some wiggle room or, you know, sometimes when properties have a little bit more time on market, there is the you know, hopefully, the ability to negotiate a little bit or so, you know, sometimes those are the things that I’m telling clients that we need to look at, you know, not the ones that are just coming on the market, because they’re probably hoping to get multiple offers, or they’re probably more hoping to get the price that they listed at, they’re hoping not to negotiate. So the properties now that have been on the market for maybe 30 days, plus, the market has kind of spoken that I don’t think that that is the price they’re probably ultimately going to get. So those are the properties we should probably be looking at. So it really kind of depends on the buyer and what their financing is, you know, do you have conventional, are you cash? Or are you FHA or VA, and, you know, unfortunately, in our, you know, people who are not putting as much down are looked at as not as strong as buyers even though that’s not always the case. And there’s many reasons you’re not putting as much down. And also given that rates are so great right now, sometimes your money is doing better in other places, you don’t want to pull it out. But there is something that a lot of people feel that there is strength in the amount you’re putting down. And sometimes that’s true. So it’s it’s a lot of things that you want

D.J. Paris 34:30
it is really interesting to sight I’m sorry, didn’t mean interrupt. You’re just just as you said that it really did occur to me like I have a very I kind of just got lucky accidentally with timing when I when I bought a place about a year ago and I just kind of got lucky with with rates and you know, it is funny like I had to put a significant amount down, but I was I mean if I could take that cash and just beat under 3% Which is pretty not that difficult to do with a not as much risk, I do understand people wanting to put as little down as possible at the same time. It’s nice that you, you can lock in or you know, these rates, which are probably now hovering around the 4% range. Yeah. But, but you’re right, I think so you’re doing a lot of education. I imagine you’re Are you having the conversation with your buyers about speed? In other words, we’re gonna go see properties, there’s going to be some that you immediately know, that you’re interested in, maybe you’re not sure if you want to put an offer? And do you do give them sort of any guidance around timeline? In other words, hey, you know, in the past, you could maybe sit and think about it for some time. It’s a different environment today, or, you know, how are you educating them around the speed to decision?

Brittany Simon 35:48
Absolutely. So speed is incredibly important. And especially if something just hit the market, and I say, it’s great, you love it, it seems priced? Well, other people probably going to think so too. So I always suggest not waiting, let’s go in immediately. Or if there’s offered deadlines, so know how sometimes homes are hitting the market. And right off the bat, they’re saying, If multiple offers, they will be due as Sunday at 5pm. So there’s an expectation that they’re have a pretty good idea they are going to get multiple offers. So I try to you know, absolutely, if you’re interested and it checks a lot of your boxes, the price is right, there is really no room to wait.

D.J. Paris 36:32
I was just with a bunch of my friends at the Chicago Association of Realtors. We serve on a committee there and we were out doing a thing last weekend or two weekends ago. And we were we were laughing. And again, I’m not a practicing agent. So I’m always like the last to hear about this. But we were talking about this idea of in the MLS putting and I imagine this happens all over the country. And I’m not exactly sure why we’ve all decided that highest and best offers need to be in by Sunday at five o’clock. When nothing happens between then and Monday morning. Why not? Monday morning at 11am. Totally. Like can we all agree as Realtors like let’s it the right thing to do for our clients? I mean, five o’clock on a Sunday is a bad deadline. As far as like that’s like a day where people are well, realtors are working, everyone else is relaxing. It’s not a great day, in my opinion. And again, as a marketing guy, I’m always thinking like, give your clients the best opportunity. And I’m not saying for anyone who does highest and best it might do five o’clock on Sunday, and it works for you. Great, but I have heard so many Realtors pull me aside and go can you believe realtor? Like why are we doing this to ourselves? And I’m just, you know, but but it is it is funny. That’s the environment we’re in now. So yeah, so this education of of your buyers, it’s like, Hey, we got to make a decision quick. We have to have all of these sort of creative, ancillary or sort of conditions set up, and then we’re just going to kind of see what works and what doesn’t.

Brittany Simon 38:07
Yeah, and you know, I also talked about obviously, escalation clauses are writers and the ability to prep them also that there’s a lot of sellers who need time either you know, as a leaseback, or post closed possession, or just extending because the expectation of when you do that, as opposed closed possession or leaseback is that the seller is now going to pay you rents. But now some sellers are even trying to push that as part as much as possible. So they pay as little as possible. So having longer close dates, I think. And I, if I’m not mistaken, I think 90 days is about as long as a lender will lock without having to extend that rate lock position. So then it’s kind of a detriment to buyers, because now you might have to pay more to keep the same rate you initially locked at. So just kind of prepping them that sometimes though, that’s is what sellers looking for, and or these reverse home to buy contingencies, where you know, it’s just crazy time. So again, having that flexibility but knowing that there’s different things going on. So the more that the as much as we can try to make things easy for the sellers and kind of give them what they’re looking for that just really makes you come to the top of their list because not everybody can people are under deadlines other people need to be in by certain time. So hopefully that kind of weeds out some of the competition too. But I will find, you know, more than likely right now, most buyers understand that and are knowing they that’s part of basically playing ball. You gotta give the sellers what they’re looking for or else you don’t have stand a chance even despite what the number is because they have to find something else.

D.J. Paris 39:57
It’s so funny that you do Funny only because it makes perfect sense to me as a non practicing agent, that you contact the listing agent and say, Hey, what are you looking for? Or tell me what you’re seeing because we want to be competitive and we want to get your, your seller the exactly what they want. I, I would imagine most buyer’s agents don’t do that. It’s the same thing with like, I recruit realtors, that’s my job. So often, I talked to realtors all day who work at most, most of the time they work in other firms. And I say, Oh, well, if you’re thinking of maybe switching the first question, and it took me a, I’ve been doing this for 12 years, this is kind of embarrassing, because I knew better, but I didn’t put it into effect until several years in. And I really encourage everyone listening to to to do this. But, again, you’re not recruiting realtors. But what I what I do is I say, Hey, before we get started, and I start telling you about why our firms the greatest firm on the planet, which of course nobody really wants to hear anyway. But I’ll say, Hey, what are you looking for? You know, if you’re going to switch from XYZ firm, to another firm, like, why, like, what are you looking for what’s important to you, this is just sales 101. And it’s the same thing that Britney is doing with her with with these listing agents is calling them and saying, hey, I can put an I can throw an offer at you. But I want to know what the what your sellers really want. Because then I can maybe give you a better offer as a result of that. And, and also it’s you have a fiduciary responsibility to your buyer. And so it’s so it all of this is but it can be tricky, right? Because getting the listing agent on the phone is not easy. Yeah. So how do you do you have to be very persistent. With that, or or is it is that can that be challenging to even get in touch with the listing agent?

Brittany Simon 41:48
I will say it sometimes sometimes it is, sometimes it is. But I will find you know, the great agents know they have to answer the phone. And that you know, to get the best price for their sellers. And for them to choose help them choose the right buyer that it would most likely make sense to have that conversation if they’re getting that call, because it also will help, in my opinion, for the transaction to stay together. Because if the buyer didn’t realize that the southern needed this much time, that could be a deal breaker, and then you pick that offer, and it falls apart only to go back to market. And now what if 10 of those are offers you first have now you only have maybe two, and they’re not as good as the ones you originally had. So I think it’s really important for the agents to talk if that’s something that they both do.

D.J. Paris 42:37
Yeah, it is. And it’s just I really, it’s funny, we buyer’s agents, you know, are stressed because they’re trying to rise to the top of the pile of offers, list agents are stressed because they’re dealing with all of the communication. And there isn’t a centralized sort of way of distributing offers. And I was saying that earlier, like somebody really should, should should create some sort of system that we all agree to use, and yeah, you know, maybe streamline just a bit, and I’m sure that will likely never happen. But But this idea of understanding the other person’s pain, I think is really important. Because, you know, and Britney sort of said it without saying it is is reaching out and saying, Hey, I’m not just going to throw some offer that you know, because I know you’re getting a lot of just offers thrown at you. And you know, I want to I want to get a little bit more specific about about what you need to make this close. I would also like to hear you know, what, what trends have you seen because you work in the city, and the suburbs, and I know that we have listeners from all over the country and rural and urban areas, of course, just added just generally speaking, are you seeing a migration? And I know during COVID, we saw here in Chicago, a bit of a migration from from the city out to the suburbs. Are you still seeing that the movement there? Or are we seeing a return to more urban environments? Or? Or is it just too tough to tell? Because I’ve read because inventory is so low right now,

Brittany Simon 44:08
you know, we are seeing a return. And it’s interesting, but the city is, in my opinion, behaving different than the suburbs. So the rental market in the city is insanity. I will say really, I’m part of what we’re seeing in terms of the suburbs with buyers. But the rental markets crazy pretty much everywhere. Because I do believe that now that some offices are not maybe requiring people to be back five days a week, but maybe it’s two to three times a week. So there still now needs to be a present back. And maybe people are also I feel like switching jobs and finding jobs now that they got used to not being home and now they’re relocating so they’re renting because they’re not sure how long they’re going to stay. But with that said that I do see like a return back and I will think that I’m seeing that high rise CES are having a slower return, I’m not necessarily seeing the market be crazy for them right now, as opposed as I think Westown, in my opinion, is nuts, things are going really quickly. Whereas, you know, I think you can get a bit of a deal in a high rise right now, if that’s something you wanted. So like areas like the Gold Coast, or it’s taking a little bit longer to recover, I truly believe they rail because the location is phenomenal. And you’re right by the leg in your in many cases walking distance to you know, the loop to work. But you know, it’s taking a little bit of time, so it’s behaving a little different. And in my opinion in the surrounding suburbs, I feel like they’re all pretty much knots right now. Unless somebody I think, really missed the mark and pricing. Most of them are, you know, you’re getting multiple offers in a very short amount of time. So it’s, it’s interesting, and at many different price points, so I’m seeing it across the board. Whereas, you know, it’s almost, if you’re moving to the city, it might make sense to maybe buy something you might have the ability to rent, if you don’t think you’re going to stay or you might switching a job in the future. So then at least because some of these rent arounds are they’re crazy. I in my mind, of course, I’m like, Why pay that when you could just buy for less, but I get it, the uncertainty of not necessarily knowing you’re going to stay and not wanting to lock yourself in just in case, I guess the market changes, which, you know, there’s a lot of people that feel like in mites. I don’t think we’re going to see some type of mad rush, like, if there is some type of correction or, or balancing that comes but because comps are kind of where they’re at, and it’s gonna take a little bit for that to, you know, fade down, I guess. But

