Quentin Green with Downtown Apartment and Realty Company talks about how he got into real estate business and why he got focused on renting. Quentin focuses on how to build and nurture relationships with other agents. Next, Quentin discusses managing time, calendar and appointments and how he does it personally. Last, Quentin discusses giving back to the realtor community and its importance.
If you’d prefer to watch this interview, click here to view on YouTube!
Quentin Green can be reached at qgreen@downtownloop.com and (773) 895-7750.
Please follow Quentin on Instagram here.
This episode is brought to you by Real Geeks.
Transcript
D.J. Paris 0:00
On today’s episode why doing rentals today guarantees sales tomorrow. Stay tuned. This episode of Keeping it real is brought to you by real geeks. How many homes are you going to sell this year? Do you have the right tools? Is your website turning soft leads and interested buyers? Are you spending money on leads that aren’t converting? Well real geeks is your solution. Find out why agents across the country choose real geeks as their technology partner. Real geeks was created by an agent for agents. They pride themselves on delivering a sales and marketing solution so that you can easily generate more business. Their agent websites are fast and built for lead conversion with a smooth search experience for your visitors. Real geeks also includes an easy to use agent CRM. So once a lead signs up on your website, you can track their interest and have great follow up conversations. Real geeks is loaded with a ton of marketing tools to nurture your leads and increase brand awareness visit real geeks.com forward slash keeping it real pod and find out why Realtors come to real geeks to generate more business again, visit real geeks.com forward slash keeping it real pod. And now onto our show.
Hello, and welcome to another episode of Keeping it real the largest podcast made by real estate agents and for real estate agents. My name is DJ Paris, I am your guide and host through the show and in just a moment, we’re going to be speaking with amazing person top producer and recent 30 under 30 NAR winner Quentin green. Before we get to Quinton, a few quick announcements, we’ll keep it very short. But please always, we always ask this and we’re gonna keep asking because it means so much to us. Please tell a friend. Think of one other realtor that needs to hear what we do on this podcast, send them a link either to our website, which is keeping it real pod.com or over. Or they can just pull up a podcast app and search for keeping it real and hit the subscribe button. we so much appreciate it. Thanks in advance for doing that. And also please leave us a review. Take just a few seconds, whatever podcast app you might be listening and let us know what you think of the show. Okay, enough for me. Let’s get to our interview with Quentin green.
Today on the show, we have Quentin Green from downtown apartment and realty company. Let me tell you about Quentin. And he by the way, Quentin is here in the Chicagoland area. But let me tell you about Quentin. Now Quentin is a partner and Director of Development at downtown apartment and realty company. He entered the business in mid 2016. Upon graduating from slew St. Louis University. Quentin comes from a long line of land entrepreneurs and is a third generation realtor, which is in a large part how he got into the industry and quittance first four years as a realtor. He was primarily leasing apartments in downtown Chicago. He’s leased over 400 apartments across the Chicagoland area. And in 2021, Clint was recognized by the Chicago Association of Realtors as a top rental producer and did a little over 10 million in sales, which was a 900% increase in sales production year over year. So in just one year, he went from essentially about one or 2 million in sales all the way up to I can’t do the math but but up to 10 million I might have that first part wrong Quentin can correct me but amazing growth in a one year period. Quentin has also served as the 2021 chair for the Chicago Association of Realtors Young Professionals Network, and was also and just up within the last week was recently selected as an honoree for realtor magazines. This is National Association of REALTORS 30, under 30 for the class of 2022. So congratulations, Clinton, and welcome to the show. Thank you happy to be here. It’s weird. You’re in all that get rattled off a lot happened in one year. But ya know, longtime listener have been tuning in, you know, well before I met you so you know, I couldn’t be happier to be on. Yeah, I first met Quentin. I think the first I met was when I joined YPN Quinton was the chair and YPN for those of you who aren’t familiar, I’m not sure if they have them at every local association across the country but in Chicagoland area at the Chicago Association, realtors. It’s the Young Professionals Network and Quentin and I actually just saw him earlier today at an event we’re still on the committee together but he used to chair the committee and so I I got to work sort of underneath him helping out and it was I was always very impressed with Quentin and congratulations on the 30 under 30 award. That is a big big deal. Many many people apply
Quentin Green 5:00
pay for it and very few ever get to achieve it. So congrats. Yeah. And also, yeah, no, I’m, it’s awesome. And I know that was it. Was this your last year of eligibility for for it? Oh, so I’m 27. So which was Yeah, time? Yeah. So it was like, if I didn’t get it, that’s my personal plan because obviously like, I just had, you know, big year, and I would never have gotten it last year. Let’s be honest. So like, I was ready for it this year. You know, I had some, some good people write recommendation letters, which I think went a long way. But yeah, I you know, even I was kind of surprised to get it figured it out to you know, apply again next year. And, and hopefully, you know, get it to enter, you know, yeah, for that. I don’t know. Yeah, it’s funny. So we want every year for our show, whenever that 30 under 30 list comes out, we usually start contacting those those agents, because we think, you know, gosh, our listeners would love to probably hear we talked to so many brokers that so many realtors that have been doing this for 20 plus years. And that’s not always super relatable to to newer agents and the fact that you were able to do it, receive that award, in really, you know, 27 and your first time applying is truly remarkable. Because we talked we end up talking to a lot of the 30 under 30 people on the show. So really, really great actually ran into Jordan Pyle, who was also on our show. He was a pastor at under 30 winner as well. I ran into him in the restroom this morning. At the event we were all at so I didn’t even see him. He was Yeah, okay. Yeah, he was there. And I know he and you are really close. So, so that yeah, he wrote, here’s what our recommendation letter is actually. Yeah, it’s a small world. It is. Well, let’s, let’s start. And I’m sorry, we should everyone should be following Quinton on Instagram, we’re gonna have a link to that in our show notes. But his Instagram account is Quinton green. And that’s que un tin green without any at the end. So just green like the color underscore RT Quentin green underscore RT on Instagram. And also you can find them on Facebook, just search for Quentin green, it’ll pop right up. But let’s talk about how you got into real estate. So so
D.J. Paris 7:04
not I was gonna say fun fact. But it’s really not fun. Anyone other than me. I lived in I lived in St. Louis, right out of college, I went to school in Ohio and, and got a job, my aunt got me this terrible, terrible job. But this this job in St. Louis. And so I moved to the Central West End. So I actually was kind of in between WashU and SLU. And, and I really, really enjoyed it. I had a lot of friends that went to SLU. And what a cool, I just liked that school. Yes.
Quentin Green 7:35
It is. And and you know, and then you came back here, of course, after school and then went basically right into real estate. Is that my understanding? Yeah, pretty much. I mean, I didn’t know what I was going to do out of school. You know, I was,
yeah, I was interviewing consulting firms. And you know, like, a few banks. And I was just like, immediately intimidated. And I just didn’t think that I would I would last and you know, I don’t know, it wasn’t for me. So I had no idea what I wanted to do, I figured maybe law school would be something I would do down the road. But like, in the meantime, I was like, oh, I need a job. So, you know, having both my parents, you know, they had their own firm here for I mean, 15 years, probably.
And, you know, 10, of which I’m sure their top producers for, you know, I just got my license right away, started working at the company that I’m at now, just kind of doing rentals. And, you know, I’d say the first two years, I was very much in between staying and leaving, I was always like, sort of one foot out the door. I was like, I don’t know, if I keep doing this. But you know, I stuck to it. And, you know, it ended up being a much, much longer than I thought it would be.
