Nick Rendleman of the Nicholas Ryan Team at Exit Realty believes that his job is to uplift lives through service. We talk about his previous career in ministry and why he believes that the same objectives and skills apply in real estate. His top 1% team evaluates their performance on client reviews and he encourages brokers to ask, “If I were only receiving compensation if the client gave me a glowing review, how would I act today?” This is an interview not to miss!
Nick Rendleman can be reached at 630.631.8600 and nick@nicholasryanrealestate.com
Transcript
D.J. Paris 0:00
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Hello, and welcome to another episode of Keeping it real, the only podcast that features the top 1% of Chicago realtors in the industry. And I’ve just changed the tagline there on the fly. Because we used to say it’s made for Chicago real estate brokers by Chicago real estate brokers, which is true, but we have listeners now from all over. So it’s not specifically just for Chicago realtors, although that’s what we focus on the show today, we have Nick Randleman from exit, who is going to be talking about how he built his business. It’s it was a great conversation coming up in just a few moments. I want to encourage everyone who’s listening as we near our 100th episode, which we’re so honored to be able to say we’ve done as people seem to continue to listen and our view or listenership continues to grow. So thank you for everyone who listens. And also thank you to everyone who is telling a friend anyone you know, who’s a realtor who wants to learn what these top one percenters are doing, how they grew their business, what they’re doing today, what mistakes they’ve made, send them a link to our show. And they can of course, you can find us on iTunes, Google Play Stitcher, and anywhere else podcasts are served, just search for keeping it real podcast. Look for the one with DJ, that’s me. There’s a few others named keeping it real as well, but only one with my name. So you’ll find me pretty easily. And also, you can visit our website, you can stream every episode we’ve ever done, which is keeping it real pod.com. Also, please like us on Facebook, we are@facebook.com forward slash keeping it real pod. And as we post links to all of our episodes, and also links to all of our guests, their websites, their social media, etc. You can check out to see what they’re doing. But as I reflect back on these 100 or so almost 100 episodes, I want to encourage everyone to go back and listen, if you have time. And you’re so interested to go back and listen all the way from the beginning. Because the advice and information provided here by our guests is really is timeless. Very rarely do we ever talk about current conditions in the market. Of course, we have Kerry McCormick on every month. And she does do that, outside of that every other episode we do is really extremely timeless. And we’ll talk exclusively about how these how these top producers built and manage their business. And I promise you will learn and if you go back through, you will have so much great advice that you can achieve what they have achieved as well. A whole idea of doing this was not so much to even create a timely podcast where every week we’re talking about what’s going on today was really to create a library, you know, I know that there’s look, there’s 41,000 realtors in Chicago. And I thought, wouldn’t it be cool to be able to go to a library and pick out the top 410 of those producers, were they, in their own words tell you what they did to grow their business. So obviously, that’s what we’ve done. That’s what we’re continuing to do. Thank you, by the way for all of the suggestions. And we get suggestions every single day from brokers saying you need to interview so and so and we haven’t yet got to even maybe one 100 of them, but we’re working on it. So keep sending those in. Also send us your questions. If you’re on our Facebook page, you’ll note that I announce Hey, I’m going to be speaking with a particular producer and you can obviously submit questions there as well. So okay, enough of me talking. Let’s get on with the show. We have Nick Randleman from exit coming up next.
Today on the show, we have Nick Randleman of the Nikolas Ryan team at Exit Realty Nick is the team leader of the Nicholas Ryan Real Estate Group. At exit he believes in creating the best client experience through utilizing a synergistic team model and procuring the most hardworking, honest and gifted people in the industry. Besides building his own team. He has also helped many transition into a successful career. are in real estate, Nick’s integrity is foundational to his success. Nick resides in the lake. Sorry Lakewood Balmoral neighbor Balmoral neighborhood on the north side with his wife, Emma, their baby girls, Penelope and Scarlett, and their Bulldog Oslo. Nick is a top 1% producer, you can visit him at Nicholas Ryan realestate.com, which, by the way, is one of the best looking real estate websites I’ve seen. And we should also mention that Nick’s exit office, which is located in Wicker Park is ranked number one in Illinois, which is a very, very big deal. So welcome, Nick to the show. Hey, thank
Nick Rendleman 5:35
you, DJ, glad to be a part of the show today.