D.J. Paris 46:52
it actually might make sense, although I sure very few people would ever do this. But right now, if if you’re living in a place that’s appreciated, substantially, selling it, and then renting for a few years until the market redirects is not it’s not a bad idea, per se, practically, practically, it’s not a very easy thing to do, either, especially when there’s children in their school. Yeah, there’s, you know, the space and, and it’s not something that but, but I as a marketer, I love the idea about bringing those, I love the concept of bringing that to your client, not because they’re going to do it, but just because just because it makes you I love people who bring ideas. And yeah, this is kind of what we’re talking about. You’re talking about bringing creative ideas to the to the offer table. And you know, this, this can be the same thing. I think there’s a huge opportunity right now for you know, people to who are listening who maybe aren’t as busy with, with, you know, clients, this is a great time to reach out to every single person, you know, who owns a home and say, Hey, let me just just out of curiosity, I bet you’re curious what your home’s worth right now. Yeah, run a quick comp for you. And whether or not you’re going to move like, of course, that’s up to you. But I just want you to know, because it’s something that I think the vast majority of us outside of the industry never think about until we’re ready to move. And we go, Oh, I wonder what my home’s worth, but we all sort of, it’s kind of it’s like looking at your stock portfolio, or your your, your securities portfolio. Like I don’t exactly know what’s going on. But I kind of like to see the bottom line and my upper my down. And, and, you know, I’m, we’re not financial advisors unless we are. And so, you know, we just get a little app that sort of tells us but there really isn’t an app like that for our home. I mean, Zillow is probably the closest thing to it, but we know that the Zestimate, you know, may be accurate. So this is I think, where realtors can really demonstrate value is they can you know if you’re struggling, and I’m sorry to get on a bit of a soapbox, but I’m just curious to get your thoughts about if you if today, if you didn’t have any clients, let’s say you were just everything when you were starting fresh. What would you do to generate business? I’m just curious.

Brittany Simon 49:11
Definitely. Well, I think, of course your sphere of influence. It becomes neglected over time. Or sometimes people just they assume that this person knows me. They like me, why wouldn’t they think of me or asked me or use but people forget or just last words? Yeah. Or people also think that okay, maybe you are too busy? Or maybe you’re not doing and I don’t know. So you definitely have to be vocal and I think more often than not ask for the business but I think you’re right. If How about hypothetically let’s say this is what I’m showing, it’s worth what if we can get a little bit more would you sell then and some people you do have secondary homes or they do want to maybe travel you know, I do know of some of my friends that are currently staying in, you know, they have the flexibility with their job. So they’re just staying in Airbnbs in different parts of the country right now because it can. So you know, maybe you do have that flexibility. And you know, hey, if you’re you don’t have to worry about it, you can get this much more, you know, money in your pocket, would you? And I think a lot of people would actually say yes. Now, I mean,

D.J. Paris 50:19
I didn’t mean to interrupt you, I was just thinking I was chatting with, with a friend of mine, I’ll keep keep her name anonymous. But she’s a realtor, very successful here in Chicago. And she was saying, she goes, You know, I was just thinking about what’s my number? And I said, Well, what do you what do you mean? What’s your number? And she goes, What’s my number that if somebody offered me in, you know, she was not looking to sell her home? Yeah, she lives on the North Shore? And she said, would it be 500,000? above asking, would it be a million? Would it be whatever the number is? Would it be 50,000, above, above what I think it’s worth, whatever that number is, that is kind of a fun exercise to do. Because, you know, like, I had never thought of that. And I just bought a place a year ago. And I’ve never, I don’t know what my number is. But that is kind of a fun exercise that you can do with people and say just curiosity, if you weren’t given a number, would that encourage you to maybe move maybe rents, maybe buy another place, maybe move to another part of the country? So I imagine you’d be doing things like that as well.

Brittany Simon 51:22
Yeah. And I also think, you know, just having those conversations almost maybe for fun, but you know, if you have enough of them, you’re probably gonna have a few that are serious. And now you’re talking real numbers and what their plan is, and now all of a sudden, you’re busy. And you’re, you know, so I think you have to create opportunity for yourself. But I think don’t neglect your spirit, your sphere of influence, because, you know, people aren’t thinking about this all day long. They don’t know what you’re doing. So unless you’re telling them they forget until all sudden they have the need. So you have

D.J. Paris 51:54
to create, what do you do to stay in touch, because you talked about that spirit sphere of influence is easy to neglect, because you’re caught up in the day to day things are flying at you, and sphere of influence. You know, what we’ll talk about people, these are not current clients, these are just people that are close to you that hopefully would think to use you. But we want to remind them over time, consistently over time that oh, by the way, when you’re ready, I’m here. What? What are you doing to stay in touch with those people? Or what advice do you have?

Brittany Simon 52:25
Definitely. So I will say, you know, first of all, what I think most people have, and can be an easy way to start is, you know, social media, you know, you’re probably friends with most of the people who are in your sphere of influence, if not everybody, especially maybe even some people who are past clients, or people have referred you. So I think letting people know what you’re doing. You know, I think I’m trying to be better at this. But you know, creating video, you know, everybody says it works. So, you know, sometimes I think you’ve got to step out of your comfort zone and just do it. But also, aside from that, I also do pot buys, actually don’t always go there. But there’s ways you know, to do things that they mail things and just say, hey, you know, here’s like a, some type of gift or it doesn’t always have to be or, you know, handwritten notes or something just to say, hey, and a Starbucks card. It’s easy enough. And you know, kind of gets people thinking about you, again, without being

D.J. Paris 53:21
a couple other things, too. I want to talk about that. Because you’re really these are, these are very, this is like straight out of the Brian Buffini playbook, which is pop buys handwritten notes, items of value. What we’re talking about really is, is earning someone’s business. And I don’t mean you have to buy someone’s business by, you know, giving them extravagant gifts. Of course, you do not have to do that. But you do have to earn someone’s business and especially people in your sphere, we think, Well, those are people that know like, and trust me already. Yes. And you still need to earn their business, which means they already they already love you. And you have to remind them who you are and what you do. And then because people are people and we have a million things going on in our lives, and we I always say the best assumption you can ever make is that everybody you knows forgets that you’re a realtor. Yes. Yeah, yeah. And so and so it’s like, okay, well, that’s kind of a bummer that no one’s gonna remember what I do for a living well, okay, but you know what, that that that’s a pretty easy solution. Right? I mean, Coca Cola certainly operates out of that same mentality of we better promote ourselves a lot or in and you don’t have to be the realtor that has the billboard on the side of the highway. If that’s not your personality, you don’t have to have the bench back ads, or be in the, you know, the grocery store, shopping cart, you know, thing what, but you could just pick up the phone in contact or text or, or send items of value. So absolutely curious what I’m curious how do you what advice do you have after a sale? So this is a thing that I think Realtors often really miss you know, their their previous clients just get completely lost. So what what are you doing after the sale, you know, years down the road so knowing that these people they just I just bought them their their forever home or rather we just bought they just bought their forever home they moved in, they’re not going anywhere for the next 20 years. But I want to I still want to stay in touch. What are you doing to make sure that they don’t forget about you for referrals or whatever?

Brittany Simon 55:39
Yeah, absolutely. So I will say what I always do is I do do like Christmas or like holiday gift to pretty much everybody. Everybody who buys with me and gets like a customized ornament. It’s not It’s like Christmas either. I know some people say Oh, I am I put up on my shelf. I love that. I mean it just and again, I feel like you don’t have to spend money, but I do this is I like to. And then also for the my repeat people I always do or not my repeat people on people outside of my first time buyers that year or who bought something that year, I was kind of have like a theme that I do. And like this past year I did like customers mugs, but then I got like hot cocoa bombs and like gourmet popcorn and customize box. And I really take my time with Christmas cards and I write a personal message in every single one, every single one. It’s not just not sign my name, because I think that’s important because that’s so easy to do. And I can’t tell you how many people respond back to me how thoughtful that was thank you for reaching out or in you know, you’re always at the forefront of we ever know somebody who’s going to buy or sell will think of you. And that’s just one of the things I do that year or you know, at the end of the year. But I definitely think even if you just send a Christmas card with a nice message, it also goes a long way. I also do you know Starbucks gift cards to to you know, depending on who everybody is and where they’re at. Sometimes it doesn’t always make sense to do the box. And sometimes I say that for more of my I guess they say you’re a sphere. Because they do do Brian Buffini. So I need to separate it. But, but I like to hit everybody because sometimes I don’t always like categorizing my sphere because sometimes just because you don’t know somebody’s you’re a sphere yet, and you don’t want to lose anybody out. And something I also do and I’ve started doing more and more lately is I do send out a newsletter and I know not everybody likes it. And it’s kind of you know, sometimes just junk in your inbox. So I’ve really tried to really personalize it write something personal about what’s going on, kind of curate it a little bit, I always try to have kind of a subject line that will stand out or use an emoji that’s just who I am. So you know, I definitely try not to make it like March newsletter, because I get a lot of those myself and I don’t care and it’s just you know, I know a lot of brokerages to have really kind of just like boiler plate stuff where it’s like everybody can send out the same thing if they wanted I was trying to change it. So and I will say that I’ve done that first this year, I’ve actually gotten a handful of business from it who people sent from the news. I got two listings and one buyer from my from actually my February and March newsletter and what

D.J. Paris 58:33
type of content you’re mentioning you weren’t using the boilerplate content are you doing what type of content

Brittany Simon 58:40
some of it because sometimes it’s great but stuff that I think is kind of like a filler kind of cheesy I take out but you know I look at what’s going on right now. So people want to know Okay, springs coming How can you make your and I don’t I don’t know if I did do this or I’m planning on doing this but for instance, how some quick easy inexpensive things to you know, to create curb appeal now that we’re heading into the warmer months or you know, things going on in the neighborhood that are more specific to you know, the time I also just tried to write a message of just my you know, general thoughts on what’s going on. And I begin it with that and sometimes I include just more pictures or that are personal you know, I really just trying to make it maybe my personal newsletter not too much. This is my real estate newsletter because I can give holds more value to people and they’ll read it.

