The Real Estate Sessions

Liz Rossof, with her diverse background in arts, theater, and education, has carved a unique path in the real estate industry. Her journey began in the art world, focusing on contemporary artists incorporating pre-Columbian culture, which led her to study in Latin America and develop a passion for its architecture. After experiencing the limitations of renting in the competitive San Francisco market, Liz transitioned into real estate in 2017, driven by a desire to help first-time home buyers. Her innovative approach, known as "Creative House hacking," was born from her unconventional start in the industry, where she engaged with potential clients on a trendy Denver street. This approach, combined with her personal experiences and passion for creating meaningful connections, has shaped her perspective on real estate. Join Bill Risser as he delves into Liz Rossof's unique journey and strategies in real estate on this episode of The Real Estate Sessions podcast.

(00:02:19) Liz Rossof's Passion for Real Estate

(00:06:36) Liz's Journey from Art to Real Estate

(00:14:20) Liz's Successful Lemonade Stand in Real Estate

(00:19:35) Maximizing Home Potential for Financial Stability

(00:23:28) Opportunities and Challenges in the Real Estate Market

(00:27:41) Debunking Real Estate Myths: Insider Insights

GUEST BIO

Liz Rossof's unique journey in real estate is shaped by her diverse background and experiences. With a background in arts, theater, and education, Liz initially pursued a career in art, particularly focusing on contemporary artists incorporating pre-Colombian culture. Her passion for pre-Columbian architecture led her to spend time studying in Latin America. After working as a school teacher and artist in San Francisco, Liz entered the real estate industry in 2017. Inspired by her own experiences in the San Francisco rental market, Liz developed a passion for helping first-time home buyers. She created a brand centered around assisting renters in becoming homeowners, and is known for her innovative "Creative House hacking" approach to real estate.

Andrew Flachner, President of RealScout, has dedicated his career to enhancing agent-client relationships in the real estate industry. Flachner has seen firsthand the challenges of maintaining relevant contact with everyone in a real estate agent's database. He believes that while AI has transformative potential, the focus should be on the core of a product or service and its ability to solve problems and assist agents, rather than simply boasting about AI capabilities. His company, RealScout, is committed to re-centering agents in the consumer experience and providing tools for collaboration. Join Bill Risser and Andrew Flachner on this Short Cuts episode of The Real Estate Sessions podcast to learn more about his unique perspective and innovative solutions.

(00:01:23) RealScout: Enhancing Agent-Client Collaboration

(00:06:46) RealScout's Collaborative Agent Experience

(00:09:13) Revolutionary Real Scout Pro Plus Upgrade

(00:15:04) RealScout's Rapid Growth and Agent Empowerment

Quotes

(00:00:00) "It's difficult to maintain contact and relevant contact with everyone in your database frequently enough." - Andrew Flachner

(00:05:06) "But one of the things that we're learning is that if you are struggling to generate new business in a slow market, there is a huge asset that you're probably ignoring, and that is your database, that is your CRM. And so everything that we've been building and announcing as of late is all geared around how to help agents take this asset and help extract dividends from it." - Andrew Flachner

(00:11:54) "In terms of AI, I might have a contrarian perspective here. AI is absolutely transformative and I use it in one way or another almost every day. However, in real estate, I have seen a lot of what I'll call brochureware, where you can see a lot of people talking a big game about AI." - Andrew Flachner

(00:14:22) "The core of what makes an iPhone, an iPhone or iOS, iOS is not AI, AI helps run it, it helps make it a great product, but it is not the product." - Andrew Flachner

00:01:23 - Special occasions

Special occasions like Valentine's Day and daylight savings have traditionally been used by real estate agents to stay in touch with their clients. Andrew Flachner, the founder of RealScout, acknowledges the challenge of maintaining contact with everyone in a database. In the past, agents would send Valentine's Day cards and daylight savings reminders to increase touch points. However, Flachner believes there is now a better way, and that's where RealScout comes in. Real Scout aims to empower the relationship between agents and clients by providing a platform for collaboration and relevant touch points. This helps agents extract dividends from their database and improve their online reputation and visibility.

00:06:46 - RealScout's mission

RealScout, founded in May 2012, aims to put agents back at the center of the consumer experience. While national portals have helped agents at the top of the funnel, RealScout provides a safe haven for collaboration between agents and clients once they start working together. The company recently launched RealScout Pro Plus, which includes buyer and seller nurture features, as well as a flagship feature called auto nurture that automatically nurtures everyone in an agent's database. RealScout also utilizes artificial intelligence (AI) in their platform, but founder Andrew emphasizes the importance of realistic expectations and thorough testing before fully embracing AI in real estate. The core of Real Scout's success lies in their vision and problem-solving abilities to benefit agents.

00:09:13 - RealScout's Pro Plus version

RealScout recently launched Pro Plus, their largest platform upgrade in over a decade. This new version not only nurtures buyers, but also potential sellers in an agent's database. One standout feature is the home value alert, which provides homeowners with an estimate of their home's worth from Zillow and another automated valuation model. Agents have seen a high return on investment and potential sellers reaching out for more information. Additionally, RealScout Pro Plus includes auto nurture, which automatically nurtures everyone in an agent's database, making it easier to extract value from their existing asset. Overall, Real Scout's Pro Plus revolutionizes the way agents interact with clients and helps them grow their business in a tough market.

00:15:04 - Growth of RealScout

RealScout, founded in May 2012, has experienced remarkable growth over the past eleven years. The company's mission is to prioritize agents and put them back at the center of the consumer experience. While national portals assist agents at the top of the funnel, RealScout recognized the need for different tools to support agents and clients once they start working together. RealScout aims to provide a safe haven for collaboration, empowering the relationship between agents and clients. Despite the market slowing down, RealScout continues to grow rapidly as agents and teams rely on the platform to expand their businesses. The company's focus is on supporting this growth and enhancing features like auto nurture to help agents convert clients at any stage of their lifecycle.

Rachel Kilmer is a renowned real estate agent with Reese Nichols Real Estate in Kansas City, Missouri, who has successfully leveraged her background in sports and video production to excel in her career. Rachel's perspective on success in real estate and the use of social media is rooted in authenticity and personal strengths. She believes that one should not force themselves to adopt marketing strategies that do not align with their interests or cause anxiety. Instead, she encourages individuals to focus on what they are good at and build their business in a way that reflects their personality. This approach, she believes, not only yields a better return on investment of time but also produces more authentic content. Join Bill Risser and Rachel Kilmer on this episode of The Real Estate Sessions podcast to learn more about her unique approach to real estate and social media.

Rachel Kilmer is a successful real estate agent with Reese Nichols Real Estate in Kansas City, Missouri. With a background in sports and a previous desire to become a social worker, Rachel found her calling in the real estate industry. She gained recognition by winning a contest held by the Kansas City Chiefs, which allowed her to be a sideline reporter for a day. Rachel's experience in video production and her involvement in marketing and social media have contributed to her success in the real estate business. She emphasizes the importance of doing what you're good at and enjoying it, rather than following trends that may cause anxiety. Rachel values teamwork and provides support to her team members, including an operations manager who handles paperwork and marketing. She is active on social media platforms such as TikTok, Instagram, and Facebook, where she can be contacted.

Craig Rowe is a seasoned tech columnist and real estate tech reporter for Inman News, with a rich background in publishing, journalism, graphic design, and advertising. His perspective on the topic of "Craig Rowe: tech columnist, real estate investor, outdoor enthusiast" is shaped by his extensive experience and expertise in real estate technology. Rowe is passionate about the intersection of technology and real estate, and he is dedicated to exploring and sharing advancements in this field. He has a keen interest in improving the web structure and design of real estate websites to make them more user-friendly, particularly for finding and contacting agents. Join Bill Risser and Craig Rowe on this episode of The Real Estate Sessions podcast to delve deeper into Rowe's insights and experiences.

