Beau Blankenship with Blankenship Group and License Partner for Engel & Völkers talks about the beginning of his career in real estate and how he built his business. Beau takes some time to talk about his previous career in professional football and how that helped his success in real estate business. Next, he discusses how their business-doing changed after Covid-19. Last, Beau among others shares tips on how he develops relationships with realtors from other states, the strategies he uses on selling high net-worth properties and how he determines the best time to list.
If you’d prefer to watch this interview, click here to view on YouTube!
Beau Blankenship can be reached at 405-623-5227.
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Transcript
D.J. Paris 0:00
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Hello and welcome to keeping it real the largest podcast made by real estate agents and for real estate agents. My name is DJ Paris I am your guide and host through the show and for all the listeners that I got a chance to say hello to at the NAR conference in San Diego last week or by the time you’re listening to this probably several weeks ago. I wanted to say thank you it was a pleasure meeting you and also seeing everybody in person how exciting we’re starting to go back to in person stuff. But as always, we want to start out the beginning of this episode by saying thank you. We have we have more listeners now than we’ve ever had. We continue to grow and that’s because of you guys. Please continue to help us grow by telling a friend I think of one other real estate professional that could benefit from hearing from top producers like the one we’re about to talk to which is Beau Blankenship who is a professional football player turned top real estate agent he’s amazing as we had a great conversation you’re in for a real treat. But please tell a friend about our show. Let other agents know that we exist send them over to our website keeping it real pod.com Or just have them pull up a podcast app search for keeping it real make sure they find the one with with my name on it DJ because there’s a few other keeping it reels out there and hit that subscribe button and also please follow us on Facebook you can find us@facebook.com forward slash keeping it real pod and we’re very excited to say in 2022 We’re going to be launching a very intensive Instagram account with a lot of cool stuff that we’re going to do there and sadly we haven’t done that yet. So we’re in the process of putting that together for you guys. But as always thank you and now on to our episode an interview with Beau Blankenship.
Today on the show we have Bo Blankenship in the Blankenship group with angle and Volkers 30 A beaches in the Emerald Coast slash Gulf Coast in Florida. But let me tell you a little bit about both. So Beau Blankenship is a successful business owner, a luxury real estate investor. He’s also the lead advisor for the Blankenship group and licensed partner for angle and Volkers 30 A beaches and from a young age. Beau had consistently a strong desire for success and possess the drive to go above and beyond to make his goals a reality. From the beginning of his journey, he struggled to find a foothold in the ultra competitive field of real estate and property management. As a result, Bo learned what it took to lead a company and after years of dedication to sharpening and sales and team building skills. Both finally opened up his first brokerage in 2018, which is incredible because he was only 27 years old and even more incredibly, he has since cleared nearly a billion dollars in personal sales volume since the start of his career, his brokerage which grew and I am somebody who recruits agents all day every day for the last 11 years. So I am nobody’s more impressed with what I’m about to say than me. But he has grown his brokerage from for advisors in 2018 to more than 70 in 2021. He has cleared more than $608 million year to date with grit determination and a shrewd sense for business and real estate investing. Bo also grew his brokerage sales from 235 million in 2019 to an A pro Reaching a billion dollars in sales just this year. Now bow was able to do this within a span of three years, but continues to lead the markets is number one in GCI and volume for Engel and Volkers number one in the 30. A market for personal sales number one year growth in the Engel and Volkers network and real trends 2020 20. He’s number 36 in the country, and number 71 in 2019. Bose just done amazing things, please visit him on his website, which is 30 A is an apple, so 30 a fine living.com Again, 30 a fine living.com. And also please follow his group on Instagram, they have a really cool Instagram account, Blankenship underscore group, and we will put links to those in the show notes for this podcast. Bo, welcome to the show.
Beau Blankenship 5:49
Hey, thank you so much for having us. And thank you for that great introduction. I really appreciate it.
D.J. Paris 5:54
I am always you know, it’s it’s funny that this is like a 300. And I don’t know, maybe 10th episode, something like that. And I’m always still so impressed. Talking to agents, you know, at this point, maybe I’d start getting bored talking to really successful agents, but I’m never bored. Because I’m always so impressed with people like yourself who have really started at a young age and grown something that Gosh, 99.99% of agents just haven’t done. And so they want to hear how you did it. I’m sure there isn’t any magic formula, or maybe there is. But I always like to start at the very beginning of your journey and sort of hear about how you got into real estate and you know, how you got to where you are today. So if you don’t mind taking us back to the beginning, let us know how you got started.
Beau Blankenship 6:39
Definitely. So I you know, I was growing up and I was always just interested in real estate, we started visiting down here on vacation, I was always fascinated with the properties and you know, the building side of it and how people make money and, and the spec side of things and so it just always intrigued me and then as I was getting older, just the some of the wealthiest people I knew and picking their brains I get through real estate real estate, I buy this, this this and so that always just interested in me. And I was playing football at the time. And while I was training, I got a passable, you know, the courses and all that kind of stuff. And after that career ended, I just pivoted into real estate didn’t know what to do, you know, and so I pivoted real estate and started a property management company. And that just kind of just kind of jumped both feet in and just kind of got going after one career and just pivoted completed another one.
