Melanie Giglio-Vakos of Team MVP at Compass is not only a top 1% agent – she’s currently the 12th highest producing real estate broker in Chicago (out of 45k brokers). Melanie talks about how a bad buying experience motivated her to get her license and how hard work is her secret weapon. She also discusses how she continually evolves her business to reflect the ever-changing market.
Melanie Giglio-Vakos can be reached at teammvp@compass.com and 312.953.4998.
Transcript
D.J. Paris 0:00
This episode of Keeping it real is brought to you by Quicken Loans real estate professionals. When you work with Quicken Loans, you have an agent relationship manager available to you and your team. These dedicated experts are part of the agent relations team. They serve as your single point of coordination so you can count on them to keep you in the loop throughout your client’s entire home buying process, call 888-980-2891 or go to real estate dot Quicken loans.com Today, call for cost information and conditions equal housing lender licensed in all 50 states NMLS consumer access.org Number 3030 And now under the show Hello, and welcome to another episode of Keeping it real the largest podcast made for real estate brokers for buy real estate brokers. My name is DJ Paris. I am your host and guide through the show. And coming up in just a moment. We have an amazing interview with top producer Melanie Giglio. Before we do, I’m going to ask you for a huge favor. Everyone who is listening, of course you’re listening. If you’re hearing this voice, I want you to close your eyes. If unless you’re driving, I want you to think about one broker that you know could benefit from hearing interviews like the one coming up here with Melanie top producers sharing their secrets, think of one broker in your office or maybe at a different office that could really benefit and as soon as we’re done, I want you to send this episode over to them. And we would appreciate it. And if every one of our listeners did that, we would of course double our listenership and be able to help even more of you and produce even more of these episodes. So by doing that you’re really helping us grow. And so we can continue to provide this content for free for you to help you grow, as well. So thank you in advance. Also, please follow us on Facebook every single day, we post an article that we think we’ll help you grow your business. And then we also do weekly video on there, too. That’s only 60 seconds long. And it’s a summarizes what we’ve been talking about on these podcast episodes. So also, if you want to follow us, in addition to Facebook, you can stream every episode we’ve ever done right from our website, keeping it real pod.com. And if you’re using a podcast app, just search for keeping it real podcast, and you should be able to find us. We’re on iTunes, we’re on Google Play. We are also in Stitcher, Spotify, any podcast director you should be able to find us. And lastly, just thank you so much for continuing to listen support our partners, and it’s telling a friend so let’s get to our interview with Melanie ganglia.
Today on the show, we have Melanie Giglio Makos, who runs the MVP team at Compass before I get into her bio, this is a very exciting episode for us because Melanie was at the very top of our we need to get on the show list when we first started like a few years ago, so we’re so excited to have her but if you’re not familiar with Melanie, let me tell you a little bit about her. She has built a reputation of excellence and professionalism among clients and industry peers alike by sharing her marketing expertise and dedicating herself to the highest level of service with over 16 years of residential real estate experience and a passion for helping clients achieve their real estate goals. She has been in the top 1% for nine over nine years consecutively. Melanie is very hands on effectively sets expectations and responds personally to all inquiries, ensuring that the process runs seamlessly from start to finish. As a longtime resident of Chicago, Melanie has watched the distinct neighborhoods of the city develop over time and places a premium on staying current on inventory pricing and trends. She brings an impressive network of experts to the table from mortgage consultants and lawyers to home inspectors and handyman. Her hands on approach has earned her not only repeat business, but enthusiastic referrals from satisfied clients. Also please visit her team website, which is MVP, Chicago real estate.com. Melanie, thank you so much. Welcome to the show. Yet we are thrilled to have you and we know just how busy you are. So it’s a big deal for us that you took a few minutes out of your week to do this. So for everyone who is listening who probably knows your name, but maybe don’t know your entire history in real estate, do you mind sharing with our audience like how you got how you got into real estate?
