Haley Levine and Tony Mattar met years ago while working for a top 1% real estate team. They instantly bonded and in 2019 decided it was time to open their own brokerage, HomeCo Chicago. In this episode Haley and Tony discuss why they started a firm, what it takes to be a top 1% broker and why client events have been a critical component of their success. They also talk about what most brokers miss about social media and how to attract younger clients. Their passion and excitement shines through and you’ll understand why they’re the hottest new brokerage in Chicago.
Tony Mattar can be reached at tony@homecochicago.com and 248.568.6732.
Haley Levine can be reached at haley@homecochicago.com and 847.644.6848.
Transcript
D.J. Paris 0:00
On this episode of Keeping it real is brought to you by Quicken Loans real estate professionals. When you work with Quicken Loans, you have an agent relationship manager available to you and your team. These dedicated experts are part of the agent relations team. They serve as your single point of coordination so you can count on them to keep you in the loop throughout your client’s entire home buying process, call 888-980-2891 or go to real estate dot Quicken loans.com. Today, call for cost information and conditions equal housing lender licensed in all 50 states NMLS consumer access.org Number 3030. And now on to the show.
Hello, and welcome to another episode of Keeping it real the largest podcast in the country made for real estate brokers by real estate brokers. My name is DJ Paris, I am your host and guide through the show. Coming up in just a moment, we have an amazing interview with Tony matar and Haley Lavon, from home coach Chicago. And before we get to their interview, I want to mention a couple of quick things. First, we have you know, I should I should mention this because we’re here in Chicago and our listeners are largely in Chicago, however, we now have received some national attention, which we’re really grateful for. And it’s opened us up to an audience outside of our local metropolitan area. So what does that mean to you? Well means we’re going to start including guests from outside of the Chicagoland area. So at the very beginning of the show, I mentioned, we’re the largest podcast made for real estate brokers, by real estate brokers, but not every state has real estate brokers. So that might be confusing to some of you. So in Chicago, we don’t use the word agent, it doesn’t exist anymore. So everyone who’s a realtor as a real estate broker. So if you’re in a different state, you’re like broker, that’s just real estate agent or realtor. So same thing. Also, we’ve now been getting some attention from national advertisers. So if you are listening, and you are an advertiser, or would like to be an advertiser on the show, let us know find us through our website, keeping it real pod.com. And you can submit a request to be considered to advertise on one of our shows, where I will read a 32nd intro, and we’d love to promote your service or product. And lastly, please remember to subscribe on iTunes, and Google Play. If you’re an Android user, you can also stream every episode we’ve ever done on our website, keeping it real pod.com. And guys, please follow us on Facebook, it’s really our primary source of getting information to you not only about the show, but every single day, our producer Liz create finds a great article to help you grow your business. And she posts it on our Facebook page. So you can find us@facebook.com forward slash keeping it real pod. So find us get and stay in touch with us. Tell a friend continue to listen and support our sponsors. We appreciate it. And we’ll keep making these great episodes. And lastly, if you’re in a different area, again, we’re here in Chicago, but we’re heard all over the country. If you have a successful broker in your neck of the woods that you want us to speak to send us a message right you can do that right through our website or through Facebook, let us know who we should be talking to and we’ll reach out and get them on the show in the near future. Thanks for listening again, guys. We really appreciate it. This is I think our 100 and 16th episode, and we never thought it would get this big. We’re going to keep making more if you keep listening so Thanks in advance and on to Tony and Haley.
Today on the show we have Hayley Lavon and Tony matar from their newly created real estate firm home co Chicago, Hayley and Tony each come from a long line of entrepreneurs. The two met a little over five years ago while working for one of Chicago’s top real estate firms and instantly bonded over their commitment to infusing their charisma, mindful strategies and design capabilities in to bring their clients real estate dreams to life. This bond culminated most recently when the to open their own independent real estate brokerage home co Chicago, just recently in 2019. Welcome Haley and Tony.
Tony Mattar 4:30
Hey, TJ, how’s it going? Good.