D.J. Paris 59:34
I think you’re right. I wrote an article once called nobody wants to read your newsletter for a magazine because nobody wants to read a newsletter that isn’t personalized, that doesn’t have content that is of interest to that person that’s being sent to and realtors oftentimes I mean look we’re busy you know realtors are busy they don’t have time to to write but but you have that background you have that broadcast journalism background, you’re creative person And so that fits neatly into your, into your skill set. And so you get to sort of be creative in that sense. And so Oh, by the way, maybe it’s like it’s National Women’s History Month. And here’s some cool things to know about that. And maybe it’s even outside of, of the world of real estate, but it’s important to you and you can express yourself that way or hay as as the, you know, as the spring is rearing its head now we can start talking about you know, things like front doors, front doors are becoming important and things like that. And so you could you can bring that into real estate. And I think that newsletters, it’s such a great opportunity that I think Realtors Miss oftentimes, which is I’m just going to pay a service to send out this newsletter, and that’s fine. And honestly, it’s fine. And no one’s going to read it, but that’s okay. Because at least they’ll see your name. And that sort of level one level one is just I’m gonna push something out there, my name is at the bottom, nobody cares. But it’s but it’s better than nothing. Level two is I’m going to put some actual content in here that I think is cool. And, and if I think it’s cool, that’s are my clients will be connect with that as well. Because like, like attracts like, mostly. So I think in social media is the same way I think we can get really, you can be creative and fun and passionate without being salesy. And I think the best realtors are, I think, the best, the best realtors that I’ve ever met are the least salesy people. They’re just extremely competent. And they’re passionate. And they’re like, well, here’s what I do, here’s how it works. And they talk about it. And I think that’s, that’s, you know, we were sort of really fortunate that we have the ability to find yourself, and the technology exists to express yourself in a way that 15 years ago, you know, didn’t really didn’t really exist. And so now there’s so many different ways where we can say, This is who I am, and this is what I’m into. And I think people connect with that.

Brittany Simon 1:02:02
Exactly. And you just have to actually, like, do it, I find myself sometimes getting in my head. And I sometimes bring it back to even when I was in college I was in. I was on Miami television news, I’m TM. And I remember sometimes when we were getting ready for camera, and they’re like trying to test your microphone to like say something, say something I always remember thinking like, well, what should I say in my head, but I’m like, I’m supposed to be like an anchor, or they don’t want to, they don’t know, I have to know. So sometimes it’s just just say it say something, say anything, that’s what they’re looking for. And definitely, to your point to connect, because again, what differentiates Realtors from each other is your unique personality, how you what your thoughts are your opinions, I’m sure we collectively share a lot of the same thoughts and opinions, especially with this market. But your style, your attitude, your enthusiasm, you know, I find myself able to adapt different personality types, maybe not everybody is so sometimes I can be more buttoned up, or sometimes I will be a little more loose. And you know, either with my clothing or you know, just the discussions we have, you know, maybe it’s about life instead of just real estate and other people just want to stick to real estate, which is totally fine, too. But I always find, you know, when I started thinking about it too much, just do it. Because at the end of the day, nobody’s thinking about it that much where they’re going to critique you to think that I think like you’re awful, I would never use you. I think at the end, I find this when I see other people doing it. Wow, they put themselves out there. That was cool. That was unique. I wish I could do that more. And then I think, well, I can’t lie, all I have to do is do it. So I think a lot of realtors just need to do it. Get out of your head. It’s not that deep. It’s not that serious. And that you know, you’re just wanting to people to kind of know who you are. And that’s where you built the trust, you can build rapport and the credibility so they can use you. And everything else, like you said can be learned but to adapt your personality to connect with people and to know that okay, I’m going to enjoy talking to this person on the phone for the next few months or whatnot. You got to show them who you are.

D.J. Paris 1:04:11
Yeah, my final question is, imagine you could go I’ve never done this before. And I just think it would be interesting. Maybe we’ll make it a recurring feature on the show. If if there’s no pressure that make this go well, but no, I but I’m genuinely curious if if the if you now you’ve been doing this 12 years. So if you could go back to your rookie self and give your rookie self some advice. What would you tell your first year realtor self? That of what you know now that she didn’t know back then?

Brittany Simon 1:04:47
That is a great question. And what I think I would say is for one, you know, I always kind of felt in a way I connected better with strangers. I don’t know if I felt like intimidated from other people or my sphere, or just a little bit that at the beginning, I didn’t know as much, obviously. So I didn’t feel confident. And until I felt confident, I didn’t want to feel, I guess, embarrassed or something to people I already know, I’m gonna pause

D.J. Paris 1:05:15
you for a second, this is a very, very common thing. So people get into real estate. And we, you know, we read books, and we go to trainings, and it’s like, put your sphere of influence together. And, and that’s a great thing. And you should do that. And I’m in no way telling people what they should or shouldn’t do, I’m just explaining that it is a very common occurrence where somebody goes, I don’t really want to deal with my friends right away, because I’m afraid I’m going to screw things up. But I’m not that I don’t really know that much. And I feel like maybe I’m not going to do a good job, this sort of imposter effect. It’s not even an imposter effect. It’s just, I just don’t feel competent. And I don’t want to be with my best friend. And what if I screw something up? So so this is really, really important. So go ahead, I’m sorry, I just wanted to pause because this is, this is a big thing,

Brittany Simon 1:06:02
totally. But I think I would definitely go back and put myself out there to the people who know love and care about me, way more. So I mean, it was great that I was able to connect with I feel like so many people who didn’t know me and really build my business, to where it is. But I also if I put as much effort into that to the people who, you know, I already know, my sphere of influence, I maybe would have had, it would have been a little bit easier. I don’t know that it would ever be easy. But maybe it would have been a little bit easier. Because I did was kind of, you know, they always say don’t be a secret agents. And I kind of was because I was I did feel this little tinge of embarrassment. Because what if they asked me this? And I don’t know, and, you know, almost to strangers, it’s like, they don’t know that I don’t know. So I felt more confident to tell them whereas, you know, my friends and family knew I was just really starting to get into real estate. So there was probably things that I didn’t know, and I still don’t know things, and I’m still learning. But I think that now I realize that, you know, you need people that who know you to help you people generally do, you just got to ask, and I didn’t really want to ask, and I would definitely go back. And I would ask and I would let people know, and I would have more of those real and genuine conversations with them, like, Hey, I know that I’m new. And maybe you have questions about that. But I also have, you know, family, who’s in this, we’ve been in a long time and is supportive of brokerage, so I can find out the answer. But why would you give me a shot? You

D.J. Paris 1:07:39
know, that that what you just said is I personally I love I love this honesty and vulnerability. And again, I know we’re kind of going back in time, but but the willingness to be vulnerable is an exceedingly attractive quality that and I think it’s because vulnerability is so scary. That it is it is so difficult for us to say, here’s here’s something that that I feel very exposed. And I feel like I’m letting you down. But But I do have a solution. So hey, I knew I just got my license. And or I’m, you know, in the first few years of my business, there’s going to be questions, I am sure that you will ask me that I won’t immediately have the answer for but what I will promise you, Mr. or Mrs. So and So, is that I will get the answer for you. And I will come back to you with the answer within, you know, a day or so or whatever. Yeah, absolutely. And I and you know, the funny thing about working with with friends and your sphere, is those are the people, I mean, just sort of practically those are the people are going to forgive you the most anyway. So even if you do screw up, they’re most likely but I think having that sort of vulnerable converse, like, like you said, Give me a I would love the opportunity to earn your business and I get it. I’m not 20 years in the business, but maybe that’s a benefit in a way because I will work maybe harder than somebody who’s so busy.

Brittany Simon 1:09:07
And I have the time to give you that specialized individual attention. And I want this and I want to prove myself so allow me whereas somebody who’s maybe been in the business a longer time and or maybe has more clients, they just can’t do that. So sometimes you might actually have a way better experience anyways. But yeah, vulnerability is hard. And it’s, it’s taken, it’s still hard. I’m still trying to put myself out

D.J. Paris 1:09:35
worse, but of course it is it’s hard because people can hurt you with it. I mean, people can reject vulnerability, they can they can they can damage you with it. But what most people end up doing with vulnerability is it actually vulnerability leads to intimacy and intimacy is what what we’re sort of bred for as, you know, as as a as a species. This idea of, of we’re in summit people. And so this idea that we want to be with people who we trust, we know we like. And the surest way to do that is to, to open up with, with, of course, appropriate boundaries, obviously, making sure that that, you know, you do have personal and professional boundaries set. But but being able to say, here’s what I know, and here’s what I don’t know. And here’s what I’m going to do about what I don’t know. Yeah. And and I think most people go, okay, that makes sense to me. You know, we don’t expect perfection out of anyone other than ourselves, mostly, we don’t expect our friends to be perfect. And our clients don’t expect us but they do expect us to work hard for them. Yeah. And, and, you know, that’s, that’s, that’s all, I think that is really required. Or that’s the most important thing that’s required. So this is this has been such a fun conversation, I’m grateful to Brittany for going going a little deeper than sometimes we do on on on our show here. But I think it’s important because what we’re dealing with, throughout whether it’s, you know, you’re buying a toaster or a million dollar home, we’re talking about, you know, people making buying decisions that are and of course, in the case of a primary residence, this is a very emotional decision. It’s one of the largest, maybe the largest financial decision at that time that person might be making, it’s, what is it is it buying, buying a home, kids in school or college and then retirement, those are kind of the big, the big ones. And so this is something that, that if you can hone your skills and be willing to connect with your, your, your your clients, at a, at a deeper level, you’re going to you’re going to really have some raving fans. And I think also, you know, the the being very disciplined, as Brittany, you mentioned about always consistently not neglecting the people in your life. Because, again, it’s a relationship. And if you don’t, just like anything, if you neglect anything in your life, it’s going to suffer. It’s just going to suffer. So you are obviously doing an amazing job. I very excited to continue to watch your your progression as you continue to, to do more and more. But if there’s anyone out there who is either interested in buying, selling, renting, whether it’s residential, I know you also do commercial, you know, whether it’s the city or the suburbs, and there’s looking to work with a top realtor. What’s the best way someone should reach out to you?