Yeah, it’s, it’s impressive, and you haven’t just quite a very humble person, but you didn’t, you didn’t just stick to it, you were really, really committed whether, you know, whether you’re sort of able to sort of see that as much as maybe, maybe I’ve seen that in you because I you know, I’ve just seen lots and lots of agents, and I understand that the rental game is is a grind and it’s tough. It just is it’s a lot of flaky people, it’s a lot of you know, they maybe they’re talking to two other, you know, realtors or two leasing consultants at the same time. And, and, you know, it’s just, it’s just a lot of things that fall through. And that being said, I’ve always thought that rentals, and I know that you know, you’re now doing predominantly sales, but but rentals were I always thought such a smart way to enter the business. And of course, not every market can really support that, where an agent can kind of start, you know, doing sort of clicker deals. But boy, I mean, it’s so so funny. There’s a direct line between homeownership and rentals. And yeah, pretty much all of us rented before we bought and so I think it’s just such a smart, smart play, but tell us about how you got started in rentals. Like, like, like, really? What was that like for you? So yeah, I mean, my whole thing was like, I mean, again, part of the reason why I ended up choosing like real estate over like any other sales job was because I you know, had my parents and I saw them kind of
do it and I was like, Oh, well, you know, this is, this is a good way to get into business I have people I can get on the phone with at any moment, give them a call. And so, you know, after a lot of discussion, like I talked to, you know, a few top producers as well to see it. And I didn’t know if I was going to join a team, because there’s a very join a team of like a top producing agent, and I learned the business that way. And like, I firmly believe that you either go that route, or you gotta go the ground up route of starting at Reynolds and building your business. But like, if you do that, you have to realize that, like, this is a long term time horizon, and you’re, you’re gonna be, you know, eating shit for least a little bit if you go this route. And so I was like, you know, what, screw it, you know, I’m gonna get home to do it, I’m gonna give it a shot. And, you know, I’ll just kind of build my own books, I started doing rentals that way. And that’s what really attracted me to it. You know, of course, there’s people in between those two spectrums that end up, like crushing it and do incredibly well. I just think for most people, especially if you’re young. And it’s like when your first jobs like, you got to do one of those two options, in my opinion. Well, yeah, because you’re your friends. And you know, I mean, my friends when I was in my early 20s, they weren’t buying homes.
D.J. Paris 11:02
Right? Yeah. So it’s like, yeah, either you gotta help them rent or you join one of those teams, where they’re gonna be providing you a lot of leads, and we’ll just kind of show you the ropes, you’ll be sent open houses, you’ll be taking, you know, you’ll be showing listings, whatever. So, so yeah, I mean, I started doing downtown apartment rentals, you know, a lot of stuff, not on the MLS, you know, that’s what our company pretty much only did back then we would just take them to, you know, a lot of the depression as rental buildings. And it was really just a valium game. And you know, it still is a lot of people or companies still still do that. But that I mean, that’s pretty much how I how I got into it. There’s between that are joining like a larger team. Yeah, I want to just define what Quinton just talked about with these we’ll call the non MLS apartment listings. Because this is not only specific to the Chicagoland area, although we do have a lot of apartments here in Chicago, of course with our population that never hit the MLS so so what we’re talking about is, these could be anything from high rise buildings to even just single family homes that are managed by a property management company who still will work with realtors to get to get their stuff rented, they just don’t listed on the MLS because there’s no listing agent, they don’t want to pay a listing agent, they just wanted to pay whoever brings them the renter. And so if you are in an area where if what I just said is completely foreign to you, here’s how you can find out if these listings exist. Go to Facebook marketplace, or I don’t know, Craigslist, probably no one uses anymore. But any sort of place where there’s ads for apartments and look for, you know, if they’re posted by a, you know, a management company, or even just the building itself, and literally just pick up the phone and call the management company and say, Hey, I’m a realtor. I also do apartments sometimes, you know, can I rent your properties, because I’m guessing they’re not on the MLS. And what they’ll do is they’ll start to send you It depends on of course, the building, whether they’ll work with agents or not. But oftentimes, at least here in Chicago, most of them will almost all of them. And what’s really cool about it is because there’s no listing agent, at least here in the Chicagoland area. Typically the Commission’s are a full month’s rent, sometimes even more, depending on the time of the year if there is no more space, so you can earn 120 550% of one month’s rent. And there’s a there’s some downsides to working with property management companies too. But it opens up this huge additional amount of inventory that the MLS just doesn’t have. So for anyone listening costs some of these big buildings, or if you live in a more rural area, maybe just look up management companies call them and say, Hey, I’m a realtor. Do you have any places that need to get rented? And if so, you know, will you pay me a commission? If I find you someone? And you’ll I bet you’d be surprised that most of these management companies will probably say yes, so anyway, sorry, to pause that, you know, that’s good. I’m kind of a commission because I didn’t know what I could or couldn’t say, you know, we’re so used to like that antitrust stuff. So I’m like, alright, but that’s good. Yeah, I mean, they paid they paid twice as much typically. So it’s funny, the cats totally out of the bag. Now, like when I first started in 2016, like,
Quentin Green 13:59
I thought this was normal, but like no other companies really did this. Like there were very companies that specifically specialized in these like luxury rentals. And so like we still to this day, we have our own, like CRM, our own internal database of all these buildings and cars and all this stuff. Like it’s super built out. It’s totally custom. And we’ve had that for you know, since I’ve been with the company, and now you’re starting to see a lot of these bigger firms be like, Whoa, we’re totally like these crumbs, they’re not crumbs, right? Like, we got to start going after a lot of this stuff. And so you’re seeing more of that now. And where a lot of people, you know, regardless what company you’re at, they’ll do more of this. But yeah, back then, you know, were some of the only players in that market. And you’ve done a lot of apartments and I’m curious on the not not that there’s any specific numbers to that. I’m sure you could rattle off but how many of those customers that were rent or clients over time evolved into buyers? Is it been? Quite a few? Yeah, it’s been a few. I don’t have an exact number for you. I would say
Unknown Speaker 14:59
Like, got of you know, I don’t I think I’ve done over 400 rentals, at least maybe like 10 to 15 have went and bought for me as well. Amazing. Yeah, but I mean, like 10 to 15 out of 400. Like, in my, the way I look at it, like, I haven’t even gotten started with that, of course, you know, yeah, we I’m happy with it don’t get me wrong, but But yeah, I think there’s, there’s definitely a lot more people from that pipeline that are gonna be buying well,
D.J. Paris 15:25
and right now it’s it’s, it’s tricky because here at least here in Chicago inventory is so low that a lot of people are going to continue to rent for a while until, you know until things change with inventory and pricing. So it’s, it’s, you have a lot of people probably just waiting, or maybe they’re building up, you know, more of a down payment or whatever they’re doing. But right, but luxury apartment people eventually buy every single one pretty much unless they’re somebody that maybe floats around from from city to city for their job or something, but the vast majority of them are going to purchase, they’re going to go, they’re going to work with an agent. And you’ve set yourself up quite nicely. And I’m curious about this, because I think even for our listeners that aren’t doing rentals, I think you know, you’re talking about just getting started. And you know, you have this, these these people that you’ve worked with in the past, and yet only 10 or 15 of them have become sellers, or buyers. But still, that’s that’s an amazing number. It really is. And and this just this idea of that’s just gonna keep going rolling for you every year, maybe even quite a bit more. And I’m curious on how you stay in touch with somebody like that, like, how do you continue to just make sure that they remember that you’re the guy that rented him the apartment three years ago? Is that difficult? Or do you have systems in place? Or how do you do that?
