Before real estate Danny Lewis was a public relations and advertising executive. He offered to sell his grandfather’s home, and after that transaction, realized he had caught the real estate bug. Danny converted the marketing skills he had developed into a successful real estate career quickly, building not only a successful practice for himself, but also a strong team now known as Lewis Real Estate Group. In this episode Danny discusses not only how to build a team, but also why he recently moved to Dreamtown. As one of the youngest top 1% brokers in Chicago, he continues to expand his reach and success!
Danny Lewis can be reached at 773-988-9092 and lewischicagorealestate@gmail.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 under the shop
Welcome to another episode of Keeping it real, the largest podcast made by real estate brokers for real estate brokers. My name is DJ Parris, I am your host and guide through the show. As always, we want to start out by saying thank you to our listeners, and our hosts both who are spending their time either listening or contributing to the podcast, we greatly appreciate it. And a couple of quick announcements before we get started, we do have a sponsor that will be coming on a future episode. So we’re very excited about that. And if you’d like to be a sponsor, for any of our upcoming episodes, you can always reach out to us, the easiest way is go to our our website, which is keeping it real pod.com By the way, that is also the place where you can stream every episode we’ve ever done. Also, of course, we’re on iTunes, Google Play or any podcast app that you might have on your phone. Just search for keeping it real podcast, and you should find us right away. Also, please join our Facebook group, which is facebook.com forward slash keeping it real pod. We not only post of course links to all the episodes, but also links to articles that we find online that will help you with your business, as well as links to the host or sorry, the guests that we promote. So you can get an idea of what they are doing a digitally as well and follow them on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and their websites, of course. So again, thank you for listening, we are gosh, well over 100 episodes now we’re going strong or to keep going strong. And it’s because of you who continue to listen. And our waiting list to for guests to be on the show is now approaching 100. That’s how popular this podcast has become. And we’re so grateful that it seems to strike a chord and help people but we also always need your suggestions. So don’t hesitate to reach out to us, through our website through Facebook. Any way you can find us and say here’s what I want on the show, here’s who I want. And that’ll help us give you guys the best content that would be helpful for your business. So, again, let’s now move on to a really exciting interview with somebody I’ve known for many, many years. He’s a true superstar in Chicago, and a super great guy, Danny Lewis.
Today on the show, we have Danny Lewis of the Lewis Real Estate Group with Dream town. Danny is a Chicago native with a strong background in customer service sales, Public Relations and Marketing industries. See he specializes in the home buying and selling process as well as an investments leasing income producing properties and commercial, his organization attention to detail and ability to fully understand his client’s needs set him apart in the industry. He has been a top 1% Producer consistently almost since he started in real estate, which is incredible. And his production, his personal production and his team has been growing year over a year. You can visit Danny’s website at Lewis Chicago real estate.com also find him on Instagram, which is Louis Chicago real estate. And on Facebook, Danny Lewis real estate, I will post links to these for the listeners. Danny, welcome to the show.
Danny Lewis 4:10
Thanks so much for having me, DJ.
D.J. Paris 4:13
Yeah, and you and I have known each other for a number of years, I’ve always been a big fan of all the amazing success you’ve had like very quickly. So before we get to all of that, I want to hear the origin story about like, why you chose real estate how you got into real estate, if you don’t mind sharing that. Yeah, of
Danny Lewis 4:31
course. Again, thank you so much for having me on the show today. I’ve always been a fan of it is really cool to actually be on it. Yes. So let’s throw it back to 2010 I was coming out of a job in PR and advertising and working in marketing. And at the time my grandfather who was 92 at the time, decided to move to a retirement home so he was going to sell his home himself and at the time he was 92 he had his wits together and all that kind of stuff but at The same time, you know, he wasn’t he didn’t have an email address, there was no way he could sell a place on his own. Sure. So at the time, I watched shows like Million Dollar Listing and house hunters, and I saw all these Realtors making seemed like a lot of money, and having a good time doing it being their own bosses. And I thought, you know, why don’t I give it a shot. And so my first pitch was to my grandfather to convince him to let me sell his home on his behalf. And he did and he let me do it. And I just fell in love with it. I fell in love with the process, I fell in love with the fact that I had to be social, I fell in love with the fact that I was my own boss, I was making my own hours. And finally, I fell in love with the paycheck once it closed, it was, you know, a lot more than I was making in PR. So to me, it was a no brainer to transition to real estate right after that.