Brittany Simon 1:12:31
Absolutely. Well, they can definitely call me My cell phone is usually i i am a person who answers your phone and I always get back to people. So my cell phone number is 630-936-2930. Or you can reach me on social media. Like you said, my my handle is on Instagram at realtor dot Brittany with a TT a NY or Facebook and I’m under Brittany coming Simon that was my maiden name, or email me [email protected] But I always answer my phone. So if I don’t get back to the second you call or text it will be same day for sure.

D.J. Paris 1:13:11
Yeah, and definitely check out Britney’s website. She has a really cool logo. I’m a big fan of the Britney Simon logo. So visit her on her website, which is Brittany Simon group.com. Again, Brittany is dri two T’s a NYBRITT a NY Simon group.com. And then Brittany dot realtor and our sorry, realtor.on. Instagram, we will have links to those in the show notes. So you don’t have to type that in. We’ll have direct links. Brittany, thank you so much for being on the show. We really, really appreciate your time. This is a lot of fun for us. And maybe you and I one day we’ll go back to to our alma mater. And visit because Brittany and I were saying she has not been back since college. I don’t know if we said that on the show or off off air. But I’ve only been back once. So we’re probably both due for a visit, for sure at some point. And I do want to find out where you worked as a server in college because I’m curious if I frequented one of those establishments wasn’t when you were there, of course, but But anyway, on behalf of Brittany and myself, we want to thank our audience for continuing to listen and support our show, please tell a friend I think of one other realtor that really needs to hear what Brittany talked about today specifically around how to get offers noticed some good marketing ideas as well. And just you know, constant communication with with with your clients and send them a link to our website. Our website is keeping it real pod.com and every episode we’ve ever done can be streamed right there or just have them pull up a podcast app search for keeping it real and hit that subscribe button. On behalf of Brittany and myself. We thank our audience and on behalf of our audience, we thank Brittany for her time today. We will see everybody on the next episode and Thanks Brittany. It was a real pleasure.

Brittany Simon 1:14:59
Yeah, likewise Thank you so much for having me.

D.J. Paris 1:15:02
Thank you. We’ll see everyone next time.

Moses Hall with MoHall Commercial talks about the beginning of his career in real estate and how he started helping the realtor community in state and national level through associations. Moses describes what commercial real estate is and breaks down the sectors and why he started with commercial real estate. Moses also discusses the commission structure for agents in the commercial space. Next, Moses talks about what he thinks office space and retail space will look like post-covid19. Last, Moses describes what has he learned about real estate by serving in the realtor communities.

If you’d prefer to watch this interview, click here to view on YouTube!

Moses Hall can be reached at 312-826-9925.

Please follow Moses on Instagram here.

This episode is brought to you by Real Geeks.

D.J. Paris 0:00
Have you ever thought about adding commercial real estate into your business? We’re going to talk about that today. Stay tuned. This episode of Keeping it real is brought to you by real geeks. How many homes are you going to sell this year? Do you have the right tools? Is your website turning soft leads and interested buyers? Are you spending money on leads that aren’t converting? Well real geeks is your solution. Find out why agents across the country choose real geeks as their technology partner. Real geeks was created by an agent for agents. They pride themselves on delivering a sales and marketing solution so that you can easily generate more business. Their agent websites are fast and built for lead conversion with a smooth search experience for your visitors. Real geeks also includes an easy to use agent CRM. So once a lead signs up on your website, you can track their interest and have great follow up conversations. Real geeks is loaded with a ton of marketing tools to nurture your leads and increase brand awareness visit real geeks.com forward slash keeping it real pod and find out why Realtors come to real geeks to generate more business again, visit real geeks.com forward slash keeping it real pod. And now on to our show.

Hello, and welcome to another episode of Keeping it real the largest podcast made by real estate agents. And for real estate agents. My name is DJ Parris. I’m your guide and host through the show. And if you’re new here, we tucked in top producing brokers and ask them how they grow their business. And today we have a super exciting episode, Moses Hall is going to be here to talk all about commercial and everything that residential agents really need to know about it. But before we get to Moses, the best way that you can help us continue to put out these episodes is by telling other realtors about us. So please tell anyone you know about our show, they can go to our website and stream every episode we’ve ever done keeping it real pod.com Or just pull up a podcast app search for keeping it real and have your friend hit that subscribe button. We would appreciate it But enough about me let’s get on to our main event our interview with Moses Hall.

Right today on the show, we have Moses Hall from mo Hall commercial and urban development here in Chicago. We’re gonna tell you about Moses. Now Moses Hall is a commercial broker and started his real estate career in 2014. As a licensed Realtor, and through collaborative effort, his ultimate goal is to revitalize communities and build wealth through real estate on the south side of Chicago. Now, Moses his mission has been highlighted in publications, as he received the prestigious honor of being named realtor magazine’s 30 under 30 Class of 2019, which is a huge, huge deal. Moses previously served as a 2021 National Association of Realtors, chair of the commercial economic issues and trend forum. He’s also the chair of the Global Business Council for the Illinois realtors, and is also on the National Association of REALTORS board of directors. Please follow, please visit Moses at his website which is Mo Hall that’s m o Hall commercial UD so mo Hall commercial ud.com And also follow him on Instagram at mo Hall commercial. By the way, both of those links are in our show notes. So follow him on Instagram and visit mo Hall commercial ud.com Moses, thanks for being on our show.

Moses Hall 3:50
Thanks for having me. I appreciate the opportunity. Yeah, well,

D.J. Paris 3:53
you are such a an amazing, I don’t want to call you a rising star because I think your star is already in the sky. It’s already risen. But it continues to shine bright and we are really excited and very rarely on our show. Do we have any real conversations outside of the traditional residential world and when I say traditional residential, I’m talking condos could be rental rentals or people live so so residential rentals, you know condos for sale single family homes, those type of traditional people buying or selling property where they live. We almost never to have discussed investments we did for a while when I first started five years ago. We and then we realized we can’t do it as well as some of the other podcasts like bigger pockets and and we just haven’t really explored any other sectors of commercial, whether it’s you know, multifamily investing, mixed use or like Hey, I specialize in gas stations or in factories or development deals in these you know, whatever. So So, we are really excited to chat with you because I would love to because it’s a big question we get on our, in from our listeners, which is, hey, how do I get into commercial? And it’s like, well, I don’t know what that means, right? Like, there’s commercial is such a broad term, it’s like, how do you you know, it’s like, it’s so broad, it doesn’t have a specific answer. So, before we get to all of that, I’m just giving the audience a taste of, of what we’re going to be sort of chatting about. I would love to hear your journey because you’re relatively young. Yeah, you have, you’ve accomplished a tremendous amount. And you’re actively involved in helping the National Association of Realtors, as well as on the state level, in the local community level, you have been involved in really all major areas of real estate. And really, first of all, I want to thank you for, for, you know, all of the help you’re giving every one of our listeners by helping support realtors, so thank you for your service. In all of those areas, it’s really, we’re really honored that people step up to do that like yourself. But on top of that, you’re also extremely successful as as a commercial agent. So how did you get into real estate?

Moses Hall 6:13
So funny little tidbit, I actually have a background in the performing arts, I actually grew up playing piano. And so I’m originally from New York, and if you ever seen the movie Fame, sure, that was what my high school was based off of. So wow, to the fame school, and I studied jazz performance. And so the reason I mentioned this tidbit of my life is because I started to get interested in real estate while I was in high school. And that was kind of during the phenomenon of when we have reality shows start to go crazy, like flip this house and just that nature. And that was during the real estate booming, you know, that was the Circa I was in high school between 2004 2007. And so I’ve seen a lot of, you know, my family and peers and church members get into real estate. And so it piqued my interest, because I knew people that were appraisers, agents, inspectors, and of course, you know, 1516 years old, you can’t get into the industry, you’re not legal enough yet. So, by the time I graduated high school, that was when we had the big market crash. Yeah. And so I transitioned from New York, and moved to Chicago to attend Columbia College, Chicago, and I studied music business, you know, because one of the things that I realized is you always see all these documentaries about artists, and selling millions of records, and then they’re broke. And, you know, I don’t need that starving artists. So essentially, my degree is a focus is a business degree, but with a focus and emphasis on the music industry. And so as I transitioned from, you know, college student to college grad, I decided to explore once again, because the market had shifted from when I graduated high school, I decided to explore getting back into real estate. And I knew from a personal side that I didn’t necessarily want to do residential, the goal was always commercial from an investment perspective. And so that’s kind of how I kind of transitioned into jumping into, you know, commercial real estate. So shortly after graduating college, I did one year, operating an event space. And, and then after I did that for a year, I decided to go ahead and get my broker’s license, and I started January 2014, as a licensed Realtor.

D.J. Paris 8:46
Amazing. And it’s it started immediate. Well, actually, I want to go back. So yeah, back to the New York side, because you were on your way to probably like maybe a Juilliard or. Right, so so that, that that was that was your path. And that’s, you know, that’s yeah, fame, famous, you know, a great a great, I’m glad you mentioned that, and maybe a lot of our audience will go like, I don’t know what that is. Because it was the early 80s when that movie came out, but it’s a great film, but great music. But anyway, that’s where you were headed. I can tell. There’s probably other schools to maybe I don’t know, Berkeley’s out.

