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How I Close 80+ Rentals Per Year • Chih-Hao Yang

March 12, 2020

Chih-Hao Yang from Prospect Equities realizes that buyers were once sellers. He wisely has built up a rental empire, closing over 80 per year, and specializing in Chicago’s luxury apartment market. In this conversation, Chih-Hao discusses the importance of niche marketing, social media and customer service. His professionalism and energy has secured him as one of Chicago’s most talked about new real estate agents.

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

Chih-Hao Yang can be reached at 217-819-8009 and chihhao .d.yang@gmail.com

Transcript

Okay, today on the show, we have Xiao Yang from prospect equities. GL Yang is bilingual, both speaking both Mandarin and English. He is a broker who specializes in Illinois real estate rentals and sales. He’s been living in Illinois since 2003. And to see the continuous growth of the city and knows every insight a renter or buyer needs to know he has worked with investors and buyers from from the from here locally as well as overseas. He has closed hundreds of deals and receives five star reviews from his clients. He helps clients purchase their dream home and also sell their investments. Besides sales. She also helps international students look for rental apartments throughout the city of Chicago. He’s received tremendous amount of positive feedback from his clients in the rental and sales services. She was part of a part of our future top producers. A series that we’re doing on the show and what caught our eye about him is that every year in addition to all the sales he does, he closes over 80 rentals, which is an insanely high number and it’s super amazing. We’re We’re so honored to have him on the show. It’s an incredible amount of production as we as we enter the rental season. A great reminder that rentals are how a lot of realtors leave them on the table. So we’re going to talk about that today. By the way, please visit Hsiao at realtor ca hy.com That’s realtor C H y.com. Welcome to the show to

Chih-Hao Yang 4:36
thank you so much for this wonderful introduction.

D.J. Paris 4:40
Well we’re super honored to have you and I know you and I had met previously and I was so impressed by you know your business plan and what what you’re doing with your own practice over at Prospect equities with respect to how you’re building your business and the niche you found. I immediately contacted our casting director I said we need to build Got a show. So thank you for being available so quickly. And we’re honored to have you. So I would like to jump right in. I know you you are, you know, you’re not necessarily brand new to the industry, but but you’re still kind of a newcomer, and you’re having all this great success. Can you tell us about how you got into real estate?

Chih-Hao Yang 5:20
Yeah. So then I actually got a major in advertising, and minors in Business and chemistry in college. So when I finished school in 2010, I began working for a commercial real estate developer, doing marketing for them. That’s my initial contacting real estate. So I worked for them for about six or seven years. And then a lot of our clients, then were oversea investor, they were coming to America doing investment, you know, commercial deals. And that’s when I realized, wow, I am in love with real estate. So then two years ago, May 2018, that’s when I went back to when to get my broker license. And then since then, you know, I realized that was the right decision, because I love what I do. And I’m doing what I love. And I think that’s important, like people need to do. Well, they’re into if they’re doing something they, you know, just getting, like getting through today. No, that’s not I, you know, that’s not what I want to do.

D.J. Paris 6:23
Sure, it will tell tell us a little bit about you know, you started you had no clients like a lot of realtors when they get started. Tell us how did you develop your clientele? How did you you know, how did you start prospecting and finding people to work

Chih-Hao Yang 6:37
with, you’re just like everyone else. When I started, I’ve no client. So I started with my background in advertising marketing, I started building my own website. And I have my you know, Facebook, or Instagram, just like everyone else, everyone has the same thing. But to make a difference, I started to produce videos, I do videos to teach people how to buy a condo, a twosie. Like, if you want to buy a condo, watch my videos in five minutes, I will tell you everything that you need to know. I make videos to teach people how to rent apartment, if you’re moving to Chicago, you know, people think that they have to pay a broker fee to rent an apartment, I say no, watch my video, I’m going to teach you how to rent apartment, a twosie. So then I started doing that. And then I you know, every, every chance that I know, every time I meet somebody, I tell them what I do like an Uber share, right? You know, there’s one time I remember there was a lady that was going to her listing appointment. And then I said, hey, oh, just my business car. Contact me if you don’t like the broker that you’re meeting, or you know, when I go out to the bar, you know, people go out and drinks and then I always make sure hey, how are you? My name is G, what do you do? And they will tell me what to do as a hey, I’m a broker. So then I always make sure I asked for their Instagram. Because I they asked me I add them so they know what I’m doing. They might not need me now, but they are gonna need me in six months and eight months and 12 months. And that was my company prospect equities. We sponsor some colleges in Chicago. So we go to their events. And, you know, I builder and meet the students or meet the clients that my knee housing in six months or 12 months, so I’m just planting the seeds and then you know, hoping they will come to me later and it works.

D.J. Paris 8:31
Yeah, it does. It sounds like your background in marketing has really helped you to realize that and I think for most Realtors that’s the hardest part of the job right? Is is sourcing clients. And even as its you talked about, you know, in a share ride on an Uber, passing your card out. It’s it’s like, you know, I took an Uber twice yesterday. Yeah, if never, I don’t I don’t practice real estate. But if I did, it probably wouldn’t have occurred to me to hand my card even to the driver and say, Hey, by the way, I don’t know you know what your living situation is, but whenever you need to move, are you ever thinking about buying or renting or selling? I would love to work with I did

Chih-Hao Yang 9:09
it one time the guy told me that he was looking for apartment, I always ask them Oh, where in the city do you live? And they will tell me here they are. If they live in a city near me, oh, and then you know, they will usually they will have somebody you do and I would tell them what I do. And then that’s where you know, hey, here’s my car. If you need it in the future, call me or email me. And that works out pretty well. Just everywhere. It’s not just Uber riders everywhere I go. If there’s a chance I don’t want to bother that though. I don’t want to go into a deep conversation. That’s when people are turned off about show thank but you have to let them know you’re there for them whenever they need it.

D.J. Paris 9:41
You also talked about making instructional videos on YouTube and I think that’s one part of marketing that Realtors often don’t realize how powerful it is is, you know somebody, for example, moving to Chicago, especially from overseas was even just from another state They’re not going to know the neighborhoods unless they just, you know, happen to have experience in Chicago, they likely aren’t going to know where to where to move, what the best buildings are, where to move to match their lifestyle, and in having videos, obviously, from an SEO perspective might find how people find your videos on their own via YouTube, and then might reach out to you. But How successful have those videos been? Not as far as number of views? Because that’s not relevant to me. But like, I imagine they’re incredibly helpful to your clients.

Chih-Hao Yang 10:32
I think so because a lot of the times I asked people well, why did you you know, after I close it sales or after a rented apartment, I always ask, Why do you choose me? Where did you find me? So they will tell me Oh, I found you from Instagram, I found you from referral. And I so you, your video talking about? Home Inspection because I even interview like, attorney, I interview Home Inspector, I interview lenders, so the videos are out there for my clients to watch. So they say, Oh, I saw this videos, and I saw your great, that’s why I chose you. So I think they’re pretty useful. And then you actually touch a topic about you know, me moving here from I actually moved from Taipei to Chicago in 2003. So I’ve been living here for 17 years, a lot of my clients are first time homebuyers or first time renting an apartment here. So I know how difficult it is for them. Because I went through all this, I came here as a student, and I have this document called eight one A and I was trying to rent apartment nobody knows what I 20 is 20 is actually a document that’s approved by the USCIS department, homeland Department of Homeland Security. So there’s a section where it says how much money is being sponsored by the family per year. So I told you it was 80,000 or 100,000. So that’s more than enough to rent apartment. But a lot of the landlords don’t understand how to read this document. And I experienced that firsthand because I was a student. So now I’m helping all those students, you know, renting an apartment in a city and bringing them to different high rises, you know, management, and then it educate those buildings, hey, this is a 20. This is their proof of income. You know, they’re being paid, like the parents are supporting the, you know, the school, they’re giving them money. So don’t worry, this is even approved by the USCIS. So you guys shouldn’t be worried about those students not paying rent. So yeah, and I make sure my clients know, I’m on their side, because I went through this. So I think my clients find comfort, knowing that I did it, and I’m helping them. So they trust me, to help them.

D.J. Paris 12:48
Yeah, you know, and I want to circle back to the i 20. Because for a lot of our listeners, probably most of our listeners are gonna I don’t know what that is. So, so to just explained it, but just to make sure it’s really clear, this is a document that is endorsed by the Department of Homeland Security, basically, they have vetted this particular individual, and they’re able to have a document that says, here’s the amount of money that is that is going to be spent by the family of this individual who is maybe a student, you know, going to school here, and then you then present that document in lieu of a social security number. Gotcha. And to a prospective landlord, or, you know, maybe even if they’re purchasing a property, how, how much of the time do you have to educate the landlords on what this document is? How it works, how to interpret it.

Chih-Hao Yang 13:40
So like, you know, we know, for renting, there are two sides of renting. You can go on MLS and individual owners, individual owners, and those are usually the ones you know, they don’t know why 20 years, right. And they even if you tell them, what, 20 years, they might not accept it because they’re just this fear, you know, the tenants might not pay rent, sure, so that instead of bringing those clients to the MLS listings, I bring them to the high rises in the loop st reveal River North South Loop where you know, the scores are so then those heights, I bring the my clients to those buildings, they know four or five, six, and they pick one and usually those buildings, they know what’s going on, they actually have a lot of those students already. So want to remind, you know, auto brokers, when you get a client’s that’s international students with i 20. You have choices, you don’t have to just bring into the MLS listing, bring them to high rises. And then another thing is the high rises pay more. That’s true, they pay 100% of one month’s rent or 125 from this 150 If you put them to the MLS you get 50% Right. So then why not? If you really think about If you you know, it really depends, but then I always it’s good for us, but it’s also good for the clients. I always, you know, I want my clients to have an easy process when they’re applying for it, you know, apart I don’t want to apply for this round got rejected got applied today and get rejected, they should have a fair, you know, chances, you know getting apartment.

D.J. Paris 15:22
Yeah, and you just said a lot. I want to unpack that a little bit because there’s a lot of our listeners who are like, What do you mean there are rentals off the MLS, so in Chicago and, and in many other markets as well. Obviously, individual owners or sometimes management companies will list their properties on the MLS. There’s also what we would call third party management firms that don’t list their properties on the MLS, but still work with brokers like chi, how to get their properties rented. And because those properties aren’t, or those units aren’t on the MLS, there’s no listing agent, which means as she has said, there’s no one to split the commission with and in Chicago, including the suburbs, most of these management companies pay one month’s rent. So all of a sudden, you know, depending on whatever your split is, with your current firm, you might be getting, you know, I will you will be getting much more money, because obviously, there’s no one to split it with. And you typically get one month’s rent, as she has said, sometimes there’s specials where it’s 150% of one month’s rent. So if you’re saying, Well, how do I get access to these buildings? What I would do for our listeners is talk to your managing broker and say, Hey, I understand there’s all these management companies that will work with brokers on how do we get in contact? Can you help me get their inventory, because the challenge, of course, with these management companies is because they’re not on the MLS, you have to keep up to date with their inventory. And so a lot of times, those are 10, typically called Hot sheets. So you ask those management companies, either directly or maybe your managing broker can make the introduction and say, Hey, can we get on your distribution list? So every time you send out updates about what’s available, can you email us and then there’s, there’s all sorts of software solutions, where you can put that information into into but even if you’re just getting the emails, that’ll help you know what’s available. And I imagine you get a lot of those, those emails, I

Chih-Hao Yang 17:10
get 3040 emails every day for hot sheets. And I actually go through one by one because I look at it and then memorize I remember because in case somebody in two days later asked me, Hey, you know, I want to get a two bedroom, two bath, my budget $3,000. And I know where to bring that? Because the hash is in my head. And I know what to bring in. What

D.J. Paris 17:31
percentage of brokers do you think have that level of knowledge? Obviously, you know, you’re focused on your business, but it has to be a small percentage of brokers who even really, really try to, you know, explore that market.

Chih-Hao Yang 17:45
I have a couple brokers friends, they only do MLS, you know, showings? And I say, hey, like, think about, you know, the other way? Why are you You know, when you get $3,000 clients, if you bring in two or 3000 from MLS, you get 50 to 1500 or lower. But if you come to that one is three, like, it’s 3000 or more, that’s, it’s a big difference. And we are putting the same amount of work into right in our job, why not getting more, and that is it’s also for the clients benefit. So we’re now you know, we want to make sure the client likes the place, of course, so that Yeah, I think a lot of people don’t don’t even think about the third party management as an option. And I always tell people, I love to tell people, hey, that’s Option two, don’t forget, it’s not just MLS.

D.J. Paris 18:37
Yeah, it’s nice to know that and and I, you know, I know, like, at the firm, I work out, we have a similar database of third party management. And sometimes there’s 5000 listings in there. And I think, Boy, if I was a practicing broker, and I only use the MLS, which might only have 5000 rentals in it anyway, now, I’ve effectively just doubled the amount of not only the amount of money I might get on the transaction, but double the number of possibilities for my client, which ultimately is the best part is you get to show your client more stuff, and something that might meet their needs. Oh, and by the way, you might you’re gonna get paid better on it if they decide to choose that property.

Chih-Hao Yang 19:15
Yeah, I actually always there actually, like four or five big third party management in Chicago, and you can I email them directly, I say, hey, please send me you know, a hot sheet every day, which they do. So then that’s how I get, you know, update it all the time and know what’s going on. Who’s doing promotion here, you know, sometimes they give promotion to clients that we bring, they will say, Hey, if you bring your clients to our building, they get one month off, and I tell my clients, hey, let’s go to this building. You get one month or two months off, you get the applikation fee waive admin fee waived. Why not as good. MLS would never waive your read. No, never waive your applikation admin fee. So when I get this benefit, I tell my clients Hey, let’s go see this building. They’re giving two months off for You well, you signed a 12 month lease, why not two months off? So yeah.

D.J. Paris 20:04
So my my girlfriend, I think I might have shared this with you off offline. But my girlfriend is in the leasing office over at catalyst, which is down at on display ads. And I asked her when I first started dating her, I said, Be honest with me. I said, Do you like working with brokers who bring in their clients? Because she’s trying to rent properties as well? And I said, or do you? Would you rather not work with brokers like between you and me? What do you think? And she goes, I love working with brokers. And she says, Well, let me she was actually let me let me adjust that statement. She goes, I like working with really good brokers. Because she goes, they make my job easier. And they bring in qualified candidates. And we’re both working together to close this transaction. So even though a lot of these buildings that you work with and represent have their own internal staff trying to rent, they are they are very, most of them are very broker friendly, and some of them aren’t. And some of them won’t work with brokers, but the majority of them will, and they’re thrilled to have you come in and learn the property and be able to bring them qualified candidates.

Chih-Hao Yang 21:04
Very true. I actually build you know, a personal relationship with a few brokers on size for the for the buildings, you know, I just need to submit a text I say, Hey, are you free tomorrow? Can I bring my clients? And they will say yes, even on the off day, there’s a broker, there’s an on site leasing agent, they would show me on her days off, because she knows, when I bring my clients a, they’re going to sign it or they they’re going to consider because I already pre approved my clients. I asked them, Hey, can you show me your i 20? I want to make sure you know, their approval in Cali if they’re if they’re working, I say, hey, how much is your salary per per month, and I do the math divided by three, note that three times rent qualification. I already talked to my clients about those requirements. So I know where to bring them.

D.J. Paris 21:56
Yeah, it’s such a smart. Such a smart idea. I was moderating I was telling you this offline, but I’ll mention it to our our listeners I was I was moderating a panel of top producers for the YPN in Chicago, for the Chicago Association Realtors yesterday, there were three top producers. And they asked them, one of the questions from the audience was, how are you adjusting to the changes in the real estate market? You know, basically, what are you seeing as trends and two of the three, what one person only does sales, and that’s all she does. And the other two people said, oh, my gosh, rentals are where it’s at. And they said, It’s great because most brokers really don’t like doing rentals, or they have it in their mind that they don’t think they should be doing rentals. And both of them said it’s this, it’s really not a smart plan. Because one of the gentlemen does 100 rentals a year. And a really a great guy named Will from Fulton grace. And he goes, he goes, I love it because most brokers won’t touch rentals. He says I love it. Because not only am I helping that person, obviously, and he loves helping people. But he said, I’m starting the relationship. And those people at some point down the road, if they stay in Chicago will probably become a buyer at some point. And he goes, my job is to take such good care of them today that maybe in two years, three years, five years, when they decide to purchase, they say hey, well I’m finally ready to buy and or even along the way, maybe they want to move to another apartment, right? And now all of a sudden, I can help he can help them again. And also, you know, they’ll refer possibly their friends as well. So I really admire your tenacity. And you have a team now and I want to talk about how impressive this is. Because you have built up a team fairly quickly in this business that is particularly unusual. Usually brokers don’t build teams, until they’re many, many, many years into the business. But you saw the opportunity and started doing that. Now can you talk a little bit about your team and yeah, guys are doing

Chih-Hao Yang 24:01
Yeah, so my managing broker actually talk to me and say, Hey, how you have so many clients, and why don’t you and there’s people that are coming into our brokerage and then I actually three now that are under my teams, and then you know what, I’m busy, I cannot do to showings, you know, I give it to my team members, they would go do the showings and then when they’re busy, I would take on, you know, their clients to the showing, I think it works great. And then I want to make sure that my clients are because a lot of I’m just one person, I cannot be at three places, you know, at a given time. So it’s always good to have a team member then shares my my goal I want people to I don’t want to just take everyone I want to I want that my team members to have the same goal and so desire to be successful.

D.J. Paris 24:53
Yeah, and I have a question. So how what is the typical lead time from the moment you start working with renter, okay, the time when they typically make a decision is is it to several weeks? Is it a few days? Is it a month? What is typically the time?

Chih-Hao Yang 25:11
Well, I get a lot of people they’re looking didn’t right time to talk to me, it would be 45 days, 60 days before their lease is up, because there’s when availability as is there for everyone to see. So if they talk to me six months, early, I was saying, talk to me later, like, you know, I will talk to them and say, Hey, what’s your budget? What’s your location? Like? Where’s your location that you want to live? A? I asked him a question. I said, but there’s nothing for us to see. Yeah, I would put it on my calendar to make sure I go back to the person in four months. And we’ll revisit and then I will book the showings. But you know, if they talk to me 45 days before their leases up, I can quickly I talked to them I sent you know, all the questions location and budget and your phone number email, like I say, hey, you know, let me schedule you a showing this weekend. And then, you know, on weekends, I was scheduled 1234565, or six places, and then we go see, usually they make a decision right away, I have clients that would, you know, they see 123 on the force showing there’s a Oh, why don’t need to see the other two, I want this one, and then we’ll just apply and do it right away. And that happens all the time. So then, you know, for with attendance or renter, they can be it’s not buying a house. So they can make their decision pretty quickly. If everything that they tell me fits, you know, the apartment fits the requirements. So it’s very important to listen to what the tenants well, they said we weren’t in Unit laundry. So don’t be bring them to places that have no in Unit laundry, it’d be wasting my time, their time. But then, you know, some people will say, Hey, I walked in Unit laundry, but my budget is 1500. But I will tell them, hey, if you want a unit laundry, 1500 you cannot find a studio, if you are in unit, it has to be maybe 17 or 18, in the area that you mentioned. So that I will tell them right away. And so they know. I don’t want to be you know, taking them to places with laundry. And then is it Oh, is it because of my budget? So I tell them upfront is that hey, if you want a dishwasher, you want this your hardwood floor? Maybe you have to up your budget, otherwise, we don’t have anything to see. Yeah, I

D.J. Paris 27:21
think it’s also so important. And you obviously have done this, which is you know, your inventory, you know, these buildings inside and out? How did you first get acclimated to these buildings? Where did you go visit them on your own and say, I want to learn what you guys offer? And tell us about how you did that? Good question.

Chih-Hao Yang 27:41
So my managing broker when we started, he was coaching us. Our assignment for the first 12 days was to visit 10 properties in your area. So I pick Streeterville. So I picked 10 high rises, as soon reveal, I call them I say, Hey, can I do a broker tour? Just me. So I went outside, take photos and take videos, I talked to the leasing agent or the property manager. And I take notes, how much is your applikation fee whatsoever. So I’m actually putting an Excel sheet. So I learned I first learned about the area. And then you know as time as time goes by, I will get a second client that wants to live in South Lou or River North. So I just go on site. And then that’s how I get started. I actually for the first half days, actually, each day I went to one property and learn about that building. So I know what floor is the pool, what floor is the gym, and then just I think we need to know we need to be familiar with the product. So then we can sell it to our clients. If we don’t know anything about products, how do we sell sell it to the clients?

D.J. Paris 28:50
It’s so funny. You mentioned that because it’s such great advice. Just today we predict we publish an episode with Matt Larissa, who’s the number two highest producing broker in Chicago. And he tells us in our episode, when he first started, he didn’t he grew up in in Cicero didn’t even know any of the neighborhoods inside of the city. And even though it was only a few miles away, and he would get up every day, and he said I wanted to he said he wanted to know River North. So he said he would get up every day. And this is this is many years ago, but he would just walk from building the building and go, Hey, are you a condo building or an apartment building? He said, he said, I had no idea. He had a notebook. He did exactly what you did, where he wrote everything down. He became an expert. He did that for a few years. And then all of a sudden, he just knew more than everybody and I suspect you have a similar thing that you know more about apartments and I know that’s not all of what you do. Of course, you’re all do a ton of sales as well. But you just know, you know these buildings where you don’t even have to think about when you just have to talk to the client and say what are you what are you looking for and you probably know where did a few minutes I imagine.

Chih-Hao Yang 30:01
So like, there’s a client, they’re looking for apartment near a Gold Coast, Chicago, he told me Chicago red light stop. So in my head, oh, this here, here, here here like in my head I already have like list. So I just need to type it out and send it to him and say, Hey, let’s go see those places. So it just the more you do, the more familiar you get to learn. And then you just remember, I don’t, I didn’t mean to memorize those buildings, but just, you know, I do this every day. So it becomes part of my life. And then I actually love doing that. So that it’s not like a pressure for me to memorize buildings or stuff.

D.J. Paris 30:36
Yeah, and I have a question. App. And I know you work with a lot of international students who might be returning back home or or maybe staying after the duration of their lease or school year is up? How do you stay in touch with them after they move in? So you’ve helped them find an apartment? And obviously, you be honored to have referrals from them and and then again, maybe down the road, they want to move to another apartment or possibly buy a home? Do you? Do you do anything to stay in touch? Do you have any advice for our listeners on how to? Because a lot of times what I find even with a broker, is that our own firm, although I don’t, you know, I don’t know for sure. But I suspect a lot of them like sell somebody a home or rent in somebody’s apartment. And then just well, hopefully they’ll think about me in the future. Do you have any processes to stay in touch? Yeah. So

Chih-Hao Yang 31:23
as soon as a lot of people stop talking to their clients after a sign a lease, but Right, I don’t stop there. I ask them, Hey, do you know how to set up you know, your combat account? Because a lot of people don’t know how to set it up. Right? Erica, how would they know how to set up combat account by right blocks and teach them hey, you might have to call if they don’t accept your you know, because they don’t have social security. So you might have to go to their office to set up your account and I teach them to and then some buildings require renter’s insurance, I don’t know where to get a renter’s insurance. So the website listed as a hey, you can do this, you can do this, you can do this. And on their moving days, I texted and said, Hey, good luck moving in today. And let me know if you need help with, you know, the moving company, and gifting you know, contacts. And after they moving, you know, I might send them like a welcome like a housewarming gift. So they knows me. And then I actually have this newsletter that I send out monthly, and I just write a little thing, just really personal, it’s about me know what, you know, where I see, you know, where the new buildings are coming up, you know, where my clients are being, you know, renting their apartment, where they’re where they’re buying their homes, so they get email from me once a month, so they knows me and I say, Hey, if you have any other clients, you know, they’re looking for renting or buying, you know, you have had my service before, if you’re satisfied, refer me to them, I’m happy to help them, I’m happy to find your next home. So then I Christmas, I send them chocolate cards, stuff. So they know, it’s not just a one time thing I want to I get a lot of repeated, you know, is my third year a you know, as a broker, and I get like my second year and third year I keep getting this client who rent it, and then they want to move apartment and I go back and tell them, you know, move them, you know, help them to move move apartment, or people who rent it the first year, and then now we’re gonna buy and helping them to buy. And I actually have people who want to sell your condo from the first year. So it’s, it works out. It’s not just a one time thing with clients, I think

D.J. Paris 33:30
it’s probably the biggest mistake that brokers make when they work with a client, whether it’s a buyer or a seller or renter, is the transaction closes, and then they go, Okay, well, if it’s a buyer, he’s probably not going to buy another home for seven or 10 years. seller who knows renter, they’re going to be there for the next 12 months? Well, we’ve tried to remember to check in in month 10 Or month 11. But you need to really have a process obviously, like you do, because I mean, I’m always amazed. And I don’t know if you can relate to this. But it’s not just in the real estate world, I find that most of the service providers who I pay fees to on a annual basis or even monthly basis, very rarely do I get a lot of communication from them over the years, you know, I think about different professionals that that I’ve probably given a substantial amount of money to over over the years and I think well sometimes I get a card during the holidays and that’s about it. I think you know, boy, they’re really missing out on opportunities because I like them. I’d be happy to share their information with my friends but I just don’t think about it because I’m not hearing from them. So this is a great strategy for our listeners to stay in touch.

Chih-Hao Yang 34:44
I’ll give you a great example like even buyers. I close a condo at Oh Tang in January this year, so last month, and then I’m already helping them first their second property thereby it’s an investment because they were there asking me, Hey, they have, you know, little extra money, they want to, you know, do something investments. And then I actually personally bought, you know, an investment property. So I was telling them, Hey, you can go, Wait, which area they were, you know, they were consulting me I was like talking to them. So yeah, it’s the buyers not necessarily going to wait five, six years, my buyers, they bought a house in January, they’re already working out on their second candle they’re buying for investment.

D.J. Paris 35:25
Yeah, it’s, that’s just the perfect point is, and that’s the other thing too is as a broker, if you’re listening, and you’re going, oh, gosh, I don’t really know much about investments, then make it a mission over the next year or two years to start studying and understanding what house hacking is, you know, buying multi unit properties, and why why people do that you know, how it works, and educate yourself. So that, because you might always be thinking about primary residence, okay, where are they going to live where, and they might be thinking, gosh, I have some extra cash, maybe I’d like to invest in and if you can’t really help them, then you’ve just missed another opportunity. And they’re going to use somebody else. Right? Yeah. I would, I’d like to hear this particular story that you that you shared here. And when we were talking, or you were, we were asking you about what you wanted to talk about. And safety is such an important thing. And oftentimes as men, we might not think as much about safety as maybe women would, but you shared a really interesting safety story. If you don’t mind sharing that with our audience, I think it’s important to hear it.

Chih-Hao Yang 36:37
Yeah, I want to share about this story because as a broker, now we have to take this sexual harassment prevention class. So the you know, we know how important this is. And so this happened to me last January 2019. When it was during the polar vortex, it was so colao. So I was wearing my, I was doing a showing. So a girl contacted me and she want to rent an apartment and this was the MLS deal. So I went to the I went to the building, and there was a guy already there’s a doorman and there was a guy at the lobby, and I didn’t think he was my client because it was a girl. So just waiting there. And then the girls show up. And I gotta keys we all went up to the building is the one bedroom is a small one. So it was a quick showing. So we went inside. And it was after five minutes or so we were leaving. And then the girl was standing at the door. blocking the entrance. The guy approached me and he said, Hey, nice jacket. I was wearing my Canada Goose. You know how last year there was all this quite Yeah, that’s going out to most

D.J. Paris 37:47
that’s the biggest jacket. Yeah, it’s a very, it’s a nice jacket. Yeah.

Chih-Hao Yang 37:52
And then the guy say, but it was so it was so cool. I had to wear it. Because I don’t know about you. Yeah. So the guy say, Hey, nice jacket. And I just look at him as Oh, yeah, you know, I just smile. You know, it keeps me warm. And then he say, hey, let’s switch. Let’s swap our jacket. And that’s right away, I realized he was blocking the door. He was saying that I run away. I knew something was wrong as your client yet but I never met them before. Right? That was the first time you know, I’m meeting them and read it. No, I knew. Well, I’m one person, you have two people. And it goes blocking the door. And the guy said, well give me your jacket. Basically, that’s what he’s saying. But I have I always have my phone with me. So right away, as he say, Dad, just Oh, sorry. I have a phone coming in. So I could just cause there. Hey, so pretend I was talking to somebody else. And I say hey, so and so. I pretend was another client call me I say Oh, I’m I’m doing a showing and 123 Main Street. I’m only two three minutes away. I’ll be there in five minutes. As soon as as soon as I say that. They got a stop. They changed her tone of voice. So then we left. So it because it gives them a signal where hey, I’m telling somebody that I’m here, right, noting so then, you know don’t do anything to me, and then works. And here’s the thing. I went down to the lobby, and then they left. I talked to the doorman. I say hey, do you know the guy and a girl? And then doorman say? Yes, he knows the guy. Oh, so long story short, the guy used to live in a building. He was he got evicted. And then now she’s using me to see the unit and want to apply. So I just know it’s a big no no, like I don’t know. And I asked the guy. I asked the guy why he was expected. I don’t want to share the information live but then you got effector so you know it was

D.J. Paris 39:52
it was just That’s a remarkable story. Yeah,

Chih-Hao Yang 39:55
we have to be and then I asked so then I kind of saw now from what I do showings now, I will go even earlier and go talk to the doorman as a hey, I’m going to do showings at this unit. You know, just if I feel I don’t know, I just wished that the doorman could have given me a hence to you know, get to where he sold the guy going up with me, right? And I don’t know what’s going to happen if somebody didn’t, you know, say hey, do the phone call thing or whatever. I don’t know what’s uh, what was going to happen but

D.J. Paris 40:26
well, it’s it’s amazing because I’m guessing he must have just seen your nice jacket and gone. No, well, I’m up there. Let me see if I can get him to give me the jacket. But that wasn’t his primary reason for being there. I guess he wanted to move back into

Chih-Hao Yang 40:40
the Yeah, he was fascinating. But I can tell that afterwards I could tell he was always under the influence to like, oh, yeah, like, just so they just be careful. Like is there we’re, we’re telling, you know, the female brokers to be careful. But I think this can happen to anyone, everyone. Yeah, my

D.J. Paris 41:00
my girlfriend who’s at catalyst, they have. And I imagine most of these big buildings have the safety features, but she has a little device that she wears on and attracts everywhere she goes. And if she isn’t back from a showing and a certain amount of time, it immediately calls the police. And so you know, for realtors, if you’re working with clients that you haven’t yet met, and you want to be safe, I know that you can buy these devices. They’re not expensive, I don’t think and it might just even be a good idea to have one of these. And there’s also apps you can put on your phone where you push a button. Yeah,

Chih-Hao Yang 41:37
like on the iPhone. If you push the your bottom five times it goes to police right away. Right? Yeah. And then like I turned on, find my friends so that my family or my friends know where I am. But if I if I’m doing a showing a PM, or like night, like sometimes people want to go see you at nighttime to see to view and then I would make sure one person knows where I’m going because usually just me going to, you know, a condo. And nobody like if I don’t tell anyone. Nobody knows where I’m going.

D.J. Paris 42:05
Yeah, safeties, it’s so important. And I we don’t talk about it enough on the show. So I’m so glad you shared that. Because it’s it’s it, especially with rent rentals. You know, it’s a lot of times it might be people you’ve never met before. So this is a great, a great, smart strategy to stay safe. It looks so you know, I think I think what I owe if you have a few questions, I’m sorry, a few questions from our listeners. So we have Randall from Chicago says, Since you do a lot of rentals, how many apartments? On average? Do you show your renters before they end up choosing? And you’ve sort of touched on this?

Chih-Hao Yang 42:42
So it’s a tough question. Some people want to you know, some people say they want to see eight or nine, you’re just crazy. Because for if you go into those high rises, it takes an hour, 45 minutes for them to do a building toward it, you see why unit, maybe two three units, they show you the gym, they show you the pool, they show you their amenities, you sit down and go over pricing. So for each tour is 45 minutes. And when you travel from one place to the other, that’s an hour. So then when somebody wants to see eight or nine isn’t, there’s no way we can see a places in eight, nine hours, like, you’re gonna be tired. I tell them, six would be the maximum for a day, because that would require six hours of showing. And I usually tell them, hey, why don’t you just pick top four. If you don’t like any of the four hour schedule the other three on the next day. And I will say 90% of the time, they will they will be able to pick the top, you know, pick one out of the four. Because I this is just for me, like I find myself forgetting about the first property or first building shop. You know what I can see 12345 I like the sixth one. I’m forgetting the first one. I’m getting confused. When I do this every day. I’m getting all confused. Like, if I don’t even remember how my clients remember anything. So one of the things I take photos for my clients every building Oh, that’s so smart. Oh, yeah, I three, if I go into this building, we see three units. I take a meter off this unit, this unit this unit Oh, after? Yeah,

D.J. Paris 44:20
I’m sorry. I’m pausing it for a second. That is a brilliant, brilliant tip. So and you can do this, by the way with buyers as well, of course. So I mean, I don’t know that anyone has shared that on our show. So I want to just pause for a second and say, if you’re showing your clients, whether it’s homes, apartments, take videos and then get them to your clients after after the day or that day. I’m sorry, go ahead

Chih-Hao Yang 44:41
check with the building for some buildings might not allow videos or photos but and when you ask nicely, they say yes. I’m telling you, I only use it for my personal like I’m going to send it to my clients. So that like let’s say we finish one building and then when we are going to the second light traveling to the second buildings, I will ask them hey, we See through units here? Which one do you like the most? And it was Oh, I like the second unit. So I will make a note, they’d like this one. After we see the second building, I say which unit Do you like the most? And it will say that why? So how about this one? I will compare. I keep comparing, like, so I make mental notes. So on the fifth one, I say, Hey, do you like this one, like, they will also add the fifth one when we finish? I know which ones their favorites? Because and I will send them the videos and photos to them. So they have it. So they can go home and apply. Or they would back to the building. Like to that will work.

D.J. Paris 45:33
Great suggestion. Okay. So Susan, I don’t know where Susan’s from. But Susan asks, I do a few rentals each month, which is great income, but I’m having a hard time converting renters into buyers when their lease is up. Any suggestions about how to convert renters to buyers overtime?

Chih-Hao Yang 45:56
I don’t I don’t count. Well, first of all, you have to make sure they like your service. Like they’re satisfied with your right. Yeah, that might be the problem. Yeah, like it’s a, you know, not every renters I have turned two buyers, but a lot of them turn into buyers. And so you know, you need to make sure they, if they’re not if they Yeah, like I will say that, you know, I make sure that I do everything I can to make sure they’re happy and satisfied with the building, you know, sometimes my, my, my, my client, tenants, client would text me and say, hey, my management is doing this doing that they’re not fixing my, my, my fast and my fixing my lights. But that’s not really my job anymore. But I would go out of my way, send management an email, copy my clients say, hey, my clients so and so is having problem with, you know, having issue with this, can you help them fix it? And now my clients, oh, you know, you know, Chad, how he’s taking initiative to do this for me. And then you know, when they ready, ready to buy, it might come to me, but it’s, it’s hard to I don’t really have I don’t I’m not out there purposely trying to confer my right buyer. I’m not doing that I’m not, you know, making note and you know, planning to do, it’s just, it just happens.

D.J. Paris 47:15
You’re just you’re you’re you’re trying to be of service, no matter whether they rent or purchase. You just want to be the one who helps them and hope that whenever they need any assistance with real estate, they’re reaching out to you. And I think that’s a really good answer.

Chih-Hao Yang 47:33
One of my clients wrote on Zillow as a review saying that I’m a one stop guy, like one stop shop or something because meaning like I can rent and I can help him to find renter insurance, combat, and then I can do the moving company. So I thought it was funny. He called me that one stop guide to go to

D.J. Paris 47:50
Yeah, but that’s what you want to be. And that’s it makes you so valuable to people. And also for our listeners, if you’re thinking oh gosh, you write renter’s insurance. That’s a good idea. I should tell all my renters as they’re moving in, you know, here’s a couple of insurance agents. And so this is an opportunity also to make relationships with insurance agents, and say, Hey, Mr. or Mrs. Insurance agent, I work with renters, or buyers, of course, and they need renter’s insurance or homeowners insurance, can I pass them over to you? And of course, every single insurance agent can say yes. And then you can say, Oh, by the way, if you ever know of any, if your clients are ever moving, I would love that if you would pass in those people over to me as well. And you can develop really good relationships that way.

Chih-Hao Yang 48:32
Yeah, you’re correct. I actually have a couple guys that I can just, I feel comfortable. I know. Their goal is like my so when I they will take care of my clients. So they just say, Hey, this is my client, a new internship, and then they need homeowners insurance. So I know they’re good, good.

D.J. Paris 48:49
Well, for all of our listeners out there, if you want and by the way, not all of our listeners are our brokers. So if you are a buyer or a seller or renter, and or if you’re a broker who wants to join your team or learn more about what your team offers, in case that’s a good fit. What’s the best way that one of our listeners can reach out to you?

Chih-Hao Yang 49:11
Yeah, so go to my website. It’s www at realtor C H y.com. I have my email my phone number my phone numbers 217-819-8009 Send me a text. I’m a My phone’s glued to me. I’m always on my phone. And then I checked I check my emails all the time.

D.J. Paris 49:33
So yeah, and we didn’t even touch on this. And I know one of your big things is you respond to emails and texts, like almost all day and all night. And I don’t want to set that expectation because you need your own personal time too. But you you you that is a big deal to you. I know personally, and I know how much you care about your clients and you are willing to really go the extra mile in communication you’re I know you’re always amazed when Realtors don’t reply. And you’re like, Ah,

Chih-Hao Yang 50:04
I think it’s important to reply emails, like when I get it, I will reply within 30 minutes. Like, why wait, and why are you not checking emails? And sometimes, you know, my clients want to see a building. And then I go onto MLS, it says, oh, please call me to book an appointment. And I was like, Okay, it’s 10 o’clock. And then how can I call you now? or text me? And then right? Why not? Do you know why not using the technology to the emails or other things? Why do I have to call? And then I remember one time I text somebody at maybe 1130. And the next morning, I got angry text back from the realtor saying, hey, it was like, it was it was like, it was 1130. White, it was rude for you to text me 1130 I was like, Okay, so why why did you even protects you? Because I might be working at 2am and they find something I’m working on when I text you. But so turn off your phone, or turn into silent, but don’t yell at me when all right

D.J. Paris 51:06
on the showing notes. Please don’t text after 11pm Yeah, but

Chih-Hao Yang 51:11
yeah, I just assumed that he would turn off, you know, to silent or just let people email you. I think email is the best way to you know, book anything or just doing a joint. Yeah. So and then use I was, you know, recommend other brokers use technology I have had a managing broker was was another broker brokerage. My client was signing, they just, you know, signature and stuff. He doesn’t know how to use Docusign. Wow. So he asked me to sit out DocuSign where I send you my client and send it to his client and giving a copy. And I was just shocked. I was like, so I asked him, I said, How do you usually do this? He said, Well, he asked his clients to go into his office and sign. Oh, and I was like, well, it was 2020 You need to learn how to use DocuSign or, you know, but I was happy to help. But it just, you know, we I think older brokers need to be on the same page. So we can all help our clients to reach their goal, you know?

D.J. Paris 52:09
Well, it is called a cooperative commission. Right? It’s just to be cooperative. And I think sometimes brokers forget that they’re they’re actually sort of on the same side of the table they might be negotiating with one another, but at the end of the day both want to close the deal and and you know, so yeah, utilize technology, especially things like DocuSign dot loop showing assists to schedule showings. It’s amazing how many listings I see on the MLS where it’s like yeah, call me or text me I’m like, why don’t you just set up showing time?

Chih-Hao Yang 52:37
Call me Why is always crazy or like text me? Why would I text I have to like, tell them who I am. It’s email all my senators down there. They know who I am. But it was texting today. Oh, I’m sure how it was prosper equities. I want to do it is it’s, it’s just an extra work that can be say, like, we didn’t have to do this.

D.J. Paris 52:57
Well, on behalf of our listeners, she how I want to thank you for being part of our show, you have given so much incredible value. And I and you know, especially now that rental season starting and you’ve just given our listeners, so many great tips on how to participate, how to and just how to be a better broker in general, whether you’re doing rentals or sales, or both. And so for everyone listening if number one if you’re a broker and you’re like boy, I want to work on a team like that contact CI howdy visit his website, which is realtor, ch why.com. Again, realtor, ch y.com All his contact information is there. We’re gonna post that in the show notes as well so you can get in touch with them. And also, if you’re a renter, or a buyer or a seller or an investor who is looking to work with a realtor like she how you reach out to him the exact same way he’d be honored to talk with you and he’s clearly a rising superstar in the Chicago realtor industry. There’s 46,000 realtors, by the way in the Chicagoland area. Chih Hao is is a rising superstar. So we’re so happy that he came on the show today and and on behalf of the audience, she how thank you for spending time you know how we know how busy it is for you right now with with rental season. And also on behalf of Chico and myself. We want to thank all the listeners for continuing to support our show. Please continue to support our sponsors. And please tell a friend, every listener if you can just think of one other realtor that could benefit from hearing this particular interview. Send this to a friend and also follow us on Facebook, you follow us@facebook.com forward slash keeping it real pod. Not only do we post the behind the scenes recordings of these interviews in real time, but we also post an article every single day that we find online dedicated to helping brokers grow their business. So we give you nothing but good quality content on there and great interviews like the one here with Shih Hao Yang, so she helped thank you so much again, and we wish you continued success. And this is a great great episode and so much value Farleigh sirs,

Chih-Hao Yang 55:00
thank you so much for having me. I’m glad to be here.

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Why Giving Back Is The Best Strategy To Earn More Real Estate Customers • Barb Noote

March 10, 2020

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Barb Noote from Coldwell Banker is a top 1% producer in Chicago and believes all real estate agents should find a mentor for the first few years of their business. She believes this is the equivalent of going to college and the lessons learned are invaluable to helping secure the foundation of this business. In our conversation Barb talks about how she built her business over 19 years by giving back, and why this is the most important value an agent must have!

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

Barb Noote can be reached at 224-280-9025 and barb.noote@gmail.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. For real estate agents. My name is DJ Paris. I am your host and guide through the show. And are you an advertiser that is looking to get more business from real estate agents, we have spots available. So if you would like to sponsor an episode, reach out to us you can reach our casting directors on at zonna at keeping it real pod.com That’s our email or through our contact form at keeping it real pod.com and also everyone listening please follow us on Facebook, you can find us@facebook.com forward slash keeping it real pod what we do every single day is we post an article that we find online dedicated to helping you grow your business. And of course we post links to all of the episodes we do and now we even post real live recordings, almost like a behind the scenes you can watch in real time as we record episodes, because once we record an episode, then it takes our team a couple of weeks to actually produce it and get it ready into the format you’re listening to now but if you can’t wait, you want to watch it live where you can do that. So we broadcast them on Facebook and if you’re if you like our Facebook page, Facebook will notify you in real time each time we are doing a live videos you can watch so follow us@facebook.com forward slash keeping it real pod. And lastly, please tell a friend just think of one other real estate agent that you know that could benefit from hearing from top producers like Barb who is about to ready to come on the show. So thanks guys again for continuing to listen. Thanks for supporting our sponsors. And thanks for telling a friend and now on to our interview with top producer Barbara nuit.

Hey, today on the show we have Barb Knuth from Coldwell Banker. Barb has been a full time top 1% Producing Realtor in the Chicago suburbs for over 20 Or actually for two exactly 20 years. She has experience helping sellers, buyers and renters. She specializes in helping clients understand the home buying or renting process and selling process and out of pocket costs as well as giving them their options so they can make the best decision on what works for them. 90% of Barb’s business is referral based, and she looks forward to being your friend in real estate, please visit her website at Lake County home expert.com and a fresh from the flu. Welcome to the show. Barb, thank you so much.

Barb Noote 3:45
Thank you very much for having me.

D.J. Paris 3:47
I’m just glad you made it. I know this was a was a tough week for you. Yes, definitely. And by the way, you’re also running a business and have four kids. So getting sick is gotta be difficult, a little bit busy. Well, thanks for being on the show. Since you’ve been in production for so long, can you tell our listeners and viewers a little bit about how you got started? Why real estate and how did you how’d you get into the business?

Barb Noote 4:14
Yeah, absolutely. I actually it fell into my lap. It’s not anything that I would have ever thought that I would be doing because I was always very structured and like to be able to plan. And so if somebody would have told me I was going to be working random hours with random people and making random paychecks I would have run away screaming. But I ended up getting a job where I worked with a realtor and she needed some help doing mailings and setting appointments. And it was a great after school job that then after I graduated, I started working more full time hours for her. And I really got to see how fun that job could be. And so then she started giving me a little bit more to do and then had me get licensed and then I was able to stay on with her for a couple more years before I decided I would was comfortable enough to go off on my own. So it was actually a total fluke, but it worked out very well.

D.J. Paris 5:06
So this is a question we get a lot from our listeners, because it seems we’ve had I don’t know, this is like Episode 134, or something like that. So, or 135, whatever it is. And we’ve a lot of top 1% producers have been on our show, and a lot of them had a sort of similar experience where this wasn’t necessarily what they thought they might be doing. When they were much younger. However, how important do you think it is for somebody to have that sort of mentorship? I imagine you probably learned a lot from working from that producer for a while.

Barb Noote 5:41
Yeah, absolutely. You know, I, I’m at a point now where, because the markets doing so well. A lot of people past clients that I have, friends that I have, they’re now coming to me, and they’re saying, hey, Barb, I’m thinking about getting my real estate license, can we grab a cup of coffee, so I can pick your brain. And that’s actually the very first thing I tell them to do is that it’s so important because what you learn in classroom is memorization of things that you may or may not end up using. But the skills that you learn while you’re working under somebody. So I’ll have people that will be like so you think it’d be good for me to work on a team 100%? Does it stink, because you feel like you’re giving a split to somebody else, or whatever the case is, that’s always people’s biggest qualms is like, I don’t want to do that I’m gonna have to give, you know, whatever 50% of my check to whoever, whatever team I’m on. But 50% of something is better than 100% and nothing. And that 50% or whatever you work out with that broker is you’re you’re putting a price tag on that hands on experience. And that’s actually something that my husband tells me all the time is that as I’ve trained agents, and as I’ve had agents working underneath me, he goes, You don’t realize the value you’re passing on to them, just letting them shadow you and learn from you. Because it’s the day to day that you really learn and grow from no two days in real estate are ever the same. So you’ve just got to be able to learn to be quick on your feet, and know how to solve problems or forecast ahead on what needs to be done. And you don’t learn that unless you’ve been working with a seasoned realtor first. So absolutely, yeah,

D.J. Paris 7:11
I think that’s a really good point. And also realizing that we all pay money for expert advice in other areas of our life, right? Like, we might have a financial advisor, or we have an insurance agent, or you know, even you know, all sorts of services where either we’re paying directly out of pocket or it’s coming, there’s a commission owed. And you know, a lot of times, like you said, sometimes a broker will get in the business and say, Well, I don’t want to give up half of my income. It’s like, Yeah, but if that top producer or that team member is going to help you build your business, and they have a track record of a lot of success, right, you’re basically paying for knowledge and experience, and they’re gonna ultimately it’s an investment.

