Kristen Boyd from Delisha Boyd LLC in New Orleans, a recipient of N.A.R.’s 30 under 30 for 2020, has been in real estate since 2011. She talks about the making the transition from her mother’s assistant to personal producer. During our conversation, Krissy compares our current pandemic with Hurricane Katrina and points out how real estate investments can help provide income during challenging times. She also discusses the importance of taking care of the people around you and how agents can reach out to their clients right now to deepen connection.

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

Kristen Boyd can be reached at (504)-324-0930 and Kristen.Boyd@delishaboyd.com


Transcript

D.J. Paris 0:00
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Hello, and welcome to another episode of Keeping the real the largest podcast made by real estate agents. And for real estate agents. My name is DJ Paris, I am your guide and host through the show. And in just a moment, we’re going to be speaking with 30 under 30 Winner Kristin Boyd. Before we get to Kristin, I want to mention that, especially if you’re new to the show, we have now over 160 episodes. And we would encourage you to go back and look through some of the titles and descriptions of past episodes, because so much of the information that these top producers share is timeless and can really help you today benefiting your clients and your practice. And also, we’re going to ask you to do two other quick things to help our show. Number one, follow us on Facebook, visit facebook.com forward slash keeping it real pod and subscribe. And the reason for that is number one, we of course broadcast all of our episodes there we also when we’re recording them, we broadcast them live in real time. So you don’t have to wait a couple of weeks for us to produce it. You can actually watch it while we’re doing it. But also every day we find an article that somebody has written online designed specifically to help you grow your business and we post it there. So again, facebook.com forward slash keeping it real pod. And the second thing is to please tell a friend, think of one other real estate agent that could benefit from listening to these kinds of interviews with top producers and share the podcast you can always send them right over to our website, keeping it real pod.com Or just have them pull up any podcast app and search for keeping it real and we’ll pop right up and now on to our interview with Kristen Boyd.

Today on the show we have Chrissy Boyd from delecia Boyd LLC in New Orleans. Really excited to have Christy let me tell you a little bit about her. Kristen Boyd started real estate with with her mom and she was her mom’s assistant at Felicia Boyd in 2011. And then in 2014 she and her mom started their own brokerage which now consists of 52 Realtors Now, Chris he studied at Loyola University here in Chicago, I’m guessing right? No New Orleans. Okay, we have a we have a Loyola here. So I was she studied at New Orleans Loyola University in business management and accounting. Now she is also a member of Delta Sigma Pi business fraternity and is a member of Sigma Sigma Sigma Sorority. Now Christy strives to make delecia Boyd LLC a happy and easy experience for buyers, sellers and agents. And she’s been working close with many investors giving them quick results and just like three or four weeks ago, and 2020 Christie was named a January right arm sorry in January, she was named a rising star for real producer magazine. I actually write for real producer magazine here in Chicago. So I love that that that organization, so congrats on that and also and this is the big, big, big one. She was named out of all of the realtors under 30 in the United States National Association of REALTORS 30 under 30, which is a huge, huge, huge deal. So congratulations, Christy to that. And also you can find Kristin online at delecia delecia boyd.com. And also please follow her on Facebook. Just look up Felicia Boyd and also on Instagram which is Chrissy your realtor. We’ll be posting those is that right Chris Christie? You’re a realtor. Correct? Mm hmm. Good. I forgot to write it down correctly. So I’m glad I remembered. Welcome to the show. Christy. Thanks so much.

Kristen Boyd 4:37
Thank you for having me. I’m excited.

D.J. Paris 4:40
We’re excited as well. You’re in New Orleans and New Orleans was was hit pretty hard. Unfortunately right now. How’s every How are you doing? How is that? How’s your mom doing everyone? Okay,

Kristen Boyd 4:53
everyone’s fine. I’m blessed to think no one in my immediate family hasn’t had the disease one of our agents did, but she is now healthy. And well, so I’m grateful for that. But you know, it’s, I only really like to watch the news anymore.

D.J. Paris 5:15
Yeah, it’s, it’s a real bummer. And it’s just and things just change. And it’s so much opinion. And we don’t have all the facts yet. So, yeah, it’s kind of like you want to know what’s going on. But you also don’t want it to bring you down. It’s, it’s, it’s a constant struggle for sure. What what I want to know is, since you’ve been in real estate, obviously, you come from a real estate family. I would love to know how you got into the business. I know you started working with your mom some time ago. Can you tell us a little bit about that?

Kristen Boyd 5:45
Well, I like I like to start real young. I love to say that my great grandmother who raised my mother, my mom, my grandmother died at a young age, she’s always been in real estate. I just know that I’m an adult, I realize in the 90s, a woman owning multiple houses, and a black woman on top of that, sure, is rare. So she had a triplex and a double and a single family. And I just knew I was going to do something in real estate first. And my mom got into it full time in 2003. And I just always knew I wanted to do something in it. Initially, I was like, on my own my own title company. So it could be like a true one cups, smart shop kind of thing. And then I got my daughter after undergrad. So my mom’s like Jamie, Jamie, and I’ve never looked back since, you know, 2011 2012, where I lead to full time working with my mom, and we started our own company was kind of a little push to start our own company in 2014. And I just never dreamed of it being where it is today.

D.J. Paris 7:05
You guys are killing it, you’re doing so well, you’ve grown so much as a company. You know, since then it’s really, I’m somebody just to give some context to my job is to recruit agents to work at our firm here in Chicago. So and I do that full time, I don’t produce real estate, I don’t, you know, go out and work with clients. All I do is talk to realtors all day and I say Come work at our firm. And I know how hard that is. And I know how how difficult it would also be to then also do my own production. And so the fact that you, you know, you guys have successfully done all of that, at the same time is absolutely incredible. So we want to honor you for that and and say you’re doing obviously doing a lot of things, a lot of things right. So, Tom, I want to know a little bit about you know, you’re you’re a younger realtor, although you’ve you’ve had a tremendous amount of experience already and a number of years in the business. So a lot of our listeners who are younger as well, we have tons of because you know a lot of younger people listen to podcasts. I am just curious, you know, for people who right now, as you and I are stuck it at well, I’m actually in the office, but the doors are barricaded, we’re not letting anyone in. We just have to process checks. So I’m actually able to leave the house to come here all day. I’m very lucky to be able to do that. But what are you doing to stay busy right now? You were telling me yesterday you did four showings, which is insane and amazing. In one day. Can you talk a little bit about just even doing showings right now?

Kristen Boyd 8:34
Yeah, so my I’m gonna tell you might have one story, which was Saturday, because it rained Saturday, I did nine showings, oh, it started 11 to almost seven o’clock at night. And typically, it would not take me that long to do showings. But I’d take extra precaution by wiping down you know, the lights, the doors and everything. And then I’ll allow my client I’ll look through, and then I’ll have my client look through and then we’ll discuss it, you know, a way outside. So typically, when it takes about 10 or 15 minutes to do a complete shot I’m walking through in and out is taking my 30 minutes. Sure. So it’s longer but I I have people who are trying to take advantage of the interest rates and the time, the free time to actually look now because a lot of people are like, Oh, I gotta work. Maybe we could do them. You could do it now. And now everyone is not everyone but a lot of people are interested with the free time so to look at things. So it’s taking a little longer, but I’m still happy to have them.

D.J. Paris 9:44
Yeah, that’s that’s incredible. And now are most of the showings when you’re working with buyers? Obviously they’re vacant at the time of the showing but are they vacant in general or are you Are they just telling the sellers get lost for a few hours or

Kristen Boyd 9:57
so yesterday? At I was

she had photos, a vacant house. And I still was doing my wipe down. But people were walking out. What are you doing? Oh, I’m sorry, by the way, I don’t think I would have I wasn’t prepared. Like, I wouldn’t know, I had my mask and my gloves I took I took one of the people in 30, under 30. I sounded like an astronaut when I go. But I mean, that took me way back. And I was just like, what go on? And go ahead now. That took me, they took me out. I wasn’t prepared for someone to be walking out when I unlock the door. So I tried to minimize showing houses with people in it. Yeah, um, because I’ve heard a lot of stories of like, Oh, my son had and he’s a, he didn’t really show any symptoms. But my husband, Ben got in and had so many of the symptoms they talk about. I’m like, Oh, okay. I don’t know you. I wasn’t expecting you. But I felt I wish the agent would have prepared me for people walking out.

D.J. Paris 11:12
Yeah, well, it is called a cooperative commission. It’s like, be nice to be a little bit more cooperative. Let me know what I’m getting into. But that’s, uh, you know, that’s again, you know, just what’s going on right now. It’s, I have a funny story for you. It’s a little off topic, but it’s similar to what, what you experienced. So we happened to be here in Chicago, our office is right across the street from I think the only antibody test center in all of Chicago. So all the news trucks have been there, the last couple of days, people drive up and they have everyone’s in, like hazmat suits. And, and you can get a test done. And I haven’t done it yet. My boss is actually going to do it. And so yesterday, it was about 430, I was getting ready to just, you know, to leave, and we lock all the doors. So you know, we don’t want our agents coming in. Of course, we don’t want anyone just walking in off the street. So I took my dog out, and I forgot to lock the door as I came back in. So about 430 A guy just walks right in to our front door. And he’s wearing a mask, which is obviously responsible and he’s wearing gloves. And he is I think English was not his first language. So he talking through the mask and probably through a thick foreign accent. I was having a hard time understanding what he wanted. I thought well, maybe he’s one of our Realtors, because we have like 700 and he was in a mask. I couldn’t tell, you know, does he work with us? Or is he just somebody you know, I couldn’t tell what he wanted. And he wasn’t able to articulate it or I wasn’t able to understand them. And I said I’m sorry sir. What are you looking for? How can I help you the whole time I’m like, if this guy is looking for the testing center, it’s right across the street. And finally he was he was saying oh I need a test I need a test I went oh so I pointed across the street I said well it’s over there and I just went I hope to god she’s over God he’s not sick. Because he just walked in I was like two feet from him there was no way for me to not get close to him to let them out. But anyway it’s a crazy world right now so

Kristen Boyd 13:06
it’s funny because next door to my office is nurse practitioner and when people are going in and out for the life of me it’s like I have biggest day that we’re a real estate company on the door and they’re just like Are you are you the doctor walk writer no and I lock the door like banking on open the door and I’m opening the door I’m not looking for I’m telling you I’m not no one should be having a meeting in the office. I am not what you’re looking for we we read the door is on the door but I’m like always just like oh please just don’t come to me like the door down like oh yeah, I was on the door biggest day real estate brokerage?

D.J. Paris 13:53
Yeah, we know you’re right and normally we would love somebody to walk right in and go hey, I’m looking to buy or sell something but obviously you know now now is probably especially if they’re looking to to get the antibody test or going to see the nurse next door to your office. Probably not somebody necessarily that you want to get too close to. But But back to back to real estate. So you know as somebody who is a young rising star, you know obviously the real producer magazine has acknowledged you as well as national association realtors, which is like the craziest most amazing thing can you tell us a little bit to our listeners who again or maybe are younger or not necessarily even younger but just who are looking to get to that next level you know and I know right now is kind of goofy times but but generally speaking what have you found that really works to help grow your business what have you and your mom you know, found to help you guys

Kristen Boyd 14:47
my mom always made sure I invested not not so much just even you know the client tell clients and Sean’s and stuff like that. She’s like You need to invest. So in two years, I need to see you doing something. You know, I’m, I think we were talking about Katrina. And that’s what I’ve been trying to educate different people in, really who’s an adult, like, believe it or not, it’s not even so much to my younger generation not to get into it. It’s my older generation, because they’re like, almost a set in their ways. But it’s like, this worked for me for 50 years, honey, I’m not trying to go into something I really don’t know about with my money and stuff like that. But for example, what was going on right now during Katrina? You know, I’m, I’m blessed to say, I have investments to help me not feel like what’s next? Yeah, is there gonna be you know, if I don’t have a closing, or if I had all lower income clients, I will be all out right now. I have an investment. I have like, okay, all my bills are still taken care of. And I think it’s important during this time, because now I’m older, and but I’ve watched it during Katrina, after Katrina, when the stock market crashed. A lot of people were not doing any type of real estate investment. I think I’ve learned from those situations, you know how to speak about today on investing. So even if you’re in real estate, great, but if you are in it for two years, and you are even somewhat successful, you need to start getting your own investments yourself and building yourself, that will make real estate even better for you. I think, me getting my own investments, and now able to release certain messages because I’ve learned from it, people are way more eager to talk to me, different ages, believe it or not, most of my clientele is 45 to 65. Rather than people my age range. But I think this year is my first year getting people like couples is my favorite. Because they’re like, Oh, before we get more, we’re gonna do things right. And we’re gonna get up one else. So if I get one, let’s get to,

yeah,

I say let’s take advantage of getting to properties. So I’ve gotten three couples who are under 30, buying two investments, that’s crazy. Like, even their family members are like, I didn’t even think that could be something possible. Like, I wasn’t even thinking about something like that. But now you’re on two properties. One might be a bubble that now takes care of both mortgages. Right. Um, so and that’s just how I started off with getting people involved in it, you know, older people, let’s do a little flip. You want to buy this house, but it might need some work, let’s do a flip. So I had an older couple who’s closer to my mom’s age, we’ve done two flips, they bought a dream house, but was able to redo everything they wanted to do to the house, the way they wanted to form our flips, and still have money left over to buy another investment. So that’s now four properties in less than a year that they were able to move on. So that’s just everyone in my circle wants to get involved in knowing at least getting the knowledge for it. And that’s just what the Leisha taught me, at a young age what to do.

D.J. Paris 18:26
Yeah, and also, like, think about what a hero, you must be to that couple to say, Hey, I’m going to show you you know, another path to be able to, you know, even get your dream home more to the way you like it, we’re just going to go a little bit of a different way, we’re going to invest in some properties and do do some flips. And, and also too, as a realtor, like having that experience yourself with your own properties allows you to bring that information to your clients. And there’s so many realtors that number one don’t know about investments, or haven’t done them themselves. And you know, their client comes to them and says I’m looking to do some real estate investing. And they’re probably not as skilled because they haven’t number one, done it themselves or studied it. So now’s the time. We all have extra while we’re busy, of course. But we’re we probably all have a little bit more time to start learning about these skills that maybe when we’re super busy, and it’s back to normal, we won’t have the time to do.

Kristen Boyd 19:25
Yeah, and then I tell people with so many different programs. So if it’s the income you’re worried about, there’s so many programs for it to get you started. If you you know I’m got a double in the meantime to take care of your expenses, especially if they’re both sides are already rented or you even stayed on one side to pay the mortgage and now you have whatever income you’re generating, you can now save that or pay yourself to now move on to something else. I just think this time If even if you just had one house, it’s just, it would have been easier to handle things. Rather than being just a tin. You know, the world had no choice but to say don’t can’t kick people out during this time. We don’t always have the benefit during Katrina, you know, we didn’t have that kind of benefit, Dorian succession, and 2008 people didn’t have it. So it’s you got to think smarter now, moving forward in different ages, I like to talk to people who are just starting out. But the thing is, it’s easier for me to pick up my phone and show you pictures of mine, or let’s go, go walk in, and mine and that just eats people better than me saying, I think this would be a good idea. My mama told me about it, like

D.J. Paris 21:00
I had a friend who was a very, very well, it’s like a friend of a friend that wasn’t really a close friend, but he was one of these like, mega wealthy people. And this is like 20 years ago, this story, but it’s really applicable, sort of what you mentioned. And he had all these financial advisors calling him because they want you know, to invest his his assets. And he was like, millions and millions and millions of dollars and any. So all these financial advisors from like Merrill Lynch, and Morgan Stanley, and all those, you know, firms are reaching out saying, I want to be your financial adviser. And he said, Great, do me a favor, send me your own investments, I want to see your, your your portfolio, wanna see how much you have in stocks, bonds, mutual funds, manage money, etc. And they were like, Oh, well, we can’t, I can’t show you my own personal stuff. And he’s like, Okay, goodbye, because he wanted somebody that actually was able to say, I’m doing the same thing that I’m going to recommend for you, right. And I went, Wow, that’s kind of a brilliant strategy. And if you can find a financial advisor that’s willing to say, here’s, here’s all my investments, here’s what I do, here’s where I’m putting my money. You know, and you’re doing the same thing, basically saying to your clients, this is what I do, and you can do the same thing. I think that is such a powerful, powerful approach. So I applaud you for that. That’s amazing. And real quickly, for anyone who’s listening who’s thinking, I don’t know much about investments, the best resource online that I found, and there’s lots of resources, so this is just one, but definitely subscribe to bigger pockets go to bigger pockets.com It’s the largest investment investor forum, in the country, they have podcasts and books, and they’re excellent. And you will get a great education, you know, as a real estate professional, about, you know, how to start thinking and talking about this and, and learn about House hacking and learn about flips. And, and you know, your because what’s going to happen, and, of course, Chris, you can can confirm this is eventually someone’s going to come to you and say I’m thinking about investing in real estate. And if you don’t have that experience, or knowledge, you’re going to have to pass it off to someone else, you’re gonna probably lose that client, I think.

Kristen Boyd 23:04
And I have new client, newer clients who actually work with three realtors that we just put in an offer. And this morning, what I was telling them is you’ve got to stop looking at things as like, Oh, this is my, my forever house, this is my, this is what we’re doing. You have to look at everything as an investment, or we’ve invested investment things before. But this is your own house. Now. You got to still look at it as an investment they want to this one particular house, and I like to look at everything, because I’m like, things can happen. You might say in two years, I don’t want it you just told me you will be in it for 10 years, right? And I said this, I said the person who’s selling the house on day for two years. I’m pretty sure they were saying the same thing you’re saying now, right? But the problem is, now there’s no equity, there’s no equity in the house. Well, now there’s but they’re stuck. They can’t go more lower. They can’t, they can’t move or anything. So we’re gonna look at everything. Just in case you caught me two years and say, Chris, I’m trying to sell my house. So you guys don’t look at it as an investment. Anything could happen. Yeah, might have, you know, get pregnant and have twins or something in the three bedroom, two bath house, it’s not going to work anymore. You know? So you got to still look at your actual house as an investment. And I think that’s where a lot of people not just regular people, but even Realtors lose track when they’re talking to a client. So and I make it make sense for them. So they’re not like No, but it’s in my house I’m living in now. It’s still an investment. It’s an investment and my mom was so much when we were you know, we’re younger doing different things to houses and stuff like that, but I’m like if you’re under 60 You’re probably gonna move again.

D.J. Paris 24:55
How many how many people do you think right now I know I’m I’m in this situation where I’m obviously I’m in my office right now, if you’re watching this, you’ll see this is not my home. But a Christy’s at home. And normally I’m at home and I’m starting to feel my little, you know, condo, I’m starting to feel like maybe this is a little small, it feels a little claustrophobic. And as soon and especially with rates being so insanely low right now, even just as a primary residence, I’m like, I think I need to it’s time to upgrade. Because if I don’t want to be stuck in these in this small place, in case, you know, something like this happens, but I’m just now I’m feeling that, that pinch of like, I want to expand, I want to get to a bigger spot. I wonder how many people are going through that right now? I’ll bet you, you know, a lot of your clients are feeling that way. And they’re just waiting to make that next purchase

Kristen Boyd 25:47
that people have made an offer on we’re like, we’re in a shack, I’m gonna get out, we need to pay it off. Once you get to the back and forth like and what I was telling someone else who was under 30, under 30, we could really use the fact that no American on our one American who is a full time home fair kind of thing. So I think we can utilize the space much more now for either buying or selling or selling and then Biden, you know, to benefit. And we just go How you doing? How’s the house? The

house isn’t for you? Or

is it too big? Maybe it’s, you know, my dad to be upstairs, but I’m like, You got 10,000 square feet, I don’t know what you doing, or something like that, you know, whatever it is use to your benefit. I mean, I had one client who, who said it was just three of us. And it was 7000 square feet. It was like, no one can do it. She upstairs Lord knows what she’s doing. We don’t need the upstairs part at all. And then they went into still a nice size like 30 3800 square feet, little under 4000 square feet. But and this is fitting for them. You can hear if you know she broke something or something like that, or, you know, it was just more fitting for them. So I told him I was like we got it sir. I’m like so are you cramped?

D.J. Paris 27:19
What? Exactly what a great opportunity to reach out to your, your contact list your sphere of influence your clients, and just check in how are you doing? You know, and they know you’re a realtor. So you know, you don’t necessarily even have to say, Oh, by the way, but you could just say how’s everything going? Are you are you feeling cooped up, or, you know, and like me, I just I know, I feel like I’m like I need to I if I wasn’t in this business, I would be thinking, you know, like, I gotta reach out to a realtor to I want to start looking at upside, you know, upsizing to more space. And so I bet a lot of people are either thinking about upsizing downsizing and you know what a great opportunity to reach out as a realtor and go hey, how’s everything going?

Kristen Boyd 28:04
Yeah, I think I also a little bit and he’s or one of my secrets that I’m about to give to people is yearly marketing to the people who already know you. That’s what helped me be a go pass from just being the Lisa’s daughter being Oh, Chrissy does real estate as well as her mind rather than just your delicious darling. Oh, who the real estate like what what pushing me from not being just just back because I say I’m some people I’m like, I’m just delicious daughter. Sure. You still in the house? No, I’m just showing you for the least like see like when you spend time people to ask for some people just need to know that’s what I usually do different things for my my parents, I guess so. I mean, my house guests, my past clients, like from Mother’s Day, I will leave a little song for the moms. I will leave something for the fathers. It’s my biggest clients that like getting emotional where I’m like, that I dropped a check for something you saw the most I was so shocked. Like I wasn’t expecting it. And I think that will go a long way to even times like this couldn’t tell let me tell Christy you know, it could have been just that that draws them to wanting to you know, somebody was selling their real estate, I was thinking of you. And it’s just more so I’m not just making them feel like a transaction. So I do something every year. I’m different things throughout the year to let them know, Hey, I was just thinking about you. Or you know, I don’t want to call only for real estate, you know, I’m saying so, if I do call for real estate, that’s not all the reason why she’s calling as well. So I think that’s something else. I feel like other people couldn’t learn from that I was taught from that works well for me, and I’m consistent with it. It’s been doing that for like five years. So I’m in Last year, my neighbor can knock on the door I had left little snacks popcorn and candy and say, here’s some quarantine snakes, you know, that goes away. I’m not the same, but my business name on it my business information on it. And I wasn’t really talking about real estate, but I brought suit to my neighbors and say, You made me think about this. Yeah, I’m ready. I think I am ready to sell the house is just a little too small or, you know, I don’t really need this much house. So it works by doing little things without making it seem like that’s all you’re talking about. Breaking record like Oh, Shannon calls for Allstate.

D.J. Paris 30:41
I got an email this morning as basically a spam email and I I deleted it. And then I thought about it afterwards. And I want I wanted to bring it up just now with you. Because I was thinking about this, I was like I don’t have this is embarrassing. It’s like we’re like two months into this. And I don’t have a mask. Now, I should have one. I don’t leave that much. I mean, I don’t really go anywhere. So but I still go to the grocery store once a week I should have them. I’m like one of the minority people now like one in the minority who doesn’t wear a mask. Like when I first started going to the grocery store, only about maybe 15 20% of people had masks. My girlfriend and I went this last Sunday. And we were like, most almost everybody had the mask. And then we felt like oh, maybe we’re bad people because we don’t have masks. But anyway, the point was, is I don’t really have one. Now, the only I do have one because my father sent one to me. And it was an n95 mask that had been left over from years before when they had painters who were using these n95 masks. And so he just had one leftover in the garage. So he sent it actually had to he sent one to me and one of my girlfriends now so we have them but they’re a little small, centrally fit us. But anyway, the point is, is I don’t really have a mask, and I got this spam email this morning saying we’re selling now they weren’t at 95 masks, but they were you know, whatever masks they have better than nothing. And it was like ridiculously inexpensive. You know, it was I don’t know how many, you know, 100 of them for 20 bucks or something, whatever it was. And I thought you know, if I don’t no one sent one to me, right? And so other than my dad and it’s too small for my face, or a bandana or something like now it’s uh, I mean, it’s it’s kind of a strange thing to be sending people but not the worst idea right now. It’s just say, hey, I want to make sure you’re safe. And I’ll be here’s a mask or here’s a five masks, here’s just some disposable masks be a great opportunity for realtors to provide that. Yeah,

Kristen Boyd 32:32
my last few clients I’ve made and I have a little business bag, and I leave gloves. And then I found a place that would do. I could do shipment orders. But I just pick it up, or hand sanitizer. So I go to cases of that, and I will hand one to my clients and then the mask is well, you know, just you know, showing like, you know, that’s another way of saying I care for you. Personal you know, it’s not just started date like last Saturday, Last

D.J. Paris 33:08
Saturday, I saw it on your Instagram, I think that is so such a smart and cool. And it’s also very thoughtful, it’s considerate. And again, we you know, I think we often think like all of our clients are just people who were close to in our lives, whether they’re clients or friends or family, that everyone’s staying connected. But the reality of it is a lot of people like like me, I mean, I’m in this business, and I don’t have a mask, like I need to get a mask. And and so the reality of it is is we think everyone’s connected. Everyone’s staying in touch everyone’s happy. It’s like you know, sometimes even just the act of reaching out and checking in with people makes them feel a little bit less lonely like in your case, hey, here’s some hand sanitizer here. Here’s a mask or you know whatever you’re able to provide right now is an obviously people who like yourself who have been through as equally hard if not much harder times we’re in New Orleans specifically. You know, you guys know the importance of staying connected. Yeah,

Kristen Boyd 34:08
I always felt I I’ve been someone people I gave one of my big investors from it will be quote unquote, on Valentine’s Day. So a guy him really a little small gift just to say Happy Valentine’s Day. And he was created and I was just like, what Lord

did I put a check?

tickle your fancy word that I put a check or something in there. That was so thoughtful like you thought of me and

every single thing I’m like, and you know, you only think about like you guys doing little things for people who you’re like you’re really affected their life. Some kind of way it’s even know if it’s that one cell or multiple cells here. Were a part of their life in a major way. So I got to do more, because here’s a guy who I feel like has everything. And I’m like, Oh, I’m gonna give him a little something. I don’t know what that’s gonna do for him. And it touched him way bigger than I expected it to do so. And I’ve given like I said, I’ve done things yearly for other people, but to watch a person, like, get choked up over a $20 gift. If that much, I’m like, you know, you get you really don’t know, who needed that. For that moment, I think it just needed something in that moment. And I was there to provide a forum and I’m around him, like twice a week. So it’s just, you got to be more aware of who? Who you’re around, I guess. So, it’s the smallest thing.

D.J. Paris 35:50
Yeah, I saw I saw a cartoon ones that it was kind of illustrating your exact point where it’s a father and son, and they’re walking down the street, and the son is a little boy. And he says to his father, I wish I was I was a superhero. I wish I had superpowers. And the dad goes, I actually I’m a superhero. And I do have superpowers. The sons like what, you know, you don’t you’re just my dad, he goes, watch this. And there’s a guy across the street, and he’s wearing like a goofy hat, or just like an unusual hat. And he says to the guy, he says to his son, watch this. And he says, yells over to the guy. And he goes, That hat is awesome. And it looks awesome on you, and you’re awesome for wearing it. And it was it was like a genuine thing. He wasn’t making fun of the guy in the hat. He said it and and as they walked by the sun turned around and looked at the man because they had already passed walking past him at the time, the sun turns around, and the guy is got a big smile on his face. And and then the son says, I guess you are a superhero, like, in other words, you just completely you just use your superpower to make that person feel good about themselves, or connected or whatever. And it is a superpower. Right? We all have the ability to do that. And right now, you know, more than ever, it’s important. When we’re all you know, everyone’s scared. Everyone’s struggling. We’re trying to stay positive. We’re trying to stay upbeat, but it is tough. And so now’s a good time to, you know, to spread, spread some good vibes and tell people you care about them.

Kristen Boyd 37:16
Yeah, yeah. Tell them you care. And you know, and we all are great at something. And we just keep each other informed. Like a lot of my mom’s claims are nurses and doctors and they keep us informed. We’ve done lunch, giveaways for them and stuff like that, just to show we care. But I’m also keeping them informed, like, oh, you know, interest rates are low, maybe refi, this property or this and that, where it’s just genuine on keeping everybody on their toes, all the all the way around. So you can be genuine and still get you know, they give me your advice, or just wearing gloves when you go out or wear a mask or you go out or make sure you wash your hands every time you do this and that. And you should feel comfortable giving the advice on what you’re good at. I don’t do nursing that the bank will tell you this is what’s going on in real estate. So you can jump on it. Right. Um, and that and that has worked. It has worked really well. So I love it.

D.J. Paris 38:22
Well, no, you’re so right. And if we think about like the news cycle, right now we turn on the news or we go to news websites, obviously, the current pandemic is going to going to be the majority of of the news stories, of course, because it has to be but what is often lost right now is Yeah, rates are at an all time low, or certainly as low as we’ve seen in a long, long time. What a great opportunity to purchase or or to refinance. But again, I think that in real estate, we forget that not everyone knows that most people aren’t paying any attention to that right now. They’re just paying attention to what they’re seeing or reading in the news. And, and those stories aren’t as popular right now about interest rates being so low. So what a great opportunity to very kindly and cordially and not in a pushy way, say hey, by the way, you know, here’s one thing you may want to think about right now. Just and I would love it. If any of the people that are my service professionals in my life, were to call and say, hey, you know, right now I was I was just thinking like, my accountant. Or she’s actually done that she reached out to me and said, Hey, by the way, did you apply for the paycheck protection thing? This was a few, like a month ago. She’s like, if you didn’t you need to do it right now. And I was like, I think and I already knew to do it. But I was like, Thank you for reminding me. You know,

Kristen Boyd 39:38
same thing, which I was like, I didn’t think of it and I had some questions. I mean, I know you can do that. You could do this. You could do that. I’m like, Oh, okay.

D.J. Paris 39:49
Yeah. I want to hear this story. I this is such a. This is this story is so funny. Tell us about the condo in the French court. murder with the inspector Do you mind? You shared it with us off camera? Do you mind telling us that story? That’s it’s a great one?

Kristen Boyd 40:07
Um,

it was. Yeah. So we should do an inspection, you know, talking, laughing and joking. And then all of a sudden, I got to paint the picture, a big, big

heavy set, maybe five, eight. He’s about five, eight, heavyset guy running like, who’s who’s an

Olympian? And all you know, I push I’m scary. So I’m like jumping like work? Should I run outside? Or should I went up? And he All I hear is that the behind him coming straight for him. And he’s just like, kick, kick, the kick. And we just jumped up. But instead of fear, I just got I had to bust out laughing because

who have you in your life? Who’s had me said, goofy looking

at your life? Imagine him running straight to get away from a dog. And I’m like, really? And I didn’t ask any questions. And I just, you know, my mom jumped up and her friend jumped up on the table. And I’m like, I was dying, laughing to see imagine him running, which is hilarious. The things you see in real estate though, just normal inspections. And he is just out of nowhere, just like a nominalist. I don’t think they heard a dog barking. He just came I don’t know where like the home. And I’m like, that is the home the most hilarious thing. I have another story. Which was the same? No, it wasn’t the same inspector same company, though. It was for my property. I was having inspections. And the lady was off her rocker. And now today, I can laugh about it. I was crying at the inspection. And I’m like I said, I’m a realtor, but I’m human too. And she was off her rocker. And she just about everyone was out to get her. So she said that the inspector was giving her bad vibes. So she was like throwing things at him to like, stop. And he’s like, whatever. I gotta you know, finish the inspection. So I’m almost done. And then he just started bawling. She’s he says she started boiling water. And he just didn’t know what that meant. Same situation he just ran. So he ran so fast. The pipe inspector ran so fast. The owner left me ran so fast. The co owner left me when I’m on the phone with my mom. Everyone’s running away from me, everyone. When I realized what was going on, everyone had left. It was just like

Unknown Speaker 42:53
what just happened? Like

Kristen Boyd 42:56
everyone’s just laughing. It was like, he was just like our bonds breakfast. Okay, great. And we were talking on the phone about it. But like he was bald, she was bawling more say, oh, no, I’m done for today. And everyone like it was like one by one people running out of hilarious. Little small one unit side. It was two units. But it wasn’t one side running out of nowhere. It was like all in three minutes. Everyone was in the car and left. And I’m just like, What do I do? Like what just happened? I’m the one I’m the one who will leave you because I’m scary. So I’m like something guys no questions we like out of here but it’s like my property and my money that I had to spend so I’m like wait a minute.

I hear no gunshots so why are we leaving? Boiling water? I’ve just lost. I think she was boiling more loudly. No, she’s

gonna throw it out. I don’t know what she was gonna Yeah, I was a demon. I was a devil. And I was Oh, no word. But I have seen the craziest.

D.J. Paris 44:07
For sure. And I also want and want to for everyone who’s listening who may be a real estate professional in the New Orleans area. You know, please please look at delecia Boyd, as as a firm to possibly hold your license and to work with with them. Can you talk a little bit about about your firm and and what you guys offer?

Kristen Boyd 44:27
Yeah, so we actually are. We have different people in different parts of Louisiana. And we’re now licensed in Georgia and Mississippi. Yes, I am. As of last year early last year, we became affiliated with the other states and I’m excited. And I love the fact that in our office, we are like a family. So we always discuss things. We have meetings. We do two meetings that I loved We’re in office where we will have another affiliate from a different business like insurance or title company or whoever to, you know, give us advice on like, their field or inspections, anything to give us advice on what’s what’s out there, what to know. But then we also support a local restaurant every month, we’ve been doing that for two years, two to three years now, where we also part a local restaurant, meaning we may see the owner of them. Um, I’m at the restaurant, and most of the time that they’re there, take photos, talk to us about what made them start their business. And I like to incorporate that in what we do. So I love that about us. But I really love the fact that everyone’s able to talk to someone in the company, because I’ve been a part of a big company, a big company with hundreds of people, and they just want to talk to anyone. And I didn’t really want that to people to feel that as a vibe, or over competing against each other. I wanted to feel the way it is a family, let’s talk about it. You know, I had this happen, what do you think, or this just happened to me and I realized it wasn’t right or disclose, right? Or this worked out well. Or, I had this marketing idea. Let’s join together and do that. I love the fact that we have that. So we are able to help each other grow as not just business but individuals. I’m, I’m happy to say a lot of people have drawn from the first year they joined us to where they are now. You know, and I love it. I love what we stand for and what we strive to be. And I love the fact that even the people in the company because it takes more than just seeing people. But even the people in the company make it open and available to help each other as well. So I love that some people oh yeah, we went to lunch last week, I’m like, Oh, I was invited. Already I’ll do deals together or code this thing together. We’ll refer things out. One of our agents who said was covering from COVID-19, we all prayed over her together as a company and you know, we help you know, do you need help with these listings or whatnot, or whatever it is to make it more than just a company that you are under? So that’s what I like about us?

D.J. Paris 47:43
Yeah. Yeah. And you know, I think we have a lot in common there. Because I work for a firm. It’s a family owned company, just like you guys. And we have, it’s funny, we have almost 700 agents now, which is crazy, because when I started, we only had a few. We’ve grown quite a bit. And but we it was funny, I was chatting with somebody this morning who’s thinking of coming over from a different big one of the big franchise firms, a great company, you know, and but just maybe, was thinking about making a change. And, and I said he said how many agents do you guys have? And I told him and he said, Oh my gosh, that’s so many. That’s huge. And I went, I guess so I mean, it is but we just think of ourselves as a family company. Because we think of ourselves as a small family company. We like it that way. You guys are that way even though you’re not small anymore. You have 50 plus people. And it’s like, it’s nice to be able, I think a lot of agents really connect with that family owned and small family feel I bring my dog to the office, you know, we’re sort of that way. And it sounds like you guys are a little bit I wanted to also ask you about the New Orleans motor Raceway, because you’ve been sort of affiliated with with working with that, right. Yeah, so

Kristen Boyd 48:56
balk story was from one of his. Um, yeah. So my mom and they have a funny story. And I will let her tell her one day with how they met and I love it. But her and Elaine was our I liked the fact that I can say their, you know, their friends and then yeah, but it grew. It started off with let’s talk about business. But when they started talking about their stories and everything I grew into, you know, friendship and I love that and love learning from him from different worlds. You know, and he, he will always shed light on investing and he does major investments which then gave him the racetrack and I love the fact that he he did the racetrack his money his way. I love it. He was just like, I didn’t need to get all these other people or corporations involved in it like he made me okay, let me look at real Stay tuned, we differ, you know, and I like to say like, those people are the ones who like, mentor me in going different directions, you know, not so much of a selfish direction but looking at things in different ways rather than today but in the future so and he just, I love it. Yeah, I

D.J. Paris 50:23
mean, did you would you have ever thought that you would have anything to do with a race track growing up right like that would be so far beyond

Kristen Boyd 50:30
me about it. I was like, Okay.

And then being apart and watching the the beginnings to the today with the Indy race was amazing and and did a movie with Will Smith. And I went to see like how they were shooting the movie for that. And yeah, it was it was awesome to watch the racetrack go from just a lot of stuff not even being built yet to its finished product was also just a dream. Like I just kept looking like Is this real life? Is this real life and I’m like, This is crazy to watch that kind of investment happened before my eyes so and then knowing the person who’s actually doing it and able to one on one talk to him about it and what got you started and, and everything like that, and him walking with him actually being the one to walk us around and talk about it and show us where he wants to be. And it’s his vision. Like I’ve been around so many big investors where it’s like, you know, I got the loan and I got this and I got that but it be his full vision this is how it’s gonna go. It was a humbling experience. And I took advantage of asking any and everything like I just wanted to know more and tell me walk me like, I want to know what, what got him there and what made him want to do it and it was just so real. For the last few years watching just different investments with him rather than just the racetrack she Alicia is a part of all his other investments as well condos, houses and stuff like that. So it’s just been a treat to to be a part of it. Yeah. But yeah, that was very it’s still so real.

D.J. Paris 52:25
Well, you know, look, I think that’s, that’s a great place to sort of wrap up because you know what, I want to make sure all the listeners know that if you are a real estate professional, looking to see what other firms offer delecia Boyd is is a firm for you reach out to Chrissy reach out to her mom, or anyone else on the team to find out more but also for anyone who’s looking for a real estate agent who’s you know, in your area or any of the states where you have presence. You know, whether they’re a buyer or a seller. Also of course investors you guys are focused a lot on investments which is great, but renters anything. What’s the best way someone should reach out to you?

Kristen Boyd 53:06
Oh, any and everywhere but I’m always blown away, which is my phone number is 504-400-3940 5am on Facebook, which is Chrissy Boyd, Instagram, Chrissy Bora, you’re a realtor. I’m on everything Twitter and Chrissy Boyd anywhere you need to reach me I’m answering. If it takes me a minute I might be showing the house or with the client, but I will return your phone call I promise. And I won’t stop until you are getting whatever you want investment first time house or whatever I’m not going to stop and see you achieve vandal.

D.J. Paris 53:50
Well, perfect perfectly well said. Well, Chrissy, thank you for your time. I know how busy you are. You did. You’ve been doing showings like every day this week, which is amazing. And you’ve been so busy and it for those of you who are watching this versus listening, you might have seen Christy’s daughter sort of dart around in the bag. Chris, he has the cutest the cutest daughter. She’s been up and down the stairs and running around in the back over the course of the interview, which is sad, but very cute. Very cute. So anyway,

Kristen Boyd 54:21
in the family, she’s not used to me getting the spotlight because she is in the family, or in the Leisha there, you know, I like to I like for them to be the superstar so when people call me I’m like, Oh, why? Me? I’m like look, Alicia. Awesome. You sure about that when we call for you? And I’m like

D.J. Paris 54:49
Yeah, well, you don’t need to be humble in any way anymore because you are one of National Association of REALTORS 30 under 30 that is, I mean there we have to remember like just how big of a deal that is. Chris He’s way too humble to talk about it. But it really is a big deal. We’re talking about 10s of 1000s of realtors who would love to get that award and it only went out to 30 people so congrats. But for anyone out

Kristen Boyd 55:12
there it is phenomenal. All 30

D.J. Paris 55:17
I know we’ve had several of them on the show. We love the 30 under 30 group you guys are all rising superstars and we’re excited to promote you. So on behalf of the listeners, Christy and I are on behalf of the listeners to Chrissy we say thank you for giving us this time. I know now it’s time to go back to your other superstar your daughter spent some time so thank you for giving us some some of your time today and also on behalf of Christie and myself to the listeners we say thank you for continuing to support our show. And we ask that everyone who’s listening or watching just as two quick things for us. One is think about one other real estate professional that could benefit from having listened or watched this interview with Chrissie and send it over to them, you can follow us or rather you can send them right to our website keeping it real pod.com Or just pull up a podcast app and look for keeping it real to pop right up. Also the second thing is please everyone right now follow us on Facebook go to Facebook just look for keeping it real podcast will pop up and every single day we post an article that we find online specifically for realtors to grow their business and we post all of these episodes as well there and also follow Chrissy at on Instagram at is it Christy Boyd your realtor or Chrissy your realtor chris Christie your realtor and that’s ka ri es es y your realtor will be posting those links as well Chrissy thank you so much for your time. We wish you and everyone around you continued safety and support and all of that and you’re doing everything right and we’re so excited to watch your your growth. So thank you.

Kristen Boyd 56:56
Thank you for having me.

Ilan Bracha, founder and CEO of Bracha Group with Keller Williams NY, points out how important it is to keep in touch with your clients during this difficult period. He believes that communication is the key to client happiness. Ilan also values recent technological advancements and believes that virtual back-offices will allow us to work from anywhere. Lastly, Ilan discusses artificial Intelligence, and how agents will be able to utilize this technology to better serve clients.