Moses Hall 9:25
I actually did a summer program at Berkeley. And I was looking at that school as well. And so essentially, the arts was kind of my dad, that’s

D.J. Paris 9:34
where you were, that’s, but But and then you started, you start, I guess, started thinking, hey, you know, they’re just limited career options here. I also, you know, maybe you didn’t, yeah, it’s tough. It’s just obviously you can be the greatest pianist. Yeah. And maybe you’re playing with a symphony or you’re playing in a band or doing whatever, but it’s it there isn’t an immediate obvious path to you know, sort of Bill Building a successful, especially now with a music career be so tricky. So it makes perfect sense and opt to remind one of us will have to remind us to ask you what your favorite pieces that you ever played, if you can remember. So we could say that I say that to the end. But I, I love love music as well. I’ve been playing it most of my life I started on piano, not to the extent that you did transition to guitar when I was 13. And, and has done that ever since. But, so why why did you start with commercial just out of curiosity, because I don’t know what the percentage is. But I’m gonna guess it’s 99% of people who get their license do not start there. So let’s talk about it. Because it’s, it’s the typically the less immediate path, right? There’s, there tends to be a longer lead time between starting as a commercial agent. And again, we should probably define what commercial is in a moment. But it’s a much typically a lot longer. My brother in law is a commercial broker down in Florida. And, you know, gosh, he works mostly with storefronts and, and things. And he, it’s amazing that he’ll be like, he’ll work on a deal for two years. And and then when it hits, it’s a really good hit. But he has an eating for two years, you know, so, so I appreciate the hustle there. But why did you decide to go that route.

Moses Hall 11:24
So as I mentioned, when I transition as a college student college grad, I realized that most artists need some form of space, whether you’re a dancer, whether you’re a musician, whether you’re a singer, or painter, or whatever, you need a space to showcase your art. And so I thought, hey, why not go ahead and lease a commercial loft. So I had an artist’s loft that I leased out to other artists. And what happened was, I came across an old article about the building owners and when they bought the building, and pretty much how much they paid for it. Because before, you know, it grew to what it is now it wasn’t really developed when they bought it. And so I paid attention to what they bought it for. I did the math for what they were collecting rents from me and other tenants in the building. And I said, Man, they are making a cash cow. I want to understand commercial investment on how to see the vision of a value, add property, buy it, renovate it, lease it up. And then when I learned about how you can refinance a property and kind of, you know, I’m saying do it all over again, sure. I want to do this in commercial because the thing with resin I mean, residential, is typically if you’re doing a rental property, let’s just say a single family home or a condo, if you have one vacancy, you have 100% vacancy. versus commercial, where there’s typically additional tenants, depending on like you said, we got to define what commercial is. But typically there are multiple tenants. And if you have one vacancy, it doesn’t like a single family home, it doesn’t necessarily wipe out your entire investment. So me just reading an old article kind of sparked my interest. And then from the music side, I was watching a Ray Charles documentary. And when he passed away, they said his net worth was 75 million. And the crazy part was 50 of that was due to real estate. So I say there’s a way to combine my love for the arts and my love for real estate. And you know, just seeing other artists, when you hear about the net worth and they break it down. Real estate is always in their portfolio.

D.J. Paris 13:48
You’re absolutely right, I think to like Roger Waters, who is the basically the lead songwriter and bass player for Pink Floyd, although he’s hasn’t been thinking about it forever. He’s still because their albums still sell well. He’s still one of the highest paid musicians, but his real estate portfolio is like insanely successful. So there are a lot You are absolutely right, every sort of, you know, wealthy celebrity that that has, you know, financial advisors or those financial advisors are going to tell find income producing opportunities for them. And there’s a lot of tax advantages to so So you’re essentially doing it with the space before you became an owner you were essentially doing it on a smaller scale. You’re like, hey, wait a minute, I might as well become the owners of a place like this. And then you get of course you get to realize all those additional benefits. So let’s let’s let’s take a step back just to make sure our audience understands what part what commercial you particularly focus in, because of course, there’s so many different kinds. Let’s talk about what what what specialty that is your interest.

Moses Hall 14:59
So at So I’ve had experience in all types of commercial. So I’ll break down the commercial sectors, so we have what’s called retail. So it’s typically anytime you go into a store, and you’re buying, you know, piece of clothing, like h&m, you know, things of that nature, that’s what we kind of consider retail commercial. And then we have industrial warehouse. So typically, that’s kind of where stuff is stored, you know, Manufaktur, things of that nature, then we have Office. So that’s typically where you go to work, you know, that type of stuff. And then we have what’s multifamily. So multifamily commercial is typically five units or more. So if you live in a larger housing complex, like 100 is 100 units, we would consider that even though it’s residential, people are living there. But we consider that a commercial because it’s five units or more. So typically, the general sectors and commercial real estate and I have experience with all those sectors, I’ve done deals and all those different things. But I would say my, my sweet spot of a lot of deals that I do on a day to day basis would be multifamily and industrial deals.

D.J. Paris 16:09
Wow, that’s, that’s really cool, because those are very different, in my mind, but they’re both very cool, I think, because the the multifamily I think is easier for strictly residential agents to sort of wrap their mind around, they understand it, because they’re probably doing some rentals themselves as realtors, and they’re certainly understand people live places, and they live in apartment buildings. And here in Chicago, we have a lot of multifamily properties, you know, compared to other cities, and especially Chicago, Southside has just a ton of, of that, and, but also the, the industrial sites very interesting because to me, that’s a, that’s, you know, typically not in the the super urban areas that are mostly residential, you know, you may be going more to the outskirts, these are bigger, of course, properties that have a whole different skill set, I’m sure that’s needed from you to be able to effectively, you know, place a client in their space or find, you know, be able to list it and help you know, sell it. But I am, I am fascinate. So we get a lot of people who ask us, hey, I want to get into commercial and of course, first would be okay, well, what sector right what sector interests. But let’s talk about restorative, I want to first before we get into that I want to hear because I think this is really important as you’re not just a commercial broker, doing commercial deals, you have a mission, and a purpose that I think is really important for our audience to understand why we’re so excited to have you. So can you talk about your ultimate vision for what you can do in the commercial space? Yes.

Moses Hall 17:55
So my ultimate vision is to revitalize urban communities. I know there’s this buzzword and it’s kind of like a killed word, gentrification, gentrification, gentrification. I know, that’s kind of like everyone runs. But my goal is to improve these communities without displacing the original native residents in the area. And when you go to Chicago, Southside, it is so beautiful to understand the historic properties and history of it, especially like communities on the south side, like Brownsville to know, you know, musician, myself, and to know how many jazz musicians settled in this community, and built their name and how many clubs and, you know, performance venues happened to be in this area. And then over the years, obviously, it fell into despair. And now it’s making a comeback, or, you know, now that we have new development, and I feel like new commercial real estate is one of the best avenues to improve these communities. Because one of the things that kind of helped improve communities is new development, bringing businesses here, when you bring businesses here, that means there’s job opportunities with job opportunities, that means there’s a need for housing. So it’s kind of like a trickling effect of things that happen through commercial real estate. So that’s kind of my focus is to really build up because I feel even though I’m not originally from Chicago, I feel that Chicago is a beautiful city. It has a it has its challenges, but I think as a as a group, a collective group, we can overcome those challenges.

D.J. Paris 19:30
Yeah, I couldn’t agree more and I’m really impressed that you have this sort of higher calling aside from you know, obviously the success you’re you’re experiencing personally as this like, hey, I want to make a difference. And it doesn’t just extend to your business and and I think first of all, everyone listening, if you don’t have a higher purpose, and it doesn’t mean of course that you have to save the world. That’s not what we’re saying. But whatever. part that you can contribute to your local community as realtors, this is where we live in play is in a local community, anything you can do to, to make that community a little shinier, a little, a little more beautiful or just helping out when there’s need, I think not only will ultimately help your business, because people are very attracted to working with agents who do think that way. So aside from it, that’s kind of a secondary benefit. But the primary benefit is you’re going to have a heck of a lot of fun. And you’re going to be able to immerse yourself in a community and say, I want to help because this is where my business is. And I work here and I want to be, I want to be a beacon of light. And this for you doesn’t just extend to your business, this is something that, that you are somebody that I’ve been very impressed with for as long as I’ve known of you. Because you also give back to the realtor community. So aside from just hey, the local community in the parts of the south side that are like really interesting to you that you want to make more beautiful and better and bring jobs, you also say, hey, every realtor out there, I want to help you too. And you’ve served at the local, state and national level. So can we talk just to digress a little bit from commercial? Because if if people are listening, if nothing else, Moses is is a really great example of how you can become a leader within the realtor community, whether it’s local or nationwide, so you can talk to can you talk about why that’s important to you? And, and why you enjoy doing that?

Moses Hall 21:31
Yes, I think a lot of us get caught up in the, you know, I get a lead a short property, I put a contract in, I close it down, I get my check. And I had to learn, there’s more to this industry than that. And a big part of my job is advocacy, standing on the front lines and advocating for others that don’t have a voice. And so it was important to me once I learned that there are positions and awkward leader leadership opportunities for me to serve my my association, not just on a local level, but on a national level, it was a no brainer for me to get involved. And, you know, like I said, and there’s also a personal benefit, because there are certain things that are on the legislation table that can immediately impact our business. You know, when COVID happened, this was the first time that as Realtors if you are struggling, that you could apply for unemployment. Why was that? Right? That was because we had people advocating on our behalf on Capitol Hill. This is why it’s important to get involved because there are certain things that directly impact your day to day business.