(00:02:36) Outdoor Adventures in a Close-Knit Community

(00:09:17) Seizing Opportunities and Following Interests

(00:14:52) The Adventurous Lifestyle of Truckee, California

(00:20:34) Craig Rowe's transformation from freelance writer to tech columnist

(00:28:29) Revolutionizing real estate with alternative finance

(00:35:45) The Burden of Bloated CRM Tech

(00:44:24) Gathering insights for valuable industry content

Follow the Podcast

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https://www.linkedin.com/in/billrisser

Real Estate Sessions Rewind – Andrew Flachner, Co-Founder and President – RealScout

Originally aired August 20th, 2019

Serial entrepreneur Andrew Flachner of RealScout shares his story on Episode 201 of The Real Estate Sessions podcast. Andrew has been part of several start-ups, and he details some of the interesting aspects of these companies. Of course, we discuss RealScout and the state of technology in real estate today.

01:50 – Growing up in California

03:05 – Knowing real estate would be your path at an early age

06:40 – Working real estate while in college

08:45 – The first start-ups Natural Cravings and Duo Dater

13:35 – The RealScout story

16:05 – The reason behind focusing on on segment of the real estate transaction

18:20 – The concept of computer vision via machine learning

21:55 – A couple of Andrew’s favorite stat ups from ICLV

24:30 – Andrew’s take on “disruption” in 2019

26:50 – The relationship with Brad and Inman.com

29:05 – What one piece of advice would you give a new agent?

Andrew on Instagram

Email Andrew

00:00:00 - Craig Grant

So anytime you have AI generated content, I don't care if it's written imagery, anything, you don't want to just copy and paste and use it immediately. You got to make sure that every aspect of it is accurate. So you want to fact check things. You can ask for sources and go check if those sources are correct. You should legal check it, everything before you go use that in the public or in your marketing. You.

00:00:27 - Bill Risser

You're listening to the Real Estate Sessions Podcast. And I'm your host, Bill Risser, executive Vice President, Strategic Partnerships with RateMyAgent, a digital marketing platform designed to help great agents harness the power of verified reviews. For more information, head on over to Ratemyagent.com. Listen in as I interview industry leaders and get their stories and journeys to the world of real estate. Hi, everybody. Welcome to episode 366 of the Real Estate Sessions podcast. As always, thank you so much for tuning in. Thank you so much for telling a friend. Today we have a very unique episode. I interview Craig Grant. This session was recorded at the high tech High Touch Summit in October of 2023 at the Buffalo Niagara Association of Realtors. Yes, Jeff and Lisa, through results consulting, has created this one day session. This event combines technology with, as Jeff likes to put it, ships friendships, relationships, which lead to championships. So this interview is a session on artificial intelligence AI. It's all the rage. Craig's in high demand around the country, speaking at associations about AI and the future of AI in the world of real estate. Let's get this thing started. I hope you enjoy my interview with Craig Grant at the high tech High Touch Summit in Buffalo, New York. Craig, welcome to the podcast.

00:01:44 - Craig Grant

Thanks, Bill. Thanks for having me.

00:01:46 - Bill Risser

Yeah, well, look, we're here in Buffalo, and it's been wonderful talking to this crowd, and we've been teasing them for the last few hours that we're going to talk a lot about AI. And this is that opportunity. So I'm going to get this thing started right off the bat. First things first. Should we be worried about our safety and security? Is AI coming to destroy us?

00:02:08 - Craig Grant

Do you want the real answer, or do you want me to sugarcoat it a little bit?

00:02:12 - Bill Risser

Let's go somewhere right in the mean.

00:02:15 - Craig Grant

So there are some very legit concerns with AI. I'm sure you guys have heard all about the doomsday type stuff. Where could AI become self aware and could it tank the stock market or start killing people? Kind of like Terminator type stuff. And the reality is that is a legit concern. And even some of the biggest people working on these projects admit they know they're working on something very cool and transformative. But they also know they're working on something that could really cause all kinds of major issues. So there is some legitimacy to the fear. But at the same time, a lot of these companies are trying to build in guardrails to hopefully make that not happen.

00:02:52 - Bill Risser

You're telling me we should be slightly worried, but when it comes to online security and what Google knows about us, that cat's way out of the bag, right?

00:03:02 - Craig Grant

Way out of the bag, yeah. You and I were talking about this. Every decade or so, another major thing comes into the market that does this same kind of fear. You know what I mean? You go back 25 years ago, it was just the start of the Internet was going to end us all. Then it was social media was going to end us all. I mean, they're each kind of big movement does come with some concerns. This one, it's just evolving so rapidly that it does have some people kind of freaked out or scared, but there's no putting this back in the bag. Like AI is now out in the wild, everyone's using it and loving it. But again, hopefully some of those fears don't come to fruition.

00:03:41 - Bill Risser

All right, well, we'll hope the good guys beat the bad guys. We generally tend to do that overall, so we just need to continue that hope. Let me ask you this question. Chat GPT. I think when we talk AI, it's always chat GPT because they were the first to really come to market and have something that was free, and then now they've got a paid version. But it feels like to me, it's like the Band Aid or Kleenex of AI. It's just become generically known as chat GPT. But there's a lot of competition, right, and it's growing, it seems like, weekly.

00:04:14 - Craig Grant

Yeah, absolutely. And by the way, I talk about this all the time AI has been around since any of us. I mean, it's been around for over 70 years, but for the first, let's say 69 years of its existence, we were using AI all the time without realizing it. I mean, our GPS, like so many things, are using AI, but it was always kind of prepackaged to us by a company saying, here's how to use our AI tool. What Chachi BT really did was it flipped the script and made it available to everybody to use however you wanted, whether it's creating content, whether it's figuring out your business plan, whatever, you could use it however you wanted to use it. So it did kind of break that mold and made it available to everybody. And that's why it got such big press and it constantly is getting buzz. But like you mentioned, it's not the only option in town. And in mean you look at tools like Google's Bard or Microsoft's Bing Chat, which is based on chat GBT. But Microsoft has gone further in certain areas with Mean. It's definitely not the only game in town. And when I talk about AI, I always tell people, you might want to play with a couple of them and see which one you think is the best one for how you're going to use it in your business, because Chat GBT is not the end all, be all, in my opinion. Google Bar does some things way, way better. So does Microsoft Bing Chat. So does Jasper. I mean, there's a few options out in the marketplace that are just as good or if better in certain areas. And it is like they're leapfrogging each other every other day. Like every week or so, one of them makes another major advancement, another announcement of a new cool feature that makes it better than the others. And a week later, another one leapfrogs it again.

00:05:54 - Bill Risser

Yeah. And there's also some very specific AI platforms out there that work really well with video or work really well with absolutely, yeah.

00:06:07 - Craig Grant

I mean, and don't be wrong, you can use Chat GBT now to do imagery. You used to have to go to Dolly to do that, but now it is being built in, integrated into Chat GBT. But there's other image generating tools, mid journey and stable diffusion stability, that, in my opinion, create better kind of imagery than Chat GBT and Dolly have been doing. And again, to me, it's another example of play with each one, see which one you think is the best, how you're going to use it.

00:06:33 - Bill Risser

Yeah. For people here in the audience, my question to you is, what is a simple way to get started? Because we're going to talk over the next 20 minutes very deep into the world of AI and what it can do. But like many things in real estate, in technology in general, it can be overwhelming. So what's a simple thing someone could do just to get that first taste?