D.J. Paris 5:48
Wow. So you, you sold your grandfather’s home? And then you decided to I guess do this full time?
Danny Lewis 5:54
Exactly, exactly. Yeah, I got my license online, the Institute online.com sure took like, what, six weeks, maybe five weeks or something like that. It wasn’t too hard to get the license. And then once I got it, I started immediately. I got my license in October 2011. I didn’t make my first paycheck until May 2012. You know, I know at least started and probably the worst time to start in terms of October. Yeah, really? Yeah. But on top of it was 2011. And I remember that was like one of the worst years for real estate in general. But turns out actually one of the best years to buy looking back. But yeah, in terms of being a brand new broker, it was it was not easy out the gate. And there was a lot of failure and frustration to start before eventually succeeding.
D.J. Paris 6:39
Yeah. And you know, it’s funny, we’ve now interviewed, or Gosh, I don’t even know close to 100 people on the show who are all top one percenters like yourself. And the idea of not earning a paycheck for you know, six to eight to 10 months is not an uncommon story at all. In fact, it’s really unusual when somebody says, Oh, yeah, close my first deal in the first month or two, that is almost never happened on any of the people I’ve spoken with, unless, you know, they were just very lucky or had a friend that happened to be in that timeframe of when they got their license and needed to buy or sell. So can you can you talk a little bit about what you did. If you can remember back to that time, I know, everything’s so much different for you now, because you’re so successful. But back then what were you doing to setup future sales and future clients,
Danny Lewis 7:20
I would say in trying and failing. So, you know, when I was originally starting out, I was one of the first people to invest in Zillow and Trulia advertising at the time and 2011, Zillow was still brand new. So it was truly anilao. The realtors who, you know, did really well, in the great years of real estate and up to 2008. I feel like they kind of got lazy and they kind of fell off afterwards. In 2009. They didn’t really put a lot of investing and money into Zillow and Trulia, they kind of thought that people who looked on websites weren’t legit. They just felt like it wasn’t serious. So I took advantage of that. And I started out by advertising in Lincoln Park, and at the time, I think 100% was available, which is insane. That isn’t, that is insane. It is now 0% is available. Now there’s a waitlist whenever you try to get on it. So yeah, I mean, I would get these leads. And at first, they would just sit in my inbox because I didn’t know what to say, I didn’t have the confidence to say anything, I didn’t really know, you know, what I could help these people with, because I was so brand new, I didn’t have that confidence to take that, that first step. And eventually I did, obviously and made that phone calls and call people back and, and I started trying these different ways to you know, get these leads to become my clients. And I tried all these different types of, you know, pitches, all these different types of intros, etc. And eventually, I found what worked for me and settled on it. And then eventually, over time, you know, started teaching my team members how to do it. And, you know, like I said, there wasn’t immediate, like, there was a good six or seven months of zero income. But you know, once I got over the hump, and once I figured out what my niche was, and once I figured out what my pitch was, that’s when it all changed for the better.
D.J. Paris 9:09
Yeah, that is so well said. And it’s absolutely right. It’s funny, I was just at an event. Oh, actually, you were at the event with me. We were at the Zillow event a few weeks ago. And I can’t remember what the statistic was. And I think they showed it to us then, because I do a lot of things with Zillow. And it’s amazing how many leads they sell, where the broker does not really follow up, you know, maybe have one phone call because they live transfer the call and then the broker, you know, the person isn’t ready to buy that moment. And maybe they’re six months out and that person is likely not to stay in the brokers probably not staying in touch, and they’re paying a fortune for these leads.