D.J. Paris 5:37
Well, we’re really excited to have you and I know we were talking offline. And what I’d like to do is just to start out to give the audience a sense of who you are, although a lot of our listeners will already know you. Tell us, you know how you got into real estate?
Nick Rendleman 5:53
Yeah, that’s a good question. I don’t really know. I just kind of woke up one day and found myself selling homes. But it was it was not planned. I didn’t go to school to be a realtor, shark, even a businessman or, you know, an entrepreneur, and actually studied theology, and did my undergrad at Moody here in Chicago, and was actually in vocational ministry prior to getting involved into real estate. Wow. And through some Scituate on unforeseen situation or circumstances with, you know, being married my first year and trying to work through how to be a good husband and juggling a thriving ministry at the time. You know, my wife, and I just decided to take a step back. And we didn’t leave the church or anything, but we just decided we would reevaluate some things. Sure. And, you know, I didn’t really know where to go at that point. Because, like I said, I didn’t, you know, my, my degree was very specific to just with basically ministry and that sort of thing. Sure. So I thought I, you know, take a shot at real estate, got licensed, you know, I got licensed in about 30 days. And I’m like, Great, I’m licensed, you know, go go sell homes now. And, and that was basically how I got started first six months. It was it was a beast, man. Sure. If you wanna know how much money I made, I would love to know. Yes. All right. I’ll tell you, goose egg. Nada, not a penny, not a cent, not $1. And I had a lot of people basically saying, Hey, man, are you sure you heard God correctly? About? Like, you’re supposed to be a minister? Why are you trying to sell homes? This isn’t gonna work. And it made me think and kind of doubt a little bit, too. But sure. I think deep down, I just had this conviction that I was in the right place doing the right thing. And so after six months, I got my first deal, which was about 23,000. Nice. Nope, not commission. Oh, that was the
D.J. Paris 7:55
sales price.
Nick Rendleman 7:56
Yeah, I set you up for that. But that was the sales price. So the commission was about 800 bucks, I think. Sure. So it was a slow start for
D.J. Paris 8:05
me, DJ, but you were on the board. At that point. You’re in I was on the board.
Nick Rendleman 8:08
And since then, I don’t believe there’s ever been a month in the last five and a half years where we haven’t, you know, made money in closed deals. But, but that was kind of the start. And that’s sort of how I got into the industry.
D.J. Paris 8:24
You know, it’s it’s such a not uncommon story, right? So we only feature top one percenters on the show, and almost everybody has that same first year story. And I think with the exception of maybe one person who said, Oh, yeah, close to deal and like the third week, which is super unusual, and it was probably their best friend or something who you know, is already ready to buy something cash. Everyone else, even the owner of the company, I work out who’s also named Nick, who ended up being this is like 2003, he was he wasn’t the Rookie of the Year with car, but he was like the runner up Rookie of the Year, he didn’t close the sale till month seven, either. That’s super common. And for everyone listening, it is certainly common. And also, understandably, not a fun way to start. But it’s, you know, this is what every almost every top producer, you know, that’s the that’s the path. So I
Nick Rendleman 9:17
and I really think DJ, that’s probably why there’s such a high percentage of people who drop out of real estate first year. Yeah, because at some point, it’s just like, you know, if you don’t have the savings, if you’re not prepared, if you don’t have the mentality, to really persevere through that, you know, basically just the whole startup of real estate, then, you know, you you get discouraged and you leave the industry. So, yeah, I relate to it. I was there.
D.J. Paris 9:44
I know, I would really love to find out, you know, and I’m assuming there’s natural similarities between your previous path of ministry and service and being a realtor. It’s got to be so synergistic, I would think.