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

Ilan Bracha can be reached at (917) 771-8812 and brachagroup@kwnyc.com 


Transcript

D.J. Paris 0:00
Today’s episode is brought to you by bom bom. If your real estate team could get face to face with more people more often would you create and win more opportunities? Of course you would. But every day you’re interesting some of your most important and valuable messages to faceless digital communication. You can do better rehumanize the experience by getting face to face through simple personal videos with Bom Bom from your laptop, your smartphone even from your CRM learn more and get started for free at Bom dot com. And now onto our show

Hello, and welcome to another episode of Keeping it real the largest podcast made by real estate agents and for real estate agents. My name is DJ Paris. I am your guide and host through the show and in just a moment, we’re going to be speaking with a number one top producing agent in New York City Ilan brockagh. Before we get to Elon, I have a few quick favors to ask of you. Number one, please follow us on Facebook find us@facebook.com forward slash keeping it real pod. You can watch us record episodes live with video in real time. And also we post an article that we find that helps you grow your business every single day. So And lastly, thanks for telling a friend. Think of one other agent that could benefit from hearing from top producers and send them over to our website keeping it real pod.com or have them pull up any podcast app and look for keeping it real and they can subscribe there. Thanks for continuing to listen thanks for continuing to support our show and now on to our interview with Elon Branca.

hates it today on the show. We have Elon brockagh from the brockagh Group at Keller Williams in New York. If you’re not familiar with Elon, he’s an absolute mega superstar in the real estate community nationwide, especially in New York. But let me tell you a little bit about him. Elan. Brocket is the founder of Keller Williams NYC and also the founder and CEO of the brockagh group considered a mega agent in the Manhattan market Elon has done over and this is incredible $3 billion in real estate transactions, and has built a network of national international clientele with investment assets worth over $200 billion. Now during his time at Douglas Elliman. Ilan started the brockagh group, which where his stellar broker performance resulted in him being the youngest person ever to be a named managing director. And he was the recipient of numerous top awards including number one in sales for five consecutive years. Number two in the entire PDE network, a top producing sales group most sales transactions, most sales exclusives, most projects to close and a million other awards that he has won over his career, please visit his group’s website brockagh.com. That’s B R A cha.com. To learn more about Elon and his team. Also please follow him and his team on Instagram. You can find them at the brockagh team and also Elon Abraca. We’ll be publishing those links. Elan, thank you so much for being on our show. We really appreciate it. This

Ilan Bracha 3:39
is new, it’s gonna be weird for the thought guests you know, in May, but we will decide. You know what to say thank you so much appreciate it, but shouldn’t?

D.J. Paris 3:50
Well, I was telling Ilan, just before we started, we have a friend who who owns one of the large firms in Manhattan called the Oxford group. And I was we were telling him, Oh, we have Elon Brock. And he’s like, Oh my gosh, you you must have a really big podcast. And he said, Well, I guess so. But he goes, That guy’s a legend. So we’re so excited to have you. But I wouldn’t love for our audience to learn more about you. Can you talk about how you got into real estate? I know you came to this country originally from from Israel. And tell us about about how you got over here and how you got started.

Ilan Bracha 4:22
So it’s yeah, it was about 2022 years ago something like that. Yeah, just about I finished Dominions where I came here to visit and travel and ending up staying falling in love with the city in New York. It’s easy to fall in love in early 20s It just trying you know your life and it’s just a it was a good day. Good experience. And I ended up or worked you know, in a moving company just to get you know, food obviously to you know, me and few friends and

D.J. Paris 4:53
so you were you were a mover you were I still do.

Ilan Bracha 4:58
This is part of it. Working from home? Oh, sure, sure, of course. So yeah, I think I still in the moving business, I’m moving people from, you know, one place to another, I’m just charging them more 70 I ended up, you know, one of my previous work my first boss, you know, I was moving his office, he told me, that Representative should do real estate. And that’s what you know, that was my last move. I start with real estate, I start doing rental, I didn’t like it. And then for a few months, and then I start doing sales. By basically making phone calls, I took the blue book, there was a blue book with information and, and they gave it to me, you know, literally, like, you know, it’s really, it’s funny, because there is no training today, there is so many training out there. And in coaching and mentors that are out there that you can really learn and back then it was like, basically take it make phone calls, good luck. And, you know, you’re learning with, you know, with the, you know, on the way with the transaction you’re learning from, from one phone call to another. And I remember my first listing was in the time was 25, center, Park West, it was the best condominium on center, Park West, you know, by the park, and I’m walking in, there was an old lady very nice, welcoming me, she doesn’t know if I ever had an experience or not. So just, you know, easy, very lovely lady and, and about an hour after I’m getting my listing sign, it was like three, within 30,000, you know, and I’m jumping outside in Columbus Circle, you know, like, my first listing, and that’s, you know, that’s the moment that you knew that this is for you that said, it’s for life, and I still enjoying it, I’m telling you, I’m getting, every time I’m matching a buyer and seller, that’s my passion, it’s still there. And, and then, you know, every year, you know, I was focused on listing and getting more inventory, and we had a very good run for many, many years. And we start to invest, you know, like, I think, you know, this is something that’s I highly recommend to new agents, and even any agents that as you as you making it to the business, you know, take some portion of it and invest, you know, for the experience itself. And also, obviously, to get stronger and make money. But the experience itself is thinking as an investor, I think it’s one of the biggest things, that’s, you know, I would like to share, because that’s what helping me, you know, growing my business, and today, we, we we have investment firm that’s been investing in properties, we have the brokerage side of it, we investing in technology a lot, which is another, you know, because you start thinking as investor as the market changing technology was a big part of it, we invest in technology in different companies. And that’s really what it is. And that’s the story in a way.

D.J. Paris 8:15
It’s a wonderful story. And I’m curious, you know, now of course, you’re in New York City, which which we’re all following how New York is doing because it it of course, ripples all over the rest of the country, you guys are a bit ahead of everyone because of course of unfortunately, of what’s happened. But hopefully, you know, the the hopefully the hardest part is over, we certainly hope and I guess we’ll find out but everything for you as far as your ability to be mobile and even just leave the house and and do your business I’m sure has has shifted. Can you tell our listeners a little bit about you know, what, what you’re doing now as, as a real estate professional? How are you staying in touch? How are you keeping your business going? Because so many of our listeners are also at home, wondering what should I be doing right now? So I’m curious to get your thoughts.

Ilan Bracha 9:05
Right. So so this is obviously it’s not it’s an unusual time. And it’s tough in different ways. You know, take it personal because you know, people that are in what’s happening everyday to other people’s and you have some friends that it’s happened and impact them and families in one way you need to shift yourself up and saying wait a second, you know, I need to have a strong mindset I need to look you know, zoom out. And I like to do it many, many times in my business to zoom out and then check you know, you know, sometimes it’s zoom out as is three months, six months a year and say, Okay, where are we standing now? Sometimes even much more in order to get the plants together. So I think in those time, what we doing is obviously, the communication is extremely important. You mentioned you know, Governor Cuomo, what wonderful job he was doing because of communication and are willing to take, you know, very important So if we want to be the leaders like that, and coming in, in, in, we want to be the one that’s coming into our database, our friends and families and saying, Okay, we are there, let’s talk, let’s, let’s communicate. And sometimes it’s just the communication itself. Sure job, nothing, you know that you need to come back with value usually saying, okay, only, you know, bring value to the conversation, the value today is the communication, the care, they see if you can help from your side, you know, with no agenda. So I think that’s extremely important. For business in general. You know, before every meeting, you know, I’m sure you’re doing it, we’re all doing it before the podcast, we put some notes, we all, you know, read it. So the preparation side of the business, or every meeting that you’re doing they before, right now, I think you need to look at it and saying, Okay, this is my two, three months, before I’m starting again. So I just think it’s a time for us to take two three months and say, okay, in the next 60, and 90 days, I’m going to do 123, and four things and, and because of that, when I’m starting, and when it’s open up, and everything’s going to be bounced back, I’m going to be stronger and more educated, full of confidence, you know, maybe Lin, I don’t know, maybe lean, you know, if you, if you because it’s an opportunity to, to maybe do that. But that’s a that’s, that’s really what we can take the best out of it as much as we can, you know, it’s not I’m talking to many funds owners and family offices, investors, my clients, they’re all coming in and saying this is, you know, there was nothing to do, we just need to watch, and wait. Because in the environment is very tough, because most of the people that you know, lost either lost money or even lost family member. So we are in a very weird situation. That’s it, it’s get stronger and positive, as much as you can, and keep the people around you, you know, we’ll watch there. You said

D.J. Paris 12:15
something that is so powerful, I just want to repeat it because I want our listeners to to really take this from one of the top agents in the country who you just said, a very powerful thing, which was communication is the value right now reaching out? And I’ve said this on on on a few other podcasts recently. But and I bet you would, you would have an interesting thought about it to which I was thinking about all of the professionals I have in my life who I pay service fees to financial advisors, even a dentist, right, and my accountants and attorneys and whoever else is, you know, is in my orbit of people that do services for me that I pay, and I thought I wouldn’t how many of those service providers have reached out just to communicate just to say, Hello. And the answer was the only one. It’s the person who cuts my hair. She sent me a text said I was just want to make sure that you’re okay. And and I and we’re friendly. And I wrote back and I was like, wow, that’s really kind of you. Thank you. And I thought Wait, you know, and I don’t expect that anyone else reaches out to me. But wouldn’t it be nice to be that one person who reaches out to your sphere of influence your clients, your prospects, and says, Hey, I just wanted to check in on you.

Ilan Bracha 13:27
It’s funny, my hair salon guys, a good good friend of mine. And that’s the reason I’m with hair because I didn’t see him for long. But that’s that’s a Yeah, I agree with you on that. Absolutely.

D.J. Paris 13:38
I would love to get your thoughts because you are to some degree, a bit of a visionary. And you have a lot of really interesting opinions and smart opinions and thoughts about where technology is headed right now. Everyone’s doing virtual meetings. Well, of course, that’s not going away. And it will probably just become part of our regular life, even after we go back to normal. We’re all getting hooked on on these kinds of meetings. And I know that you started out your career. You know, like you said, pounding the phones. We used to call that being a cold calling cowboy. And you would get listings sight unseen over the phone, which is absolutely an incredible task. That is a tough thing to do. But where do you see technology changing? I know you’re investing in technology, and where do you think the future is there for real estate agents?

Ilan Bracha 14:27
I think I think what we see in technology, it’s it’s the ability first, you know, obviously like you’re saying virtual virtual closing, you know, it’s a great step back, you know, and then I think with title, there is a lot a lot of work to do in titles in in in the blockchain you know, sure arena and we can do I think the virtual back office, it’s a big it’s a huge thing also, because right now people working from home and you see that you know what, it’s not so bad. As much as you know, you can hire part timers you can iron people’s you know more than you expect, you know you did before, but not necessarily everything their office, and you can have a better service because it’s all about that in the end of the day, your back office is the one who’s giving the service. And we always think, oh, I can hire another person. But if they do any phenom, you can and if it’s virtual, they can if it’s part time, or they can, and all of a sudden, instead of one person, you’re going to have four different people. That’s their expertise, it’s a one segment in the back office of, of your service. So there is I think the technology will allow to give a lot of ability to grow. Also, you can expand it to different places in the country or the world, because of technology. I think, technology, it’s basically the main thing that I see is the data, you take all the data that’s coming in, and with AI technology will allow us to make to process it and make decision faster, easier. So when you think about sellers and buyer, and you’re saying if I want to go and bring their service to a next level, I’m basically need to give them better information. Right. And so, you know, one of the issues that will come up and we see it now and we will, we will see it even more, there is tons of information. So I think the right brokers, the top brokers will be able to analyze those information, and do the due diligence for the broker for the buyers and the sellers, and bring the results. So I don’t think the brokers will go out with technology coming up, because I know it’s many questions coming in. Immediately when you think technology, I think more about the bed brokers will be out or the step up, or the Booker’s did stink, then you know, they’re not, you know, I learned, I’m telling you, I’m doing it over 20 years, and I’m learning everyday, I am studying, trying to get better every day, getting into so much to learn. And there is a commercial investment, residential, the hotel business there is the finding side of the so when you when you starting to get you know, better you just understand there’s so much more to learn. And there’s so much to get better. So I think technology will allow you to see it, and to ask for yourself and your buyers and sellers will ask from you more. So you you know it’s happening. You know, I see my kids. And I’m saying, Oh, this generation is something else. But it’s such as there’s something else there information, it’s in a different it’s more accessible. So because of it, they can process it and come back with better info, you know, results. So that’s the next that’s when we say no, it’s a different generation. So the future technology changed forever. Like if you for the last 3040 years and with us there is always technology every 10 years something happening in technology, we’re in a process of a different technology, but when the same process faster process, right? But we’re the same change. You see it with the kids, the kids coming up in you know with those, so I think technology in the data and AI is huge AI is a totally different thing. It’s a game changer. And if we know how to to understand if we will open to understand it and and be able to process it to our business fast. You will see you will take will take more pictures from beautiful form in any industry. It will take market years.

D.J. Paris 18:49
I agree I wanted to relay a funny a fun story, a New York story I was in got to visit the Zillow headquarters there in New York a couple years ago and we I was joking around with one of their top management people saying, well, I bet you I bet a lot of real estate agents, you get a lot of angry emails and calls because some some agents like Zillow and a lot don’t. And he was laughing He goes yeah, there’s some agents who don’t always appreciate what we do. What we’ve done with technology, providing you know, listings online and the MLS now is available to everyone in New York. I know there isn’t one but most of the rest of the country has MLS but Zillow just provides it for free. Anyway, I was saying how often do you guys get complaints about your Zestimate being wrong? And he goes, and he laughed, and I think you’ll appreciate this. He says, you know, yeah, our Zestimate isn’t perfect, right? Like people see, everyone looks up to see what the number is. But most of the time, maybe we’re not that accurate. And he says Realtors should be thrilled that we’re not that accurate because they’re still important. They’re still the ones that can come to the client and say, Hey, Zillow was wrong about this. Here’s I’ve crunched the numbers. I’ve taken the data and Here’s where I think you really are at. So you’ve now demonstrated your value. Even though you have these disruptors coming in trying to, you know, maybe do some of the work for you, you get to still be the broker and say, No, this is wrong. Here are the right numbers. And, and he was laughing, he says broker should love us because we’re not that accurate. You know?

Ilan Bracha 20:19
Right. Yeah, there’s so many disrupting technology that’s, that’s coming in, in real estate, but in a way that disrupting the, the old process. Yes. And then the coming up with it’s a new way of doing business anyway. And you need those services, you need the Zillow of the role you need, you know, we are working on something right now. It’s matching buyers and sellers. With algorithm that’s it’s scary, you know, when you’re coming in and say, Well, Google knew that I’m here or they knew that I’m looking for tweet something and they sent me that’s, that’s the power of AI, they, you know, you take this information, the processing it, and bring it back to you now, is it the end of the process of real estate in the real estate transaction, there’s so many things to change, and do better. So I think for the next 1020 years, we will, you know, we constantly will see changes. So there is nothing, you know, a to worry or afraid of technology, I think we need to appraise it and try to learn as much as we can to become better a Booker’s in a big in a better matchmakers. And

D.J. Paris 21:29
also, you know, one thing that that the technology hasn’t yet solved, and maybe will never solve, which is a good thing is the emotional side of buying or selling a property or renting a property, right, the emotional, all of the ups and downs and the different emotional motion spectrum, to be able to help somebody navigate through how stressful or how, how much fear there might be, and that’s where a broker’s value can, and it’s nice that a lot of the technology has made it easier for brokers now to then be able to focus on the more human side of the transaction, to be able to really guide that agent through or sorry, guide the client through that process to where you now don’t have to, you know, do as much, you know, finding of properties on because your clients are looking online anyway, you still should be doing that. But you now get to focus more of your effort on on the human side, which I think is is very difficult to fix using technology.

Ilan Bracha 22:26
Right another there was the like you said, you know, the fear will be big play right now in today’s when people’s coming back to the market. So I think our job is really to handled, you know, older hands, basically and take them to the process and they need someone like that. When you coming in from a situation like that. I remember it in 2008. I was you know, I came to my partner in 2008. September 8 to march Oh, nine, right, so about 111 apartments a day, but we under transaction here.

D.J. Paris 23:07
I want to pause that for a second. I want to repeat that you were you were closing one transaction almost per day, up until till the end of march towards the end of 2008. That is an incredible statistic. And then And then what happened?

Ilan Bracha 23:22
Right so so into September, always, you know, Lehman Brothers Markets coming down from oh eight to march oh nine, we didn’t sell one unit. So the fear and I tried I can tell you I was sitting down for six months, I did my whatever I can and in order to sell in move and reduce in price reduction, whatever, I we couldn’t move one unit. And I came to my partner time and I told him you know, it’s I think America is going down and you know in the start laughing so why are you laughing? So we that was very, you know, and I was serious? And he told me if America is going down the whole Ward need to go down before America is going down and said okay, so I didn’t get it at the moment that is saying as it started to open up in New around like August, September or nine it’s really start to bounce back heavily. Like even more than what you know, it was before in a way it was sold more in the last quarter of all nine for the whole year. Was Yeah, so So I remember and I said okay, you know what, it’s you right now we sometimes the fear put you in a very dark place and saying okay, now that’s it, it’s under the change. And it doesn’t matter what positive personality with it doesn’t matter if it’s makes sense or not. We just, you know, the fear immediately can take you to those places and and I think it’s very related to what we’re having now. People are afraid of what’s going to happen and more than the actual you know, results, you know, because you know, about 60 days ago we still nothing you know, the market was very good. Everybody was making money

D.J. Paris 25:13
rates are low everything’s good yeah,

Ilan Bracha 25:16
yes now I can I can compare because there is nothing like it before so I can compare it but what I remind me the fear and the anxiety of the 911 For three months, there was no movement Sure, who didn’t sell anything but there is other people that really act in those times. And you see it more in investor side because the investor take the emotion out. So I have a friend that’s boring in after September 11 The first few months few buildings in downtown just about in Wall Street area. And I’m talking about like they did 10 times or 20 times more than what they spent after it’s bounced back. And same things in oh eight and oh nine when you bought buildings and notes and things like that, that was the ability for investors to put their motion out to take advantage of it. And today I think because of technology and because of the data that’s out there you should feel you know the emotion is there but you have enough data that’s allowed you to think like investor and act like investor so this is our job as a brokers you know, not just to come in and say okay, I’m positive I’m going to make phone calls I’m going to make you know, I’m going to bounce back I’m going to get there it’s really to educate yourself so you can give the information in a level that people make decision faster easier in those brokers those people those investors those are the ones it’s really we remember this time is a good time for for the business in a way Yeah, I

D.J. Paris 26:57
agree. And I know that you are a big believer in in fundamentals basics, you know doing doing the work there’s that old old Zen saying it says Before enlightenment, chop wood carry water after enlightenment chop wood carry water. So you’re a big fan of discipline and and and fundamentals. Can you talk about how that has really guided you through your entire process? A lot of the people we’ve a lot of the top agents we’ve interviewed on our show, say you know, I might have started 1520 years ago I’m really doing the same the same activities today as when I first started they might look a little different, but I’m still doing a lot of the same same habits. How has that been for your business over the years?

Ilan Bracha 27:45
I think yeah, the number one the number one tools that say I have in my toolbox I will say discipline you know, I can I can say I can say mindset I can say you know what? And meet me and many many top producers investors. Family Offices manager did say no good friends and in funds owners, I am telling you more if all of us have a toolbox and you’re going to pull few of the mindset network education things so many things that you’re saying why they got their why? Why are they doing well, I think the number one for me and many others will be a discipline thing doing the same things over and over and over and over and without no thinking you know, just like it doesn’t matter what’s its what’s the days it doesn’t matter if it’s rain or shine you just doing it and you don’t think yeah, this is a power you know, tool that’s I can rely on by now like after so many years doing it and understand that that’s what makes people the difference between people that’s doing okay to do in great to do in wonderful and it just the amount of time they putting it in and the amount of discipline of doing the same things and become an expert and in monitoring you know, the hours you putting in the time and the you know, the engagement to the process of doing it. I think this is what make the difference. For me at least I think this is like okay, I feel like I can mean you know that okay, doesn’t matter. You know, okay, we will do it, we will make it happen. Yeah. Because you know, you have it. You see it in the in the army also. You know, that’s what they’re teaching, you know, like you’re doing the day to day start training you to get to this place, that’s the place they want to get to achieve the discipline in eventually.

D.J. Paris 29:42
Even you know, yeah, even in really stressful environments. Part of the discipline that they teach in the military is so that when it’s really stressful, you can still follow protocol you can still do your your activities even in despite of massive fear or Just, you know, chaos is that you can still perform your task, which which we know those tasks will lead to success.

Ilan Bracha 30:08
Yeah. And now it’s really weird because you’re waking up at 530 in the morning, because you know, you waking up 530 In the morning, every day, and you’re doing the morning routine, but it’s really different because you’re going from the living room to, to the dining room to the you know, to the kitchen, and it’s a different, you know, maybe different view, but the process, you’re going to do the same things. So maybe in those times, we do different activity. But the main process of pushing forward and doing you know, and get better. It’s this discipline in you. The driving, I think this is very important. Someone, something for me,

D.J. Paris 30:50
yeah, no, you’re right. When a few days into our stay at home order here in Illinois, our my boss came in, he’s the owner of our company, and he said, Well, I’ve got good news and bad news, the good news is we might go to the next level, by you know, when this is all over, the bad news is we might go out of business, we don’t know what’s going to happen. And some of it is maybe up to up to the gods, but what we can do is we can keep doing everything we’re supposed to every single day, and do our very best. And, you know, he was sort of joking with they’re going out of business. But the reality of it is none of us can control some of those external events, but we can control that discipline and, and those fundamentals, and we’ve just been proceeding as as we always have, and just, you know, hoping for the best for sure. But just keeping our head down doing our work. I’m sure I’m sure you’re doing the same.

Ilan Bracha 31:40
Right? Absolutely. Yes.

D.J. Paris 31:43
I would also love to talk to you about tips. So you have seen, oh, gosh, countless agents get into the industry, you’ve seen some succeed at the highest level, you’ve also seen people struggle and maybe leave the industry. You know, discipline, of course, is is key, but do you have tips or you know, a tip or some advice for our listeners who may be you know, wondering, like, gosh, what is it? What does it take to get to the very top or I just want to get to that next level? I want to double the amount of production I did from last year. You know, what should I really be doing right now?

Ilan Bracha 32:20
So there’s so many so many things, you know, like a few pics, so many tips out there, just like if you want to choose, you know what I will? I will probably you know, like, I think education, you know, like to get you know better in what you’re doing ask questions, you know, start to you know, like meeting people and ask questions, I think it’s one of the biggest thing that they can do in this, you know, foreign agents in new one, you know, because they need to observe as much as they can to be open up to you know, to to learn and to do it, you know, so you know what the best thing will because we obviously in our, in our business, we are so many agents and I like to see them that is the new infused second after talking to them. I can feel like this guy got it or thought and it’s really instinct it could, you know, I’ve been wrong many times but most of the cases that it was good and it’s because you know they they were a you know, a coachable and I know a guy who is a coachable and have a blind faith, like you’re telling him okay, that’s what you need to do. And and you see that’s it that is blind faith and coachable. Personality, I know this guy will do great. It doesn’t maybe it doesn’t you know, it’s not the best communicator maybe doesn’t have this Scelzi name. But this guy wants to learn he’s coachable is is going to do exactly what you’re telling him with with a blind faith. And those guys will make it you know, because it’s not it’s a marathon. It’s a long term career. It’s not like a one shot, okay, if I did it a good year, it means I’m going to do wonderful for the rest of my life. It means if I’m going to have this attitude with me in my personality, then I’m going to be successful. Because that’s that’s why I see for many, for my experience, at least.

D.J. Paris 34:25
Yeah, my girlfriend is thinking about going into production herself. She is a she works internally at a high end, luxury apartment building. She’s in house leasing for this management company at this nice building, but she’s never been on her own. And she was saying, Well, I’m thinking about it. And I’m not sure if I want to do that. I said, Well, here’s the best way to find out if it’s for you. I said I can connect you with an infinite number of top producers who will spend who will be happy to talk to you and you can ask them what does it take to be successful? And you’ll know within talking to a few of them. If If it’s the right fit for what you want to do, because they’ll tell you exactly what it takes. And so this idea of being coachable, she’s now going to do that and start to talk to these top producers. And so I think you’re right, this education piece of it is, we’re so lucky that that real estate agents, you know, obviously, are the successful agents are very busy. But I’ve found that they tend to be very generous as well, and are usually willing to help other agents at least give them advice and ideas. And a lot of times, if agents just sort of new agents or people that want to learn, if they just sort of, you know, like you said, with blind faith go, Okay, I’ll do that. They’ll probably have success, because they don’t have to reinvent the wheel. There’s lots of successful people that will say, Oh, just go do this, this and this. And well, you know, within a few years, you’ll you’ll probably be at this level.

Ilan Bracha 35:48
Exactly. Yes. Absolutely. And

D.J. Paris 35:51
I wanted to ask you more about what agents can can do, you know, to to prepare. Right now, you talked about education. And, and I think, I’m sure, you know, it right now is a great opportunity to learn your market, right. And also know, you know, whatever, wherever you specialize for I’m talking to our listeners, geographically, you probably have a hyperlocal area that you really want to specialize in. And now’s the time that we all have a little bit more time to educate ourselves, now’s the time to really get those skills up. Like Elon was saying, you know, now’s the time to educate yourself and know more than other realtors in your area about your specific, you know, location that you want to specialize in. And, and you can devote the next 3060 90 days to doing that, and you’ll emerge a stronger broker or stronger realtor. So I wanted to also ask you, I want to switch gears just real quickly. And talk about working with investors, developers, as well on this has been a huge focus of your use and your team. How did you start doing that? And what advice do you have for agents that are looking to break into the investment world?

Ilan Bracha 37:04
So So what can we be investors, when you start to a educate yourself to learn the numbers, the performance, you know, the thing or the you know, the return on investment, the final side of it, how to get it what kind of return in when you start to put these things together, and you know, there’s so much things in the investment, because you have the commercial and the of the residential, the residential part we buying a lot in, we buying from developers, we buying condominium, back of condos, or the whole building, you know, if it’s a small building enough to to buy the whole building, we will buy it, and then we will market it ourselves and sell it. In some boy developers, there are few projects, so we take some units from them in each one. So it’s work, it’s a win win, because we taking some inventory from them in a in a fair price. And it’s allowed them to, to get some kind of return back and also focus on less inventory or fuel project that they have. Because the investor intends you know, when they have a good run, you buy another one. And you will sometimes you get to a point that you have few projects and you say, oh, you know what, I have more inventory that I can sell it, you know, on a timely on the timeframe, that’s the promise. So that’s where we come in. And we’re hoping and I think it’s working for many years, it’s working great because we work in respectfully with the developers, something we represent them on few projects, and some of them we’re getting from them on the commercial side of it, we did many sampling, we bought land, we design it, we brought value by buying the people’s out or we bought value by combining few lands and make it as a one land and assembling those and sold it as a design finished product to developers. So we are like to stick with doing the same thing that we know because because we are on the street and we know what the needs of the market. So we are hoping by taking the land put the right unit makes the design and then give it to the developers or cover developers in the finished product when you finish it and then put we’re not doing the one in between the actual development we are not this is not our expertise. We did it but it’s not our expertise. You sometimes you do stuff to learn and and you go back to what you the best way. So those are the things that we’re very proud of to be good at. And we use many use technology right now to to finally you know to analyze the deals better to to find deals to process it. So that’s what we’re doing. If people wants to come in to this wall, they need to Start with one unit. So buy one unit for yourself, see what you get, you know the return, then sell it and then commit for another two and then sell those two. So I think if you’re coming into the condo work, that’s what you need to do work with developers create relationship and when, and with other brokers, so they know when there is a goodbye, they can call you and you can act immediately. So, so this is the direction for if they want to come to the investor, investment site for commercial, I will say it’s also you may be the beginning, you team up with someone, and you learn the process and let them you know, so you’re the one bringing the money or you’re the one who’s helping with the unit mix. So you’re the one that’s happening with the cells, but you coming up with a team until you build your own team. So that’s, that’s, I think the best way to start and get there.

D.J. Paris 40:52
Do you think right now, especially in New York, New York City, and specifically is now a good time to to invest? Are you guys looking to continue those investment efforts? Have you pause those? Obviously, right now, you know, money is so cheap. It’s a very attractive time, you know, through from a lending perspective to look at investments are Have you put that on hold right now? Are you guys still looking? You know, what are you guys doing?

Ilan Bracha 41:18
We definitely looking if we can jump now and do you know, make deals now, today, I think we want to learn more about the data, we want to learn and analyze it more. There is nothing, there is no reason to rush or to jump on a situation. But yes, if there is an opportunity, we were very capable of acting. And you know, we just want to make sure that we know you know, don’t want to do I think I think it’s too early to analyze it. And I like to take data and really find you know, what I can find from it and then act from that. I don’t want to I want to do educated decision. But are they just acting as Yeah, you want to make deals, I want to make deals every day. Basically, it’s the time doesn’t allow you to do educating decision right now you need to if you if you want to do something like that, you want to do it with a due diligence time. So I won’t go hard on something, I won’t go and put some time into the now for the buyers of buying for themselves as a consumer and wants to buy the property that’s already looking for six months, three months, knows exactly what they’re looking for. And now they see it in a cheaper price. Absolutely. They should act because it’s this is the time that people nervous. And you You already did the due diligence before. So there it is. That’s the way I will split the decisions.

D.J. Paris 42:48
Yeah, that that that absolutely makes sense. And I wanted to switch gears real quickly because I love the story. You just recently sold a massive apartment in New York, that was over $5 million. And it’s a really interesting story. Do you mind sharing that with our listeners? Oh, yeah,

Ilan Bracha 43:07
it’s, this is a funny, it’s a funny story. Because it’s about you know, you ask for something weird in faith and say this and I don’t know, every day there is something weird. And I think one of the things that’s happened just recently a few months ago, we a buyer came in with an excellent broker. And that’s upset a lot when you’re dealing with a good you know, worker the other side, it’s extremely important. And they put an offer with the closing of three weeks. And you know, in the city, the condo building exactly three weeks just to get the board approved. Yeah, that’s fast. For lucky sometimes it’s, you know, more and, and they’re asking for closing in three weeks. Finance, not cash. Wow. So pregnancy 20 weeks, and they can they sign the contract today. And they want to get out of the they have ability to get out of the contract, meaning soft contract. It’s called contract soft indenture, in terms that we know is basically they can get out of the deal anytime. And meaning now, the owners live there for over 10 years, and it needs to be out in three weeks. Wow. And the buyer can make, you know, change his mind every day. So he’s, he’s, you know, he’s asking me what we should do. And I said, you know, I don’t know. It’s just like, listen, it’s based on the broker that I know that I’m dealing with. And I did some homework on the buyers and feel comfortable they can deliver it but I’d never saw terms like that that says like, this is new. Now. It’s a long shot to get the terms in three weeks. I don’t know I know. It’s very tough. I saw it in the past where it’s very, very tough. Yet the building maybe I know some people’s in the management I can get it done. But now for you to move all your stuff get we weeks and this is, you know, it’s up to you and you know what the ending up renting an apartment put, you know, a deposit on a rental, it’s good lose the deposit and that’s a shot. But is a is a very, very smart center. And he took the shot, he knew what he’s getting into and when the gap closing on it on time. Very good. So sometimes you take shots and faith and and it’s happens and can tell you that you should do I don’t like soft closing, like when the claws you know, when they sign the sign you know, in closing? I don’t like that. So it’s a weird the terms. But yeah, we did it. And now look at it, you know the market today. So if it wasn’t doing it, and I won’t get the buyers out for sure. I’m happy that he made this decision. And it’s so weird. But again, in our industry, every time you see I see everything you say see everything and so it’s always something new. And that’s probably the fun part as

D.J. Paris 46:15
well, even just getting the condo board or the co op board together to be able to, you know, interview and review the deal in three weeks is is got to be difficult. And then on top of that finding an apartment for for the seller to move into and put a deposit down. And then of course, just moving away with all of that is is an incredible thing to have accomplished in three weeks. And that just happened what in December of this last year. Yeah, it’s

Ilan Bracha 46:42
you build with the years you build a team of people that you feel comfortable with. So you get the best lawyers, you got the best, you know, back office, the team. So when you have a good team players with you, it’s easier to make a decision in one product and process it better. But yeah, it’s it was a weird one.

D.J. Paris 47:06
But I bet you look like a hero to both the seller and the buyer. Right? So you this is what a wonderful thing that got done. And I’m sure there would have been a lot of in that situation or a different situation, maybe it wouldn’t have gotten done. And not that you wouldn’t have done anything incorrectly. It just the buyer could walk at any moment. And but I’m sure you You are a hero to that seller to get that property squared away. And especially good timing, of course, with with obviously everything that’s happening now. And I just have one final question for you. Just because you’re the first person we’ve had on from New York since the pandemic, of course has started is how long has it been since you’ve left the house? Or are you able to get out at all Are you absolutely stuck inside all day?

Ilan Bracha 47:53
So the first 40 days, we didn’t leave the US for maybe twice me and my kids did my wife, you know, we’ll stay there, we basically set quarantine, you know, we made a decision to do it, we were thinking this is the right move. And then some you know now about you know, maybe a day, you know, half an hour a year off an hour there we’re going out. We trying to for the kids, it’s important to get them out a little bit. It’s very tough for kids things garden, it’s a little challenge when you keep them, you know, in in place without getting out. So I think it’s it’s not a easy one. But it’s important. It’s not just important for your family and for yourself. It’s just important for others, there’s so many people that in age have a risk in and we don’t want to take you know, it’s important for people to stay on in Stay Stay safe for themselves, but for many others that really can you know, get it in there was no way back from it. Yeah, I lost a client that was friends. And it’s a it’s tough. It’s really you know, and you know, they’re in Asia saying there’s so many years for them to keep in and there is no I think it’s very important for us to remember you know, there’s always people out there and we have to to help as much as I can and helping right now staying on. And also we need to support the help that’s you know, the public you know, the doctors and nurses and even the peoples in the grocery store. Yeah. In a way the putting the life you don’t think we don’t think about it now but think how risky is it to sit down and service someone in a grocery store? When you know there is a huge chance you know, you can get affected you know so that’s that’s what I’m saying? It’s a One way we need to appreciate and the only thing that we can help beside, you know, extra tip to the service people, you know, that’s coming in because it’s important. I think it’s also important to acknowledge them. It’s the one that’s, you know, stay home and give the awareness out there with social media if you can. So people will remember it’s like saying didn’t end yet you know, we still we did good position. Now, we I think we’re heading to the right to good places, because we, right now in a decline, decline, Graaff is in the decline that so let’s see what we need to be. We need, we still need to push forward and stay home and stay safe.

D.J. Paris 50:47
Yeah, I was at the grocery store the other day with my girlfriend, I think it was on Sunday, and I was we were in line and they have the six feet separation on the floor, so you know where to stand. But when you get up to the actual cashier, they had, they did have a plexiglass thing between us, we’re only two feet apart, maybe from her, but there is a plexiglass, but, you know, I still touched every thing. Every piece of food I was buying, I put it on the conveyor, she had to touch everything I touched now she’s wearing gloves, but she accidentally touches her face, you know, she could be infected. And I thought about it afterwards and probably, you know, probably earning a modest wage to be in that have that job and I thought she is really putting her life at risk so that I can get groceries and she’s probably not that well compensated. And I thought we really owe some of these people a huge debt of things you know, we all know of course about the people in the medical profession who are putting their lives at risk you know, all day every day all year round, even when there’s not a pandemic but especially now but I thought yeah, they’re also what about the people you know at the checkout lines at the groceries who are maybe they’re only earning minimum wage and they’re still doing it they’re still showing up and I I thought boy, I wish there was a little tip jar I could just put you know put a few dollars in

Ilan Bracha 52:14
the yard we do anything do we do in it we just you know when you calling and you order right now I mean we didn’t do it in the past but now we’re doing it and I think it should do it maybe in the future also we calling so we take the lady that stood the call and we give the lady the guy that deliver so and we saying okay, so I want to put a T on the on the bill and I want to split it in a way that’s you getting some because wow are we doing with the doorman still building every day is somewhat different neighbor buying dinner for the for the Dormans. So you know,

D.J. Paris 52:51
I am embarrassed to say I live in a high rise with the doormat with with the door, you know door staff who rotate every eight hours and I am embarrassed to say at around the holidays, I give them all a tip. But I haven’t given them specifically a tip since this has happened and you just reminded me or just gave me that idea. So thank you, we should be being extra generous to the people that are putting themselves in harm’s way to allow us to be giving

Ilan Bracha 53:18
and it’s not need to be much you just need to be something that self say someone you know, I know you’re here. I know you’ve you know, you don’t have to and you taking risk. And thank you for that. It just just the process of giving I think it’s a it’s a blessing for the ones give us some say suppose both way.

D.J. Paris 53:40
Well, what a wonderful place to wrap up. Now, for everyone who’s listening Ilan, whether they’re, you know, an investor or a buyer or a seller or renter anyone who’s listening who might be wanting to work with one of the top agents of all time in New York City or somebody on your team from the Brockie group what is the best way one of our listeners who says I need this kind of agent to represent me what would be the best way they should reach out to you

Ilan Bracha 54:11
so I think the best way is to go to backer that can be or a CHA that come in you can get our information there or send us an email you know call us be NYC at Baja that commits our emails for the all the lead that’s coming in and processing them. You know and just let’s see any advice anything they need? We really we very happy that that you have us today and it’s a great great experience. Thank you for that and then well thank

D.J. Paris 54:51
you we we really appreciate your time we know just how busy you are even today at home with your with your family and your children. And we know just just how difficult it is to find time to be on our show. So we couldn’t be more grateful. But again, everybody who is listening should go visit brockagh.com, br a CH a.com. If nothing else to see what a really good website for real estate team looks like, I just love, love, love, love your website. But everyone should should go and see what they offer. If you’re in the New York area, really even outside the New York area and are looking for a team to help at to help with your real estate transactions. They’re the team to go to also please follow Elon and his and his team on Instagram, there’s two places one is the rocket team. And also Elon brockagh, we’ll be publishing those links as well. But on Elon on behalf of our listeners, we want to say thank you for your time, really appreciate it. And also on behalf of Elon and myself to the listeners, we say thank you for continuing to listen and support our show. We started this about four years ago, I didn’t know if anyone would care. I didn’t know if anyone would be interested. And now we’ve grown to we think we might be the largest podcast now in the country. And it’s not because I’m so great. It’s because people like Elon come on our show and share share their their their strategies, their success, they share, you know what they think works. And that’s the reason why we’ve continued to expand our audience. So we ask our listeners just to do two quick things. One is to think of another real estate professional that could really benefit from having heard this interview but hasn’t heard it yet and send them a link, you can visit our podcast website at keeping it real pod.com Or just pull up any podcast app search for keeping it real well. We’ll pop right up and and tell them about it. The second thing is to please follow us on Facebook every single day we post a link we find an article online written by someone in the real estate profession that has written an article to help agents grow their business. So we post that and we also post of course, links to all of our episodes and video as well. So Ilan, thank you once again, we wish you and your team the the best of success. Of course, please stay safe and healthy. And, you know we’ll we’ll hopefully I’ll get through this sooner rather than later. But we wish you and your team continued health and success and thanks again.

Ilan Bracha 57:20
Thank you stay safe. Thank you

Lauren Mitrick Wood from OliveWell with Compass in Chicago is a third generation real estate agent and top 1% producer. In this episode Lauren points out how important it is to get involved in the real estate community and why giving back actually grows your business. Lauren shares her “Gift to Grow” philosophy and highlights why listening is the more important skill to master.

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

Lauren Mitrick Wood can be reached at 773.480.5078 and lauren.mitrickwood@compass.com.


Transcript

D.J. Paris 0:00
This episode of Keeping it real is brought to you by Agent youtube.com. Would you like more leads that find you instead of you finding them. Let the YouTube agents show you how the YouTube agents started making videos with no sphere of influence. This year, they’re on pace to close more than 100 sales all from leads generated on YouTube. They put a step by step video program to show you exactly what to do and what not to do to become a YouTube real estate superstar. Visit agent youtube.com to learn more and sign up today. That’s agent youtube.com. And now on to the show.

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 in just a moment, we’re going to be speaking with Lauren metric wood. But before we get to Lauren, I want to remind everyone of two quick things. Number one, please tell a friend think of another real estate agent that you know that could benefit from hearing from top producers like Lauren and pass this podcast over to them. They can pull up any podcast app, do a search for keeping it real and they should find us or you can send directly to our website, keeping it real pod.com And by the way, we’re just about ready to launch a brand new keeping it real pod.com website so it’s gonna look a lot cooler and easier to find things and anyway, I’ll share it with you guys when I’m finished with it. We’re really really close. And the second thing we’d like you to do is also to follow us on Facebook find us@facebook.com forward slash keeping it real pod every single day we find an article online designed to help you grow your business and we publish it there and also we show the video feeds of all of our episodes you can watch in real time while we’re recording them so again find us on facebook.com forward slash keeping it real pod and now on to our interview with Lauren metric wood.

Today on the show we have Lauren metric wood from Olive well with Compass. Now if you don’t know Lauren and you’re in the Chicagoland area you probably do know Lauren but if you’re from outside of our area, I want to tell you a little bit about her. She is a Chicago native and also a third generation realtor who grew up in a real estate family. She started her career leasing residential units in downtown Chicago over 17 years ago. Lauren specializes in residential sales and works with a myriad of clients including first time homebuyers, sellers, renters, investors, and everything related to real estate needs in Chicago up through the North Shore. Lauren is committed to the industry and has served on many boards and committees including the board of directors for both Chicago Association of Realtors, and National Association of REALTORS for her work. Forbes and National Association of REALTORS has labeled her as one of their 30 under 30. For young professionals across the country. She lives with her husband Charlie and their dog Cooper in Bucktown actually just saw Charlie walked by a few minutes ago. And where she practices her interior design skills by keeping up with new trends and trying them out in her home. Now you can follow her at L metric wood that’s Instagram. So l metric wood and also olive well Oh li ve well on also their website, which is olive well.com. Lauren, we are so excited to have you. Thanks for being on the show.

Lauren Mitrick Wood 3:50
Thank you so much for having me. Wow, what a mouthful.

D.J. Paris 3:55
Well, you’ve done a lot and in a relatively short amount of time really I know you’ve been doing this 17 years, but it’s an impressive resume for what you’ve done. And, and you’re one of Chicago’s top producers, which is also of course who we feature on the show, but I’d like to go all the way back 17 years if you don’t mind, tell us. I know this is like part of your family. Probably part of your genetic makeup was to be in real estate. But can you talk more about how you got started?

Lauren Mitrick Wood 4:23
It actually goes back to the 70s My grandmother was a realtor and she started in real estate and working at American Invesco doing development work. Sure Miss suburbs and my father at the time was also at American Invesco. He got shipped out to the suburbs to work on a development there and that’s where he met my grandmother and funny stories. He was actually my grandmother’s boss. So how scandalous right and my grandma was like hey, do I have to bachelorettes at home or to eligible bachelorettes at home which one should I bring by the stockbroker or the engineer? My dad said bring down then the stockbroker. So Oh, as they say, the rest is history. My parents started working together and they got married had me and I grew up in the business. I actually hated real estate growing up, I never wanted to be a realtor ever. I was just always told it around to showings. And when when we weren’t working, we were looking at houses for ourselves. So it was just endless real estate. And I just wanted nothing to do with it. But then, my parents had a pretty busy rental business at the time. And they also started kicking in the sales market started kind of kicking back up into gear. And they needed some help. And I was of age. So I started helping them with some rentals. And at age 21, I got licensed, and I was still in college. And I after graduating degree, I thought, I’ll give this one year. I gave it one year, and I sold 4 million in real estate. And I’ve never looked back,

D.J. Paris 5:54
let’s and we should we should make like I want to pause just for a moment, because having a $4 million first year for it at any age is incredible. But also being 21 where nobody you knew is buying homes are most likely at least none of my friends at 21. Where that is absolutely amazing. And an incredible first year and I imagine from there, you’re like, oh, I can do this. This is?