Melanie Giglio-Vakos 4:47
Sure, sure. Well, first up I have been in real estate for over 17 years now. I’m sorry if something might not have been updated. Going on 18 years now. I can’t believe that’s making me sound so old. But I’m the CIO about, I’d say 19 years ago, or at 18 or so years ago, when I was, I was buying my first condo. And I was not in real estate, I had no intention of going into real estate. And the experience that I had was atrocious to say the least, it probably there was probably not one aspect of the transaction that was even remotely, okay. And so my experience from that made me decide to get into real estate, I decided that I could do this 1,000% better than my realtor that I had. And, and so that’s how I decided to get into it, I decided that I was going to going to help people with one of their, you know, big, biggest, you know, they’re their biggest asset that they ever would have, and helping them throughout the entire process and credit news, hand holding 100% and be able to walk them through the process and have them know and understand every single step of the way, and not be left in the dark like I was when I first purchased my first home. So I didn’t even my I remember my agent did not even ask if I needed to get an inspection. I never got your inspection done. I never did a final walkthrough. It was under construction when I first saw it. And the day that I closed, it looked exactly the same as when I one and only time. And I remember finding that property myself in the newspaper, which is hilarious. So you know, and I didn’t know any better. So that’s why I was like, You have got to be kidding me, there has got to be a better way to do this. So it was it was held. But I got through it and decided to do the exact opposite of what the what I had experienced in my home, purchase my first home purchase.
D.J. Paris 7:03
Yeah, it’s really amazing to me, because I remember when I bought my first condo, and I was not in this business at all, and I just didn’t understand any part of it. And I thankfully had a really good broker who now I actually worked for all these years later. But the the fact is that thankfully, he was so good, because I was so ignorant. And I think a lot of buyers are there first the first time. And I think the really successful brokers, of course, understand that and and walk them through. But it’s funny because we’ve interviewed a ton of people on the show who are successful, like yourselves, who started out for that exact reason. They’re like, I went to buy something horrible experience. And I was like, I could do it obviously much better. And then you started working under like a really successful team. I imagine that was probably really helpful to learn the business.
Melanie Giglio-Vakos 7:53
Yeah, you know, I worked for a small, a smaller company called Sergio banks. It was my first company. And now they’re much bigger, but they’re so small company than the last and worked under the owner was basically you know, in her team, and she was hugely successful. And she needed help. And I was I was the person that took over. And I remember my first month in real estate, I actually, I sold nine properties my first month, yes. And that was with not knowing a single thing. I remember sitting down with my first client, and writing my first contract and thinking, oh my gosh, I don’t even know how to fill this out. And they’re just kept calling her everything is standard here. This is standard, this is standard, and I’m not knowing what I was doing. I’m laughing, you know, laughing at it all, because I just can’t believe how little I knew and how I got through all of that. But yes, times changed quite a bit. But I, I did I worked under a team. And, and it was That’s I think the only way to start in real estate. I think that anyone that thinks that they could do it on their own is, is doing a huge disservice to themselves. Because it’s not easy to do it on your own. You have to be able to work under someone and really learn from them and have them mentor you and, and, you know, learn the you know, learn the ropes of, of selling real estate because you certainly don’t get that in your you know, in your schooling. When you get your license. They don’t go through any of that they just go through all the legalities of it. So being able to learn from the best and just really being her right arm and our left arm. And you know, I never left her side. I learned quite a bit.
D.J. Paris 9:38
Yeah, it’s the biggest, most common origin story for all the people we’ve interviewed who are all top 1% producers like yourself, almost all maybe there was one or two that just started on their own and overtime figured everything out but that’s certainly the exception. So yeah, for our listeners who are brokers who are either starting out out or wanting to, you know, grow their business, it’s certainly helps to either join it a successful team that is going to let you you know, flourish and be a resource or find a company, if you are just individual practitioner, like find a company that has an amazing support team that’s available, you know, pretty much whenever otherwise, yeah, it’s really hard. Otherwise, because yeah, in your classes, they don’t I don’t remember anything I was taught in my classes.