Nick Rendleman 9:59
Yeah, It really is. You know, I think for me, what I’m really passionate about is, is helping people. And I just have that innate in me since, you know, I started following Jesus about 20 years ago this year. Yeah. So, so I, I really believe in helping people helping them holistically, helping them spiritually helping them, you know, in any way I can. And so, real estate is really a platform for that, because you’re basically dealing with number one, it’s a need that all of us have shelter. Number two, it’s most people’s largest purchase of their entire lives, right? And so, when you’re dealing with that kind of fiduciary responsibility, a lot of other things open up to you. And if you’re, if you’re listening, if you’re dialed into the person, not just the transaction, but you’re really dialed into the person, I think you really find how much is going on in someone’s life and they open up and they let you know, kind of the deeper things of their heart. And so yes, there’s a lot of there’s a huge Nexus when when I think of real estate, I think of ministry in fact, now, I really don’t see them as is different. I think your ministry is all of life whereas before I thought of it as maybe a career or something that I was paid to do. Whereas now it’s like every conversation I have with any person is actually an opportunity for ministry ministry is just basically serving someone it’s meeting their needs. And yeah, real estate opens up that door all day long.
D.J. Paris 11:37
Wow. I don’t know that I could have been better said I think that’s really important. And it’s also seems to be in study after study whether National Association of REALTORS does it or other groups where they survey buyers and sellers and say, What are you looking for in your realtor? Number one is always somebody that listens and understands me, for sure. And, and it is something that I think, probably a lot of realtors struggle with because they have the knowledge. And it’s probably easy to forget, especially if somebody’s purchasing their first home. Just how clueless we all were unless we were in the business when we purchased our first home. I know I relied upon my realtor when I bought my condo many, many years ago. And I didn’t I had no idea what was going on. And and it was scary too. Because of course it is like you said a huge purchase. It was the largest purchase I had ever made at that point. So yeah, so I think that’s, that’s really important. So in your Sony, your first year, you struggled like everyone does the first six months and months seven, you got your first sale, then how did it sort of proceed from there was were you working mostly by referral at that point? Were you still hustling to to meet people? Tell? Can you if you don’t mind sharing a little bit of that process?
Nick Rendleman 12:51
Yeah. So subsequent to year one, which was I wouldn’t say a disaster, but it was kind of a rude awakening that, you know, this wasn’t going to be a cakewalk for me. And sure. You know, several years ago now going back about, I don’t know, 10 years, I was actually in the restaurant industry for a stint of about a decade. And in the restaurant and the restaurant industry. You could kind of call it sales in a sense, because, you know, I would, I would so whatever I sell food, I sold nice bottles of wine or whatever. So I had like, I had sales enemy. But when I actually started to try to translate that to real estate, the thing I didn’t realize is that you need marketing. So marketing was was a missing link to to my success. And so one of the first things I did because at the time, I didn’t really have the savoir faire and knowledge of how to do that myself as I just basically turn that over to third parties like Zillow. And at the time, Zillow was a goldmine. Zillow was very affordable. And Zillow did a great job getting me leads. And so I began to work the Zillow leads, and you know, again, just kind of come at it with this mindset that I’m going to I’m going to help these people I’m going to serve them as though, you know, they were a family member or a very close friend or whatever, I’m going to really do my best job. And that began to you know, I began to get some traction with that I began to get some referrals and close deals. And then once we started to have a steady book of business, I leveraged my administrative stuff with my wonderful, lovely, devoted wife, Emma. And she actually quit her job or she went from full time to part time and she was part time my assistant and then she quit her job and became a full time assistant and leverage the administration side so I could focus more on the client, which was great. So then I was able to do even more. I think our business doubled that first year that she started helping me so and I had more leads than I could handle and began recruiting my friends from other jobs and other industries. And just basically said, Hey, man, look, this is an awesome opportunity. To be able to have a ton of freedom in life. And you know, people are so afraid about being paid with by commission or whatever. But sure, I’m paid every month. It’s as dependable as any nine to five job. And it’s, it’s making me a better living than I’ve found anything else would you be interested in meeting with me and so I met with a lot of people a lot of friends this way, and just kind of pulled them into the industry, and basically showed them what I was doing, they copied and pasted, they found success, and then I kind of kicked them out of the nest, and they launched their own book of business. That’s how we got going doing this thing. So I quickly implemented the team mentality. You know, it’s, it’s interesting how you look through at other industries, and who really operates any successful organization without a team. I mean, everybody operates by a team, that’s just, that’s just the preferred method of doing business. And yet, so many people in real estate operate solo. Now, I’m not knocking that I’m not saying there’s definitely a lot of different ways to be successful in this industry. But something that was very important to me early on DJ was, I didn’t want to, I didn’t want to work seven days a week, 24/7, I didn’t want to constantly be doing the real estate grind, I didn’t constantly want to be having to deal with deals, dream about real estate, wake up in the morning and make calls and never have a break, right. And so I just began to leverage and build a team. And in doing that, it allowed me to still be successful, but not have to work around the clock. So in the last few years, that’s kind of been the evolution, I started out solo, just trying to get some deals, I got some deals, I leveraged it with an administrative assistant, who was my wife got more deals more than I could handle began to leverage it with building the team and having other oshs outside sales agents, take the overflow of the business, and just have continued to leverage until the present.