00:07:00 - Craig Grant

I mean, to me, it's no different than any other new technology. Just get in there and play with it and don't be afraid of it. I mean, you can start off with some pretty basic prompts, have it do little things for you, like help you come up with idea generation or help you write a property description, whatever. And then you'll kind of see just how powerful, how cool it is. And then you can continue iterating and tweaking until you really can really use it to its extent for your business. Because the reality is, the possibilities of how you can use it is limitless. You can use it for every aspect of your life and in your business these days, and just like you've been saying, now, there's companies coming out with new tools all the time to tie into these products to make them even more specific and better.

00:07:48 - Bill Risser

Yeah. You use the word prompt. And that's going to prompt me, Craig, to go a little deeper with that word, because the more I pay attention to what's happening in this new world, it seems to me that the prompts really are like you must understand how to use those effectively, how to layer them up on top of each other, all these amazing things you can do. But it's a garbage in, garbage out thing going back to the old days of computers, right? Yeah.

00:08:26 - Craig Grant

And again, that's another thing where you just have to kind of get in there and play with it and keep trying to add in a little bit more as you go until you really figure out how to do proper prompting. But the prompt is the instruction or the task you're putting into these tools to have it create something for you, whether it's a custom image it's generating, whether it's that property description that's writing for you, mapping out your marketing plan. I mean, again, the possibilities are really endless of what you can do with it. And you won't really know until you get in there, start playing with prompting. Now, the other thing is, there are tools now that can, if you can't figure it out, where they've already done the prompting for you. Like there's tools like Aiprm or Chat Guide and a few others, prompt Pal, where they just have libraries of thousands of prompts ready to go, where if you can't figure this out, just use one of their existing prompts. So the whole idea, though, is, again, get in there and play. And then you'll start understanding some of the capabilities. Or just use a tool that already has it built in.

00:09:28 - Bill Risser

I've heard that you can put in a prompt, a rather lengthy prompt, maybe it's a paragraph or two, and then the result that comes out, you can say, great, now use this result in some other prompts, and then you can continue really fine tuning to this Nth degree, this result you're searching for. Am I right with that?

00:09:54 - Craig Grant

Yeah. And that's something I teach all the time when I speak on AI, is when you do an initial prompt, the first thing you can do is iterations. In other words, let's say you put in a very generic prompt and it kicks out, let's say that article for you. But you're like, you know what, this is too long. It doesn't really focus on the topics I wanted it to focus on. So you can go back and iterate or tweak as many times as you want. You can say, okay, this is great, but now make it shorter. This is great, but now please focus on rising at just rates or whatever it is that this thing's about. So you can tweak and tweak and tweak until you get the best possible result you're looking for. So those are called iterations. And then the other thing that I always coach, and this is where to me, the power of the prompts gets to another level, is when you can do what are called sequences. So a sequence is when one prompt builds on a previous prompt. So an example I always give in my classes or events is your first prompt could be something like, hey, give me the top 20 ideas that I should blog or post about on social media for a realtor in my market trying to reach first time home buyers. So that first prompt would kick out a list of those 20 ideas. And then your second prompt, the sequence could be, now go write me the blog post for idea number one in that list, an idea number two, and idea number three so the program remembers your initial prompt, and then you can build on top of it. And then once you have your 20 blog posts written out, then your third prompt in the series could be, now write me a 90 to 122nd video script for idea number one in the list, an idea number two, an idea number three. So when you start understanding how you can tweak and iterate, and then you can build out sequences, this is what can really allow you to kind of map or plan out your whole year's worth of content in a one sit down session.

00:11:52 - Bill Risser

Wow. Okay. I think everyone here has got the same expression I do. It's like, wow, not realizing how deep this could go. Yeah. Let me ask you the tough question, and this is important. We have certain people in the room that will want to hear your answer to this question, but what are the compliance issues for Realtor use? Right? There's a few things that Realtors can and can't do.

00:12:18 - Craig Grant

Yeah. Well, first of all, you got to understand the source of content in the AI databases is everything on the Internet. And we all know there's a lot of false, misleading, and just bad information out there on the Internet, and that's in the system. So you talked about the crap in, crap out. Well, that's potentially in the content. So anytime you have Aigerated content, I don't care if it's written imagery, anything, you don't want to just copy and paste and use it immediately. You got to make sure that every aspect of it is accurate. So you want to fact check things. You can ask for sources and go check if those sources are correct. You should legal check it, everything, before you go use that in the public or in your marketing. And when we talk about legal checking, one very specific law that you got to be really careful of in the real estate world is fair housing. So, for example, a tool like Chat Jibdira Bard doesn't know about fair housing. So if you ask it to write you a property description with infringing things in your prompt, such as perfect for a young family, it'll kick out a property description with young family in it, which would be a violation because you're talking about familial status. Right. So it wouldn't know that it's creating a violating thing unless you ask it to refer to fair housing laws. So, for example, you can say, factoring in federal fair housing laws might write me this property description, and then it would do its best to compare the Fair housing laws to your property description, make sure there's nothing offending. So that's one thing is always be careful, check everything. And AI imagery really struggles with things like bias. So if you ask it for a picture of, let's say, a young family, it's pretty much going to be an all white traditional family every single time. So it just kind of uses what's the most common pictures in the database to check out your new image. So in the marketing world, we have to be as representative as possible. So you got to understand that and sometimes adjust your prompts to overcome that bias. So for example, you might want to put into your prompt a young Hispanic family, asian, African American, whatever, or mixed if you're looking for more variety in the imagery in your marketing because it will kind of kick out stereotypes with bias. And then there's the one biggest question when it comes to AI content, is it even legal for you to use in your marketing? And the answer is, as of right now, everything generated with AI is 100% legal and safe to use. And the reason is the US copyright Office basically said they don't want to get involved in this. They really want the legal system to figure it out. And there are several cases that have been filed trying to sue for AI generated content, including a few cases against the Copyright Office. So eventually one of those cases or maybe more than one cases will play out and set a legal precedent. But until then, everything generated with AI is legal and safe to use. So run with it and love it. And by the way, very recently, both Microsoft and Google have said they will defend anyone who gets sued for AI driven content using their tools.

00:15:34 - Bill Risser

All right, I'm going to call this next question shock and awe time. I've been blown away by what's doable right now because I would talk to you or Alex or other people and say things. I mean, how long will it take before we can do this? And your response is always the same. Craig. You go, that can be done right now. That's being done right. So let's, let's break down the different sections, if you will, because I look at video different than I do audio, different than I do, say, presentations or text. I guess all of this is content, right, in some way, shape or form. But for example, in the world of video, right, there is a tool out there that lets me read a teleprompter and fixes the fact that I wasn't looking at the camera. What's the name of that one? Let's go down that path. Let's just kind of break down a few of these different things that can be done right now.

00:16:31 - Craig Grant

Yeah, so I think, I'm pretty sure the tool you're talking about is Descript. Descript can do all aspects of video creation and editing using AI. So, for example, you can use it to create the video content. You could say in scene one, I want a video clip generated of a man and woman running down the beach holding hands at sunset. In scene two, I want them eating at the kitchen table. Scene three, I want them in front of a house with a sold sign. It'll generate each of those clips and basically create your video with AI. You can also use it to edit video with AI. So, for example, let's say you did a three minute video recording of you speaking. Well, you can say, I want you to trim out anytime. I said, UMS or Oz, and I want you to remove this part of the video by just editing the script and fully edit your video using AI and what you're talking about with the eye fixing or eye tracking. They recently added that in as well. So you could be staring down at your phone reading a script the entire time. And then the software will fix it to make sure you make it look like you're staring at the camera the whole way. So that's one called Descript. It's becoming really popular because it's again, using AI just about all aspects of video editing and creation. So, pretty cool.

