Santiago Valdez has an impressive track record. In addition to being a top 1% producer himself, he trained Elizabeth Pyle in her first year as a broker. She ended up winning the CAR Rookie Of The Year, which is given to the top producing first year broker. In our conversation Santiago and Elizabeth of Relux International talk about how they have built their business, and why they have constructed a team instead of working individually. We go into the specifics of how to choose team members, how to make teams profitable, and why process is more important that outcome. This episode is full of usable tips brokers can employ today to further their production.
Relux Interational can be reached at Santiago@Chicago773.com and Elizabeth@Chicago773.com.
Transcript
D.J. Paris 0:15
Hello, and welcome to another episode of Keeping it real. The only podcast made by Chicago real estate brokers for Chicago real estate brokers. My name is DJ Paris, I am your host and guide through the show. And once again last month, we had the most number of people ever who downloaded, and I hope listen to but certainly downloaded the podcast. So being that we don’t do any marketing, I have to assume that’s because you guys are telling a friend. So continue to please do that if there’s other realtors that you know that could benefit from listening to interviews with the top 1% of Realtors in Chicago, then let them know that this exists. Of course, you can always find us on iTunes, Google Play, just search for us and your podcast app. Also, you can stream every single episode we’ve ever done on our website, which is keeping it real pod.com. And please, please, please follow us on Facebook. So we’re always posting content there as well as links to all the episodes and you can find us there just in facebook.com forward slash keeping it real pod. So that is really all I have just another Thank you. And please continue to listen and support the show by telling everybody you know about it. And on to our interview with Santiago Valdez and Elizabeth pile of the real Lux international team.
Today on the show we have the real Lux team from Compass. I’m actually really excited about this because this is our very first compass Episode Episode with Compass brokers and this is Santiago Valdez and Elizabeth pile of the real Lux team now at Compass so the real Look, I’m sorry, relax international rather relaxed International is a real estate team led by Santiago Valdez and Elizabeth Pyle and is a top 1% team in the Chicago Association of Realtors. Santiago is a US Army veteran, an M one a one tank crew member that has continued to increase his production since his first year in the business all the way back from 2004. Elizabeth was the Rookie of the Year with Chicago Association of Realtors in 2013. And I’m gonna pause for a second that is such an insanely big deal. So special congratulations to Elizabeth because every year, there are over 5000 New brokers that join the Chicago Association of Realtors. So to be literally the top one or two of that class that freshman class is a huge, huge deal. So anyway, aside from being the Rookie of the Year 2013 She and Santiago started working on on the relax international experience experience is not only a way to give full service to their clients, but also a way to approach the business and maintain a positive personal growth oriented energy. When not helping clients with real estate, Santiago and Elizabeth are focused on their own real estate investments and are avid travelers. By the way, if you want to learn more about the real Lux international coterie, Lux international.com. Anyway, welcome to the show, Santiago and Elizabeth. Thank you.
Elizabeth Pyle 3:27
Thanks for having us.
D.J. Paris 3:29
Thank you guys, I am always so grateful when people like you who I know are insanely busy to make the time to do our silly little show. And we really, really, really appreciate it. So I would like to ask you both individually. First, before we get into some of the other things I know we’re going to talk about and find out exactly how you got into real estate. So Elizabeth, can we start with you? How did you get in?
Elizabeth Pyle 3:53
Yeah, sure. Absolutely. So I was actually living in Missouri, I had graduated college, and I was living in Columbia, Missouri, and a small company. And they give me a lot of opportunity to really run that part of the company. And so there were a company that was a builder. And then they were also renting just basically in college apartments. And so I was more in charge of like the rentals of it. At the same time, I was realizing that with real estate, you can actually build your wealth. So from learning from the company, I started buying my own investment properties.
D.J. Paris 4:26
What you did what you did that in Colombia?
Elizabeth Pyle 4:28
Yeah, in Columbia, Missouri. Wow. So basically, I was I was buying those on the side and working for them full time. But again, it was a small company. So I kind of felt like I was I had reached a point where I really wasn’t growing professionally and I felt like it was in a box. Just kind of you know, there just wasn’t the growth that I had anticipated. So I pretty much you know, I had some income from my property. So what I did was I quit I moved to Chicago and it took a leap of faith that an opportunity would arise. I did have my broker’s license or my my Realtors license in Missouri. Was not using it, but I had it there. And then whenever I came to Chicago, I was buying a condo and that Santiago that way and hopefully you found something good in me and he encouraged me, encouraged me to go ahead and get my broker’s license here and do it full time here. So that’s how I ended up in Chicago selling real estate.