Quentin Green 16:41
Yeah, I mean, I’m not gonna lie, that’s certainly not like my expertise. I what I do now, you know, it took me three and a half to four years to really like sit down, because I don’t know, when I first started, man, I was not thinking about anything, I was like, just put my head down, like show up and just rent units. And then I got sick of doing that. To be totally honest, I was like, We got to figure out a way to get to the next step faster. So I took pretty much all my past clients, what anyone I’ve interacted with, I had just, you know, on an Excel sheet, I make sure I don’t put any agents on that. Because I hate when agents send me newsletters and all that BS, and they just get your whole inbox. It’s infuriating. I’m not your target audience. And so you know, I have that I do monthly newsletters, which is good. And it’s normally really good content. I earliest I like to think based on you know, what people tell me. So I do that. And then I always just, you know, obviously certain clients, you spark more of a connection relationship with than others. And, you know, I really go out of my way to just kind of check in every once in a while. So yeah, I mean, there’s, there’s no trick, I literally use an Excel sheet, and I throw it into Constant Contact, and bam, you know, kind of punch it out. But I didn’t start doing that. So a year and a half ago, maybe.
D.J. Paris 17:45
Yeah, it is, it is one of those things that when you’re when you’re first starting, you’re just trying to survive, and you’re like, I just gotta, I gotta pay the bills, and I gotta, I gotta get these deals close. So I can I can eat. And then the idea that four years from now, I’m gonna, like come up with a four year plan to keep on top of this for you know, which is just not, you know, not something you have the bandwidth for at that time. But, but but now being able to go back is is great, because, yeah, very few people ever go back. So like, if you ever I’ve learned this about life, like with follow up, like, even if you lose touch with somebody, or if you dropped the ball, I’m not saying you ever done that, but I know I’ve done that a lot. And it’s like, even if you just go back, and you’re like, Hey, man, sorry, for or not, you probably wouldn’t say hey, man, but but sorry for for, you know, sort of being being absent. But I, you know, I definitely want to, you know, continue the conversation and blah, blah, blah. Usually people are like, Okay, that’s great, you know, people usually, you know, they don’t go back once they dropped the ball. And I think that’s a missed opportunity to reconnect with somebody. And, you know, if they don’t like you, they’ll tell you, like, but but they probably do like you and probably are like, Oh, I’m glad to hear you know, you’re coming back. It’s kind of like getting a call from an old friend. That’s like, I know, we haven’t talked in 15 years, but I was just thinking about you. It’s like, that’s a still a nice feeling. And I understand, you know, it’s not exactly the same as that, but But it’s sort of. So I think that’s great. I also want to talk of just just briefly because I think this is particularly interesting, which is a crazy success story. But I know that you’ve also worked with investors, and you have one client in particular, who’s really been an it seems like it’s really been like this amazing force in your life. And most everyone I’ve interviewed on the show has a somewhat of a similar story where it’s like this one person that I somehow met, they ended up introducing me to, you know, a lot of other people that turned into business. Everyone seems to have this one client, and you’ve done that on the investor side. Do you mind just sharing a little bit about how you met that person and what kind of deals you guys have done?
Unknown Speaker 19:49
Totally. Yeah. So the client you’re talking about, he’s someone who, you know, he’ll just buy a couple, you know, multifamily properties once a year basically, when I met him I I didn’t know that that was what he did. So he had reached out it was right when COVID hit and he was doing Airbnbs a four unit, you know, right on right around arm to check it. So like a plus location and he was crushing it. He was he was actually starting to use bookings go down. So it was kind of ahead of like the COVID. You know, there the COVID like wave. He was like a month or two early. And he was like, Yeah, something’s off. I don’t know. But anyways, I want to get into leasing news full time. So I was literally to sit in the office he calls. You know, I
D.J. Paris 20:30
go, wow, that was that was an intelligent sort of lucky not lucky, probably had some some intelligence behind it. That didn’t make it so lucky. But just even thinking I’m going to switch from short term to long. Oh, he’s
Unknown Speaker 20:42
a super creative guy.
D.J. Paris 20:43
Yeah, it’s got Yeah, anyway, that’s it.
Unknown Speaker 20:46
I mean, he noticed the decline. He was like, something’s off. You know, I don’t know what it is. But it doesn’t really make as much sense anymore. So he ended up I ended up going to take a look at the properties. You know, they’re great units, and it was all furnished. So we rented those. And I think I’ve rented them for him within like two days, he already had professional pictures.
D.J. Paris 21:03
By the way, how did he find you?
Unknown Speaker 21:05
So he called my office. So yeah, we get just a random phone call, random phone call, totally random. I was the first guy who called I think he had used the previous agent to buy the property in like 2017. And, you know, he said, I don’t know, they didn’t, they didn’t get along, I can tell you what happened there. Sure. So yeah, we run them in two days, he was super happy. And he was actually like making the same amount he was with Airbnb, after the, you know, whatever 25 30% of fees that you pay to the manager of it. So he was good to go. And you know, since then I’ve really kept in touch with him. He ended up buying. And so this guy, he ended up buying four more properties through me in between, like today, and when I first met him, which would end which ended up being about over $3 million per year. And he doesn’t even use these properties. Like before, he says, like, I pretty much go there. And you know, I do the Proform analysis, all that stuff. Yeah. And he you know, he’s also super specific. So he’s got his own numbers that he’s that he’s working on. And so he kind of gives me his eyes, ears. And then, you know, he’s also like, like, I don’t manage units, I don’t want to get management, you know, it scares the hell out of me. But what I will do is like, I’ll handle all the leasing. So like for him specifically, like, I will be on top of the leases when it’s 6090 days out, and I’ll go and do the renewals and all that stuff. And so I just handle the entire leasing process on the back end. And honestly, it doesn’t bother me, you know, it’s easier for me, I don’t have to communicate with him, and leases are up, and all that stuff, and it saves him a ton of time. So yeah, it’s been an amazing relationship. And yeah, it’s all from one office colleges, you know, I was just sitting there.
D.J. Paris 22:37
And by the way, for everyone listening, if you want a little tip about how to reverse engineer this, and obviously, Quentin has a very fortunate story where the phone rang, and he just happened to get the call. And you know, not all of us can, can can just have that happen. And I’m not saying that, of course, Quentin works insanely hard, but it just was a nice break that fell your way. And if you want to create that own break for yourself. Yeah, the phone’s probably not going to ring for the rest of us. So instead, what we can do is if you ever just are driving down the street, you see a for rent sign, perfect reason to pick up the phone with the phone number, just call and say, Hey, Are you the owner, you’re the property manager. Hey, great. I’m a realtor and I you know, I sometimes rent properties. And I don’t know if this one’s available still. But I just wanted to learn a little bit more about you know, the place. So if I ever have a tenant, blah, blah, blah. And what eventually will happen if you make enough of those calls, at least here in the Chicagoland area, and probably everywhere, is you do find investors like that, who go like, Oh, you kind of caught me at a good time, I don’t really want to deal with the leasing side of this anymore. I want to outsource it to you. I, you know, I don’t want to do it. And and then eventually those people are like, oh, yeah, I have other properties, or I’m buying more properties. And so you hit that vein of investor, you had that great relationship, and You’ve nurtured it. And oh my gosh, like, it didn’t just it wasn’t just the leasing side. Now you have all these, you know, you have what, 6 million in sales just from this one guy. I mean, that is an amazing relationship that you’ve built.