D.J. Paris 7:31
Yeah, you know, it’s funny, I absolutely forgot to mention your football career, which I think is interesting. In for a couple of reasons. One, I think people are always fascinated by people that that play at a high level with sports but also I’m curious to know if the discipline and the hard work and the grit that it was required to make it you know, as an as an athlete translates over to real estate so if you don’t mind sharing with us your your football career I apologize for not mentioning that before.
Beau Blankenship 8:02
No, no, you’re good. No, no people always I don’t mind if people don’t bring it up because it’s typically when people talk about it’s completely fine. I don’t you know, it’s good not talk about it, but it’s so I started high school went to college. I was offered I had an early scholarship offer at Iowa State so I committed them early. Like you know, they were the first ones that really offer me and so I wanted to go play for that person that took a chance on me went there. My coach left who was Jean she’s like at the time, right like two weeks where I got there. So as a new coach came in. So that was so I played my first year didn’t redshirt so played there. And then my best friend was quarterback at another school and didn’t gel so much with the new coach. So I decided to go play with him. At Ohio someone played with him at Ohio played there for the additional three years. And then after that I had a chance to play with the Jaguars those were the Jaguars for for just a short period of time got cut and then just transition here but it is a direct correlation of how to win How to Lose training what do you have to do to win what do you have to do to get better when you have to it’s a direct correlation you know your schedule. So it’s it be watching it all the time, but I mean, it parallels completely LIS wars.
D.J. Paris 9:16
Yeah, I imagine I imagine it does. And I always when I was in college I remember thinking about it when we had in my fraternity one of the football players just happened to be in our fraternity and we never saw him because he constantly was doing two days I think just
Beau Blankenship 9:34
lifting weight lifting unites Phil, I mean, it’s just that translates to and you know, when I hire people, employees or whatever, like having that background, it’s I know, they know kind of the grind and so many parallels again really good with real estate.
D.J. Paris 9:51
Yeah, I imagine it and I imagine to one of the cool things about athletics and competitive athletics is this The idea of learning how to lose I think is so important. And I know we’re going maybe a little bit off off the real estate sort of topic. But I’m curious on how important it is to learn how to lose, because, you know, there’s so much of the business world that’s just about losing. And then, and then just getting right back up and sort of trying again. And I’m curious if that, like you, I imagine athletes probably bounce back a little faster in the business world when they come across a challenge or something doesn’t go their way, because they’re just so used to that’s just part of the deal, I imagine.
Beau Blankenship 10:32
Right? Right. Yeah. So it’s, obviously we never want to lose, and most people don’t ever want to lose, and we’re so competitive, right? And so like, I hate it more than anything, right? And but when you do you have to? I think athletes know. Alright, so that happened, what do I have to change? Now pivot? And go win it again, right? Or what do I have to do to go fix this? And to get better at this to then go win it because it hurts so bad to lose? I never want to feel it again. How can I learn from this and move on? So that’s Yeah.
D.J. Paris 11:06
Yeah. And you end up getting stronger and smarter. And just, it’s, it’s, I’d heard the saying, and it’s sort of one of those, like, it’s a bummer that it’s true, but I think it probably is one of the truest things I’ve heard is successful people just fail more. They’re just constantly like, Hey, we’re gonna keep pushing, and we’re gonna learn from our challenges. And yeah, and I’m curious, curious, go ahead. I’m
Beau Blankenship 11:29
sorry. No, I’ll just say just when you lose, the thing is that it just doesn’t crater you. Because if you if you lose it craters, you completely, and there’s just no rebound from it. Like you can’t, you can’t move at all off your path. Like it just is what happened. And we just got to keep going.
D.J. Paris 11:42
Yeah, people need to not be as afraid of losing. And all you have to do is just is just try a lot of different things. And, and you’ll you’ll you’ll learn about losing. But the cool part is, is you just end up getting smarter. And it’s the same thing with weightlifting, I mean, you don’t get stronger until you go to you don’t have to go to failure, I guess. But going to failure is a very humbling experience with any exercise. And I just came from the gym. So I’ve got that in my mind. And my train pushes me to failure a lot. And it’s the hardest part of any exercise I do, I’d probably for most people probably would feel that way. But it’s like, as much as I hate it, I’m like, No, I kind of have to go to a place where I can’t do another rep. And then let the muscles rebuild and maybe do one more. Next step
Beau Blankenship 12:24
is a it’s the exact same thing as training as weightlifting. And it’s the same thing, you wanna get stronger, you have to eat well, you have to do this, you have to have a regiment, you know, it’s just like, it’s all it’s all, it’s all the same thing.
D.J. Paris 12:33
And this is a business to where it’s tough to have a schedule. And because you’re probably you know, most firms aren’t probably setting the schedule for their agents, and just being able to go well, it’s, you know, at six o’clock, or whatever time you get up, I know exactly what I’m doing at six o’clock. I know what, you know, sort of having your day planned is something that I think a lot of agents struggle with, I suspect you are very disciplined about your time.
Beau Blankenship 13:00
Right, correct. And I think, you know, we own this brokerage, and I think the ones that are successful, treat it like a nine to five, right? The people that come in and just come in every once a while once a week, not saying they can’t be successful. But the people that fail mostly Don’t, don’t show up, the people that show up, they rarely fail to show up rarely fail.