D.J. Paris 5:19
Well, it’s are you originally from Missouri?
Elizabeth Pyle 5:21
Yes. I’m actually from Branson, Missouri, but I went to Mizzou.
D.J. Paris 5:25
Yeah, right. Yeah, I almost I did not go to Mizzou, but it was one of I mean, this is like 20 plus years ago, but that was one of the five schools I very much like that. And I would have gone to the zoo if I didn’t go to the school I went to so I love I love Israel. I’ve actually been there is a little there is a little winery like right outside of Columbia, maybe more than one but I have been to a winery.
So beautiful. Yeah. Yeah, totally.
And then, well, awesome. Thank you, and Santiago, tell us about how you got involved in real estate.
Santiago Valdez 5:58
So I am originally from Peru from Arequipa, Peru. And when I first came to the States, there was a couple of ladies that helped my mom and I come to the States. So we stayed with them. And they were both very heavily involved in real estate, they used to do a lot of real estate investing. And one of them was a realtor. So when I was about 13 or so I used to go to a lot of open houses, open houses with them. And sometimes they would go to like investment seminars, and I would just kind of tag along with them. And you know, I really, like enjoyed that whole scene. And you know, just enjoy how people dressed. And you know, the whole thing about it. I found it fascinating. And, you know, I kind of just went on to, you know, do my regular life. I went in the Army after that I was working at Loyola University, and I kind of on a whim, got a real estate license, and started doing business with a couple of people that I was working with. And so I was doing it part time. And by the end of 2004. So I got my license in June or so. And by the end of 2004, I was making about the same money in real estate that I had made all year at my regular job.
D.J. Paris 7:18
So doing it like part time, right? Yeah, doing it part
Santiago Valdez 7:21
time. So I basically stopped working full time at my other job, and I started working real estate full time. And that’s what I’ve been doing ever since.
D.J. Paris 7:32
Wow. Well fun fact my brother in law’s half Peruvian his his mother. It lives in Lima. And his whole family is all his half of his family is from there. So our family has. Well my sister has been there many, many times. Obviously he goes, he actually flies down about once every six weeks to see his mom. But I have not been so our whole family is planning a Peru big Peru trip, hopefully for this holiday season. So in December, I think we’re all going down there. So Oh, really?
Santiago Valdez 8:04
Yeah, Elizabeth and I will actually be there in for around Christmas and New Year’s this year. So if you happen to be there, yeah. Maybe we can
D.J. Paris 8:17
have coffee or something. I’m not going to eat the Kukui. But other than that, which is funny. Which by the way, for everyone listening that’s that’s a it’s a little I mean, it does happen. But it’s not a super common thing. But people talk about improvements. It’s groundhogs and very, very poor people there have been known to eat that. But my brother in law always says people do not really eat that that is not super common. But it is always like the Joker
Santiago Valdez 8:44
did have me eat it at one point and I was sick after you have
D.J. Paris 8:50
100% needed I have no problem trying that. That’s that’s really funny. So I’m actually Elizabeth, I would like in both in San Diego too. But in particular, Elizabeth, I want to direct this question first to you and then then to San Diego, because you were the Rookie of the Year 2013 Which again, no small feat huge deal. And we have a lot of brokers who listen to the show who are you know, either in their first year or they’re looking to increase their production to get to a level that you guys are at? What advice do you have for somebody who’s starting out or what worked for you? Or or maybe even What mistakes did you make? But ultimately, do you have any advice for new brokers?
Elizabeth Pyle 9:30
Yeah, absolutely find a mentor. I mean, if I wouldn’t have teamed up with Santiago, I would have nowhere come near that. I mean, because anytime I’d go out to negotiate a deal or decide if a buyer was really serious, there’s so many hurdles out there that that I didn’t go through because I had Santiago to talk about it. So whoever that mentor is, maybe maybe you want to get on a team and find somebody on that team that’s going to help you out, but definitely find a mentor. Probably the second thing is that you’ve got to have Drive. I mean, I was doing everything I came with absolutely no network I was from Branson,
D.J. Paris 10:05
you’re from nobody from Branson moves to Chicago. This year, the only person.