Lauren Mitrick Wood 6:18
Yeah, yeah, it was it was it was a struggle. Because I had just got into real estate, it was pretty easy when I first started. And because I had done the rentals. Previously, I had this network built and ready, I probably had 100 People in my database when I started just off all the rentals. And so that was that was a pretty good segue into sales. And I did a lot of open houses and I just hustled. But as soon as I gotten into the business, about a year or two later, the recession had hit. And it was devastating. I ended up a single girl living at home with my parents at one point and working at a bar. And that was just not who I ever imagined myself to be. And that’s when I met my husband and I had just moved home. And here I was reaching out to my husband, a male model in California at the time being like, Hey, do you want to go on a date? He was like, Sure. So anyway, I digress. The real estate market was crazy back then. And I really attribute a lot of my success though early on to getting involved in the real estate industry. So early on, I soon as I got my real estate license, I signed up and got involved in the Women’s Council of realtors.

D.J. Paris 7:30
By the way, I want to pause for a second I am the biggest fan of the WC our Women’s Council of realtors. I, I suspect many of our listeners don’t realize this is a nationwide organization, they have chapters everywhere, it is the most supportive environment. I’ve been to some of their meetings and you know, just Google it, I think it’s wci.org, or women’s council.org or whatever, just Google it and find your local chapter, whatever the the annual dues are, are almost nothing. It’s a total no brainer. And you will learn from amazing women see now men were not smart enough. There’s no men’s Council, which would be a good idea. But women are smarter. Well, that’s true men are welcomed. I’m saying like women are this is such a wonderful organization of support. So I encourage everyone who’s listening to check it out. But I’m sorry, go ahead.

Lauren Mitrick Wood 8:18
No, I 1,000% agree. And thank you for the plug for Women’s Council because it’s what got me through and it was such a collaborative environment. And everyone was just so giving and thoughtful and it really helped pump we have we’ve pumped each other up during this awful time. So I highly encourage you to get involved. So growing up, my mom was always so involved in such such a great entrepreneur. And she had volunteered with the University of Illinois Alumni Association, and she was on a committee that helped pick award recipients so she would get these huge stacks of award recipient or, you know, nominations. And she I just remember her reading these applications after application. And she occasionally look up and be like, Oh my God, listen to this person, listen to what they did. Look, look, listen to all these things they’ve been a part of and I was like, whoa. So she taught me early on not just to get involved, but to take leadership roles in organizations. So that was kind of the backdrop of my involvement, getting involved with the Women’s Council of realtors. So as soon as I joined, I asked, Are there any leadership positions I can take? So I quickly became the treasurer of the Chicago chapter. Then I was vice president and then I was the youngest president that there was so that the chapter was dying back then. And we quickly revived it during the height of the recession. No less.

D.J. Paris 9:40
Wow. So this is like what, like 2008 to 10 around there or

Lauren Mitrick Wood 9:44
Yeah, yeah, probably probably around. Yes. Probably. A little early. It was like 2006 was kind of like right before our membership. I think there were five people coming into meetings. I remember. And once we had our installation, when I became President, we had about 100 50 people in the audience, and people started taking note we started turning heads and the Chicago Association of Realtors started noticing what we were doing. And Marvell Guzman, who was a past president of Women’s Council of Realtors noticed how are we kind of injected some fun and youth into the Women’s Council. And so they asked me to be on the board of directors for the Chicago Association of Realtors. And I said, Hell yeah, I’ll definitely I would love to be a part of that. So that just I started kind of climbing my own corporate ladder. I called it within the real estate industry, because there’s no direction in real estate. There’s no like, I’m going to be this this this and that you don’t. There’s you just I just kind of made my own ladder, I would call it Sure. So after behind the board of Chicago Association of Realtors, then I also applied for the National Association of Realtors. We even say something sorry.

D.J. Paris 10:49
No, no, I keep going.

Lauren Mitrick Wood 10:53
I’m a chatterbox. So I I know Bell had I’m now I’m stuttering. A bell had suggested that I apply for the Forbes 30 Or sorry, the National Association. Yeah,

D.J. Paris 11:08
the 3030 under 30, which, by the way, was just released, like a few weeks ago for this year. So this is apropos. It’s good timing. We’re actually we are having on other 30 under 30 people. So this is

Lauren Mitrick Wood 11:20
awesome. Yeah, I love that. So I had one that 30 under 30 for the National Association of Realtors, really, because of my work in the industry, not because of my sales numbers. I again was really selling 4 million consistently at that time per year. And I thought, wow, how the heck did I make this list and it was because of my involvement in the industry. And after I joined the National Association of Realtors, Board of Directors, I was on some strategic planning committees and different things there, I really got involved. And that’s when the Forbes 30 under 30 had highlighted me on their list for being one of the youngest board members for the National Association of Realtors. And that’s really what catapulted my career was getting credibility from these these big lists, and you’re involved because when you’re selling homes at age 21 I thought I wouldn’t want my realtor to be 21 They’re probably partying and you know, being lazy on the weekends, but I needed to prove myself to people. So that’s that’s how I tried in my course.

D.J. Paris 12:26
Yeah, it’s really interesting too. Because, you know, if you’re in a traditional corporate salaried environment, where you know, getting involved, there’s some usually direct benefit to your career doing that, right. So, if you if you work at a big corporation, and you take on more responsibility, more leadership positions, they’re going to promote you most likely, however, you’re in a position where you’re doing this with Women’s Council of Realtors, Chicago Association of Realtors National Association of Realtors, there’s no immediate direct benefit to your business, other than, you know, yes. There’s some wonderful accolades as a result, but this is really you just giving back. And, you know, it’s funny we had on Jordan Pyle a few weeks ago, who’s the YPN president? And I was he’s obviously super involved, like, like, like you are. And I said, just out of curiosity, has it impacted your business at all? He goes, it’s the weirdest thing. He goes, I get four, he was about 40% of my business, are now referrals from other realtors, because they just know who I am. Because I’m so out there he goes, I never would have thought that would have happened. And that he goes, like, that’s not the reason why I do these things. Right. But he goes, it’s pretty cool that all of a sudden, people just know me and they refer business.

Lauren Mitrick Wood 13:37
It’s icing on the cake. Absolutely. It’s yeah, you know, you don’t really I never started there for the referrals. But course say aye. Aye. My business has grown exponentially just because of the referral business. And that’s, it’s something that I would highly encourage everyone to deal with their realtor. And even if you’re not starting your career, just get involve sign up for a committee get to know your, your other realtors in the industry. It’s easier to do deals with people that you know,

D.J. Paris 14:05
that’s true. How much how much of your success would you say had to do with what you learned from, you know, just supporting and, you know, you know, hanging out with other successful women are not just in the Women’s Council, but but just realtors in general men and women in all those leadership positions. Would you say that was a really important thing that ultimately gave you more knowledge and skills to grow your business?

Lauren Mitrick Wood 14:29
Yes, yes, absolutely. And it really opened doors and led me in different directions. And it kind of made me see that the sky’s the limit. There’s really no glass ceiling in real estate. You can do whatever you want. I mean, I was able to go to Washington DC and go into congressman’s office and fight for our homeownership rights and just rubbing elbows with these people was just so unreal and so exciting and fun and interesting and I can bring all those little gems and those pearls home with me and help. It was straight to my clients, what’s going on in the real estate world on a more national level and things like that. But I do have to say, Now, I’ve pulled back my engagement, I was over committed. And so there is a fine line of getting too involved, and then also being able to run your business and make money. So I would highly encourage you, if you do get involved, it’s so easy to say yes. And learning to say no, was a challenge that I had to overcome and figure out and navigate, because you just want to help you want to be out there, you want to do these things. I was founder of one of the founding members of the YPN here in Chicago. And it’s just so fun to be a part of that. But you know, looking back, it’s like maybe I shouldn’t have said yes to all these things. Because my business didn’t end up growing. For some time, I stayed at that 4 million mark for years. And I think that’s because I spent a lot of time giving back to the community. And so once I pulled back, I was able to propel a little bit quicker.

D.J. Paris 15:53
Now they say balance in all things. But you’re right, because I serve on a few non real estate boards, but I serve on two boards. And because I’m a somebody who says yes, most of the time. And also because I’m a worker, like you just put me to work and I’ll do it. I you know, they know that. And so a lot of that gets put in my lap. And I’m now at the point where I need to start saying no to certain things, because it impacts you know, my, the amount of time I have to do other things, like with my business here, so So I totally understand that. But the knowledge you must have gained had to just be immeasurable. As far as just your being able to bring that to your clients. Just be a better realtor, I’m sure and

Lauren Mitrick Wood 16:33
made lifelong friends, I got to go to weddings of some of my other colleagues that I would have never gotten to know. And it’s just so fun getting to meet these people and explore and create friendships and lifelong relationships that I never would have had. So I’m so grateful and thankful for that engagement in that that part of my life.

D.J. Paris 16:50
Yeah, and by the way, I want to also commend you on your website, I’m a I’ve designed websites as well. And I, I’m often not that impressed with broker websites only because that’s not really what most realtors are good at, and nor should they be. But I like that yours is very clean, it’s modern, it’s minimal. And it’s and it’s got style to it. And it’s one of those things that obviously a lot of Karen thought went into it. And it’s just really impressive. So for everyone listening, go to Olive well.com. And you can see some of the neat design she has, for example, illustrations of all of her all of all of the people on our team, which I think is fun and cool. And just the design itself. And layout is really cool. But tell us now you do have this team and I want to talk about your team, because, um, tell us how that came to be and how that all works.

Lauren Mitrick Wood 17:41
Sure, yeah. So as I said before, I was consistently a $4 million producer, which was great and fine, but I wanted to get to that next level. And I think a lot of if you if you ask me what my turning point was, in my career, it was delegation, delegation is key delegate, delegate delegate, and I was really, really scared to let go of tasks because I thought I can do them the best that anyone can ever do. And oh my god, what if that person messes up on that listing agreement, post or whatever, or they, you know, didn’t show up on to the showing on time, like, Oh, my God, you know, so that was terrifying. And I also have to say education was also another key factor. So I had gone during as the recession was kind of pulling out of itself. I went to Colorado and signed up for the ninja training, sure, and forgot the guy’s name anyway, ninja training, and I hired a coach and that coach helped me and it was super expensive at the time, I could hardly afford it. But I knew it was something that I needed, I needed to figure out how to navigate my career. And so she had taught it had coached me through giving up some letting go of some of my rental clients, because I was doing a ton of rentals, which was impacting my sales numbers. I was still making money and still creating connections, but I just needed to get my sales going a little more quickly. So it was the hardest thing I ever did. I was like, Oh my god. So every I committed myself to every new rental client that came in, I would basically give it over to one of my colleagues. And that was terrifying. But I realized that when you start growing a team, you need to get very clear on what you’re expected. What what you’re expected of these people and constantly ask for feedback. So I would have a friend that would want to rent to rent a new home and I would give them to my friend who’s my colleague, and I would ask her feedback. How did it go? How did it go with her and it was good, but she was swearing while she was driving me around town. What not okay, so I you know, you have to have some hard conversations with people as they as you grow. And I started realizing I hate paperwork. I’m very disorganized in that department. And it’s just, it’s something that just stresses me out and I just can’t stand it. So my next move was A transaction coordinator or someone to help me process the paper and keep organized in that department. So as soon as I started delegating these tasks off that I hated doing, even though I thought I was the best of them, I started growing my business because I was it alleviated that time for me to do other things. And that’s kind of how olive oil hatched is I had, I had this vision I wanted to make wanted to inject some fun into my business. After doing it for 15 years, I was kind of getting a little bored, to be honest. Like, here’s how you buy a house, right? And I wanted to have some fun, and I thought, why can’t we throw some colors in or illustrations or wear some hats, you know, just do some fun things. So Oliver was always kind of a dream to me. And it’s really started kicking into full gear. And I’m so excited. My team is just like, I could cry right now, I may cry, thinking about how great they are.

D.J. Paris 20:55
Let’s, where does the name come from? Tell us the name like what what’s the Where’s olive? Well, what’s the or the origin of that?

Lauren Mitrick Wood 21:02
Okay, so I had gone on a family trip with my close family, my parents and some aunts and cousins in Greece. And I was just enamored with the beauty of the olive oil or olive trees. Sure, they were everywhere fields of them on little tables, they were just so simple and beautiful. And in our hotel room, we had a bar of soap, and the soap was made with all of olive oil, or olive. And there was a little logo that said, Oh, dash live, and the live just kept sticking out to me. And I thought, wow, I need to make a brand out of this with the live and the olives. And there’s so many like all of what is so beautiful. I have cutting boards, it’s all of wood. So we were on the plane home and I gave that piece of soap container to my cousin, I said go make a real estate brand with this. So she came back, she was sitting a couple of rows up, she came back and she’s like, here we go all of well, we’re all live well, I love it. I thought wow, I just loved it. So it was really hatched out of just the beauty of the olive trees. And I just kind of like to play on words. And I had been trying to come up with a name for so long. And it’s just one of those things that I was like, you know, just let’s just do it. Let’s just Let’s just go for it.

D.J. Paris 22:15
Yeah, and it’s worked out well for you, I also wanted to come back to this idea of getting help, just for a moment for our listeners, because there are people who are starting out maybe who don’t yet have the resources to really build a team or, or to hatch their own, you know, sort of thing with with other people. And as Lauren said, she would just pass leads over to colleagues and say, Well, you know, here’s how, you know, I would work the lead. And here’s what you know, I hope you can do as well. And also, you mentioned that hiring a transaction coordinator to help with the paperwork. Because you’re like me, you’re a marketing person, you and I are marketing people. And we’re good at creative ideas. And that’s, that’s our skill set. So I’m not good with anything related to paperwork, either. But for a lot of people, they’re like, Well, I have to do my own paperwork, because I don’t have a team. And the good news is like, now we live, and this wouldn’t have happened 10 years ago, maybe 10 years ago, it would, but 15 years ago, it’s certainly not 17 years ago, where you could then reach out to people from all over the globe, who will actually help you with this business, and can do it for a really reasonable price. So if you’re somebody who’s not absolutely able to hire a full time person, you can hire the you know, we live in a gig economy, a world economy where you can actually say, here’s what I need. And there are people from all over the world that can help with that. So I just wanted to make that point that there are resources out there, where you could probably afford it even if you think you can’t,

Lauren Mitrick Wood 23:39
yeah, and I would also say, look, look around you, I realized that a lot of times you want, like you might have this dream to have a transaction coordinator, but they might be sitting right beside you and you don’t even realize it. So Laura, my cousin who’s on my team, she loves paperwork, she lives for spreadsheets, and checklists, and all these things. And she, you know, her hair business wasn’t where she wanted it to be. And she wanted some more stability in her career in her life, because she has diabetes. And she’s, you know, trying to navigate that. So we have team meetings, you know, I partner up with, with my team, individually every couple of weeks. And that was all of a sudden I realized she wants to do more paperwork and have more stability, and I can be more of the face for her clients if need be. So she’s pulled back a little bit more on her own sales, and she’s helping with the transaction coordination, and it’s worked out really well. So it’s, and also I would say you could partner with people in your office if like, hey, let’s let’s go 5050 on this deal if you can, if you do the paperwork and do all the background stuff, I’ll do the showings I’ll do the running around, you know and let’s just get the deal. So you can start do creative things. You don’t have to hire someone full time or you know, just start slow.

D.J. Paris 24:56
Yeah, and I want to I want to also talk about you are known and you’ve been featured in a number of publications, including like Wall Street Journal and a number of other every basically everything. Inman and a number of other publications about your gift to grow, sort of strategy and methodology, you are known for the gifts that you that you provide to clients. Can you talk more about that? I think that’d be really interesting to our listeners.

Lauren Mitrick Wood 25:23
Yeah, absolutely. I think it starts with listening, and opening your eyes to what your clients like, and being intentional and thoughtful with your gifting. So instead of giving a bottle of champagne, or something that just goes away, like a good standard rule of thumb for me when I do gifting for anything is something that lasts and sticks around the house. So I loved I go to a furniture store in my neighborhood called the Painted Lady, and I absolutely love it. And I fell in love with these pillows they have or they have all these neighborhoods stamped on the pillows bucktail Wicker Park Logan Square. And so I just I love the look of them. And I thought my clients might like to look at these too. And there’s something that’s stick around the house. And it’s been really cool, because I started giving these pillows out maybe six years ago now. And as my clients have bought their houses, and they need to upgrade and sell their house homes, I come in and I see the pillows and the pillows start traveling to all these different houses. And I used to give engagement pillows with a little knot on it like you’re tying the knot. And I’ve seen those pillows, and they’ve ended up in baby rooms and things like that. And, you know, are my clients remembering that I gave them those pillows every time they look at it? Probably not. But some might. And you know, I like to create conversations with my gifting as well. So think of like, Oh, where’d you get that pillow? Oh, my realtor gave it to me. So it can be as easy as a, you know, $20 pillow or sometimes on Etsy, some of the pillows I found were 10 or $15. But I can get as big and glamorous as hiring a private chef to kick off a housewarming party for a client. So that happens when the paychecks a little bit more when you sell a million dollar house or above that. But that has been such a special moment for me is to my favorite part of the transaction is watching the house come to life. And seeing what people do with the home. And they live in it. They experience so many different magical and sometimes sad moments, but the housewarming party or having friends around the table. It’s just such a special moment. I love entertaining, love eating. I love connecting with people. So hiring a price a personal chef for someone to have their housewarming party is such a great moment. And then they invite you of course, sure know them that well. And you know, the goal is to get referrals in the end. And hopefully you get to work with the people sitting around the table with you. And if they don’t know you that well you don’t have to invite yourself over for dinner. And my chef will be a little clever, too. And okay, do you want to invite Lauren over as well? Sure. And it doesn’t have to be a full dinner, sit down dinner, or sometimes I just pop in for a cocktail and appetizer and leave, just say you know, thank you so much. And I’m excited to see your house come to life and you know, or blah. But gifting has just been such a it’s so fun for me to it’s fun to pick out and select and think about what these people would want.

D.J. Paris 28:15
And I know you’re doing it solely for the purpose of giving back and saying being grateful for them as a client. And and I’m just Just curious that when you do have those type of events where there is a chef or you’re invited to a party, I wonder just coincidentally like what, like what I bet some of those people end up becoming clients, right that are the guests of Yeah,

Lauren Mitrick Wood 28:40
yeah, absolutely. It’s all about just creating relationships, maintaining them and staying top of mind and expanding your network. And it doesn’t have to be, you know, for some of these relatives that may be listening that are just starting out. You don’t have to think about oh my gosh, how much is a private chef? And just like I said, originally just listening to what your clients say is key. I spent $5 on people and it has made a lasting impact. I’ll give you a quick example of that. Yeah, I had a friend who has become a client, but she was in an airport and she was texting me that she just broke down because she was so crazed and stuck in this airport. And she thought starch, she was getting eggs or something at Starbucks, and they ran out of hot sauce and she melt down because she didn’t have her hot sauce. Sure. And I thought, Oh my God, I’ve totally been there. You know, I just needed something and wanted something and God dammit, they didn’t have it. So I went on Amazon and I shipped her the mini hot sauce packages. And she posted on Instagram and just wrote me a thank you note and was like, thank you so much for that hot sauce. And that was just such a fun moment for me just you know, just thinking like that really meant something to someone. And just it’s really about listening and trying to understand what your clients like.

D.J. Paris 29:52
Yeah, I also want to hear about I know last night you were watching the Michael Jordan documentary which everybody I mean it’s funny. I’m Not really much of a sports guy play tennis, but I don’t really pay any attention to other sports. I don’t even pay attention to tennis. School. Yeah. I don’t know, is it? But but I’ve been playing it my whole life. But it’s funny because I just learned one of the top tennis people is an anti vaccination guy. And I’m like, Oh, I don’t want to know that about. But anyway, the point is, is I don’t really pay much attention to sports, but you are watching the Michael Jordan documentary, which everybody is telling me to watch. And it just came out on Monday yesterday, I think. Yeah, Sunday, Sunday. Yeah. So tell us tell us that story.

Lauren Mitrick Wood 30:31
Yeah, so I grew up in 90s. Kid, bulls, everything. Sure, creepy. I remember running down the streets, begging pans when they won the three pages, screaming and just in total, total bliss. So I was just drenched in nostalgia the other night when we were watching this documentary, and my husband’s a huge Beatles fan as well. And it dawned on me that I never got to see Michael Jordan play in his heyday, for as much as I love them. We just never really went to games. My family wasn’t really into sports. But it’s something that Charlie, my husband, and I love doing. We go to the bowls games all the time and enjoy them tremendously. So it dawned on me like I didn’t get to see him. But I have had some experiences with Michael Jordan. And it was just one of my funniest memories looking back on real estate. And I’ll give you a little little backdrop of the story. I was showing another pro athlete, some condos, and we didn’t realize we were stepping into Michael Jordan’s in town condo. We were showing his house. And Juanita, his ex wife was the realtor and I didn’t realize that she was a realtor number one. And number two, I didn’t realize we were showing her house. I didn’t realize this was Michael.

D.J. Paris 31:47
Yeah, that’s a lot of information. That’s really interesting information. And then you wouldn’t even know that. Yeah. Because why would you know that? And yeah, wow.

Lauren Mitrick Wood 31:56
So we were on the showing and my client and I just kind of started realizing what was happening. And we were like, kids in a candy store. We were so giddy. We were kind of like giggling but like without letting her see and notice. And when we left the showing, he turned over to me and he’s like, look at my shoes. And he was wearing Air Jordans and cracking up and I just remember leaving that showing like this. I just feel like this is the highlight of my life. Like my highlight of my career. I felt like I had made it like I was in Michael Jordan’s condo with another pro athlete and like, how did I get here? And it was just such a fun, funny moment.

D.J. Paris 32:33
Did he end up getting the condo or No, you didn’t

Lauren Mitrick Wood 32:35
buy that one. He bought something else. It was it just screamed? 90s It was 290s in there for him?

D.J. Paris 32:42
Was there like memorabilia everywhere? Or was it not that way or Oh, it

Lauren Mitrick Wood 32:46
was vacant. So all the all the furniture had been removed. But just it was kind of one of those things where if these walls could talk, you could just picture Michael smoking his cigar, you know, in this corner drinking whiskey and it was just such a such a fun moment. And it just it kind of was all brought back to me when I was watching this documentary The other night.

D.J. Paris 33:07
And then also, I want you to tell us the story about going into where the tenant was Mia, this is a rental that you were doing. Can you mind sharing that story?

Lauren Mitrick Wood 33:16
Yeah, so my I was actually helping my dad out at the time. I think they were traveling on vacation or something. And he’s like, Hey, I need you to go do something for me. You know, so of course yeah, whatever you need. So it’s like just I need you to go check on this apartment with the owner, the tenants. Mia. We can’t reach him. We don’t know where he is. He’s not paying his rent. He’s not replying to voicemails text, email. So just need to go in and check. Make sure he’s like not in there. I’m like, what? Like, you want me to go check

D.J. Paris 33:42
that it could be? He could be dead and on the couch. Yeah.

Lauren Mitrick Wood 33:45
What are you talking about? So you know, just kind of whatever, Dad Sure I’ll go. So I went with the owner. And it was in a high rise building. We had to get keys and access from the manager and be like, we don’t know where he is. So we got keys. We were holding each other’s hands like knocking on the door. We were so nervous. You’re gonna walk into like a dead body. Why the police weren’t called they don’t know. Like, why did my dad send me here? I don’t know. But I was with another human. So that made me feel comfortable. But we walked in we didn’t hear anything. Although in the bathroom. We heard like water trickling like, kind of a heavy trickle and we thought, holy cow. Is this guy something

D.J. Paris 34:22
something bad is going on in the bathroom? Yeah.

Lauren Mitrick Wood 34:25
I mean, you can’t be in the shower for like, days and weeks. So and the curtain was drawn. So one of us had to like, open the curtain and make sure no one’s there. And I volunteered and I was like I’ll do so. Open the curtain. Nobody was in there. But it was one of the scariest moments ever was like, what is happening? This is so weird. And why am I doing this?

D.J. Paris 34:50
So what the guy had just skipped town or what was

Lauren Mitrick Wood 34:53
the it’s funny because I it was almost 10 years ago now and I don’t remember all the details except that I was tremendously He terrified, I think, I think he was on a cruise ship or something and didn’t tell anyone and the cruise ship got stuck or something I don’t really I have to. I’ve been meaning to ping my dad and ask him about the details. But it was just one of those moments when I was like, This is ridiculous.

D.J. Paris 35:16
Oh, I wanted to that’s a super funny, funny story. And because there really is, yeah, what happened is the best possible scenario where no one was there. But more likely than not, would have not been that scenario. Right? It would have been, there’s probably something in here that is nobody’s going to want to see. Yeah, but But yeah, thankfully, that worked out, I guess. But yeah, that is scary. But I want to, you know, speaking of rentals, just to sort of go from that story. You know, it’s funny, we, we have realtors in our own firm that right now we’re all you know, this is of course, still during the stay at home order. And we have realtors that are still doing rentals. We had we have a couple brokers they’re doing like two to three rentals a week right now? Of course they’re not they’re not going to showings. These are not necessarily vacant units. But But in general, how important I know you started doing rentals. Are you? Are you do you suggest that to realtors that are starting out who maybe don’t yet have a lot of sales in their pipeline are rentals a good way just to stay busy and learn the industry and maybe hopefully convert some of those people over time to buyers?

Lauren Mitrick Wood 36:21
Absolutely. And I have to say that I’ve never fully let go of my rental, they still do rentals are just a little a little more strategic on who I take out and what listings I take on? And don’t you know, have another colleague take take over. But my parents have been in the business for 40 plus years, and they’ve seen so many dips, and they started a business when interest rates shortly after they started interest rates rose to 21%. Right? Sure. So they couldn’t sell homes. I mean, it just was nearly impossible. And right before that they had done a lot of condo conversions. So they had a lot of investors that had bought all these units and needed filling. So they started in rentals, and they have never let go of their rentals. And I have to tell you, it’s something that has gotten us through so many different ups and downs in this market. So a lot of realtors turn their nose up to rentals. And I think that’s just foolish. You can’t just say I’m not doing I can’t tell you how many times people say I don’t do rentals,

D.J. Paris 37:18
like I was at? Yeah, I don’t know if you’ve been to NEMA down in the South Loop, which is this big, massive luxury apartment building. Yeah, kind of the darling of Chicago right now for luxury apartment rentals. And there was an event there that I was you actually might have been at it. But certainly it was for the Chicago real producers magazine anyway, yeah, it was like a top producer thing. And I was lucky enough I write for them. So I was lucky enough to go. And on the on the way down. It was like this, like the most beautiful building. If you haven’t seen it, it’s

Lauren Mitrick Wood 37:50
so I haven’t been in there. But one of my agents went to that event. Okay, yeah.

D.J. Paris 37:55
So this, I’m sure was not your agent, but I was in the elevator on the way back. And these are all top producers like yourself and your team. And there was somebody in the elevator with me who I didn’t know. And I was and I just said, Wow, isn’t this place? So cool. And that was all I said, and it’s you know, and I mean, I think anybody would say that. And she was she was like, I am so glad that none of my clients will ever rent I tell anyone not to rent, it’s a waste of money are throwing things, you know, and, and I just kind of, you know, none of my business, of course, I said, Okay, you know, that’s interesting. And I just got to the bottom floor. And I thought, boy, you know, I think there is a case to be made that sometimes it really does make sense to rent even if you can’t afford to buy. Renting doesn’t always not make sense. And I just kind of thought, wow, I bet she’s missing out on a lot of opportunity. Because anyone who’s renting in that building is going to be buying a property at some point, probably sooner rather than later. And what a great opportunity to build the relationship now. And not everyone’s ready to buy, whether they can afford it or not. There just maybe they’ve just not what they want to do and to pass up those opportunities or to counsel somebody like never, in any circumstances, you rent seems like a really unfortunate decision, because you’re just going to be missing out on opportunity.

Lauren Mitrick Wood 39:07
TJ couldn’t agree with you more, couldn’t agree with you more. I have a lot of clients that come to me from out of state and Chicago’s a pretty hard town to just land and understand each little neighborhood, they all have their own little nuances. And even if you just move four blocks, west or south from where you want to be, it can be a completely different world. So I’ve had clients that we go out, explore they they’re fully intending on buying, but they’re just kind of overwhelmed with the city and we say I said let’s switch gears, why don’t you just rent for a year, six months, and then we can pick back up once you’re comfortable and once you decide where you want to hang out. And those some of those clients have become really good friends and have sold multiple properties with me. And I think that’s something that sets us apart is not just going for the paycheck but really trying to help clients and understand their needs and wants and make sure that they’re happy and comfortable and educated on their purchase and starting with location.

D.J. Paris 40:00
Yeah, you’re absolutely right. And so I, you know, I don’t want to continue to belabor the point of rentals. But if you’re somebody who’s in between sales and you’re not as busy, just consider, you know, the most important thing is learning the inventory. Of course, once you know some of these buildings, you can be really valuable to people who are, you know, not sure you know where they want to buy yet, or maybe they’re just wanting to see what what apartments are available, you can really begin to, you know, learn that inventory right now is such a great time to because we’re probably all a little less busy than we were, of course, with a stay at home order, at least. And I think most of the country is, of course, still under the stay at home order. I also wanted to ask you speaking of that, being that we’re all at this point, you know, at home, mostly, what are our How has your business adjusted? How are you doing anything different? Or is it just I’m really kind of doing the same things just maybe in different ways?

Lauren Mitrick Wood 40:51
Sure. Before I jump into that, I just wanted to finish the rental real quick, because keep in mind that these renters have networks and spheres. And if they feel like you’re treating them like they have a million dollars, they will refer you to other people. And I remember going around the city with this renter who wanted to find a place for $1,200. And by the end of the day, I was probably making $1, because of all the time I spent Sure, but she referred me to her boss and her boss bought a $700,000 condo, and then we sold it for him five years later. So those relationships just don’t forget, it’s not about the paycheck for a renter. It’s about tapping into their network, understanding who they are and building those relationships and maintaining them. As far as today goes with what’s going on in this crazy world right now. Things have definitely shifted for us. We lost several deals, a lot of our listings didn’t end up going to market because they were terrified of getting having people come in and show their homes and they weren’t just they just weren’t ready for showings if they didn’t have to be. So business has pulled back. But what we’re doing is I’ve never felt busier, to be honest. And every day I am trying to get my inbox down. And I like how do I still have 500 emails in this inbox, it’s just phenomenal. But we have been spending a lot of time on things that we just never get to. And it’s funny you say like our website, I totally want to revamp it. So we hired a digital media strategist, she’s been helping us with some things. Just kind of cleaning up the back end. We’ve also hired a new branding company, we’re going we’re going to be doing some rebranding, just some fun things and ever get to do. We’ve had a lot of projects that we launched this map project where we’re highlighting different neighborhoods within the city in and creating them. And you know, we only got to two last year. And I’m hoping to get to two this month, you know, so just really kind of getting back to basics as well. And getting in touch with our clients. I’ve never reached out to clients more often, we did a mail out the other day, and we gifted $100 gift card to the fix that people which is a handyman service in Chicago. And I’ve never received so many thank yous from a little note. And it was like, thank you so much for this gift card and I spent money just on the postage and the fix that people have donated the $100 gift cards. And I’m really under the mentality of one hand washes the other and they both wash the face. So trying to back to gifting working with partners that you can collaborate with. And both a rising tide lifts all boats. So I’m happy to promote another company that I like, if they’re gonna work, we’re all going to win in the end.

D.J. Paris 43:31
Yeah, and this is also great to also for everyone who’s listening who thinks oh, I don’t have those partnerships. They’re our partner partners that you can bring on to help with these, right? So there are lenders, there’s title company, there’s attorneys, and if you’re thinking, Well, I would love to do some of this, but maybe financially, I’m not really capable of doing that all myself. Well. That’s what some of these partners can assist with. And they might already have these contracts in place as well.

Lauren Mitrick Wood 43:54
Yeah, like I said, you just kind of you have to look around your sphere and think about who could help me right now. And oftentimes, you know, I’ve had little competitions with myself and said, Okay, I’m gonna call five people a day and ask them to promote me. And it’s people that I’m comfortable talking to that I might know and that know a lot of people like I remember talk calling one of my friends who’s a DJ, and I was like, hey, hey, dude. I know you’re in front of a lot of people. Would you mind? If anyone comes talking to you about real estate? Like, Throw me a bone? He was like, hell yeah, for sure. So oftentimes, you don’t even have to like spend any money. It’s just opening your mouth and asking for the asking for the business.

D.J. Paris 44:37
Yeah, and I’m sure if anyone ever has planning a wedding or any event where they could use a DJ, you’re gonna refer this person as well.

Lauren Mitrick Wood 44:45
Speaking of which, I need to write a recommendation for him. He asked me for that the other day because he did do my wedding. DJ Rock City. He’s awesome.

D.J. Paris 44:53
Well, there we go. Now he just got a plug. So even better. DJ Rock City. I love it. I’m a DJ. but not an actual, you know, not a real DJ but, but I appreciate all all things with my name in it. But anyway, so yeah, so let’s talk just really quickly about your team as well. How many people are on the team you have? You have quite a big, big team, it seems.

Lauren Mitrick Wood 45:15
Yeah, we have three more or less full time staff members. And then I always like loot I always lose count, but I think just I should know this a little bit better. I think there’s seven Realtors on our team. Yeah, there are Lauren.

D.J. Paris 45:31
I counted the carrot, the the illustrations.

Lauren Mitrick Wood 45:35
So it starts with mom and dad. They’re on my team as well. And my husband, Charlie, my cousin Laura. And then we have a few others as well that aren’t related but do feel like family. So we just it’s just a fun work environment. I miss going to the office and hanging out with my crew and we’ve we’ve switched to virtual we do every Thursday, we do a Thirsty Thursday where we have our favorite drink where a fun hat or something silly and catch up for 30 minutes and then we started watching those masterclasses. So we just finished watching the Anna winter one, which was super fun.

D.J. Paris 46:12
So I just signed up for masterclass yesterday. So it was a buy one get one free. I don’t know if it’s still happening. Yes. So I gifted the other half to my boss. And yeah, so he and I are still going into the office because we have checks. You know, we have to we barricade the doors no one else is allowed in. But I so I was going to ask you what should I be watching? Tell me because there’s like 80 of them.

Lauren Mitrick Wood 46:37
Oh, I’m sure I only have seen the Anna winter one. And I really liked it. That of course, the backdrop was fashion, which I think is always really fun. But she had some really good life lessons in there, which I think any entrepreneur can take value from.

D.J. Paris 46:52
Yeah. And you know, I know interior design is like your biggest passion or one of your big passions. And in addition to being you know, being a realtor, do you feel like that skill set helps you when working with clients?

Lauren Mitrick Wood 47:05
Yeah, I like to just, I call it put your Pinterest goggles on and see what the space could look like. And a big thing I do before bringing a listing to market is make sure it looks absolutely as perfect as can be. And I was talking to a seller yesterday and I said, you know, this is a perfect time to get your house ready, start decluttering let’s start, you know, doing pulling things out and this and that. And we’ll have a FaceTime call to go through what else you need to do. But I said, picture you’re going on our first date with someone and would you ever go in your pajamas with your nails undone and are like were you with your nails looking horrific. And she laughed and it’s like it’s a perfect analogy. Let’s get our our best look on Let’s Let’s put on our best show. So just as little things like tucking in sheets for the beds, when you are taking photographs. It’s all about the details. Those things really matter. This sometimes shifting a light fixture here or there can really change a whole space. So I really rely on Pinterest to show my clients the vision say hey, let’s let’s swap out this light. Let’s do this. Let’s paint this. And it’s again, it’s fun for me. I love it. And I think it’s something that separates us a little bit from the other realtors.

D.J. Paris 48:20
And do you do you ever use staging as well with certain properties?

Lauren Mitrick Wood 48:25
Yes, it depends on the property. I have a slew of things I bring to homes oftentimes, not only just for pictures, but sometimes I leave them there. So my house is a little cluttered with stuff right now because

D.J. Paris 48:38
all of our homes are cluttered with stuff right now.

Lauren Mitrick Wood 48:42
But yeah, I have like a slew of inventory. I’ll just bring for photos, like pillows and knickknacks and doodads, but it depends on the space. Sometimes we do hire a staging company to come in and staged completely the whole place. Sometimes it’s just a mixture of hey, we need artwork, and some fill in fill in the blanks, some rugs and tables or chairs. So it’s every situation is a little different. But it really starts with putting on putting your best foot forward and making sure that the house looks as good as it can be.

D.J. Paris 49:12
Well, yeah, we live I mean, Instagram is basically the number one social media platform right now in terms of engagement. And so if we think about how everyone’s Instagram photos look, which that you know, they look perfect, we need to realize that that’s in the the zeitgeist This is how we as at least in this country, how we think about beauty now in visually visual beauty. And so this is an opportunity for us, you know, it used to be years and years ago, as you know, was like No, keep it keep it not as much stuff in there so people can visualize their own. But but people don’t do that anymore because they don’t need to because it’s right there. And they’re looking at everyone else’s stuff and we look for that perfection. And of course nothing actually is perfect, but we want it as close to perfect as possible. It’ll just help the home sell faster, right?

Lauren Mitrick Wood 49:57
And Virtual Staging can help to sometimes we go in that direction. If you’re you know, financially, the the seller can’t get all their furniture out or it doesn’t look as trendy. And I sold me before and after pictures and it’s just so fun to see the transformation and you have like nanosecond to capture someone’s attention online. So is good as your pictures can look, the better they have, they have to capture somebody’s attention.

D.J. Paris 50:22
When right now everyone who is who is at home and not able to be as free roaming about this is the time to make sure all of your listing photos look great. Right? And, and being that you probably can’t always go to the location to make it look better Virtual Staging is an add on option to at least make the photos look good while people are scrolling through. Yeah, awesome suggestion. And I just have one final question. This has to do with you know, you started out so young and had success really quickly. You got involved, you were doing rentals. You know, obviously your family gave you, I’m sure some guidance as well. But but you really built this all up on your own. You’ve seen a lot of agents have tremendous success, and you’ve seen other agents not be as successful and maybe leave the industry would what what advice do you have for somebody who’s listening going, what should I be doing right now is just even just one piece of advice. And you’ve given a lot already, just curious if there was anything that you would recommend to somebody to really help get their business rollin.

Lauren Mitrick Wood 51:20
I would say consistency is key. It’s just like dieting, if you’re going to expect to lose some weight, you can’t keep eating the same way and not exercising. So think of your business as your body and do good things to it. So stop eating the Cheetos and a pizza and drinking the beer and start shifting and to a cleaner diet and you’ll feel better. So even if even if you have no funds to do anything, you can pick up the phone and start calling your clients consistent consistently and making sure they’re okay right now, why not just con, don’t talk about real estate today? How are you doing? So I would ask someone to write five notes a day to clients and birthday, whatever. How are you and call at least five to 10 people a day or text them? Just say I’m thinking of you reaching out? Hope you’re well. And if you consistently did that every day, for two months, I would say your business will there’s no doubt your business will grow? No,

D.J. Paris 52:25
no doubt it might it might be the best possible advice, right now it’s going to be hard to go out and meet new people that’s a bit more challenging. But what you as, as Lauren just said, this is the time to connect and reach out. And it will pay such dividends because the odds are their accountants probably not reaching out to them, their attorney, their financial advisor, maybe the financial advisor with how crazy the market’s been. But generally speaking, most of the service people in their life, you know, are not reaching out, I look in my own life and the only person that has reached out to me while my accountant reached out because I had to pay some sort of tax bill, but and she’s very sweet. And I’m in no way am I being disparaging to her. She’s lovely. And and I’m one of probably 1000 of her clients. So I get it. But I think back to all the people that I pay Duke fees and commissions to the only person that has reached out to me individually is the person that cuts my hair. And she reached out because she needed to reschedule because we had a thing and we couldn’t do it. And then she’s like, Hey, by the way, how are you doing? I wanted to I really want to check in with you and just make sure you’re okay. And she means that it’s not a BSA. And I went, you know, she’s the only person. And I’m not suggesting that all of the people I pay fees to need to check in on me. I’m not that important. But you know what it felt like to have somebody reach out. It felt really, really good. And you can do that with everybody in your sphere of influence. And yeah, maybe now’s not the right time to say hey, by the way, if you want to by yourself, as soon as this is over, I mean, I’m your person, or maybe it is the right time, I don’t know, but just reaching out and checking in and seeing how they’re doing people are obviously, you know, scared about their their economics, they’re scared about their job. They’re not getting as much human interaction as they probably are used to. So this is a great way just to make people feel needed and appreciated and just connected.

Lauren Mitrick Wood 54:15
Yeah, and speaking of your sphere and trying to grow it and network right now. And speaking of your hairdresser, like we everyone goes to in my family goes to our hairdresser and we talk about real estate and you know our life and whatever. And she ended up becoming a client and her fiance had had a $2 million place to sell and we sold that. So you know, don’t leave anybody out with people that know like and trust you need to be part of your network, and you promote them they promote you and everybody wins.

D.J. Paris 54:44
Yeah. Well, I think that’s I don’t think we can end with a better a better a piece of advice that you know, help other people and they’ll help you and everybody wins so perfectly said. So for anyone out there who is listening who may be looking to work with a realtor like Lauren or anyone on all of wall team, what’s the best way someone should be reaching out to you.

Lauren Mitrick Wood 55:07
Emails always great they can or they can just I have a really long name. So they might not be able to capture my email here, but emails great. Or just go to our website on the Contact Us page, they can fill out the form.

D.J. Paris 55:20
Yeah, and that website again is olive Well, again, olive oil, I ve well.com. And then also please follow Lauren and olive oil on Instagram. So for Lauren, it’s Elle metric wood, and also olive well on Instagram to see what they’re up to. And they do some pretty cool stuff on Instagram. So definitely, definitely check them out and also visit their website even though it might be the getting redone. It looks pretty good as is. So everyone should check out to see what a good real estate website looks like, versus so many that are like, oh, and just overwhelming and you know, not not my personal style. So Lauren’s got great style, as and if you’re watching this video, you can see Lauren style. If you’re not she’s got a really cool hat and sweater on, even though it’s like 70 degrees outside. She is wearing the sweater and I’m teasing you. You look.