Barb Noote 7:51
Right. And I mean, you can’t look at another job and not see it, someone’s paying, someone joins the union there. They’re not getting paid at that high salary right away, I’m trying to think of what the word is now that they use when they’re basically shadowing them, like an apprentice and apprentice, thank you very, very good. So, you know, when you join a union, that’s what you’re doing. And you got two years of that. And with real estate, you don’t have to have a two year or four year college degree. So you’re getting into real estate with no student loans. So if you’re looking at it as you don’t have to be on a team forever, and you don’t have to be working under somebody forever. But if you look at it, as I’m going to do it for two years, I’m going to do it for four years, and the money I’m giving back to that team is the same as education at school, you’re still coming out ahead because you’re still coming out then with no student loans. And now you’ve built yourself a career in those two to four years. So it really is a mindset you got to people have to be able to get past so that they can just throw themselves in and be a sponge, absorb it all. Learn it all and then figure out how you can make it work for you. So

D.J. Paris 8:54
yeah, and also like you know, certainly sit down with met with multiple teams before you make a decision. See what you think’s the best fit. Because not every team is the right fit,

Barb Noote 9:05
correct? Yeah, some people run things very differently. Some people are very hands on other people. You know, I think there’s a transition period where you have to learn what kind of Realtor you want to be because there’s the transactional people who they’re more dollar driven. And they work very well with the real with the consumer who’s also dollar driven. There’s some buyers and sellers out there who don’t want the warm fuzzies they don’t need you to be their best friend. They want you to get to the bottom line, they want you to get the job done and they’ll call you when they need you again. And then there’s other people who want you calling long after the deal is done because they want to tell you about their dog or their cat or whatever their situation is in life. So yeah,

D.J. Paris 9:42
yeah, that’s a really good point. And I know that one of the really most interesting things about your business in particular is how much of it is referral based which I always say that’s the that’s the reward for doing a great job on you know, without Every client, can you talk a little bit about why you think your referral rate is so high? It’s certainly not that high for most brokers. So I think our listeners would be very interested to know why, why you why that sort of happened for you? Sure. Well,

Barb Noote 10:12
first of all, I like say, I’m blessed with really good clients that I like stay in touch. So that’s very helpful. But I think a lot of it has to do with that, that staying in touch. And like I’d mentioned before, I’ve had a lot of coaching over the years, nobody knows everything. So every time I feel like I’ve kind of reached a plateau, I reach out and I invest more money in myself and in coaching to figure out how to get to the next level, or how I can be better for my clients. And something that’s always stayed consistent with that training is staying in touch. And if you don’t treat those clients like a paycheck, the income will follow because you’re genuinely a caring person that cares about them. And I know, it’s hard to think about that if you are a realtor that’s new or you’re struggling, are you trying to figure out how to go from paycheck to paycheck when that’s not consistent. But I can assure you that when you start doing that, and you start leading with just trying to do what’s in the client’s best, best interest, they’ll always come back to you. And it’s not always just about that client. I mean, I’ve got some clients that have referred me so much business, and then their friends and family refer me business, because I helped them. Maybe it was a home inspection that had gone bad and I didn’t pressure them to move forward. I told them that there’d be a better opportunity for them out there, one that didn’t stress them out. Some of my clients joke with me, because when we’re looking at a house, or, you know, they’ll, they’ll like it, but they’ll be on the fence and I’ll be like, you know, kind of talking them through like, hey, you’ve got options, you can buy it, you don’t have to buy it. And they’ll joke with me they’re like, you know, you’re not a really good salesperson, you you’re no, you’re not trying to convince us to buy the house, but I don’t ever feel like that’s my job. I I really look at it as my job is to give them options based on facts, because it’s very easy to get caught in the emotion of negotiations. And I don’t think that everybody makes the best decisions when they’re in that emotional state. I know I’ve bought and sold houses myself. And even that I’ve got to have my husband talked me off the ledge on Sundays. Things are nice.

D.J. Paris 12:08
I had the same thing. Yeah, I had the same thing happen to me. When I went to sell my condo a couple years ago, where I listed it higher than I should have. I knew I knew better on advice. I took none of my own advice. And then I finally after a month I went I should probably lower the price. And it sold right away because

Barb Noote 12:25
your own pictures and everything

D.J. Paris 12:28
that I didn’t do that I was smart enough not to do.

Barb Noote 12:32
Excellent. Excellent. So yeah, I do think that’s got a big, big piece of it is just the caring factor.

D.J. Paris 12:38
Can you believe that? How often and thankfully, I don’t think it’s as prevalent as used to be. But you know, I still see I mean, it even happens, sadly, some of our own brokers, we now have a team in place at our firm, where we go through and look and whenever we see somebody who clearly took their own photos, we reach out to them and we’re like, please, please upgrade your photos like hi, it’s it’s 150 bucks, or whatever it costs, it is absolutely worth

Barb Noote 13:03
and and they I always tell realtors that they should treat selling their clients houses as if they were selling their own and how pristine they want it to be whether that’s with pictures or signage or how it looks online. I just feel like there should be that level of expectation that if you were going to sell your own house, how what would your standards be? And try and get your clients to understand that. So? Absolutely.

D.J. Paris 13:26
Yeah. So one of the questions actually, from when this is a good time for one of our listener questions. So let me make sure I found it. Okay. So you talked a lot about, you’ve talked a bit about referrals and doing a great job for your clients and really showing demonstrating that you’re that you care about them and giving them options instead of trying to push them one way or the other. So here’s a question about after the sale. So one of our listeners, Laura says, How do you stay in touch with your contacts after a sale? Do you do postcards, newsletters, phone calls, texts, social media posts, like, what’s your process for, you know, seeing being that maybe the person is going to be now seven years away from doing another real estate transaction?

Barb Noote 14:11
Sure. Well, and again, I think this is where it’s important that we focus on the fact that just because of that one person has moved in may not be looking to buy or sell again, in seven years, they’ve got all of their family and their friends. And that’s where a lot of my referrals come from is that when I do a good job for them, then they pass that name on. And that’s why a point to bring up to that is sometimes as Realtors we’re always like, Oh man, you know, our clients, they start bringing their parents with on every showing. And then it’s hard because we feel like it’s us against the parents. And it’s really a mindset, you’ve got to get out of your own way and realize that if your clients, parents see you taking such good care of them, they will become advocates for you too. So we’re all trying to help the same person here. So I think that’s important as far as staying in touch with them. One of the big things that I do is I have a 90 day program for after I close. So yeah, absolutely. So this is a huge one because most of the time, I found that when I closed on a house, I would give my client a card at closing with $100 gift card in there. And I would say thank you so much for letting me work with you and blah, blah, blah. And sometimes I wouldn’t even get a thank you from it. And it’s not that which should have been, I wasn’t giving them a gift to get a thank you. But it was almost like I started to feel like they expected me to give them a gift for working with them. Even though I know I worked my tail end off. So I was like, Okay, I want them to know that I’m giving them this because I appreciate them. And I will appreciate them continuously in the future. So I broke that $100 gift card up into three different stages. So now when I meet with them at their walkthrough, I give them a big laundry basket full of toilet paper, paper towels, paper plates, anything you can imagine that you need that first day you move in, oh, that’s so smart. I love that people love it. And it’s way better than a plant because lord knows I can’t keep a plant alive to save my soul. So at least I know they’re getting use out of this, I will get calls and text messages from clients for days being like, oh, Barb, that toothpaste was a lifesaver. We couldn’t figure out where we packed ours or even silly things. Like when we go to do the walkthrough, I had a client one time and she’s like, I have such a bad headache. I don’t know how I’m gonna make it through closing, I’m like, oh, there’s some ibuprofen in this gift basket. So it’s just all those little things that come in super handy. So they get that, and then 60 days after closing so that you know, they get the gift basket that’s lasting about the first 30 days. And then 60 days after closing, they get a gift card from me that just says, Hey, I know buying your house or selling your house was stressful. Here’s a movie gift card now that you’ve unpacked some Why don’t you get out into the community and just take a night off. And then at the 90 day mark, they’ll get a gift card for me for like Kohl’s or target or something like that. And it’s just with a quick little note that says, hey, I’m sure you’ve finished unpacking. And now you’ve thought about additional things you’d like to buy to make this house your home. Happy Shopping, let me know what you buy with it. And that’s always really fun, because that encourages them to interact back with me. So then I’ll get text messages of like a picture of towels, or garbage cans, like something silly, but for them, they bought it. And then they thought of me. And so I always I always get a lot of really good feedback about that. Because most people are programmed to think that once the sale is done, and we’ve gotten our checks that we don’t care anymore, and that’s just simply simply isn’t true. So I think just the long term, staying in touch with them, has really made a huge difference in growth in my business, because they know they’re still on my mind after closing. So it’s a big

D.J. Paris 17:40
one. Yeah, that’s I think you’re the first person that we’ve interviewed who has that sort of 90 day process. Excellent. No, it’s, it’s awesome. And it’s it, you know, if we think as listeners, probably a good percentage of realtors will do something for their clients at closing, or after closing, you know, a gift card, a gift, whatever. But to really think, and that’s certainly better than nothing, of course. But to really think like, what could they use in the first 30 days, and then to put a little gift basket together with like a laundry basket. That’s a good idea. Like paper plates, of course, you know, toothpaste, all

Barb Noote 18:20
those scissors is a big one. Oh, that’s a good one. Like, I couldn’t find my box cutter. So yeah, it’s been really beneficial.

D.J. Paris 18:27
That’s really, really smart. So like, if we think like, boy, does that meet somebody’s needs, you know, it’s funny, I moved into an apartment once. This is like a silly example. But it’s a really good one where the landlord which was the condo owner, he and his wife, they knew I had a cat and a dog. And they the day I moved in, they had put the entire island. The kitchen island was littered with cat toys, dog toys, treats, and you know it, they probably spent $25 total. And it’s it’s silly, but I went wow, that was and then they wrote me a handwritten note, you know, thanks so much for renting. And I was like that was really, really smart. And it made me think that like, oh, they care about me, even though I’m sure they do that for every tenant, but they should do that for every time.

Barb Noote 19:13
They do care about you. They want to have a working relationship. And that’s exactly what I think this is too. So and get

D.J. Paris 19:19
in and guess how well I treated that place. Oh, yeah. You know, I mean, it sounds silly, but I probably treated it a little better. Not not that I don’t treat places. Nice. I do but I felt a little more connected to them. Yeah, though. I’d never met them.

Barb Noote 19:34
And I never ation so do right by them. Absolutely.

D.J. Paris 19:38
So what a what a great suggestion. So for everyone listening, come up with a 90 day at least a 90 day plan where you can consistently add value. And it doesn’t it doesn’t mean you have to spend an exorbitant amount of money either just demonstrate that you care and that you’re giving them things that they actually need.

Barb Noote 19:54
Yes, absolutely. Another touch on that too is the Client appreciation events. I don’t know if other people are doing those. But for people who are just starting out in real estate, it can be very intimidating. I remember the first time I did it, I’d only been in business for like seven years. And like, what if nobody shows up? Even worse? What if three people show up? So I partnered up with other realtors, and we, you know, rented out this venue. And that way, we each invited people. And so if I only had two of my people come, but they each had 15, we still had a room full of people. And so nobody could sit there and be like, so why don’t you have any client, you know what I mean? So it took the pressure off of having to look cool. And now I’ve been doing for 20 years, I I’ve got my client appreciation party coming up, we have about 150 people coming. So it’s it’s huge. It’s grown so much over the years, but starting out, like I know, I know, for me, it was always overwhelming when I went to seminars or coaching places. And these realtors that were really successful talked about the things they were doing an all I saw and felt was dollar signs. And I’m like, what, how do I get from where I’m at, though to there, there has to be this bridge, right? And so for me, how could I get there was by partnering up with other realtors. And like I said, small venue, then you’re splitting the cost of like light appetizers, and we just did a little raffle giveaway. And there’s manageable ways to do it. You could even do a reverse one where they come to your office, we did that for pie giveaway, where you can have clients come and pick up a pie right before Thanksgiving. So it’s like a reverse pop by and then they’re coming to you. And then they’re picking up the pie. But you get to see them and it’s Hi, how are you? How’s your family and then, you know, so there’s ways that are cost effective to do it because we just got our pies from Mariano’s. And they were like they gave us a deal at like $3 a pie. So we were able to like buy all these pies and have clients come to us. So again, the pressure was off from having to throw this big hoopla. But they came to us and they were so genuinely grateful. And how nice was it to make this one on one contact with people that I’d closed on back in January. And the following November, I’m able to see them face to face again. So we don’t get too busy this to stay in front of them. So little tips like that.

D.J. Paris 22:05
Well that’s, that’s that’s a really big tip actually. So because everybody at Thanksgiving has a pie, right? So what you’ve actually done possibly is even taken that off their to do list to go out and either make a pie or buy a pie. I mean in a in a sort of silly way. It’s not silly, because it’s actually something every single family has at Thanksgiving. In addition, I want to go back to the partnering with because honestly, that is nobody has mentioned that ever on on our show, partnering up with another agent. I always say agents because we have listeners nationwide and in some states, their agents and other Yeah. So anyway. In Illinois, if you say well, yeah, Illinois, some brokers get very upset. They’re like, we are not agents. We are brokers. But anyway, so partner with another realtor. Yeah, partner with another agent, broker realtor, this is a great idea. Because that is it is everybody’s fear when they do their first client Appreciation Event is I mean, it’s look at anytime anyone throws a party in socially, that is your biggest fear. Yeah, and the reality of it is, is like even if two people showed up, it would be fine. But to alleviate whatever embarrassment or, or, or just, you know, uncomfortable sort of scenario that might be I think that is such a great idea. And the other thing too, is when you partner up with other agents, you can also to help offset the cost even further, you can reach out to your, your your partners, like if you have a mortgage broker, a loan officer who’s you give business to or who wants to develop business with you, attorneys, title companies, you know, they can help offsets. Yeah, but that is so smart. I would have never thought of that for client appreciation partner up with someone else, maybe even two or three realtors. And then nobody knows whose clients are whose.

Barb Noote 23:49
Yeah, it takes the pressure off. So absolutely.

D.J. Paris 23:52
Okay, one of our other listeners asked us a totally different change of direction here, but they said, okay, so you’re out in Lake, you work mostly in Lake and McHenry County, counties, which are the suburbs of Chicago for our listeners who aren’t familiar. Now, one of our listeners named for riq, I believe says one of my suburban clients wants to move to downtown Chicago, I’m guessing freak as a suburban agent, one of my suburban clients wants to move to downtown Chicago, I don’t really know that area. Should I refer the client to a broker that specializes in downtown? Or should I spend time learning about it and help the client myself? Do you have an opinion on that?

Barb Noote 24:32
I do. And I’m going to say refer it out. I have found that, again, the mentality of helping the client the best way and looking out for their best interest is not you either one pretending to know the area or two respectfully, like you said, researching it. Well, you know, there’s something about knowing your area like when people move to my communities, I can tell them all about the schools and the park districts and the grocery shopping and which movie theater has fived Dollar Movie Night and things like that. And there’s value to that, especially if you have somebody moving from out of the area. And I’ve had several clients that have wanted to move down to the city and I have referred them out. And I just, I’m brutally honest with them, I say to them, Look, I love spending the time with you. And I would love to continue to help you. But part of me helping you is getting you someone who knows the area better than you do and better than I do. And so a lot of times, I find that they respect the fact that I’m being honest with them, and referring them, something I also do is give them a couple of options, so that they can talk to those realtors and figure out who’s going to be the best fit. Because if you just contact one realtor and say, Hey, client work with this person, and they’re not a good connection, personality wise, it can also still be a better turnout there. So you want to make sure that you talk to a couple realtors and you feel like you find a realtor that works the same as you and then find two of those and then give those numbers to your client and have them call them and see who they’re most comfortable with after they talk to them on the phone. So, but I definitely think it’s worth just getting the referral fee for because they’ll appreciate your honesty. And they’ll continue to refer you all the business up here in the suburbs, and because they’re going to know you’re looking out for them. So yeah,

D.J. Paris 26:12
yeah. And I think the conversation is a really simple one, right, you basically just say to your client, I would love to help you in downtown Chicago, but honestly, that’s not my specialty. And I have a couple of partners who that’s all they do. And they’re going to do a better job than I can. And so what I want to do is get you in touch with them. Because as much as I would love to do it myself, they’re actually a better fit. And I’ll supervise it, I’ll make sure you’re getting taken care of but really, they’re going to be the I mean, people would be will be so flattered and honored that you’re willing to pass it over. If you and if you frame it correctly, and not just like oh, I don’t want to deal with it. I don’t want to drive into the city and help you. Which of course the client wouldn’t probably think anyway, because of how genuine you are, of course, working with them in the past or whatever. But yeah, what a great, great answer. Thank

Barb Noote 27:00
you. Yeah, there’s nothing that’ll blow up more. So if you help them with something, and you’re like, oh, cool, but because you didn’t know the area, like school district wise or something like that. I mean, I the neighborhood I live in actually has three, three different school districts within the subdivision. So I’ve had clients before that want a certain school district? And they’re like, Well, why don’t you show me these three? And I know, like, well, that’s not in this specific school district that you say you want to be in? I can open it up if you’d like, oh, no, we definitely want to stay in the school district. If I don’t know that area, I don’t know that in school boundary lines can just be crazy at times. So it’s important to know the area because it can really bite you. Yeah.

D.J. Paris 27:38
Also, and you know, which of those schools are possibly even the best, which one of those districts is the right fit? Right? So sometimes, you know, having that knowledge is so valuable, and, and you’re just not going to know it all over any metropolitan area or suburban area. So refer out I guess, is the but fine. And you know, by the way, what a great opportunity to create those relationships with other realtors in other areas and just reaching out and saying, Hey, once in a while I get clients that want to move, you know, is it okay, if I pass, you know, over to you. And, you know, I’m sure most brokers would be super flattered.

Barb Noote 28:14
And a lot of folks from the city are moving up this way. So I’ve gotten several referrals from people that want to move out to the suburbs, because maybe they started out in the city, and now they’re having kids and they want to get further north for schools or community or whatever the case is. So it works both ways you build that relationship, and it’ll last Jeff.

D.J. Paris 28:32
Okay. Dave asks, you’ve seen a lot of changes for brokers over the past 20 years, what role do you think the broker will play in the future? Will it be the same as today? Or do you see it changing? Even now?

Barb Noote 28:51
You know, that’s a really good question. I do already see it changing in the fact that office dynamics are changing. When I first got into real estate, it was very popular and desirable to be in a large office. And then everybody kind of had their own office space in there, right. So you knew you were successful if you made it off the floor and into your own private office. And then in the last few years, because of technology, we’re all working so much more remotely, that it almost has become to the point now where although we like having maybe a home port to go to the reality is that we’re more working on the go and a lot of realtors end up working from home, or they want an office that they can go to and maybe just kind of strategize or have some training and then they’re on their way again, so I’m finding that maybe with brokers, either offices may be downsizing, so to speak, like their their main space, they just don’t need as much square footage or they’re going to be changing that to where a lot more of our training is done online. Sure. or the training is changing too, because more of our training is about our online presence. So it isn’t so much necessarily having these long office meetings where we have to go in and we have to meet to get information we need, it’s all at our fingertips. So I think a brokers role will be changing in the fact that they need to be in tune with what tomorrow’s buyers and sellers want, and how they can make sure that we’re catering to those needs. So I just don’t know if the stuffy office atmosphere is necessarily something that’s going to be around much longer. I’m already seeing it with Coldwell Banker, they’re making a lot of changes towards that right now, where it’s more open space where people are collaborating more, but then they’re going off and doing what they need to do. So it isn’t that private. Everyone’s closed off. I think a lot of people are learning that working together now is being very helpful and working online. So if anything, I just think that brokers are having to be more in tune, like I said, with what tomorrow’s buyers and sellers want with the online presence that we need. It’s important. Yeah, let’s

D.J. Paris 31:02
actually that brings me to another question that nobody asked, but I know would be asked by our listeners, which is okay. Let’s say you don’t have an office, or it’s a dedicated space at an office, which is, as you said, becoming more and more common. I know, at our firm, we have like 650 brokers and we have two offices and nobody uses either office. Yeah, I mean, very rarely do they use them. But they’re here in case people want them, which is a lot of a lot of brokers have that scenario where they work, they have an office if they want to use it. But we find that even our own brokers don’t don’t use it much. So my question is, if you get a referral, and somebody wants to buy a property, and let’s say, you know, do you invite them to the office for our first meeting? Do you have do you meet them at a Starbucks? People have all sorts of different approaches. What do you typically do in that scenario?

Barb Noote 31:53
So couple things for the last couple of years. Because my areas so wide, I was just I would ask them, I’d say, Well, where are you located at? Do you want to meet at a Starbucks close to your house. So Starbucks was loving me because I was constantly meeting at different Starbucks is all over. And a lot of people like that I think it’s a neutral zone versus shown to my office. This last year, I did open up a satellite office that was closer to my house because again, mom of four I don’t, I cannot work from home. I try really tried, but the dishwashers calling me and everything else. So yeah, so it’s good for me to physically get up, get my kids to school, and then go somewhere. But it’s a very small office, it’s right downtown Gray’s Lake, and I have it so that way, I would have that central location so that if someone’s like, Well, hey, I can come to your office. Now I’ve got something that’s a little bit more centrally located. So now I’ve got something north suburbs, I’ve got something closer to the North Shore, I’ve got a couple different locations, but the reality is meeting someone on neutral ground is very acceptable. So it doesn’t necessarily have to be office space, if you choose to work from

D.J. Paris 32:59
home. Yeah, and you know, I know safety is obviously always a concern as well, especially if you don’t know the person. And so sometimes, I think realtors, maybe, you know, just go okay, well, let’s start showing your properties. Maybe they haven’t met with the client yet. And if they don’t know them personally, meeting a neutral ground might just be a good idea safety wise, to get a sense of like, am I compatible with this person? Do I feel safe as the realtor, which you know, again, all of us need to need to think about. So you know, having an office is always a great neutral, possibly neutral, meeting space as well. But if they’re not comfortable coming to the office, then you can go to them. And I always think what a great way to say it is say, hey, I want to come to you, I want to make this easy for you. Is there a coffee shop or you know, a restaurant you want to meet at whatever, nearby and I’ll just come to you and make it easy. If you’d rather come to our office, we can schedule that to whatever works best for you. And just letting so what what a great idea. Awesome. All right, let’s see those. Okay, I would so I never get to these because I always forget to so I’ve made it a point to get to these. Because you were nice enough we a little behind the scenes for our viewers and listeners. We always ask a few like funny questions and never asked them because I get to be the lucky one. Yeah, so you get to be the lucky one. So tell us about the squirrel story, or the homeless man story. Either one is fine or both.

Barb Noote 34:29
Okay, well, I’ll start with the squirrel one because the homeless man stories kind of creepy, but the squirrel one was actually like not long after I got into real estate and I was asked to go and look at this estate house. And it had been vacant for a while. And they wanted a market analysis done on it. So I had asked one of the ladies in my office if she wanted to go with me it was a vacant house. They’d love to key under the mat for me. And it was a waterfront property that was actually in her neighborhood. So I said Would you come with me and just put your eyes on it. We can, you know, work it together if you want, I was relatively newer. And so I we get to the house and you open it up and it was like time had stood still it was like shag carpet and paneling and everything. But there was just piles of stuff everywhere. So we’re like walking like in these little paths trying to make our way through this house with just stacks of magazines and newspaper, all this stuff. And it was like, it was so creepy. So it was like someone had plucked whoever lived there and just took them out in the middle of night like makeup was still out on the bathroom. I think it was so creepy. Yeah. And so then like we’re laughing because we noticed there’s all these pictures of like this little Yorkshire Terrier, and there’s all this little like dog droppings. And I’m like, they didn’t like leave this dog in the house. Right? So we’re like now whatever. So we go downstairs and I can’t even see the floor. There’s so much stuff. And so then as I’m standing there, my friend Shawn comes down. And I’m talking to her. But as I’m talking to her, I noticed this pile of clothes is starting to move. And I’m like looking at I think I’m like losing it because I’m looking at it. And then I’m looking back at her and I’m looking back at this pile. And finally I go to say to her, there’s something moving by your foot right at the same time that she says What are you looking at? And as I go to say it, this squirrel pops out from under these clothes on the floor and literally, like grabbed her leg? Oh, no. So she’s screaming, I’m screaming. The two of us are running for the stairs at the same time. And it was like one of those movies where you both tried to go up the stairs. We’re stuck. We’re like pulling at each other. We could not get out of the house fast enough. And then we just sat on the front porch and laughed for like another 20 minutes and then had to go home. But we were like what the heck, what kind of job did we sign up for so? So there was actually a squirrel living in this abandoned hoarder house and yeah,

D.J. Paris 36:49
so maybe the squirrel was doing maybe the squirrel is doing makeup in the bathroom?

Barb Noote 36:54
Maybe it wasn’t dog poop that we were seeing in piles was probably the squirrel in his entire family. So

D.J. Paris 37:00
yeah, oh my gosh. And then tell us tell us the homeless man story.

Barb Noote 37:03
homeless man story was we were showing houses that was during the recession. The market had crashed, there was a ton of foreclosure properties. And so I was working with this investor couple who was buying properties. And so we went into this house and there was a gentleman who was laying on the floor like it was a vacant, it was empty. And it was laying on the floor. And so I was like, oh geez, I’m like Excuse me, sir. Realtor realtor and I went over and I touched him and he was freezing cold. He was dead. Oh, no. Yeah, dead, like full. We had to call the police. I had to wait there while the police came, I was joking with my clients and like, so we writing it up or what? And they were like, Oh, no good. So we had to fill out a police report. And when the police got there, they actually recognized him. He was a homeless man that they had seen in multiple areas. And he must have just broken into this foreclosure and froze, I guess I don’t know. So when people are always like, Oh, do you have any crazy real estate? Real estate stories have ever found a body and like coincidentally I have So luckily, that’s a long time ago. I haven’t had any traumatic experiences with squirrels or bodies since.

D.J. Paris 38:08
Yeah, I in my very first career. My career my very first job when I was in between my freshman and sophomore year of college, I was a security guard at a retirement home. And sadly, crowd, lively crowd except for the few unaligned people I find. So I have had that experience. Yeah, it’s it’s it’s pretty

Barb Noote 38:32
rough sticks in your mind. That’s

D.J. Paris 38:35
for sure does. And then if you could tell us about the man on the couch, that’s the last story Alaska. Yeah,

Barb Noote 38:41
that one was also weird. Come to think of it. I’ve had a lot of weird experiences, get your real estate license today, people. It is one of the exciting things about the job, right? Every day is different. So a man there, we went into this house, and the house was very specifically decorated, I guess I’ll say he had very specific taste. And it was very over the top is very hard for my buyers to visualize themselves in it. And so they were making some comments about it. Like, I mean, I don’t remember what the comments were at the time, I’m sure but they were not positive comments. not positive. Like, why would anybody ever paint this color or who chose this flooring or things like that, right? So we’re going through the house, and I’m just like, you know, like, I get it. Yeah, you know, so I go downstairs, we go walking downstairs, it was a split level, and I turn on the light and there’s the homeowner laying on the couch listening to our entire conversation. And I’m like, Oh my gosh, she’s like, I was sleeping. And I was like, I’m really sorry. You know, we had an appointment. He’s like, Oh, I heard and I was like, Sorry, I’ll leave feedback.

D.J. Paris 39:50
It is it is funny that people with really awful taste never know that they have awful taste.

Barb Noote 39:56
Yeah, they don’t want to hear it either. They’re like, Do you know how expensive this was? I’m like, I’m sorry. All right. So yeah. So it’s been some very fun stories, experiences with my clients, for sure.

D.J. Paris 40:08
And then I just have I have one more question for you. So a lot of our listeners are relatively new to the business and are always curious, obviously, you’re 19 years in

Barb Noote 40:19
2019, that’s fine. Where you’re going with? Yeah.

D.J. Paris 40:24
So for people that are newer, what do you think is the most important thing they should be doing? We talked about finding a mentor, finding a team where you could really learn and absorb, in addition to that for their own business, you know, do you have advice of what they should do, to really, you know, help build a nice future for themselves.

Barb Noote 40:45
So there comes a point where you need coaching, I think that something that Realtors do, right is we don’t want to be in corporate America, we want to be our own bosses, we want to create our own schedules. But then when we actually get to that point, we don’t know what we’re doing. And we don’t know how to create a business, so to speak, because we know how to call people we know how to show houses. The problem with that is, then you’re being reactive to the business, right? And you need to be proactive to create the business. So how do we do that? So I would say the very first thing you want to make sure that you have is a database. I mean, I had a database before it could be online, which is embarrassing. I had like the phone book thing that I would write down these numbers, and then I was constantly having to redo it with new names and new addresses. So now, I mean, with technology, there’s just no good excuse. And most offices that you work at will have some sort of database that you can use. But for me, I think it was coaching, I was in the business for between five to seven years, and I just kind of plateaued. And I just didn’t know how to get out of my own way. I knew what I knew. But I didn’t know how to get past that. And so for me, it was coaching and I went to a bunch of different like, sometimes they’ll offer like a half day seminar for free, or they’ll offer a seminar for $99. And then if you want continued coaching, but even going to that one day seminar, you can get one or two things out of it, implement it. I think sometimes people get hung up on Oh, if I do coaching, it’s because I need this whole thing produced for me. And the reality is just baby step and just do that one thing until you have it down as a system. But if you have a database going just stay in front of your clients, you know, a big thing that a lot of realtors do. When they’re starting out as Popeyes. It’s something that I’ve dabbled in. And I always say that I need to do more of and I’m mad when I run out of time. But just Popeyes you know Father’s Day is coming up, you can get a roll of duct tape and say thanks for sticking with me with your real estate needs and just drop those off at 10 houses of your clients. So something else I did as a new realtor is I always offered to help realtors who were already established, that might be too busy to do their open houses and things like that I would sit the open houses for them because there was an opportunity for me to get clients. And there isn’t anything that you can’t YouTube online. Now. I mean, I wish I would have had access to all the stuff that agents have now because you could YouTube how to have a successful open house and Tom Ferry or pop up or Brian journey or Joe stump any of those. And those are three coaches that I’ve worked with, that have all helped my business grow tremendously. So it’s important that you don’t feel like you’ve got to spend money you’re not making but you also have to look at it as an investment. And find the budget that does make sense for you. And like I said, some offices, I know my office offers Brian Buffini and offer some great rebate if you take the class and finish the course and complete two deals afterwards or something along those lines. So I mean, I’m sure if you talk to your broker and said, Hey, I want to invest in me, there’s a seminar I want to attend, I don’t think there’s a broker out there that would poopoo the idea and not support you in some way and work out something with you. So it’s just constant education. Because those seminars are taught by people that have all been in the same shoes as you at one point or another. So just listen to them and learn from them and take a couple things and run with it. So

D.J. Paris 44:09
a lot of them to a lot of them to have money back guarantees, right so maybe the coaching doesn’t always have that. But like Brian Buffini used to be called 100 days to greatness, I forget what it’s called. Now,

Barb Noote 44:20
they’ll have that. Yeah, they still similar to that. Yeah, I

D.J. Paris 44:23
forget what it’s called. But whatever it’s called, like, there’s a money back guarantee. So if you it’s three or $400, whatever it is, it is absolutely worth it. Because there’s really no risk and you know, you know, getting those courses, even when you’re new and obviously spending money you don’t have is never, never something that anybody’s comfortable doing and not always something somebody should do. But the good news is, is a lot of these places, you know have that built in is like hey, if you’re not having success with this, then we give you your money back. So I always recommend do as much of that stuff of course as you can because even if you just get one or two good ideas and then eventually you know all those come But he’s also have live coaches. So what they really are trying to do is, you know, get you, you know, involved in their systems, and then they want to continually provide that service. And almost every top producer we’ve had on the show has a coach in some capacity. So I always say if the top 1% of all realtors have coaches, like maybe the rest of us should do the same thing. And I understand understanding that cost is, is a factor. But again, some of their introductory courses, which are amazing. I am familiar with Brian Buffini, but there’s also Tom Ferry, there’s Mike ferry, there’s a million others, and they’re all probably pretty good. So yeah, great, great suggestion. And one last thing is is I wanted to ask you, because of course, you’ve been doing this for, you know, two decades now, which is incredible. Why do you think your clients do choose you? And again, I, maybe they’re not necessarily comparing you to other brokers? However, why do you think you’ve become so why do you think you’ve become successful over the years?

Barb Noote 46:01
Um, I do think it’s because I know the area. But I also will say that you have to adapt in this business. So I think that one of the biggest times I saw myself having to adapt, right, and we’re realtors, we are creatures of habit, and we hate change. But yet, we’re in a business that changes daily. So it’s kind of contradicts itself. But one of the areas where I saw the biggest amount of changes when we had that last recession, I mean, we got hit so hard. We had houses out here that were bought and sold for 350 $400,000, that I was selling for 130,000 $150,000. I mean, huge, huge loss. But in that moment, you have to almost figure out what what the need is or what the demand is. So I went through and spent money on all these certifications for short sales certification. So I am an expert in that field. And I learned a lot about foreclosures, I took the training on all the different websites, HomePath had their own website, offers.com has their own website. And I went on there and I would learn how to do all of the offers. Because if you don’t do the offer, right, your client loses it, and you’re selling short sales and foreclosures at the time. So I saw a lot of the realtors get out of the business because they didn’t want to deal with those. And I saw a need. And so I wanted to, you know, fill that need. So was it great. I mean, no, we were working for a fraction of what we’d made during a good market. So I was working the same amount of hours for a fraction of the cost. But these people actually needed us and in a good market. Buyers and sellers don’t always feel like they need us even though we’ve got the background and we know the ropes that have to be jumped through. But in this case, people really did, they didn’t know what to do. They didn’t know how to sell their house and not have to go into foreclosure, how to stay in a house long enough to find a rental or how to even make themselves look desirable as a renter after they had a short sale or foreclosure. So there was a lot of hand holding. And I do think that going through that market has created some relationships with some of my clients that we will forever be connected because we were there, I was holding their hand when they were crying. I mean, I was there when they were losing their house, it was just it was emotional for everybody. And now that the markets come back, I’ve watched all these people rebuild and flourish and come back to buy houses for me again. And that’s where I got to reap the benefits of it, it was painful, sometimes even telling them they had to pay a commission on some of these deals, because they knew that they didn’t really have the money, you know, so it was really hard. But now we’ve seen it on the flip side where there’s really not a lot of foreclosures. And I’ve actually seen Realtors leaving the business now because they only focused on foreclosures. And now they didn’t have a client base to work with. So something that I think is important is you don’t ever put all your eggs in one basket. I had some religious or some clients that, you know, they always say, well, Barb, why don’t you just work with relocation you do great with relocation, you’re, you know, the area. So everybody relocating, and you can’t just invest all of that, because at one point relocation didn’t exist when the market crashed, companies weren’t offering relocation packages. So I think one of the things I learned on that too, is you can’t just rely on one source of income, you have to be diversified and figure out what people need. So I think that just that adapting, you know, like I was saying earlier, how brokers are gonna have to adapt for the market change and what what agents need to help their clients. It’s all about changing and if you dig in your heels, unfortunately, you’re gonna get left behind. So I think that’s built a lot of rapport with my clients is the knowledge that I have just from those experiences and constant training, always taking classes.

D.J. Paris 49:44
Yeah, because you never want to be in a scenario where maybe you’re a traditional realtor working with buyers, sellers, people buying primary residences or selling primary residences, and then all of a sudden investor comes your way and says, Hey, I I’m looking for deals and you’re like My gosh, I really don’t know how to do that. Now, that might be a lot of brokers position today. But then make that point to go, you know, over the next two years, I’m going to take a bunch of classes, I’m going to, I’m going to talk to other realtors who focus on working with investors. I mean, if that’s something you want to do, and then two years in, you’re going to know as much as just about anyone with respect to, you know, working with investors, and you always want to be able to say, I know how to do that. And if you don’t know how to do it, learn how to do it. And and again, even if you’re just watching YouTube videos, there’s a lot to absorb there. But yeah, working with an investor is a completely as you know, a completely different experience and working with a primary residence buyer or seller,

Barb Noote 50:41
definitely, often you have to know what rental income will look like, what resale value will look like, there’s a lot, they’re relying on you for answers for the future. Right, because they want to know what that resale value is going to be when they flip it or what the rental income is going to be versus what they’re paying for it. So there is there’s a little bit sicker layers to it. Another big one is there’s a lot of people that we saw that could not afford to downsize when the market was in its recession, because these people own these large homes, and they’d raise their kids in them. And their goal was then to sell their house for to go towards retirement. Well, they couldn’t because their house was worth 200 $300,000 less, right and what they thought it was going to be. So they’ve been riding it out. And so now this new boom that we’re seeing here is all those people that have been riding out that last recession are like great market came back, we’re going to sell it now. So now you have a lot of people downsizing, and that’s where we also get relocation with people out of state. So it’s knowing where the markets going. And I don’t know that you can necessarily do that if you aren’t in it every day so to speak. And no offense to protect Realtors I get you got to start somewhere. I know I did. But it’s very important that if you’re doing it part time, you’re taking that additional training to understand where the markets going because it moves quickly. It doesn’t seem like all the time, but all sudden, it’s a totally different market. So

D.J. Paris 52:02
Well, I think that’s a great place to wrap up. i You’ve said it all. Thank you. No thank you and for everyone listening, if you are a buyer or a seller or renter and investor someone who is looking for a top producer to work with. Barb would always love to take your your information to your QA. But Barb, what’s the best way? Anyone who’s listening who wants to possibly, you know, work with you is what’s the best way they should reach out to you?

Barb Noote 52:29
Well, we all know realtors have our cell phone stuck to our heads. So my cell phone number is 224-280-9025 Caller text is

D.J. Paris 52:39
great. And what’s the best email as well.

Barb Noote 52:41
My my best email would be bb.newt@gmail.com

D.J. Paris 52:46
Awesome. And then also everyone go visit Barb’s website, which is Lake County home expert.com. And she has links to all of her social accounts there as well follow her on Facebook, just search for Barb noodle, it’ll pop right up. Barb, thank you so much for being on the show. This was so incredibly valuable. You gave about 10 or 11 Really solid ideas for our listeners, which is exactly what we’re trying to do on the show. So on behalf of the listeners, we thank you for your time we know you were sick, we know you have your mom, you’re a successful business. You’re very busy. So thank you so much. And also on behalf of Barban myself for everyone listening. Thanks again please tell a friend just find one other realtor that could benefit from hearing or watching interviews with people like Barb and tell them about the show have them visit our website keeping it real pod.com They can stream every episode we’ve ever done or follow us on Facebook facebook.com forward slash keeping it real pod to watch these episodes live and also every day we post an article that we find online designed to help Realtors build their business. So anyway, Barb, thank you again and we will see everyone on the next episode. Thanks Barb. Sounds

Barb Noote 53:53
good. Thank you. Bye

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What It Takes To Become The #2 Top Producing Broker In Chicago • Matt Laricy

February 27, 2020

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Matt Laricy of The Matt Laricy Group is our most requested guest of all time! He’s a true real estate legend in Chicago, known for his professionalism, work ethic and commitment to the craft. As one of Chicago’s top brokers, Matt discusses how he started in real estate with zero clients and spent the first four years studying the market so that he could become an expert in Chicago neighborhoods. Today he’s the #2 top producing real estate agent in Chicago (out of 46k brokers). Matt discusses his journey and provides tips for anyone looking to take their production to the next level.

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

Matt Laricy can be reached at 708.250.2696 and mlaricy@americorpre.com.

Transcript

Hello, and welcome to another episode of Keeping it real the largest podcasts 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 featuring a true Chicago legend, our most requested guest of all time Matt legacy. So before we get to Matt, couple of quick announcements number one, please tell a friend of every one of our listeners tells just one other realtor who could benefit from listening to interviews like the one we’re about to have with Matt, we could double our listenership and be able to offer you even more episodes. So thanks in advance for telling a friend and also follow us on Facebook visit us@facebook.com forward slash keeping it real pod why? Because number one, we now have video and we broadcast all of our episodes live almost a behind the scenes recording, you can watch as we’re doing it on Facebook, but also we post an article every single day that we find online dedicated to helping you grow your business. So again, follow us on Facebook which is facebook.com forward slash keeping it real pod and now on to our interview with Matt Larissa.

Right, today is a very special day on our show. We started this podcast two and a half years ago. And today we have our most requested guests of all time. Literally not a week goes by where we don’t hear it from at least one listener saying you have to have our guests on the show. So we’re beyond excited to welcome Matt legacy of the matt legacy group. Now if you’re not if you’re from Chicago you already know about Matt Lauer see, but our listeners of course are nationwide. So want to tell everybody about Matt in case you’re not familiar. Matt is a third generation realtor. He’s also the managing broker for mirror Corp real estate company that his father started. Matt also heads his own team, which is called the matt legacy group. His hard work charisma and true passion for the business help Matt’s reputation as a qualified realtor quickly rise. Some of Matt’s accomplishments are being the number two agent in Chicago. He’s labeled one of Chicago’s who’s who Realtors by Chicago agent magazine. He’s a 30 under 30 by National Association of Realtors, and he’s won the Chicago agents Choice Award for industry MVP. Matt specializes in all facets of the real estate business, whether it’s navigating the way for first timers, helping a seller prep their property for sale or providing help in the luxury market. He knows and has experienced it all Matt’s a strong believer and giving back as a board member for the Make a Wish Foundation and Matt has helped the charity raise hundreds of 1000s of dollars for children in need. He is called the hardest working man in real estate. And I live half block from his office. And every time I walked by day or night, there’s always something going on. So it’s a well earned and deserved reputation. So please Oh, by the way, visit his website at Matt literacy. group.com. Welcome to the show, Matt.

Matt Laricy 4:00
Thanks for having me, man. We appreciate it. And I appreciate the kind words and nice intro.

D.J. Paris 4:06
Well, it’s I mean, it’s absolutely true. You are the most requested person to have on the show. And I know how busy you are. So it’s a real honor for us and our listeners. So thank you. I appreciate that. Yeah, yeah. Oh, and we should also plug that you yourself have a podcast and a vlog. And you can actually access that through Matt’s YouTube channel. So we’re gonna post a link to that, but you can just go to youtube search for Matt legacy. It’ll pop right up and subscribe to his channel, his vlogs they look awesome, way better than this. But they’re awesome. And you should definitely check them out.

Matt Laricy 4:34
Definitely subscribe. We appreciate that too.

D.J. Paris 4:37
Well, I would love to talk about I always ask this of all of our guests. You know, I know you come from a real estate family but we’d love to hear about how you got started and your journey into real estate.

Matt Laricy 4:49
Yeah, I mean, since I was a little kid getting in real estate was pretty much all I ever wanted to do. So since I was like two or three years old, I used to go to my father’s office on the south side by Midway Airport area. We we felt like the books because back in the day, they had like little books that you would fill out for, like listings. So that’s kind of like what I did. And so I just kind of always figured I’d get into real estate. And I went to college or anything like that. But literally before I actually graduated college, I already had my broker’s license. At that time, there was only agents and brokers, you know, there wasn’t brokers, managing brokers. So then you had to be 21 to get the broker’s license at that point. So I waited till I was 21. The day I turned 21, I took the test and got my license. And then the day I graduated college, I literally hung my license up and started selling right away. And in fact, my father didn’t allow me to work at the company right away. Just said he didn’t think it would be appropriate. So I went and worked at a century 21 for about six to seven months. And essentially 21 I worked that was actually an old client on my father’s that I think probably didn’t like him. Because I was the only person that didn’t get a desk, and the entire 200 agents out of that office, like everybody has a cubicle. So that’s where I started, you know, selling and I just then I moved events in my father’s company. And that was all in Oh, six. And that’s kind of like right towards the end of Oh, six 2007. That’s kind of when things kind of started getting kind of tough in the business because you kind of start feeling the rumblings at the mark was, yeah,

D.J. Paris 6:12
you got in at a tough time. Yeah,

Matt Laricy 6:15
I mean, I decided in 2008, they didn’t want to sell on the Southside Chicago anymore. They want to take the company downtown. And that just coincides with the fact that it was like maybe middle of 2008 they don’t want to take it downtown, which, as we know, it was like pretty much when the market fell out. And my dad’s a true self that our spirit he’s like, if you want to go downtown, you’re on your own. I’m not gonna give you a he hates North siders, no offense to anybody out there, that’s north Cyrus you just like hates him. And he’s like, I’m not gonna give any money or support you with your dream on that. So I came down here, I was around like, 23 I didn’t have any money. And I didn’t know anybody downtown. I didn’t know the differences between the neighborhoods, either. I didn’t know like, what webinars or vocals man like I didn’t know, that was different. You know, I just know I wanted to sell or the big buildings were. So I came here just house my way the top. And that’s just kind of like how it started.

D.J. Paris 6:57
Yeah, I was talking to Joel Schaub, who comes on our show once a month from guaranteed rate. He’s basically said the greatest thing about you, he just goes, he just thought works, everyone, you know, and I went, Yeah, that’s pretty much it. You know, I don’t know if it’s, of course, you know, you’re obviously extremely knowledgeable, too. But outworking I know, is a big, big thing for you. Would you say that’s, is that your number one success secret? If there was one?

Matt Laricy 7:21
I mean, I’d say it’s one of them. You know, I think the biggest problem in real estate is a lot of people just think it’s easier. They watch Million Dollar Listing, and they’re just like, hey, you know, like, the guy like wakes up at 10 o’clock, and he puts on something that looks cool. And like flirts with some hot girls. And, you know, he’s got a $10 million sale. I’m like, people just think like, that’s how it is. But throughout the years, it’s it’s a constant grind. And you know, we count days off here, and we’re constantly making sure people are working hard. I think that’s important. But also, the other aspect is, is that like, I run my business, like a business. And I think the biggest problem that most Realtors fall into is that, you know, you’re afraid to let go of any power, you think it all has to be done by you. It’s all III. And you know, they don’t understand. And now that teams are kind of more popular than when I first started

my business, I think one thing that probably second most is the fact that we are able to kind of run our business like a business.

D.J. Paris 8:15
Yeah. And you know, actually, that brings us to one of our listener questions. So one of our questions because you mentioned structure, right. And Realtors oftentimes struggle, that’s not always the skill set that attracts someone to being a real estate agent, they love the freedom, they probably don’t thrive in structure, and you are a huge structure guy. So one of our listeners, Suzanne wants to know, do you have a morning routine? And if so, would you be willing to share it?

Matt Laricy 8:41
Yeah, I mean, I actually think that you have to have a structure. It’s kind of like, you know, like you, you have to have a set things that you have to do every day. So like even my assistants, my agents and stuff like that every day you do a certain task. So whether it’s Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, whatever the day is, you have certain tasks you have to do that day. But then on top of that, you then tackle whatever else comes in. So for me, no matter what, you know, I wake up pretty much at the same time, every single day of the week. Well, not pretty much every day of the week, I wake up same time I go to the gym, you know, get the stress out. And then I tried to not have if I mean, if I have to have an appointment the morning I will but I try not to have like a super early appointment because I like to get through all my leads my prospecting. And then that way, I’m done doing that. And I’ve already cleaned up my inbox at that point. So then I tackle all the other stuff that comes in because like all day long, I always get emails and calls and negotiating deals and all that other stuff. But like, every morning if I didn’t go to the gym, or it’s easy, right? Like, it’d be really easy to just be like, let’s Screw it. Let’s wake up at eight o’clock today and like sleep in and not go to the gym. And it’s kind of wake up and like it’s not gonna make that big of a difference. But that’s, that’s a slippery slope. You know, you you give up one day, then the next day you kind of slip in maybe a little bit later in the next notes 10 or 11 o’clock and that’s kind of now your normal routine. So I think it’s really important that you have structure in this business. And that’s some of the things I try to teach my team all the time this Having structure, you know, every day you have to have like, certain things you have to do. And you need to make sure that I don’t know if you have to write it down or whatever, you have to make sure you do it and check it off your list. And then you can move on to everything else. So whenever I hear people talk about like, Hey, I don’t feel like I’m busy, or I’m, like seeing a lot of success. I’m like, Well, what are you doing every day? And like, well, some days you wake up to this, and sometimes they do this. So I mean, I think routine is probably the most important things you can do to be successful.