Elizabeth Pyle 10:10
Yeah, I connected with a couple of people that I knew from college from a business fraternity that I was. But I don’t think I’ve done business with any of those people. So I had drive, and I was out there every day, I’ve never worn out shoes, and I’ve worn out so many pairs of high heels since I’ve been here. But if you name it, I’ve done it. I’ve called called. I’ve door knocked. We’ve done mailers. So just going through anything that you see out there, there are books that say here 2020 ways to find business in real estate, and I did them all.
D.J. Paris 10:42
Awesome. And I love that. And I love the to the mentor. And I will tell you that it’s been so common for all of almost all of the top producers we’ve interviewed for the show, all basically had somebody that they were able to really work with initially, and very few people started completely on their own. So I guess, hats off to Santiago for obviously helping guide you through that. And San Diego, do you have anything to add as far as what brokers could do to increase their production? Or maybe newer brokers?
Santiago Valdez 11:14
Yeah, you know, when I started, I started reading a lot of books. I read, you know, tons and tons and tons of like anything I could get my hands on, as far as real estate sales. And I also you know, like, talk to my managing broker, I was in a very small REMAX office, the managing broker, whether it was Uber Rodriguez was still in business. I was in Andersonville. And we, we used to meet probably about once a week and talk about my deals and you know, who I was working with and how I was going. And at the time, you know, I kind of dreaded kind of going to see him every week. But in retrospect, it really helped me and Google had, I mean, I think there was only like maybe 10, or 15 agents at the office. So he actually had a good amount of time to be able to spend with us. And I took really good advantage of it. And it really helped me and also I talked to a lot of people in the office that I’m still friends with right now, you know, Jim Anderson, who I used to work with, I still talk to him a lot about the business and you know, just general stuff, and cardigan Shipman who is now I think he’s like in Florida or something. But he, he used to be a really big producer at the time when I was there. And I used to you know, pick his brain all the time. So talking to people that have been doing it, and have had success. I think that’s been very critical for me and learning from from others.
D.J. Paris 12:45
Awesome, great, all great advice from from both of you. And I’ll actually throw something on top of that. Every person who’s listening, who’s a realtor, which is probably 100% of the audience is likely a member of a local association, whether it’s car, this case, you guys are with car or Main Street or North Shore, Barrington or three rivers or there’s a few others, but that’s a bit those are the big ones. They all have a what’s called YPN, which is Young Professionals Network, it is awesome. You guys should be going I’m talking to the listeners. Now of course, it’s for example, cars, the last Wednesday of every month, it’s at Manny’s, which is like the greatest place to eat anyway in Chicago, and they it’s free food. And then they have panels of people like you know, the Redux Redux team. So this is exactly like the kind of the actually the reason we started this podcast is because I went to a YPN event, a car YPN event and there was a panel of top producers and I was like, oh, we should record stuff like this. So anyway, that’s a really great, great organization and you pay for those dues anyway, it’s part of your dues. If you’re joining one of the boards, they all have them Mainstreet has a great one as well. And North Shore Barrington does too. So definitely, if you’re listening, and you’re not taking advantage of that stuff you already pay for please do because you can meet great people like Santiago and Elizabeth. And so anyway, I wanted to talk to you guys specifically about team building. I know you guys want to talk about that. And that is such a huge thing. Seems like everybody I know who’s successful, right these days is on a team. So I will turn this over to you. Let’s talk about team building. Where should we start?