Melanie Giglio-Vakos 10:25
It’s irrelevant. Pretty
D.J. Paris 10:27
much irrelevant. So when, how long ago did you start your team because your team has grown you guys, by the way, we should mention the listeners, there are what There you have 16 members or so on the team.
Melanie Giglio-Vakos 10:39
I do have 16 Total members. So there’s 14 agents. And then there is one, marketing director and one Operations Manager. And so that’s, that’s our whole team. And so my marketing director, she handles all of my marketing full time agent, I’m a full time, Gal. And she’s That’s all she focuses on all day, all night, every day. And though I’m my operations manager, she just keeps she’s the glue. And she keeps everything together. And all the rest are licensed agents. I have agents that that have been with me since 2008. And then I have some newer agents as well. But most of my agents have been with me a long time. We’re family. And, yeah, we have an amazing team, we do. I never anticipated the team to be this big. As a matter of fact, I had zero plans of it, the team just kind of grew very organically. And I never once went out there and said, Okay, I need to find this person, it was just that this person kind of fell into my lap one way or another, or I might have been talking about, oh, I really could do some more help. And then someone would come along and say, Hey, I know someone that’s interested. And so it just kind of worked out that way. And the people that I had joined the team, were the people that were showing me the most interest and you know, being a hustler, I would, if they reach out to me and say they want to meet with me, I pretty much blew him off for a long time. And I wanted to see how much they were really going to, you know, reach out to me and show me how interested they were. And you know, when they were very, very persistent, that got brownie points with me. And then I sat down and met with them and got to know him and see if they were a fit for the team. So we have a certain culture, and I needed to know that they were going to fit our culture and be an asset to the team. And so that’s where we are today. But I started with a, I’d say a small, small team, like with an assistant, probably two to three years after I started in real estate. That was probably the very beginning of it.
D.J. Paris 12:54
Wow, yeah, look, I want to go back to persistence. Because this is so important. You know, whether you’re a broker looking to join a successful team, like the MVP team, or if you’re just looking to get more clients on your own understanding that that’s the one thing that all of us have control over is our persistence. And I’d say polite persistence, or you know, but it’s well, yeah, of course. And but it’s one of those things that is in sort of short supply. I think it’s, you know, maybe just human nature not not to stay on top of things. And the fact that you know, you obviously have and you require that of your brokers, which is because it’s your brand. And obviously, you know that and you want to make sure that their client clients are taken care of, because it’s your name on, you know, on the masthead. So that’s, that’s a great, that’s a great, important point. And by the way, it kind of relates to our podcast, too, because when we first started this podcast, I thought, well, this would be really fun to do. And a nice way to give back to the community. And I had to politely be persistent in have been our team to like get interviews because I thought, well, I don’t know if anyone’s even gonna want to talk to us, but we just politely bothering them. And then now, it’s so funny. Now we have a list of like 60 people who are like, How come you haven’t been on the show yet? We just got one this morning from somebody in the top 10. Not yourself, of course, but someone else who was like, How come you haven’t happy on the show. So it’s funny, it’s now paid off to, even with this silly little podcast that people now are, are so excited to be on it. So we’re super grateful for that. But it was because of our persistence, that that you know, people are willing to be on the show. So it’s a great lesson for everyone listening, whether you’re, you know, a broker on your owner or you want to join a team like Melanie’s you have to impress her Of course, and, and that’s really important and even like little things like personal notes, and, and all those little persistent touches that, you know, brokers, Most brokers just don’t do. Even internet leads. I don’t know if you guys do any of that, but it’s amazing how people will spend 1000s and 1000s of dollars every month and then a lead comes in and they call it maybe once maybe
Melanie Giglio-Vakos 15:00
So, yeah, that doesn’t work in my world, there is, you know, my job essentially is just to train the team coach the team, and lead them and making them the best that they can be my goal in life is to make all of them much better than I could ever be. And so I try and, you know, get all the gain all the knowledge and experience and all that and pass it along to them. And we have our weekly meetings every Tuesday morning. And that’s where we get to, you know, tell them about all the different things that I you know, that I think our best tactics in order to get clients keep clients and nurture them, you know, for years and years and years. So, you know, it’s, it’s important for me to, to educate my team on that and help them constantly. So, yeah, that’s that one call would not work in my world.