D.J. Paris 4:33
And we should mention, by the way, hello, Haley. Hi. We should mention that Haley was late but only for like the best possible reason you just came from a closing
Haley Levine 4:43
I did. I’m sorry to be like, no, no reason if any. No,
D.J. Paris 4:46
this is this is what top 1% producers do. They are busy and so we’re so grateful that you guys took time out of your day in between closings, which I know is not always the easiest thing, especially when you just started your firm, which was you know started earlier this Year, which is super exciting. And I definitely want to get to, to that. That sort of big event. But first let’s, I’d love to talk to you guys more about how you got started, because I’d love to hear both of your origin stories. So let’s go ahead. Yeah, go ahead. Great
Tony Mattar 5:15
question DJ. So, um, my kind of origin story in the business as what I like to call a bit of a happy accident. I was working a job my first year out of school, and it was not necessarily something I loved. And I had become friends with a top producer here in Chicago, who owns his own firm, and kind of just through happenstance, I ended up going to work for him and decided that, you know, worst case scenario, I would learn about an industry that I knew nothing about as a 23 year old Sure, and best case scenario, I would figure out that I loved it and would continue to do it. And luckily, the latter is what happened.
D.J. Paris 5:53
Wow. And and how in how many years now? Have you been in the business?
Tony Mattar 5:57
I think about six now. I always track some days. But
D.J. Paris 6:01
and by the way, we should I want to the listeners probably know this. But just in case, starting your own firm and six years is unheard of like the fact that that Haley and Tony have done this is remarkable. And Haley to tell us about how you got started in real estate. Yeah,
Haley Levine 6:13
my story is actually very similar to that. But I am through college, I leased apartments kind of for extra money in the summer. And, you know, it turned into something. It was also a job I didn’t really like right out of college. And I was like, what if I tried to do real estate full time? What if I went for it? And I did. And I was also lucky enough to have some amazing mentors, you know, top producers, and learn the right way. You know, by a year and a half in working with top producers. I had seen over like 70 transactions in a year. So I learned a lot really quickly. And really grateful for that. But it turned from something that was a side hustle into a full time life. Really?
D.J. Paris 6:56
Yeah. Which is not easy to do. There’s so many part time brokers out there who have never, you know, are able to figure out how to make it a full time gig. So we’re always so impressed with people that do that. So talk to us about starting your own company, why and how and all of that. Yeah,
Tony Mattar 7:13
so I think something that Haley just mentioned mentioned is actually kind of worth like, looking back at, which is the fact that both her and I were fortunate enough to be on many different top producing teams throughout our career that kind of primed the pump and allowed us to get to this place. It was really, in my opinion, I think an accelerated growth trajectory that we were on because like Haley mentioned, rather than kind of, you know, hustling it out to close 510 deals a year, maybe 15 deals. Instead, we were on teams where we were a party to 7080 90 transactions within a year where we really got to see all the ins and outs, all the ways that deals can fall apart, how you should talk to your clients, how you should lead generate, and how to really run your business, like a business instead of like, you know, a solo entrepreneur. So that I think was instrumental in our kind of being able to take this step relatively, quote unquote, early in our careers.
D.J. Paris 8:11
Yeah, it’s interesting. So we’ve interviewed a lot of people on the show, and a lot of them will talk about that point where they get to, and usually it’s a volume that the number they give me is like, not necessarily number of transactions, but maybe it’s like 15 million, 20 million, whatever that number is, and all of a sudden, they’re like, I need to I need to, like figure out a better system here, because I’m killing myself. And you know, and then you guys were able to see how these top producers were able to manage just, you know, dozens of clients at the same time and how challenging that is, but also how to do it, which is huge.
Haley Levine 8:45
Yeah, when Tony and I kind of made the decision to team up, we came to the conclusion pretty early on that it would be a lot more impactful for the consumer and for our clients. If we just went out on our own your own brokerage. I think as agents it’s really clear cut to us that I work at whatever brokerage and I have this team, but to the other people out there, you know, our clients and the consumer, they don’t really understand that right? They care about you. Yeah. So it’s hard to say like I am on the Leviathan matar team at you know, whatever brokerage sure is being able to say this is our business. We started this just had a really big impact off the rent, and then we really, so that was the first decision. We’re like, this makes more sense. And the second part of it is we just realized how much more we could bring to our clients. You know, a lot of brokerages offer a lot of things and they do come at a premium but great things. But over the years, we’ve kind of realized what our clients need, right? And our database is millennial. It’s different. It’s marketing to in a different way. And we wanted to go full force with that and opening our own brokerage kind of allowed us the funds to do that and just you know, being able to kind of own all of it in a way we wanted to do
D.J. Paris 10:00
Yeah, I think that’s a really strong point is probably most firms haven’t updated the, maybe the marketing materials they offer to appeal to a younger demographic,
Tony Mattar 10:11
or even the channels on which they market, right, you know, do do sellers really care about a hardcover property brochure anymore. You know, it’s that type of stuff that you’re paying for at some of the other firms, which is, can be can be, you know, really a value add to certain types of clients. But when we looked and assessed what our client’s needs were, we felt like this was the best way to meet those needs.