Santiago Valdez 14:21
You know, I’ll start us off basically on what we were thinking when we started our little team relax. So for many years, I had been working on my own and you know, just by myself at different times, I had like an assistant, but definitely nothing like a team. I mean, just somebody that was at the office helping me with paperwork. And you know, while I was out in the field, doing whatever I needed to do, but I never really wanted to have a team because I used to feel like there was like almost this A structure where people were a little bit, kind of getting used a little bit, and maybe not everybody getting to like their full potential. So I had a little bit of hesitation about getting a team going. And first, you know, I had no idea how to structure a team, you know how to do any of that. I’m a fairly good reader of people. So I think I could probably get some people that are fairly decent people. But I didn’t really feel like I had the, the wherewithal to, we actually be able to put this team together and be able to do stuff together, that would be great, like, a little bit, kind of like what we’re doing now. So we started with Elizabeth and I just basically the two of us working, and we had no intentions of building a team. But then, our businesses started growing and, and we started reading more about, you know, how to have a successful team and, and one, one of the things that really captivated me was being able to teach somebody else a little bit more about the business, kind of like the relationship that we had with Elizabeth, as far as how, how I, basically, I was an open book, and I gave her everything that I had, and to be able to help other people like that. And, and to also make more money, because one of the things I had noticed on a lot of teams was that as the team got bigger, a lot of people ended up actually making less money and making a lot more work. And that’s something that with friends that are in the business I used to always talk about, it’s like, you know, not getting into these teams. And then I mean, for what so then you’re kind of chained into a job pretty much, which is, you know, kind of what we didn’t want to do. So, Elizabeth is incredibly smart. And she has an amazing sense of business. So she actually helped mold this whole business of the team together. So I’ll let her kind of talk a little bit more about that. And the finances and you know, how we actually set up this relax the
D.J. Paris 17:14
Yeah, and just to pause real quickly, I apologize, Elizabeth, but I just want to just just touch on a couple points. So some criticisms of teams, or people that may have a hesitation as Santiago did about team building is and the reality of it is it’s hard to find the right team, right? There’s a lot of teams, not every team is the right fit. And there are certain situations where in particular, maybe a new broker, just joining a team, because they think they should be on a team. It may not be the right solution. Or they may feel like gosh, I feel like I’m just doing about a lot of the grunt work. Obviously, there’s pros and cons to any team. But you know, there is, I hear it all the time when I talk to new brokers who go Should I join a team? And I’m like, Well, if you can find the right team, then absolutely. But yeah, I’m really interested to hear you guys obviously have a very strong team. So I’m really curious to hear, you know, Elizabeth’s take on and how you guys felt that?
Elizabeth Pyle 18:10
Yeah, I mean, I think a lot of it is what Santiago said, but even when it comes down to the name, if you notice, usually it’s the head broker’s name on the team. And so we we, like intentionally decided to make it the relaxed name so that everybody feels empowered. We also have core values, and one of the core values is about personal growth. So So Santiago, and I, we personally love real estate, we really enjoy it. But we’re also looking to grow personally, and we want everybody that’s working with us to grow personally. So that’s the way the way we formed it. And then kind of like you said, with, with getting the right people into the team and the right people onto like, into this certain roles. That’s something that I think it comes with time, we’ve, we’ve positioned people in certain places and kind of moved them around and moved certain certain tasks from one person to the to another. So I think that’s something that it’s just kind of trial and error as you as you go through it. But something that helped us really, really succeed are probably two things, making sure that everybody does a personality test so that they get into the right role. And then the second thing is we went to probably like four or five, six conferences that were oriented towards teams. And so we probably kind of like me working with Santiago, being my mentor, we listened to all of those hurdles that those people had. And hopefully, we we got rid of some of those hurdles. We’ve still gone through some of them but but I think that we’ve we’ve progressed a lot quicker because we learned from other people.
D.J. Paris 19:34
Well, I want to Yes, I want to touch on a couple of those things. Thank you. That’s really great stuff that I want to first go back to the name the team name and and I didn’t even realize how intentional That was until you guys just mentioned it. And I realize how that you’re absolutely right. Most teams are not named something that is other than the head person’s name and Not that there’s a criticism for me for that. But if I had to choose whether it would be if I was building a team, my name versus a name, like the one you guys have chosen for your team, I would go that route. Because you’re right, it probably does help in making sure people feel more a part of the hole versus somebody working under someone else. So I think that’s very smart. And no one to this all day podcasts I’ve done, almost everyone is on a team, no one’s actually voiced that. So I really appreciate you bringing that point up. I think it’s a very good idea. And then let’s talk about personality tests. Because wouldn’t I mean, that’s just a smart way to do ever to always hire anybody. Is there a specific personality test that you that you guys use that you want to tell people to use? Or what do you guys use?