00:17:48 - Bill Risser

One, I actually used a script myself, right, for the audio component that it does as well, because to be able to take out UMS and Oz and to fix that whole piece of the podcast interview, I think is fantastic. So it's come a long ways. I guess when I first started using it, I wasn't as happy. But like, everything, every generation just gets better and better. Let's talk about presentations. I think this is amazing, right? Agents and coaches and trainers are always trying to put together the latest, greatest presentation. Talk about some of the tools that are out there in that realm.

00:18:28 - Craig Grant

Well, I mean, first of all, we really haven't talked about Canva at all. Canva has become a category killer for so many things. Like, I've been saying for years that it's so amazing just from the graphic design standpoint where you can use it to build out any of your marketing materials. And last year, they added in an office suite to it, where you can create Word documents and presentation slideshows and spreadsheets and everything. And then recently, they've rolled out a whole suite of AI tools. One of them they've added in is called Magic Presentation, where you can basically just give it an outline. It'll build a slide deck for you using AI, or just give it a topic and it'll build out a slide deck for you. That's pretty amazing. I mean,...

If you are obsessed with cold marketing and promotion because you believe it’s the only feasible way to help your business grow in today’s times, think again. The guest for this episode, Jay O’Brien, built an undefeatable real estate empire without any of that, thus breaking age-old myths with the principles of hard work and sincerity. Investing generously and gratefully in his existing customers from the beginning of his real estate career, Jay realized the massive growth he could achieve just through referrals and word-of-mouth marketing – and all he had to do was to respect and reward loyalty. As Client Giant’s Founder and Chief Day Maker, Jay helps “business professionals deepen relationships with their existing clients and partners to drive unparalleled repeat and referral business.”

(00:00:18) Investing in Clients for Long-Term Success

(00:01:01) Investing in Personalities for Sales Success

(00:06:26) The All-In Drive: Addiction to Work

(00:09:44) Finding Success in Real Estate

(00:15:08) Creating a Personalized and Memorable Real Estate Experience

(00:23:30) Personalized Automation for Client Care

(00:31:40) Embracing Uncomfortable Conversations for Real Estate Success

Transcript -

00:00:00 - Bill Risser

Hi, everybody. Welcome to another Real Estate Sessions rewind episode. This week, we're going back to November of 2022 with Jay O'Brien, the Client Giant founder and chief daymaker. If you're looking for a way to deepen relationships with your clients and drive, unparalleled, repeat, and referral business, you've come to the right place. Enjoy.

00:00:18 - Jay O'Brien

And I'd say when things are going really well, very important to not just ride that wave, but double down and invest in your people. And on the other side of things, when things aren't going so well, it's natural to claw back on expenses, right? I encourage everyone, whether it's Client Giant or anything you're doing, taking care of people or like charities you're donating to, whatever it is, I really encourage people not to claw back there because it's not an expense. It is an investment in so many different ways. And the solution to saving your business during a downtime is not abandoning your customers.

00:01:01 - Bill Risser

You're listening to the Real Estate Sessions podcast. And I'm your host, Bill Risser, executive Vice President, Strategic Partnerships with RateMyAgent, a digital marketing platform designed to help great agents harness the power of verified reviews. For more information, head on over to Ratemyagent.com. Listen in as I interview industry leaders and get their stories and journeys to the world of real estate. Hi, everybody. Welcome to episode 335 of the Real Estate Sessions podcast. As I always say, thank you so much for tuning in, and thank you so much for telling a friend today I'm going to be talking to Jay O'Brien. Jay is the co founder of Client Giant. I saw Jay speak at an imminent event back in 2018, and he talked about how he's providing seven star service in a three star world. And a big piece of that was really taking care of the customer in a very consistent way by delivering value added items to the transaction. I'm telling you, you've got to hear what this is all about. I'm not going to spill the beans here. I'll let you listen in and hear Jay's take on how to take care of clients, how to provide exceptional service, and how to get them talking about you without you even really trying. So let's get this thing started. Jay, welcome to the podcast.

00:02:17 - Jay O'Brien

Thanks for having me, Bill. I appreciate it.

00:02:19 - Bill Risser

Yeah, I met you well, I take that back. I learned of you in August of 2018 when you were doing a presentation for Inman, and it was a really cool presentation. I was an ambassador at the time. I know. I tweeted out a bunch of stuff about it. I thought it was very cool, and we'll get back to that. We will talk about that. I'd love to start, though, at the beginning with my guests. And for you, it's going to be I know you're based in Southern California, more specifically Orange County. Are you a native of SoCal?

00:02:52 - Jay O'Brien

I am. I've never left. If I ever leave it'll be to Hawaii, but I was born here in Orange County, and, yeah, I've never lived anywhere else.

00:03:01 - Bill Risser

Wow. I got to ask you this question, then. Dodgers or Angels? Because you're really close to the Angels, but the Dodgers have a thing.

00:03:08 - Jay O'Brien

Bill, you're not going to like my answer. Oh, no, but the answer is neither because neither of those teams play golf. I'm not a sports guy. I'm not a big fan of either. If I had to choose one, I'd say Angels because I grew up going to Angels games and stuff. So I enjoy going to a hockey game, a baseball game and what have you, but I couldn't tell you what's going on unless it's like the World Series or something got you. And even then it could be dicey.

00:03:40 - Bill Risser

Okay, well, let's switch then. Golf. So you played, like, in school, that kind of golf?

00:03:47 - Jay O'Brien

No, in fact, I used to play once or twice a year, like, on vacation, and it was fun enough, you have some beers with your friends out on a golf course, but in 2020, it was one of the few things you could go do. So I got very addicted to it, and now I play like, three times a week.

00:04:03 - Bill Risser

Nice.

00:04:04 - Jay O'Brien

So I'm addicted to the sport now.

00:04:07 - Bill Risser

And there's some great courses up your way, so I'm sure you've had some fun.

00:04:11 - Jay O'Brien

Yes, absolutely. Beautiful courses.

00:04:14 - Bill Risser

Yeah. Let's talk about a little bit just a little bit more about me because it is its own unique place. It's not La. It's not San Diego. It's Orange County. Besides, well, the amazing weather that Southern California enjoys. Tell me, what do you like best about where you grew up?

00:04:33 - Jay O'Brien

Yeah, one of the reasons it's hard to leave I mean, obviously the weather is the easiest one, but the convenience, I mean, I could go to an Angels game and then be home in 15 minutes. I could go to Disneyland, be home in 20 minutes, san Clemente, La, Long Beach, really all over the place. And in Orange County, it's kind of got the best of everything, especially in the last, I'd say, ten years. There's a big food scene that's popped up, so you don't need to go to La. To get the best restaurants or anything like that. You got great cocktail bars. Everything is really here, great beaches, but it's also very close to Big Bear if you wanted a mountain kind of vibe as well as the desert, like, it's it's so optimized that it's hard to leave it.

00:05:27 - Bill Risser

Well, you got to talk about Balboa Island then. If you're talking about a place that's kind of cool and got some great stuff and really just blown up over the years. Right? Yeah, that's a cool place.

00:05:36 - Jay O'Brien

Yeah, Balboa Island. And also, I'm not sure if you're familiar with Lido Marina in Newport Beach, but that area, it's one of the few harbors I've seen that is just, like, really beautiful. And they did a great job with this one stretch that used to be kind of desolate and blown out. And they did a whole development there. And they've got great restaurants, great shopping. All the stuff right there on the marina. So, yeah, I mean, if you're in Newport Beach, you grab a Duffy, you out with your friends. It's good living.