D.J. Paris 13:22
I’ve heard that so many times from from agents who have been on the show is that, you know, if they have a physical office space, they’re like, I’m amazed, I come in at eight o’clock, and I’m the only one here and things like that. So I would love to talk about how you talked about pivoting and how important that is for as you grow your business. And of course, things change. And obviously COVID changed changed the game for all of us in so many ways. I’m curious on on how you guys pivoted because you not only, you know, were thrive during that where a lot of agents really did and I know sort of our listeners might be thinking because if they listen to this show, they’re only hearing about how people had so much successful years, you know, as as we started figuring out what to do during COVID. But there’s a lot of agents that really struggled and I’m curious how you guys not only pivoted but but really took your business to the next level. So did your processes change when COVID sort of came?
Unknown Speaker 14:19
Yeah, a little bit. And so when COVID first came, I remember there was one day, I think in one day we lost like $30 million in deals like backing out walking, walking with an earnest money and it just happened cat hat. I was like, What is going on here? And so I was like, Man, I don’t know if we’re gonna sell another house. Like,
D.J. Paris 14:40
that’s a tough day that I’m out of here.
Beau Blankenship 14:43
So no, it didn’t change. We just kind of, you know, kept our faith and just like just kept going through it and she was gonna happen and Kevin nurturing our people and all of a sudden people were like, Hey, I gotta get down there and I like we just kind of took off. I know that’s not the story for you, but it just kind of took off people wanting to get Hear, so we just kind of kept our pulse on the market, get talking to sellers, Kevin forming sellers, like, Hey, this is what’s going on. This is where I think the market is, we don’t know where it’s going. You know, we saw people get a lot of deals to like lowball deals and get them because they saw an opportunity a weakness in the market, you know, there’s about a three week period where they could, someone could really get an absolute steal on a property. So we saw some of that. But really, what we did was just, it gave us an opportunity to touch base with our sellers, and be like, Hey, this is what’s going on. And just informed because these are mostly second home owners. And so just give us opportunity to reach out and touch them. Buyers wise, you know, just kind of, hey, this is what’s going on. I think this is what’s happening, being in touch with the rental market saying, hey, the rental numbers are still here, people are still trying to get here. And then just kind of letting that kind of dictate it. And then it really just we’re just trying to ride the wave when people were coming back.
D.J. Paris 15:51
Yeah. And clearly, it’s been working really well for you, I was just having a conversation with a top producer here in Chicago. She’s in the US. There’s about 44,000 agents here. And she’s always in the top 15 or so. Which is beyond impressive, because it’s just one person. And I was asking her about her 2022 goals, like, Hey, what are you trying to do? And she said, this, I thought was really interesting. She has been in the business about 20 years. And she said, Well, my number one of my goals for next year is because COVID has, of course, enabled a lot of people to work remotely. And people are now thinking about, you know, moving and, and I know your areas, a lot of like you said, second homes, third homes, etc. But there’s still just a lot of people that are moving to other places that maybe are more climate friendly, or, you know, economical, or there’s tax benefits, like in Florida to do that. And she said what I’m going to do, she goes, I have about five locations, she’s here in Chicago, that my clients tend to either retire to, or maybe they have a vacation home or, and she goes, I’m gonna fly to all five of those locations and and start interviewing agents there and say, Hey, I get I get a ton of business out your way. And I want to develop those relationships. And I’m just curious, because I suspect that’s in Well, we talked about this actually before, going going on the air, that that’s a that’s a big part of your business’s relationships with realtors, in other parts of the country. And I’m just curious on how you develop those relationships, because you’re on the end, where people are sort of, you know, interested in, in their clients, maybe moving there? How do you develop those relationships with someone in you know, a different part of the country?
Beau Blankenship 17:27
Yeah, definitely. It’s a big part of our business. And we’re typically, you know, on the receiving end of it, which I feel bad because we typically don’t have people that, you know, like, Hey, I’m moving to Nashville or whatever, it’s typically the other way around. So Atlanta, Nashville, Houston, Oklahoma, Utah, you know, Birmingham, New York, I’m guessing New York, like, and so we’re getting a bunch of people, you know, referring and so really just letting them know. And so that’s one thing, why I chose to bring Evie here was to be able to have those connections, right, because those were the boutique before I didn’t have that, you know, I’d have to go create those organically. But with Evie, I’m able to call a Boston and call up wherever. And just kind of make those connections. And then you know, in within the V, if you can reach a level called, they call a private office. And it’s just like the top producers that they need network with each others and listening to all this kind of stuff. So it’s really, the business or the company is really helped me do that. And with gatherings and stuff like that. So keep in touch. And they really just nurturing those people letting people know, like, Hey, we’re a top producer, hey, we can do this, this, like you’ll know about our area, because it’s still kind of, it’s now the the area’s gaining ambitous typically, it was unknown for a little bit, you know, but now 30 is gonna get mad, and everyone knows about it, but really just just putting our info out that people know that we can we can do and how we can serve people and really about the area and it’s just connected with other top producers.
D.J. Paris 18:57
Yeah, it’s interesting, you sort of you’re right, you’re on probably the receiving on more than anything for that. However, you have tremendous competition. You know, there are lots of huge successful producers in your area. It’s, it’s, it’s yes. If you were the only realtor there, it’d be it’d be amazing, but you aren’t, you aren’t competing with all those other agents. And, and you’re obviously a very humble person, but it’s, you know, it doesn’t just naturally come to you, even though you’re part of Engel and Volkers, which is such a well respected brand. You’ve earned it, you know, and, and I think I think that’s, it’s so it must be so wonderful to get those referrals. I’m curious, too, when you’re dealing with high net worth individuals, which I suspect is, you know, the vast majority. Are you also oftentimes dealing not just with the principal itself, you know, the home buyer or the seller, but maybe even a team of their people who you know, manage their finances or manage their business is there a lot of that as well?