Danny Lewis 9:45
Yeah, and that’s actually why they started doing that and to be honest to kind of screw people like me over because I was one of the people who would respond quickly and I hire people to respond quickly. Sure. And now and this is a whole other spiel. If you want to get into this at some point I’d be happy to have The way that Zillow leads work now, it’s just so jumbled and so quick. And I feel like it’s so forced, compared to how it was before. But yeah, I mean, like I said, if you want to get into that, that’s a whole nother combo we could have as well.
D.J. Paris 10:13
Well, it’s, I guess, the point of all of it. And yeah, I mean, certainly their whole systems have changed. But the point is that you were very diligent over over this, you know, the incubation period, have you got, you know, they always say, you know, now I don’t even think they call them leads anymore. They call them contacts. Because really, that’s that’s what it is, right? And you know, that better than anyone? And I guess if you think about it, as well, this is somebody who’s looking to buy, well, maybe they’re not looking to buy right now. And so the people, the broker who stays in touch, obviously, over time, ultimately wins the game. And obviously, you did that very successfully. Yeah, are you? Are you still doing a lot with internet leads? Or have you become sort of too busy for that, or
Danny Lewis 10:53
I’ve started to wean off and go more towards referrals. Now, you know, internet leads, make sense, if you’re a brand new realtor, or if you’re just trying to get your foot in the door, know, when you join real estate companies, they always say, you know, tell your friends and family or in real estate, you know, push it out there, let everybody know, I figured out really quickly, the reason they do that is so they can get their brand
D.J. Paris 11:12
out to my friends. Ah, interesting. That’s probably true. In my opinion, they
Danny Lewis 11:16
didn’t really care about whether or not I would get business from them. They cared about saying, Hey, Danny is now at x agency, or take a look, etc. So my whole idea is how do I get people who I would have never met complete strangers to know me and refer me business. And that’s how it started in this online advertising. You know, the whole idea is with your sphere is you know, you have one circle, and that circle then pushes out to all their circles right up, you know, you as a realtor, if it’s just friends and family, you know what that first circle is, but if it’s a complete stranger, now I had like 50, or 60 circles pushing out to their sphere. And it just really made the process and multiplied it by 20 cents. So that’s why I got into online advertising. But now that I’ve been established per se, and been around for a good amount of time, you know, now those you know, complete strangers are now my referral army. They’re pushing me out to everyone. They’re referring me to their friends and family. So instead of my friends and family referring me I have complete strangers are not strangers anymore. refer me out to their friends and family.
D.J. Paris 12:23
Yeah, it’s funny, I heard somebody talk about recently, the switch from because they became too busy to work internet leads. And they said, Well, it’s actually now a lot cheaper because I don’t have to pay the the, you know, the Zillow fees or wherever they’re purchasing leads. However, they say it actually is more expensive in a way because but in a good way. Because I now invest, I’m investing so much time with my clients, and taking such great care of them that they do refer business, but in a way, it’s like, I’m actually, you know, the time value of money. And this is a good thing. But I’m, you know, I’m spending more time with people I care about. So, you know, I don’t know if it’s technically cheaper to do it that way. But it’s certainly more fulfilling, right. And you have now this huge army, like you said, of people who are just sending everyone business. And again, that’s evidenced by all the success you’ve had. I am, I’m really curious to know, too. At what point did you decide I need a team? Because I feel like you did that pretty quickly, like within a, was it just a few years? Or was it a little after that?
Danny Lewis 13:22
It was actually in the first year, so amazing. And to go before that, what I really figured out real quickly was that I needed this system. And that was the first thing I figured out. Once I got the assistant thing nailed down. Then I said, I need a team. You know, when I was starting out in the first six or seven months of you know, being a realtor, I realized how much time I was spending, setting up showings calling agents chasing them around trying to figure out my schedule, calling leads etc. And I thought, You know what, honestly, like, these are things that I could train someone to do. And then I could focus on prospecting and finding more clients and, and just, you know, making more time for myself in a sense. So it’s risky and and it’s an investment, but it was the best thing I’ve ever done was to get an assistant and to get help. Because that really did freed me up because now I could think about the other important things. You know, their top Realtors I know. My friend Josh Lipton, for example.