D.J. Paris 10:33
Well, usually what I find, too, when I when I interview people for the show, as they end up creating all their own material anyway. So you might as well, if you’re going to do that, then you know, if you’re doing most all the work yourselves, makes perfect sense to open up your own firm. And as Haley said, be able to own all of it, right? Yes, that’s
Haley Levine 10:49
really, you know, the driving force, I think, a lot of our business, over 25% of it comes from social media, from Facebook, and Instagram marketing. And that’s a thing that no firm was really offering. And especially in the way we wanted to do it with our voice and with us, and to make it genuine so
D.J. Paris 11:06
and that’s, that’s huge, I definitely want to make sure we touch on that. And just to give our listeners some awareness of how they might start to look at social media as a way to generate leads. So for sure, I definitely want to come to that. I do want to mention before I forget that for everyone listening, you need to check out their website, by the way, which is one of the cleanest, simple minimalist, but like super chock full of great information, websites. So guys, give your web address.
Tony Mattar 11:33
Yeah, it’s home Coach chicago.com. And I just have to really quick say that that website is due in full part to Haley and that’s been her baby, did
D.J. Paris 11:42
you feel that
Haley Levine 11:43
I can take full credit for it. My fiance and my soon to be brother in law, I have a good tech network that was able to help me out with that he’s a designer. So we got you know, we’re fortunate that
D.J. Paris 11:56
it’s a really good lesson for our listeners of how to build a strong website that is very clean and easy to navigate. So home co chicago.com. So I just wanted to give you guys credit there because it’s really cool.
Haley Levine 12:07
I will say to you, our website is built in Squarespace. So it’s really something that anyone can do. You don’t need, you know, a life partner that is a designer and paring it down. And one of the things we invested in and good money was a really good video, that video is awesome, highly produced video, I think is the future, it makes people feel like they know us on the page. So we were like, if we’re gonna have anything, we don’t need all these crazy search tools and all these widgets and to put all the info but like one video where you really get a feel for us and what we’re trying to do, we feel like
D.J. Paris 12:39
works the best one what they did, just to go to like I’m a web designer myself. So I get really caught up in this and probably a lot of people don’t care. But what is so cool about their website is literally the video is the first thing you see. And you almost can’t proceed, or you don’t want to proceed until you check out their video and yeah, whoever you guys had a film that inlet it like the lighting is amazing. Anyway, I’ll stop because probably nobody cares about me. But that is such a cool thing. It’s one of the best videos I’ve ever seen. Yeah, so congrats on on your website. But yeah, can we go back to social media for a moment, Haley said that, you know, a quarter of your business comes from there, like tell us what you’re doing, or at least maybe your your philosophy around how to how to communicate via social media.
Tony Mattar 13:26
So I think we’re doing a couple of different things social media wise, you know, I know that Haley already mentioned, we’re two millennial co founders of a brand new business. And so as such, we both have kind of grown up on social media. So before we even were doing any type of social media advertising or anything like that, you know, it’s really important to just build your own personal brand on on a platform like Instagram or Facebook. And I think, you know, finding out what is my niche, you know, who are the people that are going to follow me etc, is really important in terms of building a big following. And when people in my experience, I think a lot of realtors out there focus a lot on how to create how to how to make their current following then become their clients. Right? For me, I think about it as how do I get more followers? Because, like, organically a certain percentage of my followers are going to turn into business for me. Sure. And so it’s a numbers game. It’s a numbers game in terms of increasing the number of people that you’re reaching with the same content that you are versus trying to tailor your content to try to convert more business out of a fixed set of people Sure.
Haley Levine 14:37
And you know, on our homecare account to are not really going for a ton of followers, like that’d be great, but it is also the content that we’re sharing back on our individual Instagram pages. So we’re going after to markets with our social media people we already know in our sphere, it’s reinforcing it and then driving like ad paid traffic to those two, but we made a couple key things when we decide Uh, about social media like our voice, we wanted to be genuine to who we were. And we wanted to think about the person who’s going on there to look at it before us. I think a lot of agents post a lot of just listed just saw, nobody cares. Nobody cares. I mean, I mean, like, great, that is good for you and you’re doing business and I think in our minds are like crazy to all my followers are gonna see that I’m closing all this business. Imagine if every time your dentist clean someone’s teeth, or like your mechanic every time they did an oil change, just like another oil change. Great. You’d be so you wouldn’t follow that we really go on social media for two reasons. One to creep on people, right? And to to be entertained. So you know, we thought how can we entertain people, and a lot of that is us just every showing we do without our phone doing a video to people like it, they engage with it, right? Yeah, you can go
Tony Mattar 15:50
on, go on a showing with us without even stepping foot out your door, you know, by checking out our story on Instagram guys do that every show him?