Beau Blankenship 19:54
A lot of that dealing with assistance and hey, they want to do this. This is what they’re looking for. are a lot of that, but mainly, you know, when they come in, we show them it’s, you know, it’s dealing with them, but there are several times where it’s, you’re just dealing with their system and, and, you know, manage or whatever it is. So that does happen quite a bit.
D.J. Paris 20:16
And I imagine it’s it’s, you’re now having to please many different people sometimes in the transaction on your on the on your side, where it’s not just you know the other side and try to coordinate with them, you now have to really create a really pretty impeccable sort of presentation, for lack of a better word, because you’ve got a whole team of people that are judging you and making sure that you know what you’re doing. Yeah, and clinging
Beau Blankenship 20:41
on to every single word you say. So when you give them a price, you better, you know, preach and have it dialed in, you know, like, it’s, it’s, which is you always should be, you know, man of your word, but like you, you have to be pretty, they hold you to it. So everything. So, yeah, but you have to be dialed in completely when you’re dealing with this view.
D.J. Paris 21:00
I suspect, I’m curious to that, just how you guys sort of sell a property because you are dealing on a lot of times in the high net worth space. You know, and I am curious to know, you know, what your sort of take is on on the strategy for selling some of these properties, which by the way, there are lots of those properties that are always coming and going. And because the investment into those properties are so high, I imagine the presentation has to really be special. So I’m very curious on how you, maybe what you do that you feel is a little different than than maybe what other agents are doing,
Beau Blankenship 21:37
I would say the advantage, we have another one to some area at all, I would just say we just come out hustle everybody, and we’ve got the probably some of the best connections down here, we’ve got an amazing database, we’re very, very well connected. And so really hustling that person’s property, yes, I’m gonna go put on MLS, like we’re able to reach out to our 1000s of people in our database, you know, and really get the exposure that don’t, you know, get don’t send everybody don’t think he wills down here has. And so being able to reach those people that no one else reaches, has really been our biggest thing. It’s like, hey, because I’ve got a list of clients that I can just call say, boom, this is coming. And you know, maybe I’ll sell a pre market or whatever. So really having the database and the connections, and my team just hustling it, hey, I’ve got this coming up caller when you can send it there when you can. And then on top of that is our marketing, you know, our videographer or video or photos. And then the exposure we get. So we get, you know, if it’s over a million dollars, it’s in Wall Street Journal mansions, global New York Times Architectural Digest all this kind of stuff. And so we really get really have a loud megaphone to really get them the reach they need. And so that’s part of it. And really, I would say, after all of that the core of it is us just grinding and hustling that property and get just getting it done.
D.J. Paris 22:56
It’s so well said and I, you know, it’s funny, I think that there’s a lot of, and I’m not laughing at anyone who has this thought, because I certainly would have this thought to if I was producing and not really understanding what it takes to compete that high net worth space. But I would think, gosh, if I could only get a $8 million listing, my problems would be over. And I would think, you know, I’ll drop it on the MLS, I’ll get the right price. And then I’ll just sit back and wait for the deals to come in. But I suspect that’s not, as you just said, you do a lot more because when you have properties of that size, the MLS probably isn’t that important, I suspect. I mean, it certainly helps. But you what you were saying the hustling and reaching out to buyers, even though you’re the listing agent, or reaching out to agents who have buyers who play in that space, that’s got to be the vast majority of the work, I’m guessing and saying, Hey, you got to learn about this property I’m sending it to you, versus just waiting for the listings, or the showings to come in?
Beau Blankenship 23:51
No question that is the majority of it. But really the what’s really, really been beneficial is we have such a pulse on this market and such a handle on the listing inventory, that if another agent has a buyer, where they’re first of all, like so we will this field calls from other agents and so pivot them from automatic Hey, I gotta stimulate ibuyer, what do you have, we’ll send him everything we got, you know, get him because we have such a hold on the market, the listing inventory, that that is such a pivotal role of being able to pivot or age or other agents that call us because they’ve got the buyers and so being able to just kind of have a control on it and just kind of shift whatever we need to shift to to get in people’s hands.
D.J. Paris 24:32
I’m curious to note a little bit about sort of timing when it comes to now on the seller side, knowing when to to list and obviously if somebody needs you to list right away that then that that can happen but I suspect with the clientele you’re dealing with, there’s a little bit more flexibility there to determine when they need to sell and again, these are this is usually not the primary residence it sounds like so there may be there is just more more time and so I suspect They look at you to really get the timing right. And I’m curious on how your team evaluates like, now’s a good time, or, Hey, you know now what we’re about to head into December. And, you know, I’m curious on on how you guys sort of treat that. And obviously, if somebody has an urgent need to sell something, that’s pretty obvious. But when it’s not that urgent, I’m curious on how how you guys determine when to actually list it.