Unknown Speaker 24:01
Totally. Yeah, no. I mean, it’s, it’s been fantastic. And one thing I’ll add to that is, like, part of me is like, you know, every once awhile, you’re like, oh, it’s like, whatever. But the thing is, like, you got to show up every day in order to get lucky. And with some, you know, something like that, like, Yeah, I mean, it’s hard to believe that some guy just you know, calls an office, but everyone’s got that one. That one, you know, Lucky moment or whatever. And one thing that they have in common, though, is that like, yeah, he called that one day, but I was at the office for like eight hours every single day, and I would be the first one into the office. So that way, the first lead would go to me directly, you know, so that’s just, you know, that’s just what you’re doing. Yeah, there’s great stories from it. And that’s another thing that I would also point out is you get these landlords the you people have no idea how many phone calls they’re getting from a lot of these middle market brokers who specifically focus on like multifamily, basically trying to get in front of them and put up presentations in order to sell their properties. And so that’s what I’m gonna be dedicating and I don’t really mind tipping my hand at all, but like, one thing I’m focusing more on is reaching out to these landlords and actually offering them rentals. ervices and then you know, towards that, and then, you know, if they ever do want to sell or acquire another property, you know, they’ll have someone who knows what they’re doing. And it’s really just all about getting in front of these people, you know, and knowing the language they speak. And if you can offer a service to them, you know, instead of just calling them up and be like, Hey, I could sell your property with this much. It’ll it’ll guarantee you, it’ll be a way better way to get your foot in the door,
D.J. Paris 25:20
to do rentals to offer the rental service.
Unknown Speaker 25:23
Yeah, I think so.
D.J. Paris 25:25
Absolutely. I could not agree more. So this, this goes back to the well, how do you find these people? Well, you look at you look at the ads, you know, if you can, a lot of times tell when you see an ad on Facebook marketplace, or elsewhere, if you look at the comments or the description, you can tell when it’s written by a realtor off, it’s supposed to say realtor on it. So they should know that. But sometimes it doesn’t. But you get a sense of like, who might, you know, who might not really want to do that side of the business, because you might just see really poorly done ads. And and, and that’s another opportunity to contact them and say, hey, I can help you with this. And, and it’s kind of one of those things, too, with those phone calls. It’s like, either the investor will know right away when you when you call them whether they’re willing to work with an agent or not, you might still have to earn the right to work with that particular investor. But this idea that you’re like, hey, this is what I do. This is what I’m good at. And yes, and I think the point you making about make your own luck is is really a very, very true point. Like Quinton didn’t just look his way into that he happened to be there, the day that that call came in, but the hundreds and hundreds of hours you put in prior to getting those calls and just kind of doing your reps. Is is really how it is in any i i It is funny because I always caution, like I always went a little when somebody tells a story like that, because I think oh, I don’t want people to think that like you just got lucky. Because like, yeah, does it really come into it?
Unknown Speaker 26:56
Yeah, it will. It does, you know, you’ll have lucky moments. But you got to show up every day in order to have those lucky moments. You know, I mean, you’d have a way more likely chance of getting lucky if you’re in a position to be lucky. You know?
D.J. Paris 27:08
Yeah, you know, let’s, let’s talk about your and I know, every Realtors days for most Realtors days are different, but I feel like you’re a pretty regimented or structured guy. So how does because you you really are do you work predominantly from home? Or do you go into the office spent off much or
Unknown Speaker 27:25
I’m a little half and half, you know, I have a monitor at home, which is like a godsend for me. And I don’t have one of the office. So I find myself being in the office mainly for, you know, like partner meetings, meetings with like, different teams for properties or doing the subset, or like, in between showings, I’ll pull my laptop, but I’m just so much more productive with a monitor. It’s I mean, I need to get a monitor in the office. It’s kind of I just figured out talking through that.
D.J. Paris 27:52
But as far as, you know, what is your day typically look like? Like? How do you structure it so that you at the end of the day, you feel like, okay, I feel like I did I had a good day today?
Unknown Speaker 28:05
Yeah, um, I would say I’m not the most structured in the world, I certainly put in a lot of hours, like, like anyone else, though, you know, I’ll be working till you know, nine o’clock on and off. But you know, at least every day, I’ll have at least five to 10 showings typically. So between rentals and sales, and, you know, between me and my team, we all have each other’s calendars. So you know, we can do all that stuff, it’s really helpful. But every morning, but like, the first thing I do is I just kind of check the market, you know, at any given moment, like, and this is a thing that I would say to anyone who like wants to get into a market or anyone who wants to do something like just set up automatic MLS searches and get a feel for like inventory. Like at any given moment, I’ll have, you know, 30 to 50 MLS auto searches running and it’ll send directly to me, you know, half of which are for clients, half of which are just stuff I want to be on top of in case I have that conversation, you know, I could rattle stuff off and exactly know the direction of the market. So I’ll go through that stuff. And I had my cell phone and I was certain I send it directly to all my clients, which you know, everyone does whatever, but that, to me is very religious. And it’s almost like meditative. Just being able to look through like all the new listings and price change and all that stuff and kind of fumble through it. But yeah, beyond that, you know, we have weekly meetings. I have structure there, but I’m not as structured. And that’s partially I think, because, you know, I haven’t really had to be to be fully honest.
D.J. Paris 29:22
Sure. Yeah, it makes sense. But I appreciate appreciate you sharing that. And then, as far as like learning the market, it’s something that I think, oftentimes is not talked about enough, unless you’re lucky enough to have a mentor or a coach that’s like you got to learn, you know, some geographic area you really have to sort of master which takes years and years truthfully. But you’re talking about studying the market every day, so did you obviously in Chicago, we have so many different neighborhoods that anybody can specialize in. But it’s not always easy to have multiple of the As markets to really understand at a detailed level, but, you know, how do you go about doing that? Do you focus in a just a? Obviously I know, you know, clients could be anywhere, but are there certain areas where you’re like, I’m going to hyper focus? So I am the expert in XYZ neighborhood. Is that? Is that something that’s important to you? Are you still trying to get your bearings and figure out what areas are most important to you?
Unknown Speaker 30:21
Yeah, I guess, sort of, you know, I do a lot of stuff in West Loop. And that’s certainly been an area that I have focused on quite a bit. Mainly, like, I use this for, just to kind of know what is hitting the market, if I get if I get a client or like a zillo lead or anything like that. And they’re, they reach out to me, and they’re like, oh, this, you know, I know exactly what they’re talking about, like right away, because I just saw that unit hit the market this morning. There’s no specific area, but like, I specifically work in the downtown markets and then the surrounding neighborhoods. So like, probably as far north as like Andersonville, as far as I’ll go pretty far on the south side, but because I grew up in Beverly, so I’ll do all that stuff. But I grew up in the city, I know all these neighborhoods really, really well. And, you know, having his officers up and just seeing what stuff trades for, for me, it just has made it so much easier to have these conversations and not think about anything, just know all these numbers. And you know, people are like, Oh, wow, like you really kind of you have the ranges down all this stuff. And, you know, it’s taken years for me just looking at stuff. But you know, it really does help. And then obviously, you can go through info sparks and get a better picture as well. But that’s obviously flawed. Because you know, you can only it only plugs through showingtime.