D.J. Paris 10:24
Yeah, I had on years ago, I had a Josh Weinberg who’s Of course, Tommy’s partner, Tom, he’s a real close friend of yours. And Josh, I’m sure as well. And they I asked them this is back when I just started the podcasts, didn’t know what to ask people. And I said, Hey, what are your what are your goals for next year? And I had Josh on the show. And he, he sort of laughed, and he goes, Yeah, we don’t really think like that. We think about discipline. And he said, one of his disciplines was Tommy, and this is a few years ago, but it’s probably still true. He said, We have Tommy has to meet one person a day that he hasn’t met before and pitch what we do. And he goes, if we if he does that, we’re gonna hit all of our numbers. And I just love that, that they have those, you know, even however many years they’ve been in business, they still do the basics, the fundamentals.

Matt Laricy 11:05
Right. I mean, that’s, that’s it, I think, the power of routine for everyone the most powerful things you could use to be successful in this business?

D.J. Paris 11:12
Yeah, I would love to talk about, you know, your team hasn’t just been successful. You’ve had a meteoric rise, you’re at the very top of the mountain in Chicago. That doesn’t happen by accident. And, you know, what would you attribute in addition to having, obviously, incredible discipline, and structure? What else do you think is has really taken your team and you to the top?

Matt Laricy 11:32
Well, I mean, I think knowledge is power, you know, so like, let’s face it. So people forget my first year in the business, I did zero to one sale, I think it was like, that’s it nothing. My second year in the business, I did one sale. My third year in the business, I did two sales. But my fourth year in the business, I did four sales. So pretty much in the first four years, I think I made a total of like, $30,000 in four years. I remember at that point, I’m like, 25 ish years old, okay. And I’m living at home in my parents house. Okay, I got dumped by some chick I was dating for a couple years. So I’m depressed and lonely at home with no sales in the worst real estate economy we’ve ever seen. And, you know, you’re also guys, you’re trying to pick up on checks, you’re like, Hey, I’m 25 a little bit home. And I’m in real estate, like how well do you think that went over to anybody you met, you know, make no money. So like, you know, like, okay, loser get out of here. So like, it’s really easy to get down on yourself. And, you know, a lot of people see me and they’re like, well, you’re young, you got so successful so quickly, but they forget, like, those four years are probably the four worst years, but best years of my life to because it, you know, helped build some character, you know, brings you down to realize that, like, you do have to work hard. So what I was saying during those years, is that I knew I wouldn’t get rich in money during those years. So I didn’t care that only had a sale. Yeah, that didn’t discourage me at all. What I always said is that, like, you don’t get rich and good market, you get rich in bad markets, right? So I can get rich in money, I’m gonna get rich and out. So when this market turns, I’m gonna know every single thing possible about the market. So what I would do is I’d drive down here first thing in the morning. And like I said, I didn’t know what River North to go colts, or I didn’t know there was a Wicker Park, like, I had no idea that these were neighborhoods, like we’re not cultured on the south side. Okay, so like knowing all this different shit. So I would get down early in the morning. And I would walk the neighborhoods literally with a paper map. And I would draw out the neighborhoods, and I’d walk into buildings and ask them if they’re rentals or sales buildings. And if it was a rental or sales, if it was rental, I’d walk right now, because I knew that you want to make it big and rentals, you’d only make it big and sale. So if it was a sales, I would drill the doorman trying to ask them, you know what this stuff was, and like, try to figure out what the building was. And if it had a name, I put the name down. So when somebody said like, Hey, this is the Montgomery, you know, like, I knew what that next like before people be like, Oh, I live in X building. The fuck is that? Like, is that a neighborhood that I missed? You know, so I mean, but I did that. And you have to remember when you wake up, and you don’t have enough money to pay for gas to get down to the city, and you don’t have any sales, it can be a pretty discouraging day, and it’s freezing cold out like it is saying you’re like, Hey, I’m gonna go downtown and walk in here. But it’s to figure out what I’m gonna know about it, you know, but I mean, I was partial, what I did try to know is like, so, you know, I tried to memorize the neighborhoods. After that, and go back to the South Side office, and I drill my dad, I would sit in the office, literally, he’d always put on a pot of coffee at like, 6pm and be like, Well, I’m gonna throw another pot on, drinks on with me. And I’m like, Yeah, I’ll sit here with you. And I’d sit back there, and I’d have fucking nothing to do. And I would just listen to him answer the phone call and see what he said. And then when he hang up, if I didn’t know, I’d say, Why did you say that? Like, what does this mean? What is the title? You know? Like, why did you negotiate this way? Like, what’s a better routine? So like, I would just ask every question I could. And that also at that time, there’s these things called computers. So anytime, like, I like I would read any article or do anything I could, like, just try to research so I was like, I kind of spent those four years it’s like a college, like education, like trying to really figure out learn every single thing I could. So when the market started to turn like I can answer any question, I mean, not offending business, but I knew everything.

D.J. Paris 14:56
Isn’t that amazing that your dad really set you up to succeed by Not making it easy for you as far as helping you grow your business.

Matt Laricy 15:04
He didn’t do anything. Like, No, I’m just kidding. I’m just kidding. Like, you know, it was tough love for sure. You know, I think he kind of helped pave the way to make sure that like we weren’t brought up silver spoon fed or anything like that, you know, I’m sure. He’ll never tell you we did anything, right. So he pitches every day about everything he still runs, technically runs the company. But, you know, I mean, I think that’s the biggest problem too, is like we were brought up in tough love. My guys are brought up that way too. But we’re in a PC society today. I feel like you know, realtors nowadays are set up to fail. I mean, honestly, because we’re not where everybody gets a trophy. Everybody’s gonna win. And whenever there’s pushback, I see, I tell people all the time, probably the biggest reason why I think I succeed more than other people’s because I want it more. Honestly, you’re the ideal and like, the people will be like, Okay, well, it doesn’t someone’s gonna work out. It was nice trying to work with him, like, wait a second fucking work that were 5000 apart, like, let’s make this work. But go back and talk to your guy, pick up the phone, we can make this happen, you know, and then like next, you know, builder like, Oh, my God, they came up like, can you believe it? We have a deal. Like, Yeah, no shit, because you call him back the second time. Like, I will tell you that that happens once a day, literally once a day. And you know, we’re in a society nowadays, where when the going gets tough people get going, like, they don’t want to work for it. Think about when you talk about the market. People are talking about the back half of the year. They’re always like, Oh, my God, it’s a different market right now. Can you believe it? It’s so tough. It’s like what you mean, it’s so tough to like, I show my clothes like 10 times, like 10 times, the real estate was never designed to sell in two or three days in the market. You know, you got to work for the people who want to work for and trying to make deals happen. They’re the ones that are successful.

D.J. Paris 16:32
Yeah, boy, that is that could not be better said. Absolutely. Right. And I think that shows in, in your work ethic, and also just how determine I saw you speak in an event. I can’t remember six months ago or so for Chicago, real producers. And there was a panel and the panels. Great. And you were up there. And somebody had asked a question about when you give up on a lead. And different people have different answers when once they tell you to buzz off or whatever. And you were like, why would you ever give up on a lead? And you said, I don’t care if it takes five years? I can’t wait for that person to become a client.

Matt Laricy 17:05
Right? I mean, I mean, I, when somebody tells me even like they like it’s a cold lead, you’ve never met him before. Like, oh, you know, we decided just to rent Well, guess what fucker, I just put you in my quarterly photo, every single quarter for the rest of your life, you’re gonna get an email or a call from me. And you know what I would say that every single quarter, I get at least five to six more sales from those people that people would have just thrown away. And guess what, six sales extra? Maybe that’s an extra 50 G’s in our pocket, right? And then that person who bought now they’re like, Oh, I love this guy. They’re gonna refer me to three other people. Right? So that’s technically not just like six more sales, it’d be an extra 20 sales a year. And one of the things I always tell people it’s like Derek Jeter like, you know, I mean, singles and doubles, keeping the game. You keep getting these little wins here and there. And here and there. It’s not about getting a $2 million sale, you get a bunch of little ones. Those add up. And that’s what builds your network. And I’m sorry to cut you off. No, no,

D.J. Paris 17:52
I cut you off. You’re absolutely right. It is singles and doubles all day that wins wins the game. I would love to ask a few questions here. Our audience was kind enough to write in because you’re obviously such a legend here in Chicago. Let’s see normal

Matt Laricy 18:06
guy trying to see like everybody else. That’s all.

D.J. Paris 18:09
Yeah, well, look, I that is, you know, we’ve done 130 Some of these episodes, all top 1% producers, and, you know, they all really you know, all boils down to wanting it more. And so I think you’ve just saying that was was so important to our listeners. And also what’s great too is your first four years, you didn’t have a ton of immediate success, yet. You just kept going and now you know if it was if it all went away tomorrow, you can rebuild it again. That’s what’s so amazing.

Matt Laricy 18:36
I lived at home till I was almost 27 years old. I didn’t give a shit. You know what I said to myself, I said like every dollar I saved, I put back in my business. That’s the other thing is I reg invest in myself. So like instead of spending 2000 hours a month downtown showing off, they’re like, Hey, I got money, blah, blah, blah, I think give a shit. I don’t give a shit if everybody thought I lived on my car. I wanted to be successful in the business and I was willing to sacrifice everything to make that happen. So every dollar made, I thought myself so I’m gonna put that right back in there. It’s like a lot of people talk about like how we got big on Zillow, right? Everybody’s like, oh, man, that guy got big as a Zillow blah blah. I’m gonna tell you a good story. What happened with that? In 2010 I want to guaranteed rates holiday party and Mark Martini Ranch was called Okay, now it’s Pacific Standard Time. Okay. And I was locked up with five agents in the city. I won’t tell them when they were in that worship these guys man fuck, I’m gonna go up there. I don’t know who they are. But they don’t know me. And I’m like, Hey, what are you guys doing for advertising? And like the one guy’s like, I’m on bus boards and you know, billboards all the shit. I’m in CS magazine and all this, like, what are you doing? I’m like, well, there’s this company that got created. It’s called Zillow. And there’s another one called Trulia. And like, I played around with their algorithms. I saw what they did I think they’re doing really well and I put my life savings on the line and I think this might be big. And everybody laughed at me and they’re like the internet like What the Why like nobody’s going online searching for homes like what do you guys I was like, Are you guys idiots like, this is huge. No, like, you’re never make anything blah, blah. They laughed at me and like, honestly, I walked I left the party after that because I was so embarrassed about like, how they made me feel. And I just thought to myself, you know why? If I’m going to keep trying at this, I’m gonna keep trying to tech route and see if they pick up, you know where it takes me like, here I am. But I’ll tell you what those websites first came out. That’s the differences that I invested my money in technology that other people felt would never work. And I did that all throughout my career, you know, and I still do that today, when I, when I see an opportunity, I think something’s going to take off, I invest my money with it. It’s it’s not, you know, John’s money, or I don’t get money from compass or some of these other, you know, places to give me money. Because my own hard earned cash, I invest in myself to see if something’s gonna work. And for people out there listening, you have to know is that like, you got to take chances. If you believe in enough, and you’re gonna work on it, then do it. But if you don’t believe in it, don’t put the money into it, because you’re gonna fail it. That’s the problem with agents is they don’t, you know, they go half and a half out. And they’re like, I can’t believe this isn’t working. It’s like, well, you didn’t give me your all, you know, and that’s the most money.

D.J. Paris 20:47
And I mean, I don’t know any realtors, that that only did a handful of sales in four years who are still in the business, right? Like, that’s the difference between you and everyone else is you just stuck with it, you knew it was gonna work, eventually, and you became an expert. And that was really, really important, as I don’t know how many brokers even become experts anymore.

Matt Laricy 21:05
I think the problem is, as soon as I talk about that, now is that a lot of people get their license, and they have got a great network, you know, and they did really, really well. But when when it gets tough, and I deal with these agents all the time, like how do you not know what a closing cost is? How do you not know what this sounds like? People actually don’t know, I say, you have to learn this stuff now. Because when the market turns, which it will, you know, I’m not saying it’s gonna get to oh, wait, but it’s gonna get a little bit worse. What’s gonna happen is you’re not going to be the expert. People are like, Why am I going to work with that? You know, so you have to educate yourself, every single day, you should be reading something, make sure that you’re ahead of the curve. So you can always be educated on the market.

D.J. Paris 21:39
Yeah. And that actually brings me to one of our listener questions, who said, how do you think this is anonymous question. So how do you feel the real estate market will be affected? If the Republicans win the presidency? Or if Democrats take office? Do you feel there’d be a shift in the market?

Matt Laricy 21:55
Yeah, I think there’ll be a huge shift. If the Republicans win office, the markets can be phenomenal, it’s business friendly, things are gonna keep going the way they’re gone. We’ll have four great years. If the Democrats win the office, I think it depends which one does. And it could affect the market. It’s not doom and gloom. Okay, there’s three branches of government. But I think the market probably won’t be as strong as it would be. If Republicans in office and if you look, statistically speaking, the housing market is typically better with Republican in office, it is, you know, people have more money, and you

D.J. Paris 22:22
don’t care what either way, right? Like, as far as you’re gonna be able to grow your business regardless,

Matt Laricy 22:27
I own a business, you can’t have a political opinion in my mind, because if you’re like Republicans, half the people hate you. And if you like the Democrats, if people hate you, I mean, like, honestly, depending on who gets an office, everybody’s gonna have to make adjustments on their business. And that’s just the way it is.

D.J. Paris 22:41
Yeah, I saw you speak once at an event and somebody was asking about cash. Where do we think the markets headed and you were like, I don’t really care because I will find opportunities no matter what I find, you know, you were they were saying in the winter it’s it’s slower and you were like, it’s not slower for me in the winter. Like I’m just as busy.

Matt Laricy 22:57
Well, that’s the problem is people forget like, you know, people keep saying and now they’re like oh my god this January is different than other January’s. It’s different. Like no shit. It’s not different. We’ve been more seasonal because these rents we’ve been the most rent heavy city in the country for the last couple years in a row. So guess what, January, February, a better number months and July and August. So when you’re slow October, December, the reason you’re slow is because like everybody gets his calls, like, I want to scorch and deal you want to deal. Let’s talk in October, I’ll follow up with you every single week until October. And when October comes in these deals pour in, that’s when we’re going to die. So that’s where from October, December, I crushed it in sales, with investors, my deal seekers, you know, that’s it, you just have to plan your business or your people want a 2 million our house, but you know, they want it at 1.8. Okay, well, I can get that for you in October. I can’t get it for you. In February, when there’s 50 people looking at Samos.

D.J. Paris 23:40
That’s well said. Okay, Roberto asks, What’s the biggest mistake you’ve made while growing your business? Because he would like to avoid it. He says Thanks in advance.

Matt Laricy 23:50
I mean, I’ve made more mistakes, and I could count on my human being just like everybody else, I make a mistake every single day of the week, it’s probably more than one a week or one a day, I probably the biggest one that cost you the most is maybe hiring wrong. You know, there’s some times I make a hire where I kind of know in my gut that it’s not the right move, but maybe I’m kind of desperate at the time. So I take them on, and I take a chance and then I realize like really quickly, they’re not the right fit, and then I’m fucked because it costs you a lot of cash. And then you have to find somebody else. So that’s probably the biggest mistake that cost me.

D.J. Paris 24:21
They say, fire fast, hire slow, right? Something like that. Yeah, I

Matt Laricy 24:25
agree with that. All right.

D.J. Paris 24:27
This is a kind of a silly question, but Rianne I think it’s Rianne. hopefully I’m pronouncing that right asks about your blue suits, saying do you always wear blue suits because you love the color blue? Or is it a branding thing?

Matt Laricy 24:38
I started wearing blue suits because the suit guy went to set he thought it would look good and blue. So I bought my first custom suit was blue. And then after that, I kind of liked that it was different. I felt everybody always were brown or black or gray. And I was like let’s just get these obnoxious blue ones. And as I liked more, I started getting more blue color suits so that we had different ones to wear. That’s it. We have a dress code, my office all my guys who wear suits and ties at all time. So you got to if you work seven days a week, I’d have enough variety in the next you know, for the people out there. Yeah,

D.J. Paris 25:10
I’m always shocked at how so many Realtors dress so casually. I think

Matt Laricy 25:15
it was ridiculous. I do I think everybody listening out there to wear a suit and tie. I mean, you don’t see anybody going into a board meeting and in like, you know, khakis and like a T shirt and trying to win $100 million in business. Now I get it, like we’re not pitching $100 million. But like, I’ll tell you, I probably get two to 3% more business a year because I wear a suit and tie. Like if it’s between me and somebody else, I’ll win it just solely the way I’m dressed.

D.J. Paris 25:38
No question about it. And it’s kind of like, you know, we think other professions like if I went to see an attorney, and if they weren’t in a suit, I’d be a little disappointed and I might not trust them as much.

Matt Laricy 25:48
Yeah, I mean, 100% agree. Yeah. Okay, this

D.J. Paris 25:51
is this a good question. And I suspect I know your answer, but I’m curious to hear it. So Charles asks, With the advent of discount brokerages like Redfin, of course, being the most obvious example. Have you seen this impact your business, if at all,

Matt Laricy 26:06
it’s grown my business, I would say, I think there’s a lot of people, it’s great, because like, a lot of my buyers will go out with them, and then realize that like, they don’t know what they’re talking about. And then they’ve gotten to hold narrowing down for me, like they start with like, 30 years. Now they want one area and they want like one house and like this one popped up, can we see it and I show them one place, and they buy it? It’s phenomenal. And on the sell side, it’s like, they’ll think they want to go a cheaper route. I’m not just naming one company. There’s a lot of companies out there, of course, I realized that wasn’t the right route to go. So then they’ll take us on and we’ll get it more of a realistic price. And it’s easier for us. So I mean, there’s going to be different people that like different things. That’s why they make red cars, black cars, blue cars, everybody’s got their own opinion, there’s no right answer, there’s no wrong answer. Some people will look at as a discount, I just look at as a different personality. That’s it. You know, for me, I don’t see it as a threat. I know what I charge and value, I bring the table, I never degrade any agents or any company. A lot of people do it to us quite often on listing appointments. But I always say that it’s an I’m not here to tell you why I’m better than XYZ. I’m here to tell you who I am and what I can offer. And if you like me, then let’s roll with it. And if not, I wish you the best and I hope whoever gets to listen gets a sale. Like that’s it. That’s how you have to live your life. If you live your life with hatred towards the other agents, you’re going up against companies and you worry about that your business is gonna be affected.

D.J. Paris 27:23
Well, that and it’s called a cooperative commission, you might run across that person in a future deal

Matt Laricy 27:28
that people do business you run into enough that doesn’t make sense like that and other people.

D.J. Paris 27:32
Yeah, 100% Agree. Okay. Lucy asks, I would love to get your opinion about ibuyers. Just for our audience real quickly, I’m sure pretty much everyone knows what that is. In case you’re not I by no means an instant buyer. So somebody goes onto a website, they get an instant offer on a property. And, you know, it’s obviously become quite popular. What are your what’s your take on I buyers?

Matt Laricy 27:52
I think it’s a fad. Maybe I’m wrong, but I think it’s a fad. I think, you know, right now the economy is unbelievable. It’s literally the best economy America has ever seen. The market is unbelievably hot. A lot of realtors who’ve only been in the business last six, seven years like Man Real Estate’s great, it’s never bad. Well, guess what? Like we are in fictitious waters right now. Like naturally the way October December was last year for a lot of people out there that were crying complain about the market that’s normally like how the normal market is okay? It’s like, it’s always like really tough. So when you buy 3000 homes and just pay tax assessments, mortgages, or whatever it is, and they’re not moving really quick, what are the I buyers going to do that? What are they gonna do when they can’t sell in two seconds, I’ve never met anybody that wants to buy something that’s like super overpriced. So if they have 3000 homes that they’re just sitting on, and we’re now in a point where, you know, average market time goes from, you know, 30 days in an area and Deborah, they’re buying and it goes to 300 days, and they have 3000 Those, like how well that’s gonna work for you. Technology disruptors will come into an industry at all times, whenever the economy is very, very good. But when the economy gets bad, how much is it gonna affect? It’s like commission, like a lot of people thought commission was gonna go down, right? And that when the market was booming, like things were selling in 24 hours, you would get a lot more people asking you for commission reductions. Well, guess what, now that market time is up. I have more people will say like, they’ll pay me more if I sell faster. Yeah. So it’s just like, I mean, there’s just a fat for sale by owner.com was the biggest threat to humanity in real estate in the 90s. How that works,

D.J. Paris 29:23
right? Yeah, great point. Yeah, everyone thought that was that was going to replace realtors, I, yeah.

Matt Laricy 29:29
And the real estate agency, I bar all that stuff. It’s evolving. It’s changing. I think the people who do it part time and don’t take the job seriously. I think a large portion of real estate agents in the next 20 years will be gone because it’s been such a thing where like, Hey, I’m gonna get my license two to three deals a year sheets and gigs. It’s cool, right? I think that type of stuff is going to start to change and what I call more like bottom feeders that get a couple of deals a year are gonna be off the table. And I think people are gonna look at more as a profession, which I think is only good, I think it’s gonna make the bigger agents people bigger.

D.J. Paris 30:01
Yeah, I couldn’t agree with you more. All right, Tim asks, do you specialize in only a certain area of the city or do you also work in the suburbs? And should I as a new broker in this person’s in their first year should they specialize in one area or try to do try to go wherever the listings take them

Matt Laricy 30:19
specialized and we mostly specialize in this like what I call the downtown markets which is like South above like Lakeview and then north Center West Loop restaurant, all that stuff. So when I first got my business, I would go anywhere, I would be in like Orland Park up to like Skokie this outside. Like we’re like anything that would come in. I took it like Hungry Hungry Hippo, right? Like all the businesses that get the more the better. And then I realized that like, I didn’t know what happened the street over and like people were kind of like, I kind of felt like I was chasing commission. So like now if I get something suburbs, I refer it out to certain people in certain areas, the suburbs I give to and it’s just like me like and I, if somebody’s like, why don’t want to use you because we’re buying him or something. And suburbs like asset agent, like how many places have sold in this building last, like 10 days, I can tell you everything about everything there is about the market here. Can I tell you what’s happening with NACA today? I’ve never been better with that in my life, like how the fuck am I supposed to, but I could change the commission up there. So like I always say figure out where you want to be own it, specialize in it, know everything you can know about it, and then maybe expand to another smaller region that’s right next to it. So it’s kind of like building an empire. But you don’t want to go too far, where you can’t maintain the balance of the Empire you have.

D.J. Paris 31:21
Yeah, and it takes years, right? Like, it’s certainly you’re in River North, your your offices there, it takes a ton of time takes years to really get that knowledge. And then you become so incredibly valuable to people who want to live in those immediate areas that no one really can compete with you.

Matt Laricy 31:36
Rome wasn’t built overnight. You know, everybody wants that instant gratification these days. I mean, it’s gonna take a long, long time to do it.

D.J. Paris 31:42
And then one last question. So we’ve got, I don’t know what percentage of our listeners are brand new to the business, but we get a lot of new new brokers. So we talked about discipline structure, becoming an expert, taking your time treating it like a business. Is there anything else that you would coach a new broker on to start doing? Maybe it’s a daily discipline? Maybe it’s just something to start working on. But But what’s what’s sort of keeps your, you know, would you recommend somebody to keep their eye on the prize

Matt Laricy 32:10
structure in your day, first off, making sure that you do the same thing all day, every day, like, every day you do, you have to do XYZ, no matter what, you know, and then educating yourself on top of that, and making that part of your routine of being like every day, like, for me, personally, I read five articles a day about the market every day no matter what. So I can always say in tune, you can’t be like, Oh, this happened. But that’s why we tell people like the Wall Street Journal doesn’t need to tell me what’s happened in Chicago. I’m like patting them on the front lines. I know what’s happening here better than they ever would dream to know about it. But that’s because I educate myself all day, every day, these new people out there, take every class, you can take every webinar, you can listen to every podcast, you can read every book, whether you agree or disagree with it. In take all that information in, you could formulate your own opinions later on. The main thing right now is to actually understand what the hell you’re doing. Like don’t worry about the sales, we always thought the sales are a cherry on top, like if I got to sell that be awesome. Like, yeah, make a couple bucks to survive. But like, I was blessed enough to have parents who had like a house that I could live at, but like still like, to me the money I never give it I still today don’t give a shit about how much money I make. I care about having sales and educating myself on what’s happening in the marketplace. You know, I just I think that’s a big problem for new new agents. Everything they know about is like, don’t talk to me about what your GCI is what you know, there’s a lot of the companies are like, what’s my GCI gonna be if I do this, who gives a shit with your money, I can tell you, my GCI is because you want I don’t give a shit. I don’t give a crap about how much money I’m making off per deal. I care about making sure I do the best fucking job. And I know everything there is about, you know, the market and what’s going on out there. And that’s what you should be more concerned about the moral about what you put in your pocket. And every new Broker, I need probably the person that tells me how much money we’re gonna make first year. So the first thing I tell him, I’ll tell you right now, if you ever heard my competence, the first thing you do, I will leave that meeting right away. I cut meeting short so I just get up and I’m like, this isn’t a good fit.

D.J. Paris 33:49
Yeah, yeah, I mean, look, you know, knowledge is power. And for every one of our listeners, I always recommend to I’m not a Producing Realtor myself, but we interview a lot of them for our show. And, and so I always say you should be terrified of somebody who’s better than you. And you absolutely should be because Matt’s and his team is going to come in and blow you out of the water if it’s a listing presentation. So you need to up your game. So you need to spend those four years really upping your game so that you can compete with the big boys and girls of course, but you need to be able to compete and if you can’t immediately articulate your knowledge. You know, guys like Matt are gonna come around and crush you and not that Matt’s looking to crush you, but he’s just going to have a better

Matt Laricy 34:31
technically I am. I like competition and I want to try to be the best in the business. I’ll tell you when I was trying to up in common I would take the first five guys that obviously gameofthrones sure you know and it would count tell the people that you want to kill every night before she went to bed I would look at the top five guys and be like, these are the guys who want to take down like all day every day like what can I do to better myself to be better than that? You know? And then immediate like in a bad way like I feel like a bad people. I mean, these guys are unbelievable rock star people. You know guys and girls. I’m just saying for me personally If I knew to be the best, I had a beat the best. So how would I beat the best? Well, I have to be better myself. These guys aren’t at the top because they suck. They’re the top was the best in the game. So every night like Game of Thrones, I’m saying like their names like, this is what I’m gonna do to try to bring them down. And I would think about it, I had a plan of attack, I didn’t just go off the seat of my pants being like, oh, let’s try to do this today. Like these new people, you have to take the job seriously, if you hold yourself to a serious matter, the people you meet are going to do that as well.

D.J. Paris 35:24
Yeah, and just the sheer amount of knowledge you have on the current markets and what you see future trends going you just make adjustments you you don’t, you don’t even worry about where things are headed. You just notice where they’re headed and adjust the business accordingly. It seems

Matt Laricy 35:38
like it’d be scared about it. You just gotta know that like, Hey, if you have to also think five steps ahead. Like if you know, like, hey, like, I know, this is gonna be a tough end of the year. It’s a presidential election year. Chicago doesn’t perform all that yet. Well, I know August in December is gonna be a bloodbath. So right now I’m already preparing for now today. So that August, December, I’m not held with my pants on I’ll be prepared. I’m going to crush in August number because I know I’m gonna do it next year we succeed.

D.J. Paris 36:01
Yeah, well, you know, I think that you’ve said it all. What a great, what a great conversation. I want to make sure everyone listening. You want it if you want to see, by the way, a great website as well. There’s a lot of just terrible realtor websites out there. Matt Larose has one of the best ones, maybe the best one I’ve ever seen. Visit Matt literacy group.com. You can see exactly what a good website and I love the fact that it’s not, there’s not too much information on there. It’s really concise. It’s clear, it’s a good example of how to promote your brand, which of course, obviously, you know how to do

Matt Laricy 36:31
that, you know, the one thing we did with that was that we didn’t put listings on them and the only company that doesn’t have listings on our website. And what I said is because there’s so many different websites out there nowadays with with listing on there, I said that like why not promote who you are. People want to know who you are, they’re hiring you. So let that be seen. And that’s what we built the website around.

D.J. Paris 36:48
And no one cares about your listings anyway. They care about you, right? I mean? Yeah, yeah. So that’s, that’s good. Because a lot of right, I always say that if like if you’re a realtor, and you’re just posting ads, or not ads on Facebook, but we’re doing posts on Facebook bragging about your your most recent listings, like, I don’t know, the Pete, most people care, but they want to know what you’re all about. And the website does that. And then also listen to us, listen to his podcast and watch his videos on YouTube, Matt literacy project. So I’ll be sending out to all of our listeners in the notes for this episode, you’ll be able to link directly to that. And again, Matt, true legend in Chicago. So grateful that I know you don’t have time to do this, and you did it. Anyway, it’s a real, real honor for our listeners on behalf of the listeners and viewers. Really, really appreciate it real quick, guys, before we go. If everyone out there tells another realtor who could benefit from listening to interviews or watching interviews like the one here with Matt, we’ll be able to double our viewership, we’ll be able to do more episodes for you. So please tell a friend about our website. And on on behalf of Matt and myself to all the listeners. We really thank you appreciate your your support and continuing to, to watch our episodes and listen. So Matt, thanks again. Really appreciate your time. This was great. Yeah.

Matt Laricy 37:58
Thanks, guys. Thanks for watching. You know, we’re always here if there’s any questions in the bottom comment.

D.J. Paris 38:03
Awesome. Thanks, man.

Matt Laricy 38:05
All right. Thanks.

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200 Real Estate Sales Per Year • Matthew Arminio

February 25, 2020

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Matthew Arminio of Apex National Real Estate is here to tell you that buy-and-hold and fix-and-flip are still viable real estate investment strategies in 2020. And he should know since he averages over 200 closed sales each year across five states (all investment properties). In our conversation Matt discusses his process for sourcing investment opportunities, how he evaluates the profitability of each property and how real estate agents can increase their knowledge of the investment side of the business!

Contact Matthew Arminio at 888.773.2739 and marminio@springlakecap.com

Want to watch this episode instead? Click here for the YouTube vide o !

Transcript

Hello, and welcome to another episode of Keeping it real the largest podcast made by real estate agents for real estate agents. My name is DJ Paris, I am your host and guide to the show and in just a moment, we have a great interview with Matthew R Mineo. Before we get started couple of quick notes, I want to remind everyone that we are in the process of launching a brand new website which will make everything a lot easier. If in case you want to search and find old episodes that appeal to you or want to just for example, watch all the Joel episodes for learning with a lender or Ryan do a pre sale or go go for Instagram or carry McCormick for the Monday market minute. So we’re running into just a few snags getting that website completed. But it should be completed in the next couple of weeks. Very excited about that. In the meantime, our website is still really functional. If you visit keeping that real pod.com You can stream every episode we’ve ever done live there. Also, please join our Facebook page, which is facebook.com forward slash keeping it real pot every single day, we post an article designed that we find online designed to help you grow your business. And of course we post all of our episodes there too. And we’ve now added video. So when we’re recording an episode, even though it might not actually get produced for a couple of weeks, what we do in the interim is we while we’re recording it, we broadcast it live on Facebook with video. So guys, it’s a great way to actually watch our episodes being recorded, see some behind the scenes stuff and get the episodes much faster, because it takes me a couple of weeks to produce them and actually get them ready to you through the podcast app that you’re probably using. Lastly, speaking of the podcast apps, if you’re on iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play Spotify, wherever Pandora, we’re everywhere, please leave us a review. Whatever that review is, we appreciate it. It helps our visibility within those podcast directories and just gives us feedback and lets us know how we’re doing. So please leave us a review. And one last favor. I’m asking for you tell one other person about the show. If you know a realtor out there that could benefit from hearing from true top producers like Matthew or Mineo just pass it along to one other realtor, you can either send them to our website, keeping it real pod.com Or just have them pull up iTunes or Google Play or wherever and have them search for keeping it real podcasts. It’ll pop right up. Thank you for all your continued support. We couldn’t do it without you guys. We’re cranking out episodes left and right. And we’re so excited to continue to bring you the content that you want and deserve and clearly appreciate. So thank you on behalf of all of us and now on to our interview with Matthew or Mineo.

All right, today on the show, we have Matthew Armindo from Apex national real estate. Matthew is a licensed managing broker in Illinois, Wisconsin, Indiana, Missouri, and Georgia. He’s focused solely on investments in real estate, primarily a single family investments. He works with all kinds of clients from large institutional funds to everyday investors, sells currently over 200 homes a year which is absolutely incredible. Welcome to the show, Matt. Thanks for having me on. Ya know, thank you. We really appreciate your time. I know I know how busy you are. So this is really appreciative of you spending time with our audience. Tell us a little bit about you know, your journey. How did you get into real estate?

Matthew Arminio 4:35
Yeah, so I got into real estate in 2009. I was working at a bank and managing a bunch of custom credits locally in Chicago and was just dealing with a bunch of guys who had real estate investments on the side and fell in love with the deal structures and the nuances of real estate and all that stuff. I actually went to DePaul University and got a master’s in real estate finance, and then took a job at a private equity shop that was doing commercial real estate ended up in the single family space when everything kind of went dark. In 2009, I was approached by one of the largest rental hedge funds in the country in Chicago to help them source and purchase assets here. So actually did like 600 deals for them from roughly 2009 to 2012.

D.J. Paris 5:33
Well, and how did you find those deals? If you don’t mind me asking what what was back then? What was that? Were they mostly on the MLS? Were they not on the MLS? You know, that’s usually a question are not investor brokers are always curious about investors.

Matthew Arminio 5:47
Yeah, so we did. We did some direct mailings, some Pay Per Click advertising, sort of like the we buy homes. Sure, but for the most part, it was MLS buys. So we we covered 138 Chicago markets for them, eventually expanded into Georgia with them. You know, but it was just wake up everyday pound the MLS understand what their Buy Box was, what type of product they wanted, what the necessary yield was estimating some sort of improvement budget forum and just getting out as many offers as

D.J. Paris 6:24
we could. And these were all buy and hold or were they flips or

Matthew Arminio 6:28
that particular client was all buy and hold on. So the first three years that we were doing this, it was all just buy and hold, but they now on something like 45,000 homes nationwide.

D.J. Paris 6:38
Amazing. Do you still work with them? Are you off five do working with other clients now?

Matthew Arminio 6:42
I don’t work with them anymore. I do work with buy and hold clients. My biggest buy and hold clients are actually in Missouri and Wisconsin. Slightly different model. But my main source of business right now are fix and flip buyers.

D.J. Paris 6:59
Yeah, I’ve talked to a lot of investors over the last, you know, two or three years, it seems that the given we have listeners all over the country, we’re of course located here in Chicago, you have licenses in like five states. So you know, more of the national trends than I would know here locally. But I know even in Chicago, the margins have become a lot tighter for house hacking, or just buy and hold in general. Have you seen Have you seen a shift there’s that why have you expanded to other states because of the Chicago market or just as a natural progression of expanding your business?

Matthew Arminio 7:35
A little bit of both. I mean, we we went into Wisconsin because we had clients in Illinois that liked that, like the general market and like the yield you could get on single family in Wisconsin. Our clients is similar to a Nashville or an Atlanta, just a little bit behind the growth curve. Our clients in Atlanta are looking at four and a half percent population growth going, there’s not nearly enough inventory to satisfy all the people moving. So each market operates a little bit differently. But at the end of the day, it’s all about either hitting, hitting the yield or hitting the spread on your fix and flip to make money for the client.

D.J. Paris 8:21
Yeah, I’ve Yeah, I agree. It’s I’ve always heard that a lot of times brokers who aren’t investors to traditional Realtors working with buyers and sellers, primary residence type of deals are a lot of times not really understanding. They’ll say, Well, we don’t, I can’t, you know, finding the money, you know, to fund to finance these deals. And then savvy investors or seasoned investors say, Oh, the money’s the easy part. It’s fine to making the numbers work that are the challenge. Would you agree with that? Is that been your experience as well?

Matthew Arminio 8:52
Yeah, I mean, making the numbers work is always the hard part. One of the bigger challenges to is when you get into a lot of markets, and you’re dealing with agents on the sales side that aren’t necessarily used to working with investors, it takes a little bit of hand holding on their part because it’s a it’s an untraditional offer. As much as from an investor perspective, we might we’d like to make it look and feel like what they’re used to putting the house under contract, doing the inspection hand holding the client through inspection issues. In Illinois, we have attorneys, so dealing with the attorneys and lining up the closing. It doesn’t quite ever happened that way for us. You know, and it’s unfortunately it’s a lot less, I think, emotional than the retail game and a lot more financially driven. So just trying to educate Realtors on that side of the business is usually the biggest hurdle.

D.J. Paris 9:52
Yeah, they’re just it’s sort of two different animals, right? Like the traditional realtor deals with, you know, the public and you guys you’re To be mostly and the traditional realtor is b2c, it’s just a whole different game, I guess

Matthew Arminio 10:05
it’s a completely different game. It’s a completely different sales experience. The way that my clients talk to me and I talk back to my clients is completely different than what happens on a retail transaction.

D.J. Paris 10:18
Yeah, I imagine they put a lot of trust in you to go out and find that find the deal. And then obviously, if the numbers work there, they’re more likely to make that investment. I imagine the clients are almost rarely to never on site, looking at the property. Is that is that the case? Or do they?

Matthew Arminio 10:35
Yeah, so, you know, in our world, not only are we sourcing the property, but we’re also bird dogging it. So we are for most of our clients is we walked the property, we put the scope of work together, we’re telling them what needs to be done. I mean, it’s no longer it’s not really a game of, Hey, these are the comps. It’s, these are the comps. These are the features of the comps. And this is what it’s going to cost you to get these features into your house. And how will ultimately compare to the other comps. Because we’re not necessarily worried about the property appraising on the back end, we’re more worried about it selling on the back end.

D.J. Paris 11:11
Right? What what type of? Well, here’s a question that I that I’m always curious about be and people brokers who are non who are more traditional Realtors might not understand the sheer number of offers, that I suspect you have to write Are you guys just constantly pumping out offers is that is that a huge part of of the business is just offer after offer and seeing who bites

Matthew Arminio 11:36
you know, when we move into a new market, it tends to operate that way. And it tends to operate that way. Because even us on the buy side don’t necessarily know the nuances of the market. So we don’t quite understand like, what’s an acceptable practice and what’s not an acceptable practice and who the power players are in a market and how we sort of position ourselves so that brokers understand we’re real, and will close. So we might not be the highest offer on the table might not be the best offer on the table. But there’s a certainty to working with us and our clients that I think a lot of other investor brokers can’t offer. You know, but once we sort of understand that market, I mean, in Chicago, we’re gonna buy 6570 assets for one of our fix and flip clients this year. And that’s probably about 20 offers a day, when it comes down to it. It’s incredible.

D.J. Paris 12:30
And how are you guys finding opportunities here in Chicago? Is it? Is it still the direct mail? Is it pounding the pavement? Knocking on doors? Is it MLS? What What have you guys found that’s working in this market? So,

Matthew Arminio 12:44
you know, my general philosophy is you can find great deals. And my general philosophy is you can find bad deals and just trends on in your particular market, sort of what the velocity of the MLS is as to whether or not you can really whether or not you can really find enough opportunities for your client. You know, in Chicago in particular, yeah, we still buy off the MLS primarily. We like it because we get more control that way. Sure. You know, there’s an expectation if you’re on the MLS, that access isn’t an issue. We can run in normal diligence period, we can walk an inspector through it if we need to, we have time to get our contractors in, in some of your faster velocity markets like Atlanta, we don’t have as much time that we can get through the process. And therefore the MLS doesn’t really operate as smoothly for us there.

D.J. Paris 13:36
Yeah, that makes sense. I think in Atlanta is aren’t there to MLS as well, or there used to be I don’t know if they’ve combined Yeah,

Matthew Arminio 13:43
they still have to MLS. And that’s always a fun thing when we open a new market, figuring out what MLS you’re on, and what platform and what it reaches and what it doesn’t. So yeah, there’s one that covers like, mainly Atlanta, and then one that covers everything else. So

D.J. Paris 13:59
Gotcha. And so we have a lot of listeners who are traditional realtors who oftentimes say, you know, I’d love to be able to work with investor clients. But I really don’t know anything about how to get started. You know, I always recommend to people who are looking to get more involved in investments to of course, check out bigger pockets that’s bigger pockets.com was a no brainer for for everyone who wants to even just get a knowledge about investments. And they have podcasts and you know, obviously lots of great resources for people to learn. There any other suggestions you have for brokers that really want to add this to their portfolio, whether it’s their own investments, or to be able to work with institutional clients like you do, or just, you know, mom and pop investors?

Matthew Arminio 14:46
Yeah. So, you know, one of the things that you have to do is figure out who the major players are in your market. So you have to kind of start to track your market, track the flips in your market and figure out Who’s buying them who’s? Who are they? Because the first thing is you got to identify who the potential client that you’re bringing product to, and really have to drill down on their numbers. You know, what you have to remember with them is, it’s not about what I think is a good deal. It’s not about what you think is a good deal. It’s about what they think is a good deal. It’s about what works for their metrics, you know, you have to remember that there’s an asset manager on the other side, that’s being judged on a set of criteria that his boss put in place. And so you have to be able to make sure that you understand that and help him see his way to that particular end goal.

D.J. Paris 15:40
Yeah, that makes perfect sense. And so yeah, as far as tracking the big players, I’ve also suggested, wherever you know, our listeners are nationally or even internationally, is to you know, get involved, start going to some of the investor meetups, bigger pockets has tons and tons of them all over the country, people are always promoting those, and then just just, you know, find out who the big players are in your space and take them to lunch and find out how they do things. But one thing I have found is Investors love talking about investments. And there is no shortage, no shortage of podcasts, there’s no shortage of resources meetings that you can attend, to really start to educate yourself.

Matthew Arminio 16:24
Yeah, that’s definitely true. We find a lot of guys on Facebook, so we’re always farming, Facebook investment groups, LinkedIn, investment groups, Instagram, you know, all the various social media sites that you would typically think, where they go to promote themselves, their product, their businesses, I mean, that’s where you go and just strike up a conversation with them. And I mean, at the end of the day, investors are about one thing. Finding deals. So usually, if you say, I’m a realtor, I get the ball start.

D.J. Paris 17:00
Yeah, I think that’s right. And a lot of times, they’re they partner with realtors as well, there’s a lot, you know, and I imagine you, you know, I don’t know, if you do any traditional, you know, public, but primary residence by and sells, but you might be somebody who’s too busy to do any sort of traditional, you know, public real estate transactions. So those are also people that you want to connect with, because they might have opportunities for you, in whatever they’re not spending their day doing.

Matthew Arminio 17:28
Yeah, we spend a lot of time like our our brokerage is 100%, solely focused on the investment space. So when we get a retail client, we’re reaching out to agents that we have relationships with in some markets, and we’re referring that business to them. And so for agents that get a lot of clients that say to them, like, I want to I, you know, I want to do an investment, I want to flip a house, I want to buy some rentals, like, look for someone in your market that understands what they’re doing. And don’t be afraid to refer the business over to them, because usually, there’ll be a great referral source back.

D.J. Paris 18:03
Yeah, and they’re going to be able to better service the client until you you know, get your knowledge up to par. And you know, you shouldn’t be afraid to reach out to somebody like Matt and say, Hey, I’ve got an institutional client or an investor client, that’s not really my specialty, can I pass this over to you and, and, you know, hopefully, other opportunities that come your way would go to them as well. So,

Matthew Arminio 18:23
yeah, give an example of something like that I got approached by a guy based out of Ohio last week. He’s got his foothold on Ohio. But he’s got a client who is buying regionally not nationwide, but they’re buying all over the MLS or Midwest. And he doesn’t have anybody covering Wisconsin. And so he reached out to me and said, Hey, these guys are buying like 20 a month in Wisconsin, I’d like to be able to source and send product to him. And so he and I are in the final stages of putting the deal together, where we’re gonna be his boots on the ground in Wisconsin. And we’re going to source this product, and we’re going to feed it to him, and he’s going to sell it to his client and everybody’s going to win.

D.J. Paris 19:01
Yeah, that’s a really smart idea. That’s some something that all of the top producers we have on our show will will tell you, whether they’re retail or institutional, they’ll say, you know, if there’s something they can’t handle, or that they’re not an expert in, they always refer it out and you earn a nice little referral commission and, you know, turn it over to someone else’s expertise.

Matthew Arminio 19:21
I think early in my career, I tried to be everything I tried. Sure, the market expert, you know, local market expert that, you know, pound the friends and family and be the traditional retail broker and be the investment guy and that message gets muddled and then you don’t have as much power with your clients because they’re not really sure what you are or what you stand for what you believe in, but once we kind of said, all the retail business we’re going to take and give to other people, and everyone just understands that we are the investment firm things got a lot Like our message got a lot more powerful.

D.J. Paris 20:02
Yeah, that said Jack of all trades, master of none. It’s an important phrase. And we, you know, we at the brokerage we’re at, that I’m at as well, we’ve tried to be everything to all brokers and we’ve learned over 10 years oh, we’re not everything to all brokers, we have a very specific narrow niche that we think is important. But you know, that’s what we’re good at. We don’t try well over, you know, we’ve tried to be everything. And then we’ve learned not such a great idea because, of course, we can’t be and then we’re not really specialized in anything. And it’s, it’s really, it’s a hard lesson to learn. But it’s an important one, especially for newer brokers, certainly try a lot of things, see what you like, but whatever you get the most excited about the most passionate about is probably a good idea to focus on. But don’t try to do everything because you just won’t be able to and, and take it from from people like Matt like pick, pick a specialty and really become an expert. But then people will ultimately come to you, right?