D.J. Paris 15:58
It just wouldn’t work for business anyway, right? Like, it just doesn’t work at all. And it’s a really important thing is the one consistent thing we’ve heard when this is, by the time we published, this was probably like, 100, and eighth episode or so. So we’ve done a lot. And what’s amazing is, every single broker that we’ve had on the show echoes that same exact sentiment, they wouldn’t be where they are, if they if they weren’t, you know, proactive and persistent, I would like to get your take on what’s currently going on in the market, specifically, like how things have changed, or that how they’re changing what your team is sort of how that how your team is shifted to meet some of those needs.
Melanie Giglio-Vakos 16:36
Sure. So you know, the markets, it’s definitely changing, they were all feeling it, we’re certainly seeing things slow down, a lot more inventory in the markets that are certainly more of a buyers market. Now, so than ever, and we’re seeing, you know, prices kind of declining a bit. And I don’t want to necessarily say declining, because I feel like it’s just becoming more of a normal market. You know, you think about this time a year ago, we were all complaining that there was no inventory, we have all these buyers, but no inventory at all. Well, now we you know, we got exactly what we asked for. And so now we have this inventory. And, and so now things just feel differently, but I just feel that it’s just more of a normal market. You know, you hear about the big R word when talking about recession, but I don’t think that that is, has really an effect on the housing market, we’re not in a housing recession. And so I’m not worried about that people are still out there buying interest rates are still very low. And we’re certainly not getting into anything close to there’s no signs at all that are pointing to anything, like what we were experiencing in 2008. So I just I feel like things are just slowing down. And we just have to keep going with what we’re doing. And maybe do more of what we’re doing, you know, more follow up more consistency, just more of everything, to be able to stay relevant in the market. But we’re so busy, we’re extremely busy. So, you know, we’re seeing some pricing. You know, I think the the other important thing is, we have to really educate our buyers, I’m sorry, excuse me, our sellers, on what’s going on. So we have been seeing a lot of lower offers. And so with that, we have to tell our clients why they should be considering this lower offer. And not, you know, just blowing it off, because we don’t know when the next offer is going to come in. And that’s one thing I pride myself on in my team, I make sure that we are constantly giving our clients weekly updates every single week we give our clients an update, whether it’s good, bad or ugly. And I think that helps a lot.
D.J. Paris 18:50
I will tell you, I we were talking about this before we started that you’re obviously close with Matt, Larissa and I was watching him speak recently. And he has that same philosophy that every single client gets an update every single week. And it sounds so simple. And it’s like well, of course everyone should do that. I would bet and I’m just guessing you would, you’d probably have a better bet against that. I would but I would say 98% of brokers probably don’t do that. And so that’s like all you did.
Melanie Giglio-Vakos 19:19
Yeah, I’m the second agent. A lot of times, sometimes even the third agent on a home. And the constant thing that I keep hearing is, yeah, I haven’t heard from my agent a month. Haven’t heard a few months. I’m like really, I would that just would not work in my household again, you know, I make sure you are you’re getting up to him. And even more so when things are not happening. I mean, listen, it’s busy and we’re getting a lot of traffic and interest and all that then the weekly market update, you know, might not even be necessary because they’re kind of getting that from from all the traffic that they’re seeing, but I still give it regardless, but it’s especially important when the market is slow down a bit. So so they can be informed of everything. And, and sometimes, you know, when you’re constantly given these updates, the sellers come back to you and say, Wow, maybe we need to lower the price. You know, it’s the point where I’m opening the door for them to see exactly what it is and, and make it see for themselves as to what probably needs to be done in order to sell their home.