D.J. Paris 31:29
Right, right. Yeah, so info sparks. For some of you, you’ll have that add on. With your MLS service, we use a service called M read. But anyway, you’ll probably have some sort of plug in. But But Quinton says is really important to setting up those auto searches for yourself in the areas that you you know, you really should know what condos are available in your preferred market, you should know when something hits the market. And you really do have to set up those auto searches. That’s a great tip. I’m not sure anyone. In the five years I’ve done the show is actually given that specific tip. So that’s a really great one is set your whatever area you want to focus on set up those auto searches, condos, single family homes apartment, yeah,
Unknown Speaker 32:09
you still get exposed to it. And then with the multifamily properties, like what I would do is I would just I would have auto searches running everywhere, I would know exactly what, you know, what a two to four unit would trade for on a cap rate in various neighborhoods. And I would also go and underwrite a lot of these properties, just for the hell of it, because I didn’t have anything to do. But I knew I wanted to work more and multifamily. So I’ll just get more and more familiar with, you know, running cash and cash, we’re in cap rates and getting an idea of like, what stuff trades for, you know, on a neighborhood and like, eventually that stuff’s just gonna stick in your brain, and you’re going to sound really smart to that guy, and then be like, oh, you know what you’re talking about, like, cool. Like, we’re, let’s, let’s Yeah, let’s move forward.
D.J. Paris 32:47
Yeah, it’s, it’s, it’s really important. And it’s something that again, we spend so much time as Realtors thinking about marketing and, and customer service, and just the ins and outs of finding clients or keeping clients. But we don’t often talk think about, like, sharpening the tools so much for I mean, quite and of course does. But a lot of agents, you know, part of their day is not studying the market. And even if you added 30 minutes to your day, for anyone listening who’s currently not studying the market, this is a great opportunity, because within a year or two, you’re gonna be you’re gonna know more than just about any other agent in your area, you’re just you just are. And all you’ll know as much as the top agents and that’s, that’s, that’s worth its weight in gold, when you’re up against other, maybe your listing presentation. And you’re up against, you know, three other big time agents and you’re able to sort of, you know, talk intelligently and not just about, here’s all the things I can do for you. It’s like, hey, taking a look, here’s what I think here’s what I’m seeing out there, you know, and here’s some data to back it up. Totally, there’s no easy way around that other than that’s, that’s the Marathon of being a realtor, I think is really just mastering the craft and knowing your knowing your stuff. So I appreciate you sharing how you do that on a daily basis, what other habits have been helpful for you, in order to really excel and sort of get to this level? Like what what have you found that’s been sort of what makes the difference in you know, how you find then service clients?
Unknown Speaker 34:14
Yeah, I mean, this will either be obvious or not obvious to most people, like I didn’t really start using like, I would always have output stuff in my own calendar. But I wouldn’t really start like making sure everyone is on a calendar invite until like maybe two years ago, and that has just completely changed my life like being able to see like my agents calendar and then also like, just having everything on one calendar because I know some agents don’t do it, which is like crazy. And I also know that like like, there’s only a few you know, larger teams, I could think of where I received those calendar invites from, you know, like there’s not many now I you know, to be honest, that’s all there is to it. And I was like alright, well I’m doing this every time if this guy’s figure it out and like and it sounds obvious, it sounds like dumb like because a lot of people like oh, I put in my counter but like, it is been life changing for me just to do that like that. way people are getting double notice some people just go through showing time. They don’t put anything in their calendar. It’s crazy.
D.J. Paris 35:04
Right? So what Quinton is talking about is, is through through our MLS, when when you request a showing through the automated service, which which the one we use is called showingtime, then you get confirmation, but it doesn’t automatically get plugged into your calendar. And so when you’re doing that, do you also send an invite to the client as well.
Unknown Speaker 35:28
Pretty much everyone, I saw the listing agent, the listing agent, I’ll send it to my agent. But if I’m the listing agent on property, I will absolutely send it to the buyers and renters as well. And also, it helps me from waste my time because a lot of people forget to forget to cancel or something like that. And if I see that they didn’t accept something my reach out, or they’ll just cancel the showing there and they won’t cancel on showing time. So since I did that, like my, the people who would like stand me up or cancel on me has gone way down. Yeah.
D.J. Paris 35:59
Yeah, it’s, it’s a lesson I had to learn in a different way. But the same same idea was I had to really have a good reminder system. I mean, I do everything with calendar invites too. But for me, when I when I recruit realtors, and we, we have a whole system where it’s like a day before they get an email and a text, the an hour before they get an email and attacks because, you know, agents are busy and they just often forget, or it’s shocking to me how many agents themselves do not keep calendars. I mean, I certainly I don’t know who keeps a calendar. Who doesn’t because I wouldn’t really ask because I
Unknown Speaker 36:38
would be able to awesome. No, that’s what people don’t. Yeah, yeah. And it’s also hard to believe it’s like a lot of it’s like new agents and like I still do work with a lot of Reynolds so and Norman listen to everyone else. So I am dealing with a lot of new agents. And yeah, yeah, if it’s just some through showing time, you don’t have that counter invite, like, you’ll get stood up a lot. And it sucks.
D.J. Paris 36:55
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It’s, it’s, it’s and then also, one thing I learned from Matt, Matt, Larissa, who’s just for anyone listening I, I interviewed him several years ago on the show, but he that’s a great interview, because he’s, he’s one of the top agents here in Chicago. Actually, yeah. Oh, good. He’s, he’s he’s very earnest person. And he’s just just sort of tells it how he sees it. And one thing that he did that very few people that have ever been on my show have did, who was running a couple minutes late is about five minutes before the meeting, or maybe knows about 10 minutes before the meeting. He messages me, and we’re not like we weren’t, we’re not friends to the extent where he’s like, you know, we’re chatting, Hi, how’s it going? I’d really never spoken to him before. And he sends me a message like, Hey, man, I’m running about five minutes late. Just want to let you know, sorry. And, and I was like, sounds so simple, and so obvious. And I just, it just reminded me that he did that. And it really stuck out to me. And I was like, That is super respectful. And it would have been fine. If he never had done that, because five minutes, no big deal. Sometimes I find I’m five minutes late. But the fact that he thought to do that was just such a great practice around being respectful of someone else’s time. And so that’s really what you’re speaking to is, is setting yourself up to have as few of those people bail on you. But also, it’s really to respect everyone’s time by scheduling it. And it sounds again, it does sound obvious, but I think so many things are what I would call the elusive obvious, like so simple, but then you’re like, oh, it really does make make a difference. So there’s that. So So that’s important to you. What, as far as when when you meet somebody, how do you establish rapport with them? I think we always on the show, we never talk about that. Because we just assume that like everybody knows how to immediately build rapport. And of course, that’s not everybody’s skill set. You’re somebody who I think is very friendly, very affable. But how do you go about trying to connect with somebody who maybe is a phone call that comes in or a lead that comes in where you’re like, that’s not a referral? They don’t know me? How do you really initiate the conversation? Because again, at least here in Chicago, there’s a lot of agents that will want to work with that renter or that buyer or that seller? We have 46,000 realtors in the area. How do you go about establishing rapport?