Matthew Arminio 21:00
Yeah, I mean, we’ve like I said, it used to be we had to go out and find people in the market. I mean, now we have established relationships with attorneys, investment groups, hedge funds, we’re getting referrals, almost weekly, of like, Hey, I got a I got a guy who inherited money from his Third Aunt that he didn’t know existed, and he wants to buy 10 rentals. And so can you help me out? I mean, we’re constantly building portfolios and positioning guys to be successful in the market. Yeah,

D.J. Paris 21:30
I’ve got a funny investment story for you. This is goes back about 25 years, I heard it from Brian Tracy, the self, the self help guy. And he said that he knew a guy this is this goes back probably actually about 30 years. What he would do, this was his specialty. It’s such a it’s kind of a dark specialty, quite honestly. But it’s it was interesting. So what this guy would do is, is a tough a tough one to talk about. But he would he would watch, I think he was in Las Vegas, this is maybe 30 years ago, and people were retiring out Las Vegas. And of course, at some point, people, you know, would pass on. And so what he would do is he would check the obituaries. And whenever somebody would pass on, he would he would wait a week, he would walk over to the property where a lot of times the family would be gathering trying to figure out what are we going to do with this property? What what’s the point, he would make an offer right there at the front door. And that’s all he did all day was walk around neighborhoods, knock on doors of recently deceased people and say to the families, Hey, are you looking to unload this house, and then he would, you know, he would buy it and rent it out. And that’s all he did. And he became incredibly successful. And he would even tell you, this is the story I’m hearing that he wasn’t really all that smart of a guy. But he knew that that worked. I don’t know that that works anymore. And again, maybe maybe not not the way I would go about building business. But the point is, he had a specialty, it was kind of an unusual specialty. And that actually worked for him. So you know, obviously you don’t do that. But But it’s an interesting idea. There’s so many ways in investments to really go out and source clients. Yeah,

Matthew Arminio 23:05
I mean, we I was at a mastermind meeting in, in Nashville last week for nationwide investors. And the one takeaway that I think I came out of there with was, understand what you’re strong at. Yeah, and just pound that, like, don’t worry about all the stuff that you’re missing on the edges. If you got something that works, just keep being the best at that one thing, that thing coming forward, and you’ll have no problem being successful.

D.J. Paris 23:35
So I have to ask this, because, of course, our listeners were probably waiting for me to ask this. But what markets are what cities in the country? Do you see a lot of opportunity now, and in the future? If you’re willing to share that? Of course.

Matthew Arminio 23:49
Yeah. You know, the, we don’t do a lot of work on the coasts. So I don’t I hear stories from Seattle and California and and those types of places. We like a lot of the southeast that hasn’t necessarily matured. You know, at the end of the day, when you’re looking at real estate from a, I guess, a more a more global perspective, so to speak. Like, we’re looking at markets that have temperate weather decent transportation systems aren’t so oversized that people don’t want to move to them and offer value and cost of living. And if you can throw a good school system and on top of it, I think you got a formula for six for success. I mean, I look, I look at Nashville and Atlanta is kind of the most recent examples of Sure. That population explosion and when you look at them, I mean Nashville in particular, Atlanta was already a little bit bigger, but Nashville was a typical, you know, is a typical mid sized southern city that exploded overnight. Well it exploded out Overnight, because you don’t have state income tax, you have a relatively cheap housing base, you have good employment, like you’re in the middle of the country, it’s a Southwest hub. And it’s got a decent school system in it. So like when you start to add all those things together, it makes a lot of sense. And then you throw in that, you know, it might snow twice a year there. And, you know, I think you’ve got a lot of people in the Midwest that are looking for that more temperate lower cost of living environment. I know that you understand that. When I say that, I pretty much mean Chicago. But yeah, I think that rings true. You know, I think that I think that people will always flock where they can get a better cost of living, and a more temperate environment.

D.J. Paris 25:46
So yeah, I was in Nashville a few years ago for the Eclipse because it was ground zero. So that was really cool. Because you got to look at the stare at the sun without glasses for about three or four minutes before. So that was really exciting. But when I was there, I had not really spent time in Nashville before. As soon as I got there says two years ago, I was like, Oh, I get it. Now I understand why you could just feel it when you’re there, of course, but it at the time, it was just shy of like 1000 people a day were who were wanting to move or moving there. I don’t know if it’s still at that pace. But it was just it was getting crazy. And after visiting there. I was like, oh, okay, that makes sense to me. There’s so much going for

Matthew Arminio 26:27
it. Yeah. So we I mean, we like we like St. Louis a lot. Obviously, I think Indianapolis will continue to attract people, we like Memphis, we’d like Nashville and Atlanta to continue their growth. You know, we think the Carolinas will continue to grow. And Texas will continue to grow. I think those are kind of our major spots. Now. Some of them, we think we’re probably a little late in the curve for us to jump into a new market. But you know, if you’re already there, I think there’s got to be investors looking for quality product. And if you can find your way into that into that niche, and you can help them provide that you can grow your business.

D.J. Paris 27:05
So last question, and probably the hardest question to answer. And I’m certainly not expecting a definitive answer here. But if I if if you could give suggestion, a suggestion to our listeners, who are most of which traditional realtors, non investor brokers, who say, Okay, well, how do I go about finding an investor? Right? So now I found an opportunity, whether it’s a fix and flip, whether it’s buy and hold. And I now think the numbers work, I’ve done the math. Now, where do I take this? Do you have any suggestions of how to go about sourcing investors?

Matthew Arminio 27:41
So I think it’s actually easier to go the other route, if you really want to do it, the best way to do it is to find the investor, understand the investor, look at what the investors bought, look at what the investor is trying to accomplish. Is he trying to flip a house? Is he trying to, you know, is he a buy and hold guy who’s trying to build a rental portfolio, try to really drill down on what they’re looking for, and then go out into the market and find the product. Got it, you know, unless you have, the other side is if you have a property, you better have a deep database, because, you know, we run into clients who, hey, I’m not buying this month, or sure, you know, I’m not flipping right now I’m renting around changing strategies, or I gotta get this sale to go through, which doesn’t line up with your closing date. I mean, there’s a lot of things that there’s a lot of variables that go into selling, you know, brokering a house to an investor. So I think it’s much easier if you have the investors, and then go find the product that fits what they need, then trying to take one house and send it to one guy and talk him into taking it.

D.J. Paris 28:48
Yeah, and the good news is investors hang out in clusters, right, investors love talking back and forth, obviously, bigger pockets is a great example of that. And bigger pockets is great, too, because they keep the forum, which is basically the largest forum that I’m aware of, for investors to chat back and forth. They keep it very clean. They don’t really let traditional brokers get on there and promote their their product, their services, they’ll they’ll boot you right out that it’s really a try, you know, a forum for investors to chat back and forth. So if you’re like, Well, how do I find investors? Well, there’s a lot of ways of course, there’s a lot of different meetups, but the first place I would go is you know, go get on bigger pockets and introduce yourself, say, Hey, here’s where I’m located. Here’s where I’m from, here’s what I’m trying to trying to find some investors. You know, I know how to find fix and flips or I know how to find a buy and hold. Here’s where I’m specialized. Does anyone have advice and probably get 50 responses from from other investors helping you out?

Matthew Arminio 29:45
Yeah, I mean, if you like I said local investment groups. I mean, they’re not the thing about investors is they’re not trying to hide and they don’t care who brings them the product. Right? Like they just they’re not great at promoting themselves either. So you have to do spending you’d have to spend a little time finding them and cultivating the relationship a little bit, but they want you to bring them product, they want to see deals. Yeah.

D.J. Paris 30:10
Wow, that this has been really, really helpful. And by the way, we should mention I forgot if I mentioned this at the beginning, I think I did. I want to say it again, as you guys do over 200 sales a year across multiple states. That is an incredible amount of production. For one, one firm. And I know you guys have multiple people on the team. Can you talk a little bit about your operation and and sort of, you know, how it’s grown over the years?

Matthew Arminio 30:35
Yeah. So when we started, it was just me and another partner. And the basic structure was that, you know, he would spend all day pounding the MLS, and I would be the one that would negotiate the deals with the agents and go out and see the houses and bird dog them on behalf of our client. Since then, you know, we’re, we have seven full time people that are looking for product and helping us acquire product, we now have four guys who just do project management in the markets that we’re flipping, they’re just going and checking in on our clients. On our clients product. Obviously, we have three back office staff. So you know, sort of as we’ve, as we’ve grown our transaction volume, you know, we, we have a set saying that as we add about 15 transactions, there’s usually a body that needs to go along with that. Now, that’s a little different. It’s not 15 closings, it’s 15 full turns, because we’re most of our clients, we’re doing the by some of the management and the sell. So for every 15 that we on board at any given moment, you know, it like right now we have 65 projects going so we have for PMS, that all they do is they have a list of 15 assets, and they are responsible for pounding those 15 assets and making sure that their success.

D.J. Paris 31:57
Wow, that’s that must be challenging cross, you know, multiple, multiple locations, I would assume in multiple states.

Matthew Arminio 32:06
Yeah. I mean, like any good organization, it takes great people to be successful. So we spend a lot of time investing in our people and making sure that we train them on what they’re supposed to do and how they’re supposed to react to situations. And we have procedures in place and processes that keep us to keep us moving in the right direction.

D.J. Paris 32:25
Wow. That’s That’s amazing. Well, congrats on on all the continued success. And so I would also, you know, we, of course, want to make sure that anyone who’s listening, who does maybe have an investor that’s looking for properties, that if they want to reach out to you, what is the best way that they should reach out or for brokers just looking to, you know, possibly even pass deals over to you or swap clients and that sort of thing? What’s the best way?

Matthew Arminio 32:56
Yeah, so the best way to get in touch with with me is via email. So my email is my first initial and then my last name, which is m a r m i n i o, at Apex national r e.com. So that’s,

D.J. Paris 33:13
yeah, that’s Apex national rt.com. You can reach Matt through the website. It’s a great website to because it’s very, very clean, very concise, it spells out exactly what you guys do. So I think that’s a really great resource and, and Matt’s a very easy and approachable person. So if you have questions, he can certainly point you in the right direction or possibly even help your clients. And yeah, so Matt, thank thanks so much for being on the show. I have a few quick announcements as we wrap up here for everyone listening and possibly watching as well. We now have videos as you might know, if you’re listening, you might not know that so you can always watch this interview if you’re just listening. If you visit our website keeping it real pod.com We have a link to the YouTube video. We’re also streaming this live on Facebook, which is a plug for everyone listening to join our Facebook page. So please visit facebook.com forward slash keeping it real pod. Not only do we broadcast these episodes live, as we’re doing right now on Facebook, but we also every single day post an article for brokers to that will we find online that will help them grow their business? And lastly, please tell a friend for everyone who’s listening who’s a realtor. If you have any other realtors that could benefit from hearing from superstars like like Matt, definitely pass this podcast over. You know, if everyone just tells one person about us, we’ll double our listenership and can continue to even make more episodes to help you guys grow your business. But on behalf of of Matt and myself, we thank the audience for tuning in and watching and listening. We appreciate it on behalf of course on the audience. Matt, we thank you for taking time out of your day. Again, we know how busy you are. And this is a really, we’re really grateful for you to spend time here. And thanks so much for being on the show.

Matthew Arminio 34:59
Yeah, thanks for having me

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500 Million In Real Estate Sales • Jeff Proctor

February 10, 2020

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Jeff Proctor is one of the most successful real estate brokers in Chicago. Over his career he has closed over 500 million in real estate sales. In the past six years alone he’s produced 385 million. In our conversation Jeff talks at length about market trends (past, present and future) and how agents should adapt to meet their client’s needs.

Jeff Proctor can be reached at jeffproctor@atproperties.com and 773.517.6026.

To watch this interview on YouTube, please click here.

Transcript

D.J. Paris 0:00
Today’s episode of Keeping it real podcast is brought to you by nest egg. Looking to add value to your investor clients recommend nest egg a Chicago based app that is everything your clients need to manage their rentals in only minutes a month. Nest Egg is the only app that gets things done at the rental including on demand maintenance, and services like tenant placement and snow removal. Also nest egg is free to use which makes your clients investments 20 to 30% more profitable. Join nest egg today by downloading the app or by visiting mistake dot rent. That’s nest egg dot rent, use promo code keeping it real to get your first hour of maintenance for free. And now on to the show. Hello, and welcome to another episode of Keeping it real the most listened to podcast made for real estate agents by real estate agents. My name is DJ Paris, I am your guide, and host through the show. And we are really excited to get a lot of things happening at the podcast that you may or may not know about. So I’ll spend just a few moments before we get to our interview with the great Jeff proctor in just a few. First of all, we have a new website coming. So keep your eyes peeled at keeping it real pod.com That is our website, it will be easier to navigate easier to find the episodes you want. We’re going to be grouping all of our episodes into different categories just to make it a little smoother for you and you can stream every episode we’ve ever done. I think we have 130 episodes up, and you can listen to it right in your browser. So again, visit keeping it real pod.com. Also, I want to talk about video, we have added video now to all of our future episodes. And I want to explain how you can watch these videos because this is kind of complicated, in a sense, right? Because right now you’re probably listening through a podcast app. So if you continue to listen to the podcast app, you’ll continue just to hear the audio components, which is absolutely fine. We’re thrilled to have you doing that. If you want to watch the video of today’s interview, for example, in the show notes. So if you go into your podcast app, if that’s where you’re listening, you’ll see notes about the episode. And there’s a link right to the YouTube video. Also, though, just to further complicate things, what we’re also doing because it’s really fun and people seem to be reacting to this in a great way is we’re going to be streaming all of these live on Facebook as we’re recording them. So for example, this great interview with Jeff proctor has already streamed live on our Facebook page. And we’ve had such a great response to that we’re gonna keep doing it. So basically, before you can even hear the episodes and the way that we’re you know, producing them, you’ll be able to watch them in real time, but you have to be a subscriber to our Facebook page. So please visit facebook.com forward slash keeping it real pod same as our website keeping it real pod.com. But just facebook.com forward slash keeping it real pod. Not only do we broadcast these episodes in real time you can with the video, we also post every single day a link, an article that we find online designed to help you grow your business. So we do that every single day as a way to say thank you for listening and to help you continue to grow. So guys continue to watch or listen to the show whatever works best for you. We really appreciate you continually listening watching and also please tell a friend think of one other realtor that you know that could benefit from hearing from guys like Jeff Proctor, and please pass this podcast over to them so we can continue growing and continue making more episodes for you. Thanks again for listening and now on to our episode with Jeff proctor.

Today on the show we have a Chicago legend Jeff proctor from the Jeff proctor group at at properties since 2003. Jeff has been working with buyers sellers and developments in a wide array of areas within Chicago, the western suburbs and the North Shore. This has developed Jeff into one of the top agents in Chicago at over 500 million in sales, Jeff has been able to fully advise his clients throughout all real estate matters over the past 10 years. Jeff has consistently ranked in the top 1% of Chicago Association of Realtors and produce over 385 million in sales over the past six years alone which is incredible patience and a wealth of experience and knowledge in all areas of Chicago real estate I have established Jeff is one of the top brokers consultants in the industry. We’re so thrilled to have him by the way, visit Jeff and his group at J. Proctor. group.com. That’s j, the letter J. Proctor. group.com. Welcome to the show, Jeff proctor.

Jeff Proctor 5:15
Thank you. Thank you for having me. Appreciate it.

D.J. Paris 5:17
Thank you. We’re really thrilled to have you. This is a big, big deal for us and our listeners as well. And you know, you have a great reputation here in Chicago, we of course, have listeners nationwide. But for those of for our listeners who maybe aren’t as familiar with you, can you talk a little bit, I always like to ask this question first, which is tell us how you got into real estate, you know, what prompted you to get in and, and maybe give us that journey?

Jeff Proctor 5:45
Yeah, actually, my mother has been in real estate for 30 years. So that certainly certainly has helped. But I was in Chicago, I was working for a in a corporate gap job. And I was doing outside sales. And personally, I wasn’t overly happy with the income or the potential of income. So I started doing it part time for about two years. Got on my first development back in oh, five. And from there on out, we sold 400 units within the first year, open and close the doors to the development within 365 days. And from there on out, I just jumped ship and here we are now.

D.J. Paris 6:23
Yeah, let’s I don’t want to gloss over this. 400 units and 365 days. That is a big, big accomplishment. Yeah, what that was in year two or so.

Jeff Proctor 6:33
That was a year two. Yeah, correct. Yeah, that was in year two. You know, fortunately, you know, Mike golden. And that one, were able to put me on a development, I really appreciate the opportunity. But we worked with JDL, which is now you know, the prominent developer in Chicago. It was a condo it was a apartment conversion to condos, which obviously today in this market, we’re doing a lot more condos to apartments, which is funny. But yeah, three or 400 unit buildings down and printer square printers Row area. Yeah. And it was it was quite entertaining, to say the least.

D.J. Paris 7:07
So did you basically live on site for that year?

Jeff Proctor 7:10
We lived on site? Yeah, it was, you know, it was one of those things where we opened up doors, and we had a line down the street. So it was that time in the market, though, you know, the oh seven market, the lending was a lot more flexible. And everybody was looking for investment. So it was it was a great opportunity. And you know, it kind of just it got me in contact honestly, with like a lot of other brokers it got me in contact with a lot of lenders, it got me in contact with the whole real estate community. So it started create those relationships. And, you know, we kind of just kept on exploring from there. Since then we’ve done you know, about 12 Other projects in the city of Chicago. So all been great experiences and love the city. So

D.J. Paris 7:51
do you prefer to work with developers versus you know, traditional, you know, one off buyers and sellers, what is it that you find that is the most exciting?

Jeff Proctor 8:00
Yeah, you know, I mean, today? Yeah, I mean, I’d say the majority of my stuff is one off buyers and sellers. Right now we’re working actually on a couple of apartment deals meaning land development, zoning, we put in, you know, would do commercial deals, we’ll do apartment deals would do retail deals, we’ll do land site development, zoning consultation, buyer’s or seller’s condos, single families, developments are great. They are there. They’re not they’re few and far between today, because we have so many apartment developments now. So yeah, I love working with developers. I’ve done custom single family homes. But today from the condo market perspective, it’s a lot of boutique developments. So you know, there’s smaller industry developments back in the day when we did larger development there. 400 units, 200 units, 300 units, and you had sales centers, you had all these things now, it’s they’re so small that you’re, you know, they’re by appointment only, right? So you’re not opening up to these huge sales centers anymore. And the developments are a smaller nature, smaller land sites and the larger stuff, as you know, our apartment deals that, you know, tend to get built and resold to another investment group. So the kind of market isn’t it kind of development market isn’t nearly as prominent as it once was. But yeah, I love the development aspect. I mean, we’ve worked with clients on custom single family homes in Lincoln Park to, you know, to boutique, you know, build out to their own condos on historic buildings. So I just love the whole development process, whether it’s 1923 know, building or a brand new construction. So,

D.J. Paris 9:35
yeah, for our listeners who are realtors who are wanting to get more in with developers and be considered for some of these projects. Do you have any advice about how somebody who’s not who doesn’t have your kind of background and experience maybe how they can start to develop those relationships?

Jeff Proctor 9:55
Yeah, I mean, today, I’d say I’m at the comfort stage. You know, for the last five to 10 years it just picking up the phone and calling right? I think overall you have to know your you have to know your numbers, you have to know the zoning, you have to know your numbers, you have to know the variances, you have to know the fer for square footage requirements, you have to know I mean, you have to know the how to build, right, you have to know installation factors, X, your cladding, you know, all sorts of stuff. So you have to know the industry inside and out. Because I think you’re just kind of spinning your wheels, if you’re calling these developers asking for a handout and you don’t know anything about the about the development process. So learn the development process, learn zoning, learn construction, how to build, how to build right, and then learn interior finishes to so you can talk and discuss that with developers and obviously go to the potential buyer and sell those those features and finishes to so you have to know the business inside now. I think it’s glamorous to do these developments, per se. But once again, if you don’t understand the market, or the zoning or how to build you’re, you’re kind of just at a loss for words.

D.J. Paris 11:05
Yeah, you’re not really even going to be considered unless you really, really know your stuff. No, no. And you you’ve built out a team. I’m curious, you know, and again, I’m never sure if you can call it a team anymore or group in Illinois. For our listeners who aren’t here, they’ve changed the rules. So I’m not sure what’s what’s the right thing to say. But I know you guys are the group. So can you talk a little bit about when you started develop your team and how that’s worked for you?

Jeff Proctor 11:30
Yeah, it’s worked out great. You know, it’s ever changing, because you’re hiring and brokers that, you know, obviously, they want to progress themselves. So you see people come and go all the time. You know, the ideal situation for me, when I started, it’s just that I got to the point where I just couldn’t handle it myself. You know, the day to day were present for all showings. So you know, especially on the left side, which is very difficult to do. So we, it’s been great, it’s freed up a lot of my time, in terms of just day to day, it’s freed up a lot of admin work, Docu signs, listing agreements, contracts, paperwork, closing documents, etc. To handle the client directly. So it’s allowed me to go from, you know, I’d say, when I started, I was so low as doing 30 35 million or so. And then we jumped to about 70 Plus, you know, with the group, so, if I brought in brokers, you know, that, you know, might be struggling to, you know, maybe a broker that needs a little bit of guidance needs a little bit of assistance needs some, you know, some added income to their bottom line, because they they’re just kind of getting started or struggling in the business. So it’s been great. As long as everybody performs or we’re, we’re all happy. But it’s it’s been a shifting paradigm in terms of the brokers and the team and everybody that’s on there. Unfortunately, we lost a couple people last week, which that will shift but now we’re interviewing more people downtown, but everybody’s excited. So

D.J. Paris 12:59
and by the way, if any of our listeners think they might be a match for your group, is it okay if they can reach out to you you’re great. What’s the best way should they visit your website?

Jeff Proctor 13:09
Yeah, visit my website you could contact or just you know, honestly, I my cell phones my office, so you know, 77351760 to six, it’s just text email call. Let’s just talk direct. So

D.J. Paris 13:21
yeah, I know if I was Producing Realtor and I wanted to learn from from someone and join a winning team. Certainly, you could do much worse than looking at looking at your group.

Jeff Proctor 13:32
Market, the spring markets, it’s gangbusters right now. It’s not any better than last year was a little quiet because we had a lot of macroeconomic things going on, I think. But this spring is I mean, it’s it’s two it’s 3x in terms of what we saw at the end of last

D.J. Paris 13:48
year, so and rates are down again, lending rates.

Jeff Proctor 13:52
The Jumbo seven year ARM is 2.75. I just refinanced mine at 3%. Three months ago and the two of 2.75 It’s not.

D.J. Paris 14:01
That’s amazing. I we had Joel Schaub from Guaranty radon. He comes on every month and he was this weekend on Friday night. I talked to we recorded episode on Saturday. I said what do you do last night just because he and I are buddies. He said, Oh, I spent all night emailing everybody who bought a home in the last two years. They should they should refinance.

Jeff Proctor 14:20
Oh, it’s I mean, sub 3% on a jumbo mortgage is incredible. I don’t know It’s free money. Take it take into account inflation and tax deductions. So it’s pretty, pretty good opportunity right now.

D.J. Paris 14:35
Well, I wanted to go back to something you had said. Because not every broker and I think, of course, every broker has an opinion about this. And it’s kind of a still a hot, somewhat debated topic, which is should listing agents go to showings, you had mentioned that you always you’re in your team go to showings. Do you have a particular opinion about about whether they obviously you feel you should be there?

Jeff Proctor 14:56
Yeah. 100% I mean, so here’s a here’s an interesting In my opinion, it’s a very interesting piece is that, so I moved west, with my family for my kids. And I still do a ton of work in the city. But I’ve naturally picked up business in the western suburbs in the North Shore. And nobody wants to talk to anybody. So it’s it’s really weird, but I just don’t feel like you get the right marketing, you get the right sales approach if you’re just letting people just randomly walk into a property without any guidance, right? Right. We always are there to at least meet and greet and run through the marketing points to the properties, the sales, the statistics, the area details, and just everything about the property. So hopefully, the transition is much quicker in terms of a list to sale to closing process. It just, it just benefits. I mean, even like our brochures and all of our notes, so we use like an Evernote system for every property that we use. And everything is encompassed into one document, right. So when everybody when that person is leaving the property, they have all the financials, the reserve balance, the condo association information, the details, the years there was built, everything you need to know is already been done and communicate it to that to that buyer. The last thing you want to do is see somebody leave and then all of a sudden turn around to three days later and go, Hey, what was this information? Right? And it all to them there? It’s just it’s part of sales. I mean, you’re in a sales position. So you should be there and be present.

D.J. Paris 16:29
100% Yeah. And then also assuming that the buyers broker is just going to know everything. And

Jeff Proctor 16:36
that’s never the case, of course, is that it is the case. But you know, I mean, let’s say everybody tries to get a good start in the business. And, you know, maybe they’re not fully aware, and I get a lot of brokers, I had a broker literally email me, you know, 30 minutes ago and said, Hey, I saw you sold this place over there. I’m not familiar with the development, can you give me some insight? And I’m like, Sure, of course, you know, it’s just, it’s a lot to learn, especially in the city of Chicago, because it’s a big city to know everything. So it’s a give and take. So yeah, I mean, you got to just be there, you got to be present. So yeah, it’s

D.J. Paris 17:06
also a good way to justify your fee to the seller, right, as I’m showing up. Yeah,

Jeff Proctor 17:12
I mean, that’s, that’s the other thing marketing, marketing dollars today are far above what we’ve ever spent in terms of listing properties and clients in general. So we’re doing you know, I have a social media company that I hired it right, because that’s not my that’s not my go to show. It says they entertaining social media. We do print advertising, we do direct mailers, we do brochures, we do videos, we do photographs, we do drone shoot drone footage, we do local video footage, I mean, it’s the numbers, and we put a ton of marketing dollars out there. And you know, just, it’s great, because it just needed it’s about it’s about exposure for yourself, but at the same time exposure for the property. So

D.J. Paris 17:56
well that and probably 99% of Realtors don’t do all those things. Of course, you know, they’ll probably get professional photos done. That’s pretty much. I don’t know, that’s always a given these days, but it’s mostly a given. But other than that, you know, I don’t know that most realtors are doing a lot of that they should be. But I guess that’s one of the things that separates you from from other realtors.

Jeff Proctor 18:16
Yeah. Agreed?

D.J. Paris 18:18
Yeah, so one of the questions we get because we have a tremendous number of new brokers who listen to our show, who look at a guy like you and say, Oh, my God, he’s already you know, this wild success and has been doing, you know, for almost 20 years now. What advice do you have? Because you do bring on team members. And I don’t know how new some of your team members are. But I suspect you see a lot of people who are new to the business. What advice do you have, if you were starting out today, you know, being that developments maybe aren’t as prominent as they were when you started? What would you do today to get started, if you were brand

Jeff Proctor 18:52
new, I think with the whole group scenario, that’s first and foremost, I would find somebody that you can kind of tag along and it doesn’t need to be part of a full group to be honest, he could really just tag along and just say, Listen, if you need to help here, if you need help there, I’d love to jump in. You know, there’s times where I need help on a listing and, you know, I bring in a broker that you know, once it is hungry and and I put them on the listing, and I call list it with them and they they’d kind of do some of the day to day for me and they’re getting the experience that they normally wouldn’t get. Right. So the problem is there’s so that would be one and then number two is pick up the phone. I mean, you gotta you gotta be you got to be aggressive and you gotta call people so it’s not pushing, it’s it’s selling yourself, but at the same time, you have to call people you know, the last thing I’ve interviewed people and people have gotten started the business and they go on and just feel really uncomfortable. I go Well, you better get uncomfortable because it’s going to continue to be that way. So, I mean, I know social media, like I said is not my forte but I do look at it every day and if I see a client or a friend or somebody like that that’s looking for real estate or mentions real estate, I’ll pick up the phone, just call call and say, Hey, how can I help? And if it works out great if it doesn’t, hey, listen, I made a good phone call and I made a good connection.

D.J. Paris 20:07
Yeah, and you did something proactive as a way to add value to that person’s like, Hey, I saw you have a have a need. And I thought I’d reach out and see if I could be of assistance. It’s, it’s certainly, yeah, this is one of those businesses where I think if you’re, if you’re not willing to just go and say, I can help you with this, then and you need to be able to help them with that, right, you have to actually have that skill set. So I think you’re right, like joining a group or finding a mentor, or somebody you can tag along with and see what is a real listing presentation look like, you know, what does, what does a buyer consultation look like? What’s it like to meet at somebody’s home, and sit across from them at their dining room table and talk about, here’s what I’m gonna do

Jeff Proctor 20:46
for you now. And that’s, you know, some of the younger guys that we hire in, you know, I kind of curtailed all my marketing my material. So they’re, they’re different from App properties is a big company, it’s a great company, but I kind of took my own listing presentation and put it into my own marketing material. So and I said to the younger brokers, I said, take all this and utilize it to your advantage, right. And if you’re sitting, if you get a call from a million dollar person, you freak out, you don’t understand where to even start, I’ll come in, and I’ll literally sit down with him, and I’ll meet with a client, and we’ll try to just close the deal together. You have to get some guidance, because I’d say a lot of people that get into the business in general, I tell them, You’re not making any money for six months. So you better start making some calls now. And the people that are three months in and go Well, I haven’t heard from anybody, that’s because you haven’t done your job. So even starting out, like you know, get all emails, addresses, get their physical address, get their social media accounts, start up your own social media pages, and like start communicating as quickly as possible. Because if you just put one blanket post out there, and just hope your phone rings, it’s not going to happen.

D.J. Paris 21:56
I met with a broker once who was subscribing to the Brian Buffini monthly mailing system that he has, he calls it items of value anyway. So she was talking with me and she goes, you know, every time I send out these 100 mailers, I get a couple of deals. And she goes but I I’m just I don’t send out the mailers and I was like, then hire somebody to send out the mailers

Jeff Proctor 22:21
so easy. Yeah. So he’s in that’s a nice part of our company. Actually, we have a it’s a agent assist program, which is basically exactly that. So anything I need. So building contacts, addresses, farming buildings, listing agreements, things like that, we have a whole assistant department that really helps out with that. So that’s huge, huge saves a ton of time.

D.J. Paris 22:43
Yeah, I also want I just want to hear about how the markets changed, you know, from from the crash through now what what trends, you’ve seen what you sort of maybe see coming in your best guests, and maybe what advice you have for our listeners who are brokers who try to figure out how to adapt and change to it.

Jeff Proctor 23:03
Well, it’s competitive, right? I mean, it’s associated, once again, let’s go back to social media, that social media component has really changed how people mark it, of course, I think that a lot of people are utilizing that very well. But, you know, is everybody so truthful on it? I don’t know. But right. Perception is reality. Right? So I’d say the market changed. In fact of this an MLS is certainly not your only portal to get to properties, right. So I’d say all morning, you know, I found I went to a commercial site called CoreXY. To find a piece of property. At the same time, I’m looking through loop net, that same time to look through MLS for residential at the same time, we’re looking through top agent network, which is exclusive to the downtown market and top to 10%, of brokers. And then we’re doing we have our own in house app. So there’s so many different avenues that you can find property, right. That’s changing, everybody used to just sit there and wait for it to hit the MLS. And then once you got that little notification on the far right, you’re like, Oh, you would call your client or send it to him. I would say that 30 40% of the deals I send my clients are not even on the market yet. So it’s that’s the big change. And I think that’s going to also start to weed out a lot of brokers that simply can’t find things. So because if you’re not looking on the private listing network or the top agent network or off market, you really kind of missing out not getting your client what they need ahead of time.

D.J. Paris 24:30
Yeah, if it’s, if it’s just on the MLS, your clients can find that on their own through Zillow, Redfin or le and other websites. Yeah, you have to be you have to be able to provide additional value. And, you know, there are other networks out there, like the private listing network.

Jeff Proctor 24:43
Sure. The private listing network. I mean, that was a smart move by the by Mr. Ed. Right. I mean, they had to keep up with the other offline markets. But I mean, you have to also you also have to know the market like we talked about, I mean, you know, I’d say if I get a new buyer in and I’d say listen, I could send you a hunt. The property so that doesn’t do you any good, why don’t I just we’d have done 10 to 15. And these are your top 10 to 15 to start with, so and that makes it a lot more efficient to because I’d say a lot of brokers are just going out there just throwing darts, hopefully that one of them hits without knowing the buildings, the location, the client requirements, and everything else, because I see a lot of times where new brokers, unfortunately, but it’s a learning process come in and they, you know, they’ll look at something and the client looks at him and goes, this is absolutely not what I’m looking for. And then they just walk right back out. So it just is, you know, just being more efficient, with your time and your energy and being more focused on what the client needs and know the market. It’s good, but that’s gonna start weeding out a lot of these people because too many people got, you know, it’s it’s the same thing, right? We went through it and oh, 4207. And then now we’re going right back through it again, where the numbers are up to 14 1516 17,000 agents. So you got to stay competitive, you got to know the market. So

D.J. Paris 25:55
yeah, it’s funny, when I first started the podcast, there was 42,000 brokers in Chicago, including suburbs. Now, there’s 46,000 46,000. Yeah, keeps keeps growing. It’s unbelievable. And, and I always say, brokers at the very top, the top producing brokers, they’re not worried about the some of the other companies coming in, you know, offering discount services and pricing because they know their value, which is goes above and beyond what algorithms can can do. Especially there’s a lot of emotional value that that top producers bring to their clients. But so many brokers never really learn their market, or they never even define their market, you know? And if a broker gets a $3 million listing and Lake Forest and doesn’t know, like Forest, I don’t I don’t know, they should take it, I think maybe you should

Jeff Proctor 26:44
know 100% I mean, I listen, although we try to stretch different areas, we have a broker and each one of those areas, right? So Are you’re utilizing me from a marketing standpoint, a digital media standpoint, and everything else, but there is a local broker representing you. And if I if I don’t have a local broker, I have no problems referring that deal out, right. I mean, it’s just not you know, Naperville would be a perfect market for that. Unfortunately, I just don’t know Naperville, as well as they shouldn’t, I don’t have a broker there. So for me, it’s like, I’d love to work there. But you know, the transportation for me, for me to get there from the city is impossible, and I don’t know the market. So why don’t we find somebody local and give your client the service they deserve? Instead of you know, try to chase a deal down because of a commission?

D.J. Paris 27:31
Yeah, boy, I think that couldn’t be better said and for new brokers, don’t be afraid to refer out I mean, you always you still earn a referral commission, and you don’t look stupid when you when it’s because you know, you can, you can pretend that you know things for a while. But eventually, that becomes pretty evident when you’re not able to really give value like

Jeff Proctor 27:51
but stay but stay involved. Right? See, we can help. I mean, you know, you referring out the business doesn’t mean it ends there. You know, it’s obviously your clients, probably a friend or an acquaintance of yours sustains a lot and see if you know, make sure the deal is being handled appropriately. So. Just because you don’t know the area doesn’t mean you have to handle it, you know, 100%, so refer it out. And but you know, stay in touch, because that’ll that’ll go a long way.

D.J. Paris 28:14
Yeah. And I also just wanted to ask, because you’ve been in business for so long. And I’m curious to know, in between sales, I always think that, you know, I the firm I’ve met, we have hundreds and hundreds of brokers too. And I suspect, even though I think I think they’re quite good, I suspect they don’t, they could always do a better job of staying in touch after the sale. You know, you talk a little bit about maybe what your group does, just to keep keep conversation going, you know, homeowner moves in or sells, what do you guys do to make sure they don’t forget about you? You know,

Jeff Proctor 28:45
I I’d say just in general, I mean, you know, I’m more of once a reactionary, but I am I mean, you know, if I’m, if I’m in a specific area where I know, my client bought, you know, a year or so ago, and I see something pop up, I’ll be like, Hey, take a look, this is a pretty good number for the area. very casual conversations, we keep them in our CRM CRM database and keep getting updates, they keep getting mailers, they keep getting all the marketing materials that we’re sending them. So and at the same time, make sure if you have any questions reach out at any point, right? Right. So I were just always open like my cell phone, like I said, is my office so you can text me call me email me and it’s a pretty quick, pretty quick response overall. So it’s just that constant contact of just you know, listen, if I see if I know I’m in the ear of somebody or I know somebody who’s looking at something in some area want one funny story is that we looked at a house it was great on the inside but hideous on the outside right with the client and it’s still this ongoing joke where it just keep sending us pictures of the hideous houses. It’s but they’ve already been bought and they sit you know, they love their new place and it’s great, but it’s just constant. You got to keep your doors open at all times. So You just want to make sure that they’re more than welcome to reach out to you. But at the same time touch base with them every once in a while.

D.J. Paris 30:05
Yeah, and Jeff just said a lot right there, right? He had, he has systems in place. He has a CSS CRM, he has mailers, he has newsletters, he has all sorts of touches that are constantly going out. And then once in a while, you know, if he sees something that he thinks would be interesting to that individual value wise, he’ll shoot it over to them. And I, you know, it seems so obvious, of course, that everyone should have systems, but you have to have systems tap to automate a lot of this.

Jeff Proctor 30:31
Yeah, you have to, you have to, you know, one of the, I bet you there’s probably 5000 plus people that we have, and that’s accumulating addresses physical addresses from like, oh, three to today, right. So I mean, you just keep up updating those, you know, every six months, and you make sure that you’re getting the right address, and it’s always that gives you a really good opportunity to reach out to your client too. Because yeah, you’re saying, Hey, John, I, you know, I looked like I had an old address for you, what’s your update, address, hope all as well. And that’s, you know, just keep going from there. So, you just got to keep updating, if you don’t, if you don’t start that process early in, get that list at least started. You’re, you’re well behind the eight ball, you’re just not, you’re just not going to catch

D.J. Paris 31:11
up. Yeah, I couldn’t agree more. And you know, brokers can do that immediately, right? Even if you’re even if you’re years behind, call every single person in your database over the or hire someone to do it, and get that updated information, find out as much information as you can, so that you can find out other reasons to contact that person, you know, maybe, yeah, if you’ve, if you’ve, you know, I always say the more data you have on your clients, the more outreach you can do. And yeah, so awesome. So real quickly, too, because in case we have listeners here who are joining us towards the latter part of the show, Jeff is his team is always looking for brokers to add, and very specific type of broker they’re looking for. So Jeff, and also by the way, it’s probably a good place to wrap up. Because we have a lot of people who listen who may be clients or looking or PEEP buyers, sellers, investors, renters, who may be looking to work with a top producer, maybe they’re not satisfied with their, their agent they’ve used in the past, or maybe they’ve never used an agent. But if you’re a broker who wants to join a team, like Jeff’s, or you’re just an individual who’s looking for a great broker, can you give your cell phone one more time?

Jeff Proctor 32:22
Yeah. 773-517-6026.

D.J. Paris 32:29
And also, you can visit Jeff on his website, which is J proctor. group.com. Again, J. Proctor. group.com. And Jeff, do you mind also giving your email address in case someone wants to email you?

Jeff Proctor 32:39
So Jeff proctor je FF PR, O, C, T, O R? At? At property? So it’s at at properties? Jeff proctor? at@properties.com.

D.J. Paris 32:50
Awesome. Well, Jeff, you’ve provided a tremendous amount of value in this in this episode to our listeners, like you, I suspect this will be one of our most listened to episodes we’ve done. God, this will be like, I think a number 130 or 131. So we’re not Yeah, no, thank you. It’s all because of top producers like yourself who take time out of their incredibly busy day to provide value to our listeners. And we really, on behalf of our listeners, we appreciate you. And thank you for doing this. And also on behalf of Jeff and myself. To our listeners. Of course you want to say thank you for continuing to listen and support the show. Please visit us on Facebook, which is facebook.com forward slash keeping it real pod every single day we find an article online that is designed to help Realtors grow their business in some way we post that also, of course, posting episodes like the one you’re listening or watching right now on Facebook. And we can always it’s always just a great place to have a conversation as well for best practices. So please do that. And lastly, if for our listeners, if you know anyone who’s a broker, a realtor, real estate agent, depending on where you live in the country, what they’re called. If you know somebody else that might benefit from listening or watching the episodes like this, please please pass it along. Jeff again, thank you so much for being on the show. Thank you and have a have a great have a great 2020 Although I probably don’t need to say that because I’m sure you already having one. But keep up obviously the great work and thanks for being part of the show.

Jeff Proctor 34:20
Thanks for your time. I really appreciate it. Great show

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Why Top Real Estate Agents Need The Discipline Of Ironman Athletes • Amber Kardosh

February 6, 2020

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Prior to becoming a top Chicago real estate agent, Amber Kardosh was in the corporate world. Oh, and she was an Ironman athlete, too. In this episode Amber talks about her daily disciplines around client communication and prospecting. She provides tips on how to use LinkedIn to find out what’s going on in your contacts’ lives and how to rise above the thousands of other brokers to establish deeper relationships.

Amber Kardosh can be reached at 773.726.2070 and akardosh@atproperties.com.

Would you rather watch this interview on YouTube? Click here to see Amber!

Transcript

Hello, and welcome to keeping it real the largest podcast and most listened to podcast made by real estate agents for real estate agents. My name is DJ Paris, I am your host and guide through the show and we are so excited to announce that we finally have video we are now recording with video every single interview that we do starting with Amber Kardos, who you are about to hear or see in just a few moments. Now, if you’re current if you’re listening to this via a podcast app on on iTunes, Google Play on Stitcher, Spotify, but nothing will change you’ll continue to be able to listen to the episodes. But if you want to see the episodes, there’s a couple of ways where a couple places you can go to watch them. First is keeping it real pod.com Our website we’re going to have links to every single video interview inside of the episode in the show notes. Also, by the way, in the show notes on your app, there’ll be a link directly to the YouTube video so you can always watch it right there. But we also really encourage you guys to go to Facebook and subscribe to our page. So it’s facebook.com forward slash keeping it real pod. Not only do we continually post the links to the audio episodes, but now also the video episodes and sometimes we’ll even be broadcasting it live as we record it right on Facebook. So guys again facebook.com forward slash keeping it real pod. Let us know how you guys like watching versus listening really want your feedback. And this will help us continue to make the show better. So you know just shoot us a message on Facebook or via our website. Let us know what you like how to make it better and we’re so excited and thank you for continually reminding me to get video up and running so we have it so guys, please continue to support the show tell a friend if you know any other realtors that would benefit from listening or watching interviews like the one we’re about to do with Amber, please pass this information over to them the more people you pass us over to the more episodes we can do the more people we can help so thanks again from from all of us on the keeping it real podcast team and now on to our interview with Amber Kardos.

Today on the show we have Amber Kardash oh sorry, car dose from the Phelps Hamsun Kardos group at app properties dedicated and driven to exceed her clients expectations in providing top notch customer service in an ever changing industry is what Amber prides herself on most as a realtor. Amber is a Top Producing agent in the city of Chicago and the western suburbs. Amber sets the bar high for quality of service, she does not make excuses. She provides results being a Chicago native for over 20 years. Amber’s experience, intellect inconsistent research of market trends enable her to create new opportunities for her clients in an ever changing market. She believes the key to being the realtor of choice means being an exceptional listener, educator and advisor for her clients. Welcome Amber from the Phelps Hansen Cardos group

Amber Kardosh 4:16
and our properties. That is a mouthful indeed, isn’t it? Yes,

D.J. Paris 4:19
thanks. Well, you’re worth it. Yeah, this is a really big deal for us. First of all, I want to tell the listeners and viewers that we tried to do this on Friday, and we had a technical difficulty. And Amber was so sweet and saying no problem. We’ll do it on Monday. So thank you for your patience with that.

Amber Kardosh 4:34
No problem.

D.J. Paris 4:35
So I know how busy you are. And this is a big deal for us to have you and you’ve we’ve wanted to get you on the show for a long time. And I know we’ve had Robin on before so we’re so grateful to have you. Can you tell our audience a little bit about how you got started in real estate?

Amber Kardosh 4:49
Yeah, it’s actually a really funny story. Because I get asked a lot like what made you decide to be in real estate and honestly, it was Robin like I had no desire. I was As you know, I always thought it was kind of fun like a car, you can talk to people. I love talking to people. That’s kind of cool. But it was actually so back in 2009. Robin was my husband will now husband’s realtor. And she was referred to him by a family member of his. So we I wasn’t really involved with the sale of his condo. It wasn’t mine. So I was kind of like the girlfriend who live there. So I didn’t really get involved. But I did talk to her. And you know, we kind of hit it off. And fast forward to 2012. We were ready to buy together after renting for, you know, years after she were both pregnant at the same time. And we were chit chatting. And I you know, I don’t remember exactly when this happened. But she reminded me about a couple of weeks ago, she’s like, do you remember? I was like, you’d be really good. I mean, you do Ironman? And like, Ah, wow. Not sure if that’s same, but thanks. So it was really her having confidence that I would do it. And I was like, I have no idea. I just know I like talking to people. So you know, I love Chicago. I love the history. I love you know, the different buildings and what they were and you know, I knew that far, but as far as real estate, I knew nothing. So

D.J. Paris 6:19
well. I mean, but that’s what’s See, I think the Iron Man thing is everything right? Because, you know, in order to do Ironman, you type events. You have to be so insanely like discipline. Isn’t that like a full time job in and of itself?

Amber Kardosh 6:35
It is I mean you have to be I think most triathletes are total Taipei’s, which I’m one of them. And you know, you really have to be dedicated. I mean, when I was training, it was workout, go to work workout, go to bed, and it was nine months of you so nobody.

D.J. Paris 6:50
Wow, yeah. How many? How many Ironman triathlons have you done?

Amber Kardosh 6:55
Well, so I’ve only done two. I did only done two. I mean, the people, that’s

D.J. Paris 7:01
an amazing number

Amber Kardosh 7:03
of people that I am around, you know, right? They do one or two every year. So two is like, yeah, and I did it in 2010. Because I had a friend who did her while she was training for her first in 2006. And unfortunately, she was on a bike ride training, and she got hit and she passed away. So she was really good friend. And you know, I My husband was doing it when I met him. And I’m like, You guys are nuts. I don’t know how you do it. So I decided to do it kind of like finish what she started. Oh, I did it in 2010. And I happen to qualify for Kona, and my brother in law, he was like you did, you’re gonna qualify, you’re gonna go to Kona, I’m like, Okay, I gotta do all I have to do was training again, you know, so it was just, it was great experience. But um, yeah, it taught me a lot of things that I think I’d bring forth in real estate in terms of, you know, my dedication and just drive and people who know me. I think it’s helped with referrals with warm introductions, and I think it has helped me along the way.

D.J. Paris 7:59
Well, I think it really speaks to an important quality, which is how hard you’re willing to work, right. And I suspect that people who do triathlons, in particular Ironman, triathlons, I suspect if I would be curious to see what types of positions they hold in the business world, what type of income because I suspect there’s a correlation between the amount of dedication it takes to put something like that together. And also, you know, that it seems like a skill set that naturally translates to real estate for sure.

Amber Kardosh 8:30
I agree. Yeah, for sure. So yeah, and I think I so now, you know, I have two kids. I don’t have time to do that kind of course. So now I do CrossFit. And is it again, it’s a type of workout that you have to have the mindset to do and I’ve met so many amazing, strong people and again, they they see what I used to do in the Cardio World or the you know, endurance world I do in the strength and you know, it’s been very, it’s very, it’s been very nice, kind of like meeting those type of people and I have all walks of life friends, I’ve CrossFitters triathlon, you know, so I think it’s been really helpful with real estate.

D.J. Paris 9:07
Yeah, we have Ryan, do presale on the show once a month. And Ryan talks a lot about what he does a coaching hour with us, you probably have listened to some of those. Yeah. Oh, thanks. Ryan O’Brien is will really appreciate hearing that because every time we get off the episode and Ryan’s like, so such a great human being, but he goes, was this good. And I do a good job. I said, every time you like, you don’t need me to tell you that but but he talks a lot about the investment you make into your physical body and how you know, you need energy to be able to sustain because you know, you were like, for example, we’re going to have Matt Lera see on the show in a few weeks. And Matt’s one of those guys who’s kind of famously like, I sleep four hours a night and I if I didn’t have to, I really don’t even want to do that. I just want to work 24 hours a day, and he just outwork everybody, and I find that to be very consistent. That necessarily doesn’t always have to be and you put in the most hours, but that you’re willing to go the extra mile. Pardon the pun with the triathlete. But really, that is such an important component of the success. It seems to be the consistent. You know, the one thing that everybody we’ve ever interviewed for the show, not one person is like, yeah, I only put in like, 30 hours a week, they would go like, Oh, no, I put in, you know, whatever the number is, but it’s usually much, much higher.