D.J. Paris 14:18
Oh, yeah. Josh has been on our show
Danny Lewis 14:20
love Josh. Yeah, great guy. He does all his own. Well, he’s more into developing now. But when he was, you know, mostly working in real estate, he did all his own showings, he set up everything himself and like, how do you do that man? Like, how do you like have a life he has a kid now to, you know, how can you possibly be able to successfully have a personal life while you’re still chasing around agents who want to reschedule a showing at 230 to three and blah, blah. It just blows my mind that there are realtors out there that can do this by themselves. And you know, God bless them. I think that’s amazing. I personally am not one of them. I need help. I know I need help. And that was one of the first things I figured out when I got into real estate. I got my first Since then, when I had maybe a million dollars total in, in sales in general.
D.J. Paris 15:06
And it’s funny too, because like conventional wisdom would say you had no business getting an assistant with only a couple of deals under your belt. And yet you saw the future and saw this will actually make me more money in the long term.
Danny Lewis 15:19
There was conventional wisdom and my dad, my dad, I told him, I was getting an assistant, he was like, Why, like, what do you need this system for? Sure, just do it all yourself. Exactly. And at the time, like, I really probably, you know, didn’t have enough work to keep them busy, from nine to five. But you know, I figured out real quickly what I can do to keep them busy. And on top of that, once I did have like a whole thing set up for them, now I became freer to talk to clients to be able to, you know, prospect myself to be able to go to events, to have a life, these are things that, you know, having an assistant freed me up to do, and then eventually, you know, grow a team. So you know, the whole idea behind the team was I did start to get a good amount of leads. And I did start to get a lot of people just sitting in my inbox waiting to hear back from me. And I realized it would take me two or three days, sometimes to get back to people because I had so much else going on, I couldn’t focus on these people who are reaching out for my help. And that’s, that’s huge. I mean, if I’m spending all this money on leads, why am I wasting it if they’re just sitting there in the inbox, so the idea was at the time I was at Conlon was to send out an email to the company to even put on Craigslist, no looking for, you know, motivated brokers who can take over leads and start, you know, calling these leads, turning them into clients, and then I would just get a referral fee. That way, I wasn’t wasting money, they weren’t just sitting in my inbox that way, you know, these people who are asking for help are getting the help they need. And that way, you know, these newer agents can now have the experience of having clients of their own, and then eventually build their own, you know, rapport with these clients and having them refer them business.
D.J. Paris 16:54
But by the way, I want to pause for just a moment for the listeners, because I want to, we just Danny just said something very profound that no other person we’ve interviewed on the show has has mentioned, and maybe other people have done it, I’m sure, you probably aren’t the first, but you’re the first person to talk about it on the show. And I think this is really interesting. So obviously, Danny’s an entrepreneur, you can hear it in the way he speaks, he happens to be in real estate, he’s passionate about real estate. But at its core, you know, he’s he runs a business. And even early on, he realized, Hey, maybe I can still purchase leads and refer them to other brokers and earn a referral fee. That is a really, really important and intelligent way of thinking about leads as maybe you’re not even giving them to yourself, you know, and you earn a referral fee. That is a brilliant idea. I’ve never heard anybody think I’ve never anybody taught me that they did that.
Danny Lewis 17:45
I mean, that’s the whole basis of my team too, as well. I mean, like, like I said before, I mean, there’s two needs for it, it’s, you know, the need for yourself to make money, etc. But obviously, the bigger need is to make sure these clients have what they need. And that’s a realtor who’s 100% dedicated to them, who has the time to speak with them wherever they want, who could take them out on showings whatever they need. I understand I’m only one person, so I can’t really physically do that myself. So instead, I’d rather train people to take the leads as I would take them and then hand them off and then take a referral fee.
D.J. Paris 18:15
Yeah, I guess then naturally, that leads you to build your own team, because then you have and I know that you, you know, it’s obviously there’s a million teams out there. And a lot of them promise a lot of different things. The one thing I know about Danny and his team, because I know people on your team, and I know people over the years that have been on your team, they’re like he gives me leads. I don’t you know, and that’s really somewhat rare. Actually, I don’t know how common that is. And you actually deliver on that promise, which is probably why you’ve built such a successful and loyal team.