Haley Levine 15:58
Or a good number of them? I’ve heard you on everyone, but a good number of them. I don’t know anyone that does that. That’s huge. Yeah. And then what’s awesome about all the analytics we have now is we can go back and see, you know, who watched this for more than 10 seconds, right? Who engaged with it, and then we can target them with something else. So it’s kind of this idea, instead of us being on a park bench or like in line, you know, the checkout at the grocery store, like on those little bars. We’re everywhere. Every time you open your Instagram or your Facebook, there’s either a paid ad or something else that we’re there. So you’re thinking about us,
D.J. Paris 16:29
and we should tell everyone to follow them on Instagram. So the home coach Chicago is also their Instagram account. So check that out. And also do you can visit you can blame for that right from their, their website as well. So let’s talk about we were talking about this before we started about the events you guys, do we actually have one coming up very shortly. But I wanted, you know, a lot of our listeners, you know, they they have never done client appreciation events or client education events. He talked a little bit about how that factors into your business.
Haley Levine 16:58
Yeah, I think I will say first, I’ll admit this, I was always terrified to do events, I was always worried no one’s gonna show up at my party, I’m going to look super lame. But then when I started looking at it from a different angle is a lead generation source, it totally flips the table. So you know, with our events, we don’t really care if 200 people show up or 15, because it’s a tool to lead generate, right? So we come up with an event that’s providing something value base to our network. And then we’re calling them about it, it’s a great reason to pick up the phone and say, Hey, I wanted to make sure you got an invite, right? sending them an email about it, promoting it on social media. So it’s a great reason to reach out. And most of the time, we’re just looking for something that’s a great idea where someone’s like, oh, that’s like so cool. Even if they don’t show up, right, we’re still getting business from it is what we’ve found.
Tony Mattar 17:48
Yeah, I mean, I think Halley’s point is super important in that it doesn’t matter how many people actually come to the event, it matters how many people we have the opportunity to call and get on the phone. Because, you know, just this past week, we were gearing up for our event that we’re doing this Sunday, which is we hired a professional photographer, we’re going down to Tom Paine park on the south side, which has a beautiful mural and we’re building it as like a holiday photo event or headshots or, you know, just a family portrait if you want. And I was on the phone with someone who can’t come to the event, and talk to me about listing their home this spring. And so I would have never had that conversation or I might not have had I not picked up the phone and invited them to this event, which gave me a reason to reach out. Yeah,
D.J. Paris 18:31
yeah. And just back to social media for a second too, even if you the listeners are a broker and you’re not creating great content on social media, which is really what you should be doing, even if, as Haley said, like, one of the ideas is other reasons use social media to creep on people. Well, you can also use it as a tool to find out what’s going on in your clients lives. Right? So as Tony just said, Hey, it’s you know, having these events are a great reason to pick up the phone. Another great reason is looking on social media and saying, Oh, here’s what’s going on in my prospects or my clients lives, or their kids just went back to school to that time of the year. Maybe I should pick up the phone and say, How are the kids doing?
Haley Levine 19:07
We actually do a lot of that. And I think it’s kind of funny, I got a text from someone just yesterday where they had a baby and we send a little you know, gift right and part of the gifts as the baby’s weight and length. And she texts me she says one this is so cute that you sent us this thank you for congratulate SB two, I must have still been drugged up because I don’t remember telling you the baby’s weight. And I did my Oh, no, no, no, we saw it online. And she’s like, Oh, of course that makes sense. That’s so thoughtful. So I think we all know that we’re creeping on top of each other and like use that as a tool. She wasn’t offended. She was like, That’s so thoughtful. You
D.J. Paris 19:42
can send me a gift anytime I always take
Tony Mattar 19:43
a good note and I’ll keep
D.J. Paris 19:47
well, hey, I appreciate any and all attention. I’m just I’m just that insecure. So I need it. But let’s back to events for a moment because I think this is such a big big thing and probably 99% of brokers probably really don’t do events, which is sounds crazy, but they most don’t. So how often do you try to host an event? Like
Haley Levine 20:09
we try to do an event once a quarter? Yeah. And the thought, you know, they’re usually seasonal based, like Tony said, our next one’s a photoshoot that you can use in time for your holiday card if you want. But just something we can promote once a quarter and get out there, people are looking for things to do. People love any type of event. So I think it doesn’t even have to be a thing that costs you anything. But something that goes seasonally, along with what’s happening that they wouldn’t have otherwise thought to do is normally what we’re going for.