Amber Kardosh 10:25
Yeah, I mean, when I got into it, I, you know, again, not knowing anything, I just, I think I had the, the, the idea that most people trying to get into real estate, you don’t work a lot. And you make money, like a lot of money quickly. And it’s easy, right? And it’s completely opposite. I remember when I got into it, nothing easy about it. Well, and it’s the hours, why do I think I really worked 15 hours, I had no idea my nanny that I had, I was like, I have to let you go, I don’t think I’m gonna be working that much. You know, I’m not gonna play work for 40 hours, you know. And so after the fact, she’s now with a friend of mine, so I’m always like, four years after I’m like, she was amazing, anyway, and realizing I work more than I ever did in corporate America. But the difference is, I don’t feel like I do, because I enjoy it so much. Yeah, yeah.

D.J. Paris 11:13
And we also, before we get too far in and I forgot to mention this at the beginning, as is your group your team is looking to expand? Right? Can you talk a little bit about what you’re looking for? Because 99% of our of our listeners are brokers. So can you talk a little bit about what you guys what you guys are looking for?

Amber Kardosh 11:31
Yeah, you know, we’ve, we’ve been searching for a few years now. We’ve interviewed some people. And you know, we want people to have the same mindset as, as Robin. And I do like we are, we always joke, we’re the same brain. Like, we’ll be texting each other. And I’ll and I’ll ask her a question. I was like, I think that she was I was gonna say the same thing. And that’s just not to say that everyone has to be exactly like us. But we want people who are as passionate about what they do, especially real estate, and want to learn. And I feel like the people that come in, they want to make this big name for themselves. And that’s great. But you should probably stick, take a step back like I did, and just learn learn the process and continue to learn. I mean, I’ll be five years in in July. And I’m still learning I’m still that’s why I listen to your podcasts has been amazing. I’m always like, trade out how people have these little insights and helpful tips. And I take and I work yeah, so I think if you at any point, think you know, at all about real estate, it’s not a good idea. Because you there’s no buddy that knows everything about real estate,

D.J. Paris 12:30
for sure. And if there is a listener out there, who does want to talk with you guys to see if it’s a good fit, what’s the best way they should reach out,

Amber Kardosh 12:37
they can reach out, we actually have a email address. It’s pH que group at@properties.com. And that goes to both of us.

D.J. Paris 12:48
Perfect. So everyone who’s listening, if you want to hook up with a team that’s doing things right and doing things at a high level, and you want to men get mentored and add value to their team. That’s it’s a team I would consider joining as well. This is It’s funny, we were talking about being a producer earlier, and I’m not a producer. I’ve never produced real estate myself. But and I realized after talking to all these top one percenters, like yourself is like, Oh, I don’t have that much discipline, I couldn’t do it. I know what to do. And I know what I should do. But the reality of it is, um, the truth is, I’m not willing to put in that kind of time. And and I’m also my skill sets better served elsewhere. But I think that’s, that’s so you know, amazing that you guys, I know how hard both you guys work. And looking for, you know, a partner. Or another somebody to join the team can be can be tough, because you expect a lot and you want somebody to have a similar sort of work ethic and mindset and attitude. And but if anyone out there thinks that that’d be a good fit, reach out, we’d be I’d be happy to talk about. So. I want to talk a little bit more about specifically. So you’ve been in business five years. And Robin’s obviously she’s been on the show. She’s amazing. Um, can you talk a little bit more about why you think you guys have had tremendous and I say, Guys, I shouldn’t say that. Why the two of you have had? Yes. Why you two ladies have had tremendous success? Like, what do you think it is that you do differently? I mean, there’s 46,000 realtors, in the Chicagoland area, believe it or not. So why do you think it is that that both of you have done so incredibly well?

Amber Kardosh 14:24
Well, I think you know, regarding our sellers, we team up with a lot of our listings, because we feel you know, you have two people trying to sell your property. It’s much better, you’re not It’s no cost to you. And also we are very upfront and we’re very strategic. And we go by data, you know, it’s we don’t we don’t want to be a roadblock. Like if you think your property’s worth 100k more than what the data is showing. We certainly don’t want to be like okay, bye but we want to understand and try to compromise and figure out what’s best without you sitting because you want to sell and even though I know I’ve talked to a lot of sellers and I’m sure a lot of real estate agents are like, they talk to them. They’re like, we don’t need to sell. And understand, like, nobody needs to sell unless you want financial reasons, of course, but you’re talking to an agent because you want to sell. So here’s how best to do that. And if it means the relate, you know, you just want to talk through it and compromise at the end of the day, because you want you want to sell, we want to sell it for you. And so I think we’re very upfront in that respect. And for buyers. I feel like communicating and overly communicating to the point of giving them as many scenarios of the outcome as possible. Yeah. I’m very transparent. You know, early on, I tried to be this like really kind of a goofy person. That’s just my personality people. Sure. And they appreciate that. But people who don’t know me if I come at you, like we’re, you know, people are like, Oh my gosh, he’s a goofball. Sure. And I thought I was good at sometimes I can’t read people. So I try to stay, you know, neutral till I read people. And it was funny, because I have a client that I just helped buy a house, actually on my blog. And she was really hard to read. And I’m like, I’m gonna stay pretty professional, not going to show her my goofiness. And fast forward to a month ago, I invited her to this gathering, and we were joking. And I looked at her I go, this is me, this is like, actually how goofy I am. And she turned to me with the straightest face and goes, you think you hid that? I’m like, Yes. And everyone was just dying, laughing, including her. So I mean, I think I’m just one of those people. I guess I try to hide things. And what you see is what you get, and I think it’s helped. I think people appreciate that about me.

D.J. Paris 16:30
You know, it’s funny, we’re pretty goofy at the company I work at. And so I’m in charge of our, like, our recruiting website. And so we got all these photos done, like in the last year. And just for fun, our owner said, let’s all do a goofy individual photo, in addition to our professional ones. And I went, Yeah, that’s kind of fun, whatever, we all did something silly. And then I was rebuilding our website, and I went, you know, we are kind of goofy and silly. Like, why are we not? Why am I putting our serious professional ones that look really nice? On the website? Why am I not putting our goofy ones on there? And we switched over to our goofy ones. And then we used to say, like our company management team, and I put a cross through the word management team and just wrote goofballs, and I thought I thought that was kind of silly and funny, but that’s really who we are. And it as a result, people talk about it all the time. When they contact me. They’re like, yeah, that was pretty funny. I mean, it’s right on our homepage. And I went, well, that’s kind of who we are. But it took me 10 years to go. Oh, yeah, it’s okay to be who you are. Yeah. Okay. To let your personality shine through.

Amber Kardosh 17:31
Yeah, I think I think it’s it’s nerve racking, right? Because you have this, especially in real estate, you feel like people want you to be super serious. And like, it’s super like, and I just, I can’t do that. And I found I think, I don’t remember who was on the podcast they were talking about, I think it was the YouTube guys. And they’re like, how they advertise about brewskis. And like, those are the people that work with them. And I kind of agree, like, if my personality turns you off, I may not want to work with you anyway. But I haven’t had that people appreciate it. And I have another funny story. I had a couple clients who they were I worked with them. They referred me to their friends. And it happened three times. But they all were laughing one day, they’re like, you’re funny, because you were so goofy, and fun. And then when it came down to like inspection and things, you just switch and you’re like, Okay, this is what we have to do. Yeah. And they found that fine. They’re like, it was just not we, we were used to, I’m like, I work hard. I’m and I’m funny when I need to do, but I’m serious when I need to be so

D.J. Paris 18:24
yeah, here’s a little here’s a little tip for everyone who’s afraid to show their goofiness. You also have to have that serious committed professional side. And people love to see somebody shift from goofy and silly into serious it is it is a I don’t know what it is in us, inherently that loves to see that. But it is like, Oh, that’s cool. So you definitely have to have both. But don’t be afraid to let both sides show and when appropriate, I think is probably the key message.

Amber Kardosh 18:56
Yeah. And of course I think on the buy side I think just silliness comes out a little bit more than the sell side and he’s still comes out but in a different way. Just because it’s a different approach.

D.J. Paris 19:06
Well, you and we should mention of course you work it out properties legendary firm in Chicago, largest real estate firm in Chicago, and masters of branding and they just do so many things, right? I mean, we’ve probably had more people on our show from our properties than anywhere. I’m such a big fan of everything they do. But you know, obviously brokers are coming in getting their license every every day probably here in Chicago and you know, they’re listening to our show. A lot of times students get worried that we have the show. So I’m going to put you on the spot just briefly and I apologize for that. But you know, if somebody’s just getting their license, do you have some tips about what they should start doing immediately to grow their business?

Amber Kardosh 19:48
You know what worked for me is just plan on meeting have coffee, have lunch have drinks have be get in front of people. I went on my LinkedIn and I was like searching for P But I haven’t talked to you in a while, and people who shipped jobs and like and one guy, I knew him back when I was at fitness formula working out in a previous life. And I saw that he switched jobs. I’m like, Hey, let’s grab coffee love to hear about it turns out, you know, we were talking, he goes, Oh, you know, I have a girlfriend who’s moving here, she’s looking for a place, like, oh my gosh, so I helped her. And then they bought an investment property. And then like, he bought one like, so it was like a signal. And then he sold his place, and then sold his place. I had four other listings in that built same building from an open house. So it was kind of like a domino effect. I think, if anything, just get in front of people, and just, you know, I think that is just relationship building. And it’ll, like, it’s not the goals of making X amount up for me. It’s not, I’m gonna make 5 million this year, I’m gonna make 10 million, you know, it’s, it’s all about working on the process, and figuring out how I can get even better for my clients, because I always tell my buyers, like, I want to make sure this is fun and not stressful. And I’m gonna do whatever I can, I’m gonna hold a literally hold your hand, I’m gonna text you. Okay, this is what’s next. This is what’s happening, because it is so satisfying when they’re so excited about this house. And you know, and everyone’s like, well, you like the closing because of the commission. It’s to me, of course, everyone likes money. But it’s not about that, for me, I love just the satisfaction of of helping do what I said I was going to do for my clients.

D.J. Paris 21:24
Yeah, no, I think that’s exactly right. And what a lot of times people forget, you mentioned LinkedIn is, and this is, you know, again, I’m not out there producing. But if I were, I would be checking LinkedIn every day number one for birthdays, because they show you but also, they tell you, when people switch jobs, they tell you, when people have new positions, they tell you when they have work anniversaries, and nobody knows anybody’s work anniversary, so you can go and say, Hey, I saw on LinkedIn that it’s your second year at Heinz or whatever, congratulations. Oh, by the way, I saw the Heinz Superbowl ad or whatever. You know, there’s lots of ways you can reach out to people in LinkedIn that you can’t do really on other social networks. And you know, it’s just a great opportunity to give a reason to contact somebody.

Amber Kardosh 22:07
Well, and it’s a good way to warm introduction, like cold calls, like I’ve never done, I’ve not been good at that. I don’t like it. I’m comfortable. Sure. But what I’ve done is I find out who like expired listings and cancelled I don’t spend a whole bunch of time. But if I see something like I’m like, oh, and I, the person on LinkedIn, know, someone whose first connection, I’ll reach out to that first connection, like how close you are you with this person? They’re like, Oh, I know them from blah, blah. Do you mind doing an intro? I’ve gotten a lot of listings that way. Wow.

D.J. Paris 22:34
Let’s say that again. Because that’s really important. And very few people would ever think to do that. So she was mentioning as she looks for, I’m sorry, is it called first connection? Is that right? Yeah.

Amber Kardosh 22:44
So on LinkedIn, you’re if you’re connected to someone that’s directly connected to Yeah, right. And then obviously, your second connection, that’s another way that you could kind of potentially get connected. But if you’re connected with the first person, it’s nice, because if they’re connected to that person directly, if they know them, LinkedIn has gotten weird, like people are asking you to connect, and you don’t have any idea who they are. So it’s less people going, Yeah, I know that person. But I do get a lot where they’re like, Yeah, I know this guy. And so they’ll send a personal introduction, and because they know me, not that they worked with me in real estate, but they know how I am and how I work personally, professionally, they just know. And so they’re very comfortable about absolutely, I’ll send you know, I’ll do an introduction. And it works.

D.J. Paris 23:25
Yeah, one of my one of my very earliest interviews with was Josh Weinberg, from Keller Williams. And obviously, Josh and Tommy are both legends in the Chicago market, of course. And I asked Josh on the show, I wasn’t sure I’m not sure if this was on the show or not. But I asked him at some point. Maybe it was off camera or off recording. But I said, Oh, what are your goals? This is before like, I didn’t know what to ask. And these interviews, oh, what do you what are your production goals? And he was like, Yeah, we don’t think like that. And he goes, it was so interesting, because he came up with, he said, all we ever care about is, and this, we assign this task to Tommy, but he said, If Tommy meets one person a day for the next 365 days, we won’t our production goals will take care of themselves. They just boiled it down to that one metric. And so I thought, and they’ve been in business for a long time, right? And like, I’ve kind of figured, oh, maybe at that point, they’re not still doing that. Maybe they just, it’s all referral based. And I’m sure their business is mostly referral based, but I just love that they were still doing that daily discipline. It’s like training for the Ironman. They’re just doing they’re hitting the pavement every day or jumping, you know, swimming or whatever. And it’s just that constant activity. So if it’s LinkedIn, or if it’s Facebook, or Instagram or going to networking events, I just saw there’s a guy who puts together networking events here in Chicago, his name is Tony P. It’s free plug for him. I don’t know him personally, but I get his messages and I was like, that’s a good idea. And I just think he’s some realtor. And he puts it together and he puts these cool events. I’ve never been to one but

Amber Kardosh 24:52
an open invites. I haven’t been to one Yeah, but but I

D.J. Paris 24:55
just love the fact that there’s so many opportunities to get out there and what I’ve heard that daily discipline is that you can do that. And there’s lots of daily disciplines, of course. So yeah, so obviously getting out there meeting as many people as you can, Brian Buffini always says meet two to five people every day if you can, which is really hard to do. But if you can do that, you know, all your leads will take care of themselves if you can stay in touch. And, you know, I think people sometimes miss the the, some of the more personalized touches to the handwritten notes and, and those things that most of us just don’t do anymore.

Amber Kardosh 25:31
Yeah. And to be quite honest, I’m not very good at them. I’m trying to be. But I think another way is trying to create value when not asked like, you know, I think one of the things that I’ve done recently over the last year that’s been helpful is I will sell a condo or something, a house and in the general vicinity, or in that building, I will try to find contact like email, and sometimes I’ll get them through the association contacts or whatever. And I’ll send an email saying, Hey, I just sold, you know, so and so’s condo, a service that I like to provide is to let other unit owner, unit owners in the building know that they don’t have their homeowners exemption. And I saw that you don’t. And I Oh, and so I saw the forms. And then if they’ve owned it for more than three years, I’d like and if you do this certificate of error, you can get up to three years in so I’ve actually had people go, Oh, my gosh, that’s amazing. Thank you. Hey, by the way, you know, I’m actually thinking about something. And it’s not like that, if I don’t get that like I’m like, but it’s just creating value and like having people go I had no idea. And then wow, yes. So that’s a that’s one I just started doing about last year.

D.J. Paris 26:37
I love that. In fact, when I bought my first condo 2005 or whatever, I forgot to do the homeowners thing. And for years, it just was like, oh, yeah, I should do that. But I didn’t know how and eventually I got it done. You know, years after the fact. But I there’s got to be tons of people like me that just never did it.

Amber Kardosh 26:56
Yeah, I mean, time, friends, and I just say hey, you know, you don’t have it. And when one of my friends is like, Oh, we make too much money for them. Like that has nothing to do. Like this is for everyone’s just like, Oh, great. So I had

D.J. Paris 27:11
Joel shop from guaranteed rate, we just put an episode live today, we recorded on Saturday. And I said, Hey, dude, this is before we were recording. So Joel, what do you do on Friday night? I think it actually did make it to the recording. But I said what did you do last night because Joe and I are friends. He goes, I spent all night riding everybody I knew who owned a house and or that was one of his clients in the past 12 months. And he just goes, Hey, I just wanted to let you know, rates dropped again, I don’t know if it’s a good time to refi or not, but it might be so I just wanted to let you know whether you use me or not. It’s not important, but reach out to your Lending Officer and ask them for a no cost refi and see what the rate is. He goes because everyone I’ve done deals for it’s better, you know, in the last two years, it’s better for them now to refi. And I was like Joel that is brilliant. Like, it’s so simple. And it’s exactly what you were doing with the homeowners exceptions, the same idea.

Amber Kardosh 27:58
Yeah. So and again, it’s nice to because I’ll get phone calls from people who bought or sold a home recently and they and that was it. That’s the thing. So sidebars, like when you get into real estate think everyone’s gonna use you. You know, you’re like, Oh, I know a lot of people this is gonna be great. And it was hard because I was like, wait, you have another agent. But we’re friends. We’ve known each other. Yeah, it was very hard conversation.

D.J. Paris 28:19
You’re my sister. No.

Amber Kardosh 28:23
But like, it’s just one of those things that I think now I respect it. Like if you have a good agent, and they do a great job for you. Yeah, don’t change, because I would hate for someone to say that. Well, I just got in the business. I don’t care. You know, I mean, so I respect it now. But it was something that I think people think they know a lot of people, they’re automatically everyone’s going to use them. So that was one thing that I realized I have to figure out how to get in front of people, not just my friends and family to make it so that’s yeah, that’s just one thing to kind of know for new people. Yeah, I

D.J. Paris 28:54
haven’t I Yeah. To piggyback on that, you know, Brian Buffini has really mentioned him a few times already. But he’s really famous for saying your contact list. Your database is not, no, your contact list is not your prospect list. I mean, it could be and those do happen. But he’s always and I’m just kind of probably misquoting him, but he, he’ll say like, those are the people that are your advocates, too. So maybe they may they might use you they might not. But those are the people that can tell other people about you too. So you know, if you’re brand new, and you’re wondering, you know what to do with your contact list, the very least tell them, hey, if you know anyone that’s looking to buy or sell or rent or whatever you’re looking at, you know, like, Please pass my name along. And sometimes that’ll even get you further because yeah, maybe their brother in law is also a realtor and they’re gonna go with him because it’s family or whatever.

Amber Kardosh 29:42
Right? Yeah. So I think and it’s kind of funny, you mentioned that because I was telling you that my husband got referred to from a family member. Well, that family member actually bought recently. And I it was so I mean, it was totally fine, but I was like, Well, you know, so well it’s Robin you know, she’s an Meeting broker. I mean, I wouldn’t be where I am without her. And I was like, yeah, no, she’s working with me. Right? She’s like,

D.J. Paris 30:06
Yeah, that’s, that’s super funny. But yeah, so this is a relationship business. And whatever you can do to, I always think the best way to add to build a relationship is to add value when the person like you were saying, isn’t expecting it, you know, I, I think anytime you can solve a problem for somebody when they’re not looking for it, or just make them feel wanted or needed, or appreciated, or you thought of them anything like that is always the way to go. And the good news is, and it’s not just with realtors who struggle to do it, obviously, people at the top, like yourself, do these things. But it’s kind of across all industries. I mean, I have a lot of different service providers in my life that make money off me every year for various services. And very rarely do they ever reach out to add value. I mean, they’re nice people. I like them. I’m not interested in switching to other people. But it would be nice if somebody ever reached out and said, Hey, I noticed it might be a good time for you to refinance. Like nobody even does that. So you know, these are all opportunities, realtors have to add value. And, you know, eventually people be like, let’s give DJ Ranbir a chance. So, no. So I have a couple of stories. I wanted to hear from you. I want to hear about the cardboard penis story. You don’t mind sharing it?

Amber Kardosh 31:26
Well, I guess at the time, it was probably more it was funnier than probably me telling you this now, but it was. I

D.J. Paris 31:32
think it’s funny now it’s funny. It was like it

Amber Kardosh 31:35
was a vacant condo. And we were we were touring some condos. And then we were going in and out. All of a sudden I hear my client go, Oh my God. I’m like, what? And she comes out. She’s like, look, and it’s just giant cardboard penis. And I’m like, why is that there? And I didn’t know how she was gonna like React. I mean, she’s pretty. She was pretty laid back on like, Oh, man. And then like, Can I take a picture of that? She was like, yeah, it was sweet. So I posted it and like, yeah, it was really funny because it I mean, it would be different if someone was living I don’t know if there’d be any different be still weird, but having a penis cardboard penis and I make bacon just

D.J. Paris 32:07
what just sitting out on a table or was there like they moved out?

Amber Kardosh 32:11
And we’re like, let’s just leave the car. Oh, they

D.J. Paris 32:12
left it there. Yeah. So yeah, well, I guess maybe you don’t move the cardboard penis that’s kind of a disposable. But then just the fact that somebody that you guys touched it is amazing. I would have like, grabbed like tweezers and why didn’t

Amber Kardosh 32:25
touch it. Let’s just you just took a picture. Yeah,

D.J. Paris 32:29
yeah. Oh, I love that. And then And then since we’re on the, you know, sort of a new kick. Tell me about the Sleeping Naked story where you had a tenant. Yeah. So traumatized.

Amber Kardosh 32:40
I don’t open doors that are tenant occupied to this day. It freaks me out on my clients work. Why I’m like you do it? Because it was one of the first places that we were looking and it was a buy, but it was for you know, it was tenant occupied. So I was told the tenants weren’t there. And you know, so the one it was a two bedroom one was open, and one was closed. And I just figured it was close. And I opened it. And it was like a guy face down. But naked. Luckily, it was down. But I freaked out. I closed the door and my clients like what like, Don’t go in there. There was a new admin and let’s go, let’s just go let’s just go and I got really uncomfortable.

D.J. Paris 33:16
Well, no, I mean, right. That’s a that’s even a potentially unsafe environment. Right. But it’s certainly uncomfortable to say the least. Did so they did not end up buying that that property, I’m

Amber Kardosh 33:28
guessing no. And now I’m like, I have nervous twitches every time I go into a tenant occupied. I’m like, no naked bodies.

D.J. Paris 33:37
I think hey, what, what what better place to wrap up than with a couple of naked or sort of, you know, genital stories, general calm genital stories. But yeah, so so just to recap a couple of couple of things, guys, first of all, the Phelps Hansen coders group is amazing. They’re top producers in Chicago, including the suburbs, western suburbs, in particular, but they’re all over and they’re willing, you know, to work with you, whether you’re a buyer seller or renter and investor, they are happy to talk to you. So if there are people who are listening, who aren’t realtors, but but the public who wants to work with a top producing team, or if you are a broker, as we mentioned earlier, that is looking to join a team and add value and and take your career to the next level. What’s the best way they should reach out to you?

Amber Kardosh 34:22
I mean, they can call me at my phone number is 773-726-2070. Or again, they can use our team email at pH. K group at app properties.com.

D.J. Paris 34:34
Awesome. And, guys, this was our first experimental video podcast recording video cast, I guess. So Amber was so sweet to be the first guinea pig to try it out. And we’re so grateful Amber on behalf of all the audience, that you were able to take time two different days to get this done. So thank you for you know, being with us throughout the some of the tech problems but I think this went really, really well. And we’re really excited to continue to provide these episodes to everyone. We’re going to be doing these probably every single time now. So we’re super excited you guys asked for video. So here it is. And on behalf of the audience Amber, thank you for taking time. I know how busy you are. And if you ever do another Iron Man, let us know so we can support you and maybe, you know, raise money or whatever on keeping it real amazing. Can Happen. Well, oh, can I just end with one silly this this is this is almost a mean thing to say. But you’ll appreciate it just as it’s just it’s just a joke. But whenever I see so Ironman, people probably could laugh at this. So you know, they put the sticker some people put stickers in the back of the car. It’s like 26.2 or Yeah, so I always thought and believe me, I’ve never run a half marathon. I’ve done a few five K’s and that’s plenty for me. So I am I am exactly the kind of person that should not be making fun. But whenever I see the half marathon, the 13.1 I always go. Am I supposed to be half proud of you? Or? And I’m only teasing. That’s still an amazing accomplishment. That was just a joke. I always thought was funny. But no. But anyway,

Amber Kardosh 36:12
I needed those stickers. So that’s, I don’t think you should because

D.J. Paris 36:15
Iron Man, people are just amazing. So anyway, thanks again for being on the show. We’re so grateful that you took time out of your day to do this. And we’ll see everyone on the next episode. Thanks.

Amber Kardosh 36:27
Thank you. I look forward to listening to more podcasts.

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Four Million to Twenty-Four Million in Two Years • Ben Lalez

January 31, 2020

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Ben Lalez of Compass grew his production from four million in 2017 to 24 million in 2019. That kind of growth in remarkable – even more remarkable as 2019 was Ben’s second year as a full time real estate agent. In this episode Ben discusses how he started in real estate, how he shifted into top producer status, and why having a previous knowledge of contractor work helps separate him from other brokers.

Ben Lalez can be reached at Ben.Lalez@compass.com and 847-452-9675

Transcript

Hello, and welcome to another episode of Keeping it real the largest podcast made by real estate agents for real estate agents. My name is DJ Paris. I am your host and guide to the show. And if you’re brand new to the show, here’s what we do we talk to top 1% producers all over the country and ask them how they grew their business so that other realtors can learn from their success. You probably already knew that this probably isn’t your first episode. So thank you for letting me do that. But a couple of quick things before we get started with our episode with Ben Lalas. First tell a friend if you know even one other real estate agent that could benefit from listening to interviews from top producers like Ben shoot this over, you can listen to every episode we’ve ever done keeping it real pod.com By the way, new website is coming in about a week and it’ll be a lot easier to navigate and find the episodes you’re looking for. So I’ll let you know once that’s live. Also, we’re adding video. So all of the episodes going forward will be video podcasts. So not only will you be able to listen like you are now but you’ll also be able to watch our guests on YouTube and some other areas we’re going to be sharing that so be on the lookout for that the best place to find out exactly what’s going on with our podcast is on Facebook, visit us facebook.com forward slash keeping it real pod again, keeping it real pod. And every single day, we post an article that we find online written by some expert industry expert about how you can help grow your business. And of course, we also post all of our episodes. So please go there and engage with the other fans of the show. And also send us your feedback. Any guests you think we need to talk to any ideas you have to make the show better. We are thrilled to hear that so you can always send us a message through the keeping it real pod.com website Facebook a million ways to find us. Alright guys, enough of me. Let’s get on to our amazing interview with the great Ben lawless.

Today on the show we have Ben lawless from Compass, you can visit Ben by the way on his team website, which has been lawless.com Ben started his real estate career flipping houses in Humboldt Park and Hermoza not wanting to deal with real estate brokers or general contractors, he went out and became licensed in both throughout the years working for himself grew organically into working for others. And brokering is now his full time job. Because of his background and construction. clients find that having an agent on their side who understands the nuts and bolts, literally of a home is exceptionally valuable. 2019 was Ben’s first year as a full time real estate agent. And he and his team did it an incredible, whopping 23 and a half million dollars in production. I cannot begin to say what a big deal that is, again, before we get started, because I always forget to mention before I bring Ben on, Ben and his team are looking for brokers. So if you’re a broker and you’re interested in joining a winning team at Compass, Ben would love to speak with you also they have an admin position open as well. So reach out to Ben Ben lawless.com. And anyway, welcome to the show. Ben,

Ben Lalez 4:23
thank you so much. I’m super excited to be on here with you.

D.J. Paris 4:27
I am super excited. Ben Ben, when we were getting ready to get started goes I make everyone on my team. Listen, listen to my show. Listen to the show. So I was really honored to hear that. Thank you for being part of short

Ben Lalez 4:37
shout out to Laura and I’m sure she’s listening right now she’s on my team.

D.J. Paris 4:41
So then you’ve had a tremendous amount of success in a very short amount of time in as being a broker. And your team has grown significantly since you guys have started so can you talk a little bit about how you got into real estate?

Ben Lalez 4:56
Sure. I kind of want to say first thank you for having me on, I think this podcast is extremely valuable to brokers in the city and, you know, nationwide, honestly, it’s unbelievable that you’ve put this together to, you know, for and for brokers to kind of share all of this useful stuff for free. It’s tremendously valuable.

D.J. Paris 5:20
Oh, thank you so much. We really appreciate it. Really. It’s all because you guys, so you guys get all the all the things, but I’m glad that it’s helpful. And I appreciate your the kind words there. But yeah, tell us tell us how you got into real estate.

Ben Lalez 5:32
Sure, so I was actually interning with a construction company. It’s LG development group. They do business as LG construction. Now, they’re pretty reputable here in the city, but in Oh, nine, they were a little bit smaller, and I was interning for them. And we all know what happened in oh nine. And, and going into 2010 You know, I, I had had some good experience learning how to build a home, you know, working there. And as the market completely tanked. You know, I recognized an opportunity to pick up some property very, very cheaply. And, you know, the West Humboldt Park and or most neighborhoods. And, you know, thankfully, my dad was able to spot me with a little seed money, and I’ll actually never forget it. I bought my first house for $22,000 cash. Wow. And I walk in there, and there’s needles on the ground. Oh, no. Yes. Other stuff that we don’t need to mention. And then just an incredible and incredible amount of pickle jars. Just something about.

D.J. Paris 6:43
So what what were we Oh, for for waste?

Ben Lalez 6:47
I have no idea to be honest with Oh, okay. I mean, I guess I didn’t think of it like that. It just seemed like, I don’t know, if these people loved eating pickles. I don’t know what the story was.

D.J. Paris 6:57
Were there any squatters in the property? Or

Ben Lalez 6:59
no, it was boarded up. There were a lot of beds. So I think the bank finally got their act together and got everyone out. And there was, you know, it was it was a mess. And literally walking around. In hindsight, I should have been more careful. But I’m crunching around on these needles. Oh, no, yes. But long story short, we put in, like at the time 40 or 50 grand where we were able to sell it. Let’s just say I made a lot more than my salary, interning just on that one flow. So I was like, Okay, I guess this is what I am doing. So paid dad back, use the profits to kind of continue that game. So that kind of spawned into from 2010 through 2014. I was doing three or four projects at a time. So depending on how fast they turned. Yeah, it was it was really good there for a second.

D.J. Paris 7:54
Were you guys doing all flips? Or were you doing any buy and hold as well?

Ben Lalez 7:58
Yeah. So I actually still have some stuff that we held that we picked up in 2010, and 2011. But the majority of those nests was to, you know, fix, flip and sell as fast as possible. So as I was kind of getting that experience, I went out and got my general contractor’s license, because I wanted to cut out a middleman, which is kind of sacrilege to hear that coming from a real estate broker, but wanted to cut out the middleman on the general contracting side. Sure, and I did and that had its own growing pains, but eventually figured it out. But as the properties were getting ready to sell, it might I might be showing listeners My Type A personality, but I also wanted to take control of the selling side. So I got my real estate license as well.

D.J. Paris 8:46
Also very smart. And by the way, for everyone who’s listening, this is a very common path for people that are invest real estate investors, they, the general contractor side, seemingly makes sense. But also, just saving on the Commission’s alone is a huge thing to get your broker license, even if you never really want to work with the public and only do your own transactions makes perfect sense.

Ben Lalez 9:08
Yeah, exactly ended. I’m not gonna say I did everything perfectly the first even five times, but I mean, that’s what’s good about getting in early, you can make those mistakes with fewer repercussions. Sure. And yeah, you know, it was a good first step for me there.

D.J. Paris 9:30
And then how did you transition from investments, real estate investments to being a more traditional broker and working more with a public buyers, sellers, that sort of thing?

Ben Lalez 9:41
Sure. So I don’t think it’s too a typical what my process was. I you know, I have a lot of friends and family here in Chicago. I was born and raised in Chicago or in the suburbs. I was born in Glenview. And, you know, friends and family saw what I was doing and, you know, I wasn’t sure I about telling people what I do for a living, which I think is half the battle. But people began asking me to do their kitchens and bathrooms. And they also asked me for help renting and then eventually buying. So it happened very, very organically. So for the first, say, two, three years while I had my real estate license that only accounted for maybe five or 10% of my true income. And then over time, I saw that gradually shifting, and I found myself being drawn to real estate brokering more so than the construction side. And then from there, it just was a very gradual shift to full time real estate brokerage.

D.J. Paris 10:44
Yeah, it’s, I mean, it’s funny you say gradual, because of course, it was a gradual transition. But then once you decided to go full brokerage, you know, just the numbers you did alone, and we really cannot, is it? Okay, if I talk about your numbers? Are you comfortable with me sharing that no problem at all? Yeah, this is, uh, this is great. Ben’s a very humble person. But this is really something that needs to be shared. And I’ll brag for you because it’s so cool. In 2017, he in his team, they did 4 million in production, which is a very modest sum. And then the next year, they did 14 million. So they basically almost quadrupled their production in one year. Can you talk about? Well, actually, before we get to that, and this only is so timely, because 30 minutes before we started our podcast, I had a woman who is actually in the process of getting her real estate license, who’s at our office, one of the schools teachers here. So a lot of times the students come over and chat with me, before they finish up their classes. And they always ask, okay, what do you recommend I do once I pass my test and join a firm? And I always say, well listen to the podcast, because people like Ben, obviously, you know, will tell you exactly what to do. Because I sit here at a desk all day, and I’m not out there producing. So I just real quickly, only because it just came up. What advice do you have for a brand new broker? Who’s looking to get in? Because you’ve done leasing? You’ve done sales, you’ve done investments? What do you recommend for people these days?

Ben Lalez 12:10
Sure. So, you know, I have newer brokers who are on my team that asked me the same question when they come on board, right. And mine is, my advice is actually pretty simple. So everyone is good at something, right. And, for example, I have someone on my team he came over, he was actually an analyst, he has a very analytical mind very good with math, I actually have someone on my team who comes from a remodeling background, also kind of like me. And I tell people lean on your strengths. And, you know, make that what your, your message is about, you don’t need to know everything. But if you know, one thing, that’s good enough, so So I would say a lien on whatever that strength may be, for example, mine was general contracting. So any question I got from a buyer or seller, I always made it about the physical home, because that’s what I knew how to talk about. And that’s what I was comfortable with. So I would say your, that is one and then two is whatever strategy, you know, it is that they come up with. And if they join a team, you know, listen to your team lead or your mentor and kinda, you know, come up with a strategy. But after you do come up with a strategy, I think it’s pretty simple. From there. It’s do the work every single day. Yeah. And period, that’s, that’s the end of it, you have a system. If it’s sitting at a desk and doing fliers or calling or if it’s Zillow, it’s do the work every single day, follow up nonstop, and then wake up in the morning and do it again and again. And again. It’s simple as that.

D.J. Paris 13:48
Yeah, it’s it’s simple. I always say, it’s simple and hard, right? It’s the it’s like, push ups. I remember when I first started working with a personal trainer years ago, they went through all my goals and what I was looking to accomplish and the training sessions, and then he’s like, okay, we can get started. And he says, like, I need you to do 40 Push Ups. And I was like, push ups. That’s, that’s not very exciting. Like, I can do that on my own. He’s like, are you doing it on your own? I was like, no, because then do the push ups. And I realized, oh, yeah, push ups are really good exercise. And every day, you know, every time I went into see, and we started with push ups, because it’s just a good daily discipline. And so that same idea, obviously applies to building a real estate practice, is put your head down and figure out what your daily disciplines are and, and rinse and repeat every day.

Ben Lalez 14:36
Exactly. And that kind of ties into I think, as early as possible, if you’re able to even if there’s 10 people in your CRM in a client relationship management tool, if you can figure if someone is smart enough to get that figured out as early as possible, and to have that be the basis for how they’re doing their follow up or their marketing efforts or whatever the case may be. be having that organizational tool early. I think I wish someone told me like I use Salesforce now. And I’m telling you the the first year after I implemented it, there’s money that you’re just literally, you know, it’s slipping through the cracks without you even knowing it.

D.J. Paris 15:19
Yeah, I agree. It’s a lot of times brokers to they look at their contact list, the, you know, or their CRM, and they say, Okay, what am I like? How should I reach out? What should I do? And I always say, Well, you know, there’s a million reasons to reach out if it’s somebody’s birthday, that’s a reason to reach out. And if mortgage rates drop, call everyone you know, who owns a home and say, Hey, I don’t know your mortgage situation, it’s really none of my business. But in case you didn’t know rates have dropped, it might be a good idea to refinance, call your lender, if you don’t have a good one, I’ll refer you to someone, but anything that adds value and a birthday announcement adds value, but just have a system, have a reason to contact them and consistently add value. And, and you’re right that Ryan April, comes on once a month. And he always says, The 16% of the people, you know, are transacting in real estate in the next 12 months. And the question is, how many of those 16% Are you going to capture. And if you don’t stay in touch, you know, people just forget that, that that’s what you do.

Ben Lalez 16:22
I wouldn’t even take it a step further, you don’t necessarily even need to. And best case scenario, you’re reaching out on a regular basis. And we have a system for that. But I tell the people on my team, like put everyone in your CRM, and we have a system for how they’re supposed to or how I’d like to see them reach out, but it counts that their name is in front of your eyes on a regular basis. So you’re thinking about them. And then you know, when the opportunity is there, that you can reach out via text, email, whatever the case may be, at least you’ve been thinking about them. And you’re able to put something, you know, cohesive together to put in front of them.

D.J. Paris 17:00
Yeah, I couldn’t agree more. So I would love to know, so. So you guys had this huge growth in like a one year period? Is there any one thing that really exploded that growth? Or was it just hey, we just put our head down? We did our push ups every day. All of a sudden? Well, that? I mean, really? I’m sure that’s probably the real answer. But you had such a big growth. I was just curious if there was any one event that really spurred it, or it was just No, we just did our work every day.

Ben Lalez 17:30
Yeah, so I think there’s a few answers to the question. I’ll make it as concise as possible. But, you know, we went from 4 million to 14 million and I, a big part of that was my attention was on my general contracting business. And as my, like, attention became more focused on real estate brokerage, you know, that alone, you know, just having the work ethic and applying it, full force, full force, excuse me into one avenue that helped but along with that, early on, I recognized that my value was on bigger picture stuff. So I put an assistant in place really, really early. And I know I’m not the first person to say that I think that’s one of the main takeaways that many of the top producers in the city have said on the podcast. Sure. So that coupled with having a really robust CRM, so that leads aren’t slipping through the cracks. And then, frankly, I I invested in Zillow. in some capacity, I spent some serious money on there and I had a system in place where we ended up being among the top in the country for lead conversion on Zillow.

D.J. Paris 18:43
Wow, it’s I’m really glad you’re mentioning this because I love I love Zillow as a company. I like I know a lot of brokers have mixed feelings but I think they’re awesome. And I and people who purchase leads from Zillow will and who are successful obviously Ben is and his team obviously one of the most successful teams in the country with Zillow leads and they will tell you that even though that lead might be you know, other people might be seeing that lead there really isn’t that much competition. If you if you have a system to work those leads the average broker who gets a lead like that maybe tries to follow up one or two times and then drops the lead. And I’m sure and Ben knows know it sometimes there’s many phone calls many many phone calls before before that lead actually converts.

Ben Lalez 19:33
Well, I mean, I’m still working Zilla leads from 2017. Some some of which ignore you for a year. And then you know, our CRM, we apply a certain priority to them and leave a little note in my calendar to reach out to them in you know, June 2020. Or you know, and you just follow up then you can ignore it until then.

D.J. Paris 19:56
I was at an event Yeah, that is that is so true. I was at event with Matt Larissa where he was speaking. I need to, by the way, get him on the show, of course. But yes, you do. Yeah. Yeah, he’s he’s it for those of you not in the Chicagoland area he’s he’s a top broker here as well. And he was like pounding the table going, you never give up on a lead, you never ever give up on a lead. And it was a good reminder, just as Ben just said, You just always follow up, because the Slow and steady wins the race. And, you know, oftentimes people’s decision making process. I mean, same thing for me, I recruit more than I mean, I don’t produce at all but I recruit, there’s people that go, I met with you a year ago, and I’m finally ready to switch over. And I go, Oh, great, you know, because I’ve stayed in touch with them over the time. And everyone’s timeline is different, you’d never give up on a lead and have. And if you have a CRM, like Ben has Salesforce, which is like the preeminent CRM, in, in, across all industries, you can you can automate a lot of this. And you know, it’s really, really hard, but you never ever give up. Right?

Ben Lalez 20:57
Going back to what you were saying about not get about not giving up is we have a team policy that a lead isn’t dead, and we have a priority literally called dead. And they’re not dead until they tell you to eff off in some regard. via text via email, like stop calling me stop texting. Yeah. And that’s, and that’s fine. And you know, you have to have a little bit of a thick skin, but you don’t get what you don’t ask for.

D.J. Paris 21:24
Yeah, so that is I mean, that is an incredible growth that you guys had, and you continue to have. And then a year after doing hitting 14 million, which is almost a four 400% increase. Now, then you went almost an almost doubled it again. And last year, you guys did almost 24 million, which is just again, it was there any any thing else that that changed? Or was it like no, this is just what happened as a result of us following our process.

Ben Lalez 21:53
So there’s a few things that I would like to credit it. Like how I would like to credit it. And I think adding social media to our ordinary push really, really helped. So if I don’t know if DJ, you’ve seen the video content that I put out regularly, we do a once a week video post that’s long form, and then we chop it up and put it across all other platforms. Yes, I have. Yep. So I think that coupled with, you know, our ordinary efforts, it social media is an interesting game. And a lot of people I think are thinking about it the wrong way. People expect strangers, for example, to reach out and say, Hey, I saw your video because of XYZ and I want to work with you. But I think of it a little bit differently. And that’s raising the floor kind of on retention of existing clients, and you know, friends, family referrals. And also staying in front of those people regularly. So and that also helps with our, you know, our Zillow investment, because I really believe that the second I get off the phone with someone, they’re Googling my name, of course, and they’re going to see 2030 videos of me talking about real estate, and you know, we have a very targeted demographic that we’re going after. And, you know, I’m speaking directly to them. So, you know, I get connected via a live Zillow connection, and they have no idea who I am, they Google me, and they’re like, oh, like, this guy actually knows what he’s doing. And that legitimizes you. So whereas I was losing, and I don’t know if these numbers are accurate, but I feel like I’m picking up an additional 10 or 20% of clients that would have just fallen by the wayside. Just by the social media efforts that we’re doing.

D.J. Paris 23:47
Yeah, the videos are such a such a strong and powerful idea. And we oftentimes forget, YouTube is the second biggest search engine on the planet. And, you know, of course, people are going to search, they’re going to look to see if you have reviews, they’re going to look to see if you have video content, Google prioritizes video in their search results, if someone searches your name, and you have some videos that that are, you know, Google has deemed important enough to show in the search results. And you show up and of course, especially on a lead, a click to call lead from Zillow, live transfer, you know, while they’re talking to me and be like, Oh, who’s this bad guy, and they’re gonna look you up, and they’re gonna want to make sure that you know, and by the way, the other thing about having videos is it shows who you are physically. It’s like, oh, that’s a real person I’m talking to here’s a video where I can see and hear him providing, you know, content or valuable content to me, and it humanizes you too as well, which is really smart.

Ben Lalez 24:44
So kind of piggybacking off of that. There was that car 2020 outlook thing that will happen last week or two ago, and they were talking about how millennials are, you know, they accounted for 50% of new mortgage edge origination and 2019. Wow. And kind of thinking about that I have a story about. So there’s this one guy, he’s 28. And he actually found me on Instagram. And I, you know, I just touted that that’s not what it’s about finding strangers. But this is the story about, you know, one stranger who did reach out via Instagram. And I’m like, Hey, like, how did you find me? And he’s like, Oh, I know, I knew I needed a real estate broker. And I started my search on Instagram. And that’s, that blew my mind. So you’re talking about how YouTube is the second largest search? And yeah, millennials are using Instagram using LinkedIn. Right? As the search engine. Yeah. And I was floored. So I mean, you can see the tide turning, for millennials, for sure.

D.J. Paris 25:49
And so for those of you who are listening, who are brokers thinking, Okay, well, what do I do? The first thing you want to do what, whatever social media platform you want to really focus in on whether it’s Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, I mean, there’s there’s a lot of options. But what you want to do is create content that people who need your services want to know about. And I think oftentimes, and I’d be curious to get your opinion. I think brokers oftentimes only post about their successes, like here’s a new listing, and I understand that, and I support that, I think that’s great. But if that’s all that you’re doing, I think you’re missing an opportunity to really tell people, you know, content that they might be interested in. So if you want a special like I saw, I know you did a thing on restaurant row recently, which is really smart. And that was yesterday. Oh, that was yesterday. Okay. Yeah, it’s hot today. So really, really smart. So Restaurant Week here in Chicago is coming up. It was a really good time. I’m sure that was not coincidental that it coincided with that time. But you know, if you tag your posts appropriately, whether it’s Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, we tag our stuff to for the podcast, and sometimes people find us just through a tag. So that’s, you know, we think, Oh, if somebody hasn’t following me on Instagram, they’re not going to, they’re not going to find me. Oh, no, people find you, Carrie McCormick, who comes on our show from our properties is like the queen of Instagram. And you should she puts it fifth 5000 tags and every post and like, why do you do that? I mean, I know why she doesn’t like it, does that really work? And she’s like, Oh, my God, she doesn’t get so many clients that way. People just find her because of the content she puts out. And obviously, you’re having similar success.

Ben Lalez 27:37
Yeah, and I think you kind of brushed on it. It’s about putting out relevant content. But I think the part that people are missing is, again, I’ve kind of touted it, just putting your head down and doing the work. But you have to have a consistent approach to social media, anything that you’re doing, but particularly social media. Because consistency counts, the more you put it out there, and the more relevant it is. I don’t claim to know the algorithms behind all of these sites, but they prioritize you eventually, that they see that you’re putting out consistent stuff, high quality stuff that’s getting engagement. So yeah, I think putting out consistent relevant content with a key on consistency is, I think the key

D.J. Paris 28:25
it is and also understanding to the listeners that having them understand that social media, whether it’s you know, whether it’s YouTube videos, or cool Instagram posts, or Instagram stories, or videos, or all of it, it’s it’s a marathon and you are likely not to see results right away. And that’s same thing with even doing this podcast, which is a form of it’s really a social media thing to you know, we barely anybody knew about the show for the first a year or so. And then, you know, eventually people said, Oh, this contents helpful, and they told other people and now here we are, but, but I just had to put my head down. And I still have to put my head down and do it. And I will tell you back to your point about hiring an assistant I forgot to mention this. I have an assistant as well for for the podcast. And she’s amazing. She’s our she’s our casting director. And she keeps me on target because this year we our goal is to double the number of episodes that we’ve done, because left to my own devices, even though I’ve had helpers in the past I don’t I just don’t stay on target. And so for those of you who are listening who think well gosh, I can’t afford to have an assistant or I’m just not at the level there are other options versus hiring somebody you know, down down the street from you or or here locally, there are virtual assistants that you can you can hire. And they’ll of course vary in quality just like any anyone, but if you find a good assistant, it doesn’t necessarily you know, today you need to break the bank. It’s a very achievable thing. I’ve seen lots and lots of Realtors hire virtual assistants and it’s for a very affordable price, and then it really helps them, you know, do what they do best, which is typically working with clients. And Ben was saying, Hey, we’ve got an analyst on our team, right. And so that analyst is probably best spent, you know, analyzing deals and analyzing the market. And, you know, there’s, you can even hire somebody to help you with prospecting and, and there’s lots of assistance you can get. And a lot of times people just think, well, I have to be a top producer first. It’s like, Well, it certainly helps that, you know, you have the income to do it. But you can do it for pretty much on the cheap, because now we’re in such a global gig economy, that you have people from all over the world that that will help you for a very affordable pricing.