Lauren Mitrick Wood 56:11
It’s cold today. It’s cold. It

D.J. Paris 56:13
is cold. You know what it was? It was like 60 something yesterday and I woke up expecting it to be that today. It’s like 30 something. Yeah,

Lauren Mitrick Wood 56:18
it was cool. I needed gloves today. Yeah.

D.J. Paris 56:22
Well, Lauren, thank you so much for being on the show. No fun. Yeah, it was fun for us, as well. So on behalf of the listeners wanted to thank you. And then also on behalf of Lauren and myself, we want to thank our listeners for being so kind as to listen and support our show. And also please we ask just two things, everyone who’s watching or listening right now one, please tell a friend, think about one other real estate professional that could benefit from hearing this great interview that Lauren just gave with so much so much great tips and advice for brokers looking to grow their business and just pass the information over, you can send them right to our website, which has every episode we’ve ever done, which is keeping it real pod.com Or just pull up on any podcast app and do a search for keeping it real will pop right up. Also, the second thing is please follow us on Facebook. So every single day, we post an article that we find online that’s been written specifically to help Realtors grow their business. So please do that. And also we post the video of all of our interviews here as well. So you can actually watch them being recorded live, which a lot of people are actually doing right this very second. So you can follow us on facebook@facebook.com forward slash keeping it real pod. And with that, Lauren, thanks again. This was so much fun, and we will see everybody on the next episode. Thanks Lauren.

Lauren Mitrick Wood 57:39
Thank you so much, DJ. We’ve been great night everyone.

Welcome to our BRAND-NEW monthly feature, Social Bootcamp With Gogo Bethke!

In this episode Gogo discusses how agents in Michigan have had to improvise during this period to continue their work in real estate. She points out how they even had to rely on sellers for photos and videos of property and work through all the stages of business virtually. She also discusses how important it is to reach out to your clients to just be there for them during this difficult period and try to help them with any real estate related issues.

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

DISCLAIMER: Gogo’s 30-day moneyback guarantee is no longer available.

Gogo Bethke can be reached at gogosrealestate@gmail.com and at her Instagram account.

Purchase Gogo’s Bootcamp by clicking here – Keeping It Real Podcast listeners get a discount!

Gogo's Bootcamp 2.0

Transcript

D.J. Paris 0:00
This episode of Keeping it real is brought to you by gogos bootcamp Are you a real estate agent looking for the best social media training program on the planet? Gogo Beth key is considered the top Instagram Realtor in the country. And her step by step training program will take your social media game to the next level. She’s so confident there’s a 30 day money back guarantee so you have nothing to lose, keeping it real listeners receive a special discount so please visit Gogo podcast.com That’s Gee oh gee Oh podcast.com for your special discount and now on with the show

Welcome to another episode of Keeping it real, the largest podcast made by real estate agents and for real estate agents. My name is DJ Paris. I am your guide and host through the show. And today we have our monthly feature which called Social bootcamp with gogo bath key now if you’re new to the show, and haven’t ever listened to this monthly series that we have with gogo, let me tell you a little bit about her. Go go back he came to the United States in 2003. To build her American dream. She was broke, she had no sphere of influence, no experience barely spoke English, and when only $6 to her name, which left her with nothing else but Facebook to build her real estate business. And that’s where she started she created gogos real estate and her real estate career began. Now with the power of social media, Google has sold over 45 million in residential real estate transactions. She shares the good the bad and the ugly side of real estate and are honest snippets in her everyday life. I’ve gotten her 10s of 1000s of social media followers in the real estate community and she has earned the income sorry, not the income the nickname the social media queen. She has also earned income of course, after being asked to present at various realtor events. Go go build a social media Bootcamp for realtors called gogos bootcamp. Now today she has a team of over 130 Real estate agents all over the country and is growing every day. Now her goal is to help as many agents as possible. Make a name for themselves in real estate and if she can do it, a girl from Transylvania Romania with no US education, no sphere of influence, no money and no experience. And with an accent that you can do it as well. We’re going to ask everyone right now to pause this and go find gogo on Instagram at Gogo realistics, our gogos real estate geo gos real estate, and we’ll also be posting a link to it here. Also, we highly, highly, highly, highly remember, recommend signing up for Go Go’s Bootcamp for our listeners, we have a special website set up with a discount, please visit Gogo podcast.com. That’s geo geo podcast.com. And once again, welcome gogo to the show.

Gogo Bethke 3:09
Thank you for having me. Highlight on my mind.

D.J. Paris 3:13
What I’m sorry, saying what was that

Gogo Bethke 3:15
highlight of my month?

D.J. Paris 3:16
Oh, that’s so sweet.

Gogo Bethke 3:17
We look forward to talking to you every month.

D.J. Paris 3:21
Go go and I are we’re struggling a little bit today. And so we are we are bringing it because it’s I don’t know if it’s like what it’s like in Michigan right now. It is beautiful outside here in Illinois. It’s in the 60s. And it is to that point of the day where I’m looking outside. I haven’t got to spend a lot of time outside you probably haven’t either. And I just want to go outside and enjoy the sunshine. i What’s it like in Michigan right now?

Gogo Bethke 3:46
I seem I mean, we had the you know, in the 20s the last few days it actually snowed and all that and finally came up to it was supposed to be 57 today, so we were so excited. And I did get a chance to sit on the deck for like 20 minutes i and it’s not that warm, like it looks sunny, but it’s pretty cold. So I ended up coming back inside. But yeah, I had a 10 o’clock podcast and 11 o’clock live and then now I’m here with you again, on a podcast. So I don’t see much of the outside either. And even during this COVID I feel like I have been so busy. You. Yeah, I’m

D.J. Paris 4:19
doing just as much work as I did. I’m actually going into the office, we’re my boss and I are here just because checks come in and we have to deposit them and but I mean really I’m just as busy as ever. I would be at home if I didn’t have to, you know, pick up checks and things but it’s it’s amazing that, you know, all the realtors I’ve interviewed, the top producers like yourself are all staying pretty busy, you know whether they’re running a team or if it’s just their own private practice. I wanted to ask you because I we were talking about this just before we started. I was it’s easy to get really emotional about it. And this is about social media engagement. So I was telling gogo before we started that the, that our listenership is has grown, which we’re grateful for every month that grows a bit, and it grew from last month. And the reason I was checking it, I really don’t look at it very often, because it really sort of, it’s nice to see, but it doesn’t really matter. We’re just going to keep doing this even even if we only have one listener, we’re gonna keep putting out episodes. Thankfully, we keep getting more, but the one thing that has gone down, thankfully not the listenership, but our engagement on Facebook. So even though we’re doing the same exact type of posts, that we’ve done in the past that have got pretty decent responses, likes, comments, shares it, we’re just not seeing it. We know people are listening. But we don’t see a lot of engagement on Facebook. And I was curious if you’re seeing any of that same activity or lack of activity in your own business.

Gogo Bethke 5:51
Absolutely. Something is definitely I feel like and yeah, and this is my opinion, I’m no scientist of Facebook. But definitely something going on with Facebook, same on mine, the activity for so I put everything on Instagram, I automatically feed it over to Facebook. So it’s the same exact post, same image, same time of the day, same blah, blah, blah, it automatically goes over there. And Instagram, I might get hundreds, if not 1000s of likes and hundreds of comments. And on Instagram, or on Facebook, I’ll get 35 likes and three comments. Yeah, same exact post, same exact everything, same time of the day, everything is the same. So I think is Facebook has definitely limited us. And our followers of what they’re going to see they I understand they want us to pay because it’s a business page, they want us to throw money at it. The part of that kind of frustrates me as I was telling you, it’s not that I don’t want to throw money at it. If I want to reach people that they didn’t want to be opt in, they didn’t already choose to follow me. If I want to reach those people, I understand I have to pay for it. Because they don’t know of my existence. It’s advertising. Yeah, it’s advertising, Facebook is going to push me to make sure that that person is going to see my account in hopes that they’re going to follow me. Okay, but with the ones that already follow me, the ones that already opted in, who knows seven years ago, the fact that they don’t show them my post, unless I give money to them. That’s annoying, that is not cool. I already own that I work hard for that those people opted in to follow me. I give them a reason to I post, I’m consistent, I share knowledge. I’m the expert. So I get annoyed by having to pay. So Instagram seems to be working much better at these times. LinkedIn is working very good at this time. So I would probably concentrate more so your energy over there unless you want to throw money at it. Just kind of know I mean, have a presence on Facebook, feed everything over there like that just kind of be there have an existence until Facebook figures out what’s going on and figure out their algorithm and allows us to do more than what they’re truly allowed allowing us to do now.

D.J. Paris 8:04
Yeah, I have a thought about Facebook, which is just as I’ve gotten older, I plan all of our high school reunions, I’m the guy that plans the high school reunion, which is like the most thankless job, but I like doing it but it is a lot of work. But what’s funny is so I we do it through Facebook. I mean, we do it through other ways, too. But that seems to be the easiest way to get in touch with everyone for my class. I’m 43. So we just had our 25th anniversary last year anyway, makes me feel old. But regardless,

Gogo Bethke 8:34
I mean, I’m 20 this year, so you’re good.

D.J. Paris 8:38
You’ll Yeah, you’re not you won’t be old for another five years. And I’m teasing. I don’t feel old at all. But but it is funny. Because as as you know, and I’m again, I’m 43. So as people my age, it’s seeing I see their, their posts on Facebook, much less. I think they’re posting much less as well. I think they’re not participating on Facebook as much. And I’m also wondering, maybe that’s the reason why engagements down less activity, Facebook, you know, obviously that that,

Gogo Bethke 9:09
for me, it seems like on the personal side, there’s plenty of activity, there’s plenty of people posting, you know, memes and political things, and this and that and what they’re doing at home and what are they eating, and you know, how the homeschooling is going like their parenting thing, and they are getting a lot of activity on there. So that’s why I’m thinking is the algorithm on the business page side that is tapping our posts, they’re just not getting even the view. It’s just not even showing up in their feeds.

D.J. Paris 9:35
Yeah, well, they know that the average non, you know, a personal person, you know, a personal account is likely not going to spend money, right, a business account is 1000 times more likely to promote a post for $15. So who knows? But yeah, so I guess the point we’re making is if you’re seeing lower engagement on Facebook, you’re not alone on your business pages, doesn’t mean you should stop posting in fact, may Maybe you should even post more not necessarily, you know more unless it’s great content. But just understand that you know, ebbs and flows.

Gogo Bethke 10:07
Yeah, and then periodically share it back over to your personal page, so then your personal friends can see it. And that will generate you more traffic back to your page. And I just think like Facebook, maybe have gone a little bit wrong with making it so strict, because if at least they let us to have access to half of our people, then at least I know, okay, I know why I do this, I know I’m paying you 10 bucks, is to get that action, that correspondence on my post. But if my post is right now, at two likes, I’m gonna give you 10 bucks, I can get to

D.J. Paris 10:38

  1. Right. You’re right in I have a I have a quick tip for everyone. This has worked really well for us on our keeping it real podcast page on Facebook, whenever anyone likes a post, especially if it’s shared, right. So if it’s shared, if you’re going to buy someone else, you’re obviously going to get access to some of their followers who might engage with the content. So if you are getting likes, you should invite all of those people, Facebook makes it really easy to invite them to like your page, you know, when you create the page, you can send a mass one out to everyone in your contact list. But I love the people that like I find that about a third to a half of them will actually end up liking your page, because they’ve already liked a piece of content, you just hit that invite button takes two seconds, and it sends it to him. So if you’re not doing that on Facebook, you absolutely should. And ask you ask the people who follow you to share your content, say, Hey, if you found this valuable, please, please send it to someone else. And

Gogo Bethke 11:39
yeah, yes, no, that’s a great idea. And in order to do that, the way you find that, as you go to the Word says how many people like that, if it says, you know, 56 people, like you’re gonna click that number 56, it’s going to give you a list, it’s going to show you everybody who is not following the page, but liked that post. So then you’re going to invite them to follow the page.

D.J. Paris 11:57
Yeah, it’s a great suggestion. It’s easy to forget to do that. Because then you’ve already maybe you’ve already done four more posts. And then somebody goes back and likes something five posts ago. So you have to go back through your feed, just do it once or twice a week, go to everything you posted, look like it’s bogus. And click on the on the the number of likes link, and it’ll show you everyone it really, really quickly shows you just click a button, you can do it in two seconds and move on. And you’ll find a lot of those people end up liking your page. I wanted to also ask you about just in general, you’re in you’re in Michigan, real estate is a non essential in that state as of today. Hopefully that changes for you guys shortly. But a lot of states it’s that way a here in Illinois, we’re thankfully able to still practice working were deemed essential, but it’s different everywhere in the country. What are you doing? Or what are you seeing agents doing to just to stay busy being that you can’t go to showings? You know, you can’t go to closings? I mean, or you can but it’s real tricky. How, what do you say?

Gogo Bethke 12:58
So it has, we have to improvise a lot on both sides of the transaction. So on the buying side, we’re not allowed to show houses. So buyers are making offers pretty much sight unseen. I cannot take them to the property, but the inspector can. So that doesn’t make sense when they’re doing the action. So they get the offer accepted, sight unseen. And then when they do the home inspection is when the buyer gets to go with the inspector and actually see the home for the first time. So I’m like that, that doesn’t make much sense. But you know, it is what it is. So they can do that. We are actually having a six o’clock online virtual interviewing process. So a buyer is interviewing us to see if it would be a good fit to be the realtor. And they’re coming from out of state actually come in from Chicago. I think about it. Yeah. So that’s different. Like that’s my first First of all, I’ve never interviewed for a buyer realtor. So that’s a first, but I’ve certainly never done it on Zoom. So that is going to be different. So the things that you can do now is to fill up the pipeline. I don’t know if you knew this, but you can create a Calendly link give access to people to your character. So you can say hey, I’m doing lesson side presentations Monday, Wednesday, Friday from six to eight because bad. I’m doing buyside presentation tuesday thursday Saturdays from 11 to one because and then that way they plug themselves into your calendar. Now you can do these zoom calls with them. See ahead of times if you will be a good fit. So then finally, when the time comes around, you already have your pipeline built so that’s one way of you know, do it from home. Facebook also allows you to set up appointments in there so you can do listing appointments and biocide appointments right in your Facebook business page calendar and then just give people access to that and just make a post about it. Say hey guys, I know we are not essential which means I am not able to leave my house but that doesn’t mean that I cannot work real estate. I can do everything that I can do virtually. So we are doing listen side by side, you know presentations and pick a spot. Here’s my calendar. I can’t wait to be a realtor and just kind And then leave it up to them to pick a spot in your calendar. So then on the listing side, we had to improvise a lot. So listing presentations were chose. So we are having a conversation just like this. Most of them are my friends or they know me that I’m in the industry for a long time. So I’m not interviewing for the job. But I still have to explain them the process of what it’s going to take, and especially now with how is it different with COVID. So we are still listing even though we are not able to actually go out and see the property. So we don’t have yard signs, we don’t have like boxes, I can take measurements, none of that we have to take previous listing measurements. While we are doing for the pictures and the videos, we’re actually asking our sellers to take iPhone photos, which I’ve been preaching forever since I had a license don’t ever always hire a professional. Now I have to I don’t have any other option because I am not allowed to schedule a photographer to go out to the property. So the sellers have to take the photos, but what we do, they send it back to us. And then our VA Oh, the photographer will edit them just depending how what the quality of the pictures are. We’ll edit those also our sellers are doing virtual tours. So we asked the sellers to create one nice walkthrough of the property and just kind of look at it from the eye of the buyer. What would they want to see if they were buying this home? What questions would they want to have answered? So as they’re walking through the kitchen, for example, they can say you know, they’re all stainless steel matching appliances are less than five years old. All are saying with the property, you know, this is a pullout pantry, this is a blah, blah, blah, the kitchen sink has a grinder the trash compactor, blah, blah, kind of just like walking through as if they were buying a home virtually. And if they had the questions, make sure to answer them. So they’re doing that we’re uploading those to YouTube and and turning them into like a professional virtual tour. And then including those links with a text code with our smart phone number, where people can just text our smart phone number or code like you know, 4040 and then they are going to get the virtual tour in return. So a lot of improvisation and closing on Friday. Know that that is a whole other trying to figure it out our title companies will not allow, if the seller and the buyer have their own title company, neither title company allows the other party to close at their place unless that title company is closing them. So now we have to have totally separate closings. Because buyers and sellers close at a different time, not even at the same time. Even if they are with the same title company, they don’t want them in the same room. Now there are two times that we need. So we can just have a 12 o’clock, the 12 o’clock window. Now we have to have a 12 and the 11 or the 12 and the one for for both parties. So it’s just or if they have multiple rooms, they have to put multiple, multiple rooms so we can not be there. The closing my best to represent my client is via zoom if they allow me to do that. So yeah, we had to improvise a lot.

D.J. Paris 17:48
Yeah, I am. I wanted to ask your opinion about this, because I was thinking about this recently that we are all now hooked on video conferencing, specifically Zoom is kind of the, you know, the big one of the day, who knows if zoom will be as popular in the future, but there will be video conferencing. And I really think that even when everything returns to normal, this is going to be the norm of it, especially with people you haven’t not with your clients. Yes, you won’t need to do this as often, although you certainly can. But I really think that this will become whereas in the past, if you were meeting with a client, a listing presentation, maybe or a buyer who you’ve never met before, maybe you’d meet them at your office or at a Starbucks or someplace neutral and safe. I think now that’s all going to happen here. And go you were saying this on the last time we did an episode, which was to say now’s the time to get more comfortable being on camera. It doesn’t mean you have to perform. But to realize that this is the new normal and yes, eventually we’ll all go back to our regular lives in the regular ways we’ve done things but I think this is here to stay. I was curious to get your your thoughts on it.

Gogo Bethke 19:03
I think both I think is definitely the question is not if it’s here to stay, I think it is here and it is staying. It’s not going anywhere. In many occasions. It’s amazing. Like especially when you have out of state clients who have the ability to meet face to face like this. Prior to deciding if you want to work with one another. It’s awesome. So it’s definitely here to stay but I do think that we outstayed our welcome and zoom. left six weeks. So I feel like when we get released, but at least me and I don’t I can’t talk for everyone but I am excited to be up in people’s business in the personal space. Yeah, I’m excited to hug people. I’m excited to be in the same room. I am excited to you know, do all that just shake hand. You know, I mean, like I cannot wait to be back to that. So I’m not gonna hop on the Zoom unless I absolutely have to write I’m excited to meet someone in a coffee shop.

D.J. Paris 19:52
Yeah, I just think it’s going to be great for a lot of people have phone anxiety, right. A lot of realtors think they should pick up The phone and they don’t right this is ever since people have had telephones and there’s been sales type positions, there’s they call phone phobia or phone anxiety. And now it’s so it’s so cool because you can actually do that via video conferencing. And it is a more intimate and connected experience, even though you know, you’re still miles away and maybe hundreds of miles or 1000s of miles away, you’re able to at least see somebody. So I think that for a lot of us, this is a you were talking about this before we started recording. But what a great time it is to reach out to your clients. Obviously, right now is not the time to go, Hey, do you know of any other buyers or sellers that could benefit from my services, that’s probably not the best timing for that kind of, but it is great timing, to have face to face conversations with people who are stuck at home and are maybe lonely and starved for some human attention. And they’re not going to be able to get that hug today. But they can get you know, at least a virtual hug through through this video conferencing.

Gogo Bethke 21:01
Yes. And yes, I totally agree with you. It is not the time to be asking for business, it is the time to help one another. I think it is the time to reach out to your sphere of influence your past clients or people that you know you have in your database to see how you’re doing. Do they need help? Is there anything that you can do for them in the previous market crashes? Or the last one especially there was no equity people didn’t have equity and the biggest problem now 70 to 80% of the people have equity in their home. And most may not even understand that they could tap into that. If they were having a financial hardship right now maybe they don’t qualify for the stimulus package package. Maybe they don’t qualify for unemployment employment, and they just don’t know where the money is going to come from. If they have equity in their home, they could potentially tap into that. And they could take that money out and float themselves in the summer. Maybe just have that cushion to know that I have a Friday that. And yeah, would you benefit from that? No, because you’re not going to make a commission off of that. But here is your time to help. So you can call them see if they need their help. If they say that, yeah, you know what, that might be a great idea for us, you might be able to use that money, then you can say hey, I’ll run a quick CMA. What is the address of your property, I’ll tell you what I think it’s approximately bought today on the market, then minus what you owe on it is your equity. Now, if there’s a number that you’re happy with that like yep, you have some equity, then I can also recommend some of the lenders and I’ve worked with through the years and I would recommend for you to call them now give them that vendor list or lenders list, have them make that phone call from that moment your job is done. Done. So said the lender is going to take it over if they qualify. If they’re able to get a HELOC or or an equity line, then, you know, they can take it from there and you help them out you will at least help them how much your home is approximately aboard, they will still have to do an appraisal and all that but at least they will know. Yeah, we have equity Oh no, we don’t. And you have them. So next time when they do need a realtor who would they call Who else but you because you wanted to have them at a time of need?

D.J. Paris 23:02
Well, and just think you know, you’re so right. And think about how many other professionals you have in your life that you pay fees to on a regular basis. How often do any of those professionals reach out proactively and say, I was just thinking about you. I wanted to see number one how you’re doing. And I also had this thought just to float it by you to see if it might ring true for your current situation. Hey, by the way, just in case you didn’t know rates are at an all time low. So you know what some folks are doing who are who you know, are looking for cash opportunities is they refinance. And you know, anyway, just thought I you know, I’ll shoot you an email about it. But anyway, that’s providing tremendous value to people right now. And you know, you need to do it in a very delicate and considerate way. But by having those conversations you’re you are going to be as as gogo, you just said you’re going to be in some ways, very heroic to them. And you’re you’re not benefiting directly, but you’re

Gogo Bethke 23:59
actually working for absolutely nothing because you still have to run that CMA is still gonna take you some time you’re investing time for that initial call, you’re investing time to caring about them, you invest in time when you’re creating a CMA and emailing get back over to him. You invest in time and effort by sharing the connections that you made through your career with all those lenders that you’re going to provide their information to them. So you’re investing some time but you investing it with the hope that you will earn their business in return one day,

D.J. Paris 24:25
and you’re just demonstrating care and compassion. And I can assure you that the vast majority of the people that they pay professional service fees to at some point are not doing right, you know, is their attorney is the attorney who did their will reaching out to them. Probably not right is is the fight is the insurance agent reaching out to them? Probably not. You know, who knows the dentist reaching out? Probably not. These are opportunities for you to be one of the few people in their life that demonstrates that you care and that just pays a multitude in return. If it doesn’t pay today, but it will pay tomorrow in business and referrals, it’s a really a no brainer.

Gogo Bethke 25:07
Exactly. Exactly. And who knows, some might have to sell you and I mean, but that you just didn’t just shouldn’t start a conversation with that, in my opinion, not at the time of what’s going on right now.

D.J. Paris 25:18
Yeah, what, back to social media. Because obviously, your bootcamp is amazing because it teaches realtors, step by step A to Z, how to, you know, create a powerful social media presence so that you can attract, you know, of course, more followers and then build a more real estate business as a result. What are you telling your your bootcamp followers right now, what are some of the, you know, is there anything in particular that’s really working as far as just keeping Realtors busy on social media so that they’re able to produce content that the clients are and that their followers are interested in?

Gogo Bethke 25:56
Yeah, I think it’s sharing the knowledge is very important. So if you learn something about the real estate industry that applies to your area, definitely just create a quick video about it, you don’t have to know all of the answers, you might just say, you know, what, not just released an article about blah, blah, blah, you can read the article repeated what you just read, and then include the attachment as article so they can follow up with that, but by just sharing what’s going on, and that people can follow along the ones that do have a care about the real estate industry, because not everybody does. But if they do they have something, you provided them information, which in return is going to just automatically make you the local expert, because you’re sharing that information. So I think that’s very important. Also, in the last episode, we talked about using this time to gather reviews and feedbacks, because when we are selling, we are too busy. We don’t have the time to make sure we have the five stars everywhere. Or even that you have a Google My Business presence, you might not even have it set up. So I think this time is very important to do that. Also, this time is very important to figure out the things I usually don’t have time to do. So if social media was the one that hey, I want to figure it out. It’s not going to take two minutes, it took me I’m 10 years in, you know, I mean, that’s what everybody wants, like, what can I do today? Well, I wish I could teach you everything I learned the last 10 years in one day. But again, it’s going to take time. So if you want social media to be your breadwinner, then you’re going to have to put some time in because in life, everything is like that in order to take money out, I always call it an ATM in order to take money out, you’re gonna have to take time, you have to put time in and you have to put effort. And so same thing with social media. So I think this is a perfect time to sit down. I mean, yeah, my bootcamp, I totally recommend that but it’s not two minutes long. It’s I mean, we’re coming out with finance tupuna. Right now, finance alone is 108 videos. You know, I mean, so I can’t teach you Facebook ads in one video, I can teach you organic social media in one video, I wish I could. But if it was that simple, then everybody would be an influencer? No, I mean, so in order for me to teach you everything, how to have millions and imprints and how to get leads, and never have to buy when and how to build a brand organically without spending money, it’s going to take some time. So my bootcamp is probably at least 30 hours of video content. So if you want to figure this out, this is the perfect time because you have not been asked to do but sit on the couch and decide, okay, I’ll get four hours in today, four hours in tomorrow. And as you’re going along, the whole point is to get all those steps done. So when I’m talking about a CRM program, and automated drip campaigns and the buy side and listing side and, and holiday drip campaigns, then you make sure that yours are set up in your CRM program, you make sure that you have a CRM program, you make sure that all of your contacts are uploaded and they are tagged properly. And if they don’t have a tag, you’re like, oh, shoot, I don’t have a tag then you’re gonna go in, you’re gonna go through those and you’re gonna say, okay, this person closed on 123 Main Street or representing the seller, okay, I’m gonna hashtag seller, this person on this street. Oh, they I was on the buy side. Okay, I’m gonna tag them buyers. Because when you tag these things in your database, then you can automatically just send them an email, then you’re not sending it to everybody, who’s your aunt and uncle and cousin and a buyer and the seller and the renter if it doesn’t apply to them. So if I’m talking about how much your home is worth, I’m not going to talk to a buyer who’s searching for one right now that’s currently homeless. Right? Yeah, I mean, so by tagging them so all of this is I teach you everything literally how I how I built everything from zero to wear goggles real estate is today, but I can do that in an hour. So the bootcamp is hours and hours and hours you’ll get lifetime access. So we actually will be dead though. We broke it down we used to have an upfront cost for it only and and I understand times are hard. So we change that now they can do upfront if you can afford it, you can do an upfront cost you have lifetime access, which means everything that we come out with not only everything that’s already created as yours, but everything we come out is just automatically going to be included. Because Instagram changes algorithm every five minutes so I have to click on your video because things that were worked last year it doesn’t work this year, just like we are talking about why is Facebook so slow? I don’t know. When it’s time to kind of take it easy on it until Facebook figures it out. Um So what we did is we broke it up into monthly payments. So now it’s for small monthly payments. And your your customers actually get a 10% discount your listeners. So they get a better prices, they just go to your, to your page. But yeah, so we try to adjust it, you know, I mean, there’s times are changing, I always put a new content, I try to adjust the price, so it’s easier for everybody to afford. But this is the time if you see you are serious about social media and you want to build a brand and you want to be able what I call to fish. My goal is to teach you how to fish not to give you a fish. So it’s not about me giving you a lead. It’s about me teaching you how to go and find one how to have them reach out to you.

D.J. Paris 30:39
Yeah, now now’s the time to remember that as real estate agents, you know, you this is a business and it is your business. And now you know, yeah, you have to you have to work on the processes, now’s the time to work on process. And you know, for when you’re in the middle of the busy season, you don’t have time to study social media platforms and to, you know, create posts for Google My Business by the way, everybody should be have a Google My Business account and should be creating posts every single week. It’s simple. It’s easy, it’s quick, but the point is you might go well, I don’t normally have the time to do that you do now. And so now’s the time to invest in something like Go Go’s bootcamp. We’re doing this as a company My boss asked all of us in management, there’s nine of us to find a some sort of, you know, course that we wanted to take and we all chose different courses. And we’re all doubling down on our efforts to because now’s the time to develop those skill sets those things that when you’re in the middle of running your business, you just don’t have the time to do so now’s the time,

Gogo Bethke 31:48
I always want to figure out stocks I’ve never had the time. So I figured okay, well, perfect time market crashed, stocks are at the bottom. So I can buy now, five stocks with a price of one. And it’s a perfect time to kind of figure it out. So I decided to learn how to stack trade while the downtime I decided to read books I do. Or I started my own podcast, I added we added 108 I think videos to the bootcamp I added personally to the organic side, God knows how many, so it’s just like I am working. I’m busier than ever.

D.J. Paris 32:16
Yeah, yeah, me to work. It’s it’s funny that you know, this is and it doesn’t, you know, you’re busy and just a different way. And now it’s it’s just this is the time to invest in yourself. And it’s in, invest in your customers that invent invest in the people that put their faith into you. And that allowed you to sell them a home five years ago, reach back out, see how they’re doing, you know, even if you haven’t reached out in five years, reach out now and say, you know, I haven’t I haven’t checked in on in a while I want to check in now how are you? And just keep it to that. And you know, anyway, develop your skills. Do that, because when it gets busy again, and it will, and hopefully sooner rather than later, you’re not going to have this time anymore. It’ll just go away. And we’ll all be busy. busier than then than we, then we are maybe right now. So now’s the time. And just for our listeners, as gogo was mentioning, if you want to invest in gogos boot camp, and we could not recommend it more highly. I’ve always felt that that is never a bad investment, to have to purchase something where you can learn how to grow your business, right? That is a no brainer. I will spend money all day long on that. And now she’s got additional payment options for people that are you know, struggling financially. So that’s even amazing as well. So go to Gogo podcast.com to get that special discount again. Go go podcast.com. But go go. I think we had a great episode here. I think we talked a lot about, you know, the attitudes that realtors can take right now and some steps specifically about how to just keep going and hopefully in staying positive through challenging times.

Gogo Bethke 33:58
Absolutely. You have to adjust to the times. I mean real estate especially is such a quickly changing industry. When it comes to technology, especially of like, just think about it. I didn’t even know what that live was when I got my license nine years ago. I mean, I wouldn’t know what to do without it right now. You know, like I get paid at the closing table. I take a picture of my check and that’s how I get paid. Are you kidding me? Yeah, you know what I mean? So it’s like you have to We are constantly adjusting and it just kind of prepares us to whatever life throws at us we just adjust you just figure it out. Oh, I’m not essential. Okay, I’ll figure out how I can list a home how I can sell a home how I can market a home how I can get to the closing table without ever leaving my house.

D.J. Paris 34:38
Yeah, and and how you can develop additional skills in between all of those things. By you know, taking courses like like Go Go’s boot camp or reading books or going to seminars or you know, virtual seminars. I took a yoga class yesterday. I am not a yoga person. I did yoga yesterday. How did you like it? Well, I am I am tall as you You know, and I have never been able to touch my toes, like with my without bending. And so I still, that is like never going to happen. But so I’m super inflexible. So that was really hard. But I enjoyed it because it was physical. And, you know, it centered me

Gogo Bethke 35:17
about it grateful to mine the very first time I’m from Eastern Europe, we don’t do yoga in Eastern Europe. And the first time I went to a yoga class by accident, because I thought it was like an Arabic class or something. And I got there an hour early or something. I was like, oh, shoot, I’m in a yoga class. I didn’t want to walk out like 10 minutes and realizing it’s a yoga class. So I sat through it, oh, my gosh, I was so sore today. After I literally got in the car, I have to pick up my leg and pull it in the car because I couldn’t lift it up. I’ve never been so sore in my life. And, and I realized it’s great for the mind, especially at the very end. I always fall asleep when they were like, Okay, it’s like a three minute meditation. And they’re like, Hey, go, go, go go beyond all leaving. I just knocked myself out. I don’t know. I just I learn to love it.

D.J. Paris 36:01
Yeah, and not again, a new skill, right? This is something that I’ve wanted to do for a long time. And I never found the time I never carved it out. Could I have carved it out? Sure I could have but I didn’t. But now I have less of an excuse. So now’s the time to develop those skills. Try the things that you know are good for you develop those morning rituals, develop those social media rituals that you’re like, I know, I should be posting more. But I’m not I know I should be connecting more with my sphere of influence on social media. But I’m not. I know I should friend everyone on LinkedIn that isn’t my sphere, but I never did. Now’s the time because when everything goes back to normal, that’s when the dividends will pay themselves. And all of a sudden you’ll have client upon client upon client that will remember that you were there for them during this time. And that you were you weren’t hiding away in a bunker even though you were away in a bunker. You were still present and active. So So yeah, I think that’s that’s our matchmaker, think

Gogo Bethke 36:57
about a New York perfect example, you’re not allowed to cold call. I know how it says we’re not essentially Michigan, there’s the list of things I’m not allowed to do is very long, pretty much the only things that it allows me to do is social media.

D.J. Paris 37:11
Yeah, it’s funny, right after I’m done, we’re done here. I’m going to be talking to a broker in New York who has a firm of about 400 agents. We’re friendly. So we’re just checking in seeing how he’s doing. But yes, there’s he he can’t cold call brokers to come work at his firm, his brokers cannot cold call a client’s all of that has gone away. And remember, yeah, and so now we’re all adjusting, we’re trying different things. We’re developing other skills, so that when this all goes back to normal, those skills will remain. And hopefully, some of those habits will stick. So we could not recommend more highly. Are you sick of paying for leads or not being able to afford to pay for leads, or just going I know, I should be doing more on social media, but I’m not sure how go goes bootcamp, it has our highest possible recommendation. We don’t recommend any courses, really, except that one and a window, one or two others. So this is really we couldn’t be more, more, you know, assertive and telling you really, this is the time to invest in yourself. So

Gogo Bethke 38:16
it’s 10 years of knowledge, you know, plugs right into that course. And the way I look at it, just let’s do a simple math. What do you think nationwide? Average commission is

D.J. Paris 38:25
on a transaction? Yeah. Five 5000? Maybe?

Gogo Bethke 38:30
So that’s, that’s a it’s $5,000 on one transaction alone. Yeah. So if I can generate you one transaction, just one, we’re not talking to 60 million I did, you’re talking that one transaction that would pay for the course five times. The course would pay for itself five times over, if it’s shitty enough to only Garin only gets you one transaction. Right? Yeah, yeah. No brainer.

D.J. Paris 38:59
It’s a total no brainer. And, and now’s the time to double down on those efforts. And, and you know, it look, none of us. None of us are feeling comfortable right now. Nobody’s comfortable. But that’s okay. Because out of discomfort, it creates energy. And this is where you can take that energy and harnessed and learn new things. So So realize that we’re all little on edge and irritated and claustrophobic but yet, okay, that’s true. Yes, we’re all feeling that way. But we also can take that energy and push it in a positive direction and, and use it to learn stuff. And then once once again, once everything’s back to normal, it’s going to happen, we will be back to normal at some point, and then you will have gone Oh, I wish I this is not vacation time, right. And I think it’s easy for all of us to feel like this is vacation. It is not this is time to invest in yourself. And so, Go Go’s boot camp is a great idea. And it’s just full of really great information too. So We encourage all the listeners to check it out. Also, please everybody follow go go on Instagram, which is Go Go’s real estate Gee oh gee Oh s real estate. We’ll also be posting that link. But go go once again, always a pleasure. Thank you on behalf of the listeners for continuing to show up month after month. We appreciate it the listeners appreciate it. On behalf of gogo and myself to the listeners we say thank you for continuing to support gogo, our show, tell a friend think of one other realtor that could benefit from hearing from this, this conversation we just had, and from all the conversations we have with the great guests that are kind enough to do our show, and send them a link to our podcast. And also please follow us on Facebook as well. We’re facebook.com forward slash keeping it real pod. If you’re on there right now, you might be watching us recording this live. If not go there and you’ll be able to see us record every one of our episodes live and we also post an article every single day that we find online designed to help you grow your business gogo thank you again. We hope you guys get out of we hope you become essential quickly in Michigan so you can go do more stuff.

Gogo Bethke 41:14
I can hardly wait to be back in Rio I you know the little things like I want to grab Starbucks on the way to somewhere and I wouldn’t wear high heels. I want I want my air my hair to blow in the wind in the car like just little things. The little things in life is what I miss. But thank you so much for having me today. Thank you so much for everyone who listened and give us a time of the day. And happy selling.

D.J. Paris 41:35
Happy selling. Thanks. We’ll see. We’ll see you guys on the next episode.

Jim Starwalt, Broker Owner of Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate Star Homes has been a top producer, trainer and coach for over 20 years. In our conversation Jim, in his candid style, shares exactly what real estate agents need to do today to grow their business. He also talks about the challenges with text messaging clients and how to set a boundary around your personal time. This episode is chock full of actionable strategies to help you stay productive!

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

Jim Starwalt can be reached at 224.627.7581 and jim@starhometeam.com


Transcript

D.J. Paris 0:00
This episode of Keeping it real is brought to you by Agent youtube.com. Would you like more leads that find you instead of you finding them? Let the YouTube agents show you how the YouTube agents started making videos with no sphere of influence. This year they’re on pace to close more than 100 sales all from leads generated on YouTube. They put a step by step video program to show you exactly what to do and what not to do to become a YouTube real estate superstar. Visit agent youtube.com to learn more and sign up today. That’s agent youtube.com And now on to the show

Hello, and welcome to another episode of Keeping it real the largest podcast made by real estate agents and for real estate agents. My name is DJ Paris. I am your guide and host through the show and in just a moment we’re going to be speaking with Jim star. Well before we get to Jim, I want to remind everyone of two quick things number one, please tell a friend think of one other real estate agent in your life in your office in your periphery somebody you may be met at a showing or somebody you know who needs some help getting to that next level and send them a link to this show. This is our whole intention to help agents grow their business so please tell everybody you know that helps us also please follow us on Facebook you can find us@facebook.com forward slash keeping it real pod not only do we find an article written specifically to help you grow your business every single day of the week. We also post links to all of our episodes and you can watch the videos sorry you can watch the interviews being recorded on video in real time only on Facebook so again facebook.com forward slash keeping it real pot we hope everyone is staying safe and healthy and now on to our interview with Jim Stowell.

Today on the show we have Jim star wall of Better Homes and garden STAR homes. If you’re not familiar with Jim, Jim is the broker owner of Better Homes and Gardens real estate STAR homes with offices here in the Chicagoland area in Gray’s Lake and McHenry, Illinois. Jim has over 20 years of experience in the real estate industry as a top performing realtor and real estate team leader. And before working in real estate Jim spent 15 years as a roofing contractor, Jim can provide superior level of real estate knowledge, service and advice to not only his clients, but the brokers at his firm. Now last year, this is really impressive. Jim’s team sold over 150 units, which is amazing. Jim has passion and coaching. His passion is coaching and teaching agents and we are absolutely thrilled to have him on the podcast today. And you can visit Jim at Jim star wall team.com, which will take you right over to the Better Homes and Gardens STAR home website and you can learn all about what they offer. Jim, thank you so much for being on the show.

Jim Starwalt 3:29
Hey, thanks for having me on here. And quick correction is Better Homes and Gardens real estate STAR homes. So we’re sorry, we’re so sorry. We’re associated with the magazine, but we’re not the magazine. So they are a sister company. So those wonderful franchise long tails that we have. So

D.J. Paris 3:47
isn’t it you know, it’s so funny here in Illinois. So, of course, not all of our listeners are realtors in Illinois, but they’ve made a lot of changes, the state has really finally created rules around teams and company names. And so now a lot of you know, things have just gotten longer.

Jim Starwalt 4:06
But yeah, it’s longer and we have to spell it out. But it’s not a bad thing. You know, they’ve changed our signage, which I’ve always had had the company the company has to be prominent and all signage and all advertising, which is not bad. I mean, if you’re not proud of where you are, you know, so many people weren’t working under under a brokerage and you know, they’re trying to put the brokerage name and miniscule letters down at the very bottom and their name logic how to promote yourself and your broker is going to be happy to want you to promote yourself and such but, boy, there’s there’s power in numbers. You know, the more signs out that look similar people understand who you are better.

D.J. Paris 4:48
Yeah, uniformity is for branding is just so important. I also think, yeah, and I also think some of the rules now that are around teams and how companies promote themselves with Advertising guidelines are really just to help the consumer know what’s going on because it can be so confusing to the consumer. So I think you’re right, it’s ultimately a good thing.

Jim Starwalt 5:12
For consumers, it’s a tough for consumers to know, like, who do I contact, if I find if I have a problem, everything’s fine until it’s not as what I say all the time. So everything’s good until it’s not good. And then people need to know who to reach. So if you’re

D.J. Paris 5:28
Yeah, we’re actually redoing, we’re redoing all of our signs as well, right now, because we many, many years ago, we just had a general 800 number. And every time a broker joined us, we’d give them a little extension. And then that way, they wouldn’t have to put a rider or they’d still put a rider on, but they would put either their cell phone or their extension. And finally, like, this is like 10 years later, we’re like, what are we doing, putting an 800 number there that no one’s calling, and also, it’s just gonna confuse you know, the consumer, trying to find that broker by typing in some extension, they’re not going to remember notice. And so finally, like we had to wise up ago, just put the brokers phone number on there, don’t put ours. And of course, you know, so constantly trying to improve, to make things better for the consumer as well. I

Jim Starwalt 6:15
should have should have their own phone. But yeah, okay. Let’s go.

D.J. Paris 6:20
To Be quiet. No.

Jim Starwalt 6:23
That’s why you’re spending your marketing dollars. You know?

D.J. Paris 6:26
You’re absolutely right. Yeah. And we don’t want the calls either the brokerage firm doesn’t want.

Jim Starwalt 6:31
You don’t want don’t want that we want to absolutely who’s ever marketing, we want it to go to you, you’re paying your efforts, you’re paying your money, we want to absolutely go to you. So okay, what do you try to get out? I’ll be quiet.