D.J. Paris 20:41
Yeah. And if you’re if, to the listeners, if you’re thinking, Well, gosh, I would love to do an event like that, but maybe I don’t have financially it’s not something that I can hire, you know, so and so to help work the event. You know, that’s where strategic partnerships can come into play, too. If you have relationships with lenders, for example, or attorneys, title companies, you know, insurance people, whoever, there’s there maybe would also help offset costs. So for everyone who’s listening and thinks, Oh, I couldn’t do that, well, maybe your partners would help, you know, offset costs.
Tony Mattar 21:12
So I think that’s a good point, TJ. But I also would caution people against spending a lot of money on these events, you know, for example, the photoshoot event that we’re having this Sunday, all in, I think it’s been about $350, we hired the photographer for a couple hours, we’re going to a free Park, and we got some donuts and cider from Costco. So I mean, no more than $500 For sure. For this entire event, which again, you know, how many appointments did we set from calling people to invite them to the event? It’s, it’s awesome. Yeah, I love it.
Haley Levine 21:43
I also think it’s okay to make people pay for something, sometimes it gets them to show up. Not the whole thing. But like, if you were going to rent out a movie theater, maybe you’re providing the ticket, you know, they’re buying their own snacks, or maybe they’re buying their ticket, but you’re renting out the entire theater, you know, something that goes along those lines, people are really just looking for something to do, and they takes the work out of thinking about Sure. So,
D.J. Paris 22:10
yeah, I love it. I think events are so important. And I’m so glad that you guys are talking about that. It’s probably the least talked about idea on our show. And I don’t know if maybe I’m just not asking the question, or if people aren’t doing it as often. But I think it’s such a cool idea. And in my life, I’m trying to think if anyone has ever offered me, because I need headshots once in a while for my own business here and or holiday photos, right? And no one has ever been like, Hey, I’m going to take care of that for you like that is really cool. That’s a huge deal. So that’s, I love the idea. I would love to pivot just real quickly to talk about systems. I know now that you guys have your own firm, you need to probably build and maintain your own systems. Can you talk about like that process and, and how that’s helped you be more efficient and effective?
Tony Mattar 22:59
Yeah, so I think that this has been, you know, this past a year, when we opened our own firm, it was really eye opening for me in many ways. And one of those ways was, you know, making sure that you have systems in place that are going to allow you to not run around like a chicken with your head cut off. And that goes throughout I mean that that permeates throughout all aspects of our business. So that means systems when it comes to lead follow up, that means systems when it comes to lead generation and time blocking for your calendar, that also means systems for, you know, having a payroll company that we use rather than me, you know, cutting checks and not have it not knowing how much to take out for taxes and all of that type of stuff. Having the right tools and systems in play, allow us to do our job better on a daily basis, and then allow us to train people to do their jobs in the best manner as well, which just makes the entire team run that much tighter and smoother.
D.J. Paris 23:53
Yeah. Are there any systems that have really like made a huge impact that you guys could talk about?
Haley Levine 23:59
I think our best system that I don’t even know if you’d call this this system is really that we run now our business, like a business, we have operating hours, and we know what we’re doing every hour of the day. So we really adhere to a time block schedule. And you know, our admin staff, their number one job is to make sure that we’re doing the things we’re supposed to be doing and the right time, so not bending to other people all the time and saying this is you know, the times we do things, this is the system we run on.
Tony Mattar 24:28
And also, I mean, there’s so many tools out there that can help with a myriad of different things. So, you know, we use Slack for communication so that we’re not getting lost in group text message threads with each other. We use Trello for you know, to do lists love Trello. Yeah. So different tools like that, you know, utilizing our CRM to its fullest and I totally agree with the sentiment that the best CRM is the one that you’ll use. So I’m not about to recommend one CRM over another, but having one that you just live and breathe in that has has been a huge change for me over this past year, as I’m obsessed with our CRM. Now, you know, not a day goes by that I’m not putting in someone new or cleaning up some information because that’s a moving target, right? You know, your CRM is never at 100% accuracy or completeness. And so you can always be improving it. And the more that you put in it, the more that you improve it, you know, the more output you’re gonna see in terms of business and productivity.