Santiago Valdez 20:46
Yeah, so we use the DISC personality profile test. We also use a little bit of Myers Brigg testing. And we had, basically an ideal of the type of person that we wanted to hire. And then we kind of just, you know, look through that person through the testing and also through the conversations that we have with them. So it wasn’t, it wasn’t just somebody that we like, you know, met up and felt really comfortable about, but that we felt that like they were going to be able to actually be in the role that we were thinking about for them. And of course, after they’re there, it’s not always 100% Or, and you know, like Elizabeth was saying, you know, it’s sometimes you have to move around and take some responsibility from their job and given them different kinds of responsibilities, because overall, you want to focus on their strengths. But, but yeah, I mean, that’s, that’s been really helpful to actually get a little bit better. And we keep getting better and better with the people that we keep hiring, we keep getting better and better candidates, because we are getting better at seeing what they what to look
D.J. Paris 22:01
for. Yeah, absolutely. It’s, it just makes perfect sense, right. I’m glad you get it. But you are the first team that I’ve talked to that I’m sure other teams utilize personality tests and disc profiles. But no one else has voiced that. So I appreciate you bringing that up. That’s a really smart idea. And and by the way, not super expensive, but absolutely worth doing to ensure or have a better sense of what whether somebody would be a good fit. And let’s come back to I want to go back to the whole team idea in general, I you know, one of the biggest benefits to being on a team is when you meet with clients to be able to say we have a whole team. And here’s our team, here’s what each person does, if in fact, each person has different, you know, responsibilities for that client. And it really sort of is what some of some of the more automated firms like Redfin, for example, there will structures as really a team. It’s it’s a corporate team structure. But I love the fact that that you guys are able to offer that I imagine, you know, if I was a realtor going up against one of your potential clients looking to sell a house, and we both had presentations, and it was just me versus the relax team. Well, I think I would probably lose, right? Because you guys likely could argue, pretty convincingly you have more to offer, because there’s just more bodies there to help with the whole transaction.
Elizabeth Pyle 23:20
Yeah, I mean, it’s something that we talk about a lot on listing presentations is that we’re sitting there with a seller, and I can’t answer the phone while I’m talking about that salary. So can we join or four or five or 20, or whatever other listings. So you know, you kind of have to have a team and something that’s happening a lot in the industry right now is the agents will, will say, Hey, I can’t show right now. Because my schedule just doesn’t work. But if you’re just one person, then you can’t be expected to be everywhere, but the sellers expect their property to be showed every time somebody wants to see it.
D.J. Paris 23:49
Yeah, that’s a really strong point is, you know, hey, if I’m with you, I’m not able to service another one of my clients. So I have other people on the team to assist with that. So makes perfect sense to me. Let’s talk about structuring the team. In now you guys are and you were always business owners. Obviously, in this business, you’re always a business owner anyway. But now you’re you’re, you know, responsible for Team sort of the profitability of the overall team. How is is that been a learning curve for you? Where’s What have you found? What learnings have you? Have you figured out from sort of determining how profitable the team is?
Elizabeth Pyle 24:28
Yeah, I mean, I think we absolutely have been profitable since since we joined together. You know, and going to these conferences with other teams. One thing that we that we found out from the very first one is that there are a lot of huge huge teams that are just like they’re just bleeding money so so it’s something that we didn’t want to walk into. I personally have been kind of into like, I had a finance degree as well. So I’ve always kind of been very, I don’t know OCD about about making sure that the finances are in place. So we have a budget we take about maybe three, four days every year in December and we put together a budget, we have a marketing calendar. So we go, we have QuickBooks we have, we have a bookkeeper. So basically we, we make sure that everything is in line, and then it’s all a process. So in the beginning to set it all up, it’s a little daunting. But once you have that process set up, it just, it kind of all comes comes together. And then at the end of each month, we can easily see where we are, if we need to spend more money on marketing, if we need to cut back, if we’re not hitting our goals, and maybe we need to cut back on marketing. But we put in there, how much we’ll spend on you know, the employees and how much we pay out to our buyer’s agent, all that stuff is calculated. So it’s just a matter of thinking through it. And then you can absolutely be profitable.