Danny Lewis 18:47
Yeah, I mean, when I started the whole team thing, and thank you, by the way for saying that. And when I started the whole team thing, I want to put myself in their position. And that’s what I do with everything in real estate with my clients, etc. I always tried to turn the tables and say, what would I think if I was them? What would I be looking for? So the whole idea with the team that I came up with was the exact opposite of everyday team, which means that you know, today’s normal real estate teams as brokers who do deals for their agents, once they close the deal, they do the deal under the team leaders name, the MLS, ID, etc. You know, when they have listings, it’s the team leaders name that’s on the sign outside. That’s not me. You know, my idea is I want to build a resume for these people. I want to make sure that if and when they decide to leave the team, they have something to show, and also, how not an egomaniac. And I’m not saying people who are team leaders who take the credit are egomaniacs, but personally, I don’t need the credit. I don’t need to take sales that I had nothing to do with so whenever my team members do a deal whenever they have a closing it’s always under their own MLS ID whatever my team members have their own listings as always their own signs out front. The only time that they you know say that they work under me or with me, per se, is you know, when we’re dealing with clients who know me already and who I’m introducing them to. But otherwise, these leads, these are just their own personal leads. And like I said, once they become clients of theirs, and they get referred business from these leads, that’s 100%.
D.J. Paris 20:10
Yeah, and it also gives a team member, one less reason to ever consider leaving, because they they’re not going to, like you said, putting yourself in their shoes. They’re not thinking, you know, I’m really building his brand and not my own. And you, you have essentially solved a pretty serious problem that exists in a lot of conventional teams. And again, I’m not in any way criticizing that structure, like you were saying, you feel the same way. You know, there’s a million ways to do it. But I would understand the inclination at some point for somebody, especially as they get more successful on your team to think like, well, I’d rather build my own brand than than someone else’s. So that makes perfect sense, really smart. That’s the
Danny Lewis 20:49
whole idea is to not have these people be on my team forever for them to eventually start their own team and do their own thing. And that’s how I got started, you know, I was on a team, when I started out was understand this bill G, he started me on a team, there’s only three of us, or four of us or something like that. And you know, whenever I had a question, at Friday, on Friday, at five o’clock, or you know, in these weird hours, he would always get back to me real quickly. And I remember that. And so it’s kind of like I always say, it’s like going to Starbucks, and the person in front of you pays for your coffee, you’re not going to just take the coffee and leave, you’re going to pay for the person behind you. So that’s how it is me as well. You know, I as someone who helped me out, it would be a huge waste if I didn’t turn around and give as well.
D.J. Paris 21:29
Yeah, and we should talk about recently, in the last few months, I believe, I don’t remember the exact date. But I know you just recently transitioned yourself over to dream town, which I love dream town. Actually, many, many, many years ago, in a previous career out, I worked for the company that built originally built their website. This is when they were the they far as the websites go. And this is pre Zillow. And I mean, they crushed everybody’s, you know, all the all the big firms, because they were so tech focused, and they just weren’t, they were young and cool. And they still are young and cool. And I just have always been a big, huge fan of them. i A lot of the brokers, they are just great. We’ve had a lot of them on the show. But tell us a little bit about why you chose dream town. And you know, how that transition, you know, went and that sort of, yeah,
Danny Lewis 22:15
so I’ve known evolved the owner dream town for a good amount of time, and I want to say is recruiting me, but he’s known me and he’s, you know, reached out to me for like the last four or five years, whenever I had questions. Whenever I needed something, I would reach out to him and ask him and he would always help without asking for anything in return. And that always stuck with me always. And, you know, just for people in general who are listening, you know, karma does come back. I mean, if you give, you know, everything does come back around. So yeah, I mean, I knew the company, obviously. And most recently, I’ve become more of a listing agent more than ever, you know, having legitimate sales materials and advertising for my listings is now more important than the commission I make. Because obviously, the more listings you get, you know, the more help you need, in a sense. And I realized I needed help. And the company I was at before is a great company, but they weren’t as marketing focus as I would want to be. You know, they had, I think one person in the marketing department, whereas in dream town, there’s like, 14, and I have a dedicated person to me, who basically does all my marketing for me reminds me what I need to do stuff. I spent more time on marketing the last three months, and I didn’t my last seven years of real estate, it just, it’s mind blowing. And, you know, the resources they have for my clients are awesome. The the agents that work there, that culture they have, it’s something that I want to be a part of. And, you know, it’s been everything that I’ve hoped so far it’s been, you know, four or five months, but in these four or five months, I’ve learned how much I’ve been missing, in a sense, and it’s been awesome. It’s been a great experience.