Haley Levine 25:22
Yeah, we decided early on that we wanted to run our business like a startup. So implementing technology to help us do that. Like Tony said, Slack has been like life changing. I think sometimes we do get inundated with, there’s so many different tech products for, you know, for real estate. And I think really the best ones, and the systems we’ve implemented aren’t even real estate specific. It’s just, you know, how, as a team, do we all talk to each other and keep it organized? What’s the tool for that doesn’t need to be real estate specific, right, like Trello has been life changing for us, you know, it’s great. So seeking out things where you’re really defining what’s the problem I’m having? And how can I refine it? Instead of looking for this real estate CRM that does it all? It’s, you know, made just for you, right? Yeah.
D.J. Paris 26:07
Yeah, when I started the podcast, we, myself and our producer, we use Trello, because and we just make it and for those who are listening, Trello is a really a to do list system, project management system. But it’s a visual system, which is really cool, because you can just see everything. It’s almost like a giant whiteboard in a way. And we just move from from little like board to board or I forget what they’re called. But we just moved people from, you know, like out there at this stage. They’re interested in joining and wanting to be on the podcast. Great. Now we’re going to skip scheduling, we move them and we just keep moving them down the list until they get to finish. So you guys are somewhere in our process right now, with your headshots and all the things you provided ahead of time. So I wanted to ask you guys, I always like to ask like funny experience. So you guys have something called the snow storm incident. I don’t know what this is. So are you guys willing to share that
Tony Mattar 26:59
that story? Yeah. So when you asked for a couple ideas about a funny story, I sort of started having PTSD now that these past couple of days, it’s been getting a little bit colder. There was a listing that we had a while back a couple years ago, this was actually prior to us teaming up and they were tenants in the home, it was a single family home. And when they were supposed to close, you know, we represented the seller, and they were closing in like January or February. Well, turns out that the tenants moved out and they had been paying the gas bill. So they had stopped paying the gas bill, I went over there to check on the home prior to the final walkthrough happening. And of course, the night before, there had been a four and a half foot snowstorm. So I ended up spending three hours shoveling through the driveway and through the walkway to get into the home. And once I was in there, what did I find, except for all of this crap in the basement that me and my former team member, you know, the guy whose team I was on had to carry out to the trash. So cut to me then shoveling up half all the way to the back yard to the alley. So needless to say that was a very much a full service moment for my clients. But you know, I think everyone in our industry will agree that you’re willing to do what it takes to get the job done under most most instances.
D.J. Paris 28:20
That’s a no, that’s Well, you certainly earned your commission on that one. That’s amazing. And then also guys tell us the bunk beds story.
Haley Levine 28:27
That one’s mine. So this was probably almost six years ago, I got a call from a out of state investor who had been leasing out an apartment unit in Wicker Park wanted me to go take a look. He’s thinking about selling it or maybe renting it out again. So I went over there, got the keys. I opened the door to find literally this unit. I think it was like a two bed, one bath, you know, vintage apartment and it probably had about 30 bunk beds on it. But current tenants he hadn’t been there in years. Yeah, the landlord was running any leisure stall. And it was all a palooza weekend. So there are like kids in there too. And like empty cans of alcohol, like just everywhere. And I call them he had no idea like they were running. So they’re charging by the bat. Sure. And I mean no joke, like 30 bunk beds like 60 beds. Yeah.
Tony Mattar 29:22
That’s a fire hazard.
Haley Levine 29:25
Definitely a one time experience. Yeah, that
D.J. Paris 29:27
guy must have made that was a good weekend for the lieutenant. amazing amount of money. Well, guys, I wanted to ask you, so the large number of people who listen to our show, who are brokers who are wanting to know like, okay, Tony and Haley have had this amazing success. They’ve opened up their own firm, they’re doing all these cool things. What advice do you have for somebody who’s maybe they’re newer, or maybe they’re not newer, but they’re just wanting to get to the next level. Do you have any suggestions for what you might recommend to them?
Tony Mattar 29:59
Yeah, So my recommendation and this is kind of bringing this whole conversation full circle back to what we talked about at the beginning is, I think the best way. I mean, I know the best way in this industry to, to gain to gain knowledge and to gain success, whatever that means to you is through experience. And so the best way that I was able to gain experience on an accelerated path was to be on teams of top producers. You know, I don’t think that there’s anything wrong for anything wrong with, you know, not trying to figure it out on your own from day one, because it’s a really stressful and scary business or it can be. And having that support system, having that mentorship and guidance, I think is invaluable, and really allows you to put the pedal to the metal, so to speak on your growth, growth track in the industry.