D.J. Paris 22:42
Yeah, in there’s so much that can be said about why getting involved is, is important. And I think that, you know, it’s it’s it’s a cool thing I was thinking about this. The other day I was I was I was feeling a little down, I was having a tough day. Just not you have to get in specific spots just whenever it’s having a tough day. And I had a Chicago association was was doing a little volunteer opportunity for a couple of hours, actually at at an industrial warehouse here in Chicago. And I had already signed up for it. But I was like, Ah, it’s not that I didn’t want to go, I just was feeling kind of down. I had other things going on. And I wasn’t I was like, Okay, I’m going anyway. So I showed up and I helped and it was I love, I love doing things like that. But I came home and I thought, You know what nobody ever tells you. And I this is a little selfish, but it’s a nice selfishness, I think because you’re you’re helping is you get to feel good about yourself. When you contribute in any way. Whether it’s giving back, you know, to realtors, as you have giving back to your community, there’s a certain sense of like, I’m doing some good here that helps self esteem, it helps confidence, it just helps you feel good. And it doesn’t mean you know, you’re you should be rewarded, you know, with all these accolades, because you help out but you’re gonna get to feel good regardless of anyone ever knows you’re doing it or not. And I, I really wish I had learned that much earlier in life. Because I think that that is a tremendous way to not only further one’s career moment and knowledge and but also just to go you know what, I am actually making a little, at least a little bit of a difference.

Moses Hall 24:29
I think one of the best feelings I’ve ever had when I served on the car Foundation, we partnered with another organization that helped displace homeless families. And so there was this family of like eight single, and they were living shelter and shelter. We were able to secure them housing, and we helped them move in and set up their furniture. And so when the kids walked in, and saw that they had their own bed for the first time I mean, the I mean, the joy on their faces, like you said that gratification of I know I’m in the right field, I know I’m doing the right thing, when you can bring joy to little kids faces that were displaced for years. And to see that they were just happy just to have their own bed.

D.J. Paris 25:17
While a single parent with eight kids, I mean, that’s seems like the toughest mountain in the world to climb. And that person was and then having to move and shelter to shelter. I mean, not to get hung up in that particular story. But But like, if we all just think about that, every single one of us listening can have an impact in somebody’s life, whether it’s, you know, through helping them personally, or helping as Moses if you’ve done it even on the national level. And you are now on the board of directors for National Association of REALTORS as well. Yeah, so let’s congratulations on that. That is a huge, huge deal. Can you talk about what? What is? So you deal a lot with commercial? Yeah, and the National Association of Realtors, again, commercial is a relatively small percentage of the overall number of transactions done by realtors in the country, of course, because, you know, we all have to live somewhere. So the most of the transactions are going to be residential, but it What would you say to our audience, for anyone that says, you know, I would like to add in, I’m a residential broker, or, and I’m sorry, guys, when I say broker in Illinois, here, we only have brokers. So it just, it’s an interchangeable word with agent, realtor. So just excuse my language states are different. So we’ll just say agents going forward. So I don’t confuse the audience. Because like in Florida, brokers, like usually the person that’s in charge the Boston Anyway, whatever, every day, by the way, if anyone from National Association of REALTORS is listening, if we could just make it the same in every state, that would be awesome. Because it would make my life easier. So do it for me, please. No, I’m teasing. But for people that are thinking, hey, I’m a residential agent, and I’m thinking about, you know, maybe adding in, you know, some new skills, and maybe one of those is commercial. Number one, do you recommend that if for a true, you know, an almost exclusively residential person? Or do you typically recommend you know, what partner with somebody who really specializes in that sector.

Moses Hall 27:28
So, as we kind of mentioned before, there’s so many different sectors of commercial real estate, and it depends on the intensity of the deal. There are a lot of moving parts within the commercial real estate sector. So let’s just say we’re doing a commercial lease, like, you know, retail, you know, like you say, representing the store, there are different types of leases, it’s not like your general lease, like residential, where you may have a one year lease, you know, typically commercial, our leases are a lot longer at minimum, three years, you know, on, you know, average, but of course, it can go up to 20 years, 25 years, depending on the intensity and caliber of the deal. But the reason I mentioned that is there are so many nuances. And if you don’t understand the lease, you can do a disservice to your client, not understanding what type of lease the nuance is the lingo, the language and having understanding. So I would say it will be great if you don’t, it’s hard to take a crash course, you know, in commercial real estate, but now if it’s kind of like you’re dealing with like a small mom and pop, you know, that owns a little you know, 600 square feet, storefront, you might be able to wiggle your you know, self, you know, through the deal. But if we’re talking about you’re looking at a strip center mall, or something of that caliber, and you’re dealing with an institutional landlord, you can’t really wiggle your way, you know, through those types of deals, because like I said, we have a different process. Normally, with a residential contract, you already have a pre made contract laid out, all you got to do is fill in the terms with commercial, we start with what’s called a letter of intent. And that kind of spells out the terms that we’re looking for, and there’s a lot of moving parts. So to your question, would I recommend someone that has no commercial experience to try to do a commercial deal? No, I would definitely refer it refer it out or partner with someone. I do have a lot of residential referral partners that I do partner with. And if they do want to learn they can shadow me in the deal, what kind of work through the deal, I’ll be the lead agent on it and what kind of work and I kind of train agents in that way to you know, to do commercial deals, but it is not like a fly by night type of thing that you can do. Now, I will say depending on your local association, I know Chicago Association Realtors does a good job of offering electives and classes on commercial real estate aid. There are also other trade associations. We have what’s called ICSC that’s for a retail. We have Uli, that’s for has called Urban Land Institute. So there are different other trade organizations within the commercial industry that you can join and be a part of. And they also offer different commercial classes. But I think the biggest thing is, wherever you hold your license, if they do commercial training on that, yeah, that’s, that’s the really biggest thing.

D.J. Paris 30:31
You’re absolutely right. And I’m sorry for stepping on on what you said. And just in case it didn’t come through, because I was blabbing on Moses was saying, hey, if the company you work at if that’s not really what they do, then maybe consider, you know, referring it to a true commercial broker. And, and vice versa, right. So there’s like we get calls from people who work at these large institutional commercial firms like a Marcus and Millichap Cushman and Wakefield, Jones, Lang, LaSalle CBRE, those big huge companies where they’re like, we don’t even know about residential like, we don’t we don’t let our agents do residential, they only can do these, you know, these big giant deals, and they refer people back to residential agents as well. And they get paid on those referrals. So and I think it’s really cool, too, because, like you were saying, you partner with agents. And and I’m just curious, and please, I hope this does not come across in a way that suggests that you’re doing this for this reason, because I know you’re not you have this amazing altruistic quality to you. But I’m just curious, being as visible as you are, because of how much you serve the local associations of wells, the state and the national. I’m curious from a referral perspective, do you because you’re more visible do you do other people reach out to you simply because they know that you contribute in these ways and say, Hey, by the way, I do have an opportunity in Chicago, maybe they’re not even a local broker?

Moses Hall 32:04
Yeah, absolutely. I matter of fact, I just had the opportunity to go to France, and I represented the Illinois Realtors at one of the largest commercial real estate conferences called Mipham. And their NAR does have a presence at that booth. And I actually ran into someone from another, you know, state that was like, Oh, hey, I sent someone so I gave him your number, because they were looking for an industrial property in Chicago, and you’re like, the first person I thought of in commercial. So yeah, and I was like, Yeah, we talked in XYZ. So to your point, yes. People do. You know, because I do hold certain positions, and, you know, leadership. And I, you know, I am, you know, fortunately a top producer within the Chicago position and realtors and commercial. So top of mind people think to send me referrals from other cities, other states and other positions as well.

D.J. Paris 33:01
Yeah, it’s a nice sort of ancillary or just sort of accidental benefit, which I know is not the reason why you serve,

Moses Hall 33:09
but it is, but it is a benefit. And when you do you serve in these positions, it should be some benefit to you, because it is a lot of commitment to serve in these positions. Like you said, you were having, you know, not so the best day but you were still committed to going to this event, there should be some type of benefit in doing these things. So yes, as a as a as a byproduct of me leading many positions. Yes, I do get referrals and I am top of mind to people.

D.J. Paris 33:38
Great. And I have a question too about about the commercial side, which is around. Let you know, it’s funny, we should let’s just talk about what a typical commission might actually be because I feel like residential agents really don’t understand how Commission’s are even structured. Oftentimes for commercial again, it depends on the sector. Obviously, we’re talking what’s maybe the most accessible version of commercial which would be maybe retail because this residential agents do get those opportunities. Yeah, so

Moses Hall 34:12
the thing is, and I’m glad you mentioned that. One in commercial, you have to make sure if depending on what side you’re representing, if you’re representing the buyer or the teammate, you want to make sure that there’s a commission being offered Right? Like the MLS typically MLS. There’s a commission stated a lot of times commercial practitioners do not use the MLS we have other platforms and tools like costar loop net and Craxi anorexia. Sure sometimes the commission has not stated so number one need to x what is the commission and you’re saying you know what a general feel for what commission is not to violate any antitrust No, no, no, no, no, no, I’m not just you know, making a statement but um, but with retail, it can be structured differently like like You said I just did a lease, sometimes you can get a percentage on the first year of the lease, and then a different percentage on the rest of the year because like I said, sometimes they’re signing 510 year leases. So you may get a percentage when they first sign the lease, and then you will get another check when they actually open up for business. And then you may get another check. You know, after one year of being in business, so there’s different commission schedules, depending on what type of commercial it is, you know, if it’s sale typically, like you say, you can just do a flat percentage split between you and the cooperating broker. So I mean, it’s similar to residential and the Commission, but like I said, sometimes if it’s a larger deal, you’re not getting your money upfront, you may have to split it in quarters. And sometimes you may get paid on renewals of lease and different things like that.

D.J. Paris 35:56
Yeah, I had, I was talking to a broker yesterday, who was an attorney who only does commercial, not on this podcast, just somebody here at here at our firm. And she was telling me, I don’t even remember what the actual deal was, but she didn’t really get into too much detail. But she said she’d get paid three times on it. And it was something like 4% of that maybe the lease or whatever. Three different years. Yeah. And but I guess the point is, is it’s it can be structured, any which way?

Moses Hall 36:24
Yeah. It’s a wild wild west. Yeah.