Unknown Speaker 39:13
Yeah, I mean, I would say like, at least 85 And I hear some of this is probably like referrals or past clients to be totally honest, like a lot of new like leads that come in. Like I especially like rental leads, like I’ll give those to my team. For the other ones. It’s like there was a time when it wasn’t that way. Right? Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. And so I don’t know I mean, to some degree, like you either like have it or you don’t like same thing when I’m dealing with like insurance people or car sales or like whatever you know, you kind of either have it or you don’t and you know lenders like whatever you name it. But one thing I will say that you know I make a point to do is like I’m constantly just, you know, filling my brain with a ton of random shit. So you know, listen to four to six hours of podcasts at least every day. Until like a lot of my clients you know, for whatever reason, like a lot of them are like bankers. You know whether like UBS when and Blair, whatever, and like I spent like, like an embarrassing amount of time just like listening to like finance podcasts and so like, I’m able to have incredibly in depth conversations with them about like what’s going on, like, in the markets, generally speaking, and like, they’re really, you know, impressed by it. So like, I would say, find your thing and you know, try to expose yourself to as much information as possible. And just from talking to people, you’ll eventually get on a certain subject that you’ll be pretty educated on, and you’ll just kind of be able to, to rattle things off, you know, and to me, it’s been really helpful. And also, like, we talked with so many people as an agent every day, so you kind of just naturally should be getting better and better at it in general. So, you know, I would say, that’s kind of typically how I try to make connections. Other than that, like, you know, I don’t know that there’s no secret that I that I, that I’m aware of what I’m doing, you know, so
D.J. Paris 40:51
no, but But I think, do your doing your homework, really, and I think, you know, for anyone listening, here’s a really simple thing that you can do if you’re going to meet with somebody, whether it’s a renter, investor, buyer seller, you know, anyone, if you find out where they work, if you know that in advance, you could just do a quick Google search, go to the news and see what’s going on with that particular company. If there was anything in the news, you can or go to LinkedIn, check out their LinkedIn page, see what they’re up to, they’ve made a poster, and you get to learn about them quite a bit. And then you can just like, you know, William Blair’s is a great, great, great example, like, there’s a million things always going on with William Blair. But if you don’t know that you don’t know it. And because you’re not in that world, and the fact that you take the time to sort of learn about things that interest you, but also are part of your clients lives, I think, is instant rapport right there. I mean, I’m always impressed when somebody’s like, Oh, I saw this, this thing about real estate. And they’ll talk to me socially, and I don’t unfortunately, know that much about real estate, but honestly, but so I oftentimes I’m like really telling me about it, but but I’m reading a lot of other things. And so you’re right, I find, the more more information that you have about just things in general, gives you a lot to talk about when you’re when you’re chatting with somebody and so that I think that’s a really, really great tip is yes, just always keep learning.
Unknown Speaker 42:10
Yeah, like go go find a sports team and be a fan know, that sports team, you know, and like a lot of people went to college, and they’re diehard sports fans, like, go pick a team, be a fan of that team. And you know, see where that takes, I guarantee you, you’re sending the car when you go to college, or you went to Ohio State Oh, you’re a diehard Ohio State fan of Michigan, you know what I mean? Like so many different things, you’ll figure it out, but just expose yourself and put in as much information your brain as possible, and that’s helpful just come out naturally, when you’re meeting with different types of people.
D.J. Paris 42:37
Yeah, that’s a really smart thing. I’m not really a sports guy. So I’ve not particularly ever built that skill set. And it it is absolutely sports are just one of those things where, you know, I’m at a party and our cocktail thing, and people will just want to talk about professional sports or college sports, whatever. And I’m like, Oh, I don’t I don’t I can’t believe it. I can’t participate in this conversation. And it sucks. Because, yeah, okay, I, you know, I’m into other things, that’s fine. But, but yeah, it does sort of suck to not know about any part of sports. I mean, I play sports, but I really don’t watch it. And so it’s, it’s one of those things where it’s like, people, I play tennis, I don’t know any of the tennis players other than like, the two or three that everyone knows, but But it’s like, I don’t even know that. And so it really is kind of it’s it’s actually doesn’t serve me well. Not that I have to be somebody who goes to every Cubs game, for example. But, and I do like going to cubs games, I just don’t know the players. But it is one of those things where it does sort of bummed me out when I’m when I’m out socially. So it sounds sort of silly, but learning about your the local sports teams in your community. It’s, it has actually pretty important because you’re right, it’s a go to conversation piece. And I know, you know, that isn’t really exactly what you’re saying is memorized sports stats, but it is a good thing to know. Because otherwise, if you don’t know, you can’t really participate in the conversation. And you have to find something scrambled to find something else.
Unknown Speaker 44:02
It’s a little tough. But I mean, you’re such a good conversationalist, which is part of the reason why you’ve probably never felt the need to do anything like that first place, you know, so I mean, everyone’s different, but it’s just, you know, it’s a word of advice for someone who like maybe isn’t that good of a conversationalist, you know, start knowing more shit.
D.J. Paris 44:15
So the last thing I really want to talk to talk about is giving back and I don’t mean giving back to your clients, although I’m sure you do that as well. But really giving back to the realtor community. This has been something that I can I met you through one of your leadership positions at Chicago Association of Realtors. And this is something that I know is really important to you. And I’d love to just hear about why you got involved initially. And really what that’s meant to you because you now have served on on a number of committees. And you’re now part of an accelerated Leadership Program. You’re now just recognized as a 30 under 30. And by the way, National Association of REALTORS doesn’t care that much about production, they want somebody that’s doing something that gives back as well. And so obviously, that, you know, they they considered you to be a very well rounded individual in this business. So I’m just curious about giving back. Like, how did you even think to get involved? Initially?
Unknown Speaker 45:15
Yeah. So I mean, honestly, it was like a cold email I got through car and I was like, oh, applications for this thing called YPN. I never knew anything about like, YPN like, No, you weren’t, you weren’t somebody that even went to the YPN events. I didn’t know anybody like because like, I was such a closed off agent, my first two to three years, I cannot even tell you because I like wouldn’t even really do many MLS deals, I would do some, but how many, but when you’re doing MLS deals, you’re not meeting a lot of these other agents that you’re with. So like, it was very much like, kind of just on a track, put your head down. And then this like, I guess, like joining YPN I got that cold email. And I applied and I remember it was Grace Kagi Jordan Pyle and Casey Taylor, who interviewed me. And like, I never knew any of these people, nothing didn’t know what I was signing up for at all. And you know, they ended up selecting me, you know, thankfully. And so my first year, I think we had like two events, right, and then COVID hit and so then we totally shut down. And I remember towards the end, the person who was supposed to be the next year’s chair ended up stepping down. And to this day, I still have no idea why but Jordan, like, you know, pulled me aside Jordan Jordan Pyle was the past chair, or I guess was going to be the was the current chair of that year. And he was like, Hey, listen, I think you throw your name in the hat and you know, Sign of the term like, Dude, I don’t know anything. Like I basically went to events, like we were in COVID. Like, I don’t even like I was on a zoom computed computer the whole time, like meeting these people. Like, I don’t know how this works. But you know, at that time, like I was, he was a mentor to me already. And so I was like, you know, what, like, I’ll just, I’m not gonna say no to this guy, if he you know, I’d like to be where he is, too. And so, who am I to say no, so I did it. And then that was one of the best things I ever did. Because through that I met all these amazing people. You know, I unfortunately, only had three years, this is my last year there, but it’s just, you know, exposed me to different mentors, it’s allowed me to, like better, you know, understand the industry, like, you know, our PAC, like, knowing where your money goes, like, to me, it’s, it was just so huge. And it’s hard to think that like a random cold email that I just decided one day, I was like, oh, I should probably start meeting like more people and understanding, you know, what this industry is all about? So yeah, that’s pretty much how I got involved in you know, it’s been, it’s been pretty amazing ever since.