00:06:04 - Bill Risser

Yeah, I like that. Well, let's talk about business a little bit. You become a realtor around 2010, I think, looking at your history, but you had to be doing something before that. It seems like real estate is always a second gig, or sometimes third gig for some people. What were you doing before?

00:06:21 - Jay O'Brien

Yeah. How much time do you have?

00:06:23 - Bill Risser

As much as you need.

00:06:26 - Jay O'Brien

Yeah. I mean, I've kind of always been addicted to work. I'm a type A personality through and through, so anything I do, like golf, I just go nuts for. So my first job ever, you're going to laugh. I was nine years old, no bullshit. So I went to my local video store, the video rental place, and I begged the owner, Kevin, to give me a job. And he told me a million times, you're too young to work. You can't work here. I was like, I'll work for free. I just want to work here. And eventually I brought my mom in, and she's like, Look, I don't know what to tell you. He wants to work here, he'll work here. He'll do everything he's got to do, and he'll do it for free. And so that entire summer of my fourth grade summer, my mom dropped me off at 09:00 A.m. With a sack lunch. I did everything. I took money in the cashier. I built these cardboard cutouts. I was a full time employee. I worked till 05:00 p.m.. My mom would pick me up, and I did it five days a week, all summer for nothing. He would buy me lunch sometimes or let me take Nintendo games home, but I was just addicted to the work. And so when I was actually able to work when I was 14, that was the first job I could get with a worker's permit. I got a job as a caterer. So those jobs were brutal because there's a lot of manual labor, loading, like, semi trucks, going to company picnics, unloading, doing the whole setup, doing the lunch gig, packing up. So my mom would drop me off at 06:00 A.m. Placentia, and then she'd pick me up at 09:00 P.m. On the weekends. So I'd do that in my freshman, sophomore year of high school, and that was brutal, but I was working, and then from there on went Dairy Queen, Best Buy valet, and I never, ever had a gap in employment. Fast forward to college. I got my bachelor's degree in economics and business administration, and I left eight year tenure at Best Buy, went through their management program, everything great company and lots of good learnings from that company, and decided I wanted to get into corporate America. So 2010, I did that, and it was the only job I needed that required a college degree. And it was the worst job of my life. Wow. It was the most toxic, gnarly environment. I mean, just like backstabbing. I've never seen anything like it. And at that point, I'd been around the block. It wasn't like a green dude from college like, oh, what's this all about? I knew this is know, I stuck that through for about a year and a half. I was interviewing other places, and I got turned on to a lot of authors at that time from a buddy of mine that I was working with. Gary Vaynerchuk, Daniel Pink, Seth Godin, Tim Ferriss, you know, who were just coming out, really, with their first books at the time. Probably not Seth Godin. But I got addicted to the idea that maybe it's not that I have the wrong job. Maybe it's that I don't want a job. Maybe I need to create a job for myself.

00:09:43 - Bill Risser

There you go.

00:09:44 - Jay O'Brien

And one of the easiest paths I shouldn't say easiest, I should say the lowest barriers to entry to do that is real estate. It's one of the few occupations that you can get into for very little money in terms of getting a license and getting up on your feet. You can do a lot of the grind through your hard work as opposed to needing money to get started. And what I did was I got licensed. A friend of a friend who survived through the recession was opening up a remax brokerage. I talked with him, and I became his very first agent. And basically I knew it was going to be a grind to make that jump. And so I left my corporate job to go back to Best Buy, which was very humbling. And the reason I did that was because if you work retail, you can work all hours, right? You can work super early. You could work really late. So I could still get 8 hours a day, five days a week with a super flexible schedule while doing real estate 8 hours a day. So that's what I did. I started the day at 06:00 A.m.. I worked about till 02:00 P.m. Doing real estate. And then I'd go to Best Buy and work there until ten or eleven at night. And I did that for eight months until finally it got to a point where I had closed, I think, three deals in those eight months. And so I had enough to say, okay, I'm going to make this leap. And then in the next eight months, I did like 14 deals. So it made a lot of sense to take that time and put it into real estate. And that was 2011.

00:11:33 - Bill Risser

2012 ish nine year old Jay came back and decided to do whatever it took to get it working.

00:11:41 - Jay O'Brien

Yeah, I'm no stranger to the hard work. That's awesome.

00:11:44 - Bill Risser

I love that. I want to bring up that inman Connect again. It was in August. Was it in San Francisco, or was it the first one in Vegas? It might have been San Francisco.

00:11:54 - Jay O'Brien

The last one, if you're talking about August 2018, that was San Francisco, and I had done another inman Talk prior to that January 2018 in New York.

00:12:04 - Bill Risser

Okay, got you. So I think it was the San Francisco one I saw. And yeah, first of all, how did you get the gig to give the Talk at? I mean, it's not a closed space, but they don't put out know calls for speakers. Generally. Somebody knows somebody. How did you get that connection first?

00:12:25 - Jay O'Brien

Yeah, so this path was basically this kind of all ties together. So I'll rewind when I became a full time real estate agent. You do everything you can. You do anything and everything for a deal, right? I mean, I was going back to the nine year old Jay, like Grinder. I would go on Craigslist on Friday nights, and I'd look up every garage sale in the area, and then I'd run those addresses against tax records to see if that person owned or rented their house. And then I'd just say, hey, if they're having a garage sale, maybe they're looking to sell their house.

00:12:56 - Jay O'Brien

And then I'd reach out to all those people and doorknock them and just see what I could shake loose. Now, nothing ever came of it, but that's not the point. The point is you have to try everything, right? So I was trying everything, doing everything. And like many people do, once you close a deal, you ask for a review, hopefully you post that on your website, it goes on yelp, Zillow, whatever.

00:13:18 - Jay O'Brien

And after a couple of years of this, it was about 2013, 2014, when I think a lot of agents I mean, not just agents, people in every industry, people in life suffer from imposter syndrome, right? So even when you're doing well, you think, yeah, but I'm not that great. I'm going to get figured out. You know what I mean? And for me, it was very real, because at the end of the day, if you said, why hire Jay instead of the agent down the street? You could say whatever you want, I'm more knowledgeable, I have better service, whatever. But it's like, yeah, I mean, to the layman who's just online, you're the know, and you might never even get to have that conversation, which is, I guess, even more of the yeah.

00:14:07 - Jay O'Brien

So I started to comb through these reviews, these five star reviews on Zillow of myself, right, to see what are people saying? Is there anything unique in there that they actually do perceive to be different above and beyond the competition? So there's things that are commending me for how punctual I am organized knowledgeable about the area, and I'm like, Shit, man, I'm in trouble. Anyone could do those things, right? So it really kind of put things to the test where I was thinking, okay, well, what are things I can implement that are going to make my business truly defensible? Where not only can I grow the business and sell more homes every year and see success there, but be defensible so that some of these tech companies that are coming in aren't going to wipe me off the face of the planet. And it ultimately came down to remembering my first real estate experience, which was awful. And it just boiled down to customer service.

00:15:08 - Jay O'Brien

When we go to an insane hotel, like an Amon resort or like a Ritz Carlton or something, where they see every detail, montage, where there's gifts in your room when you get back from the pool and they've just covered every little detail. It makes you feel special. It makes you feel a certain way, you remember it. And when you're made to feel special, you'll tell anyone who will listen. And I figured, well, I already do that in a lot of segments of my life. I'm a very philanthropic person. I believe overly generous with my time and money, and that's just in my nature. It's how I was brought up.