D.J. Paris 16:46
That’s amazing. And we should talk about exit because it’s such an interesting company with their the way they got their structure. Talk a little bit about that, because some of our listeners probably aren’t as familiar with exit.
Nick Rendleman 16:59
Yeah, hands down exit is the best company for rewarding you in recruitment and training of other brokers.
D.J. Paris 17:06
Right. Absolutely. That’s
Nick Rendleman 17:07
my opinion is, you
D.J. Paris 17:08
know, your, I believe I have the same opinion.
Nick Rendleman 17:11
Yeah, because they give you basically 10% of the agents production, up to $10,000 a year. So if you just recruit a few, you know, promising agents and train them, you know, in my expectation for anybody, and everybody that I bring on my team, or I recruit to exit is that they would at least gross $100,000, which is extremely attainable. In real estate. I mean, most of the people that you interview on this show DJ have probably already hit that by now. So to make $100,000 in real estate a year is extremely attainable. So as long as the recruits are doing that, and they really should do that, that’s $10,000 to recruit. And so, you know, look, it’s not about that, but it’s a nice incentive. I love seeing people succeed, I’m so passionate about people reaching the apex of their potential. That is just why I wake up in the morning. But to be rewarded in financial ways, is just icing on the cake. And then they know if they recruit people, and they are able to, you know, basically have the recruits gross 100,000, they’re also making $10,000 a year. And so that’s just been a nice sort of residual income for, for me and for many others that exit
D.J. Paris 18:27
well at that. And a coupled with the fact that you at you know, and I don’t know if you still have an overflow of leads, but you’d mentioned that was part of the reason why you brought on team members. So you were able to show someone not only here’s the path, but also here’s a little help along the way, which helps keep them engaged and motivated. So I think that’s awesome.
Nick Rendleman 18:46
Yeah, yeah, absolutely. And, you know, it’s yes, we still have an overflow DJ in the craziest thing. This is very crazy. But I will tell you, sometimes I pull back on my lead generation out of fear that I won’t have enough manpower to service the leads. I remember, I don’t know how long ago it was, it’s probably months ago now. We had a, like a $1.5 million buyer who needed to, we needed to meet with him on a Saturday and there was nobody to do it for my team. I mean, everybody was booked, what an amazing problem. Right? It was, it was a crazy problem. Yeah, amazing problem. And it’s still
D.J. Paris 19:22
a problem, still a problem. And so
Nick Rendleman 19:25
sometimes I actually pull back on my lead generation, because for us, getting leads is not the issue we can do. We just have a couple of things we do here and there’s some Facebook ads, whatever and blow the thing up and have an abundance of leads. But it’s just always that challenge of having the skilled people to receive those leads, and everybody at some point has a capacity level. And so our team right now, we’re I’d say, you know, capacity is we’re pretty full, for the most part. So we’re looking for more qualified people to join our team to help with The overflow, train them, equip them, you know, raise them up, just help them be successful. That’s what we’ve been doing the last few years. And I won’t
D.J. Paris 20:07
do why we should mention too, because it’s an obviously you guys are successful, you obviously are doing a great job for your clients. But we should also mention that this is a big deal. And Nick didn’t send this to me, I just noticed it on his website where he links to his Zillow profile, they have 100 190 reviews, average rating, five stars, in other words, they have 195 star reviews, that goes to show you just how well they treat their clients, and how and from, you know, Nick’s direction, I’m sure. So, you know, if there are brokers out there that are looking for, you know, of those kinds of opportunities, where you’re on a team that clearly does a good job, you know, Nick would, you know, be honored to speak with you. So we should definitely make sure that the listeners know that you are expanding, and that’s a good thing.