D.J. Paris 20:21
Yeah, here’s a quick little pro tip for everyone listening. And I’d probably everybody knows this. But it’s worth saying in case you don’t, obviously Melanie knows, but inside of em read, which is not always the easiest thing to navigate. But M read will actually show you if you’re the listing agent, how many eyeballs have have taken a look at the listing? And if you’re thinking, Well, what do I call my client on every week and tell them if there’s no real update? If it’s a listing, you could say, Hey, by the way, 150 Realtors took a look at this property, you know, via emarat. Or, and we didn’t get we only got two showings, maybe that’s, you know, a sign that we need to adjust pricing. So if you’re ever looking for like a reason, even if you’re just calling in to say, hey, we had all these eyeballs on it, and we got some traffic or we didn’t. That’s obviously a huge conversation points. So just for everyone listening if you didn’t know that that’s an option inside Amazon. Of course, a lot of other reasons to call, too. But but that’s just one one example. I’m curious to know, if you’re seeing in your own clients and your team’s clients. And because we’ve I’ve heard this from other top producers recently that they’re seeing a lot of their clients downsizing in specifically like in the suburbs, maybe they sell their property or even the city and now they’re even moving to rentals. Have you seen an uptick in rentals at all?
Melanie Giglio-Vakos 21:40
I have seen an uptick in rentals. For various reasons, definitely seeing some have been downsizing just like that. And you know, some people just don’t want to deal with the taxes anymore. The taxes have been a bit a big factor. And just some people are selling and want to just don’t know where they want to go next. So they don’t want to make a commitment to anything, but they know that it might be a good time to sell. So I’ve had that actually a few times this year where they they knew that if they waited a year, it might not be as good of a time to sell. So they wanted to do that before the market maybe slowed down even more so. So they sell and just stay in a rental for bet and then figure out their next move. So I’ve seen a lot of different reasons as to why someone would go to renting. I don’t agree with any of them. But yes, I’ve seen it. I think it’s insane. Because the way that I see it is that if someone was to rent a condo, let’s say, downtown and within the amount that they’re paying in that rent, if they were to buy that same exact condo, I guarantee you their their mortgage interest, taxes and assessments are probably going to be less than what they’re paying in rent. And then hopefully they’re going to be building equity in their home. And you know it, you have a write off with a two, there’s so many benefits to homeownership that I just don’t see any reason as to why you would rent unless you just truly cannot afford to buy a home. You don’t have the credit or the money.
D.J. Paris 23:16
Yeah, no, you’re absolutely right. And it’s it’s amazing. The tax deductions still is a nice thing to see every year too. So yeah, it’s it’s it’s huge. And we don’t worry, it’s funny too, for everyone listening if you’re if you’re working with renters, and you don’t have a conversation around why they might also want to be purchasing that, you know, most people who are spending 2000 plus a month in rent should be by you can have that conversation and rates are now at like a three year low just this week. So it’s a pretty opportune time, I think.
Melanie Giglio-Vakos 23:51
Yeah. And they’re giving away money. Basically, they were not going to see them much lower than this forever. So it really is, it’s an ideal time to buy.
D.J. Paris 24:00
Yeah, I very rarely in whenever we do these episodes, I always never make it to like I always asked like, Tell me your funniest experience, and you have a really good funny experience. This was about you the home on the south side. So do you mind sharing, sharing that with that story, just because it’s a great one that I think a lot of people can somewhat relate to, but you actually yours went like a little further than I thought it would so you don’t mind sharing it.