00:15:45 - Jay O'Brien

And I think I'll just double, triple, quadruple down on that in the real estate space. So I started to dissect, what would that look like? What would it look like to just have an insane experience? And I started to write down pain points. What sucks about moving, buying moving boxes sucks when you go to U Haul or Home Depot. That's annoying. It's costly, but it's more annoying. It might not even fit in your car. Transferring your utilities and your forwarding of address and all these things and the stress that it carries all the while while the loan's going on, all these things.

00:16:19 - Jay O'Brien

So I just started thinking, what are ways to fill the pits and raise the peaks through a customer journey with me when they hire me? And so I started to implement a lot of those things. And so there'd be things going out to my clients constantly. None of it had any marketing that would tie back to me. None of it had any branding on it. It was just genuine, thoughtful things. The way I would treat my friends to help the experience be amazing, like a montage. So fast forward and this starts to really pick up steam. And my clients are posting all about it on Instagram and social media tagging me, and I'm talking 30 days post close.

00:16:58 - Jay O'Brien

They would get a call from my favorite local restaurant. Hey, congratulations on the sale or purchase of your home from 30 days ago. Jay wants to send you and your husband, you and your wife, you and whoever, dinner for two on him, round trip transportation included. When can you come? And that would all get done in 30 days. Post closed. They're taking pictures of themselves having dinner. Tagging me all things I didn't ask for, because I just really wanted to make the experience amazing. But it doesn't take a genius to know that what goes around comes around. And pretty soon, this was fueling an army of repeat and referral business from Raving fans. Raving fans that turned passive referrals of what once was probably, yeah, you should use Jay. He was great.

00:17:40 - Jay O'Brien

This is the only guy you should call. If you're thinking about working with someone else, you're wrong, hire him kind of stuff. So that helped thrive the business. This is all a long winded way of getting to answering your question. No worries. So in 2015, that kind of put a few things on the map for me, and I was named 30 under 30 by the National Association of Realtors, summer of 2015.

00:18:02 - Jay O'Brien

So...

The Short Term Shop

Episode 241 - Avery Carl, The Short Term Shop powered by eXp Realty

Time Stamp

(00:01:28) The Benefits of Using Short-Term Rentals

(00:07:32) Rock and Metal Enthusiast's Musical Journey

(00:11:40) Finding a Southern Balance in Nashville

(00:16:26) The Responsive Vacation House Experts

(00:21:09) Short-term Rental Success in Vacation Towns

(00:27:19) Creating Memorable Experiences with Short Term Rentals

(00:32:22) Cautious Sellers and Increased Competition in Real Estate

(00:36:44) Responsive Communication: Key to Agent Success

Transcript

00:00:00 - Luke Carl - The Short Term Shop

But if you don't have the money to go buy the deals, you got to hustle and crush it and work hard and patience. Got to take your time. Slow down. I see all these new folks that are just, like, so shot out of a cannon. I got to have 14 doors tomorrow, and it's just not realistic.

00:00:20 - Bill Risser

You're listening to the Real Estate Sessions podcast, and I'm your host, Bill Risser, executive Vice President, Strategic Partnerships with Rate, my Agent, a digital marketing platform designed to help great agents harness the power of verified reviews. For more information, head on over to Ratemyagent.com. Listen in as I interview industry leaders and get their stories and journeys to the world of real estate. Hi, everybody. Welcome to episode 365 of the Real Estate Sessions podcast. As always, thank you so much for tuning in. Thank you so much for telling a friend I had so much fun recording this episode. If you could see me right now, if I can beam, I'm beaming. I got to talk to Luke Carl. Luke is Avery Carl's husband partner in the short term shop. Powered brokered by EXP Realty, luke handles all the nuts and bolts of the business that the Short Term Shop has built. A fantastic background, much like Avery. Rock and roll all the way. So we're going to have a wonderful time in this conversation. Let's just get this thing started. Luke, welcome to the podcast.

00:01:28 - Luke Carl - The Short Term Shop

My pleasure, man. My pleasure. Absolute honor to be here. Thank you for having me.

00:01:33 - Bill Risser

I'm really excited about this because it's very rare for me to interview the husband and the wife right on the podcast, especially literally. I think this is almost three years after I had my first conversation with Avery, and she was just doing some great things. Both of you were doing some great things at that time with the Short Term Shop. We're going to spend a lot of time talking about that, but first I like to find out about my guests. I like to go back in time. And I know that you and Avery lived in Brooklyn at one point, right in your lives. And I know that Avery's from Mississippi originally. I'm just guessing you're not. Did you grow up in New York?

00:02:08 - Luke Carl - The Short Term Shop

No, I didn't, as a matter of fact. Blow your mind again. I'm from Nebraska, so we're both from states that nobody's ever heard of, but yeah, we both come from really small town. My town is actually smaller. I win on that one. She grew up in a college town, Mississippi State, Starkville, and I grew up not far from Omaha. Not too far. She makes jokes when I say I'm from a town of 1100 people, because I did grow up about 45 minutes to an hour from Omaha. So big city, but way out in the sticks in a cornfield. But, yeah, small town boy, for most purposes. And we both moved to the city. Yeah, I lived in New York for, man, a long time, like 1415 years.

00:02:48 - Bill Risser

Okay, so how old were you when you left Nebraska? I mean, did you go to high school there? You went all that, stayed there till.

00:02:53 - Luke Carl - The Short Term Shop

That time, yeah, born and raised. My folks and my brother and most of my family still lives there, immediate family. And I moved when I was 20. I couldn't wait to get out. I said, I'm going to go move to the biggest city on the planet and take over the world. That's pretty much what I did, at least to my standards anyway. And I did go to college at University of Nebraska, Omaha for three years. That didn't go so well. And so I just basically I hopped in a van with a couple of guys I never met. And this is the early days. That's actually a pretty good story. I won't get into the weeds. But way back, this was like, MySpace hadn't even been created yet, and it was like right on the verge of that MySpace era. And there was a band from one town over Lincoln where the football team is, and I knew that they had moved to the big city, and I found their email address somehow. This was like email. I mean, this would have been like 1999, probably, and the creation of all that internet stuff. Email as I knew it. Anyway, and I shot him an email and he said, actually, we're coming through town. You can get in our van and go with us back to New York. And I said, Sign me up, let's go. Wow.

00:04:00 - Bill Risser

Now, look, it's no secret that you are a massive fan of rock, especially, we'll call it metal. But you're way too young. Like, right now, you're wearing an Iron Maiden shirt. I've seen the Motorhead, I've seen these other shirts that you're wearing. You're too young. So I want to hear from you. Who influenced you? There had to be somebody in your life that loved that music and played it when you were younger, or did you just discover it on your own?

00:04:23 - Luke Carl - The Short Term Shop

No, 100%. Yeah, it was my dad.

00:04:25 - Bill Risser

Okay.

00:04:26 - Luke Carl - The Short Term Shop

Same with Avery. She's quite a bit younger than me. My gray hairs are coming out like crazy, but I'm technically too young for like an AC DC era. I was like eleven years old when Nirvana came out. And so right in that era was kind of my, heyday, that Grunge era, but I didn't really like it. It was okay, but my dad was blasting Jimi Hendrix and Black Sabbath and Zeppelin pretty often. He had a big record player, old school record, big giant speakers, and he was always playing his old records and it just rubbed off on me. He never really went to concerts or anything like that, but man, I got hooked. I got hooked at a real young age. I started playing music when I was really young. I think I was probably seven when I first started kind of getting a little bit more serious and started taking lessons and things. And I had my first drum set by the time I was eight years old and just took to it at an early age in the middle of a cornfield where there was nothing else to do, know, so the rest is history. And Avery, yes, she's quite a bit younger than I am. Same thing with her. Her dad was a major rocker, and he goes to rock shows with us. He's an awesome dude, too, and we were just raised right on good music.