D.J. Paris 23:51
Yeah, dream job is just one of those companies that has seemed to figure it out. And they, you just never You rarely, I mean, rarely, I mean, I’ve never I saw saved, you know, basically never ever hear anybody unhappy. So, you know, customers or brokers, it’s, I’m a recruiter so so I don’t even try a dream job brokers, because I know they’re just happy, typically. And that’s a real testament to that. So So I applaud you and your choice there.
Obviously, you don’t need my approval, but I do think that I think it’s a good choice. Yeah.
Well tell us a little bit about about, you know, is it you know, because there there are brokers that are listening that are always looking for, you know, for maybe a different opportunity, and you know, what is it that you looked for so, obviously you talked about marketing Were there other things that that were really important or was that the primary thing that was like
Danny Lewis 24:45
the primary thing but you know what, I could say that anyone who’s listening in any broker who’s out there, you’re the wintertime is one of the debt is time in real estate, especially in Chicago and December there’s really no reason for us to be here at all right sales are down everyone’s focusing on the holidays, etc. So what I always recommend is at the end of the year, you know, once you have your resume, quote, unquote, put together of sales, that’s when you go around to all the major agencies call all the managing brokers set up meetings with each one of them, and go see what there is out there to offer. You know, I’m not going to do that for a while, because I’m happy where I’m at now. But, you know, at a point, you know, the last couple of years or so I realized how important it was to not just make connections with those managing brokers, because now when I go out, and I see them, you know, I’m friendly with all them, they all know me, well, even if I didn’t, you know, choose to go to their company, they do realize that I’m not going anywhere in terms of real estate. So it makes sense to still be friendly, for down the road, you know, just going around and seeing what these other cultures look like to see what these other companies are offering their agents, and then take that idea, take that ammo and use it towards your own business. I mean, you can go to a meeting with a company that you have no intention of joining whatsoever. But they could say something in that meeting that you think, Oh, why am I doing that with my business? Or why isn’t? Why am I talking to my managing broker about doing that with me? It just gave me so many ideas. And it gave me so many different levels of thinking about our jobs that I never thought about before. So you know, I would say no matter what, no matter what your intentions are, no matter what motivates you, in terms of, you know, a company that you work for, just go out there and meet the managing brokers of all the major companies see what they’re offering their agents, and then take that and use it have your life.
D.J. Paris 26:25
Yeah, and it’s in no way a betrayal of your current situation. It’s just, you’re just looking because cultures change, managing brokers change. And all of a sudden, you know, a firm that maybe you weren’t interested in before, or an office of a larger firm or a smaller firm, they get a new managing broker, and it changes everything. And all of a sudden, they become so I think that’s, you know, as somebody who I would prefer, our brokers never leave our firm. Of course, they do. You know, some do, and it’s totally okay, and maybe other firms are a better fit at some point. And so, and maybe we’re a better fit at some point. So I exactly pletely understand that inclination. And, you know, it’s something that I think, you know, it’s funny, like, I used to see ads, where you somebody would blast out an ad saying, come join our firm, and it would say, like, private confidential conversation, I’m like, it doesn’t have to be a scary thing that you’re afraid of getting caught. It’s just normal business, you know, it’s, you know, and, and things change that it’s never almost ever even personal. When you find a firm, that’s a better fit. It’s just, I think they’re better fit.