D.J. Paris 6:41
No, no, no, no, no, I think what you said is really important. And also for everyone listening, you know, think about that. Think about all of your marketing materials, you know, is it easy for somebody to get in touch with you, and don’t just assume that you always know, send it out to you know, 20 people that are in your sphere of influence and say, Hey, I’m working on this marketing material? Is it really clear how to get in touch with me? Or is it confusing? Is it confusing who I work for is, you know, and it’s really important to get some feedback. So Jim, no, that was awesome. But yeah, let’s let’s talk about stuff about you. And you’ve been in real estate for a long time. Tell us how did you get how did you first get into real estate? I

Jim Starwalt 7:21
haven’t done it over 20 years. So getting close to 25 ish, but my wife Susan was an agent before I was. And so when she started so I was a roofing contractor grew up in a contractor family. I’ve been running around roof since I was 10. In fact, I remember I was about 10, or 11. I was on this summer time wasn’t at school. So I’d go with that. And it was fun. Putting shingles on up on the roof. And I had somebody to climb roofs. Yeah, somebody stop and yelling at my dad. You can have that little kid up there. We’re calling the police in the labor force. And he just gave him a nice wave told them they’re number one. But any, no. So as a roofing contractor, and then my wife, Susan, she got into real estate and I’ve always been fascinated with real estate. Like, I had one of my one of my buddies that grew up with him. He’s a he’s a broker. Now to Jay reed out there. I think he’s with I think he’s with HomeSmart. Now, but every day after school we played, we played Monopoly. So it’s like, I always beat him to So Jay, if you’re listening. Sorry, I beat you all the time. But yeah, we play Monopoly every single day. So it’s just kind of it just kind of chuckles me. But anyway, Susan got her license and she was working. Back then you got your license, and they sat down and they said, Here’s the phone book, right? Yeah, seriously. Here’s the phone book, look in the office where it was in Mundelein, Illinois, and they said start Dakota Mundelein section, start at the A’s who started dialing. Then a week she had her first listing, she sold 38 homes her first year all by herself.

D.J. Paris 8:59
Wow. That’s a hit pause for a second. That is incredible for for a number of reasons. Even, you know, in today’s market or any any today’s market. First of all, even if you had 38 Friends ready to buy or sell homes that were close to you, that would be an amazing accomplishment to fact that she cold called people out of the phonebook and got listings and ended up closing that many. I mean, first of all, just doing that many deals in the first year puts you in the top 1% of all realtors in Chicago so that is absolutely incredible.

Jim Starwalt 9:33
Yeah, she’s she’s absolutely amazing. She’s basically she does all the work around here and I take all the credit as how it goes. So we were both we’re both working together. In fact, I remember the first listing appointment she sent me on I can still visualize the house I can picture the people. It was horrible. I could not wait to get out the door. We’re doing that. That whole spreadsheet where you know like an appraisal like your house is this and you have the fireplace As little add 5000 In fact, back then we had a list that said a fireplace is worth $5,000. If you have a basement opposed to not having a basement, it’s $15,000 very simple. It was, but I’m trying to read all this. I’m trying to talk to these people on my first appointment. I just I try not to swear I made a really, really bad I could I, it was horrible. I couldn’t get out of there quick enough. Then I remember the second the second appointment, I went on I was trained back then it was hardcore. It was hardcore, close. I mean, and I went out I remember the house was in Ingleside. It was on the lake. It was a poor lady. And I got in and I closed on and I got the signature. The time I got home, I had a phone message waiting. She was in tears. Do I really have to sell my house? Oh, no. Last time I ever did that. Yeah. And it was just just like, hey, so high pressure tactics started really, really quick. And something that it’s not about the what we learned really quick is a real estate is not about selling. It’s about bonding. And it’s not about you. It’s not about your tools. It’s about your client. And it’s about their needs, and what do they want. So everybody knows me knows I have a hard time listening. But they know that when I’m in front of a client, I do a lot more listening than I do talking. So let me find out how I can be a service to you. Because that’s how we have a service. So

D.J. Paris 11:27
yeah, you’re absolutely right. And it isn’t about the agent, it’s about the consumer and getting their needs met and exceeding their expectations. So you’re, you’re a trainer, you have realtors, that you’re coaching from your firm, of course, this is a huge passion of yours, right now. Everything’s temporarily hopefully paused or not paused so much is just changed. Everyone is stuck at home most of the globe. And you know, realtors are still trying to keep their business active. What are you suggesting? Or what are you seeing agents doing that you think is a good idea during the sort of, you know, challenging time.

Jim Starwalt 12:08
Now, you’re gonna have a hard time keeping me on track because I bounce all over but I’m gonna go back to Susan selling we’ll come right back to this. Sure. Greg can control your show. Susan was selling lots of homes and I’m up on the roof sick of babies, you know, and diapers. They’re they’re four and six at the time. And I’m up on the roof and I got the bag phone and it’s on the chimney. And so I got my crew of three and hear the phone ring or the pager would go off. Shut off the compressors. Everybody’s happy. We’re up to the chimney. Hi, yeah, this is this is Jim. That was a REMAX of the times that Jim REMAX and you know, how can I help you? What? What do you need? I would take down some notes. Great. I’m in a meeting right now. There’s some people here with me. I never lie. There was people with me. How about if I call you back at about 330 Oh, that’d be great. Hang up the phone. We’ll get back to work. So yeah, so she got me off the roof. If you’ve ever had to go up on roofs because you got babies and diapers and it’s 10 degrees out and you have a cleats on and go on two story roof and shovel the snow and ice off. Back then we didn’t have ropes. We didn’t use ropes and safety stuff you put the cleats on and like golf shoes and walked around and shoveled the roof off for free the first day so that the sun will melted off so you can work the next day make money. Oh wow, selling real estate’s easy after that. So So yeah, so as soon as I got me into that, so anyhow, I had to I had to give her lots of credit for working really hard and getting me out of that job. So anyhow, training and coaching, what should people be concentrating on especially right now? Especially right now the thing that you have to do is you have to time block you have to have a calendar. Everybody listening to a lot of realtors, mostly Realtors listening probably lots of other people too but go to your brokers I know that they’ve all been coaching you and teaching you they’re all good. Listen to them. Now’s the time to call them up and and say hey, I remember six months ago you were talking about helping me with my calendar. You wanted to sit down, get on a zoom conference, share your calendar, show them what’s going on. I have a I have a team of we did about 160 If you include Wisconsin I’m also have Wisconsin brokerage virtual brokerage so I did a majority of it I think I did about of that 150 A personal I was about 85 or 90 listings was the side of that. I don’t work Sundays. I don’t work Wednesday afternoons me and Susan go on the boat we go fishing. Because when somebody calls and they want to have an appointment with me it took me years and years and years until I was coaching agents and teaching them how to do these things that it really hit home with me. Is that somebody calls can you come over tonight? At seven? No, I’m sorry, I can’t. I am all booked up. But you know the oh can you can I make it at 130 or 212 Are your 330 my appointments are 133 30 and 530. And that’s it. Of course, everybody says, and that’s it. I’ve got one tonight at six. Yeah, you know, it’s pretty, it’s pretty tight on that. But I don’t work Sundays. And people will fit their appointments within that you have to know what you’re going to do each day. So when an agent shows up in my office, and they don’t see them work, I see them drinking coffee, or I see them they look a little bit lost, I say, Hey, show me your calendar. You haven’t been you haven’t been selling as many homes, as you told me you wanted to, I can help you get to the success level you want to be at, you told me where you wanted to be. So show me your calendar. And I can tell you if you’re going to make that or not. So if you don’t know what you’re doing the rest of the day, if your calendar doesn’t have what you’re doing from nine to 10, from 10, to 1030, a break from 1030 to 11, from 11 to 12, then you should go home. If you don’t know what you’re doing today, I want you to spend the next hour deciding what you’re going to do the next three days and put on your calendar and go have the rest of the day off, go do a video, go do something. Because you’re no sense sitting in here pretending you’re playing real estate. agents come into the office, and they have coffee, and they go on brokers tour. Or they decide well, maybe I’ll work on something. So I get on Facebook, Hey, I’ve spent eight hours doing a nice, really cool post for Facebook. And I sent out I’m proud of myself, I did real estate today. Right? So So anyhow, I don’t I get I get kind of passionate about this because I hate seeing Realtors not being successful. It’s such a lucrative business, and it’s so rewarding helping people. But you have to have a calendar. And you have to have a schedule. You should know right now, every hour of the day what you’re doing tomorrow. Correct?

D.J. Paris 16:51
Correct. Correct. I couldn’t agree with you more I, I struggle with that myself. I’m not a practicing realtor. But just in my own day to day business as a more creative type, which I think real estate agents fall into that same category. structure can be difficult for a lot of real estate professionals, and especially if they’re working on their own, and are solo sort of practitioner. But now as Jim said, Now is the time to lean on your firm. And while you’re stuck at home, if you don’t have those structures in place, or you need help establishing those, what a great opportunity to reach out to your managing broker to say, hey, remember that training that you promised me it’s I’d like to cash in a little bit on that, can you help me schedule my day? I couldn’t agree with you more. That’s so you have to know your start date and your your start time and your end time. And everything you’re going to do in between. So I think that is it’s such simple advice. But it’s incredibly powerful. And I would bet most of us no matter what profession we’re at, really don’t do that. So now’s the opportunity to develop those habits.

Jim Starwalt 17:52
Well, in many realtors are female or male who are watching the kids at home or at home. Right? It’s even more important to have that calendar, that schedule, put it up. I mean, people laugh in our office when I when I talk and I train because I show him a picture of my bedroom. Me and Susan, we get up and there’s a great big calendar on our wall. We know what we’re doing throughout the whole year. We know when our vacations are we know when different seminars we’re teaching, we know what’s going on. We live this stuff. So you’ve got kids at home, they need to know that from eight to nine is study time or book reading time, and I’m going to be doing this. And then we’re going to stop at 845 to nine. And I’m going to help you if you’re having if you’re struggling. So it couldn’t be more beneficial to teach them how to follow a schedule also. And to get yourself in the habit of doing that. Because when this breaks loose, you better have a calendar because it’s going to be wild.

D.J. Paris 18:51
Yeah, I think it is. I think you’re right. And the structure thing. I think we could do hours and hours on creating a calendar and sticking to it and why that’s so important. And it sort of in some ways can be a bit counterintuitive, because you think well, now I’m locked into this, this rigid structure, the reality of it is by being in such a rigid sort of somewhat semi rigid structure, you actually will get a lot more freedom, ironically, because you’ll you’ll be just accomplishing more, and you’ll find that you’re more efficient and effective. So thank you. That’s such great advice.

Jim Starwalt 19:23
You want to hear great big gasp of everybody go. Don’t check your email. So don’t check, check your emails till 10am Don’t even look at it. Just Just don’t There’s nothing. There’s nothing there that you have to handle at 8am. You got a client who’s upset you got a client who’s pissed off, you got a client who’s just just anxious and wants to know How come the appraisal hasn’t been done yet? It’s still not going to be done by 10. Or more than likely it’s already been more than likely it’s already been scheduled. Is there no, no, it’s happening tomorrow at three. So don’t check your emails until at least 10 o’clock in the morning. So don’t go down.

D.J. Paris 20:01
No, it’s a good rabbit hole, because I’m sorry, it’s not a good rabbit hole. But it’s a good thing to acknowledge, to acknowledge that, that it’s the rabbit hole that I want, you know, I come into my office, I get here at, you know, 830 or so. And then I immediately go to my email, because that’s what pops up. And it’s, it’s easy for me just to make that the first thing and then I could tackle those 15 emails that I got over the previous night. But then the problem is I’m like, Oh, wait, what am I supposed to do next. And so I think a lot of us can relate to that. It’s like, same thing with like, with soon as you wake up, don’t put on social media either, because you’ll get lost in that rabbit hole. And then also, you know, I couldn’t agree more with Jim, you know, have certain times that you respond to email. And you can also have times that you don’t like, that’s okay, too, you know, know your structure, know, your customer service policy for you and for your clients, and make sure they know the expectations. But you know, you could split if you spent the first hour like Jim said, take their, you know, plan your next three days and take the rest of the off, you just did a massive thing. That’s absolutely right, like spend the first hour of the day planning or ideally the night before. But if you don’t, if you should do that first so that you know, when I wake up, oh, I don’t check my social media until next time, otherwise, you just get caught up like the rest of us, we’re all human, we get caught up in things. And then we lose a lot of the day,

Jim Starwalt 21:19
my calendar is filled every spot for the next 10 years at 133 30 and 530. It says client appointments, all I have to do is go in and change that one. So it’s just it’s just the structure and the having it not check your emails. First thing in the morning, is, first of all, you’re also training your clients that I’m not I’m here for you, but I’m not on demand. And that starts right off the bat, they have to understand that I have a life too. When they send you a text, I have to take my agent take their phone, I’m like, What are you doing? You’re going back and forth six times on text with this person. Answer once say, say you’ve got some people with you, you’ll get back to them in an hour. There. Okay. They they, I understand that this is our clients, this is their whole life is that deal. It’s very important their Eat, eat, sleep, breathe real estate for 30 days of their life. Right? And so they’re they’re in it. So they know what’s going on. You also know what’s going on too, but your whole life can’t be their deal with them. You need to let them know that I will answer your questions. I’m taking care of it. But when you text me or you send me an email at nine o’clock at night, I am not answering that phone. That problem will still be there in the morning. So how many of us have I’ve done that for years, you grabbed that phone call at nine o’clock. And now you’re thinking about it all night long, and you don’t get a good night’s sleep and you can’t function the next night because somebody’s mad, because the appraisal came in low. The appraisal still low tomorrow, let’s we can handle it at 10 o’clock when I check my email, you know? Yeah,

D.J. Paris 23:01
I I couldn’t agree more. I want to go back to the texting thing as I was thinking about this while you’re really saying this in a way that I hadn’t thought about before. Which is to say that, you know, people who text the person texting, wanting the question, the customer to the agent is expecting an immediate response if that’s their expectation. And so as Jim was saying, you know, this is something you could talk to the client ahead of time, and you should tell them how your communication policy works. So say, hey, just FYI, I try to respond to texts quickly. But it might take me up to a certain amount of whatever time is applicable to you to reach to return that call because a return that tax. Because if you reply instantly, and then they go back, like you were saying like five or six times, and then all of a sudden you get a client phone call, or somebody walks into the office, or you just have an appointment to get to or whatever. And you can’t continue that back and forth. It’s a strange stop in the middle of a conversation to be like, Oh my gosh, so sorry, client just walked in. So I think having that policy upfront, like, hey, when I get a text, if I can respond to it right away, I do. If not, please allow me some time. And I think because I was thinking about that if I was texting back and forth, all of a sudden the person disappeared. You know, that might be worse in a way.

Jim Starwalt 24:20
Yeah, that’s that’s a great point is that once you’re once you’re in it, then you stop. It’s like how do you how do you stop you send some the thumbs up emoji and then they send it okay. And then you said, Okay, are we done? Yeah, no. So I like that. That concept of it too, that they’re going to be disappointed in you. This business is all it’s almost less about disappointing the people you’re working with. Not disappointing the people you’re working with setting the right expectations. So again, I go all the way back to it is not about you. I don’t care if it’s your first day of real estate or you’ve sold 10,000 homes, when you go in that it is not about you or how many homes you’ve sold or have not sold. When you when you go in and go into listing appointments just a little bit, yeah, okay. Yeah. Okay. When you when you one thing, the very first thing I teach agents is personality profiling does DISC personality. Yeah, you need to know who you’re talking with. I am a, a D. So I’m A, D and I. So I’m very forward. And I love to have fun. We have lots of parties and barbecues, and any things that anything’s a reason to get some chips and nachos out. And let’s get the margaritas out. So there’s a there’s a bar right in my office on. We have a lot of fun. But it’s taken me until I start teaching and coaching for the last bunch of years to understand that my personality is only 10% of the population of the of the earth. So that means my style has the potential to piss off the other 90%. So people will laugh because I’ve done it so long when I start talking to somebody, and my voice will automatically go a little bit soothing. And I’ll lean in, it’s not disingenuous, and it’s I’ve trained myself that I need to pay attention to them. Sure, you know, the old match match what they’re doing, and I do it not even conscious because it’s it’s my work personality is different than my normal personality, because I’ve learned to temperate. So when you call me and you say, Hey, Jim, come and talk to me about my house. I’m thinking about selling it. The very first question I ask is, tell me about your house? Yeah, you tell me that it’s a three bedroom, two bath, 2600 square feet. And it’s in a neighborhood. And here’s a couple facts. Well, I know that this appointment is going to be about facts and figures. If you’re telling me oh, I just love watching the grandkids play in the family room. We’ve gathered there for years, and we have our Thanksgivings. And it’s such a warm place. I know that that’s the nightmare appointment for me, because I’m going to have to spend two hours in there listening. I do care, I love people. But my personality is you have a problem. I’ll solve it. Let’s go, right. So when grandma’s telling me about, you know, we’re walking to the house, I’m looking, I’m seeing the pictures of the grandkids, and I’m seeing them on a swing, I’m seeing if they’re in the backyard, I’m going to ask about those things. I will get that appointment without ever showing her a number. I will not open a listing book it for either of them. So I’m going to talk to their personality, the person that wants facts, I’m going to look in the eye and I’m gonna say here’s the deal. We both know what your house is worth. I know you’ve looked online, right? You’ve looked at Zillow, you’ve looked at cetera. And so I have of course, of course, I know what that is. And I’ve already got it written down. So I have some numbers. So what are you thinking? This is? What I understand you brought me here to this my job? Why are we I’ve already got it in here. And I’ll show you but I just got to make sure we’re on the same page. I think. I think it’s like 250. Okay, great. Look, that’s exactly what I had. So you’ve already looked me up, you didn’t think about me? What do you say? We just signed the paperwork and I get to work. That’s my listing presentation. If you don’t know my golden nugget, there it is.

D.J. Paris 28:17
That’s it. That’s a huge golden nugget. So let’s let’s break down what you just did a little bit, because I think I think this is really, really important. First, you didn’t try to sell right, which I think most people, a small percentage of people like to be sold to I think most people don’t, they want to be understood. They want to feel like you care. You’re doing that. Even though you say hey, necessarily. I’m the guy that just wants to get it done. Get to the point put me to work, I’m your worker, but you’re able to still communicate in the language that the client needs, which isn’t is as you were saying, of course that’s not disingenuous. In fact, in some ways, it’s even you could even say it’s more complimentary because you’re like, I’m going to communicate with you in the style that you prefer, versus what’s necessarily natural to me, which in your case, you’re like, only 10% of the population is has that DISC profile. So I think that’s really really smart. But yeah, I love that that you’re like I have you know, I you probably have a listing presentation in case you need it, but you clearly are able to connect in a way that doesn’t require that I think that’s amazing.

Jim Starwalt 29:21
So I had an agent, and this agent was in tears. I’ve been on nine listing appointments, and I have not got any of them. Look at my materials. They’re absolutely gorgeous. They’ve got this book that’ll knock your socks. I wish I could do that kind of marketing. I’m like, holy moly, this is gorgeous. I told this agent I said the next thing you have to do the next listing appointment you go on. There’s always a wall or summer table or something by the door you need to set all this wonderful listing book that you have. You need to set it on that and I don’t want you to even touch that again until they agree to list with you. This agent got to know Next four in a row.

D.J. Paris 30:02
I love it because that enabled her to do the most important thing which is connect with the with the client and listen. So smart.

Jim Starwalt 30:09
If you’re a good agent, your brokerage already told you, you’ve got the materials, you’ve got the pre list packets, listen to what they’re saying, Send that pre list packet over, you know that they’ve already looked at it, because you can see they opened up the email and you can see that look that we use toolkit CMA, because you can see when they’ve opened it up, and I know that they viewed it, I don’t need to talk about it. So it’s not about me, it’s not about my tools. They think all realtors are the same and have the same tools. And we’re all the same. I’m the only one that listen to him. I got a quick story. I got one up to I had listed a house from a complete stranger in seven minutes. I love this. I know exactly the time. I’m pulling up to the driveway and he’s got a big oversized Jeep and it’s muddy. Okay, I know this is an adrenaline guy. Yeah, I know, he doesn’t care that much about details because it’s still muddy. I look at there’s a there’s a dirt bike stuffed in the corner of the garage, leaning against the garage, a couple skateboards, etcetera. Beautiful house and you know, a great, great person. I walk in the door and I say, you know, so how are we doing? So can you show me around the house? And I see his eyes go down a little bit. And I said, Look, I can tell you’re not in the mood for any type of sales pitch. I’m like, we both know your house over 250,000 What do you say we do the paperwork and I can get I can get out of here and start my marketing. That’s the that’s the whole conversation I had with him. He goes, I love you. Let’s sign that papers. He did not read a piece of paper. I need to explain the paper. But is there a he had an all I said, Okay, sign here, sign here, sign here. Let’s put the price on, I’ll send this to you. And I was out the doors back in my car in seven minutes. That’s amazing. But it wasn’t about me.

D.J. Paris 31:42
It wasn’t about it wasn’t about you. And also you were able to, to use, you know, in intuition and logic to make some assumptions about how this person communicates what they want. And then of course, how to give it to him. I think that is amazing. How would you recommend agents start to develop that skill? Obviously, listening is one thing, but being able to sort of discern, oh, this type of client that this probably is their communication style or their personality.

Jim Starwalt 32:11
You need to take a class on DISC personality profiling. And I like the disc I like that because it’s very simple. I have one that I that that we that we teach. It’s put on by by Dave Ramsey with Chris Hogan is the one that does it. And it’s phenomenal. It’s funny, he it’s made my marriage amazing. Susan laughs because now I realize that, that she’s not just crazy that she when I come in with a great idea. Now I was like, Hey, we got to do this. And she’s like, That sounds wonderful. Let’s talk about it tomorrow. Tomorrow, we have another idea. So if I still want to talk about it tomorrow, we’ll talk about it. But I used to she she’d make a face and she’d go like this. And I’d be like, what, what, what’s the matter with my idea, and I’d be offended that she didn’t jump all over my idea and share my excitement. So now I know that I need to present an idea. Let her think about it. And then we’ll talk about it in a couple hours. Now she’s got it down to about 10 minutes. So I give her a hug 10 minutes to digest something so. But it’s I think everybody who is getting married should pick the DISC personality profile. I think everybody in real estate needs to understand who they are. Because understanding who I am first helps me relate more to other people know that I need to slow down a little bit. So different personalities are funny. So my agent Randy, he used to be a newspaper publisher. He was the editor. He was the he was a top dog. So he’s very good at asking questions. So we’ll do call ours at our at our office like okay, who’s afraid of using the phone? Let’s go we’ll put it on speakerphone. We’ll start cold calling Zillow for sale by owners. And Randy, he’ll he’ll be on the phone for a half hour with somebody that tries to hang up on him. And he’ll get the appointment in the same amount of time I’ll go through 25 calls and I’ll get an appointment. Right. So again, I pissed off 24 people and made one happy. So it we have to understand who we are.

D.J. Paris 34:23
Yeah, and this is, you know, it’s funny. So what I do during the day is I you know, I tried to recruit realtors to work at our firm. And I’ve been doing it for 10 years. And it’s it’s, you know, I probably have a natural ability, I’ll just or just through the experience. I’ve had to sort of know how to do that. But have I formally really been trained in something like disc or a different personality profiles like No, not really. And you just gave me a great idea, because I’m sure I haven’t always communicated in the way that the person who may be interested in joining our firm needs to hear. I just kind of do it the same way oftentimes. So thank you because that’s going to help Be,

Jim Starwalt 35:01
they might not need training from you. So we try to tailor we try to tailor our training, because that’s who your personality is. You don’t, you don’t need to change it. But you just need to understand who you’re talking to and need to understand what you are. So makes a big difference. So yeah, ever, like I said, I had the agent that didn’t close on anything, but was amazing at putting together these these listing books and minds in a three ring binder. And it’s pretty nice. We all have, we all have the stuff from our brokers. That’s what I use the stuff given us from corporate and I have three hole punch in snappad. And then I got my CMA in the back, but I don’t open it, I never open it, I don’t need to open it. It’s not about that. You need to understand that.

D.J. Paris 35:44
It’s not about that. I just I love that. And I think that’s such an important. Important point now. So now that we’re all you know, we’re at home, what are you telling agents to do just to stay active? Any any suggestions on how to challenge

Jim Starwalt 35:58
them, I challenge them to challenge them, I challenge them to get on Zoom, I challenge them to have started having one zoom consultation a day, get you I can get you on and I can pull up the multiple listing service. And I say, hey, EJ, let’s just check out the values your house just for fun. People are bored, they’re happy, they’re they’re thrilled to have something to occupy their time for a little bit. Let’s look at the homes in the neighborhood. Cool. Did you know you’ve got about $70,000 equity in your house. That’s awesome. Good job. Hey, if you know anybody else that wants a equity check, having we’re having give me a call. Do you know people that are worried about their jobs, or they do they need to start a home equity line of credit to get themselves through a couple of months, all your realtors out there, you should apply for a home equity line of credit, you may not need it, it’s not going to cost you a dime if you don’t use it. Keep your marketing going strong. So they should be educating themselves. They should be listening to podcasts, they should be watching, watching all there’s all kinds of free videos everywhere. I pay Tom Ferry gobs of money every single month. But I really don’t have to because everything’s on YouTube, everything they teach is right there. So educate yourself. But set a schedule, you’re not you’re not out of works. Don’t Don’t think you’re not working. Here’s the difference. Right now buyers right now are looking at two or three homes and buying when they do not want to look at 20 homes. So get them before you have from your business changes from here on out forever. You’re never going to meet a client that you haven’t met on a zoom conference call first. You’ve seen each other face to face and you’ve got it recorded. And you’re just you know, I’m recording this. So we can remember what we said. There’s a lot less chances somebody’s going to do you harm when they know you’ve got their image and who they are recorded.

D.J. Paris 37:47
Wow, that’s really a smart observation. And you’re absolutely right, whatever. Yeah, I’m really glad you said that smart. Right.

Jim Starwalt 37:55
So before we go out, let’s take a look. And let’s look at all the homes you got 10 homes you’re interested in. So let’s zoom in on this one here. 123 Main Street. This one backs up to the train tracks. Is that is that bothersome for you? Personally, I would like that because it’s no houses in the background. But but there’s no fences in this whole neighborhood. You said you had to have a fence? Do you still want to go look at this house. Now, Jim, I think we can eliminate that one. Let’s go to the next one. Let’s go to the next one. Let’s go to the next one. Let’s assume you know how to zoom in and click on the address and look at the backyard. Look at the whole rest of the neighborhood. We really want to put in ground swimming pool. Well, good 10 out of 20 homes have that there’s a real good chance you could put one here. So let’s eliminate homes down to two or three. And then you know we’ve taken 52,000 homes and eliminate it down to three. So I’m going to bring a contract. And we don’t want to waste too much time homes are going fast. So let’s let’s go out Saturday and buy a house. What do you say? I mean, this we’re never going to do business the same again, if you learn these tools now. Yeah. Sorry, I get passionate.

D.J. Paris 39:03
No, that’s no, this has been I’m at a bit of a loss only because I’m processing what you just said, because it’s been you’re communicating in a way that I we none of our previous guests have. So I’m really, really grateful for that. But you’re absolutely right. So much has changed. You know, we have we had an agent and our firm just was does mostly leasing and he said he’s done five deals in the last two weeks. Or maybe it was for four or five deals, all virtual tours other than that sight unseen. And he just, you know, did it that way. And he’s like, you know, when he goes nothing’s really changed. I mean, it’s changed as far as what he’s doing. But he says the activity is not really I mean, of course homebuying activity is has changed a bit but he’s leasing he says it’s still going really really strong. So just

Jim Starwalt 39:50
buyers buyers are out there. If you can get the sellers to commit Oh my goodness. Social media advertising is blowing up. The last ad I put out, we’ve got a, we’ve got a tool from corporate that we can do social added our social ads, Social Engine ads, and they got the Facebook and Instagram $149 My phone just didn’t quit. Because it goes for seven days, we had 16,000 views. We had, we had 1800 people engaged in the ad, meaning they clicked on the pictures and looked around. We had 179 people fill out the lead form. So Mike Myers is my six buyer’s agents are, were non stop. So we’re calling all 179 and staying after Him and who wants to get out? What are we doing? So social media is where you should advertising right now everybody’s at home looking for a distraction?

D.J. Paris 40:45
Yeah, go to go to where the girl or the customer is right and

Jim Starwalt 40:49
go to wherever the customer is. I guarantee any any of the large brokerages again, you’re going to you’ve got some of the same ad tools and stuff, talk to your talk to your managing broker, have them show you through them. You know, show me show me how it works. Let’s do this. So they should be it should be known how so? If not, they’d be happy to dig in and find out because they should. So

D.J. Paris 41:12
yeah, it’s it’s such a it’s such an interesting time. And you know, this is this is the time also for the sphere of influence to really be staying in touch because like Jim saying he’s you know, people are online, they’re still searching. And in fact, they might even be feeling a bit claustrophobic in their current conditions, and maybe wanting to expand, I think there’s a lot of a lot of people are going to be feeling that way, if not right now, in the immediate future, and when with returns to normal, but a great way to, you know, to make sure they know you’re there, and you can start having those conversations now.

Jim Starwalt 41:45
No, absolutely. And then right now in Illinois, they’re calling us essential. They’re letting us work. And it’s good, because we are not because we get to sell somebody’s house. But when you boil it down, and I teach this and I coach this you have to understand where we are the pinnacle, we’re up here. Because when we sell a house, the lenders get to work the title companies get to work, the home inspectors get to work, the painters are going to come in the moving companies, what is there 2530 Different companies that get work just off of one sale. Not to mention that if the when the people move in, if they get a fence, whatever goes on. So we are essential. And you out there need to understand that we’ve got a big responsibility to keep the economy going right when the economy fell out in oh eight anybody was still working on I was my business supercharged, because I worked 14 hour days, seven days a week, just like I’m doing now. And we let our staff all go and we’re me and Susan are doing everything in the whole office plus selling houses. So we’re paying our staff and making sure that they’re taking care of their families, but you need to work harder than ever, this is not a vacation. It’s it’s a wonderful opportunity. So I made a made a little I don’t want any color and take a word and you make words off it COVID-19 create opportunities via internet devices, contact 19 people a week on Zoom.

D.J. Paris 43:13
I love it. Say that once more.

Jim Starwalt 43:15
Create opportunities via internet devices, contact 19 People are weakened zoom. Clients past clients continue out. I don’t care if you’re not used to doing it. Call your mom on Zoom three times a week until you’re used to doing it, get on it and do it. I hate seeing myself when I see it. I like to see from the backend. See, my hair’s disappearing. And I’m like, man, but I guess that’s who I am. So what are you gonna do?

D.J. Paris 43:40
Yeah, and what you’re doing is two things. It’s connection. And it’s, you know, providing probably a little comfort, but also some opportunity, you know, this is a time to, to have those conversations and your clients. Yeah, nobody’s comfortable. I think, you know, doing this, especially with previous clients, especially if it’s a video there’s, there’s an intimacy to it, that can be challenging, but the client is probably thrilled that you’re reaching out to connect and to provide value. I mean, I think about all the professionals I have in my life, how many of them who I pastes serve, you know, service fees, do, how many of them reached out to me, since this all started just to check in or to provide some value, maybe one one of one of 15 You know, so it’s not a crowded space doing this will actually, I think will really impress the people who you’ve already worked with, or your people haven’t yet worked with you.

Jim Starwalt 44:34
So let’s go back to time blocking it doesn’t I’m gonna keep going. I’m gonna keep hammering that because that’s everything there is there is no golden nugget in real estate. There’s, there’s five there’s five basic and I’ve got to pull up over here. You can’t see it. But you’ve got open houses, you got your sphere of influence. You got your farm, you got your social media and you got your CRM, and they all intersect in the middle. It’s like a wheel now I call it my wheel of fortune. They all intersect. So when you’re talking you’re sphere of influence. You may put something on your social media, it may, some of your sphere of influence is your farm. If you’re going to time block, maybe from nine to 930 every single day until you’re left back out in the world, you study your farm. You should know how many three bedroom homes are in there. How many four bedroom homes real estate is hyper local. Don’t be the Lake County real estate professional. Don’t be don’t be the town, be the subdivision years, many years ago, I was college trail subdivision in Gray’s lake. And that’s all I marketed. There’s there’s 400 homes in there. If there’s 400 homes in there, and everybody moves every two years or every 10 years. How many homes is that a year that change hands as 40? Like if I can get half of those? That’s 20. Right? They’re just off my farm.

D.J. Paris 45:49
Wow. Just by being the grace like guy,

Jim Starwalt 45:53
and when I have those 20 listings in there, not the grace Laker the collar sale guy. Sorry, folks. Yeah, sorry. No, no, I’m

D.J. Paris 45:58
crazy like guy because like is Yeah, that’s a that’s a great lake is a big a big area. Yeah,

Jim Starwalt 46:04
I started out with one subdivision for five years. That’s all I marketed because other than that I marketed to my sphere. When I sold those homes in college trail subdivision, I did such a good job that they will refer me to somebody. So those 20 turned into 40. That that’s how real estate works. Don’t be everything be hyper local and hyper focused.

D.J. Paris 46:30
It’s so important. And it’s something that like, you know, no, your TrueNorth, right? No, no, the you want to be this, it’s like you want to be the biggest fish in the smallest pond. Right. So you in order to do that you have to hyper hyper focus and specialize. And even if it’s just a certain number of homes or certain number of miles that you that you really cover, you want to know it better than every other broker in town. And by doing that, you just create massive value to that community.

Jim Starwalt 47:00
Until everybody in that circumference knows who you are, you don’t need to expand out so you got to do videos, you’ve got to show what’s there, you’re going to info sparks and pull up the stats, you can you can show those stats, you can pull them up live on Zoom via Facebook. I mean, these tools are amazing. I did a stupid video, you can see him I just put shelves up in my office. So I thought, hey, I’ve got this really cool tip. So I did a DIY tip got nothing to do with real estate. You take an envelope, and you tape it right underneath where you’re going to drill and you open up so when you drill, the dust falls right into there. Oh, that’s brilliant. I won’t ever yell over fall over 400 views and a billion comments and such and tons of shares. But you kind of use this video stuff.

D.J. Paris 47:49
You know now, now’s the time, if you’re camera shy, now’s the time to practice so that you can feel more comfortable having these conversations because as Jim saying, this is the new normal, this is not going away, when once necessarily we return to some version of normalcy. This is this is going to be the constant. So better get used to it. And what a great opportunity now to practice.

Jim Starwalt 48:13
So I got a quiz for you. Do you know how many homes in Lake County have one bathroom?

D.J. Paris 48:19
I don’t, but I bet you do.

Jim Starwalt 48:21
They all do some have more? Yeah.

D.J. Paris 48:24
You know, I fell right into that without I wasn’t paying attention. Thank you. Yes.

Jim Starwalt 48:31
When you teach you, you have to have your corny jokes. And

D.J. Paris 48:36
I think pretty much all of my jokes are corny, so I can appreciate that. Well, I actually I would love to actually pause for this episode because I would love to bring you back and have you you know, with these the tips you’ve been providing today, it’s been a lot and really, really helpful. And I’d like to get you on a regular schedule, if you’re that available. So we can talk about that after but I also want to make to let everyone know who’s listening. If you’re a broker in the Chicagoland area and are interested in working with a firm like Better Homes and Gardens, STAR homes. STAR homes. That’s a that is Boy, that is a mouthful but it is a great company and a great brand. What’s the best way that that and by the way, not just agents but maybe a customer who’s looking to work, working for new realtor and looking for somebody from your team to work with what’s the best way

Jim Starwalt 49:32
you know what my cell phone is everywhere in the world, but it’s 224-627-7581 you can go to Better Homes and Gardens real estate. Just do a search you can find us your give me a call. You can send me an email. My cell phone has been advertised on the internet for over 20 years. So people like I’m not putting my phone on LinkedIn. But call me we’re always looking for talent. We’re very, very careful. You have to be somebody who’s willing to share in our office. Our office is open hotel concept and we encourage everyone to share. As I tell their office you’re in, don’t be afraid to talk to the other people in your office, the office, I was in had windows and everybody had paper taped over their windows. I said that would never be that office, you don’t have any secrets. If our office has an 8% market share, that means there’s 92% market share out there for us to get. So we are very collaborative office. We’re always looking for great talent. So if you’d like to come in and see if we’re a fit together, yeah, give me a call.

D.J. Paris 50:32
And and if you want to work with a realtor who doesn’t make it all about them, which I think is is it’s a simple concept, but an important one and one that has served Jim and his team very, very well, for over 20 years. Definitely reach out to him as well. He’s got lots of capable brokers. He himself, of course, it’s an extraordinarily capable broker is one of the top producers here in Chicago. So Jim, I want to thank you on behalf of the listeners for your time, and I really would love to bring you back to do this more regularly. So we can talk about that. But on behalf of the listeners, thank you for all the great tips and advice. On behalf of Gemini to the listeners we of course say thank you for continuing to support and listen to our show, we ask just two quick things before we go. One is to please think of another real estate professional that could benefit from having listened to this interview that we just had with Jim and send it over to them you know, you can send them right to our website, which is keeping it real pod.com Or just you know, have them pull up any podcast app and search they’ll find it. The other second thing is to find please follow us on Facebook you can find us@facebook.com forward slash keeping it real pod. We pod we obviously broadcast all of our video recordings of our episodes as well as our audio recordings. And also we every day we post an article that we find written online specifically designed to help Realtors grow their business usually just one a day and not to clog up your feed. But something that we think you’d appreciate. So again, facebook.com forward slash keeping it real pot. Other than that, we will see everyone on the next episode. Thank you hope everyone is staying safe and healthy. Jim, this was wonderful. really had a great time. Thank you so much for being part of the show.

Jim Starwalt 52:14
I had fun. Thanks for helping having me on. I’m always love to give it’s my passion. So talk to you soon. I’d love to come back on

In our April episode of Monday Market Minute with Carrie McCormick of At Properties, Carrie discusses how in grade school she was able to tell an emotionally engaging story about a seashell during show and tell and how she uses that same principle today to list properties. D.J. talks about how you can partner with third-party management companies to send your clients virtually over to their leasing consultants and earn a commission along the way!

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

Carrie can be reached at carrie@atproperties.com or by phone at 312.961.4612.

Please follow Carrie on Instagram by clicking here.

Carrie McCormick D.J. Paris Monday Market Minute

Transcript

D.J. Paris 0:00
This episode of Keeping it real is brought to you by gogos bootcamp Are you a real estate agent looking for the best social media training program on the planet? Gogo Beth key is considered the top Instagram Realtor in the country. And her step by step training program will take your social media game to the next level. She’s so confident there’s a 30 day money back guarantee so you have nothing to lose keeping it real listeners receive a special discount, so please visit Gogo podcast.com That’s Gee oh, gee, oh podcast.com for your special discount, and now on with the show.

Hello, and welcome to another episode of Keeping it real, the largest podcast made by real estate agents and for real estate agents. My name is DJ Parris. I’m your guide and host through the show. And today, we are speaking once again with Carrie McCormick for our Monday market minute. If you’re not familiar with Carrie, she’s actually been with us since the very beginning almost four years on the show. We’re so grateful to have her she’s one of the top real estate agents in Chicago. And just to tell you how big a deal that is. There are over 44,000 Real estate agents in Chicago, she is always in about the top 15 Out of those 44,000, sometimes top 10. She’s been a top producer for over 20 years, she’s with AP properties, and just an amazing broker. And if you want to find her online, please visit her on her website, which is Carrie McCormick our e.com Again, Carrie McCormack ar e.com. And also please follow her on Instagram. She has an unbelievably wonderful Instagram account and it’s a great it’s a great model for how real estate agents probably should do Instagram so you can find her at at Carey McCormick real estate again at Carey McCormick real estate. Carrie once again. Thanks and welcome.

Carrie McCormick 2:13
Well thank you. It’s a wonderful intro. appreciate it as always. So hope you’re doing well hope everyone out there is staying safe and sane right through this time. But I wanted to chat today to talk a little bit about marketing. Right now obviously, times have changed and I wanted to bring everybody back to your grade school days. So do you remember your show and tell days at school? Yes. What all you know, it was a nerve wracking time, but I remember show Intel and while I’m asked her that really early on in my years, and I never thought show Intel would you know be part of my professional career. So just a quick little backstory about Carrie. When I grew up, I was actually a tomboy. And I remember my show and tell days at school or by date that came and I was at home, feverishly looking for something to bring to school and being a tomboy. You know, I didn’t, I was afraid that the girls were going to judge me or the boys were going to judge me and my favorite toy was the General Lee from the to

D.J. Paris 3:23
Sure. And that was a favorite toy of mine as well.

Carrie McCormick 3:27
So my mom convinced me not to bring the generally to school. But what she did tell me she she brought me this, this shell and she’s like remember this, you know, the C shell that we got when we were in Florida. And she started telling me the story about the day that we found this, this shell and how we’ve kept on to it. And you know, it’s just it’s been in our house ever since. And you know, she was such a good storyteller. It just made me think it made me feel like happy, you know, hearing that story and just kind of remember at the beach and how the sun felt that day and the sound of the waves and the seagulls and you know, brought a smile to my face. I’m like, Yeah, you know, I’m gonna bring this shell to school and, you know, so I go to Show and Tell day and, you know, I get up in front of the class and, you know, my hands have got this shell. And, you know, I can just kind of feel like the classroom looking at me like, Oh, God, you know, shell you like really, you know, and so I got up in front of the class and I started you know, just not talking about the shell. But I was talking about the day I found the shell and how it made me feel and just created this story around the shell. And I do remember at some point, you know, the classroom just kind of like leaning in, right? Like, you know, like, I want to hear more about this and you know what happened next and so it just it didn’t become a story about the shell. It just became a story of emotion and how it made me feel and You know, I mean, really fast forward to now, that’s what we have to do. Right? So we can’t show properties for the most part, we can, but you know, a lot of people aren’t out. So we have to know, tell people about the properties, right? We need to turn our listings into consumable virtual content now, and we have to think beyond this visual, we have to engage people. And we do that through storytelling, you know, so I think our, our descriptions of the homes and you know, our marketing just has to change. A few years ago, I came up with this marketing campaign. And if you look back to my, my Instagram, you’ll see that I had this ad that said, every home has its own story. Yeah. And our job is to tell the story of this home and make it come alive. I think we’ve been inundated by these images of homes, right? You just start clicking through these homes. But what a story does is it engages somebody in it tells the history and the personality of the home, right? You start engaging and connecting with people’s emotions. And I mean, think about even those like Budweiser commercials. If you remember, those are some of these commercials that make you feel a certain way. Yeah, yeah. So what we have to do, so not only now, are we real estate agents, you know, we’ve got to be storytellers and marketers. One thing that I’ve done is when I sit down with a seller is I asked them, you know, their perspective of their home, like, what’s, what’s their favorite, you know, design of the home, the architecture, the history of the home, even sometimes quirks of the homes and have them tell you a story. So if it’s, you know, you know, my kids loved it, you know, hiding out under the stairs, they would play, hide and go seek there. I mean, that’s when you do showings. And when you could talk about that when someone else storage under the stairs, just be like, Oh, I got a funny story. My, you know, my sellers, kids used to, you know, play hide and seek down here. Again, it’s sharing moments, it sharing the history of the home that really makes it come alive.