00:05:38 - Bill Risser

So I'll make that really tough question for somebody who's as deep into the music as you are. If you had to pick one band, you only get one. That's hard to do.

00:05:50 - Luke Carl - The Short Term Shop

It is hard to do, but that's a question. I've been in rock and roll radio for a long time, and that question comes up a lot. We'll talk about that, but for me, it'd be ACDC. If I had to pick one band, period, that was like, I guess, my favorite, because we can go on about this for hours. I don't know that my desert island or deserted island, however you want to say it band would be the same as necessarily my favorite band. That might be two different questions, but maybe not. But if I had to pick one band as my favorite of all time, I believe AC DC would be the top of the list. And we're taking the kids. We have a five and a three year old next week. There's a concert where they do Coachella in California, and it's a bunch, know, the really biggest rock bands ever that are still around, know, they're getting older, and AC DC is going to be there as well as Iron Maiden, who's on my shirt today, and Guns N'Roses Metallica. And this is a big event, and we are taking our five year old and our three year old because I can't imagine they're ever going to get the chance to see ACDC again. And so that is important to us at some point. My son just turned three. I do feel that he's got a pretty good chance to be the last person on the planet someday that can say he saw ACDC live.

00:07:05 - Bill Risser

That's great. Is Axel touring with Guns N'Roses again?

00:07:09 - Luke Carl - The Short Term Shop

Yeah, Axel's been back with the band. Well, it's the other way around, really. He's always had the know, Guns N'Roses was Axel with a different band for many, many years, but the band has been back together for four, five, six years now and touring full time with the original guys, except for the drummer, Steven Adler has not been in the band for two or three years.

00:07:32 - Bill Risser

So you played drums, you had to be in multiple bands. I mean, I can't imagine you weren't playing and playing music and doing covers of this kind of stuff. Is that what you were kind of driving towards?

00:07:43 - Luke Carl - The Short Term Shop

Yeah, I was. I started playing in bands when I was very young and my parents were driving me to nightclubs because I couldn't drive yet. And dropping me off and playing shows with, I'd say about 15 is where that started to get pretty serious, and 16 somewhere in that neighborhood. And I always had at least one band, even at that age, I usually had two. And I never really made a career out of it. There's not like any band that I could mention that you've ever heard of or anything, but it was a huge part of my life. And then eventually, just to move the story along, because, quite frankly, there's not anything interesting in the band section of my life. But I got into, when I moved to New York, of course, the playing bands. And I had again, at least one or two bands going at all times in the city. I started attending bar to make ends meet and then eventually ended up owning a little rock and roll bar in Manhattan when I was 25 years old. The lady I was working for owned several bars in the neighborhood and she was opening a new one and basically brought me in to run the show. I was a very young age, and that's where I learned how to run a business. I'm very grateful for her, even though it was a lot of work and definitely probably not the healthiest way to live your life, but that whole experience, especially so young, being a guy straight off the cornfield, literally, I learned how to run a business in New York City. A very successful I mean, it was teeny, tiny, little 600, 700 square foot bar. But rock and roll, it was rock and roll all the time. And that was a time and place in the world where you couldn't find that thing, that type of thing. There was very few places, even in that massive city of 12 million people, where you could even go hear a rock and roll song and get a cheap beer. So we kind of cornered that market in our neighborhood and it took off right away. And the bar was very popular. And then it eventually moved into the radio thing from there. Yeah.

00:09:36 - Bill Risser

So how long does it take for you to move on to I think you were on SiriusXM, right? You were part of Ozzy's Boneyard, which had to be a dream come true.

00:09:46 - Luke Carl - The Short Term Shop

Absolutely. 100%. I still am, actually. I did that after the bar. I got lucky and I fell into a couple of overnight shows on a channel on satellite radio and, well, lucky making $80 a show or whatever, but I worked my way up. And it's like that in any business. You got to sweep the floors before you can make a living. And very grateful for radio and satellite radio and my career. There and did that for many, many years. Worked my way up. Eventually got to the point where it was like a real job and I was in love with it. And I still do it. I gave up full time radio probably about three years ago, and I still do two shows on one show on Saturday and one show on Sunday and play old rock and roll records and just old school radio disc jockey, the guy talking between the songs, that kind of thing. Still love it. It's fun.

00:10:41 - Bill Risser

I would say three years ago is kind of when the short term shop took off, in my opinion, looking at some of the results. And so you probably went full time there. So we'll gently switch over. The first is I've got to get you and Avery connected. How did you meet? Because I know that you both have that rock background. I'm assuming that was part of it.

00:11:00 - Luke Carl - The Short Term Shop

Oh, yeah, we met at a rock and roll concert. I don't remember much of it, to be honest. And I ran into her again, like, a week later, and she was like, you're that guy from the concert? And I'm like, what? I didn't remember. So we ran into each other randomly twice in New York City. And it was just meant to be. We were, like, right on the edge of when everybody switched over to Tinder and all that. We actually met in real life and Rest is history, madly in love. And of course, now we've been together for quite some time and have two wonderful, just amazing, perfect children. But, yeah, we did meet at a rock and roll concert.

00:11:35 - Bill Risser

How do you go to Nashville? What was the move there? What was it for? Why?

00:11:40 - Luke Carl - The Short Term Shop

Yeah. Which leads to the real. So she's from the south, and I've been in New York for as long as I needed to do whatever I was doing there, and I mean a long time. And it was time I met the right girl. And she was from Mississippi, and I'm like, that's not a real place. And she took me there, and then she said, you know what? I want to move closer to my family. Family's important to me. And I agreed with her. I said, that's a good idea. And so we landed on Tennessee, Nashville. It was a good, happy medium between having a big city, but also in the south. And we did that for a number of years and then eventually moved further out into the woods. And now these days, we're in Florida, actually. But that's a whole nother story.

00:12:26 - Bill Risser

So Avery shared a story. I'd like to hear your version of it, of how you first got involved in investing, in owning another property, a rental property.

00:12:38 - Luke Carl - The Short Term Shop

Yeah. And my story is a little different than her story, even though this is the same story.

00:12:42 - Bill Risser

It happens that way.

00:12:44 - Luke Carl - The Short Term Shop

Do you remember which number she was on your podcast?

00:12:46 - Bill Risser

I can look it up. I'll look it up while you're going.

00:12:48 - Luke Carl - The Short Term Shop

Yeah, but just to refer back if anybody's interested because she is a driving force in real estate, obviously, and everybody loves her. But anyway, for me it was very simple. We moved from a place where I could never in a million years dream of affording real estate to a place where we could afford real estate. And that was it. And I grew up. My dad was a hammer swinger. He built the house he lives in and did contracting on the side. And his dad, my grandfather, was a contractor and my uncle, my dad's brother, and all these guys in the whole family were builders and contractors and mostly side gigs here and there. But some of them were doing it for a living and so it was always around. My dad taught me what hammer to buy and how to swing a hammer at a very early age and how to get my way around a house, which was a very important tool that I didn't even realize I was learning. We bought our first house there in Tennessee and we were both just extremely drawn to the experience and fell in love with it, which as many people do. And I actually thought I was going to. I ended up going to home inspector school. I knew that I was sucked into this house buying thing. I didn't know which part of it was going to be for me. So I just started to explore all avenues and I happened to dig the guy that did our inspection and I related to him coming from a blue collar family, et cetera. And I went to home inspector school and I quickly learned that wasn't going to do it for me. And it wasn't until years and years later that I realized that just the actual landlording was what I was meant to do. But at that time I did start to focus on that. It took me many years to realize that was my goal, my mission in life, my gift, if you will, because it is not easy and not everybody can do it. But we started to save money and educate ourselves at that point in time and that's when it all started. And I believe you heard the story about the first home we lived on. $25 a day each for it was 18 months. I think it actually took us 17. We were a month early to come up with our first down payment on a rental property. We had a goal of $100,000 house and we knew we needed what we thought we needed. 20% down. That's all we knew about real estate. And so we came up with 20 grand the hard way and we were commuting too. So that was $25 a day for my gas and that was man, it was a long drive to get to working back and food and a stop at the bar on the way or whatever, or at the end, I should say. We bootstrapped it. We worked our asses off and we set goals, and we made it happen. We ended up 18 months later buying our first rental property. And then shortly after that, we just got completely immersed in the I decided to make it my you know, I wanted it to be my career for me. I was just learning my trade. I need to know every single teeny tiny detail of this business if I'm going to succeed. And that's what I did. I first started with lending was my first obsession. I wanted to know everything about it anyway. Time goes by. We learned and learned and learned and read and read, and bigger pockets, of course, was a big thing for us at the time. And just found them I think I originally found them around episode 70 of their podcast or so and became obsessed with that. And they were doing a great thing over there. And then the books, of course, at that point, I had not read Richstad or even heard of it, and so that was presented to me and, of course, fell in love with that. And the rest is history.