Nick Rendleman 20:57
And DJ, let me just say something about Zillow reviews, so 190 isn’t bad. But we’d love to see a lot more. But, you know, I’ll tell you that, you know, a five star review is all about an exceptional experience, you can get a transaction done, you can sell a home over list price, you can you can hustle really hard and find a client a dream home. But But the funny thing is, that won’t necessarily automatically equate to exceptional experience. And so we really try hard to find ways to sort of like if you will marry the hospitality, approach our hospitality industry with the real estate industry, the approach that you would find in the hospitality industry really rolling out the red carpet, little things, noticing client’s needs really learning the person, we try to incorporate some of that mentality into real estate, you know, and it’s not an easy thing to do. And we’re still learning more and more, but like a simple thing, do they prefer sparkling water and then throwing that in the car? But um, yeah, we just really try to focus on that exceptional experience. And what I tell my team is, look, if you are only compensated for five star rewrites, repeat business and referrals, how would you conduct your book of business? Like if the money wasn’t a thing? Like, okay, great, you close the transaction, but you were paid on five star reviews, referrals and repeat business? How would you treat the client? What would you be doing differently? So that’s really our mentality. In the Nicklaus Ryan team, our mission is to elevate lives to real estate, to create raving fans who repeat business, right, five star reviews, and refers to others. And so that’s really how we measure our success. It’s not so much by weather, we’re the top 1%. Producer, which is great. I’m glad that’s got us some airtime with you guys. And this awesome show that you’re doing this awesome podcast, but like for us really, the the measuring tool we’re using is is the reviews is the referrals is the, you know, repeat business,
D.J. Paris 23:00
as well. Yeah. Boy, again, so well said and so important. And isn’t it cool? I think this industry, and I’m not a producing broker, but I’ve interviewed enough of them to know that, generally speaking, top producers have a very similar mantra, right? It’s, we I want to help, I want to go the extra mile. And then the business typically, and the income follows. And I think, isn’t that cool that those two things are positively correlated, the more you care, the harder you work for your client, almost always the more you’re rewarded financially. And, you know, it’s it’s funny, you had said something earlier, I just want to touch on and I’m going to reference another interview I did with a gentleman named Craig Falco. He’s a dream town broker out of Park Ridge, I believe anyway, he’s been in the business like 30 years, nicest guy on the planet is all about helping people his son had come in to the to his office, I think his second year in the business and said, Dad, I want to I want to close 100 sales this year. And as Greg said, he said, I told my son to turn around, go back to his desk and figure out how to help 100 People next year, you’re not going to close, you’re literally going to figure out how to help 100 people. And if you go from that mentality, you will get to 100 Yes, so good. And it’s a simple switch. But I’m going to tell you about an amazing customer service experience. I apologize for making this about me. But I wanted to share this because you were just talking about this. And I will give you a really simple example that has never happened to anyone who’s listened. And it just happened to me. So I ordered a bed that’s being made of like reclaimed wood, the company that’s making it they’re like a real relatively they’re small business, but they have a good presence online for making these reclaimed pieces of furniture. And anyway, so I ordered it, and they said it’s going to be here in four weeks, which is really fast for furniture. And then four weeks came and went and then I said, Well, I’ll just check in with them see what’s happening because I hadn’t heard anything, since they had already initially contacted me. And I said, Hey, just out of curiosity, you need an idea when you know, and they said, Oh my gosh, we had a family emergency. I guess it’s a family business. And we’re so sorry. It’s gonna take another two Thanks. Just you know, thanks for being patient. I said, No, no problem. It’s fine. So then two weeks came and went, and then I went, Oh, I guess I’ll check in with them one more time. So I checked in with them a few days ago. And I said, Hey, I’m not trying to be a pest. Just curious if you have an ETA. And they said, Oh, my gosh, we’re so sorry. It will be there. April 1. We are so we never miss deadlines. And and this was on a chat chat thing they have. And they said, we feel so terrible about this. Can we treat you and a guest to lunch? No, by the way, this is there in Arizona, but they said, Can we treat you and a guest to lunch? It would make us feel better about it? And and I thought in and of course, I said, No, you do not need to do I don’t even know how that would happen. But I said no, no, no, thank you. But I just thought, How amazing. I mean, every furniture order I’ve ever placed is come late, that’s normal. And to have somebody say, we feel so bad about this, that we want to like, you know, send you a gift card for lunch. And I just thought, wow, going that little extra step was so huge for me. And it made me feel like these people cared. So silly example, but it was absolutely yeah,