D.J. Paris 36:29
Which is also a good reason to maybe not as a residential as a true residential agent, try to go go that route, because you there’s just a lot because it’s so flexible. And so there’s just so many different ways in which it can be structured. And you sort of just don’t want to be in a position where if you’re like, I really don’t know this, this area, that all of a sudden, maybe you’re putting the client in a bad situation without realizing it, and maybe even putting yourself in a bad situation with respect to Commission’s

Moses Hall 36:59
Yeah, because, like you said, I mean, like I said, generally speaking, sometimes, with residential rentals, you may be offered half a mile mom’s you know, there’s a range to that there’s no industry standard, but just generally speaking, but with commercial, if you represent a tenant and they sign a five year lease, you’re shortchanging yourself to only get a half a month’s rent, when you could have gotten paid like you said three times. But if you don’t know any better, and if your brokerage don’t know that this is kind of, and like you said, certain commercial agents, they may know that you don’t do commercial, so they may just say, well, they’ll take this I gotta pay them that so it pays to know these types of things.

D.J. Paris 37:43
Yeah, and also to, you mentioned, the there isn’t really a true commercial MLS, we have our MLS, which is does have some commercial properties on it, and probably every local MLS does to some extent, but a lot of commercial property, you know, never hits the local MLS, it might hit some third party, we’ll call them unofficial MLS is like Craxi Mostar loop net. And if you’re somebody who really is trying to play in the in the commercial space, and you don’t subscribe to those types of services, you don’t have as much access to those listed properties, because the MLS is just going to have a limited exposure to commercial. Because just a lot of things just just exchange hands outside of the MLS. And if you look to get those types of memberships, costar loot, net proxy, etc, they tend to be quite costly, not that they’re not worth it. They’re just expensive. And if you’re already paying, you know, $1,500 a year for your local MLS, and then you’re paying maybe another, you know, grand or two or more for these other it gets costly.

Moses Hall 38:53
Yeah, yeah. And so I think that’s the also another thing is that people want the big commission checks, but don’t want the investment. The reason there’s a higher entry barrier to commercial, because like you said the payout can be potentially bigger, but you have to be able to invest in yourself. So you said when you ask if it’s a residential president is know anything about commercial, and they try to cut corners? Because like you said, if you’re if you’re representing a buyer, and they ask, actually, oh, hey, what should our offer be? What is this property worth? You can’t go on the MLS, not easy

D.J. Paris 39:33
to run comps, yeah,

Moses Hall 39:34
because there’s not going to be any data. Right? You have to go through some of these third parties, or you have to have relationships with certain brokers to get, you know, to give them a call, like, Hey, I know you listed someone so you know, what did you end up moving for? And you have to understand that with commercial, there’s different evaluation processes. So like, you know, with residential typically, you know, you guys use the cells A comparison approach, which is for the sticks and bricks of the building right there, the value is typically the same for residential property, whether it’s occupied or vacant, you know, generally speaking now with commercial, that value may be completely different. Right? If it’s occupied or vacant prime example, there was a California investor that purchased like a KFC here in the Chicago market. He ended up he bought, you know, KFC was the tenant, he bought the real estate and KFC was on the lease, and things like a 1015 year lease, he bought it for like 1.2 million, I think the pandemic had hit. And somehow someone didn’t do their due diligence. I don’t know how but KFC they didn’t personally guarantee the lease, the franchisee didn’t personally guarantee the lease, there’s abuse of commercial terms. And they were able to wiggle out of the lease, and they end up closing. And so when they close, remember, he bought it for 1.2 million, because there was a long term tenant in place paying rent, when the KFC closed, the value of the property is only 500,000. Yeah, so with commercial, we’ve, we essentially give value based on the income that it’s producing. And so you have to understand how to, it’s not like you say multifamily, you know, similar to residential, but you have to understand certain mathematical equations to give your client an overall perspective, do you know what the capitalization rate is? Do you know the cash on cash return? Do you know, you know, different terminology that typically residential agents do do not have an understanding of so that you can give your client the full perspective of whether offers should be?

D.J. Paris 41:49
Yeah, it’s very complicated. It really is a different world in many respects. And I would say the wisest agents, I know, they say not that they don’t want to expand their skill set, because you should always be expanding your skill set. However, they don’t, you know, play in, you know, they don’t swim in waters where they’re not sure how deep it goes, because it’s just too dangerous. It’s too scary. And they’re probably just not going to do a great job for their client, not because they’re not wonderful people, they just don’t have that skill set. And for me, it seems, but you’re right, it’s it’s easy to calculate, if you find out what the commission would be. It’s, it’s, it’s easy to look at that number, and say, I could probably get this done. And maybe you can, but boy, it’s a tremendous amount of risk and stress. And for me, it seems you can refer it to a person like like, of course, like Moses, who can probably get the deal closed a lot faster, and with better terms, and he just, this is obviously what you do all day, and then still get you know, a certain percentage of the enrollments or the commission is the referral. And right away, it seems like a lot a lot, you know, a lot better path to go.

Moses Hall 43:06
Right? Yeah, like you say you want to limit your liability, and you want you don’t want to do a disservice to your client. And so like you say, you don’t want something to come back to you, you know, on the back end, that’s something that a commercial person would have called on the front end, like, Hey, did you see this term? You know, you know, like, you want to, you know, catch stuff upfront, but if you don’t know, then you don’t know to advise your client on these different things. And so kind of, like you said, there are a lot of moving parts, a lot of nuances, that it’s kind of hard to learn on the fly, unless you have you shadow someone. And like I said, I paid my dues. I’m still learning, but, you know, I’ve paid my dues. I’ve shadowed people are working on their people. I’ve, you know, done deals with others. And now I’ve built you know, to a certain point I’ve invested in myself, we have what’s called the CCI M, that’s kind of like the premier designation on investing in that completing that course. So there’s a lot of investment that goes into being a commercial real estate, not just outside of the tools, but the education and then getting the experience.

D.J. Paris 44:11
Have you noticed, and obviously the pandemic has changed so many things. You know, a lot of us are sort of concerned in our local communities. And I know you don’t have a crystal ball, obviously, nor do you speak for every commercial agent. But and I know your particular sector isn’t your specialty necessarily isn’t like office space. But you know, Have you have you seen any trends that suggest that we’re starting to return back to offices or our you know, our businesses? Obviously, it depends business to business, but are people you know, working from home as much as they did during the pandemic, or is it here to stay or where do you think we’re headed there

Moses Hall 44:54
I think is still going to be a hybrid model. I don’t think people are going to work from the office five days a week. Eat. But I think what employers are doing now is enhancing the employees experience. So now office buildings are having a lot of amenities, they’re doing a lot of stuff that, you know, encourages you to come to the office that you can’t do at home, you know, whether it’s because like you say, you want to keep company morale up, you know, there’s certain things that it’s hard to do, especially if you’re a new, newer employee to learn, you know, saying, you want to be in the field, you want to build that company morale. And so I think it’s about employers, enhancing employees experience to encourage them to come to the office. But like I said, I do think it’s going to be a hybrid model. I think most companies are not going to force you to come in five days a week, but they are going to, you know, have you come in maybe twice a week, two to three times a week. And then the other two is work from home. So I do now that a lot of restrictions have been lifted. Like you said, there’s vaccines and boosters out, I think, right now we’re just learning to live with COVID. It’s not going anywhere, at this point. And of course, when numbers spiked, then you know, it might, you know, restrictions come back. But while we’re open, you know, people returning to office, a lot of major companies, and you got to think there’s a lot of money invested in these spaces. And so to let it completely go to waste. I don’t think it’s going to be a forever work from home. But like I said, it has created a lot of other opportunities, remote opportunities. But to answer your question, I do believe it’s going to be a hybrid of of things. And employers are going to learn how to better enhance the employee experience by coming into the office. So like I say, maybe offering yoga classes, you know, you know, outdoor space, you know, company Park, like things that encourage you to come to the office they enjoy at home.

D.J. Paris 46:50
Yeah, I think you’re right. And I’ve also on the retail side, I’ve started here locally in Chicago and the neighborhoods that I’m most commonly in, I’m starting to see some of those vacant spaces, slowly start to refill. And I’m excited for that. Curious if, if that’s happening in the areas that you’re interested in, in the south side? Are we starting to see retail, returning? Where during the pandemic? Obviously, it suffered tremendously. Are we starting to see that come back?

Moses Hall 47:23
Yeah, so you know, actually, I specialize in all Chicago Chicagoland area, but I just have more of a heart and passion for this little side. But um, I do north side, west side, east side, you want me to be I’m on there. But to your point, yes, retail is making a comeback. In terms of because like you said, there’s less restrictions, before there was all the vaccine mandates, and all that type of stuff. But people are getting back out there business, our businesses are able to thrive a little bit better, with all the restrictions being lifted. So we are seeing those, you know, retail spaces, get filled leases be signed, things of that nature. So I’m seeing that across the board, not just here in the city, but also suburbs as well.

D.J. Paris 48:08
That’s a very exciting, so I always thought oh, boy commercial is going to take this big hit during the pandemic, because office space is changing, people are working remotely. Of course, that affects local businesses, retail as well, people sitting at home all day, it’s different when they get to walk around outside and shop, and now with with, you know, ways where we can get things delivered immediately to us where we don’t have to physically visit brick and mortar locations as much as we needed to buy for which was the only way mostly to get goods and services. Now, a lot of businesses are our delivery based and so which is wonderful for convenience. But it’s nice to know that that there are brick and mortar, we’re seeing this revitalization of of brick and mortar and people are, quite frankly, it seems and again, I’m not speaking for anyone or everyone but people are just tired of being inside. Correct? Yeah, it’s it’s look, you know, it’s it’s great to be able to order things and have them delivered in a day or two. It’s also cool to go out and walk down the street. And if you have retail nearby, walk in and see things and if that all goes away, you know if if we’re if that actually goes away, just think about and I really encourage everyone to really think about this and why it’s important to support local businesses in particular, especially small businesses, but certainly all businesses but but certainly small ones. Because if those go away, think about what that does to the aesthetic landscape of the actual visible landscape of the community. It changes,

Moses Hall 49:42
right. I think the biggest thing is about the user experience. I think like you said, people are tired of being cooped up inside and they want the experience and it’s so funny that you mentioned about small businesses, just because in the last 24 hours, I literally have just gotten to calls for small businesses that are literally busting out the seams in their current space, and they need more retail space, because the business is booming, people are coming back. And they’re just like, hey, our space, current space is too small, we need to purchase a larger facility that can house things. And like I said, this has been two businesses in less than 24 hours, small businesses that have caught me. And like I said, they have decent budgets to do that. So when you ask, is retail coming back? By the calls that I’m getting? Yes, it is.