D.J. Paris 7:10
I have a friend who bought a home recently, and it had a lap pool in the back I, you know, I’m not a practicing realtor myself. So I haven’t really seen one before. And, and it’s really unusual, it’s just a long, thin pool. And, and I said, What’s the story behind that, and he had bought the home, it was there when he bought it. And he told me this story about how the guy was training for this. It was some sort of triathlon, and he was so into it, that he built this into the backyard. And anyway, it created a story because I think you’re right, like what happens when someone buys a home, and their friends come over for the housewarming party as they look at something that might be unique about the home or unusual? And they’re like, what’s the story with that? What happened there? And so you’re right, like, when you have a listing, you now have the ability to tell those stories, and people love to know the history of of a place or what’s unique about it. And, and you’re right, I think so often Realtors FORGET TO to incorporate that. And that’s also one thing that the disruptors in particular the the algorithms, you know, the companies that are trying to, you know, just automate, a lot of the home buying selling process really can’t do. They can’t tell that story. They can show pictures, they can tell you the facts. So I think you’re right, they call that story selling, I think, this idea of Yeah.

Carrie McCormick 8:33
So another thing is, you know, as you’re talking to your sellers, and you’re writing your story about the home, make sure that you include key terms that buyers are likely to be searching, right, you have to think about all buyers searching, and you know, you can take advantage of a little SEO as well. So as people are, you know, Googling certain terms or certain aspects, you know, like lap pools, a good example, you know, I mean, that’s kind of broad, but you know, at least you know, you have some sort of descriptions to that give a little bit of history about it. Also, I’ve started doing a little bit more perspective of the homes from the outside. So because clients aren’t going out as much, you know, they don’t know, excuse me, they don’t know, like, what the street scene looks like. Right. What’s next? We take our pictures, we take a just at the front of that house. Yeah, you know, we don’t know what the neighbors look like. And Google Earth is become a very helpful tool, but also just, you know, videoing coming down the street coming into your, you know, front door, what does it look like to the left to the right. So definitely have more pictures, just in general, but I’d say also start incorporating some pictures from the outside as well.

D.J. Paris 9:45
You know, that’s a really that’s a really good idea, because I know that when I am looking to move, I want to see what’s nearby, and especially now when it’s not as easy to get out and be mobile, and actually go visit the properties. Now is the time For the realtors out here, let me show you what the neighborhood looks like. Let’s show you if you’re in the city, like what’s nearby what cool shops and restaurants and, and retail establishments. So it’s a and what the scenery looks like nearby.

Carrie McCormick 10:11
And now that the trees are budding and you know, everything’s starting to look better. So it’s really a good time to start, you know, doing some outside shots and more neighborhood shots. So, you know, the market is the market. And, you know, I think first and foremost, we have to, you know, worry about everyone’s safety and, and health. But also, you know, real estate is important, because it’s our home, you know, and we obviously, everyone’s spending more time in our homes. And and I do think that in times of uncertainty, you know, real estate can bring a tangible solution, and breathing room for people who are changing crate or craving change in their life. So I think it’s really an important aspect. And, you know, it’s our job to bring it to them.

D.J. Paris 10:59
Yeah, I couldn’t agree more. I mean, I know I’m feeling I don’t know how you’re feeling. But I’ve started to think about, you know, maybe it’s time for me to upsize. Maybe it’s time for me to when, when this all when we return to normal, and maybe even before we return to normal, us to really get serious about you know, I’ve spent, I do, I’m lucky enough to be able to go into the office still. And I’m lucky most people don’t get to do that. But even with the amount of time I’m spending at home, which is more than normal, I’m still feeling confined. And I suspect a tremendous number of people are feeling that same way and, and are, you know, I think now more than ever, and people are also looking online to I think we’re maybe just have a little bit more time and we’re feeling you know, like, oh, maybe it’s a little too too close for comfort. And, you know, now’s a great time to reach out to those clients. And obviously check in to see how they’re doing, but maybe even wait for them to tell you hey, you know, it’s good thing you called I’m actually thinking about maybe maybe finding a bigger space or just a different space,

Carrie McCormick 11:58
right? Especially work from home, you know, people are going to be working from home, they need their own space. So it’s an interesting time, and it’s our job to you know, to help keep the real estate market moving forward and doing the right thing.

D.J. Paris 12:13
Yeah, I also wonder too, and I don’t know much about the commercial world we have we’ve had commercial brokers on the show before but I’m curious and how many people once you know were able to return to work, I wonder how many employers are going to say you know, this work at home things works pretty well. And so I think from the residential side, there are going to be a lot of people going and I don’t really have a dedicated space for our home office. And this might be more of a you know, regular thing for me now or maybe at least some of the days of the week I’m going to work from home. And so I think there’s gonna be a lot of movement when every thing returns and rates are so low and it’s such a great time if you are looking to buy to to just be doing that and so I think now more than ever realtors are so important just staying in touch with the clients you know waiting for them even to reach out saying you know, I think I need to upgrade so I agree. I agree. So here’s my marketing tip of the of the month and you know, this might not necessarily apply to everyone listening so I apologize for that in advance but I think this will apply to most most broke Most brokers and when I say brokers I need to remember that not everywhere. Realtors are not always called brokers. So agent broker, realtor, whatever it is, you call yourself real estate professional. But here in Chicago this is quite popular and I imagine in many metropolitan areas, even maybe more rural areas you can still do this. So in you know we all know about the MLS and the MLS. I’m going to be talking about rentals just for a moment of course the MLS has lots and lots of rentals. Typically these are owners who are looking to rent out properties that they have two potential tenants but there’s also another side of rentals which are third party management these would be companies that either own or manage buildings or, or units that they typically don’t list on the MLS and a lot of times Realtors forget that their these opportunities exist because they’re not on the MLS and so often we’re tied to the MLS and thinking that’s the inventory. Well that is the inventory but there’s also this non MLS inventory so here in Chicago at least there are dozens of big property management companies that never list any of their units on the MLS and so if you’re a broker in an area and you have renters you know you can oftentimes feel limited by what’s available on the MLS. So if you can reach out to these, these these properties, you just call them and ask say hey, do you work with with realtors are you willing to pay a commission if I bring you someone and right now it’s actually kind of a you know, realtors don’t have to do as much work because a lot of these these management companies have their own in house leasing staff. They love it when brokers call they love taking right now they’re not getting calls, either they’re there, the phone’s not ringing as much. So if you have somebody that’s looking for an apartment, now it’s, you know, it’s probably in some ways easier than ever to pass them over to some of these leasing consultants, you still obviously earn a commission, and they’ll do the virtual showing, or if they’re able to go see the property that’s possible to, but just remember, these opportunities exist. And really, it’s as simple as just, you know, going online doing a search for apartments, if you’re a realtor, and just reaching out to the management company and say, Hey, I don’t know if you if you partner with agents or not, but I have somebody that would really love to see this property. Do you guys accept those kinds of referrals? And you’ll find more often than not that those, especially right now, and things are slower, those firms want your calls. And so reach out, you can pass it over to their leasing consultants, they’re the best ones to do the showings anyway, you can maybe be there on a virtual, you know, in the background, or just turn it immediately over. And I’ve heard from a lot of management companies right now saying, Please, please, please have your realtor’s call us we need tenants. So great opportunity. And if you’re in an area that you’ve never done that before, great opportunity to reach out to those management companies and build a relationship and say, Hey, I do get renters, and I would love to send them over your way. So that’s great. I agree. Awesome. Well, if anyone out there is listening who would like to work with one of the top Realtors in the Chicagoland area which by the way we are the second largest real estate market in the country are second or third. This is a big deal. Carrie is legitimately one of the very top Agents Brokers. She is well respected. She’s been doing it for 20 plus years. Carrie, what’s the best way a client can reach out to you or somebody who’s looking to work with you?

Carrie McCormick 16:49
Sure. So call I love when people call so it’s 312-961-4612 or you could shoot me a quick email at Kerry ca RR ie at@properties.com.

D.J. Paris 17:03
Also, please follow Kerry on Instagram, you can find her at Carey McCormick real estate I I’m oftentimes not impressed always with how Realtors promote themselves on social media. Carrie is the exception, she just does it. so unbelievably well, she does it all herself too, which is even more impressive. So if you want to see what a really impressive and wonderful Instagram account looks like follow her there Carrie McCormick real estate and also if you want to see a really great realtor website as well, Carrie McCormick R e.com is where you can go and learn more about Carrie. But definitely reach out to her if you are interested in finding a top agent to work with. Or if you’re just interested in learning more about Carrie. Well, Carrie, thank you so much. I’m glad to know that you and your family are safe and healthy. And you are still going strong. Thank you. Oh, God, I lost you for a second. Yeah, thanks. Thanks again. And we will, we’ll see you next time I want to on behalf of Carrie and myself, we want to thank the listeners for continuing to support our show. We’re now four years in and we’re going as strong as ever, and we have the most number of listeners we’ve ever had, which is so so we’re so grateful for that. And also please tell a friend think of one other agent that could benefit from watching or listening to these episodes and sending them over our podcast. And also please follow us on Facebook, you can find us@facebook.com forward slash keeping it real pod and behalf on behalf of the listeners and myself. Carrie, once again, thank you for taking time we’re doing this on a Sunday morning, by the way. And that’s how dedicated Carrie is so kind to be on our show on taking time away from from her business and family to share with our listeners. So thank you so so much. Thank you. All right, we’ll see you next time.

Carrie McCormick 18:56
Awesome. You’re the best. Thanks. Thanks

Emily Ackerman of Chicago Home Collective at Compass was recently awarded National Association of REALTORS® winning the 30 under 30 award. This young superstar has spent countless hours defining and adjusting her process so that when she works with buyers, sellers and renters, she is able to provide a first class experience. In our conversation Emily discusses her ongoing commitment to professionalism and what agents can do right now to keep their business active and growing even while working from home.

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

Emily Ackerman can be reached at 913.314.3112 and emily.ackerman@compass.com


Transcript

D.J. Paris 0:00
This episode of Keeping it real is brought to you by gogos bootcamp Are you a real estate agent looking for the best social media training program on the planet? Gogo Beth key is considered the top Instagram Realtor in the country. And her step by step training program will take your social media game to the next level. She’s so confident there’s a 30 day money back guarantee so you have nothing to lose, keeping it real listeners receive a special discount, so please visit Gogo podcast.com That’s Gee oh gee Oh podcast.com for your special discount, and now on with the show. Hello, and welcome to another episode of Keeping it real, the largest podcast made by real estate agents. And for real estate agents. My name is DJ Paris. I am your guide and host through the show. And we’re just in just a moment we’re gonna be speaking with top producer Emily Ackerman. Before we get to Emily, as always, we want to start the show by saying thank you to everyone who is listening, or possibly watching. Right now we thank you for supporting our show for listening and for telling a friend. And we also want to say a special thanks to all of the nice comments and emails and just well wishes that we receive from listeners all over the country. We got a couple today and we really means a lot to us. We certainly aren’t asking you to tell us how great we are. But anytime you want to do that, we love it. So thank you for continuing to tell us how this show has impacted your business and how it’s helped you. Also please follow us on Facebook you can find us@facebook.com forward slash keeping it real pod and the reason to follow us on Facebook every single day we find an article online that can help you grow your business and we present it there. And also we do live recordings of our all of our episodes on Facebook, we stream them there so you can watch them because normally it takes us a couple of weeks to actually produce the episode so you can watch it and not have to wait for us to to do all of the post production that we do. So again find us on Facebook facebook.com forward slash keeping it real pod and also please continue to tell a friend think of another real estate agent that could benefit from hearing from these types of interviews and pass along our podcast and I hope everyone is staying safe and healthy. And now on to our interview with Emily Ackerman.

Today on the show we have Emily Ackerman of Chicago home collective which is part of compass. If you’re not familiar with Emily, Emily strives to create a positive and engaging experience for her clients. All while bringing a refreshingly candid, yet persistent attitude to the transaction. And expert on many of Chicago’s most popular neighborhoods, Emily leverages her networking resources to accomplish her client’s goals and is described by them as savvy tenacious and always taking indicate sorry educational approach. Emily has consistently proved herself as an accountable and trusted advisor, and in 2020, was selected by realtor magazine and National Association of REALTORS as one of their 30 under 30 honorees for young professionals across the country, which is a super huge honor. Please follow Emily. You can find her you can find her online on our website Chicago home collective.com. And also on Instagram, which is Emily. App. Sorry, Emily Ackerman underscore real estate. So Emily Ackerman underscore Realty. Anyway, Emily, thank you so much.

Emily Ackerman 3:54
Thank you for having me. And for such a warm introduction. I’m excited to be here. I’m just thrilled to have you know, to be a part of this, and thanks for having me on.

D.J. Paris 4:05
Yeah, no, thank you. And we were really impressed because National Association of REALTORS did just come out with their 30 under 30. And we had had previously another recipient of that and as soon as we were done as Jordan piles, which a few episodes ago, everyone should yeah, and we were just Emily and I were talking about him just before we went on. And he said you absolutely have to talk to Emily Ackerman so here we are. So we’re really thrilled to have you and thank you so much.

Emily Ackerman 4:32
Thanks for the thanks for the plug JP

D.J. Paris 4:38
so tell us a little bit about you know, how you how and when and why you got into real estate love to hear that.

Emily Ackerman 4:45
Yeah, um, you know, I wish it was a super unique story, but when so I’ve always loved Chicago I fell in love with the city years ago, I used to go to camp in Wisconsin. I would spend my summers there for seven years. And I always had friends from the surrounding areas and had this infatuation with the city. And after going to school, I went to IU Bloomington, I knew that this was like the next place I was headed. And I was going to do anything to get to the city and not go back and move in with my parents in Kansas City. And I found an internship and I was I always liked marketing and PR, and I ended up working for a firm represented. They specialize in like hospitality businesses, restaurants, chefs and stuff. And I had a part time internship for the summer. So 2014. And I was just like, I can’t be doing this. I always had a little bit of an interest in real estate, my uncle is a developer back in Houston, and he would encourage me a little bit to go work with him. And if anyone’s ever been to Houston, I’m originally from Dallas, Texas. It’s, it’s not as beautiful the city as Chicago. And there was no way I was going to go back there. And so when I really committed to getting my license, here, I while I was getting my license, because I had a part time internship, I was only working three days a week, and on my nights out, or my nights off, I would go out to the city, I would go to restaurants and bars, I would bring any of my friends in at 22, you can still go out in the middle of the week and have a fairly easy recovery. But my objection was just or I just wanted to go out and meet people and start building a network in the city. And so through that I would gather business cards. And the next morning like LinkedIn or email these people, these players were like commercial agents, or just had some sort of connection to the real estate community and just was like, Hey, can I can I learn about what you do? Is there anyone that you can put me in touch with, and eventually I, another top eight compass agent who I won’t name, but he helped me find my first apartment, he ended up putting me in touch with Kelly Parker, who I now work with today, and who makes is the principal and founder of Chicago home collective, my team. And since then it’s like, that’s what that’s what we do together. So it’s that was like the beginning steps of like, how I got into the business, and she’s been an incredible mentor to me, since then, we still work together.

D.J. Paris 7:34
Yeah, that’s it’s a great story. And it’s so interesting, a couple of things stood out, in particular that you on your own went around and went out and you know, sought after people in the industry that you wanted to connect with and learn from, which is really, in some ways, sort of the intention of the show, as well as a lot of other, you know, organizations try to connect people with, with, you know, the top producers or people that are just more knowledgeable or experienced than I always think seems like the smartest way to learn. And, and I just really applaud that initiative for you to go out and do that on your own. That’s at a pretty young age to,

Emily Ackerman 8:13
I don’t even know how I had that much confidence. I think I’m so excited to be in a new city and I had this energy where it was like, What do I have to lose? And yeah, I think that that took me really far, because it got me out of my comfort zone. And through that would go to like networking events and stuff. Thankfully, I don’t really, I can rely on a lot of my clients. And I’ve organically built my business. But I still kind of reflect back on those days. And that was really tough, but I pushed myself to do it. And I’ve actually turned a lot of those connections into friends now.

D.J. Paris 8:49
Yeah, I hear that a lot. It’s a constant refrain from our guests is that over time, they’re like, Oh, I’ve gone to weddings, or, you know, birthday parties, or anniversary celebrations or whatever, for these people that they helped sell a home to X number of years ago. And they just entwined themselves into their lives, you know, through all the different real estate activity, and they become as important to them as you know, their closest friends. So it’s, it’s really kind of cool to watch that. So you’re at the beginning stages of building those relationships, not beginning, really, but the early stages still. But I you know, we have so many listeners who are, you know, maybe a similar age or even maybe older, but who are thinking how does somebody in their mid 20s or early 20s? I guess even when you were really starting to do this, like that’s a difficult endeavor. Can you talk a little bit about how you started building your business? Because I assume when he came to Chicago, I don’t know, most of my friends in my 20s Well, maybe early or mid 20s weren’t purchasing homes. They just weren’t. So can you talk a little bit about how did you get started like what did you do?

Emily Ackerman 9:56
Yeah, I mean, that was definitely something that I had, like was mentally struggling and through because you’re you get licensed and you’re so hungry and you’re ready to go. You’re like womp, womp, you know, my network from from Bloomington where I had a great network. But they weren’t really in the stage of life where they were thinking about buying a property. And so you’re faced with this challenge of, how do I get my business to the point of where I want it to be, while utilizing people who Buying a house is the last thing that’s on their mind. And so I think I really dove into rentals. And I’m sure you’ve had agent, I know you’ve had agents on this podcast that say, do not forget about those people. Because ultimately, I think providing expert knowledge and service to those renders is really they have been, like the bread and butter of my run of my referral base. Because it’s, they remember how the level of service that you provide and how you treated them, no matter the price point. And so what I did was, I originally had put all of everyone I knew from from Bloomington, who had moved to Chicago, I put them in a database and a CRM, put as much or input as much information as possible birthdays, where they lived, and I just was, like, sucked it up. And if I asked them what their addresses were, and I asked if it was okay, and I would make a joke, can I can I spam you with my, you know, with my mailers and stuff, and I’m going to try and send you items of value and things that something that you will be able to have like a takeaway from learn something. And so most people just say yes, and Right, right. Yeah. And I think I started getting recognized by the information I was putting on these mailers, rent versus buy, and just just more of like, memorable collateral. And I think through that, that helps me grow my business, and continuously marketing to those renters and not forgetting about them, and just checking in with them, and letting them know, Hey, I’m here to help if you need anything, even if it’s not, I’m not the one person helping you, but something doesn’t feel right, or you’re representing yourself, and you want me to look over something, just letting them know that you’re there. And I think naturally, people will gravitate to you. And then ultimately, when they are ready to buy a home, they think of you know, your top of mind. Yeah, it’s

D.J. Paris 12:27
really smart. Because the reality of it is, is that renters, you know, typically don’t most don’t use an agent at all right? They don’t use a broker, you know, it’s it’s, you know, the, the access to the database, so to speak, is is pretty available. So for people that, you know, if you’re a real estate professional and you are working with renters stay in touch with these are people you do not want to forget about, because at the end of that term, they may be interested in just moving to another apartment somewhere else, which of course is another opportunity to work with them or in a in a best case scenario. They’ve now been educated by you about why purchasing makes sense. And so

Emily Ackerman 13:06
I encourage newer agents to not be discouraged if someone doesn’t use you. Yeah, yeah, I mean, I’m sure you have this conversation a million times with other agents, we talk about our best friend not using us or yada, yada, yes, that’s happened to me too. But people will never forget the way that they feel when they’re conversing with you. And if you’re able to give them just a little bit of valuable information, when they are on these other sites and Zillow, and Trulia and have all access to other to these like rental network properties, I have had clients rent on their own, and then come back to me to rent their next place because they just remembered what it felt like, you know, to partner together and sometimes at that point, they have a higher price point. They have a better understanding of the city, and they’re not all over the place. And it just creates like for really awesome partnership.

D.J. Paris 14:02
100% I couldn’t agree more. And almost everybody that I’ve ever had on the show, not everybody but I would say 95% of the guests, we’ve had started out doing rentals as a way to supplement their income in between sales and also learn the business and start, you know, working directly with clients. And they it typically just is the quicker entry path unless you happen to just have a bunch of friends waiting to buy or sell copies you know, as soon as your license which most people don’t have. So this is a great a great piece of advice. I also so I want to kind of skip forward a little bit into this award you just won because this is really important and a big news and there’s only I think two people in Chicago and I apologize if there was more. Okay, there were three Okay, so there were three people in the entire country that were from this city you were one of them. So talk a little bit about why you think you were you were selected. What is there do you feel like you’re doing things did Currently, or to then most other, you know, brokers?

Emily Ackerman 15:04
Um, I think my short answer is, is no, I. And it’s, it’s funny, I don’t think that I’m doing anything like extraordinary that someone else isn’t doing. You have to find the few things that you are confident doing and do them very well. And I think it’s easy to spread yourself thin and not focus, or and then when you spread yourself thin, you’re not putting as much time and energy into the into all those things, rather than honing in on the few that help actually grow this. Yeah, it’s

D.J. Paris 15:41
a jack of all trades, master of none, sort of thing. And, and as I’ve gotten older, I’m older, of course, the the new are, I’ve realized that there’s a lot period of my life with my own skill sets in the business sort of endeavors that I do. And if I would have hyperfocused in a couple of those skill sets versus trying to learn everything, I, you know, I probably would be better off today. So it certainly applies to real estate. So if our listeners are trying to interpret sort of how to how to do this for themselves, think about like, the easiest example would be like geography like where are you oriented? For your business? Are you trying to be an expert in one neighborhood or a part of a city? Are you trying to be all things to all people and taking deals, wherever, you know, think about that, and think about the idea of specializing. And then over time you become really valuable to people of that particular demographic?

Emily Ackerman 16:37
Yeah, I mean, I think for me, naturally, the I focus on a very curated process, I’m very hands on, I consider myself a full service broker. And that is the expectation that I even that I have for myself, no matter who my client is. So even from rentals to first time homebuyers who I’ve worked with a number of first time homebuyers, I have a process in place, from the beginning that we make contact, I have templates that I use it for emails, I hope none of my clients are like, not in a bad way. But I’m just like, material, you have a roadmap for how you do things, and it just becomes a little bit more natural each time. And you follow that, it becomes easier and easier. And miraculously, you know, your business just grows, because you’re continuing on that path and tweaking as needed. And that is just something that has worked really well for me, in my business. Yeah, and so that’s just, that’s something that I focus on.

D.J. Paris 17:46
You’re such a process person, I can tell that from even before having having spoken to you today because I have to share with the audience when we send out a pre interview questionnaire, just to get a flavor of what maybe the guest wants to talk about. And then usually we have to hunt our guests down to like, Please return this, we need to start doing research. Emily got hers to us. No problem. There was no problem at all. She did it quickly. But she she gave us so much detail. And I was really, really impressed. I’ve been doing this a long time. And we don’t usually get this level of detail. But it made me think I bet she’s like this with your customers or clients. I bet she has processes in place. And I know it’s it’s even from the meeting. I mean, you have a whole sort of itinerary that you run through. And then that extends to all areas of your business. I’m guessing whether it’s after the sale, you probably have a follow up process after so. But yeah, so how important is process to your, to your practice?

Emily Ackerman 18:44
I think it’s I mean, it’s, if not the most one of the most important factors because as you begin to get busier as an agent, it seems that your timing, you have less time to do certain things. And so by implementing a process and sticking to that, that has allowed me to not have to like reach so far mentally, it’s like, okay, I have in my Dropbox, the intro to buyer email or intro to seller, okay, once we get photos back, this is the template that I use. And like I said, you tweak as needed, but it the the foundation is already there. And it’s not like you’re not creating a curated, you know, experience for your clients. But you’re creating shortcuts to help make your life easier. And also expedite in just create a more efficient transaction. And so that has allowed me to focus on the things that are really important in building relationships and maybe putting like less time into the smaller tasks that just are part of the real estate transaction.

D.J. Paris 19:54
Yeah, I really could not agree more with all of that being said and now we’re in And as the time we’re recording this, it’s still where the country is still largely under lockdown. And we certainly here are in Illinois, how has those processes shifted for you with, you know, some more limitations on our ability to sort of be mobile? Or has it not really shifted? Are you still just following a similar path that you were before?

Emily Ackerman 20:20
Yeah, I mean, I, I don’t want to advocate and say business, you know, business as usual over here. I’ve had to make quite a bit of adjustments to my day to day because I’m not out. And, like, physically doing showings, I feel that us as agents, we’re very responsible for, you know, we go into people’s homes. And I have, I have a twin brother who lives in New York, and he is an ICU nurse at New York Presbyterian. And if anything, if there’s anything that we could be doing, it’s, it’s just staying home and being responsible. And it’s tough. I have some clients who are very eager by the sidelines, and I have gone into vacant properties, but I haven’t gotten into any, like anyone’s home that that people are living in. And so, you know, the showings have slowed down. I don’t know. Anyone. Tell me if you you know, if you’re

D.J. Paris 21:14
no, we have we have 660 agents at our firm. And yeah, everyone’s a little bit, I mean, to a lot bit slower. Everyone’s Yeah,

Emily Ackerman 21:21
exactly. But in terms of like, those processes, like they’re not going away, they’re just being altered a bit. And if anything, it’s giving time to, I guess, sticking to those processes, but adding in different strategies, for instance, spending more time sourcing properties from top agent network, and, you know, compass coming soon, and those sorts of sites so that we can show buyers and sellers that, you know, you’re still top of mind that I’m still from my home office doing what I need to do to create as much success. So and we just do that within the means of what everyone feels comfortable with. It seems everyone’s falling on, like, a slightly different, like side of the spectrum. But, uh, you know, I’m doing my best to kind of stick to what I’ve already put in place, because that’s what’s going to keep us feeling energized during this time. And, you know, during this time of uncertainty,

D.J. Paris 22:24
yeah, I think I think that’s really well said we, I have a very interesting. Well, it’s not my I mean, a lot of people are saying it, but I’m curious to, from my own experience, as been even looking around. I’m at the office right now. But typically, I’m at I’m at home outside of this, of course. And I’m starting to feel like a little claustrophobic in my own place. And I’ve started to have those fantasies of like, maybe it’s time to upgrade. And I wonder, and I’m sort of in the business a bit, you know, and so that shouldn’t be something that is triggered by something like this, for me, as it’s kind of something that I’m participate in on a regular basis. But it’s brought that particular feeling like front and center. And now that we’re all spending more time at home, and I’m like, I wonder how many people are feeling that same way? And when this all goes back to normal? Maybe there’ll be just this huge boom and activity? I mean, I don’t know. Yeah,

Emily Ackerman 23:17
I mean, I’m going to be optimistic here and say, and, you know, based off of the experts and you know, who compasses brought in, and even the economist that that I’m watching online, everyone at that major consensus seems to be that, yes, we press the pause button right now, I am not going to get into like all of the details of what you know why we’re in a very different place than we were in like, for instance, oh, eight. Sure. But it’s, I think most people are on the sidelines. Obviously, the sellers that are on the market right now are motivated in some capacity. But I think everyone being cooped up at home, they’re either they’re probably with you know, someone else or their significant other even by themselves. And they’re thinking, Okay, I might need a change of scenery. And it’s just kind of the time where those seeds are planted. And, you know, those people are thinking, Okay, well, if God forbid, this has to happen again, or there’s another another wave in the future am I going to be satisfied in the space that I’m in right and so on. I’ve had a lot of people reach out I actually I have a virtual buyers meeting later this evening. So I know that this is on people’s minds, and ultimately people will have to move and they’ll have those changes in their lives that require them to find either downsize or to get more space. And I hope that you know, we all get through this as quickly as possible. And I like I said, I’m gonna be optimistic and say, I think once we get through this kind of the curve and we flatten it, that we’re We’re all super busy, and we’re able to help our clients find that new space. So,

D.J. Paris 25:05
yeah, I think there’s gonna be a lot of people looking to, to upsize, or increase, I really just think that I mean, I know I’m going to start looking for that. And with rates being where they’re at, it’s a very attractive time, obviously, right this very second, it’s we’re going through a horrible time. But this from a financial perspective, you know, the rates or rates are low. And so this is an opportunity where people who, yes, maybe they’re not going to move for the next year, are going to start to think about it. So I think, once hopefully, we return to normal sooner rather than later. Once that eventually happens. I’d be very interested to see how many people are like, Okay, I need to find a bigger place.

Emily Ackerman 25:45
Yeah. And I think now more than ever, we recognize that we feel so safe and secure in our homes. And that’s what it’s always been, for me, this is why I do what I do is, I think that you are your most authentic self, when you’re at home, and you feel that, you know, I think your home should elicit your best self. And right now being cooped up at home, you’re finding reasons that you might want to find a bigger space, and your needs have changed. And I hope that we all come to that. And, you know, if someone does want to move that, I’m top of mind, and hopefully I can be a part of that journey for them.

D.J. Paris 26:31
Yeah, I want to just go back, you just said something very profound that I did not thought of, and it’s absolutely true. Which is such a cool thing you’d said Home is where you find your best self. And that is one of the one of the most sort of It’s poetic and beautiful, but it’s also very true. And I think that also speaks to if that was your belief about your job, which it is, it would explain how motivated you are to really help your clients. But I just wanted to honor you for that’s a really like, great thing you said I wanted. And definitely for people who are looking for, you know, different ways to communicate with your clients. That’s a really powerful metaphor. And to say like, my job is to help you, you know, find this best version of yourself by finding the place that your dreams,

Emily Ackerman 27:19
I mean, kind of at the core values of Chicago home collective, my team, and we all kind of have this like, like kind of odd ideology, that, you know, your, your home houses your story. And I feel so responsible, like helping people get to that point. And the energy that you cultivate in your home, like it really needs to be that safe and secure space. And I think that’s just what we’re going on what’s going on in the world right now is reaffirming that and like literally, because there is this pandemic and the outside of those boundaries, we it’s a little bit more of an unknown. So I think people crave that feeling and hope as a result of that. Hopefully, the housing market, you know, I think the Chicago market will represent how people value their homes. So I hope we’re all very busy later in the year.

D.J. Paris 28:12
Yeah, I think so. And I think again, there’s just a lot of people now realizing, Oh, I might have to spend unfortunately, you know, right now I’m spending more time at home that you probably most people would probably prefer. But again thinking, Well, what if this were to happen in the future? You know, would this be an adequate place to go through something like this again, which of course we hope doesn’t happen. But yeah, I think it’s it’s very, it’ll be very interesting to see. I’m curious to know. So a big question we get from our listeners who skew older are always interested in younger agents for this one particular reason, which is they’re like, I do not understand how a younger brokers are utilizing social media. And I’m not asking you to explain how social media works, of course, okay, good. But how important is it into your business? Is it a, a stream of of referrals and possible clients? Is it more of just a way to stay connected? How are you using it? How important is it for you?

Emily Ackerman 29:10
Yeah, no, that’s a great question. I don’t really think of myself as an influencer or anything like that. But just as you said, I use social media to stay connected. It’s a great for a platform to be able to not to be able to comment and share and show people that, you know, Hey, I see you and I see what you’re putting out in the world and I appreciate it and kudos to you. I think it can work in a reverse way where I’m adding value and everything that I put on my Instagram, I really try and think to myself, Okay, is someone going to learn something from this or am I just putting something out there to put it out there and so, I like to be very intentional with with my social media. I’m not the most active the New Year’s resolution I I mean, that’s just something that’s always been on the back of my mind, because I consider myself kind of like a more low profile or behind the scenes. I’m working on integrating social media more. But with that said, you know, I think it’s a great way to stay connected. And I do get, I’ve gotten leads off of it. And I’m actually working with a buyer right now who found me on Instagram, and she’s like, I’ve been following you for over a year, I love your energy, you’re exactly who I would want to work with. And that was, I don’t want to say surprising, but it made me feel really good. Because many times as a younger agent, even you’re, you’re not quite sure, if you’re on the right path, and you’re doing the right thing, but you’re doing your best. And it’s nice when that gets recognized. So I would say more, more than ever, this could be a great tool to use, especially since we’re not out and about and the ways that we have been in quarantine. And it’s a great way to add value and stay connected. And it’s also free. So I think for any older agents who haven’t dipped into social media, or even younger agents who maybe have don’t have like, a budget or anything like that social media is like the best way to dip in and show people that you’re still doing you and you’re out there.

D.J. Paris 31:25
Yeah, it really is. And if nothing else, it’s if nothing else, it’s just a great way to stay connected to your sphere of influence. If it does nothing else, as just a human being, it makes staying in contact much easier. And you can demonstrate care and compassion and empathy, and especially through these sorts of times, you don’t always have to pick up the phone, although that’s always a wonderful idea. But being able to send, you know, well wishes to people who might be struggling and posting about it or, or even just celebrating their successes or laughing at the jokes. You know, all of that is is really important, probably now more than, than we’ve known in recent times, because people are sometimes at home alone. And you know, they may be, you know, without a lot of human interaction. So that’s a great way as, as a you know, real estate professional where your job is to maintain these relationships. But is a great time now to reach out and demonstrate that. Yeah, I read this story about you. And I think I want to end with this because this well, I read the story that that was provided about. And I thought this is particularly not that it needs to be the most amazing story ever told, because I don’t want to set that expectation for you. But here’s why I liked it. Because I think it really reflected who you are. And I think this it’s a silly story. But it actually is a perfect sort of idea for our listeners to go, Okay, if I have this sort of attitude and mentality. Here’s where I might end up. So if you don’t mind me, or if you don’t mind that long preamble. Tell us about the drape story.

Emily Ackerman 32:58
Oh, my God. I like just close this property. So Mike. Yes. Okay. No, I think this is honestly a great story because it really kind of it shows who I am at my core and like the type of agent I am. So I have this property that the sellers had moved out. They were currently living out of state and we were doing some work to the unit to get it ready to go and it was like 95% ready I had scheduled my photographer was going to be meeting him and the my clients, she got her painter back to do some touch ups. She was like super neurotic about it wanted it perfect. What are the painters? Do they take the drapes off the walls, and I had arrived early before my photographer making sure everything was great and you know, wiping things down. And I you know, I walk into the room and I’m like, you’ve got to be kidding me. Their drapes are sitting in the middle of the room. I’m like, like, I’m five foot two, there’s no way I could, you know, physically get these back, you know, reinstalled. I’m like, okay, Emily, I’m talking to myself. I’m like, we got to get it in gear. So I found out I’m like, Okay, where’s the nearest Ace Hardware? I drive myself over there. I somehow like miraculously convinced the manager I traded my driver’s license in to use like their store ladder, because apparently you can’t return ladders these days. And I don’t know what I would have done with like, a ladder. And ladders

D.J. Paris 34:33
are really expensive.

Emily Ackerman 34:35
Expensive. Expensive. Yeah, they thought I was crazy. They’re like, you’re basically going to steal our ladder. And I’m like, no, okay, here’s my driver’s license. I’m going to be back in the next hour. So just like bear with me. They’re like, okay, girlfriend, like, you know, we have your driver’s license. So I hauled this ladder into my car. It barely fit I was like that person with like their trunk open door. Driving back to this property driving slow because I’m like, I don’t have a driver’s license, I get back to the property, haul it all the way up all these stairs. It’s a duplex. So I have even more stairs to go down and I get all of these drapes up and haul it all the way down these steps into my car and returned it. And to make it even better. It was so hot out. I mean, I had pit stains. Thankfully, I didn’t have any other appointments the rest of the day. But it’s like that’s kind of like, you know what I had to do to make sure that my photos looked amazing because that property was going on the market in days. I needed my you know, my photos. And I think I remember I think I remember texting Kelly Parker and saying anyone who’s questioning any any Millennials about not being resourceful? Come at me. Yeah, I was like, I was super hyped to how resourceful I was. But like that’s, I think, a prime example of what you have to do for your clients. And I sucked it up and I and I actually remember I was not like, in like, you know, I was, I think it was in a blazer that day. And I just took it off. And I was like, let’s do this. And yeah, the photos turned out great. And we sold the property for full asking price. So made me feel good.

D.J. Paris 36:22
Well, if there are any other buyers, sellers, investors, renters who want to work with a realtor that’s willing to basically steal the ladder. No, you did not steal the ladder, you you bartered with your your driver’s license and then go to their home to stand up on your tiptoes on the top of the ladder to get the drapes in stalled for the photos if somebody’s looking for a Realtor with that sort of dedication, because we do have listeners who oftentimes find their broker this way, Emily, what’s the best way somebody should reach out to you?

Emily Ackerman 36:55
The best way would probably be email, Emily E M, i l y at Chicago home collective.com. You can also call or text me I still have my Kansas City number. It’s unique 913-314-3112. Or you can find me on the compass site, or Chicago home collective or at Chicago home collective on Instagram also.

D.J. Paris 37:18
Yeah, and also Yeah, follow Emily as well on Instagram, which is Emily Ackerman underscore real estate. So Emily, this was a real honor for us. And I think you I know you gave our listeners a lot of great tips, in particular around being just having a process and just going for it. And just keeping your head down and doing the work and, and the success that you’ve had in your you know, early, early part of your career is so exciting and very inch. I’m sure our listeners will be very interested to see, as you know, your star continues to rise. So thank you so much for being on the show. On behalf of Emily and myself to the listeners of course we say thank you. We ask the listeners to do we ask you to do two quick things. If you don’t, they don’t mind before signing off. One think of one other real estate professional that you know that could benefit from hearing from an interview just like this one with Emily. In fact, how about this one and send them this episode and you can shoot them right over to our website, which is keeping it real pod.com We have all of our episodes, of course there you can stream it right on our website. Also, follow us on Facebook. So we’re keeping it real I’m sorry, we’re facebook.com forward slash keeping it real pod or just search for keeping it real podcast will pop up. But every single day we post an article that we find online that was written specifically to help real estate agents grow their business. And also we post the videos to these interviews. And you can actually watch them live as we’re recording them on our Facebook page. So please follow us there. Emily, thank you so much for being part of our show. We were so excited to have you and again, congratulations on the 30 under 30 award. That’s absolutely amazing. I appreciate that. And thanks and we will see everyone next time. Thanks.

Emily Ackerman 39:03
next time. Bye

For 32 years Sharon Rizzo of The Rizzo Group at Coldwell Banker has been one of Chicago’s top producing real estate brokers. She’s been the city’s #1 agent (out of 42k agents) and has built up a team that specializes in everything from luxury properties to investment opportunities for developers. In our conversation Sharon discusses the importance of adding investments to your portfolio, and how she and her team are staying as busy as ever during the current stay-at-home order.

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

Sharon Rizzo can be reached at (312) 953-4086 and sharon.rizzo@cbexchange.com.


Transcript

D.J. Paris 0:00
This episode of Keeping it real is brought to you by Agent youtube.com. Would you like more leads that find you instead of you finding them. Let the YouTube agents show you how the YouTube agents started making videos with no sphere of influence. This year, they’re on pace to close more than 100 sales all from Leads generated On YouTube, they put a step by step video program to show you exactly what to do and what not to do to become a YouTube real estate superstar. Visit agent youtube.com to learn more and sign up today. That’s agent youtube.com. And now on to the show.

Hello, and welcome to another episode of Keeping it real the largest podcast made by real estate agents. And for real estate agents. My name is DJ Paris, I am your guide and host through the show. And guys, we have over 150 episodes now. And that is really exciting. And I encourage everyone who’s newer to the show, to go back and read through the titles and descriptions of previous episodes, because so much of the content that our guests share is really timeless, and will could really stand you know, my idea starting the show was to create a library of the stories of top producers. And we’re really proud to say we’re we’ve hit a bit of a milestone. So we only have done that, of course because we have listeners. So thank you to everyone who has supported us and who continues to support us please remember to tell a friend and follow us also on Facebook. But guys, I just wanted to say thank you and now on to our interview with the great Sharon Rizzo.

Today on the show we have Sharon Rizzo of the Rizzo group from Coldwell Banker here in Chicago. If you’re not yet familiar with Sharon, everyone in Chicago who’s listening is already familiar. But for our listeners who aren’t yet familiar with Sharon, who live elsewhere, let me tell you a little bit about her. Sharon Rizzo is a familiar name in Chicago real estate. Her 32 year career is peppered with professional accolades, multimillion dollar deals, and industry recognition among local and national developers. More recently, she was the Chicago Association of Realtors Golden Eagle winner, which basically means she was the top agent in the city. And by the way, we should mention before I continue with Sharon’s bio, there are 42,000 realtors in the Chicagoland area. So this is a big, big accomplishment. It turns out, she did over 114 million in residential sales in 2005. Sharon had more than 60 million in sales in one year, making her the number one agent in Lincoln Park. That same year, she co founded a family run brokerage with her husband, Santo and their daughter Kelly, which later evolved into the Rizzo group. Now at your service through Coldwell Banker, Residential Brokerage, and I drive by her office every day on the way into my own office. And obviously, it’s a little The streets are a little less crowded at the moment, but excited to finally get Sharon Rizzo on the socials. Sharon, thank you so much for being part of the show.

Sharon Rizzo 3:32
Well, you’re welcome, DJ. I’m thrilled to be here. And good to know that you drive by the office all the time. We’re one of the few offices that actually has a parking lot,

D.J. Paris 3:40
usually huge parking lot.

Sharon Rizzo 3:42
It’s the know how cool is that?

D.J. Paris 3:44
For our listeners, Linkin Park is one of the most desired areas in all of Chicago. And parking is a massive premium. So you guys have the biggest parking lot of any any real estate firm I’ve ever seen.

Sharon Rizzo 3:58
very thrilling. We’re all happy about that, for sure.

D.J. Paris 4:01
Well tell us a little bit about you. You’ve been in real estate for such a long time and have such

Sharon Rizzo 4:05
oh my gosh, for a long time. I know how you got started. I know I was I had sort of a weird background. I mean, not weird, but an unusual background in that I was an audiologist actually at the University of Chicago. So I said I’ve great from the neck up, treat. We treated a lot of hearing issues, but mostly I diagnosed hearing problems. And I had a part time practice there. And then in my much younger days, I was under contract to Playboy models and traveled about 100,000 miles a year mostly as a narrator model spokesperson for major corporations and got married and decided I wanted to have a family and it probably wouldn’t be a good idea to travel 100,000 miles a year with a young family. So I was looking for something not to replace the audiology necessarily because that was a flexible part time thing but to replace the modeling, I was kind of done smiling and being on all the time. So I thought it was a good time. And my husband was with American Invesco at the time, which was sort of the condominium conversion king of the business. And he got me started and got me interested in sales, which I never thought I would be interested in. And little by little I eased into it completely became a sales manager for them, gave up my practice at the University of Chicago and became a full time realtor was also working for NBC a little bit as a broadcaster. So I gave that up as well. And I’ve been in real estate, the rest of my entire career, up until now.