Nick Rendleman 26:04
that’s really good. No, that’s really good. That’s really good. Because I think, you know, many times, it’s, it’s not our fright when things go wrong. Many times it’s a circumstantial thing. You know, someone if there’s a emergency in a family, you know, in real estate, I there’s just sure number of circumstances that can work against you or whatever. But at the end of the day, the clients looking to solve the issue. And it may not have been your you may not have been the impetus for the issue, you may not have been the one who caused the problem. But if you can, you know, this, your story is just so great. If you can find a way of helping, even if you can’t make it go away, just helping things to feel a little bit better introduced some kind of an exceptional experience within that, you know, treat them to lunch, treat them to dinner, send them a gift card, whatever, like you’re talking about going extra mile and doing something special, I think it really goes a long way. And it helps the client to sort of palate, the situation that may be a little bit unpleasant. And we’ve done we’ve done similar things. And I find it has a really good just has a really good result.
D.J. Paris 27:12
Well, in even back to the Stillwater versus sparkling example, it Damn, it’s a big deal, even though it sounds like a small little nothing thing. And it ultimately is easy to do. Anyone could do it, but just to care enough to go, Hey, I’m gonna see you tomorrow. And whether you drive somebody around or you just meet them at the property, hey, what do you prefer still or sparkling? You find that out? And then actually show up with that? I mean, almost nobody even does that. Yeah, that’s huge. It’s huge. Absolutely.
Nick Rendleman 27:37
Absolutely.
D.J. Paris 27:39
I would also like to hear about your guaranteed sales program, I know this is a huge differentiator for you. So do you mind sharing that with you? Yeah, that’s something
Nick Rendleman 27:46
that we just started doing. And it just makes a lot of sense to us. Because there’s a catch 22 In real estate, when people go to, you know, buy a home, they have a home to sell. And so we just basically, you know, tell the seller, look, we have a guaranteed sales program, it’s going to give you peace of mind, if for some reason, we can’t sell your home, and you move up and purchase one of our homes, and we can put a guarantee on your home. And it sort of eliminates the catch 22 So, you know, we’ve been doing business long enough, we have, you know, line of credit, whatever. So we can we can handle this, but it’s just a real nice way of us to eliminate the catch 22 in real estate.
D.J. Paris 28:29
Wow, that’s really smart. I, I’ve I’ve feel like I’ve maybe seen one other broker do this. This is very, very uncommon, but it’s certainly a wonderful idea and just provides a lot of peace of mind. Yep,
Nick Rendleman 28:42
absolutely does. And that’s and that’s really why we do it, you know, and we’re, we’re just very confident with our listings, we, we don’t take listings that we don’t you know, we wouldn’t take an out of out of town listing in some suburb that we don’t sell in we wouldn’t even do it in a neighborhood in Chicago that we’re not familiar with. So when we take a listing, we take it with a lot of confidence we know the market, we know what we need to do to sell it and we know that it’s going to sell and so it really is just a way for us to communicate to the seller our confidence and provide them a program so that they know at the end of the day no matter what happens you know their house is gonna get sold one way or another
D.J. Paris 29:23
well and I’m sure it also enables the you guys like you were saying to walk away from deals that aren’t you no realistic and also like you said where you’re not an expert in every neighborhood in every suburb isn’t there’s nobody could be so the confidence in Hey, this is what we know it also probably helps you dealing with with with the owners or the buyers to really instill the confidence in them that you guys know what you’re doing
Nick Rendleman 29:50
it just it just gives us a little bit more skin in the game. I think yeah, owners feel like we’re we’re owning this with them and we’re not just you know, salesperson, but we’re really taking on all the risk and removing the risk from them. And people love that they don’t, you know, selling your home is a scary thing sometimes, and people don’t have the best home to sell. And sometimes it’s the wrong market to sell it or whatever. There’s really no wrong market to sell, but you get you get my drift, like kids sure virus or whatever. So they can be upside down, etc. So, yeah, like I said, it’s just all about the client, it’s just about easing their mind, so that they know, everything’s gonna get, everything’s gonna get taken care of, and we’re gonna get their home sold one way or another.