D.J. Paris 50:32
That’s amazing. I’m so glad to hear that. And I, I think it’s it’s, it’s important for our audience to remember that, again, we don’t really just if you’re a residential agent, you have to not just support the homes in that community. But also think about how what can I do to support these local businesses so that people may want to live in these communities, where there’s local businesses, because I know, especially here in Chicago, we have all these wonderful neighborhoods, and you get to choose which neighborhood you want to live in, depending on you know, what, what, where you want, and what you can afford. And a lot of it for me is, especially here is I like living by cool shops, I like that personally. And I pay a premium to live by cool retail. And if my if that retail, in a lot of people where I live feel exactly the same way. There’s great restaurants and cool, you know, shops and whatever. And if that all goes away, guess what happens to the property value of my property, it goes way, way down. And not that it’s important that I you know, make a ton of money when I end up selling my condo, because who cares. But I want my community to be beautiful, because I am not looking to move anytime soon, I want to stay. So I think about that when I’m purchasing things, I think not that this is I’m just sort of soapbox telling anybody what to do. But it’s something to think about. And as Realtors we have a responsibility to help keep our local communities strong. And part of that is by supporting commercial, supporting retail supporting all of the businesses that make up that community. Sorry, a brand’s over. But I just wanted to make that point because it’s easy for us to just think house, house House House House. And we don’t think about all of the the infrastructure that goes into making those homes attractive with all these surrounding businesses, whether you’re in a suburb that you live in, in a in a residential development, while you still need retail to support that residential development. And, and you know, it’s really, really important. As we as we wrap up, I would like to talk again, about getting involved. And I Sorry for going back to this for anyone if it’s if it’s a broken record, but I really want to hear you talk about, like why we talked about why it’s important to you, how much have you learned about real estate has it furthered your knowledge by serving in all these different volunteer sort of opportunities? You know, within the realtor sort of space, I have to imagine you just have more knowledge now about the entire industry and process.

Moses Hall 53:17
Yeah, it’s not just about the industry itself. But you know, I have been an entrepreneur my entire life. And so I’ve never worked a nine to five job, I never do any of those things. And so my first like, experience and working into an organization was super eye opening to me, I didn’t know how to run a meeting and how to pass a motion and how you know, protocol and running an organization. So it gives you inside scoop on how to run an organization. So it builds your leadership skills. And then to like you said, You do learn more about the industry. You learn about the history of the industry, you learn about what’s coming and what to look out for what to warn your clients about. You can also tell your clients, you know, like I said each year, typically, the realtors, we have Capitol day and we go to Springfield, Illinois, and we go talk to our local legislators. And can you imagine telling your clients say, Hey, I went to Springfield to lobby on your behalf. I know that they’re trying to increase taxes. I know they’re trying to take away private property rights. And I talked to my local congressman and let them know that no, we Realtors we do not stand with this. You know, X, Y and Z that makes you look so good in front of your clients will absolutely have your best interests at heart because sometimes the perception is that Realtors what are we good for? You know, why are you guys getting paid all this money? Really, really, it’s not a lot of money when you break it down to how much cost and knowledge and investment that we put into our careers. And so it shows value. I think that’s the biggest thing as Realtors is showing our value. And so when you lead in when You accept these leadership positions, it creates value point, because now you’re knowledgeable. Now you’re gaining experience. And now you can advocate on your client’s behalf, not just your clients, but have but your industry’s behalf.

D.J. Paris 55:12
Well said, and and you’re absolutely right. It also is an amazing thing to be able to say to your client to say, not that you would say it for this purpose, but to be able to say, hey, just so you know, I’m not available tomorrow, because I’m heading down to our state capitol to talk to our local congressman or a senator or house, you know, a rapid to talk about rent control, or to talk about, you know, whatever topics might be important that might directly affect Realtors on either side, whether it’s commercial or residential. It’s certainly something that, yeah, I

Moses Hall 55:49
mean, not not to cut you off. But one of the biggest things that was kind of on the chopping block is what we call 1031 exchange that a lot of investors use. And that was, you know, certain legislation was coming down the pipeline that was trying to x that which would have caused a huge housing crisis more than what we’re in now. I mean, it would have been insane, if they would have chopped the 1031 exchange, which is a tax strategy that investors use to sum it up for those, but that because I was able to speak, and others were able to lobby, and thankfully, they didn’t, you know, chop it and do all those different things that was talked about initially. So that’s what you know, being in these leadership positions do for you. It not only helps you as a business person, but it helps protect your industry that can have devastating effects on on your business.

D.J. Paris 56:47
Yeah, I couldn’t agree more. And just to wrap up, curious about music. Let’s talk about about piano, what do you have and you might not have a favorites. Okay, but do you have a favorite piece that you ever performed?

Moses Hall 57:00
Oh, man is no, that’s, that’s super hard, because like you said, I play you know, jazz performance. And so you know, we studied Duke Ellington. We are actually Witten Marcellus, he kind of lived in the area. So anytime before large concert, he would come in and critique us and give us power and you know, things of that nature. So it’s super hard to kind of say which song because I guess I had the jazz. I actually grew up playing gospel, you know, r&b soul country. So it’s, it’s hard for me to pick one song. This depends on the mood I’m in. But that’s

D.J. Paris 57:37
a good point. I know for for jazz pianists. The only pianists that I’m super familiar with and I’m not even that familiar. would be like Bill Evans from Bill Evans is amazing. Felonious Monk. I guess Herbie Hancock, of course. And, and then there’s a guy and I’m only gonna say this is so funny that we’re not a music show. But if everyone I want everyone to check this out, I think it’s just a fun if you’re not a jazz person, this is a great album to try out. Dave Brubeck had an album called take five or timeout things called timeouts. Yes, yes. And it’s a real accessible Yeah. been, you know, and it’s kind of like, I don’t know, it’s a fun album. It’s it’s a very accessible album to Korea, of course, as well. So those are the Duke Ellington, as you mentioned, there’s so many great, oh, my gosh, I could, I could,

Moses Hall 58:33
it’s hard to choose. So like I said, I’ve been fortunate to be able to combine my love for real estate and music and actually have my own music publishing company. So what I do is, it’s called Mohawk publishing. So what I do is I acquire publishing rights to notable artists, to certain songs, anytime particular song is streamed online, played on radio placed on a TV ad I generate a royalty check.

D.J. Paris 58:59
That’s amazing. Good for you. That is that’s really awesome. And are you still playing piano as well? Yes.

Moses Hall 59:04
Yeah. So I still play out, you know, occasionally, not as much as I used to in my younger years. But I still get out there and play on the scene.

D.J. Paris 59:13
Wow, good, good for you. Well, well, if there’s any any samples that we can provide to our audience, we’d love to feature you. Maybe there’s a YouTube video we can grab or something. That would be be really fun for us. But Moses, thank you so much for being on our show. I think you’re extremely enlightening about the importance of, you know, working with a trusted commercial partner. And by the way, we should also mention that, you know, Moses is a great person to to know in this industry. So if you do have any commercial opportunities that are happening here in the Chicago area, including the suburbs, he works all over because of course, businesses are all over. He would he would love the opportunity to chat with you. So if you’re an agent that maybe has a business moving And hear or need some help, or any anyone who’s maybe an investor in the commercial space, Moses, what’s the best way somebody should reach out to you,

Moses Hall 1:00:08
you can reach me on all social media platforms at Moses, M O S, E S, Hall, H A LL. So I’m on LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, you can find me Google me, I’m definitely findable. And I’ll definitely respond to your messages as soon as possible.

D.J. Paris 1:00:23
And also visit him on his website, which is Mo Hall commercial U D, which stands for urban development, Mo Hall, commercial ud.com. And again, Mo Hall commercial on Instagram, we’ll have those links in the shownotes. Well, Mo, thank you so much for being on our show. Appreciate your time, and also appreciate all your service to the industry, you’re helping us in ways that we don’t even know because most of us aren’t as connected in it to what’s happening behind the scenes to help keep our jobs safe. And also are just the regulations in line with the you know, the National Association of REALTORS vision and goals, which is to protect our livelihoods. So we are super grateful to you for that. And also a good reminder to everyone else to think about a way that you can get involved and contribute. And, you know, you’ll just have a lot of fun doing it and also do some good along the way. So, on behalf of everyone here who’s listening, think we want to thank Moses for his time today. And of course, on behalf of Moses and myself, I want to thank our audience, you’re the reason we can continue to, to put these episodes out because you keep listening and you keep telling a friend. And we’ll remind you and ask you for a quick favor to tell one other friend about our show. If you haven’t already. Please tell other agents that we exist. And we want to keep growing as well. So anyone that you can think of that might be interested in hearing from somebody like Moses, who does so much for our industry, or just wants to learn more about commercial send them a link to this episode. Easiest way to do that we have a website, keeping it real pod.com Every episode we’ve ever done, you can stream live right there. Or if the person you’re referring to has is a podcast listener just happened pull up any podcast app, search for keeping it real and hit that subscribe button. And also please last thing we’ll ask from you please leave us a review on whatever app you might be listening that really helps us learn more about how to better improve our show and also what you like and what you don’t like so we can keep modifying it to better meet your needs. So thank you so much, Moses for your time today. And really appreciate it. We will see everybody on the next episode. Thanks Mel. Thank you