D.J. Paris 25:45
Yeah, it’s, you’re so right. And controlling expenses. It’s so interesting, I wonder for what percentage of realtors out there have actual budget, a monthly budget a yearly budget, I suspect it’s less than 2%. I mean, I’m just guessing, maybe it hopefully is higher than that. But I would say even if rather just we all should have a personal budget of our own anyway, but to have a a business budget, I know at our company, we of course have one as well. And I would say if you do nothing else, you know it, whether you’re on a team or not, create a budget, figure out what you’re spending, figure out what’s coming in. And you’ll you’ll learn some pretty amazing things. Because as realtors, you’re focused on servicing clients getting new clients, and it’s easy to overlook the finances. So obviously, I know how important that is for you guys. And so you guys, tell me about your team you have what is your five? Or is it? Is it larger?
Elizabeth Pyle 26:41
Nope. Or we’re still a fairly small team. So we’ve got five people, Santiago and I, and then we’ve got a full time agents that traffic commission, and then we have a full time employee that that is hourly. But she she is licensed. And so she she does all of our, you know, showings, inspections, things like that. And then we have a full time admin as well.
D.J. Paris 27:06
Awesome. And, and I think that’s also oftentimes not the way a lot of teams are structured, right. It’s it’s a lot of it is kind of everyone’s doing the same job. But they’re just kind of maybe sharing Commission’s to some degree, they don’t have a particular roles and a lot of cases. So I love the fact that you guys have designated, you know, certain roles and responsibilities. I imagine, again, that goes back to the personality test, I’m sure how, how great that is to be able to, but as Santiago said, play to people’s strengths, right? So
Santiago Valdez 27:37
one thing that really helped with that was being able to, like have, like some sort of a reserve, because, you know, if you have, like a, like a budget of like payroll, you have, you have to have enough to be able to cover a certain amount of time. So that was actually the key element for us. Because it before I started doing real estate with Elizabeth, there were some months when I made a ton of money. And then you know, a few some months, I made very little. And it was so incredibly difficult for me to actually budget my money, yes. But with this, the way that we’re working it now we have a business reserve. And then I actually get a paycheck, you know, every month, and as the same thing, whether I close a ton of business, or I don’t close anything I get I get a paycheck every month. And then of course, being the business owners of the team, then we get, you know, like payouts, you know, every however long, but I get paid, you know, basically like an employee. Sure.
D.J. Paris 28:44
Yeah, no, that’s really smart. I, I’m not really I mean, technically, I’m a realtor, but I don’t really I don’t practice at all, but I am in our business that I’m in here. I’m sort of structured similarly, where it’s like I own the company, but I’m an employee of the company, and I get a paycheck very similarly. And then there’s other payouts as well. And it’s, yes, it makes things a little bit more smooth. And certainly you have responsibilities to your other team members. So that’s, that’s really smart. And also something that not everybody can do right away. So build to that, obviously, and maybe don’t don’t start a team if you’re unable to meet payroll, of course, and you guys have not had that problem. So that’s, that is but it’s something to really think about is how steady is the income before you decide to bring on you know, people who you’re paying regardless of production. So that’s that’s huge. What’s is there? Are you guys focused specifically with your team on business? Because you guys are in the city? Do you focus mostly on I mean, obviously, I’m sure you have clients kind of all over but you focus primarily in the city or out in the you know, whereabouts do you sort of specialize?
Santiago Valdez 29:54
So when we first started working together with Elizabeth, my business was almost 100% by referral. And I used to throw me everywhere. So I was like, in 1000 different places. But since we started working together, we’ve really focused our business through marketing. And also, like having one of the other people on my team be able to take care of some of the other business I was getting, I was way out there. Sure. So our business now is mainly from probably from about the South Loop to about Rogers park up and down Lakeshore drive. That’s the sweet spot of it. That’s kind of where we like to work. Um, so, but we do still, you know, have business elsewhere. But that’s, that’s about kind of the area that we focus on.