D.J. Paris 30:36
Makes perfect sense. I always forget to actually bring these up while doing these interview interviews. And the feedback we always get is, you know, don’t you ask people for like their funniest experience. So we always do. And I always forget to ask, so you have a particularly great one. So I definitely want to hear about the time you almost bought the wrong house. Oh,
Nick Rendleman 30:55
yeah. It’s very embarrassing, actually. But I just, I just, I just made this colossal mistake. And I don’t to this day, I don’t really I don’t even know how it happened. But when we this was like, probably in the first year of me doing real estate, we were working with a client showed him a home, he liked the home, we put an offer on the home. And I don’t know if we actually went under contract or not. So it was either during the inspection, or perhaps we were just getting ready to sign the contract. And he just wanted a second look. So we went back to the house again. And again, this is just like, I don’t know how to explain this to you other than this is what happened. When we went into the home. The second time was a condo, it was a totally different condo. It’s amazing. Yeah. And I don’t know how to explain it. Because we look back on our scheduling. We looked at the unit number we looked at the agent, we couldn’t we still can’t piece together what happened. The only thing I can really think of is the first time we probably saw the condo, I have a feeling that it wasn’t another condo that was being sold. It was a rental in the building. And somebody was probably there waiting for another agent and thought we were that group. And they showed us their unit. And of course my clients had loved it put an offer on it. But really it was the wrong condo. It wasn’t the condo that was for sale. But it was it was in the same building. Yes, it was it was in the same building. Yeah. So that is that’s incredible. Yeah, yeah, it really was. I mean, what are the chances of that that’s never happened since? And we’ve taken some measures to make sure that wouldn’t happen again.
D.J. Paris 32:42
Well, I mean, I don’t even know if you have to take measures because that will never happen.
Nick Rendleman 32:47
Struck by Lightning or something, but it’s amazing. We’re looking at each other like, what just happened like what we just did somewhere else like this is this is the same this is the same kind of like this is not the same condo. So anyway, even in a bind it he canceled his contract. And we moved on, but that was probably the most I don’t know if it’s funny or not. It wasn’t really funny at the time at all. No, I’m
D.J. Paris 33:11
sure it wasn’t but experience. Well, well, I love it. Oh, did he end up buying the one that was for sale? No, no, that’s
Nick Rendleman 33:19
the thing. He didn’t actually want that one. Oh, that’s funny. Yeah, it was an inferior condo. So the one he wanted apparently was already rented, or? Yeah, who knows? Oh, my gosh, that’s great. played a prank on us maybe.
D.J. Paris 33:33
And I know you also had an experience when you were working with a convicted felon, which is not a funny experience, necessarily.