Beau Blankenship 25:24
Right? I guess it just kind of ties back into COVID, because my mind changed after this. So typically, I would not track all my sales since I started. So every month, the transactions a percentage that of that much of our yearly volume, how much was in that month and subtract that completely since I started, and typically, it was, you know, February, July, and October, or heaviest closing months. So that means, you know, earlier the year, summer and fall break, you know, so that’s when our proper solvers strategically list around those times. But since COVID, I, I kind of that’s kind of gone out the window. And so I’m now I don’t know what buyers here at any given time, if we have it, we want to get it up, right. And so I’m not going to wait, because we sold the eight no 11 $9 property, and when we shouldn’t sell one, you know, that’s not normal. And so now I’m kind of getting it up because buyers are working remotely or doing home school, or whatever it is, and so they’re here all the time. So really, there’s not a time now, to get a live, it’s kind of year round.
D.J. Paris 26:30
That’s nice, that’s offers you guys, it does make sense. And it seems like just helps keep the business flowing more more regularly, too. So that’s, you know, one thing that I think most agents, you know, who are working more transactionally, and just sort of client to client, maybe don’t think about as much with because maybe the clientele is mostly just buying a primary residence, but you live in a state in Florida, and you work in a state where there’s a lot of tax benefits for people to retire there. Obviously, there’s, there’s some weather benefits, too. But But I was curious and how important it is for you as an agent to be really up on on sort of tax strategies, not to where you’re giving tax advice, of course, but that you just have a good enough understanding to say, I know why people buy here. I know, generally speaking, what the ramifications are tax wise, does that cut that comes up, I assume quite a bit.
Beau Blankenship 27:26
That’s a big part of our business, right. So we’ll have CEOs move in. Because they’re going to, you know, buy a $2 million home, but by moving here, they’re saving their homes free, what they would have paid in taxes. So they’re moving here in their home setting, you know, so. So it’s a big part of an understanding that understanding the property tax rate, I understand all this kind of stuff. And not to get political here, but political reasons, the big reason why people move here too. And so knowing all of that, and knowing what the school system is doing, and all that kind of stuff, that’s a big reason. You know, so just knowing all that being able to inform our buyers, you know, financially and all that kind of stuff. It plays a massive role in it.
D.J. Paris 28:01
Yeah, it makes sense. I mean, Florida is such a such an interesting state for, you know, politically, it’s an interesting state, or there’s really interesting tax implications to move there. And, and then, of course, you know, the weather and, and then there’s also, you know, negative parts about the weather do that need to be considered. But, but it’s interesting that that you’re right, you probably do, you probably do have to be pretty aware of what’s going on politically, even, just to sort of get a sense of like, hey, if someone’s moving here, is this even a good fit for them? Based on some of their beliefs and the way they they live their life? And taxes, of course. So that’s really interesting. So I imagine you probably have CPAs, you know, that you’re constantly either referring to and I know, again, your clients who are coming in to buy probably have their own team. But I imagine you’re probably constantly talking to CPAs locally to say, hey, you know, let’s, let’s figure out if this makes sense for these buyers.
Beau Blankenship 29:01
100% Yeah, but most of them have their own team, but like, we need to know enough to be able to talk to it, talk about it, and, you know, 1031 tax exchanges, doing reverse exchanges, all of that, because there’s so much they get down here, they bought the first one, I love it, they want to flip to another property to be able to defer the taxes. And so just knowing because they want something big or whatever. So knowing all those things, you know, talking to our CPA, Majid yet really staying up to date on all that’s a huge part of our business.
D.J. Paris 29:30
Yeah, the exchange, the 1031 exchange thing is particularly interesting, because there’s, there’s time limits on that. And so the idea of, hey, I’m going to sell I want to now move to a different property have sort of timing that is it you were saying this understanding your inventory is so critical, and having those relationships with other agents because you know, you do have some time considerations there and knowing how to make all that work is incredibly valuable to the client, of course, and they probably just expect you to have all that figured out
Beau Blankenship 30:00
Anyway, yeah, so for exchanges, we’ve got a guy that he’s been doing all of ours that we just partnered with, he’ll outline it, but there’s a lot of times we get his sellers to say, I’m not selling until I can, you know, find the exact property I want. So, it has to be a boom, boom deal. Like, it’s, we have to tie it up perfectly. So it gets a little hairy sometimes, but,
D.J. Paris 30:19
but I mean, I imagine most agents don’t, don’t really have that skill set or that knowledge set. And it’s, you know, even if you’re just doing primary residence stuff, you know, that that comes into effect as well. And so, you know, 1030, fives and 1030 ones, and, you know, I would encourage all of our listeners to really, you know, spend some time with with a CPA and just say, hey, you know, give me some talking points. So I can, it’s another great reason to reach out to all your clients and say, Hey, I don’t know, if you’re considering, you know, upgrading, or maybe getting a second property. But, you know, there’s, there’s a few sort of tax strategies that that might, might help you. And because I know that as you’ve personally have grown your business, you now have evolved into doing some of your own development. And I’m curious on did those opportunities just did they open up as you became more successful, where you’re now either representing developers or you’re developing property yourself, were those always there at the beginning for you are those sort of emerged as you become larger and more productive?