D.J. Paris 30:52
Yeah, I think that’s a that’s a great idea. And, you know, we’re trying to do our little part of that with this podcast is getting people access to the minds of some of these top producers. But yeah, this is one thing that almost all top producers we’ve had on the show talk about is there, maybe they’re not always looking for new members to add to their team, but they’re always looking for people who are super motivated, who want to work for someone like that. And the as Tony just said, the experience you get from working with a top producer is I mean, there’s no comparison because they know how to do everything. And then you don’t have to start over and figure everything out. So yeah, yeah. Any other suggestions? Guys have what like, aside from somebody joining another team, maybe what they could start doing?
Haley Levine 31:35
Yeah, I totally agree with Tony, man, we’re definitely both products of that get a good mentor early on. But I would also say, build your database from day one. Yes. So go through and make a list of everyone you know, whether you know, they’re going to be a home owner or a client or not sure, their name, their email, their phone number, preferably their mailing address, and then also come up with a way that you’re going to add to that database. So we make it a goal each to meet three new people a week. So they can be doing anything, right, like go through someone, you know, looked on LinkedIn look anywhere, and just how are you going to get coffee with three new people or even one new person a week and add them to your database? Because eventually, if you know enough people, and if you’re engaging with them and touching them in a genuine way, every year, it’s going to turn into business. So doing that early on, and knowing that that’s something you have to do is just gonna make, you know, awesome.
D.J. Paris 32:28
Yeah, early on. When I started the podcast, one of my first interviews was with Josh Weinberg of Josh and, and Tommy. Yeah, yeah. Everyone knows Josh and Tommy good
Tony Mattar 32:39
friend of the podcast. Yeah.
Haley Levine 32:40
As on Josh and Tommy’s. Yeah, well,
D.J. Paris 32:43
there we go. So yeah, so so we have a lot of experience here with with Josh and Tommy, but I when I was asking, Tommy wasn’t on the podcast, he was busy being the president of car, whatever he was doing at the time. And it obviously very, very busy. Both guys are extremely busy, and very successful. And I asked Josh, what are your like production goals for next year? And he says, Oh, we don’t think like that. And I said, Okay, well, how do you think and Josh goes, we only really have one metric. And it’s how many new people Tommy can meet in a year. So he says, like, I forget what it is, I think it’s like five people a week, or whatever the number was, he’s like, if Tommy does that, we will hit every single one of our goals. And I loved it. Because those guys, this was not their first year in the business. This is like their 10th year in the business or whatever. They’re extraordinarily successful. And I was like, oh, yeah, that’s right, because that’s a good fundamental exercise. And that drives everything else. So Haley, I think you’re so right. Like,
Haley Levine 33:37
I have to admit, Tommy and Josh, are the people who told me to do that. And it took me a couple years to actually do it to the fullest, right? So makes I’d meet with someone, someone I wouldn’t. But the minute you do, and you’re deliberate about it, and you’re saving their info, you just like skyrocket. So yeah, do it early on, and take the advice and
D.J. Paris 33:54
don’t stop doing it. It’s kind of like a pushup, it’s just a good exercise that we should always do. And it’s just one of those core fundamental activities that will always yield a good result, Ryan de April, who does the show once a month as well is is famous for saying on almost every episode 16% of your database is transacting in real estate this year. So if you know 100 People, that means at least 16 of them are doing something buying selling, renting, and some of them are even doing two transactions, right? They’re selling and buying. So he’s like it might be 16 to 32 transactions for every 100 people, you know, so by adding more people to your database, obviously the math is pretty, pretty simple there. But yeah, and it’s just one of those easy things to forget to do. Right? Like it’s hard to meet three people a week. It really is like you have to really think about where am I going to find these people. Now once you figure out and you realize how important it is you can come up with a million different ways to meet people, but I think that gets lost and while I’m already working with all these clients, I don’t have time to meet new people. It’s like make time for it. It’s it’s if you’re only even doing that like a half an hour a day that may be your MO Most important half an hour,
Haley Levine 35:01
I would say find a niche. Something that’s like, you know, genuine to mine is women who own businesses, right? So I talked to one woman, and I’m like your boss is that? Who shall should I talk to you? I want to help your business grow, who’s another woman in business? And they always connect me with someone else. Who else should I be having coffee with? And it kind of doesn’t become work. People just start sending you people that you should know and me. Yeah,
Tony Mattar 35:29
yeah. I mean, I couldn’t agree more of everything that you both just said, and I just I, Haley and I kind of bemused on this pretty often, and that we feel like we know exactly what we have to do to be successful. And I think that in our industry, we’re in a completely unique situation in that, truly, we all do know exactly what we have to do to be successful. The question just becomes, are you willing to do that stuff? How important is it in relation to the other things going on in your life, and how committed are you going to be to it, and if you create those systems, and those tools to be able to follow through on the things that you know, are going to bring you success, money, freedom, a big life, then I mean, you’re golden.