Melanie Giglio-Vakos 24:27
Yeah, as well. It would have been better obviously, if you were there to really see the whole the whole thing of how it played out. But, you know, obviously in 2008 when the market was turning, you know, I felt I remember the day I remember where I was I remember all of it and I was in freakout mode and I figured out a way to get an opportunity to put my foot in the door and get in to sell foreclosures, because that was about the only thing that was that was there that was going to be selling at that point. So because nothing else was selling so it was foreclosures or go get another job. So I was fortunate enough to get in with a bunch of banks. I won’t go into all of that. But, but the thing is I, so I got in, and then I started getting all these listings. And of course, the majority of the listings were not in the better parts of the city. You know, they were in some rougher areas, some areas that were pretty scary to say the least. A lot of crime was going on whatever. So it was just it was, it was crazy. Nonetheless, there was a day where and so once in a while, I would have my husband go with me to some of these properties, because I was terrified to go by myself. And I’d always find someone to go with me, or at least most of the time anyway. And so this particular day I had, I wanted to go and do a visit to a few different properties of mine to check on them, because you’re supposed to do that to make sure that they didn’t get vandalized, and they’re still secured. And then there was just one property that the neighbor had called me and told me that someone broke in it was pulling out all the copper plumbing. I’m like, Oh, boy. So first went to this one house, and we walked around the house to make sure we’re secured. And of course, I saw that this basement window was, was broken into. So it did step down the stairs. And then it was a little little window, very small window. Not anyone could, you know, go out of it. But anyway, my husband decided to step down, I was standing back, he looked in the window to see if the he could see anything. And when he did that a black cat, like went out, like jumped over his head. He screamed like a little girl. He’d kill me right now if he heard me say, but it was hilarious. But so then immediately after that, we went to the next property, where the property was where the neighbor was calling and saying that people were pulling out copper plumbing. So I called the police. I asked the police to meet me there. And I got there before the police. And I said to my husband, like, Come on, let’s go inside. And he’s like, No, we’re not going inside. So no, come on, we’re fine. We’re fine. Or please, we’ll be here any minute. And so you know, he was still adamant about it. And I was insisted. So we walk in there, and the place was a mess. You know, it’s just, everything’s ripped up graffiti everywhere. But that’s normal. It was a normal home. And a few minutes later, the police come in, and they’re like, put your hands up. And I’m like, I’m just a realtor. And so, I mean, literally, it was so terrifying. My husband, MF me for that entire day as it will never go to these work. And with you. How dare you? What is wrong with you? I mean, it was just crazy. So it was just one crazy experience after another of the fork. Like I felt like I could write a book with all the experiences that I that I had in, you know, in that world of those four years of selling foreclosures.
D.J. Paris 27:44
Yeah, no, that is super funny. And it and scary, too. And, you know, obviously, you made it through it, but it goes back to persistence, right? Like you shifted back when the market crashed. And he said, Okay, how can I do this? That’s funny, too, because this question comes up a lot, where even at our firm brokers ask somebody like me who I don’t know anything, and they’ll say like, how do you get foreclosures? How do you get these bank relationships? I’m like, I have no idea. But why don’t you start calling some banks and talk to them. But it is one of those things that I feel like if you have to ask how to do it, and I don’t, personally, personally know how to do that. But, you know, it would start with calling like 10 banks and going, Hey, I want to be I want to get your foreclosures, how do I get access to that? And persistence, right, and just developing.