Beau Blankenship 31:22
That’s kind of how I got going was just making people money, right, that’s just like that, you make somebody money, right? They’re gonna be loyal to you, right? If you keep doing it, right. And so I was making these guys, you know, millions of dollars, I was like, I wish I could just, you know, I would just do it. And there’s opportunities I passed up, as I knew I should buy this, I know, I should buy this, and I sold it to my client, he made whatever on it, you know, it’s just, and then I just got the, you know, just said, Screw it, I’m just doing and so as I was doing it, you know, I would partner with my investors, or I just start doing it myself or whatever. And just, they were always there. It just took me the, the get the, you know, the guts to just do it. And but they were always there. And I always saw and I and I knew what they were, I just had to make myself do
D.J. Paris 32:10
it. And, you know, I’ve talked to a lot of investors who are Realtors over the years. And I’m curious to get your thoughts on this. And almost exclusively when I asked them, gosh, there’s probably a lot of listeners who go, I don’t know, any investors. And all the people I’ve interviewed in the past who do that say, oh, finding the investors is the easy part. It’s finding the deal. And that’s the hard part. I’m curious to get your thoughts on that.
Beau Blankenship 32:34
Yeah, that is exactly what I’ve got a list of investors, you know, anything you think is good doing? So in five seconds, like I’ve gotten, I’ve got no problem that it’s the finding the deal. That’s, that is the that’s 100% True, and finding the dirt and it’s hard to do right now.
D.J. Paris 32:50
Yeah, I was gonna say, with just you know, that there’s just a lot of a lot of a lot of money floating around out there. That is, you’re probably it’s probably it’s become more difficult. I imagine as as your areas become more popular. Yeah, it’s
Beau Blankenship 33:05
more difficult, but the price of lumber and building is just going through the roof. Or we’re seeing more and more people buy real estate as a hedge against inflation, because, you know, it’s through the roof. And so we’re seeing more and more, but the building costs, it’s just that’s what we’re dealing with. Right now. It’s just like, astronomical. So that’s kind of like, what our biggest hurdle is right now with it.
D.J. Paris 33:27
Yeah, it’s curious. I’m curious if I haven’t really checked in on lumber prices in a while that obviously, it’s been a hot button topic for the last two years or so. Do you see any relief in sight there or not yet?
Beau Blankenship 33:39
Well, it was coming down. But it’s it’s the you know, it’s it’s, it’s everything. It’s the the electrician, the plumbers, the lumber, the appliances, or months behind the furnitures months behind the fixtures. I mean, it’s just all of the issues with shipping and all that. It’s just it’s becoming kind of a cluster. So, I mean, hopefully we see some relief, but it doesn’t look awesome right now. But so trying to get through because that’s a big part of my business is building and so we’re trying to see what’s going on, we’re trying to adjust with it. So it’s got to get a higher price point, you know, to to justify the building part. And so that’s what we’re trying to weigh right now.
D.J. Paris 34:25
I’ve been waiting on a new door. It’s like I don’t know what it’s made out of, but it’s like some fancy heavy door, and it’s for my girlfriend’s our master bedroom closet. And when we bought the place earlier this this year it was I guess it was warped, which I didn’t even know that thankfully our mind Spectracide he goes, Oh, they’ll replace it. And I think we’re going on eight months now. And I did kind of even forget about it. And it’s like just to get one door. He and the guy I recently reached out a couple like a week ago going hey, just FYI. I don’t really care. I’m like whenever the door comes in, it comes in big was probably 2020. Like, wow,
Beau Blankenship 35:04
one door, one door, appliances back. I mean, it’s all backed up. So we deal with all that. But hopefully we see some relief and we’re buying stuff in bulk. And so we’re trying to, you know, try to solve it the best we can.
D.J. Paris 35:17
This is, this is funny, I’ll just do a quick thing. This happened just over the weekend, I’m installing a freezer, in my pantry, and I bought it through Samsung, and it’s like a stand up freezer thing. And for the last I bought it like, I don’t know, I ordered it, I don’t know, a month or two ago, and every two weeks now, and I thought this was so smart. And I’m curious, I don’t think other appliance companies have really caught on with this yet. But I get an email from them saying, it’s still going to be on time, you’re gonna get it December 2, every two weeks I went, Boy, that’s a smart thing to do with supply chain issues. Because now it really it’s so simple. And they’re just like, just don’t freak out, you’re still gonna get it December 2, if anything changes, we’ll let you know. I’m like, I’ve bought a lot of appliances over the last six months. And nobody else did that. So I just thought that was that was really cool. But again, that’s something that it’s something that that, you know, it’s like agents don’t you know, it’s not really what they do. But they have to be able to tell clients like, here’s what’s going on, here’s what you’re going to be waiting on for furniture and appliances and materials. Before I have a question that I’m going to pause to do a sponsorship read. But I’m curious to know if as because you’ve got 70 Plus agents in your office. I’m curious as your coaching, you know, maybe agents who aren’t as experienced, I’m curious to know, what’s the number one thing, and I know there again, there isn’t any sort of magic formula necessarily. But what’s the number one thing you tell them as they’re getting started to sort of keep them you know, engaged and, and productive. Because as you were saying, of course, you know, people just, you know, they either grind it out or they don’t. But before we do that, I want to pause for a moment to speak about our sponsor, which is called follow up boss. We love, love, love follow up boss. And it was really cool that they’re one of our sponsors, because after interviewing over 300 top producers in the country, and when I asked top producers, hey, what CRM do you use more than any other follow up boss comes up. So we’re super honored to have them as our sponsor. But let’s face it, following up is the key to taking your business to the next level of follow up boss will help you drive more leads, in less time with less effort. Don’t take my word for it. Robert slack, who runs the number one team in the United States use his follow up boss and he’s built a one and a half billion dollar business. In under six years, follow up boss integrates with 250 different systems. So you can keep your current tools lead sources, also, they have seven day a week support. So you’ll get the help you need when you need it and get this follow up boss is so confident that you’re going to love their CRM that for a limited time, they’re going to give keeping it real podcast listeners a 30 day free trial. And this is twice as much time as they give everyone else and you don’t have to use a credit card. That’s how confident they are, you’re going to love it, and you’re going to offer your credit card to them. Because you’re going to want to keep it past that 30 days, but only if you use this special link. So I want everybody to to visit, follow up boss.com forward slash real that again, that’s follow up boss.com forward slash real for your free 30 day trial. Follow up like a boss with follow up boss. So yeah, I’m curious about how, you know, when you’re coaching agents to sort of, you know, get to that next level, you know, what are you telling them?