D.J. Paris 5:49
Yeah, right. And everything’s changed. But, of course, I’m sure you’re still trucking along, you have a huge team we should mention, Sharon’s team is 15. People at this point, 15 realtors, and may even be growing in the future. But which can tell us a bit about why you developed a team? Was there a need at some point where business just became so so big and constant that you needed additional help?

Sharon Rizzo 6:16
Yes, that’s exactly what happened. I had been a sales manager in general brokerage for many years anyway. So I was used to managing a large group of people. So it was kind of natural for me. And little by little, I found that people sort of one or two to join, and it just really grew organically. As a result, we were also working on some very special projects that really required more people than just what my husband and myself could could accommodate. So it grew a little by little and now we have a team of 15. And they are really a diverse, terrific group. I can’t speak highly enough of the team. We’re very excited and the sales manager at Coldwell Banker has been so supportive and just terrific. So it’s been a great, great opportunity for us with Coldwell Banker.

D.J. Paris 7:07
Yeah, I am curious to know and I’m sure our listeners would be curious to know since you’re the head of, of this big team, how are you? What are you talking to your team about these days? Since we know right now, while we’re recording this, probably most of the country is still under a stay at home order. Real estate agents are likely at home most of the day as well. How are you and your team staying busy? What are you guys doing to keep the business running and growing?

Sharon Rizzo 7:35
Well, it’s interesting that you asked that because tomorrow first zoom virtual team meeting with with all 15 members and really going to see how they’re doing of course, I’ve kept in touch with them individually anyway. But they are doing virtual open houses virtual showings. Literally wearing masks and protective gear going up showing homes when when applicable. Sometimes we specialize a lot in condominiums, of course, being a downtown broker. And some buildings do not permit you to even come in. Some buildings aren’t even believe it or not permitting move ins and move outs which I was a little surprised at. But yeah, so most of it has been virtually However, one thing that we’re trying to get everyone to focus on right now is what is out there. That’s a really good investment. Because if you can find some really good investments right now, and there are quite a few. It. It’s, I think an easier time to get people focused on that to get buyers focused on that right now. So we’re really working on that.

D.J. Paris 8:52
Yeah, let’s talk a little bit about investments because I know that’s a particular passion of yours to educate other agents about wealth building through through real estate investments. So can you talk a little bit about you know, how you started, obviously, you know, with your history, you would have come across investors along the way. But But why why is this such a passion for you?

Sharon Rizzo 9:14
Well, we started out in condominium conversions. American Invesco was very well known for converting major high rises like Lake point tower, Millennium center, even which was new construction, which was a little bit different. And because of that, because you have to have a 50% presale, for example, in most of those buildings. To get that you really have to focus on investors. And that was very, very popular at the time because interest rates were not as low as they are now, which is another reason to be focusing on it but enough to where you had very little negative cash flow with about 20% down and so it was very, very easy and very popular to get investors to buy In condominiums, especially in a conversion, because you had a renter already built in, so we started focusing on that very early on, and really focusing not so much on selling the real estate per se, but rather what the real estate did for you. For example, you know, giving you the, let’s say, vacation home that you’ve always wanted, or sending the kids to college or whatever additional, you know, an independent retirement, for example. So we are focused on what the real estate could do for you, rather than the real estate per se. And we were able to build up a very large body of investors that we had that we were also able to refer to some of our team. So that has been very, very, very a big part of our business from the very beginning. And still is.

D.J. Paris 10:53
Yeah, I’ve always thought that real estate, if it was done with with the way you were mentioning as an investment is really an annuity at that point, and hopefully a cashflow positive annuity. But now with rates being as low as they are, really creates a lot more opportunities. And I wanted to ask you this, because we’ve had a lot of guests on the show over the years, who are real estate investors. And so seems that and then, of course, with with my own experience with realtors at our own firm, we have a lot of investors here as well. And it seems that the prevailing thought, and I’m saying this for the benefit of the audience who might not be working with investments or investors, that a lot of times a realtor might think or listener might think, well, I don’t know any investors and and from everyone I’ve ever talked to in sharing, I want to get your thoughts on this is that the guests will always often say, Well, that’s actually the easy part, finding the investor isn’t difficult, because there’s lots of people that that are cashflow heavy, or cash heavy, rather that are ready to to get a seven to 9% return, if that’s possible, but finding the deal is the challenge like don’t worry about the investors, they’ll show up, find the deal first. And then you know, typically the finding the money is the easier part, would you would you agree with that?

Sharon Rizzo 12:07
But yes, I would. And I think that what’s interesting to look at is pre 2008 when the market crashed, if you will, pre 2008 The interest rates were like seven and a half percent in like 2005 2006. So if you put say 10% down as an investor, and you could get that financing, then you would have a significant negative cashflow. Yeah, but because real estate has always appreciated from the very beginning, even in the 1980s, when it went up to 20%, there was a little bump, for sure, for a few years, but it jumped right back up. So we never had that big huge dip that we did in 2008. So you always banked on appreciation, and didn’t care, really about the negative cash flow. So in 2008, however, that, you know, that became a problem. And people were let you know, that’s when you had a lot of short sales and foreclosures, because people could not support it. But now, with interest rates literally being less than half of what they were in pre 2008. Now you can put 20% down and not have a negative cash flow. So even if there were a problem down the line, which we don’t anticipate that to happen again, like it did in 2008, because a lot of those problems have been connected, like giving a loan to someone who had a pulse. And yeah, all right. So as a result of that you don’t have a negative cash flow. So you don’t, you’re not going to have that kind of a problem that you did with teaser rates that they were giving pre 2008 And then all of a sudden you were left with a maybe a $2,000 a month negative cash flow on a $300,000 purchase, and a lot of people can support it.

D.J. Paris 14:00
Yeah. Well, and now and the other thing too about working with investors or or, you know, investment groups, is that right now, whereas, you know, realtors aren’t as easily able to show properties. A lot of times investors don’t need to see the property anyway, right? They just want to look at the numbers. And what a great opportunity with rates being as low as they are to find those those deals and present those to

Sharon Rizzo 14:24
exactly they will they will buy sight unseen, especially with a good virtual tour. Even if you have to do it subject to seeing it down the line lock in the deal now that I was able to do four of them as a matter of fact, in the past couple of weeks sight unseen just because of the very low interest rates and some of the great deals that are out there right now you have to look for them, but they are there.

D.J. Paris 14:48
So this is a good question. And I’m gonna I’m gonna ask you a difficult question that I know is is one that has could have a an hour long answer, but wanting to get some tips from you for our listeners who haven’t yet Get started to work with investors or find investments. But any ideas about how they can start to educate themselves on different opportunities where to search for properties? Obviously, the MLS is one, one area, but then there’s a lot of properties that never hit the MLS for investment purposes. So just some suggestions to our listeners, if you don’t mind about how they can start to educate about how this all works.

Sharon Rizzo 15:25
No, absolutely not. DJ, I think that, first of all, I’d love to find A plus B buildings, and a plus locations. Sure. And a lot, there are quite a few of those in River North high rise condominiums where they’re pretty maintenance free, you really can, as an investor purchase something in one of those buildings and really not have to worry too much about it. They have large staffs, and engineer maintenance person on site in many cases. And they’re also priced right in that sweet spot. Use me that my good is in that sweet spot right around, say 250 to $350,000. Square, one bedrooms, I generally suggest one bedrooms in that 250 to 350 range in a big building and an A plus location, there are a lot of them. And you will find that you will have very little if any negative cashflow was sometimes even 10% down if you can get that kind of financing. Right now 20% down for investors, maybe 25 is easy 20 You can get if you look for it. And it’s that would be my advice is to stick in that sweet, sweet sweet spot between 250 350,000 Generally a one bedroom, maybe a studio where you’re going to go down into the, say 170 to $210,000 range, and in a major high rise, but maybe one that’s a little bit older, but again, in a great location that’s always going to be sought after can’t go wrong with that. Yeah, that’s

D.J. Paris 17:18
very true. And we have to remember to that right now. I mean, with with investments, the lending is a little bit different, right? So you’re putting probably more down and the rates are slightly higher than if it’s best. But there’s still so incredibly low,

Sharon Rizzo 17:34
exactly, you’re going to be at you are going to pay a little bit more, but there’s still way too low to where it reduces your negative cash flow to virtual Well, when you consider the tax break. And depreciation, actually, it’s probably going to be a slight positive cash flow, which was not the case pre 2008.

D.J. Paris 17:54
That’s very true. So for everyone listening, by the way, there’s a great resource, I always recommend to get incredible knowledge, it’s probably not the best resource online. It’s called bigger pockets.com. It’s the largest forum for real estate investors. They just chat back and forth all day. And they have podcasts and books and all sorts of other things, but go to bigger pockets. And it’s a wonderful education, because it’ll connect you with other investors, but also just people talking investments all day.

Sharon Rizzo 18:20
No, I’m learning something.

D.J. Paris 18:23
You don’t need any in education. No, I

Sharon Rizzo 18:26
trust me, I can always stand to learn something. But I have to remember that that’s really good to know.

D.J. Paris 18:33
Well, and you know, obviously you don’t only work with investors to you work with traditional buyers and sellers, renters. can talk a little bit about you, do you mind sharing a little bit about how your team is structured? Is everyone working with their own clients? Or is it is it a collaborative approach where there’s different roles? How do you guys have it setup?

Sharon Rizzo 18:53
Well, we, I would say we’re kind of flexible on that everybody certainly works with their own clients. Sure. They work both rentals, no sales, absolutely. But right now we are working on some special projects that involve condominium D conversions. Now if someone had told me a few, a few years ago, I wouldn’t even I didn’t even know what that word meant. Many D conversion How could you ever D convert a large building a condominium to a rental What are specialty had been converting them from rentals to condominiums. I mean, it was it’s just unbelievable what has happened in the past five years. And we have been consultants for a company who has specialized in condominium D conversions. And we’ve gotten our entire team involved in that. So that’s some additional, an additional avenue for them. In addition to just general brokerage, and having the support of a major company You like Coldwell Banker and our sales manager who’s been very active as well, in helping to support the team?

D.J. Paris 20:07
I wanted to ask as well about rentals. So you’ve been a broker for so long. And I’m curious, and there’s a lot of realtors who get their license or who are, you know, building their business, and maybe they’re starting out, and they’re going well, I didn’t get my broker license to do rentals, right, I want to do the big sales, but maybe they don’t have a lot of sales right now, which probably most brokers don’t when they start out. And so I’ve always recommended to brokers who have the time to do it to do rentals, because not only can those people turn into buyers down the road, which hopefully they will, but you can, you know, learn that it’s a more immediate type of transaction. So there’s not as long as the lead time also gets you introduced to the to real estate, the local real estate market, and you can start to learn, of course of the different buildings that support apartments. But just curious on on what your thoughts are on rentals, right. Right now I know the rental market is I mean, well, we’re supposed to be right in the middle of rental market, of course, things have slowed a bit with stay at home. But right now in Chicago, normally, this would be our biggest rental time of the year. Just curious your thoughts on rentals.

Sharon Rizzo 21:16
And well, first of all, I totally agree with you, I think it’s a great way to get started, especially for a new agent, because it takes a while by the time you, you make your first sale, even if you’re doing pretty well, it could be four to six months, where with a rental, you get paid very, very quickly. Like you say you learn the market, you learn the ropes very, very quickly. I think that that’s a great way to get started, particularly for a new agent. So we highly recommend it. We have a lot of people on our team, who do rentals to support particularly the investors when you we have such a big investment base, that we have to get involved with the rental market to make sure that you’re doing full service real estate and giving them the proper service that they need. So it is great for full service Realty as well as getting new agents up and running in the business.

D.J. Paris 22:13
I also wanted to ask you about open houses. So right now open houses have changed. There’s probably no open houses at the moment. But But when things get back to normal, and of course they will hopefully sooner rather than later, but without a yet to be seen. But when things do resume normal to normal, how important Have you found open houses to be obviously from helping the seller, you know, get more marketing exposure to to the property, but also from a broker’s perspective going in and possibly finding buyers to to then work with on other properties? Is that an important part of of what your team focuses on with listings?

Sharon Rizzo 22:52
I think it’s important for the seller for sure. Yes. And I think it’s it’s obviously part of our marketing strategy, assuming that the seller wants a public open house. Sure. Some sellers do not. I do think what is very important is a broker’s open house for listings. And so we always encourage that, and very few sellers would not want you to have a broker’s open, but you want to expose as many other brokers to the property as possible. I never count on the fact that I’m going to sell the property through an open house. Sure. But I certainly want to expose it and also other brokers will come to an open house, and you still may sell it through another broker through an open house. So I think it’s important on many levels because of that.

D.J. Paris 23:43
That’s a really good point. Sharon, and I’m so glad you mentioned the broker’s open open house because I think you may be our first guest that’s talked about that, believe it or not, and we’ve done 150 Some episodes so I want to meet I want to circle back to that. So for everyone listening there is a you know, the opportunity to do open houses just for brokers is something that is somewhat popular here in Chicago and in your local market. It may or may not be what a great opportunity to get other realtors I mean it is called a cooperative commission. Right? So

Sharon Rizzo 24:14
it’s it is it is Let’s cooperate but reason.

D.J. Paris 24:17
But the most successful agents that I have known when they started out and maybe even they still do, although of course right now things things are paused. But when when when times are more normalized. The most successful agents I know go to those broker opens, they want to see what the inventory looks like because then they look more professional and more knowledgeable to their own clients. So hosting open houses just for brokers is a wonderful and smart idea. And the people that show up are typically going to be successful agents that want to see what else is out there. So

Sharon Rizzo 24:51
absolutely, absolutely. I think their broker’s open is really the most important. I think it’s actually more important than the typical Sunday open house. Wow, be honest, I really do. on many levels, you’ll find that brokers who are very experienced, they want to know what’s out there on the market, particularly if it’s if there’s a shortage. If they’re working with a specific client, they want to preview it, and what a great way to preview it without asking for an appointment without a client. And it’s also a great way for new agents. So new people on my team, for example, that’s one way that you encourage them to learn the market to learn what the inventory is out there in and to meet other brokers and establish relationships. So it has many far reaching advantages beyond just the open house, but the primary reason is to expose that property to as many brokers as possible, because they all are working with clients. So it’s, it’s very, very important. And it’s, there is a particular day, and it’s usually Tuesday from say, 10 to two, you can pick hours within that timeframe where it’s actually advertised on the MLS as right, right, and brokers look there, and they want to know what is out there, particularly if they’re working with a client and they want to preview it, they can go back to their client. See, I saw the perfect property for you, you got to see this. So it’s very important.

D.J. Paris 26:21
Yes. So I’m so glad you said that. And thank you for that information. And also think, you know, as everyone who’s listening, let’s think about the proposition, the value proposition to the seller, to be able to say, you know, I’m actually going to do two types of open houses for you. One is going to be for the innocent, I’m assuming that that’s what they want. But say, you know, one, of course will be for buyers to come in and view the property. But I’m also going to do a private open house, just for other agents in our area, because I want to expose, I want them to see this property. And and by the way, so So you guys understand, of course, that conversation, but I would almost bet that if you are up against a another agent, you’re both doing listing presentations, there may be looking at two or three brokers who did go with somebody who says, here’s why I’m going to do two different kinds. That is number one, I’m going to separate you from probably the other brokers that you’re in competition with. But also just it’s just a really good idea on top of it to help get more exposure to the property.

Sharon Rizzo 27:19
Yes, I agree with you. And one other thing that I stress with my, my team is not using lockboxes. unless you absolutely have to, particularly if it’s a property in certain instances, you can if it’s a vacant property, for example, but if it’s a higher end property, I still see brokers using open, I’m using lock boxes all the time, even on a million dollar property. And nobody knows that property better than the other than the seller than the listing agent. Because you’ve made it your business to know it, obviously, you need to show that property. And if a seller is going to hire us specifically to do it, then you should do it and not just let someone walk in on their own when they don’t understand what the you know, the highlights of the property are. There might be a lot about that property that that an agent just walking, and even the best agent walking in would not would not they would likely not know. So it’s very important. And that’s what separate can separate you sometimes as you say, I’m not I’m going to be there whenever possible to show that property. You know, in person, I’m not going to rely just on a lockbox because why would you be hiring me if you’re going to lose use a lockbox all the time?

D.J. Paris 28:42
That’s they can get their own lockbox? Exactly. Yeah. No, that’s it’s a very fair point. And I know this is a debate in the real estate community probably nationwide about should I go to my own showings for my listing? And and some people say yes, most brokers I think would agree that’s that’s a good idea. But that’s the conversation you can have with the buyer’s agent and say, hey, just so you know, I prefer to be there. I can stay out of the way I won’t interfere. But I want to make sure I answer those questions so that you, Mr. or Mrs. buyer’s agent, don’t feel the pressure to have to know everything about this property, I’m going to be your resource. We’re working together, you know, your clients won’t feel uncomfortable, you know, but I want to make sure that I can present the property in the way that that you don’t have to feel the pressure to, to know everything, so

Sharon Rizzo 29:29
Exactly, exactly. And particularly if it’s a higher end larger property, it becomes even more important. And you might do a lockbox on a vacant unit, even if it’s higher. And in the event. Let’s say someone is passing by and they want to see it right then and it’s impossible for you to get there and it’s a broker who might be familiar with the property. That would be a reason to do it. But for the most part, I tried to separate myself on a listing presentation by saying And then I want to be there for all the showings to sell the property rather than just show it

D.J. Paris 30:06
absolutely could not agree more. What a great suggestion. And for right now, for everyone who’s not going to a showing, you could tell the other agent, if they’re still going with their client and you’re unable to go or you’re a stay at home order. You could say, well, if you want put me on FaceTime, and I’ll be there. And I at least could answer questions as your client walks through. So but But what a what a great suggestion. I’m so so grateful that you

Sharon Rizzo 30:30
and so many people, you mentioned FaceTime, and of course, so many agents are using FaceTime now they’ll go through the property and use FaceTime with their clients. Yeah. During this this time, especially with a lockdown. So I’m glad you brought that up.

D.J. Paris 30:45
Yes, it’s where it’s this virtual world. It’s funny.

Sharon Rizzo 30:49
Can we recruit you on?

D.J. Paris 30:52
Yeah, well, I work just down the street, I’m only a couple blocks from you. So pretty close by you know, it’s funny, I have always know people who are listening can’t see this. But for everyone watching you will be LCS, I am normally in in a, you know, a tie and a shirt and suit pants. And this is this is it’s been kind of nice for the last month that we’re at stay at home. Even though I’m going into the office, I can dress down a bit. So I’m actually quite excited not to be so formally dressed, casual and fun. Yeah. So I apologize for everyone watching this and seeing that I’m a slightly dressed down. But it’s, as soon as the stay at home orders lifted, I’ll be back to my tie and my uncomfortable shirt and tie. But

Sharon Rizzo 31:39
on the bottom right? Well, that would

D.J. Paris 31:41
I would love that I do get to I do bring my dog to the office. So she’s underneath the desk. So that’s a lot of fun. But, you know, John, I wanted to also ask, you know, you have seen so many brokers. And when I say broker for everyone listening, of course, different parts of the country call real estate professionals, different titles. Here in Illinois, everyone’s a broker. So if I say the word broker, you’re like, I don’t know what that means. Or that only means people who own their own firm in Chicago or in Illinois, rather, that’s everyone’s, so I should just say realtor, a real estate professional. But you’ve seen a lot of real estate professionals, start their business become successful, I’m sure you’ve seen other agents struggle, and maybe even leave the industry without having the success they want. For anyone who’s looking to get to the, you know, to that next level, whether it’s just hey, I did three deals three sales last year, I want to get to six, or I did 30 sales last year, I want to get to 60, or whatever those numbers might be. Do you have any suggestions for what agents could do? Right now, when we’re all stuck at home? Were not able to as freely walk around and drive around? What would you suggest to to help agents, you know, grow their business?

Sharon Rizzo 32:51
That that is a great question. And the first thing I say is don’t be a secret agent, which I think a lot of agents tend to be you have to remember, you know, think sales 24/7. And it’s funny, normally, if we were not in this lockdown, I would say one of the first things is to get out to a good networking group. But I think we couldn’t, we will sort of skip that right now. And I, you know, again, I don’t know whether, you know, I’m coming back to the investments all the time. But this is a great time to do that. Because you, you are less likely to have your buyer or your potential buyer have to see the property in person, if you can give them a good virtual tour because it is more about the numbers. And what you know what the potential upside is of this particular property. So I think it would be a great time to look through the MLS pick some great again, B buildings and an A plus location and come up with some investments, from studios to one bedrooms, perhaps to start in that 175 up to $300,000 range, you’re going to find if you do your numbers with 20% 25% down, you very likely will not have a negative cash flow. And the returns are great. And come up with maybe four or five properties and try to link them up with some people you know, who have some cash to put down maybe even more and could do a cash deal, which would be even better. And I think that’s a great thing to do during this particular time. As opposed to somebody who’s actually going to live in the property because it may be a little tougher right now for that.

D.J. Paris 34:39
Yeah, I think you’re right. So Sharon saying learn study, start studying real estate investments, you know, it’s a great opportunity for you to add that to your skill set. So if you’re a realtor who is traditionally just working with buyers and sellers, you know non investors, this is a great time to add this because you The worst thing to happen is to a real estate agent, unless they’re just so incredibly busy, they’re happy to pass off a transaction to another agent. But if you’re not that busy, what you never want to happen is somebody to say, you know, I, I actually have want to do some investing. And you say, well, that’s not really what I know, or I do. And I have to now refer you out, which is okay, of course, but to spend this time that we probably all have a little bit more time than we have had in the past, to start to increase that knowledge so that you can service those customers, because you’re missing out.

Sharon Rizzo 35:33
Exactly, it’s a great way you can create your own deal here. Yes, rather than I think that is so important, you can create your own deal rather than waiting for somebody who has to sell a home, which is a little tough right now, or waiting for the buyer who has to see a home because they’re buying their, you know, a property for them, which is a little different mindset, of course, it’s still an investment. And it’s still important to focus on that. But it’s different when you’re focusing strictly on numbers. And this is a great time to create your own deal. By doing that, where you’re focusing on the numbers, and matching up someone you know, with a particular property downtown, pretty much like I was talking about in River North with the ayllu, you know, a plus location B property.

D.J. Paris 36:20
Yeah, I couldn’t agree more. And you know, we have so our listeners are not only real estate professionals, we also have buyers, sellers, investors, as well, who listen to the show, we’re really fortunate to have have a lot of listeners who listen to every episode. So if anyone is looking for a real estate professional who has a tremendous amount of experience, one of the top agents production wise here in Chicago, and has a team as well as a company, a wonderful company that’s supporting her. We you know, what, if somebody wants to work with you, or anyone on your team, Sharon, what’s the best way they should reach out to you?

Sharon Rizzo 36:58
Well, I think they could certainly look us up, obviously, through Coldwell bankers website. And I couldn’t be reached and I’m happy to also introduce anybody to someone on my team who I think might fit that person’s needs really well, we have all different age range. We’re very, very diverse team. And I’m really proud of these people. But my email, for example, is Sharon dodge Rizzo at CB exchange.com. That would be the best way.

D.J. Paris 37:33
Yeah, definitely reach out to share and her team is always growing, and they’re doing more deals after more deals year after year. And not only that, but just the amount of information and knowledge and and the generosity that Sharon has and provides. Her team is well known here in Chicago. So definitely, whether you’re, you know, an individual looking for an agent, or maybe even you’re somebody who’s looking to see what teams are offering. As for other realtors definitely reach out to Sharon to see to see how that all happens. But Sharon, I think this is a great place for us to pause. And to I would like on behalf of Sharon and myself to thank our listeners for continuing to support our show listening, we ask always just two quick favors from our listeners. One is think of another real estate professional that could benefit from hearing this great interview you just heard from Sharon, and please pass this over to them, they can always visit our website, which is keeping it real pod.com and stream every episode we’ve ever done. I think this is probably our 156 there. So episode, we have this huge history of a huge backlog in the library of content that they can go through. But also the second thing is we asked you to everyone to please follow us on Facebook. And then I’ll explain why in just a moment. So but you can find us on facebook.com forward slash keeping it real pod. In addition to posting of course all of our episodes, we also every day, find an article online written by some institution designed to help Realtors grow their business. So we try to provide great content there as well. But on behalf of the listeners and myself, Sharon, we want to thank you for being part of our show you were one of the when I first started this about four years ago, you’re at the very top of our list of shortlist of guests that were in our dream guest list. And we’re so grateful to finally got you on the show and appreciate I know how busy you are. So I really appreciate your time. And thank you for being part of it. And on behalf of Sharon and myself. We want to thank again the audience and we will see everybody on our next episode. So thank you so much.

Sharon Rizzo 39:39
Thank you, DJ. It was an absolute pleasure to be on your show. And I’m thrilled that you thought of me. Thank you so much.

D.J. Paris 39:48
Well, we’ll see everyone next time. Thank you. Thank you

Gail Spreen from Streeterville Properties of Jameson Sotheby’s International Realty knows the value of hyper-local branding. Gail has been a top real estate professional in Chicago for 26 years by specializing in one neighborhood – Streeterville. In our conversation Gail discusses the importance of getting involved in your community, and how merging your passion with your business can result in an amazing career.

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

Gail Spreen can be reached at 312.925.7668 and gail@streetervilleproperties.com


Transcript

D.J. Paris 0:00
This episode of Keeping it real is brought to you by Agent youtube.com. Would you like more leads that find you instead of you finding them? Let the YouTube agents show you how the YouTube agents started making videos with no sphere of influence. This year. They’re on pace to close more than 100 sales all from leads generated on YouTube. They put a step by step video program to show you exactly what to do and what not to do to become a YouTube real estate superstar. Visit agent youtube.com to learn more and sign up today. That’s agent youtube.com. And now on to the show.

Hello, and welcome to another episode of Keeping it real the largest podcast made by real estate agents and for real estate agents. My name is DJ Paris, I am your guide and host through the show. And in just a moment we’re going to be speaking with the Chicago legend Gail spreen. But before we get to Gail just a few quick reminders first, as always, thank you for continuing to support our show the ways in which you can help keep us growing two ways. While there’s many ways but I’ll only ask for two. One is to tell a friend and think of another real estate professional that could benefit from hearing from these types of episodes, interviews with top producers send them over to our website keeping it real pod.com If they’re already podcast, people just have them pull up any podcast app they use search for keeping it real they’ll find us but they can stream everything on our website as well and then the second way you can help us follow us on Facebook dot com forward slash keeping it real pod reason for that is we also in addition to posting all of our interviews, we’ve post videos of our interviews but also we post an article that we find online every single day written specifically to help you grow your business. Thanks guys hope everyone is staying safe and healthy. And now on to our interview with Gayle stream.

Today on the show we have Gail spreen from streetable properties at Jameson Sotheby’s by the way, Gail is an absolute legend here in the Chicago real estate professional industry. But for all of our listeners that aren’t yet familiar with Gail, let me tell you a little bit about her. Gail has been a real estate broker since 1994 and has focused her career entirely on the Chicago market working with large developers within the city, also specializing in the Streeterville neighborhood and downtown core. Gail represents a true real estate professional with disciplines and market knowledge to assist her clients in all aspects of their home buying and selling experience. Gail is proud to call st Earl her home and is also extremely This is an understatement, extremely active in both the residential and business communities as a five time president of soar, which is the Streeterville organization of active real residents rather, Gail is constant continually working to keep Streeterville neighborhood she works in the within the city departments and developers to make improvements to their projects that will enhance and improve the neighborhood and create value for the entire area. For those of you who are not as familiar with Chicago, if you’ve ever visited Chicago, you’ve been to Streeterville which is where the Magnificent Mile is Michigan Avenue all of the great shopping right on the water and is probably my my favorite area of the city too. But we want to Well oh and by the way, and you should visit Gail on her website at Streeterville properties.com. Gail, thank you so much for being on the show.

Gail Spreen 3:55
Oh, thank you, DJ, it’s great to be here.

D.J. Paris 3:58
You and I met not that long ago at a top producer event that you were on the panel for and I was fortunate enough to be able to moderate and I thought you had such great information to share to all of the realtors who were there, that we were thankful that you were able to come on our show and do the same for all of our nationwide listeners. So we appreciate it. Tell us a little bit since you’ve been in real estate since 1994. Tell us a little bit about how you got into the business and you know how things have changed over the years?

Gail Spreen 4:34
Well, they definitely have changed a lot. I actually got my sales license in 1991. And I I know that was back when you had to work for a broker at our time. And then I got my broker’s license in 94. But back when I got my sales license, I was like I don’t know what value is how can I actually tell somebody? This is really worth this much. So I went and I worked at an appraisal company at Night, and just typed appraisals so that I could like learn what the appraisers were talking about how they valued property. And then they started having me help them. And I was doing this kind of in the evenings and on weekends, as I worked at Draper and Kramer during the day in that department. Yeah. So I became an appraiser. And which gave me an I did that for 15 years, just Chicago downtown condos, when other appraisers didn’t want to come downtown and have to deal with condo buildings, I’m like, I’ll do the report. So I did 1000s of appraisals during those years. And you really learned something about all the buildings about value. And so I think it was, it was really helpful in my whole career in real estate is to really understand what the appraiser goes through, and how to value a property, and then to incorporate that into my real estate selling. So there’s been a number of stages through this, but it’s all kind of, you know, brings everything together.

D.J. Paris 6:05
And it’s, it’s so fun. I don’t mean to interrupt, I did want to make a big point, because Gail just said, a really important thing, talking about understanding the value of properties, through her experience, doing lots of appraisals over the years and, and also starting out sort of interning and working to learn that and realizing not just as a potential nother stream of income, but how she can bring that value back to her real estate clients and, and how 99% of Realtors don’t have that experience. And it really separates you from everyone else. What a really smart idea. I imagine that makes you very valuable to your clients?

Gail Spreen 6:44
Well, I think it helps. And it makes me more confident when I’m talking to people about where to price their property, where to put an offer in where the value really is, I can say, Hey, I’ve been an appraiser for 15 years. And, you know, this is how this kind of works. When I have to meet with other appraisers, it’s helpful to because I know exactly what they’re needing to get the report done. And if the data is not there, how do you work within that and come up with a value, I had to do that the other night with an appraiser who was struggling. So I kind of gave him some direction. And hopefully we’ll get the deal done. Nice and clean.

D.J. Paris 7:24
Well, that’s that’s, that’s a wonderful I’ve always been impressed with, with with realtors who go and really either get those certifications, or even really just study and learn, you know, to bring additional value, I think is so important. Especially now, when so much of it can be automated, right? A lot of like the Redfin’s and Zillow ‘s of the world have have taken some of the hard work away from the realtor of locating properties. But now you can come and say, Well, let’s talk about value. And here’s where I have 15 years of experience. And here’s where I think the actual price point should be. And that’s super powerful. I love it. Let’s I would love to talk to you. Because I know being a local present person in your community has been your you’ve branded it as your business you are you were in the community, you’re active, you have leadership roles. And for a lot of our listeners who you know, haven’t yet decided to really get involved with whatever area they’re passionate about, or where they want to focus their business. Can you talk a little bit about how that’s, you know, just how important that is to you and ultimately has that helped your business?

Gail Spreen 8:42
You know, I think it’s helped my business a lot, because especially now people are looking for expertise. So being able to really know your product, know your neighborhood know everything about your neighborhood, is really a much more of a value to bring to you to bring to the table when you’re working with a buyer or a seller. I feel like I can sell Streeterville probably better than anybody because I have a passion for it. And it usually comes through in the way that I talked about the neighborhood where I have a long term vision for the neighborhood and how it continually will get better and better. So I came to Streeterville in the beginning of 1997 and worked for Dan McLean of MCL on the development did South Street or belt back at that time, there was hardly anything here. And so being you know, seeing the neighborhood get built up, the neighborhoods just getting better. We could not even get a restaurant barely here in street or in South Street or well, because there wasn’t enough density. So now to see all the restaurant options we have, it’s hard to support them all because it’s you want to support them all but then you’re out like, you know, eating or, you know, eating all the time. But but so it’s really been A great part of my market from, from being an expert to knowing a lot of the people in the neighborhood. So having been here so long and worked with that people worked with people who are selling or buying, I always feel as a buyer, they become my neighbor. So I want everybody to be happy in our transactions, I want the seller happy, because with my economic development hat on, and my appraiser hat, I want to create value in everything that we’re doing. So I want them to get their best, you know, the best price, but on the buyer side, I want the buyers happy as well, because they’re going to be my new neighbor. And because I also feel that reputation is everything, especially in a niche market, I will go above and beyond for everybody for everything. Because I want everybody happy. And I always believe that, you know, that’ll pay off in the long run, to keep everyone happy. So it’s been a big part of my market, from doing all the different community work that I do for all these 20 some years. So and it’s been really fun. I love it. So it’s all been good. Yeah, I

D.J. Paris 11:11
wanted to I was curious, because obviously, you know, you work with clients, you know, throughout Chicago, not specifically only in the Streeterville neighborhood. But But that’s your primary focus. What percentage of your business is actually in Streeterville?

Gail Spreen 11:26
I would say probably about 90% is like, Yeah, I do some River North, I do some Lakeshore east, a little South Loop. And I really don’t necessarily want to go north of North Avenue. I don’t blame you. I mean, I can be super efficient. You know, sometimes when I’m just stay very local. Sometimes when people see me west of Michigan Avenue, they’re like, oh, my gosh, you’re out of your territory. And, yeah, but but so most of my business is like, right, you know, right here in Streeterville, which is great, because, again, everything’s super efficient, then and I can, you know, I can do a lot more in a smaller area, because I have been able to keep everybody happy having great partners within the industry, from your painters to your cleaners, we get a lot done with, you know, we can just coordinate a lot, very easily because we’re very local and very, you know, in a small area.

D.J. Paris 12:29
So when those off those small percentage clients that maybe are moving to the suburbs, let’s say, is it your policy to, you know, obviously, you could always help them if you desire. But do you end up referring a lot of business to other realtors as well,

Gail Spreen 12:46
I do. So I don’t want to do anything. That’s not my expertise. So anything in the suburbs, somebody else can do it. And I’m happy to do referrals, as well as I’ve got people in the suburbs who don’t want to share that don’t know, downtown, and they don’t want to try, you know, they really want their clients to be taken care of. So I will do a number of split deals with them as I take care of their clients for them. So it’s a good mutual setup that I have with different brokers in different areas.

D.J. Paris 13:20
Yeah, it’s I think it’s so important. And I think it’s a lot of a lot of times brokers, when they get their license, they join a firm, they certainly hear at some point, choose an area, geographic location, get involved in the community, start studying in the MLS, go visit all the buildings, and within a couple of years, you’re going to be really knowledgeable, of course about that area. I just suspect Most brokers maybe don’t take the time to actually do that they get life gets in the way. I had on Matt Lera see from a few maybe a month ago, and he did the same thing in River North when he moved to River North. He didn’t know anything about it. And he spent the first five years literally walking from building the building going What are you an apartment building? Are you a condo how does this work? And he said after five years, he’s like nobody knows River North better than him. And you’re obviously have the same the same expertise and Streeterville. And that makes you so valuable to everyone who wants to move or move within Streeterville or move to is probably is that advice that you have for for anyone who’s looking to to grow their businesses pick an area and get involved and learn it.

Gail Spreen 14:31
I would recommend that. I think that’s the best way to really get going to work with other brokers to do open houses that other brokers that are working in that area to do that because I still do after all these years they still do open houses on the weekends. And I’m in front of people all the time. I enjoy it because I’m needing more neighbors that I might not know. People see you’re busy so activity breeds activity so they You think you’re busy doing things, so it’s just a great way to meet more people. And to get more leads, if that, if that is your goal, my goal is usually to sell things. So but I love meeting, you know, meeting people in the neighborhood and, and people that want to come into the neighborhood for who are just checking out different areas and really don’t know Streeterville. So I could go on and on about Streeterville. So at some point, I have to, you know, like, give them my, my overall kind of, you know, talk about it just to make them I, I also believe in no surprises. So when somebody wants to, they’re looking what’s you know, picking between River North Streeterville Lakeshore East South Loop, you know, old town, you know, just being very upfront with them, these are a lot of the positive and negatives, you’re going to see about the different neighborhoods, and then have a new, you know, letting them decide and pick what fits the best, their lifestyle the best, and what they’re looking for. I never really want someone to go, you know, and to pick a neighborhood and they’d be like, Wow, I didn’t really think about that. I want people to really be happy with their decision, whether it’s street or build, whatever neighborhood doesn’t, you know, I don’t care. I just want them happy. So no surprises.

D.J. Paris 16:20
Yeah. And now and I think that’s, that’s a great customer service policy, no surprises. And you know, I think now since we are most of us are working from home, most of the country, whether we like it or not, we’re stuck at home, I snuck into the office, but we barricade the doors so no one else can get in. But most of us are at home. And especially for the listeners who are real estate professionals, which is 99% of our listeners, now is a great time to get familiar with the inventory in your area. For example, here in Chicago, especially where Gail is and in the city area. Rounding around Streeterville is a lot of high rise apartment buildings. And now’s the time to do the virtual tours, do that go to each one of their websites and get familiar if you’re somebody that’s into rentals, but a lot of condo buildings have that as well. But now’s the time to really this is we have extra time these days. And so now’s the time to really get your knowledge down for your area, you know, study the MLS know what the average price point is, for a one bedroom or a single family home or an apartment, you know, all the different options like you can really use this time to get more knowledgeable and as Gail such, think of how valuable you know someone is who wants to move to Streeterville. Gail is the best resource. Obviously, she has lots and lots of years of experience. But Gail did a lot of studying outside of of her, you know, working with clients to make sure that she could bring that knowledge to our clients. So great advice. Gail, that’s really awesome. Also, you know, what I would like to mention for all of our Chicago listeners is your husband is is he a sculptor? Is that his profession?

Gail Spreen 18:01
He is he’s a professional artist. And one of the fun things that has happened through the years is a number of years ago Gallopin company commissioned him to do a bronze sculpture of cat Streeter, who is eight foot bronze, at the corner of McClurg and grand in front of the yolk restaurant. So we have that and they do beautiful landscaping around cap. And so it’s cap in his dog spot. I’ve got a little statue of CAP Streeter, right here, who is my, my backup all the time. And but it’s kind of made us the historians of Streeterville as well, which is, which is great, because I love talking about history, and cap Streeter, which he was such a colorful character, and to think he lived right here. And just the whole development of how this neighborhood became what it is. It is kind of, I call it an irrational passion that I have. Because it’s I don’t understand why I’m so attracted to it, but I love the history of the neighborhood. And so with that, we are actually working right now on a documentary on the development of South Streeterville. It’s really we hope to have it done this year. But we hired a professional video company who interviewed all the developers that have been part of how this South Streeterville area became what it is today from Dirk Lowen, who is Mies van der Rohe is Grant son, who did the water cannon that shoots over the river. Oh, Charlie Gardner, who was head of Chicago dock and canal to Alderman Hopkins who was a great activist with me in Streeterville through the many years and now an alderman, we’ve got about 12 Different people we’ve interviewed. So now we’re putting all that together to tell the story of how Streeterville became what it is today. So that’s good. That’s really fun to work on and the history museum is going to be the repository and we’ll keep it. And it’s much more of a kind of urban planning film than really like some marketing film. But I’ve, you know, it all started because I had a buyer who said, How come this area is only getting developed now, and I’m like, Oh, my gosh, we have got to tell the story of how it was the busiest shipping port in the whole world. And now to see what it’s become today. So I think, you know, that was kind of my impetus to be like, let’s get this done. And let’s do it from the mouths of the guys who actually did the development instead of somebody else, just telling the story. So that was, we’re excited about getting it, getting it done and letting people see it. So kind of fun.

D.J. Paris 20:46
Wow. Well, I you know, it’s funny, we, we think a lot about how to how to grow our business. And I always think, you know, you should pick, pick something that is that you’re super passionate about, that you have an interest in, and just dive headfirst into it with respect to community, like find something about your local community that you are passionate, whether it’s a charitable organization, or just being involved in the Chamber of Commerce or pot, local politics, or whatever, get involved. And not only will, there’s a good chance that you’ll become more present in the community, maybe even get more clients as a result, which is not the reason to do it, of course, but a nice benefit. But also, you’ll just have a tremendous sense of pride. And it’s as Gail, you were saying, it’s fun, I feel that I feel that way about a few organizations of my own. And, yeah, it’s it’s fun to to be able to affect change, like you’re in leadership positions within the neighborhood. So that must be really exciting to be able to dictate sort of, in some ways to have input on what happens.

Gail Spreen 21:49
Absolutely. And just to know that the neighborhood is has become what it is, and a lot because of your input. And our work through all these years from development issues that we’ve identified, you know, different, different aspects of it of a development proposal that we can, we can say this isn’t gonna work, because we know how the streets work here, too, from doing that, to doing street cleanups to park cleanups to you name it, we are working on things that you know, just all try to make the neighborhood a better neighborhood. So it’s fun. And that’s something that I’ve always encouraged other brokers to do, get involved in your community, and otherwise, get involved in something, you know, maybe it’s some organization, maybe its paws, because you have a dog, maybe it’s the diabetes, you know, association, I don’t know. But there’s a gazillion different ways that people can, that organizations that really are looking for people to be involved, but pick something you’re passionate about. And then like you say, get, you know, dive in, get involved and really, you know, really try to not so much get business out of it, that will come you know, but get involved and try to help them. And when you help them, it will someday it should, you know come back as a benefit to you. But that should not be the goal.

D.J. Paris 23:15
You’re right. And it’s funny. I think what a lot of people forget is that a lot of organizations, whether they’re charitable, or part of your you know, your local community government, they are looking for people to do work. There’s never a shortage of good ideas, but the people that actually execute those ideas are in short supply. So you know, if you’re not currently participating in your community, or in organizations where you can actually be a value, boy, that, you know, not only will you be helping that organization, but also you’re going to have a tremendous sense of community and pride, just doing that. And then ultimately, hopefully, you know, it makes you more present in the community and more people know about you. And of course, that can lead to more business. But even if it doesn’t lead any business, you’ll just have a tremendous sense of fulfillment, I think. But yeah, but there’s, there’s never there’s, we always say this because I’m on I work with a few different organizations, and we never have a problem coming up with ideas. It’s always who’s gonna actually execute these ideas. So if you’re somebody that likes to do work, and be able to, you know, get involved as I mean, all the organizations I’m a part of, we’d love to have anybody that’s willing to do that. So, but you’ve been a good shining example of somebody who has done that work time and time again, in many, many organizations.