Melanie Giglio-Vakos 28:35
I mean, it is it’s all about persistence. And I, you know, I remember I had like kind of a lead, where they said, they were having this REO event, I think it was in Texas. And it was the next day and I’m like, You know what, I’m gonna go get a ticket, I was broke, because I, you know, so bad, the market was so bad, we’re at least we’re feeling it. And I’m like, I’m gonna get a ticket. I’m gonna fly there. And I’m gonna figure it out. So I went there. And I just started talking to everybody that I could, and asking questions and meeting people and met someone that I could get into this exclusive club. And I remember he was charging, like $5,000 for the club. And he allowed me to get in for 2000. And so it was just, I was investing in my business, I knew that I had to do this, I had to, if I wanted this opportunity, I had to go and go for full force, and you know, and it’s gonna cost me and that’s exactly what I did. And I got some leads through that and it just kept going from there. And then it takes doing a good job because there are people that started doing doing that, and they just failed terribly. Well. I had to build a team in a matter of a week. And as a matter of fact, the one guy that’s with me now on my team, my keys, he was with me during that time I you know, he was just getting his license. I’m like, Okay, you’re gonna help me you’re going to do my BPOS for me, which are these broker price opinions? Yeah. And then I had to hire someone else to do my bookkeeping hire bookkeeper, and then this other assistant and then a team to do all the clean out it was, I mean, I just had to figure it out. And it was zero sleep for a very, very, very long time. And I was selling like over 100 100 A year during the time, but they were all foreclosures, every one of them was foreclosures. Yeah, it was stressful. But
D.J. Paris 30:16
that’s again, it just speaks to you’re treating this like a like a business. And you know, shifting and making a jump, pivoting, I guess, is maybe a better word, and saying, Okay, how do we
Melanie Giglio-Vakos 30:29
evolve over time? So
D.J. Paris 30:30
here’s a question. So we get a lot of brokers, because the schools who did teach the real estate classes are very kind and push a lot of people to the website to hear, or sorry, to our podcast to hear people like yourself, you know, give them encouragement on how they should start. If you were just starting out today. Do you have aside from being persistent, which is we’ve we’ve had several times, any other ideas of what somebody who is new, or somebody who’s really looking to ramp up their business might do today to like, you know, six months from now really start to reap those benefits?
Melanie Giglio-Vakos 31:01
Yeah. I mean, to me, it’s easy, I see exactly what needs to be done. I think, unfortunately, the work ethic of many people nowadays is just not up to par up to my standards. But you know, what I see is that you’re gonna get your license, work with a top producing team, and be there be present every single day at the office, listening to what you know what these, you know, what the top producers are doing, listen to their conversations, listen to them on the phone. So like, I’ve had many people actually, most of them have joined my team. But when they first started, or they were thinking about joining a team, I said, follow me around for an entire day, you could just stay next to me the entire time and just watch what I do. And if you have any questions, let me know. And, and that’s what a few of my agents had done with me. And then they decided to join the team. So I just think it’s extremely important to be around top producers listen to them. And then then you cannot be afraid of working hard. I mean, I’ll tell you, I’ve been in this business almost 18 years now. I still have there is not one day that goes by that I don’t work 12 hours. And most days, it’s a 14 hour day, and some days, it’s 16 hours a day, I hate to admit that it’s pretty embarrassing, but I still just work so much. I put in a lot of blood, sweat and tears. I am here late night, many times, I’m the first person in the office and the last person out of the office. And you know, I don’t get to go on vacations every other month. I feel like that’s, you know, we just experienced a lot of that nowadays, people want to work five, six hours a day and call it a day and have weekends off and go on vacation every other weekend. That just doesn’t work. And you know how I like to operate. And I think if you’re willing to put in the work, and be persistent and get on the phones and stay on the phones all day and be around like minded individuals, you will set yourself up to succeed. Yeah, and
D.J. Paris 33:03
Melanie is way too humble to say this, but I will say this for her. Not only is she top 1%, which she’s been for like nine or plus years, which is like I mean, everybody knows her. She’s not only that she’s in like the top, roughly the top 10 have about 44,000 brokers in the Chicagoland area. So she’s right around that very top 10 list. So this is you know, we would call it rarefied air, except she absolutely earned her Okay, they’re doing BPOS do, you know doing foreclosures in areas of the city where, you know, you’re being accused of, by the way, any police officer reasonably think that you are stealing our pipes? I apparently I guess.