Nick Rendleman 33:39
But I’ll show I’ll just I’ll just I’ll just tell you and then you can decide if you want to keep it in are sure Sure. I will go into many details here. But it was bizarre to because we had some clients that were purchasing a home with us and they had to sublet their place. So we got them a sublet, right. And my buddy noticed. You know, he kind of like Googled this, this sublet a little bit and shot some concerning stuff online. And I was like, What on earth is this, you know, something about, you know, like, conviction and yeah, kind of a big scam under the guise of con artists. Oh, wow. We we hadn’t even run his credit or taking the application yet. So this is this again, this was the guy who’s going to sublet so right, it’s gonna be attendant and we were acting on behalf of the buyer and out on behalf of landlord. But anyways, long story short, we did run the credit and a bunch of crazy stuff came up. And so we you know, of course, we told the landlord like here’s the crazy stuff, and we kind of figured it out and they were willing to take the risk and have this guy come it was just a debacle and a nightmare, but I don’t know, probably two or three, three weeks after that the FBI called me. No, yeah, yeah. As the Have you ever called you before? No, I wonder how many listeners ever gotten a phone call by the FBI? You know, they’re like,
D.J. Paris 35:06
just you that’s like it? No, it’s gotta be terrified, terrified, terrifying, terrifying,
Nick Rendleman 35:12
you know. So, of course, I, they were just wanting to ascertain information about this particular individual. Because he was literally weeks away from being sentenced. And I guess they were ascertaining information to find out if, you know, he was on his best behavior. And the fact of the matter was, he he actually wasn’t he actually tried to play all of us. And so it was just, it was really a bizarre, unusual real estate experience that I hope to never have again. Because, you know, we were careful, we check credit, but the guy was very polished at his craft at the shore. And it ended up with this guy, you know, going to jail and, and us getting a call by the FBI to get more information. And, and that was, that was unreal man, I didn’t expect to be talking to the FBI over real estate transaction,
D.J. Paris 36:13
I have a I have a friend who’s a federal prosecutor for the state of Illinois. And he’s an attorney. And it’s a very coveted position. It’s like about as a anyway, it’s a very big deal to be a federal prosecutor. And so he works for the feds, but he works in Illinois. And he had to, of course, do his own FBI background check. But they also then interviewed a lot of his friends. And I was on the list, but the FBI just never contacted me. But a lot of my friends got contacted to answer questions about his character and history. And, and so I was I sort of wanted the call just to like, be able to say I talked to the FBI never got it, though. So you got to talk to the FBI for obviously,
Nick Rendleman 36:53
they were surprisingly calm and cool. And like, I felt like, you know, they might have been, you know, just buddies. Sure. But I was like, you know, I just kept telling myself, just tell them the truth. Meaning I’m telling the truth.
D.J. Paris 37:10
Oh, that’s funny. Well, I think that’s, that’s a great place to pause it. And let’s I also want to mention it in let’s recap here, you know, Nick is it has his office, Wicker Park for exit, he is looking to expand his team, Nick, if there are brokers, listening, who would love to work with someone like you, and get mentored and coached and join your team? What’s the best way they should reach out?
Nick Rendleman 37:34
They should just call me 630631 8600. And you know that you can you can text me, you can call me that, just call me directly. And we’ll send you a personality test and have you fill out a resume a couple things in interview. And, you know, I think the main thing on my team DJ, just as just as you know, wrap this insurance, I’m just looking for people that are ready to grow, and they’re teachable. I used to kind of go after the giftedness thing and try to find the most, you know, try to go after rockstars. And now I just, I’m more so I’m concerned about people’s mentality and their teachability and their heart. And because we can train on the rest.
D.J. Paris 38:14
Yeah, I mean, attitude is everything, right? Like, I’ve noticed that too. And our company when we hire for certain positions, you know, management or admin, its attitude always trumps everything as if somebody is just going, Yeah, I’ll do it. I know, oh, okay, I’ll do that. We’re like, Oh, thank God, because everything else can be learned. But well, that’s great. And also, by the way, we should also mention that we don’t just have brokers that listen, we have buyers and sellers. And if you’re looking to work with Nick, or someone on his team, that Nicolas Ryan team, contacting the exact same way, you can also visit their website, again, Nicholas, Ryan realestate.com. And you can learn all about their team and what they’re all about as you as we’ve also heard on the show. So on behalf of Nick, we also want to thank Nick, as we do all of our guests, because these are people that are too busy to do the show or, and we know that because of how much production they do, and they still find the time to give back to the industry. We’re super grateful for that. So thank you, Nick, on behalf of the listeners, and also before thank you to the listeners for listening and we’re coming up on our 100th episode, which is crazy, but it’s a good that Yeah, it’s fun people like it and we’re grateful for that. So keep sending us your suggestions. If you are a listener and aren’t yet subscribed, you can find us on iTunes Google Play Anywhere podcasts are served just search for keeping it real. Also our web a website keeping it real pod.com and also find us on Facebook just search for keeping it real podcast you’ll you’ll see us and subscribe please. So on behalf of Nick and myself thank you for listening. Thanks Nick again and I know Nick by the way is is leaving here to go cook at a previous client turn friend home for them. So what a cool another act What service you’re doing, I guess. So that’s awesome. Thanks, TJ. All right, but
Nick Rendleman 40:04
you’re on the show. Yeah.
D.J. Paris 40:05
Thank you so much.
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