D.J. Paris 47:26
And we, you and I were sort of talking about this before we started recording, but I feel I just feel so lucky to be involved at this point. Yeah. Because, because the people that are involved, and again, every association is different, and, but most of them are full of really just nice, good people, either the staff that works for directly for the association, or the volunteers like yourself, who give up their time to help organize events, ended up just meeting a lot of great people in the industry, I think. And, yeah, that’s, it’s encouraging. It helps keep like, it keeps my spirits up, I go, I go to the events, and I’m not a practicing realtor. So oftentimes, a lot of it’s like, you know, it’s not really like where I would choose to spend my time, especially, you know, because I, it’s not really what I do, but just being around good people is, is really like uplifting, and it’s fun. And this is a tough business. And I I also think to like, when you’re when you’re somebody like yourself, who has been in some of these leadership positions, you know, people start to recognize that in you, maybe even people who aren’t in involved in giving back and you start to become somebody who’s who builds a, you know, a nice reputation for yourself as an agent who people like, and he’s really philanthropic. And I think that becomes really helpful just working with other agents. And I’m curious if that’s come up where, you know, maybe you’re, you know, you’ve noticed that people are like, Oh, aren’t you the guy from, you know, from from this committee? Or you, you know, it can only help that your career as well. I’m guessing, right? Yeah, totally. I
Unknown Speaker 49:01
mean, like, I remember, yeah, like, when I first got started, I was like, sort of, like, weirded out by like, how nice and friendly people were, and like, how open people were like, being like, you know, your mentor, I was like, this is weird. We’re not even the same company. Like, I don’t know what’s going on. Like, I just, I wasn’t it, it totally opened my eyes. And then, you know, since then, you know, I’ve had three or four mentors. And so like, for me, like a big part of it is like, the willingness that a lot of people have shown me in order to, you know, teach me mentor me, and all these things are like, I just want to be able to do what I can to pay that forward. And so yeah, I mean, that’s like the main, one of the main, you know, great things about it. But another great thing is like you’ve definitely will meet a lot of agents will get to know these agents, they’ll at least like know you, and so it definitely translates into a much better work environment as well, I would say, because it is really important to know a lot of these people and just to also like, like, from the amount of people that I’ve met through, you know, different associations and networks like it’s a tough business, especially now. Mark right now where it’s really tight inventory like people are at each other’s throats. And so be able to, like, keep people, I guess, prevent situations from exploding because you have you know, that repertoire with different agents is super helpful. And at the end of the day, like, you know, we’re just trying to help our clients get deals done. And sometimes, you know, knowing that person knowing no one’s not coming from bad place, you guys know each other, it’s just, it’s super important, it goes a really long way. So I would highly recommend anyone, you know, get involved in whatever your local network is for sure.
D.J. Paris 50:30
And I’m sure you know, you just said something. And again, this is not why you serve, and not the reason behind it. But there’s a nice benefit to being known as the guy who gives back to the realtor community, because ends up helping all realtors. And also, you know, let’s just be honest, like, and I don’t mean quite nice, to be honest, I’m just saying to everyone listening, let’s just, let’s just think about human nature here. If we’re in a multiple offer situation, and you’re the listing agent, and you see an offer come through, that’s, you know, maybe as good as any of the other offers. Or maybe it’s, maybe it isn’t quite as good. But you’re like that, oh, that’s my friend. I know that guy. You know, Quinton is a buddy of mine. And I see I want Quentin to win that listing. Now, of course, you’re always going to do what’s in your client’s best interest. As a fiduciary, you don’t really have an option not to do that, of course, or certainly hope people don’t do that. But you want your friends to win, right. And so you’re like, Oh, that’s a good guy. And maybe it just gets a little bit more attention than the person who submits an offer, where they’re not known at all. And I’m not saying that that’s how it should be. In an ideal world, it wouldn’t matter at all. But it does matter. And it is important, and good relationships just help, help get deals pushed through. And also to it’s like, Hey, that’s a guy that gives back, he’s probably got his his, his shit together, for lack of a better way to say it, he’s probably bringing me you know, a good offer. And again, it doesn’t mean that you get special favors it it’s not all your deals get accepted. But it can’t hurt. Right,
Unknown Speaker 51:56
exactly. It’s, it’s a nice little added bonus. For sure.
D.J. Paris 52:01
Yeah. And again, it’s just to me, it’s like a win, win all the way around as you get all this great experience. And you get to also feel good about yourself for contributing, helping the realtor community, so it’s a perfect win for you selfishly, if nothing else, you’re like, Hey, I’m doing some good stuff out there. And that feels good. And then oh, by the way, other people recognize that, and maybe that helps me just have, like you said, better relationships with other realtors, because it is called a cooperative commission. And the cooperative part is not, especially these days, it’s not always so stressed as much as as it could be. And when we see people who, you know, who give back we want we I think it activates that part of us, that wants to give back ourselves. And we see it in other people. And we’re like, I want to be like that guy. So we automatically, you know, we tend to admire people who do that. And so it really is, it’s really a it definitely will help. I don’t see any downside to
Unknown Speaker 53:00
give her Sure. And like a lot of people they don’t understand, like the plumbing of how any of like these associations and boards how this stuff works. Like, you look at like, we were one of the you know, I don’t know how many states exactly, we’re able to continue to practice, like, right when COVID hit, but like, we were fortunately one of those states. And once you kind of get involved in you kind of see the plumbing of these things and how this stuff works. Like it’s all it’s all in big part, like, you know, obviously, you know, our dad’s and lobbying like that, that stuff is a major player, but it’s also a lot of the people who volunteer, you know, and spend their time and a lot of the donations that go through our pack that really just go an incredibly long way. And a lot of these organizations are the reason why we’re able to do what we’re able to do. And, you know, unfortunately, a lot of people don’t aren’t aware of that. So, you know, I just think for that reason alone, it’s super important to, to at least get involved or donate, you know,
D.J. Paris 53:51
yeah, either way. And we know that everyone’s busy and time is the greatest resource. And it’s the most limited resource that we all have to deal with. So it’s not that everyone can can share committees or be involved in that way. But the very least you can, you can donate and you can learn about you know, what some of these lobbyists are doing to ensure that we can make a living going forward and it is important and there are disruptors in the field, you know, just sort of saying it like it is there’s a lot of tech disruptors that would very much love to cash in on the Commission’s that Realtors get to keep companies are trying very, very hard to to get that commission through different technologies and trying to remove the realtor from from that from the equation and and they they might succeed at some point. You know it to some degree and so you have to have people fighting on your behalf because technology is just going to keep making things easier, better, faster, and the realtor side of it. The actual interpersonal side is so important and that’s something that so far AI hasn’t told We figured out yet maybe they never will. And that would be great. But you know, I always think like, you know, it’s really important. And I didn’t think about it for the first 10 years that I was in this industry. I was like, Oh, I don’t know what any of that stuff is, I don’t know who’s really fighting for me or whatever. And then I’ve learned a lot. Yeah. And as I’ve learned more about it, I’m like, Oh, they’re actually doing really important stuff. And sometimes things get kind of down to the wire where legislation might get passed that would dramatically affect that. Yeah. And you were just you were just down at the you were, we should mention, Quentin just got back yesterday, from going down to Springfield, Illinois, to meet with legislators and, and also lobbyists and representatives and getting a chance to sort of see what’s going on at the state level. I mean, you were telling me off air that you were so surprised, not not maybe not so surprised, but make sense that a lot of these people who represent us, they’re not as as keyed in to the issues, because they have to know about every issue. And real estate might not be at the top of their list. And so we have these people that were that are lobbyists that are really trying hard. Can you talk about that experience? Just a little bit and, and getting involved at the state level?