D.J. Paris 36:12
Yeah. And I also want to say that maybe some of the magic that the two of you have, and this is just what I witnessed, even before having met you, really just seeing it on your website, it was so clear and apparent. And in I was talking about how great the video looks, and how well it’s shot and the lighting. And that’s all true, but the actual genuine affection that the two of you have for each other as, as partners in this business is really like palpable, it’s very obvious. And it’s very, it’s just very attractive, it’s a quality that you would want if you’re like, Oh, I’m going to hire realtors to help me buy or sell a home, I want to that seem like they’re having a ton of fun, but that they’re very serious about the business. But there they come. Your your personality and affection for each other really shows up. In really today, it’s shown up, of course, and then as well, like in all your marketing, so it’s really a big deal.
Tony Mattar 37:03
I have to say it’s completely genuine, because we’ve been friends for you know, five or six years now really good friends and, and we used to joke way back in the day about, you know, what if someday we own our own brokerage, and at the time, it would have been, that would have been the completely wrong move, because we were out messes and didn’t know what the hell we were doing. But, you know, for us to continue to grow that friendship and also to be a support for each other, in a professional sense, while working parallel to each other and not in an official capacity together, really just built the foundation for then when we did eventually decide to realize that years long dream.
Haley Levine 37:41
Yeah, it’s definitely a value proposition to our clients in a weird way to our friendship. I think that you know, a home co client is both of our clients. And they really work with both of us. And they come to really love and be friends with both of us do, you know are two for one package, we do have our moments, I think like any, like our marriage, this fight like anyone, but you know, the end of the day, we really love each other. And we really love what we’re doing. And our visions are definitely aligned. And I think that shines through.
Tony Mattar 38:09
I wouldn’t be standing up in Haley’s wedding in January if she didn’t like me.
D.J. Paris 38:15
That’s true. Well, guys, I think you’ve really you’ve set it all and we want all of our listeners. By the way, before we get to we wrap up, I want to make sure that we if we have listeners that are interested, then you know, not just brokers who listened to our show, we have buyers, sellers, renters investors, really all sorts. And the reason I know this is every time I do an episode, once it’s recorded and published, oftentimes, almost every time the person who I interviewed calls up weekly, and it goes I just somebody just listened to it. And now I’m working with them. So I want to speak directly to those buyers, sellers, renters investors, you know, if you’re looking for a real estate team to work with, guys, what’s the best way that anyone who wants to work with you should get in touch?
Tony Mattar 38:59
Yeah, um, so the best way if you want to work with us is to reach out directly through the contact page on our website, which is home coach chicago.com Or you can DM us on Instagram and I would say my advice speaking directly to the people on the buyer side of things would be it’s never too early to have an initial conversation with us and start to get those wheels turning and start to get the right education that you need in order to hit the ground running down the line. What would you say to sellers,
Haley Levine 39:26
sellers the same thing I think meeting early on and talking about you know what the market we’re in how we’re going to market your home in the right way use you know modern technology and targeting to do that. We’ll have that conversation with you now even if you’re thinking about selling a couple years from now, you know I’m kind of set you up for success and you can use all the mediums Tony talked about and you can also just email Hello at home coach chicago.com Yeah, so
D.J. Paris 39:51
everyone go visit home coach chicago.com also follow Tony and Haley on Instagram which is home coach Chicago, find them on Facebook as well, and you can hit all their social media right through home coach chicago.com as well. Well, guys, thank you so much for being on the show. This was a lot of fun. And the three of us are crowded around my little makeshift studio, which isn’t much of a studio. It’s just my office, and they were so sweet to come in and do this. And we’re so proud of you guys for having starting your own firm. That’s a big deal.
Haley Levine 40:22
For having a student
Tony Mattar 40:24
it was it was a pleasure to be all snug and cozy in here in your office with you. Yes,
D.J. Paris 40:29
we we are definitely like it. It’s hot in here too. So I’m sweating. I don’t know if the other if Haley and Tony are but we appreciate you guys coming in. And congrats on the success with the business and all your production. And just everything you guys are doing everything right. So it’s so cool to watch that. And thank you for taking time out of your day to come talk to our listeners.
Tony Mattar 40:48
We’re super grateful for your DJ and we hope that all the listeners out there at least got one little nugget that they can take away from today. Thank you. Oh, they
D.J. Paris 40:56
got more than that. So thanks, guys, and we’ll see everyone on the next episode. Bye guys. Bye
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