Ben Lalez 30:41
My, my first assistant was actually in the Philippines. I actually found her on upwork.com. That was, again, I love it so much. That was back in 2015. So I had, I think I mentioned we did buy and hold some property and I needed to rent it. And you know, at some point, I had three, four or five rentals up on the market. And again, I property managed it myself doing. Yes, so I have all these places up on Craigslist, and Zillow, etc. And my phone just won’t stop ringing. And I’m like, I cannot function like this. So I actually hired someone she was in the Philippines, she worked to Chicago hours. And I feel bad saying how much I paid her. But I’m pretty sure it was a living wage in the Philippines, but it was $3 an hour. Yeah, just to give people an example. And that’s not I mean, I think you can still find people to work for that dollar amount. Now even

D.J. Paris 31:41
I will share a similar story. So I have talked about daily disciplines. And I have a series of disciplines and things I struggle with will say that I should be doing on a daily basis. And, for example, this is a really embarrassing one because I’ve had pets now for 11 years, I have a cat and a dog. And embarrassingly, this is partisan, embarrassing, but my cat, not that the listeners care, but she needs to have her litter box cleaned twice a day, that’s just her she’s particular that way, there’s no way around it. If I don’t do that, over time, she’ll start peeing outside her box. And that creates a lot of problems. So I would love to say that it was just natural for me to clean the litter box twice a day. Sadly, I am not that on top of things. And also I’ll let myself off the hook. So I have this is just an example of one of the one of the reasons why I hired somebody to help with that. Now she lives in the Philippines as well. And I pay her a slightly slightly more than then. Ben’s but she she but that this is many years later, but it’s not much more. And I think I give her seven or $8 an hour, but she only works a couple hours a week. But what she does is she calls me every morning. And she has about 10 things that she goes, Did you remember to clean your cat box twice yesterday? And it sounds silly. Wow. But it’s worth the money. Because by doing that I avoid other problems. Also my cats happier and it’s not she’s not just calling for that. She says hey, did you work out yesterday? Did you check on your finances? Did you you know call your parents and things like that. So

Ben Lalez 33:17
level man.

D.J. Paris 33:18
Well, I would love to say that I came up with this idea I did not I learned it and I should give credit to a basically the foremost leadership expert in the world. Certainly in this country. His name is Marshall Goldsmith, he like Council’s presidency councils top Fortune 500 companies. He’s the guy’s a PhDs, a statistician. And he I watched him I got the chance to see him speak somewhere. And he said, he has an assistant and this is a local assistant, he probably pays them a fortune to do exactly what I just mentioned. And I was like, Oh, that’s really smart. Because I struggle with a lot of stuff too. And so every morning for the last two years, my my person names all the she calls me every morning at 730 It’s about a 92nd phone call. And she just relaxed rattles off a list of things. And it really helps me stay on target. So the point is, that Ben and I have mentioned is there are people globally, you know, worldwide that you can find and that are you will pay them a living wage, they will tell you how much they need. And then you can determine if that’s acceptable or not. And boy, it’s amazing the kind of help you can get these days. So think just think about for everyone listening where you struggle, and can that be you know, are there I have a friend this is embarrassing, so I won’t mention their name. But I have a friend who pays somebody from the Philippines to call them every morning and wake them up. This person has a a full time job where she struggles to get to work on time. So I mentioned this to her I said you know there’s there’s probably a lot of solutions. We know you can pay somebody to call you and bug you until you get out of bed. And she was like well that’s really embarrassing. I was like there’s nothing embarrassing about that, like everybody struggles so and she pays somebody now and she gets bogged down until she gets out of bed and she’s never late. So

Ben Lalez 34:59
good work. If I might steal this idea from you.

D.J. Paris 35:03
Well, I stole it from Marshall Goldsmith. So feel free. Yeah, and you know, we talked about your social media, we should plug your social media. So Instagram obviously is a big a big one for you. By the way, you can get to all of Ben’s social media on his website, Ben lawless B and L A lez.com. But Ben, can you promote your Instagram handle as well?

Ben Lalez 35:24
Sure. We are Ben Lala as real estate. So L A L E z on Lola’s, Ben Lala is real estate, on Instagram, and you should be able to find, I mean, you say this all the time, DJ, if someone can’t find you, just by typing in your name on Google, you’re doing something wrong.

D.J. Paris 35:45
And by the way, if you don’t have a social media presence, or you don’t have time to post or you don’t have time to set up, you know, here’s what I always tell people to like, what if you just hired somebody to help get you reviews. So in other words, you hire somebody who every time you have a closing, or every time you’re working with a client, or whatever you think an appropriate time is to remind your clients that it would be helpful if they left a review on either Facebook, Google, Yelp, Zillow, wherever you want reviews, you could pay somebody a very small amount to, you know, reach out to your clients very politely and nice. And ask them, you know, whether it’s email, phone call, whatever, you know, and that’s a good point that people are going to Google you even the referrals that you get are going to Google you and you want to make sure that you have a robust number of reviews, or that you have some content on there, that’s helpful so that people can see what you’re all about. So you can hire people for that too.

Ben Lalez 36:41
And not to mention that there’s services for social media, for example, we use Buffer. I don’t know if you’re familiar, I use Buffer everyday love buffer. So there you go. So you can put all your content for the week or month up there. It’s tough for video, but any static content, you write the copy for each piece and set it and forget it.

D.J. Paris 37:01
Yeah, so we use Buffer for our Facebook page for our podcast, which is facebook.com forward slash keeping it real pod. And it’s funny because Ben needed mentioned buffer so so I so somebody from the Philippines, who is not her name is Rhea. So Rhea works on the show as well and RIA posts every day, through buffer schedules, all of our posts, our intention is to post one valuable, or we rather what we do is we find a valuable piece of content online, and we post it through through buffer and we schedule it and takes her like an hour and she gets all the posts done for the week. So Buffer is great, because you can schedule all your postings and cross post among different social media networks. And it’s awesome. Hootsuite is another great one for that purpose as well. But yeah, so I wanted to ask you this, just because I thought this was kind of an interesting, funny story. You had mentioned that when we were talking to you. But before we started about that you had a final walkthrough and basically somebody had come to move in. When you notice that during the final walkthrough. Yeah.

Ben Lalez 38:08
Sure. So for all intents and purposes, it was a very normal transaction. I was on the buy side, it was a single family home and Irving Park. And couldn’t couldn’t honestly, I couldn’t be more normal. So you know, day of closing, we show up for the final walkthrough. And, you know, I’m with the listing agent, and, you know, the keys not working. And he’s he’s very confused. He’s like, I was just here for the appraisal, you know, two weeks ago, the key works fine. Like it wasn’t cold, so it wasn’t frozen. And we had no idea what was going on. So like, I don’t know why he thought to knock, but he knocks on the door. And this like 15 year old boy walks to the door and goes, Can I help you? And we’re like, what do you what do you mean? Can you help us like, what are you doing here? He’s like, Oh, I live here are like, no, no, you don’t. He’s like, Oh, thank you very much. Goodbye. And he closes the corner.

D.J. Paris 39:11
And we’re looking at each other. Like we say what? Yeah, the best. The best defense is a good offense. Go I’m sorry. Go ahead.

Ben Lalez 39:18
No, so we we have no idea what just happened. We’re looking at each other like, well, what world is this? And we realized quickly what happened? Or we thought someone just broke in or Lord knows what happens. So we call the police. And for once, they actually showed up, like, right away because I don’t know what I said, but it smelled fishy to them. So three cars pull up. They knock on the door, the guy opens the door again. And five minutes later, they’re taking the guy out in handcuffs. And it was a young guy it didn’t seem like like there was no violence or anything like that going on but so they take him into the squad car. He rolls away. And so we go in because we’re still there for final walkthrough. Right. Okay. So we walk in, and we realized that this guy had changed the locks. He had mounted a TV, he had his ex box setup, the fridge is filled with food, there’s furniture, that was not the sellers. This guy had actually broken in, moved in, there was a mail sent to the house in this kid’s name, and had fully just taken ownership. And you know, having been in the business long enough, there’s like, I think we all know that there’s issues, especially once mail is getting sent there. Luckily, we didn’t have to deal with any of that. But yeah, some guy just moved into my client’s future home.

D.J. Paris 40:45
And we see really a 15 year old or was he older pretending to be younger or

Ben Lalez 40:49
no. So at the end of the final walk through, the kids father showed up, I think he wanted to kind of smooth things over and make sure we weren’t going to press charges. But for sure, a minor I don’t know exactly how old he was. But he’s definitely a minor.

D.J. Paris 41:09
That’s incredible that that somebody who’s a minor would even have the wherewithal to do that big of a sort of transition first to know how to get into a property second to then move in. And boy, that’s, that’s incredible.

Ben Lalez 41:23
Yeah, it was, I mean, I haven’t experienced anything like it since and I don’t actually know what like the takeaway is, like, maybe visit the property more often. And but I think it was just a really unique situation. And maybe the kid maybe knew the people who were living there and saw an opportunity to get out of his parents house. And, you know, live it up for a couple of weeks.

D.J. Paris 41:47
Did the did the buyer, was the buyer spooked at all? Did it affect it? Did it affect the closing? Or no,

Ben Lalez 41:53
this client in general was just very laid back. And in the end, I mean, even day up, we just laughed about it. We, you know, I was there with the inspection report. And we made sure that nothing else was crazy. They got a and you know, there’s a relatively new flat screen on the wall. That’s a melee and we’re like, what do we like, what do we do with this? Who does this belong to? And I was like, I guess just like, we’re not gonna ask questions. I guess it’s yours. Let me know if someone comes knocking on the door for it. And that was kind of the last I heard of it.

D.J. Paris 42:30
That’s incredible. You got to do TV out of the out of the deal.

Ben Lalez 42:34
Yeah, exactly. I think you got an x max out of it to

D.J. Paris 42:37
me. Yeah. And, and, and some furniture. Although I don’t know that I’d want furniture a 15 year old and a half. But who knows, maybe a very good point. And then you also had a story, I’d love to hear about where you got into a street race. Running away from people. I don’t know if this is a scary story. So I apologize for laughing, I would love to hear the story.

Ben Lalez 42:59
It is a bit scary. So in 2010 2011, when I just started flipping houses, I entered into a, like a business relationship with an investor on the south side, they would buy up single family homes on the south side. And you know, having mentioned I had my general contractor’s license and real estate license, but flip, I was only flipping one house at a time and I had time on my hands, honestly. So I was looking for ways to kind of fill that time. So they would give me a list of 30 addresses and they had a list of criteria that, you know, they were looking for. And it was very, very specific. Like if the street is not wide enough, don’t like we don’t want to offer if there’s more than x number of board ups on the street we don’t want to offer. So I had this rule where I would drive to the front of the house. And if I didn’t feel comfortable getting on the car, I just wouldn’t and they were cool with that. So I’m in front, I’m in front of this one house. I have like a clipboard and I’m looking you know, I’m looking at the right side of my car at this house just taking some notes. And I turn to the left and there’s a car with four young men in it. Like pressed up, like almost touching my cart to the point where I like cannot like I was scared to even drive away to scratch scratch my car. And I look at I look at the driver and he’s giving me the Roll down your window signal. And I’m like, Shit, I’m like shaking my head. No. And I don’t know for all I know they wanted directions or I don’t know what they wanted. But I go into fight or flight and I’m on like 84th street and Halstead on a side street. And at the time I was driving this little Volkswagen Jetta and I just floor it and it’s a narrow street and I you know, I start driving and they actually start following me so they’re already racing right Behind me,

D.J. Paris 45:00
like your biggest fear is if I drive away, they’re gonna follow me. And then they do.

Ben Lalez 45:04
Yeah, yeah, my biggest fear. We don’t need to go there. But right, so I started driving in a, I cannot find a major street for the life of me. So we’re like zipping down the side streets. And then eventually I find I think it was Hall stat or something. And, you know, my heart is pounding. And I eventually, you know, I eventually drive home and nothing came of it. Maybe it was just for fun, but I doubt it. But that was a Yeah, so the next day I stopped working for them. I told them, is that really? Yeah, this isn’t worth, you know, my, my life here. So thank you very much. It’s been a pleasure working for you. And that was it.

D.J. Paris 45:47
Yeah, I have I have a question too, because we have a lot of female listeners. And, you know, they, obviously, and this affects both men and women, of course. But certainly women are need to be super conscious of where they go, who they meet with. And you know, where they’re going to be, you know, with clients, in particular, since you work with Zillow leads, you know, which, again, are largely, you know, perfectly safe and normal. But of course, you never know. What is your what, what advice do you have for people, you know, men and women who are maybe meeting a client, that isn’t a referral, maybe they got it through a lead source, like Zillow, or just a random phone call or email, you know, as far as where to meet to sort of maximize safety?

Ben Lalez 46:31
Yeah, that’s a really good question. Because, you know, I am handing off certain Zillow leads to people and I have that fear also. So we try to do it, if possible, on a Saturday or Sunday. Hopefully, there’s an open house, but I won’t say unless I’m, like, very confident that the person is legit. I won’t send people unless it’s middle of the day, Saturday or Sunday. But yeah, you know, DJ, I have to be honest with you, it’s, it hasn’t been an issue for me. And I guess it’s not an issue until it is, but I’m happy to hear your thoughts on it.

D.J. Paris 47:07
Yeah, you know, I don’t have a ton of thoughts other than just meet in a public place, you know, and sort of assess the situation from there. So I know a lot of brokers meet people at Starbucks, or coffee shops, or really anywhere, if you need to meet a client, and you haven’t met with them, and you’re getting a goofy feeling. Anytime you get any sort of feeling, that would be a good time to, you know, find a public place to first meet and sort of suss out the situation. And you could always walk away from a client to of course,

Ben Lalez 47:36
yeah, and you’d be surprised a lot of times because I, I take all the calls and I do all the intake and you can tell really quickly if the person is a real buyer or not. And oftentimes, you know, if I do get that feeling, it’s just like, Okay, this guy isn’t real, but the vast majority of people who are especially on Zillow, who are moved to click on a button and be connected to an agent and then let’s listen to our spiel and then schedule a time granted they could be up to no good but we just have I haven’t seen it at all yet.

D.J. Paris 48:15
Yeah, yeah, that’s yeah, that’s that’s a that’s a good point. And and just you know, people just obviously need to use their best judgment and not try to avoid situations that could be potentially dangerous and real quickly, so I just wanted to end with with this one suggestion because obviously you are very systems focused. You know, we talked about nurturing leads and staying in touch with with your sphere of influence your contact list. Do you have any just general advice or specific advice around how brokers should be staying in touch? Because I get that question a lot. It’s like well, okay, I have these 100 names in my CRM and I’m not totally sure what to do with it. Do you have any just any any ideas for to help

Ben Lalez 48:59
them it’s funny you said that DJ cuz 2019 was my first year full time and I discovered this podcast probably the beginning of 2019. And I give myself a lot of guilt because I don’t do flyers and I don’t do cold call I don’t do cancelled expired. So what I would say is like whatever that person is comfortable with for me, I I’ve always been comfortable texting the people that I interact with on a daily basis like everyone wants to text with me so I don’t over think it but going to your system idea. I put in a date once a quarter to touch me literally every single person in my CRM granted the people who are active buyers or sellers I’m reaching out to obviously daily, but you know, you have to systemize it or else you’re gonna drive yourself nuts. So I have a day in my calendar where that is you Every quarter where that is the day that I’m reaching out to 50 100 people if it spills over to two days, so be it.

D.J. Paris 50:08
Yeah, just have have a process, I guess. And, and yeah, that texting is great too. I was this is so funny. So we use for when brokers want to meet with me to learn about our company, we use a scheduling system and I realized this scheduling system, well, I won’t mention it, because I’m going to speak about one thing that they don’t have, which is maybe it’s not possible, but we send out these text reminders about the meeting. And there are lots of scheduling services that will do that, which is so helpful. And so we send out like a day before the meeting, hey, quick reminder, your meeting with DJ in a day. And then an hour before the meeting, we send out another Hey, just a quick reminder, you know, DJ looks forward to seeing you. And it’s it’s a simple little text message. We also send an email as well, just an automated system. But what I’ve realized is, recently in the last year, I’ve had a lot more people that just didn’t show up for the appointment, which is strange, because they set the appointment. So I went Hmm, why would somebody not sure if it’s so weird that I would call them and say, hey, just you know, you missed your appointment, we can reschedule you no problem. And they go, Oh, I replied to your text. And then I went, Oh, and then our system, the system we use just doesn’t allow for people, like they can reply, and the person doesn’t know that we didn’t get it. So they think we got the text because of course people reply to texts all the time. So now I’ve realized I need to really find a system that allows for that two way texting, because we automate all that. And but yeah, you’re right. It’s so smart to do it through tax, because that’s, that’s the preferred method of communication for a lot of people. So very, very smart to stay in touch that way. And then I started dialogue on text.

Ben Lalez 51:40
Yeah, and I am sure you know, the stat. But I think like the open rates of texts are what’s like 98% versus I don’t know who it is on email. But

D.J. Paris 51:50
yeah, maybe five? Yeah, well, let it for everyone who’s listening, especially if you’re in the Chicagoland area. Ben has a very successful team at Compass, obviously, great company. And Ben’s, obviously in his team have had tremendous, tremendous success in the last several years. And they’re growing. And they’re looking for new brokers and an admin position as well. So but in addition to that, for all of our listeners, maybe you’re a buyer or a seller and investor or renter, anyone who’s in the need of wanting to work with someone like Ben, or if you’re a broker who wants to join a team like Ben’s, Ben, what’s the best way someone can reach out to you.

Ben Lalez 52:31
Kind of like what we just said, easiest way is text 847-452-9675.

D.J. Paris 52:38
Right. And you can also visit Ben, Ben’s website, which has been lawless.com, Ben la lz.com. And of course, links to his Instagram account, which everyone should check out because the content is really impressive. And you can also find him all of you can contact him through email that way, through his website, as well. So Ben, thank you for being a dedicated listener to the show, which I did not know before, before you came on board. So it was really nice to know that it’s been helpful for you and your team, I really appreciate the kind words there and, and also for being part of the show is really, really special to us. So we appreciate your time. I know how busy you are. So this is a really an honor for us. And on behalf of Ben and myself to all the listeners, you’re the reason why we keep doing this. And Ben, of course is you know, it was when we were talking with him before the show, he said whatever I can do to help other brokers. That is what I want the message to be. So that’s the kind of person Ben is. So we’re super, super grateful, Ben to you. And for everyone listening, one way that you can help our show is number one to support our sponsors. But number two, to make sure that you tell a friend right everyone knows another realtor who would love to increase their production. And that’s what we do on the show. So definitely let other brokers Realtors real estate agents, depending on what they call them in the state and city you’re in. Let them know about the show and you know, have them subscribe. And also one last thing, since I’m asking for things I’m just asked for one more, if everyone who is utilizing like iTunes or Google Play or, or Stitcher or Spotify, whatever you’re using and listen to the show. If you could leave us a review that would really, we would really appreciate it. So the more people we reach, the more interviews we can do and we can continue to keep this train rolling. So Ben again, thank you so much for being part of our show everyone go to Ben lawless.com. And if you want to join Ben’s team reach out he’d he’d love to talk to you.

Ben Lalez 54:31
Thank you so much DJ

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Success Through Authenticity & Transparency • Sam Shaffer

January 30, 2020

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Sam Shaffer of Chicago Properties is not only a top 1% producer, but one of the most respected brokers in Chicago. In our conversation Sam talks about starting out at the bottom and how he built his massive real estate practice (and brokerage) through consistent follow through, honesty and integrity. His energy is electric and Sam provides tips that all agents can utilize to take their business to the next level!

Sam Shaffer can be reached at sam@chiprop.com and 773.297.9792.

Transcript

Hello, and welcome to another episode of Keeping it real the largest podcast made by real estate agents for real estate agents. My name is DJ Paris, I am your guide and your host through the show and in just a moment, we’re going to be speaking with Sam Shaffer a true legend in the Chicagoland area. Before we do that, a couple of quick announcements. Number one, we are doubling the number of episodes in 2020. So you’ve probably seen an uptick in the number of episodes we’ve been releasing regularly since the beginning of the year. And we will continue to do that because number one, you’re asking for it. And number two, we have sponsors now that help us do more episodes. So if you notice at the beginning of this show, we have a sponsorship, if you are someone who has a company that promotes to real estate agents, products, services, and you would like to sponsor an upcoming episode, by the way, we have 1000s of listeners on every single episode nationwide, let us know reach out to us through our website, keeping it real pod.com. By the way, speaking of the website, it is going through a major overhaul. And in about a week, we’ll have a brand new website up and running for you. And we’re going to be grouping together different types of episodes. So as you know, we do our interviews like the one we’re about to do with Sam. And we also have other regular segments. So we have episodes with regards to what brokers need to know about what’s going on in the lending. And our training. And all sorts of other are Monday market minute. And so we’re going to be doing that you’ll be able to pull all of those in a much easier way right from our website, which again, is keeping it real pod.com. And lastly, Oh, and one other thing before we get to the last, we’re going to be starting to do video as well. So starting also in about a week, you will be able to watch these interviews, in addition to listening them the way you are right now through your podcast app. So be on the lookout we’re still working out the technical arrangement there, but we’re almost we’ve ever pretty well figured out so we’re excited because a lot of you would rather watch than listen, or while you’ll be able to watch and listen as opposed to only listen, you get what I’m saying. And then the last thing please tell a friend think of another real estate agent that you know that could benefit from learning from top 1% producers like Sam Shaffer and pass this podcast over to them. Guys, you should also be following us on Facebook. It’s facebook.com forward slash keeping it real pod why every single day we post an article that we have found online that has information that will help you grow your business. So again facebook.com forward slash keeping it real pod and now on to our interview with Sam Shaffer.

Today on the show we have Sam Schaefer of Chicago properties. Sam is the managing broker and owner of Chicago properties who ranks among the top 1% of producers in Chicagoland with sales exceeding lifetime $800 million. And Sam has been labeled by numerous client reviews as stellar, phenomenal, incredibly responsive, and with outstanding efficiency. Sam truly Well, I’m gonna give you a quote from Sam. I truly love my job and get the most satisfaction when I find my clients their dream property, or sell their homes so that they can start the next chapter of their life. The icing on the cake is the wonderful relationships I get to develop with them. You can visit Sam at Shai approp, CH I prop prp.com Welcome Sam Shaffer. Appreciate you being on the show.

Sam Shaffer 4:43
DJ, thank you for a very lovely introduction. And I truly appreciate having the opportunity to speak with you and being invited on your amazing podcast. Thank you.

D.J. Paris 4:54
Well, thanks for the invite. I’m not sure it’s so amazing, but you are amazing for sure. Sam was actually in our very Very first well, I should say we there was no way it was just me at the time. When I first started this thing, Sam was at the very top of our list and I’m so I apologize for not getting to him sooner. But we’re grateful that we did get we were able to find time together because you’re somebody who’s extremely important and well respected in the Chicagoland market. And we have listeners nationwide. But you’re so well respected here. And we knew we wanted to feature you. So let’s I would love to start and our listeners love to hear about the journey. How did you get started in real estate?

Sam Shaffer 5:33
Well, I’ve been at this for about 18 years. And before I was in real estate out of college, I was a do gooder. And that really translates nicely to real estate, how I run my business, but I was basically running camps for kids teaching different sports classes. And I was involved in a nonprofit organization called the Jewish Community Center. I worked there for about four years was a great place to start. And after I realized that my financial trajectory was going to flatline. Sure. I made a jump into the.com sector. So I was in a very volatile, exciting market back in early 2000. Or, you know, the end of 1999.

D.J. Paris 6:21
Oh, right, right before it all came crashing down. Right. So it

Sam Shaffer 6:25
was interesting, because I was working in a in a very volatile internet market that was fast and furious and exciting. And colleagues next to me, were being let go for no reason. I mean, they would work hard and they had produced but it was so volatile. I fortunately, was in a position where I continued to climb the technology sector. But I was always nervous that one day I get a tap on the shoulder, and I would be let go. So I had a close friend’s father, who was a very successful businessman in Chicago, who got into real estate. And he asked me to come work for him. And I had the utmost respect for my friend’s father, who was a very successful businessman. So I ended up getting my license, and I show up at his door. I’m like, Here I am, I’m ready to go. And my friend’s father says, Well, I don’t have a job for you. So I had a close friend from college, who was a great guy, a one man show that had his own real estate company that he was basically buying and selling real estate for himself. So he said to me, you could hang your license with me. And here I am. 18 years later, we’re best friends. And we are running a very successful real estate company. And I guess you can call it serendipitous that I get to work with my best college buddy. And we’re, you know, running a pretty nice boutique real estate shop here in Chicago.

D.J. Paris 7:57
Wow, what a great story Ives a few parallels to your story. So I was in the IT sector as well. And I have received that tap on the shoulder. And the reason I received a tap on the shoulder. Funny, just funny, quick aside, the week before I had had my annual review, I got like a 99% and a pretty big raise. But I ended up at that point because of that raise while Yeah, because of the raise being one of the highest paid members at the company. And they were looking to sell. And so all of a sudden on the balance sheet, I became a liability for them in order to attract investors. So one day a week after that, I got that exact tap on the shoulder. And I was I was devastated because I was a good employee and I had been well, you know, regarded. And, you know, the powers that be said, This guy’s making too much money. And so it was easy for them just to make the numbers look better so and then I got into real estate for the almost exact same sort of fear. Or it was from my case, it was the reality. And then I now work with my friend as well. So we have a lot of parallels there. And I can definitely appreciate that. I have a question. And this is a question I get a lot because I end up talking to a lot of new brokers who reach out to us on the show who have just become licensed. And I know this is part of your history. So I want to get your opinion on it as it was, you know, maybe back then and also today about rentals. So it’s probably the number one question we get from new brokers is should I do some rentals? You know, assuming these people, these brokers don’t have a ton of sales clients right away. Maybe they have none. What’s your opinion in today’s market on rentals?

Sam Shaffer 9:35
That’s a very good question. That’s how I started in the business. So my college buddy, who was a one man show was buying and renovating buildings for himself. So his end game was to be a landlord. Sure, and when I came to work with my buddy, his name’s Dan Kravitz. He likes to keep a low profile, so hopefully you won’t be upset that I’m giving him some accolades. But basically I’d left my full time job. Now I make zero money. In order to make money, I have to go out there and hunt. So this was really a great opportunity to actually make income by, I call it low hanging fruit, where I had the ability to rent out apartments, and I would make a half a month’s rent. But the beauty of that was that I was busy. And I’d say that to new brokers, that it’s very, this is a hard business. People looking from the outside think it’s very easy, but it’s difficult. And you have to kind of manifest your own destiny here. So by having something to do, by being active, have reason to get out of bed or reason to show up. Learn how to make appointments, interact with people, be comfortable with contracts, grow your business, it’s a really great way to start, I always say that you have to have a story. And as a new agent, it can be very lonely, because if you show up to an office, and you have nothing to do when your friends and family asked you what did you do today, you’re drawing a blank. However, the narrative could be today’s a great day, I have three appointments, a meeting a potentially a new person that’s interested in looking for a rental, I could show them different properties. I have another appointment later that afternoon where I’m going to help a landlord rent out his apartment. I’m starting to advertise on Craigslist and other mediums, Zillow, etc. And now you’re creating a story and you’re really building upon that to have that exude that ability that you are confident and you are active and busy. And that’s really important.

D.J. Paris 11:51
And you’re also getting a lot of experience talking about real estate, you know, it well there’s a there’s a few extra things in addition to you know, actually staying busy. You also are starting a relationship with somebody who may become a buyer in the future as well. And we know that, you know, renters, some renters become buyers or rather, almost all buyers were on point a renter. And now you have this amazing opportunity. Because the vast majority of first time homebuyers National Association of REALTORS verifies this in a new study they do about every two or three years where they say, Hey, how’d you choose your realtor? And the vast majority of first time homebuyers go, Oh, I knew someone you know, and or I was referred to someone. So I think it’s such a great opportunity. I mean, I remember when the reason I chose my realtor who’s now my boss. And the person I mentioned earlier, was because he was my friend, and he was a realtor. And we know that’s that’s how it works. And I, you know did not have somebody helping me with rentals before that when I was renting. So I just happened to have a friend. But I that was only one person I knew, because I was somewhat new to Chicago, and I could have easily not known somebody, and then I would have just not been sure how to find. So if you can help somebody with rentals, and you stay in touch with them, and they like you, there’s a very good chance they’re going to use you when they make that first purchase.

Sam Shaffer 13:07
Yeah, I agree. And I can’t emphasize this enough. This is a business where you need to be confident in how do you how do you build your confidence, it’s very easy to get knocked down. And it’s difficult to get back up. But I tell my agents, I have two full time agents that I pay salary to. And I also have three other agents that are independent contractors, contractors in my office, that my theme is a win a day and build on that. So if you can go out and meet a new client or rent out an apartment, that’s a win, and you could build upon that. So I think that’s really important to kind of use that momentum to grow your business and exude that confidence that people are looking for.

D.J. Paris 13:54
Yeah, I think you’re right. And you know, it’s it’s funny, we talk about this a lot on the show, because it’s really our number one biggest question is okay, how do I how do I stay busy? And you know, Brian Buffini who a lot of our listeners are going to be familiar with, if you’re not definitely look him up. He’s got the largest training program are the most popular training program for realtors in the country. And he’s been doing it forever. And he always says, How do you win the day? And so you need to define a couple of Cornerstone activities, where you know, maybe it’s Hey, I met three new people today and told them what I did got their email, and I’m going to follow up and let you know, stay in touch and now they’re in my database. Or maybe it’s Hey, I scheduled an open house with another broker in my office who was nice enough to let me do an open house this weekend. Or maybe it’s oh gosh, I’m going to try to get some some renters. You know that that might be looking for an apartment, you know, a few showing opportunities, or I reached out to my friends and said, Hey, please make sure to tell your friends about me. I will but there are Cornerstone activities and disciplines that I imagine, you know, you’ve been doing now for 18 years. But I was just curious if you had you know Have a suggestion for somebody who’s brand new gets their license. You know, what, what should they do? Or really? Yeah, what should they do? Actually? Do you have any suggestions for sort of a day one kind of experience?

Sam Shaffer 15:13
Yeah, so I’ve had two people that work for me, come into my office actually three, with very little to no experience. Sure. And it goes back to the BOE being able to tell a good story. So on day one, I’m having them go meet in an appraiser, sit in inspection, meet a photographer, you know, Shadow me, while I put together an offer, listen to my phone conversations. So when they come home that night, and if they took, they just got their license, and they have collaborated with the 20 other people in their real estate class, I can say, with a lot of confidence that they’re going to get such a quick education from doing those little things, where the people that they were sitting next to in class are gonna be like, Are you kidding me, you want an appraisal? Right, we sent an inspection, you met a photographer, I’m still you know, I’m showing up with a pad of paper and a pencil with nothing to do. So I think being able to, to align yourself with someone that’s producing is invaluable. And before you know it, I feel that my agents that that work for me, and I say, work with me, because that’s the relationship we have. They’re getting a college degree, which normally takes people in this industry, three, four years, within a year, because we’re doing so much volume. And I really feel and I hope this doesn’t come across as arrogant. But it’s a very confident statement that we’re doing business the right way. We collaborate with other brokers were very detail oriented, we’re very buttoned up. We, we play nicely in the sandbox. And I think that’s really helped to take our business to the next level as far as volume, and reputation.

D.J. Paris 17:06
And you certainly have both volume and reputation on your side, and you’ve earned it. And I think that’s really important. And also the reason why we’re so excited. You’re here today. And I would say for everyone who’s listening, who isn’t a newly licensed broker, who’s going well, I work at a firm and gosh, I’ve never sat in with an appraiser, I’ve never talked to an inspector, I don’t really understand loans as much as I should, or the closing process. And, you know, these are opportunities for you to do this yourself too, right? Reach out to an inspector or appraiser call loan officer say, hey, I want to sit with you and really understand what you do, so that I can provide better service to my clients. And boy, you know, it’s funny, we’ve done 120 I think this will be our 120/5 episode or so over several years, and you’re the first person we’ve ever interviewed who is suggested to do that. It’s such a wonderful idea. So this is a great opportunity. So if you work at a firm, where you there are resources available, go to your managing broker and say, Hey, who do you know, who’s who’s a good Inspector, I want to just have a conversation with them or or shadow them? Or can I sit with the top producer in the office or maybe shadow them on a on a call, or maybe do an open house with them or for them? Huge opportunities there. So thank you so much. That is such a wonderful idea. But if you’re if you’re working at a firm where those opportunities aren’t as, as available, then make your own luck, right? Get you know, go on Google and look up the most successful appraisers, inspectors loan officers, we have Joel from guaranteed radon on our show every month, he would be honored to talk to you and explain what he does, so that you can further you know, promote not only his business, but also do a better job for you know, for your clients, because they’re going to look to you for all of these answers. Anyway, what a great suggestion.

Sam Shaffer 18:50
Thank you. Thank you. It’s a funny, funny story is when I first got into real estate, and I was starting to build my business. I’d have friends come up to me and say how you doing? How’s the market and I had this very humble approach, where I’m like, things are going okay, and I didn’t really elaborate. And my wife, who I loved dearly, she looked at me she pretty much grabbed me by the collar. She’s like, you tell people, you’re fucking killing it. God damn it. I’m like, Yes, you okay, you got it. And, you know, I say that facetiously. But literally the next day, I started to elaborate on what I was doing. And I kind of put it out there into the universe. And it really has been super impactful. So I’ll never forget that conversation I had with my wife. And it’s true. So when a new agent comes in, and I’m training them and we’re growing and learning together, they have a story. And the story is truthful. And that’s another thing how we we we brand ourselves is we’re very transparent, we operate with with the utmost integrity, and I don’t want anyone to lie. So when you want To promote yourself, you have to have a story. And it’s very simple. When a new agent comes in that guess what they did, they did all those things. Hey, I just met with an inspector. I’m racing to meet the appraiser right now. I’m taking out a buyer later this afternoon, I’m busy, things are going great. And it’s truthful. And that’s really important.

D.J. Paris 20:20
Yeah, and I know, a big, big thing for you is authenticity, integrity. And we find that to be consistent among, and no surprise among all the top 1% producers that we’ve had on the show, maybe there’s a few exceptions, but we tend to not feature those people. But the vast majority, literally almost everyone we’ve ever had on the show has made a big point to talk about that being so important. And in order for someone who’s listening to be able to have those conversations with clients, if they’re asking, Hey, how’s business going? And you know, you might talk about your activity, as Sam mentioned, hey, here’s all the things I’m doing. And then all you really need on top of that, and because I get this question a lot, since I’m a management, I’m not a producing broker, I know very little about what’s going on in the market. As a result, I say I’m in marketing, which makes it easy, because the moment I say I’m in real estate, when I meet people at a party or out socially don’t want to ask me about the market. And I I truthfully don’t know. So I will say I’m in marketing, I don’t really know much about the market. But you need to know, right are brokers not you, Sam, Sam obviously knows. But everyone listening needs to have a few data points about what’s going on locally in a hyperlocal market. So you know, you need to stay abreast you don’t need to know 10 minutes worth of conversation, but you should have a good minute or two of bullet points. So know know what’s going on with with lending rates and know what’s going on with particular neighborhoods, at least the ones you want to focus on, you are the expert. So it’s not hard to get this information either talk to top producers ask them, what do they say when they when their clients ask them? How’s the market going? What’s going on in Chicago with real estate? Have those things locked and loaded? Because, you know, that’s what the clients are looking for? They want they want somebody who really has that knowledge?

Sam Shaffer 22:03
Yeah, absolutely.

D.J. Paris 22:05
I’m going to talk about specifically you know, your process. So because you have grown this incredibly impressive business where you with your own production, your firm’s production, the the the employees, you have the other brokers that are independent at your firm. Can we talk a little bit about what what do you think has been the secret to your success?

Sam Shaffer 22:27
A couple of things. I feel like my business really elevated when I started embracing some of the peripheral websites like Zillow, realtor.com, etc. I remember when I first started marketing on those websites, I reached out to all my past clients, and I asked him to post a review of my services, and just an objective review. And I realized that I had a lot of momentum. And I was able to really take that to the next level. So to me that that really helped jumpstart my volume. I was always doing really well. But I felt like that took it to the next level. But to answer your question, the way that I run my business, and my agents that work with me, who are very like minded operate is in the client’s best interest. So we’re very client focused. And I know that’s kind of a cookie cutter thing to say. But it’s it’s authentic. And it’s truthful, we treat everyone like they’re our only client, and we wear the transaction on our sleeve. It’s really important to us to for them to have the best experience. And the way that we do that is I think we provide a very communicative approach to the business. And we’re very detail oriented. And I have a very specific template that I follow and a talking point how I negotiate offers for my for my clients, which I’m happy to elaborate on.

D.J. Paris 24:11
Yeah, you know, I think just want to make a quick point because I do want you to elaborate this I want to elaborate on this. I actually just wrote an article for a magazine about reviews, and how the importance of them we live in a review culture of course, with all the technology, especially you know, we you know, we all look at the reviews on Amazon before we buy a product. We certainly if we’re going to use a local business, we’re going to look at the Google reviews possibly Yelp. So in you know, you can get reviews on Facebook and other social platforms as well. However, I always tell our brokers here at our firm and also a lot of our listeners as well about pick at least one that you want to focus on in Sam’s case it was Zillow, and Zillow is a great idea because number one, all of your clients are using Zillow anyway, so they’re going to Zillow and they want to Do not probably see, you know, a zero reviews next to when they see your name. Now, if it’s your best friend, it probably doesn’t matter, they’re going to use you anyway. But every, every client you work with, you want to start to really politely ask them to review and explain to them, this really helps me, please give an honest appraisal of your experience with me. But you know, this would really help me with my business so that I can spend less time marketing and more time focused on my clients, like I hopefully did a good job for you. And you need to be persistent with asking and do it in a polite way. But also under understand that boy, it’s so important because even your referrals, the people that come to you from other clients are likely going to look up and see your reviews, just to confirm that, you know, everything is still going smooth. So I think that is such a great, great idea. I just wanted to make that quick point. And you know, you need to have a template to do that. You need to say, okay, the day after it closes. I’m, and I’m just using that as an example. I don’t know the exact perfect time to ask for a review. But it’s just as you need to specifically ask for those. And, you know, maybe ask a few times. And then thank the client for writing the review, of course. But yeah, I would love to hear more about your process outside of reviews, of course.

Sam Shaffer 26:14
Well, sure. So I think my approach to it, there’s two different approaches, one’s working with sellers, one’s working with buyers. But this is kind of a segue to a funny story. So I was working with a client that was working with another broker that had a horrible experience, I believe she did find me through some of my online marketing. And she was very detail oriented, somewhat high strung. And we had planned to do a marathon tour on a Saturday morning, taking us all the way through the evening. I’m very healthy. But this was a situation where I was like, deathly ill the day before. Sure. And I’m like there’s no way I’m not going to rise to the occasion. So I set the expectation that, you know, I’m going to be able to, to work with her. And she was appreciative that I showed up and she knew that I was deathly ill. But I put on my game face. And we went out there and we hit it hard. And this is a nice segue into, you know, my, the narrative about how I work with buyers. So we’re out touring a few places. And I call I look at her and I have no read whether she likes the place or not. She has like the ultimate poker face. So after we see a place, I take her aside, he said, What did you think? And she looked at me, she goes, I love it. Like you love it. I’m like, I had no idea. I said, you know, you’re allowed to express yourself when we’re at the showings to let me know what you’d like and you don’t like because it will help me. And then also, as a listing agent, you want to work with someone that wants to buy the property and that wants to get to the finish line. So I think you’re doing yourself an advantage by expressing how you feel. So after I explained that to her, we went to the next place. And she was very vocal, and we walked through the master bedroom, and this must have been seven, eight years ago. And I remember her saying, Wow, that’s master Licious. Like that. She’s really she’s like she picked up on it. She’s getting into it. So she expressed how she felt and the listing agent at the time she was a cold fish. But she turned us on to another property that wasn’t even listed yet. So just through the course of vocalizing and verbalizing, you know, how you feel and communicating. That’s okay, so we went to the next place, and she fell in love with it. And it turned out that the cold fish actually told someone else about it as well. So it was a multiple offer situation. So at the time, we did an escalation clause, and I got to call my client and tell her the great news that we got her the condo, and the official purchase price was 666. She’s like, what, there’s no way I’m gonna, I’m gonna have my purchase of my home be 666 battlement. So I called back the listing agent. I said great news. We just have to slightly make an adjustment to the price. If you’re okay with 665 She said she said fine. So But speaking about how I work with my clients is I want to portray my buyers to be the people that sellers and listing agents want to work with. So it’s a fine line. Like I don’t want to come across as my clients are pushovers. So it’s the Jedi mind trick where I tell the listing agents through how I communicate our bedside manner. Our professionalism, how we put together offers, that we’re the right buyers to get to the finish line. Don’t worry about the price I know might not be the exact price that your sellers are hoping for. But we’re the known entity He that are going to close a deal and make this a smooth and seamless transaction. And I think that’s, that’s really important. And it’s really helped grow my business and build my reputation amongst agents in the industry.

D.J. Paris 30:12
Wow, you just said something really impressive. And I don’t want to move on from it for a moment, because it’s again, something I don’t know that anyone else has articulated, that we’ve ever had on the show this idea of again, we, we sometimes brokers will forget that it is called a cooperative commission, right. So we just call it the coop, and we forget, maybe that stands for not maybe it definitely stands for cooperative. And so what Sam just said is really, really important, is being able to communicate to the listing agent, when you’re working with the buyer, like no, we are here to make this happen. And we’re very sincere and and, and developing that relationship with the list agent is so important, because it just makes the transaction go a lot smoother, and also sets the right the right expectation. And then you said something else even before that, that I also want to touch on, which was about setting the expectation, and or the process for your client who didn’t know she was allowed to express her opinion about the property in advance. You didn’t you know, that wasn’t expressed to her in advance. And what a great lesson to learn, because, of course, somebody who’s new to purchasing might not understand what the rules are, am I allowed to say something? Is it rude? What should I you know, and selling to them? I hate and you said this earlier, it’s like, you know, your job is to tell me how you feel about this so that we can continue to make adjustments and find the perfect place. And you’re right, I bet there’s a ton of buyers who have no idea Am I Shall I say something is it, you know, impolite. And so I just want to honor you for that. That’s a huge lesson to learn. I love it.

Sam Shaffer 31:47
Thank you. Yeah, absolutely. It’s, it’s really important that the buyer communicates how they feel, and that it’s done in the setting that will be advantageous to help them not only get the property, but hopefully at the best terms and the best price. I remember I put together an offer with a client. And I was going through my process with him and telling him how important it is that you’re going to be working with my preferred lender, Inspector, an attorney. I’m going to articulate this in the summary of the offer. I’m going to outline everything for the agent. Let them know how much you love it, that you’re truly over the moon. And this client. He was at my office, this was before Docusign. I mean, they were actually at my office signing. And he said to me, he’s like, no, none of that’s gonna matter, Sam. He’s like, the seller only cares about the best price. So I called him up. And this was such a wonderful phone call to make. And I said, I’m letting you know that we weren’t the highest price. And he’s like shit, and I said, Congratulations, we got the condo. Wow, did you do it? I said, I told you, I gave you the recipe. I walked you through it. He’s like, I didn’t think you were serious. I didn’t think that was going to work. And it doesn’t always work. But in that situation, it was really, really helpful to be that known entity for the other side.

D.J. Paris 33:19
Yeah, I mean, we always, you know, forget that the price isn’t always the most important characteristic for to get a seller to agree or on the flip side. What often will help is hey, this guy, Sam Shaffer, I know him, he’s great. He will get this closed. He has a great reputation. And you know, that influences the other party quite a bit. And so I think you’re so right about integrity, and and playing nice in the sandbox with others. Can you talk a little bit about how the process is when working with sellers

Sam Shaffer 33:56
working with sellers is potentially a little bit more stressful. I feel like you have a little bit more skin in the game. But it’s important I feel to have both the seller side and the purchase side. So when I work with sellers, I don’t want any drama in my life. Okay, I have two spirited boys at home 10 and 13 They’re cool kids I love them. So there’s you know you walk into your house and there’s family commitments and things like that so I don’t want to have to add any extra drama into my already crazy life. So what I tell my sellers is that I’m doing it all Okay, so I’m going to market the property on all the majors syndicated syndicated sites, big social media presence, and then I’m gonna spare no expense for my marketing. Okay, so that’s going to be high resolution photos, 3d walkthrough, floor plans, video, etc. So I’m doing it all I’m running open houses. I’m overly community Get communicative with my sellers. So I’m hard on myself because I take things personally. But I set up all those processes ahead of time and know that I’m doing everything I can to advocate for my clients and for specifically for my sellers, and it helps me, you know, rest, rest assured that I’m doing all the right things for them.

D.J. Paris 35:25
Yeah. And, you know, again, I don’t, I don’t think that every broker out there does all of those things. I know they don’t. And it’s, it’s one of those things that is so important that, you know, if you’re, you know, going to work with a seller, you owe it to them, to really give them the best opportunity to sell their property, which means doing all those things like high resolution photos and floor plans and 3d walkthroughs. And making sure it’s distributed everywhere online. And a lot of brokers, maybe they don’t do that. Now, I have a question what happens when you have a seller that is adamant on an unrealistic price? This comes up as a question from our listeners all the time saying, Well, gosh, what do you do when somebody’s just not willing to budge? And you know, it’s not going to sell at that price?