Unknown Speaker 56:10
Yeah, totally. I mean, yeah, that was my first time going there. And like, I again, like it comes down to like, understanding the plumbing of how things work. And I still don’t have a firm idea of how it works. But like, you know, like you mentioned, there are just a lot of legislators who, you know, they don’t fully have a clear picture, like, they’re not as informed as us like, and I know, a lot of people don’t sit here and think about that, but like, they’re not like, they’re just legislators, they’re dealing with a million different issues on a state and local level. And so, you know, just being able to sit down and talk with various realtors who are, you know, have their phone line open to some of these legislators to sit down and talk with them and get a better idea of, you know, what does this bill mean? Or, you know, what are the unintended consequences, or the intended consequences of this specific thing that they otherwise wouldn’t think of? You know, I mean, there’s, there’s 800 pages in some of these bills. And it’s, you, I don’t know, I mean, it’s both, it’s a good thing to see, it’s also a concerning thing to see. Because we’re putting so much effort into supporting the industry, and we’re making this ourselves very accessible. And, you know, we definitely have an influence over legislation. But at the same time, we’re relying on, you know, certain legislators who, you know, some, some do know, their stuff and others like don’t, and it’s just, like, kind of wild to think about that, like, a lot of a lot of the people who volunteer and a lot of money that’s spent like it’s going somewhere, and it matters. And, you know, it’s definitely a big deal. And it took me, you know, that was the first time I really saw that actually play out in front of me, I was like, Oh, wow, okay, good. Good to know. I’m gonna keep keep doing our back.
D.J. Paris 57:33
Yeah, that’s, that’s great. And so for everyone listening, just to wrap up, because Quinton Scott up, he’s a busy busy guy with in between doing five to 10 showings a day, and then all the volunteering that he does, which is quite substantial. So we’re gonna let him get back to his busy day. But I think the point is, is just getting involved in this industry really getting into it and, and quite I love that you kind of additionally started and you didn’t go to St. Louis University to become a realtor, right? You were like, I maybe I’ll go the consultant route, or become an attorney or, you know, do the law school thing, or, you know, or work in banking and finance. And I’m guessing that was more of your, your college background. And same with me, I was I was, I thought I was going to be a psychologist. I was like, oh, that’s what I’m gonna do. And then then I got out, and I never have done anything close to that. And so it’s, but you’ve got really involved, I think that’s sort of the key. And now you’re being recognized by National Association, realtors, and that’s a huge deal. So I think this idea of, of just contributing, getting passionate, getting into it, giving it your all and just being a guy who likes to contribute, and give back I think is, is, you know, probably not an insignificant reason why you become successful, I bet it’s all connected. So really, I really, I’ve always admired you, I think you’re just somebody who is just doing a lot at a really early age when I think most people in their 20s are focused predominantly on themselves, and developing themselves as as, as best we can. And the 20s are tough, IPIC but at least worse for me. But the fact that you’ve sort of found your footing and have already started contributing and giving back is a great lesson for anyone that’s you’re never too old or young to do that. And you’ll you’ll fight if nothing else, but never helps you professionally. Boy, your self esteem and confidence will go through the roof because you’re doing some good out there. So I really, really admire you for that. So to wrap up, we want to remind everybody to please visit Quentin at on Instagram. So please follow him there which is Quentin green underscore r e. Green without an E so Quentin green like the color underscore r e and also for anyone listening that may have you know now we’re just everyone can kind of live anywhere now and work anywhere it seems. And if you have people that are moving to Chicago or maybe you’re a suburban agent here in Chicago and you don’t really know the city market well
Mmm, I think most of the time you’re doing your client a disservice by pretending that you can serve a scenario that you just don’t know. So this is a great opportunity. If you have people either moving to the area, and you want to work with a great up, I don’t want to call you up and coming because you’re already we’ve already arrived. But somebody who has put in a lot of effort and time and he serviced a lot of people and his production is going up. Quite it would be a great guy to refer business to. Or if you’re interested in just getting some advice, Quentin actually just did this for my girlfriend. This is what a great guy he is. He actually just met with my girlfriend who’s trying to figure out a way back into the industry in a little bit different way. Quinn’s like, oh, let’s go out for coffee, or maybe she offered it or whatever. But he went and did that just for my girlfriend. And he did not have to do that. So he’s a great guy. And I really want to do everything we can to support great guys like, like when not that he needs our support. But if anyone out there is wanting to work with you directly, whether they’re a buyer or seller and investor developer, or maybe their realtor from another area that have people moving here, what’s the best way they should reach out?
Definitely email. Yeah, emails, you’ll probably have it, you know, somewhere, I assume. But it’s just cute green at downtown loop.com. So that’s best way and then you can look me up online. I’m pretty much everywhere. So yeah, call me email me definitely prefer email. But calling works do. Yeah, Quinton is a great guy. And again, congratulations on the 30 under 30. Your I saw some of the other 30 under 30 people, I recognize some of those names. And you’re got a great class with you. So I’m very excited to to continue to watch your growth. And congratulations for 10 million in production. Just incredible with the amount of work that you do outside of real estate or you know, to give back as well, I know you’re a busy guy. So congrats on all the success and we will on behalf of everyone want to say thanks to Quinton for spending time with us today. And on behalf of Quentin and myself, we want to thank the audience and listeners and viewers, everyone for participating in our show and also supporting us in the best way you can support us. Of course, always check out our sponsors, we have great sponsors, check them out, buy their products and services. They’re awesome. We don’t take on any just anyone as a as a, as an advertiser, we only take on, you know real estate, real estate adjacent sort of businesses that we think could really help brokers. So there’s one way another way is to tell a friend about our podcast and have one other agent that could use the knowledge that Quentin just shared in this episode and send them a link to our website, which is keeping it real pod.com. And then or if they’re podcast person, just have them pull up any podcast app, search for keeping it real and hit the subscribe button. And then last leave us a review. We really appreciate this. So this helps us get feedback. 99% of you don’t give us feedback. And that’s totally cool. And I understand that I don’t get feedback for a podcast that I listen to either. But it really is helpful for the host, me and our team to know what is working and what you would prefer to us to change. So whatever app you might be using to listen to the show, definitely leave us a review. Let us know what you like and what you’d like to see changed because we do it for you anyway, so let us know your thoughts. But Quentin thank you so much. We will see everybody on the next episode.
Quentin Green 1:03:10
Thanks, DJ
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