Danny Lewis 27:30
I mean, you. I mean, you said exactly what was about to say, it’s in no way, a personal thing. And I think I’m pretty sure at this point that every managing broker realizes that that, you know, it’s real estate is just how it is. I mean, when you’re a free agent, in a sense, an independent contractor, you know, you’re only looking out for yourself, you’re not really looking out for the company that you work for as much. And I get that. And I think that most managing brokers and owners get that as well as at the end of the day, we have to pay our own bills. And if the company that you’re working for isn’t doing that, then you got to see what else is out there.
D.J. Paris 27:59
Yeah, and speaking of your team, and and also, you know, recruiting in general, I know, you’re always looking, or you’re looking currently, see if there’s more people to add, that would be a good fit. Can you tell us a little bit more about like, what, who would be a good fit for your team, because we have so many listeners, and I’m sure there’s plenty of people that would be interested in exploring what you guys offer.
Danny Lewis 28:20
For sure. You know, starting out, obviously, in the beginning, it was a lot of newer realtors, people who are brand new to real estate. So you know, as you know, I was helping them take these leads and training them on how to turn these people into clients. You know, I’d also be training them on the MLS, and train them on pretty much everything in real estate, you know, writing contracts, etc. Now, it’s come to a point where, you know, now we’re looking for established, you know, experienced brokers, people who have the experience of working for companies, people who had the experience of having their own clients, maybe they’ve been in real estate for a good amount of time and, you know, hit a standstill and want some help. That’s what we’re looking for now, and actually have a couple brokers on the team, who have been in real estate longer than I have, you know, 1015 years, but, you know, they kind of swallow their pride in that sense and realize, you know, what I’m doing right now isn’t working, this guy is doing something that’s working for him and his team. Why don’t I find out about it, let me reach out to him and see what he’s got. And it’s worked out beautifully. And the other thing too, is, you know, I have team members, good amount of team members now that are pretty much located in every part of the city, but there still are a good amount of parts of the city that I’m missing out on in suburbs as well. So you know, suburban agents, people who are, you know, a little bit further out than what I’m used to, like 2030 minutes away, or 2030 miles west or north. Those are the type of brokers that we’re looking for now. So more than ever experience counts for sure, in terms of joining the team, but you know, also people who are in areas that aren’t served as much, I’m always interested in talking to them as well.
D.J. Paris 29:53
That’s great. And if, since we’re on the topic, if someone is interested in reaching out to you to see if they’d be a fit and that you’d be a fit for them as a new team member, what would be the best way for someone to reach out to you,
Danny Lewis 30:05
you can just reach out to me my email, which is Louis Chicago, real estate@gmail.com. I mean, on real estate DJ, if you can’t find me on that when something that’s true, we’re also
D.J. Paris 30:16
going to, we’re going to post that email address and your phone number as well for listeners who are interested so they can easily reach out to you. So yeah, he’s Danny’s easy to find, and he’s a marketer by trade.
Danny Lewis 30:27
I’m doing something wrong. That’s true.
D.J. Paris 30:29
You know what, that’s a good point from going forward. I’m never going to mention how to get a hold of anybody. If you can’t find them, you probably shouldn’t join they’re actually a really good idea. Be funny. I also just just to wrap things up, I wanted to just because the story I want to hear this because I don’t know the story. But I want to hear your sex shop story if you don’t.