Beau Blankenship 38:32
You know, I so with our company, so I’ve got a non compete broker that helps run the company. And I’ve got a team of like six people. And so it’s really, really hard with new agents. And so what I typically what I typically do, if I see some skill set or something with them that I think they’ve got, you know, a really good shot and they just need to hone in a little bit, that typically partner them with a, an older agent right into follow on to learn as much as they can. And it benefits both people and so that’s, that’s what we’ve been doing. And it’s been, it’s proven to work.
D.J. Paris 39:07
Yeah, mentorship, it’s that’s also been something that almost every person we’ve ever interviewed on the show has talked about being important to them as learning from a top producer, shadowing, doing the open houses that you know, maybe other agents aren’t willing to do. And just learning learning from top agents
Beau Blankenship 39:26
just just learn how they do it, how they made it, you know, take the good take the bad and figure it out and then create your own you know, morph whatever you can do off of that and just do it and do it for free and just grind you know and whatever you can do just to to learn from these peoples without me that’s what I would recommend.
D.J. Paris 39:47
Yeah, it’s it’s so important because you’ll learn so many efficiencies and just strategies that other agents especially if you can get a top producer to to find the time to to shadow or having younger person’s shadow autonomy, sir, is you’ll just learn like, oh, that’s what they’re doing. And I know like in the last couple years, I suspect you guys had to get creative as well, to getting your offers noticed, because with low interest rate environments, although I suspect with a lot of your clientele, you know, loans aren’t aren’t that big of a deal, but, but it’s still just, you know, competitive right now with buyers and still competitive, and having to sort of get creative. I mean, me just asking that question on the show over the last couple years, we probably got 30 different creative solutions for getting your offer noticed. That was like, wow, this is really, really helpful. But that’s what you learn when you hang out with a top producer. Yeah,
Beau Blankenship 40:41
for sure. Yeah, it’s, yeah. I mean, that is the biggest thing I would say, is just hanging out with people that have been successful, and just figure out what they’re doing. And it’s not rocket science, right? I mean, yeah, but y’all just have that people skills, and you have to be able to have the market knowledge and, and, and all that, but like, it’s not rocket science, like, just learn from them as much as you stinking can.
D.J. Paris 41:04
Yeah, it’s the, it’s the reason why I got a trainer for the gym I am, I’m just somebody who doesn’t go to the gym on his own. And so there’s that. And I was like, I need some accountability. And I also know what I’m spending a fortune on a personal training, that’s certainly going to get me there. But, but maybe more importantly than that, for me was learning the, you know, with weightlifting, or, you know, just understanding what muscles I’m supposed to use and how I’m supposed to do a particular exercise because anyone can find an exercise routine and go out and do it on their own. But boy, I would have hurt myself, I would have, you know, and I think the same same can be said, for real estate, it just like don’t hurt yourself lifting something you don’t know how to lift with respect to real estate is find a top producer. And even if they’re not shadowing, you just say Can I grab five minutes of your time, I’ve got this situation with my client, I don’t know what to do. And I think I want to do this, but what would you do? And first of all, the person is going to be flattered that you ask them I mean, assuming that they have time to answer you, but boy, you’re gonna you’re gonna learn a lot to save, you have a lot of headaches. Oh, and I’ve learned now that the personal trainer, the best thing for me is just just learning form. And once I got the form down, it’s like, oh, man, I would never figure that out on my own, I would have heard my I would have thrown out my back, I would have done something. And and, and I still need a trainer every single time. But right, but but that’s what you’re saying is basically find yourself a real estate trainer, so to speak,
Beau Blankenship 42:29
on 100%? And just learn from them? And how are they reaching their audience and stuff they’re not doing that you think you can improve on take it and improve? Yeah. And it’s just, um, that’s what I would the biggest thing I would recommend,
D.J. Paris 42:42
as far as communication, you know, I’m curious to once you, you know, finish a transaction with a client. And obviously, these are large transactions. How do you stay in touch with those clients over time? Now, obviously, you’re saying if they ever want to upgrade, you’re going to always be showing them those ideas, because of course, that’s kind of the people you work with. But also, even for somebody who’s it’s a primary residence, they’re not going anywhere. This is where they’re, they’ve moved to how do you stay in touch with them over time, you know, after the sale,
Beau Blankenship 43:14
it’s not super easy. I mean, it’s, you know, because there’s a lot of people. And so, you know, we’ve been, we touch them every week, no matter what we touch them every week, with it was just an it’s not a call, it’s just an email. But that’s, that’s still, every week we touch them, we’re consistent. Every Friday, they will get an email from us, it’s an update on the market, and what’s your soul, blah, blah, blah, and then Christmas, we’ll send out something to them as like a little gift or something. And then, but then we’ll just call it like really just call on text and checking in, you know, like trying to do that when we can. But it’s really, really hard. And so at the bare minimum, we try to touch them once a week with an email.