D.J. Paris 30:48
Yeah. And I think that’s also, as you mentioned, a really strong point. So one of the downsides of working by referral, if I guess you could call it a downside is Yeah, they’ve people may want to move to places where that are farther away than where you would prefer to work. And of course, it’s their referral is you really want to work with them, and then eventually get to a place where you have a team where you’re able to, you know, pass those certain opportunities off to other team members or, yeah, so that’s, that’s one of the big benefits, I think of having a team is you have the ability to, you know, assign different types of clients to different different members. So that’s, that’s awesome. Well, guys, I appreciate your time you, there’s been so much good information in here. I just want to ask one. Oh, I wanted to ask you guys one specifically, because you didn’t talk about compass at all. Tell me the best thing you love about compass because I know, they more recent to Chicago, and everyone’s very interested in what compass is doing. So is there. What do you guys love most about working there?
Santiago Valdez 31:53
I’ll go first. So the, this little story will basically exemplify one of the things that I think is just incredible on campus. When we were talking to, you know, talking about coming to campus, they told us about the opportunity to meet Mr. Raskin, which, you know, we thought it was gonna be like, a five minute meeting, because he is, you know, he’s the CEO of the company. Yeah, so we thought we’d, you know, we shake his hand or whatever. But, you know, he’s, he sat with us with Alyssa with an eye for like, 45 minutes, talking about real estate. And it was just like, you know, this gentleman really, really got it. I mean, he really understood where the business was going. I read a ton of blogs, and I read a lot of different things about real estate. I mean, he was really on it. You know, he really had a good vision of kind of, where we’re headed to what the pitfalls are coming up. And of course, you know, nobody has all the answers. But knowing your work, you know, where the road is kind of leading, I think it’s incredibly important and paying attention to that. So now, that was my best experience with with combat.
D.J. Paris 33:06
Yeah, and I know that they the technology that they’ve invested in for their brokers is also so I haven’t seen it personally. But I always hear just unbelievable things about it. So cool. Well, guys, thank you so much. Again, we are talking to to relax International, you can visit them on their website at relax international.com. And a couple of things. If there’s any listeners that maybe are interested, I don’t know if you guys are looking, I should ask you first. Are you looking for new team members? Because if there’s any listeners that are interested, are you guys open to build expanding the team or not at this point?
Elizabeth Pyle 33:44
Yes, we’re absolutely open to taking new team members on.
D.J. Paris 33:49
Cool Well, if brokers who are listening are interested, what’s the best or I’m going to add to that, or if there’s any buyers or sellers out there renters to I suspect that are in that would love to work with the relax international team, what is the best way that anyone who wants to get in touch with you can get in touch.
Santiago Valdez 34:07
So probably the best way is to give us a call. So I’ll give my cell phone number is 773-858-2410. You can call text anytime. And yeah, we’re looking for people that are looking to move their lives forward, not just a real estate business, but to improve their whole entire entire team. People are trying to become better people and become better versions of themselves.
D.J. Paris 34:34
Awesome. I think that was well said. And also you have a pretty good track record with Elizabeth at the very least Rookie of the Year a big deal. So obviously, you guys must know what you’re doing. So anyway, thanks again. Again. Santiago Valdez, Elizabeth pile of compass and the Relix international team. Again visit them at relaxed international.com. And oh, let’s give you guys is there is there an email address we can shoot? Throw out there as well.
Santiago Valdez 35:00
I’m sure it’s my email is Santiago S A N T agio at Chicago 773 dot com. So Santiago at Chicago 773 That comm
D.J. Paris 35:12
Awesome. All right. Well, guys, thank you so much for your time today. This was really fun. And on behalf of Santiago and Elizabeth, we will see everyone on the next episode. So thanks for listening. Remember to tell a friend about this podcast and go check out relax international.com Alright, thanks, guys.
Santiago Valdez 35:31
Thank you. Hopefully we see you in the Andes. That’s right.
D.J. Paris 35:35
Yes. Yes. Well, I’ll go down and we’ll all drink. Oh gosh, what now I’m blanking on what is the the cola the famous cola down there.
Santiago Valdez 35:45
Whether it’s a coca tea and then there’s teacher or you
D.J. Paris 35:49
know, what’s the brand? Oh gosh, it’s the real sweet it’s like bubblegum flavor. Oh, Inca Kola, Inca Kola, of
Santiago Valdez 35:57
course Inca co many things to drink.
D.J. Paris 36:01
I know that’s like the you know, but I love I do love Inca Kola. All right, I will. I will see you guys in Peru. But at the very least. Thanks again for listening and thanks for being on the show.
Santiago Valdez 36:12
Awesome. Thanks EJ.
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