Gail Spreen 24:35
Well, people do say I have a problem with not being able to say no,

D.J. Paris 24:40
yeah, that’s because they know that’s because they know your worker. They know if they get you on board, it’s gonna get done. So you’re very important. Yeah, let’s talk more more about real estate. So right now, of course, everything is changing or has changed, at least from our abilities to kind of come and go, although you were just did an inspection just moments before joining us. Have you seen any changes in the last month or so? Or is it business as usual? Right now?

Gail Spreen 25:13
Oh, there’s definitely changes because in the high rise buildings that I work in, we can’t get into them. There’s no showings allow. And so that has been a challenge. So we’ve done a lot of virtual tours, shirts. What is fascinating, just in the last month is we’ve got all your beautiful professional photography done, right? It’s all online. And people will be like, Hey, can you send me a virtual tour, and you’re like, well, it’s all on my, you know, you’ve got the best pictures. And they’re like, Oh, but I want to see a walkthrough. So it doesn’t matter if it’s not even a real professional one. But they want to see a walkthrough and they want to see it a video done. So I have spent quite a bit of time and it’s one of my team’s kind of mission right now is making sure we have video of all our listings. And, you know, doing them in shorter clips, so we can get them sent out. But having this video, I had one person, it was a little tiny studio, and they’re like, Oh, can you send me a video, I’m like, there’s three rooms. Kitchen in the bathroom. And I’ve got great photos of them. Oh, but we want to see a video. So I was like, wow, you know, we really need videos. So I actually went in, I did, you know four videos today that we’ll be using, I have the inspection I just finished. I actually from doing a video, I just sold a condo, to some people from California and I have that inspection yet this afternoon, FaceTime, by FaceTime them. And with this with this video, and they bought this condo, we were able to put together put a deal together. So I think some of the things that are really going to be changing in the way we do business is these videos. And you know, people really wanting that whether it is the most professional one, or they actually appreciate just having, you know, having enough for amateur one done. And you know, and enjoying that. But that’s interesting, as well as doing all the the zoom and all the meetings online, which is kind of fascinating that that we’ll see how that changes some of all the meetings that we normally would be attending, and how we kind of, you know, change that structure versus sitting next across the table from someone discussing issues versus having everyone on a on a screen together. So definitely changes.

D.J. Paris 27:47
Yeah, a lot a lot. You just said there. But you’re right. Yeah, things are changing. But this is still very much a I well, I guess we shouldn’t say face to face business, but because it could be screen to screen, but looking at someone and having them look back, whether it’s by saying hey, let me FaceTime you and walk you through the apartment because we don’t have, you know, a traditional virtual tour, but I can do that for you. Or you could just go in and take that video. And the cool part is that I think most people don’t expect professional quality videos because we’re all used to watching Youtube and and now tick tock and all of the other sites that promote streaming video that anybody can do just with a phone camera is their sort of use to just seeing people produce their own stuff. And so not that you if you can obviously having you know, these really cool virtual tours like Matterport and the different options there are always awesome. But at least something I know, I my girlfriend works at catalyst, which is a high rise in the west loop. And they’re doing of course they’ve same as as with a lot of the buildings, whether they’re apartment or condo, no one’s getting in my building, no one can come in even my cleaning lady, of course, nobody can come in. So other than residents. And so these virtual tours, as Gail saying is so important. And I suspect that a lot of our listeners, you know, might be thinking, well, what if I just take my phone and use it? It’s like, well, that’s better than nothing, and have something at least until maybe if you want a more professional crew to come out, you know, whenever they’re able to be allowed back into these buildings, who knows, but do something and you just sold a home it sounded like you didn’t exactly say this, but to the couple from California is that sight unseen just from the

Gail Spreen 29:30
it was just from doing a FaceTime. And then first I did the video sent that to them. And then they said let’s do a FaceTime. And what’s nice about doing the FaceTime with them is if you’re going to the kitchen they can be like Hey, show me like the dishwasher better the refrigerator better take me back to this area. So it it kind of there’s that interaction is nice and then there you’re being able to really focus on what they care about the most. So

D.J. Paris 30:00
Yeah, that’s really, really smart. So yeah, so for everyone listening, if you’re allowed to go into the property, and your clients aren’t, you know, you can do these, you know, via zoom FaceTime, there’s a million ways to do it. And then you’re able to, you know, almost do what the person would have done in person which has asked about various, you know, parts of the of the place. And yeah, really smart. That’s awesome. So that’s really encouraging for for everyone stuck at home, thinking, how can I how can I? Can I still close deals? The answer is yes. Or at the very least, I’ve always said, like, to all the brokers that our firm as well as like, now’s the time also, if you don’t have clients, to deepen those relationships, and to reach out and let all of your sphere of influence in your contact list, obviously, friends and family, but let everybody know you’re thinking about them and check in on them and see how they’re doing. Because probably a lot of us are sitting at home. Some of us have more to do than others. But it’s it’s a lonely world. So anything you can do to connect right now is probably a good idea. Right? Yeah. Can you talk a little bit about and Gail, you are so well known in Chicago, and a lot of brokers and realtors have come to you over the years asking for advice. We talked about getting hyperlocal getting involved in the community was in open houses. This was another thing we you mentioned, how important it is to do open houses. And do you recommend to newer brokers maybe who don’t have listings to talk to other realtors in their in their office and ask if they can help with

Gail Spreen 31:33
open houses? Oh, absolutely. I think that’s a, it’s a great opportunity for people to be able to get in front of residents, whether they’re actually sellers or buyers, the residents that are coming and going through the building, I always wear a nametag which I have one eye because I always wear one. Because we’re in elevators all the time. You know, people know me, but sometimes, you know, it just is that some people are more visual. And they remember you by the, by your name that way other people are more aural. So I think, you know, there’s just all different ways to make sure that you’re always in front of them. And you’re beating both people. So I would highly recommend that to young agents to be to be out there. You know, there was a lady back when I started all my community work. And she was like, super well known for the Magnificent Mile Association. And she was like the queen of Oak Street and Michigan Avenue retail leasing. Everybody totally respected her. And her name is Jackie Hayes. And I said what Jackie is to retail on Michigan Avenue and Oak Street, I want to be to Streeterville. And Jackie said, You’ve got to be out there all the time, you’ve got to be at everything you’ve you know, you’ve got to be the face of it. And so I always took her advice. I’m, you know, to this day, I’m still out there all the time. You know, at meetings, I’m you know, obviously involved in everything, and still doing the open houses, but you have to you have to be there. And so I just recommend to people don’t sit home when we can get out and get busy again. Get out there and have you know, no, your know your business. No study, like you had said, DJ, study your buildings know what your product is that you’re trying to sell or to rent, you’ve got to be able to say, you know, if someone tells me, Oh, I live at 600 Lakeshore drive, and I’m in this unit, I know exactly what their view is. I know their floorplan. And if they’re looking for a property that is similar to that, but maybe larger, but they want the same view, I can go I can tell them exactly what buildings will have it because I know all the floor plans and in the neighborhood. Or if I say, gee, if some buyer comes to and says I’ve been looking at different properties, and I’ll ask him, What have you been looking at? And what did you like about it or not like? And if they tell me what units they’ve seen, I know exactly what they’ve seen. And I can I can sell off of that. Because now I know what they’ve what they’ve looked at. I know what other properties are that, you know, that are in the area. And I know what were like, where, what properties and what units would that best fit them. So it really by taking this time to study your market, study your product is just key. I think there’s so many things that can be done right now people should not be bored. There’s so much to do. So they should really take advantage of this time. It’s actually a very special time to be able to do that. And to be able to see your family a little bit more but also, you know, really learn your market.

D.J. Paris 34:49
Yeah, we I know at our business, all of we’re in management or there’s nine of us here and we all said okay, we’re going to since we have a little bit extra time than we normally wouldn’t have had it along with a lot of people, of course, we said we’re all going to learn, you know, go through a certification. So I’m doing a marketing thing and other people doing other things. And so, which was really smart for my boss to, to recommend that. And so yes, now is the time to, to beef up those skills or, or to just say, you know, I’ve been talking about getting involved for years, now’s the time to do some research to figure out what organizations I may want to support and lend my talents to. So I and yes, let’s study the market, let’s let’s become an expert, because experts are very valuable. And, you know, over time, maybe right now you’re doing transactions all over your area, because you’re new, and you’re trying to just keep, you know, keep growing, but always have that true north. So Gail’s true north is very obvious, because it’s her whole life is Streeterville, which is an awesome, you know, thing for her and she loves it and is, is that’s just works perfectly. So you you want to be that person to whatever local area you are in. But you have to know, as Gail said, you have to know the inventory. You have to be valuable in that way. So now’s the time to figure to figure that out. And, and the good news is it’s it’s not not you have to study hours and hours a night, if you just study for one hour a day, you’ll find within a couple of months, you just you’re going to know a lot more, and you’re going to know the inventory. And then when someone asks, Hey, I’m moving to, you know, XYZ area, I’m gonna say okay, well, here’s what’s available. And that just separates you from the vast majority of brokers. Yeah, so I wanted to get I wanted to ask you, since you’ve been in business for so long, you’ve seen so many agents succeed, obviously, you’ve seen others that haven’t succeeded. What do you think separates it, we’ve talked a lot about what you’ve done to become successful. But are there any other suggestions you have, as far as well, this really seems to work, we talked about open houses becoming an expert getting involved. Are there any other suggestions you can think of for for agents who are, you know, want to learn how to just, you know, grow their business?

Gail Spreen 37:11
Well, I would say even back when I was starting, I was sitting there doing postcards, to, you know, to my building, or to neighboring buildings, and I just did it manually, and got it, got them out, wrote notes to people, you know, really stayed connected with people that way. And so, I think you have to kind of know, your target market as well. So in Streeterville, if some of the people in certain buildings may be a little bit older than younger, than they still appreciate direct mail, and they will still read it, were, then in some other neighborhoods or some other buildings, they might be a different, you know, like age group, and they might be much more on the social media, and, you know, just a little bit, your messaging would be just a little bit different. So kind of, you know, definitely be constantly reaching out and doing your marketing, don’t just wait for everything to come to you, but do push out information as well. So, you know, working on, you know, doing postcards, but and doing your messaging, whether it is social media, for however you can get into the building Statway it might be in their newsletters, you know, if you’re offering to pay somebody to be in their newsletter for marketing, that those associations would love it, you know, and then you’re right in front of your home, the whole building, whether it’s online, or it’s in a you know, hardcopy that they’re getting to all their residents. So there’s a number of different ways you can you know, that you can take advantage of that, that angle as well.

D.J. Paris 38:58
Yeah, I think that’s really good advice. I met a realtor once who lived in a, I forget where somewhere I was a listener of our show, I think it was in Kentucky, somewhere in rural Kentucky. And he was telling me that what he does, it’s actually not so rural where he is, but he works just in neighbor everything to me seem it seems rural, because we live you and I live in some of the busiest areas of the world. But, but you know, more of a suburban area of somewhere in Kentucky anyway, what he would do when he sold a home is he would write a personal note to every neighbor within a certain number of blocks, or however, he figured, however much he was able to do this, but he would say hey, just to let you know, I’m so and so. And I just recently help you know your neighbor, sell their home, if you’re ever interested. And he said that that was the smartest thing he ever did. And he does it to this day. He writes, you know, he said sometimes he has to write 50 of them and it takes a while to do it takes a couple of days. But he goes every time I Do that at least two or three people call me, which is a remarkable return on investment. But it’s basically what you were just saying as well as is whatever your marketing strategy is, you have to, you know, send those messages out on a consistent basis. And, and yeah. Yeah, let’s, I also want to talk about Gail. And I want to know, a little bit more about, you know, what you do for your clients, because we not, we don’t just have to list our listeners are not just realtors, but sometimes our buyers, sellers, investors, I know you’ve done a lot with developers, in addition to buyers and sellers and renters as well. You talk a little bit about what what you do for your clients?

Gail Spreen 40:42
Well, we try to be as much full service as we possibly can. So we will, I mean, whether it’s getting the place cleaned, whether it’s bringing in a designer to help lay out the furniture, that we’re trying to, you know, put it on the market, you know, put it on the market and really have everything laid out. So it will show the best two by two, it really just anything needed, we want to be the resource that they will come to. So I mean, I am constantly asked for the most unusual things people will I mean, I’ll have them texting me, where do I get Thai food? And then I’ll like send it back? Or do I did this? Where do I get that, so you really become this resource for anything st Earl from them. But on the client side, we are really trying to make everything as seamless as possible for them. So that we’re bringing in the stagers, we’re bringing in the cleaners, we bring in the photographers, we have the brochures, when it gets to the point that you’re getting a deal done, make it so easy for them give them great direction all the way through. A lot of my clients, you know, are very sophisticated people. However, they haven’t done that many real estate transactions, to never assume anything that they understand all these steps to it, you know, to the whole transaction. So really working with them on every little step along the way, to actually this. I mean, one of my clients right now, just the fact that I was an appraiser and I’m able to help this appraiser keep our deal together. You know, he’s just so thankful, when I sent him my explanation of what I sent to the appraiser, my seller came back and is just like, so thankful that I’m able to help the, the, you know, the appraiser for this deal, get the deal done. So there’s a lot of different different ways that I’m able to help. And it goes right down to doing the final walkthrough, making sure that the place is clean when you’re bringing the buyer in as they’re going to pay a half a million dollars for a condo, and now the condos vacant and doesn’t have all the beautiful furniture anymore. I want that buyer happy so that they walk in and at least even if it’s vacant, it’s clean and fresh. And you know, and they’re happy going to, you know, as they go off to the closing. So every little step along the way to make the best experience possible is what my goal is right, you know, all the way through.

D.J. Paris 43:25
Yeah, and you clearly do that. I wanted to just circle back to one thing that I think has become more popular in recent years, which is staging. I suspect this has to do a lot with us being able to see via social media, Instagram, in particular, how everything looks perfect and shiny. And I think people are now expecting that. How often are you working with when you have a listing with stagers? Is it majority of the time is it only occasionally? I’m just curious how, how frequent that that is for you.

Gail Spreen 43:58
I would say it’s not a majority of the time because a lot of times they have a lot of beautiful furniture in there already so they will wait to move their furniture until we get it so however, depending on what their furniture is, I might make recommendations for certain pieces like we need to remove about half the pieces, you know and then and then maybe have a stager come and add a few pieces that will you know enhance the flow enhance the luck of the of the whole place. So I would say it’s not all the time but every opportunity I can I I’m trying to bring a stager in because I think the value of them is is enormous. And I don’t think sellers sometimes can really appreciate how valuable those stages are. But when you go online on the MLS and you’re looking at photos where they might have virtually staged it and then they show the empty room. There’s no come Harrison to those two rooms with furniture in it versus a vacant. And it’s, you know, it’s it’s definitely worth the money that they, you know that they have to spend. And so I highly recommend that.

D.J. Paris 45:15
Yeah, thanks for that. Also, you know, for anyone who is listening, who is thinking about, you know, working with a Chicago real estate expert, in particular in the downtown area. Gail, what’s the what’s the best way that one of our listeners who might be looking for a new realtor should reach out to you?

Gail Spreen 45:36
Well, my email is Gail Gil at Streeterville properties.com. So that is one of the easiest ways to get me or my phone number, which is my cell that I give out really to everybody and, and posted anywhere. 3129 to 57668 is also a great way to get me.

D.J. Paris 45:58
Well, I think we’ve really set it all today, we talked a lot about the importance of getting involved getting local, getting knowledge about your your area as well and how that has served you in particular for and how you have served it for well over Gosh, 2020 plus years, it’s incredible. And of course, you have status in Chicago is one of one of the top brokers here in the entire Chicagoland area. So I think so much of the value you gave was just telling people this is this is how I built my business. So we really appreciate your time. And I know you’re super busy as well, even through, you know, this The Stay At Home era. But on behalf of the listeners, we want to thank Gail for her time and sharing all this great wisdom. And on behalf of Gail and myself to the listeners we also say things want to remind everyone that if everyone could just tell one friend about our show, think of another real estate professional that could benefit from hearing from Gail or any of the other guests we’ve had just shoot them over to our website, which is keeping it real pod.com Or any podcast app, just search for keeping it real, you’ll you’ll find us right away, that would really help our show grow. Also, please follow us on Facebook where@facebook.com forward slash keeping it real pod not only to be able to watch the behind the scenes recordings of these videos, or either of these episodes, you get to see the videos. But also we post every single day an article that we find online that was written specifically to help Realtors grow their business. So we try to provide a tremendous amount of value there as well. So follow us again on Facebook and tell a friend anyway, Gail, thank you again. You were wonderful guests. Were so excited to continue to see Streeterville prosper under your leadership. And thanks for being a part of the show.

Gail Spreen 47:51
Oh, thank you. And if you wouldn’t mind, I have one last plug. I’m chair of the lights festival for the Michigan Avenue Lights Festival parade. And that happens the Saturday before Thanksgiving every year. So I was chair last year. I’m chair again this year. So if anybody wants to get involved, you can be a balloon handler of parade Marshal. I would love to have you so just let me know. We’d love to have you join us. I know it’s not till fall till November. However we start early.

D.J. Paris 48:22
Well, and I will also yes, so everyone, I will put a link to that in the Episode Notes as well. And also my favorite church. I only have I’m not really that into churches, but I my favorite church is in Streeterville which is fourth Presbyterian, which of course is everybody’s favorite church because of how cool and perfectly situated and beautiful it is. But I they do some cool things over the holiday as well. I imagine they’re probably part of part of the lights, I’m guessing right?

Gail Spreen 48:49
Absolutely. Yeah. Thank you again, DJ. It was great to be on

D.J. Paris 48:54
Thanksgiving. All right. We’ll see everyone on our next episode. Okay, take care.

Welcome to the March episode of our Learn With A Lender series with Joel Schaub!

Joel Schaub from Guaranteed Rate discusses why some lenders (thankfully not Guaranteed Rate) are taking up to nine months to close on new purchases, and provides guidance on how agents can check-in with a lender to see the status of a loan. Since stimulus checks are on the way Joel also suggests reaching out to local businesses and purchasing gift cards to give away to your clients (or to host a contest). Great suggestions about how you can continue to thrive while stuck at home!

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

Joel can be reached at joel@rate.com and 773.654.2049.


Transcript

D.J. Paris 0:00
This episode of Keeping it real is brought to you by Joel Schaub at guaranteed rate. As a realtor it’s important to partner with only the most trusted name in mortgage lending. Joel has 1000s of satisfied clients and gives $1,500 of his commission back to your buyers on every closing. He is known for his ability to close even complex deals start to finish in only 14 days to learn what 1000s of others already know. Make a note to call Joel at 773-654-2049 or email joel@rate.com Guaranteed Rate is an equal housing lender licensed in all 50 States Consumer Access Number 2611 And now on with the show.

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 in quarantine like the rest of us today is our Learn with our lender our monthly episode with Joel shop guaranteed rate. So Joel is waving if you’re watching us live or on video here. But for everyone who is not yet familiar with Joel, Joel is a vice president of lending guaranteed rate. He has been doing loans at a high level since 2003. And it’s gotten to that level because of what he does directly for agents which is he gives back part of his commission to the buyer every single time. Last year alone Joe gave back over $291,000 in closing costs to buyers who worked with them. And that put Joe’s production in the top 1% of 1% Sorry, 1/10 of 1% nationwide. Just to show you what that number is out of 400,000 licensed loan officers in the United States. Joel is ranked number 181. I don’t even know what that percentage is. But it’s it is in a very tiny miniscule part of 1%. Year to date, Joel has done 71 sales transactions for just under 27 million and closings. He has currently 102 files that are set to close that are locked that are going to be closing in the next 60 days. The busiest man I know and the biggest Cubs fan I know but never too busy. Thankfully to do our show. Joel, thanks for being on. Welcome once again. DJ, you always do it

Joel Schaub 2:32
right. I’m so impressed by what the keepin it real podcast has become. We’re they’re giving back. We’re teaching we’re learning. And we’re all about education. I mean, that’s what this is on a monthly basis when we can come on and get together and actually share what’s happening because you hear things. But it’s actually good to actually get it right from the source and know what’s happening in the mortgage market. So that you as an agent, or as a buyer can have some firm understanding of what’s going on out there. Yeah,

D.J. Paris 3:03
first, we should say you’re working from home. I’m actually in the office, but the doors locked and barricaded. So no one can come in. But essentially, I’m working from home as well. But guaranteed rate, you guys are still going strong. You were just mentioning for people that are actually we did this before the episode you said 50 was at 5400 employees are now working virtually it’s business as usual. But of course, just working in a different way.

Joel Schaub 3:30
Yeah, we had to make a transition like everybody else out there. And in a 10 day period, we moved over 5000 of our employees nationwide from an office location to a at home work location. So it is business as usual. We hire only the best of the best. And the idea is that things are continuing to go on and even smoother in some cases. As far as the technology that’s getting advanced. I’m going to talk a little bit about what’s happening on appraisals right now. Oh, great. I’m going to talk a little bit about what’s happening as far as the ability to do documentation closings, right, so you can electronically sign a lot of the docs. And so not that there’s much it’s good, that’s come out of this COVID 19 pandemic, but there’s some things that I’m seeing that I know have really moved ahead. years. Okay, when we get out of this some of these things that we’re seeing right now, that’ll really be good for the real estate community as a whole.

D.J. Paris 4:25
Yeah, I agree. And I think, you know, now’s the time where if someone out there is a realtor who’s listening who has a buyer and is nervous, you know, I think now’s the time to look at these larger lending institutions that you know, have the support staff and, and the wherewithal to be able to withstand the changes in the market like your firm has. So I think it’s a great time to, to bank on on the proven lenders, like guaranteed rate.

Joel Schaub 4:52
Well, we just hope that none of the lenders out there go out of business. I mean, this is the time where it would be just a shame if some of these smaller banks that really do provide services to a lot of clients went out of business because of this, but we’re seeing a lot of runs on liquidity as far as the ability to close mortgages, because a lot of people work on a warehouse line, and they can’t produce more transactions until they clear their warehouse lines. And there’s gonna be some smaller places that just don’t make it through this. And that’s the that’s the sad part about this. So we’re not all cutthroat. Okay, it’s, we’re not all hoping that the competition goes away. We’re all in this together, there’s plenty of business for everybody out there. And if I’m an agent right now, and I have any offers that are in process, I’m taking the time to pick up the phone and call that lender and just say, hey, you’ll know a lot in that first few minutes on the phone just saying I just want to check in you have my buyer. This is the listing. I don’t usually make a phone call. But I just wanted to know, is everything going as planned? Okay, I would ask them two questions. Are the files is this current file out of underwriting? And do we have the appraisal back, and those are things that’ll, if I have a listing, and there’s a process in place right now that the closing might be in the next 30 or 60 days, take the time and just find out what’s going on on the other end of the phone? For the mortgage side of it, that’s important. And any good mortgage guy will pick up the phone and answer hopefully, to help you out.

D.J. Paris 6:24
And Joe, could you repeat those two questions just for listeners? Because I think those are key. So if you’re a realtor out there, and you’re well, just wanting to get a status update, or nervous or pick up the phone call the lender. And the two questions again, do you mind sharing?

Joel Schaub 6:36
Well, the first one, of course, DJs is my is the buyers file out of underwriting. It gets submitted to underwriting. Okay. And then the second one is, is the appraisal done, but if I’m the listing agent, I know if it was done or not, because typically they come into the house. But right now, they have so many abilities to do drive by appraisals, that if you’re a listing agent, you don’t even know if the appraisal got done. So you’re just inquiring whether or not the appraisal was done? And did it come in at value? So a couple of things that most lenders will be absolutely happy to help you.

D.J. Paris 7:09
Yeah, or at least at least the good ones. It’s funny, I not funny, but I heard that banks were being flooded with so much business due to all of the rate movement that’s been in the last, you know, four months or so that they’ve even started raising rates as a result of slowdown, the number of applications because maybe they’re just at capacity, like you were saying that the the warehouse, sort of, you know, structure, whereas places like guaranteed rate have continued to thrive and, and are, you know, still still getting loans closed at a good clip. But I do would like to talk to you about what’s changed as far as length of closing, what are you seeing out there? What’s what’s more common these days.

Joel Schaub 7:50
So this is where there’s a big dichotomy in the market between different banks, I just saw one of a competitor’s company that said they were taking between 150 to 180 days to process a refinance request, means that’s five or six months, wow, it said thank you for your request, a processor will reach out to you within 27 days, and based on our current turn times, we will close your file between 150 to 180 days. And it’s a sign of the times, right? Are you even gonna want to refinance in six months, right? It takes that long. And so what that means is that the refinance volume has driven up so much of the demand and the capacity for banks that the purchase business is falling behind. As an agent, what do you care about, you don’t care about refinances. You care about your client’s ability to close on a transaction. And so there’s still a lot of banks that can close in under 30 days on purchase transactions, if they have separated the way that we did, which was we have our own staff for underwriting for refinances, and a staff setup just for the purchases to keep those coming out in 24 to 48 hours. Wow.

D.J. Paris 9:04
Yeah, that’s, that’s, that’s amazing. It’s so I bet you’re so grateful you work for a company with such great resources. You know, it’s, it’s it’s just remarkable. They continue to thrive. Talk a little bit about the the jumbo market, what’s changed there? I know, there’s been, you know, that’s sort of been turned around as well.

Joel Schaub 9:23
Yeah, DJ, you’ve seen this in the headlines a lot right now that anything that’s not a conforming loan amount and on a conventional mortgage that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac buy in Illinois, that’s 510,400. And since we have so many nationwide viewers and listeners, that is the average for a conventional mortgage 510 400. If you’re above that, you fall into that jumbo category. And those rates have just gone way higher, almost a full point higher than a conventional mortgage, because there’s no liquidity in the mortgage backed securities market so nobody’s stepping up to buy billions and billions of dollars of mortgage pools, if 25% of Americans don’t have a job, and they’re not able to make their mortgage payment. So, because of this uncertainty that we have, right now, the mortgages that used to be the second greatest investment tool behind a US Treasuries is no longer such a safe haven, there’s nobody out there buying them. So the only banks are the only one buying the loans from the bank. So the Fed, Federal Reserve stepped up and put in a big bazooka, they put in $50 billion of de liquidity to help buy up mortgage bonds. But that doesn’t affect anything that’s 800 900, a million to 2.5 million, those are all excluded. So those rates right now, for the foreseeable future are going to be a point higher give or take than what you’re seeing on a conventional mortgage.

D.J. Paris 10:54
Got it? Good. Interesting. That’s good to know. We talked about refi. It’s just a little bit earlier. But you know, what is going on? Right now, you mentioned, hey, some banks are taking, you know, six months is Have you seen the volume start to slow at all, due to our current pandemic? Or is that really not changed, the volume

Joel Schaub 11:15
rates are low. So buyers that bought in the last three years, they’re still calling left and right, they have a rate in the fours and just turn on the TV, you know, and you watch the markets. And you know that 30 year fixed rates are in the threes. And so that’s what’s driving the demand. We saw rates about two or three weeks ago that we’re even lower. And what I preach a lot is, How do we get a no cost? refi? Right, that’s always my focus. The banks and the advertisements and everything is focused. Yeah, they want you calling asking for that 3.25%, they’re gonna charge you 1000s of dollars to get it. Yeah. And that’s great. You can go brag to your friends on the golf course, if you’re allowed to ever leave your house again, I got that three and a quarter rate, but you paid for it, right. And so the idea was, could we instead of taking a rate of 3.2, take a rate of 3.3 or 3.5, for example, and get the bank to waive all fees, a lot of that stuff has really gone away, because the mortgage bonds right now don’t have the pricing at each different coupon level. So I think there’s going to be a time in the next 60 days, 90 days where things settle down, we’re going to see these rates with all the volatility come back down. And it allow for the refinance business to go through a lot more smooth. And I just don’t see any situation which rates spike, okay, the feds are there. They’re literally the lender of last resort, and they’ve stepped up and they’ve said, unequivocally they are buying mortgage backed securities to keep rates low. So I don’t see a situation where we got the jumbo spikes that we will have there in the conventional market. So first time buyers, you’re safe. Step Up buyers, as long as you’re not borrowing into that jumbo space, you definitely anticipate rates in the threes for the foreseeable future, which allows you to go out and buy a lot more house.

D.J. Paris 13:07
And what a great time to call, you know, since we’re all kind of locked in home on periodic zoom meetings. But between the Zoom meetings, everything life is just between zoom meetings now I think but but but during the that in between time, what a great opportunity for realtors to deepen those relationships with their sphere of influence. And whether somebody’s a renter, great time to talk about buying, whether they’re a current homeowner may be a good time to even just mention the word refinance with the right understanding that, you know, banks are backed up a little. But what a great time to just reach out and have those conversations, people have more time to think about it. Excuse me. And you’ve you’ve been saying this, ever since we’ve started doing this, I just want to remind our listeners great time to call and talk about it.

Joel Schaub 13:54
It gives you an opportunity to not call and talk about yourself as as professionals and you’re a real estate agent out there, you want to continue to provide value. And a buyer that closed a year or two ago, maybe you don’t have a reason to call them now’s the perfect opportunity just to say, first of all, are you safe, yeah is your family and those types of things. We’re kind of doing it all on a superficial level with you know, social media, but just to literally pick up the phone. And even if you get a voicemail, we’re just thinking of you. I want to know how your family is doing. And just so that you know market rates are low, I’m sure that it’s a good time for you to reach back out to your bank and just encourage your buyers, whatever bank they had, if they had a good experience, pick up the phone and ask them if they can do a refinance right now. If you’re the reason that a buyer saves a couple $100 A month they’re gonna remember

D.J. Paris 14:49
you. Yeah, you’re absolutely right. And it’s funny too, because with this group, I was thinking about this. I’ve said this a few times on recent episodes, I’ll mention it again, talked about Reaching out just to check in. And of course check on the safety and well being of the people that you care about your, you know, your clients, your contact list, your sphere of influence family, friends, etc. And I was thinking like, Okay, I have all these business relationships, people, I pay fees for even some on an annual basis. There’s no insurance, and there’s financial advisors, and, you know, dentists and, you know,

your Harris’s and whoever. Yeah.

So funny. You mentioned that. Yeah, so thank you, because the only person, my accountant, right, all of these services that I pay fees for, and some of them are, I pay small fees, and others larger fees. But regardless, I was like, I wonder who’s ever going to reach out to me if anyone and check in to see how I’m doing. And the only person that has is the person that cuts my hair. And she checks she sent me a text, how’s it going, just checking in and you hope you’re safe and healthy. I’ve been going to her for like 10 plus years. But she has lots and lots of clients. And I you know, the only person and I thought this is not a crowded space. Everyone got emails from the companies that they support going, here’s what we’re doing. And those obviously became overwhelming. But how many individual reach you know, touches did I get as a result of this, this current situation was one. And she’s probably the one I paid the least amount to, as far as total amount in fees I pay. But it meant a lot to me. And it made me feel like she cared about me. And he you have an opportunity, every one of our listeners, as Jill just said, to reach out and just check in, whether it’s a phone call or text, I think a phone call makes sense these days. But that’s up to you. But to do the one thing that probably none of the other services they’re utilizing are doing. You know, so what a great idea. So thanks for that, Joel,

Joel Schaub 16:45
these companies, everybody’s sending you their message, letting you know what they’re doing, right, these big companies can do it. If I can get an email from the Holiday Inn Express in San Diego where I stayed one night because I missed the flight. I don’t care what you’re doing at that hotel, but you’ve taken the time to let me know, right? You’re seeing all those emails, actually take something out of it and make sure that you take your sphere of influence and reach out, it’ll mean something to those people. And that’s what we are in the day, we’re just people that are trying to make good connections, help people out. And there’s nothing just genuine about it. You know, most of you guys out there really care. And if you take some time, we’re all sitting at home. Right? We have time.

D.J. Paris 17:32
Yeah, the thing about caring is the kind of person that’s going to make that call is the person that cares. Like, it’s it’s you, the people that would do it in a disingenuous way just probably wouldn’t even do it. Because it’s it’s so counter to them. And they’re Yeah. But now’s the time to Yeah, as Joel said, show the heart that you have, and your clients know, you have. And you know, this is a great opportunity just to check in with them. And, and yeah, and then you get the tail end, you could tack on Hey, by the way, I was just thinking about you, if you you know, whether it’s a refinance, or a new purchase opportunity, you know, you can always throw that in if you’d like. But even you know, once we get through the end of this, you know, we were talking about this, my are the owner of our company, Nick. And we were going through some of our providers and working with them, because you know, all businesses are businesses has changed a bit. And about 90% of the service providers that we contacted, and said, Here’s what we’re going through, can you help us with this or that and defer a payment or however, and we’re certainly thankfully in good financial shape, but we were just checking to see what the options were 90% of those companies said no problem we’ll work with you don’t worry about it, the 10% we remember who those 10% are, and when we come out the other side of this, it might be an opportunity for us to re examine those relationships. My point is is is that you know, you can reach out and you can be that that sole provider to that person, there’s probably a lot of people that care about that person, that ad have business relationships, but who’s actually doing the reach out, might as well be you and and you will you will get so much from doing that. And that’s not the reason to do it. But that’s what will happen. When this all is over. They’re going to remember that you reached out and hopefully they would continue to use you in the future. So

Joel Schaub 19:13
So I want to give a tip and you’re exactly right. If I’m an agent out there right now, where are most of the eyes, right? They’re on their phones, you’re looking at social media. And so what I did recently is I created a giveback campaign, it’s called Joel gives back. And at the end of 30 days, we’ll have given 1000s of dollars to our local community in the food and service industries that literally are shut down. So these restaurants right now that are so vital to the your, your local economies where you guys live. Chicago is one of the best foodie type of towns there are okay, and all of these restaurants are really struggling. And so what we’ve done is a campaign to buy gift certificates from some of the restaurants that were the hardest hit, and then give them away And so we’ve done, we’re 15 or 16 days in every single day, we’re giving away $100. And by the time all is said and done, we’ll have donated 1000s of dollars back to the people that run the restaurants that need it. And then giving those gift certificates to people that are less fortunate so that they can put some food on their table and just relax, you know what it’s like to make meals 15 days in a row, I mean, take some time. And so the point here is, you don’t get to do it that many days in a row, go and buy a gift certificate to one of your favorite places, and then raffle it off online and just say, who needs it the most, or make a fun game out of it. And just show that you’re charitable, I promise you, it’ll go a long way, as an agent, find ways to give back. I bring it up almost every time that we’re on here. But it’s a givers gain mentality that will get you through this.

D.J. Paris 20:52
Yeah, and to, you know, when you’re doing that as a marketing opportunity, obviously you’re doing it to give back but to promote it. Definitely let the the establishment for example, if it’s a restaurant, let them know, Hey, I’m going to be raffling this off, I’m going to tag you in the post, if you want to share it with your customers, we’d be honored to have anyone Welcome to do the contest. And you know, you’re going to you know that they’re going to be thrilled. Because it you know, it’s an opportunity for them to attract more customers. And obviously, hopefully, they’ll share that with their, their own social followers. So it’s a great opportunity to to help out those small businesses. And I I also say once those stimulus checks come in, please use them in your local local businesses, please spend some of that money on the places you like the best so that they can stick around because it’s tough for a lot of places right now. So,

Joel Schaub 21:41
DJ, I’m so glad you said that, because that’s exactly what’s going on. People need it more than anything. Okay. I teased this earlier in the broadcast, but I wanted to come up with the two things that I really think are actually moving forward here. Okay, so the first one, and this is letting people know the sky isn’t falling in real estate. So the first one is, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have reduced a lot of the guidelines to get deals done right now. So instead of putting the the reins on these things, one of the big things that they’re allowing for is a much easier appraisal process. Okay. So what we’re seeing right now on purchases, is that the appraisers no longer need to physically enter the property. Okay, let me say that, again, if you have a listing, and you haven’t been contacted by the appraiser, the appraisal might already be done. Right. So last week, the head of the NBA met with the Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and they’ve issued new guidance, as far as the ability to have desktop appraisals. Okay. So that means that they can use the photos that are directly in the MLS, drive by and make sure the property isn’t on fire or gone, or just an empty lot. And they’re using the Contract Purchase price. So if you got a seller willing to sell it for this, and a buyer willing to buy it for that, they’ve been told, let’s not go out of our way to try to appraise things low. So we’re seeing a lot of two and three day turnaround on appraisals, instead of taking seven to 10 days. So that’s shortening the time deals done. So that’s one of the things I think we’re gonna see going forward as well, is we got away from this a lot. After the 2008 2009 we had to have that guy go out, get in the house and take his tape measure, measure every damn room. You don’t need all that. You just don’t. Okay, you can make common central lending decisions at a big time level without having to physically have that gentleman go through the entire house and take every single picture. There’s so much data. Okay, so we’re getting back to some common sense there. Now we’re not going to start over appraising things, and we’re not going to get away we’re not going to go back to no appraisals, but we’re going to have a lot more common sense going forward. And it’s going to help you as an agent not have so many deals where the appraisal comes in low that’s just the worst Okay, yep. And then to the ability right now for a lot of counties to go fully digital and closings is coming. Okay. Wouldn’t that help if you just couldn’t you don’t have to sit at a title company for two hours the day of closing

D.J. Paris 24:16
it’s almost amazing that in 2020 It hasn’t been this way for 10 years already right like this. This is the future is yesterday but at least it’s at least it’s finally about here Yeah, it’s it’s funny I now I think there’s so many businesses that are now seeing they can do things virtually and so thankfully, the title companies are you know, are catching up and will I guess it very exciting just makes everyone’s life a lot easier.

Joel Schaub 24:45
As an agent you should go to the closing right and but for the longest time agents have gotten away from because they’re so busy, they got other things to do. And they don’t want to be the one sitting there for two hours. But now the ability to do flash closing on a lot of these transactions being Right now we already have the ability to sign 95% of the docs electronically and only go to the title company to sign the six or seven wet signatures that are needed per county. Right now we’re getting close to the point where a lot of counties are allowing full electronic closing packages. And I think it’s going to just ease the process. And it’s, it’s funny that in today’s digital world, you wire the money to the closing you sign packages electronically, you still need to go and squiggled something on a piece of paper. I mean, so we’re getting there, there’s the ability to do all the refinance closings just like this, you enter a room, you show your ID, you digitally sign and making clothes a full refinance from start to finish with no human contact. Okay, that’s it. So we’re getting there on the purchase side of things. And so I just want to get to end with stay strong. Okay, the market isn’t falling, I think we’re gonna see a surge once we get out of this of buyers of pent up demand to come out because rates are going to stay low, the feds have said so. And so just take a deep breath, be safe. And just know that there’s a lot of people around you that care about you.

D.J. Paris 26:13
And reach out to the people you care about. And not just your sphere of influence and contacts, but certainly certainly them. But reach out, now’s the time to deepen relationships across the board. So you know, think back to your friends and family. And now you can start to develop those habits of staying, staying in touch. I know, I know, there’s more people I’m reaching out to these days, just to check in and, and but yeah, so stay in touch, stay connected. By the way for everyone who’s listening for anyone who is listening. And by the way, I should mention before I say this, that we at the firm I met, we have over 600 Realtors here, and the only lender we recommend is Joel. And obviously we get called by every lender, every loan officer would love to be that person. But we literally have this relationship because we just feel that Joel is the best that we’ve seen. I have personally worked with him as well. And everyone I’ve sent to him and said the same thing. So for everyone who’s listening, if you don’t have a great relationship with with a lender, or you’re looking to see what other options exist, we will always tell you to to call Joel and Joel slogan is just call Joel. And we actually think that makes perfect sense because he’s obviously fantastic. But to Joel, what’s the best way anyone? And by the way, you could be an agent out there looking to partner with a lender for for some opportunities, marketing wise. Also, for anyone who’s out there who may be interested in working with you directly. As a borrower, what’s the or refinance? What’s the best way somebody should reach out?

Joel Schaub 27:40
Well, it’s all about building that relationship. And so I just always start with an email and just introduce yourself. I’ve done this several times on the show, and I’ve gotten to meet so many agents from all across the United States. They say, I’ve heard you on the keepin it real podcast, here’s what I do, I’ve actually set up relationships out of state right now to help people on open houses and doing broker opens and helping their clients because we’re in all 50 states and give part of our commission back. So on most transactions, I can give a $1,500 closing cost credit to help offset the buyers costs. And if you’re an agent out there, just looking for a fresh start here and want to work with somebody else here, just feel free to reach out. My email is Joel JOE l@rate.com. So it’s joel@rate.com. And you can always reach me 773-654-2049 I’m still answering. So give me a ring, we can start to build a relationship. I like to know the people that are out there and what they’re doing. And as you can see, it’s about providing value, we’re here to help grow. That’s how I’m doing over $100 million a year of transactions. It’s not because we don’t know what we’re doing. It’s because we’re really truly trying to help you grow your business to the next level. Yeah,

D.J. Paris 28:57
that just makes all the sense in the world and is so smart. And you’ve been doing this for gosh 17 years or so now and it’s remarkable. Here in the local Chicago community everybody already knows Joel so if you’re listening from outside of this area, or again if you’re here and just looking to work with Joel obviously reach out but anywhere any state any one of our listeners can reach out and Joel will hopefully be able to help you so definitely give him a shoot him an email or give him a call. And we just have one quick favor to ask of all of our listeners before I sign off, which is to please follow well two things please. Two favors rather. I just doubled the number of favors I’m going to ask for but the first one is simple, please follow us on Facebook you can find us@facebook.com forward slash keeping it real pod we as we’re recording these episodes, we post them live on Facebook and kind of watch a little behind the scenes as we’re recording. But also we every single day find an article online designed to help you grow your business and we post it and we also post silly questions of the day and things like that but it’s a good way we try to put a lot of energy into it to give you value. And then the second thing is to please tell a friend, think of just one other agent, one realtor, one broker out there that could benefit from listening to Joel and all the other great guests we have, and please share this podcast, you can send them to our website, which is keeping it real pod.com Or just, you know, tell them to look it up on iTunes or Spotify or wherever they’re finding podcasts. But anyway, on behalf of Joel and myself to the listeners, we say thank you for continuing to listen and support our show. And Joel on behalf of the listeners and myself, of course, we thank you for your continued contribution. I’m so grateful to have you on here every month, and excited to see how busy you are and your success continues to grow. So thanks again and we’ll see you next time. Stay safe everybody.