Sam Shaffer 36:11
Well, you get good at walking that tightrope you talk out of both sides of your mouth. Yeah. Okay. So you say, you know, I’m going to continue to fight and advocate and do everything I can to get you the best price and the best terms, the markets, most likely going to dictate what someone’s willing to pay. But you know, I’m willing to continue to, to advocate and to do everything I can to try to get you that price that you’re looking for. And you push, you push back on the seller, and you push again. And then you then you be quiet. So specifically today, before I jumped on this podcast, I have an offer on a listing, we’re a little bit overpriced, we countered at a number. The buying agent basically, is willing to come up, we basically we countered at 320. And they were 300. Logically, you’d think we’d land this deal at 310, which is a sweetheart deal for my seller. And he’s firm at 320. Yeah, so I did the tap ends. And I told him, Hey, I think you know, we could probably split the difference and get a deal done. He’s like, I’m not gonna go below 320. So I said, Okay, of course I understand. Let me go back to the buyer, I’m going to try to get you is the best price the best terms as I can. My read on it is the highest, we’ll go with 310. But you know, maybe we can catch lightning in a bottle, we’ll catch him at 320. If not, we’ll continue to hunt and fight. And you know, there’s a chance we may be having this conversation a month or two from now. We’re not, we’re not willing to throw in the towel, we value the relationship, and we’re going to certainly do our best. But hopefully, we don’t have this conversation if we do. You know, maybe we have to, at that point, make an adjustment to expectations. Surely it’s more work for me. But it’s difficult. And this is a hard business and people that are in it understand it’s hard and the outsiders looking in, don’t necessarily think that this is a challenging business that we’re in. Yeah,

D.J. Paris 38:18
know it, for sure. It for sure is. And I mean, I run into this even when I sold a condo myself, and I knew better. And I still was like, No, I need to get this price. And of course, I was no way I was going to get that price. And stupidly, I kept it at that price for a couple of months or a month. No, it wasn’t a couple of months, it was a month. And I paid that mortgage again. And I was like I that was a an expensive lesson to learn. And even though I knew better emotionally, I needed it. I wanted it to be at a certain level. And I really needed an objective third person to go Hey, stupid, lower at $10,000. And let’s let’s close this thing. And, and as soon as I did that, I got a million more showings and I got an offer like two days later. But you know, we forget that it is it is a tough thing for a seller to understand about price. So as Sam was saying, you have to be compassion empathic, but also firm, you need to be able and the cool thing with with em read the software that here is used for the MLS in Chicago, for our listeners who aren’t in our local markets, but I suspect in the MLS is that you utilize this feature exists is you can see the number of eyeballs that have looked at the property on the MLS. And then you can use that as data to as feedback to provide to your seller to say, you know, look, we had 300 Realtors look at this property, at least on the website, and we didn’t get one showing. That is in my experience that is particularly unusual. So it may be an indicator for us to be more flexible with our pricing. But you know, always having that data is helpful because it takes it away from you would like it to be at a certain point to be going no here’s what the market is telling us. And I think sometimes we forget that those tools are there to help give us that data to then further Are you no help our cause and trying to get the deal closed? Yeah, tell us tell us a little bit more about about your firm. I want to know more about Chicago properties, because you guys are a boutique business very successful. So I feel even strange to use the word boutique because it, it suggests small and it is by no means small. And the amount of production you guys are huge, are quite large. So talk you talk a little bit about, you know, how you guys run your business, you and your partner, and sort of what the clients, the clients that you’re looking to work with.

Sam Shaffer 40:31
Yeah, so I’m comfortable with the word boutique. I call it my work family. And we’re very like minded. I definitely am set in my ways. But I’m also open to learning and sharing with people in my office, the knowledge that they bring. So I think it’s a very, again, they use this word collaborative approach. We all kind of learned from one another. And I want people to steal the good ideas, and I want to steal their good ideas. I have a client that wants his buyers to be over the moon. And I said, Oh, I like that. So I stole it. So now, I want my clients to be over the moon and we use some cheesy cliches and we let them know that we’re our clients know that we are using cheesy cheesy cliches. So I always say part of my cheesy, cheesy cliche, but let’s turn over every stone before you know or kiss every frog before we find our prince or princess. And we have we operate with a lot of levity to in our office. Sure, well, we laugh we have a good time. And I think that’s that makes it very a fun environment to work in. We have a really cool office, we did a beautiful build out we have a pool table that gets used on Friday nights, we have a stock bar. If you go behind our office, our parking lot leads into the grand and Western liquor store. So when any one anyone comes to our office, we have I can guarantee we have exactly what they’re looking for to drink. And for those that don’t drink, we have a nice array of you know, CBD sodas and, and fun drinks and teas. And we’d like to have a good time and entertain. And I think that’s when you have fun and love what you do. It makes it a lot a lot easier to be successful.

D.J. Paris 42:32
Yeah, I think that’s true. We i did i do our, our website for our company. And we we had all these very serious pictures of our management we have there’s like 10 of us. And we had these very, very stoic pictures and we’re serious. And then my boss is joking, joking around with me goes, we joke around all day, why do we have serious pictures of us on our I mean, we bring our dog we have two dogs in the office right now, the dog should be featured on the website, we should be. So we hired a photographer, they came out. And we took goofy pictures, professional photos, but goofy, where we’re all doing something silly individually. And then collectively, we did a silly one. And my boss goes, that’s our personality. That’s what we do. And so I was like, and I’m our marketing guy. So I should have been realized this earlier. And I went You’re right. And then we made our website a little sillier. Now not that’s not everyone’s approach. And you know, again, it’s not a good fit for a lot of people who want to maintain a more professional atmosphere. But we’re just not that professional, quite frankly, we’re a lot of fun. And we’re very serious. And, and we we take really good care of our brokers. But we’re not that’s you know, we’re joking around kind of guys. And so we did that. And the response has been overwhelmingly positive. Because as as Sam saying, it’s showing on our authentic self. And I think that’s something that you need to look at all your marketing materials. And again, I’m not talking to Sam, of course, but all of our listeners, look at how you’re being portrayed on on social media. If you want to share that with your audience, make sure that your true personality comes through, look at your marketing materials. Look at your website, if you have one. And making sure that all of that is consistent with the message that you want your clients to understand about you. That’s That’s true and authentic. And it’s don’t try to be something you’re not I guess, right?

Sam Shaffer 44:18
Yeah, it’s definitely an interesting era we live in where it’s a fine line between bragging. Yes. Or it’s called the humble brag, which is still just a straight out brag. or providing value or showing the personal side of things. So it’s kind of art and science and yes, I don’t want to overly post and promote the things that I’m doing. Obviously I can’t wait to tell the world about the keeping it real podcast. Well, thank you. So that’ll be a humble brag, but you know, I I also like to post personal things of my family and vacations and things of that nature. But I’m also cognizant to of posting pictures when I’m vacationing, because I don’t want my clients to be like, Well, what’s Sam doing? Why isn’t he running an open house? So it’s the art and science behind it. For sure.

D.J. Paris 45:20
I have one, one last question for you. And this comes up a lot. And I’m curious on your thoughts. And we’ve seen study after study has shown us that the reason why a client will not use a realtor a second time, which by the way, the statistics are, are far and away that they are likely to use that same broker a second or multiple times after the first transaction. But for the times that they don’t, it seems to be that in the research, I’ve looked at that it says a lack of communication after the sale, right, so the transaction closes, you know, clients happy, you’re happy. And then it seems to be that a lot of brokers are going to move on to their next transaction. And as they continue to build their business, maybe the people that closed in the past aren’t as communicated with. And so I’m curious on, I imagine you likely do stay in touch with your clients. Do you have any suggestions for our listeners about what they should do after the sale?

Sam Shaffer 46:20
Is that Yeah, absolutely. You know, it’s, again, going back to this is a difficult business. And there’s aspects of the business that aren’t difficult, it’s not difficult to answer your phone or to show up for an appointment. Those are really easy. But sometimes you feel or I feel that it’s hard to pick up the phone and call a client three months later, because where’s the authenticity with that? Are you calling them because you want to check in and see how their dogs doing and how the moves going, or you have a ulterior motive, which is Tell Tell your friends and family how awesome I am. Right? So I tried to be respectful of my clients. And if you’re doing a lot of volume, there’s a lot of people to touch. So I think utilizing some of the social media components are important. But I also try to do personal touches, like I send out gifts every year for Christmas, or for the holidays with a nice card of me and my family. A little gift, I have a branded, we partnered with Dark Matter coffee. So we do coffee beans that are with our logo and a nice little brand of little lettering that talks about our, our style and our office. And we send that out every year and do little things like that, which I think are helpful.

D.J. Paris 47:40
Yeah, those are great suggestions. Yeah, it’s the bottom line is guys don’t lose touch. But also understand that there’s a way to authentically stay in touch, which is maybe it’s not that phone call three months. And if that doesn’t fit with your sort of personality, or maybe what the client, maybe the client doesn’t want to talk to you three months from now, they’re busy, they have their own lives. But there are ways like Sam was saying, utilizing social media if you are paying attention to what your clients are doing on social media, and you’re noticing on Instagram that they just want on a vacation, you know, shoot them a text and say Hey, I saw you were on you know out in wherever on Instagram that looked awesome, great, you know, glad to see you guys were enjoying yourself or or lob a phone call or an email over it doesn’t always have to be real estate related, but demonstrating that you’re noticing and paying attention I think is the most important thing and also, you know, remembering them when it’s holiday time and remembering to do things that are nice and and also you know basically it’s funny I was thinking I get I get a lot of from the service providers that I have in my life insurance and loan officers and you know, financial advisors and dentists and all of the people who who you see on a regular basis and you get a lot of you get a lot of cards that seem to be you know the that are just stamped with someone’s signature but you know I don’t get a lot of gifts in the mail either. Right so even just something as simple as what Sam mentioned, which is not simple but but certainly a lovely thought. I mean I didn’t get any gifts this year for many of my service providers who make money on me every single year. So you know it’s time to you know, you want to be generous and you want to make sure that people know that you’re still thinking about them. Yeah, and

Sam Shaffer 49:22
one other thing I do is I am on Facebook and it’s been pretty profitable website for me to use. When I see that someone has a new baby I send the baby gift. And I have so I have a relationship with red balloon they have my credit card on file, I call them up I said send them a baby gift. Here’s a template and I’ve had clients that the gifts I’ve sent them their children’s still have like that same little stuffed animal is like their go to stuffed animal that’s pretty special,

D.J. Paris 49:53
really special. It shows number one that you’re paying attention and number two that you care, right and those are care enough to actually do something about it. Boy, what a great suggestion. Well, I want to tell our listeners, by the way, that if you are a broker in the Chicagoland area and you’re interested in working for a firm like Chicago properties, and of course, Sam’s and his team don’t obviously work with every broker who comes their way. But if somebody is wanting to work with you, what is the best way they should reach out to you? And also, by the way, if I’m sorry, saying, Let me interrupt. Also, if you’re a client, if you’re a buyer, or a seller or renter and investor, anyone looking to work with someone like Sam, who’s so well respected in our community here for what he does, and his what his brokers do, what is the best way anybody should reach out to you? Well, I

Sam Shaffer 50:44
would say the best way is just to call me on my cell phone, which is 773-297-9792 or email, I can be reached at sam sa m, at shy prop calm, that is CH I like Chicago, P R. O P, like property, Sam at shy prop.com.

D.J. Paris 51:08
And by the way, even if you’re happy at your current firm, or you’re a client or a potential customer, and already have a great realtor, and you appreciated this episode and listening to Sam, shoot him a message, let him know that, that you appreciated some tips, because this is, out of all the episodes we’ve done, you might have given just about the most tips as anyone’s ever done. So we really appreciate that. So on behalf of the listeners, Sam, we thank you for being part of the show. And I appreciate your patience, we had a small little technical difficulty at the beginning and Sam was was really patient throughout. So this I think is indicative of how he treats his clients. Because even how he treated me it was was very cordial and thoughtful. And I appreciate it. And you got us all the information that this is kind of a behind the scenes things, guys, we always send out a pre interview packet and say, Hey, could you answer a few questions for us? 90% of the time, we have to hound the person to say, Can you please and we know that everyone’s busy, Sam got this back to us with probably more detailed information than we’ve ever received. So I am making a pitch for Sam that if you are a client, and you’re looking for somebody who is detail oriented, you gotta go with Sam, because not only is his reputation stellar, but I have first hand experience about how much time he put in just to answering our own questions. And of course, if you’re a broker looking to work with somebody like Sam, I would, I would give the pitch the same pitch as well. So guys, reach out to Sam, you can visit his website, as Sam mentioned at shy Prop C H I P R O p.com. And you can find all of his social media platforms as well. Links on his website and reach out to him that way or call him or shoot him an email. So Sam, on behalf of listeners, thank you and on behalf of Sam and myself to everyone who is kind enough to find value in what we do here. Thank you. Also, please tell a friend if there’s ever any other brokers turn to the broker in the office next to you if you work in an office or just somebody had come across and say, Hey, if you want to hear from these top producers, check out our podcast. This helps us in innumerable ways. And also leave us a review too. There’s plenty of places you can do that. But just being a listener is good enough but so thank you to to our listeners, Sam. Thank you and we will see everyone on our next episode and Sam again, thanks for being on the show

Sam Shaffer 53:21
was my pleasure. Thanks for having me, DJ

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How Real Estate Agents Can Use YouTube To Close 100 Sales In 2020 • Jackson Wilkey • The YouTube Agents

January 24, 2020

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify

Can realtors use YouTube as a source of buyer and seller leads? YES! Jackson Wilkey, one half of Portland and Seattle’s famous YouTube Agents is living proof that prospecting on YouTube works! In the past four months they’ve closed 12 million in production ALL from YouTube. They’re on pace to close 100 sales transactions in 2020. In this interview Jackson shares his YouTube secrets that anyone can do to drive more qualified leads right to you!

The YouTube Agents have a course for brokers to learn this process. Click here to check it out!

Use promo code “DJ” for a special discount!

Transcript

Hello, and welcome to another episode of Keeping it real the largest podcast in the country made by real estate agents. And for real estate agents. My name is DJ Paris, I am your host, and guide through the show. And in just a moment, we’re gonna bring on the YouTube agents who get 100% of their business through YouTube. And they’re crushing it. I’m super excited. They’re from Portland. That’s a good time to mention that this show is now nationwide we’ve always had nationwide listeners. But now we’re getting nationwide guests. So if you know someone in your market that we need to feature on our show a top producer doing unique things that people need to know about, then you please let us know you can always visit us at our website to contact us which is keeping it real pod.com Of course we have every episode we’ve ever produced streaming on that website. And of course, you can subscribe to us on iTunes, Google Play Spotify, Pandora, anywhere you listen to podcast, just search for keeping it real look for the one that has the name DJ, that’s me. And because there’s a few others with the same name, but you’ll find us pretty easily and guys, also, please tell a friend, we are committed to doubling the number of episodes that we did last year this year. So we’re going to do that but we need your help. We want to double our listenership. All I’m asking you to do is think of one person, one real estate agent that could benefit from hearing the secrets of top producers and pass this over to him you’ll be doing this a huge, huge favor. And thank you very much in advance for that. And lastly, guys, follow us on Facebook. So that’s facebook.com forward slash keeping it real pot every single day we post an article that we find online that is designed to help you grow your business. That’s pretty much all we post along with updates to all of our new episodes. So our whole intention is to help you take your business to the next level by talking to people who are already at that next level. So thanks again for your continued listenership. Thanks for telling a friend and oh one last thing. I keep asking for things, saying it’s the last thing but this is literally the last thing. Please rate us if your specifically whatever system you’re using to listen to our show, whether it’s iTunes, Google Play, Spotify, etc. Please do us a favor and rate us the more ratings you do the better we show up in the search results and the more people we can help. So thanks again guys. And now onto our episode with the YouTube agents.

Today on the show, we have Jackson Wilkie one half of the YouTube agents from next home Realty connection in Portland, Oregon. Now Jackson and his partner Jesse have successfully cracked the code of building a massive real estate business through YouTube. With our obsession with the SEO video and all of their in depth knowledge of YouTube related topics. What they’ve been able to do is transition a successful traditional real estate business into a YouTube lead machine, where 90% of their business is now coming through YouTube, which is unbelievable. They are on track to close 100 transactions from YouTube alone this year. And I also want to give them another shout out because in the last four months, I believe they closed 12 million in production, mostly from YouTube. You got to check out their YouTube channel, which is called YouTube agents. And they have a course that they want to teach you about how to use YouTube and you can go to the YouTube agents.com. And we do have a promo code put in the promo code DJ and you’ll get a certain percentage off. But anyway, welcome Jackson to the show.

Jackson Wilkey 4:43
Yeah, man. Thanks for having me. I’m pumped to talk about this.

D.J. Paris 4:47
I am so pumped because this is not an exaggeration. You are the first realtor first to realtors, you and your partner that I think are actually doing the most important thing with respect to staying in touch with The public, which is providing actual content that people care about and need, instead of just going, Hey, I’m gonna post a Facebook ad. And here’s my new listing. How cool is this? Like, nobody cares, right? But if I’m moving to Portland, I’m gonna find your videos, because they’re all about what I need to know before I moved to Portland, and what neighborhoods and it’s so brilliant. And of course, I’m going to reach out to you guys, because you’re the ones providing all that great content anyway, I’m getting way ahead of ourselves. Tell me about tell me about you. How did you how did you get into real estate?

Jackson Wilkey 5:30
So pretty funny, I actually and this is the kicker, I just moved to Portland two years ago. So I don’t know anybody. Nothing. I came here from a little town in northern Idaho, to get to the big city came for a sales job. And it was actually had a friend or my wife had a friend whose husband worked in the escrow business. So I got on as a sales rep for an escrow company. Basically, everybody knows that title. Rep. And sure, I had no idea what the hell I was doing, because I just came from a, you know, a blue collar town where I was building power lines. And so Anyways, enough of that I got into sales at this escrow company and learn quickly that Realtors really wanted value. You know, that’s what we hear all the time. So I started figuring out that, like, video was this thing that all realtors wanted. And so I just kind of got super in depth of learning it, editing, shooting it, all of that stuff. And after literally 10 to 11 months, I was like, What the hell am I doing? Like, I’m on the wrong side of this, I feel that I could, you know, really leverages myself to get business. And then also I met Jesse, my business partner. He’s a very traditional style realtor who in his first year did like 12,000,011 point 5 million. Wow, traditional cold calling, boss, right? So anyways, we kind of hit it off, he really wanted to bring this like marketing and video to his business. And I was like, screw on jumping over. So we kind of like, teamed up, kind of per se, I got into real estate. And I’m like, I’m just gonna crush it. I know it. Well, I found out literally the first four or five months like this is hard as hell. Yeah. And so I was doing cold calling because he was so good at it. It was like easy for him. For me. It’s the hardest thing in the world. Like, I can’t ask for business. I can literally go anywhere. And I’m going to stand out and people will know me. But I couldn’t call call couldn’t do or not couldn’t do that kind of stuff. So I was really leveraging video. That’s how I got into real estate. I don’t know if you want me to keep going. But like, yeah, no, I love the story. Yeah, so because the story is kind of what got us to where we are today in a very quick timeframe. So like, literally, I’m getting to a point to where like, I’m gonna work myself back into working a real job. And, you know, it’s pretty stressful. But I’m like, I got to start leveraging this video. So here’s what’s really important. Everybody knows who Gary Vee is. And he always talks about being the digital mayor of your town. And so doing these interviews and restaurants and shops, and we started doing this really, really hardcore, like going to all these bars, restaurants doing the interviews and the town, the business owners, they all loved it. We put it to Instagram, we put it to Facebook everywhere, man, and it was killer. But we never got one phone call from it, dude. So I’m like, What the hell? Like, none of this works, man. What do so now I’m like, Okay, it’s real crushed. I need to figure out like I love video, this is how I’m going to get business or I’m going to get out of real estate. And I got down this just absolute rabbit hole wormhole of SEO, search engine optimization or, and leveraging the second largest search engine in the entire world. YouTube, YouTube. Sure. Yeah. So that’s really how it started. And then I didn’t know what the hell I was doing. So there was a lot of trial and error. But now we’ve got we got the systems Absolutely. Dial.

D.J. Paris 9:03
Yeah, let’s talk a little bit about the kind of content you guys provide. Because for our listeners, who are mostly real estate agents, yeah, brokers, realtors, you know, every state calls a realtor is a little bit of a different term, but, but we have realtors, and essentially what what you guys have done is what I’ve been preaching. We have 650 Realtors at our company. And I tell all of them to do this. Nobody does that, of course. But this is really important because essentially what Jackson did, and he talks about cracking the code, and there’s a lot to this. It’s not He wasn’t just, you know, throwing darts in the dark. But essentially, he started you know, you can also think of it logically too. It’s like, what’s the kind of content that somebody who’s moving who is going to be transacting in real estate, especially if they’re moving to Portland or within Portland? What are some of the videos they might be seeking out prior to them buying or selling right? And so that’s what that’s what Jackson’s did and Jesse and they now have a huge treasure and library of this content, where it’s like, we’re the best neighborhoods. Hey, here’s some things you need to know before you move to Portland. So they created all this unbelievably smart and good content because it doesn’t, you can’t just put the content out there if it right up high quality because someone else will outrank you, based on you know, how long people watch and all of those those metrics. But basically, you guys probably just sat down at a whiteboard and said, What are the topics that people need to know when they’re thinking about moving either to Portland or within Portland? And then you started creating great content? Right?

Jackson Wilkey 10:35
Right. So there’s a lot there. So what real estate agents traditionally do is usually Gary Vee was very, I reference him a lot. He’s definitely a motivator, but talked about like 90% of people who like on on Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, put out selfish content, like does that help?

D.J. Paris 10:52
Yeah, we were just, we were joking. We were just joking about this offline. It’s like, yeah, hey, you know what, what Realtors do because it’s easy, is they’ll post a link to their newest listing and say, Hey, guys, I have this listing for sale. And that’s great. And that’s fine. But it’s not really providing value to the 99% of the people that follow you who actually aren’t in the middle of, you know, wanting to buy or sell a home. It’s nice, and it makes something hey, he’s doing well, that’s great. But it doesn’t really provide them any value.

Jackson Wilkey 11:17
Well, here’s the number one thing it was never searched. So that’s, that’s the true and that’s, that’s the difference. And so, it I always reference it. It’s like on Facebook, when you look at like you’re scrolling through your feed and your friends sitting there and he’s at the Subaru dealer every single day talking about come down and buy a Subaru from me like you just go right past it. So real estate agents, not not because it’s easy. They just don’t know better. Like they see agents posting their open houses and listings, and maybe their principal brokers are older, and they’re telling them to do these things. And so that’s what you see. But they’re always starting with the verbiage of look at me in my open house and look at me and my listing. And none of this assertion, it kind of comes off as like selfish. And yes, I think if you wrap your head around, like, you know, the value proposition. So what we did was Yes, I got absolutely obsessed. I’m like, holy, I don’t know if you cuss on here, but like, Sure, whoa, holy shit, I figured out there was I have the documents still on my screen on my computer. I found 13,200 searches every single month that had no competition. And that was 27 video titles. And I’m like, holy crap, now I’m cracking into something here. So I started just writing video titles down and then clicking on them. And what I’ll use this is, you know, anybody listening, you can download Keywords Everywhere. It’s a Chrome extension that used to be free when I started. Now, it’s $10. And you get 100,000 keywords. So literally, you can search for months and months and months, every day, you will not run out of your keywords. So 10 bucks is the most worst thing in the world. So what it does, sure, it attaches itself to your I use Chrome. So it attaches itself to Chrome as an extension. Anytime you search anything on Google or YouTube, it’s going to tell you how many times that is searched. what it costs to pay for that, that longtail keyword or that keyword and the competition. So what you do is you just start typing in random things, and you need to wrap your brain around. You really need to wrap your brain around what people are searching for. This is an absolute search engine. People want answers to their questions. So I found out like, hey, people, when they’re moving to my city, they want to know how much it costs. So the cost of living in Portland, Oregon, well, that was searched almost 6000 times a month. And guess how much competition zero. So now I rank for that video, I have the number one video that gets 130 130 to 300 views every single day now just cracked. You know, we’re close to 20,000 views on that video alone. And guess what? I shot it with my cell phone, edit it for on iMovie for free. So yeah, man, it’s it. That was the game changer right there.

D.J. Paris 13:57
Yeah, this is really important because as marketers or as realtors, we’re constantly thinking about how do we get in front of our clients? And more importantly, we often think how do we show up number one on Google, right? Well, for a realtor that’s really hard to do. You’re competing against for and when we talk about showing up number one on Google, we’re talking about showing up for phrases, wherever whatever your specialty is, right maybe you specialize in a particular neighborhood in your in your in your town or your city and you want to show up number one for Best Realtor in Lincoln Park or somewhere in Portland, right? But the problem is, you’re competing against a ton of other players in that space. Right? You’ve got Zillow. You’ve got Redfin, you’ve got, of course, all the brokerage firms that also want that lead. Right. So we’re talking about Google searches. Well, it’s really, really hard to rank organically in the top three slots. In on Google just really difficult. It costs a tremendous amount of money even to earn your way up there. You can certainly buy your way up there with ads, but it’s really difficult to actually earn a natural spot there. However, the most forgotten about a search engine for this type of business is really YouTube, right? So people are still searching for those exact same phrases and keywords on, as Jackson said, the second largest search engine online, which of course is YouTube. And as Jackson said, there were no other players in his space for those those key phrases.

Jackson Wilkey 15:20
Yep. And that is exactly right. So when you look at it, like Google, and blogs, there’s billions and billions and billions of blogs or blogs, and it is so hard to compete. It’s basically impossible. So that was what we did is, is I started looking into YouTube, which, if you don’t know it, Google owns YouTube. So it’s literally the same search engine. In fact, you would be surprised how many people reach out to us or when they’re here for tours. And we always ask, you know, like, how did you find us? We know it’s through YouTube or through video, but which one? Or how, in a lot of our like, actually, I was just searching on YouTube, like, you know, neighborhoods in Portland, or cost of living in Portland, in your videos actually popped up first. And so I clicked on him. And then I’m like, holy crap. And I literally went down this rabbit hole of watching all your videos, which are really great, by the way. Thanks for doing that, sir. Yeah, do you like Google even understands that there’s too many blogs. And Google understands that everybody’s watching video. And so they’re starting to pull videos over into their platform. But once we realize that, like, like, people are wanting to really figure out what it’s like to live there. And it’s a stressful situation. Nobody really just like plans their move for two or three years. And it’s graceful. Usually, it’s like a job move or relocation or something happens in like, Okay, I’m moving. That’s two years ago. That’s what happened to me. And guess what, what do you do? And I started researching a bunch, where to look for family? You know, I got three kids. So I gotta figure out where the schools are. You got to figure out what’s the best place to live. And guess what, when you look at it on a map or read a blog, it just doesn’t give you what it feels like. And so that was really when things changed for us is when we actually started figuring out what people were asking about living in our territory. And then we covered it with those videos. How does the traffic Well, me and Justin went and got stuck in traffic and showed you how bad the traffic was or how to avoid it. You got, you got family, we talked about the top 10 neighborhoods for families, you’re a single we did the best neighborhoods for single. So we really just capitalized on on the search engine on search engine optimization, figuring out what people were searching, and doing exactly that title, that longtail keyword in YouTube and ranking very quickly for it.

D.J. Paris 17:34
Yeah, it’s brilliant. I was it was funny, we are recorded got a little screwy. So we’re gonna, just sorry, Jackson is actually covering something we covered, but you guys won’t won’t know that. So I’m going to tell the story again. So I apologize, Jackson, but it’s a good story. And this is really important. So I was on a trip to Ireland with with my father earlier last year. And we were going from town to town. And as you do when you go to Ireland, and of course, there’s so many towns, and there’s so many things to go see and do. And there’s a million pubs. And there’s just there’s so many restaurants and places to stay. And it is super overwhelming, especially if you’re trying to cram in, you know the number of places that my dad and I did. And so what we ended up doing is every day we’d look at our our book that we had about touring Ireland, and we would go to the specific city and see what all the sites were. But then sometimes that didn’t even give us a really good sense of like, what we should actually go see you have to really trust the author of that book. And the author was good, but wasn’t always right. And so what we ended up doing after about the third day, we realized, you know, we really need to check out some of these things ahead of time. Right. So we went on YouTube for these and we would start searching for Okay, top 10 things to do and Dingell or whatever town we were in Kilkenny or wherever. And then we would actually see because people would do a tour of different sites, it would say, Hey, that looks pretty cool. Or maybe that one. And we would do that. And even sometimes we would just listen to the audio as well if we were driving and couldn’t watch the video at the same time. But the but the point I’m making is that even though I had searched online, I had read all the blogs and there’s a million blogs about touring being a tourist in Ireland. And I saw a lot of pictures and I got a general sense the videos really clinched and and after three days, we just abandon everything and watch videos. And so we were this is a perfect example. And there believe it or not even for Ireland, which is one of the most touristic company countries in the whole world. There weren’t that many options, believe it or not. So. So this is exactly what Jackson’s talking about.

Jackson Wilkey 19:27
And I’m you know, I’ll mention it again, if I can’t remember the beginning of from our recording thing, but like I’ve actually worked myself out of real estate in less than a year. And I want to make that a point because real estate really wasn’t my thing Jesse’s like the greatest real estate agent ever. But in Listen, in basically six months, I’ve figured out how to leverage a platform where there’s 2 billion people on it and figured out that you know what, even though there’s billions of videos on There, there’s really nothing about your city. Like that’s really informative. And maybe it comes from somebody who just lives there and happens to do a random video in their apartment, right? So to get out into your community, and this is when it really changed for us is when we started vlogging with a GoPro Hero seven, like, it’s a $40 camera, it’s the greatest camera of all time. And we literally just hit the ground running and started just showing you what these neighborhoods were showed you with downtown Portland was we bought a drone, which if you don’t have one, there’s a million photographers out there who have them, and they’ll sell you pictures or give them to you, if you give them credit, which started putting the drone in the air and showing you like, Hey, look at this neighborhood. And we would get up in the air, talk about the main streets. And then we walked down the main one, here’s all your restaurants, shops, bars, your walking distance of ease your 15 minutes, you can actually see down the road, you can see the towers of or the buildings for downtown, you’re 15 minutes away. So if you’re going to be working, yada, yada, so we really started figuring out what people were searching. And found out, there’s really no good content on YouTube about our city. And we went from getting a viewer day three views a day to now we get sometimes 1500. So that’s in, you know, six months, basically 10 months since our first video, hundreds and hundreds of 1000s of views. And now we’re the number one most suggested channel. And that’s what’s important. So if you type in anything, Portland, Oregon, and you don’t happen to catch one of our videos, which is rare, you’ll watch one and at the end of it, they’re going to suggest our video. So we get a lot of views from the suggested platform. And people are watching us like sitcoms, because when you are moving or you’re traveling to Ireland or whatever, that’s a real like right now situation. And you want to just engulf your brain with as much information as possible. And so they go down these rabbit holes of watching our videos for hours and hours. And guess what? Every phone call that I get? Imagine this. Every phone call we get is somebody that’s just like me that likes the things I like that likes my personality. Yeah, we get the hater comments all the time. But I don’t want to work with them. I get people I mentioned brewskis all the time. I love beers. And I’m always like, this is my favorite join my family and I just went here last weekend, we got some brewskis. So people call me like dude, Jackson, we’re coming up by the house, hey, when we come for a tour, we’re buying a brewskis these people are my people, like I’m friends with these people immediately. And I’ve never met them. And here’s the funny thing. We do so many tours now. And again, I’ve worked myself out of this. I literally just do YouTube videos every day because we branched over to Seattle, Washington, because again, nobody’s doing that. And when I was doing the tours and stuff, I would be like, oh shit, like, I don’t know what these people look like. So I would park and I’d kind of like just look around and I would look at whoever it was. And they’re like waving their hands.

D.J. Paris 22:53
They know you are of course.

Jackson Wilkey 22:55
Oh my god, Jackson, it’s you like that must be them. So it’s a really good feeling. And yeah, there’s there is. It’s really tough. It’s not easy. I don’t I don’t want to say that. But there is no competition. If done correctly and optimized in SEO, holy crap, it can literally change your life. Change your business. It really quick. Yeah, and

D.J. Paris 23:14
it’s a marathon, right? It’s definitely not. You put up one video, maybe you get lucky. Probably won’t. It’s kind of like this podcast. So I started it. I thought, boy, if I was I’m not a Producing Realtor, either. I thought, wouldn’t it be cool, because we have so many Realtors here in Chicago. I said, if I was producing, I would want to know what the top 1% is doing to grow their business. And so I thought, you know, I know the realtors that our firm, would we have some of those people, of course, but not all of them. I know, they would want to know. And then I started interviewing, I said, I wonder if those top 1% Realtors would be willing to talk to me. And of course, they were thrilled to do it. Because it’s a way of giving back as well. And even producing these videos, whether or not you get leads from it, you’re giving back to the community. And you’re giving back to people in a way that’s really, really valuable. Now, of course, you want to do it to generate business ultimately. But if you go into it from I’m going to create the best possible content for my audience, even though my audience doesn’t even know me yet. And you just put your head down and keep doing it and learn. There’s there’s obviously a lot of technique there. But at the end of the day, the content wins over everything. And so we started doing this podcast for that exact same reason you’re doing it and and I don’t even promote the firm I work at because when I’m interviewing brokers from other firms, they probably don’t want me doing that. So I never have and sure enough, just as you were saying, people find you people have found me going, I’m hooked on the show. I love the content you provide, hey, what’s going on at your firm, right? And that’s where I get so we have a very similar idea what I’m not doing however, and you’re getting such a great idea is utilizing YouTube. So I write a lot of content, I write blogs, I write for magazines, I do a lot of those things, but I don’t make the videos and so what you’re doing is creating so for everyone listening that There’s a lot that you can take away from this right? So start thinking about what’s your specialty, that’s really the most important thing is, what geographic area? Do you specialize it? And if it’s a particular neighborhood, depending on how big your city is, or if it’s a suburb, or if it’s the city itself or whatever, figure out what gets you the most excited what you like what you know the most about, and then don’t always just talk about real estate, right, figure out what kind of content that people are thinking about moving into this area? What would they need to know? What are they interested in? Yes, of course, real estate is part of it. But like, they probably want to know, all what this what schools are going on here and, and what the local cuisine is like, and also what bars brewskis are available. Right?

Jackson Wilkey 25:40
Exactly. And you add on that real quick, like, you need to work to your avatar to and you need to work with people that you know, you think are going to be buying houses. And ultimately, and I don’t want to say this in a negative way, but like who have the money and resources to buy houses. And so we kind of cater to that. And that’s something that you will really test and as a blog writer, you probably find out like, oh, this title works Oh, in this area, right? So we have these video titles that really work well. And when I started really talking about at first I was kind of nervous to tell people I wasn’t from Portland, I just kind of came as like, you know, important real estate shares and doing these videos and then I’m like, Man, whenever I tell a story, you know of my like something that I did or Jesse tell the story like that watch time is longer, the video performs better. And so I did a video like, you know, moving to Portland, Oregon, my story and I literally just talked and it’s just a headshot stop video green screen video about when I moved here. The struggles, you know, daycare. There’s so many families that daycares were so backed up. So please, please, please set up your daycare before you come that caught me off guard. And yeah, so I worked towards these avatar and when you said schools that really hit because, you know we have hundreds and hundreds of reach outs and so like literally 8070 80% of them people are coming. They either have a job already or you know, most of them already got the job already and they need to find schools like here’s the here’s the one thing I want to get across to that it’s just kind of popped up before for forget. So they’re looking for schools, right? They haven’t even searched three bedroom, two bath house, four bedroom, three bathroom house. We are literally catching these people before they get into Zillow and Redfin. We are so like at the top of the funnel, these people don’t know what house they want, yet all they know. They’re all they want to know is where to be living. And then the house comes second. So as everybody gets scared of Zillow and Redfin, and all these big, big neighbors, like, we’re getting ahead of them. And so these people were like, well, I don’t really know the house I want yet, you know, I guess we’d like you know, three bed, we want a yard, you know, we’d like a little bit of space, you know, whatever. So they go through it then, but they hadn’t thought about it. You know what I mean? That’s pretty powerful. So then when we sit there and go, perfect. These are probably like the top three areas that we really recommend. And they usually say, Yeah, we like this area in that area, too. We’re like, okay, so when you come, we’re going to set up your tour date, and we’re going to show you those, but we’re going to take you to the areas we think I’ll fit you in like 90% of the time the two areas they pick or like they’re like, No, I couldn’t live there. We’re like we knew that. So here, we’re going to take you where we think fits in there, like, Oh, this is the best. So we know it. We set that up. But then, you know, we give them a freaking custom property search in our CRM, and they think it’s the greatest thing ever. You can do that. Like Sure, yeah. It really easily. And so, yes, you talk about value and content, like these people are just wanting to know what it’s like to live there. And then they will literally use you for everything, everything else. They use our preferred preferred lender, they use our agents in their state, like we literally just take over this whole situation because they trust us more than anybody with their move.

D.J. Paris 28:56
Well, yeah. And you just brought up a good point. And this is really important too, because of course YouTube is global. And people from Portland are not the only people who are searching for this content, they find it somehow and all of a sudden they’re like actually I’m moving to you know Santa Barbara and you’re like Hey, no problem. We have a partner there I can find the best realtor there and get that over to you. And then oh by the way, that’s a referral fee to you. So this is a huge referral machine. So when you said you you talk your way out of real estate, you’re really not kidding what you’ve become is a lead generation machine of course, and that’s free every broker once you did it for the brilliant says you did it before they ever met you. That’s brilliant. They haven’t met you in person but they already know you because they like your content because it’s good. And it’s and it’s available and they can find it and it’s you know better than anyone elses for that particular though

Jackson Wilkey 29:46
certainly everything people have taught you about providing value and making these people trust you like you know you but actually like this is how you do it. This is exactly how you can do it. Very quick and it there is no more powerful platform and YouTube is only growing. Like I said, Google is putting way more videos on their platform. YouTube is sponsoring it was sponsoring the Major League, playoffs, everything like YouTube is growing at a rapid rate. And it is a incredible search engine that is just wide open in our space. So we love teaching it. And people always ask, like, why are you giving all these tips like my YouTube agent channel, it’s literally the YouTube agents. I give so many tips in there because one that just opens up more doors for me if you’re in Lansing, Michigan or something and you have somebody from Portland moving there, then you’re gonna reach out to me and say, Hey, someone’s moving from Beaverton, Oregon, can you take care of him? Yep, for sure. It just opens this, like, we want to build channel partners. And that’s how we really start searching. If, if we don’t have an agent in an area, we go to YouTube and search and see if we can find one. And usually we can’t, in fact, most of the time you can’t. So then we try and find somebody who’s really good social and can close these deals. But yeah, we’d love to build these channel partners out and, and connect.

D.J. Paris 31:05
So if you’re if you’re a broker who’s listing a realtor who’s listening, and you want to learn how to do this, and you should learn how to do this, because look, you know, you can always buy Zillow leads, you can buy Redfin leads, there’s a lot of places that will sell you lead leads, because there’s a lot of great lead generation companies. But what we’re really doing, or what Jesse Jackson are doing, and there’s nothing wrong, of course, with purchasing leads, that’s great. There are a lot of great services that do that. But what what we’re what we’re really doing is introducing the people you don’t yet know to you through really important content that they seek out, so that you’re not even pushing it their way going watch my video watch, but they’re finding you. So there’s a lot less resistance. If they liked the video, and they like you, then of course, hopefully they would reach out when they have a real estate transaction.

Jackson Wilkey 31:53
Yep, that’s what it is. And I mean, there’s a lot that goes into optimizing a video so that you can rank and just know if you do start. It’s a beast man, it takes a lot. I like I said, I built a new channel living in Seattle, Washington, and I don’t even live there. But it’s wide open. So I do a lot of screen screen videos. And then we’ll we’ll drive the hours up there to get some B roll footage. But holy crap, starting over again, I was like, This is so hard. I’m getting like one view a day or four views. And it took me four days to get another subscriber. So it it takes time. And that’s probably another reason why there’s nobody in this space. But if you can dedicate even just one, one video a week that is keyword research, and you did that, you know you’re talking 50 videos in one year, you’re gonna be ranking, you’re gonna have some videos at the top, and you’re gonna get phone calls for sure. So optimizing, you know, thumbnails, titles, tags, descriptions, there’s a lot to it. But man, I started from not knowing a damn thing to really perfecting it quickly. So it’s definitely doable.

D.J. Paris 32:57
Yeah, it’s funny. So when I started this podcast, we did it, I did it entirely for free, on top of my my full time job for about a year and a half. And occasionally we’d have a sponsor reach out to us and say, Hey, can we buy a spot as a live read on your show, with a little onesie twosie here and there, we never sought them out. And then all of a sudden, about three or four months ago, we had a national sponsor reach out to us on their own going, Hey, your show is getting a lot of attention. And we can see that you guys are probably getting a lot of downloads. And even though we were only focused on the Chicagoland area, we’re talking to brokers who are successful here. And they said, We want to buy 13 episodes, and they threw stupid money at us, and we had to take it. And so then all of a sudden, I went, Oh my gosh, this could this, this could be a business. It’s not a, you know, a huge business for us at this moment, because we’re really just focused on providing value. But now all of a sudden, we have lots of national sponsors that are reaching out and now every episode is sponsored. But it took I can’t even tell you the hundreds of hours I’ve put into this, over the last two years just focused on providing value good quality content, just like Jesse and Jackson do in Portland and now Seattle, their whole focus is on we want the best quality videos for the keywords and the and the questions that people are searching for on YouTube. And and then of course optimizing it, and that’s what they’ll teach you how to do. So I could not be a bigger fan of them. And let’s let’s promote your your, your your your course, as well. So it’s the YouTube agents.com. We’ll also have a link in of course, the notes and we’ll promote it also on our Facebook page. But there is a discount which we’re figuring out right now. But there will be a discounted put in the the code DJ. So just the letters D and J both capital my name, DJ and you’ll get a bit of a discount but to talk just a little bit about the course.

Jackson Wilkey 34:48
Yeah, so what I wanted to do and that’s the thing with real estate, there’s so many courses as you know, and I’ve gotten into a few and unfortunately there are ones about cold calling stuff so I didn’t really gain I think from it, but they were very long, there was hour, hour and a half videos. And I don’t think anybody’s attention can last that long for a long time. And then there’s like 12, like 12 sections at all. So I really broke it down into like three minute videos, the longest video I have, I think is like 10 minutes. And that’s really like diving into editing and stuff. So instead of buying like an editing course, and, you know, SEO course, in a YouTube course, I combined it all. So even if you don’t have a YouTube channel, like the opening section is creating your YouTube channel, show your channel art, all of your channel tags, what settings need to be set, so that this thing turns into an absolute mousetrap lead machine, and then it’s, Hey, let’s figure out all your titles. Let’s get 20 3040 video titles real fast. And then let’s let’s shoot these my first videos and when you talked about quality, that isn’t per se, like these flashy listing videos dry, it’s more like content. My top two videos are still ones I shot on my cell phone because I gave true true true answers cost of living and the pros and cons. And I told you my pros and cons and they dominate. So I literally these people typed in pros and cons of Portland, Oregon, which is searched a shitload and I did a title. And I told you five pros, five cons, five things in the middle. So like I gave them answer, and they stay throughout the whole thing. So quality is, you know, we’re getting a lot better now. But quality is it’s a search engine, you need to be answering questions. So if somebody asked you that question offhand, how could you answer it. So I teach you this in the course. And it’s like, really building your videos with the hook, the intro, the the meat, the call to actions, like, there are certain ways to do this to really grow fast. So it is literally a to z. And then when uploading is very important to optimize and rank even for tougher keywords. I know how to do that now. And it’s through optimization, where other videos other creators did not optimize using descriptions, titles, tags, all of that, and then creating the most clickable thumbnail. So there’s a lot to it, but it’s all broke down into little three, five minute course era videos, and a lot of them so you can reference back and it really, it’s one of a kind that if you look, there’s no Realtors doing this really anywhere. So it’s one of its kind. We’re really trailblazing this and man, don’t be the second third, fourth Realtor in your market to do this because it you will own your market if you can get out there. And if there’s somebody, I’ll teach you how to get above, Okay,

D.J. Paris 37:30
wonderful. Well, hey, I think that’s a great place to park and I think, you know, I would love to have to have you and even Jesse Of course, as well on the show on a regular basis, because these are, you know, we could do a lesson, you know, a month or at least something to consider, but I know our audience is going to eat this up. So even if this is our only time doing this, depending on how busy you guys are with the videos, you’re doing, man, good. But we definitely want to promote, again, go to the YouTube agents.com Check out their course, also, you know, they also provide content for you the realtor on their YouTube channel as well. So there’s that he provides a lot of content for free. So it’s not Yeah, and that’s really important because as we know, you know giving away quality and when I say quality content, I want to just go back for a moment just to make sure because you brought up a really good point Jackson, about the about the the quality, I didn’t mean the quality of the video being shiny and bright and beautiful and sharp and having really cool edits and all of that’s really cool and useful. But the quality of the content reigns supreme and I just mean answering the questions in an authentic way giving the most best content possible you know, and answering those is always going to win and then yeah, you’ll get better at editing just like you did right but and but you know what I want to do is have you guys on more regularly, but in the meantime everyone should go check out the YouTube agents.com and and just to let you get this are this Jackson has been in business less than two years in real estate moving to a new city, Portland and now also doing the same thing in Seattle, which he had never, you know, never lived in either. And now from from you know from Idaho out to Portland and now is on pace to close 100 transactions and then you know, within this year has done 12 million in the last six months, all from YouTube. Like that’s, that’s an it’s it’s crazy.

Jackson Wilkey 39:22
Yeah, I got this thing dialed man. So we branched out to Seattle. And I’m like, All right, I’m going to use everything, all my tips and tricks my knowledge. So it took us about three four months in Portland to really get reached out because I’d figured out and in Seattle in five weeks we had nine reach outs already and their median home price there’s like well over a million bucks so and we’re going to be doing lots a lot and we won’t close any of those. We actually have a team there that’s agreed to give us 50% of every commission back so nice. We will feel that every call we will get our team in in Seattle to we set up a zoom call and I’m just keep going but I will come back every month. I’ll come back every other week. Like hey, I’m so passionate about this stuff I forget Love it. And I teach a lot of it. But yeah, we do zoom calls. So these people call and the first thing we do is get them on a zoom call with our lender, with our buyer’s agent. You know, we had hired buyer’s agents. How great is this? She’s brand new, she’s never had to pick up the phone and call one person, she answers three to 10 calls every day. So she feels these calls, she sets up the Zoom calls, where we get face to face and half the time they’re so starstruck, you know, it’s just really funny. And then we plan out their trip there, you know, whatever we and then sometimes you get the homerun where you just write offers without them even come in, but we’re at the process absolutely dialed in if you know I’m always available to me and find me anywhere social message me, dude, I love it. I’ll will rap back and forth about it. So yeah, man, it’s wide open. There’s really no one doing it. And this is the way of as as a lot of big disruptors are out there. Hey, providing answers to really tough questions moving to your area is still number one.

D.J. Paris 40:59
Perfect, well, Jackson Wilkie from YouTube agents and also from next home Realty connection in Portland, and Seattle. And of course, really, from all over because you’re on YouTube. So we’re just

Jackson Wilkey 41:09
everywhere, you’re everywhere, I will mention one thing that I’m super proud of. And Jesse really took the reins on this, we started a Facebook pro group $49 a month and it’s just filled with agents. It’s growing like crazy, who want to grow channels from all over. So it’s not one of those groups where you post your video and get likes and subscribers like it’s not that it’s literally training, access to me. And it’s going to be a huge referral platform. So what you know, when it when these leads come up, it gets posted to the group, and whoever’s in those areas scoops up those leads. So it’s a killer, one of a kind, pro Facebook group, too. So that’s on the YouTube a team.com. Got it, you can sign up for that you can check it out. It’s the pro youtube for YouTube agents pro Facebook group, you can check it out. But you’ll have to sign in to the YouTube agents first to get in. But yeah, we’re everywhere. Awesome, guys.

D.J. Paris 41:57
So again, you the the YouTube agents.com Use promo code DJ for a discount. And I this is going to be so well received, we’re going to have you guys on on a regular basis. But there’s two things you can purchase. One is the full course. And that’s what the promo code discount. And the second one is the Facebook pro group which is getting direct access to Jackson and Jesse and all the other members to support each other get tips tricks on how to do these videos. Because, look, guys, I mean, technically, I did have a podcast before I started this one. But that was years ago, and I was just kind of screwing around. I learned how to do all this stuff on my own too. If you just focus like like Jax was like, do one video a week. And by the way, if you just turn your phone around and film yourself for the first several months doing those videos, as long as the the the content, the quality of the content is good, it’s good enough for now and then you can get better and better. But it’s if you do this I like I’m living proof of this Jackson’s living proof of this, you do this. And eventually if the if the quality of the content is good, eventually listeners in your case viewers show up. And then of course, sales are results as well. So thank you so much for being part of the show. We really appreciate I’m so glad that we connected and it’s this is awesome. So thank you on behalf of the listeners. I appreciate you guys Jackson and Jesse was was on for just a moment. We appreciate you guys being part of the show and sharing your knowledge with our audience. So thank you. Hey,

Jackson Wilkey 43:21
buddy. Yeah, let’s get back on there. Hit me up. I’ll come back on and if you get any questions, you know, in your comments, reviews or whatever. We’ll answer those on the next

D.J. Paris 43:29
one. Awesome. We’ll do thank you so much.