Melanie Giglio-Vakos 33:47
Well, it was dark in the place. That’s why he didn’t seem he just saw removing. So that’s why he did that. But I’ve had pleased I remember I got pulled over one time, hate to admit it. But I was driving my husband’s Mercedes at the time and this bad area. And the guy, the cop stopped me and said, What are you doing here? And he was Do you realize that there were four fatalities just on this block just today? And I go, okay, yes, you know, one of those things. So, yes, scary, scary stuff. But again, you got to do what you got to do. And that’s, that was my mentality. That’s always been my mentality, and I’ll do whatever it takes to succeed.
D.J. Paris 34:24
Yeah, and we should, that really brings us to, you know, wrapping this up with with a message to everyone listening, it’s like, Look, if you’re interested in working, if you’re a broker and interested in maybe trying to earn a spot on the MVP team, we Melanie said, like be persistent, like, you know, offer to, to, you know, reach out, reach out, reach out. I know, if I was a broker or practicing broker, and I wanted to increase my production what better way than to study under somebody who’s just killing it, but then also being really understanding that I’m going to have to be putting in all of those hours which He’s every successful broker we’ve ever had on the show does that so, but these, you know, you have to impress these people, if you they’re going to take you under their wing because they’re going to invest in you, and they’re going to make you successful. That’s what’s the like, the really impressive part we had on I think it was Amy kite, but I might, I might be wrong, it was a suburban broker think it was Amy. And she’s to say, she said that on her episode, she’s like, Oh, I will make somebody over six figures by their like, third year, if they do exactly what I told them. She’s like, Eric is I don’t know that everyone’s going to do and I tell them, but she’s like, I have the secret sauce. And it’s not secret, but like, you have to just be willing to work. So obviously, Melanie feels the exact same way and is living that every single day. And so but if there are any buyers, sellers, renters investors out there that wants to work with either Melanie or Melanie, someone on your team, what is the best way they should be reaching out to you?
Melanie Giglio-Vakos 35:57
They can reach out to via email at Team mvp@compass.com. So that’s just t am M vp@compass.com. And I am one of the crazy ones that gives their cell phone number out. I may not answer right away, but I’ll certainly answer respond in a very, very quick timeframe. And my cell phone number is 312-953-4998.
D.J. Paris 36:27
If we were talking about this, before we started that you get about 100 messages every hour or so so, So be persistent if you if you’re messaging her and you know she’s busy, as well. But that again, goes to show just how serious she takes this business. So she’s like, here’s my cell phone, I get back to people reach out to me. So if you’re somebody who’s looking for a broker, a realtor, obviously Melanie would be a great fit, or someone on her team. And also, if you’re a broker who’s like, I want to join that team, you know, go to their website, reach out to them and tell them why they should even consider you joining. But that’s MVP, Chicago, real estate.com. And other than that, look, Melanie is killing it, she’s crushing it, and we’re gonna let her get back to her busy 12 hour minimum. Focus. And by the way, that’s another one thing I want to just end on, which is been very consistent, obviously, among all of our guests, including Melanie is that they all seem to find time to give back in whatever way that they’re passionate about. And so when we reached out to Melanie, like she’s too busy to respond to our podcast request, and yet she did. And she said, Sure, I’d be happy to speak to your audience. And that goes to show you for somebody who is as busy selling hundreds of homes a year, just how you know how willing they are to give back. And so for everyone who’s listening, whatever you’re passionate about, whether it’s like a volunteer organization, or just you know, helping other brokers like Melanie’s doing right now speaking to you, they seem to always find time, which again, speaks to their generosity and their persistence. So on behalf of the listeners, and there are 1000s. We thank Melanie, for coming on the show. Also, on behalf of Melanie and myself, we thank the listeners for listening and continuing to support our show and it’s a lot of fun. And we’ll continue of course providing these episodes. So, Melanie, thank you so much. And we will see everybody on the next episode. So
Melanie Giglio-Vakos 38:28
yeah, thank you very much. Thanks for having me. Thanks for listening. I appreciate it.
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