D.J. Paris 43:55
But even just doing that, and I know you’re sort of like, gosh, we wish we could do more. But even sending out a weekly email is 99% of Realtors don’t do that. You know, even if it’s a newsletter, and you know, or anything, anything you’re sending out, and I suspect, you know, most age, most clients aren’t reading the email so to speak, but they’re seeing that you’re putting in the effort. You’re they’re seeing that you’re you’re connecting with them and sending them items of value. But again, 99% of Realtors probably don’t even do that.
Beau Blankenship 44:28
It’s an that blows my mind if you don’t have a database. I mean, it’s just yeah, I mean, I don’t know how you’re functioning, but like, just hitting them, you know, whether they read it or not. It’s in their inbox. Oh, there’s bogey and others boat every week, every Friday, you know? So it’s like the same top of mine to say do you want to sell?
D.J. Paris 44:45
They can’t forget about you if you’re in their inbox once a week. Well, you’ve given so many so many great ideas and strategies. I mean, even just as simple of and I know for you that you’re probably like, well, this isn’t so profound, but Sending out a weekly email or some sort of communication and probably changing it up every so often and sending the text once in a while and calling once in a while, but sending out that weekly email, if if if you get nothing else from this, this, this episode, just at least implement that. And by the way, you can pay people to do that it’s not even something that you have to, you know, craft on your own. But, boy, if you only did that your clients would have a very hard time forgetting forgetting about you. And if you did that, that’s 52 touches over next year. And again, maybe you’re not going to, you know, when all of your sphere of influence deals or your database deals, but you’re gonna want a heck of a lot more of them than if you send out no emails, or no messages. So I know there’s our audience got a lot more in this conversation than just that. But boy, that is a really specific action step that a billion dollar producer just gave. So please, everyone do that. And, boy, if you can’t do it yourself, you can hire a virtual assistant to do it for probably 10 bucks a week, maybe, or 20 bucks. Like it’s not even an expensive thing. But I want to I want to sort of end there. But I do want to mention that for anyone listening, I have two opportunities for you. If you are in Bo’s area, if you’re in the Gulf, Gulf area slash emerald area, in Florida, and you’re looking to work with the number one team there, and you want to work under with or with somebody like Bo and you’re not getting the attention that you need are the opportunities that that you want at your current firm. And you want to check out what Engel and Volkers is all about. With Bo, what’s the best way they should reach out to you.
Beau Blankenship 46:40
And honestly, just text me text me email me, you find my on the website, you’ll find all my info, Instagram message me, someone will get back to you quickly. But I mean, we’re pretty responsive, we try to be so any, any way that’s easiest for you email, text, whatever.
D.J. Paris 46:57
And you can find all of that at their website, which is 30 A is an apple 30 A fine living. So 30 a fine living.com. But the other opportunity is you’re an agent in another part of the country and you have clients that really liked to hang out in Florida, whether it’s like my parents who now go down there every year and spend, you know, spend the winter or maybe somebody who wants a vacation home or another property or an income producing property. And and is interested in that area reach out to Beau and his team, they, they they know that area, they have the inventory, they know it better than anyone. And you can reach him the same exact way by visiting his website 30. A is an apple 30 A fine living.com That will also be in the show notes. But Bo, I am so grateful for your time, I know how busy you are. And I know you didn’t have time to do this, but you found time for us. And we are we’re eternally grateful for you. And we are excited to see your next billion which I’m sure won’t take much time at all. And see and I’m jealous of your your growth from few agents to over 70 took me probably two years of 10 hour a day recruiting to get to that number. And so I am really impressed by that. But again, Bo’s attracting a lot of agents based on you know, his leadership. And so definitely if you’re if you’re looking in that area to work with a great firm, and goal of Volkers with with Bo is an awesome, awesome group, the Blankenship group. So definitely reach out to them. And Bo, thank you so much. And we will on behalf of our audience, we want to thank both for his time. On behalf of Bo and myself. We want to thank the audience to for continuing to listen support our show, we just ask that you do two things before you sign off on this episode. Number one is to support our sponsor, visit, follow up boss.com forward slash real test out their CRM. It’s awesome. I know you’re gonna love it, check that out. And also, the best way you can really help our show is also by telling a friend think of one other real estate professional that should hear this episode with Bo right now and send them a link to our website, which is keeping it real pod.com Every episode we’ve ever done stream right there. Or if they are a podcast person, just haven’t pull up a podcast app search for keeping it real hit that subscribe button, we would appreciate it. Well, Bo, thanks again. And we wish you another billion which I’m sure it’s coming soon and can keep up the great work.
Beau Blankenship 49:20
Thank you so much for having me. I really really appreciate it. You guys are awesome. Just thank you so much. Thank you
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