Jackson Wilkey 43:32
Yeah, you bet.

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify

300 Real Estate Sales In His Second Year • Steven Koleno

December 31, 2019

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify

The fact that Steven Koleno has closed over 300 sales transactions this year (his second year doing sales) as a real estate agent is astonishing, however, it’s not surprising. In 2016, Steven closed over 1200 MLS rental transactions. He wanted to perfect that model before moving on to sales. Steven is currently the #13 highest producing agent in Illinois (out of over 60k brokers). In this episode Steve shares how he builds systems to become more efficient, effective, and how you can do the same!

Steven Koleno can be reached at 630-796-6500 and skoleno@worthclark.com.

Transcript

D.J. Paris 0:00
This episode of Keeping it real is brought to you by Quicken Loans real estate professionals. When you work with Quicken Loans, you have an agent relationship manager available to you and your team. These dedicated experts are part of the agent relations team. They serve as your single point of coordination, so you can count on them to keep you in the loop throughout your client’s entire home buying process, call 888-980-2891 or go to real estate dot Quicken loans.com. Today, call for cost information and conditions equal housing lender licensed in all 50 states NMLS consumer access.org Number 3030. And now onto the show.

Hello, and welcome to another episode of Keeping it real the largest podcast in the country made for real estate agents, by real estate agents. My name is DJ Paris, I am your host and guide through the show. And we’re in December and it’s starting to get cold here in Chicago. Hopefully it’s a little warmer, wherever you are, as so thank you for continuing to listen and support our show. We have actually doubled our numbers from the since this time last year, I just looked them up, which is really exciting and cool. And we have sponsors and so we appreciate everyone who continues to listen. And if you want to continue to support our show, tell a friend if you know any other realtors out there that could benefit from listening to secrets of top producers like Steve, which you’re about to hear in just a moment. Please pass this podcast over. Anyone can find us on any podcast app, just search for keeping it real podcast. If you’re an iTunes person where their Google Play Stitcher, really anywhere podcasts are served. And also you can stream every episode. For those of you that aren’t really into podcasts, you can stream every episode right from our website, keeping it real pod.com. And lastly, join our Facebook group which is facebook.com forward slash keeping it real pod or just search for keeping URL podcast. And the reason for that is number one we post. We post every time we have a new episode. And you can obviously get you know notified when we have new episodes there. But also every single day our producer Liz comes out and posts an article that she finds online specific to helping you grow your business. We do that every single day. So guys go to facebook.com forward slash keeping it real pod and like our page so you can get those notifications. All right. I hope everybody has a wonderful holiday season. We’re going to crank out a few more of these episodes before the end of the year. But right now on to our great interview with the great Steve Kalina.

Today on the show, we have Steve Kalina. Over the past few years deep cleaning has quietly built a successful track record representing investors in their real estate transactions. Steve began his real estate career in 2006 as a real estate investor himself and spent the next 10 years specialising in the single family rental industry, from building his own leasing company of 60 rentals to later becoming responsible for the overall operational performance of 820 million in assets and 4900 single family homes as vice president for the largest publicly traded SFR REIT in 2016. His leasing career hit its peak when his team closed 12 153 MLS rental transactions, I want to say that again. In 2016, he closed 12 153 MLS rental transactions. He has been recognized by car as a top 1% producer for both rentals and sales. Steve transitioned to sales only two years ago in 2017. And this year, he and his team are on track to close 300 sales transactions. This is only his second year in sales full year in sales. We are so honored to have you on the podcast. Steve, welcome to the show.

Steven Koleno 4:14
No thanks for having me. Great introduction. Thank you.

D.J. Paris 4:17
Thank you know, we were really excited. And it this is one of those things where earlier just before Steve and I hit record, Steve says I do things a little differently. I’m not sure the audience’s I said no, this is exactly the kind of thing the audience wants to hear. So we’re so we’re so honored to have you. By the way before we get started every effort to follow Steve and all of his different efforts, go to visit him at connect with steve.com and there’s links to all the social profiles there as well. So Steve, tell us a little bit about about your journey and how you got into real estate.

Steven Koleno 4:48
Yeah, you got it. Yeah, I know the some of the numbers are a lot different than most people and you know, you only know what you know. So I’ll give you my background and I think some of it will help make a little more sense but I mean, started basically back in 2005 2006. So I was I’m an engineer by trade. So even though I’m an I consider myself an older man going to be 50 Soon around the corner, I have always bet had that technology, you know, side to me. So I was an engineer, I worked in a health care company as an engineer for about 12 years for a large healthcare company. And then in 2005, and six actually got a back in 2005, and six, we came across a i, it sounds weird, but there used to be something called Carlton sheets.

D.J. Paris 5:35
And we know who that is, by the way, for the listeners who aren’t familiar Carlton sheets is a real estate investor, really a trainer, probably more than anything. And if you’re somebody who’s in the investor space, you’ve you’re familiar, probably at least with his name, and maybe some of his courses.

Steven Koleno 5:51
Yeah, it sounds funny, because it’s, it’s almost embarrassing, right? It’s like he was a late night infomercial. And one night sitting there. As a younger guy, I came across it. I remember reading through it going, man, this just makes sense to me. It really does. And I talked to one of my buddies, a good high school friend, and he’s like, Hey, our other high school buddy, who I lost touch with, was doing it in Arizona. So long story short, 2006, five, started thinking about my license 2006, we bought 23 single family homes. So it actually started where we started buying rental property. I wasn’t planning on being a real estate agent, I was just going to see if I can buy a couple of rental properties with a high school buddy, I would do the legwork. He lived in Arizona, he would bring the finances because he made some money down in the you know, in Arizona when the market was peaking back into 2000, you know, 234. So we went ahead and started doing that. And by the fourth house, I soon learned even though I was still an engineer that I could make some real estate Commission’s if I just went out and got my license, so never really worked with the public at all. I never went never became a real estate agent for that. I just did it to help us buy homes. So 2006 We bought 23 homes by my 27th house rental that we bought, we brought in a couple other like high school friends more so investors, friends and family investing. And by my 27th rental, we bought single family rental, I quit my full time job in 2007. And long story short by 2009. We own 65 single family homes, which sounds great, but we all know what happened in 2009. So I went through some pretty tough times between 2009 and 2012. And although we had a very successful business, at that time, I got to be an entrepreneur, self employed. It all came to an end kind of in 2012 timeframe, where we just finally couldn’t do it quick. And it wasn’t that it’s the the unique situation with that is it’s not that we necessarily failed. It was the bank started failing. We had actually made at that time 3100 mortgage payments on time and had never been delinquent. And then the bank started calling our notes due and that just it was kind of crazy to think about it. But ultimately, yes, yeah, we would have come because as we started buying more houses and you start getting in 4050 units, you can’t put them on your credit anymore. We did some mistakes. Of course, early on, I wasn’t an investor, right. So you made all the wrong mistakes, putting it on your own credit, sooner or later, you couldn’t do that. So we went to commercial local banks with commercial, you know, credit unions, local banks, and those are all commercial loans. They’re not 30 year loans that are locked in. So they’ve got different rules. And we got caught up in some of that. And long story short by about 2012. We were exiting that after we fought hard to try to keep it keep it around but and then ended up going into I knew I could go back and be an engineer probably make more money. But I still had this passion for real estate. It changed my whole life. I mean, when we were you know, an investor recruited a rehab company and did all this stuff and rehabbed every house from 27 to I have bought with partners, of course, we bought like 73 single family homes in our life. So I don’t do that anymore. I’m completely out of that. But back into 2013 14 timeframe. As we’re starting to try to figure this out. We went ahead and landed a job with a large private equity company out of New York who is going to come out and buy 2000 single family homes. So now we’re on the other side of the downturn, there’s a lot of there’s some good pricing and now some big kind of private equity companies or Wall Street companies are starting to come in and possibly buy some of these right. We got in there to help open up the market and buy the 280 property they bought and we leased and did all that and that was my first you know, kind of leasing within the corporate environment. I’m they decided to pull out

and stop buying houses rather. So sooner than later here, I worked my way over to another company, which was at that time the largest publicly traded company in the world that did this. And they owned I think when I started there, they own 27,000 single family homes. They were, you know, be at publicly traded, and within a year there because I’m, I’m kind of a workhorse and extremely passionate and hard worker. I became vice president there and ended up running a team of 46 people. And we manage 4900 homes in three states with my biggest market being the Indianapolis market. One month, we actually leased 252 houses just in the one month and in the Indiana, it’s a big number, and I wasn’t the broker, I wasn’t the they weren’t my MLS transactions at that time. But sooner than later worked my way over to one more institutional company, where I was the leasing manager over multiple states. And some of those big, big numbers you mentioned at the beginning, were working for one of these large companies where I ran a team of eight agents, I had six assistants, I did all the MLS activity, negotiated all the pricing, did all the pricing and had a team of eight agents who would take anywhere from five to 800 rental leads a week and show them Yeah, so I but I was an employee, right. As I tell people, the numbers sound great. It helped my branding and everything. But I was still an employee, you know, barely making over 100 grand a year. And it’s just you got to learn these fantastic systems. So yeah, absolutely. Yep. So in 2007, so it’s kind of weird. So because as I was going through all that certain people, ex, you know, old managing brokers, if I had my license in between while I was an investor would always tell me, you should just become a real estate, a real estate agent, like you could be they saw it, and I didn’t, because I never worked with the public, they’re like, You should become a real estate agent, you can be a mega agent, your skill set your drive your passion, there’s people who don’t have that, who make lots of money. In real estate, you have that and it just took me long. It’s funny, it’s to help, it’s basically comes down to the health benefits, like for for ever with kids. And I had a new kid on the way like I just My daughter just turned seven. But back then she was younger, I just couldn’t make that because you you know, to start in real estate where you have no, even though I have been licensed since 2005. I never worked with the public. So I don’t have a database of past clients. I don’t have anything. So it’s still scary to get started that way. But I did have this amazing corporate experience with systems and processes and business planning and goal setting. And that part I had so 2017, I had the opportunity to where I’m at now I’m with a company called worth Clark Realty, it’s 100% Commission model. And they had a unique opportunity where they were going to they’re one of the top brokers in St. Louis, and actually in the country now, but they were coming to Chicago. And I became managing broker at that time of worth Clark Realty. And it gave me the opportunity to give me a little bit of a salary and go out and do all the sales I could do. And gave me some health benefits. It was a unique situation, and it was all I needed to kind of get started. So in 2017, we did that for only about eight months was a managing broker. And then my sales career really took off so so really starting in the second part of 2017, we closed 16 deals that was it right? I was struggling to get started. At the end of 2017 we It sounds goofy. A lot of my story sounds goofy, but we bought that mat with that Matterport camera. One day I was. Yep, one day I was coming home and I and WGN we had one of the top agents who’s usually on TV. And I saw that ad and I thought if I want to be one of the top listing agents, I have to you have to compete with all these other agents and offer this so we actually bought the camera my wife now does that. Basically full time does all our Matterport you know, obviously the floor plans and laser measures your walls, it’s just it gave me the confidence, I think because I didn’t have confidence going into the sales side as much as I did rentals. So because I hadn’t done it right. So but we got through our first 16 transactions kind of with the general public in 2017. And then it kind of all took off in 2018. We ended up closing 124 deals different you know, I think car had me at 118 or something a little different because some of those were co listed.

But yeah, and then this year we are we are on fire so we were We were just closed our 260 at the the year, we had in extremely good may where we close 45 deals. So we close yeah, it’s it’s not Steven think about I think before that month we had never closed like, we were 18 and 22 was just pushing the envelope. But uh, back about a year ago when I started going from 50 to 60. I kinda I was kind of, even though my wife was doing my marketing, I was doing all my own paperwork, had noticed no assistance. I did every listing agreement every back agent transaction. And then I hired one of the best things I ever did was hire professional coach. Back in the middle of last year 2018. About August, we had closed about 50 deals, I had about 6065 listings. And I just needed to do something to try to help and that’s all it took. I mean, a coach saw you in there like you’re doing, you know, even though you got business going there like you you’re not, you’re doing it all on your own, this is going to be easy to easy to fix. Yeah. So now I have three full time admins, a part time MLS assistant, my wife does all my marketing full time. Now it’s a lot different. But I don’t run a team we’re in we decided to stay individual agent, and pretty much just focused on the listing side where we just implement processes and systems for everything. And I work pretty much with not all but a lot of investors. Right. So I worked with some really large investors from my background.

D.J. Paris 16:29
Got it? So are you predominantly looking for opportunities and then presenting to investors? Is that a good chunk of your time?

Steven Koleno 16:37
Yes, yeah. So I we don’t do as much like you know, battling it, I don’t have a lead problems. And I don’t have some of the same problems maybe an agent does, because because of where my background is, and where I decided to focus. When I started doing this in 2017, because we came off those pretty large numbers from doing rentals. My goal was really to be one of the top agents in the country, you know, in five years or so I didn’t know what the goal was, but I was putting it out there. And I actually study I’m uh, I am honestly that huge. Like business strategist, visionary with the stuff like I am trying to do, every moment of my day is trained to be different than everyone else. And I studied it in you know, like, at that time, the top agent in the world and in the Guinness Book of World Records had close 5800 Like, if you look he closed 5800 MLS deals, one guy 73 years old with three assistants. And we don’t, right, we can’t get that we don’t know. But when you research it or listen to him, he basically created a technology that list a property for 65 He works with 65 different builders in Texas, and within 12 minutes the home hits the MLS, so he’s not going on listing appointments. He’s not right, he builds a relationship creates a system and a process. And then don’t that meets their need. Right? Not how we see through traditional real estate, but meets that need of those builders. So it’s I went out with that mindset going, how long is it going to take? It sounds weird? I know, how long is that? But I hear 300. And I’m it’s I’m just you honestly are trying, you’re just getting started? And it’s not I’m not saying that to be cocky. But my mindset is going how does this guy do 5800 And I can only do 300 It’s just all irrelevant. It’s all irrelevant. So my goal is always trying to figure out how to increase it more now. i It’s different, right? Like when you’re doing a business, because I study it a lot. There’s two different ways there’s emotional, and there’s transactional, right? So a lot of agents work the emotional their work in their sphere. I have never worked my sphere. I’ve never sent an email to a family member. I just, it’s uncomfortable for me. And, and I can’t I don’t have 1500 friends. So like when you start thinking that mindset, it was it was too small. And I didn’t want to do that. So I’m not saying that’s right or wrong. It’s just my mindset coming off of the background I had was just thinking bigger. So we kind of went out and started backwards. I said, Hey, I’ve got this track record of knowing systems. Let me go out and work the biggest clients in the world and start there and work my way down. And that is exactly what I did. I am a like a, I am crazy on LinkedIn like I I reached out to see I have no fear when it comes to reaching out to CEOs of big companies, private equity companies, because I used to be in there right? So that that confidence has given you me an edge to kind of work backwards instead of working from the one transactions here. Let’s work with the ones who own the most property and work our way backwards. You know, I haven’t gotten into builders yet. That’s one of my biggest things for next year. I want to start working that because I think my background would fit good. Just took my first couple REO listings. I’ve been working really hard trying to work with some REO broker or you know, banks and stuff and I finally got in sold my first REO a couple months ago just took my second listing with an REO. So obviously with the volume in the systems that probably fits more my mindset, but some people, but I can go the other way too, right? I’m a people person I’m excellent with for sale by owners and, and all of that too, because I can offer a different perspective than the average agent. So from more options for more, it’s just it’s a different approach. I think. Part of it being where I’m at, like the brokerage I’m at, you know, it sounds crazy, but like the brokerage, I’m at my cap is $8,000 a year. I kept February 11. And my broker has my Yeah, my broker has not made one more dollar off of me since February 11,

D.J. Paris 20:42
your broker is going to do?

Steven Koleno 20:45
So but yeah, so it is unique, but I did that on purpose, right? Like I put myself where my costs are low? Because I yeah, I know, I didn’t need the help of a big brand realtor just based on my experience, I knew I was going to probably do okay, when I entered. But yeah, I just kind of set myself up that way in look for those opportunities to offer my clients more value, easier technology, not technology, but easier processes, right, because I’m looking for the repeat business from people who have lots of potential business.

D.J. Paris 21:17
And you’re also looking in sort of the non emotional space, right? You just want to be able to provide opportunities to your clients. And the numbers either make sense, or they don’t versus Okay, now I’m going to have to convince so and so to list their home at a certain amount, when maybe they have an emotional attachment, or I have to convince them that I’m the better broker versus the Baird and Warner at properties XYZ broker. So it’s totally a different space. You’re,

Steven Koleno 21:45
it’s it’s a totally Yeah, it’s a totally different space. But I think the funny thing is, as I’ve talked to more people or more people find out about our story and want to know why they think you’re not emotional. And that’s the difference. Like I can compete with any agent at a listing presentation. Because you’d have those people skills, and I have the confidence to believe we are a better option than most. So I’m very competitive is the biggest thing. And I’ve been like that my whole life. But I think it’s because we’re so competitive. We try to I and and because I’m not under the traditional borders of a big brokerage say, I think that oh, freedom, they whatever. What is the concern holding you up? I don’t want a long term. You know, I don’t want a long term listing Well, we offer a happiness guarantee that allows you to cancel anytime you want. And we do we have that, right. So we offer all of that we’re in 2019, we’re offering a communication guarantee, if they don’t think we communicate with them enough, they can cancel anytime. All these different things you can do to try to find out with the clients, I think the best thing we do is we I learn in study what consumers pain points are. And I try to solve their pain point where in I like I mentioned, I’m professionally coached, but I even bump against my coaches because they still teach door knocking in a lot of traditional things that I get for a new agent starting out is extremely important. I understand that, but I don’t fit that mold anymore, either. And I do bump heads, trying to figure out you know, different strategies, but I guess I’m always just trying to separate myself. I’m trying to make the competition irrelevant, which is a book that came from but then I am trying to compete in the space of one point. I think we just went over 1.4 million Realtors this week or submit national or you know, the association. So

D.J. Paris 23:47
sure, well, it’s it’s great to because and I love talking to people like you. And number one because you’re unique and have this really interesting story. But this idea of systems in pain point you just mentioned something very important that you said I am always looking to identify and solve the pain points for my clients. And so this is always funny because I go to a lot of events with Zillow. And so they come to town and sometimes I get invited and that’s very nice. And I think that was the coolest thing ever. And I’m not a producing broker. So I don’t you know, I have a different perspective. I’m a marketing guy. But I said Zillow is brilliant because they identified a significant pain point, you know, 15 years ago and delivered it better than anyone else can and broker some brokers dislike Zillow, other brokers recognize that if this now frees up their time, that Zillow can do some of the work for them. Whether whether it’s accurate is another question. But you know, it’s Zillow created an amazing consumer experience to solve a pain point, Steve, I imagine you’re constantly looking for like, How can I create systems that will do similar things?

Steven Koleno 24:48
Well, yeah, that’s that’s an understatement. Like, as I’m talking to you, I have a huge board with it. I’ve kind of a mad scientist with this stuff. So but yeah, I don’t look at any of those companies as disruptors. I don’t look at an open Door who’s not in Chicago yet but, you know, going through putting offers as a district disrupter, I just don’t see it that way like they pay. You can go on their website right now they pay agents to bring them business, Zillow, Zillow still, you know, I know some some of the articles, you know, people are that they’re becoming a while right now they still work with agents. Redfin works with agents, all these comp not every one of them. But all these companies still mostly have agents at the center. So I don’t look at it as a threat when if a new open door comes out, or the next eye buyer that’s being announced every day, it’s just one more potential partner you can partner with. It really is. And that’s how we got started like those first six 816. deals in 2017, I didn’t have a sphere, I don’t door knock, I don’t do all that stuff, I had to figure out how to get business, I reached out to some of those players. And the one over the one I spent close 17 deals with. So and I would pay them a referral fee, I didn’t have to pay upfront for it. And now I joined I still join a lot of those. I’m like, if I mean home lights, a big one, I’m a big home light fan. And as you as your rankings go higher, and as your you know, you elevate as an agent, it’s easier to get those referrals from those companies, I can tell you that firsthand, because I can see the volume picking up as your numbers kind of go towards the top in an area. But yeah, I’m not afraid to partner with all of those people. We I just don’t see it as disrupting it. I just see it as another product. Good example. And I don’t know if I’m supposed to be mentioning individual names. But yeah, a company like compass, right? Always in the news. They have this new concept your program, right? Well, I don’t offer that I don’t have the money for that. But I can now partner with a compass agent, if it get a referral fee. So I think the part that we see a different and like if you saw my office, what I have on there is I’m trying to not be a salesman and trying to be like a trusted adviser, even if I’m not the best option. And that’s I think, where I see some of real estate going five years from now, it’s the same way travel agencies and stockbrokers. They’re still stockbrokers around, but you know, the trades of the world took away a lot of the business, but they’re still there, and the ones who have the elite skill, and that elite division will still be around, but you know, but some of the agents who can’t get up to scale quick enough, who can’t get that skill set, that could be a struggle over the next five years, you know, three to five years, probably sooner than that. But

D.J. Paris 27:44
yeah, and you know, to talk directly to the audience here, you know, Steve is creating these, these partnerships, where everybody benefits, so maybe Steve gets this crazy, big commercial lead, and maybe he’s not equipped to actually process it, because it’s outside of the scope of the resources he has. So he then, you know, contact someone like Marcus and Millichap or Cushman Wakefield, or one of these big, true crazy commercial people and says, I would like a referral fee. And, you know, all of our listeners can start creating those partnerships. And it’s, it’s huge.

Steven Koleno 28:17
It is, it’s and actually, that’s exactly how I pretty much that’s my one of my main goals moving forward is exactly that kind of be in center of that whole, the real estate universe there as a trusted adviser. And if I can’t do it, now, my backgrounds, you know, I’ve managed a lot of property, I’ve rented a lot of property, we’re now selling a lot of, I can help a lot of people, you know, but there’s think, you know, I am not a luxury agent, you know, like, if I get a list, somebody finds me, and it’s a 1.6 million, I may try, right, just to get into it, or I may just pass it to somebody else and make a pretty good referral fee on something. So I’m not afraid to do that

D.J. Paris 28:54
and do very do very little work for that 30%, or whatever the referral,

Steven Koleno 28:58
that’s exactly it, because sooner or later, as your volume gets up, and I still want to push my numbers, you can’t do everything. So you have to find those partners, but they’re critical. I mean, some of my top, you know, top, my top investor entity I work with, you know, I’ve closed 70 deals with, you know, I have other ones that close 12 I just we have a flipper out in the western suburbs, they’re probably eight or nine in the last 18 months or so. But it’s just those relationships that once you earn them, I don’t have to go do a listing presentation. Again, I do it once. And then my my focus is honestly, making sure my processes are seamless that I’m creating less hassle. We just had an investor who implemented a couple of weeks ago, we have to now start walking every prep. So I have to come up with a team of people who is going to drive each property every two weeks and and present it on a certain report. So we just as that happens, we just implement a process for it. We have process from you know, we’ve taken over 700 offers this year. I have a system anyone who’s put an offer on one of our properties, we have a offer platform we use a company called transact Li and we just it’s we just use it and they can submit their offers automatic complete transparency, my clients, the sellers, Dubai, everyone gets it within seconds of it being submitted. So we, but we did that on purpose, right? We’re trying to create more transparency, going actually going back to the pain points when you studied it, or ask or study or review, what people’s pain points are, people’s pain points are, they think real estate agents make too much money a lot. That’s what they say. They don’t know what we’re doing to earn the money. So you have to show them what you’re doing to earn the money. And they, and a lot of them, one of the biggest complaints people get if you, you could Google this, this is all over. They believe agents don’t communicate enough once they get the listing. So you have to just solve their pain points with that right or wrong, right? We could argue if it’s right or wrong, but if you look at the research, that’s what it’s saying. Yeah, I’ve

D.J. Paris 31:01
interviewed a lot of top 1% producers like yourself. And Steve is not only just the top 1% producer, he’s in the very top 1% of 1%. And what’s amazing is, sometimes when we ask well, what’s the differentiator? Now Steve obviously has a lot of differentiators with systems and process. But for more traditional realtors, oftentimes differentiators is communication. The main challenge that means challenge that as you know, it’s in this is whether somebody is a financial advisor, maybe an accountant, realtor, mortgage lender, insurance agent, that the clients all they want are the rather the number one thing they want, or the number one reason they fire a professional is due to lack of communication. And that’s just study after study after study. So oftentimes when I’m interviewing people like Steve, and more traditional realtors who play in in, you know, with that same level of volume, they say communications, everything, they they’re like, Oh, I call every client every week. And that’s their process. And that sometimes is their main differentiator between all the other brokers

Steven Koleno 32:04
that they actually that’s that’s probably the number one tip for a new agent, like you just said, because when you do study the pain points, the number one of the number one pain points is that communication. And if you could just implement a communication guarantee something in there that basically says I’m gonna call you every Tuesday at 1030. They may say no, they may say no to it, but you offer it, because now they know you’re a professional who’s going to handle this right? And, you know, and put, you know, put it down, hey, if if I don’t you have a reason to fire me, you know, this is it, but I’m going to do this, it’ll keep you on track hold you accountable to that. And it’s a great way to try to sell because agents still don’t do that. It’s a good way for a new agent to do it. It is absolutely amazing. Yep.

D.J. Paris 32:49
Well, and Steve and I full disclosure, we both work for firms that have similar commission structures. And, and so Steve, as your firm continues to grow, like like ours does. What’s amazing is is we have to have systems to so where we you probably see the same way as in some ways, you know, you’re broke, or at least from our perspective, since I’m in management, our brokers, our clients. And so we think, along the same way, as a broker would think to how often should I communicate with other clients? Well, we have 650 brokers at this point, which is way too many people, too, we never we’ve, we only see 1% of them, really. So we have to think, okay, and we have a system in place where each one of them is getting called every month until they like you said until they tell us okay, you don’t have to keep calling, but we just call them and literally what we say is, do we were just thinking about you, which is true. Are you okay? Are you happy? Are you getting what you need? By the way, here’s a couple of things you might not know about. And we’ll call you in a month. And it sounds simple and silly. But it really helps with retention. And for all the brokers listening, you’d need to, and I would do it far off more often than once a month. But, you know, have a communication strategy and policy that, you know, if we know that that’s the number one pain point, and it likely is?

Steven Koleno 34:01
Yeah, no, I absolutely agree. Yeah, it’s still in. And I think that’s what’s going to happen more in the future. You know, people who are tech savvy and get it, you know, business will increase you’ll figure it out. But it’s still a people business, you still have to build it right. Like I found a way it’s not I didn’t create it, but I found a way where I don’t have to communicate as much because once you build that relationship, they just want performance. Right? And, and I love that that’s what I’m a competitor, like I said, so I want to be based on performance, I want you to compete me with other agents to do that. But it’s a different it’s a different struggle, right? Because it’s I’m trying to create processes and then somebody breaks my process and then it’s an assembly line and then you gotta fix that process and, and implement a new one, instead of trying to battle you know, where the next leads coming from. So I’m definitely in a good spot. But communication is huge. So

D.J. Paris 34:51
let’s, let’s talk if you don’t mind and I know again, you’re not as traditional of a broker as a lot of our listeners, but you But you do that too? I do. Yeah. And you do it quite well, of course, do you have any suggestions of a few changes that or maybe a different process or a structure that maybe some of our listeners haven’t yet considered? That are pretty easy? Or really, you know, easy to implement?

Steven Koleno 35:19
Yeah. Well, I’m I’m an open book. So, you know, everything I say may not hit people the right way. But we’re an open book with that. I hopefully this answers the question in the right way. And, and I hope it doesn’t come across wrong. I think people, I think agents need to spend more time improving their product, and their service. Everybody says they’re the best agent, everybody says, it’s just, it’s unbelievable. So everybody says that. But yet, as technology gets more, it’s harder to prove that. So I think like, our trick was when we implemented that Matterport, I’m telling you like, because you know, now we can do on a regular client, my investor clients demand different things. But on a regular client, you know, we do drone footage, professional photos, drones, we do the Matterport, we do the floor plans on every deal. And oftentimes, you know, my pricing might be a little cheaper to be competitive to get the listing. And I believe we’re offering and other people who offer all that are offering more than the average agent who’s not. So if you’re a new agent, you have to find a way to implement that it’s the same way I did I, once I got that it changed my confidence, because now I can go in and offer professional photos, drone footage, and that’s only a couple 100 bucks there, figure out the Matterport figure out a way or something similar, right, where you’re offering more, and then offer that communication guaranteeing that you have a better product right there, right there, even if you’re a brand new agent than 80% of the people out there. And in my opinion, you know, we might be favored this little if you’re at a brokerage, that’s not taking a huge percent, it helps

D.J. Paris 37:05
you now have it helps you have the ability to go in and and compete on price as well. And I don’t know whether you do or not. And I mean, probably in commission. So Steve has the ability because of the structure of the firm. He’s at just like at our firm, we have a similar thing where people can go in and our brokers aren’t worried about somebody saying well, Redfin is going to do it for one and a half percent. Because at a firm like yours or ours, like they can match that if they want to know that’s up to them. But there’s, there’s no freedom to do that. And and a lot of firms, of course, to take a percentage of every of every sale, they’re not going to be as keen, most likely to allow for that flexibility. So it in of itself that makes you inherently more competitive, right?

Steven Koleno 37:44
Yeah, in me telling you without going into details, telling you, I’m a competitor, I use everything in my arsenal. To do that. Everything I have all kinds of programs, I have auction plant, like like we were talking about some of the other companies, I have an auction platform that offers 0%, seller, paid commission, because it’s a 5% buyer premium. Any agent can join that right now, any agent can offer that. Now, I’ve only done two. But I am telling you, every time I meet with somebody, I tell them that because I actually make more commission on that if they did bad option than normal listing. But it’s another tool that nobody else is offering. Once you explain it, a lot of times, they just take my normal listing because you have to explain it all out in an auction platform. And that scares people. But just by having that I’ve only used it twice. That’s it. But I promoted as one of the services. So I think the difference is also options. As you as we start getting into a technology driven world, and people can now go to their, you know, Apple TV and select 20 million channels and it like people are okay with options, you don’t want to give them 150 million options. But you have to give them a in my opinion, you have to give them an option more than we’re the best. This is our technology and we charge five or 6% you just I think you have to give them more options nowadays. And I know giving them more options is the best ability to get more people talking to you. Even if they don’t use it, I don’t have a lot of people using my unique options. They still use my bread and butter, the one that you know, our traditional full service. But having those options to try to get the attention of a for sale by owner it’s way easier if you if you come through a different approach.

D.J. Paris 39:33
Can we talk about for sale by owners because without you giving away the secret sauce, which of course would not ask you to do but this is oftentimes new brokers and I think this isn’t as quite as popular as it used to be. But you know, it still is somewhat well known is that oftentimes people who start in the business, you know, they say well, you can buy a list of for sale by owners. There’s lots of services that will sell it for almost nothing. And it’s a you know a way to start con Acting people but these, and Steve, maybe they’re not difficult for Steve anymore because he has the process in place. These are very difficult phone calls, if you’re a new broker, these are these are these can be, you know, challenging calls. Can you talk a little bit about and again, without giving away what you know, your your competitive advantage, but maybe talk about how you guys think about those calls maybe differently than other brokers? Yeah.

Steven Koleno 40:22
So, like I said, I’ll be very upfront with you. So I really have never implemented a full strategy on that, because I started to, and they are so difficult, I can’t do it. Like me, personally, I can’t do it, it was too it was too hard. So when I came across was if you approach him from it, and I’m stuck, because next year, I’m implementing something bigger to get in front. And I can tell you part of what that is, I think might help but they’re tired people are exhausted those for sale by owners, when their property expires, you’re one of your one of 20. And they get mad by the end, if you’re the 12th person to call, they are pissed off. They are mad, I just think it’s a different, you know, it’s I can just see that it that’s a tough road to go and I get why agents do it. And you know, I’m professionally coached, and my coach still tells me to do it. But it is a tough road. And I tend to want to do the things I like to do, as my wife would tell me, I only do the things I like to do. And so I don’t focus too much on that. But I’m trying to focus on being different. So like one of my strategies, actually heading into next year that I’m about to implement is trying to reach those folks who are tired of all the agents bombarding them to give them options to give them options. And I have a whole I can’t get into that now, but a whole URL, a whole different strategy that I’m going to implement next year to try to just be different. And as some of these people are exhausted with the process, real estate agents, some of the processes they use, I want to look different, right? Like look at the community person, the the kind of the leader over here, who gives you a bunch of options, and I am not, you know, we’re going to do 300 deals. You know, Mike, if I don’t get that listing, it’s not life or death where sometimes for an agent it is right if you’re just starting out. And so I when you don’t have that stress, because not every deal is the end all it’s different to you’re relaxed, I am very confident when I go in, you know, we close 45 deals in May, after I did that we were extremely confident, right. So all of that helps but but when when I didn’t have that confidence 2017 And, and I went to do my first listing appointment, and I lost it and I and it was I lost it for the strangest reason. And it’s this is gonna sound bizarre from a top producer. It’s doing 300 deals, but 2017 I had my first listing appointment for a sale with the general public 2017 in Downers Grove. And I lost it because the guy asked me, I came in with my rental track record, and I was already into who was who, because of my rental stuff in Chicago, and he asked me who my professional photographer was, and because I didn’t have one lined up before I went for the appointment, I am positive, I lost it, because he saw me stumble over my words, and didn’t didn’t have it. So you bet I called every photographer in the world. The day after I went back, they sold it with a big broker, and it sold in six days. And that could have been my very first one. And I just learned quick, right? So you’re like, Okay, I’m gonna have photographers, I’m gonna have this, I’m gonna have better everything. I do not ever want to go to a meeting and not have the, the the proper response or the best response from somebody. And sometimes the response is, the best option does not mean if somebody says they want somebody to do an open house every weekend, I am not their best option, because I’m not a huge open house fan in my business model. Right? I just can’t, I can’t take that much time to do that doing the volume. So I would refer them to somebody else. And that might be somebody else in my office, and I’ll still cold list with them, and that type of thing. But But yeah, that’s kind of where I see

D.J. Paris 44:07
that. Yeah, no, that’s that’s true. And it’s, you know, it’s also a thing that I almost wonder if this would stop a lot of agents in their tracks. And you certainly have an answer for this, but it’s in the same, the same vein, which is brokers oftentimes, you know, when we talk about, you know, are they charging too much does the public feel they’re charging too much? I don’t know that it’s the public fields are charging too much the public feels like they’re not sure why they paid that much for what they got. Right. So which is a little bit of a different a different take on it, which is to say like I met a broker, you’ll appreciate this. years ago, she came to interview at our firm, she ended up not using our firm she was with I believe Berkshire Hathaway at the time and maybe still is and she said, Is it okay if I charge up 10% to my to my listing clients, and at the time I and I said well, at our firm you can choose choose whatever you want. And I said do you really think you can you charge an Out 10%. She goes, No, right now I charge 7%, which was still above, you know, the traditional pricing. And she goes, but I’m going to get to 10 in two years. And I said, I’m so fascinated, I said, Tell me, tell me how and why. And she looked at me dead in the eye and explained it for about 90 seconds, and it made perfect sense. And I went, she’s going to get to 10%. Now, whether that’s right or FERS, another question, and she ended up not choosing her firm, but I was like, I want to watch her trajectory, because she absolutely knew the answer to the question of why she’s worth 10%. And I thought it was really impressive. And I bet there’s a lot of brokers who maybe they’re charging 5% 6%, whatever, who really can’t even know how to answer that question about why they’re worth that amount. So even if that’s all you do, and I know Steve can answer that question, for sure. But I suspect a lot of brokers don’t know how to answer it. Just like who’s your photographer? Well, we have a lot of photographers, I could, you know, yeah,

Steven Koleno 45:52
exactly. No, I got you in it. I have a similar story. So at my brokerage, when I was the managing broker for a short time, when we started, we had an agent who, who was, you know, 3035 years in the business, and I think charging 7% and had some questions early on, which, you know, trying to understand our technology just to get it up and going. And I think she’s out of the business. Now. She retired, but I remember charging her charging 7%. And my mindset was so different. But we take everybody, so I said, What do you do for that, and she hurt hurt literally, she takes she’s was still taking photos with her iPhone and, and all of that no professional photos did no other marketing. She’s like chia, her answer to me, was I put it on the MLS, and I was doing everything I’m doing ever I’m running around, I have systems Matterport, and I’m charging way less. And I could see why we were going to be successful. I saw it, I’m like, This is why we’re going to be successful. New agents, you have to find a way not to be that agent times of change, you used to be able to get away with that. New agents just find it focus less on upfront about trying to find the lead, make your process and what you offer the best, you could be new and offer a brand new, shiny object, make sure it’s shiny, make sure it has what the pain points are for the clients. Then when you talk to your fan fans, or family and friends and all of that sphere, it’ll be way easier because you do you’re offering something better, I think, I think coaches managing brokers, everybody is that we have to find a way to improve the product to the consumer, before we start talking to people, and we’re not expert ship. Like I think that’s one of the biggest things I see people missing, that I live in breed with. I mean, I do this 16 hours a day and love every moment of it. I’m a workaholic, if you want to call it that I don’t look at it as work. I’m one of those people. It’s, it’s it’s what I want to do, right? I’m doing my dream job period. Anyone who knows me sees that. And I think sometimes based on the volume and the numbers, people think it’s all computers, and you’re just I’m very much a people person. I’m just trying to do it with folks that you know, higher levels up who might have more access to properties who needs solutions like us? Right? They don’t need somebody telling them they’re the best charging 6%. But they need somebody to say, Hey, I’m gonna sell 70 houses this year, can you help me? And that’s who that’s what you want. But it’s still a people business, I still gotta get in front of them. I still got to know my stuff. I still got to be an expert in my field, and kind of go from there. Well, wonderful. Well, I

D.J. Paris 48:33
think you’ve said it all. And this is been really great for our listeners to understand that focus on a number of things, obviously process, right? Where are you being inefficient. And, you know, Steve talks about having assistants, you know, a lot of times brokers don’t realize who go gosh, you know, I can’t really afford to hire a full time assistant, you might be able to because there are what’s known as virtual assistants as well. And they could be from another part of corner of the globe, who might charge a bit less than, than people here locally. And there are these are people also that you can hire that have been doing this for other brokers across the country, and who already have processes in place, you can leverage their process for maybe a fraction of what it would cost here. And that is a really popular thing right now. So even you know, whatever you’re doing in your practice that is causing you to be inefficient, there are options, and not it’s never been more affordable. And also, I love the idea of coaching. You know, Steve, you talked about that, like you’ve just done what a handful of transactions and you’re like, I need to hire a coach. Because oftentimes we’re we’re like little too close to our own business to be able to step back and say, Oh, maybe you shouldn’t do this, or you should do that. Can you talk just a little bit about how before we wrap up how coaching has really impacted you?

Steven Koleno 49:48
Yeah, oh, absolutely. So in the weird part of this, like, remember, I came I was an executive manager at really large real estate corporations, right. So I knew it I had assistants, but I got 252 53 deals and had a bunch of listings. And I still didn’t hire my first assistant. It doesn’t make any sense, right? I know I need to but you got so caught in the fast growth of your your business. And I love being the salesman. I don’t love hiring people, right? So I am horrible at only doing what I like to do. Hiring the coach makes you accountable to your own goals. It is unbelievable. I told him what my goal is. And he holds me accountable to it. And they’re uncomfortable calls, if I don’t do what he told me to do, I immediately within hiring, I hired a full time admin did not come from the real estate backgrounds unlicensed, trained her. She’s fantastic, because of all, you know, all the volume we’re doing now. But she doesn’t know any other way. Right? She didn’t come from a real estate. She only knows our way. I actually, you didn’t know this, because we’ve never talked, you know, other than a couple minutes before the call is I do have a virtual Isa, they work five days a week full time, I pay a lot less for them. They work from three to midnight, five days a week and on weekends to cover. So I have like 16 hour coverage five days a week for all my big clients and a lot we take a lot of offers. So I constantly have to have those submitted in certain ways in certain systems. And, and then obviously, my wife does all our marketing, social media stuff and does a lot of our Matterport. So we kind of got set up that way I immediately created an LLC. Now I have a 401k The whole thing is crazy. But it’s all from coaching. Even now some of our lead generation, some of our follow up systems, I don’t have to generate the amount of leads that you think I do too, because of our clientele but but I have systems for all that I have automated different systems that do that I don’t do automated dialing and bombard you know, for sale by owners like we talked about. But

D.J. Paris 51:53
when I tell ya just it just doesn’t work. And it’s and it is

Steven Koleno 51:57
and when I get leads in, but I got to respond to them fast. And like I said, I’m a study or have kind of the craft and one of the little sidebar, there’s a guy, I don’t remember his name Rogers slack, I think or something in Florida. You’ll read about him next year, because he’s going to be the number one team in the United States. He’s going to close 4000 deals. And he was a used car salesman when he was 68. I think he’s 72 now and he went from not being a real estate agent for 68 years to having a team that’s going to close 4000 deals. And he does it all by now his strategy. I watched one video on him a couple of weeks ago. And his strategy is he just buys realtor.com leads in mass volume and responds to them within two seconds. And he just he created it doesn’t matter your age, he created a system that fit the need that allowed him to do that same way that guy in Texas did it. One of the easiest things for new folks that I knew agents that I watch, especially because I was managing broker is transaction coordinators. Now there’s so many companies that my coaching does it this the other company I use transaksi does it you can get a transaction coordinator for $250 or something in that realm that you pay only if it closes like you can everybody can have an assistant, and you only pay when it closes when you get your nice big commission couple 100 bucks comes off, and you have a full time transaction coordinator. Everybody should do that immediately.

D.J. Paris 53:25
I’ll I’ll tell you. So this is funny timing. So at our firm, we have like 650 brokers. And we’re so you know, you know, a thick headed, it didn’t occur to us to create for our own brokers a transaction coordinator platform now we were still helping people, of course, and we still do, but if somebody really wants someone else to take over from list to close or from purchase to, you know, from contract to close, we’re like, because because we were our brokers were starting to use some of these services. We think that the greatest thing ever, and we’re like, oh, maybe we could offer that because we’re, you know, pretty thick headed. And then we we just launched that a few weeks ago. Well, what we did is we pulled our brokers to understand their pain points and say, hey, if we were to offer this service, number one, would you pay for it? Number two, what would you pay for it? And you know, and like not 87% of our brokers wrote back and said, yes, we’ve been waiting for you guys to launch this. So we just now launched it. But yeah, you know, there are a million companies that do this. And that’s where we got the ideas. We saw all these companies popping up online. And so if you’re a broker out there, and you’re not using a TC transaction coordinator, just Google it, there’s a million options. And yeah, for two or 300 bucks, gosh, they’ll do just about everything for you. And they do it well.

Steven Koleno 54:34
Yeah, yeah. And that’s that’s that’s like that for me, based on the volume we were doing when when that happened. That was life changing. Like that was because I was stuck. I couldn’t sell more than this. Like I was struggling going okay, I can see how I can get to 80 by myself, which I know that’s but I’m like there’s no way I’ll ever get over that because you can’t but once you brought that person in and they started doing every DocuSign they started doing all my paperwork. They started to iPhone cuz once again on the things I love to do that you’re good at doing. And that’s, that’s really the trick of the business. And we always hear people say that, but I even me coming from a corporate background and pretty knowledgeable in real estate, you know, based on my background, I couldn’t hold myself accountable to it, I, I had to hire the coach to do it. And it’s, it was a game changer for me. And now we’re at numbers, I would have never thought I would be at this fast. I thought I’d get here someday, I just never thought I’d be here this fast. You know, this was the five or 10 year plan, not the two year plan, you know, but

D.J. Paris 55:32
that’s amazing. And everyone, by the way, we should we should mention that Steve does, of course, work with traditional clientele as well as investors. If there are any buyers, sellers, renters investors that are looking to work, Steve with you, what’s the best way they should reach out to you?

Steven Koleno 55:48
Yeah, so we have a website I just created, have people reach us easier. So you can just go to connect with steve.com Something easy to remember, we operate as the Colino group. So you can go there. Or also, we have like a community website called LNI. Residential, but connect with Steve is the easiest way if you just want to reach out. I appreciate that. Yeah. Wonderful.

D.J. Paris 56:09
No, we appreciate you being on the show. And Steve, this was so interesting. So this is really funny. So it Steve said, we’ll just say this as as a kind of behind the scenes thing. So and Steve sent over his bio, I looked at it and I go, Well, maybe he missed type the numbers or because I didn’t I don’t look anyone up ahead of time, which I should do. And I said to Steve, oh, these numbers, right? He goes, yes, they are. And I can’t wait to explain how it works. And you did so so well and elegantly. And it’s such a refreshing take on traditional brokerage and how you’re doing things in a way that is really inspiring and so exciting. So I think all on behalf of the listeners, we’re gonna be excited to watch your continued continued ascent. And you’re already now one of the very top producing brokers in Chicago, including all the suburbs. And that’s just within a couple of years. I mean, that’s just beyond remarkable. So congratulations.

Steven Koleno 56:59
I appreciate I appreciate you. I’ve avoided trying to because I’m not sure what I could offer the value like we talked about before, but I hope some people get some things out of that. I know the numbers might not necessarily relate, per se, but I’m hoping that there’s things in there that a new agent can maybe grasp onto right? Because I was there I like I said two years ago, I’m struggling and I lost my first listing because I didn’t know what photographer like don’t let those little things make you look like you’re you’re you’re not the right person. I was probably the right person at that time. But I wasn’t prepared at that time. So now I feel like I’m more prepared for you know, whatever hits Yes. So

D.J. Paris 57:35
well, that’s that’s perfect advice. If the Boy Scout Motto right? Always be prepared. That’s a good one. So anyway, on behalf of Steve and we thank the listeners for continuing to support the podcast couple of quick notes. If you’re not already a subscriber, whether you have an iPhone, or an app or an Android device. You can find us on iTunes, Google Play really anywhere Stitcher, Spotify, anywhere podcasts are served, just search for keeping it real podcasts, you won’t have any problem finding it. Also, you can stream all of our episodes right from our website, keeping it real pod.com. Last thing, please everyone who is listening, follow us on Facebook. Not only do we promote, of course of our podcast episodes and links to the shows, but every single day, we try to give an item of value to our listeners, we find an article online that was specifically designed to help brokers grow their business, and we promote it there. And we just do one a day. So we’re not going to bombard your Facebook feed and show you pictures of our dinners and things like that. It is literally just going to be things that you find helpful. And of course, you continue to tell a friend right anyone else, you know, that could benefit from listening to people like Steve, obviously let them know about our show. And that keeps our numbers up so we can keep producing these for you. So Steve, thank you on behalf of the listeners for taking an hour out of your day, which I know you do not have. So thank you so so much. And we’re so excited to continue to watch your growth and on behalf of Steve and myself. Thanks for listening and we’ll see you guys next time.

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