Danny Lewis 30:52
That was taking some clients out. They were actually online leads. Really nice older couple of very conservative, very quiet. First couple showings, didn’t say much, you know, we’re very respectful of the sellers and the owners. And so we had the third showing, I think, was the last showing of the day, walk in, and this isn’t a kid show, right? Like, say whatever you want. So we walk in and there’s like a giant dildo like write this as soon as we walk in, that’s amazing. My jaw drops, and I realized I look around, there’s like, like, maybe 300 deals, all put around on tables all like stacked up purposely and etc. It turns out, the owners were renting the unit out to someone, a tenant who used it as a sex shop. And it was the most awkward thing in the world. And you know, I know is you know what it’s like to tour in places with clients who no one said a word like everyone’s head was down. We didn’t talk about not even after we
D.J. Paris 31:51
couldn’t even just like joke about it, because no one was there for it. Yeah,
Danny Lewis 31:55
not with these guys. They were way too conservative. They were older. You know, if they’re my age, if you know, there are people who I thought could handle that who looked at me or you know, laugh a little bit were in there, I would definitely say something. But it was just so awkward because we acted like nothing ever happened or like, no, like it was no one there. So that was it wasn’t really the section that was funny. But it was kind of like the reaction afterwards of how awkward it was and how strange it was not to even like pretend like we were just in there.
D.J. Paris 32:23
Like, how does the listing agent not go, Hey, broker bring the buyer by just FYI, here’s what you’re gonna walk in like that, to me is crazy, right?
Danny Lewis 32:33
So that again comes back to the whole idea of why I have a team and why having an agent at the properties as they’re showing it is so important. So this was obviously a lockbox scenario, I called the agent afterwards and told them and they had no clue they had no idea what was going on. So amazing. You know, for all you agents out there, when you’re pitching people on or pitching, you know, sellers, and why you should be listing their property. One of the things you have to include no matter what, and this is why having a team is necessary, is that you will be showing the place in person every single time. And it’s crazy that we have to say this, I mean, with the amount of money that we make off of commission of the amount of money that we make in terms of you know, sales price and percentage. We should be there physically for every single showing, there’s no way that you should walk away with a check for $7,000 If you’ve never walked through the door, and all you suburban agents out there, they’re listening. God bless you. I don’t know how you do it. I don’t know how you get listings. As you know, I have suburban agents that didn’t even show up to closings or inspection. Right. It’s it’s the culture of how they do it out there in the city is not like that. And it’s so important, so important to be there physically for showings for exactly situations like this.
D.J. Paris 33:40
I love that the listing agent had no idea that is that’s amazing.
Danny Lewis 33:44
None no idea. I was the one who had to break it to her like, by the way, you should probably know that your listing is being used as a snack shop right now. Wow.
D.J. Paris 33:53
Well, I think that’s a great place to wrap up because we can’t tell that story. That’s, that’s about as good as I’ve ever heard. But anyway, again, as Look, obviously Danny and his team have had tremendous success. He’s got an incredible reputation in the industry. Everybody knows him. They everyone loves him. He’s a great guy. Obviously, his clients and his team members already know this. But if you are looking for a realtor and you want a team, or you want to work with Danny’s specifically or someone on his team, again, I will post links to it. But what’s the best about you? Obviously, they can visit your website. Let’s give that again. That’s Louis Chicago real estate.com. Danny, Do you can you bring up the email address one more time as well?
Danny Lewis 34:35
Sure. That’s my last name Louis. Oh, ew is Chicago real estate@gmail.com.
D.J. Paris 34:41
Awesome. And we’ll post your phone number as well so that anyone who’s listening who’s looking for a broker or is looking at who is a broker, and as you know, an experienced broker who’s looking to join a team, I couldn’t recommend Danny more highly. Obviously he doesn’t need my my recommendation, but I certainly know him personally and he’s a great guy and and takes really good care of his team members, which, you know, I don’t know how common that really is. So it’s, it’s a big deal. So with that being said, Danny, thank you so much for spending time on a Friday with us, which I’m sure this is a busy day for realtors. So I appreciate your your flexibility and timing. We’ll get this episode out very shortly. And on behalf of Danny and myself to everyone who’s listening, please continue to listen. We’re so grateful that that everyone who is listening continues to and also that you make sure to share this with a friend if you have other brokers in your office or you know that could benefit from listening to interviews, like the one here with Danny obviously passed the word. So on behalf of Danny and myself, we say thank you and Danny appreciate your time.
Danny Lewis 35:44
Vijay, thanks so much again, man. I had a blast. I can’t wait to hear it in here the future episodes as well.
D.J. Paris 35:49
Awesome. All right. Thank you
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