00:16:26 - Bill Risser

Yeah. When you first got into the game, it was more long term kind of stuff, right. That's kind of what you were focused on. But the name of the group, the company, the Empire is the Short Term Shop. Yeah, because I think that's how I first met Avery was you guys kind of evolved into this. How do we get these properties to get them onto the sites? Right. And how do we manipulate or at least work with Airbnb or VRBO or all these other places? So when did that little transition come in your mind? And I know you still do both, and you still consult or help investors with whatever plan they want, but how did that short term stuff come about?

00:17:09 - Luke Carl - The Short Term Shop

Yeah. So for me and again, Avery's story is slightly different, but for me, it was we needed a new market, so we bought that house in Nashville, and then all of a sudden, Nashville like, you couldn't even go to the grocery store without seeing a famous person, and it just completely skyrocketed. So overnight, that house I don't want to say it doubled overnight, but it was pretty damn close, and I hated that. Yeah. You would think that as a guy. I was maybe 31, two, something like...

Episode Summary:

I am thrilled to introduce today’s guest, Alex Montalenti, the Co-Founder and CRO of Real Grader, a tool that helps agents with their social presence online.

In this episode, I sit with Alex, a native of Long Island, and he emphasizes the importance and roles of having a substantial online social presence in Real Estate today. He also shares different modalities to achieve this and the work his company does for agents and brokers to achieve the same result.

Top Takeaways:

“If you go deep on the content, you can win.”

– [Alex Montalenti]

“Most Realtors don’t realize that just optimizing your team name isn’t going to do the trick because I don’t know your team until I meet you; I know you, so I’ll google you.”

– [Alex Montalenti]

“70% of realtors are not on Google business.”

– [Alex Montalenti]

Episode Highlights:

[00:21] Intro

[00:51] Meet today’s guest, Alex Montalenti.

[02:04] About Alex’s backstory.

[04:18] How Alex got into Real Estate

[10:50] Alex talks about his time working with SEO.

[12:35] About Real Grader

[18:34] What are the basic things that a realtor with technology should get done?

[20:56] Why Tik-Tok is an excellent tool for realtors.

[23:18] What should we anticipate on the horizon?

[27:05] Alex’s advice to new agents

[28:18] Outro

Episode Notes:

Long Island is quite a long island but still a lovely place to live with a name that fits the description. Although Alex’s mum came from Romania while his Dad came from Italy, they settled in the US, with Alex going into a career that combines his parents’ jobs, who were into technology/website design and Real Estate.

Alex had started as a model in childhood but also had an immense sense of entrepreneurship, with no plans to work a typical “9-5” job. After a few classes at the University of Vermont with hopes to become a doctor, Alex changed his mind and moved to business school instead. He later got innovative, building websites and an online food delivery system for students. However, Alex notes that this innovation might have been too early for the world at the time. He had started helping his mom, who was into real estate, with closing big commercial deals and realized he could help others and brokers. He then moved on to using websites to automate the process through Website and Marketing.

A key strategy for being on page one in SEO is going very deep into the website’s content. 

About Real Grader: The initial idea was to create a scoring platform to give an online score to agents and brokers on how well they are doing with their online social presence, with recommendations on improving techniques. However, with the poor performance of most brokers who preferred to have the work on improvement done for them, the idea evolved into a digital optimization service to optimize these websites on all platforms. Particular platforms real estate agents need to be well represented on, including Google, Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, Zillow, Homes.com, and Realtor.com. Notably, the importance of Google as it has evolved over the years cannot be overemphasized.

Realtors need to do basic things with technology: Realtors need to have their Google business page created, with names of all team leaders and the sole properties. Also, the bio and reviews on that page are essential. YouTube is another grossly underused website for real estate agents.

Alex explains that Tik-Tok is a unique platform because of the wide range of video editing tools. It is also the fastest-growing platform and can quickly get more views or grow accounts on other media. Realtors can leverage the trends on Tik-Tok by using trending songs as a background to showcase a listing that will get more views. Other tools that can be used include Canva and Go Pro Quik.

Something we need to think about is where Google is going. An example is Google Local, where listed businesses get favored by the main Google algorithm. There is also a new Google phone service to track leads and responses of realtors or companies in general, which helps rank higher on Google local. If Google is trying to provide reliable results, they would instead bring up agents that have shown reliability and good response time.

Get yourself set up online for new agents because that’s the first place people will check you out. You can even get ahead of experienced agents who haven’t taken care of their online presence. Contact Alex via email. Instagram.

Resources Mentioned:

Connect: 

Find | THE REAL ESTATE SESSIONS

At TheRealEstateSessions.com

Find | Bill Risser

At [email protected]

On Twitter

On Facebook

On YouTube

Find | Alex Montalenti

At [email protected] 

On Instagram – @alex.montalenti

On LinkedIn

Website – www.realgrader.com 

RATE & SUBSCRIBE

At  Ratethispodcast.com/REsessions

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On Stitcher 

Description:

Brian Hall, a realtor with EXP Realty in El Paso, Texas, has a unique background as a military chaplain in the army, which has shaped his current career in real estate, specializing in assisting soldiers with their transitions. His perspective on the topic of "from army chaplain to realtor, assisting soldier transitions" is deeply rooted in his belief in the importance of soldiers' freedom to practice their own spiritual beliefs within the boundaries set by the Army. He also discusses his own transition from being an army chaplain to a realtor, explaining that he felt he couldn't give the reserves what it needed at that point and wanted to honor his job. His skills as a chaplain, such as listening, have been beneficial in his real estate career. Join Bill Risser and Brian Hall on this episode of The Real Estate Sessions podcast to learn more about his unique journey and perspective.

Social links for Brian:

Facebook Page

Instagram

Timestamped Outline

(00:00:29) Real Estate Success Stories: From Army Chaplain to Realtor

(00:01:34) Brian Hall's Diverse Texas Market Perspective

(00:07:28) Providing Spiritual Support to Soldiers in War

(00:14:34) Inclusive Spiritual Support for Soldiers of Different Faiths

(00:17:31) Military Skills Enhance Real Estate Success

(00:21:46) Smooth Housing Transitions for Service Members

(00:35:26) The Power of Mentorship in Real Estate

Follow the podcast:

https://www.therealestatesessions.com

https://www.facebook.com/billrisser

https://www.youtube.com/billrisser

https://www.instagram.com/billrisser

https://www.linkedin.com/in/billrisser